Volume I Part 16 (1/2)
[243] Saint-Edme, vol. ii. p. 223.
[244] In order to convey some idea of the effect produced by the ostensible devotion of Madame de Verneuil upon those who gave her credit for sincerity, we need only quote a pa.s.sage in the dedication of D'Hemery d'Amboise to his translation of the works of Gregoire de Tours, in which, addressing himself to the Marquise, he gravely says ”that she had deduced from the inspired writings of the fathers their salutary doctrine; and that she practised it so faithfully, that her firmness had triumphed over her adversities, and her merit exceeded her happiness.”
”Your life,” he adds, with the same unblus.h.i.+ng sycophancy, ”serves as a mirror for the most pious, and compels the admiration of all who see so holy and resolute a determination exerted at an age that has scarcely attained its prime; and at which, despising mere personal beauty, and the other precious advantages with which you have been richly endowed by Heaven, you have devoted the course of your best years to the contemplation of the marvels of G.o.d, joining spiritual meditation to good works.”--Dreux du Radier, vol. vi. pp. 94, 95.
[245] Richelieu, _Hist. de la Mere et du Fils_, vol. i. pp. 8-11.
[246] MSS. Dupuy, vol. 407.
[247] Andre Hurault, Seigneur de Maisse, had been amba.s.sador to Venice under both Henri III and Henri IV, and in his official capacity had frequent disputes with the nuncios of Sixtus V and Clement VIII, in consequence of which those prelates exerted all their influence to injure his interests at the Court of Rome. Andre Morosin mentions M. de Maisse as an able and far-seeing man, _sagaci admodum ingenio_. In 1595 Henri IV again sent him to Venice to offer his thanks to the Senate for the extraordinary emba.s.sy which they had forwarded to him during the previous year; and as M. de Maisse travelled on this occasion with Cardinal Duperron, who was instructed to pa.s.s by that city on his way to Rome, great alarm was created in the mind of the Pope that the French amba.s.sador was about to visit the Papal Court in his company, an event which he deprecated from the distrust which he felt of the designs of an individual who had already frustrated the measures of his accredited agents. His Holiness was, however, _quitte pour la peur_, the instructions of M. de Maisse having restricted him to his Venetian mission.
[248] Louis Potier de Gevres, Secretary of State. It is from him that the branch of his family still bearing the name of Gevres is descended, while that of Novion owes its origin to his elder brother, Nicolas Potier de Blancmenil.
[249] Mezeray, vol. x. p. 261.
[250] _Le Laboureur sur Castelnau_.
[251] Jacqueline de Bueil, subsequently Comtesse de Moret, was the daughter of Claude de Bueil, Seigneur de Courcillon and La Machere, and of Catherine de Monteclu, who both died in 1596. The family of Bueil traced their descent from Jean, the first of the name, Sieur de Bueil in Touraine, who was equerry of honour to Charles-le-Bel in 1321.
[252] Dreux du Radier, vol. vi. p. 97.
[253] Wraxall, vol. v. pp. 356, 357.
[254] Abraham-Nicolas Amelot de la Houssaye, was born at Orleans in the year 1634, and pa.s.sed nearly all his life in composing works of history and in translating the historians by whom he had been preceded. His princ.i.p.al productions are _A History of the Government of Venice; Historical, Political, Critical, and Literary Memoirs_; and translations of the _History of the Council of Trent_, by Fra Paolo; of the _Prince_ by Machiavelli; and of the _Annals of Tacitus_. He died in 1706.
[255] Mezeray, vol. x. pp. 261, 262.
[256] Sully, _Mem_. vol. iv. p. 125.
[257] Pierre Fougeuse, Sieur d'Escures.
[258] Daniel, vol. vii. pp. 453, 454.
[259] Treasurer of the war department, and lieutenant-general at Riom.
[260] Philibert de Nerestan, knight of Malta, and captain of the bodyguard of Henri IV, was as celebrated for his admirable qualities of mind and heart as for the antiquity of his birth. He was grand master of the Orders of St. Lazarus and Notre-Dame du Mont Carmel, the latter of which was inst.i.tuted by the sovereign at his intercession.
[261] Matthieu, _Hist, des Derniers Troubles_, book ii. p. 438.
Perefixe, vol. ii. pp. 406, 407.
[262] L'Etoile, vol. iii. p. 242.
[263] _Memoires,_ vol. v. p. 185.
[264] L'Etoile, vol. iii. p. 243.
[265] Charlotte, eldest daughter of Henri, Duc de Montmorency, High Constable of France.
[266] L'Etoile, vol. iii. pp. 247-249.
[267] Jean Defunctis, Lieutenant criminal of the Provost of Paris.--_Hist. Chron. de la Chancell. de France_, p. 316.