Memoirs of Marguerite De Valois, Queen of Navarre — Complete

LETTER III.. Le Guast.--His Character.--Anjou Affects to Be Jealous of the

Le Guast.--His Character.--Anjou Affects to Be Jealous of the Guises.--Dissuades the Queen-mother from Reposing Confidence in Marguerite.--She Loses the Favour of the Queen-mother and Falls Sick.--Anjou's Hypocrisy.--He Introduces De Guise into Marguerite's Sick Chamber.--Marguerite Demanded in Marriage by the King of Portugal.--Made Uneasy on That Account.--Contrives to Relieve Herself.--The Match with Portugal Broken off.

LETTER IV.

Death of the Queen of Navarre--Marguerite's Marriage with Her Son, the King of Navarre, Afterwards Henri IV. of France.--The Preparations for That Solemnisation Described.--The Circumstances Which Led to the Massacre of the Huguenots on St. Bartholomew's Day.

LETTER V.. The Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day.

The Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day.

LETTER VI.

Henri, Duc d'Anjou, Elected King of Poland, Leaves France.--Huguenot Plots to Withdraw the Duc d'Alencon and the King of Navarre from Court.--Discovered and Defeated by Marguerite's Vigilance.--She Draws Up an Eloquent Defence, Which Her Husband Delivers before a Committee from the Court of Parliament.--Alencon and Her Husband, under a Close Arrest, Regain Their Liberty by the Death of Charles IX.

LETTER VII.

Accession of Henri III.--A Journey to Lyons.--Marguerite's Faith in Supernatural Intelligence.

LETTER VIII.

What Happened at Lyons.

LETTER IX.

Fresh Intrigues.--Marriage of Henri III.--Bussi Arrives at Court and Narrowly Escapes Assassination.

LETTER X.

Bussi Is Sent from Court.--Marguerite's Husband Attacked with a Fit of Epilepsy.--Her Great Care of Him.--Torigni Dismissed from Marguerite's Service.--The King of Navarre and the Duc d'Alencon Secretly Leave the Court.

LETTER XI.

Queen Marguerite under Arrest.--Attempt on Torigni's Life.--Her Fortunate Deliverance.

LETTER XII.

The Peace of Sens betwixt Henri III. and the Huguenots.

LETTER XIII.

The League.--War Declared against the Huguenots.--Queen Marguerite Sets out for Spa.

LETTER XIV.

Description of Queen Marguerite's Equipage.--Her Journey to Liege Described.--She Enters with Success upon Her Mission.--Striking Instance of Maternal Duty and Affection in a Great Lady.--Disasters near the Close of the Journey.

LETTER XV.. The City of Liege Described.--Affecting Story of Mademoiselle De

The City of Liege Described.--Affecting Story of Mademoiselle de Tournon.--Fatal Effects of Suppressed Anguish of Mind.

LETTER XVI.

Queen Marguerite, on Her Return from Liege, Is in Danger of Being Made a Prisoner.--She Arrives, after Some Narrow Escapes, at La Fere.

LETTER XVII.

Good Effects of Queen Marguerite's Negotiations in Flanders.--She Obtains Leave to Go to the King of Navarre Her Husband, but Her Journey Is Delayed.--Court Intrigues and Plots.--The Duc d'Alencon Again Put under Arrest.

LETTER XVIII.. The Brothers Reconciled.--Alencon Restored to His Liberty.

The Brothers Reconciled.--Alencon Restored to His Liberty.

LETTER XIX.

The Duc d'Alencon Makes His Escape from Court.--Queen Marguerite's Fidelity Put to a Severe Trial.

LETTER XX.

Queen Marguerite Permitted to Go to the King Her Husband.--Is Accompanied by the Queenmother.--Marguerite Insulted by Her Husband's Secretary.--She Harbours Jealousy.--Her Attention to the King Her Husband during an Indisposition.--Their Reconciliation.--The War Breaks Out Afresh.--Affront Received from Marechal de Biron.

LETTER XXI.

Situation of Affairs in Flanders.--Peace Brought About by Duc d'Alencon's Negotiation.--Marechal de Biron Apologises for Firing on Nerac.--Henri Desperately in Love with Fosseuse.--Queen Marguerite Discovers Fosseuse to Be Pregnant, Which She Denies.--Fosseuse in Labour. Marguerite's Generous Behaviour to Her.--Marguerite's Return to Paris.

HISTORY OF THE HOUSE OF VALOIS. [Author unknown]

MARGUERITE DE VALOIS.

BOOK 1.. Letter I.

LETTER I.

Introduction.--Anecdotes of Marguerite's Infancy.--Endeavours Used to Convert Her to the New Religion.--She Is Confirmed in Catholicism.--The Court on a Progress.--A Grand Festivity Suddenly Interrupted.--The Confusion in Consequence.

I should commend your work much more were I myself less praised in it; but I am unwilling to do so, lest my praises should seem rather the effect of self-love than to be founded on reason and justice. I am fearful that, like Themistocles, I should appear to admire their eloquence the most who are most forward to praise me. It is the usual frailty of our sex to be fond of flattery. I blame this in other women, and should wish not to be chargeable with it myself. Yet I confess that I take a pride in being painted by the hand of so able a master, however flattering the likeness may be. If I ever were possessed of the graces you have assigned to me, trouble and vexation render them no longer visible, and have even effaced them from my own recollection. So that I view myself in your Memoirs, and say, with old Madame de Rendan, who, not having consulted her glass since her husband's death, on seeing her own face in the mirror of another lady, exclaimed, "Who is this?" Whatever my friends tell me when they see me now, I am inclined to think proceeds from the partiality of their affection. I am sure that you yourself, when you consider more impartially what you have said, will be induced to believe, according to these lines of Du Bellay:

"C'est chercher Rome en Rome, Et rien de Rome en Rome ne trouver."

('Tis to seek Rome, in Rome to go, And Rome herself at Rome not know.)

But as we read with pleasure the history of the Siege of Troy, the magnificence of Athens, and other splendid cities, which once flourished, but are now so entirely destroyed that scarcely the spot whereon they stood can be traced, so you please yourself with describing these excellences of beauty which are no more, and which will be discoverable only in your writings.

If you had taken upon you to contrast Nature and Fortune, you could not have chosen a happier theme upon which to descant, for both have made a trial of their strength on the subject of your Memoirs. What Nature did, you had the evidence of your own eyes to vouch for, but what was done by Fortune, you know only from hearsay; and hearsay, I need not tell you, is liable to be influenced by ignorance or malice, and, therefore, is not to be depended on. You will for that reason, I make no doubt, be pleased to receive these Memoirs from the hand which is most interested in the truth of them.

I have been induced to undertake writing my Memoirs the more from five or six observations which I have had occasion to make upon your work, as you appear to have been misinformed respecting certain particulars. For example, in that part where mention is made of Pau, and of my journey in France; likewise where you speak of the late Marechal de Biron, of Agen, and of the sally of the Marquis de Camillac from that place.

These Memoirs might merit the honourable name of history from the truths contained in them, as I shall prefer truth to embellishment. In fact, to embellish my story I have neither leisure nor ability; I shall, therefore, do no more than give a simple narration of events. They are the labours of my evenings, and will come to you an unformed mass, to receive its shape from your hands, or as a chaos on which you have already thrown light. Mine is a history most assuredly worthy to come from a man of honour, one who is a true Frenchman, born of illustrious parents, brought up in the Court of the Kings my father and brothers, allied in blood and friendship to the most virtuous and accomplished women of our times, of which society I have had the good fortune to be the bond of union.

I shall begin these Memoirs in the reign of Charles IX., and set out with the first remarkable event of my life which fell within my remembrance. Herein I follow the example of geographical writers, who, having described the places within their knowledge, tell you that all beyond them are sandy deserts, countries without inhabitants, or seas never navigated. Thus I might say that all prior to the commencement of these Memoirs was the barrenness of my infancy, when we can only be said to vegetate like plants, or live, like brutes, according to instinct, and not as human creatures, guided by reason. To those who had the direction of my earliest years I leave the task of relating the transactions of my infancy, if they find them as worthy of being recorded as the infantine exploits of Themistocles and Alexander,--the one exposing himself to be trampled on by the horses of a charioteer, who would not stop them when requested to do so, and the other refusing to run a race unless kings were to enter the contest against him. Amongst such memorable things might be related the answer I made the King my father, a short time before the fatal accident which deprived France of peace, and our family of its chief glory. I was then about four or five years of age, when the King, placing me on his knee, entered familiarly into chat with me. There were, in the same room, playing and diverting themselves, the Prince de Joinville, since the great and unfortunate Duc de Guise, and the Marquis de Beaupreau, son of the Prince de la Roche-sur-Yon, who died in his fourteenth year, and by whose death his country lost a youth of most promising talents. Amongst other discourse, the King asked which of the two Princes that were before me I liked best. I replied, "The Marquis." The King said, "Why so? He is not the handsomest." The Prince de Joinville was fair, with light-coloured hair, and the Marquis de Beaupreau brown, with dark hair. I answered, "Because he is the best behaved; whilst the Prince is always making mischief, and will be master over everybody."

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