BRANTOME, v. 55.

BRANTOME, PIERRE DE BOURDEILLE, SEIGNEUR DE.

Lives of fair and gallant ladies, by Seigneur de Brantome.

BRANTOME, SEIGNEUR DE.

SEE Brantome, Pierre de Bourdeille, Seigneur de.

DE BRANTOME, PIERRE DE BOURDEILLE, SEIGNEUR.

Trois vies illustres: Brantome, Marie Stuart, Catherine de Medicis.

Louis XI. had not been mistaken in his choice; there was none more fitted than his daughter Anne to continue his policy under the reign and in the name of his successor; "a shrewd and clever woman, if ever there was one," says Brantome, "and the true image in everything of King Louis, her father.

They used to have," adds Brantome, "prickings of jealousy, love, and ambition."

If Brantome's anecdote is true, as one is inclined to believe, though several historians have cast doubts upon it, Anne de Beaujeu had, in their prickings of jealousy, love, and ambition, a great advantage over Louis of Orleans.

entered Rome with his army, "saying gentlewise," according to Brantome, "that a while agone he had made a vow to my lord St. Peter of Rome, and that of necessity he must accomplish it at the peril of his life.

Behold him, then, entered into Rome," continues Brantome, "in bravery and triumph, himself armed at all points, with lance on thigh, as if he would fain pick forward to the charge.

[Oeuvres de Brantome (Paris, 1822), t. ii.

No excuse is required for quoting this fragment of Brantome; for it gives the truest and most striking picture of the conditions of facts and sentiments during this transitory encounter between a madly adventurous king and a brazen-facedly dishonest pope.

"She had a heart," says Brantome, "mighty devoted to God, and she loved mightily to compose spiritual songs. . . .

The Queen of Navarre, Jeanne d'Albret, in her early youth, "was as fond of a ball as of a sermon," says Brantome, "and she had advised her spouse, Anthony de Bourbon, who inclined towards Calvinism, not to perplex himself with all these opinions."

" To the sketch of the Cardinal of Lorraine Brantome adds that he was, "as indeed he said, a coward by nature."

" [Brantome, Tries des Brands Capitaines, t. ii.

Being invested with the command in Paris, "he went about the city all day," says Brantome, "and, seeing so much blood spilt, he said and shouted to the people, 'Bleed, bleed; the doctors say that bleeding is as good all through this month of August as in May.'

According to Brantome, "they made great difficulties and imported conscience into the matter; but M. de Tavannes, in the king's presence, rebuked them strongly, and threatened them that, if they did not make themselves busy, the king would have them hanged.

"Wherein they did not fail," continues Brantome, "but they did not like it at first."

At this first juncture, the king saved from the massacre none but his surgeon, Ambrose Pare, and his nurse, both Huguenots; on the very night after the murder of Coligny, he sent for Ambrose Pare into his chamber, and made him go into his wardrobe, says Brantome, "ordering him not to stir, and saying that it was not reasonable that one who was able to be of service to a whole little world should be thus massacred."

" The historians, Catholic or Protestant, contemporary or researchful, differ widely as to the number of the victims in this cruel massacre; according to De Thou, there were about two thousand persons killed in Paris the first day; D'Aubigne says three thousand; Brantome speaks of four thousand bodies that Charles IX.

[Brantome, t. iv.

"He had a forge set up for himself," says Brantome, "and I have seen him forging cannon, and horseshoes, and other things as stoutly as the most robust farriers and forgemen."