A gentleman of the olden time, François de Scépeaux, sire de Vieilleville, 1509-1571;

VOL. II.

A GENTLEMAN

THE OLDEN TIME

FRANgOIS DE SCEPEAUX, SIRE DE VIEILLEVILLE

1509—1571

portraits anil Stories of tljc

Curing tfrc iUign 0f Ifcmi II.

BY C. COIGNET

IN TWO VOLUMES
VOL. II.

LONDON

RICHARD BENTLEY & SON, NEW BURLINGTON STREET
|ublsi|j*rs to ®rbtosrg to f n pajestg fyt
1887

[The Right of Translation is Reserved.]

CONTENTS.

CHAPTEE I.

PACK

GERMAN EMBASSY. ALARM OF \TEILLEVILLE. — EX-
PEDITION TO LORRAINE AND ALSACE. METZ,

TOUL, AND VERDUN. PEACE OF PASSAU. THE

ADVENTURE OF LUMES ... ... ... ... 1

CHAPTEE II.
I

CHARLES V. CROSSES THE FRONTIER. — VIEILLE-
VILLE AT VERDUN AND TOUL. — HIS ACHIEVE-
MENTS DURING THE METZ CAMPAIGN 38

CHAPTEE III.

THE SIEGE OF METZ. — THE DUC DE GUISE. — AMBROISE
PARE. — THE EMPEROB OF GERMANY

VI CONTEXTS.

CHAPTER IV.

PACK
VIEILLEVILLE APPOINTED GOVERNOR OF METZ. — HIS

WIFE GOES TO JOIN HIM THERE. DISCIPLINE

RE-ESTABLISHED WITHIN THE CITY ... ... 95

CHAPTER V.

THE COUNTRY CLEARED. TREASON OF THE PROVOST AND

THE SERGEANT-MAJOR.— COMBAT OF ST. MICHEL.

— PLOT OF THE CORDELIERS. VIEILLEVILLE

FOILS IT, AND DEFEATS THE IMPERIAL FORCES 115

CHAPTER VI.

DIFFICULTIES IN THE GOVERNMENT OF METZ. — CAR-
DINAL DE LENONCOURT. JOURNEY OF VIEILLE-
VILLE TO THE COURT. THE SUITORS OF

MADEMOISELLE DE VIEILLEVILLE ... ... 142

CHAPTER VII.

CONTINUATION OF THE WAR. — THE TRUCE OF VAU-

CELLES. ABDICATION AND DEATH OF CHARLES V. 155

CHAPTER VIII.

GUISE'S CAMPAIGN IN ITALY. — THE DEFEAT OF ST.
QUENTIN. — THE VICTORY AT CALAIS. GRAVE-
LINES. — PRELIMINARIES OF PEACE. — THE SECRET
CAUSES OF THE PEACE OF CATEAU-CAMBRESIS.

— MARRIAGES AT COURT. DEATH OF HENRI II. 190

CONTENTS. VI]

CHAPTEE IX.

PACK

VIEILLEVILLE'S EXPEDITION TO REDUCE THE HUGUE-
NOTS TO SUBMISSION. HIS EMBASSY TO GER-
MANY. HIS RECEPTION BY THE EMPEROR. —

HIS RETURN TO FRANCE. ... ... ... 228

CHAPTEK X.

RELIGIOUS DISTURBANCES. — THE BATTLE OP DREUX. —

TRAGIC DEATH OF ST. ANDRE. VIEILLEVILLE

APPOINTED MARSHAL, HIS VARIANCE WITH VILLE-

BON AT ROUEN. HIS TOUR IN THE EASTERN

PROVINCES ... ... ... ... ... 257

CHAPTER XI.

MISSION OF VIEILLEVILLE TO SWITZERLAND. THE

BATTLE OF ST. DENIS, DEATH OF THE CON-
STABLE. SIEGE OF ST. JEAN D'ANGELY.^-DEATH

OF VIEILLEVILLE ... ... 278

CONCLUSION

297

A

GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME,

CHAPTER I.

GERMAN EMBASSY.— ALARM OF VIEILLEVILLE.
—EXPEDITION TO LORRAINE AND ALSACE.
— METZ, TOUL, AND VERDUN.— PEACE OF
P ASSAIL— THE ADVENTURE OF LUMES.

RANGE, being about to attack the
Empire in concert with the Princes,
had received, in the autumn of
1551, a mission from the Hanseatic towns
and from a certain number of nobles, to seal
the alliance.* The deputies, at the head of

* Vieilleville is the only contemporary writer who men-
tions this deputation, accompanying his notice .of it with
circumstances which do not harmonize with historical events.
I only reproduce that part of his narrative which has an
appearance of truth.

VOL. n. 21-

2 A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME.

whom was Count von Simmerien, met at
Strasburg in October, to the number of
about a hundred horsemen. Being on their
way to see the King at Fontainebleau, they
entered France by way of St. Dizier, where
they were met by the Comte du Rhin, at-
tached to the King's household, who gave
them a most cordial greeting on his master's
behalf, and accompanied them all the way.
From the moment they set foot on French
soil they were treated as guests, and all their
expenses were paid for them, while their
own habits and ways were studied. In the
morning they travelled five or six leagues,
and then they remained at table from mid-
day till nine or ten o'clock at night. Our
wines were especially to their fancy ; so
much so, that they shaped their journey
through the finest vineyards, so as to be able
to take their fill of them.

Upon reaching Moret, they found their
lodgings all ready for them ; and upon the
following morning Vieilleville arrived to take
their instructions with regard to an audience
with the King. They asked for two days'

A GENTLEMAN OP THE OLDEN TIME. 3

rest to recover from the fatigue of the jour-
ney, to look over their memoranda and to
prepare their speeches. They made a special
request that the audience should take place
in the morning, which, with such deep
drinkers, was a wise precaution.

Upon the appointed day, the Constable,
with a large following of nobles, came to
fetch them, and conducted them to Fontaine-
bleau, where the King was waiting to receive
them in the grand ball-room. He greeted
them very heartily, embracing the principal
members of the deputation, and offering his
hand to the others. After an exchange of
harangues, he gave them a private audience
to discuss the questions which had brought
them to Fontainebleau ; though, as every-
thing had been settled in advance, this was a
mere matter of form. After a stay of several
days, the members of the mission prepared
to return home ; but before starting they
were entertained at such a feast as could not
be exceeded in magnificence at a wedding of
a Princess of the Blood. After the dinner
there was a ball, at which the Queen, her

4 A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME.

daughters, and the ladies of the Court ap-
peared in such rich and graceful attire as to
excite the wonder and admiration of the
German visitors. First of all there was a
royal minuet, led by the King ; then a Ger-
man dance, and then a special French dance,
the Gaillarde, in which none of them ven-
tured to figure except the Prince of
Orange, who acquitted himself very well,
and would even have taken the prize, if,
"with his grace and agility in pirouetting
and turning upon his heel, he had kept the
proper cadency."

After the dance was over, sweetmeats
were served, and the Ambassadors mounted
their horses to go back to Moret. The King
accompanied them to the edge of the forest,
and had a stag roused for them. After being
chased for more than a mile, the stag was
met by ten hounds, which drove him back
upon his pursuers, while one hundred and
twenty servants of the hunt announced his
death with blasts of the horn. The Germans
were much diverted by this mode of hunting,
which was quite new to them ; as at home

A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME. 5

they made use of the arquebuss and the
cross-bow. They were also much pleased
at being given the deer to take away with
them.

The King took leave of them on horse-
back ; and when they resumed their journey
they observed that some handsome presents
were following in their train, under the con-
duct of the Sieurs de Crevecoeur and Soubise
— viz., twelve Spanish hackneys, fully capari-
soned; four silver dressers, each containing
twenty-five pieces ; thirty or forty gold chains,
and a quantity of medals with the King's
likeness ; besides twelve pieces of silk, four of
black velvet, four of violet satin, and four of
white taffetas. All this was divided among
them, according to their rank and quality ; —
even the lackeys, the grooms, and the lads of
the kitchen receiving some small share of
the royal gifts. The deputation left the next
day, delighted at so much generosity, and
with all they had seen.*

During this reception, on a Tuesday

* " Vieilleville," vol. xxix., pages 246—320.

6 A GENTLEMAN OP THE OLDEN TIME.

evening, the day before the reception, Vieille-
ville, \vho was confined to his room by a slight
indisposition, received a visit from M. de la
Bourdasiere, the Master of the King's Ward-
robe, who informed him that the King
wished him to attend his levee early the
following morning.

Vieilleville supposed that it was to order
him to conduct the German mission to the
audience, but La Bourdasiere informed him
that the King had deputed the Comte de
Crevecceur to do this, and that the latter
had gone to sleep at Moret so as to be ready
for an early start. He could not tell what
the King wished to see Yieilleville about,
all he knew being that Henri II. had
given him very strict injunctions upon the
point.

Vieilleville, though he knew that he had
not committed any offence, could not help
feeling somewhat uneasy on the subject, and
as he met M. de la Roche- sur- Yon, when on
his way to the palace early in the morning,
he asked the latter to accompany him. The
Prince shared his uneasiness, and said that

A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME. 7

lie would see him through, the matter. But
Vieilleville found that the King's object in
sending for him was to confer on him the dis-
tinction of Privy Councillor, and letters-
patent were drawn up and signed by the
Chancellor and Secretary of State, D'Aubes-
pine.* Before commencing hostilities against
the Emperor, Henri published a manifesto, in
which he recapitulated the various offences
which had been put upon him since his acces-
sion to the throne, and upon the 12th of
February, 1552, he held a "bed of justice "
at Paris, informing his " true and loyal sub-
jects " that he was making ready for war, and
that as he must quit the kingdom, he should
leave his wife as Regent with his children
under age and his Council.f

Afterwards, in the course of a long speech,
he set forth the state of his forces, and sum-
moned his army to meet at Chalons on the

* " Vieilleville," vol. xxix., page 267.

j- Establishment by Henri II., of a Council, in conjunc-
tion with the Regent Catherine de Medicis, on starting for
Germany with his army.—" Fontanieu," 273—274 ; " Biblio-
theque du Roi," " Colbert,'' vol. i.

8 A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME.

10th of March. " There is no need to say
with what . alacrity and good will every man
got ready for this war. The whole winter
was spent in preparations, and there was not
a town in which the drum was not beat to
call out the young men, many of whom
quitted father and mother in order to enlist.
Most of the shops were emptied of their
workmen, so great was the ardour among
men of all ranks, to take part in this expedi-
tion, and to see the Rhine river."* The King
arrived at Chalons, and Vieilleville having,
out of regard for St. Andre, persisted in
keeping his lieutenancy when a fresh com-
pany was offered him, the King placed him
under his own standard, by the side of M.
de Guise, so as to be able to confer with him
whenever he wished to do so. This was a
position of special favour.

Before commencing operations, the King
held a grand review of his army upon the
plain of Chalons, and from some statistics
given in the Memoirs of Boyvin de Villars, it

* " Vieilleville," voL xxix., page 322.

A GENTLEMAN OP THE OLDEN TIME. 9

would appear that the force comprised 15,000
French infantry, 9,000 lansquenets (German
foot soldiers), 7,000 Swiss, 1,650 -lances, 3,000
light horse, 2,000 reserve men, six Scotch
companies, one English company, 200 gentle-
men of the King's household, 400 archers of
the guard, and more than 500 volunteers.

The review was a magnificent one, and
the King complimented each arm, addressing
his special thanks to the volunteers, nearly
all of whom were from Brittany, Normandy,
and Marne, appointing as their leader M.
d'Epinay. In doing so, he said : " You have
no post in this army, and I wish you to com-
mence with this one, as I also wish that
Scepeaux, who was formerly one of the
pages of the chamber, should bear the stan-
dard."

The King then had an essay made of his
artillery, which numbered sixty pieces of
various calibre, not including the arquebuses,
and he expressed himself as very satisfied
with it.*

* " Vie.illeville," vol. xxix., page 321.

10 A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME.

The intention was to march through
Lorraine, so the first thing was to make sure
of this province, which was the last great fief
of the Crown, and was then governed by the
Dowager - Duchess Christina of Denmark,
niece of Charles V., and very Imperialist at
heart, upon behalf of Charles III., her son,
who was a minor.

The Duchess, very much concerned as
to what was going to happen, went to
meet the King at Joinville, and asked him
to ensure the neutrality of Lorraine. The
King, though he received her very courteously,
was very much on his guard, and sent his
troops to occupy Nancy. The guardianship
of the young Duke, then ten years of age,
was entrusted to the Comte de Vaudemont, his
uncle, who was entirely devoted to France, and
the boy was sent to the French Court, to be
brought up with the Dauphin. He was after-
wards to marry the second daughter of the
King, the Princess Claude, as soon as they
were both of marriageable age, and he was
then to assume the Government of the
province. In the meanwhile, the unhappy

A GENTLEMAN OP THE OLDEN TIME. 11

Duchess, separated from her son, was sent
back to Germany to reside in one of her
dower cities.*

The troops passed through Lorraine with-
out any difficulty, and presented themselves
before Metz, as allies of the German Princes
whose liberty and rights they had come to
maintain. The inhabitants refused to open
the gates to them, but they were not unani-
mous on the point. The Cardinal-Bishop de
Lenoncourt, a Frenchman by birth and a
partisan of the Guises, taking advantage of
the rivalry which existed between the upper
and the middle classes, and making a free
use of presents and promises, had succeeded
in creating a French party among them.
The inhabitants of the suburb of Heu ac-
cordingly agreed to make a concession and
to open their gate, which was very scantily
defended, but only to Tavannes, and that
because his mother was a native of the
county of Ferrette. Tavannes accordingly

0 Paradin, " Continuation de 1'Histoire de Notre Temps,"
page 31.

12 A GENTLEMAN OP THE OLDEN TIME.

entered, and when a crowd had collected
round him, he began to harangue it with
his air of bravery and exuberant eloquence.
Pointing out that the King was concerned
solely for the liberty of Germany, he won
over the one side and intimidated the other,
eventually inducing them to receive the Con-
stable with his guards and a small company
of infantry, but only on condition that they
were to pass through and go to lodge in the
city.

Upon this, the company, which comprised
the finest men in the army, began to pass
through the gate, and when the burghers,
taking alarm at the martial array, attempted
to close it, Tavannes would not allow this to
be done. He held it till the arrival of the
Constable, and the town was then captured,
the King making his entrance into it a few
days afterwards.* Toul and Verdun also fell,
almost without resistance, into the hands of
the French.

0 " Tavannes," vol. xxvi., pages 113 — 115. Paradin " Con-
tinuation de PHistoire de Notre Temps," page 29.

A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME. 13

This was a good start, but not without
danger because of the very illusions which
it raised in the minds of the victors. What
they should have done was to reassure the
minds of the Germans by showing the
people of Metz deference and respect for
their usages and privileges. Vieilleville saw
this, and when the army was about to start,
the King wished to appoint him Governor of
the city. But he declined to accept the
post, as he said that the right policy was to
leave the government of the city in the
hands of the Mayor and the Aldermen, and
to confer upon them great honour and
profit ; to grant them a residence with a
staff of servants, and to make them some
presents.

He also advised the formation of a military
government which would have control of the
armed forces, but the commander of which,
while being under the orders of the King,
should, to spare the susceptibilities of the
inhabitants, take the title of' " Governor
and Lieutenant- General of • the City of
Metz and of the Messine countries for

14 A GENTLEMAN OP THE OLDEN TIME.

the Holy Empire, under the protection
of Henri II., the very Christian King of
France."

The King heard what Vieilleville had to
say, and after raising some objections which
the latter had no difficulty in disposing of,
submitted his proposals to the Council.
The Duo de Vendome, Antoine de Bourbon,
the Duke and Cardinal de Guise, were dis-
posed to acquiesce in them, but the Constable
at once intervened, furious at any proposal
coming from other than himself. He declared
the idea to be absurd, and said that whoever
had suggested it to the King did not know
what he was talking about. He himself had
commenced the work, and he hoped that he
might be allowed to complete it. The in-
habitants of Strasburg and of the other
Rhine cities which had still to be taken, were
not cleverer than the people of Metz, being of
the same mould and habits. He would enter
them as easily as he would plunge a piece of
wood into butter. He then asked the King
if the person to whom he intended to entrust
the government of Metz had accepted it, and

A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME. 15

upon the King replying in the negative, he
continued : —

" This, is of no consequence. I have
here M. de Gonnor, a lieutenant in my com-
pany, and a relative of mine, who will, I
guarantee, undertake and execute this duty
in all fidelity. May it please your Majesty
to instruct M. de 1'Aubespine here pre-
sent to confer upon him the necessary
powers."

The required order was at once given,
and the following day, at the King's levee,
the new Governor took the oath in the pre-
sence of all the lords and princes.*

The army, which was already three miles
from Metz, and quartered at Raucourt, con-
tinued its march. "As we pursued our
route," says Vieilleville, "we passed through
the whole of Lorraine and the Yosges
country without being exposed to any incon-
venience, for the inhabitants had not aban-
doned their abodes or villages, and they were

* " Tieilleville," vol. xxix., page 329; and vol. xxx., pages
1—4.

16 A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME.

treated with the utmost respect, out of re-
gard for M. de Lorraine, who was already
looked upon as the King's future son-in-law.
But, as soon as we had entered German
territory the French at once displayed their
insolence, and so terrified all they met, that
henceforward we did not meet a single per-
son to whom we could speak. Moreover,
throughout the whole of our march, not a
soul came to us with provisions, and we were
obliged to go a distance of five or six leagues
for forage and food, taking a good escort,
too ; for if even ten men went together
they never came back — all which inflicted
the utmost suffering on our troops." * The
open towns were soon compelled to surren-
der, but Strasburg bristled with resistance.
Provisions were only to be had on payment.
It was in vain that the Sieur de Lesigny, the
Commissary-General, while negociating for
supplies, endeavoured to obtain permission
for a few men to enter the city. The magis-
trates " very abruptly rejected the proposal,

* " Vieilleville," xxx., pages 1—5.

A GENTLEMAN OP THE OLDEN TIME. 17

saying that the men of Metz, speaking
French, as they do, might let themselves
be deluded by persons speaking the same
language, but that those who speak German
were not going to be humbugged by the
French." *

The King, therefore, leaving Strasburg
behind him, continued his march upon the'
10th of May. He entered Haguenau, where
he was very well received, and where he
remained three or four days. " The inha-
bitants went to visit the camp, which was
established all round the town; and the
women crowded the parapets of the walls,
the steeples, and the tallest houses to get a
view of it."

Several German officers having some
time before been put to death by the Em-
peror's orders because of their attachment to
France, the King summoned to his tent all
their relatives, male and female. He distri-
buted ten thousand crowns among the oldest
of them, and among the young girls for

* " Vieilleville," vol. xxx., page 8.
VOL. ii. 22

18 A GENTLEMAN OP THE OJ-DEN TIME.

marriage portions; while he provided the
young men with arms and accoutrements, and
gave them appointments in the oldest com-
panies of his troops. As there remained, in
addition to these, nine boys of tender age,
he selected four as pages of the stables, and
he made over the five others to the Princes
and lords of his suite, requesting them not
to forget what hand had bestowed this
favour upon them.

When the King resumed his march after
leaving Haguenau, " it occurred to him to
send to Spire, and sound the inhabitants as
to how they would receive him if he pre-
sented himself at their gates with his army."
Vieilleville, to whom this mission was en-
trusted, detached from his troop twenty gen-
tlemen of distinction and two trumpeters,
and, taking with him one of the King's inter-
preters, he made his way towards the city.
Upon reaching the gates, which were closely
guarded, he declared his titles, and asked to
be allowed to deliver his message to the
Diet. Two burgomasters on horseback came
out to receive him and offer him compli-

A GENTLEMAN OP THE OLDEN TIME. 19

ments in " the best of French ; " after which
they took him to "the Crown," so that he
might refresh himself. From there they
conducted him to the Town Hall, where the
Lords of the Imperial Chamber had met to
receive him in state.

Upon entering the Chamber, Vieilleville
saw the sixty members of the Diet seated in
a circle, wearing the gold chain of office slung
across their chest, with the sword in a velvet
sheath, and a silver hilt. The ten principal
members were seated in the centre, wearing
long robes, upon stools, and surmounted by a
canopy.

When Vieilleville entered between the
two burgomasters, they all rose without
leaving their places, and, after saluting him
with a simultaneous motion full of respect,
resumed their seats. Vieilleville was then
conducted to an arm-chair which had been
placed opposite to them, of the same height
as theirs, and also covered with crimson
velvet and surmounted by a canopy. Just
beneath, there was a long seat or bench for
the gentlemen of his suite. The whole

20 A GKNTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME.

formed a " circle very magnificently de-
corated."

Vieilleville then proceeded to summon his
interpreter, Baptiste Praillon, Abbot of
Bourgmoyen, but the sixty, with one voice,
begged him to speak in French, as there
•was not one of them but understood that
tongue.

The speeches commenced by Vieilleville
proclaiming the understanding which existed
between his master and the German Princes,
saying that the King had done nothing, either
at Metz or elsewhere, except at the request
of Duke Maurice. If he had taken possession
of that city, it was to prevent its falling into
the hands of the Imperial forces in the Duchy
of Luxemburg. His only object in making
war was to restore to the people the ancient
Germanic liberties. Vieilleville, therefore,
entreated the members of the Diet " to open
their hearts and their gates" to the King,
than whom they had no better friend or more
trusty confederate.

Doctor Colius replied to Vieilleville, and
he reproached him with the mischief done by

A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME. 21

the French troops, which had behaved in
Germany as if they were in an enemy's
country. "While delighted at an alliance with
His Most Christian Majesty, the Germans
will never allow his army to come and
encamp beneath their walls. But if the
King likes to pay them a friendly visit, with
forty or a hundred gentleman of his suite,
he will be received with all enthusiasm and
honour.

Vieilleville accepted this offer, and
thanked them for it, only asking that, in
order to assure for the King full liberty in
entering and leaving the city, he might be
allowed to have a guard of a hundred men at
one of the gates.

At this the sixty rose in indignation,
exclaiming : " Not at all ! not at all ! We
are not going to be treated as the people of
Metz were ! " So the meeting broke up
in confusion, everybody speaking at once,
and the members of the Diet being very
angry.

So Vieilleville returned, much discom-
fited, to his lodging at the Crown, still

22 A GENTLEMAN OP THE OLDEN TIME.

accompanied by the two burgomasters, who
wished to pay his expenses. But he would
not permit this, and, taking leave of them, he
mounted his horse and started with his suite
to return to the King. All along the route,
on his way out of the town, he was astonished
to see the streets full of soldiers, armed to
the teeth, while upon the square was a strong
body of horsemen. Salvoes of artillery were
fired as he left, the meaning of which could
not possibly be mistaken.*

A few days later, VieilleviDe had rejoined
the King, and he found that in the mean-
while a great change had come over the state
of affairs.

The Emperor, seeing that the whole of
Germany was leagued against him, and fear-
ing, moreover, an invasion of the Turks, who
had already excited much alarm in Hungary,
had brought himself to agree, at Passau, to
the demands of Maurice, viz., the release of
the Landgrave, and liberty for the Princes to
settle the religious question among them-

* " Vieilleville," vol. xxx, page 24.

A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME. 23

selves until the Council had effected a general
agreement upon the point. Maurice, upon
his side, had undertaken to march against the
Turks in concert with Charles Y. The only
mention made of France in the treaty was to
refer to her friendly intervention with a view
to the re- establishment of religious liberty
in Germany, and to invite her to make an
explicit statement of her cause of com-
plaint against the Emperor, so that she
might participate in the general peace and
harmony.*

Duke Maurice, moreover, fearing that the
occupation by France of the Imperial towns
might endanger his credit with the Germanic
Body, affected to regard it as temporary.
Pending the signing of peace — August 2nd —
he, therefore, sent to Henri a deputation of
German prelates, in which the Swiss Cantons

0 With regard to the treaty of Passau, see a letter from
Charles V. to Ferdinand, dated Villach, June 7th, 1552. —
" Papiers de Granville," vol. iii., page 635. The Bishop of
Bayonne, Jean de Fresse, who represented the King at the
Conference, feeling himself powerless, had offered no opposi-
tion to this peace speech, delivered at Passau by Jean de
Fresse, Bishop of Bayonne, June 4th, 1552.

24 A GENTLEMAN OP THE OLDEN TIME.

were represented, to beg him to suspend his
inarch. This entreaty contained, by implica-
tion, a threat of abandonment.

The King saw this clearly enough, but
feeling himself powerless to resist an united
Germany, and having, moreover, acquired
three bishoprics, he determined to withdraw
with a good grace. So taking leave of the
deputation, after having let the horses of his
army slake their thirst in the waters of the
Ehine, he re-entered Lorraine upon the 13th
of May.

The retreat of the four army corps was
not exempt from difficulty, and Vieilleville,
who was in the train of the Due d'Aumale,
writes :

" At many points, the pioneers and sap-
pers had to widen the roads for the mules
and the rest of the baggage, all of which
caused us a great deal of trouble. We
encamped along the hill-sides, for there was
very little plain, and none of the villagers
or peasants would bring us any refreshments.
There were certainly a few castles, but they
were scarcely any of them inhabited, and

A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME. 25

there was nothing to be got there. We
marched in this way for twelve days in great
discomfort, and many of the men fell ill from
being obliged to sleep in the open air and
encamp under the hedgerows. It was only
a few of the chiefs of the army who were
able to sleep in beds, which they had carried
on the march ; the main body of the army
were never able once to take their clothes off.
On the fourteenth day, we came in sight of
the plain, and were so delighted that all our
past sufferings were soon forgotten. It was
covered from end to end with tall firs,
higher than any to be seen in Savoy or in
the Alps, and amidst this vast woodland were
a number of large and well-found villages.
We were two days going through this charm-
ing forest."*

The army rallied at the frontier of Lux-
emburg, into which it had been resolved to
make an incursion. Rodemaker was cap-
tured without resistance, as well as Dam-
villiers and Ivoy, where Yieilleville was

0 " Yieilleville," vol. xxx., page 48.

26 A GENTLEMAN OP THE OLDEN TIME.

appointed Marshal of the camp ; while
Montmedy surrendered at the first summons.
Wherever he went, Montmorency, having
failed to enter Germany without strik-
ing a blow, treated the inhabitants with
the utmost rigour. He gave over the towns
and villages to pillage, reserving the princi-
pal spoils for his favourites, thereby exciting
the anger of the troops.

The King then achieved the conquest of
the Duchy of Bouillon, and made it over to
its ancient possessors, from whom it had
been taken by the Emperor. A curious
incident occurred in connection with this
affair. Near Sedan, upon the Meuse, was a
small fortress called Lumes, the Lord of
which, one Buzancy, was the boldest and
most daring brigand in all Christendom.
Some years before this, in 1534, he had
refused permission for the King's officers to
enter his castle, and it had been found neces-
sary to send for cannon to enforce the
order. Taken prisoner, he would have been
beheaded if Robert de Lamarck, his power-
ful neighbour, had not obtained a pardon

A GENTLEMAN OP THE OLDEN TIME. 27

for him. As bis castle was situated upon
the marches of Champagne, in the direction
of the Low Countries, the merchants who
were proceeding from Antwerp to Frankfort
were obliged to pass at the foot of it.
Whether they were friends or enemies,
Buzancy made them all suffer, and M. de
Nevers, the Governor of Champagne, was
constantly receiving complaints on the sub-
ject. The latter declared that if ever he
caught him, he would hang him at the door
of his castle. But he never did catch him,
and Buzancy was destined to die in his bed,
for he was so vexed when he heard of the
arrival of the French, that, suffering already
from the effects of an old wound, he expired
almost immediately afterwards.

The wife of Marshal de Lamarck, who
was not less avaricious than her mother,
knowing how full of riches the castle was,
arrived in haste at Sedan and asked, through
the Queen, that the King would be pleased
to order their confiscation, by way of com-
pensation for the pillage and robberies which
the garrison of Lumes had committed upon

28 A GENTLEMAN OP THE OLDEN TIME.

her property for the last ten years " without
discretion or mercy." The King having
granted her request, she begged him to order
Vieilleville to undertake the task, and upon
being asked why she made this selection, she
said that not only had he already shown
great kindness to her mother by reconciling
her with Marshal de St. Andre, but that he
was the only person she could trust to take
possession of the riches in the castle, and
render a faithful account of them.

Vieilleville, accordingly, was ordered by
the King to take two companies of light
cavalry, and with his twenty-five gentlemen
and a trumpeter to summon the castle to
surrender.

Malberg, the nephew of Buzancy, who
was the keeper, having only servants and
women as a garrison, obeyed the summons,
and being brought before Vieilleville, begged
him to take under his protection the heiress,
Mdlle. de Bourlemont, his first cousin, who
had shut herself up in one of the rooms. At
the same time he handed him the keys of the
rooms in which all the treasure was stored.

A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME. 29

Vieilleville took them from him and invited
Malberg to dine with him, asking him to
bring the inventory. After having looked
over it he selected a trustworthy person as
guardian, and sent for Madame de Lamarck,
who arrived in haste the next day. She was
delighted to find everything in perfect order,
and gave the guardian a chain which she was
wearing round her neck with a small ruby in
the centre.

f< You will not miss it," observed the
keeper, " for you will find more than twenty
thousand crowns worth of similar ones."
He then handed her the inventory of the
casket, asking her to look over it as quickly
as possible, for M. de Vieilleville was waiting
to see her after dinner. The latter took her
into the room where the treasure was, and
observed : " This is a fine present, Madame,
that the King has given you, as it represents
at least sixty thousand crowns. But have
pity on this poor heiress, and remember that
we have only a life interest in this world's
goods. She and her three serving women
are yours ; and I am going to take Malberg

30 A GENTLEMAN OP THE OLDEN TIME.

with me and present him to the King. As
you have brought a sufficient number of
persons with you to keep watch over the
castle until the King has had it dismantled,
I shall go and see about preparing to start
for the camp."

She in vain pressed him to accept a
third of the King's present, but he would
not hear of this and took leave of her. He
rejoined the camp at Douzy, and upon the
following day, the 29th, he was at Sedan,
where he found that Madame de Lamarck
had arrived in the morning. After the de-
parture of Yieilleville she had all the treasure
hurriedly loaded upon carts, and, spreading
the report that they contained provisions and
ammunition for the camp at Douzy, had
travelled with them all night. Speaking
in the highest terms of M. de Vieilleville,
she presented to his second daughter, Mdlle.
de Scepeaux, who was in the Queen's house-
hold, a necklace and bracelets made of
delicate Eastern pearls, a piece of crimson
velvet, and a gold belt weighing two hundred
crowns. Mdlle. de Bourlemont was, at her

A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME. 31

request, appointed one of the Queen's maids
of honour.*

This expedition to Germany had lasted
three months and a half. Henri seized a few
more forts and he then made over half his
forces to M. de Yendome in order to go into
Picardy and capture, Hesdin, disbanding the
rest. In dismissing the nobles who had
volunteered, he thanked them for their help
and gave them certificates testifying to their
loyal and valiant service — certificates by
which they set considerable value, some
because they were " anxious to show them
to their fathers, in order that they might not
regret the expense they had incurred, and
others because they were proud to exhibit
them to their mistresses or friends."

Yieilleville rested for six days at Vervins,
where the Due de Nemours sent him a very
valuable Spanish hackney, magnificently
caparisoned, which he had named Ivoy, in

* " Vieilleville," vol. xxx., page 74. Brantome mentions
Mdlle. de Bourlemont as one of the maids of honour to
Catherine de Medicis. He does not mention Mdlle. de
Scepeaux, but he says himself that his list is not a complete
one.

32 A GENTLEMAN OP THE OLDEN TIME.

memory of " a rescue of his person," effected
by Vieilleville before that town. He re-
ceived from Vieilleville in exchange a beau-
tiful gold chain, and a sword, with dagger
and belt, the sheath being made of crimson
velvet, with the hilt gilded and wrought at
Milan.

Vieilleville went on from there to his
domain of Duretal, where he spent a part of
the summer in his own family. He had
intended to. make a longer stay, but on the
15th of September the King summoned him
back to Court.

CHAPTER II.

CHARLES V. CROSSES THE FRONTIER.— VIEILLE-
VILLE AT VERDUN AND TOUL. — HIS
ACHIEVEMENTS DURING THE METZ CAM-
PAIGN.

HILE Maurice, in the course of an
expedition in which he was des-
tined to meet with his death, was
advancing with his Saxon army against the
Turks, Charles V. was venting his rage upon
France.* He was making ready to cross the
frontier, but he could not decide at what
point to commence the struggle, as appears
from a letter written to Montmorency by the
King. In this letter the King says : "I am

* Letter from M. de Selves, our Ambassador at Venice,
to the Constable de Montmorency, October 26th and 27th,
1552. — " Negociations dans le Levant," vol. ii., page 235.
Letter from Charles V. to Ferdinand. — " Correspondance des
Kaisers," vol. iii., page 514.

VOL. ii. 23

34 A GENTLEMAN OP THE OLDEN TIME.

writing to you now because, from the road
which the Emperor is taking, he can have
but one of three objects in view : to besiege
Metz or Verdun, or to enter French terri-
tory."*

At the same time, the King despatched
Francois de Guise to Metz, and the latter
set up his defence there on the 17th of
August with a strong body of troops and the
numerous nobles of his suite. The King also
ordered St. Andre to Verdun, and sent for
Vieilleville, in order to entrust him with a
highly honourable and important mission.
He did not say what the mission consisted
of, and this was the nature of the summons
which reached him at Duretal.

Another, and a secret missive, came im-
mediately after. The secretary, Malestroit,
informed Vieilleville that the situation had
undergone a complete change. The impor-
tant post which the King had in view for
him was the governorship of Toul, but St.

0 Letter from the King to Montmorency. — " Clairam-
bault," 345, folio i.

A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME. 35

Andre having learnt of this, and being, with
his usual selfishness, anxious to keep Vieille-
ville at the head of his company, set to work
to prevent the project being carried through.
On his way to Verdun, he passed through
Rheims, the residence of M. de Nevers,
Governor of Champagne, and, under pretext
of the necessities of war, induced him to
start for Toul and assume the government
of that place. Having thus forced the
King's hand, he would have him believe
that he had acted for the good of the
country, and that it would be much better
for M. de Vieilleville to come and help him
at Verdun.

While the latter was reading this second
despatch, a third arrived from St. Andre,
announcing his nomination at Verdun, and
that of the Due de Nevers at Toul, and
appealing to him, out of regard for their old
friendship, to come and join him at once. At
first Vieilleville was much irritated at what he
regarded as a ruse, but he was mollified by
the belief that St. Andre was anxious to have
him with him, and began to make prepara-

36 A GKNTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME.

tions for starting. But Madame de Vieille-
ville, who saw but little of her husband, was
very much upset at this fresh departure, and
with the whole of her family, protested,
though in vain. Vieilleville left it to his
daughter, Madame d'Epinay, to say good-
bye, promising to be back in a short time,
and repaired to Fontainebleau, where he found
the palace very deserted and melancholy, all
the young men of the Court having followed
M. de Guise to Metz. The King received
him very kindly, and blamed M. de Nevers
very much for the Toul incident, but attri-
buted his conduct to his zeal for the public
good, and did not like to inflict upon him the
humiliation of a recall. He assured Vieille-
ville of his future good will, and despatched
him to Verdun.

Vieilleville, who had regained his usual
good humour, did not say anything to the
King about what had been told him as to St.
Andre's motives, and during the two days he
was at Fontainebleau, he went with him
through all the despatches, memoirs, etc.,
relating to the aflair on hand. Having then

A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME. 37

taken leave of the King, he started to rejoin
the army of St. Mihiel, on the Meuse, about
ten leagues from Metz.*

Vieilleville, upon his arrival at Chalons,
transmitted to the Deputy-Governor of the
town, to the Treasurer-General of Cham-
pagne, to the Officers of Law, the Mayors,
and the Aldermen, the detailed orders of the
King with regard to the distribution of
money and the execution of justice. The
payments and receipts are to be reserved for
MM. de Guise, Nevers, St. Andre, and the
payments are to be made regularly. The
officers of justice are to assist the captains
" in maintaining good order upon the high-
ways, and in punishing robbers and evil-
doers," while they are to keep upon good
terms with the guards of the towns, and to
receive the co-operation of the mayors and
aldermen. He added that the King was well
pleased with them, and placed full confidence

* Letter to M. d'Aramon, dated Rheims, November 23rd,
If 52, upon the plan of campaign. This letter also asks for
the intervention of Soliman's fleet in the Mediterranean. —
" Bibier," vol. ii., page 708.

38 A GENTLEMAN OP THE OLDEN TIME.

in their ability and honesty. This communi-
cation elicited their hearty thanks, and upon
the following day, without waiting for his
suite, which had reached Chateau-Thierry, he
took the post for Verdun.

Just after passing through Clermont-en-
Argonne, when within three leagues of his
destination, he was surprised by a salvo of
two hundred arquebusiers, these being no
other than . St. Andre and his men, who
simulated an attack upon him, the imaginary
combat being kept up all the way into
Verdun.

The next day, Vieilleville mounted his
horse to go round the outside of the town.
He altered the plan of the fortifications, much
to the indignation of the Italian engineer,
who was persuaded that his own countrymen
alone understood the science of fortification.
They even declared that they were the in-
ventors of it. Vieilleville, however, did not
pay any heed to his fuming, and by the
afternoon he had all the provosts, archers,
pages, lackeys, and his own household, to
say nothing of a thousand pioneers and

A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME. 39

others of the inhabitants, out at the work.
The peasants, who had taken refuge in the
town with their wives and families, earned a
little money by carrying away the earth, and
the enterprise was conducted with such dili-
gence, that in three weeks' time the platform
was raised above the walls of the town all
the way round, the zeal of the workmen
being stimulated by the example set them
from above.

This unflagging energy lasted until news
came that the Duke of Alva had decided to
attack Metz; that he was making recon-
naissances around the city pending the
Emperor's arrival, and that the army was
even beginning to throw up trenches. This
piece of news was very distasteful to the
nobles who had come to Yerdun in the hope
of having to stand a siege, especially as there
was now no chance of getting into Metz.
Vieilleville, however, made them feel rather
happier by proposing that they should scout
the country 'between Pont-a-Mousson and
I^ancy, where they would be certain to have
the opportunity of meeting some portion of

40 A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME.

the Imperial army. This proposal being
readily accepted, Vieilleville started oil the
22nd of November, at the head of 600 good
horsemen, 600 arquebusiers, 200 picked
corslet-wearers, and the flower of the vete-
ran companies and legions of Champagne.
Vieilleville had with him also 200 pioneers
to level fences and cut down bushes, .as well
as to fill up ditches and dig any trenches
which might be required. St. Andre accom-
panied him for four leagues, as far as the
gates of Frene, upon the road to Metz, and
they parted as effusively as if they were
never to meet again. Upon entering the
village, the Mayor, a subject of the Duke
of Lorraine, came to inform him that two
hundred Walloons were encamped close
by, and were preparing to occupy Frene.
He also offered to show the way to their
encampment ; which he did so well,
that the Walloons were surprised and
cut to pieces, Vieilleville''' not losing a single
man.

The inhabitants of the district, stimu-
lated by the gift of ten crowns which Vieille-

A GENTLEMAN OP THE OLDEN TIME. 41

ville had made the mayor, kept him well
informed as to the movements of the Imperial
army, which, being treated as neutrals, they
were easily able to do. Thus, the mayor of
Villesalerou came to tell him that at four
o'clock on a given afternoon a hundred
chariots of provisions, escorted only by five
squadrons of light cavalry, under the com-
mand of one Mondragon, were to leave the
town of Malatour. Yieilleville, putting forty
crowns into his hand, asked him if he knew
of a way to his village between Malatour
and Metz which they could take without
being seen. The mayor said that he did,
and took them to Villesaleron without their
having been observed. All the persons they
met on the road, men, women, and children,
were arrested, and compelled to follow, so
that the enemy might get no intelligence of
what had occurred. Vieilleville then drew up
his troops ; some in the village itself, some
a little way outside, under cover ; and in an
hour's time the enemy arrived, and was at
once attacked by the advance guard. The
French attacked them with so much fury,

42 A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME.

that they attempted to fly into the village,
where they found the second part of Vieille-
ville's troops ready to fall upon them. In
this way six hundred were killed, and half as
many made prisoners. The French had only
one killed and forty wounded, and they cap-
tured all the provision waggons. They then
returned to Frene ; and the next morning
Vieilleville sent to Verdun the wounded, the
prisoners, the standards, and twenty waggons
loaded with wines from Aussois and Bar,
which he presented to St. Andre, keeping
the same number for himself and his men.
The rest of the provisions, consisting of
flour, bacon, salt beef in barrels, and other
things, were used for the camp. One whole
waggon, with its team of six horses and two
measures of wine, was given to the Mayor
of Villesaleron, who kept a tavern in his
village.

Vieilleville passed twelve days at Mala-
tour scouring the country, which was densely
wooded; and having heard that some forty
or fifty Spaniards were occupying, a few
leagues off, the Chateau of Conflans, he

A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME, 43

suddenly appeared before it, and called upon
them to surrender. The Spaniards, dispirited
by the defeat of Mondragon and the affair
of Malatour, asked for four hours to de-
liberate. But Vieilleville, afraid of being
discovered and taken by surprise, summoned
them a second time to surrender at dis-
cretion. At the same time, his soldiers
surrounded the castle, crying out " E scale !
Sape ! " and firing at the windows, making
so much noise that the Spaniards asked to
treat for terms, and were promised that their
lives should be spared. After this, Vieille-
ville, having learnt that the Lorraine town of
Etain was assisting the enemy by procuring
him provisions, determined to take it by
surprise]; and he left Conflans, followed by
a picked body of men, which was to remain
in concealment until they heard the trumpet
sound. He then advanced, with twelve
horsemen and four soldiers dressed as
lackeys, and with arms concealed beneath
their clothes. When he reached the gates,
he sent for the mayor and bailiff, and re-
proached them with supplying provisions to

44 A GENTLEMAN OP THE OLDEN TIME.

the Imperial forces. The bailiff, who owed
his appointment to the Regent of Lorraine,
replied that he was only executing his mis-
tress's orders, and that the inhabitants, who
were poor, were obliged to sell their pro-
visions to earn a livelihood. Upon Vieille-
ville saying that the authority of the Regent
could not weigh against that of M. de Vau-
demont, the governor of the province, the
bailiff replied that he did not recognize the
latter, being under the orders of the Dowager
Duchess. Vieilleville then asked him if he
would supply him with provisions if he paid
for them ; and when the bailiff said that he
would, Vieilleville told him to fetch six
crowns' worth. He also ordered the trum-
peters to sound a blast, and, while the men
disguised as lackeys forced their way into
the town, the rest of the troops came up
and-gained possession of the town. A dozen
Spaniards, who were lodged with the bailiff,
took to flight and got over the wails, while
Vieilleville pursued them. He failed, how-
ever, to capture them, and this incensed him
so much, as there was a relative of the Duke

A GENTLEMAN OP THE OLDEN TIME. 45

of Alva and a nephew of the Duke de 1'Infan-
tado among them, that he had the bailiff's
nephew hung for favouring their escape.
He, nevertheless, had public proclamation
made throughout the town, that no violence
should be offered the inhabitants, under pain
of death.

Dining and sleeping at Etain, he started
the next day for Conflans, leaving M. de Bois
Jourdan there with a troop of light horse,
and, after a few days' rest, he asked his men
if they were ready for another expedition.
They replied that "If he was going to make
an attack on hell itself, they were ready to
follow him."

His object was to make a sudden attack
upon Rougerieules, a village in the mountains,
about a league from Metz, which was de-
fended by a small force of infantry and horse.
As the enterprise was a risky one, Vieilleville
sent for M. de Bois Jourdan and his company,
and after a careful distribution of his forces,
reached the village in the evening by four
different routes. The inhabitants had retired
for the night, and the French entered the

46 A GENTLEMAN OP THE OLDEN TIME.

village so suddenly, with such a din of
trumpets and muskets, that the Germans fled
in dismay. They were slaughtered whole-
sale, and even the fugitives were not spared
for fear of their giving the alarm to the camp
of the Marquis Albert, which was not far
off. The rest of the night was spent in col-
lecting the spoil and loading it on the
waggons.

From this village could be distinctly
descried the town of Metz, below in the
plain, with all the Emperor's army encamped,
just as London can be seen from the heights
of Hampstead.

The position was too dangerous to be
held, so Vieilleville and his forces evacuated
it at daybreak, and when the Marquis Albert,
who was furious at the march which had been
stolen upon him, arrived there the next day
with a strong body of troops, he found the
village in ruins and the enemy gone.

On his return to Verdun, Vieilleville
received a message from the King, enjoining
him to go to Toul, as it was said that the
Emperor, abandoning in despair the enter-

A GENTLEMAN OP THE OLDEN TIME. 47

prise at Metz, was about to march against
that place, and the Due de Nevers would
require help.*

The Due de Nevers, a younger prince of
Cleves, allied through his wife to the House
of Bourbon, had entered the King's service.f
Knowing Yieilleville, and being very attached
to him, he gave him a very friendly reception,
and after carefully examining the situation,
they determined, as the enemy made no
sign, to assume the offensive. Vieilleville had
brought with him two spies, one of whom, a
man named Sulligny, he sent to Pont-a-
Mousson, with instructions to say that he
belonged to the Duchess of Lorraine's party,
and that he was proceeding, on her part, to
the Imperial camp.

0 Letter from the King to the Due de Nevers about
Toul, during the siege of Metz. Note to be sent to M.
de Nevers as to the fortifications of Toul. — " Clairambault,"
346, folios 815—827.

f The county of Nevers, which he inherited through the
marriage of one of his ancestors with Isabelle de Bourgoyne,
had been converted by Francois I. into a duchy, by letters-
patent of February 17th, 1538.— " Rabutin," vol. xxxvii.,
page 110.

48 A GENTLEMAN OP THE OLDEN TIME.

He started late enough to have an excuse
for not going further than Pont-a-Mousson
the same evening. About three o'clock he
reached the gates of the town. He was, of
course, stopped and asked what his business
was, and what letters he had on him. He
asked to be allowed to see the commanders
of the town, Don Alfonso d'Arbolangua, and
the Roman Signor Fabrizio Colonna, and
upon being brought before them, answered
all the questions put to him so adroitly
that no suspicions were entertained as to his
veracity. He then offered to take any
message which their lordships might have for
His Majesty the Emperor, whom he hoped to
see the next day. One of them having asked
him if he had come by way of Toul, and
knew anything of the Verdun troops under
the command of one Vieilleville, he ex-
claimed : "Oh ! the vile French toad ? He
has just had one of my brothers, nephew of
the bailiff, hung at Etain, because he favoured
the escape of the Spaniards over the walls.
A plague upon him, and I will have my
revenge, or die for it ! "

A GENTLEMAN OP THE OLDEN TIM3. 49

This gave the two commanders of Pont-
a-Mousson, who were acquainted with the
incident described, all the more confidence in
him, and they promised to aid him in his
revenge if he would aid them. This he
readily consented to do after he had dis-
charged his mission to the Emperor, and he
accounted for not having any letter from his
mistress on the ground that he had been
entrusted with matters of such importance
that if he had been captured with it in his
possession, not only would he be hung him-
self, but the information would get into the
hands of the enemy. This explanation was
accepted, and the next morning he left for
Metz, where he managed so to delude the
Duke of Alva, that he brought back a letter
to the two commanders at Pont-a-Mousson,
describing him as very attached to his mis-
tress and to the Emperor. They did not
need any such recommendation, being fully
convinced of his good faith, and Don Alfonso,
embracing him with effusion, put round his
neck a chain worth fifty crowns. Sulligny

indignantly refused it, saying that he had no
VOL. ii. 24

50 A GENTLEMAN OP THE OLDEN TIME.

interest in the killing of Vieilleville save that
of avenging his brother's death ; and that,
after delivering the Emperor's reply to his
mistress, he would return at once. So
thoroughly had he gained their confidence,
that they would have picked a quarrel with
anyone who cast a doubt upon the matter.

Sulligny then went back to Vieilleville,
who thought that he had been killed, and
returned to Pont-a-Mousson to inform the
two commanders there, as if on the part of
the Duchess of Lorraine, that Vieilleville
would be going the next day to Conde to
confer with her about her son, and that he
would be accompanied by one hundred and
twenty horsemen.

Delighted at this piece of news, the two
commanders ordered out a force of three
hundred horsemen to take him by surprise,
and started to eflect the capture of Vieille-
ville, which they regarded as being to all
intents and purposes done. He, in the
meanwhile, had called together all the lead-
ing men of the forces in Toul, and had asked
if he could count upon them for an enter-

A GENTLEMAN OP THE OLDEN TIME. 51

prise which would have to be carried through
in ten hours. A shout of assent was the
unanimous answer.

Eeaching a bridge near the wood of
Bouziere, close to the village of Lorraine,
Vieilleville placed his troops in ambush, and
went in advance with the one hundred and
twenty horsemen, of which the spy had
spoken. He seized all the persons who
were on the road, so that no intelligence
could reach the enemy ; and after waiting
three hours, he saw the body of horsemen
bearing down upon him. Feigning alarm at
their superior numbers, he pretended to re-
treat, but as soon as he had fallen back upon
the force he had in ambush, the enemy,
which had come charging on, confident of
victory, was met with a terrific onslaught ;
the cry of "victory" being soon changed
into that of " treason." The carnage lasted
some time, but Vieilleville at length ordered
it to cease, the Spaniards having lost two
hundred and thirty -in killed and twenty-five
in wounded, while among the prisoners was
Fabrizio. Vieilleville sent him, under the

52 A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME.

escort of M. de Clavolles, to Toul, as a pre-
sent to the Due de Nevers. He had the
wounded and prisoners taken to a place of
safety, but he kept the standards of the
enemy, as he had thought of a fresh enter-
prise, in which they would be useful. He
said nothing about this, however, until after
the departure of M. de Clavolles, when
he sent for the spy Sulligny, whom he
despatched . to Pont-a-Mousson, accompanied
by four trusty men.

Upon getting within sight of the town,
Sulligny 'began to gallop towards the gates,
shouting : —

" Victory, victory ! The wretched French
dog and all his troops 'have licked the dust !
Signer Fabrizio is bringing him in a prisoner
to Don Alfonso. Here are his armlets and
standard. More than a hundred of his
followers have been killed."

Great was the rejoicing in the town, and
Don Alfonso, when he saw what he took
to be the spoils stripped from Vieilleville,
mounted his horse and went out with thirty
horsemen to meet Fabrizio. A multitude of

A GENTLEMAN OP THE OLDEN TIME. 53

horsemen and footmen followed. They saw
in the distance what they took to be a body
of their own men coming towards them, but
what proved in reality to be Frenchmen
dressed up in the Spanish uniforms. A
melee ensued, and the French troops entered
the town with them, and were soon masters
of it. Vieilleville took up his quarters there,
while Don Alfonso, who had been made
prisoner, was found dead the next morning.
He was lying on his bed, fully dressed, and
the cause of his death was mortification at
having allowed himself to be so grossly
deceived, coupled with the dread of appear-
ing before the Emperor, who was very
irritated by the difficulties he was encounter-
ing at Metz. Vieilleville was much disap-
pointed when he heard of his death, as he
had intended making a present of him to
St. Andre.

M. de Severs, after hearing of the success
which had attended the enterprise, arrived in
haste, and heartily congratulated Vieilleville
upon it, while he took from round his neck
the collar of St. Michael, and vowed that he

54 A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME.

would not dine with Vieilleville unless the
latter wore it during the meal.

The next day, the scouring of the country
was resumed, and the Due de Nevers insisted
upon Vieilleville taking the command. After
going some distance, they captured, almost
without resistance, a convoy of provisions
near the river Seille, about two leagues from
the Emperor's camp, which were being taken
in there. As this capture was made on the
22nd of December, the weather being bitterly
cold and night falling rapidly, it was a very
welcome one ; so they took up their quarters
in the village of Corney, the inhabitants of
which had fled, and there they lighted their
fires and passed a merry evening, taking care
to keep a strong guard against anything like
a surprise.

At eight the next morning they resumed
their march, and after going two leagues, they
captured another convoy, which the Duchess
of Lorraine was sending to her uncle, the
Emperor. This consisted of six carts, loaded
with wines and choice provisions, including
twelve Ehine salmon, half of which were in

A GENTLEMAN OP THE OLDEN TIME. 55

pasties. The men in charge of the convoy,
seeing the red flags which Yieilleville had
ordered his troops to display, took them
for an escort sent to meet them, and
advanced without any suspicion. They were
soon undeceived, and Yieilleville' s body of
men were soon regaling themselves with the
salmon and choice wines. While they were
doing so, one of the prisoners, named Yig-
nancourt, asked whether they were not
Yieilleville' s troops.

" Why do you ask that ? " said Yieilleville,
without disclosing his identity.

" Because," replied the prisoner, " the
Emperor is furious with him for the ruse he
employed in capturing Pont-a-Mousson. I
was at his levee yesterday, and I heard him
swear that if ever he caught him he would
have him impaled. He called him that
' traitor and fox, Yieilleville,' and also accused
him of having had Don Alfonso cruelly put
to death."

Yieilleville then said who he was, and
declared that Don Alfonso had died in his
bed, and that he was ready to break a lance

56 A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME.

with any Spanish prince who maintained the
contrary.

The force was then preparing to return
to Corney, when two spies, one of them the
mayor of Villesaleron, arrived, one after the
other, to inform Yieilleville that the Emperor
had placed a large body of troops in conceal-
ment, in order to surprise them at Corney,
the Prince of Infantado being at the head of
them, and having promised to bring in Vieille-
ville, dead or alive, so that he might be im-
paled. The prisoner Vignancourt exclaimed
at this that he did not wonder at Vieilleville's
successes, seeing how well served he was by
his spies. Only yesterday he had seen the
man they called Habert in the Emperor's
chamber, saying he came from Colonel
Scharlet, and the other selling wine and
bread in the camp of the Marquis of Bran-
deburg.

Vieilleville laughed very much at this, as
did several of the others who heard the
remark, and the expedition then returned
to Pont-a-Mousson, capturing a third convoy
on the way.

A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME. 57

The next day was Christmas, and as
Yieilleville came out from mass the mayor
of Villesaleron met him with the following
story of the mishap which had befallen the
Imperial troops. He said :

"Last evening my brother and myself
went up, with four of our neighbours, to the
top of the steeple, where, after we had been
watching for three hours we saw a troop of
men in the plain, the moon being very bright,
advancing at a rapid pace towards the village.
We at once came down, and having saddled
my horse I rode off in the direction which
they were taking. When they saw me, they
called out to me in French to stop, which
I did, whereupon they asked me where I
was going and what I was doing out at
that hour of the night. I said that I was
the mayor of Villesaleron, two leagues the
other side of the river, that I had been to
see my father who was ill at Corney, and
that I was returning at night for fear of
having my horse stolen by some soldiers.
They then asked me how it was that the
French, who were in the village, had not

58 A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME.

taken it. I said there was not any one in
the village, to which they replied that I
was making sport of them, as they knew
that there were seven hundred in the place
under the command of one Yieuxville. I
said that I had never heard of such a person,
but that I knew only too well a , certain
Vieilleville, as the accursed fellow had burnt
down my barn when he defeated Mondragon
at Malatour. They said they belonged to
M. de Brabancon's force, and that they were
on the look out for Vieilleville to hang him.
I informed them that they were too late,
as he and M. de Nevers had left at three
that afternoon with all their forces for
Toul, and that they had evidently received a
warning of danger as they had gone off in
great haste. After this there was an out-
burst of such blasphemy as never I heard.
They thought I was humbugging them, and
they sent a trumpeter and two other men
to verify my statement, with orders to run
me through the body if it turned out to be
false. When we returned there was a fresh
outbreak of blasphemy, and I heard such

A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME. 59

remarks as these exchanged : ' Ah ! Prince
de 1'Infantado, you have lost your twenty
thousand crowns, for you will not be able to
deliver Vieilleville over to the Emperor ! '
'How unlucky to have missed capturing
M. de Nevers. His ransom would have been
worth at least fifty thousand crowns 1 '
'A plague upon those who suggested this
expedition 1 ' 'The best thing we can do is
to turn round and go back again ! ' " *

At Pont-a-Mousson the Christmas holidays
were spent in rejoicing and good cheer, for
everyone had received a share of the spoils
and the ransom. Horses were to be had for
the asking, clothes cost next to nothing, and
there was a wonderful abundance of pro-
visions. This easy life and the amusements
in which the army indulged, after so many

* These warlike incidents are so characteristic of the
epoch that I have thought it worth while to quote them. It
is true that they all tend to glorify Vieilleville, and are only
to be found in his memoirs, but they bear the imprint of
truth, and it was the custom of the authors of memoirs to
confine their eulogies to the subject of their biography.
Thus, Rabutin, who was through the same campaign, makes
M. de Nevers the central figure, while Tavannes and Mont-
luc speak only of themselves.

60 A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME.

combats and hardships, brought about a
great relaxation in discipline. There was a
great laxity of morals, and gambling, which,
though nominally forbidden, was always
winked at, assumed very formidable propor-
tions ; the furore for the games of "la chance
a trois des " and raffling being very great.
"When money ran short the players gambled for
anything they could stake, especially horses,
and when these were lost they played for
their furniture, jewellery, clothes, and other
necessaries, even prisoners being staked in
the hope of getting money for their ransom.

Vieilleville, finding to what a pitch this
gambling had attained, got very angry, and
put a stop to it, declaring that it was " con-
verting the Christians into Turks." He set
at liberty the prisoners who had been staked
at play, and he dismissed from his circle
the most hardened of the gamblers, threaten-
ing them with the lash if they did not mend
their ways. This severity soon restored
discipline.*

* " Vieilleville," vol. xrx., pages 98—206.

CHAPTER III.

THE SIEGE OF METZ.*— THE DUG DE GUISE.
— AMBROISE PARE. — THE EMPEROR OF
GERMANY.

N the beginning of August, the Due
de Guise left the Court for Metz.
Passing close to Toul, where " the
plague was then raging," he entered the
town, regardless of the risk, in order to see
how the repair of the walls, then in progress,
was getting on. Thence he went to Metz,
and on the day following his arrival, the 18th,
he began to prepare for the siege.

The work of defending the city was an

* The main incidents relating to this siege are taken
from Bertrand Salignac, who entered Metz in the suite of
M. de Goutant-Biron, an eye-witness of all that occurred.
His relation is considered to be the most accurate. The first
edition was published by Estienne, Paris, 1553, in quarto ;
the second at Brussels, by Collignon, in 1665, also in quarto.

62 A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME.

arduous one, for the circumference of the
town was between nine thousand and ten
thousand paces, and there was not a single
yard of rampart behind the wall, nor any
space to erect one, for the whole of the
ground was covered with houses, churches,
and other buildings. The only platform was
that of St. Marie, and the sole boulevard was
that of the Porte de Champagne, which was
circular, and of very ancient construction.
The ditches of the town were also very
defective, and it was easy of attack, being
commanded by the neighbouring moun-
tains. Peter Strozzi, who was very expert
in ah1 relating to siege affairs, arrived a few
days after M. de Guise. He made a careful
inspection of the , place, and after taking
account of its defects and weaknesses, he
began to make sketches of platforms, ram-
parts, trenches, flanking towers and other
defensive works deemed necessary. The
difficulty was to get hold of a sufficient
number of workmen, owing to the approach-
ing vintage, which took away so many
labourers and peasants.

A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME. 63

However, orders were given to commence
without delay the most urgent works, such
as the raising of the entrenchments facing
the Bellecroix mountain, which would doubt-
less be the point from which the enemy
would open the attack.

The ground near the Porte des Alle-
mands, which was also considered to be a
dangerous point, was also strengthened, and
in order to set a good example, M. de Guise
himself, together with several of the nobles in
his suite, set to work for several hours each
day, showing that a commander should be
able to " give personal proof of hard labour
and fatigue, as well as of a vigilant mind."

As corn was scarce, and as wheat was
generally threshed late, the mayors of the
different villages received orders to expedite
the work. Moreover, as corn was paid for at
a reasonable rate, there was soon a good
supply of it, and it was the same with oats,
hay, straw, arid other cereals. Cattle were
brought into the town by the peasants for
safety, and without any compulsion being
used, so there was no lack of them. M. de

64 A GENTLEMAN OP THE OLDEN TIME.

Guise also had an inventory taken of the
ammunition available, and finding that it was
running short, he ordered the gentlemen of
his household to see that this deficiency was
made good, so that, by the time appointed,
there was no lack of earthen and woollen
sacks, beams, barrels, gabions, arms, etc.

The troops had lost no time in demolish-
ing the buildings abutting upon the walls, so
as to have plenty of space to draw up the
troops, erect ramparts, and sink trenches,
In the same way, a clean sweep was made of
the houses outside the walls, and it was won-
derful to see how tractable the people of Metz
were in submitting to this serious damage to
their houses. So full of tact was M. de
Guise in his conduct of these operations, that
no one grumbled, and many of the people
lent a hand to the demolition of their own
houses, " regarding it as being for the public
good, and for their own security." And yet
the time was so short, and the work had to
be done in such a hurry, that over two
hundred persons were buried beneath the
ruins.

A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME. 65

M. de Guise was so anxious to spare the
churches, both internally and externally, that
he had the pillars which supported the arches
cut through, and propped up with wood, so
that they might be demolished in a day or
two if absolutely necessary.

St. Arnoul alone, being situated upon an
eminence outside the town, and having a
wide arch which might have been used by
the enemy as a formidable cavalier * for the
Porte Champenoise quarter of the town, was
immediately demolished. At the same time,
M. de Guise did his best for the Abbot and
the clergy who were given accommodation in
other churches, where the church ornaments
and plate were also deposited. He also had
transferred, with much solemnity, the bodies
and relics of the saints interred there,
and also the coffins of Hildegarde, the wife
of Charlemagne, of Louis-the-Mild, of the
sisters of these sovereigns, and of other
great personages. He himself accompanied

* A technical term used in fortifications to denote an
earthen mound, the summit of which makes a platform upon
which a battery of guns is placed.

VOL. ii. 25

66 A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME.

the procession, bare-headed, and with a torch
in his hand, together with the other princes
and nobles, from the Church and Abbey of
St. Arnoul to that of the Dominican Friars.

M. de Guise also saw to the drilling of
twelve bodies of newly-recruited infantry, and
he issued orders with regard to the soldiers'
food, so as to avoid any disputes, and to pro-
tect the inhabitants. Knowing how prone
the French nobles were to make for any
point where there was a chance of fighting — a
very risky habit when in a besieged place — he
ordered all the volunteers who were serving
under him, whether gentle or simple, not to
take any step of their own, but to choose as
their leader one of the captains of horse
or foot, to lodge in his quarters, and to
follow him wherever he led them, just as
if they were in receipt of pay, and had
taken the oath of fidelity to the King under
him.

M. de Guise then allotted the different
sections of the walls to the various princes
and captains, and he also laid down instruc-
tions as to the companies which were to turn

A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME. 67

out at the first call, and to keep watch over
the gates.

About the 20th of September, M. de
Guise sent Pietro Strozzi a second time to
the King, asking him for reinforcements, as
he did not consider that the forces he had at
Metz were sufficient, to which the King said
they should be sent on to him from St.
Mihiel, where the Constable was drilling the
army; but whether from negligence, or, as
was said, from the Constable's jealousy, M.
de Guise got no more troops.

Finding by the month of October that no
attack had been made, M. de Guise was
beginning to doubt whether the Emperor
would expose his army to the risks of the
winter, when he heard that it had passed
Deux-Ponts, and was getting close to the
Moselle, being swollen each day by arrivals
from Germany and the Low Countries. M.
de Guise then sent out to reconnoitre.*

The fog was too thick for much to be

* E/abutin says that the Duke of Alva and the Marquis
de Marignan strongly advised the Emperor to put off the
siege of Metz until the following spring. We also know by

68 A GENTLEMAN OP THE OLDEN TIME.

seen at a distance, but the enemy's approach
was announced by a few disbanded soldiers
whom the French succeeded in capturing,
and two days later the Duke of Alva and the
Marquis de Marignan advanced to recon-
noitre the town. The Seigneur de la Brosse,
who was keeping watch from a lofty tower, saw
them about nine in the morning, and at once
informed the Due de Guise, who sent a few
companies to try conclusions with them ; but
finding them to be in great force and ready
to charge within thirty paces of the draw-
bridge, the French sharpshooters thought it
prudent to re-enter the town under cover of
the walls, which they were able to do with-
out loss of life. The Duke of Alva and the
Marquis de Marignan then ascended the
heights of Belle-Croix, whence they were
able to get a better view of the town and
select the most favourable spots for the
encampment and the attack.

Soon after this several Spaniards tried to

the Emperor's letter to Ferdinand (October 15, 1552), that
he did not feel much confidence in this expedition. — " Lanz,''
voL iii., page 518.

A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME. 69

sound two fords of the river and obtain
possession of an island, but M. de Guise sent
over to it a part of the company under the
command of M. de la Roche-sur-Yon, who,
after a sharp skirmish, prevented them. The
struggle was a severe one, and the enemy
at once saw that our troops were not to be
trifled with.

The next day the Senor Don Luis
d'Arvilla, General of the Spanish cavalry,
wrote to M. de Guise to ask for the surrender
of a slave who had given himself up to us,
and who, he said, had stolen his master's horse
and money. M. de Guise replied that the
slave had gone further inland into French
territory, and that as the French custom was
to grant their liberty to all persons entering
the country, he could not in any case have
done as requested.

At about midnight of that same day there
arrived in haste the two brothers of M.
de Vendorae, MM. d'Enghien and de Conde,
with MM. de Montmorency and de Damville,
the sons of the Constable, and they proved a
very welcome addition to the forces.

70 A GENTLEMAN OP THE OLDEN TIME.

A few days after this a body of Spaniards
and Italians having come down rather close
to the Porte Saint-Barbe, exclaiming
" Escale ! Escale ! " the alarm was sounded
from the steeple, and there was great up-
roar in the town. M. de Guise, much vexed,
ordered that henceforth the bell should only
be rung for the curfew, and that the alarm
should only be given upon drums in the
quarter where it arose.

The enemy was encamped first at the
Pont de Magny, and afterwards at St.
Clement, no delay occurring in their throw-
ing up earthworks. They formed a cavalier,
or earthwork, to accommodate seven guns,
to the right of the hill of St. Arnoul, and
another, for six guns, to the left, with a
trench verging upon the St. Thibaut gate.
Seeing that they were concentrating their
efforts in this direction, our troops raised a
fresh rampart there.

Upon November 9th, at eight in the
evening, the weather being very clear, they
were distinctly seen to be bringing up their
trenches quite close to the parapets and walls.

A GENTLEMAN OP THE OLDEN TIME. 71

The French soldiers often went out at night
to attack them, and they replied, but there
was very little harm done on either side.

One of the most curious episodes of the
siege was, the introduction of Ambroise Pare
into the city to tend the wounded. The
early life of this distinguished surgeon is
hidden in obscurity. All we know of him is
that, born at Rouen in 1517, his father was a
trunk-maker, and that he lived at Angers in
1525, his brother being a surgeon at Vitre.
When only fifteen years of age, he came to
Paris, and probably entered as an apprentice
to some surgeon-barber.*

The barbers and doctors originally formed
two quite distinct corporations. It was only
in the thirteenth century that they united,
the doctors finding it convenient to make
over to the barbers the task of blood-letting.
But the barbers then bled the.ir patients with
such a vengeance that in the next century the

* " CEuvres Completes d' Ambroise Pare"," published by
Malgaigne-Bailliere, 1840. See the Introduction, in which
the author quite disposes of the legendary stories about the
youth of Pare, page 227.

72 A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME.

two corporations were at loggerheads again.
There was great rivalry between them, each
appealing either to the Provost, or to the
University, or to Parliament, for the supre-
macy. This rivalry still existed in the
sixteenth century, and as a matter of fact, the
public support was divided pretty equally
between the two. Ambroise Pare, as an
apprentice, had to shave and brush hair,
make lance&, and assist his master in dress-
ing wounds. A popular publication gives
the following graphic sketch of the life led
by a barber's apprentice : —

" By cockcrow, the young man must be
astir to sweep out and open the shop, so as
not to lose the small gratuity which some
workman, on his way to business, may give
him for shaving him. From that time till
two in the afternoon, he has to visit some
fifty customers, and comb out their wigs,
wait in the ante-room or upon the staircase
till they are ready, put the hair of some in
curl-papers, singe that of others, and shave
them all. Towards evening, if he is of a
studious turn, he will take up a book. But

A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME. 73

fatigue and the weariness which study always
causes those who are not accustomed to it,
soon bury him in deep sleep, from which he
is often aroused by a pull at the bell, which
tells him that some peasant is waiting to be
shaved. . . . No negro is made to do
more for his meagre pittance than a barber's
apprentice. Their masters will not even
allow them to go out and attend the public
lessons of an afternoon for fear of losing a
single client who may want to be shaved.
This is why the doctors were moved to give
these young men lessons in surgery at four
o'clock in the morning."*

A life of this kind could not suit the
ingenious mind and studious tastes of
young Ambroise, who appears to have
soon left the barber to enter the Hotel-
Dieu.

This hospital, founded in the seventh
century by St. Landry, Bishop of Paris, was
still managed in the sixteenth by a double

0 "Le Chirurgien-Medecin," Paris, 1796.—" (Euvres d' Am-
broise Pare," Introduction, page 230.

74 A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME.

community of men and women attached to
the chapter of Notre Dame. The dressers,
which it had at first received as surgeons'
apprentices, had been gradually transformed,
as circumstances required, into resident
students, and Ambroise, who entered the
hospital as one, was at the end of three
years received as master barber and surgeon.
When he left the Hotel-Dieu, at the age of
nineteen, the Imperial forces were then in-
vading Provence, and our army was march-
ing against them. Marshal de Montejan, who
was General-in-Chief of the French army,
attached him to his staff as surgeon,
which was a great thing for so young a
man.

Without entering into details as to the
career of Ambroise Pare, who soon became
celebrated, it may be mentioned that in 1545
he assisted at the siege of Boulogne, where
the Due de Guise received the thrust from a
lance which earned for him the title of
Le Balafre (the scarred one). It is said
that he himself drew the splint of the
lance out of his cheek without damaging

A GENTLEMAN OP THE OLDEN TIME. 75

his eye, which was in itself a clever bit of
surgery.*

In the expedition of 1552, he accom-
panied M. de Rohan to Germany, and so dis-
tinguished himself by his cures, that M. de
Vendome afterwards took him with him into
Picardy. The expedition was confined to a
few skirmishes, but the Prince took a great
fancy to the young surgeon, and spoke so
highly of him to the King that the latter sent
for him, and attached him to his person as
surgeon, with the promise of promotion.

Pare has left us the following account of
how he reached Metz : — " M. de Guise and the
Princes asked the King to send me to them
with drugs, believing, from the number of
wounded who died that their men were poi-
soned ; though I think the only poison was
the severity of the wounds and the biting
cold . . . The King wrote to Marshal St.

* This fact is related in detail in the " Yie de Gaspard de
Coligny," published at Cologne in 1636, page 63. Pare, in
speaking of his visit to the camp during the siege, refers to
this operation without specifically saying that he carried it
out ; though this is to be inferred from his narrative. —
" (Euvres de Pare," vol. iii., page 696.

76 A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME.

Andre, his lieutenant at Verdun, asking him
to find means of getting me into Metz.
"Whereupon the Marshal and M. de Vieille-
ville bribed an Italian captain, who undertook
to do it for fifteen hundred crowns. The
King then sent for me, and bade me take
from his apothecary whatever drugs I might
deem necessary, which I did without losing
an hour. On reaching Yerdun, a few days
afterwards, Marshal St. Andre provided me
with horses for myself and my man, as well
as for the Italian captain, who spoke Ger-
man, Spanish, and "Walloon as well as he
did his own language. When we got to
within eight or ten leagues of Metz we tra-
velled only at night ; and upon approaching
the camp I saw so many fires alight that
one might have fancied the whole earth was
ablaze. It seemed to me that we could
never get through without being seen ; and
if we were caught we should either be put
to death or held to ransom for a large sum.
I confess to having felt that I should gladly
be in Paris ; but Providence so protected us
that we entered the city at midnight by

A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME. 77

means of a certain signal which the Italian
had arranged with a captain in the company
of M. de Guise, whom I went to see in his
bed, and who received me with great satis-
faction at my arrival. He ordered me to be
well lodged and cared for, and told me that
upon the following day I should have to go
out into the breach with the Princes and
nobles and several of the captains, who re-
ceived me with great joy, and did me the
honour of embracing me, and of saying that
they were now no longer afraid of dying,
should they receive a wound.

" The Prince de la Roche-sur-Yon was the
first to greet me, and he asked me what was
said at Court about the city of Metz. After
having told him what I knew, he asked me
to go and see one of his followers who had
had his leg fractured by the bursting of a
cannon. I found him in bed, with his leg
all bent up, and with no apparatus on it,
some one having persuaded him that he
could cure him by saying some fancy words
and putting his name upon his belt. The
unfortunate gentleman had not had any sleep

78 A GENTLEMAN OP TEE OLDEN TIME.

for four days ; and I was able to arrange his
leg so proinptly and dexterously, that he was
free from pain, and slept the whole night.
He was soon cured, and is now in the King's
service. His master sent me a hogshead of
wine larger than a pipe of Anjou, and told
me that when it was all gone I should have
some more. Each one vied in kind treat-
ment of me."

The Seigneur de Piennes was trepanned ;
and Pare, describing this operation, said :
" I tended him, and God cured him." Speak-
ing of the ramparts, he says : " The work
upon them was carried on day and night,
and the highest nobles and princes shoul-
dered the pickaxe and carried away the
earth, by way of setting a good example.
Even the ladies lent a hand, and those who
had no baskets brought bags, cauldrons, and
any kind of utensil which would hold the
earth; so that, no sooner had the enemy
demolished a wall than he was confronted
by a rampart still stronger. Our soldiers
called out to the enemy, ' Fox ! fox ! ' and
addressed all kinds of insults to them. They

A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME. 79

impaled live cats upon the ends of their
pikes, and nourished these over the walls,
imitating the plaintive mew of the poor
animals, which the enemy, roused to fury,
fired at, of course. Our troops made fre-
quent sorties ; and it was deemed a great
favour among the young nobles to be allowed
to take part in them. The force also con-
sisted of about a hundred or a hundred and
twenty men, well armed with arquebuses,
pistols, pikes, halberts, etc. The engage-
ments which followed upon these sorties
were always very severe, and many of our
men came back wounded. If any horse was
wounded, he was killed and eaten by the
soldiers, who were short of beef and pork.
I had a great deal to do in looking after the
wounded."

An unfortunate incident in connection
with the siege was the desertion of the
Marquis Albert of Brandeburg. The Mar-
quis was a regular brigand chief, like the
ancient Italian condottiere, making war for
the purposes of pillage. As he had refused
to combine with the Princes at the Treaty

80 A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME.

of Passau, Henri had engaged his services,
thinking to make him useful against the
Emperor. But the Marquis, though he re-
ceived much money, would not act, and,
encamped with his troops between the Im-
perial army and the town of Metz, he did
not declare himself for either side. While
constantly applying to M. de Guise for pro-
visions, and sending his sick to be treated in
the Metz hospitals, he was negociating with
Charles V., and, having come to an agree-
ment with him, he made a sudden attack on
the Comte d'Aumale, who was operating in
the open country at the head of a detach-
ment, killed more than one hundred and fifty
of his men, and sent him a prisoner into
Germany.*

Upon the 28th of November the enemy
made a breach at the Tour d'Enfer, which
was the weak point of the wall, close to a
chimney. About noon a small breach was
effected, and two hours later all this part
of the fortification fell in. The enemy uttered

* The Comte d'Aumale only recovered his liberty on
payment of sixty thousand gold crowns.

A GENTLEMAN OP THE OLDEN TIME. 81

a shout of joy, thinking that they had
overcome the real obstacle, but when the
dust had cleared away they found themselves
face to face with the rampart, eight feet
above the breach, so they soon laughed the
wrong side of their faces.

One of our soldiers named Montilly
then went, out of bravado, down into the
breach, just to show the enemy how little the
French troops cared whether they mounted
it or not. The enemy gradually advanced,
however, close to the walls, and as all the
prisoners declared that the Emperor had
made up his mind to capture it at any
cost, M. de Guise, fearing that the siege
would drag on, issued fresh orders as to the
distribution of provisions. He ordered a
house-to-house examination to be made, and
decided that the provisions found in them
should be measured out as carefully as if they
belonged to the army. He also had the
wine placed in two or three cellars, with
orders for the captain on duty to distribute
two pints a day to each soldier, and made
similar arrangements as to the rations

VOL. ii. 26

82 A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME.

of bread and forage. In order to reduce
the population as much as possible, he
ordered the gendarmerie to get rid of all
the unnecessary train and baggage service,
keeping only two serving men and two horses
for each man-at-arms. All the other inefiec-
tives were treated in the same way. He
also pointed out to the inhabitants that it
would be useless for them to undergo the
dangers of what would perhaps be a very
long siege, and that they would do well to
retire to some town of France or Luxemburg,
taking with them their gold, silver, jewellery,
linen, and most valuable furniture. The rest,
placed under the care of commissaries of
supply, would be kept and given back to
them intact after the siege. Upon this a
great many of the inhabitants withdrew, but
as the number remaining was still too large he
enrolled the able-bodied men, the armourers,
blacksmiths, barbers, surgeons, priests and
monks, and ordered the others to evacuate
the town the next day. Then, in order to
prevent an epidemic breaking out owing to
the impurity of the air, he ordered the

A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME. 83

Provost to have the town well cleansed and
the streets kept well scavenged. Two
hospitals also were placed in order, one for
the soldiers and the other for the pioneers.

M. de Guise also took precautions against
a waste of ammunition, and as the supply of
powder was running short he had some more
made, and in order to be able to pay the
soldiers he had some money coined in the
King's name and increased its nominal
value, undertaking to redeem it later at the
same rate.

Upon the 6th of December it was seen
that a large number of ladders had been
brought in to the Emperor's camp, and early
on the morning of the 7th the drums
sounded, while about eight o'clock two large
bodies of infantry approached the trenches
in the direction of St. Arnoul.

Although M. de Guise did not think that
there was much danger, owing to the
strength of the rampart, he had the troops
distributed along the walls, guarding the
trenches, flanking towers and other points
of vantage. Their numbers were but small,

84 A GENTLEMAN OP THE OLDEN TIME.

considering the extent of the fortress, but
they were all full of valour and resolution,
from M. de Guise and the Princes in his
suite downwards. He was never at a lack,
moreover, for one of those lofty utterances
which often determine the issue of a combat.*
This alert did not lead to anything, as
the Imperial troops, it is said, were in such a
state of destitution that they refused to make
the assault. The heavy rain had soaked into
the heavy clay land of Montferrat to such an
extent that the platforms of the artillery sunk
in everywhere. The huts occupied by the
soldiers were inundated, and it was almost
impossible to bring up a sufficient quantity
of provisions. Several epidemics broke out,
and the sight of so many dead and dying had
a most depressing effect upon the army.
The Emperor was confined to his litter, and

* M. de Thou puts a very eloquent speech into the
mouth of the Due de Guise, but Salignac's narrative seems
to me the most natural, and Channatz does not allude to
this speech in his " Ephemerides." Ronsard makes the Due
de Guise harangue his troops in verse. — " CEuvres Completes,"
edition of 1623, in folio, vol. ii., page 291.

A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME. 85

he is said to have exclaimed : " Fortune is
like a woman, and prefers a young King to
an aged Emperor."*

Upon -the 16th, the enemy overthrew the
Tour des Charpentiers ; and on the 22nd,
after a plunging fire upon the Tour d'Enfer,
did it considerable damage. As in the course
of the night the subterranean works were
evidently advancing very rapidly, M. de
Guise, at great personal risk, went down into
the counter-mine, where the enemy could be
distinctly heard at work. He discovered,
too, that the arches supporting the grand
boulevard were sinking, and he had them
propped up with heavy beams until a more
permanent repair could be effected. A suc-
cessful sortie was made on the 23rd, and
upon Christmas night, the guard at the
breaches in the wall was reinforced, so that
the men-at-arrss might get a little rest at this
solemn season, M. de Guise being very par-
ticular about religious matters. After the

0 " Histoire de Metz," by the Benedictines of the Con-
gregation of St. Vanne. Collignon, Metz, 1775.—" De Thou,"
book ii. ; " Malthieu," book ii, page 94.

86 A GENTLEMAN OP THE OLDEN TIME.

midnight service, he paid a visit to all the
meii on guard, and on Christmas Day itself,
the religious ceremonies were duly observed,
only a few shots being exchanged.

On the following day, the sixty-fifth since
the arrival of the enemy, and the forty-fifth
of the siege, though the walls were de-
molished, the ramparts behind them were
intact, and the number of the garrison had
undergone very little diminution. They
showed as bold a front, moreover, as at the
beginning of the siege, while the Imperial
forces were in such a direful state of confu-
sion that they commenced their retreat, as
it really was, though cloaked by various
devices.

First of all, several pieces of artillery
were sent across the Moselle, and the Mar-
quis Albert had them placed near his regi-
ments in the plain, as if to have a better
command of the bridges in the possession
of the French. Not understanding this
manoeuvre, the Due de Guise sent out some
troops to reconnoitre, but the Marquis Albert
succeeded in repulsing them by means of his

A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME. 87

artillery, but without leaving Iris camp. The
next day, the ensign of M. de Guise, having
occasion to go in the direction of St. Pierre des
Champs, where the Italians were quartered,
found the place deserted, and St. Estephe,
upon going to the trenches near the Porte
St. Thibaut, saw that the ground beyond was
occupied only by a few Germans, who threw
down their arms and fled at his approach.
This seemed to show that the enemy was
raising the siege, and confirmation of this was
brought in the next day by a lad of ten, who
had been among the enemy. It is true that
a sortie made the next day was repulsed, but
the retreat continued, and MM. de la Roche-
foucauld and de Rendan, while scouring the
country in the direction of Thionville, saw a
part of the camp marching away, among the
departing forces being a number of wounded
Spaniards, who were being removed on
waggons. While on this expedition they
captured a page, a valet, and a lackey be-
longing to the Duke. of Alva, whom M. de
Guise courteously sent back to him.

On the 1st of January, the Emperor left

83 A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME.

ike Chateau de la Horgne for Thionville, and
on this same day, a troop of French cavalry
attacked the Spaniards who were escorting
him near the St. Martin Bridge. One of the
Spaniards having called out to the French
arquebusiers and asked what they wanted,
and having been informed that they wanted
to break a lance, the Spaniard said that they
were not in a condition to join in the fray,
and only asked to be allowed to retreat in
peace. After the Emperor's departure, the
two camps were raised on the 2nd January
at about eleven p.m.

" So it was," writes Pare, " that the
worthy Imperial troops withdrew from Metz,
to the great contentment of the besieged, and
much to the credit of the Princes, nobles,
captains, and soldiers who had withstood the
fatigues of a two months' siege. Not that
all who had come to the siege returned home,
for upwards of twenty thousand had perished
in combat, or from disease, cold, and hunger.
The Due de Guise had the dead buried and the
sick cared for, sending plenty of provisions
to all of them, and bidding me go with other

A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME. 89

surgeons to tend the wounded and prescribe
for them ; which I did with the best will in
the world. A few days after this, he sent a
messenger to Thionville, requesting the
enemy to fetch their wounded, and as they
had not a sufficient number of carts, he lent
them some of his own.

" After the camp had been broken up, I
distributed my wounded among the surgeons
of the city to complete their cure, and,
taking leave of M. de Guise, I returned to
the King, who received me with the utmost
cordiality."

Vieilleville, after the successful raids de-
scribed in a previous chapter, had remained
at Pont-a-Mousson, watching the course of
events, when, on New Year's Day, three
soldiers, who said they were Italians from
Naples, presented themselves at the' gates
and asked to be admitted. They were very
exhausted, and looked half-starved. Vieille-
ville being informed of their presence, came
out to question them as to where they came
from, and they told him that they were from
the camp of the Emperor, who was raising

90 A GENTLEMAN OP THE OLDEN TIME.

the siege and starting for Thionville. They
also asked to be enrolled in the French
service.

Vieilleville could not believe that the
siege of Metz was raised, but they assured
him that they were speaking the truth, and
that the Emperor, who had an escort of
fifteen hundred horsemen, would be followed
the next day by the Dukes of Alva and Bra-
bancon ; and that on Tuesday the Marquis
Albert would leave, he remaining to the last,
in order to protect the retreat of the army
across the Moselle. They added that it
would be necessary to leave the tents and
pavilions of the Duke of Aiva, together with
the artillery train and the wounded, behind,
and that the Emperor had declared that he
would rather have died than have witnessed
such a scene of desolation as the cam]
presented.

Vieilleville did cot doubt the truth of
what they had told him ; and, turning round
to M. de Nevers, he said to him, in allusion
to the name of Metz, which was known as the
" Maiden Fortress," " I always thought the

A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME. 91

Emperor was too old and gouty to carry off
so handsome a young girl.*

Vieilleville handed over the Italian soldiers
to the Sieur Leroux, and in recognition of
the good news brought in by them, they were
invited to sup at the Prince's table. About
six the next morning, a gentleman named
Courteville arrived, on his way to convey to
the King the news of the Emperor's retreat.
He said that the Due de Guise might have
marched out of the town the day before, but
in view of a possible surprise, he preferred
to await the departure of the Dukes of Alva
and Braban^on, who, upon starting the same
morning, had destroyed the Pont-a-Moulin
behind them, to prevent pursuit. The Em-
peror had lost at least thirty thousand men,
and he was out of heart for any undertaking
of consequence for some time. Courteville
then resumed his journey, and would not
even stop to dine.

M. de Nevers was very impatient to see

c M. de Vieilleville's own expression was too strong to be
quoted verbatim.— Vol. xxx., p. 209.

92 A GENTLEMAN OP THE OLDEN TIME.

the Due de Guise at once, and wanted to
start for Metz without delay, but Vieilleville
advised him to wait until the Duke had had
time to look about him a little, and they did
not leave until Thursday.

M. de Guise, who was expecting them,
sent a body of nobles to meet them, and
when they entered the city they numbered
seven hundred in all. There was a joyous
meeting, and the Due de Guise threw him-
self into the arms of Vieilleville, and said to
him, with a laugh : —

"Am I to impale or embrace the Em-
peror's lion-fox ? "

Affairs were set in order during the next
few days, and there was an immense quantity
of horses, ammunition, and provisions to dis-
pose of. The only dark side to the picture
was the horrible aspect of the camp, for the
dead and the dying, horses as well as men,
were lying about in all directions. The
whole encampment resembled one vast
cemetery.

" We found," says Vieilleville, " whole
bodies of troops lying at death's door — some

A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME. 93

prone in the mud, others seated on large
stones with their' feet up to the knees in so
deplorable a condition that they entreated us
to put an end to their misery."

Then there were the tents, the arms, and
other articles of camp furniture all left in
disorder, the whole scene being such a ter-
rible one as to excite the commiseration even
of the enemy. M. de Guise and his followers
showed the greatest kindness to the wounded,
and their example was followed by the inhabi-
tants of Metz, subscriptions being raised to
inter the dead and relieve the sick and
wounded, most of the latter having a limb
amputated.

All the debris of the camp, including bed-
steads, rusty swords, helmets, and pikes,
were distributed among the camp followers,
while the large quantity of arms in good
condition were divided among the soldiers.

On Sunday, the 15th, a grand thanks-
giving service was held, and on the following
day a proclamation was issued, authorising
the inhabitants to return, and reviving the
police regulations, which had been suspended

94 A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME.

during the siege. The Due de Guise also
ordered the breaches in the walls to be
repaired, and the fortifications put into good
order. Having paid off the troops, he held
a general review, and on the 24th made over
the city to M. de Gonnor, the Governor, and
returned to the Court, the King ordering a
handsome medal to be struck in commemora-
tion of his valiant defence.*

Vieilleville had already started for Ver-
dun, where he spent two days with St.
Andre, and thence proceeded to Duretal for
the remainder of the winter.

0 "Vieilleville," vol. xxx., pages 206—244. Bertrand
de Salignac's " Siege de Metz," vol. xxxix., pages 379 — 442,
and vol. xl., pages 1 — 178. " Briefs discours du Siege de
Metz en Lorraine, re"diges par escript de jour en jour par un
soldat, a la requete d'un sien amy," first published at Lyons
in Italian, 1553. — "Archives curieuses de 1'Histoire de
France," year 1835, vol. iii., page 119. — " Paradin," pages
190— 233.— Letter from M. de Selves to Henri II., dated
from Venice, describing the impression caused in Italy by
raising the siege.—" Negociations avec le Levant," vol. ii.,
page 59. — " Histoire des Be"ne"dicfins," vol. iii., page 53.

CHAPTER IV.

YIEILLEVILLE APPOINTED GOVERNOR OF
METZ.— HIS WIFE GOES TO JOIN HIM
THERE. — DISCIPLINE RE-ESTABLISHED
WITHIN THE CITY.

HE circumstances amid which
Vieilleville had refused the
governorship of Metz the year
before had entirely changed.. At the outset
the King, allied with the German Princes,
had taken possession of the three bishoprics
as the lieutenant of the Holy Empire. Since
then, as the Princes in question had not
included him in the peace which was signed,
he acted quite independently of them, and
kept the bishoprics upon the ground that they
formed part of France under the kings of
the first two dynasties. Vieilleville therefore

90 A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME.

could no longer object to being Governor of
Metz under the King, and lie had doubtless
gone into the matter with the Dues de Guise
and Nevers, for immediately after the siege
was over they applied to the King to appoint
him, dwelling in very eulogistic terms upon
his fitness.* They were all the more anxious
that he should have the appointment because
they wanted to get rid of M. de Gonnor,
who was a protege and relative of the Con-
stable, with whom M. de Guise was just then
upon very bad terms, f The King, who liked
Vieilleville, readily granted the request, but
Montmorency at once offered the most violent
opposition to this. He said that it would be
most unjust to recall Gonnor after undergoing
the hardships and fatigues of the siege, and
that Vieilleville must be rewarded in some

* " Vieilleville," vol. xxx., page 245.

f The Due d'Aumale, Guise's brother, who commanded
the cavalry in Piedmont under Brissac, had absented him-
self ; and Brissac, being anxious to curry favour with the
Constable, had taken advantage of this to put in his place
the Constable's second son, Damville. The Due d'Aumale
failed to get reinstated. — "Boivin de Villars ;" "Vieilleville,"
vol. xxx., page 444.

A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME. 97

way, suggesting that he should be given the
Governorship of Brittany, M. d'Etampes, the
present Governor, being very aged and
decrepit.

Vieilleville, instructed of all this, upon
receiving the patent of succession, and being
made aware of how the oracle was being
worked, wrote back a very measured but
resolute reply, saying that, apart from M.
d'Etampes being a friend upon whose death
he should be sorry to speculate, he was also
in enjoyment of excellent health. Moreover,
he, Vieilleville, had too many relatives
and friends in Brittany to admit of his being
free to have the King's ordinances and de-
crees strictly obeyed. He felt, too, that at
forty-two he was in the prime of life, and
better fitted to occupy a post of danger than
a pacific post where there was little to do.
Finally, he should not care to be under the
orders of M. de Gie, the deputy of M.
d'Etampes, with whom he had already had
serious difficulties about their properties,
which adjoined each other, and who held a
fief under him. He reminded the King, too,

VOL. ii. 27

98 A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME.

that the Governorship of Metz had already
been offered to him, and that as M. de
Gonnor had only accepted it after his refusal,
the latter might be regarded as in one sense
his lieutenant. He knew that the King had
promised the Dues de Nevers and de Guise
that he should have the appointment, and he
was surprised that by a subtle ruse his
Majesty should have been induced to revoke
his promise and send him, Yieilleville, to
lodge in a cemetery till he could step into a
dead man's shoes. He concluded by saying
that as he should shortly have the honour of
appearing in the King's presence, he would
defer the rest of his remonstrances till then.
This letter was written at Duretal on
May 1st, 1553.

The King, after having had it read to
him, quite entered into Vieilleville's views of
the matter, and he flew into a great passion
with the Constable, his anger, like that of
most persons of weak character, increasing
in proportion to the very great effort re-
quired to arouse it. He said that he felt ifc|
was time that Vieilleville should receive1

A GENTLEMAN OP THE OLDSN TIME. 99

an important post, and that he had only
refused the Governorship of Metz the year
before, out of patriotism. He ascertained,
too, that it was quite true that M. de Gie held
his estate of Yergier under the Barony of
Mathefelon which belonged to Yieilleville ;
whereupon he sent for the Constable, declaring
that it would be equivalent to setting Brittany
by the ears to put Yieilleville and Gie, who
were at loggerheads, into the same post,
and making some very satirical observations
about the persons who were always ready
to sacrifice the interests of their master
to oblige their friends.

When the Constable arrived, the King,
still in a towering passion, said to him : —
" I have quite made up my mind to give the
Governorship of Metz to M. de Yieilleville,
as I promised to do a year back in your
presence. It is his by right, and if his
advice had been followed, the interests of my
kingdom would have been much better
served. You. are really doing good work for
me in Brittany. Read this letter and hear
what the Lieutenant of Anjou has to say.

100 A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME.

Let me beg of you to take care that my
purposes are hot again crossed, and that
nothing be done to incense me any further.
It is my pleasure that the orders I have given
shall be carried out, and if Gonnor does not
at once quit Metz, that shall not prevent
Vieilleville from entering it."

The Constable, seeing how angry the
King was, did not attempt to reply after
hearing Vieilleville' s letter read ; all he said
•was that he was ignorant of there being any
difference between the two houses, and that
he would at once apprise Gonnor of the
King's desire ; and, as a matter of fact, he at
once forwarded him a very explicit despatch,
in "which he advised him to offer his resig-
nation upon the ground of. ill-health, and
with a good grace to hand over his powers to
his successor.

M. de Gonnor followed this advice, and
as there were only twenty-four posts between
Paris and Metz, his resignation came to hand
the very day that Vieilleville had audience of
the King. The first words that the King
said to him, therefore, were that he was now

A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME. 101

Governor of Metz.* Henri added a special
mark of favour, for, the pay of the troops
being two months in arrear, and the money
not forthcoming, he took the sum from his
privy purse and gave it to Yieilleville, so that
he might be well received. He also gave him
two thousand pounds for the repair of the
walls, and ten thousand crowns as a present,
all these sums being taken to Metz in carts,
under the care of men made responsible for
their safe arrival.

Nothing could well have been more
brilliant than the reception which awaited
Vieilleville at Metz. The troops, in full
uniform, were drawn up in the plain, about
half a league from the city, near the Porte
St. Thibaut, M. de Gonnor and the officers
at their head. There was a grand display
of rich swords in velvet sheaths with silver
belts, of Biscay pikes, richly decorated
uniforms with gold embroideries and velvet

* The Governorship of Metz comprised that of the
three Bishoprics. — " Histoire Generale de Metz," by the
Benedictines of the congregation of St. Yanne. Collignon,
Metz, 1795, vol. iii. page 56.

102 A GENTLEMAN OP THE OLDEN TIME.

sashes, each officer sporting the colours of
his mistress. Vieilleville himself looked very
well, in full armour, mounted upon his hand-
some horse Ivoy, and with his bodyguard
composed of fifty of the boldest and bravest
lansquenets, made over to him by the Comte
de Nassau. They carried right gallantly
their halberds and long new-fashioned
daggers, attired in the black and yellow
of their master, who had derived these
colours from his wife, then Mademoiselle
de la Tour, and had always worn them
since.

Needless to add that salutes were fired
and pikes brandished, while a flourish of
trumpets greeted Vieilleville, who, though he
had the reputation of being a severe disci-
plinarian, was known by the troops to be a
model of justice, bravery, and honour. The
fact of his bringing the back pay with him
was not calculated to lessen the sense of
satisfaction.

Upon entering Metz, his first visit was to
the Cardinal Bishop de Lenoncourt, who
awaited him at the main entrance to the

A GENTLEMAN OP THE OLDEN TIME. 103

episcopal palace, and liad prepared a grand
banquet in his honour.

The next day, he convoked all the
authorities of the city, and read them the
letters-patent giving him a power of life
and death which his predecessor did not
possess. M. de Gonnor then made over to
him the inventory of the material, which they
went through together, and six days after-
wards left Metz.

Vieilleville had a severe task to get
through, for the utmost disorder prevailed
in the city and in the army. The captains,
distributing themselves the pay to their
men, were in the habit of doing as they
pleased with it. In some cases they gave the
larger share to their favourites, to the de-
triment of the rest, and in others they
dressed up servants and shopmen as soldiers,
and sent them on parade, keeping the pay
for themselves.

The officers had, moreover, but scant
authority over the soldiers, who, in conse-
quence of the success which had attended
them during this long siege, had become so

104 A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME.

insolent, that there was no doing anything
with them, and that quarrels were constantly
breaking out among them.

They were continually fighting with one
another, and did not scruple to go out of the
city without leave, and, under the pretence
of searching for game, pillaged anything
they could lay their hands upon. They
robbed the merchants who were bringing
provisions into Metz, and when they did
not steal, they took goods on credit, which
amounted to much the same thing.

The greatest sufferers from their brutality,
however, were those of the inhabitants
who had to lodge them, as they respected
neither age cor sex, while, if a husband,
father, or brother proved troublesome, they
killed them without scruple, and said that
they had met with their death in the open
field.

Complaints to the late Governor had
proved futile, as he had been afraid to act,
while he himself set the men a wretched
example by living openly with a girl whom
he had taken away from her parents,

A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME. 105

and who coolly called herself Madame
de Gonnor.

All this drove the inhabitants to despair,
when they called to mind their ancient
liberties and customs gone, as they feared,
for ever.

Yieilleville was not the man to tolerate
disorder of this kind, but in order to put
a stop to it, the co-operation of the officers
who countenanced it was necessary ; and
this was the most difficult part of the
business. He accordingly invited them all
to a grand banquet and explained to them
his ideas and plans. He told them that he
had determined -upon some new regulations
for the garrison and the town, and hoped
he could count upon their ready co-operation.
These regulations, which he had read out
to them, were very severe, as they struck at
every kind of abuse, and left no loophole for
any injustice or violence. The officers looked
at each other in consternation, but they
admitted the good intentions by which their
commander was animated, and assured him
of their obedience. But could he nofc

106 A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME.

mitigate a little the severity of the regula-
tions, especially in regard to money matters.

"What!" exclaimed Vieilleville, "are
you the slaves of money ! I tell you that
you will never do a good act if this vice has
the mastery of you, for avarice and honour
cannot go hand in hand. Be but faithful in
your service to the King, and trust to me
to reward you."

These words, uttered with much warmth,
brought the officers into sympathy with their
chief, and they not only promised him fidelity
but asked him to issue the regulations as
soon as possible, undertaking, that their men
should comply with them.

The first reforms related to the military
organization, commissaries being appointed
to check the list of men enrolled, and see that
they were all really present. With regard to
debts, the pay of the men was to take
place in the presence of the commissaries,
and creditors would be allowed to enforce
their claims, the commissaries paying them
in part or in whole. Quarrels and duels
between individual soldiers were forbidden

A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME. 107

under pain of death. No one was to be
allowed to leave the town without a pass-
port, and the gatekeepers were to be held
responsible. Any attempt upon the honour
of the women or the liberty of the male
inhabitants, or even any insolent gesture or
remark, would be severely punished, and any
complaints would be entertained by the
military authorities. A

These regulations having been passed
they were published with much solemnity,
first at the gate of the Governor's house and
afterwards at the street crossings and upon
the public squares, in the presence of the
troops, the Governor and the officers being at
their head. The effect was such that the
most intractable of the men were awed into
respect and bade their comrades submit to
orders. For two months there was not a
single quarrel in the army ; and though after
this there was a slight relaxation of discipline,
it was repressed with terrible severity. Two
soldiers having fallen out while gambling
together, one of them killed his comrade.
The assassin and his victim were both seized

108 A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME.

and beheaded. Three others were accused of
theft and arrested at midnight in their beds.
They confessed their guilt and denounced
several others as their accomplices, who
were at once arrested as well. The whole of
them were confronted with the merchants
whom they had robbed, and who identified
them. Three of them were then sentenced
to be broken upon the wheel, and the others
to be hung or garrotted. In order to avoid
being pressed by their respective captains
to spare their lives, Vieilleville had them
executed at eight the next morning, so that
the fact of their arrest and execution became
known at one and the same time.

This rigorous administration of justice
was not departed from, even in favour of the
persons in the service of the Governor. One
of his servants having raised an alarm in
the town by attempting to effect a forcible
entrance into a house of ill-fame, was hung
the next day opposite the house in question ;
and one of his cooks, who was a married
man and kept a tavern, having infringed one
of the market regulations, was so severely

A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME. 109

flogged that lie never fully recovered from
it. The inhabitants, reassured by these acts
of justice, were emboldened to appeal directly
to the Governor. They informed him that
during the siege about one hundred and
twenty women and girls had been carried off
and were still detained in the houses of the
captains and soldiers, who met all inquiries
by saying that they were dead. The fathers
and husbands had, therefore, determined to
lay their case before Yieilleville, who, in his
reply, asked them why they had waited nearly
six months since his arrival to demand re-
paration for one of the greatest wrongs
that could be inflicted upon any man. They
replied that they had not dared to do so for
fear of having their complaints treated with
contempt, as they were by M. de Gonnor.

"Really," replied Yieilleville, "I do not
feel very pleased with you for having put me
on a par with my predecessor. However,
you may be easy in your mind, for I will see
that the stain upon your honour is wiped
out."

Towards the close of the following day,

110 A GENTLEMAN OP THE OLDEN TIME.

Vieilleville, having distributed his troops and
established guards all over the town at
intervals of four hundred yards, took the
petitioners with him to point out the houses
in which they suspected the women to be,
as well as a company of arquebusiers to
surround the houses.

The first house visited was that of Cap-
tain Royddes, who had in it the young and
beautiful wife of a notary, named Lecoq.
Vieilleville had the door burst open, and the
captain, who was inside with the woman,
attempted to resist, but the guards informed
him that the Governor in person was below.
The captain, thinking, that he was accused
of some offence, came down and threw him-
self at Vieilleville' s feet, asking what offence
he had committed.

Vieilleville, playing upon the husband's
name, replied in a bantering tone that he
must give up a hen he had been detaining
for the last eight months. The captain, who
did not perceive the joke, swore that he had
never had any poultry in his house, where-
upon the whole company present began to

A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME. Ill

laugh, Vieilleville himself joining in it.
Vieilleville then told him what he meant, and
swore that unless he delivered the woman up
at once, he would have his head off by the
next morning. While all this was going on,
an affray had been going on inside the house,
amid which the woman escaped, and made
off to her husband's house, and Vieilleville,
upon learning this, released Eoyddes, who
cut a very foolish figure.

The news of this having spread like
wildfire, all the guilty persons opened their
doors, and there was a regular exodus of
women and girls returning to their homes.
Among them were twenty-two nuns, who
found their way back to their convent.

Order being thus restored, the Governor
was able to send for his family, who were
very anxious to rejoin him. His wife and
daughter, having made their preparations
for starting, set out in the spring of 1554,
escorted by a troop of gentlemen from Brit-
tany and Avignon. Vieilleville went as far as
Bassigny with an escort to meet them, and
though he would willingly have avoided a

112 A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME.

state reception, the army and the population
at large would not hear of it. All the officers,
cavalry as well as infantry, were so anxious
to do honour to the wife and daughter of
their Governor that, without having received
any orders to do so, they went out to Corney,
three leagues off, with their troops, which
were drawn up in battle array. Two thou-
sand foot soldiers were ranged in line
throughout the plain, and the women and
maidens of the town came out with bouquets
and garlands.

Even the clergy wanted to come out and
join the procession, while the abbesses and
their nuns were ready to start, when Vieille-
ville, who had got wind of what was being
done, declared with some indignation that
he would have nothing of the sort, these
being honours that should be reserved for
the Sovereign, or, at all events, for the first
men of the State.

Loud were the salvoes which greeted the
coming of the two noble ladies, and when
they drew near to the city and met the
female cortege, they dismounted from their

A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME. 113

horses, while the ladies of their suite got out
of the coaches, so as to return the compli-
ments. After a due exchange of greetings,
and the necessary presentations had been
made, Madame de Vieilleville and the other
ladies reached the gates of the town, followed
by three carts loaded with flowers, fruit, and
other products of the district, which had
been brought in by the peasant women from
as far off as Pont-a-Mousson, and in such
quantities that it was impossible to know
what to do with them. The cortege was
preceded by drums beating, flags flying,
and arquebuss-men firing, and it entered
the city by the Porte St. Thibaut, where
M. de Marillac, • the President of Metz, the
head Alderman and his thirteen colleagues,
the Commissaries of War and Supply,
all the Controllers, and a great number of
gentlemen and burgesses, were waiting to
receive them and conduct them to their
residence. Vieilleville had preceded them,
and, together with the parish priests, the
camp masters, the sergeant-major, and

eight or ten of the senior captains and
VOL. ii. 28

114 A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME.

gentlemen of his household, gave them a
splendid reception. So loud was the din in
the town and suburbs, with the trumpets
blowing, the guns firing, and the bells ring-
ing— including the big bell, called La Muette,
because it was so rarely rung — that it was no
easy matter to hear oneself speak.

The supper was equally splendid, though,
owing to its being Rogation week, it was
what French Roman Catholics call " maigre."
Upon the tables were thirty Rhine salmon,
forty pike, and about sixty enormous carp,
all brought from Strasburg ; not to say any-
thing of the tribute offered by the rivers \
Moselle and Seille, and two horse loads of
sea fish, brought all the way from Antwerp \
by order of M. de Duilly, who was the head
of one of the oldest families in Lorraine, and
who was Seneschal of the Province. During
the meal, the firing of cannon was stopped,
and music substituted for it, and as soon as
supper was over, dancing began, and was
kept up all night.

CHAPTER V.

THE COUNTRY CLEARED. — TREASON OF THE
PROVOST AND THE SERGEANT-MAJOR.—
COMBAT OF ST. MICHEL. —PLOT OF THE
CORDELIERS.— VIEILLEVILLE FOILS IT, AND
DEFEATS THE IMPERIAL FORCES.

F order was re- established inside
Metz, the greatest possible anarchy
prevailed in the surrounding
country, which harboured such a number
of thieves and vagabonds, most of whom
were deserters from the army, that it was
very unsafe to travel. Possessed of several
standards, they described themselves to the
French as belonging to the Imperial army,
and to the Imperial forces as belonging to
the French army. Vieilleville, as Governor
of Metz, and M. de Mansfeld, as Governor
of Luxemburg, having an equal interest in

116 A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIMK.

putting an end to these robberies, concluded
an agreement to that end. It was arranged
that any captain, sergeant, corporal, or
other, leading soldiers into the field to " try
their fortune," should be required to have
his men described by name and enrolled,
with a certificate from the Governor, stating
that they. were in his pay. "When soldiers
possessing such a certificate were made pri-
soners, they should be kept for three days,
and the ransom exacted should not exceed
a month's pay; while men who could not
exhibit such a certificate should be treated
as marauders, and broken on the wheel,
hung, or garrotted. These conditions having
been well understood, Vieilleville had a list
prepared of sixty helmet-wearers and two
hundred arquebusiers, whom he intended to
send out each week to scour the country,
under the conduct of the most trustworthy
of his officers. He selected the men himself
from among the bravest in the army, and
gave them their orders in person each even-
ing, besides being generally at the gate when
they left the town at daybreak. He com-

A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME. 117

mended them specially to their captain,
calling each of them by their name — " the
which exalted their courage and animated
their virtue."

These well-organized sorties were very
successful, and in nearly every case the men
returned at the end of a few days with plenty
of loot — which was given them as a reward
for their work — and several prisoners. When
the latter did not belong to the regular army,
they were, in accordance with the agreement,
made over to the provost and sergeant-
major. For some time Vieilleville had reason
to suspect their honesty, but he had not
cared to carry his investigations very far,
for they rendered him considerable service.
Nicholas, the sergeant-major, had not his
equal for " teaching a soldier how to carry
himself and to shoulder his arms, and for
instructing him in his duty." There was
no one like him for drawing up a battalion
when some grandee whom Vieilleville was
anxious to honour was about to visit Metz.
He was never afraid to go, day or night, to
inspect the guard-rooms upon the walls or

118 A GENTLEMAN OF TEE OLDEN TIME.

in the city, and repress any disorder. As to
the provost, no one could be more adept
than he was at drawing up a process of trial
or entrapping a criminal in his own state-
ments ; besides being very bold, and always
ready to risk his life in thief-catching.
Having upon one occasion come upon four
soldiers who had cut the throat of a woman
of bad character, after having maltreated
her, he captured them with the assistance of
a few arquebusiers, brought them back into
the city, and had them executed off-hand.

It is easy to understand how useful such
men were in troublous times ; but an inci-
dent occurred which made it impossible for
Vieilleville to appear blind to what was
going on any longer.

During one of the sorties, Captain La
Cahusiere, having captured twenty marau-
ders dressed up as soldiers, made them over
to the sergeant-major and provost for exe-
cution. The latter sent in their report to
the Governor, stating that they had them
drowned, and as the executions were very
numerous, this was not doubted. But soon

A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME. 119

after this, Captain La Cahusiere captured
another band of marauders, among whom he
recognized one of the men he had taken
the time before. The man who was the
leader of the band, upon being questioned
by the captain, confessed that he had been
released by the sergeant-major at Metz upon
payment of a ransom of a thousand crowns.
Since then he had earned at least six times
as much, and was prepared to pay accord-
ingly. He added that they were all soldiers
of fortune, and that their principal place of
refuge was the archbishopric of Trier. Cap-
tain La Cahuserie, very indignant, returned
to Metz, and leaving his troop at Rouge-
rieules, went on in advance to acquaint
Vieilleville with what had occurred. The
latter, after hearing what he had to say, told
him to keep the matter secret, and detain
the prisoners in his own house, instead of
handing them over to the provost. The
captain carried out his instructions to . the
letter, being very curious to see what Vieille-
ville would do. At the expiration of three
days, he found that Vieilleville had sent to

120 A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME.

M. de Nevers for the provost of Champagne
to draw up the indictments, as the provost
of Metz, he said, was incriminated ; and in
the meanwhile he was making out another
case. A prisoner named Trousse, who had
been sentenced to death some two months
before, had not been executed ; and in addi-
tion to this, the provost had asked that he
might be pardoned, and had connived at
his corresponding with his friends at large;
both of which things were contrary to his
duties. Just after this conversation, in the
course of which Vieilleville assured the cap-
tain that full justice should be done, the
sergeant and provost arrived, whereupon
Vieilleville complained very much of the
delay which had occurred in the execution
of La Trousse, and said that if it was not
carried out in the next twenty- four hours
they would suffer for it. They assured him that
this should be done ; and at two o'clock the
next day the condemned man was led out to
Champassaige, the place of execution. But,
curiously enough, under the pretence that
he was a Huguenot, he was excused from

A GENTLEMAN OP THE OLDEN TIME. 121

carrying the cross, there was no rope round
his neck, and he was wrapped up in a long
mantle, so that it was impossible to see if his
hands were tied. The sergeant-major, whose
duty it was to assist at all these executions
with a squad of soldiers, was absent, and the
provost was represented by his registrar.

However, the lugubrious ceremony began,
and La Trousse ascended the scaffold sur-
rounded by the crowd, while the registrar
read out the sentence. But when the execu-
tioner came to seize the prisoner, the latter,
by a sudden and rapid movement of the
arms, which remained at liberty, left his
cloak in the hands of the executioner and ran
down the ladder, the crowd opening to let
him escape. He ran to his quarters, the
Porte Moselle, and his comrades, who had
given up all hope of seeing him again, helped
him to get away.

Vieilleville, when the news of this affair
was brought to him was discussing the plans
of the Metz citadel with the engineer?, and
he at once ordered the captain of the guard,
Beauchamp, and La Cahusiere, who happened

122 A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME.

to bo present, to seize the provost and
sergeant-major in place of La Trousse, and
put them on their trial forthwith. When the
marauders, whom they had allowed to escape
were brought up as witnesses, the sergeant-
major turning to the provost, said : " We
are lost. I told you that after the Governor
had got wind of this affair we ought to have
sent after them into the woods and had them
killed. You would not listen to me, and so
we are done for." And, as a matter of fact
the one was hung and the other garrotted
upon the day following, to the great delight
of La Cahusiere.*

In addition to these expeditions, Vieille-
ville made frequent sorties against the
Imperialist forces, as we gather from a
manuscript letter written to the Due de
Guise soon after his arrival at Metz.f
Very well versed in the art of main-
taining spies, he was always kept informed
of a favourable opportunity for making
a sudden swoop. There was not a fair,

0 •' Yicilleville," vol. xxx., page 352.
f Gaignieres, French MS., 20,577.

A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME. 123

market, or public festival held within a radius
of twenty leagues on the Flanders side, to
•which he did not despatch two or three
hundred horsemen and as many arquebusiers,
and if the Comte de Mansfeld tried to inter-
cept them he sent fresh forces to relieve
them. Carts loaded with Holland linen, wine,
woollen cloths, and silks, were always being
brought into Metz, to say nothing of
merchants and soldiers who were taken
prisoners. The Count de Mansfeld, seeing
" how badly fortune served him," and that
nothing he did succeeded, resigned his post
upon the plea of illness, leaving it in the
hands of his lieutenant, the Comte de Megue,
who accepted his succession with alacrity, but
did not fare any better.*

As an instance of this, it may be men-
tioned that, soon afterwards, the President
Marillac being desirous of returning to
France after having spent two years at
Metz, Vieilleville had him escorted by a
picked body of cavalry and mounted sharp-

c " Vieilleville," vol. sxx., page 306.

124 A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME.

shooters. The Comte de Megue, hearing
of this, thought that the opportunity would
be a favourable one for making a raid upon
the cattle which were feeding around Metz,
under the French guns. Vieilleville, how-
ever, got wind of this, and he sent his son-
in-law, M. d'Epinay, to reconnoitre in the
direction of Thionville. M. d'Epinay found
that the enemy was in great force, having
eight regiments of infantry and eight or nine
hundred horsemen, all well mounted. The
small body of men sent out by Vieilleville
was not, of course, strong enough to resist
a force of this kind, so they took refuge in
the Chateau de la Dompchamp and sent to
Vieilleville for instructions. He, not liking
the idea of having to order a retreat, deter-
mined to go out to the rescue of the small
troop. So he donned his finest uniform and
mounted his charger Ivoy, determined to do
or die. He left the command of the town in
the hands of the valiant Sieur de Boisse,
in case of his being killed.

The troops whom he took with him were
full of military ardour, and he conceived the

A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME. 125

ingenious idea of mixing up the arquebusiers
and the cavalry — an idea which, as it turned
out, proved his salvation. The Imperial
forces, which were far the strongest in
numbers, were so disconcerted by the unex-
pected appearance of the arquebussmen
among the cavalry when the latter charged,
that a panic ensued. The chiefs were among
the first killed, and Vieilleville, giving them no
time to realize what had occurred, charged
them furiously, while the small troop which
had taken refuge in La Dompchamp fell upon
them from behind and on the flank. They were
completely routed, leaving one thousand five
hundred dead on the field, while the others
were made prisoners, except a few fugitives
whom Vieilleville would not have pursued
because of his numerical weakness. The
Comte de Megue was among those who
escaped, and he managed to make his way
through the woods to the Moselle, where a
fishing boat took him across to Thionville.
The prisoners were so numerous and flabber-
gasted that on the way back to Metz a
woman was seen driving four in front of her

12G A GENTLEMAN OP THE OLDEN TIME.

with a stick as if they were so many sheep,
which much amused the onlookers. The
battle was named St. Michel, having been
fought on the 29th of September.*

At Metz there was a monastery of Grey
Friars belonging to Nivelle in the Low
Countries. The brother door-keeper of this
monastery — Imperialist at heart — often went
to his native to\vn, and took the opportunity
of paving his court to the sister of Charles V.
who was acting as Governor of that town,
and whom he always regarded as his sove-
reign. The latter, seeing how readily he
came to and fro, thought that he might
possibly be made useful to the Imperial
cause, and asked him one day if it would not
be possible to make a descent upon Metz, and
how it could be done.

The monk, who was no fool, at once
entered into her ideas, and said that it would
not be a difficult task. Vieilleville had against
him, upon the one hand, all the nobility of
Metz and the leading burgesses whom he had

0 " Yieilleville," vol. rxx., page 334.

A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME. 127

debarred from aldermanic functions, and,
upon the other hand, part of the army which
was irritated at his severe discipline. Execu-
tions, the monk said, were frequent among
the soldiers ; and the comrades of the men
who were executed, and who felt themselves
in danger of a like punishment, were boiling
over with discontent.

He said that if they spoke insolently to
one of the burgesses they were sent to prison,
and if they assaulted him they were flogged.
The monk accordingly proposed that his
sovereign, as he regarded her, should let him
have some thirty well-tried and trusty soldiers.
He would introduce them into the city attired
as grey friars, two at a time, so as not to
attract notice, and conceal them in the
monastery. At a given time, they would set
fire to the town in several places, and while
the soldiers and the rest of the population
were busy in putting it out. the Comte de
Megue would present himself at the gate of
the Pont Iffroy, where he would be met by
the soldiers, disguised as grey friars, who
would aid him to enter the city.

128 A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME.

" The town," he added, " would soon be
yours, for upon this side the walls are very
low, and the soldiers themselves would
mutiny when they heard the shouts of
' Liberty ! Liberty ! To death with the cruel
VieiUeville ! ' "

The monk's arguments carried conviction
with them, and, after receiving a handsome
ring and five hundred crowns as a present,
he returned to Metz with three captains who
were disguised as grey friars. This monk
was so successful, too, in his appeals to the
other monks, that, by dint of promises of ab-
beys and what not, he won them all over to
his side, and within three weeks, he had intro-
duced twenty more soldiers in the ecclesiasti-
cal garb without exciting the least suspicion.

Vieilleville, however, who was always on
the alert, heard through his Luxemburg
spies, that the Queen of Hungary had
reinforced the garrison of Thionville by
1,200 sharpshooters and 800 horse, and that
the Comte de Megue had ordered 20,000
loaves of bread at least, as if he was
meditating some important expedition. He

A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME. 129

had also been seen in conversation with two
Cordeliers who said that they had come from
Brussels.

Vieilleville, accordingly, without saying
anything, went with some of his officers to
the Monastery of the Cordeliers. He put
some questions as to the number of monks,
made a personal inspection as far as the nave
of the chapel, and saw nothing to excite his
suspicion. He then went to the house of
the Observants of the same order, and put
some fresh questions. He was told that the
doorkeeper was at Nivelle for his brother's
funeral. He then began to verify the number
of monks, and was told that three were out
in the town collecting alms.

Vieilleville, in the meanwhile, struck by
the scared look and embarrassed attitude of
the brothers, had all the doors closed and the
rooms searched. In one of them he soon
found two sham friars in bed with their
coloured pourpoints exposed to view. They
were at once seized, and under the threat of
being put to the torture, they acknowledged
that, in spite of their tonsure, they were

VOL. ii. 29

130 A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME.

soldiers, and that they had come there by
order of the Queen of Hungary, to execute
some coup de main, but what, they did not
know.

Vieilleville then placed the monastery in
the charge of one of his captains, ordering
him to admit and arrest anyone who wanted to
enter it, but to let no one leave. He then went
to the gate of the Pont Iffroy, whence he sent
word to Madame de Vieilleville not to wait
dinner for him. He dismissed all his body-
guard, and sent word to Captain Salcede, a
southerner, who was keeper of the gate, that
he would share his dinner, even if it consisted
only of garlic and Spanish radishes. He
added that they would take their dinner
under the gateway, and that he would not
leave until he had seen some one enter whom
he was expecting. Perhaps even he should
pass the night in the guard-room.

Salcede, much perplexed as to what this
could mean, brought down his dinner — which,
by the way, was a very good one — and they
had hardly finished it when the sentinel
announced that two grey friars were coming

A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME. 131

along at a good trot on the road from Thion-
ville. Vieilleville at once took up a halberd,
as if he was keeping guard over the gate,
and, followed by two soldiers, went up to the
barrier. The monk, who was doorkeeper in the
monastery, arrived in front of his companion,
and was surprised to find himself face to face
with Vieilleville, who ordered him to go, with
his companion, into Salcede's room. Vieille-
ville followed them, and having dismissed all
eye-witnesses, he looked him straight in the
face and said : " So, you hypocrite, you have
been holding a confabulation with the Comte
de Megue ! You will have to tell me the
whole truth, or die this very moment. If you
confess the whole truth, I will spare your
jlife, even if you have been conspiring against
mine. It is no use thinking of going back
to your monastery, for it is full of soldiers,
and all the monks are prisoners, while some
{of them have confessed that they are not
monks at all, but soldiers sent by the Queen
Df Hungary. So tell me the truth at once,
pr else shrive one another, for you will both
lave to die ! "

132 A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME.

The monk alarmed at this, but attempt-
ing to put Vieilleville off with a ruse, threw
himself at his feet, and declared that these
sham monks were relatives of his who had
slain their brother in order to inherit his
property, and that he had brought them into
Metz disguised as friars, so as to save them
from being hung. No sooner had he said
this, than Captain Damezan brought word
that since Vieilleville had withdrawn from
the gate, six other so-called friars had
arrived, wearing uniform under their monkish
robes.

" I suppose," said Vieilleville to the door-
keeper, " that they have killed their brother
too ? I swear by the living God that if you
do not at once tell me what all this means,
I will make you pay for it before you are put
to death."

He then ordered Captain Ryolas to take
him and bind him with cords before putting
him to the question. The friar, finding
that the whole of his treachery was dis-
covered, threw himself at Vieilleville' s feet
and promised to reveal the whole truth to

A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME. 133

him if his life was spared. This promise
being repeated, he informed Yieilleville that
the enterprise was to be carried out that
same evening ; that the Comte de Megue was
then six leagues from Metz ; that he would
arrive at nightfall ; and that, advised by fire
breaking out in the town, he would make an
attack upon the gate of the Pont Iffroy
about nine o'clock. The men disguised as
monks were to be on the ramparts to assist
the assailants, who were bringing with them
twelve cart loads of ladders, which, it had
been carefully ascertained, were of the right
length.

Vieilleville was not long in deciding what
to do. After having had the monks put
under lock and key, he sent for M. de Guyen-
court, his lieutenant, and told him to have
the whole of his company mounted on their
horses at once, and he transmitted the same
orders to M. d'Epinay and the Chevalier de
Lancque. He then ordered the Captains St.
Marie and St. Colombe to take three hun-
dred arquebusiers and twenty drummers, and
the Captains La Cahusiere and La Mothe-

134 A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME.

Gondrin to assemble two hundred men bear-
ing halberds : the whole of them to meet at
the gate of the Pont Iffroy, and to be ready
to follow him.

While these preparations were in pro-
gress, Vieilleville ordered his new sergeant-
major, Captain St. Chamans, who was not
less able and more trustworthy than his pre-
decessor, to collect about fifty faggots over
four of the principal gates and set fire to
them between six and seven, neither sooner
nor later. The fact of the garrison being
so suddenly called to arms, excited much
wonder in the town, but the troops soon
reached their place of rendezvous, where
they found Vieilleville awaiting them, mounted
upon his horse Ivoy, and surrounded by ten
or twelve gentlemen of his suite. He told
them to march quickly and with as little
noise as possible, and in less than four hours
he would show them something very wonder-
ful, if it so pleased Providence.

They then started in the direction of La
Dompchamp, and, on the way, Vieilleville
informed them of the plot laid by the

A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME. 135

Imperialists, and of his own plan for
foiling it.

Upon reaching the castle, he sent for Cap-
tain La Plante, who was the best guide to be
found between Metz and Brussels, speaking
Walloon, Flemish, and Spanish, and asked
him to take them to a wood where he could
place his troops in ambuscade. La Plante
took them to a long and deep wood, at the
extremity of which, nearest to Metz, there
was a large village. Yieilleville made a careful
reconnaissance of the place, as well as of the
avenues and roads leading out of it, after
which he placed M. de Guyencourt at the
entrance to the wood with one half of his
company, and the other at some distance off,
allotting fifty .arquebusiers and four drum-
mers to each troop. He posted in the village
one hundred and fifty arquebusiers and eight
drummers, who were to emerge from the
rear of the houses, and fifty arquebusiers and
one hundred javelin men in a narrow road
between the forest and the village. He also
placed M. d'Epinay with half his company
a little further on, and M. de Thevalle with

136 A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME.

the other half elsewhere, so that when the
enemy arrived from the direction of Thion-
ville, they could not go a thousand paces
without being surrounded, while the din of
the drums would so confuse them that they
would not know where they were, and would
think that they had got the whole garrison
attacking them.

These things being so ordered, La Plante
was sent to reconnoitre, and in the course of
an hour he returned to announce that the
enemy was advancing in the plain. The
vanguard was soon in the wood, but Yieille-
ville's troops were well concealed, and could
hear the men talking to each other, and boast-
ing of what a fine time of it they would have
in Metz. The main body followed, and the
Comte de Megue, who was with the force,
pressed them to go forward more quickly,
saying that he had seen the signal fires in
Metz. When the whole force was well ad-
vanced into the wood, M. de Guyencourt,
who was upon the flank, advanced at full
gallop with his troop, shouting, " France 1
France ! Vieilleville ! Charge ! "

A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME. 137

The nobles of the Imperial force, taken
by surprise, called to their valets to come
and fasten on their armour, but in the mean-
while the arquebuss men started up out of the
wood and shot them down like rabbits. The
halberd men rushed in and prevented them
from rallying, and the drums made such a
din that they could not hear one another
speak. The Spanish arquebuss men who
were in front turned round and tried to
come to the relief of the nobles, but they
were taken in ambuscade and obliged to
defend themselves. The din of the drums
continued, and the Comte de Megue, not
knowing what he was about, exclaimed, " By
heavens ! we are betrayed ! "

It was in vain that he endeavoured to
resist, for the enemy headed him in every
direction, and there was a general flight
through the wood. The Imperialists left
1145 men dead on the ground and a great
number of prisoners, while the French loss
was only fifteen. M. de Megue once more
succeeded in making his escape.

It was about midnight when Vieilleville

138 A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME.

sent two men into Metz to announce his
victory and return. One of them was to
wake up the canons of the cathedral, so that
public thanks might be offered to God;
while the other was to advise his wife and
daughter. Both of them got up and went to
the cathedral, accompanied by the greater
part of the population. The whole town
was astir and much overjoyed ; while, despite
the lateness of the hour, many of the bur-
gesses spread a table before their doors
and made the passers-by drink after the
fashion of their country, which is called

carrouse."

This victory occurred on a Thursday in
October, 1555, and on the following day the
Comte de Megue sent a trumpeter to treat
as to the prisoners. Vieilleville sent for the
messenger and asked him whether his
master had not had enough of monks. Upon
the man hesitating to answer, Vieilleville
bade him not be afraid to speak, but to
unloose his tongue; whereupon the mes-
senger exclaimed : — " In sooth, we have ;
accursed be they, and may the devil take

A GENTLEMAN OP THE OLDEN TIME. 139

them when they concern themselves with
aught else but praying to God. Monsieur le
Comte, my master, is in bed ill, and he said
this morning, before I started, that it was so
many men lost to undertake anything against
that lion-fox Yieilleville."

The trumpeter then produced a list of
gentlemen, friends of M. de Megue and the
Queen of Hungary, in order to ascertain
whether they were among the prisoners.
Vieilleville had the whole of the latter
drawn up in order between his own men,
the name of each being called out while the
trumpeter from M. de Megue went down the
ranks. But not one of them answered. So
it was clear that they had all been killed, and
the trumpeter shed tears as he said how
many loyal servitors the Queen and M. de
Megue had lost.

While all this was taking place, the guilty
friars had been kept in close confinement to
mourn over their sins until their fate was
decided upon.

They sent to remind Vieilleville of his
promises, which did not, however, ex-

140 A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME.

tend to the soldiers disguised as monks,
whom, according to the usages of war, he
might have had hung as spies. But he
would not do this, as, after all, they had only
acted in obedience to orders. He could not
well let them off scot-free, so he made them
march from the Cathedral, three and three,
bareheaded, with a white staff in their hands,
wearing the long robe of the grey friars,
carrying their frock under their arms as the
canons did their " aulemuse," and go through
the town, under the escort of the archers, as
far as the gate of Pont Iffroy, whither they
were preceded by a trumpeter on horseback,
who proclaimed at each crossway, in a loud
voice : —

" Here are the monks of the Queen of
Hungary, who were to have taken this city
by surprise and despoiled it. But by God's
grace they were forestalled, and for this,
their treacherous attempt, they are for
ever banished from the city of Metz and
the district belonging to it, under pain,
if they are caught, of being hung and
garrotted."

A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME. 141

The trumpeter of the Comte de Megue
had been detained in order that he might be
a witness of the spectacle, and give an account
of it to his master.*

* " Vieilleville," vol. xxx., page 376.

CHAPTER VI.

DIFFICULTIES IN THE GOVERNMENT OF METZ.
—CARDINAL DE LENONCOURT. — JOURNEY
OF VIEILLEVILLE TO THE COURT. — THE
SUITORS OF MADEMOISELLE DE VIEILLE-
VILLE.

HREE days after the defeat of the
Comte de Megue, Vieilleville sent
to the King, in order to give him
a full account of what had occurred, the
faithful Duplessis, his vassal, who was born
close to Duretal. He also applied, through
Duplessis, for two months' leave of absence,
the only reason he alleged being that he had
not seen the King for three years, and that
he was desirous of thanking him for his
favours. During this period, the King had
conferred upon him the Order of St. Michael ;
at the death of M. de Humieres, he had pro-
moted him to the command of his company,
and after that he had made M. d'Epinay

A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME. 143

commander of light horse, all this being done
in opposition to the Constable. The latter,
in fact, anticipating the intentions of the
King when M. de Humieres fell ill, had got
the young Dauphin to ask the King that the
company should be handed over from father
to son, putting him up to say that this was
his first request. The King, whose paternal
instincts were thus appealed to, was inclined
to give way, but he held firm for the sake of
Yieilleville. It was the same with the Order
of St. Michael, though the Constable main-
tained that it was contrary to usage to send
it to persons who were absent, unless they
were either foreigners or Princes.*

Several other reasons also induced Yieille-
ville to proceed to Court. In spite of his
promises to the friars, he could not make up
his mind to spare their lives, and, by a very
subtle train of reasoning, he argued to himself

* " Vieilleville," vol. xxx., pages 313 and 347.— They
continued, however, to remain on friendly terms, as we learn
by a letter from Yieilleville to the Constable, in which he
gives him an account of the works he is executing, and asks
him for a good engineer. — " Clair.," page 344, folio 985.

144 A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME.

that as his successor would have given no
promise to them, his hands would be free. He
also had in his mind a scheme for providing
Metz with a citadel and a whole system of for-
tifications which would render it impregnable,
for the hurried works carried out by the Due
de Guise were quite insufficient to protect it.
Metz was the boulevard of France against the
Empire, the sole guarantee of security for the
recent conquests which had been made, and
it was at the mercy of a coup de main. In
order to obtain the necessary money, in the
embarrassed condition of the exchequer, his
presence at Court was indispensable, while
his third reason for going was of a more
complex character, and had to do with the
misunderstandings between himself and the
Cardinal - Archbishop de Lenoncourt, the
origin of which was comparatively ancient.*

The city of Metz had from time imme-
morial been governed by an upper bour-
geoisie, or a burgher nobility, at the head of
which were " seven races " of gentlemen, so

0 " Yieilleville," vol xxx., page 409.

A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME. 145

called, very wealthy, and of very ancient
birth, who held all the chief offices of the
city. These families, which bore the name
of " parraiges," exercised the most tyranni-
cal authority over the rest of the people, and
they were so puffed up with their own great-
ness that when one of their sons was bap-
tized, his godfathers and godmothers emitted
their wish that he might once in his life be
Alderman of Metz, or at all events King of
France.

The middle-class burghers were some-
what jealous of this pre-eminence, but they
had no means of destroying it, as the burgo-
master and his council had complete control
over the electors, and only admitted their
own friends. If any of the inhabitants sought
to appeal to the Imperial Chamber at Spire,
the " seven " formed a league against him,
and were not satisfied until they had ruined
him.

Only one person had, up to the time of
the Conquest, dared to withstand the " par-
raiges," and this was Cardinal de Lenon-
court, who was, though small of stature, very

VOL. ii. 30

146 A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME.

ambitious, of a turbulent and domineering
temper, and very determined to have his own
way. As he failed to domineer over this
ancient and strongly-constituted body, he
had, out of ill temper, thrown in his lot with
the middle-class burghers, by the aid of
whom he . had created the French party in
Metz. When the city was captured by the
King, he regarded himself as the master,
and, owing to the weakness of M. de Gon-
nor and the consternation of the burghers,
he did pretty much as he pleased. When
the time came for the creation of the thir-
teen — so called from their number — he
chose the persons whom he pleased, and he
assigned to the head alderman as coun-
cillors and assessors four of the canons of the
cathedral.*

When Vieilleville succeeded M. de Gon-
nor, matters assumed a very different aspect.
The former, not being the man to brook any
one sharing power or responsibility with

0 " Histoire Ge"ne>ale de Metz," by the Benedictines of
the Congregation of St. Vanne, published byJ. B. Collignon,
Metz, 1775, vol. iii., page 59.

A GENTLEMAN OP THE OLDEN TIME. 147

him,* told the Bishop to confine himself to
the management of ecclesiastical affairs when
he attempted to interfere, and the Bishop
then reverted to the " parraiges," with
which he was, in fact, connected by birth.
The latter overlooked the past, and formed
an alliance with him in order to jointly
oppose the plans of the Governor. There
ensued a marked hostility against him,
which hampered his action in a hundred
ways, and Vieilleville, much irritated, was
only waiting for a favourable opportunity to
annihilate this party. This opportunity was
not long in comiDg, and it was furnished by
the nomination of burgomaster, or head
alderman, which took place every year
with great pomp, all classes of the citizens

0 We see, by the instructions addressed to Vieilleville,
Lenoncourt and Marillac, from June 13th to 21st, 1553, and
by the letters of MM. de Vieilleville, de Vannes, and de
Lenoncourt, to the Constable, with the replies of the last
named in June, July, and August, 1553, that M. de Le"non-
court had much to do with the relations between Metz and
the German Princes. — " Clair.," pages 346 and 347. See also
in "Fontanieu," pages 265 and 266, the collection of letters
from the King and M. de Lorraine to M. de Vieilleville, with
his answers, during the same period.

148 A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME.

sharing in it. The populace indulged
in noisy demonstrations of " delight and
drunkenness." There were fireworks and
music in the streets, the bells were rung,
especially the big bell, La Muette, which be-
longed to the town, and not, as the others
did, to the Canons and Chapter. After
the election at the Town Hall, the newly-
elected burgomaster, as he returned to
his residence, scattered handfuls of silver
about the streets and into the shops, while
the people shouted, " Vive Monsieur le
Maistre Eschevin ! "

But Vieilleville, instead of allowing the
gentlemen of the seven " parraiges " to
elect the Sieur de Maleroy as their burgo-
master, insisted upon their accepting one
Michel Braillon, who was devoted to the
French cause ; and though they protested
against being thus deprived of their privi-
leges, they all attended the banquet which he
gave on the following day, the only con-
spicuous absentee being Cardinal de Lenon-
court, uncle of the Sieur de Maleroy, whose
election Vieilleville had refused to recognize.

A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME. 149

The Cardinal, hoping that by going to Fon-
tainebleau and intriguing with the Due de
Guise and the Cardinal de Lorraine, who
were the bitterest opponents of Vieilleville,
he would be able to gain the King's ear,
preceded him there ; but Henri was not dis-
posed to listen to his complaints, and granted
Vieilleville the leave of absence which he
applied for, nominating M. de la Chapelle-
Biron deputy-governor of the city in his
absence. Vieilleville, having installed him into
office, and given him special instructions with
regard to the trial of the grey friars, then
started for Fontainebleau, and after a journey
lasting a week, he reached that place, being
met by the Prince de la B-oche-sur-Yon and
Marshal de St. Andre, whom the King had
sent to greet him. The King received him
with the utmost cordiality, and invested him
with the Order of St. Michael. Not only that,
but when the dispute_between Vieilleville and
the Cardinal de Lenoncourt was submitted
to the King, the latter attending at Court to
present his own case, Henri cut the matter
very short by saying, "I approve of everything

150 A GENTLEMAN OP THE OLDEN TIME.

done by M. de Vieilleville in his government
of Metz, and declare that all his actions re-
dound to the welfare and profit of my State,
to the glory of my Crown, and to the main-
tenance of my friendship with the Princes
and States of the Empire." So Cardinal de
Lenoncourt withdrew in high dudgeon, and
Vieilleville spent some little time at Court ;
during which period the marriage of his
second daughter, who had been brought up
in the Queen's household, with M. de Duilly,
the son of the Seneschal of Lorraine, was
celebrated. Vieilleville himself would have
preferred that his daughter should marry
the young Comte de Sault, a native of Pro-
vence, whom he had attached to his suite,
and for whom he had a great partiality.
The Court influences, however, were all
brought to bear in favour of M. de Duilly,
who had also arrived at Court with his father
the Seneschal, and Vieilleville, rather than
offend the Princess Claude, who begged him
to give way, allowed his daughter to follow
the bent of her own inclinations. All he
asked was that the King should send for the

A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME. 151

Comte de Sault, and inform him that it was
by his Majesty's desire that Yieilleville had
ceased to insist upon the marriage taking
place, and this Henri agreed to do. The
King made him a present of ten thousand
crowns to compensate him for his disappoint-
ment, and the Comte de Sault, though rather
vexed at first, consoled himself with the
thought that he had, at all events, received
a handsome present, and returned to Pro-
vence, leaving his rival to be affianced to
M. de Duilly by the Archbishop of Vienne,
Grand Almoner of France, the ceremony
taking place in the Queen's apartment, and
in the presence of all the Court.* The
marriage was celebrated a few days later,
and before that day the King took part in
eight tilting matches. As soon as the festi-
vities in connection with the wedding were
over, and Lent had begun, the King once
more devoted his attention to affairs of State,
and Yieilleville deemed the opportunity a

* As M. de Duilly was strongly accused of being a Pro-
testant, this marriage, according to Brantome, made many
people think that Vieilleville had tendencies that way.

152 A GENTLEMAN OP THE OLDEN TIME.

favourable one for asking the King to pro-
vide the money required for the fortifying of
Metz.* The King readily assented to his
proposal, but the difficulty was to find the
forty-four thousand pounds which Vieilleville
estimated would be necessary. The King,
however, determined that they should be
forthcoming, and he negociated a loan to
that amount through the First President of
the Paris Parliament and two wealthy mer-
chants, Marcel and Aubret. A sum of six-
teen thousand pounds was paid down at once,
to be applied to the fortification of the three
towns, Metz, Verdun, and Toul, and to the
subsidies of the German Princes.

Vieilleville, accordingly, returned in high
good humour to Metz, where, in his absence,
the unhappy grey friars had been put to
death by his deputy, in spite of the promise
which he had given them that their lives
should be spared. His satisfaction, however,
was not of long duration, for he had scarcely
got back when he discovered a serious con-

• " Vieilleville," vol. xxxi., pages 38—56.

A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME. 153

spiracy which had been commenced in his
absence to seize Metz for the Kegent of the
Queen of Hungary, and he had no sooner,
with his customary subtlety, foiled this and
had the leaders put to death than he fell ill.
This was in the winter of 1557, and for
several months he laid between life and
death, while the deputies who were sent to
act in his place were so inefficient that the
King at last acceded to the prayer of Vieille-
ville's principal officers and appointed his
son-in-law, M. d'Epinay, to fill the post
until he should recover. This he did not do
for a considerable period, though as the
spring advanced he was able to leave his bed
and be moved, by slow stages, for his domain
of Duretal. He remained there all the
summer, and in the early part of the autumn
he felt himself well enough to return to Metz.
His presence was urgently needed there, as
during his absence great disorder had pre-
vailed among the undisciplined troops from
Champagne and Picardy, which had been
sent to take the place of the veteran forces
despatched to the Due de Guise in Italy.

154 A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME.

Several acts of mutiny had been committed,
and when Vieilleville returned to Metz he
had once more to show the utmost severity,
the garrison being literally terror-stricken by
the unsparing executions which took place.
Those of the leaders of the mutinous legion-
aries who had not been put to death then
offered their submission, and Vieilleville,
after making them take a fresh oath of
fidelity to the King, promised them to over-
look the past, great rejoicings marking this
reconciliation.*

0 " Vieilleville," vol. xxxi., pages 95—130.

Vfcii

i'H

: i iit jjrjees or* -nr n#rt
CHAPTER YIL

CONTINUATION OF THE WAR.— THE TRUCE OF
VAUCELLES. — ABDICATION AND DEATH OF
CHARLES V.

FTER the disaster of Metz, Charles
Y.'s situation seemed a desperate
one, with the road to Brussels
open and the Flemish provinces unguarded,
and he owed his safety to the incapacity of
Montmorency, who, instead of following up
the victory rested on his oars and allowed
the Imperialists to recruit their forces.

" Even before the raising of the siege,"
says the Venetian Ambassador Capello, " the
Constable had a reputation for pusillanimity,
but now he appears to be a regular coward,
for he was afraid to follow up a beaten enemy
who was in full flight. He was taunted with

156 A GENTLEMAN OP THE OLDEN TIME.

his cowardice everywhere, and at the Court,
as well as in the public streets, Latin verses
were circulated in which his lack of courage
were lampooned. Everyone is agreed that
there will be no hard fighting as long as
he is at the head of the army."*

Henri II. was about to marry his natural
daughter Diane with Horace Farnese, Duke
de Castro, the brother of the Duke of Parma.
The Court was engrossed with tournaments,
dancing, and other rejoicings, when, at the
end of April 1553, it was suddenly ascer-
tained that Charles V. was not dead. In
the course of a few months he had raised
in the Low Countries a fresh army and had
invested Therouanne, which had been left
undefended. Upon the receipt of this news
the spirit of the nobles was aroused, and
while Franyois de Montmorency and d'Ess6
Montalembert hastened to get inside Therou-
anne, Horace Farnese left his young wife to
go to the relief of Hesdin. But the French
reaped the fruit of their heedlessness, for

* Bascbet, " Diplomatic V^nitienne," page 450.

A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME. 157

Therouanne was taken, Montalembert being
killed, and Montmorency made prisoner, while
Hesdin was carried by assault, and Farnese,
after only a month's wedded life massacred
with all the rest of the garrison.*

The Constable still remained inactive,
the reason, it was said, being that he was
afraid that in an open battle he would make
too glaring a display of his incapacity. In
spite of this, however, the Imperialists, being
very inferior in numbers, did not advance,
and the approach of winter soon led to a
suspension of hostilities.

In the spring of the following year
(1554) they were resumed, King Henri him-
self collecting an army at Crecy-en-Laonnais,
under the command of the Constable and
of St. Andre, and stationing several detach-
ments of it along the frontier. Marienburg
capitulated, and the Due de Severs pene-
trated into the district of Liege and La
Roche-sur-Yon into the Artois. The King
captured Bovine and Dinant, and the army

* "Complainte sur la mort du Due Horace Farnese."
Joachim du Bellay. Edition of 1573, page 344.

158 A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME.

crossed the Meuse and entered Hainault.
Binch was burnt and pillaged, and an
advance was made on Brussels. The advance
was retarded, however, by the siege of
Renty, and as he failed to dislodge the
Imperialists from their positions, and as
disease began to decimate the army, the
King lost heart, raised the siege on the
15th of August, and returning to Fontaine-
bleau, disbanded his soldiers.

In the meanwhile, Charles V., too ill to
put himself at the head of the troops, followed
them in a litter, after having made over the
command to Philibert of Savoy. Duke
Charles, the father of Philibert, had died at
Verceil the year before, having been for
eighteen years deprived of his States and
compelled to wander through Europe like a
chevalier d'industrie. Philibert, aged twenty-
five, proved himself a true scion of the House
of Savoy. Always in quest of some oppor-
tunity for restoring his fallen fortunes by an
act of daring, it was he who had carried
Hesdin, and though the numerical inferiority
of the Imperial forces did not admit of his

"A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME. 159

risking a battle in the open, he followed the
French at a day's march, picking up the
sstragglers and losing no chance of a skirmish.
The siege of Renty having been raised he
ravaged the whole of Champagne, while
Charles V., whose condition continued to
get worse, returned to Brussels.

The same alternations of success and
of reverses marked the course of the Italian
campaign. Henri II., persevering in the
policy of Francois I., kept two ambassadors
at Constantinople to make sure of the co-
operation of the Turks.* In the summer of
1553, the two fleets combined, but the
frequent quarrels between the leaders
paralysed all action. f

0 In a letter dated from Rheims, November 23rd, 1552,
the King offered Soliman to let his fleet winter at Toulon. —
" Negotiations avec le Levant," vol. ii., page 243 ; " Ribier,"
vol. ii., page 408.

f Letter from Baron de la Garde, dated from off Sar-
dinia, July 31st, 1553, and giving an account of their early
operations in the Mediterranean. M. de la Garde explains
that he has the greatest difficulty in preventing Dragut from
ravaging the coasts, and that he cannot stop him altogether.
— " Negotiations avec le Levant," vol. ii., page 271 ; " Ribier,'
vol. ii., page 442.

160 A GENTLEMAN OP THE OLDEN TIME.

The Turks landed in Calabria, despite
the opposition of the French, burning the
villages, cutting down the olive-trees and
carrying off the peasants. After an endless
number of difficulties, the commanders of
the two fleets eventually agreed to make a
descent upon Corsica, and they captured
Bastia.* Bonifacio capitulated ; but as Baron
de la Garde refused to let the Turks pillage
the town, Dragut turned round upon him,
seized the spoils and the artillery, together
with several of his men, and made off.
Andre Doria thereupon reconquered Corsica
in the name of the Emperor.

Around Siena, a desperate struggle was

0 In two letters to the King, August 3rd, from Port
Hercules, and the Island of Elba, Baron de la Garde, in
giving him an account of what has been done, says that he
has at last succeeded in getting Dragut to sail with him upon
Corsica. — " Ribier," vol. ii., page 450. See also a letter from
M. de Tennes, dated August 30th, relating to the Cardinal
de Ferrara, the operations in Corsica, and the difficulties
which had arisen between the two admirals, together with
another from M. de Selves, dated December 31st, speaking of
the avidity of Dragut, and of the difficulties which it occa-
sions in the conduct of operations. — " Ribier," vol. ii., page
452 ; " Negociations avec le Levant," vol. ii., page 277.

A GENTLEMAN OP THE OLDEN TIME. 161

in progress. The inhabitants made the town
over to the French. Termes, Montluc, and
Strozzi, in turn, defended it, seconded by the
population, notably the female portion, which
behaved with true heroism. Receiving no
relief from outside, Siena was retaken by the
Imperial forces on April 21st, 1555. Pied-
mont, upon the other hand, valiantly de-
fended by Brissac, without troops or money,
remained true to France, and at Eome, the
French party succeeded in electing, under
the title of Pope Paul IV., the monk
Caraffa, who was a sworn enemy of the
Spaniards.

In the year 1553, the premature death of
Edward VI, gave the throne to the Catholic
Mary, and Charles V., seeing in her an ad-
versary of the Protestant doctrine, brought
about, after long negociations, a marriage
between her and his son Philip of Spain.*

* See, with regard to this marriage, and the difficulties it
provoked, the correspondence of Charles V. with his
ambassadors in England and France, and with the Bishop of
Arras.—" Papiers d'Etat de Granville," vol. iv., from June
9th, 1553, to August 6th, 1554. See also the marriage con-
tract of Philip and Mary. Ancient French, 3253.

VOL. II. 31

162 A GENTLEMAN OP THE OLDEN TIME.

This marriage was very unpopular in
England, and Philip, cordially detested by
the nation, failed to exercise the smallest
influence.*

In the East, Hungary remained in the
hands of the Turks, and Soliman's forces
were constantly threatening Vienna. Ger-
many, too, was slipping from the Emperor's
grasp, and he could not even secure the
integrity of his own territory. By a singular
irony of fate, the death of his great rival,
Francois I., instead of handing over the
whole of Europe to him, as it seemed likely
to do, marked the decline of his power ; for
Henri II., weak-minded though he was, de-
void of force of character and energy, suc-
ceeded in stirring up Europe against him,
and seizing three important towns, which
he held, as it were, in the aged Emperor's
face.

If, abroad, the enemies of Charles V.

* Letters from Englishmen to Henri IL, complaining of
the tyranny to which they were subjected, and pointing out
to him how he could deliver them from it, May llth, 15oo. —
u Brionne," page 368.

A GENTLEMAN OP THE OLDEN TIME. 163

were still in arms, ready to attack him once
more, his policy at home had resulted in
nothing but ruin, as the condition of the
peoples subject to his sway, will testify.
Even Spain, his native country, which had
been preserved from invasion, had lost, with
its free institutions, its ancient energy, and
the inhabitants had exhausted the fertility of
its soil, and did nothing to develope the
growth of industry. Charles V., less wealthy
and less popular than the ancient Kings of
Aragon and Castille, was reduced to live
upon the gold derived from the New World.
Italy, subjugated again and again, was only
kept in submission by the most odious forms
of tyranny, exaction, pillage, prison, and
torture. The Emperor's lieutenants, such as
d'Avalos, Leyve, Gonzagua, Marignan, Don
Pedro of Toledo, the Duke of Alva, and the
Marquis de Piadena, were like so many
executioners, and under their malignant
sway, the beautiful kingdom of Naples, the
rich plains of Lombardy, and the brilliant
province of Tuscany, were changed into a
desert.

104 A GENTLEMAN OP THE OLDEN TIME.

In the north, the once prosperous Low
Countries saw their towns and villages,
like those of Italy, reduced to ruins, their
cattle butchered, their inhabitants executed,
and their maritime trade destroyed by
corsairs. The heretic doctrines of Germany
alone saved her, and this was the most
cruel rebuff of all for Charles V., who,
the ardent promoter of Catholicism, was
defeated by the Reformation in his own
States, as he was shortly to be in his own
family.

The treaty of Passau, imposed on Charles
V. by the Protestant Princes, had stipulated
that a Diet should assemble within six months
to settle the measures to be taken. The
Emperor sought to defer this meeting, in the
hope that fortune might change, and when he
was disappointed in this hope, he sent his
brother Ferdinand, being too ill to go him-
self, to preside at the Diet, which met at
Augsburg, in the beginning of 1555. It so
happened that Ferdinand, who had already had
some differences with Charles V. regarding
the succession to the Empire, was very tired

A GENTLEMAN OP THE OLDEN TIME. 165

of his yoke,* and Laving, moreover, need of
the services of the Princes in the matter of
the Imperial inheritance, he opened the Diet
with a declaration that no Council is capable
of re-establishing religious liberty, and that
it behoves the Council, therefore, to keep
clear of all theological questions, and to
endeavour to solve existing difficulties by a
policy of toleration.

This speech, which was circulated
throughout the whole of Germany, came like
a thunderclap. Charles V. could not believe
his senses, and the Princes hesitated at first
to respond to his overtures, fearing that
some trap was being laid for them. How-
ever, finding that he persevered in this atti-
tude, they took courage, and one by one
came to Augsburg, so that the Diet, which,
when opened in January, was like a desert,
had become very crowded in March. It took

0 See the letters from Ferdinand to his sister, Queen
Mary of Hungary, to whom he relates the violent outbursts
of his brother. He also complained to Charles V. himself.
Their answers are also given. — " Correspondance dea
Kaisers," vol. iii., pages 11 — 21.

166 A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME.

in hand religious affairs, and disposed of
them very expeditiously, the Reformed Faith
being everywhere placed upon a footing of
equality with Catholicism, and the civil
power being entrusted in each State with the
regulation of matters of doctrine and public
worship. This measure, which broke up the
unity of the Empire, and the unity of re-
ligion, annihilated the political and the re-
ligious policy which Charles V. had made his
own, and it was upon this that he determined
to carry out the project which he had long
meditated, and to quit the throne for the
cloister.

Negotiations for peace had already
been opened several times. Cardinal Pole,
the Pope's legate in England, took them up,
tinder the mediation of Queen Mary, in the
spring of 1555. There was an exchange of
views, but as mutual pretensions rendered
the conclusion of peace impossible, it was
agreed that there should be a truce of five
years, during which all communications by
land and sea should be re-established, each
sovereign being left in possession of his

A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME. 167

conquests.* This having been agreed to,
Charles Y. did not even await the formal
conclusion to put his project into practice.

The idea of descending from the throne
and going into retirement with the Hierony-
mites had first occurred to him on his return
from the Tunis expedition, and had never
been given up, as he told one of his relatives
afterwards, f

The Hieronymites were great favourites
of his. Devoted to prayer, to the cultivation
of literature, and to singing, this order had
recently been founded by some Spanish
hermits, under the patronage of St. Jerome,
and conformed to the rules of St. Augustin.
Very popular in Spain, and enriched by the
offerings of the faithful, its many establish-

* The prisoners of war were to be delivered upon pay-
ment of a ransom equivalent to three months' pay, except in
the cases of Francois de Montmorency, the Due de Bouillon,
the Due d'Arschott, who were of such importance that they
were treated with individually. See the verses of Joachim
du Bellay. — " Discours au Roi sur la Treve de Vaucelles,"
Edition of 1573, page 172.

f Letter from Laurenso Pires de Tavora to King John
III., dated January 16th, 1557, quoted by Miguet in his
" Abdication de Charles-Quint," page 6.

168 A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME.

ments, which included vast tracts of land,
forests of olives and cedars, and groves of
orange and lemon trees, extended from
Granada to Lisbon, and from Seville to Sara-
gossa, covering a very picturesque and soli-
tary tract of country. The monks cultivated
the land, and pastured their flocks and herds
upon the neighbouring mountains, entertain-
ing the numerous pilgrims who came to visit
them in the large refectories, where re-
pasts were provided six or seven times a
day. The beauty of their singing was cele-
brated throughout Spain, and the echo of
it resounded sweetly in the surrounding
country.*

After raising the siege of Metz, where he
suffered so much, Charles V. selected for his
retreat the monastery of Yuste, in the
wooded valley of the Estramadura, called
Yera Plaseuzia, upon a hill with a southern
aspect. Upon the 13th of December, he
wrote a confidential letter to his son, in

* Siguenza, quoted by Mignet in his " Abdication de
Charles-Quint," page 60.

A GENTLEMAN OP THE OLDEN TIME. 169

which he directed him to have built, close to
the monastery, a residence suitable for a
nobleman and his suite. He then communi-
cated his plans to his sisters, Mary of
Hungary, and Eleanor* of Portugal and
France, both of whom were very devoted to
him.

His increasing infirmities confirmed him
in his resolution, and at the death of his
mother, Jeanne, who had for the last thirty
years been insane, and confined to the castle
of Tordesilas — her faithful Spaniards none
the less still regarding her as their Queen —
removed the last obstacle to his abdication
of a throne which he had hitherto occupied
on her behalf, he gave public notice of his
intentions.

The ceremony of abdication was accord-
ingly prepared, and on the 25th of October,
1555, in the grand saloon of the palace at
Brussels, opposite the Assembly House of
the States-General, Charles V., dressed in

0 Queen Eleanor rejoined Charles V. at Brussels the
year after the death of Fra^ois I.

170 A GENTLEMAN OP THE OLDEN TIME.

mourning, and accompanied by his son
Philip, his sisters, his nephews and his
nieces, came forward, walking with difficulty,
leaning with one hand on a stick and with
the other on the shoulder of William, Prince
of Orange. A deep silence prevailed among
those present,* as he took his seat under the
Burgundy canopy, and ordered Philibert, of
Brussels, to read aloud the Latin declaration,
in which he announced his abdication of the
Sovereignties of Burgundy and Flanders.
When this had been done, he rose, and lean-
ing for support on the Prince of Orange,
made a brief speech, in which he reminded
his hearers how, forty years before, at the
same place and the same hour, his ancestor,
the Emperor Maximilian, emancipated him at
the age of fifteen, and made him " Lord of
himself." He then went over the history of
his life, asking pardon for his faults, and de-
claring that he had always sought to do for
the best. Turning towards his son, he

0 List of the deputies present at the abdication. — " Re-
traite et Mort de Charles-Quint.'1 — Gachard, Introduction,
page 184.

A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME. 171

pathetically commended to him the care of
his States and the defence of the Catholic
Faith. Unable to remain standing any
longer, he fell back, with a broken voice, into
his seat, and the whole assembly manifested
its emotion in tears and sobs. Philip then
threw himself at his father's feet, and swore
that he would continue his work; and after
the reply of the States and a speech by
Cardinal de Granville, the Queen of Hungary
resigned the post of Governor of Flanders,
and declared that, being exhausted by disease,
and tired of exercising authority after twenty-
four years of difficult but sagacious govern-
ment, she had determined to follow her bro-
ther to Spain, and devote the rest of her days
to the service of God.

Upon the 16th of January, the Emperor
abdicated the kingdoms of Castille, Aragon,
and Sicily, with their dependencies, and his
reason for retaining the Imperial Crown for
a short time was, that Ferdinand might
select the favourable moment for securing
his own election. Since the treaty of Passau,
and the rescript of Augsburg, Charles V

172 A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME.

had, for conscience' sake, taken no part in
the conduct of Imperial affairs, and before
leaving the Low Countries, he sent his abdi-
cation to his brother through the Prince of
Orange.

Upon the completion of these ceremonies,
Charles V. retired to a small house which he
possessed at the extremity of the Park, near
the Porte de Louvain, being anxious to give
some advice to his son as to the conduct of
affairs. It was there, after the truce of Vau-
celles, that he received a visit from Gaspard
de Coligny, who had been sent with the
document to Brussels in order that it might
be ratified by the two Sovereigns.

Coligny had first gone to Peronne, to
form an escort consisting of a thousand
horse ; but the Chevalier de Bossu, who had
been sent to meet him at Cambrai, begged
him to reduce it considerably, as, owing to
the assembly of the States-General at Brus-
sels, it would be impossible to accommodate
so many people. This he accordingly did,
and reached Brussels on the 25th of March,
1556.

A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME. 173

Soon after, he went to the Palace for the
royal reception. The saloon adjoining the
chapel had been hung with tapestry repre-
senting the battle of Pavia, the capture of
Francois I., and his embarking for Spain.
The French were very indignant at this, but
said nothing, though on the following day,
after mass in the chapel, the jester Brusquet
had his revenge, for, just as King Philip was
proceeding to the altar, to swear fidelity to
the truce, Brusquet cried with a loud voice,
" Largess ! Largess ! " and threw pieces of
money about. The company assembled
thought that it would be only polite to rush
and pick them up, while the King, taken by
surprise, asked what it all meant. When
Coligny explained that it was the jester who
had done this, there was a general and hearty
laugh.*

Upon Palm Sunday, Coligny took the

0 Another trick -which Brusquet played was at the
dinner. Having obtained the King's permission to play a
joke, he jumped on to the table, rolled himself up in the
table cloth, and made off, with the plate and all, making a
profound bow, and saying, " Many thanks ! "

174 A GENTLEMAN OP THE OLDEN TIME.

treaty to the Emperor, in his small house
near the Porte de Louvain. After having
passed through the ante room, twenty-four
feet square, which was filled with nobles, he
entered the Emperor's study, which was a
little larger, and in which he found Charles
V., with a bad attack of gout, seated in an
invalid chair, attired in mourning, with a
table covered with black cloth before him.
Charles received him very courteously, and,
though his half - paralysed hands could
scarcely open the French King's letter, he
declined the assistance of the Bishop of
Arras, who was standing behind his chair,
saying that he would not be prevented
fulfilling his " duty towards the King his
brother."

Having read the letter, he inquired very
graciously after the King's health, and said
that he was proud of being descended from
his house through Mary of Burgundy. "When
told that Henri II. had already white hair,
he said that he remembered how, when he
was of the same age, he discovered his first
white hairs while being curled and perfumed

A GENTLEMAN OP THE OLDEN TIME. 175

at Naples, "to secure the admiration of the
ladies," upon his return from Tunis. He
tried to get rid of them, but finding a few
days afterwards that there were three times
as many, he gave it up.*

Charles V. would have liked to have seen
his brother for the last time, his brotherly
feelings of affection being revived at the
moment of departure, f Ferdinand could not
well leave Germany, but he sent his son, the
eldest, Maximilian, King of Bohemia, being
already at Brussels.

Charles Y. bade them all good-bye on the
5th of August, Philip accompanying him as
far as Ghent, where they parted on the 28th,
never to meet again. Charles, accompanied
by his two sisters, embarked at Flushing
upon a vessel of the Low Countries squadron,

0 " Voyage de 1'amiral devant 1'Empereur et le Roy
Philippe pour la ratification de la Treve de Vaucelles." —
Bibliotheque du Roi ; Colbert, in octavo, vol. xvi., folio 42.
This narrative, wrongly mentioned as unpublished by the
" Archives Curieuses de France," is to be found in " Ribier,"
vol. ii., page 635.

-|- Letter from Charles V. to Ferdinand. — " Lanz," voL iii.,
page 693.

176 A GENTLEMAN OP THE OLDEN TIME.

which was to escort them to Spain.* De-
tained by bad weather upon the Zeland sand-
banks, the fleet did not leave the Channel till
the 22nd of September, reaching the port of
Loredo, in Biscay, on the 28th. The two
Queens disembarked at Santander, and re-
joined their brother the next day.

King Philip had already written to his
sister, Dona Juana, who was acting as
Regent in his absence, with regard to his
father's reception ; but, in accordance with
the traditions of Spanish dilatoriness, no-
thing was ready, and Charles was much
displeased.

He was some time in making his way to
Valladolid, the country in the north of Old
Castille being so denuded of all resources that
the Emperor and his suite could not travel
many leagues a day.

Charles had declined all official receptions
upon the way, but he found the roads
crowded with nobles and peasants who had

° Enumeration of the fifty-six vessels which escorted
Charles V. to Spain.—" Ketraite et Mort de Charles-Quint."
— Gachard, Introduction, page 224.

A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN T[ME. 177

come to see him for the last time. His
grandson, Don Carlos, came to meet him at
Cabezon, and, in the course of the conversa-
tion which they had, the aged Emperor was
much struck by his vehemence, undiscipline,
and haughty disposition. He could not
bring himself to comply with any of the
rules of etiquette, and it was repugnant to
him even to stand bareheaded. His ferocity
displayed itself, even in early youth, and he
found pleasure in roasting hares and other
animals alive. The Emperor was much
troubled at finding how badly this lad had
been brought up.*

At Valladolid he was met by his daughter
and the general of the Hieronymites, accom-
panied by some of the monks, who had come
to take his orders with regard to the reli-
gious service.

On the 4th of November, at 3.30 p.m., he
left the town, and would not allow any of the
grandees to accompany him beyond the El

* "Retraite et Mort de Charles-Quint," vol. i., pages
9—18 ; " Retiro Estancio," quoted by Mignet, pages
142—152.

VOL. n. 32

178 A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME.

Campo Gate. His two sisters were to re-
join him later, and, as his cortege entered
upon the mountain paths, he said to his
servitors : —

" Please God, I shall not be troubled
with any more visits or receptions."

The last part of his journey was very
fatiguing. The road, if it could be called
one, was intersected by impetuous torrents,
which formed regular ravines, and the in-
habitants had to come out with picks and
spades to make it passable. Others helped
to carry the Emperor's litter, and at certain
points they had to place him in a chair, or
even carry him upon their shoulders. Reaching
the summit of the pass, whence the Vera de
Plasencia was visible, he turned round and
looked northward, over the gorge which they
had just come through, and said : —

" The only other pass I shall journey
through will be that of death."

The descent was less tiring than the
ascent, and the Emperor reached the castle
of the Count d'Oropesa, at Jarandilla, in good
time, on the 12th of November, remaining

A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME. 179

there for three months, until his residence at
Yuste was ready for him. It was not until
the 3rd of February, 1557, that he took a
sorrowful leave of the nobles who had accom-
panied him from Brussels, and who were not
to follow him any further. His litter, accom-
panied by his host, a few of his most inti-
mate friends, and followed by his household,*
arrived, in less than an hour, at the place
where he was to end his days.

This residence was not, as was for a long
time said, monastic in its austerity. The
house was composed of two storeys, with
four rooms on each, divided by a passage ;
and it was built upon very steep ground,
adjoining the north side of the church, with
a view to the south over the valley and
mountain. Upon each side of the house,
two open-air terraces, raised to the height of
the first floor, formed covered galleries,
supported by pillars, for the ground floor
apartments.

0 See the list of the servitors -whom Charles V. kept with
him upon entering Yuste. — " Retraite ct Mort de Charles-
Quint," page 111.

180 A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME.

Charles V. lived in the upper storey, and
his rooms communicated with the monastery
church by means of a glass passage and a
door upon the level of the high altar, so that
when he was ill he could hear mass, and even
see the officiating priest, without leaving his
bed. He could also communicate with the
monks through the choir, without coming
out of his house. A large walled garden
extended to the edge of the forest of oak and
chestnut which covered the mountain. Two
cows, the milk of which supplied his table,
were allowed to browse in the garden, and
there was a pond of running water, which
contained the fish required for his kitchen.

The whole house, though hung with black
drapery, in token of mourning, was luxuri-
ously furnished with Turkey and Acaraz
carpets, canopies of cloth and velvet, walnut-
wood chairs, delicately carved and studded
with gilt nails, luxurious beds and arm-chairs
covered with black velvet, and two chairs,
specially made to carry the Emperor about
in, while the table and toilet services were in
silver and gold, and the linen of the finest

A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME. 181

description. There were fifty servants, and
eight mules were kept solely for the convey-
ance of provisions.* The house contained
many works of art as well, including the
portraits of the whole of his family by Titian,
of whom he was a warm admirer and patron,
and that painter's celebrated picture — the
Trinity — now in the Escurial, together with
delicately carved crucifixes, reliquaries, and
splendid tapestry. Then, in accordance with
the custom of the day, there were talismans,
supposed to be endowed with curative pro-
perties ; encrusted stones, which would cure
gout ; bracelets and gold rings, which were
sovereign remedies for cramp ; a philoso-
pher's stone, and several bezoar stones
brought from the East.f

It was here that Charles passed the last
years of his life, but he did not, as has been
said, spend them in the company of the

* Charles V. was a large eater, and his table was always
very well served. Once, at Yuste, he tried the monk's fare,
but that was the last as well as the first time.

f Inventory of the things which Charles V. took with
him from the Low Countries to Spain.

182 A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME.

monks, joining in strange ceremonies, and
placing himself while still alive in his coffin,
to have the funeral service read over him.*
He led a life entirely independent of and
apart from the monks. He selected from
among them his confessor, his reader, and his
three preachers. He was very fond of hear-
ing the monks sing, and he loaded the Order
with gifts ; but he made them feel the weight
of his authority. Having been informed that
when the poor inhabitants of the neighbour-'

* With reference to this tradition, Fray Martin do
Angelo, Father Siguenza, and a third monk, whose MS. is
in the archives at Brussels, relate the fact, as being eye-
witnesses ; while neither the majordomo, Quijada, nor the
secretary, Gaztelu, nor the doctor, Matbys, make the
slightest mention of it in their correspondence or in
their reports to King Philip and the Queen Regent, either
before or after his death. These contradictory statements
are, however, reconcilable, if we admit, with M. Gachard and
Mr. Stirling (the " Cloister Life of the Emperor Charles V."),
and, in opposition to M. Mignet, that the ceremony really
took place, but without any of the dramatic surroundings
described. The monks themselves say that Charles V., after
being present at a service in memory of his parent's defunct
wife, had one celebrated for himself, and his household may
not have thought the fact worth special mention. — See
Gachard's " Retraite et Mort de Charles-Quint," vol. L, page
175 ; and Mignet's "Abdication," page 17.

A GENTLEMAN OP TIIE OLDEN TIME. 183

hood came to obtain alms, the monks amused
themselves by conversing with the young
women, he ordered that the grain, food, and
other gifts should be taken round into the
villages, and he had public proclamation
made forbidding any woman to come within
two cross-bows' range of the monastery.*
The monks invariably trembled in his pre-
sence ; and the first time he came into the
church they were so troubled that they could
not sprinkle him with the holy water.

Charles V. had a keen appreciation of the
beauties of nature, and he was able, once
freed from the cares of politics, to satisfy
his fondness for all that related to art and
literature. The western terrace of his resi-
dence was his favourite resort, and he had it
planted with an orange grove and plenty of
creepers, while a small waterfall added to
the picturesque character of this terrace,
where the Emperor liked to sit and watch the
sunset, walking down to the garden below
when the gout allowed him to use his legs.

0 " Sandoval," page 827.

184 A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME.

His intention was to erect an oratory above
the terrace, and he sketched the plans of a
building close by for the accommodation of
his son when lie came to see him.

The room which he used of a day had a
magnificent view over the valley, and faced
full south. It was in this room that he
studied and received his numerous visitors ;
and he delighted in his library, which was
filled with works of science, warfare, Chris-
tian philosophy, religion, and romances of
chivalry, a great number of which had been
written or translated by his orders. He took
a deep interest in mechanics and astronomy,
and the learned engineer, Giovanni Torriano,
constructed in his presence clocks of all
sizes — the smallest would now be called
watches — Charles himself working under his
directions. He had, too, in his study, ma-
thematical instruments for taking levels and
measuring distances ; telescopes for examin-
ing the stars, a sea-chart, given him by
Prince Doria, and maps of Italy, Spain,
Flanders, Germany, Constantinople, and
India, to enable him to follow the move-

A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME. 185

merits of the different armies. But his most
interesting occupation, no doubt, was the
compilation of Memoirs, which have not,
unfortunately, come down to us. He says :
" I have related all my enterprises, with
their causes and motives " ; and in asking
Father Francis de Borza, his confessor,
whether he could be accused of vanity in
writing them, he said that his sole object was
to re-establish historical truth.*

The monastery of Yuste, formerly so
silent and lifeless, had become a centre of
movement and activity. Carriers were con-
stantly coming and going, and, except during
the first few days, when he seemed charmed
at being delivered from the burden of busi-
ness, he occupied himself with the utmost
interest in all that was going on.f His

* M. Gachard, in two learned dissertations upon the
"Memoires de1 Charles-Quint," drew the reasonable con-
clusion that they were contained in a large black velvet
portfolio, which, at his death, was sent to his daughter, the
Kegent of Spain, and then to Philip II. According to this,
it was Philip who had them burnt.—" Bulletin de 1' Academic
de Bruxelles," vol. xii., pages 29 and 38 ; " Academic Royale
de Belgique," vol. xxi. ; " Des Bulletins," No. 6.

f "His Majesty," writes the majordomo Quijada, on

186 A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME.

correspondence with Philip II. was uninter-
rupted, and he followed both home and
foreign affairs with constant anxiety, sustain-
ing his son with his advice ; while, strangely
enough, it was invariably the father, old and
ill as he was, who was in favour of the
bolder course. But, much as he was pressed
to do so, he declined resolutely to leave his
retreat, and the only occasion upon which his
resolution seemed somewhat shaken was
when the Protestant heresy made a brief
appearance in Spain. Writing to the Re-
gent to stimulate her zeal, he hints that if
necessary he would contribute in person to
the repression and punishment.*

His two sisters almost worshipped him.
Eleanor, of a very gentle and submissive
disposition, obeyed him blindly, and when on

October 6, 1556, "had such a dislike to business, that he
will not hear a word said about it.'' A few months later,
things were very different, as the numerous letters of the
Secretaries, Yasquez and Gaztelu, testify. — " Retraite et
Mort de Charles-Quint," vol. i., pages 42, 45, 47, etc., and
vol. ii., pages 458, 484, 490.

0 " Sandoval," page 829.— "Betiro Estancio," folio 182,.,
quoted by Mignet, page 363.

A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME. 1S7

the throne of Portugal, as well as that of
France, she was his docile instrument. Mary,
more energetic by nature and endowed with
more political capacity, as well as with more
perseverance and mental resource, had served
his cause very effectually during her twenty-
four years' government of the Low Countries.
She often said of him that he was " every-
thing to her after God."

When he was settled at Yuste, Charles
instructed Quijada to prepare for them tho
Castle of Jarandilla, where they were to
reside, and two rooms were reserved for them
at Yuste. " We will give them iced drinks,"
said Quijada, " there is nothing they enjoy
so much."*

The two Queens thus spent the autumn of
1557 with their brother, discussing with him
not only public affairs, but family business,
all of which he kept completely under his
own control.

As John III., the King of Portugal, kept
Dona Maria, his half-sister, the daughter of

0 " Retraite et Mort de Charles-Quint," vol. i., page 175.

188 A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME.

Eleanor, with him at Lisbon, Charles com-
pelled him to send her back to her mother,
who wished to see her. The meeting took
place at Badajoz, and lasted several days.
But the young Princess, who was very proud
and unfeeling, showed nothing but aversion
for her mother, and, despite her earnest
entreaties, left her to go back to Portugal.
This was a death blow to her mother, who,
taken ill at Truxillo, died a few days after-
wards of an attack of asthma, complicated by
a violent fever (January 18, 1558).

This terribly affected the Queen of Hun-
gary, who, hitherto so strong-minded and
self-contained, could not pronounce her sister's
name without bursting into tears. Charles
V., himself suffering from an attack of gout
in the knee and hip, was so affected that he
dreaded an interview with his sister.

" He felt this loss mortally," wrote Vas-
quez, and he said to Quijada, "I shall not
believe it until I see the Queen of Hungary
coming in to me without her sister."*

0 " Retire Estancio." folio 170, quoted by Mignet,
page 341 ; " Betraite et Mort de Charles-Quint," vol. i.,
page 280.

A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME. 189

She came on the 3rd of March, at night-
fall, and in spite of their efforts to contain
themselves, they both burst into tears on
meeting.

The presence of the youthful Don Juan,
who was placed under the charge of Dona
Magdalena, the wife of Quijada, was one of
the last pleasurable incidents in the Em-
peror's life. Residing at Quacos, close to
Yuste, Dona Magdalena often brought him
this lad, who was born to him by a young
woman of Ratisbon, and • whose presence
always moved him very much. " At times,"
writes the anonymous monk already quoted,
"this boy would walk along before his
father, and the Emperor gazed steadfastly
on him, but with so much majesty and cir-
cumspection, that no one would ever have
guessed his secret. Once or twice the lad
entered his apartments, and the Emperor
spoke to him as he might have done to any
of the other lads who came and went.'"

0 " Retraite et Mort de Charles-Quint," vol. ii., Preface,
page iv. It is known that he recognized his birth in his will
and provided for his future, warmly recommending him to
the care of Philip IL

190 A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEX TIME.

The Emperor's health was declining daily,
and he soon had a succession of delirious
attacks, followed by fits of fainting, which
foreshadowed the end. His resignation and
force of character never abandoned him,
and when he came to again he recovered
all his self-command, nor did he ever cease
to take an interest in Spain and in the affairs
of his own family.

He spoke of his approaching end with
the utmost calm, but, dreading a painful
scene, he would not again see his sister
Mary, nor his daughter Juana, despite their
urgent entreaties. His regular attendants
were the only persons near him, except the
monks, who exhorted him to prepare for
death, and sustained him with their prayers
and the ceremonies of the church, which he
had always piously and faithfully observed.
After his death, his attendants found close to
his bed two scourges quite worn out, close to
a carved crucifix, which had been held by
the Empress when at the point of death.*

0 Siguenza relates that daring the two seasons of Lent
•which he passed at Yuste, the Emperor, on every Friday,

A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME. 191

It was upon this crucifix that he, too, wished
to draw his last breath. It never left his
hands, and after several days of terrible pain
and anguish, he pressed it to his lips for the
last time, this being at about two in the
morning of September 21st.

Queen Mary followed him at a few days'
interval, and thus was unable to carry out
the promise he had extracted from her that
she would return to the Low Countries and
resume the governorship, in order to relieve
King Philip.

Charles V. was one of the most original
and powerful personages of his time. The
son of a woman who was deranged in her
mind, subject as a boy to attacks of epilepsy
and violent fever, and, from the time he
reached man's estate, to frequent attacks of

went up into the choir, and extinguishing the taper he
had in his hand, and praying " like a valiant soldier of
Christ, macerated the flesh, and scourged himself with the
rest of the monks." He even scourged himself with
such force that he wore out the ends of the thong. His
whips of discipline were handed down to his son. — " Be-
traite et Mort de Charles-Quint," vol. ii., Preface, pages G
and 8.

192 A GENTLEMAN OP THE OLDEN TIME.

gout,* he was endowed with a sombre genius
in keeping with his uneasy temperament — a
strange compound of politician, theocrat, and
mystic.

The politician was the first to develope,
and before he was twenty he had won
the battle of the Empire, and had displayed
the ability of a practised strategist, in the
most difficult circumstances. The struggles
of the Reformation developed the theocratic
side of his character, and, when brought face
to face with the uprising of the individual
conscience, his whole soul was set upon a
theory of absolute unity— a theory which
aggrandized his conceptions, but sterilized
them.f Deriving his principle of action from
the absolute and the abstract, he was lacking
in that knowledge of character and influence

0 " Correspondance de 1'Empereur Maximillien avec
Marguerite d'Autriche " (1509 — 1519), vol. i., pages 145 —
245. — " Journal des Voyages de Vandenesse," speaking of
the epilepsy and fevers ; "Retraite et Mort de Charles-
Quint," Introduction, p. 12.

f Charles V., it is true, was inclined to usurp the place
of the Head of the Church ; but it is true that he filled it
far better than any of the Popes of his day.

A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME. 193

over men which holds so important a place
in the art of leading them. His authority
was his only mainstay, and that became as
rigid and implacable as the dogmatism which
enshrouded it. The supremacy of the end
implied indifference to the means, and there
was no crime which Charles Y. could not, in
his own eyes, justifiably commit ; for he was
only executing a sovereign decree, and re-
verses did not dispirit him, for was he not
above them ? The workman of an hour, en-
gaged upon a work that was eternal, could
neither appreciate the vicissitudes of it, nor
grasp the aspect of it as a whole. "While the
exclusively personal despotism of Francois I.
followed the promptings of nature, and was,
so to speak, human in its character, that of
Charles Y., impassable and cold as his theory,
calculated, intentional and dogmatic, placed
him in a world apart, where he stood alone,
an enigma to others if not to himself.

The danger of a superhuman tyranny of
this kind is that it has no permanent hold
upon men; and so this silent despot, who
sought to impose his yoke as the incarnation

VOL. ii. 33

194 A GENTLEMAN OP THE OLDEN TIME.

of what was . unchangeable, inspired no other
feeling than that of horror; and his victories
were only the forerunners of defeats, his
work not establishing itself anywhere, and
crumbling to dust with him. It was doubt-
less this feeling, more than anything else,
which drove him into the Monastery of
Yuste ; but he left the arena with dignity,
and the gentle, luminous calm of his de-
clining days is not the least curious feature
in his character and life. There must, too,
despite the rigour of his theocratic ideas,
have been a depth of tenderness and mysti-
cism in him, for monastic solitude had always
had an attraction for him ; and amid the
vicissitudes of his stormy existence, upon his
accession to the Imperial throne, his corona-
tion in Italy, his expeditions to the African
coast, as well as after the death of a dearly-
loved wife, he sought advice and consolation,
not among his own relations, but in the
cloister. It is said that at Algiers, during
that terrible night when the tempest, break-
ing the anchors of his vessels, and inundating
his camp, threatened him and his army with

A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME. 195

a miserable death, he walked about among
the grandees, attired in a long white mantle,
repeating, in his anguish, "Fiatvoluntas tua!"
And then, as if suddenly remembering the
hymns offered up at midnight in all the
monasteries, he added, with a smile on his
face, "Be of good cheer ! In an hour all the
monks and nuns in Spain will be praying
for us."*

Such was Charles V., whose glory it is to
have represented in history an idea, true or
false, malignant or beneficent — at all events,
an idea and a general conception of life. This
was why Philip II. could say with truth that,
even in the tomb, the very shadow of his
figure still added to the greatness of his
country, f

6 >c Sandoval," vol. ii., p. 408, quoted by Mignet, page 59.
f " Eetraite et Mort de Charles-Quint," vol. i., page 147.

CHAPTER VIII.

GUISE'S CAMPAIGN IN ITALY.— THE DEFEAT OF
ST. QUENTIN.— THE VICTORY AT CALAIS.—
GRAYELINES.— PRELIMINARIES OF PEACE.
—THE SECRET CAUSES OF THE PEACE
OF GATE AU-CAMBRESIS. — MARRIAGES AT
COURT.— DEATH OF HENRI II.

HILE Charles V. was passing away
at Yuste, Philip II. re-opened the
struggle against France which the
truce of Vaucelles had for the time suspended,
the war recommencing in Italy. The Guises,
descended from the house of Anjou, had
always claimed the throne of Naples, and so
regarded the King of Spain as their personal
enemy. Cardinal de Lorraine was constantly
intriguing at Rome against the Duke of Alva,
the Viceroy of Naples, and it was mainly

A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME. 197

through his efforts that Caraffa, a hot-headed
old monk, who was bent upon driving the
Spaniards out of Italy and restoring to the
Papacy the authority which it enjoyed in
the Middle Ages, was elected Pope.

Charles V. was much alarmed when the
news of this election reached him in his
retreat, as he foresaw its dangers. It could
not but give rise to protests, and, after a
quarrel between the Caraffas, nephews of the
Pope, and the Colonnas, who were backed
up by the Duke of Alva, the Pope, moved
thereto by the Cardinal de Lorraine, con-
cluded a treaty, by the terms of which a
French army was to go to Italy and support
the Pope.*

Montmorency, who had concluded the
truce of Vaucelles, protested against these

* Agreement between the King and the Duke of
Ferrara, and declaration of the King with regard to this
treaty, Nov. 16, 1555.— " Fontanieu," pages 277,278. See
also in " Fontanieu," pages 275—278, the many letters from
Caraffa to the King ; and in " Bethunes," 8645, folio 3, a
memorandum upon the league between the Pope and the
King.

198 A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME.

schemes ; but it was all in vain, and while
Montluc and Strozzi went to support the Pon-
tiff at Rome, without denouncing the truce,*
the Due de Guise, at the head of twenty-five
thousand men, marched through Italy, and
joining the Duke of Ferrara, his brother-in-
law, entered Rome in triumph.

But his triumph was of brief duration,
for the Duke of Alva gained over the
nephews of the Pope, who proved false to all
their promises, and Guise had to withdraw
from Rome. The Duke of Alva retook
the various towns which had gone over to
the enemy, and compelled Guise to sign a
treaty of peace. His army was dispersed
and nearly annihilated, and he returned in
humiliation to France, where great disasters
had also occurred.!

0 War was only declared on Jan. 31st.

t Powers given to the Due de Guise to proceed to Italy
as Lieutenant-General of the King. — " Bethunes," 8653,
folio 54. Statement of the forces sent to Italy, and nego-
ciations with Switzerland for their passage through that
country. Letter of Henry II. to the Pope, apologizing for
not leading the army in person. — "Fontanieu," pages 281,
282, taken from " Bethunes," 8644, folio 85, etc.

A GENTLEMAN OP THE OLDEN TIME. 199

Mary of England, to please her husband,
and contrary to the wish of her people, had
declared war against France on June 7,
1557.* A body of English troops, landing
in the Low Countries, reinforced the Spanish
army, and while the French had their atten-
tion distracted by an attack on Eocroi, the
Duke of Savoy marched on St. Quentin.
The town was dismantled and had but a
very small garrison, so Coligny and his bro-
ther, d'Andelot, garrisoned it in all haste,
while St. Andre and the Prince of Conde
made a feint of attacking the enemy near
Ham. Unfortunately, the Constable allowed
himself to be tempted into making a real
attack with inferior forces, and, having failed
to secure his retreat, the French army was
attacked from the rear by the Spanish
cavalry, and the defeat degenerated into a
rout. The Constable, St. Andre, and more
than four thousand nobles were taken pri-
soners, as many being left dead upon the

* Declaration of war by Mary against Henri II. — " Fon-
tanieu," pages 283, 284.

200 A GENTLEMAN OP THE OLDEN TIME.

field of battle. The road to Paris was open,
and the Duke of Savoy was anxious to take
advantage of this to march upon the French
capital.* But, wrote Montluc, " God was
pleased miraculously to deprive the King of
Spain of his right judgment ; he could not
make up his mind, and it was thus, as we
must all confess, that God preserved our
kingdom." f

Philip II. having given orders that the
army was not to go beyond St. Quentin
until that town had been taken, siege was
laid to it; but Coligny resisted with the
courage of despair, and, though very short of
men, of provisions, and of ammunition, he
held it for seventeen days, the town having
eleven breaches in its walls when it was taken
by storm. J

This heroic defence was the salvation of

0 Letter from the Duke of Savoy to his subjects, after
the battle of St. Quentin, upon the condition of France.
— "Fontanieu," pages 283, 284.

f " Montluc," vol. xxiv., page 56.

J Speech of Gaspard de Coligny, about this siege. —
"Fontanieu," pages 283, 284.

A GENTLEMAN OP THE OLDEN TIME. 201

France, for the whole of the nobility had
flown to arms, and mercenaries arrived in
great numbers from Switzerland and Ger-
many. Rivalry and discord broke out, too,
in the army of the enemy, composed as it
was of Germans, English, and Spaniards, the
Germans deserting, and the English being
recalled by the outbreak of rebellion in
Scotland.

It was at this juncture that the Due de
Guise returned from Italy, and defeated
though he had been the King received him
with open arms, for with Montmorency and
St. Andre prisoners he had lost all heart.
The Due de Guise revived his courage by
pointing out to him how great the resources
of France still were, and, being appointed by
the King as lieutenant-general,* he started
for the army of the North, determined to
wipe out by some deed of daring his defeat
in Italy. When he arrived at the head-
quarters of the army he found that it would

0 Powers done to the Due de Guise as lieutenant-general
of the kingdom.—" Bethunes," 8364, folio 18.

202 A GENTLEMAN OP THE OLDEN TIME.

be impossible, with the small forces at his
disposal, to engage in battle against the
Imperialists, so he boldly determined to
attack Calais, which was the last vestige of
English supremacy in France, and as Calais
had the reputation of being impregnable, it
had naturally excited the ambition of the
greatest French strategists, whose various
plans were carefully considered by Guise and
his friend Strozzi, who was very well versed in
this branch of the art of war. Those which
he followed are attributed by some to Senar-
pont, Governor of Boulogne,* and by others
to Coligny, a prisoner at Ghent, t The
Admiral, convinced of the feasibility of taking
Calais, compared that town to a beautiful
woman reputed invincible because she has
never been attacked, but who at the first
effort surrenders.*

"While Guise, to deceive the enemy, made
a feint in the Artois province, Strozzi got
into the town under a disguise and carefully

* " Tavannes,'' vol. xxvi., page 189.

f Brantome's " Due de Guise."

J Malthieu'a "Regne de Henri II.," book iii., page 189.

A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME. 203

examined the state of the fortifications. He
found them in a poor state of repair and nearly
abandoned, while the garrison itself was
short of numbers and badly appointed, half
the men having returned to England. There
was no fear, it was thought, of an attack
being made in this severe weather. Guise
accordingly made a rapid advance and in-
vested the town with twenty thousand men,
the siege works being pushed forward so
vigorously that in less than a week (January
8th, 1558) Calais capitulated. The inhabi-
tants were all driven out of the town, and
had to wait three days on the shore for boats
to take them back to their own country.
This was the last inch of ground which the
English possessed in France.

This feat of arms, achieved at so small
a cost, had an immense moral effect, for
it revived the drooping courage of the
French, while in England it excited a general
clamour against the unpopular Government
of Queen Mary. It was a terrible blow to
the national pride, for upon one of the gates
of the city was an inscription to the effect

204 A GENTLEMAN OP THE OLDEN TIME.

that " the French will take Calais when iron
and lead shall float like cork."*

While this campaign was going on Vieille-
ville had prepared plans for the siege of
Thionville which had been accepted by the
King, and he was preparing accordingly to
invest the town when a letter from M. de
Guise ordered him to suspend operations
until his arrival, being anxious to secure the
credit of the victory to himself. Vieilleville
was compelled to submit to him as lieutenant-
general of the King, but he was very sore
at having, as he termed it, " the bread taken
out of his mouth."

Guise assumed the command, and the
place was duly invested, attacked, and taken
on June 22nd, 1558,f the contemporary
chroniclers being much divided in opinion as

* "Rabutin,1' vol. mix., page 316. "Discoursde la prise
de Calais par le Due de Guise." Archives " Curieuses de
1'Histoire de France," vol. iii., year 1835, page 239. " Hymne
au Roi sur la prise de Calais." — Joachim du Bellay, edition
of 1573, page 177.

t Letter from Etienne Callemant to the Cardinal de
Guise concerning Thionville, June 17, 1558. — " Clair.," 352,
folio 4249.

A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME. 205

to who deserves the chief credit for the
victory. The " Memoires de Carloix"
attribute it to Vieillevjlle, but Rabutin puts
Bourdillon in the first place, while Tavannes
mentions Montluc, who also claims the credit
himself in his memoirs. Henri II. in a letter
to the Cardinal de Tournon, speaks of the
victory as one gained by the Due de Guise,
while Brantome speaks of the preliminary
work having been done by Yieilleville.

The French forces then marched upon
Arlon, which opened its gates without strik-
ing a blow, and they were preparing to
attack Luxemburg when news arrived of the
disaster to the army of the North, Marshal
de Termes, after capturing Dunkirk, Berch,
and Newport, having been defeated at Grave-
lines, he himself wounded and made prisoner,
and his army completely routed.*

M. de Guise then collected all his avail-
able forces and marched northward, while
Vieilleville dismissed the Germans who had

0 " Relation de la Bataille de Gravelines." — " Bethunes,1'
1660, folio 36. For details of this campaign, see Rabutin,
Montluc, Yillars, and Tavannes.

206" A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME.

been employed for the siege and endeavoured
to re-people the town. Instead of disposing
of the houses for his own profit, as by the
rules of warfare he was entitled to do, he
made them over to the inhabitants who were
left houseless ; and the money which he de-
rived from such sales as were necessary he
devoted to the relief of the most necessitous,
sending the remainder to the treasury, being
reluctant, as he said, to profit by the mis-
fortunes of France.

The King, after the misfortune at Gra-
velines, came to take the command of the
troops on the Somme,* who were separated
by only six leagues from the Spaniards, and
still less from the English. Neither side
cared to advance, being reluctant to risk an
engagement, and being tired of this ruinous
and interminable war. There was another
motive which made Philip and Henri equally
desirous of peace, and this was the religious
question.

0 " Exhortation Publique de Ronsard aux Soldats Fran-
$ais campus sous Amiens." — "(Euvres Completes," edition
of 1623, in folio, vol. ii., page 1265.

A GENTLEMAN OP THE OLDEN TIME. 207

Philip had not inherited the political in-
stinct and the grandiose side of his father's
character. Narrow-minded, obstinate, and
gloomy, seeing only the terrible and dark
side of Catholicism, he regarded persecution
as his prime duty. It was easier for him to
indulge in it than it had been for his father,
the election of Ferdinand as Emperor re-
leasing him, as King of Spain, from the com-
promises with the German Princes of the
Keformed Faith. Philip, therefore, was at
liberty to caress his sinister aspirations, not
for his own country, where heresy had no
foothold, but in the Low Countries, where it
was spreading every day. His project was
to introduce into these free and industrious
provinces the Spanish Inquisition, which put
the people, and even the clergy, at the mercy
of a few informers ; but in order to accom-
plish this he must have peace.

Henri II., not cruelly inclined, but pas-
sively submissive to the Church, under the
influence of Paul IV. and Cardinal Caraffa,
was also bent upon a similar course. He
encountered, however, more obstacles, as

208 A GENTLEMAN OP THE OLDEN TIME.

the ancient independence of the Gallician
Church and magistracy had not been de-
stroyed, and the first attempt to introduce a
Roman Inquisition* into France (1555) pro-
voked remonstrances from the Parliament to
the King. Henri evaded the difficulty by
getting a Bull from the Pope, by which the
inquisitorial powers Were made over to the
three French cardinals, Lorraine, Bourbon,
and Chatillon, " to be used by them in the
legal form, under the authority of the Holy
See, with the evocation of the secular arm
and temporal jurisdiction." An edict of the
King approved the Bull, but Parliament re-
fused to ratify it, and Paul IV., very much
incensed, thundered in vain against the Pro-
testant heresy and those who favoured it.
Not only did the King fail to introduce the
Spanish Inquisition into France, but he could
not even regularly apply the Edict of Cha-
teaubriand, on account of his alliances with
Protestants outside the kingdom. Their

* Letters patent from Henri II. to the Pope as to the
faculties and powers granted to Dr. Orry, Inquisitor of the
Faith."— Ancient French, 383, folio 204.

A GENTLEMAN OP THE OLDEN TIME. 209

complaints were constantly arresting him in
Ms efforts at persecution, and lie was very
anxious to have his hands free.*

The two Sovereigns had, therefore, both
the same motive for desiring peace, and upon
the religious ground they were brought to-
gether by a community of views. But after
so long a war, and with both armies in the
presence of one another, neither liked to
make the first advance. Tavannes and Ra-
butin say that the intermediary was the
Duchess of Lorraine, who was connected
with Philip by blood and with Henri by her
son's marriage. f

The proposition being favourably received
on both sides, a suspension of arms was
agreed to, and this was followed by a five
months' truce, to enable an understanding to
be arrived at.$ The deputies appointed met

0 I do not enter into detail upon this topic, as I hope in
my next volume to depict the religious state of France at
the time oE these troubles.

f The version given by Vincent Carloix, as to the secret
intervention of a monk, is not worth notice. — " Vieilleville,"
vol. xxxi., page 200.

J " Publication de la Suspension des Armes," Octr. 18,
1558.—" Glair.," 352, folio 4573.

VOL. ii. 34

210 A GENTLEMAN OP THE OLDEN TIME.

to discuss conditions at the Abbey of Cer-
camp, these being Montmorency and St.
Andre,* who had been released upon parole,
the Cardinal de Lorraine, the Bishop of
Orleans, and the Secretary of State, Aubes-
pine, upon behalf of France ; and the Duke
of Alva, the Prince of Orange, Ruy Gomez de
Silva and Granville, upon behalf of Spain.
The Queen of England and the Duke of
Savoy were also represented, but their depu-
ties played only a subordinate part in the
negociations.

Charles V. died on the 21st of Sept., and
as Queen Mary of England followed him to the
grave a month later, this event necessitated
a suspense of negociations, which were not
resumed until the February following, at
Cateau-Cambresis. It might have been ima-
gined, that with both sides anxious for peace,
it would, without difficulty, have been arrived
at — each side retaining the advantages it had
gained. This had been the principle agreed
upon in the truce ; but while Spain entered
upon the discussions with the force of an
united and resolute policy, France came

A GENTLEMAN OP THE OLDEN TIME. 211

into them weakened by divided parties,
and the deplorable irresolution of her Sove-
reign.

The Due de Guise, at the head of the
kingdom, was anxious to go on with the war,
while Montmorency, backed up by St. Andre,
who was still languishing in prison, dreading
the influence of the Duke, and the popularity
of his recent triumphs, clamoured for peace
at any price. Diane de Poitiers, accustomed
to play one off against the other, and always
on her guard against the one which had the
upper hand — though she had had a violent
quarrel with the Constable — was induced to
side with him against Guise ; and Henri, bent
upon effecting a reconciliation between them,
forgot that he was King of France.

It may be said, in fact, that during the
twelve years that he was upon the throne, he
did not reign a single day. Diane and Mont-
morency, in turn, shared his power, just as
each of them dominated his mind, without
the one being able to get rid of the other.
Henri gave himself up entirely to each of
them — and to each of them he remained faith-

212 A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME.

ful.* His letters to Diane are most charac-
teristic, for never has the voice of passion
been heard in more unrestrained accents — a
passion which time itself could not affect.

Among the many letters from Henri to
Diane, which are to be found in "Fontanieu,"
pages 267 .and 268, 281 and 282 ; in " Glair-
ambaut," page 340; and in " Bethunes,"
8862, folio 3, as quoted by M. Guiffrey, are
the following : —

"MADAME MAMYE, — I thank you very
humbly for the trouble you have taken in
giving me news of yourself, which is what
I most care for in this world ; and I beg of
you to keep your promise, as I cannot live
without you ; while if you knew how little
pleasure in life I have, you would take pity
on me. I will not write more, save to assure

* " Just as we see in the heavens two planets, the sun
and the moon, having the supremacy over the others, so
Montmorency and Diane had absolute and entire power in
this kingdom : the first over the crown, and the second over
the person." — " Memoires sur le Cour de Henri II."— Dupuy
Collection, voL Ixxxvi.

A GENTLEMAN OP THE OLDEN TIME. 213

you that he will not be able to come as soon
as he could wish, who here signs himself your
very humble servant. "

" MADAME, — I received yesterday the let-
ters which you wrote me. I beg of you ever
to hold in remembrance him who never
loved, and never will love, anyone but you.

| "B6L"

" I beg of you, Mamye, to deign wear
this ring for love of me. " B6L'

Thus Diane was the true Queen ; or, as
Ronsard, in one of his many poems addressed
to her, puts it, she was the King.* We
have not her answers to these letters, which
is a great pity, as they would, doubtless, have
been typical of this very gifted and self-con-
tained woman.

The quarrel of Diane and Montmorency
had been of long standing ; but it was aggra-
vated, as Lorenzo Contarini, the Venetian

0 See Ronsard's "CEuvres Completes," edition of 1623,
vol. ii., page 1601. — See also " Joachim du Bellay's Pieces,"
edition of 1563, pages 308—320.

214 A GENTLEMAN OP THE OLDEN TIME.

diplomatist, tells us, by the Constable having
favoured an intrigue between Henri and the
gouvernante of the Queen of Scotland, by
whom he had a child. This was done to
bring about a quarrel between the King and
Diane ; but the latter was so jealous of the
Due de Guise, and Montmorency was so
anxious for the conclusion of peace, and the
recovery of his liberty, that they both sank
their differences. The Duchy of Bouillon,
claimed by Philip, and of which her son-in-
law is the titular holder, was to be the price
of her forgiveness, as is shown by M. Guif-
frey, who quotes her two autograph letters
to the Constable.* Upon this condition, she
will not dissuade the King from making
peace, though it may well be doubted whether
she would have succeeded; for Henri, in*
different, in many cases even hostile, to his
own father, had for the Constable that filial
feeling — a mixture of tenderness and fear —
which is generally the mark of parental

* As Diane had always pretended to be the friend, and
not the mistress, of Henri, M. Guiffrey imagines that these
letters were burnt as being compromising.

A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME. 215

authority. Modest and scrupulous to a de-
gree, Henri was convinced of his powerless-
ness to govern without Montmorency.* When
separated from him, he felt all at sea, and
though Francis de Guise had re-established
the supremacy of France in the north, dis-
playing the utmost versatility and valour,
while all the nobles urged him to resist the
exorbitant demands of the Spaniards, who,
after all, were not in any better position than
the French, being in real jeopardy upon the
Flemish side, Henri would not listen to any
of the advice given him. He could think of
nothing but the fact of Montmorency being
in prison, and his one object, to be attained
at any cost, was how to obtain his release.

* " In order to maintain his authority,'' wrote Lorenzo
Contarini, " the Constable endeavours to prevent the King
exercising much authority. It has become the custom for
ambassadors who wish to see the King, first to pay a visit to
his Minister and acquaint him with the object of their audi-
ence. The Constable then has an interview with the King,
and tells him what answer he is to make. He wants to keep
the King, as it were, in tutorship, and advises him to take,
plenty of bodily exercise, assuring him that this will pre-
vent him from getting stout, which the King much dreads."
— " Baschet, Diplomatic Ve"nitienne," page 437.

216 A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME.

To secure this, he was ready to sacrifice
Savoy and the Bresse, with its capital, Bourg,
which was French, both in regards to its
usages and language, nearly the whole of
Piedmont and one hundred and eighty-nine
towns and fortresses, which had cost the
country so much blood and treasure. All
that he was to get in exchange was permis-
sion still to occupy Calais and the Three
Bishoprics.

The main difficulty arose with regard to
the Duchy of Bouillon, for the Spaniards re-
fused to give it up, but the King intervened
personally, and appealed to Diane's daughter
to renounce her claims to it.* The Spaniards,
aware of the King's weakness, were not slow
to take advantage of it, and to what an ex-
tent they did so may be gathered from the
fifth volume of Granville's " Papiers d'Etat."
Yet they were themselves at their wit's end
to carry on the war, and King Philip,
writing to the Bishop of Arras on the 12th
of February, said : "I have already spent

0 See, for this letter, French MS., 3941, folio 7.

A GENTLEMAN OP THE OLDEN TIME. 217

two million two hundred thousand ducats.
... I require another million. Yet I learn
from Spain that no more money is to be had
there, and the situation is so serious that I
must come to an arrangement of some kind,
or I am lost. I am anxiously awaiting the
account of what has been done, but on no
account are the negociations to be broken
off."*

This will show to what straits the
enemy was reduced, and yet he obtained
nearly what he asked for.

While the King was at Villers Cotterets,
pending the negociations, he sent for Vieille-
ville, and accorded him a very hearty
welcome. In the absence of St. Andre,
Vieilleville, enjoying the privilege of the first
gentleman of the chamber, slept in the
King's room, so that they might discuss at
their leisure the events of the day, and in-
dulge in surmises as to the future.

The King questioned Vieilleville as to the
capture of Thionville and the death of

c «

Papiers d'Etat de Granville," vol. v., page 454.

218 A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME.

Strozzi, the Italian, who was killed there.
He asked him if it was true that Strozzi' B,
last words had been horribly blasphemous,
and Yieilleville told him that the fact could
not be denied ; but that, in his opinion, one
should be slow to offer an opinion upon these
" mysterious questions, which almost escape
our limited intelligence."

Henri renewed him his promise of giving
him the first field-marshal's baton of which
he could dispose ; and the intimacy between
them increasing, he said that he intended to
attach him to his person in future. A few
days after this he appointed him, as a special
mark of confidence, to escort his daughter,
the Princess Claude, recently married to the
Duke of Lorraine, to her mother-in-law, the
Dowager Duchess, who was assisting at the
peace conferences.*

Upon the 3rd of April, the preliminaries

0 For Ronsard's sonnet on this marriage, see his " CEuvres
Completes," edition of 1623, voL i., page 806. The Princess
Claude took her names from the Swiss ambassadors whom
the King had selected as her godfathers. November, 1547. —
" Portef euille de PAubespine," page 893.

A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME. 219

of the treaty were concluded.* The King
veiled these disgraceful concessions by the
marriages of Madame Elizabeth, his eldest
daughter, with Philip IT., and of his sister,
Madame Marguerite, with Prince Philibert,
to whom she was supposed to bring Saxony
as her dowry.

Thus the liberty of the Constable had been
purchased at a higher price than that of the
late King. All the nobility were most indig-
nant, Montluc, Brissac, Tavannes, and, above
all, the Due de Guise, being unable to contain
themselves, f

Etienne Pasquier wrote : " The King,
caring more for the loss of the Constable
than anything else, has signed away all our
conquests of the last thirty years. It is a
mixture of tragedy and comedy."

Vieilleville was also inconsolable, and he

0 Letters from the Duke of Savoy, the Constable, and
the Admiral upon the Cateau-Cambresis negotiations. —
" Fontanieu," pages 287—288. "Treaty of Peace," Glair-
ambaut, 353, folio 397.

f " Montluc," vol. xxiv., page 440 ; " Tavannes," vol.
xxvii., pages 7—10; "Brissac," see " Ribier,'' vol. ii.,
page 797.

220 A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME.

reproached the King with annihilating, by
one stroke of the pen, all the institutions of
the late King, the Court of Accounts, and the
Parliaments of Turin and Chambery, where
so many French families had taken root, and
this just to release the Constable and marry
Madame Marguerite, who, being over forty,
" might as well end her days in a good abbey
like so many other Princesses of the blood."

The King urged that the fidelity of the
Duke of Savoy made it certain that he would
be a trustworthy ally for France, and that he
had promised to accept the function of Con-
stable at Montmorency's death ; and another
argument which he used was that the con-
quest of Savoy had been an usurpation, and
that to give it back would be to release from
purgatory the soul of his father. This last
argument was too much for Vieilleville, who
was fairly dumbfoundered at this " assumption
of piety."

Peace having been signed, the King,
accompanied by Vieilleville, returned to
Paris, passing through Fontainebleau, and
upon reaching the capital, preparations were

A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME. 221

made for receiving the Constable, accom-
panied by the Duke of Alva, who was to
espouse the Princess Elizabeth in the name
of King Philip, and some twenty other
Spanish nobles. The Chateau du Louvre
was prepared for them and their suite, while
the lists were to be in the Kue St. Antoine.
Yieilleville went to meet the cortege at St.
Denis, and conduct it to the Louvre, where
the King was waiting to receive them.

The whole of the month was spent in
feasting and rejoicings,* and as the discussion
with respect to the towns which were to be
surrendered and kept in Savoy lasted a long
time, the marriage of Madame Elizabeth was
celebrated first, taking place at Notre Dame.f
The fetes lasted a week, all the Princes and
cardinals being anxious to give an entertain-
ment ; and then came the jousts, which were
opened on the 1st of June by the King. The

* " Glair.," 353, folios 5210, 5216, and 5217. The mar-
riage contract was signed at the Louvre.

f " Glair.," 353, folio 5219. List of furniture, etc., in the
Princess Elizabeth's wedding trousseau, 353, folio 5225. Ac-
count of marriage expenses, 353, folio 5229.

222 A GENTLEMAN OP THE OLDEN TIME.

French displayed a marked superiority over
the Spaniards, both in the use of the lance
and the management of their horses. The
contract of Madame "Marguerite having at
length been signed, proclamation was issued
for a final tournament on the 29th of June.

After .dinner, the King announced his
intention of taking part in the joust, and
asked for his arms. Vieilleville brought them
to him, but much against his inclination,
telling the King that he had no right to
expose his life. Henri had no time to reply,
for the Due de Savoie coming in all ready
armed, the King laughingly advised him to
stick his knees well in, as he intended to
" shake him without regard for their alliance
or fraternity."

Thereupon they left the palace, mounted
their horses, and entered the lists. The
King at first tilted very successfully, and
broke his lance well. The Duke of Savoy
also broke his lance, but the stump end
having slipped out of his hand, he was
shaken in the saddle, and had to seize hold
of the pommel to save himself from falling.

A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME. 223

M. de Guise came next, and " did remark-
ably well ; " and then the Comte de Mont-
gommery got into position for the third bout,
which was to be the last the King ever took
part in. The Comte de Montgommery was a
tall and very upright young man, lieutenant
to his father, M. de Lorges, a Captain of the
Guard. He rode forward against the King,
and the two adversaries broke their lances.
Vieilleville then came forward to take his
turn, but the King begged him to let him
break another lance with young Lorges, for
he was anxious to have his revenge, saying
that he had at the first pass " shaken him in
the saddle and caused him to quit his stir-
rups." Vieilleville replied that his Majesty
had already honourably distinguished himself,
and that if his adversary had been weakened,
he, Vieilleville, should be all the better
pleased to have a comparatively easy en-
counter. The Queen also urged the King to
withdraw, the Duke of Savoy appealing to
him on her behalf; but he was obdurate,
and ordered M. de Montmorency to go and
tell the .Queen that he will only engage in

224 A GENTLEMAN OP THE OLDEN TIME.

one more joust, and that out of love for her.
Montgommery, seeing that the Queen did not
wish the King to renew the encounter, ob-
jected that he had no right to occupy the
ring again; ,but the King cut the whole
matter short by ordering him to enter the
lists.

The two opponents then advanced and
broke their lances against each other with
great dexterity ; but Montgommery, in-
stead of throwing down the fragment of the
lance left in his hand, as was the usage,
stupidly kept it, and when the King bore
down on him afresh, he drove this fragment
clean against Henri's vizor, putting out one of
his eyes. The King threw his hands round
the neck of his horse, which, feeling the reins
drop, galloped round the ring, .till stopped
by the Grand Equerry and other officers of
the suite. They took him off his horse and
removed his head-gear, the King saying the
while, in a very weak tone, that he was a
dead man ; that they had tried to prevent
him taking part in the tournament, but
that no man could avoid his fate. Mont-

A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME. 225

gommery threw himself on his knees before
the King and implored his forgiveness. He
at once granted it, forbidding " anything to
be said against him now, or at any future
time, exculpating him from all blame, or
from his death, if it ensued, seeing that he
had been importuned to take part in the en-
counter." * M. le Grand and Vieilleville then
carried the King to his room, which, accord-
ing to the orders of the doctors, was kept
closed even against the Queen and the
Princes, lest the fever, which had already
declared itself, should increase. Five or six
surgeons were sent for ; among others,
Ambroise Pare ; but their science and skill
were all to no purpose. They dissected the
heads of four criminals who had been decapi-
tated, and into whose skulls they had driven
the same fragment of the lance which had
struck the King, in the hope that the in-
formation thus obtained would enable them

* " Claude Haton," vol. i., page 104. This same incident
as to Montgommery's being pardoned on the spot is also
related in a letter from the Bishop of Troyes, dated Paris,
July 14, 1559.— "Epitres aux Princes." Belleforest, edition
of 1572, page 186.

VOL. n. 35

226 A GENTLEMAN OP THE OLDEN TIME.

to sound the wound and extract the splinters.
But the fever became more intense, and the
King was in a state of high delirium. But
at the end of a few days he came to himself
and sent for the Queen, bidding her hurry
on the wedding of his sister as much as
possible; and then turning to Yieilleville,
who had never left him even to change his
clothes, asked him what he had done with
the brevet of Marshal which he had promised
him. Yieilleville produced it from his pocket,
and the King made the Queen sign it there
and then. He then " commended to her the
administration of the kingdom upon behalf
of their eldest son, and bade her take care
of the younger children ; also that they
should all pray God for his soul, feeling that
it was all over with his body." The Queen
then retired; but she would have fallen if
Vieilleville had not held her up, and she had
to be carried to her room,* When she came

0 This scene is only related by Vieilleville, most his-
torians, including Mezeray, declaring that the King never
recovered the use of his speech after he was wounded.
Still, it should be added, that a letter from Anne de Coss£

A GENTLEMAN OP THE OLDEN TIME. 227

to herself she gave orders for her sister-in-
law's wedding to be celebrated in all haste ;
and it took place five days later, under very
gloomy circumstances. It was celebrated at
midnight, in the church of St. Paul, by
torchlight, and, in place of violins and haut-
bois, there were tears and sobs. The King
was at the last extremity ; he had lost the
use of his speech, and did not know anyone.
Upon the day following, July the 10th, he
breathed his last.*

to Marshal Brissac, dated July 1st, speaks of an improvement
in the King's condition. — " Kecueil de Lettres Originales,"
vol. v., folio 69.

* " Vieilleville," vol. xxxi.. pages 134—263.—" Mort du
Henri II.," taken from the registry of the Hotel de Ville.—
" Colbert," 252, page 191.

CHAPTER IX.

VIEILLEVILLE'S EXPEDITION TO EEDUCE THE
HUGUENOTS TO SUBMISSION.— HIS EMBASSY
TO GERMANY.— HIS RECEPTION BY THE
EMPEROR.— HIS RETURN TO FRANCE.0

MID the divisions and cruel discord
which followed the reign of Henri
II., Vieilleville declined to re-
cognize any other party than that of the
King, as representing the French or national
party. While remaining attached to the faith
of his fathers, he strongly reproved violence
in religion, and had a horror of persecution.
When he received instructions to repress the
Huguenot revolt, he did so in the name of
social order, in the interest of the country,

* The remainder of this volume will be devoted to
Vieilleville, deferring until the following volume all that
relates to general history and more especially the re-
ligious question.

A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME. 229

and out of obedience to the King. As a
soldier, he looked only to his flag. Catherine
showed great partiality for him, and attached
him to her person as a chevalier d'honneur,*
having recourse to him for advice. He was
with her at the time of the Amboise con-
spiracy.

The assembling of the Huguenots at the
Chateau de Noise had just been reported, and
the Guises, desirous of compromising Vieille-
ville, got the King to order him to go there
and ask for explanations, and to promise
that they should be pardoned if they sub-
mitted. Yieilleville, knowing that a trap
was being laid for him, dexterously excused
himself, saying that the word of a Prince
alone would have weight enough to inspire
the rebels with confidence. The King, con-
vinced by his argument, appointed M. de
Nemours ; with what result we all know.

After the massacre, the Guises returned
to the charge. Having been informed that
three large vessels, loaded with arms and

* "Yieilleville," vol. xxxi., page 264.

230 A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME.

ammunition, had been sent from Roanne by
the Huguenots, they ordered Vieilleville to
go to Orleans and stop them. Vieilleville
objected that M. de Montpensier, the
governor of the city, might think that his
prerogatives were being entrenched upon,
but upon the King insisting that he should
accept the mission, he agreed to do so on
condition that he was given a Lieutenant-
General's powers, limited to two months, and
for a specific purpose. He then left for
Orleans, promptly seized the boats, and de-
feated the troops which were following them ;
but instead of handing the Huguenots over
to justice, that is to say to death, he de-
clared, after examining them, that they had
acted in ignorance, and, having read them a
good lesson, dismissed them. He then dis-
tributed among his men the arms which he
had seized, handed over the ammunition to
the stores at the Town Hall, and had the
boats sold, and the money for them given to
the Orleans almshouse. The expedition had
lasted just a fortnight.

Upon his return, the Guises, fearing his

A GENTLEMAN OP THE OLDEN TIME. 231

influence over the Queen, sent him to Rouen,
which had been provoked to rebellion by the
massacres of Amboise. Upon reaching the
Abbey of Le Bee, he learnt that M. de Ville-
bon, the governor of the city, had shut him-
self up in the chateau, leaving Parliament to
fight it out with the rebels. M. de Villebon
advised Vieilleville to join him, but the latter
replied that he had come to imprison others,
not to be imprisoned himself. The next day
he had his troops distributed in the streets
arid public squares, and proclaimed that all
the inhabitants, without exception of rank
and creed, were to lay down their arms,
under pain of hanging and confiscation. The
order was universally obeyed, and then com-
menced the trial of the rebels. The only
conduct which entailed a condemnation was
disorder, as Vieilleville forbade religious
motives to be alleged against any one.
From Rouen, he proceeded to Dieppe, where
matters were more serious. The inhabitants
had erected in the centre of the town a Pro-
testant church to hear the Gospel preached,
contrary to the Royal edicts, and they sent a

232 A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME.

deputation to Vieilleville, asking him not to
let the army enter their town. This he
agreed to do if they would demolish their
church, and upon their demurring, he
marched on Dieppe, the inhabitants of which
sounded the tocsin, and commenced to erect
barricades.

Vieilleville, followed by the whole of
his troop, then entered the open town at
a sharp trot, went through the streets,
overturning all whom he met, " sparing
neither age nor sex, and administering
plenty of corporal punishment." On coming
to the church, the soldiers halted, and com-
pelled all present, " peasants, sailors, and
other of the common people," to help de-
molish it. This was the work of a very short
time, and the Huguenots, quite disconcerted,
made off into the open country, or got on
board the vessels in the harbour. Many of
them hid themselves in the houses of their
Catholic neighbours or relatives, though no
attempt was made to find them.

The demolition had lasted three days,
and Vieilleville records his regret at having

A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME. 233

to pull down this " brave building," which
much resembled " that called the Colosseum
at Rome." This done, and some conciliatory
measures adopted, he returned to Rouen and
thence to Orleans, to resume his post in the
Queen's household.

The Court was in a great state of com-
motion at that time, for Conde had only just
been cast into prison. Francois de Guise
accordingly went to meet Yieilleville, greeted
him. very cordially and gave him his version
of the affair, hoping to win him over. But
Vieilleville was very much on his guard, as
it seemed strange to him that Conde, being
guilty, should have delivered himself up.
Soon after, he had an interview with the
King, who asked him to go upon a visit to
the prisoner. Vieilleville replied that he was
not a great friend of the Prince, and that
as he had a detestation for all disturbers of
the public peace, Conde should be condemned
•without mercy if guilty, but, if not, it
would be an everlasting reproach to the
King if he put to death a Prince of his
own family. Whereupon, Fran£ois admitted

234 A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME.

that all he wanted was to extract Vieilleville's
opinion.*

The accession of Charles IX. having
given the Queen increased powers, she de-
cided in the spring following (1561), f after
consultation with her council, to send Vieille-
ville as Ambassador Extraordinary to Vienna
to offer her greetings to the Emperor and
perhaps sound him as to a marriage between
the King and the Archduchess Elizabeth, both
of them as yet children. Vieilleville, who had
gone to spend the winter at Metz, accepted
the appointment, and upon the 5th of April
he left that city with a suite of sixty horse-
men, including M. d'Epinay, M. de Thevalle,
and other nobles of his friends. He was
followed by baggage waggons carrying the
money which he was to distribute on his way
among the German Princes pensioned by
France, special paymasters accompanying
them.

Entering Germany by Bavaria, the Duke

* "Vieilleville," voL xxxi., pages 266-316.
•j- 1561, and not 1562 as the "Memoirea" erroneously
put it.

A GENTLEMAN OP THE OLDEN TIME. 235

Palatine, first Elector of the Holy Empire,
sent his Marshal with forty horses to meet
Vieilleville, and his own son escorted him to
his residence at Heidelberg, where he was
received for two days in the most courteous
fashion. Vieilleville and his suite were much
amused by a tame lion in the ducal palace,
which was a present from the King of Mus-
covy, as the Counts Palatine of the Rhine
had a lion or rampant in their arms.

On their departure the Duke escorted
them a league on their road with three
hundred horsemen, flags flying and trumpets
sounding. When they were taking leave
they were presented with "sixty bottles of
Alsace wine," which was very excellent, and
of which they all had to drink a stoop, eating
with it Mayence ham, Milan cheese, saveloys,
and other "incentives to wine.'*

Vieilleville after this passed through
Swabia and Wurtemberg, being received with
great respect by the Duke, who had been
brought up in France during the reign of
Francois I. After much feasting they pro-
ceeded to Augsburg, where they were met by

236 A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME.

" the secret pensioners " of France, colonels,
captains, and bishops, who received no less
than forty thousand crowns for their sub-
sidies, which had fallen into arrear.

Vieilleville then entering Saxony, where
Duke John-Frederick and his brother John-
William, whom Charles V. had despoiled
in favour of Maurice, led a penurious life
upon the French King's pension of four
thousand crowns each. They received him
as well as their means admitted of their
doing, and the meeting was a very cordial
one. At Ulm the embassy was welcomed
warmly by the population, and Vieilleville,
being anxious to visit the Landgrave of Hesse,
asked the burgomaster which was the best
way to Cassel ; but the latter dissuaded him
from attempting the journey as the roads
were so bad. Vieilleville, therefore, des-
patched a gentleman of his suite with a
letter and the arrears of his pension to the
Landgrave, and, also at the burgomaster's
advice, sent his horses and carriages back
to Metz, and went down the Danube in boats.
At Ingolstadt, where he arrived in the course

A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME. 237

of a week, Duke Augustus of Saxony, the
brother and heir of Maurice, was the reign-
ing Prince, and, regarding the King, who
pensioned his despoiled cousins, as his
enemy, he left the town upon the arrival
of Vieiileville, to whom the burgomaster
handed the following memorandum from
him : —

" I have left in all haste my town of
Ingolstadt, so as not to be obliged to hold
counsel with the agents and ambassadors of
the King of France, who has favoured my
enemies, and given them a pension, so that
they may make war upon me. Still, I should
have much liked to have met M. de Yieille-
ville, in order to judge, after conversing with
him, whether his person and discourse are
deserving of the great reputation which he
enjoys in Germany for valour and discern-
ment. This will be for some other time, per-
haps for this very year. I beg, however,
that no one may be sent to me with the
letters and packets which I know that he is
bringing me on the part of his Sovereign, for

238 A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME.

I should disdain to accept or read anything
coming from those who favour and support
my mortal enemies.

" Signed, AUGUSTUS, hereditary and legiti-
mate Duke of Saxony, and the real Elector
of the Holy Empire."

Vieilleville, after having heard this curious
document read, begged the burgomaster to
sign it, as evidence that he could not fulfil
his mission, and had the three letters to the
Duke publicly burnt. He then continued his
descent of the Danube to Vienna, and upon
reaching Closternayburg, about a league from
the city, he was met by Bochetel, Bishop of
Rennes, the regular ambassador of France at
Vienna.* The two ambassadors held a con-
ference, in the course of which Bochetel put

0 He had been sent there in 1560, in order to bring
about a rapprochement between France and the Empire,
and to exempt the Council of Trent from the influence of
the King of Spain. See "Additions aux Memoires de
Castelnau," vol. i., page 466. In the " Correspondance de
Catherine de Me"dicis," vol. i., p. 175, is a letter from her,
accrediting Vieilleville, March 13, 1561. Another letter
dated June 6, refers to the journey.

A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME. 239

Yieilleville in possession of the etiquette of
the Imperial Court ; after which they entered
Vienna, two Counts meeting Yieilleville at
the landing-stage and conducting him to his
lodging. They were attached to his person
for the whole period of his stay, and they
escorted him the next day to the Imperial
presence. The Emperor had courteously
ordered that the ceremonial of the French
Court was to be observed, and he showed so
much desire to give Vieilleville a cordial re-
ception, that he went towards the door to
greet him, and when Yieilleville, on ap-
proaching him, bent the knee, Ferdinand at
once bade him rise, and said in French,
" Though I do not imagine you have come to
hand me over your government of Metz, or
of the other Imperial towns beyond the Rhine
usurped by the French Crown,* I must none
the less tell you that you are welcome, as
well out of respect for the King your master,
whose good uncle and perfect friend it is my

e Brantome says that one of the objects of Vieilleville's
visit was to stipulate in favour of these towns being retained
by France.

240 A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME.

desire ever to remain, as upon your own
account, for having long known you by
reputation, I was very anxious to see you in
person. For the rest of what I have to say,
let us retire to my chamber."

The Emperor then had an interview,
which lasted two hours, and when the Counts
in attendance on Vieilleville came to fetch
him for dinner, they did not dare knock at
the door. At last, the Emperor opened it
himself, and he called for MM. d'Epinay and
Thevalle, whom he honoured with a friendly
touch upon the shoulder. After handing
various presents to Vieilleville and the suite,
he returned, and Vieilleville was then intro-
duced into a large room, where Cardinal
Granvelle, Bishop of Arras, received him very
honourably.* Four tables were loaded with
viands, and at the first Vieilleville was
seated, next the Cardinal, together with
MM. d'Epinay and Thevalle, Bochetel, and a

c The Memoirs speak of the Cardinal of Arras, and this
must refer to Granvelle, who was made Cardinal by Pius IV.
on the 25th of January, 1561, and who doubtless made a
journey to Yienna about this period.

A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME. 241

Spanish nobleman who had only just returned
from Constantinople, where the Emperor
had sent him to negociate with " the Turk,"
and where he had spent four months. The
other tables were filled with Yieilleville's
suite and the Imperial nobles, conversation
going on in four languages : French, German,
Spanish, and Italian.

Vieilleville having expressed to the
Spanish nobleman his wonder that, with
the Turk so close at hand, and able to put
such a large force on foot in so few days, the
gates of the city were not guarded, the latter
informed him that Soliman was so great at
heart and so jealous of his reputation, that
he would die rather than take a place by
surprise; and that when he intended to
attack, he gave two months' formal notice.
So enthusiastically did the Spaniard speak of
the Grand Turk, that Cardinal de Gran veil e
was much displeased, and said in a whisper
to Vieilleville that he was quite capable of
leaving the Emperor to serve this infidel dog.
To which Vieilleville rejoined, " You might
go further and say that he is ready to

VOL. ii. 36

242 A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME.

abandon the Christian faith and become a
Mahommedan, which would not be wonderful,
seeing that numerous Spaniards were
Marans* (Moors) before they were Chris-
tians.

The anecdote was repeated, after dinner,
to the Emperor, who laughed very much
at it, especially as he did not much like
the Spanish nation in general, or this noble-
man in particular.

The Emperor, thinking, too, that he might
have received a bribe from the Grand Turk
to lull the city into a false security, deter-
mined that Vieilleville's hint should be taken
and the gates of Vienna guarded by veteran
soldiers, who would receive the pass-word
from the Emperor himself. Vieilleville, how-
ever, represented that a sudden change of
this kind would alarm the Pasha, and that it
would be better to place a sharp sentinel upon
the steeple, and keep a strict watch upon all
who entered. The Emperor thought the
advice sound, and decided that the sentinel

0 Term of contempt applied to the Moors.

A GENTLEMAN OP THE OLDEN TIME. 243

placed upon the steeple should bear the name
of Yieilleville.

Ferdinand then asked him about his
journey, and, upon hearing of his reception
at Ingolstadt, and of the conduct of Prince
Augustus, he said that the King of France
need not be surprised, for he had treated
him, the Emperor, in the same way, refusing
to come and greet him or take any orders
from him since he had been proclaimed Em-
peror. Ferdinand added, at the same time,
that as he was full of valour, and in ten days
could place ten thousand horsemen and
fifteen thousand infantry in the field, he
could not afford to quarrel with him.

Upon the following day, the third of
Vieilleville's arrival, the two Counts came to
fetch him, with forty horses to take him
and his suite round the city. This occupied
the whole day, and the visit to the arsenal
was particularly interesting, as at least sixty
workmen of all trades — " gunpowder makers,
gun-carriage makers, smiths," etc. — were
employed there, and made such a din that
you could hardly hear yourself speak. Sixty

244 A GENTLEMAN OP THE OLDEN TIME.

pieces of artillery were to be seen there, on
carriages of various kinds, among them being
twenty-two double cannon, eight basilics,
each upon four wheels, and the remainder
culverins of different patterns.

From there, Yieilleville went to the mari-
time arsenal, which was upon a lake about
a league in circumference, formed by the
Danube, and shut in by high walls, well
guarded by two boulevards upon each side of
the narrow channel which led to the river.
There he saw twelve galleys, fifteen large
three-masted men-of-war, thirteen frigates,
thirty barques, and twenty-five galliots fully
equipped and manned for service. All these
vessels, with their masts, mizens, lateen-
yards, and foremasts, flying flags displaying
the Imperial eagles and the blended arms of
Austria and Spain, were in full battle array,
and presented a most magnificent spectacle.

The two Counts in attendance then pro-
posed to show Vieilleville a sham fight, he
himself giving the signal for it. He sug-
gested, however, that each vessel should
merely fire a salute ; and at the end of this

A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME. 245

interesting day Vieilleville invited all in
attendance on him to come and sup at his
lodging.

The next day the Emperor gave a very
sumptuous repast, to which he invited all the
Princesses and ladies of the Court, to meet
Vieilleville, among them being the Infanta
Elizabeth of Austria, the Emperor's grand-
daughter, who at once attracted Vieilleville' s
notice.*

-There were six tables, at the first of
which sat the Emperor, the Princes, Vieille-
ville, M. d'Epinay, and M. Thevalle. During
dinner, the music of the lute and violin
accompanied singers, most of whom were from
Picardy, and therefore French. The dinner
was succeeded by a ball, and after the danc-
ing was over Vieilleville . took the Cardinal by
the hand, and asked him to be an ear-witness
of something he had to say to the Emperor.

0 The expression niece which we find in the Memoirs
was often used instead of grand-daughter. — " Vieilleville,"
vol. xxxi., page 365. The Princess Elizabeth married
Charles IX., in 1570. Her portrait, which may be seen at
Versailles, in the north attic of the Palace, No. 3241, would
lead one to believe that she was more healthy than beautiful.

246 A GENTLEMAN OP THE OLDEN TIME.

They approached the Emperor, and Vieille-
ville, addressing him, said : —

" Your Sacred Majesty will remember
that when you so graciously received me at
the threshold of this room on Sunday, you
said that you wished ever to remain the good
uncle and perfect friend of the King, my
master. I have now discovered so good an
opportunity for holding you to your word
that I will not let it pass. It seems as if
your Majesty had pronounced a prophecy."

The Emperor not knowing what he was
aiming at, and asking for an explanation,
Yieilleville, pointing to the Princess Eliza-
beth, said : —

"If it please your Sacred Majesty, there
is the Queen of France. You could not find
a more suitable alliance in Christendom, if
only on account of the peace to be thereby
sealed between your two houses."

Cardinal de Granvelle expressed his ex-
treme delight, and Vieilleville promised him
an income of ten thousand French crowns if
the marriage took place.

The Emperor then asked Vieilleville if he

A GENTLEMAN OP THE OLDEN TIME. 247

was empowered to treat of this matter ; and
the latter said that he was not, but that he
felt sure of not being disowned in anything
which he had done in the interests of his
master. Vieilleville then showed the instruc-
tions which he had received from the King
and Queen, and in which there was no allu-
sion to the marriage.

The Emperor, therefore, regarding it as a
mark of affection for his person, cordially
embraced him, and made him many kind pro-
mises. He then sent for his grand-daughter,
and she, upon having something said to her
in German, came up to kiss Vieilleville, who
was so much overcome by this extreme mark
of honour that, with a profound bow, he
declined to accept it. But the Princess in-
sisted, and when she had kissed him he said
that it was the highest honour he had ever
received, and that now he would kiss her
hands, as a mark of servitude, and as being
the hands of a Princess who would one day
be his Queen.

The Emperor translated this to his grand-
daughter, who did not understand French,

248 A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME.

and Vieilleville, taking from his neck a gold
locket which bore on one side the portrait of
the King and upon the other that of his
mother, he presented it to the Princess, en-
treating the Emperor to bid her keep it,
which, with a good grace, he did. Elizabeth,
in high delight, put the locket round her
neck and gave Vieilleville another kiss. Vie-
illeville then, in the name of the Queen,
asked for a portrait of the Princess, which
the Emperor gladly promised to give him.

The fifth day was spent by the Emperor
in replying to the letters and despatches
which Vieilleville had brought him, so the
entertainments were given at the residence
of Cardinal de Granvelle. At the collation,
all the Princesses, including the Princess
Elizabeth, who was very richly attired, were
present, and dancing went on till the hour
of supper, which took place at the French
Ambassador's. After supper, dancing was
renewed, and lasted all night.

The next day, the Emperor sent for
Vieilleville to discuss business with him.
He assented to all the French proposals,

A GENTLEMAN OP THE OLDEN TIME. 249

except the despatch of an Imperial Ambassa-
dor to the French Court — an ancient usage
which had only been broken off since his
accession. The real reason for this was, he
said, the cost, which was twenty thousand
crowns at least. He did not like to put this
in writing, as it reflected upon the honour of
the Empire ; but he told it to Vieilleville in
confidence, and assured him of his friend-
ship for France. The Emperor added that
he regarded the Princess Elizabeth as already
married, and felt assured that the confedera-
tion between the two houses was safe, as long
as Vieilleville was alive. The latter then
returned to his lodging, and, upon being
asked by the two counts-in-waiting what his
plans were, he said that after taking leave
of the Emperor, the /Princess, and others,
he should start the next day, having hired
twelve coaches to take him as far as Frank-
fort. He detained them to dine with him,
and after dinner he gave to each a gold chain
worth fifty crowns, beautifully fashioned,
from which were suspended lockets, with the
portraits of the King and Queen.

250 A GENTLEMAN OP THE OLDEN TIME.

The next day, lie went to take leave of
the Emperor, who, leading him to the win-
dow, showed him the present he was going
to make him, viz., a coach lined with crim-
son velvet, drawn by four large Turkish
mares, white as swans, with their manes and
tales painted pink, with an Hungarian coach-
man and footman, dressed in the style of the
country, and with Vieilleville's colours of
yellow and black : the coachman in velvet
and the footman in a woollen material, called
taffe.* The Emperor then told Vieilleville
how pleased he was to have seen him, and
how completely he relied upon him to main-
tain peace, adding that he should never for-
get his " honest face " and his wise counsels.
He then embraced him, and when "Vieilleville
attempted, bending low upon his knees, to
kiss the Emperor's thigh, Ferdinand raised
him up and gave him his hand to kiss.

Vieilleville then went to the chamber
of the Princess Elizabeth, who, speaking in

0 Brant6me speaks also of a silver-gilt buffet, given by
the Emperor, which he himself saw at Duretal. But there
is no allusion to it in the Memoirs.

A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME. 251

German, bade him present her respects to
the King of France and the Queen, adding
that she was, from this hour, their very
humble and affectionate servant. And upon
Vieilleville undertaking to deliver this mes-
sage, the Princess said, " In order that you
may the better remember, take, I beg of you,
this diamond, which I give to you with as
much good-will as I have to see their
Majesties." She then placed a handsome
ring on his finger, and honoured him with
a third kiss.

On leaving the palace, Vieilleville took
possession of the Imperial coach, which was
waiting for him in the courtyard, and re-
quested the Cardinal, the two counts-in-
waiting, and MM. d'Epinay and Thevalle to
occupy seats in it with him. The other
gentlemen of his suite followed on horseback,
and the day ended with a grand supper at
his lodging.

Early the next morning, the seventh since
his arrival, Vieilleville left Vienna with thir-
teen coaches, and accompanied by more than
a hundred Imperial nobles and others on

252 A GENTLEMAN OP THE OLDEN TIME.

horseback, including the Cardinal de Gran-
velle, who reminded him again of his promise
to give him an income of ten thousand
crowns if the marriage came off.

Vieilleville was in a hurry to return to
France, and he had still many other visits to
pay on the road. At Prague, he spent six
days with the Archduke Ferdinand, brother
of the Princess Elizabeth, who was delighted
at the idea of the marriage. He was, there-
fore, received with much magnificence ; and
when he came to start, he found that the
Archduke had sent back the Vienna carriages
and coachmen, and had provided others,
which were paid for as far as Mayence. He
also made Vieilleville a present of a coach
and four dappled grey Cleves and Guelder
horses, and was very profuse in his liberal
treatment of the man who might one day
contribute to make his sister Queen of France.

The next stoppage was Mayence, where
Vieilleville spent three days with the Arch-
bishop, Prince Elector of the Holy Empire.
The Embassy was lodged at an hostelry, but
took all their meals at the Archbishop's

A GENTLEMAN OP THE OLDEN TIME. 253

palace. Fifteen tables were spread : ten for
the Archbishop, Vieilleville, and the principal
personages, and five for the remainder of
the guests. Upon starting, Vieilleville found
that the hotel bill had also been paid, and
they parted amid many warm demonstrations
of friendship.

The Embassy at length reached Coblentz,
at the confluence of the Rhine and Moselle,
and highly delighted were the travellers to
drink the water of their native river once
more.

Three large boats were waiting for them
at the port, which had been sent by the
Archbishop of Treves to bring them up to
his city. The nephew of the Archbishop was
in command, and as he had been at the siege
of Thionville, he was delighted to present
himself to Vieilleville with his uncle's letters,
and to show him the gold medal representing
Henri II. and Catherine, which he had re-
ceived on that occasion.

Vieilleville, much moved by this souvenir,
gave him a medal of Charles IX. and his
mother, and this increased the young Prince's

254 A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME.

delight. Vieilleville then asked him to sup-
per, and treated him German fashion, by leav-
ing him dead-drunk at table. As he could
not accommodate himself to this custom
of the country, he had brought with him a
number of persons who acted as proxies
for him at these " vinous carousals."

The next day, Vieilleville sent the Abbe
de Bourgmoyen, Baptiste Praillon, his inter-
preter, to the Bishop of Cologne, to convey
to him the King's letters, and bring back his
replies, apologising for not having been able
to undertake this task in person, owing to
bad health. The fact was that to reach
Cologne it would have been necessary to
traverse four of the towns belonging to Duke
Augustus, peopled with some barbarians, to
say nothing of the lengthy and rough route.
Fatigued with travelling, and eager to return,
yet at the same time anxious to please the
Archbishop, whose neighbour he had been at
Metz, he embarked the next day on his boats,
the young Prince doing the honours with
much grace, and in the evening they reached
Treves.

A GENTLEMAN OP THE OLDEN TIME. 255

Vieilleville stayed at the Archbishop's
palace, while his suite were distributed among
the best houses in the town. They all met
at supper, and the next day was spent in
presentations, good cheer, and mutual gratu-
lations. The German captains had all, ac-
cording to the Archbishop, " the fleur-de-lis
engraved upon their hearts."

Vieilleville, though peace prevailed, had
his suspicions of the Comte de Megue,* so
he begged the Archbishop to let his boats
tow him up to Metz, so as to avoid passing
through Luxemburg. In this way, starting
at daybreak, he arrived, unexpectedly, the
same evening, to avoid a formal reception.
When within half a league of the city, two
lackeys were landed and sent on to M. de
Senneterre, who was quite taken aback, and
Vieilleville, having landed almost immediately
near the Pont aux More, there was no time
to disobey his wishes. But the news of his
arrival soon spread, and when Vieilleville
mounted his horse to go to the Cathedral and

* With whom he had fought so many battles around
Metz.

256 A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME.

return thanks for the safe issue of his
journey, the whole city had turned out to
acclaim him.

The journey had been a complete success.
For more than three months, from April 5
to July 10, there had not been a single acci-
dent, quarrel, or case of illness. Vieilleville
had been well received wherever he went, and
had enlisted the sympathies of his hosts in
the French cause.

After supper, he retired to rest so ex-
hausted that he declared that he would not
put pen to paper for four days. But the
next morning there arrived a courier from the
Queen, begging him to come and give her a
full account of his journey, and adding that,
as the courier would tell him, affairs were in
such a lamentable state that she had urgent
need of his counsels.

Vieilleville, therefore, had to resume his
travels the next day, a most cordial reception
awaiting him at Court.*

* " Vieilleville," vol. xxxi., pages 327—382, and vol. xxxii.,
pages 1 — 18.

CHAPTER X.

KELIGIOUS DISTURBANCES.— THE BATTLE OF
DREUX.— TRAGIC DEATH OF ST. ANDRE.—
YIEILLEVILLE APPOINTED MARSHAL.— HIS
VARIANCES WITH YILLEBON AT ROUEN.—
HIS TOUR IN THE EASTERN PROVINCES.

S the religious disturbances con-
tinued, Vieilleville, out of attach-
ment to the Queen, only left her
to transact necessary business at Metz, or to
spend a short time among his family at
Duretal. She afterwards confided to him, in
the course of her negociations with the Pro-
testants, missions which he discharged with
zeal,* but which were very repugnant to him,

* A letter from Catherine to the King of Navarre, dated
May 17, 1562, and another to the Parliament, show that she
sent him to negociate at Orleans. — " Correspondance," pages
317—321.

VOL. ii. 37

258 A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME.

as is shown by the following letter to his
friend, the Bishop of Rennes, at Vienna : —

" I am still at this business ; but had I
known how complicated an affair it was, I
would not have left Metz. The Queen has
done what she could to bring about an
arrangement, but to no purpose. You are
very lucky not to be here, and I advise you
to keep out of all these troubles." *

Soon after this, he accepted a mission to
England, with the object of dissuading Eliza-
beth from assisting the French Protestants ;
but, as the following letter from Chantonney,
the Spanish Ambassador, shows, it was a
failure f: —

" Vieilleville passed through here this
morning on his way from England. His
first words were that he had not been beaten,

0 " Additions aux Me"moires de Castelnau,'' vol. i., page
853, edition of 1659. In this same letter he urges the
Ambassador to send two portraits of the Ambassador,
which the Queen is anxious to see, in view of the proposed
marriage.

f Two letters from Catherine, one to M. de St. Sulpice,
on August 14th, and another to the English Ambassador, on
Sept. 17th, mention this mission. — " Correspondance," vol. i.,
pages 373—401.

A GENTLEMAN OP THE OLDEN TIME. 259

as he had done nothing." Chantonney then
blames Catherine for entrusting him with this
mission, seeing that " it is a common report
at Court that he has a hankering after the
new religion." *

In the following December, when the
battle of Dreux was about to take place,
St. Andre, who was to lead the vanguard of
the Royal army, was anxious to take Vieille-
ville with him; but the Queen objected, as
she wished to keep him with her and her son
at Vincennes.

The result of the battle is well known ;
the leaders of the two opposing armies, Louis
de Conde and the Constable, being made pri-
soners, while the Catholics slept upon the
battle-field. At nightfall, while the Protest-
ants were slowly retreating, St. Andre, who
had somewhat imprudently gone forward in
pursuit of the fugitives, suddenly found

0 " Memoires de Conde," vol. ii., pages 63 and 64. I
have not quoted the narrative of Vincent Carloix, in regard
to this mission, as it bristles with improbabilities, and
describes it as a success, when we know that it was a
failure.

260 A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME.

himself cut off from his own men and op-
posed by a small band of the enemy. Upon
being summoned to give his name, he de-
clared that he was Marshal de St. Andre,
and was at once made prisoner.

It so happened that Bobigny, the leader
of this body, had formerly been in St. Andre's
service, and had fled to Germany after having
killed his equerry in a quarrel. Condemned
to death and hung in effigy, his goods had
been confiscated by his master, and when St.
Andre saw into whose hands he had fallen,
he was much alarmed, and begged Bobigny to
forget the past and treat him as a prisoner of
war. Bobigny said that he would see about
it, and in the meanwhile had his arms taken
from him. The Marshal gave his word not
to attempt to escape, and they rode on, side
by side, for some distance, when they met
Prince Porcian, of the Condd party, who
asked Bobigny the name of his prisoner.
When he heard that it was St. Andre*, he
expressed the utmost satisfaction, because he
thought that it would facilitate the release of
Conde. The Marshal, too, was very pleased

A GENTLEMAN OP THE OLDEN TIME. 261

at having met the Prince, and would have
followed him, but Bobigny refused to let him
go, saying that the Marshal belonged to
him by the right of war. The Prince, who
would also have liked to take St. Andre with
him, was obliged to acknowledge that this
was so, and he rode off.

He had not gone a hundred yards before
Bobigny, turning upon St. Andre, said,
" You have shown how evil-disposed you
are, and that I can never feel any trust in
you. If you regained your high position, you
would complete my ruin. You have had me
hung in effigy, and confiscated all my goods,
which you gave to my servants, and you have
entirely ruined my household. The hour has
come for God's judgment to overtake you."
With these words, he blew his brains out
with a pistol, stripped his body, and left it
naked in the plain, " at the mercy of the
wolves and dogs." *

0 " Yieilleville," vol. xxxii., page 48. Brant6me, Cas-
telnau, and la Popeliniere also speak of the murder of St.
Andre, but without entering into the same details. D'Au-
bigne is more explicit, for he says : " St. Andre was taken

262 A GENTLEMAN OP THE OLDEN TIME.

This same evening, Yieilleville, having
come from Vincennes to Paris, where he
occupied his usual lodging " at Claire-
Eontaine's, close by the Croix du Tirouer,"
a curious incident occurred. When the
Constable was captured, and the Catholics
regarded the battle as lost, La Bretonniere, an
old Metz soldier, had quitted the camp in
haste, and brought the news to Paris in the
middle of the night. The whole town was
upon the move, and the principal inhabitants
of the quarter came to Vieilleville to ask him
what he thought of the matter. Vieilleville
got -up and sent for the soldier, and when he
learned that M. de Guise had not attacked
the enemy when La Bretonniere left, he re-
assured the people present, composed of men
of all conditions, belonging to the Church,
the law and commerce, being ready, he said,

and killed by Bobigny. The latter had sworn his death for
having placed his son Mezieres in the Marshal's service, and
his son having deposited a large sum of money with the
Marshal, he got up a quarrel between Mdzieres and St.
Sornin. Mt-zieres having killed St. Sornin. the Marshal
had him prosecuted and confiscated the money. — "D'Au-
bigne"," page 326.

A GENTLEMAN OP THE OLDEN TIME. 263

to stake his head that the battle was not lost.
He then ordered his horses and drove out to
Vincennes to see the King.

Half way there, he met, about seven in
the morning, several nobles, whom their
Majesties, having heard a rumour of the
defeat, were sending into Paris to reassure
the inhabitants and assume the command.
The same evening the Court returned to
Paris, and about nine o'clock, the Sieur de
Losses, with ten or twelve horsemen, reached
the Porte St. Honore, shouting, " Victory for
M. de Guise ! the Prince de Conde is a
prisoner ! "

The guard discharged their muskets, and
the news so soon spread through the city,
that it reached the Louvre, and the streets
were illuminated before Losses could arrive
at the palace.* He was introduced into the

0 In the "Memoires du Due de Montpensier," page 17, it
is said that the King did not come to Paris till Monday, that
Losses brought the news in the morning. This is confirmed
by a letter from Catherine de Medicis, vol. i., page 455.
See also, with regard to this battle, two very curious letters
written after the action by two Spaniards. — " Memoires de
Conde," vol. v., pages 183—187.

264 A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME.

royal presence, and gave their Majesties a
full account of the battle ; of the defeat in the
morning, and of the victory in the afternoon,
confirmed by Guise's letters. But in order
not to spoil the effect of his story, he kept
back the tragic death of St. Andre.

Vieilleville was supping that evening
with Marshal de Montmorency, whom he was
trying to console for the capture of his
father, when an envoy arrived from the King
to say that Guise had won the battle, and
that the Constable would soon be released,
as Conde was also a prisoner. All the com-
pany present went down to question Losses,
who had accompanied the King's messenger,
and there were great demonstrations of joy
in the streets.*

Vieilleville having gone to see the King
and Queen, Losses, who was a creature of
the Constable, informed his son, Frangois, of
St. Andre's death, so that he might be able
to utilize the early information if he wanted
to apply on behalf of any of his own friends

* " Castelnau," vol. xviii., page 212.—" Vieilleville,"
vol. xxxii., page 43.

A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME. 265

for the succession. But Francois, faithful to
Vieilleville, presented himself early the next
morning in the Queen's chamber, while she
was still in bed, and informed her of St.
Andre's death, asking at the same time that
Vieilleville should be appointed to succeed
him. The Queen granted his request, and
did so all the more gladly because it was in
accordance with the promise given by the
defunct King, sending him at the same time
to offer her congratulations, and those of the
King, her son, to Vieilleville. Montmorency
was delighted to fulfil this mission, and he
found Vieilleville still in bed. He announced
in the same breath the death of his friend
and his succession to the post, but Vieille-
ville, when he heard what had happened to
St. Andre, uttered such a loud shriek that
you would have thought his last hour had
come. Cursing the nomination brought him,
he declared that he would sooner die than
succeed the friend he loved best in the world;
that if he was not a Christian, he would
commit suicide, and that he begged Mont-
morency to leave him to die in peace. He,

266 A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME.

thereupon, took out of his box the written
promises he had received, and tore them up,
telling Montmorency to inform the Queen
that he released her from her promise, and
that she might appoint whom she pleased.
Montmorency took this message back to the
Queen, who thereupon sent the Chancellor
and Aubespine to Vieilleville, telling them
that it was the special desire of herself and
of the King that he should accept it. But
Vieilleville would not listen to them, and said
that he intended to retire from the army and
Court, and live in solitude. The Prince de
la Roche- sur-Yon fared no better, and at last
the King became very incensed, and de-
clared with an oath that things should not
go on this way. Accompanied by the Queen,
and followed by Aubespine, the King passed
through the Hotel Bourbon and the St. Ger-
main Cloister on foot, and entered Vieille-
ville's room. He was in bed, but when the
Sovereigns entered, he got out and sought to
prostrate himself at their feet.

The King, in quite an angry tone, said to
him, " What, Marshal de Vieilleville, is this the

A GENTLEMAN OP THE OLDEN TIME. 267

return to me for having kept for you, when
fifty people were pestering my life out, the
rank which I have now conferred upon you.
I do well assure you that it is my intention
to fulfil the wishes of the late King, my
father, and discharge the Queen and myself
of our obligations, as well as to mark my
sense of the great services which you have
rendered, and will continue to render daily
to the French Crown."

The King then ordered Aubespine to
read aloud the letters patent, and hand them
to Vieilleville. The latter took them humbly
from the hands of his Sovereign, and, going
upon his knees, assured him that if he had
refused to accept the dignity before, it was
because he could not bear the idea of suc-
ceeding one in whos6 company he had seen
so much service by land and sea during
the reigns of the King's father and grand-
sire.

The King, who accepted his excuses and
assured him of his goodwill, then made the
new Marshal walk by his side to mass, and
after mass he invited him, together with the

268 A GENTLEMAN OP THE OLDEN TIME.

Prince de la Roche-sur-Yon to dine with
hiiu.*

Soon after this, an attack by the Pro-
testants upon Rouen being dreaded, the
Queen sent Vieilleville with full powers to
put the city into a thorough state of defence.
This nomination was most distasteful to
the Governor, M. de Villebon, who was al-
ready very much irritated with Vieilleville.f
He, accordingly, sent no one to greet Vieille-
ville upon his arrival, an omission of which
the latter complained very much. Hearing
this, Villebon went to see Vieilleville at the
Abbey of St. Ouen, which Cardinal de Bour-
bon had placed at his disposal, and after
mutual greetings Vieilleville invited him to
join the principal inhabitants at supper.
Villebon accepted the invitation, but he did
not put in an appearance at the review held
the following day. Vieilleville, to give him
a lesson, sent one of his captains and fifty
men to make a sham attack on Villebon in
his fortress ; and when the latter gravely

0 " Vieilleville," vol. xxxii., pages 21—86.
f See the previous chapter.

A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME. 269

came to inform him, the next day, that he
had been attacked by Coligny, Vieilleville,
pointing to his captain, said, " That is the
admiral who summoned you to surrender,
and you should be very grateful to him, for
he has taught you to begin doing your
duty." Vieilleville then went on to upbraid
Villebon for not having come to confer with
him, and this, of course, made matters all
the worse. Another incident occurred which
still further envenomed their mutual feelings
towards one another, though on the Sunday
following this scene Villebon consented to
attend mass with the Marshal, and after it
was over the latter invited him to come and
dine at the Abbey. The dinner passed over
quietly enough, but after dinner they again
fell out, and Vieilleville pushed M. de Ville-
bon so violently that but for the table he
would have fallen. The two men then pulled
out their swords, and Vieilleville wounded his
adversary so badly in the arm that part of
the flesh and bone was severed, and he
fell senseless to the ground. The nephews
and suite of Villebon were not numerous

270 A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME.

enough to attempt to continue the combat,
and they carried him back to the Castle.

The nephews of M. de Villebon denounced
Vieilleville as being a friend of the Hugue-
nots, and urged the people of Rouen to tes-
tify to their religious feelings by attacking
the Abbey and burning the Marshal and his
suite within its walls.

This appeal was not disregarded, and
from about noon on Sunday to four the fol-
lowing morning, something like civil war pre-
vailed, the majority of the inhabitants siding
with M. de Villebon. There was a good deal
of bloodshed, and Vieilleville, who was in
inferior force, sent for reinforcements from
the neighbouring garrisons, whose presence
awed the inhabitants into submission. A
great many of them left the city, while
several of the others came to the Abbey, and,
kneeling down in the open space before it,
entreated his forgiveness. Vieilleville came
forward in person, and assured them that no
harm should befal them.

The Queen, however, having been in-
formed of what was going on, sent Marshal

A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME. 271

de Brissac, with a strong body of troops and
full powers to restore order.* Yieilleville,
learning this, sent to tell Brissac that if he
wished to enter Rouen as a friend, with a
following of twenty persons, he would be
welcome ; but that he might throw his cre-
dentials into the fire, as he would allow no
one except a Prince of the blood to interfere
in his affairs. Brissac, knowing that Yieille-
ville was a man of his word, and not wishing
to quarrel with him, accepted his invitation,
and entered Rouen the next day with a few
attendants. Yieilleville received him very
courteously, but, for fear that Brissac should
exhibit his credentials to the Parliament, he
convoked that body to the Abbey to pay him
their respects.

The affair had an unfortunate ending for
M. de Yillebon, as Brissac, being recalled to
Court, and being unwilling to leave Yieille-
ville and him together, went one morning
quite unexpectedly to the Chateau and
ordered Yillebon to leave Rouen, with the

0 Letter from Catherine de Medicis to M. de Gonnor,
July 28th, 1563. Vol. i., page 490.

272 A GENTLEMAN OP THE OLDEN TIME.

whole of his suite. The furniture and all the
movable goods were loaded on waggons,
which the inhabitants, moved to pity, helped
to provide, and a litter was got ready for the
wounded governor; Brissac not starting from
Rouen until he was outside the city. Vieille-
ville, much surprised when he heard of what
Brissac had done, was afraid that the blame
for it would be cast upon him.*

As the disturbances continued, notwith-
standing the Edict of Ainboise, to be general,
Catherine, while preparing for the siege of
Havre — to which, according to Carloix,
Vieilleville accompanied her, though other
contemporary writers are silent upon the
point — determined to visit next year, with
her son, the different provinces of the king-
dom, in order to pacify men's minds. The
Marshals were to lead the way, and make a
preliminaiy tour, the King calling them to-
gether and assigning each of them his pro-

0 " Le Laboureur," book iv., page 177 ; " Vieilleville,"
vol. xxxii., pages 87 — 142, etc. M. de Villebon returned as
Governor after Vieilleville's departure, and held the post till
his death, on April 18th, 1564.

A GENTLEMAN OP THE OLDEN TIME. 273

vince. Yieilleville was to visit the eastern
provinces, including the Lyonnais, Provence,
Dauphiny, Auvergne, the Yivarais, and Lan-
guedoc ;* and he left Paris in the spring,
with a suite of one hundred and twenty
horsemen, and armed with the most exten-
sive powers.

At Lyons, where there had been great
disorder, he had twenty-two persons executed
for crimes at common law, the only ones
which he chose to recognize, and the Hu-
guenots, who were most compromised, left
the city. The celebration of Mass was re-
established, but at the same time the Edict
assured full liberty of conscience, and a
certain amount of liberty as regarded the
form of worship.f

From Lyons Vieilleville went to Grenoble,

0 A letter from Catherine to M. de Crussol, dated May
18, 1563, vol. ii., page 41, of the " Correspondance," mentions
Vieilleville's mission, and fixes the date of it. Another
letter to M. de Crussol, of June 2nd, page 50, announces
that Vieilleville has gone to Lyons.

f A letter from Catherine to Soubise, June 13, " Corres-
pondance,'' vol. ii., page 59, mentions the difficulty Vieille-
ville experienced in pacifying the city. See also the account
VOL. ii. 38

274 A GENTLEMAN OP THE OLDEN TIME.

where the Parliament had been compelled, in
consequence of the rebellion, to take refuge
in the castle. The mere announcement that
Vieilleville was coming had the effect of
restoring order, and the Edict was placarded
without resistance. Vieilleville then ordered
the leaders of the two parties to meet in the
public square and to embrace one another,
and swear oblivion of all hostile feelings.
His order was obeyed, and one hundred and
twenty gentlemen of the two parties cor-
dially embraced one another. A company of
marauders, who belonged to the best families,
had taken refuge in the valley of Angrogne,
under the pretext of religious enthusiasm,
and had rejected the proffered reconciliation.
Vieilleville started off" with a body of mer,
fell upon their camp, and killed some thirty
of them, carrying off" the remainder prisoners
to Grenoble. The sixty of them who were
most guilty were executed, many of them,

given by Philippi, President of the Cour des Aides at Mont-
pellier, and the evidence of Pdrussin, in his " Histoire des
Guerres du Comt<j Venaissin," quoted in the " Recueil du
Marquia d'Aubais," vol. i., pages 14 and 50.

A GENTLEMAN OP THE OLDEN TIME. 275

.despite their noble birth, being hung, while
the others were incorporated in the army.
All being tranquil at Valence, Vieille-
ville proceeded to Provence, and on his way
he met Fabrizio, the nephew of the Pope, who
was Governor of Avignon, and who came to
tell him that the country round about was
in a very disturbed state, and to ask him
whether he could not come and lend a hand
in the restoration of order. On reaching
Avignon, he found that three or four hun-
dred gentlemen had seized Sisteron,* and
were exercising great violence and cruelty
there, under the cloak of enthusiasm for the
Protestant religion.

Having quieted the disturbances in and
about Avignon, and having refused to accept
any presents from the Papal authorities there,
he started for Cavaillon, where he made but
a short stay, and then went on to Aix, which
had escaped the disturbances so preva-

* Note of the Translator. As Sisteron is not within a
hundred miles of Avignon, and had no connection with the
Comtat, as that province was called, I have omitted the
account of what was alleged to have occurred there.

276 A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME.

lent elsewhere. The Governor of the town,
the Count de Tendi, a natural son of a mem-
ber of the House of Savoy, was then at
Marseilles, and Vieilleville, holding a bed
of justice on the following day in the Par-
liament, declared, after the customary salu-
tations had been exchanged, that as the
Governor bore the name and arms of the
House of Savoy, he would have handed the
control over to him had he been present, in-
stead of exercising it himself. The Presi-
dent thanked him for his courteous state-
ment, and the sitting then terminated.

Vieilleville went on to Marseilles, and the
Count de Sommerive, son of the Count de
Tendi, came out to meet him three leagues
from Marseilles ; and the Count de Tendi
himself was waiting to receive him at the
gates of the city. He escorted him, with a
large following of nobles, to his residence
facing the sea, where he was saluted by the
guns of fifteen galleys and twenty other
vessels. After dinner, Vieilleville and his host
took a drive along the quay, where they
witnessed a sham fight of the galleys, and

A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME. 277

were greeted with fresh salvoes of artillery
and arquebuses. Then followed supper and
dancing ; while on the following day the
Count de Tendi, delighted at the language
used by Vieilleville at Aix, placed all the
military and naval officers at his disposal.
A week was thus spent in rejoicings — one
of the entertainments consisting in placing
six galleys in juxtaposition, and serving a
banquet upon them, a number of convicts,
dressed as Brazilians, acting as footmen, and
amusing the company by the gambols in
which they indulged. At last the time came
for saying good-bye, and Vieilleville set his
face northward once more, travelling by slow-
stages, and stopping at each town on the
road, until he received a despatch from the
King, who was then -at Lyons, bidding him
return with all speed, as he had an important
mission which he desired him to undertake.
Vieilleville at once left his suite to follow, and
hurried forward alone to rejoin the King.

CHAPTER XL

MISSION OF Y1EILLEVILLE TO SWITZERLAND.—
THE BATTLE OF ST. DENIS; DEATH OF THE
CONSTABLE.— SIEGE OF ST. JEAN D'ANGELY.
—DEATH OF VIEILLEVILLE.

T was customary, at the beginning
of each reign, to renew the treaty
with the Swiss Confederation,
which enabled the French Government to
hire fighting men in that country. This
having been omitted when Charles IX. came
to the throne, negociations were now being
carried on ; but they met with unexpected
obstacles, as Protestant cantons, such as
Berne and Zurich, demanded the right of
building churches for their inhabitants, which
the King refused to allow. Then, again,
the never-sleeping jealousy of the Emperor
and the Pope had caused them to send as

A GENTLEMAN OP THE OLDEN TIME. 279

Ambassadors to Switzerland the Count
d'Anguissol, one of the .murderers of Far-
nese, and Molina, a Spanish senator, both
of whom spared no effort to complicate
matters. The two French Plenipotentiaries
were quite baffled, and the Confederation
had sent to Charles IX. to concert measures
for overcoming the difficulty. The King
accordingly sent Yieilleville to try and settle
the matter ; and the latter, after a long con-
ference with the Swiss deputies, started for
Fribourg, where, owing to the ' outbreak of
the plague at Basle, the Diet was then
sitting.

The Marshal took with him fifty horse-
men, and his advisers were 1'Aubespine,
Bishop of Limoges, and the President,
Believre, who had gone on in advance to feel
the way.

It was no small matter to bring thirteen
cantons and nine confederate towns into
harmony, for no sooner had he, by dint of
promises, presents, and cajolery, won over
one of them, when the Imperial Ambassadors
undid his work. Yieilleville determined,

280 A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME.

therefore, to take the bull by the horns, and,
after obtaining the consent of the Confedera-
tion, he sent four of his suite, accompanied
by four Swiss notaries, to Lucerne, where
the Ambassadors were residing, to ask the
rulers of that town why they harboured upon
their territory men who had come with the
set design of breaking off the negociations.
They replied, that as their territory was free,
and as foreigners were at liberty to reside
there, they had no power to expel them.

Vieilleville then informed the people of
Lucerne that he should come and seek an
explanation from them in person, and, accom-
panied by about sixty nobles and five or six
hundred Swiss soldiers, he started for that
town. The Council of Lucerne, taking
alarm, begged him to suspend his march,
and promised to expel the Imperial Ambas-
sadors at once. Vieilleville consented, but
the Imperial Ambassadors had already gone.
After coming into Lucerne and remaining
there two days, he returned to Fribourg,
where the treaty was signed on the 7th
of November (1564), and, having received

A GENTLEMAN OP THE OLDEN TIME. 281

deputations from various parts of the coun-
try, which came to congratulate him on the
alliance thus formed, he returned to France,
escorted to the frontier by a troop of Swiss
soldiers.*

Vieilleville would not accept any reward
for this mission — not even the repayment of
his expenses — owing to the great dearth
which then prevailed, and, after spending the
winter at Duretal, he went back to Metz in
the spring to continue the construction of
the citadel. f

Since the death of Henri II., Vieilleville,
whose time was so much taken up by state
affairs, had not been able to spend much time
at Metz.J But he exercised a constant
supervision over what was going on there;

* " Memoires de Vieilleville," vol. XTxiii., pages 1 — 44.
The treaty was ratified in the year following (July 22,
1568). See letter from Vieilleville and the Bishop of
Limoges to the Bishop of Rennes, in vol. i., book ii., page
829, of the " Additions aux Memoires de Castelnau." M. de
Thou also gives the credit for the renewal of the fact to
Vieilleville and M. de 1'Aubespine.

f " Vieilleville," vol. xxxii., page 203.

J The fortifications were carried on under the manage-
ment of M. de Vadincourt, who died at Metz, on the 21st of

282 A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME.

though, owing to the low ebb of the public ,
fortune, and the general poverty which
prevailed, it was no easy matter to get
any money advanced by the Treasury.

Catherine was also still employing him to ,
negotiate with the Huguenots ; and in July,
1565, she sent him to Tours to re-establish
order there.*

At Metz, which was one of the centres of
the Reformation, Yieilleville had great diffi-
culty in keeping the fervent propagators of
the new faith within the limits prescribed by
the Edicts; but as at Rouen, Dieppe, and
Orleans, he succeeded without committing
any act of violence upon their persons. To .
the Jews, who were literally outlaws, he
showed himself still more humane ; for .
whereas they had been driven out of Metz
in the twelfth century, and had since then
only come back upon sufferance, being at the

April, 1569 ; while Jacques de Montheron was military
governor, and the Sieur de Sonneterre had been appointed
Piesident instead of Aubespine. — " Histoire de Bene'dictins,"
vol. iii., page 82.

0 " Correspondance de Catherine de Medicis," vol. ii.,
page 304.

A GENTLEMAN OP THE OLDEN TIME. 283

mercy of a population which loathed them,
Vieilleville gave them a regular right to
reside and trade there, placing, at the same
time, a limit upon their profits, and compell-
ing them to contribute to the relief of the
poor.* This act of justice, and his firm ad-
ministration, gained him credit and respect,
even from the most indifferent and the most
corrupt ; while at Court he had the ear of
the sovereign, and ever put the interest and
honour of France above the conflicting claims
of parties.

After the undecided battle of St. Denis,
in 1567, when a discussion was going on as
to which side had been victorious, Vieilleville,
appealed to by the King, said : " It was
neither your Majesty nor the Prince, but the
King of Spain ; for enough valiant captains
and soldiers were killed to have conquered
the Flanders and the Low Countries, and
have incorporated them in your kingdom.
But for this accursed rupture of peace (and
may he be damned who is the cause of it !),

0 " Histoire des Benedictins," pages 88 and 97.

284 A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME.

I had intended to urge, and even force you
to unite all your forces for an enterprise, out
of which you would have come with honour,
and which would have perpetuated your
name."*

The peace of Longjumeau having been
signed (1568), Vieilleville was appointed
Governor of Anjou.f The Prince de Conde
resided, at that time, at the Chateau de
Noyon, in Burgundy, and hearing that there
was a scheme on foot to seize him treacher-
ously, in violation of the treaty, he fled to
take refuge at La Rochelle. As he had to
pass through Anjou, Vieilleville was urged to
arrest him, and so please the Queen-Mother ;
but he resolutely refused to break a solemn
engagement.

In the year following (1559) J, after the
battles of Jarnac and Montcontour, Vieilleville
had command of the forces besieging St.

0 "Vieilleville," vol. xxxii., page 215.

f Commission given to Marshal de Vieilleville, Aug. 21,
1568, registered Oct. 22, 1569.— "Pieces Originales," 2661,
article " Sc6peaux," folio 24.

} " La Popeliniere," book xiv., folio 62.

A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME. . 285

Jean d'Angely,* and he was encamped at La
Vergne, under the walls of the town, while
Charles IX. and his mother were quartered in
the village of Luret,f about a league distant.
Yieilleville summoned the town to sur-
render ; but Piles, a doughty Huguenot cap-
tain, who was the governor of it, replied that
he held it by the command of the King of
Navarre, Governor of Guyenne, for the ser-
vice of His Majesty (of France), and that he
would surrender it at his orders. Upon re-
ceiving this reply, the Marshal commenced
the preliminary works, such as approaches
and trenches ; but the Huguenots defended
the town with great ardour, and the combat,
which lasted several days, was a very bloody
one, though the besiegers continued to ad-
vance. As this fratricidal struggle was very
repugnant to Yieilleville, he wrote to Captain

0 I give the siege of St. Jean d'Angely its proper date,
in preference to that given in the " Me'moires de Vieilleville,"
which describe it as being previous to the battle of Mont-
contour.

f Liberge and the " Itineraire des Rois de France '' say
that they resided at Landes, and not at Luret. — " Vieille-
ville," vol. xxxii., page 233.

286 A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME.

Piles to demonstrate the inutility of it ;
pointing out that the Protestant Princes
were now driven into a corner, and that if he
(Piles) should be taken prisoner with arms
in his hands, he would die an ignominious
death ; whereas, if he would surrender, he
would be treated honourably.

Piles, running short of ammunition and
men, asked for a ten days' truce to commu-
nicate with the Princes,* and this being
granted, an exchange of hostages took place,
and the Huguenot officers came out to visit
the Royal camp. Piles, receiving no reply to
his letter, renewed the struggle, hoping to
get himself killed in the breach; while Vieille-

0 The archives of the British Museum contain an ori-
ginal letter from Henri, Duke of Anjou, to Count Mansfeld,
colonel of reiters in the camp of the Princes of Navarre and
Cond<5, dated from before St. Jean d'Angely, Nov. 1569,
telling him that the King is prepared to send the Sieur de
Marillac, his councillor, to treat ; all that he requires before
setting out being a safe conduct for himself and ten men.
(" Original Letters relative to the Affairs of France," vol. i.,
pages 24—206.) These letters show in the first place that
the Due d'Anjou, to whom Vieilleville does not refer, was
present at the siege. It also shows that Vieilleville and the
Court had a share in these attempted negociations.

A GENTLEMAN OP THE OLDEN TIME. 287

ville, exasperated by the loss of ten days,
bombarded the town with all his artillery,
and soon reduced the besieged to despair.
An assault was imminent, in which case a
general massacre would have ensued ; but
Vieilleville, always generous and full of sym-
pathy with courage, sent another message to
Piles, who at length bowed to fate. The
conditions of surrender were not made more
stringent, and the garrison were allowed to
leave the town, with their arms, horses,
;and baggage, upon the understanding that
they were not to fight any thing in the cause
'of religion for three months.

The next day, after a siege lasting seven
weeks, Charles IX. entered St. Jean d'Angely
by the Porte d'Auluys, accompanied by his
mother and Vieilleville, while the Huguenots
marched out by the Porte de Mataz, under
the command of M. d'Aumale.* The King,

0 " Vieilleville," vol. xxxii., pages 233—246, and " Obser-
vations," pages 405 — 407. Liberge and Castelnau, who speak
of this siege, are agreed with Carloix as to the operationsj
except that they make Biron the commander, and not
Vieilleville. He was at the siege, but only in a subordinate
command. .. *•

288 A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME.

after having affectionately thanked Vieille-
ville for his devotion, announced that he had
selected him for the Governorship of Brit-
tany, . left vacant by the death of M. de
Martigues,* and in making over the letters
patent, said : " I have giveii you this ap-
pointment so that you may still be able to
render me service in your old age, without-
quitting your property, as I learn that the
most remote part of the duchy is not more
than ten or twelve leagues off."

This appointment, which enabled him to
withdraw from the theatre of the civil war,
which he detested, was most acceptable to
him, and in thanking the King, he obtained
his permission to elect his sons-in-law, M.
d'Epinay, as his lieutenant in Brittany, and
M. de Dailly as Governor of Metz. The
King then went back to Luret to prepare for
his departure, while Vieilleville was to remain
a month longer at St. Jean d'Angely, in
order to repair the fortifications, and settle
in the new governor.

0 Sebastien de Luxembourg, Yicomte de Martigues, bad
succeeded his uncle, the Due d'Etampes.

A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME. 289

But Charles IX. had no sooner returned
to Paris than the Due de Montpensier, Go-
vernor of Dauphiny, came to ask him for the
governorship of Brittany. Upon the King
telling him that he had already given it to
Vieilleville, the Duke reminded him that it
had been originally stipulated that the gover-
norship of this province should always be the
appanage of a Prince of the Blood, and that
he had reckoned upon it for the Dauphin,* his
son. Upon the King reiterating his refusal,
the Duke flew into a great passion, and
reproached the King with neglecting his own
kinsfolk, and finally burst into tears, " after a
fashion truly unbecoming, not only for a
Prince, but for a man of humble station."

This scene was so painful that the Queen
retired, and the -King himself felt rather
confused. Whereupon Cardinal de Bourbon,
•who was backed up by the Cardinal de
Lorraine and other nobles, urged upon the
King that it was right to " have regard for so

c The Prince de Montpensier's son was entitled to the
style of Dauphin of Auvergne.

VOL. n. 39

290 A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME.

great a Prince, and that even the Marshal him-
self would not wish to hold his post against
the wish of the Due de Montpensier."

They insisted so much, that the King,
"much against his will, and even with an
aching heart," consented to ask back from
Vieilleville his letters-patent. The mission
was by no means an enviable one, and
Charles selected for it the Sieur du Per on,*
who was an intimate friend of Vieilleville,
impressing upon him that he must relate the
whole scene to Vieilleville, and bring him
back word what the latter said. In order to
mollify him, he was to hand him a sum of
ten thousand crowns, and make him all sorts
of promises.

The Sieur du Peron went direct to St.
Jean d'Angely, where the Marshal received
him most cordially and asked him to dinner.
He was full of spirits, and chatted gaily,
and seeing how gloomy and taciturn his
guest was, he asked him if any disaster

0 Albert de Gondi, son of Antoine de Gondi, Sieur du
Peron.

A GENTLEMAN OP THE OLDEN TIME. 201

had befallen the army. Du. Peron replied
that he would gladly give a thousand crowns
to any one who would deliver the mes-
sage he was entrusted with, but that the
King had selected him, counting upon their
friendship.

This preamble alarmed Yieilleville, where-
upon Du Peron related the whole story to
him, only omitting mention of the fact that
he had a sum of ten thousand crowns on
him for Vieilleville. The Marshal, instead of
getting angry, burst out laughing, and said
that the King was as free to take back as to
confer a gift, and that any lackey might have
brought the message. " All I regret," he
added, "is that M. de Montpensier, who
is a valiant prince, should be so bitten by
ambition as to resort to the arms of the
female sex to reach his aims, and make
captive my fortune."

He then handed over the letters to M. du
Peron, and said that he would have taken
them himself if he had not been obliged to
see after the defence of the town, having
been advised of a Huguenot attack.

292 A GENTLEMAN OP THE OLDEN TIME.

On taking leave, M. du Peron produced
the ten thousand crowns, saying that he had
kept the funny part for the last ; but Vieille-
ville refused, and told Du Peron that he must
take them back. The latter shook his head,
and, knowing well what would be the answer,
had obtained from the King the following
letter : —

" If Marshal de Vieilleville refuses the
ten thousand crowns which I send him
through the Sieur du Peron, he may remain
for ever in his own house, for I shall never
like him again, and banish him for ever from
my presence and conversation.

" CHARLES."

The Marshal, feeling " the marvellous
and cordial affection " of these words, con-
sented to accept the sum, but, in the pre-
sence of M. du Peron, he divided part of it
between MM. d'Epinay and Duilly, to com-
pensate them for the States which the tears
of the Due de Montpensier had deprived
them of, and gave the rest to various gentle-
men of his suite, in the Bang's name.

A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME. 293

A few days after, their Majesties left
Suret for Coulanges-les-Reaulx, where they
spent Christmas, and the Marshal, having
completed his task at St. Jean d'Angely, re-
turned to Duretal.

Vieilleville was ageing fast. Over sixty,
and always on the move, his body began to
succumb under the fatigues of the battlefield,
while his mind was absorbed by melancholy
forebodings. Eeligious discord and the civil
war, which became more bitter every day,
were ruining the kingdom, and what with
military and civil occupations, Vieilleville
co aid spend but little time among his family
in the Chateau de Duretal, which was beauti-
fully situated upon the Loir at the junction
of two hills, with a broad terrace which
overlooked the river and the wooded plain
beyond.*

In November, 1571, while the King and

0 " At the place where there are stone blocks over which
the Paris courier passes every week. The pavilions, towers,
and galleries are built in a fine style of architecture, each of
them having as many stones inside as out." — Frere du Paz.
"Les Memoires de Carloix " do not go beyond the capture of
St. Jean d'Angely.

294 A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME.

the Court were at Duretal, where they had
been spending a month, and had been enjoy-
ing the pleasures of the chase in the well-
stocked forest of Duretal, Vieilleville was
carried off in a few hours by an attack of
illness which seemed inexplicable. No won-
der, therefore, that in an age when the use
of poison was so general, and the accusation
of its use still more so, suspicions were en-
gendered. Whether he was in reality struck
down by the treachery of someone who
meditated fresh massacres and who feared
his influence, or whether he was carried off
by one of those attacks to which the most
vigorous constitutions, when undermined by
excessive fatigue, are liable, is a mystery
which will never be cleared up.

Augustin du Paz* gives the following
account of his end : —

* Augustin du Paz (of the Order of the Preaching
Brothers at Notre Dame des Rennes), " Histoire Ge'ne'rale
de Quelques Families de Bretagne,'1 page 321 ; edition of
1720. After the death of Vieilleville, the King conferred
the government of Metz upon Albert de Gondi, Comte de
Betz. — " Histoire des B6n6dictins,'' yol. iii., page 13.4. The
Scdpeaux branch, represented by Vieilleville, became extinct

A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME. 295

"During the stay of their Majesties at
Duretal, while the Marshal was entertaining
the Court, some evildoers jealous of the
favour which the King, his master, rightly
showed him, and of the familiarities which
he honoured him with, had him poisoned on
the last day of November, 1571, and he died
twelve hours afterwards, the Court still
being at Duretal. The King and their
Majesties the Queens (Catherine and the
wife of Charles IX.) were much grieved, as
well they might be, at the loss of this faith-
ful servant and true base of the Crown, very
zealous in the service of and for the honour
of his sovereigns, sparing neither his energy
nor his life. A man of worth if ever there
was one, he never permitted any evil, nor

at his death, owing to there being no male issue. We have
seen that Marguerite, his eldest daughter, married the Mar-
quis d'Epinay, in Brittany, and his younger, Jeanne, the
Comte de Duilly, in Lorraine. From the elder are de-
scended the Dues de Larochefoucauld, the Seigneurs de
Bieux, the Dues de Montbazon and the Princes de Gue'me'nee.
Jeanne Charlotte de Plessis-Liancourt, grand-daughter in
the sixth generation of Marguerite de Sce"peaux, brought
the Duretal property by marriage into the Larochefoucauld
family. — " Vieilleville," vol. xxxiii., pages 29 — 44.

296 A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME.

was there anything he abhorred more than
treachery. Thus did they by detestable and
damnable means make him to give back his
spirit to God, after having faithfully served
four Kings. He lives now in the heavenly
mansion. Amen."

CONCLUSION.

ENEI II. possessed all the political
insufficiency of his father without
having any of his grander charac-
teristics. That personal energy which is
the prime virtue of all lofty situations was
wanting in him, and his very virtues were
obscured by the vices of others. An abso-
lute tool in the hands of his favourites, he
allowed them to plunder France as well as
himself. During his reign, dilapidation and
waste reached proportions hitherto unknown,
and the kingdom was put to ransom as if it
had been a conquered country, and brought
to the verge of ruin. Not only were all the
taxes increased, but the multiplication and
sale of financial and judicial appointments,

298 A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME.

the re-purchase on behalf of the Crown of
permanent annuities and seigneurial rights,
the restitution in return for money of the
privilege of ecclesiastical jurisdiction, the
forced loans, and other such transactions,
threw the whole social machine into disorder
without satisfying the insatiable appetites of
the harpies. In spite of these many exac-
tions, the treasury was always empty, and the
public services were constantly suffering in
consequence.

Owing to these encroachments of the
Crown, the institutions of ancient France,
which had already received a serious shock in
the reign of Francois I., were still further
weakened, and the incessant progress of the
Eeformation doctrines, not in any way
checked by an intermittent persecution, only
added to the^ disorganization. So much in-
capacity, weakness, and puerility in the
management of public affairs destroyed all
respect for the person of the sovereign.
Henri II. was in secret the laughing stock
of the Court.

The captains, the governors of provinces,

A GENTLEMAN OP THE OLDEN TIME. 299

the foreign ambassadors, and even the magis-
trates and financiers, hearing that his word
was of no account, sought for protection
among the favourites who reigned in his
stead, and the latter took advantage of it to
gather around them a whole cluster of crea-
tures who treated them as sovereigns them-
selves. Thus, under the appearance of unity,
factions sprung up and increased in power
at the expense of the monarchy. By a sin-
gular anomaly, side by side with this social
disorganization, the intellectual movement
and the development of knowledge made
considerable progress. The Royal College
continued to be the first in Europe for the
study of ancient tongues ; and in spite of the
efforts made by the ancient university, which
was jealous of its success, the King con-
firmed it in its privileges.* It is true that
the celebrated printer, Henri Estienne, not

* Under pretext of certain disturbances in the streets,
the University presented a request to the King that he
•would subject the Royal College to its regulations. The
King refused this request. — " Me'moire sur le College Royal,"
by Abbe Goujet, page 132 ; edition of 1758.

300 A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME.

feeling that he was supported as he should
be, went and settled at Geneva.* But his
brother, Robert, took his place, and main-
tained the family reputation in Paris.

In 1556, a decree ordered all publishers
to send a copy of any printed work to the
King's library, and this edict, in a different
form, still exists.

Works of law and jurisprudence also
showed considerable progress, and at Paris
and Bourges, legists of the highest order
met and expounded the Roman laws, classi-
fied the French laws, commented the uses
and customs, and prepared the public mind
for the conception of political in the place of
feudal law.

Ramus opened up all branches of know-

0 Henri II., not nearly so severe as his father in regard
to ecclesiastical encroachments, annulled the letters by which
his father exempted the Bibles printed by Henri Estienne
from the Sorbonne condemnation. It was upon this that
Estienne removed his presses to Geneva.—" Decree of Novem-
ber 25, 1547."—" National Archives," No. 628, University of
Paris. From Geneva his publications on the literature of
antiquity were distributed all over Europe.

A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME. 301

ledge to criticism,* while, with Rabelais,
criticism was extended to prejudices and
manners. f Science, renewed from antiquity
in mathematics, made a further development
through the discovery of algebra and natural
history. Surgery commenced its marvellous
operations, and military and civil engineering,
passing from Italy into France, made itself
manifest in the art of siege work, the cutting
of canals, and the making of roads. The
French language continued its progress,
representing in Amyot the type of simple
narrative, and in Calvin a concise simplicity,
a clearness, and a force which make his
works a school in themselves. Michel Mon-
taigne was writing his Essays, not pub-
lished till 1580, and La Boe'tie his famous
discourse.

0 Ramus was much persecuted by the Faculty of Theo-
logy. Letter from Cardinal de Lorraine denouncing his
doctrines. — " National Archives," No. 632 ; " Archives of the
Empire," MS. 73.

f The printer was forbidden, in 1552, to offer for sale
the fourth book of " Pantagruel." This work had already
been prohibited by the Parliament on March 15, 1552. —
" National Archives," No. 630.

302 A GENTLEMAN OP THE OLDEN TIME.

Poetry did not lose any of its privileges
at Court, where Ronsard took the place of
Marot. Young and handsome, and of noble
birth, his amorous adventures, his remote
travels, his shipwrecks, and his campaigns,
made a hero of him from his youth. Prema-
ture deafness causing him to turn his attention
to study, he shut himself up for seven years
in the College of Coqueret, and, endowed with
a prodigious facility, he quitted it with the
complete mastery of the languages and the
works of antiquity. His first efforts elicited
an acknowledgment of his genius. All the
young poets of the day, such as Joachim du
Bellay, who wrote the treatise called " Illus-
tration de la LangueFrancaise,"Remi Belleau,
Antoine de Baif, Thiard, Muret, Jodelle, and
others, followed him to the Court. Grouped
together, under the name of the Pleiad, they
formed a new school, which had not so much
as its objective the development of the
natural French language, as the introduction
into it of the beauties of antiquity. The
Pleiad affected to disdain Villon and Marot,
and the King's sister, Marguerite, afterwards

A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME. 303

Duchess of Savoy, followed the example of her
aunt and became their Egeria, gradually per-
suading the King, who with St. Gelais had for a
long time remained true to the old tradition,
to embrace the new faith. Great was the
exultation of its disciples, and the "Floral
Games " proclaim Ronsard to be the Prince
of Poets, and treat him as if he were a Homer
or a Yirgil. Every versifier had a compli-
ment for him, and even the better-balanced
minds did him homage ; L'Hopital saying that
there was nothing to pick and choose in his
works, as "the whole of them are admirable ;"
while De Thou, comparing his birth to the
disaster of Pavia, saw in it a compensation
for France.

The creation of a literary theatre, which
was destined to- assume such a brilliant de-
velopment a century later, dates from this
period. Yery curious was the origin of the
theatre in France, as it was the spontaneous
outcome of the natural attraction which sce-
nic representations have for humanity, and
this in the Middle Ages, when religion was
all-powerful. First of all, we have the Fetes

304 A GENTLEMAN OP THE OLDEN TIME.

desFous, the Fetes des Anes, and so forth; and
then follow the processions of the Crusaders
returning from the East, the bourdon in their
hand, and scallops in their hats, chanting in
chorus the Passion and other sacred narratives,
as they marched slowly through the streets,
filled with eager and awe-struck crowds.
At the end of the fourteenth century, the
first regular troupe of actors was formed in
the village of St. Maur-des-Fosses, near Vin-
cennes, to represent mystery plays by the
transformation of singing into mimic action.
A decree of Charles VI. (September 4, 1402),
constituted them into what was called the
Brotherhood of the Passion (Confrerie de la
Passion), with an exclusive monopoly for
Paris and the neighbourhood. A similar
course was adopted in the provinces, and
these different troupes were indifferently re-
cruited from among the burgesses, merchants,
ushers of the Chatelet, locksmiths, masons,
and even among the ecclesiastics, who con-
descended to comedy in their leisure hours.*

0 On July 3, 1473, the Cur6 of St. Victor de Metz,
nearly died, while nailed to the cross to represent our Lord ;

A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME. 305

The representations took place on Sunday,
before or after church, the hours of which
were so altered as to allow the congregation
to witness this edifying spectacle.

The Brotherhood of the Passion, which
at first played at the Trinity Hospital, after-
wards occupied the Hotel de Flandre, where
it continued to give its representations up to
the middle of the sixteenth century, though
they had fallen off very much.
, From the very first, popular farces and
sacred mysteries were mixed up together.
At the end of the reign of St. Louis, the pro-
fessional jugglers, male and female, had in-
troduced into their performances feats of
strength and dancing animals.* In the
fifteenth century, two lay companies were
formed, specially with a view to playing
farces, one being the Basoche, composed of

and in the same piece, Jean de Nicey, chaplain at Metrange,
took the part of Judas.— " Histoire de Lorraine de Don
Calmet," quoted by the " Revue Retrospective," vol. iv.

0 They were dispensed from payment of toll on the
bridges upon the condition that they made their animals
dance before the toll-keeper, whence the popular saying,
" Monnaie de Singe."

VOL. II. 40

306 A GENTLEMAN OP THE OLDEN TIME.

lawyers' clerks, and the other the Enfants
sans Souci, consisting of wealthy young men
who wanted to amuse themselves. Their
pieces were called moralites, or sotties, accord-
ing as to whether they had the pretension to
give lessons of morality, or whether they
merely sought to ridicule folly.*

As religious faith declined, the public
gradually deserted the mystery - plays in
favour of the farces, and the Confreries de la
Passion, in order to regain popular favour,
then introduced into religious history all
sorts of grotesque and libertine incidents.
This caused serious scandal to the pious, and
gave the Keformers an opportunity for the
most bitter criticism.! The clergy com-
plained very much, and in the winter of

0 One of the most famous is that of Patelin, which dates
from 1474. These companies needed a special licence for
each of their plays, which were generally given upon an
open-air platform.

f Among other successful pieces was the "Actes des
Ap6tres," by the Brothers Gr6ban, a popular play, the repre-
sentation of which extended over forty days, which con-
tained fifty thousand lines, and required five hundred actors
and supernumeraries, the latter of whom were recruited by
the public crier from the streets.

A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME. 307

1541, the representations, which had never
been so brilliant, were marked by such scenes
of disorder that Parliament intervened. The
players of the " Confrerie " then left the
Hotel de Flandre and migrated to the Hotel
de Bourgoyne, in the Rue Mauconseil, and
an edict forbade them to play any more
mysteries taken from Holy Writ, but only
secular and decent subjects.* Just at the
time that the religious theatre, so to call it,
was dying out, the literary theatre made its
first appearance, with Jodelle and other
members of the Pleiad, the first pieces be-
ing translations and adaptations from the
ancients, such as " Cleopatre," "Medee,"
and "Antigone." There was nothing original
about them, but they opened the way, and
"Cleopatre," Jodelle's first tragedy, repre-
sented in 1552 at the Hotel de Reims before
Henry II., his Court, and all the learned

* It was under this new form that they existed, until an
edict of Louis XIV. withdrew their privilege in 1676, and
fused them in 1680 with Moliere's troupe, the members of
which then took the title of " Comedians in Ordinary to the
King." They then settled at the Etoile Tennis-Court, Rue
des Fosses-St. Germain.

308 A GENTLEMAN OP THE OLDEN TIME..

men of the College de France, excited great
enthusiasm. The principal roles were taken
by the poets themselves and the men of
letters, and in the evening, authors and
actors went off together to sup at Arcueil,
the goat of classic antiquity, adorned with
flowers and ivy, being brought into the
banqueting-room and presented to the tri-
umphant poet. Baif, speaking in Greek, no
doubt, with a strong dash of French about it,
chanted a pean of triumph, and so Athens
was brought to life again.*

The plastic arts, on the contrary, re-
verted during the same period to the more
truly French ideal which they had lost. The
conventional character of decorative paint-
ing, introduced by the Italians, had already
commenced, towards the close of the pre-
vious reign, to fatigue the public, and as this
feeling became more accentuated, the Italian
artists, falling into discredit, one by one

* " Revue Retrospective," vol. iv. — " Histoire du Theatre
is," by the Brothers Parfait.— " Poesie et Theatre au
Seizieme Siecle," by Sainte-Beuve.

A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME. 809

returned to their native country.* The
French artists were compelled either to imi-
tate or to enter the service of some noble, f
many of them finding occupation at Fontaine-
bleau. Thus a return was made to the old
Clouet school, that of portrait painting ; and
in 1551, Francois Clouet, who had worthily
inherited his father's post and his method of
painting, was working at his famous full-
length portrait of Henri II., while as the
artists of that day were not above doing the
smallest details, he at the same time painted
his crescents and mottoes. The change
which had occurred in public opinion may be
measured by the fact, that all the poets of
the day, Eonsard among them,$ sang the

0 Primaticcio and Dell' Abbate, however, remained at
Fontainebleau till 1570, as their names are to be seen in the
registry of baptisms as godfathers at that date. — " Revue des
Arts," Comte de la Borde, vol. i., page 706.

f A letter from the Queen of Navarre to the Chancellor
d'Alengon instructs him to engage in her service the brother
of " Jeannet, the King's painter." She and her husband will
each give him one hundred livres as wages. — " Lettres
Incites," vol. I., page 252.

J" OBuvres Completes," vol. i., page 556. Edition of 1623.

310 A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME.

praises of Clouet, whereas none of them had
alluded to any of his predecessors.

The polychromic art, which had appeared
in Italy about the middle of the fifteenth cen-
tury with Delia Robbia, had been introduced
into France by one of his grand-nephews,
Jerome, son of Andrea, brought into the
country by Francois I.* It was under the
inspiration of this artist and that of the
Prince himself, that the Chateau de Madrid
was built, in what was then an entirely new
style of architecture. An elegant edifice,
with arcades, and everywhere open to the
light, it formed a curious contrast to the
heavy and massive monuments of the Middle
Ages, the thick walls and narrow windows of
which were designed with a special view to
defensive purposes. The Chateau de Madrid,
on the contrary, presented quite a fairy-like
appearance, with its sculptured stonework

0 Delia Robbia, who seems to have derived his method
from Arab potters, had founded with hia two nephews,
Andrea and Simone, a studio where the work executed in
common bore only a family mark. The first document
which mentions enamelled stones is dated 1646.

A GENTLEMAN OP THE OLDEN TIME. 311

ornamented with coloured enamels from the
base to the summit.

The work having been interrupted by
the King's death, Delia Eobbia returned to
Italy, having been got rid of by Philibert
Delorme ; but, curiously enough, it was just
at this epoch that Bernard. Palissy created
anew the polychromic art, without borrow-
ing anything from his predecessors, and,
through his influence this mode of orna-
mentation was again adopted in the public
buildings.

Philibert Delorme and Pierre Lescot con-
tinued to direct the public works commenced
in the last reign, such as the Louvre, the
Hotel de Ville, the Chateaux of Yincennes,
St. Leger, the Tournelles, Anet, Ecouen,
and others.

Sculpture completed the work of archi-
tecture, with such chisels as those of Jean-
Goujon, Germain Pilon, and Cousin ; and in
their capable hands busts, statues, and alle-
gorical groups, representing historical and
religious scenes, together with many other
forms of ornamentation, were to be seen

312 A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME.

everywhere.* There was a general enthu-
siasm to follow the King's example, Diane
and Montmorency being among the first to
copy him ; and every Prince and noble had
his architect, sculptor, stone-cutter, painter,
gilder, and image-maker attached to his
household. Art held the first place in every
department of life — in dress, dwelling-
houses, ceremonies, and public festivals —
and to Francois I. belongs the glory of
having given the impetus to this grand
movement, while Henri II. has the credit of
having followed it.

At the same time, if art can charm, em-
bellish, and elevate the life of a nation, it
does not constitute that life itself. Moral
and political ' order are the true sources of
national life, and when its forces are not

0 The facade of the Louvre clock-tower, the Salle des
Cent-Suisses, the horse-shoe courtyard at Fontainebleau,
the Fontaine des Innocents, the tomb of the Valois at St.
Denis, " The Three Graces " — so celebrated, and so often
imitated— the "Quatre Vertus Cardinales," "Diane Chas-
seresse," the tomb of Philippe de Chabot, belong to this
epoch. Then there was a whole array of gods and goddesses,
naiads and nymphs, side by side with saints, evangelists, and
funereal figures.

A GENTLEMAN OP THE OLDEN TIME. 313

renewed, they become exhausted. It is in
vain that the ruin is then disguised under a
brilliant surface; it continues its slow but
inevitable progress until the day arrives
when the edifice totters to the ground. So it
was to be with ancient France.

THE END.

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