proposals, to which she replied by the memorable answer: "I am too poor, Sire, to be your wife, and too well-born to become your mistress."
[42] Diane de Luxembourg, who, in 1600–1, gave her hand to Louis de Ploësqueler, Comte de Kerman, in Brittany.
[43] Mademoiselle de Guéménée was the daughter of Louis de Rohan, Prince de Guéménée, first Duc de Montbazon.
[44] Sully, Mém. vol. iii. pp. 162–174.
[45] Denys de Marquemont, Archbishop of Lyons, and subsequently cardinal (1626). He did not, however, long enjoy this dignity, to obtain which he had exerted all his energies, as he died at the close of the same year. He was a truckling politician, and an ambitious priest.
[46] Arnaud d'Ossat was born in 1536 at Cassagnaberre, a small village of Armagnac, near Auch. His parents lived in great indigence during his infancy, and at nine years of age he became an orphan, totally destitute. He was placed as an attendant about the person of a young gentleman of family, whose studies he shared with such success that, from the fellow-student of his patron, he became his tutor. After some time he accompanied his employer to Paris, where by persevering industry he completed his education, and was enabled to give lessons in philosophy and rhetoric. He then proceeded to Bourges, where he studied legal jurisprudence under the famous Cujas. Paul de Foix, Archbishop of Toulouse, when about to proceed as ambassador to Rome, engaged him as his secretary; and while there, he embraced the ecclesiastical profession, and rendered himself perfectly conversant with the whole policy of the Papal Court. Henri III bestowed upon him the Abbey of Notre-Dame de Varennes, but, as his claim was contested, he immediately resigned it. Subsequently he was raised to the bishopric of Rennes, was created a cardinal in 1598, and some time afterwards was appointed to the see of Bayeux. His untiring devotion to the interests of France was ultimately recognized by his elevation to the dignity of minister under Henri IV.
[47] Jacques Davy Duperron was born at Berne in 1556, and being learned in mathematics, Greek, Hebrew, and philosophy, he became a professor of those sciences in Paris, where he obtained the appointment of reader to Henri III. Having embraced the ecclesiastical profession, he received from Henri IV (in 1591) the bishopric of Evreux, as a recompense for his devotion to the interests of Gabrielle d'Estrées. It was Duperron who obtained from the Pope the removal of the interdict fulminated against France. He ultimately became a cardinal, and Archbishop of Sens, and died in 1606.
[48] Henri de Luxembourg, Duc de Piney, was the descendant of the celebrated Comte de Saint-Pol, and that branch of the family became extinct in his person. He died in 1616.
[49] Nicolas Brulart, Seigneur de Sillery, was the elder son of Pierre Brulart, president of the Court of Requests at Paris. He obtained the office of court-councillor in 1573, and subsequently that of master of the Court of Requests. Henry IV, after his accession to the throne of France, appointed him ambassador to Switzerland; and on his return from that country, made him sixth president, that dignity having become vacant by the death of Jean Le Maître. In 1598 he was one of the deputies by whom the peace of Vervins was concluded; and from thence he proceeded to Brussels with the Duc de Biron, to be present when the Archduke swore to the observance of the treaty. He next visited Italy as ambassador extraordinary to the Pope, where he negotiated the marriage of the King with Marie de Medicis. In 1604 Henri IV created in his favour the office of keeper of the seals of France; and finally, on the death of the Chancelier de Bellièvre, he became his successor.
[50] Sully, Mém. vol. iii. pp. 189, 190.
[51] "Comme s'il fût revenu d'extase," says Péréfixe, vol. ii. p. 300.
[52] In April 1599.
[53] Bernard de Montfaucon. Les Monumens de la Monarchie Française, Paris, 1733, in folio, vol. v. p. 396.
[54] Horace del-Monte.
[55] Mézeray, vol. x. p. 123.
[56] Maintenon, Mém., Amsterdam, 1756, vol. ii. p. 115.
[57] Roger de St. Larry, Duc de Bellegarde, was the favourite of three successive sovereigns. Henri III appointed him master of his wardrobe, and subsequently first gentleman of the chamber, and grand equerry. Henri IV made him a knight of his Orders in 1595; and ultimately Louis XIII continued to him an equal amount of favour. The preservation of Quilleboeuf, which he defended with great gallantry during the space of three weeks, with only forty-five soldiers and ten nobles, against the army of the Duc de Mayenne, acquired for him a renown which he never afterwards forfeited.
[58] Henri, Comte, and subsequently Duc, de Lude, was the last male representative of his family. He was appointed grand-master of the artillery in 1669, and died without issue in 1685.
[59] Jean de St. Larry de Thermes, brother of the Duc d'Aiguillon.
[60] Jacques, Marquis de Castelnau, subsequently Marshal of France, who, in 1658, commanded the left wing of the army at the battle of the Dunes, and died the same year, at the early age of thirty-eight.
[61] François de Paule de Clermont, Marquis de Montglat, first maître d'hôtel to the King.
[62] M. de Frontenac was one of the officers of Henry IV who, before his accession to the throne of France (in 1576), had a quarrel with M. de Rosny, during which he told him that if he were to pull his nose, he could only draw out milk; a taunt to which the future minister replied by an assurance that he felt strong enough to draw blood out of that of his adversary with his sword. The peculiarity of this quarrel existed in the fact that, although De Rosny was a Protestant, and Frontenac a Catholic, M. de Turenne nevertheless espoused the cause of the latter; upon which M. de Lavardin, a Catholic, declared himself ready to second the arms of the adverse party.
[63] François, Baron de Bassompierre, was the son of Christophe de Bassompierre and Louise de Radeval, and was born on the 12th of April 1579, at the château of Harouel, in Lorraine. He became at an early age the intimate companion and favourite of Henri IV, by whom he was appointed colonel-general of the Swiss troops. In the year 1603 he was made Marshal of France, and obtained great influence over both Marie de Medicis and her son Louis XIII. Richelieu, who became jealous of his favour, caused him to be imprisoned in the Bastille in 1631, where he remained for twelve years. He was an able diplomatist, a distinguished general, and a polished, though dissolute, courtier. He acquitted himself with great distinction in several sieges, and at his death, which occurred in 1646, he bequeathed to posterity his personal memoirs, which are among the most curious in the rich collections possessed by his countrymen.
[64] Rambure, unpublished Mém., 1599, vol. i. pp. 151, 152.
[65] Catherine Henriette de Balzac d'Entragues, subsequently known as the Marquise de Verneuil, was the elder daughter of the celebrated Marie Touchet, who, after having been the mistress of Charles IX, became the wife of François de Balzac, Seigneur d'Entragues, de Marcoussis and de Malesherbes, Governor of Orleans, who was, in 1573, elected a knight of St. Michael by Henri III. Henriette, as her name implies, was, together with her two sisters, the issue of this marriage; while her half-brother the Comte d'Auvergne, subsequently Duc d'Angoulême, was the son of Charles IX.
[66] Saint--Edmé, Amours et Galanteries des Rois de France, Brussels, vol. ii. pp. 199, 200.
[67] Louise Marguerite de Lorraine, the widow of Henri III, was the elder daughter of Nicolas de Lorraine, Duc de Mercoeur, Comte de Vaudemont, and of the Marquise d'Egmont, his first wife. Henri III having seen her at Rheims, during his temporary residence in that city, became enamoured of her person, and their marriage took place on the 5th of February 1575. François de Luxembourg, of the House of Brienne, had for some time paid his addresses to
