try: this may be one caufe why the plague is always in-fome corner or other of this vaft city, which may be called, as once Scythia was, vagina populorum, or (as mankind was called by a great philofopher) a great mole-hill of ants: yet I believe this city is not fo populous as the feems to be, for her form being round (as the whole kingdom is) the paffengers wheel about, and meet oftner than they use to do in the long continued ftreets of London, which makes London appear lefs populous than the is indeed; fo that London for length (though not for latitude), including Weltminster, exceeds Paris, and hath in Michaelmas term more fouls moving within her in all places. It is under one hundred years that Paris is become fo fumptuous and strong in buildings; for her houses were mean, until a mine of white ftone was discovered hard by, which runs in a continued vein of earth, and is digged out with eafe, being foft, and is between a white clay and chalk at first: but being pulleyed up with the open air, it receives a crufty kind of hardness, and fo becomes perfet free-ftone; and before it is fent up from the pit, they can reduce it to any form of this ftone, the Louvre, the King's palace, is built, which is a vaft fabric, for the gallery wants not much of an Italian mile in length, and will cafily lodge 3000 men; which, fome told me, was the end for which the laft King made it fo big; that, lying at the fag-end of this great mutinous city, if the perchance should rife, the King might pour out of the Louvre fo many thoufand men unawares into the heart of her. I am lodged here hard by the Baftile, because it is furtheft off from those places where the English refort; for I would go on to get a little language as foon as I could. In my next, I fhall impart unto you what state-news France affords; in the interim, and always, I am your humble fervant. LETTER IX. caft a fweeter odour than any frankincenfe can do; fuch an odour, fuch an aromatic perfume, your late letter brought with it, proceeding from the fragrancy of thofe dainty flowers of eloquence, which I found bloffoming as it were in every line; I mean thofe fweet expreffions of love and wit, which in every period were intermingled with fo much art, that they feemed to contend for mastery which was the ftrongest. I must confefs, that you put me to hard shifts to correfpond with you in fuch exquifite strains and raptures of love, which were fo lively, that I muft needs judge them to proceed from the motions, from the diaftole and fyftole of a heart truly affected; certainly your heart did dictate every fyllable you writ, and guided your hand all along. Sir, give me leave to tell you, that not a dram, nor a dofe, nor a fcruple of this precious love of yours is loft, but is fafely treasured up in my breast, and aníwered in like proportion to the full: mine to you is as cordial, it is paffionate and perfect as love can be. I thank you for the defire you have to know how it fares with me abroad: I thank God I am perfectly well, and well contented with this wandering courfe of life a while: I never enjoyed my health better, but I was like to endanger it two nights ago; for being in fome jovial company abroad, and coming late to our lodging, we were fuddenly furprised by a crew of filous or night rogues, who drew upon us; and as we had exchanged fome blows, it pleafed God the Chevalier du Guet, an officer who goes up and down the streets all night a horseback to prevent diforders, paffed by, and fo refcued us; but Jack White was hurt, and I had two thrufts in my cloak. There is never a night paffes, but fome robbing or murder is committed in this town; fo that it is not fafe to go late any where, fpecially about the Pont-Neuf, the Newbridge, though Henry the Great himself lies centinel there in arms, upon a huge Florentine horfe, and fits bare to every one that paffeth; an improper posture methinks to a King on horfeback. Not From the fame to Richard Altham, Efq; long fince, one of the Secretaries of from Paris. State (whereof there are always four), having been invited to the fuburbs of St. Germains to fupper, left order with one of his lacqueys to bring him his horse about nine; it fo happened that a mifchance U befel befel the horfe, which lamed him as he went a-watering to the Seine, infomuch that the fecretary was put to beat the hoof himfelf, and foot it home; but as he was paffing the Pont-Neuf with his lacquey carrying a torch before him, he might over-hear a noife of clashing of fwords, and fighting, and looking under the torch, and perceiving they were but two, he bad his lacquey go on; they had not made many paces, but two armed men, with their piftols cocked and fwords drawn, made puffing towards them, whereof one had a paper in his hand, which he said he had cafually took up in the streets, and the difference between them was about that paper; therefore they defired the fecretary to read it, with a great deal of compliment: the Secretary took out his fpectacles and fell a reading of the faid paper, whereof the fubftance was, That it fhould be known to all men, that whofoever did pafs over that bridge after nine o'clock at night in winter, and ten in fummer, was to leave his cloak behind him, and in cafe of no cloak, his hat. The fecretary farting at this, one of the comrades told him, that he thought that paper concerned him; fo they unmantled him of a new plush cloak, and my fecretary was content to go home quietly, and en cuerpo. This makes me think often of the excellent nocturnal government of our city of London, where one may pafs and repafs fecurely all hours of the night, if he gives good words to the watch. There is a gentle calm of peace now throughout all France, and the King intends to make a progrefs to all the frontier towns of the kingdom, to fee how they are fortified. The favourite Luines ftrengtheneth himfelf more and more in his minionfhip; but he is much murmured at, in regard the accefs of fuitors to him is fo difficult: which made a Lord of this land fay, That three of the hardest things in the world were, to quadrate a circle, to find out the philofopher's-ftone, and to fpeak with the Duke of Luines. I have fent you by Vacandary, the poft, the French beaver and tweefes you writ for: beaver hats are grown dearer of late, because the Jefuits have got the monopoly of them from the King. Farewel, dear child of virtue, and minion of the mules, and continue to love yours, &c. LETTER X. From James Howwel, Efq; to Sir James Crofts, from Paris. I AM to fet forward this week for Spain, and if I can find no commodity of embarkation at St. Maloes, I muft be forced to journey it all the way by land, and clamber up the huge Pyrenee hills; but I could not bid Paris adieu, till I had conveyed my true and conftant refpects to you by this letter. I was yefterday to wait upon Sir Herbert Crofts at St. Germains, where I met with a French gentleman, who, amongst other curiofities which he pleafed to fhew me up and down Paris, brought me to that place where the late King was flain, and to that where the Marquis of Ancre was fhot; and fo made me a punctual relation of all the circumstances of thofe two acts, which in regard they were rare, and I believe two of the notableft accidents that ever happened in France, I thought it worth the labour to make you partaker of fome part of his difcourfe. and France, as all Chriftendom befides (for there was then a truce betwixt Spain and the Hollanders), was in a profound peace, and had continued fo twenty years together, when Henry IV. fell upon fome great martial defign, the bottom whereof is not known to this day; being rich (for he had heaped up in the Bafile a mount of gold that was as high as a lance), he levied a huge army of 40,000 men, whence came the fong, "The King of France with forty thousand "men;" and upon a fudden he put his army in perfect equipage, and fome fay he invited our Prince Henry to come to him to be a fharer in his exploits. But going one afternoon to the Batile, to fee his treasure and ammunition, his coach flopped fuddenly, by reafon of fome colliers and other carts that were in that narrow street; whereupon one Ravillac, a lay-jefuit (who had a whole twelvemonth watched an opportunity to do the aft), put his foot boldly upon one of the wheels of the coach, and with a long knife Itretched himself over their shoulders who were in the boot of the coach, and reached the King at the end, and stabbed him right in the left fide to the heart, and and pulling out the fatal fteel, he doubled his thruft; the King with a ruthful voice cried out, Je fuis bleffe (I am hurt), and fuddenly the blood iffued out at his mouth. The regicide villain was apprehended, and command given that no violence should be offered him, that he might be reserved for the law, and fome exquifite torture. The Queen grew half distracted hereupon, who had been crowned Queen of France the day before in great triumph; but a few days after fhe had fomething to countervail, if not to overmatch, her forrow; for according to St. Lewis's law, the was made Queenregent of France, during the King's minority, who was then but about ten years of age. Many confultations were held how to punith Ravillac, and there were fome Italian phyficians that undertook to prefcribe a torment, that should lat a conftant torment for three days; but he escaped only with this, his body was pulled between four horfes, that one might hear his bones crack, and after the dillocation they were fet again; and fo he was carried in a cart ftanding half naked, with a torch in that hand which had committed the murder, and in the place where the act was done it was cut off, and a gauntlet of hot oil was clapped upon the stump, to ftanch the blood; whereat he gave a doleful fhriek: then was he brought upon a stage, where a new pair of boots was provided for him, half filled with boiling oil; then his body was pincered, and hot oil poured into the holes. In all the extremity of this torture he fcarce fhewed any fenfe of pain; but when the gauntlet was clapped upon his arm, to ftanch the flux at that time of recking blood, he gave a fhriek only. He bore up against all thefe torments about three hours before he died. All the confeffion that could be drawn from him was, That he thought to have done God good fervice, to take away that King which would have embroiled all Christendom in an endless war. A fatal thing it was that France should have three of her kings come to fuch violent deaths in fo fhort a revolution of time. Henry II. running at tilt with M. Montgomery, was killed by a splinter of a lance that pierced his eye: Henry III. not long after was killed by a young friar, who, in lieu of a letter which he pretended to have for him, pulled out of his long fleeve a knife, and thruft him into the bottom of the belly, as he was coming from his close-stool, and fo difpatched him; but that regicide was hacked to pieces in the place by the nobles. The fame deftiny attended the King by Ravillac, which is become now a common name of reproach and infamy in France. Never was king fo much lamented as this; there are a world not only of his pictures, but ftatues up and down France; and there is fcarce a market-town but hath him erected in the market place, or over fome gate, not upon fign-pofts, as our Henry VIII.; and by a public act of parliament, which was confirmed in the confiftory at Rome, he was entitled Henry the Great, and fo placed in the temple of Immortality. A notable prince he was, and of an admirable temper of body and mind; he had a graceful facetious way to gain both love and awe: he would be never tranfported beyond himself with choler, but he would pass by any thing with fome repartee, fome witty train, wherein he was excellent. I will inftance in a few which were told me from a good hand. One day he was charged by the Duke of Bouillon to have changed his religion: he answered, "No, cousin, I "have changed no religion, but an "opinion:" and the Cardinal of Perron being by, he enjoined him to write a treatife for his vindication; the Cardinal was long about the work, and when the King afked from time to time where his book was, he would ftill anfwer him, That he expected fome manufcripts from Rome before he could finish it. It happened that one day the King took the Cardinal along with him to look on his workmen and new buildings at the Louvre; and paffing by one corner which had been a long time begun, but left unfinished, the King afked the chief mason why that corner was not all this while perfected?«Sir, it is because I want fome choice ftones."-" No, no,” said the King, looking upon the Cardinal, "it is becaufe thou wanteft manuscripts "from Rome." Another time the old Duke of Main, who was used to play the droll with him, coming foftly into his bed-chamber, and thrusting in his bald head and long neck, in a posture to make the King merry, it happened the King was coming from doing his cafe, and spyU 2 ing ing him, he took the round cover of the clofe-ftool, and clapped it on his bald fconce, faying, "Ah, coufin, you thought "once to have taken the crown off of 66 my head, and wear it on your own; "but this of my tail fhall now ferve your "turn." Another time, when at the fiege of Amiens, he having fent for the Count of Soiffons (who had 100,000 franks a year penfion from the crown) to affit him in thofe wars, and that the Count excufed himfelf by reason of his years and poverty, having exhaufted himfelf in the former wars, and all that he could do now was to pray for his Majelly, which he would do heartily: this anfwer being brought to the King, he replied, "Will my coufin, the Count of Soiffons, "do nothing else but pray for me? tell "him that prayer without fafting is not "available; therefore I will make my "coufin faft alio from his penfion of or the leaft tintamar of trouble in any part of the country, which is rare in France. 'Tis true the queen-mother is difcontented fince the left her regency, being confined; and I know not what it may come to in time, for the hath a trong party; and the murdering of her Marquis of Ancre will yet bleed, as fome fear. I was lately in fecicy of a gentleman who was a fpectator of that tragedy; and he was pleafed to relate to me the particulars of it, which was thus: When Henry IV. was flain, the Queen Dowager took the reins of the government into her hands during the young King's minority; and among ft others whom the advanced, Signior Conchino, a Florentine, and her foiler-brother, was one: her countenance came to thine fo ftrongly upon him that he became her only confident and favourite, infomuch that he made him Marquis of Ancre, one of the twelve Marefchals of France, Governour of Normandy, and conferred divers other honours and offices of truft upon him; and who but he? The Princes of France could not endure the domineering of a firanger, therefore they leagued together to fupprefs him by arms: the Queen-regent, having intelligence hereof, furprised the Prince of Condé, and clapped him up in the Bafile; the Duke of Main fled hereupon to Peronne in Picardy, and other great men put themfelves in an armed poilure to fland upon their guard. The young King being told that the Marquis of Ancre was the ground of this difcontentment, commanded M. de Vitry, captain of his guards, to arreft him, and in cafe of resistance to kill him: this bufinets was carried very clofely till the next morning, that the faid Marquis was coming to the Louvre with a ruling train of gallants after him; and pating over the draw-bridge at the court-gate, From James Howell, Efq; to his Brother Vitry flood there with the King's guard Dr. Honwell. about him; and as the Marquis entered, he told him that he had a commitlion from the King to apprehend him, therefore he demanded his fword: the Marquis hereupon put his hand upon his fword, fome thought to yield it up, others to make oppofition; in the mean time Vitry difcharged a piftol at him, and fo difpatched him. The King, being above in his gallery, afked what noife that was below; one fmilingly answered, No thing, Sir, but that the Marefchal of "Ancre is flain."-" Who flew him?" "The Captain of your guard.". "Why ?" "Because he would have "drawn his fword at your Majesty's "royal commiffion." Then the King replied, "Vitry hath done well, and Ĭ "will maintain the act." Presently the Queen-mother had all her guard taken from her, except fix men and fixteen women, and fo fhe was banished Paris, and commanded to retire to Blois : Ancre's body was buried that night in a church-yard by the court; but the next morning the lacqueys and pages (who are more unhappy here than the apprentices in London) broke open his grave, tore his collin to pieces, ripped the winding-fheet, and tied his body to an afs's tail, and fo dragged him up and down the gutters of Paris, which are none of the fweeteft; they then fliced off his ears, and nailed them upon the gates of the city; the rest of his body they carried to the New Bridge, and hung him, his heels upwards and head downwards, upon a new gibbet, that had been fet up a little before to punish them who should fpeak ill of the prefent government; and it was his chance to have the maidenhead of it himfelf. His wife was hereupon apprehended, imprisoned, and beheaded for a witch fome few days after, upon a furmife that she had enchanted the Queen to dote fo upon her husband; and they fay the young King's picture was found in her clofet in virgin-wax, with one leg melted away. A little after a procefs was formed against the Marquis (her husband), and f he was condemned after death. This was a right act of a French popular fury, which like an angry torrent is irresistible; nor can any banks, boundaries, or dikes, ftop the impetuous rage of it. How the young King will profper after fo high and an unexampled act of violence, by beginning his reign, and embruing the walls of his own court with blood in that manner, there are divers cenfures. When I am fettled in Spain you fhall hear from me; in the interim, I pray let your prayers accompany me in this long journey; and when you write to Wales, I pray acquaint our friends with my welfare. So I pray God bless us both, and fend us a happy interview. Your loving brother. LETTER XII. From the fame to Mr. Thomas Porter, after Captain Porter, from Barcelona. I Barcelona, 10th Nov. 1620. My dear Tom, HAD no fooner fet foot upon this foil, and breathed Spanish air, but my thoughts prefently reflected upon you: of all my friends in England, you were the firft I met here; you were the prime object of my fpeculation; methought the very winds in gentle whifpers did breathe out your name and blow it on me; you feemed to reverberate upon me with the beams of the fun, which you know hath fuch a powerful influence, and indeed too great a ftroke in this country. And all this you muft afcribe to the operations of love, which hath fuch a strong virtual force, that when it fafteneth upon a pleafing fubject, it fets the imagination in a strange fit of working; it employs all the faculties of the foul, fo that not one cell in the brain is idle; it bufieth the whole inward man, it affects the heart, amufeth the understanding; it quickeneth the fancy, and leads the will as it were by a filken thread to co-operate with them all: I have felt thefe motions often in me, efpecially at this time that my memory is fixed upon you. But the reafon that I fell firit upon you in Spain was, that I remembered I had heard you often difcourfing how you have received part of your education here, which brought you to fpeak the language fo exactly well. I think often of the relations I have heard you make of this country, and the good inftruction you pleafed to give me. I am now in Barcelona, but the next week I intend to go on through your town of Valencia to Alicant, and thence you fhall be fure to hear from me farther, for I make account to winter there. The Duke of Offuna paffed by here lately, and having got leave of grace to release fome flaves, he went aboard the Cape gallies, and pafing through the churma of flaves, he asked divers of them what their offences were: every one excufed himfelf; one faying, That he was put in out of malice, another by bribery of the judge, but all of them unjuffly; amongst the reft there was one little turdy black man, and the Duke afking him what he U 3 was " |