Gazette Of The United States

FOR THE GAZETTE OF THE UNITED STATES.

DISCOURSES ON DAVILA. NO. XVII.

(CONCLUDED.)

Ses mains, autour du trône, avec confusion,

Semaient la jalousie, et la division.

The Admiral Gaspard de Coligni, had two different governments; that of the Isle of France, and that of Picardie; but as the laws of the kingdom, permitted not the possession of more than one dignity, one government was the secret crime, the late King had destined that of Picardie, to the Prince de Condé, to appease his resentment and soften his complaints. The Prince earnestly desired this favor, to which, indeed, he had just pretensions. His father, and the King of Navarre had successively held it; and the Admiral had resigned it, in consideration of the Prince. But the death of Henry II. happening near the same time, had hindered the effect of this arrangement, which had already been made public. Francis the II. had no regard to it. At the solicitation of the Guises, and by a manifest injustice to the Prince, he granted this place to Charles de Cossé, Marechal de Brissac, a captain of high reputation and great valor; but who having been promoted by the favor of the Princes of Lorrain, was closely attached to them and served them with zeal. Nor was there more attention paid to Francis of Montmorency, the eldest son of the Constable. He had married Diana, natural daughter of Henry II. In consideration of this marriage, he had been promised, the office of grand master of the King's household, a place which had been long held by his father. From the first days of the reign of Francis II., the Duke of Guise, took it for himself, that he might add this new eclat to his other dignities, as well as deprive of it, a house which he wished to depress. Thus the Duke and the Cardinal, embraced with ardor, every occasion of mortifying their rivals, and aggrandizing themselves. The Queen mother, who foresaw that this unlimited ambition and this violent hatred, must have fatal effects, desired that they should act with more moderation, management and dexterity; but she dared not, in the beginning, oppose herself to the wills, nor traverse the designs of those, whose influence was the principal support of her authority.

At this time the Bourbons, excluded from all parts of the government, banished from court, and without hopes of carrying their complaints to the foot of the throne, beginning to reflect upon the situation of their affairs, and the conduct of their enemies, who, not content with their present grandeur, labored by all sorts of means to perpetuate it, resolved, to remain no longer inactive spectators of their own misfortunes, but to prevent the ruin that threatened them. To this purpose a convention was called, and we shall soon see what kind of convention it was. Anthony King of Navarre, after having left in Bearn his son, yet an infant, under the conduct of the Queen his wife, as in an asylum, at a distance from that conflagration, which they saw ready to be lighted up, in France, repaired to Vendome, with the Prince of Condé, already returned from his embassy; the Admiral, D'Andelot, and the Cardinal of Chatillon his brothers, Charles Comte de la Rochefoucault, Francis Vidame de Chartres, Antony Prince of Portien, all relations or common friends, assembled also, with several other noblemen attached for many years to the houses of Montmorency and Bourbon. The Constable, who, although to all appearance wholly engaged in the delights of private life, secretly set in motion all the springs of this enterprise, had sent to this assembly at Ardres, his ancient and confidential Secretary, with instructions concerning the affairs to be there agitated. They took into consideration the part which it was necessary to act in the present conjunction of affairs. All agreed in the same end, but opinions as usual, were divided concerning the means. All equally felt the atrocious affronts committed against the Princes of the blood, from whom the Guises had not only taken the first places in the government, but the small number of dignities which had remained to them. They saw evidently that the design was nothing less, than to oppress these Princes and their partizans. All perceived the necessity of preventing so pressing a danger, without waiting for the last extremity. But they were not equally agreed concerning the measures proper to ward it off.