Voyages of Samuel De Champlain — Volume 01

by Samuel de Champlain

CHAPTER I.

PARENTAGE—BIRTH—HOME AT BROUAGE—ITS SITUATION—A MILITARY STATION—ITS SALT WORKS—HIS EDUCATION—EARLY LOVE OF THE SEA—QUARTER-MASTER IN BRITTANY—CATHOLICS AND HUGUENOTS—CATHERINE DE MEDICIS—THE LEAGUE—DUKE DE MERCOEUR—MARSHAL D'AUMONT—DE SAINT LUC—MARSHAL DE BRISSAC—PEACE OF VERVINS

Champlain was descended from an ancestry whose names are not recorded among the renowned families of France. He was the son of Antoine de Champlain, a captain in the marine, and his wife Marguerite LeRoy. They lived in the little village of Brouage, in the ancient province of Saintonge. Of their son Samuel, no contemporaneous record is known to exist indicating either the day or year of his birth. The period at which we find him engaged in active and responsible duties, such as are usually assigned to mature manhood, leads to the conjecture that he was born about the year 1567. Of his youth little is known. The forces that contributed to the formation of his character are mostly to be inferred from the abode of his early years, the occupations of those by whom he was surrounded, and the temper and spirit of the times in which he lived.

Brouage is situated in a low, marshy region, on the southern bank of an inlet or arm of the sea, on the southwestern shores of France, opposite to that part of the Island of Oleron where it is separated from the mainland only by a narrow channel. Although this little town can boast a great antiquity, it never at any time had a large population. It is mentioned by local historians as early as the middle of the eleventh century. It was a seigniory of the family of Pons. The village was founded by Jacques de Pons, after whose proper name it was for a time called Jacopolis, but soon resumed its ancient appellation of Brouage.

An old chronicler of the sixteenth century informs us that in his time it was a port of great importance, and the theatre of a large foreign commerce. Its harbor, capable of receiving large ships, was excellent, regarded, indeed, as the finest in the kingdom of France. [1] It was a favorite idea of Charles VIII. to have at all times several war-ships in this harbor, ready against any sudden invasion of this part of the coast.

At the period of Champlain's boyhood, the village of Brouage had two absorbing interests. First, it had then recently become a military post of importance; and second, it was the centre of a large manufacture of salt. To these two interests, the whole population gave their thoughts, their energy, and their enterprise.

In the reign of Charles IX., a short time before or perhaps a little after the birth of Champlain, the town was fortified, and distinguished Italian engineers were employed to design and execute the work. [2] To prevent a sudden attack, it was surrounded by a capacious moat. At the four angles formed by the moat were elevated structures of earth and wood planted upon piles, with bastions and projecting angles, and the usual devices of military architecture for the attainment of strength and facility of defence. [3]

During the civil wars, stretching over nearly forty years of the last half of the sixteenth century, with only brief and fitful periods of peace, this little fortified town was a post ardently coveted by both of the contending parties. Situated on the same coast, and only a few miles from Rochelle, the stronghold of the Huguenots, it was obviously exceedingly important to them that it should be in their possession, both as the key to the commerce of the surrounding country and from the very great annoyance which an enemy holding it could offer to them in numberless ways. Notwithstanding its strong defences, it was nevertheless taken and retaken several times during the struggles of that period. It was surrendered to the Huguenots in 1570, but was immediately restored on the peace that presently followed. The king of Navarre [4] took it by strategy in 1576, placed a strong garrison in it, repaired and strengthened its fortifications; but the next year it was forced to surrender to the royal army commanded by the duke of Mayenne. [5] In 1585, the Huguenots made another attempt to gain possession of the town. The Prince of Condé encamped with a strong force on the road leading to Marennes, the only avenue to Brouage by land, while the inhabitants of Rochelle co-operated by sending down a fleet which completely blocked up the harbor. [6] While the siege was in successful progress, the prince unwisely drew off a part of his command for the relief of the castle of Angiers; [7] and a month later the siege was abandoned and the Huguenot forces were badly cut to pieces by de Saint Luc, [8] the military governor of Brouage, who pursued them in their retreat.

The next year, 1586, the town was again threatened by the Prince of Condé, who, having collected another army, was met by De Saint Luc near the island of Oleron, who sallied forth from Brouage with a strong force; and a conflict ensued, lasting the whole day, with equal loss on both sides, but with no decisive results.

Thus until 1589, when the King of Navarre, the leader of the Huguenots, entered into a truce with Henry III., from Champlain's birth through the whole period of his youth and until he entered upon his manhood, the little town within whose walls he was reared was the fitful scene of war and peace, of alarm and conflict.

But in the intervals, when the waves of civil strife settled into the calm of a temporary peace, the citizens returned with alacrity to their usual employment, the manufacture of salt, which was the absorbing article of commerce in their port.

This manufacture was carried on more extensively in Saintonge than in any other part of France. The salt was obtained by subjecting water drawn from the ocean to solar evaporation. The low marsh-lands which were very extensive about Brouage, on the south towards Marennes and on the north towards Rochefort, were eminently adapted to this purpose. The whole of this vast region was cut up into salt basins, generally in the form of parallelograms, excavated at different depths, the earth and rubbish scooped out and thrown on the sides, forming a platform or path leading from basin to basin, the whole presenting to the eye the appearance of a vast chess-board. The argillaceous earth at the bottom of the pans was made hard to prevent the escape of the water by percolation. This was done in the larger ones by leading horses over the surface, until, says an old chronicler, the basins "would hold water as if they were brass." The water was introduced from the sea, through sluices and sieves of pierced planks, passing over broad surfaces in shallow currents, furnishing an opportunity for evaporation from the moment it left the ocean until it found its way into the numerous salt-basins covering the whole expanse of the marshy plains. The water once in the basins, the process of evaporation was carried on by the sun and the wind, assisted by the workmen, who agitated the water to hasten the process. The first formation of salt was on the surface, having a white, creamy appearance, exhaling an agreeable perfume, resembling that of violets. This was the finest and most delicate salt, while that precipitated, or falling to the bottom of the basin, was of a darker hue.

When the crystallization was completed, the salt was gathered up, drained, and piled in conical heaps on the platforms or paths along the sides of the basins. At the height of the season, which began in May and ended in September, when the whole marsh region was covered with countless white cones of salt, it presented an interesting picture, not unlike the tented camp of a vast army.

The salt was carried from the marshes on pack-horses, equipped each with a white canvas bag, led by boys either to the quay, where large vessels were lying, or to small barques which could be brought at high tide, by natural or artificial inlets, into the very heart of the marsh-fields.

When the period for removing the salt came, no time was to be lost, as a sudden fall of rain might destroy in an hour the products of a month. A small quantity only could be transported at a time, and consequently great numbers of animals were employed, which were made to hasten over the sinuous and angulated paths at their highest speed. On reaching the ships, the burden was taken by men stationed for the purpose, the boys mounted in haste, and galloped back for another.

The scene presented in the labyrinth of an extensive salt-marsh was lively and entertaining. The picturesque dress of the workmen, with their clean white frocks and linen tights; the horses in great numbers mantled in their showy salt-bags, winding their way on the narrow platforms, moving in all directions, turning now to the right hand and now to the left, doubling almost numberless angles, here advancing and again retreating, often going two leagues to make the distance of one, maintaining order in apparent confusion, altogether presented to the distant observer the aspect of a grand equestrian masquerade.

The extent of the works and the labor and capital invested in them were doubtless large for that period. A contemporary of Champlain informs us that the wood employed in the construction of the works, in the form of gigantic sluices, bridges, beam-partitions, and sieves, was so vast in quantity that, if it were destroyed, the forests of Guienne would not suffice to replace it. He also adds that no one who had seen the salt works of Saintonge would estimate the expense of forming them less than that of building the city of Paris itself.

The port of Brouage was the busy mart from which the salt of Saintonge was distributed not only along the coast of France, but in London and Antwerp, and we know not what other markets on the continent of Europe. [9]

The early years of Champlain were of necessity intimately associated with the stirring scenes thus presented in this prosperous little seaport. As we know that he was a careful observer, endowed by nature with an active temperament and an unusual degree of practical sense we are sure that no event escaped his attention, and that no mystery was permitted to go unsolved. The military and commercial enterprise of the place brought him into daily contact with men of the highest character in their departments. The salt-factors of Brouage were persons of experience and activity, who knew their business, its methods, and the markets at home and abroad. The fortress was commanded by distinguished officers of the French army, and was a rendezvous of the young nobility; like other similar places, a training-school for military command. In this association, whether near or remote, young Champlain, with his eagle eye and quick ear, was receiving lessons and influences which were daily shaping his unfolding capacities, and gradually compacting and crystallizing them into the firmness and strength of character which he so largely displayed in after years. His education, such as it was, was of course obtained during this period. He has himself given us no intimation of its character or extent. A careful examination of his numerous writings will, however, render it obvious that it was limited and rudimentary, scarcely extending beyond the fundamental branches which were then regarded as necessary in the ordinary transactions of business. As the result of instruction or association with educated men, he attained to a good general knowledge of the French language, but was never nicely accurate or eminently skilful in its use. He evidently gave some attention in his early years to the study and practice of drawing. While the specimens of his work that have come down to us are marked by grave defects, he appears nevertheless to have acquired facility and some skill in the art, which he made exceedingly useful in the illustration of his discoveries in the new world.

During Champlain's youth and the earlier years of his manhood, he appears to have been engaged in practical navigation. In his address to the Queen [10] he says, "this is the art which in my early years won my love, and has induced me to expose myself almost all my life to the impetuous waves of the ocean." That he began the practice of navigation at an early period may likewise be inferred from the fact that in 1599 he was put in command of a large French ship of 500 tons, which had been chartered by the Spanish authorities for a voyage to the West Indies, of which we shall speak more particularly in the sequel. It is obvious that he could not have been intrusted with a command so difficult and of so great responsibility without practical experience in navigation; and, as it will appear hereafter that he was in the army several years during the civil war, probably from 1592 to 1598, his experience in navigation must have been obtained anterior to that, in the years of his youth and early manhood.

Brouage offered an excellent opportunity for such an employment. Its port was open to the commerce of foreign nations, and a large number of vessels, as we have already seen, was employed in the yearly distribution of the salt of Saintonge, not only in the seaport towns of France, but in England and on the Continent. In these coasting expeditions, Champlain was acquiring skill in navigation which was to be of very great service to him in his future career, and likewise gathering up rich stores of experience, coming in contact with a great variety of men, observing their manners and customs, and quickening and strengthening his natural taste for travel and adventure. It is not unlikely that he was, at least during some of these years, employed in the national marine, which was fully employed in guarding the coast against foreign invasion, and in restraining the power of the Huguenots, who were firmly seated at Rochelle with a sufficient naval force to give annoyance to their enemies along the whole western coast of France.

In 1592, or soon after that date, Champlain was appointed quarter-master in the royal army in Brittany, discharging the office several years, until, by the peace of Vervins, in 1598, the authority of Henry IV. was firmly established throughout the kingdom. This war in Brittany constituted the closing scene of that mighty struggle which had been agitating the nation, wasting its resources and its best blood for more than half a century. It began in its incipient stages as far back as a decade following 1530, when the preaching of Calvin in the Kingdom of Navarre began to make known his transcendent power. The new faith, which was making rapid strides in other countries, easily awakened the warm heart and active temperament of the French. The principle of private judgment which lies at the foundation of Protestant teaching, its spontaneity as opposed to a faith imposed by authority, commended it especially to the learned and thoughtful, while the same principle awakened the quick and impulsive nature of the masses. The effort to put down the movement by the extermination of those engaged in it, proved not only unsuccessful, but recoiled, as usual in such cases, upon the hand that struck the blow. Confiscations, imprisonments, and the stake daily increased the number of those which these severe measures were intended to diminish. It was impossible to mark its progress. When at intervals all was calm and placid on the surface, at the same time, down beneath, where the eye of the detective could not penetrate, in the closet of the scholar and at the fireside of the artisan and the peasant, the new gospel, silently and without observation, was spreading like an all-pervading leaven. [11]

In 1562, the repressed forces of the Huguenots could no longer be restrained, and, bursting forth, assumed the form of organized civil war. With the exception of temporary lulls, originating in policy or exhaustion, there was no cessation of arms until 1598. Although it is usually and perhaps best described as a religious war, the struggle was not altogether between the Catholic and the Huguenot or Protestant. There were many other elements that came in to give their coloring to the contest, and especially to determine the course and policy of individuals.

The ultra-Catholic desired to maintain the old faith with all its ancient prestige and power, and to crush out and exclude every other. With this party were found the court, certain ambitious and powerful families, and nearly all the officials of the church. In close alliance with it were the Roman Pontiff, the King of Spain, and the Catholic princes of Germany.

The Huguenots desired what is commonly known as liberty of conscience; or, in other words, freedom to worship God according to their own views of the truth, without interference or restriction. And in close alliance with them were the Queen of England and the Protestant princes of Germany.

Personal motives, irrespective of principle, united many persons and families with either of these great parties which seemed most likely to subserve their private ambitions. The feudal system was nearly extinct in form, but its spirit was still alive. The nobles who had long held sway in some of the provinces of France desired to hold them as distinct and separate governments, and to transmit them as an inheritance to their children. This motive often determined their political association.

During the most of the period of this long civil war, Catherine de Médicis [12] was either regent or in the exercise of a controlling influence in the government of France. She was a woman of commanding person and extraordinary ability, skilful in intrigue, without conscience and without personal religion. She hesitated at no crime, however black, if through it she could attain the objects of her ambition. Neither of her three sons, Francis, Charles, and Henry, who came successively to the throne, left any legal heir to succeed him. The succession became, therefore, at an early period, a question of great interest. If not the potent cause, it was nevertheless intimately connected with most of the bloodshed of that bloody period.

A solemn league was entered into by a large number of the ultra-Catholic nobles to secure two avowed objects, the succession of a Catholic prince to the throne, and the utter extermination of the Huguenots. Henry, King of Navarre, afterwards Henry IV. of France, admitted to be the legal heir to the throne, was a Protestant, and therefore by the decree of the League disqualified to succeed. Around his standard, the Huguenots rallied in great numbers. With him were associated the princes of Condé, of royal blood, and many other distinguished nobles. They contended for the double purpose of securing the throne to its rightful heir and of emancipating and establishing the Protestant faith.

But there was another class, acting indeed with one or the other of these two great parties, nevertheless influenced by very different motives. It was composed of moderate Catholics, who cared little for the political schemes and civil power of the Roman Pontiff, who dreaded the encroachments of the King of Spain, who were firmly patriotic and desired the aggrandizement and glory of France.

The ultra-Catholic party was, for a long period, by far the most numerous and the more powerful; but the Huguenots were sufficiently strong to keep up the struggle with varying success for nearly forty years.

After the alliance of Henry of Navarre with Henry III. against the League, the moderate Catholics and the Huguenots were united and fought together under the royal standard until the close of the war in 1598.

Champlain was personally engaged in the war in Brittany for several years. This province on the western coast of France, constituting a tongue of land jutting out as it were into the sea, isolated and remote from the great centres of the war, was among the last to surrender to the arms of Henry IV. The Huguenots had made but little progress within its borders. The Duke de Mercoeur [13] had been its governor for sixteen years, and had bent all his energies to separate it from France, organize it into a distinct kingdom, and transmit its sceptre to his own family.

Champlain informs us that he was quarter-master in the army of the king under Marshal d'Aumont, de Saint Luc, and Marshal de Brissac, distinguished officers of the French army, who had been successively in command in that province for the purpose of reducing it into obedience to Henry IV.

Marshal d'Aumont [14] took command of the army in Brittany in 1592. He was then seventy years of age, an able and patriotic officer, a moderate Catholic, and an uncompromising foe of the League. He had expressed his sympathy for Henry IV. a long time before the death of Henry III., and when that event occurred he immediately espoused the cause of the new monarch, and was at once appointed to the command of one of the three great divisions of the French army. He received a wound at the siege of the Château de Camper, in Brittany, of which he died on the 19th of August, 1595.

De Saint Luc, already in the service in Brittany, as lieutenant-general under D'Aumont, continued, after the death of that officer, in sole command. [15] He raised the siege of the Château de Camper after the death of his superior, and proceeded to capture several other posts, marching through the lower part of the province, repressing the license of the soldiery, and introducing order and discipline. On the 5th of September, 1596, he was appointed grand-master of the artillery of France, which terminated his special service in Brittany.

The king immediately appointed in his place Marshal de Brissac, [16] an officer of broad experience, who added other great qualities to those of an able soldier. No distinguished battles signalized the remaining months of the civil war in this province. The exhausted resources and faltering courage of the people could no longer be sustained by the flatteries or promises of the Duke de Mercoeur. Wherever the squadrons of the marshal made their appearance the flag of truce was raised, and town, city, and fortress vied with each other in their haste to bring their ensigns and lay them at his feet.

On the seventh of June, 1598, the peace of Vervins was published in Paris, and the kingdom of France was a unit, with the general satisfaction of all parties, under the able, wise, and catholic sovereign, Henry the Fourth. [17]

ENDNOTES:

1. The following from Marshal de Montluc refers to Brouage in 1568.
Speaking of the Huguenots he says:—"Or ils n'en pouvoient choisir un
plus à leur advantage, que celui de la Rochelle, duquel dépend celui de
Brouage, qui est le plus beau port de mer de la France." Commentaires,
Paris, 1760, Tom. III., p. 340.

2. "La Riviere Puitaillé qui en étoit Gouverneur, fut chargé de faire
travailler aux fortifications. Belarmat, Bephano, Castritio d'Urbin, &
le Cavalier Orlogio, tous Ingénieurs Italiens, présiderent aux
travaux."—Histoire La Rochelle, par Arcere, à la Rochelle, 1756, Tom.
I., p. 121.

3. Histioire de la Saintonge et de l'Aunis, 1152-1548, par M. D. Massion,
Paris. 1838, Vol. II., p. 406.

4. The King of Navarre "sent for Monsieur de Mirabeau under colour of
treating with him concerning other businesses, and forced him to deliver
up Brouage into his hands, a Fort of great importance, as well for that
it lies upon the Coast of the Ocean-sea, as because it abounds with such
store of salt-pits, which yeeld a great and constant revenue; he made
the Sieur de Montaut Governour, and put into it a strong Garrison of his
dependents, furnishing it with ammunition, and fortifying it with
exceeding diligence."—His. Civ. Warres of France, by Henrico Caterino
Davila, London, 1647, p. 455.

5. "The Duke of Mayenne, having without difficulty taken Thone-Charente,
and Marans, had laid siege to Brouage, a place, for situation, strength,
and the profit of the salt-pits, of very great importance; when the
Prince of Condé, having tryed all possible means to relieve the
besieged, the Hugonots after some difficulty were brought into such a
condition, that about the end of August they delivered it up, saving
only the lives of the Souldiers and inhabitants, which agreement the
Duke punctually observed."—His. Civ. Warres, by Davila, London, 1647,
p. 472. See also Memoirs of Sully, Phila., 1817, Vol. I., p. 69.

"Le Jeudi XXVIII Mars. Fut tenu Conseil au Cabinet de la Royne mère du Roy [pour] aviser ce que M. du Maine avoit à faire, & j'ai mis en avant l'enterprise de Brouage."—Journal de Henri III., Paris, 1744, Tom. III., p. 220.

6. "The Prince of Condé resolved to besiege Brouage, wherein was the Sieur de St. Luc, one of the League, with no contemptible number of infantry and some other gentlemen of the Country. The Rochellers consented to this Enterprise, both for their profit, and reputation which redounded by it; and having sent a great many Ships thither, besieged the Fortress by Sea, whilst the Prince having possessed that passage which is the only way to Brouage by land, and having shut up the Defendants within the circuit of their walls, straightned the Siege very closely on that side."—Davila, p. 582. See also, Histoire de Thou, à Londres, 1734, Tom. IX., p. 383.

The blocking up the harbor at this time appears to have been more effective than convenient. Twenty boats or rafts filled with earth and stone were sunk with a purpose of destroying the harbor. De Saint Luc, the governor, succeeded in removing only four or five. The entrance for vessels afterward remained difficult except at high tide. Subsequently Cardinal de Richelieu expended a hundred thousand francs to remove the rest, but did not succeed in removing one of them.—Vide Histoire de La Rochelle, par Arcere, Tom I. p. 121.

7. The Prince of Condé. "Leaving Monsieur de St. Mesmes with the Infantry and Artillery at the Siege of Brouage, and giving order that the Fleet should continue to block it up by sea, he departed upon the eight of October to relieve the Castle of Angiers with 800 Gentlemen and 1400 Harquebuziers on horseback."—Davila, p. 583. See also Memoirs of Sully, Phila., 1817, Vol. I., p 123; Histoire de Thou, à Londres, 1734, Tom. IX, p. 385.

8. "St. Luc sallying out of Brouage, and following those that were scattered severall wayes, made a great slaughter of them in many places; whereupon the Commander, despairing to rally the Army any more, got away as well as they could possibly, to secure their own strong holds."— His. Civ. Warres of France, by Henrico Caterino Davila, London, 1647, p 588.

9. An old writer gives us some idea of the vast quantities of salt exported from France by the amount sent to a single country.

"Important denique sexies mille vel circiter centenarios salis, quorum singuli constant centenis modiis, ducentenas ut minimum & vicenas quinas, vel & tricenas, pro salis ipsius candore puritateque, libras pondo pendentibus, sena igitur libras centenariorum millia, computatis in singulos aureis nummis tricenis, centum & octoginta reserunt aureorum millia."—Belguae Descrtptio, a Lud. Gvicciardino, Amstelodami, 1652, p. 244.

TRANSLATION.—They import in fine 6000 centenarii of salt, each one of which contains 100 bushels, weighing at least 225 or 230 pounds, according to the purity and whiteness of the salt; therefore six thousand centenarii, computing each at thirty golden nummi, amount to 180,000 aurei.

It may not be easy to determine the value of this importation in money, since the value of gold is constantly changing, but the quantity imported may be readily determined, which was according to the above statement, 67,500 tons.

A treaty of April 30, 1527, between Francis I. of France and Henry VIII. of England, provided as follows:—"And, besides, should furnish unto the said Henry, as long as hee lived, yearly, of the Salt of Brouage, the value of fifteene thousand Crownes."—Life and Raigne of Henry VIII., by Lord Herbert of Cherbury, London, 1649, p. 206.

Saintonge continued for a long time to be the source of large exports of salt. De Witt, writing about the year 1658, says they received in Holland of "salt, yearly, the lading of 500 or 600 ships, exported from Rochel, Maran, Brouage, the Island of Oleron, and Ree."—Republick of Holland, by John De Witt, London, 1702, p. 271. But it no longer holds the pre-eminence which it did three centuries ago. Saintonge long since yielded the palm to Brittany.

10. Vide Oeuvres de Champlain, Quebec ed, Tom. III. p. v.

11. In 1558, it was estimated that there were already 400,000 persons in France who were declared adherents of the Reformation.—Ranke's Civil Wars in France, Vol. I., p. 234.

"Although our assemblies were most frequently held in the depth of midnight, and our enemies very often heard us passing through the street, yet so it was, that God bridled them in such manner that we were preserved under His protection."—Bernard Palissy, 1580. Vide Morlay's Life of Palissy, Vol. II., p. 274.

When Henry IV. besieged Paris, its population was more than 200,000.— Malte-Brun.

12. "Catherine de Médicis was of a large and, at the same time, firm and powerful figure, her countenance had an olive tint, and her prominent eyes and curled lip reminded the spectator of her great uncle, Leo X" —Civil Wars in France, by Leopold Ranke, London, 1852, p 28.

13. Philippe Emanuel de Lorraine, Duc de Mercoeur, born at Nomény, September 9, 1558, was the son of Nicolas, Count de Vaudemont, by his second wife, Jeanne de Savoy, and was half-brother of Queen Louise, the wife of Henry III. He was made governor of Brittany in 1582. He embraced the party of the League before the death of Henry III., entered into an alliance with Philip II., and gave the Spaniards possession of the port of Blavet in 1591. He made his submission to Henry IV. in 1598, on which occasion his only daughter Françoise, probably the richest heiress in the kingdom, was contracted in marriage to César, Duc de Vendôme, the illegitimate son of Henry IV. by Gabrielle d'Estrées, the Duchess de Beaufort. The Duc de Mercoeur died at Nuremburg, February 19, 1602.—Vide Birch's Memoirs of Queen Elizabeth, Vol. I., p. 82; Davila's His. Civil Warres of France, p. 1476.

14. Jean d'Aumont, born in 1522, a Marshal of France who served under six kings, Francis I., Henry II., Francis II., Charles IX., Henry III., and Henry IV. He distinguished himself at the battles of Dreux, Saint-Denis, Montcontour, and in the famous siege of Rochelle in 1573. After the death of Henry III., he was the first to recognize Henry IV., whom he served with the same zeal as he had his five predecessors. He took part in the brilliant battle of Arques in 1589. In the following year, he so distinguished himself at Ivry that Henry IV., inviting him to sup with him after this memorable battle, addressed to him these flattering words, "Il est juste que vous soyez du festin, après m'avoir si bien servi à mes noces." At the siege of the Château de Camper, in Upper Brittany, he received a musket shot which fractured his arm, and died of the wound on the 19th of August, 1595, at the age of seventy-three years. "Ce grand capitaine qui avoit si bien mérité du Roi et de la nation, emporta dans le tombeau les regrets des Officiers & des soldats, qui pleurerent amérement la perte de leur Général. La Bretagne qui le regardoit comme son père, le Roi, tout le Royaume enfin, furent extrêmement touchez de sa mort. Malgré la haine mutuelle des factions qui divisoient la France, il étoit si estimé dans les deux partis, que s'il se fût agi de trouver un chevalier François sans reproche, tel que nos peres en ont autrefois eu, tout le monde auroit jette les yeux sur d'Aumont."—Histoire Universelle de Jacque-Auguste de Thou, à Londres, 1734, Tom. XII., p. 446—Vide also, Larousse; Camden's His. Queen Elizabeth, London, 1675 pp 486,487, Memoirs of Sully, Philadelphia, 1817, pp. 122, 210; Oeuvres de Brantôme, Tom. IV., pp. 46-49; Histoire de Bretagne, par M. Daru, Paris, 1826, Vol. III. p. 319; Freer's His. Henry IV., Vol. II, p. 70.

15. François d'Espinay de Saint-Luc, sometimes called Le Brave Saint Luc, was born in 1554, and was killed at the battle of Amiens on the 8th of September, 1597. He was early appointed governor of Saintonge, and of the Fortress of Brouage, which he successfully defended in 1585 against the attack of the King of Navarre and the Prince de Condé. He assisted at the battle of Coutras in 1587. He served as a lieutenant-general in Brittany from 1592 to 1596. In 1594, he planned with Brissac, his brother-in-law, then governor of Paris for the League, for the surrender of Paris to Henry IV. For this he was offered the baton of a Marshal of France by the king, which he modestly declined, and begged that it might be given to Brissac. In 1578, through the influence or authority of Henry III., he married the heiress, Jeanne de Cosse-Brissac, sister of Charles de Cosse-Brissac, postea, a lady of no personal attractions, but of excellent understanding and character. —Vide Courcelle's Histoire Généalogique des Pairs de France, Vol. II.; Birch's Memoirs of Queen Elizabeth, Vol. I., pp. 163, 191; Freer's Henry III., p. 162; De Mezeray's His. France, 1683, p. 861.

16. Charles de Cosse-Brissac, a Marshal of France and governor of Angiers. He was a member of the League as early as 1585. He conceived the idea of making France a republic after the model of ancient Rome. He laid his views before the chief Leaguers but none of them approved his plan. He delivered up Paris, of which he was governor, to Henry IV. in 1594, for which he received the Marshal's baton. He died in 1621, at the siege of Saint Jean d'Angely.—Vide Davila, pp. 538, 584, 585; Sully, Philadelphia, 1817, V. 61. Vol. I., p. 420; Brantôme, Vol. III., p. 84; His. Collections, London, 1598, p. 35; De Thou, à Londres, 1724, Tome XII., p. 449.

17. "By the Articles of this Treaty the king was to restore the County of Charolois to the king of Spain, to be by him held of the Crown of France; who in exchange restor'd the towns of Calice, Ardres, Montbulin, Dourlens, la Capelle, and le Catelet in Picardy, and Blavet in Britanny: which Articles were Ratifi'd and Sign'd by his Majesty the eleventh of June [1598]; who in his gayety of humour, at so happy a conclusion, told the Duke of Espernon, That with one dash of his Pen he had done greater things, than he could of a long time have perform'd with the best Swords of his Kingdom."—Life of the Duke of Espernon, London, 1670, p. 203; Histoire du Roy Henry le Grand, par Préfixe, Paris, 1681, p. 243.