[740] For a full and not uninteresting account of the obsequies, see the pamphlet already referred to: "Le Trespas et l'Ordre des obseques," etc. Paris, 1559. Reprinted in Cimber et Danjou, iii. 307, etc.
[741] Regnier de la Planche, Hist. de l'estat de France sous François II., 206. "The French King," wrote Throkmorton to his royal mistress, "alredy hathe geven him (the constable) to understande, that the Cardinal of Lorrain and the Duke of Guise shal manage his hole affairs." Throkmorton to the Queen, July 18, 1559, Forbes, State Papers, i. 166.
[742] "Ut re vera sit conestabilis." Beza to Bullinger, Sept. 12, 1559, apud Baum, ii. App. 1. The title of constable was for life. Of the tenure of the office, the memoirs of Vieilleville make Henry II. say: "Vous sçavez que les estats de connestable, mareschaux et chancelliers de France sont totalement collez et cousus à la teste de ceulx qui en sont honnorez, que l'on ne peut arracher l'un sans l'autre." Mém., i. 207.
[743] Huguenot and papist agreed in this, if they could agree in nothing else. "Guisiani fratres," said Beza, "ita inter se regnum sunt partiti ut regi nihil præter inane nomen sit relictum." Beza, ubi supra. Cardinal Santa Croce used almost the same expression: "Eo devenerat ut regi solum nomen reliquisse, alia omnia sibi sumsisse videretur." Commentarii, v. 1440.
[744] The poor fellow's wit was recompensed with a public flogging. The incident is told in the recently published Journal d'un curé ligueur (Jehan de la Fosse), 37. It need scarcely be said that the Crescent referred to Diana of Poitiers.
[745] "Nam cum ... regem de more salutatum venisset ... Lotharingii suasu ne respicere hominem voluit." Santa Croce, Comment., v. 1439.
[746] La Planche, 206.
[747] In a remark which he was accused of once making to Henry II., "that he was surprised that the king had no child resembling him, save his illegitimate, but acknowledged daughter, Diana, married to the constable's son!" La Planche, 204, 207; De Thou, ii. 685.
[748] Blaise de Montluc, a trusty agent, kept Guise well posted respecting the King of Navarre's words and disposition. "Encores que M. le Connestable luy ayt escript plusieurs lettres, néantmoins il m'a toujours dict qu'il ne se fieroit jamais de luy, ayant bien cogneu que ce semblant d'amitié qu'il luy portoit n'estoit que pour l'attirer de son costé, affin de ruiner ses cousins," etc. Instruction donnée par le seign. de Montluc à M. de la Tour, 22 juillet, 1559, Mém. de Condé, i. 307; Mém. de Guise, 450.
[749] The wealth and power of the Montmorency family were proverbial; their palaces were among the most magnificent in France. Of one of them the English ambassadors wrote, four years earlier, a long description for the benefit of Queen Mary, beginning: "We saw another house which the said constable had but lately built, called Écouen, which was praised for the fairest house in France." The Journey of the Queen's Ambassadors to Rome, Anno 1555 (Hardwick, State Papers, i. 63).