[21] The two sons of the Constable were his two youngest sons, de Méru and de Thoré. While the Marshal and Damville, their elder brothers, remained Catholics, they became Protestants. The reason of their flight to Germany was that they had been implicated in the rising of Shrove Tuesday, 1574, and the conspiracy to seize Charles IX. at St. Germain. ‘Les cousins [du Prince de Condé] de Thoré et de Méru se rendent à Geneve, où le Seingneur de Thoré se déclare et fait profession de la Religion et là est arresté et retenu, et son frère de Méru mis hors ladite ville, pour ne vouloir faire semblable profession.’—De l’Estoile, i. 22.
[22] François de Foix de Candale, Bishop of Aire, in Gascony, third son of Gaston de Foix, Comte de Candale, Captal de Buch, &c. His father’s sister Anne married Ladislaus, King of Hungary and Bohemia, by whom she had two children—Louis, King of Hungary, killed at Mohacz in 1526, and Anne, who married the Emperor Ferdinand, and was the mother of the Emperor Maximilian. The Bishop was one of the most learned men of his time, especially in mathematics and natural philosophy. Besides the works mentioned in the text, he translated Euclid into Latin. He invented various mathematical instruments, and founded a chair of mathematics in the College of Aquitaine at Bordeaux. He died in 1594, aged eighty-four according to Thuanus, but eighty-one according to his monument. D’Aubigné, in his Mémoires under the year 1580, relates the following anecdote of him and Henry IV. ‘Le roi de Navarre, passant un jour à Cadillac, pria le grand François de Candale, de lui faire voir son excellent cabinet, ce qu’il vouloit bien faire, à condition qu’il n’y entreroit pas d’ignares. “Non, mon oncle,” dit mon maître, “je n’y mènerai personne qui ne soit plus capable de le voir et d’en connoître le prix que moi.” La compagnie s’amusa d’abord à faire lever le poids d’un canon par une petite machine qu’un enfant de six ans tenoit entre ses mains. Comme elle étoit fort attentive à cette operation, je me mis à considérer un marbre noir de sept pieds en quarré, qui servoit de table au bon Seigneur de Candale; et ayant apperçu un crayon, j’écrivis dessus pendant qu’on raisonnait sur la petite machine, ce distique latin:—
Non isthæc, princeps, regem tractare doceto,
Sed docta regni pondera ferre manu.
Cela fait, je recouvris le marbre et rejoignis la compagnie, qui étant arrivée à ce marbre, M. de Candale dit à mon maître, “Voici ma table;” et ayant ôté la couverture et vu ce distique, il s’écria, “Ah! il y a ici un homme.” “Comment,” reprit le roi de Navarre, “croyez-vous que les autres soient des bêtes? Je vous prie, mon oncle, de deviner à la mine qui vous jugez capable d’avoir fait ce coup.” Ce qui fournit matière à d’assez plaisans propos.’
[23] He was killed February, 1573, in an attack on the château of Soumiere, in Languedoc.—Mezeray, Histoire de France, iii. 282.
[24] The Egyptian deity Thoth, was identified with the Greek Hermes, and was considered the real author of everything produced or discovered by the human mind. Being thus the source of all human knowledge and thought, he was termed τρὶς μέγιστος, or Thrice Greatest. A variety of works are preserved, of which he is the reputed author. The most probable opinion as to their real origin is that they were forgeries of Neo-Platonists in the third or fourth century of our era. The most important of them is the Ποιμάνδρης, the book translated by the Bishop. It is written in the form of a dialogue, and treats of nature, the creation of the world, the nature and attributes of the deity, the human soul, &c.
[25] In the Vivarais. It cut off Lyons from communicating with Marseilles by water. See Mezeray, iii. 360.
[26] It is impossible within the compass of a note to give more than the briefest outline of the principal events in the life of this famous Breton chief. He was born in 1531, and became a Protestant in 1558. In 1561 he was one of the French nobles who escorted Marie Stuart to Scotland. Brantôme was another of the suite. In 1570 he was wounded by a musket-shot at the siege of Fontenay; gangrene set in, and it was found necessary to amputate his left arm; Jeanne d’Albret, Queen of Navarre, held the shattered limb during the operation. This arm was replaced by one of iron, whence he obtained the famous sobriquet, by which he is best known, Bras de fer. In 1573 Charles IX. sent him to La Rochelle in the hope he would be able to effect some compromise with the citizens, and he was for some time regarded with suspicion by both sides; but he appears to have always acted an honest and straightforward part in a very delicate position. When he found a reconciliation was impossible, he placed his sword once more at the service of the French Protestants. He fought for the Protestant cause not only in France but also in the Netherlands, was Count Louis of Nassau’s right-hand man at the surprise and subsequent siege of Mons in 1572, and at one time, in 1579, occupied Bousbecque and the places in the neighbourhood, Menin, Comines, Wervicq, &c. He was mortally wounded at the siege of Lamballe, in Brittany, and died on August 4, 1591. Thuanus (v. p. 180) calls him ‘a truly great man, who for bravery, prudence, and military knowledge deserved to be compared with the greatest generals of the time, and for the purity of his life, his moderation, and his justice to be preferred to most of them.’ For a further account of him see Letters to Rodolph, [IX.] and [LIV.], note.
[27] This report was correct. See Mezeray, iii. 360, where an interesting account is given of the siege.