The Memoirs of François René Vicomte de Chateaubriand sometime Ambassador to England, Volume 2 (of 6) / Mémoires d'outre-tombe, volume 2

by vicomte de François-René Chateaubriand

[500] 1622.—T.

[501] The Canal des Deux-Mers, also known as the Canal du Midi or de Languedoc, joins the Atlantic and Mediterranean.—T.

[502] The project of the canal, first formed under Francis I., was executed by Colbert's orders under Louis XIV. in the years 1666-1681. I omit the quotation from Corneille.—T.

[503] Paule Baronne de Fontenille (1518-1610), née de Viguier, nicknamed Fair Paule by King Francis I., who saw her as a child. She married first the Sire de Bayganuet, and later Philippe de Laroche, Baron de Fontenille. Her beauty, which she retained until extreme old age, was so intense that her resolution to stay at home, in order to save herself from being pestered with the admiration of the people, was checkmated by a resolution of the Capitouls or municipal officers of Toulouse, who ordered her to show herself in public, with uncovered features, two days in the week. La Belle Paule was as virtuous as she was beautiful.—T.

[504] Henri II. Maréchal Duc de Montmorency (1595-1632), revolted against Louis XIII., was defeated and taken prisoner at Castelnaudary, and tried and beheaded at Toulouse.—T.

[505] Claude Fauriel (1772-1844), a capable literary critic and considerable linguist. He translated and published in 1837 the Histoire de la croisade contre les hérétiques albigeois, écrits en vers provençaux par un poète contemporain, from which the above extract is taken.—T.

[506] Simon Baron, later Comte, de Montfort (d. 1218), known as the Machabee of his century, the leader of the crusade against the Albigenses, of whom he put some 60,000 or more to the sword. Simon de Montfort was killed at Toulouse, 25 June 1218.—T.

[507] Jacques de Cujas (1522-1590), the famous jurist.—T.

[508] Margaret of France, Duchesse de Berry, afterwards Duchess of Savoy (1523-1574), married in 1559 to Emmanuel Philibert, Duke of Savoy. Her subjects named her the Mother of the Peoples.—T.

[509] Margaret of Valois, Queen of Navarre (1552-1615), married in 1572 to the Prince of Béarn, afterwards Henry IV., and III. King of France and Navarre.—T.