[304] Eleonore de Bourbon was the daughter of Henri I. de Bourbon, Prince de Conde, who succeeded his father in the command of the Calvinist party, conjointly with the King of Navarre, afterwards Henri IV.  This prince raised a body of foreign troops in 1575, and distinguished himself greatly at Coutras in 1587.  He died in the following year, having, as was asserted, been poisoned by his wife, Charlotte de la Tremouille, at St-Jean-d’Angely.

[305] Montfaucon, vol. v. p. 418.

[306] This hotel was the property of the Bishop of Bourges, known as M. de Sens, who died in September 1606 at the age of seventy-nine years, and who was interred at Notre-Dame, at his own request, without pomp or ceremony of any description.  This prelate had been involved in so many delicate, but withal conspicuous affairs, that he had become the object of very general curiosity and slander.  At the commencement of the reign of Henri IV a satire made its appearance, entitled, “Library of Madame de Montpensier, brought to light by the advice of Cornac, and with the consent of the Sieur de Beaulieu, her equerry,” in which mention was made of a supposititious work called, “The Art of not Believing in God,” by M. de Bourges, in which an attempt was made to convict the prelate of atheism.  This book was attributed to the reformed party; while the libel was strengthened by the indignation felt by the Court of Rome at the circumstance of M. de Bourges having taken upon himself to absolve Henri IV without the Papal authority, on his conversion to the Roman Catholic faith.  The manner of his death, however, gainsayed the calumny; although so slight had been the respect felt for his sacred office, that the ex-Queen Marguerite had no sooner taken possession of his hotel, than the following placard was found affixed to the entrance-gate: 

     “Comme Reine, tu devais etre
      En ta royale maison;
      Comme ——­, c’est bien raison
      Que tu loge an logis d’un pretre.”

[307] Bassompierre calls him Saint-Sulliendat, Mem. p. 46.

[308] L’Etoile, vol. iii. pp. 353, 354.  Bassompierre, Mem. p. 46.

[309] Richelieu, La Mere et le Fils, vol. i. p. 326.

[310] Louis de Lagon de Merargues was a nobleman of Provence, who claimed to descend from the Princes of Catalonia or Aragon.  His position of procureur-syndic of the province, and the importance of the relatives of his wife, who was closely connected with the Duc de Montpensier, together with the command of two galleys which he held from the King, enabled him at any moment to possess himself of the port; while his office of Viguier, or royal provost, gave him great authority over the citizens.

[311] Richelieu, La Mere et le Fils, vol. i. pp. 19, 20.

CHAPTER VI

1606