[17] This child, called by Bassompierre le Pere Archange, and by Dupleix le Pere Ange, was the son of Jacques de Harlay de Chanvallon, known at Court as “the handsome Chanvallon,” and was the individual who, as the confessor of the Marquise de Verneuil, became one of the most active agents in the conspiracy which was formed against Henri IV and the French Princes.

[18] Dreux du Radier, vol. v. p. 176.

[19] Mezeray, vol. iii. p. 546.  Varillas, Histoire de Henri III, book vii.

[20] D’Aubigny, Hist. vol. ii. book v. ch. iii. (1583). Confession de Sancy, ch. vii. p. 447.  Duplessis-Mornay.

[21] Duplessis-Mornay, Mem. p. 203.

[22] Jacques Govon de Matignon, Prince de Mortagne, was the representative of a family of Brittany which traced its descent from the thirteenth century, and had been established in Normandy towards the middle of the fifteenth.  Born at Lonray in 1526, he was appointed Lieutenant-General of Normandy in 1559, where he made himself conspicuous by his persecution of the Huguenots.  Henri III recompensed his services, in 1579, by the baton of a marechal, and the collar of his Order.  He subsequently became Commander-in-Chief of the army in Picardy, then Lieutenant-General of Guienne, and finally, Governor of that province.  He died in 1597.

[23] Levi Alvares, p. 187.

[24] Governor of Auvergne.

[25] The fortress of Usson, which had been a state prison under Louis XI, was demolished by Louis XIII, in 1634.

[26] Brantome, Dames Illustres, Marguerite de France, Reine de Navarre, Dis. v. p. 275.

[27] “There are three things,” Henri IV was wont to say, “that the world will not believe, and yet they are certainly true:  that the Queen of England (Elizabeth) died a maid; that the Archduke (Albert, Cardinal and Archduke of Austria) is a great captain; and that the King of France is a very good Catholic.”—­L’Etoile, Journ. de Henri IV, vol. i. p. 233.

[28] Diane d’Andouins, Vicomtesse de Louvigni, dame de l’Escun, was the only daughter of Paul, Vicomte de Louvigni, Seigneur de l’Escun, and of Marguerite de Cauna.  While yet a mere girl, she became the wife of Philibert de Grammont, Comte de Guiche, Governor of Bayonne, and Seneschal of Bearn.  The passion of Henri IV for this lady was so great that he declared his intention of obtaining a divorce from Marguerite de Valois, for the purpose of making her his wife; a project from which he was dissuaded by D’Aubigny, who represented that the contempt which could not fail to be felt by the French for a monarch who had degraded himself by an alliance with his mistress, would inevitably deprive him of the throne in the event of the death of Henri III and the Duc d’Alencon.