[76] Charles de Neufville, Marquis d’Alincourt, Seigneur de Villeroy, secretary and minister of state, knight of the King’s Orders, Governor of the city of Lyons, and of the provinces of Lyons, Forez, and Beaujolais.

[77] Mezeray, vol. x. pp. 124, 125.

[78] Sully, Mem. vol. iii. p. 317.

[79] Mezeray, vol. x. p. 125.

[80] Charles Emmanuel, Duke of Savoy, surnamed the Great, was born in the chateau of Rivoles on the 12th of January 1562.  He greatly distinguished himself by his gallantry upon several occasions, but tarnished his reputation by an ambition which was unscrupulous.  He was remarkable for his literary attainments and for his friendship for men of letters, and was generally esteemed one of the greatest generals of the age.  He was also so thorough a diplomatist that it was commonly remarked that it was more difficult to penetrate his designs than the fastnesses of his duchy.  He died at Savillan on the 26th of July 1630.

[81] Charles de Gontault, Due de Biron, Peer, Admiral, and Marshal of France, acquired great reputation alike for his valour and his services.  He was honoured with the confidence of Henri IV, who created the barony of Biron into a duchy-peerage for his benefit, and loaded him with proofs of his favour; Biron, however, repaid his sovereign with the basest ingratitude by entering into a treaty with the Duke of Savoy and the Spaniards, who were both inimical to France.  Having refused to acknowledge his fault, and thereby exhausted the forbearance of the King, he was put upon his trial, convicted of the crime of lese-majeste, and condemned to lose his head.  The sentence was carried into execution in the court of the Bastille on the 31st of July 1602.

[82] Guichenon, Histoire de Savoie.

[83] Daniel, Histoire de France, vol. vii. p. 386.

[84] L’Etoile, Journal de Henri IV, vol. ii. p. 481.

[85] L’Etoile, vol. ii. pp. 436, 437.

[86] Mezeray, vol. x. p. 127.

[87] Sebastian Zamet was a wealthy contractor, of Italian origin, but who had caused himself to be naturalized in France, in 1581, together with his two brothers, Horace and John-Anthony Zamet.  Although he ultimately became the father of an adjutant-general of the King’s armies, and of a bishop, it was confidently asserted that during the preceding reign he had been a shoemaker.  Be that as it may, it is no less certain that he must have possessed considerable talent, as even during the lifetime of Henri III he was already a rich contractor, and under Henri IV he was esteemed the richest in the kingdom.  On the occasion of the marriage of one of his daughters, the notary who was employed to draw up the marriage contract, finding it difficult to define his real rank, inquired by what title he desired to be designated; upon which Zamet calmly replied:  “You may describe me as the lord of seventeen hundred thousand crowns.”  His ready wit first procured for him the favour off Henri IV, which he subsequently retained by a system of complaisance of thoroughly Italian morality.  His house was always open to the King, even for the most equivocal purposes; and so great was the familiarity with which he was treated by the dissolute monarch, that the latter constantly addressed him by a pet name, and held many of his orgies beneath his roof.