In the first place, kings should never let themselves be taken in battle any more than their archetype in the game of the Grecian chief Palamedes.  But from this, it appears the captivity of its king is a most calamitous and horrible evil to fall on the populace.  If it had been a queen, or even a princess, what worse fate?  But I believe the thing could not happen again, except with cannibals.  Can there ever be a reason for imprisoning the flower of a realm?  I think too well of Ashtaroth, Lucifer, and others, to imagine that did they reign, they would hide the joy of all the beneficent light, at which poor sufferers warm themselves.  And it was necessary that the worst of devils, id est, a wicked old heretic woman, should find herself upon a throne, to keep a prisoner sweet Mary of Scotland, to the shame of all the knights of Christendom, who should have come without previous assignation to the foot of Fotheringay, and have left thereof no single stone.

THE MERRY TATTLE OF THE NUNS OF POISSY

The Abbey of Poissy has been rendered famous by old authors as a place of pleasure, where the misconduct of the nuns first began, and whence proceeded so many good stories calculated to make laymen laugh at the expense of our holy religion.  The said abbey by this means became fertile in proverbs, which none of the clever folks of our day understand, although they sift and chew them in order to digest them.

If you ask one of them what the olives of Poissy are, they will answer you gravely that it is a periphrase relating to truffles, and that the way to serve them, of which one formerly spoke, when joking with these virtuous maidens, meant a peculiar kind of sauce.  That’s the way the scribblers hit on truth once in a hundred times.  To return to these good recluses, it was said—­by way of a joke, of course—­that they preferred finding a harlot in their chemises to a good woman.  Certain other jokers reproached them with imitating the lives of the saints, in their own fashion, and said that all they admired in Mary of Egypt was her fashion of paying the boatmen.  From whence the raillery:  To honour the saints after the fashion of Poissy.  There is still the crucifix of Poissy, which kept the stomachs warm; and the matins of Poissy, which concluded with a little chorister.  Finally, of a hearty jade well acquainted with the ways of love, it was said—­She is a nun of Poissy.  That property of a man which he can only lend, was The key of the Abbey of Poissy.  What the gate of the said abbey was can easily be guessed.  This gate, door, wicket, opening, or road was always half open, was easier to open than to shut, and cost much in repairs.  In short, at that period, there was no fresh device in love invented, that had not its origin in the good convent of Poissy.  You may be sure there is a good deal of untruth and hyperbolical emphasis, in these proverbs, jests, jokes, and idle tales.  The nuns of the said Poissy were good