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“Les Satyres” (Colored Plate) Frontispiece
Charlotte Bronte (Portrait) 2382
Phillips Brooks (Portrait) 2418
“The Holy Child of Bethlehem” (Photogravure) 2420
“Circe” (Photogravure) 2514
Robert Browning (Portrait) 2558
William Cullen Bryant (Portrait) 2624
Edward Bulwer-Lytton (Portrait) 2698
“In the Arena” (Photogravure) 2718
“Nydia” (Photogravure) 2720

VIGNETTE PORTRAITS

Abbe de Brantome
Fredrika Bremer
Elisabeth Brentano
John Bright
Brillat-Savarin
Charles Brockden Brown
John Brown
Charles Farrar Browne
Sir Thomas Browne
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Orestes Augustus Brownson
Ferdinand Brunetiere
James Bryce
George Louis le Clere Buffon

THE ABBE DE BRANTOME

(Pierre de Bourdeille)

(1527-1614)

Every historian of the Valois period is indebted to Brantome for preserving the atmosphere and detail of the brilliant life in which he moved as a dashing courtier, a military adventurer, and a gallant gentleman of high degree.  He was not a professional scribe, nor a student; but he took notes unconsciously, and in the evening of his life turned back the pages of his memory to record the scenes through which he had passed and the characters which he had known.  He has been termed the “valet de chambre” of history; nevertheless the anecdotes scattered through his works will ever be treasured by all students and historians of that age of luxury and magnificence, art and beauty, beneath which lay the fermentation of great religious and political movements, culminating in the struggle between the Huguenots and Catholics.

[Illustration:  Abbe de Brantome]

Brantome was the third son of the Vicomte de Bourdeille, a Perigord nobleman, whose family had lived long in Guienne, and whose aristocratic lineage was lost in myth.  Upon the estate stood the Abbey of Brantome, founded by Charlemagne, and this Henry II. gave to young Pierre de Bourdeille in recognition of the military deeds of his brother, Jean de Bourdeille, who lost his life in service.  Thereafter the lad was to sign his name as the Reverend Father in God, Messire Pierre de Bourdeille, Abbe de Brantome.  Born in the old chateau in 1527, he was destined for the church, but abandoned this career for arms.  At an early age he was sent to court as page to Marguerite, sister of Francis I. and Queen of Navarre; after her death in 1549, he went to Paris to study at the University.  His title of Abbe being merely honorary, he served in the army under Francois de Guise, Duke of Lorraine, and became Gentleman of the Chamber to Charles IX.  His career extended through the reigns of Henry II., Francis II., Charles IX., Henry III., and Henry IV., to that of Louis XIII.  With the exception of diplomatic missions, service on the battle-field, and voyages for pleasure, he spent his life at court.