Gentlemen,—­I have here received news of you from M. le Marechal.  I will not spare either my life or anything else for your service, and will leave it to your judgment whether the assistance I might be able to render by my presence at the forthcoming election, would be worth the risk I should run by going into the town, seeing the bad state it is in, —­[This refers to the plague then raging, and which carried off 14,000 persons at Bordeaux.]—­particularly for people coming away from so fine an air as this is where I am.  I will draw as near to you on Wednesday as I can, that is, to Feuillas, if the malady has not reached that place, where, as I write to M. de la Molte, I shall be very pleased to have the honour of seeing one of you to take your directions, and relieve myself of the credentials which M. le Marechal will give me for you all:  commending myself hereupon humbly to your good grace, and praying God to grant you, gentlemen, long and happy life.  At Libourne, this 30th of July 1585.  Your humble servant and brother, Montaigne.

XII.—­["According to Dr. Payen, this letter belongs to 1588.  Its authenticity has been called in question; but wrongly, in our opinion.  See ‘Documents inedits’, 1847, p. 12.”—­Note in ‘Essais’, ed.  Paris, 1854, iv. 381.  It does not appear to whom the letter was addressed.]

Monseigneur,—­You have heard of our baggage being taken from us under our eyes in the forest of Villebois:  then, after a good deal of discussion and delay, of the capture being pronounced illegal by the Prince.  We dared not, however, proceed on our way, from an uncertainty as to the safety of our persons, which should have been clearly expressed on our passports.  The League has done this, M. de Barrant and M. de la Rochefocault; the storm has burst on me, who had my money in my box.  I have recovered none of it, and most of my papers and cash—­[The French word is hardes, which St. John renders things.  But compare Chambers’s “Domestic Annals of Scotland,” 2d ed. i. 48.]—­remain in their possession.  I have not seen the Prince.  Fifty were lost . . . as for the Count of Thorigny, he lost some ver plate and a few articles of clothing.  He diverged from his route to pay a visit to the mourning ladies at Montresor, where are the remains of his two brothers and his grandmother, and came to us again in this town, whence we shall resume our journey shortly.  The journey to Normandy is postponed.  The King has despatched mm.  De Bellieure and de la Guiche to M. de Guise to summon him to court; we shall be there on Thursday.

From Orleans, this 16th of February, in the morning [1588-9?].—­Your very humble servant, Montaigne.

XIII.

To Mademoiselle Paulmier.—­[This letter, at the time of the publication of the variorum edition of 1854, appears to have been in private hands.  See vol. iv. p. 382.]