REMONSTRANCES, TO THE DUKE DE Maine: Lieutenant general of the Estate and Crown of France. Wherein, by way of information, are discovered divers priveties, concerning the proceed and affairs of that Duke, and his Associates.  
Truly translated out of the French copy, printed at Paris, by Ant: Changed  
LONDON, Printed by john Wolf. Anno. 1593.   

Remonstrances to the Duke de Maine, Lieutenant general of the Estate and Crown of France.  
Wherein, by way of information, are discovered divers priveties, concerning the proceed and affairs of that Duke, and his Associates.  
MY Lord, the ancient duty that I bear to your house, & the service which (after none) I have vowed unto you: commandeth me to make you these remonstrances; which (in most humble manner) I beseech you to read with such affection as I present them unto you withal, from him, which (after the honour of GOD) hath nothing in so much esteem as the repose of this estate, and in like manner of you, & all which is yours. We all aspire unto peace, and yet there is none that hopeth it: great misfortune, every man divines his own ill, knoweth, and seethe the cause of it: I must tell you freely my opinion of the matter. I have since these troubles always excused your demeanour until this day, I say (expressly) excused, although it may seem that this word may fall unrespectively from my pen: but in regard that the question was not of small consequence, Whether it were standing with law that a Subject might take Arms against his King? yet notwithstanding, the just passion which you have conceived of the death of my Lords your two brethren, the people whom you found voluntarily disposed, and above all, seeing he that pretends for the Crown, is divers from our ancient Religion, all that (I say) considered, gave you cause to take Arms, & after, not to desist from the bearing of them. So much as concerns the first point, the true blood cannot lie, none can say how pleasing that revenge is, but he that hath received injury: and withal, what the fashion of their two ends hath procured, may be the more a mean to good minds to extinguish the memory of it, (though doubtless they were of great importance.) As touching the second cause, the people had a far off confirmed themselves in an obstinate envy to their King, which even died of joy to hear the news of Bloys. And as concerning the last, it is very hard to take from us the fear which we have conceived of the subversion of our ancient Religion, if we submit ourselves unto a King divers from us therein.  
I desire not to impeach the famous memory of the last King, neither that of my Lords your brethren, neither yet the proceeding of the King of Navarre, and far less your own: for it is my intent to proceed with few words, not of sharp intention, or ceremonies, to the drift of my discourse: for I call God to witness, I have no intention to write in a partial humour.  
You represent (at this time) in the infortunate Theatre of France a mighty Prince: think not that your proceed, by how much the more they are apparent, may not but be so much the more exposed to adulation, and be subject to slanderous invectives: and surely it is hard to judge which of these two is aptest to prejudice your fortune. Those which adapt themselves to impeach it with slanders, say: That neither revenge nor disorder in affairs beseems you to take Arms, but that they were only pretexts to colour your designs. And as touching the new religion of the King, that it is apparent by your proceed, that you take hold of it, as an opportunity or mask to shadow your pretence, & have used the same as a mist to delude our eyes withal, whilst (mean while) you cover in your heart an unmeasured ambition, intending the subversion of the whole state. That until now they remained as blind in conceived passion, but now that time hath taught them to see clearly, even as before they had their ears stopped against whatsoever proposition might be objected to you: and that contrariwise, they have both eyes & ears too great to afflict your honour and reputation; For first as touching the revenge, they all affirm una voce, that your own self was the first and last that condemned the progress of my Lord the deceased Duke of Guise, your Brother his policies. And firstly, because that in the year 1585. being solicited by him to enter into that part of the holy League, you were six whole weeks before you would condescend; Lastly, for that five or six days before his death, you advertised the King of an enterprise that he intended against his Majesty.  
And withal, these fellows can tell that you were not of such internety with him, but that to infest, or hasten his death, you would set fire in the midst & every corner of the kingdom: for you complained yourself most apparently at Vimory, that he had laid wait to butcher you, though against his expectation you had had good success, & at the last adiewe of you two, you failed to come to the enterprise.  
If the same be true (or not) you best know: sure it is that who so would enter into the demeanour of your two brethren with the Estates of Bloys, should necessarily be enforced to confess, that there was sufficient subject to induce the King to a despair. They had so well grounded their desseignments, that the three parts of the Deputies (of which the fourth did all,) was at their will and devotion: the chief Precedents of every order, were their principal partakers; There passed not any Holy-daie in which our Ministers preached not amongst the jacobins, and with a holy throat tore not in pieces the honour of the King & his Servants. From day to day Embassages went between Paris and the two brethren: we continued every day in making provisions, not against the King of Navarre, but against the King our Sovereign.  
The Duke of Guise made public protestations, that he would not be dissevered from the confederacy between him and the King of Spain, and all this, not withstood the union by him sworn with the same King upon the holy Sacrament of the Altar; Nothing was concluded in the assembly, which before was not at large debated on between the two brethren in secret, & which tended not to the shame & confusion of the King; of all which there were made braves & vauntings by little little men, which else had not dared to have lift up their eyes, unless under the protection of these two Princes. The King came to prayers, as well amongst the Deputies, to be amongst them more acceptable, as to the Duke of Guise to mollify him. And to all this there will be no lystning. It was not above four or five days before their two ends, that the Duke of Guise himself injured the King about the Town of Orleans: It cannot be but that some of his servants (even my Lady your Mother, full of all goodness and understanding) knowing that all these goads might sting the King to the heart, and give him cause to misdeem, counseled him to retire to Orleans, where his life should quickly be disposed of, for the conservation of that of my Lord the Cardinal your brother, which should have contained himself within Bloys: yourself can witness all this. And this is the reason why these fellows that impeach your proceed so slanderously, say, that measuring the opinion and respect of the King by your own, you would never have conceived hard opinion of their ends, for yourself fell into the like disaster with Sacremore, for some (I know not what) desire he had to attempt against the family of your wives house, and after those troubles in the person of the Marquis of Menelay, (murdered only upon a bare suspicion that he would broach new devices against yourself:) And moreover, that you fell into dislike with ill governments of the deceased K. to the end thereby to make yourself Protector of the people; the same contemplative Doctors play upon you thus in that respect, inferring that you have borne a great sway in these matters, & withal, for further confirmation, produce divers Edicts, pretending their utter subversion, which by often importuneties you have obtained of the King; As for example, that of the particular Lieutenant of the chosen, through all Cities, Towns, Borroughes, and townships of France, the most wicked & infortunate that hath happened in our age: and to confirm this desire, no better witness than yourself, of monsieur Ribault, Treasurer general of your revenues, which then solicited the pursuit of the verification, as well in the Court of wards as elsewhere.  
They persist and affirm, that what countenance so ever either you or the Duke of Cuyse, had set upon the beginning of these troubles, you intended to be irreconcilable enemies to the Heretics: and to make that more apparent, you had diverse Preachers in pay under you, which should serve you for trumpets: yet nevertheless I know there is no such meaning between GOD and your soul; For that after the death of the Admiral Chastillon, in the year 1572. the house of Guise was a secure Sanctuary to the most part of the Nobility that professed the religion: and yourself (my Lord) had never better means to reduce the Dalphinate under the obedience of the last King, then by a truce wrought by yourself, twixt the Lord D' Ediguire and his partakers, which you knew so well to entertain, that from that time you were surnamed The Prince of the faith, by reason you had so faithfully kept your faith and promise.  
Lo, such be the discourses and reports which these slanderous enemies of yours make to your disadvantage, which I would desire might be buried with the death of the deceased King.  
How then moreover will you forestall this, if fortunately it should be objected, that you only intend to have peace, which most freely is proffered by our enemies: Why? all the quarrel that we have with the King of Navarre, is but for matter of Religion; But take away that obstacle, you cannot deny but that the Crown is peculiar to him, notwithstanding all the declarations that the Duke of Feria would not long since have prevented it with; For if after the death of the deceased King, we should adjudge the Crown to my Lord the Cardinal of Bourbon, as next in degree, (notwithstanding the much distance of consanguinity which there is between them) I see no cause of sufficient argument why we should reject this ancient and first of the blood, but only for this, that we hold him divers from us in regard of religion: which might worthily be proved no obstacle at all, if we respect his promise which he hath made conditionally, that he would be content to yield himself, upon the convent of Estates and Prelates of his kingdom.  
Now, in respect of the peace treated on the last year, between the Lords of Villeroy and Plessis Mornay, the first proposition that the first of these two made, (and I think that he did it upon the instructions from your own mouth) was, that we would acknowledge the King of Navarre for our right and lawful King, and that we had no desire to force his conscience, but recommending the whole to God, whom it might please to shine forth the beams of all happiness on him: insomuch, that all their conference was upon the assurance required of you. Which notwithstanding it was answered even to your mind, yet upon the last gasp you revoked your Deputy, showing in kind (at that time) that you never had such fear as that which then returned unto you, of parting with any thing that might detract from the maintaining of you in your wont greatness. In which, (if poor I may believed) you did most wisely: For, for to move dispute with the King of Navarre, (touching matter of Religion) it was as much to say silently, an accord, that you had been instructed, not to lay by Arms after the death of the deceased King, for other subject then a singular zeal: and in so doing, you laid an especial ground of your reputation in every place, but above all in Rome; And there is the principal drift of all your affairs.  
Since which time of treaty, you have assembled the Estates of Provinces and Cities, with intent to choose unto us a King: but before overture to this matter, you made a protestation full of all piety, importing most express significations, that you never had undertaken this quarrel, but only in this regard, that the King of Navarre was an Heretic: and that when he should be reconciled to the Church, you would be most content to hold him for your King.  
Protestations which awake both the one & the other, upon which since that time we are entered into conference, with an unspeakable joy even of those which before held nothing in like fear with peace: and in this conference we have utterly derogated from that of the last year; For first we stick at this, that it is questionable whether the King of Navarre would make himself Catholic, or no, declaring, that where he would not be such, that there this conference was to no effect: But in case that he were found conformable, we should afterward bethink us of assurance. I have never heard a matter proceeded on with less simplicity, unless by our enemies: for even from the first motion they embraced this proposition, and commended two Lords of their part to communicate it to the King: which not by any entreaty of his own people, but of his proper motion, pronounced his will not to be of himself, but to insist in that of his own Bishops & Prelates. This word was no sooner spoke, but through all the Towns under him, general Processions were made, to give God thanks that he had inspired so holy a desire into their Prince: We alone have sung the Requiem, as fearful that through this desperate passage, issue might be found for the soveraneties which we now hold having none above us. Wherein (my good Lord) you shall be pleased to give me thus much leave, as to say I am nothing edified in one respect: for before, I conjectured that all these mischiefs were neither familiar with GOD nor the devil, or that it was not respected whether they were mad men or Machiauils. And through this public joy in the Church of God, they are all as we are, true Roman Catholics, but of a more wary conscience than we. They esteem that of what religion soever it pleaseth God to give us a King, we are all bound to obey him: and that we are so commanded by S. Peter in two places, and by S. Paul writing both to the Romans and to Titus: In brief, that our Saviour jesus Christ, upon the mould on which we ought to frame all our actions, said: That we ought to give that to God, which belongeth to God, and to Caesar, that which belonged to Caesar: and hold, that if they do amiss after jesus Christ, that then that fault is pardonable.  
But to the end that I may not too long dwell upon this point, or to sound deeper in their consciences: presently after the King had made this protestation to become Catholic, with solemnities answerable, the wise Gentlemen our Deputies demand day of answer with deliberation: and after respette, at length made answer: That they saw nothing in him that might minister this hope unto them: That he was only in words, and his Ministers performed nothing. Ho, ho, quoth I, is the game to that? And I pray you what hinders, that so much may not be said of my Lord the Duke de Maine: That they saw nothing in him why they might judge he would alter his opinion, any of his protestations not withstood: That he is the man that he hath been from the beginning of four years: That he favours and authorizeth the Preachers of the Religion, which (among all other,) are the principal Orators and ministers of these troubles; And that it is not to be thought strange that their King desireth not to persever in error, but will not forget to praise God, so that he receives the instructions of our Church: otherwise, it should be a mean to open a way to Atheism & impiety.  
After having persused these Articles, I return unto that by which our Deputies infer, that the King of Navarre may receive instructions from the Prelates & Doctors of France, but that having received it, it appertained to the holy Father of Rome to have the especial government in that business: sith it was only he that had authority to approve the conversion, & to give him absolution, without which, he could not be held for one converted or reconciled to the Church. And did I exclaim then? Lo here the consummation of our work: The physic of the Duke of Feria hath not had his operation in Paris, it should be carried to Rome there to have his working; Say that you will not go, why this were to found a new heresy amongst the people. But put case that fortunately you may go, who knows not the Spanish concetis, to whose judgement you must commend the conversion of a Prince of the blood? Hath not the Duke of Feria sufficiently instructed you in the ground of his intended policies? which is to no other end then to aver the Crown of France to his own state. My good Lord, the Legate which at this instance is in Paris, shows he not by his demeanour, what commandments he hath from the holy Father?  
No, I must have patience: it is to you my Lord that I must speak, for I can gather no other but that this counsel proceeds with your own advise: as from him that in respect of the degree you are in, have more reason to hinder the course of these affairs: or at the least wise, that it may not seem so intricate, as thereby it may appear illusive unto you whilst you gather up the fruit of your greatness. Say, I beseech your excellence, when you took Arms against the deceased King, which we acknowledged for the most Christian King in all Europe, sued you to the Court of Rome for licence? Have you since craved absolution of the holy See; For indeed we are not to doubt, but that such bearing of Arms was a very heresy, being borne against a King so far from being an Heretic: Well than you have not done so, & yet will you willingly send your King? (so I am forced to name him, if I see him abjure that error which he hath been nourished in from his infancy.) Certes you address yourself to think upon your ill-willers, which respect not the See of Rome, but so much as you profit by it.  
Let us shun all shadow and dissimulation of this quarrel: let us leave apart all ambitions, and let us acknowledge that which is of the ancient faith of our Church, which Saint Jerome said had never nourished Monsters, meaning (under that word) Heretics.  
The general proposition of our Church, since and from the passion of Christ, was to reduce all her thoughts to the union of the Roman Church: to hold it for chief: to symbolize with it in the Articles of our faith: And if our Prelates entered into any doubts touching it, to have recourse to it, as the true source from which they ought to draw all water of life. And further, all having Diocese, had all power and authority to perform their own will within their own Dioceses, but only in matters of especial importance; in which they had recourse one while to the Counsels provincial, another while to another place, without any interposition of Romish Authority. And in this order lived they from the death of our Saviour, even until the first line of our Kings, and from that to the second; And howbeit that it was not so when the great Pagan King Clovis revolted from his paganism, yet, did he sue for pardon at Rome? surely no: but he received the holy Sacrament of Baptism at the hands of S. Remy, Archbishop of Reims, who was so frank a Catholic, as he would never have done it to the prejudice of the holy See, if he had thought that in such matters recourse thither had been needful. I acknowledge that under the second line, the See began to authorize itself more in France then before it had done: and why then? but because that King Pepin, to the intent he might in better sort usurp the kingdom, had been at Rome to seek instructions for his tyrannous reign: and could not set any gloss on his aspiring, unless it were by making the See a wonderment above all things: which is the same artefice which now we infer as especial engine of your greatness. Nevertheless, what pre-eminence soever his holiness then took to himself, yet shall you never find, that he made so bold as to condemn any K. in France for what offence soever they had committed, but did it in an open assembled counsel of our Prelates, which thing was continued under the 3. line, witness the great counsel of Clerimont in Awergne. In brief, I see not any one Pope which hath so much forgot himself, but only (good-face, or) Boneface the 8. against Philip the fair: but God would that with open signs he should confess the repentance of such sin▪ to serve as an example unto his successors, how to enterprise any thing against any king. When the Emperor Theodosius had caused the general massacre of the Thessalonians to be made, what stopped the door of the Church against him? S. Ambrose Archbishop of Milan, who opened it unto him after penitence. Went the Emperor to Rome? No, it was the self same Ambrose. And are we better Christians then S. Ambrose or S. Remy? Shall we condemn the actions of all our ancient Prelates of France? It shall follow that they were heretics, if the Maxim which we propound to the king of Navarre be true: & yet there is no doubt made but that they were all most holy and sanctified men. But what religion is this of ours? We have taken Arms against our most dread Sovereign and indoubtable king, without any licence from the See: we have made a Saint or canonised brother, Friar jacques Clement his murderer, without going to Rome: treading under feet the example of David toward Saul. We are commanded to obey our kings notwithstanding they be even Pagans. Now after all this, our King will be Catholic, & do penance worthy his fault, even in the midst of the French-church, & yet we will indent with him, & turn him over to Rome. Good God, what need have we of further ceremony then that which we would use, if willingly we would submit ourselves to his obedience? 'tis true, but you will tell me that you suspect deceits. Call you them deceits? when in the face of the church, & before all our Bishops and Prelates, he will make confession of his faith, in the presence of the Princes and the Officers of the Crown, which shall be there called to witness? If he hide any deceit in his head, he will be the first that shall be deceived: for GOD oftentimes deceives the deceiver. It cannot be thought, but that all good Catholics, which have made general professions only on his bare declaration, will be prompt enough to forsake him, if he again forsakes God; It would be the greatest and easiest victory which you could obtain of him, if he be so obstinate as not to yield, after a faith plighted of all his own Friends.  
And as touching you my Lord, whom I honour and reverence above all other, (thinking that there could be nothing but a holy zeal that did accompany your holy actions,) think not but God will confound all those counsels and deceits, (what mask soever of authority you pass them under,) if it fortune so that the King of Navarre should but only satisfy his faith. You shall be neither the first nor the last of yours, which shallbe fallen into this disaster. I will acknowledge freely, that to increase your greatness in full perfection, you have not forgotten any one point; First, seeing the fury of the people to have all authority, you made yourself altogether popular: leaving the Controwlershippe general of the Town of Paris, to sixteen persons of most low condition, which the licence of time gave reason to suspect: and to one counsel of forty, you commended almost all the affairs of estate, in retaining them from you, and then did you scarce know the way of Paris: Not long after, you broke of this counsel of forty, approaching it near to your person: The necessity after the siege was raised, taught us for our own security not to refuse a garrison of Spaniards; From that time forward you fought between two extremities, between the King of Spain and the Commonalty. For notwithstanding you make fair wether with the King of Spain, yet you would be right sorry that he should have attained the drift of all his inventions; And in like case, although he aids you for the defray of this war, yet he would be sorry too, that you should have your wish. The Duke of Parma, the interpositus in these affairs, hath showed it well as often as ever he came to our succours: well, he is dead, and that makes you more assured of your hope.  
The Sixteen by a desperate fury, have lost the deceased monsieur, the Precedent Brisson, and Arcter counsellor in the Parliament. This injustice invites a public choler of all in general, and moveth you by these means to make the boldest trait of estate that ever was since these troubles, because you caused four of these 16. to be hanged: and that at one instant you brought to beggary that little Tyrant of Paris, Bussy le Clear, chase him from the x, the sanctuary of all his robberies and thefts. And since, you have much more familiarisde yourself with our Town of Paris then erst: such be the means, by the which you have made yourself Master of the people, being assisted of the Spanish garrison; and having swallowed down the whole authority of those 16. now you have to combat with the king of Spain, which feeds on the wind of the Crown of France. But to keep him in breath betwixt hope and fear, you enter into diverse motions of peace, which even withal you break as soon as you make them, and that after fair proffers; These you break (I say) to show that you have both peace and war in your hands, and that you have means to bring all these Spanish vanities to nought, if he still aids you not with men and money; by this means stretching the very quintessence of even half half a farthing, to make thereof the principal stay of your greatness: And since we are now in some path toward peace, let monsieur the Spanish Legate be rid till his back be galled.  
O but you have erected Marshals of the union, to the intent that if a peace should fortune, these would be a singular piece of good to you: and that being now in war, the peace may confirm them. Is it possible to have acted with more witty endeavours than you have done even to the end? and yet I despair to: for I judge it fatal to your house to work ruin to that of Bourbon, & to be as circumspect as may be: yet nevertheless at length all vanisheth to idle smokes, and that even then when you think yourself nearest the perfection of your will. Even so did it befall my Lord your Father in Orleans, the year 1560. when under the authority of Francis the second, (whom he was possessed of) intending to spoil both of lands, goods and life, the deceased King of Navarre and the Prince of Conde, God took away the king even when he thought that he could not choose but have his full will every way. Even so of latest memory fortuned it to your Brothers, which never endeavoured any thing so much, as to declare the unhability of the King of Navarre, and how incapable he was of the Crown. Such fatal descent is there between your two houses: be it that the quarrel of the house of Bourbon is more just, (in regard of his blood royal) or that the disaster of your house is such.  
I am not that Nostradamus', that by an interlaced copy of words obscure, in 1553. would by his fore-smellings divine the mishaps in which we are now plunged. Sure it is, that seeing the late Kings dissolute living, had engendered in the hearts of his subjects a general discontentment, I held it for sure, that he should live to see the utter ruin of his estate & himself: for in his actions there was such a flowing of particularities, as the very lest was sufficient to overthrow a Prince. But when on the otherside, I considered the demeanours of the Duke of Guise, his arrival unexpected in Paris: the shameful (and yet happy) retreat of the King, the election of Provosts, made of Merchants and chief men of that Town in all post: the Bravadoes that they gave the King, demanding their confirmation, assignments, and prices of Towns to his teeth, whilst a treaty of peace was concluding: the stay of the verification of the Proclamation of unity, to disappoint entertaining the ancient Captains of the Town and their Lieutenaunts, and to suborn other to his devotion, and all that which since that time he enterprised in Bloys, (by me heretofore particularised) I promised unto myself no less matter and man of him then the king; the one by growing too lose in his actions toward his Subjects, the other too ambitiously familiar towards his King: insomuch that the over-crowing of the people towards their King the day of the Barracades, was even the same of the King over the Duke of Guise the third of December following.  
You perhaps will tell me, that I do nothing but recapitulate things as they have fortuned: I pray God they may most happily live, and joy eternal felicity, to whom I have aforehande (diviningly) imparted them. There be some matters of estates as infallible, as the rules running according to the Mathematics. It is the very same that made me fear some (I know not what) misfortune of you: I doubt not but the Baise les mains evidences, which you receive now, of a troop of such as are slaves to your fortune, hath caused you to foresee as much to their promotions: which fortune proveth as improvedently to them, as improvedently doth that of you to yourself.  
They furnish you with sophistical memoratives, to make this effect of conference and agreement utterly void, doubting that if such a peace should fortune, their fine knacks would have no longer endurance: none of them are capable of the ancient modesty of a Roman Cincinatus. My Lord, I most humbly beseech you, hold not yourself scandelisde, if I term those sophistical memoratives, the return which you commend to the King of Navarre unto the See of Rome, whom we ought to esteem for our most dread Sovereign, whensoever he shall be made a true Catholic: for before that time I shall never agree upon that point or Article. For our ancient decrees & Canons of France, cannot, neither do accord upon this sending of the king to Rome. Yet nevertheless, if this See of the Pope were implacable, if in our Popes there were not found a thousand angry & intractable passions, towards those Princes which prosterne themselves even at his feet: in brief, if they were not disturbers of all estates politic when soever we suffer them to reign over us.  
Well, say we that we may lawfully send him to Rome, yet even in this we trouble the estate of France, and that of the holy Church thereof, which is the especial sinew and dependent of the Romish Church; but are not all histories full of the miserable spectacles? It is no heresy to read them, since we read them in one Platin, which by reason they have altogether been nourished in the Court of Rome, do what they may for the advancement thereof.  
Moreover, I say that if the case were put that such a thing might be tolerated, (let us speak with a true heart) the Pope which now is, hath he not been and is he not a creature of the King of Spain, before but Cardinal Cremone: a Town at his devotion, and brother to one of the greatest favourites? It is well known what bribe's King Philip gave to have him preferred, how much of his purse was bestowed in effecting that complot, what supporters he hath in Rome whilst obstacles are laid, before any that is friend to the French-king. It is well known how that most wise and right Catholic Marquis of Pisam hath been entreated. All know, that the Pope is content to send us into a France a Legate altogether Spanish, and yet to second him he would have sent another, Cardinal de Pelce, a Norman espaniolised, a man which never did good but when he intended worst, & esteemed for such almost in every Consistory wheresoever Pope Sixtus the fift had to do. I hold that by hazard and not by any good policy he sent these unto us.  
Think you that he dare encounter with the King of Spain his neighbour, being so ambitious as he is, in regard of Naples and Sicily which holds so many intelligences with Rome? Hath not my Lord the Legate, (with reverence be it spoken) spend out all the venom which he had hid in his breast, when he saw that the King of Navarre was fully bend to become a Catholic, and that the matter of peace was not spoken of with small likelihood? And at his departing, is there any man (any honest man I mean) that bears but the least zeal to the peace, that would find the sending of the King of Navarre to the See of Rome either honest or profitable, of which if so we would gratify the King of Spain, we should find eternal matter of perpetual troubles.  
My Lord, I desire to be held, and would that all should know, I humble myself as most obedient, and desire to be held most answerable in all service to you: & to that intent I have undertook thus much. Sure I am that divers about you ambitious of promotions, and that feed themselves fat with your ruin, will say that I am a turncoat, which would make semblance to be of your side, notwithstanding that otherwise I nourish no such intentment in my mind. Be not wondered at my name, let it suffice that I am only a poor Citizen of France, without charge or public office: far from ambition, that know not what the meaning is of riches or avarice, but only so far as the necessities of my house do command: but happily avare and covetous of the quiet of the Weal-public; Otherwise, such a man as thinks he can have no other treasure than an honest liberty, with which I accompany my actions: a liberty which causeth me to tell you the truth plainly.  
The Chirurgeon which flatters the wound, spoils it, and you should have no greater enemy than yourself, in flattering yourself more than needed. But to what purpose is this preamble? To tell you that by this expedient of Rome which now is proposed, you divert the course of the peace; I denounce and prognosticate unto you, not a tax, (for the King of Navarre was never familiar with such a beast) but a ruinous end, and that as certain as the end of the late King, or as that of my Lords your Brothers.  
Indeed this is somewhat boldly said, and yet such as beseems a loyal and faithful servant towards his good Lord: I doubt not but since you swallowed or received down the whole authority of Sixteen, and since lost the object of the Prince of Parma, that you may have gained 45. to the advantage. I on the otherside fear very much, that, that on which you shall establish your fortune, will be the cause of your misfortune; For the just punishment which you laid on the 16. was a blood-letting very necessary for the health of the people, and to purge that evil spirit of which they were possessed: And the life of the Duke of Parma, nourished an ambitious fever of our estate in the body of his Master, knowing that so long as he was living, he would hinder your encroach upon his intentions: and now that he is dead, it is unpossible to meet with any man of his own forces which were a man of like valour. He which would not make himself a stock of mockery to all strange Nations, it is very easy to be thought, that he will have finer conceits, when he shall see that all his hopes depend but upon you only, which have another mark in your head, and yet seem to shoot at him.  
Yet nevertheless, I pray you my Lord let it be considered of in your mind, the means by which you have aspired so high; Hath it been by your own gravity? I would willingly say it was by a popular fury, but I dare not. Hath it been by your prowess, which I hold most high? Pardon me if I set before your eyes, a good part of that which is passed between the King of Navarre and you; All that which was done at Deep: the battle of Pure: the unexpected surprise of our Suburbs: the reducing under the King's power the Country of Maine, Alancon, & of the greater part of Normandy teach us the clean contrary: I represent this unto you in gross, not standing to particularize them: for I would be humbly sorry, that it should be thought I would obscure any thing of your glory.  
Needs must I affirm thus much, that in matter of ruin against a poor inhabitant that knows not what war means, we only have the Superficies, but from Warrior to Warrior I cannot say it: If there be any notable thief, he makes himself chief in one Country, under the Standard of punishment which he awaits from us, if so it be that by any means whatsoever he afflicts the contrary part, without exception of persons; but when we shall have leave to enjoy a rightful combat, then will we leave the lists, because that every one that makes profession of thievery, never makes profession of a lawful quarrel. In this there lies gain of gold and Silver, in that nothing else but bare blows. I will not say but that at one time or other we may have good success in wars, for wars resemble the fortune of the Dice: but so it is, that misfortune wills thus much ill report to be said of you, That you never durst encounter with the King of Navarre but you went by the worst: which I conjecture to have been the cause why you would not come to combat any more, although he hath oftentimes summoned you; And yet (O God forbidden that I should blame you) for having conquered a great part of France without any blows, it is passing wisdom not to hazard all by decision of one battle.  
Let us then (if it stands with your good liking) acknowledge how you came to this highness of your degree and estate, which you enjoy here amongst us; The Town of Paris, (upon the model of which all other are ruled) put itself in Arms and made you her chief, not so much for any amity or familiarity which it hath had with you or your house, as for an extreme hate conceived against the late King: And withal, remembering us of the day of the Barrecades and other things which ensued, that we were put in fear to be most grievously punished, having lost monsieur De Guise our chief stay: rather choosing to play to lose all, then to see ourselves exposed to so ignominious a punishment. And so between quaking fearful, and bloody hateful, & musing what might have become of your brethren, which ought to have moved you, either by honour or by just desire of vengeance: we, and (by our example) all other Towns, had recourse to you. Lo here in general, the cause why you are entitled Lieutenant general of the estate and Crown of France: to whom (after the decease of the late King) all the sway of the people generally inclined. And in all this you knew so well to demean yourself, that you had divers Friars ready, which in their Pulpits, did openly declaim against the late King, and the King of Navarre, which was no small secret in matter of civil war. It follows then (my good Lord) that you acknowledge, to hold in faith and homage to the people, both your promotion, the progress thereof, and your workings underhand: yea, & even that you had no power of yourself, to bring in the Spaniards into Paris, (which now seeks to set foot on her throat) but by the consentment of the same people after the siege, and that for the conservation and surety thereof. If this foundation be true, then withal you must agree with me in this, that in like quantity as the love of the people diminisheth towards you, even so your greatness must agree with the same, since it is a general and infallible rule of nature, that all things have their decrease, with the decrease of humour, from which they have life, and increase themselves. But as touching the hate between the late King and the people, it lies buried with his body; And as touching that which remains towards the King of Navarre, think not that if he abjures his error, and that we see him go to mass, and submit himself in as full sort as we, we would think himself less Catholic then either you or yours. Nay, but you will say, O he leaves the way of Rome: so doth the Common-people to, when we say in common proverb.  
Good Horse or ill man, till the day of Doom  
Shall near amend, because he was at Rome.  
So that then the cause of that hatred ceasing, in like manner the effect shall end: Well may you redouble your Guards, disperse them in corners, create new Marshals, have recource to the Spaniard, and yet all these shall be but so many instruments of your ruin; You are like the man that would hold a handful of Aunts in his fist perforce. The redoubling of the late kings Guards, could not prevent the day of the Barricades. The establishing of new Captains and lieutenants, made by my Lord your Brother, could not for stall his ill hap when the time was come.  
And touching the Spaniards, if you hope to have any aid of them, to resist the common hate of the people which I see altogether framed against you, I doubt not but a while they will bridle them, & yet at last scape. It was a rule which never succeeded well to any Prince, when he said: Let them hate me, yet they shall fear me: because that it brings this commentary with it, that there is nothing so long a depositaire as fear. But let us give all fashions that we may to our discourse, for I desire nothing so much as that I may see you prosper. There remains one means which shall be more sweet and mild, to have recourse to Friars, which oftentimes tyrannize our consciences by places of the Scripture, which they appropriate to their passions; That had been good at the first, when choler did transport and bear us away, for than they might have made us have believed, that you were entered into some town of Tours, into the Suburb of the which you were no sooner entered than you retired: and as touching the battle of Yuny, sith victory should doubtedly have been on your side: and when they should assure us, that in all the Towns of the King's side there was public Religion preached. These were things which be believed, and yet notwithstanding the time hath proved them false. Then we were in a burning Ague, which since is turned into a Tertian, having certain days of respite, and some hope that our Fever will be gone. The often letting of blood, & long dieting which we have kept, hath now healed us. We begin now all (God be thanked) to reknow ourselves on all parts. Every man is starved for want of peace, and perhaps the Parisians worst starved than all the rest. We see our great Suburbs turned topsie turuy, which before could compare with the greatest Towns and Cities of France: We see our noble Colleges (sometime Nurses of all nobility in Europe) serve now for Milk-houses for wenches, lodgings for Soldiers, and stalls or cattle. That great house of Louvre, the ancient place of abode of our Kings, to have served for the prison and execution place: infinite Cities to be enoblised with the ruin of ours, which now is now no more than a carcase: the greater part of the Lords of the Parliament, Chamber of Accounts, & Generals of justice, to keep prison in their houses, yea, and to carry their prisons with them: although to please you they seem not to do so. We see a multitude of Brothels & Stews almost at every door: and that amongst the greater. (O the good and holy Religion.) If in the Court of the King of Navarre such a thing should be, they should know and hear of it. In this mean season the poor people die for hunger and thirst.  
The gladdest of the burgesses, is happy to become a Cowherd to get his living, other to live by the sight of a little Rabbit, as if this great and royal City were become altogether Desert. All the plain Country remains desolate and barren. You have promised even from the beginning of these troubles, utterly to confound the part of the professors: and under these promises, both you and my Lords your Brothers have set all France on fire. We see not so much as one poor Cottage where the religion was exercised, which you have brought under obedience to the Church. It is now a year since you made us promise, to make us Masters of Saint Denis, Pont de Gournay, Corbeil, and Melun, which stop the passage of our Conuoyes'; Where is the execution of your promise? For consolation of all our ills, you have taken one poor Town of Noyon, and is not that a fair piece of work? But what fruit have we of it in Paris? What Town have you taken, in which we poor Catholics have not endured more ills than they of the Religion? Have we not then great cause of discontentment against you, that to maintain your greatness, the poor man hath neither food nor peace. When I say your greatness, I most humbly beseech you (my good L.) to be pleased, only to open your eyes, and but see what are the instruments thereof. You are entitled Lieutenant general of the Crown of France, that Crown which without a King is but a thing imaginary.  
You shine outwardly, but inwardly you conceive a thousand sorrows that oppress your mind; For notwithstanding all the lieutenantship general that you bear, neither monsieur de Nemoux your Brother, nor monsieur de Guise your Nephew, nor monsieur de Mercliel your Cousin, will scarce hold you for such in those places which they hold. As concerning Towns, how many are there which acknowledge not you but from the teeth outward? and withal, would never receive garrison? and at a need, are ready enough to deny you their gates? These are popular estates in regard of the King of Spain; you nourish the one against the other an inward malice among yourselves. He aids you, under a sure purpose which he hath to impatronise himself of our Realm, and to play you such a trick, as he did the Duke De Horn, and the County De Aeiguemont, after that (according to your authority and guiding) the King of Navarre shallbe expulsed. You on the other side, call him to your succour, esteeming, that when you are come to the height of your work, you shall have means enough to frustrate him of his hopes. Call you that reigning, or rather to be tyrannized in yourself by your proper conscience? And after all these things, you think to have the wind at your will; If the King of Spain live, he will be weary of that, if he die, where are you? If he be not weary of it, the people will be weary of him and his: for there is nothing so incompetible as the nature of the French with the Spanish. And to separate the will of the people from you, (to speak in good and true English) is to cast you away. Consider you not the cheer and joy that was generally conceived, whilst yet there was nothing but even a little speech of peace? with what good will it hath gathered together the refuges, which under the public faith of this conference are entered into this Town? Did you not see them at the first present themselves before our Deputies in whole swarms, beseeching them (in all humbleness) to have pity on them, & to be Mediators for this so much desired peace? You now hinder them by deaf means. Did I say deaf? nay, rather most open: and truly this joy, these sights, the prayers and vows of the poor for peace, are but even so many instruments of the extraordinary process of your fortune. We mourn most heartily for the breach of peace, and are sorry for it in our souls: you by your presence make us shed our tears; God grant that the patience of the Parisians cease not, even as the headlong downfall of some River which we would stop. I fear, I believe, and see, that by the same progression which the King used, by the same you will cast away yourself. He assembled estates at Bloys, to ruin our house, & that was his own: you assemble the Estates at Paris, thinking to strike the last blow at the fortune of the King of Navarre, God grant it may be the last to yourself.  
I hold opinion, that the Parisians of force must accord to your pleasure, indeed there wants but two or three Towns, which should band themselves on your side, to serve for example to all other: even so as when we forsook the late King of France. Well, I make no doubt, that if to oppose themselves against a King that was their lawful and undoubted heir, they would make Barracades against him, they end not like your tragedy, that gormandize in devouring them. Against you (I say) who from henceforth shall be accounted a most notable usurper of that greatness you hold. You have been the rod of God to chastise our Kings, which I trust he will at last throw into the fire of his indignation; and if he do it not, the most excellent victory which ever you can obtain, is that against Samson, to remain amidst all the ruins of France.  
It is there where I will end my remonstrance, which I most humbly beseech you (my most excellent good Lord) to read, and examine in yourself, which having done, I shall have attained the furthest of my desires: but if your leisure be not such, yet at the least wise, let them be imparted to the people. Conditionally, that if any of ours think that I have failed in any point, I will not be sorry that they make me answer, promising them to show that I have left more behind than I have spoken.  
FINIS.