An Admonition given by one of the Duke of Savoy's Council to his Highness, Tending to dissuade him from enterprising against France.  
Translated out of French, by E. A.  
LONDON Printed by john Wolf. 1589.   

An Admonition given by one of the D. of Savoy's Counsel, to his Highness: tending to dissuade him from enterprising against France.  
MY Lord, Sith I am borne your subject, and that nature and reason do bind me to serve and obey you: also that next unto the service of God, I am to frame and direct whatsoever my actions and thoughts to the preservation of your estate, the greatness and prosperity thereof, and the peace and benefit of all that are likewise borne under your obedience: I can not in this late entry into the war which your highness do begin, but bring for my part such service and ability as I may, as well to avoid idleness whilst other are busied, as to show some proof of my fidelity, and to bear witness of those benefits and commodities which all your subjects, as also myself, have hitherto received and made trial of under your government. Some one will bring in his weapons and valiancy: some other will contribute his coin and commodities: some other his art and industry: and all generally, whatsoever may advance and set forward your enterprise. But I, contrary to the rest, do come with a most humble admonition, containing the most apparent reasons which on a sudden I could imagine, to withstand and contrary them, so far as in me lieth, and peradventure as a new Cassandra, in few words to set before you, the importance and weight of that matter wherein you now ship yourself: as being steadfastly persuaded, that by dissuading you, I shall do more than all your captains and army, whether for your highness particularly, either for the benefit and quiet of your poor subjects, who stand amazed at the motion, mistrust the continuance, but especially do doubt and fear some great mishap and calamity in the end: and indeed I might well think myself perjured and a traitor to that service which I own to your highness, in case I should not also contribute, and purposing to do well, I should not, at the least, stay the mischief and annoyance, to my power. Your highness, whether of your own motion to extend your limits, and by the right of good situation and commodity to appropriate unto yourself sundry countries, holds and towns, so to purchase reputation, and after the example of your predecessors to achieve notable and immortal memory: either else by the persuasion and inducement of others, have seized and gotten possession of Ravell, Carmagnolle, and generally the whole Marquisate of Saluces: also of Brianson and some other fortresses in Dauphin: and now with the like full wind, do thither lead a great and mighty army, in hope to multiply your conquests and annex this province of Dauphin (which for the greatness and importance thereof have long since been dedicated to the eldest son of the house of France) to your territories of Piedmont and Savoy. You find all things requisite for the entertainment of this army, as you would wish: the hearts of your soldiers & men of war well disposed: your treasury and storehouses well furnished: France so divided, turmoiled and fleshed in and against itself, that in your own judgement, you have no cause to fear, and, which is more, sundry of the greatest and most mighty with weapon in hand do call and favour you: assurance also of all help & succour from the Catholic majesty & our holy father, whose authority, power, weapons & means, are terrible to the whole world: with great appearance and conjectures you foresee a dissipation and partition of the state and crown of France, and that every man will carry away his morsel: and you presuppose that you have as good right as the rest, as being son and husband to Princesses of the blood of France and house of Valois: finally moved and led by a holy and religious intent, you purpose to prevent the ruin and subversion of the holy, Catholic & Apostolic Religion in this province, which is half banished and cannot long subsist without speedy remedy. Thus do you find your purpose to be both honest and easy: The success hitherto doth also put you in great hope of as happy an end: and that at the least by the law of shipwreck and waste, so much as may lie nearest your coast must belong to you. These indeed are great and mighty motions, sufficient to encourage the most fearful, to stir up the least ambitious and to move even the slowest and most dutiful: sith such facility is found to concur with honour and commodity: as also it is the cause of worldly matters and the natural order of generation that springeth of corruption: and in such cases especially the taking hold of fit occasion is it that worketh the fairest and most permanent effects. Yea, I will grant that the Gangrene having seized upon the midst of this great body (as it hath) the members and outward parts may well be cut off for the preservation of the rest: But yet, if your Highness will consider and weigh such reasons, difficulties, and empeachments as are therein, I am assured you shall find them to be of far greater importance than all that have yet been propounded.  
First, it is but too certain that all changes from a long peace into a sudden and great war are most dangerous, the rather because the peaceable person is less trained to war▪ less accustomed to suffer and bear, and less fit to endure any tedious enterprise: and this if it be true in states that are in strength and power equal, which through a certain mutual fear do maintain and uphold themselves, much rather then among unequal Lordships, of whom the lesser most look to keep and maintain themselves, rather than to enterprise against or assail the greater. This is the very law of nature imprinted even in all creatures, among whom the small do yield to the great, and are to account it a favour and courtesy that they be not bruised and even swallowed up. Now therefore what proportion is there between your highness power and the power of France: which is twenty or thirty times greater than all that you possess: peopled and abounding accordingly: trained and exercised in wars these thirty years continually? Have not we (without seeking any further) an example, even of late, of the loss of all the lands that you possess, as well on this side, as beyond the Alps: also of the extremity whereto your late father of happy memory was for a long time brought, only in having too mighty an enemy of the Frenchman? Do not the sound of the wars of Piedmont, which the passage of the power and troops through this country still ring in our ears? Is there any thing more easy or commodious for the French man, then to bound and limit the confines of his realm even with the Alps: & as it were by the way to tame end subdue us? If therefore the example of your parent's ruin & overthrow should restrain you, much more the quiet enjoying of his estate after he hath recovered it, wherein himself inviolably remained, aught to instruct and divert you from so rash an enterprise. He had purchased (and that justly) the fame to be one of the wisest and most stayed princes of Europe, but especially for that among so many his neighbours troubles & wars, he had abstained from war and kept his countries in peace: and yet had great experience in warlike affairs: wanted no intelligences, or partakers in France, and saw it in as great divisions and flame of wars, as now it is in: and as for wealth he hath left you so much as may suffice to furnish the entertainment of a very great army: as wisely foreseeing the incertain end of wars, which for the most part are sweet at the beginning, but difficult in the prosecution, and most bitter and hurtful in the end. Yea, and the same advice and counsel did he give the French king now reigning, when at his return out of Polelande he passed through his Country: and for want of following it, his affairs have had so bad success. This is and aught to be unto you a pattern and rule of conduct for your estate, which by this means he hath assured and left unto you, flourishing and full of all wealth and commodity: his instructions and domestical precepts, proceeding of so great and tried a judgement, aught with you to prevail above all other either gracious or flattering counsels. Yea, he never attempted any thing against the Swissers, who in power are nothing equal with France, but contrariwise, choose rather to leave and abandon unto them part of the lands that they had usurped upon him, then to attempt the events of war against that so warlike a nation. Have not ourselves, and that of late years, seen what happened to the king and kingdom of Portugal, which had so long flourished in a happy peace, and even in a moment is perished and extinct through rash enterprising to assail a mightier than himself upon a vain show and hope, which nevertheless seemed to be very well grounded, yea even upon piety and religion.  
All histories are ●ull of like examples, neither need I any further to delate the reasons: for in the end, if the lesser will war upon the greater, he must do it only by practices and drifts, by corruption and rewards, and by a politic discretion which the wisest did always practise: that is, still to nourish the wars and divisions, if there be any: and still to feed the fire, not to quench it, that they may have neither leisure nor power to think upon any other than themselves and for themselves. The Catholic Majesty hath above all things very well observed and practised this remedy, yea and that so happily, that France, which heretofore upon less occasion and pretence would have invaded and set foot in his lands, hath now refused them when they were offered: as finding itself brought to that pass, that it was time to employ all endeavours to quench the fire of civil wars which were kindled every where. True it is that England, which is as mighty in respect of Spain, as you in respect of France, hath in part returned it to him, and for these twenty years & more, have very cunningly entertained and nourished the wars in the low countries, and thereby hath warranted itself from a threatened invasion and ruin. What else then do you in departing from these domestical and fresh examples, other than the contrary? You weak, do assail one strong: you in peace and assured in your State, do hazard it to the peril of an uncertain war: you that hold your estate of France, stand greatly bound unto her, and of late of mere courtesy have received Saviglian and Pignerothes, through so great an offence as is the assailing and seizing upon her towns and territories, do incur so notable a blemish of ingratitude, which can not be cloaked under whatsoever pretence: If injuries and offences be aggravated and accounted of according to the unworthiness of the offender, together with the quality and quantity of the offence. If wrong done to an afflicted person, be accounted greater than that which is done to one in prosperity: If the misdemeanours of parents towards parents, of friends towards friends, of servants towards their masters, of children towards their parents, and of subjects toward their Lords, have evermore been accounted execrable, & they punished as parricides. With what reason or colour may your enterprise be manteined, sith you can not allege any necessity, or offence before given? But contrariwise that you levy war against him that had gotten all your country, and hath given it you again: that hath bound you by oath, and hath kept it with you: whose vassal through some of your Lordships you are, and unto whom, as unto the mightiest, without comparison, you own all duty and fear. There is (said a certain ancient) no war just, but that which is necessary: but you seek this of a jollity, and that not without some spot of impiety and ingratitude, whether against God, who is the God of hosts, sith against your own conscience and religion, you assault a most Catholic king: whether against your honour and commodity: either else against the peace and calamity of your poor subjects, who can not expect any other than the miserable ruin and loss of all their goods: for (to be brief) do you think, that a king of France will put up such an injury, at a Duke of Savoy's hand? Either if he would, that so many princes of his blood, so many great Lords and officers of his crown: so many brave and courageous Captains: so warlike nobility: so many towns and so much people, in whose hearts and affections the Flower de Luce hath taken root so many worlds ago, will brook such an invasion, and will not speedily be revenged, and with a miserable spoil, force and confine you into your Piedmont, and so we in these parts remain a pray to the conquerors? What profit shall you then reap of all your conquests, except according to the proverb, in fishing for some small fish, to lose a golden hook of far greater value. What may you else have done but quenched that fire which you should have kindled, united those whom you should have set at debate, strengthened the members of a most mighty body, in the weakening whereof it had been your profit to have employed all your industry: In sum, ceased their wars and divisions, the continuation whereof is your good and preservation. It is too common a proverb, yet to some purpose: That dogs do often fight together, yet so soon as they spy the wolf, they leave their brawls, and together run against the common enemy: so likewise brethren and kinsmen otherwise at strife and divided, upon the touching of the honour of their family and house, laying aside all rancour and enmity, or at the least, deferring it, do defend themselves, in and against all: and natural affection surmounteth that which is but accidental: the general interest reclaimeth and forceth them to forget the particular. Against you, the consideration of your smallness, and the greatness of the injury, being done in so woeful a time, which always will be imputed to a brag, insolency, and rashness, will the more provoke all France, and breed in them a speedy union and league: and the wisest will be very glad of such an occasion to end their divisions and partialities, as, surely there is no better way or certainer remedy against civil wars, then to set upon the enemy's subjects. We read that the Romans being on a time at jar, the enemy came into the town and took the Capitol, but they suddenly agreed to drive him away: The like did they against the Veients, and the princes & people of Thuscane, who during their civil wars had assailed them, and in am of getting any thing from them, remained vanquished & brought into subjection. The like did the Spanish nations when they so far revolted against the Emperor Charles the fift, as to force the D. of Calaber to take the crown: for being in arms one against another, king Frances the first sent an army and recovered the realm of Navarre and Fontarabie: but the Spanish troubles being suddenly appeased, with one common consent thy fell upon the French, and drive them out of all the land that they had conquered, and never after thought upon their factions and revolts: and we see ordinarily that in towns and commonalties the envies, enmities and jealousies of particular persons are trod under foot so soon as the enemy doth appear, and all, even they which before would have slain each other, do with one mind run to defend the breach.  
Let us not then deceive ourselves in too much flattering and rejoicing in our forces and commodities, neither let us persuade ourselves that the Frenchmens divisions are so rooted and graven in them, that they cannot be soon taken away and appeased. The long continuance of their mischiefs, the extremities of the people's miseries, the experience of that which is past, the small effect of their civil wars these 25, or 30. years, and especially these last troubles, longer and more pernicious than the rest, which do as it were undermine the very foundations of this Monarchy and estate, together with the object of an enemy, will provoke them to unity & agreement. It is well known that in the estates now assembled, most of the provinces do require peace, that there be a great number of Catholic Lords that do bewail the miseries of the estate, and with great impatiency do bear these ambitious commotions and proud innovations.  
Would you think that men do judge it to be the Catholic Majesty, under whose advow, and with whose help you enterprise this war, and that without such assurance you would not meddle. The Spaniard then, the hereditary enemy of France, is he that assaileth it: he it is that seeketh to swallow up the whole world under his Empire, & to become the sole and only Monarch thereof: he it is whose mortal hatred is naturally graven in every true French heart, whose dominion is accounted cruel and intolerable, against whom the inhabitants of the low countries are revolted, choosing rather to venture upon so many extremities, than again to fall under his dominion: and now to this Spanish Cornet shall not the French ears be open, their hairs stand upright, their hands be armed, neither the hearts of so many princes, Lords, gentlemen, and others, both warlike and courageous, be puffed up with a desire of revenge, and the just defence of their fellow citizens? or will they incur so great a blemish of infamy and cowardliness, as to suffer themselves to be wronged and provoked by so weak and impatient an enemy as you? To be brief and without dissimulation, would the Catholic Majesty forsake and abandon the recovery of his countries to the end to denounce a new war unto France? He who with all his power and strength hath not been able in twenty years to reduce two small provinces, Holland and Zealand into his obedience, and of late hath incurred so great and notable a loss of noble Spanish Lords, captains, and vessels, yea even of his reputation in that great overthrow and dissipation of his navy, in the preparation whereof he had employed all his power for the conquest of England, will now enterprise against France which hath so oft withstood him, and whose armies to his loss he hath so often felt and tried? Again, who is ignorant of the great practices and intelligences of the king of Portugal, whose estate hath forcibly and by violence been detained by the Spaniard, who hath far more interest in the preservation of his conquests, and greater cause to prevent the loss and revolts thereof, then to dream else where? This consideration therefore must not amaze them, but they may be assured that he will still employ his forces and means upon his first purposes, which are more necessary and honourable for him, besides that, it is well known that ordinarily he is crazed, and as it were in a manner at his end: which if it should happen, his estates could not eschew great dissension, sedition and revolts, the sparks whereof do already appear in Spain and else where, and then will it peradventure be too late for you to repent your over rash counsels.  
But admit you were assured of his succour and help, yet do you not both see and hear the clashing of your neighbours the Swissers arms, who fear nothing so much as your prosperity, and alone are sufficient to withstand you: who already begin to stir: who do invite and counsel the French to whom they are bound and confederate, to withstand your purposes, and to force you to restore and yield up that which you have usurped: you have of late years provoked them, and yet through their discretion and usual forbearance, they have been desirous by treaties and capitulations to bring you to peace, and to withdraw your forces, rather than to enter into a dangerous war: they know your means and pretences, also that to this day they detain the Bailiwikes from you: and that your prosperity or power is their ruin and hindrance: and therefore you may be sure, that for their honour and reputation, whereof they are wonderful jealous, together with their duty to France, they will withstand your purposes, & being well united together, will part among them this miserable country, wherein yourself have no want of such subjects, both great & small, as bearing you but hollow hearts, would gladly shake of the yoke of your obedience, so to obtain liberty, & to free themselves from such taxes and impositions you as have laid upon them. True it is that the Swissers are at jar among themselves, also that you may have many partakers, but the protestant Cantons are still the strongest, and will speedily lend all aid and succours to the Huguenotes of Dauphin their neighbours, with whom they have of long time had ordinary familiarity.  
In the mean time, we shall see whether the tongues and pens of the wiser sort at Geneva, whose interest herein is greatest, will be quiet: yea and in France, where there is abundance of brave and good wits, whether they will not both in words and writing stir up every true French heart against you and your ingratitudes, which they will exaggerate, so that if heretofore thousands of Lords and gentlemen took upon them the cross for the conquering of such far countries from the Saracens, will they now suffer you to invade their own realm? Either will not this house of Bourbon, which after the king's disease that now reigneth, is called to the crown: which also evermore have brought forth such warlike and valiant princes, take heart and advice how to maintain and preserve that which justly is their due? To be brief, shall this noble blood of France be as it were blemished and tainted with such cowardliness and want of courage, as to suffer that Province of France which hath the particular prerogative and privilege still to be dedicated to the eldest son of the crown and nearest heir thereof, be lost and usurped by a stranger? will they not in such a case be touched with jealousy, and particularly with just sorrow, which may provoke and move them to preserve their own, sith at this day the crown returneth to them: I speak generally, leaving all questions of law, and election of persons, and cleave only to the Salicque fondamentall law, inviolably observed by the French, who above all nations have evermore been highly commended and renowned for their most faithful obedience & love to their kings and the princes of their blood.  
Together with the Swissers, the State of Venice, and the Duke of Mantua, who above all other do fear the mightiness of the Spaniard and you, and are most desirous of the re-establishment and preservation of the State of France, will not fail to admonish the French king of the consequence and importance of your enterprises, and, if need be, to contribute and enter confederacy for the hindering and breaking of them off.  
Thus of all your pretences and apparent inductions there remaineth no more but your intelligences and partakers, which you may have in France, together with the Catholic Apostolic, and Romish Religion, to the upholding whereof, you take all faithful Princes and Christians to be called and bound: How then? Who is more inclined, more bend, or more earnestly given thereto, than the French king now reigning, who under the reign of his brother Charles, employed all his youth therein, and hath tried all ways & forces, secretly and openly, and all clemency, for the rooting out of the contrary religion, and even now for the same end holdeth his estates? who also is so desirous to compass it, that he hath forgotten all particular friendship and hatred, and is purposed and resolved upon no other thing, to the end afterward most happily to end his days. This notwithstanding, he is still king, he is endued with great gifts of the mind, and zealous of his honour: and as all other men, he is capable of just sorrow when he is provoked and offended: will he then suffer his memory to be taxed in all posterity and spotted with such ignominy, as to suffer the Duke of Savoy to bereave him of the Marquisate of Saluces, and therein to ravish and take from him all tokens, relics and monuments of the kings his predecessors conquests in the realm of Naples and province of Italy? To seize upon Carmagnolles the Arsenoll of France? Now even during his life to take an oath of fidelity of his subjects, and to cause himself to be acknowledged as Lord, dispatching all things in his own name? And afterward by force of arms to enter his Realm, and to put garrison into his towns.  
In those extremities which undoubtedly do oppress him, he will hasten against him that dismembreth, his estate, and as already he hath sundry times experimented, he will grant peace to his subjects, rather than in his days see his garments rend in sunder. So in the time of king Charles, in the year 1562. the troubles ceased almost as soon as the English set foot in France, and had gotten New haven: and his subjects agreed together to fall upon the common enemy. True it is, that his princes, nobility, towns & commonalties are now at greater division, and more fleshed each against other than they were then: that now there is more in their power and possession which help you, and together with you do purpose the sharing of this realm. That these Lords your partakers are as it were masters of the state, and have the strength and Metropolitan town of the realm in their hands: That it is unpossible to reunite the hearts that are thus alienated, and to regenerate and reduce into the hearts of the princes of the blood & mighty Catholic Lords, princes, gentlemen and subjects of the contrary part, which are many, a confidence and love of their king, and therefore the fire which still shall, be kindled in the heart of the realm, will greatly let them from being able to secure the outward bounds. But what? The king, who by force & at the inducement of his Lords, once made an edict of reunion with them, whereby they be bound to abandon all leagues and associations either within or without the realm, being (as he is) duly advertised of your intelligences with them, of the portion that they grant you of Province and D'aulphine, so as you also bind yourself to expel those of the contrary religion, and afterward to help them with your power and means, to make them likewise masters of their parts & portions. The king, I say, who besides infinite others hath received two injuries and displeasures: this, the most shamefullest that ever Prince received: namely, to be expelled out of his seat, the Parliament and principal town of his realm, and afterward to be so far injuried as to be driven to thrust from about him his most ancient and most faithful servants and officers of the Crown, to the end himself to be served and possessed by them, not that he chose but that were prescribed and presented unto him: shall he not both justly and honestly go from any oath or word that he may have promised unto them without breach of faith and promise? Shall not the Princes of the blood, the officers of the Crown, the Parliaments, Nobility and Towns, the most whereof do see and know the evident inconveniences and damages of the continuation of the wars, admonish him to stay no longer in this so strange bondage, but to rid and free himself from this tyranny of these masters of the Palace: to whose passions and ambitions he is utterly subject. To be brief, shall not the States, which represent the soundest part of the Realm, and are assembled together to prevent the calamities and ruins which threaten it, seeing so great a mischief to happen during their assembly, conclude upon a mutual confederacy against the authors thereof and all foreign enemies? Either shall not the king together with them call to mind their original advancement, and progression, together with the bonds wherein they are bound to France, which in the mean time they now rend in sunder and dismember? These children be they not worse than their fathers, who with the like tyrannous ambition possessed and bridled king Frances the second, & under his name and authority, did enterprise to put to death the chief princes of the blood of France, and fathers to the princes now living, albeit neither acknowledged, neither maintained in their degrees and dignities unto them due? Be not these they who through their sleights, have always maintained the wars of France, & had intelligence with the king of Spain, the sworn enemy of France, and of late received his coin, sought to deliver Marseilles & divers places into his hands: solicited the Prince of Parma with his Spanish power to enter into France, and to make war upon their king, that hath so raised and exalted them, that now they go about to abase himself, whom they have forced contrary to all law both of God and man, and contrary to all order in France, to name a successor: at this day do forcibly detain diverse great Towns and Castles, yea even the principal City of the Realm, and use all those reasons whereof your discovery shall furnish a very large camp? Shall not the king and princes awake out of their slumber and sleep, to the end to see and judge what is prepared for them? I can not deny but there be parricides in Realms and Empires: also that the woeful and heavy destiny do seem to thrust and hale France to her end: Nevertheless, were they no more but the king of Nauarres faction that withstood you in Dauphin or else where, I say and avow that they are more then enough to thrust you back into Piedmont, and to make you return with shame and loss. These thirty years well near have the French kings employed all their power and strength, which were without comparison greater than at this day, and better united, against them: yet see we them still shoot up again and increase more than ever, namely since the last commotions in France, they have taken more towns, won more battles, fortified more holds, and more strengthened their party then before: you are therefore to consider particularly against which part of them you bend yourself: viz. to those that are strong in towns, & multitude of warlike gentry, if there be any throughout the world, yea, and furnished with captains of more experience: that is, those that took Montlimart, Ambrune, Die, Cap, and sundry other: that defeated the army of the Lord of Vins, and another at Montlimar, that inhabit a country by nature strong, of access difficult, for ambushes and stratagems, wherein they are most excellent, very convenient: and that at need shall be succoured by their neighbours of Languedoc. Repose not therefore so much trust in the promises and power of your partakers, who with a good will, will help themselves with your means, men, and money, to establish their power and authority, whose behaviours do already make them odious and misliked of the most part of France, which sigheth and groaneth under the calamities that are sprung out of their ambition. The king now reigning is no elder than they, whose speedy end we are neither to fear, neither to hope for: if it should happen also, that all good French Catholics should fear to fall into the obedience of a prince of contrary religion, yet the continuance of the calamities and mischiefs that undermine them: the long proof and tedious experience of the inability of force and violence to force the minds to believe other than they would: the examples of the Germans and Swissers, which notwithstanding the plurality of religions do live peaceably enough: and the assurance that they have of the clemency and mildness of the king of Navarre, who is he that challengeth to be presumptive heir and eldest of the crown, will still draw them to acknowledge him, and to yield unto him the duties of faithful and obedient subjects, rather than to stoop to the dominion of these new and foreign princes. They know the king of Navarre to be gentle and merciful, naturally not to be ambitious or a tyrant: they are not ignorant how often he hath desired and requested to be instructed by a free counsel: that he is a prince of his faith and word, and that by force and constraint he was driven and compelled to take weapon, which he now hath in hand, whose equity hath appeared in the happy success that God hath given him against the armies of the Duke of Maine, the Marshal of Byron, and the Duke of joieuse, who thought to have devoured and swallowed him up, yet hath he still had the victory. If then with these virtues and perfections far different from the cruelties and tragical passions of his enemies, he get the crown, what are you to hope or fear of so warlike a Prince? So sore bend against the Catholic Majesty, which detaineth his kingdom, and so well beloved among your neighbours the Swissers? Consider therefore earnestly that the shortest follies are the best: that then your partakers shall be but small warrant unto you, sith they no whit subsist of their own forces, but of other men's only, and that with so extreme violence as it cannot continue: for in the end what foundation have they of their power, other then of a broken reed: of the mutable minds of inconstant people, which forsake him whom before they favoured so soon as they see his good hap abandon him, yea, and that do not only forsake him, but for the most part drive away, punish, or most shamefully murder him. Such there have been both in Athens and Rome, and being this day exalted to the heavens, have been to morrow banished and cast down headlong. And already it is very likely that the Parisians will shortly shake off that yoke which a while they thought so sweet, because they see themselves deprived of the presence of their king, which bred their great commodity and profit, upon the ceasing whereof will also cease their amity and good will that they bore to the procurers of the ceasing of their profit and traffic. The same people (and justly) do fear the indignation of their king whom they have offended, and who is justly wroth against them: as also they may judge that he dissembleth his wrath for a season, and that for this present he is content with this punishment, viz. That he will not come at Paris. Even this only reason already breedeth a repentance in the Parisians hearts, and a hatred of the authors, who have offended and provoked against themselves a number of the principal, the richest, & the best allied inhabitants. How will it be when the king shall so manifestly reveal his hatred, that he shall take from them part of the extent of their Parliament (as is already forecast) of the chamber of accounts of aids and other jurisdictions which are the cause that Paris is maintained in such resort & greatness? How will it be when openly he shall bend himself against them, and take from them (as he may) so many privileges which by the kings his predecessors have been granted them, and by himself confirmed? How will it be, when they shall peradventure see themselves brought into like estate, as at this day are Gaunt, Lisbourne, Diieon, and many other towns heretofore most flourishing? Shall they not then remember that it is because of their rebellions? Shall they not call to mind that the authors of the miseries of France, are also the authors of the miseries of Paris, and of all the country round about which is utterly undone, ruinated and wasted already? Already they taste and know that the civil wars have debarred them of half their traffic, haunt and concourse of people, and most of them do curse the authors. Other towns by them detained, which also do prove the like miseries, yea, and far greater, which are subdued by Citadels and great garrisons, will after the example of Paris, seek after alteration of governors & their former liberty.  
If at this day the king show them any favour, yet is it a question whether it be but in appearance, or in truth, considering what offences and injuries they have wrought him▪ so that, albeit for a while he dissemble, yet he will find a time when to punish them, even so soon as he shall see time and opportunity: and then shall you be destitute of all such support as you hoped of, for the defence of your wrongful enterprise: But admit they obtain that favour in deed and without dissimulation, yet can you be assured that it will continue? Men are in all things variable, and especially in amities, and among men, the greatest are so when they perceive that his greatness whom they favour may be hurtful and prejudicial to their own estate: for there is nothing so subject to jealousy as dominion: For that do men forsake all divinity and humanity: and government can brook no companion.  
Again, the manifest division among them ought to stay, yea utterly to break off your enterprise, sith it is but over likely that their particular quarrels will sufficiently debar them from helping of others: further that within these three years they have used and laid all their endeavours, and have sought, yet could not attain to invade the Duke of bovillon's sovereign territories, whereof they be at this day in extreme anguish. Their behaviour do sufficiently show it. Hardly could they find one general to undertake the conduct of their army into Poytou: They are extremely indebted, urged and tormented by their creditors: They own more than they are worth, and that is the cause that they hazard, not their own, but France: They have procured the king of Navarre to be moved to accord, which if they could obtain, they would think themselves reasonably safe: and when their enterprises shall be (as it is very likely) brought to nought, themselves shall withal fall even groveling to the ground. Here you see the pillars and bulwarks of your enterprise. Contrariwise, the king of Navarre is grounded upon a match made long since of great patrimonial goods: of the law of France, which calleth him before all others to the crown, and especially of an incredible love of his subjects, and all other his followers, which is the fairest and mightiest fortress that princes may have, and which maketh their memory most famous and happy with the posterity: He is, I say, like unto a second trajan even among the Catholics, beloved, no less for his goodness and clemency, then for his valiancy.  
Thus in my opinion I have sufficiently answered concerning the pretence of Religion which they might make you take hold of, which also beareth more semblance than truth, how much wiselier have your late father and yourself dealt in forbearing forcibly, and by constraint to reclaim your poor inhabitants of the valley of Angrongne and other their neighbours, who nevertheless are but one handful of people in respect of these of Dauphin whom you do assail. Content yourself therefore with the same estate wherein hitherto yourself, and before you your late father found ease. For under what colour would you at this day, in a foreign land, fight against a Religion which these thirty years have been tolerated in your own Countries. Rather be you a beholder of the storm that beateth and tormenteth the sea of France: expect the issue of that tragedy: either, if you be so desirous to purchase reputation, convert your means and forces toward your father in law the king of Spain, for the recovery of the low Countries: and, resembling the physician, which coming to the end of the sickness, is usually the happiest, and carrieth away the credit of the cure, sith the Duke of Alva, the great commander, and the prince of Parma could not yet achieve the victory, get you the honour of finishing it: so doing you shall travail in a better title, and your weapons shall be more honourably and better employed, besides that you shall not incur the vice and reputation of ingratitude to your benefactors: you shall warrant your poor subjects from the affliction and oppression that wars do usually bring. And if zeal of Religion doth lead and so mightily move you, you may there fight against contrary Religions which have been long there, and are in diverse points different from yours. There shall you find the English, against whom the Catholic Majesty is at open war, who durst favour and undertake the protection of the Hollanders and Zealanders, who first offering themselves to the French king (who was more religious and careful in keeping his league and peace with Spain) were refused. For my part I will pray unto the Creator for the prosperity and increase of your highness, as  
Your most humble and most obedient subject and servant.