A STATE discourse vpon the late hurt of the French King. Faithfully translated out of French, by E. A.  
 Circular woodcut printer's device with floral ornaments (not in McKerrow).  
LONDON Printed for E. Aggas, dwelling nere the West end of Saint Paules Church. 1595.   

¶ To the most noble Lord, the Lord of Harlay, one of the Kings privy counsel,& of the counsel of Estate, knight: Prince of the Senate of Paris, and chief Judge of the realm.  
MY Lord, the League is a disease as surely united to french mindes, as the fever is unto the corrupt humours of unsound bodies: and in consideration hereof, I haue framed this discourse, wherein the remedy is more apparent then the disease itself, in case rebellious eyes will vouchsafe to impart it to their mindes, who having digested the same, shall find themselves cured& me satisfied: the rather if yourself like hereof, as well as you are devoted to the kings service. In hope whereof I shall pray unto God( my Lord) to grant unto you his grace,& unto me yours.  
Your most affection at seruant, Pont-●●●ery.   

A STATE discourse, vpon the late hurt of the French KING.  
AFrica no longer engendereth monsters. The air of Europe conceiveth them: France nourisheth& bringeth them up: spain aduoweth them: and Italy sanctifieth thē: of Bastards she legitimateth them: and of simplo untimely births, maketh them perfect men: By them is Christiandome molested: Christian●ie scandalised& the Church divided. To be short, all order●s so perverted, that traitors are name Confederates: seditious persons, good catholics: neuter, trusty and well advised persons: Rebels, rivals in estate: seruants, home-born Children: strangers, natural and originaryes of the realm: yea even supporters of the estate& pillars of the Church: every one complaineth of the disease, but no man seeketh remedy. The Gangrene taketh hold of the ulcer,& in lieu of a burning corosiue they apply hurdes dipped in oil and vinegar. physicians scorn the diseased person, and the search of the divisions penetrateth not to the quick: Nature seeketh to overcome the violence of the sickness, and no man secondeth her. The medicines are contrary unto it: The crisis or iudgement is not noted: None is in doubt vpon the thing that is not feared: fear never surmounteth desire, desire surpasseth duty:& to conclude in one word, all things are indifferent to a soul evil born,& to a corrupt& depraved mind: We had been lost if we had not so been. The felicity of France is like the phoenix: who in her death procureth another born like to herself, and out of her mortal ashes draweth a flamme of life which cannot be quenched in her posterity.  
The late King of happy memory, when he relieved us found himself overwhelmed: In easing vs. he found himself oppressed: and returning us into life, himself dyed. He dyed I say, not in the midst of his victories: but in the beginning of his triumphs he stumbled vpon the ruins of his enimyes: and he found none so repugnant to his good, as those whose safety& peace himself had established: The souls of the rebels do yet sigh in the plains of Jarnac and Moncontour,& do arise against the murderer that slue him, because suspicion hath condemned them: yet this trespass itself is not able to make this man guilty, even in the sight of those for whom this great King abandoned his life to so many hazards which the hea● 〈◇〉 ●gnosticated unto us: whose ver tues were inuinci●●● 〈◇〉 victories were most certain: to whom the 〈…〉 of his were unknown:& his triumphs do●●●●●●& daily. With him was infamy a stranger,& 〈◇〉 ●●gither inviolable& most holy: Our cowardlynes●●● 〈◇〉 ●●eated him, whom the enemies army durst never 〈…〉 the Church who had lost her voice, had not he● 〈…〉 rument thereto, hath injuriously condemned hi● 〈◇〉 ●●ction is extreme, the excess stealeth away the cre●●● 〈◇〉 honour is engaged: The posterity will disadvo● 〈◇〉& such as shall be born of us into this world, sha●● 〈◇〉 are in a better to name themselves our children, Y●● 〈◇〉 ●●ying of the Poet will be found true.  
Thou 〈◇〉 ●oune who thy father is termed,  
In thy 〈…〉 bed thy person was changed:  
Or in ad●●●●● thyself wert conceived,  
And by ●●●●●ing, here wert thou received.  
again, it 〈◇〉 known what enterprises and practices haue been wro●g●● against his majesty who now reigneth, whom the heauens do so manifestly favour, that all that doubt thereof are atheists, and such as do not admire& reverence him, even profane& ungodly persons. We may evidently perceive and as it were palpablye feel, that many gouernours haue their particular devises concerning the K. death,& easily may we judge how much they are deceived, considering the onely injustice of their conceits doth confounded them, that the apprehension thereof doth destroy them, and that their consciences do torment them with a scourge, which ingratitude layeth about their shoulders, as an instrument destined to that onely end. I beseech you tell me, what became of the inheritors, not of the desert but of the dominions of great Alexander? All the Princes& Lords of Grece thought to find a second life in his first death: but hardly was himself butted, before they were all found in their graues: In stead of gain, reaping nothing but repentance: for a kingdom, the desire of one: for assurance, despair: for a place of retract, the tomb:& for choice from bad to better, only death. Such were Eumenes, Demetrius, Ptolomie, Antigonus, Saleuchus, of whom some lost both lives& kingdoms,& some endured tribulations more forcible, and torments more cruel and bitter then death. And therfore that Poet, seemeth to haue some reason, that said: 
A captain for glory it may well beseem,  
After his conquest still to sutuiue:  
Or if by fortune men daunted him d'ye me,  
In famed of virtue after death to revive.   
What will become of so many ingratefull lords if our prince should miscarry: or what will become even of the princes themselves, when all obedience is violated, subiection butted, the ambition of particular persons increased, malice in general accomplished, and disorder perfected? Among the princes of italy some do aclowledge the empire, and some are of the popes homage: They can incur no displeasure neither sustain any injury, but either the one or the other will support them: but who shall protect these men, considering that only one Charles the fift triumphed over all the princes of germany within the space of four monthes, who in effect& apparance had all been lost, had it not been for the succour that they received from Henry the second? If they frame the substance or body of an army, who shall be the head? If they haue none, who can fight without a head? But if there be a head, who will endure it, considering they could not brook a lawful King? And in the mean time what shall become of the people? Shall not they be lead as bears or bulls by the noses to be the pastimes of the passions of some Chastelaine or warder, in whose forehead tyranny shalbe written with the very blood of his fellow Citizens? yea whereto shall the church be reduced, when every soldier willbe curat of his own village,& every captain bishop of his own garrison? Where I beseech you shall wee find labour,& due reward for the same? May tyrants rest in sastie, where kings are debarred that felicity? will men practise that course toward them which they haue abhorred toward others? counsellors& Presidents should become factionaries to those that live under their jurisdictions: and they that are the protection of kings should live under the halbarde of some Corporal, or peradventure of some watchman or scout.  
All this had almost come to pass in the hurt of our King( whom heaven would in our behalves immortalize, in case ourselves were as worthy as his deserts do bind us to wish it& our necessity do invite us) His death would haue quailed our liberty: his fall would haue overwhelmed our felicity: his loss would haue made desolate our families: his absence would haue acquainted us with that which wee fear: his ship wrack would haue swallowed us up: and the breaking of so great a body would haue bread a rock in Europe whereupon Saint Peters ship would haue been quiter split and utterly wrecked. Beleeue me not my maisters: I would to God I might be found a liar in all that I am to tell you. And this is it: namely that certain Capucines, Peuilians& other friars of this town dare freely confess that they never pray unto God for the King: because( say they) the pope hath not absolved him: as if it were lawful for him to condemn innocency: to judge of that which is not in controversy:& to alienate from Gods grace the person that in such humility doth beg it: That surely ther is superstition in this so vain& presumptuous rigour, considering all counsels do maintain that it is not the Bull that excommunicateth the man, but the fault: also that the fault is taken away when repentance taketh place, which serveth as a beginning of absolution and an end of punishment( my speech is of the same which spiritual Iudges may inflict) why do they therefore endeavour to bewitch our souls, by ministering unto them a food so unseasonable for a christian, who ought to pardon the offence even before it bee accomplished, and rather to complain and grow bitter against the perverse nature of the persecuter, then to return vpon the persecuted: for it is written: I will wait until the sun go down, and J will be a light unto his steps, least he should fall. The Curates of all parishes do power forth their prayers to God for the King: All laws both of God and man do ordain the same: And his benefits do in general bind us thereunto: yet shall these men as rebels and men guilty of treason make a divorce in the church& escape, I will not say unpunished, but even vnreproued? The kings subiectes do feed them: yea the kings themselves haue established them: and now shall they vpon some barbarous error, together with a malicious pretence, free themselves from that duty whereto nature bindeth them and the general society of men doth call them? Shall they commit such impiety only in France: because the contempt of the laws& royal dignity is so great that the princes are not regarded but vpon humours: neither the laws observed, but for a fashion,& yet that also rather in aparance thē in effect? The simplo people whose mind is not capable of any profound reasoning& which believeth no more then itself imagineth, is incontinently drawn to the purpose of these friars, who for bread do preach unto them a revolt: terrifying the weaker consciences,& shaking the beast founded by I wot not what manner of threatening, which serveth as a torture to devout consciences, an ambush to the kings life, trouble to the common wealth, and argument of superstition and offence to the Church, whose just& holy weapons are never employed against such as aclowledge their dueties to her, and living under her standard are resolved there under to fight, even to the death. Can any thing be more impertinent or of a more cowardly disposition, then that some of the kings officers who barking at the shadows of mitres& read hats with eloquence rather artificial then natural& with farther fetches then reason, haue hitherto maintained the Iesuites with such fervency that they enflamed the speeches of their maisters faithful seruants& converted thē into smoke, even at such time as the kings life was in question,& that men protested against them in respect of the small account that they made, to the end they might rest in credite with the pope& his formal creatures the Iesuites? A little thing would make me to term you the unthankful pies or lays of this great cadge: I haue couradge enough to undertake it& more then sufficient argument to put it in effect: But I will forbear you, for the honor of France, as also for that albeit ye escape the hand of man, yet is not Gods hand subject to any palsy: you shal haue no greater enemies then yourselves:& albeit your offices& dignities do free you from temporal punishment, yet will men judge you worthy therof. For the punishment make not the martyr but the cause: but it is ennough that your intents do make you parties,& that al the world doth see that you haue wrongfully supported the Iesuites, out of whose house as out of an arsenal or storehouse is issued that accursed piece, who in only one person had almost with lightning kindled al France from whence al Europe should haue been set in combustion& in such universal desolation yourselves( as I think) haue been brought into ruin. yet doth one thing put me in comfort& make me to hope well: namely that our maisters of Paris haue in this last essay of treason made full proof of their fidelity. For there was not any family but re●oiced at the preservation of the king and the punishment of the parricide. The salutations by bonfyers& prayers, in that respect powred forth, do induce a perpetual oblivion of al former transgressions of the enhabitants of Paris, who in one onely might haue made a perfect day of that credit which his majesty is to take of their service, wherein affection sitteth as president, with so much truth, that the testimony therof is wonderful,& the hope of their continuance certain and infallible.  
Finis.