United States or Sri Lanka ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
On the 18th of July, in the evening, he put into Bourbon's hands his letters of credit, running thus: "My dear cousin, I send to you Sieur de Beaurain, my second chamberlain. I pray you to consider him as myself, and, so doing, you will find me ever your good cousin and friend." The negotiation was speedy.
The handful of filibusters, without gold lace or epaulettes, who were spoken of with such solemn contempt, had routed several thousand of the Bourbon's best troops, artillery and all, commanded by one of those generals who, like Lucullus, are ready to spend the revenue of a province on one night's supper.
The procedure against the principal culprit was several times suspended and resumed according to the course of events, and the decree was not pronounced so long as the Duke of Bourbon lived. It was abroad and in his alliance with foreign sovereigns that all his importance lay. After Bourbon's precipitate retreat, the position of Francis I. was a good one.
There is no room here to follow more than the barest outline of the Duc de Bourbon's history. Fully stated, it would be the history of France. He was a son of the Prince de Conde who collected that futile army beyond the borders of France in the royalist cause in the Revolution. Louis-Henri was wounded in the left arm while serving there, so badly wounded that the hand was practically useless.
To follow step by step the course of Anne de Bourbon's life at this period of it through all its earliest rivalries, would involve the task of recording the manifold caprices of a tender, yet ambitious nature, in which the mind and heart were unceasingly dupes of each other. It would be like an attempt to follow the devious path of the light foam and laughing sparkle of the billow
Such, forsooth! was the mental condition of the wooden souls who managed the nation's affairs, that they allowed Nelson to add another blot to our national history escutcheon by taking Ferdinand Bourbon's throne under his protection. It is true that Ferdinand "did not wish that his benefactor's name should alone descend with honour to posterity," or that he should "appear ungrateful."
When, Beaurain set before him all the advantages that would accrue to their coalition from the Duke of Bourbon's alliance: "And I," said the king, brusquely, "what, pray, shall I get?" "Sir," answered Beaurain, "you will be King of France." "Ah!" rejoined Henry, "it will take a great deal to make M. de Bourbon obey me."
The event once accomplished, ill as she was, and contrary to the advice of her physicians, she had herself carried to the Cardinal of Bourbon's, who was still under arrest by the king's orders, to promise him speedy release. "Ah! madame," said the cardinal, as he saw her enter, "these are some of your tricks; you are death to us all."
On the other hand Foxe's authority was Cranmer, who was likely to know the truth: and it is not impossible that, in the critical state of Italian politics, the English government might have desired to have some confidential agent in the Duke of Bourbon's camp.
So I did not tell you how much I appreciated your critical insight into the points of my Introduction to Cellini. I do not rate that piece of writing quite as highly as you do. But you "spotted" the best thing in it the syllogism describing Cellini's state of mind as to Bourbon's death.
Word Of The Day