[317] Madame Christine de France, who subsequently became Duchess of Savoy.

[318] L’Etoile, vol. iii. p. 36;

[319] Memoires, p. 46.

[320] Charles Emmanuel de Lorraine, Comte de Sommerive, second son of the Duc de Mayenne, who restored the city of Laon to the King in 1594, and died at Naples in 1609.

[321] Charles de Gonzaga de Cleves, Duc de Nevers, was the son of Louis de Gonzaga, Prince of Mantua, Duc de Nevers, and Governor of Champagne (who died in 1601, and to whose title he succeeded), and of Henriette de Cleves, Duchesse de Nevers et de Rethel.

[322] Mercure Francais, 1606, pp. 100, 101.

[323] Richelieu, La Mere et le Fils, vol. i. p. 14.

[324] Mercure Francais, 1606, p. 102.

[325] Mercure Francais, 1606, p. 106.

[326] L’Etoile, vol. iii. p. 358.

[327] Mezeray, vol. x. p. 282.

[328] Dreux du Radier, vol. vi. pp. 102, 103.

[329] Henri de Bourbon, Due de Montpensier, Governor of Normandy, peer of France, Prince of La Roche-sur-Yon, Dauphin d’Auvergne, etc., was born in Touraine in 1573.  During the lifetime of his father he bore the title of Prince de Dombes.  The King confided to him the command of the army which he despatched to Brittany against the Due de Mercoeur.  He subsequently became Governor of Normandy, and reduced that revolted province, which still held out for the League, to obedience.  He was present at the memorable siege of Amiens in 1597, where he led the vanguard of the army, and accompanied Henry on his expedition against Savoy and Brescia.  He was a knight of all the King’s Orders, and presided at the assembly of the nobles of Rouen.  He died in Paris, of lingering consumption, in 1608.

[330] The Baron de la Chataigneraie was an officer of the Queen’s guard.

[331] Richelieu, La Mere et le Fils vol. i. p. 18. Mercure Francais 1606, p. 107.  L’Etoile, vol. iii. p. 370 note.

[332] Mercure Francais, 1606, p. 107.

[333] L’Etoile, vol. iii. p. 370.

[334] It had frequently been foretold to the King that he would die in a carriage, and the prophecy had made so great an impression upon his mind, that he always endeavoured to conceal it under a show of gaiety, particularly when any accident occurred by which it appeared likely to be verified.  In the year 1597, while he was travelling near Mouy, in Picardy, the coach in which he rode was tumbled down a precipice; while the danger incurred at Neuilly was scarcely less great; and the prediction was fatally accomplished in 1610.—­Lettres de Nicolas Pasquier, book i. letter i.

[335] In order to render this impertinence intelligible, it is necessary to explain that anciently, when the sovereigns of France were about to swallow their first draught at table, the cup-bearer announced in a loud voice, “The King drinks”; upon which a flourish of trumpets, at a given signal, announced the important fact to those who were not present.