introduction.—anecdotes of marguerite’s infancy.—endeavours used to convert her to the new religion.—she is confirmed in catholicism.—the court on a progress.—a grand festivity suddenly interrupted.—the confusion in consequence.

i should commend your work much more were i myself less praised in it; but i am unwilling to do so, lest my praises should seem rather the effect of self-love than to be founded on reason and justice. i am fearful that, like themistocles, i should appear to admire their eloquence the most who are most forward to praise me. it is the usual frailty of our sex to be fond of flattery. i blame this in other women, and should wish not to be chargeable with it myself. yet i confess that i take a pride in being painted by the hand of so able a master, however flattering the likeness may be. if i ever were possessed of the graces you have assigned to me, trouble and vexation render them no longer visible, and have even effaced them from my own recollection. so that i view myself in your memoirs, and say, with old madame de rendan, who, not having consulted her glass since her husband’s death, on seeing her own face in the mirror of another lady, exclaimed, “who is this?” whatever my friends tell me when they see me now, i am inclined to think proceeds from the partiality of their affection. i am sure that you yourself, when you consider more impartially what you have said, will be induced to believe, according to these lines of du bellay:

“c’est chercher rome en rome, et rien de rome en rome ne trouver.”

(‘tis to seek rome, in rome to go, and rome herself at rome not know.)

but as we read with pleasure the history of the siege of troy, the magnificence of athens, and other splendid cities, which once flourished, but are now so entirely destroyed that scarcely the spot whereon they stood can be traced, so you please yourself with describing these excellences of beauty which are no more, and which will be discoverable only in your writings.

if you had taken upon you to contrast nature and fortune, you could not have chosen a happier theme upon which to descant, for both have made a trial of their strength on the subject of your memoirs. what nature did, you had the evidence of your own eyes to vouch for, but what was done by fortune, you know only from hearsay; and hearsay, i need not tell you, is liable to be influenced by ignorance or malice, and, therefore, is not to be depended on. you will for that reason, i make no doubt, be pleased to receive these memoirs from the hand which is most interested in the truth of them.

i have been induced to undertake writing my memoirs the more from five or six observations which i have had occasion to make upon your work, as you appear to have been misinformed respecting certain particulars. for example, in that part where mention is made of pau, and of my journey in france; likewise where you speak of the late marechal de biron, of agen, and of the sally of the marquis de camillac from that place.

these memoirs might merit the honourable name of history from the truths contained in them, as i shall prefer truth to embellishment. in fact, to embellish my story i have neither leisure nor ability; i shall, therefore, do no more than give a simple narration of events. they are the labours of my evenings, and will come to you an unformed mass, to receive its shape from your hands, or as a chaos on which you have already thrown light. mine is a history most assuredly worthy to come from a man of honour, one who is a true frenchman, born of illustrious parents, brought up in the court of the kings my father and brothers, allied in blood and friendship to the most virtuous and accomplished women of our times, of which society i have had the good fortune to be the bond of union.

i shall begin these memoirs in the reign of charles ix., and set out with the first remarkable event of my life which fell within my remembrance. herein i follow the example of geographical writers, who, having described the places within their knowledge, tell you that all beyond them are sandy deserts, countries without inhabitants, or seas never navigated. thus i might say that all prior to the commencement of these memoirs was the barrenness of my infancy, when we can only be said to vegetate like plants, or live, like brutes, according to instinct, and not as human creatures, guided by reason. to those who had the direction of my earliest years i leave the task of relating the transactions of my infancy, if they find them as worthy of being recorded as the infantine exploits of themistocles and alexander,—the one exposing himself to be trampled on by the horses of a charioteer, who would not stop them when requested to do so, and the other refusing to run a race unless kings were to enter the contest against him. amongst such memorable things might be related the answer i made the king my father, a short time before the fatal accident which deprived france of peace, and our family of its chief glory. i was then about four or five years of age, when the king, placing me on his knee, entered familiarly into chat with me. there were, in the same room, playing and diverting themselves, the prince de joinville, since the great and unfortunate duc de guise, and the marquis de beaupreau, son of the prince de la roche-sur-yon, who died in his fourteenth year, and by whose death his country lost a youth of most promising talents. amongst other discourse, the king asked which of the two princes that were before me i liked best. i replied, “the marquis.” the king said, “why so? he is not the handsomest.” the prince de joinville was fair, with light-coloured hair, and the marquis de beaupreau brown, with dark hair. i answered, “because he is the best behaved; whilst the prince is always making mischief, and will be master over everybody.”

this was a presage of what we have seen happen since, when the whole court was infected with heresy, about the time of the conference of poissy. it was with great difficulty that i resisted and preserved myself from a change of religion at that time. many ladies and lords belonging to court strove to convert me to huguenotism. the duc d’anjou, since king henri iii. of france, then in his infancy, had been prevailed on to change his religion, and he often snatched my “hours” out of my hand, and flung them into the fire, giving me psalm books and books of huguenot prayers, insisting on my using them. i took the first opportunity to give them up to my governess, madame de curton, whom god, out of his mercy to me, caused to continue steadfast in the catholic religion. she frequently took me to that pious, good man, the cardinal de tournon, who gave me good advice, and strengthened me in a perseverance in my religion, furnishing me with books and chaplets of beads in the room of those my brother anjou took from me and burnt.

many of my brother’s most intimate friends had resolved on my ruin, and rated me severely upon my refusal to change, saying it proceeded from a childish obstinacy; that if i had the least understanding, and would listen, like other discreet persons, to the sermons that were preached, i should abjure my uncharitable bigotry; but i was, said they, as foolish as my governess. my brother anjou added threats, and said the queen my mother would give orders that i should be whipped. but this he said of his own head, for the queen my mother did not, at that time, know of the errors he had embraced. as soon as it came to her knowledge, she took him to task, and severely reprimanded his governors, insisting upon their correcting him, and instructing him in the holy and ancient religion of his forefathers, from which she herself never swerved. when he used those menaces, as i have before related, i was a child seven or eight years old, and at that tender age would reply to him, “well, get me whipped if you can; i will suffer whipping, and even death, rather than be damned.”

i could furnish you with many other replies of the like kind, which gave proof of the early ripeness of my judgment and my courage; but i shall not trouble myself with such researches, choosing rather to begin these memoirs at the time when i resided constantly with the queen my mother.

immediately after the conference of poissy, the civil wars commenced, and my brother alencon and myself, on account of our youth, were sent to amboise, whither all the ladies of the country repaired to us.

with them came your aunt, madame de dampierre, who entered into a firm friendship with me, which was never interrupted until her death broke it off. there was likewise your cousin, the duchesse de rais, who had the good fortune to hear there of the death of her brute of a husband, killed at the battle of dreux. the husband i mean was the first she had, named m. d’annebaut, who was unworthy to have for a wife so accomplished and charming a woman as your cousin. she and i were not then so intimate friends as we have become since, and shall ever remain. the reason was that, though older than i, she was yet young, and young girls seldom take much notice of children, whereas your aunt was of an age when women admire their innocence and engaging simplicity.

i remained at amboise until the queen my mother was ready to set out on her grand progress, at which time she sent for me to come to her court, which i did not quit afterwards.

of this progress i will not undertake to give you a description, being still so young that, though the whole is within my recollection, yet the particular passages of it appear to me but as a dream, and are now lost. i leave this task to others, of riper years, as you were yourself. you can well remember the magnificence that was displayed everywhere, particularly at the baptism of my nephew, the duc de lorraine, at bar-le-duc; at the meeting of m. and madame de savoy, in the city of lyons; the interview at bayonne betwixt my sister, the queen of spain, the queen my mother, and king charles my brother. in your account of this interview you would not forget to make mention of the noble entertainment given by the queen my mother, on an island, with the grand dances, and the form of the salon, which seemed appropriated by nature for such a purpose, it being a large meadow in the middle of the island, in the shape of an oval, surrounded on every aide by tall spreading trees. in this meadow the queen my mother had disposed a circle of niches, each of them large enough to contain a table of twelve covers. at one end a platform was raised, ascended by four steps formed of turf. here their majesties were seated at a table under a lofty canopy. the tables were all served by troops of shepherdesses dressed in cloth of gold and satin, after the fashion of the different provinces of france. these shepherdesses, during the passage of the superb boats from bayonne to the island, were placed in separate bands, in a meadow on each side of the causeway, raised with turf; and whilst their majesties and the company were passing through the great salon, they danced. on their passage by water, the barges were followed by other boats, having on board vocal and instrumental musicians, habited like nereids, singing and playing the whole time. after landing, the shepherdesses i have mentioned before received the company in separate troops, with songs and dances, after the fashion and accompanied by the music of the provinces they represented,—the poitevins playing on bagpipes; the provencales on the viol and cymbal; the burgundians and champagners on the hautboy, bass viol, and tambourine; in like manner the bretons and other provincialists. after the collation was served and the feast at an end, a large troop of musicians, habited like satyrs, was seen to come out of the opening of a rock, well lighted up, whilst nymphs were descending from the top in rich habits, who, as they came down, formed into a grand dance, when, lo! fortune no longer favouring this brilliant festival, a sudden storm of rain came on, and all were glad to get off in the boats and make for town as fast as they could. the confusion in consequence of this precipitate retreat afforded as much matter to laugh at the next day as the splendour of the entertainment had excited admiration. in short, the festivity of this day was not, forgotten, on one account or the other, amidst the variety of the like nature which succeeded it in the course of this progress.