"the calamities neceffarily attendant upon « war, "Such was the clofe of the reign of Henry "the Fourth. It was the end of a great many bleffings, and the beginning of a great many miferies, when a malignant and outrageous "Demon took away the life of this great "Prince; of which difaftrous event I think I "had a very fenfible prognoftic; for on the "night of the accurfed day in which he was "affaffinated, the 14th of May 1610, I faw a great light in the Heavens, nearly at midnight, that made the whole country appear as if it had been on fire. I faw this light 66 just as I was going to bed, and the perfons "who faw it at the fame time with me were "feized with the greatest aftonishment as well 66 as myself. The tremendous phenomenon "lafted but a very fhort time, and the next morning the news of the King's affaffination. "was brought to our village." 66 "Memoires de L'ABBE DE MAROLLES." Voltaire calls Henry, De fes fujets le vainqueur & le pere: His fubjects conqueror, yet their father too: and no Prince ever better deferved the honourable appellation of the Father of his fubjects than than Henry. His with that every peafant in his kingdom might have a fowl in his pot every Sunday, and his efforts to render that wish effectual, by encouraging agriculture and by impofing easy taxes; his humanity of difpofition, his eafinefs of accefs, and the frankness of his character, have made a French Poet fay, perhaps rather too ftrongly of him as his Sovereign, Seul Roi dont le peuple a garde la memoire: Activity was one of the ftriking features in the character of Henry. This made that great General the Duke of Parma fay of him, "that "all the other Generals of his time carried on "war like lions and tigers, while he carried it on like an eagle." Henry's device was Hercules taming a monfter, with this motto: Invia virtuti nulla eft via: Virtue pursues each honeft path to glory. * He appears to have forgotten the excellent Louis XII. who had every virtue that Henry poffeffed, without the least alloy of frailty or of vice. "Thofe "Those who eat and drink much," faid Henry, are like perfons abfolutely buried " in their flesh*. They are incapable of any "thing great. If," added he, "I occafionally indulge myself in the pleasures of the table, "it is merely to enliven and infpirit my "mind." When he was informed that fome of his troops had been living at difcretion upon the frontier, he fent word to their Officers, "If "do not put a stop to thefe diforders, your "heads fhall anfwer for them. For know, you Sirs, by the honour of God I fwear, that "whoever takes any thing from my people, "takes it away from myself." by his Being congratulated on a victory obtained army, in which many lives were loft on the part of his forces, he replied, "It is no fatisfaction to me to fee fo many of my fubjects lying dead upon the field. I lofe much "more than I gain." Henry," fays Voltaire very beautifully, "learned to rule, by being educated in the "hard school of Adverfity." His fituation from "Gourmandife eft le vice des ames qui n'ont point de 66 trempe-ROUSSEAU. 4. early early to middle life, had been a fucceffion of danger, exertion, toil, and difficulty. This better fitted him for the arduous task of reigning, by making him acquainted with every circumftance incident to humanity, and made him feel for thofe miferies fo natural to mankind, of which he had himself participated. His grandfather, Jean D'Albret, King of Navarre, carried his defire of making him hardy fo far (anxious that heroifm fhould be transferred to him from his mother, and that to be able to fuffer, and be patient under fufferings, fhould make as much a part of his hereditary conftitution as the features of his countenance and the frame of his body), that he told his Daughter, who was then with child of Henry, that if she would fing during the pains of parturition the well-known Bearnois hymn to the Virgin, that begins, Notre Dame, au bout de pont, Our Lady at the bridge's foot *, * At the entrance of every town, and more particularly on every bridge, in Old France, there was placed an image of the Virgin, or of fome Saint, to whom the inhabitants paid their devotions. he he would give her a gold chain which had belonged to her Mother, and which he knew the was very anxious to poffefs. She complied with her father's request very readily, and received the chain. "As foon as Henry was born," fays the Abbé Brotier, " Henri d'Albret his grandfather "took him in his arms, and gave his mother "his will in a golden box, telling her, The box " is yours, my girl, but the child is mine. He inftantly began upon that plan of hardy and manly education which he intended to give 66 him, by rubbing his lips with a clove of gar"lick, and by putting a drop of strong wine "into his mouth. He was much pleased with "the child, as he grew bigger and stronger, and "ufed to fhew him to every one, exclaiming, "See what a Lion my Ewe has produced! "He caufed him to be brought up like the "children of the peasants of his country, with 66 out allowing the least distinction to be made "between him and them, making him undergo "the fame ftrong exercise which they did, and permitting no one to call him Prince * ог 66 to *The celebrated Anne Connêtable de Montmorenci was fent to ferve abroad by his father at a very early age, who gave |