Marguerite was divorced from Henry on his acceffion to the throne of France, and led up Mary de Medicis, his fecond wife, to the Altar at St. Denis to be crowned. She was extremely charitable to the poor, and liberal to scholars and men of talents. Her palace at Paris was the rendezvous of the beaux efprits of that Capital. She was beautiful in her perfon, very fascinating in her manners, and danced with fuch peculiar grace, that the celebrated Don John of Auftria went incognito from Bruffels to Paris to fee her dance.

Befides Memoirs of her Life, which are im perfect, fhe wrote fome Poems.

SULLY.

AFTER the horrid affaffination of his old mafter Henry the Fourth, Sully withdrew himself from public affairs, and lived in retirement thirty years at his Château of Villebon, feldom or never coming to Court. Louis the Thirteenth however, wishing to have his opinion upon fome matters of confequence, fent for him to come to him at Paris, when the good old man obeyed his fummons, but not with the greatest alacrity.

The

The gay Courtiers, on feeing a man dreft unlike to themselves, and of grave and ferious manners totally different from their own, and which appeared to be thofe of the laft Century, turned Sully into ridicule, and took him off to his face. Sully perceiving this, faid coolly to the King, "Sir, when your father, of glorious memory, "did me the honour to confult me on any matter "of importance, he first sent away all the jefters "and all the buffoons of his Court."

Sully kept up always at his table at Villebon, the frugality to which he had been accustomed in early life in the army. His table confifted of ten dishes, dreft in the plaineft and moft fimple manner. The Courtiers reproached him often with the fimplicity of his table. He used to reply in the words of an Antient, "If the guefts are 66 men of sense, there is fufficient for them; if "they are not, I can very well difpenfe with their "company."

Sully dined at the upper end of the hall with the perfons of his own age, at a table apart. The young people were ferved at a table by themfelves. Sully gave as a reafon for this arrangement, that the perfons of different ages might not be mutually tirefome to each other.

The

The Pope having once written a letter to M. de Sully upon his becoming Minifter, which ended with his Holinefs's wifhes that he might enter into the right way; Sully answered, that on his part he never ceafed to pray for the converfion of his Holinefs.

A contemporary writer thus defcribes this great Minister.

"He was," fays he, "a man of order, exact, "frugal, a man of his word, and had no foolish "expences either of play or of anything else

that was unfuitable to the dignity of his character. "He was vigilant, laborious, and expedited "bufinefs. He fpent his whole time in his em"ployments, and gave none of it to his pleasures. "With all thefe qualifications he had the talent

of diving to the bottom of every thing that "was fubmitted to him, and of difcovering every "entanglement and difficulty with which finan"ciers, when they are not honeft men, endeavour to conceal their tricks and their rogueries."

Henry the Fourth told Sully, after the confpiracy of Biron against him was difcovered, "I fee that "many of the great men about my Court are "mentioned in the depofitions that have been "taken. Guess who they are." "Sire," replied Sully nobly,

"God forbid,

"that I fhould

"pretend

"pretend to guefs at any man of quality who " is a traitor."

Henry gave Sully one day the contract of marriage into which he had entered with Mademoifelle d'Entragues, to read; who faid, after having read it, "Sire, will you promife me not to be

angry?" Henry replied, "Yes, Sully, I "promife you that I will not be angry." Sully tore the contract in pieces immediately, faying,

Sire, this is the ufe you ought to make of it." "What, Sir, are you mad, to behave in this "manner?" faid Henry. "It is true, Sire," replied Sully," that I am a madman, and would "be fo great a madman, as to be the only perfon "mad in France."

The Lady whofe contract of marriage with Henry Sully had thus torn in pieces, called him one day" Valet," in the prefence of his Sovereign, because he would not affift her views of ambition. "This is too much, Madam," exclaimed Henry. "I had fooner part with fix miftreffes like your"felf, than with one fervant like Sully, whom

you dare to call Valet in my prefence. My "ancestors have not difdained to ally themselves "with his, I affure you."

Abbé de Longuerue fays, " that the Duchefs of "Nemours told him, that fhe had often feen the

"good

"good old man M. de Sully; that he was

fo altered by being difmiffed from his employ"ments of state, that there remained nothing "about him which reminded you of the celebrated "Minifter of his name; and that his mind was "entirely taken up with the management of his eftate and of his family affairs.

"His fecretaries," adds the Abbé, "filled his "Memoirs with faults which he was not in a state ❝s of mind to correct."

CHARLES EMANUEL THE FIRST, DUKE OF SAVOY,

appears to have been one of the most enterprizing Princes that ever this enterprizing House has produced. His life may be faid to have been one perpetual effort. Germany, Spain, France, Geneva, feem to have been by turns the objects of his ambition and of his alliances. He died at laft of a broken heart in 1630, at being defeated in most of his projects of aggrandifement. When he was preffed by Henry the Fourth of France to restore the Marquifate of Saluces, according to treaty, he replied," that reftitution