Which, as the world's mistress, by fate was de- Wished back the false gods she had worshipped signed, In peace or in war to rule over mankind,— Which, dictating to nations her own cruel laws, Chained kings to the thrones they had gained in her cause. before. Wiser measures her policy since has revealed; Less crimes are committed, or better concealed. The church and the people have rights in the State; Then her horrible eagle made the universe Rome laid down the sword, but would yet arbicower; She governs to-day with a gentler power. To her conquerors she acts a more politic part; She rules o'er the mind by commanding the heart; Her counsels are laws; her decrees are her arms. Near the capital rife with so many alarms, On the ruins, the work of Bellona and Mars, The throne of the Cæsars a pontiff now bears; The foot of the priesthood now quietly passes O'er the tombs of the Catos and Emilius's ashes; The throne on the altar now absolute stands, And the scepter and censer adorn the same hands. His earliest church God was pleased to plant here, Now triumphant, now followed by hatred and fear. Here the first of apostles the sacred word taught, And only for truth in simplicity sought. For a time, his successors the same course pur sue, And gain the respect to humility due. In their persons, no pride and vainglory appear; They, in poverty, hold to a virtue severe; And true to their master, should his service require, Would go from their cells to the stake and the fire. trate. While on her proud forehead the tiara gleamed, To the world, she the emblem of modesty seemed; And while with mere force she is willing to part, To manage mankind she retains still the art. Pope Sextus, at that time, ruled the church and And if, to acquire the title of Great, the State;2 Falsehood and manners severe are the things, Then Sextus may rank with the greatest of kings. Fifteen years of deceit was the price of his throne, His virtue and vice fifteen years were unknown. The rank that he burned for he seemed to dis dain, And unworthiness pleaded the chair to obtain. seems. To her sharp, hollow eyes, whence all quiet has flown, The sweets of a placid repose are unknown. And if for her profit, even truth she invokes ; As time brought corruption, they left the safe With the seal of the Deity stamps her false arts; road, And Heaven, in wrath, wealth and power bestowed; And Rome, from that time both rich and profane, To the counsels of wicked men yielded the rein. built. The successors of Christ, in defying disgrace, Bring adultery and incest in the holiest place; And Rome, while the rule of these tyrants she bore, Thus Heaven its sanction to her vengeance imparts. Scarcely had Discord in Rome reached this place, Than, with mystery, Policy seeks her embrace, With flattering tongue and with loving caress She salutes her, then takes up a tone of distress. "No longer, she said, are those happy days mine, When the people, seduced, made their vows at my shrine, When to credulous Europe, what I chose could She the hero would make, by adoption, her dictate, son. And the laws of the church were the laws of She saw he was worthy, and rebuked the delay the State. I spoke; and the kings, with humility meet, On earth, at my bidding, I wars could evoke ; Annuls, in an instant, the thunders I launch. When with truth on the surface I falsehood con- That the advent deferred of this glorious day. Put her sacred veil on their own corrupt head. There the reverend assembly of sages is found, Arbitrators of Christians, with virtue imbued, To their worship devoted, to their prince ever true, course, Why can I not, Discord, one object in view, The Senate seduce, and with vengeance pursue? Come; bring forth your torch, and light up Always marked by a masculine vigor their my thunder, And beginning with France rend the nations While the inroads of error they boldly oppose. asunder; Ah! where is the virtue that ne'er is surprised? Our chains let the princes and States again The flattering voice of this monster disguised wear!" Dissension there sows with her cunning address. She said; and then suddenly shot through the To the aims of ambition she pledges success, air. And holds up a mitre to dazzle its eyes. From the pleasures of Rome, and its worldly The learned is won by extravagant praise ; parade, From temples for pride or for vanity made, impose, A humble religion to solitude goes. For the price of vain incense, the truth he betrays. To the timid she speaks with a threatening voice. In communion with God, a calm peace is main- The assembly's in tumult; they decide amidst tained; noise. But the name of religion, which the world has 'Midst confusion and clamor that reign in the profaned, Is the sacred pretext for the tyrant's hate, place, Truth, lamenting, escapes, but with tears on her face. With these words an old man in the council arose: "The church makes the king, can absolve or And we are that church; with us is the law. Who kneel at her shrine, but in wealth put Oaths sacred once, your fetters are broke!"'5 their trust. This daughter, descended from heaven above, Then Discord, triumphant, as these words he spoke, In letters of blood the decree next records; Their names are all signel, and they swear by its words. Then she rises aloft, and from church to church Mayenne, who far off sees this pageant proceed, flies, In secret contemns, but still sanctions the deed. And proclaims to the factions this great enterprise. In Augustin's robes or St. Francis's gown, To the hallowed cloisters she makes her way down, The austere recluses with loud voice invokes These voluntary slaves of their rigorous yokes: "It is time to leave temples with gloom overspread, And around you the light of a holy zeal shed. Teach Frenchmen, whose faith is a wavering thing, He knows how submissive the people can feel, The contempt of the wise, to the soldiers a jest. In excitement, the people with shouts rend the skies; Hope, triumph, and joy in their bosoms arise; As their rashness before was succeeded by dread, That the service of God asks. the death of a Now rage is the passion, since terror has fled. king. Of the priesthood of Levi remember the fame; With the title of sacred' God honored their name; And when they this merited favor obtained, With the blood of the Hebrews their hands were yet stained. Thus Neptune the ocean controls at his will, Now bids the waves rise, and now bids them be still. Among the seditious with crime most infected, Sixteen to her purpose has Discord selected." These insolent minions of their newly-made queen, seen. Oh, where are those days when brother slew In her car, stained with blood, are in company brother, And in zeal for the church, Frenchmen murdered While treason and pride, death, murder, and each other? It was you, holy priests, that inspired their mind; By your voice, Coligni to death was consigned. In blood I have bathed, and still may blood flow; To a worshipping people, your own ardor show." wrath, With rivers of blood, follow on in her path, When Discord prevails, such is often the game, The priests, by a sign from this monster direct- Thus the winds that impetuous rule o'er the ed, Their souls with her deadliest poison infected, To Paris proceed, in a solemn array, And the cross at the head of their column display.s They sing, and their voices, devout and sublime, Seem to call down the heavens to sanction their crime; And in making their vows, these misled fanatics To the prayers of the altar imprecations affix. Audacious priests, feeble troops of Discord, Have cumbered their hands with the sabre and sword. They have taken the breastplate and thrown off the gown, main, When they stir up the waves of the Rhone or the Seine, Send bubbling up all the slime from their caves And the filth is mixed up with their purei waves. Thus the fires that over a city oft sweep, They mix with the gold, and form one common mass. While, in these days, sedition and tumult thus reigned, Uncorrupted the temple of Themis remained. And this infamous pageant parades through No fear, no ambition, no wish to be grand the town. Affected the balance she held in her hand. spected. Proudly and calm, on their benches await In this temple was gathered a Senate revered; By the innocent prized, by the criminal feared. For the rights of the monarch, it takes a bold stand; Bussi, in a rage, but from terror not free, Not less for the people, and the laws of the Exclaimed, "Tyrants, obey, or else follow me." land; Then Harlay arises, majestic in pride, And France, seeking redress for the wrong she of a parliament just and intrepid the guide. may feel, The Sixteen he faces, and boldly demands To the prince, through this Senate, can make The fetters they merit to be placed on his hands. her appeal. The judges around, without further delay On their limbs, by these tyrants, the fetters are Division amongst them, to their monarch a foe, NOTES TO THE FOURTH CANTO. A brother of Joyeuse, etc. Henry, Count of Bouchage, brother of the Duke of Joyeuse, killed at Coutras. Passing, one day, at four o'clock in the morning, near the Capuchin Convent, he fancied the angels sung their matins in the convent. Struck with this, he became a friar under the name of Br. Angel. Afterwards he laid aside the gown, and took up arms against Henry IV. At last, he accommodated matters with the king; but the prince being one day with him on a balcony, beneath which was a crowd of people, "My cousin," said Henry IV. to him, these people seem quite pleased to see an apostate and a renegade together." This speech caused Joyeuse again to enter a convent, where he died. Pope Sextus, etc. Sextus V., while cardinal at Montalte, counterfeited the simpleton, for nearly fifteen years, so successfully that he was commonly called the "Ass of Ancona.' The artifice by which he obtained the papacy, and the hauteur with which he reigned are well known. Taose good times, etc. In 1570, the pulament gave its famous decree against the bull, in cana domini. Its celebrated remonstrance under Louis XI.; those it made to Henry III. against the scandalous bull of Sextus V., who called the reigning house a generation of bastards; and its constant firmness in maintaining our liberties against the pretensions of the court of Rome. The bandage of error, etc. This verse has often been applied to the author of the Henriad. M. Whitcher had it inscribed as the motto on a medal he had struck; but he was, in Geneva, obliged to suppress it. * Oaths sacred once, etc. On the 17th Jannary, 1859, the Faculty of Theology, in Paris, issued that famous decree that absolved subjects from their allegiance, and that they could make war against their king. Monsieur Le Fevre, the dean, and some of the wisest of the faculty refused their signature. Afterwards, when the Sorbonne was free, it revoked this decree. were, for a long time, independent of the Duke of Mayenne. One of them said in the duke's chamber, Those who made him can unmake him." 9 On their limbs, etc. On the 16th January, 1589, Bussy-le-Clerc, one of the Sixteen, who from a master-of-arms had become Governor of the Bastille and chief of the faction, entered the great parliament chamber, followed by fifty satellites. He presented a request, or rather an order, to that body, no longer to recognize the royal house. On their refusal, he led, himself, to the Bastille, all opposed to his party. He gave them only bread and water, to force them to ransom themselves from his hand, on which account he was called "The great penitentiary "of parliament. 10 Mole, Edward Mole, the counsellor, who died in 1634. Scarron was the grandfather of the celebrated Scarron, so well known for his poetry and the gayety of his mind. Bayeul was uncle of the Superintendent of Finance. Nicholas Potier, of Blancmenils, the mortarpresident, so called on account of an estate of that name, was not indeed carried with the other members to the Bastille, for he had not that day come into the parliament chamber; but he was afterwards in prison in the Louvre at the time of Brisson's death. They wished to treat him in the same way as that president. They accused him of secret correspondence with Henry IV. The Sixteen went through the law forms with him, that they might have a show of justice on their side, and not enrage the people by party executions, which they looked upon as assassinations. At length, as Blancmenils was about to be condemned to the gallows, the Duke of Mayenne returned to Paris. This prince always entertained for him a veneration that could not be withheld for his virtues. He went, himself, to take him from prison. The prisoner threw himself at his feet, and said to him, "Sir, I have to thank you for my life; but I beg to ask a still greater favor. It is to allow me to return to Henry, my lawful sovereign. I shall always look upon you as my benefactor; but I cannot serve you as my master. The Duke of Mayenne, affected at this speech, raised him up, embraced him, and sent him to Henry IV. Bussy-le Clerc had been master-of-arms, and afterwards attorney. When chance, or the unhappy state of the times, had given him notoThe cross at the head, etc. As soon as Henriety, he took the name of Bussy, as if he were ry III and the King of Navarre appeared in as redoubtable as the famous Bussy d'Amboise. arms against Paris, a greater part of the monks 11 And then to that horrible place, etc. That put on armor, and mounted guard with the is the Bastille. citizens. This part of the poem, however, describes the procession of the League, when twelve hundred monks, armed, reviewed in Paris, with William Rose, Bishop of Serlis, as their captain. 12 Brisson, Larcher, Tardif, etc. Friday, 15th November, 1591, Barnabas Brisson, a very learned man, executing the functions of president in the absence of Achilles de Harlay, Claude Larcher, of the Court of Request, and Sixteen for her purpose, etc. It is not to be John Tardif, Counsellor of the Castle, were supposed, from this, that there were only six-hung from a beam in the little castle, by order teen seditious individuals; but they were so called on account of the sixteen quarters of Paris which they governed by their skill and emissaries. Accomplice the vilest, etc. The Sixteen of the Sixteen. It is to be observed that Hamilton, Curate of St. Come, a furious Leaguer, came himself to take Tardif in his house with priests who acted as archers. (End of Notes to Canto IV.) |