Margaret, Queen Of Navarre - The Tales Of The Heptameron, Vol. II. (of V.)

M >> Margaret, Queen Of Navarre >> The Tales Of The Heptameron, Vol. II. (of V.)

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In Merimee's Chronique de Charles IX., there will be found a facetious
sermon by another Grey Friar; this, however, is less in keeping with the
_Heptameron_, than with the character of the discourses delivered by the
preachers of the League.--M.

C. (Tale XII., Page 101.)

The following account of the assassination of Alexander de' Medici is
taken from Sismondi's _Histoire des Republiques Italiennes du Moyen
Age_, Paris, 1826, vol. xvi. p. 95 et seq.:--

"But few months had elapsed since Alexander's marriage, and he had
employed them in his wonted debauchery, carrying depravity and dishonour
alternately into the convents and noblest abodes of Florence, when, on
January 6, 1537, he was assassinated by the man whom, of all men, he
the least mistrusted. This was his cousin, Lorenzino de' Medici....
Lorenzino had already helped Alexander to seduce several women of noble
birth; and to facilitate his assignations had often lent him his house,
which adjoined the ducal residence in the Via Larga. He engaged to bring
the Duke the wife of Leonardo Ginori--sister to his own mother, but much
younger than she was. Alexander had long been struck with this lady's
beauty, but so far she had virtuously repulsed him. After supper,
however, on the day of the feast of the Epiphany, when the Carnival
begins, Lorenzino informed the Duke that if he would repair to his
house, unaccompanied and observing the greatest secrecy, he would find
Catherine Ginori there. Alexander accepted the assignation, dismissed
all his guards, rid himself of all those who wished to keep a watch upon
him, and entered Lorenzino's house without being perceived. He was tired
and wished to rest awhile, but before throwing himself on the bed he
unbuckled his sword, and Lorenzino, on taking it from him to hang it
at the head of the bedstead, wound the belt around the hilt in such a
fashion that the weapon could not be easily drawn from its scabbard.
After telling the Duke to rest whilst he went to fetch his aunt, he
went away, locking the door of the room behind him; but returned shortly
afterwards with a spadassin, nicknamed Scoronconcolo, whom he had
previously engaged, for the purpose, he said, of ridding him of a great
personage of the Court whose name he had prudently not given. In fact
Lorenzino had carried his design to the very point of execution without
taking a single person into his confidence. On returning into the room,
followed by Scoronconcolo, he called to the Duke: 'Are you asleep, my
lord?' and at the same moment transpierced him with a short sword which
he was carrying. Alexander, although mortally wounded, tried to resist
his murderer, whereupon Lorenzino, to prevent him from crying out,
thrust two of his fingers into his mouth, at the same time exclaiming:
'Be not afraid, my lord.' Alexander, it appears, bit his assailant's
fingers with all the strength of his jaws, and holding him in a tight
embrace, rolled with him about the bed, so that Scoronconcolo was unable
to strike the one without striking the other. He endeavoured to get at
the Duke from between Lorenzino's legs, but only succeeded in piercing
the mattress, till at last he remembered that he had a knife about him,
and drove it into the Duke's throat, turning it round and round until he
eventually killed him. (1)

1 Bened. Varchi, lib. xv.; Bern. Segni, 1. vii.; Filippo de
Nerli, 1. xii.; Gio. Batt. Adriani, 1. i.; Scipione
Ammirato, 1. xxxi.; Pauli Jovii. Hist. 1. xxxviii.; Istorie
di Marco Guazzo, fol. 159.

"Lorenzino failed to reap the fruits of the crime, which he had planned
with so much skill and such profound secrecy. By the life he had led, he
had aroused the distrust of all honest folks, he had no friends to whom
he could apply for advice or help, he had no party behind him, he had
never been known to display that zeal for liberty which he subsequently
affected. Although he was the first of the Medici in the order of
succession, no one thought of him. For his own part, he only thought of
ensuring his safety. He locked the door of the room, taking the key away
with him, and having obtained an order for the city gates to be opened,
and for post-horses to be provided for him, under pretence that he had
just learned that his brother was ill, in the country, he started for
Bologna, whence he proceeded to Venice, accompanied by Scoronconcolo."

D. (Tale XVI., Page 183.)

With reference to this story Brantome writes as follows in the Sixth
Discourse of his _Vies des Dames Galantes_:--

"In the hundred stories of Queen Margaret of Navarre we have a very fine
tale of that lady of Milan who, having one night given an assignation to
the late M. de Bonnivet, afterwards Admiral of France, posted her maids
with drawn swords on the stairs so that they might make a noise there;
which they did right well, in obedience to the orders of their mistress,
who for her part feigned great affright, saying that her brothers-in-law
must have remarked something amiss, that she herself was lost, and that
he, Bonnivet, ought to hide under the bed or behind the hangings. But M.
de Bonnivet, without evincing any fear, wrapped his cape round his arm,
and taking his sword replied: 'Well, where are these brave brothers who
want to frighten me, or do me harm? When they see me they will not even
dare to look at the point of my sword.' Then opening the door he rushed
out, and just as he was about to charge down the staircase he espied the
women making all this noise; and they, taking fright at sight of him,
began to cry out and confess everything. M. de Bonnivet, seeing that it
was nothing more serious, left them, bidding them betake themselves to
the devil; and then, returning into the room, he closed the door after
him and went to find his lady, who began to laugh and embrace him, and
confess to him that it was a trick devised by herself, assuring him that
if he had behaved as a poltroon, and had not thus displayed the valour
which he was said to possess, he should never have had her favours....
She was one of the most beautiful women of Milan, and he had had a deal
of trouble to win her.

"I knew a brave gentleman who, one day at Rome, was alone with a pretty
Roman lady--her husband being away--and she gave him a similar alarm,
causing one of her women to come in hastily to warn her that her husband
had returned from the country. The lady, feigning astonishment, begged
the gentleman to hide himself in a closet, as otherwise she would be
lost. 'No, no,' said the gentleman; 'I would not do that for all the
wealth in the world; if he comes I will kill him.' And as he seized upon
his sword the lady began to laugh and confess that she had contrived
this to try him so as to see how he would act, and if he would defend
her well should her husband seek to do her any harm.

"I also knew a very beautiful lady who suddenly left a lover she
had, because she did not find him brave, and took another who did not
resemble him, but who was extremely feared and redoubted on account
of his sword, he being one of the best swordsmen that could then be
found."--Lalanne's _OEuvres de Brantome_, vol. ix. pp. 388-90.

E. (Tale XVII., Page 195.)

Brantome, in the Thirtieth Discourse of his _Capitaines Etrangers_,
writes of Furstemberg as follows:--

"Count William von Furstemberg was accounted a good and valiant captain,
and would have been more highly esteemed had he not been deficient in
faith, over greedy and too much addicted to pillage, as he showed once
in France, when he passed along with his troops; for after his passage
there was nothing left. He served King Francis for the space of six or
seven years [not more than six.--Ed.] with some five companies always
numbering from six to seven thousand men; however, after this long term
of services, or rather ravages and pillage, he was suspected of having
designs against the King's person, as I have elsewhere related, and
those who would learn more of the matter will find the story in
the hundred tales of Queen Margaret of Navarre, wherein the valour,
generosity and magnanimity of that great King are clearly shown. The
other, in great fear, left his service and entered that of the Emperor
(Charles V.). If he had not been related to Madame la Regente (Louise
of Savoy), through the House of Saxony, whence sprang that of Savoy,
he would possibly have met with the fate he merited, had the King
been minded to it; but on this occasion the King wished to show his
magnanimity rather than have him put to death by the officers of
justice. Again the King pardoned him when, on the arrival of the Emperor
at St. Dizier in Champagne, he was taken, sounding the river Marne, (2)
which he had on other occasions well reconnoitred, in coming to or on
leaving France with his troops. He was on this occasion merely sent to
the Bastille, and got quit for a ransom of 30,000 crowns. Some great
captains said and opined that he ought not to have been thus treated as
a prisoner of war but as a real vile spy, for he had professedly acted
as such; and they said, moreover, that he got off too cheaply at such
a ransom, which did not represent the smallest of the larcenies that he
had perpetrated in France."--Lalanne's _OEuvres de Brantome_, vol. i.
pp. 349-50.

Prior to this affair Furstemberg apparently showed some regret for his
earlier schemes against Francis I., for Queen Margaret, writing to her
brother in 1536, remarked:--

"Count William has asked me to write and tell you that there is a great
difference between the shameful purgatory of Italy and the glorious
paradise of this camp, (3) and he spoke to me of his past misdeeds,
which I would rather he should speak of to you," &c.--Genin's _Lettres
de Marguerite_, p. 321.

2 This occurred in September 1544. From an unpublished MS.
in the public library at Rheims it appears that Furstemberg
was wearing a disguise when captured. The Emperor had sent
him forward expressly to sound the river. Another
unpublished MS. at the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris (_anc.
fol._ 8561. f. 22), gives some particulars of his operations
about this time.--Ed.

3 That of Avignon. See vol. i. p. liv.--Ed.

In a poetic epistle sent by Margaret to Francis I. in January 1543, to
celebrate the New Year, there is an allusion to a "Conte Guillaume,"
whom Messrs. de Lincy and Montaiglon conjecture to be Furstemberg,
though other commentators think that the Queen refers to William Poyet,
the dishonest chancellor, who was sent to the Bastille in 1542 for
peculation. We share, however, the opinion of Messrs. de Lincy and
Montaiglon, as in various contemporary MSS. which we have referred to,
we have frequently found Furstemberg alluded to as "Conte" and
"Comte Guillaume," without any mention of his surname. The passage in
Margaret's epistle alluded to above may be thus rendered in prose:--

"God, fighting for the King in every spot, curses his enemies and brings
them to shame and ruin, so that none hold them of account; as witness
'Compte ["Conte" in the MS.] Guillaume,' who, in serving the King and
the kingdom, became rich, feared and highly esteemed. Now, however, a
fugitive, poor and contemned, he may well meditate as to whence came his
honours, who it was that maintained him wealthy, happy and feared;
and thus it is that all the King's enemies are cursed by God in
Paradise."--_Les Marguerites de la Marguerite_, 1873, vol. ii. p. 203.

Apropos of Furstemberg the following entry occurs in M. de Laborde's
_Comptes des Batiments du Roi_ (vol. ii. p. 229):--

"Paid to Francis de Cadenet, doctor to Count William of Furstemberg,
as a gift and favour for his services, 30 crowns, value 67 livres 10
sols."--L., M. and Ed.

END OF VOL. II.

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