ls us (Recepte Veritable, 1563, Bulletin, i. 93)
that a favorite expression of the Roman Catholics from Taillebourg,
when committing all sorts of excesses against the Protestants of
Saintes, was: "_Agimus_ a gagne _Pere Eternel_!" As _Agimus_ was
the first word of the customary grace said at meals by devout Roman
Catholics--"Agimus tibi gratias, omnipotens Deus," etc.--this
apparently enigmatical expression was only a profane formula to
celebrate the triumph of the Roman over the reformed church. See
Bulletin, xii. 247 and 469.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 516: Alluding to the compacts into which Francis had entered,
the emperor accuses him of having purposely violated them all: "los
quales nunca a guardado, como es notorio, sino por el tiempo que no a
podido renobar guerra, o a querido esperar de hallar oportunidad de
danarme con disimulacion." From Henry he anticipates little better
treatment. Instruct. of Charles V. to the Infante Philip, Augsburg, Jan.
18, 1548, Pap. d'etat du Card, de Granvelle, iii. 285. It ought to be
added, however, that both Francis and his son retorted with similar
accusations; and that, in this case at least, all three princes seem to
have spoken the exact truth.]

[Footnote 517: The dauphin Francis died at Tournon, Aug. 10, 1536,
probably from the effects of imprudently drinking ice-water when heated
by a game at ball. None the less was one of his dependants--the Count of
Montecuccoli--compelled by torture to avow, or invent the story, that he
had poisoned him at the instigation of Charles the Fifth. He paid the
penalty of his weakness by being drawn asunder by four horses! How
little Francis I. believed the story is seen from the magnificence and
cordiality with which, three years later, he entertained the supposed
author and abettor of the crime. See an interesting note of M. Guiffrey,
Cronique du Roy Francoys I^er, 184-186. The imperialists replied by
attributing the supposed crime, with equal improbability, to Catharine
de' Medici, the youthful bride of Henry, who succeeded to his brother's
title and expectations. Charles of Angouleme, a prince whose inordinate
ambition, if we may believe the memoirs of Vieilleville, led him to
exhibit unmistakable tokens of joy at a false report of the drowning of
his two elder brothers, died on the 8th of September, 1545, of
infection, to which he wantonly exposed himself by entering a house and
handling the clothes