y:--on what, then, could I have set
my heart more?

[1] This will not appear exaggerated to those who have read the furious
libel of the Bishop of Chartres. A newspaper asks me why I did not
prosecute him for defamation. This mad violence is much less guilty
than the treacherous insinuations they make in their books and
newspapers, in the saloons, &c. Now they attribute to me whatever has
been done by other Michelets, to whom I am not even related (for
instance, Michelet of Languedoc, a poet and soldier under the
Restoration); now they pretend to believe, though I had told them the
contrary at the end of my preface, that this book is my lecture of
1844. Then, again, they get up a little petition from Marseilles, to
pray for the dismissal of the professor. So far from wishing to stifle
the voice of my adversaries, I have claimed for their writings the same
liberty I asked for my own. _Lesson of the 27th of February_,
1845:--"I see among you the greater part of those who had aided me to
maintain in this chair the liberty of discussion. We will respect this
liberty in our adversaries. This is not chivalry, it is simply our
duty. It is, moreover, essential to the cause of truth, that no
objection be suppressed; but that each party may be at liberty to state
their reasons. You may be sure that truth will prevail and conquer.
We pass away; but truth lasts and triumphs. Yet, as long as her
adversaries may have any thing to say, her triumph is mingled with
doubt."

[2] For the fifteenth century, see my History of France, A.D. 1413.

[3] Mabillon on _Monastic Imprisonment_, posthumous works, vol. ii. p.
327.

[4] We should, perhaps, have reserved these facts for some future
occasion, if they had not been already divulged by the newspapers and
reviews. Besides, several magistrates have expressed their opinions on
many analogous facts in the same locality. A solicitor-general writes
to the underprefect:--"I have reason to be as convinced _as you_, that
Madame * * * was in full possession of her senses. A longer
imprisonment would most certainly have made her really mad," &c. A
letter from the Solicitor-General Sorbier, quoted by Mr. Tilliard, in
favour of Marie Lemonnier, p. 65.

MEMOIR.

The following brief Memoir of the Author of "Priests, Women, and
Families" was written for, and embodied in, the "Dictionary of
Universal Biography," published by Mackenzie about 1862.

Another Memoir of this ce