180, 181.

[138] Leonora Dori, otherwise Galigai, was the daughter of the nurse of
Marie de Medicis (who was the wife of a carpenter), and she was
consequently the architect of her own fortunes. By her great talent and
insinuating manners, she had, however, succeeded not only in securing
the affection of her royal patroness, but also in exerting an influence
over her actions never attained by any other individual, despite
unceasing attempts to oust her.

[139] Suzanne de la Porte, wife of Francois du Plessis, Seigneur de
Richelieu, Knight of the Royal Orders, and Grand Provost of France.

[140] Concino Concini was the son of a notary, who, by his talent, had
risen to be secretary of state at Florence.

[141] Dreux du Radier, _Memoires des Reines et Regentes de France_, vol.
vi. p. 81. Conti, _Amours du Grand Alcandre_, Cologne edition, 1652,
p. 41.

[142] Perefixe, vol. ii. p. 346. L'Etoile, vol. ii. pp. 573, 574.

[143] Matthieu, vol. ii. p. 441.

[144] Mezeray, vol. x. p. 178.

[145] Daniel, vol. vii. p. 407.

[146] Matthieu, _Hist. de Henri IV_, vol. i. p. 307.

[147] Charles I. de Bourbon, Cardinal-Archbishop of Rouen, legate of
Avignon, abbot of St. Denis, of St. Germain-des-Pres, of St. Ouen, of
Ste. Catherine of Rouen, and of Orcamp, etc., was the son of Charles,
Duc de Vendome, and was born in 1523. After the death of Henri III, in
1589, he was proclaimed King by the Leaguers and the Duc de Mayenne
under the title of Charles X. Taken captive by Henri IV, of whom he was
the paternal uncle, he was imprisoned at Fontenay, where he died
in 1594.

[148] De Thou, vol. xi. pp. 154, 155.

[149] Charles, the natural son of Anthony of Navarre and of Mademoiselle
de la Beraudiere de la Guiche, one of the maids of honour to Catherine
de Medicis.

[150] Such was the plea of the Marechal de Biron during his imprisonment
in the Bastille.

[151] Charles Emmanuel, Duke of Savoy, whose intellect had in other
respects outrun his age, and whose shrewd good sense should have
emancipated him from so gross an abuse of reason, never undertook any
measure of importance without consulting the astrologers. See De Thou,
vol. xiii. p. 538.

[152] See the Memoirs of Sully.

[153] It is a certain fact that Henri IV, however he might verbally
despise the pretensions of those who exercised what has been happily
designated as the "black art," nevertheless admitted more than once a
conviction of their mysterious privileges.