ose to
whom he attached himself in cabals and factions. He had been actively
engaged at one time in the affairs of the Duc d'Alencon, and at another,
he was no less busily engaged in instigating Henri III to aggressive
measures against the Duc de Guise. Since that period he had negotiated
with the ministers of Spain and Savoy, and by these means he had
contracted a great intimacy with the Duc de Biron, to whom he affected
to be distantly related, and over whom he acquired such extraordinary
ascendancy by his subtle and unceasing flattery that the weak Marechal
became a mere puppet in his hands, and, misled by his vanity, suffered
himself to be persuaded that his merit had been overlooked and his
services comparatively unrewarded, and that he was consequently fully
justified in aspiring even to regal honours, and in using every exertion
to attain them.

[182] Matthieu, _Histoire des Derniers Troubles arrivez en France_, book
ii. p. 411.

[183] Pierre Fougeuse, Sieur Descures.

[184] Pierre Jeannin was the architect of his own fortunes. He was born
at Autun in 1540, where his father followed the trade of a tanner, and
was universally respected alike for his probity and his sound judgment.
The future president, after receiving the rudiments of his education in
his native town, was removed to Bourges, where he became a pupil of the
celebrated Cujas. In 1569 he was entered as an advocate at the
Parliament of Burgundy, where he greatly distinguished himself during
the space of two years, at the expiration of which time he was appointed
provincial advocate and member of the Burgundian States; and in this
capacity he justified, by his extraordinary talents, the choice of his
fellow-citizens. On one occasion a wealthy individual, enchanted by his
eloquence, waited upon him at his house, and expressed a desire to have
him for a son-in-law, inquiring, however, at the same time, the amount
of his property. Jeannin, by no means disconcerted at the abruptness of
his visitor, pointed with a smile first to his head and then to his
books: "You see it before you," he said with honest pride; "I have not,
nor do I require, a greater fortune." Tradition is silent as regards the
termination of the interview. In the following year (1572) Jeannin was
present at the council which was held during the frightful massacre of
St. Bartholomew, where he secured the friendship of the Comte de Charny,
at that period Grand Equerry of France, Lieutenan