ill more mournful reality.

FOOTNOTES:

[284] A very low wooden stool upon which accused persons were formerly
seated during their trial; an arrangement deemed so great a degradation
by persons of condition that many attainted nobles indignantly appealed
against it.

[285] L'Etoile, vol. iii. p. 256.

[286] Achille de Harlay was the representative of a distinguished
family, many of whose members were celebrated during four centuries both
as magistrates and ecclesiastics. He was born on the 7th of May 1536,
and was the son of Christophe de Harlay, President _de Mortier_ of the
Parliament of Paris, one of the most learned and upright magistrates of
his time. Achille was a parliamentary councillor at the age of
twenty-two years, president of the Parliament of Paris at thirty-six,
and succeeded his father-in-law, Christophe de Thou, as first president
in 1582. During the time of the League under Henri III he made to the
Duc de Guise the celebrated answer which covered him with glory and
paralyzed the strength of the malcontents: "My soul belongs to my God
and my heart to my King, although my body is in the power of rebels." He
was imprisoned for a time by the chiefs of the League, after which he
returned to the service of the King. He resigned his office in favour of
Nicolas de Verdun, and died on the 23rd of October 1616 at the age of
eighty years.

[287] Louis Servin distinguished himself from an early age by his
extraordinary learning and his extreme attachment to his sovereign. He
was indebted for the rank of King's Advocate to the Cardinal de Vendome,
and acquitted himself so admirably of the duties of his office as to
justify the confidence of his patron.

[288] L'Etoile, vol. iii. pp. 255-257. Mezeray, vol. x. pp. 277-279.
Daniel, vol. vii. p. 456.

[289] Marie de Balzac d'Entragues, in pursuit of whom the King incurred
the risk of assassination.

[290] Richer, _Mercure Francais,_ Paris, 1611, year 1605, pp. 9-11.

[291] Henri, Duc de Rohan, Prince de Leon, was the eldest son of Rene,
second Vicomte de Rohan, and was born at Blein, in Brittany, in 1579. He
made his first campaign under Henri IV, by whom he had been adopted, and
who had declared his intention of making him his successor on the French
throne should Marie de Medicis fail to give him a son. Henry created him
duke and peer in 1603, and Colonel-general of the Swiss Guards in 1605;
but after the death of the King he entered into a struggle with t