the states would easily be induced to
correct them, and place things in _statu quo_, as before the
proclamation. I was not a witness, being then despatched to Paris with
the joyful news, but I heard that the _sieur evesque_ it was thought
would have died in this agony, of being reduced to the hard necessity
either to sign, or to lose the fruits of his labours. The conditions
were afterwards for a long while disputed in France." De Thou informs
us, in lib. lvii. of his history, that Montluc after signing these
conditions wrote to his master, that he was not bound by them, because
they did not concern Poland in general, and that they had compelled him
to sign, what at the same time he had informed them his instructions did
not authorise. Such was the true Jesuitic conduct of a grey-haired
politician, who at length found that honest plain sense could embarrass
and finally entrap the creature of the cabinet, the artificial genius of
diplomatic finesse.

The secretary, however, views nothing but his master's glory in the
issue of this most difficult negotiation; and the triumph of Anjou over
the youthful archduke, whom the Poles might have moulded to their will,
and over the King of Sweden, who claimed the crown by his queen's side,
and had offered to unite his part of Livonia with that which the Poles
possessed. He labours hard to prove that the palatines and the
castellans were not _pratiques_, i.e., had their votes bought up by
Montluc, as was reported; from their number and their opposite
interests, he confesses that the _sieur evesque_ slept little, while in
Poland, and that he only gained over the hearts of men by that natural
gift of God which acquired him the title of the _happy ambassador_. He
rather seems to regret that France was not prodigal of her
purchase-money, than to affirm that all palatines were alike scrupulous
of their honour.

One more fact may close this political sketch; a lesson of the nature of
court gratitude! The French court affected to receive Choisnin with
favour, but their suppressed discontent was reserved for "the happy
ambassador!" Affairs had changed; Charles the Ninth was dying, and
Catharine de' Medici in despair for a son to whom she had sacrificed
all; while Anjou, already immersed in the wantonness of youth and
pleasure, considered his elevation to the throne of Poland as an exile
which separated him from his depraved enjoyments! Montluc was rewarded
only by incurring disgrace; Cath