as Secretary to
the Archbishop of Toulouse, who was ambassador at Rome, and later on
conducted the negotiations which led to the conversion of Henri IV. He
then became Bishop of Rennes and cardinal. His letters are almost
entirely devoted to subjects connected with his profession, and have
always held a position as one of the earliest models of diplomatic
writing. D'Ossat's style, especially in respect of its vocabulary, was
long regarded as a pattern, but it has less character than that of some
other sixteenth-century writers.

[Sidenote: Sully.]

The last two books to be named belong, in point of date, to the next
century, but were written by, or for, men who were emphatically of the
sixteenth. The extraordinary form of Sully's Memoirs is well known. They
are neither written as if by himself, nor of him as by a historian of
the usual kind. They are directly addressed to the hero in the form of
an elaborate reminder of his own actions. 'You then said this;' 'his
Majesty thereupon sent you there;' 'when you were two leagues from your
halting-place, you saw a courier coming,' etc. It is needless to say
that this manner of telling history is in the highest degree unnatural
and heavy, and, after the first quaintness of it wears off, it makes the
book very hard to read. It contains, however, a very large number of
short memoirs and documents of all kinds, in which the elaborate farce
of 'Vous' is perforce abandoned. It shows Sully as he was--a great and
skilful statesman: but it does not give a pleasant idea of his
character.

[Sidenote: Jeannin.]

Pierre Jeannin was, like D'Ossat, a diplomatist in the service of Henri
IV. He had previously discharged many legal functions of importance, and
subsequently he was Controller-General of the Finances. His
_Negotiations_ contain the record of his proceedings on a mission to the
Netherlands to watch over the interests of France. The book consists of
letters, despatches, treaties, and such-like documents, very clear,
precise, and written in a remarkably simple and natural style.

[Sidenote: Minor Memoir-writers.]

There were many other writers of memoirs during the period, most of
whose works are comprised in the invaluable collections of Petitot,
Michaud, Poujoulat, and Buchon. But few of them require a separate
mention here. Guillaume and Martin du Bellay, two brothers, have left a
history of Francis I.'s reign, of which the part belonging to Guillaume
is only a small frag