taunt to which the future minister replied
by an assurance that he felt strong enough to draw blood out of that of
his adversary with his sword. The peculiarity of this quarrel existed in
the fact that, although De Rosny was a Protestant, and Frontenac a
Catholic, M. de Turenne nevertheless espoused the cause of the latter;
upon which M. de Lavardin, a Catholic, declared himself ready to second
the arms of the adverse party.

[63] Francois, Baron de Bassompierre, was the son of Christophe de
Bassompierre and Louise de Radeval, and was born on the 12th of April
1579, at the chateau of Harouel, in Lorraine. He became at an early age
the intimate companion and favourite of Henri IV, by whom he was
appointed colonel-general of the Swiss troops. In the year 1603 he was
made Marshal of France, and obtained great influence over both Marie de
Medicis and her son Louis XIII. Richelieu, who became jealous of his
favour, caused him to be imprisoned in the Bastille in 1631, where he
remained for twelve years. He was an able diplomatist, a distinguished
general, and a polished, though dissolute, courtier. He acquitted
himself with great distinction in several sieges, and at his death,
which occurred in 1646, he bequeathed to posterity his personal memoirs,
which are among the most curious in the rich collections possessed by
his countrymen.

[64] Rambure, unpublished _Mem_., 1599, vol. i. pp. 151, 152.

[65] Catherine Henriette de Balzac d'Entragues, subsequently known as
the Marquise de Verneuil, was the elder daughter of the celebrated Marie
Touchet, who, after having been the mistress of Charles IX, became the
wife of Francois de Balzac, Seigneur d'Entragues, de Marcoussis and de
Malesherbes, Governor of Orleans, who was, in 1573, elected a knight of
St. Michael by Henri III. Henriette, as her name implies, was, together
with her two sisters, the issue of this marriage; while her half-brother
the Comte d'Auvergne, subsequently Duc d'Angouleme, was the son of
Charles IX.

[66] Saint--Edme, _Amours et Galanteries des Rois de France_, Brussels,
vol. ii. pp. 199, 200.

[67] Louise Marguerite de Lorraine, the widow of Henri III, was the
elder daughter of Nicolas de Lorraine, Due de Mercoeur, Comte de
Vaudemont, and of the Marquise d'Egmont, his first wife. Henri III
having seen her at Rheims, during his temporary residence in that city,
became enamoured of her person, and their marriage took place on the 5th
of February 1575. F