t-General of Burgundy,
and provisional governor of the province during the absence of the Duc
d'Aumale, then Governor of Paris; and in the same year he was deputed
from the _tiers-etat_ of Burgundy to the States-General, convoked at
Blois by Henri III. It was on that occasion that he began to comprehend
the designs of the Guises, and made the celebrated speech in favour of
religious toleration which does so much honour to his memory. By Henri
III he was successively appointed governor of the chancelry of Burgundy,
councillor of the provincial Parliament, and subsequently
president.--_Petitot_.

[185] Daniel, vol. vii. pp. 414, 415. Perefixe, vol. ii. p. 367.
Matthieu, _Hist. des Derniers Troubles_, book ii. p. 411.

[186] Charles de Bourbon-Conti, Comte de Soissons, espoused the cause of
the King of Navarre, whom he accompanied to the battle of Coutras in
1587. Henry promised to him the hand of his sister, Catherine de
Navarre, to whom he presented him immediately afterwards, when a
reciprocal affection was the result. M. de Soissons, however, abandoned
the reform party, and did not return to it until after the death of
Henri III. He served actively and zealously during the League; but
having discovered that the King did not intend to fulfil his promise of
marrying him to the Princess, he quitted him during the siege of Rouen
in 1592, on the pretext of illness, and hastened to Bearn, hoping to
induce Catherine to become his wife before the King could interfere to
prevent their union, and by engaging himself to support his brother, the
Cardinal de Bourbon, to make himself master of the possessions of the
house of Navarre beyond the Loire. On reaching Bearn, however, he found
Henry already there, and was obliged to withdraw without having
accomplished either object. A short time subsequently he renewed his
friendship with that monarch, and officiated as Duke of Normandy at his
coronation at Chartres in 1594.

[187] Perefixe, vol. ii. p. 369.

[188] Louis de l'Hopital de Vitry, knight of all the Royal Orders, and
Captain of the King's bodyguard, was descended from the illustrious and
ancient family of the Marquis de Sainte-Meme and de Montpellier, Comtes
d'Entremons.

[189] Charles de Choiseul, Marquis de Praslin, the representative of one
of the most illustrious families of France, was a descendant of the
ancient Comtes de Langres. He distinguished himself at the siege of La
Fere in 1580, at that of Paris in 1589, a