French delicacies; and in
fact,' the same writer goes on to say, 'he brought up his grandson
after the fashion of Bearn, with naked feet and head, very often with
as little refinement as peasants' children are nurtured.' No rich
clothing, no playthings were given to him; and Henry d'Albret
especially commanded that he should neither be flattered nor treated
as a prince, but fed upon the ordinary diet of the country, and
dressed in the simplest manner. He was allowed to climb the rocks and
mountains, and try his limbs in robust exercises from the earliest
period of life; and all that could be done to invigorate mind or
body, appears to have been strictly attended to in his years of
infancy."

At a subsequent period, when he had attained the era, and was engaged in
the studies of youth, his character and pursuits are thus described.

"We learn that he was at this time a very lively, quick, and
beautiful boy, full of vigour and activity of mind and body, apt to
receive instruction, and giving every promise of attaining great
proficiency in letters. La Gaucherie took every pains to render the
study of the learned languages agreeable to him; not teaching him in
the ordinary method, by filling his mind with long and laborious
rules, difficult to remember, and still more difficult to apply, but
following more the common course by which we acquire our maternal
language; and storing his mind with a number of Greek and Latin
sentences, which the Prince afterwards wrote down and analysed. The
first work which he seems to have translated regularly was Caesar's
Commentaries; a version of several books of which was seen by the
biographer of the Duke of Nevers in his own handwriting; and his
familiarity with the Greek was frequently shown in the sports and
pastimes of the court where mottoes in the learned languages were
frequently required.

"It is customary for the historians and eulogists of great men to
point out, after their acts have rendered them famous those slight
indications which sometimes in youth give promise of future eminence;
and thus, we are told the favourite motto, of Henry in his boyhood
was, [Greek: e nikan e apothanein], to conquer or to die. The fact,
however, is worthy of remark, not so much perhaps because it showed
the boy's aspirations fo