NOTE. One of the most violent of the satires aimed at the Cardinal of Lorraine was that called "The Tiger," about which very little is known. The authorship is doubtful, the title disputed, and of two works recently brought to light, it is hard to say which is the original. De Thou speaks of a "libellus cui Tigridi præfixus." In a tract, "Religionis et Regis adversus Calvini, Bezæ et Ottomanni conjuratorum factionis defensio prima" (8vo. 1562, fol. 17), we read: "Hic te, Ottomanne, excutere incipio. Scis enim ex cujus officina Tigris prodiit, liber certe tigridi parente dignissimus. Tute istius libelli authorem. . . There is also extant a letter to Hotmann from Sturm, who was rector of the High School of Strasburg in June, 1562: "Ex hoc genere Tygris, immanis illa bellua quam tu hic contra cardinalis existimationem divulgare curasti." But if these two authorities are conclusive as to Hotmann's authorship, they leave us in doubt as to what was the real title of the satire, and which is the original of two contemporary libels. To the researches of M. Charles Nodier we owe the discovery of a manuscript poem entitled: "Le Tigre, Satire sur les Gestes mémorables des Guysards" (4to, 1561), and beginning thus: Méchant diable acharné, sépulcre abominable, The title of the other satire is "Epistre envoiée au Tygre de la France," and begins thus:-" Tigre enragé, vipère vénimeuse, sépulcre d'abomination, spectacle de malheur, jusques à quand sera-ce que tu abuseras de la jeunesse de nostre roy ?" It charges the Cardinal with incest, but the "sister" was a sister-in-law, Anne of Este, wife of Duke Francis of Guise: "Qui ne voit rien de saint que tu ne souilles, rien de chaste que tu ne violes, rien de bon que tu ne gâtes. L'honneur de ta sœur ne se peut garantir d'avec toy. Tu laisses ta robe, tu prens l'épée pour l'aller voir. Le mari ne peut être si vigilant que tu ne deçoives sa femme," etc. This was first printed at Strasburg in 1562, and it was for selling one or other of these that Martin Lhomme was put to death. The indictment mentions "épîtres divers et cartels diffamatoires," but no verse-which is not however conclusive against the poem. The date appears adverse to the claim of the prose satire; but both versions are so much alike as to suggest community of origin. May there not have been a Latin original, and may not Henri Étienne, author of the "Discours merveilleux," have had more to do with it than Francis Hotmann, professor of civil law at Strasburg? The proclamation issued against it by the Parliament of Paris bears date 13th July, 1560. [See Brunet: "Manuel du ibraire," ii. 193.] 'CHAPTER IV. FRANCE AT THE ACCESSION OF CHARLES IX. [1560.] Contrast-Power of King and Nobles-The Provinces-Roads-Rate of Traveling-Forests-Wild Animals-Brigandage-Inns-League of the Loire Agriculture Condition of the Peasantry-Rent - SerfageWages-Cost of Provisions--Food-Sumptuary Laws-Social Changes -Ignorance of the People-Population of France-Taxation-Army and Navy-The Clergy-Superstitions-Justice-Punishments-Brutality of Manners-Domestic Architecture-Paris-Cities of France: Orleans, Rouen, Bordeaux, Dieppe, Lyons, Boulogne, Dijon, Moulins, and St. Etienne. IN the middle of the sixteenth century, France was not the centralized, orderly, well-policed country which the traveler of the nineteenth century is so eager to visit, and which he leaves with so much regret. It was in name a monarchy; but unless the king were a man of resolute will, he became a mere pageant in the state. The nobility inherited much of the haughty turbulent spirit of their Frank ancestors, and despite -if not in consequence of-what Louis XI. had done, they still looked upon the sovereign as little more than the first among peers, primus inter pares, paying him the respect due to his position as their nominal superior; but resisting him when they pleased, and only kept in order by the power of rival barons. When Montluc summoned the mutinous nobles of the South to return to their allegiance, and obey the king, they exclaimed: "What king? We are the king. The one you speak of is a baby king: we will give him the rod, and show him how to earn his living like other people." It was very much in this spirit that the house of Guise behaved toward Francis II. and his two successors. France was divided into numerous provinces,* partially independent under their own governors and parliaments, and with hardly more sympathy between them than there is now between Belgium and Holland. In almost every province you heard a separate dialect: the Normans and the Gascons were mutually unintelligible, and the inhabitant of Brittany had as little in common with the dweller in Languedoc as the Sussex boor with his fellow-laborer in Picardy. The river Loire divided the kingdom into two parts-morally as well as geographically. Even to this day the traveler observes a difference between the people, their speech, their customs, and their dress, immediately he crosses that boundary line. Great part of the country north of the Loire had for centuries been governed by traditionary rules similar to our common law; to the south, the code of Justinian had never fallen into complete desuetude; and the forms-shadowy enough sometimes-of the Roman municipalities still existed. The former had a strong resemblance to England as it was at the close of the Wars of the Roses; the latter reminded the Italian traveler of his native land. On both sides of the river there was the same impatience of that central authority which the modern Frenchman worships. The provincial parliaments registered or rejected the king's decrees at their pleasure, and the taxes were levied by order of their own estates; self-government in form more than in reality. The governor of many a petty castle would set at naught the king's express orders. Nothing has greater power to amalgamate the various parts of an empire, and smooth away differences, than good roads. Three (some reckon four) royal roads, passing through the whole length of France-the great highways constructed by *The following were the twelve leading provinces: Normandy, governed by the Dauphin; Brittany, by the Duke of Etampes; Gascony, by the King of Navarre; Languedoc and the Isle of France, by Constable Montmorency; Provence, by the Count of Tende; Dauphiny and Champagne, by Guise; Lyonnais and the Bourbonnais, by Marshal St. André; Burgundy, by the Duke of Nevers; and Picardy, by Coligny. II the Roman conquerors of Gaul-were kept in tolerable condition, as the importance of such great arteries required; but the lateral communications were, with few exceptions, in a most unsatisfactory state. In winter, when the rivers overflowed their banks, or the snow lay deep, large towns within a few miles of each other were completely cut off from all intercourse. It often happened that one district was suffering from famine, while its neighbor had more than it could consume. The wines which in Anjou and the Orleannais sold for one sol the measure and even less, cost twenty and twenty-four sols in Normandy and Picardy. Sometimes this scarcity and variation in price may have been occasioned by foolish local restrictions upon the importation and exportation of provisions; but the more frequent cause was the want of branch roads those which existed being often mere horse-tracks, and as impassable in bad weather as the famous road from Balaklava to Inkermann. Catherine de Medicis, "flying on the wings of desire and maternal affection," went from Paris to Tours in three days.* Joan of Navarre, traveling with "extraordinary speed," spent eighteen days on the road from Compiègne to Paris. It took eight days to carry the news of the St. Bartholomew Massacre to Toulouse along one of the best roads in France, and the same time to go from Mende to Paris. Thirty years later it took Coryat five hours to travel from Montreuil to Abbeville, a distance of twenty miles, his carriage being a two-wheeled cart covered with an awning stretched over thin hoops, not unlike that still used by our village carriers. In 1560 L'Hopital was twelve days going from Nice to St. Vallier (Drome), and he too was hurrying on as quickly as possible. Lippomano, the Venetian embassador, traveling on urgent business, could not exceed four leagues a day. These examples, taken from various parts of France, and from persons of different degrees of social rank, show decisively the difficulties of communication. *Mém. de Marguerite de Valois, p. 18. This had much to do with the isolation of various parts of France. In the sixteenth century nobody traveled who could help it. To journey from Paris to Toulouse, now a matter of a few hours by railway, was then a work of time and danger. Large forests were numerous-of twenty miles and more in circuit: there was one near Blois of not less than ninety miles. Here the brown bear, the wild boar, and the deer still roamed at liberty. In the forest of Landeac, the Viscount Rohan preserved a drove of six hundred wild horses. Wolves would occasionally issue from the forests, and ravage the country in packs, as they still do in Poland and Russia.* In 1548 one of these packs issued from the forest of Orleans, devouring men, women, and children, until the peasantry rose en masse to exterminate them. But worse than these hungry animals were the brigands who found shelter "in the merry greenwood," preying upon their neighbors, and especially upon travelers. One band of ruffians, five hundred in number, roamed the country, storming towns and castles, burning villages and farmsteads, pillaging, murdering, and committing fouler atrocities. Travelers rarely journeyed alone: they formed into a sort of caravan, sometimes escorted by soldiers, hardly less to be feared than the robbers themselves. If the adventurous merchant passed safely through forest and over heath, he arrived at an inn to find himself carefully classed. If he journeyed on foot, he could not dine and lodge like one who went on horseback. The dinner of the first was fixed by tariff at six sols, and the bed at eight; the latter paid respectively twelve and twenty. In many cases the traveler had to carry his bed and food with him, or he would have to go without. The rivers, now so full of busy life, were rarely disturbed by oar or sail; and up to the reign of Charles IX. the merchants trading along the Loire were forced to combine into a hanse or league in order to protect their property from plun *There were rewards for killing these beasts: 5 sols for a wolf, 10 sols for a she-wolf. MS. penes auct. † Du Tillet: Recueil des Roys, ii p. 192; Chronique (4to. 1618). |