(including those in the collection of Mr. Murray of Albermarle Street) remain almost unknown. Much curious information has been gleaned from the "Relazioni" of the Venetian embassadors, edited by Alberi, or in the more accessible volumes of Tommaseo and Baschet. I need not point out the value of the documents contained in the correspondence of Aubespine, La Mothe - Fénelon, Cardinal - Granvelle, and in the "Archives de la Maison d'OrangeNassau," published by Groen van Prinsterer. The letters of the English agents in France, so singularly neglected by many writers, help to explain several of the incidents of the Tumult of Amboise and the proposed war in Flanders in 1572. The omission from Walsingham's correspondence of all account of the Massacre is much to be lamented. Though I have sought for it in vain, I still entertain a hope that it may some day be recovered. In the Record Office there is a curious report by the famous Kirkaldy of Grange, of which Mr. Froude has already made use in his last volume. Two other remarkable contemporary letters -one in Spanish, the other in German-are noticed in their proper place.
Either personally or through the help of kind friends the author has searched far and wide among the provincial records of France. The sources of the information thus acquired have been carefully indicated in the notes, and the result has often been to discredit the statements of the older writers, carelessly copied by their successors. Two remarkable instances connected with Toulouse and Lyons will be observed in the course of the history. The Médicis MSS. at Le Puy, the manuscripts in the public library at Rouen, the letters of Charles IX. at Tours, the Acts Con