Note 351 — Chapter V

"En sorte que si un des bras de mon corps estoit infecté de cette farine, je le vouldrois coupper; et si mes enfans en estoient entachez, je les vouldrois immoler." Voltaire (Hist. du parlement de Paris, i. 118), citing the substance of this atrocious sentiment from Maimbourg and Daniel, who themselves take it from Mézeray, says incredulously: "Je ne sais où ces auteurs ont trouvé que François premier avait prononcé ce discours abominable." M. Poirson answers by giving as authority Théodore de Bèze (Hist. ecclés., i. 13). But on referring to the documentary records from the Hôtel de Ville, among the pièces justificatives collected by Félibien, v. 346, the reader will find the speech of Francis inserted at considerable length, and apparently in very nearly the exact words employed. The contemporary Cronique du Roy Françoys Ier, giving the fullest version of the speech (pp. 121-12), attributes to the king about the same expressions.