Note 101 — Book I. LETTERS TO MAXIMILIAN. (continued 2)

Du Guast was one of Henry III.’s favourites, and possessed unbounded influence over his master. On his return from Poland, whither du Guast had accompanied him, Henry gave him the bishoprics of Amiens and Grenoble. The former ‘il vendit à une garse de la Cour la somme de 30,000 francs: aiant vendu auparavant l’évesché de Grenoble 40,000 francs au fils du feu seingneur d’Avanson.’—De l’Estoile, i. 39. The King also gave him 50,000 livres he had raised by a forced loan from the Councillors and Advocates of the Parliament and Châtelet at Paris (De l’Estoile, i. 54). De l’Estoile, i. 92, gives an account of his murder. ‘Il fust tué dans sa maison à Paris, rue Saint-Honoré, et avec lui son valet de chambre et un sien laquais, par certains hommes armés et masqués, qui l’assassinèrent à coups d’espées et de dagues, sans estre congneus ne retenus. Il dit, mourant, que c’estoit le baron de Viteaux, qui estoit à Monsieur, qui l’avoit tué: toutefois cela ne fust point avéré, encores que la présumption en fust grande, et que ce coup avoit esté fait soubs bon adveu et par commandement; d’autant que ce mignon superbe et audacieux, enflé de la faveur de son maistre, avoit bravé Monsieur jusques à estre passé un jour devant lui en la rue Sainct-Antoine, sans le saluer ni faire semblant de le congnoistre, et avoit dit par plusieurs fois qu’il ne recongnoissoit que le Roy, et que quand il lui auroit commandé de tuer son propre frère, qu’il le feroit.’ De l’Estoile makes the reflection that, as he had shed much innocent blood at the Massacre of Saint Bartholomew, so according to the word of God his own was shed, and that he himself was surprised and killed in his bed in the same manner as he used to boast he then surprised and killed others. Six months before the murder, Brantôme, who was an intimate friend of both parties, had made an attempt to induce du Guast to withdraw his opposition to the pardon which de Viteaux was anxious to obtain for the murder of Millaud. (See page 189 and notes.) He thus concludes his account of the murder: ‘Pour fin, le baron de Viteaux après avoir fait son coup, sort si heureusement du logis, et se retira si bien et sans aucun bruit, qu’on n’en soupçonna celuy qui avoit fait le coup que par conjectures, tant il fut fait secrettement, et ne se put jamais guieres bien prouver; mesmes à moy, qui luy estois amy intime, ne me l’a voulu confesser.’—Brantôme, vi. 93. The Baron de Viteaux was a notorious duellist; his death is described by Busbecq (pages 189, 190). Du Guast was hated by Alençon, and his sister Marguerite. The former’s income depended on the favourite’s pleasure, ‘mon frere n’ayant eu jusques alors son appennage, et s’entretenant seulement de certaines pensions mal assignées, qui venoient seulement quand il plaisoit au Guast’ (Mémoires de Marguerite, p. 63). He had also got Marguerite into scrapes, and was the deadly enemy of her lover, Bussy d’Amboise. All the evidence points strongly to the fact that he was murdered at her instigation. Not only do Thuanus (iii. 108-9) and Mezeray (Histoire de France, iii. 391) give graphic accounts of her visit to de Viteaux at the monastery of the Augustins at Paris, where he had taken sanctuary, and tell how she persuaded him by her caresses to commit the murder, but her friend Brantôme, while he praises her for not oftener availing herself of this means of punishing her enemies, and asserts that she never retaliated on du Guast, makes the following admission (v. 187): ‘Il est vray que lors qu’on l’eut tué, et qu’on luy vint annoncer, elle estant malade’ (she had a bad cold, Mémoires, p. 66), ‘elle dict seulement “Je suis bien marrie que je ne suis bien guerie pour de joye solemniser sa mort.”’ In her Mémoires (p. 79), she alludes to du Guast’s death only incidentally, but at the same time leaves on record unmistakeable evidence of her feelings towards him. ‘Le Guast lors estoit mort, ayant esté tué par un jugement de Dieu, pendant qu’il suoit une diette, comme aussy c’estoit un corps gasté de toutes sortes de villanies, qui fust donné à la pourriture qui des longtemps le possedoit, et son ame aux dæmons, à qui il avoit faict hommage par magie et toutes sortes de meschancetez.’