The first, which is very useful to prove that _the secrets of Ladies ought never to be betrayed_, is that of the flagellation which was inflicted on a certain Surgeon, who gave a loose to his tongue, at the expence of a great Lady to whom his assistance had been useful. The Lady I mean, was Wife to the Prince who became afterwards King of France, under the name of Henry IV: she was herself much more nearly allied to the Crown than the Prince her Husband, and would have mounted the Throne in her own right, if it had not been for the Salic Law. The Princess in question was learned, witty, handsome; and she had, in particular, such a fine arm, that it was commonly reported that the Marquis of Canillac, under whose guard she lived for a while as state prisoner, fell in love with her on the sight of it. With these qualifications she united gay, amorous dispositions, having even been suspected to love the great Duke of Guise, who afterwards nearly possessed himself of the Crown; and she had besides a turn for political intrigues. During the celebrated civil wars of the _League_, being in the City of Agen, she attempted to make herself mistress of the place; but the opposite party having found means to raise an insurrection against her, she was obliged to fly, accompanied by a body of about 80 _Gentlemen_ and 40 soldiers: her flight was even so precipitate, that she was obliged to get on horseback without having time to procure a pillion, and in that situation she rode a great number of miles, behind a gentleman, being continually exposed to the greatest danger, for she passed through a body of a thousand _Harquebusiers_, who killed several of her followers: having at last reached a place of safety, she borrowed a dry shift from a servant maid, and thence pursued her journey to the next Town, named _Usson_, in _Auvergne_, where she recovered from her fears. However, the great fatigue she had undergone, threw her into a fever that lasted several days; and moreover, the want of that comfortable accommodation which has been just mentioned, a pillion, during her long precipitate flight, had caused that part of her body on which she sat, to be in a sad condition. A Surgeon was therefore applied to, to procure her relief; and such was the epulotick, sarcotick, cicatrizive, incarnative, healing, consolidant, sanative, nature of the salves he employed, that she was cured in a short time; and thus far the Surgeon certainly deserved her thanks: but as he afterwards indulged himself in idle stories concerning the cure he had performed, the Princess, who heard of it, grew much incensed against him, and caused him to be served with that kind of correction which is the subject of the present dissertation; that is to say, she caused him, as Scaliger assures, to be served with a flagellation (_elle-lui fit donner les étrivieres_.)