No one had ever dreamed of attaching the slightest blame to his intimacy with Mademoiselle de Hautefort. It would be therefore absurd to reject his advances. She was safe, she felt, entirely safe in his high principles, his delicacy, and his honour. If she could only teach him to be as firm as he was winning, release him from the bondage of favourites, emancipate him from the tyranny of Richelieu, and deserve his gratitude--perhaps his affection! With what energy she would address him on his return, and remonstrate with him on his indolence, his indifference! With his courage, his powers of mind (in which she sincerely believed), his sensibility and gentleness, guided by her devoted far-seeing friendship, might he not equal his father as a sovereign--surpass him, perhaps, as much as he now does in morals, as a man? All these vague ideas floated through the brain of the simple-minded girl as she sat musing within the solitude of her chamber. NOTES TO VOLUME I. NOTE 1, p. 4. Francis I., born at Cognac, was the only son of Charles d’Orléans, Duc d’Angoulême. After the death of two sons, born to Louis XII. by his wife, Anne de Bretagne, he created his relative, Francis, Duc de Valois, married him to his daughter, Claude, and selected him as his successor to the throne. NOTE 2, p. 20. Saint-Germain l’Auxerrois, one of the oldest churches in France, dedicated to St. Germain, Bishop of Paris, by Chilperic. Saint-Germain l’Auxerrois, Saint-Etienne du Mont, the Hôtel de Clugny, and the Hôtel de Sens, all dating from a very early period, still remain. NOTE 3, p. 21. Gentille Agnès plus de loy tu mérite, La cause était de France recouvrir; Que ce que peut dedans un cloître ouvrir, Close nonnaine? ou bien dévot hermite? NOTE 4, p. 30. The Duc d’Alençon, husband of Marguerite de Valois, sister of Francis, who commanded the left wing of the French army, was the only man who showed himself a coward at Pavia. He turned and fled, with his whole division. NOTE 5, p. 45. Triboulet had been court fool to Louis XII., who first discerned his good qualities, and rescued him from a most forlorn position. Triboulet’s sayings are almost a chronicle of the time, so much was he mixed up with the life of the two sovereigns he served. Brusquet, who compiled the “fool’s Calendar,” succeeded him in the office of jester to Francis. NOTE 6, p. 54. Francis’s exact words, according to Du Bellay, were--“Les Guises mettront mes enfans en pourpoint et mon pauvre peuple en chemise.” This prophecy was poetised into the following verse:-- “François premier prédit ce mot, Que ceux de la maison de Guise, Mettraient ses enfans en pourpoint, Et son pauvre peuple en chemise.” NOTE 7, p. 58.