The distinctive spirit also had by this time greatly merged into other feelings. The valour was as much the quality of the simple soldier as of the knight; the courtesy had spread to society in general, and had become politeness; the gallantry had lost its refinement, and had deteriorated into debauchery. Faint traces of the lost institution appeared from time to time, especially in the wars of Henry IV. and the League. The artful and vicious policy of Catherine de Medicis did much to destroy it; the filthy effeminacy of Henry III. weakened it, in common with all noble feelings; and the iron rod of Richelieu struck at it as a remnant of the feudal power. Still a bright blaze of its daring valour shone out in Condé, a touch of its noble simplicity appeared in Turenne, but the false brilliancy of Louis XIV. completed its downfall; and Chivalry is only to be seen by its general effects on society. Thus things fleet by us; and in reading of all the great and mighty deeds of which this book has given a slight and imperfect sketch, and looking on the multitudes of men who have toiled and struggled through dangers, difficulties, and horrors for the word GLORY, the empty echo of renown, or perhaps a worse reward, I rise as from a phantasmagoria where a world of strange and glittering figures have been passing before my eyes, changing with the rapidity of light, and each leaving an impression for memory, though the whole was but the shadow of a shade. NOTES. NOTE I.--CHAP. I. Menestrier enters into a disquisition on the subject of the two interpretations given to the word _miles_, which would have interrupted the thread of my discourse too much to permit of its introduction in the text. I subjoin it here, however, as a good guide for those who may be inclined to pursue the subject further. "Il ne faut pas donc confondre le titre d'ancienne noblesse, ou de noblesse militaire, avec la dignité de chevalier, par l'équivoque du terme Latin _miles_, qui convient à l'un et à l'autre; ce que n'ont pas assez observé quelques autheurs, qui n'ont pas fait reflexion que dans la plûpart des actes écrits en langue Latine, ce mot signifie également ces deux différentes choses. * * * * * "L'Empereur Frederic avoir déjà? distingué ces deux espèces de Chevalerie, lors qu'il fit une ordonnance à Naples, l'an 1232, que personne ne se presentât pour recevoir l'ordre de Chevalerie, s'il n'estoit d'une ancienne race militaire, ou d'ancienne Chevalerie. _Ad militarem honorem nullus accedat, qui non sit de genere militum_; L'une de ces Chevaleries est donc _genus militare_, race de Chevalerie; l'autre _militaris honor_, honneur de Chevalerie, qui n'ont esté confonduës que par quelques autheurs, qui, écrivans de cette matière sans l'entendre, n'ont fait que l'embroüiller, au lieu de la developper.