Francis le Breton, to whom I have already alluded, affords a striking proof that, when Henry the third forbore to punish, it was not clemency, but fear, indolence, or caprice, that withheld his hand. Le Breton was a barrister of Poitiers, who had acquired considerable reputation by his forensic talents. It speaks strongly in favour of his honesty and the kindness of his nature, that he espoused so warmly the part of those for whom he pleaded, as entirely to identify their interest with his own. A mere mercenary counsel, indifferent to the justice or injustice of his client’s claim, could have had no such feelings. Unfortunately, le Breton was of a family in which symptoms of insanity had often appeared, and the dreadful malady was lurking in his brain. The loss of a cause, in which he was engaged for a poor individual, at once roused the latent disease into action. He burst into vehement invectives against the judges, and presented a violent memorial against them to a higher tribunal. The superior judges, who saw how he was affected, gave him a gentle rebuke, and dismissed the complaint. Irritated by this, he journeyed to Paris, to make an appeal to the king. Having fastened his memorial on the end of a stick, he went to the Louvre, where the guards, who rightly concluded that he was bereft of his senses, endeavoured to drive him away. Le Breton, however, was immovable, and he exclaimed so loudly and incessantly, “The cause of the poor is abandoned, and God will take vengeance for it,” that the noise reached the king’s ear, and he ordered him to be admitted. Henry listened to his story, and then commanded him to return to his own country, and to keep silence in public. To have sent him to the hospital would have been a more praiseworthy act. Instead of proceeding to Poitiers, the maniac wandered through the provinces, calling on the people to recover their liberty, and sending inflammatory writings to the towns which were too distant for him to visit. At last he reached Bordeaux, and demanded an interview with the duke of Mayenne. It was granted; and the unfortunate lunatic employed the whole of it in conjuring the duke to defend the cause of the poor. Mayenne, who felt that le Breton’s harangues to the multitude, mad as he was, might be serviceable to the Guises, gave him money, and probably hopes, and then desired him to withdraw.