The leader of the band was Pierre Leroy, canon of the Sainte Chapelle. It was to him that the idea first suggested itself, and he drew about him his friends Gillot, Passerat, Rapin, Chrestien, Pithou, and Durant. As may well be supposed, the early history of an anonymous work is somewhat obscure. It was at first a small manuscript pamphlet, handed about quietly. Additions were made. The verse seems to have been introduced at the later stages. Whether it was actually printed in 1593 appears very doubtful. The first known example is of 1594, and, as was natural enough, the _Satyre_ was subject to a good deal of modification. The names of men who had been attacked, and who passed over later to Henry IV., were dropped out. Even the title was altered. The first chosen was “Abbrégé et l’Ame des Estatz convoquez à Paris en l’an 1593 le 10 Febvrier. Jouxte la relation de Mademoiselle de la Lande, Messieurs Domay et Victon Penitens blancqs.” An alternative title was “Le Catholicum de la Ligue, 1593.” The name of _Satyre Ménippée_ (taken from Lucian) seems to have been given by common consent rather than by the authors, and the first undoubted edition is called “La Vertu du Catholicon d’Espagne, avec un Abrégé de la tenue des Estats de Paris convoquez aux de Febvrier 1593 par les chefs de la Ligue. Tiré des mémoires de Mademoiselle de la Lande, alias la Bayonnoise, et des secrettes confabulations d’elle et du Père Commelaid.” [SN: _Its form and spirit._] In its final form the _Satyre Ménippée_ has some resemblance in form, and a marked likeness in spirit, to our own _Anti-Jacobin_ as it was in the first and most militant stage. The authors of both were fighting with a combination of ridicule and argument against anarchy, and in the name of common-sense and patriotism. There is the same resistance to the foreigner in both. The Gallican clergy of the stamp of Leroy were no friends to the interference of the Pope in French affairs. That Philip II. was a foreigner could be disputed by nobody; and though the Lorraine princes had played a great part in France, and were connected with the Valois by marriage, they were still considered strangers. The _Satyre Ménippée_ opens by a burlesque speech delivered by a quack in praise of the Catholicon or universal cure of Spain--of the bribes which Philip II. was lavishing in order to promote the misfortunes of his neighbours. Then comes a description of the procession at the opening of the Estates, and of the tapestry on the walls, in which the different chiefs of the League are ridiculed, and the misfortunes they were bringing on the country shown. Then Mayenne makes a speech as Lieutenant-General of the kingdom--the sort of speech he would have made if he had told the truth. Various churchmen then speak--Italian or Italianate priests who were prepared to sacrifice France to the Pope, or mere beaters of the drum ecclesiastic. Then comes what is perhaps the best single thing in the _Satyre_, the speech of M.