Cela fait, je recouvris le marbre et rejoignis la compagnie, qui étant arrivée à ce marbre, M. de Candale dit à mon maître, “Voici ma table;” et ayant ôté la couverture et vu ce distique, il s’écria, “Ah! il y a ici un homme.” “Comment,” reprit le roi de Navarre, “croyez-vous que les autres soient des bêtes? Je vous prie, mon oncle, de deviner à la mine qui vous jugez capable d’avoir fait ce coup.” Ce qui fournit matière à d’assez plaisans propos.’ [23] He was killed February, 1573, in an attack on the château of Soumiere, in Languedoc.—Mezeray, _Histoire de France_, iii. 282. [24] The Egyptian deity Thoth, was identified with the Greek Hermes, and was considered the real author of everything produced or discovered by the human mind. Being thus the source of all human knowledge and thought, he was termed τρὶς μέγιστος, or Thrice Greatest. A variety of works are preserved, of which he is the reputed author. The most probable opinion as to their real origin is that they were forgeries of Neo-Platonists in the third or fourth century of our era. The most important of them is the Ποιμάνδρης, the book translated by the Bishop. It is written in the form of a dialogue, and treats of nature, the creation of the world, the nature and attributes of the deity, the human soul, &c. [25] In the Vivarais. It cut off Lyons from communicating with Marseilles by water. See _Mezeray_, iii. 360. [26] It is impossible within the compass of a note to give more than the briefest outline of the principal events in the life of this famous Breton chief. He was born in 1531, and became a Protestant in 1558. In 1561 he was one of the French nobles who escorted Marie Stuart to Scotland. Brantôme was another of the suite. In 1570 he was wounded by a musket-shot at the siege of Fontenay; gangrene set in, and it was found necessary to amputate his left arm; Jeanne d’Albret, Queen of Navarre, held the shattered limb during the operation. This arm was replaced by one of iron, whence he obtained the famous sobriquet, by which he is best known, _Bras de fer_. In 1573 Charles IX. sent him to La Rochelle in the hope he would be able to effect some compromise with the citizens, and he was for some time regarded with suspicion by both sides; but he appears to have always acted an honest and straightforward part in a very delicate position. When he found a reconciliation was impossible, he placed his sword once more at the service of the French Protestants. He fought for the Protestant cause not only in France but also in the Netherlands, was Count Louis of Nassau’s right-hand man at the surprise and subsequent siege of Mons in 1572, and at one time, in 1579, occupied Bousbecque and the places in the neighbourhood, Menin, Comines, Wervicq, &c. He was mortally wounded at the siege of Lamballe, in Brittany, and died on August 4, 1591. Thuanus (v. p. 180) calls him ‘a truly great man, who for bravery, prudence, and military knowledge deserved to be compared with