Having lain one night at Amboise, I went and paid my respects to the new king, with whom I had been formerly as intimate as any other person about the court, and much of my troubles and losses were incurred for his sake; but now all our former acquaintance and the service I had done him were forgotten. However, he entered upon his government with great wisdom. He altered not any pensions for that year, though they were still to last for six months. He retrenched nothing of his salaries, but declared that every officer in his kingdom should continue in the post in which he found him; which was very honourable and discreet. As soon as all things were made ready, he proceeded to his coronation[516], and I was there among the rest. The peers of France (according to ancient custom) were represented by these following: The Duke of Alençon represented the Duke of Burgundy; the Duke of Bourbon the Duke of Normandy; and the Duke of Lorraine the Duke of Guienne. The first of the Counts was Monsieur de Ravestain, who represented the Count of Flanders. The second was Engilbert of Cleves, who represented the Count of Champagne, and the third was Monsieur de Foix, who represented the Count of Toulouse. The said coronation was at Rheims on the 27th of May, 1498, and Louis XII. was the fourth king who came collaterally to the crown. The two first were Charles Martel, or Pepin his son, and Hugh Capet, both of them mayors of the palace, or governors of their kings, who afterwards turned usurpers, deposed their masters, and took the government upon themselves. The third king was Philip of Valois, and the fourth King Louis, who now reigns. But the two last came by a just and indisputable title to the crown. The first race of the Kings of France is deduced from Meroveus: there had been two kings before this Meroveus, that is to say, Pharamond, (who was the first that was elected King of France; for, before his time they were called Dukes or Kings of Gaul,) and after him one of his sons called Clodion. Pharamond was chosen king in the year 420, and reigned ten years; his son Clodion reigned eighteen, so that Pharamond and his son reigned twenty-eight years. Meroveus, who succeeded, was not Clodion’s son, but his kinsman; so that there seem to have been five interruptions in the royal line. However, as I said before, the genealogy of the Kings of France begins generally at Meroveus, who was made King in the year 448; so that the right line is derived from thence, and runs down to Louis XII., who was crowned one thousand and fifty years after the pedigree of the said kings began. They who would derive it from King Pharamond need only add twenty-eight more, and the number will amount to one thousand and seventy-eight years since there were kings called kings of France. From Meroveus to King Pepin there were three hundred and thirty-three years, during which time the line of Meroveus lasted. From King Pepin to Hugh Capet there were two hundred and thirty-seven years;