Saintonge continued for a long time to be the source of large exports of salt. De Witt, writing about the year 1658, says they received in Holland of "salt, yearly, the lading of 500 or 600 ships, exported from Rochel, Maran, Brouage, the Island of Oleron, and Ree."--_Republick of Holland_, by John De Witt, London, 1702, p. 271. But it no longer holds the pre-eminence which it did three centuries ago. Saintonge long since yielded the palm to Brittany. 10. Vide _Oeuvres de Champlain_, Quebec ed, Tom. III. p. v. 11. In 1558, it was estimated that there were already 400,000 persons in France who were declared adherents of the Reformation.--_Ranke's Civil Wars in France_, Vol. I., p. 234. "Although our assemblies were most frequently held in the depth of midnight, and our enemies very often heard us passing through the street, yet so it was, that God bridled them in such manner that we were preserved under His protection."--_Bernard Palissy_, 1580. Vide _Morlay's Life of Palissy_, Vol. II., p. 274. When Henry IV. besieged Paris, its population was more than 200,000.-- _Malte-Brun_. 12. "Catherine de Médicis was of a large and, at the same time, firm and powerful figure, her countenance had an olive tint, and her prominent eyes and curled lip reminded the spectator of her great uncle, Leo X" --_Civil Wars in France_, by Leopold Ranke, London, 1852, p 28. 13. Philippe Emanuel de Lorraine, Duc de Mercoeur, born at Nomény, September 9, 1558, was the son of Nicolas, Count de Vaudemont, by his second wife, Jeanne de Savoy, and was half-brother of Queen Louise, the wife of Henry III. He was made governor of Brittany in 1582. He embraced the party of the League before the death of Henry III., entered into an alliance with Philip II., and gave the Spaniards possession of the port of Blavet in 1591. He made his submission to Henry IV. in 1598, on which occasion his only daughter Françoise, probably the richest heiress in the kingdom, was contracted in marriage to César, Duc de Vendôme, the illegitimate son of Henry IV. by Gabrielle d'Estrées, the Duchess de Beaufort. The Duc de Mercoeur died at Nuremburg, February 19, 1602.--_Vide Birch's Memoirs of Queen Elizabeth_, Vol. I., p. 82; _Davila's His. Civil Warres of France_, p. 1476.