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rest of the church merely about ceremonies, and not on questions of faith or duty; the puritans also were urged to relax their moroseness and obstinacy about things indifferent, and to show their prince, by their respectful obedience, that they felt themselves bound in conscience to be loyal subjects.

The project for a general synod failed in England, through the machinations of certain jesuits, who contrived to persuade the king that the real design was to establish a political alliance between the protestant church of France, and those of other countries.

It was in the month of October, in the same year, that this faithful but neglected servant of his prince repaired once more to court, by especial invitation. The topics of conversation, on the first day of their meeting, were political, and had no reference to the king's estrangement from De Mornay. Next day they rode out together to a mansion about a league distant from Châtelherault (the place where the king was then residing), and there they supped. Henry then declared that he was truly glad to see again a counsellor who had always given him good advice; and it was observed that, at all his meals, the king entertained his guests by recounting De Mornay's remarkable services, and that he likewise expressed much regret that his writings had rendered it impossible to retain him near his person. In the course of conversation, De Mornay remarked, "You have spoken much to me, sire, of all your affairs, and of all the world. In this you do me very great honour, and yet I do not feel quite satisfied without your majesty's saying a little more about myself. For I know that certain persons wish to bring down upon me your majesty's displeasure, which makes me humbly implore permission to clear myself." The king attempted to dismiss the subject, by declaring that he had never experienced anything but fidelity from De Mornay, and that he never expected him to act inconsistently with that principle.

De Mornay answered, that his mind could not be satis

fied with such general expressions, since the imputations against him were distinct and particular; to which Henry replied, "When you were absent from me, people spoke of you to me, and of me to you, but how could that influence us? We know one another!"-"Yes, sire," he rejoined, "but the misfortune is, that what they relate to me of you, cannot injure you, but what they tell you of me, works my ruin." The king smiled, and De Mornay went on to explain those circumstances in which he thought himself to have been misrepresented, and besought him to listen with much doubtfulness to any future calumnies.

Henry appeared to be satisfied; and desired him to pass three months every year at court. De Mornay soon after took his leave, and returned home.

CHAPTER VI.

THE DEATH OF HIS SON AND WIFE.

Sigh not, ye winds, as passing o'er

The chambers of the dead ye fly;

Weep not, ye dews, for these no more

Shall ever weep, shall ever sigh!-ANONYMOUS.

THE home to which De Mornay returned was soon to become a house of mourning, and its pleasant scenes and domestic enjoyments to be exchanged for the mere remembrance of precious but transitory blessings. The first affliction that awaited him was the death of his only

son.

This young man was endowed with abilities which were calculated to shine in peace or war, and his father had not failed to endeavour to introduce him to the favourable notice of the king. But the son was made to share the neglect which his father experienced; and being thus

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disappointed in his hopes of military employment in his own country, he entered the service of the state of Geneva. The quarrel, however, which induced that government to take up arms against the duke of Savoy, having been settled by negociation, the young soldier returned home without having had an opportunity of distinguishing himself in the field. He also served in the armies of Holland.

In 1605, when the sparks of Henry's affection for De Mornay began to re-kindle, the minister Sully wrote to offer him employment for his son. M. des Boves (for that was his name) was well received at court, and was studiously assured that the invitation had proceeded from the king alone, who was also immediately pleased to promise him a regiment.

Few more pathetic or affectionate letters have been addressed by a mother to a son just going out into the world than that which now stands at the head of Madame De Mornay's memoir of her husband, and which was written about this time:

My Son,-God is my witness, that even before your birth he put into my heart a hope that you would be his servant, and this ought to be some token of his grace, and an admonition to you to perform your duty. With this intent, your father and I have taken pains to nurture you carefully in his fear, which as much as in us lies, we have caused you to imbibe from your earliest infancy; we have also taken care to prepare you for its reception, to instruct you in all good learning, (and, thanks be to Him, with some measure of success,) in order that you may be able not only to live but to shine in his church. I now see you ready to go forth into the world, to become acquainted with the manners of men and the conditions of nations, and although I cannot follow you with my eye, I shall follow you with the same affection. I beseech God that these instructions may accompany you everywhere-that you may increase in the fear and love of God, advance in the knowledge of everything good, grow strong in the calling which you have received from Him to his service, and return all that He has implanted in you, as

well as all that He shall hereafter implant, to his honour and glory. By the appointment of his providence you were born in his church—a privilege which he has withheld from so many nations, and from so many distinguished men. Adore, my son, with deep reverence, this privilege of being born a christian! He has caused you to be born in the light of a church withdrawn from the kingdom of darkness, and from the tyranny of Antichrist, which had encompassed us in preceding ages, and in which the great people of the world, the powers of the present age, for the most part, continue still. Adore with renewed gratitude this mercy, this special care which God has extended to you, in exempting you from the general apostasy which has usurped dominion over so many periods, and so long a succession of ages. But He has also given you a father, by whom he has seen fit to be served in his day, and will still be served to his glory—who has dedicated you to his service from infancy, who in this hope has brought you up, with due regard to your tender age, in piety and learning, who in sum has omitted nothing, by most ardent prayers to God, and anxious care for your education, to render you one day capable of inheriting his work.

Reflect that by such ways God desires to bring you to great things, to make you an instrument, in your time, of that restoration of the church which cannot be much longer delayed. Lift up your whole soul to this purpose; and doubt not in the mean time, my son, that God will assist you—that in seeking Him you will find Him ready to meet you that in pursuing his honour, you will receive more than the world can either give or promise. But also fear his judgments if you neglect Him, or if you possess his favours in ingratitude; for mercy despised turns to condemnation, and the more special the favours, the more deserving of punishment will be the neglect or abuse of them.

You are young, my son, and divers imaginations present themselves to youth, but be ever mindful of the saying of the Psalmist Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed thereto according to thy word. You will also find numbers of persons who will desire to turn you aside to the left hand or to the right, but say again with him—I am a companion of all them that fear thee, and of them that keep thy precepts. Thy testimonies also are my delight and my counsellors.

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But, again, in order that you may not be without a guide, here is one which I present to you from my own hand, to be your familiar companion. It is the example of your father; and I adjure you to have ever before your eyes this information which I have been able to gather concerning his life, notwithstanding those interruptions of our intercourse which have been occasioned by the calamities of the times. There is enough to make you acquainted with the graces which God has conferred upon him, and the zeal and affection with which he has employed them, and to give you hope of like assistance from the divine bounty, when you resolve to serve God with all your heart.

I am in a delicate state of health, and have reason to think that it will not please God to leave me long in the world. Take care of this writing in remembrance of me; and when the time arrives in which God shall see fit to deprive you of your father, I enjoin you to finish what I have begun to write con

cerning the course of our life. But above all, my son, I

would believe that you will hold in continual remembrance this my injunction, to serve God wherever you are, and to follow the example of your father. I shall go down contented to my grave, at whatever hour God may call me, when I shall have beheld you steadily pursuing the way to advance his honour, whether by assisting your father in his holy labours, so long as God shall preserve him to you, (and I entreat God that it may be for many years, to serve Him to his glory, and to guide you through the paths of the world,) or whether by causing him to revive in you, whenever God shall, by his gracious disposal, appoint you to survive him.

I further commend your sisters to your care. Show, by your affection to them, that you love your mother, and would have continued to love her. Think also, that young as you are, if God removes us hence, you ought to be to them a father. And I pray God, my son, that he may grant you all to live in his fear, and in true affection one towards another; and in confidence of this, I give you my blessing, and beseech Him with all my heart to ratify it in Jesus Christ his Son, and to communicate to you his Holy Spirit.

Written at Saumur, this Tuesday, the 25th of April, 1595. Your most affectionate and loving mother, CHARLOTTE Arbaleste.