Letters of the Court of James I 1613 Reverend Thomas Lorkin to Sir Thomas Puckering Baronet 26 Aug 1613. 26 Aug 1613. .London. Reverend Thomas Lorkin to Thomas Puckering 1st Baronet (age 21).

[his former wife] Queen Margaret (age 60)¹, I hear, is very sick, they say, out of conceit; for that it hath been told her, that the almanac doth foretel that this month one of the greatest women of Christendom shall die. The world would laugh, if so great a woman as she is (saith mine author) should have so little wit, as to be put to death by an almanac. The Prince of Conde (age 24), having overheated his body lately in hunting of the stag, fell into a burning ague, and was in some danger for four or five days; but now the violence of the disease being spent, there is a good hope conceived of his recovery.

The Duke d'Espernon (age 59), pretending to live in great fear of his life by reason of the mortal hatred, which divers of his enemies bear him, hath obtained of the queen, for better security, a guard of twenty men taken out of the regiment des gardes who accompany him up and down, wherever he goes; which is offensive to many, who think it strange that the public guard should be employed in the maintaining of his particular factions.

One Recion, a printer of the Religion, having long since reprinted the book of "Novus Homo," (which was published here in England before against the present Pope) was condemned by the Judge of the Chatelet to make an amende honorable before the court, and another before the Nuncio; the further sentence was, that the book should be burned at the Nuncio's gates; and the printer himself banished for ever out of Paris. From which sentence he appealing to the Court of Parliament, they have remitted all his other punishments, save banishment, and that they have restrained only to two years.

Those of the Religion having begun to build a college at Charenton, for the instruction of their youth, the lieutenant-civil adjourned the deputies-general to appear before him, to answer the matter; but they sent him word they were responsible to none but the chancellor, and do not let to go forward with the building; being confident they are sufficiently warranted thereunto by the grants and license of the last king. Richeome, the Jesuit, hath newly set forth at Bordeaux an answer of "Anti-Coton" and La Martaliere's Plea against the Jesuits, and I understand that Suarez², the Jesuit, hath newly set forth a great book in quarto at Coimbra, in answer to his majesty's apology. The quarrel between the King of Denmark and the States' is now at length happily compounded. My Lord Harrington (deceased) and his lady (age 59) are, by this, I suppose, arrived in England, having left the Palatine's court above a fortnight since. Sir John is gone to meet them at Calais; otherwise, I suppose, your letter should ere now have received answer. Some time next week, if not the latter end of this, his majesty is expected here in London.

Note 1. The first wife (age 60) of Henry IV of France, from whom she was divorced. She died 27th March, 1615.

Note 2. Francis Saurez, a Spanish theologian, who attacked James in a work written in defence of Catholicism, to which the king thought proper to reply by the hands of the hangman; a functionary who seems to have been much troabled at this period with the writings of zealoas controversialists. Saarez pablished twenty-three folio volumes, and died at Lisbon in 1613.

Evelyn's Diary. 24 Dec 1643. I went with some company to see some remarkable places without the city: as the Isle, and how it is encompassed by the Rivers Seine and the Ouse. The city is divided into three parts, whereof the town is greatest. The city lies between it and the University in form of an island. Over the Seine is a stately bridge called Pont Neuf, begun by [his former brother-in-law] Henry III in 1578, finished by Henry IV his successor. It is all of hewn freestone found under the streets, but more plentifully at Montmartre, and consists of twelve arches, in the midst of which ends the point of an island, on which are built handsome artificers' houses. There is one large passage for coaches, and two for foot passengers three or four feet higher, and of convenient breadth for eight or ten to go abreast. On the middle of this stately bridge, on one side, stands the famous statue of Henry the Great on horseback, exceeding the natural proportion by much; and, on the four faces of a stately pedestal (which is composed of various sorts of polished marbles and rich moldings), inscriptions of his victories and most signal actions are engraven in brass. The statue and horse are of copper, the work of the great John di Bologna, and sent from Florence by Ferdinand the First, and Cosmo the Second, uncle and cousin to Mary de Medicis, the wife of King Henry, whose statue it represents. The place where it is erected is inclosed with a strong and beautiful grate of iron, about which there are always mountebanks showing their feats to the idle passengers. From hence is a rare prospect toward the Louvre and suburbs of St. Germains, the Isle du Palais, and Nôtre Dame. At the foot of this bridge is a water-house, on the front whereof, at a great height, is the story of Our Savior and the woman of Samaria pouring water out of a bucket. Above, is a very rare dial of several motions, with a chime, etc. The water is conveyed by huge wheels, pumps, and other engines, from the river beneath. The confluence of the people and multitude of coaches passing every moment over the bridge, to a new spectator is an agreeable diversion. Other bridges there are, as that of Nôtre Dame and the Pont-au-Change, etc., fairly built, with houses of stone, which are laid over this river; only the Pont St. Anne, landing the suburbs of St. Germains at the Tuileries, is built of wood, having likewise a water house in the midst of it, and a statue of Neptune casting water out of a whale's mouth, of lead, but much inferior to the Samaritan.