a wise and sound policy dictated the expediency of observ ing the most rigid circumspection in permitting the English nobility and gentry to visit distant countries: and in general no persons were permitted to go abroad, except merchants, and those who were intended for a military life.

CHAPTER II.

FROM THE ARRIVAL OF MR. SIDNEY AT PARIS IN 1572, TO HIS RETURN INTO ENGLAND, IN 1575.

ON the twenty-fifth day of May, 1572, a license was granted by the Queen, to her trusty and well-beloved Philip Sidney, Esquire, to go out of England into parts beyond the seas, with three servants and four horses; to remain during the space of two years immediately following his departure out of the realm, for his attaining the knowledge of foreign languages. On this occasion, the Earl of Leicester tenderly recommended him to the notice, and in some measure committed him, to the care of the English ambassador in France :

"MR. WALSINGHAM,

"FOR So much as my nephew Philip Sidney ys lycensed "to travyle, and doth presentlie repayre unto those partes

"with my L. Admyrall (7), I have thought good to com"mende him by these my friendlie lines unto you, as to 66 one I am well assured will have a speciall care of him "during his abode there. He is young and rawe, and no "doubt shall find those countries, and the demeanors of "the people somewhat straunge unto him: in which re

66

spect your good advice and counsell shall greatlie behove "him for his better directions, which I do most heartilie

66

pray you to voutsafe him, with any other friendlie assist"ance you shall thinke nedefull for him. His father " and I do intend his further travayle, if the world be quiett, and you shall so thinke it convenient for him. I pray you we may be advertised thereof, to the end "the same his travayle may be thereupon directed ac

(7) Edward Clinton, Earl of Lincoln, was Lord Admiral of the sea, in 1572. Being appointed ambassador extraordinary from England, he departed with a numerous train of nobility and gentry from London, on the 26th day of May, in that year, and was entertained with banqueting and feasting by the French King, the Admiral, and the Dukes of Anjou and Alençon.

Stowe's Chronicle, p. 672.

(8)" From a MS. in the British Museum:" Vespasian, F. 6, 726.

ON his arrival at Paris, the French King, Charles IX. appeared to be highly gratified with his ingenuous manners and conversation. With an affectation of sincere esteem, he gave him an early proof of his royal favour, by advancing him to the office of gentleman ordinary of his chamber. Having previously taken the oaths usually required, Mr. Sidney was admitted to it on the ninth day of August. This promotion has been generally considered, not so much an indication of real regard, as an unworthy and insidious artifice to conceal the design, which was then formed, of destroying the Protestants. He had not held this office above a fortnight, when he became a spectator of that hideous and savage massacre of the Huguenots, which filled all Europe with indignation, amazement, and terrour.

AT this time he experienced a more honourable discrimination of his merit in the condescension of Henry Bourbon, the young King of Navarre, afterward Henry IV. of France. This prince, whose great talents were contrasted with great faults, while the adulation of his courtiers had declared him to be born for the delight and felicity of mankind, was then respected for his courage, his wisdom, and his benevolence. He saw and admired in Mr.

Philip Sidney the gradual expansion of those amiable qualities, which he himself possessed in so extraordinary a degree.

AFTER a long and calamitous period of civil war, France enjoyed, or seemed to enjoy, peace at home, while she contracted a defensive alliance with England. In the midst of her tranquillity and repose, the princes of the house of Guise, always ambitious to aggrandize themselves, meditated their secret plots of ruin and destruction. Deceived by the semblance of the tenderest affection and regard, the principal leaders of the Huguenots, with a numerous train of their adherents, arrived at Paris, to be present at the marriage between the King of Navarre, and the Lady Margaret, sister to the French monarch (9).— Here Festivity and Mirth seemed to have fixed their abode. The unsuspecting guests were received with the most solemn assurances of safety and protection; allured by flattering promises, and, with all the specious and

fasci

(9) Pope Pius V. refused his consent to the marriage, while he granted a dispensation to Philip King of Spain, to marry the daughter of his sister and of Maximilian his near kinsman, making the difference of religion a greater obstacle to marriage, than the degrees of consanguinity forbidden by the Levitical law. Continuation of Platina's Lives of the Popes. F