1811.] Extracts from the Portfolio of a Man of Letters. 
prohibited from dwelling within ten miles 
of any city, town-corporate, or borough, 
or any place where Hee had preached 
since the act of oblivion; nor were they 
suffered to teach school by themselves, 
or any others, Yea, women were forbid 
the same, until they had taken the test. 
Thus the king continued to persecute 
249 
many of the people of God, whilst him- 
self made provision for the flesh, to fulfil 
it in the lust thereof; but how he died is 
best known to. God, and those wlio were 
about him, of whom it must be said, that 
he did evil in the sight of the Lord, above 
all that were before him.” 
Extracts from the Portfolio of a Man of Letters. 
a 
' FRANCIS THE FIRST. 
HE following anecdote of Francis I. 
during his imprisonment at Madrid, 
is related by Bayle, though he does not 
vouch for its authenticity. The captive 
monarch, ac a game of chance, won the 
money of a grandee of Spain, who de- 
manded his revenge. This, Francis 
thought proper to refuse. The Spani- 
ard, enraged, threw down his gold upon 
the table, with a furious and insolent air. 
*¢ Thou has reason in what thou doest,” ex- 
claimed he; “ this money will serve to pay 
thyransom.” The king, incensed-at this 
Insult, drew his sword, and ran the cava- 
Vier through the body. ‘Vie emperor, 
when informed of what had passed, re- 
plied to the relations of the deceased, 
who solicited him for vengeance, ‘ Pran- 
cis did right; a king is a king every 
where! — 
' Francis was treated by Europe with 
unjust contempt for his generosisy to- 
wards Charles V. his great rival and 
enemy, who had requested his permis- 
sion to pass through France in his way 
to his Flemish dominions. It was in 
vain that his courtiers endeavoured to 
prevail on Francis to break his promise 
with the emperor, and to seize his per- 
son, till he had extorted from him cer- 
tain concessions which Charles had flat- 
tered him with the hope of obtaining. 
“ When faith, (answered Francis, nobly), 
shall be banished from the world, it is in 
the hearts of kings that she ought to 
find an asylum.” Charles ill repaid the 
generosity of his illustrious adversary; 
and tarnished, by his ingratitude and 
duplicity on this occasion, all his laurels, 
Francis was unfortunate in a too-im- 
petuous and sanguine temper. The ap- 
parent inactivity of the Spaniards be- 
fore the siege of Pavia, so fatal to 
France, had confirmed him in his pre- 
sumption, He one day asked of Bon- 
bivet, ‘* What had till now become of 
these lions of Spain, by which he found 
himself vanquished?”—** They slept, 
» Mowruty Mac. No. 211, © 
sire,” replied the admiral, “and your ma 
jesty has at length awakened them.” 
In 1515, Francis had nét yet com- 
pleted his twentieth year, when he was 
present at the celebrated battle of 
Marignan, which lasted two days. The 
marshal de Trivulce, who had been in 
eighteen pitched battles, said, that those 
were the play of infants; but that (his 
of Marignan was the combat of giants. 
Francis performed on this oceasion pro- 
digics of valour; he fought less as a king 
than as a soldier. Having perceived his 
standard-bearer surrounded by the ene- 
my, he precipitated himself to his as- 
sistance in the midst of lances and hal- 
berts. He was presently surrounded ; 
his horse pierced with several wounds ; 
aud his casque despoiled of its plumes. 
He must have been inevitably over- 
whelmed, if a body of troops detached 
from his allies, had not hastened to his 
succour. He hazarded this battle 
against the advice of his generals, and 
cut short all remonstrances by the ce- 
lebrated expression, which became af- 
terwards proverbial, Let hin that 
loves me, follow me.” 
After the defeat of the French at 
Pavia, where Francis fell into the hands 
of the emperor Charles V. he announced 
his misfortune to his mother Louisa 
of Savoy, in the following concise and 
sublime billet: §¢ Madam, all is lost but 
our honour !'” 
Francis, by the advice of the celebrated 
Budé, instituted a royal college, where 
the languages and sciences were taught. 
lie collected a great number of valuabla 
manuscriptsy and began to form chat 
fine and magnificent library, which be- 
came afterwards one of the first in the 
world. Uis taste for the sciences, and the 
protection which he afforded to those 
whio cultivated them, obtained for himthe 
glorious title of the Restorer of Letters, 
atitle not less valuable #fign that which 
was also given to him, QF Father of his 
People, 
ail aac The 
