ADVERTISEMENTS

the Island: but having learned that the Reverend Father who had done me the cour-
tesy of sending it to me intended to have it printed, I did not wish
to rob him of the glory of it.

Take therefore in good part (friend Reader) what you shall find
herein, and receive my intention as good and sincere, since
this discovery is made for the honor and glory of the Al-
mighty, and has no other aim than His exaltation and His service.
Submitting my entire book—just as I submit and re-
sign myself entirely and with good heart—to the cen-
sure of the Catholic Apostolic and Roman Church, being
ready to wipe the slate clean, and to annul, regulate, retract,
and correct everything that might offend, however slightly, the
pure and learned ears of all those who handle this Holy
Faculty of Theology, and to submit myself to the rigor of
their good and sound judgment, since to them alone be-
longs the knowledge of such matters. The author is performing a standard "protestation of faith," a common 17th-century legal and religious safeguard to avoid charges of heresy by deferring to Church authorities.

But after the Advertisements which concern my
book, it is reasonable that I say a word about those which con-
cern me: for otherwise the Epistle that I addressed to the King
at the beginning of this work would seem to be a
contrived thing, and (as they say) a stone out of place.

You shall know then (friend Reader) that in the year 1620,
around the 2nd of October, the King having come to Guienne A historical province in southwest France.,
having stayed for some days in the Parish of Preignac,
awaiting news and a resolution from Béarn, he crossed the water:
And I know not by what heavenly good fortune for me, while going
hunting, he was led to see in passing a house that
I own on the Garonne river, named Loubens, which I
hold in faith and homage faith and homage: a feudal term meaning the author holds the land as a vassal directly under the King's authority from him, which his Majesty saw
easily from the place where he was lodged, because it is at the
summit of a mountain. The King, having climbed to the sum-
mit, did not stop, but rather passed further on: but upon his return one