Philosophical Dictionary (Vol. 2)

He did indeed name the Jesuit d'Aubigny, to whom he had only shown a knife; why would he have spared the Duke of Lerma? It is a very strange obstinacy, that of not believing Ravaillac during his interrogation and under torture. Is it necessary to insult a great Spanish house without the least appearance of proof?

And that is exactly how history is written.

The Spanish nation rarely resorts to shameful crimes; and the grandees of Spain have always had a generous pride that did not allow them to debase themselves to that point.

If Philip II put a price on the head of the Prince of Orange, he at least had the pretext of punishing a rebellious subject, just as the Parliament of Paris set a price of fifty thousand crowns on the head of Admiral Coligny; and later, that of Cardinal Mazarin. These public proscriptions partook of the horror of civil wars. But how would the Duke of Lerma have addressed himself secretly to a wretch such as Ravaillac?

BLUNDER REGARDING THE MARSHAL D'ANCRE.

The same author says "that the Marshal d'Ancre and his wife were crushed, so to speak, by lightning." One was in truth crushed only by pistol shots, and the other was burned in the capacity of a witch. An assassination and a death sentence rendered against a Marshal of France, lady-in-waiting to the queen, reputed to be a magician, do honor neither to the chivalry nor to the jurisprudence of that time. But I