Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
Excerpt from The Favourites of Henry of Navarre
One day Henri asked the ambassador of the Emperor Rodolph II, whether that monarch had any mistresses. If he has, the envoy replied, they are kept secret. It is true, the King retorted, that some men have not sufficient great qualities to cast over their failings. After he had selected Pierre Mathieu to write a history of himself for his son (the future Louis XIII), Mathieu read to him one day a passage respecting his partiality for women. What is the use of revealing that weakness asked Henri. It will be a lesson for your son, said Mathieu whereupon the King after a pause replied, Yes, yes, the whole truth must be told. If you were to remain silent about my failings, people would not believe you respecting the rest. Well, set them down, then, so that my son may know and avoid them.
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