You will accept it then, if you please, as having been yours before I owed it to you, and will confer on me the favour of loving it, whether for its own sake or for mine; and I will keep my debt to M.Paulmier undischarged, that I may requite him, if I have at some other time the means of serving him.
XIV.
To the KING, HENRY IV .-- [The original is in the French national library, in the Dupuy collection.

It was first discovered by M.Achille Jubinal, who printed it with a facsimile of the entire autograph, in 1850.

St.
John gives the date wrongly as the 1st January 1590.] SIRE, It is to be above the weight and crowd of your great and important affairs, to know, as you do, how to lend yourself, and attend to small matters in their turn, according to the duty of your royal dignity, which exposes you at all times to every description and degree of person and employment.

Yet, that your Majesty should have deigned to consider my letter, and direct a reply to be made to it, I prefer to owe, less to your strong understanding, than to your kindness of heart.

I have always looked forward to your enjoyment of your present fortune, and you may recollect that, even when I had to make confession of itto my cure, I viewed your successes with satisfaction: now, with the greater propriety and freedom, I embrace them affectionately.