How fortunate for us it would be if we could begin our life in wisdom and end it in simplicity, instead of the reverse which now obtains! I remained with my granduncle, the Great Duke, and was brought up amid the fighting, vice, and piety of his sumptuous court.

I was trained to arms, and at an early age became Esquire in Waiting to his Grace of Guise.

Most of my days between my fifteenth and twenty-fifth years were spent in the wars.

At the age of twenty-five I returned to the chateau, there to reside as my uncle's representative, and to endure the ennui of peace.

At the chateau I found a fair, tall girl, fifteen years of age: Mary Stuart, Queen of Scotland, soon afterward Queen of France and rightful heiress to the English throne.