Library of the Worlds Best Literature, Ancient and Modern, Vol. 6 | Page 2

Discourse of Poets ('The Heroic Enthusiasts') Canticle of the Shining Ones: A Tribute to English Women ('The Nolan') Song of the Nine Singers Of Immensity Life Well Lost Parnassus Within Compensation Life for Song
WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT 1794-1878 2623 BY GEORGE PARSONS LATHROP Thanatopsis The Crowded Street Death of the Flowers The Conqueror's Grave The Battle-Field To a Water-fowl Robert of Lincoln June To the Fringed Gentian The Future Life To the Past
JAMES BRYCE 1838- 2643 Position of Women in the United States ('The American Commonwealth') Ascent of Ararat ('Trans-Caucasia and Ararat') The Work of the Roman Empire ('The Holy Roman Empire')
FRANCIS TREVELYAN BUCKLAND 1826-1880 2661 A Hunt in a Horse-Pond ('Curiosities of Natural History') On Rats (same) Snakes and their Poison (same) My Monkey Jacko (same)
HENRY THOMAS BUCKLE 1821-1862 2673 Moral versus Intellectual Principles in Human Progress ('History of Civilization in England') Mythical Origin of History (same)
GEORGE LOUIS LE CLERC BUFFON 1707-1788 2689 BY SPENCER TROTTER Nature ('Natural History') The Humming-Bird (same)
EDWARD BULWER-LYTTON 1803-1873 2697 BY JULIAN HAWTHORNE The Amphitheatre ('The Last Days of Pompeii') Kenelm and Lily ('Kenelm Chillingly')

FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS
VOLUME VI
PAGE
"Les Satyres" (Colored Plate) Frontispiece Charlotte Bronté (Portrait) 2382 Phillips Brooks (Portrait) 2418 "The Holy Child of Bethlehem" (Photogravure) 2420 "Circe" (Photogravure) 2514 Robert Browning (Portrait) 2558 William Cullen Bryant (Portrait) 2624 Edward Bulwer-Lytton (Portrait) 2698 "In the Arena" (Photogravure) 2718 "Nydia" (Photogravure) 2720
VIGNETTE PORTRAITS
Abbé de Brant?me Fredrika Bremer Elisabeth Brentano John Bright Brillat-Savarin Charles Brockden Brown John Brown Charles Farrar Browne Sir Thomas Browne Elizabeth Barrett Browning Orestes Augustus Brownson Ferdinand Brunetière James Bryce George Louis le Clere Buffon

THE ABBé DE BRANT?ME
(PIERRE DE BOURDEILLE)
(1527-1614)
Every historian of the Valois period is indebted to Brant?me for preserving the atmosphere and detail of the brilliant life in which he moved as a dashing courtier, a military adventurer, and a gallant gentleman of high degree. He was not a professional scribe, nor a student; but he took notes unconsciously, and in the evening of his life turned back the pages of his memory to record the scenes through which he had passed and the characters which he had known. He has been termed the "valet de chambre" of history; nevertheless the anecdotes scattered through his works will ever be treasured by all students and historians of that age of luxury and magnificence, art and beauty, beneath which lay the fermentation of great religious and political movements, culminating in the struggle between the Huguenots and Catholics.
[Illustration: ABBé DE BRANT?ME]
Brant?me was the third son of the Vicomte de Bourdeille, a Périgord nobleman, whose family had lived long in Guienne, and whose aristocratic lineage was lost in myth. Upon the estate stood the Abbey of Brant?me, founded by Charlemagne, and this Henry II. gave to young Pierre de Bourdeille in recognition of the military deeds of his brother, Jean de Bourdeille, who lost his life in service. Thereafter the lad was to sign his name as the Reverend Father in God, Messire Pierre de Bourdeille, Abbé de Brant?me. Born in the old chateau in 1527, he was destined for the church, but abandoned this career for arms. At an early age he was sent to court as page to Marguerite, sister of Francis I. and Queen of Navarre; after her death in 1549, he went to Paris to study at the University. His title of Abbé being merely honorary, he served in the army under Fran?ois de Guise, Duke of Lorraine, and became Gentleman of the Chamber to Charles IX. His career extended through the reigns of Henry II., Francis II., Charles IX., Henry III., and Henry IV., to that of Louis XIII. With the exception of diplomatic missions, service on the battle-field, and voyages for pleasure, he spent his life at court.
About 1594 he retired to his estate, where until his death on July 15th, 1614, he passed his days in contentions with the monks of Brant?me, in lawsuits with his neighbors, and in writing his books: 'Lives of the Illustrious Men and Great Captains of France'; 'Lives of Illustrious Ladies'; 'Lives of Women of Gallantry'; 'Memoirs, containing anecdotes connected with the Court of France'; 'Spanish Rodomontades'; a 'Life' of his father, Fran?ois de Bourdeille; a 'Funeral Oration' on his sister in-law; and a dialogue in verse, entitled 'The Tomb of Madame de Bourdeille.' These were not published until long after his death, first appearing in Leyden about 1665, at the Hague in 1740, and in Paris in 1787. The best editions are by Fourcault (7 vols., Paris, 1822); by Lacour and Mérimée (3 vols., 1859); and Lalande (10 vols., 1865-'81).
What Brant?me thought of himself may be seen by glancing at that portion of the "testament mystique" which relates to his writings:--
"I will and expressly charge my heirs that they cause to be printed the books which I have composed by my talent and