BREZÉ.
(His Stern Revenge.)

According to the author of the “ Chronique Scandaleuse of Louis XI,” upon Saturday, the thirteenth of June, 1476, James de Brezé, count de Maulevrier, seneschal of Normany, son to Peter de Brezé, who was killed at the fight of Montleheri, being a hunting near a village called Romiers les Dourdan, which belonged to him, and having with him madame Charlotte of France his wife, and natural daughter to the late king Charles, and Mrs Agnes Sorel,—it happened unluckily, after hunting, that they returned to sup and lie at Romiers; and there the said seneschal went alone into a chamber to take his rest that night,

and his said wife went likewise into another. She, as her said husband reported, full of disorderly lust, carried in with her a gentleman of Poitou, called Peter de la Vergna, who was huntsman to the said seneschal, and made him retire with her. This being told the seneschal by Peter his steward, he immediately took his sword, and broke open the door of the chamber where the lady and huntsman were. The huntsman he found in his shirt, and struck him with his sword, and thrust it into his body, so that he killed him; and then he went into a chamber where he found his wife hid under a bed wherein his children were, and took her by the arm and threw her down; and as he threw her down, he struck her with the said sword over the shoulders; and she being down and on her knees, he thrust the said sword into her paps and stomach, and sent her into the other world, and had her buried with the service of the church in the abbey of Coulons. As for the huntsman, he had him buried in a garden joining to the house where he had killed him. In the time of the Romans such a punishment would have been permitted; but our laws do not suffer a husband to revenge the unfaithfulness of his wife in that manner. Lewis XI took it very ill, and designed to bring him to a trial for it; but the great seneschal redeemed himself for a fine of an hundred thousand crowns, for which he gave, among other lands, the county of Maulevrier. Lewis de Brezé, his son, marrying Diana of Poitiers for his third wife, recovered the lands that had been given for the fine. The king granted him that favour in consideration of that marriage.

Here is what I find in some manuscript notes which were sent me by Mr Baudrand: 'It is not true that this was transacted at Romiers near Dourdan; James de Brezé stabbed his wife in the village of Rouvres, on a little river called Vegre, two leagues from Houdan, and half a league from Anet. It was in his

house, joining to the parsonage, where there are yet some marks of her blood, together with her bust, as I have seen it several times, it being in a seat that belongs to me?—Art.Breze.