seems to have had access to all the papers in the possession of the family of Fenelon, which could be of use to him, in the composition of his work. From the work of M. de Bausset, the following account of the life of Fenelon is principally extracted.

CHAP. II.

FAMILY OF FENELON.

THE village of Salignac from which thè family of Fenelon took its title, lies at the distance of about two leagues from Sarlat. In 1460, it was raised to a Barony. On the decease of Anthony de Salignac, governor of Peregord and Limousin under John d'Albrêt, King of Navarre, it descended to his eldest son, and, on the decease of that son without issue male, it descended to his daughter and heiress. She married into the house of Birlo, and on her marriage it was stipulated that the descen

dants of it should use the surname and arms of Salignac, with their family surname and arms. The surname of Salignac was also used by the younger son of Anthony de Salignac. From him, Fenelon, the subject of these pages, lineally descended. Bernard, his great grandfather, was sent ambassador by the court of France to Queen Elizabeth; and history mentions to his honour, that, when he was desired by his court to justify to her the massacre at Paris on St. Bartholomew's day, he refused the unwarrantable commission.

Francis de Salignac de la Mothe Fenelon, whose life is now presented to the reader, was a son, by a second marriage, of Pons de Salignac, count of La Mothe Fenelon. The marquis de Fenelon, his unele, took on himself the charge of his edu cation. The marquis's character appears to have been truly respectable. The great Condé used to say of him, that "he was equally qualified for conversation, for the field, and for the cabinet." An idea may

be formed of the openness of his disposition, and the austerity of his principles, by what he said to M. de Harlai, on his nomination to the archbishoprick of Paris; -"there is a wide difference, my right reverend Lord, between the day, when the nomination to such an office brings to the party the compliments of the whole kingdom, and the day, on which he appears before God, to render him an account of its administration." M. Olier, the founder of the congregation of St. Sulpice, engaged the marquis in an extraordinary project. The law of duelling, was once, in France, as it was once in most other kingdoms of Europe, a part of the civil jurisprudence of the country. In 1547, a duel was fought by the count Guy Chabot and the count of Chaterguer-ai, in the presence of Henry the second and his court. The count of Chaterguer-ai was mortally wounded; his death affected the monarch so much, that he solemnly vowed not to permit another duel. Cardinal Richelieu repressed duel

ling by some extraordinary examples of severity; after his death, it burst out with great fury. M. Olier conceived a plan of supplying the insufficiency of the law by putting honor in opposition to itself. With this view, he formed an association of gentlemen of tried valour, who, by a writing, signed with their hands, to which the solemnity of an oath was to be added, were to oblige themselves never to give or accept a challenge, and never to serve as seconds in a duel. The marquis of Fenelon was placed at the head of the association; and no one was admitted into it, who had not eminently distinguished himself in the service. On the sunday of Pentecost, in the year 1651, in the midst of an immense concourse, they assembled in the church of St. Sulpice, and put into the hands of M. Olier, a solemn instrument, expressing their firm and unalterable resolution, never to be principals or seconds in a duel, and to discourage duelling to the utmost of their power. The great Condé was struck