favourably to the monarch. Henry gave Grotius a gracious reception, and
was so pleased with his conversation and demeanour, that he presented
him with his picture and a golden chain. Grotius gives an account of
this embassy, in the seventh book of his Annals: he abstains, with a
praiseworthy modesty, from any mention of himself: but, in one of his
poems, he dwells with complacency on his having seen the monarch, "who
owed his kingdom only to his valour"--

" ... _Le Heros, qui regna sur la Françe,
Et par droit de conquête et par droit de naissançe_."
VOLTAIRE, _Henriade_.

Grotius was so much pleased with his reception, and the present which he
received from Henry, that he caused a print of himself, adorned with the
chain presented to him by Henry, to be engraved. He was introduced to
many of the most distinguished persons at Paris: there was one, whom he
particularly esteemed, but whom, from some unexplained circumstance, he
missed seeing.

[Sidenote: Chap. 1. 1582-1597]

This was _the President de Thou_, a name never to be mentioned without
veneration. He had been employed by his sovereign on many delicate and
important commissions, and had acquitted himself in all, with ability
and honour. He had filled the office of _Maitre des Requétes_, and been
advanced to that of _President a Mortiér_. He was employed, at this
time, upon his immortal History. In the account which it gives of the
events, that took place in France, it is entitled to almost unqualified
praise: in regard to what happened to other countries, he necessarily
depended on the information which he received from them, and cannot