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and Catharine, the Queen mother, three powerful armies were opposed, one led by the King of Navarre, one by the Prince of Conde, and the other by the duke of Anjou. The tidings of these civil wars, penetrated into the seclusion of the religious house, where my grandfather had already passed three years in quiet study. They kept alive the martial spirit which he inherited, and quickened his desire to partake in their tumultuous scenes. At length he communicated to his patron, his discontentment with a life of inaction, and his irrepressible wish to mingle again with the world. Unusual paleness settled on the brow of the venerable man, as he replied,

"I have long seen that thy heart