Page:The Writings of Prosper Merimee-Volume 6.djvu/18

vi AUTHOR'S PREFACE For instance, I read in L'Estoile this short note:—

"The damsel of Châteauneuf, one of the king's favourites before he went to Poland, having married for love a certain Florentine officer of the galleys at Marseilles, named Antinotti, and finding him in the act of infidelity, slew him, manlike, with her own hands."

By dint of this anecdote, and of many others whereof Brantôme is full, I can reconstruct a whole character in my mind, and I can bring to life again a lady of the Court of Henri III.

To my fancy, it is curious to compare these manners with ours, and to note in the latter the decadence of vigorous passions. Hence, no doubt, a gain in quiet living, and perhaps in happiness. But we have still to find out whether we are better men than our ancestors; and this question is not so easy to settle, for ideas have greatly varied at different times on the subject of the same actions. Thus, about 1500, a murder by dagger or poison inspired nothing like the horror that it does now. A gentleman killed his enemy treacherously; he sued for pardon, obtained it, and appeared in society without anyone dreaming of frowning on him. Sometimes, indeed, when the murderer had a legitimate grievance, men spoke of him as they speak now