THE

PREFACE

TO THE

French Edition.

Abo

LL Persons of Virtue, who have seen the Prince of Conti's Will, have found it so full of Piety, that it was thought for the Publick good to expose it to the view of all the World, that not only the Great, but

even Private Persons might

profit by so Illustrious an Example. The Use which he would have his Eftate put to after his Death, as he had done during his Life, for making Reparation to the People who who had Suffer' d in the Violence of the Civil War, is so folid a Proof of the Stedfastness and inviolable Fidelity which all the King's Subjects ought to have for bis Service, that it would be a kind of Prevarication to Suppress this Piece: So that tho in rendering it Publick we leave marks to Posterity of the Faults of this Great Prince, the continual and most severe Penitence which he exercis'd for

ten

ten Years before his Death, and that last Satisfaction which he ordain'd by his Will to be made, so fully repairs it, that 'tis difficult to judge whether France would have been more Edify'd by a Life of thirty Seven Years led in an even uninterrupted Innocence, than it ought to be by the Courage and the Resolution which this Prince has shewn in his voluntary Humiliation.

HIS

Last WILL

AND

TESTAMENT.

His Day being the 24th of May 1664. I Armand de Bourbon Prince of Conti, being at Paris in my House, Sound in Body and Mind, and not being willing to be furpriz'd by Death without having made my Last Will, I make this present Teftament.

First, after having recommended my Soul to the Holy Trinity, through the in finite Merits of JESUS CHRIST, Our Lord, and by the Interceffion of his Holy Mother, and all Saints, I declare that I am in the Communion of the Holy Catholick and Apoftolick Church, out of which there

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