Elizabeth: March 1588, 1-10 | British History Online

Pages 530-540

Calendar of State Papers Foreign: Elizabeth, Volume 21, Part 1, 1586-1588. Originally published by His Majesty's Stationery Office, London, 1927.

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March 1588, 1-10



March 1.	Stafford to Burghley.
	"I have written to Mr. Secretary with a bleeding heart the pitiful death of the Prince of Conde, which is here assured by a messenger expressly sent from Malicorne, the governor of Poitou. The matter doth so much grieve me for my particular love to him and the great loss that I know the public cause, and especially Religion suffereth by him, that I was never so far out of quiet with nothing. Your lordship shall find it the greatest blow that could have been happened to Religion, for . . . he was the man that they only were out of hope of to draw from it; and the jealousy of him kept the King of Navarre in. I pray God I write not too true, and that you see not the effects [there] of." I have written at large to Mr. Secretary of this and of another thing which I know not whether he will communicate to your lordship, and which therefore I write to you also, but pray you to take no knowledge of it if he do not mention it to you; which is, "that the jealousy between the Prince of Condé and the King of Navarre of his greatness, if the King of Navarre should have retired him[self], hath been more cause than anything else of the keeping of the King of Navarre in from 'fleeting,' as I have written unto you ere now, and which I know assuredly and from his own folks; and besides, I can assure you that the King holdeth himself very assured of the King of Navarre now. I will hope that God will give him grace and keep him the minister of his glory, but for avoiding the worst, the only pillar now of them of Religion, I dare warrant you is the Vicomte Turenne. If there be any means to be found that her Majesty underhand may assure him of her friendship and strengthen him, he is the only man that can keep that party assured; and perchance the jealousy of his greatness with that party keep the King of Navarre in the longer. Or if that be not, the strengthening of him with courage and assurance is the best strength that they of the Religion can have now, and the chiefest pillar that they must rest upon. . . ."
	But if you think of doing anything therein, heed must be taken that Buzanval knows it not; "for he is Plessis' creature, who is the contrary party to the Vicomte Turenne, and is so ambitious that he striveth against him, though openly he dare not, underhand he doeth all he can to cross any thing. I love Plessis well, but I am sorry to see so much ambition reign in them that do take so fair a colour of Religion. I am afraid that God is offended too much; he showeth great tokens of it."
	If you think there is reason in this and cannot find means to make it known to the Vicomte, whatever you send to me, I will have delivered to him safely.
	"I have sent you a little thing made upon M. Joyeuse's funeral by a good fellow . . . It hath been cried in this town and stomached at, but the King would needs have it run still and would not suffer it to be called in."—Paris, 1 March, 1587.
	Postscript. "Both they here and they of the Religion and from Geneva and all places do rail at our commissioners going and our peace treating. For my part, I do think that the treaty of peace will come to nothing; and that the King of Spain doth but think to deceive and win time, yet I would be 'loft' [i.e. loth] they should put any bees in our heads with cunning, as I have written to Mr. Secretary."
	Holograph. Add. Endd. by Burghley. 2 pp. [France XVIII. 25.]
March 1.	Stafford to Walsingham.
	"With as much grief of mind as ever I did suffer for anything in my life, I write unto your honour . . . the pitiful news that is come hither to the King upon Tuesday at night from M. Mallicorne from Niort of the pitiful death of the Prince of Condé, who, as he writeth, died at St. John d'Angeli on Sunday at four o'clock in the afternoon, poisoned (as he supposeth) with an extreme poison, for that he cast all by the eyes and the nose, and was sick but from eight o'clock in the morning till four of the clock in the afternoon, though, as he saith, some thought it to be an aposthume that was in his ear, which hath long since caused a deafness, that brake out . . . There is some hope . . . that this [news] may be false, both because M. Mallicorne hath sent many false things hither, and very false; the other, the circumstance of the time and the distance of the places maketh us to hope somewhat, for . . . he was to have the news brought from St. John d'Angeli to Niort, which is fourteen long leagues and foul way, and no posts; and from Niort to Poictiers, fourteen other long leagues of that country . . . and from Poictiers hither; and all this from Sunday at four of the clock in the afternoon, till Tuesday at six o'clock at night; it is a thing that is not impossible, but I think it be next door to it. Now . . . I will also tell you the likelihood that it is true, for the King is else greatly abused by Mallicorne, for he believeth it, so that the next day in the morning he sent Villequier to tell it to the Court of Parliament, who, I can assure you made no rejoice in the world about it, and, to tell you more (which you will perchance thinks a wonder) the whole generality in this town, if it be not some devilish affected Leaguish persons, do mourn him. As for the King, he is of an humour that it cannot be well known, neither by his face nor his words, whether he grieve or rejoice at anything; but these were his words at the receipt of the letter . . . 'Here be strange news. I cannot be sorry that he is dead, because that he was not obedient to me, but I am sorry for the manner of it; that a prince should be poisoned.' And when one or two that were by swore by no small oaths: Il estoit bien le plus opiniastre de tous, mais il estoyt le plus homme de bien de tous, et de qui vous eussiez plus tyré de service si vous en eussiez eu affaire (comme vous en pourrez bien avoyr devant que on le panse): the King answered never a word but only nodded his head very soberly. And I have done what I can to know how he is in private, and I cannot hear but that [he] is not contented with it, though openly he cannot nor must not show discontentment, but rather of the two contentment. I have been advertised . . . that Villeroy should say that it is the greatest and best news that ever came to Christendom. I will know the truth of it; but if it be, I dare protest I will abhor the man as I would do the devil himself . . . for I do think in my conscience (and I do think I did know him so thoroughly well as few men can better) that there was never an honester man of his degree, nor upon whose faith, conscience, honesty and word I would more have builded, nor upon his constancy in religion; and if you do not find that the surest pillar that the Religion had in France be gone, if he be dead, never trust word I say to you again. . . .
	"This I protest to you, and God confound me if from the bottom of my heart I speak it not, that having but one son in the world, whom God may and I hope will make one day an honest man; if with all my heart it had pleased him to have taken him, to have let the other alone, if I would not thank him of my knees; not so much for mine own particular love to the man, though I did very much love him, and next to her Majesty above any prince in the world (though indeed of late I have not been so much beholding to him, but I lay not the fault upon him) but in respect that I do know the man; what was in him; what a loss the public cause, all honest men in Christendom, and especially Religion hath lost of him, if he be dead, as I fear it too much."
	There came two posts upon Sunday in great diligence; one from Rome and another from Venice. He from Rome came in seven days, and Villeroy being at his house twelve leagues hence, the post did not (as usual) address himself to one of the other secretaries, but went to him. All Monday and Tuesday there were discourses what he had brought. Among the best, it was thought certainly that the Pope was dead, and the Nuncio was and still is in an agony. Yesterday two came to me, out of whom I sometimes draw some quintessance, perchance not with their good wills, for they are both hangers upon the Queen Mother. They both agreed in one tale, that both the posts had brought secret news to the King "that the Pope had at the length entered with the King of Spain into the League against her Majesty; that he would get as many princes of Christendom in as he could; that he had sent to the Venetians to have them to enter into it, and pressed them greatly to it; that upon that, they had sent for the French ambassador there and signified this unto him, and had desired him to send to the King his master to know his will, and what he would do, . . . for they would govern themselves according to his resolution; and that that was the cause of the despatch of the courier that came from Venice."
	I thanked them both for their news and told them I would presently advertise it. They also said that there was news come out of Spain that the army would depart on the 15th of this month without fail. Within an hour, another came and told me the same. I will inquire into these things and if true, advertise you further.
	I thought fit to advertise you who these men belong to, as also what humours they of both Religions be of here, now against the going of our commissioners and our treaty with Spain. The two first belonged to Queen Mother and the last depended somewhat that way, but in particular to the King of Navarre and his Catholic faction. From this you may judge of them with more wisdom than I can. "Though the advertisement be not to be despised nor condemned (for of the Pope and the King of Spain both there must be the worst looked for at their hands that may be); and though for my part, as you know, I never had opinion of the King of Spain's direct meaning in this treaty but to deceive and win time . . . yet I would be loth they should make me here swallow such a 'goujen' [i.e. gudgeon] . . . and false advertisement under the colour of friendship, to make me serve the turn cunningly, to help to break that which I know they seek all the ways they can to do, and . . . to kill us with cunning. And, which maketh me more to suspect this is . . . that within these four days, one of the same two first persons hath caused the King Don Antonio's man here to write to his master (and I know Queen Mother was the commander of it) to request Don Antonio to use all the means possible to her Majesty to impeach the going of the commissioners, and if he could not impeach it quite, to be a mean to stay their going for some few days; that they did expect news out of Italy that would perchance break it quite . . . and this I know further, that Queen Mother (I cannot tell whether the French King know of it [but] I promise you I rather think no than yes) hath both written to the French ambassador in England and hath made his man write to him [Antonio] from hence, to put him in jealousy of his abode in England, if this treaty go forward, and to persuade him to come hither, and (to play small game afore they sit out) if he will not himself come, at the least to send his eldest son hither; that that will impeach it somewhat, though not so much as his own coming. This assure yourself of upon my word to be true.
	"There is yesterday letters come to the Spanish ambassador of the Marquis Santa Crux' death of certain and the Duke of Sidónia putting in his place, and that, they fear, will hinder the time of the advancement of the army.
	"The news that I think they expected out of Italy was some jar to fall out between the Duke of Florence and the King of Spain, which is piqued on by the Pope and is marvellously fomented here; for the Pope would fain have the King of Spain to do it, to drive the Duke of Florence to cast himself into his arms, that by that means he may make him marry his niece, whom he seeketh by all means to match with him, and whom he altogether disdaineth; and besides, since he was Duke, hath showed less to set by the Pope than any other prince or state of Italy; and hath answered him more stoutly than any others durst dare about bandits that he hath asked him, and when the Pope hath thought to have had his will of him by threatening and big words, as he had used with others, he answered him very stoutly that he was not now a Cardinal only, but he was Duke of Tuscany and sovereign, (fn. 1) that except his obedience to the See of Rome, he acknowledged nothing but as far as he would himself, and would never acknowledge other duty.
	"The quarrel that is but kindling between the King of Spain and him, and which they would fain set on fire here, is about Sienna, which he [the King] pretendeth he may demand for want of payment of 700,000 crowns, and besides, for a forfeit that his brother the last Duke hath made for marrying his last wife without the licence of the King of Spain, which he was bound unto by his investiture by Charles the Fifth. Fain would they set the King of Spain and this Duke of Florence together, hoping that he, being a man of courage and 'value' [valour] as he is taken, if there were a jar, would trouble him in Italy, having found those great riches that he hath done, to help to maintain his courage. They give out some speech here that the King of Spain hath stayed prisoner in Spain Don Pietro de Medicis his brother, who he had sent for to come to Florence, under colour of 'Colone' (fn. 2) and others that were killed there, which they lay to him, but I cannot yet tell whether it be true.
	"Whilst I was writing this letter, I sent to the Venice ambassador to know whether he heard any thing of this league so fresh between the Pope and the King of Spain and of the Pope's sending to the Venetians about it, and their sending hither; and what these two posts to his knowledge had brought that came from Rome and Venice.
	"He sent me word that he would take occasion to go himself this afternoon to the Pope's Nuncio, of purpose to see what he could know of him for the league. For any fresh thing done between the Pope and the King of Spain, it was a thing that might be, but he did not believe it, for by the last ordinary of all, he did assure me of his word, there was neither any such matter or likelihood; but that the Pope had such capricious humours as that it might be, since he might be taken in one of them and have done it; but for having sent any such thing to Venice, or their having sent for the ambassador there to use any such speech to him, that he assured me upon his honour was a thing false and never thought upon. That first he assured me the Pope had not sent to them any such thing; next that if that did come hereafter, that France had showed too evil example of their own government for them to be ruled in anything by their example . . . . .
	"Tuesday was M. Joyeuse's and his brother's burial, which in all sorts was as Monsieur's was, save some things which he could not have, but one thing he had more than Monsieur had, besides his 'picture' carried in the same order upon a bed of estate, he had a great huge chariot wherein his body itself was carried, which Monsieur had not.—Paris, 1 March, 1587.
	Postscript. "Even now came to me the Venice ambassador's secretary, who told me that his master had found the Nuncio in as much pain as he to-know what great extraordinary thing this post had brought with his great haste, for he was acquainted with nothing he had brought but only the 'dispense' for the Grand Prior of Toulouse, M. Joyeuse's brother to marry, which point I know to be true but he said that could not have required this extraordinary haste; that he was in jealousy of it, and thought it was about some matter about the King of Navarre which he knoweth the ambassador there and the Cardinal Lenencourt manage underhand with the Pope without his privity, and that he is in a great choler and melancholy at it." I will inquire more of these things, and as I know anything worthy your knowledge, will advertise you thereof.
	Holograph. Add. Endd. 6 pp. [France XVIII. 26.]
March 1/11.	Advertisements from Paris.
	"The death of the Prince of Condé is assured by letters from Rochelle, but no further circumstances, nor whether there be any taken; and it is reported there are two."
	The Duke d'Aumale, notwithstanding his promise to the King to dismiss his companies, keeps them; and two other regiments are come to him from the Duke de Guise, and are all in the suburbs of Abbeville. The King seems greatly offended, and has sent Chemeraulx to him again, and caused all his foot and the Swissers to march towards Picardy, being assured of being at Amiens within a month.
	Ballagny, governor of Cambray, suspecting the Duke of Guise's kind offer to come to the christening of his child, has imprisoned his lieutenant, and Fonteneilles, his near kinsman, who have confessed that the Duke practised with them to deliver the town. The said Duke will not come hither, but is gone to Rheims, where they make a solemn service for the Queen of Scots.
	"They make great levies in Germany and there is hope they will revenge the matter of Montbelliard upon Lorraine, and also that they will thoroughly attend to the succour of Bonne."
	The Emperor has forbidden the Princes of Germany "to stir in the matter of Montbeliard, and that he will see satisfaction done, but the Princes interested levy still."
	Endd. 1¼ pp. [Newsletters IX. 37.]
	See below, pp. 540–541.
March 4.	Buzanval to Burghley.
	I thought to see you in London, but your affairs prevented it. Fearing to importune you by my presence, I write this word to accompany the letters I have received from Germany.
	You may remember that I lately showed you the news I had received of the King of Navarre, and amongst other things, that he had sent the Sieur de Reaux into Switzerland and Germany.
	The enclosed [wanting] are of his arrival there, and the Instruction carried by him.
	I pray you to understand two things; one, the small reason one has to blame the King of Navarre for not having joined his foreign army; the other that there is method in our negotiations and it was not a mere feigned thing; as I had already declared to you from the letters I had received from Montauban. Yet I know that the Queen is little satisfied with my master because she so seldom receives news from him. I wish she were really angry, for it would show that she loved him; but alas we can send her nothing but lamentations and appeals for aid; and this we cannot beg for without vexing her.
	Believe me, the King of Navarre is today in such case that his silence holds words and prayers enough to those who choose to listen. I conceived some small hope from the last words her Majesty spoke to me, and by the letters (though they were very feeble) which she wrote to my master; but from what I have since seen and heard I fear that my too hasty confidence may have misled this good Prince to believe that there was a possible means of providing for his affairs. For since sending that letter, I have seen no movement for aiding them in any way whatever. His affairs are the same that you thought should be assisted a year or two ago. He is the same Prince, but has made himself more illustrious by a thousand toils sustained, and by an incomparable constancy. They are the same enemies, save that they are more powerful and determined by reason of our weaknesses, and more united because of our divisions. I see only that they take less heed of us than formerly and that instead of only having to make head against an enemy in France, they are stirring up another in the Low Countries and Spain to strike us on the flank by the peace being treated of in the Low Countries. I do not believe this is the intention of her Majesty nor of you others, but it will be our calamity, if this peace is made, whether you wish it or no. And at the least, receiving this affliction on the one side (which the King of Navarre will bear patiently if it brings comfort to her Majesty) if we were aided to support the burden put upon us, a prince so zealous might take courage; but seeing only despair, it cannot be thought strange if for extreme evils, one uses extreme remedies, and it is cruelty to demand from one's friends more than they can do.
	This is only by way of lamentation; and not to bring an action against her Majesty, which I should always lose. Also to advertise you that all things still maintain themselves intact, but that if the apprehensions which a Prince may conceive both of her Majesty's coldness towards him, and her ardour in the matter of the peace with Spain are not soothed, very great difficulties may arise as time goes on.—London, 4 March, 1587.
	Holograph. Add. Endd. by Burghley. "M. de Buzenval, with letters from Almayn." French. 2 pp. [France XVIII. 27.]
[March 5?]	Queen to the French King.
	Being always glad of an opportunity to write to him, she has not wished to let pass so good a one as is offered by Madame de Chasteauneuf's return to assure him of her desire for the maintenance of their friendship; praying God to aid him so to order his affairs as may be both for the divine honour and his own, and the general relief of his kingdom. And as Madame de Chasteauneuf has much pleased her by her virtuous deportment, she must not omit to bear the testimony which is due to her; having found her a lady adorned with all good virtues, for which she will be honoured, even after her departure. Undated. Draft. French. ¾ p. [France XVIII. 28.]
[March 5?]	Queen Elizabeth to the Queen Mother.
	[Compliments, as to the King.]
	"Pour le regard de Madame de Chasteauneuf, elle nous a donné si grand contentement de sa vertueuse conversation pardeça que nous ne la laissons qu'a regret; et fault que nous confessions qu'elle a bien monstré la nourriture qu'elle a prinse de vous, dont elle laisse ici une reputation qui la rend honoreé mesmes en son absence. Ce nonobstant et que l'amitié que nous luy portons nous commande de luy pourchasser tout bien et plaisir; si fault il que nous luy jouyons ung petit tour de trahison d'amye (non toutefois sans son sceu, n'y comme font les trahistres malins). C'est qu'en ses requestes, vous luy en laissez quelques uns non accordées, affin qu'il puisse rester moyen de la faire revenir encores par de ça.
	"Au reste Madame, nous prions Dieu incessament et a mains joinctes vouloir tellement assister le roy vostre fils qu'il puisse redresser ce qui est de mal en ordre en son royaume, a l'honneur de Dieu et du sien, et au bien universel de tout son peuple; a quoy ne faisons doubte que ne teniez la main, comme le but auquel seule vous visez. . . ."Undated. Draft. ¾ p. [France XVIII. 29.]
March 5.	Draft, much corrected, for the following letter.—Greenwich, March blank 1587.
	[Below are some attempts, apparently, to copy the first letters of Elizabeth's signature.] Endd. "To the French Queen, [illeg.] 5th, 1587." French, ¾ p. [France XVIII. 30.]
March [5.]	Queen Elizabeth to the Queen regnant of France.
	Assurances of friendship, and praise of Madame de Chateauneuf, to much the same effect as above.—March, 1587.
	Endd. French. ½ p. [Ibid. XVIII. 31.]
(fn. 3) [March 5?]	Queen Elizabeth to the Same.
	"I know not whether Madame Chasteauneuf shall receive greater contentment in leaving this our poor island, not furnished with such pleasure as France yieldeth, than we grief to lose the benefit of the conversation of one in whom we took so great delight; whose rare parts have been answerable to the commendation you gave of her by your letter written in her favour; and therefore cannot but recommend her to your good favour as most worthy to be always in company of a great princess. And so, Madam I should do Madame Chasteauneuf great wrong if I should not by my letters confess unto you how greatly I was contented with her company, as a lady thoroughly furnished with such rare virtues as doth make her an ornament in any prince's court. I fear that the defects of this poor island, having not given (?) any such contentment unto her as France yieldeth, hath made her hasten her departure hence, where notwithstanding, through her virtuous deportment, she hath left, not only with us but with all that knew her that reputation as she may have cause in that respect the better to disjest the incommodities that this rude island yieldeth."
	Draft by Walsingham. English. 1 p. [France XVIII. 32.]
March 6.	[David Cabreth] to Walsingham.
	By my last letter, I made rehearsal of certain English gentlemen here in Calles, and to come over for England; as I [think?] it was the Earl of Northumberland's brother, one Alford's son of London, and two others, whose [names?] I cannot learn. They presently departed for Paris. Enclosed is a letter [from] John Dowse, who today is also gone towards Paris. At the present writing, I have two ships of coals to depart from hence to Don[kirk], "which I have bought here only to have a just me [an to] go thither, to see and understand so far as in [me] lieth, any certainty of their pretended practises [against] the State of our country, and so mindeth to adv[enture] . . . and my Lord Cobham where he is. From thence Twhine is gone to Rouen or Dieppe where he lie [awaiting?] letters for Rye. He dare not come hither. He [never?] haunted amongst us. If it please your h[onour there] may be letters from him intercepted there. [John?] Dicinson, servant to Mr. Lee, draper, can inform [your] honour unto whom he hath sent his letters [writ] in the time of his being here, for he told me [he] could intercept his letters if he would, but that [he] taketh Twhine to be so honest a man as there c[annot] be any such thing in his letters which may deser[ve] intercepting.— Calles, 6 March, 1587.
	Add. Endd. "From A.B., from Calles." 1 p. [France XVIII. 33.]
	[In Cabreth's handwriting, torn; cf. letters of March 29 and 31 below.]
March 6/16.	Certificate by Christopher Borcholte and Caspar Moller, sena tors and consuls of Hamburg, that on the date below written, on demand of Andrew Berendes sen. in the name of his son An drew Berendes jun. and of Daniel Brandas and Hermann Stoven, citizens of the same:—Wilhelm Saell and Lutkins Hinsche, also citizens of the same personally appeared before them and solemnly answered to the following articles:—[i.e. 14 articles answered by Hinsche and 2 by Saell, concerning the taking of their ship by one of Dunkirk and an English captain in July, 1586. Certified by a Hamburg notary on this date. 8 pp. Latin. Hamburg and Hanse Towns, III., 1.]
March 6/16.	J. Wrothe to Walsingham.
	Has received the two enclosed packets in one week, one of which seems to be very old. Knowing that Mr. Poole, according to his honour's appointment, will inform him of all occurences, he has retired to Padua, where he will have more quiet for his studies, and the seldomer trouble his honour with his frivolous letters.
	All things are quiet in Italy, and no preparation for any warlike execution. Fear of the Turkish admiral's going to sea "will keep them more at home, for the better looking to their own house, but whether this be meant of the Turk or no, yet the suspicion thereof will in some part further her Majesty's proceedings against the King of Spain."
	[On the expectation of Sir Fras. Drake's going to sea, as in his previous letter.] All the King of Spain's fair shows of a desire for peace "are thought to be but his accustomed delusions, with the which he hopeth not only to clear himself to the world from the suspicion of aspiring to the monarchy of Christendom, but also will thereby taste her Majesty's mind whether she will let anything go out of her hands or no; the which, if he cannot obtain, yet he shall (by protracting of time with this treaty of peace) have the more leisure to restore his ruined army . . . and the better hope of executing his former designs; but . . . by her Majesty's readiness to treat of such a peace as may stand with the security of her estate, she showeth unto the world the true cause which compelled her to begin the war . . . .
	"Sir Francis Drake's going to sea will no doubt much hinder the traffic of the Indies, the only nurse and maintainer of the King of Spain's estate.
	"There is now no more talk of the marriage between the Duke of Parma's eldest son and the Pope's niece, but a new rumour is spread of another match to be made between the Duke of Florence and the Duke of Lorraine's daughter (fn. 4) which is in the court of France . . . but I can hardly persuade myself that it will ever be intended by him. But the marriage (which was talked of) between him and one of the Archduke Charles' daughters is somewhat more probable . . ."
	The hundred thousand ducats which (long ago) I wrote that this Signoria had promised to lend the King of France are not yet paid, and there is some difficulty about it. The Signoria will lend it with the promised assurance, but the King would borrow it upon his simple word only. The Emperor wished to borrow as much, but it was denied him. The dislikers of the Spaniard's proceedings daily increase in this commonwealth, and that amongst those of the best sort.—Padua, 16 March, 1588.
	Add. Endd. 1¾ pp. [Venice I. 26.]
March 7.	Buzanval to Burghley.
	Our merchants cannot resolve as to the purchase of the grain. They have sent to see when they may most conveniently receive it, in order to name ports where they may load it with the least murmuring of the people. Also they wish to have fresh advices from Rochelle, to know whether the scarcity still con continues there.
	However, Mr. Jonas, captain of Portland, has told me that he could send two hundred quarters of corn which he has in his castle; [taken] from a Spanish prize, which was brought there two months ago by a Rochelle captain. I know that he has about this quantity, and pray you to grant a letter, addressed to the said Jonas for the loading of 200 quarters of corn for Rochelle in the ports "d'Oeuemut ou Hanton" [i.e. Weymouth or Southampton.]—London, 7 March, 1587.
	Holograph. Add. Endd. French, 1 p. [France XVIII. 34.]