The Historical Nights Entertainment, Second Series

sination

es, and King Henry IV. of France and Navarr

that an old gentleman should die as that Henry of Bearn should fall in love. Love had been the main relaxation of his otherwise strenuous life, and neither

ogeny outnumbered that of his grandson, the English sultan Charles II. He differs, however, from the latter in that he was not quite as Oriental in the manner of his self-indulgence

year, an age at which it is difficult, without being ridiculous, to unbridle a passion for a girl of twenty. Unfortunately for him, Charlotte does not appear to

ough his heart was not at all engaged, the marshal found the match extremely suitable, and

th Mademoiselle de Montmorency. If you should marry her I should hate you. If she should love me you

e him to choose between assuming the ridiculous role of a complacent husband and being involved in a feud with his prince. He said as muc

y to be the comfort of my old age, which is coming on. Conde, who thinks of nothing b

ss acute, no doubt because his vision was dazzled by the prospect of a hundred thousand livres a year. So desperately poor was he that

was expected of him, and indignantly rebel against it, but the Queen, too, was carefully instructed in the matter by Concino Concini and his w

king-point. And then, whilst the trouble of Henry's own making was growing about him until it threatened to overwhelm him, he rec

ot suit Henry's policy at all, and being then-as the result of a wise husbanding of resources-the most powerful prince in Europe, Henry was not likely to submit tamely to arrangements that did not suit him. His instructions to Vaucelas were to keep open the difference between France and the House o

he Queen of France, and from others whom Vaucelas said he dared not mention, were intriguing to blast Henry's designs against the house of Austria, and to bring him willy-nilly into a union with Spain. Th

ely the King's servant, he was his closest friend, the very keeper of his soul; and the King leaned upon him and sought his guidance not only in State affairs, but in the

oset in which the duke-but newly risen-received him in bed-gown and n

a captain of fortune in jerkin and long boots of grey leather, and a grey hat with a wine-coloured ostrich plume. His countenance matched his raiment. Keeneyed, broad of brow,

gnity, despite bed-gown and slippers and the nightcap covering

shook his head. "It is a matter that has filled me with apprehension, for I

tly exaggerated. It is the work of that dog Concini. Ventre St. Gris! If he has no respect for me, at least he mi

ce that was not missed by the keen ears of Sully.

nd to drive her to take violent resolutions whic

a cry of prot

ister's incredulity, and plucke

d th

hat the letter told him, eja

r designs fill me with apprehension. What do you infer, Grand-Master, from such deliberate

nfer?" quoth

King expounded, "they proceed as if they kne

ir

vents which cannot take

upefied silence, his loyal Huguenot soul refusing t

bowing his fine head, "yo

gest another than..." He paused, shrinking in horror from completing the utterance of

ble, and sat down. He took his chin in hi

he councils of this scoundrel Concini. There never was an attachment of yours that did not beget trouble with the Queen, but never

d of twenty. I suffer the tortures of the damned. And yet... and yet, I swear to you, Sully, that I will curb this passion though it kill me. I will stifle these fires, though they consume my soul to ashes. No harm shall come to her from me. No harm has come yet. I swear it. These stories that are put about are the

ravely. "Send the pair packing back

use her mind of her Suspicions regarding the Princess of Conde; make my peace with her; convince her of my sincerity, of my firm intentio

, and the task was one in which he was by now well-practiced; but

omething more to reconcile her to the sacrifice. She may reopen the ques

al power, what might she not do if..." He broke off, and fell to musing. "If she demands it we must yield, I suppose," he said at length. "But give her to understand that if I discover any more of her designs with Spain I shall be provoked

t itself should be sufficient, for there was at that time no powe

junction from Sully that Henry shoul

respect the sacred tie I formed between my nephew and Charlot

ad I not known how easy it is for a heart tender and passionate as was his to deceive itself"-which is t

of the banishment of the Concinis, to whom she was so deeply attached. She insisted with perfect justice that she was a bitterly injured woman, and refused to entertain any idea of reconciliation save with the condition that arrangements for her coronation as Queen of France-which was n

swung constantly between confidence and diffidence, esteem and indifference, affection and coldness; at times he inclined to put her from him entirely; at others he opined that no one on his Council was more capable of the administration of affairs. Even in the indignation aroused

bulwark of Henry's prudence was battered down by the vanity of that lovely fool, Charlotte, who must be encourag

f the Court had to say about it. At the first hint of scandal Monsieur de Conde put himself into a fine heat, and said things which pained and annoyed the King exceedingly. Henry had am

will be angry and ashamed at the things he says of me. I shall end by losing al

prince's allowance, and to give refusals to his creditors and purveyors. Thus he intended also, no doubt,

oncluded, "we must think of some other method,

and carried his wife off to his country house. It was quite in vain that Henry wrote to him representing that this co

rre, whose will was law in Europe, shivering behind damp hedges, ankle-deep in wet grass, spending long hours in love-lore, ecstatic contemplation of her lighted window, and all-so far as

l rectitude. The Concinis saw to that. And when they judged the season ripe, they put her Majesty in possession of the facts. So inflamed was she by this fresh

with his wife, without troubling-as was his duty-to obtain the King's consent. On the last night of that mo

re, who was present, "saw a man so di

as his cry. "Undone! This madman has carried off his wife-perhaps to kill her." White and shaki

tch M. de Sully. Sully obeyed the summons and came at once, but in an extre

ched behind him. The Queen, a squarely-built, square-faced woman, sat apart, attended by a few of her ladies and one

, his voice harsh and strained. "What do

says Sully, as calm as

t sort of adv

talked of as little as possible, nor should it appear to be of any

ved him. "He will be wise to follow it." Her voice strained, almost threatening

complete his disguise, he set out in pursuit of the fugitives. He had learnt that they had taken the road to Landrecy, which was enough for him. Stage by sta

knight, and implored him, as he loved her, to come and deliver her from the detestable tyrant who held her in thrall. Those perfervid appeals completed his undoing,

ach of the law of nations, Henry dispatched Coeuvres secretly to Brussels to carry off thence the princess. But Maria de' Medici was on the alert, and frustrated the design by s

on that to obtain her he would invade the Low Countries as the first step in the execution of that design of a war with Spain which hitherto had been litt

ve given him pause. It rang with the voice of preachers giving expression to the popular view; that Cleves was not worth fighting for, that the war was unrighteous-a war undertaken

for him. From Rome-from the very pope himself came notice of a conspiracy against him in which he was told that the very highest in the land were engaged. From Embrun, Bayo

s become careless and indifferent in such matters. Yet surely there never had been one that was so abundantly heralded from every quarter, or ever one that was hatched under conditions so propiti

he were dead, and the Queen so left that she could be made absolute regent during the Dauphin's minority, it was those adventurers who would become through her the true rulers of France, and so enrich themselves and gratify to the full their covetous ambitions. He saw clear

ation does not please me. My heart tel

Sully could only stare at him amazed by this out-burst. Thus

ity. It is their only resource. I see it plainly. T

though

pain not a finger has been lifted in preparation to resist us, not a sword has been sharpened. Upon what does Spain build? Whence her confidence that in despite of my firm resolve and my abundant preparations, despite the fact announced that I am to march on the last of this month, despite the fact that my troops are already in Champagne

lmed, could only g

are the friends of Spain here in France? Who was it intrigued with Spain in such a way an

ntleman. "And yet if you are convinced of it, you should break off this coronation,

ervous hand. "Break off this coronation, and never let me hear of it again. That will s

re Dame and to St. Denis, to stop the

again; the lines of care descended between the brows. "Oh, what to decide!

e that she will continue obstinate when she k

guine. "Try to persuade her, Sully. Without her consent I cannot

used prayers, entreaties, and arguments with which to endeavour to move her. But all was labour lost. Mar

e a person of no account and subject to the Council of Regency during the King'

nd the culminating wrong that he was doing her by this very war, as he had himself openly

, "are of opinion that the principal object of the war is the Pri

answer had been an impudently defiant ackn

to have her back, and I will have her back; no one s

than anything that had yet happened in this affair, his conscience left him, despite his fears, powerless now to thwart h

ad been concerted that the festivities should last four days and conclude on the Sunday with the Queen's public entry into

it must be thwarted-had lent an ear to Concini's purpose to avenge her, and was ready to repay infidelity with infidelity. Concini and his fellow-conspirators had gone to work so confidently that a week before the coronat

at least he appeared serene and good-humoured at his wife's coronation, ga

eringly told him of a dream in which she had seen him slain, and fell to imploring him with a tenderness such as had been utterly foreign to her of late to take great care of him

predictions of La Brosse," said he. "Bah! Yo

the Marquise de Verneuil, with a like warning an

se, pensive and gloomy, and wandered aimlessly down, and out into the courtyard. There an exempt of the guard, of whom he casually asked

sponsively. "You advise well," said he. "Order my coach. I wil

years of age, in a dingy, clerkly attire, so repulsively evil of countenance that he had once been arrested on

startled the Queen by announcing his intention. With fearful insistence

er fears. "I shall have returned before you realize th

c entry on Sunday. The Duc d'Epernon was on his right, the Duc de Montbazon and the Marquis de la Force on his left. Lavordin and Roquelaure were in the right boot, w

casioned by the meeting of two carts, one laden with hay, the other with wine. The footmen went ahead with the exception of

berately standing upon one of the spokes of the stationary wheel, he leaned over the Duc d'Epernon, and, whipping a long, stout knife from his sleeve, stabbed Henry in the breast. The King, who

, Henry sank together, and

h Liege a week ago was made true, as were the stories of his death already

lf of the incriminating knife. St. Michel, one of the King's gentlemen-in-waiting, who had followed the coach, whipped out his sword and would have slain him on the spot had he not been restrain

and driven back to the Louvre, whilst to avoid all disturbance

e the blow had proceeded. With anger and grief in his heart he got to horse, ill as he was, and, calling together his people, set out presently for the Louvre, with a train one hundred strong, which w

g? It is done. I have seen him dead. If you enter t

s repeated, this time by a gentleman

emedy. Look to yourself, for this stran

th misgivings mounting swiftly to certainty, Sully rode amain towards the Louvre, his train by now amounting to

hree attendants, which I would not advise you to do. For this plot does not end here. I have seen some persons so little sensible of the loss they ha

ken by a messenger from the Queen, begging him to come at once to her at the Louvre, and to bring as few persons as possible with him. "This prop

ere already at the gates of the Arsenal, that others had been sent to the Temple, where the pow

e affairs of my office." And with that he went to shut himself up in the Bastille, whither he was presently followed by a stream of her Majesty's envoys, all bidding h

rity in the esteem in which the Parisians held him. An attempt against him in the Louvre itself would prove that the blow that had killed his master was not the independent act of a fanatic, as it

that he discovered in that house of death. The Queen herself, however, overwrought by the events, and perhaps conscience-stricken by the tragedy which

him well, for he was one of the best and most faithful servants of the King

l would very quickly have undeceived him. For very soon thereafter his fall was brought about by the Concinis and the

otestants; the dissipation of the treasures amassed by Henry; the disgrace of those who would not receive the yoke of the new favourites. All this Sully witnessed in his declining years, and he witnessed, too, the rapid rise

t, the falsehood with which those who used him played upon his fanaticism and whetted him to their service. I say "pretended" because, after all, complete records of his examinations are not discoverable, and there is a story that when at the point of death,

to pursue inquiries into certain allegations by a woman named d'Escoman, which incrimi

ds which appear to me to have been insufficiently studied. They should suggest a train of

rant and that upon an action of such consequences it is not permissible to give suspicions and conjectures for certain truths. The judge