!•< .<. . . v-.-irtf.- 
 
 N MARGOl 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 IvWICHAMS 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 WIFE OF HENRY OF NAVARRE 
 

 
 ;, iiti^mm^ 
 
 
 ^^y- 
 
 
 ■■:^,.. 
 
MARGUERITE DE VALOIS, QUEEN OF FRANCE 
 AND NAVARRE (cetat 20) 
 
 (" Queen Margot ") 
 
 From an Engraving after a Drawing by an unknown artisty 
 in the Bibliothkque Rationale y Paris 
 
(" toohaM waaop ") 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 WIFE OF HENRY OF NAVARRE 
 
 BY 
 
 H. NOEL WILLIAMS 
 
 AUTHOR OF " MADAME RECAMIER AND HER FRIENDS," " FIVE 
 
 FAIR SISTERS," " QUEENS OF THE FRENCH STAGE," " LATER 
 
 QUEENS OF THE FRENCH STAGE," " MADAME DE 
 
 POMPADOUR," " MADAME DE MONTESPAN," 
 
 "MADAME DU BARRY," ETC. 
 
 " Vous voulez du roman ; que ne vous adressez-vous 
 a I'histoire?" — Guizot. 
 
 WITH SIXTEEN ILLUSTRATIONS 
 IN PHOTOGRAVURE 
 
 NEW YORK 
 CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 
 1907 
 

TO 
 MY WIFE 
 
 S69309 
 
PREFACE 
 
 At no epoch in French history have women played a 
 more prominent part than in the sixteenth century. 
 Their influence pervaded religion, politics, literature, and 
 the arts. They protected Reformers, defied Popes, ruled 
 Kings, shared in every hazard and danger of war, 
 encouraged men-of-letters, patronised artists and sculptors. 
 What a galaxy of famous names do we find ! Marguerite 
 d'Angouleme, the Duchesse d'Etampes, Diane de Poitiers, 
 Ren6e de France, Duchess of Ferrara, Jeanne d'Albret, 
 Catherine de' Medici, Mary Stuart. Yet, if we except the 
 ill-starred Queen of Scotland, the last acts of whose life's 
 tragedy were played out on another stage than that of 
 France, none of these celebrated women furnish material 
 which is at once so acceptable to the student of history and 
 to the general reader as the subject of the present volume. 
 For not only does Marguerite de Valois typify perhaps 
 more completely than any woman of her time the society 
 of the latter part of the sixteenth century, but her career 
 is the very quintessence of romance. " Born in an evil 
 day," as Catherine de' Medici once remarked to her, this 
 daughter, sister, and wife of kings, though endowed with 
 every outward perfection and with intellectual gifts of an 
 unusually high order, was from her youth the sport of 
 Fortune. Forbidden by "reasons of State" to give her hand 
 to the man who possessed her heart, she was compelled to 
 
 vii 
 
PREFACE 
 
 wed the young King of Navarre, to whom she was utterly 
 indifferent, and who regarded her with similar feelings. 
 " Her marriage, which seemed to be the occasion for 
 public rejoicing and to be the cause for the reunion of the 
 two parties which divided the realm, was, on the contrary, 
 the occasion of a general mourning and of the renewal 
 of a war more cruel than the one that had preceded it : 
 the fete was the St. Bartholomew, the cries and the groans 
 of which resounded throughout all Europe ; the festival 
 wine was the blood of the massacred ; the viands, the 
 murdered bodies of the innocent pell-mell with the 
 guilty."^ A union inaugurated under such tragic circum- 
 stances, and with no pretence of affection on either side, 
 could bring nothing but unhappiness ; and the young 
 queen, neglected by her husband and beset by temptations, 
 was quickly involved in the first of that succession of 
 amorous adventures which have earned for her so unenvi- 
 able a reputation. The King of Navarre's position, too, 
 which was practically that of a prisoner at the French Court, 
 rendered her own a most difficult and embarrassing one, 
 which the bitter hostility of her brother, Henri III., and 
 his insolent mignoUy Du Guast, and political complications 
 combined to aggravate. Her husband succeeded in effect- 
 ing his escape in February 1576, but Marguerite remained 
 as a kind of hostage in the hands of Henri III., and it 
 was not until the summer of 1578 that she was permitted 
 to rejoin him in Gascony. In the interval, she had under- 
 taken her adventurous journey to Flanders^ of which she 
 gives us such a vivacious account in her Memoires^ in 
 order to further the interests of her younger brother, the 
 Due d'Anjou, and, on her return to Paris, had assisted 
 the duke to make his escape from Court. 
 ^ M moires du Cardinal de Richelieu. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 Three years were passed at that little Court of N6rac, 
 which, according to d'Aubign^, " did not deem itself of 
 less importance than the other," a period marked by the 
 " Lovers' War," for which Marguerite herself was, in a 
 great measure, responsible, and more than one scandal, the 
 ill-assorted couple according one another a reciprocal in- 
 dulgence, of which they both had certainly great need. 
 But at the end of 158 1, the Queen of Navarre, irritated by 
 her husband's demands upon her complacency and the 
 intrigues of his mistress, Fosseuse, accepted an invitation 
 from Henri III. and Catherine de' Medici to pay a long 
 visit to the French Court. 
 
 This proved a most fatal step, for, after a brief truce, 
 the old animosity between Marguerite and the King 
 revived, and on August 8, 1583, his Majesty grossly and 
 publicly insulted his sister during a ball at the Louvre 
 and commanded her to *' deliver the Court from her con- 
 tagious presence." The unfortunate princess obeyed, and 
 on the morrow set out for Vendome ; but, near Palaiseau, 
 the King, not content with the humiliation he had already 
 inflicted upon her, caused her and some of her people to 
 be arrested and conveyed to the Chateau of Montargis, 
 where he personally interrogated her ladies in regard to 
 the morals of their mistress. 
 
 On the intercession of the Queen-Mother, Marguerite 
 was set at liberty ; but the King of Navarre refused to 
 receive his wife until Henri IIL had accorded him a 
 full and satisfactory explanation, nor was it until some 
 months later that matters were finally adjusted. The 
 princess returned to Nerac, only to find herself treated by 
 her husband with coldness and contempt, while Henri's 
 new mistress, the Comtesse de Gramont (** la belle Cori- 
 sande "), was continually intriguing against her. Finding 
 
 ix 
 
PREFACE 
 
 her position becoming intolerable, in March 1585, 
 Marguerite quitted N6rac and proceeded to Agen, one of 
 the towns of her appanage, with the intention of estab- 
 lishing herself as a kind of independent princess. The 
 Catholic gentry of the neighbourhood quickly gathered 
 around her, and a cleverly-conceived coup cfetdt gave 
 her possession of the town. But her attempt to extend 
 her influence over the adjacent districts ended in 
 complete failure ; and, in the following November, the 
 citizens of Agen, exasperated by her arbitrary treatment 
 of them, rose in revolt and admitted a body of troops 
 sent by the Governor of Guienne into the town. Mar- 
 guerite was forced to fly, and made her way to Auvergne, 
 where she took refuge at the Chateau of Carlat. 
 Here she spent some eighteen not uneventful months, 
 and then removed to the Chateau of Ibois, near Issoire, 
 only to fall into the hands of the Marquis de Canillac, 
 who had been charged by Henri III. to apprehend her. 
 The marquis conveyed her to the Chateau of Usson, a 
 mountain fortress which had been rendered almost im- 
 pregnable by Louis XI., who had used it as a State prison. 
 At Usson the queen was for a time kept in close captivity ; 
 but her charms, combined with the offers of the League, 
 prevailed over the loyalty of Canillac, and, in 1587, he 
 abandoned the Royalist cause and surrendered the fortress 
 to his erstwhile prisoner. 
 
 In this ark of safety, as she called it. Marguerite spent 
 the next eighteen years of her eventful life, and it was 
 here that she wrote the famous MemoireSy " by reason of 
 which an enduring radiance will attach to her name." ^ 
 Very little is known of her life during these years, and in 
 consequence many legends have gathered round it ; her 
 * Sainte-Beuve. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 panegyrists representing Usson to have been " a Tabor 
 for devotion, a Parnassus for the Muses," while her 
 detractors compare it to the Caprae of Tiberius. After 
 her husband's coronation, as Henri IV. of France, she 
 hastened to make her peace with him ; but the King's 
 advisers represented to their master the imperative 
 necessity of providing for an undisputed succession, and, 
 in the spring of 1593, Marguerite, recognising that, after 
 so compromising a past, she could never hope to be 
 Queen of France in anything but name, returned a 
 favourable answer to Henri's proposals for the dissolution 
 of their marriage, the payment of her debts and a hand- 
 some pension being offered her as the price of her com- 
 pliance. Various circumstances, however, the chief of 
 which was the King's passion for Gabrielle d'Estr6es, 
 delayed the completion of the affair, and it was not until 
 December 1597 that the marriage was finally dissolved, 
 Marguerite retaining the titles of Queen and Duchesse 
 de Valois. 
 
 The princess remained at Usson for some years longer ; 
 but, in the summer of 1605, she obtained Henri IV.'s 
 permission to take up her residence at the Chateau 
 of Madrid, at Boulogne-sur-Seine. Here, however, she 
 only remained a few months, when she removed to Paris, 
 and built herself a magnificent hotel on the left bank of 
 the Seine, facing the Louvre. In this sumptuous abode 
 she passed her remaining years, living on the friendliest 
 terms with Henri IV., the new Queen, Marie de' Medici, 
 and their children, patronising men-of-letters, dispensing 
 immense sums in charity and among the religious Orders, 
 and flirting with youthful equerries to the great amuse- 
 ment of the Parisians. Towards the end of her life she 
 became exceedingly devout, and ended by attending as 
 
 xi 
 
PREFACE 
 
 many as three Masses a day. She survived Henri IV. 
 nearly five years, dying on March 27, 16 15, within a few 
 weeks of completing her sixty-second year. She was 
 deeply regretted by all classes, for her kindness of heart 
 had endeared her to the Parisians and done much to 
 obliterate the memory of her faults and follies, which, as 
 I have shown elsewhere, have been grossly exaggerated 
 by mendacious chroniclers and the credulous historians 
 who have followed them. 
 
 In this volume, as in the earlier ones of the same series, 
 it has been my endeavour to give a full and impartial 
 account of the life of my subject ; and also, so far as the 
 space at my disposal has permitted, some account of the 
 historical events in which she was more or less directly 
 concerned, notably those which immediately preceded the 
 Massacre of St. Bartholomew. With this object in view, 
 I have consulted practically all the best contemporary 
 sources of information, and also a very large number of 
 modern works and review articles. Among the former, 
 may be mentioned Marguerite's own memoirs and letters, 
 in the excellent edition undertaken by M. Guessard on 
 behalf of the Societe de VHistoire de France ; the histories 
 of de Thou, Davila, and d'Aubign^ ; the journal of 
 L'Estoile, and the memoirs of Brantome, Sully, and 
 Duplessis-Mornay. Among the latter, I must acknow- 
 ledge my indebtedness to Comte L60 de Saint-Poncy's 
 Hisioire ae Marguerite de Valois^ Reine de France et de 
 Navarre^ a very exhaustive work, which, notwithstanding 
 the marked predilections of the writer in favour of his 
 subject, is one of great interest and value ; M. Charles 
 Merki's la Reine Margot et la fin des ValoiSy which is 
 distinguished by a more judicial tone than the monograph 
 of M. de Salnt-Poncy, and contains, besides, a good deal 
 
 xii 
 
PREFACE 
 
 of information not hitherto accessible ; the charming 
 study of Marguerite in Comte Hector de la Ferri^re's 
 Trots amoureuses au XVP. Steele ; M. Philippe Lauzun's 
 Itineraire raisonne de Marguerite de Valois en Gascogne ; 
 Mr. P. F. Willert's "Henry of Navarre and the Hugue- 
 nots in France ; '* Miss Freer's '* Jeanne d'Albret ; " 
 Mr. A. W. Whitehead's " Gaspard de Coligny, Admiral 
 of France ; " the excellent biographical notes of " Violet 
 Fane " (Lady Currie), appended to her translation of 
 Marguerite's Memoires ; and the able articles by M. 
 Georges Gandy on the Massacre of St. Bartholomew, in 
 the Revue des Questions historiques, i866. 
 
 H. NOEL WILLIAMS. 
 London, November 1906. 
 
 xui 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 n 
 
 III 
 
 IV 
 
 V 
 
 VI 
 
 VII 
 
 VIII 
 
 IX 
 
 X 
 
 XI 
 
 XII 
 
 XIII 
 
 XIV 
 
 XV 
 
 XVI 
 
 XVII 
 
 XVIII 
 
 XIX 
 
 XX 
 
 XXI 
 
 „ XXII 
 
 XXIII 
 
 XXIV 
 
 Page 
 
 ;> 
 
 13 
 
 >> 
 
 28 
 
 >j 
 
 46 
 
 » 
 
 57 
 
 >5 
 
 76 
 
 J> 
 
 93 
 
 >5 
 
 III 
 
 )> 
 
 124 
 
 J) 
 
 143 
 
 5} 
 
 157 
 
 5> 
 
 173 
 
 >J 
 
 190 
 
 )> 
 
 201 
 
 » 
 
 217 
 
 » 
 
 229 
 
 >» 
 
 24s 
 
 » 
 
 256 
 
 »> 
 
 269 
 
 » 
 
 281 
 
 }) 
 
 304 
 
 »> 
 
 324 
 
 » 
 
 343 
 
 5» 
 
 364 
 
 XV 
 
LIST OF PORTRAITS 
 
 IN PHOTOGRAVURE 
 
 Marguerite de Valois, Queen of France and Navarre 
 (" Queen Margot "), eetat. 20, from an engraving after 
 a drawing by an unknown artist, in the Bihliotheque 
 
 Nationale, Paris Frontispiece 
 
 Henri de Lorraine, Due de Guise, from an engraving by 
 
 Lc Blond, in the Britisb Museum lo fact page 38 
 
 Jeanne d'Albret, Queen of Navarre, __/9'o»7 an engraving after 
 a drawing attributed to Fran9ois Clouet, in the 
 Bibliothique Nationale, Paris „ 58 
 
 Henri IV., King of France and i^avarrCf/rom an engraving 
 after a drawing attributed to Pierre du Moustier, in the 
 Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris „ 86 
 
 Gaspard de Coligny, Admiral of France, y?'^^? an engraving 
 after a drawing attributed to Fran9ois Clouet, in the 
 Bihliotheque Nationale, Paris „ icxD 
 
 Elizabeth of Austria, Queen of Fr^ince, from an engraving 
 after a drawing attributed to Janet, in the Bibliothlque 
 Nationale, Paris „ 1 1^ 
 
 Charles IX., King of Ytzxizt, from an engraving after a 
 drawing by an unknown artist, in the BibliotUque 
 Nationale, Paris „ 138 
 
 Charlotte de Beaune, Baronne de Sauve (afterw^ards 
 Marquise de Noirmoutier),_;9o;?7 an engraving after a 
 drawing by an unknown artist, in the Bibliothique 
 Nationale, Paris „ 162 
 
 xvii 
 
LIST OF PORTRAITS 
 
 Don Juan of Austria, /rom a contemporary Spanish print To face page 210 
 
 Franfois de Valois, Due d'Alen9on (afterwards Due 
 Sl* An]OVL), from an engraving after a drawing attributed 
 to Fran9ois Clouet, in the Bibliothique Nationale, 
 Paris „ 234 
 
 Catherine de' Medici, Queen of France, ^ow the drawing 
 
 by Fran9ois Clouet, in the British Museum „ 250 
 
 Henri III., King of France, after an engraving by 
 
 L'Armessin „ 294 
 
 Marguerite de Valois, Queen of France and Navarre, 
 ("Queen MiLrgoi"), from an engraving by Merger 
 after the painting by Vincent „ 316 
 
 Gabrielle d'Estrees, Duchesse de Beaufort, from an 
 engraving after a drawing attributed to Fran9ois 
 Quesnel, in the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris „ 352 
 
 Henriette de Balzac d'Entragues, Marquise de Verneuil, 
 
 from an engraving by Aubert „ 366 
 
 Marie de' Medici, Queen of Yxunce., from the painting by 
 Franz Pourbus the younger {by permission oj Mrs. 
 Alfred Morrison) „ 376 
 
 xvm 
 
CHAPTER I 
 
 Brantome's eulogy of Marguerite de Valols — Characteristics 
 of the Valois family — The three Marguerites — Early years of 
 Marguerite de Valois — Accession of Charles IX. — Critical 
 condition of the kingdom — Catherine de' Medici — Her char- 
 acter and policy — The Colloquy of Poissy — Progress of Pro- 
 testantism at this period — Endeavours of the Due d'Anjou to 
 persuade his sister to embrace the new religion — Outbreak of 
 the first civil war — Marguerite is sent to the Chateau of Saint- 
 Germain — Her education — Her mother summons her to 
 accompany the court on the " Grand Foyage." 
 
 " To speak now of the beauty of this rare princess ; I 
 believe that all those who are, will be, or ever have been, 
 are plain beside it and cannot have beauty ; for the fire 
 of hers so burns the wings of others that they dare not 
 hover or even appear around it. . . . It is believed, on 
 the advice of several, that no goddess was ever seen more 
 beautiful, so that, in order to suitably proclaim her charms, 
 merits, and virtues, God must lengthen the earth and 
 heighten the sky, since space in the air and on the land 
 is lacking for the flight of her perfections and renown." ^ 
 Thus wrote Brantome of Marguerite de Valois, eighth 
 child of Henri II. and Catherine de' Medici, and first wife 
 of Henri IV., the restorer of the French monarchy ; an 
 exaggerated description no doubt, and one whjch even 
 the object of his adoration seems to have found a trifle 
 highly-coloured, but which, so far at least as regards the 
 
 ^ Dames illustres. 
 
 I A 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 princess's outward perfections, finds more than a faint 
 echo in the writings of other contemporary chroniclers. 
 
 A strange race were these Valois of Angouleme ; a 
 race which personified, in both their good qualities and 
 their defects, the epoch in which they lived ; brilliant, 
 frivolous, adventurous ; lovers of letters and patrons 
 of the arts ; generous, eloquent, quick-witted, and 
 courageous : but bigoted and superstitious, cruel and 
 unscrupulous, dissolute, and deceitful. And, as the 
 Valois were typical of their age, so Marguerite may be said 
 to have been typical of her family, " the most attractive 
 figure, the most curious personality of that truly royal 
 race, which was distinguished by so many happy gifts, 
 whose destiny was marked by so many strange vicissitudes, 
 full of triumphs, uncertainties, and calamities." ^ 
 
 Marguerite was born on Sunday, May 14, 1553, in 
 the beautiful Chateau of Saint-Germain,^ overlooking the 
 winding course of the Seine, which had been the birth- 
 place of her father Henri II. and her brother Charles IX., 
 and was one day to be the cradle of Louis XIV. The 
 name which she received had already been borne by two 
 celebrated princesses of her House. The first Marguerite 
 was that " paragon and phoenix of ladies, queens, and 
 princesses," the beloved sister of Francois I., who married, 
 firstly, the Due d'Alen^on, and, afterwards, Henri d'Albret, 
 King of Navarre, and was the author, or compiler, of the 
 " Heptameron " and a writer of charming verse. By her 
 second marriage. Marguerite d'Angouleme, as she was 
 called, became the mother of Jeanne d'Albret, who 
 married Antoine de Bourbon, Due de Vendome, and was 
 
 1 Comte Leo de Saint-Poncy, Marguerite de Valois., Reine de France 
 et de Navarre (Paris : Gaume, 1887), i. 3. 
 
 2 Some historians have erroneously placed her birth at Fontainebleau. 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 the mother of Henri the Fourth of France and the Third 
 of Navarre. The second Marguerite was the second 
 daughter of Francois I., the sister of Henri II., and the 
 wife of Emmanuel Philibert, Duke of Savoy. It was 
 during the festivities in honour of the marriage of this 
 princess and of her niece Elisabeth, eldest daughter of 
 Henri II., to Philip II. of Spain that the King of France 
 was fatally wounded in a tournament, by Gabriel de 
 Montgommery, Comte de Lorges, the Captain of his 
 Scottish Guard. 
 
 Of Marguerite's childhood we know little, for her 
 famous Mimoires contain but scanty information about 
 this period of her life. Her early years were passed at 
 the Chateau of Saint-Germain, in the company of her 
 elder sisters, Elisabeth and Claude (married, in 1559, to 
 Charles II., Duke of Lorraine), and Marie Stuart, the 
 little Queen of Scotland, who became her sister-in-law, in 
 1558, by her marriage with the Dauphin (afterwards 
 Francois II.), under the care of Charlotte de Vienne, 
 Baronne de Curton, "a wise and virtuous lady greatly 
 attached to the Catholic religion," who, according to 
 Marguerite's eighteenth-century historian Mongez, had 
 been the gouvernante of seven queens and princesses.^ 
 
 After the marriage of her sisters and Marie Stuart, 
 Marguerite appears to have spent the greater part of her 
 time at the Chateau of Vincennes and to have had as her 
 companions in her studies and games her two younger 
 brothers, Henri d'Anjou and Francois d'Alen^on, for the 
 latter of whom she early conceived a warm affection, which 
 
 1 She was the fourth wife of Joachim de Chabannes, Seneschal of 
 Toulouse and chevalier d^honneur to Catherine de' Medici. After 
 Marguerite's marriage with Henri II. of Navarre, she became her first 
 dame d'honneur, a post which she held until her death in 1575. 
 
 3 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 was returned and endured down to the time of the 
 prince's death in 1584. 
 
 In the meanwhile, great changes had been taking place 
 in France. The lance of Montgommery had cut short 
 the life of Henry II. and, after a brief reign of eighteen 
 months, Francois II., the youthful and sickly husband of 
 Marie Stuart, had followed him to the grave, leaving the 
 Crown to his younger brother, Charles. 
 
 Seldom has a reign opened under more unfavourable 
 auspices than that of Charles IX. The King was a boy 
 of ten ; several years must elapse before he could be 
 capable of exercising more than a nominal authority, 
 while never had a strong and energetic ruler been more 
 sorely needed. The condition of affairs in France was 
 indeed most critical. To the difficulties which invariably 
 beset a Regency were joined other troubles. Since the 
 death of Henri II., the authority of the Crown had 
 greatly declined ; rival factions, the Bourbons, the Mont- 
 morencies, and the Guises disputed the power ; the Court 
 was a hotbed of intrigue, the people oppressed and dis- 
 contented ; while the antagonism between the Reforma- 
 tion and the Old Religion had assumed a pronounced and 
 openly hostile character. 
 
 Such was the situation with which Catherine de' 
 Medici was called upon to deal, when, in the teeth of the 
 rival factions, she took up the reins of government. 
 During the reign of her husband, Catherine had perforce 
 remained in the background, the King being completely 
 under the influence of his mistress, Diane de Poitiers, 
 though once, for a brief period, when Henri II. was with 
 the army in Germany, she had acted as Regent of the 
 Kingdom. Under Francois II., the government had 
 fallen into the hands of Marie Stuart's uncles, the Due de 
 
 4 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 Guise and the Cardinal de Lorraine, and the Queen- 
 Mother had been, poHtically speaking, a mere cipher. 
 But the early death of Francois had given her the 
 opportunity which she so ardently desired — for all her 
 life she had hungered for power and influence as a 
 starving man hungers for bread — and she at once 
 assumed a quasi-absolute authority. And that authority 
 once in her hands, all her eflForts were henceforth directed 
 to safeguarding it and enabling her to remain the first — 
 the only personage in the State. She brought to the task 
 a remarkable knowledge of men and affairs, the fruit of 
 long years of quiet study and observation, a boundless 
 activity, an untiring vigilance, a charm of manner which 
 few who came into contact with her could resist, and a 
 soul depraved by a life of subjection and dissimulation. 
 Her master-passion was to govern through her sons, and 
 she dreaded every influence which might weaken by one 
 iota her personal authority. In State ceremonies, she 
 loved to be treated as on an equality with them ; at the 
 Estates of Orleans in 1560, her seat was placed on the 
 same level and under the same canopy as that of 
 Charles IX. When, in 1569, she visited Metz, she 
 desired to precede him into the town, with her own 
 cortege of ladies and officers, in order not to be 
 confounded with his suite. In fact, she governed during 
 the whole reign of her second son, resumed the Regency 
 after his death, while awaiting the return of Henri III. 
 from Poland, and her influence may be traced in almost 
 every important act of his reign down to the time of her 
 death. 
 
 By the majority of her contemporaries, particularly by 
 those who viewed her only from a distance, Catherine is 
 represented as a sinister figure, with little of the woman 
 
 5 
 
 V 
 
V 
 
 QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 about her save her sex ; a creature of Machiavellian 
 subtlety, ambitious, cruel and unscrupulous. This 
 estimate would seem to be in great part erroneous. 
 Ambitious and unscrupulous she certainly was ; but she 
 was never cruel, except when it was impossible to gain 
 her ends by other means. Violent measures were 
 naturally alien to her character ; when she struck, it was 
 because bribery, cajolery and intimidation had failed. 
 Nor was she, by any means, the profound politician 
 which some would have us believe. The rapid changes 
 of front, the shifty expedients, to which she so constantly 
 resorted, so far from being part of any carefully-matured 
 scheme, were, in most instances, the manoeuvres of a 
 timid, irresolute woman, anxious at all costs to escape 
 from the difficulties of the moment and incapable of 
 perceiving any but the immediate consequences of her 
 actions. 
 
 If Catherine had really possessed the political sagacity 
 sometimes ascribed to her, she would most certainly, on 
 her assumption of the Regency, have pursued the course 
 suggested to her by her able and disinterested Minister, 
 Michel I'Hopital. This was to adopt a strictly neutral 
 position, and, by the enforcement of toleration, of civil 
 reform, and of justice, to raise the Crown above the region 
 of controversy and prevent civil war. But the Queen only 
 followed this advice so far as to avoid siding definitely 
 with either party. She was incapable of any noble aim, while 
 it is also probable that she failed to fully realise, at any 
 rate until matters had gone too far to be remedied, the 
 gravity of the situation. " If one follows all her proceed- 
 ings," writes Chateaubriand, *' one perceives that in the 
 whole vast realm of which she was the sovereign, she 
 beheld only a large Florence, the broils of her petty 
 
 6 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 republic, the risings of one quarter of her native city 
 against another, the quarrels between the Pazzi and the 
 Medici, in the struggle between the Guises and the 
 Chatillons." " To divide in order to reign " was the 
 principle upon which she acted ; to give a little 
 encouragement to the Huguenots, to instil a little 
 apprehension into the Catholics, and to accustom both 
 parties to regard her as the dominating factor in the 
 situation. The result was that she was distrusted by 
 both alike, and is more than any one responsible for the 
 thirty years of civil war that thenceforward devastated 
 France. 
 
 It must not be supposed, however, that Catherine 
 desired war. On the contrary, she was sincerely anxious 
 to maintain peace. War might mean a decisive victory 
 for the Huguenots, in which case she foresaw that the 
 turbulent nobles who would fight for their old feudal 
 rights under the banner of religious toleration would 
 require far greater concessions than that of freedom of 
 worship. Or it might mean the complete triumph of the 
 Catholics, and the consequent supremacy of the Guises. 
 Both results were equally to be feared. 
 
 And so she expressed her warm approval of the 
 Colloquy of Poissy, which took place in the early autumn 
 of 1 56 1, in the hope of arriving at some settlement of 
 the chief points in dispute between the two religions, and, 
 in company with the King, assisted at its deliberations. 
 But the colloquy came to nothing, and, after long and 
 acrimonious discussions, the rival theologians parted more 
 divided in opinion than ever. 
 
 It was at the Colloquy of Poissy, and during the 
 months that followed, that Huguenotism reached its 
 
 7 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 flood-tide, and made its supreme effort to capture France 
 and to found a new national Protestant Church. The 
 Court itself was the centre of the struggle. High-born 
 dames, like Ren6e de France, Duchess of Ferrara, 
 Jacqueline de Rohan, the Princesse de Porcien, and the 
 Comtesses de MaiJly and de la Rochefoucauld, exerted 
 all the influence at their command to make converts. 
 Beza and other eminent divines expounded Calvinistic 
 doctrines, in the lodgings of Coligny and Conde, to con- 
 gregations largely composed of Catholics. The younger 
 members of the Court, particularly the ladies, began to 
 manifest a decided taste for the new heterodox works, and 
 took pleasure in reading the Holy Scriptures in French 
 and singing the Psalms of Marot. " The numbers and 
 boldness of the Protestants increase daily," wrote 
 Languet, " and the Catholics seemed to be disheartened, 
 little by little." ^ Fashion, ever so powerful in France, 
 was probably no stranger to the progress of Protestantism. 
 *'It is with a morbid justice," remarks M. de Saint- 
 Poncy, that President Henault observes that " in seeking 
 the true causes of the progress of the Reformation in 
 different countries, one finds that in Germany it was 
 interest,*^ in England love,^ and in France novelty."* 
 
 Marguerite de Valois, in her Memoires, casts a curious 
 light upon the trend of opinion in Court circles at this 
 period, and shows us the aristocratic enthusiasts for the 
 
 1 Cited by Mr. A. W. Whitehead, « Gaspard de Coligny, Admiral 
 of France." 
 
 2 The desire of the minor princes of Germany to enrich themselves 
 with the spoils of the Church. 
 
 3 The love of Henry VIII. for Anne Boleyn. 
 
 * Comte L6o de Saint-Poncy, Histoire de Marguerite de Valois^ Reine 
 de France et de Navarre^ i. 26. 
 
 8 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 latest fashionable craze carrying their zeal so far as to 
 endeavour to make proselytes by means more forcible 
 than persuasive. It is singular to find at the head of 
 this band of missionaries her brother, the Due d'Anjou, 
 one of the chief instigators of the Massacre of St. 
 Bartholomew. 
 
 Then, again, she says, " is the resistance I made in 
 order to remain faithful to my religion, at the time of 
 the Colloquy of Poissy (when the whole Court was in- 
 fected with heresy), to the arbitrary persuasions of several 
 lords and ladies of the Court, and even to those of my 
 brother of Anjou, since King of France, whose inexperience 
 had prevented him from escaping the influence of that 
 wretched Huguenoterie, and who never ceased conjuring 
 me to change my religion, very often throwing my Book 
 of Hours into the fire and giving me, in its stead, 
 Huguenot songs and prayers, which I used to hand over 
 at once to Madame de Curton, my gouvernante^ whom 
 God had done me the favour to keep Catholic, and who 
 would often take me to M. Cardinal de Tournon, who 
 advised and strengthened me in the sufl^ering of all things 
 for the maintenance of my religion, and gave me prayer- 
 books and rosaries, in the place of those which had been 
 burnt by my brother of Anjou. But when others of his 
 intimate friends who were bent upon my destruction dis- 
 covered that these were once more in my possession, they 
 reviled me angrily, saying that it was youth and stupidity 
 which caused me to act thus ; that it was easy to see that 
 I was possessed of no understanding ; that all intelligent 
 people, whatever their age or sex, hearing the doctrine of 
 Charity preached, had freed themselves from the trammels 
 of bigotry, but that I should become as foolish as my 
 gouvernante. And my brother of Anjou, adding threats 
 
 9 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 thereunto, declared that the Queen my mother would 
 have me whipped. He said this, however, upon his own 
 responsibility, for the Queen my mother was ignorant of 
 the error into which he had fallen, and when she became 
 aware of it, she reproved him and his tutors as well, and, 
 after having had them instructed, induced them to return 
 to the true, holy, and ancient faith of our fathers, from 
 which she had never departed. I used to say in answer 
 to these threats, melting to tears — as seven or eight, the 
 age I was then, is a somewhat sensitive period — that 
 they might have me whipped or killed if they liked, but 
 that I would endure anything that could be done to me 
 rather than bring about my own damnation." ^ 
 
 7 Marguerite, indeed, remained down to the day of her 
 death a most devout Catholic, that is to say, in the sense 
 of being a rigid observer of the forms and ceremonies of 
 her Church, a practice which was not in those days, and, 
 indeed, down to a very much later period, held to be in- 
 .xompatible with the most irregular of lives. 
 ' -'' The enthusiasm of the Court for the new teaching was 
 not of long duration, for Protestantism, partly under the 
 stress of the persecution to which it was subjected at the 
 hands of the Guises and their partisans, and partly through 
 the influence of the ambitious nobles who exploited it for 
 their own selfish purposes, was rapidly passing from a 
 purely religious movement into a political one of a most 
 formidable kind. In March 1562, the massacre of Vassy 
 furnished the occasion for which both parties had been 
 waiting, and a few weeks later the first civil war broke 
 
 f^ out. 
 
 At the commencement of hostilities, Catherine de' 
 Medici separated her children ; the young King and her 
 1 Memoires et lettres de Marguerite de Valois (edit, Guessard, 1842.) 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 favourite son, Henri d'Anjou, she kept with her ; while 
 Marguerite and the little Due d'Alen^on were sent to the 
 Chateau of Amboise, so charmingly situated on the banks 
 of the Loire. Three years earlier, Amboise had been 
 the scene of tragic events ; but now it was peaceful, and 
 had been chosen by the Queen-Mother as being sufficiently 
 far removed from the theatre of war to prove a safe 
 retreat for her younger children. Here Marguerite and 
 her brother were able to continue their studies, undisturbed 
 by the turmoil in which the greater part of the country 
 was plunged ; the former under the direction of Madame 
 de Curton and the learned and pious Henri Le Maignan, 
 afterwards Bishop of Digne, the latter under that of his 
 gouverneury Du Plessis. 
 
 Catherine de' Medici, belonging to a family in which 
 love for the arts was hereditary, exercised the most careful 
 supervision over the education of her children and spared 
 no pains to secure for them the services of the most 
 capable teachers of the day. The classics, grammar, 
 history, the Holy Scriptures — from the study of which, 
 it must be confessed, they would appear to have de- 
 rived singularly little benefit — all were carefully taught 
 them. The savant Amyot, Bishop of Auxerre, one of the 
 most profound scholars of his time, whose translation 
 of Plutarch enjoyed so great a vogue, was tutor to 
 Charles IX. and Henri d'Anjou, and gave lessons also to 
 Catherine's younger children. " It is not his least glory,'* 
 remarks M. de Saint-Poncy, " to have cultivated the mind 
 of the young Princess of Valois and to have prepared, by 
 his learned instruction, one of the most eloquent writers 
 of this remarkable century. The perusal of Marguerite's 
 Memoires reveals the impression which Plutarch made 
 upon her ; one finds there many passages reminiscent of 
 
 II 
 
 X 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 this work, which had on its appearance an incomparable 
 success, confirmed by posterity."^ 
 
 Nor were other studies neglected ; music, singing, 
 painting, and dancing — in which accomplishment the last 
 Valois seemed to have particularly excelled — were taught 
 them by the best masters that could be procured. 
 Marguerite received instruction in music and singing 
 from the celebrated singer, Etienne Leroy, and Paul de 
 Rege, who had been the dancing-master of Marie Stuart, 
 gave her lessons in the choregraphic art. 
 
 At the conclusion of the first civil war, in the spring of 
 1563, Catherine, freed for a time from her dread of the 
 Guises, by the assassination of their chief,^ decided that 
 her best chance of maintaining her influence, lay in placing 
 her eldest son at the head of the Catholic party, and 
 directing her efforts to the gradual ruin, by peaceful 
 means, of the Protestants, now become by far the most 
 formidable opponents of the royal authority. The King 
 had been declared of age, but the eflfective authority 
 remained in the hands of his mother, who now persuaded 
 him to undertake a grand progress through the various 
 provinces of his realm, and sent for Marguerite, who was 
 not yet twelve years old, to accompany her. Catherine 
 hoped much from this progress, which was intended to 
 make the young sovereign acquainted with the position of 
 affairs in the provinces, and to impose by his presence respect 
 for the edicts of toleration accorded the Huguenots, while, 
 at the same time, weakening their influence and rendering 
 it difficult for them to recommence hostilities. 
 
 ^ Comte Leo de Saint-Poncy, Marguerite de Valois^ Reine de France 
 et de Navarre, i. 17. 
 
 * Francois de Lorraine, Due de Guise, was assassinated by Poltrot de 
 M6r6 while besieging Orleans, on February 18, 1563. 
 
 12 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 The " Grand Voyage" — The interview of Bayonne — F^teonthe 
 Isle of Aiguemeau — Huguenot excesses in Beam — Marguerite 
 returns to Paris — Beginning of the second civil war — Attempts 
 of the Huguenots to seize the King at Monceaux — Flight of 
 the court to Paris — Battle of Saint-Denis — The Due d* Anjou 
 proposes to Marguerite a political r61e — Marguerite is ad- 
 mitted to her mother's confidence — Arrival of the Court at 
 Saint-Jean-d'Angely — Du Guast — Anjou accuses Marguerite 
 of encouraging the attentions of the Due de Guise — Catherine 
 de' Medici withdraws her confidence from her daughter — 
 Marguerite's reason for denying her passion for Guise in her 
 Mmoires. 
 
 The Court quitted Paris on Monday, January 24, 1564, 
 and proceeded through Champagne and Lorraine to Bar- 
 le-Duc, where magnificent f^tes were held in honour of 
 the baptism of Marguerite's nephew, the Prince of 
 Lorraine, son of her second sister Claude and Duke 
 Charles II. Burgundy and Dauphine were next visited, 
 and at the Chateau of Roussillon, Charles IX. signed the 
 celebrated Ordinance of that name, whereby it was enacted 
 that, for all official purposes, the year should henceforth 
 begin on January i, instead of, as heretofore, on Easter 
 Sunday, or, to be more exact, on Holy Saturday after 
 vespers. The winter of 1564-1565 was passed at Lyons, 
 where the Duke and Duchess of Savoy visited the Court 
 and were splendidly entertained. Then, at the beginning 
 of the spring, the progress was resumed, and the Court 
 
 13 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 proceeded to Bayonne, which was the limit of the journey. 
 Here an interesting family meeting took place, the young 
 Queen of Spain, Catherine's eldest daughter, coming from 
 Madrid to greet her relatives, accompanied by the ill- 
 fated Don Carlos — Philip II. 's son by his first wife — and 
 the famous — or infamous — Duke of Alva, who was 
 charged to invest the King of France with the Order of 
 the Golden Fleece. 
 
 Alva's mission masked one of far greater importance, 
 nothing less than to endeavour to prevail upon Charles 
 and Catherine to enter into a treaty with Philip for the 
 extirpation of the Protestants both in France and the 
 Netherlands ; and some Protestant historians go so far as 
 to assert that it was here that the project of the Massacre 
 of St. Bartholomew was first determined on. But 
 contemporary documents, such as Alva's own letters and 
 the papers of Cardinal de Granvelle, clearly prove that 
 the proposals of the terrible general were very coldly 
 received by Catherine, and that he was given nothing but 
 the vaguest assurances ; while it should be remembered 
 that Alva, in marked contrast to his master, expressed 
 the strongest disapprobation of the horrors of the St. 
 Bartholomew, not, of course, on humanitarian, but on 
 political grounds, declaring it to be *' a mad, fatuous, and 
 badly-conceived act." 
 
 If Alva failed in his mission, he had no reason to be 
 dissatisfied with the reception which he and his royal 
 mistress received at Bayonne. With Catherine de' 
 Medici, it was a point of honour to dazzle the eyes of 
 foreigners with the magnificence of the Court of France, 
 and the French nobles ably seconded her efforts. 
 Marguerite, in her Memoires^ describes at length the 
 superb fete and ballet, which Charles IX. and the Queen- 
 
 14 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 Mother gave on St. John's Eve, on the Isle of Aiguemeau, 
 in the Adour. 
 
 "The shape of a room," she writes, "was designed in 
 the middle of an island, as though by Nature, in a large 
 oval meadow, enclosed by stately trees, around which the 
 Queen my mother had arranged niches, in each of which 
 was placed a circular table for twelve persons, whilst that 
 of their Majesties was raised at the end of the enclosure 
 upon a dais, approached by four grass steps. All these 
 tables were served by different groups of shepherdesses 
 dressed in cloth-of-gold and satin, according to the 
 various costumes of all the provinces of France. Upon 
 our disembarking from the magnificent boats (in which, 
 all the way from Bayonne to the island, we were ac- 
 companied by several sea-gods, who sang and recited 
 verses to their Majesties), these shepherdesses were 
 discovered, each group apart, in meadows upon either 
 side of a grass valley, which led to the aforesaid enclosure, 
 dancing after the manner of their provinces — the 
 Poitevines v/ith the bagpipes, the Proven^ales with 
 shawms and cymbals, the Bourguignones and Cham- 
 penoises with small hautboys, round fiddles, and rustic 
 tambourines, the Bretonnes dancing the passe-pieds and the 
 hranles-gais^ and so on in respect of all the other 
 provinces. After the performances of these shepherdesses 
 and the feast itself were concluded, a band of musicians, 
 accompanied by a troupe of satyrs, entered that large 
 luminous grotto, which was even more brilliantly 
 illuminated by the radiant beauty and the precious stones 
 of a bevy of nymphs, who made their entry from above, 
 than by the artificial light. These nymphs and satyrs 
 descended and danced that beautiful ballet, whereof 
 Fortune waxed envious and unable to endure its glories, 
 
 IS 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 brought about such an extraordinary storm of wind and 
 rain that the confusion of the retreat which took place, 
 in the dark, by boat, furnished material for more 
 diverting stories than even the fdte had afforded. 
 
 After a brilliant series of entertainments : tournaments, 
 fetes, illuminations, and banquets, the two Courts 
 separated, and Elisabeth reluctantly bade farewell to her 
 family, which she was never to see again ^ and set out with 
 Alva and Don Carlos on her return journey ; while the 
 French Court proceeded to N6rac, the favourite residence 
 of Jeanne d'Albret, Queen of Navarre. Their journey 
 thither lay, in great part, through the dominions of that 
 estimable but bigoted princess, and the more devout 
 Catholics of the party were horror-struck by the signs of 
 the devastation recently committed by the Huguenots, in 
 revenge for the cruelties perpetrated on their co-religionists 
 in other parts of France. For Jeanne had proscribed 
 the Catholic religion and persecuted its adherents, and 
 ruined monasteries, desecrated churches, broken crosses, 
 and mutilated images were to be seen on every side. 
 
 On their arrival at Nerac, Charles IX. and Catherine 
 
 ^ Elisabeth de Valois died on October 3, 1568. It was firmly be- 
 lieved by many of her contemporaries that his Catholic Majesty had 
 caused his young wife to be poisoned ; and, according to Sully, it was to 
 avenge this supposed crime that Charles IX. desired to wrest from Spain 
 Flanders and Artois. " The King (Charles IX.)," he writes, " had 
 several causes of complaint against the King of Spain, and, among others, 
 the death, which he was well aware that he had procured, of his wife, 
 Elisabeth de France, owing to his jealousy of the good understanding 
 that she had with Prince Charles (Don Carlos), his eldest son, on account 
 of which he was resolved to make war upon him." The latest investiga- 
 tions of historical criticism, however, exonerate the much-abused monarch 
 from the crime imputed to him, and everything tends to the belief that 
 Elisabeth died a natural death. 
 
 16 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 addressed a vigorous remonstrance to the Queen, and 
 ordered the immediate re-establishment of the Old 
 Religion. Jeanne was compelled to obey ; but the tolera- 
 tion thus extorted from her only lasted until the renewal of 
 the civil war, when the persecution of the luckless Catholics 
 of B6arn and Navarre was resumed with more severity 
 than before. 
 
 The " grand voyage^'' as it is termed, concluded with a 
 visit to the central provinces, and after having assisted, in 
 company with their Majesties, at the celebrated Assembly 
 of Moulins, where Coligny was declared guiltless of all 
 responsibility for the assassination of the Due de Guise, 
 Marguerite returned with the Court to Paris, which was 
 reached on May i, 1566. 
 
 In September of the following year, civil war broke 
 out again. Although, as we have seen, Catherine had 
 rejected the drastic proposals of Alva, with regard to the 
 Protestants, the latter had drawn the worst inferences 
 from the Bayonne interview ; and the refusal of the 
 Government to disband a force of 6000 Swiss mercenaries, 
 which had been raised to protect the Eastern frontier 
 from any aggression on the part of the Spanish troops 
 marching from Italy to the Netherlands, alarmed and 
 exasperated them to the last degree. Their chiefs met in 
 council at Valery and Chatillon, and, though Coligny 
 pleaded eloquently for peace, he was overruled, and it was 
 resolved to seize the person of the King, to capture 
 some of the stronger towns, and to fall upon and 
 annihilate the Swiss. Rozoy, in Brie, was selected as the 
 rendezvous. 
 
 The first move in this desperate game was within an 
 ace of being successful. The Court was at the Chateau of 
 
 17 B 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 Monceaux, In Brie, which belonged to Catherine, occupied 
 with f^tes and hunting-parties, when the Sieur de 
 Castelnau, whom Charles IX. had despatched on a 
 political mission to Brussels, arrived with the news that 
 the Huguenots were everywhere preparing to rise in 
 arms. The King was at first incredulous, and I'Hopital 
 declared that " it was a capital offence to give a false 
 warning to a prince, which might cause him to distrust his 
 subjects." ^ However, a few days later, word was brought 
 that armed men were patrolling all the roads in the 
 neighbourhood, and that a body of cavalry was encamped 
 in a wood in which his Majesty had announced his inten- 
 tion of hunting on the following morning. In great 
 alarm, Charles despatched messengers to Chateau-Thierry 
 to summon the Swiss, who were stationed there, to his 
 succour ; and on September 22, the Court quitted 
 Monceaux and threw itself into the town of Meaux. 
 The Swiss arrived at midnight on the 24th, and, on the 
 advice of their commander Pfeiffer, who pledged himself, 
 **to make a lane for their Majesties through the army of 
 their enemies," it was resolved to retire on Paris. 
 Accordingly, at daybreak on the 28th, they left Meaux, 
 the Swiss marching in the form of a square, with the Royal 
 Family in their midst, while the gentlemen of the Court 
 and their servants formed -the advance- and rear-guards 
 of the cortege. At Lagny, they were met by the Huguenot 
 cavalry under Conde and Coligny ; but the latter were 
 not as yet in sufficient force to risk an engagement,^ and 
 recoiled before the resolute attitude of the Swiss, who, 
 ** lowering their pikes, ran at them like mad dogs, at full 
 
 1 (Memoires de Castelnau^ vi. i. 
 
 ^ Not more than five or six hundred horse, according to Protestant 
 writers. 
 
 18 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 speed." And so, guarded by foreign mercenaries from 
 the wrath of his rebellious subjects, Charles IX. reached 
 his capital, burning with shame and indignation at the 
 extremity to which he had been reduced. 
 
 The Huguenots followed and, having been reinforced, 
 encamped at Saint-Denis and proceeded to blockade 
 Paris, although their army does not seem to have 
 exceeded 6000 men, and they were without artillery ; 
 while the old Constable de Montmorency, with a vastly 
 superior force, lay within the city. The Constable, how- 
 ever, had grown cautious with age and was disinclined to 
 take the offensive, and it was not until the necessity of 
 opposing the advance of a Spanish corps from the Nether- 
 lands had compelled the Huguenots to despatch a consider- 
 able portion of their slender forces, under Coligny's 
 brother, Andelot, and Montgommery, in the direction of 
 Poissy, that he ventured to give battle. In the result, 
 the Protestants, who were outnumbered by as many as 
 five to one, were compelled to retreat, though all the 
 honours of the day were unquestionably theirs, and the 
 Constable himself was amongst the slain. Thus com- 
 menced the second stage of this sanguinary struggle, 
 which, save for the brief respite ensured by the Peace of 
 Longjumeau, was to ravage France for four years. 
 
 In the midst of these stirring events, history makes 
 little mention of Marguerite ; but the princess herself 
 relates a curious episode, which is a striking testimony to 
 the fear and respect in which Catherine de' Medici was 
 held by her children and to the intriguing character of 
 the future Henri III. 
 
 After the battle of Jarnac, in which a felon-shot had 
 
 19 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 deprived the Huguenots of their gallant leader Cond6,* 
 the Court proceeded to Plessis-les-Tours to join the 
 victorious Anjou.^ One day, while Marguerite was 
 walking with her mother and brothers in the beautiful 
 park which surrounded the ancient chateau, Henri drew 
 her down a quiet alley and addressed her as follows : 
 
 *' Sister, early association no less than close kinship, 
 constrains us to love one another, and you must have 
 been well aware that I, of all of your brothers, have ever 
 been the most solicitous for your welfare, while I have 
 remarked that you too were disposed to return me a like 
 affection. Until now, we have been naturally inclined 
 to this, without such intimacy having been productive of 
 any advantage to us, except the mere pleasure we have 
 derived from conversing together. During our childhood, 
 this was well enough ; but the time has gone by for 
 behaving like children. You see the great and important 
 posts to which God has called me and for which I have 
 been trained by the Queen our good mother. You may 
 rest assured that, since you are the one thing in the world 
 that I most love and cherish, I shall never possess either 
 honours or worldly goods in which you will not 
 participate." 
 
 After this insinuating preamble, Anjou frankly re- 
 quested his sister's aid. " Your intelligence and judg- 
 
 ^ Cond6 was shot, after he had surrendered himself a prisoner, by the 
 Baron de Montesquieu, a creature of Anjou, very probably by that 
 prince's orders. 
 
 2 On the death of the old Constable de Montmorency, in the Battle 
 of Saint-Denis, Catherine had declined to fill the vacant office, but had 
 persuaded Charles IX. to give the command of the royal forces to 
 Henri d' Anjou, with the title of Lieutenant-General of the Kingdom ; 
 Marechal de Tavannes being chosen to direct the operations of the 
 youthful commander. 
 
 20 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 ment," said he, " may be of service to me in influencing 
 the Queen our mother to retain me in my present fortune. 
 Now, my chief support consists in remaining in her good 
 graces. I dread lest absence may injure me, and yet the 
 war and my appointments oblige me to be almost always 
 at a distance. Meanwhile, the King my brother is con- 
 tinually at her side, flattering her and humouring her in 
 everything. I fear that, in the end, this will be prejudicial 
 to me, and that the King my brother, growing up and 
 being brave, as he is, may not always continue to amuse 
 himself with hunting, but may become ambitious and 
 substitute the chase of men for that of beasts and deprive 
 me of the post of King's lieutenant which he bestowed 
 upon me, in order that he may join the forces himself. 
 This would be so great an annoyance and humiliation to 
 me that I should prefer a painful death rather than endure 
 such a fall. In considering the means of dispelling this 
 apprehension, I find that it is necessary for me to have 
 some very faithful persons devoted to my interests, to 
 uphold my influence with the Queen my mother. I 
 know none so suitable as you, whom I look upon as my 
 second self. You possess all the requisite qualifications : 
 wit, understanding, and fidelity. If you will only add 
 obedience thereunto, by being always present in her cabinet, 
 at her lever and at her coucher^ in short, continually, 
 this, combined with what I shall tell her of your capacity, 
 will constrain her to confide in you ; and I shall beg her 
 no longer to treat you as a child, but to make use of you, 
 in my absence, as of myself. This, I am assured, she will 
 do. Rid yourself of your timidity. Talk to her freely, 
 as you do to me, and, believe me, she will listen graciously. 
 It will be an honour and a happiness to you to be loved by 
 her. You will greatly advantage both yourself and me, 
 
 21 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 and I shall be beholden to you, after God, for the 
 maintenance of my good fortune." 
 
 Marguerite tells us that these overtures occasioned her 
 the most profound astonishment. She, a young girl of 
 sixteen, who had had not a thought beyond dancing 
 and hunting, was invited to become a political woman ! 
 Moreover, she had been brought up to regard her mother 
 with such awe that not only did she never dare to address 
 her, but trembled when her Majesty so much as glanced 
 in her direction, for fear that she might have done some- 
 thing to offend her ; and, consequently, she felt inclined 
 to answer her brother as Moses replied to God, on 
 beholding the vision of the burning bush : " Who am 
 I ? Send, I pray Thee, by the hand of him whom Thou 
 oughtest to send." However, when she had recovered 
 from the first surprise, she began to feel highly gratified 
 by her brother's words, and " it seemed to her that she 
 was transformed and had become something greater than 
 her former self." She, accordingly, hastened to assure him 
 that ** no one on earth loved and respected him as she 
 did," and that, when with the Queen, she would act 
 entirely in his interests. 
 
 A day or two afterwards, Catherine summoned 
 Marguerite to her cabinet, and then told her that she 
 had been informed by her son of the conversation he had 
 had with his sister, and that it was her intention to admit 
 her to her confidence and permit her to speak to her 
 freely. 
 
 Marguerite's life now underwent a great change. 
 Hitherto her time had been fully occupied with childish 
 games and the ordinary amusements of the Court ; but, 
 proud of being admitted to her mother's confidence, she 
 now affected a fine scorn for all these frivolities, " as 
 
 22 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 things utterly vain and unprofitable," and began to devote 
 all her attention to politics — the tortuous politics of that 
 strange epoch, when the friend of to-day might become 
 the enemy of to-morrow, and a man's deadliest foes were 
 often those who were loudest in their professions of 
 devotion. She made it her unvarying rule, she tells us, 
 to be the first at the Queen's lever and the last at her 
 couchery in order to lose not a moment of this precious 
 intimacy ; and her mother sometimes conversed with her 
 for two or three hours at a time, though whether these 
 lengthy conferences were of quite so important a nature 
 as the princess intends us to believe, we are inclined to 
 doubt. Catherine de' Medici was never over-fond of 
 confidantes, least of all of young ladies of sixteen. 
 
 Matters continued on this footing until the late autumn 
 of 1569, when the Court arrived at Saint- Jean-d'Angely, 
 to join Anjou, who was laying siege to that town. Here 
 a mortification as bitter as it was unexpected awaited the 
 princess, which she attributes to the evil offices of a 
 favourite of her brother named Du Guast, who had 
 supplanted her in the confidence of the duke. 
 
 A member of a very old family of Dauphine, Louis de 
 Beranger, Seigneur du Guast or du Gast — the name is 
 variously spelt — had come when still a youth to the 
 Court of the Valois, where his courage, audacity, and wit 
 quickly brought him into prominence.^ Having decided 
 that the patronage of one of the Royal Family might 
 
 ^ A portrait of Du Guast is preserved among the sixteenth-century 
 drawings in the Cabinet des Estampes, " which shows us just such a 
 man as we should expect to find, with a convex forehead, a red beard, 
 worn short and cut to a point, and a thin, disdainful mouth. The 
 dominant expression of this countenance is audacity tempered by 
 craft." — La Ferridre, Trots amoureuses du X^Ie sUcle : Marguerite de 
 Valois, 
 
 23 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 facilitate his advancement, he insinuated himself into the 
 good graces of Anjou, and opens the list of that long 
 succession of favourites who exercised so deplorable an 
 influence over that prince. Determined to enjoy an 
 absolute authority over his master, he left no means 
 untried to discredit those who might be inclined to dis- 
 pute it with him, and ** influenced him so entirely that 
 he saw only through his eyes and spoke only through 
 his lips." *' This bad man, born to do evil," continues 
 Marguerite, *' had at once fascinated his mind and filled 
 it with a thousand tyrannical maxims : * That one ought 
 only to love and trust oneself; that one should involve 
 no one else in one's own destiny, not even a brother or a 
 sister ' ; together with other fine Machiavellian precepts, 
 wherewith having become imbued, he set about putting 
 them into practice." ^ 
 
 The princess, who had come to Saint- Jean-d'Angely, 
 in confident anticipation of being received by her brother, 
 with all the demonstrations of affection and gratitude, 
 which the services she had rendered, or flattered herself 
 that she had rendered, him warranted, was speedily dis- 
 illusioned. '* As soon as we had arrived," she writes, 
 " after the first salutations, my mother began praising 
 me and saying how loyally I had stood his friend with 
 her. He answered coldly that he was very glad that 
 what he had suggested had turned out so well, but that 
 prudence did not always permit one to make use of the 
 
 ^ In contradiction to Marguerite and the majority of contemporary 
 chroniclers, her friend Brantome describes Du Guast as a man of some 
 merit and asserts that when Henri d* Anjou became King, he exercised a 
 beneficial influence over him. " I have seen him," he writes, " remon- 
 strate with the King, when he perceived that he was doing anything wrong 
 or when he heard it reported of him. The King took it in good part, 
 and used to correct himself." 
 
 24 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 same expedients, and that what was necessary at one 
 time might be dangerous at another. She asked him 
 his reason for speaking thus. Upon which, seeing that 
 the moment had come for the invention he had fabricated 
 on purpose to destroy me, he replied that I was becoming 
 beautiful and that M. de Guise ^ was turning his thoughts 
 upon me, and that his uncles^ aspired to make a marriage 
 between us ; that she was aware of the ambition of that 
 House [the House of Lorraine] and of how it had always 
 embarrassed ours ; and that, for this reason, it would be 
 as well that she should no longer talk to me of affairs, 
 and that she should gradually withdraw herself from all 
 intimacy with me." 
 
 Marguerite goes on to tell us that she omitted nothing 
 to convince her mother of her innocence, assuring her 
 that she had never heard of this report, and that if the 
 Due de Guise had had any such intention, she would 
 certainly have informed the Queen of it, the moment he 
 mentioned the subject to her. But her protestations were 
 vain, *' for her brother's words had taken such possession of 
 the Queen's mind that there was no room in it for either 
 reason or truth ; " and from that moment Catherine ceased 
 to admit her daughter to her confidence. 
 
 The Memoires of Marguerite de Valois are deserving 
 of all that the greatest critic of modern times has said in 
 their praise ; ^ they are models of finesse, of skill, and of 
 diction ; but they are the work of a daughter of Catherine 
 de' Medici, and it would perhaps be too much to expect 
 to find there candour as well. They are, indeed, in 
 
 ^ Henri de Lorraine, Due de Guise, assassinated at Blois, Decem- 
 ber 23, 1588. 
 
 2 The Cardinals de Lorraine and de Guise, and the Due d'AumMe. 
 
 3 See the study by Sainte-Beuve, Causeries du Lutidi, vi. 190 ei seq. 
 
 25 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 great part, an apology for the life of the writer, who 
 poses throughout as an injured woman, displays an in- 
 finite art in explaining away the scandals imputed to her, 
 and in guarding against any statement calculated to 
 injure her with those whom she desired to conciliate. 
 Such being her object, it is not surprising that she 
 should refuse to betray any predilection for the Due de 
 Guise,* and should be careful to conceal the nature of 
 the relation between them, since the Memoires were 
 written while she was a prisoner at the Chateau of 
 Usson, and the Guises had been the most bitter enemies 
 of her husband Henri IV. and his advisers, in whose 
 good graces she was above all things anxious to rein- 
 state herself. But the student of sixteenth-century 
 history will peruse her protestations with a smile of in- 
 credulity, for the love of Marguerite de Valois for 
 Henri de Lorraine, and even a project of marriage be- 
 tween them, so far from being inventions of Du 
 Guast and Henri d'Anjou, "fabricated for the pur- 
 pose of destroying her,*' are notorious facts, established 
 
 1 So anxious indeed is Marguerite to induce her readers to believe 
 that the suspicions of her brother were entirely unfounded that, almost 
 on the first page of her Memoires, she relates that, a few days before the 
 fatal accident to Henri II., she was sitting on her father's knee, watching 
 the Due de Guise (then Prince de Joinville) and the little Marquis de 
 Beaupreau, only son of the Prince de la Roche-sur-Yon, playing to- 
 gether, when the King laughingly asked her which of the two boys she 
 would like best for a sweetheart. " I replied," she continues, **that I 
 should prefer the marquis." " Why," said he, " he is not so handsome '* 
 (for the Prince de Joinville was light-haired and fair, while the Marquis 
 de Beaupreau had a brown complexion and dark hair) ? " I replied that 
 it was because he was the bettei boy, whereas the other was never satis- 
 fied unless he was doing harm to somebody every day, and that he 
 always wanted to be master — a true prophecy of what we have since 
 seen fulfilled." 
 
 26 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 not only by the testimony of the pamphleteers, but by 
 writers the most worthy of belief and the least sus- 
 pected of partiality : President de Thou, Mathieu, 
 Davila and M6zeray, and also by the diplomatic 
 correspondence of the time. 
 
 27 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 Beauty, elegance, and intelligence of Marguerite — Early career 
 and character of Guise — Marguerite's illness at Saint-Jean- 
 d'Angely — Perfidious conduct of Anjou —His hatred of Guise 
 — Nature of Marguerite's relations with the duke considered 
 — Their intimacy the chief topic of conversation at Court — 
 Interview between Catherine de' Medici and the Cardinal 
 de Lorraine — An intercepted letter — Charles IX. orders 
 Henri d'Angouleme to assassinate Guise — Intervention of 
 Marguerite — And of the Duchess of Lorraine — Angry 
 scene between Charles IX. and Guise — The duke renounces 
 his pretensions to Marguerite's hand, and marries the 
 Princess de Porcien — Anjou's threat — Consequences of this 
 affair. 
 
 And, indeed, it would have been difficult to find in all 
 France a better-matched pair of lovers. Marguerite, 
 then in her seventeenth year, was, if Brantome and the 
 other historians and poets who have described her charms 
 are to be credited, exquisitely beautiful. She had " a 
 lovely fair face that resembled the heavens in their 
 sweetest and calmest serenity, so nobly formed as to 
 cause one to declare that Mother Nature, that very 
 perfect workwoman, had put all her rarest and subtlest 
 into the fashioning of it " ; a complexion of dazzling fair- 
 ness, beautiful blue eyes shaded by long lashes, which 
 shone with an unconscious desire to please and that native 
 coquetry which rendered her later so redoubtable, and a 
 superb figure, *' of a port and majesty more like to a 
 
 28 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 goddess of heaven than a princess of earth." Her hair, 
 which was very abundant, was black, but as golden 
 tresses were considered to harmonise best with her 
 complexion, she often concealed it beneath a coiffure of 
 pale-coloured curls. *' Nevertheless," writes the enthu- 
 siastic Brantome, *^ I have seen this magnificent princess 
 wear her own hair without any additional contrivance in 
 the shape of a wig ; and, in spite of its being black, like 
 that of her father. King Henri, she knew so well how to 
 curl, frizzle, and arrange it, in imitation of her sister, 
 the Queen of Spain (who always wore her own, which was 
 black like a Spaniard's), that such head-dress became her as 
 well, or better, than any other she could invent." ^ A 
 beautiful girl indeed ! But " it was the beauty sensual 
 and appetising, which attracts and retains men ; the beauty 
 made ' to damn us,' as Don Juan of Austria will exclaim 
 later, on beholding her at the Louvre." ^ 
 
 Unfortunately, Marguerite does not appear to have 
 been contented with the charms which a bountiful Nature 
 had bestowed upon her, and not only did she prefer to 
 conceal her own hair beneath borrowed tresses, but was 
 wont to appear with her lovely face, which had so little 
 need of artificial aid, "all bedaubed and painted." The 
 washes and cosmetics which she so freely employed, in 
 order to preserve the freshness of her complexion, had 
 the very opposite effect, and produced rashes and pimples, 
 which must have occasioned her great mortification. 
 
 Besides being the acknowledged Queen of Beauty, 
 
 ^ Brant6me, Dames illustres. Towards the end of her life, Marguerite 
 had no dark hair left and went to great expense in fair wigs. For this 
 purpose, she kept several " tall, fair-haired footmen, who were shaved 
 from time to time." 
 
 2 La Ferri^re, Trots Amoureuses du XVP silcle : 3\Iarguerite de 
 Valois. 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 Marguerite was the Queen of Fashion as well ; and it 
 was to the example set by her, so Brantome assures us, 
 that the ladies of the French Court were indebted for the 
 fact that they had become *' great ladies, instead of simple 
 mesdames, and so a hundredfold more charming and 
 desirable.'' 
 
 *' I remember (for I was present)," he writes, " that 
 when the Queen-Mother took the Queen her daughter to 
 her husband, the King of Navarre, she passed through 
 Cognac and abode there some days. While they were 
 there, came divers great and honourable ladies of the 
 neighbourhood to see them and do them reverence, who 
 were all amazed at the beauty of the princess and could 
 not praise her enough to her mother, she being lost in 
 joy. Whereupon, she prayed her daughter to array 
 herself most sumptuously in the fine and superb apparel 
 that she wore at Court for great and magnificent pomps 
 and festivities, in order to give pleasure to these worthy 
 dames. And this she did to obey so good a mother, 
 appearing robed superbly in a gown of silver tissue and 
 dove-colour, a la Boulonnoise^ with hanging sleeves, a costly 
 head-dress, and a white veil, neither too large nor yet too 
 small, the whole accompanied by such noble majesty and 
 perfect grace that one would have judged her rather a 
 goddess of heaven than a princess of earth. The Queen- 
 Mother said to her : ' My daughter, that costume 
 becomes you admirably.' To which she made answer : 
 * Madame, I begin early to wear and to wear out my 
 gowns and the fashions that I have brought with me from 
 Court ; because when I return, I shall bring nothing with 
 me, save scissors and stuffs only, to dress myself there in 
 accordance with the current fashions. ' Why do you 
 say that, my daughter ? ' inquired the Queen-Mother. 
 
 30 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 * Is it not yourself who invent and produce these fine 
 fashions in dress, and, wherever you go, the Court will 
 take them from you, not you from the Court ; ' so well 
 did she understand how to invent in her daring mind all 
 kinds of charming things." 
 
 In fact, continues Brantome, whatever she chose to 
 wear, elaborate or simple, the effect was ever the same 
 — all eyes were dazzled, all hearts ravished, so that it was 
 impossible to say which became her best and " made her 
 most beautiful, admirable and lovable." And then he 
 goes on to give us some details concerning Marguerite's 
 chief triumphs in this direction, which prove that the 
 Sieur de Brantome must have possessed a remarkably 
 observant eye, as well as a tenacious memory : " the 
 gown of shimmering white satin, a trifle of rose-colour 
 mingling in it, with a veil of lace crepe or Roman gauze 
 thrown carelessly round her head, making the goddesses 
 of olden times, and the empresses, as we see them on 
 ancient coins, look like chambermaids beside her " ; the 
 gown " of rose-coloured Spanish velvet, covered with 
 spangles, and with a cape of the same velvet, with plumes 
 and jewels of such splendour as never was," in which she 
 appeared at the Tuileries, at the fdte given by the Queen- 
 Mother, in August 1 573,tothe Polish envoys who had come 
 to offer the crown of Poland to Henri d'Anjou, on which 
 occasion Brantome compared her to Aurora, and Ronsard, 
 who was with him, " finding the comparison very excellent, 
 made a beautiful sonnet thereon " ; the confection of 
 orange and black, " the black relieved by a multitude of 
 spangles," which she wore at the Estates of Blois, in 
 1576; and, finally, the marvellous "robe of crinkled 
 cloth-of-gold," which, together with the charms of the 
 wearer, made all the courtiers forget their devotions on 
 
 31 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 Palm Sunday 1572, and of which we shall permit the 
 chronicler to speak at greater length in its place. 
 
 And this lovely and elegant princess was no insipid 
 beauty, without a thought in her pretty head beyond the 
 shape of a coiffure or the fit of a gown. She was a clever, 
 even a talented woman. A true grand-daughter of 
 Francois I., she had inherited the intellectual tastes of the 
 '* Father ofLetters" and read widely and with discrimination. 
 As she grew older, her love for books became so intense 
 that when once she had become interested in any work, 
 nothing could induce her to lay it aside until finished, 
 " and very often she would lose both her eating and 
 drinking." A complete mistress of her native tongue, as 
 her Memoires and letters prove, and well-acquainted with 
 more than one foreign language, she was also a sound 
 classical scholar. When Adam Kanarski, Bishop of Posen, 
 the head of the Embassy from Poland, already mentioned, 
 harangued her in Latin, she replied at once eloquently 
 and pertinently without the aid of an interpreter, to the 
 wonder and admiration of the learned prelate and his 
 colleagues. She would seem indeed to have been an 
 admirable speaker, since on the occasion of a visit to 
 Bordeaux, in 1578, we hear of her making three speeches 
 in succession ; one in answer to the bishop of the diocese, 
 the second to that of the governor of the province, and 
 the third in reply to an address presented her by the First 
 President of the Parliament of Bordeaux, " even changing 
 her words to each, without reiterating in the last speech 
 anything which she had said in the first or second, 
 although upon the same subject." So that the president 
 was afterwards heard to declare that, though her two 
 predecessors on the throne of Navarre, Marguerite 
 d'Angouleme and Jeanne d'Albret, had had in their day 
 
 32 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 "the most golden-speaking lips in France," they were 
 " but novices and apprentices compared with her." 
 
 Her conversation, *' grave and full of majesty and 
 eloquence in high and serious discourse," was on ordinary 
 occasions distinguished by a very pretty wit, without, 
 however, Brantome is careful to tell us, a suspicion of 
 malice, and a wonderful quickness of repartee which made 
 her the life and soul of any company she might happen 
 to be in. 
 
 It is indeed lamentable to reflect that a woman possessed 
 of so many natural advantages and so singularly gifted 
 should have been ruined by the vitiated atmosphere amidst 
 which she was brought up, and by that complete absence 
 of moral sense which distinguished the later Valois. But 
 at the time of her love-affair with the Due de Guise, 
 Marguerite was still only a girl, and the unpleasant side 
 of her character was as yet undeveloped. It will be time 
 enough to speak of that later on. 
 
 If Marguerite easily eclipsed all the women of the 
 Court, the Due de Guise exercised a like pre-eminence 
 over the nobles who adorned it, at least over those of 
 the younger generation. At the time of the assassination 
 of his father, the second Due de Guise, in February 1563, 
 Henri de Lorraine was in his thirteenth year, when, as the 
 eldest son of the celebrated soldier,^ he succeeded to his 
 title and, at the dying duke's special request, to all his 
 
 1 By his marriage with Anne d'Este, daughter of Ercole d'Este, Duke 
 of Ferrara, Fran9ois de Lorraine had five children, (i) Henri, Prince 
 de Joinville, third Duke de Guise, born December 31, 1550. 
 (2) Catherine Marie, born July 1552, married to Louis Due de Mont- 
 pensier. (3) Charles, Marquis, afterwards Due de Mayenne, born 
 March 1554. (4) Louis, Cardinal de Guise, born July 1555. (5) Fran- 
 9ois, born December 1558, died October 1573. 
 
 33 c 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 offices, which comprised those of Grand Master, Grand 
 Chamberlain, and Governor of Champagne and Brie. 
 Although so young, he had accompanied his father in his 
 last campaign, and at the siege of Orleans, where Francois 
 de Lorraine lost his life, had had more than one oppor- 
 tunity of giving proof of that cool intrepidity for which 
 he was subsequently remarkable. After the Peace of 
 Amboise, which brought to an end the first civil war, he 
 went to Vienna, in the hope of seeing service against the 
 Turks, and met with a very flattering reception at the 
 Imperial Court. But the inactivity of the Austrian 
 troops gave him no chance of earning the military renown 
 for which he craved, and, in the spring of 1567, he 
 returned to France. On the renewal of the Wars of 
 Religion, Guise was sent with his uncle, the Due d'Aumale, 
 to the North-Eastern frontier, where he was rash enough 
 to attack Coligny with a much inferior force, and to be 
 driven back with heavy loss. Nor was he more fortunate 
 at the beginning of the second civil war. Entrusted with 
 the command of a body of men-at-arms, in the royal 
 army under Anjou and Tavannes, the duke, burning to 
 distinguish himself, ignored the orders of both ; and the 
 disaster of Roche- Abeille (June 1569) was largely due to 
 his insubordination.^ However, the memory of these 
 failures was soon effaced, in the public mind at least, by 
 his heroic defence of Poitiers against Coligny, a feat which 
 recalled his father's historical defence of Metz in 1555 ; 
 and from that time Henri de Lorraine became a popular 
 hero, the idol of Catholic France. 
 
 " France was mad about this man," writes Balzac, " for 
 
 it is too little to say that she was in love with him. Her 
 
 passion approached idolatry ; there were persons who 
 
 ^ Odemo'ires de Tavannes. 
 
 34 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 invoked him in their prayers, others who inscribed his 
 portrait in their books. His portrait, indeed, was every- 
 where ; some ran after him in the street to touch his mantle 
 with their rosaries, and one day, when he entered Paris by 
 the Porte Saint-Antoine, on his return from a journey to 
 Champagne, they not only cried : ' Vive Guise ' / but 
 many sang : ^ Hosanna filio David' I Large assemblies 
 were known to yield themselves at once captive to his 
 pleasant countenance. No heart could resist that face ; 
 it persuaded before he opened his mouth . . . And 
 Huguenots belonged to the League when they beheld the 
 Due de Guise." 
 
 That such should have been the case is not difficult to 
 understand, for Guise possessed in a pre-eminent degree 
 all those qualities which command the admiration and 
 affection of an impressionable people. To a commanding 
 stature and extraordinary physical strength he united ** the 
 delicate beauty and the Southern grace of his Borgia 
 ancestors."^ He excelled in all manly exercises : horse- 
 manship, swimming, fencing, tennis, the use of arms. 
 His manners were charming ; he had a smile and a 
 pleasant word for all, rich and poor alike,, and would 
 converse as readily with the tradesman at his shop door or 
 the artisan at his toil as with the noble at the Court ; 
 while his liberality was such that it was said that he was 
 the greatest usurer in France, since every one was in his 
 debt, either for monetary assistance or for some favour 
 received. 
 
 Guise had undoubtedly great gifts : dauntless courage, 
 untiring energy, a remarkable keenness of .perception, a 
 rare sagacity in estimating character, and a wonderful 
 aptitude for the management of affairs. But they were 
 
 1 Mr. H. C. McDowall, " Henry of Guise and other Portraits." 
 
 35 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 discounted by grave faults. His ambition was boundless,^ 
 and he was quite unscrupulous as to the means employed 
 to attain his ends ; he was wanting in patience and fore- 
 sight and, like his uncle, the crafty Cardinal de Lorraine, 
 carried dissimulation to its furthest limits. 
 
 So mortified was Marguerite de Valois by the accusations 
 of her brother, and the consequent withdrawal of the 
 confidence which the Queen-Mother had reposed in her, 
 that she fell into a state of the most profound depression, 
 and, while in this condition, was attacked by " a severe 
 and continuous purple fever " (" une grande fievre continue 
 et du pourpre "), which was then ravaging the camp of 
 the besiegers and had already carried off the two first 
 physicians of the King, Chapelain and Castelan,^ as though 
 seeking, according to Marguerite's expression, *' to do 
 away with the shepherds in order to make short work of 
 the flock." 
 
 The princess was seriously ill, and for more than a 
 fortnight her life was in danger. "Whilst I was in this 
 extremity," she says, '' my mother, who knew what was 
 partly the cause of my illness, omitted nothing which 
 could relieve me, taking the trouble to visit me at all 
 hours, regardless of danger. This alleviated my sufferings 
 considerably ; but they were correspondingly increased 
 by the duplicity of my brother (Anjou), who, after having 
 behaved thus treacherously towards me and shown me 
 
 ^ According to an historian of the Guises, Rene de Bouille, who, 
 however, does not give his authority, Fran9ois de Lorraine had accu- 
 rately gauged his son's character, and had predicted that he would fall in 
 an attempt to subvert the kingdom. 
 
 2 It was probably to the skill of Castelan that Catherine de' Medici 
 owed her recovery from the fever with which she was attacked at Metz, 
 some months previously. 
 
 36 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 such base Ingratitude, never stirred from my bedside night 
 or day, attending to my wants as officiously as if we had 
 been at the period of our warmest affection. As I had 
 my mouth closed by command, I could only reply to his 
 hypocrisy by sighs — as Burrhus did to Nero, whilst dying 
 by the poison which that tyrant had administered — 
 showing him plainly enough that my illness had been 
 caused by the contagion of slander and not by that of 
 infected air." At length, the princess's vigorous con- 
 stitution triumphed over the disease, and when the Court 
 quitted Saint-Jean d'Angely, after its surrender at the 
 beginning of December 1 569, she was sufficiently recovered 
 to accompany it. 
 
 At Angers, whither they proceeded, they found the 
 Due de Guise and his uncles, which. Marguerite assures 
 us, occasioned her intense mortification, *' as it gave colour 
 to her brother's inventions." However, Anjou, since the 
 beginning of his sister's illness, had treated her in a most 
 affectionate manner, and now, so far from throwing any 
 obstacles in the way of Marguerite's intimacy with Guise, 
 used to bring him to her apartments almost every day 
 *' and would often exclaim, embracing him : ' Would to 
 God you were my brother ! '" 
 
 It is very improbable that Guise allowed himself to be 
 deceived by this perfidious show of friendship, for he 
 could hardly fail to be aware of the profound aversion 
 which Anjou already entertained for him. From early 
 boyhood the young prince had cherished against the House 
 of Lorraine, whose ambition and audacity he had in- 
 stinctively divined, those sentiments of hatred and jealousy 
 which, nineteen years later, were to culminate in the 
 tragedy of Blois, and the youthful head of the family was 
 the object of his special antipathy. He had been intensely 
 
 37 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 irritated by the duke*s studied disregard of his orders 
 during the war, by the applause which had greeted his 
 exploits on the day of Jarnac, which, in his vanity, he 
 imagined ought to have been reserved for himself, and, 
 still more, by the enthusiasm aroused by his defence of 
 Poitiers. Moreover, the pale, thin, black-haired prince 
 could not but feel whenever he beheld this blonde giant, 
 a galling sense of his own inferiority — inferiority in cour- 
 age, both moral and physical, in intellect and ability ; in 
 every accomplishment — with the possible exception of 
 dancing — and, worst of all, in personal appearance ; for 
 had not the Duchesse de Retz declared that " those 
 Lorraine princes had such an air of distinction that other 
 princes appeared plebeian beside them." 
 
 But Marguerite smiled on the handsome young duke 
 and, if the latter had his suspicions as to Anjou's motives, 
 he was careful not to permit them to be seen and, in the 
 meanwhile, gladly availed himself of every opportunity of 
 paying his court to the princess. That Marguerite was 
 completely fascinated by her brilliant admirer admits, as 
 we have said elsewhere, of no possible doubt, notwith- 
 standing her protestations to the contrary. *' She had 
 lodged all the affections of her heart in this prince, who 
 possessed such attractive qualities," writes Dupleix. That 
 Guise loved her is not quite so certain. Some two years 
 earlier, it had been reported that he was paying marked 
 attention to Catherine de Cleves ^ the widow of Antoine de 
 Croy, Prince de Porcien ; ^ but whether or hot the image 
 
 ^ She was one of the three daughters of Fran9ois de Cleves, Due de 
 Nevers. 
 
 ^ The Prince de Porcien was one of the leaders of the Huguenot 
 party, and entertained the most violent hatred of the Guises. On his 
 death-bed, he is said to have thus addressed his wife : " You are young, 
 beautiful and rich ; you will have many suitors when I am gone. I 
 
 38 
 
aa DUG 'dmA>iHOd mi i>ii^dH 
 
 ,nvio.i9 ?. 
 
 ,vV'\ 
 
or himself, 
 
 defence o. 
 
 aired prince 
 
 ilonde giant, 
 
 >nty in cour- 
 
 ability ; in 
 
 ' X of 
 
 L- , at other 
 
 d plebeian 
 
 who 
 c That 
 TO years 
 
 wof AntoJr 
 >r not the i 
 
 ov Due de 
 
 ^ tme of the leaders of 
 HENRI DE LORRAINE, DUC DE GUISE 
 
 From an Engraving by Le Blond, in the British Museum 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 of this lady had been effaced by Marguerite's superior 
 charms, it had ever been the practice of his family to 
 subordinate their affections to their interests ; and, we 
 may be sure, that he played the lover well enough to 
 satisfy the most exacting maiden. Several historians 
 have hinted that Marguerite had been the duke's mis- 
 tress;^ but though there is no doubt that at a later 
 period she lived a very dissolute life, nothing authorises 
 such a supposition. The laws of etiquette, as one of her 
 biographers very justly remarks, were far too severe to 
 render it possible for a Daughter of France, especially one 
 watched by a prudent and suspicious mother, to commit 
 such a fault ; while it is in the last degree improbable 
 that Henri de Lorraine, who aspired to the princess's 
 hand, would have entertained the thought of dishonouring 
 her,2 
 
 The young duke's pretensions found a warm supporter 
 in his uncle, the Cardinal de Lorraine ; indeed, it is 
 not improbable that that scheming prelate had himself 
 suggested the idea of such a marriage to his nephew. 
 Nor were these pretensions nearly so exorbitant as may 
 as first sight appear. Guise and his brothers, though, of 
 course, ranking below the Princes of the Blood, took 
 precedence of all the nobility, with the exception of the 
 
 have no objection to your marrying again, if only it be not the Due de 
 Guise. Let not my worst enemy inherit what, of all my possessions, I 
 have cherished the most." 
 
 1 Elle {Marguerite) avalt eu avec hi (Guise) des privautes plus grands 
 qu^il ne fallnit. — Davila (French translation). The same historian 
 declares that " their|.intimacy was so public that there was even a report 
 that they had contracted a secret marriage ; but if this had been the case, 
 we should certainly have heard something about it at the time of Mar- 
 guerite's divorce from Henri IV." 
 
 2 Imbert de Saint- Amand, Lesfemmes de la Cour des derniers Falois, 
 
 39 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 Montmorencies, by virtue of their descent from Louis XII. 
 through Ren6e de France, Duchess of Ferrara, whose 
 daughter Anne d'Este had married Francois de Lorraine. 
 Moreover, though the Daughters of France were destined 
 to be the consorts of kings and foreign princes, vassals 
 of the Crown had occasionally been honoured with their 
 hands. Thus, the Comte de Foix had married Madeleine 
 de France, daughter of Charles VII., while, to cite a more 
 recent instance. Marguerite's elder sister, Claude, had 
 married Charles II., Duke of Lorraine, head of the elder 
 branch of the family. 
 
 However that may be, the prospect of such an alliance 
 was very far from calculated to commend itself to the 
 Valois. Quite apart from the fact that the duke's 
 marriage with Marguerite would have destroyed the 
 equilibrium between the great nobles of the realm, which 
 it was Catherine de' Medici's chief object to maintain, and 
 restored to the ambitious Lorraine princes a great part of 
 the influence which they had wielded with such disastrous 
 results in the previous reign, negotiations had been for 
 some time past in progress for the marriage of the 
 princess to Dom Sebastian, the young King of Portugal. 
 It is, therefore, not a little singular that so shrewd a 
 politician as the Cardinal de Lorraine should have 
 encouraged his nephew in a course which had so small 
 a prospect of success, and could hardly fail to provoke 
 the greatest resentment in the Royal Family. 
 
 During the spring of 1570, Marguerite and the Due 
 de Guise met constantly, and by May the intimacy had 
 gone so far that it had become the chief topic of con- 
 versation at the Court ; and the Spanish ambassador wrote 
 to Philip II. that *' there was nothing talked of publicly 
 in France but the marriage of Madame Marguerite with 
 
 40 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 the Due de Guise ; " ^ while the Cardinal de Lorraine told 
 the Legate that " the principal persons concerned were 
 already agreed," and boasted openly that the head of the 
 elder branch of his family had married the elder sister, 
 and the head of the younger should have the younger. 
 
 These injudicious words were repeated to the Queen- 
 Mother, who went to visit the cardinal, who was ill in 
 bed, and angrily demanded an explanation. The prelate, 
 perceiving in which quarter the wind sat, protested that 
 he had been misrepresented, but without convincing 
 Catherine, who departed in a very ill-humour. However 
 Guise, encouraged secretly by Marguerite, declined to 
 abandon the field and, thanks to the complacency of the 
 Comtesse de Mirandole, one of the Queen's ladies of 
 honour, carried on a correspondence with the princess. 
 Marguerite added some very affectionate lines in her own 
 handwriting to the letters which the duke received from 
 Madame de Mirandole, and the duke replied not less 
 tenderly. About the middle of June 1570, one of these 
 epistles was intercepted by Du Guast, who carried it in 
 triumph to the Due d'Anjou, who, in turn, laid it before 
 the Queen-Mother and Charles IX. Catherine imme- 
 diately sent for her daughter, reproached her bitterly with 
 her conduct, and ordered her to break off all intercourse 
 with the duke, who, together with his brother, the Due 
 de Mayenne, was forbidden to approach her; while the 
 Cardinals de Lorraine and de Guise received a peremptory 
 order to give public denial to the rumours of a betrothal 
 between their nephew and the princess. 
 
 As for Charles IX., his resentment, on learning the 
 news, was so artfully inflamed by the insinuations of 
 
 1 Bibliothique Rationale, Coll. Simancas, cited by BouII16, Histoire des 
 Dues de Guise, iii. 28. 
 
 41 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 Anjou that he ended by falling into one of those 
 violent fits of excitement hardly distinguishable from 
 actual insanity to which he was subject. Vowing that 
 nothing but Guise's blood could atone for his intoler- 
 able presumption, he sent for his half-brother, Henri 
 d'Angoul^me, Grand Prior of France/ and, when he 
 appeared, pointed to two swords and exclaimed : " You 
 see those two swords ; one is to kill you, if to- 
 morrow, when I go to the chase, you do not kill the 
 Due de Guise! "2 
 
 The Grand Prior, though he had little stomach for 
 the business, being well aware that the duke's death would 
 most speedily be followed by his own, if not at the hands 
 of some of the murdered nobleman's friends, then at 
 those of the Paris mob, dared not refuse the commission ; 
 and it was arranged that on the morrow he and some 
 trusty retainers should surround Guise on his return from 
 the chase, and, under the pretext of some dispute, poniard 
 him. 
 
 But when the morrow came, M. d'Angouldme's courage 
 would appear to have failed him, or possibly his intended 
 victim gave him no opportunity of putting his amiable 
 design into execution. Any way, the King learned, on 
 his return to the Louvre, that the duke had reached 
 Paris safe and sound. 
 
 Furious at the failure of the plot, Charles sent for his 
 half-brother, bitterly reproached him with his cowardice, 
 and repeated his orders, accompanied by terrible threats. 
 Angouldme promised obedience, and laid more than one 
 ambush for the duke ; but the latter, warned secretly by 
 d'Entragues, one of the King's confidants, according to 
 
 1 He was the son of Henri II. and a Scotch giri named Fleming. 
 
 2 Mongez, Histoire de ^Marguerite de Valois, p. 3 1 . 
 
 42 
 
QUEEN M ARGOT 
 
 Mongez, by Marguerite herself, according to another 
 version, kept to his hotel, and all the Grand Prior's 
 schemes came to nothing. 
 
 In the meanwhile. Marguerite, who knew her family 
 too well to hope that they would ever sacrifice their 
 political calculations for the sake of her happiness, and was, 
 besides, greatly alarmed for the safety of the man she 
 loved, had bethought her of a means of putting an end 
 to this critical situation. Accordingly, she wrote to her 
 sister Claude, who, by her marriage with Charles II. 
 of Lorraine, had become a relative of the Guises, begging 
 her to use her influence with the duke to persuade him 
 to appease the King's anger, by renouncing forthwith 
 all pretensions to her hand and, as a pledge of his good 
 faith, to place a barrier between them by contracting 
 a marriage with his old love, Catherine de Cleves, Princesse 
 de Porcien. 
 
 Recognising from the tone of her sister's letter, that 
 there was not a moment to be lost, the Duchess of 
 Lorraine at once set out for Paris, where she sought out 
 Guise's mother, who had married, en secondes noces^ the 
 Due de Nemours, and communicated to her the contents 
 of the princess's letter. Madame de Nemours was not 
 slow to perceive the danger of the situation in which her 
 son's imprudence had placed him, and that the course 
 suggested by Marguerite was the only one now open to 
 him, and she joined Madame Claude in urging it upon 
 the duke in the strongest possible terms. 
 
 An incident which had just occurred lent additional 
 force to their arguments. One night there was a ball at 
 the Louvre, at which Guise, in virtue of his office of 
 Grand Master of the Royal Household, had been com- 
 pelled to appear. It was the first time he had been seen 
 
 43 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 in public since the hunting-party which had been chosen 
 for his assassination. Near the entrance to the ball-room 
 he encountered the King, who laid his hand on his sword 
 and, in an angry tone, inquired what he was doing there. 
 Guise replied he had come to serve his Majesty. '* I have 
 no need of your services," replied the King, livid with 
 passion. The duke made a profound obeisance and 
 retired. His disgrace could not have been indicated in a 
 more significant manner, and convinced that banishment 
 from the Court and the loss of his offices, if not a 
 worse fate awaited him, unless he bowed to the 
 storm, he yielded to the entreaties of his mother and 
 the counsels of the Duchess of Lorraine ; and shortly 
 afterwards his betrothal to the Princesse de Porcien was 
 announced. 
 
 The duke's submission, as had been anticipated, had 
 the effect of appeasing the wrath of the King. Guise was 
 restored to favour, and when the marriage took place, 
 early in the following October, Charles presented the 
 happy pair with a dowry of 100,000 livres. Anjou, how- 
 ever, whose hatred of the duke grew every day more 
 bitter, was not so easily disarmed, and remarked one day 
 to some of his favourites that, " in case the Due de Guise 
 should cast his eyes on her (Marguerite), he would pro- 
 claim him a renegade and a miscreant, if he did not 
 poniard him to the heart and make him bite the 
 ground." 
 
 Thus ended the first romance of Marguerite de Valois's 
 life. How different would have been the course of that 
 life had she been permitted to yield to her inclinations 
 and to marry the one man whom she seems to have loved 
 with a passion equal to that which she often inspired ! 
 How different, too, in all probability, would have been the 
 
 44 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 course of French history ! Certain it is that to the 
 treacherous part played in this affair by the future 
 Henri III. may be traced the bitter hatred with which 
 Guise henceforth regarded him and most of the disasters 
 of the succeeding reign. 
 
 45 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 Negotiations for Marguerite's marriage with Dom Sebastian 
 of Portugal — Conduct of Philip II. of Spain — Opposition of 
 Dom Sebastian's advisers to the match — Project of marriage 
 between Marguerite and Henri of Navarre — Peace of Saint- 
 Germain — Question of the good faith of Charles IX. and 
 Catherine de' Medici in this matter considered — Negotiations 
 between the Court and Jeanne d'Albret in regard to the 
 marriage of Marguerite to her son — The Huguenot leaders and 
 the Council of Navarre overcome the Queen's objections to 
 the match. 
 
 We have said that one of the chief reasons for the 
 hostility of the Royal Family to the pretensions of the 
 Due de Guise was the fact that negotiations had been, 
 for some time, in progress for an alliance between 
 Marguerite of Valois and Dom Sebastian, the young 
 King of Portugal.^ This project dated back to the time 
 of Francois II., when Nicot, the French Ambassador at 
 Lisbon, had made the first overture and remitted to Dom 
 Sebastian a portrait of the little princess, with which the 
 King appears to have been greatly impressed.^ In July 
 
 ^ According to Hilarion de Coste, the Emperor Maximilian II. had 
 demanded Marguerite's hand for his son Rudolph, King of Hungary ; 
 but if the Emperor had made any such overture, it is strange that the 
 princess should have failed to mention it in her Memoires. It is certain, 
 however, that there had been some talk of an alliance between Mar- 
 guerite and Don Carlos, the heir to the Spanish throne, whose death, in 
 1568, put an end to the project. 
 
 2 " Madame's portrait," wrote Nicot to the Queen-Mother, " has so 
 
 46 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 1569, Dom Sebastian being then seventeen, serious 
 negotiations were opened, and Fourquevaux, the French 
 Ambassador in Spain, received the necessary powers to 
 treat of the marriage with Philip II., uncle of the young 
 King of Portugal, who exercised a kind of protectorate 
 over his nephew's kingdom. Philip appeared at first 
 well disposed ; while the project was received with warm 
 approbation by Pius V., whose aim it was to bring about 
 a closer union between the Catholic Powers, in order to 
 oppose their united forces to the aggressions of the Turk 
 and the extension of Protestantism ; and the Portuguese 
 Ambassador at Madrid informed Fourquevaux that he 
 only awaited his instructions from Lisbon to conclude 
 the matter. 
 
 However, these instructions did not arrive, and, on 
 September 5, Fourquevaux sought an audience of Philip 
 and asked for an explanation of the delay. Philip attri- 
 buted it to the plague, which was then raging in Lisbon, 
 and which, he supposed, was retarding the despatch of 
 State, as well as of ordinary, business. The Ambassador 
 curbed his impatience for a week, and then again 
 approached the King. This time his Majesty ascribed 
 the delay to the fact that the Portuguese Council of State 
 was composed of young men, " not one of whom under- 
 stood the way in which to treat of the said marriage " ; 
 and Fourquevaux retired very dissatisfied. 
 
 In the light of subsequent events, there can be no 
 possible doubt that Philip II., in spite of his protestations 
 of good-will, was opposed to the marriage, and probably 
 did all in his power to hinder it, although no evidence of 
 
 pleased those of this Court that nothing could possibly be better. I 
 have been informed that, so soon as the King saw it, he kissed and 
 hugged it, and that since then he has declined to part with it." 
 
 47 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 any active intervention on his part exists. The marriage 
 of Dom Sebastian was a matter of supreme importance 
 to his kingdom, for the only male heir of the House of 
 Aviz was his great-uncle Cardinal Dom Henry, and the 
 death of Dom Sebastian and of the Cardinal without 
 direct heirs would inevitably be followed by a civil war, 
 arising from the disputed succession. In that eventuality, 
 Philip himself, who had long coveted possession of his 
 little neighbour, fully intended to come forward as a 
 claimant to the throne,^ and he had, therefore, no mind 
 that his nephew should have a wife, least of all, a French 
 wife, who, even if she were to bear her husband no 
 children, would give France an excellent excuse for 
 intervening in the affairs of Portugal. 
 
 As for Dom Sebastian, who was already dreaming of 
 that disastrous crusade which was to cost him his own life 
 and strike a last and final blow at the declining power of 
 Portugal,^ the question of his marriage, and of all that it 
 meant to his kingdom, seems to have troubled him very 
 little. Moreover, although the towns of Portugal, when 
 consulted, had, with two exceptions, pronounced in 
 favour of the marriage with Marguerite, the king's 
 advisers were by no means so unanimous. " Some say," 
 writes Fourquevaux to Catherine de' Medici, " that he is 
 likely to have children ; others judge him incapable and 
 dissuade him from marriage ; for to marry would be to 
 shorten his life. All are in accord in believing that he 
 will not live.*' * 
 
 1 Philip 11. was accepted by the Portuguese Cortes as King on 
 April 3, 1581. 
 
 2 Dom Sebastian fell at the Battle of El-Kasir-el-Kebir, usually spelt 
 Alcazar Quibir, in Morocco, August 4, 1578. 
 
 ^ In the same despatch, the Ambassador gives the Queen some inter- 
 esting details concerning Dom Sebastian : " He is sixteen or seventeen 
 
 48 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 But the most serious opposition to the marriage came 
 from two Theatine monks, nephews of the Cardinal of 
 Portugal, who exercised an absolute dominion over the 
 mind of the young sovereign, and "had great fear of 
 losing their credit, if the king were once married to 
 Madame Marguerite." Pius V. who, as we have already 
 mentioned, was extremely anxious for the match, de- 
 spatched a special envoy, Don Loys de Torres, to 
 Lisbon, bearing a letter from his Holiness to Dom 
 Sebastian, urging him to conclude the matter. But the 
 influence of the monks was too strong, and the mission 
 failed. " They have made the King conceive a perfect 
 horror of women," said the disgusted Don Loys to 
 Fourquevaux, as he passed through Madrid on his return 
 journey to Italy. *' It is they alone who stand in the way 
 of the marriage.'* 
 
 His patience exhausted, Charles IX. wrote to Fourque- 
 vaux: "If there is a prince who has the right to complain, 
 it is I, who see myself so unworthily treated, inasmuch 
 as they do not desire to hold to the promise they have 
 made me." And, after expressing his opinion that Philip 
 himself and not his nephew's entourage was responsible 
 for all the delay, he ordered Fourquevaux to acquaint his 
 Catholic Majesty that he was gravely displeased at the 
 continued delay and to demand an immediate explanation, 
 as, in the event of its proving unsatisfactory, he " pro- 
 posed to dispose of his sister's hand elsewhere." 
 
 In the meanwhile the Peace of Saint-Germain,^ which 
 
 years of age ; he is fair and stout ; he is thought to be untrustworthy, 
 bizarre, obstinate, and of the humour of the late Don Carlos [Le.y half- 
 mad] ... he has been brought up a la fortuguaise^ that is to say, 
 nourished on superstitions and vanities. 
 
 1 This peace was wittily called " Paix hoiteuse et malassise" from the 
 
 49 » 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 brought to a close the third civil war, and granted far 
 greater concessions to the Huguenots than they could 
 possibly have hoped for after the disasters of Jarnac and 
 Montcontour, had been concluded (August 1570), and 
 had given great umbrage both to Philip II. and Dom Sebas- 
 tian, like his uncle, one of the most bigoted of Catholics. 
 The crafty Philip, we may well suppose, had not failed 
 to represent to his nephew the undesirability of his allying 
 himself with a house which had shown itself so lukewarm 
 in its opposition to heresy ; and, in October 1570, the 
 Court of Lisbon replied that the King was too young to 
 marry, and that Madame Marguerite was well able to 
 wait. 
 
 Charles IX. and the Queen-Mother were not of this 
 opinion. *' A few days later," writes Marguerite, *' there 
 was a talk of my marriage to the Prince of Navarre, who 
 is now our worthy and magnanimous king.^ The Queen 
 my mother, discussed it one day at table for a long time 
 with M. de Meru,^ the members of the House of Mont- 
 morency having been the first to suggest it. Upon rising 
 from the table, he told me that she had requested him to 
 
 royal plenipotentiaries who concluded it ; Biron, who was lame, and de 
 Mesmes, seigneur de Malassiss. 
 
 1 This project was by no means a new one ; indeed, it is said that 
 almost from the infancy of Henri of Navarre and Marguerite, the Court 
 of France had dreamed of their future union. Favyn, in his Histoire de 
 NavarrSy relates that the little prince, when five years old, was presented 
 by his father to King Henri II., who, delighted with his precocity, 
 inquired if he would be his son. Turning towards Antoinede Bourbon, 
 the child replied in his Bearnais dialect : " ^et es lo peign pay I (This is 
 Monsieur my father !) " The King, pleased with the jargon, asked 
 him : " Since you will not be my son, will you be my son-in-law r " To 
 which the little prince replied promptly : '* O be ! Yes, willingly ! " 
 
 2 Charles de Montmorency, third son of the Constable, afterwards 
 Due d'Amville and Admiral of France. 
 
 50 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 speak to me about it. I told him that it was unneces- 
 sary, since I had no will but her own, although she 
 should certainly take into account how thorough a 
 Catholic T was, and that it would distress me exceedingly 
 to marry any one who was not of my religion. After- 
 wards, the Queen, having retired to her cabinet, sent for 
 me and told me that Messieurs de Montmorency had 
 suggested this marriage to her, and that she greatly 
 desired to ascertain my views. I replied that I had 
 neither will nor choice save her own, but that I implored 
 her to remember that I was a good Catholic."^ The 
 question of religion, we may presume, troubled the 
 princess a good deal less than she would have us believe ; 
 she had no inclination for Henry of Navarre, nor did a 
 closer acquaintance bring any change in her disposition 
 towards him. However, Catherine's pretence of con- 
 sulting her daughter's feelings was a mere formality, since 
 both she and the King had decided that a marriage 
 between Marguerite and Henri of Navarre was absolutely 
 essential to the success of their policy. 
 
 What that policy was, has been the subject of inter- 
 minable discussion. Had the war just concluded been a 
 series of triumphs for the Huguenots, instead of a 
 campaign of disaster, which, but for the courage and 
 skill of Coligny, might have been followed by the 
 irretrievable ruin of their cause, the concessions granted 
 them by the Peace of Saint-Germain could hardly have 
 been greater. They received a general amnesty and the 
 restoration of their confiscated estates. They were 
 granted free exercise of their religion, save in Paris and 
 the royal residences. They were admitted upon equal 
 
 ^ Memoires et lettres de Marguerite de Valois (edit. Guessard, 
 1842). 
 
 51 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 rights with their Roman Catholic fellow-subjects to the 
 benefit of all public institutions and declared eligible to 
 fill every post in the State. They were permitted to 
 appeal from the judgment of the notoriously hostile 
 Parlement of Toulouse to the Cour des Requites in 
 Paris. Finally, they were permitted to retain possession 
 of four towns which they had conquered : La Rochelle, 
 Cognac, La Charite, and Montauban, as a guarantee of 
 his Majesty's good faith, on condition that the Prince of 
 Navarre and Conde bound themselves to restore them to 
 the Crown, two years after the faithful execution of this 
 edict of pacification. 
 
 Many historians. Catholic as well as Protestant, see in 
 this peace the snare which gathered the victims for the 
 St. Bartholomew. " A peace of such a nature," says the 
 Jesuit writer, Louis Maimbourg, *' was not in reality 
 contemplated by Catherine de' Medici. This princess had 
 her designs in reserve, and she only granted the Huguenots 
 what they demanded in order to deceive them and to 
 surprise those on whom she desired to be avenged, and 
 particularly the Admiral [Coligny], on the first favourable 
 opportunity." Such, too, is the opinion of Pere Daniel, 
 of Papyre Masson, the historian of Charles IX., of 
 Fauriel, who denounces it as " the obvious product of 
 the blackest deceit and treachery,"^ of Davila, and of 
 Sully. On the other hand, Ranke, the Protestant writer 
 Schoeffer, Coquerel, Daniel Ramee, the author of les 
 Noces vermeilleSy and M. Georges Gandy, whose erudite 
 study in the Revue des Questions htstoriques (1866), though 
 disfigured here and there by religious prejudice, is one or 
 the ablest summaries of the question we have read, are 
 
 ^ Essai sur les Evinements qui ont prepare et amene k Salnte-Bar- 
 thlktny. 
 
 5* 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 persuaded that Catherine and Charles IX. were sincere in 
 their desire to pacify the realm. 
 
 The evidence which M. Gandy cites leaves, we think, 
 no doubt about the matter. He points to Charles IX. *s 
 repeated expression of a desire for a continuance of the 
 peace and of his determination to enforce the edicts of 
 toleration contained in his letter to Mandelot, Governor 
 of Lyons, and La Mothe Fenelon, the French Ambassador 
 in England ; to the King's response to the Ambassadors 
 who came to compliment him on his marriage with 
 Elizabeth of Austria, when " he felicitated himself on the 
 peace which God had re-established in his realm . . . 
 since there was nothing in this world which he had so 
 much at heart, nor would more constantly strive for 
 than to endeavour to bring about and to observe peace, 
 union, and tranquillity among his subjects, as the true and 
 only means of securing the prosperity of kingdoms and 
 states " (December 23, 1570) ; to the exemplary punish- 
 ment of those Catholics who transgressed the edict ; and 
 to the many concessions which were granted the Huguenots 
 between the peace and the St. Bartholomew : the per- 
 mission to retain possession of La Rochelle after the 
 two years mentioned at Saint-Germain had expired, 
 the withdrawal of the royal garrison from the towns 
 of the South, the taking away of their arms from the 
 bourgeois militia, and the payment of 150,000 ecus 
 to the German Reiters who had ravaged France as 
 their allies. 
 
 Again, if we look at the foreign policy of France at this 
 time, we find it altogether favourable to the Huguenots, 
 Catherine endeavoured to negotiate, first, the marriage of 
 th? Due d'Anjou and, afterwards, that of the young Due 
 d'Alen9on with Elizabeth of England, as the counterpart 
 
 53 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 of the union of her daughter with Henri of Navarre ; 
 while the relations of France with Germany, Flanders, 
 and Spain all indicate a policy of conciliation. 
 
 Finally, it should be borne in mind that the Peace of 
 1570 was really the work of the Third Party — the 
 Politiques as they were called — whose leaders, Montmorency, 
 Cosseo, and Biron, sympathised with many of the aspira- 
 tions of the Huguenots and were extremely hostile to the 
 Guises ; that it was bitterly resented by the Guises and 
 the High Catholic party, by the Pope and by Philip II. 
 Pius v., writing to the Cardinal de Lorraine, speaks of 
 the negotiations as infamous. " We cannot refrain from 
 tears," he concludes, " as we think how deplorable the 
 peace is to all good men, how full of danger, and what a 
 scource of bitter regret." And Philip II. offered to send 
 Charles a force of 9000 men to continue the war. Had 
 it been nothing but a snare, surely these potentates would 
 have been in the secret ! 
 
 The hand of Marguerite was intended to consolidate 
 the peace ; to flatter the Huguenots and allay their 
 suspicions, while, at the same time, weakening their power 
 of offence, by bringing their nominal chief directly under 
 ^ Catherine's own influence. From the beginning of 1571, 
 active negotiations were carried on between the Court and 
 the Huguenot stronghold of La Rochelle, and Biron, 
 Cosse, and Castelnau were in turn despatched thither to 
 confer with Henri's mother, Jeanne d'Albret, and the 
 Protestant leaders. Jeanne d'Albret received the overtures 
 of the Court with mixed feelings. She was intensely 
 ambitious for her idolised son and desirous of doing 
 everything in her power to promote the interests of her 
 party. But she hated Catherine and all the Valois, and 
 entertained the most profound distrust of their professions 
 
 54 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 of friendship ; and had the decision rested with her alone, 
 the proffered alliance would most certainly have been 
 rejected. However, the Huguenot leaders were practi- 
 cally unanimous in urging her to consent ; Coligny, 
 who had divined the growing greatness of the young 
 prince, and augured much from the favour with which 
 Charles IX. had always regarded him, was particularly 
 insistent on the advantages which the party and the 
 kingdom generally would derive from the match ; and 
 ultimately, after long deliberation, the Queen agreed to 
 proceed to Pau and submit the matter to her Council of 
 State. 
 
 There can be no doubt that Jeanne hoped that the 
 nobility of her little kingdom would take a less favourable 
 view of the project than the leaders of the party. But, 
 carried away by the eloquence of the Chancellor, Fran- 
 cceur, who had been won over by the representations 
 of Coligny and the promises of the Court, they pro- 
 nounced with one accord for the marriage ; and the 
 prince himself joined in entreating the Queen to assent 
 to the alliance and to accept Charles IX. 's invitation to 
 proceed to Blois, where the Court then was, to settle the 
 preliminaries. 
 
 Finding further resistance impossible, Jeanne signified 
 her assent, though with a very bad grace — ^^ He las ! je compte 
 peu d' amis'* she is reported to have said, on perceiving how 
 entirely the opinion of her advisers was against her — and 
 wrote forthwith to the King to announce her approaching 
 departure for Blois. At the same time, no argument 
 could induce her to permit her son to visit the Court, 
 until his marriage with Marguerite had been finally 
 arranged and the contract signed ; while she directed 
 Biron, who had come to Pau to add his persuasions to 
 
 55 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 those of her councillors, to inform his Majesty that she 
 absolutely declined to sanction the celebration of the 
 marriage in Paris, whose inhabitants, to use her own 
 expression, were '''' peuples mutins^ ennemis d'elle et des siensy^ 
 Well would it have been for the Huguenots had the far- 
 sighted Queen persisted in this decision i 
 
 1 Freer, Jeanne d^Jlbret. 
 
 S6 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 Jeanne d'Albret's journey to Blois — The King of Portugal, 
 through Cardinal Alessandrino, demands the hand of Mar- 
 guerite — His alliance declined by Charles IX. — Catherine de' 
 Medici and Marguerite visit the Queen of Navarre at Tours 
 — Favourable impression w^hich Jeanne forms of the princess 
 — Conference between Jeanne and the Queen-Mother — Cor- 
 dial welcome accorded the Queen of Navarre, by Charles IX., 
 on her arrival at the Court — She resumes her negotiations 
 with Catherine — Her letter to Henri of Navarre — She for- 
 bids him to follow her to Blois — Brantome's description of 
 Marguerite of Valois's appearance in the procession on Palm 
 Sunday, 1572 — The negotiations between Jeanne and the 
 Queen-Mother at a deadlock — Jeanne consults the Huguenot 
 divines and the English Ambassadors — Letter of Walsingham 
 to Burleigh — A commission appointed to settle the points in 
 dispute — The King announces his intention to discard all 
 conditions — Refusal of Pope Pius V. to grant the necessary 
 dispensation for the marriage of Henri and Marguerite — 
 Terms of the marriage-treaty — Jeanne d'Albret reluctantly 
 consents to the ceremony being performed in Paris — Difficul- 
 ties raised by Gregory XIII., Pius V.'s successor, in regard to 
 the granting of the dispensation — Demands of the Calvinistic 
 divines concerning the ceremonial to be observed at the 
 marriage acceded to by Charles IX. — The Queen of Navarre 
 sets out for Paris. 
 
 The Queen left Pau, early in January 1572, and pro-'' 
 ceeded to Nerac, to which she had summoned an 
 assembly of Huguenot nobles to confer with her. She 
 next visited Lectoure, the capital of her county of 
 
 57 
 
QUEEN MARGOjT 
 
 Armagnac, recently restored to her by Charles IX., to 
 receive a renewed oath of fidelity from its inhabitants. 
 Here she remained for some days, and then, having 
 taken an affectionate farewell of her son, whom she 
 was never to see again, she continued her journey north- 
 wards, accompanied by her daughter Catherine, then aged 
 thirteen, Biron, Louis Count of Nassau, brother of 
 William of Orange, and a number of Protestant nobles, 
 amongst whom were Rohan, La Rochefoucauld, Teligny, 
 La Noue, and Rosny, the father of the celebrated Due 
 de Sully. Between Poitiers and Tours she was over- 
 taken by Cardinal Alessandrino, the Pope's nephew, 
 despatched by Pius V. on a special mission to Charles 
 IX., who insolently traversed the Queen's train, without 
 bestowing upon her the customary salutation, " deeming 
 it a crime and an impiety to offer any greeting to an 
 excommunicated person." The cardinal has been charged 
 by his uncle to remonstrate in the strongest possible 
 terms against the marriage of his Most Christian 
 Majesty's sister with the son of so determined a heretic 
 and, at the same time, to exhort Charles to return a 
 favourable answer to the suit of the King of Portugal. 
 Thanks to the exertions of Pius V., alarmed beyond 
 measure at the rumours of the projected marriage between 
 Marguerite and Henri of Navarre, the views of Dom 
 Sebastian in regard to the French princess had during 
 the last three months undergone a remarkable change ; 
 and whereas, in the previous October, he had practically 
 declined the alliance, he was now intensely anxious for 
 its conclusion. Cardinal Alessandrino, who had journeyed 
 from Lisbon, was, in fact, the bearer of a letter from the 
 young sovereign to Charles IX., wherein he even offered 
 to accept the hand of Marguerite without a dowry, pro- 
 
 58 
 
-^>\'- 
 
 : '.71 
 
 
renew. > inhabitants. 
 
 ^v.rr\9'' „ „ then, having 
 
 her son, whom she 
 »S3- '^evx n, she continued her journey north 
 
 Catherine, then aged 
 
 v.-ow, Kfother of 
 
 .nt nobles, 
 
 uld, Teligny, 
 
 •ated Due 
 
 was over- 
 
 o$t Ch 
 
 >;tween 
 1 ^ or" Dom 
 
 S .lad during 
 
 the ; kable change , 
 
 and whereas, ift vious October, he had practically 
 
 intensely a 
 
 nout a d< 
 JEANNE D'ALBRET, QUEEN OF NAVARRE 
 
 From an Engraving after a Drawing attributed to FRAN901S Clouet, in the 
 Bihliotheqiie Nationalf, Paris 
 
ft. jBMINEllAlJil'K'; 
 
 t 
 
 J^^iifUel^' 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 vided that the king would join the Holy League which 
 the Pope was then forming against the Turks/ 
 
 Charles IX. received the cardinal very graciously, but 
 positively declined the Portuguese alliance, remarking 
 that urgent reasons of State obliged him to conclude the 
 marriage of his sister with the Prince of Navarre. To 
 console the Legate, who could not conceal his chagrin at 
 the failure of his mission, the King drew a magnificent 
 diamond ring from his finger and begged him to accept 
 it, "as a pledge of his esteem for his person and of his 
 attachment to the Holy See " ; but Alessandrino was com- 
 pelled to decline, on the ground that the Pope had 
 expressly forbidden him to accept any presents from 
 sovereigns to whom he was accredited.^ 
 
 On her arrival at Tours, the Queen of Navarre was- 
 met by a messenger from Charles IX., who begged her 
 to defer her visit to Blois until after the departure of 
 the Legate, and offered her her choice between the 
 Citadel of Tours and the Chateau of Plessis for a 
 residence. Jeanne preferred to remain at Tours, where, 
 
 day or two later, she was visited by Catherine de' 
 Medici, Marguerite, the widowed Princesse de Conde, 
 and her future daughter-in-law, Marie de Cleves, and 
 other ladies of the Court. Marguerite seems to have 
 made a highly favourable impression upon the Queen of 
 Navarre, who wrote to her son : " Madame Marguerite 
 has paid me every honour and welcome in her power to 
 
 1 Letter of Dom Sebastian to Pius V., December 20, 1571, cited by 
 M. de Saint-Poncy, Histoire de Marguerite de Galois, Reine de France et 
 de Navarre. 
 
 2 According to Davila, the Legate gave a very different reason for his 
 refusal, namely, that "as his Majesty had so unexpectedly deviated from 
 his zeal for the Catholic religion, his most precious jewels were no more 
 than dirt in the estimation of all good Catholics." 
 
 59 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 bestow ; and she has frankly owned to me the favourable 
 impression which she has formed of you/ With her 
 beauty and wit, she exercises a great influence over the 
 Queen-Mother and the King, and Messieurs her younger 
 brothers." ^ 
 
 The following day, the conferences between Jeanne 
 and Catherine respecting the marriage articles began. 
 '* What a contrast between these two women ! " remarks 
 La Ferriere. " Catherine, with the big eyes of the 
 Medici, whose vivacity was tempered by a flash of Gallic 
 raillery, impudently denying in the morning what she 
 had said or promised the evening before ; and Jeanne, 
 with her austere, ascetic countenance and thin lips, whose 
 smile her cold Calvinism had frozen ; absolute, authorita- 
 tive, impassive in appearance, and yet concealing at the 
 bottom of her heart ferocious passions." ^ 
 
 This marriage, settled in principle, presented in the 
 execution considerable difficulties and raised many thorny 
 questions. A mixed marriage was, at this period, a very 
 unusual occurrence, particularly on the steps of the 
 throne, hitherto so closely united with the Church. In 
 the sphere of crowned heads only one instance could be 
 
 ^ Marguerite, in saying this, was probably acting under her mother's 
 instructions, for, according to Davila, she declared to her intimate 
 friends that she " would never resign herself willingly to the loss of the 
 Due de Guise, to whom she had given her affections and her faith, 
 neither would she of her own free will accept for a husband the duke's 
 greatest enemy." 
 
 2 At the same time, little Catherine de Bourbon wrote to her brother : 
 " Monsieur, — I have seen Madame, whom I think very beautiful and I 
 greatly wish you could see her too. I talked well to her of you, and 
 asked her to hold you in her greatest favour, which she promised me to 
 do. She gave me a very cordial welcome and has given me a beautiful 
 little dog, that I love much (a« bau petit chien que j erne bien)" 
 
 * Trois amoureuses du Xf^P siecle : Marguerite de Valois, 
 
 60 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 cited : that of Marie Stuart and Both well. It was not 
 an encouraging one ! ^ 
 
 The two royal ladies were soon at variance. Jeanne 
 proposed that her son should be married by proxy, and 
 that, after the ceremony, she should conduct Marguerite 
 to her husband at Pau. This was indignantly vetoed by 
 Catherine, who demanded : First, that the bridegroom 
 should attend in person and that, after the marriage, the 
 young couple should reside for at least a portion of each 
 year at the French Court. Secondly, that Marguerite 
 should not be compelled to attend the prayers, or preches, 
 of the Huguenots, but that, wherever she went, her 
 husband should provide her with a chapel, priests, and 
 other requisites for the celebration of Mass. Thirdly, 
 that the Prince of Navarre should refrain from the 
 public exercise of his religion while at Court. 
 
 It was now the Queen of Navarre's turn to be indig- 
 nant, and she declared that nothing would induce her to 
 accept these conditions. Indeed, had it not been for the 
 belief that Catherine was seeking to impose upon her 
 merely her own wishes and not, as she asserted, those of 
 the King, she would have cut short the negotiations there 
 and then ; a course to which she was strongly urged by 
 Rosny, who added : '' Believe me, Madame, that if these 
 nuptials are ever celebrated in Paris, the liveries worn 
 will be blood-coloured 1 " 
 
 The Legate having taken his departure, Jeanne pro- 
 ceeded to Blois, where she was received with every 
 imaginable honour and overwhelmed with caresses by 
 Charles IX., who called her " sa bonne tante^ son tout^ 
 sa mieux amiey Her presence assured the triumph of 
 
 ^ Comte L6o de Saint-Poncy, Marguerite de Va/ois, Reine de France 
 et de Navarre, i. 1 1 1 . 
 
 6i 
 
\ 
 
 QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 Coligny, who had returned to the Court from which he 
 had been so long exiled in the previous September, and 
 had already gained a great influence over the mind of the 
 impressionable King, as well as over that of his younger 
 brother Alen^on, who seems to have been completely 
 fascinated by the genius of the intrepid soldier. " Per- 
 haps," remarks M. de Saint-Poncy, *' it was Coligny who 
 first implanted in that weak and unstable mind those 
 seditious seeds which were later to bear fruit." 
 
 The two Queens resumed their interrupted confer- 
 ences, but, as neither would give way an inch, the affair 
 made little or no progress, and Jeanne complains bitterly 
 to her son of the manner in which she is being treated, 
 and particularly of the care which is taken to prevent her 
 having private interviews with Marguerite ; while she is 
 inexpressibly shocked at the morals of the Court. 
 
 "Jeanne d'Albret to Henri of Navarre. 
 
 " Mon filsy — I am forced to negotiate quite contrary 
 to my expectations and their promises. I am no longer 
 at liberty to speak to Madame Marguerite even, but only 
 to the Queen-Mother, qui me traite a la fourche^ as my 
 messenger will inform you. As for Monsieur (the Due 
 d'Anjou), he likewise endeavours to domineer, though in 
 a very courteous manner, half in jest, half by deceit. 
 As for Madame (Marguerite), I only see her in the 
 Queen's apartments, from which she never stirs, and she 
 never returns to her own chamber, except during those 
 hours when it is impossible for me to visit her. She is 
 always attended by Madame de Curton (her gouvernanie), 
 so that it is impossible for me to utter a word which the 
 latter does not hear. I have not yet shown Madame 
 your letter, but she shall see it. I spoke to her, and she 
 
 62 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 is very discreet, and replied, in general terms, of obedience 
 to you and to myself, in the event of her becoming 
 your wife. 
 
 "... I approve of your letter and will present it to 
 Madame on the first opportunity. As for her picture, 
 I will send to Paris and secure one for you. She is 
 beautiful, discreet, and graceful ; but she has been reared 
 in the midst of the most vicious and corrupt society that 
 ever existed. No one that I see here is exempt from its 
 evil influences, your cousin [the Marquise de Villars] is 
 so greatly changed that she exhibits no sign of religion ; 
 if it be not that she abstains from attending Mass (!) ; for 
 in all else, save that she refrains from this idolatry, she 
 conducts herself like other Papists, and my sister Madame 
 la Princesse sets an even worse example. This I write 
 you in confidence. The bearer of this letter will tell you 
 how the King emancipates himself; it is a pity. I would 
 not for any consideration in the world that you should 
 abide here. For this reason, I desire to see you married, 
 that you and your wife may withdraw yourselves from 
 this corruption ; for, although I believed it to be very 
 great, it surpasses my anticipation. Here it is not the 
 men who solicit the women, but the women the men. 
 If you were here, you would never escape, save by some 
 remarkable mercy of God. I send you a favour to wear 
 beneath your ear, since you are now for sale, and some 
 studs for your cap. 
 
 "... I entreat you to pray earnestly to God, for you 
 have great need of Him at all times, and that He will 
 help you. And I pray to Him for it, and that He will 
 give you, my son, what you desire. From Blois, from 
 your good mother and best friend 
 
 "(Signed) Jeanne." 
 63 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 " Since writing the above, finding no means of deliver- 
 ing your letter to Madame (Marguerite), I have repeated 
 to her its contents. She made answer that, before these 
 negotiations began, you were well aware of the religion 
 that she professed and of her devotion to it. I told her 
 that those who had made the first overtures had repre- 
 sented the matter very differently and that, had it not 
 been for this conviction, I should not have consented to 
 the marriage ; nevertheless, while it was yet time, I 
 besought her to reflect well. At other times, when I 
 have spoken to her on the subject, she has never answered 
 so peremptorily and even rudely. I believe, however, 
 Madame speaks as she has been commanded to speak ; 
 also, that the story respecting her inclination for the 
 reformed doctrines was merely a device to lure me on to 
 this negotiation. I never miss an opportunity to draw 
 from her some avowal which may console me. I inquired 
 of her this evening whether she had any message to send 
 you. Madame for some time made no reply ; but at 
 length, upon my pressing her for an answer, she replied 
 that '*she could not send you any message without 
 having first obtained permission ; but that I was to 
 present to you her compliments and to say you were to 
 come to" Court. But I, my son, bid you do quite the 
 contrary." 
 
 Catherine de' Medici was, above all things, anxious 
 to draw the young prince to Blois ; as she was probably 
 well aware that he had Inherited his father's (Antoine de 
 Bourbon's) weakness for beauty, and did not doubt that, 
 once among the temptations of the Court, she would be 
 able to gain his consent to concessions which she might 
 seek in vain from his obstinate mother, if not through 
 
 64 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 the good offices of his charming bride-elect, then through 
 those of one of the," creatures more divine than human " 
 who formed her renowned " escadron volant^ Henri, how- 
 ever, who had the deepest veneration for his mother and 
 implicit confidence in her sagacity, preferred to follow 
 her instructions and remained at Pau, all the more readily 
 that he was at this time the slave of a fair lady of the 
 Court of Navarre, and far from disposed to leave his 
 mistress, even for "the hunting, banqueting and other 
 pleasures" mentioned by Charles IX., in a very pressing 
 invitation which he despatched to him. 
 
 If Henri had followed his mother to Blois, he would 
 have had an opportunity of seeing his bride-elect in 
 circumstances which might have caused him to quite 
 forget the heaux yeux of his mistress, for on Palm Sunday 
 1572, Marguerite appeared in the State procession and, 
 if we are to believe Brantome, ravished every one by 
 her marvellous beauty and the sumptuousness of her 
 attire. 
 
 " I saw her in the procession," he writes, " so beautiful 
 that nothing in the world could be seen so fair ; because, 
 besides the beauty of her face and form, she was most 
 superbly and most richly adorned and apparelled. Her 
 lovely fair face, which resembled the heavens in their 
 sweetest and calmest serenity, was adorned about the head 
 by so great a quantity of large pearls and costly jewels 
 and, in particular, by sparkling diamonds worn in the 
 form of stars, that people declared that the serenity of the 
 face and the arrangement of the jewels resembled the sky 
 when it is very starry. Her beautiful body, with its full 
 tall form, was robed in a gown of crinkled cloth-of-gold, 
 the richest and most beautiful ever seen in France. The 
 stuff was a gift made by the Grand Seigneur to M. de 
 
 65 E 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 Grand-Champ, on his departure from Constantinople, 
 where he was Ambassador, it being the Grand Seigneur's 
 custom to present to those who are sent to him by the 
 great States a piece of the said stuff amounting to fifteen 
 ells ; which, Grand-Champ assured me, cost one hundred 
 crowns the ell, and it was a masterpiece. He, on his 
 coming to France, not knowing how to employ better or 
 more worthily the gift of so rich a stuff, gave it to 
 Madame, the sister of the king, who had it made into a 
 gown and wore it, for the first time, that day, and very 
 well it became her ; since from one grandeur to another 
 there is only a hand's breadth. She wore it all day, 
 although its weight was very great ; but her beautiful, 
 full, strong figure supported it well and aided her greatly, 
 since had she been a little dwarf of a princess or a dame 
 only elbow-high, as I have seen some, she would assuredly 
 have died under the weight, or else had been forced to 
 change her gown and take another. Nor is this all, for, 
 being in the procession, walking according to her high 
 rank, her face uncovered, so as not to deprive the people 
 of its kindly light, she seemed more beautiful still, by 
 bearing everywhere in her hand a palm-branch, as our 
 queens of all time have been wont to do, with royal 
 majesty, with a grace, half-proud, half-sweet, and in a 
 manner little common and so different from all the rest 
 that whosoever had never seen her and known her would 
 have said : ' Here is a princess who is above the run of 
 all others in thfe world ! ' And we courtiers went about 
 declaring with one voice boldly : * This beautiful princess 
 does well to bear a palm in her hand, since she bears it 
 away from all others in the world, and surpasses them all 
 in beauty, in grace, and in every perfection. Then I swear 
 to you that in this procession we forgot our devotion^ 
 
 66 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 and did not make them, while contemplating and admir- 
 ing this divine princess, who ravished us more than 
 divine service, and yet we thought we committed no sin ; 
 for whoso contemplates and admires a divinity on earth 
 does not offend that of Heaven, inasmuch as He made her 
 such.' " 
 
 In the meanwhile, the negotiations between the two 
 queens had come to an absolute deadlock, for, in addition 
 to the points already in dispute, fresh difficulties had 
 arisen, relative to the manner in which the marriage was 
 to be solemnised. To discuss the momentous questions 
 involved, Jeanne, having received the king's permission 
 to consult whom she pleased, summoned to Blois three 
 prominent Huguenot divines, Merlin de Vaulx, Espinosa, 
 and Vinet, and also called into consultation the English 
 Ambassadors, Sir Francis Walsingham and Sir Thomas 
 Smith. Walsingham, in a despatch to Burleigh, gives the 
 following account of the interview : 
 
 " Walsingham to Burleigh. 
 
 *' BkiSf May 29, 1572. 
 
 "Since I wrote last unto your lordship, there hath 
 fallen out nothing worthy of advertisement. The matter 
 of the marriage between the prince of Navar [sic'] and 
 the Lady Marguerite continueth doubtful, whereof Sir 
 Thomas Smith and I have more cause so to judge, for 
 that the fourteenth of this month it pleased the Queen of 
 Navar [j^V] to send for us to dinner. Immediately upon 
 our coming, she showed unto us how, with the consent 
 of the Queen-Mother, she had sent for us (as the Ministers 
 and Ambassadors of a Christian Princess she had sundry 
 causes to honour) to confer with us and certain others 
 in whom she reposed great trust, touching certain diffi- 
 
 67 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 culties that were impeachments to the marriage, which 
 things she would communicate to us after dinner. She 
 said to us that now she had the Woolf by the ears, for 
 that in concluding or not concluding the marriage she 
 saw danger every way, and that no matter did so trouble 
 her as this, for that she could not tell how to resolve ; 
 amongst divers causes of fear, she showed unto us that 
 two chiefly troubled her. 
 
 " The first, that the king would needs have her son 
 and the Lady Margaret, the marriage proceeding, to be 
 courtiers, and yet would not yield to grant him any 
 exercise of religion ; the next way to make him become 
 an Atheist, as also thereby no hope to grow of the con- 
 version of the Lady Margaret, for that she would not 
 resort to any sermon. 
 
 " The second, that they would needs condition that, 
 the Lady Margaret, remaining constant in the Catholic 
 Faith, should have, whensoever she went to the country 
 of Beam, her Mass, a thing which in no wise she can 
 consent to, having her country of Beam cleansed from all 
 idolatry. Besides, said she, the Lady Margaret re- 
 maining a Catholic, whensoever she shall come to remain 
 in the country of Beam, the Papists there will take her 
 part, which will breed division in the country, and make 
 her most unwilling to give ear to the gospel, having a 
 staff to lean to. After dinner, she sent for us into her 
 chamber, where we found a dozen others of certain Gent 
 of the religion and their ministers. She declared briefly 
 what had passed between the King, Queen-Mother, and 
 her touching the marriage, as also what was the cause of 
 the present stay of the same, wherein she desired us to 
 severally say our opinions and sincerely, as we would 
 answer unto God. The stay stood on three points : First, 
 
 68 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 whether she might with a good conscience substitute a 
 Papist for her son's Proctor for the Fiansals, which was 
 generally agreed she might. Secondly, whether the 
 Proctor going to Mass after the Fiansals, which was 
 expressly forbidden in his letters procuratory, would not 
 breed an offence to the godly. It was agreed that this 
 would be no offence. Thirdly, whether she might 
 consent that the Fiansals might be pronounced by a 
 Priest in his priestly attire, with his Surplice and Stole. 
 This latter point was long debated, and for that, the 
 Ministers concluded that the same, though it were a 
 thing indifferent, could not but breed a general offence to 
 the godly. She protested that she would never consent to 
 do that thing whereof might grow any public scandal, for 
 that she knew, she said, she would so incur God's high 
 displeasure ; upon which protestation, it was generally 
 concluded that, in that case, she might not yield thereto, 
 her own conscience gainsaying the same, so that now the 
 marriage is held generally for broken. Notwithstanding, 
 I am of the contrary opinion, and do think assuredly 
 that hardly any cause will make them break, so many 
 necessary causes there are that the same should proceed. 
 By the next, I shall be able to advertise your lordship of 
 the certainty of the marriage. . . ." ^ 
 
 Walsingham's prediction was verified. Charles IX., who 
 was firmly resolved upon the marriage, losing patience, 
 determined to take the negotiations out of the hands of the 
 two queens and entrust them to a commission, half of 
 its members to be nominated by himself and the other 
 half by Jeanne d'Albret. The Commissioners chosen by 
 the king were Birague, the Keeper of the Seals, Biron, 
 
 ^ Published by Bingham, "Marriages of the Bourbons," i. 163. 
 
 69 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 the Comtes de Retz and de Mauleverier ; those appointed 
 by the Queen of Navarre were Francoeur, Chancellor 
 of Navarre, Count Louis of Nassau, La Noue, and 
 her secretary, Le Royer. The commissioners, however, 
 seemed no more able to agree than had the royal ladies ; 
 and, in despair, Charles suddenly declared it to be his 
 pleasure to discard all conditions whatever and to pro- 
 ceed forthwith to stipulate the articles of his sister's 
 marriage-contract, provided only that the, Queen of 
 Navarre would consent to her son coming to receive the 
 hand of his bride in person, in place of the marriage 
 being celebrated by procuration. The King's proposal 
 was acceded to by Jeanne, though not, it would appear, 
 without grave misgivings. 
 
 There still remained, however, an obstacle to be sur- 
 mounted. Both Marguerite and Henri of Navarre were 
 descended from Charles of Valois, Comte d'Angoul6me, 
 the father of Francois I. and were consequently cousins in 
 the third degree, a relationship which, remote though it 
 was, required the dispensation of the Holy See before a 
 marriage could be contracted. This dispensation had 
 been sought by Charles IX., through his Ambassador at 
 the Vatican, the skilful de Marie and the French cardinals. 
 But Pius v., who still continued to protest against a union 
 which not only offended his conscience but threatened 
 to ruin all his political combinations, indignantly re- 
 fused it, declaring that sooner than grant dispensation 
 of marriage to a heretic he would " lose his head." 
 
 In the meanwhile, on April ii, 1572, without waiting 
 for the response of the Vatican, the treaty of marriage ^ 
 
 ^ This treaty has been confounded by many writers with the marriage 
 contract, which was signed in Paris on the following August 17. The 
 deed of April 1 1 was a kind of provisionary convention. 
 
 70 
 
OUEEN MARGOT 
 
 had been signed in the great hall of the Chateau of Blois. 
 Charles IX, agreed to give his sister the sum of 300,000 
 golden ecus of 54 sols tournois each, in return for which she 
 was to renounce all her rights on the property of the 
 family, on both her father's and her mother's side ; 
 Catherine promised her 200,000 livres and the Dues 
 d'Anjou and d'Alen^on each 25,000 livres, which were to 
 be employed in the purchase of Rentes on the Hotel de 
 Ville in Paris. But all this was never paid, it appears, 
 or at least only a part of it. Jeanne d'Albret, on her 
 part, covenanted to surrender to her son on his mar- 
 riage the revenues of the country of Armagnac, 12,000 
 livres of dowry, which she had on the county of 
 Harle, and the lands ceded to her by the Cardinal de 
 Bourbon on her marriage with Antoine de Bourbon. 
 She also proclaimed him her universal heir. Marguerite's 
 dowry, in the event of her surviving her husband, was 
 fixed at the annual sum of 40,000 livres tournois, secured 
 on the revenue of the Duchy of Vendome, with the 
 Chateau of Vendome, furnished, as a residence. Prince 
 Henri, moreover, was to expend a sum of 30,000 livres 
 in furniture and decorations for the palace of his future 
 bride. Finally, the Cardinal de Bourbon promised his 
 nephew the sum of 100,000 livres on the estate of 
 Chateauneuf, in Thimerais, to renounce in his favour all 
 the rights which belonged to him as the head of the 
 family, and to recognise him as the real heir of the 
 House of Bourbon. 
 
 The questions of where the marriage was to take place 
 and the ceremonial to be observed on that occasion re- 
 mained to be decided. We have seen that, at the begin- 
 ning of the negotiations, Jeanne d'Albret had absolutely 
 refused to consent to the nuptials being celebrated in 
 
 71 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 Paris, and several of the Huguenot leaders were also 
 strongly opposed to a marriage in the capital. They 
 knew how rancorous was the hostility of the Parisians to 
 the reformed religion, how bitterly they resented the 
 Peace of Saint-Germain and the growing influence of the 
 Huguenot party, and how complete was the ascendency 
 of the Guises over the excitable populace. To trust 
 themselves in the midst of a city whose inhabitants 
 regarded them with such feelings, seemed to them 
 the height of imprudence, for, with all the good 
 will in the world, the king might be powerless to 
 save them, if once the frenzied fanaticism of the mob 
 were to be aroused. However, the King and Queen- 
 Mother had so many reasons to allege in favour of the 
 capital that it was impossible to gainsay them. They 
 pointed out that it was the immemorial custom of the 
 kings of France to marry the royal princesses in the 
 metropolis of their realm ; that it would be impossible 
 to hold the festivities proper to such an occasion in any 
 of the royal residences except the Louvre ; that to cele- 
 brate their marriage elsewhere would not only cause the 
 greatest disappointment among the nobility, but would 
 be deeply resented by the Parisians, who would regard it 
 as a reflection upon their loyalty ; finally, that the import- 
 ance of the alliance, which was intended to proclaim to 
 France and to all Europe that the internal dissensions 
 which had so long distracted the realm were at length 
 appeased, imperatively demanded that it should be solem- 
 nised in the capital and with all possible magnificence. 
 
 Very reluctantly, Jeanne yielded to their Majesties* 
 desire ; but the Huguenot chiefs proposed that, since to 
 Paris they must go, they would proceed thither in such 
 force as to render any attempt against them on the part 
 
 72 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 of the Guises and their partisans worse than useless. 
 This suggestion was strongly opposed by the Queen, as 
 being likely to provoke the very calamity which they 
 feared ; but, after her untimely death, her wishes were dis- 
 regarded ; a fatal error which, as we shall presently see, 
 was to be fraught with the most disastrous consequences. 
 
 Towards the end of April, Pius V. died and was 
 succeeded by Gregory XIII., a pontiff of a more pliable 
 disposition. Nevertheless, the new Pope did not at first 
 show himself any more favourably disposed towards the 
 marriage than had his predecessor, for, although he 
 promised to accord the necessary dispensation on account 
 of relationship, it was hedged in by such restrictions and 
 conditions as to make his consent little better than a 
 disguised refusal. Firstly, the Prince of Navarre must 
 make a profession of the Catholic Faith, in the presence 
 of Charles IX. Secondly, the Prince of Navarre must 
 himself solicit, or cause to be solicited on his behalf, the 
 said dispensation. Thirdly, he must re-establish the 
 Catholic clergy, both regular and secular, of his dominions 
 in possession of all the benefices and property of which 
 they had been deprived. Finally, the marriage must be 
 solemnised according to the ritual of Holy Church, 
 without any alterations whatsoever. 
 
 Charles IX. flew into a violent passion when informed 
 of the attitude taken up by the new Pope ; and, on 
 Jeanne d'Albret, whose health had for some time past 
 been gradually failing, expressing a wish to retire to 
 Vendome, pending the settlement of the negotiations 
 with the Holy See, exclaimed : " No, no, ma tante ; I 
 honour you more than I do the Pope, and I love my 
 sister more than I fear his Holiness. I am not a 
 Huguenot, but neither am I a fool. If M. le Pape 
 
 73 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 conducts himself too absurdly in this affair, I promise 
 you that I will myself take Margot by the hand and lead 
 her to be married in full prechej" ^ 
 
 On their side, the bigoted Calvinistic divines. Merlin 
 de Vaulx, Espinosa and the rest, to whose counsel the 
 Queen of Navarre was wont to pay so much deference, 
 endeavoured to impose all kinds of vexatious conditions 
 in regard to the ceremony to be observed at the marriage. 
 They insisted that the Cardinal de Bourbon, who had 
 been chosen by the King to perform the ceremony, 
 " should array himself only in the vestments which the 
 said cardinal wears on ordinary occasions, such as when 
 he attends the Royal Council in the court of the Parle- 
 ment, and that during the ceremony he should content 
 himself with delivering the ring only to the parties, 
 without uttering the accustomed benediction ; that the 
 Prince of Navarre, though, if he received the express 
 commands of his Majesty, he might accompany the said 
 Majesty into the Cathedral of Notre-Dame (the marriage, 
 it should be mentioned, was to be celebrated on a platform 
 erected before the portal of Notre-Dame, according to 
 the ancient custom at the marriage of a daughter of 
 France), should quit the cathedral before the commence- 
 ment of the Romish service, by the same door as he 
 entered, the prince taking his departure in as conspicuous 
 a manner as possible, in the sight of all, that it may at 
 once be most evident that he appeared there with no 
 intention of assisting at Mass or at any other ceremony 
 whatever ; " and so forth. 
 
 The document embodying these conditions was pre- 
 sented to Charles IX. and the Queen-Mother by Jeanne 
 d'Albret, who expressed her intention of adhering to 
 
 1 L'Estoile. 
 74 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 them to the letter. The King, eager to get the affair 
 concluded, assented to her demands, and begged the 
 Queen to do all in her power to hasten matters, so that 
 the marriage might be celebrated so soon as the Cardinal 
 de Lorraine, who had been despatched to Rome, had 
 succeeded in overcoming the scruples of the Vatican. 
 This Jeanne promised to do and, a day or two later, 
 took leave of their Majesties and set out for Paris. 
 
 75 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 Jeanne d'AIbret arrives in Paris — Her illness and death — 
 Suspicions of poisoning — Result of the autopsy — An "amusing 
 incident" — Grief of Henri of Navarre on learning of his 
 mother's death — His entry into Paris — Imprudent conduct of 
 the Huguenots who accompany the King of Navarre exasperates 
 the Parisians — Growing influence of Coligny with Charles IX. 
 — He urges the King to assist the revolted Netherlands against 
 Spain — Jealousy and alarm of Catherine de' Medici — Mar- 
 riage of the Prince de Conde and Henriette de Cleves — 
 Marriage of Henri of Navarre and Marguerite de Valois — 
 Festivities at the Louvre — Allegorical entertainment at the 
 H6tel du Petit-Bourbon. 
 
 At the beginning of the last week in May, Jeanne 
 d'AIbret arrived in Paris and took up her quarters at the 
 Hotel de Cond6, Rue de Grenelle-Saint-Honore.^ Her 
 ostensible reason in preceding the Court to the capital, 
 was to make extensive purchases in view of the 
 approaching marriage ; jewels and other costly gifts for 
 her future daughter-in-law, suitable equipment for her- 
 self and her suite, and so forth ; but, in reality, to ascertain 
 the temper of the citizens towards the House of Bourbon, 
 ere trusting her beloved son to their hospitality ; for, as 
 we have mentioned, she entertained the most profound 
 dislike and distrust of the Parisians. On the evening of 
 June 4, on her return from a shopping exhibition, the 
 
 * Several historians state that the Queen went to reside at the hotel 
 of Jean Guillart, the excommunicated Bishop of Chartres, but this is 
 incorrect. 
 
 76 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 Queen complained of feeling unwell ; during the night 
 she became much worse, and, on June 9, in spite of all 
 the efforts of her physicians, she died at the age of 
 forty-four. 
 
 Sinister rumours circulated among the little group of 
 Huguenots around the death-bed and quickly spread 
 through the city. A visit which the Queen had paid, on 
 the day of her sudden seizure, to the shop of Catherine 
 de' Medici's Florentine perfumer Ren6 (" a man," says 
 L'Estoile, " impregnated with all kinds of wickedness, 
 who lived on murders, thefts and poisonings") was con- 
 sidered a most suspicious circumstance, and it was freely 
 asserted that she had been poisoned. *' It was suspected," 
 says La Planche, " that the Queen- Mother had had 
 recourse to Maitre Rene, her reputed poisoner, who, in 
 selling his perfumes and scented ruffs to the Queen, 
 contrived to administer poison to her, from the effects of 
 which she died shortly afterwards." Such writers as 
 L'Estoile, Othagaray, de Thou, and Mezeray have not 
 feared to add their testimony to the common prejudice ; 
 but there can be no question that Jeanne's health had 
 been gradually failing for some time past, and the most 
 trustworthy evidence, such as that of Palma Cayet, 
 Henry IV.'s tutor, Favyn, the historian of Navarre, and 
 the surgeons, Caillard and Desnceuds, who assisted the 
 Queen in her last moments, all goes to indicate that she 
 died a natural death. 
 
 At the autopsy, held by order of Charles IX., by his 
 first surgeon and Jeanne's medical attendants, in the 
 presence of certain officers of the deceased Queen's 
 household, all the organs were found to be healthy and 
 free from disease, with the exception of the lungs. "A 
 large abscess was there discovered, which had broken, the 
 
 77 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 secretion being partially absorbed by the lungs, which 
 were besides very extensively diseased." 
 
 Several Protestant writers have declared that the 
 autopsy was valueless, " since the brain was not ex- 
 amined " ; but this is quite untrue. It appears that, some 
 time previously, Caillard had received special instructions 
 from the Queen that after her death an examination was 
 to be made of her brain, " in order to discover from what 
 cause proceeded the itching sensation which she so often 
 experienced on the crown of her head, so that if the 
 prince her son or the princess her daughter were afflicted 
 by the same, they might know what remedy to apply." 
 These instructions were duly carried out by Desnoeuds, 
 under Caillard's directions ; and it was found that the 
 irritation proceeded " from certain vesicles full of water 
 lying between the brain and the membrane investing it." 
 Caillard distinctly stated that the Queen died from the 
 bursting of an abscess on the lungs, and Desnoeuds was 
 of the same opinion. " Messieurs," said the latter, 
 addressing his colleagues, " if her Majesty had died, as 
 has been wrongly asserted, from having smelt some 
 poisonous object, the marks would be perceptible on the 
 coating of the brain ; but, on the contrary, the brain is 
 healthful and as free from disease as possible. If her 
 Majesty had died from swallowing poison, traces of such 
 would have been visible in the stomach, where we can 
 discover nothing of the kind. There is no other cause, 
 therefore, for her Majesty's decease but rupture of an 
 abscess on the lungs." ^ 
 
 " It may also be observed," remarks the Queen's 
 
 English biographer, Miss Freer, a writer by no means 
 
 disposed to leniency where Catherine de' Medici is 
 
 1 Palma Cayet, Chronologie novennaire* 
 
 78 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 concerned, " that the symptoms attending Jeanne's malady 
 were not of a nature to be produced by poison ; also, that 
 the Queen herself, during an illness which lasted five days, 
 suspected nothing of the kind, or she would have 
 imparted her suspicions to Coligny, in the course of their 
 frequent confidential interviews, that he might warn and 
 protect her son against a similar fate. The Admiral, 
 on the contrary, insisted on the expediency of Henri's 
 journey to Paris to perform the contract negotiated for 
 him by his lamented mother.^ 
 
 The remains of Jeanne d'Albret lay in state for five 
 days, during which the principal personages of the Court 
 came to pay the deceased queen the formal visit which 
 etiquette required. " On this occasion," writes Mar- 
 guerite, " such an amusing incident took place that, 
 although it is unworthy to be recorded in history, it may 
 be privately mentioned between you and me. Madame 
 de Nevers,^ whose disposition you know, went, with the 
 Cardinal de Bourbon, Madame de Guise, the Princess de 
 Conde, her sisters and myself, to the lodgings of the late 
 Queen of Navarre, in order to acquit ourselves of the 
 last tribute of respect due to her rank and to the relation- 
 ship we bore her ; not, however, with the pomps and 
 ceremonies which our religion sanctions, but with the mean 
 ceremonial permitted by Huguenoterie ; that is to say, 
 she was lying in her ordinary bed, the curtains of which 
 were drawn back, without tapers, priests, cross, or holy 
 water. Madame de Nevers, whom the Queen, in her 
 lifetime, had detested above every other person in the 
 world, and who paid her back by word and deed in the 
 
 1 Jeanne d'Albret. 
 
 2 Henriette de Cleves, wife of Ludovic de Gonzague, Due de 
 
 Nevers. 
 
 79 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 same coin — for, as you are aware, she knew how to spite 
 those whom she hated — stepped from among us and, with 
 sundry fine, humble, and low curtseys, approached the 
 bed and, taking the Queen's hand in her own, kissed it ; 
 then, with another profound reverence, full of respect, 
 returned to our side ; we, who knew of their hatred, 
 appreciating all this." 
 
 The deceased Queen had left instructions for her 
 interment in the sepulchre of her family, in the cathedral 
 of Lescar, near Pau ; but her wishes were disregarded 
 and, by the orders of Charles IX., her remains were 
 conveyed to Vendome and deposited near those of her 
 husband, Antoine de Bourbon. 
 
 Henri of Navarre, who had quitted Beam on his way 
 to Paris, in the early days of June, had arrived at 
 Chaunay, in Poitou, when the news of his mother's death 
 reached him. Already in somewhat indifferent health, 
 the blow, which was totally unexpected, completely 
 prostrated him and brought on a violent attack of fever, 
 so that Jeanne had already been laid to rest when he 
 arrived at Vendome. Here he remained for several days, 
 and appears to have had some thought of demanding that 
 the marriage should be indefinitely postponed and 
 returning to B^arn, but Coligny, who fondly imagined 
 that the match was to be the dawn of a new era, wrote 
 letter after letter to induce him to continue his journey, 
 and eventually he yielded to the Admiral's representations, 
 'and, on July 20, made his solemn entry into Paris, 
 accompanied by his cousin, the Prince de Conde, and 
 eight hundred Huguenot gentlemen, all wearing long 
 mourning mantles of black cloth. 
 
 In the Faubourg Saint-Antoine the young King was 
 
 80 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 received by the Dues d'Anjou and d'Alen^on, the 
 Cardinal de Bourbon, the Dues de Guise and Montpensier, 
 the Mar6ehaux de Montmoreney, de Coss6, d'Amville, 
 and Tavannes, and about four hundred gentlemen of the 
 Court. The usual eompliments having been exchanged — 
 hollow enough in most instances, we fear — the two parties 
 joined forces and proceeded to the Louvre, through 
 streets densely thronged with people, who applauded the 
 Due de Guise and the other Catholic leaders, and respect- 
 fully saluted the King of Navarre, but cast angry and 
 threatening glances at the formidable body of Huguenot 
 nobles and gentlemen who brought up the rear of the 
 procession. For all that was bravest and most distin- 
 guished in Protestant France rode there : The gallant La 
 Rochefoucauld, the grave and chivalrous Teligny, 
 husband of the Admiral's daughter Louise ; Mont- 
 gommery, the involuntary slayer of Henri II. ; the 
 Vidame de Chartres, negotiator of the Treaty of 
 Hampton Court ; Piles, the heroic defender of Saint- 
 Jean-d'Angely ; Montclar, Soubise, Renel, Duras, 
 Grammont, the two Pardaillans, Caumont, Guerchy, 
 and many others, few of whom were fated ever to see 
 their homes again. 
 
 While the preparations for the marriage were being 
 made with all that elegance and luxury with which the 
 Valois knew so well how to invest their festivities, and 
 the young King of Navarre was engaged in paying his 
 addresses to the reluctant princess destined to become his 
 wife, the Court was a hot-bed of intrigue, and the city 
 seething with suppressed excitement. It is unfortunately 
 seldom the practice of minorities which, after prolonged 
 and painful struggles, find power at length in their grasp, 
 to conduct themselves with tact and moderation, and of 
 
 8l F 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 this rule the behaviour of the Huguenots affords a striking 
 illustration. Ignoring the fact that they were indebted 
 to the favourable position they now occupied, far less to 
 their own courage and devotion — though, indeed, they 
 had been courageous and devoted enough — than to the 
 exigencies of the Queen-Mother's tortuous policy, they 
 were at no pains to avoid shocking the susceptibilities of 
 the Parisians. Their truculent attitude as they passed 
 fully armed through the streets, the boastful tone of 
 their conversation, and still more their ostentatious dis- 
 regard of Catholic observances, combined to render them 
 intensely obnoxious to the citizens, taught to regard 
 these " half-foreigners " of the South with horror and 
 loathing, as despoilers of churches, contemners of the 
 Mass, and slayers of priests. Moreover, their numbers 
 roused the greatest apprehension among the more 
 timorous, who asked themselves, and with some apparent 
 reason, why, on the occasion of an event which was 
 supposed to be the pledge and proof of peace and amity 
 between the rival religions, the King of Navarre should 
 have chosen to enter Paris at the head of this formidable 
 array, and feared lest they should be "robbed and 
 despoiled in their houses." 
 
 And just as the conduct of the rank and file of the 
 Huguenots exasperated the populace of Paris, so did 
 the pretensions of Coligny cause alarm and resentment 
 at the Court. 
 
 We have said that the Admiral had, from the time of 
 his visit to the King at Blois, in the previous September, 
 acquired a great influence over Charles IX., and this 
 influence had steadily increased until it threatened to 
 completely eclipse that of the Queen-Mother. The 
 King was so entirely dominated by the Huguenot leader 
 
 8? 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 that he devoted to him entire days ; in his cabinet, at 
 the Louvre, the Admiral remained with him until a late 
 hour at night ; and, in his Majesty's absence, he presided 
 at the Council ; at his request, the Croix de Gastines, at 
 Paris, which was specially offensive to Huguenot senti- 
 ment, as commemorating the destruction of a house and 
 the execution of two of their number, was removed ; 
 many of the Huguenot grievances were listened to and 
 satisfaction promised; for the moment, he seemed master 
 of the situation. 
 
 It was the one healthy influence that had come into 
 Charles's life ; the Admiral bade him remember that he 
 was King of France and encouraged in him the desire to 
 be a great king — a warrior like Charles VIII., like 
 Louis XII., like Francois I., his grandfather. And ever, 
 in season and out of season, he urged him to take part 
 openly in the struggle of the revolted Netherlands 
 against Spain. His object was a threefold one. In the 
 first place, he knew that, sooner or later, a conflict with 
 Spain was inevitable, unless France were prepared to sink 
 into a subordinate position in Western Europe. It were 
 surely better that that conflict should come while Philip 
 had his hands full than at the time of Spain's own 
 choosing. In the second, he naturally desired to assist 
 his co-religionists in the Low Countries to shake off the 
 intolerable yoke under which they had so long groaned. 
 But, most of all, he desired war, because he perceived 
 that a foreign war, which would unite all parties in one 
 common cause, was the surest, nay, the only guarantee 
 of internal peace. 
 
 Catherine's position was indeed an embarrassing one. 
 Distrusted by the extreme Catholics for her concessions 
 to the Huguenots, denounced as a second Jezebel by the 
 
 83 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 bigoted Calvinists, and intensely unpopular with the 
 people, as a foreigner and for favouring the Italian 
 adventurers who infested the court, she now found 
 herself threatened with the loss of her son's confidence 
 and of that power which was the great object of her life. 
 " The Admiral was taking away from her her little one, 
 whom she had so well accustomed to obey her and to do 
 nothing save according to her will. A declaration of 
 war was to be risked without her sanction or approval."^ 
 She, who, by so many sacrifices, so many labours, such 
 sagacity and penetration, had monopolised the power and 
 guided the realm for nearly eleven years ! A war by 
 Coligny's orders, a war against Spain, the King at the head 
 of the troops, with the flower of France around him, and 
 the Admiral, instigator of everything, active and 
 ubiquitous 1 What would she be then ? A woman in 
 the State, but no longer the Regent, no longer that great 
 Queen-Mother, so much dreaded and obeyed ! She saw 
 the danger ; and the Louvre saw it soon. We are on the 
 eve of her sanguinary work.^ 
 
 The marriage of the Prince de Conde with Marie de 
 Cleves preceded by some days that of his cousin. It 
 took place, with great rejoicings, on August lo, at the 
 Chateau of Blandy, near Melun, in the presence of 
 Charles IX., the King of Navarre, his fiancee, the two 
 queens, and a large number of noblemen of both reli- 
 gions ; and was celebrated tout-a-fait a la Huguenote^ a fact 
 
 ^ The Spanish Ambassador relates that when the King proposed to 
 consult with Catherine on questions connected with the proposed war, 
 " the Admiral told him very courteously that they were not questions to 
 be discussed with women and clerks." 
 
 2 Armand Baschet, Diplomaiie venitienne. 
 
OUEEN MARGOT 
 
 which still further exasperated the fanatical Catholics of 
 Paris. The royal wedding had been fixed for Monday, 
 August 1 8 ; but on the Saturday the Papal dispensation, 
 to obtain which de Marie, the French Ambassador at 
 Rome, aided by the Cardinal de Lorraine, had been using 
 every possible means of persuasion for weeks past, had 
 not arrived. Charles IX. was beside himself with anxiety 
 and vexation. To postpone the marriage was impossible 
 without great inconvenience ; while to celebrate it with- 
 out the sanction of the Holy See would be to scandalize 
 the ultra-Catholic party, already sufficiently hostile to the 
 match, and to cause them to regard it as illegal. More- 
 over, the Cardinal de Bourbon would almost certainly 
 refuse to perform it. In their perplexity, the King and 
 the Queen-Mother resolved to have recourse to fraud, in 
 order to deceive the public and the cardinal. They 
 pretended to have received intelligence from Rome that 
 the dispensation had been duly granted and was on its way 
 to Paris. This assurance satisfied the scruples of the 
 cardinal, an easy-going and unsuspicious prelate, and, 
 much to the relief of his Majesty, he raised no objection 
 to performing the ceremony.^ 
 
 On Sunday, August 17, the marriage-contract was 
 signed at the Louvre, and Henri and Marguerite formally 
 betrothed by the Cardinal de Bourbon. After a magnifi- 
 cent supper, followed by a ball, the princess was conducted, 
 in great pomp, by the whole of the Royal Family to the 
 palace of the Archbishop of Paris, where she passed the 
 
 1 On the morrow of the marriage, Catherine de' Medici wrote to 
 Rome to excuse their action, representing that it would have been 
 impossible to defer the union longer *' without danger of several incon- 
 veniences " ; and at the end of October, Henri of Navarre, having 
 in the meanwhile become a Catholic, the dispensation was granted. 
 
 85 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 night ; such being the traditional custom on the occasion 
 of the marriage of a daughter of France.^ 
 
 The following day, at three o'clock in the afternoon, a 
 brilliant cortege quitted the Louvre. The procession 
 was headed by a hundred gentlemen of the King's House- 
 hold, bearing halberds, the heralds-at-arms with their 
 tabards, emblazoned with the Arms of France, and the 
 Guards with their clarions, trumpets and cymbals. Then 
 came the King of Navarre, accompanied by the Dues 
 d'Anjou and d'Alen^on, the Prince de Cond6 and his 
 younger brother, the Marquis de Conti, the Due de Mont- 
 pensier and his son, the Dauphin of Auvergne, of whom 
 the four last-named belonged to the House of Bourbon, 
 and followed by Coligny, Guise, the Oviarkhaux de France 
 and a distinguished body of nobles of the two religions, 
 of which this marriage was to seal the reconciliation. 
 Henri of Navarre had assumed the crown which the 
 recent death of his mother had placed upon his head, and 
 had discarded his mourning for " a costume of pale 
 yellow satin, covered with raised embroideries, enriched 
 with pearls and precious stones." Similar coats were 
 worn by the Dues d'Anjou and d'Alen^on. " M. d'Anjou, 
 amongst other jewels in his cap, had thirty-two pearls of 
 twelve carats, famous pearls bought for the occasion at 
 
 ^ The marriage-contract was substantially the same as the treaty, signed 
 on the previous April 1 1, save that Henri, w^ho now took the titles of 
 ** King of Navarre, by the Grace of God, sovereign lord of Beam, pair 
 de France, Due de Vendome, d'Albret, de Beaumont, de Gaudie, de 
 Montblanc, et de Pegnafiel, Comte de Foix, d'Armagnac, de Marie, 
 Bigorre, et Rodez, Vicomte de Limoges, Marsan, et Lautrec ; governor 
 for the King of France and his lieutenant-general and admiral in Vienne," 
 relinquished to his bride the revenues of the counties of Marie, Chatel- 
 lenies, de la F^re, Ham, Bohain and Beauvoir, with the right to dispose 
 of their offices and benefices. 
 
 86 
 
j^yiieiSe'- ." ::i^54vi=fct V 
 
 IM>I/ 
 
 
in the afternoon, a 
 
 cGrt%€ q Louvre. The procession 
 
 ed by r men of the King's Housc- 
 
 '' "t-arms with their 
 <,..-.:;,^, of France, and the 
 
 Guards d cymbals. Then 
 
 came tl I by the Dues 
 
 d'A^ ^ '-'^^ and }•■■■ 
 
 :deMont. 
 
 c, of whom 
 
 .s of Bourbon, 
 
 X de Franca 
 
 tWc> 
 
 
 ' The 
 
 
 
 de Vei: 
 
 itais of 
 ccasion at 
 
 HENRI IV., KING OF FRANCE AND NAVARRE 
 
 From an Engraving after a Drawing attributed to Pierri; du Monstier, 
 in the Bibliotheque 'Rationale, Paris 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 Gonella, at a cost of 23,000 golden 6cus." ^ It was re- 
 marked that, with the exception of the bridegroom, all 
 the Protestant nobles affected a Puritan simplicity of 
 attire, while the Catholics displayed the greatest osten- 
 tation. 
 
 The cavalcade proceeded to the archbishop's palace, 
 from which presently emerged the bride, conducted by 
 the King, " whose cap, poniard, and raiment," says the 
 Venetian Ambassador, "represented from five to six 
 hundred thousand ecus, and followed by the Queen, the 
 Queen-Mother, the Duchess of Lorraine, and more than 
 one hundred and twenty ladies of the Court, " brilliant in 
 the most splendid stuffs, such as brocade, cloth-of-gold, 
 and velvet brocaded in gold and laced with silver," and 
 covered with diamonds, rubies and other precious stones. 
 Marguerite was attired in a robe of violet spangled with 
 fleurs-de-lys^ " with the crown, and the couet of speckled 
 ermine, which was worn on the front of the body, all glit- 
 tering with the Crown jewels and the large blue mantle, 
 with a train four ells long, which was borne by three 
 princesses." ^ Thus dressed a la royale, according to her 
 own expression, " flashing with diamonds and jewels, but 
 more seducing still by the power of her own charms, 
 she advanced adorned for the sacrifice.'* 
 
 A magnificent amphitheatre, covered with cloth-of-gold, 
 with side-galleries, one of which, passing through the 
 nave, led to the choir, and the other to the episcopal 
 palace, had been erected before the porch of Notre-Dame. 
 Along the latter, the Court made its way, while an 
 enormous concourse of people thronged the windows and 
 
 1 Giovanni Michieli, Relazlone delta corte di Francia^ cited by Armand 
 Baschet, la Diplomaiie venitienne. 
 
 2 Memoires et lettres de Marguerite de Falois (edit. Guessard). 
 
 87 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 roofs of the adjoining houses, and surged and jostled one 
 another below the platform, in order to catch a glimpse 
 of the procession. That the marriage was intensely 
 unpopular among the Parisians was evident from the 
 behaviour of the spectators. There was an almost com- 
 plete absence of the enthusiasm usually manifested on 
 such occasions ; curiosity alone seemed to have brought 
 them together, and the King and the other members of 
 the Royal Family were suffered to pass by with hardly an 
 acclamation. At the far end of the amphitheatre, by the 
 door of the cathedral, the Cardinal de Bourbon was 
 awaiting the youthful pair, and the marriage was per- 
 formed according to the formula previously agreed upon 
 by the two parties. Davila relates that when the cardinal 
 asked Marguerite, whose deathly pallor and dejected air 
 appeared to many to augur but ill for the happiness of 
 the marriage, whether she accepted the King of Navarre 
 for her husband, she refused to reply, whereupon 
 Charles IX. gave her a little push at the back of her 
 head " to make her give that sign of consent, in lieu of 
 speech." ^ 
 
 After the marriage was concluded, the bridal pair, 
 with their suites, proceeded along a platform into the 
 cathedral, as far as the tribune separating the nave from 
 the choir. Here they found two flights of steps, one of 
 which led down to the choir, the other through the nave 
 out of the church. Marguerite and the Catholics 
 
 ^ According to Mezeray, it was the Cardinal de Bourbon who 
 made the princess bow her head. " It was at this moment," adds 
 Mongez, " that the Duke de Guise, who had raised himself above the 
 other nobles to watch the face and eyes of Marguerite, received such a 
 threatening glance from Charles IX. that he well-nigh lost con- 
 sciousness." 
 
 88 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 descended the former to hear the Mass ; while the King 
 of Navarre and the Huguenot nobles quitted the church 
 and made their way into the cloisters to wait until the 
 conclusion of the service. 
 
 Mass ended, Mar^chal d'Amville came to conduct the 
 King of Navarre back to his wife, whom he embraced in 
 the presence of her family.^ The bridal cortege then 
 returned to the archbishop's palace, where a superb 
 banquet had been prepared, during which heralds-at-arms 
 flung gold medals among the crowd, some of which were 
 engraven with the initials of the bride and bridegroom, 
 interlaced and encircled by the motto : " Constricta hoc 
 discordia vinclo " ; while others bore a lamb and a cross, 
 with the device : *' Vobis annuntio pacem." 
 
 When the Court returned to the Louvre, the people 
 were more demonstrative than they had been earlier in 
 the day. But the applause was not for the bridal pair, 
 nor for the King of France ; it was for the idol of the 
 Parisian populace, the Due de Guise, who bowed and 
 smiled repeatedly in response to the acclamations of the 
 mob. 
 
 On his arrival at the palace, the king held a Court and 
 was extremely gracious to all who presented themselves, 
 notably to the deputations from the Parlement and 
 public bodies of the city, who came to offer him their 
 felicitations on his sister's marriage. In the evening, 
 there was a grand ball, in the great hall of the Louvre, 
 
 * As they re-entered the church, d'Amville pointed out to Coligny the 
 standards captured from the Protestants at Jarnac and Montcontour, 
 which hung from the arches of the cathedral. " Those are mournful 
 trophies," remarked the Admiral, with a smile ; " but they will soon 
 give place to others more agreeable to us ; " the allusion being to those 
 which he hoped to capture from the Spaniards, in Flanders. 
 
 89 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 which was attended by all the rank and beauty of France. 
 The famous squadron of the Queen-Mother's maids-of- 
 honour was in full force, and their combined charms 
 quite overcame the Legate, who exclaimed to the King of 
 Navarre : " Cest bien le plus gracieux escadron du mondey 
 " Et le plus dangereux, Monseigneur," replied the Bearnais, 
 laughing. The ball was succeeded by a ballet, a form of 
 entertainment which in those days had all the charm of 
 novelty. Three chariots, entered *'in the shape of rocks 
 of silver," full of musicians ; on one was the celebrated 
 singer Etienne Leroy, who delighted the company with 
 his melodious voice. Other chariots contained niches 
 " formed by four columns of silver and containing a 
 divinity of the seas " ; while others again represented sea- 
 lions, " the body ending in a fish's tail, which bore other 
 divinities dressed in cloth-of-gold and seated on silver 
 shells." Finally, appeared a gilded hippopotamus, on the 
 tail of which sat the King himself, attired as Neptune 
 with his trident in his hand ; while the King of Navarre 
 and the Princes of the Blood were distributed among the 
 other chariots. All these chariots traversed the great hall 
 of the Louvre, and when they stopped, musicians sang 
 verses composed by the best poets in the service of the 
 court. ^ 
 
 On the morrow, August 19, the Court proceeded to 
 the Hotel d'Anjou, where the King of Navarre had 
 caused a magnificent banquet to be prepared, at the 
 conclusion of which it returned to the Louvre, for a 
 second ball, which lasted until a late hour. On the 
 Wednesday, there was an allegorical entertainment, 
 devised by the Duke d'Anjou at the Hotel du Petit 
 
 * Mongez, Histoire de Marguerite de Valois. 
 90 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 Bourbon,^ which aroused a good deal of comment. 
 " In the hall of the palace, a paradise or heaven had 
 been constructed, the entrance to which was defended 
 by the King and his two brothers, fully armed. On the 
 other side was hell, in which there were many devils 
 and little imps making a racket and playing monkey- 
 tricks, and a great wheel, entirely surrounded by little 
 wheels, revolving in the said hell. A river, traversed by 
 Charon's bark, separated hell from paradise. Beyond 
 the latter were the Elysian Fields, represented by a garden 
 adorned by foliage and all kinds of flowers, surmounted 
 by the empyrean heaven, that is to say a wheel bearing 
 the twelve signs of the Zodiac, the seven planets, and 
 an infinitude of little crystal stars. The wheel was in 
 continual motion and caused also the revolution of the 
 paradise, in which there were twelve nymphs simply 
 attired. Several knight-errants, led by the King of 
 Navarre, presented themselves and endeavoured to fight 
 their way into paradise and carry off the nymphs. But 
 the three knights who guarded its entrance repulsed 
 them. The latter, having broken their lances and fought 
 for some time with their swords, precipitated them into 
 Tartarus, where they were dragged away by the devils 
 and furies. The combat lasted until the attacking 
 knights had been led away and imprisoned in hell. Then 
 Mercury and Cupid descended from heaven, and made the 
 air resound with their songs. Mercury was represented 
 by Etienne Leroy, the celebrated singer. Having reached 
 
 1 The Hotel, or Palais, du Petit-Bourbon, which had been built by- 
 Charles v., was situated between the Louvre and the Church of Saint- 
 Germain-l'Auxerrois. It was partially demolished in 1653, though the 
 last buildings, which were used by the Garde-Meuble, remained standing 
 for nearly a century longer. 
 
 9t 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 the earth, they approached the guardians of paradise, 
 felicitated them on their victory, and ascended once more 
 to heaven. The knights went to seek the nymphs and 
 performed with them, around a fountain which occupied 
 the middle of the hall, a variety of dances, which lasted 
 more than an hour. After this, they yielded to the 
 prayers of the assembly and delivered the imprisoned 
 knights, fought pell-mell with them, and broke their 
 lances. The whole hall was filled with the sparks and 
 flames which spurted forth from the shock of their 
 weapons. But soon a great explosion was heard, accom- 
 panied by a whirlwind of flame, which, in a short 
 while, consumed all the scenery and brought this Gothic 
 spectacle to a close." ^ 
 
 The festivities terminated on Thursday, August 21, 
 by a grand tournament in front of the Louvre. On one 
 side appeared Charles IX. and his two brothers, and the 
 Dues de Guise and d'Aumale, disguised as Amazons ; 
 on the other, the King of Navarre and several nobles of 
 his suite, dressed in Turkish costume, in robes of rich 
 brocade, with turbans on their heads. The three queens 
 and the Court watched the combat from balconies erected 
 on either side of the lists. 
 
 1 Mongez, Hisioire de Marguerite de Valois. 
 
 92 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 Suspicions and uneasiness of the Huguenots — Coligny is 
 strongly urged to leave Paris, but is deaf to all appeals — 
 Catherine determines to remove the Admiral from her path — 
 Her coadjutors — Her object — Attempted assassination of 
 Coligny — Indignation of Charles IX. — The Huguenots, 
 exasperated, indulge in rash and threatening demonstrations 
 — Catherine, fearful of her guilt being brought home to her, 
 determines on a massacre of the Protestant chiefs — Arguments 
 by which she succeeds in obtaining the consent of the King, 
 which is given " on condition that not one Huguenot should 
 be left alive to reproach him" — Preparations for the massacre — 
 Marguerite de Valois's account of the night of August 23-24, 
 1572 — The lives of Henri of Navarre and the Prince de 
 Conde are spared, on condition of their renouncing their 
 faith — Magnanimous conduct of Marguerite in refusing the 
 Queen-Mother's offer to procure the annulment of her 
 marriage. 
 
 The part allotted to the King of Navarre and his friends 
 in the mythological allegory at the Hotel du Petit-Bour- 
 bon had caused much unfavourable comment among the 
 Huguenots ; some regarded it as an insult ; others — it was 
 a superstitious age — as an evil omen. The Calvinists, 
 moreover, felt ill at ease in the midst of a city so fiercely 
 hostile to them, and which, even on the occasion of the 
 recent marriage, had scarcely troubled to disguise its 
 animosity ; while the more clear-sighted of them feared 
 the resentment of Catherine, who had the mortification of 
 seeing her once undisputed influence over her feeble son 
 
 93 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 altogether overshadowed by that of Coligny, becoming 
 each day more firmly established in the King's favour and 
 more completely master of his mind. Suspicion and dis- 
 trust were everywhere. Marechal de Montmorency, who, 
 though a Catholic, was so closely in sympathy with his 
 kinsman Coligny as to be generally regarded as his ally, 
 pleaded illness and retired to Chantilly. Not a few of 
 the more prudent Huguenots followed his example. One 
 of these, Montferrand by name, who was commonly 
 accounted half-witted, took leave of the Admiral with 
 the following words : " I am going, because of the good 
 cheer they are giving you. I prefer to be classed with 
 madmen than with fools ; you can cure the one, but not 
 the other." ^ 
 
 Coligny, indeed, received repeated warnings and was 
 strongly urged to leave Paris ; but, though he could 
 hardly fail to be aware of the danger of his position, he 
 was deaf to all appeals. To quit the field at such a 
 moment was to lose it, and he had far too much at 
 stake. Although, on August 9, the Council had pro- 
 nounced uncompromisingly against a breach with Spain, 
 and the King had sided with it, the Admiral had not 
 ceased his preparations for assisting the revolted Nether- 
 lands. Three thousand Huguenots were already on 
 the frontier ; twelve thousand foot and three thousand 
 horse were being raised. Should this formidable army 
 once enter Spanish territory, it would be hard indeed for 
 Charles to disavow the action of his subjects, and a 
 declaration of war on the part of Spain would almost 
 certainly follow. 
 
 And Catherine knew this — knew, too, that war would 
 render Coligny indispensable, both as statesman and 
 ^ D'Aubign6, Histoire unwerselle^ iii. 303. 
 94 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 soldier, and reduce her own waning influence to vanish- 
 ing point. Tortured by jealousy and hatred of this 
 redoubtable rival, with whom she was determined never 
 to share the government, she decided to take the only 
 sure means of removing him from her path. And that 
 means was assassination ; a practice which had become 
 terribly rife since the beginning of the civil wars and the 
 spread of Italian manners, and no longer excited the 
 reprobation it had evoked in less troublous times. 
 *' People kept assassins in their pay as they kept servants : 
 the Guises had them, the Chatillons had them, the kings 
 had them ; all those who could afford the expense had 
 them, and these assassins were seldom or ever punished." ^ 
 Who her coadjutors were is somewhat doubtful ; while 
 the identity of the person chosen for the dastardly deed 
 is also a matter for dispute. The Venetian Ambassador, 
 Michieli, declares that the affair was concerted by the 
 Queen-Mother and Anjou alone ; but almost all other 
 writers, both contemporary and modern, are convinced 
 that the Guises were parties to the crime, though there is 
 some difference of opinion as to whether the Duchesse de 
 Nemours, the widow of Francois de Lorraine, was impli- 
 cated. It is also probable that Catherine's confidants, 
 Retz, Nevers, Birague, and Tavannes, were in the secret 
 as well. As for the assassin, his name is variously given 
 as B6me, a Bohemian in the service of the Guises ; 
 Maurevert, or Maurevel, a gentleman of experience in 
 this metier^ a dependent of the same family, and Tosinghi, 
 a Florentine soldier of fortune, a creature of Catherine 
 and Anjou. Beme is indicated by the Florentine Ambas- 
 
 1 The foreign Ambassadors kept them, also, for the purpose of making 
 away with political refugees from their own countries who had taken 
 refuge in France. 
 
 95 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 sador, Petrucci, and Tosinghi by Michieli, but the weight 
 of evidence seems to point to Maurevert. 
 
 What did Catherine hope would be the immediate 
 result of the Admiral's death, besides the removal of a 
 rival influence to her own ? Undoubtedly, she anticipated 
 a rising of all the Huguenots then in Paris and a san- 
 guinary fracas between them and the Guise faction ; for 
 Guise, whose undying hatred of Coligny was common 
 knowledge, notwithstanding their formal reconciliation, 
 would certainly be suspected of the crime. Whatever 
 the outcome of such an encounter might be, it could not 
 fail to materially strengthen the hands of her own party ; 
 for both factions would emerge from it with severe losses. 
 If, at one and the same time, she could rid herself of 
 both Coligny and Guise, to say nothing of a few of the 
 lesser lights of either party, the step she contemplated 
 would, indeed, be a master-stroke of diplomacy ! In any 
 case, Catherine's attempt upon the Admiral's life proves 
 conclusively, in the opinion of all impartial historians, 
 that the terrible tragedy of St. Bartholomew's Day was 
 in no sense premeditated, but was the result of a sudden 
 resolution, forced upon her, as we shall show, by the 
 failure of the lesser crime. " Why kill the chief before 
 the general massacre ? " asks M6rim6e, very pertinently. 
 " Would not such a step be calculated to alarm the 
 Huguenots and put them on their guard ^ " 
 
 On Friday, August 22, between ten and eleven in the 
 morning, Coligny, after attending the Council, was pass- 
 ing, on foot, through the Rue des Poulies, on his way to 
 his lodging,^ accompanied by about a dozen Huguenot 
 
 1 It still appears to be the belief of most writers that the house occu- 
 pied by Coligny was in the Rue de B6thisy, next the corner formed by 
 that street and the Rue de I'Arbre Sec. But M. Fournier, in his Paris 
 
 96 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 gentlemen, when an arquebus was fired from the window 
 of a house in the cloisters of Saint-Germain-l'Auxerrois.^ 
 One ball broke the forefinger of his right hand, while the 
 same missile or another entered at the wrist of his left 
 arm and passed out at the elbow. The assassin, who, 
 following the example of Hamilton of Bothwellhaugh, 
 the murderer of the Regent Murray, had taken the pre- 
 caution to have a fleet horse in readiness at the back of 
 the house, immediately took to flight and galloped off 
 through the Porte Saint- Antoine into the open country ; 
 the fact that none of the Admiral's following were 
 mounted, rendering pursuit hopeless ; while Coligny 
 was assisted to his lodging, and the famous surgeon 
 Ambroise Par6 summoned. 
 
 Charles X. was playing tennis at the Louvre with the 
 Due de Guise and T^ligny, the Admiral's son-in-law, 
 when news of the attempted assassination was brought 
 him. In a transport of fury, he dashed his racket to the 
 ground, exclaiming : " Morf de Dieu / when shall I have 
 a moment's peace .'* " and went to his room *' with sad 
 and downcast countenance ; " upon which Guise, well 
 knowing that suspicion would point to him as the author 
 of the crime, promptly disappeared, and remained in con- 
 cealment for the rest of the day. 
 
 After dinner, Charles, accompanied by the Queen- 
 Mother and her allies, Retz, Nevers, Birague, and 
 Tavannes, went to visit the Admiral. " Mon ^^r<?," said 
 the King, " the pain is yours, but the despite is mine ; " 
 
 demoli, maintains that it was in the Rue des Fosses-Saint-Germain 
 I'Auxerrois, of which the Rue de Bethisy was a continuation, at the 
 Hotel de Ponthieu. 
 
 ^ The house was tenanted by Piles de Villemar, a canon of Notre- 
 Dame, and formerly tutor to the Due de Guise. 
 
 97 G 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 and he vowed to leave no stone unturned to discover the 
 authors of the outrage and mete out to them the most 
 exemplary punishment. He nominated a commission of 
 inquiry, begged the Admiral to remove to the Louvre, 
 where the apartments of the Duchess of Lorraine should 
 be placed at his disposal, and when the surgeons forbade 
 this, sent a detachment of guards to protect him, and 
 subsequently fifty arquebusiers, under Cosseins, who, two 
 days later, took a prominent part in the murder of 
 Coligny. Finally, he assigned quarters to a number 
 of the Protestant nobles in the Rue de Bethisy, where 
 the Catholics were ordered to surrender their houses to 
 them ; invited the King of Navarre and Cond6 to summon 
 their intimate friends to the Louvre, and requested the 
 former to send some of his Swiss guards to Coligny's house. 
 But all this did not allay the anger and excitement 
 of the Huguenots. The dastardly attempt upon their 
 leader's life had roused them to the last pitch of exaspera- 
 tion. They openly accused the Guises of the crime, 
 paraded in crowds before the Hotel de Guise, brandish- 
 ing their swords and shouting anathemas, and insulted 
 and beat any of the duke's people whom they found in the 
 streets. Armand de Piles entered the Louvre, at the 
 head of four hundred gentlemen, demanding instant 
 vengeance on the assassin. The King of Navarre and 
 Conde supported his demand and announced their inten- 
 tion of quitting Paris, if it were not complied with. Soon 
 it began to be whispered that Catherine and Anjou had 
 been parties to the outrage.^ A body of Huguenots 
 presented themselves before the King and Queen-Mother 
 while at supper, and indulged in the most threatening 
 
 ^ The would-be assassin's arquebus, which he left behind him, was 
 found to belong to one of Anjou's guards. 
 
 98 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 language. The elder Pardaillan/ addressing Catherine, 
 declared that if justice were not done, the Calvinists 
 would execute it themselves ; while another of their 
 leaders said to the King, alluding to the Admiral's 
 wound, that it was an arm which would cost more than 
 forty thousand arms. 
 
 That afternoon, and again early on the following 
 morning, a meeting of the Huguenot chiefs was held at 
 Coligny's house, in a room beneath that in which the 
 Admiral was lying. The Vidame de Chartres and the 
 minister Merlin urged that they should withdraw at once 
 from Paris, taking their wounded leader with them.^ 
 But T61igny, acting no doubt on instructions from his 
 father-in-law, strongly opposed such a step, declaring 
 that he himself would answer for the good faith of the 
 King, and eventually his counsels carried the day. It 
 was, however, decided to go in a body to the Louvre on 
 the Sunday morning, to formally accuse the Due de 
 Guise as the instigator of the crime, a resolution which 
 came to the Queen-Mother's ears. 
 
 Catherine and Anjou were terrified. Their machina- 
 tions had recoiled upon their own heads ; Coligny would 
 most certainly recover from his wound, and would 
 become more powerful than ever ; while their own 
 complicity in the affair was within an ace of being dis- 
 covered. If an inquiry were instituted, it was probable 
 that Guise would not care to deny his complicity in an 
 act which would greatly enhance his popularity among 
 
 1 Hector Pardaillan, Baron de Gondrin and de Montespan, from whom 
 the Marquis de Montespan, the husband of Louis XIV.'s celebrated 
 mistress, traced his descent. He was killed at the Louvre in the massacre 
 of the following Sunday. 
 
 2 Mar6chal de Montmorency had written offering to come himself, 
 with five hundred horse, to escort Coligny to La Rochelle. 
 
 99 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 the mob, but would seek to shelter himself, by pleading 
 the orders of Anjou, Lieutenant-General of the realm, and 
 their guilt once publicly brought home to them, nothing 
 could save them from disgrace and exile, if not from a 
 worse fate. 
 
 It was necessary to act and to act at once. Without 
 a moment's delay, Catherine called her advisers together 
 — her three Italian favourites, Retz, Nevers, and Birague, 
 the unworthy successor of I'Hopital in the office of 
 Chancellor, and Tavannes — in the garden of the Tuileries, 
 then outside the city walls ; and there she and Anjou 
 concerted with them the plan of a massacre of the 
 Huguenot chiefs, beginning with Coligny, in which 
 affair Guise should again be made to figure as the 
 principal agent. 
 
 But to plot and plan were useless, unless they could 
 obtain the consent of the King — that feeble, neurotic, 
 passionate, though well-meaning creature, " half beast and 
 wholly a child," who was seldom for two days together of 
 the same mind. Great as was still Catherine's influence 
 over her son, she was very doubtful whether it would be 
 sufficient to induce him to execute so complete a volte-face, 
 since it appears to have been late in the afternoon ere she 
 ventured to approach him. Even then, if we are to 
 believe Marguerite, who, however, knew nothing of the 
 plot; and is only repeating what she was subsequently 
 told, the Queen- Mother did not herself broach the 
 matter to the King, but sent Retz, "from whom she 
 knew he would take it better than any one else," to pave 
 the way. Retz proceeded to explain that the King was 
 in error in supposing that the attempt against the 
 Admiral had been instigated by the Due de Guise alone, 
 since the Queen-Mother and his brother Anjou had been 
 
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 Admiral h 
 
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 his brother 
 
 GASPARD DE COLIGNY, ADMIRAL OF FRANCE 
 
 From an Engraving after a Drawing attributed to FRAN901S Clouet, 
 /■/; the Bibliotheque 'Nationale, Paris 
 
j^^^f; 
 
OUEEN MARGOT 
 
 partners in the affair ; that their complicity was already 
 suspected, while his Majesty himself was believed to have 
 been a consenting party to the deed, and that the Huguenots, 
 beside themselves with fury, intended to have resort to 
 arms that very night. Marguerite's account lacks con- 
 firmation — the most dependable witnesses, such as Anjou 
 and the Venetian Ambassadors, Michieli and Cavalli, make 
 no mention of this interview; but there can be no 
 question that when Catherine did approach her son, she 
 admitted the part which she and Anjou had taken in the 
 attempted assassination of Coligny, and pointed out the 
 danger which threatened, not only his mother and 
 brother, but himself, from the exasperation of the 
 Admiral's followers, to which their rash and warlike 
 demonstration on the previous day, their menaces, and 
 their numbers gave only too much colour. Then, with 
 diabolical ingenuity, she proceeded to recall to Charles's 
 mind all the insults and injuries, real and imaginary, he 
 had suffered at the hands of the Huguenots in general 
 and Coligny in particular ; of their attempt to seize his 
 person at Monceaux, and his humiliating flight to Paris 
 before Coligny's cavalry ; of the weeks during which he 
 had vainly besieged his own town of Saint- Jean-d'Angely ; 
 of the slaying of his faithful servant Charry, by Coligny's 
 friends upon the Pont Saint-Michel, nine years before, and 
 of the horrible atrocities committed on his defenceless 
 subjects by the German mercenaries whom the Huguenots 
 had called to their aid. She declared it to be the belief 
 of all Catholic France that he had allowed his royal 
 authority to be usurped by the Admiral, and taunted 
 him with being but a mere tool in the hands of an 
 arrogant and ambitious heretic, who carried his insolence 
 so far as to threaten the King with a renewal of the 
 
 lOI 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 civil war, if he declined, at his bidding, to break with 
 Spain/ 
 
 She insisted, and she called others to prove, that the 
 Huguenots were already plotting ; that Coligny had sent 
 to Germany to raise 10,000 of the dreaded Reiters, and 
 to the Protestant Cantons of Switzerland for a levy of 
 10,000 pike-men; that some of the Huguenot leaders 
 had left Paris to raise the kingdom, and that the time 
 and place of their assembling had already been decided ; 
 that the Catholic leaders, exasperated in their turn, and 
 despairing of any resolute action on the part of the King, 
 had met and resolved to form an offensive and defensive 
 league, and to appoint a captain-general, a course which 
 would, in all likelihood, eventually end in his Majesty's 
 deposition in favour of the Due de Guise. Finally, she 
 showed that out of the peril which menaced them there 
 was but one way of escape : to strike first and anticipate 
 the designs of the Huguenots, by putting Coligny and the 
 other leaders to death — there is no evidence that Catherine, 
 at first, intended anything like a general massacre ^ 
 \ — now that he had them in his grip, " gathered 
 
 ^ When, on August 9, the Council, largely through the influence of 
 Catherine, had decided against war, Coligny, turning to the Queen- 
 Mother, exclaimed : " Madame, the King refuses to enter on one war ; 
 God grant that another may not befall him, from which perhaps he will 
 not have it in his power to withdraw ! " The Admiral's enemies were 
 not slow to interpret these words as a threat of civil war ; but, as 
 Coligny's English biographer, Mr. A. W. Whitehead, points out, it was 
 probably merely intended as a warning that William of Orange and his 
 followers would be thrown back on France, and that it would need force 
 to dislodge them. 
 
 ^ Anjou says that she declared that " it would be sufficient to kill the 
 Admiral, chief and author of all the civil wars, and that the Catholics, 
 satisfied and contented wish the sacrifice of two or three men, would remain 
 in their obedience." 
 
 102 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 together and shut up, as in a cage, within the walls of 
 Paris." 1 
 
 For over an hour Catherine reasoned and implored in 
 vain. " The Queen my mother," writes Marguerite, 
 " had never experienced so much difficulty as in per- 
 suading the King that this counsel had been given for the 
 good of his realm, because of the friendship he bore 
 M. I'Amiral, La Noue,^ and Teligny." But the struggle 
 was an unequal one. The unhappy King was completely 
 unstrung by the events of the preceding day, exhausted 
 from want of sleep, and in no condition to resist the 
 importunities of the woman, obedience to whom was still 
 with him almost second nature. Slowly but surely 
 Catherine wore him down, and, on a sudden, honour, 
 compassion, every consideration which might have helped 
 to deter him were forgotten, and he was seized by an un- 
 governable frenzy. " We then perceived in him a strange 
 mutation, a marvellous and astonishing metamorphosis. 
 Rising and imposing silence upon us, he swore, by God's 
 death, that, since we would have the Admiral killed, he 
 gave his consent, on condition that every other Huguenot 
 in France was put to death as well, so that not one should 
 be left to reproach him, and he bade us hasten." ^ 
 
 The preparations for the sanguinary drama were soon 
 made. Nothing, indeed, was more easy to concert, since 
 
 1 Giovanni Michieli, Relatione delta Corte di Francia. 
 
 2 Marguerite forgets that La Noue was not in Paris at this time, but 
 shut up with Louis of Nassau in Mons, 
 
 ^ Discours du roy Henri III. in the Mimoires tTEtat de Filleroy. By 
 an inversion of the usual order of things, the authenticity of this evidence, 
 which was first published in 1623, is disputed by several seventeenth- and 
 eighteenth-century historians, Pdrefixe, Mercier, Renault, Millot, and 
 Voltaire, but accepted by the majority of modern authorities on the 
 period. 
 
 103 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 it coincided with the desires of the population of Pans, 
 ready to rise spontaneously against the detested heretics. 
 Marcel and Charron, the former and present Provost of 
 the Merchants, were summoned to the Louvre, and asked 
 how many men they could provide for the service of the 
 king at a few hours notice. They answered, some twenty 
 thousand. They were then informed, under a pledge of 
 the strictest secrecy, that a Huguenot conspiracy had 
 been discovered, and that, in order to frustrate it, they 
 were to summon the city militia and every man whom 
 they could raise to assemble at midnight before the 
 Hotel de Ville, where they would receive further instruc- 
 tions.^ Every man was to wear a white linen sleeve on 
 his left arm and a white cross on his hat, and a light was 
 to be placed in each window. The gates were to be 
 locked and guarded, the chain, which guarded the 
 approach to the bridges raised, and all boats securely 
 fastened to the banks, so that no one might cross the 
 river. To Guise, assisted by d'Aumale and Henri 
 d'Angouleme, was entrusted the supreme task of slaying 
 the Admiral, which accomplished, the bell of the Palais de 
 Justice was to give the signal for the general massacre to 
 begin." ^ 
 
 * " These orders," writes Giovanni Michieli, " were executed with 
 the greatest diligence and the utmost secrecy, to such a degree that every 
 one was in ignorance as to what his neighbour was doing, and, since no 
 one was able to ascertain for what purpose the orders had been issued, 
 each was so much more attentive to what was about to happen." — 
 Relaztone delta Corte di Francia. 
 
 2 As a matter of fact, Catherine, fearing that at the last moment 
 Charles might revoke the consent she had succeeded in wringing from 
 him, gave orders, just before daybreak, for the bell of Saint-Germain- 
 I'Auxerrois to sound the tocsin, instead of that of the Palais de 
 Justice. 
 
 104 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 What followed has been told so often that it is needless 
 to recapitulate it here, and we shall therefore confine our- 
 selves to allowing Marguerite, " le grand^ le veritable 
 historien de la Saint- Barthekmy ^^'' to relate her own expe- 
 rience of that awful night : 
 
 *' As for me, no one told me anything of all this. I 
 saw that every one was in a state of excitement. The 
 Huguenots regarded me with suspicion, because I was a 
 Catholic, and the Catholics, because I had married the 
 King of Navarre, who was Huguenot. So that no one 
 said anything to me until the evening, when, being present 
 at the coucher of the Queen my mother, seated on a chest 
 by the side of my sister of Lorraine,^ who, I saw, was 
 very sad, the Queen my mother, while speaking to some 
 one, perceived me and told me to go to bed. As I was 
 making my curtsey, my sister takes me by the arm, and, 
 Dursting into tears, exclaims : ' <0[lon Dieu^ my sister, do 
 not go ! ' which frightened me extremely. The Queen my 
 mother perceived it, and calling my sister, scolded her 
 soundly, and forbade her to tell me anything. My sister 
 replied that it was unseemly to send me to be sacrificed 
 like that, and that, without doubt, if they discovered 
 anything, they would avenge themselves on me. The 
 Queen my mother replied that, if it pleased God, I 
 should suffer no harm ; but that, however that might be, 
 it was necessary for me to go, * for fear, if I stayed, that 
 they should suspect something ' . . . I perceived that 
 they were arguing, but could not understand what they 
 said. She (the Queen- Mother) again commanded me 
 angrily to go to bed. My sister, melting to tears, bade 
 me good-night, without daring to say anything further ; 
 and I departed, all frightened and bewildered, without 
 ^ Claude de Valois, Duchess of Lorraine. 
 I OS 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 knowing what I had to fear. So soon as I reached my 
 cabinet, I began to pray to God that it would please Him 
 to take me under His protection and to defend me, 
 without knowing from whom or what. Thereupon, the 
 King, my husband, who had retired to rest, told me to 
 go to bed. This I did, and found his bed surrounded by 
 thirty or forty Huguenots. . . . All night long they did 
 nothing but talk about the accident which had befallen 
 the Admiral,^ determining, so soon as it was light, to 
 demand of the King that M. de Guise should be brought 
 to justice, and that, if this were not granted them, to 
 execute it themselves. As for me, I had always in mind 
 my sister's tears and could not sleep, because of the fears 
 with which she had inspired me, although I knew not of 
 what. The night passed in this manner, without my 
 closing an eye. At daybreak, the King my husband told 
 me that he would go and play tennis, whilst waiting 
 until King Charles should be awake, having resolved to 
 demand justice of him at once. He quitted my 
 chamber, and all his gentlemen with him. I, perceiving 
 that it was daylight, supposed that the danger to which 
 my sister had alluded must be past, and, being overcome 
 with fatigue, told my nurse to fasten the door, in order 
 that I might sleep in peace. An hour later, as I was fast 
 asleep, comes a man, striking with hands and feet at the 
 door, and shouting ' Navarre ! Navarre ! ' My nurse, 
 imagining that it was the King my husband, runs quickly 
 to the door. It was M. de L^ran,^ who had a sword-cut 
 
 ^ It was no doubt a large four-poster bed, with thick curtains, which 
 enabled the King to converse with his friends without disturbing her 
 Majesty's privacy. 
 
 2 Brantome alludes to him as Lerac, while Mongez calls him Tey- 
 ran. His real name was Gabriel de Levis, Vicomte de Leran, and he 
 was one of the King of Navarre's equerries. Alexandre Dumas, in hi* 
 
 uod 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 on the elbow and a halberd-wound in the arm, and was 
 
 still pursued by four archers, who all entered the room at 
 
 his heels. He, seeking to save himself, threw himself on 
 
 my bed. I, feeling that these men had hold of me, flung 
 
 myself on the ruelle^ and he after me, still clasping me 
 
 across the body. This man was a total stranger to me, 
 
 and I did not know whether he came there to insult me 
 
 or whether the archers were against him or against me. 
 
 We were both of us screaming, and one was just as 
 
 much alarmed as the other. At last, God willed that 
 
 M. de Nan^ay/ Captain of the Guards, should come 
 
 upon the scene, who, finding me in this plight, could not 
 
 refrain from laughing, notwithstanding the compassion 
 
 he felt for me. He severely reprimanded the archers for 
 
 this indiscretion, ordered them out, and granted me the 
 
 life of the poor man who was holding me, whom I caused 
 
 to be put to bed and to have his wound dressed in my 
 
 cabinet until such time as he was fully cured. Whilst 
 
 I was changing my nightgown — for he had covered me 
 
 all over with blood — M. de Nan^ay acquainted me with 
 
 all that was happening, and assured me that the King 
 
 my husband was in the King's chamber and had suffered 
 
 no harm. Then, making me wrap myself in a bed-gown, 
 
 he conducted me to the chamber of my sister, Madame 
 
 de Lorraine, where I arrived more dead than alive. As 
 
 we entered the ante-chamber, the doors of which were 
 
 all open, a gentleman named Bourse was run through 
 
 by a halberd within three paces of me, as he was flying 
 
 celebrated romance, la ReineM argot y makes La M61e, of whom we shall 
 have something to say in the next chapter, the hero of this 
 adventure. 
 
 1 Gaspard de la Chatre, Seigneur de Nan9ay. He had been Captain 
 of the Swiss Guards since 1568. 
 
 107 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 from the archers who pursued him. I fell to one side, 
 well-nigh swooning, into M. de Nan^ay's arms, thinking 
 that the thrust would have impaled us both. When I 
 had somewhat recovered, I entered the little room in 
 which my sister slept. Whilst I was there, M, de Miossans, 
 first gentleman to the King my husband, and Armagnac, 
 his first valet-de-chamhre , came in quest of me, to implore 
 me to save their lives. I went and threw myself on my 
 knees before the King and the Queen my mother, to 
 make intercession with them for their lives, which they 
 at length accorded me." ^ 
 
 Brantome assures that Henri of Navarre himself owed 
 his life to Marguerite's intercession, but most historians 
 are agreed that there never was any serious intention of 
 putting either the young King or the Prince de Conde to 
 death, an act which it would have been impossible to 
 justify. On leaving his bedchamber, Henri and his 
 gentleman had been promptly arrested and conducted 
 to Charles IX. 's cabinet, where they found Cond6, who 
 had been apprehended at the same time. " Take that 
 canaille away ! " cried Charles ; and the hapless followers 
 of Navarre were led out and mercilessly butchered in the 
 courtyard of the Louvre. Then the King, who was be- 
 side himself with passion, informed the princes that all 
 that was being done was by his orders, that they had 
 allowed themselves to be made the leaders of his enemies, 
 and that lives were justly forfeited. As, however, they 
 were his kinsmen and connections, he would pardon them, 
 if they conformed to the religion of their ancestors, the 
 only one he would henceforth tolerate in his realm. If 
 not, they must prepare to share the fate of their friends. 
 Cond6 courageously replied that he refused to believe the 
 ^ Memoires de Marguerite de Va/ois (edit. Guessard). 
 io8 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 King capable of violating his most sacred pledges, but 
 that he was accountable for his religion to God alone and 
 would remain faithful to it, even if it cost him his life. 
 Navarre, of a more politic and wary disposition, and be- 
 sides, somewhat indifferent on the subject of religion, 
 assumed a more humble and conciliatory tone, begging 
 the King not to compel him to outrage his conscience, 
 and to consider that he was now not only his kinsman, 
 but closely connected with him by marriage. Charles, 
 after indulging in terrible threats against Conde, finally 
 dismissed them, saying that he gave them three days for 
 reflection, and directing that they should be strictly 
 guarded. 
 
 However, Marguerite tells us that " those who had 
 commenced these proceedings " — by which she means the 
 Guises and their partisans, though, as we have seen, the 
 responsibility really lay at Catherine's door — were in- 
 dignant at the Princes of the Blood having been spared, 
 and " recognising that, as the King of Navarre was my 
 husband, no one would lift a hand against him, they set 
 to work to persuade the Queen my mother that my 
 marriage must be dissolved." Catherine, for the moment, 
 at any rate, appears to have lent a favourable ear to this 
 sinister suggestion, and a few days after the massacre, 
 when her daughter presented herself at her lever ^ drew 
 her aside and commanded her to tell her upon oath — it 
 was a Saint's Day and the whole Royal Family were about 
 to communicate — whether the marriage had been con- 
 summated, adding that, if it had not been, she saw a 
 means of having it annulled. But Marguerite, although 
 she had no love for her husband, was far too generous- 
 hearted to deliver him into the hands of his enemies, and 
 perceiving the snare, skilfully avoided it. **1 begged her 
 
 109 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 to believe," she writes, " that I was not qualified to 
 answer her question ; but I said that, whichever way it 
 was, as she had placed me in this position, I would rather 
 abide in it — strongly suspecting that they only desired to 
 separate me from my husband, in order to do him some 
 evil turn." 
 
 iio 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 Henri of Navarre and Conde renounce the Protestant faith — 
 Gregory XIII. sends a Bull ratifying the marriage of Henri and 
 Marguerite — Unenviable position of the King of Navarre — 
 He finds in his wife a valuable ally — The Court of Charles IX. 
 — Henri and Marguerite an ill-assorted pair — Reprehensible 
 conduct of the King of Navarre — Marguerite's liaison with Le 
 Mole — Outbreak of the fourth civil war — Rapprochement be- 
 tween the Huguenots and the " Politiques " — Discontent of Due 
 d'Alen9on, who becomes the secret head of this confederacy 
 — Edict of Boulogne ends the fourth civil war — Visit of the 
 Polish envoys to Paris to offer the crown of Poland to Anjou — 
 Departure of Anjou for Poland — His unsuccessful endeavour 
 to become reconciled with Marguerite. 
 
 The conversion of the two princes greatly occupied 
 the Court. Marguerite, a fervent Catholic, spared no 
 effort to induce her husband to return to the fold of the 
 Church, and found zealous auxiliaries in the Cardinal de 
 Bourbon and the Jesuit Maldonato, Queen Elizabeth's 
 confessor, who had been specially charged to instruct him. 
 The astute B^arnais, who already seems to have had some 
 presentiment of the great part he was one day to play, 
 was not the man to sacrifice a glorious future to his 
 attachment to the Reformed doctrines, and accordingly 
 feigned to lend an attentive ear to the arguments of his 
 teachers. Condd was the object of like solicitations, to 
 which, however, he replied with anger and contempt. 
 His obstinacy so enraged Charles IX., that one day, when 
 
 III 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 the prince had proved more than ordinarily contumacious, 
 he called for a sword, vowing that he would proceed to 
 Condi's apartments, with some of his guards, and slay 
 him with his own hand. Probably, he only intended to 
 intimidate him into submission ; but his queen, the gentle 
 and pious Elizabeth, convinced that he was in earnest, 
 threw herself at his feet, and besought him not to stain 
 his hands with his kinsman's blood. His Majesty yielded 
 to his consort's entreaties, and contented himself with 
 summoning Cond6, and, when he appeared, shouting in a 
 voice of thunder : " Mass, death, or Bastille ! " 
 
 The prince haughtily refused the first proposition, but, 
 shortly afterwards, he consented to abjure, and became, to 
 all appearance, so fervent a Catholic that the courtiers 
 laughingly declared that his devotion left him no time to 
 observe the love-passages between his wife and the Due 
 d'Anjou. Henri of Navarre also abjured, and, on 
 October 3, 1672, the two princes addressed to the Pope 
 a very respectful letter, begging him to accept their sub- 
 mission and admit them into the fold. It was only then 
 that Gregory XIII. consented to send a Bull ratifying 
 the marriage of Marguerite and Henri. The canonical 
 irregularities which vitiated it had up to that time ren- 
 dered a dissolution easy, which proves once more that it 
 depended entirely on Marguerite whether it should be 
 pronounced. 
 
 Notwithstanding their abjuration, Henri and Cond6 
 were still regarded with suspicion, and remained in a 
 sort of quasi-captivity. Their position, particularly that 
 of the young King, was far from a pleasant one, and it 
 must have needed all Henri's self-control to prevent 
 himself from openly resenting the sneers and taunts 
 which the Catholic nobles felt themselves safe in levelling 
 
 112 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 at **this little prisoner of a kinglet."^ After a while, 
 however, Charles IX., who had always entertained a strong 
 liking for Henri, recognising in him qualities of head and 
 heart in which his brothers were conspicuously lacking, 
 began to treat him with kindness and even affection ; 
 while in his wife he found a valuable ally. Although, as 
 we have said. Marguerite had no love for her husband, 
 she naturally resented, as a slight to her own dignity, the 
 want of consideration shown him by those who, under 
 other circumstances, would have been forced to accord 
 the prince the respect due to his rank, and held herself in 
 duty bound to aid him by every means in her power. 
 Thus, in grave crises, she invariably drew near him, and 
 more than once her timely counsel extricated Henri from 
 situations full of difficulty and danger. 
 
 It was a strange scene amidst which this youthful pair 
 had commenced their wedded life. No more singular 
 Court than that of the last years of Charles IX. — which 
 Brantome, in all good faith, describes as *' a true para- 
 dise and school of all honesty and virtue, the ornament 
 of France " — is known to history. At its head, the 
 half-crazy King, with his tall stooping figure and beautiful 
 furtive eyes ; already marked for death ; tortured by 
 remorse ; distrusting all around him, and none more than 
 the mother whose baneful influence had corrupted his 
 whole nature, and forced him to exchange his dreams 
 of glory for eternal infamy, yet lacking the resolution to 
 free himself from her control. By his side, his Queen, 
 
 ^ " On All Hallows' Eve," writes L'Estoile, " the King of Navarre 
 was playing tennis with the Due de Guise, when the scant consideration 
 which was shown this little prisoner of a kinglet, at whom he threw all 
 kinds of jests and taunts, as though he were a simple page or lackey of 
 the Court, deeply pained a number of honest people who were watching 
 them play." 
 
 113 fl 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 the saintly Elizabeth of Austria, perhaps the one pure 
 and noble figure in the midst of that abominable Court, 
 ** an angel astray in hell, who did not even suspect the 
 brutal passions, the ferocious hatreds, at work upon this 
 terrible and brilliant stage." ^ Behind them, the Queen- 
 Mother, freed at last from the dread which had haunted 
 her like a spectre for so many months ; placid, good- 
 humoured, exquisitely courteous ; surely the most gentle- 
 mannered woman who ever planned a deed of blood ; 
 always with a smile on her lips, whatever dark schemes 
 she might be revolving in her mind ; perpetually talking, 
 writing, reading, or entertaining ; a great gourmand, 
 "gluttonous even to the verge of ferocity,"^ to counteract 
 the effects of which, she took a great deal of exercise, 
 walking so fast that it was difficult for her ladies to 
 keep up with her. With her, her two younger sons — 
 Arcades antho : Henri d'Anjou, *' her idol and contenting 
 her in everything she desired of him ; " who, like her, 
 ** divided in order to reign," and after having reduced 
 France to a welter of anarchy, was to die by the poniard 
 of a crazy monk, hated and despised ; who had gifts 
 which, in another age or with a different training, 
 
 * Imbert de Saint-Amant, des Jemmes de la Cour des derniers Valois. 
 
 * In 1549, the sheriffs of Paris entertained Catherine to a " collation," 
 at which figured peacocks, pheasants, swans, pullets, young rabbits, quails, 
 capons, pigs, pigeons, and leverets, and the Queen nearly died of an in- 
 digestion, in consequence of having partaken too freely of a '* ratatouille 
 de cretes, rognons de coqs, et Jonds d'artUhauds.'" — Cimber et Danjou, 
 Archives curieuses de Phtstoire de France^ cited by M. Charles Merki, La 
 Reine Mar^i et le fin des Valois. One would have supposed that after 
 this unpleasant experience, her Majesty would in future have avoided 
 such dangerous delicacies, but such was not the case, since, twenty years 
 later, L'Estoile reports that Catherine had had another narrow escape, 
 her illness being attributed to over-indulgence in an almost precisely 
 similar dish. 
 
 114 
 
.itgw^ff^W:^ 
 
 
ngure v' abominable 
 
 el astr did not even suspect the 
 
 us hatreds, at work upon this 
 
 ' ^ Behind them, the Queen- 
 
 the dread which had haunted 
 
 many months ; placid, good- 
 
 ;s ; surely the most gentle- 
 
 led a deed of blood; 
 
 aiv\dys win a ^ - .j. ^^^.^ schemes 
 
 she might be rc; - -rualtv talking, 
 
 writini*. trading, irmand, 
 
 3 even to the vt 
 mt »;#«cts of which, she 
 wsiikirig so ^"^ *^^'*' •'■ " 
 
 k'-"::: tin 'A 
 
 i ; who h. 
 
 iT^Brttr/ «**' -rnitrs Fahis, 
 
 ;n nearly died of an in- 
 
 .% cited by M. Charles Merkt, La 
 One would have sappr- "^ *' -■ '* 
 tajesty would in fuluro 
 .*, but such was not the case, sinc- 
 
 ja-t ;.,. (^,..k„„;.... u„5 i,„i another 
 
 her »n an «* 
 
 similar ciisn, 
 
 ELIZABETH OF AUSTRIA, QUEEN OF FRANCE 
 
 From an Engraving after a 'Drawing attributed to Janet 
 in the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 might have made of him a shrewd and capable king ; 
 but who is remembered only for his follies and vices : 
 his miserable effeminacy, his shameful debauchery, his 
 falseness, cruelty, and hypocrisy. And the puny, ill- 
 shaped, pock-marked Alen^on, " perhaps the basest of the 
 base Valois-Medici brood ; " lacking the generous in- 
 stincts and the cultured tastes of Charles and the personal 
 courage of Henri ; jealous, meddlesome, and ambitious, 
 and so false that his sister Marguerite, in spite of her 
 devoted attachment to him, was betrayed into declaring 
 that " if all treachery were banished from the earth, he 
 would be able to restock it." 
 
 Near the Royal Family, the Due de Guise, gay, debonair, 
 and surpassing all the nobles of the Court in elegance and 
 luxury, yet concealing beneath the exterior of a man of 
 pleasure, a devouring ambition, and ever on the watch for an 
 opportunity of restoring to his family their lost supremacy. 
 
 And in the background, a motley crowd of adventurers, 
 cutthroats, and courtesans, rubbing shoulders with the 
 greatest nobles and ladies in France, many of whom in 
 their unscrupulousness and depravity of life differed little 
 from them. The licentiousness which prevailed was 
 appalling, and not the smallest attempt was made to 
 conceal it. Vice was, indeed, the mode ; virtue, even 
 ordinary decency, was mocked and derided. " In that 
 Court, common sin seemed too near virtue to please, and 
 he was reckoned to show little spirit who was content to 
 be the gallant of but one adulteress." To laxity of 
 morals was joined a violence of manners difficult to credit ; 
 assassinations, duels, sanguinary brawls, were of daily 
 occurrence. In this respect the princes, and even the 
 King himself, set a shameful example, parading the streets, 
 accompanied by their favourites, ill-treating inoffensive 
 
 "5 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 citizens, insulting women, and committing all kinds of 
 outrages. On one occasion, Charles IX., Anjou, the King 
 of Navarre, and their attendants stormed and sacked the 
 house of a gentleman who had offended 3V[omieur by 
 refusing to marry his cast-off mistress. On another, the 
 same illustrious personages, accompanied by Henri 
 d'Angouleme, invited themselves to dinner with Nantouil- 
 let, the Provost of Paris, and robbed him of all his silver 
 plate. Their visit, L'Estoile tells us, no less than their 
 conduct, greatly incommoded the worthy magistrate, who 
 happened to have chosen that very day for the removal 
 of a rival in love or business, for which purpose he had 
 concealed four bravos in his house. The bravos, hearing 
 the noise made by their employer's riotous guests, 
 imagined themselves discovered and were on the point of 
 rushing out of their hiding-place, pistol in hand. 
 
 If circumstances occasionally drove Marguerite and 
 Henri into close alliance, they were none the less an ill- 
 assorted pair and, as is so often the case with victims of 
 political exigency, far from happy. What more complete 
 contrast, indeed, could be imagined than these two persons ! 
 The one, reared in the artificial atmosphere of the Valois 
 Court, spoiled from her cradle by over-strained flattery, 
 mobile, impressionable, irritable, capricious, greedy for 
 pleasure and admiration, constantly seeking diversions and 
 novelties ; the other, a child of Nature, " brought up 
 without delicacy and with no superfluities," trained from 
 early childhood to live on the simplest fare, to endure the 
 heat of summer and the frosts of winter, and to despise 
 fatigue and danger; as much out of place amid the 
 effeminate exquisites of the French Court as an eagle of 
 his own mountains among a troupe of peacocks. 
 
 Although Marguerite affected to despise the curled and 
 
 ii6 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 scented mignons who thronged the salons of the Louvre, 
 there can be little doubt that the rough B6arnais, with his 
 slight, wiry figure, his piercing eyes, his long nose and 
 pointed chin, careless and even slovenly in his dress, dis- 
 daining the pretty compliments and speeches which sound 
 so pleasant to a woman's ear as much as he did the 
 luxuries of the toilet, suffered by the very contrast he 
 presented to these gallants and seemed anything but a 
 desirable husband in her eyes. 
 
 And Henri, on his side, made no attempt to gain her 
 affection. However high an opinion we may hold of him 
 as a king of France, he plays a sorry part indeed in 
 Marguerite's history, and proved himself the worst of 
 husbands. One often sees men married to celebrated 
 beauties preferring women much less attractive. It was 
 so with the King of Navarre. From the very first days 
 of his marriage he neglected his wife and plunged into a 
 succession of amours, more or less discreditable, since the 
 genuine affection which redeemed, in some degree, the 
 liaisons of later years with la belle Corisande and Gabrielle 
 d'Estr^es seems to have had little or no part in them. 
 Moreover, so far from seeking to conceal his irregularities 
 from Marguerite, he spoke of them freely in her pres- 
 ence, and did not hesitate to make her the confidante of 
 his gallantries. 
 
 United to a husband to whom she was utterly in- 
 different and who treated her in this manner, unable to 
 turn for counsel and aid to her mother and brothers, it 
 is scarcely surprising that Marguerite should have suc- 
 cumbed to the temptations which surrounded her, and 
 that she should have begun to indulge in highly dangerous 
 flirtations, which furnished abundant material for malicious 
 
 gossip. 
 
 117 
 
X 
 
 QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 The most favoured of the young Queen's admirers 
 appears to have been a handsome young Provencal named 
 La Mole, in the service of her brother Alen^on, who 
 enjoyed the distinction of being the most elegant dancer 
 at the Court. In the balls at the Louvre, he and Mar- 
 guerite might often be seen dancing together, with a grace 
 which aroused general admiration. A singular character 
 was this La Mole, a strange compound of accomplish- 
 ments and vices, debauchery and superstition. L'Estoile 
 tells us that he devoted most of his time to gallantry> 
 but never neglected attending Mass, not only once but 
 several times daily, being firmly convinced that, if he 
 permitted a single day to pass, even when campaigning, 
 without hearing it, he would most certainly be damned ; 
 and, on the other hand, that Mass devoutly listened to 
 expiated all sins and adulteries that he might commit. The 
 chronicler adds that Charles IX. used to remark that 
 one might keep a register of the debauches of La Mole 
 by counting the times he went to Mass. 
 
 M. de Saint-Poncy declares that " nothing proves that 
 their relations exceeded the bounds of the haute galanterie 
 in vogue at this epoch," but the majority of writers are 
 not of this opinion. However that may be, their con- 
 nection, as we shall presently see, was to furnish one of 
 the most tragic episodes of the end of the reign, and 
 poor La Mole to provide a striking illustration of the 
 truth of Don Juan's mot^ that Marguerite's charms were 
 better calculated to ruin men than to save them. 
 
 In the meanwhile, the fourth civil war had broken 
 out — a revolt of the Huguenot cities of the South and 
 West rather than a war. They made an heroic and 
 desperate resistance, and La Rochelle sustained a siege of 
 
 ii8 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 nearly four months, which cost the besiegers nearly 
 20,000 men, including the Due d'Aumale. Finally, 
 through the mediation of La Noue, the citizens, in order 
 to save the dignity of Anjou, who commanded the royal 
 army, agreed to express regret for their conduct, and 
 the siege was raised. 
 
 The Court, indeed, was in no condition to carry on 
 the war. It was becoming daily more evident that the St. 
 Bartholomew had been not only a crime, but a blunder of 
 the most fatal kind. The moderate Catholics through- 
 out France were shocked and horrified ; while the 
 Montmorencies and the leaders of the Third Party were 
 convinced that the Queen-Mother intended their ruin 
 after that of the Bourbons and Chatillons. The result was 
 a rapprochement between the " Politiques " and the Hugue- 
 nots, which threatened serious danger to Catherine's 
 plans. The secret head of this confederacy was the Due 
 d'Alen^on, who had long chafed under the subjection to 
 which his brothers' dislike and his mother's indifference 
 had relegated him, and was determined to assert himself 
 at all hazards. Alen^on, who had taken no part in the ^^ 
 massacre of August 24, and had even openly censured it, 
 had been, since 157 1, a candidatefor the hand of Elizabeth 
 of England, the suggested alliance meeting with much 
 apparent favour from the astute Queen, though she 
 probably never had the least intention of entering 
 into it. He had, at one time, conceived the project of 
 escaping from the Court and taking refuge in England ; 
 but his intentions were suspected and he was kept under 
 close surveillance. The King even opened the letters 
 which he received from Elizabeth and dictated the replies 
 to his brother, to the latter's intense mortification. 
 Compelled to betake himself, together with Navarre and 
 
 119 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 Cond6, to the siege of La Rochelle, he there quarrelled 
 so violently with Anjou that they were with difficulty 
 prevented from coming to blows ; and, subject as he 
 was to constant restraint and humiliations, the young 
 prince was ripe for any mischief. 
 
 In the early summer of 1573, Elizabeth intimated to 
 the French Court that, unless peace were concluded, she 
 would break off the negotiations for her marriage with 
 Alen^on and send English troops to the assistance of the 
 Huguenots. This threat, coupled with the election of 
 Anjou to the Polish throne, induced Catherine to return 
 to a pacific policy, and, in July, the Edict of Boulogne 
 granted to the Protestants even greater concessions than 
 they had been promised by the Peace of Saint-Germain. 
 But Alen9on and Henry of Navarre remained the secret 
 chiefs of the Huguenots and disaffected Catholics, and 
 during the remainder of the reign of Charles IX., there 
 were nothing but rebellions, conspiracies, arrests, and 
 executions. 
 
 ^ On August 19, 1573, the Polish envoys charged to 
 offer the Crown to Anjou arrived in Paris and made a 
 sensational entry, by way of the Porte Saint-Antoine. 
 They numbered over one hundred and fifty gentlemen ; 
 some riding in chariots drawn by four and even six horses, 
 whose harness was ornamented with silver; others on 
 horseback, their saddles and trappings decorated with 
 gold and silver lace, while their bits were of silver and 
 their bridles set with jewels. Nearly all of them were of 
 great stature, with long beards, which added not a little 
 to their imposing appearance, and wore costumes of 
 cloth-of-gold and silver, tall sable caps decorated with 
 jewelled aigrettes, and high boots of yellow leather. 
 
 120 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 Long scimitars hung by their side, and every one carried 
 at his back a bow and a quiver of arrows. 
 
 After having traversed the Rue Saint- Martin, in which 
 triumphal arches bearing inscriptions in their honour, 
 composed by the Court poet, Jean Daurat, had been 
 erected, they came to a halt in the Rue des Augustins, 
 at the Hotel of the Provost of Paris, Nantouillet, who 
 welcomed the chief of the embassy, the Bishop of Posen. 
 Thence they proceeded to the Louvre to salute the King, 
 the Queen, and Catherine, who came to meet them 
 dressed in cloth-of-gold and preceded by their pages 
 and equerries, bearing wands of iron four or five feet 
 long. Next they were conducted to the King and Queen 
 of Navarre, and the latter, who was arrayed in the con- 
 fection which we have described elsewhere,^ made so 
 great an impression upon the susceptible Poles, that 
 one of them, Albert Laski, was heard to declare, as he 
 withdrew with his colleagues, that, after being privileged 
 to gaze upon such marvellous beauty, he did not wish to 
 behold any object again. 
 
 Later in the day, the Queen-Mother entertained the 
 envoys to a magnificent banquet in the garden of the 
 Tuileries, in which she had caused a " pavilion of verdure " 
 to be erected ; while in the evening there was a ball, in 
 which figured sixteen nymphs, representing the sixteen 
 provinces of France. These nymphs, after delighting 
 the company with their dancing, recited verses composed 
 by Ronsard and Daurat in praise of France and the new 
 King of Poland, and then presented to every one present 
 a gold medal " large as the palm of one's hand, on which 
 were engraved the products and singularities in which 
 each province was most fertile." ^ 
 
 ^ See p. 31 supra. 2 Brant6me. 
 
 121 
 
\ 
 
 QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 The new King of Poland seemed in no hurry to take 
 possession of his throne, and manifested very little enthu- 
 siasm for what he regarded as a kind of exile, far removed 
 from the Court of the Valois and the pleasures which he 
 held so dear. He was at this time desperately enamoured 
 of Marie de Cleves, the young Princesse de Cond^, whom 
 he had made his mistress, and the prospect of parting 
 from his beloved was extremely distasteful to him. 
 Moreover, the Court physicians had pronounced the 
 unhappy Charles consumptive, and it was obvious that his 
 days were numbered. In the event of his brother's death, 
 Henri's absence might entail, in the present troubled 
 state of the kingdom, serious consequences, and quite 
 possibly result in Alen^on seizing the throne. These 
 considerations led him to linger in Paris more than a 
 month after the visit of the Polish envoys, and he would 
 no doubt have postponed his departure still further, had 
 not Charles, who, since the St. Bartholomew, had re- 
 garded all the chief actors in that sanguinary drama, and 
 Anjou in particular, with loathing and hatred, informed 
 him one day that France was not large enough to hold 
 them both, and that, "if he did not go of his own free 
 will, he would make him go by force." To ensure the 
 departure of his detested brother, the King accompanied 
 him as far as Vitry, where he was attacked by fever and 
 unable to proceed further. Catherine parted from her 
 favourite son at La Fere. " Go, my son," said she, 
 as she bade him adieu. " Go ; you will not be long 
 absent.*' 
 
 On the eve of his departure for Poland, Anjou judging 
 it prudent to secure Marguerite's good-will, or, at any 
 rate, her neutrality, during his absence from France, 
 endeavoured to effect a reconciliation with his sister and 
 
 izz 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 * strove by every means to make her forget the evil 
 effects of his ingratitude." But her painful experience 
 during the Guise affair had taught Marguerite to know 
 her brother, and she did not allow herself to be deceived 
 by his protestations and promises. 
 
 U3 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 projects of her husband and Alen^on, partly through 
 a kind of esprit de famille, and partly through the fear 
 of being herself gravely compromised by their designs,^ 
 
 However that may be, all her conduct at this period 
 is very difficult to justify, and the means whereby she 
 brought about the failure of the conspiracy of the 
 " Politiques,^^ of which we are about to speak, and caused 
 the death of the man who then possessed her affections, 
 reveal her in a very unfavourable light. 
 
 Favoured by the illness of the King and the departure 
 of Anjou for Poland, a vast conspiracy enveloped the 
 country. Montgommery, who had escaped from Paris 
 during the St. Bartholomew and had taken refuge in 
 England, was to make a descent on the Norman coast ; 
 Louis of Nassau to invade France from the Nether- 
 lands ; the Due de Bouillon to open the gates of Sedan ; 
 La Noue to occupy the fortresses of Poitou ; Mont- 
 brun to make himself master of Dauphine ; while 
 d'Amville, the Governor of Languedoc, which he ruled 
 with almost sovereign authority, had promised to main- 
 tain an attitude of friendly neutrality towards the 
 Huguenots of that province and of Guienne. Finally, a 
 bold Huguenot chief, the Sieur de Guitry — Berticheres, 
 at the head of several hundred men, was charged to force 
 the gates of the Chateau of Saint-Germain, where the 
 Court had been residing since its return from Vitry, and 
 carry off Alen^on and Henri of Navarre. 
 
 The plans of the conspirators were carefully laid ; 
 but Guitry's enterprise, on which the success of the whole 
 movement hinged, failed through his own precipitation. 
 Owing to some misunderstanding, Guitry anticipated 
 the day, and appeared with his men in the environs of 
 
 1 La Reine Margpt et lefin de ValoUy p. 85. 
 126 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 Saint-Germain, some time before he was expected. 
 Catherine's suspicion was at once aroused. She had a 
 consummate experience of intrigues and an unrivalled 
 skill in unravelling the tangled threads of even the most 
 intricate. Soon she was in possession of the whole plot. 
 Some writers assert that the pusillanimous Alen9on, 
 fearing that he was on the point of being detected, 
 gave way to such terror that his confidant. La Mole, 
 under the impression that all was lost, and anxious 
 to purchase his own safety, revealed the conspiracy 
 to the Queen-Mother. This is the view adopted by 
 Marguerite's biographer, M. de Saint-Poncy, always 
 very reluctant to believe anything to the detriment of 
 the princess. But the most generally accepted version 
 is that Marguerite, urged on by Catherine, who did not 
 scruple to employ the most questionable methods to attain 
 her ends, prevailed upon the infatuated La Mole to tell 
 her everything, and immediately informed her mother. 
 
 Catherine acted with energy and decision. She sent 
 for Alen^on, reproached him bitterly with his treachery, 
 and ordered him to make a full confession, which the 
 pusillanimous prince did forthwith. She also summoned 
 Henri of Navarre to her cabinet, and severely admonished 
 him. The gates of the chateau were closed ; the drums 
 of the Swiss and of the King's guards beat to quarters, 
 and preparations were made with all possible speed for 
 the departure of the Court for Paris. 
 
 It was nine o'clock in the evening of February 23, 
 1574, when Catherine learned of what was intended. 
 By two o'clock on the following morning, everything 
 was in readiness, and the Court set out for Paris. The 
 King travelled in a litter, surrounded by the Swiss in 
 battle array, as during the retreat from Meaux ; the 
 
 127 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 Mother was determined to leave no stone unturned to 
 discredit Henri of Navarre, Marguerite, and Alen^on 
 with Charles IX., in order that the claims of the King 
 of Poland might be strengthened. By ruining them, 
 she would assure her own power and that of her favourite 
 son. 
 
 La Mole, when interrogated, denied everything with 
 which he was charged. He was put to the '* question" 
 the boot being used with merciless severity ; but he did 
 not cease to affirm that he had conspired neither against 
 the King's life nor his authority. All that he had done, 
 he said, was to favour the escape of the princes, the chief 
 responsibility for which, however, he threw upon Guil- 
 laume de Montmorency, the youngest of the four 
 brothers, who had prudently taken to flight. No witness 
 could wring from him any admission which might com- 
 promise his master or Henri of Navarre. 
 
 Asked for an explanation concerning the wax figure 
 found at his lodging, he declared that it was intended 
 to represent not the King, but a young girl of Provence, 
 and that he had pierced it to the heart, on the advice of 
 Cosmo Ruggieri, in order to gain the love of the said 
 damsel.* 
 
 Coconnas was less firm, and, in the anguish of torture, 
 compromised a number of important personages, includ- 
 ing Conde, the Due de Montmorency, and Thevales, 
 the Governor of Metz. 
 
 The commission appointed to examine the princes 
 obtained from Alen^on a full confession of his part in 
 the affair. But Henri of Navarre showed more courage, 
 and made a deposition, drawn up with much address and 
 dignity, which he owed to his wife's skilful pen. In 
 
 ^ D'Aubign^, Hhtoire universellet iv. 
 130 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 this memoir, after having enumerated all the ill-usage 
 and injuries to which he had been subjected since the 
 St. Bartholomew, the marks of contempt and dislike 
 which the Queen-Mother had shown him, and the 
 perils which surrounded him in the midst of this troubled 
 Court, he admitted that he had really intended, in com- 
 pany with his brother-in-law, to seek safety in flight. 
 The preservation of his life, he contended, imperatively 
 demanded such a step. He defended himself, however, 
 energetically from ever having been concerned in any 
 conspiracy, and declared his unalterable attachment 
 to the person of the King. This skilfully conceived 
 document had the effect of placing Henri in the position 
 of an innocent victim ; it was, in fact, a recrimination 
 rather than a justification. 
 
 "The Mimoire justi-ficatif,''^ remarks M. de Saint- 
 Poncy, " is worthy to be read, and will remain as a 
 masterpiece of luminous exposition, of finesse, of tact, 
 of dignity, and even of eloquence. It is one of the most 
 remarkable instruments of the French language at this 
 epoch, anticipating by twenty years the Memoires of 
 Marguerite, and anterior to the majority of important 
 works of the time, preceding the Essais of Montaigne, 
 the treatises of Charron, and the history of d'Aubigne. 
 But it is more than a piece of literature ; it is a good 
 action ! Marguerite, at this juncture, renders a signal 
 service to the prince whom, contrary to her inclination, 
 she had been forced to espouse ; she associated herself 
 with a noble devotion in the ill-fortune of her husband ; 
 and perhaps, for the third time, he was indebted to her 
 for his safety." * 
 
 ^ This document was published by Le Laboureur, in his additions 
 to Castelnau's Memoires, and republished by Mongez, in his Histoire de 
 
 131 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 Nor was the composition of this able memoir the only- 
 proof of solicitude which the young Queen gave her 
 husband in his peril, for she conceived the project of 
 assisting one of the royal captives to escape, by a means 
 which has frequently been employed with success in 
 similar circumstances. 
 
 . Notwithstanding the severe measures adopted in 
 regard to the prisoners, Marguerite, in her quality of 
 sister to Charles IX., enjoyed the privilege of free access 
 to the keep of Vincennes, where her husband and brother 
 were confined ; nor did the guards, out of respect to 
 her, examine the occupants of her coach, or make the 
 women of her suite raise the masks of satin or velvet, 
 which, according to the custom of the time, the ladies 
 of the Court wore when out of doors, less for the purpose 
 of concealing their features than through a belief 
 that the practice served to protect the freshness of their 
 complexions from sun and wind. This custom suggested 
 to her the idea of disguising as a woman one of the two 
 prisoners and making him accompany her out of the 
 chateau, leaving one of the ladies of her suite in his place. 
 However, her scheme came to nothing. " They were 
 too well watched by the guards for both of them to go," 
 writes Marguerite. " It would have sufficed if one of 
 them had escaped, to guarantee the safety of the other ; 
 but, as they could never agree which this one was to be, 
 each desiring to go and refusing to be left behind, the 
 plan could never be put into execution." ^ 
 
 The conduct of Henri of Navarre and Alen^on in 
 this matter compares very unfavourably with that of the 
 
 Marguerite de Valois. It is also given by Guessard in his edition of 
 Marguerite's Mimoires. 
 
 ^ Memoires et lettres de Marguerite de Valois (edit. Guessard). 
 
 132 
 
yUEEN MARGOT 
 
 princess, who offered them an example of generosity 
 and devotion which neither had the courage to imitate. 
 But history ought to record with admiration the mag- 
 nanimity of Marguerite, who was willing to incur the 
 resentment of the King and the Queen-Mother, for the 
 sake of an unworthy brother and of a husband who had 
 so signally failed in the duty he owed her. 
 
 [^ In the meanwhile, Catherine had accurately gauged 
 the extent of the danger which threatened her. The 
 ^^Politiques " and Huguenots had issued a manifesto de- 
 manding the reform of the government, the assembling of 
 the Estates, and the restoration of the national liberties. 
 But it was obvious that such demands were merely a 
 cloak for their real intentions, and that, should the rising 
 prove successful, the effect would be to deprive the King 
 of Poland of the succession to the throne, which must 
 speedily fall vacant, in favour of the more accommodating 
 Alen^on. ; 
 
 Invested with full powers by the illness of the King, 
 Catherine took prompt and energetic measures. The 
 two princes were more vigorously guarded than ever ; 
 the Marechaux de Montmorency and de Cosse, who had 
 had the temerity to come to Court, to endeavour to 
 justify themselves, were arrested and sent to the Bastille, 
 and three armies were despatched against the rebels of 
 Normandy, the South, and central France. In the North, 
 Matignon drove back Montgommery, and forced him to 
 throw himself into Saint-Lo ; the Due de Montpensier 
 took Fontenoy and Lusignan, and the third army, under 
 his son, the Dauphin of Auvergne, held Montbrun in 
 check in that province. " At least," exclaimed the dying 
 King, on his sick-bed at Vincennes, when informed of 
 
 133 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 the turmoil into which his unhappy kingdom was once 
 more plunged, " they might have waited until my death. 
 But that is too much to expect ! " 
 
 In those days, the figurants generally suffered for the 
 misdeeds of the leading actors in dramas such as this, 
 and Marguerite's ill-starred lover, La Mole, and his 
 fellow-conspirator, Coconnas, had been condemned to 
 death. In 1571, the former had been sent by his master 
 to England to plead the duke's cause with Elizabeth, 
 and his handsome face and adroit compliments had, it 
 is said, so delighted the " Virgin Queen," as to seriously 
 alarm the reigning favourite, the ambitious Leicester. 
 However that may be, Elizabeth, through Valentine 
 Dale, her Ambassador at the French Court, intervened 
 actively on behalf of this fascinating gallant, and besought 
 Catherine, as a personal favour, to mitigate his punish- 
 ment. But the Queen-Mother detested La Mole, who 
 had been the intermediary between the Montmorencies 
 and Alen^on, and replied that her son had pardoned his 
 subjects who had revolted for the cause of their religion, 
 but that such was not the case with La Mole, " who had 
 been nourished at the Court for years, had eaten of their 
 bread, and had been treated by the King not as a subject, 
 but as a companion." According to the English Ambas- 
 sador, Alen^on also intervened on behalf of his two 
 favourites, and having been admitted to an audience by 
 the King, went on his knees to implore him to spare 
 their lives. All, however, was in vain, for, though 
 Dale succeeded in obtaining from Charles the concession 
 that the condemned men should not be subjected to 
 the ignominy of a public execution, and that a few days' 
 respite should be accorded them, the messenger des- 
 patched with these orders from Vincennes, found the 
 
 134 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 Porte Saint-Antoine closed, and when he had at length 
 succeeded in obtaining admission, it was too late. Acting, 
 without doubt, under secret orders from Catherine, 
 who feared that the King might, after all, relent, the 
 First President of the Parlement had given instructions 
 for the execution to take place at an earlier hour than that 
 originally fixed ; and the condemned men were hurried 
 off to the Place de Greve, and beheaded immediately 
 on their arrival there, without even their sentence being 
 read, as was customary. 
 
 La Mole was the first to die, and his last words revealed 
 the singular and profane compound of devotion and 
 gallantry in which his life had been passed. " May God 
 and the Blessed Virgin have mercy on my soul ! " cried 
 he. And then, turning to the executioner and his 
 assistants, he added : " Commend me to the good graces 
 of the Queen of Navarre and the ladies ! " 
 
 In the torture-chamber, as we have seen, La Mole 
 had shown much courage and endurance, while Co- 
 connas had been very speedily induced to confess all he 
 knew. But on the scaffold their positions were reversed. 
 When the supreme moment arrived, and the cross was 
 handed to him by the priest in attendance, the Pro- 
 vencal trembled so violently that he was unable to carry 
 it to his lips, or even to hold it. The Piedmontese, on 
 the other hand, met death with a firm countenance, 
 " like the murderer that he was," remarking that " it 
 was necessary that great captains of great enterprises 
 should die in this fashion for the service of the great." * 
 
 ^ L'Estoile, edit. Michaud, i. 30. Charles IX., on hearing that he 
 was dead, observed : " Coconnas was a gentleman, a valiant man, and a 
 brave captain, but a villain, aye, I believe, one of the greatest villains in 
 my realm." The King had not forgotten that worthy's exploits during 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 As for the astrologer, Cosmo Ruggieri, he escaped 
 with a shaven head — the usual punishment of sorcerers — 
 and a few months in the galleys, " for," says d'Aubign6, 
 " the Queen [Catherine] had favoured him, and made 
 use of those of that profession." ^ 
 
 Marguerite had been, in a great measure, responsible 
 for the death of La Mole, for, though Catherine had 
 pardoned him at Saint-Germain, she had never forgiven 
 him his share in the affair, and he had been from that 
 moment a suspected person, always under the closest 
 surveillance, and destined for exemplary punishment, 
 if detected in any fresh transgression. Fickle, but, never- 
 theless, sincere in her passing attachments, the young 
 Queen is said to have carried her grief to the verge of 
 absurdity. If we are to believe the Due de Nevers, or 
 rather Gomberville, the editor of the Memoires bearing 
 his name. Marguerite and her friend the Duchesse de 
 Nevers, by whom Coconnas had been " well treated," 
 caused the heads of their hapless lovers to be perfumed 
 and embalmed in order to have always before them these 
 precious souvenirs of their amours. And the author of 
 the Divorce satyrique — not, however, a chronicler very 
 worthy of credit — makes Henri IV. say: "La Mole left 
 his head at Saint-Jean-en-Greve, in company with that 
 of Coconnas, where, however, they did not moulder nor 
 remain long exposed to the gaze of the populace, since 
 
 the St. Bartholomew, of which he is said to have boasted, even in his 
 Majesty's presence. 
 
 * Du Vair relates that Catherine had placed Cosmo Ruggieri in 
 Alen9on's household, under pretence of teaching the prince Italian, but, 
 in reality, to spy upon him. Everything goes to prove that the Floren- 
 tine was an agent-provocateur y and that his punishment was merely a 
 concession to public opinion, for which he was no doubt amply indem- 
 nified subsequently. 
 
 136 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 the following night my prudish wife — Queen Margot — 
 and her companion Madame de Nevers, the faithful 
 mistress of Coconnas, having caused them to be carried 
 off,^ bore them in their coaches to inter them, with 
 their own hands, in the Chapel of Saint-Martin, which 
 stands at the foot of Montmartre. The death of La 
 Mole cost his mistress many tears, and, under the name 
 of Hyacinthe, she caused her regrets to be long sung,^ 
 notwithstanding the frequent and nocturnal consolations 
 of Saint-Luc." 
 
 The end of the troubled reign of Charles IX. was at 
 hand. Ever since the St. Bartholomew, the unhappy King 
 had been a changed man ; he himself was the most pitiable 
 victim of the foul deed which had been committed in 
 his name, a prey to agonies of shame and remorse, which 
 gave him no respite either by day or night. " His looks 
 have become sad," wrote the Venetian Ambassador, 
 Cavalli ; " in his conversation and in his audiences, he 
 cannot look those who address him in the face ; he bends 
 his head, closes his eyes ; then suddenly opens them, 
 and, as though that movement caused him pain, closes 
 them again with not less rapidity."^ He declared to his 
 surgeon, Ambroise Pare, that he had always before him, 
 whether sleeping or awake, the vision of all those 
 
 1 A gentleman of Auvergne, Jacques d'Oradour by name, who at this 
 time occupied the post of tnditre d^ hotel to the Queen of Navarre, and 
 was killed at the Battle of Issoire, in 1 590, is mentioned as the person 
 who abstracted the severed heads of La Mole and Coconnas. 
 
 ^ According to Mongez, Marguerite, to console herself for the loss of 
 La Mole, engaged the famous Du Perron, afterwards cardinal, to cele- 
 brate his death in verse, and it is of him of whom he speaks, under the 
 name of Hyacinthe, in a chanson composed in 1574. 
 
 ^ Cited by Armand Baschet, la Diplomatie venetienne. 
 
 m 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 slaughtered corpses, "presenting themselves with hideous 
 faces and covered with blood." And he added : " I 
 would that the imbecile and the innocent had been . 
 spared ! " D'Aubign6 relates that, a week after the 
 massacre, a large flock of crows were observed perched on 
 the towers and gables of the Louvre; and the conscience- 
 stricken King believed that their hoarse cries were a 
 demand for another such banquet as they had lately- 
 tasted. That same night, two hours after retiring to 
 rest, Charles suddenly started from his bed, called upon 
 his attendants to rise, and sent for Henri of Navarre 
 and others, to listen to a confused noise, a concert of 
 shouts, shrieks, and groans, such as had echoed through 
 the streets of Paris on the night of the massacre. All 
 who were present heard the turmoil ; indeed, so loud 
 was it that the King, in the belief that some disturbance 
 had broken out in the city, under the leadership of the 
 Montmorencies and their partisans, ordered his guards 
 to hasten into the streets and quell it. But they returned, 
 declaring that the city was perfectly tranquil, and that 
 the air only was troubled. And this disturbance, we 
 are told, continued every night for a week, commencing 
 always at the same hour. 
 
 In the hope of escaping these nightmares, the King 
 sought relief in the wildest physical exertions. " He 
 wishes to tire himself out at all cost ; he remains on horse- 
 back for twelve or fourteen consecutive hours ; he 
 proceeds thus, chasing and coursing through the woods 
 the same beast, the stag, for two or three days at a time, 
 never pausing save to partake of food, never reposing 
 save for a moment at night. "^ At other times, he would 
 enter a forge and, stripped to the waist, labour at the 
 
 * CavalH, cited by Armand Baschet, la Diplomatic venetienne, 
 
 138 
 
»1 m 
 
 
makGOT 
 
 
 tast. 
 rest 
 his aii^naa 
 
 and others, , 
 
 shouts, shrieks, and 
 
 the streets of Paris oa the my 
 
 who were present heard the 
 
 -lint had been 
 
 relates that, a week after the 
 
 :k of crows were observed perched on 
 
 " the Louvre ; and the conscience- 
 
 th-.t t}^,-\Y hoarse cries were a 
 
 t as they had lately 
 
 o hours after retiring to 
 
 d, called upon 
 
 '' Navarre 
 
 cevt of 
 
 , the King 
 vAciuons. "He 
 , e remains on horse- 
 back 'f fourteen consecutive hours; he 
 proceeds thu«, chasing and coursing through the woods 
 the sam " ' stag, for two or three days at ' 
 never pau. to partake of food, r*-^ ^-^ • 
 save for a Hi u night."* At other t 
 enter i fc»ge and, stripped to the waist, laboui 
 ^ C <£va'U!, cited by Armamd Baschet, la i^/&matii vtnfiienm 
 
 CHARLES IX., Ki'i^'g OF FRANCE 
 
 Rationale, Paris 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 fashioning of helm or cuirass, until the perspiration 
 poured in rivulets down his body, and his attendants 
 gazed at him in horror, as at a man possessed. 
 
 But the only peace he found was death ; for, aided by 
 these physical excesses, the germs of consumption, 
 which had long lain latent within him, developed rapidly, 
 and soon he knew that his end was near. In the autumn 
 of 1573, he was attacked by small-pox, and, though he 
 recovered, his strength thenceforth failed completely, 
 and, in the early spring of the following year, he is des- 
 cribed by the English Ambassador as " no more than skin 
 and bone," and so weak as to be unable to stand. At 
 the beginning of May, he took to his bed, and never left 
 it again. In the night of the 22nd to the 23rd, he had 
 a violent attack of haemorrhage, which reduced him to a 
 pitiable state of exhaustion, and it was seen that the end 
 was only a question of days. On the 28th, he summoned 
 his chief physician, Mazillac, and pathetically inquired 
 whether it were not possible that he and all the other 
 great doctors in the realm could find some alleviation 
 for his sufferings, " since," he added, " I am horribly and 
 cruelly tormented." To which Mazillac replied, " very 
 wisely and piously that all that depended on their art 
 they had done, omitting nothing, and that only the 
 previous day, all those of their Faculty had met in con- 
 sultation to find some remedy ; but that, to tell the 
 truth, God was the great and sovereign physician in 
 such maladies, to whom one ought to have recourse, and 
 that it was His outstretched hand which he ought to re- 
 cognise, in order to humiliate himself beneath it, and await 
 pardon and relief." " I believe what you say is true," 
 rejoined the King," and that you know no other remedy."* 
 * Journal de VEstoile (edit. Michaud), i. 303. 
 139 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 On the 29th, he dictated a letter to Matignon, who 
 was closely besieging Montgommery, bidding him obey 
 the orders of the Queen-Mother, since he himself was 
 no longer in a condition to issue them. That night 
 he became much worse, and Mazillac ordered all to leave 
 the sick-room, with the exception of two of his favourite 
 attendants and his old nurse, to whom, notwithstanding 
 that she was a Huguenot, Charles was greatly attached. 
 " As she, having seated herself on a chest, was on the 
 point of falling asleep,'* relates L'Estoile, " she heard 
 the King complaining, upon which she approached very 
 softly, and drew back his curtains. The King began to 
 say to her, heaving a great sigh and weeping so violently, 
 that the sobs choked his words ; * Ah, nurse, ma mie, 
 nurse ! What bloodshed and what murders ! Ah ! 
 what evil counsel I have had ! O my God, pardon me 
 for them, and have pity on me, if it please Thee ! I 
 know not where I am, so much do they perplex and 
 trouble me. What will become of all this ? What shall 
 I do ? I am lost ; I know it well.' Then his nurse 
 said to him : * Sire, let the murders and the blood be on 
 the heads of those who forced you to commit them, 
 and on those who gave you evil counsel. But, as for you. 
 Sire, you are not responsible, and, since you did not 
 approve of them, and since you regretted them, as you 
 have just protested, believe that God will never lay 
 them to your charge ; and that, in earnestly asking 
 pardon of Him, as you do. He will accord it you, and 
 will cover them with the mantle of His Son, to whom 
 alone you must have recourse.' " 
 
 The following morning, news reached Paris that Mont- 
 gommery, the involuntary murderer of Henri H., had 
 surrendered, Catherine hurried to the King's bed-side 
 
 140 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 to inform him of the fact ; but Charles scarcely seemed 
 to hear her. " What," cried she, " is it nothing to you, 
 my son, that the man who slew your father is a prisoner ? " 
 To which the King replied that it was a matter of in- 
 difference to him, like all else, and, turning his face to 
 the wall, asked to be left in peace. 
 
 Later in the day, he. roused himself, and sent for 
 Alen^on, the King of Navarre, the Cardinal de Bourbon, 
 the Chancellor, Birague, and some other Ministers 
 and gentlemen ; and having reminded them that the 
 Salic Law debarred his infant daughter* from the 
 succession, declared the King of Poland his lawful heir 
 and successor, and his mother Regent until his return to 
 France. 
 
 During the night, he was in great suffering, and it 
 was seen that he would not live through the following day. 
 He called Henri of Navarre, to whom he spoke for some 
 time, in a low voice, commending to his care his wife 
 Elizabeth and her little daughter, and also his son by 
 his beloved mistress, Marie Touchet, who afterwards 
 became Comte d'Auvergne and later Due d'Angoul^me, 
 " My brother," said the dying man to the Bearnais, 
 kneeling by his pillow, " you are losing a good friend. 
 If I had believed what I was told, you would be no longer 
 alive. Do not trust • . ." " Monsieur," hastily broke 
 in Catherine, who had been straining her ears to catch 
 her son's words, " do not say that ! " 
 
 Towards mid-day — it was Whit-Sunday, May 30 — 
 
 he summoned his mother to his bed-side, and bade her 
 
 a brief farewell ; and at four o'clock in the afternoon 
 
 he died, within a little less than a month of completing 
 
 his twenty-fourth year. 
 
 1 Marie Isabelle de France, died April 2, 1578, 
 141 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 The pathetic end of Charles IX. was received with 
 regret both by Court and city ; for, notwithstanding 
 his violent and erratic temper, the deceased King had 
 enjoyed some measure of popularity with his subjects, 
 who infinitely preferred tobe ruled by him than by the 
 effeminate and dissolute prince whom his premature 
 death had called to the throne. But by no one was he 
 more sincerely mourned than by his sister, the young 
 Queen of Navarre, who tells us that she lost in him " all 
 that it was possible for her to lose," and saw herself 
 deprived of her chief support against her mother's tyranny 
 and her elder brother's enmity. 
 
 The obsequies of the hapless young monarch were 
 celebrated with the customary magnificence. But the 
 spirit of discord, which had made of his reign one 
 long succession of wars, conspiracies, and assassinations 
 followed him even to the grave. As the cortege emerged 
 from Notre-Dame to proceed to Saint-Denis, there arose 
 a violent dispute between the upper clergy and the chief 
 officials of the Parlement of Paris, on the question of 
 precedence. This ordinarily belonged to the clergy ; 
 but the magistrates insisted that, on the present occasion, 
 it appertained to them, as the representatives of the absent 
 King. So acrimonious became the dispute, that, rather 
 than give way, both parties decided to take no further 
 share in the proceedings, and, accordingly, withdrew in 
 a body, being followed by nearly the whole of the nobility. 
 Brantome, Fumel, and the Italian soldier Strozzi, were 
 the only persons of note who accompanied the coffin 
 to Saint-Denis, where it was met by the monks of the 
 abbey, with the Cardinal de Lorraine, their abbot, 
 at their head, and lowered into the vaults in which slept 
 so many rulers of France. 
 
 14a 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 Measures taken by Catherine to secure the succession for the 
 King of Poland — Execution of Montgommery — Flight of 
 Henri III. from Cracow — He visits Vienna and Italy before 
 returning to France — Meeting between the new King and 
 the Royal Family at Bourgoin — His reception of Henri of 
 Navarre and Alen9on — Impressions of Marguerite — The 
 Queen of Navarre accused by Henri III. of" a very dangerous 
 form of benevolence " at Lyons — Stormy interview between 
 Marguerite and the Queen-Mother — The Princess succeeds in 
 establishing her innocence — Apparent harmony re-established 
 in the Royal Family — Death of the Duchess of Savoy and of 
 the Princesse de Conde — Extravagant grief of Henri III. at 
 the loss of his mistress — ^The Court leaves Lyons for Avignon 
 — Disaster on the Rh6ne — At Avignon the King takes to 
 devotion and joins the Flagellants — Death of the Cardinal de 
 Lorraine — Coronation of Henri III. — His marriage with 
 Louise de Vaudemont — The King endeavours to compel 
 Fran9ois de Luxembourg to marry a former mistress of his 
 Majesty — The Court returns to Paris — Death of Claude de 
 Valois, Duchess of Lorraine. 
 
 On the morrow of the death of Charles IX., Catherine 
 v//?oTf weftt to the new King : " Do not delay your departure 
 on any consideration, for we have need of you. You 
 know how much I love you, and when I reflect that 
 you will no more budge from us, that makes me remain 
 patient. The late King, your brother, has charged me 
 to preserve this realm for you ; I shall spare no endeavour 
 in my power to transmit it to you intact and tranquil." * 
 
 ' Biblioth^ue Nationale, fonds Dupuy, published by M. Charles Merki. 
 
 H3 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 The Queen-Mother exhibited both energy and ability 
 in securing the succession for her favourite, son. She 
 made overtures to La Noue, who was still in arms in 
 Poitou, opened negotiations with the Rochellois, and 
 succeeded in persuading d'Amville to return to his 
 allegiance. Her task was facilitated by the fact that 
 the leaders of the Huguenot-" Politique " revolt were 
 in her power ; the Marechaux de Cosse and de Mont- 
 morency being safe in the Bastille, and Alen^on and Henri 
 of Navarre under watch and ward at Vincennes. Conde, 
 who, some time before the beginning of the rising, had 
 been permitted to retire to his estates, whence he had fled 
 in disguise to Germany, had alone escaped her clutches. 
 
 In one instance only did Catherine depart from the 
 conciliatory policy which she had determined to pursue. 
 The gallant Montgommery was brought from Nor- 
 mandy to Paris, tried by the Parlement for high treason, 
 and condemned to a traitor's death. Placed in a tumbril, 
 with his hands tied behind his back, he was conveyed to 
 the Place de Greve, and there beheaded and quartered. 
 The Queen-Mother herself, L'Estoile tells us, witnessed 
 the execution, " and was at length avenged, as she had 
 so long desired, for the death of the late King Henri, her 
 husband." 
 
 Although Henri de Valois had only occupied the 
 throne of Poland some nine months, he was already 
 heartily tired of his kingdom, both the people and the 
 customs of which were utterly distasteful to one of his 
 indolent and luxurious temperament, and had been 
 impatiently awaiting the event which should recall him 
 to France. So soon, therefore, as the news of his brother's 
 death reached him,^ he quitted his sombre palace at 
 
 ^ CWmerault, one of the couriers despatched by Catherine, travelled 
 
 144 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 Cracow, secretly, in the middle of the night, accom- 
 panied by some of his French attendants, and fled 
 ventre-a-terre till he had crossed the Austrian frontier, 
 while his people rose on all sides to bar his passage, 
 and his nobles galloped in pursuit, without being able 
 to overtake their fugitive sovereign. The explana- 
 tion he subsequently condescended to give of this 
 escapade, was that the condition of France was so 
 disturbed that even a week's delay might imperil his 
 succession. Nevertheless, instead of proceeding straight 
 to Paris, he preferred to travel by way of Vienna and 
 Turin, where he was magnificently entertained by the 
 Duke of Savoy, who retained him for two months. In 
 consequence, it was the beginning of September before 
 he bade farewell to the Duke, whose hospitality had been 
 extravagantly rewarded by the restoration of Pignerol, 
 the gate of Italy, and turned his steps towards the dis- 
 tracted kingdom which he had professed himself so 
 impatient to reach. 
 
 At Bourgoin, he was met by Catherine, with whom 
 were Marguerite and her husband, the Due d'Alengon, 
 and the greater part of the Court. The two princes 
 had been set at liberty, by Henri's orders, Catherine 
 having first exacted an oath from them that they would 
 " neither attempt nor originate anything to the detriment 
 of his Majesty the King, and the State of his realm." 
 
 The meeting between mother and son was very 
 affectionate ; both had obtained the summit of their 
 ambition. After greeting the King, Catherine beckoned 
 Henri of Navarre and Monsieur — as Alen^on was now 
 called — to approach. " Here," said she, " are two 
 
 with such expedition that he made the long journey between Paris and 
 Cracow in thirteen days. 
 
 145 K 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 fantastic persons, whom I have had great difficulty in 
 retaining ; I hand them over to you ! Deal with them 
 as you think fit." His Majesty, at first, received the 
 princes with extreme coldness, and his looks showed plainly 
 the resentment he cherished against them. They, on 
 their side, endeavoured to justify themselves, and warmly 
 protested their devotion. After a while, the King's 
 countenance relaxed, and he embraced the delinquents, 
 exclaiming : " Ah well, brothers ! you are free. Love 
 me only, and love yourselves enough to reject the per- 
 nicious counsels which will be given you to the detriment 
 of my service, and which will end by ruining you." 
 
 Marguerite had assisted at this family meeting, and, 
 in a curious passage in her Memoires, she relates the sen- 
 sations she experienced at the approach of her new 
 sovereign. " Whilst they [Henri HI. and Catherine] 
 were embracing and exchanging greetings," she writes, 
 " although the weather was so hot that, in the crowd 
 in which we stood, we were well-nigh suffocated — I 
 was seized with such a fit of shivering and with such 
 trembling from head to foot that my gentlemen-in-wait- 
 ing perceived it, and I had great difficulty in controlling 
 it, when the King, turning from the Queen, my mother, 
 advanced to salute me." 
 
 The young Queen, who had her full share of the super- 
 stition of her time, though she never carried it anything 
 like so far as her mother, regarded this sudden indis- 
 position as a warning of the sufferings she was to undergo 
 during the reign of her detested brother ; and it was 
 with a heavy heart that she accompanied the Court to 
 Lyons, into which city Henri HL made his entry on the 
 following day [September 6, 1574]. Nor was it long 
 before her forebodings began to be realised. 
 
 146 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 One afternoon, Marguerite, accompanied by the 
 Duchesses de Nevers and de Retz, Madame de Curton, 
 who, on the princess's marriage, had exchanged her post of 
 gouvernante for that of dame d''honneur, and several other 
 ladies and gentlemen, went to visit the Convent de Saint- 
 Pierre, where one of the party had a relative among the 
 nuns. While the Queen and her friends were in the 
 convent, her empty chariot, " easily recognisable from 
 its being guilt and of yellow velvet trimmed with 
 silver," remained in the neighbouring Place des Ter- 
 reaux, hard by the lodging of a gentleman, whom 
 Marguerite, in her Memoires, speaks of as Bide, but 
 who, according to Bassompierre, was the fascinating 
 Charles de Balzac d'Entragues, surnamed le bel 
 d'Entrygues, one of the young Queen's most devoted 
 admirers. 
 
 Presently, as ill-luck would have it, the King passed 
 that way, in company with Henri of Navarre, his 
 favourite Francois d'O, and the Marquis de Ruffec, on 
 their way to visit another of his Majesty's favourites, 
 Quelus, who was ill. Henri HI., recognising his sister's 
 chariot and perceiving that it was empty, thought the 
 opportunity to sow dissension between Marguerite and 
 her husband too good to be lost, and, turning to the King 
 of Navarre, observed with a malicious smile : " Look ! 
 There stands your wife's chariot, and yonder is Bide's 
 lodging. I warrant she is there ! " And he ordered 
 Ruffec, " who, as the friend of Du Guast, was the proper 
 instrument for such malignity," to enter the house 
 and ascertain if his suspicions were correct. Ruffec 
 found no one, but, unwilling to baulk his master's 
 design, said to him, on his return : " The birds have been 
 there, but they are now flown." 
 
 H7 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 Marguerite tells us that her husband " manifested on 
 this occasion the kindness and understanding which he 
 always displayed." As a matter of fact, the Bearnais 
 cared not a jot about his wife's gallantries, so long as 
 she left him free to pursue his own, and, moreover, 
 easily divined his Majesty's amiable intentions. But 
 Henri III. succeeded better with Catherine, whom he 
 lost no time in acquainting with her daughter's supposed 
 delinquency. The Queen-Mother, " partly because she 
 believed his story, and partly in order to gratify this son, 
 whom she idolised," became exceedingly angry, and 
 " spoke in a very extraordinary manner before some 
 ladies." 
 
 Presently, in blissful ignorance of what had occurred, 
 Marguerite returned, and was met by her husband, who, 
 so soon as he saw her, began to laugh and said : " Go 
 to your mother, and I am sure that you will return thence 
 in a fine rage." She inquired what he meant, to which 
 he rejoined : " I shall not tell you, but let it suffice you 
 that I believe nothing whatever of it, and that they are 
 inventions, in order to deprive me, by this means, of the 
 friendship of Monsieur your brother." 
 
 " Seeing that I could draw nothing further from him," 
 continues Marguerite, " I repaired to the apartments 
 of the Queen my mother. On entering the reception- 
 room, I encountered M. de Guise, who, looking to the 
 future, was not sorry for the division which was threaten- 
 ing our House, hoping to gather up some spars from 
 the wreck. * I was waiting for you,' said he, * to warn you 
 that the Queen credits you with a very dangerous form 
 of benevolence,' and he then repeated to me the fore- 
 going conversation, which he had learned from d'O.^ 
 
 ^ True to the role which she had marked out for herself, and of 
 
 148 
 
 K- 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 I entered the chamber of the Queen, my mother, but 
 she was not there. I found Madame de Nemours and 
 all the other princesses and ladies, who cried out : * Mon 
 Dieu, Madame ! the Queen your mother is terribly 
 enraged against you. I do not advise you to present 
 yourself before her.' 
 
 " * No,' I replied, * not if I had done what the King 
 has told her. But, since I am wholly innocent, I must 
 speak to her, in order to enlighten her upon the subject.' " 
 
 She then relates how, fortified by the consciousness 
 of her innocence, she entered the Queen-Mother's cabinet, 
 which was only separated from the rest of the room by 
 a thin partition, so that every word that was spoken there 
 could be distinctly heard by those without. No sooner 
 did Catherine catch sight of her daughter, than she 
 " began to open fire, and to say everything that it was 
 possible for extreme and ungovernable anger to fling 
 forth." In vain the unfortunate princess protested 
 that she was the vicitm of a shameful calumny ; in vain 
 she invoked the evidence of the persons who had accom- 
 panied her to the Convent de Saint-Pierre, and had not 
 quitted her during the whole of the afternoon. Catherine 
 " had no ears for either truth or reason," and continued 
 " scolding, raging, and threatening " ; and when Mar- 
 guerite boldly declared her conviction that it was the 
 King himself whom she must thank for this ill-turn, 
 she became more angry than ever, and asserted that " it 
 was one of her own lackeys who had acquainted her 
 with the facts." 
 
 Beside herself with grief and indignation. Marguerite 
 
 which we have spoken elsewhere. Marguerite here refuses to recognise 
 the kindly feeling towards the princess to whose hand he had once 
 aspired which had obviously prompted Guise's action. 
 
 149 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 left her mother and returned to her own apartments. 
 Here she found her husband, who good-naturedly 
 endeavoured to console her, pointing out that she had 
 too many credible witnesses on her side not to be able to 
 establish very speedily her innocence. This was, indeed, 
 what happened ; for next day Catherine sent for her 
 daughter, and confessed that she had been misinformed, 
 throwing all the blame on the afore-mentioned lackey, 
 whom she had discovered to be a bad man, and had 
 decided to dismiss from her service. Then, perceiving, 
 by Marguerite's manner, that this stratagem was not 
 succeeding, she employed every means to disabuse her 
 of the idea that the King was the originator of the 
 slander. But the princess was still unconvinced, when 
 his Majesty himself entered, and proceeded to offer her 
 " all the excuses and protestations of friendship that were 
 possible." These demonstrations, though but little 
 sincere, were, of course, followed by a reconciliation, 
 which, at least, procured Marguerite a short respite from 
 the persecutions of her despicable brother.^ 
 
 On their side, the King of Navarre and Alengon were 
 received into some degree of favour, and Henri HI. not 
 only ceased to treat them with suspicion, but even 
 assumed an affectionate attitude towards them, and 
 would frequently appear in public with the princes and 
 his sister, in order to encourage the belief that peace and 
 harmony were once more established in the Royal Family, 
 'y^tj^^ On All Saints' Day, the three princes communicated 
 publicly at the same Mass, and, before receiving the con- 
 secrated wafers, Alen^on and Navarre renewed the oath 
 which they had taken on their liberation, " protesting 
 to the King their fidelity, and swearing, by the place 
 
 1 Memeires et lettres de Marguerite de Valois (edit. Guessard). 
 
 150 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 to which they aspired in Paradise, and by the God whom 
 they were about to receive, to be faithful to him and to 
 his State (as they had ever been), to the last drop of their 
 blood." * But even the most solemn oaths counted for 
 very little in those days. 
 
 The festivities which marked the sojourn of the Court 
 at Lyons were interrupted by two sad events. The first 
 was the death of Marguerite de Valois, Duchess of Savoy, 
 the Queen of Navarre's aunt and godmother ; the 
 second, the untimely end of Marie de Cleves, the young 
 Princesse de Conde, who died in childbed in Paris. 
 Henri III. exhibited the most extravagant grief at the 
 death of his mistress, to whom he had written letters 
 from Poland in his own blood.* On learning the news, 
 he fell to the ground in a swoon, and was carried to his 
 apartments, which he caused to be draped in black velvet, 
 and where he remained shut up for several days, for the 
 first two of which he refused to touch either food or wine. 
 When he, at length, reappeared, he was clad in the 
 deepest mourning, and the points of his doublet and 
 even the ribbons of his shoes were garnished with little 
 death's-heads. 
 
 Shortly afterwards, the Court quitted Lyons for 
 Avignon, under the pretext of affording the grief-stricken 
 King some distraction, but, in reality, with the object 
 of opening negotiations with d'Amville,* Montbrun, and 
 
 1 L'Estoile. 
 
 2 To such lengths did he carry his passion for this lady that during 
 the siege of La Rochelle, in the winter of 1572-1573, he is said to have 
 contemplated treating the poor Prince de Conde as David treated Uriah 
 the Hittite, in order that he might espouse his Bathsheba. 
 
 ' D'Amville, whom, on the death of Charles IX., Catherine had per- 
 suaded to return momentarily to her allegiance, had been again alienated 
 by the despicable conduct of the new King. During Henri's visit to 
 
 151 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 the leaders of the Huguenots of Dauphine. The King, 
 the Queen-Mother, and most of the Court made the 
 journey, in barges, along the Rhone. This proved a most 
 unfortunate decision, for one barge, containing a large 
 part of the baggage of the Royal Family and a great 
 quantity of valuable plate and specie, was so absurdly 
 overloaded that it capsized and sank, and Alphonse de 
 Gondi, the Queen of Navarre's maitre d'hotel, and more 
 than twenty persons were drowned. 
 
 The sojourn of the Court at Avignon was as gloomy 
 as that at Lyons had been pleasant. The sudden death 
 of the Princesse de Conde had occasioned a remarkable 
 change in the humour of Henri HI., and whereas, since 
 his arrival in France, he had been the life and soul of 
 every f^te and pleasure-party, he now plunged into the 
 most extravagant devotion. He was particularly struck 
 by the proceedings of the Flagellants, a sect very strong 
 in Avignon, who, dressed in sackcloth, nightly paraded 
 the streets of the papal city, by torchlight, chanting the 
 Miserere, and scourging on eanother with whips. Nothing 
 would content him but to become a Flagellant, too, and 
 he accordingly enrolled himself in the confraternity 
 of the " Blancs-Battus." The Royal Family and the 
 Court were compelled to follow suit ; Catherine joined 
 the black penitents ; the Cardinals de Lorraine and 
 d'Armagnac, the blue ; while Monsieur, Marguerite, 
 
 Turin, the Duke of Savoy had urged him to conciliate the " Politiques " 
 and to re-establish peace by moderate concessions to the Huguenots, and 
 had invited d'Amville to come and confer with his sovereign. The 
 marshal came, and Henri tried to persuade his host to allow him to be 
 arrested. D'Amville, however, was warned to be on his guard, and 
 hastily returned to Languedoc, where he at once formed a closer alli- 
 ance with the Huguenots. In 1577 he finally threw in his lot with the 
 Royalist cause. 
 
 152 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 and even Henri of Navarre, who lent himself with marvel- 
 lous suppleness to all the exigencies of his difficult role, 
 might have been seen in these lugubrious processions. 
 The appearance of the mocking little Bearnais in hood 
 and sackcloth proved, however, too much for Henri HI.'s 
 sense of humour, and he could not restrain his laughter. 
 
 These ridiculous proceedings had one important 
 result. The Cardinal de Lorraine, unaccustomed to 
 such mortification of the flesh, was attacked by a fever, 
 which in a few days proved fatal, to the open joy of the :U: ct 
 Protestants, and the secret relief of the King and Cather- 
 ine, who considered themselves well rid of a very embarras- 
 sing personality. On the day of his death, Avignon was 
 visited by a violent storm, which caused the Huguenots 
 to declare that the cardinal had been carried off by the 
 devil, " since something more violent than the wind 
 tore down and whirled off into the air the lattices and 
 window-bars of the house where he lodged." 
 
 On January 4, 1575, the Court left Avignon and took ""' 
 the road to Rheims, where, since the time of Clovis, 
 the Kings of France had been crowned. Rheims was 
 reached on February 11, 1575, and, two days later, 
 the coronation took place, in the ancient castle of Saint- 
 Remi. The superstitious — and who was not super- 
 stitious in the sixteenth century ? — observed that more 
 than one evil omen marked the ceremony. When the 
 crown was placed on Henri's head, by the Archbishop of 
 Rheims, the monarch was heard to exclaim that it hurt 
 him, and twice the diadem tottered and slipped from 
 his brow. It was also remarked that the Master of the 
 Ceremonies forgot the kiss of peace, and that the 
 choristers omitted to chant the Te Deum. 
 
 Three days after his coronation, Henri, who appears 
 
 153 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 to have made a singularly rapid recovery from the grief 
 which the death of poor Marie de Cleves had occasioned 
 him, married the sweet and charming Louise de Lorraine, 
 daughter of Nicolas, Comte de Vaud6mont, and Mar- 
 guerite d'Egmont, whom he had seen at Nancy, when he 
 was on his way to Poland. The King's choice created 
 some surprise, for not only was the rank of his bride 
 very far below his own, but her elevation considerably 
 increased the credit of her relatives, the Guises. How- 
 ever, in the eyes of the Queen-Mother, who had warmly 
 favoured the match, these disadvantages were more than 
 counterbalanced by the fact that the new Queen, like 
 Charles IX. 's consort, Elizabeth of Austria, was a simple- 
 minded girl, entirely without ambition, and not in the 
 least likely to dispute the empire which Catherine 
 exercised over her son's mind. 
 
 Although Mile, de Vaud6mont — or rather, her parents 
 — had accepted with becoming gratitude the King of 
 France's gracious offer, her affections were engaged 
 elsewhere, Francois de Luxembourg being the man of 
 her choice. The prince in question had attended the 
 coronation and the marriage, a step which he speedily 
 had cause to regret ; for, a day or two after the latter 
 ceremony, Henri HL drew him aside and said : " Cousin, 
 I have married your mistress ; but I desire that, in 
 exchange, you should marry mine." And he commanded 
 him to espouse Renee de Chateauneuf, a bright and 
 shining light of the Queen-Mother's " escadron volant^'' 
 whose favours his Majesty had formerly enjoyed. Luxem- 
 bourg, making, very naturally, a distinction beween 
 the two senses attached to the word " mistress," thanked 
 the King for his thoughtfulness, but begged to be 
 excused. His Majesty, however, would take no refusal, 
 
 15+ 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 and insisted that the marriage should take place that 
 very day. The unfortunate prince then " begged very 
 humbly that the King would grant him a week's respite." 
 To which Henri replied that he would give him three 
 days only, at the expiration of which, if he were not 
 prepared to marry the damsel, something exceedingly 
 unpleasant would probably befall him. Long before 
 the three days had passed, however, Luxembourg had 
 placed many a league between himself and the King's 
 wrath.^ 
 
 The Queen of Navarre assisted at the coronation 
 and marriage, and accompanied the Court to Paris, into 
 which the new King and his bride made their entry on 
 February 17, 1575. The rejoicings which followed 
 were interrupted by the news of the death of Claude de 
 Valois, Duchess of Lorraine, who fell a victim, as so many 
 unfortunate women did in those days, to the clumsiness 
 and ignorance of the surgeons who attended her in her 
 confinement. Marguerite sincerely mourned the loss of 
 her sister, between whom and herself there had always 
 existed a strong affection, which family dissensions had 
 been powerless to destroy. Of the ten children whom 
 Catherine de' Medici had borne Henri H., three only now 
 remained : the King, Marguerite, and the Due d'Alen9on. 
 
 ^ Before his departure for Poland, Henri had tried to marry Mile, de 
 Chateauneuf to Nantouillet, the Provost of Paris. The provost, how- 
 ever, declined the honour, and persisted in his refusal, notwithstanding 
 a sound horsewhipping which the rejected beauty administered to him 
 in public. This lady finally succeeded in finding a husband in the 
 person of a Florentine named Antinoti, who was intendant of the galleys 
 at Marseilles, " and having detected him in a compromising situation 
 with another demoiselle, stabbed him bravely and manfully with her own 
 hand." L'Estoile, who relates this episode, entitles it : " Acte genireux 
 pour une dame de son mitier." 
 
 155 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 Her third son, Louis, and the twins, Victoire and Jeanne, 
 had died in infancy ; Francois II. in his eighteenth year ; 
 Elizabeth, the young Queen of Spain, and Charles IX., 
 in their twenty-fourth, and the Duchess of Lorraine 
 in her twenty-eighth. And of the survivors, Marguerite 
 alone was destined to reach the prime of life. 
 
 156 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 Character of Henri III. — His follies and extravagances — His 
 "mignons" — Enmity between the Queen of Navarre and Du 
 Guast — Madame de Sauve — Instigated by Du Guast, she works 
 to sow dissension between Monsieur and Henry of Navarre, 
 and between the latter and his wife — Bussy d'Amboise — 
 Marguerite accused by Du Guast and Henri III. of carrying 
 on a liaison with him — Question of their relations considered 
 — Du Guast, with the sanction of the King, lays an ambuscade 
 for Bussy, who, however, escapes unhurt — The Queen-Mother 
 persuades Alen9on to advise Bussy to withdraw from Court — 
 Violent quarrel between the King and Queen of Navarre. 
 
 " Major frivato visus, dum -privatus fuit, et omnium con- 
 sensu capax imperii, nisi imperasset^'' so wrote Tacitus 
 of the Emperor Galba, and his words might be applied 
 with equal force to the last of the Valois kings. Henri III. 
 had gifts which, as we have said elsewhere, might, in a 
 different age and with a different training, have made of 
 him a shrewd and capable ruler. He could become, 
 when it suited his purpose, almost as fine an " actor of 
 royalty " as was Louis XIV. ; he could speak with weight 
 and dignity, and even with eloquence ; he had insight 
 into men and things, and some of his instructions to his 
 Ambassadors at foreign Courts are models of perspicacity 
 and sound reasoning ; while, on more than one occasion, 
 as, for example, when he rebuked the arrogant preten- 
 sions of Philip II., he showed a really high sense of his 
 
 157 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 kingly dignity.* But the baneful influence of his mother, 
 and the evil atmosphere amidst which he had been brought 
 up, had corrupted his whole nature and left him almost 
 entirely destitute of a moral sense ; and his reign is one 
 miserable record of lost opportunities, of abilities neg- 
 lected or misapplied, of puerile follies, of shameful 
 profligacy, and of devotional excesses scarcely more serious 
 or more decent than his debaucheries, of duplicity, 
 trickery, and senseless extravagance. 
 
 The conduct of the King astonished and irritated 
 his subjects ; soon he was not only disliked but despised. 
 What could be thought of a sovereign — to mention only 
 his follies — who, when his country was torn by internal 
 dissensions and hastening towards bankruptcy, could keep 
 his Council waiting for hours while he dressed his wife's 
 hair or starched her ruffs ; who appeared at a Court ball, 
 his face rouged and powdered, the body of his doublet 
 cut low, like a woman's, with long sleeves falling to the 
 ground, and a string of pearls round his neck, " so that 
 one did not know," says d'Aubigne, " whether it was a 
 woman-king or a man-queen " ; who gave audience to 
 Ambassadors with a basketful of puppies suspended from 
 
 ^ In 1582, after Philip II. had usurped the throne of Portugal, he 
 insolently demanded that the Prior of Crato, his defeated rival for the 
 Crown, who had taken refuge in France, should be delivered up or at 
 least expelled from Henri's dominions. To which the French King 
 boldly replied that " he was not less a king than Philip 11., and in no 
 way dependent upon him ; that France was the asylum of the unfortu- 
 nate, and that the Prior of Crato should remain there so long as he 
 pleased." Not long afterwards, during a terrible storm, one of the 
 Spanish galleys was wrecked off the coast of France, and a number of 
 the slaves, who had escaped to the shore, implored the King's protec- 
 tion. Philip imperiously demanded their extradition, but was met 
 with the reply that " the soil of France liberated all those who touched 
 it." 
 
 158 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 his neck by a broad silk ribbon ; who might be seen 
 playing Cup and Ball with his courtiers in the streets, 
 and who wasted immense sums, borrowed at usurious 
 interest from Italian bankers or wrung from his unhappy 
 people, on balls, f^tes, and masquerades,^ or in purchasing 
 jewellery and curios at extravagant prices ? 
 
 But it was the King's favourites — ^his odious " mig- 
 nons " — ^who especially exasperated the people, and ended 
 by changing their dislike and contempt into hatred and 
 disgust. The original idea of these mignons was to counter- 
 balance the power of the great nobles, whom Henri feared 
 and distrusted, by men who should owe their fortune 
 entirely to his favour, and, as such, had something to re- 
 commend it. But, though a few of his later favourites, 
 such as d'Epernon and Joyeuse, were men of considerable 
 ability, and rendered the King good service, the majority 
 of the earlier ones, chosen only for their good looks, their 
 elegance, and their personal courage, were men of evil 
 lives, who disgusted all classes by their insolence, violence, 
 and debauchery. " From 1576 their name of * mignons,^ 
 says L'Estoile, " began to be heard in the mouths of the 
 people, to whom they were very odious, both on account 
 of their way of behaving and their effeminate and im- 
 modest dress ; but, above all, because of the immense 
 
 1 At the Carnival of 1577, Henri had given orders for festivities that 
 would have entailed the expenditure of some 200,000 livres, the equiva- 
 lent of nearly two million francs in money of to-day ; but the death of 
 his father-in-law, Nicolas, Comte de Vaudemont, threw the Court into 
 mourning and caused the f^tes to be abandoned. In the spring of the 
 following year, his Majesty gave a banquet to his brother and the nobles 
 and gentlemen who had accompanied him to the siege of La Charit6. 
 At this banquet, the guests were waited on by ladies, dressed, like men, in 
 costumes o fgreen silk, which are said to have cost upwards of 60,000 
 livres. 
 
 159 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 gifts and favours which the King lavished upon them, 
 which the people held to be the cause of their ruin. . . . 
 These fine mignons wore their hair long, curled, and 
 frizzled, under little velvet caps, as is the custom of the 
 courtesans ; and their ruffs starched and half a foot wide, 
 so that when one beheld the head above the ruff, it 
 resembled the head of St. John the Baptist on a charger. 
 . . . Their practices were gambling, blasphemy, dancing, 
 quarrelling, and wenching, and following the King 
 wherever he went." ^ 
 
 The most obnoxious of all Henri III.'s early favourites 
 was Du Guast, the gentleman who had been the author 
 of Marguerite de Valois's quarrel with her brother, and 
 of the rupture of her love-affair with the Due de Guise, 
 since which he had not ceased working to embitter his 
 master's mind against her. Du Guast had accompanied 
 Henri to Poland,^ and since the latter had become King 
 of France, the favourite's influence over him seemed 
 greater than ever. Naturally insolent and haughty, 
 his good fortune seemed to have turned his head, and 
 rendered him insupportable to all save his royal patron. 
 ** He dared to place himself on an equality with the 
 greatest personages," writes de Thou, " even going the 
 length of treating them sometimes as if they had been 
 beneath him, and did not spare the first ladies of the 
 Court, whose reputations he publicly assailed, often in 
 the presence of his Majesty ; and he even had the impu- 
 dence to turn his slanders in the direction of an illustrious 
 princess [Marguerite]." 
 
 ^ The name of the mignons survived them ; the mistresses of Henri IV. 
 were known as the King's " mignonnes." 
 
 2 Marguerite says that he remained in France in order to keep her 
 brother's party together, but from the testimony of Brantome and 
 other chroniclers, it is evident that her memory is here at fault. 
 
 160 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 Du Guast, indeed, pursued the Queen of Navarre 
 with a persistent malignity for which it is difficult to 
 account, unless on the supposition that he had been an 
 unsuccessful admirer. In justice to him, however, it 
 should be mentioned that Marguerite had fully recipro- 
 cated his hatred, had treated him in public with the 
 utmost contempt, and had scornfully rejected all attempts 
 on his part to conciliate her. Brantome relates that, 
 shortly before the death of Charles IX., Du Guast, 
 entrusted by the King of Poland with some confidential 
 mission, arrived in France, and presented himself 
 before the princess, to hand her a letter from her 
 brother. Upon which the Queen of Navarre angrily 
 exclaimed : " This letter serves you as your safeguard. 
 Were it not for this, I would teach you to speak 
 differently of a princess such as I am, sister of two 
 kings, your sovereigns." 
 
 " I am well aware that you wish me ill," replied Du 
 Guast, " but be kind and generous, for love of my 
 master, and hear me." He then sought to excuse himself 
 and denied the slanders imputed to him, but without 
 being able to convince Marguerite, who dismissed him 
 with a gesture of disdain, exclaiming : " I shall always 
 be your mortal enemy ! " 
 
 Du Guast accepted this imprudent challenge, and no 
 sooner had Henri III. returned to France, than he com- 
 menced hostilities. His object was to put an end to the 
 good understandings which reigned between Marguerite 
 and her husband, and between the latter and Alen<jon,which 
 the Queen of Navarre used every endeavour to maintain. 
 By this means, he would not only gratify his own malice, 
 but serve the interests of his master, since it was of the 
 highest importance to the King and Catherine to prevent 
 
 l6l L 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 any concerted action between the chiefs of the Huguenots 
 and of the disaffected Catholics. 
 
 He found an invaluable auxiliary ready to his hand 
 in the person of Charlotte de Beaune, Baronne de Sauve/ 
 lady-of-honour to the Queen-Mother, and perhaps, the 
 most corrupt woman of the Court. Inferior in beauty 
 to Marguerite, Madame de Sauve was greatly her superior 
 in knowledge of life and the conduct of her numerous 
 gallantries. " She exercised over all her lovers," says 
 Mezeray, " so absolute an empire that she never lost 
 one of them, but, on the contrary, constantly acquired 
 new ones." Though she possessed both beauty and 
 intelligence, she was capable neither of constancy nor 
 attachment ; loving through vanity, by calculation, and 
 often by the orders of the Queen-Mother ; for she was 
 " one of the most celebrated of those facile beauties 
 whom Catherine employed to seduce the chiefs of 
 faction, to retain them in a voluptuous idleness, or to 
 rob them of their secrets."^ During the visit of the 
 Court to Lyons, she had become the mistress of Henri 
 of Navarre, though he was very far from being the sole 
 possessor of her charms. His brother-in-law, Alen^on, 
 was equally her slave ; while Guise, Du Guast, and 
 
 "^ She was the wife of Simon de Fizes, Baron de Sauve, Secretary of 
 State under Charles IX. and Henri III. After the death of her first 
 husband, in 1579, she married Fran9ois de la Tremouille, Marquis de 
 Noirmoutier. She retained her fascination until long past her first 
 youth, and it was with her that the Due de Guise spent his last night 
 on earth, before falling under the daggers of the " Quaraute-Cifif." A 
 portrait of Madame de Sauve is preserved in the Cabinet des Estampes, 
 and has been reproduced in this volume. The face is pretty, but 
 sensual and cunning. " 1/ y a de la chatte dans sa bouche migmnney'* re- 
 marks La Ferriere. 
 
 2 Comte Leo de Saint-Poncy, Marguerite de Valois, i. 192. 
 
 162 
 

niTPPxr M 
 
 auxiliary ready to his haRi 
 
 Ciiariotte de Beaune, Baronne de Sauve/ 
 
 to the Queen-Mother, and perhaps, the 
 
 *. ,ia_>.i. vvoman of the Court. Inferior in beauty 
 
 Urguerite, Madame de Sauve was greatly her superior 
 
 in knowledge of life and the conduct of her numerous 
 
 gallantr exercised over all her lovers," says 
 
 Me/ ' "e that she never lost 
 
 one rr.nstantly acquired 
 
 new =» beauty and 
 
 int< 
 
 akaiation, and 
 
 . -f..^ oT... .^...- 
 
 . being 
 s brother-in-law, / 
 iile Guise, Du Guast, and 
 
 JB de Fizes, Baron de Saovc, Secretary of 
 ; Henri TIL After the death of her first 
 ed Fran(^is dc Ja Tremouille, Marquis de 
 No She retained her fiutcination until long past her first 
 
 yov ' ■ ! hat the Due de Guise spent his last r-^^ 
 
 on ■ r the daggers of the ** Qtitiraite-Cin<f 
 
 po> nc dc Sauve is preserved in the Cabinet de;- 
 
 ^ jccd in this volume. The face t* , 
 • il y a it la ekatte dans $e botukg nsljr 
 inarks La FerriMt 
 '^ ■" -nte \Aq dc ^■. 
 
 CHARLOTTE DE BEAUNE, BARONNE DE SAUVE 
 
 (Afterwards Marquise de Noirmoutier) 
 
 From m Engraving after a Drawing by an unknoicn artist, in the 'B'lbliotheque 
 
 Kaiionale, Pari) 
 
j;,6i-^« 
 

QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 Souvre/ another of the King's mignons, also participated 
 in her favours. 
 
 Instigated by Du Guast, this dangerous siren em- 
 ployed all her wiles to excite Navarre and Monsieur to 
 jealousy of one another, and succeeded but too well. 
 The former, in spite of his shrewdness, the latter, not- 
 withstanding Marguerite's warnings, fell into the snare 
 spread for them ; soon they were in open and declared 
 rivalry. " To such a pitch of violence," writes Mar- 
 guerite, " did she work up the passion of my brother 
 and my husband that, forgetful of every other ambition, 
 duty and object in life, the sole idea in their minds seemed 
 to be the pursuit of this woman. Moreover, they thereby 
 arrived at so great and furious a jealousy of one another, 
 that, although she was sought by several others, who 
 were all better beloved by her than they were, these 
 two brothers-in-law paid no attention to this, but only 
 dreaded each other's courtship." 
 
 Having contrived to embroil the two princes and thus, 
 for the time being, effectually prevent any concerted 
 action between them in the political arena, Madame de 
 Sauve, " aided by the diabolical cunning of Du Guast," 
 devoted herself to the task of estranging the King of 
 Navarre from his wife. To this end, she persuaded him 
 that, stung by jealousy. Marguerite was favouring 
 Alen^on's suit, which so angered the enamoured prince 
 that not only did he withdraw all his confidence from 
 his wife, but " gave up speaking to her altogether." 
 
 Far from satisfied with the success which had attended 
 the machinations of himself and his ally, Du Guast had 
 meanwhile been keeping a watchful eye on Marguerite's 
 
 ^ Gilles de Souvre, Marquis de Courtenvaux. In his old age, he was 
 gouverneur of Louis XIII. 
 
 163 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 conduct ; and his joy was great when he detected her in 
 a liaison with Bussy d'Amboise, immortalised by the elder 
 Dumas in one of the most celebrated of his romances, 
 la Dame de Montsoreau. 
 
 Robert de Clermont, Sieur de Bussy d'Amboise, is 
 one of the most perfect types of those elegant, audacious, 
 swashbuckling favourites in whom the Court of the last 
 Valois was so prolific. His handsome face, his haughty 
 bearing, the elegance of his dress, his caustic wit, his 
 duels, and his amours inspired positive enthusiasm. The 
 women adored him ; the men regarded him with mingled 
 fear and admiration. The Memoires of the time are full 
 of his praises. To Brantome he is "/^ nonfair de son temp^'* 
 the ideal knight, the model of paladins, the last represen- 
 tative of the chivalry of the Middle Ages. The austere 
 lawyer de Thou, and the rigid Calvinist d'Aubigne, 
 while censuring his morals, do not fail to render justice 
 to his brilliant qualities ; though the latter regrets that 
 he should have employed his valour " more in biting 
 the dogs of the hunt than the wolves." And L'Estoile 
 shows him to us animated by " an invincible courage, 
 proud and audacious, as valiant as his sword, and as worthy 
 to command an army as any captain in France." How- 
 ever, he reproaches him with having been " vicious and 
 with having little fear of God," and he would appear 
 to have been quarrelsome, debauched, avaricious, and 
 without any scruples worth mentioning.* 
 
 Bussy had been originally a favourite of the King, 
 and had accompanied Henri to Poland. But, on the 
 latter's accession to the French throne, he took offence 
 
 ^ During the St. Bartholomew, he profited by the general massacre 
 to murder his cousin, Antoine de Clermont, with whom he was engaged 
 in a law-suit. 
 
 164 
 
QUEEN M ARGOT 
 
 at some slight which he had received, and attached himself 
 to Alengon, who appointed him his chamberlain and, 
 according to L'Estoile, reposed such unbounded con- 
 fidence in him that he gave him the key of his coffers, 
 and allowed him to help himself to their contents when- 
 ever he pleased. 
 
 " When we were in Paris," relates Marguerite, " my 
 brother appointed Bussy to attend him, holding him in 
 the high esteem which his valour merited. He was 
 continually in my brother's company and, in consequence, 
 in mine ; my brother and I being almost always together, 
 and he having given orders to his attendants to honour 
 and obey me no less than himself. Du Guast, however, 
 putting a different construction upon it, thought that 
 Fortune offered him a fine opportunity, and having, 
 through Madame de Sauve, insinuated himself into the 
 good graces of the King my husband, he endeavoured 
 by every means in his power to persuade him that Bussy 
 was my lover." 
 
 The Bearnais, however, turned a deaf ear to Du 
 Guast, though not, in all probability, as Marguerite 
 would have us believe, because he did not credit the 
 accusation, but because it was a matter of supreme in- 
 difference to him whether his wife had one or a dozen 
 gallants. Thereupon, the worthy Du Guast carried his 
 tale to Henri HI., " whom," says Marguerite, " he 
 found more easy to persuade, as much on account of the 
 little good-will he bore my brother and myself, our friend- 
 ship being suspicious and odious in his eyes, as because 
 of his hatred of Bussy, who having formerly been in his 
 service, had quitted it, in order to devote himself to 
 my brother." 
 
 The King lost no time in informing the Queen-Mother, 
 
 165 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 whom he advised to remonstrate with Henri of Navarre 
 on his wife's conduct, and strove to incite to the same 
 indignation which she had displayed at Lyons. But 
 Catherine preferred to work in the shadow, and not to 
 enter into open hostility with any one, and had no mind 
 to risk a second mistake, which could not fail to exasperate 
 her daughter. She. therefore, declined to interfere, 
 and, if we are to believe Marguerite, said to the King : 
 " I know not who the mischief-makers are who put such 
 ideas into your head. My daughter is unfortunate to 
 have been born in such times. In our day, we spoke 
 freely to every one, and your uncles, M. le Dauphin * 
 and M. d'Orleans, were constantly in the bed-chamber 
 of your aunt, Madame Marguerite,^ and myself ; and no 
 one thought it strange, nor indeed was there any reason 
 why they should. Bussy sees my daughter before you, 
 before her husband, and before her husband's people, 
 in her chamber, and before every one ; not in secret or 
 with closed doors. Bussy is a person of quality and your 
 brother's first gentleman-in-waiting ! What is there 
 to complain of in this ? Do you know anything further 
 concerning it ? By a calumny, at Lyons, you made me 
 offer her (Marguerite) a very great affront, which I very 
 much fear that she will resent all her life." 
 
 The King, continues Marguerite, was much dis- 
 concerted. " Madame," said he, " I only speak of this 
 after others." " Who are those others, my son ? " 
 replied the Queen-Mother. " They are people who wish 
 to set you at variance with all your relatives." 
 
 " The King, having taken his departure," continues 
 the princess, " she repeated everything to me, and said : 
 
 ^ Elder brother of Henri II., who died August lo, 1533. 
 * Marguerite de Valois, Duchess of Savoy, sister of Fran9ois I. 
 
 166 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 * You were born in an evil day ' ; and calling Madame 
 de Dampierre, she fell to conversing with her about the 
 pleasant liberty of action which they enjoyed in their 
 time, without being, like us, subjected to slander." 
 
 True to the role which she assumes throughout her 
 Mimoires, that of a cruelly maligned woman. Marguerite 
 has endeavoured to remove from the minds of her 
 readers any suspicion that Du Guast's accusation might 
 have had a basis of truth ; and it is difficult not to admire 
 the adroitness with which she places her own apology 
 in her mother's mouth. However, she speaks of Bussy 
 in terms too passionate, and takes his part with too much 
 warmth for her protestations of innocence to be very 
 readily accepted. " She is no longer mistress of her 
 pen, and one seems to feel by the extravagance of her 
 praises that her heart overflows." ^ " There was not one 
 of his sex and quality in this century," she writes, " who 
 was his equal in valour, renown, grace, and understanding ; 
 so much so that there were some who maintained that, 
 if one were to believe, like certain philosophers, in the 
 transmigration of souls, no doubt could exist that the 
 soul of your gallant brother Hardelay animated him."^ 
 While, elsewhere, she declares that he was " born to be 
 the terror of his enemies, the glory of his master, and the 
 hope of his friends." 
 
 Moreover, the testimony of the Queen of Navarre's 
 contemporaries is against her. Damp martin, in his 
 Fortune de la Cour, relates that, venturing to speak one 
 day to Bussy about his friendship with the princess, his 
 
 ' Sainte-Beuve, Causeries du Lundi, vol. vi. La Reine Marguerite, ses 
 metnoires et ses lettres. 
 
 * Jean de Bourdeille, brother of Brantome, to whom Marguerite's 
 Memoires are addressed. Brantome speaks of him in his Eloge dcs 
 
 hommes tlhstres Jran^ois, 
 
 167 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 words " affected him and caused him to blush a little, 
 because he knew that he was something to her." And 
 Brantome, the common friend of Bussy and Marguerite, 
 and the latter's most devoted admirer, says that she aban- 
 doned one of her lovers " to accord her favours to a young 
 nobleman, brave and valliant, who bore on the point of 
 his sword the honour of his lady, without any one daring 
 to touch it." 
 
 This allusion, very justly observes M. Charles Merki, 
 is sufficiently clear, and, after it, when one remembers 
 the predilections of the writer, further evidence becomes 
 superfluous.^ And we, therefore, fear that the efforts 
 of Marguerite's apologist, M. de Saint-Poncy, to prove 
 that the princess was Bussy's mistress only in the poetic 
 sense of the term are so much labour lost.^ 
 
 Foiled in his design to injure Marguerite, and fearing 
 that he might be called upon to answer to her lover for 
 his temerity, Du Guast, with the full approval of the 
 King, now resolved to get rid of Bussy, according to the 
 fashion of those days, not, of course, in fair fight, seeing 
 that he would have stood but a poor chance had he 
 ventured to measure swords with that doughty champion, 
 but by means of an ambuscade. Circumstances favoured 
 him, since Bussy — a host in himself — was for the time 
 being hors de combat, suffering from a wound in his 
 sword-arm, which he had received in a duel with Saint- 
 Phal, one of Henri III.'s mignons. Du Guast, who was 
 colonel of the King's guards, posted, one night, a number 
 of his men in a street through which his enemy must pass, 
 on his way from the Louvre to his lodging in the Rue de 
 Crenelle ; who, when Bussy appeared, accompanied 
 
 ^ La Reine Mar got et la fin des Valois, p. 1 24. 
 2 Marguerite de Valois, i. 300-302. 
 168 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 by only some fifteen or twenty followers, discharged a 
 volley of arquebus and pistol-shots, " sufficient to 
 scatter a whole regiment," and then hurled themselves 
 upon him. A desperate hand-to-hand fight ensued, 
 in which one unfortunate gentleman, who, owing to the 
 fact that he, like Bussy, carried his arm in a sling, was 
 mistaken for him in the darkness, fell covered with 
 wounds. Bussy himself escaped unhurt, by stepping 
 through a door, which, by good fortune, had been left 
 ajar, and closing it in the face of his adversaries. 
 
 However, the news of the affray was carried to the 
 Louvre, by an Italian gentleman in Alen^on's service, 
 who rushed, all covered with blood, into the palace, 
 crying out that Bussy was being assassinated. Alen^on, 
 who had retired for the night, immediately sprang out 
 of bed, threw on his clothes, and, sword in hand, was about 
 to run to his favourite's assistance, when he was stopped 
 by Marguerite and the Queen-Mother, who besought 
 him not to expose himself to danger, pointing out that 
 the affair had very probably been concerted by his 
 enemies, for the express purpose of drawing him from 
 the Louvre and assassinating him under cover of the 
 darkness. Their prayers and remonstrances ultimately 
 prevailed, and Monsieur returned to his apartments, 
 though, fearing lest he might change his mind, Catherine 
 sent orders to the porters on no account to open the 
 palace gates. An hour or two later. Marguerite and her 
 brother learned, to their intense relief, that Bussy was 
 safe, and, the following morning, their hero presented 
 himself at the Louvre, " with as gallant and gay a de- 
 meanour," writes the princess, "as if the attack upon 
 him had been merely a passage of arms for his amusement." 
 
 Alen^on, however, was none the less determined to 
 
 169 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 take vengeance for the affront which, he considered* 
 had been offered him, " in seeking to deprive him of 
 as valliant and worthy a servant as ever prince of his 
 quality had known." The King was equally determined 
 to protect the offenders, and, urged on by Du Guast 
 declared that Bussy had brought all the trouble upon 
 himself by his overbearing and quarrelsome behaviour, 
 and swore that he would no longer tolerate such a 
 ruffianly brawler at his Court. In the end, Catherine, 
 fearing an open rupture between her sons, persuaded 
 Alen^on to advise his favourite to withdraw for a while 
 from Paris and the Court. The duke reluctantly con- 
 sented and, one fine morning, Bussy was escorted by a 
 troupe of his friends and admirers to the Porte Saint- 
 Antoine, and retired to his government of Anjou, where 
 he remained until after the " Peace of Monsieur.'''' 
 
 Marguerite was naturally much incensed by Bussy's 
 banishment, and her chagrin was accentuated by fresh 
 difficulties with her husband, who took offence at her 
 indiscreet championship of the exiled gallant. However, 
 they were momentarily reconciled, when the Queen came 
 to his assistance one night, " when he was seized with a 
 very serious indisposition, the result, I believe, of his 
 amorous excesses {Qui lui venoit, comme je crois, d^excez 
 qu'il avoit faits avec les femmes)."^ This pleased him 
 so much, she tells us, that he praised her to every one, 
 declaring that, but for her timelyjsuccour, he would 
 certainly have died. 
 
 Taking advantage of this change in his disposition 
 towards her, Marguerite succeeded in bringing about a 
 better understandinglbetween Henri and Alen^on, who 
 were beginning to suspect that the fascinating Madame 
 
 * Memoires et lettres de Marguerite de Va/ois (edit. Guessard). 
 
 170 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 de Sauve had been deceiving them both. The raf- 
 frochement between the two princes alarmed Du Guast, 
 who, " recognising that she (Marguerite) was the cause of 
 it, and that she acted as a kind of unguent, such as exists 
 in all natural objects, and which joins and cements their 
 severed parts," advised Henri III. to induce the King 
 of Navarre to dismiss Mile, de Thorigny,^ his consort's 
 favourite maid-of-honour, on the ground that she had 
 assisted her mistress in her intrigue with Bussy. As 
 Du Guast had, of course, foreseen, a violent quarrel be- 
 tween the young couple followed ; and Marguerite's ex- 
 asperation against her husband reached such a pitch that 
 she refused to live with him any longer as his wife, or 
 even to speak to him. 
 
 * Gillone Govion de Matignon, daughter of Jacques de Matignon, 
 Comte de Thorigny, SWarechal de France. She married, en premtires nocesy 
 Pierre d'Harcourt, seigneur de Beuvron, and, after his death, the Comte 
 de Nermont. 
 
 171 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 Irksome position of Henri of Navarre and Alen9on at Court 
 — Flight oi ^Monsieur — Fury of the King on learning of his 
 brother's escape — The Queen-Mother leaves Paris to negotiate 
 with Alen9on — Serious position of affairs — Henri III. vents 
 his anger upon Marguerite and causes her to be placed under 
 arrest in her own apartments — Attempt of Du Guast against 
 the life of Mile, de Thorigny — Assassination of Du Guast by 
 the Baron de Viteaux — Question of Marguerite's responsi- 
 bility for this crime considered — Escape of the King of 
 Navarre — Marguerite again subjected to a rigorous confine- 
 ment — Henri III. compelled to treat with the rebels — 
 Alen9on refuses to negotiate until his sister is set at liberty — 
 The Queen of Navarre, at the request of the King and Cath- 
 erine, accompanies the latter to confer with the leaders of the 
 insurrection — The Peace of Beaulieu ("Peace of Monsieur") 
 — Marguerite returns to Paris. 
 
 In the meanwhile, the position of Henri of Navarre 
 and Alen^on at Court had become even more irksome 
 than it had been during the preceding reign. Although 
 nominally at liberty, they were still subjected to the 
 closest and most vexatious surveillance. Navarre saw 
 his hereditary States a prey to disorder, his authority 
 declining, and his orders ignored by his subjects, who 
 considered themselves absolved from obedience to a 
 ruler who was little better than a prisoner ; from his 
 kingdom he received scarcely anything. His other fiefs 
 of the Armagnac, Perigord, Rouergue, Foix, and the 
 Limousin were ravaged by war and brought him but a 
 
 >7* 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 meagre revenue. As for his salary as Governor of 
 Guienne, his pensions and those of his wife, these had 
 been for some time past in arrears ; and Du Guast took 
 care that his requests for payment should be met hy 
 specious excuses or mortifying refusals, 
 
 Alen^on was in no better case. The revenues of his 
 appanage were insufficient to enable him to maintain the 
 dignity of his position, and he was deeply in debt. His 
 brother treated him with coldness and contempt ; while 
 his friends found themselves threatened with disgrace, 
 and were continually having quarrels thrust upon them 
 by the insolent favourites of the King. 
 
 Under stress of their common grievances, the two 
 princes agreed to forget their differences, and resumed 
 their projects of escape. This time success rewarded 
 their efforts. On September 15, 1575, Alengon, muffled 
 in his cloak,^ left the Louvre, about six o'clock in the 
 evening, followed by a single gentleman, and made his 
 way to the Porte Saint-Honore. Here Simier, his Master 
 of the Wardrobe, was awaiting him with a coach. Mon- 
 sieur entered it, and was driven to Meudon, where 
 Guitry, the Huguenot leader whose attempt to effect 
 his liberation eighteen months before had miscarried, 
 joined him with a body of cavalry. The fugitive prince 
 left his coach, mounted a horse, and rode to Dreux, 
 one of the towns of his appanage, which had been selected 
 as the rendezvous of his partisans.^ 
 
 Great was the consternation at the Louvre when it 
 
 ^ D'Aubigne relates that, before setting out, he had put on the doublet 
 which La Mole had worn on the day of his execution, swearing to wear 
 it in the day of battle, and not to lay it aside until he had avenged his 
 ill-fated favourite. 
 
 2 De Thou gives a different account of Alen9on's escape, but that of 
 Marguerite, which we have followed, is to be preferred. The princess 
 
 173 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 became known that Monsieur had fled from Paris. " His 
 absence," writes Marguerite, " was not remarked until 
 nine o'clock in the evening, when the King and the 
 Queen my mother inquired of me, why he had not supped 
 with them, and whether he were ill. I told them that 
 I had not seen him since dinner-time. They sent to his 
 chamber to ascertain what he was doing, but were in- 
 formed that he was not there. They gave orders that 
 search should be made for him in all the ladies' apart- 
 ments which he was in the habit of frequenting. He 
 was sought for all over the palace and all over the town, 
 but was not to be found. The alarm increased ; the 
 King flew into a passion, stormed, threatened, sent to 
 summon all the princes and nobles of the Court, and 
 ordered them to take horse and bring him back, alive 
 or dead, declaring that he had gone to disturb his realm 
 and to make war upon him, and that he would teach 
 him the folly he was committing in attacking a King 
 as powerful as himself. . . . Some accepted this com- 
 mission,^ and prepared to mount their horses. They 
 were unable, however, to be in readiness to start before 
 daybreak, for which reason they failed to overtake my 
 brother, and were obliged to return, not being equipped 
 for war." 
 
 From Dreux, Alen^on issued a proclamation, " based," 
 remarks L'Estoile, " as they all are, on the preservation 
 and re-establishment of the laws and statutes of the 
 realm," which greatly perturbed the King and the 
 Court. The Queen-Mother offered to endeavour to 
 bring back the fugitive, and, on September 21, she left 
 
 was in her brother's confidence and, therefore, better informed. More- 
 over, her version of the affair is confirmed by L'Estoile. 
 * But others, like the Due de Montpensier, curtly refused. 
 
 174 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 Paris, accompanied by the Cardinal de Bourbon and the 
 Bishop of Mende. But Monsieur^ warned that Nevers 
 and Matignon were assembling troops to take the field 
 against him, did not await her arrival, but withdrew into 
 Touraine ; and it was not until October 5 that Catherine 
 contrived to overtake him at Chambourg. The prince, 
 however, refused to negotiate, until the two marshals, 
 Montmorency and Cosse, who were still in the Bastille, 
 had been released ; and Henri III. was compelled to set 
 them at liberty and beg them to use their influence in 
 favour of peace. Both the King and Catherine were 
 thoroughly alarmed at the turn which events were taking ; 
 for the escape of Alen^on had been the signal for the 
 ' Politiques " and Huguenots to commence a vigorously 
 offensive warfare. Thore, the youngest of the Mont- 
 morency brothers, had advanced into Champagne, at 
 the head of 5000 Germans, who were only the advance- 
 guard of a large force of the dreaded Reiters, which 
 Conde had been for some time past employed in raising ; 
 d'Amville, in Languedoc, was preparing to support 
 Alengon with 14,000 men ; while John Casimir, brother 
 of the Elector Palatine, was threatening the Three 
 Bishoprics. The defeat of Thore, by Guise, at Dormans, 
 on October 11, in which engagement the duke received' 
 the wound in the face which earned him, like his cele- 
 brated father, the name of " le Balafre,^'' checked the 
 advance of the Germans. But the Huguenots captured 
 Issoire, and the King was glad to purchase a truce of six 
 months, at Champigny, by surrendering to his brother 
 the towns of Angouldme, Niort, Saumur, Bourges, and La 
 Charite, as pledges of his good faith (November 21, 1575). 
 
 At the Court, meanwhile, poor Marguerite, overcome 
 
 175 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 by anxiety on her brother's account and by fear lest the 
 King should vent his resentment upon her, had fallen 
 into a violent fever, which confined her to her bed for 
 some days. Her apprehensions, as regarded herself, 
 were fully justified, for when she reappeared, Henri HI., 
 who, notwithstanding her protestations of innocence, 
 entertained no doubt that she had been an accomplice 
 of Alencjon's flight, overwhelmed her with threats and 
 reproaches. " He was so inflamed against me," she 
 writes, " that, had he not been restrained by the Queen 
 my mother, I believe that his rage would have led him 
 to perpetrate some cruelty against me, to the endangering 
 of my life." The cautious Catherine pointed out to her 
 infuriated son that ere long they might be glad to avail 
 themselves of the princess's good offices, " for that, 
 as prudence enjoined that we ought to live with our 
 friends as though they might one day become our 
 enemies, so also did she ordain that when the ties of 
 affection were severed, we should behave to our enemies 
 as though they might one day become our friends." 
 
 This judicious counsel prevented the King from taking 
 any violent measures against his sister ; but he ordered 
 her to be placed under arrest in her own apartments,^ 
 and strictly prohibited every one from visiting or holding 
 any communication with her ; guards being posted before 
 her door to see that his orders were carried out. No one 
 
 1 In her Mimo'ireSy Marguerite places her imprisonment after the 
 escape of Henri of Navarre, which took place five months subsequent to 
 that of Alen9on, in February 1576. But, since she states, in another 
 passage, that it preceded the departure of the Queen-Mother for the 
 interview of Champigny and the death of Du Guast, of which we shall 
 presently speak, it is obvious, as her biographer M. de Saint-Poncy 
 points out, that either her memory is at fault, or she has knowingly 
 erred, through a desire to pose as the victim of conjugal devotion. 
 
 176 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 ventured to disobey, with the exception of the gallant 
 Crillon,* who braved all prohibitions and loss of favour, 
 and came several times to visit the captive princess, 
 " astonishing so much thereby the Cerberi who guarded 
 her door, that they did not venture either to address 
 him or to deny him entrance." 
 
 Not content with subjecting his sister to a rigorous 
 confinement, Henri, at the suggestion of the amiable 
 Du Guast, determined to take vengeance upon her in 
 other fashion. 
 
 We have spoken, in the preceding chapter, of a Mile, 
 de Thorigny, maid-of-honour to Marguerite, whom the 
 King had persuaded Henri of Navarre to dismiss from his 
 wife's service, on the ground that she had been an in- 
 termediary between the young Queen and Bussy. This 
 Mile, de Thorigny, after leaving the Court, had retired 
 to the country-house of one of her relatives, a certain 
 Sieur de Chastelas. But, one fine morning, soon after 
 the flight of Alen^on, a party of soldiers belonging to 
 Du Guast's regiment rode up to the chateau, and 
 informed the trembling damsel that they had orders 
 from his Majesty to convey her back to Paris. They then 
 seized and bound her, and locked her up in her room, 
 the while they devoted themselves to the congenial task 
 of pillaging the house and making merry with the contents 
 of the Sieur de Chastelas's cellar. 
 
 If we are to believe Marguerite, the soldiers had secret 
 instructions to drown the unfortunate young lady in an 
 adjoining stream ; but, however that may be, it is 
 tolerably certain that some very unpleasant fate awaited 
 
 * Louis de Berton des Balbes de Crillon, Knight of Malta, afterwards 
 one of the most celebrated captains of Henri IV. He was an intimate 
 friend of Bussy d'Amboise, whose life he had saved in Poland. 
 
 177 M 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 her. Happily for Mile, de Thorigny, just as her captors 
 were on the point of carrying her off, a body of horse, 
 on their way to join Alen^on's army, appeared upon the 
 scene, under the command of Avantigny, one of Mon- 
 sieur's chamberlains, promptly charged and scattered 
 Du Guast's troopers, and rescued the lady.^ 
 
 The attempt upon Mile, de Thorigny was the last of 
 Du Guast's exploits, as, shortly afterwards, his career 
 came to an abrupt and tragic termination. 
 
 The mignon had many enemies, but the most implacable 
 of all was a certain Guillaume du Prat, Baron de Viteaux, 
 younger brother of Nantouillet, Provost of Paris, who had 
 declined the hand of Mile, de Chateauneuf, Henri HI.'s 
 discarded mistress. This Viteaux, who was a notorious 
 brawler, had killed, in a duel, a gentleman named AUegre, 
 one of the King's favourites. The King would probably 
 have overlooked the offence ; but Du Guast, an intimate 
 friend of the ill-fated AUegre, gave him no peace until 
 he had disgraced and exiled Viteaux, who left Paris 
 vowing vengeance against the author of his punishment. 
 Nor were his threats idle ones. Towards the end of 
 October 1575, he returned secretly to Paris, accom- 
 panied by some trusty retainers, concealed himself in 
 the Convent des Augustins, and sent his servants to gather 
 information concerning the movements of his enemy. 
 
 Du Guast, as a rule, was far from an easy person to 
 approach with any hostile intent, since, aware of the hatred 
 of which he was the object, it was his practice to go about 
 guarded by some fifteen or twenty of the men of his 
 regiment, who never left him during the day, and at 
 night posted themselves around his lodging. However, 
 he happened, just at that time, to be carrying on an 
 
 ' Memohes et lettres de Marguerite de Valois (edit. Guessard). 
 
 178 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 intrigue with a Madame d'Estrees, who resided in the 
 Faubourg Saint-Germain, and, in order to facilitate 
 their intercourse, had rented a small house adjoining 
 that of his mistress and communicating with it. More- 
 over, since the lady set rather more store by her reputa- 
 tion than was customary in those days, and the sight of 
 Du Guast's tall guardsmen on duty outside the house 
 could not fail to arouse gossip in the neighbourhood, 
 he confined his following on the nights when he visited 
 the Faubourg Saint-Germain to two or three confidential 
 servants. 
 
 Viteaux, duly informed of all this, laid his plans with 
 secrecy and promptitude. On All Saints' Eve (Novem- ^ 
 ber I, 1575), Du Guast, according to his habit, was read- 
 ing in bed — ^like so many men of pleasure in the sixteenth 
 century, the favourite made some pretence of culture — 
 when the door was flung open, and Viteaux, followed by 
 two hravos, brothers of the name of Boucicaux, who, 
 on account of their courage and ferocity, he called " his 
 lions," rushed into the room. By some means, they had 
 succeeded in gaining admission to the house, and had 
 poniarded the servants before they had had time to give 
 the alarm. 
 
 Snatching up a sword, which stood beside his pillow, 
 Du Guast attempted to defend himself ; but the combat 
 was an unequal one, and in a few moments he was des- 
 patched. Throwing a coverlet over the corpse, Viteaux 
 passed into the adjoining house, where he found Madame 
 d'Estrees, who had not yet retired to rest, and, with 
 revolting cruelty, wiped his sword, wet with the blood of 
 her lover, upon the distracted woman's dress. Then, 
 since it was midnight, and the gates were closed, he and 
 his accomplices made for the city walls, down which they 
 
 179 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 lowered themselves, by means of a rope, mounted horses 
 which were awaiting them, and escaped to the army of 
 Alen^on. 
 
 We have dwelt upon this tragic affair at greater length 
 than it perhaps deserves, since it has been made the 
 occasion of a very serious charge against Marguerite de 
 Valois. Not only the scurrilous pamphleteers of the 
 time, but grave historians, like de Thou and Mezeray, 
 and, after them, a crowd of other writers, do^not hesitate 
 to assert or to hint that Viteaux did not act on his own 
 Initiative, but was the instrument of a more important 
 quarrel. With a wealth of detail, which does infinite 
 credit to their imaginative faculties, picturesque historians 
 relate how the young Queen of Navarre, having endured 
 the persecutions of Du Guast until her patience was 
 exhausted, resolved upon a sure method of putting an 
 end to them for ever ; how, having been informed that 
 the injured Viteaux was in hiding in Paris, she visited 
 him in his cloistral retreat, under cover of night, and, 
 by a pathetic relation of the wrongs she had suffered at 
 the hands of their common enemy, roused him to the 
 last pitch of fury. And that inimitable embroiderer of 
 historical fact, Michelet, adds that, the better to assure 
 her vengeance, she appealed to other passions, and sur- 
 rendered herself to the embraces of the bravo. 
 
 Now, what truth, if any, is there in all this ? None 
 whatever ! De Thou, the most reliable witness, does 
 not actually name Marguerite ; he merely says that a 
 woman of the highest rank went to seek Viteaux in his 
 hiding-place. It is by no means certain, as so many 
 later writers assume, that he intended to indicate the 
 young Queen ; for Du Guast's malignant tongue had 
 injured more than one lady of the highest rank. In 
 
 1 80 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 L'Estoile's account of the affair, there is not a word 
 about Marguerite ; while Brantome refuses to admit 
 that she had any connection with the crime. " Although 
 he [Du Guast] had greatly injured her," he writes, 
 ** she did not render him the like, nor avenge herself. 
 It is true that, when he was killed, and they came to 
 announce it to her, she merely said : ' I am very vexed 
 that I am not quite cured, in order to have the joy of 
 celebrating his death.' But, moreover, she was so good, 
 that when any one humbled himself before her, in order 
 to seek her pardon and favour, she forgave and pardoned 
 everything, after the fashion of the generosity of the 
 lion, who never harms one who humbles himself." 
 
 However, as M. de Saint-Poncy points out. Marguerite 
 has really no need of the testimony of any chronicler 
 in her favour, since she would have been able to prove, 
 had she been required, the most incontestable of alibis. 
 When the murder was planned and executed, she was 
 in a position which made it impossible for her to visit 
 the Augustine convent or any other place, since she was 
 at that time a close prisoner in her apartments in the 
 Louvre, with guards stationed at her door to prevent 
 her leaving them or even receiving visitors. It was, 
 indeed, just at the moment of Du Guast's death that 
 her captivity was the most rigorous, nor was it relaxed 
 until after the truce signed at Champigny on November 
 21, 1575, three weeks later. Further, from the words ^ 
 which Brantome attributes to her, it is clear that she 
 must have been ill and confined to her room, and probably 
 to her bed, by a rather slow convalescence. " I am 
 very vexed that I am not quite cured," she says, *' in 
 order to have the joy of celebrating his death " ; a very 
 reprehensible speech no doubt, but also very natural, 
 
 181 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 in the mouth of a young woman, who suddenly learns 
 that she has no longer to fear the most cruel of her 
 enemies/ 
 
 Marguerite is then innocent of the crime imputed to 
 her, though it is not at all improbable that her brother 
 and ally Alen^on, who had a long score of his own against 
 M. du Guast, had been the instigator of the deed. 
 L'Estoile tells us that it was the general belief in Paris 
 that the murder had been committed " with his full 
 consent and by his orders, inasmuch as this proud and 
 audacious mignon had braved Monsieur, even to the 
 length of one day passing him in the Rue Saint-Antoine 
 without saluting him, or even pretending to know him, 
 and had several times declared that he recognised only 
 the King, and that, when the latter should order him to 
 kill his own brother, he would do it." And Mongez 
 writes : " That which completes this conviction, is the 
 refusal addressed to Monsieur by M. de Ruffec, Governor 
 of Angoul^me. This town had been given to the duke 
 for a surety, and when he pressed Ruffec to surrender 
 it, the latter excused himself, on the plea that, since he 
 had always been devoted to the service of the King, and, 
 in consequence, the enemy of Monsieur, he feared the 
 fate of Du Guast, whom his Majesty's favour had not 
 been able to protect against his (Alen^on's) blows. "^ 
 
 ^ Comte Leo de Saint-Poncy, Marguerite de Valois, i. 345. In her 
 Memoiresy Marguerite makes no attempt to conceal her detestation of 
 ** this instrument of hatred and dissension," who, she says, was " killed 
 by a judgment of God, as he was following a cure, his body being 
 ruined by all kinds of abominations and given over to the corruption 
 which had long possessed it, when his soul became the prey of the 
 demons to whom he had done homage by magic and all manner of 
 wickedness." 
 
 " Hist aire de Marguerite de Valois. 
 
 182 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 For the rest, Du Guast was well served ; he was one 
 of the worst of the mignons of Henri III., and his attacks 
 upon women — for not only did he wage war upon 
 Marguerite, but even ventured to traduce and persecute 
 the innocent and inoffensive Queen Louise — shocked 
 and disgusted all who retained a vestige of chivalrous 
 feeling. The manner of his death, too, was singularly- 
 appropriate, since he had been one of the most pitiless 
 of the assassins of the St. Bartholomew. "As he had 
 surprised some in their beds," writes L'Estoile — " of 
 which he boasted — so he himself was surprised and 
 slain." 
 
 After the death of Du Guast and the truce of Cham- 
 pigny, the Queen of Navarre found her position more 
 tolerable. Alen9on had strongly protested against the 
 treatment to which his sister was being subjected, and 
 Catherine had not failed to represent to the King the 
 necessity of conciliating the duke by every means in 
 their power. Though Marguerite, therefore, still re- 
 mained under arrest, she was allowed a certain amount 
 of liberty. Nevertheless, her life was far from a pleasant 
 one, and soon the affairs of her husband came to aggravate 
 her situation. 
 
 Henri of Navarre, who both disliked and despised 
 Alen^on, though necessity had driven them into an 
 alliance, chafed to see him occupying a position which 
 he felt should be his, and waited impatiently for a chance 
 of escaping from the thraldom which he had now endured 
 for more than three years. Nevertheless, in order to 
 enable his friends to complete their preparations, he was 
 compelled to postpone his attempt until the end of 
 February 1576. In the meanwhile, he continued his 
 
 183 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 apparently careless and trivial life, and, by cleverly 
 feigning disapproval of Alengon's conduct, succeeded in 
 quieting Henri III.'s suspicions and securing greater 
 liberty. However, on February 4, as he was returning 
 from a hunting expedition in the Forest of Senlis, he 
 met his faithful equerry, Agrippa d'Aubigne, and two or 
 three other attendants galloping at full speed from Paris. 
 
 " Sire," cried d'Aubigne, " we are betrayed ; the King 
 knows all. The road to Paris leads to dishonour and 
 death ; those to life and glory are in the opposite direc- 
 tion." 
 
 " There is no need of so many words," replied 
 Henri, " the die is cast." 
 
 The young King was, as was customary, escorted by 
 two gentlemen, who were responsible to Henri HI. for 
 his safety. But them he dismissed, on some pretext 
 which they did not care to question, in face of the trucu- 
 lent attitude of d'Aubigne and his companions, and 
 then, turning his horse's head, made for Poissy, where 
 he crossed the Seine and reached the town of Alen^on 
 in safety. Here he stood sponsor at the christening, 
 according to Calvinistic ritual, of the child of one of his 
 adherents. As he entered the meeting-house, the con- 
 gregation were singing the 21st Psalm. " The King shall 
 rejoice in Thy strength, O Lord ; exceeding glad shall he 
 be of Thy salvation. Thou hast given him his heart's 
 desire." Hearing that the psalm had not been specially 
 chosen, he said that he welcomed it as a good omen.^ 
 
 It is related that until Henri crossed the Seine,^ he 
 
 1 Mr. p. F. Willert, " Henry of Navarre and the Huguenots in France," 
 p. 108. 
 
 * L'Estoile and the many writers who follow him name the Loire. 
 But this is an obvious error, since, in journeying from Paris to Alen9on, 
 Henri had not to cross the Loire. 
 
 184 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 maintained an absolute silence ; but the moment he 
 had left the river behind him, he gave a deep sigh of 
 relief, and, raising his eyes to Heaven, exclaimed : 
 " Praise be to God, who has delivered me ! They killed 
 my mother in Paris, the Admiral, and my best servants, 
 and desired nothing better than to treat me in the same 
 way, had not God preserved me. I will never return 
 there, unless I am dragged by force." Then, reverting 
 to his habitual gaiety of manner, he added : " I have 
 left in Paris only two things which I regret : the Mass 
 and my wife. The first I will make shift to do without ; 
 but the latter I cannot, and I shall be glad to see her 
 again." 
 
 From Alen^on, Henri proceeded to Saumur on the 
 Loire, where the Huguenot gentry of the neighbourhood 
 hastened to join him. 
 
 The flight of her husband brought upon the head of 
 the Queen of Navarre a renewal of Henri HI.'s resent- 
 ment, and she found herself once more subjected to a 
 rigorous confinement ; indeed, if we are to believe 
 Mongez, his Majesty was so incensed against his sister 
 that, but for Catherine's intervention, he would have 
 chastised her with his own royal hands.* But posterity 
 ought to regard Marguerite's captivity as a singular 
 piece of good fortune, since it was during those long, 
 lonely hours that she acquired, or rather regained, those 
 habits of serious study, which had been impossible amid 
 the feverish gaiety of the Court, and the result of which 
 may be traced in almost every page of her Memoires, 
 
 Meanwhile, the King and Catherine found themselves 
 
 confronted by a coalition which grew every day more 
 
 ^ Histoire de Marguerite de Valoh. 
 1 8s 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 threatening. Conde and John Casimir, at the head of 
 a formidable army of Reiters, invaded Burgundy, took 
 Dijon, crossed the Loire, near La Charite, and effected 
 a junction with the forces of Alen^on on the Bourbonnais. 
 In Gascony, several important places had fallen into the 
 hands of the Huguenots ; and while " the bravest and 
 most chivalrous in France " flocked to Alen^on's standard, 
 the royal troops were half-hearted and mutinous, and 
 many of the nobles flatly refused to march against 
 Monsieur, " dreading," says Marguerite, " to get their 
 fingers pinched between two stones." 
 
 Under these circumstances, Henri HL had no choice 
 but to make overtures of peace to his rebellious brother, 
 and to Catherine once more fell the thankless task of 
 conducting the negotiations. Before leaving Paris, she 
 pointed out to the King that it would be advisable to 
 take Marguerite with her ; but Henri would not consent 
 to part with so valuable a hostage, and she was compelled 
 to leave her in his hands. However, as she had probably 
 foreseen, Alen^on declined to treat until his sister was 
 set at liberty. " The Queen my mother," writes Mar- 
 guerite, " having received this reply, returned and 
 informed the King of what my brother had said, adding 
 that it was necessary, if he desired peace, that she should 
 go back again, but that, if she went without me, her 
 journey would be again useless. She said, further, that, 
 if she took me with her, without having first conciliated 
 me, I should injure rather than serve her cause, and that 
 it was even to be feared that she might experience some 
 difficulty in persuading me to return, and that I might 
 wish to rejoin the King my husband." 
 
 Henri HL, compelled to admit the force of his mother's 
 reasoning, consented to what she proposed. Catherine 
 
 i86 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 at once sent for Marguerite, and requested her assistance 
 to induce Monsieur to come to terms with the Court, 
 begging her " not to allow the affront which she had 
 received to inspire her with sentiments of vengeance 
 rather than with a desire for peace, as the King was pre- 
 pared to make her every reparation in his power." Then 
 Henri himself entered and made his sister all kinds of 
 pretty speeches ; and the interview terminated by 
 Marguerite magnanimously declaring that she was pre- 
 pared to " sacrifice herself," for the welfare of her family 
 and the State. 
 
 Accompanied by the Queen of Navarre and her 
 " escadron volant^'' Catherine set out for the Chateau 
 of Chastenay, near Sens, the rendezvous she and Alen^on 
 had agreed upon. " My brother," resumes Marguerite, 
 " came thither, followed by the principal nobles and 
 princes of his army, both Catholic and Huguenot, and 
 the Duke Casimir, and Colonel Poux, who had brought 
 with him six thousand Reiters. The conditions of peace 
 were here discussed for several days, a good many disputes 
 arising respecting the articles, chiefly about those which 
 concerned * the Religion.' " ^ 
 
 The terms, which were finally agreed upon at Beau- 
 lieu (May 1576), were a complete triumph for the rebels, 
 and clearly prove the desperate straits to which the 
 insurrection had reduced Henri HI. The Protestants 
 secured concessions greater than any which they had 
 hitherto obtained. They were granted complete freedom 
 of worship throughout the kingdom, except in Paris ; 
 the establishment of courts in all the Parlements com- 
 posed of an equal number of judges of both religions 
 and restoration to all their honours and offices ; while 
 
 * Memoires et lettres de Marguerite de Valois (edit. Giiessard). 
 
 187 
 
 y 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 the Massacre of Saint-Bartholomew was formally dis- 
 avowed and the property of Coligny and other prominent 
 victims restored to their heirs,^ and eight fortresses handed 
 over to them, as security for the due observance of the 
 treaty. Alen^on received the addition to his appanage 
 of the duchies of Anjou, Berry, Touraine, and Maine, 
 and other lordships, which raised his revenue to 400,000 
 6cus. He now assumed the title of Due d' Anjou, which 
 had been that of Henri HI. before his accession to the 
 throne, and by which we must henceforth refer to him. 
 Henri of Navarre was confirmed in his government of 
 Guienne and Conde in that of Picardy. Finally, a 
 large sum was paid to John Casimir for the wages of his 
 Reiters, and to compensate him for the trouble and 
 expense of his invasion of France, besides which he was 
 granted an annual pension of 40,000 livres, in order to 
 secure his friendship. 
 
 Monsieur had advised his sister to allow herself to be 
 included in the treaty, and to demand the assignment 
 of her marriage-portion in lands. But Catherine begged 
 her not to insist on this, assuring her that she could 
 obtain from the King whatever she desired ; and Mar- 
 guerite very unwisely yielded, " preferring to owe what 
 she might receive from the King and the Queen her 
 mother to their good-will alone, in the belief that it 
 would be thus more permanently assured to her." Nor 
 did she succeed in obtaining permission to join her 
 husband, who, so soon as peace was concluded, had 
 written, " inviting her to demand her conge.''^ Catherine 
 pleaded, with tears in her eyes, that she had pledged her 
 
 ^ The execution of Montgommery was also declared to have been a 
 miscarriage of justice, and, on the demand of AIen9on, that of La M61e 
 and Coconnas as well. 
 
 i«8 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 word to the King to bring her daughter back to Paris, 
 and that, if Marguerite refused to return, his Majesty- 
 would imagine that she had induced her to rejoin her 
 husband, and that she (the Queen-Mother) would be 
 ruined. She added that she need only remain at Court 
 until Monsieur arrived, when she would immediately 
 obtain permission for her to depart. And so very re- 
 luctantly the Queen of Navarre returned to Paris. 
 
 189 
 
\ 
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 Irritation aroused in the ultra-Catholic party by the Treaty of 
 Beaulieu — Formation of the League — Alarm of Henri III., 
 who, to checkmate the Guises, resolves to place himself at its 
 head — The King of Navarre demands that his wife shall be 
 permitted to return to him — And sends the Vicomte de Duras 
 to conduct her to B6arn — Henri III. promises to send her 
 back, but breaks his word — The States-General meets at Blois 
 — The King signs the roll of the League and compels all the 
 principal persons of the Court to do likewise — The Estates 
 vote in favour of restoring the unity of the faith by force, but 
 refuse to vote the supplies required to carry on an effective 
 war — The King of Navarre sends Genissac to Blois to de- 
 mand his wife — Henri III., in spite of the reproaches of 
 Marguerite, refuses to allow her to depart — Unpleasant posi- 
 tion of the princess at Court — Intrigues of Mondoucet in 
 Flanders — Under the pretext of taking the waters of Spa, it 
 is decided that Marguerite shall proceed to Flanders, to pave 
 the way for Anjou's enterprise. 
 
 The Protestants would have been well advised, had they 
 been satisfied with less favourable terms than they had 
 demanded and obtained at the " Peace of Monsieur.''^ 
 The concessions granted them aroused, as had been the 
 case after the Treaty of Saint-Germain, the greatest 
 irritation among the more zealous Catholics, who regarded 
 them in the light of a betrayal of their faith. The 
 Parlement of Paris refused to register the edict, and the 
 King had to hold a Bed of Justice to force it to 
 confirm it. The clergy of Notre-Dame declined to allow 
 
 190 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 the cathedral choir to sing the 7e Deum, which was 
 eventually chanted by the choristers of Henri III.'s 
 private chapel, in the presence of only those officials of 
 the Court, the municipality, and the Parlement whose 
 duties compelled them to attend. The illuminations 
 at the H6tel-de-Ville were witnessed by a mere handful 
 of spectators ; and the reading of the edict by the 
 Herald-at-Arms in the court of the Louvre was listened 
 to in sullen silence, broken here and there by angry 
 murmurs. 
 
 Soon it became apparent that it would be impossible 
 to enforce the conditions of the peace. The Protestants 
 in various parts of the country were attacked, and their 
 worship disturbed by the populace, and, since the per- 
 sistent hostility of the Parlements prevented the estab- 
 lishment of the mixed tribunals, they were unable to 
 obtain redress. Jacques d'Humi^res, the Governor of 
 Peronne, a friend of the Guises and a bitter enemy of 
 the Montmorencies, refused to deliver that fortress to 
 Conde, when, as Governor of Picardy, the prince de- '-^^ 
 manded to be placed in possession of it, and formed 
 for his support a confederacy between the partisans of 
 the Guises and the bigoted Catholics of the province. 
 The movement spread with astonishing rapidity, espe- 
 cially among the fanatical population of Paris, and soon 
 grew into a general " Holy League," or association of 
 the extreme Catholic party throughout the kingdom. 
 
 The idea of the League was not new. It had been 
 conceived by the Cardinal de Lorraine at the time of the 
 Council of Trent, and the young Due de Guise had made 
 a tentative attempt to carry out his uncle's scheme, in 
 1568, in his government of Champagne. But it remained 
 in a state of conception until 1576, when the alarm and 
 
 lOI 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 resentment of the bigoted Catholics, at the growth of 
 Protestantism and the impotence of the King to arrest 
 its progress, produced a vast association, which soon came 
 to be regarded by both priests and people as the chief 
 bulwark of the ancient faith. 
 
 Henri III., in consenting to the demands of the Hugue- 
 nots, had probably counted on the reaction which his 
 concessions would provoke, and was not ill-pleased at 
 seeing " the advantages which had been obtained by 
 force and conceded with reluctance," rendered futile. 
 But the formation of the League — ^whose members were 
 binding themselves to regard as enemies all who refused 
 to join it, to defend each other against any assailant, 
 whoever he might he, and to endeavour to compass the 
 objects of the association against no matter what opposition 
 — alarmed him greatly, and, after an unsuccessful attempt 
 to obtain a promise from the Guises that they would 
 form no association calculated to lead to a breach of the 
 recent peace, he decided that the only course open to 
 him was to place himself at its head. This decision 
 rendered a new war inevitable. 
 
 Henri of Navarre had fared no better in his govern- 
 ment of Guienne than had his cousin Conde in Picardy ; 
 the gates of Bordeaux were closed against him, and he 
 soon found that his authority throughout the rest of the 
 province was little more than nominal. This effectually 
 removed any illusion which he might have entertained 
 as to the solidity of the recent treaty, and, instead of 
 laying down his arms, he began to make active prepara- 
 tions for war. Nevertheless, it did not prevent him 
 addressing energetic protests to the King in regard 
 to the treatment to which he had been subjected at 
 
 192 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 Bordeaux ; while, at the same time, he demanded that his 
 wife and his sister, Catherine de Bourbon, who, like 
 her brother, had been detained in a kind of semi-cap- 
 tivity at the Court since the St. Bartholomew, should 
 be given up to him. His desire to get possession of his 
 wife proves the importance which he attached to her 
 presence in his camp ; but, though Catherine de Bourbon 
 was sent back, Henri HI., on one pretext or another, 
 continued to keep Marguerite in Paris. 
 
 As time went on, the King of Navarre grew more 
 insistent, and, towards the end of September, despatched 
 the Vicomte de Duras, one of his chamberlains, to Paris, 
 with a request that Henri HI. would give Marguerite 
 into his charge, in order that he might conduct her to 
 Beam. The princess, on her side, did not fail to second 
 Duras's efforts, for, though she had no particular desire 
 for her husband's society, to be Queen at Nerac or Pau 
 was to her mind an infinitely more pleasing prospect 
 than that of remaining as a hostage in Paris. " I earnestly 
 pressed the King to allow me to depart," she writes, 
 " there being no longer any reason for refusing me. 
 He replied, representing that it was his affection for me 
 and the knowledge of what an ornament I was to his 
 Court which made him desire to delay my departure as 
 long as possible, and that it was his intention to escort 
 me as far as Poitiers (the Court was then about to set out 
 for Blois, for the meeting of the States-General, which 
 had been one of the conditions of the Peace of Beaulieu) ; 
 and sent M. de Duras back with this promise. 
 
 As a matter of fact, Henri HI. had not the smallest 
 intention of allowing Marguerite to rejoin her husband 
 and carry with her into the camp of the enemy all the 
 prestige and influence which attached to her in her 
 
 193 N 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 quality of a Daughter of France ; and at the end of 
 November 1576, when the Estates met, the Queen of 
 Navarre found herself installed, with the rest of the 
 Royal Family, in the Chateau of Blois. 
 
 The day before the Estates opened, the King sum- 
 moned the Queen-Mother and some of his Council, 
 and, having explained to them the importance of 
 the League and the danger which it threatened to the 
 royal authority, particularly if the Guises were elected 
 its leaders, announced that " he had decided that the 
 only way of arresting this dangerous combination, was 
 to place himself at its head." He then, " to show his 
 zeal for religion and prevent the election of any other 
 leader," sent for the roll of the League, signed it himself, 
 as its chief, and summoning all the principal personages 
 of the Court, compelled every one, from his brother down- 
 wards, to follow his example.^ The selfish and treacher- 
 ous Anjou, after obtaining by the Peace of Beaulieu all 
 that he desired, had been at little pains to conceal his 
 dislike of his Protestant allies, and now deserted them 
 without the smallest compunction. 
 
 The League, aided by the whole influence of the 
 Court, had exerted itself to the utmost to terrorise the 
 elections, and the Huguenots and " Politiques" seeing 
 how matters were going, had held aloof, with the result 
 that when the Estates met, they were altogether un- 
 represented. Anticipating that measures fatal to their 
 interests would be passed, they wished to leave no pretext 
 for describing the States-General of Blois as a full and 
 free meeting of the representatives of the nation. In 
 acting thus, they undoubtedly committed a grave error, 
 since, notwithstanding their abstention and the terrorism 
 
 * Memoires et leltres de Marguerite de Valo'u (edit. Guessard). 
 
 194 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 of the League, it was only after long and acrimonious 
 debates and by a bare majority that the Third Estate 
 voted in favour of the rupture of the edict, and to deprive 
 the Protestants of all exercise of their religion, both in 
 public and private. But to wage war effectively money 
 was required, and, as the Estates absolutely declined 
 to sanction any further alienation of the Crown lands, 
 or, indeed, any other expedient for raising supplies, their 
 vote was rendered valueless. Accordingly, they were 
 dismissed by the King, who reproached them bitterly 
 with their parsimony, but was probably well pleased 
 at the check which the League had received.^ 
 
 A few days before the opening of the States-General 
 another emissary from the King of Navarre, in the 
 person of the Seigneur de Genissac,^ arrived at Blois, 
 to remind his Majesty that his promise to restore Mar- 
 guerite to her husband was still unfulfilled. But the 
 prince who had just made up his mind to violate a treaty, 
 was not likely to attach much importance to a mere 
 promise, and drove Genissac from his presence " with 
 harsh and threatening words, telling him that he had 
 given his sister to a Catholic, and not to a Huguenot, 
 and that if the King her husband desired her presence, 
 he had better turn Catholic again."^ 
 
 Informed by Genissac of the rebuff which he had 
 
 * Mr. P. F. Willert, " Henry of Navarre and the Huguenots in 
 France," p. 1 26. 
 
 2 Bertrand de Plerrebuffi^re, one of the most intrepid companions-in- 
 arms of Henri of Navarre. He figured, four years later, with Loignac, 
 as " second " in a singularly murderous duel between Charles de Gon- 
 taut-Biron and Claude d'Escars, Prince de Carency, who was assisted by 
 d'Estissac and La Bastide. Carency and both his seconds were killed. 
 
 * The King of Navarre had been publicly readmitted into the 
 Calvinistic communion in June 1576. 
 
 >95 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 received, Marguerite hastened to the Queen-Mother's 
 cabinet, where she found both Catherine and the King, 
 and reproached the latter bitterly with the deceit he 
 had practised upon her and his broken promise. " I 
 pointed out to him," she writes, " that I had not married 
 for my own pleasure, nor at my own desire ; that it 
 had been by the desire and authority of King Charles, 
 of the Queen my mother, and of himself ; but that, 
 since they had chosen my husband for me, they could 
 not prevent me sharing his fortune ; that I wished to go 
 to him, and that, if they did not permit me to do so, I 
 should effect my escape and depart as best I could, at 
 the risk of my life." 
 
 " Now is not the time, my sister," said the King, " to 
 importune me about this promise. I admit what you 
 say, but I have procrastinated with the object of refusing 
 it you altogether ; for, since the King of Navarre has 
 turned Huguenot again, I have never approved of your 
 going to him. What the Queen my mother and I are 
 doing, is for your good. I intend to make war on the 
 Huguenots and to exterminate this miserable religion, 
 which has done us so much evil ; and it would be un- 
 seemly that you, who are a Catholic and my sister, 
 should be in their hands, in the position of a hostage 
 from me. And who knows whether, in order to offer 
 me an irreparable insult, they might not wish to avenge 
 themselves for the harm I intend them, by taking your 
 life ? ■ No, no, you shall not go ; and if, as you say, 
 you attempt to escape, consider that you will have both 
 myself and the Queen my mother as your bitter foes, 
 and that we shall make you feel our enmity by every 
 means in our power." ^ 
 
 * Memoires et lettres de Marguerite de Valois (edit. Guessard). 
 
 196 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 The Queen of Navarre's position was now a most 
 unpleasant one. Although the refusal of the Estates 
 to vote supplies rendered any effective operations on 
 the part of the royal troops difficult, if not impossible, 
 hostilities began and were carried on with much ferocity 
 on both sides. Marguerite had the sorrow and morti- 
 fication of seeing her only allies, Anjou and Henri of 
 Navarre, waging war upon each other ; while she herself 
 was obliged to remain under the yoke of Henri HI. 
 and Catherine, in the midst of a Court where her husband 
 was proclaimed traitor and rebel, and where the King's 
 favourites lost no opportunity of exasperating their 
 master against him, and even ventured to propose schemes 
 for his assassination.^ 
 
 In order to escape from this intolerable situation, the 
 Queen took counsel with some of her friends, " to dis- 
 cover some pretext for withdrawing from the Court, 
 and, if possible, from the kingdom, until peace should 
 be concluded, either under colour of making a pilgrimage, 
 or paying a visit to one of her relatives." Among those 
 whom she consulted, was the Princesse de la Roche-sur- 
 Yon,^ who happened to be on the point of setting out 
 for Spa, to take the waters. Monsieur was also present, 
 and had brought with him Mondoucet, the French 
 representative in Flanders. 
 
 Mondoucet, who had but recently returned from a 
 residence of several years in the Netherlands, had estab- 
 
 ^ On one occasion, Loignac, who, twelve years later, took the leading 
 part in the assassination of Guise, proposed to go to Guienne, with ten 
 trusty followers, and assassinate the King of Navarre. His offer, how- 
 ever, was not accepted 
 
 2 Philippe de Montespedon, widow of Charles de Bourbon, Prince 
 de la Roche-sur-Yon, Due de Beaupreau, and mother of the Marquis de 
 Beaupreau, already mentioned by Marguerite (see p. 26 supra). 
 
 197 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 lished intimate relations with the leaders of the revo- 
 lutionary movement in the Catholic States, who had 
 charged him, " to make the King understand that their 
 hearts were entirely French, and that they were stretch- 
 ing out their arms towards him in welcome." Henri III., 
 however, what with the League on one side and the 
 Huguenots on the other, had too much on his hands at 
 that moment to meddle with the affairs of his neighbours, 
 and showed no desire to avail himself of the invitation. 
 Mondoucet, an indefatigable intriguer, thereupon ad- 
 dressed himself to Anjou, " who, being possessed of a 
 truly princely nature, cared only to engage in impor- 
 tant enterprises, being born to conquer rather than to 
 retain." The prospect of wresting the lost Burgundian 
 fiefs from the Spaniard, and ruling them in the name 
 of France, appealed strongly to that prince, who was as 
 meddlesome and ambitious as he was treacherous and 
 incapable, and who, having obtained all that he was ever 
 likely to get in France by the recent treaty, was already 
 beginning to cast about him for some fresh field for the 
 exercise of his talents. He had, therefore, readily 
 entered into Mondoucet's views, and it had been arranged 
 that the latter should enter his service, and, under the 
 pretext of escorting Madame de la Roche-sur-Yon to 
 Spa, return to Flanders and continue his intrigues. 
 
 The astute Mondoucet was not slow to perceive the 
 immense advantage which Anjou might derive from the 
 presence in Flanders of his beautiful and fascinating 
 sister, whose charms and winning manner, combined 
 with the prestige which surrounded her, might do more 
 in a week to pave the way for Monsieur's enterprise than 
 the diplomatist could effect in a year. When, therefore, 
 it was suggested that Marguerite should find some 
 
 198 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 excuse for quitting France until the war was over, he 
 turned to Anjou and said, in a low voice : "If, Monsieur, 
 the Queen of Navarre could feign some indisposition, 
 for which the waters of Spa, whither Madame de la 
 Roche-sur-Yon is bound, would be beneficial, it would 
 be extremely advantageous to your enterprise in Flan- 
 ders, where she would be able to strike an effective 
 blow." 
 
 Anjou was delighted with the idea and exclaimed : 
 ** O Queen, seek nothing further ! You must go to the 
 waters of Spa, whither the princess is going. I have 
 remarked that you once had an erysipelas upon the arm. 
 You must say that when the doctors ordered you these 
 waters, the season was not so suitable for them, but that 
 now is the proper time, and that you beg the King will 
 permit you to go to Spa." 
 
 Marguerite, on her side, asked nothing better than to 
 undertake the mission proposed to her. She was, as 
 we have seen, tenderly attached to her brother, who, 
 though repulsive both in appearance and character,* 
 seems to have possessed for her some unaccountable 
 attraction. Moreover, she had inherited the Valois 
 love of adventure, and not a little of her mother's fondness 
 
 ^ L'Estoile says that the duke's face had been so disfigured by small- 
 pox that he appeared to have two noses, and that after his treacherous 
 attempt to seize Antwerp, in 1584, the Flemings made the following 
 quatrain about him : 
 
 ** Flamans, ne soids etonnds 
 Si k Fran9ois voies deux nez, 
 Car par 6toit raison et usage, 
 Faut deux nez a double visage." 
 
 The Due de Bouillon tells us that previous to being attacked by the 
 small-pox, Anjou was an extremely good-looking youth, but the disease 
 transformed him into one of the ugliest men possible to behold. 
 
 199 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 for intrigue, and the enterprise was one which promised 
 an abundance of both. Greatly to her relief, Henri III, 
 and Catherine raised no obstacle in the way of her pro- 
 jected journey, though they must have had a shrewd 
 suspicion of what lay behind it. However, so long as 
 she did not rejoin her husband, neither of them cared 
 very much where she went, or how she employed her 
 time. As for Anjou and his ambitious projects, if he 
 chose to pursue chimeras and perhaps get a few years 
 in some Spanish fortress for his pains, that was his own 
 affair, and the diversion of his meddlesome activity into 
 some other realm than France might not be without its 
 advantages. For which reason, Henri HI. gave his 
 consent readily enough to his sister's departure, and 
 despatched a courier to Don Juan, who had lately suc- 
 ceeded Requescens as Governor of the Netherlands, 
 begging him to furnish the Queen of Navarre with the 
 passports she required to travel through Flanders, in 
 order to reach Spa, which was situated in the bishopric 
 of Liege. 
 
 aoo 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 The Queen of Navarre sets out for Flanders — Her suite — She 
 arrives at Cambrai, and seduces the commandant of the citadel 
 from his allegiance to his master — Her reception at Mons, 
 where she gains over the Comte and Comtesse de Lalain to 
 her brother's cause — Her meeting with Don Juan — Her stay 
 at Namur as the guest of the prince — She departs for Liege 
 and is in danger of being drowned, through an inundation of 
 the Meuse — Her impressions of Liege — She receives alarming 
 intelligence from Monsieur — She sets out on her return to 
 France. 
 
 The Queen of Navarre did not set out on her journey 
 immediately, but accompanied the Court to Chenon- 
 ceaux, where Henri III. established himself, in order to 
 be near Mayenne, who was laying siege to Brouage. At 
 Chenonceaux she remained until May 28, 1577, when, 
 after a final conference with Anjou, in regard to his 
 projects and " the service he required of her," she 
 started for Flanders. She was accompanied by the 
 Princesse de la Roche-sur-Yon, Mesdames de Tournon,* 
 and Castellane de Millon, Miles. d'Atri,^ de Tournon, 
 and seven or eight other maids-of-honour, the handsome 
 Philippe de Lenoncourt, Bishop of Auxerre, afterwards 
 Cardinal, Charles d'Escars, Bishop of Langres, celebrated 
 
 ^ Claudine de la Tour-Turenne, wife of Justus IL, Seigneur de 
 Tournon, Comte de Roussillon. 
 
 ^ Anne d'Aquaviva, daughter of the Duke of Atri, a Neapolitan noble. 
 She afterwards married the Comte de Chateaudun. 
 
 201 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 for his eloquence, the Marquis de Mouy, and the chief 
 officers of her household. 
 
 Marguerite, who had inherited the sumptuous tastes 
 of the Valois and the Medici, delighted in pomp and 
 magnificence, and no princess of the time made a braver 
 show when travelling, since, if her train was inconsiderable 
 in comparison with those of the queens of the great States, 
 this was atoned for by the elegance of her coaches and 
 litters, the costly trappings of her horses and mules, and 
 the rich liveries of her servants. " I journeyed," she 
 writes, " in a litter fashioned with pillars, lined inside 
 with rose-coloured Spanish velvet, embroidered in gold 
 and having hangings of shot-silk adorned with devices. 
 The sides of the litter were of glass, each pane of which 
 was covered with devices, there being on the windows 
 or on the lining forty different ones altogether, with 
 mottoes in Spanish and Italian concerning the sun and 
 its influences. This was followed by the litter of Madame 
 de la Roche-sur-Yon, by that of Madame de Tournon, 
 my dame (Thonneur, by ten young ladies on horseback, 
 accompanied by their gouvernantes, and by six coaches, 
 or chariots, containing the rest of the ladies in attendance 
 upon the princess and myself." 
 
 By easy stages, the Queen passed through Picardy, 
 ** where the towns had orders from the King to receive 
 her with the honour due to her," and reached Catelet, 
 three leagues from the frontier. Here she received a 
 message from Louis de Barlemont, Bishop of Cambrai, 
 who sent to inquire the hour at which she proposed leav- 
 ing Catelet, in order that he might meet her at the 
 entrance of his State.* She answered that she would 
 
 ^ The town of Cambrai and the country surrounding it, after many 
 vicissitudes, which caused people to declare that Cambrai did not know 
 
 2^2 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 arrive that same evening, but, according to a manuscript, 
 published by the Bulletin de la Societe de academique, a. very 
 opportune coach- accident compelled her to pass the night 
 at an inn on the road, where a gentleman, "afflicted, 
 doubtless through sympathy, with an erysipelas of the 
 face," had arrived that morning. The writer adds that 
 the gentleman in question was none other than Mar- 
 guerite's old lover, the Due de Guise, who had chosen 
 this pretext for concealing the scar on his cheek, which 
 he had received at the Battle oi Dormans, and which had 
 earned him the name of " la Bala f re " ; and that, before 
 she resumed her journey, the princess gave him ample 
 proof that, if Fate had bestowed her hand on another, 
 her heart — or at least some portion of it — still belonged 
 to the duke.^ 
 
 At Cambrai, the Queen was received by the bishop, 
 " who was well-attended by persons having the dress 
 and appearance ot real Flemings, who, in this part of 
 the country, are very stoutly built." ^ The bishop enter- 
 tained his royal visitor to a supper followed by a ball, 
 to which he invited all the principal ladies of the town. 
 But, " being of a formal and punctilious disposition," 
 he did not apparently consider it quite consistent with 
 the character ot his sacred office to be present at the 
 
 whether it belonged to France, Spain, or the Empire, formed, at this 
 period, an independent state, governed by the bishop, but under the 
 protection of Spain. The town was definitely ceded to France, in 1678, 
 by the Treaty of Nimeugen 
 
 1 Cited by M. Charles Merki, La Reine Margot et la fin des Falois, 
 p. 154. 
 
 2 "/// sont fort grossiers" The word ^^ grassier" is now generally 
 used in an uncomplimentary sense ; but, according to Mongez, it had 
 in the sixteenth century a different significance, and expressed only "/<2 
 hauteur et Pepaisseur du corps." 
 
 203 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 latter entertainment, and, so soon as supper was concluded, 
 begged permission of the Queen to retire, leaving M. 
 d'Inchy, the commandant of the citadel of Cambrai, 
 to do the honours. 
 
 The prelate's retirement was an unexpected stroke 
 of good fortune for our fair intriguer, since the town of 
 Cambrai and its citadel was considered the key of 
 Flanders, and if, by any means, the commandant could 
 be won over to Anjou's cause, the duke would secure a 
 footing in the country of which it would be far from 
 easy to deprive him. The princess, accordingly, brought 
 every weapon in the arsenal of her charms to bear upon 
 the hapless d'Inchy, and to such good purpose that the 
 commandant was soon completely in her toils. " God 
 vouchsafed that I should be so successful," she says, 
 " and that he should take so much pleasure in my con- 
 versation that, after considering how he could contrive 
 to see as much as possible of me, he arranged to bear me 
 company so long as I remained in Flanders, and, with 
 this object, requested permission of his master [the Bishop 
 of Cambrai] to escort me so far as Namur, where Don 
 Juan of Austria was awaiting me, saying that he wished 
 to witness the splendour of my reception ; which permis- 
 sion this Spaniardised Fleming was so ill advised as to 
 accord. " 
 
 Long before Namur was reached, the enamoured com- 
 mandant had confided to his enchantress that " his 
 sympathies were wholly French, and that he was only 
 longing for the day when he might have so gallant a 
 prince as her brother for lord and master." So that it 
 is little wonder that the delighted princess thought him 
 " a finished gentleman, entirely devoid of the ingrained 
 rusticity of the Flemings," and far superior to the 
 
 Z04 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 ** Spaniardised Fleming," his master, " in both the graces 
 and accomplishments of mind and body." 
 
 From Cambrai, the Queen proceeded to Valenciennes, 
 near which town she was met by the Comte de Lalain, 
 Grand Bailiff of Hainault, his brother Emmanuel de 
 Lalain, Baron de Montigny, and a number of other 
 noblemen and gentlemen. Marguerite and her company 
 appear to have been much impressed by the fountains, 
 clocks, and " the handiwork peculiar to the Germans," 
 which they found at Valenciennes, and which " inspired 
 our French folk with great astonishment, they being all 
 unused to behold clocks which discourse agreeable vocal 
 music." 
 
 After remaining a day at Valenciennes, Lalain escorted 
 the distinguished travellers to Mons, where his wife, and 
 his sister-in-law, the Marquise d'Havrec, " with at least 
 eighty or a hundred ladies belonging to the country or 
 the town," were waiting to welcome her, by whom she 
 was received " not like a foreign princess, but as though 
 she had been their rightful liege-lady." 
 
 Lalain, indeed, who was a personage of considerable 
 wealth and great influence in Flanders, was already 
 half-won over. He had. Marguerite tells us, always 
 been hostile to the Spanish domination, and had been 
 greatly incensed by the execution of his relative, 
 d'Egmont, in 1568. A devout Catholic, he had held 
 aloof from William of Orange and the Protestants ; but, 
 on the other hand, had refused to meet Don Juan or 
 allow him or any other Spanish representative to enter 
 his government. His countess, who exercised great 
 influence over her husband, was likewise strongly anti- 
 Spanish in her sympathies, and Marguerite was, there- 
 fore, encouraged to open her mind to her freely. She, 
 
 205 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 accordingly, represented to her that, although, owing to 
 the pressure of internal troubles, it was impossible for 
 the King of France to engage in any foreign enterprise, 
 there was another deliverer ready and anxious to come 
 forward, in the person of her brother Anjou, of whose 
 valour, prudence, generosity, and military skill she then 
 proceeded to paint a most alluring picture, adding that 
 it would be impossible for them to appeal to a prince 
 whose assistance would be more valuable, " since he 
 was so near a neighbour, and had so large a kingdom 
 as that of France at his service, whence he could draw 
 the money and the material necessary for conducting 
 the war." 
 
 The princess seems to have put the case for her brother 
 with considerable skill ; the Comtesse de Lalain forth- 
 with became a devoted partisan of the duke, and had 
 little difficulty in persuading her husband to follow her 
 example. In consequence, when, at the end of a week, 
 Marguerite left Mons, Hainault was assured to Anjou 
 as well as Cambrai, and the road thus opened to the very 
 heart of Flanders. It had also been agreed that, on her 
 return from Spa, Marguerite should make a stay at her 
 chateau of La Fere,^ in Picardy, where Monsieur should 
 join her, and that Lalain's brother, Montigny, should 
 repair thither to treat with the duke, on behalf of the 
 Catholic States. 
 
 Before leaving Mons, the Queen of Navarre presented 
 her host and hostess with magnificent tokens of her good- 
 will. To the Comtesse de Lalain she gave a casket 
 of jewels, and to her husband a chain and pendant en- 
 riched with precious stones, " which were accounted 
 
 ^ The Chateau of La Fere belonged to the House of Bourbon, and 
 had been ceded by Henri of Navarre to his wife on their marriage. 
 
 206 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 of great value, and were still further esteemed by them 
 as coming from one whom they loved as they did 
 her." 
 
 At Mons, Marguerite had been warmly welcomed by 
 those who regarded her as the representative of the House 
 and the nation, to whom they looked for their emanci- 
 pation ; at Namur, she was to meet the oppressors of 
 the people whose ally she had now become, and to be the 
 guest of a governor-general, whose mission it was to 
 discover and thwart any intrigues in which France might 
 be tempted to indulge with his subjects. After the death 
 of Requescens, Philip II. had sent his half-brother to 
 Flanders, not to fight but to treat ; and before entering 
 the country, the prince had been compelled to accept 
 the Treaty of Ghent — the " Perpetual Edict " — whereby 
 the liberties of the Netherlands were confirmed, and the 
 right of levying taxes restored to the Estates, who, in 
 return, promised to recognise Don Juan as their governor, 
 so soon as the last Spanish soldier should have left the 
 provinces. But the Treaty of Ghent was merely a truce ; 
 no sooner had the Spanish soldiers been sent away, than 
 Don Juan began to bring them back again ; and the 
 States, exasperated by this breach of faith, were already 
 on the point of open rebellion. 
 
 The Comte de Lalain, accompanied by a number 
 
 of Flemish nobles and gentlemen, escorted Marguerite 
 
 some distance beyond the frontier of Hainault. But 
 
 when Don Juan and his suite appeared in the distance, 
 
 the count and his friends bade her farewell, since, owing 
 
 to the very strained relations which existed between 
 
 the leaders of the States and the governor-general, their 
 
 meeting would have been exceedingly embarrassing for 
 
 both sides. D'Inchy, however, remained with the 
 
 Z07 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 princess, as his master, the Bishop of Cambrai, belonged 
 to the Spanish party. 
 
 Don Juan came attended by the Due d'Aerschot and 
 his son, the Marquis d'Havrec, of the House of Cr5y, 
 and two brothers of the family of Rye, the Baron de 
 Balan^on and the Marquis de Varembon, the first of 
 whom was Governor of Franche-Comt6, who had come 
 to Namur on purpose to meet the Queen. With the 
 exception of Ludovic de Gonzague, " who called himself 
 a relative of the Duke of Mantua," none of Don Juan's 
 own staff were of any particular note, and Marguerite 
 remarked the significant absence of the Flemish nobility 
 about the son of Charles V. 
 
 The hero of Lepanto was then in his thirty-second 
 year, " le 'prince de VEuro-pe le plus beau et le mieux fait " ; 
 " endowed by Nature with a cast of countenance so gay 
 and pleasing that there was hardly any one whose good- 
 will and love he did not immediately win " ; very 
 sumptuous and fastidious in his attire, and reported to be 
 a great admirer of the fair. He was already acquainted 
 with the Queen of Navarre, having stayed for a few days 
 in Paris, on his way from Italy to the Netherlands, and 
 attended a ball at the Louvre, expressly, so Brantome 
 tells us, to have the pleasure of beholding the princess 
 of whose charms he had heard so much. And it was on 
 this occasion that he expressed the opinion, which we 
 have already cited, that, " although her beauty was rather 
 divine than human, it was more calculated to ruin and 
 damn men than to save them." 
 
 " Don Juan," continues Marguerite, " alighted from 
 
 his horse, in order to salute me in my litter. I saluted 
 
 him in the French fashion,^ and the Due d'Aerschot and 
 
 1 By offering him her cheek to kiss. 
 208 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 M. d*Havrec also. After a few complimentary speeches, 
 he remounted his horse, but continued to converse with 
 me until we came to the town, where we did not arrive 
 until after nightfall, since the ladies of Mons had not 
 permitted me to depart until the last moment, and had 
 likewise amused me more than an hour, by examining my 
 litter, taking great delight in making me explain the 
 different devices. Everything at Namur was so ad- 
 mirably ordered — since the Spaniards are excellent 
 managers in this respect — and the town with its windows 
 and shops so well lighted, that it seemed as though 
 illuminated by a second day*" 
 
 Don Juan had prepared for his guest a lodging worthy 
 of one who was, at the same time, a Daughter of France 
 and a sister of the Queen of Spain, " The house, in 
 which he installed me," she says, " had been specially 
 arranged for my reception, A large and beautiful salon 
 had been contrived, with a suite of apartments consisting 
 of bedrooms and cabinets, the whole of which were 
 furnished with the most beautiful, costly, and superb 
 hangings that I think I have ever beheld, being entirely 
 composed of velvet and satin tapestries, with representa- 
 tions of pillars in cloth of silk, covered with embroideries 
 in great rows and quiltings of gold, in the fullest and most 
 beautiful relief that it was possible to behold. And in 
 the midst of these columns, divers great personages were 
 depicted, habited in antique costume, and wrought in the 
 same kind of embroidery." The princess adds that 
 the Bishop of Auxerre, who had become on very friendly 
 terms with the Due d'Aerschot, learned from him that 
 the stuffs of which these hangings were composed, were 
 a gift to Don Juan from a wealthy Turkish pacha, in 
 recognition of the prince's magnanimity in restoring to 
 
 209 o 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 him, without ransom, his two sons, whom he had taken 
 prisoners at Lepanto. Don Juan sent the pacha's gift 
 to Milan, the taste of whose upholsterers was celebrated 
 throughout Europe, to have them made into the superb 
 tapestries which so delighted the Queen of Navarre ; 
 " and, in order to be reminded of the glorious manner 
 in which he had acquired them, he caused the bed and 
 tester which were in the Queen's chamber, to be em- 
 broidered with naval battles, representing the victory 
 that he had gained over the Turks." " Did ever more 
 perfect beauty," exclaims the enthusiastic M. de Saint- 
 Poncy, " repose on a more glorious couch ? " 
 
 In the morning, Don Juan escorted the Queen to hear 
 Mass, which was performed according to the Spanish 
 custom, with an accompaniment of violins and cornets. 
 Afterwards, he entertained her to a banquet, at which 
 Marguerite and the prince dined at a table apart from the 
 rest, Ludovic de Gonzague serving them with wine on 
 bended knee. " When the tables were cleared, dancing 
 began, which lasted all the afternoon. The evening was 
 passed in the same fashion, Don Juan continuing to 
 devote himself to me, and observing frequently that he 
 saw in me a resemblance to the Queen, * his Signore,' by 
 whom he meant the late Queen my sister, whom he had 
 greatly honoured, and showing, by all the respect and 
 courtesy in his power, the extreme pleasure he experienced 
 at seeing me there." 
 
 Marguerite had only intended remaining one night 
 at Namur ; but, as the boats by which she intended to 
 ascend the Meuse so far as Liege could not be made ready 
 so soon as she had expected, she was compelled to defer 
 her departure until the morrow. Don Juan took advan- 
 tage of the delay to arrange a water- picnic for his guest's 
 
 2IO 
 
AIHT8UA 10 MAUI '^Oa 
 
iiim, wi'' I lie l\<ia i. 
 
 priso'i^' ... ,. ,, j..^... ..v,u iht pacha's g.u 
 
 to - of whose upholsterers was celebrated 
 
 Europe, to have them made into the superb 
 which so delighted the Queen of Navarre ; 
 jfder to be reminded of the glorious manner 
 ■je had acquired them, he ca:used. the bed and 
 tester which were in the Queen's chamber, to be em- 
 broidered with naval battles, representing the victory 
 that h * ' ' ' the Turks." " Did ever more 
 
 j^crfect •^' "t^'K- - -^;- M. de Saint- 
 
 Poncy, ? " 
 
 In tl Queen to hear 
 
 _ jn Juan cj-^ 
 bserving fre 
 o the Queen, * his 
 te Queen r ' ' 
 
 3 c.■^,.-^,.M,.., 
 
 he iiad 
 .^pect and 
 
 pleasure he experienced 
 
 devote 
 saw in 
 whom 
 
 grer^"^- 
 
 C05> ^ 
 
 at seeing i 
 
 Marguerite had only intended remaining one night 
 at Namur ; but, as the boats by which she intended ' 
 ascend the Meuse so far as Liege could not be madr^ - 
 '^ *oon as she had expected, she was compelled 
 parture until the morrow. Don Juan 
 the delay t e a water- picnt 
 
 DON JUAN OF AUSTRIA 
 
 From a contemporary Spanish Print 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 diversion. A large boat gaily decorated with flags, and 
 accompanied by a number of smaller ones, filled with 
 musicians playing on hautboys, cornets, and violins, 
 conveyed the princess to an island in the Meuse. Here 
 the governor had caused a banquet to be prepared, " in 
 a spacious room fashioned and decorated with ivy, 
 around which were compartments occupied by musi- 
 cians, who played upon hautboys and other instruments 
 during the whole of supper time." After supper, the 
 company danced for about an hour, and then returned 
 to Namur. 
 
 On the morrow, the Queen bade farewell to Don Juan, 
 and continued her journey. If we are to believe Bran- 
 tome, brief as had been her stay in their midst, she had 
 succeeded in completely captivating all the Spanish 
 officers, who were heard to declare that " the conquest 
 of such a beauty was worth more than that of a kingdom, 
 and that happy would be the soldiers who could serve 
 under her banner." ^ It may, therefore, have been just 
 as well for the allegiance of Don Juan's followers that 
 his charming guest did not prolong her visit to Namur. 
 
 Hitherto Marguerite's journey had been a smiling odys- 
 sey ; but now disasters began. Mile, de Tournon, one of 
 her maids-of-honour, was suddenly taken ill, and died a few 
 days after their arrival at Liege, according to her mistress's 
 account, of a broken heart, caused by the indifference 
 to her charms of the Marquis de Varembon, already 
 mentioned, with whom the poor young lady was pas- 
 sionately in love. At Huy, the first town of the diocese 
 of Liege, they were surprised by an inundation of the 
 river, " and had barely time to spring on shore and run 
 with all speed to gain the summit of the hill,^ before the 
 
 ^ Dames illustres. ^ Huy is situated on the slope of a hill. 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 water had risen almost to the level of the house in which 
 they had taken refuge, and where they had to content 
 themselves for the night with what the master of the 
 house had to give them." 
 
 However, the party reached Liege in safety, where the 
 Queen met with a most cordial reception from the 
 bishop,^ " an exceedingly virtuous, discreet, and amiable 
 nobleman," who insisted on surrendering to her his own 
 palace, which Marguerite found " handsome and com- 
 modious, possessing beautiful fountains, gardens and 
 galleries, the whole so richly painted and gilded, and the 
 interior decorated with so much marble that nothing 
 could be more magnificent," 
 
 The princess was as favourably impressed with the 
 famous old cathedral city as with its bishop. " The 
 town," she says, " is larger than Lyons, and resembles 
 it in point of structure, as the River Meuse flows through 
 its midst. It is very well built, and there is not a canon's 
 house which does not present the appearance of a noble 
 palace,^ the streets long and broad, the squares spacious 
 and provided with beautiful fountains ; the churches 
 decorated with so much marble — ^which is obtained hard 
 by — that they appear to be entirely constructed of it ; 
 the clocks of German workmanship, chiming, and repre- 
 senting all kinds of instruments." 
 
 As Spa was only about six leagues from Liege, and was, 
 at this period, nothing but a small village, where it would 
 have been impossible for the Queen of Navarre and her 
 suite to have found suitable accommodation, Marguerite 
 and the Princesse de la Roche-sur-Yon decided to remain 
 
 ^ Gerard Groesbeck. He was made a cardinal in the following 
 year, and died in 1584. 
 
 * The canons of Liege, Marguerite tells us, were all of noble birth, 
 the sons of great German nobles. 
 
 212 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 at Liege, and have the waters brought to them, the 
 doctors assuring their distinguished patients that " it 
 would lose none of its strength or virtue, if it were 
 conveyed hy night before the sun had risen." 
 
 In spite of the sad death of Mile, de Tournon, Mar- 
 guerite seems to have passed a very pleasant time at 
 Liege, where the bishop, his canons, the gentry of the 
 neighbourhood, and several distinguished foreign visitors 
 formed with her own suite a little Court, and vied with 
 one another in their efforts to amuse her. In the midst 
 of her gaiety, we may well suppose that she did not permit 
 herself to lose sight of the real object of her journey, and 
 that her brother's cause was strengthened by more than 
 one important accession. 
 
 Six weeks passed — the time usually prescribed for the ^ 
 Spa waters — and Marguerite and her company were on 
 the point of setting out on their return to France, when 
 news arrived that the States had risen in revolt, and that 
 the whole of Flanders was being ravaged by fire and 
 sword. Hard upon this alarming intelligence, came a 
 gentleman named Lescar, bearing a letter from Anjou 
 to his sister, which contained still more disquieting 
 information. The duke wrote that, " although God 
 had given him the grace to serve the King so well in the 
 command of the army entrusted to him, that he had taken 
 every town which he had been ordered to attack, and driven ^ 
 the Huguenots out of all the provinces which it had been 
 intended that his army should subdue," he was in worse 
 odour at Court than ever ; , that Bussy, notwithstanding 
 his services in the field,^ was also in disgrace, and as much 
 
 ^ These services included the ravaging of some score or more square 
 leagues of country in Maine and Anjou, in which the enterprising 
 Bussy robbed Huguenot and Catholic with praiseworthy impartiality. 
 
 213 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 persecuted as he had been during the lifetime of Du 
 Guast ; that every day one or other of them was subjected 
 to some fresh indignity ; that the mignons by whom 
 the King was surrounded had contrived to seduce four 
 or five of his most trusted followers from their allegiance 
 to Monsieur, and persuade them to enter his Majesty's 
 service ; and, finally, that the King bitterly repented of 
 having permitted Marguerite to make this expedition 
 to Flanders, and that, out of hatred of his brother, he 
 had secretly warned the Spaniards of the true object 
 of her journey, in consequence of which, they intended 
 to seize her on her way back to France, while, even if she 
 were so fortunate as to escape falling into their hands, 
 she would probably be captured by the Huguenots, who 
 were burning to avenge themselves upon Anjou, for his 
 desertion of their cause. 
 
 This letter, Marguerite tells us, provided her with 
 abundant food for reflection, since, not only would she 
 be obliged, in order to gain France, to pass through 
 country occupied either by Spaniards or Protestants, 
 but the loyalty of her suite was far from being above 
 suspicion. Lenoncourt, though a bishop, was believed 
 to favour the Protestant cause, of which party her first 
 equerry, Salviati, and her treasurer, Hubanet, were also 
 secret adherents ; while, on the other hand, the Bishop 
 of Langres was known to be strongly Spanish in his 
 sympathies. 
 
 " In my perplexity," writes the princess, " I was only 
 able to confide in Madame de la Roche-sur-Yon and 
 Madame de Tournon, who, realising our danger and aware 
 that it would take us five or six days to reach La Fere — 
 during the whole of which time we should be at the mercy 
 of one or other of these parties — replied to me, with 
 
 214 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 tears in their eyes, that God alone could save us in this 
 hour of peril; that I must commend myself to His care, 
 and then act as He should inspire me ; that, as for them- 
 selves, notwithstanding that one was ill and the other 
 old, I was not, on that account, to hesitate to travel by 
 long stages, as they would undertake anything in order 
 to deliver me from this danger. 
 
 Marguerite then confided her troubles to the sym- 
 pathetic ear of the Bishop of Liege, " who behaved 
 like a father to her," and offered her the services of the 
 grand-master of his Household, and horses to convey her 
 as far as she desired ; and, as a passport from William of 
 Orange would probably be respected by the Protestants, 
 she despatched Mondoucet to him to obtain one. Mon- 
 doucet, however, did not return, the fact being that 
 William, who had penetrated the mystery of Marguerite's 
 intrigues, and had no desire to see himself supplanted in 
 the direction of affairs by a foreign prince, declined 
 either to send the passport or to allow the envoy to 
 depart. 
 
 After waiting two or three days, the Queen of Navarre's 
 patience was exhausted, and she announced her intention 
 of taking her departure on the morrow. The Bishop of 
 Auxerre and her treasurer, Salviati, strongly urged her 
 to await the arrival of the expected passport, and when 
 they found their counsel unheeded, the latter declared 
 that there was not sufficient money in his hands even to 
 defray the cost of their stay in Liege, to say nothing of 
 the journey before them ; a statement which, when 
 Marguerite, on her arrival in France, examined her 
 accounts, was found to be false, " there being 'enough 
 to pay the expenses of her Household for more than 
 six weeks." The difficulty was eventually surmounted 
 
 215 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 by the intervention of Madame de la Roche-sur-Yon, 
 who advanced the sum required, and, after having pre- 
 sented the hospitable bishop with a magnificent diamond 
 worth three thousand ecus, and his servants with rings 
 or gold chains, the princess bade farewell to the good 
 town of St. Hubert, and set out on her return to France, 
 " with nothing in the shape of a passport save her trust 
 in God," 
 
 216 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 
 Marguerite's adventures at Huy and Dinant — Attempt of the 
 Spaniards to seize her at the latter town — She outwits them, 
 with the assistance of the townspeople, and continues her 
 journey — Perilous situation at Fleurines — At Cateau-Cam- 
 bresis she learns that the Huguenots are lying in wait for her 
 on the French frontier — She escapes them and proceeds to her 
 chateau of La Fere, where she is joined by Monsieur — Visit of 
 the Flemish delegates to La Fere. 
 
 If Marguerite's journey to Liege had resembled a royal 
 progress, her return thence was like the retreat of a beaten 
 army through a hostile country, with every stage marked 
 by some perilous adventure. Her first day's journey 
 brought her to Huy, the place where she and her party 
 had so narrowly escaped being drowned a few weeks 
 previously. This town was under the sovereignty of 
 the bishop, but, on the outbreak of the insurrection, it 
 had declared for the States, and refused any longer to 
 recognise the authority of its lord, who had announced 
 his intention of observing a strict neutrality. " In 
 consequence of this," writes Marguerite, " the townsfolk 
 paid no attention to the bishop's grand-master, who 
 accompanied us, but, having been alarmed, just as I 
 arrived, by the news that Don Juan had seized upon 
 the citadel of Namur, no sooner had we reached our 
 lodging, than they began sounding the tocsin, dragging 
 the artillery about the streets, and pointing it against 
 my lodging, before the entrance to which they stretched 
 
 217 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 chains, in order to prevent our communicating with one 
 another. And in this state of disquietude they left us 
 all night, without giving us an opportunity of remonstrat- 
 ing with them, being all common persons, brutal and 
 unreasoning." 
 
 By the morning, the alarm of the good folk of Huy 
 had somewhat subsided, and they permitted the travellers 
 to depart, though not before they had taken the pre- 
 caution to line the sides of the street in which the Queen's 
 lodging was situated with serried rows of portly burghers 
 armed to the teeth, through which the travellers solemnly 
 defiled, and arrived the same evening at Dinant, where 
 a far more exciting and picturesque adventure awaited 
 them. As however, this is not only one of the most in- 
 teresting episodes of Marguerite's journey, but reveals the 
 princess at her very best as a writer, we cannot do better 
 than follow the example of her French biographers, 
 M. de Saint-Poncy and M. Charles Merki, and permit 
 her to relate it in her own words : 
 
 " We proceeded to Dinant, where we passed the night, 
 and where, by ill-chance, the townsfolk had that very 
 day elected their burgomasters, who are equivalent to 
 consuls in Gascony and sheriffs in France. The whole 
 place was that day given over to carousing, every one was 
 drunk, none of the magistrates obeyed, in short, there 
 was a veritable chaos of confusion. And, to make our 
 position worse, the grand-master of the Bishop of Liege 
 had formerly been at war with these people, and was 
 regarded by them as a mortal foe. 
 
 " This town, when in its right senses, is upon the 
 side of the States ; but now Bacchus reigned there 
 supreme ; the people had lost all self-control, and recog- 
 nised no one's authority. So soon as the)- perceived us 
 
 218 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 approaching the outskirts with a numerous train, they 
 forthwith were seized with alarm. Leaving their glasses 
 they flew to arms, and, instead of opening the gates, 
 rushed tumultuously to close the barrier against us. 
 
 "I had despatched a gentleman in advance, together 
 with the foragers and the marechal-des-logis,^ to beg the 
 townsfolk to permit us to enter ; but I found they had 
 all been stopped at the barrier, where no attention was 
 paid to their demands. Finally, I stood up in my litter, 
 and, removing my mask, made a sign to one of the most 
 important persons that I desired to speak with him ; 
 and, on his approaching me, I begged that he would 
 enjoin silence, in order that I might make myself heard. 
 When this had with great difficulty been effected, I 
 informed them who I was, and of the object of my 
 journey, and that, far from desiring any harm to them 
 by my coming, I did not wish even to give them cause 
 for suspecting such a thing ; that I begged them to 
 grant admittance to my women and myself for that night, 
 together with as few of my male attendants as they 
 pleased, and that the rest should remain in the suburbs. 
 Tq this proposal they assented and granted my request. 
 
 " I entered their town thus, attended by the most 
 important persons of my company, amongst whom was 
 the Bishop of Liege's grand-master, who was unhappily 
 recognised just as I was entering my lodging, with all 
 this armed and drunken mob at my heels. Thereupon, 
 they began hurling insults at this worthy fellow, and 
 wished to set upon him, although he was a venerable 
 old man, with a white beard descending to his girdle. 
 
 * The marechal-des-logis was an officer whose duty it was to precede 
 the Court or the households of great personages when travelling, to make 
 arrangements for their accommodation. 
 
 219 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 I made him enter my lodging, against the earthen 
 walls of which these drunkards directed a shower of balls 
 from their arquebuses. 
 
 " Upon perceiving this tumult, I inquired if the master 
 of the house were within*. By good fortune, he happened 
 to be at home. I begged him to go to the window and 
 arrange for me to speak to the leading townspeople, 
 which he did everything possible to accomplish. At 
 last, having shouted for some time through the windows, 
 the burgomasters came to speak with me, so drunk that 
 they knew not what they were saying. I assured them 
 that I was quite unaware that this grand-master was their 
 enemy, and represented to them how serious a thing it 
 was to offend a person of my quality, who was a friend of 
 all the principal lords of the States, and that I was sure 
 that the Comte de Lalain and all the other leaders 
 would be greatly annoyed at the reception which they 
 had given me. At the mention of M. de Lalain's name, 
 they all assumed a different attitude, and evinced more 
 respect for him than for any of the kings to whom I 
 was related. The eldest among them inquired, smiling 
 and hesitating, whether I was indeed a friend of M. de 
 Lalain ; and I, perceiving that my relationship to him 
 was of more service to me than that of all the potentates 
 in Christendom, replied : * Yes, I am his friend and 
 likewise his kinswoman.' Upon this, they did me 
 reverence, kissed my hand, and became as courteous as 
 they had before been insolent, begging me to excuse their 
 behaviour, and promising that they would do no harm 
 to the worthy grand-master, and suffer him to depart, 
 with me»" 
 
 But Marguerite was not yet out of her troubles. 
 
 " Upon the following morning," she continues, " as 
 
 220 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 I was about to proceed to Mass, a person named Du 
 Bois — the agent whom the King (Henri III.) had placed 
 near Don Juan, and who was strongly Spanish in his 
 sympathies — arrived, and informed me that he had 
 received letters from the King, charging him to seek 
 me and conduct me safely on my homeward journey ; 
 that, for this purpose, he had begged Don Juan to place 
 Barlemont, with a troop of cavalry at his disposal, to 
 serve as an escort and to conduct me in safety to Namur, 
 and that I must request the townspeople to permit M. 
 de Barlemont, who was one of the nobles of the country, 
 to enter with his troops, to escort me out of the town. 
 " This had been planned with a double object ; first, 
 to seize the town for Don Juan, and, secondly, to cause 
 me to fall into the hands of the Spaniards. I found 
 myself in very great perplexity ; but, after taking counsel 
 with the Cardinal de Lenoncourt,^ who was no more 
 anxious than I was to fall into Spanish hands, we decided 
 that we must ascertain from the townspeople whether 
 there were not some road whereby I might escape M. 
 de Barlemont's troop. I, therefore, left the little agent 
 Du Bois to entertain M» de Lenoncourt, and passed 
 into another apartment, whither I summoned some of 
 the townsfolk and informed them that, if they admitted 
 M. de Barlemont's troop, they would be lost, as they would 
 seize the town for Don Juan. I counselled them to arm, 
 and to hold themselves in readiness at their gate, in the 
 attitude of men who had been forewarned and had no 
 intention of allowing themselves to be surprised, and 
 only to permit M. de Barlemont to enter alone, without 
 any of his followers. 
 
 ^ Lenoncourt, Bishop of Auxerre, was not created a cardinal until 
 1585. 
 
 22( 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 " As the effect of the wine of the preceding day had 
 passed oif, they approved my reasons, and believing what 
 I said, offered to risk their lives in my service, and to 
 furnish me with a guide to conduct me out of the town 
 by a road which would place the river between myself 
 and Don Juan's soldiers, and leave them so far behind 
 that it would be impossible for them to overtake me ; 
 while I was to travel by way of such houses and towns 
 as were on the side of the States. 
 
 " Having arrived at this decision with them I sent 
 them to admit M. de Barlemont alone, who, so soon as 
 he had entered, endeavoured to persuade them to allow 
 his followers to enter likewise. But, upon that, they 
 turned upon him, and were like to have put him to death, 
 vowing that if he did not withdraw his men out of sight 
 of the town, they would fire upon them with their 
 artillery. This they did in order to allow me time to 
 cross the river before the soldiers could overtake me. 
 
 " After M. de Barlemont had been admitted into the 
 town, he and the agent Du Bois used every possible 
 persuasion to induce me to proceed to Namur, where 
 Don Juan was awaiting me ; and, after having heard 
 Mass and partaken of a hasty dinner, I left my lodging? 
 accompanied by two or three hundred armed citizens, 
 and, whilst continuing to converse with M. de Barlemont 
 and the agent Du Bois, took my way straight to the river- 
 gate, which was in the opposite direction to the Namur 
 road, where M. de Barlemont's men were drawn up. 
 They, summoning up their courage, told me that I was 
 not going in the right direction ; but I, holding them 
 still in conversation, continued my way until I arrived at 
 the gate of the town. I passed through it, accompanied 
 by a part of the townsfolk, and redoubling my speed 
 
 222 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 towards the river, embarked on the boat awaiting me, 
 which I made all my suite enter as quickly as possible ; 
 M. de Barlemont and the agent Du Bois calling out to 
 me all the while from the water-side that I was not doing 
 right, since I was acting contrary to the wishes of the 
 King, who desired me to pass by way of Namur. 
 
 " In spite of their remonstrances, we promptly crossed 
 the river ; and, whilst our litters and horses were being 
 conveyed across, which necessitated two or three journeys, 
 the citizens, in order to enable me to gain time, enter- 
 tained M. de Barlemont and the agent Du Bois with 
 grievances and complaints, arguing with them, in their 
 patois, about the wrong Don Juan had committed in 
 breaking faith with the States, and putting an end to 
 the peace, and about the old quarrels relating to Comte 
 d'Egmont's death, threatening all the time that if 
 M. de Barlemont's soldiers appeared near the town, they 
 would open fire upon them with their artillery. They 
 thus gave me time to proceed so far that I had no longer 
 any cause to fear these soldiers, guided as I was by God 
 and by the man with whom they had provided me." ^ 
 
 In the evening, the Queen arrived at a chateau called 
 Fleurines, belonging to a nobleman of that name, a 
 zealous partisan of the States and a friend of the Comte 
 de Lalain. Marguerite had no doubt that she would 
 receive from the Seigneur de Fleurines a very cordial 
 welcome ; but, unfortunately, when she arrived, that 
 gentleman happened to be from home, and had left 
 his wife in charge during his absence. Apparently, he 
 had not failed to impress upon her the necessity of guard- 
 ing against one of those surprises so frequent during 
 these wars, for the moment the princess and her company 
 ^ Memoires et lettres de Marguerite de Valois (edit. Guessard). 
 
 2*3 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 had entered the outer courtyard of the chateau, the 
 gates of which had been left open, the good lady took 
 fright and fled to the keep, "raising the drawbridge, 
 and determined, however much they might entreat, not to 
 allow them to come in." Almost at the same moment, 
 a body of some three hundred Spaniards, whom Don 
 Juan had sent to intercept Marguerite and seize upon 
 the Chateau of Fleurines, where he had ascertained 
 that she intended to stay that night, appeared upon an 
 eminence about a thousand paces off. 
 
 The situation of the travellers was now a very pre- 
 carious one, for the outer court was defended only by a 
 wretched wall and a rickety door, which could be forced 
 with very little trouble, and the terrified chatelaine con- 
 tinued deaf to all entreaties to admit them into the 
 fortified part of the building. Happily, however, the 
 Spaniards were too far off to comprehend the situation 
 of affairs, and, having seen the Queen and her suite enter 
 the chateau, supposed them to be in safety, and, ac- 
 cordingly, quartered themselves on a village hard-by, 
 intending to seize them when they took their departure 
 on the morrow. 
 
 At night-fall, however, to the intense relief of the 
 whole party, M. de Fleurines arrived, having been 
 despatched by the Comte de Lalain to escort the Queen 
 of Navarre through Flanders, as the count himself was 
 unable to leave the army of the States, of which he had 
 been appointed commander. M. de Fleurines seems to 
 have brought with him a considerable following, for 
 when Marguerite and her party left the chateau, the 
 following morning, the Spaniards did not attempt to 
 molest them. 
 
 Their journey was pleasant and uneventful, and " they 
 
 224 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 did not pass through any town in which she was not 
 honourably and amicably received." The princess's 
 only regret was that she was unable to travel by way 
 of Mons and see her friend, Madame de Lalain, again. 
 From Nivelles, she sent a letter to the countess to inform 
 her of her whereabouts and her disappointment at being 
 prevented from paying her a return visit, upon receiving 
 which that lady despatched " some persons of quality " 
 to escort the Queen to the frontier of Cambresis. On 
 taking leave of them. Marguerite begged them to take 
 to Madame de Lalain, as a souvenir of their friendship, 
 " one of her gowns, composed of black satin, all covered 
 with raised embroideries, which she had heard her 
 admire very much when she wore it at Mons, and which 
 had cost her twelve hundred crowns." 
 
 But the Queen had yet another adventure in store 
 for her. At Cateau-Cambresis, she received warning 
 that a band of French Protestants, rivalling in audacity 
 her foreign enemies, were lying in wait for her on the 
 frontier. Marguerite, however, displayed her customary 
 presence of mind, and, suspecting that her treasurer, 
 Salviati, and other members of her suite were in com- 
 munication with the Huguenots, gave orders that the 
 party should resume their journey an hour before day- 
 break. Upon sending for their litters and horses, how- 
 ever, " the Chevalier Salviati began procrastinating just 
 as he had done at Liege," whereupon, continues the 
 princess, " since I knew that he did this with an object, 
 I abandoned my litter, and, mounting on horseback, 
 followed by those of my people who were ready first, 
 succeeded in reaching Catelet by two o'clock in the 
 afternoon, having thus, through the mercy of God, 
 escaped all the snares and pitfalls of my enemies." 
 
 225 p 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 From Catelet, Marguerite proceeded to her chateau 
 of La Fere, where she arrived on October 1, 1577. At 
 Le Fere, she found a messenger from the Due d'Anjou 
 awaiting her, with orders to return and inform his master 
 immediately the Queen arrived. The duke wrote that 
 peace had already been concluded,* and that the King 
 was on the point of return to Paris ; but that, as regarded 
 himself, " his condition had gone from bad to worse," 
 and he and his friends were subjected to so many slights 
 and indignities that he had no desire to reside there, 
 and awaited her arrival at La Fere with extreme im- 
 patience, in order that he might join her. Marguerite 
 at once sent back the courier, and Monsieur, having 
 despatched Bussy to Angers, with the greater part of 
 his Household, set out for Picardy, accompanied by 
 only some fifteen or twenty attendants.^ 
 
 Marguerite assures us that it was one of the greatest 
 pleasures which she had ever experienced to receive 
 under her own roof " one whom she loved and honoured 
 so much," and that she devoted herself to his entertain- 
 ment with such success " that he would willingly have 
 exclaimed with St. Peter : * Here let us raise our taber- 
 nacles,' had it not been that * the right royal courage 
 and generosity of soul which distinguished him incited 
 him to nobler deeds.' The tranquillity of our Court," 
 she continues, " compared wth the agitations of the 
 one from which he came, rendered all the pleasures 
 which he tasted there so sweet, that he could not prevent 
 himself from perpetually exclaiming : * Oh, my queen? 
 
 * At Bergerac, September 17, 1577. 
 
 2 « Wednesday, 9th October, Monsieur, brother of the King, arrived 
 in Paris . . . whence he set out on Saturday the 1 2 th to go to La F^re, 
 in Picardy, to see the Queen of Navarre, his sister." — L'Estoile. 
 
 226 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 how sweet it is to be with you. Mon Dieu I This society- 
 is a paradise replete with all manner of delights, while 
 that from which I came is a hell filled with all kinds of 
 dissensions and torments.' " 
 
 It will be remembered that when Marguerite had 
 negotiated at Mons the alliance of the Comte de Lalain, 
 it had been agreed that on her return to France, she 
 should place Anjou in communication with the leaders 
 of the States, for which purpose, Lalain should send his 
 brother, the Baron de Montigny, to La Fere. Monsieur, 
 having expressed his approval of this arrangement, 
 towards the end of November, Montigny arrived at La 
 Fere, accompanied by four or five other Flemish nobles. 
 
 The delegates, who were received by the fair chate- 
 laine with that charming affability which gained all 
 hearts, assured Anjou of the devotion of a great part of 
 the nobility, and promised him, in Lalain's name, the 
 whole of Hainault and Artois, with their fortresses. 
 One of them, also, was the bearer of a letter from M. 
 d'Inchy, the gentleman whom Marguerite's charms had 
 so completely subjugated, offering to place the citadel 
 of Cambrai in the duke's hands After several con- 
 ferences, it was decided that Anjou should enter Flanders 
 with his troops in the following spring, and that, while he 
 occupied himself in raising men, his Flemish allies should 
 foment a movement in his favour. Montigny and his 
 colleagues then returned home, carrying with them, as 
 a pledge of the alliance just concluded, gold medals 
 bearing the portraits of the duke and the Queen of 
 Navarre ; while Monsieur forthwith set out for Paris, to 
 endeavour to obtain from Henri IIL the necessary 
 assistance for his enterprise.^ 
 
 ^ Memoires et kttres de Marguerite de Valois (edit. Guessard). 
 
 227 
 
 / 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 Such was the conclusion of Marguerite's eventful 
 journey to the Netherlands, which, as one of her bio- 
 graphers very justly remarks, unites to the attraction 
 of a romance the importance of a political mission,^ 
 and in which, it must be admitted, the princess displayed 
 qualities but seldom found in one of her sex : great courage 
 and presence of mind, a rare tact, and considerable 
 diplomatic ability. If Anjou's enterprise was doomed 
 to failure, it was due to the ill-will of Henri III., and 
 because he himself was altogether unequal to the part 
 which he aspired to play, and was certainly not the fault 
 of his courageous and talented sister, for very seldom 
 have the initial difficulties of so important an under- 
 taking been overcome with so much skill and address. 
 
 ^ Comte Leo de Saint-Poncy, Marguerite de Valois, i. 475. 
 
 228 
 
CHAPTER XVI 
 
 The Queen of Navarre returns to Paris — She demands and 
 obtains a new promise from the King and Queen-Mother to 
 permit her to join her husband, and also to assign her her 
 dowry in lands — Henri III. opposed to Anjpu's Flemish enter- 
 prise — Quarrels of Bussy and the mtgnons — Insolent behaviour 
 of the King's favourites towards Monsieur — The latter seeks 
 permission to withdraw for a time from Court, but is arrested 
 by order of the King — An extraordinary scene — Monsieur is 
 set at liberty, but forbidden to leave the Louvre — Aided by 
 Marguerite, he again escapes and retires to Angers — Unsuc- 
 cessful effort of Catherine to induce him to return. 
 
 Shortly after her brother's departure, Marguerite, in 
 her turn, set out for Paris, where she had determined to 
 renew her request to Henri III. to permit her to rejoin 
 her husband in Gascony. At Saint-Denis, she was met 
 by the King, the Queen, the Queen-Mother, Anjou, 
 and the whole Court, and received with much cordiality, 
 " their Majesties taking great pleasure in making her 
 describe the splendour and magnificence of her journey 
 and sojourn at Liege, and the adventures consequent 
 upon her return." 
 
 Marguerite took advantage of the good-humour 
 which Henri III. and Catherine seemed to be in to make 
 her request to them that very evening, " entreating them 
 not to take it amiss, if she begged them to consent to her 
 going to rejoin her husband, since, as peace was now 
 concluded, there was nothing which could excite their 
 
 229 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 suspicion, and it would be unseemly and injurious for 
 her, if she deferred her departure any longer." Both 
 their Majesties appeared to approve of her resolution, 
 and Catherine declared that she would herself accompany 
 her daughter to the South, as it was necessary that she 
 should visit that part of the country in the interests 
 of the King ; and she told Henri that he ought to furnish 
 his sister with the funds necessary for her journey ; 
 which he promised to do. 
 
 Emboldened by the success of her application, the 
 princess then reminded her mother of the promise she 
 had made her at the time of the Peace of Beaulieu ; that, 
 in the event of her returning to her husband, she should 
 have certain lands assigned her for her marriage-portion ; 
 and this their Majesties also promised should be arranged. 
 
 Marguerite was anxious to set out early in the following 
 January, as the approaching departure of Anjou for 
 Flanders made her more desirous than ever of quitting 
 the Court. But, " in spite of her daily solicitations," 
 the King's promises were only fulfilled " in Court 
 fashion," and she was compelled to possess her soul in 
 patience for several months. 
 
 The same dilatory methods were employed in regard 
 to Anjou. It was in vain that he represented to the 
 King the advantages of his Flemish enterprise ; that it 
 was for the honour and aggrandisement of France ; that 
 it was a sure means of preventing a renewal of the civil 
 war, " since all such unquiet spirits as were desirous of 
 change would have an opportunity of going to Flanders, 
 to let off their steam and quench their thirst for war," 
 whilst the expedition would provide the French nobility 
 with as valuable a military experience as they had formerly 
 found in Piedmont. Henri HI. had no mind to lend 
 
 230 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 himself to the aggrandisement of his brother, whom he 
 cordially hated, and though he did not formally forbid 
 the expedition, he threw every possible obstacle in its 
 way. 
 
 The sword of Viteaux had cut short the ascendency 
 of Du Guast ; but Maugiron,*his successor in the King's 
 favour, was no less presumptuous, insolent, and quarrel- 
 some, and did everything possible to incite Henri against 
 those whom he feared might be inclined to dispute his 
 influence. This Maugiron had formerly been in Anjou's 
 service, which he had deserted for that of the King, and 
 hated his old master with all the bitterness of a renegade. 
 In alliance with his fellow mignons, Quelus, Gramont, 
 Saint-Mesgrin, Livarot, Saint-Luc, and the rest, and 
 with the tacit approval of the King, he persecuted the 
 duke and his followers with the utmost rancour, and 
 " subjected them to a thousand insults." Bussy, as 
 Monsieur's chief champion, was perpetually having 
 quarrels thrust upon him, and would appear to have spent 
 the greater part of his time in giving and receiving 
 challenges to mortal combat. It must, however, be 
 admitted that the valiant Bussy was only too ready to 
 measure swords with the royal mignons, and, by the con- 
 tempt which he openly manifested for them, did not a 
 little towards provoking breaches of the peace. 
 
 " On Tuesday, January lo," writes L'Estoile, " Bussy ^ 
 who. on the preceding Tuesday, had quarrelled with the 
 Seigneur de Gramont, sent to the Porte Saint-Antoine 
 three hundred gentlemen well-armed and mounted 
 and the Seigneur de Gramont as many friends and parti- 
 sans of the King, to fight there and decide their quarrel 
 
 * Louis de Maugiron, son of Laurent de Maugiron, Baron d'Ampuis, 
 Lieutenant-General of Dauphine. 
 
 231 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 a-toute-outrance. . . .But they were prevented from fighting 
 that morning, by order of the King ; notwithstanding 
 which, in the afternoon, Gramont, who declared himself 
 insulted, went, with a considerable following, to seek 
 Bussy at his lodging, which was in the Rue des Prouvaires, 
 into which he forced an entrance, and, for some time, a 
 combat was waged between those within and those 
 without. His Majesty, having been advised of this, 
 despatched thither the Marechal de Cosse and Captain 
 Strozzi, Colonel-General of the French infantry, with 
 their guards, who conducted Bussy to the Louvre, to 
 which, soon afterwards, the Seigneur de Gramont was also 
 brought, and where they were retained each in a separate 
 room. Next morning, they were reconciled, by the advice 
 of the Marechaux de Montmorency and de Cosse, in 
 whose charge the King had placed them, instead of being 
 brought to trial, which would have been the proper course 
 to take, if justice had reigned in France and at the 
 Court." 
 
 The chronicler goes on to tell us that, the same day, 
 his Majesty profited by the occasion to deliver to the 
 courtiers assembled at his lever^ " a fine and grave 
 remonstrance, touching the quarrels which daily took 
 place amongst them, even in his palace and near his 
 person (a capital oifence, according to the laws of the 
 realm), for the most trifling reasons, and even for nothing 
 at all, and announced that, to obviate this scandal, he 
 had promulgated certain Ordinances, which dealt very 
 stringently with such brawlers." 
 
 The Ordinances, however, seemed to have troubled 
 the mignons very little ; for, soon afterwards, we hear of 
 another affray, near the Porte Saint-Honore, in which 
 Quelus and several of his friends attacked Bussy, who was 
 
 232 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 on horseback and accompanied only by one gentleman. 
 According to L'Estoile, blows were exchanged, and 
 Bussy's companion severely wounded ; but Brantome 
 states that Bussy did not stop to meet his antagonists, 
 but galloped oif and " wrote a very fine letter to the 
 King." Anyway, he demanded permission to fight a 
 formal duel with Quelus ; but this favour was refused 
 him, and, though the Council decided that Quelus, " as 
 the aggressor, should be made prisoner and brought to 
 trial," no steps were taken against him. 
 
 " My brother," writes Marguerite, " being of opinion 
 that these incidents were not calculated to accelerate 
 his expedition to Flanders, and being desirous of mol- 
 lifying the King rather than of irritating him, and 
 reflecting also that, if Bussy were away from Court, he 
 might the better advance the training of the troops he 
 required, despatched him to his estates. But Bussy's 
 departure did not put an end to the persecution, and it 
 was evident that, although his fine qualities had inspired 
 Maugiron and the other young men with a good deal 
 of jealousy, the principal cause of their hatred of him 
 arose from the fact that he was in my brother's service. 
 For, after he had gone, they continued to defy and annoy 
 him (Anjou) with so much insolence, and so openly, 
 that every one perceived it." 
 
 Marguerite assures us that, for a time, Anjou bore 
 these attacks with exemplary patience, " being resolved 
 to submit to anything, if thereby he could promote his 
 Flemish enterprise ; but, at length, matters reached a 
 climax. On February 9, 1578, the King's favourite, 
 Saint-Luc, was married with great eclat to Jeanne de 
 Cosse-Brissac, daughter of the Marechal de Cosse, 
 " ugly, hump-backed and crooked," and still worse, 
 
 233 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 according to L'Estoile. But Monsieur and the Queen 
 of Navarre decided not to attend the ceremony, and went 
 with the Queen-Mother to dine at Saint-Maur. However, 
 in the evening, the duke consented to appear at the ball 
 wherewith the day's festivities concluded, Catherine 
 having represented to him that his absence would be 
 certain to displease the King. But no sooner did he 
 enter the ball-room, than the mignons who evidently- 
 regarded his refusal to grace the wedding-ceremony with 
 his presence as a personal affront to their comrade and 
 themselves, " began taunting him with such cutting words 
 that any one, even of lesser degree than himself, would 
 have been offended at them, telling him that he might 
 have spared himself the trouble of changing his dress, and 
 twitting him with his ugliness and meanness of stature." ^ 
 
 Boiling with indignation, Anjou retired, and, after 
 taking counsel with his confidant, the Marquis de la 
 Chatre, decided to go into the country for a few days' 
 hunting, " believing that his absence would diminish 
 the animosity of these youths against him, and thus 
 facilitate his business with the King, relative to the 
 Flemish enterprise." He then went to find the Queen- 
 Mother, and informed her of what had occurred at the 
 ball, and of the resolution at which he had arrived. 
 
 Catherine expressed herself much annoyed at the treat- 
 ment to which the prince had been subjected, approved 
 of his decision to leave the Court for a time, and promised 
 to obtain leave of absence for him from the King, adding 
 that, while he was away, she would do everything in 
 her power to further his expedition to Flanders. She 
 then sent Villequier^ to Henri HI. to obtain the required 
 
 ^ Memoires et lettres de Marguerite de Valois (edit. Guessard). 
 
 2 Rene de Villequier, Baron de Clairvaux, one of the worst ot 
 Henri III.'s unworthy favourites. During the preceding year, while the 
 
 234 
 
y.(yyA3Ah 
 
 v/i w^ 
 
 A V^\v\v^Vf' 
 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 according to L'Estoile. ' nsieur and the Queea 
 
 of Nava- -^ ,7^. -J : .. .^ . . ,j ^\^^ ceremony, and went 
 
 with the ^ at Saint-Maur. However, 
 
 in the evening, the duke consented to appear at the ball 
 wherewith the day's festivities concluded, Catherine 
 ' * represented to him that his absence would be 
 i.. .^„. to displease the King. But no sooner did he 
 enter the ball-room, than the mignons who evidently 
 regarded his refusal to grace the wedding-ceremony with 
 his presence as a personal affront to their comrade and 
 
 ther-^^^" " *' '' ' — *•*"- ' '"^ —• '"h such cutting words 
 
 tha^ San himself, would 
 
 hav t He might 
 
 have sp 
 
 com 
 
 , ana iiius 
 ':ve to the 
 
 •.II 1 ii.ij y \.\j. 
 
 at the 
 
 rnved. 
 «*t the treat - 
 n subjected, approved 
 ecision t he Court for a time, and promised 
 
 to obtain leave of absence for him from the King, adding 
 tha ' - he was away, she would do everything in 
 her . . ,.v,. to further his expedition to Flanders- She 
 then sent Villcquier' to Henri HI. to obtain the requi 
 * Mevmres it ktms it Margueriti de Vahu (edit, Gacssard) 
 de Villcquier, Baron de <"' 
 i .'s unworthy favourites Dui 
 
 FRANCOIS DE VALoYs, DUC D'ALENCON 
 
 (Afterwards Dug d'Anjou) 
 
 Fro. an Engrarln, after a Drmcin, .ttril^uted to Fk^n.cs C.oukt, /. the 
 Btbbotheque Nattonale, Paris 
 
QiUEEN MARGOT 
 
 permission, and Anjou, looking upon his conge as already 
 granted, returned to his apartments, and having given 
 orders to his servants to make the necessary preparations 
 for his departure on the morrow, went to bed, little 
 imagining the storm which was brewing. 
 
 Villequier, meanwhile, had gone to the King with the 
 Queen-Mother's message. Henri III., at first, raised 
 no objection, but, having retired to his cabinet, " with 
 a Jeroboam's council of some five or six young men," 
 he was induced to believe that Monsieur^ s desire to with- 
 draw for a time from Court was highly suspicious, and 
 that it would be advisable to have him arrested im- 
 mediately. Throwing on a dressing-gown, and summon- 
 ing the Sieur de Losse, Captain of his Scottish Guard, 
 and some archers to accompany him, the King hurried 
 to Catherine's apartments, " in a state of the utmost 
 agitation, as though there were some public panic, or 
 the enemy had been at the gate, exclaiming : * How, 
 Madame, could you think of asking me to sanction my 
 brother's departure ? Do you not perceive, were he 
 to go, the peril to which you expose my realm ? Doubt- 
 less, this pretext of hunting is but the cover for some 
 dangerous design. I am going to arrest him and all his 
 people, and I shall cause his coffers to be searched. I 
 feel that we shall make some discovery of importance.' " 
 
 Catherine, fearing that, in his state of frenzied excite- 
 ment, the King might really attempt some "'act of 
 violence against his brother, declared her intention of 
 accompanying him, and " wrapping herself, as best she 
 could, in her manteau de nuit" followed him to Anjou's 
 
 Court was at Poitiers, he had murdered his wife in a fit of jealousy ; but, 
 as the King bore the unfortunate lady a grudge, the crime remained 
 unpunished and the murderer still in favour. 
 
 235 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 apartments, at the door of which his Majesty began knock- 
 ing violently, crying out that it was the King who stood 
 without, and demanding instant admission. 
 
 " My brother," writes Marguerite, " woke up with a 
 start, and knowing that he had done nothing which 
 need give him cause for alarm, told Cange, his valet- 
 de-chambre, to open the door. The King, entering in 
 his fury, began upbraiding him, declaring that he would 
 never cease plotting against his realm, and that he would 
 teach him what it meant to conspire against his King. 
 Thereupon, he ordered the archers to carry off his coffers, 
 and to drag his lackeys out of the room. He himself 
 searched my brother's bed, to see if he could discover any 
 papers there. My brother, having a letter from Madame 
 de Sauve, which he had received that very evening, held 
 it in his hand to prevent it being seen. The King insisted 
 on taking it from him. My brother resisted and implored 
 him, with clasped hands, not to look at it, which made the 
 King all the more anxiotis to get possession of it, believing 
 that it would be quite sufficient to bring my brother to 
 trial. At last, the King having opened it, in the presence 
 of the Queen my mother, they were as much embarrassed 
 as was Cato, who, having compelled Caesar, in the Senate, 
 to show the paper which had been brought to him, and 
 which, he declared, was something affecting the welfare 
 of the Republic, it proved to be a love-letter, which 
 Cato's own sister had addressed to him. The shame 
 of this misapprehension increased rather than abated 
 the King's wrath, and, refusing to listen to my brother, 
 who kept on demanding of what he was accused and 
 why he was being treated thus, he committed him to the 
 keeping of M. de Losse and the Scots, ordering them 
 Iiot to allow him to speak to any one." 
 
 236 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 When his infuriated brother and Catherine had taken 
 their departure, Monsieur inquired of Losse, " whose 
 eyes were filled with tears at seeing matters brought to 
 such a pass," what had happened to the Queen of Navarre, 
 and, on being assured that she was still at liberty, ex- 
 pressed himself greatly relieved, and sent Losse to beg 
 the Queen-Mother to obtain the King's permission for 
 his sister to share his captivity. This was granted, and 
 the princess, informed by one of the Scots of what had 
 occurred, hastily dressed and repaired to Anjou's apart- 
 ments. Although it was scarcely yet day, news of 
 Monsieur's arrest had already spread, and the courtyard 
 of the Louvre was thronged with people, " who," says 
 Marguerite, " were generally eager to see me and do 
 me honour, but now, perceiving that Fortune had turned 
 her face from me, like the courtiers that they were, 
 pretended not to see me." 
 
 Anjou seems to have been In great fear, " lest his 
 enemies, unable to compass his death, should cause him 
 to languish in the solitude of a long captivity." But, 
 in the course of the next day, the elder members of the 
 Council, " who were all extremely scandalised at the 
 bad advice that the King had received," addressed 
 a vigorous remonstrance to his Majesty, who, having 
 by this time recovered his senses, took it in good 
 part, and begged the Queen-Mother to smooth over 
 matters, and " arrange that my brother should forget all 
 that had occurred." Catherine, accordingly, proceeded 
 to Monsieur's apartments and " told him that he ought 
 to praise God for the mercy he had shown him in deliver- 
 ing him from so great a peril, since there had been 
 moments when she had scarcely dared to hope for his 
 life ;" and entreated him to do everything in his power 
 
 237 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 to convince the King of his loyalty and his zeal for his 
 service. The prince was then set at liberty, and a formal 
 reconciliation took place between the brothers, in the 
 King's cabinet and in the presence of the principal 
 personages of the Court ; after which, Bussy, who had 
 returned to the Louvre to visit his master the previous 
 evening, and had been promptly arrested, was sent for, 
 together with Quelus, and the two enemies ordered to 
 embrace one another, " in order that no bone of conten- 
 tion should remain to occasion further quarrels." 
 
 But the wound — to borrow Marguerite's expression — 
 was only fomented externally and not really healed ; 
 and the mignons had little difficulty in persuading the 
 King that his brother would never forget the indignity 
 to which he had been subjected, and would be certain 
 to seek to avenge it. This idea so obsessed the sus- 
 picious monarch, that, though he did not venture to 
 have Monsieur rearrested, he caused him to be kept 
 under the closest surveillance, forbade him to leave the 
 Louvre, and gave orders that all his attendants should 
 be turned out of the palace every night, with the excep- 
 tion of those who usually slept in his bedchamber or 
 in his closet. 
 
 Exasperated beyond endurance by these renewed 
 mortifications, Anjou resolved to effect his escape and 
 withdraw to his estates, until the preparations for his 
 Flemish expedition were completed. He communicated 
 his intention to his devoted ally Marguerite, who, 
 " seeing that therein lay his only hope of safety, and that 
 neither the King nor the realm would suffer any preju- 
 dice in consequence," readily promised him her aid. 
 
 The project, however, presented serious difficulties. 
 To endeavour to escape by day was out of the question, 
 
 238 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 for the gates were carefully guarded, and Monsieur 
 was surrounded hy spies ; while by night, the Louvre, 
 with its draw-bridges and its moats, was a feudal fortress, 
 which it was as difficult to leave as to enter. But Mar- 
 guerite's ingenuity was equal to the occasion. Her 
 apartments were situated in close proximity to those 
 of her brother, and, as Anjou was permitted to move 
 freely about the interior of the palace, and to visit his 
 sjister whenever he pleased, it was decided that he should 
 escape by the window of the Queen's bedchamber, which 
 was in the North-East quarter of the Louvre, on the 
 second storey, overlooking the moat. 
 
 But for this a long and stout rope was required, an 
 article which could not be procured in the palace without 
 suspicion being aroused. Marguerite, thereupon, des- 
 patched a page, upon whose discretion and fidelity she 
 could rely, into the town, with a lute-box which required 
 mending. When he returned, a few hours later, a rope 
 had been substituted for the instrument. 
 
 February 14, the day decided on for the duke's escape, ' 
 was a fast-day, the first Friday in Lent, and, as the King 
 did not sup au grand convert. Marguerite supped with 
 the Queen-Mother in the latter's apartments As they 
 were on the point of rising from table, Anjou entered, 
 and, impatient to regain his freedom, whispered to his 
 sister to return as soon as possible to her apartments, 
 where he would be awaiting her. Matignon, " a danger- 
 ous and cunning Norman," -^ who happened to be present 
 and had either got wind of what was intended, or else 
 suspected it from the manner in which Monsieur had 
 spoken to the princess, stopped the Queen-Mother, as 
 she was leaving the room, and told her that " it was 
 
 * Odet de Matignon, Comte de Thorigny, see pp. 133 and 140 supra. 
 
 239 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 evident that my brother Intended to make off ; that 
 by the morrow he would be gone, and that she ought 
 to prevent it." 
 
 Catherine, obviously much disturbed by Matignon's 
 words, told her daughter to follow her into her bed- 
 chamber, and, turning to her, said : " Are you aware 
 of what Matignon told me ? " Marguerite replied that 
 she had not heard what was said, but had perceived 
 that it was something which had pained her mother. 
 " Yes," rejoined Catherine, " it pained me very much, 
 for you know that I have pledged my word to the King 
 that your brother should not depart, and Matignon told 
 me that he is well aware that he will not be here to- 
 morrow." 
 
 Marguerite tells us that she " found herself in a double 
 dilemma, since she would either have to break faith with 
 her brother and place his life in jeopardy, or swear against 
 the truth (a thing which she would not have done to 
 escape a thousand deaths)." Eventually, she took 
 refuge in a subterfuge, which completely satisfied her 
 somewhat elastic conscience, and which she appears to 
 have regarded as a direct inspiration of the Almighty, 
 although it is rather doubtful whether any of her readers 
 will agree with her on this point. " I composed my 
 countenance and my speech," she continues, " in such 
 wise that she [the Queen-Mother] could ascertain nothing 
 but what I chose, whilst, at the same time, I neither 
 offended my soul nor my conscience by the taking of 
 any false oath. I then inquired of her whether she were 
 not aware of the hatred which M. de Matignon bore 
 my brother, and said that he was a malicious mischief- 
 maker, who was annoyed at seeing us all agreed ; that, 
 if my brother should depart, 1 would forfeit my life ; 
 
 240 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 and that, since he had never concealed anything from 
 me, he would have informed me, if he had any such 
 design. This I said, being well assured that, once my 
 brother was in safety, no one would dare to injure me, 
 while, if the worst happened, I infinitely preferred to 
 pledge my life than to offend my soul by taking a false 
 oath." 
 
 Catherine, without seeking to probe the meaning of 
 her daughter's words, said to her : " Consider what you 
 are saying ; you will be my surety for it ; and will 
 answer to me for it with your life." 
 
 The princess smilingly assured her that that was what 
 she meant, and, bidding her good-night, repaired to her 
 own apartments, where she hurriedly undressed and got 
 into bed, in order to be able to dismiss her ladies and 
 maids-of-honour, none of whom she had admitted to 
 her confidence. As soon as she found herself alone, save 
 for three waiting-women, whom she could implicitly 
 trust, and the page who had brought the rope, Anjou 
 entered, accompanied by his confidant, Simier, who 
 had aided him in his previous escape, in 1575, and his 
 faithful valet-de-chambre, Cange. 
 
 Then began this adventure, which recalls to mind 
 the escape of the Due de Beaufort, the famous " Roi 
 des Halles,^^ from Vincennes, seventy years later. 
 " Nothing," remarks M. de Saint-Poncy, " depicts more 
 vividly the disorder of this Court than this strange, 
 nocturnal escape, which takes place at the Louvre itself, 
 within two paces of the King. What a characteristic 
 tableau ! It is the first Prince of the Blood, heir-pre- 
 sumptive to the throne, who escapes through a window, 
 at the risk of breaking his neck, or of being arrested 
 as a malefactor ; it is a Daughter of France, Queen of 
 
 241 Q 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 Navarre, who furnishes him with the means for this 
 flight, superintends this liberation in her own chamber, 
 procures the instruments for it, and adjusts them with 
 her own fair and roval hands ! " ^ 
 
 But let us allow Marguerite to give her own account 
 of the adventure. 
 
 " I then rose ; we adjusted the rope by means of a 
 stick, and, after we had looked into the moat, to see if 
 there was any one there, with the assistance only of 
 three of my women, who slept in my room, and of the 
 boy who had brought the rope, we let down, first, my 
 brother, who laughed and jested without being in the 
 least afraid, although the height was very great ; next, 
 Simier, who, pale and trembling, could scarcely hold 
 on through fear, and then Cange, my brother's valet- 
 de-chamhre. God directed my brother so happily, 
 that, without being discovered, he reached Sainte- 
 Genevieve, where Bussy was awaiting him, who, with the 
 consent of the abbe,^ had made a hole in the town 
 wall.^ Through this he passed, and finding horses in 
 readiness, gained Angers without any mishap. 
 
 " Just as we were letting down Cange, who was the 
 last to descend, a man rose up from the bottom of the 
 moat, and set off running towards the apartment which 
 adjoins the tennis-court, which is the way leading to the 
 guard-room. I, who, in the midst of all this danger, 
 had never apprehended anything which concerned 
 myself, but only the safety or peril of my brother, was 
 
 1 Marguerite de ValoiSy Reine de France et de "Navarre^ i. 527. 
 
 2 Joseph Foulon. He took a very active part, on behalf of the League, 
 at the time of the siege of Paris. At this time, he was devoted to 
 Monsieur' i interests. 
 
 ^ The Abbey of Sainte-Genevi^ve, situated on the south side of the 
 Seine, was built against the city walls. 
 
 242 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 half-senseless with fear, supposing that this was some 
 one who, in accordance with M. de Matignon's warning, 
 had been placed there to watch us." 
 
 The waiting-women were as terrified as their mistress, 
 and, seizing the tell-tale rope, threw it into the fire. 
 This rope, however, which happened to be a very long 
 one, made such a blaze that the chimney caught fire, 
 and the archers of the guard came knocking at the door, 
 telling Marguerite's women to let them in, in order to 
 extinguish the flames. The women, however, induced 
 them to go away, saying that their mistress was asleep, 
 and assuring them that they were quite able to put out 
 the fire without their help This they succeeded in 
 doing ; but, two hours later, Losse, the Captain of the 
 Scottish Guard, arrived to conduct Marguerite to the 
 King and Queen-Mother. Their Majesties, it appeared, 
 had already been informed of Monsieur^s escape by the 
 Abbe of Sainte-Genevi^ve, who, in order not to become 
 compromised in the affair, had, with Anjou's consent, 
 carried the news to the Louvre, so soon as he judged 
 the duke to be beyond reach of pursuit, declaring that 
 Monsieur had arrived at the abbey unexpectedly, and had 
 caused him to be detained as a prisoner, while his followers 
 made a hole through the wall. 
 
 The King was, of course, in a towering passion, and 
 both he and Catherine accused Marguerite of having 
 deceived them, and connived at her brother's escape. 
 The princess protested her innocence, declared that 
 Anjou had deceived her, as he had them, and announced 
 her willingness to answer to them with her life that his 
 departure would not result in any deviation from his 
 allegiance, and that he was only going to his estates to 
 conclude his preparations for his expedition to Flanders. 
 
 243 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 Henri III., although well aware that he had been tricked, 
 pretended to believe his sister, not daring, as Marguerite 
 had foreseen, to complicate matters by taking any steps 
 against her, now that Anjou was at large again ; and 
 the princess returned to her apartments very well satisfied 
 with her night's work. 
 
 Next day, Catherine started for Angers to endeavour 
 to induce the fugitive to return ; but this time the 
 great negotiator did not meet with any success ; and all 
 she brought back with her was a letter from Monsieur 
 to the King, in which the duke informed his brother 
 that his desire to be at liberty and the ill-treatment he 
 had received at Court had been the only reasons which 
 had determined him to retire to his government, and 
 that he had no intention of disturbing the kingdom. 
 
 With which assurance his Majesty was fain to be 
 content. 
 
 244 
 
CHAPTER XVII 
 
 Catherine decides to accompany her daughter to Gascony to 
 rejoin the King of Navarre — Marguerite receives her dowry 
 in lands — Efforts of Henri III. to conciliate his sister — De- 
 parture of the Queen-Mother and the Queen of Navarre for 
 the South — Their suite — Marguerite's entry into Bordeaux — 
 Meeting with Henri of Navarre at Casteras — " A little war of 
 ogling " — Marguerite's reception at Agen, Toulouse, and 
 Auch — Incident of La Reole and Fleurance — The Queen of 
 Navarre enters Nerac, where politics are temporarily super- 
 seded by love — Influence exercised by Marguerite at the 
 Treaty of Nerac — Catherine returns to Paris. 
 
 The flight of Monsieur deprived Marguerite of her chief 
 support at the Court ; but, on the other hand, removed 
 a subject of continual anxiety to her ; for, in point of 
 fact, she had given far more assistance to her brother 
 than she had received from the duke, who was naturally 
 inconstant, restless, and feeble, and " perpetually playing 
 the fool," to borrow Catherine's expression. 
 
 Nevertheless, after his departure, she was more than 
 ever anxious to quit the Court, and " continued to 
 importune the King at all hours to allow her to rejoin 
 her husband." This request Henri III. was no longer 
 in a position to refuse, as he was just then particularly 
 desirous not to irritate the King of Navarre, who was 
 making strong representations to the Government in 
 regard to the grievances of the Protestants, and was 
 not less importunate in protesting against the sequestra- 
 
 245 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 tion of his estates in the North and centre of France. It 
 was, therefore, arranged that Marguerite should start 
 for Gascony, so soon as the Queen-Mother — ^who, osten- 
 sibly to settle her son-in-law's claims and the points 
 still in dispute, but really in order to endeavour to sow 
 dissension between the King of Navarre and his most 
 influential followers, had decided to accompany her 
 daughter — could leave Paris. 
 
 In the meantime, the King, " not wishing her to depart 
 bearing him ill-will, and likewise, desiring, above all 
 things, to divert her from her affection for her brother, en- 
 deavoured to conciliate her by every kind of benefit . . . 
 and took the trouble to visit her every morning, and to 
 point out how advantageous his friendship was to her, 
 whilst that of her brother would, in the end, bring about 
 her destruction, with a thousand other arguments to 
 the same effect." 
 
 Marguerite was not to be persuaded to renounce her 
 allegiance to Anjou, but she took advantage of this 
 sudden change in his Majesty's disposition towards her 
 to exact the fulfilment of the promise made her at the 
 time of the " Peace of Monsieur,^^ and renewed on her 
 return from Flanders, to assign her her dower in lands ; 
 and received the senichaussees of Quercy and the Agenais, 
 the more important to her, inasmuch as they adjoined 
 her husband's dominions, the royal domains of Con- 
 domois, Auvergne, and Rouergue, and the lordships of 
 Rieux, Alby, and Verdun-sur-Garonne. This rich appan- 
 age, which was conceded by letters patent dated March 
 1 8, 1578, made the young Queen of Navarre one of the 
 wealthiest and most powerful landowners in France. 
 
 Before setting out for Guienne, Marguerite accom- 
 panied her mother to Alencjon to bid farewell to Monsieur, 
 
 246 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 who was on the point of starting for Flanders. Then 
 they returned to the capital to complete their prepara- 
 tions for their own journey, the expenses of which, 
 L'Estoile tells us, were borne by the clergy, upon whom 
 the King levied a " tenth," at which, adds the chronicler, 
 " they all murmured loudly." ^ At the end of July, 
 the King escorted his relatives as far as Olinville, one of 
 his favourite country-seats, where they remained for 
 a few days, and, on August 2, bade his Majesty adieu," 
 and took the road to the south. 
 
 The two Queens travelled in full state, and Marguerite's 
 suite alone numbered close upon three hundred persons ; ^ 
 there were ladies-of-honour and maids-of-honour, coun- 
 cillors and secretaries ; confessors and chaplains ; physi- 
 cians, surgeons, and apothecaries ; equerries and valets- 
 de-chambre, pages, waiting-women, and lackeys ; musicians 
 and mar^chaux-des-logis ; cooks, scullions, and laundresses ; 
 coachmen, grooms, postillions, and muleteers, so that it 
 is small wonder that his Majesty preferred to burden the 
 clergy, rather than himself, with the expenses of the 
 journey. Among the distinguished persons who accom- 
 panied them, and whose attendants helped to swell the 
 cortege to the size of a veritable army, were the Cardinal 
 de Bourbon, the Due de Montpensier, and his son, the 
 Dauphin of Auvergne, the Prince de Conti, Matignon, 
 Brantome, and the learned Pibrac,® of whom we shall 
 have som.ething to say hereafter. The " escadron volant^^ 
 
 * Journal de Henri ///.,July 1578. 
 
 2 M. Philippe Lauzun, Itineraire raisonni de Marguerite de Valois en 
 Gascogne^ d'apres ses livres des comptes. 
 
 3 Gui du Faur, Sieur de Pibrac. He had gained a considerable 
 reputation as an orator at the Council of Trent, and had accompanied 
 Henri III. to Poland. On his return to France, he was made President 
 of the Parlement of Paris, and had lately been nominated Chancellor 
 
 247 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 too — significant fact ! — was on its war footing. For an 
 advance-guard, Catherine's maids-of-honour, Bazerne 
 and Dayelle, a beautiful young Greek, who had escaped 
 from the sack of Cyprus in 1571, the Italian, Anne 
 d'Atri, who had accompanied Marguerite to Flanders, 
 and Mile, de Rebours and de Fosseux, maids-of-honour 
 to the Queen of Navarre. And for the rear-guard, the 
 Duchesse de Montpensier, and the Duchesse d'Uzes, 
 of the caustic tongue, whom Catherine called " her 
 gossip," and Marguerite " her sibyl," and, finally, the 
 too-celebrated Madame de Sauve, who, although she 
 was but five-and-twenty, had achieved so many con- 
 quests that she must have seemed almost a veteran to 
 the young girls who were on their first campaign.^ 
 
 The royal travellers journeyed by easy stages, and, 
 after having passed through Etampes, and Artenay, 
 and traversed the environs of Orleans, they made a short 
 stay at the Chateau of Chenonceaux. From there they 
 travelled, by way of Tours, Azay-le-Rideau, Chinon, 
 Fontevrault, Poitiers, Ruffec, and Cognac, into Guienne, 
 It was Catherine's policy that her daughter should 
 be received en souveraine in all the towns of her husband's 
 government, and Marguerite had a magnificent reception 
 at Bordeaux, the capital of the province, into which city 
 she made her entry " with all the magnificence that 
 could be desired, habited in an orange robe, her favourite 
 colour, covered with embroidery, and mounted on a 
 white horse." ^ 
 
 of the Queen of Navarre. He was at this time fifty-four years of 
 age. 
 
 ^ La Ferriere, Trots amoureuses au XVI ' sihle : Marguerite de Valois, 
 D'Aubigne says that Catherine had brought Madame de Sauve and 
 Mile. Dayelle " expressly for the benefit of her son-in-law." 
 
 ^ Brantome, Dames lllustres. 
 
 248 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 After a stay of a few days, the two Queens left Bor- 
 deaux, on October i, and slept the night at Cadillac, 
 and the one following at Saint-Macaire. Here Pibrac, 
 who had been sent on in advance to announce their 
 coming, arrived with the news that the King of Navarre 
 would meet them at Casteras, half-way between Saint- 
 Macaire and La Reole, " a town which was still held by 
 those of the Religion, by reason of the mistrust which 
 yet possessed them — the disturbed condition of the 
 country not having permitted of his coming any further."* 
 
 The Queen arrived first at the rendezvous, and entered 
 the chateau to await the King. Henri appeared, an hour 
 later, bravely attended by a suite of six hundred gentle- 
 men, all richly dressed and well mounted. Followed by 
 the Vicomte de Turenne and his chief nobles, he entered 
 the chateau, saluted Catherine very cordially, kissed his 
 wife on both cheeks, and overwhelmed her with expres- 
 sions of joy and affection. At La Reole, to which the 
 united Courts proceeded, and where they remained for a 
 few days, Catherine had several interviews with her son- 
 in-law,and it was finallyarranged that a special commission 
 should be appointed to enforce the concessions granted 
 to the Protestants at the Peace of Bergerac, and that 
 all the points in dispute between the Huguenots and 
 Catholics should be submitted to a conference. 
 
 In the meanwhile, " a little war of ogling " had begun. 
 Madame de Sauve endeavoured to resume her empire 
 over her royal lover, but she already belonged to ancient 
 history. The Bearnais preferred green fruit, and his 
 chief attentions were bestowed on Mile. Dayelle, the 
 
 1 Mimoires etlettres de Marguerite de Valoii (edit. Guessard). Le Reole 
 was one of the six surety-towns ceded to the Huguenots by the Peace 
 of Bergerac. 
 
 249 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 beautiful Cypriote. On her side, Mile. d'Atri found a 
 malicious pleasure in rendering d*Ussac, the old governor 
 of La Reole, madly enamoured of her. The King of 
 Navarre and his younger nobles bantered the poor 
 governor unmercifully, and the veteran, wounded to the 
 quick, vowed vengeance on his ungrateful chief, and, 
 some months later, deserted to the Royalist side. 
 
 At Marmande, the two Courts parted ; the King of 
 Navarre setting out for Nerac to make arrangements 
 for the proposed conference, while Marguerite, accom- 
 panied by her mother, went to take possession of her 
 appanage. On October 12, she arrived at Agen, and 
 made a magnificent entry into the town, whither all 
 the nobles and gentry of the neighbourhood flocked to 
 do her homage. From Agen, they set out for Toulouse, 
 being met at the Chateau de Lafox by Henri, who escorted 
 them as far as Valence. Their official entry into Toulouse 
 took place on October 26, when the Queens, who were 
 accompanied by the Marechaux d'Amville and de Biron, 
 and a number of nobles, were received with great cere- 
 mony by the municipality, and conducted beneath 
 triumphal arches and through streets strewn with 
 flowers, to the archbishop's palace, where they lodged. 
 
 Soon after their arrival at Toulouse, the Queen of 
 Navarre fell ill, " seized with a violent attack of fever," 
 in consequence of which she was compelled to receive 
 the members of the Parlement, when they came to 
 present her with their address of welcome, " in a great 
 bed of white damask," and was unable to leave the city 
 "^ until November 10. Eager to expedite the meeting 
 of the conference decided upon by her and Henri of 
 Navarre, Catherine had already set out for Isle-Jourdain, 
 the rendezvous arranged between them. While she was 
 
 250 
 
MAfii io m:^I3UQ ,rjia3M '3a aKW3HT/;j 
 
 v^r . \r<'A ■A\ \<.\ .'r;i iiikO 
 
Q^ 
 
 beautifu' 
 
 ■ -■' T .._ ^, ...^^..y enamoured of her. The K...^ . , 
 
 and his younger nobles bantered the poor 
 
 governor" unmercifully, and the veteran, wounded to the 
 
 , vowed vengeance On his ungrateful chief, and, 
 
 sijmc months later, deserted to the Royalist side. 
 
 At Marmande. the two Court? rarted ; the King of 
 Navarre setting vke arrangements 
 
 for the proposed conference, while Marguerite, accom- 
 pan! * ' ' ' went to : ' ^^on of her 
 
 the nobles 
 
 <ge. Froij; 
 
 . 1, r^i «^ 
 
 they ]' 
 at Toulouse, the Queen of 
 ivurr ' 'olcnt attack of fever," 
 
 cons^v^., .. .... .. -i compelled to receive 
 
 ;.e mcmbt Parlement, when they came to 
 
 present her with their address of welcome, **^in a great 
 
 white damask," and was unable to leave the city 
 
 ^2T 10. Eager to expedite the r- "•"*''"* 
 
 .. nee decided upon by her and K 
 
 Navarre, Catherine had already set out for Isle-Jourd.? 
 the rendezvou; *en them. 
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI, QUEEN OF FRANCE 
 
 From the Drawing by FRAN901S Clouet, in the British Museum 
 
,, ;i., ■ ■., . ^ . ^ .In. .•• >i / 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 at Bordeaux, Henri had sent to her, proposing that the 
 conference should be held at Castel-Sarrazin, on the 
 pretext of the lack of suitable accommodation at Isle- 
 Jourdain, but really because he wished to remain in a 
 Huguenot country. The Queen-Mother curtly replied 
 that she should hold him to his agreement ; but, though 
 she waited a week at Isle-Jourdain, neither the King 
 nor any Huguenot deputies appeared. In great disgust, 
 she ended by consenting to the conference being held 
 at Nerac, and proceeded to Auch, into which town she 
 made her entry on November 20. Marguerite arrived 
 the following day. On her journey from Toulouse, 
 she had stopped for a night at the Chateau of Pibrac, 
 belonging to her chancellor, renowned at that time for 
 its sumptuous furniture and decorations, and had been 
 magnificently entertained by its owner. Without as 
 yet daring to avow his feelings, Pibrac, like so many others, 
 had already succumbed to his beautiful mistress's charms ; 
 and this growing passion was to be followed by very 
 unfortunate consequences. 
 
 The municipal authorities came to receive Marguerite 
 at the Porte de la Trille. The young Queen was in a 
 litter, over which was spread a black velvet pall em- 
 broidered with her Arms ; trumpets sounded, cannon 
 fired salutes, and the children of the town chanted odes 
 in her praise. Two days later, her husband arrived, 
 and was also received with great ceremony, as the 
 Comte d'Armagnac, and handed the keys of the town. 
 
 It was while the King of Navarre and the two Queens 
 were at Auch, that a singular incident occurred. The 
 popular version, which, we observe, is accepted by Mr. 
 P. F. Willert, Henri's latest biographer,* is as follows : 
 
 * " Henry of Navarre and the Huguenots in France," p. 1 29. 
 
 251 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 The evening of the King's arrival, while a ball was in 
 progress, a messenger entered to inform him that d'Ussac, 
 the Governor of La Reole, seduced from his allegiance 
 by the fascinating Mile. d'Atri, and infuriated by the 
 banter of his sovereign, had betrayed the town to the 
 Royalists. Henri's first impulse on learning the news 
 was to retaliate by arresting Biron and the Catholic chiefs 
 who had accompanied the Queen-Mother ; but, being 
 advised that the marshal had too strong a following to 
 render this practicable without bloodshed, he slipped from 
 the room, called some of his most trusty followers to- 
 gether, and before morning escaladed Fleurance, a small 
 town between Auch and Lectoure, held by a garrison of 
 French troops. Catherine, when she heard of the exploit 
 only laughed : " It is his revenge for La Reole," said 
 she, " cabbage for cabbage, but mine has the better 
 heart." 
 
 The truth, however, would appear to be somewhat 
 less picturesque. D'Ussac, as we have mentioned else- 
 where, did certainly desert the Huguenot for the Royalist 
 side, and in the next war held La Reole against his former 
 friends, " to the prejudice of his soul and his honour." * 
 But his defection did not take place until some months 
 later. The chateau and town of La Reole were not 
 betrayed by him to the Royalists, but were seized by 
 the townspeople, who rose in revolt, owing to the tyranny 
 of one of d'Ussac's officers named Favas, " who oppressed 
 and maltreated them." The town was subsequently 
 restored to the King of Navarre by order of Henri HL 
 
 As for the supposed couf de main at Fleurance, Cather- 
 ine's correspondence tells us what really occurred there. 
 Fleurance was an Armagnac town, and ought to have 
 ^ Memoires du Due de Bouillon. 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 admitted the King of Navarre, as Auch had done. 
 But when he appeared and demanded the keys, the 
 Catholic inhabitants refused to surrender them, flew 
 to arms, and occupied the towers of one of their gates, 
 from which they fired several arquebus-shots at their 
 ord and his followers, wounding a gentleman of Henri's 
 suite. However, the Queen-Mother sent orders to 
 them to evacuate the tower and admit the King, which 
 they eventually did. ^ 
 
 From Auch, the two Queens proceeded to Condom, 
 and, on December 15, Marguerite made her entry into 
 Nerac, the capital of the duchy of Albret, and the 
 residence of her husband's maternal ancestors. Here, 
 the two Courts remained a week, which was devoted to 
 f^tes and amusements of all kinds. The King's troupe 
 of Italian players gave several performances, and Salluste, 
 du Bartas, the Ronsard of the Huguenots,^ composed, 
 in the Queen's honour, a dialogue in three languages, 
 which was recited by three damsels, representing the 
 Gascon, Latin and French Muses. As was, of course, 
 to be expected, Marguerite awarded the palm to the 
 Gascon Muse, who had proclaimed her husband " leu 
 plus grand rey deu moun^'' and, in token of her satisfaction, 
 presented the young lady — a certain Mile. Sauvage — 
 with a gauze fichu which she happened to be wearing, 
 and which, M. de Saint-Poncy assures us, was for many 
 years cherished as a precious relic by the descendants of 
 the recipient. 
 
 ^ M. Charles Merki, La Reine Margoi et la fin des Valois, p. 212. 
 
 2 Guillaume Salluste du Bartas. He was born at Montfort, near 
 Auch, in 1544, and became a soldier while still very young. He was 
 entrusted by the King of Navarre with several diplomatic missions to 
 England, Scotland and Denmark, and fell, fighting by his side, at 
 Ivry. 
 
 253 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 At Nerac, politics were for the moment relegated to 
 the background, and love reigned supreme. The pretty 
 girls whom the two Queens had brought with them, 
 turned the heads of all the Protestant nobles, so much 
 so indeed that Marguerite tells us that there were 
 moments when her mother suspected that the delays 
 in holding the conference had been purposely arranged 
 by these enamoured gentlemen, " to the end that they 
 might the longer enjoy the society of her maids-of- 
 honour." Even the stern Calvinist, d'Aubigne, and 
 the grave statesman, Rosny,^ caught the prevailing 
 infection ; for the former tells us that they were " all 
 lovers together," while Sully admits that he also became 
 a courtier and " took a mistress like the others," It 
 should be mentioned, however, that the Calvinist nobles 
 were, after all, only following the example of their sove- 
 reign, who had renewed his old liaison with Madame 
 de Sauve, and whose passion for Mile. Dayelle 
 had reached a very high temperature. " But," writes 
 his complacent consort, " this did not prevent the 
 King my husband from showing me great respect and 
 affection, as much, indeed, as I could have desired; since 
 he informed me, upon the very first day we arrived, of 
 all the devices that had been invented, while he was at 
 Court, to create bad feeling between us, and he expressed 
 great satisfaction at our reunion." 
 
 Catherine cut short these intrigues by removing with 
 
 her squadron to Porte-Sainte-Marie, where she remained 
 
 until the first week of February 1579, when she returned 
 
 to Nerac, for the conference. In these deliberations. 
 
 Marguerite took a prominent part, but in a sense very 
 
 much opposed to that which Catherine had expected of 
 
 ^ Maximilien de Bethune, afterwards Due de Sully. 
 254 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 her. That veteran intriguer had brought her fairest 
 auxiliaries with her, in the confident expectation that 
 her susceptible son-in-law would succumb to their 
 charms, and thus cause an estrangement between him 
 and his wife, by which she could not fail to profit. But 
 Henri and Marguerite seemed to have agreed upon a 
 policy of mutual tolerance, and the latter, thoroughly 
 well acquainted with the objects and methods of her 
 mother, was able to give her husband some very useful 
 advice, which greatly disconcerted Catherine's plans. 
 She also did not scruple to make use of her influence over 
 Pibrac, and the enamoured lawyer manoeuvred so skil- 
 fully that the Huguenots obtained more favourable 
 terms than they had dared to hope for. The conference, 
 after some pretty sharp recriminations,* ended with a 
 promise of further securities to the Huguenots, in the 
 shape of eight additional surety-towns, and of the com- 
 plete redress of their grievances ; and, towards the end 
 of March, the Queen-Mother set out on her return to 
 Paris, having accomplished very little, save the sowing 
 of a few seeds of discord about the King of Navarre, 
 and the beguiling of two or three Catholic nobles from 
 their allegiance to him. 
 
 Marguerite and her husband accompanied Catherine 
 as far as Castelnaudary, where they took leave of her. 
 The parting affected his Majesty not a little ; for the 
 Queen-Mother carried away with her the fascinating 
 Mile. Dayelle. 
 
 1 The Huguenot deputies adopted a very arrogant and bellicose tone, 
 and Catherine felt obliged to address them " royally and very haughtily, 
 even going so far as to declare that she would have them all hanged as 
 rebels." Upon which the Queen of Navarre intervened and, with tears 
 in her eyes, implored her mother to give them peace. 
 
 255 
 
CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 Mile, de Rebours becomes the King of Navarre's mistress — 
 Difficulty of Marguerite's position at Pau, owing to the pro- 
 scription of the Catholic religion — Incident on Whit-Sunday 
 1579, in the Queen's private chapel — Marguerite nurses her 
 husband during an illness at Eauze — Life at Nerac — Amours 
 of the King — A disappointed lover's revenge — Henri III. 
 writes to his brother-in-law to warn him of the nature of his 
 wife's relations with the Vicomte de Turenne — Anger of 
 Marguerite, who intrigues to bring about a renewal of 
 hostilities — The " Lovers' War " — The storming of Cahors — 
 The Marechal de Biron blockades Nerac — Marguerite uses her 
 influence to end the war — Anjou sent to Gascony to negotiate 
 on behalf of the King — The Treaty of Fleix. 
 
 " It is the best menage that one could possibly desire," 
 wrote Catherine to her confidante, the Duchesse d'Uzes, 
 who had preceded her to Paris; and, indeed, for some time 
 after their reunion, harmony appeared to reign between 
 the King of Navarre and his wife. On taking leave of 
 the Queen-Mother, the royal pair spent some time at 
 Mazeres and Pamiers ; but the end of May found them 
 installed at Pau, in the chateau in which Henri had been 
 born. 
 
 Mile. Dayelle having followed Catherine to Paris, 
 the King turned for consolation to Mile, de Rebours,^ 
 " a malicious girl," says Marguerite, " who disliked me 
 and endeavoured by every means in her power to preju- 
 dice me in his eyes." However, it was not on account 
 
 ^ Daughter of Guillaume de Rebours, President of the Parlement. 
 
 256 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 of this new mistress that the first domestic storm arose 
 but owing to a very different matter. 
 
 The position of Marguerite, a Catholic in the midst 
 of a Calvinist community, was a very difficult one ; 
 she had, at the same time, to consider the Court of France, 
 on which she depended for her revenues and the inter- 
 ests of her husband. Although the edicts of Jeanne 
 d'Albret, which interdicted on pain of death all exercise 
 of the Catholic religion, had been repealed by Henri, 
 in 1572, after his compulsory abjuration, his Huguenot 
 subjects had refused to obey the Ordinance extorted from 
 their captive sovereign, and, though, since the King's 
 return, the persecution to which the Catholics were 
 subjected was less cruel, it was quite as vexatious as in 
 the time of his mother. " Since there was no exercise 
 of the Catholic religion," writes Marguerite, " I was 
 only permitted to have Mass said in a little chapel four 
 or five paces long, and which, being extremely narrow, 
 was quite full when it contained only seven or eight 
 persons." 
 
 At the hour when Mass was to be celebrated, the draw- 
 bridge of the chateau was raised, lest the Catholics of 
 the country should come and hear it. But on Whit- 
 Sunday some Catholic peasants succeeded in entering 
 the chateau before the drawbridge was raised, and slipped 
 into the little chapel. They remained undetected until 
 the service was nearly over, when, the door being partly 
 opened to admit one of the Queen's suite, some Hugue- 
 nots, who were peeping in, perceived them and reported 
 the matter to Du Pin, the King's secretary, " who had 
 great influence with his master and great authority in 
 his Household, as he was accustomed to manage all the 
 affairs of those of the Religion." 
 
 257 R 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 Du Pin, a bitter Calvinist, hastened to seize the oppor- 
 tunity of teaching this handful of refractory Papists a 
 severe lesson, and, at the same time, of proving to them 
 how powerless was the Queen to afford them protection. 
 He, accordingly, despatched a number of the King's 
 guards to the chapel, who seized the intruders, dragged 
 them forth, and beat them in her Majesty's presence, 
 after which they were thrown into prison, where they 
 remained for some time, in addition to being heavily 
 fined. 
 
 Marguerite, greatly incensed at the treatment of her 
 co-religionists, and not less at the slight to her own 
 dignity, lost no time in seeking her husband in order to 
 complain of it, and to beg him to set at liberty these un- 
 fortunate people, who, she pointed out, had not deserved 
 such punishment, merely for desiring, after having been 
 so long deprived of the exercise of their own religion, 
 to take advantage of her coming, and to attend Mass 
 on the occasion of so solemn a feast. But, before Henri 
 could reply, Du Pin entered the room, and, " ignoring 
 the respect due to his master, instead of permitting him 
 to answer, took up the conversation himself, telling her 
 not to worry the King her husband about such a matter, 
 since, whatever she might say would not alter the case ; 
 that the Catholics had been deservedly punished, and that 
 she should rest satisfied with being permitted to have a 
 Mass said for herself and such of her people as she wished 
 to attend it." 
 
 " The King my husband," continues the princess, 
 " perceiving my just indignation, ordered him to leave 
 my presence, and assured me that he was very much 
 annoyed by Du Pin's indiscretion, and that it was his 
 religious zeal which had carried him away ; while, with 
 
 *58. 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 regard to the Catholic prisoners, he would consult with 
 his councillors in the Parlement of Pau, as to what 
 could be done to satisfy me." 
 
 The matter eventually ended in the triumph of 
 Marguerite and the dismissal of Du Pin ; but the King 
 was at no pains to conceal from his consort that he parted 
 from him with the greatest reluctance, and treated her 
 for some time very coldly. Nor was it long before he 
 found an excuse for restoring his presumptuous secretary 
 to his former office. 
 
 At the end of June, the Court, to Marguerite's great 
 satisfaction, quitted " this little Geneva of a Pau " for 
 Montauban, where a Huguenot assembly was about to 
 meet to discuss the future policy of the party. " On 
 the way thither," writes the Queen, " we had to pass 
 through a little village called Eauze,^ where, upon the 
 night of our arrival, the King my husband fell ill of a 
 severe and continuous fever, accompanied by a violent 
 headache, which lasted seventeen days, during which 
 time he could obtain repose neither by day nor by night, 
 and it was necessary to change him continually from one 
 bed to another. I devoted myself so entirely to succour- 
 ing him — never quitting him for a moment or even 
 removing my clothes — that he began to find my service 
 agreeable, and to praise it to every one, particularly to 
 my cousin, M. de Turenne,* who, acting the part of a 
 kind kinsman, re-established me as firmly as ever in my 
 husband's good graces. According to Mongez, one ought 
 
 * A very ancient town, now in the department of the Gers. 
 
 ^ Henri de la Tour d'Auvergne, afterwards Due de Bouillon. His 
 family had made several alliances with the House of Bourbon, on the 
 one side ; while, on the other, Catherine de Medici was a daughter of 
 Madeline de la Tour, Comtesse de Boulogne. 
 
 • »S9 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 to attribute to this temporary reconciliation the in- 
 difference and the little credit which the King of Navarre 
 appeared to attach to the scandalous reports which soon 
 afterwards began to circulate about the conduct of his 
 wife and the viscount. 
 
 After a short stay at Montauban, the little Court 
 proceeded to Nerac and resumed the life of f^tes and 
 amusements which had marked its former sojourn there. 
 Marguerite appears to have been very happy at Nerac, 
 where far more latitude was permitted her in religious 
 matters than had been the case at Pau, which town she 
 cordially detested. In both places the Protestants were, 
 of course, largely in the majority ; but men differ accord- 
 ing to their surroundings. At Pau, it was the bigoted 
 Calvinistic ministers who were in the ascendency. At 
 Nerac, the military nobility prevailed, and Marguerite, 
 d'Aubigne tells us, had quickly taught all these young 
 Huguenots " a derouiller leurs coeurs et a laisser rouiller 
 leurs armes.''^ " Our Court," she writes, " was so brilliant 
 that we had no cause to regret that of France. Besides 
 myself, with a number of ladies- and maids-of-honour, 
 there were the Princesse de Navarre,^ since married to 
 the Due de Bar, and the King my husband, with a goodly 
 following of nobles and gentlemen — as gallant a company 
 as ever I remember to have seen at the French Court — 
 the only drawback being that its members were Huguenot. 
 The difference of religion, however, was never alluded to. 
 The King my husband, and the princess his sister, went 
 off in one direction to the friche, while I and my suite 
 would proceed in another to hear Mass, in a chapel 
 situated in the park, after which it was our custom to 
 reassemble and walk together, either in a beautiful 
 
 ^ Henri's sister, Catherine de Bourbon, 
 260 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 garden with long alleys planted with laurel and cypress, 
 or in a park, which I had laid out in avenues, three 
 thousand paces long, by the side of the river. And the 
 rest of the day was passed in all kinds of innocent diver- 
 sions, there being, as a rule, dancing both after dinner 
 and in the evening." 
 
 When the Court quitted Pau, Mile, de Rebours had 
 been left behind ill, and by the time she was sufficiently 
 recovered to rejoin it, her place in the King's affections 
 had been usurped by another of his wife's maids-of- 
 honour. Mile, de Fosseux, or " Fosseuse," as the Queen 
 had named her.* Fosseuse, a damsel of some fifteen 
 summers, " conducted herself with virtue and propriety," 
 and, for some time, the aifair remained in its preliminary 
 stages. At the same time that he flirted with this 
 inginue, the Bearnais, who had not the smallest objec- 
 tion to carrying on two or three intrigues at once, cast 
 a favourable eye upon a soubrette in his wife's service 
 called Xaintes, " avec laquelle il familiar is ait. ''^ Under 
 which circumstances, it is scarcely surprising that his 
 Majesty should have felt obliged to close his eyes to the 
 very marked attentions which Marguerite was receiving 
 from the Vicomte de Turenne, and that it should have 
 required a communication from his royal brother-in-law 
 to open them. 
 
 Shortly before this thunder-cloud made its appearance 
 in the smiling sky of Nerac, Marguerite's chancellor, 
 Pibrac, had returned to Paris, summoned thither by 
 his judicial duties in the Parlement, and carrying with 
 him a heart ulcerated by an unrequited love. Although 
 
 1 Fran9oise de Montmorency, fifth daughter of Pierre de Montmo- 
 rency, Marquis de Thury, Baron de Fosseux. She married Fran9ois 
 de Broc, Baron de Cinq-Mars. 
 
 261 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 some distance on the shady side of fifty, M. de Pibrac 
 had, as we have mentioned, very quickly succumbed 
 to his beautiful mistress's charms. Whether he had 
 dared to avow the passion which possessed him is some- 
 what doubtful — ^judging from a letter which we shall 
 presently have occasion to cite, it would appear that he 
 had not ^ — but, any way, he had sighed in vain, and was 
 consumed by a most violent jealousy of his successful 
 rival Turenne. 
 
 On his return to the capital, Pibrac was admitted to 
 an audience of the King, who, with fraternal solicitude, 
 questioned him closely as to how it fared with his dear 
 sister at the Court of Navarre, and soon learned from 
 this disappointed lover that which caused him to rub 
 his hands with gratified malice. Pibrac dismissed, his 
 Majesty repaired to his cabinet, and there, with his 
 sneering mignons about him, indited to his brother-in- 
 law a letter, wherein he informed him that he felt it 
 to be his most painful duty to warn him of the rumours 
 which were current concerning the relations existing 
 between his consort and his friend, the Vicomte de 
 Turenne, adding that it was the talk of the whole country, 
 and that it behoved the King of Navarre, if he valued 
 his honour, to put a stop to such a scandal without a 
 moment's delay. 
 
 His Majesty chuckled gleefully, as he affixed his seal 
 to the letter, reflecting that it was a coup worthy of a 
 student of Machiavelli. At one stroke, he would injure 
 Marguerite, whom he hated, put an end to the good 
 understanding between her and her husband, always 
 a menace to his own interests, and deprive the King of 
 Navarre of one of his most trusted and influential followers. 
 
 ^ See page 272 infra. 
 262 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 And then, that nothing mightjbe wanting to his content, 
 he entrusted this ill-omened epistle to Strozzi, who was 
 about to set out for Nerac, to claim the restoration of 
 the surety-towns from the Huguenots, and, on his own 
 account, to demand the hand of Turenne's sister in 
 marriage. The King disapproved of the Italian soldier's 
 matrimonial aspirations, thinking the heiress in question 
 a suitable match for one of his mignons, and judged that 
 poor Strozzi's suit was not likely to be very favourably 
 received by the lady's brother, when he inaugurated 
 his wooing in such fashion. Needless to say, Strozzi 
 was left in happy ignorance of the contents of the missive 
 with which he was charged. 
 
 But the coup failed, and, moreover, as such machina- 
 tions not infrequently do, recoiled on the head of him 
 who had contrived it. The King of Navarre, who 
 knew his brother-in-law, divined the snare, and avoided 
 it with his accustomed dexterity. Whether he believed 
 the charge matters little ; he had too much to be 
 forgiven not to forgive his wife, and certainly could not 
 afford to quarrel with Turenne. Laughing with well- 
 assumed incredulity, he laid the letter before the delin- 
 quents, who expressed their opinion of the King of 
 France's conduct in no measured terms. Marguerite 
 was mortally offended. Besides, she had a new grievance 
 against his Most Christian Majesty, who had lately 
 delivered the fascinating Bussy to the vengeance of 
 Montsoreau.^ She vowed to make her malicious brother 
 
 * Bussy, having seduced the ComtessedeMontsoreau, hadhad thebad 
 taste to boast of his conquest and wrote to Anjou that " he had cast 
 his nets over the hind of the Grand Huntsman (the Comte de Mont- 
 soreau had lately been appointed to that post), and held her fast in his 
 toils." Monsieur, to amuse the King, with whom he was now recon- 
 ciled, showed him the letter. Henri III., who hated Bussy, perceived a 
 
 263 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 pay dearly for all the outrages she had suffered at his hands, 
 and could find no better way than to fan the still smoulder- 
 ing embers of the late war into a fresh blaze. To this 
 task, she devoted herself with characteristic energy and 
 ingenuity. Henri III., who believed that all the troubles 
 had been appeased by the treaty signed at Nerac, " ap- 
 peared to have no uneasiness in regard to Guienne, and 
 jested with his mignons about the King his brother-in- 
 law, whom he spoke of with the utmost contempt." 
 The Due de Guise also permitted himself to let fall some 
 biting gibes at the expense of his Majesty of Navarre, 
 incited thereto by Madame de Sauve, now his mistress, 
 who had not forgiven Henri for preferring the fresher 
 charms of Mile. Dayelle to hers. Informed of these 
 railleries, by letters from her friends in Paris, Marguerite 
 employed Fosseuse to repeat them to the King and incite 
 his wrath, and she also induced Xaintes to bestir herself 
 with the same object. 
 
 Following the example of her mother, the Queen of 
 Navarre had surrounded herself with ladies remarkable 
 for their beauty, but whose tastes for gallantry involved 
 her in many troubles, and, like Catherine, made use of 
 them when occasion arose, and caused them to espouse 
 her quarrels. Several of these ladies were beloved by 
 the King's councillors, and at the instance of their 
 mistress employed all their powers of persuasion to 
 
 fine opportunity for revenge. He kept the letter and handed it to the 
 injured husband, who forced his wife to give her lover a rendezvous at 
 the Chateau of Coutanc^re, in Anjou, and when the unsuspecting 
 gallant appeared, fell upon him with a band of bravos. Bussy fought 
 with his usual courage, and, after his sword was broken, defended him- 
 self " with tables, benches, chairs, and stools." But, though he killed 
 and wounded several of his assailants, the odds against him were too 
 great, and he was eventually overpowered and slain (August 19, 1579). 
 
 264 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 induce their admirers to urge upon Henri a renewal of 
 hostilities. And to such good purpose did they carry- 
 out her orders that the war which shortly afterwards 
 broke out was called the " Lovers' War," " a name,"-^ 
 observes Mongez, " which was the more appropriate, 
 since none of those who composed the Council of the 
 King of Navarre, with the single exception of Favas, 
 whom age had cured of the follies of love, was exempt 
 from this passion." ^ 
 
 It is, however, probable that Marguerite's intrigues 
 did little more than precipitate matters, since recourse 
 to arms had been virtually resolved upon at the Huguenot 
 conference which met at Montauban in July 1579,' 
 while the Catholics of the South were equally eager for 
 war. 
 
 The chief event of the desultory campaign which 
 followed was the storming of Cahors, which afforded 
 Henri of Navarre an opportunity for the display of that 
 obstinate courage, which made so great an impression 
 upon the imagination of his countrymen, and earned him 
 the admiration and respect even of his enemies. 
 
 Cahors was the capital of the district of Quercy, which 
 
 formed part of Marguerite's appanage, but which her 
 
 husband had never been able to obtain possession of. 
 
 It was an exceedingly difficult place to take by assault, 
 
 being built on a rock surrounded on three sides by a 
 
 bend of the River Lot, and garrisoned by nearly two 
 
 thousand men, under Jean de Vezins, Seneschal of 
 
 Quercy. Undaunted by the difficulties of such an 
 
 undertaking, in the night of May 5-6, 1580, the King 
 
 of Navarre, with some three thousand men, approached 
 
 the town, and, favoured by a violent storm, contrived 
 
 * Histoire de Marguerite de Falois, 
 265 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 to get close to the walls without being observed. Two 
 of the gates were quickly blown in by petards, and the 
 Huguenots rushed into the town. They met, however, 
 with a furious resistance, for the townspeople, nearly 
 all fanatical Catholics,who had persecuted their Protestant 
 fellow-citizens with relentless cruelty, rallied to the 
 assistance of the garrison, and, in full belief that no 
 quarter was to be expected from their enemies, fought 
 with all the courage of despair. The steep and narrow 
 streets of the town were all in favour of the defenders, 
 and the assailants fell in scores beneath the fire of the 
 garrison and the missiles which rained upon them from 
 every housetop. Henri's followers urged him to abandon 
 the unequal contest and retire before reinforcements 
 could arrive for the garrison. But the King replied 
 that " the only retreat should be that of his soul from 
 his body," and insisted on continuing the fight. For 
 four days and nights the combat raged without inter- 
 mission, until, at length, Vezins, having been mortally 
 wounded and the greater part of the garrison having 
 fallen, Cahors surrendered. 
 
 But this brilliant feat of arms could not atone for the 
 King of Navarre's lack of resources, as the more sober 
 Protestants disapproved of a war so lightly undertaken, 
 and La Rochelle and several other towns had refused to 
 send assistance. Henri HI., furious at the fall of Cahors, 
 took energetic measures, and despatched three armies 
 against the Huguenots. That which operated in Guienne 
 under the command of Biron, the King's lieutenant 
 in that province, was alone much superior in numbers 
 to any which Henri of Navarre could place in the field, 
 and, after taking Mont-de-Marsan and several other 
 towns, appeared before N6rac. 
 
 266 
 
/■i.^^ 
 
 QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 At Marguerite's request, it had been arranged at the 
 commencement of hostilities, that Nerac should be con- 
 sidered neutral ground, unless the King of Navarre 
 should himself be there, in which case the neutrality was 
 to lapse, and the royal forces to be at liberty to attack 
 it. Unfortunately, almost at the same moment as 
 Biron's troops showed themselves on some rising ground 
 near the town, Henri, anxious to spend a few days in the 
 company of his beloved Fosseuse, returned to Nerac, 
 and the marshal, therefore, felt himself justified in 
 commencing offensive operations. The royal forces 
 blockaded the town for two or three days, and, at one 
 time, might have taken it, had they acted with a little 
 more vigour, as the King, deceived by some false in- 
 formation, had withdrawn nearly all his troops to oppose 
 the advance of some reinforcements for Biron, which, 
 as a matter of fact, had already effected their junction 
 with the besiegers. 
 
 Finally, the marshal " caused five or six volleys of 
 cannon-shot to be fired into the town," and marched 
 away, having previously despatched a trumpeter to the 
 Queen, " to present his excuses and assure her that, had 
 she been alone in the town, nothing would have induced 
 him to act as he had done." To which her indignant 
 Majesty returned answer that " he might perfectly 
 well have allowed her to enjoy the pleasure of seeing 
 the King her husband for those three days at Nerac ; 
 that he could not attack him, when in her presence^ 
 without attacking her also, and that she was extremely 
 offended at his conduct, and should complain of it to the 
 King her brother." 
 
 After the blockade of Nerac, Marguerite appears to 
 have come to the conclusion that it was high time she 
 
 267 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 extricated her husband from the very precarious position 
 in which she had placed him, and she, therefore, directed 
 her energies to bring about the conclusion of peace. 
 " I beg of you," she writes to Catherine's confidante, 
 the Duchesse d'Uzes, " to remind my mother of what 
 I am to her, and to beg her not to render me, whom she 
 brought into the world, so miserable as that I should 
 remain deprived of her favour and protection." ^ She 
 also wrote to Monsieur to request his good offices, to 
 which that prince readily acceded. Henri III., on his 
 side, with his finances exhausted, and harassed by the 
 intrigues of Spain and the Guises, had no desire to prolong 
 the war, and Anjou set out for Gascony, with full powers 
 to treat on his behalf 
 
 As the result of a conference held at Fleix, in Perigord, 
 a treaty was drawn up, which confirmed all previous 
 concessions to the Reformers, and secured to Marguerite 
 the enjoyment of her appanage. To satisfy the outraged 
 dignity of the Queen of Navarre, Biron was superseded 
 in his office of King's lieutenant in Guienne by the 
 Marechal de Matignon. 
 
 And so ended the " Lovers' War," and Marguerite 
 and her husband must have congratulated themselves 
 in getting very well out of what had promised to be an 
 exceedingly awkward predicament. 
 
 * Memoires et lettres de Marguerite de Valoii (edit. Guessard). 
 
 268 
 
CHAPTER XIX 
 
 Rivalry between the King of Navarre and Monsieur over 
 Fosseuse appeased by Marguerite — Harlay de Chanvallon — His 
 /iaison with the Queen of Navarre — The Queen demands the 
 disgrace of d'Aubigne, charged with circulating scandalous 
 reports about her — Departure of Anjou — Passionate letters 
 addressed to Chanvallon by Marguerite — Indiscretions of 
 Pibrac, whom the Queen dismisses from her service — Fosseuse 
 becomes the mistress of the King and intrigues against Mar- 
 guerite — The Queen goes to Bagn6res-de-Bigorre — Interview 
 between Marguerite and Fosseuse — A Court scandal — The 
 Queen accepts Henri III.'s invitation to visit Paris. 
 
 Anjou remained in the South until the end of the follow- 
 ing April, notwithstanding that he was being urgently 
 pressed to succour Cambrai, which had been duly 
 delivered to him by d'Inchy, and was now closely besieged 
 by the Spaniards under Parma. Monsieur ^ who had a 
 marvellous aptitude for making mischief wherever he 
 went, did not fail to keep up his reputation in this respect. 
 He fell in love with the fair Fosseuse, and, for a time, 
 there reigned between him and his royal host almost as 
 bitter a rivalry as had existed in the days when they were 
 both at the feet of Madame de Sauve. Nor was this 
 all ; for the King conceived the idea that his consort, 
 through jealousy of Fosseuse, was favouring her brother's 
 equivocal attentions to the damsel, and began to treat 
 her with marked coldness. To remedy this painful state 
 of affairs, the Queen was forced to intervene and secure 
 
 to Henri the peaceable possession of his enchantress, 
 
 269 
 
 / 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 hy " pointing out to her brother the misery he would bring 
 upon her by this courtship." Whereupon that mag- 
 nanimous prince, " caring as he did more for her happi- 
 ness than his own, subdued his passion." ^ 
 
 Anjou had brought with him his usual train of roues 
 and bravos, but, among his following, was a man of a 
 different stamp. This was his grand equerry, Jacques 
 de Harlay, Seigneur de Chanvallon, one of the handsomest 
 men of his time. He and Marguerite had met at La 
 Fere, during Anjou's visit to his sister after her return 
 from Flanders, and would appear to have been very 
 favourably impressed with one another. At La Fere, 
 however, the Queen had been too occupied in entertain- 
 ing her brother and discussing with him the prospect 
 of his Flemish enterprise to have had much time to spare 
 for his attendants, however fascinating. But at Cadillac, 
 to which the Court of Navarre proceeded after the con- 
 clusion of the Treaty of Fleix, their intimacy progressed 
 rapidly, and eventually Chanvallon avowed his passion. 
 Marguerite reciprocated it, and the handsome cavalier 
 does not seem to have long sighed in vain.^ 
 
 Sainte-Beuve, who bases his opinion on a perusal of 
 the letters which the Queen subsequentl}' addressed 
 to her admirer, thinks that " she loved not with the 
 heart, but rather with the head and the imagination." ' 
 
 * Mf moires et lettres de Marguerite de Valois (edit. Guessard). 
 
 2 Even Marguerite's ardent apologist, M. de Saint-Poncy, who will 
 not allow that La Mole, Bussy, and Turenne were anything more than 
 humble worshippers, is constrained to admit this, though he excuses his 
 heroine's conduct on the ground that she was " wounded in her wifely 
 susceptibilities and outraged in her dignity as Queen," and ^^d'une 
 complexion trap ardente pour ne pas cider a la tentation" 
 
 ^ Causeries du Lundi, vol. vi. La Reine Marguerite^ ses memoires et de$ 
 lettres. 
 
 270 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 However that may be, she appears to have acted with 
 singular indiscretion, and, while at Cadillac, a report 
 spread that her Majesty and M. de Chanvallon had been 
 detected in a most compromising situation. The 
 originator of this rumour was the malicious d'Aubigne — 
 the presumed author of the Divorce satyrique — and the 
 infuriated princess hurried to her consort and demanded 
 his instant dismissal. Henri felt unable to refuse her 
 the satisfaction she demanded ; but, as he was naturally- 
 very reluctant to part with his faithful equerry, he had 
 recourse to stratagem. D'Aubign6 was ostensibly dis- 
 missed ; but it was arranged that he should remain in 
 hiding during the day, and when night fell, return to his 
 master's apartments in the chateau. This arrangement con- 
 tinued until her Majesty's wrath was sufficiently appeased 
 to admit of the delinquent's public restoration to his office. 
 
 At the end of April 1581, Monsieur took his departure, 
 and Chanv^allon followed him. This enforced separation, 
 far from cooling Marguerite's passion, seems only to 
 have inflamed it, and she addressed to her absent lover 
 the most tender letters. " Absence, constraint," writes 
 she to him, " serves to increase my love, as much as it 
 would diminish that of a feeble soul inflamed by a vulgar 
 passion. ... Be sure that the hour when you change 
 will be that of my end. ... I live no more save in you, 
 mon beau tout, ma seule et farfaite beaute. ... I 
 kiss a million times those beautiful eyes, that beautiful 
 hair, my dear and sweet fetters ; I kiss a million times 
 that beautiful and lovable mouth ; " and so forth.* 
 
 Very different in tone were the letters which Mar- 
 guerite addressed to her unfortunate chancellor, Pibrac. 
 The Queen was considerably indebted to Pibrac, who 
 
 ' Memoires et lettres de Marguerite de Valois (edit. Guessard). 
 
 271 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 had taken off her hands an hotel in Paris, which Henri III. 
 had given her — the Hotel d'Anjou, situated near the 
 Louvre— at a price considerably in excess of its market 
 value, and advanced her large sums of money, as much 
 as 35,000 ecus, according to one account. But she 
 suspected him of playing a double part and of slandering 
 her to Henri HI., and was highly indignant. In March 
 "^ 1581, he wrote the princess a very imprudent letter, to 
 warn her that an astrologer in Paris had predicted that, 
 in the course of that month, her husband would slay her 
 with his own hands, and imploring her to take refuge at 
 Agen. And this he followed by another, wherein he 
 excused his interference on the ground of the love he 
 bore her. Marguerite, however, repulsed her grey- 
 haired admirer's homage with disdain. " You have 
 written," she replies, " an excuse not less indiscreet 
 and little becoming so wise a man, namely, that nothing 
 else had urged you to give me this warning, save the 
 extreme passion you entertain for me, which you had not 
 dared to confess. These are strange proceedings for 
 a man such as you are, and would be little to your advan- 
 tage, were they to come to any one's knowledge, which 
 I do not intend them to do . . . since I desire no other 
 witness than your conscience, which will be your judge."^ 
 Nevertheless, she showed the letter to her husband, 
 and the matter soon became common knowledge, and 
 poor Pibrac the laughing-stock of Paris. 
 
 J'etais president 
 
 En la cour du Parlement, 
 
 Je m'en suis d^fait, 
 
 Reine Margot, Marguerite 
 
 Je m'en suis defait 
 
 Pour etre k vous tout a fait. 
 
 * Mimoires et lettres de Marguerite de Valois (edit. Guessard). 
 
 27a 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 So ran one of the numerous chansons that were made 
 about him. 
 
 Moreover, the indignant Queen ordered him to sur- 
 render his seals as her chancellor, and refused to pardon 
 him, though he sought to extenuate the inflammatory- 
 expressions which had so offended her. " Our fashion 
 to-day," he writes, " is full of excess. One no longer 
 makes use of the words, ' to love ' and * to serve.' One 
 adds to them * extremely,' ' passionately,' * madly,' and 
 other similar expressions ; even so far as to invest with 
 divinity things which are less than human." 
 
 The Queen of Navarre had soon a more serious cause 
 for annoyance than the imprudent letters of her infatuated 
 chancellor. Mile. Fosseuse, who had, for some time, only 
 allowed the King " such familiarities as might with all 
 propriety be permitted," had ended, as might have been 
 foreseen, " in surrendering herself entirely to his will," 
 with results of a very embarrassing nature. " Where- 
 upon," continues Marguerite, " finding herself in this 
 condition, her bearing towards me changed, and, instead 
 of being frank with me, as was her custom, and rendering 
 me all the good services in her power with respect to 
 the King my husband, she began avoiding me, and render- 
 ing me as many evil turns as she had formerly done me 
 good ones. She possessed so much influence over the 
 King, that, in a very short while, I perceived that he was 
 wholly changed. He became estranged, avoided me, 
 and no longer took the same pleasure in my society as 
 when Fosseuse had conducted herself with propriety." 
 
 On the return of the King and Queen to Nerac, 
 Fosseuse, either in order to conceal her condition, " ou 
 bien pour se difaire de ce qu'elle avaity^ put it into his 
 
 273 s 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 Majesty's head to propose to his consort that they should 
 pay a visit to the baths of Eaux-Chaudes (Aigues-Caudes) 
 in the valley of Osseau, in Beam. " I begged the King 
 my husband to excuse me if I did not accompany him to 
 Eaux Chaudes," writes Marguerite, " as he knew that, 
 since the indignity to which I had been subjected at 
 Pau, I had made a vow never to enter Beam, unless the 
 Catholic religion were re-established there. He then 
 told me that * his girl ' (for thus he designated Fosseuse) 
 required to take the waters, for the indigestion from which 
 she suffered. I told him that I was perfectly willing 
 that she should go there. He replied that it would not 
 be seemly for her to go without me ; that it would cause 
 people to imagine evil where none existed ; and he 
 became very much annoyed with me, because I did not 
 wish to take her." 
 
 Finally, it was arranged that Fosseuse, accompanied 
 by two of her colleagues, Henri's former flame. Mile, de 
 Rebours, and a Mile. Villesave, and their gouvernante^ 
 should go to Eaux-Chaudes, while the Queen was to 
 betake herself to Bagneres-de-Bigorre. 
 
 It would appear that, at this time. Marguerite enter- 
 tained some hope of presenting her fickle husband with 
 an heir, for we find her writing to Catherine : " I am 
 at the baths of Bagneres, whither I have come to see 
 whether I shall be so fortunate as to increase the number 
 of your servants. Several persons have found them very 
 beneficial. I shall not fail, on my return to Nerac, to 
 acquaint you with the benefit I have received." ^ 
 
 In this, however, she was doomed to disappointment, 
 
 ' Lettres inedites de Marguerite de Valois, Archives Historiques of 
 Gascony, cited by M. Charles Merki, La Reine Margot et la Jin da 
 Valoisy p. 247. 
 
 274 
 
t- 
 
 QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 nor was his chagrin diminished by the fact that she was 
 receiving daily reports from Mile, de Rebours — " a 
 corrupt and deceitful girl, who was only desirous of 
 ousting Fosseuse, in order that she might supplant her 
 in the good graces of the King my husband " — that Fos- 
 seuse was using every endeavour to estrange his Majesty 
 from his wife, " and was persuading herself that, if she 
 had a son, and could get rid of her, she might marry 
 the King." ^ 
 
 In consequence, the Queen's sojourn at Bagneres 
 seems to have been a very mournful one, and she assures 
 us that " she shed tears as numerous as the drops of 
 water which the King and his companions were drinking 
 at Eaux-Chaudes, notwithstanding that she was sur- 
 rounded by all the Catholic nobility of those parts, 
 who used every endeavour to make her forget her 
 troubles." 
 
 After a stay of four or five weeks at Eaux-Chaudes, 
 Henri and the maids-of-honour returned, and the Court 
 proceeded to Nerac, where the condition of Mile. Fos- 
 seuse became the chief topic of conversation, not only at 
 the Court, but in all the country round. The Queen 
 determined to put a stop to the scandal, and, summoning 
 her rival to her cabinet, addressed her as follows : 
 
 " In spite of your having for some time estranged 
 yourself from me, and of people having endeavoured 
 to induce me to believe that you are making mischief 
 between the King my husband and myself, the friendship 
 that I have borne you, and that which I entertain for 
 the honourable persons to whom you are related [the 
 
 * It would appear that Henri, in accordance with the practice he 
 adopted with several later enchantresses, had promised the lady that, 
 if she bore him a son, he would repudiate the Queen and marry her. 
 
 275 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 Montmorency family], does not admit of my refusing 
 you assistance in the unfortunate position in which you 
 find yourself. And this, I beg, you will not deny me, 
 nor desire to ruin both your reputation and my own ; 
 for, since you are in my service, I have as much interest 
 in the matter as you have. You may rely on my acting 
 towards you like a mother. I have found means to go, 
 under the pretext of the plague, which, as you are aware, 
 is in this country, and even in this city, to Mas d'Agenais, 
 a house belonging to the King my husband, situated in a 
 very lonely spot. I will take with me only such following 
 as you may choose. Meanwhile, the King my husband 
 will go hunting in another direction, and will not return 
 until after your delivery, and we shall thus put an end 
 to the scandal, which concerns me no less than yourself." 
 
 Instead of being grateful for her Majesty's magna- 
 nimity, Fosseuse answered, with a fine assumption of 
 injured innocence, that she would give the lie to all 
 those who spoke ill of her, and accused Marguerite of 
 seeking a pretext to compass her ruin. Then she left 
 the Queen's cabinet in a rage, and went to inform the 
 King of what had passed. Henri was no less incensed 
 than his mistress, declared that she had been shamefully 
 maligned, and did not fail to show Marguerite how much 
 he resented her interference. 
 
 However, one night, some three or four months after 
 the conversation just related, there came a doctor knock- 
 ing at the door of the royal bedchamber, with tidings 
 of a very urgent nature for his Majesty's ear alone. 
 " My husband," writes Marguerite, " was greatly em- 
 barrassed as to what he should do, fearing, on the one 
 hand, that she (Fosseuse) might be discovered, and, 
 on the other, that she might not receive proper 
 
 276 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 attention, for he loved her dearly. Finally he decided 
 to confess everything to me, and to implore me to go 
 to her assistance, being assured, notwithstanding what had 
 happened in the past, that he would always find me 
 ready to serve him. He therefore drew aside my bed- 
 curtains, and said to me : * M^amie, I have concealed 
 something from you that I must now avow. I entreat 
 you to pardon me, and not to bear in mind what I have 
 said to you on the matter ; but to oblige me by rising 
 at once and going to the assistance of Fosseuse, who is 
 very ill. I am sure that, seeing her in this state, you will 
 not harbour resentment for what has passed. You 
 know how much I love her ; I entreat you, therefore, 
 to do me this favour." 
 
 The Queen replied that " she honoured him too much 
 to take anything amiss that he proposed," and that she 
 would hasten to Fosseuse, and " behave to her as though 
 she were her own daughter." At the same time, she 
 advised her husband to go away on a hunting expedition, 
 so as to minimise the danger of the affair getting about. 
 
 Marguerite kept her word, and " God willed that 
 Fosseuse should give birth to a daughter, who, moreover, 
 was still-born." If a son had been born and had survived, 
 who could have foreseen the unpleasant consequences 
 that might have ensued ? But " in spite of employing 
 the greatest discretion," the news of the event was soon 
 all over the chateau, and when the King returned from 
 the chase, he begged his wife to pay a second visit to 
 Fosseuse, thinking by this means to silence the rumours 
 that were afloat. 
 
 Her Majesty, however, not unnaturally, considering 
 that, in consenting to act the part of a mother to her 
 husband's mistress, she had carried her complacency 
 
 ^77 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 far enough for one day, declined. " I replied," she writes, 
 " that I had visited her when she had need of my assist- 
 ance, but that now she no longer required it, and that, 
 if I went to her, I should be revealing rather than conceal- 
 ing what had occurred, and that every one would point 
 the finger of scorn at me. He was extremely angry with 
 me, which displeased me very much, since I did not 
 consider that, after what I had done in the morning, 
 I deserved such a reward." And Marguerite adds : 
 " She (Fosseuse) often incited him to get into these 
 tempers against me." 
 
 These domestic annoyances caused Marguerite to 
 conceive a decided aversion for the little Court of Nerac, 
 which she had once found so pleasant, and to inspire 
 her with a desire to leave it for a time, and return to 
 Paris. V During her residence in Beam and Gascony, she 
 had received more than one invitation from Henri HI. 
 and Catherine to visit them, and soon after the Fosseuse 
 affair, it happened that another and particularly pressing 
 one arrived. Henri HI., who was kept well informed 
 by his agents at Nerac of all that went on at that Court, 
 and had been duly acquainted with the details of the 
 recent scandal, judged that, after what had occurred, 
 the indignant Queen would not be averse to a temporary 
 separation from her husband. And that she might not 
 delay her departure from need of the necessary funds, 
 he transmitted to her the sum of 15,000 6cus. 
 
 It must not be supposed that, in sending this invitation, 
 his Majesty was actuated by any motive of affection. On 
 the contrary, since the " Lovers' War," he had detested 
 his sister, if possible, more cordially than ever. But he 
 had found, to his cost, that she was a force to be reckoned 
 
 278 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 with, and desired to make one more effort to disarm 
 her hostility and make her his ally. That he would 
 be successful in this, he probably entertained but slight 
 hope. Nevertheless, to separate her and her husband 
 could not fail to be of advantage to him (" It would 
 prove like the breaking of the Macedonian phalanx," 
 says Marguerite) ; while if he could contrive to put an 
 end to the good understanding on political matters, 
 which, in spite of their domestic differences, had always 
 existed between them, it would be a great point gained. 
 
 Several reasons contributed to determine Marguerite 
 to accept the invitation. The revenues of her appanage 
 were in arrears, and she was deeply in debt ; a visit to '^ 
 the capital was absolutely necessary to restore her affairs 
 to some degree of order. She had grown tired of Nerac, 
 and looked forward with all the zest of an exile to the 
 gaieties of the Louvre ; while " she also thought that 
 her departure might serve to turn the King her husband 
 from his passion for Fosseuse — ^whom she was taking 
 with her — and that once she (Fosseuse) was out of his 
 sight, he might possibly take up with some one else, 
 who would be less hostile to her." Finally — and this 
 probably had more weight with her than anything — 
 she cherished the hope of meeting le beau Chanvallon 
 again, and renewing with him their interrupted 
 romance. 
 
 The King of Navarre, for some time, strongly opposed 
 his wife's resolution, being unwilling to resign himself 
 to the loss of his Fosseuse. " He became, in consequence, 
 much kinder to me," says Marguerite, " and was anxious 
 that I should abandon my intention of returning to 
 France. But, since I had already given my promise 
 in my letters to the King and the Queen my mother, 
 
 279 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 and had even received the aforementioned sum [the 
 i5,oco ecus for the journey], the evil fate which was 
 luring me to Court prevailed over the scanty desire that 
 I felt to proceed thither, now that the King my husband 
 was beginning to treat me with more affection." * 
 
 ^ Memoires et lettres de Marguerite de Valois (edit. Guessard). 
 
 280 
 
CHAPTER XX 
 
 The Memoires of Marguerite de Valois terminate at the date 
 of her returrj to Paris — Question of their continuation con- 
 sidered — Henri III. accords his sister a very gracious reception, 
 and consents to the augmentation of her appanage — Mar- 
 guerite purchases the Hotel de Birague — Her correspondence 
 with her husband — Fresh rupture between them, owing to the 
 Queen of Navarre's dismissal of Fosseuse from her service — 
 Letters of Marguerite and Catherine de' Medici to the King 
 of Navarre — Marguerite's mortification at the marriage of 
 Chanvallon — Total failure of Anjou's Flemish enterprise — 
 Strained relations between the Queen of Navarre and 
 Henri IH. — Renewal of the liaison between Marguerite and 
 Chanvallon — A courier bearing a letter from the King to the 
 Due de Joyeuse murdered and robbed — Henri III. publicly 
 insults his sister at a ball at the Louvre, and orders her to 
 return to her husband — Between Palaiseau and Saint-Clair, she 
 and some of her attendants are arrested and conveyed to 
 Montargis — Henri III. interrogates Mesdames de Duras and 
 de Bethune — Marguerite and her attendants liberated, through 
 the intervention of Catherine — The King of Navarre refuses 
 to receive his wife, until his brother-in-law accords him a 
 satisfactory explanation of these proceedings — Marguerite's 
 letter to her mother — After long negotiations between the 
 two Courts, a reconciliation is affected. 
 
 The Memoires of Marguerite de Valois unfortunately 
 terminate at the date when she left Nerac to return to , 
 Paris, that is to say, at the end of January 1582, a cir- 
 cumstance which is the more to be regretted, since the 
 latter part of her life was not less interesting than that 
 
 281 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 which we have already recounted, and contains many- 
 incidents which she alone could have satisfactorily- 
 explained. However, if the Memoires fail us, we have, 
 on the other hand, a number of her letters, which serve 
 in some degree to supply the omission.* 
 Y Marguerite, accompanied by her husband, left Nerac 
 on January 26, 1582, and proceeded, by way of Jarnac, 
 Saint-Jean — d'Angely, Saintes, and Saint-Maixent, to 
 La Mothe Saint-Heraye, where, on March 31, they were 
 met by Catherine. The interview was a very cordial 
 one, and Catherine would fain have persuaded the King 
 of Navarre to accompany his wife to Paris. But the 
 astute Bearnais courteously excused himself ; having 
 enjoyed the sweets of liberty and independence so long, 
 he had no mind to return to the cage from which he 
 had experienced so much difficulty in escaping. He, 
 therefore, accompanied the two Queens as far as the 
 Chateau of Montreuil-Bonnin, in Vienne, and then made 
 his way to La Rochelle and thence to Montauban, where 
 a Huguenot convention was about to meet. 
 
 L'Estoile, by some extraordinary error — which is 
 repeated by M. de Saint-Poncy — reports the Queen of 
 
 ^ Many historians are of opinion that the manuscript which has come 
 down to us forms only a portion of Marguerite's work, and that the 
 Memoires were continued at least down to the time of her installation 
 at the Chateau of Usson, in November i 586, if not considerably beyond 
 it. It certainly seems to have been the Queen's intention to continue 
 them, for, in her dedication to Brant6me, she informs him that she will 
 rectify certain details of his eloge of her, notably, concerning what 
 occurred at Agen and her departure from Usson, that is to say, events 
 which happened in the years 1585 and 1587. If then the Memoires were 
 continued, what became of the continuation ? Possibly it was lost, but, 
 far more probably, it was deliberately suppressed, since it must have 
 contained not a little that was far from palatable to certain persons in 
 high places. 
 
 282 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 Navarre's arrival in Paris on March 8 ; but, as a matter 
 of fact, she did not reach the capital until May 28, after 
 having made a short stay at Chenonceaux and one of 
 some length at Fontainebleau, where she found the 
 King. 
 
 Marguerite met with a very gracious reception from 
 Henri III., who, for his own purposes, was extremely 
 anxious to conciliate her, and he readily gave his consent 
 to Catherine's proposal to make over to her daughter 
 the duchy of Valois, of which she was dowager, and the 
 counties of Senlis, Clermont, and Etampes, in exchange 
 for those of Quercy and Gaure. This addition to her 
 appanage considerably increased the princess's revenues 
 and importance. 
 
 As the suite of the Queen of Navarre was too numerous 
 to be accommodated in the Louvre, and she had been 
 compelled to dispose of the Hotel d'Anjou, it was neces- 
 sary for her to find a residence, and she, accordingly, 
 purchased for 28,000 ecus the house of the Chancellor 
 Birague, situated in the Rue Culture-Sai^ite-Catherine. 
 
 With her husband, Marguerite maintained an active 
 correspondence, and showed herself, as she always was, 
 keenly alive to his political interests. " We shall see 
 the King at Fontainebleau in four days' time," she writes 
 to him on the way to Paris ; " and the day following, 
 I will despatch a gentleman to acquaint you with what 
 has happened ; and five or six days later, I will send 
 another to inform you what, after the first greetings, 
 which are commonly marked by constraint and dis- 
 simulation, I shall be able to discover in respect of their 
 wishes concerning us." She warns him that the King 
 is reported to be much displeased with the conduct of 
 two of the King of Navarre's followers, one of whom had 
 
 283 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 been waging a little war on his own account, while the 
 other had refused to surrender a town which the Hugue- 
 nots had occupied during the last war. Catherine was 
 urging Henri HI. to visit the South, in order to re- 
 establish order there, and Marguerite begs her husband 
 to set matters right himself, " so that the King may be 
 satisfied and his desire to come thither removed." 
 In another letter, written shortly after her arrival in 
 Paris, she points out that he might greatly strengthen 
 his position were he to visit the capital. " If you were 
 here," she writes, " you would be the man on whom 
 both sides would depend. You would regain the servants 
 whom you have lost, owing to the length of these troubles, 
 and would acquire more of them in a week than you 
 would in all your lifetime in Gascony." But nothing 
 could induce Henri to venture into the lion's den again. 
 
 She gives him, too, all the news of the Court. " M. 
 de Nemours has become so remarkably stout that he is 
 quite deformed ; M. de Guise has grown thin, and seems 
 much aged. . . . The King has been hunting for three 
 days, not without wishing that you were there, and to 
 a concert at the Louvre, which lasted all night. If I 
 dared to tell you of it, you would abandon agriculture 
 and Timon's humour to come among men," ^ 
 
 But this good understanding between husband and 
 wife was not of long duration ; and it was Fosseuse who 
 was again the cause of the rupture. 
 
 Yielding to the urgent representations of Catherine 
 and of the pious Queen, the latter of whom was in- 
 expressibly shocked at seeing a lady of such unenviable 
 notoriety in attendance upon her sister-in-law. Mar- 
 guerite had dismissed that errant damsel from her service, 
 
 1 Memoires et lettres de Marguerite de Valois (edit, Guessard). 
 
 2S4 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 although, by wayof compensation, she, shortly afterwards, 
 arranged for her a very advantageous marriage with 
 Francois de Broc, Baron de Cinq-Mars. Henri, on learn- 
 ing that his favourite had received her congi^ was highly 
 indignant, and despatched Frontenac, one of his gentle- 
 men, to his wife to acquaint her with his displeasure. 
 Marguerite, on this occasion, was unable to restrain 
 her feelings, and, in answer to her husband's remon- 
 strances, sent the following spirited reply : 
 
 Marguerite to the King of Navarre. 
 
 " You say that there will be nothing for me to be 
 ashamed of in pleasing you. I believe it also, judging 
 you to be so reasonable that you will not command me 
 to do anything which may be unworthy of a person of 
 my quality ; nor which affects my honour, in which 
 you have too much interest. And, if you demand that 
 I shall keep near my person a girl whom you, in the opinion 
 of every one, have made a mother, you will find that 
 that would be to put me to shame, both by reason of the 
 insult to which you subject me, and on account of the 
 reputation that I should thereby acquire. You write 
 to me that, in order to close the mouths of the King, 
 the Queens, and those who speak to me about it, I should 
 tell them that you love her, and that, for this reason, I 
 love her too. This reason would be a good one, if I 
 were speaking of one of your servants, whether male or 
 female, but of your mistress ! If I had been born in 
 a condition unworthy of the honour of being your wife, 
 this answer would not be an unbecoming one for me ; 
 but, being such as I am, it would be very unseemly. 
 Also, I shall hinder myself from advancing her interests. 
 I have suffered what, I will not say a princess, but a 
 
 285 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 simple demoiselle ^ does not suffer, having succoured 
 her [Fosseuse], concealed her fault, and always kept her 
 near my person. If you do not call that being desirous 
 of pleasing you, I know not what you can expect." ^ 
 
 This admirable letter ought to have convinced the 
 infatuated King that he had gone too far, and drawn 
 an apology from him. But, unhappily, Catherine took 
 upon herself to interfere, and wrote her son-in-law a 
 sharp reprimand, which deeply offended him and incensed 
 him still further against his wife. 
 
 Catherine de' Medici to the King of Navarre. 
 
 "... You are not the first husband, young and with 
 little prudence in such matters ; but I certainly find 
 you the first and the only one, who, after an affair of 
 this nature, holds such language to his wife. I had the 
 honour to marry the King [Henri II.] my lord and your 
 sovereign . . . and when Maaame de Flemming ^ was 
 with child, he considered it very fitting that she should 
 be sent away. With regard to Madame de Valentinois * 
 and also Madame d'Etampes, he behaved in a perfectly 
 honourable manner. This is not the way to treat women 
 
 ^ She means the wife of an ordinary citizen. The wives of the 
 bourgeoisie, at this period, did not take the titles of i/ame or madamey 
 which were reserved for the wives of the nobility or daughters of noble 
 parents who had married citizens. They were called demoiselle or 
 mademoiselle. This custom prevailed for more than a century longer. 
 Thus we find the mother of La Bruyere described in a legal document 
 as a " demoiselle veuve,^' while La Fontaine, in his correspondence, in- 
 variably speaks of his wife as " mademoiselle.^* 
 
 ^ Memoires et lettres de Marguerite de Valois (edit, Guessard). 
 
 ^ The mother of Henri d'Angouleme. 
 
 * Diane de Poitiers, 
 
 s86 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 of condition and of so distinguished a family, and to 
 expose them to the insults of a licentious public, for 
 every one is aware of the child whom she has had ; and 
 to send your complaint by a little gallant, presumptuous 
 and imprudent to have accepted such a command from 
 his master ! I cannot believe that it comes from you, 
 since you are too well-born not to know how you ought 
 to live with the daughter of your King, and the sister of 
 him who commands in all the realm, who, moreover, 
 honours you and loves you, as a woman of condition 
 ought to do. And, if I knew her to be different, I should 
 not wish to support her or to write anything to make 
 you recognise the wrong that you have done her. . . , 
 I have caused this pretty fool [Fosseuse] to be sent awaj^, 
 for, so long as I live, I cannot endure to see anything which 
 may hinder or diminish the affection which those who 
 are so near to me, as she [Marguerite] is, ought to bear 
 one another ; and I entreat you that, after this fine 
 messenger of a Frontenac has said the worst he can to 
 estrange you and your wife, to consider the wrong that 
 you have done her, and return to the right path." ^ 
 
 Hard upon this new rupture with her husband came 
 a fresh source of chagrin for Marguerite. In seeing 
 Chanvallon once more and in resuming possession of 
 this fascinating gallant, she had believed herself secure 
 against any infidelity on his part. Such, however, was 
 not the case. Whether it was that he feared the resent- 
 ment of Henri HI., or saw in his liaison with the Queen 
 of Navarre an obstacle to his advancement at Court, 
 Chanvallon sought to free himself, by taking a wife, whose ' 
 
 ^ Biblioth^ue Nationale, Coll. Dupuy, cited by La Ferricre, Trots 
 amoureuses au XVI'. s'tecle : Marguerite de Valois. 
 
 287 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 rank and wealth might serve as a stepping-stone to For- 
 tune, and, in August 1582, married Catherine de la Mark, 
 daughter of Robert de la Mark, Due de Bouillon. During 
 her visit to Bagneres-de-Bigorre, Marguerite had herself 
 proposed to give him a wife, " a widow, beautiful, an 
 honest woman, with an income of 30,000 livres and 
 200,000 livres in the bank." But then this lady had 
 been one of her own choosing, who could be trusted to 
 efface herself whenever the Queen required, and her 
 anger and mortification at Chanvallon having dared to 
 wed without consulting her knew no bounds. " There 
 is then no longer justice in Heaven nor fidelity on earth," 
 she writes to him. " Triumph, triumph over my too 
 ardent love ! Boast of having deceived me ; laugh and 
 mock at it with her, concerning whom the only consola- 
 tion that I receive, is that her lack of merit will be the 
 just penalty of the wrong that you have committed . . . 
 When you receive this letter, the last, I beg you to return 
 it to me, since I do not desire that at this fine interview, 
 to which you are going this evening, it serves for a topic 
 of conversation to the father and the daughter." 
 
 The total failure of Anjou's Flemish enterprise was 
 perhaps as great a blow to Marguerite as the defection 
 of her lover. Monsieur, who had accepted the govern- 
 ment of the States, with the title of Duke of Brabant, 
 had been waging war against the Spaniards with indiffer- 
 ent success throughout the summer and autumn of 1582. 
 Distrusted by the States, he had little effective power, 
 and this and his jealousy of the Prince of Orange, deter- 
 mined him, when winter caused the cessation of hostilities, 
 to make a cowp d'etat, and capture, with his French troops, 
 the chief towns of Flanders. At Dunkerque, Ostend, 
 
 288 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 and several other places the plan was successful. But 
 at Antwerp, where the prince in person made the attempt, 
 it signally failed. When his troops, some four thousand 
 in number, entered the town, they found themselves 
 attacked on all sides by the infuriated citizens, and nearly 
 half of them were killed in the streets or drowned in the 
 Maas. Anjou, with the remainder, retired in disgrace 
 to Termonde, and afterwards to Dunkerque, whence 
 he returned to France in the following summer. '^ 
 
 The news of " la folie (TAnvers " reached Paris on ^ 
 January 28, 1583, and created general indignation and 
 grief, for members of some of the noblest families in 
 France were amongst the slain. " Would to God that 
 you had died young ! " exclaimed Catherine bitterly, 
 when she and Anjou met, some months later. " You 
 would not then have been the cause of the death of so many 
 brave gentlemen." Henri III., however, secretly rejoiced 
 at his brother's discomfiture, since, according to the Vene- 
 tian Ambassador, he feared him more, once he should 
 be master of the Netherlands, than he feared Philip II. 
 
 In the meanwhile, the relations between the Queen of 
 Navarre and Henri III. had again become very strained. 
 Marguerite had refused to lend herself to his political 
 schemes, had scoffed at the ridiculous mummeries, where- 
 by the King believed that he was making atonement 
 for the disorders of his life, and, worst of all, was at 
 daggers drawn with his two chief mignons, d'Epernon^ 
 and Joyeuse.^ The princess, whose temper had perhaps 
 
 * Jean Louis de Nogaret de la Valette, born in 1554 ; created Due 
 d'6pernon in 1 581. He played an important part under the Regency 
 of Marie de' Medici. Died in 1642. 
 
 * Anne d'Arques, born in 1 561 ; created Due de Joyeuse in 1581 ; 
 killed, in 1587, at the Battle of Coutras. 
 
 289 T 
 
 .C-i-'W 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 not been improved by Chanvallon's defection, indulged 
 in biting sarcasms at the expense of these arrogant young 
 men, who retaliated by circulating very injurious reports 
 about her Majesty's private life, and doing everything 
 in their power to embitter their master against her. 
 
 A visit which the King paid to Mezieres, in June 
 1583, brought about a momentary truce. But, as 
 ill-luck would have it, during his absence, Chanvallon, 
 who had fallen into disgrace with Anjou, returned 
 unexpectedly to Paris. The cause of his disgrace is un- 
 certain ; some writers assert that he had betrayed the 
 duke's confidence ; but, if we are to believe Varillas, 
 the reason was that he had " boasted of his honne fortune 
 with one of the greatest ladies of the kingdom."^ Any- 
 way, to Paris he came, and without his wife. 
 
 Marguerite no sooner beheld her faithless lover than 
 all her passion revived ; she forgave him and hastened to 
 resume with him their old relations. But alas ! Chan- 
 vallon proved himself wholly unworthy of her clemency ; 
 for, after a week or two of bliss, the Queen's old rival, 
 Madame de Sauve, not content with the adoration of 
 both d'Epernon and Guise, conceived a fancy to subdue 
 Chanvallon likewise ; and succeeded. 
 
 Deeply mortified, the Queen determined to leave 
 Paris, and return to Gascony ; but funds for the journey 
 were not immediately available, and she was compelled 
 to postpone her departure. At the end of June, she 
 fell ill, and her illness furnished a pretext for the most 
 damaging reports. " The Queen of Navarre is enceinte, 
 or suffering from the dropsy," wrote Busini, the Tuscan 
 Ambassador to his Court.^ 
 
 ^ Histoire de Henri III. 
 Negociations diplomatiques avec la Toscane, iv. 466, cited by La Ferriere. 
 
 290 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 Henri III. returned to Paris. Catherine, who always 
 exerted her influence to prevent scandals in the Royal 
 Family, was absent, having gone to Chaulnes, in Picardy, 
 to administer reproaches and consolation to the dis- 
 comfited Anjou. Marguerite, conscious of the danger 
 which threatened her and Chanvallon, determined to 
 send the gallant away. " Please God," she writes to 
 him, " that on me alone this storm may expend itself. 
 But to place you in danger ! Ah, no, my life ; there is 
 no suffering so cruel to which I would not prefer to 
 submit. I offer you a conclusive proof of it, by depriving 
 myself of the pleasure of seeing you, which I hold to be 
 as necessary to me as that of the sun to the spring 
 flowers." ^ 
 
 From this letter, it is evident that, in spite of Chan- 
 vallon's infidelity. Marguerite had not had sufficient 
 strength of mind to break off her relations with him. 
 
 The Queen of Navarre's fears were soon realised. 
 Acquainted with the injurious reports that were in 
 circulation about his sister, Henri HI. suborned one of 
 Marguerite's waiting-women, who furnished his Majesty 
 with a full, true, and particular account of the Chanvallon 
 affair, together with many piquant details concerning 
 his predecessors in her mistress's affections. The King 
 smiled grimly and waited for a favourable opportunity 
 of making use of the knowledge he had gained. 
 
 An unexpected incident precipitated the crisis. In 
 the previous May, the Due de Joyeuse had set out on a 
 journey to Italy. His object, he announced, was to 
 discharge a vow he had made to Our Lady of Loretto, 
 on behalf of his sick wife, and to keep up this fiction, 
 the King and Queen had entrusted him with gifts to 
 
 ^ Mimoires et lettres de Marguerite de Falois (edit. Guessard), 
 
 291 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 present at the same shrine, in their names. But his real 
 goal was Rome, where he had been charged, by Henri III., 
 with some very important negotiations with the Holy 
 
 "^ See. At the beginning of August, the King wrote a 
 long letter to his favourite, containing, if we are to believe 
 Varillas, " odious things about his sister's conduct." 
 But this epistle the duke never received, for the courier 
 who bore it, had not proceeded many leagues on his 
 journey, when he was attacked by four masked men, who 
 left him dead on the road, and carried off his Majesty's 
 letter. 
 
 This outrage was commonly attributed to agents of 
 the Queen of Navarre, though in all probability, unjustly. 
 As both M. de Saint-Poncy and M. Merki point out, 
 the correspondence of the King with Joyeuse was of far 
 greater interest to the Guises than to Marguerite ; and 
 the leaders of the League were naturally extremely 
 anxious to learn what was happening at Rome ;^ while 
 the fact that Henri HI., who was on his way with Queen 
 Louise to the waters of Bourbon-Lancy, immediately 
 turned back, on learning what had occurred, and showed 
 great agitation, would appear to indicate that the letter 
 must have contained something of much greater import- 
 ance than scandalous gossip about his sister. However 
 that may be, the King affected to believe the rumour 
 which was current, and made it the pretext for a scan- 
 
 ^ dalous scene. 
 
 On the evening of August 8, there was a ball at the 
 Louvre, and, as Queen Louise was at Bourbon-Lancy, 
 and Catherine in Picardy, the King begged his sister to 
 
 ^ Busbecq, the Austrian Ambassador, in a letter to his Court, ascribes 
 the outrage to the " malcontents," by which he presumably means the 
 League. 
 
 292 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 do the honours. Suspecting nothing, Marguerite con- 
 sented and took her place on the royal dais. But, when 
 the gaiety of the evening was at its height, followed by 
 d'Epernon and several other favourites, Henri III. 
 approached the throne where his sister was seated, and 
 there, before the whole company, and in a voice which 
 could be heard by every one in the room, he upbraided 
 her with her amours with Chanvallon, accused her of 
 having had a child by him, and enumerated all the lovers ^ 
 whom she had had since her marriage, " naming so pre- 
 cisely dates and places," says the Austrian Ambassador, 
 Busbecq, " that he seemed to have been a witness of the 
 incidents of which he spoke." 
 
 Stupefied with horror and amazement, the unfortunate 
 princess listened, silent and motionless, unable to utter 
 a single word in her justification. Her malevolent 
 brother, however, scarcely gave her time to reply, but 
 terminated his denunciation with an imperious order 
 to her to quit Paris, and " deliver the Court from her 
 contagious presence," 
 
 During the night, a number of masked men entered 
 Chanvallon's lodging, and ransacked it from cellar to 
 attic. They had orders to apprehend that gentleman, 
 but, warned in time, he had fled to Beaumont, and taken 
 refuge in the house of his cousin, Achille de Harlay, 
 President of the Parlement. 
 
 On the following morning (August 9), a coach drawn 
 by four horses drew up before the Hotel de Birague. 
 Dressed in a plain black gown, and with her features 
 concealed by a mask. Marguerite entered it, accompanied 
 by two of her confidantes, Mesdames de Duras and de 
 Bethune, and a favourite waiting-woman named Barbe, 
 whose mother had filled the post of nurse to the princess. 
 
 293 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 Several gentlemen of her suite and a few servants had 
 orders to follow her on horseback. The poor Queen 
 was in a pitiable state of agitation, and, as she turned to 
 bid farewell to those of her Household who remained 
 behind, she remarked that she was as unfortunate as 
 Marie Stuart, and that she would be grateful indeed to 
 any one who would have the courage to poison her. 
 
 It was Marguerite's intention to proceed to the 
 Chateau of Vendome, which belonged to Henri of 
 Navarre, and remain there until she had ascertained 
 what kind of reception she was likely to receive at Nerac, 
 since she could not doubt that the news of the scene at 
 the Louvre would very soon reach her husband's ears. 
 ^ But the animosity of Henri HI. was not yet satisfied. 
 About four leagues from Paris, between Palaiseau and 
 Saint-Clair, the Queen's coach was stopped by sixty 
 archers of the King's guard, under one Larchamp de 
 Grimonville, who roughly tore the masks from the faces 
 of her Majesty and her ladies. " Miserable wretch ! " 
 exclaimed the outraged princess, " do you dare to lift 
 your hand against the sister of your King ? " " I am 
 acting by his orders," replied the officer, drily. He 
 then proceeded to arrest Mesdames de Bethune and de 
 Duras, the Queen's equerry, secretary, and physician, 
 and several other members of her company, and conducted 
 the prisoners to the Chateau of Montargis, where they 
 were placed in separate chambers.^ 
 
 The following day. Marguerite's attendants were 
 very closely interrogated, first, by a magistrate sent by 
 the King, and, subsequently, by his Majesty himself ; his 
 object being to discover what truth there was in the 
 
 ' There are several versions of this episode. D'Aubigne places it at 
 the Barricre Saint-Jacques, in Paris, and L'Estoile at Palaiseau itself. 
 
 294 
 
aDMA33? -50 OVLU , Til IHV'AH 
 
 .'i.,;.-/.. /- 
 
QUEEN V T 
 
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 - " -itiablc state of agitation, and, as she lurj! 
 
 Al to those of her Household who rem;^! 
 
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 followiiig da^ giieriteV attendants were 
 
 very closely interrogated, first, by a magistrate sent by 
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 o'^^jeci iig to discover what truth there was in •' 
 
 ' r- several venion* of this episode. D'/.-i-:—-' -'- 
 
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 HENRI ni., KING OF FRANCE 
 
 From an Engraving by L'Armessin 
 
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QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 report which he had affected to believe that their mistress 
 had secretly given birth to a child by Chanvallon, with 
 the connivance of Mesdames de Bethune and de Duras. 
 The two ladies in question were subjected to an especially 
 rigorous examination by the King, " who delighted in 
 doing evil " ; but, to his intense mortification, they per- 
 sisted in denying the accusation, and neither threats nor 
 cajolery could wring anything from them to incriminate 
 the Queen. The evidence of Marguerite's other attend- 
 ants proved equally unsatisfactory, from his Majesty's 
 point of view ; and there can be little doubt that the 
 charge was nothing but a malicious slander, started and 
 propagated by the princess's enemies.-^ 
 
 The news of the indignity inflicted on her daughter 
 threw the Queen-Mother into the greatest consternation, 
 and she wrote to her confidant, Villeroy, that she was 
 " beside herself with affliction." She immediately des- 
 patched the Bishop of Langres to expostulate with the 
 King ; and Henri, having failed to discover anything 
 further, liberated the prisoners, and permitted Marguerite 
 to continue her journey, having, however, first insisted 
 that she should dismiss Mesdames de Bethune and de 
 Duras from her service. 
 
 This unworthy censor of his sister's morals found 
 
 ^ "The Queen was innocent of that which was imputed to her," 
 remarks Brantome, " as I happen to know." On the other hand, 
 Dupleix declares that Marguerite gave birth to a son by Chanvallon. 
 " He is still living," continues the historian ; " he is a Capuchin called 
 Friar Ange ; I was formerly acquainted with him." (Histoire de Henri IV.^ 
 p. 595.) Apart from the fact that Dupleix is quite unworthy of belief 
 where Marguerite is concerned, M. de Saint-Poncy points out that 
 this Friar Ange must have been born some years before the intrigue with y 
 Chanvallon began, since in 1603 he was a full-fledged monk and con- 
 fessor to Henriette d'Entragues, Henri IV.'s mistress. 
 
 295 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 himself in a distinctly embarrassing position. His 
 hatred of Marguerite had led him to support a charge 
 which could not be upheld, and, in so doing, to offer a 
 serious affront to her husband, whose resentment might 
 assume a very unpleasant form ; and his Majesty had 
 no desire to have another " Lovers' War " on his hands 
 at that moment. He, therefore, resolved to forestall 
 Marguerite's complaints, and wrote to his brother-in- 
 law, informing him that the scandalous lives led by 
 Mesdames de Bethune and de Duras had obliged him to 
 dismiss them from the Queen of Navarre's service, " as 
 most pernicious vermin, not to be endured about the 
 person of a princess." 
 
 The King of Navarre was hunting at Saint-Foix- 
 sur-Durdogne when he received the letter, which Henri 
 ni., with characteristic impertinence, had entrusted to 
 one of his valets of the Wardrobe. Unaware as yet 
 of the actual facts, he replied, thanking his Majesty, 
 a little ironically, for his solicitude for his wife's reputa- 
 tion. " The rumours of the evil and scandalous lives 
 of Mesdames de Duras and de Bethune," he writes, 
 " reached me a long time ago. But I considered that 
 my wife, having the honour to be near your Majesties, 
 I should be wronging your natural goodness were I to 
 take upon myself to be more solicitous from a distance 
 than your Majesties close at hand. I was resolved 
 that, when my wife should set out on her journey 
 to return to me, to beg her to get rid of them with 
 as little scandal as possible. I am extremely anxious 
 to have her here ; she can never come too soon." 
 But, a day or two later, the truth was known, and very 
 
 ^ Letires missives de Henri IF. La Ferriere, Trois Amoureuses au 
 XVI' stick : Marguerite de Valois. 
 
 296 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 unpalatable it was, even to one so indifferent to his 
 own and his wife's honour as the King of Navarre ; for 
 the affair had become common knowledge, and all France 
 was debating it, while the foreign Ambassadors had not 
 failed to send lengthy accounts to their respective 
 Courts. 
 
 Matters were further complicated by a second letter 
 from Henri III., in which he begged his brother-in-law 
 not to attach any importance to the reports which had 
 reached him, but to receive his wife back, as a most 
 regrettable mistake had been committed, and the charge 
 against her had been found to be false and calumnious. 
 
 Uncertain how to act, the King of Navarre, on the 
 advice of his councillors, finally decided to despatch 
 the brave and accomplished Duplessis-Mornay to Henri 
 ni., to demand an explanation. The " Pope of the 
 Huguenots, " as the Catholics had dubbed Mornay, 
 found the King at Lyons, on his way to join Queen Louise 
 at the waters of Bourbon-Lancy ; and, on being admitted 
 to an audience, demanded, in the name of his master, 
 the reason of the treatment which the Queen of Navarre 
 had received. " It is an affront," said he, " which no 
 princess of her rank has ever before received. It is 
 impossible to conceal it ; the incident took place, in the 
 day time, on a high-road ; all Europe is discussing it. 
 The King of Navarre has reason to fear that the Queen 
 his wife has committed some very criminal act, since you 
 yourself. Sire, whose kindness is so well known, have 
 been able to treat thus your own sister. Of what then 
 is she guilty to be so cruelly humiliated ? What action ^ 
 ought her husband to take in such trying circumstances ? " 
 
 The King, evading the question, sought to throw the 
 blame on Mesdames de Bethune and de Duras, whose 
 
 297 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 conduct, he declared, had been scandalous ; but Mornay 
 stopped him, observing coldly : " I am not here to 
 plead their cause. The King of Navarre would not 
 send an Ambassador on such a mission, and I respect 
 myself too much to undertake it. The question at issue 
 concerns the Queen his wife. If she has deserved the 
 affront, he demands justice from you against her, as the 
 master of the house, the father of the family. But, if 
 she is the victim of false reports, he begs you to punish 
 openly those who have calumniated her." 
 
 Henri III., much disconcerted, declared that matters 
 had been greatly exaggerated, and had not passed in 
 the way the King of Navarre had been led to believe. 
 But Mornay boldly replied that there could be no possible 
 question in regard to the facts, as the affront had taken 
 place in broad daylight and on the high-road. " Your 
 Majesty," added he, " has done either too much or too 
 little : too much, if no fault has been committed, or if 
 it be a venial one ; too little, if the fault merited such a 
 punishment." 
 
 " From whom do you obtain all these mischievous 
 reports ? " inquired the King. And Mornay forthwith 
 proceeded to adduce evidence which showed that his 
 master was but too well-informed. 
 , Henri, completely nonplussed, fell back upon the 
 absence of the Queen-Mother and Anjou. Their honour, 
 he declared, was as much concerned as his own ; it was 
 his wish, nay his duty, to consult them before taking 
 any further steps in the matter. " That will entail a 
 considerable delay," replied Mornay ; " the arrow is in 
 the wound ; you do not extract it. The Queen your 
 sister is on her way to rejoin the King her husband. 
 What will Christendom say, if he receives her thus 
 
 298 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 besmirched ? " " What can it say ? " snapped Henri, 
 " save that she is the sister of your King." 
 
 Finally, in order to get rid of Mornay, his Majesty 
 offered to send a " person of consideration " to his brother 
 of Navarre with a satisfactory explanation, and promised 
 to give the Ambassador a letter in his own hand to carry 
 to his master/ 
 
 Marguerite, meanwhile, was at Vendome, where her 
 distress of mind was augmented by the fact that she 
 was almost entirely without resources. From Vendome 
 she wrote to her mother the following piteous letter : 
 
 The Queen of Navarre to Catherine de Medici. 
 
 " Madame, — Since my unfortunate destiny has brought 
 me to such misery that I know not if you can desire the 
 preservation of my life ; at least, Madame, I am able 
 to hope that you desire the preservation of my honour ; 
 it being so bound up with yours, and with that of all 
 those to whom I have the honour to be related, that no 
 shame can touch me in which they do not have part. 
 Which causes me, Madame, to implore you very humbly 
 to be unwilling to permit that the pretext of my death 
 be used at the expense of my reputation, and to be 
 willing to do so much, not for my own sake, but for the 
 sake of those to whom I am so nearly related, that it 
 may please you that I have some lady of quality and worthy 
 of trust, who may be able, while I am alive, to bear witness 
 to the condition in which I am, and who, after my death, 
 may be present, when my body is opened, in order that 
 she may be able, through her knowledge of this last 
 
 1 Me moires de Duplessis-Mornay. 
 299 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 Injustice, to make every one aware of the wrong which 
 has been done. I do not say this in order to hinder the 
 execution of my enemies' design, and it is unnecessary 
 for them to fear that, on this account, a pretext for 
 causing my death will fail them. If I receive this favour 
 from you, I will, while I am alive, write and sign every- 
 thing that will be required of me." ^ 
 
 Touched by her daughter's distress, Catherine sent 
 her 200,000 livres, which enabled Marguerite to continue 
 her journey. From Vendome, she proceeded, by easy 
 stages, to Plessis-les-Tours, thence to Poitiers, and the 
 end of September found her at Cognac. At this last 
 town, she received a letter from her husband, forbidding 
 her to enter his dominions, until a full and satisfactory 
 explanation had been accorded him by Henri III. The 
 King of Navarre, truth to tell, was by no means anxious 
 for the return of his wife, as he was now desperately 
 enamoured of Diane d'Andoins, Comtesse de Gramont 
 (" la helle Corisande "), widow of Henri III.'s mignon, 
 who had gained such ascendency over his Majesty that 
 she was commonly reported to have bewitched him. 
 
 However, he was in honour bound to continue to 
 press the King of France for an explanation, and, on 
 Henri III.'s return from the Bourbonnais, sent to Saint- 
 Germain-en-Laye a second Ambassador, in the person 
 of Agrippa d'Aubigne. But this bluff warrior only 
 succeeded in making matters worse, declaring that his 
 master absolutely refused to receive his wife until the 
 matter was cleared up and justice done. The King, 
 exasperated by his arrogance, replied with threats, to 
 which the Huguenot retorted that " the King of Navarre 
 
 ^ Imperial Library, St. Petersburg, published by La Ferriere. 
 
 300 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 would not sacrifice his honour for his Majesty or any 
 prince living, so long as he had a foot of steel in his hand." 
 And when Catherine, anxious to cast oil upon the 
 troubled waters, promised that the " scoundrels and 
 robbers " who had insulted her daughter should be 
 punished by death, audaciously observed that noble 
 victims were required, " since swine were not sacrificed 
 to Diana." D'Aubigne appears to have narrowly escaped 
 paying dearly for his bravado, for the King's mignons 
 laid an ambush for him on his return journey, but, 
 warned by some friends of the Queen of Navarre, he 
 evaded them and reached the Loire in safety. 
 
 Nevertheless, Henri III. was anxious to settle this 
 miserable affair, if this could be effected without com- 
 promising himself, and, in the middle of October 1583, 
 on the advice of Catherine, despatched Pomponne de 
 Bellievre,* one of his most prudent councillors to Nerac, 
 with a letter, wherein he imperiously commanded his 
 brother-in-law to receive his wife immediately, and 
 declared that he had no satisfaction to give him, since 
 it was his kingly privilege to act as he pleased towards 
 his subjects. At the same time, he begged him not to 
 take the matter so much to heart. " Kings," he wrote, 
 " are often liable to be deceived by false reports, and 
 calumny has not always respected the conduct and morals 
 of even the most virtuous princesses, as, for example, 
 the Queen your mother. You cannot be ignorant of 
 all the evil that was said of her." " His Majesty," 
 remarked the Bearnais ironically to Bellievre, " does 
 me too much honour by all these letters. In the first, 
 
 ^ Born in 1512 ; Councillor of State 1570 ; Surintendant des finances 
 1575 ; President of the Parlement of Paris 1576. In 1599, Henri ly. 
 appointed him Chancellor. 
 
 301 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 he calls my wife a wanton, and in the last, tells me that 
 I am the son of one." 
 
 Irritated by Henri III.'s refusal of justice, the King of 
 Navarre had already taken up arms and had seized Mont- 
 de-Marsan ; while Matignon, the King's lieutenant in 
 Guienne, had retaliated by reinforcing the garrisons of 
 Agen, Condom, Dax, and Bazas. Bellievre, therefore, 
 came at an inopportune moment, and wrote to Marguerite 
 that " all the words that the King of Navarre addressed 
 to him were complaints." However, another emissary 
 from the Court, Charles de Birague, one of those supple 
 Italians with whom Catherine loved to surround herself, 
 met with more success, and Henri was induced to believe 
 that the attitude taken up by the King of France was 
 that of a man who does not know how to make reparation, 
 but is willing to confess his error. His best friends, too, 
 counselled accommodation, and, at length, he consented 
 to see Bellievre again, and wrote very kindly to his wife, 
 who was now at Agen, informing her that he did not 
 believe a word of the charge against her, and that he 
 would be perfectly willing to receive her, so soon as he 
 had made it plain to every one that he was not acting 
 under compulsion. " That ma mie^'' he concludes, 
 " is all that I can tell you at present. Were it not for 
 the meddlers who have troubled our affairs, we should 
 have the pleasure of being together at this hour." ^ 
 
 But the final solution of the affair was still some distance 
 off, for the King of Navarre reposed but little trust in 
 the pacific intentions of his royal brother-in-law, and 
 until he had received a definite promise that the garrisons 
 which had been placed in the frontier towns should be 
 withdrawn, so that it might not be supposed that he 
 
 ^ L'Estoile, 'Journal de Henri 111. 
 301 
 
Q - 
 
 QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 was receiving his wife under compulsion, the negotiations ' 
 made little progress. Pibrac, whom Marguerite, feeling 
 the need of a friend in Paris, had pardoned and received 
 into favour again, exerted himself to the utmost to 
 facilitate matters, and delivered before Henri III. an 
 eloquent harangue, in which he recapitulated all the 
 complaints of the King of Navarre. But the condition 
 of Monsieur^ who was slowly dying of consumption 
 at Chateau-Thierry, and whose death would leave Henri 
 of Navarre heir-presumptive to the French throne, did 
 more than anything else to bring about a settlement.'^ 
 Henri HI. desired a reconciliation with his brother-in- 
 law, hoping to prevail upon him to embrace the Catholic 
 faith again, and thus avert the troubles which otherwise 
 must inevitably follow the death of Anjou. " I recognise 
 your master as my sole heir," said he to Mornay, who, 
 at the beginning of the spring of 1583, had been sent ^ 
 on a second embassy to the Court of France. " He is 
 a prince of exalted birth and good parts. I have always 
 loved him, and I know that he loves me. He is somewhat 
 choleric and brusque ; but good at bottom."^ 
 
 Mornay lost no time in informing his master of his 
 Majesty's words, and urged him strongly to be recon- 
 ciled to his wife.^ His wise counsels prevailed, and at 
 the beginning of April 1583, Marguerite, who was '" 
 still at Agen, received an intimation from her husband 
 that he was prepared to receive her. 
 ^ Memoires de Duplessis-Mornay. 
 
 ^ He added some excellent advice for his Majesty's future conduct. 
 "The eyes of all are fixed on you," he writes ; "in your Household 
 some splendour ought to be seen ; in your Council, dignity ; in your 
 person, grarity ; in your serious actions, consistency ; in even the least, 
 justice. The love-affairs, which are carried on so openly, and to which 
 you devote so much time, are no longer seasonable. It is time. Sire, 
 for you to make love to all Christendom, and especially to France," 
 
 303 
 
CHAPTER XXI 
 
 Reunion of the King and Queen of Navarre — Impressions of 
 Michel de la Huguerye — Difficult position of Marguerite at 
 Nerac — The death of Monsieur makes Henri of Navarre heir- 
 presumptive to the throne of France — Mission of the Due 
 d'Epernon to Gascouy — Letter of Bellievre to Marguerite — 
 The King of Navarre refuses to abjure the Protestant faith — 
 Treaty of Joinville — Henri HI., compelled to give the League 
 his countenance and support, signs the Treaty of Nemours — 
 Strained relations between Marguerite and her husband — A 
 secretary of the Queen accused of attempting to poison the 
 King — Marguerite retires to Agen — Letters of Bellievre to 
 Catherine de' Medici — The Queen of Navarre executes a 
 coup d'Etat at Agen and gets possession of the town — She 
 embarks upon a war of conquest, but meets with reverses — 
 The Agenais, exasperated by her exactions and tyranny, appeal 
 to the Marechal de Matignon for assistance — Revolt of the 
 town and flight of Marguerite to Auvergne. 
 
 The reunion between the King and Queen of Navarre 
 took place at Porte-Sainte-Marie, on April 13, 1584. 
 Marguerite was the first to arrive at the rendezvous, 
 where she was soon joined by her husband, who embraced 
 her without saying a word. They then entered the 
 house at which the Queen was staying, mounted to a 
 room on the first floor, and showed themselves, for a few 
 moments, at a window to the people gathered below. 
 Half an hour later, they descended ; Marguerite entered 
 her litter, and the King followed her on horseback. 
 Are you satisfied with me ? " inquired Henri, of 
 
 304 
 
 ti 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 Charles de Birague, who had accompanied him to the 
 interview. " I am always satisfied with what is able to 
 please your Majesty," was the diplomatic answer. 
 
 Nerac was reached at four o'clock in the afternoon, 
 and until supper-time, the reunited pair promenaded 
 the long gallery of the chateau. No one overheard what 
 passed between them ; but Michel de la Huguerye, 
 a follower of Conde, who had been despatched by that 
 prince on a mission to his cousin, relates that the Queen 
 was " bathed incessantly in tears." The supper which 
 followed was a dismal meal for the unfortunate Marguerite, 
 sitting, with tear-stained face and quivering lips, next 
 her husband, " who," continues the chronicler, " carried 
 on I know not what frivolous conversation with the 
 gentlemen about him, without either he himself or any 
 one else addressing the princess, which caused me to 
 judge that he had received her back under compulsion." 
 And he concludes by expressing his opinion that " this 
 reconciliation would not be of long duration, and that 
 such treatment would cause this princess to take a 
 new part in the trouble which was about to rise." ^ 
 
 La Huguerye had gauged the situation but too 
 accurately. Marguerite, who had returned to Nerac 
 as a pledge of peace, resumed nominally her former 
 position ; but she did not find there the same considera- 
 tion nor the same security. The happy days when she 
 had declared the Court of Nerac so pleasant that she had 
 no reason to regret that of France were gone, never to 
 return ; nor was it long before she experienced how 
 futQe are rehabilitations such as hers. She could not 
 forget the unwillingness of her husband to receive her, 
 the bitter humiliation of those long months which she 
 
 1 Memoires de Michel de la Huguerye. 
 
 305 u 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 had spent eating out her heart amid the discomfort and 
 monotony of dull provincial towns, the scorn and mockery 
 of all France. On his side, the King of Navarre, careless 
 and good-natured though he was, where morality was 
 concerned, had been deeply incensed by the odious 
 scandal that had assailed his wife's reputation, by the 
 pressure which had been brought to bear upon him to 
 induce him to reinstate her under the conjugal roof, 
 and by the threats into which his resistance had provoked 
 the French Court. This combination of circumstances 
 constituted a false position, which political and religious 
 complications helped to aggravate. 
 
 On June ii, 1584, the Due d'Anjou expired at Chateau- 
 Thierry, regretted by none, save his sister and, possibly, 
 by his mother. His death, which deprived Marguerite 
 of her only support, made the King of Navarre heir- 
 presumptive to the French crown, and, as Henri III. 
 had, for some time past, abandoned all hope of his consort 
 bearing him children, the question of the succession at 
 once became of paramount importance. But the acces- 
 sion of a heretic to the throne was repugnant to the 
 whole Catholic population, and was certain to be violently 
 opposed by a considerable section of it. The intimate 
 connection of the State and the orthodox Church was 
 held to be a fundamental law of the monarchy ; it was 
 impossible to depart from it without shaking the social 
 edifice to its very foundations, overthrowing all traditions, 
 and outraging the public conscience. Even men of 
 moderate views, who were willing enough that the 
 Huguenots should be tolerated, were alarmed at the 
 prospect of their domination. 
 
 Very intelligent, whenever he could contrive to free 
 himself for a time from his idle and voluptuous habits, 
 
 306 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 Henri III. had foreseen this, and, in the middle of May, 
 that is to say, about three weeks before Monsieur's death, 
 had despatched the Due d'Epernon to the King of Navarre, 
 " bearing him letters, in which he admonished, exhorted, 
 and entreated him, seeing that the life of the Due d'Anjou, 
 his brother, was despaired of, and that the news of his 
 death was daily expected, to come to Court and go to 
 Mass, because he desired to recognise him as his true 
 heir and successor, and to give him such rank and dignity 
 near his person as his qualification of brother-in-law 
 and heir to the throne deserved. There was a report 
 that he was sent with 200,000 ecus, which the King had 
 given him to defray the cost of his journey ; and he 
 went accompanied by more than one hundred gentlemen, 
 to the majority of whom the King gave sums of one, 
 two, or three hundred ecus, to render him good and 
 faithful service and make a suitable appearance." ^ 
 
 Henri of Navarre received the " demi-roi " of France 
 and his sumptuous retinue, at Pamiers, with every mark 
 of honour and esteem, to the great satisfaction of Henri 
 HI., but to the profound annoyance of Marguerite. 
 The princess could not forget the campaign of calumny 
 which this arrogant mignon had carried on against her 
 during her fatal visit to Paris, and, especially, that when 
 she had been forced to submit to her brother's insults 
 at the Louvre, he had been by his master's side. The 
 King of Navarre, after their first interview, had invited 
 the duke to visit him at Nerac ; but Marguerite warned 
 her husband that " she intended to absent herself, so 
 as not to disturb the festivities." Advised of her inten- 
 tion, Catherine wrote to her daughter to remonstrate, 
 and charged Bellievre, who had accompanied d'Epernon 
 ^ L'Estoile, Journal de Henri III. 
 307 
 
 X 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 to Gascony, to transmit her letter, and to use every per- 
 suasion to bring the princess to a different frame of mind. 
 The Minister obeyed, and, in despatching her Majesty's 
 letter, wrote as follows : 
 
 " BELLikvRE to the Queen of Navarre. 
 
 " Madame, — It is, and will be to me all my life, a 
 cause of extreme regret to write to you on an occasion 
 which is to me, and to all the servants of this crown, 
 so difficult to support. You have lost your brother, 
 whom you loved with a unique affection, but God has 
 preserved your mother, to whom you are dearer than her 
 own life. She has commanded me to submit to you 
 the letter which she has written you concerning your 
 refusal to receive M. d'Epernon. If the King your 
 brother, in sending him, had not commanded him to 
 visit you, it would have appeared to this people that he 
 did not intend you to occupy the place in his affection 
 which all honest men desire him to give you. I write you, 
 by command of your mother, to beg you to conform to 
 her instructions. Give me orders to inform the Due 
 d'Epernon that you are prepared to give him a cordial 
 reception." ^ 
 
 The King of Navarre, too, besought his wife to forget 
 her resentment, " for love of him," and assist at 
 d'Epernon's official reception, to which he attached great 
 importance, and, tired of argument, Marguerite eventually 
 yielded. " Ah well ! Monsieur," said she, " since it 
 pleases you to command me, I will remain and will make 
 him welcome, out of the respect and obedience I owe 
 you." But she added : " The day on which he arrives, 
 ^ Bibliotheque Nationale, Leiires de Bellievre^ published by La Ferriere. 
 
 308 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 and so long as he remains, I shall dress myself in garments 
 which I shall never wear again : those of dissimulation 
 and hypocrisy." She kept her word, and the duke*s 
 visit passed off without any unpleasantness, to the great 
 astonishment of the curious, who maliciously scrutinised 
 the countenances of the Queen and her guest. 
 
 D'Epernon, however, effected little. The Catholics 
 about Henri of Navarre, and two or three of his more 
 moderate Protestant advisers, had been, for some time 
 past, urging him to remove by his conversion the only 
 obstacle to his recognition as heir-presumptive to the 
 throne. But the great mass of the Huguenots were bitterly 
 opposed to such a recantation, and, lightly though he 
 held by his creed, he felt that the moment had not yet 
 come when he could afford to offend them. He feared, 
 too, the versatility of Henri HI., and knew that the 
 Guises' zeal for the Old Faith was but a cloak for their 
 ambition. As a Catholic, he would have only partisans ; 
 as chief of the Calvinists, he could command armies of 
 devoted followers. And so d'Epernon was answered with 
 protestations of gratitude and loyalty. The King of 
 Navarre, he was informed, was indeed deeply sensible 
 of his Majesty's goodness, but " a man's religion could not 
 be put on and off like his shirt," and, though he was 
 perfectly willing to receive instruction or to submit to 
 the decision of a free and universal council, he could 
 not see his way to accept the invitation to Court, and, 
 still less, to go straightway to Mass. In other matters, 
 he held himself entirely at his Majesty's orders, and was 
 prepared to come to his assistance with all the forces of his 
 party, in the;event of the King breaking with the League. 
 
 The fact that the legitimate heir to the throne was a 
 heretic, made the renewal of the civil war inevitable, 
 
 309 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 and on the death of Anjou, the Guises and the League 
 at once began to organise their forces for the coming 
 struggle. The ultra-Catholic party, who had long lost 
 all confidence in their vacillating sovereign, turned 
 towards Henri de Lorraine, as to their champion and 
 true leader; and the King spoke the truth when he 
 declared that, though he himself wore the crown, it was 
 the Due de Guise who reigned over the hearts of his 
 subjects. Philip IL, fearful that Henri HL might 
 unite with Elizabeth in intervention in the Netherlands, 
 spared no pains in urging the Guisards to take action, 
 and on January i6, 1585, a formal treaty was signed at 
 Joinville, by the Dues de Guise and de Mayenne, and by 
 representatives of the Cardinal de Bourbon and the 
 King of Spain, whereby it was agreed that, in the event 
 of the death of Henri HL, the Cardinal de Bourbon 
 should be proclaimed King, and that the contracting 
 parties should use every endeavour to extirpate heresy 
 in both France and the Netherlands. 
 
 No means were left untried by the League to in- 
 timidate Henri HL into giving their proceedings his 
 countenance and support. The printing-presses of the 
 capital rained pamphlets, libels, and manifestoes, in 
 which the King was held up to odium as a second Herod, 
 the very incarnation of all the corruption of the age. 
 In spite of his devotion, his pilgrimages, his penances 
 and his confraternities, his orthodoxy was suspected, 
 and the parochial clergy, the friars, and the Jesuits, 
 vied with one another in denouncing him as a traitor 
 to the Faith, a blasphemer, a hypocrite, and an evil 
 liver." ^ 
 
 ^ L'Estoile reports that the preachers accused him of leading in his 
 penitential processions " hypocrites and atheists " who, on Good Friday 
 
 310 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 The Pope gave the League his solemn approval, and, 
 encouraged by this, the confederates, on March 30, 1585, 
 published their manifesto, wherein they declared that they 
 were prepared to draw the sword to restore the dignity 
 and unity of the Church, to secure to the nobility their 
 ancient privileges, to expel unworthy favourites and 
 advisers from the Court, to prevent further troubles by 
 settling the succession, and to provide for regular meet- 
 ings of the States -General. And until these objects 
 should be attained, they swore to hold together, and 
 persevere, " until they should be heaped together upon 
 one another in the tomb reserved for the last Frenchman 
 fallen in the service of his God and country." 
 
 For some weeks, Henri III., exasperated by such 
 insolent defiance of his authority, declined to yield, 
 while the Leaguers occupied several towns, the Press 
 continued to pour forth pamphlets, and a hundred 
 preachers lavished upon him their choicest invective. 
 But, counselled by Catherine, who had not grown less 
 pusillanimous with age,^ he eventually gave way, and, on 
 July 15, 1585, signed the Treaty of Nemours, which 
 marked the triumph of the Guises and the " Holy Union," 
 and was, for himself, a virtual abdication.^ 
 
 1582, had partaken of a hearty meal, to refresh themselves after their 
 exertions. He was also accused of indulging in blasphemous remarks 
 concerning an image of Our Lord, and of visiting convents, in order to 
 make love to the nuns. 
 
 ^ Catherine seems to have made up her mind that Henri HI. would 
 not live long, and that she would survive him, though in the latter ex- 
 pectation she was disappointed. In the event of his death, it would 
 appear to have been her intention to support the claim of the Marquis 
 de Pont-^-Moussin, son of the Duke of Lorraine and her daughter 
 Claude, and to govern through him. ' 
 
 2 By the Treaty of Nemours, Henri HL interdicted throughout his 
 
 3" 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 While these momentous events were happening, the 
 position of Marguerite at Nerac was becoming increas- 
 ingly difficult. She had derived no advantage from her 
 surrender to her husband's wishes on the occasion of 
 d'Epernon's visit, and continued to remain isolated in 
 the midst of a Court, of which she was Queen only in 
 name. So long as his wife had been of use to him in 
 his political schemes, the King of Navarre had shown 
 her at least those outward marks of respect and con- 
 sideration to which her rank entitled her. But now 
 she had lost her credit, and could no longer serve as an 
 intermediary between him and the French Court ; 
 4 nay, more, he had come to regard her in the light of 
 a possible rival, for there was a party in the nation, 
 which, too orthodox to accept a heretic sovereign and, 
 on the other hand, too fervently Royalist to desire a 
 change of dynasty, meditated, in the event of Henri II I. 's 
 death, putting Marguerite forward as claimant to the 
 throne, in defiance of the Salic Law.^ 
 
 In consequence, Henri began to neglect her entirely, 
 realm any other religion save the Catholic, on pain of death, and en- 
 joined the same penalty on all Protestant ministers who should not quit 
 the country within one month, while all other Huguenots were to 
 abjure within six. War was to be declared on all those who, at the 
 expiration of this period, had not made their submission, and the con- 
 duct of the war entrusted to the chiefs of the League. It is said that 
 when the King of Navarre learned that Henri HI. had surrendered to 
 the League, he remained for a long while in thought, with his chin 
 resting on his hand, and that when at last he roused himself from his 
 reverie, his beard had turned grey. 
 
 ^ M. de Saint-Poncy, who, however, does not give his authority, 
 asserts that, previous to her forced reconciliation with her husband, 
 Philip II. had offered Marguerite an asylum in Spain, with the inten- 
 y!^ tion of supporting her claim to the throne. But it seems scarcely prob- 
 ^ \h\e that Philip, whose daughters by Elisabeth de Valois, the Infanta 
 Isabella, had, if the Salic Law were to be violated, superior claims to 
 Marguerite's, would have looked further for a candidate. 
 
 312 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 passing nearly all his time at Pau with the Comtesse de 
 Gramont, and paying only brief and infrequent visits 
 to N6rac. La belle Corisande, too, seems to have lost 
 no opportunity of sowing dissension between the royal 
 pair, and the breach grew wider and wider. 
 
 At length matters came to such a pass that each party 
 believed, or affected to believe, that the other cherished 
 the most sinister designs, and was only awaiting a favourable 
 opportunity to put them into execution. Marguerite 
 imagined that she had everything to fear from the ascen- 
 dency of the Comtesse de Gramont, and declared that 
 there was a plot to carry her off and retain her captive 
 at Pau. On his side, Henri caused a man named Ferrand, 
 who was, or had been until very recently, one of the 
 Queen's secretaries, to be arrested, on a charge of attempt- 
 ing to poison him,^ though it subsequently transpired 
 that he had done nothing worse than carry on a very 
 active propaganda on behalf of the Guises. Nevertheless, 
 before his innocence of the criminal charge was estab- 
 lished, Henri, urged on by the Comtesse de Gramont, 
 seems to have seriously contemplated repudiating his 
 wife, on the ground that she had been an accomplice 
 of Ferrand, and took the advice of his Council on the 
 matter. If we are to believe d'Aubigne, he went even 
 further than this, and deliberated whether she could 
 not be brought to trial and executed. D'Aubigne 
 takes great credit to himself for • having dissuaded the 
 King from such a step, having regard to the hostility 
 which had always existed between him and the Queen. 
 
 ^ An attempt to poison Henri had certainly been made about this 
 time. Under date March 6, 1585, the Austrian Ambassador, Busbecq, "^ 
 writes to his Court : " A villain has endeavoured to poison the King of 
 Navarre ; but either because the poison was not sufficiently virulent, or 
 because the prince's constitution was too strong, the venom did not 
 take effect. The wretch attempted to kill himself with a pistol.'* 
 
 313 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 An open rupture between the ill-assorted couple was 
 now inevitable ; and Marguerite determined to quit 
 Nerac, which had become as intolerable to her as it had 
 once been agreeable, and to seek an asylum in the estates 
 of her appanage which bordered on the dominions of 
 her husband. It was her intention to maintain herself 
 there, with the support of the League, as a kind of in- 
 dependent sovereign, and set both her husband and her 
 brother at defiance. Accordingly, about the middle of 
 March, she requested the King of Navarre's permission 
 to spend Holy Week at Agen. Suspecting nothing 
 and glad of a momentary truce, Henri readily consented. 
 " That is a good plan, ma mie^'' said he, ironically " Go 
 and pray to God for me." 
 
 Agen, it will be remembered, was the town in which 
 Marguerite had spent the latter part of the time between 
 her banishment from the French Court and her return 
 to Nerac. During her stay, she had made herself very 
 popular with the inhabitants, the great majority of whom 
 were zealous Catholics, by her liberality, and still more 
 by having obtained the removal of the governor, a certain 
 d'Oraison, who held the town for Henri HI., and had used 
 his position to rob and oppress the citizens. 
 
 Without being a stronghold, Agen was far from an 
 easy place to invest, being protected, on the South, by 
 the Garonne, and, on the East, by ravines, and defended 
 by stout mediaeval ramparts and towers, and by earth- 
 works and gabions at its more exposed points. More- 
 over, since the withdrawal of d'Oraison and his troops, 
 the townspeople, who lived in constant dread of being 
 surprised by the King of Navarre, had formed themselves 
 into a civic guard, and made every preparation for a 
 vigorous defence.^ 
 
 ^ M. Charles Merki, La Reive Margot et la fin da Valour p. 319. 
 
 3H 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 Marguerite arrived at Agen on March 19, 1585, 
 accompanied by a few of her ladies and two or three 
 gentlemen of her suite, and took up her residence at the 
 house of a wealthy widow named Camberfort, whose 
 husband had been one of the principal citizens. The 
 rest of her Household joined her the same evening, and 
 on the morrow and following days, the Catholic gentry 
 of the neighbourhood flocked into the town, with the 
 result that the Queen soon found herself surrounded by 
 a little Court. 
 
 Her arrival excited no surprise among the good folk 
 of Agen, for the ill-feeling between her and the King of 
 Navarre was common knowledge, and they thought it 
 only natural that she should desire to escape from a 
 husband who was not only a heretic, but a notorious 
 evil-liver. Marguerite, too, was popular ; she was 
 very regular in the performance of her devotions, dis- 
 tributed alms with a lavish hand, spent money freely, 
 and seemed likely to make their town quite a gay and 
 fashionable resort. They welcomed her with open 
 arms. 
 
 The French Court, at first, was under the impression 
 that the Queen of Navarre's retirement to Agen was 
 merely a measure of precaution, due to the fear with 
 which the influence of the Comtesse de Gramont had 
 inspired her, and Belli^vre was of the same opinion. 
 " I have not failed to speak to M. de Clervant," he writes 
 to Catherine, on April 18," of the wrong that the King of 
 Navarre is committing in preferring the friendship of 
 the countess [de Gramont] to that of his wife, who has 
 been constrained to return to Agen, to protect herself 
 from the countess, who is plotting against her life."-" 
 But, some days later, he began to grow suspicious, and 
 
 315 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 her ; that she had much to fear from the enmity of her 
 husband, and that, as war was on the point of breaking 
 out, she must request them to hand over to her the keys 
 of the town and the citadel. 
 
 The consuls feebly protested, declaring that the town 
 was strong enough to defend itself, and that the Queen 
 was in perfect security. But Marguerite rejoined that 
 she was the mistress of the district ; that the Agenais 
 was her appanage, and that she intended to govern it 
 henceforth as she deemed necessary. The citizens gazed 
 at one another in dismay ; but a glance out of the window 
 revealed the fact that the square in front of the palace 
 was full of soldiers, and that her Majesty intended to 
 resort to force, if persuasion failed. They, therefore, 
 decided to yield, handed over the keys, and took the 
 oath of fealty, which Marguerite caused to be adminis- 
 tered to them before they separated. The rest of the 
 townspeople, intimidated or indifferent, offered no 
 opposition, and the Queen's authority was established 
 without any disturbance. Once mistress of the town. 
 Marguerite immediately replaced the civic guard by her 
 own troops. Her partisans flocked to her from all sides, „ 
 and in a few days she had quite a little army assembled 
 in and around Agen. Among those who came to offer 
 her their services was Lignerac,^ Governor of Aurillac '' 
 and Bailiff of Upper Auvergne, who arrived at the head 
 of a body of cavalry which he had raised in Quercy. 
 To him the Queen of Navarre entrusted the command of 
 
 ^ Francois Robert de Lignerac, Seigneur de Pleaux. He was a warm 
 partisan of the League, and during the siege of La Fere, in 1596, was 
 charged by Mayenne to carry his proposals to Henri IV, He made his 
 peace with the King at the Treaty of Folembray and served him with 
 distinction. 
 
 317 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 her troops, while the Vicomte de Du Ras, husband of the 
 confidante whom Henri III. had compelled her to dis- 
 miss from her service, was charged with the conduct of 
 political matters. Nor was it long before his wife arrived 
 upon the scene, accompanied by her friend, Madame de 
 Bethune, and at once proceeded to assume the position 
 of Prime Minister to her royal mistress. 
 
 Henri HI. and the Queen-Mother were furious when 
 news of Marguerite's escapade reached them. I per- 
 ceive," wrote Catherine, " that God has left me this 
 creature for the punishment of my sins, by the afflictions, 
 which every day she occasions me ; she is my scourge 
 in this world. I assure you that I am so afflicted that 
 I know what remedy to seek." ^ Henri HI., on his side, 
 sent orders to Matignon to make war upon his adventu- 
 rous sister and ravage her possessions ; but the marshal 
 preferred to stir up disaffection among her partisans 
 before having recourse to arms. 
 
 The King of Navarre, on the other hand, is reported 
 to have been much amused at his consort's proceedings, 
 and made jokes about her with the Comtesse de Gramont. 
 Nevertheless, he was fully alive to the danger of allowing 
 her a free hand in the Agenais and surrounding districts, 
 and he determined to crush her before she had time to 
 become really formidable. 
 
 Meanwhile, Marguerite, far from satisfied with her 
 easy success at Agen, had embarked upon a war of con- 
 quest. She had decided, that, in order to secure her 
 independence, she must compel not only Agen but the 
 whole of the Agenais and the Armagnac to acknowledge 
 her authority. But outside Agen, the Huguenots pre- 
 dominated, and were very far from inclined to tamely 
 
 2 Catherine to Bellievre, June 15, 1585. 
 318 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 submit to her rule ; and the success of her campaign 
 did not answer her expectations. 
 
 At first, however, Fortune seemed to favour her arms. 
 In July, she surprised Tonneins, a town situated on the '^ 
 Garonne, and placed a garrison there. But her success 
 was short-lived ; for her husband promptly marched upon 
 the town, and drove out the Queen's troops, with heavy 
 loss. 
 
 Impatient to repair this check, Marguerite made an 
 attempt upon Villeneuve-d'Agen, leading her troops 
 in person, if we are to believe Mezeray. This town 
 was divided into two parts by the River Lot. The 
 Queen's forces succeeded in occupying that situated 
 on the left bank, but deferred their assault on the rest 
 of the town till the following day. At daybreak, the 
 citizens sent out a number of men furnished with trum- 
 pets, who posted themselves on the Perigord road and 
 rent the air with martial strains. The besiegers, in the 
 belief that the King of Navarre was advancing to the 
 succour of the town — a report to that effect had already 
 been spread by some men who had joined them during 
 the night, representing themselves to be deserters — 
 immediately evacuated the part already in their hands 
 and retreated in confusion to Agen, harassed aU the way 
 by the townspeople, who had sallied out in pursuit. 
 
 Attempts upon Valence d'Agen and Saint-Mazard, 
 a small town of the Armagnac, met with no better 
 success ; while three companies of men-at-arms, who, 
 on the advice of Duras, had been sent into Beam to 
 foment a rising in the Queen's favour, were attacked 
 by Henri of Navarre and annihilated. 
 
 Disheartened by these reverses and fearing to be herself 
 attacked, either by her husband or by Matignon, or possibly 
 
 319 
 
\ 
 
 \ 
 
 QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 by both in conjunction, since they had, for the nonce, 
 laid aside their own quarrels, in order to checkmate the 
 adventurous princess. Marguerite, towards the end of 
 August, reluctantly abandoned aggressive warfare, and 
 shut herself up in Agen, there to await the assistance she 
 was expecting from the League. But of the six months' 
 respite granted the Huguenots by the Treaty of Nemours 
 only one had passed, and until the full term had expired, 
 the Leaguers were very unlikely to take the field. The 
 question was whether she could maintain herself at 
 Agen until the inevitable war began, and the Guises 
 were at liberty to come to her aid. Unfortunately for 
 Marguerite, it was not men so much as money of which 
 she stood in need. The garrison, strong and ably com- 
 manded, was quite capable of defending the town for 
 some months, even against the combined forces of the 
 King of Navarre and Matignon. But she sadly needed 
 money, to pay the soldiers and for the expenses of her 
 Court, which her accounts for the year 1585 show numbered 
 no less than 235 persons, exclusive of the pages. ^ Money 
 had been promised by Spain, but it did not arrive, and it 
 was to no purpose that the Due de Guise entreated 
 Philip IL to send assistance to the Queen without delay, 
 " in order that she whom we have established as an 
 obstacle to her husband, may not be abandoned by her 
 people." ^ Philip was evidently of opinion that, in 
 granting the League a subsidy of a million crowns he 
 had done enough for one year. 
 
 At her wits' end for money. Marguerite was ill-advised 
 enough to listen to the counsels of her intimates, of whom 
 Madame de Duras was the guiding spirit, and levy addi- 
 
 1 M. Charles Merki, La Re'me Margot et la fin des Valois^ p. 328. 
 ^ Archives Nationales, published by La Ferriere. 
 
 320 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 tional taxes on the townspeople. This aroused great 
 irritation amongst all classes, which was increased by 
 the drastic measures adopted to enforce payment, those 
 who refused to contribute what was demanded being 
 punished by having soldiers billeted on them, imprison- 
 ment, or the sale of their goods. The plague, which 
 that year ravaged nearly the whole of the South of France, 
 broke out at Agen, and destroyed in six months over 
 fifteen hundred persons. A number of the wealthier 
 citizens entreated the Queen to permit them to depart 
 with their families from the stricken town ; but this 
 permission was refused them, at the instigation of Mar- 
 guerite's advisers, who pointed out that the withdrawal 
 of so many of the principal citizens would materially 
 weaken her cause. But the exasperation of the Agenais 
 reached its height, when the Queen determined to build 
 a second citadel overlooking the Garonne, in order to 
 strengthen the defences of the town and, at the same 
 time, to enable her to defend herself against her subjects, 
 should occasion arise. For this purpose, she forthwith 
 began to demolish a number of the best houses in the 
 town, and in a few days upwards of fifty were levelled 
 with the ground, vague promises of compensation at 
 some future time being all that their luckless owners 
 received in return for the destruction of their homes. 
 
 Ruined, plundered, and oppressed, the citizens sighed 
 for their former liberty, and turned willing ears to the 
 agents of Matignon, who had been busily intriguing in 
 the town for some time past. In response to a deputa- 
 tion which waited upon him at Bordeaux, the marshal sent 
 a curious document, which is still preserved in the 
 Archives of Agen, authorising the citizens " to capture 
 and seize the forts, drive out and expel, by force of arms, 
 
 3ZI X 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 if necessary, the captains, soldiers, and all men of war 
 who were there, and give him admission to the town, to 
 hold it in obedience to his Majesty." And the document 
 concludes with an injunction, which sounds somewhat 
 ironical under the circumstances, that in everything 
 they might do, they should " treat the Queen of Navarre, 
 her ladies, and maids-of-honour with the honour, respect, 
 \ and very humble service which was their due." 
 
 In the early morning of September 25, the citizens 
 rose in arms, seized one of the gates, and admitted a 
 strong force, which Matignon (who, mindful of the fate 
 of his predecessor, Biron, sacrificed to the Queen of 
 Navarre's resentment, did not care to appear personally 
 in the affair) had despatched to their assistance, under 
 the command of one of his officers, Etienne de Nort. 
 The garrison, surprised and outnumbered, fought bravely 
 enough, but were eventually overpowered, and scattered 
 in all diredtions, pursued by the infuriated townspeople. 
 Marguerite herself escaped capture, thanks to Lignerac, 
 who, seeing that all was lost, hastened to her house and 
 compelled her to mount behind him, while one of his 
 officers carried off Madame de Duras in similar fashion. 
 They were accompanied by a part of the Queen's entour- 
 age, about eighty gentlemen, and a body of Lignerac's 
 men-at-arms, and made their way out of the town 
 without encountering any opposition. 
 
 It had been arranged that, in the event of the Queen 
 ^ of Navarre being compelled to quit Agen, she should 
 make her way into the viscounty of Carlat — in Upper 
 Auvergne — which formed, like the Agenais, part of her 
 appanage, and seek safety at the Chateau of Carlat, which 
 was then held by a brother of Lignerac, Robert Gilbert, 
 Seigneur de Marses or Marce. Thither the fugitives 
 
 322 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 directed their course, though not with the extraordinary- 
 precipitation described by some chroniclers, since Mar- 
 guerite's account-books show that they occupied six 
 days in covering a distance of some forty leagues. 
 
 However, the journey was not altogether uneventful, 
 as, some distance from Agen, they found their progress 
 barred by a strong body of arquebusiers, whom Matignon 
 had placed there to intercept them ; and it was only after 
 a sharp skirmish, in which several men fell, that they 
 succeeded in cutting their way through. On the frontier 
 of Auvergne, between Entragues and Montsalvy, the 
 Queen was met by Gilbert de Marses, at the head of 
 five hundred gentlemen and men-at-arms, who escorted 
 her to Carlat, where she arrived on Monday, September /^ 
 30, 1585. 
 
 323 
 
CHAPTER XXII 
 
 Marguerite at the Chateau of Carlat — Dishonesty and inso- 
 lence of her secretary, Choisnin, whom she dismisses from her 
 service — In revenge, he reveals to Henri III. her negotiations 
 with the Due de Guise — Illness of the Queen of Navarre — 
 Her situation at Carlat little better than that of a prisoner — 
 Her relations with d'Aubiac — A tragic episode in her Majesty's 
 bed-chamber — Marguerite, finding herself no longer in security 
 at Carlat, removes to the Chateau of Ibois — She is arrested by 
 the Marquis de Canillac, acting under the orders of Henri III. 
 — Letters of the King to Villeroy — Execution of d'Aubiac — 
 Canillac conducts Marguerite to the Chateau of Usson, where 
 she " makes her gaoler her captive " — Sinister designs attributed 
 to Henri III. and Catherine in regard to the Queen of Navarre 
 — Canillac joins the League and delivers the chateau to Mar- 
 guerite — Her life at Usson — Her Memoires — Her financial 
 embarrassments. 
 
 The Chateau of Carlat was one of the most ancient 
 fortresses in France, and traced its history back to the 
 time of Clovis, who, according to a local tradition, had 
 once vainly besieged it. It was of immense size and 
 strength, situated on a plateau environed by precipices, 
 which, says the author of the Divorce satyrique, " gave 
 it more the appearance of a robber's den than the resi- 
 dence of a Queen." Several illustrious personages had 
 at different periods in its history resided there, among 
 them, Jacques d'Armagnac, Due de Nemours, executed 
 for high treason under Louis XL, the Duchesse Anne 
 de Beaujeu, and Susanne de Montpensier, her daughter. 
 
 324 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 The chateau was nominally Marguerite's property, but 
 during the Wars of Religion it seems to have been 
 occupied by whoever was strong enough to seize and 
 defend it. Thus, shortly before the Queen of Navarre's 
 arrival in Auvergne, it had been held by a Huguenot 
 chief, a certain La Peyre-Teule, who had been expelled 
 by Gilbert de Marses, acting presumably under Mar- 
 guerite's orders. The princess had decided to take 
 refuge at Carlat, because it was situated in her appanage, 
 and she counted on the assistance of the Catholic gentry 
 of the province. A movement in her favour was success- 
 ful, and she entered Carlat as a sovereign. 
 
 If we are to believe the pamphleteers of the time, 
 and the writers who have followed them. Marguerite 
 arrived at Carlat, " without her State bed, without 
 money, and without even a change of linen," ^ and des- 
 patched Duras into Spain, to solicit help from Philip II. 
 But although, in her hurried flight from Agen, she had 
 been compelled to leave behind her the greater part 
 of her Household, together with all her coaches, litters, 
 furniture, jewellery, plate, and so forth, the Agenais 
 made no attempt to detain either her servants or her 
 property, and her account-books for 1585 show that fj^j c 
 by December 4, everything had arrived — even the State "^ 
 bed.2 
 
 Her treasurer, Charpentier, and her comptroller, 
 Fran(^ois Rousselet, were among the last of her Household 
 to reach Carlat, and, during their absence, their duties 
 were discharged by the secretary, Choisnin, whom, it 
 will be remembered, Marguerite had despatched to the 
 
 ^ Divorce satyrique. 
 
 2 An entry shows that the Queen paid 24 ^cus to the Sieur Victor, 
 who had brought it from Miossac to Carlat. 
 
 325 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 Due de Guise, shortly after her arrival at Agen, and 
 who had kept the secret instructions which his mistress 
 had given him for the duke. When, at length, the 
 treasurer and comptroller put in an appearance, Choisnin 
 presented his accounts and declared that he had dis- 
 bursed on behalf of the Queen and her Household between 
 14,000 and 15,000 ecus in six weeks ! Marguerite was 
 highly indignant, as well she might be,, and her anger 
 was increased when the unabashed Choisnin demanded 
 an exorbitant sum for his services. The Queen flatly 
 refused to pay it, upon which Choisnin. behaved in a 
 most offensive manner, and addressed to his mistress 
 a pasquinade, " the most disgusting and villainous that 
 ever was seen." For this, he was dismissed from her 
 service and expelled from the chateau, after first receiv- 
 ing a sound flogging at the hands of some of her gentle- 
 men. He departed, " vowing to leave nothing undone 
 to ruin the Queen," and was as good as his word, since 
 he set off for Paris, and placed the secret instructions for 
 'Guise in the hands of Henri HI. 
 
 Marguerite was, for the time being, in safety at Carlat, 
 but she was sadly in need of money. She endeavoured 
 to procure a loan from a Florentine banker, who had 
 a banking-house at Lyons, on the security of a portion 
 of her jewellery ; but the Italian shamefully abused her 
 confidence. She subsequently parted with some valuable 
 jewels to Lignerac, to cover an advance of 10,000 livres 
 which he had made her. 
 
 Early in the spring of 1586, she feU ill, and her malady 
 would appear to have caused her people considerable 
 anxiety, since she was attended by doctors from Moulins, 
 Aurillac, Villefranche-en-Rouergue, and Murat, as well 
 as by her own physicians. In May, however, she had 
 
 326 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 recovered, and was able to visit several of the neighbour- 
 ing nobility and to attend a mountaineers' f6te, organised 
 by Lignerac in her honour. 
 
 Meanwhile, she had made numerous changes in her 
 Household, and had taken several of the gentry of 
 Auvergne into her service. She had also quarrelled 
 with the Vicomte de Duras, who had departed in high 
 dudgeon. The cause of their quarrel is uncertain, but, ^ 
 very probably, Duras had taken exception to the position 
 in which the Queen had allowed herself to be placed, 
 for, though treated ostensibly as a sovereign, she was, 
 to all intents and purposes, a prisoner in the hands of 
 Lignerac and Marses. The former had been appointed 
 Superintendent of the Queen's Household, while the 
 latter commanded in the cMteau, and without their 
 consent and that of another adventurous noble, Jean 
 de Rive or de Rieu, civil and criminal lieutenant of the 
 district, she did nothing, and was merely the instrument 
 of their ambition. 
 
 Marguerite had, however, bestowed her friendship and 
 confidence, if not her love, on a fourth person, a young man ^ 
 named d'Aubiac, who, as we have mentioned, had been 
 given the command of one of the companies of men-at- 
 arms which she had organised at Agen, and with whose 
 assistance she had secured possession of the town. Who 
 this person really was is a matter of dispute. According 
 to one account, he was a certain Jean de Larte de Galart, 
 second son of Antoine de Galart, Seigneur d'Aubiac ; 
 while M. de Saint-Poncy asserts that he was a son of 
 Begot de Roquemaurel, Seigneur d'Aubiat, a member 
 of one of the oldest and most illustrious families of 
 Auvergne, and a relative of the Due d'Albany, uncle of 
 Catherine de' Medici. There is a similar difference of 
 
 327 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 opinion as to his personal appearance ; for, whereas the 
 Divorce satyrique describes him as having "red hair, 
 freckled skin, and a rubicund nose," the Tuscan Ambassa- 
 dor, Cavriana, speaks of him as " young and handsome," 
 though audacious and indiscreet/ 
 
 Whatever his social position and appearance may have 
 been, he seems to have fallen violently in love with the 
 Queen of Navarre, though the author is probably roman- 
 cing when he declares that, on beholding her for the first 
 time, at Agen, the enamoured young man exclaimed : 
 " Ah ! the admirable creature ! If I were fortunate 
 enough to find favour in her eyes, I should not regret my 
 life, were I to lose it an hour afterwards ! " These 
 words, the writer tells us, were reported to Marguerite, 
 who, far from being offended at them, gave him the com- 
 mand of one of the companies of men-at-arms, and 
 subsequently made him her equerry. Whether he was 
 her lover, as several writers assert, is difficult to say — 
 M. de Saint-Poncy, of course, will not allow that he was 
 anything but a humble worshipper — but, any way, he 
 was one of the most devoted of her partisans at this 
 period, and enjoyed her full confidence. 
 
 In the early autumn of 1586, the situation of the 
 Queen of Navarre at Carlat began to grow very unpleasant. 
 The commandant of the chateau, Gilbert de Marses, 
 died,^ and violent and acrimonious disputes immediately 
 
 ^ Negociations avec la Toscane, iv. 669. 
 
 2 The Divorce satyrique accuses Marguerite of having caused Marses to 
 be poisoned, partly in order to revenge herself on his wife, who had dis- 
 covered the nature of the relations existing between her and d'Aubiac^ 
 and partly to make herself mistress of the chateau. But no attention 
 need be paid to so foul an accusation made by a writer of this class, and, 
 in all probability, Marses fell a victim to the plague, which was then 
 ravaging Auvergne. 
 
 328 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 began between d'Aubiac and Lignerac on the subject 
 of the military authority. Then a most tragic event 
 occurred. Lignerac, who, it would appear, possessed 
 or, at any rate, aspired to the Queen's favours, took 
 umbrage at the interest which she was taking in " the 
 son of her apothecary," and finding him one morning 
 in her Majesty's chamber, was seized with so violent 
 an access of jealousy, that he poniarded the hapless youth 
 to death before the eyes of the horrified princess.^ 
 
 Apart from these annoyances, Margueite no longer 
 felt herself in security at Carlat. Henri III., more than 
 ever incensed against her by the proofs of her dealings 
 with the Guises which the treacherous Choisnin had 
 placed in his hands, had sent orders to her to leave the 
 chateau, threatening her, in case of refusal, with " the 
 most rigorous punishment " ; and the arrival of Joyeuse^ 
 at the head of a Royalist army, on the frontier of Auvergne 
 had caused many of her supporters among the Catholic 
 gentry of the province to desert her cause. She seems, 
 indeed, to have been in hourly dread lest the chateau 
 should be attacked and taken, and she herself delivered 
 over to her detested brother. Accordingly, she resolved 
 to leave Carlat, and take refuge at the Chateau of Ibois, 
 a league from Issoire, in which Catherine had offered 
 her an asylum, shortly after her flight from Agen. Thither 
 she set out on October 14, 1586, accompanied by d'Aubiac, /\ 
 Robert du Cambon, another of Lignerac's brothers, and 
 a part of her Household. A certain Seigneur de Chateau- 
 
 * M. de Saint-Poncy characterises this episode as an "atrociously 
 ridiculous story." But it was sufficiently well authenticated for the 
 Spanish Ambassador, Mendoza, to report it to Philip II., in a letter 
 which is preserved in the Archives Nationales, and has been published 
 by M. Philippe Lauzun in his Itineraire raisonne de Marguerite de Valou 
 en Gascogne. 
 
 329 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 neuf, whom she had admitted to her confidence, had 
 promised to convey the Queen and her suite across the 
 AUier, and to furnish her with an escort as far as Ibois. 
 But he failed to keep his promise, and the party had to 
 cross the river by a ford, where Marguerite had a very 
 narrow escape of being drowned. They reached Ibois 
 
 ^ in safety on October i6, and were duly admitted by the 
 governor of the chateau, Louis de la Souchere. Scarcely, 
 however, had they arrived, when a troop of horse was 
 observed approaching. It proved to be commanded 
 by the Marquis de Canillac, Governor of the Chateau 
 of Usson, and one of Joyeuse's lieutenants.^ Chateauneuf 
 had betrayed them ! 
 
 Canillac peremptorily demanded admission to the 
 chateau, and the Queen, recognising the futility of 
 resistance, ordered the gates to be opened, having first 
 concealed d'Aubiac, in the chimney, according to Du 
 Vair, or " between the walls," according to an un- 
 published manuscript cited by M. Charles Merki. The 
 
 ■\ marquis informed Marguerite that he had orders from 
 the King to arrest her, and then demanded the where- 
 abouts of d'Aubiac, concerning whom, it appeared, he 
 had special instructions. Her Majesty's reply not being 
 satisfactory, he ordered a search to be made, and the 
 hapless d'Aubiac' s hiding-place was speedily discovered. 
 
 The same day, Canillac despatched a gentleman to 
 Henri III., to inform him of his sister's arrest, and to ask 
 for further instructions. In reply, his Majesty wrote 
 to Villeroy as follows : 
 
 ^ Jean Timoleon de Beaufort-Montboissier, Vicomte de Lamothe, 
 Marquis de Canillac. He was the son of Marguerite's gouvernante and dame 
 ePhonneur, Madame de Curton, by her first marriage with Jacques de 
 Beaufort, Marquis de Canillac. 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 Henri III. to Villeroy. 
 
 " Tell Canillac not to budge until we have made the 
 necessary arrangements. Let him convey her to the «/• 
 Chateau of Usson. Let, from this hour, her estates/, 
 and pensions be sequestrated, in order to reimburse 
 the marquis for his charge of her. As for her women and 
 male attendants, let the marquis dismiss them instantly, 
 and let him give her some honest demoiselle and waiting- 
 woman, until the Queen my good mother orders him 
 to procure such women as she shall think suitable. But, 
 above all, let him take good care of her. It is my inten- 
 tion to refer to her in the letters patent, only as * my 
 sister,' and not as ' dear and well-beloved.' The Queen , 
 my mother enjoins upon vat to cause tTAubiac to be hanged, 
 and that the execution takes place in the presence of this 
 wretched woman, in the court of the Chateau of Usson. 
 Arrange for this to be properly carried out. Give orders 
 that all her rings be sent to me, and with a full inventory, 
 and that they be brought to me as soon as possible." 
 
 This letter was followed by another not less severe 
 in tone. 
 
 Henri III. to Villeroy. 
 
 " The more I examine the matter, the more I feel 
 and recognise the ignominy that this wretched woman 
 brings upon us. The best that God can do for her and 
 for us, is to take her away. I have written to the Marquis '^ 
 de Canillac concerning her women ; that he leaves her 
 two waiting-women and her maids-of-honour ; since I 
 judged them to be better able to endure captivity than 
 those who have not deserved it. As for this Aubiac, 
 
 331 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 although he merits death, both in the eyes of God and 
 men, it would be well for some judges to conduct his 
 trial, in order that we may have always before us what 
 will serve to repress her [Marguerite's] audacity, for she 
 will always be too proud and malignant* Decide what 
 ought to be done, for death, we are all resolved, must 
 follow. Tell the marquis not to budge until I have 
 furnished him with Swiss and other troops." ^ 
 
 In conformity with the King's orders, d'Aubiac was 
 taken to Aiguepecse, and there, after a mockery of a trial, 
 hanged on the Place Saint-Louis, " kissing until the last 
 moment of his existence," according to the Divorce 
 satyrique, " a blue cut-velvet sleeve," all that remained 
 to him of the favours of his beloved mistress. A grave had 
 been dug beneath the gibbet, and, while still breathing, 
 the hapless young man was cut down and flung into it. ^ 
 
 On what charge he had been condemned is unknown. 
 Some writers pretend that he had been concerned in 
 the death of Gilbert de Marses ; but, whatever may have 
 been the charge, there can be little doubt that what 
 M. de Saint-Poncy calls the " tender sympathy " which 
 existed between him and Marguerite was the real cause 
 of his terrible fate.' 
 
 As for the Queen of Navarre, Canillac conducted her, 
 by way of Saint-Amant and Saint-Saturnin,to the Chateau 
 of Usson, where she arrived on November 13, 1586. 
 
 Like Car la t, Usson formed part of Marguerite's ap- 
 panage. The Chateau was situated on the summit of 
 
 ^ Imperial Library, St. Petersburg, published by La Ferriere. 
 
 ^ Negociations avec la ToscanCy iv. 669. 
 
 ^ M. de Saint-Poncy says that Marguerite composed some stanzas " to 
 consecrate and avenge the memory of this touching figure, who, in the 
 Middle Age?, would have inspired the songs of troubadours." 
 
 33* 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 an inaccessible rock, at the foot of which nestled a tiny 
 village, and had been built, according to an old legend, 
 with the materials of a pagan temple. Purchased by 
 the Due de Berry from Jean II., Comte d'Auvergne, 
 Usson had passed to Charles VI. and his successors. 
 Louis XI. had used it as a kind of State prison, " keeping 
 his prisoners a hundred times more securely there," says 
 Brantome, " than at Loches, Vincennes, or Lusignan." 
 
 Marguerite was at first very unhappy at Usson, 
 " treated," writes the Tuscan Ambassador, Cavriana, 
 "like the poorest and most abandoned of creatures."' 
 However, this state of things did not last long. M. de 
 Saint-Poncy indignantly denies that his heroine employed 
 her wiles to transform her gaoler into her prisoner, and 
 seduce him from his allegiance to the King. But this 
 " fable " as he characterises it, does not rest upon the 
 testimony of the Divorce satyrique ^ and other works of 
 a similar character, but is supported by two of the 
 Queen of Navarre's most enthusiastic panegyrists, Pere 
 Hilarion de Coste and Brantome. " The Marquis de 
 Canillac," writes the former, " carried her (Marguerite) 
 off, and brought her to Usson. But, soon afterwards, 
 this lord of a very illustrious house saw himself the 
 captive of his prisoner. He thought to have triumphed 
 over her, and the mere sight of her ivory arms triumphed 
 over him, and henceforth he lived only by the favour of 
 the victorious eyes of his beautiful captive." ^ And 
 
 1 " Her manners — it is Henri IV. who is supposed to be speaking — 
 were so insinuating that it was difficult to defend oneself when she 
 chose to exert them. She made so many advances to Canillac that he 
 could not avoid becoming aware of them; he preferred a fleeting gratifi- 
 cation to the duty he owed his master, and suffered himself to become 
 enslaved by her whom he had captured." 
 
 * £/oge des hommes et dames illustres au XVI'. et XVIV. siecles : Paris 1625. 
 
 333 
 
 ^■% 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 Brantome says : " Poor man ! What could he do ? 
 To wish to keep prisoner her who, by the power of her 
 eyes and her beautiful face, could rivet her chains upon 
 the rest of the world, as though they had been galley- 
 slaves ! " 
 
 It is probable, however, that interest had at least 
 as much to do with the subjugation of Canillac as had 
 love. In guarding Marguerite for the King, he might 
 naturally expect some substantial recompense ; but 
 Henri III.'s sceptre was rapidly slipping from his grasp ; 
 his authority was becoming each day more feeble ; and 
 the. marquis decided that the League might prove a 
 better paymaster. He, accordingly, entered into com- 
 munication with the Guises, and submitted to them a 
 memoir, in which he informed them that Henri III. and 
 the Queen-Mother, in order to checkmate the designs of 
 the League, had agreed to cause Marguerite to be assas- 
 sinated, and to marry the King of Navarre to Christine, 
 daughter of the Duke of Lorraine. 
 
 It seems difficult to believe that Henri III. and Cather- 
 ine, unscrupulous though they both undoubtedly were, 
 could ever have seriously contemplated so monstrous 
 a crime ; but that such a design was credited to them 
 by well-informed persons is evident from the following 
 letter, which the Due de Guise addressed to Mendoza, 
 after terms had been arranged between him and Canillac. 
 
 The Due de Guise to Don Bernardino Mendoza. 
 
 " February 14, 1587. 
 
 " I do not intend to fail to advise you that the negotia- 
 tions begun by me with the Marquis de Canillac have 
 happily succeeded, and I have persuaded him to cast in 
 his lot with our party, and, by this means, assure the 
 
 334 
 
QUEEN MARGOr 
 
 person of the Queen of Navarre, who is now in full 
 security. And I rejoice at this, as much on her account 
 as for the acquisition that it has brought us, of a very great 
 number of places and chateaux, which renders the 
 , Auvergne country perfectly assured to us, and frustrates 
 the tragic designs they are founding on her death, the details 
 of which will cause your hair to stand up. You can under- 
 stand how this matter has affected the King of France, 
 seeing that the Marquis has dismissed the garrison which 
 his Majesty had placed there, which is the first proof of 
 his good faith that I demanded of him." ^ 
 
 Canillac, in fact, had dismissed the Swiss, whom Henri 
 III. had placed at Usson, to guard his sister, and perhaps 
 with a more sinister intention, after which he handed 
 over the fortress to Marguerite.^ It would appear, 
 however, that the princess was obliged to purchase her 
 chateau and her liberty, and at a very high price, too, 
 since, in the Library of Clermont-Ferrand, a deed is 
 preserved, wherein the Queen of Navarre, " in considera- 
 tion of the very signal and very acceptable services 
 which she has received and hopes to receive from Jean 
 de Beaufort, Marquis de Canillac, gives, cedes, and 
 transfers to him and his all the rights that she may 
 possess over the county of Auvergne and other estates 
 
 * Archives Nationales, coll. Simancas, published by M. Charles Merki. 
 And the Tuscan Ambassador, Cavriana, wrote to his Court : " The King 
 intends to cause his sister to be put to death and to re-marry the King 
 of Navarre." 
 
 * There appears to be no truth in the story that the Queen of Navarre 
 profited by the absence of Canillac at Lyons, whither he had gone to 
 negotiate with the Guises, to seize the chateau, with the assistance of a 
 body of Leaguers from Orleans, though it is accepted by M. de la 
 Ferriere, who has a weakness for the picturesque. 
 
 335 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 and lordships in the said county of Auvergne . . . also 
 the sum of 40,000 ecus, payable as soon as it will be possible 
 to discharge it . . . and the first vacant benefices in our 
 estates up to the annual value of 30,000 livres." ^ 
 
 This document is dated September 1588, but M. 
 Merki is of opinion that it was intended to replace, or 
 perhaps supplement, some previous donation of the 
 princess in favour of Canillac. The marquis, however, 
 did not live to enjoy the reward of his " very signal 
 and very acceptable services," as, in April of the foUow- 
 \ ^ ing year, he was killed while directing the artillery of 
 the Leaguers at the siege of Saint-Ouen. 
 
 Marguerite was now once more a free woman ; but 
 she prudently decided to remain at Usson, whither 
 Guise had sent a body of troops from Orleans for her 
 protection, and view in safety from its inaccessible rock 
 the sanguinary drama which was being enacted around 
 her. Here, she learned of the Huguenot victory at 
 
 \'1 Coutras, when the Due de Joyeuse was killed ; of the 
 Day of the Barricades and the ignominious flight of the 
 King from his capital ; of the assassination of Guise, 
 by her brother's myrmidons, that dark December morn- 
 
 \ ) ing at Blois ; of the death of Catherine (January 5, 1589) 
 whom Henri HI. had persuaded to disinherit her daughter 
 in favour of Charles de Valois, the natural son of Charles 
 IX. and Marie Touchet ; of the death of her most bitter 
 enemy beneath the poniard of Jacques Clement, and of 
 the heroic struggle her husband was making against the 
 forces of intolerance and anarchy. 
 
 Of Marguerite's life at Usson but little authentic 
 information is, unfortunately, forthcoming, and, in 
 
 1 Published by M. Charles Merki, La Re'we Mcrgot et la fin des Falois, 
 
 P- 357- 
 
 336 
 
 2^ 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 consequence numerous legends have gathered around it. 
 If we are to listen to Pere Hilarion de Coste, it was " a 
 Tabor for devotion, a Libya for retirement, an Olympus 
 for the arts, a Parnassus for the Muses, a Caucasus for 
 the afflictions." " Usson," continues the good Father, 
 " Usson ! crowned by the royal castle, sacred and holy 
 abode ! Sweet hermitage, where Majesty meditated. 
 Thou rock, thou art a witness of the voluntary seclusion 
 of thy peerless princess Marguerite ! Usson ! earthly 
 paradise of delights, where sweet and harmonious voices 
 combine to soothe — ^the only spot where Royalty enjoyed 
 the repose and contentment which blessed souls find in 
 another world ! " ^ Mongez compares it to Noah's Ark, 
 a sacred temple and a devout monastery ; ^ while a 
 third writer describes it as " the honour and wonder of 
 Auvergne." ^ 
 
 If, on the other hand, we are to credit her detractors, 
 it was " a Cythera for her amours," * the counterpart of 
 the Capri of Tiberius ; and the author of the Divorce 
 satyrique gives many unedifying details of the debauchery 
 of which he declares it to have been the theatre.^ 
 
 Both sides have, of course, travestied the truth. The 
 Marguerite de Valois of Usson was probably neither 
 
 ^ iloges des hommes et dames illustres. 
 
 2 Histoire de Marguerite de Valois. 
 
 ^ Jean d'Arnalt, les Antiquites dfAgen (Paris, 1606). 
 
 * Pierre Mathieu, Histoire de France. / 
 
 ^ According to this scandalous chronicler, the Queen's favourites at 
 Usson occupied, for the most part, somewhat lowly positions in the social 
 scale : Pomini, a tenor from the cathedral at Clermont ; Julien Date, 
 the son of a carpenter at Aries, whom she ennobled, " avec six aunes 
 ePetoffe,^' and who forthwith blossomed into Date de Saint-Julien (this 
 young man met with a very tragic end, of which we shall have some- 
 thing to say hereafter) ; R6sigade, a shepherd ; Le Moyne, a valet-de- 
 chambre ; Comines, a strolling musician, and so forth. 
 
 337 Y 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 better nor worse than the Marguerite de Valois of Paris 
 and Nerac. A born coquette, to whom admiration was 
 as the breath of life, she could never have existed without 
 a train of admirers, and, as even her ardent apologist, 
 M. de Saint-Poncy, admits that her Majesty was " ifune 
 complexion trop ardente pour ne pas ceder a la tentation^'^ 
 we shall probably be safe to assume that not all of them 
 sighed in vain. On the other hand, the princess seems 
 to have been throughout her life so strict an observer 
 of the ritual of her Church, and had, moreover, so 
 marked a predilection for literature and the arts, that 
 a casual visitor to her mountain home, mindful of her 
 stormy past, might well have fancied himself in the 
 presence of a penitent, whose only pleasures, when not 
 occupied with her devotions, were music, books, and the 
 conversation of learned men, and departed with very 
 much the same impressions which her panegyrists have 
 formed. 
 
 Although Usson had little to commend it to a woman 
 accustomed to the bustle and gaiety of Courts, Mar- 
 guerite seems to have been happy enough, since, for the 
 first time in her life, save for those mad months at Agen, 
 when she had lived in constant dread of being attacked 
 and dragged back to her husband, she found herself 
 independent, and declared to one of her visitors that it 
 was the " chateau par excellence^'' She seldom left its 
 walls, but was far from remaining inactive, since she was 
 in constant communication with the chiefs of the League 
 in Auvergne : the Comte de Randan, Saint-Chamond, 
 Saint- Vidal, and others, and is said to have been the soul 
 of the resistance in that province. Several of them 
 came to Usson to confer with its chatelaine, among them 
 Honore d'Urfe, the author of that sentimental romance, 
 
 338 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 Astrke^ whom some writers have given a place in the list 
 of the Queen's lovers, though, it would seem, without 
 sufficient justification. His two brothers, Anne, Grand 
 Bailiff of Forez, and Antoine, Bishop of Saint-Flour, 
 were also among Marguerite's visitors, and the former 
 dedicated to her his Hymne de Sainte-Suzanne, in which 
 he calls her " la Perle de France^ 
 
 To Usson also came Loys Papon, Prior of Marcilly, 
 who expresses his admiration for the Queen in a long 
 poem, entitled VHymne a tres illustre princesse Mar- 
 guerite de Faloisj reine de France; Joseph Scaliger, J 
 " the phoenix of learning," who speaks of her with 
 enthusiasm as " liberal and learned, and possessed of 
 more royal virtues than the King " ; and, finally, Bran- 
 tome, who came to submit to Marguerite the eulogium 
 which is found in his Dames illustres, and who seems to 
 have first suggested to her the idea of writing her 
 Memoires. 
 
 These Mimoires, " ceuvres d^un apres-diner" according 
 to her own expression, are generally believed to have been 
 written, at Usson, about 1595 or 1596 ; certainly not 
 earlier than 1594, the date of her eloge by Brantome, 
 to correct and amplify certain statements in which was 
 one of the writer's objects ; nor later than 1597 or 1598, 
 as is indicated by the comparison of various passages. 
 (We have discussed elsewhere the question whether the 
 Memoires were continued beyond her departure for Paris 
 in 1582.) So much has been written in their praise 
 by historians and critics, from Pellisson^ who tells us 
 that he read them through from beginning to end twice 
 in a single night, with the result that they converted him 
 from a contemner into a passionate admirer of his mother 
 tongue, and contributed more than any other work to 
 
 339 
 
 / \£/V i.^--^ 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 form his style, to Sainte-Beuve, who declares them to be 
 " an epoch in the language, by reason of which an endur- 
 ing radiance will attach to her name," that it would be 
 almost superfluous for us to discuss them here. But we 
 may be allowed to make one observation, which is, that 
 the insinuation made by some writers, notably by Bayle 
 and Villemain, namely, that the Memoires are more 
 pleasing than veracious, does Marguerite an injustice. 
 A study of the writings of the best-informed of her 
 contemporaries proves that, so far as regards historical 
 facts, she is, in the main, singularly accurate ; the pictures 
 which she traces of the St. Bartholomew, the palace 
 intrigues under Henri III., and the condition of Flanders 
 ^are, as M. de Saint-Poncy very justly remarks, not less 
 true than admirably drawn. As for those which chiefly 
 concern herself, it is certainly true that since, as we have 
 observed elsewhere, the Memoires were intended, in great 
 part, as an apology for the life of their author. Marguerite 
 seeks to place the most favourable construction she is 
 able on her actions ; but, save in the case of one or two 
 of her affairs of the heart, there seems to be no attempt 
 to tamper with facts. 
 
 Marguerite's Memoires were published, for the first 
 time, in 1628, thirteen years after her death, by Auger 
 de Mauleon — to whom we are also indebted for those 
 of Villeroy and the letters of Cardinal d'Ossat — ^who 
 committed the error of asserting that they were addressed 
 to Charles de Vivonne, Baron de la Chateigneraie, Sieur 
 de Hardelay, who had been chamberlain to the Due 
 d'Anjou. 
 
 Between 1628 and 171 3, the work was several times 
 reprinted, but without any alterations, until in the latter 
 year, Jean Godefroy issued a new edition, printed at 
 
 340 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 Brussels, explaining that it was to Brantome, and not to 
 Charles de Vivonne, that the Memoires were addressed 
 and furnishing some useful biographical and historical 
 notes. Godefroy's edition also included Marguerite's 
 iloge by Brantome, that of Bussy by the same writer, 
 and Pierre Dampmartin's Fortune de la Cour. In the 
 first half of the nineteenth century, three fresh editions 
 appeared, the work being included in the collection of 
 memoirs edited by Petitot and in that arranged by 
 Michaud and Poujoulat. These reproduced many of 
 the faults of those which preceded them ; but the third 
 edition, which was undertaken by M. Guessard on behalf 
 of the Societe de FHistoire de France, and included a 
 number of Marguerite's letters and the Memoir e justicatif, 
 cleared away the old errors and was an excellent piece 
 of work. Since then, two other editions have appeared, 
 both enriched by notes, one edited by M. Ludovic 
 Lalanne, the other by M. Caboche. 
 
 Maguerite's chief trouble at Usson seems to have 
 been want of money, for, though nominally possessed 
 of large revenues, the state of anarchy into which the 
 country was plunged, made it very difficult for her agents 
 to collect even a small part of them. According to 
 Hilarion de Coste, the little Court was often exposed 
 to want, and, in order to raise money, the Queen was 
 obliged to pledge the rest of her jewels and to melt down 
 her plate. ^ These sacrifices proving insufficient, she 
 appealed to her sister-in-law, Elizabeth, widow of 
 
 ^ The troubles of the time often reduced the greatest personages to 
 extreme want. In the winter of 1594, Henri of Navarre found himself 
 without sufficient money to buy fodder for his horses, while his linen 
 was reduced to five handkerchiefs and a dozen shirts, most of them torn ! 
 " I shall have to go on foot and naked," he remarked. 
 
 341 
 
 ^ 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 Charles IX., who possessed in France a rich dowry. 
 This estimable princess, who, after the death of her hus- 
 band, had retired to Austria, responded generously, and 
 continued to assist Marguerite, until her death in January 
 
 1592. 
 
 Always lavishly generous. Marguerite, in spite of her 
 financial troubles, disbursed large sums in charity, and, 
 on this account, enjoyed great popularity among the 
 peasantry of Auvergne. When she finally quitted Usson, 
 in May 1605, her last thought was for the poor, and she 
 signed a deed perpetuating the alms which she had been 
 accustomed to distribute. 
 
 342 
 
CHAPTER XXIII 
 
 Defeat of the League in Auvergne — Marguerite abandons the 
 cause of the rebels and makes her peace with Henri IV. — Be- 
 ginning of the negotiations for the dissolution of her marriage 
 with Henri — Visit of Erard to Usson — Marguerite's letter to 
 Duplessis-Mornay — Correspondence between the parties — 
 Slow progress of the negotiations — Gabrielle d'Estr^es — The 
 King anxious to marry her, in spite of the impolicy of such a 
 step — Marguerite unwilling to make way for " a woman of 
 impure life " — Opposition of Clement VHI. to the divorce — 
 Death of Gabrielle — Negotiations for the King's marriage to 
 Marie de' Medici — The divorce is pronounced — Letters of 
 Henri and Marguerite — The King's passion for Henriette 
 d'Entragues raises new difficulties — Marriage of Henri IV. and 
 Marie de' Medici. 
 
 From 1589 to 1592, Auvergne was a prey to all the 
 horrors of civil war. The League, however, was the 
 stronger party in the province, and, thanks to the good 
 understanding which existed between Marguerite and 
 its leaders, she remained undisturbed at Usson. During 
 these years, the princess shared the hopes and fears of 
 the rebels, was the confidante of their plans, and sent 
 or, at any rate, permitted some of her servants, notably 
 her seneschal at Clermont, Jacques d'Oradour, and her 
 chevalier iPhonneury Jean de Lastic, to fight in their •^ 
 
 ranks. But on March 14, 1592 — the same day which • "^ 
 saw Henri of Navarre victorious in the plain of Ivry — 
 the Leaguers of Auvergne were utterly routed at the 
 
 343 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 Battle of Cros-RoUand, near Issoire, and from that 
 moment their fortunes rapidly declined, and the royal 
 power was gradually re-established. 
 
 The King of Navarre's abjuration of Protestantism 
 at Saint-Denis (July 25, 1592) deprived the League of 
 the pretext which had been its main source of strength, 
 and Marguerite lost no time in abandoning the sinking 
 ship. When her husband was crowned at Chartres, 
 she wrote to felicitate him on his accession, and hence- 
 forth devoted all the influence she possessed in Auvergne 
 in favour of peace. " It is to the credit of the Valois 
 princess," says her devoted admirer, M. de Saint-Poncy, 
 " to have disengaged herself from the League, so soon 
 as Catholic interests were safeguarded by the return of 
 her husband to the Church of Rome, and to have com- 
 prehended the character of this great act of reconciliation, 
 which gave satisfaction to two fundamental principles, 
 to wit, hereditary monarchy and national religion." 
 It certainly does infinite credit to the lady's intelligence 
 that she should have so quickly comprehended how 
 this great act of reconciliation was likely to affect her 
 interests, and that she should have endeavoured to make 
 her peace as speedily as possible with the husband with 
 whose enemies she had so actively intrigued and against 
 whose troops her servants had fought. 
 
 But the Bearnais was the last man in the world to 
 bear malice, besides which, if he had much to forgive 
 he had also much to be forgiven. Finally, he was 
 becoming increasingly anxious to obtain his wife's consent 
 to a step to which his advisers had been for some time 
 urging him, and the political importance of which could 
 scarcely be exaggerated. 
 
 It had long been evident that Henri's position would 
 
 344 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 be immensely strengthened if he were the father of legiti- 
 mate children. The young Prince de Conde, the heir- 
 presumptive to the throne, was a boy of feeble health 
 and irresolute character, the legitimacy of whose birth 
 was very much a matter of opinion. In the event of 
 the King's early death, even should Conde's claims 
 be undisputed, trouble would be certain to arise in regard 
 to the Regency, since his mother, a woman of loose life, 
 and strongly suspected of complicity in the murder of 
 her husband, was obviously unfitted for such a post. 
 On the other hand, a reconciliation between the King 
 and Marguerite held out little or no hope of the heir 
 so much desired ; a woman on the threshold of her fortieth 
 year can scarcely be expected to bear the children who 
 have been denied to her vigorous youth. The only 
 course, therefore, to consolidate the new dynasty and 
 assure peace to the distracted kingdom, was for Henri 
 to obtain a divorce from his unfruitful consort and 
 marry again. 
 
 Duplessis-Mornay would appear to have been the first 
 of the King's advisers to impress upon his master the duty 
 of providing for an undisputed succession. One day, 
 he happened to be representing to him " all the dangers 
 that he ran in his frivolous attachments, and to which he 
 exposed his soul and his reputation." " Why then, don't 
 you think of marrying me ? " remarked Henri. " Marry 
 you ! " exclaimed Mornay. " There is a double diffi- 
 culty ; we must first unmarry you. But if you are really 
 in earnest — and I believe you are, since you know well 
 enough the need there is for strengthening your State — I 
 will venture, by your command, to undertake the affair." * 
 
 Mornay lost no time in approaching Erard, Mar- 
 
 ^ Memoir es du DuflessiS'Mornay. 
 345 
 
\ 
 
 QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 guerite's mditre des requHes, and, in the spring of 1593, 
 despatched him to Usson, to ascertain his mistress's 
 . views on the subject. In exchange for the crown 
 matrimonial, he was empowered to offer her a sum of 
 250,000 ecus to pay her debts, which, by this time, 
 amounted to an enormous sum, a pension of 12,000 ecus 
 and a residence suited to her rank, to be subsequently 
 decided upon. In return, he was to request the Queen 
 to give him a blank procuration, and to declare before 
 a notary that she had been married without her consent, 
 \ within the prohibited degrees, and without the papal 
 dispensation. Mornay hoped that the King would have 
 no need to have recourse to the Pope, and that the eccle- 
 siastical and secular courts would be competent to 
 pronounce a divorce . 
 
 Marguerite received her husband's proposals in very 
 good part. She was growing somewhat weary of Usson 
 and of a retirement which did not protect her from the 
 importunities of her creditors, more clamorous than 
 ever now that Elizabeth of Austria was dead, and she 
 could no longer turn to her for assistance ; and was 
 
 r\ well aware that, after so compromising a past, she could 
 y never hope to be Queen of France in anything but name. 
 Moreover, by giving her consent to what was demanded 
 of her, she would establish claims on her husband's 
 gratitude, and would be able to pose for the remainder 
 of her life as one who had sacrificed herself to the welfare 
 of the State. She, therefore, decided that the very 
 
 ' I substantial advantages which the dissolution of her 
 marriage promised her far outweighed the loss of dignity 
 which she would thereby sustain, and wrote to Mornay 
 the following letter : 
 
 346 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 The Queen of Navarre to Duplessis-Mornay. 
 
 Jpril 1593. 
 " Monsieur Duplessis, — Although I attribute only 
 to the goodness of God and the kindly disposition of the 
 King my husband, the honour which it has pleased him to 
 do me, in assuring me of his favour, the possession in the 
 world which I hold the most dear ; being aware, never- 
 theless, how much the counsels of persons endowed with 
 such ability and loyalty as yourself are able to accomplish 
 with a great man who esteems and trusts them, as I know 
 the King my husband does, I do not doubt that your 
 good offices have been able to serve me. Wherefore I 
 should have esteemed myself to be too ungrateful, 
 were I not to thank you by this letter. The Sieur 
 Erard will communicate everything to you. If you will 
 oblige me by assisting in the carrying through of what 
 has thus begun so well, on which depends all the repose 
 and security of my life, you will place me under an / 
 immortal obligation, and I shall be very desirous of show- 
 ing myself, by every means, your most affectionate and 
 faithful friend." ^ 
 
 And to stimulate Mornay's zeal, and in proof of her 
 gratitude. Marguerite sent him, some months later, a 
 present of 14,000 livres. 
 
 On his return, Erard had a conference with some of 
 the King's Council, when it was decided that his Majesty 
 ought to send his accommodating consort a letter of 
 thanks ; and this Henri, accordingly, did, informing her 
 of " his extreme satisfaction at the resolution at which 
 
 1 Memotres et kttres de Marguerite de Valoh (edit. Guessard). 
 
 347 
 
\ 
 
 QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 she had arrived to do everything which depended upon 
 her to assist in the furtherance of his affairs, " and 
 promising to arrange " for the payment of her debts and 
 pension as speedily as possible." 
 
 During the next eighteen months, Erard was con- 
 tinually travelling backwards and forwards between the 
 King's camp and Usson, and a great deal of correspond- 
 ence passed between the parties and their representatives, 
 chiefly, it must be confessed, of a rather sordid character. 
 In a letter dated November lo, 1593, we find Marguerite 
 thanking her husband for confirming her in the possession 
 of the property and privileges which she had enjoyed 
 under the two previous reigns, and for the donation of 
 the promised 250,000 ecus for the payment of her debts. 
 But, two days later, she writes to Mornay, demanding 
 that the proposed pension of 12,000 ecus should be 
 increased to one of 14,000. " That means nothing to 
 his Majesty," she writes, " but a good deal to me, who 
 am left with such slender means. In surrendering all 
 that I surrender, it will be almost impossible for me to 
 maintain a suite in accordance with my rank." 
 
 In the autumn of 1594, she writes to the King, request- 
 ing to be confirmed in the possession of Usson. Henri IV-, 
 however, demurred, since he did not approve of feudal 
 fortresses of this kind being in the hands of any one 
 upon whose loyalty he could not implicitly rely ; upon 
 which his wife returns to the charge : " The King ought 
 rather to trust me," she writes, " than those who desire 
 to deprive me of it." Tired of war, his Majesty yielded, 
 and was informed by Marguerite that " she considered 
 this hermitage to have been built to serve her as an ark 
 of safety." 
 
 Then, Henri did not always keep his promises ; her 
 
 348 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 pension fell into arrears, and, in a letter of July 29, 1594, 
 Marguerite reproaches him with having broken his word ; 
 while in another, dated November 8, she demands that 
 in place of a part of her pension which had been assigned 
 her on certain Crown property at Clermont, she should 
 have a vacant office in the Parlement of Toulouse ; 
 by selling it, she says, she will, at any rate, be able to 
 procure some resources. The King, in his answer, seeks 
 to pacify her, pleading extenuating circumstances, 
 attributing the delay to the troubles of the time rather 
 than to any unwillingness on his part to discharge his 
 obligations, and assuring her that he will " testify by 
 his deeds the truth of his promises and words." In the 
 same letter, he asks for the procuration, which the 
 Queen had not yet sent ; and Marguerite, in spite of 
 her indignation, complied with the request, and sent it 
 en blanc, as she had been desired to do. 
 
 Nevertheless, matters made but slow progress ; the 
 divorce, in fact, was subordinated to the reconciliation 
 of the King of France with the Vatican. There had been 
 some thought, at first, of invoking certain " Galilean 
 liberties," in virtue of which the French bishops might 
 be able to declare the marriage annulled. But, after 
 his abjuration at Saint-Denis, Henri comprehending 
 the danger of such an expedient, which exposed the 
 legitimacy of a second marriage to the risk of being 
 disputed, modified his plans. " Some authors," observes 
 M. de Saint-Poncy, " have demanded why the King 
 addressed himself to the ecclesiastical authority, instead 
 of causing his marriage to be annulled by lay authority, 
 in employing for the purpose either the Parlement or 
 the States-General. The reason of this is very simple ; 
 it is that, except by abandoning orthodoxy, he could not 
 
 349 
 
 9. 
 
^ QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 free himself from a religious tie, save by the religious 
 power. On her side, Queen Marguerite felt herself 
 unable to give her consent, except to a dissolution 
 sanctioned hy the Pope. Henri IV. had not only to 
 reckon with this legitimate demand, but also with public 
 opinion, which would have seen in a second marriage, 
 contracted without the consent of Rome, only an illicit 
 union. * Reasons of State ' as well as religious considera- 
 tions obliged him to have recourse to the Court of 
 Rome. For a King, whose authority was only partially 
 established, to attempt to disperse with the pontifical 
 authority would have been very dangerous, if not im- 
 practicable. Thus the first aim of a divorce without the 
 intervention of the Holy See, being judged impossible, 
 it was only after the absolution accorded by the Pope 
 to his royal penitent, on September i6, 1595, that the 
 negotiation was able to be effectively pursued." ^ 
 
 Notwithstanding that Clement VHI. had consented 
 to remove the ban of excommunication launched against 
 Henri ten years before, he showed himself anything 
 but favourably disposed to the divorce. Although the 
 marriage had been performed without a dispensation, 
 this irregularity had been subsequently condoned by 
 Gregory XHI., when he confirmed the marriage in the 
 following October.^ Clement was naturally reluctant to 
 admit that his predecessor had acted beyond his powers, 
 since to do so would be to create a dangerous pre- 
 cedent. Moreover, he perceived that, so long as the 
 question remained unsettled, he possessed a hold over 
 the King of France, which he might utilise to curtail 
 the concessions which Henri desired to grant to the 
 
 ^ Hisioire de Marguerite de Valoisy ii. 353. 
 2 See pp.385 note and 112 supra. 
 350 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 Huguenots, and to strengthen the influence of the Holy 
 See in France. 
 
 Nor was the reluctance of the Vatican the only obstacle 
 to a settlement. Henri's most trusted advisers, Mornay 
 and Sully, who had at first so strongly urged the divorce, 
 no longer advocated it with their former enthusiasm, 
 fearing that its only result would be to legitimate a love 
 intrigue. 
 
 In 1 590, la belle Corisande had been succeeded in the 
 King's affections by a new mistress, who had gained 
 over her royal lover an ascendency even greater than that 
 •which her predecessor had enjoyed. This was the^ 
 celebrated Gabrielle d'Estrees, the " model mistress," 
 one of the six daughters of Antoine d'Estrees, Grand 
 Master of the Artillery, and of Fran^oise Babou de la 
 Boudaisiere. Both mother and daughter were notorious 
 for their gallantries, and the girls and their brother were 
 known as the " seven deadly sins." ^ Gabrielle had been 
 presented to Henri by her lover, the Due de Bellegarde, 
 one of the King's favourites. His Majesty fell violently 
 in love on the spot, and though the fair Gabrielle at 
 first rejected his suit, and told him to his face that " she 
 found him so ugly that she was unable to look at him," 
 he made her such brilliant promises, including, of course, 
 the customary offer of marriage, that she eventually 
 relented. To save appearances, the King married his 
 new enchantress to Nicole d'Amerval, Seigneur de Lian- 
 court, a widower with fourteen children, who, however, 
 
 ^ In 1592, Gabrielle's mother left her husband and went to live with 
 Yves d'Alegre, Governor of Issoire. But her conduct and that of her 
 lover so exasperated the townspeople that, on the following New Year's 
 Eve, they rose in revolt, stormed the governor's house, and murdered 
 them both. 
 
 351 
 
 ^<^ 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 was not permitted to be her husband in anything but 
 name. In 1593, she bore the King a son, baptized 
 Cesar, and, shortly afterwards, at Henri's instigation, 
 began an action for nullity of marriage before the eccle- 
 siastical courts, " fondee sur Vincafacite conjugale de 
 M. de Liancourt." Her suit was successful, and the child, 
 who was the cause of these proceedings, was duly acknow- 
 ledged and legitimated by his royal father, and created 
 Due de Vendome. 
 
 After her emancipation, Gabrielle was successively 
 created Marquise de Monceaux and Duchesse de Beau- 
 fort, and installed triumphantly as maitresse en litre. 
 She bore the King another son, called Alexandre and 
 also legitimated, and a daughter, Catherine Henriette, 
 afterwards married to the Due d'Elbceuf ; and Henri's 
 attachment to her grew stronger as time went on, though 
 Bellegarde, at any rate, continued to be a not unfavoured 
 rival. " Good-bye, sweetheart," writes the King to 
 her, from Saint-Denis, on the evening before his abjura- 
 tion ; " come in good time to-morrow, for it seems to 
 me a year since I saw you. A thousand kisses for the 
 hands of my angel and the lips of my dear mistress." 
 And again : " I am writing to you, my dear love, at the 
 foot of your picture, which I worship, because it is meant 
 for you, not because it is like you. I am a competent 
 judge, since you are painted in all perfection in my 
 soul, in my heart, and in my eyes." 
 
 The portraits of Gabrielle scarcely justify the ex- 
 travagant terms in which her contemporaries celebrate 
 her beauty ; but she was undoubtedly a very pretty 
 woman, with a dazzling complexion, golden hair, and blue 
 eyes shaded by long lashes. Moreover, she was sweet- 
 tempered, kind-hearted and affectionate, and probably 
 
 35^ 
 
T^ovJhJiK aa 'H?.?.3H0\JQ ,^33>^T^:R•^ auHiHeAo 
 
 
 ,'^^w,a tSii «■>&> 
 
was not '«d to be ker i 
 
 ;a 1593, she bore the ivmg a 
 .._... ^nd, shortly afterwards, at Henri. ...v,. 
 began an action for nullity of marriage before the 
 siastical courts, ^^ foiidee swr rincafacite conjugaU de 
 M. de Liancourt" Her suit wa tul, and the child, 
 
 who was the cause of these p- j^s, was duly acknow- 
 
 ledged and legitimated bv i ■ father, and created 
 
 Due de Vendomc. 
 
 After her emancipatum, Gabrieiic was successively 
 
 ■ ed Mar ^ '' -^ ^^^ Duchesse de Beau- 
 
 '-^^ ' ).; ic maitresse en titr^» 
 
 cl Alexandre and 
 also "e. 
 
 
 And ^ve, at the 
 
 foot ^ch i worship, because it is meant 
 
 for ; a use It is like you. I am a competent 
 
 judg , ^ a are painted in all perfection in my 
 
 soul, in my heart, and in my eyes," 
 
 The portraits of Gabrielle scarcely justify the ex- 
 travagant terms in which her contemporaries celebrate 
 her beauty; but she was undoubtedly a very ryrf^ttxr 
 woman, with a dazzling complexion, golden hair, a: 
 eyes shaded by long lashes. Moreover, she was 
 ^ered, kind-hearted and affectionate, an' 
 
 GABRIELLE D'ESTREES, DUCHESSE DE BEAUFORT 
 
 From an Engraving after a Drawing attributed to FRAN901S Quesnel, 
 in the 'Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris 
 
>•>;:• s/?*,. 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 sincerely attached to the King, notwithstanding her 
 occasional infidelities. She used her influence with 
 moderation and to the advantage of others rather than 
 to their detriment, and conducted herself with such 
 decorum that even austere Calvinists declared that her 
 behaviour was " that of a wife rather than of a mistress." 
 
 At last, Henri began to entertain serious thoughts 
 of marrying his Gabrielle, so soon as his inconvenient 
 consort could be got rid of. Sully relates that at the 
 time of the Peace of Vervins (May 2, 1598), the King 
 one day drew him into a garden, and, after carefully 
 closing the door, approached the delicate subject of 
 his divorce and re-marriage. The Pope, he was assured 
 by his Ambassador at Rome, and those about the Papal 
 Court, was anxious to serve him in the matter of a divorce, 
 and it therefore behoved him to find a wife without delay. 
 He then proceeded to enumerate all the marriageable 
 foreign princesses and French girls of high rank, to each 
 and all of whom, however, he contrived to discover some 
 fatal objection as a possible Queen. 
 
 " Ah well, Sire," said Sully, " cause all the most beau- 
 tiful girls in France from seventeen to twenty-five to 
 be brought together ; converse with them, study their 
 hearts, study their minds, and finally place yourself in 
 the hands of matrons of experience in such matters." 
 
 The King laughed, and accused his Minister of jesting 
 at his expense. " What would people say of such an 
 assembly of girls ? " he remarked. " But be sure that 
 the wife I seek must, above all, be a sweet-tempered 
 woman, of good appearance, and likely to bear me 
 children. Do you know of one who unites all these 
 qualities ? " The cautious Sully replied that he had 
 not considered the matter. " Well ! what will you 
 
 353 z 
 
 •i»; 
 
 y 
 
 / 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 say if I name her in whom I have found them all ? " 
 cried the King. " That could not be, unless in the case 
 of a widow," rejoined the Minister. " Ah ! big fool 
 that you are, confess that all the conditions I desire I 
 "X find in my mistress ! " exclaimed Henri. 
 
 Towards the end of 1598, it was generally known that 
 the King, in spite of the strenuous opposition of Sully 
 and Mornay, intended to marry the Duchesse de Beaufort. 
 Such a resolution aroused universal alarm. Gabrielle 
 had many friends and few enemies, but not even her most 
 devoted partisans could maintain that her birth and 
 previous life fitted her to be the Queen of France ; while 
 it was obvious that the opposing claims of her legitimated 
 sons, and of those who might be born in wedlock, would 
 add another element of discord to those already existing. 
 But it was necessary for Marguerite to sign a new pro- 
 curation, for the old one was no longer valid. The King, 
 accordingly, despatched to Usson, Martin Langlois, a 
 confidant of the Queen, whom she had nominated as 
 one of her procurators in 1594. "^^^ favours heaped 
 on the head of Gabrielle, however, had irritated Mar- 
 guerite, who had already, it appears, hinted that she 
 was but little inclined to make way for a mistress, for 
 Langlois carried with him a letter from Henri IV. " I 
 always believed," he wrote, " that you would by no 
 means fail me in what you promised, and that you would 
 not alter the resolution at which you had arrived. On 
 my part, I shall not fail in anything which I have promised 
 you." 
 
 Notwithstanding this letter, Langlois experienced 
 great difficulty in persuading Marguerite to do what 
 was required of her. " It is repugnant to me," said 
 she, " to put in my place a woman of such low extraction 
 
 354 
 

 QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 and of so impure a life as the one about whom rumour 
 speaks."^ However, on February 7, 1599, she at length 
 consented to sign the procuration, and, by a singular 
 caprice, desired that it should contain a declaration 
 that her marriage had never been consummated ; but -Vt' 
 on this she was, after some difficulty, induced not to 
 insist. 
 
 So soon as the procuration was signed, Henri IV. 
 despatched an envoy to Rome ; but Clement VHI. 
 disapproved of his Majesty's choice, less probably on 
 account of Gabrielle's obvious unsuitability to share a 
 throne as because she was the intimate friend of the 
 King's sister Catherine, now Duchesse de Bar, and also 
 of Louise de Coligny, Teligny's widow, who had married 
 en secondes noces William the Silent, Prince of Orange. 
 These two ladies were among the most stubborn heretics 
 in Europe, and his Holiness did not doubt that, urged 
 by them, Gabrielle would use all her influence with the 
 King in favour of their co-religionists. He, therefore, 
 still refused to dissolve the marriage, sheltering himself 
 behind the difficulties regarding the succession in which 
 such a marriage must involve France. 
 
 This paternal solicitude for his kingdom did not 
 deceive Henri IV., who, impatient at the delay, instructed 
 his representatives at the Vatican to hint that, if the Holy 
 Father continued contumacious, the Eldest Son of the 
 ^ But she had, nevertheless, condescended to ask favours of " the 
 woman of impure life" and to regard her as a sister. " I speak to you 
 freely," she w^rites to Gabrielle, on February 24, 1597, "as to one 
 whom I wish to keep as a sister. I have placed so much confidence in 
 the assurance that you have given me that you love me, that I do not 
 desire to have any protector but you near the King ; for nothing that 
 comes from your beautiful mouth can fail to be well received." She 
 had also, shortly before Langlois's' visit, transferred to Gabrielle her 
 duchy of Etampes. 
 
 355 
 
 / 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 Church might be tempted to behave in an exceedingly 
 unfilial manner, and follow the example of his last name- 
 sake on the throne of England. Whether, with this 
 threat hanging over him, Clement would eventually 
 have yielded is a matter of opinion ; but an unexpected 
 \ event came to relieve the tension. 
 
 ^ At the beginning of April 1599, the Duchesse de 
 Beaufort, who was enceinte for the fourth time, left 
 Fontainebleau, where the Court then was, to spend 
 Easter in Paris. She lodged at the Deanery of Saint- 
 Germain I'Auxerrois, with her aunt, Madame de Sourdes, 
 but on the 6th supped at the house of an Italian financier, 
 named Zamet, who had risen from a very humble station 
 to great wealth. The next day, she attended the Tene- 
 brce at the Convent du Petit Saint-Antoine, then re- 
 nowned for its fine music. During the service, she was 
 taken ill, and was carried to Zamet's house, which was 
 close to the convent, where she recovered sufficiently 
 to return home. Next day, although still feeling unwell, 
 she attended Mass at Saint-Germain-l'Auxerrois. Here, 
 however, she was again taken ill, and on returning to 
 her relative 's house, fell into violent convulsions. On 
 the 9th, she gave birth to a still-born child, after which 
 the surgeons, who attended her, proceeded to bleed the 
 unfortunate woman four times ! The consequence was 
 that poor Gabrielle died the following morning (April 10); 
 the only wonder is that she did not die before ! The 
 public, learning that she had taken ill shortly after supping 
 with Zamet, persisted in the belief that she had been 
 poisoned — Italians bore a sinister reputation in those 
 days, and, indeed, down to a very much later period — 
 but this theory is now generally discredited. 
 
 The King was prostrated with grief at the loss of his 
 
 356 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 mistress. " My affliction," he wrote to his sister Cather- 
 ine, " is incomparable, like the subject which is the cause 
 of it. Regrets and tears will accompany me to the tomb. 
 The root of my love is dead, and will never put forth 
 another branch." However, as we shall presently see, 
 he was not long in finding consolation. 
 
 When with Gabrielle had disappeared the great obstacle 
 to a divorce, petitions poured in from all parts of the 
 kingdom, begging the King to marry again. Deputations 
 from the Parlements, the municipal bodies, and the 
 religious corporations waited upon his Majesty to present 
 addresses, in which were pointed out the advantages of 
 a new union, which might procure him successors, and 
 thus assure the tranquillity of the realm. While Henri's 
 representatives at Rome redoubled their efforts to induce 
 Clement VHI. to annul his marriage with Marguerite, 
 his Ministers, undeterred by the many evils of which a 
 Florentine marriage had before been the cause, opened 
 negotiations with the Grand Duke of Tuscany for the 
 hand of his niece, Marie, daughter of his brother and 
 predecessor, Francisco de' Medici. Marie de' Medici was 
 twenty-five, with a sufficiency of good looks to satisfy 
 a not too exacting husband, and the prospect of a rich 
 dowry. Moreover, she was the niece of the Pope, a 
 circumstance which would doubtless induce his Holiness 
 to expedite the divorce. 
 
 Matters, for a time, went smoothly. On July 29, 
 1599, Marguerite ratified the procuration of the previous 
 February, and nominated as her procurators, Martin 
 Langlois and Edouard Mole, councillor to the Parle- 
 ment. She further declared that, for reasons already 
 known, she neither believed that she had contracted a 
 
 357 
 
 / 
 
V QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 valid marriage, nor regarded the King as her husband ; 
 that, moreover, she was no longer young enough to give 
 him successors, and begged his permission to address 
 herself to the Pope and to other ecclesiastical judges to 
 cause their union to be annulled. This document was 
 at once despatched to Rome, and, on September 24, 
 Clement, having no longer to fear the influence of 
 Gabrielle d'Estrees and her Huguenot friends, delegated 
 the Cardinal de Joyeuse, the Bishop of Modena — the 
 Papal Nuncio at the French Court — and Horace Montan, 
 N Archbishop of Aries, " to inquire into the affair." 
 
 On October 15, the inquiry was opened at the Louvre, 
 in the presence of La Guesle, the frocureur-general, and 
 the two procurators appointed by the Queen, when 
 Henri IV. was interrogated. Marguerite, at her own 
 request, was examined at Usson, not by the commissioners, 
 but by Berthier, the syndic of the clergy. " Never," 
 said she to him, " did I consent willingly to this marriage. 
 I was forced into it by King Charles IX. and the Queen 
 my mother. I besought them with copious tears ; but 
 the King threatened me, that if I did not consent, I 
 should be the most unhappy woman in his realm. 
 Although I had never been able to entertain any affection 
 for the King of Navarre, and said and repeated that it was 
 my desire to wed another prince, I was compelled to obey." 
 And she added, " To my profound regret, conjugal 
 affection did not exist between us during the seven 
 months which preceded my husband's flight in 1575 ; 
 although we occupied the same couch, we never spoke 
 to one another." ^ 
 
 If we are to believe the historian Dupleix, a writer, 
 however, very hostile to Marguerite, Henri IV., 'on 
 
 ^ Bibliothcque Nationale, Fonds Fran9ais, published by La Ferriere. 
 
 3S8 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 receiving the report of his wife's interrogatory from 
 Berthier, was unable to restrain his tears. " Ah ! the 
 wretched woman," cried he, " she knows well that I 
 have always loved and honoured her, and that she 
 cared nothing for me, and that her bad behaviour has 
 for a long time been the cause of our separation." ^ 
 
 On November lo, 1599, the Papal commissioners 
 declared the marriage of Henri and Marguerite null and 
 void, de facto et de jure ; on. December 17, the dissolution 
 was confirmed by the Parle ment, on account of blood 
 relationship, " spiritual affinity," ^ violence, and the 
 failure of one of the parties to consent to it, and on the 
 22nd, the decree was proclaimed "solemnly and publicly," 
 with open doors, in the Church of Saint-Germain 
 I'Auxerrois. 
 
 On the day following the confirmation of the divorce 
 by the Parle ment, Henri IV. despatched the Comte de 
 Beaumont to Usson to announce the fact to Marguerite, 
 and to hand her the following letter : 
 
 ' Henri IV. to Marguerite. 
 
 " My Sister, — The persons delegated by our very holy 
 father to decide upon the nullity of our marriage, having 
 at length pronounced their decision to our common 
 desire and satisfaction, I did not wish to defer longer 
 visiting you on such an occasion, both to inform you 
 of it on my part, and to renew the assurances of my 
 affection for you. Meanwhile, I am sending to you 
 
 1 Histoire de Henri IF., p. 384. 
 
 ^ Henri II. 's, Marguerite's father, had stood godfather to Henri of 
 Navarre, in 1554. The argument was that this spiritual affinity had 
 required a special Papal dispensation, and that that sent by Gregory XIII., 
 in October 1572, only applied to the blood relationship. 
 
 359 
 
QUEiEN MARGOT 
 
 the Sire de Beaumont expressly to perform this service, 
 whom I have commanded to tell you, my sister, that if 
 God has permitted the tie of our union to be dissolved, 
 His divine justice has done it as much for our private 
 repose as for the public welfare of the realm. I desire 
 you also to believe that I do not intend to cherish and 
 love you the less, on account of what has taken place, 
 than I did heretofore ; but, on the contrary, that I 
 intend to exercise more solicitude than ever in regard to 
 everything which concerns you, and to make you recognise, 
 on all occasions, that I do not intend to be henceforth 
 your brother merely in name, but also in deed. . . . 
 Further,! am very satisfied with the frankness and candour 
 of your prudence, and I trust that God will bless the rest 
 of our days, by a fraternal friendship accompanied by 
 a public felicity, which will render them very happy. 
 Console yourself then, I beg you, my sister, in the ex- 
 pectation of both, with the assurance that I give you 
 of contributing on my side everything which you have 
 the right to expect, and which will be in the power of 
 your affectionate brother." 
 
 To which letter Marguerite replied : ' - 
 
 Marguerite to Henri IV. 
 
 " Monseigneur, — ^Your Majesty, in imitation of the 
 gods, does not rest content with overwhelming his 
 creatures with benefits and favours, but designs further 
 to consider and console them in their affliction. This 
 honour, which is the proof of his benevolence, is so great 
 that it cannot be equalled, except by the infinite willing- 
 ness wherewith I have devoted myself to his service. I 
 do not require, on this occasion, less consolation, for, 
 
 360 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 although it may be easy to console oneself for the loss 
 of some of Fortune's benefits, respect alone for the 
 merit of a King so perfect and so valorous must deprive 
 one of all consolation ; and it is the mark of the generosity 
 of a noble soul to preserve an eternal regret, such as 
 would be mine, were it not that the happiness which it 
 pleases him to make me feel, in assuring me of his favour 
 and protection, did not banish it, to transform my com- 
 plaining into praise of his goodness, and of the favours 
 which it pleases him to confer upon me, wherewith your 
 Majesty will never honour any one who acknowledges 
 them with so much reverence, by the very humble and 
 very faithful services, which render me worthy to be 
 deemed by your Majesty his very humble and affectionate 
 servant, sister, and subject." 
 
 By letters patent, dated December 29, 1599, Henri IV. 
 preserved to Marguerite the title of Queen and Duchesse 
 de Valois, and confirmed her and her successors in the 
 enjoyment of the domains of the Agenais, Condomois, 
 and Rouergue, and, in short, in all the lands that con- 
 stituted her dowry and the donations of 1582. 
 
 The King was divorced, but he was not yet re-married. 
 While his Ministers were haggling with the Duke of 
 Tuscany over the price at which their master should sell 
 his hand, his Majesty had once more lost the heart which 
 he had fondly imagined was buried in poor Gabrielle's 
 grave. Scarcely two months after his mistress's death, 
 his love — to borrow his own expression — had " put forth 
 another branch," and one that threatened to bear fruit y 
 of a most embarrassing kind. ^ 
 
 On his way from Fontainebleau to Blois, in June 1599, 
 
 361 
 
 y 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 Henri had broken his journey at the Chateau of Males- 
 herbes, where resided Frangois de Balzac d'Entragues, 
 Governor of Orleans, who had married Marie Touchet, 
 I the mistress of Charles IX., and the mother of Charles 
 de Valois, Comte d'Angoul^me, to whom Catherine de' 
 Medici had bequeathed her county of Auvergne, to 
 -the exclusion of Marguerite. By her marriage with 
 d'Entragues, Marie had three children, of whom one, a 
 daughter, named Henriette, made so great an impres- 
 sion on the quasi-widower that he was quite unable to 
 tear himself away, and when at length he quitted 
 Malesherbes, it was to accompany his new charmer and 
 her mother to Paris. 
 
 Henriette was not strictly beautiful ; but she was 
 witty, vivacious, and charming. Though but eighteen, 
 she was very much alive to her own interests, and, coun- 
 selled by her parents, determined that the brilliant destiny 
 of which death had deprived her predecessor in the royal 
 aifections should be hers. The enamoured monarch 
 loaded her with costly gifts, and employed every argu- 
 ment he could think of to overcome her resistance ; 
 but the lady was adamant, until, in despair, he placed 
 in her hands the following remarkable document : 
 
 " We, Henri, by the Grace of God, King of France 
 and Navarre, promise and swear before God and by 
 our faith and kingly word to Monsieur Francois de 
 Balzac, Sieur d'Entragues, &c. &c., that he, giving us 
 to be our consort {four compagne) demoiselle Henriette 
 Catherine de Balzac, his daughter, provided that within 
 six months from the present date she become pregnant 
 and bear us a son, that forthwith we will take her to wife 
 and publicly marry her in the face of Holy Church, in 
 accordance with the solemnities required in such cases." 
 
 36* 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 The document given to Henriette was not the original 
 copy. That had been submitted by the King to Sully, 
 who promptly tore it up before his Majesty's eyes. " I 
 think you must be mad ! " exclaimed Henri, astonished 
 at such boldness. " Would to God, Sire, I was the only 
 madman in France ! " exclaimed the privileged Minister. 
 He then proceeded to give his master some very wholesome 
 advice, to which Henri listened somewhat crestfallen. 
 However, it had no effect, for, the moment Sully had 
 finished, the King gathered up the torn pieces of paper 
 and retired to his cabinet to draw up a fresh promise, 
 which he duly handed to his enchantress, who carried 
 it about in her pocket, and triumphantly exhibited it 
 to all her friends. 
 
 Once more, however, the unexpected came to save 
 the situation. One night, the room in which the sultana 
 — now become Marquise de Verneuil — lay was struck 
 by lightning. The shock caused a miscarriage, and the 
 King, holding himself released from his promise, there- 
 upon decided to formally demand the hand of Marie 
 de' Medici. On October 6, 1600, Bellegarde, acting as 
 proxy for his master, married her at Florence ; at the 
 beginning of the following December, she arrived in 
 France, and on September 27, 1601, gave birth to the 
 much desired Dauphin, the future Louis XHI. 
 
 /^ 
 
 363 
 
CHAPTER XXIV 
 
 Last years of Marguerite at Usson — Conspiracy of the Comte 
 d'Auvergne and the d'Entragues — Marguerite commences a 
 lawsuit against the count, over the estates bequeathed to him 
 by Catherine — She leaves Usson to take up her residence at 
 the Chateau of Madrid, at Boulngne-sur-Seine — Her arrival 
 in Paris — Interview with the King at the Chateau of Madrid 
 — She receives a visit from the Dauphin — Her reception by 
 their Majesties at the Louvre — Her relations with the royal 
 family — She takes up her residence at the Hotel de Sens — 
 Assassination of her favourite, Saint-Julien — She removes to 
 Issy, gains her lawsuit, and builds a magnificent hotel in the 
 Faubourg Saint-Germain — Her patronage of men-of-letters — 
 She organises fetes for Marie de' Medici — Her toilettes 
 criticised from the pulpit — Her favourite, Bajaumont — Her 
 charity — Her benefactions to the Augustines — Coronation of 
 Marie dc' Medici — Assassination of Henri IV. by Ravaillac 
 — Marguerite's discreet conduct during the Regency — Splendid 
 ball given by her in August 1612 — Her last years and death 
 — Her character variously estimated. 
 
 For nearly five years after her divorce from Henri IV., 
 Marguerite remained at Usson, although the King had 
 given her permission to reside where she pleased, with 
 the exception of Paris and its environs, doubtless being 
 of opinion that, both for political and domestic reasons, 
 it might be as well if his discarded consort did not appear 
 in the capital, at least for some time to come. During 
 these years, she and Henri corresponded frequently, 
 and always in affectionate terms, addressing one another 
 as brother and sister. There were, however, occasional 
 
 364 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 little misunderstandings on financial matters, and Mar- 
 guerite was highly indignant when Aiguillon was erected 
 into a duchy, for the benefit of the Due de Mayenne, 
 and to the prejudice of her own rights as Comtesse 
 d'Agenais. " To my superior, to whom I owe every- 
 thing, I have surrendered everything," she writes. 
 " To my inferiors, to whom I owe nothing, I surrender 
 nothing." In consequence of her protests, a compromise 
 was effected ; Aiguillon remained a duchy, but the 
 princess retained all the rights and privileges she had 
 formerly possessed there. 
 
 As the years went by. Marguerite began to grow weary 
 of her mountain chateau, whose isolation, so great an 
 advantage during the turmoil of the civil wars, now 
 appeared to her in quite another light, and to cast about 
 her for a pretext for returning to Paris and the gay world 
 from which she had been so long separated. Nor had 
 she far to seek. Implicated in the conspiracy of BironjiL 
 the cowardly and cunning Charles de Valois, Comte 
 d'Angouleme, who, since Catherine's bequest, had 
 assumed the title of Comte d'Auvergne, had been par- 
 doned, but, two years later, he, together with his step- 
 father, d'Entragues, and his half-sister, Madame de 
 Verneuil, were actively intriguing with Spain. All three 
 were arrested (June 1604), and a voluminous corre- 
 spondence between the conspirators and the Court of 
 Madrid discovered, containing proposals for the assassina- 
 tion of Henri IV. and a promise signed by Philip III. 
 to recognise Henriette's son as heir to the French throne, 
 in the event of the King's death. To save his life, 
 
 1 Charles de Gontaut, son of the old marshal who had blockaded 
 Nerac during the " Lovers' War." He was beheaded in front of the 
 Bastille, July 31, 1602. 
 
 365 
 
 /■ 
 
 ,/^ 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 d'Entragues surrendered the famous promise of marriage 
 which Henri IV. had given his daughter five years before, 
 and, though found guilty of high treason, he was released, 
 as was Henriette, while the Comte d'Auvergne was sent 
 to the Bastille, where he remained eleven years. 
 
 Marguerite, who had conceived a not unnatural 
 antipathy to the nephew who had supplanted her, had 
 watched that gentleman's proceedings in Auvergne very 
 closely, and, as early as March 1600, had written to the 
 King, warning him to be on his guard against him. She 
 now seized the occasion of his disgrace to beg Henri's 
 permission to lay claim before the Parlement of Paris 
 to the estates which Catherine had bequeathed him. 
 Catherine, it appeared, had really had no power to 
 alienate her property from her family, since one of the 
 clauses of her marriage-contract stipulated that, on her 
 death, her estates should pass to her sons, and, in default of 
 sons, .to her daughters. The King authorised Marguerite 
 to plead, and, in return, she promised that, if successful, 
 she would bequeath the property to the Dauphin. 
 
 Under the pretext of being near at hand during the 
 progress of her suit, she next sought Henri's permission 
 to leave Usson and take up her residence at the Chateau 
 of Madrid, at Boulogne-sur-Seine.^ This request was 
 also granted, the more readily, since she had warned 
 the King that she was in possession of some important 
 information affecting the welfare of the State. As a 
 matter of fact, Marguerite, with a skill and persistency 
 not unworthy of her mother, had contrived to penetrate 
 
 ^ The Chateau of Madrid was a residence of the Valois family 
 situated on the banks of the Seine, on the borders of the Bois de 
 Boulogne. It had been built by Franpis I., from designs by Bernard 
 de Palissy, on the King's release from his captivity in Spain. Hence 
 its name. 
 
 366 
 
'^^y- 
 
 TJDAHTVidXi J AS J A H, H (I 3TT3I51Z:iH 
 
 rasavk '^h ^nv:5^•vJ«3. wf. w55-\'\ 
 
OUKEN M ARGOT 
 
 crT^ntrapUe* SUIT the- f:5ir,i.iiA n?: 
 
 \^ nri IV. 
 
 and, -■ >und guilty of high treason, he was rei 
 
 X' while the Comte d*Auvergne was seni 
 
 '^'"-e he rer-'^ "-' ekveiL years; 
 
 had t d a n©t unnatural 
 
 n tipathy to the nephew who had supplanted her, had 
 
 etched that gentleman's proceedings in Auvergne very 
 
 IS early as "* ' ' ' ' vritten to the 
 
 h'n^ tv-, h !)st him. She 
 
 J beg Henri's 
 ore the Parle ment of Paris 
 t^ leathed him. 
 C ■ 
 
 should 
 
 me v^naieau 
 
 request was 
 
 , since she had warned 
 
 tlte King that she was in possession of some important 
 
 ^n -affecting the welfare oi the State. As a 
 
 jaaiici vi iaR:t, Marguerite, with a skili and persistenn 
 
 not unworthy of her mother, had contrived to penetr^' 
 
 ' The Ckli»^ii of Madrfd Wj^ i| r«ldcnce of tht Vdois 
 situated on the ban b of the Seine, on the borders of the I 
 Boulogne. It had been built by Francois I., from des't ' 
 de Palissy, on the King's release from his captivity i? 
 its name. 
 
 j66 
 
 HENRIETTE DE BALZAC D'ENTRAGUES, 
 MARQUISE DE VERNEUIL 
 
 Ffom an Engrdving by Aubert 
 

QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 the designs of her old admirer, Turenne, now Due de 
 Bouillon, whose conspiracy was the continuation of 
 those of Biron and the Comte d'Auvergne. 
 
 The princess quitted Usson, which had been her home 
 for nearly twenty years, at the beginning of July 1605, 
 escorted to the boundary of the province by nearly all 
 the chief nobles of Auvergne. At Cercottes, near 
 Orleans, she was met by Sully, on his way to preside over 
 a Huguenot assembly which was about to meet at Chatel- 
 lerault. Marguerite acquainted him with what she 
 had learned concerning Bouillon's intrigues ; but the 
 Minister appears to have been somewhat incredulous, 
 and wrote to the King that what she had told him 
 " contained as much falseness as truth."^ However, the 
 princess's information was confirmed from other quarters, 
 and Henri lost no time in taking energetic measures 
 against Bouillon, who was forced to sue for pardon. 
 
 The King, still somewhat uneasy as to the effect of 
 the return of his first wife to the capital, would have 
 preferred if she had stopped at Chenonceaux and there 
 taken up her residence, in which case he expressed his 
 wilHngness to purchase it from the Duchesse de Mercoeur, 
 to whom the chateau belonged.^ But Marguerite had 
 set her heart on Boulogne ; and, after the proofs of her 
 zeal for his service which she had just given, Henri felt 
 that it would be ungracious to refuse her, and determined 
 to give her a reception worthy of her rank. On her 
 arrival at Longjumeau, on July 15, she was met by 
 Diane de France, natural daughter of Henri H. and 
 
 ^ Sully, (Economies royales. 
 
 2 Chenonceaux had been bequeathed by Catherine to Henri III.'s 
 Queen, Louise de Vaudemont, who bestowed it on the Due de Vend6me, 
 but it had lately passed into the possession of the Duchesse de 
 Mercoeur. 
 
 367 
 
 / 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 Philippe des Dues, and widow en secondes noces of Francois, 
 Marechal de Montmorency, who accompanied her as 
 far as the Faubourg Saint-Jacques. In crossing from 
 the left to the right bank of the Seine, the Queen appears 
 to have been much struck by the improvements which 
 had been executed in Paris since that August day, twenty- 
 two years since, when she had quitted it in such an agony 
 of shame, at the bidding of her malevolent brother. 
 What a change had taken place in the fortunes of her 
 family since then ! Henri, Anjou, and Catherine were 
 dead ; a new dynasty dwelt in the palace of her ancestors, 
 and she re-entered Paris as the last legitimate repre- 
 sentative of the once great House of Valois ! 
 
 A link with the past awaited her on the steps of the 
 \ Chateau of Madrid. It was none other than her old 
 lover, Harlay de Chanvallon, who had come with the 
 young Due de Vendome, Henri IV.'s eldest son by 
 Gabrielle d'Estrees, and the Seigneurs de Roquelaure 
 et de Chateauvieux, Marie de' Medici's chevalier d'honneur, 
 to bid her welcome in the name of their Majesties. 
 Dupleix declares that the presence of Chanvallon, " lequel 
 elle avoit autrefois plus aime qu^ elle ne devoit,^ coupled 
 with that of a natural son of the King, was not considered 
 in good taste. But, however that may be, Marguerite 
 seems to have been very pleased with her reception, 
 and the following day wrote a very flattering letter to 
 Henri IV., thanking him for his attentions, and expressing 
 herself greatly delighted with M. de Vendome. " It 
 is easy to see," she writes, " that he is of royal birth, 
 since he is as beautiful in person as he is in advance of 
 his age in intelligence. I believe that God has given 
 him to your Majesty, in order that you may receive from 
 him some great service and satisfaction. I was never 
 
 368 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 more enchanted than whilst admiring this marvel of 
 childhood, so full of wisdom and of serious conversation. 
 In truth, this royal creation is worthy of your Majesty, 
 who never produces anything, either animate or inanimate, 
 which is not out of the common way.'V^ 
 
 A week later, Henri IV. himself came to visit the 
 princess. " If," remarks M. de la Ferriere, " he had not 
 expected to see Marguerite again, he would have been 
 able to ask the same question as that Russian diplomatist, 
 the Baron de M . . . who, separated from his baroness, 
 who had resided in Paris for more than twenty years, 
 and seeing her enter a drawing-room in St. Petersburg, 
 whispered to the lady of the house : ' Who is that fat old 
 woman ? ' ' That is your wife,' was the smiling reply." 
 
 Time, indeed, had dealt hardly with Marguerite de 
 Valois. When she had parted from her husband at Nerac, 
 in March 1585, she had been still almost in the zenith 
 of her beauty ; now when they met again, after their 
 long separation, she was in her fifty-third year, and nothing 
 was left of the charms which had captivated so many 
 hearts, save her magnificent eyes, which still sparkled 
 with all their old-time vivacity. In place of her abundant 
 locks, dark as the raven's wing, which she had prematurely 
 lost, she wore an enormous coiffure of flaxen hair " half 
 a foot higher than the coiffures then in vogue " As 
 for her figure, once so slender and graceful, though 
 Tallemant des Reaux is probably guilty of exaggeration 
 when he describes her as " horribly stout," a portrait 
 painted of her in the autumn of that same year, shows 
 that she had developed a very decided tendency to 
 embonpoint, while her features had become distinctly 
 coarse. 
 
 Ihe King, who had arrived at seven o'clock in the 
 * Memoires et lettres de Marguerite de Valois (edit. Guessard). 
 
 369 2 A 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 evening, remained until after ten L'Estoile reports 
 that, before taking his leave, he made two requests of 
 his " sister " : the first,, that, for the sake of her health, 
 she should cease turning night into day, and day into 
 night ; the second, that she should place some bounds 
 to her liberality and be a little less lavish in her expendi- 
 ture. To which the princess replied that, at her age, it 
 was difficult to change her habits, and that her generous 
 instincts were inherited, and that it was impossible for 
 her not to yield to them. > • 
 
 Marguerite, having expressed herself very anxious 
 to see the Dauphin, the King sent him to visit her on 
 August 6. She was taking the air in her litter on the 
 Rueil road when the little prince appeared in Marie de' 
 Medici's coach. On perceiving the Queen's litter, 
 he alighted, while Marguerite did the same. When they 
 were a few paces from one another, the Dauphin raised 
 his hat, and exclaimed : " Vous soyez la bien venue, 
 maman ma fille ! " by which title he had been instructed 
 to address her. Then, hastening forward, he embraced 
 her, and Marguerite, in returning his kiss, said : " How 
 handsome you are ! You have certainly the royal air 
 of commanding, as you will do one day." On the 
 morrow, Madame de Lansac, her dame d^honneur, brought 
 to the Dauphin, from her mistress, a little figure of a 
 Cupid, with diamond eyes, seated on a dolphin made 
 of emeralds, and a little scimitar, the hilt of which was 
 studded with jewels. She offered, at the same time, 
 to Henri's little daughter Elisabeth (afterwards Queen 
 of Spain), a head-band of diamonds, and a gilded vase 
 and basin to the Dauphin's nurse.^ 
 
 On August 28, Marguerite was received by their 
 
 1 Journal de J. Hiroard. 
 370 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 Majesties, at the Louvre, in the midst of a crowd of 
 curious courtiers. Henri IV. advanced to the centre of 
 the courtyard to meet his ex-consort, and led her by the 
 hand to present her to Marie de' Medici, who had re- 
 mained at the foot of the grand staircase. Regarding, 
 as she did, her predecessor with far from a friendly eye, 
 the Queen had declined to advance any further, although 
 the King had reminded her sharply that to a princess 
 of Marguerite's illustrious birth the very highest honours 
 were due. 
 
 The meeting between these two women invested 
 with the same title, must have been decidedly piquant, 
 and provoked inevitable comparisons. These, it would 
 appear, were altogether to Marguerite's advantage, 
 for while the Medici seemed confused and ill at ease, 
 the Valois princess exhibited the perfect dignity and 
 charming courtesy which were naturally hers ; and public 
 sympathy was almost entirely on her side. 
 
 Henri IV., as we have mentioned, had been somewhat 
 doubtful as to the wisdom of permitting Marguerite 
 to return to the capital, but none of his fears were 
 realised. On the contrary, far from seeking to foment 
 discord, the princess came with an olive branch in her 
 hand, and it was largely due to her influence that several 
 of the old nobility who had hitherto held aloof from 
 the new dynasty became reconciled to it. 
 
 Shortly after her reception at the Louvre, the King 
 invited Marguerite to spend some days with the Royal 
 Family at Saint-Germain. She accepted, and a friendly 
 intimacy was quickly established between her and the 
 new menage. Now that they were no longer husband 
 and wife, Henri and Marguerite were the best of friends, 
 and the King, who had always entertained a very high 
 
 371 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 opinion of the princess's intelligence, would seem to 
 have consulted her frequently on important matters. 
 Marie de' Medici, too, finding that she had nothing 
 to fear from the woman she had supplanted, yielded to 
 the charm of Marguerite's society, and Heroard relates, 
 in his Journal., that one morning he saw the ex-Queen 
 on her knees beside her successor's bed, on which sat 
 Henri IV. with the Dauphin, who was playing with a 
 little dog. 
 
 The Princes of the Blood, the Ambassadors of all the 
 Powers, and the great nobles came to the Bois de Boulogne 
 to pay homage to the princess ; but Marguerite soon 
 grew tired of the Chateau of Madrid, and, profiting by 
 the amicable relations she had established with the King 
 and Queen, demanded and obtained permission to take 
 f^lC tip her residence in Paris itself. In December 1605, 
 she rented the Hotel de Sens,^ situated in the Rue du 
 Figuier, at the corner of the Rue de la Mortellerie, where 
 she surrounded herself with a little Court of poets, 
 musicians, savants, and theologians. 
 
 But here, too, her sojourn was but a brief one ; for, 
 
 1 This hotel, which had been built, in 1475, by Tristan de Salzagar, 
 and enlarged, under Francois I., by Cardinal du Prat, was the official 
 residence of the Archbishop of Sens, Metropolitan of Paris, until 
 Paris was made an archbishopric in 1622. At this period, it was occu- 
 pied by Renaud de Baune, Primate and Grand Almoner of France. 
 L'Estoile tells us that the piquancy of a princess with so great a re- 
 putation for gallantry installing herself in an archbishop's palace did 
 not escape the notice of the rhymesters of the day ; and one fine 
 morning, the following verses were found posted on the door : 
 
 " Comme reine tu devras etre 
 En ta royale maison ; 
 Comme putain, c'est bien raison 
 Qu tu loge au logis d'un pretre." 
 372 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 in less than four months, a most tragic event decided 
 her to quit the Hotel de Sens. • 
 
 Among the members of Marguerite's suite was a 
 youth of some twenty summers, the son of one Date, 
 a carpenter of Aries, who, as we have mentioned else- 
 where, had, since entering her Majesty's service, blos- 
 somed into a Sieur de Saint-Julien. This Saint-Julien, 
 if we are to believe the chroniclers of the time, was 
 passionately beloved by his royal mistress,^ though 
 perhaps, as a charitable biographer suggests, her affection 
 for him may have been " merely platonic and maternal." 
 However that may be, he stood on the very pinnacle of 
 favour, and was regarded with envy and hatred by his less 
 fortunate colleagues. One of these rivals, Vermont by 
 name, either because he was jealous of the privileges 
 which Saint-Julien enjoyed or, more probably, because 
 he believed that the favourite had used his influence 
 with the Queen to procure the disgrace of certain mem- 
 bers of his family, suspected of having aided the Comte 
 d'Auvergne's intrigues, swore to be avenged. Nor was 
 his vow an idle one, for, on the morning of x4pril 5, 1606, -^ 
 at the very moment when Saint-Julien was assisting Mar- 
 guerite to alight from her coach, on her return from 
 hearing Mass at the Celestines, he stepped forward, and, 
 levelling a pistol, shot him dead. 
 
 The assassin endeavoured to escape, but was pursued 
 and overtaken near the Porte Saint-Denis. The bereaved 
 princess, beside herself with rage and grief, vowed that 
 she would neither eat nor drink until justice had been 
 done, and forthwith wrote to the King the following 
 letter : 
 
 1 " . . . Za'int Julien^ lequel ladite Ro'ine aimoit passionement^'' 
 L'Estoile. 
 
 373 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 Marguerite to Henri IV. 
 
 April 5, 1606. 
 " MoNSEiGNEUR, — An assassination has just been com- 
 mitted, at the door of my hotel, before my eyes, opposite 
 my coach, by a son of Vermont, who has shot with a pistol 
 one of my gentlemen named Saint-Julien. I beg your 
 Majesty very humbly to order justice to be done, and 
 not to be pleased to pardon him. If this crime is not 
 punished, no one will be able to live in security. I beg 
 your Majesty very humbly to be pleased that the assassin 
 should be punished." 
 
 The King sent orders for Vermont to be brought to 
 trial without an hour's delay ; and he was condemned 
 to death, and executed the following morning, in front 
 of the Hotel de Sens, " declaring aloud," writes L'Estoile, 
 " that he cared not about dying, since he had accom- 
 plished his purpose." 
 
 From a window of her hotel Marguerite witnessed 
 the execution ; but she had presumed too much upon 
 her strength, and, being taken ill during the night, 
 resolved to leave without delay the Hotel de Sens, which, 
 she felt, must henceforth hold for her such tragic memo- 
 ries. Accordingly, a day or two later, she removed from 
 the Rue du Figuier to a house at Issy, belonging to a 
 wealthy goldsmith named La Haye, pursued by the 
 malicious verses in which the Parisians of those days 
 took so much delight . 
 
 " La Reine Venus demi-morte 
 
 De voir mourir devant sa porte 
 
 Son Adonis, son cher amour 
 
 Pour vengeance a devant sa porte 
 
 Fait d^faire en la meme place 
 
 L*assassin presque au meme jour." 
 374 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 Soon after the tragic end of Saint-Julien,* the princess 
 gained her lawsuit against the Comte d'Auvergne, and 
 was adjudged the rightful owner of the counties of Au- 
 vergne and Clermont, and the rest of the estates of 
 Catherine. She at once executed a deed conveying 
 them to the Dauphin, with the condition, however, 
 that the estates in question should be reunited to the 
 Crown, and should never again be alienated. She 
 reserved the revenues to herself during her life-time, 
 but, shortly afterwards, surrendered them, in return for 
 a handsome pension. 
 
 This augmentation of her income enabled her to 
 purchase the house at Issy, where she caused a good 
 many improvements to be executed, and laid out some 
 charming gardens. But, though she remained at Issy 
 until late in the following winter, through fear of the 
 plague, which was devastating Paris, she used it hence- 
 forth merely as a summer residence, and acquired on the 
 left bank of the Seine, facing the Louvre, a large plot 
 of [land, part of which belonged to the University, 
 and part to the " Freres de la Charite," ^ where she 
 proceeded to construct a magnificent hotel. She also 
 purchased part of the old Pre-aux-Clercs, the scene 
 of so many duels, which she converted into an immense 
 park, extending as far as what is now the Rue des 
 Saints-Peres. 
 
 In this hotel, which was finally completed in 1608, 
 the old Queen spent the last years of her life, paying 
 
 '^ She commissioned the poet Fran9ois Maynard to commemorate 
 Saint-Julien's death in verses, wherein the ill-fated youth figures under 
 the name of Damon. 
 
 ^ Founded by Jean de Dieu. They devoted themselves to minister- 
 ing to the sick poor, and vi^ere skilled in surgery and medicine. 
 
 375 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 however, occasional visits to Issy, her chateau at Boulogne 
 sur-Seine, and the royal residences around Paris. The 
 friendship which she showed for men-of-letters, savants, 
 and musicians, drew many of them around her, amongst 
 whom may be mentioned Francois Maynard — ^whom 
 she made her secretary — Porcheres, Garnier, and the 
 moralist Pilhard. It was her custom, Etienne Pasquier 
 tells us, to invite three or four of her literary proteges 
 to dinner or supper almost every day, propose to them 
 some subject of discussion, and encourage each to state 
 his views at length ; she herself joining freely in the 
 debate, as she delighted to show that her intellect had 
 lost none of its keenness.^ Her hotel, however, resembled 
 a Court far more than the residence of a private individual, 
 for she always lived en souz/eraine, and abated nothing 
 of the ceremonial to which she had been accustomed. 
 
 She does not seem to have regretted the place which 
 she had ceded to another, and remained on the best 
 of terms with Marie de' Medici. It was to her predeces- 
 sor, who remembered the magnificent fetes given by 
 Catherine, that the new Queen had recourse when she 
 intended to organise some particularly great reception. 
 Thus her Majesty begged Marguerite's assistance when 
 she wished to receive, according to the etiquette of the 
 Valois Court, Don Pedro de Toledo, Constable of 
 Castile and Ambassador of Philip III., and, in January 
 1609, we hear of a great Court reception being post- 
 poned for a week, owing to the illness of Queen Mar- 
 guerite, " Vorganisatrice et la mditresse veritable.''^ When 
 it took place, after a ball at the Arsenal, their Majes- 
 ties adjourned to Marguerite's hotel, where they were 
 
 ^ Etienne Pasquier, Lcttres^ ii. 761. M. Charles Merki, La Reine 
 Mnrgot et la Jin des Valois, p. 421. 
 
 376 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 entertained to a superb " collation," which was said to 
 have cost 4000 ecus, and at which appeared three silver 
 dishes, " one of which bore an orange-tree, another a 
 lemon-tree, and a third a pomegranate-tree, so dex- 
 terously and cleverly imitated and disguised that no 
 one could tell that they were not real plants." 
 
 The princess stood godmother to Henri's second son 
 Gaston, Due d'Orleans, and seems to have been much 
 attached to the royal children, and, in particular to 
 the Dauphin. Writing to Henri IV., during his absence 
 from Paris, in May 1606, she informs him that she has 
 had the honour of kissing the hand of Monsieur le 
 Dauphin, and that he and Mesdames [the princesses] 
 are growing in stature and beauty, especially the Dauphin, 
 "who bears upon his countenance, and in all his royal 
 actions, the true imprint of what he is." 
 
 Although her figure had become so unwieldy that, 
 according to Tallemant des Reaux, " il y avail bien 
 des fortes ou elle ne -pouvait fasser" she still desired 
 to be young, and refused to renounce the toilettes of 
 her youth ; and such had once been her fame as a leader 
 of the mode that she still found imitators. " To-day," 
 writes L'Estoile, under date March 10, 1610, " the 
 preacher at Notre-Dame, Suffren by name, a Jesuit, dis- 
 coursing in his sermon on the dissoluteness and licentious- 
 ness of women, declared that there was not in all Paris 
 one so little coquettish, that she did not show her bosom, 
 following the example of Queen Marguerite." Then, 
 as though desirous of taking back his words (which were 
 judged for a man of intelligence, such as he was, to have 
 been spoken with too little discretion), having paused for 
 a moment, he went on to say, that he " had no intention 
 to criticise Queen Marguerite, and that many things 
 
 377 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 were permissible for queens which were forbidden to 
 others." ^ 
 
 And she still continued to have her favourites. The 
 succession to the post of the defunct Saint- Julien was 
 for some little time in dispute, but, at length, victory 
 remained with a youth named Bajaumont. Marguerite, 
 however, appears to have brought misfortune to those who 
 basked in her smiles, and, like the mignons of Henri III., 
 they nearly all met with premature and violent deaths : 
 La Mole and d'Aubiac on the scaffold ; Bussy, Guise, 
 the hapless apothecary of Carlat, and Saint-Julien at 
 the hands of the assassin ; though in the case of Bussy and 
 of Guise their tragic ends were, of course, unconnected 
 with their intimacy with the Queen. The new favourite 
 was more fortunate, but, nevertheless, had to defend 
 his life with his sword against one Loue, the son of an 
 advocate of Bordeaux, who, one day, made a murderous 
 attack upon him in the Church of the Augustines. Fearful 
 lest Bajaumont might share the fate of his predecessor 
 in her affections. Marguerite caused his assailant to be 
 arrested and shut up in For I'Eveque, to cool his blood. 
 But soon death threatened Bajaumont in another form, 
 and he fell dangerously ill. The old Queen was in 
 despair, and Henri IV. came to comfort her. It would 
 appear that his ex-consort had contrived to extract from 
 him considerable sums for the construction of her hotel, 
 for when, on taking his departure, the King passed 
 through a room where several of Marguerite's maids-of- 
 honour were sitting, " he begged them all to pray for 
 the convalescence of Bajaumont, and that he would give 
 them New Year's gifts. * For, if he were to die,' said 
 he ; ' ventre Saint-Gris ! it would cost me a great deal 
 ^ 'Journal de Henri IV. 
 378 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 more, since I should have to buy her [Marguerite] a 
 new house, in place of this one, where she would never 
 consent to remain.' " ^ 
 
 Bajaumont recovered, but, instead of being grateful 
 for the solicitude of his royal mistress, would appear to 
 have presumed on her favour, for, on May lo, 1607, we 
 find Henri IV. writing to Marie de' Medici : " I have 
 no news, save that yesterday Marguerite chastised Bajau- 
 mont, and that he intends to leave her." However, 
 they were reconciled, and in September 1609, L'Estoile 
 reports that Bajaumont had again been taken ill, but had 
 recovered, " more owing to the kindness of his mistress 
 than the skill of his doctor." 
 
 Notwithstanding these follies — they were probably 
 nothing worse — Marguerite seems to have spent much of 
 her time in serious reflection and devotion, while her 
 charity was boundless. She dispensed large sums in 
 founding and endowing hospitals, convents, churches, 
 and colleges. Mathieu de Morgues estimates her gifts 
 to the religious Orders at 120,000 livres a year, without 
 counting her private alms, which she distributed with 
 lavish hand, though with, it is to be feared, more generosity 
 than discretion ; " because," says Richelieu, " she pre- 
 ferred to give to an undeserving person than to fail to 
 give to one who was deserving." ^ Each year she devoted 
 a considerable sum to providing poor girls with the 
 
 1 L'Estoile, Journal de Henri IV. M. de Saint-Poncy is very angry 
 with L'Estoile, whom he accuses of shamefully maligning his heroine ; 
 and there can be no doubt that the worthy diarist was rather prone to 
 jot down picturesque anecdotes without troubling himself to verify 
 them. 
 
 2 M moires du Cardinal de Richelieu. 
 
 379 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 indispensable dot, another to assisting struggling artists 
 and men-of-letters, political refugees, and indigent 
 foreigners. At Easter, on Ascension Day, on Whit- 
 Sunday, at Christmas, and on her birthday (May 14), 
 she distributed a hundred gold crowns and as many 
 loaves of bread to a hundred poor persons. She supported 
 entirely eleven hundred poor, and forty refugee Catholic 
 priests from England, Scotland, and Ireland, and dis- 
 tributed money every day, at the gate of her hotel, on 
 her return from Mass ; while each Holy Week she made 
 a tour of the hospitals of Paris, and distributed between 
 three and four thousand coverlets.^ 
 
 Although all the religious Orders participated in her 
 bounty, the Augustines were her favourites. In the 
 park attached to her hotel in the Faubourg Saint- 
 Germain, she built a chapel for the Augustins dechaussts^ 
 and employed the best artists of the time in the 
 decoration of its interior. The first stone was laid by the 
 princess on March 21, 1608, and in July 1610, she 
 commenced building them a convent and a large church. 
 But the Augustins dechausses did not fulfil certain 
 conditions which their benefactress had imposed upon 
 them, so, early in the year 161 3, Marguerite, having 
 appealed to the Pope, ejected them, in spite of their 
 protestations, and replaced them by the Petits- Angus tins, 
 though she did not live to see the completion of her 
 work. The Petits- Augustins occupied their convent 
 
 1 Comte Leo de Saint-Poncy, Histoire de Marguerite de Valoisy ii. 511, 
 et scq. 
 
 ' There were at this period in Paris four Augustine convents, two on 
 the right and two on the left bank of the Seine : the Vieux Augustins, 
 on the Quai Saint-Eustache ; the Augustins dechausses, called the Petits- 
 Peres ; the Grands Augustins in the Quartier Saint-Andre des Arcs, and 
 the Petits Augustins, 
 
 * 380 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 until the Revolution, when they were expelled. In 
 1820, the cloister, which had, in the meanwhile, been 
 converted into a museum, was demolished. Its site 
 is now occupied by the Ecole des Beaux- Arts. 
 
 In the spring of 1610, the preparations for a general 
 attack on the possessions of the House of Austria, 
 which Henri IV. had so long been meditating, were 
 completed. The King himself intended to take com- 
 mand of the army which was to operate on the Rhine, 
 in conjunction with the Protestant princes of Germany 
 and, on March 20, he signed an Ordinance appointing 
 Marie de' Medici Regent of the kingdom during his 
 absence. To add to the security and dignity of her 
 position and make her claim to the Regency, in the event 
 of her husband's death, more indisputable, Marie urged 
 him to allow her to be crowned Queen of France. To 
 this Henri consented, and the coronation took place 
 at Saint-Denis, with great splendour, on May 13. 
 
 Marguerite was invited to assist at the ceremony. 
 She would have preferred to absent herself, for it was 
 difficult for her to view without some heartburnings 
 the final triumph of the woman who had supplanted 
 her. But Henri, being of opinion that her presence 
 would be regarded, so to speak, as the consecration of 
 the new dynasty, pressed her so hard that she finally 
 consented to attend. Her dignity was, however, somewhat 
 ruffled by the fact that, though she was permitted to 
 wear a crown, her claim to a mantle entirely cov^ered 
 with fleurs-de-lys, similar to that worn by Marie de' 
 Medici, was not allowed, and, still more, when 
 Henri IV.'s little nine-year-old daughter Elisabeth 
 was given precedence of her in the Queen's procession. 
 Both princesses were attired as Daughters of France, 
 
 381 
 
n 
 
 QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 in bodices of cloth-of-silver, with tippets of ermine 
 ornamented with jewels, and royal mantles of violet 
 velvet lined with ermine and bordered by two rows of 
 ■fleurs-de-lys. The train of Marguerite's magnificent 
 mantle, which she subsequently presented to the Church 
 of Saint-Sulpice, to form the dais, which is raised above 
 the Holy Sacrament on great occasions, was borne by 
 the Comtes de Curson and de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 That afternoon Marguerite proceeded to Issy, where, 
 on the following day (May 14), she gave, according to 
 her custom, a fete in honour of her birthday. Dupleix 
 relates, that, in the evening, he had been talking with the 
 old Queen of the many great events which had taken place 
 on the fourteenth day of the month, which had often been 
 very favourable for France, citing the Battle of Agnodel, 
 gained by Louis XII. over the Venetians (May 14, 
 1509) ; that of Marignano, won by Francois I. (Septem- 
 ber 14, 1515) ; that of Cesirolles (April 14, 1544) ; the 
 raising of the siege of Metz by Charles V. (January 14, 
 1553) ; and the victory of Ivry (March 14, 1590). A 
 few minutes later, a messenger arrived with the news of 
 the death of Henri IV., assassinated by Ravaillac, that 
 afternoon, in the Rue de la Ferronerie. 
 
 Marguerite appears to have sincerely mourned her 
 former consort. She was too intelligent not to have 
 appreciated his great qualities, and the irreparable loss 
 which France had sustained by his death ; too generous- 
 hearted not to have long since forgiven him his conjugal 
 failings ; and indeed, since the divorce, Henri seems 
 to have treated her with unvarying kindness. "The 
 same day [May 22, 1610]," writes L'Estoile, " Queen 
 Marguerite caused a beautiful service to be sung atthe 
 
 382 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 Augustines, for the repose of the soul of the deceased 
 King, whose affectionate wife she had been for twenty- 
 two years, and who voluntarily agreed, with the dis- 
 pensation of the Pope, to the dissolution of the marriage, 
 chiefly because the Lord had not blessed her with happy 
 offspring, which was greatly desired by good Frenchmen." 
 Nor did she confine herself to regrets. She used 
 every endeavour to obtain a fair hearing for a woman 
 Comans, or d'Escomans, who had formerly been in her 
 service, and who came to her, declaring that she had 
 proofs that Ravaillac had been but the instrument of 
 d'Epernon, Madame de Verneuil, and other highly- 
 placed persons. But Marie de' Medici declined to 
 credit the statements of Comans, who was brought to 
 trial for slander and condemned to perpetual imprison- 
 ment as a lunatic. 
 
 Marguerite survived Henri IV. nearly five years. 
 " Apart from the folly of love, she was very sensible," 
 remarks Tallemant des Reaux ; and just as she had 
 always declined to take any part in the quarrels between 
 the King's last mistresses, Madame de Verneuil and 
 Jacqueline de Beuil, Comtesse de Moret, she held aloof 
 from the acrimonious disputes which marked the first 
 years of the Regency. She remained on the friendliest 
 of terms with Marie de' Medici and the young King, and 
 was a constant attendant at Court functions, where she 
 was always treated with the utmost consideration. In 
 her hotel in the Faubourg Saint-Germain, she gave several 
 magnificent fetes, the most important of which was 
 the grand ball which she gave on August 26, 161 2, in 
 honour of the Duke of Pastrana, son of Ruy Gomez 
 and of the celebrated Princess of Eboli, when he came 
 
 383 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 to demand the hand of Elisabeth de France for the 
 future Philip IV. of Spain. 
 
 The ball-room was encircled by steps " in the form 
 of an amphitheatre," on which the ladies of the Court 
 took their places ; in the centre, under a dais of cloth- 
 of-gold, sat the young King, with the Queen-Mother 
 on his right hand and Madame Elisabeth on his left. 
 Close to the little princess sat Marguerite, a vision of 
 splendour which must have dazzled all eyes, her ample 
 person encased " in a robe of silver cloth, with long open 
 sleeves, sewn all over with rose diamonds, as was also 
 the front of her corsage " ; strings of pearls and diamonds 
 adorned her head-dress, and a flashing riviere encircled 
 her neck. 
 
 According to custom, the ball began at half-past six 
 in the evening, when Louis XIII. opened the proceed- 
 ings by dancing a branle with his eldest sister. After 
 one or two other distinguished couples had performed 
 solemn evolutions before the respectful gaze of the 
 assembly, the Duke of Pastrana approached the royal 
 da'is, and, on bended knee, solicited the honour of tread- 
 ing a measure with his future Queen. Rigid Spanish 
 etiquette forbade him to begin the dance, or to take her 
 hand, so the- princess had to precede him, and when 
 they approached one another, the duke merely touched 
 with the tips of his fingers the long hanging-sleeve of 
 the royal dancer. At the conclusion of the ball. Mar- 
 guerite entertained the distinguished company to a 
 collation " les raretes et les sumptuosites " of which the 
 chronicler describes in glowing terms. ^ 
 
 1 Le grand bal de la Re'ine Marguerite fatct devant le %^, la %eine, et 
 Madamey le Dimanche^ 26 Aoust^ 1612. A copy of this very rare little 
 brochure is in the possession of the British Museum. 
 
 384 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 In these last years, the old Queen became exceedingly 
 devout, and ended by hearing three Masses every day, 
 one high and two low ones. Nevertheless, she continued 
 her flirtations, and, in place of Bajaumont, who is believed 
 to have died young, took into favour a young singer 
 named Villars, who, Tallemant des Reaux tells us, was 
 surnamed " le Rot Margot.^^ " She [Marguerite] brought 
 Villars into the garden of the Tuileries, to allow the Queen 
 to hear him sing," writes Malherbe to Pereisc, under date 
 May 14, 1614.^ 
 
 At the end of that same year. Marguerite attended the 
 procession and opening of the States-General, when 
 she contracted a severe chill, which she was unable to 
 shake off. Early in March 161 5, she was dangerously 
 ill, and though, towards the end of the month, she was 
 so much better that hopes were entertained of her ulti- 
 mate recovery, this improvement was quickly followed by 
 a relapse, and, on the 26th, her Grand Almoner, the 
 Bishop of Grasse, warned her that her end was at hand* 
 The following day, she signed a codicil in favour of her 
 froteges, the Augustines, and at eleven o'clock that night, 
 after having received the last Sacraments, " avec la 'plus 
 edifiante componction,^^ she died, being within a few 
 weeks of completing her sixty-second year. 
 
 " On March 27," writes Pontchartrain, " there died 
 in Paris, Queen Marguerite, the sole survivor of the race 
 of Valois ; a princess full of kindness and good inten- 
 tions for the welfare and repose of the State, and who 
 was only her own enemy. She was deeply regretted." ^ 
 
 After lying in state in the Chapel of the Augustines, 
 
 ^ Cited by La Ferriere, Trois Amoureuses oii XVI' Steele : Marguerite 
 de Valois. 
 
 2 Memoires de Pontchartrain. 
 
 385 2B 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 her body was conveyed to Saint-Denis and interred in 
 the superb mausoleum of the Valois, erected by Catherine 
 de' Medici. The advocate, Louis Servin, who had 
 successfully conducted her lawsuit against the Comte 
 d'Auvergne, composed a lengthy Latin epitaph, which 
 was engraved by the Augustines, to whom she had 
 bequeathed her heart. 
 
 Her superb hotel was sold on May ii, 1622, for the 
 benefit of her creditors, for, though her charity was 
 boundless, she seldom paid her debts, which were reported 
 to exceed 200,000 ecus. No trace of it now remains ; 
 but her house at Issy is still standing, and, increased 
 by two wings, has become the succursale of the Seminary 
 of Saint-Sulpice. 
 
 " Never," says M. de la Ferriere, in his interesting 
 study of Marguerite de Valois, " have more contradictory 
 judgments been passed on the same woman. In the 
 camp of the defence, all the great poets of the Renais- 
 sance, from Ronsard to Desportes, have chanted her 
 praises ; Brantome has extolled her to the skies ; the 
 three brothers d'Urfe and Loys Papon are her passionate 
 admirers ; Hilarion de Coste, that enthusiastic pane- 
 gyrist of the women of the sixteenth century, has made 
 of her a victim and a saint ; Bassompierre has energetically 
 defended her against Dupleix, ' that dog which bit the 
 hand that fed him.' In the camp of the attack, d'Aubigne, 
 under the double pressure of religious and political 
 passion, has dragged her in the mud ;^ Dupleix, an 
 
 1 M. de La Ferriere is evidently of opinion that d'Aubigne is the 
 author of the Divorce satyrlque, but this is by no means certain ; and, 
 though it is included in the (Euvres completes of d'Aubigne, edited by 
 Reaume and de Caussade, in 1877, the editors give it under all reserve. 
 
 386 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 ingrate ; Bayle, a cold sceptic ; Tallemant des Reaux, 
 a recorder of licentious anecdotes ; Mathieu, Mezeray, 
 grave historians, have judged her severely. What are 
 we to conclude ? It is that history, readily indulgent 
 towards women who have loyally and sincerely loved, 
 is but little so for those whose lives have been mainly 
 occupied with gallantry." 
 
 But was Marguerite really so " gallant " as her de- 
 tractors assert, and as M. de la Ferriere seems to imagine ? 
 We are inclined to think, with her two most recent 
 biographers, M. de Saint-Poncy and M. Merki, that her 
 failings in this respect have been greatly exaggerated ; 
 and certainly the more discreditable of the intrigues laid 
 to her charge rest on very unsatisfactory evidence ; 
 some passages from L'Estoile, a worthy man, but one of 
 the most credulous of chroniclers, two or three anecdotes 
 of Du Vair, Dupleix's Histoire de France^ and the scurri- 
 lous Divorce satyrique. 
 
 Still, after allowance is made for all possible exag- 
 geration, there can be little doubt that Marguerite is 
 only too well entitled to be described as an " amoureuse "/ 
 but, at the same time, in justice to her, it should be borne 
 in mind that never had woman better excuse for her 
 irregularities. Brought up in one of the most licentious 
 Courts the world has ever seen, married for " reasons 
 of State " to a husband to whom she was not only in- 
 different, but who was utterly indifferent to her, who 
 made not the slightest attempt to win her affection, but 
 flaunted his innumerable gallantries before her eyes, and 
 showed a cynical indelicacy in the demands that he made 
 on her complacence, she would have been something 
 more than human had she not yielded to the temptations 
 which beset her, and, following the example of all the 
 
 387 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 other neglected wives she saw around her, sought com- 
 panionship and affection elsewhere. To judge her by 
 ordinary standards of morality would be not only unjust, 
 but absurd. 
 
 But, apart from the irregularities of her life, the last 
 of the Valois has many claims to our admiration and 
 respect. She showed a most praiseworthy loyalty to 
 her husband's interests under very difficult circumstances, 
 and continued to do so, until the persecution to which 
 she was subjected by her malevolent brother, and the 
 scandals which followed, had changed his indifference 
 and neglect into dislike and contempt. She was un- 
 selfishly devoted to her younger brother, Anjou, for 
 whose sake, as we have seen, she readily braved persecu- 
 tion and disgrace at the Court and the risk of capture 
 and imprisonment by the Spaniards in Flanders. She ex- 
 hibited' real magnanimity on her return to Paris in 1605, 
 when, instead of seeking to embarrass the woman who had 
 usurped the place which was rightfully hers and the 
 husband who had discarded her, she lived on the friend- 
 liest terms with them, and used all her influence to recon- 
 cile the old nobility to the new dynasty. One of the 
 most charming writers of her time, as her Memoires 
 and correspondence show, she was " the refuge of men- 
 of-letters, and loved to hear them talk," and did all 
 in her power to exalt their calling. But perhaps her best 
 claim to our regard is her abounding charity. " True 
 heiress of the House of Valois," says Richelieu, to whose 
 calm and dispassionate judgment it is pleasant to turn 
 after the almost hysterical panegyrics of Brantome 
 and Hilarion de Coste and the shameful calumnies of 
 the Divorce satyrique, " she never made a gift to any 
 one without excusing herself for giving so little, and the 
 
 388 
 
QUEEN MARGOT 
 
 present was never so large that there did not always 
 remain to her a desire to give more. ... In short, as charity 
 is the queen of virtues, this great queen crowned hers 
 by that of her alms, which she dispensed so abundantly 
 that there was not a religious house in Paris which did 
 not experience it, nor a poor person who had recourse 
 to her without obtaining assistance. Moreover, God 
 recompensed with usury that which she exercised 
 towards His people, giving her the grace to make so 
 Christian an end, that if she had been a subject to pro- 
 voke envy among others during her life, one had the more 
 cause to envy her at her death." ^ 
 
 Marguerite de Valois's brothers called her Margot, 
 and by that name she is best known to history. 
 
 * Memoires du Cardinal de Richelieu^ 
 
 389 
 
INDEX 
 
 Aerschot, Due d', 208, 209 
 Aldgre, Yves (Governor of Issoire), 
 
 351 
 Alen9on, Francois de Valois, Due 
 
 de. See Anjou 
 Alessandrini,Cardinal,S9andnote,6i 
 AUdgre, Antoine (favourite of Henri 
 
 III.). 178 
 
 Alva, Duke of, 14, 16 
 
 Amville, Due d', 50 and note, 81, 
 
 F 89 and note, 126, 151 and note 
 
 Amyot, Jaeques (Bishop of Aux- 
 erre), 11 
 
 Andelot, 19 
 
 Ange, Friar (reputed son of Mar- 
 guerite de Valois and Harlay de 
 Chanvallon), 295 note 
 
 Angouleme, Henri d' (Grand Prior 
 of France), 41, 104, 116 
 
 AngoulSme, Marguerite d'. Sec 
 Marguerite d'Angouleme, Queen 
 of Navarre, 3 
 
 Anjou, Fran9ois de Valois, Due d' 
 his warm affection for his sister. 
 Marguerite, in their childhood, 3 ; 
 sent to the Chateau of Amboise 
 at the beginning of the Wars of 
 Religion, 10 ; fascinated by Co- 
 ligny, 62 ; his costume at the 
 marriage of his sister and Henri 
 of Navarre, 86 ; takes part in an 
 allegorical entertainment at tho 
 Hotel du Petit-Bourbon, 90-92 ; 
 his character, 115 ; the secret 
 head of the " Politiques," 119 ; a 
 suitor for the hand of Elizabeth 
 of England, 119; quarrels vio- 
 lently with his brother, Henri, 
 120 ; attempts to escape from 
 Court, 124, 125 ; his pusillani- 
 mous conduct on the discovery 
 of Guitry's scheme for the libera- 
 tion of himself and the King of 
 Navarre, 127 ; imprisoned in the 
 
 Anjou, Fran9oisde Valois, Dued' — 
 continued 
 keep of Vincennes, 128, 129 ; 
 Marguerite's offers to enable him 
 to escape, 132, 133 ; entreats 
 Charles IX. to spare the lives of 
 La Mole and Coconnas, 134; 
 present during the last hours of 
 Charles IX., 141 ; his reception 
 by Henri III. on the latter's 
 return from Poland, 145, 146 ; 
 takes a solemn oath of fidelity to 
 the new King, 150, 151 ; joins 
 the processions of the Flagellants, 
 152 ; rivalry between him and 
 Henri 'of: Navarre over Madame 
 de Sauve. 162, 163 ; his affection 
 for Bussy d' Amboise, 164, 165 ; 
 wishes to hasten to his assistance 
 when attacked by Du Guast's 
 followers, 169 ; advises Bussy 
 to retire to Anjou, 170; his irk- 
 some position at Court, 172, 173 ; 
 makes his escape and places him- 
 self at the head of the rebels, 173 
 and note, 174 ; issues a procla- 
 mation, 174 ; refuses to negotiate 
 until the Mareehaux de Mont- 
 morency and Cosse are set at 
 liberty, 175 ; concludes the truce 
 of Champigny, 175 ; his respon- 
 sibility for the assassination of 
 Du Guast considered, 182, 183 ; 
 protests against the King's treat- 
 ment of Marguerite, 183 ; meets 
 the Queen-mother and Mar- 
 guerite at the Chateau of Chas- 
 tenay, 187 ; secures great ad- 
 vantages for himself by the Treaty 
 of Beaulieu, 188 ; advises his 
 sister to allow herself to be in- 
 cluded in the treaty, 188 ; deserts 
 his Protestant allies, 194 ; deter- 
 mines to wrest Flanders from 
 
 391 
 
INDEX 
 
 Anjou, Francois de Valois, Due d' — 
 continued 
 Spain, 198 ; persuades Mar- 
 guerite to go to Flanders to fur- 
 ther his interests, 198, 199 ; his 
 repulsive appearance, 199 note ; 
 " in worse odour at Court than 
 ever," 213; warns Marguerite of 
 the dangers awaiting her, 214 ; 
 visits her at La Fdre, 226, 227 ; 
 confers with the Flemish dele- 
 gates, 227 ; returns to Paris, 227 ; 
 Henri III. opposed to his Flemish 
 enterprise, 230, 231 ; " subjected 
 to a thousand insults," 231 ; 
 grossly insulted by the King's 
 mignons, 234 ; requests per- 
 mission to leave the Court for a 
 while, 234, 235 ; extraordinary 
 scene between him and Henri III. 
 
 i 235-237 ; formally reconciled to 
 his brother, 237, 238 ; under 
 close surveillance, 238 ; effects 
 his escape from Paris, 238, 243 ; 
 writes to the King, 244 ; in- 
 directly responsible for the assas- 
 sination of Bussy, 263 note ; uses 
 his influence to put an end to 
 the " Lovers' War," 268 ; visits 
 Gascony, 268 ; rivalry between 
 him and the King of Navarre 
 over Fosseuse, 269, 270 ; returns 
 to Paris, 271 ; total failure of his 
 Flemish enterprise, 288, 289 ; 
 dismisses Chanvallon from his 
 service, 290 ; visited by his 
 mother, 291 ; slowly dying of 
 consumption, 303 ; his death, 306 
 
 Antoine de Bourbon, King of Na- 
 varre (father of Henri IV.), 2, 64 
 
 Arnalt, Jean d' (cited), 337 
 
 Atri, Mile, d', 201 and note, 248,250 
 
 Aubiac, d' 
 
 placed in command of one of the 
 companies of men-at-arms orga- 
 nised by Marguerite de Valois at 
 Agen, 316 ; enjoys her friendship 
 and confidence, if not her love, 
 327, 328 and note ; quarrels with 
 Lignerac at the Chateau of Carlat, 
 
 329 ; accompanies the Queen of 
 Navarre to the ChS-teau of Ibois, 
 
 330 ; arrested by the Marquis de 
 Canillac, 330 ; Henri III. gives 
 orders for him to be put to death, 
 331- iZ'2 \ hanged at Aigueperce, 
 332 ; stanzas composed by Mar- 
 guerite, "to consecrate and 
 avenge his memory," 332 note 
 
 Aubigne, Agrippa d', 131, 184, 271, 
 
 300, 301, 386 and note 
 
 (cited), 136, 254, 260, 294, 313 
 Auger de Mauleon (first editor of 
 
 Marguerite de Valois's Memoins), 
 
 340, 341 
 Augustines, the. Marguerite de 
 
 Valois's benefactions to, 280, 381, 
 
 385. 386 
 Aumaie, Claude de Lorraine, Due 
 
 d', 25 and note, 34, 92, 104, 119 
 Auvergne, Charles de Valois, Comte 
 
 d' (son of Charles IX. and Marie 
 
 Touchet), 141, 336, 362, 365, 366, 
 
 367. 385 
 Auvergne, Dauphin of, 86, 133, 247 
 Avantigny (Chamberlain to the 
 
 Due d' Anjou), 178 
 
 Bajaumont (favourite of Mar- 
 guerite) 
 succeeds Saint-Julien in her affec- 
 tions, 378; murderous attack upon 
 him in the Church of the Augus- 
 tines, 278 ; falls dangerously ill, 
 378; chastised by Marguerite, 
 379; believed to have died young, 
 385 
 
 Balan^on, Baron de, 208 
 
 Balzac d'Entragues, Charles de 
 (" le bel d'Entragues "), 147 
 
 Balzac d'Entragues, Fran9ois de 
 (father of Henriette d'Entragues), 
 362, 365, 366 
 
 Balzac d'Entragues Henriette de. 
 See Verneuil, Marquise de , 
 
 Bar, Due de, 355 
 
 Barbe (waiting-woman to Mar- 
 guerite de Valois), 293 
 
 Barlemont, Louis de (Bishop of 
 Cambrai), 202-205, 207 
 
 Barlemont, Comte de, attempts to 
 capture the Queen of Navarre at 
 Dinant, 221-223 
 
 Baschet, Armand (cited), 84 
 
 Bassompierre (cited), 147, 386 
 
 Bayle (cited), 340, 387 
 
 Beaufort Gabrielle d'Estrees, 
 Duchesse de 
 becomes the mistress of Henri IV. 
 351 ; married to the Seigneur de 
 Liaucourt, 351 ; bears the King 
 a son, 352 ; obtains the dissolu- 
 tion of her marriage, 352 ; created 
 Marquise de Monceaux and 
 Duchesse de Beaufort, 352 ; her 
 other children, 352 ; Henri's 
 letters to her, 352 ; her appear- 
 ance and character, 352, 353 ; 
 
 392 
 
INDEX 
 
 Beaufort, Gabrielle d'Estrees, Duch- 
 esae de — continued 
 the King resolves to marry her, 
 353' 354 ; her relations with Mar- 
 guerite de Valois, 354 and note ; 
 her elevation dreaded by the 
 Pope, 355 ; her illness and death, 
 356, 357 
 
 Eeaulieu, Peace of, 187-189, 230 
 
 Beaupreau, Marquis de, 26 note 
 
 Bellegarde, Due de, 351, 352, 363 
 
 Bellidvre. See Pomponne de Belli- 
 evre 
 
 Beme (one of the assassins of Co- 
 ligny), 95. 96 
 
 Bergerac, Peace of, 226, 249 
 
 Berthier (syndic of thfe clergy), 358 
 
 Bethune, Madame de, 293, 294, 295, 
 296, 297, 318 
 
 Beza, 8 
 
 Bide (a gentleman towards whom 
 Marguerite de Valois is charged 
 with " a dangerous form of bene- 
 volence "), 147. See also Balzac 
 d'Entragues, Charles de 
 
 Birague (Chancellor), 67, 95, 100, 
 128, 141, 283 
 
 Birague, Charles de, 302, 305 
 
 Biron, Armand de Gontaut, Mare- 
 chal de, 49 note, 54, 58. 69, 266, 
 267, 268, 367 note 
 
 Biron, Charles de Gontaut, Mare- 
 chal de, 129 note, 365 and note, 367 
 
 Boleyn, Anne, Queen of England, 
 8 note 
 
 Bouillon, Henri de la Tour d'Au- 
 vergne, Due de, 249, 259 and 
 note, 260, 262, 263, 270 note, 367 
 (cited), 199 
 
 Bourbon, Cardinal de, 71, 74,79,81, 
 85, 88 andnote, 128 ,141, 247, 310 
 
 Brantome, 142, 167, 247, 282 note, 
 339. 340, 341. 386. 388 
 
 (cited), I, 28, 29, 30, 31, 33, 65- 
 67, 106 note, 121, 160 note, 
 161, 164, 168, 181, 208, 211, 
 
 333. 334 
 
 Busbecq, Austrian Ambassador at 
 French Court (cited), 293, 313 
 
 Bussy d'Amboise, Robert de Cler- 
 mont, Sieur de 
 immortalised by Dumas pdre, 
 164 ; his character, 164 and note ; 
 leaves Henri III.'s service for 
 that of Monsieur, 165 ; Mar- 
 guerite de Valois charged by Du 
 Guast and Henri IH. with carry- 
 ing on a liaison with him, 165, 
 166 ; question of his relations 
 
 Bussy d'Amboise, Robert de Cler- 
 mont, Sieur de — continued 
 with the princess considered, 167- 
 168 ; escapes unhurt from an 
 ambush laid for him by Du Guast, 
 168, 169 ; compelled to retire 
 from Court, 169 ; ravages Anjou 
 and Maine, 213 note ; in disgrace 
 at Court, 213, 214 ; his quarrels 
 with Henri III.'s mignons, 231- 
 233 ; again compelled to quit the 
 Court, 233 ; returns and is 
 arrested, 238 ; ordered to be 
 reconciled to Quelus, 238 ; assists 
 Monsieur to escape from Paris, 
 242 ; assassinated, 263 and note 
 
 Caboche, M., his edition of Mar- 
 guerite de Valois's Mimoires, 341 
 
 Cahors, storming of 
 
 Caillard (surgeon), yy, 78 
 
 Cange (valet-de-chambre to Due 
 d' Anjou), 236, 241, 242 
 
 Canillac, Marquis de 
 
 arrests Marguerite de Valois at 
 the ChS,teau of Ibois, 330 ; Henri 
 III.'s instructions to him con- 
 cerning her, 331, 332 ; conducts 
 her to the Chateau of Usson, 332 ; 
 succumbs to her charms, 333 and 
 note ; goes over to the League, 
 334. 335 ; surrenders Usson to 
 Marguerite, 335 ; donation made 
 by her in his favour, 335, 336 ; 
 killed at the siege of Saint-Ouen, 
 336 
 
 Carlos, Don (son of Philip II. of 
 Spain), 14, 16 and note 
 
 Castelan (physician), ^6 and note 
 
 Castelnau, 18, 54 
 
 Catherine de Bourbon, Duchess de 
 Bar (sister of Henri IV.), 58, 60 
 note, 193, 355 
 
 Catherine de' Medici, Queen of 
 France 
 assumes the Regency, 4 ; her 
 character, 4, 5 ; her policy, 6, 7 ; 
 attends the Colloquy of Poissy, 
 7 ; reproves Anjou for his Hu- 
 guenot tendencies, 10 ; sends her 
 younger children to the Chateau 
 of Amboise, 10, 11 ; sets out on 
 the "grand voyage," 12, 13; 
 confers with Alva at Bayonne, 
 14 ; gives a magnificent fete on 
 the Isle of Aiguemeau in the 
 Adour, 14-16 ; remonstrates 
 with Jeanne d'Albret in regard 
 to the treatment of her Catholic 
 
 393 
 
INDEX 
 
 Catherine de' Medici, Queen of 
 France — continued 
 subjects, 17 ; regarded with awe 
 by Marguerite de Valois, 22 ; 
 admits her to her confidence, 22, 
 23 ; but withdraws it on learning 
 of her intimacy with the Due de 
 Guise, 25 ; begs Marguerite " to 
 array herself most sumptuously," 
 in order to please the ladies of 
 Cognac, 30 ; indignant with the 
 Cardinal de Lorraine for en- 
 couraging his nephew's preten- 
 sions to Marguerite's hand, 41 ; 
 orders her daughter to break off 
 all intercourse with the duke, 41 ; 
 resolves to marry her to Henri of 
 Navarre, 50 ; her political aims 
 at this period considered, 51-54 ; 
 meets Jeanne d'Albret at Tours, 
 59 ; confers with her in regard to 
 the marriage articles, 60, 61 ; 
 treats her " A la fourche," 62 ; 
 anxious to draw Henri of Na- 
 varre to Blois, 64, 65 ; promises 
 Marguerite a dower of 200,000 
 livres, 7 1 ; insists on the marriage 
 taking place in Paris, 72 ; sus- 
 pected of having caused Jeanne 
 d'Albret to be poisoned, yy ; 
 alarmed at the increasing in- 
 fluence of Coligny over Charles 
 IX., 140, 141 ; has recourse to 
 fraud in regard to the papal dis- 
 pensation for Marguerite's mar- 
 riage, 85 ; writes to Gregory XIII. 
 to excuse her action, 85 ; deter- 
 mines on the assassination of 
 Coligny, 94-96 ; fearful of her 
 guilt being brought home to her, 
 98-100 ; - plans the massacre of 
 St. Bartholomew, 100 ; argu- 
 ments by which she succeeds in 
 obtaining the King's consent, 
 100-103 ; gives orders for the 
 bell of Saint-Germain-l'Auxerrois 
 to give the signal for the mas- 
 sacre, 104 ; suggests to Mar- 
 guerite the dissolution of her 
 marriage, 1 10 ; her habits, 104 
 and note ; adopts a pacific policy 
 towards the Huguenots, 120 ; 
 entertainment given by her to 
 the Polish envoys, 12 1 ; her 
 adieu to her son, Henri, on his 
 departure for Poland, 122 ; re- 
 ceives information from Mar- 
 guerite concerning the projected 
 escape of Alen9on and Henri of 
 
 Catherine de' Medici, Queen of 
 France — continued 
 Navarre, 124, 125 ; acts with 
 promptitude and decision on 
 learning of Guitry's intended 
 coup-de-main at Saint-Germain, 
 127, 128 ; believes in the efficacy 
 of sorcery, 129 and note ; takes 
 energetic measures to crush the 
 conspiracy of the " Polittques," 
 133 ; refuses to allow Charles IX. 
 to pardon La M61e, 134 ; gives 
 secret instructions for the execu- 
 tion of La Mole and Coconnas to 
 be hurried on, 135 ; present 
 during Charles IX.'s last hours, 
 140, 141 ; her letter to the King 
 of Poland, 143 ; measures taken 
 by her to secure his succession 
 to the throne of France, 144 ; 
 causes Montgommery to be exe- 
 cuted, 144 ; meets Henri III. at 
 Bourgoin, 145, 146 ; believes, or 
 affects to believe, the King's 
 charge of misconduct against 
 Marguerite at Lyons, 148-153 ; 
 admits that she has been misin- 
 formed, 1 50 ; favours the mar- 
 riage of Henri III. and Louise de 
 Vaudemont, 154; ill-fate which 
 pursues her children, 155, 156; 
 declines to interfere in Mar- 
 guerite's liaison with Bussy d' Am- 
 boise, 165-167 ; goes to negotiate 
 with Monsieur after his flight 
 from Paris in 1575, 174, 175 : 
 intervenes to protect Marguerite 
 from the wrath of Henri III., 176; 
 effects a reconciliation between 
 them, 186 ; goes with Marguerite 
 to arrange terms of peace with 
 Alen9on, 137 ; prevails upon her 
 to return to Paris, 189 ; raises 
 no obstacle to Marguerite's jour- 
 ney to Flanders, 200 ; promises 
 to accompany her daughter to 
 Gascony, 229 ; seeks Henri III.'s 
 permission for Monsieur to leave 
 the Court for a while, 234, 235 ; 
 present at an extraordinary scene 
 between her sons, 235, 236 ; 
 reconciles them, 237, 238 ; warned 
 by Matignon of Anjou's intention 
 to escape from Court, 239, 240 ; 
 her conversation with Marguerite 
 in regard to this matter, 240, 241 ; 
 goes to Angers to endeavour to 
 persuade Monsieur to return to 
 Court, 244 ; sets out with Mar- 
 
 394 
 
INDEX 
 
 Catherine de Medici, Queen of 
 France — continued 
 guerite for Gascony. 246-248 ; 
 her meeting with Henri of Na- 
 varre at Casteras, 249 ; makes a 
 State entry into Toulouse, 250 ; 
 indignant at the King of Na- 
 varre's refusal to accede to her 
 wishes, 250, 251 ; visits Auch, 
 251 ; her part in the affair of 
 La f Reole "^ and Fleurance , 252, 
 253 ; visits Nerac, 253 ; disap- 
 pointed at the results of the 
 Treaty of^Nerac, 255 and note ; 
 returns to Paris, 255 ; invites 
 Marguerite to visit the French 
 Court, 278 ; meets the King and 
 Queen of Navarre at La Mothe 
 Sainte-Heraye, 282 ; makes over 
 to the latter her duchy of Valois, 
 283 ; reprimands Henri of Na- 
 varre for his conduct towards his 
 wife, 286, 287 ; indignant at "la 
 folie d'Anvers," 289 ; goes to 
 Picardy to visit Anjou, 291 ; 
 " beside herself with affliction " 
 on learning of Marguerite's arrest 
 near Palaiseau, 295 ; sends the 
 Bishop of Langres to expostulate 
 with Henri III., 295 ; Mar- 
 guerite's pathetic letter to her 
 from Venddme, 299, 300 ; sends 
 her daughter 200,000 livres, 300 ; 
 present at the interview between 
 Henri III. and d'Aubigne at 
 Saint-Germain, 301 ; urges Mar- 
 guerite to receive the Due d'Eper- 
 non on his visit to Nerac, 307, 
 308 ; counsels Henri III. to give 
 his countenance and support to 
 the League, 311 and note ; letters 
 of Bellidvre to her, 315, 316; 
 declares that Marguerite is " her 
 scourge in this world," 318 ; offers 
 her an asylum at the Chiteau of 
 Ibois, 329 ; urges Henri III. to 
 cause d'Aubiac to be hanged in 
 Marguerite's presence, 331 ; sinis- 
 ter designs attributed to her in 
 regard to her daughter, 334, 335 
 and note ; her death, 336 ; 
 disinherits Marguerite in favour 
 of Charles de Valois, 336 ; her 
 bequest contested by the Queen 
 of Navarre, 366 ; and set aside, 
 
 375 
 Cavalli, Venetian Ambassador at 
 the French Court (cited), loi, 
 138 
 
 Cavriana, Tuscan Ambassador at 
 the French Court (cited), 328, 
 333. 335 note 
 Chanvalion, Jacques de Harlay, 
 Seigneur de 
 accompanies Anjou to Gascony, 
 270 ; his liaison with Marguerite 
 de Valois, 270 and note, 271 ; her 
 passionate letters to him, 271 ; 
 marries without consulting her, 
 287, 288 ; dismissed by Monsieur 
 from his service, 290 ; returns to 
 Paris and resumes his intimacy 
 with Marguerite, 290, 291 ; his 
 relations with her revealed to 
 Henri III., 291 ; orders issued 
 for his arrest, 293 ; escapes to 
 Beaumont, 293 ; scandalous re- 
 ports concerning him and the 
 Queen of Navarre, 295 and note ; 
 welcomes Marguerite on her 
 return to Paris in 1605 
 Charles II., Duke of Lorraine, 13, 
 
 40, 41, 43, 311 note 
 Charles V., Emperor, 208, 382 
 Charles VI., King of France, 333 
 Charles VIII., King of France, 83 
 Charles IX., King of France 
 
 critical condition of France at 
 his accession, 4 ; attends the 
 Colloquy of Poissy, 7 ; sets out 
 on the "grand voyage," 13; 
 confers with Alva at Bayonne, 
 14 ; gives a magnificent fgte on 
 the Isle of Aiguemeau in the 
 Adour, 14-16 ; believes his sister 
 filisabeth. Queen of Spain, to 
 have been poisoned by Philip II., 
 16 note ; remonstrates with 
 Jeanne d'Albret in regard to her 
 treatment of her Catholic sub- 
 jects, 17 ; attempt of the Hugue- 
 . nots to seize him at Monceaux, 
 18 ; his flight to Paris, 18, 19; 
 orders Henri d'AngoulSme to 
 assassinate the Due de Guise, 41, 
 42 ; angry scene between him 
 and the duke at the Louvre, 43- 
 44 ; his wrath appeased by 
 Guise's marriage with the Prin- 
 cesse de Porcien, 44 ; his des- 
 patch to Fourquevaux in regard 
 to the projected marriage between 
 Marguerite de Valois and Dom 
 Sebastian of Portugal, 49 ; deter- 
 mines to marry Marguerite to 
 Henri of Navarre, 50, 51 ; his 
 political aims at this period con- 
 sidered, 51-54 ; invites Jeanne 
 
 395 
 
INDEX 
 
 Charles IX., King of France — con- 
 tinued 
 d'Albret to Blois to settle the 
 preliminaries of the marriage, 55 ; 
 refuses Don Sebastian's demand 
 for his sister's hand, 59 and note ; 
 his cordial reception of Jeanne 
 d'Albret on her arrival at Court, 
 61 ; falling under the influence of 
 Coligny, 62 ; " emancipates him- 
 self," 63 ; invites Henri of Na- 
 varre to Blois, 65 ; places the 
 marriage negotiations in the 
 hands of a commission, 69, 70 ; 
 declares it to be his pleasure to 
 discard all conditions, 70 ; pro- 
 mises his sister a dowry of 300,000 
 ecus, 71 ; flies into a passion at 
 the attitude of Gregory XIII. 
 towards the marriage, ^^ ; con- 
 sents to the demands of the 
 Huguenot divines, 74, 75 ; orders 
 an autopsy to be held on the 
 body of Jeanne d'Albret, y^ '. 
 dominated by Coligny, 82-84 ! 
 has recourse to fraud in regard 
 to the papal dispensation for the 
 marriage, 85 ; his magnificent 
 appearance on the day of the 
 marriage, 87 ; represents Nep- 
 tune in a ballet at the Louvre, 90 ; 
 takes part in an allegorical enter- 
 tainment at the Hotel du Petit- 
 Bourbon, 90-92 ; and in a tour- 
 nament, 92 ; his conduct on 
 learning of the attempted assas- 
 sination of Coligny, 97, 98 ; 
 threatened by the Huguenots, 
 98, 99 ; induced to give his con- 
 sent to the Massacre of St. Bar- 
 tholomew, 100-104 : gives orders 
 for the followers of the King of 
 Navarre at the Louvre to be put 
 to death, 108 ; threatens Na- 
 varre and Conde with death, if 
 they refuse to abjure their reli- 
 gion, 108, 109 ; exasperated by 
 Conde's obstinacy, iii, 112 ; 
 beginning to treat his brother-in- 
 law with kindness, 113; character 
 of his Court, 11 3-1 16; receives 
 the Polish envoys, 121 ; compels 
 his brother, Henri, to hasten his 
 departure for Poland, 122 ; at- 
 tacked by fever, 122 ; his flight 
 from Saint-Germain to Paris, 
 127, 128 ; shuts himself up at 
 Vincennes, 128 ; invests his 
 mother with full powers, 133 ; 
 
 Charles IX., King of France — con- 
 tinued 
 prevented by her from sparing the 
 lives of La Mole and Coconnas, 
 134' 13s ; his remorse for the 
 St. Bartholomew, 137-139; his 
 illness and death, 1 39-141 ; his 
 funeral, 142 
 
 Charron (Provost of the Merchants), 
 104 
 
 Chartres, Vidame de, 81, 99 
 
 Chastelas, Sieur de, 177 
 
 Chateaubriand (cited), 6 
 
 Chateauneuf, Seigneur de, 349, 350 
 
 Chateauneuf, Renee de (mistress of 
 Henri III.), 154, 155 and note, 
 178 
 
 Chateigneraie, Charles de Vivonne, 
 Baron de, 340, 341 
 
 Chatre, Marquis de la, 234 
 
 Claude de Valois, Duchess of 
 Lorraine, 3, 43, 44, 86, 105, 107, 
 
 155 
 Choisnin (secretary to the Queen of 
 
 Navarre), 316, 326 
 Clement VIII., Pope, 350, 353, 355, 
 
 356. 358 
 Clement, Jacques (assassin of Henri 
 
 in.), 336 
 
 Clermont, Antoine de, murdered by 
 Bussy d'Amboise, 364 note 
 
 Coconnas, Comte de, 128, 130, 134 
 and note, 136, 137, 188 note 
 
 Coligny, Gaspard de. Admiral of 
 France 
 declared guiltless of all complicity 
 in the assassination of Fi-an9ois 
 de Lorraine, Due de Guise, 17 ; 
 pleads eloquently for peace, but 
 is over-ruled by the other Hu- 
 guenot leaders, 17 ; threatens 
 Charles IX. on his flight from 
 Meaux to Paris, 18, 19; his 
 courage and skill during the third 
 civil war, 51 ; divines the grow- 
 ing greatness of Henri of Navarre, 
 55 ; strongly urges his marriage 
 with Marguerite de Valois, 55 ; 
 his growing influence over Charles 
 IX., 61, 62 ; present during 
 Jeanne d'Albret's last illness, 29 ', 
 presses the King of Navarre to 
 come to Paris, 80 ; dominates 
 Charles IX., 82, 83 ; urges him 
 to assist the revolted Nether- 
 lands against Spain, 83 ; Cathe- 
 rine de' Medici's jealousy of him, 
 83 ; his remark on perceiving 
 the captured Huguenot stan- 
 
 396 
 
INDEX 
 
 Coligny, Gaspare! de, Admiral of 
 France — continued 
 dards at Notre-Dame, 89 note ; 
 receives repeated warnings to 
 leave Paris, but is deaf to all 
 appeals, 94 ; his removal deter- 
 mined on by Catherine, 94-96 ; 
 his attempted assassination, 96- 
 97 ; visited by Charles IX. and 
 the Queen-mother, 97, 98 ; mea- 
 sures taken for his security, 98 ; 
 Charles IX. inflamed against him 
 by Catherine, loi, 102 and note ; 
 his assassination entrusted to the 
 Due de Guise, 104 ; his property 
 restored to his heirs by the Treaty 
 of Beaulieu, 188 
 
 Coligny, Louise de. See Louise, 
 Princess of Orange 
 
 Comines (favourite of Marguerite 
 de Valois), 337 note 
 
 Conde, Louis, Prince de, 18, 20 and 
 note 
 
 Comans, or Escomans, her evidence 
 in regard to the assassination of 
 Henri IV., 383 
 
 Conde, Henri I., Prince de, 80, 84, 
 108, 109, III, 112, 144, 146, 305, 
 
 Conde, Henri II., Prince de, 345 
 
 Conde, Marie de Cleves, Princesse 
 de, 59, 79, 84, 112, 122, 151 and 
 note, 152, 154 
 
 Conde, Catherine Charlotte de la 
 Tremouille, Princesse de, 345 
 
 Cosse, Marcchal de, 54, 81, 133, 144, 
 232, 233 
 
 Cosse-Brissac, Jeanne de, 232 
 
 Coste, Pere Hilarion de, 387, 388 
 (cited), 333, 337, 341 
 
 Coutras, Battle of, 336 
 
 Crillon, 177 and note 
 
 Cursun, Comte de, 38 
 
 Curton,Baronnede(gOMyc>'«flH/f and, 
 later, damed'honneur, tb Marguerite 
 de Valois), and note,9, 6i,33onote 
 
 Dale, Valentine (English Ambas- 
 sador at the French Court), 134 
 
 Dame de Montsoreau, Dumas pore's 
 
 Dampierre, Madame de', 167 
 
 Dampmartin, 341 
 (cited), 1G7 
 
 Daniel, Pere, 52 
 
 Daurat, Jean, 12 i 
 
 Davila (cited), 27, 38 note, 52, 59, 
 60 
 
 Dayelle, Mile, (maid-of-honour to 
 Catherine de' Medici), 248, 249, 
 255, 256, 264 
 
 Desnoeuds (surgeon), 77, 78 
 
 Desportes (poet), 386 
 
 Divorce satyrique, le, 271, 337, 386 
 and note, 387 
 
 (cited), 136, 324, 328 and note, 
 333 and note 
 
 Du Bois (agent of Henri III. in 
 Flanders), 221, 222, 223 
 
 Du Guast, Louis de Beranger, 
 Seigneur 
 his character and personal appear- 
 ance, 23 and note, 24 ; his in- 
 fluence over Henri III., 24 and 
 note ; informs Henri of Mar- 
 guerite's intimacy with the Due 
 de Guise, 26 ; intercepts a letter 
 from the duke to Marguerite, 41 ; 
 enmity between him and the 
 princess, 160, 161 ; engages 
 Madame de Sauve to sow dissen- 
 sion between Monsieur and the 
 King of Navarre, and between the 
 latter and his wife, 162, 163 ; 
 accuses the Queen of Navarre of 
 a liaison with Bussy d'Amboise, 
 164, 165 ; lays an ambush for 
 Bussy, 168, 169 ; causes Mar- 
 guerite's favourite maid-of-hon- 
 our to be dismissed, 173 ; his 
 attempt upon Mile, de Thorigny, 
 177 ; assassinated by the Baron 
 de Viteaux, 173-183 
 
 Dumas, Alexandre, pire, 106 note, 
 164 
 
 Du Perron, Cardinal, 137 note 
 
 Du Pin (secretary to the King of 
 Navarre), 257, 259 
 
 Duplessis-Mornay, 297-299, 303 
 and note, 345, 346, 347, 348, 351. 
 386, 387 
 
 Dupleix, Scipion (cited), 29;; note, 
 368 
 
 Duras, Vicomte de, 193, 318, 319, 
 
 325. 327 
 Duras, Vicomtesse de, 283, 294, 
 
 295, 296, 297, 318, 320, 322 
 Du Vair, 387 
 
 (cited), 136 note 
 
 Egmont, Comte d', 205, 223 
 Elisabeth de Bourbon (daughter of 
 
 Henri IV. and Marie de' Medici), 
 . 370, 381, 384 
 Elisabeth de Valois, Queen of 
 
 Spain, 3, 14, 16 and note 
 Elizabeth, Queen of England, 53, 
 
 119, 120, 134 
 Elizabeth of Austria, Queen of 
 
 France, 112, 114, 128, 341, 346 
 
 397 
 
INDEX 
 
 Emmanuel Philibert, Duke of Savoy, 
 
 3, 145, 151 note 
 Entragues, Frangois d'. See Balzac 
 
 d'Entragues 
 Entragues, Henrietta d'. See Ver- 
 
 neuil. Marquise de 
 fipemon, Due d', 159, 289 and note, 
 
 290, 293, 307, 308, 309, 312 
 Estrees, Antoine d' (father of Ga- 
 
 brielle d' Estrees), 351 
 Estrees, Gabrielle. See Beaufort, 
 
 Duchesse de 
 firard {mattre des rcquStes to Mar- 
 guerite de Valois), 345, 346, 347, 
 
 348 
 Escars, Charles d'. Bishop of Lan- 
 
 gres, 201, 295 
 
 Favyn (cited), 50 note, 77 
 Ferrand (secretary to Marguerite 
 de Valois), suspected of an at- 
 tempt to poison the King of Na- 
 varre, 313 and note 
 Fleix, Peace of, 268, 269 
 Flemming, Madame de, 286 
 Fleurance and La Reole, affair of, 
 
 251-253 
 Fleurines, Madame de, 223, 224 
 Fleurines, M. de, 223, 224 
 Fosseux, Mile, de (" Fosseuse ") 
 accompanies Marguerite de Valois 
 to Gascony, 248 ; beloved by 
 Henri of Navarre, 261 ; but 
 conducts herself " with" virtue 
 and propriety," 261 ; rivalry 
 between the King of Navarre and 
 Monsieur over her, 269, 270 ; 
 becomes Henri's mistress, 273 ; 
 goes to Eaux-Chandes, 274 ; in- 
 trigues against the Queen of Na- 
 varre, 274 ; a subject for scan- 
 dalous talk, 275 ; her conversa- 
 tion with Marguerite, 276 ; gives 
 birth to a child, 277, 278 ; accom- 
 panies the Queen of Navarre to 
 Paris, 279 ; dismissed from hei 
 service, 284 ; married to the 
 Baron de Cinq-Mars, 285 ; indig- 
 nation of the King of Navarre on 
 learning of her dismissal, 285 ; 
 letters from Marguerite and 
 Catherine de' Medici to him on 
 this matter, 285-287 
 Foulon, Joseph (Abbe of Sainto- 
 
 Genevieve), 242 and note, 243 
 Fourquevaux (French Ambassador 
 
 in Madrid), 47, 48 and note, 49 
 Francesco de' Medici, Grand Duke 
 of Tuscany, 357 
 
 Francoeur (Chancellor of Navarre), 
 
 55. 70 
 Francois I., King of France, 2, 3, 
 
 32, 83, 366 note, 372 note, 382 
 Frangois II,, King of France, 3 
 Freer, Miss (cited), 78, 79 
 
 Gandv, M. Georges (cited), 52, 53 
 Genissac, Bertrand de Pierrebufhere, 
 
 Seigneur de, 195 and note 
 Godefroy, Jean, his edition of 
 
 Marguerite de Valois's Mimoires, 
 
 340. 341 
 Gonzague, Ludovic de, 208 
 Grand-Champ (French Ambassador 
 
 in Constantinople), 66 
 Gramont, Comte de, 231, 232 
 Gramont, Corisande, Comtesse de 
 
 (" la belle Corisande "), 300, 313, 
 
 315. 351 
 Granvelle, Cardinal de, 14 
 Gregory XIII., Pope, 73, 85 and 
 
 note, 112, 350 
 Groesbeck, Gerard (Bishop of Liege), 
 
 212, 213, 215, 216, 217, 219 
 Guessard, M., his edition of Mar- 
 guerite de Valois's Memoires, 131 
 
 note, 341 
 Guillart, Jean, Bishop of Chartres, 
 
 76 note 
 Guise, Anne d'Este, Duchesse de 
 
 (wife of Frangois de Lorraine). 
 
 See Nemours, Duchesse de 
 Guise, Catherine de Cleves (wife of 
 
 Henri de Lorraine), 38, 39, 43, 
 
 44. 79 
 
 Guise, Francois de Lorraine, Due 
 de, 4, 12 and note, 33 and note 
 
 Guise, Henri de Lorraine, Due de 
 " turning his thoughts upon Mar- 
 guerite de Valois," 25 ; her pre- 
 dilection for him denied by Mar- 
 guerite in her Mimoires, 25, 26 
 note;' his early career, 33, 34; 
 his character, 34-36 ; hatred 
 with which he is regarded by 
 Henri de Valois, 37 ; aspires to 
 the hand of Marguerite, 38-40 ; 
 his intimacy with her the chief 
 topic of conversation at Court, 
 41 ; his correspondence with her 
 intercepted, 41 ; forbidden to 
 approach her, 41 ; Henri d'An- 
 gouleme ordered by Charles IX. 
 to assassinate him, 42 ; urged 
 by his mother and the Duchess of 
 Lorraine to renounce his preten- 
 sions to the princess's hand, 43 ; 
 stormy scene between him and 
 
 398 
 
INDEX 
 
 Guise, Henri de Lorraine, Due de — 
 continued 
 Charles IX. at the Louvre, 44 ; 
 marries the Princesse de Porcien, 
 44 ; consequences of his love 
 affair with Marguerite, 44, 45 ; 
 at the wedding of Marguerite and 
 Henri of Navarre, 88 note ; the 
 idol of the populace of Paris, 89 ; 
 takes part in a tournament in 
 front of the Louvre, 92 ; a party 
 to the attempt upon the life of 
 CoUgny, 95, 96 ; undertakes to 
 superintend the assassination of 
 the Admiral, 104 ; his insolent 
 behaviour towards the King of 
 Navarre, 113 note ; warns Mar- 
 guerite that she is credited with 
 " a very dangerous form of bene- 
 volence," 148 note, 149 ; defeats 
 Thore at Dormans and earns the 
 sobriquet of " le BalafrS," 175 ; 
 makes a tentative attempt to 
 carry out the Cardinal de Lor- 
 raine's scheme of the League, 191 ; 
 said to have followed Marguerite 
 to Flanders, 203 ; ridicules the 
 King of Navarre, 264 ; " grown 
 thin and much aged," 284 ; in 
 communication with Marguerite 
 after her flight to Agen, 316 ; 
 entreats Philip IL to send her 
 money, 320 ; his dealings with 
 her revealed to Henri III., 326 ; 
 his letter to Mendoza, 334, 335 ; 
 sends a body of troops to Usson 
 for Marguerite's protection, 336 ; 
 assassinated at Blois, 336. See 
 also Guises and League 
 
 Guises, the, 4, 26, 109, 191, 192, 
 268, 310, 311, 320, 334 
 
 Guitry-Bertichdres, Sieur de (Hu- 
 guenot leader), 126, 173 
 
 Hamilton of Bothwellhaugh (assas- 
 sin of the Regent Murray), 97 
 
 Hardelay, Jean de Bourdeille, Sieur 
 de, 167 and note 
 
 Harlay, Achille (President of the 
 Parlement of Paris), 293 
 
 Havrec, Marquis d', 208, 209 
 
 Havrec, Marquise d', 205 
 
 Henault, President (cited), 8 
 
 Henri d'Albret, King of Navarre 
 (father of Jeanne d'Albret), 2 
 
 Henri II., King of France, i, 2, 81, 
 140, 141, 155, 287, 359 note 
 
 Henri III., King of France 
 
 persecutes Marguerite to induce 
 
 Henri III., King of France — con- 
 tinued 
 her to embrace Protestantism, 9, 
 10 ; proposes to her a political 
 rdle, 20-22 ; appointed Lieu- 
 tenant-General of the Kingdom, 
 20 note ; lays siege to Saint- 
 Jean d'Angely, 23 ; influence of 
 his favourite Du Guast over him, 
 24 and note ; accuses Marguerite 
 of encouraging the attentions of 
 the Due de Guise, 24, 25 ; his 
 perfidious conduct, 37 ; his ha- 
 tred of Guise, 37, 38 ; hands an 
 intercepted letter from the duke 
 to Marguerite to the King and 
 Catherine, 41 ; utters threats 
 against Guise, 44 ; " endeavours 
 to domineer " over Jeanne d'Al- 
 bre , 62 ; magnificence of his 
 attire on the day of Marguerite's 
 wedding, 86, 87 ; devises and 
 takes part in an allegorical enter- 
 tainment at the Hotel du Petit- 
 Bourbon, 90-92 ; plots with his 
 mother the assassination of Co- 
 Ugny, 95 ; suspected by the Hu- 
 guenots of the outrage, 98 ; terri- 
 fied by fear of his guilt being 
 brought home to him, 99 ; plans 
 with Catherine and her confidants 
 the Massacre of St. Bartho- 
 lomew, 100 ; compelled to raise 
 the siege of La Rochelle, 119 ; 
 elected King of Poland, 120 ; 
 visit of the Polish envoys to Paris 
 to offer him the crown, 120, 121 ; 
 leaves France, 122 ; vainly en- 
 deavours to effect a reconciliation 
 with Marguerite, 123 ; declared 
 by Charles IX. his lawful heir 
 and successor, 141 ; Catherine's 
 letter to him, 143 ; his flight 
 from Cracow, 144, 145 ; visits 
 Vienna and Italy, 140 ; his 
 meeting with the Royal Family 
 and the Court at Bourgoin, 145, 
 146 ; calumniates Marguerite, 
 147-150; his extravagant grief 
 at the death of his mistress, the 
 Princesse de Cond6, 151 and note; 
 liis despicable conduct towards 
 the Due d'Amville, 151 note; 
 joins the Flagellants at Avignon, 
 152 ; his coronation, 153 ; his 
 marriage with Louise de Vaude- 
 mont, 154; endeavours to com- 
 pel Fran9ois de Luxembourg to 
 marry his discarded mistress. 
 
 399 
 
INDEX 
 
 Henri III,, King of France — con- 
 tinned 
 Renee de Chateauneuf, 154, 155 
 and note; his ^ character, 157, 
 185 ; his follies and extrava- 
 gance, 158, 159 and note ; his 
 mignons, 159, 160; accuses Mar- 
 guerite of a liaison with Bussy 
 d'Amboise, 165, 166; persuades 
 Henri of Navarre to dismiss Mile, 
 de Thorigny from his wife's ser- 
 vice, 171 ; his contemptuous 
 treatment of Monsieur, 173 ; his 
 fury at his brother's escape, 174 ; 
 places Marguerite under arrest, 
 176, 177 ; disgraces the Baron de 
 Viteaux at the request of Du 
 Guast, 179 ; subjects Marguerite 
 to a rigorous confinement after 
 the flight of her husband, 185 ; 
 alarmed at the coalition formed 
 against him, 186 ; invites Mar- 
 guerite's co-operation in favour 
 of peace, 187 ; concludes the 
 Treaty of Beaulieu, 187, 18S ; 
 alarmed at the formation of the 
 League, 194 ; refuses to allow 
 Marguerite to return to her hus- 
 band, 195, 196 ; declines Loig- 
 nac's offer to assassinate the 
 King of Navarre, 197 note ; gives 
 Marguerite permission to go to 
 Flanders, 200 ; warns the Span- 
 iards of the true object of her 
 journey, 224 ; receives her very 
 cordially on her return to Paris ; 
 promises to permit to return to 
 her husband, and to assign her 
 her dowry in land, 229, 230 ; 
 opposed to Anjou's Flemish 
 enterprise, 230, 231 ; intervenes 
 to prevent an affray between his 
 wig;jo«5 and Bussy and his friends, 
 232 ; enacts Ordinances against 
 duelling, 232 ; his extraordinary 
 behaviour towards Monsieur, 235, 
 236 ; formally reconciled to him, 
 237, 238 ; causes him to be kept 
 under close surveillance, 238 ; 
 his anger on learning of his 
 brother's escape, 243 ; assigns 
 Marguerite her dowry in lands, 
 246 ; restores La Reole to the 
 King of Navarre, 252 ; accuses 
 Marguerite of a liaison with 
 Turenne, 262, 263 ; informs the 
 Comte de Montsoreau of Bussy's 
 relations with his wife, 263 note ; 
 acts with vigour against the Hu- 
 
 Henri III., King of France — con- 
 tinued 
 guenots, 266 ; glad to make 
 peace, 268 ; invites Marguerite 
 to Court, 278-280 ; receives her 
 cordially and consents to an in- 
 crease of her appanage, 283 ; his 
 relations with her again very 
 strained, 289, 290 ; subornes one 
 of her waiting-women to inform 
 him of her amours, 291 ; grossly 
 insults her at a ball at the Louvre 
 and orders her to leave Paris, 293; 
 causes her and some of her people 
 to be arrested near Palaiseau, 
 294 ; interrogates Mesdames de 
 Duras and de Bethune in regard 
 to his sister's conduct, 294, 295 ; 
 releases Marguerite, 295 ; his 
 letter to the King of Navarre, 
 296 ; refuses to give him a satis- 
 factory explanation of his treat- 
 ment of his wife, 297-300 ; sends 
 Bellidvre to him, 301 ; " does 
 him too much honour," 302 ; 
 praises him to Duplessis-Moniay, 
 303 ; sends d'Epernon on a 
 mission to him after the death 
 of Monsieur, 307-309 ; coerced 
 into giving the League his coun- 
 tenance and support, 310-31 1 ; 
 signs the Treaty of Nemours, 311 
 and note ; his anger on learning 
 of Marguerite's coup d'itat at 
 Agen, 318 ; orders her to leave 
 the Chzlteau of Carlat, 329 ; causes 
 lier to be arrested by the Mar- 
 quis de Canillac, 330 ; his letters 
 to Villeroy concerning her, 331, 
 332 ; sinister designs attributed 
 to him in regard to her, 334, 335 
 and note ; compels Catherine to 
 disinherit her in favour of Charles 
 de Valois, 336 ; his flight from 
 Paris, 336 ; assassinated by 
 Jacques Clement, 336 
 
 Henri IV., King of France 
 
 project of marriage between him 
 and Marguerite de Valois, 50-56 ; 
 Jeanne d'Albret's letter to him 
 Irom Blois, 62-64 ; declines 
 Charles IX.'s invitation to Court, 
 65 ; difficulties in the way of his 
 marriage with Marguerite, 67- 
 75 ; his grief on learning of his 
 mother's death, 80 ; his entry 
 into Paris, 80, 81 ; his marriage, 
 85-90 ; takes part in an alle- 
 gorical entertainment at the 
 
 400 
 
INDEX 
 
 Henri IV., King of France — con- 
 tinued 
 Hotel de Petit-Bourbon, 90-92 ; 
 sends his Swiss^guards to protect 
 Coligny, 98 ; determines to de- 
 mand justice of Charles IX. for 
 the attempt upon the Admiral's 
 life, 106 ; butchery of his fol- 
 lowers at the St. Bartholomew, 
 108 ; ordered to abjure his reli- 
 gion on pain of death, 109 ; 
 receives instruction in the Catho- 
 lic faith, III ; abjures Protes- 
 tantism, 112 ; his unenviable 
 position at the French Court, 112, 
 1 1 3 and note ; neglects his wife 
 and indulges in numerous gallan- 
 tries, 117 ; remains the secret 
 chief of the Huguenots, 120 ; his 
 attempt to escape from Court 
 revealed by Marguerite to the 
 King and Catherine, 124, 125 ; 
 failure of Guitry's plan to effect 
 his liberation, 126, 127 ; arrested 
 and imprisoned in the keep of 
 Vincennes, 128, 129 ; able me- 
 moir in his defence drawn up by 
 Marguerite, 130, 131 and note ; 
 her proposal to enable him to 
 escape, 132, 133; his conversa- 
 tion with the dying King, 141 ; his 
 reception by Henri III., on the 
 latter's return to France, 146 ; 
 does not believe the King's 
 charge against his wife at Lyons, 
 147, 148 ; takes an oath of 
 fidelity to Henri III., 150, 151 ; 
 joins the processions of the Fla- 
 gellants at Avignon, 153 ; in- 
 fatuated with Madame de Sauve, 
 163 ; " seized with a very serious 
 indisposition," 170 ; quarrels 
 with his wife, 171 ; his position 
 at the French Court becoming 
 increasingly irksome, 172, 173 ; 
 makes his escape, 182-184 '> re- 
 fused admission to Bordeaux, 
 192 ; demands that Marguerite 
 and his sister, Catherine, shall 
 be sent back to him, 193 ; sends 
 the Vicomte de Duras to Henri 
 III. to demand his wife, 193 ; 
 and the Seigneur de Genissac, 
 195, 196 ; proposal of Loignac to 
 assassinate him, 197 note ; meets 
 his wife and Catherine de' Medici 
 at Casteras, 249 ; in love with 
 Mile. Dayelle, 249, 250 ; refuses 
 to hold a conference at Isle- 
 
 Henri IV.. King of France— COH- 
 Hnued 
 Jourdain, 251 ; joins his wife 
 and Catherine at Audi, 251 ; his 
 part in the affair of La Reole and 
 Fleurance, 252, 253 ; his gallan- 
 tries at Nerac, 254 ; makes 
 Mile, de Rebours his mistress, 
 256 ; annoyed with his wife for 
 intervening on behalf of her co- 
 religionists, 258, 259 ; falls ill at 
 Eauze, 259 ; in love with Fos- 
 seuse, 261 ; "on familiar terms " 
 with a waiting-woman of his 
 wife, 261 ; feigns to disbelieve 
 Henri III.'s charge against Mar- 
 guerite and Turenne, 263 ; in- 
 duced to resume hostilities, 268 ; 
 storms Cahors, 265, 266 ; block- 
 aded by Biron in Nerac, 267 ; 
 rivalry between him and Mon- 
 sieur over Fosseuse, 269, 270 ; 
 compelled by Marguerite to dis- 
 grace ostensibly d'Aubignc, 271 ; 
 makes Fosseuse his mistress, 273 ; 
 follows her to Eaux-Chaudes 
 275 ; takes her part against his 
 wife, 276 ; compelled to seek 
 Marguerite's assistance, in order 
 to avoid a scandal, 276-278 ; 
 opposed to his wife visiting the 
 French Court, 279, 280 ; meeting 
 with Catherine de' Medici at La 
 Mothe-Sainte-Heraye, 282 ; Mar- 
 guerite's letters to him, 283, 284 ; 
 indignant at her dismissal of 
 Fosseuse from her service, 284, 
 285 ; letters of Marguerite and 
 Catherine to him in reference to 
 this matter, 285-287 ; informed 
 of his wife's arrest near Palaiseau, 
 296, 297 ; sends Duplessis-Mor- 
 nay to Henri III. to demand an 
 explanation, 297-299 ; sends 
 d'Aubigne to Saint-Germain, 
 with the same object, 300, 301 ; 
 declines to receive his wife, pend- 
 ing a satisfactory explanation 
 from the King, 302 ; in love with 
 the Comtesse de Gramont {"la 
 belle Corisande "), 3oe ; recon- 
 ciled to Marguerite, 303 ; his 
 reception of his wife on her 
 return to Nerac, 304, 305 ; be- 
 comes heir-presumptive to the 
 throne of France, 306 ; d'Eper- 
 non's mission to him, 307-309 ; 
 refuses to visit the Court or to go 
 to Mass, 309 ; treats Marguerite 
 
 401 2 c 
 
INDEX 
 
 Henri IV,, King of France — con- 
 tinued 
 with indiflEerence and contempt, 
 312 ; suspects her secretary, 
 Ferran, of an attempt to poison 
 him, 313 ; contemplates severe 
 measures against his wife, 313 ; 
 gives her permission to visit Agen, 
 314 ; drives her troops out of 
 Tonneins, 319 ; destroys the 
 force sent by her into Beam, 319 ; 
 hard pressed for money, 341 
 note ; gains the Battle of Ivry, 
 343 ; felicitated by Marguerite 
 on his accession to the throne of 
 France, 344 ; determines to pro- 
 cure the dissolution of their 
 marriage, 344, 345 ; his corres- 
 pondence with his wife, 347-349 ; 
 finds himself compelled to appeal 
 to the Vatican, 349, 350 ; his 
 passion for Gabrielle d'Estrees, 
 351-353 ; desires to marry her, 
 353. 354 » attempts to intimi- 
 date the Pope, 355, 356 ; his 
 grief at Gabrielle's death, 356, 
 357 ; negotiations for his mar- 
 riage with Marie de' Medici, 357 ; 
 his niarriage with Marguerite 
 dissolved, 357, 358 ; his letter to 
 her, 359 ; his passion for Hen- 
 riette d'Entragues, 361, 362 ; 
 gives her a conditional promise 
 of marriage, 362, 363 ; marries 
 Marie de' Medici, 363 ; corres- 
 ponds with Marguerite, 364, 365 ; 
 gives her permission to leave 
 Usson for the Chateau of Madrid, 
 366, 367 ; sends the Due de Ven- 
 dome and Harlay de Chanvallon 
 to greet her on her arrival, 368, 
 369 ; his visit to her, 369, 370 ; 
 receives her at the Louvre, 370, 
 371 ; the best of friends with her, 
 371, 372 ; jests at her expense, 
 378, 379 ; prepares for a general 
 attack on the possessions of the 
 House of Austria, 381 ; appoints 
 Marie de' Medici Regent, 381 ; 
 urges Marguerite to attend the 
 Queen's coronation, 381 ; assas- 
 sinated by Ravaillac, 382 
 
 Heroard, J. (cited), 372 
 
 H6pital, Michel del', 6, 18 
 
 Imbert de Saint-Amand, Baron 
 (cited), 38, 114 
 
 Inchy,M.d' (commandant of the cita- 
 del of Cambrai), 204, 205, 207, 269 
 
 Isabella, Infanta (daughter of 
 Philip II, and iSlisabeth de 
 Valois), 312 note 
 
 Ivry, Battle of, 253 note, 343, 382 
 
 Jarnac, Battle of, 19, 89 note 
 Jeanne d'Albret, Queen of Navarre 
 (mother of Henri) 
 her religious intolerance, 16, 17 ; 
 disapproves of the proposed mar- 
 riage between her son and Mar- 
 guerite de Valois, 54 ; but yields 
 to the representations of Coligny 
 and her councillors, 55 ; her 
 journey to Blois, 57, 58 ; favour- 
 ably impressed by Marguerite, 
 58, 59 ; confers with Catherine 
 de' Medici respecting the marriage 
 articles, 60, 61 ; warmly wel- 
 comed by Charles IX. on her 
 arrival at Court, 61 ; her letter 
 to Henri of Navarre, 62-64 ; 
 consults the Huguenot divines 
 and the English Ambassadors, 
 67-69; dowers her son, 71 ; 
 reluctantly consents to the mar- 
 riage taking place in Paris, 72 ; 
 supports the demands of the 
 Huguenot divines in regard to 
 the ceremonial to be observed, 
 74, 75 ; visits Paris, 76, 27 ', her 
 death, y^ ; suspicion of her 
 having been poisoned unjustified, 
 
 77-79 
 
 Joinville, Prince de. See Guise, 
 Henri de Lorraine, Due de 
 
 Joyeuse, Anne d'Arques, Due de, 
 159, 289 and note, 291, 292, 336 
 
 Juan of Austria, Don 
 
 his opinion of Marguerite de 
 Valois, 29 ; becomes Governor- 
 General of the Netherlands, 207 ; 
 meeting between him and the 
 Queen of Navarre, 208 ; his per- 
 sonal appearance, 208 ; enter- 
 tains Marguerite magnificently 
 at Namur, 208-211 ; attempts 
 to capture her at Dinant and 
 Fleurines, 220-224 
 
 Kanarski, Adam (Bishop of Posen), 
 32, 121 
 
 La Ferriere, Comte Hector de 
 (cited), 23 note, 29, 60, 335, 369, 
 386 and note, 387 
 
 La Fin, 129 note 
 
 La Guesle (procureur-g^nSral), 129, 
 358 
 
 La Huguerye (cited), 305 
 
 402 
 
INDEX 
 
 Lalain, Comte de (Grand Bailiff of 
 
 Hainault), 205-207, 220, 223, 
 
 224, 225, 227 
 
 Lalain, Comtesse de, 205, 206, 225 
 
 Lalanne, M. Ludovic, his edition of 
 
 Marguerite de Valois's Mimoires, 
 
 341 
 
 La M61e 
 
 his liaison with Marguerite de 
 Valois, 181 ; his singular charac- 
 ter, 181 ; betrays Guitry's scheme 
 for the liberation of Henri of 
 Navarre and Alen^on to Mar- 
 guerite, who informs her mother, 
 127 ; arrested with the Comte 
 de Coconnas, 129 ; accused of 
 practising sorcery against the 
 life of Charles IX., 129 ; put to 
 the question, 1 30 ; condemned to 
 death, 134; futile intercession 
 of Elizabeth of England and the 
 Due d'Alen^on on his behalf, 134 ; 
 executed, 135 ; Marguerite's grief 
 at his death, 136, 137 and note ; 
 his execution formally declared 
 to have been a miscarriage of jus- 
 tice, 188 note 
 
 Langlois, Martin (one of Marguerite 
 de Valois's procurators in the 
 divorce proceedings), 353, 354 
 and note, 357 
 
 La None, 70, 103 and note, 126, 144 
 
 La Peyre-Teule (Huguenot chief), 
 
 325 
 La Planche (cited), yy 
 Larchamp de Grimonville, arrests 
 
 the Queen; of Navarre near Palai- 
 
 seau, 294 
 La Reole and Fleurance, 251-253 
 La Souchdre, Louis de (Governor 
 
 of the Chateau of Ibois) 330 
 Lastic, Jean (chevalier d'hontieur to 
 
 the Queen of Navarre), 343 
 Lauzun, M. Philippe, 329 note 
 League, the, 191, 192, 310, 311, 
 
 314, 320, 334, 338, 343 
 Leicester, Earl of, 134 
 Le Maignan, Henri (Bishop of 
 
 Digne), 11 
 Le Moyne (favourite of Marguerite 
 
 de Valois), 337 note 
 Lenoncourt, Philippe de. Bishop of 
 
 Auxerre, 201, 215, 221 
 Leran, Vicomte de, saved by Mar- 
 guerite de Valois at the Massacre 
 
 of St. Bartholomew, 106 and note 
 Leroy, Etienne (singer), 12, 89 note 
 Le Royer (Secretary to Jeanne 
 
 d'Albret), 70 
 
 L'Estoile, 379, 387 
 
 (cited), jy, 113 note, 116, 140, 
 144, 15s, 159, 160, 165, 199 note, 
 231, 232, 233, 247, 282, 294, 
 307, 310 note, 370, 371, 377, 
 379. 382 
 
 Liancourt, Nicolas d' Amerval, Seign- 
 eur de (husband of Gabrielle 
 d'Estrees), 351, 352 
 
 Lignerac, Fran9ois Robert de 
 
 entrusted by the Queen of Na- 
 varre with the command of her 
 troops at Agen, 317 ; assists her 
 to escape from Agen and con- 
 ducts her to the Chateau of 
 Carlat, 322, 323 ; becomes Super- 
 intendent of her Household, 327 ; 
 assassinates a young man in the 
 Queen's bedchamber, in a fit of 
 jealousy, 329 and note 
 
 Livarot (mignon of Henri III.), 
 231 
 
 Loignac, 195 note, 197 note 
 
 Lorges, Gabriel Montgommery, 
 Comte, 3, 4, 10, 81, 126, 133, 140, 
 144. 188 
 
 Lorraine, Cardinal de, 5, 37, 41, 
 128, 142, 152, 153, 191 
 
 Losse, Sieur de (Captain of the 
 Scottish Guard), 235, 236, 237 
 
 Louis XL, 333 
 
 Louis XII., 83, 382 
 
 Louis XIII., 363, 370, 375, 377 
 
 f^ouis XIV., 2, 157 
 
 Louise de Coligny, Princess of 
 Orange, 81, 355 
 
 Louise de Vaudemont, Queen of 
 France, 154, 158, 183, 284, 291, 
 292, 367 note 
 
 " Lovers' War," the, 264-268, 278 
 
 Loys de Torres, Don (envoy of 
 Pius v.), 49 
 
 Luxembourg, Fran9ois de, 154, 155 
 
 Machiavelli, 262 
 
 Maimbourg, Louis (cited), 52 
 
 Maldonato, P^re, in 
 
 Malherbe, 614 
 
 Marie de' Medici, Queen of France 
 negotiations for her marriage 
 with Henri IV., 357 ; married at 
 Florence, 363 ; gives birth to a 
 Dauphin, 363 ; receives Mar- 
 guerite de Valois at the Louvre, 
 371 ; on friendly terms with her 
 predecessor, 372 ; begs her to 
 superintend the organisation of 
 her fites, 376, 377 ; appointed 
 Regent during Henri IV.'s in- 
 
 403 
 
INDEX 
 
 Marie de' Medici, Queen of France — 
 continued. 
 tended absence, 381 ; her coro- 
 nation, 381, 382 ; declines to 
 credit the statements of the 
 woman Comans in regard to the 
 assassination of the King, 383 ; 
 present at the ball given by Mar- 
 guerite de Valois in honour of the 
 Duke of Pastrana, 384 
 
 Marguerite d'Angoulfime, Queen of 
 Navarre, 2, 32 
 
 Marguerite de Valois, Duchess of 
 Savoy, 3, 13, 166 and note 
 
 Marguerite de Valois, Queen of Na- 
 varre 
 her charms described by Bran- 
 t6me, I ; typical of the Valois, 
 2 ; her birth, 2 ; early years, 3, 
 4 ; persecuted by her brother, 
 Henri, for the sake of her religion, 
 9, ID ; sent to the Chateau of 
 Amboise, 1 1 ; her education, 1 1 , 
 12 ; accompanies the Court on 
 the " grand voyage," 12-17 ; poli- 
 tical rdlc proposed to her by her 
 brother Anjou, 20-22 ; becomes 
 her mother s confidante, 22, 23 ; 
 accused by Henri d' Anjou of en- 
 couraging the attentions of the 
 Due de Guise, 24 ; denies her 
 predilection for Guise in her 
 MSmoires, 25, 26 ; her beauty, 
 elegance, and intelligence, 28- 
 22, ', falls ill at Saint- Jean-d'An- 
 gely, 36, 27 '> her love-affair witli 
 Guise, 37-45 ; negotiations for 
 her marriage to Dom Sebastian of 
 Portugal, 46-49 ; project of 
 marriage between her and Henri 
 of Navarre, 50-56 ; her hand 
 demanded by Dom Sebastian, 
 but refused by Charles IX., 58, 
 
 59 ; makes a favourable impres- 
 sion upon Jeanne d'Albret, 59, 
 
 60 ; not permitted any private 
 conversation with the Queen of 
 Navarre, 62 ; " speaks as she 
 has been commanded to speak," 
 64 ; Brantome's description of 
 her appearance on Palm Sunday 
 at Blois, 65-67 ; obstacles to her 
 marriage to Henri of Navarre, 
 67-75 » relates an " amusing in- 
 cident," 79, 80 ; her marriage, 
 85-89 ; her account of her ad- 
 ventures during the Massacre of 
 St. Bartholomew, 105-108 ; mag- 
 nanimously refuses Catherine s 
 
 Marguerit* de Valois, Queen of 
 Navarre — continued 
 offer to have her marriage an- 
 nulled, 109, no; urges her 
 husband to abjure Protestantism, 
 in; constitutes herself his ally, 
 XI 3 ; unhappy in her married 
 life, 116, 117; her liaison with 
 La M61e, 118; refuses to be 
 reconciled to her brother, Henri, 
 122, 123 ; warns Charles IX. and 
 Catherine of her husband and 
 Alen9on's intended escape, 124- 
 126 ; persuades La Mole to 
 reveal to her the conspiracy of 
 the " Politiques," and informs 
 the Queen-Mother, 126, 127 ; 
 draws up an able memoir on 
 behalf of her husband, 130, 131 ; 
 offers to assist Alenfon and her 
 husband to escape from Vin- 
 cennes, 132, 133 ; her grief at 
 the execution of La Mole, 136, 
 1 37 and note ; regrets the death 
 of Charles IX. ; meets Henri III. 
 at Bourgoin on his return from 
 Poland, 145, 146 ; accused by 
 him of " a very dangerous form 
 of benevolence," 146-148 ; has 
 a stormy interview with her 
 mother, 149 ; succeeds in estab- 
 lishing her innocence, 158 ; takes 
 part in the processions of the 
 Flagellants at Avignon, 152 ; 
 enmity between her and Henri 
 III.'s favourite, Du Guast, 161, 
 162 ; endeavours to save her 
 husband and Alen9on from the 
 wiles of Madame de Sauve, 163 ; 
 accused by Du Guast and Henri 
 III. of a liaison with Bussy d' Am- 
 boise, 164-167 : betrays her pre- 
 dilection for Bussy in her Me- 
 inoires, 167 ; assists her husband 
 when seized with a sudden illness, 
 170; violent quarrel between her 
 and the King of Navarre, 171 ; 
 placed under arrest in her apart- 
 ments, after the escape of Mon- 
 sieur, 175-177 ; question of her 
 complicity in the assassination of 
 Du Guast by the Baron de Vi- 
 teaux considered, 178-182 ; sub- 
 jected to a rigorous confinement 
 after the escape of Henri of 
 Navarre, 185 ; accompanies her 
 mother to negotiate with Men- 
 9on, 187; wishes to rejoiniiher 
 husband, but is persuaded by 
 
 404 
 
INDEX 
 
 Marguerite de Valois, Queen of 
 Navarre — continued 
 Catherine to return to Paris, i88, 
 189 ; retained at Court by Henri 
 III. against her will, 193-196 ; 
 determines to proceed to Flanders 
 to promote the interests of her 
 brother, Anjou, 197-200 ; accom- 
 panies the Court to Chenonceaux, 
 201 ; her journey to Flanders, 
 201-203 ; arrives at Cambrai 
 and seduces the commandant of 
 the citadel from his allegiance, 
 203, 204 ; wins over the Comte 
 and Comtesse de Lalain to her 
 brother's cause, 205, 206 ; her 
 reception by Don Juan at Namur, 
 207-211 ; nearly drowned, 211, 
 
 212 ; her stay at Li6ge, 212, 
 
 213 ; receives alarming news 
 from Monsieur, 213, 214; sets 
 out on her return journey to 
 France, 215, 216; her adven- 
 tures at Huy and Dinant, 217- 
 220 ; outwits the attempt of the 
 Spaniards to seize her at the latter 
 town, 220-223 ; in a critical 
 situation, 223, 224 ; escapes an 
 ambush laid for her by the Hu- 
 guenots and reaches La Fdre in 
 safety, 225 ; entertains Mon- 
 sieur at La Fdre, 226 ; visited 
 by the Flemish delegates, 227 ; 
 returns to Paris, 229 ; obtains a 
 promise from Henri III, to permit 
 her to return to her husband and 
 to assign her her dowry in lands, 
 229, 231 ; shares Anjou's cap- 
 tivity, 237 ; assists him to escape, 
 238-244 ; receives her dowry, 
 245 ; sets out with Catherine for 
 Gascony to rejoin her husband, 
 247, 248 ; her entry into Bor- 
 deaux, 248 ; her meeting with 
 her husband at Casteras, 249 ; 
 visits Agen, Toulouse, and Auch, 
 251 ; her reception at Nerac, 253; 
 uses her influence on behalf of 
 her husband at the Treaty of 
 Nerac, 255 ; difificulty of her 
 position at Pau, 257 ; intervenes 
 in favour of her co-religionists, 
 258, 259 ; nurses her husband 
 during an illness at Eauze, 259; 
 her life at Nerac, 260, 261 ; her 
 relations with the Vicomte de 
 Turenne, 261 ; beloved by her 
 chancellor, Pibrac, 261, 262 ; 
 accused by Henri III., in a letter 
 
 Marguarite de Valois, Queen of 
 Navarre — continued 
 to the King of Navarre of a 
 liaison with Turenne, 262, 263 ; 
 her responsibility for the " Lovers 
 War," 263-265 ; her indignation 
 at Biron's blockade of N6rac, 
 267 ; uses her influence on behalf 
 of peace, 267, 268 ; induces 
 Monsieur to subdue his passion 
 for her husband's enchantress, 
 Fosseuse, 269, 270 ; her liaison 
 with Harlay de Chanvallon, 270 ; 
 demands the disgrace of d'Au- 
 bigne, 271 ; rebukes the indis- 
 cretions of Pibrac and dismisses 
 him from her service, 271, 272 
 alarmed at the influence of*Fos- 
 seuse over the King of Navarre, 
 273, 274; entertains > hope of 
 bearing a child, 274 ; goes to 
 Bagn6res-de-Bigorre, 274, 275 ; 
 proposes to take Fosseuse away, 
 276 ; " behaves to her as though 
 she were her own daughter," 277 ; 
 accepts Henri III.'s invitation to 
 visit Paris, 278-280 ; question of 
 the continuation of her MSmoires 
 beyond this date considered, 281, 
 
 282 and note ; meets her mother 
 at La Mothe-Saint-Heraye, 282 ; 
 cordially received by Henri III., 
 
 283 ; purchases the H6tel de 
 Birague, 283 ; her letters to her 
 husband, 283, 284 ; dismisses 
 Fosseuse from her service, 284, 
 285 ; her spirited letter to the 
 King of Navarre in answer to his 
 remonstrances, 285, 286 ; highly 
 indignant at Chanvallon's mar- 
 riage, 287, 288 ; mortified at the 
 failure of Anjou's Flemish enter- 
 prise, 288, 289 ; on bad terms 
 with the King and his mif^nons, 
 289, 290 ; resumes her tender 
 relations with Chanvallon, 290 ; 
 dreads the resentment of the 
 King, 291 ; question of her re- 
 sponsibility for the outrage upon 
 a royal courier considered, 291, 
 292 ; grossly insulted by Henri 
 III. during a ball at the Louvre, 
 and commanded to leave Paris, 
 
 292, 293 ; sets out for VendSm'", 
 
 293, 294 ; arrested by the King's 
 orders near Palaiseau, and con- 
 veyed to the Chiteau of Mon- 
 targis. 294, 295 ; released on the 
 intercession of Catherine, 295, 
 
 405 
 
INDEX 
 
 Marguerite de Valois, Queen of 
 Navarre — continued 
 296 ; her pathetic letter to her 
 mother, 299, 300 ; refusal of the 
 King of Navarre to receive her, 
 pending a satisfactory explana- 
 tion from Henri III., 300 ; nego- 
 tiations in regard to this affair, 
 300-303 ; returns to her husband, 
 304, 305 ; her difficult position 
 at Nerac, 305, 306 ; refuses to 
 assist at the reception of the Due 
 d'Epernon, but ultimately con- 
 sents, 307-309 ; her situation in 
 regard to her husband becomes 
 intolerable, 312, 313 ; I'affaire- 
 Ferrand, 313 and note ; resolves 
 to leave her husband and estab- 
 lish herself as an independent 
 princess, 314 ; her arrival at 
 Agen, 314-316 ; sends her secre- 
 tary, Choisnin, to the Due de 
 Guise, 316 ; executes a coup 
 d'Stat at Agen and obtains posses- 
 sion of the town, 315-318 ; em- 
 barks upon a war of conquest, 
 but meets with reverses, ^18, 
 
 319 ; shuts herself up in Agen, 
 
 320 ; urgently in need of money, 
 320 ; exasperates the Agenais 
 by her exactions and tyranny, 
 320, 321 ; compelled to fly by a 
 revolt of the town, and takes 
 refuge at the Chateau of Carlat, 
 in Auvergne, 322-325 ; dismisses 
 her secretary, Choisnin, for dis- 
 honesty and insolence, 325, 326 ; 
 her dealings with Guise revealed 
 by him to Henri III., 326 ; parts 
 with a portion of her jewellery, 
 326 ; quarrels with the Vicomte 
 de Duras, 327 ; little better than 
 a prisoner, 327 ; her relations 
 with d'Aubiac considered, 327, 
 328 ; tragic episode in her bed- 
 chamber, 329 ; removes from 
 Carlat to the Chateau of Ibois, 
 near Issoire, 329, 330 ; arrested 
 by the Marquis de Canillac, acting 
 under the orders of Henri III., 
 330 ; letters of the King to Vil- 
 leroy concerning her, 330 ; con- 
 veyed to the Chateau of Usson, 
 332, 333 ; " makes her gaoler her 
 prisoner," 333, 334 ; sinister 
 designs in regard to her attri- 
 buted to Henri III. and Catherine, 
 334' 335 » Usson surrendered to 
 her by Canillac, 335 and note ; 
 
 Marguerite de Valois, Queen of 
 Navarre — continued 
 her donation in his favour, 335, 
 336 ; disinherited by Catherine, 
 in favour of Charles de Valois, 
 336 ; her life at Usson, 336-339 ; 
 her Mimoires, 339-341 ; receives 
 financial assistance from her 
 sister-in-law, Elizabeth of Aus- 
 tria, 341, 342 ; makes her peace 
 with her husband after his coro- 
 nation, 344 ; opening of the 
 negotiations for the dissolution 
 of her marriage, 344-346 ; her 
 letter to Duplessis-Mornay, 347 ; 
 her correspondence with her hus- 
 band, 348, 349 ; unwilling to 
 make way for the elevation of 
 Gabrielle d'Estrees, 354 and note, 
 355 ; interrogated at Usson by 
 Berthier, the syndic of the clergy, 
 358 ; her marriage annulled, 359 ; 
 Henri IV.'s letter to her, 359, 
 360 ; her answer, 360, 361 ; her 
 last years at Usson, 364, 365 ; 
 begins a lawsuit against 1 the 
 Comte d' Auvergne, 366 ; obtains 
 permission from the King to 
 reside at the Chateau of Madrid, 
 at Boulogne-sur-Seine, 366, 367 ; 
 her arrival at the Chateau of 
 Madrid, 368, 369 ; her interview 
 with Henri IV., 369, 370 ; visited 
 by the Dauphin, 370 ; received 
 by their Majesties at the Louvre, 
 371 ; reconciles several of the old 
 nobility to the new dynasty, 
 371 ; on friendly terms with the 
 Royal Family, 371, 372; rents the 
 Hotel de Sens, 372 and note ; 
 assassination of her favourite. 
 Saint- Julien, 373 ; her letter to 
 the King demanding justice on 
 the assassin, 374 ; witnesses his 
 execution, 374 ; leaves the Hotel 
 de Sens for Issy, 375 ; builds a 
 magnificent hotel in the Fau- 
 bourg Saint-Germain, 375 ; her 
 patronage of men-of-letters, 376 ; 
 organises files for Marie de' 
 Medici, 376, 377 ; her toilettes 
 criticised from the pulpit, 377 ; 
 her favourite, Bajaumont, 378, 
 379 ; her charity, 379, 380 ; her 
 benefactions to the Augustines, 
 380, 381 ; assists at the corona- 
 tion of Marie de' Medici, 381, 382 ; 
 sincerely mourns the death of 
 Henri IV,, 382, 383 ; endeavours 
 
 406 
 
INDEX 
 
 Marguerite de Vallois, Queen of 
 Navarre — continued 
 to obtain a fair hearing for the 
 woman, Comans, 383 ; her dis- 
 creet conduct during the Re- 
 gency, 383 ; gives a magnificent 
 ball in honour of the Duke of 
 Pastrana, 383, 384 ; becomes 
 exceedingly devout, 385 ; her 
 favourite, Villars, 385 ; her ill- 
 ness and death, 385 ; her burial, 
 386 ; her character variously 
 estimated, 386-389 
 
 Marcel (Provost of the Merchants). 
 104 
 
 Marie (French Ambassador to th^ 
 Vatican), 70 
 
 Marot, 8 
 
 Marses, Gilbert de (Governor ol 
 Carlat), 323, 325, 327, 328 and 
 note, 332 
 
 Mary Stuart, Queen of Scotland, 3, 
 4, 12, 61, 294 
 
 Mathieu, Pierre (cited), 27, 337, 387 
 
 Matignon, Marechal de, 133, 239 and 
 note, 240, 247, 268, 316, 318, 319, 
 320, 321, 322, 323 
 
 Maugiron, Louis de (mignon of 
 Henri III.), 231 and note 
 
 Mauleverier, Comte de, 69 
 
 Maurevert, or Maurevel, attempts 
 the assassination of Coligny,95,96 
 
 Mayenne, Charles de Lorraine, Due 
 de, 33 note, 41, 201, 310, 365 
 
 Maynard, Fran9ois (poet), 375 note, 
 376 
 
 Mazillac (physician to Charles IX.), 
 
 139 
 
 Mendoza (Spanish Ambassador at 
 French Court), 329 note, 334 
 
 MerccEur, Duchesse de, 367 note 
 
 Merki, M. Charles, 218 
 
 (cited), 126, 168, 292, 336, 387 
 
 Merlin de Vaulx (Huguenot Minis- 
 ter), 67, 99 
 
 Mezeray, 387 
 
 (cited), 27, jj, 88 note, 180 
 
 Michelet (cited), 180 
 
 Michaud and Poujoulat, their edi- 
 tion of Marguerite de Valois's 
 Memoires, 341 
 
 Michieli, Giovanni, Venetian Am- 
 bassador at the French Court 
 (cited), 86, loi, 102, 104 note 
 
 Miossans (equerry to the King o( 
 Navarre), 108, 124, 125 and note 
 
 Mole, Edouard (one of Marguerite 
 de Valois's procurators in the 
 divorce proceedings), 357 
 
 Mondoucet (French Minister in the 
 
 Netherlands), 197, 198, 215 
 Mongez, 131 
 
 (cited), 42, 91, 92, 106 note, 
 137 note, 203 note, 259, 264, 
 
 337 
 Montaigne, 131 
 Montbrun, 126 
 
 Montcontour, Battle of, 89 note 
 Montesquiou, Baroji de, 20 note 
 Montigny, Baron de, 205, 227 
 Montgommery, Gabriel de. See 
 
 Lorges, Comte de 
 Montmorency, Anne, Connetable 
 
 de, 10, 20 note 
 Montmorency, Diane de France, 
 • Duchesse de, 367, 368 
 -Montmorency, Fran9ois de, Mare- 
 chal de, 54, 81, 99 note, 133, 144, 
 232, 367. 368 
 Montmorency, Henri de. See 
 
 Amville, Due d' 
 Mon tmorency, Guillaume de, 1 30, 1 7 5 
 Montpensier, Due de, 33, 86, 133, 
 
 174 note, 247 
 Montpensier, Duchesse de, $$, 248 
 Morgues, Matthieu (cited), 379 
 Monrtsoreau, Comte de, 263 and note 
 Montsoreau, Comtesse de, 263 note 
 Mouy, Marquis de, 202 
 Murray, Earl of (Regent of Scot- 
 land) 
 
 NAN9AY, Gaspard de la Chatre, 
 Seigneur de, 107 and note, 108 
 
 Nantouillet (Provost of Paris), 116, 
 121, 155 note, 178 
 
 Nassau, Louis, Count of, 58, 70, 103 
 note 
 
 Navarre. See Henri IV., Jean 
 d'Albret, Marguerite de Valois 
 
 Nemours, Due de, 43 
 
 Nemours, Anne d'Este, Duchesse 
 de, 33 note, 43, 44 
 
 Nemours, Treaty of, 311 and note 
 
 N6rac, Treaty of, 254, 255 and note 
 
 Nevers, Ludovic de Gonzague, Due 
 de, 79 and note, 136 
 
 Nevers, Henriette de Cleves, 79 and 
 note, 80, 95, 100 
 
 Nicot (French Ambassador at Lis- 
 bon), 46 and note 
 
 O, Francois d', 147, 148 
 
 Orange. See William the Silent, 
 
 Prince of 
 Oradour, Jacques d' (matire d'hdiel 
 
 to the Queen of Navarre), 137 
 
 and note, 343 
 
 407 
 
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