“ There is my hand,' replied the King, cellence, such as the world has never embracing him again ; take it, for on seen, appeared as visions to the eyes of my life this is all the vengeance that I the monarch and his friend, shall ever seek.'" “ To afford some idea of the vastness A most imperfect idea of Henry's and also of the visionary character of character, however, would be formed, these designs, I will give, in a somewhat abbreviated form, part of the account if his gallantry in action, conduct in furnished by Sully himself, of the conwar, and generosity in victory alone tents of a cabinet to be prepared for the are taken into view. His pacific ad- King in one of the halls of the Louvre, ministration, and plans of social im which were to comprise, arranged in provement, are also worthy of the drawers and cases, all the memoirs and very highest admiration ; and his pre- reports about to be collected. The mature death is, perhaps, chiefly to be labour required was immense. To oblamented, because it prevented so tain a notion of it, without repetitions, many of them from being carried into let one imagine every thing connected, full effect. They are thus sketched immediately or remotely with the finances, by Mr James on the authority of with war, with the artillery, with the Sully, the King's prime minister: navy, commerce and police, with the coinage, with the mines, and, in a word, “ It is difficult to arrive at any precise with every part of government, interior notion of Henry's ultimate views ; and and exterior, ecclesiastic, civil, political, the want of full information has induced and domestic. Every one of all these many writers to disbelieve the fact of parts had its separate place in this state his having entertained any of the definite cabinet, so that all the documents conand extensive schemes attributed to him cerning it would be found ready to the by contemporaries; but the concurring hand at a glance, in whatever quantity testimony of those who knew him best, they might be. On the side appropriated leads me to believe, that a favourite pro- to the finances, were seen the collection ject, of a comprehensive and extraor- of different regulations, records of financial dinary character, occupied many of his operations, changes made or to be made, thoughts from the moment that he felt the sums to receive or to be paid, and an himself firmly seated on the throne of almost innumerable mass of statements, France. Sully seems to think that the memorials, totals, and summaries, more or scheme was perfectly practicable ; but less abridged. whether the object was limited, as some “In regard to military matters, besides have asserted, to reducing the power of the accounts, details, and memorials, the house of Austria, or whether it ex- marking the actual state of things, there tended to the partition of Europe into would have been found the edicts and fifteen great monarchies, and to the state papers, works upon tactics, plans, establishment of a 'Christian Republic, maps, and charts of France and other (by means of a general council, repre- parts of the world. Large copies of these senting those powers, and sitting per- maps, mixed with various pieces of paintmanently,) as others affirm-whether ing, were to be placed in the great galthe one design was a fixed and clearly lery. The idea also was entertained of defined resolution, and the other merely appropriating one of the large halls below, a brilliant but evanescent fancy, it would with the floor above, to the purposes of a be very difficult in these days to ascer- museum of models and specimens of all tain. Certain it is, that Henry de- the most curious machines destined to be manded from his minister Sully various used in war, the arts, and different written schemes and statements, as steps trades, and in all sorts of exercises, noble, to the execution of some very great and liberal, or mechanical, in order that those difficult design, which would require the who sought perfection might come and whole resources of France to be eco- without trouble instruct themselves in this nomised for many years ; and, from the silent school. The lower story would plans thus formed, issued a number of have served for the heavier things, and the most beneficial projects, few of which, higher for the lighter. An exact invenunhappily for posterity, were carried tory of both was to have been amongst into effect. In the joint labours of the the documents of the cabinet of which I King and his minister, new objects, new am speaking. regulations, presented themselves every 6 Lists of all the benefices of the kinghour ; memorial brought forth memorial; dom, with their denomination and just one scheme branched out into half a appreciation, reports of the whole eccledozen others ; institutions were siastical body, secular and regular, from ceived ; laws were drawn up; and a the highest prelate to the lowest clerk, completely new organisation of society, with the distinction of native and Ponded on notions of transcendent ex- foreigner, and of both religions, would con not have been amongst the least curious ligence of meditated designs in support of documents of those referring to the eccle- their pretended science. siastical government. 66 The coronation of the Queen passed “This labour was the model of another off without any accident; and her cereaffecting the police, by which the king monious entrance into Paris was apwould have been able to see, to an indi- pointed for the 16th of the month. The vidual, the number of the nobility of the troops of the crown were already assemwhole realm, divided into classes, and bled on the frontier, fifty pieces of artilspecified by the difference of titles, estates, lery had been sent on to wait the coming &c.; an idea the more agreeable to the of the King, and he was to set out immeKing, as he had been meditating for a diately after the approaching pageant, in long time the plan of a new order of order to put himself at the head of his knighthood, together with that of an troops : but, to the surprise of all, Spain academy, a college, and a royal hospital, and the Low Countries remained in a destined for the nobility alone, without state of the most perfect tranqnillity ; no this useful and honourable institution preparations for resistance were seen, no being chargeable to the public or bur- movement was made to turn away the densome to the finances. It was pro- coming storm. This is the only circumposed at the same time to form a camp stance which could throw the slightest or permanent corps of six thousand suspicion on the Archduke of taking any infantry, a thousand horse, and six pieces part in the crime about to be perpetrated. of artillery, completely equipped. Twelve On the 14th of May the King showed himships and twelve galleys kept in good self restless and uneasy, but nevertheless order, corresponded in the naval depart- he went, as usual, to hear mass at the ment to this new military establishment. church of the Feuillans, and returned in safety to the palace. The Queen, frightThe close of this glorious and bene- ened by the predictions of the astrologers, ficent reign is thus described : besought him not to go out any more that day. Henry laughed at her fears, but “ Certain it is that Henry's mind was fill- still showed himself gloomy and dised with gloomy anticipations which neither quieted, walked in an agitated manner business nor pleasure could banish; for into the gardens of the Puileries, talked the moment he was unoccupied dark and more than once of death : and when Basbitter meditations fell upon him, from sompierre represented to him the immense which he found it impossible to rouse prosperity to which he had attained, and himself. Intimations of coming danger, asked him what he could desire more, he too, were frequent ; a courier from France replied, with a deep sigh, ' My friend, all carried news of his death to Germany this must be quitted.' eight days before it happened. On the “ He twice cast himself upon his bed to altar, at Montargis, was found a paper, seek sleep, but in vain ; and about four announcing that in a few days he would o'clock demanded his coach, to proceed to perish by the hand of an assassin. Public the arsenal, in order to confer with Sully, prayers were offered up in some parts of who was unwell. As soon as the carriage the Spanish territory for the success of a was ready, he descended to the court and great enterprise to be carried on in entered the vehicle, accompanied by the France; and many warnings were given Dukes of Epernon and Montbazon, with to Henry himself. The monarch, how- Roquelaure, Lavardin, and La Force, ever, would pay no attention to them, not giving some orders to Vitry, captain of withstanding the presentiment with which the guard, before he set out. He was folhe himself was filled; and it is said that lowed by a small troop of gentlemen on when, on the day of his death, his son, horseback, and the carriage was surthe Duke of Vendome, came to tell him rounded by a number of running footmen. that La Brosse, the astrologer, had pre- “ The large coaches of that day could be dicted that great danger menaced him entirely closed by a sort of door, or blind, that day, Henry merely laughed, saying, which let down from the top : but the * La Brosse is an old fox who wishes to day being hot, and Henry wishing to see have your money, and you a young fool the preparations which were going on for to believe him. Our days are counted be the Queen's public entry, the carriage was fore God.' Perhaps more attention might left open on both sides, and he himself reoften have been paid to astrologers by mained exposed to the gaze of the people. great men if they had recollected that Passing down the Rue St Honoré, the such intimations may sometimes come royal party turned into the Rue de la from other sources than the stars, and Feronnerie, in itself narrow, and still farthat many of those persons looked upon ther straitened by a number of small it as a part of their trade to obtain intel- shops, built against the wall of the ceme tery of the Innocents, which Henry, some time before, had ordered to be pulled down. At the moment the carriage entered the street, a cart, loaded with barrels of wine, was on the right side, and another, filled with hay, upon the left, so that the coachman was obliged to stop, while the footmen ran round by the cemetery to remove the obstruction. "At that moment a man, who had followed the carriage from the Louvre, put one foot upon the front wheel, the other upon a stone at the side, and, reaching into the carriage, struck the King a violent blow with a knife. Henry immediately exclaimed, I am wounded;' but notwithstanding the number of persons who were with him, the assassin was suffered to repeat the blow, which now pierced the King to the heart. A third blow was caught in the sleeve of one of the attendants; and, instead of throwing down the knife and flying, the man who had done the deed stood with the bloody weapon in his hand, and calmly allowed himself to be seized by those who ran up at the outcry which took place. The guards would have instantly put him to death; but Epernon, fortunately for his own reputation, interfered, and ordered him to be secured. "In the meantime Henry uttered not a word, and the report forthwith spread that the King was killed. His officers, however, wisely assured the people that he was only wounded, and called loudly for some wine, while the blinds of the carriage were let down, and the vehicle turned towards the Louvre. The body was immediately removed from the coach and laid upon a bed. Surgeons and physicians hurried to the room; and we are informed by Bassompierre, who was present, that Henry breathed one sigh after he was brought in. Life, however, was probably extinguished at once by the second blow; for he never uttered a word after he received it, but fell upon the shoulder of the Duke of Epernon, with the blood flowing from his mouth as well as from the wound. "Thus died Henry IV. of France, in the fifty-seventh year of his age, one of the greatest, and certainly one of the most beloved Kings of France, on whom contemporaries bestowed the title of the Great, but who was known to his people, and is ever mentioned in history, by the name of Henri Quatre, a term connected in the mind of every Frenchman with the ideas of goodness, benevolence, sincerity, and courage. After having to fight for his throne against the fierce opposition of fanaticism; after having to contend with the arms and the intrigues of the Roman Catholic world; after having to struggle with the hatred of a great part of his people, excited by the wild declamations of preachers and demagogues, and with the coldness and indifference of almost all the rest, he had succeeded, not only in obtaining the crown to which he was entitled, not only in vanquishing his enemies in the field, in subduing his rebellious subjects, in repulsing his foreign foes, and overcoming the prejudices of his people, but in gaining their devoted love, the esteem of all his allies, and the reverence even of those opposed to him." The extracts we have now given, will convey to our readers a fair idea of this very interesting and valuable work. We earnestly recommend it to their attention: when once in their hands, it will speak for itself. Several emendations, some in the composition, others in the construction, will, doubtless, in another edition, suggest themselves to the judgment and good taste of the author. There are no arguments to chapters, no index, and no table of contents. These, in a work of history, are indispensable, and should be added forthwith. A novelist who brings five or six characters on the stage, can afford to let them explain their own story; transactions of five or six hundred, has but a historian, who is involved in the need of every mechanical aid which industry can furnish, to enable his readers to follow the complicated thread of events, or turn to them again, when required on reference. It is to be wished, also, that Mr James would intersperse his spirited narrative, especially in the scenes of memorable events, with a few of those beautiful descriptions of Nature with which his novels abound, and which would be peculiarly appropriate in a work on French history, from his intimate acquaintance with the topography and scenery of the places where his story is laid. Printed by William Blackwood and Sons, Edinburgh, |