The making of a king (14 page)

the prescribed formula and using a name he had himself devised.

" Welcome to you," he said, " maman ma file"

" Monsieur," replied the Queen, " I thank you. I have long desired to see you."

Again she kissed him, whilst, pretending to be abashed, he hid his face with his hat.

" Mon Dieu ! " she exclaimed. " How handsome you are ! You have indeed the royal bearing befitting the sovereignty one day to be yours."

After which, the other children having been duly greeted, the party turned homewards, the Dauphin falling asleep half-way and being carried into the chateau in that condition.

The visit was a success. Upon her successor's children Marguerite lavished gifts and caresses ; with the King and his wife her intercourse was friendly and intimate. " I have my sister, Queen Marguerite, here with me," the King wrote in a letter of this date, " who bears herself after a fashion very pleasing to me."

Perhaps the most singular scene recorded was when one morning the Dauphin, taken to visit his mother in bed, found the King seated upon it, Margot on her knees at the Queen's side ; whilst the child, completing the group, was lifted up and sat on the bed playing with a little dog.

That some at least of those less immediately concerned did not view the guest with favour is to be inferred from an incident apparently taking place later on, when the Dauphin had been transferred to the care of his gouverneur, M. de Souvre.

" How handsome and well-made he is! " cried Margot, when the boy was brought to visit her by Souvre and his subordinate, Pluvenal. " How happy is the Cheiron who has the bringing up of this Achilles ! "

"Did I not tell you," grumbled Pluvenal to his chief, failing to catch the classic allusion, "that this m&chante femme would insult us ? "

Marguerite's visit to Saint-Germain over, she proceeded to Paris, there to take up her residence. It was reported that Henri had proffered two requests : the first that she would refrain from turning day into night, as she had done formerly ; secondly, that she would put a restraint upon her excessive liberality and become mhagere. To the first admonition she promised obedience, so far as in her lay, confessing that long habit might interpose a difficulty in the way of its observance. As to the other matter she declined to pledge herself. Liberality ran in her blood ; nor could she live in any other fashion. Meantime, to the Parisians, who had not had an opportunity of studying her at close quarters for twenty-four years, she was an object of interest and curiosity. Ardent, kindly, clever, unprincipled and impulsive, she would insist upon holding at the font an infant to whom a poor Irishwoman had chanced to give birth at the church doors, inducing the Constable of France, who was at hand, to act the part of her fellow-sponsor. Again, Paris would look on at her passionate grief for the violent death of one of her favourites. Swearing neither to eat nor drink until he should have been avenged, she was present the following day at the execution of the

man who had shot him ; and left the Hotel de Sens, where she had lodged, that same night, declaring she would re-enter it no more. The criminal, for his part, died gaily, regretting nothing since his foe was slain ; whilst Mesnard, by Margot's command, published, in commemoration of the dead, his "Regrets Amoureux," which were carried about by the Queen and recited evening by evening ; the King consoling her with the assurance that as brave and gallant squires as Saint-Julien were still to be found in his Court, and that, should she desire it, more than a dozen should be provided for her.

In September Henri's presence was required in the Limousin, where fresh disturbances were apprehended. The Queen accompanied him, and all went well. The Due de Bouillon, though retaining an attitude of injured innocence, remained personally at a safe distance ; the fortresses against which the expedition was directed being placed by his orders in the hands of the King. The Queen had not been with her husband during the latter part of his absence, but his letters were full of affection. Writing to her, he expressed his joy in the anticipation of a speedy return, and mentioned that every one's spirits were rising as they turned their faces towards " la douce France." In another of the love-letters which he could not refrain from addressing even to his wife, he told her, after giving an account of some passing malady, that in a week he would be holding her in his arms and she should cure him. By November Fontainebleau had been regained ; King and Queen arriving, though from different directions, at the same moment, "de quoi

ils re^urent grand contentement." A happier chapter of domestic life seemed to be opening for both.

Such intervals in her life of discord may have taught Marie what an existence spent with Henri might, under other circumstances, have been like. When time had softened the memory of her wrongs, and the past was, perhaps, invested with some degree of glamour, she told Richelieu that, their quarrels over for the moment, the King, rejoicing in fair weather, would behave " avec tant de douceur " as to cause her to look back with pleasure upon the time passed with him and upon his kindness. It is not inconceivable that she spoke the truth. To those unacquainted with the King's incredible weakness it may well have appeared that, in spite of the signs of relenting he had shown, the partial rupture with Madame de Verneuil resulting from her complicity in her father's treason must be, in a measure at least, lasting. But these hopes were doomed to disappointment, and at the end of the year those who had indulged them must have augured ill from the fact that she was visiting Saint-Germain, where her daughter had contracted some infectious complaint. The King's orders were that, whilst the other children were kept apart in the new buildings to which they had been removed, the Marquise's son was to be permitted to pass his time with his mother in the old chateau. The Dauphin, it would appear, did not approve of an arrangement depriving him of his usual playfellow.

" Where have you been ? " he demanded of Verneuil on his return,

" Mon maitre" answered the boy, " I have been to see maman mignonne"

" She is yours, not mine," was the contemptuous reply.

A week later the King, come back from the Limousin, paid a visit to the chateau. Walking with his son in the gardens, old memories woke within him, and he told how, more than five-and-twenty years ago, he had been a prisoner within those walls. The captive now reigned supreme, had triumphed over his enemies, and counted—perhaps—on many years of life. But the end was not far off.

CHAPTER IX 1606

New Year's Day — Rosny becomes Due de Sully—Expedition against Bouillon — The Dauphin in Paris — Bouillon reduced to submission— Brought to Saint-Germain — The Dauphin's baptism.

WHEN Rosny, followed by three secretaries each bearing a velvet bag, arrived at the Louvre on the morning of New Year's Day, 1606, he found a certain amount of confusion prevailing in the palace. The Queen, who was expecting before long the birth of her third child, had not been well the preceding evening; the King had been occupied in tending her most of the night—also, it would appear, in quarrelling with her—had scarcely slept, and had been consequently late in awaking. Marie, for her part, was either still asleep —which would have been strange, since Henri was apparently receiving many guests in her bed-chamber— or was, as her husband was inclined to believe, shamming slumber.

Rosny was in any case secure of a welcome, for one of his objects in visiting the palace was to deliver over to the King the purses, filled with coinage of varying value, to be distributed amongst the members of the royal household and that of the Dauphin as New Year's gifts.

It might have obviated some discontent at Saint-Germain had Madame de Mqntglat and her subordinates been aware that their claims had not been overlooked. At the chateau bits of blue ribbon were all that the little master had to bestow—an expedient invented because the child had seemed ashamed to have nothing to*give to those who begged from him, as he went from one to the other with empty hands and saying in jest, though shamefaced, and giving each petitioner a little blow, c< Tenez, here is your New Year's gift."

At the Louvre, meanwhile, Rosny was exhibiting with pride the provision he had made for the King's liberalities. The device upon the coins was a sprig of laurel, with the motto Mihi plebis amor, designed to express the confidence felt by Henri, in spite of conspiracies and treason, in his people's affection. Followed by his laden secretaries, the minister had been readily admitted to the royal chamber, receiving an explanation from the King of his apparent sloth. When the Queen had awakened that morning, he further informed him, it had been with sighs and tears, of which he would tell his friend the reason when fewer persons were present. Then, turning to more cheerful subjects, he entreated, with the eagerness of a boy, to be made acquainted forthwith with the contents of the velvet bags.

Rosny's tone was somewhat apologetic as, responding to his master's demand, he prepared to produce them. When last he had seen the King and Queen together they had been so marvellously gay that, in the anticipation that he would find them in a like

New Year's Day 105

humour to-day, he had devised New Year's gifts fitted to move them to laughter in thinking of the pleasure of those upon whom they were to be bestowed. He had also wished that both should be present when they were displayed.

If the Queen was present she gave no sign of taking note of what went on. Henri, however, observed that, though she was pretending to be asleep and had bestowed no greeting upon Rosny, he was sure she was in truth awake. She was angry with himself and the minister — for reasons, he repeated, Rosny should hear later on. Pending indications of wakefulness, the gifts were exhibited, Rosny laying particular stress upon the gratification to be afforded to the maids of honour by the hundred crowns he had allotted to each. The money supplied to them for dress had to be used as was intended. This sum, on the other hand, might be expended, according to their fancy, on babioles. Whereupon the King inquired flippantly of the grave minister whether he would not exact kisses in return, and Rosny did his best to chime in with Henri's humour.

Presently, having turned out most of the company, Henri gave the Queen a gentle push.

" Awake, sleeper," he bade her. " Kiss me, and be angry with me no longer. For my part, all my little ill-temper is gone." Did she only know, he added, how freely Rosny told him the truth, she would not charge the latter with flattery.

Marie had no alternative but to resign herself to be wakened. A bad dream, she explained, confirming a report of language used by the King, had

disturbed her. He gave people reason to believe that he took more pleasure in m the company of others than in her own—persons who were disloyal and hated him in their hearts. And she was ready to hear what Rosny had to say.

It was not difficult to supply the names of the "persons" to whom the* Queen made anonymous allusion, and Rosny, between King and Queen, must have felt in a difficulty. Called upon by Henri to speak, and probably well aware of the new points at issue, he hazarded the singular suggestion that he should himself be empowered by both to act on his own authority and without the cognisance of either. If so, he was confident that he would be enabled to make a settlement according to their joint wishes, and conducive to peace and concord.