The making of a king (13 page)

" Have you nothing whatever to say to me ? " he asked.

" For the present, nothing," was the answer.

" Well, I have much to say to you," retorted the King. Taking him by the hand, he led him to an alley secure from eaves-droppers, further ensuring secrecy by placing at its entrance a couple of Swiss guards ignorant of the French language. There for no less than four hours the two walked up and down in earnest converse. If the anxious courtiers were debarred from hearing what passed, they could command a view of the alley, and could see that Henri embraced his friend, as he confessed that, remembering twenty-three years of affectionate intercourse, he had found the coldness and reserve of the past weeks intolerable. " For, to speak truth," he said, " if I have not communicated all my fancies to you as I have been accustomed to do, I think you also have concealed many of your own from me." A remedy was to be applied to this state of things, and the malice of Rosny's enemies was to be defeated. The King had decided, so he said, to impart to him all the fine tales he had been told to his discredit; " for I desire that you and I should come out of this, our hearts clear from any suspicion, and content with one another. . . .

I will open my heart to you, praying that you will conceal from me nothing that is in your own."

Henri kept his word. The falsehoods invented by slanderous tongues were faithfully repeated to the man they concerned ; a libellous document was handed over for his perusal. Reading it carefully from end to end, without change of colour, Rosny made his defence, refuting the charges brought against him one by one, rendering with every word his triumph more complete. Then, his vindication made, he would have tendered his solemn oath of fidelity at his master's feet had not Henri, perceiving at once the interpretation that would be put upon the action by the curious and malevolent spectators who were watching the scene from a distance, been quick to prevent him from assuming an attitude which might be understood as accompanying a prayer for pardon. Expressing his entire conviction of the minister's innocence, he took him by the hand and led him out from the alley, to meet the whole Court awaiting him at its entrance.

Finding, on inquiry, that four hours had elapsed whilst the interview had been carried on, and that it was close upon one o'clock, the King observed, not without malice, that since some persons had doubtless found the time pass more slowly than himself, he would tell them, for their consolation, that he loved Rosny more than ever, and that, between himself and his minister, it was for life and death. With which defiance to the men who would have severed him from his friend, the King dismissed him to his dinner.

Rosny's enemies were for the time defeated. That they continued to indoctrinate the Dauphin with their

hostility is shown by a scene taking place at Saint-Germain a month later ; when the minister having brought the child a purse full" of coins he refused the gift.

" I do not want it," he said ungraciously. " It is not a pretty one ; it is ugly. If you give it me I will throw it into the moat," and even when the shining " dauphins" and half-crowns were poured out he refused to be propitiated. " Allez, vilaine," he said, restoring the coins to the purse and flinging it away.

It may be that, on this occasion, those about the boy regretted that he had learnt his lesson so well ; it would have been no part of their plan that he should decline any largesse proffered by the Superintendent of Finance. But no rebuke or punishment is recorded as following upon his ill-humour and bad manners.

It is curious that, at a time when the enmity of Spain and its readiness to make common cause with Henri's domestic adversaries had been once again emphatically manifested, the idea of a marriage between the Dauphin and the Infanta continued to be a favourite project at the French Court; and that the King himself, resolute in his opposition to the plan at a later date, is found alluding to the possibility of its being carried into effect.

" I should like you and the Infanta to have a little Dauphin like yourself," he once told his son, playing with the subject.

" Non pas, s'il vous plait, papa" returned the child, lifting his hand in military salute.

Again and again his attendants strove to accustom

their charge, thus early, to think of Anne as his future bride, sometimes finding him ready to lend a favourable ear to their suggestions, sometimes encountering opposition. Did he not love Spaniards ? some one asked, demanding his reasons when he answered in the negative.

" Because they are papa s enemies/' answered the boy. Instinctively he had divined the fact that they were to be regarded with suspicion.

" Spaniards ? " he said, when told that some Spanish nobles were asking to be admitted to his presence. "Spaniards ? Then give me my sword."

Since she was of that nation, he would have none of the Infanta, so he declared. When, however, it was explained that she would make him King of Spain, becoming herself Queen of France, he smiled, and on the occasion of a second visit from the Count de Sora, now on his way back from Spain, he consented to make a gracious response to the greetings he brought.

" Because they are papa s enemies." More and more the Dauphin was acquiring the love for his father which had grown so strong before their final parting ; more and more he was learning to submit his childish will to the will of the King. Henri was master ; his wishes were law ; gladly and willingly the boy had begun—in spite of occasional moods of rebellion—to recognise his supremacy. Trifling incidents showed the change. As the children marched to Mass in military array, the Chevalier carrying a blue banner, the Dauphin armed with his arquebus, he bade little Verneuil uncover.

'You must not wear your hat in my presence,"

he told him. Learning that it was by the King's orders, he was prompt in rescinding his directions.

" Put it on, put it on," he said hurriedly. " Le petit valet de papa " was eager to display his loyalty towards the single person he acknowledged to be his superior. Watching the soldiers on parade, he insisted upon tendering, lik* them, his oath of fidelity to the King, administering it himself to his brothers in their turn.

" Fefe" he asked, " do you promise to serve papa well?"

"Yes, Monsieur."

" And I too," repeated the Dauphin.

During the summer of 1605 a visit was paid to the chateau by Marguerite de Valois, come thither to make the acquaintance of her successor's son. Far from owing Marie de Medicis any grudge, she was anxious to maintain the rights of a woman in part of her own blood and race. That she was thus friendlily disposed was of the greater importance, as it was currently reported that the Due de Bouillon—who had never made his submission since Biron's execution, but held aloof, a constant menace to the tranquillity of the country—had conceived the design of obtaining possession of her person, with the object of bringing pressure to induce her to declare, in case of the King's death, that her acquiescence in the divorce had been obtained by force. A statement of this kind would have constituted a real danger to the Dauphin. Marguerite, however, had no intention of playing into the hands of the Huguenots, and her reappearance at Court made her disposition clear.

Photo by A. Giraudon, after a drawing by F. Clonet in the Biblioiheque Nation

MARGUERITE DE VALOIS, CALLED QUEEN MARGOT. •96]

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Marguerite de ValoiS 97

She came with the avowed intention of constituting the Dauphin her heir, and was cordially received by his father and the Queen at Monceaux—the estate bestowed by Henri upon his wife at the Dauphin's birth. During the month of July her visit to Saint-Germain was paid, presenting a curious picture of the manners and customs of the times, and in particular of the household of Henri-Quatre.

The approaching event had been naturally a subject of discussion at the chateau, a question having been raised as to the mode of address to be adopted by the Dauphin towards the woman who had once occupied his mother's place. To the suggestion that he should call her aunt he demurred. Madame, he said, could use that name ; he would call her sister.

The discussion was terminated by a message from Marie to the effect that her son was to give Marguerite her own title of maman. Two days later the boy is found employing it, on the occasion of a visit from the Queen's maitre cChotel^ sent to greet him and to make his mistress's excuses for delaying her visit to Saint-Germain till she had recovered from the fatigue of her journey.

" I humbly thank her," answered the well-drilled child. " I am her servant. How is maman ? "

By August 6 King and Queen were also at Saint-Germain, awaiting the arrival of the guest; and that afternoon the whole party of children were sent to

eet and welcome her. As she drew near, the Dauphin was taken out of his carriage, the Queen descending

om her litter. Bareheaded, the boy was lifted up by is body-servant to kiss her, discarding in his greeting

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