The making of a king (2 page)

refused to listen to his suit, saying with dignity that, unfit by station to become his wife, she came of too noble a race to occupy any other position. Mademoiselle de Renouliere was first woman of the bed-chamber. Madame Louise Boursier was to act as sage-femme.

For the household of the Dauphin thought had already been taken. The post of gouvernante to the unborn infant had been conferred upon Madame de Montglat, whose reign in the royal nursery was to continue for many years. Maitre Jean Heroard, Physician-in-Ordinary to the King, had been named the child's domestic doctor, the appointment being made by Henri in person at four o'clock on September 21. That afternoon, meeting Heroard in the palace garden on returning from the hunt, the King had announced to the man of medicine the honour in store for him in language leaving no doubt that, however it might be with others, the person chiefly interested in the birth of an heir, refused to contemplate the possibility of disappointment.

" I have chosen you," Henri told Maitre H6roard, " to place near my son. Serve him well."

All was therefore ready. France, the King, his enemies and his friends, his loyal subjects, and the men who hated him and were leagued together that they might compass his downfall, were alike waiting and watching for what was to come.

And the foreign Queen, a stranger amongst strangers, unloved by her husband, distrusted by many of his people, was also waiting, conscious, it may be, that upon the question whether or not she would give

an heir to the throne might hang her future fortunes. Her position might seem secure ; but she well knew that hostile forces were at work against her, and that the Marquise de Verneuil, insolent and ambitious, by whom the King was held enthralled, had in her possession a written promise of dangerous significance. With a Dauphin born in lawful wedlock to strengthen her hands, Marie de Medicis could trust to her power of holding her own against her rival ; but how would it be otherwise ? Might not she, like Marguerite de Valois, the wife whose place she filled, be in her turn discarded by the King ?

Thus, anxiously for all, the hours went by. Cesar de Vendome — C6sar Monsieur, as his father liked him to be called —ignorant of the change to be effected in his position should a son of unchallengeable legitimacy be born to the King, was a sharer in the prevailing excitement. Waylaying Madame Boursier as she was passing through the palace, he put to her the question in all men's minds. Would the infant, he asked, be a boy or a girl ?

That, answered the sage-femme, playing with the child's eagerness, would be as she pleased.

" Sage-femmc" pleaded the Duke, " sage-femme, since it depends upon you, make it a boy."

" What will you give me if I do ?" she asked.

" All you want," he promised ; " or rather" honestly limiting her expectations—" all I have."

Little Vendome, with -the whole of France, was to be granted his desire. At half-past ten on the evening of September 27 —Maitre Heroard vouches for the hour, on the strength of his watch, made

by M. Plantard, of Abbeville—the Dauphin was born.

Not at once did Madame Boursier put an end to the general anxiety. Apprehensive that joy might prove as dangerous to the mother as grief, the sage-femme kept the momentous fact at first to herself, the King himself remaining ignorant that his hopes had been crowned. Watching the nurse's face he imagined indeed that upon it he read disaster, and that Heaven had pronounced against him. Describing the scene a few days later, after his light-hearted fashion, he told his sister and the Princes of the Blood that never had he seen, on the field of battle or elsewhere, so much determination shown by man or woman.

" She had my son upon her knee," he said, " and looked around her as coldly as if she held a thing of nought. And it was a Dauphin, not seen in France for eighty years ! "

It was a Dauphin. As she watched the King, withdrawn to a distance, his countenance sad and changed, Madame Boursier relented and sent him a message intimating that all was well. Even with this assurance Henri could scarcely believe in a joy so great. Only when the tidings were corroborated by the sage-femme in person did the colour return to his face.

" Sage-femme" he asked, as he again drew near, " is it a son ? I beseech you not to give me false hopes. It would kill me." Then, as a "petit M. le Dauphin " was dispkyed to him, he lifted his eyes to Heaven, and, with the great tears running down, gave thanks.

" Ma mie" he said to the Queen, " God has done

us the great grace of giving us what we asked. We have a fair son."

Anxiety, fear, anticipation were replaced by certainty. France was no longer without an heir. In the eyes of those who wished the King well all was as it should be. Others perhaps, looking on, felt that the deathblow had been dealt to their secret hopes, and that thenceforth plots, plans, conspiracies must be arranged upon a fresh basis.

The infant had, by Henri's orders, been handed over to Madame de Montglat, as the woman to be chiefly entrusted with his care. After the fashion of the day, he was given a few drops of wine, the little body being also washed with red wine and oil, and the head with wine and oil of roses. It was probably when all this had been done that his father solemnly blessed him, placing the sword in the tiny hand, with the prayer that it might be used for God's glory alone and in the defence of the French people.

After which the King left the bedchamber, to announce the child's birth to the concourse of nobles awaiting him in the adjoining apartment. A very rapture of emotion greeted the tidings he had to impart. Men, beside themselves with joy and relief, crowded around him and flung themselves, almost knocking him down, at his feet, as he bade them give thanks to God.

" Prepare, each one of you," he said, " to do it," proceeding to admit so great a throng into the very presence of the Queen and her newborn baby that it was scarcely possible to move. Madame Boursier, concerned on account of the fainting mother, would

have protested ; but, putting his hand on her shoulder, Henri imposed silence upon her.

" Hush, hush," he said. " This child belongs to all the world. Let every one rejoice."

And thus began the life of Louis XIII.

Throughout the length and breadth of his father's kingdom he was greeted as a supreme gift from Heaven, a saviour from ruin and disorder and the distraction of a disputed succession. Visiting the child some months later, an aged general of the King's gave voice to the prevailing enthusiasm.

" May it please God, to grant to Monseigneur the Dauphin his father's good fortune, the valour of Charlemagne, and the piety of St. Louis," the old man prayed as he fell, weeping, on his knees. " Let God call me hence when it shall please Him. I have seen the salvation of the world."

Success to some means of necessity defeat to others. A scene significant of much—of changing fortunes and perished hopes—is described by Madame Boursier. On the day following upon the Dauphin's birth she encountered the Due de Vendome loitering about after the manner of a neglected child. Holding by the tapestry covering the entrance to the chamber through which guests were passing in succession to inspect the newborn heir, he had stopped short as if bewildered when the nurse accosted him.

" He quoi y Monsieur," she said kindly. u What are you doing there ? "

" I do not know," the boy answered vaguely. " No one speaks to me. No one says anything to me any more."

The good woman did her best to explain away the defection of the courtiers. It was, she said, because every one was going to see M. 'le Dauphin, who had only just arrived. When all had greeted him, they would talk to the little Duke as before. The incident being reported to the Queen, Marie was very pitiful, in the midst of her happiness, over the son of the dead Gabrielle. It was enough to kill the poor child, she said ; giving orders that he should receive even more attention than usual.

u Every one,*' she observed, " is amusing themselves with my son, and nobody thinks of him. It must seem strange to the child. "

If Marie de Medicis has many sins and failings to be laid to her charge, her tenderness for the son of the woman Henri had loved should be allowed to weigh in the balance on the other side. Nor, in spite of the jealousy and indignation evoked in her by the King's conduct, is this a solitary instance of her kindness towards the children who shared their father's love with her own.

Meantime the King was a happy man ; and will not have grudged the thousand crowns won from him by Zamet, the banker, who had wagered that the infant would be a boy. Two thousand crowns had been likewise won by the fortunate gambler from the Queen, the child having been born, as he had prophesied, on a Thursday ; so that he too had reason to be well content. Te Deums were sung, and the Pope was to be invited to be godfather, the King desiring to present his son to God, "and to incorporate him into the Church as worthily as

possible, so that he may tread in the footsteps of his ancestors."

All went well ; and the Queen, joy and excitement notwithstanding, was in so satisfactory condition that, no more than two days after the birth, Henri was writing to tell Rosny that it was impossible to believe how rapidly she was recovering — that she had already done her own hair and talked of leaving her bed.

"Elle a un naturel terriblement robuste et fort," added the King. ..." I believe, as you do, in the favour done me by God in giving me a son, and in the part that you and all the good folk in my Kingdom take in my joy. Yesterday, coming home from hunting a deer which had escaped me, I heard the firing of the cannon in Paris."

It would have been better had the King been content with the present and had not striven to unveil the future. An unwise curiosity clouded, if only for the moment, his full satisfaction. Another physician besides H6roard had been present at the birth—one M. de la Riviere, suspected of Huguenot proclivities. This gentleman, versed in the art of astrology, had been directed by the King to take careful note of the exact hour and minute when the child first drew breath and to cast his horoscope. The physician obeyed. Yet a fortnight elapsed, and the King had heard nothing, till, summoning him to his presence, he called him to account for his silence.

" You have told me nothing as to the birth of my son, the Dauphin," he said. " What did you find ? "

Riviere replied with an affectation of carelessness.

He admitted that he had begun something of the kind, but had let it alone. He had ceased to amuse himself with a science he had partly forgotten, and which was frequently greatly at fault.

The King brushed his excuses curtly aside. Riviere, he said, was not a man to indulge in scruples. He was unwilling to speak, lest he should either be compelled to lie or should give offence. On pain of his displeasure he commanded the doctor to be open with him.

Even when the King's orders had been issued, it was not until after repeated refusals—and then as if in anger — that Riviere obeyed and made known to him what the stars had revealed.

" Your son," he said, c< will live to man's estate and will reign longer than yourself; but he will differ from you in all his tastes and humours. He will have his own opinions and fantasies — sometimes those of other people. It will be a time to think rather than to speak. . . . What has been set in order by you will be undone. He will perform great things, be fortunate in his designs, and be talked of in Christendom. He will leave issue behind him, and things will become afterwards worse. And this is all that you will know from me."

" Upon which," says the narrator of the scene, " the King, having fallen into a melancholy dream, said : ' I see very well that you are in accord with the Huguenots. You say this because you hold with them/

" ' Sire/ replied M. de la Riviere, c I am in accord with anything you please. But you will know nothing

The Dauphin's Horoscope n

more from me.'" And turning away, still as if in anger, he went out.

When Riviere had withdrawn the King took Rosny, who had been present, into a window apart and spoke with him on the subject of the seer's prediction. But what he said was known to none.

CHAPTER II 1601'

The King's marriage—Difficulties in choosing a wife — Gabrielle d'Estr£es—Henriette d'Entragues— The Florentine match — Marie de Medicis arrives in France — Character of Henri-Quatre — Domestic discord.

IN order to understand the anomalous condition of the royal household, and the atmosphere into which Louis was born, it is necessary to go back to the time, some three years earlier, when Henri-Quatre, triumphant over his enemies, and at length at leisure to take thought for the future, had determined upon obtaining the annulment of his marriage with Marguerite de Valois, the wife from whom he had been virtually separated for fourteen years.

All were agreed as to the urgent need for the step, if France were to be safe-guarded from the struggle likely to follow should Henri chance to die leaving no legitimate heir. His enemies themselves were clear upon this point ; but, in their case, a fresh marriage was not sufficient ; the wife he chose must be such as to satisfy them. Either he must marry a Queen to their liking, and who would serve to strengthen the interest of Spain, or—he should die : " Le tuer ou le marier " so Michelet describes the alternatives they set before them.