om placed in the hands of
a new monarch. Henry was now thirty-four years of age. The whole
kingdom was convulsed by warring factions. For years France had been
desolated by all the most virulent elements of religious and political
animosity. All hearts were demoralized by familiarity with the dagger
of the assassin and the carnage of the battle-field. Almost universal
depravity had banished all respect for morality and law. The whole
fabric of society was utterly disorganized.

Under these circumstances, Henry developed that energy and sagacity
which have given him a high position among the most renowned of
earthly monarchs. He immediately assembled around him that portion of
the royal army in whose fidelity he could confide. Without the delay
of an hour, he commenced dictating letters to all the monarchies of
Europe, announcing his accession to the throne, and soliciting their
aid to confirm him in his legitimate rights.

As the new sovereign entered the chamber of the deceased king, he
found the corpse surrounded by many of the Catholic nobility of
France. They were ostentatiously solemnizing the obsequies of the
departed monarch. He heard many low mutterings from these zealous
partisans of Rome, that they would rather die a thousand deaths than
allow a Protestant king to ascend the throne. Angry eyes glared upon
him from the tumultuous and mutinous crowd, and, had not Henry retired
to consult for his own safety, he also might have fallen the victim of
assassination. In the intense excitement of these hours, the leading
Catholics held a meeting, and appointed a committee to wait upon
Henry, and inform him that he must immediately abjure Protestantism
and adopt the Catholic faith, or forfeit their support to the crown.

"Would you have me," Henry replied, "profess conversion with the
dagger at my throat? And could you, in the day of battle, follow one
with confidence who had thus proved that he was an apostate and
without a God? I can only promise carefully to examine the subject
that I may be guided to the truth."

Henry was a Protestant from the force of circumstances rather than
from conviction. He was not a theologian either in mind or heart, and
he regarded the Catholics and Protestants merely as two political
parties, the one or the other of which he would join, according as, in
his view, it might promote his personal interests and the welfare of
France. In his childhood he was a Catholic. In boyhood, under t