gress of affairs.--Prosperity in the kingdom.--Henry's
illness.--Devotion of his subjects.--Hostility of the nobles.--The
Marchioness of Verneuil.--Integrity of Sully.--The slave of love.--The
king's greatness.--Financial skill of Sully.--Co-operation of
Henry.--Solicitations of Gabrielle.--Her death.--Grief of the
king.--The divorce.--Henrietta d'Entragues.--Bold fidelity of
Sully.--Marriage to Maria of Medici.--Anecdote.--Grand political
scheme.--Mode of preventing religious quarrels.--Assassination of
the king.--Character of Henry IV.--The truth to be enforced.--Free
speech.--Free press.--Free men.--Practical application of the moral.

The reconciliation of the king with the Pope presented a favorable
opportunity for the Duke of Mayenne, consistently with his pride, to
abandon the hopeless conflict. He declared that, as the Pope had
accepted the conversion of the king, all his scruples were removed,
and that he could now conscientiously accept him as the sovereign of
France. But the power of the haughty duke may be seen in the terms he
exacted.

The king was compelled to declare, though he knew to the contrary,
that, all things considered, it was evident that neither the princes
nor the princesses of the League were at all implicated in the
assassination of Henry III., and to stop all proceedings in Parliament
in reference to that atrocious murder. Three fortified cities were
surrendered to the duke, to be held by him and his partisans for six
years, in pledge for the faithful observance of the terms of the
capitulation. The king also assumed all the debts which Mayenne had
contracted during the war, and granted a term of six weeks to all the
Leaguers who were still in arms to give in their adhesion and to
accept his clemency.

The king was at this time at Monceaux. The Duke of Mayenne hastened to
meet him. He found Henry riding on horseback in the beautiful park of
that place with the fair Gabrielle, and accompanied by the Duke of
Sully. Mayenne, in compliance with the obsequious etiquette of those
days, kneeled humbly before the king, embraced his knees, and,
assuring him of his entire devotion for the future, thanked the
monarch for having delivered him "from the arrogance of the Spaniards
and from the cunning of the Italians."

Henry, who had a vein of waggery about him, immediately raised the
duke, embraced him with the utmost cordiality, and, taking his arm,
without any allusion whatever to their past di