f an ambitious young man in such
an event, who ardently loved both his mother and the crown which she
wore, as by the loss of the one he gained the other. The cloud of his
grief was embellished with the gilded edgings of joy. The Prince of
Bearn now assumed the title and the style of the King of Navarre, and
honored the memory of his noble mother with every manifestation of
regret and veneration. This melancholy event caused the postponement
of the marriage ceremony for a short time, as it was not deemed
decorous that epithalamiums should be shouted and requiems chanted
from the same lips in the same hour. The knell tolling the burial of
the dead would not blend harmoniously with the joyous peals of the
marriage bell. Henry was not at all annoyed by this delay, for no
impatient ardor urged him to his nuptials. Marguerite, annoyed by the
opposition which Henry's mother had expressed in regard to the
alliance, and vexed by the utter indifference which her betrothed
manifested toward her person, indulged in all the wayward humors of a
worse than spoiled child. She studiously displayed her utter disregard
for Henry, which manifestations, with the most provoking
indifference, he did not seem even to notice.

During this short interval the Protestant nobles continued to flock to
Paris, that they might honor with their presence the marriage of the
young chief. The Admiral Coligni was, by very special exertions on the
part of Catharine and Charles, lured to the metropolis. He had
received anonymous letters warning him of his danger. Many of his more
prudent friends openly remonstrated against his placing himself in the
power of the perfidious queen. Coligni, however, was strongly attached
to Henry, and, in defiance of all these warnings, he resolved to
attend his nuptials. "I confide," said he, "in the sacred word of his
majesty."

Upon his arrival in the metropolis, Catharine and Charles lavished
upon him the most unbounded manifestations of regard. The king,
embracing the admiral, exclaimed, "This is the happiest day of my
life." Very soon one of the admiral's friends called upon him to take
leave, saying that he was immediately about to retire into the
country. When asked by the admiral the cause of his unexpected
departure, he replied, "I go because they caress you too much, and I
would rather save myself with fools than perish with sages."

At length the nuptial day arrived. It was the seventeenth of August,
1572. Pari