Henry's corpse,[972] preferring to provide for their own
safety and future influence by being present at the meeting of the
States. The paltry convoy of Francis from Orleans to the royal vaults of
St. Denis presented so unfavorable a contrast to the pompous ceremonial
of his father's interment, that it was wittily said, "that the mortal
enemy of the Huguenots had not been able to escape being himself buried
like a Huguenot."[973] A bitter taunt aimed at the unfaithfulness and
ingratitude of the Guises fell under their own eyes. A slip of paper was
found pinned to the velvet funereal pall, on which were written--with
allusion to that famous chamberlain of Charles the Seventh, who, seeing
his master's body abandoned by the courtiers that had flocked to do
obeisance to his son and successor, himself buried it with great pomp
and at his own expense--the words: "Where is Messire Tanneguy du
Chastel? _But he was a Frenchman!_"[974]

[Sidenote: Navarre's opportunity.]

[Sidenote: His contemptible character.]

[Sidenote: Adroitness and success of Catharine.]

Never had prince of the blood a finer opportunity for maintaining the
right, while asserting his own just claims, than fell to the lot of
Antoine of Navarre. The sceptre had passed from the grasp of a youth of
uncertain majority to that of a boy who was incontestably a minor.
Charles, the second son of Henry the Second, who now succeeded his older
brother, was only ten years of age. It was beyond dispute that the
regency belonged to Antoine as the first prince of the blood. Every
sentiment of self-respect dictated that he should assume the high rank
to which his birth entitled him,[975] and that, while exercising the
power with which it was associated, in restraining or punishing the
common enemies both of the public liberties and of the family of the
Bourbons, he should protect the Huguenots, who looked up to him as their
natural defender. But the King of Navarre had, unfortunately, entered
into the humiliating compact with the queen mother, to which reference
was made in the last chapter. From this agreement he now showed no
disposition to withdraw. The utopian vision of a kingdom of Navarre,
once more restored to its former dimensions, still flitted before his
eyes, and he preferred the absolute sovereignty of this contracted
territory to the influential but dangerous regency which his friends
urged him to seize. Besides, he was sluggish, changeable, and altogether