each of whom the
royal infant was successively presented; and this ceremony was no sooner
terminated than, bending over him with passionate fondness, he audibly
invoked a blessing upon his head; and then placing his sword in the tiny
hand as yet unable to grasp it, "May you use it, my son," he exclaimed,
"to the glory of God, and in defence of your crown and people." [142] He
next approached the bed of the Queen: "_M'amie_" he said tenderly,
"rejoice! God has given us what we asked." [143] Mezeray and Matthieu
both assert that the birth of the Dauphin was preceded by an earthquake,
which, with the usual superstition of the period, was afterwards
declared to have been a forewarning of the ceaseless wars by which
Europe was convulsed during his reign.[144]

Rejoicings were general throughout the whole country, and were augmented
by the fact that more than eighty years had elapsed since the birth of a
successor to the crown who had been eligible to bear the title of
Dauphin,--Francis II having come into the world before his father Henri
II was on the throne, who had himself only attained to that title after
the death of his elder brother Francis, who was born in 1517.[145] "Te
Deums" were chanted in all the churches; salvos of artillery were
discharged at the Arsenal; fireworks, bonfires, and illuminations made a
city of flame of Paris for several successive nights; while joyous
acclamations rent the air, and the gratified citizens congratulated each
other as they perambulated the streets as though each had experienced
some personal benefit. The fact that Anne of Austria, the daughter of
Philip III of Spain, was born only five days previous to the Dauphin,
was another source of delight to the French people, who regarded the
circumstance as an earnest of the future union of the two kingdoms, a
prophecy which was afterwards fulfilled by the marriage of the two
royal children.

We have already made more than one allusion to the belief in magic,
sorcery, and astrology which at this period had obtained in France, and
by which many, even of the most enlightened of her nobles and citizens,
suffered themselves to be trammelled and deluded; and however much we of
the present day may be inclined to pity or to despise so great a
weakness, we shall do well to remember that human progress during the
last sixty years has been more marked and certain than that which had
taken place in the lapse of the three previous centuries. It is tru