r.

Towards the close of the year, intelligence having reached Henry that
the Prince de Joinville, who was serving in the army of the Archduke,
had, in his turn, suffered himself to be seduced from his allegiance by
the Spaniards, he gave instant orders for his arrest; but the Prince no
sooner found himself a prisoner than he declared his readiness to
confess everything, provided he were permitted to do so to the King in
person and in the presence of Sully. His terms were complied with; and,
as both Henry and his minister had anticipated from the frivolous and
inconsequent character of their new captive, it at once became apparent
that no idea of treason had been blent with the follies of which he had
been guilty, but that they had merely owed their origin to his idle love
of notoriety. A correspondence with Spain had become, as we have shown,
the fashion at the French Court; and Joinville had accordingly, in order
to increase his importance, resolved to effect in his turn an
understanding with that country. During his audience of the King he so
thoroughly betrayed the utter puerility of his proceedings that the
monarch at once resolved to treat him as a silly and headstrong youth,
towards whom any extreme measure of severity would be alike unnecessary
and undignified; and he had consequently no sooner heard Joinville's
narration to an end than he desired the presence of his mother the
Duchesse de Guise and his brother the Duke,[206] and as they entered
the royal closet, somewhat startled by so sudden a summons, he said,
directing their attention to the delinquent: "There stands the prodigal
son in person; he has filled his head with follies; but I shall treat
him as a child and forgive him for your sakes, although only on
condition that you reprimand him seriously; and that you, my nephew,"
addressing himself particularly to the Duke, "become his guarantee for
the future. I place him in your charge, in order that you may teach him
wisdom if it be possible."

In obedience to this command M. de Guise, who was well aware with how
rash and intemperate a spirit he was called upon to contend, at once,
with the royal sanction, reconducted Joinville to his prison, where
during several months the young Prince exhausted himself in threats,
murmurs, and every species of verbal extravagance, until wearied by the
monotony of confinement he finally subsided into repentance, and was,
upon his earnest promise of amendment, permitted