. "Why should you be surprised, Monsieur?"
demanded Henry; "when you last saw my good city of Paris, the father of
the family did not inhabit it; and now that he is here to watch over his
children, they prosper as you see." [387]

The object of this embassy was kept a profound secret; some historians
assert that it was undertaken with a view to effect a marriage between
the Dauphin and the Infanta of Spain, while others lean to the belief
that Philip had instructed Don Pedro to endeavour to prevail upon Henry
to abandon his alliance with the Dutch. Whatever were its motive, the
ambassador, who had reached Paris on the 7th of July, quitted the
capital on the 22nd of the same month, having only succeeded in
irritating the King by his overbearing and supercilious demeanour.[388]

It would appear that during the present year Henri IV indulged his
passion for field sports to such an excess as tended seriously to alarm
those who were anxious for his preservation; and it indeed seems as
though, at this period, his leisure hours were nearly divided between
his two favourite diversions of hunting and high play. Sully informs us,
however, that the King busied himself with the embellishments of
Fontainebleau, and in erecting the Place Dauphine at Paris; but adds
that these great works, which were necessary to the convenience of the
people, might have been carried much further if the monarch would have
followed his advice and been less profuse in his personal expenditure,
particularly as regarded his gambling transactions. He advances, as a
proof of this assertion, that he was called upon on one occasion to
deliver to Eduardo Fernandez, a Portuguese banker (who, according to
Bassompierre, had made a visit of speculation to the French Court, and
who unhesitatingly provided the nobles with large sums, either on
security or at immense interest), the enormous amount of thirty-four
thousand pistoles, for which the reckless monarch had become his debtor.
"I frequently received similar orders," he proceeds to say, "for two or
three thousand pistoles, and a great many others for less considerable
sums." [389]

It is scarcely doubtful that the _ennui_ occasioned by the waning
passion of Henri IV for Madame de Verneuil at this period induced him,
even more than formerly, to seek amusement and occupation at the
gaming-table, where he was emulated by his profuse and licentious
nobles, while even his Queen and the ladies of the Court entered