, the queen mother's perfumer[888]--a man
who boasted of his acquaintance with the Italian art of poisoning--and had
almost instantly felt the effects of some subtle powder with which they
were impregnated. To contradict this and other sinister stories, the king
ordered an examination of her remains to be made; but no corroborative
evidence was discovered. It is true that the physicians are said to have
avoided, ostensibly through motives of humanity, any dissection of the
brain, where alone the evidence could have been found.[889] Be this as it
may, the charge of poisoning is met so uniformly in the literature of the
sixteenth century, on occasion of every sudden death, that the most
credulous reader becomes sceptical as to its truth, and prefers to indulge
the hope that perhaps the age may not have been quite so bad as it was
represented by contemporaries.

The Prince of Bearn now became King of Navarre; and, as the court went
into mourning for the deceased queen, his nuptials with Margaret of Valois
were deferred until the month of August.

[Sidenote: Coligny and the boy king.]

Admiral Coligny, instead of returning to La Rochelle after his friendly
reception at the court at Blois, had gone to Chatillon, where his ruined
country-seat and devastated plantations had great need of his
presence.[890] Here he was soon afterward joined by his wife, travelling
from La Rochelle with a special safe-conduct from the king, the preamble
of which declared Charles's will and intention to retain Coligny near his
own person, "in order to make use of him in his most grave and important
affairs, as a worthy minister, whose virtue is sufficiently known and
tried."[891] Coligny was not left long in his rural retirement. Charles
expressed, and probably felt, profound disgust with his former advisers,
and knew not whom to trust. On one occasion, about this time, he held a
conversation with Teligny respecting the Flemish war. Teligny had just
entreated his Majesty not to mention to the queen mother the details into
which he entered--a promise which Charles readily gave, and swore with his
ordinary profanity to observe. And then the poor young king, with a
desperation which must enlist our sympathy in his behalf, undertook to
explain to Coligny's son-in-law his own solitude in the midst of a
crowded court. There was no one, he said, upon whom he could rely for
sound counsel, or for the execution of his plans. Tavannes was prudent,
indeed;