about this rival. On the 18th of
February, 1563, the Duke of Guise was vigorously pushing forward the
siege of Orleans, the stronghold of the Protestants, stoutly defended by
Coligny. He was apprised that his wife, the Duchess Anne d'Este, had
just arrived at a castle near the camp with the intention of using her
influence over her husband in order to spare Orleans from the terrible
consequences of being taken by assault. He mounted his horse to go and
join her, and he was chatting to his aide-de-camp Rostaing about the
means of bringing about a pacification, when, on arriving at a cross-road
where several ways met, he felt himself struck in the right shoulder,
almost under the arm, by a pistol-shot fired from behind a hedge at a
distance of six or seven paces. A white plume upon his head had made him
conspicuous, and as, for so short a ride, he had left off his cuirass,
three balls had passed through him from side to side. "That shot has
been in keeping for me a long while," said he: "I deserve it for not
having taken precautions." He fell upon his horse's neck, as he vainly
tried to draw his sword from the scabbard; his arm refused its office.

[Illustration: The Duke of Guise waylaid---315]

When he had been removed to the castle, where the duchess, in tears,
received him, "I am vexed at it," said he, "for the honor of France;" and
to his son Henry, Prince of Joinville, a boy of thirteen, he added,
kissing him, "God grant you grace, my son, to become a good man." He
languished for six days, amidst useless attentions paid him by his
surgeons, giving Catherine de' Medici, who came daily to see him, the
most pacific counsels, and taking of the duchess his wife the most tender
farewells mingled with the most straightforward and honest avowals. "I
do not mean to deny," he said to her, "that the counsels and frailties of
youth have led me sometimes into something at which you had a right to be
offended; I pray you to be pleased to excuse me and forgive me." His
brother, the Cardinal de Guise, Bishop of Metz, which the duke had so
gloriously defended against Charles V., warned him that it was time to
prepare himself for death by receiving the sacraments of the church.
"Ah! my dear brother," said the duke to him, "I have loved you greatly in
times past, but I love you now still more than ever, for you are doing me
a truly brotherly turn." On the 24th of February they still offered him
aliment to sustain his rapidl