wonderful
partisan qualities--the secrecy, skill, and daring of his enterprises,
which first laid the foundation of his fortune, by drawing to his standard
many of those restless spirits, let loose over the country by the former
wars, who in every age are attracted by the courage, capacity, and
liberality of a leader. He was thus enabled to augment the little army of
the Huguenots by a considerable accession of bold and valuable soldiers
from the opposite faith, but who cared more for the capacity of their
leader than for either the psalms of the Huguenots or the high mass of the
Catholics.

By degrees, many even of the Romish nobility, penetrated with admiration
at the manner in which the heir of the crown combated for his rights,
joined his standard, in the secret hope that when he came to the throne he
would revert to the faith of the majority of his subjects. He won all
hearts, even in the enemy's ranks, by his generosity, humanity, and heroic
spirit. The soldiers worshipped the hero who shared all their hardships,
and whose greatest pleasure was ever to be the first in advancing into the
enemy's fire; the officers were filled with enthusiasm for the prince who
treated them all with the hearty courtesy of the camp, and claimed no
distinction save that which all felt to be due to pre-eminent valour and
never-failing capacity. Even his weaknesses augmented the general interest
in his character; and when it was known that the leader whose exploits
riveted the attention of all Europe, not unfrequently stole from the
council-board or the tent to pursue some fugitive fair one through a
forest, or subdue the obduracy of high-born beauty, by watching all night
before her castle walls, the age of romance seemed to have returned to the
earth, and all hearts were interested in the hero who appeared to unite
the greatness of ancient patriotism with the spirit of modern chivalry.

Nor did Henry's conduct, when he had taken Paris and conquered the throne,
belie the expectations formed by this brilliant dawn of his career. He
proved not merely a warrior, but the father of his people. Great projects
of amelioration were set on foot--greater still were in preparation, when
he perished by the hand of Ravaillac. His celebrated saying, that he
"hoped to see the time when every peasant should have his fowl in his
pot," reveals the paternal spirit of his government. It is vain to say
these were the acts of his ministers; that Sully was t