tenance of a
_balance of power_--a phrase common enough now, but heard then for the
first time; and which had for its immediate purpose the separating of
the crown of Spain and the empire, by forbidding their being held by
members of the same family, and of course designed as a check upon the
Hapsburgs.

This was a pet theory with Henry, and the subject of much discussion
with Sully and of negotiation with Elizabeth, Queen of England, at the
very time when Philip II. of Spain, in pursuance of a precisely
opposite policy, had been moving heaven and earth to bring about a
marriage with that extraordinary sister of his dead wife Mary. Henry
did not witness the realization of his dream. But time has justified
its wisdom, and modern statesmanship has been able to devise no wiser
plan than that conceived in the mind of this enlightened king nearly
three centuries ago.

How much France lost by Ravaillac's dagger can only be surmised, and
when Henry, fatally stricken (1610), was carried dying into the Louvre,
a cry of grief arose from Catholic and Protestant alike throughout the
kingdom. After a reign of twenty-one years, the sagacious ruler, who
had done more than any other to make the country great and happy, was
the victim of assassination. And France once more was the sport of a
cruel fate which placed her in the hands of a woman and a Medici.
Marie, the widow of Henry IV., was appointed regent during the minority
of her son Louis aged ten years.

The regency of this woman is a story of cabals and the intrigues of
aspiring favorites. If Marie had not the ability of her great
kinswoman Catharine, it must be confessed neither had she her darker
vices. She was simply intriguing and vulgar, and the willing
instrument for designing people cleverer than herself. So powerful was
the influence of Eleonora Galigai and her husband, Concini, both
Italians like herself, that in that superstitious age it was ascribed
to magic. Marie became the mere secretary to record the wishes of
these parasites. Concini was made marquis, then minister. Whom he
commended was elevated, and whom he denounced was abased. Public
indignation reached its climax when this adventurer was finally created
Marshal of France, before whom counts and dukes must bow. So furious
was the storm raised by this, that Marie declared her willingness to
surrender the regency, and after summoning the States General she
presented her son, Louis XIII., thirteen