ot that which lay within the prescription
of King Philip, but that which arose from her own broken and humiliated
spirit. She had been uplifted a moment by a glorious hope, to be cast
down again into the blackest despair, to which a shame unspeakable and a
tortured pride were added.

Than hers, as I have said, there is in history no sadder story.

V. THE END OF THE "VERT GALANT"

The Assassination of Henry IV

In the year 1609 died the last Duke of Cleves, and King Henry IV. of
France and Navarre fell in love with Charlotte de Montmorency.

In their conjunction these two events were to influence the destinies of
Europe. In themselves they were trivial enough, since it was as much
a commonplace that an old gentleman should die as that Henry of Bearn
should fall in love. Love had been the main relaxation of his otherwise
strenuous life, and neither the advancing years--he was fifty-six
at this date--nor the recriminations of Maria de' Medici, his
long-suffering Florentine wife, sufficed to curb his zest.

Possibly there may have been a husband more unfaithful than King Henry;
probably there was not. His gallantries were outrageous, his taste in
women catholic, and his illegitimate progeny outnumbered that of his
grandson, the English sultan Charles II. He differs, however, from
the latter in that he was not quite as Oriental in the manner of his
self-indulgence. Charles, by comparison, was a mere dullard who turned
Whitehall into a seraglio. Henry preferred the romantic manner, the high
adventure, and knew how to be gallant in two senses.

This gallantry of his is not, perhaps, seen to best advantage in the
affair of Charlotte de Montmorency To begin with he was, as I have said,
in his fifty-sixth year, an age at which it is difficult, without being
ridiculous, to unbridle a passion for a girl of twenty. Unfortunately
for him, Charlotte does not appear to have found him so. On the
contrary, her lovely, empty head was so turned by the flattery of his
addresses, that she came to reciprocate the passion she inspired.

Her family had proposed to marry her to the gay and witty Marshal de
Bassompierre; and although his heart was not at all engaged, the marshal
found the match extremely suitable, and was willing enough, until the
King declared himself. Henry used the most impudent frankness.

"Bassompierre, I will speak to you as a friend," said he. "I am in love,
and desperately in love, with Mademoiselle d