the events, and perhaps
conscience-stricken by the tragedy which in the eleventh hour she had
sought to avert, burst into tears at sight of Sully, and brought in the
Dauphin, who flung himself upon the Duke's neck.

"My son," the Queen addressed him, "this is Monsieur de Sully. You must
love him well, for he was one of the best and most faithful servants of
the King your father, and I entreat him to continue to serve you in the
same manner."

Words so fair might have convinced a man less astute that all his
suspicions were unworthy. But, even then, the sequel would very quickly
have undeceived him. For very soon thereafter his fall was brought about
by the Concinis and their creatures, so that no obstacle should remain
between themselves and the full gratification of their fell ambitions.

At once he saw the whole policy of the dead King subversed; he saw the
renouncing of all ancient alliances, and the union of the crowns
of France and Spain; the repealing of all acts of pacification; the
destruction of the Protestants; the dissipation of the treasures amassed
by Henry; the disgrace of those who would not receive the yoke of the
new favourites. All this Sully witnessed in his declining years, and he
witnessed, too, the rapid rise to the greatest power and dignity in the
State of that Florentine adventurer, Concino Concini--now bearing the
title of Marshal d'Ancre--who had so cunningly known how to profit by a
Queen's jealousy and a King's indiscretions.

As for the miserable Ravaillac, it is pretended that he maintained under
torture and to the very hour of his death that he had no accomplices,
that what he had done he had done to prevent an unrighteous war against
Catholicism and the Pope--which was, no doubt, the falsehood with which
those who used him played upon his fanaticism and whetted him to their
service. I say "pretended" because, after all, complete records of his
examinations are not discoverable, and there is a story that when at the
point of death, seeing himself abandoned by those in whom perhaps he had
trusted, he signified a desire to confess, and did so confess; but the
notary Voisin, who took his depositions in articulo mortis, set them
down in a hand so slovenly as to be afterwards undecipherable.

That may or may not be true. But the statement that when the President
du Harlay sought to pursue inquiries into certain allegations by a woman
named d'Escoman, which incriminated the Duc d'Epernon, h