The making of a king (19 page)

By the end of March peace had outwardly been restored to the royal household, and King and Queen had returned to Fontainebleau, where Easter was to be kept by a gay company and the birth of yet another child was expected.

Of Easter observances not the least important was

the customary ceremony of Maundy Thursday, when the King in person was wont to wash the feet of thirteen poor men. On this occasion, incapacitated by sickness—it has been observed that this was curiously often the case—Henri desired that his son should represent him; but a serious difficulty occurred. Conceiving a pronounced dislike for the task, Louis at first replied by a flat refusal ; although, when his father personally explained his wishes, he was induced to promise unwillingly to carry them out. Moreover, when the moment arrived for his obedience to be put to the proof, repulsion again gained the day. Conducted to the ballroom, which was to be the scene of the function, attended by the Princes of the Blood, and compelled to ascend the platform where the expectant poor were seated, his indignation was further roused when he became aware that his own basin had been brought into requisition ; and, drawing back, with tears, he obstinately refused to perform the office required of him, the chaplain being ultimately forced to take it upon himself. It may be that Henri was not without a certain sympathy for his son's recalcitrance, for no mention is made of the use of the rod on this occasion. The Dauphin, for his part, when asked why he had objected to do what was done by the King himself, replied by pointing out composedly that he was not King, and leaving it to be inferred that duties should be accompanied by compensations.

On Easter Monday, April 16, the King's second son was born—a little figure who, notwithstanding a loroscope predicting for him a great future, did no

more than pass across the stage, disappearing from it before the completion of his fifth year. " The King," wrote the court poet, Malherbe, " was extraordinarily rejoiced at the birth, the more so, perhaps, by reason of the child's extreme likeness to himself."

It had been at first Henri's intention that the infant should bear the simple title of Monsieur, belonging to the brother next in age to the Dauphin ; a certain income being assigned to him, to be increased should he serve his brother loyally. But the people, by common consent, had decided otherwise, and the name of Due d'Orl£ans was so promptly and generally bestowed upon the new-comer that the King bowed to the popular will, and endorsed it by conferring the title upon him.

Princes of the Blood, princesses and nobles, had gathered together as usual for the event, or visited the palace in order to pay their respects to the newborn infant; and a curious light, in the form of a luminous bird, observed by the soldiers on guard at night, was accepted by Henri as a good omen for the enterprises he had in view. He had often, he said, noticed similar phenomena on the eve of battles and sieges, and they had ever been the heralds of good fortune.

Outwardly all seemed to promise well for the prosperity of the royal house. But Marie de Medicis was brooding over her wrongs, and casting about for a means of safe-guarding herself and her four children from their foes.

Her correspondence with the Grand-duke shows that, even at this moment, the King had brought

pressure upon her to send a request to her uncle that he would release the man who, as her enemy, he still detained in captivity. In appearance Marie yielded ; the letter dictated by her husband was written. But in anticipation of a like occasion, when she might not be acting as a free agent, Marie had taken her measures beforehand. A second letter, early in June, explained that the first had been sent by constraint, and expressed her hope that by the absence of a private countersign agreed upon between uncle and niece the Grand-duke would have understood that the demand it contained did not proceed from her. She also gave vent to her dissatisfaction with Don Giovanni ; who, as her kinsman, should have contributed to her peace of mind, and had on the contrary worked her more ill than all her enemies.

" I have no other passion, no other care," she added, " than is concerned with the Marquise, and whoever declares himself on her side declares himself my enemy. Where I can, at any hour and at any time, I will severely avenge myself. Let your Highness come, in any way possible, to my assistance. Consider that to none other but yourself can I have recourse. With tears in my eyes I commend myself to you in all my present sorrows. ..." And a trembling postscript tells that the letter was written at three different times and in secret, in consequence of the King's prohibition.

Such was the bitter complaint of the mother of Henri's four children, and the condition to which she had been reduced by a man as kind-hearted and as reluctant to give pain as Henri.

Whilst courtiers regarded the state of the royal

household with curiosity or indifference, Sully, visiting Fontainebleau the day after the Due d'Orleans' birth, must have looked at the matter with sadder eyes, despairing of the restoration of the domestic peace he had laboured to promote.

He appears, during his visit, to have made an attempt to propitiate the £ood opinion of his master's son. Again there is visible in the child's demeanour the reflection of the animosity felt for the minister by those around him.

" Do you want anything ? " the Duke inquired kindly. "Ask me for it."

The boy must have known well that there were those at hand ready, on so fair an opportunity, to prompt him with petitions. Yet, after a moment, he replied in the negative.

" Nothing," he said, in cold response to the friendly invitation.

" I have asked him so often," he said afterwards, when chidden by maman Doundoun, his nurse, for not having proffered some request on her behalf,

It was probably an excuse. Louis had a distaste, often apparent, for making demands or asking favours ; and when induced, a day or two later, to beg that the nurse's desire should be gratified, it was only by constraint. Listening to Madame de Mont-glat's solicitations on behalf of others of his household, his indifference was manifested so plainly that the Duke noticed it.

" Monsieur cares nothing about it," he said, observing him.

" Si fait/* said Louis, waking up to the consciousness that he was damaging the chances of his servants ; but Sully had noted his attitude, and was at no loss to explain his ungraciousness.

More especially under present circumstances it was the Queen's policy to cause her son to take his place publicly as heir to the throne, and before the party at Fontainebleau dispersed and the children returned to Saint-Germain the Dauphin received in audience the Turkish Ambassador, treating his guest with distant courtesy, and accepting the gifts he brought with coldness. Saying by his interpreter that the poor, unable to make great gifts, offered their affection, the envoy kissed the child's hand, praying that he might preserve the amity existing between his father and Turkey. The conversation that evening was not adapted to pave the way for the fulfilment of these hopes.

" Monsieur," said his doctor, " you must one day go to Constantinople with five hundred thousand men."

c Yes," answered the Dauphin with alacrity, "I will kill all the Turks, and this one as well."

Heroard demurred. Having taken the trouble to visit him and bring him gifts, the Ambassador, in his opinion, should be spared in the general slaughter. The boy was unconvinced.

" The Turks do not believe in God," he asserted doggedly ; and, though it was explained to him that this was too sweeping a statement, he refused to relent.

"I will kill them all," he reiterated; "but I will

have Mass said before this one, and will have him afterwards baptized."

Another guest at Fontainebleau was Guise, whose visit was the occasion of an object-lesson on the danger of speaking too freely before a child who listened to all that went^ on around him. Finding the Dauphin playing with a toy monkey, the King had unwisely hazarded the remark that it bore a resemblance to the Due de Guise. Shortly after Guise himself, paying his respects to his master's son, made some inquiry as to the puppet.

" It is your likeness," answered Louis, whether in malice or innocence.

" How do you know that ?" asked the Duke.

" Papa said so," was the conclusive reply.

His ideas upon religion were clear, and he had been instructed with care, showing a keen interest in what he was taught. He would point out in chapel the prayers he wished his little sister to say, and listened eagerly to Bible stories.

" I will learn them and relate them to papa" he said proudly. " My sister will tell stories of the wasp who stung the goat, which are not true ; but I shall tell those which are true/'

On the other hand, a writer who appears to have owed a grudge to the future Louis XIII. cites instances of perversity. The child would waken in the morning refusing to say his prayers, or would threaten that he would leave Saint-Germain and go to Paris should his devotional exercises be unduly prolonged, adding airily that he told God all he ought when he went to sleep. Scenes of a disorderly character

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Madame's Rebuke

also took place in the chapel, if affairs were not conducted there to the satisfaction of the infant despot. Accustomed to bear rule in the nursery, it was difficult for him to assume a subordinate position elsewhere. It was true that occasions occurred when he received rebuffs in unexpected quarters.

"/#/ Monsieur," said his little sister, Madame, not yet five years old, one day when, at dinner, her brother had given way to an ebullition of ill-temper, " you should not act thus. You would not so much as be known to be the son of the King. One must not take fancies ; one must not give way to tempers, Monsieur. Mamanga will whip you."

Accustomed to assume a tone of masculine superiority in his intercourse with his sister, the Dauphin, cowed by this unexpected attack, remained speechless. Madame completed her admonitions.

" One does not speak thus to gouvern antes" she said in conclusion. " It is not pretty, Monsieur."

Whether the Dauphin was benefited by his sister's spirited protest does not appear. It was seldom indeed that any of his companions ventured to lift their oices in remonstrance.

In July the nursery was thrown into temporary mourning by the death of Madame de Montglat's husband. After the fashion of children, Louis caught

e contagion of tears, and wept abundantly. After

e fashion of children, he also wearied of the sight of grief. Asking on the following day to be taken to visit Mamanga^ relieved for the moment from her duties, e added a desire that she should not weep, repeating

is wish to her in person when the meeting took place.