The making of a king (20 page)

" Good-night, Mamanga" he said. " I wish you not to cry. Laugh."

The King, who retained his misplaced confidence in the gouvernante, wrote her a kindly letter of condolence, proceeding to enumerate "in a lighter tone the consolations remaining to her :

" Believe that, if God has deprived you of one good husband, He has given you, at the same time, another, and has also left you a good King and a good master who will take care of you. " My son will be henceforth your husband, and I your good King and master, and will show how much to my taste your services have been, and still are. I have commanded in especial the Sieur de la Chesnaye, who takes you this letter, and whom I have expressly sent to visit you, to assure you of this, and to say that the affection you have hitherto shown for my son, and the care you have taken of him and of my other children, causes me to forbid you to go into retreat for the quarantaine, which is to give yourself up to weeping and mourning, since the care of my children rests upon you, and will serve you as an excuse and as consolation in your just grief."

The autumn of this year was passed at Noisy, owing to the appearance of the plague at Saint-Germain. At the chateau, as soon as it was considered safe to return thither, the Verneuil brother and sister were christened, the names chosen for them being, strangely enough, Henri and Gabrielle—the King's own name and that of the woman whose place their mother filled in his affections. When the matter first came to the Dauphin's ears he had uttered a vehement

Baptism of the Verneuil Children 143

protest with regard to the honour done to his half-brother.

" I will not have it ! " he cried. " 1 will not call him Henri. He will have more than I. I am called Louis."

With difficulty he was pacified. H£roard, however, took an opportunity to recount the story of St. Louis, now a saint in heaven, and who had borne his name on earth. The child's objections were overcome, and he and little Madame stood sponsors for the children of the Marquise.

CHAPTER XII 1608

Marriage projects—The Chevalier Guidi at Court — Difficulties with the Queen —The Dauphin's fear of parsimony — Betrothal of the Due de Vendome—Don Pedro de Toledo's mission.

DURING the year 1608 Henri was much engaged in arranging marriages for his children. Whether or not his anxiety in the matter resulted from a conviction of the insecurity of his own tenure on life, he appears to have been eager to provide without delay for those whom his death would leave without a protector. Who, their father removed, would care for the fortunes of Gabrielle's children, or what would befall the son and daughter of the Marquise ?

The more important political question of the marriages of his legitimate children had also to be dealt with ; and in the course of the summer the Spanish project, hitherto scarcely more practical than that which assigned the King's eldest daughter to the Prince of Wales, was to become a serious possibility. At present little Madame had been taught to speak of England as her future home, her brother kindly holding out hopes that he would visit her there, although dissenting emphatically from the suggestion

that he might sometimes cross the Channel in secret.

The Spanish Marriage Question 145

Papa y Louis objected, would in that case whip him when he came back. Nothing must be done without the King's permission.

The infant Due d'Orleans was already betrothed, his promised bride being Mademoiselle de Mont-pensier, one of the wealthiest heiresses of France, who eventually became the wife of Henri's third son, and was the mother of La Grande Mademoiselle. The engagement of the Duke was made use of by the Dauphin's attendants to raise the question of his own marriage, and to renew their efforts to excite his interest in the Infanta. Would he not, some one inquired, like to be married as well as his younger brother ? The Infanta, he was further informed, had his portrait in her possession. A Breton gentleman who paid a visit to Saint-Germain on his way home from Spain had wonderful tales to recount both of the Princess's beauty and of her affection for Monseigneur the Dauphin —tales to which Louis, in spite of an assumption of indifference, was observed to lend an attentive ear. It was said that she desired to put on a disguise that she might see him ; and again, that she had been forbidden by the King of Spain to speak of her love for Monseigneur.

Louis's interest was by this time fully roused.

" I will beat that King of Spain well," he exclaimed.

" When I am fourteen," he said some weeks later, " they will talk of marrying me." And again his attendants took advantage of the opening to reintro-duce the subject of Spain, and to repeat a story he much approved—to the effect that, playing at a game where ambassadors came from all parts of the world

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to wait upon her, the Infanta was accustomed to distinguish Louis's representative beyond all the rest, by causing him to be seated and covered in her presence.

Whilst it was thus plainly the object of the Dauphin's household to prepare his mind to look favourably on the prospect of the Spanish match, the King, if in no way disposed to fall unreservedly into the project, appears at this time to have lent it a certain amount of countenance. In February he looked on, in the company of two Jesuits—one of whom was a Spaniard—at a ballet performed by his children, his pride and pleasure finding vent in tears of joy ; and the Spanish priest was further entrusted with a gift for the Infanta, in the shape of an autograph maxim— u Le sage £coute le conseil qu'on lui donne "—in Louis's own handwriting.

The future of Henri de Verneuil was also being cared for ; there was indeed no fear that his mother would allow him to be overlooked. For him the Church was to provide a career ; and it was hoped that when a dispensation from Rome should have overcome the obstacles presented by his youth and by the irregularity of his birth, he would be placed without delay in possession of the Bishopric of Metz. The Marquise was continually pressing for the completion of the transaction, and by February the Cathedral chapter had been dealt with so successfully that a deputation from that body waited upon the little Marquis and recognised in him their future head.

Another of the King's projects was doomed to failure. He had conceived a desire to marry his daughter, Catherine de Vendome, to Sully's son, for whom he cherished a fatherly affection, and who would furthermore

inherit the large fortune the minister was amassing. Two hindrances barred the way. Young Rosny was already betrothed. It was, moreover, desirable that, before so close an alliance took place with the royal house, Sully himself, as well as his son, should abjure his Protestantism and embrace the Catholic faith. Eager for the accomplishment of his wishes, neither hindrance appeared to Henri insuperable, and he set himself with ardour to clear them from his path. He, the King, had found his way into the Catholic fold ; why then, he may have questioned, should not his faithful friend and servant follow him ? Sully, though stiff in his uprightness, was not supposed to be inaccessible to bribes, and Henri's offers were liberal. Marriage and conversion granted, the Duke was to be promised the reversion of the posts of Constable and of the government of Normandy.

The position taken up by the minister was clearly defined. With regard to the marriage he seems to have felt no scruple in setting aside, at his master's behest, the engagements into which he had entered. He was, he said, ready to make the King a present of his son ; let him do with him what he would. He would counsel the young man to yield obedience to the royal command. Religion was a different matter. To Henri's envoy, the Cardinal du Perron, Sully frankly confessed that he had long ago done his best to become a Catholic. His efforts had been vain ; and, though the singular toleration he had always shown in ecclesiastical matters, the fairness and justice of his dealings where Catholic interests were concerned, had roused his co-religionists to suspicion and caused them

to entertain fears that he might follow his master's example, he had remained firm in his principles. For reasons he now detailed to the Cardinal he had found it impossible to reconcile to his satisfaction the Gospel and the Church, an3 he held out no hopes that his convictions would be shaken. Henri, though regretfully, shifted his ground. Since Sully cherished more affection for the Huguenots than for the King, he told him reproachfully, he would say no more on that point ; reiterating, however, his demand that he would order his son to embrace the Catholic faith. Again Sully refused. His son was in Henri's hands, he repeated, to do what he would with him, nor would he dissuade him from yielding obedience in the matter at issue. But he must leave him free to make his own decision. Young Rosny showed no disposition to defer to the King's wishes in theological affairs, and the marriage negotiation collapsed.

In March Don Giovanni, the Queen's uncle, who had, irregularly and so much to his niece's dissatisfaction, filled the post of the Grand-duke's representative for the last eighteen months, took his departure. His sudden request for permission to quit the French Court was proffered on his return from an entertainment given by Concini in honour of the baptism of a daughter to whom the King himself, with the Princesse de Conde, had acted as sponsor. It was imagined in some quarters that his departure was due to this fresh proof of favour, accorded to a countryman for whom he had little liking. To the Queen his departure will have brought relief; and he could be the better spared in consequence of the arrival of a

Photo by Levy et ses fils, after the painting by Rubens.

MARIE DE MEDICIS. P- 148]

certain Chevalier Camillo Guidi di Volterra, as accredited envoy from Florence.

A practised diplomatist, the new agent had been supplied with careful and detailed instructions, more especially as to the line of conduct he was to enjoin upon the Queen. She was to be urged to subordinate her private and domestic grievances to the welfare of the State ; to induce the King to take all possible care of his life ; and, though with dignity, not to refuse to lend herself to the furtherance of his pleasures. By so doing she would increase his afFection for herself and defeat the malice of her enemies. The favour she showed towards Concini and his wife had called forth the Grand-duke's strongest disapproval, and he alluded to it with severity. It was, he said, odious, if not scandalous.

On Guidi's introduction to the Court he may have reasonably imagined that the difficulties of his mission had been painted in unduly dark colours. If the King, inclined to resent the Grand-duke's attitude with regard to Spanish affairs, showed at first some coldness towards the envoy, it quickly wore off; and, politics having been dismissed, he became gay and friendly, drawing the Chevalier's attention more than once to the brightness displayed by the Dauphin or by others of the children present at the audience, and making inquiries as to what he thought of the Queen.

" Does she not seem to you in good health ? " he demanded. " Is she not looking well ? Have I not taken good care of her for you ? "

The Tuscan, as in duty bound, replied with enthusi-