Volume I Part 25 (1/2)

”You are two fools to amuse yourselves with these absurd prognostics,”

said Henry, who had approached them unheard during their momentary excitement. ”For the last thirty years all the astrologers and mountebanks in the kingdom, as well as a host of other impostors, have predicted at given intervals that I was about to die, so that when the time comes some of these prophecies must prove correct and will be quoted as miracles, while all the false ones will be studiously forgotten.”

The young n.o.bles received the rebuke in silence; but the inexplicable accident which had just occurred was sufficient in so superst.i.tious an age to arouse the liveliest forebodings in the minds of those by whom it was witnessed.[430]

FOOTNOTES:

[391] Mademoiselle de Montmorency was the daughter of Henri, first of the name, Duc de Montmorency, Marshal and Constable of France, celebrated in the history of the civil wars under the name of Damville, who died on the 2nd of April 1614, and of Louise de Budos, his second wife, who had, on her appearance at Court, attracted the attention of the King. This lady, who became the wife of the Connetable in 1593, died in 1598. Charlotte Marguerite was born in 1594, and was consequently but fifteen years of age when she entered the household of the Queen.

[392] Bentivoglio, _Della Fuga del Principe di Conde_.

[393] Ba.s.sompierre, _Mem_. p. 53.

[394] Ba.s.sompierre, _Mem_. p. 55.

[395] Hector de Pardaillan, Seigneur de Montespan, who died in 1611, at the advanced age of eighty years. He was the father of Antoine-Arnauld de Pardaillan, first Marquis d'Antin, grandfather of Roger-Hector, Marquis d'Antin, great-grandfather of Louis-Henri, Marquis de Montespan, the husband of Franchise Athenais de Rochechouart-Mortemart, the celebrated favourite of Louis XIV.

[396] _Memoires_, p. 55.

[397] Mezeray, vol. x. p. 369.

[398] _Memoires_, p. 56.

[399] Mezeray, vol. x. p. 365.

[400] _Memoires_, p. 58.

[401] Sully, _Mem_. vol. vii. p. 189.

[402] Sully, _Mem_. vol. vii. pp. 191, 192.

[403] Mezeray, vol. x. pp. 370, 371.

[404] Montfaucon, vol. v. p. 425.

[405] Daniel, vol. vii. p. 498.

[406] Dreux du Radier, vol. vii. pp. 115, 116.

[407] Alexandre, Comte d'Elbene, celebrated for his military talent and prowess under Henri III and Henri IV.

[408] _Memoires_, p. 67.

[409] Francois Annibal d'Estrees, Marquis de Coeuvres, subsequently duke, peer, and Marshal of France, was the son of Jean d'Estrees, Grand Master of Artillery, and the representative of an ancient and ill.u.s.trious family. He was born in 1563, originally entered the Church, and became Bishop of Laon, to which see he was promoted by Henri IV himself. He, however, some time afterwards, abandoned the ecclesiastical profession and embraced that of arms. In this new career he soon distinguished himself. In 1626 he relieved the Duke of Mantua, took Treves, and made himself conspicuous alike by his valour and his talent.

When appointed, in 1636, amba.s.sador-extraordinary to Rome, he maintained the interests of his sovereign with energy and perseverance, and his frankness and decision caused a misunderstanding between himself and Urban VIII. On his recall to France he refused to explain or to palliate his conduct, and died, leaving behind him the _Memoirs of the Regency of Marie de Medicis._