THE REGENCY.
The King, beginning to grow impatient, had summoned Monsieur de Nancey
to his room, and had just given him orders to go in search of Henry,
when the latter appeared.
On seeing his brother-in-law at the door Charles uttered a cry of joy,
but Henry stood motionless, as startled as if he had come face to face
with a corpse.
The two physicians who were at the bedside and the priest who had been
with Charles withdrew.
Charles was not loved, and yet many were weeping in the antechambers. At
the death of kings, good or bad, there are always persons who lose
something and who fear they will not find it again under the successor.
The mourning, the sobbing, the words of Catharine, the sinister and
majestic surroundings of the last moments of a king, the sight of the
King himself, suffering from a malady common enough afterwards, but
which, at that time, was new to science, produced on Henry's mind, which
was still youthful and consequently still susceptible, such a terrible
impression that in spite of his determination not to cause Charles fresh
anxiety as to his condition, he could not as we have said repress the
feeling of terror which came to his face on perceiving the dying man
dripping with blood.
Charles smiled sadly. Nothing of those around them escapes the dying.
"Come, Henriot," said he, extending his hand with a gentleness of voice
Henry had never before noticed in him. "Come in; I have been very
unhappy at not seeing you for so long. I have tormented you greatly
during my life, my poor friend, and sometimes, believe me, I have
reproached myself for it. Sometimes I have taken the hands of those who
tormented you, it is true, but a king cannot control circumstances, and
besides my mother Catharine, my brothers D'Anjou and D'Alençon, I had to
consider during my lifetime something else which was troublesome and
which ceases the moment I draw near to death--state policy."
"Sire," murmured Henry, "I remember only the love I have always had for
my brother, the respect I have always felt for my King."
"Yes, yes, you are right," said Charles, "and I am grateful to you for
saying this, Henriot, for truly you have suffered a great deal under my
reign without counting the fact that it was during my reign that your
poor mother died. But you must have seen that I was often driven?
Sometimes I have resisted, but oftener I have yielded from very fatigue.
But, as you said, let us not talk of the past. Now it is the present
which concerns me; it is the future which frightens me."
And the poor King hid his livid face in his emaciated hands.
After a moment's silence he shook his head as if to drive away all
gloomy thoughts, thus causing a shower of blood to fall about him.
"We must save the state," he continued in a low tone, leaning towards
Henry. "We must prevent its falling into the hands of fanatics or
women."
As we have just said, Charles uttered these words in a low tone, yet
Henry thought he heard behind the headboard something like a dull
exclamation of anger. Perhaps some opening made in the wall at the
instigation of Charles himself permitted Catharine to hear this final
conversation.
"Of women?" said the King of Navarre to provoke an explanation.
"Yes, Henry," said Charles, "my mother wishes the regency until my
brother returns from Poland. But mind what I tell you, he will not come
back."
"Why not?" cried Henry, whose heart gave a joyful leap.
"No, he cannot return," continued Charles, "because his subjects will
not let him leave."
"But," said Henry, "do you not suppose, brother, that the queen mother
has already written to him?"
"Yes, but Nancey stopped the courier at Château Thierry, and brought me
the letter, in which she said I was to die. I wrote to Varsovia myself,
my letter reached there, I am sure, and my brother will be watched. So,
in all probability, Henry, the throne will be vacant."
A second sound louder than the first was heard in the alcove.
"She is surely there," thought Henry, "and is listening."
Charles heard nothing.
"Now," he continued, "I am dying without male heir." Then he stopped. A
sweet thought seemed to light up his face, and, laying his hand on the
King of Navarre's shoulder:
"Alas!" said he, "do you remember, Henriot, the poor little boy I showed
you one evening sleeping in his silken cradle, watched over by an angel?
Alas! Henriot, they will kill him!"
"Oh, sire!" cried Henry, whose eyes filled with tears, "I swear to you
that I will watch over him all the days and nights of my life. Command
me, my King."
"Thanks, Henriot, thanks!" said Charles, with a show of feeling unusual
in him, but which the situation had roused, "I accept your promise. Do
not make him a king,--fortunately he was not born for a throne,--but
make him happy. I have left him an independent fortune. Let him inherit
his mother's nobility, that of the heart. Perhaps it would be better for
him if he were to enter the church. He would inspire less fear. Oh! it
seems to me that I should die, if not happy, at least calm, if I had the
kisses of the child and the sweet face of its mother to console me."
"Sire, could you not send for them?"
"Ah, poor wretches! They would never be allowed to leave the Louvre!
Such is the condition of kings, Henriot. They can neither live nor die
as they please. But since you promise I am more resigned."
Henry reflected.
"Yes, no doubt, my King. I have promised, but can I keep my word?"
"What do you mean?"
"Shall I not be persecuted, and threatened like him, even more than him?
For I am a man, and he is only a child."
"You are mistaken," said Charles; "after my death you shall be great and
powerful. Here is what will make you so."
And the King drew a parchment from under the pillow.
"See!" said he.
Henry glanced over the document sealed with the royal seal.
"The regency for me, sire!" said he, growing pale with joy.
"Yes, for you, until the return of the Duc d'Anjou, and as in all
probability the duke will never return it is not the regency only but
the throne that this gives you."
"The throne!" murmured Henry.
"Yes," said Charles, "you alone are worthy of it; you alone are capable
of governing these debauched gallants, and these bold women who live by
blood and tears. My brother D'Alençon is a traitor, and would deceive
every one. Leave him in the prison in which I have placed him. My mother
will try to kill you, therefore banish her. My brother D'Anjou in three
or four months, perhaps in a year, will leave Varsovia and will come to
dispute the throne with you. Answer him by a bull from the pope. I have
already arranged that matter through my ambassador, the Duc de Nevers,
and you will receive the document before long."
"Oh, my King!"
"You have but one thing to fear, Henry,--civil war; but by remaining
converted you will avoid this, for the Huguenots are strong only when
you put yourself at their head, and Monsieur de Condé is nothing when
opposed to you. France is a country of plains, Henry, and consequently a
Catholic country. The King of France ought to be the king of the
Catholics and not the king of the Huguenots, for the King of France
ought to be the king of the majority. It is said I feel remorse for the
massacre of Saint Bartholomew; doubts, yes; remorse, no. It is said I
am bleeding the blood of those Huguenots from every pore. I know what is
flowing from me. It is arsenic and not blood."
"What do you mean, sire?"
"Nothing. If my death must be avenged, Henriot, it must be avenged by
God alone. Let us speak now of the future. I leave you a faithful
parliament and a trusty army. Lean on them and they will protect you
against your only enemies--my mother and the Duc d'Alençon."
Just then the sound of arms and military commands were heard in the
vestibule.
"I am dead!" murmured Henry.
"You fear? You hesitate?" said Charles, anxiously.
"I! sire," replied Henry; "no, I do not fear, nor do I hesitate. I
accept."
Charles pressed Henry's hand. At that moment the nurse approached with a
drink she had been preparing in the adjoining room, not knowing that the
fate of France was being decided three feet from her.
"Call my mother, nurse, and have Monsieur d'Alençon also summoned."