Henriques

“ Now the hearts of Peter and Margaret leaped within them, for at the end of this hideous troop rode a man mounted on an ass, clothed in a zamarra and coroza, but with a noose about his neck. So the Fray Henriques had told the truth, for without doubt this was John Castell. Like people in a dream, they saw him advance in his garb of shame, and after him, gorgeously attired, civil officers, inquisitors, and familiars of noble rank, members of the Council of Inquisition, behind whom was borne a flaunting banner, called the Holy Standard of the Faith. ”

“ Kill him out of the way, I say, and burn his body in the oven.”
Now Henriques fell upon his knees, and with groans and tears began to implore mercy.
“Why do you complain so?” asked Inez, watching him with reflective eyes. “The end would be much gentler than that which you righteous folk mete out to many more honest men, yes, and women too. For my part, I think that the Señor Bernaldez gives good counsel. Better that you should die, who are but one, than all of us and others, for you will understand that we cannot trust you. Has any one got a rope?” ”

“ I am not so vain.”
“I know it, Señor, you are too good a man to be vain. Well, I do all these things, not for love of you, or any one, but for hate—for hate. Yes, for hate of Morella,” and she clenched her little hand, hissing the words out between her teeth.
“I understand the feeling,” said Peter. “But—but what has he done to you?”
“Do not ask me, Señor. Enough that once I loved him—that accursed priest Henriques sold me into his power—oh! a long while ago, and he ruined me, making me what I am, and—I bore his child, and—and it is dead. Oh! ”

“ It was a long time before I could get a word in, and then I brought them back to the real point. “Sampayo told me that after my interview with him he begged you to get rid of me by doing what I wanted—freeing Miralda from all this trouble. But you refused and tried to get rid of me in another way—by inciting Henriques to murder me.”
“It is a lie, a lie. It is all lies,” he exclaimed furiously.
“Well then, why have you kept Miralda in the toils? If Sampayo lied, what is the truth?”
That roused Inez again, and another altercation followed, fiercer even and more prolonged than the first. ”

“ Thou’lt live in happiness all thy life,
In uninterrupted pleasure.
And I will very patient be
E’en ’neath thy reviling and curses;
But we must part most certainly
If thou abusest my verses.
91.
Little by thee comprehended,
Little knew I thee, good brother;
When we in the mud descended
Soon we understood each other.
92.
Near me dwelleth Don Henriques,
As the “handsome” known and fêted;
Our apartments are adjoining,
By a thin wall separated.
Salamanca’s dames are blushing
As he in the streets is walking
Rattling spurs, mustachios twirling,
With his dogs behind him stalking. ”

“ Now 'tis plain,
I apprehend you: and were he remov'd—
Viol.
You, once again, were the undoubted heir.
Jam.
'Tis not to be deny'd; I was ice before,
But now ye have fir'd me.—
Viol.
I'le add fuel to it,
And by a nearer cut, do you but steer
As I direct you, wee'l bring our Bark into
The Port of happiness.
Jam.
How?
Viol.
By Henriques death:
But you'l say he's your Brother; in great fortunes
(Which are epitomes of States and Kingdoms)
The politick brook no Rivals. ”

“ When the king found that his plan had failed, he was filled with anger at the old man who [302] had invented it, that he sent and cut off his head, and then he sat trembling with fear at the vengeance Don Henrique might take. So, when they brought him his message, he received it with gladness, and ordered that all who had Christian slaves in their house should give them up to Don Henrique. And, as Don Henrique’s galleys were not enough to contain all the multitude of captives he had saved, the king ordered others to be lent him, so that only the danger might be removed from his coast. ”

“ I doubt not that Henry would, not unwillingly, fasten some quarrel on me. He has his army at hand and, did he march hither, he could seize my lands, and those of my nephew, and partition them out among his friends; for I am in no condition to strike a single blow in my defence. We know, well enough, that when a king wishes to get rid of one of his nobles, there is never any great difficulty in finding a pretext for his arrest, and execution. ”

“ Henri started, as though the thought were new to him. "Those would be strange jewels for the diadem on a monarch's brow," he said. "Yet, after all, the world—here in Paris as well as where I have been in Poland—can bear witness to 'long-suffering, gentleness, goodness.' Of 'love, joy, peace,' of course I cannot speak, for they are gems whose light is turned God-wards."
"Then let our prayer be for those. The face we have seen to-day does not look joyful, Henri." ”

“ Henry's capital was at the time garrisoned by the troops of the pope and Spain. The great nobles of France, who had long maintained a sort of semi independence of the crown, were all against him, and were calculating on founding independent kingdoms. He himself was excommunicated. The League were masters of almost the whole of France, and were well supplied with funds by the pope and the Catholic powers while Henry was entirely dependent for money upon what he could borrow from Queen Elizabeth and the States of Holland. ”

“ Henri, thus weakened, abandoned the siege of Paris, and fell back; with the bulk of his forces he marched into Normandy, so as to be within reach of English succour; a considerable army went into Champagne, to be ready to join any Swiss or German help that might come. These were the great days in the life of Henri of Navarre. Henri showed himself a hero, who strove for a great cause—the cause of European freedom—as well as for his own crown.
The Duc de Mayenne followed the Huguenots down into the west, and found Henri awaiting him in a strong position at Arques, near Dieppe ”

“ The citizens of Paris are indeed turbulent, whether they shout for Orleans or Burgundy, but what if Henry of England should again lead an army here?"
"But why imagine what is not likely to happen? Long ere Henry comes I may have joined you again; should it be otherwise I might perhaps escape, or at the very worst of all they could but keep me in duress in my chamber. Who ever heard of a woman being ill-treated for the disobedience of her lord? All that they could do would be to make you pay ransom for my return."
"I would rather go as a hostage myself." ”

“ I rejoice greatly that Henry is not here. I feel a sort of terror at the idea of his falling into the hands of this Lord of Masseran. You know that Henry's death would place great wealth at the disposal of my mother; and, though it is dreadful to say, yet I do fear there is no act at which this Italian would hesitate to obtain wealth or power, or any of the objects for which men strive on earth. I would not for the world that Henry should put himself into the hands of one so treacherous. If Henry be at Grenoble, we can fly to him at once, and be united there. ”

“ In the midst of all this bewildering, maddening confusion, Henri found himself thinking dreamily of his mother's stories of the terrible passage of the Loire by the defeated Vendéans. "It was like the day of judgment," she used to say. "And what," asked Henri, "would she have thought of this?"
He was startled by a voice near him. "Monsieur Henri, is it you? Is it really you?" cried some one in the crowd, seizing his hand and grasping it. "This is indeed a miracle."
"Féron! dear Féron!" exclaimed Henri, springing from his seat in the carriage and throwing himself into the arms of his comrade. ”

“ No spectator of the little drama enacted within the Revolution can forget how dominant, distinct, unrepeated, this artful image of Henri burns itself in upon the memory. To wish him age and a competency were superstition. Mark how, even in her hasty finishing touches, Nature did not bungle with him. She rounds out her white ideal. She leaves us convinced that living a span, and dying in the hurly-burly, he best fulfilled himself. ”

“ Then, indeed, as the vast crowds succeeded each other like the ceaseless waves of an [pg 028] incoming sea, the bitter wail of universal lamentation rang through the halls and galleries of the palace. Henri IV had been essentially the King of the People; and, with few and rare exceptions, it was by the people that he was truly mourned; for his sudden decease had opened so many arenas to ambition, hatred, jealousy, and hope, that the great nobles had no time to waste in tears, but were already busily engaged in the furtherance of their own fortunes. ”

“ Let us play our rôle of king and queen. If you accept the regency you are a dead man."
"The King lives," thought Henry.
Then aloud:
"Madame," said he, firmly, "God holds the lives of men and of kings in his hands. He will inspire me. Let his Majesty be informed that I am ready to see him."
"Reflect, monsieur."
"During the two years in which I have been persecuted, during the month I have been a prisoner," replied Henry, bravely, "I have had time to reflect, madame, and I have reflected. Have the goodness, therefore, to go to the King before me, and to tell him that I am following you. ”

“ Henri de La Rochejaquelein, zigzagging in the teeth of the enemy, doing deeds with his own hands which are not common in salons; Henri, with his slender height, his shy caressing voice and smile, having no tenderer talisman to carry than the sign of the cross, no parting look at anything more responsive than a torn white flag,—such a Henri, jarring with prescriptive ideas, calls for reform. It is ungracious that a chevalier of twenty should have no leisure for a personal romance ”

“ Madame Henrietta, the queen-mother, was dazzled by the brilliancy which cast distinction upon her family, thanks to the wit of the grand-daughter of Henry IV. The king, jealous, as a young man and as a monarch, of the superiority of those who surrounded him, could not resist admitting himself vanquished by a petulance so thoroughly French in its nature, whose energy was more than ever increased by English humor. ”

“ They summoned up troops from every side; the Duc de Lorraine sent his son to resist Henri and support his own claim; the King of Spain sent a body of men; the League princes brought what force they could. Henri of Navarre at the same moment found himself weakened by the silent withdrawal from his camp of the army of Henri III.; the Politique nobles did not care at first to throw in their lot with the Huguenot chieftain ”

“ The civil wars were not over, for the heat of party raged as yet unslaked; the Politiques could not all at once adopt a Huguenot King, the League party had pledged itself to resist the heretic, and Henri at first had little more than the Huguenots at his back. There were also formidable claimants for the throne. Charles II. Duc de Lorraine, who had married Claude, younger daughter of Henri IL, and who was therefore brother-in-law to Henri III., set up a vague claim ”

“ Oh! mon Dieu! in such a case you should use all your strength and all your power, Henri. In your place, I should have taken her house by assault, and then herself; and when she was conquered, and came to throw her arms round your neck and say, 'Henri, I adore you,' I should have repulsed her, and said, 'You do well, madame; it is your turn—I have suffered enough for you—to suffer also.'"
Henri seized his brother's hand. "You do not mean a word of what you say," said he.
"Yes, on my honor."
"You, so good—so generous!"
"Generosity with heartless people is folly." ”

“ It is small wonder that a species of folk-lore, in his own neighborhood, has, in three generations, grown up around him, which makes it a difficult thing to disentangle what is true of him from what might as well be true: for the French are not given, even in their gossip, to incongruities. Every rustic, who, having served under Henri, lived to startle a more prosaic world with his reminiscences, had anecdotes to tell of him really vital and precious ”

“ Haughtily the three Frenchmen rode through the gap in the front rank and reined in before the Royal Standard, where Henry, now on foot, awaited them.
"Sire," exclaimed the foremost knight. "I am Jacques de Helly, Maréchal of France."
"That we do perceive," replied the King curtly, "both by thy cognizance and by reason of the fact that thou wert, and still ought to be, our prisoner in England."
"'Tis on that matter that I am come," replied de Helly. "'Tis reported that I have broken my parole. Let it be known to all men that 'tis false. ”

“ This Henri lived with his whole soul. His interest to us now is that he blazed with genuine fire, and played no tricks with his individuality. Among the serious war-worn leaders of the insurrection he stands, a fairy prince, with a bright absurd glamour. Never was anybody more like the fiction of an artist’s brain. He is all that children look for in a tale, and he has no moral. ”

“ May it please God that our hopes may not also have expired with him who was but a few short hours ago the glory and the greatness of his kingdom! The sturdy tree has fallen, and the saplings are still weak and frail. The mission of the great Henry is accomplished, and the weight of sovereignty is transferred to your own brow. ”

“ In the year upon which we are now about to enter the subject of our biography occupies, unfortunately, but a small space, destined as it was to give birth to the most violent and the most dangerous passion of the whole life of Henri IV, and that which left the most indelible stain upon his memory, both as a man and as a monarch. ”

“ Henri had accompanied the Duke in his flight to England after the conspiracy of Cinq Mars, and he had returned with him; he possessed his entire confidence, and he relates nothing in which he himself had not taken a considerable part. Henri’s character was very different to that of his brother Alexandre. He was a well-educated man, full of honour and courage, not in the least given to boasting, averse to all intrigue, and born to make his way through life by the straightest paths in the career of arms. ”