hawks, and gerfalcons. The letters accompanying these often
contained a second paragraph petitioning for pensions or grants from
the king, or for places, even down to that of apothecary or of barber
to the Dauphin." The monarchs of foreign countries often wrote to him
soliciting his aid. The duke, in the enjoyment of this immense wealth,
influence, and power, assumed the splendors of royalty, and his court
was hardly inferior to that of the monarch. The King of Poland and the
Duke of Guise were rivals for the hand of Anne, the beautiful daughter
of the Duke of Ferrara, and Guise was the successful suitor.

Francis of Lorraine was now appointed lieutenant general of the French
armies, and the king addressed to all the provincial authorities
special injunction to render as prompt and absolute obedience to the
orders of the Duke of Guise as if they emanated from himself. "And
truly," says one of the writers of those times, "never had monarch in
France been obeyed more punctually or with greater zeal." In fact,
Guise was now the head of the government, and all the great interests
of the nation were ordered by his mind. Henry was a feeble prince,
with neither vigor of body nor energy of intellect to resist the
encroachments of so imperial a spirit. He gave many indications of
uneasiness in view of his own thralldom, but he was entirely unable to
dispense with the aid of his sagacious ally.

It will be remembered that one of the daughters of Claude, and a
sister of Francis, the second duke of Guise, married the King of
Scotland. Her daughter, the niece of Francis, was the celebrated Mary,
Queen of Scots. She had been sent to France for her education, and she
was married, when very young, to her cousin Francis, son of Henry II.
and of the infamous Catharine de Medici. He was heir of the French
throne. This wedding was celebrated with the utmost magnificence, and
the Guises moved on the occasion through the palaces of royalty with
the pride of monarchs. Henry II. was accidentally killed in a
tournament; and Francis, his son, under the title of Francis II., with
his young and beautiful bride, the unfortunate Mary, Queen of Scots,
ascended the throne. Francis was a feeble-minded, consumptive youth of
16, whose thoughts were all centred in his lovely wife. Mary, who was
but fifteen years of age, was fascinating in the extreme, and entirely
devoted to pleasure. She gladly transferred all the power of the realm
to her uncles, the