on all my life for having carried off from us so
worthy a person. Without this original sin, he would be the
first after the king, and we should see him, in a short
time, at the head of the armies. He gains new friends every
day. He insinuates himself into all hearts with
inconceivable skill. He is highly honored by the men, and no
less beloved by the ladies. His face is very well formed,
the nose neither too large nor too small. His eyes are very
soft; his skin brown, but very smooth; and his whole
features animated with such uncommon vivacity, that, if he
does not make progress with the fair, it will be very
extraordinary."

Henry had not escaped the natural influence of the dissolute society
in the midst of which he had been educated, and manifested, on his
first return to his mother, a strong passion for balls and
masquerades, and all the enervating pleasures of fashionable life. His
courtly and persuasive manners were so insinuating, that, without
difficulty, he borrowed any sums of money he pleased, and with these
borrowed treasures he fed his passion for excitement at the
gaming-table.

The firm principles and high intellectual elevation of his mother
roused her to the immediate and vigorous endeavor to correct all these
radical defects in his character and education. She kept him, as much
as possible, under her own eye. She appointed teachers of the highest
mental and moral attainments to instruct him. By her conversation and
example she impressed upon his mind the sentiment that it was the most
distinguished honor of one born to command others to be their superior
in intelligence, judgment, and self-control. The Prince of Navarre, in
his mother's court at Bearn, found himself surrounded by Protestant
friends and influences, and he could not but feel and admit the
superior dignity and purity of these his new friends.

Catharine worshiped no deity but ambition. She was ready to adopt any
measures and to plunge into any crimes which would give stability and
lustre to her power. She had no religious opinions or even
preferences. She espoused the cause of the Catholics because, on the
whole, she deemed that party the more powerful; and then she sought
the entire destruction of the Protestants, that none might be left to
dispute her sway. Had the Protestants been in the majority, she would,
with equal zeal, have given them the aid of her strong arm, and
unre