declares the nullity of her marriage--Grief of the King at the
death of Gabrielle--Royal pleasures--A new intrigue--Mademoiselle
d'Entragues--Her tact--Her character--A love-messenger--Value of a royal
favourite--Costly indulgences--A practical rebuke--Diplomacy of
Mademoiselle d'Entragues--The written promise--Mademoiselle d'Entragues
is created Marquise de Verneuil.

However celebrated he was destined to become as a sovereign, Henri IV of
France was nevertheless fated to be singularly unfortunate as a husband.
Immediately after the death of his mother, the high-hearted Jeanne
d'Albret, whom he succeeded on the throne of Navarre, political
considerations induced him to give his hand to Marguerite, the daughter
of Henri II and Catherine de Medicis, a Princess whose surpassing beauty
and rare accomplishments were the theme and marvel of all the European
courts, and whose alliance was an object of ambition to many of the
sovereign princes of Christendom.

Marguerite de Valois was born on the 14th of May 1552, and became the
wife of Henry of Navarre on the 18th of August 1572, when she was in the
full bloom of youth and loveliness; nor can there be any doubt that she
was one of the most extraordinary women of her time; for while her grace
and wit dazzled the less observant by their brilliancy, the depth of her
erudition, her love of literature and the arts, and the solidity of her
judgment, no less astonished those who were capable of appreciating the
more valuable gifts which had been lavished upon her by nature. A dark
shadow rested, however, upon the surface of this glorious picture.
Marguerite possessed no moral self-government; her passions were at once
the bane and the reproach of her existence; and while yet a mere girl
her levity had already afforded ample subject for the comments of the
courtiers.

[Illustration: HENRI DE LORRAINE. Paris Richard Bentley and Son 1890]

Fortunately, in the rapid sketch which we are compelled to give of her
career, it is unnecessary that we should do more than glance at the
licentiousness of her private conduct; our business is simply to trace
such an outline of her varying fortunes as may suffice to render
intelligible the position of Henri IV at the period of his
second marriage.

After the death of Francis II, when internal commotion had succeeded to
the feigned and hollow reconciliation which had taken place between
Charles IX and Henri de Lorraine, Duc de Guise,[2] Marguer