n de
Coligny, which they induced the King to dishonour himself by subjecting
to the most ignominious treatment, next endeavoured to alienate
Marguerite from her husband, and to induce her to solicit a divorce. It
had formed no part of the Queen-mother's intention that the Princess
should remain fettered by the bonds which she had herself wreathed about
her; nor could she brook that after having accomplished a _coup-de-main_
which had excited the indignation of half of Europe, Henry of Navarre
should be indebted for an impunity which counteracted all her views to
the alliance which he had formed with her own family. Marguerite,
however, resolutely refused to lend herself to this new treachery,
declaring that as her husband had abjured his heresy, she had no plea to
advance in justification of so flagrant an act of perfidy; nor could the
expostulations of her mother produce any change in her resolve.

[Illustration: THE EVE OF SAINT BARTHOLOMEU Paris: Richard Bentley and
Son 1890.]

It is probable that the perfect freedom of action for which she was
indebted to the indifference of her young bridegroom had great influence
in prompting this reply, and that the crown which had so recently been
placed upon her brow had at the same time flattered her ambition;
while the frightful carnage of which she had just been a witness might
well cause her to shrink from the probable repetition of so hideous a
catastrophe. Be her motives what they might, however, neither threats
nor entreaties could shake the resolution of the Princess; and she was
supported in her opposition by her favourite brother, the Duc d'Alencon,
who had secretly attached himself to the cause of the Protestant
Princes.

This was another source of uneasiness to the Queen-mother, who
apprehended, from the pertinacity with which Marguerite clung to her
husband, that she would exert all her influence to effect an
understanding between the two brothers-in-law which could not fail to
prove fatal to the interests of the Duc d'Anjou, who, in the event of
the decease of Charles IX, was the rightful heir to the throne. Nor was
that decease a mere matter of idle speculation, for the health of the
King, always feeble and uncertain, had failed more than ever since the
fatal night of the 24th of August; and he had even confessed to Ambroise
Pare,[9] his body-surgeon, that his dreams were haunted by the spectres
of his victims, and that he consequently shrank from the sleep wh