fatal night? Who shall dare,
unrebuked, to assert that the ambition of the woman quenched the
affection of the wife? or that Marie, in the excess of her
self-gratulation, forgot the price at which her delegated greatness had
been purchased? That some have been found bold enough to do this says
little for their innate knowledge of human nature. The presence of death
and the stillness of night are fearful chasteners of worldly pride, and
with these the daughter of the Medici was called upon to contend. Her
position demanded mercy at the hands of her historians, and should not
have sought it in vain.

From one reproach it is, however, impossible to exonerate her, and that
one was the repugnance which she evinced to encourage any investigation
into the real influence under which Ravaillac had committed the murder
of the King. In vain did she receive communications involving
individuals who were openly named; she discouraged every report; and
although among these the Duc d'Epernon made a conspicuous figure, she
treated the accusation with indifference, and continued to display
towards him an amount of confidence and favour to which he had never
previously attained.

Indignant at this extraordinary supineness, the President de Harlay only
increased his own efforts to unravel so painful a mystery; and refusing
all credence to the assertion of the regicide that he had been
self-prompted--an assertion to which he had perseveringly adhered amid
torture, and even unto death, with a firmness truly marvellous under the
circumstances--the zealous magistrate carefully examined every document
that was laid before him, and interrogated their authors with a
pertinacity which created great alarm among the accused parties, of whom
none were so prominent as Madame de Verneuil and the Duc d'Epernon.

The latter, indeed, considered it expedient to wait upon the
commissioners appointed by the Parliament to investigate these reports,
in order to urge the condemnation of their authors; these being, as he
asserted, not only guilty of defaming innocent persons, but also of
exciting a dangerous feeling among the people, at all times too anxious
to seek the disgrace and ruin of their superiors. He found, however,
little sympathy among those whom he sought to conciliate; and on
addressing himself to the President, whom he entreated to inform him of
the details of the accusation made against himself, that magistrate,
without any effort to disguise