had done the deed stood with the bloody weapon in his hand,
and calmly allowed himself to be seized by those who ran up at the
outcry which took place. The guards would have instantly put him to
death; but Epernon, fortunately for his own reputation, interfered,
and ordered him to be secured.

"In the meantime Henry uttered not a word, and the report forthwith
spread that the King was killed. His officers, however, wisely
assured the people that he was only wounded, and called loudly for
some wine, while the blinds of the carriage were let down, and the
vehicle turned towards the Louvre. The body was immediately removed
from the coach and laid upon a bed. Surgeons and physicians hurried
to the room; and we are informed by Bassompierre, who was present,
that Henry breathed one sigh after he was brought in. Life, however,
was probably extinguished at once by the second blow; for he never
uttered a word after he received it, but fell upon the shoulder of
the Duke of Epernon, with the blood flowing from his mouth as well as
from the wound.

"Thus died Henry IV. of France, in the fifty-seventh year of his age,
one of the greatest, and certainly one of the most beloved Kings of
France, on whom contemporaries bestowed the title of the Great, but
who was known to his people, and is ever mentioned in history, by the
name of Henri Quatre, a term connected in the mind of every Frenchman
with the ideas of goodness, benevolence, sincerity, and courage.
After having to fight for his throne against the fierce opposition of
fanaticism; after having to contend with the arms and the intrigues
of the Roman Catholic world; after having to struggle with the hatred
of a great part of his people, excited by the wild declamations of
preachers and demagogues, and with the coldness and indifference of
almost all the rest, he had succeeded, not only in obtaining the
crown to which he was entitled, not only in vanquishing his enemies
in the field, in subduing his rebellious subjects, in repulsing his
foreign foes, and overcoming the prejudices of his people, but in
gaining their devoted love, the esteem of all his allies, and the
reverence even of those opposed to him."

The extracts we have now given, will convey to our readers a fair idea of
this very interesting and valuable work.