of France. In Henry III. she
had as pliant an instrument for her will as in the two brothers
preceding him; and, like them, his reign was spent in alternating
conflict with the Protestants and the Duke of Guise. At last, wearied
and exasperated, this half-Italian and altogether conscienceless king
quite naturally thought of the stiletto. The old duke, as he entered
the king's apartment by invitation, was stricken down by assassins
hidden for that purpose.

Henry had not counted on the rebound from that blow. Catholic France
was excited to such popular fury against him that he threw himself into
the arms of the Protestants, imploring their aid in keeping his crown
and his kingdom; and when himself assassinated, a year later, the
Valois line had become extinct.

By the Salic Law, Henry of Navarre was King of France. The Bourbon
branch had left the parent stem as long ago as the reign of Louis the
Saint. But as all the other Capetian branches had disappeared, the
right of the plumed knight to the crown was beyond a question. So a
Protestant and a Huguenot was King of France.

CHAPTER XII.

After long wandering in strange seas, we come in view of familiar
lights and headlands. With the advent of the house of Bourbon, we have
grasped a thread which leads directly down to our own time.

The accession of a Protestant king was hailed with delirious joy by the
Huguenots, and with corresponding rage by Catholic France. The one
looked forward to redressing of wrongs and avenging of injuries; and
the other flatly refused submission unless Henry should recant his
heresy and become a convert to the true faith.

The new king saw there was no bed of roses preparing for him. After
four years of effort to reconcile the irreconcilable, he decided upon
his course. He was not called to the throne to rule over Protestant
France, nor to be an instrument of vengeance for the Huguenots.

He saw that the highest good of the kingdom required not that he should
impose upon it either form of belief or worship, but give equal
opportunity and privilege to both.

To the consternation of the Huguenots, he announced himself ready to
listen to the arguments in favor of the religion of Rome; and it took
just five hours of deliberation to convince him of its truth. He
declared himself ready to abjure his old faith. Bitter reproaches on
the one side and rejoicings on the other greeted this decision. It was
not heroic. But m