d
to be of miraculous origin, had been employed instead. These
difficulties thus removed, the anointment of Henry IV. took place at
Chartres on the 27th of February, 1594; the Bishop of Chartres, Nicholas
de Thou, officiated, and drew up a detailed account of all the ceremonies
and all the rejoicings; thirteen medals, each weighing fifteen gold
crowns, were struck, according to custom; they bore the king's image, and
for legend, _Invia virtuti nulla est via_ (To manly worth no road is
inaccessible). Henry IV., on his knees before the grand altar, took the
usual oath, the form of which was presented to him by Chancellor de
Chiverny. With the exception of local accessories, which were
acknowledged to be impossible and unnecessary, there was nothing wanting
to this religious hallowing of his kingship.

But one other thing, more important than the anointment at Chartres, was
wanting. He did not possess the capital of his kingdom the League were
still masters of Paris. Uneasy masters of their situation; but not so
uneasy, however, as they ought to have been. The great leaders of the
party, the Duke of Mayenne, his mother the Duchess of Nemours, his sister
the Duchess of Montpensier, and the Duke of Feria, Spanish ambassador,
were within its walls, a prey to alarm and discouragement. "At
breakfast," said the Duchess of Montpensier, "they regale us with the
surrender of a hamlet, at dinner of a town, at supper of a whole
province." The Duchess of Nemours, who desired peace, exerted herself to
convince her son of all their danger. "Set your affairs in order," she
said;--if you do not begin to make your arrangements with the king before
leaving Paris, you will lose this capital. I know that projects are
already afoot for giving it up, and that those who can do it, and in whom
you have most confidence, are accomplices and even authors of the plot."
Mayenne himself did not hide from his confidants the gravity of the
mischief and his own disquietude. "Not a day," he wrote on the 4th of
February, 1594, to the Marquis of Montpezat, "but brings some trouble
because of the people's yearning for repose, and of the weakness which is
apparent on our side. I stem and stop this forment with as much courage
as I can; but the present mischief is overwhelming; the King of Navarre
will in a few days have an army of twenty thousand men, French as well as
foreigners. What will become of us, if we have not wherewithal not only
to oppo