t none remain to reproach me with the
deed," and after all, when daylight appeared, he placed himself at a
window of the Louvre, which overlooks the Seine, and with a carbine he
fired at the unfortunate fugitives who tried to save themselves by
swimming across the river. In his reign was built the Tuileries, he
himself laying the first stone; it was intended for the Queen Mother,
but Catherine did not inhabit it long, her conscience not permitting her
to enjoy repose anywhere. Charles died a few months after the dreadful
massacre of the protestants, a prey to all the pangs of remorse, and was
succeeded in 1574 by his brother Henry III. Brought up in the same
pernicious school, under the same infamous mother as his predecessor,
little could be hoped from such a being; he was inclined, however, to
be somewhat more tolerant than his brother, but was frightened into
persecuting the protestants; his mother died at the age of seventy,
goaded by the consciousness of the crimes she had committed; civil war
raged during the reign of Henry, and he was obliged to quit his capital
and join the protestants, whom he soon, however, betrayed; without
energy to adopt any certain line of conduct, he balanced between the two
parties of catholics and protestants, until both sects despised him, and
at length he was stabbed by a fanatic friar, named Jacques Clement.
Several convents and religious establishments were founded in his reign,
amongst the rest the Feuillans, which was extensive and had a church
attached, but in 1804 the whole was demolished, and on its site, and
that of the monastery of the Capucins, were built the Rue Rivoli,
Castiglione, and Monthabor, and a terrace of the gardens of the
Tuileries is still called the Feuillans. The Pont Neuf was also built in
this reign. In 1589, Henry IV, surnamed the Great, succeeded to the
throne; he was of the house of Bourbon, and descended from Robert, the
second son of Louis the Ninth. He was compelled to begin his reign by
laying siege to his own capital, which was in the hands of his enemies,
who defended it with 58,000 troops, and 1,500 armed priests, scholars
and monks, and after three years' vain endeavours he was obliged to
renounce the protestant religion, and conform to the catholic
ceremonies, which produced a truce, and Henry at last entered Paris. By
his mild and judicious conduct he regenerated the prosperity of France,
and published the famous edict of Nantes in favour of the p