TSCRIPT.

A few words with reference to the principal characters in the novel of
the "Forty-five Guardsmen" are necessary to complete the story.

Diana de Monsoreau, having taken the vows at the Convent des
Hospitalieres, survived the Duc d'Anjou only two years. Of Remy, her
faithful companion, we hear no more: he disappeared without leaving a
trace behind him.

History, however, informs us more fully as to the others. The Duc de
Guise, having at last broken into open rebellion against Henri III., was
so far successful, that with the aid of the League he compelled the king
to fly from Paris. A hollow reconciliation was, however, patched up
between them, the Duc de Guise stipulating that he should be appointed
lieutenant-general of the kingdom; but no sooner had the king returned
to the Louvre than he determined on the assassination of the duke. He
sounded Crillon, the leader of the "Forty-five," on the subject, but
this noble soldier refused to have anything to do with it, offering,
however, to challenge him to single combat. De Loignac was less
scrupulous, and we know the result; the Duc de Guise and his brother the
cardinal were both murdered. Ten days after this event, Catherine de
Medicis, the queen-mother, died, regretted by none.

The Parisians, exasperated by the murder of the Duc de Guise, declared
his brother, the Duc de Mayenne, the head of the League, and rose
against the king, who was again obliged to fly. He begged the king of
Navarre for aid, who promptly responded to the call, and they were
shortly before Paris with a united army of Catholics and Huguenots.
Henri III. was, however, pursued by the relentless hate of the clever
and unscrupulous Duchesse de Montpensier. She worked so skillfully on
the fanatical mind of the young Jacobin friar, Jacques Clement, that he
undertook the death of the king. He entered the camp with letters for
Henri, whom he stabbed while reading them. The king died on the 2d
August, 1589, after having declared Henri of Navarre his successor.

Of the subsequent life and adventures of Chicot, unfortunately nothing
authentic is known. TRANSLATOR.

End of Project Gutenberg's The Forty-Five Guardsmen, by Alexandre Dumas

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