nd declares himself
Catholic to the backbone; and De Mouy, despairing and indignant, leaves
the king's apartment. The Duke of Alencon, who has overheard their
conference, as Henry suspected, stops the Huguenot emissary, and shows a
disposition to put himself at the head of that party and become King of
Navarre. There is a great deal of intrigue and manoeuvring, very
skilfully managed by Henry, who makes D'Alencon believe that he has no
wish to become any thing more than a simple country-gentleman, and that he
is willing to aid him in his ambitious designs. He proposes that they
should watch for an opportunity of leaving Paris and repairing to Navarre.
Before the negotiations between the two princes are completed, however,
the Duke of Anjou has been elected King of Poland, and has had his
election ratified by the Pope; and D'Alencon then begins to think that it
would be advisable to remain at Paris on the chance of himself becoming
King of France. Charles IX. is delicate and sickly, subject to tremendous
outbursts of passion which leave him weak and exhausted; his life is not
likely to be a long one. Should he die, and even if the Poles should allow
their new king to return to France, D'Alencon would have time, he thinks,
before the arrival of the latter, to seize upon the vacant throne. Even
the reversion of the crown of Poland would perhaps be preferable to the
possession of that of Navarre. Whilst ruminating these plans, one of the
king's frequent hunting parties takes place in the forest of Bondy, and is
attended by all the royal family except the Duke of Anjou, then absent at
the siege of La Rochelle. At this hunting party the following striking
incidents occur.

The _piqueur_ who had told the king that the boar was still in the
enclosure, had spoken the truth. Hardly was the bloodhound put upon the
scent, when he plunged into a thicket, and drove the animal, an enormous
one of its kind, from its retreat in a cluster of thorn-bushes. The boar
made straight across the road, at about fifty paces from the king. The
leashes of a score of dogs were immediately slipped, and the eager hounds
rushed headlong in pursuit.

The chase was Charles's strongest passion. Scarcely had the boar crossed
the road, when he spurred after him, sounding the view upon his horn, and
followed by the Duke of Alencon, and by Henry of Navarre. All the other
chasseurs followed.

The royal forests, at the period referred to, were not, as at pres