FRANCE. 
oe, with the Duke of Savoy, he came to the determination 
— to get rid of him, if possible, by assassination ; he ac- 
cotetingly summoned the few friends in whom he could 
place confidence, or from whom he could expect 
ion of this deed. Most of these advising the 
King to pursue the measure which he had. suggested 
lon, who commanded the royal guards, was first 
applied to, to strike the blow ; but he replied, that he 
was not an executioner ; ‘“ I will challenge the Duke, 
and endeavour to kill him fairly.” Loigniac, 
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In this extremity, Henry at last determined to do History. 
that which he ought to have done at the commence-~ 
ment of the troubles; he entered into a confederacy 
with the Protestants and the King of Navarre. Large . 
bodies of Swiss and German cavalry were enlisted ; 
and the chief nobility and the princes of the blood ral- 
lying round their monarch at this critical juncture, he 
was enabled to assemble an army of 40,000 men. Still, 
however, the superstitious weakness of his mind broke 
out; alarmed at the excommunication which the Pope 
had ced against him, he solicited absolution at 
Rome. “ Let us conquer,” said the King of Navarre, 
“and we shall be absolved; but if we be beaten, we shall 
be excommunicated.’”? The King of Navarre, also, 
prise acbinem se on the advantages which would en- 
sue immediately marching to Paris: His advice 
was followed ; and on the last day of July 1589, they 
invested the capital. The Duke of Mayence was with- 
in the walls, with about 4000 regular soldiers ; and by 
means of these, he hoped to inspirit and assist the ci- 
tizens to make a formidable defence. But Henry push- 
ed the siege with uncommon vigour ; and as the num- 
ber of the royalists in Paris was still great, the city 
must soon have fallen, had not the sane resolution 
of one man given a new turn to the affairs of France. 
‘ James Clement, a ra sry friar, filled nan that 
loody spirit of bigotry, which characterised the age, 
formed the combate of sacrificing his own life, aver. 
der to save the church from the danger to which he 
conceived it would be exposed, if the King were per- 
mitted to live, in ce of his alliance with the 
Protestants. This man had succeeded in getting intro- Henry as- 
duced into the King’s presence, under the pretence of ®sinated. 
ie t and confidential business, and ancitally weet “lo et 
im, while reading some papers which he had put 
into his hands, The assassin ean instantly put to death 
by the guards, At Paris he was hono as a saint 
and a martyr. The Pope expressed the highest admira- 
tion of this act; and all the Catholic clergy defended 
it as necessary for the safety of the church. 
As Henry III. died without children, and the house 
of Valois was extinct in his person, the throne 
to the house of Bourbon, in the of Henry IV. pirth ana 
This prince was born at Pau, in , on the 14th of education 
December 1553, of Antony of Bourbon, Duke of Ven- of Henry - 
dome, and Jane-of Albert, Queen of Navarre. He was lV: 
descended in a right line from Robert of France, Count 
of Clermont, sixth son of Saint Louis. When his mo- 
t with him, her father made her pro- 
mise, that she would sing during her delivery, in order, 
as he said, that she might not bring forth a gloomy and 
unfortunate child, She complied with this whim, and, 
in spite of the pain which she suffered, sung a song in 
the provincial dialect of Bearn, even at the moment 
when the child was entering the world. As soon as he 
was born, his grandfather, taking him into another room, 
rabbed his lips with garlic and wine, in order, accords 
ing to his notion, to endow him with a bold and vigo- 
rous temperament. In the chateau of e, situated 
in the middle of rocks, between Begoire and Bearn, the 
young Henry was brought up ; and his education was 
tended and directed by his grandfather, till the 
death of the latter, which ha very soon after- 
wards. He was treated in the most plain and simple 
manner ; his food being confined to brown bread, cheese, 
and a small quantity of beef; his dress was that of the 
peasant boys of Bearn, composed entirely of coarse stuff, 
and. made without any ornament. He was accustomed 
to the most vigorous exercise in all: kinds of weather, 
