490 
ON OMENS. 
counteracting will be further displayed when the Lord will give to 
his people a pure language, that they may call on his name, and 
serve him with one consent. 
On Omens, — with Historical Examples. 
A MOST singular chain of uncommon circumstances preceded the 
assassination of that excellent monarch, Henry IV. of France, in 
the morning of the day on which he was murdered by Ravaillac, 
(viz. Friday, May 14, 1680.) His majesty was exceedingly pensive. 
In the hope of composing his spirits, he threw himself on his bed, 
but was unable to rest. Thrice he rose, and thrice he fell on his knees 
in prayer. Soon after, repairing to the presence-chamber, his attend- 
ants endeavoured to divert the melancholy which preyed so deeply on 
his mind. Being naturally amiable and cheerful, he tried to fall into 
the well-meant peasantry of his nobles, and attempted to smile, but 
concluded thus : — “We have laughed enough for Friday, there will 
be weeping on Sunday.’' 
His queen (Mary de Medicis) had been crowned but the day before 
his murder. One La Brosse, a physician, is by some reported to 
have said to the Duke de Vendome, in the evening of that day, “If 
the king survives a mischief which threatens him at present, he will 
live these thirty years.” The duke entreated the king to grant this 
])hysician an audience, and repeated what the old gentleman had been 
saying. His majesty, with unusual asperity and hastiness, replied, 
“ He is an old fool for telling you such things, and you are a young 
fool if you believe him.” — [It is proper to apprise the reader, that 
Bayle has endeavoured to shake the credit of this whole story about 
La Brosse and the Duke de Vendome. See his third volume under 
the article of Henry IV.] — The duke’s rejoinder was firm, respectful, 
and sensible : — “ Sire, one ought not to believe such things, but one 
may fear them.” 
The same day, as the king stopped to speak wdlh some body present, 
the queen stopping at the same time, he said to her, as by a spirit of 
involuntary prophecy, Passez, passezy Madame la regente ; i. e. 
Go on, go on, Madame the regent. 
A few nights before the catastrophe, the queen dreamed that all 
the jew’els in her crown were changed into pearls, and that she was 
told pearls were significative of tears. Another night she started, 
and cried out in her sleep, and waked the king, who asking her what 
was the matter, she answered, “ I have had a frightful dream ; but I 
know that dreams are mere illusions.” “ I was always of the same 
opinion,” replied Henry ; “ however, tell me wha4 your dream was.” — 
“ I dreamed,” continued she, “ that you were stabbed with a knife 
under the short-ribs.” — “ Thank God,” rejoined the king, “ it was but a 
dream.” 
On the morning of the fatal day, his majesty w'as unusually chagrined, 
and he said more than once to those about him, “ Something or other 
hangs heavy on my heart.” Before he W'ent to his coach, he took 
leave of the queen no fewer than three times ; and on stepping into 
his carriage, he had not passsed through many streets, ere Ravailbc 
