THE DEATH OF THE GUISES. (Miron's Account of the death of MM. le Duc et Cardinal de Guise.) A.D. 1588. THE king plainly seeing that it was time to play the last act of this tragedy, and not being able to put it off longer, laid his plans in this manner:- -After supper he retired into his chamber about seven o'clock; ordered the Sieur de Liancourt, chief equerry, to have a carriage ready at the door of the gallery des Cerfs, at four o'clock in the morning, as he wished to go to La Noue, a house at the end of the great alley, on the border of the forest, and to return in good time to the council. He commanded the Sieur de Marle to go to the Cardinal de Guise, to beg him to come to his chamber at six o'clock, as he desired to speak to him before setting out to La Noue (it was not the journey to Notre-Dame-de-Clery). He commands also the Sieur d'Aumont, Marshal of France, and the Sieurs de Rambouillet, de Maintenon, d'O, the colonel Alphonse d'Ornano, and several other lords and gentlemen of his council, to come to his cabinet at six o'clock in the morning, before his departure for the same place. Then he gave orders to forty-five gentlemen-in-waiting that they were to be present in his chamber at five o'clock in the morning for the same purpose. At nine o'clock the king sends for the Sieur de Larchant, captain of the body-guards, who was lodged at the foot of the staircase; and although he was ill of dysentery, he went to his Majesty, who commanded him to come at seven in the morning with his men, to present to the Duke of Guise, as he was going up to the council, a request to take measures to provide him with their pay, lest necessity should force them to leave the service ; and that when the duke had entered the council-chamber, which was the king's ante-chamber, he was to seize the staircase and the door, so that no one should either come in or go out nor pass by; that at the same time he should post twenty of his companions at the staircase of the old cabinet, by which one descends to the gallery des Cerfs, with the same directions. This done, they separate, and the king, between ten and eleven o'clock, enters his cabinet, accompanied only by the Sieur de Termes, where, having remained till midnight, he said: "My son, go to bed, and tell Du Halde to be sure to awake me at four o'clock, and be you here at the same hour." The king takes his candlestick and goes to bed with the queen; the Sieur de Termes also retires, and on his way communicates the king's wishes to the Sieur du Halde, who begs him to give him a light to set his alarum at four o'clock. * * * * Four o'clock strikes, Du Halde awakes, gets up and knocks at the chamber of the queen. The Demoiselle Louise Dubois, lady of Piolans, her first woman of the bedchamber, comes at the sound, and asks, "Who is there?"-" "Tis Du Halde," he said; "tell the king it is four o'clock."—" He is asleep, and the queen also,” said she. "Awake him," said Du Halde; "he bid me do so; or I shall knock so loud that I shall awake them both." The king, who was not asleep, having passed the night in such anxiety of mind as you can imagine, hearing this talk, asked the Demoiselle de Piolans who it was. "Sire," she said, "it is M. Du Halde, who says it is four o'clock." Piolans," said the king, "here! my boots, my gown, and my candle !" He gets up, and leaving the queen in a great perplexity, goes into his cabinet, where were N already the Sieur de Termes and Du Halde, from whom the king demanded the keys of the little cells which he had had erected for the Capuchins. Having got them, he goes up the stair, the Sieur de Termes holding the candlestick. The king opens one of them and locks up Du Halde inside, who, in telling me about it, said that he never was in greater alarm, not knowing by what humour the king was driven. The king descended, and from time to time kept going into his chamber to see for himself if the forty-five gentlemen had come, and as he found them arrive, he made them go up stairs and locked them up in the same manner as he had Du Halde, until at different times and in different cells he had posted them all thus. In the meanwhile the lords and others of the council began to appear in the cabinet, where it was necessary to pass sideways to enter, the passage being narrow and crooked, which the king had made on purpose in the corner of his chamber, and had caused the ordinary door to be shut up. When they had entered and knew nothing of his proceedings, he set his prisoners at liberty in the same manner as he had shut them up, and as quietly as he could, made. them go down into his chamber, ordering them to make no noise, on account of the queen, his mother, who was unwell, and lodged beneath. This done, he re-entered his cabinet, where he speaks thus to those of the council: "You all * * * * know in what fashion the Duke | chamber where were his forty-five of Guise has behaved towards me, gentlemen-in-waiting, or the greater ever since the year 1585, when part of them, and speaks to them his first plots were discovered; in this way: "There is none of what I have done to turn aside you who must not acknowledge his evil intentions, having favoured how great is the honour he has him in all ways as much as I received at my hands, having could, and yet always in vain, for made choice of you out of all the I have never been able to win him, nobility of my kingdom, to confide not even to bend this ungrateful my person to your valour, vigiand disloyal mind to his duty; lance, and fidelity." but, on the contrary, his vanity and Then all assembled, with one presumption have increased in voice, promised to smite him, and proportion as from me he received one of them named Sariac, strikfavours, honours, and liberalities. ing his hand against the king's I do not desire better or truer breast, said in his Gascon speech, witnesses than you, and especially "Cape de Diou, sire, I will make of what I have done for him since him dead for you." Thereupon the day when he was so daring as his Majesty having bid them cease to come to Paris against my wish their offers of service and protestaand express command.. But in- tions of respect, for fear of awakenstead of being grateful for so many ing the queen, his mother, "Let benefits received, he has so far us see," he said, "which of you forgotten them that, at this hour have daggers." There were eight, in which I am speaking to you, of which that of Sariac was a the unbounded ambition by which Scotch one. These men were orhe is possessed has so blinded him dered to stay in the chamber and that he is on the eve of daring an kill him. The Sieur de Loignac enterprise against my crown and waited there with his sword. my life, so that he has reduced me put twelve of their companions in to this extremity, that either I the old cabinet looking out on the must die or he must die, and it court; they were to be also of the must be this morning." And hav- party, to strike him with their ing demanded of them if they swords when he came to raise the were not willing to assist him to velvet curtain to go in there. It do justice on this enemy, and was in this cabinet that the king explained also the manner in wished to send for the duke to come which he wished to conduct the and speak to him. He places the execution, each one of them ap- others at the staircase by which proves his design and his proce- one descends from this cabinet to dure, and all make offer of their the gallery des Cerfs; and comhumble services, and of their own mands the Sieur de Nambu, usher lives. of the chamber, to let no one That done, he went into the either go out or come in, whoever He he might be, till he himself gave | council-chamber, and the Sieur de the order. Larchant, according to the order of the king, sends the Sieur de Rouvroy, his lieutenant, and the Sieur de Montclar, exempt of the guard, to the staircase of the old cabinet with twenty of his men. Soon after the Duke of Guise had sat down, he said: "I am cold, my heart pains me. Let them light a fire." And addressing himself to the Sieur de Morfontaine, the treasurer: "M. de Morfontaine, I beg you to tell M. de Saintprix, the king's first valet-de-chambre, that I beg him to give me some Damas grapes, or some conserve of roses." And as none of these were to be found, he brought to the room some Brignolles plums which he gave to the duke. This arrangement thus made, he enters his cabinet which looks out on the gardens, and sends the Marshal d'Aumont to the council to bid it sit, and to secure the Cardinal de Guise and the Archbishop of Lyons as soon as the duke was dead. The king, however, having thus completed the plan which he wished to be followed in this execution, remained in a state of great disquietude for the uncertainties which happen so often in great designs. While waiting for the arrival of the two brothers at the council, he went and came, and could not keep still, contrary to his nature. Sometimes he showed himself at the door of his cabinet. and exhorted the gentlemen waiting in the chamber to take good care not to let themselves be hurt by the Duke of Guise: “He is tall and strong; I should be sorry," he said. Some one came to tell him that the cardinal was at the council. But the absence of the duke troubled him above all. 66 Thereupon his majesty having learned that the duke was at the council, ordered M. de Revol, secretary of state : Revol, go and tell M. de Guise to come and speak to me in my old cabinet." The Sieur de Nambu having refused to let him pass he returned into the cabinet with a It was nearly eight o'clock when terrified countenance (for he was a the Duke of Guise was awakened strong man, but timid). "Good by his valets, who told him that heavens!" said the king, "Revol, the king was ready to set out. what is the matter with you? He gets up in haste, and dresses What is it? How pale you are! himself in a suit of grey satin, sets You will spoil everything. Rub out to go to the council, finds at your cheeks, rub your cheeks, the foot of the staircase the Sieur Revol."-"There is nothing wrong, de Larchant, who presents to him sire," he said, "it is only that M. the request for the payment of his de Nambu will not open the door comrades, begs him to support it. to me till your majesty order The duke undertakes that they | him." The king did so from the shall be satisfied. He enters the door of his cabinet, desiring that he should be allowed to re-enter, legs, and the Sieur de Saint-Malines and M. de Guise also. The Sieur de Marillac, master of requests, was bringing up a question of excise, when the Sieur de Revol entered, who found the | Duke of Guise eating Brignolles plums, and having said to him: Monsieur, the king requires you; he is in his old cabinet;" runs out, and returns like a flash of lightning, and goes to find the king. 66 The Duke of Guise puts some of these plums in his comfit-box, throws the rest on the carpet, saying, "Gentlemen, who wishes any?" He gets up, fastens his cloak about him, takes his comfitbox and his gloves in the same hand. “Adieu, gentlemen,” he said. He knocks. The Sieur de Nambu having opened the door to him, goes out, shuts and locks the door after him. The duke enters, salutes those who were in the chamber, who stand up, salute him in return, and follow him as if out of respect. But when he was two steps from the door of the old cabinet, and, taking his beard in his right hand, had turned himself half round to look at those who were following him, suddenly his arm was seized by the Sieur de Montsery, the elder, who was near the chimney, and fancied that the duke wished to draw back to put himself on his defence and all at once he struck him with a dagger on the breast, saying," Ha, traitor, thus thou shalt die!" And at the same time the Sieur des Effrenats throws himself on his gives him from behind a great dagger blow in the chest near the throat, and the Sieur de Loignac a sword stroke near the loins. At each of these blows the duke kept crying, "Ah, my friends! Ah, my friends!" And when he felt himself struck by a dagger in the back by the Sieur Sariac, he cried very loud, "Mercy!" And although his sword was entangled in his cloak and his legs were held, he would not cease (so strong was he!) pulling them from one end of the room to the other, until he fell at the foot of the king's bed. These last words were heard by his brother, the cardinal, there being only a partition-wall between them. "Oh!" he said, "they are killing my brother." And wishing to get up, he is stopped by the Marshal D'Aumont, who put his hand on his sword, and said, "Don't stir! Mort Dieu, monsieur, the king wants you." The Archbishop of Lyons also, in great fear, clasping his hands, "Our lives," said he, are in the hands of God and the king." 66 When the king knew that it was all over, he goes to the door of the cabinet, lifts the curtain, and having seen him stretched out in the place, goes in, and orders the Sieur de Beaulieu, one of the secretaries of state, to search and see what was on him. He finds round his arm a little key, fastened to a small gold chain, and in the pocket of his breeches he finds a little purse, containing twelve gold crowns and a piece of paper, on |