In February, 1661, Mazarin concluded at Vincennes a third and last treaty with Charles, Duke of Lorraine, by which Strasburg, Pfalsburg, Stenai, and other places were given up to France. Nine days after this treaty was signed Mazarin expired at Vincennes, at the age of fifty-nine, in despair at leaving his beautiful paintings, his statues, his books, affairs and life. He left a large fortune to his nieces and to his nephew, whom he made Duke of Nevers. Mazarin was more successful at the close of his career, in his treaties of peace, than he had been in his wars and former negotiations.

THE CHILD-King's Bed oF JUSTICE.

On Sunday, the 19th of April, 1643, King Louis XIII., who had been confined to his bed for a fortnight at the chateau of Saint-Germain, felt his death drawing nigh. His eldest son Louis, born on the 5th of September, 1638, was not yet five years old. In accordance with the practice of the royal family of France, the child was to reign after the death of his father, but he should have a guardian until he reached his majority. Louis XIII. would leave a wife and a brother, both of whom he held in equal distrust. His brother, Gaston, Duke of Orleans, had spent his life conspiring against him. His wife, Anne of Austria, a Spanish princess, had taken part in the intrigues carried on against the ministers of the king, indeed her favorites were the open adversaries of her husband's policy. Since Richelieu had been at the head of affairs, France had waged an incessant warfare against the Emperor and his ally, the King of Spain; it had fought against them in the Thirty Years' War, and at length had brought them low. Richelieu had just died; but his policy was being continued by one of his faithful agents, the Italian Mazarin, now a cardinal, thanks to the patronage of the King of France. Louis XIII. entertained fears lest Anne of Austria, attached to the Court of Spain, should make peace immediately after his death, and abandon those conquests that had cost so much money and so much bloodshed. Usage, however, required that the mother of the young king should be his guardian; but Louis XIII. endeavored to deprive her at least of the control of the government's policy by forcing upon her a council

of experienced men whose business it would be to decide on all important matters.

On the 20th of April, the king's chamber was filled with high personages summoned thither by royal command. The queen was there with her two sons, the Duke of Orleans, the Prince of Condé, Mazarin, the Chancellor, the Secretaries of State, the dukes and peers, the grand officers of the crown. The king lay on his bed, the curtains of which were drawn aside, the queen sat on a chair at the foot of the bed, all the others were standing.

Louis XIII. ordered one of the Secretaries of State to read the document containing his last will and testament, and the secretary read forthwith in a loud voice the "Instructions for the regency and the administration of the kingdom after the death of the king." The document rehearsed how the king had thought fit to devise measures for the preservation of the peace and the tranquillity of his States in the event of his demise. Following the example of his predecessors, he intrusted the bringing up and the education of the young king to the child's mother, than whom no one could be more interested in the preservation of his person and of his crown: the queen should therefore remain regent until her son attained his majority, which in the royal family of France was at the age of fourteen. Furthermore, the Duke of Orleans was appointed lieutenant-general to the king. But neither the regent nor the lieutenant-general could govern at will. The king hereby appointed a council consisting of the Prince of Condé, Cardinal Mazarin, the chancellor, the superintendent of finances, and the Secretary of State, Chavigny, with a strict injunction that no alteration should be made in these appointments for any motive whatsoever. Should any one of the members of the council happen to die, the others should appoint his successor. The queen was to take the advice of this council on all questions of peace and war, on the expenditure of public money, and on appointments to all the offices of the "The great and important affairs of the State" were to be decided upon in this council by a majority of votes.

crown.

When the Secretary of State had finished reading the document, the king took it from his hands, added thereto the

words, "The above is my most express command and my last will, which I order to be carried into execution," and signed it. He then handed it to his wife and his brother for their oath that they would obThen the chancellor went

signatures and made them take an serve what was contained therein. for a deputation from the Paris Parliament who had been waiting in a neighboring apartment, and ushered them into the royal chamber. The king told them that he had just set the government of his kingdom in order in case God should summon him before Him, and that his brother would convey his orders to Parliament on the following day; he commanded them to receive his last will and place it on their records with all the obedience that they owed him. The first president assured him that Parliament was ready to obey him in everything.

On the 21st of April the Duke of Orleans, accompanied by the chancellor, brought the will of the king to the parliament. It was read before all the Chambers gathered together for the purpose. Advocate General Talon delivered a long speech in which he thanked the king, eulogized the queen, and expressed the hope that both she and the princes would hearken to the advice of the illustrious persons whom the king had appointed, and who could harbor none but legitimate intentions and no other designs but such as would be for the public welfare. He concluded with a motion that the king's will be registered, and that a duplicate of the same be forwarded to the other Parliaments of the kingdom. The motion was adopted unanimously.

The king fondly believed he had taken the necessary steps to circumscribe the authority of the queen. But those who signed his will as well as those who registered it looked upon it as a useless piece of formality, and made but little of the restrictions it sought to impose on the rights of the regent. The queen's suite reminded her that Henry IV. also had imposed certain conditions on his widow, Marie de' Medici, and that immediately after his death she had had the will annulled by the Paris Parliament. Anne deemed it prudent to take her precautions. She had signed the will and had sworn to comply with it; she had even sent forth the statement that

she had no objection to its being registered by Parliament. But privately she wrote a protest against the will, and sent one of her almoners with it to Paris to have her signature duly attested by notaries.

On the 14th of May Louis XIII. died. The queen left the new palace where her husband had spent the close of his life, and repaired to the old chateau of Saint-Germain, the residence of the new king, her son. All the court followed her. On the 15th of May the whole of the king's military household was astir at an early hour. The French and the Swiss Guards stood in array in front of the chateau. The queen, the young king, his brother Philip, the Duke of Orleans, and the Prince of Condé took their seats in the royal carriage which proceeded toward Paris, attended by the king's footmen, the captains of the life guards, and the first equerry bearing the king's sword. Then came the whole of the military household as an escort; the lords and the ladies of the court either followed or preceded the cortége: the whole road, from Nanterre to Paris, was covered with carriages. With such pomp did Louis XIV. make his first entry into Paris.

The queen, with her two children, took up her apartments in the old palace of the Louvre. On the following morning, the 16th of May, a deputation from the Parliament, clad in black garments, came to present their respects to her. The first president, Mathieu Molé, offered her his congratulations, and prayed the king to visit his Parliament as soon as his convenience would permit. The queen promised to bring him two days later. The members of the parliament, who had been severely excluded from all participation in political affairs during Richelieu's ministry, looked upon the death of Louis XIII. as a deliverance, and were quite ready to side with the queen.

On the 18th of May all the members of the Parliament, in scarlet robes, had assembled betimes. As early as five o'clock in the morning, the captains of the guards had posted themselves at the gates of the Palace of Justice, so as to admit only those who had a right to be present at the sitting.

Raised on a platform at the upper end of the hall was the "bed of justice;" it was a throne surmounted with a velvet

canopy bearing the arms and motto of Louis XIII. On raised benches, to the right of the throne, were seated the princes of the blood, the Duke of Orleans, the Prince of Condé, and his son, the Prince of Conti; next to them were the dukes and peers with ermine-lined cloaks, and the marshals. On the left sat the Bishop of Beauvais, the only spiritual peer present at the sitting. The benches in the hall were occupied by the members of the Parliament and the king's suite.

At half-past nine the announcement is made that the king is at the Sainte-Chapelle. A deputation of three presidents and six members goes forth to meet him. The little king made his entry clad in violet, the mourning color of the kings of France. He was carried by his grand chamberlain, the Duke of Chevreuse, and accompanied by the Count of Charost, a captain of the life-guards and the officer of the day. Before him marched the King-at-arms of France, and two heralds in violet with golden fleurs-de-lis, and bearing in their hands the scepter and the maces.

The captain of the guards commanded silence. The queen and the governess raised the little king to his feet on the throne. He was to pronounce the usual formula: "I have come here to communicate my will to my Parliament; my chancellor will say the rest." But Louis XIV., still in his fifth year, was seized with a childish whim, declined to speak his piece and resumed his seat without opening his lips. The Abbé Marolles thought he heard the word: "Speak."

The queen now addressed the assemblage. She said that "her grief had driven from her mind all thought of what she had to do until the deputation from the Parliament had come and prayed her son to hold his bed of justice." By bringing the king to them, she wished to "show Messieurs du Parlement that on all occasions she would gladly avail herself of their counsels." According to the pre-arranged programme, the Duke of Orleans thanked the queen for what she had done, adding that the honor of the regency was due to her not only because she was the mother of the king, but on account of her own merits and her virtue, that as a matter of fact the regency had been conferred on him by the will of the late king and the consent of all the nobles; but that he desired no other share