A GENTLEMAN OF FRANCE.




CHAPTER I.

THE SPORT OF FOOLS.

The death of the Prince of Conde, which occurred in the spring of
1588, by depriving me of my only patron, reduced me to such
straits that the winter of that year, which saw the King of
Navarre come to spend his Christmas at St. Jean d'Angely, saw
also the nadir of my fortunes. I did not know at this time--I
may confess it to-day without shame--wither to turn for a gold
crown or a new scabbard, and neither had nor discerned any hope
of employment. The peace lately patched up at Blois between the
King of France and the League persuaded many of the Huguenots
that their final ruin was at hand; but it could not fill their
exhausted treasury or enable them to put fresh troops into the
field.

The death of the Prince had left the King of Navarre without a
rival in the affections of the Huguenots; the Vicomte de Turenne,
whose turbulent; ambition already began to make itself felt, and
M. de Chatillon, ranking next to him. It was my ill-fortune,
however, to be equally unknown to all three leaders, and as the