M. de Bouillon--Festivities at Rennes--Henri IV becomes melancholy--He
resolves to divorce Marguerite, and take a second wife--European
princesses--Henry desires to marry la belle Gabrielle--Sully
expostulates--Sully proposes a divorce to Marguerite--The Duchesse de
Beaufort intrigues to prevent the marriage of the King with Marie de
Medicis--She bribes Sillery--Diplomacy of Sillery--Gabrielle aspires to
the throne of France--Her death--Marguerite consents to a divorce--The
Pope declares the nullity of her marriage--Grief of the King at the
death of Gabrielle--Royal pleasures--A new intrigue--Mademoiselle
d'Entragues--Her tact--Her character--A love-messenger--Value of a royal
favourite--Costly indulgences--A practical rebuke--Diplomacy of
Mademoiselle d'Entragues--The written promise--Mademoiselle d'Entragues
is created Marquise de Verneuil.

However celebrated he was destined to become as a sovereign, Henri IV of
France was nevertheless fated to be singularly unfortunate as a husband.
Immediately after the death of his mother, the high-hearted Jeanne
d'Albret, whom he succeeded on the throne of Navarre, political
considerations induced him to give his hand to Marguerite, the daughter
of Henri II and Catherine de Medicis, a Princess whose surpassing beauty
and rare accomplishments were the theme and marvel of all the European
courts, and whose alliance was an object of ambition to many of the
sovereign princes of Christendom.

Marguerite de Valois was born on the 14th of May 1552, and became the
wife of Henry of Navarre on the 18th of August 1572, when she was in the
full bloom of youth and loveliness; nor can there be any doubt that she
was one of the most extraordinary women of her time; for while her grace
and wit dazzled the less observant by their brilliancy, the depth of her
erudition, her love of literature and the arts, and the solidity of her