returns to the Louvre--Last advice given by the King to the
Queen-Regent--Gloomy forebodings--The Queen's toilet--The Duc de Vendôme
and the Astrologer--The King's coach--Assassination of Henri IV--The
Queen and the Chancellor--The royal children are placed under the care
of M. de Vitry--Examination of the royal body--The King's heart--The
state bier--The royal funeral.

Having resolved that the coronation of the Queen should take place
before his departure for Germany, and being anxious to commence the
projected campaign with the least possible delay, Henry named the 5th of
May as the day on which the ceremony was to be performed; but having
learnt from a private despatch that the Archduke had resolved at the
eleventh hour not to incur the hazard of a war with France upon so
frivolous a pretext as the forcible retention of a Princess, who
moreover, remained under his charge against her own free will, and that
Madame de Condé was accordingly about to return to the French Court, he
resolved to defer the pageant until the advent of the fair fugitive who
would, as he felt, constitute its brightest ornament. The succeeding
courier from the Low Countries, however, dispelled this brilliant
vision. Whatever might have been the personal inclination of the
Archduke, Philip of Spain determined to retain his hostage; and the
return of the Princess to France was interdicted. Enraged by the deceit
which had been practised upon him, but unwilling to forfeit his word to
the Queen, Henry had no alternative save to order the instant renewal of
the preparations which he had himself suspended; and despite the
entreaties of the municipal authorities of Paris, who represented the
impossibility of completing their arrangements before the end of the
month, he persisted in his resolution of causing the Queen to be crowned
on the 13th, and commanded her public entry into Paris for the following
Sunday.[1]