surrounded with little dogs, sometimes flogged himself walking barefoot
in a procession, and his _mignons_, or favourites, were the scandal of
the country by their pride, license, and savage deeds. The war broke out
again, and his only remaining brother, Francis, Duke of Alençon, an
equally hateful and contemptible being, fled from court to the Huguenot
army, hoping to force his brother into buying his submission; but when
the King of Navarre had followed him and begun the struggle in earnest,
he accepted the duchy of Anjou, and returned to his allegiance. Francis
was invited by the insurgent Dutch to become their chief, and spent some
time in Holland, but returned, unsuccessful and dying. As the king was
childless, the next male heir was Henry of Bourbon, King of Navarre, who
had fled from court soon after Alençon returned to the Huguenot faith,
and was reigning in his two counties of Béarn and Foix, the head of the
Huguenots. In the resolve never to permit a heretic to wear the French
crown, Guise and his party formed a Catholic league, to force Henry III.
to choose another successor. Paris was devoted to Guise, and the king,
finding himself almost a prisoner there, left the city, but was again
mastered by the duke at Blois, and could so ill brook his arrogance, as
to have recourse to assassination. He caused him to be slain at the
palace at Blois in 1588. The fury of the League was so great that Henry
III. was driven to take refuge with the King of Navarre, and they were
together besieging Paris, when Henry III. was in his turn murdered by a
monk, named Clement, in 1589.


9. Henry IV.--The Leaguers proclaimed as king an old uncle of the
King of Navarre, the Cardinal of Bourbon, but all the more moderate
Catholics rallied round Henry of Navarre, who took the title of _Henry
IV._ At Ivry, in Normandy, Henry met the force of Leaguers, and defeated
them by his brilliant courage. "Follow my white plume," his last order