And one result, certainly, of this constant prepossession was, that
it kept him on the alert concerning theories of the divine assistance
to man, and the world,--theories of inspiration. On the Feast of
Pentecost, on the afternoon of the thirtieth of May, news of the
death of Charles the Ninth had gone abroad promptly, with large
rumours as to the manner of it. Those streams of blood blent
themselves fantastically in Gaston's memory of the event with the
gaudy colours of the season--the crazy red trees in blossom upon the
heated sky above the old grey walls; like a fiery sunset, it might
seem, as he looked back over the ashen intervening years. To
Charles's successor (he and [136] the Queen-mother now delightfully
secure from fears, however unreasonable, of Charles's jerking dagger)
the day became a sweet one, to be noted unmistakably by various pious
and other observances, which still further fixed the thought of that
Sunday on Gaston's mind, with continual surmise as to the tendencies
of so complex and perplexing a scene.

The last words of Charles had asserted his satisfaction in leaving no
male child to wear his crown. But the brother, whose obvious kingly
qualities, the chief facts really known of him so far, Charles was
thought to have envied--the gallant feats of his youth, de ses Jeunes
guerres, his stature, his high-bred beauty, his eloquence, his almost
pontifical refinement and grace,--had already promptly deserted the
half-barbarous kingdom, his acceptance of which had been but the mask
of banishment; though he delayed much on his way to the new one,
passing round through the cities of Venice and Lombardy, seductive
schools of the art of life as conceived by Italian epicures, of which
he became only too ready a student. On Whit-Monday afternoon, while
Charles "went in lead," amid very little private or public concern,
to join his kinsfolk at Saint-Denys, Paris was already looking out