that the Prince of Bearne was not so single-hearted nor so conscientious
as himself.

The Prince of Bearne--heretic, son of heretics, great chieftain of
heretics--was supposed capable of becoming orthodox whenever the Pope
would accept his conversion. Against this possibility Philip struggled
with all his strength.

Since Pope Sixtus V., who had a weakness for Henry, there had been
several popes. Urban VII., his immediate successor, had reigned but
thirteen days. Gregory XIV. (Sfondrato) had died 15th October, 1591,
ten months after his election. Fachinetti, with the title of Innocent
IX., had reigned two months, from 29th October to 29th December, 1591.
He died of "Spanish poison," said Envoy Umton, as coolly as if speaking
of gout, or typhus, or any other recognised disorder. Clement VIII.
(Aldobrandini) was elected 30th January, 1592. He was no lover of Henry,
and lived in mortal fear of Philip, while it must be conceded that the
Spanish ambassador at Rome was much given to brow-beating his Holiness.
Should he dare to grant that absolution which was the secret object of
the Bearnese, there was no vengeance, hinted the envoy, that Philip would
not wreak on the holy father. He would cut off his supplies from Naples
and Sicily, and starve him and all-his subjects; he would frustrate all
his family schemes, he would renounce him, he would unpope him, he would
do anything that man and despot could do, should the great shepherd dare
to re-admit this lost sheep, and this very black sheep, into the fold of
the faithful.

As for Henry himself, his game--for in his eyes it was nothing but a
game--lay every day plainer and plainer before him. He was indispensable
to the heretics. Neither England, nor Holland, nor Protestant Germany,