humiliating to human dignity to forswear principle for a price, and to
make the most awful of mysteries the subject of political legerdemain and
theatrical buffoonery.

The so-called conversion of the king marks an epoch in human history.
It strengthened the Roman Church and gave it an indefinite renewal of
life; but it sapped the foundations of religious faith. The appearance
of Henry the Huguenot as the champion of the Council of Trent was of
itself too biting an epigram not to be extensively destructive. Whether
for good or ill, religion was fast ceasing to be the mainspring of
political combinations, the motive of great wars and national
convulsions. The age of religion was to be succeeded by the
age of commerce.

But the king was now on his throne. All Paris was in rapture. There was
Te Deum with high mass in Notre Dame, and the populace was howling itself
hoarse with rapture in honour of him so lately the object of the general
curse. Even the Sorbonne declared in favour of the reclaimed heretic,
and the decision of those sages had vast influence with less enlightened
mortals. There was nothing left for the Duke of Feria but to take
himself off and make Latin orations in favour of the Infanta elsewhere,
if fit audience elsewhere could be found. A week after the entrance of
Henry, the Spanish garrison accordingly was allowed to leave Paris with
the honours of war.

"We marched out at 2 P.M.," wrote the duke to his master, "with closed
ranks, colours displayed, and drums beating. First came the Italians and
then the Spaniards, in the midst of whom was myself on horseback, with
the Walloons marching near me. The Prince of Bearne"--it was a solace to
the duke's heart, of which he never could be deprived, to call the king