But time has justified its wisdom, and modern statesmanship has been able to devise no wiser plan than that conceived in the mind of this enlightened king nearly three centuries ago.
How much France lost by Ravaillac's dagger can only be surmised, and when Henry, fatally stricken (1610), was carried dying into the Louvre, a cry of grief arose from Catholic and Protestant alike throughout the kingdom.

After a reign of twenty-one years, the sagacious ruler, who had done more than any other to make the country great and happy, was the victim of assassination.

And France once more was the sport of a cruel fate which placed her in the hands of a woman and a Medici.
Marie, the widow of Henry IV., was appointed regent during the minority of her son Louis aged ten years.
The regency of this woman is a story of cabals and the intrigues of aspiring favorites.

If Marie had not the ability of her great kinswoman Catharine, it must be confessed neither had she her darker vices.

She was simply intriguing and vulgar, and the willing instrument for designing people cleverer than herself.