But he yielded. Conscience made a coward of him. He had wronged
her so much in one way that he must make some compensating
concessions to her in another. This weakness was part of his
mental attitude towards her, which swung constantly between
confidence and diffidence, esteem and indifference, affection and
coldness; at times he inclined to put her from him entirely; at
others he opined that no one on his Council was more capable of
the administration of affairs. Even in the indignation aroused
by the proof he held of her disloyalty, he was too just not to
admit the provocation he had given her. So he submitted to a
reconciliation on her own terms, and pledged himself to renounce
Charlotte. We have no right to assume from the sequel that he was
not sincere in the intention.
By the following May events proved the accuracy of Sully's
judgment. The court was at Fontainebleau when the last bulwark of
Henry's prudence was battered down by the vanity of that lovely
fool, Charlotte, who must be encouraging her royal lover to
resume his flattering homage. But both appear to have reckoned
without the lady's husband.
Henry presented Charlotte with jewels to the value of eighteen
thousand livres, purchased from Messier, the jeweller of the Pont
au Change; and you conceive what the charitable ladies of the
Court had to say about it.
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