Philip had a more difficult game than ever to play in France.

It would be hard for him to make valid the claims of the Infanta and any husband he might select for her to the crown of her grandfather Henry II.

It seemed simple enough for him, while waiting the course of events, to set up a royal effigy before the world in the shape of an effete old Cardinal Bourbon, to pour oil upon its head and to baptize it Charles X.; but meantime the other Bourbon was no effigy, and he called himself Henry IV.
It was easy enough for Paris, and Madam League, and Philip the Prudent, to cry wo upon the heretic; but the cheerful leader of the Huguenots was a philosopher, who in the days of St.Bartholomew had become orthodox to save his life, and who was already "instructing himself" anew in order to secure his crown.

Philip was used to deal with fanatics, and had often been opposed by a religious bigotry as fierce as his own; but he might perhaps be baffled by a good-humoured free-thinker, who was to teach him a lesson in political theology of which he had never dreamed.
The Leaguers were not long in doubt as to the meaning of "instruction," and they were thoroughly persuaded that--so soon as Henry IV.

should reconcile himself with Rome--their game was likely to become desperate.
Nevertheless prudent Philip sat in his elbow-chairs writing his apostilles, improving himself and his secretaries in orthography, but chiefly confining his attention to the affairs of France.