We have seen him, a thousand times in his life, make pat replies without hearing the purport of a request, and forestall questions without committing himself.

The Duke of Mayenne was incommoded by his great bodily bulk, which could not support the burden either of arms or of fatigue duty.
The other, having worked all his men to a stand-still, would send for hounds and horses for to begin a hunt; and when his horses could go no farther, he would run down the game afoot.

The former communicated his heaviness and his maladies to his army, undertaking no enterprise that he could not support in person; the other communicated his own liveliness to those about him, and his captains imitated him from complaisance and from emulation." [Illustration: GABRIELLE D'ESTREES--130] These politicians, these Christians, these warriors had, in 1600, a grave question to solve for Henry IV., and grave counsel to give him.

He was anxious to separate from his wife, Marguerite de Valois, who had, in fact, been separated from him for the last fifteen years, was leading a very irregular life, and had not brought him any children.

But, in order to obtain from the pope annulment of the marriage, it was first necessary that Marguerite should consent to it, and at no price would she consent so long as the king's favorite continued to be Gabrielle d'Estrees, whom she detested, and by whom Henry already had several children.