Page:The Queens of England.djvu/207

 KATHERINE OF V ALOIS. 175 will have the daughter of your king and all that we have asked, or we will drive him and you out of the kingdom.' The duke replied, 'Sire, you are pleased to say so, but before you can drive my lord and me out of his kingdom, I make no doubt that you will be heartily tired.' " After this rejoinder, which certainly is not witty, and prob- ably therefore is literally true, they separated ; and the pros- pects of Henry seemed destined to be deprived of some of their brilliancy, when an event occurred which was productive of the most deplorable consequences to France and of benefit to him This was the assassination of the Duke of Bergundy by the Dauphin, who seems to have selected for the perpetration of his crime the very moment in which the object of it appears to have been awakening to a right sense of his duty to his country and to his sovereign. But, whatever were the real motives of this crime, its conse- quences were such as might have been anticipated by the most unreflecting. Philip, the son of the murdered prince, imme- diately succeeded to his estates and power, and devoted his whole energy and resources to punish the murderers of his father. To promote his attainment of this object, he united himself in a close confederacy with the queen and with Henry ; and the marriage of the latter with Katherine then speedily ceased to become a subject of difficulty. "At length it was concluded, by favor of the Duke of Bur- gundy and his party, that Charles, king of France, should give to Henry, king of England, his youngest daughter Katherine in marriage, and, in consequence of this alliance, should make him and his heirs successors to the throne of France after his decease ; thus disinheriting his own son and heir, Charles, duke of Touraine, and Dauphin, and annulling that principle of the constitution which had been, with great deliberation, resolved on bv former kings and peers of France, namely, that it should never be governed or inherited by a female, or by any one descended from the female line. The King of France also agreed that should King Henry have no issue by this marriage, he and his heirs were to remain successors to the crown of France. All this was granted by King Charles ; but, to say truth, he had not for some time past been in his right senses."* The nature of this treaty is well expressed by Shakespeare.
 * Monstrelet.