"Which of the two do you like the best?" inquired the king of his child.
"I prefer the marquis," she promptly replied.
"Yes; but the Prince of Joinville is the handsomest," the king rejoined.
"Oh," retorted Marguerite, "he is always in mischief, and he will be master every where."
Prediction of Francis.
Francis, the Duke of Guise, had fully apprehended the ambitious, impetuous, and reckless character of his son. He is said to have predicted that Henry, intoxicated by popularity, would perish in the attempt to seat himself upon the throne of France.
"Henry," says a writer of those times, "surpassed all the princes of his house in certain natural gifts, in certain talents, which procured him the respect of the court, the affection of the people, but which, nevertheless, were tarnished by a singular alloy of great faults and unlimited ambition."
Enthusiasm of the populace.
"France was mad about that man," writes another, "for it is too little to say that she was in love with him. Her passion approached idolatry. There were persons who invoked him in their prayers. His portrait was every where. Some ran after him in the streets to touch his mantle with their rosaries. One day that he entered Paris on his return from a journey, the multitude not only cried 'Vive Guise!' but many sang, on his passage, 'Hosanna to the son of David!'"
The house of Bourbon.
The houses united.