As the king was in the habit of receiving such letters every week, not only from the commander, since deceased, but from Ybarra and others, his memory, to say the least, seemed to have grown remarkably feeble.  But the sequel will very soon show that he had kept the letters by him and pondered them to much purpose.  To expect frankness and sincerity from him, however, even in his most intimate communications to his most trusted servants, would have been to “swim with fins of lead.”

Such being the private relations between the conspirators, it is instructive to observe how they dealt with each other in the great game they were playing for the first throne in Christendom.  The military events have been sufficiently sketched in the preceding pages, but the meaning and motives of public affairs can be best understood by occasional glances behind the scenes.  It is well for those who would maintain their faith in popular Governments to study the workings of the secret, irresponsible, arbitrary system; for every Government, as every individual, must be judged at last by those moral laws which no man born of woman can evade.

During the first French expedition-in the course of which Farnese had saved Paris from falling into, the hands of Henry, and had been doing his best to convert it prospectively into the capital of his master’s empire—­it was his duty, of course, to represent as accurately as possible the true state of France.  He submitted his actions to his master’s will, but he never withheld from him the advantage that he might have derived, had he so chosen, from his nephew’s luminous intelligence and patient observation.

With the chief personage he had to deal with he professed himself, at first, well satisfied.  “The Duke of Mayenne,” said he to Philip, “persists in desiring your Majesty only as King of France, and will hear of no other candidate, which gives me satisfaction such as can’t be exaggerated.”  Although there were difficulties in the way, Farnese thought that the two together with God’s help might conquer them.  “Certainly it is not impossible that your Majesty may succeed,” he said, “although very problematical; and in case your Majesty does succeed in that which we all desire and are struggling for, Mayenne not only demands the second place in the kingdom for himself, but the fief of some great province for his family.”

Should it not be possible for Philip to obtain the crown, Farnese was, on the whole, of opinion that Mayenne had better be elected.  In that event he would make over Brittany and Burgundy to Philip, together with the cities opposite the English coast.  If they were obliged to make the duke king, as was to be feared, they should at any rate exclude the Prince of Bearne, and secure, what was the chief point, the Catholic religion.  “This,” said Alexander, “is about what I can gather of Mayenne’s views, and perhaps he will put them down in a despatch to your Majesty.”