Historic Cluiteaux : Blois, Fontainebleau, Vincennes. By A. Baillie Cochrane,
M.P. (Hurst and Blackott.)—The subjects of these throe sketches are three historic murders, perpetrated at the three châteaux named on the title-page. In the first is related the story of the murder of Henry, Duke of Guise, by Henry III. of France, prefaced by a sketch of the life, times, and character of Catharine do Medici. Mr. Cochrane shows some dramatic power in the representation of scenes such as those of the "days of Vincennes," and the assassination of Guise, and so writes historical essays in a form as easy to read as an ordinary novel. The second of these essays, "Fontainebleau," contains the story of Christina of Sweden, and the assassination of Monaldecchi, her secretary, perpetrated by her orders at that château. This Queen is distinguished in history as ibe most illustrious of converts. Certainly the conversion of a monarch, the ruler of a country then among the foremost of European kingdoms, the daughter, too, of the great Gustavus, "the Bulwark of Protestantism," was a -success which outshines all modern triumphs of Rome. It was hard for the Church which won her that it must secretly have regarded her its a most unsatisfactory convert. Voltaire says of Christina :—" Les Protestants Font ddchiree, comma si on no ponvait pas avoir de grandee 'virtues sans croire a Luther ; et lee Papas triompherent trop do is conversion d'une femme qui n'Otait quo philosophe." That is what an outsider thought of the matter. Mr. Cochrane seems to account both for her abdication and her abjuration by the intense love of excitement which possessed her, and there is ',doubtless some truth in this view. But we suspect that the principal motive which prompted both acts, startling as they were, was an in- ordinate and morbid vanity. She herself writes with reference to her conversion :—" There was a certain desire to render myself remarkable. God, who acts in unknown ways, made use of my love of singularity to turn my thoughts to Himself." It was wounded vanity which urged her to that crime, the murder of her secretary, whose offence was that he had babbled about her foibles. The pathetic story of the fate of the Duc d'Enghien, shot in the ditch of Vincennes, will always bear retelling, and is retold by Mr. Cochrane in a very interesting way.
Previous page
