The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1857-10-01

ing me speak in those terms, the man aske
my pardon, and confessed that he had dor
: wrong in addressing me on the subject at all.
r He had hardly finished making his excuse
to me, when the door of the gallery openet
The unhappy Marquis, hearing the souut
raised himself from the floor, and seeing tbs
the person who entered was the Queens char
lain, dragged himself along the gallery, holdn'
!; on by the tapestry that hung from the wall,
until he reached the feet of the holv mar
There, he whispered few words las if he wa
} confessing) to the chaplain, who, after frs
asking my permission, gave him absolutior
and then returned to the Queen,
AS the chaplain closed the door, the ma
who had struck the Marquis on the neck stab
bed him adroitly with a long, narrow sword, il
the throat, just above the edge of the shirt O
mail. Monadeschi sank on his right side, an,
spoke no more. For a quarter of an hon
longer he still breathed, during which time
prayed by him, and exhorted him as bes
could. When the bleeding from this las
wound ceased, his life ceased with it. 1t wa
then a quarter to four o'clock. The dealt
agony of the miserable man had lasted. from
the time of the Queens first pronouncinp sen
tence on him, for nearly three hours.
said the De Profundis over his body. While
was praying, the three men sheathed thei,
|
| quis's pockets. Finding nothing on b i'm bu,
a prayer-book and a small knife, the chic
beckoned to his companions, and they all three
marched to the door in silence, went out, and
LETT me alone with the corpse.
lew minutes afterwards, followed them.
70 go and report what had happened to the
queen. l thought her color changed q little
when told her that Monaldeschi was dead
but those cold, clear eyes of hers never softened
and her voice was still as steady and firm as
when first heard its tones on entering the gal.
lery that day.
q, She spoke very little, only saying to herself,
" de is dead, and he deserved to die 4"
Then, turning to me, she added, "Father, 1
leave the care of burying him to you and, for
my own part, will charge myself with the ex.
pense OF having masses enough said for the re-
pose of his sonl."
!! ordered the body to be placed in coffin,
which instructed the bearers to remove to the
churchyard on tumbril, in consequence of
the great weight of the corpse of the misty rain
tnat was falling, and of the bad state of the
roads. On Monday, the twelfth of November.
at quarter to six in the evening. the Maron;s
was buried in the parish church of Avon. near
the font OF holy water. The next day, the Queen
sent one hundred ivres, by two of her servants,
Ior masses tor the repose of his soul.
Thus ends the extraordinary narrative of
Father LIE Bel. 1t is satisfactory to record, as
some evidence OF the progress of humanity,
that the barbarous murder, committed under
the sanction and authority of Queen Christina,
winch would have passed unnoticed in the feu.
dal times, as an ordinary and legitimate exer.
else OF sovereign's authority over q vassa
excited, IN the middle of the seventeenth cen.
fury, the utmost disgust and horror throughout
Paris. The Prime Minister at that period. Car
dinal Mazarin, (by no means an over. scrupu.
ious man, as all readers of French history
know,) wrote officially to Christina, informing
her that " crime so atrocious as that which
had just been committed under her sanction, in
the Palace of Fontainebleau, must be consid.
cred as sufficient cause for banishing the
Queen OF Sweden from the court and dominions
OF his sovereign, who, in common with every
ON the soil of France" 80 N"--' $ I'D a. the
To this letter Queen Christina sent the fol.
lowing answer, which, as specimen OF spiteful
efrontery, has probably never been matched:
"MoNsIEUR MAzARIN: Those who have com.
municated to you the details of the death of my
equerry, Monaldeschi, knew nothing at all about
it. l think it highly absurd that You should
have compromised 80 many people for the sake
of informing yourself about one simple fact
Such a proceeding on your part ridiculous as it
is, does not, however, much astonish me. What
am amazed at is, that you, and the King
your master, should have dared to express disap.
prevail of what have done.
Understand, all of you-servants and masters,
little people and great-that it was my sovereign
pleasure to act as l did. / neither owe nor
render an account of my actions to any one
least of all, to bully like you.
1t may be we'll for you to know, and to re-
port to any one whom you can get to listen to
you, that Christina cares little for your court,
and less still for you. When want to revenge
myself l have no need of your formidable
power to help me. Ny honor obliged me to
act as did. My will is my law, and you ought
to know how to respect it. Under
stand, if you please, that wherever choose to
live, there l am Queen; and that the men
about me, rascals as they may be, are better
than you and the myrmidons whom you keep
In your service.
"Take my advice, Mszarin, and behave
yourself for the future, 80 as to merit my favor;
you cannot, for your own sake, be too anxious
to deserve it. Heaven preserve you from ven
turing on any more disparaging remarks about
my conduct | shall hear of them, if / am at
the other end of the world, for have friends
and followers in my service who are as un-
scrupuous and as viglant as any in yours,
though it is probable enough that they are not
quite 80 heavily bribed."
After replying to the Prime Minister of
France in these terms, Christina was wise
enough to leave the kingdom Immediately.
For three years more, she pursued her travels
At the expiration of that time, her cousin, the
King of Sweden, in whose favor she had abdi
Gated, died. She returned at once to her own
country, with the object of possessing herself
once more of the royal power. Here the pun.
ishment of the merciless crime that she had
sanctioned overlook her at last. The brave
and honest people of Sweden refused to be gov
erned by the woman who had ordered the MUIR
der of Monaldeschi, and who had forsaken the
national religion for which her father had died.
Threatened with the loss of her revenues, as
well as the loss of her sovereignty, if she re-
manned in Sweden, the proud and merciless
Christina yielded for the first time in her life.
She resigned, once more, all right and title to
the royal dignity, and left her native country
for the last time. The final place of her retire
ment was Rome. She died there in the year
sixteen hundred and eighty nine. Even in the
epitaph which she ordered to be placed on her
tomb, the strange and daring character of the
woman breaks out. The whole record of that
wild, wondrous, wicked existence, was summed
up, with stern brevity, in this one line:
CHRISTINA LIVED SEvENrY.Two YEARS.
| WHO IS GENTLEMAN?-A gentleman is not
merely person acquainted with certain forms
and conventionalities of life, easy and selfpos-
sessed in society, able to speak, and act, and
| move in the world without nh NO rdn oss and