Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1882-12-14

light Of her eyes. A Grscian sculp-
tor would have chosen her for . model
Of Diana. Her face was like water
lily. diffusiRg its fragrance over the
bright waters Of an Italian lake lying
In the shadow Of dark mountain,
and concludes By borrowing from Ia
citus the expression "Fpmina Easta
anime ct superb luxus.
Francis J.. her father-in-law. called
her when she came to his court the
bride Of his son, "The beautiful rain
bow Of France. " and truly she wasthe
rainbow spanning the arch Of heaven
after showers Of blood. The true his
torian is but q writer Of facts. He
has but the light Of facts TO guide
him. and when he travels beyond the
circle % that right he gropes IN dark
ness and teaches error, and it is to
that perversion Of medieval history
that We owe the false philosophy and
scepticism Of the present day. The
writer Of true history has three duties
TO fnlfilI.
lst. He must record facts, but enter
no judgments on his record.
End. He must diUest himself of all
personal PrOcLirities, f0recOnceiued opsn-
IONS or prgudiccs.
3rd. He must discard az 0nsbigsSi-
ties.
With history thus written, we pre-
sent the life Of Catharine De Medicis,
whose long reign as Queen and Queen
mother covers hepoetic era of French
history. Strange to tell, though she
lived and reigned in the palmiest days
of the fine arts, the cotemporary Of
those grand masters Of painting and
statuary, whose works are imperisha-
bic and inirnitable, no portrait Of her
graces the galleries of France and It
ally like Zenobia, Queen of Palmyra.
Her portrait is only drawn by the
pen of the historian, and in writing
of a woman who fled such grand
historic role on the stage Of Europe,
it is not beneath the dignity of histo-
ry to describe her peg4on.
"She was daughter Of Italy," says
Brantome. with the sun of Italy in
her eyes, pure Grecian profile. toned
and soitened into the grand Floren-
tine type, SO admired and copied by
the artists of succeeding ages. Her
hair, dark and luxuriant, and when
worn en- coronal, enhanced the classic
beauty Of her face. She might have
emerged from the tomb of Julia, daugh-
ter of Claudius, and sat in the temple
of Venus, where once that goddess sat
to receive the homage of old Pagan
Rome. In stature, tall, but grace
fully modelled and proportional. Skin
fair, but just enough OF the olive to
show the sun of Italy"
Such her portrait as drawn by the
pen OF cotemporaneous history.
Ring up the curtain. Let the dra-
ma 60 on. First let the actors pass
in review before the play begins.
First comes Francis l., bald head
ed and wrinkled in his seth year from
his long captivity at Madrid. Then
that burly. red beared Teuton, Charles
", EmT error of Germany-K:ng of
Spain and Spanish America-who
FIRST wrote "Plus ultra" on the es-
cutcheon Of Spain-the Charlemaene
of the 18th century as Napoleon was
of the 10th. Then Mary, Queen of
Scots, smiling like the rosy fingered
goddess Of the morning. leading by the
hand the little stripping, Francis. the
Dauphin, Observation-Disclosures III. Then
Clement VII. with grand head, which
would have suited the stature of Au-
relian. Then Philip the H., with the
eye of Catalina stuck in the head of a
fox, and in his train Parma and Alva,
OF terrible memories. Then William
of Orange, with his tall, wasted frame,
pale, thin face, aquiline nose, lus-
trous eyes, bent on the ground in med
ditation, with his index finger on his
lips-that William the silent in his
tory and statuary-and then Eliza
beth of England, with her freckled
face, red hair, sleepy, gray eyes and
nose like the beak of hawk. Then
the bluff admiral Coligny. Then the
stalwart Duke OF Guise. In the back
ground. the dark and sombre forms Of
Henry ~. and the Huguenots throw
their shadows like dark clouds gath
ering on the verge of an illuminated
landscape. Lastly over the prosce-
mum, the rainbow Of France with
one foot Of its crescent resting on the
cradle and the other on the grave of
Catherine De Medicis. Such the &C.
tors. How well or how III they played
their parts history alone can tell.
History is the science ofpast events,
and the logic Of history IS as infalii-
bic as that of mathematics. The fall
lacies of history lead to the same false
conclusions as fallacies Of logic.
History written for the instruction
OF mankind is simple. grand and beau
tiful. Like geology, It teaches fixed,
irrevocable and impsrishable facts,
and leaves to God, and to God alone,
the solution ofininite problems which
the fnite mind of man cannot COM
prehend.