Evening star., 1909-09-11

knee and hamstrunS La Chateigneraie
with back pull OF his sword. The man
bled to death.
Diane gave royal fetes at Chenonceau.
but was uneasy about her title. Later
the treasury might rip up the royal gift
So she found a cruel legal trick.
Antoine Bohier. plain business man.
had been making money again. Suddenly
he found himself accused of fraud in the
old compromise that had robbed him both
of Chenono eau and all his money. You
overvalued Chenonceau," said Henri H.
Take back your chateau. and the crown
will revive the old suit against you.
The plain French business man just ned
TO Venice Chenonceau, as his again.
was put up for sale by the sheriff. and
Diane de Poiters bought il in for N,10
livres. Being due to tier friend. the KING
of course she never paid them.
To make up the alleged difference. Henri
ii seized all Bohier's new-earned fortune.
This was cash gained; but the cruel trick
profited Diane nothing. BY an aomirapie
fatality II was only to save ChenCnceau
from confscation 200 years later. In the
French revolution. in the hands of an
other plain business man. Dupln!
Here is another crime of Chenonceau.
Diane, having finished the bridge wing at
a cost of 1900 livres. built Italian gardens
in the style of Passelo de Mercogliano.
The Archbishop of Tours loaned her a
remarkable young gardener. Nicquet 10
train her fruit walks
Ncquet was handsome. seductive, in
nocent. The court was at Blois. There
was a passing escapade. And then young
Ncquet died of alleged cholera.
OF all Diane's crimes, this one stuck.
The victim was servant. and the venge-
full clan tired not of whispering the tale.
When Henri II lay dying, it became the
pretext on which Tavannes offered the
queen to cut off Diane's nose. Instead,
the philosophical Catherine de Medicis
spared the fallen beauty's mutilation-on
condition that Diane give her Chenonceau!
Catherine de Medicis got DANES clear
title to the coveted chateau by the os
tensible trade of heavily mortgaged
Chaumont.
An American woman. Esther Alexander,
legal French wife of Count Robert de
Broglie. is, with him. co-heir apparent to
the latter historic chateau of the Loire
at this moment.
Her first fete at Chenonceau was tri-
umphal entry for the new young king, her
son, Francis II. and his young wife. Ma
rie Stuart
Arches, obelisks. columns. statues, foun
tains, antique affairs, fireworks. music and
300 cannons made wonderful effect
These were the happiest DAYS of Mari,
soon to die. and she to become Queen OF
Scots. 1t was of Chenonceau she SANG
. her sweet complaint:
Be 1t in wood or lawn.
Re Ii by dawn
Without my heart sent tfeelsl
Le regret dun absent. -s.r
Which is a word-for-word translation
They say that her geptle ghost is the
only one that has been seen inside the
chateau during the time of the Terrys
1t appears an elderly woman (as of the
time of her execution) in black gown ant
white ruff, who walks melancholy through
the bridge wing. as one surprised, con-
tent to return though late to empty scenes
of bygone happiness.
At Chenonceau Catherine gave roya
fetes, as son died after son, to Charles
TX and Henri III. The last and most ex-
; pensive marks a date in the scandalous
history of the bizarre knglet. who had
most of the graces of a lady. You car
read of it in Pierre de rEstoile.
The festival was held in the gardens be-
hind the separate. Marques donon. Henr
, III and his mignons being dressed as
women, the ladies of honor personateC
men. Catherine de Medicis, in spite o
her sixty years, dragged her daughter