Baxter Springs news. [volume] (Baxter Springs, Kan.) 1882-1919, 1910-01-06
GREAT-LOW STORES
OF HISTORY 60
By ALBERT PAYSoN TERE5UNE
GcODyTight b ne AuIhor.)
BY ALBERT PAYSON TERHUNE

Two young people stood before the
altar facing the archbishop of Paris
one day in August, 1879. The girl was
slender and beautiful. The man was
tall, dark, homely, with a great hooked
beak of q nose. The young couple
were both under 20. All the. nobility
Of France had flocked to Paris to wit
ness their marriage. Yet, now that
the two faced the archbishop, there
was q most amazing hitch in the cere-
monies.
The bride refused to make her re-
sponses! The bridegroom (Henry;
king Of the subsidiary province Of
Navarre) answered II do" to the arch
bishops query as to whether he would
take Princess Marguerite de Valois as
his wife. But when the same question
was put to Marguerite she refused to
reply. The spectators whispered ex-
citedly. There was an awkward pause.
Then a pale, wild-eyed man, gaudily
dressed. stepped forward, caught Mar
guerite's head roughly between his
hands and bent it forward by force
into nod of assent. The man who
thus overcame the brides obstinacy
was her brother, the half-crazy Charles
TX, king Of France.
The foregoing scene is scarcely
promising opening for love" story
and needs some explanation. France
for years had been rent by quarrels
between two great factions, the Hugue-
nots (Protestants)
1uoSs," and Catholics. The
wedding dispute was pol
litical, rather than religious, and led
to long series of wars. Catherine de
Medici, mother of Charles TX. and
Marguerite de Valois, hated the HUI
guenots and made the following plan
for their destruction: She arranged
a marriage between Henry, king OF
Navarro (leader Of the Huguenots)
and her daughter Marguerite. All the
Huguenot leaders were invited to
Paris for the ceremony. While they
were there a Wholesale massacre
was to take place on st. Bartholo-
news day, and no Huguenot to be left
alive.
Marguerite was as clever as she
was beautiful. She did not relish the
idea of being made pawn In this
game. Of murder. Hence her refusal
to make the marriage responses. Yet
when the wedding was actually over,
she did all in her power to save her
young husband from the fate decreed
for him. So successful was she that
in spite of GATHERINGS plots Henry
was not killed in the ensuing "Massa-
ere of st. Bartholomew" But thou
sands of his fellow Huguenots were
slaughtered in cold blood and his own
life hung by thread. To Marguerite's
tact and the frequent warnings she
gave him he owed his safety. That
the strangely mated couple grew to
care very much for each other, IN
their own free-and-easy way, is GER
tain. Though it was not the sort OF
love that endured, yet while 1t lasted
both Henry and Marguerite were the
gamers. By saving Henry from death
his wife changed the whole history OF
France. For he was destined to be-
come that country's greatest king. In
cidentally, she won for herself the
title of Queen of Navarro" and ruled
a gay court of her own in her nus
bands little kingdom. Henry was ex'
fled from Paris. Marguerite. against
her family's wish. insisted on follow
ing him to Navarro. There the two
planned a series of diplomatic master
strokes that strengthened the Hugue-
not cause and made Henry's name IA
nous throughout France.
Years passed by and the roya-cou-
ple continued to govern their little
Navarraise court and to scheme for
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