This arbitrary act was the last which Henry had the power of committing. On that day fortnight, at a tournament, he was mortally wounded by a splinter from the lance of the count de Montgomery. The scene of the tournament was near the Bastile; and it is said that as the wounded monarch was carried past the prison, his conscience smote him, and he more than once expressed his fears that he had behaved unjustly to men who were innocent. The cardinal of Lorraine, who was with him, is also said to have assured him, that such an idea could have been inspired only by the arch fiend, and admonished him to reject it, and adhere firmly to his faith. This story, however, has no other foundation than popular report. The reign of Francis II. opened under no favourable auspices for the protestants. The minor king was wholly under the influence of the Guises, and of his mother Catherine of Medicis, all of whom had vowed a deadly hostility to them. The persecution was accordingly resumed with an increase of vigour. The trial of the members of the parliament was pushed on; but it was against du Bourg that the hatred of the court was peculiarly directed—the sweeping crimination, which was contained in his speech before the deceased Henry, had wounded many great personages too deeply to be forgiven. Before the death of Henry, a commission had been appointed, which had interrogated du Bourg on the subject of his religious tenets. He having candidly avowed them, they were pronounced heretical by the bishop of Paris, and he was delivered over to the secular authority. Du Bourg appealed to the archbishop of Sens, and to the parliament, but without effect. The trial was proceeded with, and, while it was pending, an event occurred, which contributed to render his enemies still more inveterate. One of his judges was a counsellor named Minard, a man of profligate life, who had given violent advice to the late king. Du Bourg, therefore, repeatedly challenged him as incompetent to sit upon the trial, and, on Minard refusing to withdraw, the prisoner is said to have exclaimed, “God will know how to compel thee!” It unfortunately happened that, returning one evening to his home from the trial, Minard was assassinated, by a pistol being fired at him. Du Bourg was suspected, and not without an appearance of reason, of being implicated in the murder, and this hastened his fate. There is no ground whatever to believe that he was concerned in the foul deed; but it must be owned, that such prophecies as he ventured upon are dangerous, because they have a tendency to bring about their own fulfilment. It is not improbable, that the act was suggested to the mind of some fanatical protestant by the words of the prisoner.