[280] Philippe de Mornay, Seigneur de Plessis-Marly, Governor of Saumur, was born in the year 1549, at Bussy, in the department of the Oise, of a Catholic father and a Protestant mother (Françoise du Bec), the latter of whom educated him in the reformed faith. Having escaped the massacre of St. Bartholomew, he visited Germany, Italy, and England, and finally entered the service of Henri IV, while he was still King of Navarre, who sent him on a mission to Queen Elizabeth. His science, his valour, and his high sense of honour, rendered him after the abjuration of the monarch the chief of the Protestant party, and caused him to be called _the Huguenot Pope_. He sustained against Duperron, Bishop of Evreux, the famous conference of Fontainebleau, at whose close each of the two parties claimed the victory. Louis XIII deprived him of his government of Saumur; and he died in 1623. He had issue by his wife, Charlotte de l'Arbalète, widow of the Marquis de Feuquières, one son (Plessis-Mornay, Sieur de Bauves), who was killed in 1605 while serving under Prince Maurice in the Low Countries, and three daughters, the younger of whom married the Duc de la Force. [281] Mézeray, vol. x. pp. 254, 255. [282] Bonnechose, _Hist. de France_, vol. i. p. 438, seventh edition. [283] Bonnechose, vol. i. p. 438. CHAPTER V 1605 Trial of the conspirators--Pusillanimity of the Comte d'Auvergne--Arrogant attitude assumed by Madame de Verneuil--She refuses to offer any defence--Defence of the Comte d'Entragues--The two nobles are condemned to death--Madame de Verneuil is sentenced to imprisonment for life in a convent--A mother's intercession--The King commutes the sentence of death passed on the two nobles to exile from the Court and imprisonment for life--Expostulations of the Privy Council--Madame de Verneuil is permitted to retire to her estate--Disappointment of the Queen--Marriage of the Duc de Rohan--Singular ceremony--A tilt at the Louvre--Bassompierre is dangerously wounded--His convalescence--Death of Clement VIII--Election of Leo XI--His sudden death--Election of Paul V--The Comte d'Entragues is authorised to return to Marcoussis--Madame de Verneuil is pardoned and recalled--Marriage of the Prince de Conti--Mademoiselle de Guise--Marriage of the Prince of Orange--The ex-Queen Marguerite--She arrives in Paris--Gratitude of the King--Her reception--Murder at the Hôtel de Sens--Execution of the criminal--Marguerite removes to the Faubourg St. Germain--The King condoles with her on the loss of her favourite--Her dissolute career--Her able policy--Death of M. de la Rivière--Execution of M. de Merargues--Attempt to assassinate Henri IV--Magnanimity of the monarch--Henry seeks to initiate the Queen into the mysteries of government--_Madame la Régente_--A timely warning.