place.  The two jousters, on meeting, broke their lances skilfully; but Montgomery forgot to drop at once, according to usage, the fragment remaining in his hand; he unintentionally struck the king’s helmet and raised the visor, and a splinter of wood entered Henry’s eye, who fell forward upon his horse’s neck.  All the appliances of art were useless; the brain had been injured.  Henry II. languished for eleven days, and expired on the 10th of July, 1559, aged forty years and some months.  An insignificant man, and a reign without splendor, though fraught with facts pregnant of grave consequences.

[Illustration:  Joust between Henri II. and Count de Montgomery——­268]

CHAPTER XXXII.——­FRANCIS II., JULY 10, 1559—­DECEMBER 5, 1560.

During the course, and especially at the close of Henry II.’s reign, two rival matters, on the one hand the numbers, the quality, and the zeal of the Reformers, and on the other, the anxiety, prejudice, and power of the Catholics, had been simultaneously advancing in development and growth.  Between the 16th of May, 1558, and the 10th of July, 1559, fifteen capital sentences had been executed in Dauphiny, in Normandy, in Poitou, and at Paris.  Two royal edicts, one dated July 24, 1558, and the other June 14, 1559, had renewed and aggravated the severity of penal legislation against heretics.  To secure the registration of the latter, Henry II., together with the princes and the officers of the crown, had repaired in person to Parliament; some disagreement had already appeared in the midst of that great body, which was then composed of a hundred and thirty magistrates; the seniors who sat in the great chamber had in general shown themselves to be more inclined to severity, and the juniors who formed the chamber called La Tournelle more inclined to indulgence towards accusations of heresy.  The disagreement reached its climax in the very presence of the king.  Two councillors, Dubourg and Dufaure, spoke so warmly of reforms which were, according to them, necessary and legitimate, that their adversaries did not hesitate to tax them with being Reformers themselves.  The king had them arrested, and three of their colleagues with them.  Special commissioners were charged with the preparation of the case against them.  It has already been mentioned that one of the most considerable amongst the officers of the army, Francis d’Andelot, brother of Admiral Coligny, had, for the same cause, been subjected to a burst of anger on the part of the king.  He was in prison at Meaux when Henry II. died.  Such were the personal feelings and the relative positions of the two parties when Francis II., a boy of sixteen, a poor creature both in mind and body, ascended the throne.

[Illustration:  Francis II——­269]