Looking to find in the stir and bustle
of a German campaign that relief of mind which the Court could no
longer afford him, he discovered in the unhoped-for wealth of his
treasury an additional incitement; and now waited only for the
opening of spring and the Queen's coronation to remove the last
obstacles that kept him from the field.
Nevertheless, relying on my assurances that all things were
ready, and persuaded that the more easy he showed himself the
less prepared would he find the enemy, he made no change in his
habits; but in March, 1610, went, as usual, to Fontainebleau,
where he diverted himself with hunting. It was during this visit
that the Court credited him with seeing--I think, on the Friday
before the Feast of the Virgin--the Great Huntsman; and even went
so far as to specify the part of the forest in which he came upon
it, and the form--that of a gigantic black horseman, surrounded
by hounds--which it assumed The spectre had not been seen since
the year 1598; nevertheless, the story spread widely, those who
whispered it citing in its support not only the remarkable
agitation into which the Queen fell publicly on the evening of
that day, but also some strange particulars that attended the
King's return from the forest; and, being taken up and repeated,
and confirmed, as many thought, by the unhappy sequence of his
death, the fable found a little later almost universal credence,
so that it may now be found even in books.
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