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The Works of Voltaire: The Henriade: Letters and miscellanies
The Works of Voltaire The Henriade Letters and miscellanies Author:Voltaire Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CANTO VI. The Argument. After the death of Henry III., the Leaguers assemble in Paris to elect a king. In the midst of their debates, Henry IV. storms the ... more »city. The assembly is dismissed. The members that composed it repair to the ramparts. Description of the ensuing battle. In France an ancient custom we retain, When death's rude stroke has closed the monarch's reign, When destiny cuts short the smooth descent, And all the royal pedigree is spent, The people to their former rights restored, May change the laws or choose their future lord. The states in council represent the whole, Elect the king, and limit his control; Thus our renowned forefathers did ordain That Capet should succeed to Charlemagne. The League with vain presumption arrogates This right, and hastens to convene the states. They thought the murder of the king bestowed That power perhaps, on those who shed his blood, Thought that the semblance of a throne would shroud Their dark designs, and captivate the crowd, Would help their jarring counsels to unite, And give their foul pretence an air of right; That from what source soe'er his claim may spring, Just or unjust, a king is still a king, And worthy or unworthy of the sway, A Frenchman must have something to obey. Swift to the Louvre with imperious air And fierce demeanor the proud chiefs repair; Thither whom Spain ambassador had sent, And Rome, with many a priestly bigot went, To speed the election with tumultuous haste, An insult on the kings of ages past, And in the splendor of their trains, expense Was seen, the child of public indigence. No princely potentate or high-born peer Sprung from our old nobility, was there, Their grandeur now a shadowy form alone, Though lawgivers by birth and kinsmen of the throne. No sage a...« less