UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 AT LOS ANGELES 
 
 BROWSING ROOM
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
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 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 Donate tie 13ai?ac
 
 J^onorfc be 
 
 PHILOSOPHIC 
 AND ANALYTIC STUDIES 
 
 VOLUME VII
 
 LIMITED TO ONE THOUSAND COMPLETE COPIES 
 
 NO. 71 3
 
 AT THE SIEGE OF CALAIS 
 
 He placed his left foot on the duke 's chest, seized 
 the wooden shaft of the lance in his fingers, slowly 
 ivorked it back and forth, and at last drew it from 
 the duke's head, as if he were dealing with a tiling, 
 not a man.
 
 THE NOVELS 
 
 OF 
 
 HONORE DE BALZAC 
 
 NOW FOR THE FIRST TIME 
 COMPLETELY TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH 
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 BY G. BURNHAM IVES 
 
 WITH FIVE ETCHINGS BY HENRI-JOSEPH DUBOUCHET, 
 
 AFTER PAINTINGS BY DIOGENE-ULYSSE- 
 
 NAPOLEON MAILLART 
 
 IN ONE VOLUME 
 
 PRINTED ONLY FOR SUBSCRIBERS BY 
 
 GEORGE BARRIE & SON, PHILADELPHIA
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1899, BY GEORGE BARRIE * SON 
 
 't ', J'- ' / y i ".,"' *? 2 ,^^, ." 
 
 -
 
 2-/7S 
 
 o 
 
 i 
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 189976
 
 TO MONSIEUR LE MARQUIS DE PASTORET 
 Member of the Academy of Fine Arts 
 
 When one considers the amazing number of vol- 
 umes published with the view of fixing the point at 
 which Hannibal crossed the Alps, and that no one 
 can say to-day whether he went, according to Whit- 
 aker and Rivaz, by way of Lyon, Geneva, the Saint- 
 Bernard, and the valley of Aosta; or, according to 
 Letronne, Follard, Saint-Simon, and Portia d'Urban, 
 by the Isere, Grenoble, Saint-Bonnet, Mont Genevre, 
 Fenestrelle, and the Suza pass; or, according to La- 
 rauza, by Mont Cenis and Suza; or, according to 
 Strabo, Polybius, and De Luc, by way of the Rhone, 
 Vienne, Yennes, and the Mont du Chat; or, accord- 
 ing to the opinion of some judicious persons, by way 
 of Genoa, La Bochetta, and La Scrivia, which opinion 
 I share, and which Napoleon adopted, to say noth- 
 ing of the vinegar with which other scholars have 
 sprinkled the Alpine cliffs, one can but be aston- 
 ished, monsieur le marquis, to see modern history 
 so neglected that its most important points are ob- 
 scure and that names which should be held in ven- 
 eration are still burdened with most odious calumnies. 
 We may remark, in passing, that Hannibal's passage 
 of the Alps has become almost problematical by dint 
 (3)
 
 4 DEDICATION 
 
 of having light thrown upon it. For instance, Pere 
 Menestrier believes that the Scoras mentioned by 
 Polybius is the Saone; Letronne, Larauza, and 
 Schweighauser identify it as the Isere; Cochard, a 
 Lyonnais scholar, is convinced that it is the Drome: 
 now, who that has eyes can fail to observe great 
 geographical and linguistic resemblances between 
 Scoras and Scrivia, to say nothing of the almost 
 certainty that the Carthaginian fleet anchored either 
 at Spezzia or in the roadstead of Genoa? I could 
 understand all this painstaking investigation, if there 
 were any doubt about the battle of Cannes; but, 
 inasmuch as its results are perfectly certain, where 
 is the use of blackening so much paper with such a 
 mass of conjectures which are in some sense the 
 arabesques of hypothesis; while the history that is 
 of the most importance to us of the present day, 
 the history of the Reformation, is so full of obscure 
 points that we do not know the name of the man 
 who propelled a vessel by steam at Barcelona* in 
 the days when Luther and Calvin were plotting the 
 insurrection of thought? You and I have reached, 
 I believe, the same conclusion, after investigating, 
 each in his own way, the grand and noble figure of 
 Catherine de' Medici. Wherefore it seemed to me 
 most fitting that my historical study of that queen 
 should be inscribed to a writer who has worked so 
 
 *The author of the experiment at Barcelona was probably Salomon, of Caux, 
 not Caus. That great man was always unlucky ; even after his death his name 
 was mutilated. Salomon, whose portrait, taken from life at the age of forty-six, 
 was found by the author of the HUMAN COMEDY at Heidelberg, was born at 
 Caux, In Normandy.
 
 DEDICATION 5 
 
 long at the history of 'the Reformation, and that I 
 should thus do public homage to the high character 
 and loyalty of the man of monarchical principles, 
 homage that may be of value because of its rarity. 
 
 Paris, January 1842.
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 There is generally a cry of paradox when scholars, 
 having discovered a historical error, seek to correct 
 it; but whoever has studied modern history with care 
 cannot doubt that historians are privileged liars who 
 lend their pens to the support of popular supersti- 
 tions, precisely as most of the newspapers of to-day 
 merely express the opinions of their readers. 
 
 Historical independence has always been much 
 more rare in laymen than in ecclesiastics. It is from 
 the Benedictines, one of the glories of France, that 
 we obtain the purest light in matters of history, pro- 
 vided always that their interests are not involved. 
 The result has been that, since the middle of the 
 eighteenth century, there have appeared divers able 
 and learned controversialists, who, impressed by the 
 necessity of correcting the popular errors accredited 
 by historians, have published some remarkable 
 works. Monsieur de Launoy, for instance, who has 
 been called the Dislodger of Saints, waged a pitiless 
 war on the saints who had been smuggled into the 
 Church. In like manner, the emulators of the Bene- 
 dictines, the too little known members of the Academy 
 of Inscriptions and Belles-Lettres, began to issue 
 their memories, remarkable for their patient labor, 
 
 (7)
 
 8 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 their erudition, and their logic, upon various obscure 
 points of history. Voltaire, too, for an unworthy 
 purpose, with deplorable passion, often turned the 
 light of his intellect on historical prejudices. Dide- 
 rot undertook, with that aim, a tediously long book 
 upon one period in the history of imperial Rome. 
 It may be, that, except for the French Revolu- 
 tion, criticism, applied to history, would have paved 
 the way for an accurate and reliable history of 
 France, for which the materials were collected so 
 long ago by our great Benedictines. Louis XVI., 
 a man of sound judgment, himself translated the 
 English work wherein Walpole tried to explain the 
 character of Richard III., a work which aroused 
 much attention in the last century. 
 
 How does it happen that personages so celebrated 
 as kings and queens, persons of such eminence as 
 generals of the army, become objects of horror or 
 derision? Half of the world hesitates between the 
 song concerning Marlborough and the history of 
 England, just as we hesitate between history and 
 the popular beliefs concerning Charles IX. When- 
 ever great conflicts take place between the masses 
 and the ruling authorities, the people create in their 
 own minds an ogresque personage, if we may ven- 
 ture to invent a word to express a well-defined idea. 
 In our own times, for instance, except for the Memo- 
 rial de Sainte-H&ne, and the controversies between 
 royalists and imperialists, the character of Napo- 
 leon would be entirely misunderstood. A few more 
 Abbes de Pradt. a few more newspaper articles, and
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 9 
 
 Napoleon would have been transformed from an em- 
 peror to an ogre. How do such errors gain currency 
 and credence? the mysterious thing is done under 
 our very eyes without our noticing it. No one real- 
 izes how much consistency the invention of printing 
 has given both to the envy which clings to persons 
 in high station and to the popular pleasantries which 
 reverse the true significance of a great historical 
 fact. For instance, the Prince de Polignac's name 
 is given throughout France to the sorry nags who 
 have to be constantly beaten. But who knows what 
 the future will think of the Prince de Polignac's 
 coup d'Etat? As the result of a caprice on Shake- 
 speare's part, perhaps it was a stroke of vengeance 
 like Beaumarchais's against Bergasse, Begearss, 
 Falstaff is the type of absurdity in England; his 
 name provokes laughter; he is the king of clowns. 
 In reality, instead of being enormously stout, ab- 
 surdly licentious, vain, a drunken old corrupter of 
 youth, Falstaff was one of the most important men 
 of his time, a knight of the Garter, and an offi- 
 cer of high rank in the army. On the accession 
 of Henry V., Falstaff was thirty-four years old at 
 most. He distinguished himself at the battle of 
 Agincourt, where he captured the Due d'Alencon, 
 and in 1420 took Montereau, which was stubbornly 
 defended. And under Henry VI. he defeated ten 
 thousand French with fifteen hundred tired and 
 starving soldiers. 
 
 So much for war. If we turn from war to litera- 
 ture, Rabelais, a sober man who drank nothing but
 
 10 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 water, is commonly supposed among us to have 
 been a lover of good cheer and an inveterate toper. 
 Innumerable absurd tales have been told concerning 
 the author of one of the best books in all French 
 literature, Pantagruel. Aretino, the friend of Titian 
 and the Voltaire of his time, has in our day a repu- 
 tation directly contrary to his character and his 
 works, a reputation which he owes to a coarseness 
 of the imagination in harmony with the writings of 
 that period, when the drolatique was held in honor, 
 when queens and cardinals wrote tales which are 
 called licentious to-day. We could multiply exam- 
 ples of this sort ad infinitum. In France, and during 
 the most serious portions of modern history, no 
 woman, except possibly Brunehaut or Fredegonde, 
 has suffered more from popular misconception than 
 Catherine de' Medici; whereas Marie de* Medici, all 
 whose acts were injurious to France, escapes the 
 odium which should attach to her name. Marie 
 squandered the treasures amassed by Henri IV.; 
 she never purged herself of the reproach of having 
 known of the proposed assassination of the king; 
 D'Epernon, who failed to turn aside Ravaillac's 
 blow, and who knew the man well, was one of 
 her intimate circle; she forced her son to banish her 
 from France, where she was giving encouragement 
 to the rebellious schemes of her other son, Gaston; 
 and Richelieu's triumph over her on the Day of 
 Dupes was due solely to the cardinal's disclosing 
 to Louis XIII. certain secret documents concerning 
 the death of Henri IV. Catherine de' Medici, on the
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI II 
 
 other hand, saved the crown of France; she upheld 
 the royal authority under circumstances which 
 would have caused more than one great prince to 
 succumb. Being confronted by such rebellious and 
 ambitious subjects as the Guises and the Bourbons, 
 by men like the two cardinals of Lorraine and the 
 two Balafres, the two princes of Conde, Queen 
 Jeanne d'Albret, Henri IV., the Constable Mont- 
 morency, Calvin, the Colignys, and Theodore de 
 Beze, she was called upon to display the rarest 
 qualities, the most precious gifts of the statesman, 
 under the fire of the mockeries of the Calvinist 
 press. Those facts are certainly beyond question. 
 So that, to him who delves in the history of the six- 
 teenth century in France, the figure of Catherine 
 de' Medici appears like that of a great king. The 
 calumnies once scattered to the winds by facts la- 
 boriously unearthed amid the contradictory state- 
 ments of pamphleteers and the fictitious anecdotes, 
 everything is explained to the glory of this extraor- 
 dinary woman, who had none of the weaknesses of 
 her sex, who lived a virtuous life amid the intrigues 
 of the most licentious court in Europe, and who suc- 
 ceeded, despite her scarcity of money, in building 
 noble monuments, as if to make good the losses 
 caused by the demolishing spirit of the Calvinists, 
 who inflicted as many wounds on art as on the body 
 politic. 
 
 Placed between princes who claimed to be the 
 heirs of Charlemagne, and a seditious younger 
 branch who wished to bury the Constable Bourbon's
 
 12 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 treachery under the throne, Catherine, compelled 
 to combat a heresy which was near devouring the 
 throne, friendless, detecting treachery in the leaders 
 of the Catholic party and visions of a republic in 
 the Calvinist party, employed the most danger- 
 ous but the surest weapon in politics, cunning! 
 She resolved to cajole, successively, the party 
 which sought the downfall of the House of Valois, 
 the Bourbons who desired the crown, and the re- 
 formers, the radicals of that period, who dreamed 
 of an impossible republic, like those of the present 
 day, who, however, have nothing to reform. And 
 so long as she lived, the Valois retained the throne. 
 The great De Thou showed a keen appreciation of 
 her worth when he wrote, on being informed of her 
 death: 
 
 " It is not simply a woman who has died, but 
 royalty itself!" 
 
 Catherine had in very truth the sentiment of roy- 
 alty in the highest degree; so that she defended it 
 with marvellous courage and persistence. The re- 
 proaches which Calvinist writers have heaped upon 
 her are clearly her greatest claim to glory, for she 
 incurred them only because of her triumphs. Could 
 she have triumphed otherwise than by stratagem? 
 Therein lies the whole question. As for violence, 
 that method brings up one of the most controverted 
 questions in politics, a question which has been de- 
 cided in our day on the square where they have 
 erected a huge stone from Egypt, to induce forget- 
 fulness of regicide and as an emblem of the present
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 13 
 
 system of materialist politics by which we are 
 governed; it was decided at the Carmes and the 
 Abbaye; it was decided on the steps of Saint-Roch; 
 it was decided before the Louvre in 1830, once more 
 by the people against the king, as it was decided 
 by the best of Lafayette's republics against the 
 republican insurrection at Saint-Merri and on Rue 
 Transnonnain. All ruling powers, legitimate or ille- 
 gitimate, must defend themselves when they are 
 assailed; but, strangely enough, while the people 
 are considered heroic in their victory over the no- 
 bility, the ruler is called an assassin in his duel with 
 the people. And if he is beaten, after his appeal 
 to force, he is called a fool as well. The present 
 government may try to save itself by two laws from 
 the same disease which attacked Charles X., and of 
 which that prince tried to rid himself by two ordi- 
 nances. What a bitter mockery that would be! 
 Are sovereigns to be allowed to meet stratagem 
 with stratagem? may they kill those who seek to 
 kill them? The massacres of the Revolution an- 
 swer the massacres of Saint-Bartholomew. The 
 people, having become king, treated the king and 
 the nobility as the king and nobility treated the 
 rebels of the sixteenth century. So that the popular 
 writers, who know very well that, under similar 
 circumstances, the people would do the same thing 
 again, are entirely inexcusable when they blame 
 , Catherine de* Medici and Charles IX. 
 
 All power, as Casimir Perier said when he had 
 an opportunity to learn what power should be, is a
 
 14 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 permanent conspiracy. We admire the anti-social 
 maxims put forth by some audacious writers; why, 
 then, should social truths be met with disfavor in 
 France when they are boldly proclaimed? That 
 question in itself explains all historical errors. Apply 
 the solution of that question to the ruinous doctrines 
 which flatter popular passions, and to the conserv- 
 ative doctrines which hold in check the wild or 
 foolish enterprises of the people, and you will find 
 the reason for the popularity of some personages 
 and the unpopularity of others. Laubardemont and 
 Laffemas were, like certain men of the present day, 
 devoted to the defence of the power in which they 
 believed. Whether soldiers or judges, they obeyed 
 a royal authority. D'Orthez would be dismissed 
 to-day for having misunderstood the orders of the 
 ministry, but Charles IX. allowed him to retain the 
 government of his province. A democracy has to 
 reckon with no one, a monarchy has to reckon with 
 its subjects, great and small alike. 
 
 Catherine, like Philip II., and the Duke of Alva, 
 like the Guises and Cardinal Granville, foresaw the 
 effect of the Reformation on the future of Europe. 
 They saw monarchies, religion, the royal authority, 
 shaken to their foundations! Catherine, from the 
 closet of the kings of France, at once wrote the death- 
 warrant of that spirit of investigation which threat- 
 ened the framework of modern societies, a warrant 
 which Louis XIV. finally executed. The revocation 
 of the Edict of Nantes was an unfortunate measure 
 solely because of the irritation of Europe against
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 15 
 
 Louis XIV. At another time, England, Holland, and 
 the Empire would not have encouraged exiled French- 
 men to seek refuge within their borders, or given aid 
 to rebellion in France. 
 
 Why deny now to the majestic adversary of 
 the most resultless of heresies the grandeur which 
 she derived from her very struggle against it? The 
 Calvinists have written a great deal against the 
 stratagem of Charles IX.; but cast your eye over 
 France: as you gaze upon the ruins of innumerable 
 demolished churches, as you probe the deep wounds 
 inflicted by the reformers on the fabric of society, as 
 you realize how pitilessly they revenged themselves, 
 as you deplore the evils of individualism, the pest of 
 the France of to-day, whose seeds were planted in 
 their agitation of the question of liberty of con- 
 science, you will ask yourself on which side were 
 the executioners. As Catherine is made to say in 
 the third part of this Study: " There are, unfortu- 
 nately, at all periods, hypocritical writers ready to 
 bewail the fate of two hundred knaves opportunely 
 executed." Caesar, who tried to move the Senate 
 to compassion for the faction of Catiline, would per- 
 haps have triumphed over Cicero, if he had had 
 newspapers and an opposition at his orders. 
 
 There is another consideration which explains the 
 disfavor in which Catherine is held by historians 
 and the common people. In France, the opposition 
 has always been protestant because it has never had 
 any other policy than negation; it has inherited the 
 theories of Lutherans, Calvinists, and Protestants,
 
 16 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 concerning the awe-inspiring words, liberty, prog- 
 ress, tolerance, and philosophy. Two centuries 
 were employed by the opponents of lawful author- 
 ity in establishing the doubtful doctrine of free-will. 
 Two other centuries were employed in developing 
 the first corollary of free-will, liberty of conscience. 
 Our century is trying to establish the second corol- 
 lary, political liberty. 
 
 Seated between the fields already traversed and 
 those still to be traversed, Catherine and the Church 
 proclaimed the salutary basic principle of modern 
 societies, una fides, unus Dominus, exerting their 
 power of life and death over innovators. Although 
 she was beaten in the struggle, succeeding centuries 
 have justified Catherine. The product of free-will, 
 religious liberty, and political liberty we must not 
 confound the latter with civil liberty is the France 
 of to-day. What is the France of 1840? a country 
 devoted exclusively to material interests, devoid of 
 patriotism and of conscience; where the ruling pow- 
 ers are without strength; where election, the result 
 of free-will and political liberty, brings to the surface 
 none but mediocrities; where brute force has be- 
 come necessary against popular violence, and where 
 discussion, extended to the most trivial matters, 
 checks all action on the part of the political body; 
 where money rules all questions, and where individu- 
 alism, a lamentable result of the infinitesimal subdivi- 
 sion of inheritances, which annihilates the family, will 
 consume everything, even the nation, which selfish- 
 ness will some day betray to the invader. People
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 17 
 
 will say to themselves: "Why not the Czar?" as 
 they said on a previous occasion: "Why not the 
 Due d'Orleans?" Few things are of any conse- 
 quence now; but, fifty years hence, nothing will be 
 of any consequence. 
 
 According to Catherine's theory, and the theory 
 of all those who wish for a well-ordered society, 
 social man, the subject has no free-will, should not 
 be allowed to profess liberty of conscience or to enjoy 
 political liberty. But as no society can exist without 
 guarantees given to the subject against the sovereign, 
 the result is that the subject enjoys certain liberties, 
 subject to restrictions. Liberty, no; but liberties, 
 yes ; liberties clearly defined and characterized. 
 Such an arrangement is consonant with the nature 
 of things. It certainly is beyond human power to 
 prevent liberty of thought, and no sovereign can 
 lessen the power of money. The great politicians, 
 who were beaten in that long struggle, it lasted five 
 centuries, conceded great liberties to their subjects; 
 but they conceded neither liberty to publish thoughts 
 antagonistic to society, nor the indefinite liberty of 
 the subject. To their minds, in politics, subject and 
 free are contradictory terms, just as the theory that 
 all citizens are equal is mere nonsense to which nature 
 gives the lie every hour in the day. To recognize 
 the necessity of a religion, the necessity of rulers, 
 and to allow subjects the right to deny the religion, 
 to attack public worship, to oppose the ruler's exer- 
 cise of power by the public expression, communicable 
 and communicated, of thought, is an impossibility to
 
 18 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 which the Catholics of the sixteenth century would 
 not listen. Alas! the victory of Calvinism will cost 
 France much more dear than it has cost thus far, for 
 the religious and political sects of to-day, humani- 
 tarians, equalitarians, etc., are the tail of Calvinism, 
 and, by reason of the shortcomings of the ruling 
 powers, their contempt for intelligence, their love 
 for material interests, upon which they choose mainly 
 to rely, although they are the most treacherous of 
 all supports, the genius of destruction will carry the 
 day once more over the genius of preservation, un- 
 less Providence shall intervene. The assailants, 
 who have nothing to lose and everything to gain, 
 have a perfect mutual understanding; while their 
 powerful adversaries are unwilling to make any sort 
 of sacrifice, either of money or of self-love, to attract 
 defenders. 
 
 The printing-press came to the assistance of the 
 opposition inaugurated by the Vaudois and the Albi- 
 genses. The moment that human thought, instead 
 of condensing itself as it was obliged to do in order to 
 retain the most communicable form, donned a multi- 
 tude of garments and became the people, instead of 
 remaining divinely axiomatic, as it were, there were 
 two multitudes to contend against, the multitude of 
 ideas, and the multitude of men. Royal power bit 
 the dust in that war, and we are witnesses, in our 
 day, in France, of its last struggle to recover itself 
 by a combination with elements which make it diffi- 
 cult, not to say impossible. Power is an act, and 
 the elective principle is discussion. No sound policy
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 19 
 
 is possible with the right of discussion permanently 
 established. 
 
 We should therefore consider her a very great 
 woman who was able to foresee that future and 
 who struggled against it so courageously. The 
 House of Bourbon owed it to Catherine de' Medici 
 that it was able to succeed the House of Valois, 
 that it found a crown to wear. Suppose that the 
 second Balafre had been alive powerful as the 
 Bearnais was, it is doubtful if he would have suc- 
 ceeded in obtaining the crown, when we consider 
 how dearly the Due de Mayenne and the remnant 
 of the Guise faction sold it to him. Observe this 
 that the necessary methods resorted to by Catherine, 
 who had every reason to reproach herself for the 
 deaths of Francois II. and Charles IX., both of 
 whom died just in time to save her, are not the sub- 
 ject of the reproaches of the Calvinist and modern 
 writers! Even if there were no poisoning, as certain 
 grave authors have charged, there was scheming 
 even more iniquitous: it is beyond question that 
 she prevented Pare from saving one, and that she 
 inflicted a prolonged moral assassination on the 
 other. The sudden death of Francois II., the shrewd 
 and crafty manoeuvring which brought about the 
 death of Charles IX., inflicted no injury on the Cal- 
 vinistic interests; the causes of these two events lay 
 in the more exalted spheres, and were suspected 
 neither by the writers nor by the people of that 
 time; they were divined only by the De Thous and 
 the L'Hopitals, by the most enlightened minds or
 
 20 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 by the leaders of the two parties which coveted or 
 defended the crown, and which found such means 
 necessary. Strangely enough, the popular ballads 
 assailed Catherine's morals! Everyone knows the 
 anecdote of the soldier who was roasting a goose in 
 the guard-house of the chateau of Tours during the 
 conference between Catherine and Henri IV., and 
 singing a song wherein the queen was insulted by 
 a comparison with the heaviest piece of ordnance 
 which the Calvinists possessed. Henri IV. drew 
 his sword to kill the man; Catherine stopped him 
 and contented herself by saying to the insulter: 
 
 "After all, it is Catherine who gives you the 
 goose!" 
 
 If the executions at Amboise were attributed to 
 Catherine, if the Calvinists made that superior 
 woman the responsible author of all the miseries in- 
 separable from that contest, she suffered the same 
 fate as Robespierre, concerning whom the judgment 
 of posterity is yet to be made. Catherine was 
 cruelly punished, by the way, for her preference 
 for the Due d'Anjou, which led her to betray the in- 
 terests of the two elder sons. Henri III., who, like 
 all spoiled children, had reached a condition of the 
 utmost indifference toward his mother, plunged of 
 his own motion into the life of debauchery which 
 made of him what his mother had made of Charles 
 IX., a childless husband, a king without heirs. Un- 
 luckily, the Due d'Alencon, Catherine's last male 
 child, died a natural death. Catherine made in- 
 credible efforts to combat her son's passion. History
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 21 
 
 has preserved the incident of the supper party of 
 nude women in the gallery at Chenonceaux, on the 
 return from Poland, which was ineffectual, however, 
 in curing Henri III. of his bad habits. That great 
 queen's last words summarized her policy, which is 
 so consonant with good sense that we see all the 
 cabinets of Europe putting it in practice under simi- 
 lar circumstances. 
 
 "Well cut, my son!" she said, when Henri III. 
 came to her on her death-bed to inform her that the 
 enemy of the crown had been put to death; " now, 
 we must sew up the hole," 
 
 Her meaning was that the throne must at once 
 effect a reconciliation with the House of Lorraine, 
 and make use of it, as the only method of fore- 
 stalling the effects of the hatred of the Guises, by 
 opening to them anew the prospect of enveloping 
 the king in their influence; but the persistent cun- 
 ning of a woman, and an Italian, which she had 
 always employed, was incompatible with the volup- 
 tuary's life led by Henri III. When the great 
 mother mater castrorum was dead, the political 
 force of the Valois died. 
 
 Before undertaking to write the history of morals 
 in action, the author of this Study patiently and 
 minutely investigated the principal reigns of French 
 history, the quarrel between the Bourguignons and 
 the Armagnacs, between the Guises and the Valois, 
 each of which occupies a century. It was his pur- 
 pose to write a history of picturesque France. Isa- 
 belle de Baviere, Catherine and Marie de' Medici
 
 22 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 fill an enormous space therein, dominate the fif- 
 teenth and sixteenth centuries, and lead to the age 
 of Louis XIV. Of these three queens, Catherine is 
 the most interesting and most beautiful. Hers was 
 a virile domination, dishonored neither by Isabelle's 
 terrible love-intrigues, nor by the still more terrible, 
 although less known, intrigues of Marie de' Medici. 
 Isabelle invited the English into France against her 
 son, loved the Due d'Orleans, her brother-in-law, 
 and Boisbourdon. Marie de' Medici's account is even 
 heavier. Neither of them had any political genius. 
 In the course of these studies and these compari- 
 sons, the author became thoroughly convinced of 
 Catherine's grandeur of character; as he became 
 more and more familiar with the ever-increasing 
 difficulties of her position, he realized how unjustly 
 historians, writing one and all under the influence of 
 the Protestants, have treated the queen; and the re- 
 sult was the three sketches here presented, wherein 
 some erroneous opinions concerning her, concerning 
 the persons who surrounded her, and concerning the 
 occurrences of her time, are combated. The reason 
 for including this work among the PHILOSOPHICAL 
 STUDIES is this: that it exhibits the spirit of an epoch, 
 and that the influence of thought can be clearly 
 traced in it. But before entering upon the political 
 arena where Catherine was confronted by the two 
 great difficulties of her career, it is necessary to give 
 a summary of her previous life, written from the 
 standpoint of an impartial critic, so that we may 
 have an idea of the whole course of that momentous,
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 23 
 
 royal existence down to the moment when the first 
 part of this Study begins. 
 
 Never, in any epoch, in any country, in any reign- 
 ing family, was there more contempt for legitimacy 
 than in the famous family of Medici. They held the 
 same doctrine concerning sovereignty which Russia 
 professes to-day: Every individual to whom the 
 throne falls becomes the true, the lawful sovereign. 
 Mirabeau well said: "There has been but one 
 mesalliance in my family, that of the Medici;" for, 
 all the efforts of paid genealogists to the contrary, 
 notwithstanding, it is certain that the Medici, prior 
 to Averard de' Medici, gonfalonier of Florence, in 
 1314, were humble Florentine tradesmen, who be- 
 came yery rich. The first member of that family 
 who occupies an important position in the history of 
 the famous Tuscan republic is Salvestro de' Medici, 
 who became gonfalonier in 1378. This Salvestro 
 had two sons, Cosmo and Lorenzo de' Medici. 
 
 From Cosmo were descended Lorenzo the Magnifi- 
 cent, the Due de Nemours, the Duke of Urbino, 
 Catherine's father; Pope Leo X., Pope Clement VII., 
 and Alessandro, not Duke of Florence, as some have 
 called him, but Duca della citta di Penna, a title be- 
 stowed by Pope Clement VII. as a stepping-stone 
 to the title of Grand Duke of Tuscany. 
 
 From Lorenzo were descended Lorenzino, the 
 Florentine Brutus, who killed Duke Alessandro; 
 Cosmo, the first grand duke, and all the sovereigns 
 of Tuscany down to 1737, when the family became 
 extinct.
 
 24 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 But neither of these two branches, the Cosmo 
 branch or the Lorenzo branch, reigned in a direct 
 line, until Tuscany was reduced to subjection by 
 the father of Marie de' Medici, after which its grand 
 dukes succeeded one another in natural order. For 
 instance, Alessandro de' Medici, who bore the title 
 of Duca delta citta di Penna, and who was assas- 
 sinated by Lorenzo, was the son of the Duke of 
 Urbino, Catherine's father, and a Moorish slave. 
 Thus Lorenzino, the legitimate son of Lorenzo, had 
 a twofold right to kill Alessandro, both as a usurper 
 in his family and as the oppressor of the city. Some 
 historians claim that Alessandro was a son of Clem- 
 ent VII. This bastard owed his recognition as the 
 chief magistrate of the republic and as head of the 
 family of the Medici to his marriage with Margaret 
 of Austria, natural daughter of Charles V. 
 
 Francesco de' Medici, the husbatid of Bianca Ca- 
 pella, accepted as his son a child of the people pur- 
 chased by that famous Venetian, and, strange to 
 relate! Ferdinand, when he succeeded Francesco, 
 upheld the claims of that supposititious heir. He 
 was known as Don Antonio de' Medici, and was 
 looked upon as one of the family throughout four 
 reigns; he won the affection of every member, ren- 
 dered valuable services to the family, and was 
 universally regretted. 
 
 Almost all the earlier Medici had natural children, 
 whose careers were always brilliant. For instance, 
 Cardinal Giulio de' Medici, who became Pope Clem- 
 ent VII., was an illegitimate son of Giuliano I.
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 2$ 
 
 Cardinal Ippolito de' Medici was also a bastard, and 
 he came very near becoming Pope and head of the 
 family. 
 
 Some anecdote-makers insist that the Duke of Ur- 
 bino, Catherine's father, once said to her: A figlia 
 d'inganno non manca mai figliuolan^a, A bright girl 
 can always find a way to have children, apropos 
 of a certain physical malformation by which her be- 
 trothed husband, Henri, second son of Francois I., 
 was afflicted. 
 
 Now, Lorenzo II. de' Medici, Catherine's father, 
 who married in 1518, for his second wife, Madeleine 
 de la Tour d'Auvergne, died on April 28, 1519, a 
 few days after his wife, whose death was caused 
 by bringing into the world her daughter Catherine. 
 Catherine, therefore, lost father and mother almost 
 as soon as she saw the light. Hence the strange 
 vicissitudes of her childhood, which was involved in 
 the sanguinary combats between the Florentines, 
 seeking to regain their liberty, and the Medici, who 
 were determined to reign over Florence, and who 
 behaved with so much circumspection that Cath- 
 erine's father bore the title of Duke of Urbino. 
 After his death, the legitimate head of the family of 
 Medici was Pope Leo X., who governed Florence 
 through Giulio de' Medici, then cardinal, the ille- 
 gitimate son of Giuliano. Leo X. was Catherine's 
 great-uncle, and this Cardinal Giulio, who became 
 Clement VII., was uncle by the left hand only. It 
 was that fact which caused Brantome jestingly to 
 speak of that pope as an uncle in Notre-Dame. It
 
 26 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 was during the siege of Florence, undertaken by the 
 Medici to re-establish their power in the city, that 
 the republican party, not content with having con- 
 fined Catherine, then nine years of age, in a convent, 
 after having stripped her of all her property, pro- 
 posed to expose her to the fire of the artillery be- 
 tween two loop-holes, at the suggestion of a certain 
 Battista Cei. Bernardo Castiglione went still fur- 
 ther, in a council held to discuss the termination of 
 the business; he advised that, instead of delivering 
 Catherine to the Pope, who was clamoring for her, 
 they ought to put her in the hands of the soldiers to 
 be dishonored. All popular revolutions clearly re- 
 semble one another. The policy of Catherine, who 
 was so devoted to the interests of the royal power, 
 may have been induced by such scenes, which 
 could not have passed unnoticed by an Italian child 
 of nine. 
 
 The elevation of Alessandro de* Medici, to which 
 the bastard Clement VII. contributed so largely, was 
 mainly due, doubtless, to the very fact of his own 
 illegitimacy and to Charles V.'s affection for his 
 celebrated natural daughter, Margaret. So that the 
 Pope and the emperor were actuated by the same 
 sentiment. At that epoch, Venice possessed the 
 commerce of the world, Rome its moral government; 
 Italy still reigned through the poets, the generals, 
 and statesmen born within her borders. Never, in 
 any age, has such an interesting, such a vast assem- 
 blage of men of genius been seen. There were so 
 many of them at that period that even the inferior
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 27 
 
 princes were superior men. Italy was fairly running 
 over with talent, audacity, learning, poesy, wealth, 
 and gallantry, although rent by constant internal 
 wars, and although it was the rendezvous of all the 
 conquerors who quarrelled with one another over 
 the possession of its fairest provinces. When men 
 are so strong, they are not afraid to admit their 
 weakness. Hence, doubtless, that golden age of bas- 
 tards. We must, however, do the natural children 
 of the family of Medici the justice to say that they 
 were devoted to the glory and increase in wealth and 
 power of that family. Thus, as soon as the Duca 
 delta citta di Penna, the son of the Moorish slave, 
 was firmly installed as the tyrant of Florence, he 
 joined hands with Pope Clement VII. to advance 
 the interests of the daughter of Lorenzo II., then 
 eleven years old. 
 
 When one studies the progress of events and of 
 mankind in that interesting sixteenth century, one 
 must never forget that an inevitable element of 
 politics in those days was a sharp-dealing which 
 destroyed, in every character, that straightforward, 
 upright demeanor which the imagination demands of 
 eminent persons. Therein, above all things, consists 
 Catherine's absolution. This observation disposes 
 of all the trite and foolish accusations made by the 
 writers of the Reformation. That was the most flour- 
 ishing period of the political system of which the 
 code was written by Machiavelli and by Spinoza, by 
 Hobbes and by Montesquieu, for the dialogue between 
 Sylla and Eucrates contains the gist of Montesquieu's
 
 28 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 thought, which his connection with the encyclopaedic 
 party did not permit him to develop further. 
 
 These principles form to-day the secret moral code 
 of all cabinets in which plans of vast domination are 
 being formed. Here, in France, we blamed Napoleon 
 when he made use of the Italian genius which he had 
 in cute, and whose schemes did not always succeed; 
 but Charles V., Catherine, Philip II., and Julius II. 
 would have adopted the same course that he adopted 
 in the Spanish affair. If the history of the period in 
 which Catherine was born should be written with 
 special reference to the probity of the principal 
 characters, it would seem an impossible romance. 
 Charles V., whose duty it was to support Cathol- 
 icism under the attacks of Luther, who threatened 
 the throne by threatening the tiara, allowed Rome 
 to be besieged, and imprisoned Pope Clement VII. 
 This same Clement VII., who had no more invet- 
 erate enemy than Charles V., paid court to him in 
 order that he might establish Alessandro de' Medici 
 in power at Florence, and Charles V. bestowed his 
 daughter's hand upon that bastard. As soon as he 
 was firmly established, Alessandro, acting in concert 
 with Clement, tried to injure Charles V. by forming 
 an alliance with Francois I., through the medium of 
 Catherine de' Medici, and both of them promised to 
 assist him in reconquering Italy. Lorenzino de' 
 Medici became the companion in debauchery and 
 the willing slave of Duke Alessandro, in order that 
 he might be able to kill him. Filippo Strozzi, one of 
 the great minds of that age, approved so strongly
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 29 
 
 of that murder that he swore that each of his sons 
 should marry one of the murderer's daughters; and 
 each of his sons religiously executed the father's 
 promise, when, being under Catherine's protection, 
 they might both have made brilliant marriages, for 
 one was the rival of Doria, the other, marshal of 
 France. Cosmo de' Medici, Alessandro's successor, 
 to whom he was entirely unrelated, avenged that 
 tyrant's death in the most cruel fashion, after wait- 
 ing patiently for twelve years, during which he 
 never abated his hatred of the men who had in 
 reality placed the power in his hands. He was 
 eighteen years old when he assumed the sovereignty; 
 his first act was to cause the rights of Alessandro's 
 legitimate sons to be annulled, although he was 
 avenging Alessandro! Charles V. affirmed the dis- 
 inherison of his grandson and recognized Cosmo in 
 place of Alessandro's son. Cosmo, who was placed 
 on the throne by Cardinal Cibo, instantly banished 
 him. Whereupon Cardinal Cibo at once accused 
 his own creation, this same Cosmo, who was the 
 first grand duke, of a purpose to poison Alessandro's 
 son. This grand duke, as jealous of his power as ? 
 Charles V. was of his, followed the emperor's ex- 
 ample by abdicating in favor of his son Francesco, 
 after he had caused his other son, Don Garcias, to 
 be put to death to avenge the death of Cardinal 
 Giovanni de' Medici, whom Garcias had assas- 
 sinated. Cosmo I. and his son Francesco, who 
 should have been devoted body and soul to the 
 House of France, the only power which could afford
 
 30 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 them support, were the slaves of Charles V. and 
 Philip II., and consequently the secret, treacherous, 
 cowardly enemies of Catherine de' Medici, one of 
 the greatest glories of their family. Such are the 
 principal contradictory and illogical exploits, the 
 knaveries, the villainous intrigues of the single 
 House of Medici. From this sketch, one can form 
 some idea of the other princes of Italy and Europe. 
 All the envoys from Cosmo I. to the French court 
 had in their secret instructions an order to poison 
 Strozzi, Catherine's kinsman, if he were there. 
 Charles V. caused three ambassadors of Francois I. 
 to be assassinated. 
 
 It was early in the month of October, 1533, that 
 the Duca delta citta di Penna set out from Flor- 
 ence for Leghorn, accompanied by Catherine de' 
 Medici, the only heiress of Lorenzo II. de' Medici, 
 Duke of Urbino. The duke and the Princess of 
 Florence such was the title by which the young 
 girl, then fourteen years of age, was known left 
 the city attended by a considerable body of re- 
 tainers, officers of the household, and secretaries, 
 preceded by men-at-arms, and followed by an escort 
 of horsemen. The young princess as yet knew 
 nothing of her destiny, beyond the fact that the 
 Pope was to have an interview with Duke Alessandro 
 at Leghorn; but her uncle, Filippo Strozzi, soon re- 
 vealed to her what the future had in store for her. 
 
 Filippo Strozzi had married Clarice de' Medici, half- 
 sister to Lorenzo de' Medici, Duke of Urbino, Cathe- 
 rine's father; but that marriage, arranged with a
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 31 
 
 view to expediting the recall of the Medici, then 
 in exile, as well as to winning over to their cause 
 one of the stoutest adherents of the popular party, 
 never caused that doughty champion to swerve, 
 although he was persecuted by his party for having 
 concluded it. Despite the apparent changes in his 
 conduct, which was to some slight extent guided by 
 that alliance, he remained faithful to the popular 
 party and declared against the Medici as soon as he 
 divined their purpose of subjecting Florence to their 
 dominion. That great man even declined the offer 
 of a principality which Leo X. made him. Filippo 
 Strozzi was at that moment a victim of the policy of 
 the Medici, always so vacillating in its methods, but 
 always bent upon the same end. After sharing the 
 discomforts of the captivity of Clement VII., when, 
 surprised by the Colonnas, he took refuge in the 
 Castle of San Angelo, he was given up by Clement 
 as a hostage and taken to Naples. As the Pope, as 
 soon as he was free, fell heavily on his enemies, 
 Strozzi nearly lost his life, and was obliged to pay 
 an enormous sum to obtain his release from prison, 
 where he was closely watched. When he found 
 himself at liberty, acting upon the natural inspiration 
 of an honest man, he was foolish enough to present 
 himself before Clement VII., who probably had 
 flattered himself that he was safely rid of him. The 
 Pope had such abundant reason to be ashamed of his 
 conduct toward Strozzi that he received him most 
 ungraciously. Thus Strozzi began very early in life 
 his apprenticeship to the unhappy existence of the
 
 32 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 upright man in politics, whose conscience refuses to 
 be governed by the caprice of events, whose acts are 
 satisfactory to virtue alone, and who is persecuted 
 on all sides: by the people, because he resists its 
 blind passions; by the ruling powers, because he 
 resists their usurpations. The lives of such great 
 citizens are a martyrdom in which they are sus- 
 tained only by the loud voice of conscience and by 
 a heroic sentiment of their duty to society which 
 dictates their conduct in every respect. There were 
 many men of that stamp in the republic of Florence, 
 all as great as Strozzi, and as well equipped as their 
 adversaries of the Medici faction, although they were 
 vanquished by Florentine cunning. What is more 
 worthy of admiration in the Pazzi conspiracy than 
 the conduct of the head of that family, whose com- 
 mercial interests were enormous, and who settled 
 all his accounts with Asia, the Levant, and Europe 
 before entering upon the execution of that far-reach- 
 ing design, so that his correspondents would lose 
 nothing, if he should be defeated ? 
 
 Thus the story of the establishment of the House 
 of Medici in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries 
 is one of the most interesting stories which have yet 
 to be written, although divers great geniuses have 
 bent their energies to the task. It is not the history 
 of a republic, or a society, or a particular form of 
 civilization; it is the history of the politician, and the 
 old familiar history of politics, of conquerors and 
 usurpers. Filippo Strozzi, having returned to Flor- 
 ence, re-established the old form of government, and
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 33 
 
 expelled from the city Ippolito de* Medici, another 
 bastard, and that very Alessandro with whom he 
 was now travelling. He was alarmed by the fickle- 
 ness of the people; and as he dreaded the vengeance 
 of Clement VII., he went to Lyon to superintend 
 a large mercantile house which he had there, and 
 which corresponded with his own bankers in Ven- 
 ice, Rome, France, and Spain. It is a strange fact 
 that these men, who bore the weight of public 
 affairs and of a constant struggle with the Me- 
 dici, to say nothing of their dissensions with their 
 own party, also carried the burden of commerce 
 and speculation, of banking and its complications, 
 which latter the extraordinary multiplicity of coins 
 and their counterfeits rendered much more diffi- 
 cult than it is to-day. The name banker came 
 from the bench bane on which they sat, and on 
 which they tested their gold and silver pieces. 
 Filippo found in the death of his wife, whom he 
 adored, a pretext for yielding to the exigencies of 
 the republican party, whose police is the more to be 
 dreaded in all republics because everybody becomes 
 a spy in the name of liberty, which justifies every- 
 thing. Filippo did not return to Florence until the 
 moment when Florence was compelled to submit 
 to the yoke of Alessandro; but he had been first to 
 see Pope Clement VII., v/hose affairs were then in 
 such flourishing condition that his disposition toward 
 Filippo underwent a change. At the moment of their 
 triumph, the Medici stood in such need of a man like 
 Strozzi, if for nothing else than to bring about the 
 3
 
 34 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 accession of Alessandro, that Clement found a way 
 to persuade him to accept a seat at the council-board 
 of the bastard, who was about beginning the co- 
 ercion of the city, and Filippo accepted a commis- 
 sion as senator. But, for two years and a half, 
 he had detected, like Seneca and Burrhus at the 
 court of Nero, the beginnings of tyranny. He 
 found that he had come to be so distrusted by the 
 people, and such an object of suspicion to the Me- 
 dici, whose designs he resisted, that he foresaw a 
 catastrophe. And so, as soon as he learned from 
 Duke Alessandro of the projected alliance between 
 Catherine and a son of France, which was prob- 
 ably to be concluded at Leghorn, where the nego- 
 tiators had appointed to meet, he formed the plan 
 of going to France and attaching himself to the 
 fortunes of his niece, who must have a guardian. 
 Alessandro, overjoyed to be rid of a man so difficult 
 to manage in Florentine affairs, approved this de- 
 termination, which spared him the necessity of a 
 murder; and he advised Strozzi to place himself at 
 the head of Catherine's household. 
 
 The Medici, to dazzle the French court, had pro- 
 vided a brilliant suite for her whom they called very 
 inappropriately the Princess of Florence, and who 
 was also called the little Duchess of Urbino. The 
 cortege, at the head of which rode Duke Alessandro, 
 Catherine, and Strozzi, comprised more than a thou- 
 sand persons, excluding the escort and the servants; 
 and when the rear was passing through the gates 
 of Florence, the head was already beyond the first
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 35 
 
 village outside the city, to-day given over to the 
 weaving of straw for hats. It was beginning to be 
 rumored among the people that Catherine was to 
 marry a son of Francois 1., but it was still nothing 
 more than a rumor, which assumed definite shape 
 in the eyes of Tuscany by reason of this triumphal 
 progress from Florence to Leghorn. From the prepa- 
 rations which it necessitated, Catherine suspected 
 that her marriage was involved, and her uncle told 
 her of the failure of the plans of her ambitious kins- 
 men, who had tried to obtain the dauphin's hand for 
 her. Duke Alessandro still hoped that the Duke of 
 Albany would succeed in inducing the King of France 
 to change his mind, for he was desirous to purchase 
 the support of the Medici in Italy, but was unwilling 
 to pay any higher price than the Due d'Orleans. This 
 ungenerousness caused the loss of Italy to France, 
 and did not prevent Catherine from being queen. 
 
 This Duke of Albany, son of Alexander Stuart, 
 brother of James III., King of Scotland, had married 
 Anne de la Tour de Boulogne, sister of Madeleine de 
 la Tour de Boulogne, Catherine's mother; thus he 
 was her maternal uncle. It was through her mother 
 that Catherine was so rich and allied to so many 
 families; for, strangely enough, Diane de Poitiers, her 
 rival, was also her cousin. Jean de Poitiers, Diane's 
 father, was a son of Jeanne de la Tour de Boulogne, 
 the Duchess of Urbino's aunt. Catherine was also 
 connected with Mary Stuart, her daughter-in-law. 
 
 Catherine was informed that her marriage-portion 
 in money would be one hundred thousand ducats.
 
 36 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 The ducat was a gold piece of the size of one of our 
 old-fashioned louis, but only half as thick. Thus a 
 hundred thousand ducats in those days, allowing for 
 the much greater value of gold, represented about 
 six millions of our present money, the ducat to-day 
 being worth almost twelve francs. We can under- 
 stand the extensive banking business carried on by 
 Filippo Strozzi's house at Lyon, when we consider 
 that his agent in that city was to provide the twelve 
 hundred thousand livres in gold. The counties of 
 Auvergne and Lauraguais were also to form a part 
 of Catherine's dowry, and Pope Clement presented 
 her with another hundred thousand ducats in jewels, 
 precious stones, and other wedding-gifts, to which 
 Duke Alessandro contributed. 
 
 On arriving at Leghorn, Catherine, who was still 
 a mere girl, could not fail to be flattered by the ex- 
 traordinary magnificence which Pope Clement, her 
 "uncle in Notre-Dame," at that time the head of 
 the House of Medici, displayed in order to humiliate 
 the court of France. He had already arrived in one 
 of his galleys, which was upholstered from stem to 
 stern in crimson satin with gold fringe, and covered 
 with an awning of cloth of gold. This galley, the 
 decorations of which cost more than twenty thou- 
 sand ducats, had several cabins intended for the 
 promised bride of Henri of France, all furnished 
 with the richest curiosities which the Medici had 
 been able to collect. The rowers, who were mag- 
 nificently dressed, and the crew, were commanded 
 by a prior of the Order of Knights of Rhodes. The
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 37 
 
 Pope's household travelled on three other galleys. 
 The galleys of the Duke of Albany, which lay at 
 anchor beside Clement's, formed with them a con- 
 siderable flotilla. 
 
 Duke Alessandro presented the officers of Cath- 
 erine's household to the Pope, with whom he held 
 a secret conference, at which he probably intro- 
 duced to His Holiness Count Sebastiano Montecu- 
 culli, who had just left, somewhat abruptly, it was 
 said, the service of the emperor, and his two gen- 
 erals, Antonio de Leyva and Ferdinando de Gon- 
 zaga. Was there a concerted plan between the two 
 bastards, Giulio and Alessandro, to make the Due 
 d'Orleans dauphin? What was the reward prom- 
 ised to Count Sebastiano Montecuculli, who, before 
 taking service with Charles V., had studied medi- 
 cine? History is silent on this subject. Moreover, 
 we shall soon see with what dense clouds the whole 
 transaction is enveloped. The obscurity is so great 
 that sober-minded and conscientious historians have 
 in recent years admitted Montecuculli's innocence. 
 
 Catherine now learned officially from the Pope's 
 lips the alliance that was proposed for her. The 
 Duke of Albany had not been able without great 
 difficulty to keep the King of France to his promise 
 of giving even his second son to Catherine. So that 
 Clement's impatience was so great, he was so afraid 
 of finding his plans overturned, either by some in- 
 trigue on the emperor's part or by the indifference 
 of France, where the leading men looked with little 
 favor on the proposed marriage, that he set sail at 
 
 189976
 
 38 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 once for Marseille. He reached that port late in 
 October, 1533. Despite its magnificent display, 
 the House of Medici was eclipsed by the House of 
 France. To show how far those bankers carried 
 their ostentation, it is enough to say that the douqain 
 placed by the Pope in the wedding-purse consisted of 
 gold medallions of incalculable historical value, for 
 they were unique at that time. But Francois I., 
 who loved display and festivities, outdid himself on 
 this occasion. The nuptials of Henri de Valois and 
 Catherine lasted thirty-four days. 
 
 It is quite unnecessary to repeat here the details, 
 familiar as household words in all the histories of 
 Provence and Marseille, of the famous interview 
 between the Pope and the King of France, which 
 was signalized by the Duke of Albany's jest con- 
 cerning the duty of refraining from eating flesh; a 
 comical blunder mentioned by Brantome, which 
 amused the court hugely, and which shows the 
 moral tone of that period. Although Henri de Val- 
 ois was but three weeks older than Catherine de' 
 Medici, the Pope insisted that the marriage should 
 be consummated on the very day of its celebration, 
 so fearful was he of the political subterfuges and 
 wiles then in vogue. Clement, determined, as his- 
 tory informs us, to obtain evidence of the consum- 
 mation of the marriage, remained thirty-four days 
 at Marseille for that express purpose, hoping that 
 his niece would afford him visible proof of the fact; 
 for Catherine was mature at fourteen. In all prob- 
 ability it was while he was questioning the bride
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 39 
 
 before his departure, that he said to her, to console 
 her, the famous words attributed to her father: A 
 figlia d'inganno, non manca mai la figliuolan^a. 
 
 The strangest conjectures have been entertained 
 concerning Catherine's sterility, which lasted ten 
 years. Few people are aware to-day that there are 
 several medical treatises containing such indecent 
 suppositions relative to that peculiar state of affairs, 
 that they cannot be printed. But the article en- 
 titled Fernet in Bayle affords a fair idea of the extra- 
 ordinary slanders heaped upon that queen, whose 
 every act was distorted. Her sterility was due solely 
 to Henri II. It would have been enough to observe 
 that, at a time when no prince was at all embar- 
 rassed about having natural children, Diane de 
 Poitiers, to whom he was much more attached than 
 to his lawful wife, had none. There is nothing more 
 common in surgery than Henri's malformation, which 
 is made clear, moreover, by the jest of the ladies at 
 court, who styled him Abbe de Saint-Victor, at a 
 period when the French language enjoyed the same 
 privileges as the Latin. As soon as the prince sub- 
 mitted to the necessary operation, Catherine had 
 eleven pregnancies and ten children. It is fortunate 
 for France that Henri II. delayed as he did. If he 
 had had children by Diane, matters would have been 
 terribly complicated. When the operation was per- 
 formed, the Duchesse de Valentinois had reached 
 the second girlhood of women. That single fact 
 proves that the history of Catherine de' Medici is 
 still to be written from beginning to end, and that, as
 
 40 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 Napoleon very wisely observed, the history of France 
 should be in only one volume or in a thousand. 
 
 Pope Clement's sojourn at Marseille, when we 
 compare the conduct of Charles V. with that of the 
 King of France, demonstrates the king's vast superi- 
 ority to the emperor, in that respect as in every 
 other, by the way. We quote a succinct account 
 of the interview, given by a contemporary: 
 
 " His Holiness the Pope, having been escorted to 
 the palace, which, as 1 have said, had been pre- 
 pared for him on the other side of the harbor, one 
 and all withdrew to their quarters until the follow- 
 ing day, which His Holiness had assigned for his 
 entry, which was made with great sumptuosity and 
 magnificence, he being seated in a chair borne on 
 the shoulders of two men, and in his pontifical gar- 
 ments, save only the tiara; before him went a white 
 palfrey whereon lay the sacrament of the altar, the 
 said palfrey being driven by two men on foot, in 
 very handsome livery, with reins of white silk. 
 Then came all the cardinals in their robes, mounted 
 on their pontifical mules, and Madame the Duchess 
 of Urbino in great splendor, attended by a great 
 number of lords and ladies, both French and Italians. 
 The Holy Father, thus escorted, having reached the 
 place prepared for his lodging, everyone withdrew; 
 and all this was arranged and carried out without 
 any confusion or disturbance. Now, while the Pope 
 was making his entry, the king entered the harbor 
 in a frigate, and took up his abode in the place from
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 41 
 
 which the Pope had set out, in order to go from that 
 place on the morrow to make his obeisance to the 
 Holy Father as most Christian king. 
 
 "The king, being fully prepared, set out for the 
 palace where the Pope was, attended by the princes 
 of his blood, Monseigneur le Due de Vendosmois, 
 father of the Vidame de Chartres, the Comte de 
 Sainct-Pol, Messieurs de Montpensier and de la 
 Roche-sur-Yon, the Due de Nemours, brother of 
 the Due de Savoie, who died at that place; the 
 Duke of Albany and several others, counts, barons, 
 and lords, the Seigneur de Montmorency, the king's 
 grand master, riding always beside him. The king, 
 having arrived at the palace, was received very 
 kindly by the Pope and the whole college of car- 
 dinals, assembled in consistory. That done, every- 
 one retired to the place assigned to him, and the 
 king took several cardinals away with him to enter- 
 tain them, among others Cardinal de' Medici, the 
 Pope's nephew, a man of great magnificence and 
 well attended. On the morrow the persons sum- 
 moned by His Holiness and the king began to assem- 
 ble to treat of those matters which' the interview 
 was held to decide. First was discussed the matter 
 of faith, and a bull was promulgated to put down 
 heresy, and to prevent the flame from becoming 
 fiercer than it already was. Then was concluded 
 the marriage of the Due d'Orleans, second son 
 of the king, to Catherine de' Medici, Duchess of 
 Urbino, niece to His Holiness, with the same or 
 similar conditions to those formerly proposed to the
 
 
 42 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 Duke of Albany. The said marriage was consum- 
 mated with great pomp, and our Holy Father mar- 
 ried them. The marriage thus consummated, the 
 Holy Father held a consistory, at which he created 
 four cardinals of the king's nomination, namely: 
 Cardinal Le Veneur, formerly Bishop of Lisieux, 
 and grand almoner; Cardinal de Boulogne, of the 
 family of La Chambre, half-brother to the Duke of 
 Albany; Cardinal de Chatillon, of the family of 
 Coligny, nephew to the Sire de Montmorency, and 
 Cardinal de Givry." 
 
 When Strozzi delivered the dowry in presence of 
 the court, he observed some signs of astonishment 
 among the French nobles: they said openly that it 
 was a mere trifle for a mesalliance what would 
 they have said to-day? Thereupon Cardinal Ippolito 
 replied : 
 
 "It seems that you are not admitted to your king's 
 secrets. His Holiness binds himself to give France 
 three pearls of inestimable value: Genoa, Milan, and 
 Naples." 
 
 The Pope allowed Count Sebastiano Montecuculli 
 to present himself at the French court, where he 
 offered his services, complaining bitterly of Antonio 
 de Leyva and Ferdinando de Gonzaga; these com- 
 plaints led to his services being accepted. Monte- 
 cuculli did not belong to Catherine's household, 
 which was made up entirely of Frenchmen and 
 Frenchwomen; for, in compliance with a law of the 
 realm, the execution of which was witnessed by
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 43 
 
 the Pope with the greatest pleasure, Catherine was 
 naturalized by letters patent prior to the marriage. 
 Montecuculli was attached at first to the household 
 of the queen, Charles V.'s sister. In a short time 
 he entered the service of the dauphin as cup-bearer. 
 
 The Duchesse d'Orleans found that she was 
 utterly lost to sight at the French court. Her young 
 husband was in love with Diane de Poitiers, who 
 certainly was a fair rival of Catherine so far as birth 
 was concerned, and was of far greater consequence 
 than she. The daughter of the Medici was com- 
 pelled to yield precedence to Queen Eleanor, sister 
 of Charles V., and to the Duchesse d'Etampes, 
 whose marriage to the head of the family of Brosse 
 made her one of the most powerful women in France 
 and bearer of one of the most venerable titles. Her 
 aunt, the Duchess of Albany, the Queen of Navarre, 
 the Duchesse de Guise, the Duchesse de Vendome, 
 the Constable's wife, and several other women of 
 equal eminence, by their birth and privileges, as 
 well as by their power at the most magnificent 
 court that ever surrounded a king of France, not 
 excepting Louis XIV., overshadowed the daughter of 
 Florentine tradesmen, who was wealthier and more 
 illustrious through her mother's family of La Tour 
 de Boulogne than through the family of Medici. 
 
 His niece's position was so unpleasant and so 
 difficult that the republican Filippo Strozzi, who was 
 quite incapable of guiding her amid so many con- 
 flicting interests, left her after the first year; in fact, 
 he was summoned back to Italy by the death of
 
 44 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 Clement VII. Catherine's conduct, if we remember 
 that she was barely fifteen years old, was a model 
 of circumspection. She attached herself closely to 
 the king, her father-in-law, and left his side as little 
 as possible; she followed him in the saddle, on his 
 hunting-parties, and to the field of battle. Her 
 idolatrous affection for Francois I. averted all sus- 
 picion from the Medici when the dauphin was 
 poisoned. At that time, Catherine and the Due 
 d'Orleans were at the king's headquarters in Pro- 
 vence, for France was invaded soon after the mar- 
 riage by Charles V., the king's brother-in-law. The 
 whole court remained at the scene of the wedding 
 festivities, transformed into the scene of one of the 
 bloodiest of wars. 
 
 When Charles V. was in full retreat, leaving the 
 bones of his army in Provence, the dauphin was 
 returning to Lyon along the Rhone; he halted for the 
 night at Tournon, and by way of pastime indulged 
 in some of the violent exercises which formed the 
 major part of his brother's education and his own, 
 as a result of their captivity as hostages. The 
 prince being very warm, it was in August, was 
 imprudent enough to ask for a glass of water, which 
 Montecuculli handed him iced. The dauphin died 
 almost instantly. Francois I. adored his son, who 
 was, according to all historians, an accomplished 
 prince. The father, in his despair, caused the prose- 
 cution of Montecuculli to be conducted with the 
 greatest publicity, and entrusted it to the most 
 learned magistrates of the time. After submitting
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 45 
 
 to the first tortures, like a hero, without confessing 
 anything, the count made disclosures wherein he im- 
 plicated the emperor and his two generals, Antonio 
 de Leyva and Ferdinando de Gonzaga. Francois I. 
 was not satisfied with the result of the prosecution. 
 No cause was ever more solemnly discussed than 
 this. This is what the king did, according to the 
 narrative of an eye-witness: 
 
 "The king summoned to Lyon all the princes of his 
 blood, all the chevaliers of his order, and other great 
 personages of his kingdom : the papal legate and 
 nuncio, the cardinals who were present at his court, 
 also the ambassadors of England, Scotland, Portugal, 
 Venice, Ferrara, and others; also all the princes and 
 great foreign lords, Italian and German, who were 
 resident in his court at that time, as the Duke of 
 Wittemberg, German; the Dukes of Somme, Ariano, 
 and Atri; the Prince of Melfi who wanted to marry 
 Catherine and the Prince of Stigliano, Neapolitans; 
 Signer Don Ippolito d'Este; the Marquis of Vigevano 
 of theTrivulzio family, Milanese; Signor Gian Paulo 
 de Cere, Roman; Signor Cesare Fregoso, Genoese; 
 Signor Annibal de Gonzaga, Mantuan, and a great 
 number of others, who having assembled, he caused 
 to be read in their presence, from beginning to end, 
 the proceedings against the unhappy man who had 
 poisoned the late monseigneur le dauphin, with the 
 interrogatories, confessions, confrontations, and other 
 solemnities usual in criminal trials, not wishing that 
 sentence should be executed until all those present
 
 46 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 should have given their opinion touching that appall- 
 ing and horrible case." 
 
 The fidelity, the self-sacrificing devotion, and the 
 adroitness of Count Montecuculli may well appear 
 extraordinary in an age of general indiscretion, 
 when all, even ministers of State, chatter about the 
 most minute events which have come under their 
 notice; but in those days princes were fortunate in 
 finding devoted retainers, or knew how to select 
 them. In those days there were monarchical Moreys 
 because there was faith. Never ask any great sac- 
 rifice from those whose attachment is based upon 
 self-interest, because interests may change; but ex- 
 pect everything from earnest sentiments, from re- 
 ligious faith, from monarchical faith, from patriotic 
 faith. These three varieties of faith alone produce 
 the Berthereaus of Geneva, the Sydneys and Straf- 
 fords of England, the assassins of Thomas a-Becket 
 as well as the Montecucullis, the Jacques Coeurs and 
 Jeanne d'Arcs as well as the Richelieus and Dantons, 
 the Bonchamps and Talmonts, and the Clements, 
 Chabots, etc. Charles V. made use of the most 
 exalted personages in the assassination of the three 
 ambassadors of Francois I. A year later, Loren- 
 zino, Catherine's cousin-german, assassinated Duke 
 Alessandro after a dissimulation of three years, and 
 under circumstances which have caused him to be 
 called the Florentine Brutus. The rank of the individ- 
 uals involved imposed so little restraint on such enter- 
 prises, that the death of Leo X. and of Clement VII.
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 47 
 
 as well, were supposed not to be due to natural 
 causes. Mariana, the historian of Philip II., almost 
 perpetrates a joke in recording the death of the Queen 
 of Spain, a princess of France. He says that, "for 
 the glory of the throne of Spain, God ordained the 
 blindness of the physicians, who treated the queen 
 for dropsy." She was enceinte. When Henri II. in- 
 dulged in a calumny which deserved a sword-thrust, 
 he found La Chataigneraie to receive it. In those 
 days, the repasts of princes and princesses were 
 served in boxes fastened with padlocks cadenas of 
 which they kept the keys. Hence the droit de cade- 
 nas, an honor which became extinct under Louis XIV. 
 The dauphin died by poison, in the same way, 
 perhaps by the same poison, that killed MADAME 
 under Louis XIV. Pope Clement VII. had been 
 dead two years; Duke Alessandro, plunged in de- 
 bauchery, seemed to have no possible interest in 
 the elevation of the Due d'Orleans. Catherine, 
 then seventeen, and overflowing with affection for 
 her father-in-law, was with him at the time of the 
 catastrophe; Charles V. alone seemed to have an 
 interest in that death, for Francois I. had in view 
 for his son an alliance which would exalt the power 
 of France. The count's confessions, therefore, were 
 very adroitly made to rest upon the passions and 
 policies of the moment. Charles V. retreated after 
 he had seen his armies buried in Provence with his 
 good-fortune, his reputation, and his hopes of domi- 
 nation. Observe that if the torture had wrung a con- 
 fession from an innocent man, Francois I. afterward 
 
 
 
 U
 
 48 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 gave him full liberty to speak in the presence of an 
 imposing assemblage made up of men before whom 
 innocence had some chance of triumphing. The 
 king, who wished to know the truth, sought in good 
 faith to discover it. 
 
 . Notwithstanding her brilliant prospects, Cath- 
 erine's position at court did not change with the 
 dauphin's death; her sterility made people antici- 
 pate a divorce in case her husband should succeed 
 to the throne. The new dauphin was under the 
 charm of Diane de Poitiers. Diane dared to set 
 herself up as a rival to Madame d'Etampes. Where- 
 fore, Catherine redoubled her attentions and cajol- 
 eries with her father-in-law, realizing that she could 
 look nowhere else for support. The first ten years 
 of Catherine's married life were embittered by the 
 repeated disappointments due to the constant crush- 
 ing of her hopes of maternity and to her wearisome 
 rivalry with Diane. Imagine the life of a princess 
 spied upon by a jealous mistress who is supported 
 by an immense party, the Catholic party, and by 
 two such alliances as the senechale made in marry- 
 ing her daughters, one to Robert de la Mark, Due de 
 Bouillon and Prince de Sedan, the other to Claude 
 de Lorraine, Due d'Aumale. 
 
 Catherine, lost between the party of the Duchesse 
 d'Etampes and that of the senechale, such was 
 Diane's title during the reign of Francois I., tried 
 to be the friend of the Duchesse d'Etampes and the 
 friend of Diane de Poitiers at the same time, the court 
 being divided between those two mortal enemies.
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 49 
 
 She who was destined to be so great a queen played 
 the part of a servant. Thus she served her ap- 
 prenticeship in that two-faced policy which was the 
 secret of her life. The queen found herself later 
 between Catholics and Calvinists, as the woman had 
 been for ten years between Madame d'Etampes and 
 Madame de Poitiers. She studied the contradictory 
 course of French politics: Francois I. supported Cal- 
 vin and the Lutherans to embarrass Charles V. 
 Then, after he had secretly and patiently protected 
 the Reformation in Germany, after he had winked 
 at Calvin's residence at the court of Navarre, he 
 descended upon the reformers with unmeasured 
 severity. Thus Catherine saw that court and the 
 women of that court playing with the fire of heresy, 
 and Diane at the head of the Catholic party with 
 the Guises, solely because the Duchesse d'Etampes 
 upheld Calvin and the Protestants. , /x*>' 
 
 Such was the political training of that queen, 
 
 who observed in the cabinet of the King of France 
 the devious dealings characteristic of the House of 
 
 Medici. The dauphin thwarted his father in every- 
 
 j \ 
 
 thing; he was a bad son. He forgot the most cruel, 
 but the truest maxim of royalty, namely: that thrones ' * 
 are mutually bound for one another, and that the son, 
 who may be in opposition during his father's lifetime, 
 is in duty bound to adopt his policies on ascending the 
 throne. Spinoza, who was a no less profound poli- 
 tician than a great philosopher, has said, in reference 
 to the case of one king succeeding another as the 
 result of insurrection or assassination: "If the new 
 4
 
 50 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 king wishes to assure his seat on the throne and to 
 protect his life, he must show so much zeal in 
 avenging his predecessor's death that no one will 
 be tempted to commit a similar crime. But, to 
 avenge him worthily, it is not enough to shed the 
 blood of his subjects, he must also adopt the policy 
 of him whose place he has taken, and follow the 
 same course in the government of his realm." It 
 was the application of this maxim which gave Flor- 
 ence to the Medici. Cosmo I., the successor of 
 Duke Alessandro, procured the assassination of the 
 Florentine Brutus at Venice, after eleven years, and, 
 as we have said heretofore, persecuted the Strozzi 
 without respite. It was neglect of this maxim 
 which destroyed Louis XVI. That king was false 
 to all principles of government when he rehabili- 
 tated the parliaments, which his grandfather sup- 
 pressed. Louis XV. 's judgment was sound. The 
 parliaments, notably that of Paris, were largely re- 
 sponsible for the troubles which necessitated the 
 convocation of the States-General. The mistake 
 that Louis XV. made was in removing the barrier 
 that separated the throne from the people, and in 
 not substituting a stronger one, in a word, in not 
 replacing the parliaments by strong provincial gov- 
 ernments. Therein lay the remedy for the evils of 
 monarchy, the voting of imposts, their adjustment, 
 and a gradual approval of the necessary reforms in 
 the monarchical regime. 
 
 The first act of Henri II. was to give his confidence 
 to the Constable de Montmorency, whom his father
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 51 
 
 had urged him to leave in disgrace. The constable j 
 was, conjointly with Diane de Poitiers, with whom 
 he was closely allied, master of the realm. Thus, 
 Catherine was even less powerful and less happy 
 when she became Queen of France than when 
 she was dauphiness. In the first place, beginning 
 with 1543, she had a child every year for ten years, 
 and was engrossed by the duties of maternity 
 throughout that period, which includes the last years , 
 of Francois I. and almost the whole reign of Henri II. 
 It is impossible not to see, in that constant procre- 
 ation, the influence of a rival who selected that 
 method of ridding herself of the lawful wife. That 
 barbarous expedient of a female politician was 
 probably one of Catherine's principal grievances 
 against Diane. Being thus kept aloof from affairs 
 of State, that superior woman passed her time in 
 noting the interests of all the people at court, and 
 of all the factions which were constantly forming 
 there. All the Italians who had come to France 
 with her were objects of violent distrust. After 
 the execution of Montecuculli, the Constable de 
 Montmorency, Diane, and most of the shrewd poli- 
 ticians of the court were assailed by suspicions of 
 the Medici; but Francois I. always refused to listen 
 to them. But the Gondi, the Biragues, the Strozzi, 
 the Ruggieri, the Sardini, in a word, all those who 
 were called " the Italians," who had come to France 
 in Catherine's suite, were required to put forth all 
 their resources in the way of shrewd wit, political 
 cunning, and courage, to maintain their footing at
 
 
 52 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 court under the burden of disfavor which weighed 
 upon them. 
 
 During the reign of Diane de Poitiers, Catherine's 
 affability toward the favorite went so far that clever 
 persons would have seen therein evidence of that 
 profound dissimulation which men, events, and the 
 conduct of Henri II. compelled Catherine to display. 
 They have gone too far who have maintained that 
 she never asserted her rights either as wife or as 
 queen. In the first place, the sentiment of dignity, 
 which Catherine possessed in the highest degree, 
 forbade her to claim what historians call the rights 
 of a wife. Catherine's eleven confinements and ten 
 children sufficiently explain the conduct of Henri, 
 who was left free by his wife's constant pregnancy 
 to pass his time with Diane de Poitiers. But the 
 king certainly fell short in no respect of what he 
 owed himself; he provided for the queen an entree 
 worthy to be ranked with all those which had 
 hitherto taken place, for her coronation as queen. 
 The records of the Parliament and of the Cour des 
 Comptes indicate that both those great bodies went 
 out of Paris as far as Saint-Lazare to meet the 
 queen. We quote also an extract from the narra- 
 tive of Du Tillet: 
 
 " At Saint-Lazare a platform had been erected, on 
 which was a throne " which Du Tillet calls a cliaire 
 de parement. " Catherine took her place thereon, 
 clad in a surcot, or sort of mantle of ermine, covered 
 with precious stones, a bodice underneath with the
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 53 
 
 royal cape, and on her head a crown studded with 
 pearls and diamonds; she was supported by the 0^^ 
 Marechale de la Mark, her maid of honor. Around 
 her, standing, were the princes of the blood and 
 other princes and noblemen richly dressed, with the 
 Chancellor of France, dressed in a robe of cloth of 
 gold, with figures on a red cramoisi* background. 
 In front of the queen, on the same platform, were 
 seated in two rows twelve duchesses or countesses, 
 dressed in ermine surcots, bodices, cloaks, and cir- 
 clets, that is to say, duchess's or countess's coronets. 
 They were the Duchesses d'Estouteville, de Mont- 
 pensier, elder and younger, the Princesse de la Roche- 
 sur-Yon; the Duchesses de Guise, de Nivernois, 
 d'Aumale, de Valentinois Diane de Poitiers; Made: 
 moiselle la batarde legitimee de France the title of ', 
 the king's daughter, Diane, who was Duchesse de $ 
 Castro-Farnese, and afterward Duchesse de Mont- j 
 morency-Damville, Madame la Connetable and 
 Mademoiselle de Nemours, with divers other noble 
 damsels for whom there were no seats. The four 
 presidents a mortier, some other members of the Par- 
 liament, and Du Tillet the clerk ascended the plat- 
 form and made their reverences, whereupon the first 
 president, Lizet, kneeling on one knee, addressed 
 the queen. The chancellor, with one knee on the 
 ground, replied. She entered the city in an open 
 litter, about three o'clock in the afternoon, having 
 Madame Marguerite de France opposite her, and 
 
 * The word cramoisi crimson did not denote color simply, it also expressed 
 the perfection of the coloring. See Rabelais.
 
 54 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 riding beside her open litter, Cardinals d'Amboise, 
 de Chatillon, de Boulogne, and de Lenoncourt in 
 their rochets. She alighted at Notre-Dame and was 
 received there by the clergy. After she had per- 
 formed her devotions, she was escorted through Rue 
 de la Calandre to the Palace, where the royal supper 
 was prepared in the great banqueting-hall. She sat 
 at the centre of the marble table, under a velvet 
 canopy studded with gold fleurs-de-lis." 
 
 This is a fitting place to demolish one of those 
 erroneous popular ideas which some persons have 
 held, following the lead of Sauval. It is alleged that 
 Henri II. carried his disregard of the proprieties so 
 far as to put his mistress's cipher on the monuments 
 which, by Catherine's advice, he began or continued 
 on such a magnificent scale. But the double cipher 
 which can be seen at the Louvre gives the lie every 
 day to those who are so short-sighted as to repeat 
 the absurd stories which unjustly dishonor the mem- 
 ories of our kings and queens. The H of Henri, 
 and the two C's of Catherine, back to back, seem 
 to form two D's for Diane. The coincidence may 
 well have been gratifying to Henri II., but it is true, 
 none the less, that the royal cipher is actually made 
 up of the king's initial and the queen's. Indeed, the 
 same cipher may still be seen on the column of the 
 Wheat Market, which was built by Catherine alone. 
 The cipher may also be seen in the vaults of Saint- 
 Denis, on the tomb which Catherine caused to be 
 erected in her lifetime, beside that of Henri II., and
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 55 
 
 on which she is represented, carved from life by the 
 sculptor for whom she posed. 
 
 On a solemn occasion, when he started on his 
 expedition to Germany, Henri II. declared Catherine 
 regent during his absence, as well as in case of his 
 death; it was on March 25, 1552. Catherine's bit- 
 terest enemy, the author of the Discourse concerning 
 the Marvellous Conduct of Catherine II., agrees that 
 she acquitted herself of her duties as regent in such a 
 way as to win universal praise, and that the king was 
 satisfied with her administration. Henri II. received 
 men and money when they were needed. And, after 
 the fatal day of Saint-Quentin, Catherine obtained a 
 considerable sum from the Parisians, which she sent 
 to Compiegne, where the king then was. 
 
 In politics, Catherine made extraordinary efforts 
 to obtain a little influence. She was clever enough 
 to enlist the constable, who was all-powerful under 
 Henri II., in her interest. Everyone knows the 
 crushing reply which the king made when annoyed 
 by Montmorency. That reply was the result of the 
 sound advice given by Catherine in the few mo- 
 ments when she was alone with the king, and when 
 she described to him the Florentine policy, which 
 was to set the great men of the realm against one 
 another, and to establish the royal authority upon 
 their ruins the system of Louis XL, continued by 
 her and by Richelieu. Henri II., who saw only 
 through the eyes of Diane and the constable, was 
 a typical feudal king, and friendly to the great fami- 
 lies of his kingdom.
 
 56 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 After the futile attempt made by the constable in 
 her favor, which belongs to the year 1556, Cath- 
 erine made pronounced advances to the Guises and 
 formed the plan of detaching them from Diane's 
 party in order to oppose them to the constable. But, 
 unluckily, Diane and the constable were quite as 
 bitter against the Protestants as the Guises them- 
 selves. So that the conflict between them lacked 
 that intense animosity which the religious ques- 
 tion would have inspired. Moreover, Diane openly 
 thwarted the queen's plans by coquetting with the 
 Guises and giving her daughter to the Due d'Au- 
 male. She went so far that some authors claim 
 that she accorded more than her good graces to the 
 amorous Cardinal de Lorraine. The satirists of the 
 time evolved the following quatrain on Henry II.: 
 
 " Sire, si vous laissez, comme Charles* desire, 
 Comme Diane veut, par trop vous gouverner, 
 Fondre, petrir, mollir, refondre, retourner, 
 Sire, vous n'etes plus, vous n'etes plus que cire."f 
 
 It is impossible to regard Catherine's ostentatious 
 grief and regret at the death of Henri II. as sin- 
 cere. The very fact that the king was bound by an 
 unalterable passion to Diane de Poitiers required 
 Catherine to play the part of a neglected wife who 
 adores her husband; but, like all women of brains, 
 
 * The Cardinal de Lorraine. 
 
 t" An, Sire, you should allow, and plain 'tis Charles' desire, 
 No less than Diane's aim, your will to be fast bound, 
 And shaped, reshaped, and kneaded o'er, and twisted round, 
 Then Sire, you're but aye, naught but pliant wax then. Sire."
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 57 
 
 V 
 
 she persisted in her dissimulation and never failed to 
 speak affectionately of Henri II. As is well known, 
 Diane wore mourning all her life for her husband, 
 Monsieur de Breze. Her colors were black and white, 
 and the king wore them at the tourney at which he 
 was killed. Catherine, doubtless in imitation of her 
 rival, wore mourning all her life for Henri II. She 
 treated Diane de Poitiers with a refinement of per- 
 fidy to which historians have paid no attention. 
 After the king's death, the Duchesse de Valentinois 
 fell into utter disgrace and was abandoned in the 
 most dastardly fashion by the constable, a man 
 altogether inferior to his reputation. Diane offered 
 the queen her estate and chateau of Chenonceaux. 
 Whereupon Catherine said, in the presence of wit- 
 nesses: "I cannot forget that she made my dear 
 Henri happy; I am ashamed to accept Chenonceaux 
 without giving another estate in exchange, and I 
 suggest Chaumont-sur-Loire." The papers con- 
 firming the exchange were passed at Blois in 1559. 
 Diane, whose daughters were married to the Due 
 d'Aumale and the Due de Bouillon, then a sovereign 
 prince, retained her whole fortune and died peace- 
 fully, in 1566, at the age of sixty -six. She was, 
 therefore, nineteen years older than Henri II. These 
 dates, taken from the epitaph which the historian 
 who wrote about her toward the end of the last 
 century copied from her tomb, throw light upon 
 many historical difficulties; for some historians as- 
 serted that she was forty, others sixteen, at the time 
 of her father's sentence in 1523. She was then
 
 58 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 twenty-four years old. After having read every- 
 thing, for and against her conduct toward Francois I., 
 at the moment when the family of Poitiers was in 
 such dire peril, we do not feel justified in reaffirming 
 or contradicting anything. It is one of those episodes 
 which must remain obscure. We can see, by what 
 takes place in our own days, that facts are perverted 
 the instant they occur. 
 
 Catherine, who based great hopes on her rival's 
 age, had tried several times to destroy her power. 
 It was a horrible, underground struggle. One day, 
 Catherine was on the point of realizing her hopes. 
 In 1554, Madame Diane, being indisposed, urged the 
 king to go to Saint-Germain while she was getting 
 better. That haughty coquette did not choose to be 
 seen surrounded by the appliances required by the 
 physicians, and without the prestige of fine raiment. 
 Catherine organized for the king's reception on his 
 return a magnificent ballet performance, in the course 
 of which six young women recited a piece of poetry. 
 She chose for the six young women, Miss Fleming, 
 a kinswoman of her uncle the Duke of Albany, the 
 loveliest creature imaginable, a perfect blonde; Cla- 
 rice Strozzi, a relative of her own, a magnificent 
 Italian beauty with superb black -hair and wonder- 
 fully beautiful hands; Mademoiselle Lewiston, maid 
 of honor to Mary Stuart; Mary Stuart herself; Madame 
 Elisabeth of France, the ill-fated Queen of Spain, and 
 Madame Claude. Elisabeth was nine years old, 
 Claude eight, Mary Stuart twelve. The queen 
 evidently intended to give prominence to Clarice
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 59 
 
 Strozzi and Miss Fleming and to offer them without 
 rivals to the king's favor. The king did not resist; 
 he fell in love with Miss Fleming, he had by her a 
 natural child, Henri de Valois, Comte d'Angoulgme, 
 Grand Prior of France. But Diane's credit and in- 
 fluence were not shaken. Like Madame de Pompa- 
 dour, at a later period, the Duchesse de Valentinois 
 forgave. But what sort of love on Catherine's part 
 did that manoeuvre indicate, love of power, or love 
 of her husband? The ladies may decide the question. 
 We hear a great deal to-day of the license of the 
 press; but it is difficult to imagine how far it was 
 carried in the early days of printing. In the first 
 place, we know that Aretino, the Voltaire of his time, 
 made kings tremble on their thrones, Charles V. 
 first of all. But it may not be so generally known 
 how far pamphleteers carried their audacity. The 
 chateau of Chenonceaux was given to Diane no, 
 not given, she was begged to accept it to help her 
 to forget one of the most outrageous publications 
 which was -ever issued against a woman, and which 
 shows the relentless fierceness of the war between 
 her and Madame d'Etampes. In 1537, when she 
 was thirty-eight years old, a poet of Champagne, 
 named Jean Voute, published a collection of Latin 
 poems containing three epigrams aimed at her. We 
 can but believe that the poet was assured of protec- 
 tion in high places, for his collection is prefaced by 
 a eulogy of himself written by Salmon Macrin, the 
 king's first valet de chambre. Of those epigrams, 
 which were entitled IN PlCTAVIAM, ANUM AULICAM,
 
 60 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 AGAINST LA POITIERS, AN OLD FEMALE COURTIER, 
 the following is the only passage fit to be quoted 
 to-day: 
 
 "Non trahit esca flcta prcedam." 
 
 "A painted bait attracts no game," says the poet, 
 after alleging that she painted her face, and pur- 
 chased her teeth and her hair. "And even though 
 you purchase," he adds, "the cream of everything 
 that makes a woman, you will not obtain what you 
 desire from your lover, for to do that one must be 
 alive, and you are dead." 
 
 This collection, printed by Simon de Colines, was 
 dedicated TO A BISHOP! to Francois Bohier, the 
 brother of the man who, to save his credit at court 
 and atone for his crime, offered Henri II., on his ac- 
 cession, the chateau of Chenonceaux, built by his 
 father, Thomas Bohier, Councillor of State under 
 four kings: Louis XL, Charles VIII. , Louis XII., and 
 Francois I. What were the pamphlets published 
 against Madame de Pompadour and Marie-Antoi- 
 nette, compared to verses which one would say 
 were written by Martial ! This Voute must have 
 come to a bad end. Thus the estate and chateau of 
 Chenonceaux cost Diane nothing more than forgive- 
 ness of an insult, which the Gospel enjoins! As they 
 were not assessed by a jury, the penalties inflicted 
 on the press were somewhat more severe than those 
 of to-day. 
 
 The queens of France, when widowed, are sup- 
 posed to remain in the king's apartment for forty
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 6 1 
 
 days, without other light than that of the tapers; 
 they do not come forth until after the interment. 
 This inviolable custom was exceedingly distasteful 
 to Catherine, who feared intrigues: she found a 
 way to evade it. It was this. Early one morning, 
 as the Cardinal de Lorraine at such a crisis! was 
 leaving the house of La Belle Romaine, a famous 
 courtesan of the time of Henri II., who lived on Rue 
 Culture Saint-Catherine, he was roughly handled 
 by a party of libertines. "Whereat His Eminence, 
 being greatly astonished," says Henri Estienne, 
 " declared that the heretics were lying in wait for 
 him." And, upon that pretext, the court went 
 from Paris to Saint-Germain. The queen did not 
 choose to be separated from the king, her son, and 
 betook herself thither. 
 
 The accession of Francois II., to which Cather- 
 ine had looked forward as the time when the reins 
 of power would fall into her hands, was a moment of 
 disappointment which came as a cruel climax to the 
 twenty-six years of chagrin she had already passed 
 at the French court. The Guises at once seized 
 upon the government with incredible presumption: 
 the Due de Guise was placed at the head of the 
 army, the constable was disgraced, the cardinal 
 managed the finances and the clergy. 
 
 Catherine began her political career by one of 
 those dramas which, although it made less noise 
 than some others, was none the less horrible, and 
 accustomed her, doubtless, to the terrible emotions 
 of her life. While seeming to be in accord with the
 
 62 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 Guises, she tried to assure her triumph by gaining 
 the support of the House of Bourbon. Whether it 
 was that Catherine, after having vainly attempted 
 the most violent methods, had determined to resort 
 to jealousy to bring the king to her feet, or whether 
 it seemed to her a cruel fate to attain her second 
 girlhood without having known genuine love, she 
 displayed the liveliest interest in a nobleman of the 
 royal blood, Francois de Vendome, son of Louis de 
 VendSme of the family from which the Bourbons 
 sprung and Vidame de Chartres, the latter being 
 the name by which he is known in history. Cath- 
 erine's secret hatred of Diane was revealed in many 
 circumstances to which historians, engrossed by 
 political affairs, have paid no attention. Cath- 
 erine's attachment to the vidame originated in an 
 affront which that young man put upon the favorite. 
 Diane desired the most honorable alliances for her 
 daughters, who, moreover, were descended from the 
 oldest nobility of the realm. She was especially 
 ambitious of the honor of a marriage with the House 
 of France: a proffer of the hand of her second 
 daughter, who afterward became Duchesse d'Au- 
 male, was made in her behalf to the vidame, whom 
 Francois I. had very prudently kept in an im- 
 poverished condition. In fact, when the Vidame 
 de Chartres and the Prince de Conde came to 
 court, Francois gave them what? appointments 
 as chamberlains-in-ordinary, with an allowance of 
 twelve hundred crowns, which were commonly 
 allotted to simple gentlemen. Although Diane de
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 63 
 
 Poitiers offered immense wealth, some valuable 
 office under the crown, and the king's favor, the 
 vidame declined. And then this Bourbon, who had 
 already shown a factious spirit, married Jeanne, 
 daughter of the Baron d'Estissac, by whom he had 
 no children. This exhibition of pride naturally com- 
 mended the vidame to Catherine, who received him 
 with marked favor, and made of him a devoted 
 friend. Historians have compared the last Due de 
 Montmorency, who was beheaded at Toulouse, to 
 the Vidame of Chartres, in the art of pleasing, in 
 merit, and in talent. Henri II. gave no sign of 
 jealousy; apparently he did not dream that a queen 
 of France could forget what she owed to herself, or 
 that a Medici could forget the honor a Valois had 
 done her. When the queen was said to be flirting 
 with the Vidame de Chartres, she had been almost 
 abandoned by the king since the birth of her last 
 child. Thus her efforts served no purpose, for 
 Henri died wearing the colors of Diane de Poitiers. 
 At the king's death, Catherine found herself in- 
 volved in a liaison with the vidame, a situation 
 which was nothing if not in conformity with the 
 morals of the time, when love was at once so chiv- 
 alrous and so licentious, that the noblest actions 
 were as natural to it as the most blameworthy; but 
 the historians, as usual, have committed the error of 
 taking the exception for the general rule. The four 
 sons of Henri II. crushed the prospects of the Bour- 
 bons, all of whom were exceedingly poor, and over- 
 whelmed by the contempt which the constable's
 
 64 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 treachery had brought upon them, notwithstanding 
 the reasons which compelled him to leave the king- 
 dom. The Vidame de Chartres, who was to the 
 first Prince de Conde what Richelieu was to Maza- 
 rin, his father in politics, his model, and, further- 
 more, his master in the art of love, concealed the 
 overweening ambition of his family beqeath a friv- 
 olous exterior. As he was in no position to contend 
 with the Guises, the Montmorencys, the princes of 
 Scotland, the cardinals, and the Bouillons, he was 
 content to distinguish himself by his charming man- 
 ners and by his wit, which won for him the favors of 
 the loveliest women, and the hearts of some of whom 
 he never thought. He was a privileged man, whose 
 fascination was irresistible, and who was indebted 
 to love for the means of maintaining his rank. The 
 Bourbons would not have lost their tempers like 
 Jarnac at La Chataigneraie's slander; they gladly 
 accepted estates and chateaux from their mistresses; 
 witness the Prince de Conde, who accepted the 
 estate of Saint-Valery from Madame la Marechale de 
 Saint-Andre. 
 
 At the death of Henri II., and during the first three 
 weeks of mourning, the vidame's position suddenly 
 changed. Being the object of the queen-mother's 
 inclinations, and paying court to her with the utmost 
 secrecy, as one could do in the case of the queen, 
 he seemed destined to play an important role, and 
 Catherine did, in fact, determine to make use of him. 
 He received from her letters for the Prince de Conde, 
 wherein she pointed out the necessity of an alliance
 
 IN CATHERINE'S CHAMBER 
 
 The Guises, being informed of this intrigue, 
 forced their ivay into the queen s chamber to extort 
 from her an order to consign the vidame to the 
 Bastille, and Catherine was reduced to the dire 
 necessity of complying.
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 65 
 
 against the Guises. The Guises, being informed 
 of this intrigue, forced their way into the queen's 
 chamber to extort from her an order to consign the 
 vidame to the Bastille, and Catherine was reduced 
 to the dire necessity of complying. The vidame 
 died, after a few months of captivity, on the day that 
 he was released from prison, a short time before 
 the conspiracy of Amboise. Such was the end of 
 Catherine de' Medici's first and only love-affair. 
 Protestant writers have said that the queen had the 
 vidame poisoned in order to consign to the tomb the 
 secret of her amours! 
 
 Such was that woman's apprenticeship in royal 
 power.
 
 PART FIRST
 
 THE CALVINIST MARTYR 
 
 * 
 
 Few persons know to-day how plain were 'the 
 dwellings of the bourgeois of Paris in the fourteenth 
 century, and how simple was their life. Perhaps 
 this very simplicity in action and in thought was the 
 cause of the grandeur of that old bourgeoisie, which 
 was most assuredly great and noble and free more 
 so, it may be, than the bourgeoisie of to-day; its 
 history is still to be written, it demands and awaits 
 a man of genius. This reflection, inspired by the 
 little-known episode which forms the groundwork of 
 this Study, and which will always be one of the 
 most remarkable episodes in the history of the bour- 
 geoisie, will doubtless come to every mind after 
 reading this narrative. Is this the first time in 
 history that the conclusion ever preceded the facts? 
 
 In 1 560, the houses on Rue de la Vieille-Pelleterie 
 lined the left bank of the Seine between Pont Notre- 
 Dame and Pont au Change. The public way and 
 the houses took up the space occupied simply by the 
 roadway of the present quay. Every house was 
 situated directly over the Seine, so that the occu- 
 pants could go down to the river by staircases of 
 (69)
 
 70 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 stone or wood, protected by stout iron gratings, or 
 wooden gates studded with nails. These houses, 
 like the houses in Venice, had one door on land and 
 one water-door. At the moment when this Study is 
 published, there exists but one house of this sort, 
 which can remind us of Paris as it used to be, and 
 that one will soon disappear; it stands at the corner 
 of the Petit-Font, opposite the guard-house of the 
 Hotel-Dieu. Formerly, every house presented on the 
 river side the curious aspect due to the trade of its 
 occupant and his habits, or to the original character 
 of the structures invented by the proprietors to use 
 or abuse the Seine. As almost all the bridges were 
 crowded with more mills than the necessities of 
 navigation could allow, the Seine numbered as many 
 mill-ponds as bridges within the city limits. Some 
 of the mill-ponds of that old Paris would have 
 afforded unique tints for the painter's brush. What 
 a forest was formed by the interlaced timbers which 
 supported the mills, their huge floodgates and their 
 wheels! What curious effects were produced by the 
 piles employed to enable the building to encroach 
 on the river! Unfortunately, genre painting did not 
 exist at that time, and engraving was in its infancy; 
 so that we are deprived of that curious spectacle, 
 which is still presented on a very small scale by 
 certain towns in the provinces, where the rivers 
 are indented by wooden houses, and where, as at 
 Vendome, the mill-ponds, full of long grass, are 
 divided by long fences corresponding with the divi- 
 sional lines of the estates on the two banks.
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 71 
 
 The name of this street, now stricken from the 
 map, is sufficiently indicative of the trade that was 
 carried on there. In those days, the merchants 
 who followed the same trade, instead of scattering 
 through the city, gathered in one neighborhood and 
 thus afforded one another mutual protection. United 
 socially by the guild which limited their number, 
 they were also joined in brotherhood by the Church. 
 Thus prices were maintained. The masters were 
 not the slaves of their workmen, and did not obey 
 their slightest caprices, as they do to-day; on the 
 contrary, they took care of them, they made them 
 their children, and instructed them in the niceties of 
 their work. In order to become a master, a work- 
 man must produce one masterpiece, which was al- 
 ways offered to the patron saint of the guild. Will 
 you whose admiration for the works of the old 
 masters has created the new trade of dealers in bric- 
 a-brac will you dare to say that the lack of com- 
 petition weakened the sentiment of perfection and 
 interfered with the beauty of the products of the 
 craftsmen ? 
 
 In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the fur- 
 rier's trade was one of the most flourishing indus- 
 tries. The difficulty of obtaining furs, which, being 
 brought from the far North, required long and peril- 
 ous voyages, imparted an excessive value to the 
 products of the industry. Then, as now, the high 
 price spurred on consumption, for vanity knows no 
 obstacles. In France and in other kingdoms, not 
 only were there ordinances reserving to the nobility
 
 72 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 the right to wear furs, a fact attested by the promi- 
 nent part played by ermine in the old blazonry, but 
 certain rare furs, like the vair, which beyond doubt 
 was the imperial sable, could be worn only by kings, 
 by dukes, and by noblemen invested with certain 
 high offices. There was a distinction between the 
 grand vair and the menu vair. This word has gone 
 out of use so entirely in the last hundred years, that 
 in an endless number of editions of Perrault's Contes, 
 Cinderella's famous slipper, which was probably of 
 menu vair, is said to have been of verre glass. 
 Recently, one of our most distinguished poets was 
 obliged to re-establish the proper orthography of this 
 word for the edification of his confreres the writers 
 of feuilletons, apropos of La Cenerentola, wherein the 
 symbolic slipper is replaced by a ring, which has no 
 significance. 
 
 Naturally, the orders concerning the wearing of 
 furs were continually infringed, to the great satis- 
 faction of the furriers. The high price of cloths and 
 of furs made a garment a durable article, a fitting 
 companion to the furniture, the armor, and the other 
 details of the sturdy life of the fifteenth century. 
 All noblemen, all noblewomen, all persons of wealth, 
 like every bourgeois, possessed at most two gar- 
 ments for each season, which lasted all their lives 
 and more. These garments were bequeathed to 
 their children. So that the clause relating to arms 
 and clothing in marriage-contracts, to-day Almost 
 useless because of the trifling value of wardrobes 
 constantly renewed, was in those days of very
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 73 
 
 great importance. High prices had resulted in dura- 
 bility. A woman's wardrobe constituted a large 
 capital, which was always counted in inventories of 
 household effects, and was packed in those immense 
 chests which threaten disaster to the ceilings of our 
 modern apartments. The full dress of a woman in 
 1840 would have been the deshabille of a great lady 
 of 1540. To-day, the discovery of America, the 
 facility of transportation, the demolition of social 
 distinctions which has paved the way for the de- 
 molition of apparent distinctions, all have com- 
 bined to reduce the fur trade to its present condi- 
 tion, to almost nothing. The article which a furrier 
 sells to-day, as formerly, for twenty livres francs 
 has followed the decline in the value of money; 
 formerly the livre was worth more than twenty 
 francs of our present money. The petty bourgeoise 
 or the courtesan, who has fur trimming on her cloak 
 to-day, has no idea that in 1440 an ill-humored police- 
 man would have arrested her incontinently and haled 
 her before the magistrate at the Chatelet. The 
 Englishwomen, who are so wild over ermine, do not 
 know that in old times only queens, duchesses, and 
 chancellors of France could wear that royal fur. 
 There exist to-day several noble families whose real 
 name is Pelletier or Lepelletier Furrier and who 
 evidently owe their origin to some wealthy fur house, 
 for the majority of bourgeois names began by being 
 sobriquets. 
 
 This digression will explain not only the endless 
 quarrels during two centuries concerning precedence
 
 74 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 between the guild of drapers and the guild of furriers 
 and mercers, each of them insisted on marching 
 first as being the most important guild in Paris, 
 but also the influential position of Sieur Lecamus, 
 furrier, honored with the custom of two queens, 
 Catherine de' Medici and Mary Stuart, with the 
 custom of the Parliament of Paris, and for twenty 
 years syndic of his guild, who lived on that street. 
 Lecamus's house was one of the three which 
 formed the three corners of the square at the end 
 of Pont au Change, of which naught remains to-day 
 save the tower of the old Palais de Justice which 
 formed the fourth corner. At the angle of that 
 house, situated at the corner of Pont au Change 
 and of the quay which is to-day called Quai aux 
 Fleurs, the architect had made a recess for a Ma- 
 donna, which was always lighted by tapers and 
 adorned with bouquets of real flowers in summer 
 and of artificial flowers in winter. On Rue du Pont 
 as well as on Rue de la Vieille-Pelleterie, the house 
 rested on wooden pillars. All the houses in the 
 tradesmen's quarters had behind these pillars a 
 gallery, where pedestrians walked under cover on 
 the bare ground, hardened by the mud which they 
 left upon it and which made it decidedly rough. In 
 all the cities of France, these galleries were called 
 tJie pillars, a generic term to which was added a 
 qualifying phrase, according to the trade of the 
 quarter, as the pillars of the Market, the pillars of 
 the Butchery. These galleries, which were made 
 necessary by the changeable, rainy atmosphere of
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 75 
 
 Paris, and which were a prominent feature in the 
 physiognomy of the city, have entirely disappeared. 
 Just as there is no longer a single house directly 
 over the river, so there are barely a hundred feet 
 remaining of the old pillars of the Market, which 
 longest resisted the inroads of time; and in a few 
 days even that remnant of the gloomy labyrinth of 
 old Paris will be demolished. Assuredly, the con- 
 tinued existence of these relics of the Middle Ages is 
 incompatible with the grandeurs of modern Paris. 
 So that these observations are intended less as an 
 expression of regret for these fragments of the old 
 city than as an attempt to preserve their likeness 
 by the last living evidence, now on the point of 
 crumbling to dust, and to absolve the future, which 
 treads upon the heels of the present century, from 
 the necessity of seeking descriptions. 
 
 The walls of the house in question were built of 
 wood and covered with slates. The intervals be- 
 tween the pieces of wood had been filled with bricks 
 laid crosswise, so as to form the design called Hun- 
 gary point; the same thing can still be seen in 
 some old provincial towns. The window-sills and 
 lintels, also of wood, were richly carved, as was the 
 pillar at the corner above the Madonna, and the pil- 
 lars of the shop front. Each window and each of 
 the beams which separated the different floors were 
 adorned with arabesques of fantastic persons or ani- 
 mals surrounded by conventional foliage. On the 
 street side, as well as on the river, the roof of the 
 house was shaped like two cards placed against each
 
 76 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 other; that is to say, there was a gable end on the 
 street and a gable end on the water. The roof, like 
 the roof of a Swiss chalet, overhung so far that there 
 was an outer gallery on the second floor, with a bal- 
 ustrade, where the furrier could walk under cover, 
 overlooking the whole street on one side, and on the 
 other the basin between the two bridges and the two 
 rows of houses. 
 
 The houses on the river were at that time very 
 valuable. The system of drains and running water 
 was still a thing of the future; there was only the 
 drain running around the city, finished by Aubriot, 
 the first man of genius and powerful will who ever 
 thought he lived under Charles V. of improving 
 the sanitary condition of Paris. Houses situated as 
 was Lecamus's found in the river both the water 
 necessary to life and a natural outlet for the rain- 
 water and domestic waste. The vast works of that 
 nature which the provosts of the merchants con- 
 structed are also disappearing. Only those who are 
 more than forty years old can remember having seen 
 the bottomless pits in which the waters were swal- 
 lowed up, on Rue Montmartre, Rue du Temple, etc. 
 Those terrifying, yawning holes did an immense 
 amount of good in those old times. Their location 
 will in all probability be permanently marked by the 
 sudden caving in of the roadway at the spots where 
 they opened: another archaeological detail that will 
 be inexplicable to the historian two centuries hence. 
 One day, in 1816 or thereabouts, a little girl who 
 was carrying to an actress at the Ambigu the
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 77 
 
 diamonds she was to wear in the part of a queen, 
 was overtaken by a heavy shower, and drawn down 
 into the old drain on Rue du Temple, where she 
 would have disappeared had not the attention of a 
 passer-by been attracted by her shrieks; but she 
 had dropped the diamonds, which were found in a 
 draught-hole. That incident caused a great deal of 
 talk; it gave force to the demand for the suppression 
 of those consumers of water and little girls. They 
 were curious affairs, about five feet deep, with mov- 
 able gratings or wire-nettings, which caused the 
 flooding of the cellars when the artificial river pro- 
 duced by a heavy downpour could find no outlet 
 through the grating, blocked with rubbish and filth, 
 which the a butters often forgot to raise. 
 
 The front of Sieur Lecamus's shop was of glass, 
 but was embellished with lead sashes which made 
 the interior very dark. The furs were carried to 
 the houses of the wealthy customers. To those 
 who came to the shop to buy, the wares were 
 shown out-of-doors, between the pillars, where the 
 passage-way was always blocked during the day by 
 tables, and clerks seated on stools, as could be seen 
 under the pillars of the market fifteen years ago. 
 From those advanced positions, the clerks and ap- 
 prentices, male and female, talked, exchanged ques- 
 tions and answers, and accosted those who passed 
 customs of which the great Sir Walter Scott made 
 , use in his Ad-ventures of Nigel. The sign, which rep- 
 resented an ermine, hung outside, like those of some 
 village taverns, and was attached to an open-work
 
 78 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 iron post, richly gilded. Above the ermine, on one 
 side, were the words: 
 
 LECAMVS 
 FURRIER 
 
 To MADAME LA ROYNE AND LE ROY 
 NOSTRE SIRE; 
 
 and on the other : 
 
 To MADAME LA ROYNE MERE AND MESSIEVRS 
 DV PARLEMENT 
 
 The words to Madame la Rqyne Mere had been 
 added quite recently. The gilding was new. The 
 change indicated the recent revolution produced by 
 the sudden violent death of Henri II., which over- 
 turned many fortunes at court, and was the begin- 
 ning of the fortune of the Guises. 
 
 The back-shop looked on the river. In that room 
 the venerable bourgeois and his wife, Mademoiselle 
 Lecamus, were usually to be found. In those days, 
 the wife of a man who was not nobly born had no 
 right to the title of dame ; but the wives of the bour- 
 geois of Paris were entitled to be called demoiselle, 
 by reason of the privileges granted and confirmed to 
 their husbands by several kings to whom they had 
 rendered eminent services. Between the back-shop 
 and the wareroom was a wooden spiral staircase, 
 which gave access to the upper floors where the 
 large wareroom was and the apartment of the old 
 couple,- and to the attic rooms lighted by round
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 79 
 
 windows, where the children, the maid-servant, and 
 the clerks and apprentices lived. 
 
 This crowding together of families, servants, and 
 apprentices, and the small spaces occupied by each 
 person inside the house, where the apprentices slept 
 together in a large room under the eaves, explains 
 the enormous population of Paris which was then 
 massed upon a tenth of the territory covered by the 
 present city; the curious details of private life in the 
 Middle Ages; and the stratagems of love, which, 
 with all deference to serious historians, can be found 
 only in the romancers, and which would have been 
 lost but for them. At that period, a very great noble- 
 man, like Admiral de Coligny, for instance, occupied 
 three rooms in Paris, and his retinue was quartered 
 at a public-house near by. There were not then in 
 all Paris fifty hotels, that is to say, palaces belong- 
 ing to sovereign princes, or to great vassals, who 
 lived more sumptuously than the greatest German 
 sovereigns, like the Duke of Bavaria or the Elector 
 of Saxony. 
 
 The kitchen of the Lecamus establishment was 
 under the back-shop, directly on the river. It had 
 a glass door opening on a sort of iron balcony from 
 which the cook could draw water with a pail, and 
 where the family linen was washed. The back-shop 
 was the merchant's dining-room, study, and salon, 
 all in one. In that important apartment, which was 
 always noticeable for its handsome wainscoting, and 
 embellished with some object of art, and a chest, the 
 merchant's life was passed ; it was the scene of
 
 80 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 the merry suppers after the day's work, and of the 
 secret conferences concerning the political interests 
 of the bourgeoisie and the monarchy. The powerful 
 guilds of Paris could at that time equip a hundred 
 thousand men for war. The decisions of the mer- 
 chants were supported by their servants, their clerks, 
 their apprentices, and their workmen. The bour- 
 geois had, in the provost of merchants, a leader 
 whom they obeyed, and in the Hotel de Ville a pal- 
 ace where they had the right to assemble. In that 
 famous parlouei' aux bourgeois solemn deliberations 
 were held. Except for the constant sacrifices which 
 had made war unendurable to the guilds, exhausted 
 by their losses and by famine, it may be doubted 
 whether Henri IV., that rebellious subject become 
 king at last, would ever have entered Paris. 
 
 The reader will find no difficulty now in picturing 
 to himself that corner of old Paris where the bridge 
 and the quay wind to-day, where the trees of 
 the Quai aux Fleurs rear their heads, and where 
 naught remains to remind one of that time save the 
 famous high tower of the old Palais de Justice, 
 which gave the signal for the Saint-Bartholomew. 
 Strangely enough, one of the houses lying at the foot 
 of that tower, then surrounded by wooden shops, 
 the house of'Lecamus, was destined to see the 
 beginning of one of those episodes which paved the 
 way for that night of massacres, unhappily more 
 favorable than fatal to Calvinism. 
 
 At the time when this narrative begins, Paris was 
 intensely excited over the audacity of the professors
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 8 1 
 
 of the new religious doctrines. A Scotchman named 
 Stuart had murdered President Minard, that one of 
 the members of the Parliament to whom public 
 opinion attributed the largest share in the execu- 
 tion of his fellow-member Anne du Bourg, recently 
 burned in Place de Greve, after the late king's 
 tailor, whom Henri II. and Diane de Poitiers had 
 caused to be put to the question in their presence. 
 Paris was so closely watched that the archers com- 
 pelled passers-by to pray before the Madonna, in 
 order to detect heretics, who either complied with 
 bad grace, or refused altogether to perform an act so 
 opposed to their ideas. The two archers who had 
 been standing at the corner of Lecamus's house had 
 gone away; so that Christophe, the furrier's son, 
 who was strongly suspected of having turned his 
 back on Catholicism, was able to go out without 
 the fear that they would force him to pray to the 
 image of the Virgin. It was beginning to grow dark 
 at seven o'clock in April, 1560, and the appren- 
 tices, seeing that only a few people were still pass- 
 ing under the pillars on both sides of the street, 
 were removing the merchandise displayed outside 
 as samples, preparatory to closing the house and 
 the shop. Christophe Lecamus, an ardent youth 
 of twenty-two, stood in the doorway, apparently 
 absorbed in watching the apprentices. 
 
 "Monsieur," said one of them to Christophe, 
 
 pointing to a man who was walking back and forth 
 
 under the gallery with a hesitating air, " that fellow 
 
 may be a thief or a spy; at all events, he can't be 
 
 6
 
 82 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 an -honest man: if he had any business with us, he 
 would come up and speak to us openly, instead 
 of hanging back as he does. And what a way of 
 carrying himself!" he added, imitating the stranger. 
 " How he hides his face in his cloak! What a yellow 
 eye! What a hungry look!" 
 
 When the stranger thus described by the appren- 
 tice saw that Christophe was alone in the doorway, 
 he hurriedly left the gallery opposite, where he was 
 walking, crossed the street, and as he passed under 
 the pillars by Lecamus's shop, before the apprentices 
 had returned to close the shutters, he accosted the 
 young man. 
 
 " I am Chaudieu!" he said in an undertone. 
 
 When he heard the name of one of the most cele- 
 brated leaders and most devoted actors in the terrible 
 drama called the Reformation, Christophe started as 
 a faithful peasant would have started on recognizing 
 his king in disguise. 
 
 "Do you wish to look at furs? Although it's 
 almost dark, I will show you some myself," said 
 Christophe, to deceive the apprentices whom he 
 heard behind him. 
 
 With a gesture, he invited the reformer to enter. 
 But he replied that he preferred to talk outside. 
 Christophe went in to get his cap, and followed the 
 disciple of Calvin. 
 
 Although banished by royal edict, Chaudieu, the 
 secret plenipotentiary of Theodore de Beze and 
 Calvin, who directed the Reformation in France 
 from Geneva, went and came as he chose, defying
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 83 
 
 the cruel punishment to which the Parliament, act- 
 ing in concert with the Church and the king in order 
 to make a terrible example, had condemned one of 
 its own members, the celebrated Anne du Bourg. 
 This minister of the faith, whose brother was a cap- 
 tain and one of Admiral de Coligny's best soldiers, 
 was one of the arms with which Calvin aroused 
 France at the beginning of the twenty-two years of 
 religious wars, then about to be inaugurated. He 
 was one of those secret wheels of the machine 
 which afford the best explanation of the mighty 
 action of the Reformation. 
 
 Chaudieu led Christophe to the water's edge by a 
 subterranean passage similar to that of the Marion 
 arch, which was filled in ten years ago. This pas- 
 sage, the entrance to which was between Lecamus's 
 house and the house next it, ran under Rue de la 
 Vieille-Pelleterie, and was called the Pont-aux-Four- 
 reurs. It was used by the dyers of the city to go to 
 the river to wash their threads, their silks, and their 
 cloths. A small boat was there, in the charge of a 
 single boatman. A stranger, small of stature and 
 very simply dressed, sat in the bow. In an instant 
 the boat was in the middle of the river, and the boat- 
 man guided her beneath one of the wooden arches of 
 Pont au Change, where he quickly made her fast to 
 an iron ring. As yet no one had spoken. 
 
 " We can talk here without fear, there are neither 
 spies nor traitors within hearing," said Chaudieu, 
 glancing at the two men who were unknown to 
 Christophe. "Are you filled with that spirit of
 
 84 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 self -sacrifice which inspires martyrs? Are you ready 
 to endure everything for our blessed cause? Do 
 you fear the tortures undergone by the late king's 
 tailor and by Counsellor du Bourg, tortures which 
 await the majority of us?" he asked Christophe, 
 turning a radiant face upon him. 
 
 "I will confess the Gospel," replied Lecamus, 
 simply, looking at the windows of the back-shop. 
 
 The light of the lamp on the table at which his father 
 was undoubtedly looking over his account-books 
 reminded him by its gleam of the domestic joys 
 and the tranquil life which he was renouncing. It 
 was a swift but perfect vision. The young man's 
 eyes embraced that neighborhood instinct with the 
 harmonies of bourgeois existence, where his child- 
 hood had passed so happily, where Babette Lallier, 
 his betrothed, had her home, where everything 
 promised him a pleasant, busy life; he saw the 
 past, he saw his future, and he sacrificed every- 
 thing, or at least staked everything. Such were 
 the men of those days. 
 
 "We need go no farther," said the enthusiastic 
 boatman; " we know him now for one of our saints/ 
 If the Scotchman had missed his mark, he would 
 have killed the infamous Minard." 
 
 "Yes," said Lecamus. " My life belongs to the 
 Church, and I give it joyfully for the triumph of the 
 Reformation, upon which I have reflected in all seri- 
 ousness. I know what we are doing for the welfare 
 of the nations. In two words, Popery enjoins celi- 
 bacy, the Reformation favors the family. It is time
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 85 
 
 to rid France of her monks, and to restore their prop- 
 erty to the crown, which will sell it sooner or later to 
 the bourgeoisie. Let us not fear to die for our chil- 
 dren and for our families to be some day free and 
 happy." 
 
 The faces of the enthusiastic youth, of Chaudieu, 
 of the boatman, and of the stranger sitting on the 
 forward thwart, lighted by the last gleams of twi- 
 light, formed a picture which merits description, 
 especially as that description contains the entire 
 history of that period, if it be true that it is given 
 to certain men to represent the spirit of their age. 
 
 The religious reformation undertaken by Luther in 
 Germany, by John Knox in Scotland, and by Calvin 
 in France, took an especially firm hold of the lower 
 classes wherever the habit of thought had taken root. 
 The great noblemen supported the movement only to 
 advance interests entirely unconnected with the cause 
 of religion. To these widely different parties were 
 added adventurers, ruined noblemen, and younger 
 sons to whom disturbances of any sort were equally 
 agreeable. But among the artisans and the trades- 
 men, the faith in the new religion was sincere and 
 based upon reflection. The poorer nations were con- 
 verted at once to a religion which would turn over 
 church property to the State, suppress convents, 
 and deprive church dignitaries of their enormous 
 revenues. The whole business world reckoned up 
 the profits of this religious operation, and devoted 
 themselves, body, soul, and purse, to its successful 
 execution ; but among the youth of the French
 
 86 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 bourgeoisie the new doctrine encountered that noble 
 tendency toward sacrifices of every kind which 
 kindles the enthusiasm of the young, to whom sel- 
 fishness is unknown. Eminent men, keen minds, 
 such as are always found in the midst of the masses, 
 foresaw a republic in the Reformation, and aimed to 
 establish throughout Europe the form of government 
 established in the United Provinces, which triumphed 
 at last in their struggle with the greatest power of 
 that age, Spain, governed by Philip II. and repre- 
 sented in the Low Countries by the Duke of Alva. 
 Jean Hotoman was then meditating his famous book 
 in which that project is set forth, and which sowed 
 in France the seed of those ideas, destined to be re- 
 vived by the League, to be repressed by Richelieu 
 and again by Louis XIV., to reappear with the econ- 
 omists and encyclopaedists under Louis XV., and to 
 burst forth in full bloom under Louis XVI.; always 
 favored by the younger branches, by the House of 
 Orleans in 1789, as by the House of Bourbon in 
 1589. He who says examination, says rebellion. 
 Every rebellion is either the cloak beneath which 
 a prince conceals himself, or the swaddling-clothes 
 of a new domination. The House of Bourbon, the 
 younger Valois princes, were behind the Reforma- 
 tion. 
 
 At the moment when the skiff lay under the arch 
 of Pont au Change, the question was curiously com- 
 plicated by the ambition of the Guises, who were 
 rivals of the Bourbons; thus the crown, represented 
 by Catherine de' Medici, was able to maintain the
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 87 
 
 struggle for thirty years by opposing them to one 
 another; whereas, later, the crown, instead of being 
 pulled this way and that by several hands, found 
 itself face to face with the people, with no barrier 
 between: Richelieu and Louis XIV. had demolished 
 the barrier of the nobility, Louis XV. the barrier of 
 the parliaments. A king left alone before the people, 
 as Louis XVI. then was, will always yield. 
 
 Christophe Lecamus well represented the ardent, 
 devoted portion of the people: his fair face had the 
 harsh, warm tone which distinguishes some blonds; 
 his hair was of a color resembling the yellow of 
 copper; his blue-gray eyes were bright and spark- 
 ling, in them only did his noble soul reveal itself; 
 for the outline of his face was bad, and the irregu- 
 larity of its almost triangular shape was not dis- 
 guised by that air of nobility which distinguishes 
 well-bred men; and his low forehead denoted nothing 
 more than great energy of character. Life seemed 
 to centre in his slightly hollow chest. Christophe 
 was nervous rather than full-blooded, his complexion 
 was rough, dry, and harsh in tone. His sharp nose 
 denoted the shrewdness of the common people, just 
 as his face, taken as a whole, denoted an intelligence 
 capable of giving a good account of itself on any 
 point of the circumference, but lacking the power 
 to embrace its whole extent. His eyes, over which 
 the arch of the eyebrows, barely covered with a 
 white down, protruded like an awning, were sur- 
 rounded by a pale-blue ring, which became a gleam- 
 ing white at the top of the nose; a detail which
 
 88 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 almost always indicates excessive excitability. Chris- 
 tophe was the type of the man of the people who de- 
 votes himself body and soul to a cause, fights for it, 
 and allows himself to be misled; clever enough to 
 understand and promote an idea, too noble to seek 
 selfish advantage from it, too generous to sell him- 
 self. 
 
 Beside Lecamus's son, Chaudieu, that fervent 
 minister of the faith, with the brown hair, thinned 
 by sleepless nights, with the yellow complexion, the 
 combative brow, the eloquent mouth, the flashing 
 brown eyes, the short, upturned chin, was a typical 
 representative of that Christian faith to which the 
 Reformation owed so many sincere, fanatical pastors 
 whose spirit and courage kindled the enthusiasm of 
 the people. The aide de camp of Theodore de Beze 
 and Calvin formed an admirable contrast to the fur- 
 rier's son. He well represented the living cause of 
 which the effect was seen in Christophe. He was 
 precisely what one would imagine the heat gen- 
 erator of a popular machine to be. 
 
 The boatman, an impulsive creature, bronzed by 
 the sun, accustomed to nights in the dew and days 
 under fire, to say little and act quickly, with a 
 greedy, orange-hued eye, like a vulture's, and with 
 curly black hair, was a type of the adventurer who 
 risks his all in a single venture, as a gambler stakes 
 his fortune on a card. Everything in his appearance 
 indicated terrible passions, a hardihood which would 
 recoil at nothing. His vigorous muscles were adapted 
 to silence as well as to speech. His manner was
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 89 
 
 rather presumptuous than noble. His nose, which, 
 although thin, was turned up, sniffed the battle from 
 afar. He seemed active and shrewd. At any period 
 of the world's history he would have been picked as 
 a party leader. If there had been no Reformation, 
 he would have been Pizarro, Cortez, or Morgan the 
 Exterminator, a man of violent action of some sort. 
 
 The third man, who sat on a thwart, wrapped in 
 his cape, evidently belonged to the highest social 
 order. The fineness of his linen, the cut, material, 
 and odor of his garments, the style and material of 
 his gloves, indicated an habitue of the court, even as 
 his attitude, his haughty, tranquil air, and his keen 
 glance indicated the man of war. His appearance 
 was disquieting at first and imposed respect. One re- 
 spects a man who respects himself. He was small and 
 deformed, but his manners soon made one forget the 
 defects of his figure. When the ice was once broken, 
 he displayed a good-humored decision, an indefinable 
 energy, which made him very attractive. He had the 
 blue eyes and short nose of the House of Navarre, 
 and the accentuated Spanish type of face which was 
 characteristic of the Bourbon kings of France. 
 
 In a word, the scene became intensely interesting. 
 
 "Well," said Chaudieu, as soon as young Le- 
 camus finished his sentence, "this boatman is La 
 Renaudie; and this is Monseigneur le Prince de 
 Conde," he added, pointing to the little hunchback. 
 
 Thus those four men represented the faith of the 
 common people, the spirit of the Word, the hand of 
 the soldier, and royalty hiding in the shadow.
 
 90 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 " You shall now learn what we expect of you," 
 continued the minister, after a pause, to give young 
 Lecamus's astonishment time to subside. " In order 
 that you may make no mistake, we are obliged to 
 divulge to you the most momentous secrets of the 
 Reformation." 
 
 The prince and La Renaudie motioned to the 
 minister to continue, when he paused to allow the 
 prince himself to speak if he wished. Like all great 
 men engaged in conspiracies, whose policy is not to 
 show themselves until the decisive moment, the 
 prince held his peace not from cowardice, for in 
 those critical times he was the soul of the con- 
 spiracy, he shrank from no danger and freely risked 
 his head ; but with a sort of kingly dignity he al- 
 lowed the minister to explain the enterprise under 
 consideration, and contented himself with studying 
 the new instrument of which he must needs make 
 use. 
 
 " My child," said Chaudieu, in the form of speech 
 used by the Huguenots, " we are about to fight our 
 first battle with the Roman harlot. A few days 
 hence our troops will be dying on scaffolds, or the 
 Guises will be no more. Ere long, then, the king 
 and the two queens will be in our power. This is 
 the first armed uprising of our religion in France; 
 and France will not lay down her arms until the 
 victory is completely won : I speak of the nation, 
 mark you, not of the kingdom. The majority of the 
 great men of the kingdom detect the purpose of 
 the Cardinal de Lorraine and the duke, his brother.
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 91 
 
 On the plea of defending the Catholic religion, the 
 House of Lorraine proposes to claim the crown of 
 France as its patrimony. Leaning upon the Church, 
 it has made of the Church a formidable ally, it 
 has the monks for partisans, for acolytes, for spies. 
 It assumes the guardianship of the throne which it 
 seeks to usurp, of the House of Valois which it seeks 
 to destroy. If we decide to rise in arms, it is be- 
 cause the liberties of the people and the interests 
 of the nobility are equally endangered, equally 
 menaced. Let us strangle at its birth a faction as 
 odious as that of the Bourguignons, who formerly 
 laid waste Paris and France with fire and sword. It 
 required a Louis XI. to put an end to the quarrel 
 between the Bourguignons and the crown; but to-day 
 a Prince de Conde will find a way to prevent the 
 Lorraines from renewing it. This is not civil war, 
 but a duel between the Guises and the Reformation, 
 a duel to the death; we will make them bite the dust, 
 or they will make us." 
 
 " Well said," cried the prince. 
 
 "In this emergency, Christophe," interposed La 
 Renaudie, "we wish to leave nothing undone which 
 will tend to increase the size of our party for there 
 is a party in the Reformation, the party of thwarted 
 interests, of nobles sacrificed to the Lorraines, of old 
 soldiers shamefully fooled at Fontainebleau, whence 
 the cardinal has driven them forth, causing gibbets 
 to be set up on which to hang those who should ask 
 the king for the cost of their equipment, or for their 
 arrears of pay."
 
 92 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 "And this, my child," said Chaudieu, observing 
 symptoms of horror in Christophe's expression, 
 "this is what compels us to triumph with the armed 
 hand instead of triumphing by persuasion and mar- 
 tyrdom. The queen-mother is on the point of en- 
 tering into our views; not that she means to abjure, 
 she has not gone so far as that, but she may be 
 driven to it by our triumph. However that may 
 be, Queen Catherine, humiliated and made desper- 
 ate by the consciousness that the power which she 
 hoped to wield after the king's death is passing into 
 the hands of the Guises, alarmed by the influence 
 of the young Queen Mary, the niece and confed- 
 erate of the Lorraines, Catherine, I say, is natu- 
 rally disposed to lend her assistance to the princes 
 and nobles who propose to venture a bold stroke to 
 deliver her. At this moment, although apparently 
 devoted to the Guises, she detests them, she desires 
 their ruin, and will make use of us against them; but 
 monseigneur will make use of her against all. The 
 queen-mother will give her assent to our plans. We 
 shall have on our side the constable, whom monseign- 
 eur has just been to see at Chantilly, but who will 
 not stir without an order from his masters. Being 
 monseigneur's uncle, he will not leave him in the 
 lurch; and this noble-hearted prince hesitates not 
 to endanger his own life in order to force Anne de 
 Montmorency to make up his mind. Everything 
 is prepared, and we have fixed upon you to make 
 known to Queen Catherine the terms of our treaty 
 of alliance, the drafts of proposed edicts, and the
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 93 
 
 bases of the new government to be established. 
 The court is at Blois. Many of our friends are 
 there; but they are those who are to lead us here- 
 after, and like monseigneur," he added, waving his 
 hand toward the prince, "they must never be sus- 
 pected, we must all sacrifice ourselves for them. 
 The queen-mother and our friends are the object 
 of such minute espionage, that it is impossible to 
 employ as intermediary a person who is at all known 
 or of any prominence; such a person would instantly 
 be suspected and would be unable to communicate 
 with Madame Catherine. God should send us at 
 this juncture David the shepherd and his sling, to 
 confront Goliath of Guise. Your father, who is a 
 good Catholic, unfortunately for himself, is the fur- 
 rier to both queens, and always has something or 
 other to send them; persuade him to send you to 
 court. You will arouse no suspicion and will in no 
 way compromise Queen Catherine. Any one of our 
 leaders might pay with his head for an imprudent 
 act which would arouse a suspicion of the queen- 
 mother's connivance with him. Where a great 
 man, once detected, would cause the alarm to be 
 given, an insignificant person like you will attract 
 no notice. Look you! the Guises employ so many 
 spies that there is no place but the river where we 
 can talk fearlessly. You, my son, are like the sen- 
 tinel who is in duty bound to die at his post. Under- 
 stand this: if you are detected, we shall all abandon 
 you; we shall throw upon you, if need be, all the 
 opprobrium and infamy. We shall say, if it seems
 
 94 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 best, that you are a creature of the Guises sent to 
 play this role in order to ruin us. So, you see, we 
 ask of you an unconditional sacrifice." 
 
 " If you lose your life," said the Prince de Conde, 
 " I pledge my word as a gentleman that your family 
 shall be sacred to the House of Navarre; I will carry 
 them in my heart and serve them in every possible 
 way." 
 
 "Your promise, my prince, is sufficient," replied 
 Christophe, forgetting that the plotter was a Gascon. 
 " These are times when everyone, prince or bour- 
 geois, should do his duty." 
 
 "There spoke a true Huguenot! If all our men 
 were of his stamp," said La Renaudie, laying his 
 hand on Christophe's shoulder, "we should be 
 masters to-morrow." 
 
 "Young man,'-' added the prince, "I propose to 
 show you that if Chaudieu preaches, if the gentle- 
 man is armed, the prince fights. In this fierce game 
 all stakes are of equal value." 
 
 " Hark ye," said La Renaudie, " I shall not hand 
 you the papers until you reach Beaugency, for they 
 must not be endangered during the whole journey. 
 You will find me on the pier there: my face, my 
 voice, my clothing, will be so changed that you will 
 be unable to recognize me. But I will say to you: 
 'Are you a guepin?' and you will reply: ' Ready to 
 serve.' As to the execution of your mission, this 
 is what you must do. You will find a horse at the 
 Pinte Fleurie, near Saint-Germain-l'Auxerrois. You 
 will ask for Jean le Breton, who will take you to the
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 95 
 
 stable and give you one of my ponies which has been 
 known to do thirty leagues in eight hours. Leave 
 the city by the Bussy gate; Breton has a pass for 
 me, take it for yourself and be off; make a detour 
 around all the towns. You can reach Orleans by 
 daylight." 
 
 " And the horse?" queried young Lecamus. 
 
 " He won't give out before you reach Orleans," 
 replied La Renaudie. "Leave him at the entrance 
 to the Bannier faubourg; for the gates are well 
 guarded, and you must not arouse suspicion. It is 
 for you, my friend, to see that you play your part 
 shrewdly. Invent whatever fable you think best to 
 enable you to reach the third house on the left as 
 you enter Orleans; it belongs to one Tourillon, 
 glover. You will knock thrice on the door, crying: 
 ' Service of Messieurs de Guise! ' The man is, to 
 all appearance, a frantic Guisard, we four are the 
 only ones who know that he is really one of us. He 
 will furnish you with a trustworthy boatman, an- 
 other Guisard of the same stamp. Go down to the 
 pier with all speed, and take a green boat with a 
 white gunwale. You will probably reach Beaugency 
 about noon to-morrow. There I will find you a boat 
 on which you can go down to Blois without incurring 
 any risk. Our enemies, the Guises, do not watch 
 the Loire, they only watch the landing-places. Thus 
 you will be able to see the queen to-morrow or the 
 day after." 
 
 "Your words are engraved here," said Chris- 
 tophe, touching his forehead.
 
 96 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 Chaudieu embraced the boy with unusually devout 
 fervor; he was proud of him. 
 
 " May God watch over you!" he said, pointing 
 to the setting sun, which tinged with red the old 
 shingled roofs and sent its rays through the forest 
 of timbers among which the water foamed and bub- 
 bled. 
 
 " You are of the race of old Jacques Bonhomme!" 
 said La Renaudie, pressing Christophe's hand. 
 
 " We shall meet again, monsieur," said the prince, 
 with a gesture of infinite charm, in which there was 
 something very like friendship. 
 
 With a stroke of the oars, La Renaudie landed the 
 young conspirator on the lower step of the flight 
 which led into his house, and the boat instantly dis- 
 appeared under the arches of Pont au Change.
 
 Christophe shook the iron grating which closed 
 the stairway leading to the river, and shouted ; 
 Mademoiselle Lecamus heard him, opened one of 
 the windows in the back-shop, and asked him how 
 he came there. Christophe replied that he was 
 freezing, and that the first thing to be done was to 
 let him in. 
 
 "So, my young master," rejoined La Bourgui- 
 gnonne, the servant, " you went out by the street 
 door and you come back by the river door, eh? Your 
 father will be in a pretty rage." 
 
 Christophe, bewildered by the incident which had 
 brought him into direct relations with the Prince 
 de Conde, La Renaudie, and Chaudieu, and even 
 more excited by the probable spectacle of civil war 
 close at hand, made no reply; he rushed hurriedly 
 up from the kitchen to the back-shop; but his 
 mother, a fanatical old Catholic, could not restrain 
 her wrath when he appeared. 
 
 " I will warrant that the three men with whom 
 you were talking yonder are ref " she began. 
 
 " Hush, wife," exclaimed the sage, white-haired 
 old man, who was turning the leaves of a huge 
 book. " Here, you lazy knaves," he added, turning 
 to three boys who had long since finished their 
 supper, "why don't you go to bed? It's eight 
 o'clock, and you must be up at five in the morning. 
 7 (97)
 
 98 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 By the way, you must carry President de Thou his 
 cap and gown. Go, all three of you, and take your 
 clubs and your rapiers. If you should fall in with 
 other good-for-naughts like yourselves, you'll be in 
 force at all events." 
 
 " Shall we also take the ermine surcot which the 
 young queen ordered, to be delivered at the Hotel de 
 Soissons? a courier is to go from there to Blois for 
 the queen-mother," said one of the clerks. 
 
 "No," said the syndic; "Queen Catherine's 
 account amounts to three thousand crowns; it's 
 high time that I had the money, and I mean to go to 
 Blois myself." 
 
 " Father, I can't allow you to run the risk of 
 travelling about the country, at your age and in such 
 times as these. I am twenty-two, you can trust me to 
 do this for you," said Christophe, casting a longing 
 glance at a box which probably contained the surcot. 
 
 "Are you glued to the bench?" the old man 
 roared at the apprentices, who instantly took their 
 cloaks and rapiers and Monsieur de Thou's furs. 
 
 The Parliament was to receive at the Palais, on 
 the following day, as its president, that illustrious 
 man, who, after signing the death-warrant of Coun- 
 sellor du Bourg, was destined to be called upon to 
 pass sentence on the Prince de Conde before the end 
 of the year. 
 
 " La Bourguignonne," said the old man, " go and 
 ask my gossip Lallier to come and sup with us, and 
 bring the wine: we'll furnish the eatables; be sure 
 to tell him to bring his daughter."
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 99 
 
 The syndic of the furriers was a fine old man of 
 sixty, with white hair and a broad, smooth forehead. 
 As furrier to the court for forty years, he had seen 
 all the revolutions of the reign of Francois I., and 
 had clung to his royal patent despite the rivalries of 
 mistresses. He had witnessed the arrival at court 
 of the young Catherine de' Medici, barely fifteen 
 years of age; he had watched her bending the 
 knee to the Duchesse d'Etampes, her father-in- 
 law's mistress, and to the Duchesse de Valentinois, 
 the mistress of her husband, the late king. But the 
 furrier had steered his way safely through all those 
 strange vicissitudes, in which court tradesmen had 
 so often shared the disgrace of royal favorites. His 
 prudence equalled his fortune. He maintained an 
 attitude of excessive humility. Pride had never 
 caught him in its snares. He assumed such an in- 
 consequential, mild, obliging, impoverished manner 
 at court, in the presence of the princesses, queens, 
 and favorites, that his modesty and affability had 
 preserved the sign of his establishment intact. Such 
 a policy necessarily denoted a shrewd, far-sighted 
 man. He was as despotic at home as he was hum- 
 ble elsewhere; under his own roof he was absolute. 
 He was greatly respected by his confreres, and he 
 enjoyed the very highest consideration because of 
 his long possession of the first place in his branch 
 of trade. He was always ready to do a friend a 
 service, and among the many services he had ren- 
 dered to others, none was more noteworthy than 
 the assistance which he for a long time gave to
 
 100 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 Ambroise Pare, the famous surgeon of the sixteenth 
 century, who owed it to him that he was able to 
 pursue his studies. 
 
 In all the disputes which arose between mer- 
 chants, Lecamus showed a conciliatory disposition. 
 Thus the general esteem in which he was held solid- 
 ified his position among his equals, as his assumed 
 character kept him in favor at court. After obtain- 
 ing by intrigue, as a matter of policy, the honors of 
 warden in his parish church, he did what was neces- 
 sary to maintain himself in the odor of sanctity with 
 the cure of Saint-Pierre aux Boeufs, who looked 
 upon him as one of the most faithful supporters of 
 the Catholic Church in all Paris. Thus, at the time 
 of the convocation of the States-General, he was 
 unanimously chosen to represent the third estate, 
 through the influence of the cures of Paris, which in 
 those days was immense. This old man was one 
 of those deep, self-contained, ambitious mortals, who 
 bend the knee to everyone for fifty years, stealing 
 from one office to another, no one being able to tell 
 how they get there, but who appear at last peace- 
 fully seated where no one, not even the most auda- 
 cious of men, would have dared to avow at the 
 outset of his career that he hoped to arrive: the dis- 
 tance was so great, there were so many chasms to 
 be crossed into which one might fall ! 
 
 Lecamus, who had an enormous fortune hidden 
 away, preferred to run no risk and looked forward 
 to a brilliant future for his son. Instead of that 
 personal ambition which often sacrifices the future
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI IOI 
 
 to the present, he had family ambition a sentiment 
 unknown in our day, destroyed by the idiotic pro- 
 visions of our laws concerning inheritances. Le- 
 camus looked forward to the time when he himself 
 should be first president of the Parliament of Paris 
 in the person of his grandson. 
 
 Christophe, a godson of the illustrious historian 
 De Thou, received a most thorough education ; but it 
 had led him to the spirit of doubt and scrutiny which 
 was making rapid progress among the students and 
 the faculties of the University. At this time, Chris- 
 tophe was studying for the bar, that first step to- 
 ward the magistracy. The old furrier pretended to 
 have some hesitation with regard to his son : some- 
 times he seemed to incline toward making him his 
 successor in business, sometimes toward making an 
 advocate of him; but, in reality, his heart was set 
 upon a seat as counsellor in Parliament for him. 
 This tradesman aspired to place the Lecamus family 
 on a level with the celebrated old families of the 
 Parisian bourgeoisie, from which came the Pasquiers, 
 the Moles, the Mirons, the Seguiers, Lamoignon, Du 
 Tillet, Lecoigneux, Lescalopier, the Goix, the Ar- 
 naulds, the famous sheriffs, and the great provosts 
 of merchants, among whom the throne found so 
 many supporters. And so, in order that Christophe 
 might be able to maintain his position when the time 
 came, he proposed to marry him to the daughter of 
 the richest jeweller in the city, his gossip Lallier, 
 whose nephew was destined to present the keys of 
 Paris to Henri IV. The project most deeply rooted
 
 102 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 in the worthy bourgeois's heart was to employ half 
 of his own fortune and half of the jeweller's in pur- 
 chasing an extensive and beautiful seignorial estate, 
 a long and arduous affair in those days. But that 
 deep politician knew his epoch too well to be in igno- 
 rance of the great convulsions which were in prepara- 
 tion: his judgment was keen and unerring when he 
 foresaw the division of the kingdom into two hostile 
 camps. The useless punishments on Place de 1'Es- 
 trapade, the execution of the king's tailor, and more 
 recently of Counsellor Anne du Bourg, the present 
 connivance of the great nobles, and that of a royal 
 favorite under Francois I., with the reformers, were 
 alarming portents. The furrier had resolved to re- 
 main a Catholic, royalist, and parliamentarian, what- 
 ever might happen; but privately he was well 
 pleased that Christophe should be connected with 
 the Reformation. He knew that he was wealthy 
 enough to ransom Christophe, if he were compro- 
 mised too far; and then, if France did become Cal- 
 vinist, his son could rescue the family in the event 
 of one of those fierce Parisian tmeutes of which the 
 bourgeoisie still retained a vivid remembrance, and 
 which they were destined to repeat during four 
 reigns. But the old furrier, like Louis XL, did not 
 breathe these thoughts even to himself; his cunning 
 went so far as to deceive his wife and son. 
 
 This consequential personage had long been at 
 the head of the richest and most populous quarter 
 of Paris the Centre under the title of quartenier, 
 which was to become so celebrated fifteen years
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 103 
 
 later. Dressed in broadcloth, like all prudent bour- 
 geois who obeyed the sumptuary ordinances, Sieur 
 Lecamus he clung to that title, which Charles V. 
 accorded to the bourgeois of Paris, and which en- 
 abled them to purchase seignorial estates and to call 
 their wives by the high-sounding name of demoi- 
 selles wore no gold chain, no silk, but an honest 
 doublet with huge buttons of blackened silver, milled 
 stockings reaching above the knee, and leather shoes 
 with buckles. His fine linen shirt protruded in great 
 puffs, in accordance with the fashion of the period, 
 between his half-opened jacket and his breeches. 
 Although the light from the lamp fell full upon the 
 old man's large and handsome face, it was impossi- 
 ble for Christophe to divine the thoughts concealed 
 beneath his father's florid Dutch skin ; but he re- 
 alized, none the less, all the advantage the old man 
 expected to derive from his affection for pretty 
 Babette Lallier. And so he smiled bitterly, like a 
 man who had formed an irrevocable resolution, 
 when he heard the invitation sent to his betrothed. 
 
 When La Bourguignonne had left the room with 
 the apprentices, old Lecamus glanced at his wife, no 
 longer concealing his determined, absolute character. 
 
 " You will not be satisfied until you have brought 
 this boy to the gallows with your damned tongue!" 
 he said to her, sternly. 
 
 " I would rather see him condemned and sure of 
 salvation, than living and a Huguenot," she said, 
 gloomily. " To think that a child who lived in my 
 womb for nine months is not a good Catholic, but
 
 104 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 is eating of Colas's cow,* and will go to hell for 
 eternity!" 
 
 She began to weep. 
 
 " Old fool," said the furrier, 'Met him live, then, 
 if only for the purpose of converting him ! You said 
 something before our apprentices that may result in 
 our house being burned down and all of us roasted 
 like fleas in straw." 
 
 The mother crossed herself, sat down, and said no 
 more. 
 
 "Now, then," said the goodman, glancing at his 
 son with the air of a judge, "just explain to me 
 what you were doing out yonder on the river with 
 come nearer so that I can speak to you," he said, 
 grasping his son by the arm and pulling him toward 
 him "with the Prince de Conde," he whispered 
 in his ear. Christophe started. " Do you suppose 
 the court furrier doesn't know all the faces at court? 
 and do you suppose I don't know what is going on? 
 Monseigneur the Grand Master has given orders for 
 troops to be sent to Amboise. To withdraw troops 
 from Paris and send them to Amboise, when the 
 court is at Blois to send them by Chartres and 
 VendSme, instead of taking the Orleans road what 
 does that mean? there's going to be trouble. If the 
 queens want their surcots, they can send and get 
 them. It may be that the Prince de Conde has re- 
 solved to kill Messieurs de Guise, who, on their side, 
 are thinking, perhaps, about getting rid of him. The 
 prince will make use of the Huguenots to defend 
 
 * La -oacbt a Colas Protestantism.
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 105 
 
 himself. Of what use would a furrier's son be in 
 such a scrimmage? When you are married and an 
 advocate in Parliament, you'll be as wise as your 
 father. A furrier's son ought to wait, before taking 
 up with a new religion, until everybody else belongs 
 to it. I don't condemn the reformers, that's not my 
 business; but the court is Catholic, the two queens 
 are Catholic, the Parliament is Catholic; we supply 
 them all with furs, so we must be Catholic. You 
 must not leave the house, Christophe; or I'll send 
 you to President de Thou, your godfather, who will 
 keep you by him night and day, and make you 
 blacken paper instead of allowing your soul to be 
 blackened in the cook-shop of those damned Gene- 
 vans!" 
 
 " Father," said Christophe, leaning on the back 
 of the old man's chair, "pray send me to Blois 
 to carry the surcot to Queen Mary and collect our 
 money from the queen-mother; otherwise I am lost! 
 and you care for me " 
 
 " Lost?" echoed the old man, without manifesting 
 the slightest astonishment. " If you stay here, you 
 won't be lost, for I shall always know where to find 
 you." 
 
 "I shall be killed." 
 
 "How?" 
 
 " The most ardent Huguenots have fixed upon me 
 to act for them in a certain matter, and if I fail to do 
 what I have promised, they will kill me in broad 
 daylight, in the street, here in this house, as they 
 killed Minard. But, if you send me to the court on
 
 106 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 your business, I may, perhaps, be able to satisfy 
 both sides. Either 1 shall succeed without having 
 run any risk, and so shall be able to obtain a promi- 
 nent position in the party, or else, if the danger 
 is too great, I will simply attend to your business." 
 
 The father sprang to his feet as if his chair were 
 of red-hot iron. 
 
 " Leave us, wife," he said, " and see that Chris- 
 tophe and I are not interrupted." 
 
 When Mademoiselle Lecamus had gone out, the 
 furrier took his son by a button and led him to the 
 corner of the room nearest the bridge. 
 
 " Christophe," he said in his ear, as he did when 
 he mentioned the Prince de Conde, " be a Hugue- 
 not, if you are so viciously inclined, but be prudent 
 about it, keep it to yourself, and don't behave so 
 that people in the quarter will point their fingers at 
 you. This that you have just admitted shows how 
 much confidence the leaders have in you. What is 
 it you're to do at court?" 
 
 "I shouldn't know how to tell you," replied 
 Christophe, "for I have no very clear idea myself 
 as yet." 
 
 " Hum! hum!" muttered the old man, looking 
 fixedly at his son, "the rascal is trying to fool his 
 father; he'll make his way in the world. Look 
 you," he continued in an undertone, "you're not 
 going to court to make overtures to Messieurs de 
 Guise, nor to the little king, our master, nor to 
 little Queen Mary. They are all staunch Catholics; 
 but I would stake my head that the Italian has some
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI IOJ 
 
 grudge against the Scotch girl and the Lorraines I 
 know her: she always had a frantic longing to have 
 a finger in the pie! the late king was so afraid of her 
 that he did as the jewellers do, cut diamond with 
 diamond, set one woman against another. That's 
 the explanation of Queen Catherine's hatred of the 
 poor Duchesse de Valentinois from whom she took the 
 beautiful chateau of Chenonceaux. If it hadn't been 
 for Monsieur le Connetable, the duchess would have 
 been strangled, at least. Back, my son! don't put 
 yourself in the hands of that Italian creature, who 
 has no passion except in the brain: a bad sort of 
 woman! Yes, what they propose to send you to do 
 at court may cause you a very bad headache," cried 
 the father, as he saw that Christophe was about to 
 reply. " My child, I have plans for your future and 
 you would not interfere with them by making your- 
 self useful to Queen Catherine; but, Jesus! don't 
 risk your head ! and those Guises would slice it off 
 as La Bourguignonne slices a turnip, for the men 
 who employ you will disavow you utterly." 
 
 " I know it, father," said Christophe. 
 
 "Are you as brave as that? You know it and still 
 you risk it?" 
 
 " Yes, father." 
 
 " By Heaven!" cried the father, pressing his son 
 to his heart, "we can understand each other; you 
 are worthy of your father. My child, you will be 
 the honor of the family, and I see that your old 
 father can safely speak freely to you. But don't be 
 more of a Huguenot than Messieurs de Coligny.
 
 108 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 Don't draw the sword; you will be a man of the 
 pen some time, so stick to your future r61e of limb 
 of the law. Tell me nothing until after you have 
 succeeded. If you send me no word within four 
 days of your arrival at Blois, your silence will tell 
 me that you are in danger. The old man will go to 
 the rescue of the young man. I have not sold furs 
 for thirty-two years without becoming familiar with 
 the under side of court robes. I shall have the means 
 of opening doors." 
 
 Christophe opened his eyes when he heard his 
 father speak thus; but he feared some paternal 
 snare, so held his peace. 
 
 " Well, make up the account and write a letter to 
 the queen; I must start at once; otherwise the great- 
 est disasters might happen." 
 
 "Start! But how?" 
 
 " I will buy a horse. Write, in God's name!" 
 
 "Ho! mother! money for your son," the furrier 
 shouted to his wife. 
 
 The mother returned, ran to her chest, and took 
 from it a purse which she handed to Christophe, 
 who kissed her, deeply moved. 
 
 " The account was all ready," said his father, 
 " here it is. I will go and write the letter." 
 
 Christophe took the account and put it in his 
 pocket. 
 
 "But you will at least sup with us," said the 
 goodman. "At this crisis, you and Lallier's daughter 
 must exchange rings." 
 
 " Very well, I will go for her," said Christophe.
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 109 
 
 The young man distrusted his father's reliability; 
 he was not as yet sufficiently acquainted with his 
 character. He went up to his room, dressed for a 
 journey, took a valise, stole downstairs, and placed 
 it with his cloak and rapier under the counter in the 
 shop. 
 
 " What the devil are you doing?" said his father, 
 hearing his footsteps. 
 
 Christophe went and kissed the old man on both 
 cheeks. 
 
 " I didn't want anyone to see my preparations 
 for departure, so I have put everything under the 
 counter," he whispered. 
 
 " Here is the letter," said the father. 
 
 Christophe took the paper and went out, as if to 
 go in quest of their young neighbor. 
 
 A few moments after Christophe's departure, 
 gossip Lallier and his daughter arrived, preceded 
 by a maid-servant carrying three bottles of old 
 wine. 
 
 "Well, where's Christophe?" inquired the two 
 old people. 
 
 " Christophe?" cried Babette, " we have not seen 
 him." 
 
 " My son's an insolent rascal ! he deceives me as 
 if I hadn't a hair on my face. What is going to 
 happen, old friend? We live in an age when chil- 
 dren have more wit than their fathers." 
 
 " Why, for a long time the whole quarter has 
 called him a Protestant," said Lallier. 
 
 " Defend him on that score, gossip," said the
 
 1 10 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 furrier to the jeweller; " youth is wild, it runs after 
 new things; but Babette will keep him quiet, for she 
 is newer than Calvin." 
 
 Babette smiled; she loved Christophe and was 
 angry at all the things that were said against him. 
 She was a child of the old bourgeoisie, brought up 
 under the watchful eyes of her mother, who had 
 never left her; her manner was gentle and correct, 
 like her face; she was dressed in a woollen dress of 
 harmonious shades of gray; her pure white necker- 
 chief, simply pleated, stood out against her dress; 
 she wore a brown velvet cap not unlike an infant's 
 headgear, but it was embellished with ruffles and 
 lappets of tanned, that is to say, tan-colored gauze, 
 which fell on both sides of her face. Though a true 
 blonde, and as white as a blonde, she seemed to be a 
 shrewd, sly creature, trying all the while to conceal 
 her mischievous propensities under the manners of a 
 soberly educated maiden. 
 
 While the two servants went in and out, laying 
 the cloth and setting out the mugs, the great pewter 
 dishes and the knives and forks, the jeweller and 
 his wife and the furrier and his daughter remained 
 in front of the tall mantelpiece with lambrequins 
 of red serge trimmed with black fringe, talking of 
 trivial matters. In vain did Babette ask where 
 Christophe could be the young Huguenot's father 
 and mother answered evasively; but when the two 
 families were at table and the servants in the kitchen, 
 Lecamus said to his future daughter-in-law: 
 
 " Christophe has started for the court."
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI III 
 
 " For Blois! He has started on such a journey 
 without saying adieu to me !" she cried. 
 
 " The business was very urgent," said the old 
 mother. 
 
 " Gossip," said the furrier, resuming their inter- 
 rupted conversation, " we are going to have a rumpus 
 in France; the reformers are stirring." 
 
 " If they triumph, it will be only after a long war, 
 during which business will be bad," said Lallier, in- 
 capable of rising higher than the commercial sphere. 
 
 " My father, who saw the end of the war between 
 the Bourguignons and the Armagnacs, told me that 
 our family would not have been saved if one of his 
 grandfathers, his mother's father, hadn't happened 
 to be a Goix, one of the famous butchers of the 
 market who were for the Bourguignons, while the 
 other, a Lecamus, was of the Armagnac faction ; 
 they seemed to long to flay each other in public, 
 but they understood each other in the family. So 
 let us try to save Christophe; perhaps the time 
 may come when he will save us." 
 
 " You're a shrewd fellow, gossip!" said the jewel- 
 ler. 
 
 " No," rejoined Lecamus. " The bourgeoisie must 
 look out for itself, the nobility and the common people 
 are equally hostile to it. The Parisian bourgeoisie 
 is an object of dread to everybody except the king, 
 who knows that it's his friend." 
 
 "You know so much and have seen so many 
 things," observed Babette, timidly, " pray explain 
 to me what it is that the reformers want."
 
 112 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 " Tell us that, gossip," cried the jeweller. " I 
 knew the late king's tailor, and I looked upon him 
 as a man of simple manners with no great genius; 
 he was like you, I might say, a man to whom any 
 priest would have given the sacrament without con- 
 fession, and yet he plunged over his head in this 
 new religion ! a man whose two ears were worth 
 several hundred thousand crowns. He must have 
 had secrets to reveal, to induce the king and the 
 Duchesse 1 de Valentinois to be present when he was 
 tortured." 
 
 " Terrible secrets, too!" said the furrier. " The 
 Reformation, my friends," he continued in an 
 undertone, " would give all the estates of the 
 Church to the bourgeoisie. After the suppression 
 of ecclesiastical privileges, the reformers intend to 
 demand that nobles and bourgeois shall stand on an 
 equal footing with regard to taxes, that the king 
 alone shall be above other men, assuming that they 
 leave a king in the State." 
 
 " Suppress the throne?" cried Lallier. 
 
 "Why, gossip," said Lecamus, "in the Low 
 Countries the bourgeois govern themselves by 
 sheriffs of their own choosing, who elect a tempo- 
 rary chief." 
 
 "Great God! gossip, we ought to be able to do 
 these fine things and still remain Catholics," cried 
 the jeweller. 
 
 " We are too old to see the triumph of the Parisian 
 bourgeoisie, but it will triumph, gossip, at one time 
 or another! Ah! the king must needs rely upon it
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 113 
 
 to resist, and we have always sold our support at 
 a handsome price. Indeed, the last time, all the 
 bourgeois were ennobled, it was made lawful for 
 them to purchase seignorial estates and to bear the 
 names of their estates, without special letters patent 
 from the king. You, like myself, are the grandson 
 of the Goix through the female line, and aren't we 
 as good as many a nobleman?" 
 
 This harangue so alarmed the jeweller and the 
 two women that it was followed by a profound 
 silence. The fermentation of 1789 was already 
 beginning to work in Lecamus's blood, nor was he 
 too old to live to see the audacious bourgeois of the 
 League. 
 
 " Is business still good, notwithstanding all this 
 turmoil?" Lallier asked La Lecamus. 
 
 " It always does harm," she replied. 
 
 " That is why I am very anxious, indeed, to make 
 an advocate of my son," said Lecamus, "for litiga- 
 tion never stops." 
 
 Thereafter the conversation was confined to com- 
 monplace subjects, to the great satisfaction of the 
 jeweller, who had no fondness for political disturb- 
 ances nor for bold flights of thought.
 
 The banks of the Loire, from Blois to Angers, 
 were always a favorite resort of the last two 
 branches of the royal race which occupied the 
 throne of France before the House of Bourbon. 
 That beautiful basin well deserves the honors which 
 kings have bestowed upon it ; witness what one of 
 our most polished writers recently said of it : 
 
 " There is a province in France which has never 
 been sufficiently admired. With the sweet perfumes 
 of Italy, as flowery as the banks of the Guadal- 
 quivir, and lovely, in addition, with its own peculiar 
 loveliness, entirely French, having always been 
 French, wherein it differs from our northern prov- 
 inces, which are debased by contact with Germany, 
 and from our southern provinces, which have lived 
 in concubinage with the Moors, the Spaniards, and 
 all other nations that have desired that relation, 
 that pure, chaste, gallant, loyal province is Tou- 
 raine! There lies historic France! Auvergne is 
 Auvergne, Languedoc is only Languedoc; but Tou- 
 raine is France, and the most truly national river is 
 the Loire, which waters Touraine. Therefore we 
 should be less astonished by the vast number of 
 monuments comprised within the departments which 
 have taken the name, or derivatives of the name, 
 of the Loire. At every step we take in that land of 
 enchantment, we discover a picture whose frame is 
 (115)
 
 Il6 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 a stream or a tranquil lake whose liquid depths re- 
 flect a chateau, its turrets, its woods, its gushing 
 fountains. It was natural that where royalty abode 
 by preference, where it established its court for so 
 long a time, men of great fortune, men distinguished 
 by birth or merit, should come together, and that 
 they should erect their palaces as grand as them- 
 selves." 
 
 Is it not incomprehensible that royalty should have 
 failed to follow the advice given indirectly by Louis 
 XI., to make Tours the capital of the kingdom? 
 The Loire could have been made navigable to that 
 point by merchant vessels and men-of-war of light 
 draught, without great expense. The seat of gov- 
 ernment would there have been out of danger from 
 sudden invasions. The northern frontier towns 
 would not then have required so much money for 
 fortifications, which alone have cost the country as 
 much as the splendors of Versailles. If Louis XIV. 
 had listened to the advice of Vauban, who wished to 
 build his residence at Mont-Louis, between the Loire 
 and the Cher, the Revolution of 1789 might never 
 have taken place. 
 
 Those lovely banks bear, here and there, marks 
 of the royal affection. The chateaux of Chambord, 
 Blois, Amboise, Chenonceaux, Chaumont, Plessis- 
 lez-Tours, all those which the mistresses of our 
 kings, the great nobles and the financiers built for 
 themselves at Veretz, Azay-le-Rideau, Usse, Vil- 
 landri, Valencay, Chanteloup, Duretal, the major- 
 ity of which are still standing, although some have
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 1 1/ 
 
 disappeared, are noble monuments which afford an 
 idea of the marvels of that epoch, so imperfectly 
 understood by the literary sect of the Middle-.Agists. 
 Of all these chateaux, that at Blois, where the 
 court was then established, is the one upon which 
 the magnificence of the Orleans and Valois placed 
 its most brilliant stamp, and it is the most interest- 
 ing to historians, archaeologists, and Catholics. It 
 was at this time completely isolated. The city, sur- 
 rounded by strong walls with watch-towers, lay at 
 the foot of the fortress, for the chateau really served 
 the purpose of fortress and pleasure-house at once. 
 Above the town, whose crowded houses and bluish 
 roofs extended then as now from the Loire to the 
 crest of the hill which rises from the right bank of 
 the river, is a triangular plateau, cut from west to 
 east by a stream which is of no importance to-day, 
 for it flows under the town, but which, in the fif- 
 teenth century, so say the historians, formed a 
 ravine of considerable size, of which there remains 
 a deep, sunken road, almost a chasm, between the 
 suburbs and the chateau. 
 
 It was on this plateau that the counts of Blois built 
 a castle, with both northern and southern exposure, 
 in the architectural style of the twelfth century, where 
 the famous Thibault le Tricheur, Thibault le Vieux, 
 and others held a famous court. In those days of pure 
 feudalism, when the king was simply primus inter 
 pares, to use the expressive phrase of a king of Po- 
 land, the counts of Champagne, the counts of Blois, 
 the counts of Anjou, the simple barons of Normandie,
 
 Il8 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 the dukes of Bretagne, lived like sovereigns and sup- 
 plied kings for the proudest kingdoms. The Plantag- 
 enets of Anjou, the Lusignans of Poitou, the Roberts 
 of Normandie, infused new blood into royal races by 
 their audacity, and sometimes, as in the case of Du 
 Glaicquin, simple knights declined the purple, pre- 
 ferring the sword of constable. When the crown an- 
 nexed the comte of Blois to its domains, Louis XII., 
 whose liking for the site was due, perhaps, to its 
 distance from Plessis, of sinister memory, erected a 
 building with eastern and western exposure, at right 
 angles to the castle of the counts of Blois and con- 
 necting it with the remains of the still older build- 
 ings, of which nothing exists to-day save the vast 
 hall in which the States-General met under Henri III. 
 Before he became enamored of Chambord, Francois I. 
 proposed to add two other wings, thus completing the 
 square; but Chambord lured him away from Blois, 
 and he built only one building there, which, in his 
 day, and for his grandchildren, became the whole 
 chateau. 
 
 This third structure, built by Francois I., is much 
 more extensive and more ornate than the Louvre, 
 which is credited to Henri II. It is the most fanciful 
 example of the so-called Renaissance style. So that, 
 at a later period, when a jealous architecture held 
 sway and when but little heed was paid to the 
 Middle Ages, in an age when literature was not so 
 closely connected with art as in our day, La Fon- 
 taine said, in his kindly way, of the chateau of 
 Blois: " Looking at it from without, the part that
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 1 19 
 
 Francois I. built pleased me more than all the rest: 
 there are quantities of little galleries, little windows, 
 little balconies, little decorations, with no attempt at 
 regularity or order; there is something grand about 
 the whole effect which pleases me immensely." 
 
 Thus the chateau of Blois had the merit of repre- 
 senting three different types of architecture, three 
 periods, three systems, three dynasties. We may 
 well say, therefore, that there is no royal abode 
 comparable to the chateau of Blois in that respect. 
 That vast pile affords, within the same enclosure, 
 the same courtyard, a complete and accurate tableau 
 of that great representation of the manners and life 
 of nations which is called architecture. At the time 
 when Christophe was on his way to court, the part 
 of the domain which at the present time is occupied 
 by the fourth palace, built seventy years later by 
 Louis XIII. 's unruly brother, Gaston, during his exile, 
 presented an aggregation of flower-beds and hanging- 
 gardens picturesquely mingled with the rustic stair- 
 ways and unfinished walks of Francois I.'s chateau. 
 These gardens were connected by a bridge of a 
 beautiful, bold design, which the old men of Blois 
 may remember to have seen demolished, with a gar- 
 den on the other side of the chateau, which was on 
 the same level. The gentlemen attached to the ser- 
 vice of Anne de Bretagne, or those who came from 
 Bretagne to offer petitions, to confer with her or 
 give her information concerning the state of affairs 
 in that province, always awaited there the hour of 
 her audiences, her morning reception, or her daily
 
 120 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 promenade. Wherefore history has given the name 
 of the Perchoir aux Bretons to that garden which, in 
 our day, is some bourgeois's orchard and projects 
 into Place des Jesuites. Place des Jesuites was 
 then included in the gardens of this superb royal 
 residence, which had its upper gardens and its 
 lower gardens. One can see to this day, at a 
 considerable distance from Place des Jesuites, a 
 pavilion built by Catherine de' Medici, where, ac- 
 cording to the historians of Blois, she had her warm 
 baths. These details enable us to follow the very 
 irregular arrangement of the gardens, which ascended 
 and descended, following the inequalities of the 
 ground, exceedingly rough and uneven all about the 
 chateau, a fact which constituted its strength and 
 sadly embarrassed the Due de Guise, as we shall 
 see. The gardens were reached by exterior and 
 interior galleries, the principal one being called the 
 Galerie des Cerfs, because of its ornaments. This 
 gallery ended at the magnificent staircase which un- 
 doubtedly inspired the famous double staircase at 
 Chambord, and which led to the suites of apartments 
 on the different floors. 
 
 Although La Fontaine preferred the chateau of 
 Francois I. to that of Louis XII., the ingenuous 
 architecture of the good king's edifice will be likely 
 to please true artists, however much they may 
 admire the magnificence of the roi-chevalier. The 
 elegance of the two staircases at each extremity of 
 Louis XII. 's chateau, the fine, original carving which 
 abounded there and which time has sadly marred,
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 121 
 
 although its remains still delight the hearts of an- 
 tiquarians; everything, even to the quasi-cloistral 
 arrangement of the rooms, discloses extreme sim- 
 plicity of manners. Clearly the court did not yet 
 exist, had not developed as it was destined to de- 
 velop under Francois I. and Catherine de' Medici, 
 to the great detriment of feudal manners. As we 
 gaze admiringly on the majority of the galleries, 
 the capitals of certain columns, and divers small 
 figures of exquisite delicacy, it is impossible not to 
 fancy that Michel Columb, that great sculptor, the 
 Michael-Angelo of Bretagne, exerted his talents there 
 to gratify his Queen Anne, whom he immortalized 
 on the tomb of her father, the last due de Bretagne. 
 
 Whatever La Fontaine may say, nothing can be 
 more imposing than the abode of the ostentatious 
 Francois I. Thanks to an indefinable brutal indif- 
 ference, to forgetfulness perhaps, the apartments 
 occupied, at the time of which we write, by Cath- 
 erine de' Medici and her son Francois II., still re- 
 main as they were then arranged. So that the 
 historian can there review the tragic scenes of the 
 drama of the Reformation, in which the twofold 
 struggle of the Guises and Bourbons against the 
 Valois forms one of the most complicated acts. It 
 was at the chateau of Blois that the plot of the 
 drama was unravelled. 
 
 The chateau of Francois I. entirely overshadows 
 by its imposing pile the simple dwelling of Louis XII. 
 On the side of the lower gardens, that is to say, of 
 the modern Place des Jesuites, the chateau is almost
 
 122 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 twice as high as on the side of the courtyard. The 
 ground-floor, where the famous galleries are, forms 
 the second floor on the garden side. Hence the first 
 floor, where Catherine was then installed, is the 
 third, and the royal apartments are on the fourth 
 above the lower gardens, which in those days were 
 separated from the foundations by a deep moat. 
 Thus the chateau, which is of colossal size on the 
 courtyard, seems absolutely gigantic when seen 
 from the square below as it was seen by La Fon- 
 taine, who admits that he did not enter the court- 
 yard or the apartments. From Place des Jesuites 
 everything seems small. The balconies for prom- 
 enading, the galleries, of marvellous workmanship, 
 the carved windows, whose recesses are as large as 
 boudoirs, and which were then used for boudoirs, 
 resemble the fanciful decorations of the stage-setting 
 of our modern operas when the scene-painters repre- 
 sent fairy palaces. But in the courtyard, although the 
 three floors above the ground-floor reach to as great 
 a height as the Pavilion de 1'Horloge at the Tuileries, 
 the infinite delicacy of the architecture obligingly 
 reveals itself and fascinates our marvelling eyes. 
 
 This structure, where Catherine and Mary Stuart 
 were holding their splendid court, is divided by a 
 hexagonal tower in which there is a spiral stone 
 staircase, a Moorish caprice, conceived by giants, 
 built by dwarfs, which gives to that facade a dream- 
 like aspect. The landings of the staircase form a 
 spiral of square compartments attached to five sides 
 of the tower, and supported by transverse corbels
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 123 
 
 embellished with arabesque carvings without and 
 within. This dazzlingly beautiful creation of cun- 
 ning and delicate details, abounding in marvels 
 which endow the stones with speech, can be com- 
 pared only to the profuse, deep-cut carvings of 
 Chinese or Dieppe ivories. Indeed, the stone re- 
 sembles lacework. Flowers, figures of men or ani- 
 mals, cling to the mouldings, become more numerous 
 from step to step, and crown the tower with a 
 key-stone whereon the chisels of sixteenth-century 
 art have contended for supremacy with the artless 
 hewers of images who, fifty years earlier, carved the 
 key-stones of the two stairways built by Louis XII. 
 However dazzled we may be as we gaze upon 
 these forms repeated with unwearying profusion, 
 we cannot fail to observe that Francois I. lacked 
 funds at Blois as Louis XIV. did at Versailles. More 
 than one figure shows its pretty little head emerg- 
 ing from a block of unpolished stone. More than 
 one fanciful carving is simply suggested by a few 
 blows of the chisel on the abandoned stone, on 
 which the dampness has brought forth its greenish 
 mould. On the front, beside the delicate lacework 
 of a window, the adjoining window displays its 
 blocks of stone marred by time, which has carved it 
 to suit its fancy. Even to the least artistic, least 
 practised eye, there is a fascinating contrast be- 
 tween that fagade, fairly running over with marvel- 
 lous details, and the inner facade of the chateau of 
 Louis XII., consisting, on the ground-floor, of sev- 
 eral arches of vapory lightness, supported by slender
 
 124 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 columns which rest below upon graceful galleries, and 
 of two upper floors where the windows are carved 
 with attractive sobriety of taste. Under the arches 
 is a gallery with frescoed walls, and with a ceiling 
 also painted; to this day some traces can be found 
 of that magnificent style of decoration, copied from 
 Italian palaces, and reminding one of the southern 
 expeditions of our kings to whom the Milanese at 
 one time belonged. 
 
 Opposite the chateau of Francois I. was the chapel 
 of the counts of Blois, the facade of which almost 
 harmonizes with the architecture of the dwelling of 
 Louis XII. No words can describe the majestic 
 solidity of those three structures, and, notwithstand- 
 ing the lack of uniformity in the decorations, royalty, 
 mighty and unyielding, demonstrating the magnitude 
 of its fears by the magnitude of its precautions, 
 served as a connecting link between those three 
 buildings of entirely different types, two of which 
 were built against the enormous hall of the States- 
 General, vast and lofty as a church. Certainly, 
 neither the simplicity nor the strength of the bour- 
 geois existences which are described at the begin- 
 ning of this narrative, and in which art was always 
 represented, was lacking in that royal abode. Blois 
 was the fruitful and shining theme to which bour- 
 geoisie and feudality, money and nobility, made so 
 many living rejoinders in town and country. You 
 would not have had the residence of the prince who 
 reigned over Paris in the sixteenth century changed 
 in any respect. The splendor of seignorial apparel,
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 12$ 
 
 the magnificent costumes of women, must have har- 
 monized admirably with the apparel of those curi- 
 ously carved stones. As the King of France ascended 
 the marvellous staircase of his chateau of Blois, from 
 each floor he could see more and more of that noble 
 Loire which brought him news from his whole king- 
 dom, which it divided into two confronting and semi- 
 rival portions. If Francois I., instead of building 
 Chambord in a sterile, gloomy plain two leagues 
 away, had built it at right angles to the chateau, on 
 the space then occupied by the gardens upon which 
 Gaston afterward built his palace, Versailles would 
 never have been heard of, and Blois would neces- 
 sarily have been the capital of France. Four Valois 
 and Catherine de' Medici lavished their treasures 
 on the chateau of Francois I. at Blois; but how can 
 one fail to realize how lavish the crown must have 
 been there, as he gazes with admiration at the mas- 
 sive partition-walls, the spinal column of the chateau, 
 which contain deep recesses and secret stairways 
 and cabinets, and which enclose halls as vast as the 
 Salle de Conseil or Salle des Gardes, and royal 
 apartments in which, in our day, a company of 
 infantry is easily accommodated ? 
 
 Even if the visitor should not realize at once that 
 the marvels within corresponded to the marvels 
 without, the remains of Catherine de' Medici's 
 cabinet, into which Christophe was soon to be ush- 
 ered, would sufficiently attest the refined character 
 of the art which peopled those apartments with life- 
 like designs, in which salamanders gleamed among
 
 126 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 the flowers, and the palette of the sixteenth century 
 illumined the darkest corners with its most brilliant 
 coloring. In this cabinet the observer can find to 
 this day traces of the taste for gilding which Cath- 
 erine brought from Italy, for the princesses of her 
 family, to employ the delightful expression of the 
 author already quoted, loved to veneer the French 
 chateau with the gold amassed in trade by their 
 ancestors, and they left the signature of their wealth 
 on the walls of the royal apartments. 
 
 The queen-mother occupied the apartments on the 
 first floor formerly occupied by Queen Claude of 
 France, wife of Francois I., where may still be seen 
 the two delicately carved C's surrounded by swans 
 and lilies of spotless whiteness, signifying Candidior 
 candidis, whiter than the whitest, the device of 
 that queen, whose name, like Catherine's, began 
 with a C ; a device which may be as fittingly applied 
 to the mother of the last Valois kings as to the 
 daughter of Louis XII.; for, notwithstanding the 
 virulence of Calvinist slanders, no breath of sus- 
 picion has ever tarnished Catherine de' Medici's 
 loyalty to Henri II. 
 
 Of course, the queen-mother, two of her children 
 being still quite young, he who was afterward the 
 Due d'Alencon, and Marguerite, wife of Henri IV., 
 whom Charles IX. called Margot, required all of 
 the first floor. 
 
 King Francois II. and Queen Mary Stuart occu- 
 pied the royal apartments on the second floor, for- 
 merly occupied by Francois I. and subsequently by
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 127 
 
 Henri III. The royal suite, like that occupied by 
 the queen-mother, is divided into two parts, from 
 end to end of the chateau, by the famous partition 
 wall, about four feet thick, against which rest the 
 other massive walls which separate the different 
 rooms. Thus, on the first and second floors alike, 
 the suites contain two distinct halves. The half 
 looking to the south, on the courtyard, was given 
 over to reception-rooms and rooms for the transac- 
 tion of public affairs; whereas, to avoid the heat, 
 the sleeping apartments were distributed through the 
 portion looking toward the north, with the superb 
 facade embellished with balconies and galleries, and 
 overlooking the open fields of the Vendomois, the 
 Perchoir aux Bretons, and the moats of the town 
 the only side of which our great fabulist La Fontaine 
 speaks. 
 
 The chateau of Francois I. was at that time termi- 
 nated by an immense unfinished tower which was to 
 have formed the apex of the colossal angle which the 
 palace would -have described when the other pro- 
 jected wing was built ; Gaston afterward dug into 
 the tower in order to weld his palace to it ; but he 
 did not finish his work, and the tower has always 
 remained in ruins. According to popular tradition, 
 that royal keep was used as a prison or dungeon at 
 the time of which we write. What poet, as he 
 wanders to-day through the halls of that magnifi- 
 cent chateau, so precious to art and to history, can 
 avoid innumerable regrets, for art and for France, 
 when he sees the lovely arabesques of Catherine's
 
 128 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 cabinet whitewashed and almost destroyed by the 
 orders of the commandant of the barracks that 
 royal abode is now a barrack ! at the time of the 
 cholera. The wainscoting of Catherine de' Medici's 
 cabinet, of which we shall soon have something 
 more to say, is the last relic of the sumptuous fur- 
 nishings accumulated by five artist kings. As we 
 wander through that labyrinth of bedrooms, halls, 
 staircases, and towers, we can say to ourselves with 
 awful certainty: " Here Mary Stuart cajoled her hus- 
 band for the benefit of the Guises. There the Guises 
 insulted Catherine. Later, on this spot, the second 
 Balafre fell beneath the blows of the avengers of 
 the crown. A century earlier, Louis XII. beckoned 
 from this window to Cardinal d'Amboise, his friend. 
 From this balcony, d'Epernon, Ravaillac's accom- 
 plice, greeted Queen Marie de' Medici, who knew, it 
 was said, of the projected regicide and allowed it to 
 be committed!" In the chapel where the betrothal 
 of Henri IV. and Marguerite de Valois was celebrated, 
 the only remnant of the chateau of the counts of 
 Blois, the shoes for the regiment are made to-day. 
 That marvellous edifice, in which so many styles of 
 architecture are typified, where such momentous 
 deeds have been performed, is in a state of dilapida- 
 tion which is a disgrace to France. How it pains 
 those who love the monuments of ancient France to 
 know that ere long those eloquent stones will share 
 the fate of the corner of Rue de la Vieille-Pelleterie: it 
 may be that they no longer exist save in these pages! 
 It is necessary to call attention to the fact that,
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI I2Q 
 
 although the Guises had a palace of their own in 
 the town of Blois, it is still in existence, by the 
 way, they had obtained permission, in order to 
 keep a closer watch upon the court, to live above 
 the apartments of King Louis XII., in the quarters 
 under the eaves which the Duchesse de Nemours 
 was to occupy at a later period. 
 
 Young Francois II. and his young queen Mary 
 Stuart, wildly in love with each other, like the chil- 
 dren of sixteen that they were, had been uncer- 
 emoniously transported, in the middle of winter, 
 from the chateau of Saint-Germain, which seemed 
 to the Due de Guise too readily open to surprise, to 
 the sort of fortress which the chateau of Blois then 
 was, being isolated on three sides by precipices, 
 while the fourth side was exceedingly well pro- 
 tected. The Guises, who were the queen's uncles, 
 had stronger reasons than the one given for not 
 living in Paris, and for keeping the court in a cha- 
 teau whose walls could easily be watched and de- 
 fended. A conflict was in progress about the throne, 
 between the House of Lorraine and the House of 
 Valois, a conflict which was not ended until the day, 
 twenty-eight years later, in 1588, when Henri III., 
 in that same chateau, under the very eyes of his 
 mother, who was at that moment profoundly humil- 
 iated by the Lorraines, heard the fall of the boldest 
 of all the Guises, the second Balafre, son of the 
 first Balafre, by whom Catherine de' Medici was, at 
 the time this narrative opens, being played with, 
 imprisoned, closely watched, and threatened. 
 9
 
 130 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 For this noble chateau of Blois was to Catherine 
 the most cramped of prisons. On the death of her 
 husband, by whom she had been held in leash, she 
 had hoped to reign; but she found herself, on the 
 contrary, practically held in bondage by strangers 
 whose polished manners were immeasurably more 
 brutal than those of a jailer. Nothing that she did 
 could be kept secret. Those of her women who 
 were devoted to her either had lovers who were de- 
 voted to the Guises or had Argus-eyed spies about 
 them. Indeed, in those days, the play of passions 
 presented the strange effects which will always re- 
 sult from the antagonism of two powerful opposing 
 interests in the State. Gallantry, which served 
 Catherine so well, was also one of the instruments 
 employed by the Guises. For instance, the Prince 
 de Conde, the first leader of the Reformation, was 
 the lover of the Marechale de Saint-Andre, whose 
 husband was the grand master's dme damnte. The 
 cardinal, persuaded by the affair of the Vidame de 
 Chartres that Catherine was unconquered rather than 
 unconquerable, was paying his court to her. Thus 
 the play of all the passions strangely complicated the 
 game of politics, making of it a sort of double game 
 of chess, in which it was necessary to watch both the 
 head and the heart of a man to make sure that, in an 
 emergency, one would not overrule the other. 
 
 Although Catherine was constantly confronted by 
 the Cardinal de Lorraine or by Due Francois de 
 Guise, who distrusted her, her most bitter and clev- 
 erest enemy was her daughter-in-law, Queen Mary,
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 131 
 
 a little blonde, mischievous as a soubrette, proud 
 as a Stuart who wore three crowns, well-informed as 
 an old scholar, sly as a boarding-school miss, in love 
 with her husband as a courtesan is with her lover, 
 devoted to her uncles, whom she admired, and de- 
 lighted to find that King Francois, assisted by her 
 suggestions, shared her good opinion of them. A 
 mother-in-law is always a person whom a daughter- 
 in-law does not adore, especially when she has worn 
 the crown and wishes to retain it, a wish which the 
 imprudent Catherine had not taken sufficient pains 
 to conceal. Even her former situation, when Diane 
 de Poitiers reigned over Henri II., was more endur- 
 able: then she received at least the honors due to a 
 queen and the respect of the court; whereas, at this 
 moment, the duke and the cardinal, who had none 
 but their creatures about them, seemed to take 
 pleasure in humiliating her. Catherine, beset by 
 courtiers, received, not daily, but hourly, affronts 
 which wounded her self-esteem; for the Guises 
 were determined to continue with her the system of 
 treatment which the late king had adopted.
 
 The thirty-six years of disasters which devastated 
 France may be said to have begun with the scene in 
 which the furrier's son had been assigned the most 
 perilous of roles, and which makes him the princi- 
 pal figure in this Study. The peril into which that 
 zealous reformer was about to fall became flagrant 
 on the very morning when he left the pier at Beau- 
 gency, entrusted with valuable documents which 
 compromised the most exalted heads among the no- 
 bility, and set sail for Blois, accompanied by a crafty 
 partisan, the indefatigable La Renaudie, who was at 
 the pier before him. 
 
 While the boat on which Christophe had em- 
 barked floated down the river, impelled by a gentle 
 east wind, the famous Cardinal Charles de Lorraine 
 and the second Due de Guise, one of the greatest 
 warriors of that age, were contemplating their 
 position, like two eagles on the summit of a cliff, 
 and looking prudently about them before striking 
 the great blow by which they tried to kill the Refor- 
 mation once and for all, at Amboise, and which was 
 repeated in Paris twelve years later, on the 24th of 
 August, 1572. 
 
 During the night, three noblemen who played 
 
 prominent parts in the twelve years' drama which 
 
 followed this double conspiracy, plotted by the 
 
 Guises and by the Reformers alike, had arrived at 
 
 d33)
 
 134 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 the chateau, riding at full speed, and had left their 
 horses half-dead at the postern, which was guarded 
 by officers and soldiers absolutely devoted to the 
 Due de Guise, the idol of all men of war. 
 
 A word concerning that great man a word to tell 
 us, first of all, how he was situated at that moment. 
 
 His mother was Antoinette de Bourbon, grandaunt 
 of Henri IV. Of how little account is blood relation- 
 ship! at that moment he was aiming at the head of 
 his cousin the Prince de Conde. Mary Stuart was his 
 niece. His wife was Anne, daughter of the Duke of 
 Ferrara. The great Constable Anne de Montmo- 
 rency addressed the Due de Guise when he wrote 
 him as " Monseigneur," as he would address a king, 
 and concluded: "Your very humble servant." 
 Guise, grand master of the king's household, reply- 
 ing to him, wrote: "Monsieur le Connetable," and 
 signed as he would sign a communication to the 
 Parliament: " Your very good friend." 
 
 As for the cardinal, who was known as the Trans- 
 alpine Pope, and whom Estienne calls "His Holi- 
 ness," he had the whole monastic portion of the 
 Church in France at his service, and dealt with 
 the Holy Father as an equal. Vain of his elo- 
 quence, he was one of the subtlest theologians of 
 his time and maintained a close watch upon France 
 and Italy at once by means of three religious orders 
 which were absolutely devoted to him, travelled for 
 him day and night, and acted as his spies and 
 advisers. 
 
 These few words will explain to what great power
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 135 
 
 the cardinal and the duke had attained. Despite their 
 wealth and the revenues of their offices, they were 
 so entirely disinterested or so irresistibly borne on 
 by the current of politics, so generous, too, that both 
 of them were in debt, doubtless after Caesar's fashion. 
 So, when Henri III. procured the death of the second 
 Balafre, whose life was a constant menace to him, 
 the House of Guise was necessarily ruined. The 
 money expended in a century for the purpose of 
 seizing the crown explains the abasement of this 
 family under Louis XIII. and Louis XIV. at the time 
 when Madame's* sudden death made known to all 
 Europe to what an infamous role a Chevalier de 
 Lorraine had descended. 
 
 Claiming to be heirs of the dethroned Carlo- 
 vingians, the duke and the cardinal treated Cather- 
 ine de' Medici, their niece's mother-in-law, with the 
 utmost insolence. The Duchesse de Guise spared 
 Catherine no mortification. She was a D'Este, and 
 Catherine was a Medici, the descendant of parvenu 
 Florentine tradesmen, whom the sovereigns of Eu- 
 rope had not as yet admitted into their royal brother- 
 hood. For that reason, Francois I. had looked upon 
 his son's marriage with a Medici as a mesalliance, 
 and had permitted it only because he did not think 
 that that son would ever be dauphin. Hence his 
 frantic rage when the dauphin was poisoned by the 
 Florentine Montecuculli. The D'Estes declined to 
 
 * Henrietta of England, daughter of Charles I., and first wife of Philip, Due 
 d'Orleans, brother of Louis XIV. She is supposed to have been poisoned by 
 the Chevalier de Lorraine.
 
 136 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 recognize the Medicis as Italian princes. Those 
 sometime tradesmen were, in fact, trying to solve 
 the impossible problem how to maintain a throne 
 encompassed by republican institutions. Not until 
 long after, did Philip II. of Spain accord the title of 
 grand duke to the Medicis, who purchased it by be- 
 traying France, their benefactress, and by a servile 
 attachment to the court of Spain, which secretly 
 thwarted their plans in Italy. 
 
 " Caress your enemies only!" That profound 
 remark of Catherine's seems to have been the 
 political gospel of that family of tradesmen, which 
 did not lack great men until the moment when its 
 destiny became great, and which underwent a little 
 too soon that degeneration which finally overtakes 
 royal races and great families. 
 
 For three generations there had been a Lorraine 
 warrior and a Lorraine churchman; and, what may 
 appear even more extraordinary, all the churchmen, 
 including Cardinal Charles, bore a strong facial re- 
 semblance to Ximenes, whom Cardinal de Richelieu 
 also resembled. These five cardinals all had cun- 
 ning and at the same time awe-inspiring faces; 
 whereas the warriors' faces were of the Basque 
 mountaineer type, which is also recognizable in 
 Henri IV.; but both father and son bore scars 
 which did not deprive them of the charm and affa- 
 bility of expression by which they won the hearts of 
 their soldiers no less than by their great courage. 
 
 It may be useful to tell how and where the grand 
 master received that wound, for it was cured by the
 
 CATHERINE DE 1 MEDICI 137 
 
 daring skill of one of the characters in this drama, 
 Ambroise Pare, to whom we have referred as being 
 indebted to the syndic of the guild of furriers. At the 
 siege of Calais, the duke's face was pierced from side 
 to side by a lance-thrust; the head of the weapon 
 entered the cheek below the right eye, emerged at 
 the back of the neck below the left ear, and remained 
 in the wound. The duke lay in his tent, amid gen- 
 eral dismay, and would have died but for the bold 
 action and the unhesitating devotion of Ambroise 
 Pare. 
 
 " The duke is not dead, messieurs," said Am- 
 broise, looking about at the weeping attendants; 
 " but he will die ere long," he continued, " unless I 
 dare to treat him as already dead, and I am going to 
 venture, at the risk of whatever may happen to me. 
 Look!" 
 
 He placed his left foot on the duke's chest, seized 
 the wooden shaft of the lance in his fingers, slowly 
 worked it back and forth, and at last drew it from 
 the duke's head, as if he were dealing with a thing, 
 not a man. Although he cured the prince by his 
 audacious treatment, he could not do away with the 
 horrible scar which gave rise to his sobriquet.* For 
 a like reason, the same sobriquet was given to his 
 son. 
 
 Being absolute masters of King Francois II., over 
 whom his wife held sway by virtue of a passionate 
 mutual love of which they knew how to take ad- 
 vantage, the two great Lorraine princes really ruled 
 
 * Le Balafre, the Scarred.
 
 138 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 France, and had no other foe at court than Cath- 
 erine de' Medici. Never did politicians play a more 
 wary game. 
 
 The respective positions of the ambitious widow 
 of Henri II. and of the ambitious House of Lorraine 
 were well exemplified by the places they occupied 
 on the terrace of the chateau during the morning 
 when Christophe was to arrive. The queen-mother, 
 who affected a very warm attachment to the Guises, 
 had asked to be informed of the news brought by 
 the three noblemen who had arrived from different 
 parts of the kingdom; but she had the mortification 
 of being politely dismissed by the cardinal. She 
 was walking at the end of the gardens, toward the 
 Loire, where she was building, for her astrologer 
 Ruggieri, an observatory which can still be seen, 
 and from which one may overlook the whole of that 
 lovely valley. The two Lorraines were at the oppo- 
 site end, which overlooked the Vendomois, and from 
 which one could see the upper part of the town, the 
 Perchoir aux Bretons, and the postern of the cha- 
 teau. Catherine had deceived the two brothers and 
 hoodwinked them by her feigned dissatisfaction, for 
 she was really very glad of an opportunity to speak 
 with one of the three men who had arrived in such 
 haste, her secret confidant, who was boldly playing 
 a double game, for which, however, he was cer- 
 tainly well rewarded. This nobleman was Chiverni, 
 apparently a devoted servant of the Cardinal de 
 Lorraine, in reality a devoted servant of Catherine. 
 Catherine also had two faithful retainers in the
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 139 
 
 Gondis, her creatures; but those two Florentines 
 were the object of too much suspicion on the part of 
 the Guises for her to send them abroad; so she kept 
 them at court, where their every word and act were 
 watched, but where they also watched the Guises 
 and advised Catherine. There was another Italian 
 named Birague whom the two Gondis held firm in 
 his allegiance to the queen; he was a cunning Pied- 
 montese, who pretended, like Chiverni, to have 
 abandoned the queen-mother for the Guises, and 
 who encouraged them in their undertakings while 
 acting as a spy upon them for Catherine's benefit. 
 Chiverni had come from Ecouen and Paris. The 
 last to arrive was Saint-Andre, who was a marshal 
 of France, and who became so great a personage 
 that the Guises, whose creature he was, took him 
 for the third member of the triumvirate which they 
 formed in the following year against Catherine. 
 Before them came the man who built the chateau of 
 Duretal, Vieilleville, who was also made a marshal 
 for his devotion to the Guises; he had arrived 
 secretly, departed again even more secretly, and 
 no one had penetrated the secret of the mission 
 which the grand master had entrusted to him. 
 Saint-Andre had been instructed to take certain 
 military measures intended to attract all the re- 
 formers under arms to Amboise, as the result of 
 a conference held by the Cardinal de Lorraine, the 
 Due de Guise, Chiverni, Birague, Vieilleville, and 
 Saint-Andre. As the two chiefs of the House of Lor- 
 raine chose to employ Birague, it is to be supposed
 
 140 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 that they were confident of their ground, for they 
 knew that he was in the queen-mother's service; 
 but it may be that they kept him at hand in order 
 to penetrate their rival's secret designs, that is to 
 say, for the same reason that she left him with 
 them. At that interesting epoch, the double role 
 played by some politicians was well known to both 
 of the parties which employed them, and they were 
 like cards in the hands of gamblers; the game was 
 won by the shrewdest player. During the confer- 
 ence, the brothers had maintained an impenetrable 
 reserve. Catherine's conversation with her friends 
 will explain fully the object of that council held by 
 the Guises in the open air, at daybreak, in those 
 hanging gardens, as if they were all afraid to speak 
 between the walls of the chateau of Blois. 
 
 The queen-mother, who, on the pretext of exam- 
 ining the observatory which was being constructed 
 for her astrologer, had been walking in the garden 
 since early morning with the two Gondis, watching 
 the hostile group with an anxious and inquisitive 
 eye, was joined by Chiverni. She was at the 
 corner of the terrace toward the Church of Saint- 
 Nicholas, and there she need fear no eavesdropping. 
 The wall is on the level of the church-towers, and 
 the Guises were still taking counsel together at the 
 other corner of the terrace, by the foot of the un- 
 finished keep, walking back and forth from the 
 Perchoir aux Bretons to the gallery by the bridge 
 connecting the garden, the gallery, and the perchoir. 
 No one was in the chasm which separated the two
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 141 
 
 groups. Chiverni raised the queen-mother's hand 
 to kiss it, and slipped into it a little note, unseen by 
 the two Italians. Catherine hastily turned away, 
 walked to the corner of the parapet, and read these 
 words : 
 
 " You are powerful enough to hold the balance between the 
 great nobles, and make them contend with one another as to 
 who shall serve you best ; you have a family of kings, and 
 you have no reason to fear either Lorraines or Bourbons if 
 you set them against one another; for they are equally de- 
 sirous to steal the crown from your children. Be the mistress, 
 not the slave, of your advisers ; hold one party in check by 
 the other ; otherwise the kingdom will go from bad to worse, 
 and bloody wars may be the result. 
 
 " L'HOPITAL." 
 
 The queen put the paper in her bosom, proposing 
 to burn it as soon as she should be alone. 
 
 " When did you see him?" she asked Chiverni. 
 
 " On returning from a visit to the constable at 
 Melun, which place he passed through with Madame 
 la Duchesse de Berri, whom he was very impatient 
 to deposit safely in Savoie, before returning here to 
 enlighten Chancellor Olivier, who, by the way, is 
 hoodwinked by the Lorraines. Monsieur de l'H6pital 
 has decided to espouse your cause because he sees 
 the goal toward which Messieurs de Guise are tend- 
 ing. So that he proposes to return with the utmost 
 haste in order to give you his vote in the council." 
 
 " Is he sincere?" queried Catherine. " The Lor- 
 raines put him into the council, you know, and it 
 must have been to help them control matters there."
 
 142 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 " L'H6pital is a Frenchman of too good stock not 
 to be honest," said Chiverni ; "at all events, his 
 note is a sufficiently binding engagement." 
 
 " What is the constable's reply to these Lor- 
 raines?" 
 
 " He says that he is the king's servant and will 
 await his orders. Upon that reply, the cardinal, to 
 forestall all resistance, will propose that his brother 
 be appointed lieutenant-general of the kingdom." 
 
 " Already!" exclaimed Catherine, in dismay. 
 " Well, did Monsieur de 1'Hopital give you any 
 other advice for me?" 
 
 "He said to me that you alone, madame, could 
 stand between the crown and Messieurs de Guise." 
 
 " But does he think that I can use the Huguenots 
 as chevaux de frise ?" 
 
 "Ah! madame," cried Chiverni, surprised at such 
 perspicacity, "we had no thought of plunging you 
 into such difficulties." 
 
 " Did he know what my present position is?" 
 asked the queen, calmly. 
 
 "Very nearly. He considers that you made a 
 fool's bargain when, at the late king's death, you 
 accepted for your share the bribe of Madame 
 Diane's ruin. Messieurs de Guise thought they 
 had avoided all obligation to the queen by gratifying 
 the woman." 
 
 " Yes," said the queen, glancing at the two Gon- 
 dis, " 1 made a great blunder then." 
 
 " Such a blunder as the gods make!" rejoined 
 Charles de Gondi.
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 143 
 
 " Messieurs," said the queen, " if I go over openly 
 to the reformers, I shall become the slave of a party." 
 
 "Madame," replied Chiverni, eagerly, "I en- 
 tirely agree with you; you must make them serve 
 you, not you them." 
 
 "Although, for the moment, they are your surest 
 reliance," said Charles de Gondi, "we do not close 
 our eyes to the fact that success and defeat with 
 their support are equally perilous." 
 
 "I know it!" said the queen. "A single false 
 step will be instantly seized upon by the Guises as 
 a pretext to get rid of me!" 
 
 " The niece of a Pope, the mother of four Valois, 
 a queen of France, the widow of the most zealous 
 persecutor of the Huguenots, an Italian Catholic, 
 the aunt of Leo X., can such a one form an alli- 
 ance with the Reformation?" queried Charles de 
 Gondi. 
 
 " But if we do not resist the Guises, do we not 
 lend our hands to an act of usurpation?" replied 
 Albert. " You have to deal with a family which 
 sees an opportunity to snatch a crown in the strug- 
 gle between Catholicism and the Reformed religion. 
 We can accept the support of the reformers without 
 abjuring our faith." 
 
 " Consider, madame, that your own family, which 
 should be entirely in the interest of the King of 
 France, is the slave of the King of Spain!" said 
 Chiverni. "It would be for the Reformation to- 
 morrow if the Reformation could make the Duke 
 of Florence a king."
 
 144 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 " I am quite disposed to lend a hand for a moment 
 to the Huguenots," said Catherine, " if for no other 
 purpose than to be revenged on that soldier, that 
 priest, and that woman!" 
 
 She indicated one after another, with a genuine 
 Italian's glance, the duke, the cardinal, and the floor 
 of the chateau on which were the apartments of her 
 son and Mary Stuart. 
 
 "That trio has taken the reins of State from my 
 hands, for which I waited so long and which that old 
 hag held in my stead," she added. 
 
 She nodded her head in the direction of the Loire, 
 toward Chenonceaux, the chateau which she had 
 taken from Diane de Poitiers in exchange for Chau- 
 mont. 
 
 "Mz," she said in Italian, "it seems that the 
 ruffed gentry at Geneva are not clever enough 
 to apply to me! By my conscience, I cannot go to 
 them. Not one of you could venture to carry a 
 message to them." 
 
 She stamped on the ground. 
 
 " I hoped that you could have met the hunchback 
 at Ecouen; he has some brains in his head," she 
 said to Chiverni. 
 
 " He was there, madame; but he could not suc- 
 ceed in persuading the constable to make common 
 cause with him. Monsieur de Montmorency is will- 
 ing enough to overthrow the Guises, who were re- 
 sponsible for his disgrace, but he will do nothing to 
 aid heresy." 
 
 "Messieurs, who will crush these individual wills
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 145 
 
 which embarrass the designs of royalty? Great 
 God ! we must make these great men destroy one 
 another, as was done by Louis XI., the greatest of 
 your kings. There are four or five parties in this 
 kingdom, and my children's party is the weakest of 
 them all." 
 
 " The Reformation is an idea," said Charles de 
 Gondi, " and the parties that Louis XI. crushed 
 were held together only by interest." 
 
 " There are always ideas behind interests," re- 
 joined Chiverni. " Under Louis XL, the idea was 
 called the great fiefs." 
 
 " Use heresy as an axe!" said Albert de Gondi; 
 "you will not incur the odium of executions." 
 
 " But," cried the queen, "I know nothing of the 
 resources or the plans of these people, I have no 
 reliable method of communicating with them. If I 
 were surprised in any machination of this sort, 
 either by the queen, who follows me with her eyes 
 like a child in the cradle, or by her two jailers, who 
 allow no one to enter the chateau, I should be ban- 
 ished from the kingdom and sent back to Florence 
 with a terrible escort, commanded by some fanatical 
 Guisard ! Thanks, my friends. Ah! my daughter- 
 in-law, I trust that you will some day be a prisoner 
 in your own house, then you will know how you 
 have made me suffer!" 
 
 " The grand master and the cardinal know all 
 
 their plans," exclaimed Chiverni ; " but those two 
 
 foxes will not tell them. Find a way, madame, to 
 
 make them tell what they know, and I will sacrifice 
 
 10
 
 146 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 myself for you by coming to terms with the Prince 
 de Conde." 
 
 " Which of their own plans were those men 
 unable to conceal from you?" asked the queen, 
 pointing to the two brothers. 
 
 "Monsieur de Vieilleville and Monsieur de Saint- 
 Andre have received orders of which we know 
 nothing; but it seems that the grand master is con- 
 centrating his best troops on the left bank. Within 
 a few days you will be at Amboise. The grand 
 master came to this terrace to examine the lay 
 of the land, and does not consider Blois favorably 
 situated for the execution of his secret plans. Now, 
 what can he possibly want?" said Chiverni, pointing 
 to the precipices by which the chateau is surrounded. 
 " The court can be no more secure from a sudden 
 attack anywhere on earth than in this place." 
 
 "Abdicate or reign!" exclaimed Albert in the ear 
 of the queen, who was lost in thought. 
 
 A terrible expression of inward rage passed over 
 her beautiful ivory-white face; she was not yet 
 forty years old, and had lived twenty-six years at 
 the court of France, without a shadow of power 
 she who had determined, immediately on her arrival, 
 to play the leading part. This horrifying sentence 
 came from her lips, in the language of Dante: 
 
 " No hope so long as that boy lives! his little 
 wife bewitches him," she added, after a pause. 
 
 Catherine's exclamation was inspired by the 
 strange prediction which had been made to her a 
 few days before at the chateau of Chaumont, on the
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 147 
 
 opposite bank of the Loire, whither she had gone 
 with her astrologer Ruggieri to consult, as to the 
 lives of her four sons, a celebrated soothsayer se- 
 cretly brought thither by Nostradamus, the most 
 prominent of the physicians who, in the great six- 
 teenth century, clung to the occult sciences, like Rug- 
 gieri, Cardan, Paracelsus, and so many others. This 
 woman, whose life has escaped the notice of histo- 
 rians, fixed the reign of Francois II. at one year. 
 
 "What is your advice touching this matter?" 
 Catherine asked Chiverni. 
 
 " We shall have a battle," said the prudent gen- 
 tleman. " The King of Navarre " 
 
 " Oh! say the queen!" interposed Catherine. 
 
 "Of course, the queen," said Chiverni, with a 
 smile, " has given the reformers for a leader the 
 Prince de Conde, who, being a young son, can risk 
 anything; and Monsieur le Cardinal talks of writing 
 him to come here." 
 
 "Let him come," cried the queen, "and I am 
 saved !" 
 
 It will be seen that the leaders of the great move- 
 ment of the Reformation in France had rightly 
 divined an ally in Catherine. 
 
 " It's an amusing thing," observed the queen, 
 " that the Bourbons are playing with the Huguenots, 
 and that Messieurs Calvin, de Beze, and others are 
 playing with the Bourbons; but shall we be cunning 
 enough to play with Huguenots, Bourbons, and 
 Guises? In face of three such enemies, we may 
 be excused for weighing our powers!" she said.
 
 148 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 " They have not the king," rejoined Albert, " and 
 you will always triumph while you have the king on 
 your side." 
 
 " Maladetta Maria /"said Catherine, between her 
 teeth. 
 
 " The Lorraines are already thinking of robbing 
 you of the affections of the bourgeoisie," said 
 Birague. 
 
 The hope of obtaining the crown was not the 
 result of any premeditated plan formed by the two 
 chiefs of the turbulent Guise family; there was 
 nothing to justify any such plan or any such hope, 
 and their audacity was the result of circumstances. 
 The two cardinals and the two Balafres were four 
 ambitious men superior in talent to all the politicians 
 who surrounded them. So that the family was not 
 crushed until it came in collision with Henri IV., a 
 rebel, who was reared in that great school of which 
 Catherine and the Guises were the masters, and 
 who made the most of all their lessons. 
 
 At the time of which we write, these two men 
 found themselves in the position of arbiters of the 
 greatest revolution attempted in Europe since that 
 of Henry VIII. in England, a revolution which 
 resulted from the invention of the printing-press. 
 Enemies of the Reformation, they held supreme 
 power in their hands and determined to stifle the 
 heresy; but Calvin, their adversary, although less 
 famous than Luther, was a stronger man than 
 Luther. Calvin saw government where Luther had 
 seen only dogma. Where the corpulent beer-drinker,
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 149 
 
 the famous German, fought with the devil and threw 
 his inkstand in his face, the Picard, a sickly celibate, 
 formed plans of campaign, managed battles, fur- 
 nished princes with weapons, and aroused whole 
 nations to action by sowing republican doctrines in 
 the hearts of the bourgeoisie, in order to make up 
 for his constant reverses on the battle-field by fresh 
 progress in the minds of his fellow-men. 
 
 The Cardinal de Lorraine and the Due de Guise 
 knew as well as Philip II. and the Duke of Alva 
 where the monarchy was aimed at, and how closely 
 Catholicism and royalty were bound together. 
 Charles V., drunk from having quaffed too freely 
 from Charlemagne's cup, and relying too much on 
 the strength of his monarchy in fancying that he 
 could share the whole world with Suleiman, did not 
 realize at first that his head was attacked ; and when 
 Cardinal Granvelle pointed out to him the extent of 
 the wound, he abdicated. The Guises had but one 
 thought, to stamp out the heresy with a single blow. 
 That blow they attempted first, at this time, at Am- 
 boise, and they caused it to be attempted a second 
 time on Saint-Bartholomew's day, acting then in 
 accord with Catherine de' Medici, whose eyes had 
 been opened by the flames of twelve years of war, 
 and above all by the significant word republic, subse- 
 quently uttered and printed by the writers of the 
 Reformed sect, whom Lecamus, that typical speci- 
 men of the Parisian bourgeoisie, had already fath- 
 omed in that respect. 
 
 The two princes, on the point of dealing a deadly
 
 150 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 blow at the heart of the nobility, in order to sever 
 it at one stroke from a religious faction in whose 
 triumph it would lose everything, were finishing 
 their consultation as to the method they should 
 adopt of disclosing their projected coup d'Etat to the 
 king, while Catherine was talking with her four 
 advisers. 
 
 " Jeanne d'Albret knew very well what she was 
 doing when she declared herself the patroness of the 
 Huguenots! She has in the Reformation a battering- 
 ram which she handles extremely well!" said the 
 grand master, who realized the far-reaching char- 
 acter of the Queen of Navarre's plans. 
 
 Jeanne d'Albret was, in very truth, one of the 
 shrewdest minds of that age. 
 
 " Theodore de Beze is at Nerac, after visiting 
 Calvin to receive his orders." 
 
 "What men these bourgeois do succeed in find- 
 ing!" cried the grand master. 
 
 "Ah! we have not a man on our side like that La 
 Renaudie," exclaimed the cardinal; " he is a genuine 
 Catiline." 
 
 " Such men always act for their own interest," 
 the duke replied. " Did I not appreciate La Renau- 
 die? I overwhelmed him with favors, I helped him 
 to escape at the time of his condemnation by the 
 Parliament of Bourgogne, I enabled him to return to 
 France by obtaining a revision of his prosecution, 
 and I intended to do everything in my power for 
 him, while he was concocting a devilish conspiracy 
 against us. The knave has rallied the Protestants
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 151 
 
 of Germany to the support of the heretics of France 
 by smoothing away the difficulties in the matter of 
 dogma that had arisen between Luther and Calvin. 
 He has rallied the discontented great noblemen to 
 the cause of the Reformation without requiring them 
 to abjure Catholicism openly. Last year he had 
 thirty captains under his orders! He was every- 
 where at once, at Lyon, in Languedoc, at Nantes! 
 And he has had reduced to writing and distributed 
 throughout Germany the report of a consultation in 
 which the theologians declare that it is justifiable to 
 resort to force to rescue the king from our domina- 
 tion; and it is now circulating from town to town. 
 We look for him everywhere, but we can never find 
 him! And yet I have never shown him anything 
 but kindness! We must either kill him like a dog, 
 or try to build him a bridge of gold by which he can 
 be induced to enter our family." 
 
 " Bretagne, Languedoc, the whole kingdom is 
 being worked upon to make a deadly assault upon 
 us," said the cardinal. "After yesterday's fete, I 
 passed the rest of the night reading all the informa- 
 tion which my monks have sent me; but nobody is 
 compromised except impoverished noblemen, me- 
 chanics, people as to whom it makes no difference 
 whether we hang them or let them live. The 
 Colignys and Condes do not appear as yet, although 
 they hold the threads of this conspiracy." 
 
 "For that reason," said the duke, "as soon as 
 that lawyer, that Avenelles, sold us the secret, I 
 bade Braguelonne let the conspirators go on to the
 
 152 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 end; they are unsuspicious, they expect to surprise 
 us, and perhaps the leaders will show themselves 
 then. My advice would be to allow ourselves to be 
 beaten for about forty-eight hours " 
 
 " That would be half an hour too long!" exclaimed 
 the cardinal, in alarm. 
 
 " What a brave fellow you are!" retorted Le 
 Balafre. 
 
 The cardinal rejoined, unmoved: 
 
 " Whether the Prince de Conde is compromised 
 or not, if we are sure that he is their leader, let us 
 strike him down, and then we shall be secure. We 
 do not need soldiers so much as judges for this task, 
 and we shall never lack judges. Victory is always 
 more certain in parliament than on the battle-field 
 and costs less." 
 
 " I am perfectly willing," replied the duke; " but 
 do you think that the Prince de Conde is powerful 
 enough to inspire so much audacity in these people 
 who are coming to strike this first blow at us? is it 
 not" 
 
 " The King of Navarre," said the cardinal. 
 
 "A simpleton who takes off his hat when he 
 speaks to me!" replied the duke. "Can it be that 
 the Florentine's coquetries have obscured your 
 sight?" 
 
 " Oh! I know what I am about," said the priest. 
 "My only purpose in seeking an intrigue with her 
 is to be able to read in the depths of her heart." 
 
 "She has no heart," said the duke, quickly, 
 "she is even more ambitious than we are."
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 153 
 
 "You are a gallant captain," said the cardinal to 
 his brother, " but, believe me, I am not very far 
 behind you, and I set Mary to watch her before you 
 ever dreamed of suspecting her. Catherine is no 
 more religious than my shoe. If she is not the soul 
 of the conspiracy, it is not for lack of inclination; 
 but we shall have an opportunity to judge her when 
 the test comes, and to see how well she supports us. 
 Thus far I am perfectly certain that she has had ab- 
 solutely no communication with the heretics." 
 
 " It is time to disclose the whole plot to the king, 
 and to the queen-mother who is supposed to know 
 nothing about it," said the duke; "and that is the 
 only proof of her innocence; perhaps they are wait- 
 ing until the last moment, to dazzle her by the proba- 
 bilities of success. La Renaudie will soon know by 
 my arrangements that we are warned. Last night, 
 Nemours was to follow the detachments of conspira- 
 tors who are on their way hither by the by-roads, and 
 they will be compelled to attack us at Amboise, where 
 I shall let them all in. Here," he said, pointing to 
 three sides of the cliff on which the chateau of Blois 
 is built, as Chiverni had just done, " we should have 
 an assault with no result, the Huguenots could come 
 and go at will. Blois is a hall with four entrances, 
 whereas Amboise is a bag." 
 
 " I will not leave the Florentine," said the car- 
 dinal. 
 
 " We have made a mistake," rejoined the duke, 
 amusing himself by tossing his dagger in the air and 
 catching it by the hilt; "we must adopt the same
 
 154 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 plan with her as with the reformers, give her full 
 liberty of movement in order to catch her in the 
 act." 
 
 The cardinal looked at his brother a moment, and 
 shook his head. 
 
 " What does Pardaillan want?" said the grand 
 master, as he saw coming toward them on the ter- 
 race the young nobleman who became celebrated by 
 reason of his meeting with La Renaudie, in which 
 they both lost their lives. 
 
 " Monseigneur, a man sent hither by the queen's 
 furrier is at the gate, and says that he has an ermine 
 garment to deliver to her; shall he be admitted?" 
 
 " Oh! yes, a surcot that she mentioned yester- 
 day," replied the cardinal; "admit the shopkeep- 
 ing churl; she will need the surcot for the journey 
 down the Loire." 
 
 " By what road did he come, that he was not 
 challenged until he reached the gate of the cha- 
 teau?" demanded the grand master. 
 
 " I do not know," Pardaillan replied. 
 
 " I will ask him the question in the queen's pres- 
 ence," said Le Balafre to himself. " Let him await 
 the morning reception in the salle des gardes," he 
 added, aloud. " By the way, Pardaillan, is he 
 young?" 
 
 "Yes, monseigneur; he claims to be Lecamus's 
 son." 
 
 " Lecamus is a good Catholic," said the car- 
 dinal, who, like the grand master, was blessed with 
 Caesar's memory. " The cure of Saint-Pierre aux
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 155 
 
 Boeufs relies upon him, for he is quartenier at the 
 palace." 
 
 " Nevertheless, allow the son to talk with the 
 captain of the Scottish Guard," said the grand 
 master, emphasizing the verb in such a way as to 
 give it a meaning easy to understand. " But Am- 
 broise is in the chateau; we can learn from him if 
 the knave is really the son of Lecamus, who assisted 
 him very materially long ago. Ask Ambroise Pare." 
 
 It was at this moment that Queen Catherine came 
 forward alone toward the two brothers, who made 
 haste to go to meet her, with manifestations of re- 
 spect in which the Italian constantly detected an 
 ironical meaning. 
 
 " Messieurs," said she, " will you deign to inform 
 me as to what is going forward? Does your former 
 master's widow hold a lower place in your es- 
 teem than Messieurs de Vieilleville, Birague, and 
 Chiverni?" 
 
 " Madame," replied the cardinal, in a gallant tone, 
 " our duty as men, taking precedence of our duty as 
 politicians, is to avoid alarming the ladies by false 
 rumors. But this morning there is occasion to con- 
 fer upon affairs of State. You will excuse my brother 
 for having begun by issuing certain purely military 
 orders, with which it was unnecessary to trouble 
 you: the important questions remain to be decided. 
 If you please, we will attend the morning reception 
 of the king and queen, as the hour draws near." 
 
 " What is the matter, Monsieur le Grand Maitre?" 
 said Catherine, affecting alarm.
 
 156 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 "The Reformation, madame, is no longer a her- 
 esy simply, it is a party which is coming in arms to 
 tear the king from you." 
 
 Thereupon Catherine, the cardinal, the duke, and 
 the noblemen walked toward the staircase through the 
 gallery, where the courtiers who had not the right of 
 entry to the apartments hastily assembled and drew 
 up in two lines. 
 
 Gondi, who had been watching the two Lorraine 
 princes closely while Catherine was talking with 
 them, whispered in good Tuscan in the queen- 
 mother's ear these two words, which passed into 
 a proverb, and which explain one aspect of that 
 great royal character: 
 
 " Odiate e aspettate!" Hate and wait.
 
 Pardaillan, who had just given the order to the 
 officer of the guard at the gate of the chateau to 
 admit the clerk of the queen's furrier, found Chris- 
 tophe standing open-mouthed in front of the porch, 
 gazing intently at the facade built by good King 
 Louis XII., where, if we may judge by what still 
 remains of it, the fantastic carvings were much 
 more numerous than they are to-day. For instance, 
 the curious observer will notice a woman's figure, 
 carved in the capital of one of the columns of the 
 doorway, with her dress pulled up, and laughingly 
 showing 
 
 What Brunnel showed Marphise 
 
 to a stout monk crouching on the capital of the cor- 
 responding column on the other side of the frame- 
 work of that door, above which at that time stood 
 the statue of Louis XII. Several of the windows in 
 that facade, carved in the same style, which unfor- 
 tunately have been destroyed, amused, or seemed 
 to amuse, Christophe, upon whom the arquebusiers 
 of the guard were already showering jocose remarks. 
 "This fellow would find very comfortable quar- 
 ters there," said the subaltern on duty, patting the 
 charges for his arquebus which were all prepared in 
 the shape of sugar-loaves and slung from his baldrick. 
 d57)
 
 158 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 " I say, Parisian," said a soldier, " you never saw 
 so many of 'em, did you?" 
 
 "He recognizes good King Louis XII.," said 
 another. 
 
 Christophe pretended not to hear, and did his 
 utmost to exaggerate his feigned amazement, and 
 his foolish attitude in front of the guard-house was 
 an excellent passport in Pardaillan's eyes. 
 
 "The queen has not risen," said the young 
 captain; "come and wait for her in the salle des 
 gardes." 
 
 Christophe slowly followed Pardaillan. He lin- 
 gered to admire the graceful arched gallery where, 
 in the reign of Louis XII., the courtiers awaited the 
 reception-hour under cover when the weather was 
 bad, and where there were, at that moment, several 
 noblemen of the party of the Guises; for the stair- 
 case which led to their apartments, extremely well 
 preserved to this day, is at the end of that gallery 
 in a tower of a style of architecture well adapted to 
 arouse the admiration of beholders. 
 
 " Well, did you come here to study image-carv- 
 ing?" cried Pardaillan, as he saw Lecamus standing 
 in front of the dainty carvings of the outer bal- 
 conies which connect, or, if you prefer, separate, the 
 columns of each arch. 
 
 Christophe followed the young captain toward the 
 staircase of honor, not without casting an enraptured 
 glance at that quasi-Moorish tower. On that lovely 
 morning the courtyard was full of orderlies, and 
 noblemen talking in groups, their gorgeous costumes
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 159 
 
 giving animation to the spot, which the architec- 
 tural marvels carved on the still-new facade made so 
 brilliant in itself. 
 
 "Come in here," said Pardaillan to Lecamus, 
 motioning to him to follow through a carved wooden 
 door on the second floor, which was thrown open 
 by the soldier on guard when he recognized Par- 
 daillan. 
 
 Christophe's amazement can be imagined when 
 he entered that salle des gardes, which was of such 
 immense size that the military authorities of the 
 present day have cut it in two by a partition through 
 the centre; it actually occupied a third of the whole 
 courtyard facade in the king's suite on the second 
 floor, as well as on the first floor in the queen- 
 mother's; it was lighted by two windows at the right 
 and two at the left of the tower containing the fa- 
 mous spiral stairway. The young captain walked 
 toward the door of the bedroom occupied by the 
 king and queen, which opened into that vast hall, 
 and bade one of the two pages on duty inform 
 Madame Dayelle, one of the queen's women, that 
 the furrier was in the hall with her surcots. 
 
 At a gesture from Pardaillan, Christophe took his 
 place beside an officer seated on a stool at the corner 
 of a fireplace 'as large as his father's shop, which 
 was at one end of that vast hall, facing one precisely 
 like it at the other end. He fell into conversation 
 with this officer, and eventually aroused his interest 
 by telling him of the wretched condition of trade. 
 Christophe made himself appear such a genuine
 
 160 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 tradesman that the officer was convinced, and im- 
 parted his conviction to the captain of the Scottish 
 Guard, who came up from the courtyard to question 
 Christophe, and who scrutinized him stealthily and 
 with care. 
 
 Although fully warned of his perilous position, 
 Christophe Lecamus could not comprehend the cold- 
 blooded ferocity of the selfish interests among which 
 Chaudieu had thrust him. To an observer who 
 knew the secret of that scene, as the historian 
 knows it to-day, there would have been abundant 
 cause for trembling at the spectacle of that young 
 man, the hope of two families, risking his life be- 
 tween those two powerful and pitiless machines, 
 Catherine and the Guises. Are there many men of 
 true courage who measure the extent of the risks 
 they run? From the way in which the port of 
 Blois, the town and the chateau were guarded, 
 Christophe expected to find snares and spies every- 
 where, so he had resolved to conceal the momentous 
 nature of his mission and the tension of his faculties 
 behind the foolish and commercial exterior which he 
 had just exhibited to young Pardaillan, to the officer 
 of the guard, and to the captain. 
 
 The commotion which accompanies the hour of 
 the morning reception in a royal chateau was begin- 
 ning to be apparent. The noblemen, whose horses 
 and pages, or squires, remained in the outer court- 
 yard of the chateau, for no one, save the king and 
 queen, was entitled to enter the inner courtyard 
 mounted, ascended the superb staircase in groups
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI l6l 
 
 and invaded the vast salle des gardes with its two 
 fireplaces, where the great timbers are to-day de- 
 spoiled of their decorations, where beggarly little 
 red tiles replace the ingenious mosaics of the floor, 
 but where the crown tapestries then concealed the 
 massive walls, to-day whitewashed, and where the 
 arts of that epoch, unique in the annals of mankind, 
 shone resplendent. 
 
 Reformers and Catholics flocked thither to learn 
 the news and to scrutinize faces, as much as to pay 
 their court to the king. Francois II. 's excessive 
 affection for Mary Stuart, which neither the Guises 
 nor the queen-mother attempted to thwart, and the 
 politic complaisance with which Mary Stuart wel- 
 comed it, deprived the king of all power; and so, 
 although he was seventeen years old, he knew 
 naught of royalty save its diversions, and naught 
 of marriage save the delights of a first passion. In 
 reality they all paid court to Queen Mary, to her 
 uncle, the Cardinal de Lorraine, and to the grand 
 master. 
 
 This general movement took place before Chris- 
 tophe, who watched the arrival of each personage 
 with a naturally eager curiosity. A magnificent 
 portiere, on each side of which stood two pages 
 and two guards of the Scottish company, then on 
 duty, marked the entrance to that royal bedroom, so 
 fatal to the then grand master's son, the second 
 Balafre, who breathed his last at the foot of the bed 
 at this time occupied by Mary Stuart and Francois II. 
 The queen's maids of honor were grouped near the 
 ii
 
 1 62 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 fireplace opposite to that by which Christophe was 
 still talking with the captain of the guards. By its 
 situation, that second fireplace was the fireplace of 
 honor, for it was cut in the thick wall of the salle du 
 conseil, between the door thereof and the door of the 
 royal chamber, so that the maids of honor and those 
 noblemen who were entitled to stand there were 
 directly in the path of the king and queens. The 
 courtiers were certain of seeing Catherine, for her 
 maids of honor, in mourning like the whole court, 
 came up from her apartments headed by the Com- 
 tesse de Fiesco, and took their places on the side 
 of the salle du conseil, facing the young queen's 
 ladies, led by the Duchesse de Guise, who occupied 
 the opposite corner, toward the royal chamber. The 
 courtiers left between the two groups of ladies, who 
 belonged to the first families of the kingdom, a space 
 of several yards, upon which the greatest noblemen 
 alone had the right to encroach. The Comtesse de 
 Fiesco and the Duchesse de Guise were, by virtue 
 of the privilege pertaining to their offices, seated in 
 the midst of these noble maidens, all of whom were 
 standing. 
 
 One of the first men who ventured to approach 
 these two formidable battalions was the Due d'Or- 
 leans, the king's brother, who came down from his 
 apartments on the floor above, accompanied by Mon- 
 sieur de Cypierre, his governor. The young prince, 
 who was destined to reign before the close of the 
 year, under the name of Charles IX., was at this time 
 ten years old and excessively bashful. The Due
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 163 
 
 d'Anjou and the Due d'Alencon, his two brothers, as 
 well as the Princesse Marguerite, afterward the wife 
 of Henri IV., were still too young to come to the 
 court, and remained under their mother's charge in 
 her apartments. The Due d'Orleans, richly dressed, 
 according to the prevailing fashion, in silk breeches, 
 a cloth-of-gold doublet with black flowers, and a 
 small embroidered velvet cloak, all in black, for 
 he was still in mourning for the king, his father, 
 saluted the two ladies of honor, and took his place 
 near his mother's attendants. Already overflow- 
 ing with antipathy for the House of Guise, he 
 replied coldly to the duchess's words, and leaned 
 on the back of the Comtesse de Fiesco's high 
 chair. His governor, one of the noblest characters 
 of that age, Monsieur de Cypierre, stood behind 
 him like a shield. Amyot, in a simple abbe's cas- 
 sock, also accompanied him; he was already his 
 tutor, as well as the tutor of the other three princes, 
 whose affection afterward proved to be so profitable 
 to him. 
 
 Between the fireplace of honor and the one at the 
 other end of the hall, where the guards and their cap- 
 tain were standing, with several courtiers, and Chris- 
 tophe with his box, Chancellor Olivier, L'HopitaPs 
 patron and predecessor, dressed as chancellors of 
 France have always dressed from that day to this, 
 was walking to and fro with the Cardinal de Tour- 
 non, recently arrived from Rome, exchanging a few 
 whispered sentences amid the general attention of 
 the noblemen massed along the wall separating the
 
 164 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 hall from the king's chamber, like living tapestry, 
 in front of the superb tapestry with its thousands of 
 figures. Notwithstanding the gravity of the occa- 
 sion, the court presented the appearance which all 
 courts present in all countries, at all times, amid the 
 most imminent dangers: courtiers talking upon indif- 
 ferent subjects and thinking of grave subjects, jest- 
 ing as they scrutinize faces, and chattering about 
 love and marriages with heiresses, amid the most 
 appalling catastrophes. 
 
 " What did you think of yesterday's fete?" asked 
 Bourdeilles, Seigneur de Brantome, as he approached 
 Mademoiselle de Piennes, one of the queen-mother's 
 maids of honor. 
 
 " Messieurs du Barf and du Bellay never have any 
 but good ideas," she replied, pointing to the two 
 organizers of the fe"te, who stood within a few 
 steps. " I thought it was in most execrable taste," 
 she added in an undertone. 
 
 "Because you had no part in it?" queried Ma- 
 demoiselle de Lewiston from the other side of the 
 fireplace. 
 
 "What are you reading, madame?" Amyot asked 
 Madame de Fiesco. 
 
 "Amadis de Gaule, by Seigneur des Essarts, com- 
 missary-in-ordinary of the king's artillery." 
 
 " A charming book," said the lovely girl, who was 
 afterward so famous under the name of La Fosseuse, 
 when she became maid of honor to Queen Mar- 
 guerite of Navarre. 
 
 "The style is quite new," said Amyot. "Do
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 165 
 
 you take up with these barbarisms?" he asked, 
 addressing BrantSme. 
 
 " The ladies like them, what can we do?" replied 
 Brantome, as he went to pay his respects to Madame 
 de Guise, who held in her hand Boccaccio's Celebres 
 Dames. " There must be some ladies of your family 
 in that book, madame," he said; "but Sieur Boccaccio 
 made a mistake in not living in our day; he would 
 have found material for expanding his volumes." 
 
 " How clever that Monsieur de Brantome is!" said 
 the fair Mademoiselle de Limeuil to the Comtesse de 
 Fiesco; " he came to us first, but he will stay in the 
 Guise quarter." 
 
 "Hush!" said Madame de Fiesco, looking sharply 
 at the fair Limeuil. "Attend to your own affairs " 
 
 The girl turned her eyes toward the door. She 
 was awaiting Sardini, an Italian noble, to whom the 
 queen-mother, her kinswoman, married her after the 
 accident which happened to her in Catherine's own 
 dressing-room, and to which she was indebted for 
 the honor of having a queen for midwife. 
 
 " By Saint Alipantin, Mademoiselle Davila seems 
 to me to grow lovelier every morning," said Monsieur 
 de Robertet, secretary of State, saluting the queen- 
 mother's group. 
 
 The arrival of the secretary of State, who looked 
 precisely as a cabinet minister looks in our days, 
 caused no sensation. 
 
 " If that is so, monsieur, pray lend me the libel 
 against Messieurs de Guise," said Mademoiselle Da- 
 vila to Robertet; "I know it has been lent to you."
 
 166 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 " I no longer have it," replied the secretary, going 
 to salute Madame de Guise. 
 
 "I have it," said the Comte de Grammont to 
 Mademoiselle Davila, " but I will only give it to you 
 on one condition." 
 
 "Conditions? fie!" said Madame de Fiesco. 
 
 "You do not know what I mean," rejoined 
 Grammont. 
 
 " Oh! we can guess that," said La Limeuil. 
 
 The Italian custom of calling ladies, as peasants 
 call their wives, La So-and-So, was then in vogue at 
 the French court. 
 
 " You are mistaken," replied the count, hastily, 
 " it is simply a matter of returning to Mademoiselle 
 de Matha, one of the ladies on the other bank, a 
 letter from my cousin Jarnac." 
 
 "Do not compromise my girls," said the Com- 
 tesse de Fiesco, " I will deliver it myself. Have 
 you any news of what is happening in Flanders?" 
 she asked Cardinal de Tournon. "It seems that 
 Monsieur d'Egmont is yielding to the new ideas." 
 
 " He and the Prince of Orange," said Cypierre, 
 with a most significant shrug. 
 
 " The Duke of Alva and Cardinal Granvelle are 
 there, are they not, monsieur?" Amyot asked Car- 
 dinal de Tournon, who stood between the two groups, 
 taciturn and anxious, after his conversation with the 
 chancellor. 
 
 " Fortunately we are at peace, and have only to 
 put down the heresy on the stage," said the young 
 Due d'Orleans, alluding to the part he had played in
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 167 
 
 the fete of the preceding day, that of a knight over- 
 coming a hydra with the word Reformation on its 
 forehead. 
 
 Catherine de' Medici, concurring therein with her 
 daughter-in law, had allowed a theatre to be made 
 of the vast hall which was subsequently arranged 
 for the meetings of the estates of Blois, and which, 
 as we have said before, lay between the chateau of 
 Francois I. and that of Louis XII. 
 
 The cardinal made no reply, but resumed his prom- 
 epade in the centre of the room, talking in undertones 
 with Monsieur de Robertet and the chancellor. Few 
 persons realize the obstacles which the secretary- 
 ships of State, since transformed into departments, 
 encountered when they were first created, and how 
 much difficulty the kings of France had in creating 
 them. At that period, a secretary of State like 
 Robertet was a scrivener pure and simple, and was 
 of almost no consequence among the princes and 
 great nobles who decided all affairs of State. There 
 were no ministerial functions save those of the su- 
 perintendent of the finances, chancellor, and keeper 
 of the seals. The kings awarded places in their 
 council by letters patent to those of their subjects 
 whose opinions seemed likely to be of use to them 
 in the conduct of public affairs. They admitted to 
 the council the president of a chamber in the Parlia- 
 ment, a bishop, an untitled favorite. Once admitted 
 to the council, the subject strengthened his position 
 by obtaining offices under the crown which carried 
 handsome perquisites with them, such offices as
 
 1 68 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 provincial governments, the sword of constable, the 
 grand-mastership of artillery, the baton of a marshal, 
 the colonel-generalship of some military organization, 
 the post of admiral, the captaincy of the galleys, and 
 frequently some office at court, like the grand-mas- 
 tership of the household, then filled by the Due de 
 Guise. 
 
 "Do you think that the Due de Nemours will 
 marry Francoise?" Madame de Guise asked the Due 
 d'Orleans's tutor. 
 
 "Ah! madame," he replied, " I know nothing but 
 Latin." 
 
 This answer brought a smile to the lips of those 
 who were within hearing. Just at that time the 
 seduction of Francoise de Rohan by the Due de 
 Nemours was the all-engrossing subject of conver- 
 sation; but as the Due de Nemours was a cousin of 
 Francois II., and doubly connected with the House 
 of Valois through his mother, the Guises looked 
 upon him as seduced rather than seducer. Never- 
 theless, the influence of the Rohan family was so 
 great that, after the reign of Francois II., the Due 
 de Nemours was obliged to leave France, because 
 of the suit which the Rohans brought against him 
 and which was adjusted by the influence of the 
 Guises. His marriage with the Duchesse de Guise 
 after the duke was assassinated by Poltrot, may ex- 
 plain the question she asked Amyot, revealing as 
 it does the rivalry that probably existed between 
 Mademoiselle de Rohan and herself. 
 
 " Just look at the group of malcontents yonder,"
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 169 
 
 said the Comte de Grammont, pointing to Messieurs 
 de Coligny, the Cardinal de Chatillon, Danville, 
 Thore, Moret, and several other noblemen suspected 
 of dabbling in the Reformation, who were standing 
 together between two windows near the other fire- 
 place. 
 
 " The Huguenots are astir," said Cypierre. " We 
 know that Theodore de Beze is at Nerac to induce 
 the Queen of Navarre to declare for the reformers 
 by abjuring publicly," he added, with a glance at 
 the Bailli of Orleans, who was also chancellor to 
 the Queen of Navarre, and who was keeping watch 
 upon the court. 
 
 " She will do it," rejoined the bailli, dryly. 
 
 This personage, the Jacques Coeur of Orleans, 
 was one of the wealthiest bourgeois of the time; his 
 name was Groslot, and he was Jeanne d'Albret's 
 man of business at the French court. 
 
 "Do you think so?" queried the chancellor of 
 France, appreciating the full import of Groslot's 
 assertion. 
 
 " Do not you know," said the wealthy Orleanais, 
 "that that queen has none of the attributes of 
 woman except her sex? She is entirely devoted to 
 virile pursuits, she has a mind competent to deal 
 with great affairs of State, and her heart is uncon- 
 querable by the greatest disasters." 
 
 " Monsieur le cardinal," said Olivier to Monsieur 
 de Tournon, who had been listening to Groslot, 
 " what think you of such presumption?" 
 
 "The Queen of Navarre was well advised to
 
 170 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 choose for her chancellor a man from whom the 
 House of Lorraine is wont to borrow money, and 
 who offers his house to the king when there is a 
 suggestion of the court going to Orleans," replied 
 the cardinal. 
 
 Thereupon the chancellor and the cardinal ex- 
 changed glances, not venturing to exchange thoughts; 
 but Robertet expressed their thoughts for them, for 
 he deemed it necessary to display greater devotion 
 to the Guises than those great personages, realizing 
 that he was of less consequence than they. 
 
 " It is a great misfortune that the House of Na- 
 varre, instead of abjuring the religion of its fathers, 
 does not abjure the revengeful and rebellious spirit 
 infused into it by the Constable de Bourbon. We 
 are going to see a repetition of the quarrels of 
 Armagnacs and Bourguignons." 
 
 "No," said Groslot, "for there is something of 
 Louis XI. in the Cardinal de Lorraine." 
 
 " And also in Queen Catherine," retorted Rob- 
 ertet. 
 
 At that moment, Madame Dayelle, Queen Mary 
 Stuart's favorite lady's-maid, crossed the hall to- 
 ward the queen's chamber. Her appearance caused 
 a commotion. 
 
 "We shall soon be admitted," said Madame de 
 Fiesco. 
 
 " I think not," replied Madame de Guise; "their 
 Majesties will come out, for there is to be a grand 
 council." 
 
 La Dayelle glided into the royal chamber after
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 171 
 
 scratching at the door, a respectful method of 
 knocking invented by Catherine de' Medici and 
 adopted by the court of France. 
 
 "What is the weather, my dear Dayelle?" said 
 Queen Mary, putting aside the bed-curtains and 
 showing her fresh, fair face. 
 
 "Ah! madame " 
 
 " What is it, my Dayelle? one would say that the 
 archers were at your heels." 
 
 " Oh! madame, is the king still asleep?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 " We are going to leave the chateau, and monsieur 
 le cardinal bade me come and tell you so that you 
 might prepare the king for it." 
 
 " Do you know why, my dear Dayelle?" 
 
 " The reformers intend to kidnap you." 
 
 "Ah! this new religion leaves me no peace! I 
 dreamed last night that I was in prison, /, who am 
 to wear the crowns of the three greatest kingdoms 
 on earth!" 
 
 " So that it was only a dream, madame!" 
 
 " Kidnapped? that would be rather nice; but to 
 be kidnapped on account of religion, and by heretics, 
 is horrible to think of !" 
 
 The queen jumped out of bed and seated herself 
 in a large chair covered with red velvet, in front of 
 the fireplace, after Dayelle had helped her to don a 
 robe de chambre of black velvet, which she secured 
 closely at the waist by a silk cord. Dayelle lighted 
 the fire, for May mornings are decidedly cool on the 
 banks of the Loire.
 
 172 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 " So my uncles have had news during the night?" 
 the queen asked Dayelle, whom she was accustomed 
 to treat with familiarity. 
 
 " All the morning Messieurs de Guise have been 
 walking on the terrace so that nobody could overhear 
 them, and have received messengers who arrived 
 in great haste from different parts of the kingdom 
 where the reformers are moving. Madame the 
 queen-mother was on hand with her Italians, hoping 
 to be consulted, but she was not admitted to the 
 private council." 
 
 " She must be frantic." 
 
 " Especially as there was some anger left over 
 from yesterday," replied Dayelle. " They say that 
 when she saw Your Majesty in your cloth-of-gold 
 dress with your lovely veil of tan-colored crpe, she 
 was not overpleased." 
 
 " Leave us, good Dayelle, the king is waking. 
 Let no one, not even those who have the petite 
 entree, disturb us; affairs of State are involved, and 
 my uncles will not disturb us." 
 
 "Well, well, my dear Mary, out of bed already? 
 Is it daylight?" said the young king, opening his 
 eyes. 
 
 " My dear love, while we sleep, the wicked remain 
 awake and compel us to leave this charming place." 
 
 " Why do you talk about wicked people, my 
 darling? Did we not have the loveliest fte in the 
 world yesterday, except for the Latin words those 
 gentry mingled with our French?" 
 
 "Ah!" said Mary, "that language is considered
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 173 
 
 in very good taste, and Rabelais has already given 
 us examples of it." 
 
 "You are a very learned person, and I am sorry 
 that I cannot praise your talents in verse; if I were 
 not king, I would take Master Amyot away from my 
 brother, who is learning so much from him." 
 
 " Don't envy your brother, who writes verses and 
 shows them to me, asking me to show him mine. 
 I say you are the best of the four, and will make 
 as good a king as you are a charming lover. Per- 
 haps that is the reason your mother cares so little 
 for you! But never fear. Dear heart, I will love 
 you for all the world." 
 
 " I deserve no great credit for loving such a per- 
 fect queen," said the little king. " I do not know 
 what kept me from kissing you yesterday before the 
 whole court when you danced the torch dance! To 
 my eyes all other women seem like servants beside 
 you, my beautiful Mary." 
 
 " Although you speak only in prose, you speak 
 charmingly, my darling; but you see it is love that 
 speaks. And you know well, my best-beloved, that, 
 were you only a poor little page, I would love you 
 as much as I love you now, and yet there is nothing 
 sweeter than to be able to say: ' My lover is king!' ' 
 
 " Oh! what a pretty arm! Why need we dress? 
 I love so to run my fingers through your soft hair, 
 to tangle these fair locks. Ah! my life, do not let 
 your women kiss that white neck, that soft back 
 again, do not allow it! It is too much that the fogs 
 of Scotland should ever have touched them."
 
 174 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 " Won't you come and see my dear country? The 
 Scotch will love you, and there will be no rebellion 
 there as here." 
 
 "Who rebels in our kingdom?" said Francois de 
 Valois, putting on his dressing-gown and taking Mary 
 Stuart on his knee. 
 
 "Oh! this is all very sweet, most assuredly," 
 she said, hiding her cheek from the king, " but by 
 your leave, my gentle sire, you have to reign." 
 
 " Why talk of reigning? It is my will this morn- 
 ing-" 
 
 " Need you say it is my will, when you can do 
 whatever you choose? Such talk is neither kingly 
 nor loverlike. But no matter about that! We have 
 important business on hand." 
 
 "Oho!" said the king, "it is a long while since 
 we have had any business. Is it amusing?" 
 
 "No," said Mary, "it has to do with leaving 
 Blois." 
 
 " I will wager, my love, that you have seen one 
 of your uncles, who manage so well that at seven- 
 teen I appear to be a r&i faineant. In very truth, I 
 do not know why I have continued to attend the 
 councils since the first one. They could do every- 
 thing just as well by putting a crown on my chair, 
 for I see things only through their eyes and give my 
 decisions blindly." 
 
 " O monsieur," cried the queen, standing over the 
 king and pretending to be angry, " it was agreed that 
 you should not worry me any more on that subject, 
 and that my uncles should use the royal power for
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 175 
 
 the welfare of your people. They are a nice lot, 
 this people of yours! if you should undertake to rule 
 them alone, they would swallow you bodily like a 
 strawberry. They need men of war, a stern master 
 and iron-gloved hands; and you, why you are a 
 darling whom I love so dearly and whom I can 
 never love less, do you hear, monsieur?" she said, 
 kissing the forehead of the child, who seemed to 
 be offended at her speech, but whom that caress 
 speedily mollified. 
 
 " Oh! if they were only not your uncles!" cried 
 Francois II. " That cardinal is exceedingly dis- 
 agreeable to me, and when he puts on that whee- 
 dling air of his and his humble manners and says to 
 me, bowing to the ground: ' Sire, the honor of the 
 crown and the faith of your ancestors are at stake 
 here, Your Majesty cannot permit ' And so forth 
 and so on. I am sure that he is at work solely for 
 his infernal House of Lorraine." 
 
 " How well you imitated him!" said the queen. 
 " But why don't you employ these Lorraines to 
 keep you informed of what is going on, so that 
 you can reign yourself, in due time, when you 
 attain your majority? I am your wife, and your 
 honor is mine. We will reign some day, I promise 
 you, my love! But our path will not be all roses 
 until the time comes when we can do as we please, 
 there is nothing so hard for a king to do as to 
 reign. Am I queen, I should like to know? Do you 
 think that your mother doesn't repay me in evil for 
 all that my uncles are doing for the splendor of your
 
 176 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 throne? And what a difference! My uncles are 
 great princes, nephews of Charlemagne, full of es- 
 teem for you and only too willing to die for you; 
 whereas this daughter of a doctor or shopkeeper, a 
 queen by accident, is as shrewish as a bourgeoise 
 who doesn't rule in her own house. On all occa- 
 sions this Italian shows me her pale, solemn face, 
 like a woman who is displeased because she can't 
 turn everything upside-down; and she says with 
 her thin, pinched lips: ' My daughter, you are queen 
 and I am only the second woman in the kingdom.' 
 She is frantic, don't you see, my darling? ' But if I 
 were in your place I would not wear scarlet velvet 
 while all the court is in mourning, nor would I appear 
 in public with my hair smooth and without jewels, 
 because a thing that is unbecoming to a simple lady 
 is still less becoming to a queen. Also I should not 
 dance myself, but should content myself with watch- 
 ing others dance!' That is the way she talks to 
 me." 
 
 " Oh! mon Dieu ! " exclaimed the king, " I believe 
 1 hear her. Mon Dieu I if she should know " 
 
 "Ah! you still tremble before her," she replied. 
 "She annoys you, doesn't she? Let us send her 
 away. Faith! as for deceiving you, we must expect 
 that, she is from Florence; but when it comes to 
 annoying you " 
 
 " In Heaven's name, hush, Mary!" said Francois, 
 afraid and well pleased at the same time; " I should 
 not like you to lose her friendship." 
 
 " Have no fear that she will ever fall out with me,
 
 AT THE CHATEAU OF BLOIS 
 
 "Let us go" said the king. 
 
 " Go! " cried the grand master, suddenly entering 
 the room. " Yes, sire, -we must leave Blois. Pardon 
 my boldness ; but circumstances are more important 
 than etiquette, and I come to beg you to hold a 
 council"
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 177 
 
 who wear the three grandest crowns in the world, 
 my dear little king," said Mary Stuart. "Although 
 she hates me for a thousand reasons, she cajoles me 
 in order to separate me from my uncles." 
 
 " Hates you!" 
 
 "Yes, my angel; if I had not innumerable proofs 
 of that sentiment, of the sort that women give one 
 another, proofs whose malicious meaning they alone 
 understand, her constant opposition to our love 
 would be enough. Is it my fault that your father 
 was never able to endure Mademoiselle de' Medici? 
 Indeed, she loves me so little that, if you had not 
 lost your temper, we should have had separate 
 apartments, here and at Saint-Germain. She de- 
 clared that that was the custom among kings and 
 queens of France. Custom! it was your father's 
 custom, and no wonder. As for your grandfather, 
 Francois, the goodman adopted the custom for the 
 convenience of his amours. So be very careful, if 
 we go away from here, that the grand master does 
 not part us." 
 
 "If we go away from here, Mary? Why, I do 
 not propose to leave this delightful chateau, from 
 which we can see the Loire and Blois and its neigh- 
 borhood, a town at our feet, and the loveliest sky in 
 the world over our heads, and these beautiful gar- 
 dens. If 1 go from here, it will be to go to Italy with 
 you, to see Saint Peter's, and Raphael's pictures." 
 
 "And the orange-trees? Oh! my darling king, if 
 you knew how your Mary longs to walk under 
 orange-trees in flower and fruit! Alas! perhaps I
 
 178 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 shall never see such things. Oh! to hear an Italian 
 song under those perfumed trees, on the shore of a 
 blue ocean, beneath a blue sky, and to sit together 
 thus!" 
 
 " Let us go," said the king. 
 
 " Go!" cried the grand master, suddenly entering 
 the room. " Yes, sire, we must leave Blois. Pardon 
 my boldness; but circumstances are more impor- 
 tant than etiquette, and I come to beg you to hold a 
 council." 
 
 Mary and Francois had hastily separated, when 
 they were thus taken by surprise, and their faces 
 wore the same expression of offended royal majesty. 
 
 " You are a too grand master, Monsieur de Guise," 
 said the young king, restraining his wrath. 
 
 " To the devil with lovers!" the cardinal whispered 
 in Catherine's ear. 
 
 " My son," said the queen-mother, appearing from 
 behind the cardinal, " the safety of your person and 
 of your kingdom is at stake." 
 
 " Heresy was awake while you were sleeping, 
 sire," said the cardinal. 
 
 "Withdraw to the council-hall," said the little 
 king, " and we will hold a council." 
 
 " Madame," said the grand master to the queen, 
 " your furrier's son has brought you your furs, 
 which arrive very opportunely for the journey, 
 for it is probable that we shall go by the Loire. 
 But," he added, turning to the queen-mother, "he 
 wishes to speak to you as well, madame. While 
 the king is dressing, will not you and Madame la
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 179 
 
 reine despatch your business with him, so that we 
 may not be annoyed and delayed by this trifling 
 matter?" 
 
 " Certainly," said Catherine, adding mentally: 
 "If he expects to get rid of me by such ruses, he 
 does not know me."
 
 The cardinal and the duke withdrew, leaving the 
 two queens and the king together. As he passed 
 through the salle des gardes on his way to the salle 
 du conseil, the grand master bade the usher bring 
 the queen's furrier before him. When Christophe 
 saw the usher, whom he took for a personage of im- 
 portance, coming toward him from the farther end 
 of the hall, his heart failed him; and the sensation of 
 alarm, so natural at the approach of the critical mo- 
 ment, became horrible when the usher, whose move- 
 ments resulted in directing the eyes of the whole 
 brilliant assemblage upon Christophe, his packages, 
 and his shabby aspect, said to him: 
 
 " Messeigneurs the Cardinal de Lorraine and the 
 grand master have sent for you to speak with them 
 in the council-chamber." 
 
 "Can I have been betrayed?" thought the de- 
 fenceless ambassador of the reformers. 
 
 He followed the usher, keeping his eyes on the 
 ground, and did not raise them until he had been 
 ushered into the vast salle du conseil, which was 
 almost equal in size to the salle des gardes. The 
 two Lorraine princes were standing before the 
 superb fireplace on the other side of the partition 
 from the one in the salle des gardes, before which 
 the maids of honor of the two queens were standing. 
 (181)
 
 1 82 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 " You come from Paris; what route did you take?" 
 
 " I came by water, monseigneur." 
 
 " How did you enter Blois?" said the grand 
 master. 
 
 " By way of the harbor, monseigneur." 
 
 "And no one molested you?" said the duke, 
 keeping his eyes fixed on the young man. 
 
 " No, monseigneur. I told the first soldier who 
 seemed disposed to stop me, that I had come on 
 business with the two queens, whose furrier my 
 father is." 
 
 "What is going on in Paris?" the cardinal in- 
 quired. 
 
 " They are still searching for the murderer of 
 President Minard." 
 
 " Aren't you the son of my surgeon's greatest 
 friend?" said the Due de Guise, deceived by the 
 innocent expression assumed by Christophe as soon 
 as his first alarm had subsided. 
 
 "Yes, monseigneur." 
 
 The grand master turned away, hastily raised 
 the portiere which concealed the folding-doors of the 
 salle du conseil, and showed his face to the whole 
 assemblage, seeking the king's first surgeon. Am- 
 broise, who was standing in a corner, met the duke's 
 eye and walked toward him. Ambroise, who was 
 already leaning toward the Reformed religion, ended 
 by adopting it; but the friendship of the Guises and 
 of the kings of France sheltered him from all the 
 disasters which overtook the reformers. The duke, 
 who considered that he was indebted to Ambroise
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 183 
 
 Pare for his life, had procured his appointment as 
 the king's first surgeon some days before. 
 
 " What is your will, monseigneur?" said Ambroise. 
 " Is the king ill? I should not be surprised." 
 
 "Why so?" 
 
 " The queen is too pretty," the surgeon replied. 
 
 " Oho!" ejaculated the duke, in surprise. " How- 
 ever, that is not why I wanted you," he continued, 
 after a pause. "Ambroise, I want to introduce you to 
 a friend of yours," he said, leading him to the door 
 of the council-chamber and pointing to Christophe. 
 
 "Ah! true, monseigneur," cried the surgeon, 
 holding out his hand to Christophe. " How's your 
 father, my boy?" 
 
 "Very well, Master Ambroise," Christophe re- 
 plied. 
 
 "Why on earth have you come to court?" said 
 the surgeon; " it is not your business to carry pack- 
 ages, your father intends to make you a lawyer. 
 Do you seek the patronage of these two great princes 
 to help you in your profession?" 
 
 "Mon Dieu, yes," said Christophe, "and in my 
 father's interest, too; if you can intercede for us," 
 he said, assuming a piteous expression, "pray add 
 your entreaties to mine to obtain from Monseigneur 
 the Grand Master an order for the payment of the 
 sums due to my father, for he does not know which 
 way to turn." 
 
 The cardinal and the grand master exchanged 
 glances and seemed satisfied. 
 
 " Now leave us," said the grand master, waving
 
 184 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 his hand to Ambroise. " And do you, my friend," 
 he said to Christophe, " settle your business speedily 
 and return to Paris. My secretary will give you a 
 safe-conduct ; for it will not be safe travelling on the 
 high-roads, mordieu!" 
 
 Neither of the two brothers had the slightest sus- 
 picion of the momentous interests dependent upon 
 Christophe, being fully satisfied that he was really 
 the son of that loyal Catholic, Lecamus, furrier to 
 the court, and that he had come only to procure his 
 money. 
 
 " Take him to the queen's chamber; she will ask 
 for him in a moment, doubtless," said the cardinal 
 to the surgeon, pointing to Christophe. 
 
 While the furrier's son was being questioned in 
 the salle du conseil, the king had left the queen with 
 her mother-in-law and gone to his dressing-room, 
 which was reached through the cabinet adjoining the 
 chamber. 
 
 Standing in the broad recess of an enormous 
 window, Queen Catherine was gazing out upon the 
 gardens, a prey to the most melancholy thoughts. 
 She foresaw that one of the greatest soldiers of the 
 age would be substituted that very morning, in- 
 stantly, for her son, for the King of France, under 
 the redoubtable title of lieutenant-general of the 
 kingdom. In face of that peril, she was alone, 
 powerless to act, defenceless. In her mourning 
 garb, which she never laid aside after the death of 
 Henri II., she could fittingly be compared to a phan- 
 tom, her pale face had become so statuelike by much
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 185 
 
 reflection. Her black eyes floated in that indecision 
 which is considered so blameworthy in great politi- 
 cians, but which is due to the very extent of the 
 glance with which they descry all the difficulties in 
 their path, setting them off against one another, and 
 computing the chances, so to speak, before making 
 up their minds. Her ears were ringing, her blood was 
 rushing madly through her veins, and yet she main- 
 tained a dignified, tranquil bearing, measuring the 
 depth of the political abyss in excess of that of the 
 physical abyss that lay at her feet. As the day of 
 the arrest of the Vidame de Chartres was the first, so 
 this was the second of those terrible days which were 
 so numerous during the remainder of her royal life; 
 but this was her last blunder in the school of power. 
 Although the sceptre seemed to be escaping from her 
 hands, she was determined to grasp it, and she did 
 grasp it by virtue of that powerful will, which was 
 never tired out, either by the contempt of her father- 
 in-law, Francois II., and his court, where she had 
 been of so little consequence, dauphiness though she 
 was, or by the constant slights of Henri II., or by the 
 formidable opposition of her rival, Diane de Poitiers. 
 A man would have utterly failed to understand 
 this thwarted queen ; but the fair-haired Mary, 
 shrewd, clever creature that she was, so girlish and 
 withal so well informed, watched her out of the 
 corner of her eye, humming an Italian air and feign- 
 ing indifference. Although she could not divine the 
 tempest of restrained ambition which brought drops 
 of cold perspiration to the Florentine's brow, the
 
 1 86 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 pretty Scotch girl with the roguish face knew that 
 the elevation of her uncle the Due de Guise caused 
 Catherine to rage and fume inwardly. Now, noth- 
 ing was so entertaining to her as to play the spy 
 upon her mother-in-law, whom she considered an 
 intriguing creature, an upstart humiliated and al- 
 ways ready to grasp an opportunity for revenge. 
 Her face was grave and moody, almost terrifying, 
 because of the livid hue of the women of Italy which 
 makes their complexion resemble yellow ivory by 
 daylight, although it becomes dazzlingly brilliant by 
 candle-light; whereas the other's face was rosy and 
 merry. At sixteen years of age, Mary Stuart's com- 
 plexion had that pure whiteness of a perfect blonde 
 which made her so celebrated. Her fresh, piquant 
 face, so pure in outline, sparkled with childish 
 roguishness, clearly expressed in the regularity of her 
 eyebrows, in the bright sparkle of her eyes, and in 
 the saucy curve of her lovely mouth. Thus early 
 in life she displayed those kittenish charms which 
 nothing could destroy not captivity, nor the ghastly 
 sight of her own scaffold. Thus, those two queens, 
 one at the dawn, the other in the summer of life, 
 formed a most complete contrast to each other. 
 Catherine was an imposing queen, an impenetrable 
 widow, with no other passion than the passion for 
 power. Mary was a giddy creature, a heedless 
 bride, who made playthings of her queenly crowns. 
 The former foresaw terrible disasters, she had 
 visions of the assassination of the Guises, divining 
 that that would prove to be the only method of
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 187 
 
 crushing men who were quite capable of rising 
 above the throne and the Parliament; and she fore- 
 saw the bloodshed of a long conflict; the other had 
 no suspicion that she was destined to be murdered 
 under the forms of law. A curious reflection re- 
 stored the Italian's tranquillity to some extent. 
 
 "According to what the soothsayer and Ruggieri 
 say, this reign will soon end; my embarrassment 
 will be of brief duration," she thought. 
 
 Thus, strangely enough, an occult science, to-day 
 unknown, judicial astrology, served Catherine as 
 a prop at that moment, as it did throughout her life, 
 for her faith in it constantly increased as she saw 
 that the predictions of those who practised that 
 science were fulfilled with minute exactness. 
 
 " You are very thoughtful, madame, are you not?" 
 said Mary Stuart, as she took from Dayelle's hands 
 the little cap which she wore on top of her head, 
 with its two wings of rich lace resting on the fair 
 locks which clustered about her temples. 
 
 Painters with their brushes have so often repre- 
 sented that head-dress that it may be considered as 
 belonging exclusively to the Queen of Scots, al- 
 though Catherine designed it for herself when she 
 was obliged to wear mourning for Henri II.; but 
 she could not wear it with the graceful charm of her 
 daughter-in-law, to whom it was far more becoming. 
 This was not the least of the queen-mother's many 
 grievances against the young queen. 
 
 "Does the queen mean to reproach me?" said 
 Catherine, turning toward her daughter-in-law.
 
 1 88 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 " I owe you all respect and should not dare," 
 retorted the Scotch girl, maliciously, glancing at 
 Dayelle. 
 
 The favorite maid stood between the two queens 
 as motionless as a fire-dog; a smile of approbation 
 might cost her her life. 
 
 " How can I be as light of heart as you, just after 
 losing the late king, and when I see that my son's 
 kingdom is on the point of bursting into flame?" 
 
 " Women have little concern with political affairs," 
 rejoined Mary Stuart. "At all events, my uncles are 
 here." 
 
 Those words were like poisoned arrows under 
 existing circumstances. 
 
 " Let us look at our furs, madame," replied the 
 Italian, ironically; "in that way we can attend to 
 our proper affairs while your uncles decide the affairs 
 of the realm." 
 
 "Oh! but we shall be present at the council, 
 madame; we are more useful there than you imag- 
 ine." 
 
 "We?" said Catherine, with an air of amaze- 
 ment. " But I do not know Latin." 
 
 "You think me very learned!" laughed Mary 
 Stuart. "Ah! well, madame, I give you my word 
 that at this moment I am studying to know as much 
 as the Medicis, so that I may be able some day to 
 cure the wounds of the kingdom." 
 
 Catherine was cut to the heart by that stinging 
 retort which alluded to the origin of the Medicis, 
 who were descended, according to some authorities,
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 189 
 
 from a physician, and according to others, from a 
 wealthy druggist. She could think of no retort. 
 Dayelle blushed when her mistress looked at her 
 in search of the applause which everybody, even 
 a queen, craves from her inferiors when there are 
 no spectators. 
 
 "Your charming words, madame, unfortunately 
 cannot cure either the wounds of the State or those 
 of the Church," observed Catherine, with calm, cold 
 dignity. "My ancestors' knowledge, in that direction, 
 gave them thrones; whereas you may lose yours, if, 
 while danger is impending, you continue to jest." 
 
 At this juncture, Dayelle opened the door and 
 admitted Christophe, whom the first surgeon him- 
 self announced by scratching. 
 
 The reformer attempted to study Catherine's 
 face, feigning an embarrassment by no means un- 
 natural in such a place; but he was taken by sur- 
 prise by the vivacity of Queen Mary, who pounced 
 upon his package in her haste to see her surcot. 
 
 "Madame," said Christophe, addressing the Flor- 
 entine. 
 
 He turned his back to the other queen and Dayelle, 
 taking instant advantage of the attention the two 
 women were bestowing upon the furs to attempt a 
 bold stroke. 
 
 "What do you wish with me?" said Catherine, 
 darting a piercing glance at him. 
 
 Christophe had placed the treaty proposed by the 
 Prince de Conde, the plan of operations of the re- 
 formers, and the detailed statement of their forces,
 
 190 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 between his shirt and his broadcloth doublet, the 
 whole wrapped in the memorandum of the sum 
 Catherine owed the furrier. 
 
 " Madame," he said, " my father is sadly in need 
 of money, and if you will deign to cast your eyes 
 upon our account," he added, unfolding the paper 
 and placing the treaty uppermost, " you will see 
 that Your Majesty owes him six thousand crowns. 
 Pray take pity on us. See, madame!" 
 
 And he handed her the treaty. 
 
 " Read. It dates from the late king's accession to 
 the throne." 
 
 Catherine was bewildered by the preamble of the 
 treaty, but she did not lose her head; she hastily 
 rolled up the paper, admiring the young man's hardi- 
 hood and presence of mind; that masterly stroke made 
 her feel certain that she would be understood, and she 
 said, tapping his cheek with the roll of paper: 
 
 " You are very awkward, my young friend, to pre- 
 sent the account before the furs. You must learn to 
 know women better! You should never present your 
 bill until we are satisfied." 
 
 " Is that a tradition?" the young queen asked her 
 mother-in-law, who made no reply. 
 
 " Oh! mesdames, pray excuse my father," said 
 Christophe. "If he were not in need of money, 
 you would not have had your furs. The country is 
 up in arms, and there is so much danger on the 
 roads that nothing less than our distress would have 
 brought me here. No one but myself was willing to 
 venture."
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 191 
 
 " This lad is decidedly inexperienced," said Mary 
 Stuart, with a smile. 
 
 It may be well, for the understanding of this trivial 
 but momentous scene, to remark that a surcot was, 
 as the word itself indicates, surcotte, a sort of tight- 
 fitting jacket, which women wore over their bodices, 
 and which reached to the hips, following the outline 
 of the figure. It protected the back, the chest, and 
 the neck from the cold. Surcots were lined with fur 
 of which there was also a border on the outside, 
 wider or narrower, as it happened. Mary Stuart, as 
 she tried on the new garment, looked at herself in a 
 great Venetian mirror to see how it fitted behind; 
 she thus gave her mother-in-law an opportunity to 
 examine the papers, the bulk of which might other- 
 wise have aroused her suspicion. 
 
 " Does a man ever speak to women of the risks 
 he has run, when he has come through them safe 
 and sound and can see them?" said the young queen 
 to Christophe, turning so that he could see her. 
 
 "Ah! madame, I have your account, too," he 
 said, looking at her with well-feigned simplicity. 
 
 The young queen looked closely at him without 
 taking the paper, and noticed, but did not attach the 
 least importance to the fact, that he had taken 
 Queen Catherine's account from his bosom, while 
 he produced hers from his pocket. Nor did she see 
 in the boy's eyes the admiration which her beauty 
 aroused in everybody; but she was so engrossed by 
 her surcot that she did not at once ask herself the 
 explanation of his indifference.
 
 IQ2 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 " Take the account, Dayelle!" she said to her 
 maid; " you will hand it to Monsieur de Versailles 
 Lomenie and tell him from me to pay it." 
 
 " Oh! madame, unless you obtain an order for 
 me signed by the king or by the grand master, who 
 is in yonder hall, your gracious word would have no 
 effect." 
 
 " You are more malapert than becomes a subject, 
 my friend," said Mary Stuart. " Have you no faith, 
 pray, in royal promises?" 
 
 At that moment, the king appeared, in silk stock- 
 ings and knee-breeches, the trousers of that period, 
 but without doublet or cloak; he wore a rich vel- 
 vet redingote edged with menu-vair miniver; that is 
 the only term in our modern language which will 
 describe the king's undress costume. 
 
 "Who is the knave that dares doubt your word?" 
 said Francois, who heard his wife's last remark, not- 
 withstanding the distance between them. 
 
 The door of the cabinet was concealed by the 
 royal bed. It was called at a later period the " old 
 cabinet," to distinguish it from the rich cabinet of 
 paintings which Henri III. arranged at the other ex- 
 tremity of the apartment, toward the hall of the 
 States General. Henri III. concealed the murderers 
 in this old cabinet, and sent to the Due de Guise to 
 join him there; and, during the murder, he remained 
 hidden in the new cabinet, whence he emerged only 
 in time to witness the death of that audacious sub- 
 ject, for whom there was no prison, no court, no 
 judges, no laws in the realm. Except for that
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 193 
 
 ghastly circumstance, the historian would find diffi- 
 culty to-day in identifying all these halls and cabi- 
 nets, now filled with soldiers. A quartermaster 
 writes to his mistress on the very spot where Cath- 
 erine, lost in thought, determined upon her conflict 
 with the various factions. 
 
 "Come, my friend," said the queen-mother, 
 "and I will see that you are paid. Trade must 
 live, and money is its principal nerve." 
 
 "Go, my dear youth," said the young queen, 
 with a laugh; "my august mother is better versed 
 than I in commercial affairs." 
 
 Catherine was about to leave the room with- 
 out replying to this last epigram; but she reflected 
 that her indifference might awake suspicion, so she 
 quickly retorted: 
 
 " And you, my dear, understand the commerce of 
 love better than I." 
 
 With that she took her leave. 
 
 " Put away the furs, Dayelle. And let us go to 
 the council, monsieur," said the young queen, over- 
 joyed at the opportunity to decide, in the queen- 
 mother's absence, the momentous question of the 
 lieutenancy of the kingdom. 
 
 Mary Stuart took the king's arm. Dayelle went 
 out first, saying a word to the pages; and one of 
 them, young Teligny, who was destined to die a 
 shocking death in the Saint-Bartholomew affair, 
 cried out: 
 
 "The king!" 
 
 At the word, the two arquebusiers presented arms 
 13
 
 194 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 and the two pages led the way toward the council- 
 chamber, through the double line formed by the 
 courtiers and the female attendants of the two 
 queens. All the members of the council gathered 
 in a group at the door of the council-chamber, which 
 was only a short distance from the door leading to 
 the staircase. The grand master, the cardinal, 
 and the chancellor stepped forward to meet the 
 youthful sovereigns, who smiled at some of the 
 maids of honor and answered the questions of a few 
 courtiers who were on more familiar terms than the 
 others. But the young queen was evidently im- 
 patient, and drew Francois II. toward the great 
 council-chamber. When the heavy sound of the 
 arquebuses, ringing on the floor, announced that 
 the royal couple had entered, the pages replaced 
 their caps on their heads, and the noblemen con- 
 tinued their private conversations concerning the 
 momentous affairs about to be discussed. 
 
 " They sent Chiverni to summon the constable, 
 and he has not come," said one. 
 
 " There is no prince of the blood here," observed 
 another. 
 
 " The chancellor and Monsieur de Tournon seemed 
 very anxious!" 
 
 " The grand master sent word to the keeper of the 
 seals not to fail to be present at the council; doubtless 
 there will be some new letters patent as the result 
 of it." 
 
 " How can the queen-mother remain below, in her 
 own apartments, at such a moment?"
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI IQ5 
 
 " They are going to cut out some work for us," 
 said Groslot to the Cardinal de Chatillon. 
 
 In fact, everyone had his word to say. Some 
 went in and out of the great hall, others fluttered 
 about the attendants of the two queens, as if they 
 hoped to catch a word or two through a wall three 
 feet thick, or through two doors and the rich por- 
 tieres which hung before them. 
 
 Seated at the head of the long table covered with 
 blue velvet, which stood in the centre of the council- 
 chamber, the king, by whose side the young queen 
 had taken her place in a great armchair, was await- 
 ing his mother. Robertet was mending his pens. 
 The two cardinals, the grand master, the chancellor, 
 the keeper of the seals, the whole council, in short, 
 watched the little king, wondering why he did not 
 bid them be seated. 
 
 " Shall we deliberate in the absence of Madame 
 la reine mere?" said the chancellor, addressing the 
 king. 
 
 The two Lorraine princes attributed Catherine's 
 absence to some stratagem on their niece's part. 
 Inspired by a significant glance from her, the pre- 
 sumptuous cardinal said to the king: 
 
 "Is it the king's good pleasure that we begin 
 without Madame la reine mere?" 
 
 Francois II., not daring to declare his wishes, 
 answered: 
 
 " Be seated, messieurs." 
 
 The cardinal set forth briefly the perils of the sit- 
 uation. That great politician, who was wonderfully
 
 196 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 adroit in such emergencies, broached the question of 
 the lieutenancy amid a profound silence. Doubtless 
 the young king was conscious of a feeling of oppres- 
 sion and realized that his mother had the utmost re- 
 gard for the rights of the crown, and knew by what 
 dangers his power was threatened, for he replied to 
 a further direct question from the cardinal: 
 " Let us await the queen my mother." 
 Enlightened by Queen Catherine's extraordinary 
 delay, Mary suddenly, at the same instant, recalled 
 three circumstances, which she remembered vividly. 
 First, the great bulk of the account presented to her 
 mother-in-law, which had impressed her although 
 her mind was elsewhere, for a woman who seems to 
 see nothing is a veritable lynx; secondly, the place 
 in which Christophe kept it, separate from her own. 
 " Why was that?" she wondered. 
 And, thirdly, she remembered the fellow's indif- 
 ferent expression, which she at once attributed to 
 a reformer's hatred of the niece of the Guises. An 
 inward voice cried out: " Might he not be a mes- 
 senger of the Huguenots?" Obeying, like all ardent 
 natures, her first impulse, she said: 
 
 " I will go myself and bring my mother!" 
 With that she abruptly left the room and ran 
 hastily downstairs, to the unbounded amazement of 
 courtiers and ladies; she went down to her mother- 
 in-law's suite, passed through the salle des gardes on 
 that floor, opened the bedroom door as cautiously 
 as a thief, glided through like a shadow, and saw 
 her nowhere; she thought that she was certain to
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 197 
 
 surprise her in the superb closet between the bed- 
 room and the oratory. The arrangement of that 
 oratory, which, by the customs of that epoch, played 
 the same part in private life that is played by the 
 boudoir to-day, can still be recognized. 
 
 By a chance that seems inexplicable when we 
 consider the state of dilapidation in which the crown 
 leaves the chateau of Blois, the beautiful wainscoting 
 of Catherine's closet still exists, and in that finely 
 carved wainscoting the curious observer can still 
 detect traces of its Italian magnificence and dis- 
 cover the hiding-places which the queen-mother had 
 had made there. An exact description of these curi- 
 osities is essential to a proper understanding of what 
 was about to take place. The wainscoting consisted 
 of about a hundred and eighty small oblong panels, of 
 which a hundred or more still exist, all embellished 
 with arabesques of different designs, evidently sug- 
 gested by the most beautiful arabesques of Italy. 
 The wood is evergreen oak. The red which we find 
 under the whitewash, which was laid on as a pro- 
 tection against cholera, a useless precaution, indi- 
 cates clearly enough that the background of the 
 panels was gilded. The spots where the white- 
 wash has dropped off seem to indicate that certain 
 parts of the design were painted in colors, red or 
 blue or green, on the gold background. The multi- 
 tude of the panels clearly reveals a purpose to mis- 
 lead prying eyes; but, if we are inclined to doubt it, 
 the concierge of the chateau, while commending 
 Catherine's memory to the execration of the human
 
 ig8 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 race of the present day, points out to visitors, at the 
 base of the wainscoting, on a level with the floor, a 
 heavy base-board, which can be lifted, and beneath 
 which an ingenious arrangement of springs can still 
 be seen. By pressing a spring thus concealed, the 
 queen could open certain of the panels known to her 
 alone, behind which, in the wall, there is an oblong 
 hiding-place of the same size as the panel, but of con- 
 siderable depth. Even to-day the most expert eye 
 would find it difficult to decide which one of all those 
 panels will move in response to that invisible spring; 
 and when the eyes were bewildered by colors and 
 gilding carefully arranged to conceal the cracks, one 
 can readily believe that it was impossible to select 
 one or two panels out of two hundred. 
 
 As Mary Stuart put her hand on the latch of the 
 complicated lock of this closet, the Italian, who had 
 had time to convince herself of the magnitude of the 
 Prince de Conde's plans, had just pressed the spring 
 concealed behind the base-board, one of the panels 
 had sunk out of sight, and Catherine was turning to 
 take the papers from the table, intending to hide 
 them, and then to look to the safety of the devoted 
 emissary who brought them. Hearing the door open, 
 she knew that Queen Mary alone could have entered 
 unannounced. 
 
 " You are lost," she said to Christophe, seeing 
 that she had not time to put the papers away or to 
 close the panel quickly enough to prevent the dis- 
 covery of her secret. 
 
 Christophe replied with a sublime glance.
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 199 
 
 " Powero mio!" said Catherine, before turning to 
 her daughter-in-law. " Treason, madame, I have 
 them," she cried. " Send for the cardinal and the 
 duke. Do not let this man leave the room!" she 
 added, pointing to Christophe. 
 
 In an instant that shrewd woman had determined 
 that it was necessary to abandon the unfortunate 
 youth; she could not hide him, it was impossible to 
 save him. Moreover, a week earlier there would 
 still have been time; but the Guises had known the 
 whole conspiracy since that morning, they un- 
 doubtedly had the lists which she held in her hand, 
 and were evidently leading the reformers into a trap. 
 And so, although she was delighted to have dis- 
 covered in her adversaries the spirit she hoped to 
 find in them, policy demanded that, as the spark 
 had failed to ignite, she should claim credit for that 
 failure. This pitiless decision was reached in the 
 brief moment while the queen was opening the door. 
 For an instant, Mary Stuart said not a word. Her 
 face lost its gayety and assumed the piercing ex- 
 pression which suspicion gives to the eyes of every 
 man or woman, and which in her case was made 
 terrible by the suddenness of the contrast. Her 
 eyes-ranged from the queen-mother to Christophe 
 and from Christophe to the queen-mother, alive 
 with malevolent suspicions. Then she rang a bell 
 which was answered by one of the queen-mother's 
 attendants. 
 
 " Mademoiselle de Rouet, send hither the captain 
 of the guard who is on duty," said Mary to the
 
 200 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 maid of honor, contrary to etiquette, which is nec- 
 essarily thrust aside on such occasions. 
 
 While the young queen gave this order, Catherine 
 looked earnestly at Christophe, saying to him by 
 her glance: " Courage!" The reformer understood, 
 and replied with a glance which signified: "Sacrifice 
 me as they sacrifice me!" " Rely upon me," Cath- 
 erine rejoined with a gesture. Then, as her daughter- 
 in-law turned, she became absorbed in the papers. 
 
 "You are of the Reformed religion?" Mary asked 
 Christophe. 
 
 "Yes, madame," he replied. 
 
 " I was not mistaken," she muttered, detecting 
 again in the reformer's eyes that same glance, 
 wherein indifference and hatred were disguised be- 
 neath an affectation of humility. 
 
 Pardaillan suddenly appeared, sent by the Lorraine 
 princes and the king. The captain for whom Mary 
 Stuart had sent followed that young nobleman, who 
 was one of the most devoted Guisards. 
 
 " Go and say to the king, the grand master, 
 and the cardinal that I ask them to come hither, and 
 assure them that I should not take this liberty had 
 not something of superior importance occurred. Go, 
 Pardaillan. And do you, Lewiston, keep close watch 
 upon this traitor of a Huguenot," she said to the Scot 
 in her mother-tongue, pointing to Christophe. 
 
 The young queen and the queen-mother did not 
 exchange a word until the arrival of the princes and 
 the king. It was a terrible moment. 
 
 Mary Stuart had disclosed to her mother-in-law in
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 2OI 
 
 its fullest extent the part which her uncles caused 
 her to play; her habitual, constant distrust had made 
 itself manifest, and that youthful conscience felt 
 keenly how dishonoring to a young queen that part 
 was. Catherine, for her part, had acted as she had 
 through fear, she was afraid that her action would 
 be understood, and she trembled for her future. 
 Each of those two women, the one shamefaced and 
 indignant, the other overflowing with hatred, but 
 calm, walked to the window-recess and leaned 
 against the wall, one at the right, the other at the 
 left; but their glances were so eloquent of their 
 feelings that they averted their eyes, and resorting to 
 the same artifice, gazed through the window at the 
 sky. At that moment, those two superior women 
 displayed no more wit than the most commonplace 
 of mortals. Perhaps it is generally thus when 
 human beings are overwhelmed by circumstances. 
 There is always a time when genius itself feels its 
 littleness in presence of great disasters. As for 
 Christophe, he was like a man who is falling over a 
 precipice. Lewiston, the Scottish captain, listened 
 during this silence; he watched the furrier's son and 
 the two queens with soldierly curiosity. The en- 
 trance of the young king and his two uncles put an 
 end to this painful situation. The cardinal went 
 straight to the queen-mother. 
 
 " I hold all the threads of the heretics' conspiracy; 
 they sent yonder child to me with this treaty and 
 these other documents," said Catherine, in a low 
 voice.
 
 202 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 While Catherine was conversing with the cardinal, 
 Queen Mary whispered a few words in the grand 
 master's ear. 
 
 " What is all this about?" said the young king, 
 who was left alone amid these fiercely clashing 
 interests. 
 
 " The proofs of what I said to Your Majesty are 
 not slow in coming," said the cardinal, seizing the 
 papers. 
 
 The Due de Guise took his brother aside, heedless 
 of the fact that he interrupted him, and whispered : 
 
 " This makes me lieutenant-general without oppo- 
 sition." 
 
 A crafty glance was the cardinal's only reply; it 
 gave his brother to understand that he had already 
 grasped all the advantages to be derived from Cath- 
 erine's false position. 
 
 " Who sent you?" said the duke to Christophe. 
 
 " Chaudieu the minister," was the reply. 
 
 "Young man, you lie!" said the soldier, quickly, 
 " it was the Prince de Conde!" 
 
 "The Prince de Conde, monseigneur?" rejoined 
 Christophe, with a surprised air; "I never met 
 him. I am from the Palais de Justice, I am study- 
 ing with Monsieur de Thou, I am his secretary and 
 he doesn't know that I am of the religion. 1 yielded 
 only at the minister's persistent entreaty." 
 
 "Enough," said the cardinal. " Summon Mon- 
 sieur le Robertet," he said to Lewiston, "for this 
 young knave is craftier than many old politicians; 
 he has deceived my brother, and myself, too, who
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 203 
 
 would have given him the sacrament without con- 
 fession." 
 
 "You are no child, morbleu!" cried the duke, 
 " and we will treat you as a man." 
 
 " He attempted to corrupt your august mother," 
 said the cardinal, addressing the king, and trying to 
 lead him aside in order to bring him around to his 
 cunning designs. 
 
 " Alas!" rejoined the queen, assuming a reproach- 
 ful expression, and detaining her son as the cardinal 
 was leading him into the oratory to subject him to 
 his perilous eloquence; " you see the result of my 
 present situation; I am naturally supposed to be irri- 
 tated because I, the mother of four princes of the 
 House of Valois, have so little influence in public 
 affairs." 
 
 The young king became attentive; Mary Stuart, 
 seeing that his brow contracted, took his arm and 
 led him into the window recess, where she cajoled 
 him with soft words spoken in an undertone, and 
 doubtless of the same nature as those she had said to 
 him just before when they rose. The two brothers 
 seized the opportunity to read the papers handed 
 them by Queen Catherine. Finding therein intel- 
 ligence of which their spies and Monsieur de Brague- 
 lonne, the lieutenant criminal of the Chatelet, had 
 no knowledge, they were inclined to believe in 
 Catherine de' Medici's good faith. Robertet came 
 and received secret orders relative to Christophe. 
 The youthful instrument of the leaders of the Refor- 
 mation was thereupon taken away by four of the
 
 204 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 Scottish Guards who led him downstairs and deliv- 
 ered him to Monsieur de Montresor, provost of the 
 chateau. That redoubtable official in person, at- 
 tended by five of his sergeants, conducted Chris- 
 tophe to the prison of the chateau in the vaulted 
 cellars of the tower now in ruins, which the con- 
 cierge of the chateau of Blois points out to visitors 
 to-day with the remark that the dungeons used to 
 be there. 
 
 After such an episode, the council could be noth- 
 ing more than a mere formal affair; the king, the 
 young queen, the grand master, and the Cardinal 
 de Lorraine returned to the council-chamber, accom- 
 panied by the vanquished Catherine, who did not 
 speak except to assent to the measures recom- 
 mended by the Lorraines. Notwithstanding the 
 faint opposition of the Chancellor Olivier, the only 
 person who uttered a word suggestive of the inde- 
 pendence necessary for the proper discharge of his 
 functions, the Due de Guise was appointed lieu- 
 tenant-general of the kingdom. Robertet produced 
 the necessary documents with a promptitude indic- 
 ative of a slavish devotion which might be called 
 complicity. 
 
 The king, offering his arm to his mother, once 
 more passed through the satte des gardes, informing 
 the court that he proposed to go to the chateau of 
 Amboise on the following day. That royal resi- 
 dence had been abandoned since Charles VIII. acci- 
 dentally killed himself there by running against the 
 frame of a door that was being carved, thinking that
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 205 
 
 he could pass under the scaffolding without stooping. 
 Catherine, to conceal the projects of the Guises, 
 said that it was her purpose to finish the chateau 
 of Amboise for the Crown while her own chateau of 
 Chenonceaux was being finished. But no one was 
 deceived by that pretext, and the court anticipated 
 momentous events. 

 
 After he had passed about two hours endeavoring 
 to distinguish his surroundings in the darkness of 
 his dungeon, Christophe finally discovered that there 
 was a wooden sheathing, rough in quality but thick 
 enough to make the little square cage healthy and 
 habitable. The door was like the entrance to a pig- 
 pen, and he had had to bend double when he went 
 in. Beside the door was an iron grating opening on 
 a sort of corridor, through which there came a little 
 air and light. This arrangement of the dungeon, in 
 every respect like that of the dungeons of Venice, 
 showed clearly enough that the architect of the cha- 
 teau of Blois belonged to that Venetian school which 
 gave so many builders to Europe during the Middle 
 Ages. Upon feeling the walls above the sheathing, 
 Christophe discovered that those which separated 
 it from two similar dungeons on the right and left 
 were of brick. As he tapped one of them to obtain 
 an idea of its thickness, he was surprised to hear 
 tapping on the other side. 
 
 "Who are you?" his neighbor asked, speaking 
 through the corridor. 
 
 "I am Christophe Lecamus." 
 
 " I am Captain Chaudieu, the minister's brother, >f 
 said the voice. " I was taken last night at Beau- 
 gency; but luckily there is nothing against me." 
 (207)
 
 208 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 " Everything is discovered," said Christophe. 
 " So you are safely out of the trouble." 
 
 " We have three thousand men in the forests of 
 the Vendomois at this moment, all of them of suf- 
 ficient courage and determination to kidnap the king 
 and queen-mother during their journey. Luckily, 
 La Renaudie was shrewder than I, and he escaped. 
 You had just left us when the Guisards captured 
 us." 
 
 " But I don't know La Renaudie." 
 " Bah! my brother told me the whole story." 
 Upon that, Christophe sat down on his bench and 
 made no reply to anything that the pretended cap- 
 tain chose to ask him, for he had had enough ex- 
 perience of the law to know how prudent a man 
 must be in prison. In the middle of the night he 
 saw the pale gleam of a lantern in the corridor, after 
 hearing the groaning of the great bolts which secured 
 the iron door of the vaults. The provost came him- 
 self to fetch Christophe. Such solicitude for a man 
 who had been left without food in his dungeon 
 seemed strange to the young man; but the confusion 
 caused by the preparations for transferring the court 
 to Amboise had, doubtless, prevented their thinking 
 of him. One of the provost's sergeants bound his 
 hands with a rope, and led him by that rope to one 
 of the lower rooms in the chateau of Louis XII., 
 which was evidently used as an antechamber to 
 the apartments of some person of consequence. 
 The provost and the sergeant bade him sit upon a 
 bench, and the sergeant bound his feet as he had
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 2OQ 
 
 bound his hands. At a signal from Monsieur de 
 Montresor, the sergeant went out. 
 
 " Hark ye, my friend," said the provost to Chris- 
 tophe, playing with the collar of the Order, for he 
 was in full official costume at that late hour. 
 
 This trifling circumstance gave the furrier's son 
 much food for thought. He saw plainly that they 
 had not done with him. Certainly there was no 
 thought of hanging him or trying him at that mo- 
 ment. 
 
 " My friend, you can save yourself cruel suffering 
 by telling me all that you know of the negotiations 
 between Monsieur le Prince de Conde and Queen 
 Catherine. Not only will no harm be done you, 
 but you will be taken into the service of the lieu- 
 tenant-general of the kingdom, who likes intelligent 
 fellows like you, and on whom your honest face has 
 produced a deep impression. The queen-mother will 
 be sent back to Florence, and Monsieur de Conde 
 will undoubtedly be put on trial. Take my word 
 for it, the humble ought to attach themselves to the 
 great who have the power. Tell me everything, you 
 will find it to your advantage." 
 
 "Alas! monsieur," replied Christophe, "I have 
 nothing to tell; I confessed all that I know to Mes- 
 sieurs de Guise in the queen's chamber. Chaudieu 
 persuaded me to lay some papers before the queen- 
 mother, making me believe that the peace of the 
 kingdom depended upon it." 
 
 " You have never seen the Prince de Conde?" 
 
 "Never," said Christophe. 
 u
 
 210 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 Thereupon Monsieur de Montresor left Christophe 
 and went into an adjoining room. Christophe did 
 not remain long alone. The door through Which he 
 had come soon opened and gave passage to several 
 men who did not close it, but went in and out, mak- 
 ing noises in the courtyard that were far from divert- 
 ing. They brought pieces of wood and machines 
 evidently intended for the torture of the Huguenots' 
 envoy. Christophe's curiosity soon found ample 
 material for reflection in the preparations which the 
 new-comers made before his eyes. Two coarse, 
 poorly-clad assistants obeyed the orders of a power- 
 ful, thick-set man who, immediately on entering the 
 room, had cast upon Christophe the glance with 
 which the cannibal eyes his victim; he had looked 
 him over, appraised him, estimated like a connoisseur 
 the strength and resisting power of his nerves. That 
 man was the executioner of Blois. His assistants 
 went in and out several times, bringing a mattress, 
 mallets, wooden wedges, boards, and other objects 
 whose use, although not clearly apparent, did not 
 seem likely to be comforting to the poor boy for 
 whom these preparations were being made, and 
 whose blood froze in his veins as the result of a 
 horrible although ill-defined apprehension. Two 
 other individuals entered at the same moment that 
 Monsieur de Montresor returned to the room. 
 
 " Well, is nothing ready?" said the provost, whom 
 the new-comers saluted with respect. " Do you 
 know," he added, addressing the stout man and 
 his two assistants, "that monseigneur le cardinal
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 211 
 
 believes you to be already at work? Doctor," he 
 continued, turning to one of the new-comers, "this 
 is your man." 
 
 And he pointed to Christophe. 
 
 The doctor went to the prisoner, unbound his 
 hands, and pounded him on the chest and back. 
 Science supplemented in all seriousness the execu- 
 tioner's cursory examination. Meanwhile, a servant 
 in the livery of the Guises brought several armchairs, 
 a table, and writing materials. 
 
 " Begin your report," said Monsieur de Montresor, 
 motioning to the second person, a clerk dressed in 
 black, to take his seat at the table. 
 
 Then he returned and stood beside Christophe, to 
 whom he said, very gently: 
 
 " My friend, the chancellor having been informed 
 that you refuse to answer my questions satisfactorily, 
 has determined that you be put to the question ordi- 
 nary and extraordinary." 
 
 " Is he in good health, and can he bear it?" the 
 clerk asked the physician. 
 
 "Yes," replied the latter, who was one of the 
 physicians of the House of Lorraine. 
 
 "Very well; withdraw to the adjoining room; we 
 will send for you whenever it may be necessary to 
 consult you." 
 
 The physician left the room. 
 
 His first terror passed, Christophe summoned his 
 courage anew: the hour of his martyrdom had come. 
 Thenceforth he watched with unmoved curiosity 
 the arrangements made by the executioner and his
 
 212 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 assistants. Having hastily prepared a bed, the two 
 latter made ready for use machines called brodequins, 
 consisting of several planks between two of which 
 each of the victim's legs was placed, and he was 
 held within small mattresses. The legs were then 
 placed close together. The apparatus used by book- 
 binders to press volumes between two boards put to- 
 gether by cords gives a very accurate idea of the way 
 in which each of the victim's legs was arranged. One 
 can readily imagine the effect produced by driving a 
 wedge with a mallet between the two appliances in 
 which the legs were held fast, and which were them- 
 selves bound together by stout cords, so that they did 
 not give. The wedges were driven in at the knees 
 and ankles, as if it were a matter of splitting a log of 
 wood. The choice of those two spots, where there 
 is little flesh so that the wedge makes room for itself 
 at the expense of the bones, made that form of the 
 question horribly painful. In the ordinary question, 
 four wedges were driven in, two at the ankles and 
 two at the knees; but in the extraordinary question, 
 as many as eight were used, provided that the 
 physicians considered that the sufferer's power of 
 feeling was not exhausted. At that period, the 
 brodequins were also applied to the hands; but, being 
 pressed for time, the cardinal, lieutenant-general, 
 and chancellor spared Christophe that additional 
 torture. 
 
 The report was begun, the provost having dictated 
 a few sentences as he walked back and forth with a 
 meditative air, asking Christophe his various names,
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 213 
 
 his age, and his profession; then he asked him from 
 whom he received the papers he had handed the 
 queen. 
 
 " From Chaudieu the minister," he replied. 
 
 " Where did he give them to you?" 
 
 "At my home in Paris." 
 
 " When he handed them to you he must have told 
 you whether the queen-mother would be pleased to 
 see you." 
 
 " He told me nothing of the sort," replied Chris- 
 tophe. " He simply asked me to hand them to 
 Queen Catherine in secret." 
 
 " You must have seen Chaudieu frequently, for 
 him to know of your intended journey?" 
 
 " The minister did not learn from me that when 
 I brought the two queens their furs I was also 
 to ask the queen-mother for the sum she owes 
 my father, and I had no time to ask him how he 
 learned it." 
 
 " But these papers, which were handed to you 
 without seal or cover, contained a proposed treaty 
 between the rebels and Queen Catherine; you must 
 have seen that they exposed you to the penalty 
 awarded those persons who dabble in rebellion." 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 " The persons who persuaded you to undertake 
 this act of high treason must have promised you a 
 handsome reward and the queen-mother's protec- 
 tion." 
 
 "I did it from affection for Chaudieu, the only 
 person whom I saw."
 
 214 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 " Do you persist, then, in saying that you never 
 saw the Prince de Conde?" 
 
 "I do." 
 
 " Did not the Prince de Conde tell you that the 
 queen-mother was disposed to enter into his designs 
 against Messieurs de Guise?" 
 
 " 1 never saw him." 
 
 " Beware! One of your confederates, La Renau- 
 die, has been arrested. Courageous as he is, he 
 did not hold out against the torture which awaits 
 you, and he finally confessed that both he and 
 the prince had an interview with you. If you wish 
 to escape the agony of the question, I advise you to 
 tell the simple truth. Perhaps you may in that way 
 obtain a pardon." 
 
 Christophe replied that he could not assert some- 
 thing he had never known, nor manufacture accom- 
 plices when he had had none. Thereupon the 
 provost gave the executioner a signal and withdrew 
 to the adjoining room. At that signal, the wrinkles 
 gathered on Christophe's forehead, his eyebrows 
 contracted nervously, preparing for the suffering to 
 come. His hands closed with such a violent con- 
 traction of the muscles that the nails sank into the 
 flesh, and he was not conscious of it. The three 
 men seized him, carried him to the camp-bed and 
 laid him on it, letting his legs hang down. While the 
 executioner fastened his body to that rough couch 
 with stout cords, each of his assistants placed a leg 
 in the brodequins. Then the cords were tightened 
 with a crank, but without causing the reformer much
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 215 
 
 pain. When both legs were thus confined as in a 
 vise, the executioner grasped his mallet and his 
 wedges and looked from the victim to the clerk. 
 
 " Do you persist in your denial?" asked the clerk. 
 
 " I have told the truth," was Christophe's reply. 
 
 " Very well, do your duty," said the clerk, clos- 
 ing his eyes. 
 
 The cords were tightened with extreme force. 
 That moment was, perhaps, the most painful of the 
 torture; the flesh was suddenly and brutally com- 
 pressed, and the blood forced upward into the trunk. 
 The poor child could not refrain from uttering horri- 
 ble shrieks, and seemed on the point of swooning. 
 The doctor was called. He felt Christophe's pulse 
 and bade the executioner to wait a quarter of an 
 hour before driving the wedges, to allow time for the 
 blood to become calm and for the victim's sensitive- 
 ness to be entirely restored. The clerk charitably 
 suggested to Christophe that, if he could endure no 
 better than that the bare beginning of the agony 
 which he could not escape, it would be much wiser 
 to confess; but Christophe replied only with these 
 words: 
 
 " The king's tailor! the king's tailor!" 
 
 "What do you mean by that?" the clerk asked 
 him. 
 
 " Realizing what torture I must endure," said 
 Christophe, slowly, to gain time and an opportunity 
 to rest, " I am summoning all my strength and trying 
 to increase it by thinking of the martyrdom endured 
 for the blessed cause of the Reformation by the late
 
 2l6 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 king's tailor, to whom the question was administered 
 in the presence of Madame la Duchesse de Valen- 
 tinois and the king; I will try to be worthy of him!" 
 While the doctor was urging the victim not to 
 compel a resort to extraordinary methods, the car- 
 dinal and the duke appeared, being impatient to 
 learn the result of the examination, and appealed 
 to Christophe to tell the truth forthwith. The furrier's 
 son repeated the only admissions which he allowed 
 himself to make, and which implicated Chaudieu 
 alone. The two princes made a signal. At that 
 signal, the executioner and his first assistant seized 
 their mallets, each took a wedge and buried it be- 
 tween the boards; one stood at the right, the other 
 at the left. The executioner was at the victim's 
 knees, his assistant at the ankles. The eyes of 
 the witnesses of this ghastly scene were fixed upon 
 Christophe's, who, excited doubtless by the presence 
 of those great personages, met their glances with 
 other glances so inflamed with zeal that they seemed 
 to glow like flame. When the next two wedges were 
 driven home, he uttered a horrible groan. When he 
 saw them take up the wedges for the extraordinary 
 question, he held his peace, but his glance became 
 so fixed and glaring, and cast a flash so penetrating 
 at the two noblemen who were watching him, that 
 they were obliged to lower "their eyes. The same 
 discomfiture was experienced by Philippe le Bel 
 when he caused the torture of the lever to be ap- 
 plied to the Templars in his presence. That torture 
 consisted in exposing the victim's chest to the blows
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 217 
 
 of one arm of the lever which worked the coiner's 
 die, and which was provided with a leather pad. 
 There was one knight whose glance was fixed so 
 intently upon the king, that he was fascinated and 
 could not remove his eyes from the sufferer's. At 
 the third blow of the lever the king left the room, 
 after he had heard his own summons to appear 
 within the year at the judgment-seat of God, as he 
 actually did. 
 
 At the fifth wedge, the first of the extraordinary 
 question, Christophe said to the cardinal: 
 
 " Monseigneur, pray shorten my agony, it is use- 
 less." 
 
 The cardinal and the duke returned to the adjoin- 
 ing room, and Christophe heard Queen Catherine 
 say: 
 
 " Go on, go on, for at best he is only a heretic!" 
 
 She deemed it prudent to appear more implacable 
 than the executioners themselves against her accom- 
 plice. 
 
 The sixth and seventh wedges were driven in with- 
 out a murmur from Christophe; his face shone with 
 extraordinary radiance, due, doubtless, to the super- 
 human strength imparted by thoroughly kindled 
 fanaticism. Where else but in sentiment could he 
 find the courage necessary to endure such suffering? 
 When the executioner took up the eighth wedge, 
 Christophe actually smiled. This horrible scene 
 had lasted more than an hour. 
 
 The clerk went to call the doctor, to ascertain if the 
 eighth wedge could be driven without endangering
 
 218 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 the patient's life. Meanwhile the duke returned to 
 Christophe. 
 
 "Ventre-de-biche! you're a plucky fellow," he 
 said in his ear. "I like brave men. Enter my 
 service; you shall be rich and happy, and my favor 
 will cure your mangled limbs; 1 will not ask you to 
 do any dastardly thing, like going back to your 
 party in order to divulge their plans to us; there 
 are always traitors, the prisons of Blois afford proof 
 enough of that; simply tell me on what terms the 
 queen-mother and the Prince de Conde are." 
 
 "I know nothing about it, monseigneur," replied 
 Lecamus. 
 
 The physician came, examined the victim, and 
 said that he could endure the eighth wedge. 
 
 "Drive it home," said the cardinal. "After all, 
 as the queen says, he is only a heretic," he added, 
 bestowing a frightful smile upon Christophe. 
 
 Catherine came slowly from the adjoining room, 
 stood in front of Christophe, and gazed coldly at 
 him. She at once became the object of the atten- 
 tion of the two brothers, who scrutinized her and 
 her accomplice alternately. That ambitious woman's 
 whole future hung upon that solemn test; she felt a 
 keen admiration for Christophe's courage, but the 
 glance she cast upon him was stern and harsh; on 
 the other hand, she hated the Guises, yet smiled 
 upon them. 
 
 " Come, young man," she said, " admit that you 
 have seen the Prince de Conde, and you will be 
 handsomely rewarded."
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 219 
 
 "Ah! what a sorry business for you to be en- 
 gaged in, madame!" exclaimed Christophe, in a 
 pitying tone. 
 
 The queen started. 
 
 " He insults me! will you not hang him?" she 
 said to the two brothers, who seemed absorbed in 
 thought. 
 
 " What a woman!" said the grand master to him- 
 self, in the window recess, consulting his brother 
 with a glance. 
 
 " I will remain in France, and I will be revenged 
 on them," thought the queen. "Proceed! let him 
 confess, or let him die!" she exclaimed, addressing 
 Monsieur de Montresor. 
 
 The provost looked away and the executioners 
 were occupied, so that Catherine was able to bestow 
 upon the martyr a glance which was seen by no 
 other person, and which fell upon Christophe like a 
 refreshing dew. The great queen's eyes seemed to 
 him moist; indeed, two tears did start from them, 
 but were forced back and instantly dried. The 
 wedge was driven in, and one of the boards be- 
 tween which it was driven, broke. Christophe 
 emitted a fearful shriek, after which he made no 
 sound, but displayed a radiant face: he believed 
 that he was dying. 
 
 " Let him die?" the cardinal repeated the queen's 
 last words with an ironical intonation, " no, indeed ! 
 We must not break this thread," he said to the pro- 
 vost. 
 
 The duke and the cardinal consulted in undertones.
 
 220 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 " What shall we do with him?" asked the execu- 
 tioner. 
 
 "Send him to the prison at Orleans," said the 
 duke; " but, above all things," he added, addressing 
 Monsieur de Montresor, " do not hang him without 
 an order from me." 
 
 The excessively delicate sensibility produced in 
 the internal organs by a resistance which neces- 
 sitated the employment of all the force possessed by 
 the human frame existed in the same degree in all 
 Christophe's senses. He alone heard these words, 
 which the Due de Guise whispered in the cardinal's 
 ear: 
 
 " I do not abandon the idea of getting at the truth 
 through this young knave." 
 
 When the two princes had left the room, the 
 executioners released their victim's legs, taking no 
 precautions. 
 
 "Did anyone ever see a rascal with such strength ? ' ' 
 said the chief to his assistants. " The fellow stood 
 the eighth wedge; he ought to have died, and I lose the 
 worth of his body." 
 
 "Release me without hurting me, my friends," 
 said poor Christophe. " Some day I will reward 
 you." 
 
 "Come, come, show some humanity!" exclaimed 
 the doctor. " Monseigneur le Due esteems this young 
 man highly, and has commended him to me." 
 
 " I am going to Amboise with my assistants, "said 
 the executioner, brutally. " Take care of him your- 
 self. Here comes the jailer."
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 221 
 
 The executioner disappeared, leaving Christophe 
 in the hands of the honey-tongued doctor, who, 
 assisted by the young man's future custodian, car- 
 ried him to a bed, brought him some hot soup, fed 
 him with it, sat beside him, felt his pulse, and talked 
 consolingly to him. 
 
 "You will not die," he said. "You must feel 
 great inward satisfaction in knowing that you have 
 done your duty. The queen charged me to look to 
 your welfare," he added, in a low voice. 
 
 " The queen is very kind," said Christophe, 
 whose intense suffering had developed in him ad- 
 mirable clearness of vision, and who, after enduring 
 such agony, did not propose to endanger the results 
 of his devotion. " But she might well have spared 
 me such extreme suffering by not turning me over 
 to my persecutors, and telling them herself secrets 
 of which I know nothing." 
 
 Upon hearing that reply, the doctor took his cap 
 and cloak and left Christophe, concluding that he 
 could obtain nothing from a man of his temper. The 
 jailer of Blois ordered four men to place the poor 
 child on a stretcher and transport him to the prison 
 of the town, where Christophe fell into the profound 
 sleep which is said to overtake almost all mothers 
 after the horrible pains of childbirth.
 
 When they caused the court to change its quarters 
 to the chateau of Amboise, the two Lorraine princes 
 hoped that the Prince de Conde, for whom they had 
 laid a trap by inducing the king to order him to come 
 to that place, would refuse to obey. As a vassal of 
 the crown and a prince of the blood, Conde was 
 bound to obey the king's commands. To neglect to 
 go to Amboise constituted a felony; but, if he went 
 there, he placed himself at the mercy of the crown. 
 Now, at that moment, crown, council, court, all the 
 elements of power were united in the hands of 
 the Due de Guise and the Cardinal de Lorraine. At 
 that delicate turn of affairs, the Prince de Conde dis- 
 played the decision and cunning which made him 
 the worthy interpreter of the plans of Jeanne d'Al- 
 bret and the doughty general of the Huguenots. 
 He travelled in the rear of the conspirators to Yen- 
 dome, in order to support them in case of success. 
 When that first armed uprising was brought to an 
 end by the brief affray in which the flower of the 
 nobles who had been led astray by Calvin lost their 
 lives, the prince, with an escort of fifty gentlemen, 
 arrived at the chateau of Amboise on the day follow- 
 ing that affair which the shrewd and politic Lorraines 
 called the Tumult of Amboise. Upon learning of the 
 prince's arrival, the Lorraines sent the Marechal de 
 Saint-Andre to meet him, attended by a hundred 
 (223)
 
 224 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 men-at-arms. When the Gascon and his escort 
 reached the gate of the chateau, the marshal re- 
 fused to allow the gentlemen in attendance on the 
 prince to enter. 
 
 " You must enter alone, monseigneur," said Chan- 
 cellor Olivier, the Cardinal de Tournon, and Birague, 
 who were standing outside the portcullis. 
 
 "Why so?" 
 
 " You are suspected of felony," replied the chan- 
 cellor. 
 
 The prince, seeing that his escort was surrounded 
 by the Due de Nemours, replied calmly: 
 
 " If that be so, I will enter my cousin's chateau 
 alone and prove my innocence." 
 
 He dismounted and talked with perfect unconcern 
 with Birague, the Cardinal de Tournon, Olivier, and 
 the Due de Nemours, whom he questioned as to the 
 details of the tumult. 
 
 "Monseigneur," said the Due de Nemours, "the 
 rebels had confederates in Amboise. Captain Lanoue 
 had admitted men-at-arms, who opened this gate to 
 them, of which they made themselves masters, and 
 through it they entered the town." 
 
 "That is to say, you let them into a bag," re- 
 joined the prince, glancing at Birague. 
 
 " If they had been seconded by the attack which 
 Captain Chaudieu, brother of the preacher at Paris, 
 was to have made on the Bons-Hommes Gate, they 
 would have succeeded," replied the Due de Ne- 
 mours; "but the Due de Guise stationed me in 
 such a way that Captain Chaudieu had to turn my
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 225 
 
 position to avoid a battle. Instead of arriving at 
 night, as the others did, the rebel didn't come until 
 dawn, when the king's troops were destroying the 
 fellows who had entered the town." 
 
 "And you had a reserve force to take the gate 
 that had been betrayed to them?" 
 
 " Monsieur le Marechal de Saint- Andre was there, 
 with five hundred men-at-arms." 
 
 The prince praised these military arrangements in 
 the warmest terms. 
 
 " In order to have made his preparations as he 
 did," he said, "the lieutenant-general must have 
 known the secrets of the reformers. Those fellows 
 were clearly betrayed." 
 
 The prince was subjected to indignity after indig- 
 nity; after separating him from his friends at the 
 gate of the chateau, the cardinal and chancellor 
 barred his path when he walked toward the stair- 
 way leading to the king's apartments. 
 
 " We are instructed by the king, monseigneur, to 
 escort you to your apartments." 
 
 "Am I a prisoner, pray?" 
 
 " If such were the king's purpose, you would not 
 be attended by a prince of the Church and by my- 
 self," said the chancellor. 
 
 Those two functionaries escorted him to a suite of 
 apartments where guards were sent to attend upon 
 him, ostensibly as a mark of honor, and where he 
 remained for several hours without seeing anybody. 
 From his window he looked out upon the Loire and 
 the fields which form such a lovely landscape from 
 15
 
 226 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 Amboise to Tours; and he was musing over his sit- 
 uation, wondering what the Lorraines would dare 
 to undertake against his person, when he heard 
 the door of his chamber open, and Chicot, the 
 king's jester, who had formerly belonged to him, 
 made his appearance. 
 
 "I heard that you were in disgrace," said the 
 prince. 
 
 " You would not believe how virtuous the court 
 has become since the death of King Henri II." 
 
 " Why, the king should be fond of a hearty 
 laugh." 
 
 " Which king? Francois II. or Francois de Lor- 
 raine?" 
 
 "Aren't you afraid of the duke, that you dare to 
 speak so?" 
 
 " He won't punish me for that, monseigneur," 
 Chicot replied, with a smile. 
 
 "And to what do I owe the honor of this visit?" 
 
 " Why, aren't you entitled to it, judging from the 
 manner of your arrival? I bring you my cap and 
 bells." 
 
 "Am I not at liberty to go hence?" 
 
 "Try it!" 
 
 "And if I succeed?" 
 
 " I will say that you have won the game by play- 
 ing contrary to the rule." 
 
 "Chicot, you frighten me. Are you sent to me 
 by anyone who is interested in my welfare?" 
 
 Chicot said " yes " with a movement of his head. 
 He walked toward him and gave him to understand
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 227 
 
 that somebody was watching them and listening to 
 them. 
 
 "What have you to say to me?" inquired the 
 prince. 
 
 " That audacity alone can extricate you from this 
 fix, and that message is from the queen-mother," 
 said the jester, breathing his words into the prince's 
 ear. 
 
 " Say to those who sent you," replied the prince, 
 " that I should not have come to this chateau, if I 
 had had aught to fear or to reproach myself for." 
 
 " 1 hasten to report that brave reply!" cried the 
 jester. 
 
 Two hours later, at one o'clock in the afternoon, 
 before the king's dinner, the Cardinal de Tournon 
 and the chancellor came to fetch the prince and 
 present him to Francois II. in the great hall where 
 the council had been held. There, before the noble 
 court, the Prince de Conde feigned surprise at the 
 marked coldness of the young king's greeting and 
 asked its cause. 
 
 " You have been charged, cousin," said the queen- 
 mother, sternly, " with having had a hand in the 
 conspiracy of the reformers, and you must show 
 yourself a loyal subject and good Catholic, if you do 
 not wish to draw down the king's wrath upon your 
 family." 
 
 When he heard these words, uttered amid the 
 most profound silence by Catherine, who held the 
 arm of the king, her son, while the Due d'Orleans 
 stood at her left, the prince stepped back, with a
 
 228 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 movement instinct with pride, placed his hand on his 
 sword, and looked about at all the persons who sur- 
 rounded him. 
 
 "Whoever said that, madame," he exclaimed in 
 an indignant tone, "lied in his throat !" 
 
 He threw his glove at the king's feet. 
 
 " Let the man who chooses to maintain that false- 
 hood come forth!" 
 
 A thrill of excitement ran through the whole court 
 when the Due de Guise was seen to leave his place; 
 but, instead of picking up the glove, as everybody 
 supposed he would do, he walked up to the fearless 
 hunchback. 
 
 " If you require a second, prince, do me the honor 
 to accept my services," he said. " I will answer 
 for you, and you shall show the Huguenots how 
 mistaken they are if they think of taking you for 
 their leader." 
 
 The prince was compelled to offer his hand to 
 the lieutenant-general of the kingdom. Chicot 
 picked up the glove and handed it to Monsieur de 
 Conde. 
 
 "Cousin," said the young king, "you must not 
 draw the sword except in defence of the crown ; 
 come to dinner." 
 
 The Cardinal de Lorraine, surprised by his 
 brother's manoeuvre, went with him to his apart- 
 ments. The Prince de Conde having escaped the 
 most serious danger that threatened him, gave his 
 hand to Queen Mary Stuart to escort her to the 
 dining-hall ; but, while he was paying compliments
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 229 
 
 to the young queen, he tried to divine what trap the 
 politic Le Balafre was setting for him at that mo- 
 ment. In vain did the prince cudgel his brains, he 
 did not guess the duke's scheme until Queen Mary 
 revealed it to him. 
 
 " It would have been a pity," she said, with a 
 laugh, " to see so clever a head fall, and you must 
 admit that my uncle is generous!" 
 
 "Yes, madame, for my head would not look well 
 anywhere else than on my shoulders, although one 
 of them is perceptibly higher than the other. But 
 is it generosity on your uncle's part? Has he not 
 obtained credit for that sentiment at small expense? 
 Do you fancy that it is such a simple matter to 
 prosecute a prince of the blood?" 
 
 " The end is not yet," she rejoined. " We shall 
 see how you behave at the execution of the gentle- 
 men prisoners, who are friends of yours, which 
 the council has decided shall be carried out with the 
 greatest publicity." 
 
 " I will do," said the prince, " whatever the king 
 does." 
 
 " The king, the queen-mother, and myself pro- 
 pose to be present with the whole court and the 
 ambassadors " 
 
 "A fete?" queried the prince, ironically. 
 
 "Better than that," said the 1 young queen, "an 
 act of faith, an act of high political significance. It 
 is a question of forcing the nobles of France to 
 submit to the crown and of destroying their liking 
 for factious opposition and intriguing."
 
 230 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 " You will not abate their bellicose spirit by show- 
 ing them that they incur such risks, madame, and 
 you stake the crown itself in the game," replied the 
 prince. 
 
 At the close of the dinner, which was gloomy 
 enough, Queen Mary had the deplorable hardihood 
 to lead the conversation to the trial then in progress 
 of the noblemen taken with arms in their hands, 
 and to recur to the necessity of making the greatest 
 possible display at their execution. 
 
 " Madame," said Francois II., " is it not enough 
 for the King of France to know that the blood of so 
 many excellent gentlemen is to be shed? must we 
 make a triumphal show of them?" 
 
 " No, sire, but an example," said Catherine. 
 
 "Your grandfather and your father were accus- 
 tomed to witness the burning of heretics," said 
 Mary Stuart. 
 
 " The kings who reigned before me did as they 
 chose, and I propose to do as I choose," rejoined the 
 king. 
 
 "Philip II., who certainly is a great monarch," 
 observed Catherine, " being recently in the Low 
 Countries, caused an auto-da-fe to be postponed 
 until he had returned to Valladolid." 
 
 " What do you think about it, cousin?" the king 
 asked the Prince de Conde. 
 
 "If you cannot avoid being present, sire, you 
 must have the papal nuncio there and the ambas- 
 sadors. I will willingly go myself, since I know that 
 the ladies are to attend the fte."
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 231 
 
 The Prince de Conde had resolved upon a bold 
 course at a glance from Catherine de' Medici. 
 
 About the time that the prince reached the cha- 
 teau of Amboise, the furrier to the two queens also 
 arrived from Paris, brought thither by the anxiety 
 which the circumstances of the tumult had aroused 
 in his family and Lallier's. When the old man pre- 
 sented himself at the gate of the chateau, and an- 
 nounced that he was the queen's furrier, the captain 
 said to him: 
 
 " If you want to be hanged, my good man, you 
 have only to step foot in the courtyard." 
 
 At those words, the father, in despair, seated him- 
 self on a barrier a few yards away, and waited, in 
 the hope that some retainer of one of the two queens 
 would pass, or some female attendant, who could 
 give him news of his son. But he sat there all day 
 long without seeing a person whom he knew; and 
 was compelled at last to go down into the town, 
 where he obtained lodgings, not without difficulty, in 
 a tavern on the square where public executions took 
 place. He was obliged to pay a livre per day for a 
 room looking on the square. The next day he had 
 the courage to witness, from his window, the execu- 
 tion of the abettors of the uprising, who had been 
 sentenced to be broken on the wheel or hanged, as 
 persons of small consequence. The syndic of the 
 guild of furriers was overjoyed not to recognize his 
 son among them. When the execution was at an 
 end, he went out to waylay the clerk. After he had 
 given his name and thrust a purse filled with crowns
 
 232 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 into the man's hand, he begged him to look and see 
 if one Christophe Lecamus had been included in 
 either of the three preceding executions. The clerk 
 was touched by the despairing father's tone and 
 manner, and took him to his house. After a careful 
 examination, he assured the old man that the said 
 Christophe was not among those who had thereto- 
 fore been executed, nor among those who were to 
 be put to death on the following days. 
 
 "My dear master," he said to the syndic, "the 
 Parliament has undertaken the prosecution of the 
 noblemen implicated in the affair and of the prin- 
 cipal leaders. So perhaps your son is detained in 
 the dungeons at the chateau, and will figure in the 
 magnificent execution their lordships the Due de 
 Guise and Cardinal de Lorraine have in preparation. 
 Twenty-seven barons, eleven counts, and seven 
 marquises are to be beheaded, in all, fifty noble- 
 men or leaders of the reformers. As the courts 
 of the comte of Touraine have no connection with 
 the Parliament of Paris, if you are determined to 
 have news of your son, go to see Monseigneur le 
 Chancelier Olivier, who, by order of the lieutenant- 
 general of the kingdom, has the management of the 
 prosecution." 
 
 The poor old man went three times to see the 
 chancellor, and stood in line in the courtyard in 
 company with a great number of persons who were 
 soliciting mercy for their kindred; but as titled per- 
 sons took precedence of bourgeois, he was obliged to 
 abandon his purpose of speaking to the chancellor,
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 233 
 
 whom he saw several times leaving his house to go 
 to the chateau, or to attend the sessions of the com- 
 mission appointed by the Parliament, and passing 
 through long lines of petitioners whom the guards 
 compelled to stand back to give him room to pass. 
 It was a horrible scene of desolation, for there 
 were women among the petitioners, mothers and 
 daughters, whole families in tears. Old Lecamus 
 squandered a great deal of money on the servants 
 of the chateau, begging them to deliver letters which 
 he wrote, sometimes to Dayelle, Queen Mary's 
 maid, sometimes to the queen-mother's maid; but 
 the servants took the goodman's gold, and deliv- 
 ered the letters to the provost of the chateau, as the 
 cardinal bade them do. As the Guises behaved with 
 incredible cruelty, they had every reason to fear acts 
 of revenge, and they never took more precautions 
 than during this sojourn of the court at Amboise, so 
 that neither the most potent instrument of corrup- 
 tion, gold, nor the greatest activity brought the 
 syndic of the furriers any information concerning 
 his son's fate. He wandered about the town with 
 a gloomy air, scrutinizing the preparations which 
 the cardinal was making on a vast scale for the ter- 
 rible spectacle at which the Prince de Conde was to 
 be present. 
 
 Public curiosity, from Paris to Nantes, was stimu- 
 lated by the methods in vogue at that period. The 
 execution had been announced from the pulpit by all 
 the vicars and cures, simultaneously with the king's 
 victory over the heretics. Three handsome tribunes,
 
 234 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 the one in the middle being more sumptuous than the 
 others, were built against the wall of the chateau 
 of Amboise, at the foot of which the execution 
 was to take place. Around the square were erected 
 board seats, tier above tier, which were filled by 
 an enormous crowd, drawn thither by the pub- 
 licity given to this auto-da-fe. About ten thousand 
 persons camped in the surrounding fields on the 
 night before the ghastly spectacle was to take place. 
 The roofs were black with people, and windows were 
 let for ten livres, an enormous sum in those days. 
 The poor father had, as we have seen, one of the 
 best places from which to obtain an unobstructed 
 view of the stage upon which so many noblemen 
 were to perish, and in the centre of which he saw a 
 tall scaffold draped with black. On the morning of 
 the fatal day, the chouquet the block on which the 
 victim placed his head after he had knelt was put 
 in place; then an armchair, draped in black, for 
 the clerk of the Parliament, whose duty it was 
 to call the names of the culprits and announce 
 their sentences. The enclosure was guarded from 
 early morning by the Scottish Guards and by 
 the gendarmes of the king's household, to pre- 
 vent the crowd from overflowing it before the 
 execution. 
 
 After a solemn mass at the chateau and in the 
 churches of the town, the noblemen were brought 
 forth, the last remaining conspirators. These 
 noblemen, some of whom had already undergone 
 the question, were assembled at the foot of the
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 235 
 
 scaffold and attended by monks who strove to per- 
 suade them to renounce the doctrines of Calvin; but 
 not one of them listened to the words of those men 
 who were sent to them by the Cardinal de Lorraine, 
 and among whom they feared, doubtless, to find spies 
 of the Lorraines. In order to escape the persecu- 
 tions of their antagonists, they sang a psalm put into 
 French verse by Clement Marot. Calvin, as is well 
 known, had ordained that worship should be con- 
 ducted in each country in the language of that coun- 
 try, not only as a matter of common sense, but as a 
 method of assailing the Roman worship. It was an 
 affecting incident to those in the crowd who had a 
 feeling of pity for those gentlemen, to hear them 
 singing this stanza just as the court arrived: 
 
 " Dieu nous soit doux et favorable, 
 Nous benissant par sa bonte, 
 Et de son visage adorable 
 Nous fasse luire la clarte."* 
 
 The eyes of all the reformers were at once turned 
 upon their leader, the Prince de Conde, who was 
 designedly placed between Queen Mary and the Due 
 d'Orleans. Queen Catherine de' Medici sat next 
 her son, with the cardinal at her left. The papal 
 nuncio was standing behind the queens. The lieu- 
 tenant-general of the kingdom was on horseback 
 below the tribunes with two marshals of France and 
 
 * " O Lord to us Thy mercy show. 
 And bless us with Thy grace, 
 On us of Thy good will bestow 
 The radiance of Thy face."
 
 236 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 his captains. When the Prince de Conde appeared, 
 all of the gentlemen to be decapitated who knew him 
 saluted him, and the fearless hunchback returned 
 their salutation. 
 
 " It is hard," he said to the Due d'Orleans, " not 
 to be courteous to men who are about to die." 
 
 The other two tribunes were filled by persons in- 
 vited to witness the spectacle, and by the courtiers 
 and persons on duty at the court. In a word, the 
 whole population of the chateau of Blois was present, 
 passing from joyous festivities to scenes of death, 
 just as it passed later from the pleasures of the 
 court to the perils of war, with a lightness of heart 
 that will always be to foreigners one of the govern- 
 ing considerations of their policy toward France. 
 The unhappy syndic of the furriers of Paris felt the 
 keenest joy when he saw that his son was not among 
 the fifty-seven gentlemen condemned to death. 
 
 At a signal from the Due de Guise, the clerk, from 
 his place on the scaffold, at once called out, in a loud 
 voice: 
 
 " Jean-Louis-Alberic, Baron de Raunay, convicted 
 of heresy, of the crime of lese-majeste, and of an 
 assault with arms in his hand upon the king's 
 person." 
 
 A tall, handsome man ascended the scaffold with 
 an assured step, saluted the crowd and the court, 
 and exclaimed: 
 
 " The sentence states what is false; I took up 
 arms to deliver the king from his enemies the 
 Lorraines!"
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 237 
 
 He placed his head on the block and it fell. 
 The reformers sang: 
 
 " Dieu, tu nous a mis a 1'epreuve 
 Et tu nous as examines ; 
 Comme 1'argent que 1'on epreuve, 
 Par feu tu nous as affines."* 
 
 " Robert- Jean-Rene Briquemaut, Comte de Ville- 
 mongis, convicted of the crime of lese-majeste and 
 of an assault upon the king's person," called the 
 clerk. 
 
 The count dipped his hands in Baron du Raunay's 
 blood, and said: 
 
 "May this blood fall upon the real culprits !" 
 
 The reformers sang: 
 
 " Tu nous as fait entrer et joindre 
 Aux pieges de nos ennemis, 
 Tu nous as fait les reins astreindre, 
 Des filets oil tu nous as mis."t 
 
 "You must agree, monsieur le nonce," said the 
 Prince de Conde to the nuncio, " that if French 
 gentlemen know how to conspire, they also know 
 how to die." 
 
 *" Thou, Lord, hast tried us more and more 
 
 And probed our least desire ; 
 As finers test the precious ore, 
 So we are proved by fire." 
 
 t " Thy hand has led our feet, O Lord, 
 
 Within our foes' fell snare, 
 Our loins endure the toils' harsh cord, 
 'Tis Thou hast brought us there."
 
 238 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 " What detestation you are drawing on the heads 
 of our children, brother!" said the Duchesse de 
 Guise to the Cardinal de Lorraine. 
 
 "This spectacle makes me ill," said the young 
 king, who had turned deathly pale at the sight of so 
 much bloodshed. 
 
 " Bah! rebels!" rejoined Catherine de' Medici. 
 
 They could still hear the singing, and the axe 
 moved constantly through the air. At last, that 
 sublime spectacle of men going to their death sing- 
 ing, and above all, the impression produced upon the 
 crowd by the progressive diminution of the volume of 
 the singing, made them forget for a moment the dread 
 inspired by the Guises. 
 
 "Mercy!" cried the people in one voice, when they 
 could hear the feeble tones of only one nobleman, the 
 most considerable of them all, who had been reserved 
 for the last stroke. 
 
 He was alone at the foot of the ladder leading to 
 the scaffold, and he sang: 
 
 " Dieu nous soit doux et favorable, 
 Nous benissant par sa bonte, 
 Et de son visage adorable 
 Nous fasse luire la clarte." 
 
 "Come, Due de Nemours," said the Prince de 
 Conde, weary of the part he was playing, "do not 
 you, to whom we owe the happy result of the affray, 
 and who assisted in taking these men, do not you 
 deem yourself in duty bound to ask mercy for this 
 one? It is Castelnau, who, as I am told, received
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 239 
 
 your word that he should be treated courteously if 
 he surrendered." 
 
 " Can it be that I have waited until he was on 
 that scaffold before trying to save him?" said the 
 Due de Nemours, deeply affected by that stern re- 
 proof. 
 
 The clerk called slowly purposely so, no doubt: 
 
 " Michel-Jean-Louis, Baron de Castelnau-Cha- 
 losse, accused and convicted of the crime of lese- 
 majeste and of an assault upon the king's person." 
 
 " No," said Castelnau, proudly, "it cannot be a 
 crime to oppose the tyranny and projected usurpa- 
 tion of the Guises!" 
 
 The tired executioner observing a commotion in 
 the tribune, busied himself adjusting his axe. 
 
 "Monsieur le Baron," he said, "I don't wish to 
 make you suffer too much, and a moment more may 
 save you." 
 
 Again all the people cried : 
 
 "Mercy!" 
 
 "So be it!" said the king; "mercy to poor 
 Castelnau, who saved the life of the Due d'Or- 
 leans." 
 
 The cardinal intentionally misunderstood the words 
 so be it. He gave the executioner a signal, so that 
 Castelnau's head fell while the king was pardoning 
 him. 
 
 " That one goes to your account, cardinal," said 
 Catherine. 
 
 On the day following that horrible slaughter, the 
 Prince de Conde started for Navarre,
 
 240 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 The affair created a great sensation in France 
 and at all foreign courts ; but the torrents of noble 
 blood which were shed on that occasion caused the 
 Chancellor Olivier such poignant suffering, that that 
 excellent magistrate, discerning at last the goal to- 
 ward which the Guises were tending on the pretext 
 of defending the throne and the religion, did not feel 
 strong enough to hold his own against them. Al- 
 though he was their creature, he did not choose to 
 sacrifice both his duty and the monarchy to them, 
 so he withdrew from public life, commending L'Ho- 
 pital to them as his successor. Catherine, when she 
 heard of Olivier's selection, proposed Birague for 
 chancellor and displayed excessive warmth in solicit- 
 ing the place for him. The cardinal, who knew 
 nothing of the letter written by L'Hopital to Cath- 
 erine, and who believed him to be still loyal to the 
 House of Lorraine, put him forward as Birague's 
 competitor, and the queen-mother pretended to allow 
 him to be imposed upon her. Immediately upon 
 assuming the office, L'Hopital took measures against 
 the importation of the Inquisition into France, 
 which the Cardinal de Lorraine wished to effect, and 
 thwarted so effectually all the anti-French political 
 manoeuvres of the Guises, he showed himself such 
 a loyal Frenchman, that, three months after his ap- 
 pointment, they were obliged to exile him to his 
 estate of Vignay near Etampes, in order to humble 
 him. 
 
 Goodman Lecamus waited impatiently for the court 
 to leave Amboise, for he had been unable to find
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 241 
 
 any opportunity to speak either to Queen Mary or 
 to Queen Catherine, and his purpose was to station 
 himself in the path of the court when they returned 
 along the river bank to Blois. The syndic disguised 
 himself as a beggar, at the risk of being taken for a 
 spy, and under cover of that disguise he was able 
 to go among the unfortunate creatures who lined the 
 road. After the departure of the Prince de Conde, 
 the duke and the cardinal believed that they had im- 
 posed silence on the Huguenots, and left the queen- 
 mother a little more freedom. Lecamus knew that 
 Catherine, instead of travelling in a litter, loved to 
 ride a la planchette such was the name then given 
 to the stirrup invented for or by Catherine, who had 
 once injured her leg, and who rode with both feet 
 resting on a sort of pack-saddle covered with velvet, 
 sitting sidewise on the horse's back and passing one 
 leg through a notch in the saddle. As the queen 
 had very shapely legs, she was accused of having 
 invented that fashion in order to show them. Thus 
 the old man was enabled to attract Catherine de' 
 Medici's attention; but as soon as she recognized 
 him, she assumed an indignant air. 
 
 " Off with you, goodman, and let no one see you 
 speaking to me," she said with something very like 
 anxiety. " Procure your own election as deputy to 
 the States-General by the assemblage of guilds of 
 Paris, and be on my side in the session at Orleans; 
 then you will know whom to rely upon in respect to 
 your son." 
 
 " Is he still living?" asked the old man. 
 16
 
 242 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 " Alas ! I hope so," said the queen. 
 
 Lecamus was obliged to return to Paris with 
 naught but those unsatisfactory words, and with the 
 secret that the States-General were to be convoked, 
 which the queen had just divulged to him.
 
 Within a few days the cardinal had obtained evi- 
 dence of the culpability of the court of Navarre. At 
 Lyon, at Mouvans, in Dauphine, some Huguenots 
 commanded by the most enterprising prince of the 
 House of Bourbon had tried to raise the people. 
 Such audacity, after the bloody executions at Am- 
 boise, astonished the Lorraine princes, who, in order 
 to have done with the heresy by means which they 
 carefully kept secret, proposed to convoke the States- 
 General at Orleans. Catherine de' Medici, who fan- 
 cied that she saw a possible prop to her policy in 
 popular representation, joyfully consented. The car- 
 dinal, who wished to seize his prey once more and 
 crush the House of Bourbon, had no other purpose in 
 convoking the States than to secure the attendance 
 of the Prince de Conde and the King of Navarre, 
 Antoine de Bourbon, father of Henri IV.; and he 
 proposed to make use of Christophe to convict the 
 prince of high treason, if he should succeed in enti- 
 cing him into the king's power. 
 
 After two months in prison at Blois, Christophe 
 was carried one morning on a stretcher to a boat, 
 placed on a bed, and taken up the river to Orleans 
 by favor of a westerly wind. He arrived during the 
 evening, and was taken to the celebrated Saint- 
 Aignan Tower. Having no means of knowing what 
 to think concerning his transfer, he could devote all 
 (243)
 
 244 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 his thoughts to his conduct and his future. He lay 
 there two months more on his cot, unable to move 
 his legs. His bones were broken. When he asked 
 for the services of a surgeon from the town, the 
 jailer replied that his orders with respect to him 
 were so strict that he could not even allow any other 
 person to bring him his food. This severity, the 
 effect of which was to keep him in secret confine- 
 ment, surprised Christophe; according to his ideas, 
 he should either be hanged or released, for he knew 
 nothing of the events at Amboise. 
 
 Notwithstanding the urgent advice to remain at 
 home which Catherine de' Medici secretly sent 
 them, the two Bourbon princes determined to attend 
 the meeting of the States-General, the king's auto- 
 graph letters had given them such a sense of secu- 
 rity; and when the court was installed at Orleans, 
 it was learned, not without astonishment, from 
 Groslot, Chancellor of Navarre, that the princes had 
 arrived. 
 
 Francois II. took up his abode in the palace of the 
 Chancellor of Navarre, who was also Bailli of Or- 
 leans. This Groslot, whose double office is one of 
 the peculiar features of a period when Huguenots 
 possessed abbeys, Groslot, the Jacques Coeur of 
 Orleans, and one of the wealthiest bourgeois of that 
 town, did not leave his name to his palace; it was 
 afterward called the bailliage, for it was undoubt- 
 edly purchased from his heirs by the crown, or by 
 the provincial government as a home for that tri- 
 bunal. That charming structure, which we owe to
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 245 
 
 the bourgeois of the sixteenth century, is a fitting 
 complement to the history of that period, when king, 
 nobility, and bourgeoise contested with one another 
 the palm for the grace, refinement, and richness of 
 their dwellings witness Varangeville, the superb 
 manor-house of Ango, and the so-called Hotel d' Her- 
 cules in Paris, which is still standing in our day, but 
 in a condition to drive archaeologists and admirers of 
 the Middle Ages to despair. It is difficult to go to 
 Orleans without noticing the hotel de ville on Place 
 de 1'Estape. That hotel de ville is the former bail- 
 liage, the Hotel Groslot, the most illustrious house in 
 Orleans and the most neglected. 
 
 The remains of that edifice inform the eyes of the 
 archaeologist how magnificent it was at a time when 
 bourgeois houses were built much more frequently of 
 wood than of stone, and when none but noblemen 
 had the right to build manors a significant word. 
 To have been selected as the king's place of sojourn 
 at a period when the court displayed so much mag- 
 nificence and pomp, the Hotel Groslot must have 
 been the largest and finest house in Orleans. It 
 was on Place de 1'Estape that the Guises and the 
 king passed in review the civic guard, to which 
 Monsieur de Cypierre was assigned as commander 
 during the king's residence. At that time, the 
 Cathedral of Sainte-Croix subsequently completed 
 by Henri IV., who chose to offer that pledge of the 
 sincerity of his conversion was in process of con- 
 struction, and its neighborhood, strewn with blocks 
 of stone and encumbered with piles of boards, was
 
 246 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 occupied by the Guises, who had their quarters in 
 the bishop's palace, since demolished. 
 
 The town was under military occupation, and the 
 measures taken by the Lorraines indicated how little 
 freedom of action they proposed to leave to the 
 States-General, whose members flooded the city 
 and caused a rise in rents, even in the meanest 
 hovels. The court, the bourgeois militia, the no- 
 bility, and the bourgeoisie anticipated some coup 
 d'Etat, and their anticipation was fulfilled when the 
 princes of the blood arrived. When the two princes 
 entered the royal chamber, the courtiers stood aghast 
 at the insolence of the Cardinal de Lorraine, who, in 
 order to proclaim his pretensions aloud, remained 
 covered, while the King of Navarre stood before him 
 with uncovered head. At that, Catherine de' Medici 
 turned her eyes away in order not to betray her 
 indignation. Thereupon ensued a solemn explana- 
 tion between the young king and the two chiefs of 
 the younger branch; it was brief, for the Prince de 
 Conde had hardly opened his mouth to speak, when 
 Francois II. put an end to the interview with these 
 terrible words: 
 
 " Messieurs my cousins, I had supposed that the 
 Amboise affair was at an end; I see that I was mis- 
 taken, and that you wish to make us regret our 
 indulgent treatment of you!" 
 
 "It is not the king who is speaking, so much as 
 Messieurs de Guise," retorted the Prince de Conde. 
 
 " Adieu, monsieur," said the little king, purple 
 with wrath.
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 247 
 
 In the great hall the prince's path was blocked by 
 the two captains of the guards. When the captain 
 of the French company stepped forward, the prince 
 drew a letter from his breast, and said to him before 
 the whole court: 
 
 "Will you kindly read this for me, Monsieur de 
 Maille-Breze?" 
 
 " Willingly," said the captain. 
 
 " ' Cousin, come in all confidence, I give you my 
 royal word that you may safely do so. If you need 
 a safe-conduct, these presents will serve the pur- 
 pose.' " 
 
 "Signed?" said the shrewd and intrepid hunch- 
 back. 
 
 " Signed: ' Francois,' " said Maille. 
 
 "No, no," said the prince, "it is: 'Your affec- 
 tionate cousin and friend, Francois!' Messieurs," 
 he cried to the Scottish Guards, " I follow you to 
 the prison to which you have been ordered by the 
 king to conduct me. There is enough nobility of 
 soul in this hall to understand that!" 
 
 The profound silence which reigned throughout 
 the hall might well have put the Guises on their 
 guard; but silence is what princes listen to with 
 least attention. 
 
 " Monseigneur," said the Cardinal de Tournon, 
 following the prince, "since the affair at Amboise, 
 you have engaged in enterprises against the royal 
 authority at Lyon, and at Mouvans in Dauphine, of 
 which the king had no knowledge when he wrote 
 you in those terms."
 
 248 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 "Sharpers!" exclaimed the prince, with a laugh. 
 
 " You made a public declaration against the mass, 
 and in favor of heresy." 
 
 "We are masters in Navarre," said the prince. 
 
 "In Beam, you mean?" interposed President de 
 Thou. "But you owe homage to the crown." 
 
 "Ah! so you are here, president?" sneered the 
 prince. " Is the whole Parliament with you?" 
 
 With that, the prince cast a contemptuous glance 
 at the cardinal, and left the hall; he realized that 
 they proposed to have his head. On the following 
 day, when Messieurs de Thou, de Viole, d'Espesse, 
 Bourdin the procureur-general, and du Tillet the 
 chief clerk entered his prison, he kept them stand- 
 ing while he expressed his regret to see them en- 
 trusted with a matter wholly out of their jurisdiction; 
 then he said to the clerk: 
 
 "Write!" 
 
 And he dictated this: 
 
 " I, Louis de Bourbon, Prince de Conde, peer of 
 the realm, Marquis de Conti, Comte de Soissons, 
 prince of the royal blood of France, do declare that 
 I absolutely refuse to recognize the authority of any 
 commission appointed to sit in judgment upon me, 
 since, by virtue of my rank and of the privilege in- 
 herent in every member of the royal family, 1 may 
 be accused, heard, and tried only by the Parliament 
 of Paris, attended by all the peers, all the different 
 chambers, and presided over by the king sitting on 
 his bed of justice." 
 
 "You must know that better than anyone else,
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 249 
 
 messieurs; it is all that you will hear from me. For 
 the rest, I place my trust in God and my right." 
 
 The magistrates proceeded, notwithstanding the 
 prince's obstinate silence. The King of Navarre was 
 at liberty, but was closely watched; his prison 
 was somewhat larger than his brother's, but that was 
 the only difference between their respective posi- 
 tions; for it was intended that both their heads 
 should fall at the same blow. 
 
 Christophe was kept so carefully in secret con- 
 finement by the orders of the cardinal and the lieu- 
 tenant-general of the kingdom, simply for the purpose 
 of giving the magistrates evidence of the prince's 
 culpability. The letters seized upon La Sagne, the 
 prince's secretary, although intelligible to statesmen, 
 were not sufficiently explicit for judges. The cardinal 
 had meditated upon the plan of arranging a chance 
 meeting between the prince and Christophe, who 
 had been placed, not without design, in a lower 
 room of the Saint-Aignan Tower, with a window 
 looking on the courtyard. On the occasion of every 
 examination to which the magistrates subjected him, 
 he took refuge in a system of absolute denial, which 
 naturally prolonged the trial until the opening of the 
 States. 
 
 Lecamus, who had not failed to procure his own 
 election as deputy of the Third Estate by the bour- 
 geoisie of Paris, reached Orleans a few days after 
 the prince's arrest. That news, which he learned 
 at Etampes, redoubled his anxiety, for he, who alone 
 knew of the interview between the prince and his
 
 2$0 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 son under Pont au Change, understood that Chris- 
 tophe's fate was bound up with that of the audacious 
 leader of the Reformation. So he determined to study 
 the obscure, involved interests which began to clash 
 at court immediately upon the opening of the States, 
 in order to devise some method of saving his son. 
 He could not think of Queen Catherine, for she 
 refused to see her furrier. Not one of the persons 
 connected with the court whom he was able to ap- 
 proach gave him any satisfactory news concerning 
 his son, and he had reached such a pitch of despera- 
 tion that he was on the point of appealing to the car- 
 dinal himself, when he learned that Monsieur de Thou 
 had consented and it is an indelible blot upon his ca- 
 reer to act as one of the Prince de Conde's judges. 
 The syndic went to see his son's patron, and learned 
 that Christophe was still alive, but a prisoner. 
 
 Tourillon the glover, to whom La Renaudie had 
 recommended Christophe, had offered Sieur Lecamus 
 a room in his house throughout the session of the 
 States. The glover believed the furrier to be, like 
 himself, secretly attached to the Reformed religion; 
 but he soon discovered that a father who fears for 
 his son's life does not understand fine religious dis- 
 tinctions, but throws himself desperately upon God's 
 bosom, heedless of the color of the scarf which men 
 place upon Him. The old man, foiled in all his at- 
 tempts to gain information, walked through the 
 streets like a man in a trance; contrary to his 
 expectations, his gold availed him nothing; Mon- 
 sieur de Thou had warned him that, if he should
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 251 
 
 bribe a retainer of the Guises, he would simply 
 throw his money away, for the duke and the car- 
 dinal allowed nothing to transpire concerning Chris- 
 tophe. That magistrate, whose glory is somewhat 
 tarnished by the r61e he played at that crisis, had 
 tried to give the despairing father some hope; but 
 he was so alarmed himself for his godson's life that 
 his words of consolation only alarmed the furrier 
 more. The old man prowled around the house. In 
 three months he had grown wofully thin. He based 
 his only hope upon the warm friendship which had 
 long existed between himself and the Hippocrates of 
 the sixteenth century, Ambroise Pare. The surgeon 
 tried to say a word to Queen Mary on leaving the 
 king's room; but as soon as he mentioned Chris- 
 tophe's name, the daughter of the Stuarts, irritated 
 by contemplation of her probable fate if anything 
 should happen to the king, and believing that he 
 had been poisoned by the reformers, because of the 
 opportune suddenness of his illness, replied: 
 
 "If my uncles had listened to me, such a fanatic 
 would have been hanged long ago!" 
 
 On the evening when that ominous reply was 
 communicated to Lecamus by his friend Pare, on 
 Place de 1'Estape, he returned to his room, half- 
 dead, and refused to take any supper. 
 
 Tourillon, being troubled about him, went up to 
 his room and found him in tears; and as the poor 
 furrier's old eyes showed the flesh on the under 
 side of the inflamed, wrinkled eyelids, the glover 
 thought that he was weeping blood.
 
 252 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 "Take comfort, father," said the reformer, "the 
 bourgeois of Orleans are furious to see their city 
 treated as if it had been taken by assault, patrolled 
 by Monsieur de Cypierre's troops; and, if the Prince 
 de Conde's life were in danger, we would soon pull 
 down the Saint-Aignan Tower; for our whole city 
 is for the Reformation, and will rise in rebellion, 
 I promise you that!" 
 
 " Even if you should hang the Lorraines, would 
 their death give me back my son?" rejoined the 
 despairing father. 
 
 At that moment there was a gentle tap at Touril- 
 lon's door, and the glover himself went down to 
 answer it. It was quite dark. In those troublous 
 times, every householder took the most minute pre- 
 cautions. Tourillon looked out through the bars of 
 the wicket in his door, and saw a stranger, dressed 
 in black, whose accent betrayed an Italian. He 
 asked to speak to Lecamus on matters of business, 
 and Tourillon admitted him. At sight of the stranger 
 the furrier was terribly startled, but the stranger 
 found time to put his finger to his lips. Lecamus 
 understood the gesture, and said to him: 
 
 " I suppose you have come to offer me some 
 furs?" 
 
 "Si," the stranger replied discreetly, in Italian. 
 
 The new-comer was the famous Ruggieri, astrolo- 
 ger to the queen-mother. Tourillon went down to 
 his own quarters, realizing that his presence in his 
 guest's room was inopportune. 
 
 "Where can we talk without having reason to
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 253 
 
 fear that we may be overheard?" said the prudent 
 Florentine. 
 
 " We must go into the open fields for that," Le- 
 camus replied; "but they won't let us leave the 
 city; you know how strictly the gates are guarded. 
 No one is allowed to go out without a pass from 
 Monsieur de Cypierre, even a member of the States, 
 like myself. To-morrow, at our session, we all 
 propose to complain of this abridgment of our lib- 
 erty." 
 
 " Work like a mole, but never let your paws be 
 seen in anything you do," said the crafty Floren- 
 tine. "To-morrow will undoubtedly be the decisive 
 day. If my observations are correct, you will have 
 your son again to-morrow or the next day." 
 
 " May God hear you, who are supposed to consult 
 the devil only!" 
 
 "Come to my quarters," said the astrologer, 
 smiling. " For watching the stars I have the tower 
 of Sieur Touchet de Beauvais, the lieutenant of the 
 bailliage, whose little daughter has caught the fancy 
 of the little Due d'Orleans. I have cast the child's 
 horoscope, and it really indicates that she will be a 
 great lady and loved by a king. The lieutenant is 
 an intelligent man, he is devoted to the sciences, so 
 the queen procured apartments for me in his house; 
 he is bright enough to be a fanatical Guisard pending 
 the accession of Charles IX." 
 
 The furrier and the astrologer betook themselves 
 to Sieur de Beauvais's abode without meeting any- 
 body or being seen; but, in case Lecamus's visit
 
 254 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 should be discovered, the Florentine proposed to 
 account for it as an astrological consultation con- 
 cerning Christophe's fate. When they had reached 
 the upper floor of the turret, where the astrologer's 
 study was, Lecamus said to him: 
 
 " Is my son surely alive?" 
 
 " Thus far," replied Ruggieri, " but his life is still 
 to be saved. Hark ye, dealer in skins; I would not 
 give two sous for your life, if you should ever, while 
 you live, repeat a single syllable of what I am about 
 to say to you." 
 
 "An unnecessary warning, my good sir; I have 
 been furrier to the court since the time of King 
 Louis XII., and this is the fourth reign I have 
 seen." 
 
 " You will soon say the fifth," observed Ruggieri. 
 
 "What do you know of my son?" 
 
 " Well, he has been put to the question." 
 
 "Poor boy!" said the goodman, raising his eyes 
 to Heaven. 
 
 " His knees and ankles were crushed a bit; but he 
 has earned the protection of a royal personage which 
 will extend over his whole life," said the Florentine 
 hastily, observing the father's dismay. " Your little 
 Christophe has rendered a service to our great 
 Queen Catherine. If we extricate your son from 
 the clutches of the Lorraines, you will see him a 
 counsellor in the parliament some day. A man 
 might suffer all his bones to be broken thrice to win 
 the good graces of that dear sovereign, a transcen- 
 dent genius who will triumph over all obstacles! I
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 255 
 
 have cast the Due de Guise's horoscope: he will be 
 killed within a year! Let us see Christophe saw 
 the Prince de Conde " 
 
 " Do not you, who know the future, know the 
 past as well?" said the furrier. 
 
 " I am not questioning you, my good friend, I am 
 telling you the fact. Now, if your son, who will be 
 placed in the prince's path to-morrow, recognizes 
 him, or if the prince recognizes your son, Monsieur 
 de Conde's head will fall. God knows what will 
 become of his accomplice! But never fear. Neither 
 your son nor the prince will be put to death; I have 
 cast their horoscopes, and they will live; but I cannot 
 say by what means they will extricate themselves 
 from the affair. Leaving the certainty of my calcu- 
 lations out of the question, we must do what we can. 
 To-morrow the prince will receive by a trustworthy 
 hand a book of prayers, in which we shall send him 
 a word of warning. God grant that your son may 
 be discreet, for he will not be forewarned! A single 
 glance of recognition will cost the prince his life. 
 And so, although the queen-mother has every reason 
 to rely on Christophe's fidelity " 
 
 " She has put it to some severe tests!" cried the 
 furrier. 
 
 " Do not speak so! Do you fancy the queen is 
 happy? She proposes to take measures as if the 
 Guises had determined on the prince's death; and 
 she does well, wise and prudent queen that she is! 
 Now, she relies upon you for assistance in every- 
 thing. You have some influence in the third estate,
 
 256 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 representing the associated guilds of Paris, and al- 
 though the Guisards may promise to set your son 
 free, try to cozen them and incite your Order against 
 the Lorraines. Ask that the queen-mother be made 
 regent ; the King of Navarre will give his assent 
 publicly in the session of the States." 
 
 " But the king ?" 
 
 " The king will die," Ruggieri replied. " I have 
 cast his horoscope. What the queen asks you to 
 do for her in the States is very simple; but she 
 expects a greater service from you. You assisted 
 the great Ambroise Pare in his studies, you are his 
 friend" 
 
 " Ambroise cares more for the Due de Guise 
 to-day than for me, and he is quite right, for he owes 
 his position to him; but he is loyal to the king. And 
 so, although he is inclined toward the Reformation, 
 he will do nothing contrary to his duty." 
 
 " The devil take these honest men!" cried the 
 Florentine. " Ambroise boasted this evening that 
 he would cure the little king. If the king recovers 
 his health, the Guises will triumph, the princes will 
 lose their lives, the House of Bourbon will come to 
 an end, we shall return to Florence, your son will 
 be hanged, and the Lorraines will find it easy to 
 deal with the other sons of France." 
 
 " Great God !" cried Lecamus. 
 
 " Do not exclaim thus: it is like a bourgeois who 
 knows nothing of the court ; but go at once to Am- 
 broise and find out from him what he intends to do 
 to save the king's life. If he professes any certainty,
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 257 
 
 do you come to me and describe the operation in 
 which he has so much faith." 
 
 "But " Lecamus began. 
 
 "Obey blindly, my dear fellow; otherwise you 
 will be bewildered." 
 
 " He is right," thought the furrier. 
 
 And he went in search of the king's first surgeon, 
 who was quartered at an inn on Place du Martroi. 
 
 At that moment, Catherine de' Medici was in a 
 political extremity similar to that in which Chris- 
 tophe had seen her at Blois. Though she had 
 girded up her loins for the struggle, though she 
 had exerted her lofty intelligence in that first discom- 
 fiture, her situation, although practically the same, 
 was even more critical and more perilous than at the 
 time of the Tumult of Amboise. Events had pro- 
 gressed no less than the woman. Although she 
 seemed to be acting in harmony with the two Lor- 
 raine princes, Catherine held in her hand the threads 
 of a cunningly devised plot against her formidable 
 associates, and only awaited a propitious moment 
 to throw away the mask. The cardinal had just 
 obtained positive proof that Catherine was deceiv- 
 ing him. The wily Italian had fixed upon the 
 younger branch as a suitable obstacle to oppose to 
 the pretensions of the Guises; and, despite the 
 advice of the two Gondis, who urged her to allow 
 the Guises to come to blows with the Bourbons, she 
 had thwarted, by warning the Queen of Navarre, 
 the plan which they had formed in concert with 
 Spain, to seize upon Beam. As that State secret was 
 17
 
 258 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 known only to themselves and the queen-mother, 
 the two Lorraine princes, certain of the duplicity of 
 their ally, determined to send her back to Florence; 
 and, to leave no doubt of Catherine's treason to the 
 State, the House of Lorraine was the State, the 
 duke and the cardinal had entrusted to her their 
 design of ridding themselves of the King of Navarre. 
 The precautions instantly taken by Antoine de 
 Bourbon proved to the two brothers that that secret, 
 known only to themselves and to the queen-mother, 
 had been divulged by her. The Cardinal de Lorraine 
 forthwith taxed the queen-mother with her faithless- 
 ness, in presence of Francois II., threatening her 
 with an edict of banishment in case that any fresh 
 indiscretion on her part should endanger the State. 
 Catherine, being in extreme peril, bore herself like 
 a great king. She demonstrated her exalted capa- 
 bilities; but we must confess that she was well 
 served by her close friends. L'Hopital sent to the 
 queen a note in these words: 
 
 " Do not allow a prince of the blood to be put to death by a 
 commission, or they will soon make away with you also!" 
 
 Catherine sent Birague to Vignay to bid the 
 chancellor attend the session of the States, despite 
 his disgrace. Birague arrived within three leagues 
 of Orleans that very night, with L'Hopital, who 
 thus declared himself on the queen-mother's side. 
 Chiverni, whose loyalty had by this time, and with 
 good reason, begun to be suspected by Messieurs de
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 259 
 
 Guise, had made his escape from Orleans, and by 
 hard riding, which nearly cost him his life, had 
 reached Ecouen in ten hours. He informed the 
 Connetable de Montmorency of the perilous plight 
 of his nephew, the Prince de Conde, and of the 
 audacity of the Lorraines. Anne de Montmorency, 
 furious to learn that the prince owed his life only 
 to the sudden appearance of the disease of which 
 Francois II. eventually died, set out for Orleans 
 with fifteen hundred horse and a hundred noblemen. 
 In order to surprise Messieurs de Guise more com- 
 pletely, he avoided Paris, going from Ecouen to 
 Corbeil, and from Corbeil to Pithiviers by the valley 
 of the Essonne. 
 
 "Captain against captain, there will be some 
 work to do," he observed on the occasion of that 
 bold march. 
 
 Anne de Montmorency, who had saved France at 
 the time that Charles V. invaded Provence, and the 
 Due de Guise, who had checked the emperor's 
 second invasion at Metz, were, in truth, the two 
 greatest soldiers in France at this time. Catherine 
 had waited until the most opportune moment to 
 kindle the hatred of the constable, who had been 
 disgraced by the influence of the Lorraines. How- 
 ever, the Marquis de Simeuse, commanding at Gien, 
 upon learning of the arrival of a force so considera- 
 ble as the constable's, rode off to the Due de Guise, 
 hoping to be able to warn him in time. 
 
 The queen-mother, feeling sure that the consta- 
 ble would come to the assistance of his nephew, and
 
 260 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 relying confidently on the chancellor's devotion to the 
 king's cause, had revived the hopes and the inso- 
 lence of the party of the Reformation. The Colignys 
 and the friends of the imperilled House of Bourbon 
 had made common cause with the queen-mother's 
 partisans. A coalition between common interests 
 attacked by a common enemy was secretly formed 
 in the States-General, where it was openly proposed 
 to make Catherine regent of the kingdom in case of 
 the death of Francois II. Catherine, whose faith in 
 judicial astrology exceeded her faith in the Church, 
 had dared to take any measures against her op- 
 pressors, when she saw her son actually dying at 
 the expiration of the time fixed by the sorceress 
 whom Nostradamus had brought to her at the cha- 
 teau of Chaumont. 
 
 Some days before the shocking closing scenes of 
 this reign, Francois II. had expressed a wish to take 
 a trip on the Loire, in order not to be in the city 
 when the Prince de Conde was executed. After he 
 had abandoned the prince's head to the Cardinal de 
 Lorraine, he lived in equal dread of an uprising and 
 of the supplications of the Princesse de Conde. As 
 he was about to embark, one of the cool winds which 
 blow along the Loire in the early winter caused him 
 such a severe pain in the ear that he was obliged 
 to return to the palace; he took to his bed, never to 
 leave it again alive. Despite the contradiction of the 
 physicians, who, with the exception of Chapelain, 
 were his enemies and antagonists, Pare maintained 
 that an abscess had formed in the king's head, and
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 261 
 
 that unless the foreign substance were discharged, 
 the chances of saving his life decreased from day to 
 day. 
 
 Notwithstanding the late hour and the curfew law, 
 which was strictly enforced in Orleans, the city 
 being practically in a state of siege, Fare's lamp 
 shone in his window, and he was studying; Lecamus 
 hailed him from the street, and when he had called 
 out his name, the physician ordered that his old 
 friend should be admitted. 
 
 " You take no rest, Ambroise, and, while you re- 
 store life to others, you waste your own," said the 
 furrier, as he entered the room. 
 
 The surgeon was sitting, with his books lying 
 open on the table and his instruments scattered 
 about, before a skull, recently buried and taken 
 from the cemetery, in which he had made an in- 
 cision. 
 
 "It's a question of saving the king's life." 
 
 "Are you very certain of your ability to do it?" 
 cried the old man, with a shudder. 
 
 "As certain as of my existence. The king, my 
 old friend, has a pernicious abscess pressing on the 
 brain, which will eventually break and fill it, and 
 the crisis is at hand; but, by boring into the skull, 
 I expect to expel the pus and relieve the brain. I 
 have thrice before performed this operation, which 
 was invented by a Piedmontese, and which I have 
 had the good fortune to perfect. The first was on 
 Monsieur de Pienne at the siege of Metz; I cured 
 him, and he has been a wiser man since: he had an
 
 262 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 abscess caused by an arquebus shot in the head. 
 The second saved the life of a pauper, upon whom 
 1 wished to demonstrate the beneficence of the au- 
 dacious operation to which Monsieur de Pienne had 
 submitted. The third operation was upon a gentle- 
 man in Paris who is perfectly well to-day. Trepan- 
 ning that is the name of the operation is but little 
 known as yet. Patients are reluctant to undergo it 
 because of the imperfection of the instrument, which 
 I have succeeded at last in improving. 1 am experi- 
 menting on this head, in order not to fail on the 
 king's to-morrow." 
 
 "You should be sure of your ground, for your 
 own head would be in danger in case " 
 
 " I would wager my life that he will be cured," 
 replied Ambroise, with the serene confidence of the 
 man of genius. "Ah! my old friend, what does 
 boring a hole in the head amount to, with due pre- 
 caution? isn't it what soldiers do every day in battle, 
 with no precautions whatever?" 
 
 "My son," said the outspoken bourgeois, "do 
 you know that to save the king is to ruin France? 
 Do you know that that instrument will help to place 
 the crown of the Valois on the head of the Lorraine 
 who claims to be the heir of Charlemagne? Do you 
 know that surgery and politics are entangled at this 
 moment? Yes, the triumph of your genius means 
 the downfall of your religion. If the Guises re- 
 tain the regency, the blood of the reformers will 
 flow in streams! Be a great citizen rather than a 
 great surgeon, and sleep late to-morrow, leaving the
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 263 
 
 sick-room to the physicians who, if they fail to cure 
 the king, will cure France!" 
 
 "I!" cried Pare, "I let a man die when I can 
 save him! No! no! though I were to be hanged 
 myself as an accomplice of Calvin, I will go to the 
 king early. Do you not know that the only favor I 
 propose to ask, after I have saved the king, is your 
 Christophe's life? There certainly will be a mo- 
 ment when Queen Mary will refuse me nothing." 
 
 " Alas! my friend," said Lecamus, "has not the 
 little king refused to pardon the Prince de Conde at 
 the solicitation of the princess? Do not crush your 
 religion by prolonging the life of the man who is 
 doomed to die." 
 
 " Do you propose to take a hand in trying to find 
 out how God proposes to order future events?" 
 cried Pare. " Honest men have but one motto: 
 ' Do your duty, come what come may!' I did my 
 duty at the siege of Calais, when I put my foot on 
 the grand master's face: I ran the risk of being 
 strangled by all his friends, by his retainers, and 
 to-day I am first surgeon to the king; nay, more, I 
 am of the Reformed religion, and Messieurs de Guise 
 are my friends. I will save the king!" cried the 
 surgeon, with the solemn enthusiasm of conviction 
 which genius imparts, " and God will save France!" 
 
 There was a knock at the door, and a few moments 
 later one of Ambroise's servants handed a paper to 
 Lecamus, who read aloud these alarming words: 
 
 " A scaffold is being erected at the Convent des Recollets, 
 on which the Prince de Conde is to be beheaded to-morrow."
 
 264 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 Ambroise and Lecamus gazed at each other, over- 
 whelmed by the same feeling of profound horror. 
 
 " I will go to make sure of it," said the furrier. 
 
 On the square, Ruggieri took Lecamus's arm and 
 asked him the secret of Ambroise's plan for saving 
 the king, but the old man feared some ruse and in- 
 sisted upon going to see the scaffold. So the furrier 
 and the astrologer went together to the Recollets, 
 where they found carpenters working by torchlight. 
 
 " I say, friend, what are you at work upon?" 
 Lecamus asked one of them. 
 
 " We are preparing to hang heretics, as the bleed- 
 ing at Amboise did not cure them," said a young 
 Recollet who was overlooking the workmen. 
 
 "Monsieur le cardinal is quite right," said the 
 prudent Ruggieri; "but in our country we have a 
 better way." 
 
 " What do you do?" said the Recollet. 
 
 " We burn them, brother." 
 
 Lecamus was obliged to lean upon the astrologer; 
 his legs refused to carry him, for he thought that his 
 son might be hanging from one of those gibbets on 
 the morrow. The poor old man was between two 
 sciences, astrology and surgery, both of which prom- 
 ised him the safety of his son, for whom the scaffold 
 was evidently being erected. In the confusion of his 
 ideas he allowed himself to be kneaded like dough 
 by the Florentine. 
 
 " Well, my worthy dealer in miniver, what do 
 you say to these Lorraine pleasantries?" said Rug- 
 gieri.
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 265 
 
 "Alas! you know that I would give my own skin 
 to see my son's safe and whole!" 
 
 " There spoke the dealer in ermine," rejoined the 
 Italian; "but explain to me carefully the operation 
 Ambroise proposes to perform on the king, and I 
 will answer for your son's life." 
 
 " Really?" cried the old furrier. 
 
 " What oath shall I take?" queried Ruggieri. 
 
 At that proof of good faith, the poor old man re- 
 peated his interview with Ambroise to the Floren- 
 tine, who left the heart-broken father in the street 
 as soon as the great surgeon's secret was divulged. 
 
 " Which devil is that knave aiming at?" cried the 
 old man, as he saw Ruggieri hurrying away toward 
 Place de 1'Estape. 
 
 Lecamus knew nothing of the terrible scene which 
 was taking place around the royal bed, and which had 
 caused the order to erect the scaffold for the prince, 
 whose sentence had been pronounced by default, so 
 to speak, and whose execution had been postponed 
 because of the king's illness.
 
 In the great hall, on the stairway, and in the 
 courtyard of the bailliage, no one was to be seen 
 save persons actually on duty. The great multi- 
 tude of the courtiers crowded the apartments of the 
 King of Navarre, to whom, according to the laws of 
 the realm, the regency would belong. The French 
 nobility, alarmed by the insolence of the Guises, felt 
 the 'advisability of rallying around the head of the 
 younger branch, seeing the queen-mother subor- 
 dinated to the. Guises, and having no comprehen- 
 sion of her Italian policy. Antoine de Bourbon, true 
 to his secret agreement with Catherine, was not to 
 yield his claim to the regency in her favor until the 
 States had pronounced their judgment upon that 
 question. This profound solitude made a deep im- 
 pression on the grand master, when, on returning 
 from making the round of the city posts as a meas- 
 ure of prudence, he found in attendance upon the 
 king none but the friends who were attached to his 
 own fortunes. 
 
 The room in which Francois II. 's bed was placed 
 adjoined the principal hall of the bailliage. It was 
 at that time wainscoted with oak. The ceiling, 
 composed of long, narrow boards, cunningly matched 
 and painted, was decorated with blue arabesques on 
 a gold background, a part of which, when it was 
 torn down nearly fifty years ago, was acquired by a 
 (267)
 
 268 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 collector of antiquities. This room, which was hung 
 with tapestries and had a carpet on the floor, was 
 naturally so dark that the torches hardly lighted it. 
 The huge bed, with four columns and silk curtains, 
 resembled a tomb. On one side of the bed, by the 
 pillow, were Queen Mary and the Cardinal de Lor- 
 raine. Catherine was seated in an easy-chair. The 
 famous Jean Chapelain, the physician on duty, who 
 was afterward first physician to Charles IX., was 
 standing by the fireplace. The most profound silence 
 reigned. The young king, thin and pale, was almost 
 lost among the bedclothes, his pinched little face 
 hardly visible on the pillow. The Duchesse de 
 Guise sat on a stool, assisting the young Queen 
 Mary, and Madame de Fiesco, in the window-recess, 
 watched closely every look and movement of the 
 queen-mother, for she realized the dangers of her 
 position. 
 
 In the hall, notwithstanding the lateness of the 
 hour, Monsieur de Cypierre, tutor to the Due d'Or- 
 leans, and lately appointed governor of the city, 
 occupied one corner of the fireplace with the two 
 Gondis. The Cardinal de Tournon, who espoused 
 the queen-mother's cause at this crisis, because he 
 was treated as an inferior by the Cardinal de Lor- 
 raine, whose ecclesiastical equal he certainly was, 
 was talking in undertones with the Gondis. Mare- 
 chal de Vieilleville and Marechal de Saint-Andre were 
 discussing the dangers to which the Guises were ex- 
 posed with the keeper of the seals, who presided 
 over the States.
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 269 
 
 The lieutenant-general of the kingdom crossed the 
 hall, casting a swift glance around, and saluted 
 the Due d'Orleans, whom he espied there. 
 
 "Monseigneur," he said, "this may serve to 
 teach you to understand mankind : the Catholic 
 nobility of the kingdom are in attendance upon a 
 heretic prince, because they believe that the States 
 will grant the regency to the heirs of the traitor 
 who caused your illustrious grandfather to be kept 
 so long in prison." 
 
 Having said these words, which were well adapted 
 to make a deep impression in the heart of a prince, he 
 passed into the bed-chamber, where the young king 
 was in a sort of heavy torpor rather than asleep. 
 Ordinarily, the Due de Guise was able to disguise 
 the sinister appearance of his scarred face by an 
 expression of great affability, but, at that moment, 
 he had not the heart to smile, seeing that the in- 
 strument of his power was falling in pieces. The 
 cardinal, whose civil courage was as great as his 
 brother's military courage, stepped forward to meet 
 the lieutenant-general. 
 
 "Robertet thinks that little Pinard is sold to the 
 queen-mother," he said in his ear, leading him back 
 into the hall; "they have used him to work upon 
 the members of the States." 
 
 " Bah! what matters it that we are betrayed by 
 a secretary when everybody betrays us!" cried the 
 lieutenant-general. " The city is for the Reforma- 
 tion, and we are on the eve of an uprising. Yes! 
 the wasps are discontented," he added, using the
 
 270 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 nickname commonly applied to the people of Or- 
 leans, "and if Pare does not save the king, we shall 
 have a terrible clashing of shields. Before long we 
 shall have to lay siege to Orleans, which is a hot- 
 bed of Huguenots." 
 
 " For the last few minutes," rejoined the cardinal, 
 " I have been watching that Italian who sits there 
 utterly unmoved, watching for her son's death, God 
 forgive her! I am wondering if we should not do 
 well to arrest her as well as the King of Navarre." 
 
 "It is too much to have the Prince de Conde in 
 prison!" replied the duke. 
 
 The clatter of a horseman riding at full speed 
 rang out at the gate of the bailliage. The two 
 Lorraine princes went to the window, and by the 
 light of the concierge's and sentinel's torches which 
 were always burning under the porch they recog- 
 nized on the horseman's hat the famous Lorraine 
 cross which the cardinal had caused his adherents 
 to adopt. He sent one of the arquebusiers who 
 were in the antechamber, to bid the guards admit 
 the new-comer, while he and his brother went out 
 to the landing to meet him. 
 
 " What is it, my dear Simeuse?" the duke, upon 
 recognizing the governor of Gien, asked with the 
 charm of manner which he was accustomed to dis- 
 play for men of the sword. 
 
 " The constable is entering Pithiviers; he left 
 Ecouen with fifteen hundred horse and a hundred 
 gentlemen " 
 
 " Have they an escort?" said the duke.
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 271 
 
 " Yes, monseigneur, there are twenty-six hundred 
 of them in all. Some say that Thore is behind with 
 a body of infantry. If the constable amuses him- 
 self by waiting for his son, you have time to defeat 
 him." 
 
 "Do you know nothing more? Are the reasons 
 for this appeal to arms divulged?" 
 
 " Anne talks as little as he writes; go out to meet 
 him, brother, while I prepare to greet him with his 
 nephew's head," said the cardinal, sending a ser- 
 vant to bid Robertet to come to him. 
 
 " Vieilleville!" cried the duke to the marshal, who 
 came at his call, "the constable has the presumption 
 to appear at Orleans under arms; if I go out to meet 
 him, will you undertake to hold the city?" 
 
 " As soon as you go forth, the citizens will take up 
 arms. And who can answer for the result of a battle 
 between horsemen and bourgeois in these narrow 
 streets?" replied the marshal. 
 
 " Monseigneur," said Robertet, rushing hurriedly 
 up the stairs, "the chancellor is at the gate and 
 wishes to enter; shall we admit him?" 
 
 " Admit him," replied the Cardinal de Lorraine. 
 " Constable and chancellor together would be too 
 dangerous; we must separate them. We were hand- 
 somely tricked by the queen-mother in the choice of 
 L'H6pital for that office." 
 
 Robertet motioned with his head to a captain who 
 was awaiting orders at the foot of the stairs, then 
 turned back hastily to listen to the cardinal's in- 
 structions.
 
 272 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 " I take the liberty, monseigneur," he said, mak- 
 ing one more effort, "to suggest that the sentence 
 must be approved by the king in his council. If you 
 violate the law for a prince of the blood, it will not 
 be respected hereafter, for a cardinal, nor for a Due 
 de Guise." 
 
 " Pinard has turned your head, Robertet," said 
 the cardinal sternly. " Do you not know that the 
 king signed the decree on the day that he started to 
 leave the city in order to leave its execution to us?" 
 
 "Although you practically ask me to sacrifice my 
 head by assigning me to this duty, which can be 
 executed by the provost of the city, I will go, mon- 
 seigneur." 
 
 The grand master listened to this discussion with- 
 out moving a muscle; but he took his brother by the 
 arm and led him to a corner of the hall. 
 
 " Unquestionably," he said, " the heirs of Charle- 
 magne have the right to resume a crown which was 
 usurped from their ancestors by Hugues Capet; but 
 can they do it? The pear is not ripe. Our nephew 
 is dying, and the whole court is dancing attendance 
 on the King of Navarre." 
 
 " The king's heart failed him. But for that, the 
 Bearnais would have been stabbed, and we should 
 have had no difficulty with the other children." 
 
 "We are in a bad plight here," said the duke. 
 " The outbreak in the city would be supported by 
 the States. L'Hopital, whom we pressed for the 
 chancellorship and whom the queen-mother opposed, 
 is against us to-day, and we need the aid of the law.
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 273 
 
 The queen-mother is supported by too many people 
 to-day for us to send her away. Besides, there are 
 three other princes!" 
 
 " She is no longer a mother, she is all queen," said 
 the cardinal; "and for that reason, in my judgment, 
 this is the moment to have done with her. Energy, 
 and energy, and more energy! that's my motto." 
 
 Thereupon the cardinal returned to the king's 
 apartment, followed by the grand master. The priest 
 went straight to Catherine. 
 
 " The papers taken from La Sagne, the Prince de 
 Conde's secretary, have been communicated to you, 
 have they not, and you know that the Bourbons 
 propose to dethrone your children?" he said. 
 
 " I know all that," replied the Italian. 
 
 " Very well, do you intend to arrest the King of 
 Navarre?" 
 
 "There is a lieutenant-general of the kingdom," 
 she said. 
 
 At that moment, Francois II. complained of severe 
 pains in his ear and began to groan piteously. The 
 doctor left the fireplace, where he was warming him- 
 self, and went to examine his head. 
 
 " Well, monsieur?" inquired the grand master, ad- 
 dressing the first physician. 
 
 " I do not dare take it upon myself to apply a 
 cataplasm to draw out the matter," said Chapelain. 
 " Master Ambroise has promised to save the king by 
 an operation, and I should interfere with it." 
 
 "Let us postpone it till to-morrow," said Cath- 
 erine coldly, " and let all the physicians be present; 
 18
 
 274 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 for you know to what calumnies a prince's death 
 gives birth." 
 
 She went and kissed her SOH'S hands, and with- 
 drew. 
 
 " How calmly that impudent tradesman's daugh- 
 ter alludes to the death of the dauphin, who was 
 poisoned by Montecuculli, a Florentine of her own 
 suite!" cried Mary Stuart. 
 
 "Mary!" cried the little king, "my grandfather 
 never had the slightest doubt of her innocence." 
 
 " Can we prevent that woman from coming here 
 to-morrow?" the young queen asked her uncles, in 
 an undertone. 
 
 " What would become of us if the king should 
 die?" replied the cardinal; "Catherine would push 
 us all into his tomb." 
 
 Thus the issue was clearly drawn that night be- 
 tween Catherine de' Medici and the House of Lor- 
 raine. The chancellor's arrival and the constable's 
 indicated a revolt; therefore the next morning would 
 be decisive. 
 
 The next morning, the queen-mother was the first 
 to appear. She found in her son's chamber only 
 Queen Mary Stuart, pale and .exhausted, who had 
 passed the night praying by the bedside. The 
 Duchesse de Guise had attended the queen through 
 the night, and the maids of honor had relieved one 
 another. The young king was asleep. Neither the 
 duke nor the cardinal had appeared as yet. The 
 priest, more courageous than the soldier, exerted, it 
 was said, during that last night, all his powers of
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 275 
 
 persuasion, but could not induce the duke to seize 
 upon the crown. In face of the assembled States- 
 General, and threatened with a conflict with the 
 Connetable de Montmorency, Le Balafre did not 
 consider the circumstances favorable for the attempt; 
 he refused to arrest the King of Navarre, the queen- 
 mother, the chancellor, the Cardinal de Tournon, the 
 Gondis, Ruggieri, and Birague, dwelling upon the 
 outbreak which would follow such violent measures. 
 He insisted that his brother's projects must depend 
 upon the life or death of Francois II. 
 
 The most profound silence reigned in the king's 
 chamber. Catherine, attended by Madame de Fi- 
 esco, walked to the bedside and gazed upon her son 
 with an admirably well-feigned grief-stricken air. 
 She put her handkerchief to her eyes and with- 
 drew to the window-recess, where Madame de Fiesco 
 brought her a chair. There, she fixed her eyes upon 
 the courtyard. 
 
 It had been agreed between Catherine and the 
 Cardinal de Tournon that, if the constable succeeded 
 in entering the city without opposition, the cardinal 
 would come to the palace with the two Gondis, and 
 that, if anything had gone wrong, he would come 
 alone. At nine in the morning, the two Lorraine 
 princes, attended by their suites, who remained in 
 the hall, appeared in the king's room; the captain 
 of the guard on duty had notified them of the arri- 
 val of Ambroise Pare with Chapelain and three other 
 physicians in Catherine's interest, all of whom hated 
 Ambroise.
 
 276 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 In a few moments the great hall of the bailliage 
 presented precisely the same appearance as the salle 
 des gardes at Blois on the day when the Due de 
 Guise was made lieutenant-general of the kingdom 
 and Christophe was put to the torture, with the 
 exception that at that time the royal apartment 
 overflowed with love and joy, the Guises were tri- 
 umphant: whereas to-day sorrow and death reigned, 
 and the Guises felt that their power was slipping 
 from their hands. The maids of honor of the two 
 queens were encamped at each corner of the great 
 fireplace, where an enormous fire was blazing. The 
 hall was full of courtiers. The report that had been 
 put in circulation, no one knew by whom, that Am- 
 broise had conceived a daring plan for saving the 
 king's life, brought together all the nobles who were 
 entitled to appear at court. The outer staircase of 
 the bailliage and the courtyard were filled with anx- 
 ious groups. The scaffold prepared for the prince 
 in front of the Convent des Recollets surprised all 
 the nobility. They conversed in undertones, and 
 their conversation presented the same mixture of 
 serious, frivolous, trivial, and solemn remarks as at 
 Blois. People were beginning to become accustomed 
 to the civil commotions, the sudden revolutions, ap- 
 peals to arms, rebellions, and unexpected momentous 
 events which marked the long period during which 
 the House of Valois gradually died out, despite the 
 efforts of Catherine de' Medici. Absolute silence 
 prevailed within a certain distance of the door of 
 the king's chamber, which was guarded by two
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 277 
 
 halberdiers, two pages, and the captain of the Scot- 
 tish Guard. Antoine de Bourbon, a prisoner in his 
 lodgings, divined the hopes of the court when he 
 found that he was left alone once more, and he was 
 overwhelmed by the news of the preparations made 
 during the night for his brother's execution. 
 
 In front of the fireplace in the hall of the bailliage, 
 stood one of the noblest and grandest figures of that 
 time, the Chancellor de 1'Hopital, in his red robe 
 with ermine border, and with his cap on his head in 
 accordance with the privilege of his office. That 
 courageous man, seeing that his benefactors were 
 rebels at heart, had espoused the cause of his sov- 
 ereigns, represented by the queen-mother; and he 
 had gone to Ecouen to take counsel with the con- 
 stable, at the risk of losing his head; no one dared 
 to interrupt the meditation in which he was plunged. 
 Robertet, the secretary of State, two marshals of? 
 France, Vieilleville and Saint-Andre, and the keeper 
 of the seals, formed a group in front of the chan- 
 cellor. The courtiers were not actually laughing; 
 but their remarks were malicious, especially among 
 those who were not partisans of the Guises. 
 
 The cardinal had at last captured the Scotchman 
 Stuart, the assassin of President Minard, and had 
 caused his trial to be begun at Tours. He also held 
 in custody, in the chateaux of Blois and of Tours, 
 a goodly number of compromised noblemen, for the 
 purpose of inspiring terror in the nobility, who were 
 not terrified, however, and who found in the Refor- 
 mation a spur to the love of revolution inspired by
 
 278 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 the consciousness of their former equality with the 
 king. Now, the prisoners at Blois had found a 
 means of escape, and, by a strange fatality, the pris- 
 oners at Tours imitated those at Blois. 
 
 "Madame," said the Cardinal de Chatillon to 
 Madame de Fiesco, " if anyone is interested in the 
 prisoners at Tours, they are in great danger." 
 
 At those words, the chancellor turned his face 
 toward the queen-mother's maids of honor. 
 
 " Yes, young Desvaux, the Prince de Conde's 
 equerry, who was detained at Tours, emphasized 
 his flight by a bitter jest. He wrote this note to 
 Messieurs de Guise, they say: 
 
 " ' We have learned of the escape of your prisoners at 
 Blois ; we are so annoyed that we have started off after them ; 
 we will bring them back to you as soon as we have caught 
 .them.'" 
 
 Although the jest was not displeasing to the chan- 
 cellor, he bestowed a stern glance on Monsieur de 
 Ch^tillon. At that moment, loud voices were heard 
 in the king's room. The two marshals, Robertet, 
 and the chancellor drew near the door, for it was 
 not simply a matter of the king's life or death; the 
 whole court was in the secret of the perilous position 
 of the chancellor, Catherine, and her adherents. The 
 silence that ensued was deathlike. Ambroise had 
 examined the king, the moment seemed favorable 
 for his operation; if it were not performed, Fran- 
 cois II. might die at any moment. As soon as Mes- 
 sieurs de Guise appeared, he had explained to them
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 279 
 
 the causes of the king's illness, and that, in the 
 present extremity, it was necessary to trepan him; 
 and he was awaiting the word from the physicians. 
 
 " Cut into my son's head as if it were a board, 
 and with that horrible instrument!" cried Catherine 
 de' Medici; " I will not allow it, Master Ambroise." 
 
 The physicians were consulting; but Catherine's 
 words were uttered in such a loud voice that they 
 were heard on the other side of the door, as she had 
 intended. 
 
 " But, madame, if there is no other way to save 
 him," said Mary Stuart, weeping. 
 
 "Ambroise," exclaimed Catherine, "remember 
 that you will answer for the king's life with your 
 own." 
 
 " We oppose the method that Master Ambroise sug- 
 gests," said the three physicians. " We can save the 
 king by injecting in his ear a preparation which will 
 draw out the matter through the passage of the ear." 
 
 The grand master, who was watching Catherine's 
 face, suddenly went to her and drew her into the 
 window-recess. 
 
 "Madame," he said, "you desire the death of 
 your son ; you are acting in concert with our ene- 
 mies, and have been since Blois. This morning, 
 Counsellor de Viole told your furrier's son that the 
 Prince de Conde's head was to be cut off. That 
 young -man, who during his torture denied all rela- 
 tions with the Prince de Conde, made a sign of fare- 
 well to him as he passed the window of his dungeon. 
 You watched your unhappy accomplice under the
 
 280 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 torture with royal insensibility. You choose to-day 
 to oppose the recovery of your oldest son. You 
 will make us believe that the dauphin's death, which 
 placed the crown on the late king's head, was not 
 natural, and that Montecuculli was your " 
 
 "Monsieur le Chancelier!" cried Catherine, while 
 Madame de Fiesco, at a signal from her, threw the 
 folding-doors wide open. 
 
 Thereupon the spectacle within the royal cham- 
 ber was revealed to the audience: the little king 
 with his livid, deathlike face and sightless eyes, but 
 stammering the word Mary, and holding the weeping 
 young queen's hand ; the Duchesse de Guise, stand- 
 ing by the bed, dismayed by Catherine's hardi- 
 hood ; the two Lorraine princes, equally disturbed 
 in mind, but standing beside the queen-mother, 
 having determined to order Maille-Breze to arrest 
 her; and, finally, the tall form of Ambroise Pare, 
 assisted by the king's physician, and with his in- 
 struments ready in his hand, but afraid to begin the 
 operation, for which absolute quiet was as essential 
 as the approbation of the physicians. 
 
 " Monsieur le Chancelier," said Catherine, " Mes- 
 sieurs de Guise propose to authorize a novel opera- 
 tion upon the king's person. Ambroise offers to 
 bore a hole in his head. I, as his mother, as one of 
 the Council of Regency, protest against what seems 
 to me the crime of lese-majeste. The three physi- 
 cians favor an injection, which seems to me quite as 
 likely to be efficacious and less dangerous than the 
 barbarous treatment proposed by Ambroise."
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 281 
 
 A sorrowful murmur followed her words. The 
 cardinal allowed the chancellor to enter, and closed 
 the door. 
 
 " But I am lieutenant-general of the kingdom," 
 said the Due de Guise, " and you must know, 
 Monsieur le Chancelier, that Ambroise will answer 
 for his success with his life." 
 
 " Ah! if affairs are to take this course," ex- 
 claimed the great Ambroise Pare, " why, this is my 
 duty." 
 
 He extended his arm over the bed. 
 
 " This bed and the king are mine," he continued. 
 " I make myself solely responsible and claim sole 
 control ; I know the duties of my office, and I will 
 operate upon the king without the consent of the 
 physicians." 
 
 "Save him," said the cardinal, "and you shall 
 be the richest man in France." 
 
 " Go on, pray," said Mary Stuart, pressing Am- 
 broise's hand. 
 
 " I cannot prevent this thing," said the chancellor, 
 " but I protest on behalf of Madame la reine mere." 
 
 " Robertet!" cried the Due de Guise. 
 
 When Robertet had entered the room, the lieu- 
 tenant-general pointed to the chancellor. 
 
 "You are chancellor of France in that felon's 
 stead," he said to him. " Monsieur de Maille, con- 
 duct Monsieur de 1'Hopital to the Prince de Conde's 
 place of confinement. As for you, madame," he 
 said to Catherine, " your protest will not be re- 
 ceived, and you would do well to reflect that such
 
 282 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 acts need to be supported by sufficient force. I am 
 acting as becomes a faithful subject and loyal ser- 
 vant of King Francois II., my master. Proceed, 
 Ambroise," he added, turning to the surgeon. 
 
 "Monsieur de Guise," said L'Hopital, "if you 
 use violence either upon the king or the chancellor of 
 France, reflect that there are in yonder hall a suffi- 
 cient number of French noblemen to arrest traitors." 
 
 " Ah! messeigneurs," cried the great surgeon, " if 
 you continue these discussions, you may as well 
 cry: 'Vive King Charles IX.!' for King Francois is 
 dying." 
 
 Catherine, unaffected, was looking through the 
 window. 
 
 " Very well, we will use force to make ourselves 
 masters of the king's chamber," said the cardinal, 
 who started to close the door. 
 
 But he was dismayed to see that the hall of the 
 bailliage was utterly deserted. The court, convinced 
 that the king's death was inevitable, had hurried off 
 to Antoine de Navarre. 
 
 " Well, go on," cried Mary Stuart to Ambroise. 
 " I and you, duchess," she said to Madame de 
 Guise "will protect you." 
 
 "Madame," said Ambroise, " my zeal carried me 
 away; the physicians, save my friend Chapelain, 
 are in favor of an injection, and I am bound to obey 
 them. He would have been saved, had I been first 
 physician as well as first surgeon! Give it to me," 
 he said, taking a little syringe from the hands of the 
 first physician and filling it.
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 283 
 
 " Mon Dieu ! " said Mary Stuart, " I order you " 
 
 " Alas! madame," said Ambroise, " I am subordi- 
 nate to these gentlemen." 
 
 The young queen took her place with the grand 
 master's wife among the surgeon and the physicians 
 and the other persons present. The first physician 
 held the king's head, and Ambroise injected the 
 preparation into his ear. The two Lorraine princes 
 watched the proceeding closely. Robertet and Mon- 
 sieur de Maille did not stir. Madame de Fiesco left 
 the room unnoticed, at a sign from Catherine. At 
 that moment, L'Hopital boldly opened the door of the 
 king's chamber. 
 
 " I come in good time," said a man, whose hur- 
 ried footsteps echoed through the hall, and who ap- 
 peared an instant later in the doorway of the royal 
 apartment. "Ah! messieurs, so you proposed to cut 
 off the head of my handsome nephew, the Prince 
 de Conde, eh? but you have brought the lion forth 
 from his den, and he is here!" added the Connetable 
 de Montmorency. "Ambroise, you shall not fumble 
 about with your instruments in my king's head ! 
 The kings of France do not allow themselves to be 
 mangled save by their enemies' swords, in battle! 
 The first prince of the blood, Antoine de Bourbon, 
 the Prince de Conde, the queen-mother, the con- 
 stable, and the chancellor are opposed to this opera- 
 tion." 
 
 To Catherine's great satisfaction, the King of 
 Navarre and Prince de Conde appeared at that 
 moment.
 
 284 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 "What is the meaning of this?" demanded the 
 Due de Guise, putting his hand to his sword. 
 
 " In my capacity as constable, I have dismissed 
 the sentinels at all the posts. Tete-Dieu! you are not 
 in an enemy's country here, I conceive. The king 
 our master is in the midst of his subjects, and the 
 States of the realm are entitled to deliberate without 
 constraint. I come from the States, messieurs! I 
 carried thither the remonstrance of my nephew of 
 Conde, whom three hundred gentlemen released 
 from his prison. You proposed to shed royal blood 
 and decimate the nobility of the kingdom. Ah! 
 henceforth I shall be distrustful of all your plans, 
 Messieurs de Lorraine. If you order the king's 
 head to be opened, I swear by this sword, which 
 saved France from Charles V. under his grandsire, 
 that it shall not be." 
 
 "Especially," said Ambroise Pare, "as it would 
 be useless now; effusion has begun." 
 
 "Your reign is at an end, messieurs," said Cath- 
 erine to the Lorraines, seeing from Ambroise's 
 expression that there was no more hope. 
 
 "Ah! madame, you have killed your son," said 
 Mary Stuart, springing like a lioness from the bed 
 to the window and seizing the Florentine by the 
 arm, which she gripped savagely. 
 
 "My dear," Catherine retorted, with a cunning, 
 cold glance at Mary, in which she allowed her 
 hatred, held in check for six months, to find ex- 
 pression, " you, to his frantic love of whom we 
 owe his death, may go now and reign in your
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 285 
 
 Scotland, and you shall start to-morrow. I am de 
 facto regent." 
 
 The three physicians had made a sign to the queen- 
 mother. 
 
 " Messieurs," she said, turning to the Guises, " it 
 is understood between Monsieur de Bourbon, ap- 
 pointed lieutenant-general of the kingdom by the 
 States, and myself, that we will henceforth attend 
 to affairs of State. Come, Monsieur le Chancelier." 
 
 " The king is dead," said the grand master, bound 
 to perform the duties of his office. 
 
 "Vive King Charles IX.!" cried the gentlemen 
 who had come with the King of Navarre, the Prince 
 de Conde, and the constable. 
 
 The ceremonies which take place at the death of 
 a king of France were performed in solitude. When 
 the king-at-arms cried thrice in the hall: " The king 
 is dead !" after the official proclamation by the Due 
 de Guise, there were but few persons to respond: 
 "Vive le roi!" 
 
 The queen-mother, to whom Madame de Fiesco 
 brought the Due de Orleans, for the last few mo- 
 ments King Charles IX., went out leading her son 
 by the hand, and was followed by the whole court. 
 There remained in the chamber where Francois II. 
 breathed his last, only the two' Lorraines, the Du- 
 chesse de Guise, Mary Stuart, and Dayelle, with the 
 two guards at the door, the pages in attendance on 
 the grand master and the cardinal, and their private 
 secretaries. 
 
 "Vive la France!" cried several partisans of the
 
 286 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 Reformed religion, sounding the first note of opposi- 
 tion. 
 
 Robertet, who owed everything to the duke and 
 the cardinal, alarmed by the failure of their plans 
 and enterprises, secretly gave in his adhesion to 
 the queen-mother; and the ambassadors of Spain, 
 England, Poland, and the Empire came to the hall 
 to meet her, led by the Cardinal de Tournon, who 
 had gone to notify them of the state of affairs, 
 after showing himself in the courtyard to Catherine 
 just as she protested against Ambroise Fare's pro- 
 posed operation. 
 
 "Well! the descendants of Louis d'Outre-Mer, 
 the heirs of Charles de Lorraine have lacked cour- 
 age," said the cardinal to the duke. 
 
 " They would have been exiled to Lorraine," re- 
 plied the grand master. "I tell you, Charles, that, 
 if the crown were there, I would not put out my 
 hand to take it. I will leave that for my son to do." 
 
 " Will he ever have, as you have, the army and 
 the Church?" 
 
 " He will have something better." 
 
 "What?" 
 
 " The people!" 
 
 " There is no one but me to weep for this poor 
 boy who loved me so dearly!" said Mary Stuart, 
 holding her dead husband's cold hand in hers. 
 
 " Through whom can we become reconciled to the 
 queen?" said the cardinal. 
 
 "Wait until she quarrels with the Huguenots," 
 replied the duchess.
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 287 
 
 The conflicting interests of the House of Bourbon, 
 of Catherine, of the Guises, and of the party of the 
 Reformation produced such confusion in Orleans that 
 not until three days later was the king's body, which 
 had lain neglected in the bailliage, placed in a coffin 
 by humble retainers and despatched to Saint-Denis 
 in a covered carriage, attended only by the Bishop of 
 Senlis and two gentlemen. When that melancholy 
 funeral party reached the little town of Etampes, a 
 retainer of Chancelier de 1'Hopital fastened upon the 
 carriage this bitterly ironical inscription which history 
 has handed down: " Tanneguy du Chastel, where 
 art thou ? But thou wert a Frenchman ! ' ' A stinging 
 rebuke of Catherine, Mary Stuart, and the Lorraines. 
 What Frenchman does not know that Tanneguy de 
 Chastel expended thirty thousand crowns equal to 
 a million of francs to-day upon the obsequies of 
 Charles VII., the benefactor of his family? 
 
 As soon as the tolling of the bells announced the 
 death of Francois ll. in Orleans, and the Connetable 
 de Montmorency had caused all the gates of the city 
 to be thrown open, Tourillon went up to his garret 
 and walked to a hiding-place in the wall. 
 
 " Can it be that he is dead?" he exclaimed. 
 
 Thereupon a man appeared, and replied: "Ready 
 to serve!" the watchword of those reformers who 
 followed Calvin. 
 
 That man was Chaudieu, to whom Tourillon nar- 
 rated the events of the past week, during which he 
 had left the minister alone in his hiding-place with 
 no food save a twelve-pound loaf.
 
 288 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 " Hasten to the Prince de Conde, brother; ask 
 him for a safe-conduct for me, and find me a horse," 
 cried the minister; " 1 must be off instantly." 
 
 " Write him a line, so that he will receive me." 
 
 " Here," said Chaudieu, after writing a few 
 words, "ask the King of Navarre for a pass, for at 
 the present crisis 1 must hasten to Geneva." 
 
 In two hours everything was ready, and the zealous 
 minister was on his way to Switzerland, accompanied 
 by a gentleman in the service of the King of Navarre, 
 whose secretary Chaudieu was supposed to be, and 
 who was the bearer of instructions to the reformers 
 in Dauphine. Chaudieu's departure was assented to 
 instantly in the interest of Catherine, who made, 
 to gain time, a bold proposition as to which the most 
 profound secrecy was maintained. That strange 
 conception explains the sudden agreement between 
 her and the Huguenot leaders. The crafty creature 
 had given out as a pledge of her good faith an 
 earnest desire to adjust the differences between the 
 two churches in an assemblage which could be called 
 neither synod nor council nor conference, but for 
 which a new name must be found, and, most im- 
 portant of all, Calvin's approval secured. When 
 this mystery became known, let us say, in passing, 
 it led to the alliance between the Guises and the 
 Connetable de Montmorency against Catherine and 
 the King of Navarre, a curious alliance, known in 
 history by the name of the triumvirate, because the 
 Marechal de Saint-Andre was a third member of that 
 purely Catholic coalition, induced by the strange
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 289 
 
 proposition of a colloquy between Calvinists and 
 Catholics. Catherine's deep policy was accurately 
 divined by the Guises at that time; they understood 
 that the queen really cared but little about the pro- 
 posed colloquy, but simply desired to temporize with 
 her allies until the majority of Charles IX.; so they 
 deceived the constable by making him believe in 
 a combination of forces between the Bourbons and 
 Catherine, while Catherine fooled them all. As we 
 see, the queen had become exceedingly clever in a 
 short time. The spirit of argument and disputation 
 which then prevailed was singularly favorable to her 
 suggestion. Catholics and reformers all hoped to 
 make their mark in that tournament of words. And 
 that is precisely what happened. Is it not extraor- 
 dinary that historians have taken the queen's most 
 adroit stratagems for exhibitions of uncertainty? 
 Catherine never went more directly toward her goal 
 than in these shrewd measures which seemed to lead 
 away from it. 
 
 The King of Navarre, incapable of understanding 
 Catherine's reasoning, despatched Chaudieu to Cal- 
 vin; he had risked his life to watch the course of 
 events at Orleans, where he was likely to be dis- 
 covered from hour to hour and hanged without trial, 
 like every man over whom a decree of banishment 
 is hanging. At the rate of travelling, at that time, 
 Chaudieu was not likely to reach Geneva before 
 February, the negotiations could not be concluded 
 until March, and the colloquy could not really be 
 held before the beginning of May, 1561. Catherine 
 19
 
 2QO CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 had formed the plan of keeping the court and the 
 various parties amused by the king's coronation and 
 by his first bed of justice at the Parliament of Paris, 
 where De Thou and L'Hopital procured the confir- 
 mation of the letters whereby Charles IX. entrusted 
 the government of the realm to his mother jointly 
 with the lieutenant-general of the kingdom, Antoine 
 de Navarre, the weakest prince of that age! 
 
 It was a most extraordinary spectacle to see a 
 whole kingdom waiting in suspense for the^s or no 
 of a French bourgeois, who, after a long life of ob- 
 scurity, was at this time established in authority at 
 Geneva! The Transalpine Pope held in check by 
 the Pope at Geneva! the two Lorraine princes, but 
 now so powerful, paralyzed by this momentary com- 
 bination of the first prince of the blood, the queen- 
 mother, and Calvin! Surely it is one of the most 
 useful lessons that kings can learn from history, a 
 lesson which teaches them to weigh the qualities of 
 men, to do homage to genius, and to seek it out, as 
 Louis XIV. did, wherever God has placed it!
 
 Calvin, whose name was not Calvin, but Cauvin, 
 was the son of a cooper of Noyon in Picardie. His 
 native province explains, to a certain extent, the ob- 
 stinacy blended with abnormal activity which was 
 the distinguishing characteristic of that arbiter of the 
 destinies of France in the sixteenth century. No 
 character in history is less familiar than the man 
 who gave birth to Geneva and the spirit that dis- 
 tinguished that city. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who 
 possessed little historical knowledge, was entirely 
 ignorant of that man's influence upon his republic. 
 And, indeed, Calvin, who lived in one of the least 
 pretentious houses of upper Geneva, near the tem- 
 ple of Saint Peter, over a cabinet-maker, the first 
 point of resemblance between him and Robespierre, 
 at first wielded no very great authority in the city. 
 For a long time, his power was maliciously confined 
 by the Genevans within narrow limits. In the six- 
 teenth century, Geneva had in Farel one of those 
 illustrious citizens who remain unknown to the world 
 at large, and often to the very place of their abode. 
 This Farel, about 1537, detained Calvin in that city, 
 commending it to him as the most secure fortress of 
 a reformation more militant than Luther's. Both 
 Farel and Calvin looked upon Lutheranism as an 
 incomplete, insufficient work, which had acquired no 
 hold in France. Geneva, located between France 
 (291)
 
 2Q2 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 and Italy, and with the French language in general 
 use, was admirably situated for correspondence with 
 Germany, Italy, and France. Calvin adopted Gen- 
 eva as the seat of his moral fortunes and made it the 
 citadel of his ideas. 
 
 The Council of Geneva, at Farel's instance, au- 
 thorized Calvin to give lessons in theology, in Sep- 
 tember, 1538. Calvin left the preaching to Farel, 
 his first disciple, and patiently devoted his energies 
 to the inculcation of his doctrines. His authority, 
 which became absolute in the later years of his life, 
 was destined to be established with great difficulty. 
 The great agitator encountered such serious obsta- 
 cles, that he was banished from Geneva for a con- 
 siderable time because of the severity of his methods 
 of reform. There was a party of worthy people who 
 held out for the old-fashioned luxurious living and 
 for the old customs. But, as always, these worthy 
 folk dreaded ridicule, were unwilling to admit the 
 object of their efforts, and made their fight upon 
 points unconnected with the real question at issue. 
 Calvin insisted that they should use leavened bread 
 for the communion, and that there should be no more 
 holidays, except Sundays. These innovations were 
 disapproved at Berne and Lausanne, and the Gene- 
 vans were instructed to conform to the Swiss ritual. 
 Calvin and Farel resisted, and their political enemies 
 availed themselves of this disagreement to drive them 
 from Geneva, from which city they were practically 
 exiled for several years. Calvin afterward returned 
 in triumph at the demand of his flock.
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 293 
 
 Such persecution always ends by solidifying the 
 moral power, when the victim has the patience to 
 wait. His return was the beginning of his career 
 as prophet. The executions were beginning, and 
 Calvin organized his religious terror. Immediately 
 upon the return of that transcendent mind, he was 
 admitted to the Genevan bourgeoisie; but, after a 
 residence of fourteen years, he had not become 
 a member of the council. At the time that Cath- 
 erine despatched an envoy to him, that king of ideas 
 had no other title than that of pastor of the church 
 at Geneva. Calvin never received more than a hun- 
 dred and fifty francs in money, fifteen measures of 
 wheat, and two casks of wine, for his yearly salary. 
 His brother, a simple tailor, had a shop a few yards 
 from Place Saint-Pierre, on the street where one of 
 the largest printing-houses in Geneva now stands. 
 This disinterestedness, which is lacking in the lives 
 of Newton, Voltaire, and Bacon, but shines resplen- 
 dent in those of Rabelais, Campanella, Luther, Vico, 
 Descartes, Malebranche, Spinoza, Loyola, Kant, and 
 Jean-Jacques Rousseau, surely forms a glorious set- 
 ting for those sublime and ardent faces! 
 
 The similar existence of Robespierre alone can 
 enable contemporaries to understand the career of 
 Calvin, who, resting his power on the same founda- 
 tions, was as cruel, as despotic, as the lawyer from 
 Arras! Strangely enough, Picardie Arras and 
 Noyon supplied both of those instruments of ref- 
 ormation! All those who choose to examine the 
 reasons for the punishments ordained by Calvin
 
 294 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 will find, after making due allowance for differences 
 of time and place, 1793 in toto at Geneva. Calvin 
 caused Jacques Gruet to be beheaded "for having 
 written impious letters and licentious poetry, and 
 for having endeavored to overthrow the ecclesiasti- 
 cal ordinances." Reflect upon that sentence, ask 
 yourself whether the most shocking tyrannies offer 
 for their saturnalia of crime more cruelly absurd 
 judgments. Valentin Gentilis, condemned to death 
 for involuntary heresy, escaped the gallows only by 
 a retractation more ignominious than those exacted 
 by the Catholic Church. Seven years prior to the 
 conference about to be held at Calvin's house con- 
 cerning the queen-mother's propositions, Michel 
 Servet, a Frenchman, passing through Geneva, was 
 arrested, tried, convicted upon Calvin's accusation, 
 and burned alive, for having assailed the mystery of 
 the Trinity in a book which was neither written nor 
 published at Geneva. Remember the eloquent de- 
 fence of Jean- Jacques Rousseau, whose book, which 
 aimed to overthrow the Catholic religion, was written 
 in France, published in Holland, but offered for sale 
 in Paris, was simply burned by the hangman, and 
 the author, a foreigner, simply banished from the 
 kingdom where he had tried to undermine the fun- 
 damental verities of religion and lawful authority 
 and compare the conduct of Parliament with that 
 of the Genevan tyrant. Lastly, Bolsee also was 
 brought to judgment for having had other ideas than 
 Calvin 1 s concerning predestination! Weigh these 
 facts, and ask yourself if Fouquier-Tinville did
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 2Q5 
 
 worse. The savage religious intolerance of Calvin 
 was, morally speaking, more intense, more implaca- 
 ble, than the savage political intolerance of Robes- 
 pierre. On a more extensive stage than Geneva, 
 Calvin would have shed more blood than was shed 
 by the redoubtable apostle of political equality 
 assimilated to Catholic equality. Three centuries 
 earlier, a monk, also a Picard, had led the whole 
 West in a descent upon the East. Peter the Hermit, 
 Calvin, and Robespierre, those three Picards, three 
 centuries apart, were, politically speaking, the levers 
 of Archimedes. At each period, an idea found a 
 support in selfish interests and among men. 
 
 Calvin, then, was unquestionably the father of 
 that melancholy city called Geneva, where, ten years 
 ago, a man said, pointing to a porte-cochere in the 
 upper town, the first ever seen in Geneva there 
 had previously been none but ordinary front doors: 
 " Through that door luxury entered Geneva!" Cal- 
 vin, by the rigor of his executions and the harshness 
 of his doctrine, introduced there the hypocritical 
 practice called mummery. To have good morals, 
 according to the mummers, consists in turning one's 
 back on the arts and refinements of life, in eating 
 copiously, but without luxury, and in silently heap- 
 ing up money without enjoying it otherwise than as 
 Calvin enjoyed his power, in thought. Calvin gave 
 to all his fellow-citizens the same dismal livery in 
 which he clothed his whole life. In the consistory, 
 he had created a genuine Calvinist tribunal of in- 
 quisition, absolutely like Robespierre's revolutionary
 
 296 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 tribunal. The consistory turned over to the coun- 
 cil the persons to be sentenced, and Calvin reigned 
 in the council through the consistory as Robespierre 
 reigned in the Convention through the Jacobins club. 
 For instance, an eminent magistrate at Geneva was 
 sentenced to imprisonment for two months, to lose 
 his office, and be disqualified from ever holding any 
 other, because he was leading an irregular life, and 
 had entered into relations with Calvin's enemies. 
 
 Calvin was a legislator to this extent: he origi- 
 nated the strict, sober, bourgeois, horribly depress- 
 ing but irreproachable manners and morals which 
 prevail in Geneva to this day, and which preceded 
 the English type of manners, universally known 
 by the name of Puritanism, which originated with 
 the Cameronians, disciples of Cameron, one of the 
 learned Frenchmen inspired by Calvin, and which 
 Walter Scott has so well depicted! The poverty of 
 a man, to all intent a sovereign, who treated with 
 kings as their equal, who called upon them for 
 money and armies, and who drew freely upon their 
 treasuries for the poor and needy, the poverty of 
 such a man proves that thought, wielded as the sole 
 instrument of domination, engenders political misers, 
 men who enjoy with the brain, who, like the Jesuits, 
 crave power for power's sake. Pitt, Luther, Calvin, 
 Robespierre, all those Harpagons of domination, died 
 without a sou. The inventory made at Calvin's 
 lodging, after his death, which, including his books, 
 amounted to fifty crowns, has been preserved by his- 
 tory: Luther's amounted to the same sum; indeed,
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 297 
 
 his widow, the celebrated Catherine de Bora, was 
 obliged to solicit a pension of a hundred crowns, 
 which was allotted to her by an elector of Germany. 
 Potemkin, Mazarin, Richelieu, those men of thought 
 and action, all three of whom created or paved the 
 way for empires, left three hundred millions each. 
 They had hearts, they loved women and the arts, 
 they constructed and conquered ; whereas, with the 
 exception of Luther, whose wife was the Helen of 
 that Iliad, none of the others had to reproach them- 
 selves for a single quickened heart-beat occasioned 
 by a woman. 
 
 This greatly abridged explanation was necessary 
 to make clear Calvin's position in Geneva. 
 
 In the early days of February, 1561, on one of 
 those mild evenings which sometimes occur at that 
 season on Lake Geneva, two horsemen arrived at 
 the Pre-l'Eveque, so called from the former country- 
 house of the Bishop of Geneva, banished thirty 
 years before. These two men, who evidently were 
 familiar with the laws of Geneva concerning the 
 closing of the gates, then very necessary, but 
 extremely absurd to-day, were riding toward Porte 
 de Rives; but they stopped their horses abruptly at 
 sight of a man of some fifty years, who was walk- 
 ing along the road, leaning on the arm of a female 
 servant, and was plainly returning to the city; he 
 was rather stout, and walked slowly and with diffi- 
 culty, not raising one foot until the other was on the 
 ground, and then with evident pain, for he wore 
 round laced shoes of black velvet.
 
 298 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 " It is he," said Chaudieu to the other horseman, 
 who dismounted, threw his rein to his companion, 
 and advanced with open arms toward the pedes- 
 trian. 
 
 The latter, who was, in fact, Jean Calvin, drew 
 back to avoid the embrace, and bestowed a glance 
 of exceeding sternness upon his disciple. At fifty 
 years of age, Calvin seemed seventy. He was 
 short and stout, and seemed all the shorter because 
 excruciating suffering from calculus compelled him 
 to bend double when he walked. His suffering from 
 that cause was intensified by attacks of gout of 
 the most malignant character. Any man would have 
 trembled before that face, almost as broad as long, 
 upon which, despite its rotundity, there was no 
 more indication of amiability than on the face of the 
 monster Henry VIII., whom Calvin strongly re- 
 sembled ; physical pain, which gave him no respite, 
 was betrayed by the two deep wrinkles starting 
 from the nose on either side, following the curve of 
 the moustaches, and merging like them into the full 
 gray beard. That face, although generally red and 
 inflamed like a toper's, was marked with yellow 
 patches; but, notwithstanding the black velvet cap 
 which covered that enormous square head, one was 
 able to admire a forehead of vast size and of the 
 most perfect shape, beneath which gleamed a pair 
 of brown eyes which emitted genuine flames in 
 his paroxysms of wrath. It may have been due to 
 his obesity, or his short, full neck, or because of his 
 sleepless nights and constant toil, that Calvin's head
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 299 
 
 had settled between his broad shoulders, so that he 
 could wear only a narrow fluted ruff, above which 
 his face resembled Saint John the Baptist's on the 
 charger. Between his moustaches and his beard, 
 nestling like a rose, was his graceful, eloquent 
 mouth, small and ruddy-lipped, marvellously perfect 
 in shape. His face was divided by a square nose, 
 remarkable for its flexibility throughout its whole 
 length, and with a significant flatness at the end, in 
 harmony with the prodigious mental force expressed 
 by that imperial head. Although it was difficult to 
 detect in those features traces of the weekly sick- 
 headaches which attacked Calvin during the inter- 
 vals of a slow fever by which he was consumed, 
 physical pain, combated by study and will-power, 
 gave to the whole face, although at first sight florid, 
 a something terrible to behold ; that impression was 
 attributable to the color of the layer of fat due to the 
 sedentary habits of the indefatigable worker, and 
 bearing traces of the constant conflict between that 
 valetudinarian temperament and one of the most 
 powerful wills known in the history of the human 
 mind. Even the mouth, charming as it was, wore 
 an expression of cruelty. The chastity enjoined by 
 far-reaching designs and exacted by a tendency to 
 so many forms of disease, was written upon the 
 face. There was regret in the serenity of that 
 powerful brow, and grief in the expression of those 
 eyes, whose tranquillity was terrifying. 
 
 Calvin's costume threw his head into bold relief, 
 for he wore the famous black cloth gown, caught in
 
 300 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 at the waist by a belt of black cloth with a copper 
 buckle, which became the regular costume of Cal- 
 vinist ministers, and which, offering no interest to 
 the eye, concentrated the attention upon its wearer's 
 face. 
 
 " I am in too great pain to embrace you, Theo- 
 dore," said Calvin to the dashing cavalier. 
 
 Theodore de Beze, at this time forty-two years 
 of age, who had been admitted to the bourgeoisie of 
 Geneva two years before, at Calvin's request, pre- 
 sented a most striking contrast to the awe-inspiring 
 pastor whom he had made his sovereign. Calvin, 
 like all bourgeois who rise to moral sovereignty, or 
 like all originators of social systems, was consumed 
 with jealousy. He detested his disciples, he would 
 have no equals, he would not endure the slightest 
 contradiction. But there was so much difference 
 between himself and Theodore de Beze; that fash- 
 ionable cavalier, with his attractive face, full of in- 
 stinctive courtesy, accustomed to frequent courts, 
 seemed to him so utterly unlike all his uncivilized 
 janizaries, that with him he laid aside his usual senti- 
 ments; he never was fond of him, for that crabbed 
 legislator was utterly ignorant of the meaning of 
 affection; but as he had no fear of finding in him 
 a would-be successor, he liked to play with Theo- 
 dore, as Richelieu at a later period played with his 
 cat; he found him supple and cheerful. Seeing that 
 De Beze met with signal success in all his missions, 
 he became attached to that polished instrument, 
 whose inspiration and guide he believed himself
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 301 
 
 to be; so true is it that even the most unsociable 
 men cannot do without a semblance of affection. 
 Theodore was Calvin's spoiled child; the stern re- 
 former did not scold him, he overlooked his irregu- 
 larities, his amours, his fine clothes, and his refined 
 speech. Perhaps Calvin was not sorry to prove 
 that the Reformed religion could hold its own in 
 respect of graceful manners with the adherents of 
 the court. Theodore de Beze wished to inculcate 
 at Geneva a taste for art and literature and poetry, 
 and Calvin listened to his plans without drawing his 
 heavy gray eyebrows together. Thus the contrast 
 in disposition and person between the two men was 
 as great as the contrast in mental force. 
 
 Calvin responded to Chaudieu's very humble sal- 
 utation with a slight inclination of the head. Chau- 
 dieu passed the reins of both horses through his right 
 arm and followed those two great lights of the Refor- 
 mation, walking at the left of De Beze, who had Cal- 
 vin on his right. Calvin's servant ran forward to 
 prevent the closing of the Porte de Rives, informing 
 the captain of the guard that the pastor had just had 
 a very severe attack of pain. 
 
 Theodore de Beze was a son of the commune of 
 Vezelay, which was the first to join the Confedera- 
 tion; its interesting history has been written by one 
 of the Thierrys. Thus the bourgeois spirit of resist- 
 ance, endemic at Vezelay, contributed its share in 
 the great uprising of the reformers, in the person of 
 this man, who is certainly one of the most interest- 
 ing figures in the annals of heresy.
 
 302 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 "Are you still suffering?" Theodore asked Calvin. 
 
 "A Catholic would say like one damned," replied 
 the reformer, with the bitterness which he injected 
 into his lightest words. "Ah! I am nearing the 
 end, my child ! And what will become of you with- 
 out me?" 
 
 "We will fight on by the light from your lips!" 
 said Chaudieu. 
 
 Calvin smiled, his purple face assumed a gracious 
 expression, and he looked favorably upon Chaudieu. 
 
 " Well, have you any news for me?" he continued. 
 " Have they massacred many of our friends?" he 
 asked, smiling and exhibiting a mocking joy in the 
 gleam of his brown eyes. 
 
 " No," said Chaudieu, " everything is at peace." 
 
 " So much the worse, so much the worse!" cried 
 Calvin. "Pacification in any form would be an 
 evil, even if it were not always certain to be a 
 snare. In persecution is our strength. Where 
 should we be if the Church should swallow up the 
 Reformed religion?" 
 
 " Indeed," said Theodore, " that is just what the 
 queen-mother seems to want to do." 
 
 " She is quite capable of it," said Calvin. " I am 
 studying that woman " 
 
 " From here?" cried Chaudieu. 
 
 " Is there such a thing as distance for the mind?" 
 rejoined Calvin, sternly, regarding the interruption 
 as irreverent. " Catherine craves power, and 
 women with that craving have neither honor nor 
 faith. What is in the wind?"
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 "Well, she suggests a sort of council," said De 
 Beze. 
 
 " In the neighborhood of Paris?" inquired Calvin, 
 abruptly. 
 
 "Yes!" 
 
 "Ah! so much the better!" said Calvin. 
 
 " And we will try to come to an understanding 
 and prepare a public agreement to blend the two 
 churches." 
 
 "Ah! if she had the courage to separate the 
 French Church from the court of Rome and to 
 create in France a patriarch as in the Greek 
 Church!" cried the reformer, his eyes gleaming 
 at the idea, which would make it possible for him 
 to ascend a throne. " But, my son, can the niece 
 of a pope be free to act? she wants to gain time." 
 
 " Do we not need time to repair our disaster at 
 Amboise and organize a formidable resistance at all 
 points in the kingdom?" 
 
 " She has sent away the Queen of Scotland," 
 said Chaudieu. 
 
 " One less!" said Calvin, as they passed Porte de 
 Rives; " Elizabeth of England will hold her in check 
 for us. Two queens so near together will soon be at 
 war: one is beautiful, and the other decidedly ugly, 
 there's one source of irritation; then there's the 
 question of illegitimacy." 
 
 He rubbed his hands, and there was something so 
 ferocious in his joy that De Beze shuddered; for he 
 caught a glimpse of the sea of blood at which his 
 master had been gazing for a moment.
 
 304 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 " The Guises have angered the Bourbons," said 
 De Beze, after a pause, "they had a falling-out at 
 Orleans." 
 
 "Very good," replied Calvin; "you would not 
 believe me, my son, when, at the time of your last 
 departure for Nerac, I told you that we should 
 eventually stir up a war to the death between the 
 two branches of the royal family of France ! At 
 last, I have a court, a king, a family, in my party. 
 My doctrine has produced its full effect on the 
 masses now. The bourgeois have understood me, 
 henceforth they will call those persons idolaters who 
 attend mass, who paint the walls of their temples 
 and put pictures and statues in them. Ah! it is 
 much easier for the people to demolish cathedrals 
 and palaces than to discuss justification by faith or 
 the real presence! Luther was a disputant; I am an 
 army! he was a reasoner; I am a system! In fact, 
 my children, he was merely an obstinate fellow 
 taquin; I am a Tarquin! Yes, my faithful follow- 
 ers shall pull down churches, they shall shatter 
 pictures, they shall make millstones out of statues, 
 to grind the wheat of the people. There are associa- 
 tions of men in all states, I choose that there shall 
 be only individuals! Associations resist too much, 
 and see clearly where formless multitudes are blind ! 
 Now, we must combine with this militant doctrine 
 political interests which will solidify it and supply 
 the material of my armies. I have satisfied the logical 
 arguments of economical minds, and the brains of 
 thinkers, by the naked, unadorned worship which
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 305 
 
 transports religion into the world of ideas. I have 
 convinced the common people of the benefits of the 
 suppression of ceremonies. It is for you, Theodore, 
 to enlist selfish interests. Do not go beyond that. 
 Everything is done, everything is said now, so far 
 as the doctrine is concerned; do not add to it one 
 iota! Why does Cameron, that humble Gascon 
 pastor, meddle with writing?" 
 
 Calvin, De Beze, and Chaudieu were climbing the 
 streets of the upper city amid the throng of passers, 
 and the throng paid no attention to those men who 
 unloosed the passions of the throngs of other cities 
 and ravaged France! After that terrifying tirade, 
 they walked on in silence to the small Place Saint- 
 Pierre, and across it to the pastor's house. On the 
 second floor of that house, which can hardly be said 
 to be famous, and of which no one ever speaks now 
 in Geneva, where, by the way, there is no statue 
 of Calvin, were his lodgings, consisting of three 
 rooms with spruce floors and wainscoting, and the 
 kitchen and maid-servant's room adjoining. The 
 entrance, as in most of the bourgeois houses of 
 Geneva, was through the kitchen, from which you 
 entered a small room with two windows, used as 
 reception-room, salon, and dining-room. The study, 
 where Calvin's mind had struggled with physical 
 pain for fourteen years, came next, and the bedroom 
 next to that. Four oak chairs covered with tapestry 
 and placed about a large square tab'le comprised all 
 the furniture of the salon. A white porcelain stove 
 in a corner of the room gave forth a gentle warmth. 
 
 20
 
 306 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 The walls were sheathed in unpainted spruce, with 
 no attempt at decoration. Thus the bareness of his 
 dwelling harmonized with the great reformer's sober, 
 simple life. 
 
 " Well," said De Beze, as they entered the house, 
 taking advantage of Chaudieu's leaving them alone 
 while he took the two horses to an inn near by, 
 "what am I to do? Do you agree to the confer- 
 ence?" 
 
 "Assuredly," said Calvin. "You, my son, must 
 do the fighting there. Be concise and unyielding. 
 We none of us, neither the queen, nor the Guises, 
 nor myself, propose that it shall result in any paci- 
 fication which is not satisfactory to our respective 
 selves. I have confidence in Duplessis-Mornay, we 
 must give him the leading role. We are alone," he 
 said, casting a suspicious glance into the kitchen, 
 the door of which was ajar, disclosing two shirts and 
 several collars hanging on a line to dry. " Go and 
 close all the doors. Well," he continued, when 
 Theodore had done so, "we must induce the King 
 of Navarre to join the Guises and the constable by 
 advising him to abandon Queen Catherine de' Medici. 
 Let us reap all the benefit we can from the weakness 
 of that pitiful monarch. If he turns his back on the 
 Italian, she, when she finds that she has lost that 
 support, will necessarily join the Prince de Conde and 
 Coligny. Perhaps this manoeuvre will compromise 
 her so completely that she will remain with us." 
 
 Theodore de Beze lifted the skirt of Calvin's coat 
 and kissed it.
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 307 
 
 " O my master," he said, " how grand you are !" 
 
 " Unfortunately, I am dying, dear Theodore. If I 
 should die without seeing you again," he said in a 
 low voice and in the ear of his minister of foreign 
 affairs, " remember that there is a mighty blow to be 
 struck by one of our martyrs!" 
 
 " Another Minard to be killed?" 
 
 " Something more than a pettifogging lawyer." 
 
 "A king?" 
 
 " Better still! a man who wants to be king." 
 
 " The Due de Guise!" exclaimed Theodore, with 
 an involuntary gesture of dismay. 
 
 " Even so," cried Calvin, fancying that he detected 
 signs of refusal or opposition, and not noticing Chau- 
 dieu's entrance, " have we not the right to strike as 
 we are struck? in darkness and in silence? May we 
 not return wound for wound, death for death? Will 
 the Catholics ever lose an opportunity to lay snares 
 for us and massacre us? I hardly think it! Burn 
 their churches! on with the work, my children. If 
 you have any young men devoted to the cause " 
 
 " I have," said Chaudieu. 
 
 " Use them as instruments of war! our triumph 
 will justify any means. Le Balafre, that formidable 
 warrior, is, like myself, more than a man ; as I am 
 a system, he is a dynasty, and he is capable of anni- 
 hilating us! Therefore, death to the Lorrainer!" 
 
 " I should prefer a peaceful victory, brought about 
 by time and by argument," said De Beze. 
 
 " By time?" shouted Calvin, overturning his chair, 
 "by argument? Why, are you mad? Argument!
 
 308 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 argument make a conquest! Do you, then, who deal 
 with men, know nothing of them, fool? The very 
 thing that injures my doctrine, triple idiot, is that it 
 is easily enforced by argument. By the lightning of 
 Saint Paul, by the sword of the Strong, do you not 
 see, Theodore, pumpkin-head that you are, what an 
 impulse was given to my Reform by the catastrophe 
 of Amboise? Ideas do not grow unless they are 
 watered with blood ! The assassination of the Due 
 de Guise would lead to a horrible persecution, and I 
 pray for it with all my strength! Defeat is preferable 
 to success. The Reform has its methods of inviting 
 defeat, do you understand, donkey? whereas Ca- 
 tholicism is doomed if we win a single battle. But 
 what are my lieutenants? damp rags instead of 
 men! stomachs on two legs! baptized baboons! O 
 my God, wilt Thou give me ten years more of life? 
 If I die too soon, the cause of the true religion is lost 
 in the hands of such dolts! You are as great a fool 
 as Antoine de Navarre! go, leave me, I must have 
 a better negotiator! You are naught but an ass, a 
 coxcomb, a poet! go and make your imitations of 
 Catullus and Tibullus, and your acrostics! Away 
 with you!" 
 
 The torture of the calculus was entirely van- 
 quished by the flames of his wrath. The gout held 
 its peace before that terrible excitement. Calvin's 
 face was streaked with purple, like a tempestuous 
 sky. His vast brow glistened. His eyes flashed 
 fire. He was entirely unlike himself. He aban- 
 doned himself to that species of epileptic frenzy,
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 309 
 
 full of wild rage, which was a common occurrence 
 with him ; but, being impressed by the silence of his 
 two hearers, and observing Chaudieu as he whis- 
 pered to De Beze: " The Burning Bush of Horeb!" 
 he ceased to speak, sank into a chair, and covered 
 his face with his hands, whose knotted veins 
 throbbed visibly despite their thickness. 
 
 A few moments later, still shuddering in the last 
 blasts of that tempest engendered by the chastity of 
 his life, he said to them, in a voice trembling with 
 emotion: 
 
 " My vices, which are numerous, cost me less to 
 overcome than my impatience! Ah! savage beast, 
 shall I never conquer you?" he added, striking his 
 breast. 
 
 " My dear master," said De Beze, in a sooth- 
 ing voice, and taking his hands, which he kissed, 
 " Jupiter thunders, but he knows how to smile." 
 
 Calvin gazed at his disciple with a softened ex- 
 pression, and said to him: 
 
 " Try to understand me, my friends." 
 
 " I understand that the shepherds of whole peoples 
 have to carry terrible burdens," replied Theodore. 
 "You have a world on your shoulders." 
 
 "I have," said Chaudieu, whom the master's 
 diatribe had rendered thoughtful, " I have three 
 martyrs upon whom we can rely. Stuart, who 
 killed the president, is at liberty " 
 
 " Nay!" said Calvin, gently, smiling like all great 
 men when they bring back fair weather to their 
 faces, as if they were ashamed of having allowed
 
 310 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 the storm to rage there. "I know mankind. A 
 man may kill one president, but he doesn't kill 
 two." 
 
 " Is this step absolutely necessary?" said De 
 Beze. 
 
 "Again?" said Calvin, inflating his nostrils. 
 " Nay, leave me, you will drive me into a frenzy 
 again. Go hence with my decision. Do you, 
 Chaudieu, follow the path you are now following, 
 and maintain your flock in Paris. May God guide 
 you! Dinah! light my friends to the street." 
 
 " Will you not permit me to embrace you?" said 
 De Beze, with deep emotion. " Which of us can 
 know what may happen to-morrow? We may be 
 arrested notwithstanding our safe-conducts " 
 
 "And yet you would spare them?" queried 
 Calvin, embracing him. 
 
 He took Chaudieu's hand. 
 
 " Above all things," he said, " no Huguenots, no 
 reformers! be Calvinists! Speak of Calvinism only! 
 Alas! this is not ambition, for I am dying! but we 
 must destroy every vestige of Luther, even to the 
 words Lutheran and Lutheranism." 
 
 "But, O divine man," said Chaudieu, " well do 
 you merit such honor!" 
 
 " Uphold the uniformity of the doctrine, allow no 
 more examination or remodelling. We are lost if 
 new sects go forth from our bosom." 
 
 Anticipating for a moment the occurrences with 
 which this Study is concerned, and in order to have 
 done with Theodore de Beze, who went to Paris with
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 311 
 
 Chaudieu, we will remark that Poltrot, who dis- 
 charged a pistol at the Due de Guise eighteen months 
 later, confessed under torture that he had been incited 
 to that crime by Theodore de Beze; he retracted that 
 confession, however, during the subsequent tortures. 
 So that Bossuet, after weighing all the historical 
 arguments, did not consider that the conception of 
 that crime should be charged to Theodore de Beze. 
 But, since Bossuet's time, a dissertation, at first 
 sight of trivial importance, on the subject of a 
 famous chanson, has led a compiler of the eighteenth 
 century to prove that the chanson on the death of 
 the Due de Guise, which was sung throughout 
 France by the Huguenots, was the work of Theo- 
 dore de Beze, and it was proved at the same time 
 that the famous lament upon Marlborough was pla- 
 giarized from the one written by Theodore de Beze.* 
 
 * See the note at the end of this volume.
 
 On the day when Theodore de Beze and Chau- 
 dieu reached Paris, the court returned thither from 
 Reims, where Charles IX. had been crowned. That 
 ceremony, which, under Catherine's direction, was 
 made very imposing and the occasion of magnificent 
 fetes, had enabled her to assemble the leaders of all 
 parties about her. After studying all the different 
 conflicting interests and parties, she was at liberty 
 to choose between these alternatives: either to en- 
 list them all in support of the throne, or to oppose 
 them to one another. The Connetable de Mont- 
 morency, Catholic of Catholics, whose nephew, the 
 Prince de Conde, was the leader of the party of 
 the Reformation, and whose sons were inclined to 
 that religion, inveighed against the queen-mother's 
 alliance with the reformers. On their side, the 
 Guises were endeavoring to win over Antoine de 
 Bourbon, a prince devoid of character, and to enlist 
 him in their party; with which attempt his wife, the 
 Queen of Navarre, being warned by De Beze, did 
 not interfere. These obstacles made an impression 
 on Catherine, whose newly-born authority needed 
 a period of tranquillity; so she awaited impatiently 
 the reply of Calvin, to whom Chaudieu and De Beze 
 had been sent by the Prince de Conde, the King 
 of Navarre, Coligny, D'Andelot, and the Cardinal 
 de Chatillon. But the queen-mother, meanwhile, 
 (3i3)
 
 314 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 was true to her promises to the Prince de Conde. 
 The chancellor put an end to the procedure against 
 Christophe, by transferring the cause to the Par- 
 liament of Paris, which quashed the judgment of 
 the commission by declaring it to be powerless to 
 try a prince of the blood. At the solicitation of the 
 Guises and the queen-mother, the Parliament began 
 the prosecution anew. The papers taken from La 
 Sagne had been handed to Catherine, who burned 
 them. The delivery of those papers was the first 
 pledge, fruitlessly given the queen-mother by the 
 Guises. The Parliament, finding the proofs unsat- 
 isfactory, restored the prince to all his privileges, 
 property, and honors. Christophe, who was set free 
 at the time of the excitement at Orleans on the 
 king's accession, was acquitted at once, and, in 
 recompense for his sufferings, was admitted as an 
 advocate to the Parliament through the exertions of 
 Monsieur de Thou. 
 
 The triumvirate, that future coalition of interests 
 menaced by Catherine's first acts, was in process 
 of formation under her eyes. Just as in chemistry 
 hostile substances always part at the first shock 
 which disturbs their forced union, so in politics an 
 alliance of opposing interests is always of brief dura- 
 tion. Catherine fully realized that, sooner or later, 
 she would certainly return to the Guises and the 
 constable to join forces with them against the Hu- 
 guenots. The proposed conference, which tickled 
 the self-esteem of the orators of all parties, which 
 was intended to provide an imposing ceremony to
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 315 
 
 follow that of the coronation, and to distract atten- 
 tion from the bloody carpet of the religious war 
 already inaugurated, was quite useless in the eyes 
 of the Guises as well as in Catherine's. The Cath- 
 olics would be the losers, for the Huguenots, on the 
 pretext of conferring, would seize the opportunity 
 to proclaim their doctrine in the face of all France, 
 under the protection of the king and his mother. 
 The Cardinal de Lorraine, cajoled by Catherine 
 with the idea of vanquishing the heretics by the 
 eloquence of the princes of the Church, persuaded 
 his brother to consent. Six months of peace were 
 a great boon to the queen-mother. 
 
 A trivial occurrence was very near compromising 
 this power which Catherine was building up so 
 laboriously. The following scene, handed down by 
 historians, occurred on the very day when the en- 
 voys from Geneva arrived at Coligny's house on 
 Rue Bethisy, near the Louvre. At the coronation 
 ceremony, Charles IX., who was very fond of 
 Amyot, his tutor, appointed him Grand Almoner 
 of France. This affection was shared by the Due 
 d'Anjou, afterward Henri III., Amyot's other pupil. 
 During the journey from Reims to Paris, Catherine 
 was informed of this appointment by the Gondis. She 
 counted upon that office in the gift of the crown to ob- 
 tain a firm supporter in the Church in order to have 
 somebody to oppose to the Cardinal de Lorraine; she 
 intended to bestow it upon the Cardinal de Tournon, 
 in order to have in him, as in L'HSpital, a second 
 crutch; such was the phrase she used. On arriving
 
 316 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 at the Louvre, she sent for the tutor. Her wrath 
 was so great when she saw the havoc wrought in 
 her policy by the ambition of that upstart cobbler's 
 son, that she addressed him in strange words, which 
 are repeated by some memoir-writers: 
 
 " What! I make the Guises, the Colignys, the 
 constables, the House of Navarre and the Prince de 
 Conde eat dirt, and I must have around my neck a 
 miserable little priest like you, who won't be satis- 
 fied with the bishopric of Auxerre!" 
 
 Amyot apologized. In truth, he had not asked for 
 anything; the king, of his own free will, had honored 
 him with that post of which he, a poor tutor, deemed 
 himself unworthy. 
 
 " Rest assured, master," replied Catherine, such 
 was the title which Charles IX. and Henri III. gave 
 to that great author, "that you won't be on your 
 feet twenty-four hours hence if you don't make 
 your pupil change his mind." 
 
 Between death, threatened with so little circumlo- 
 cution, and resignation of the most considerable ec- 
 clesiastical office under the crown, the cobbler's son, 
 who had become very covetous and perhaps cher- 
 ished the ambition to wear a cardinal's hat, adopted 
 a temporizing policy; he went into hiding in the 
 abbey of Saint-Germain. At his very first dinner, 
 Charles IX. missed Amyot, and asked for him. Some 
 Guisard probably informed the king of what had 
 taken place between Amyot and the queen-mother. 
 
 "What! has he been put out of sight because I 
 made him grand almoner?" he asked.
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 317 
 
 He went to his mother's apartments in the violent 
 frame of mind into which children are always thrown 
 when one of their caprices is thwarted. 
 
 "Madame," he inquired, as he entered, "did I 
 not unhesitatingly sign the letter which you asked 
 me to sign for the Parliament the letter by virtue 
 of which you are to govern my kingdom? Did you 
 not promise me, when you handed it to me, that my 
 will should be yours? and yet the only favor I have 
 cared to bestow arouses your jealousy! The chan- 
 cellor talks of having me declared of age at fourteen, 
 three years from now, and you choose to treat me 
 like a baby. I will be king, by God ! and king as 
 my father and grandfather were!" 
 
 The tone in which her son spoke, and his manner, 
 were a revelation to Catherine of his true character; 
 it was as if she had received a blow in the breast. 
 
 " He speaks thus to me, to me who made him 
 king!" she thought. " Monsieur," she replied, " the 
 office of king is a very difficult one in these days, and 
 you are unacquainted as yet with the master-minds 
 with whom you have to deal. You will never have 
 any other candid and reliable friend than your mother, 
 other retainers than those who have been long at- 
 tached to her service, and except for whose efforts 
 you might not be alive to-day. The Guises have 
 designs upon your crown and your person alike, 
 mark that. If they could sew me up in a sack and 
 toss me into yonder river," she said, waving her 
 hand toward the Seine, " it would be done to-night. 
 These Lorraines feel that I am the lioness defending
 
 318 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 her whelps, who thrusts back the hands which 
 they presumptuously reach out for the crown. For 
 whom, for vvhat does your tutor stand? where are 
 his alliances? what influence has he? what services 
 will he render you? what weight will his words 
 have? Instead of propping up your power, you 
 have weakened it. The Cardinal de Lorraine 
 threatens you, he plays the king, he keeps his hat 
 on his head in presence of the first prince of the 
 blood; was it not of the utmost importance, there- 
 fore, to oppose to him another cardinal endowed 
 with authority superior to his? Will Amyot, this 
 cobbler, capable of nothing more than tying his 
 shoestrings, be the man to break a lance with him? 
 However, you are fond of Amyot, you have ap- 
 pointed him! let your first wish be gratified, mon- 
 sieur! But hereafter, before making up your mind, 
 consult me in all friendliness. Heed reasons of 
 State, and your boyish good sense will perhaps 
 come to the same decision as my long experience, 
 when you know the difficulties that lie in your 
 path." 
 
 "You will give me back my master!" said the 
 king, who had not listened overcarefully to his 
 mother, seeing only reproof in her rejoinder. 
 
 "Yes, you shall have him," she replied. " But 
 neither he nor that brutal Cypierre will teach you 
 how to reign." 
 
 "You shall do that, mother," he said, mollified 
 by his triumph and laying aside the threatening, 
 sullen expression which his features naturally wore.
 
 CATHERINE DE 1 MEDICI 319 
 
 Catherine sent Condi in search of the new grand 
 almoner. When the Florentine had discovered 
 Amyot's retreat, and the bishop had been told that 
 the courtier was sent by the queen, he was terror- 
 stricken and would not leave the abbey. In that 
 extremity, Catherine was obliged to write to the 
 tutor herself in such terms that he returned and 
 received the assurance of her protection, but only 
 on condition that he would follow her instructions 
 blindly in his relations with Charles IX. 
 
 This little domestic hurricane having blown over, 
 Catherine, who had been absent from the Louvre 
 more than a year, took counsel with her friends as 
 to the course of conduct to be adopted with the 
 young king, whom Cypierre had complimented upon 
 his firmness. 
 
 "What is to be done?" She propounded the 
 question to the Gondis, Ruggieri, Birague, and Chi- 
 verni, recently appointed governor and chancellor to 
 the Due de Anjou. 
 
 " First of all," said Birague, " replace Cypierre. 
 He is no courtier, he would never accede to your 
 views, and would think that the proper discharge of 
 his functions required him to thwart you." 
 
 "Whom can I trust?" exclaimed the queen. 
 
 " One of us," said Birague. 
 
 "Faith," said Condi, "I will promise to make 
 the king as easy to handle as the King of Navarre." 
 
 " You allowed the late king to die in order to 
 save your other children; now do as the great noble- 
 men do at Constantinople simply make this one's
 
 320 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 fits of temper and his caprices of no consequence," 
 said Albert de Gondi. " He loves art, poetry, hunt- 
 ing, and a little girl whom he saw at Orleans; these 
 are quite enough to occupy his thoughts." 
 
 "So you would like to be the king's governor, 
 eh?" said Catherine to the abler of the two Gondis. 
 
 " If you choose to give me the authority essential 
 for a governor, perhaps it will be necessary to make 
 me a marshal of France and a duke. Cypierre is 
 too insignificant a man to continue to fill that place. 
 Hereafter, the governor of a king of France should 
 be a marshal and a duke, or something equivalent 
 to that." 
 
 " He is right," said Birague. 
 
 "Poet and sportsman," said Catherine, in a 
 musing tone. 
 
 " We will hunt and we will love!" cried Gondi. 
 
 " At all events," said Chiverni, " you are sure of 
 Amyot, who will always be afraid of poison in case 
 he disobeys you, and with Gondi you will hold the 
 king in leash." 
 
 " You were resigned to the loss of one son to save 
 your other three sons and the crown, and you must 
 have the courage to keep this one occupied, in order 
 to save the kingdom, perhaps to save yourself," said 
 Ruggieri. 
 
 " He has seriously offended me," said Catherine. 
 
 " He does not know all that he owes you; and 
 if he did know it, you would be in danger," ob- 
 served Birague, in all seriousness, dwelling on the 
 words.
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 321 
 
 " It is agreed," rejoined Catherine, upon whom 
 that remark produced a very pronounced effect, 
 "you shall be the king's governor, Gondi. The 
 king must certainly repay me for my assent to his 
 bestowing a favor on that flat-footed bishop, by 
 doing something for one of my friends. That knave 
 Amyot has lost his cardinal's hat; yes, as long as I 
 live I will oppose the Pope's putting it on his head ! 
 We should have been very strong with the Cardinal 
 de Tournon on our side. What a trio the grand 
 almoner, L'Hopital, and De Thou would have made! 
 As for the bourgeois of Paris, I am devising a method 
 by which my son may wheedle them, and we shall 
 find a sure support in them." 
 
 Gondi actually became a marshal, was created Due 
 de Retz, and appointed governor to the king a few 
 days thereafter. 
 
 As this little council came to an end, the Cardinal 
 de Tournon announced to the queen the envoys of 
 Calvin; Admiral Coligny accompanied them to en- 
 sure them respectful treatment at the Louvre. The 
 queen at once summoned her redoubtable body-guard 
 of maids of honor and passed into the reception-hall, 
 built by her husband, which does not exist in the 
 Louvre of to-day. 
 
 In those days, the stairway of the Louvre was in 
 the Tour de PHorloge. Catherine's apartments 
 were in the old buildings, which are still standing, 
 in part, on the courtyard of the Musee. The present 
 staircase of the Musee was built on the site of the 
 salle des ballets. A ballet at that period was a 
 
 21
 
 322 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 species of dramatic entertainment in which the 
 whole court participated. 
 
 The passions aroused by the Revolution caused 
 credit to be given to a most laughable error con- 
 cerning Charles IX., apropos of the Louvre. Dur- 
 ing the Revolution, a popular belief adverse to 
 that king, whose character was misrepresented, 
 made him a perfect monster. Chenier's tragedy 
 was written under the influence of an inscription 
 placed upon the window of the projecting portion of 
 the Louvre on the side of the quay. It consisted 
 of these words: "// was from this window that 
 Charles IX., of execrable memory, fired upon Fremh 
 citizens." It is fitting to remind future historians 
 and sober-minded persons that all that part of the 
 Louvre which is to-day called the old Louvre, and 
 which projects like a hatchet on the quay, connect- 
 ing the salon with the Louvre by the so-called Apollo 
 gallery, and the Louvre with the Tuileries by the 
 halls of the Musee, did not exist under Charles IX. 
 The greater part of the site of the present facade on 
 the quay, and of the so-called Garden of the Infanta, 
 was occupied by the Hotel de Bourbon, belonging to 
 the House of Navarre. It was physically impossible 
 for Charles IX. to fire from the Louvre, as it was 
 under Henri II., upon a boatload of Huguenots crossing 
 the river, or even to see the Seine from the windows, 
 now walled-up, of that edifice. Even if scholars and 
 libraries did not possess maps on which the Louvre 
 under Charles IX. is accurately represented, the 
 monument itself bears the refutation of this error.
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 323 
 
 All the kings who have co-operated in building that 
 vast pile have invariably left upon it their cipher or 
 an anagram of some sort. Now, that venerable and 
 to-day blackened portion of the Louvre, which looks 
 upon the Garden of the Infanta and projects upon the 
 quay, bears the ciphers of Henri III. and Henri IV., 
 which are very different from Henri II. 's, who united 
 his H with the two C's of Catherine, forming a sort 
 of D which misleads superficial observers. Henri IV. 
 was able to add his Hotel de Bourbon, with its gar- 
 dens and appurtenances, to the Louvre domain. He 
 first conceived the idea of joining Catherine de' 
 Medici's palace to the Louvre by means of its unfin- 
 ished galleries, whose valuable carvings have been 
 sadly neglected. Even if the plan of Paris as it was 
 under 'Charles IX. and the ciphers of Henry III. 
 or Henri IV. did not exist, the difference in archi- 
 tecture would unsparingly contradict the calumny. 
 The vermiculated protuberances of the Hotel de 
 la Force, and of that part of the Louvre, mark the 
 transition from the so-called Renaissance architec- 
 ture to the architectural style in fashion under 
 Henri III., Henri IV., and Louis XIII. This archas- 
 ological digression, which, by the way, is in the 
 same line with the descriptions with which this 
 narrative begins, enables us to form an idea of the 
 real appearance of that other corner of Paris, of 
 which nothing exists to-day save the portion to 
 which we refer, where the superb bas-reliefs are 
 deteriorating day by day. 
 
 When the court learned that the queen was about
 
 324 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 to give audience to Theodore de Beze and Chaudieu, 
 introduced by Admiral de Coligny, all those courtiers 
 who were entitled to enter the hall of audience 
 hastened thither in order to witness the interview. 
 It was then about six o'clock; the admiral had just 
 supped, and was picking his teeth as he ascended 
 the staircase of the Louvre between the two re- 
 formers. The constant handling of a toothpick had 
 grown to be an incurable habit in the admiral, and 
 he would use one upon all his teeth, one after another, 
 while meditating a retreat on the battle-field. Dis- 
 trust the admiral's toothpkk, the constable's "tio" 
 and Catherine's "yes," was a proverbial expression 
 of the time at court. At the time of the Saint Bar- 
 tholomew, the populace perpetrated a ghastly epi- 
 gram on Coligny's dead body, which lay for three 
 days at Montfaucon, by inserting a mammoth tooth- 
 pick between his teeth. The chroniclers thought 
 that shocking jest worthy to be recorded. That 
 trivial act in the midst of a terrible catastrophe well 
 depicts the character of the Parisian populace, which 
 abundantly deserves the jocose quip in Boileau's 
 line: 
 
 " The Frenchman, born mischievous, created the guillotine." 
 
 At all times, the Parisian has cracked jokes before, 
 during, and after the most horrible revolutions. 
 
 Theodore de Beze was dressed like a courtier, 
 in black silk stockings, strapped shoes, tight-fitting 
 breeches, a slashed doublet of black silk, with the
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 325 
 
 short velvet cloak over which fell a snow-white 
 fluted ruff. He wore a moustache and imperial, had 
 a sword at his side, and carried a cane. Whoever 
 walks through the galleries of the Louvre, or looks 
 over Odieuvre's collections, knows his round, almost 
 jovial face, with its sparkling eyes, surmounted by 
 the unusually ample forehead which is characteris- 
 tic of the prose-writers and poets of that time. De 
 Beze had an attractive manner, which was very 
 serviceable to him. He formed a striking contrast 
 to Coligny, whose stern face is familiar to all, and 
 with the sour, bilious Chaudieu, who wore the min- 
 isterial costume and the starched band of the Cal- 
 vinists. What takes place in our own time in 
 the Chamber of Deputies and what doubtless took 
 place in the Convention may help us to understand 
 how, in that court, at that epoch, men who were to 
 be at daggers drawn six months later, and to wage 
 desperate war upon one another, could meet on 
 friendly terms, and talk courteously and jestingly 
 together. 
 
 As he entered the hall, Birague, who was to 
 advise in cold blood the massacre of Saint-Barthol- 
 omew, and the Cardinal de Lorraine, who was to 
 enjoin upon his servant Besme, on that occasion, 
 not to miss the admiral, stepped forward to meet 
 Coligny, and the Piedmontese said to him, with a 
 smile: 
 
 " Well, my dear admiral, so you take it upon your- 
 self to present these gentlemen from Geneva?" 
 
 " Perhaps you will impute it to me as a crime,"
 
 326 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 retorted the admiral, jocosely, "whereas, if you had 
 undertaken it yourself, you would claim that you 
 were entitled to credit for it." 
 
 "It is said that Sieur Calvin is very ill," said 
 the Cardinal de Lorraine to Theodore de Beze. " I 
 trust that we shall not be suspected of poisoning his 
 soup." 
 
 "Ah! monseigneur, you would lose too much by 
 it!" replied De Beze, shrewdly. 
 
 The Due de Guise, who had been eyeing Chau- 
 dieu, gazed earnestly at his brother and Birague, 
 both of whom were taken aback by that remark. 
 
 " Vmi-Dieu ! " cried the cardinal, "the heretics 
 are not heterodox in the matter of sharp politics." 
 
 To forestall any possible difficulty, the queen, 
 who was announced at that moment, determined to 
 remain standing. She began by conversing with 
 the constable, who animadverted vigorously upon the 
 scandal of receiving envoys from Calvin. 
 
 " But you see, my dear constable, that we receive 
 them without formality." 
 
 " Madame," said the admiral, approaching the 
 queen, "these are the two professors of the new 
 religion who have conversed with Calvin, and who 
 bear his instructions relative to a conference at 
 which the churches of France may adjust their 
 differences." 
 
 " This is Monsieur Theodore de Beze, to whom my 
 wife is much attached," said the King of Navarre, 
 coming forward and taking Theodore by the hand. 
 
 "And this is Chaudieu," cried the Prince de
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 327 
 
 Conde. " My friend the Due de Guise knows his 
 brother, the captain; perhaps he will not be sorry 
 to know the minister," he added, glancing at Le 
 Balafre. 
 
 That gasconade made the whole court laugh, even 
 Catherine herself. 
 
 " Faith," replied the Due de Guise, " I am de- 
 lighted to meet a fellow who knows so well how to 
 select his men and to employ them in their proper 
 spheres. One of your friends," he said to the 
 minister, "endured the extraordinary question with- 
 out dying, yes, and without admitting anything; 
 I consider myself a brave man, but I am not sure 
 that I could stand it as he did!" 
 
 " Humph!" said Ambroise Pare, " you never said 
 a word when I pulled the spear-head out of your face 
 at Calais." 
 
 Catherine, standing in the centre of the semi- 
 circle described by her maids of honor and her 
 courtiers, at the right and left, maintained absolute 
 silence. Scrutinizing the two famous reformers, 
 she tried to penetrate their thoughts with the stead- 
 fast gaze of her beautiful, speaking black eyes; she 
 studied them closely. 
 
 " One seems to be the scabbard, the other the 
 blade," said Albert de Condi, in her ear. 
 
 " Well, messieurs," said Catherine, at last, un- 
 able to restrain a smile, "so your master has given 
 you leave to hold a public conference, at which you 
 may be converted by the words of new Fathers of 
 the Church, who are the glory of our realm?"
 
 328 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 "We have no master save the Lord," said Chau- 
 dieu. 
 
 "Oh! surely you recognize some little authority 
 in the King of France?" queried Catherine, with a 
 smile, interrupting the minister. 
 
 "Aye, and much in the queen," said De Beze, 
 bowing. 
 
 "You will see," she replied, "that the heretics 
 will be my most obedient subjects." 
 
 "Ah! madame," cried Coligny, "what a glorious 
 kingdom we would make for you! Europe reaps 
 immense advantage from our divisions. It has seen 
 one-half of the people of France arrayed against the 
 other half for fifty years past." 
 
 " Well, well ! are we here to hear anthems sung 
 to the glory of the heretics?" interposed the con- 
 stable, roughly. 
 
 " No, but to bring them to repentance," said the 
 Cardinal de Lorraine, in his ear, " and we should do 
 well to try to coax them by a little gentleness." 
 
 " Do you know what I would have done in the 
 time of our king's father?" growled Anne de Mont- 
 morency; " I would have called the provost to hang 
 these two flat-footed knaves high and quickly, on 
 the gibbet of the Louvre." 
 
 " Well, messieurs, who are the professors who 
 will meet us in argument?" said the queen, imposing 
 silence on the constable, with a glance. 
 
 " Duplessis-Mornay and Theodore de Beze will be 
 our leaders," said Chaudieu. 
 
 "The court will go, doubtless, to the chateau of
 
 CATHERINE DE* MEDICI 329 
 
 Saint-Germain, and as it would be unbecoming for 
 this colloquy to be held in the royal residence, we 
 will hold it in the little village of Poissy," said 
 Catherine. 
 
 "Shall we be safe there, madame?" inquired 
 Chaudieu. 
 
 "Ah!" replied the queen, with a touch of ingenu- 
 ousness, "you will know how to take precautions. 
 Monsieur 1'Amiral will have an understanding on 
 that subject with my cousins of Guise and Mont- 
 morency." 
 
 " Plague take it!" said the constable. "I'll have 
 nothing to do with it." 
 
 " What do you do to your sectaries to give them 
 such strength of character?" said the queen, leading 
 Chaudieu aside a few steps. " My furrier's son was 
 sublime." 
 
 " We have faith!" replied Chaudieu. 
 
 At that moment, the hall was dotted with groups 
 discussing with much animation the projected meet- 
 ing, which, from the queen's characterization of it, 
 had already taken the name of the " Colloquy of 
 Poissy." Catherine looked at Chaudieu, and said: 
 
 "Yes, a new faith!" 
 
 " Oh! madame, if you were not blinded by your 
 alliance with the court of Rome, you would see that 
 we have returned to the true doctrine of Jesus 
 Christ, which, by establishing the equality of souls, 
 has given us all equal rights on earth." 
 
 "Do you consider yourself Calvin's equal?" 
 queried the queen, shrewdly. " Nonsense, we are
 
 330 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 equal only in church. But, really, to talk about 
 loosening the bonds between the people and the 
 throne!" cried Catherine. " You are not heretics 
 simply, you rebel against obeying the king, while 
 you throw off allegiance to the Pope." 
 
 She left him abruptly, and returned to Theodore 
 de Beze. 
 
 " I rely upon you, monsieur," she said, "to con- 
 duct this colloquy in good faith. Take all the time 
 you want." 
 
 " I supposed," said Chaudieu to the Prince de 
 Conde, the King of Navarre, and Admiral de Col- 
 igny, "that affairs of State were treated more seri- 
 ously." 
 
 " Oh! we all know what we want," said the 
 Prince de Conde, exchanging a knowing glance with 
 Theodore de Beze. 
 
 The hunchback left his partisans in order to keep 
 an appointment. This great Prince de Conde, this 
 leader of a party, was one of the most favored gal- 
 lants of the court; the two loveliest women of the 
 time fought for him with such desperation that 
 the Marechale de Saint-Andre, the wife of the fu- 
 ture triumvir, gave him her fine estate of Saint- 
 Valery in order to prevail over the Duchesse de 
 Guise, wife of the man who but a short time before 
 had done his utmost to compass his death by the 
 axe; being unable to seduce the Due de Nemours 
 from his intrigue with Mademoiselle de Rohan, she 
 bestowed her favors, meanwhile, upon the leader of 
 the reformers.
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 331 
 
 "How different from Geneva!" said Chaudieu to 
 Theodore de Beze, as they stood on the little bridge 
 of the Louvre. 
 
 " These people are more lively; and for that very 
 reason I cannot understand why they are so treach- 
 erous." 
 
 " Fight treachery with more treachery," said 
 Chaudieu, in his companion's ear. " I have saints 
 in Paris on whom I can rely, and I propose to make 
 a prophet of Calvin. Christophe will rid us of the 
 most dangerous of our enemies." 
 
 " The queen-mother, for whose sake the poor 
 devil endured the question, has already caused him 
 to be admitted as an advocate before the Parliament, 
 and an advocate is more a tale-bearer than an assas- 
 sin. Remember Avenelles, who sold the secret of 
 our first uprising." 
 
 " I know Christophe," said Chaudieu, confidently, 
 as he and the envoy from Geneva parted.
 
 Several days after Catherine's reception of Cal- 
 vin's secret ambassadors, and near the close of that 
 same year, for the year began at Easter in those 
 days, the present calendar not being adopted until 
 the next reign, Christophe was lying in an easy- 
 chair, on that side of the fireplace from which he 
 could see the river, in the large, dark living-room 
 in which this drama began. His feet were resting 
 on a stool. Mademoiselle Lecamus and Babette 
 Lallier had just renewed the bandages saturated 
 with a preparation brought by Ambroise, whom 
 Catherine had instructed to look after Christophe. 
 Once recovered by his family, the boy became the 
 object of the most devoted attentions. Babette, 
 with her father's consent, came to the Lecamus 
 house every morning and did not leave until even- 
 ing. Christophe was the object of the wondering 
 admiration of the apprentices, and strange tales 
 were rife throughout the quarter, which surrounded 
 him with a mysterious, poetic halo. He had under- 
 gone the question and the celebrated Ambroise Pare 
 was exerting all his skill to save him. What had he 
 done to deserve such treatment? Neither Chris- 
 tophe nor his father had a word to say on that sub- 
 ject. Catherine, now all-powerful, found it to her 
 interest to hold her peace, as did the Prince de Conde. 
 The visits of Ambroise, who was surgeon to the 
 
 (333)
 
 334 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 king and the House of Guise, and yet was permitted 
 by the latter and the queen-mother to attend a young 
 man accused of heresy, tended to involve in strange 
 confusion an incident which nobody could under- 
 stand. Lastly, the cure of Saint-Pierre aux Boeufs 
 came several times to see his church-warden's son, 
 and those visits rendered still more inexplicable the 
 causes of Christophe's condition. 
 
 The old syndic, who had mapped out a plan of 
 procedure, gave evasive replies to his confreres, to 
 the tradesmen and the friends who spoke to him 
 about his son: " I am very lucky, gossip, to have 
 saved him! What can you expect? one must never 
 put one's finger between tree and bark! My son 
 put his hand in the fire and took from it enough 
 to burn my house down! They took advantage of 
 his youth, and we bourgeois never get anything but 
 shame and misfortune from fawning on the great. 
 This has decided me to make my boy a lawyer, the 
 Palais de Justice will teach him to weigh his acts and 
 his words. The young queen, who is in Scotland 
 now, had a good deal to do with it; but my son may 
 have been imprudent, too! I have suffered cruelly 
 myself. This may lead to my giving up business, 
 for I don't propose to go to court any more. My 
 son has had enough of the Reformation now; it has 
 broken his arms and legs. Except for Ambroise, 
 where should 1 be?" 
 
 Thanks to remarks of this sort and to his prudent 
 conduct, it was declared in the quarter that Chris- 
 tophe was no longer afflicted with Protestantism.
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 335 
 
 Everyone thought it natural that the old syndic 
 should try to get his son a place in the Parliament, 
 and the cure's visits no longer seemed extraordinary. 
 Engrossed by the syndic's misfortunes, they did not 
 detect his ambition, which would have seemed mon- 
 strous to them. 
 
 The young adv6cate, after lying three months on 
 the bed which had been prepared for him in the old 
 hall, had been sitting up about a week and could not 
 yet walk without crutches. Babette's love and his 
 mother's tender care had touched Christophe deeply; 
 now, while he was confined to his bed, those two 
 women had lectured him pitilessly on the subject of 
 religion. President de Thou paid his godson a visit, 
 and talked to him in fatherly fashion. Christophe, 
 now that he was an advocate in Parliament, ought 
 to be a Catholic, he would be bound by his oath to 
 be; but the president, having no doubt of his ortho- 
 doxy, gravely added these words: 
 
 "My child, you have been subjected to a cruel 
 test. I have no idea myself of the reason that 
 Messieurs de Guise had for treating you so; I en- 
 treat you to lead a tranquil life henceforth, and 
 to take no part in any disturbances; for the favor 
 of the king and queen will not be bestowed on 
 brewers of storms. You are not of enough conse- 
 quence to fly in the king's face as Messieurs de 
 Guise do. If you wish to be a counsellor in Parlia- 
 ment some day, remember that you can obtain that 
 dignified office only by devoted attachment to the 
 royal cause.*'
 
 336 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 However, neither President de Thou's visit, nor 
 Babette's fascinations, nor the entreaties of Made- 
 moiselle Lecamus, his mother, had shaken the faith 
 of the martyr of the Reformation. Christophe was 
 the more deeply attached to his religion because he 
 had suffered so cruelly for it. 
 
 "My father will never allow me to marry a 
 heretic," whispered Babette. 
 
 Christophe replied only by tears, which made the 
 pretty girl silent and pensive. 
 
 Old Lecamus preserved his dignity as father and 
 syndic; he watched his son and said little. The old 
 man, after he had recovered his dear Christophe, 
 was almost dissatisfied with himself; he repented of 
 having showered all his affection upon that only son; 
 but he secretly admired him. At no time in his life 
 did the syndic set more machinery at work to attain 
 his ends; for he saw the ripened crop whose seed he 
 had sown with such patient toil, and he wished to 
 gather it all. A few days before the morning of 
 which we write, he had had a long conversation 
 with Christophe, in which he had tried to discover 
 the secret of his son's obstinacy. Christophe, who 
 did not lack ambition, had faith in the Prince de 
 Conde. The generous words of the prince, who 
 was simply carrying on his princely profession, 
 were graven in his heart; but he did not know that 
 Conde had cursed him bitterly, saying to himself: 
 " A Gascon would have understood me!" when the 
 boy called out a touching farewell to him through 
 the bars of his dungeon at Orleans.
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 337 
 
 Despite this feeling of admiration for the prince, 
 Christophe also cherished the profoundest respect 
 for Catherine, the great queen, who had explained 
 to him with a glance that it was absolutely neces- 
 sary that she should sacrifice him, and who, during 
 his torture, had given him an unreserved promise in 
 a half-shed tear. In the profound silence of the 
 ninety days and nights of his convalescence, the 
 new advocate reviewed the events at Blois and at 
 Orleans. He estimated, in spite of himself, so to 
 speak, the respective advantages of those two pro- 
 tections. He wavered between the queen and the 
 prince. He certainly had been more serviceable to 
 Catherine than to the reformers, and in a young 
 man both heart and mind were certain to incline 
 toward the queen, not so much because he had 
 served her better as because she was a woman. 
 Under such circumstances, a man will always hope 
 for a greater reward from a woman than from a 
 man. 
 
 " I sacrificed myself for her, what will she do for 
 me?" 
 
 He asked himself that question almost involun- 
 tarily, remembering the tone in which she had said: 
 " Povero mio !" It is hard to realize how personal a 
 man's thoughts become when he is sick in bed and 
 alone. Everything, even to the exclusive atten- 
 tions of which he is the object, leads him to think 
 of himself alone. By dint of exaggerating the 
 Prince de Conde's obligations to him, Christophe 
 expected to be offered some important office at the 
 22
 
 338 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 court of Navarre. This child, still a novice in 
 politics, forgot that the anxieties of their position 
 and their rapid progress through men and events 
 engross the minds of party leaders; and he forgot it 
 the more readily because he was practically in secret 
 confinement in that dark old hall. Every party is 
 necessarily ungrateful while it is fighting; and when 
 it triumphs, it has too many people to reward not to 
 continue to be ungrateful. Soldiers submit to this 
 ingratitude; but leaders turn against the new master 
 with whom they have marched so long on a footing 
 of equality. Christophe, who alone remembered 
 his own sufferings, already numbered himself among 
 the leaders of the Reformation and proclaimed him- 
 self one of its martyrs. Lecamus, that old wolf of 
 trade, far-sighted and shrewd, had succeeded at last 
 in divining his son's secret thoughts; so that all his 
 manoeuvres were based upon the natural hesitation 
 of which Christophe was the victim. 
 
 "Wouldn't it be a fine thing," he had said to 
 Babette the night before, in family conclave, " to be 
 the wife of a counsellor in Parliament? You would 
 be called Madame!" 
 
 " You are mad, gossip ! " said Lallier. " In the 
 first place, where would you get the ten thousand 
 crowns a year in real estate that a counsellor must 
 have, and from whom would you purchase a seat? 
 To get your son into Parliament, the queen-mother 
 and the regent would have to be interested in him, 
 and he smells a little too strong of the stake for 
 them to help him."
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 339 
 
 "What would you give to see your daughter the 
 wife of a counsellor?" 
 
 " You want to see the bottom of my purse, old 
 fox!" said Lallier. 
 
 Counsellor of Parliament! That phrase rang in 
 Christophe's ears. 
 
 A long time after the colloquy, one morning when 
 Christophe was gazing at the river, which reminded 
 him of the scene with which this narrative begins, 
 of the Prince de Conde, La Renaudie, and Chau- 
 dieu, of his journey to Blois, in a word, of all his 
 hopes, the syndic came and sat beside him, making 
 a feeble attempt to conceal a joyous air beneath an 
 affectation of gravity. 
 
 "My son," he said, "after what took place be- 
 tween you and the leaders in the Tumult of Am- 
 boise, they owed you so much that the House of 
 Navarre ought to look out for your future." 
 
 "Yes," said Christophe. 
 
 "Very good," continued his father, "I made a 
 formal request in your behalf for permission to pur- 
 chase an office in the magistracy of Beam. Our 
 good friend Pare undertook to deliver the letters 
 which I wrote in your name to the Prince de Conde 
 and Queen Jeanne. Now read the reply from Mon- 
 sieur de Pibrac, Vice-Chancellor of Navarre. 
 
 " TO SIEUR LECAMUS, Syndic of the Guild of Furriers : 
 
 " Monseigneur le Prince de Conde instructs me to express to 
 you his regret that he is unable to do anything for his com- 
 panion in the Saint-Aignan Tower, whom he remembers per- 
 fectly, and to whom, for the moment, he offers the position of
 
 340 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 gendarme in his company, where he will be well placed to 
 make his way like the brave man that he is. 
 
 " The Queen of Navarre awaits an opportunity to reward 
 Sieur Christophe, and will not let it escape her. 
 
 " And with this, Monsieur le Syndic, we pray God to have 
 you in His keeping. 
 
 " PIBRAC, 
 
 " Chancellor of Navarre." 
 "Mrac." 
 
 " Nerac, Pibrac, crac!" said Babette. "You can't 
 expect anything from the Gascons, they think of no 
 one but themselves." 
 
 Old Lecamus glanced at his son with a mocking 
 expression. 
 
 " He proposes to put a poor boy on horseback, 
 who had his knees and ankles crushed for him!" 
 exclaimed Mademoiselle Lecamus; " what a ghastly 
 joke!" 
 
 " I see little chance of your being a magistrate in 
 Navarre," said the syndic. 
 
 " I should like right well to know what Queen 
 Catherine would do for me, if I were to call upon 
 her," said Christophe, utterly discomfited. 
 
 " She promised you nothing," said the old trades- 
 man, " but I am certain that she would remember 
 your sufferings and not laugh at you. But how 
 could she make a bourgeois and a Protestant a 
 counsellor of Parliament?" 
 
 "Why, Christophe has not abjured !" cried Ba- 
 bette. " He can confine his religious opinions to 
 himself, surely." 
 
 " The Prince de Conde would be less contemptuous
 
 CATHERINE DE* MEDICI 341 
 
 with a counsellor of the Parliament of Paris," said 
 Lecamus. 
 
 " Counsellor, father! is it possible?" 
 
 " Yes, if you don't interfere with what I propose 
 to do for you. Here's my gossip Lallier who would 
 gladly give two hundred thousand livres if I put as 
 much more with it, to buy a fine seignorial estate 
 with a provision for descent in the male line, and 
 we will give it to you for your dowry." 
 
 " And I will add something more for a house in 
 Paris," said Lallier. 
 
 "Well, Christophe?" queried Babette. 
 
 "You are reckoning without the queen," was the 
 young advocate's reply. 
 
 A few days after this bitter disillusionment, an 
 apprentice handed Christophe the following laconic 
 note: 
 
 " Chaudieu wishes to see his son." 
 
 " Let him come in!" exclaimed Christophe. 
 
 "O my blessed martyr!" cried the minister, as 
 he entered the room and embraced the advocate, 
 " have you recovered from your injuries?" 
 
 "Yes, thanks to Pare!" 
 
 " Thanks to God, who gave you the strength to 
 endure the torture! But what do I hear? you have 
 been received as an advocate, you have taken the 
 oath of allegiance, you have acknowledged the harlot, 
 the Catholic, Apostolic Roman Church?" 
 
 " It was my father's wish." 
 
 " But must we not leave our fathers, children, 
 wives, everything, and endure all for the blessed
 
 342 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 cause of Calvinism? Ah! Christophe, Calvin, the 
 great Calvin, the whole party, the world, the future, 
 rely upon your courage, your grandeur of soul ! We 
 must have your life." 
 
 There is this remarkable characteristic of the 
 human mind, that the most self-sacrificing man, 
 even while sacrificing himself, builds a romance of 
 hope in the most perilous emergencies. Thus when 
 the prince, the soldier, and the minister, on the 
 river under Pont au Change, had asked Christophe 
 to carry to Catherine that treaty, which, if discov- 
 ered, was likely to cost him his life, the child relied 
 upon his wit, his intelligence, chance, and had gone 
 boldly forward between those terrible enemies, the 
 Guises and Catherine, where he had just escaped 
 being crushed to death. During the torture, he said 
 to himself: 
 
 " I shall get through this! it is only pain!" 
 
 But at that brutal demand: " Die!" made upon a 
 boy who was still almost helpless, hardly recovered 
 from the torture, and who was the more attached to 
 life because he had seen death so near at hand, it 
 was impossible to indulge in further illusions. 
 
 "What do you want me to do?" Christophe 
 rejoined, tranquilly. 
 
 " Fire a pistol, bravely, as Stuart did at Minard." 
 
 "At whom?" 
 
 "At the Ducde Guise." 
 
 "A murder?" 
 
 " An act of vengeance! Do you forget the hun- 
 dred gentlemen slaughtered on the same scaffold at
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 343 
 
 Amboise ? A child, little D'Aubigne, said, when he 
 saw that butchery: ' They have beheaded France.' " 
 
 " We should receive blows and not strike them, 
 that is the religion of the Gospel," retorted Chris- 
 tophe. "Why reform the Church if we are to im- 
 itate the Catholics?" 
 
 " Oh! Christophe, they have made you a lawyer, 
 and you are pleading!" said Chaudieu. 
 
 " No, my friend," replied the advocate. " But 
 principles are ungrateful things, and you and your 
 followers will be the playthings of the House of 
 Bourbon." 
 
 " Oh! Christophe, if you had heard Calvin, you 
 would know that we handle them like gloves! The 
 Bourbons are the gloves, we are the hands." 
 
 " Read this!" said Christophe, handing the minis- 
 ter Pibrac's letter. 
 
 " Ah! my child, you are ambitious, you can no 
 longer sacrifice yourself ! I pity you!" 
 
 With those noble words, Chaudieu left the room. 
 
 Some days after this scene, the Lallier family 
 and the Lecamus family were assembled, in honor of 
 the betrothal of Christophe and Babette, in the old 
 dark hall, where Christophe no longer slept; for he 
 could go up and down stairs, and was beginning to 
 drag himself along without crutches. It was nine 
 o'clock in the evening, and they were expecting 
 Ambroise Pare. The family notary sat in front of a 
 table covered with contracts. The furrier had sold 
 his house and his business to his first clerk, who 
 was to pay forty thousand livres in cash for the
 
 344 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 house, and to pledge it to secure the purchase-money 
 of the stock in trade, on which he was to pay twenty 
 thousand livres on account. 
 
 Lecamus had purchased for his son a magnificent 
 stone house built by Philibert de 1'Orme, on Rue 
 Saint-Pierre aux Boeufs, and given it to him as his 
 marriage-portion. The syndic also took two hun- 
 dred and fifty thousand livres from his savings, and 
 Lallier contributed the same amount toward the 
 purchase of a fine seignorial estate in Picardie, the 
 price of which was five hundred thousand livres. 
 The estate in question being held under the crown, 
 letters-patentcalled letters of rescription must be 
 procured from the king, and there were also fees for 
 alienation amounting to a considerable sum. The 
 celebration of the marriage was postponed, therefore, 
 until the necessary royal favor should have been 
 granted. Although the bourgeois of Paris had suc- 
 ceeded in obtaining a grant of the right to purchase 
 seignorial estates, the prudence of the Privy Council 
 had surrounded that right with certain restrictions 
 relative to estates held under the crown, and the 
 estate upon which Lecamus had had his eye for ten 
 years past was one of that class. Ambroise had 
 promised faithfully to bring the document that very 
 evening. Old Lecamus went back and forth from 
 the living-room to the door with an impatience which 
 showed how great his ambition really was. At last, 
 Ambroise arrived. 
 
 " My old friend," said the surgeon, in an excited 
 tone, glancing at the supper-table, " let me see your
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 345 
 
 linen. Good. By the way, put in wax-candles. 
 Hurry! hurry! hunt up all the finest things you 
 own." 
 
 "Why, what's the matter?" asked the cure of 
 Saint-Pierre aux Boeufs. 
 
 " The queen-mother and the king are coming to 
 sup with you," replied the surgeon. " They are wait- 
 ing for an aged counsellor whose seat Christophe may 
 purchase, and for Monsieur de Thou, who concluded 
 the bargain. Do not let it appear that you have 
 been notified; I slipped away from the Louvre." 
 
 In an instant, both families were on their feet. 
 Christophe's mother and Babette's aunt bustled 
 about with the activity of housekeepers taken by 
 surprise. Notwithstanding the confusion which that 
 notification caused in the family party, the prepara- 
 tions were made with a celerity bordering on the 
 marvellous. Christophe, bewildered, surprised, con- 
 founded by such a mark of favor, was utterly 
 speechless, and stared mechanically while the others 
 worked. 
 
 " The king and queen in our house!" said the old 
 mother. 
 
 " The queen!" echoed Babette; " what are we to 
 say and do?" 
 
 In an hour, everything was transformed, the old 
 hall was decorated, the table fairly gleamed. The 
 sound of horses' hoofs was heard in the streets. 
 The flaring of torches carried by the horsemen of 
 the escort brought all the bourgeois of the neighbor- 
 hood to their windows. The commotion was soon
 
 346 CATHERINE DE J MEDICI 
 
 over. There remained under the pillars only the 
 queen-mother and her son, King Charles IX.; 
 Charles de Gondi, grand master of the household 
 and governor to the king; Monsieur de Thou, the 
 old counsellor in question, Secretary of State Pinard, 
 and two pages. 
 
 " Good people," said the queen, on entering the 
 room, " the king my son and I have come to sign 
 the marriage-contract of our furrier's son; but we 
 do so on the condition that he remains a Catholic. 
 One must be a Catholic to enter Parliament, one 
 must be a Catholic to possess an estate under the 
 crown, one must be a Catholic to sit at the king's 
 table, eh, Pinard?" 
 
 The secretary of State appeared with letters- 
 patent in his hand. 
 
 " If we are not all Catholics here," said the little 
 king, " Pinard will throw everything into the fire; 
 but we are all Catholics, are we not?" he added, 
 glancing proudly around upon the assemblage. 
 
 " Yes, sire," said Christophe Lecamus, bending 
 his knee, albeit with difficulty, and kissing the hand 
 which the young king held out to him. 
 
 Queen Catherine, who also gave her hand to 
 Christophe to kiss, suddenly raised him and led him 
 a few steps apart. 
 
 " Look you, my fine fellow," she said, " no sub- 
 terfuges! We are playing an open game!" 
 
 " Yes, madame," he replied, dazzled by the hand- 
 some reward for his services, and by the honor the 
 grateful queen bestowed upon him.
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 347 
 
 " Very well, Monsieur Lecamus, the king my 
 son and I give you permission to negotiate for the 
 seat in Parliament of Goodman Groslay here," said 
 the queen. "You will, I trust, follow in the foot- 
 steps of the first president." 
 
 De Thou stepped forward. 
 
 " I will answer for him, madame," he said. 
 
 "Very well; draw the papers, notaries," said 
 Pinard. 
 
 " Since the king our master does us the honor of 
 signing my daughter's contract," cried Lallier, "I 
 will pay the whole price of the estate." 
 
 " The ladies may be seated," said the young king, 
 graciously. " For a wedding-gift to the bride, I will, 
 with my mother's assent, waive my claims." 
 
 Old Lecamus and Lallier fell on their knees and 
 kissed the young king's hand. 
 
 "Mordieu! sire, how much money these bourgeois 
 have!" whispered Gondi in his ear. 
 
 The king began to laugh. 
 
 " Will their Majesties, being so kindly disposed," 
 said old Lecamus, " deign to permit me to present 
 my successor to them and will they continue to him 
 the royal patent to supply furs to their households?" 
 
 " Let us see him," said the king. 
 
 Lecamus summoned his successor, who turned 
 deathly pale. 
 
 "With my dear mother's permission, we will all 
 take our seats at the supper-table," said the king. 
 
 Old Lecamus had the tact to give the king a silver 
 goblet which he had obtained from Benvenuto Cellini
 
 348 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 at the time of his residence in Paris at the Hotel de 
 Nesle, and which had cost him no less than two 
 thousand crowns. 
 
 " Oh! mother, what lovely work!" cried the king, 
 raising the goblet by its base. 
 
 " That is from Florence," said Catherine. 
 
 " Pardon, madame," said Lecamus, " it was made 
 in Paris by a Florentine. Anything from Florence 
 would belong to the queen, but what is made in 
 France is the king's." 
 
 "I accept, goodman," said Charles IX., "and 
 after this it shall be my goblet." 
 
 "It is beautiful enough," said the queen, after 
 examining the chef d'oeuvre, "to be included among 
 the crown treasures. Well, Master Ambroise," she 
 continued in a low tone, addressing the surgeon and 
 pointing to Christophe, "have you taken good care 
 of him? can he walk?" 
 
 " He can fly," said the surgeon, with a smile. 
 "Ah! you have seduced him very cleverly." 
 
 " The abbey will not go to ruin for lack of one 
 monk," replied the queen, with the levity for which 
 she has been so blamed, but which was only super- 
 ficial. 
 
 The supper was very animated; the queen praised 
 Babette's beauty, and, like the great queen that she 
 always was, she slipped one of her diamonds on her 
 finger, to make up for the loss which the Lecamuses 
 sustained in parting with the goblet. King Charles 
 IX., who subsequently became rather too much ad- 
 dicted to descents of this sort upon his bourgeois
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 349 
 
 subjects, supped heartily; then, at a word from his 
 new governor, who, it was said, was under instruc- 
 tion to make him forget Cypierre's virtuous precepts, 
 he incited the first president, the old ex-counsellor, 
 the secretary of State, the cure, the notary, and the 
 bourgeois to drink so freely that Queen Catherine 
 took her leave, finding that the hilarity was on the 
 point of becoming uproarious. The instant that 
 the queen rose, Christophe, his father, and the two 
 women took torches and escorted her to the door of 
 the shop. There, Christophe ventured to pull the 
 queen's sleeve and made a significant sign. Cath- 
 erine stopped, dismissed old Lecamus and the two 
 women with a gesture, and said to Christophe: 
 
 "What is it?" 
 
 " If the information will be of any benefit to you, 
 madame," he said, speaking close to her ear, "the 
 Due de Guise is in danger from assassins." 
 
 " You are a loyal subject," said Catherine, with 
 a smile, " and I will never forget you." 
 
 She held out her hand, famous for its beauty, and 
 removed her glove, which could but be considered a 
 mark of favor; so that Christophe, as he kissed that 
 beautiful hand, became a royalist, heart and soul. 
 
 " So they propose to rid me of that swashbuck- 
 ling soldier, without any assistance from me!" she 
 thought, as she put on her glove. 
 
 She mounted her mule, and returned to the Louvre 
 with her two pages. 
 
 Christophe's face wore a gloomy expression as he 
 drank with his guests; Ambroise's austere features
 
 350 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 reproached him for his apostasy, but subsequent 
 events justified the old syndic. Christophe cer- 
 tainly would not have escaped the Saint-Bartholo- 
 mew, his wealth and his seignorial estate would 
 have made him a shining mark for the assassins. 
 History has recorded the cruel fate of the wife of 
 Lallier's successor, a beautiful creature whose naked 
 body was left for three days hanging by her hair to 
 one of the piers of Pont au Change. Babette shud- 
 dered, thinking that she might have undergone sim- 
 ilar treatment had Christophe remained a Calvinist, 
 for such was the name assumed ere long by the re- 
 formers. Calvin's ambition was gratified, but not 
 until after his death. 
 
 Such was the origin of the celebrated parliamen- 
 tary family of Lecamus. Tallemant des Reaux is 
 guilty of an error in stating that they came from 
 Picardie. At a later period, the Lecamuses found 
 it to their advantage to describe themselves as of 
 their principal estate, which was situated in that 
 province. Christophe's son, who succeeded him 
 under Louis XIII., was the father of that wealthy 
 President Lecamus who, under Louis XIV., built the 
 magnificent mansion which shared with the Lambert 
 palace the admiration of Parisians and strangers, and 
 which is unquestionably one of the most beautiful 
 structures in Paris. It is still in existence, on Rue 
 de Thorigny, although at the outbreak of the Revo- 
 lution it was pillaged as belonging to Monsieur de 
 Juigne, then Archbishop of Paris. All the paintings 
 were then destroyed; and the boarding-schools which
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 351 
 
 have occupied it since have injured it sadly. That 
 palace, built with money made in the old house on 
 Rue de la Pelleterie, still exhibits the grand results 
 formerly produced by the spirit of family. We may 
 be permitted to doubt whether modern individualism, 
 engendered by the equal division of inheritances, 
 will ever rear such monuments.
 
 PART SECOND
 
 THE SECRET OF THE RUGGIERI 
 
 * 
 
 Between eleven and twelve o'clock one night in 
 the latter part of October, 1573, two Florentines, 
 brothers, Albert de Gondi, Marshal of France, and 
 Charles de Gondi la Tour, grand master of the ward- 
 robe to King Charles IX., were seated on the roof 
 of a house on Rue Saint-Honore, on the edge of 
 a gutter. It was the ordinary stone gutter which in 
 those days ran along the edge of the roofs to receive 
 the rain-water, and was pierced here and there by 
 long spouts in the shape of impossible animals with 
 wide-open mouths. Despite the zeal with which the 
 present generation is levelling the old houses, there 
 were many of these projecting spouts still in exist- 
 ence in Paris when the recent police ordinance re- 
 specting gutters running to the ground caused them 
 all to disappear. Nevertheless, there are a few 
 carved spouts still to be seen, principally in the 
 heart of the Saint-Antoine quarter, where rents are 
 so low that householders cannot afford to build 
 additional stories under the eaves. 
 
 It may seem strange that two individuals holding 
 such important offices should thus ply the trade of 
 cats. But to anyone who delves among the historical 
 (355)
 
 356 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 treasures of that time, when so many conflicting 
 interests were constantly coming in collision around 
 the throne, that the internal politics of France 
 may fitly be compared to a tangled skein of thread, 
 those two Florentines will seem like veritable cats 
 suitably placed in a gutter. Their devotion to the 
 interests of Queen Catherine de' Medici, who had 
 established them at the French court, forbade them 
 to recoil from any of the consequences of their in- 
 trusion. But, to explain how and why the two 
 courtiers had perched themselves there, we must go 
 back to a scene which had taken place within a 
 short distance of this same gutter, in the noble 
 brown hall at the Louvre the only remaining one 
 of the apartments of Henri II., where the courtiers 
 paid their court after supper to the two queens and 
 the king. 
 
 At that time, the bourgeois supped at six o'clock 
 and the nobility at seven; but the most fashionable 
 families supped between eight and nine. That re- 
 past corresponded to the dinner of to-day. Some 
 persons erroneously imagine that court etiquette was 
 invented by Louis XIV.; in reality, it was introduced 
 in France by Catherine de' Medici, who made it so 
 strict that the Connetable Anne de Montmorency had 
 more difficulty in obtaining the privilege of entering 
 the courtyard of the Louvre on horseback than in 
 obtaining his constable's sword; indeed, that ex- 
 traordinary distinction was bestowed upon him only 
 at an advanced age. Somewhat relaxed under the 
 first two kings of the House of Bourbon, etiquette
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 357 
 
 assumed an Oriental form under the great king, for 
 it came from the Roman Empire, where it was im- 
 ported from Persia. In 1573, not only had few per- 
 sons the right to enter the courtyard of the Louvre 
 with servants and torches, as under Louis XIV. 
 only dukes and peers could drive under the peri- 
 style, but the offices which carried with them the 
 entree to the royal apartments after supper could 
 easily be counted. The Marechal de Retz, now 
 doing sentry duty in that gutter, one day offered 
 a thousand crowns of the money of that time to the 
 usher of the closet for an opportunity to speak to 
 Henri III. at a moment when he had not the right 
 to do it. How laughable it is to a real historian to 
 see a picture of the courtyard of the chateau of Blois, 
 for instance, in which the artist has placed a gentle- 
 man on horseback! 
 
 On the occasion to which we refer, then, only the 
 most eminent personages of the realm were present 
 at the Louvre. Queen Elisabeth of Austria and her 
 mother-in-law Catherine de' Medici were seated at 
 the left of the fireplace. On the other side was the 
 king, buried in an easy-chair, affecting a lethargic 
 condition justified by the operation of digestion, for 
 he had eaten like a prince just returned from hunt- 
 ing. Perhaps he wished to avoid speaking in pres- 
 ence of so many persons who were trying to divine 
 his thoughts. The courtiers stood, with uncovered 
 heads, at the end of the hall. Some were talking in 
 undertones; others were watching the king, awaiting 
 a glance or a word from him. The queen-mother
 
 358 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 would beckon to one of them and he would talk with 
 her for some moments; another would venture to 
 make a remark to Charles IX., who would answer 
 with a nod of the head or a word or two. A Ger- 
 man nobleman, the Count of Solern, stood by the 
 hearth, beside Charles V.'s granddaughter, whom 
 he had accompanied to France. Near the young 
 queen, seated on a stool, was her maid of honor, 
 the Comtesse de Fiesco, a Strozzi and a kins- 
 woman of Catherine. The lovely Madame de 
 Sauves, a descendant of Jacques Coeur, mistress 
 of the King of Navarre, the King of Poland, and 
 the Due d'Alencon, turn and turn about, had been 
 invited to supper; but she was standing, her hus- 
 band being only secretary of State. Behind those 
 two ladies stood the two Gondis, talking with them. 
 They alone in all that gloomy assemblage were 
 laughing. Gondi, created Due de Retz and made 
 gentleman of the chamber, after he had obtained a 
 marshal's baton without ever having commanded an 
 army, had been entrusted with the duty of marry- 
 ing the queen by proxy at Spires. That favor makes 
 it sufficiently clear that he, like his brother, was of 
 the small number of those whom the two queens 
 and the king allowed to indulge in some familiarities. 
 On the king's side of the hearth, in the front rank, 
 were the Marechal de Tavannes, who had come to 
 court on particular business; Neufville de Villeroy, 
 one of the cleverest negotiators of that age, who 
 inaugurated the fortunes of that family; Messieurs 
 Birague and Chiverni, the former, the queen-mother's
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 359 
 
 confidential adviser, the other, Chancellor of Anjou 
 and Poland, who, knowing the queen-mother's pre- 
 dilection, had attached himself to the service of 
 Henri III., that brother whom Charles IX. regarded 
 as his enemy; Strozzi, the queen-mother's cousin; 
 and several other noblemen, prominent among them 
 the old Cardinal de Lorraine and his nephew, the 
 young Due de Guise, both of whom were kept at a 
 distance by Catherine and the king alike. Those 
 two leaders of the Holy Alliance, afterward the 
 League, founded some years before in concert with 
 Spain, affected the submission of servants who await 
 the opportunity to become masters. Catherine and 
 Charles IX. watched each other with equal atten- 
 tion. 
 
 In that court, which was itself as gloomy as the 
 apartment in which it was held, everyone had his 
 reasons for being melancholy or thoughtful. The 
 young queen was a victim of the tortures of jealousy, 
 and disguised them poorly by pretending to smile 
 upon her husband, whom, like a virtuous and affec- 
 tionate wife, she passionately adored. Marie Tou- 
 chet, Charles IX. 's only mistress, to whom he 
 was chivalrously faithful, had returned more than 
 a month before from the chateau of Fayet, in 
 Dauphine, where she had gone to lie in. She 
 brought back to Charles IX. the only son he ever 
 had, Charles de Valois, at first Comte d'Auvergne, 
 afterward Due d'Angoule'me. In addition to the 
 chagrin of knowing that her rival had given the king 
 a son, while she had had a daughter only, the poor
 
 360 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 queen had experienced the humiliation of a sudden 
 desertion. During his mistress's absence, the king 
 had returned to his wife with an excessive passion 
 which history mentions as one of the causes of his 
 death. But Marie Touchet's return proved to the 
 devout Austrian how little part the heart had played 
 in her husband's love. Nor was this the only dis- 
 illusion which the young queen suffered in this 
 matter; hitherto Catherine de' Medici had seemed 
 friendly to her; but now, as a matter of policy, she 
 encouraged her son's infidelity, preferring to serve 
 the king's mistress rather than his wife. For this 
 reason. 
 
 When Charles IX. avowed his passion for Marie 
 Touchet, Catherine manifested a favorable disposi- 
 tion to the girl, in the interest of her own domination. 
 Marie Touchet, who had been launched at court 
 very young, came thither at that period of life when 
 noble sentiments are in full bloom; she adored the 
 king for his own sake. Terrified at the fate to 
 which ambition had brought the Duchesse de Valen- 
 tinois, better known under the name of Diane de 
 Poitiers, she was doubtless afraid of Catherine de' 
 Medici, and preferred happiness to splendor. Per- 
 haps she reflected that two lovers as young as the 
 king and herself could not hope to contend with 
 the queen-mother. Marie was the only daughter of 
 Jean Touchet, Sieur de Beauvais and du Quillard, 
 king's councillor and lieutenant of the bailliage of 
 Orleans; thus she occupied a station between the 
 bourgeois and the lowest nobility, and was neither
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 361 
 
 altogether bourgeois nor altogether noble; therefore 
 she was not likely to be inspired by the inborn 
 ambition of the Pisseleus and the Saint-Valliers, 
 maidens of illustrious origin who fought for their 
 families with the secret weapons of love. Marie 
 Touchet, alone and without family connections, 
 spared Catherine de' Medici the annoyance of find- 
 ing in her son's mistress the daughter of some great 
 family, who would have set herself up as her rival. 
 Jean Touchet, one of the finest minds of his day, to 
 whom several poets dedicated their works, would 
 accept nothing at court. Marie, being a young 
 woman without hangers-on, as clever and well- 
 informed as she was simple-mannered and artless, 
 and one whose wishes were certain not to be in- 
 jurious to the royal power, proved very acceptable 
 to Catherine, who gave evidence of the greatest 
 affection for her. Indeed, she obtained from the 
 Parliament a decree recognizing the legitimacy of 
 the son Marie Touchet had borne in April, and per- 
 mitted him to assume the title of Comte d'Auvergne, 
 assuring Charles IX. that she would bequeath him 
 by will her own domains, the comtes of Auvergne 
 and Lauraguais. Marguerite, at first Queen of 
 Navarre, contested this bequest when she became 
 Queen of France, and the Parliament annulled it; 
 but, later still, Louis XIII., moved thereto by re- 
 spect for the blood of the Valois, indemnified the 
 Comte d'Auvergne with the duchy of Angouleme. 
 Catherine had already given to Marie Touchet, who 
 asked for nothing, the seignorial estate of Belleville,
 
 362 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 an estate with no title attached, near Vincennes, 
 whither the mistress was accustomed to go when 
 the king, after hunting, lay at the chateau of Vin- 
 cennes. Charles IX. passed the greater part of his 
 last days in that frowning fortress, and, according to 
 some authors, breathed his last there as Louis XII. 
 had done. 
 
 Although it was very natural for a lover so 
 seriously enamored to lavish upon the adored one 
 constant proofs of love, at a time when he should 
 have been expiating his infidelity to his lawful 
 spouse, Catherine, after driving her son into the 
 queen's bed, pleaded Marie Touchet's cause as 
 women know how to plead, and had just driven the 
 king back into his mistress's arms. Anything that 
 kept Charles IX. interested outside of politics was 
 welcome to Catherine; but the kindly disposition 
 she displayed toward this girl momentarily deceived 
 Charles IX., who was beginning to look upon her as 
 an enemy. The motives which governed Catherine's 
 conduct in this affair escaped the comprehension of 
 Queen Elisabeth, who, according to Brant6me, was 
 one of the greatest queens who ever reigned, and who 
 never injured or offended anyone, even reading her 
 book of hours in secret. But that innocent princess 
 was beginning to catch glimpses of the precipices that 
 yawn about a throne: a horrible discovery which 
 might well cause an occasional attack of vertigo; 
 indeed, she must have experienced something even 
 worse than vertigo to induce her to reply to one 
 of her ladies, who said to her, after the king's
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 363 
 
 death, that, if she had a son, she would be queen- 
 mother and regent. 
 
 "Ah! let us thank God that he never gave me a 
 son! What would have happened? the poor child 
 would have been robbed as they tried to rob the 
 king my husband, and I should have been the cause 
 of it. God took pity on the State, He did everything 
 for the best." 
 
 This princess, whose portrait Brantome flattered 
 himself that he had painted by saying that her com- 
 plexion was as delicate and beautiful as those of the 
 ladies of her court, and very pleasant to behold, and 
 that her figure was fine although she was rather 
 short, was of small consequence at court; but as her 
 husband's frame of mind enabled her to abandon 
 herself to her twofold grief, her attitude intensified 
 the gloom of a picture which a young queen less 
 cruelly afflicted than she might have brightened. 
 The pious Elisabeth proved at that moment that the 
 qualities which are the glory of women of ordinary 
 rank may be fatal to a sovereign. A princess who 
 turned her attention to something beside her book of 
 hours during the night might have been a useful 
 helpmeet to Charles IX., who found no sustaining 
 force either in his wife or in his mistress. 
 
 As for the queen-mother, her attention was cen- 
 tred on the king, who, during the supper, had mani- 
 fested a noisy good-humor, which she well knew to 
 be assumed as a cloak for some step to be taken 
 adverse to her. That sudden gayety contrasted too 
 noticeably with the perturbation of mind which he
 
 364 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 had concealed with difficulty by his assiduity in the 
 hunting-field, and by working like a madman at 
 the forge, where he loved to hammer iron, for Cath- 
 erine to be deceived by it. Although she could not 
 guess what statesman was lending his aid in the 
 negotiations and preliminaries, for Charles IX. had 
 a way of throwing his mother's spies off the scent, 
 Catherine had no doubt that some scheme was being 
 concocted against her. The unlooked-for presence 
 of Tavannes, who had arrived at the same time as 
 Strozzi, for whom she had written, gave her much 
 food for thought. By virtue of the strength of her 
 combinations, Catherine was above ordinary cir- 
 cumstances; but she was powerless against sudden 
 violence. 
 
 As many persons know nothing of the condition of 
 public affairs of that time, complicated as they were 
 by the numerous different parties which kept France 
 in a state of agitation, and whose leaders were all 
 guided by their private interests, it is necessary to 
 describe, in a few words, the perilous crisis by which 
 the queen-mother was threatened. And at the same 
 time that we display Catherine de' Medici in a new 
 light, we shall go to the root of this episode. 
 
 Two words furnish the key to the character of that 
 woman, who is such an interesting subject of study, 
 and whose influence left such a deep impression upon 
 France. Those two words are power and astrology. 
 Being exclusively ambitious, Catherine had no other 
 passion than the passion for power. Superstitious 
 and a fatalist, as so many superior men were, she
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 365 
 
 believed sincerely in nothing but the occult sciences. 
 Without a knowledge of these two facts, her charac- 
 ter will never be understood. By giving precedence 
 to her faith in astrology, we shall turn the light upon 
 the two philosophical personages of this Study. 
 
 There was one man to whom Catherine was more 
 attached than to her children: that man was Cosmo 
 Ruggieri; she provided him with apartments at her 
 Hotel de Soissons, she had made him her final ad- 
 viser, whose duty it was to tell her whether the 
 stars confirmed the opinions and good sense of her 
 ordinary advisers. Ruggieri's peculiar antecedents 
 justified the influence over his mistress which he 
 retained to the last moment. Unquestionably the 
 physician of Lorenzo de' Medici, Duke of Urbino, 
 Catherine's father, was one of the most learned 
 men of the sixteenth century. That physician was 
 called Old Ruggiero Vecchio Ruggier and Roger 
 V Ancien by the French authors who have treated 
 of alchemy to distinguish him from his two sons, 
 Lorenzo Ruggiero, called the Great by cabalistic 
 authors, and Cosmo Ruggiero, Catherine's astrol- 
 oger, also called Roger by some historians. It has 
 been customary to call them Ruggieri, just as Cath- 
 erine's name is commonly called Medicis instead of 
 Medici. Old Ruggieri was so highly esteemed in 
 the House of Medici, that the two dukes, Cosmo and 
 Lorenzo, were the godfathers of his two sons. In 
 concert with the famous mathematician Bazile, he 
 cast Catherine's horoscope, in his capacity of math- 
 ematician, astrologer, and physician to the House of
 
 366 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 Medici, three offices whose functions are often con- 
 founded. In those days, the occult sciences were 
 cultivated with ardor well calculated to surprise the 
 incredulous minds of our own sovereignly analytical 
 age; perhaps they may detect in this historical 
 sketch the germ of the positive sciences, widely 
 studied in the nineteenth century, but without the 
 poetic grandeur which was ascribed to them by the 
 audacious investigators of the sixteenth century; 
 who, instead of devoting their energy to industry, 
 magnified art and made thought fruitful. The 
 patronage universally accorded to art by the sov- 
 ereigns of that time was justified, too, by the mar- 
 vellous creations of inventors who started in quest 
 of the philosopher's stone and reached amazing re- 
 sults. Never were sovereigns more eager in their 
 pursuit of these mysteries. The Fuggers, whom 
 modern Luculluses acknowledge as their princes, 
 and modern bankers as their masters, were certainly 
 shrewd calculators, not easily surprised; well, those 
 hard-headed men, who lent the funds of all Europe 
 to the rulers of the sixteenth century, who were 
 debt-ridden as well as those of the present day, 
 those illustrious hosts of Charles V. had an interest 
 in Paracelsus's retorts. In the beginning of the 
 sixteenth century, Old Ruggieri was at the head of 
 that secret university from which the Cardans grad- 
 uated, and the Nostradamuses and the Agrippas, 
 who were in turn physicians to the Valois princes, 
 in a word, all the astronomers, astrologers, alche- 
 mists who surrounded the princes of Christendom
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 367 
 
 in those days, and who were more especially wel- 
 comed and patronized in France by Catherine de' 
 Medici. 
 
 In the horoscope cast by Bazile and Old Ruggieri, 
 the principal events of Catherine's life were pre- 
 dicted with an accuracy most disheartening to those 
 who deny the power of the occult sciences. That 
 horoscope foretold the disasters which marked her 
 early years, during the siege of Florence, her mar- 
 riage to a son of France, the unhoped-for accession 
 of that son to the throne, the birth of her children 
 and their number. Three of her sons in succession 
 were to be kings, two daughters were to be queens, 
 and all were to die without posterity. The pre- 
 dictions were fulfilled so exactly, that many his- 
 torians have believed that they were made after the 
 facts. 
 
 Everyone knows that Nostradamus produced at 
 the Chateau of Chaumont, when Catherine went 
 thither at the time of La Renaudie's conspiracy, a 
 woman who possessed the gift of reading the future. 
 And, during the reign of Francois II., when the 
 queen's four sons were all young and in good 
 health, before the marriage of Elizabeth de Valois 
 to Philip II., King of Spain, before the marriage of 
 Marguerite de Valois to Henri de Bourbon, King 
 of Navarre, Nostradamus and his friend confirmed 
 the predictions of the famous horoscope. That 
 female, who doubtless was endowed with second- 
 sight, and who belonged to the great school of inde- 
 fatigable seekers after the philosopher's stone, but
 
 368 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 whose private life has escaped the researches of 
 historians, declared that the last of the sons to wear 
 a crown would die by the hand of an assassin. 
 After placing the queen in front of a magic mirror, 
 wherein was reflected a wheel, with the face of one 
 of her children on each spoke, the sorceress set the 
 wheel in motion, and the queen counted the number 
 of revolutions it made. Each revolution represented 
 one year's reign for each child. When Henri IV. 
 was placed on the wheel, it made twenty-two revo- 
 lutions. The woman some authors say it was a 
 man informed the horrified queen that Henri de 
 Bourbon would actually become King of France and 
 would reign that number of years. Thereupon 
 Queen Catherine swore a deadly hatred to the 
 Bearnais, learning that he was destined to succeed 
 the last of the Valois upon his assassination. Being 
 curious to learn what manner of death her own 
 would be, she was told to beware of Saint-Germain. 
 From that day, believing that she was likely to be 
 imprisoned or put to death at the chateau of Saint- 
 Germain, she never set foot within its doors, al- 
 though it was far more convenient for the execution 
 of her designs, because of its nearness to Paris, 
 than all those where she and the king sought shelter 
 during the civil disturbances. When she fell sick 
 a few days after the murder of the Due de Guise, 
 during the session of the States-General at Blois, 
 she asked the name of the prelate who attended her, 
 and was told that it was Saint-Germain. 
 " I am a dead woman!" she cried.
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 369 
 
 She died the next day, having lived the full num- 
 ber of years that all her horoscopes allotted her. 
 
 These prophecies, which were known to the Car- 
 dinal de Lorraine, who called them witchcraft, were 
 now being fulfilled. Francois II. had reigned only his 
 two turns of the wheel, and Charles IX. was making 
 his last turn. The strange words which Catherine 
 said to her son Henri on his departure for Poland: 
 "You will soon return!" must be attributed to her 
 faith in the occult sciences, and not to a purpose 
 to poison Charles IX. Marguerite of France was 
 Queen of Navarre, Elisabeth was Queen of Spain, 
 the Due d'Anjou was King of Poland. 
 
 Many other circumstances tended to confirm Cath- 
 erine's faith in the occult sciences. During the night 
 before the jousting in which Henri II. was fatally 
 wounded, Catherine saw the fatal blow in a dream. 
 Her astrological council, consisting of Nostradamus 
 and the two Ruggieri, had predicted the king's death. 
 History has recorded Catherine's prayer to Henri II. 
 not to enter the lists. The prognostication and the 
 dream produced by it were realized. The memoirs 
 of the time report another incident no less strange. 
 The courier who announced the victory of Moncon- 
 tour arrived at night, after making the journey so 
 swiftly that he had killed three horses. The queen- 
 mother was awakened to hear the news, and said: 
 " I know it." According to Brantome, she had ac- 
 tually described her son's triumph and some details of 
 the battle, on the preceding day. The astrologer 
 of the House of Bourbon declared that Antoine de 
 24
 
 370 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 Bourbon's son, the scion of so many princes de- 
 scended from Saint-Louis, would be King of France. 
 That prediction, reported by Sully, was fulfilled 
 according to the precise terms of the horoscope, 
 which fact caused Henri IV. to remark that by dint 
 of much lying those people sometimes stumbled 
 on the truth. However that may be, if it be true 
 that the majority of the most sagacious men of that 
 period believed in the far-reaching science called 
 Magism by the masters of the science of astrology, 
 and Witchcraft by the public at large, they were 
 justified in that belief by the successful casting of 
 horoscopes. 
 
 It was for Cosmo Ruggieri, her mathematician, 
 astronomer, astrologer, sorcerer, if you choose, that 
 Catherine built the column now standing against 
 the wall of the wheat market, the last remnant 
 of the H6tel de Soissons. Cosmo Ruggieri possessed 
 the same mysterious influence that a confessor pos- 
 sesses, and with it, like a confessor, he was content. 
 He cherished, moreover, an ambitious aspiration 
 superior to ordinary ambition. That man, whom 
 novelists and dramatists represent as a mountebank, 
 owned the rich abbey of Saint-Mahe, in Lower 
 Bretagne, and had declined exalted ecclesiastical 
 dignities; the money which the superstitious pas- 
 sions of the time brought to him in abundance 
 sufficed for his secret enterprises, and the queen's 
 hand, extended over his head, protected his every 
 hair from harm. 
 
 As for the thirst for power by which Catherine
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 371 
 
 was devoured, her craving for it was so great that, 
 in order to seize it, she formed an alliance with the 
 Guises, the enemies of the throne; and, to keep the 
 reins of State in her hands, she resorted to every 
 means, freely sacrificing her friends and even her 
 children. That woman could live only by political 
 intrigue, as a gambler lives only by the excitement 
 of play. Although she was an Italian, of the licen- 
 tious race of the Medici, even the Calvinists, who 
 slandered her so savagely, could never discover that 
 she had a lover. Admiring the maxim: Divide to 
 reign, she had learned twelve years before to keep 
 one force constantly contending with another. As 
 soon as she took the reins of public affairs in her 
 hands, she was forced to kindle discord between two 
 rival families in order to neutralize their forces and 
 save the crown. That necessary course of conduct 
 justifies the prediction of Henri II. Catherine in- 
 vented that game of political seesaw which has been 
 imitated since by all princes who have found them- 
 selves in a position analogous to hers, now pitting Cal- 
 vinists against Guises, now pitting Guises against 
 Calvinists. After setting the two religions to strug- 
 gle with each other in the hearts of the people, 
 Catherine set up the Due d' Anjou against Charles IX. 
 After making use of things, she made use of men, 
 retaining the threads of all their selfish interests in 
 her own hands. But at that terrible game, which 
 requires the head of a Louis XI. or a Louis XVIII., 
 one inevitably incurs the hatred of all parties and 
 finds one's self under the necessity of conquering
 
 372 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 always, for the loss of a single battle makes every 
 selfish interest an enemy; unless, indeed, by dint of 
 triumphing again and again, you end by finding that 
 there are no more players. 
 
 The greater part of the reign of Charles IX. was 
 the triumph of the domestic policy of that extraor- 
 dinary woman. How much adroitness Catherine 
 was obliged to display to obtain the command of the 
 army for the Due d'Anjou, under a gallant young 
 king, thirsty for renown, capable and noble-hearted, 
 and in the lifetime of Connetable Anne de Mont- 
 morency! In the eyes of the statesmen of Europe, 
 the Due d'Anjou reaped all the honor of the Saint- 
 Bartholomew, while Charles IX. incurred all the 
 odium therefor. After arousing in the king's mind 
 a secret, causeless jealousy of his brother, she made 
 use of that passion to wear out the great qualities 
 Charles IX. really possessed in the intrigues of a 
 rivalry between brothers. Cypierre, the king's 
 first governor, and Amyot, his tutor, had made their 
 pupil so great a man, they had paved the way for so 
 noble a reign, that the mother hated her son from 
 the first day when she was conscious of a fear of 
 losing the power which she had so laboriously 
 acquired. From these facts, most historians have 
 evolved the theory of a predilection on the queen- 
 mother's part for Henri III.; but her conduct at the 
 time of which we write demonstrates the absolute 
 insensibility of her heart toward her children. By 
 accepting the throne of Poland, the Due d'Anjou de- 
 prived her of the instrument she needed to keep the
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 373 
 
 king engrossed by those domestic intrigues which up 
 to that time had neutralized his energy by affording 
 pasturage for his violent passions. Thereupon Cath- 
 erine invented the conspiracy of La Mole and Co- 
 connas, in which a hand was taken by the Due 
 d'Alencon, who, when he became Due d'Anjou by 
 his brother's accession to the throne, very obligingly 
 fell in with his mother's views, exhibiting an am- 
 bitious spirit which was encouraged by his sister 
 Marguerite, Queen of Navarre. This conspiracy, 
 which had now reached the point to which Cather- 
 ine wished to bring it, had for its object the placing 
 the young duke and his brother-in-law, the King of 
 Navarre, at the head of the Calvinists, seizing 
 upon Charles IX. and holding as a prisoner that 
 heirless king, thus leaving the throne to the duke, 
 whose purpose was to establish Calvinism in France. 
 Calvin had obtained, a few days before his death, 
 the reward to which he had looked forward so long 
 and so eagerly, when the Reformation adopted the 
 designation Calvinism in his honor. 
 
 If Le Laboureur and the most careful authors had 
 not already proved that La Mole and Coconnas who 
 were arrested seven weeks after the night on which 
 this narrative begins, and beheaded in the month of 
 April following were the victims of the queen- 
 mother's political scheming, Cosmo Ruggieri's par- 
 ticipation in the affair would be sufficient to make 
 one reasonably certain that she secretly directed 
 their undertaking. That man, of whom the king en- 
 tertained suspicions and against whom he cherished
 
 374 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 a bitter hatred, the reasons for which will be suf- 
 ficently explained hereafter, was implicated in the 
 criminal proceedings. He admitted that he had 
 furnished La Mole with a figure representing the 
 king, pierced to the heart by two needles. That 
 form of sorcery envouter constituted, in those 
 days, a capital crime. The word expresses one of 
 the most fascinating, infernal images that hatred 
 can conjure up; moreover, it depicts admirably the 
 magnetic, terrible working, in the unseen world, of 
 a constant desire encompassing the person thus 
 doomed to death, its effects being constantly 
 brought to mind by the wax figure. The law in 
 those days held, and justly, that a thought to which 
 bodily form was given constituted the crime of 
 lese-majeste. Charles IX. demanded the Floren- 
 tine's death; Catherine, who was more powerful, 
 prevailed upon the Parliament, through Counsellor 
 Lecamus, to sentence her astrologer to the galleys 
 only. After the king's death, Cosmo Ruggieri was 
 pardoned by order of Henri III., who restored his 
 pensions and received him at court. 
 
 Catherine had dealt so many blows at her son's 
 heart that he was at that moment impatient to shake 
 off his mother's yoke. During Marie Touchet's ab- 
 sence, Charles, having nothing to occupy his mind, 
 had devoted himself to watching the progress of 
 affairs about him. He had very craftily laid snares 
 for people upon whom he thought that he could de- 
 pend, in order to test their loyalty. He had watched 
 his mother's manoeuvres and had concealed his own
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 375 
 
 from her, making use of all the faults she had sown 
 in him to deceive her. Consumed with the desire 
 to wipe out the horror caused in France by the 
 Saint Bartholomew, he turned his attention ener- 
 getically to public business, presided over the coun- 
 cil, and tried to grasp the reins of government by a 
 skilfully devised course of conduct. Although the 
 4jeen had tried to combat her son's inclination by 
 employing all the means of influence over his mind 
 which her maternal authority and her habit of domi- 
 nation gave her, the downward slope of suspicion 
 was so steep that the son at the first impulse went 
 too far to return. On the day when the words his 
 mother had said to the King of Poland were reported 
 to him, Charles IX. was feeling in such a wretched 
 state of health that he conceived horrible suspicions, 
 and when such suspicions invade the heart of a son 
 and a king, nothing can expel them. In fact, on his 
 deathbed, his mother was obliged to interrupt him, 
 crying: " Do not say that, monsieur!" when, as he 
 commended his wife and daughter to the care of 
 Henri IV., he attempted to put him on his guard 
 against Catherine. Although Charles IX. showed 
 no lack of that external respect, of which the queen- 
 mother was always so tenacious that she always 
 called the kings her sons " Monsieur," she had noticed 
 in her son's manners for several months past the ill- 
 disguised irony of one who had determined to be re- 
 venged. But to deceive Catherine, a man must have 
 been very clever. She held in readiness the con- 
 spiracy of the Due d'Alencon and La Mole, in order
 
 376 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 to turn aside, by representing another brother as a 
 rival, the efforts Charles IX. was making to effect 
 his emancipation; but, before making use of it, she 
 wished to banish suspicions which might make any 
 reconciliation between herself and her son impos- 
 sible; for would he leave the royal power in the 
 hands of a mother whom he believed to be capable 
 of poisoning him? Indeed, she considered that her 
 position was so seriously threatened at that moment, 
 that she had summoned her kinsman, Strozzi, a 
 soldier noted for his prompt execution of orders. 
 She held secret councils with Birague and the two 
 Gondis, and never before had she consulted her 
 oracle at the Hotel de Soissons so frequently. 
 
 Although lapse of time, as well as the habit of dis- 
 simulation, had given Catherine that abbess's face, 
 haughty and macerated, of the whiteness of wax yet 
 full of subtlety, inscrutable yet searching, a re- 
 markable face in the eyes of all who have studied 
 her portrait, the courtiers detected some clouded 
 spots upon that Florentine ice. No sovereign was 
 ever more imposing than that woman had been since 
 the day when she succeeded in putting down the 
 Guises after the death of Francois II. Her black 
 velvet cap cut in a point over the forehead she 
 never ceased to wear mourning for Henri II. made 
 a sort of feminine cowl around her cold, commanding 
 face, to which, however, she could impart on occa- 
 sion true Italian seductiveness. She was so well 
 made that she introduced the fashion among women 
 of riding so as to show the legs; it is not necessary
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 377 
 
 to say that hers were the most shapely legs imagin- 
 able. All women rode a la planchette throughout 
 Europe, which had long followed the lead of France 
 in matters of fashion. To him who can form a 
 mental picture of that noble figure, the scene in the 
 great hall at the time of which we write will assume 
 an aspect of grandeur. The two queens, so unlike 
 in character, in beauty, in costume, and almost at 
 daggers drawn, one ingenuous and pensive, the 
 other pensive and solemn as an abstract idea, were 
 both too much absorbed to give during that evening 
 the word of command which the courtiers were 
 awaiting to become animated. 
 
 The drama, hidden far below the surface, which 
 the mother and son had been playing for six months, 
 had been detected by some courtiers; but the Italians, 
 especially, had followed it with a watchful eye, for 
 all of them were certain to be sacrificed if Catherine 
 should lose the game. Under such circumstances, 
 and at a time when mother and son were trying to 
 outwit each other, the king was the object of especial 
 attention. On the evening in question, Charles IX., 
 tired out by a long day's hunting and by the neces- 
 sity of concealing his serious preoccupation, seemed 
 to be forty years old. He had reached the last stage 
 of the disease of which he died and which justified 
 some sober-minded persons in thinking that he was 
 poisoned. According to De Thou, the Tacitus of 
 the Valois kings, the surgeons found suspicious dis- 
 colorations in Charles IX. 's body ex causa incognita 
 reperti livores. The obsequies of that prince were
 
 378 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 even more neglected than those of Francois II. 
 Charles IX. was escorted from Saint-Lazare to 
 Saint-Denis by Brantome and a few archers of the 
 guard commanded by the Count of Solern. That 
 circumstance, taken in conjunction with the mother's 
 supposed hatred of her son, tends to confirm the 
 charge made by De Thou; but it certainly justifies 
 the opinion expressed in these pages as to Cath- 
 erine's lack of affection for all her children; an in- 
 sensibility which is explained by her faith in the 
 decrees of astrology. She could hardly feel any 
 deep interest in instruments which were soon to be 
 taken from her. Henri III. was the last king under 
 whom she was to reign, that was all. We may be 
 permitted to-day to believe that Charles IX. died a 
 natural death. His excesses, his mode of life, the 
 sudden development of his faculties, his last efforts 
 to seize the reins of power, his longing to live, his 
 abuse of his physical forces, his last sufferings and 
 his last pleasures, all tend to convince unbiased 
 minds that he died of consumption, a disease then 
 little known and not carefully studied, whose symp- 
 toms might have led Charles IX. himself to believe 
 that he was poisoned. But the real poison that his 
 mother administered to him lay in the deplorable 
 advice of the courtiers who were stationed about 
 him to make him squander his physical as well as 
 his intellectual strength, and who thus brought about 
 his purely accidental and not constitutional malady. 
 At that time, more than at any other in his life, 
 Charles IX. displayed a gloomy majesty which is
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 379 
 
 not unbecoming to kings. The grandeur of his 
 secret thoughts was reflected on his face, which 
 was noticeable by reason of the Italian complexion 
 inherited from his mother. That ivory-like pallor, 
 so beautiful by artificial light, so well adapted to the 
 expression of melancholy, gave undue brilliancy to 
 the fire of his blue-black eyes, which, being confined 
 between thick eyelids, acquired thereby the acute, 
 sagacious expression which the imagination demands 
 in a kingly glance; their color was favorable to dis- 
 simulation. Charles IX. 's eyes were made especially 
 imposing by the position of the raised eyebrows, in 
 harmony with the broad forehead which he could 
 raise and lower at will. He had a broad, long nose, 
 thick at the end, a veritable lion's nose; large ears, 
 auburn hair, a mouth which seemed almost to be 
 bleeding, like those of most consumptives, the upper 
 lip thin and sneering, the lower heavy enough to 
 lead one to infer that he possessed the noblest 
 qualities of heart. The deep wrinkles on that brow, 
 whose youthful purity had been marred by terrible 
 anxieties, aroused intense interest; the remorse 
 caused by the utter uselessness of the Saint Bar- 
 tholomew, a measure which was cunningly extorted 
 from him, had caused more than one of them; but 
 there were two others on his face which would have 
 been very eloquent to a scholar endowed with a 
 special genius which enabled him to divine the 
 elements of modern physiology. Those two wrin- 
 kles produced a sharply defined furrow from each 
 cheek-bone to the corner of the mouth, and betrayed
 
 380 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 the inward struggles of an organism worn out in 
 supplying nourishment for the labors of the mind and 
 for the violent pleasures of the body. Charles IX. 
 was exhausted. The queen-mother, upon viewing 
 her work, must have suffered from remorse, if indeed 
 the necessities of politics do not stifle that sentiment 
 in all persons clothed in the purple. If Catherine 
 had realized the effect of her intrigues upon her son, 
 would she, perchance, have held her hand? What 
 a ghastly spectacle! That king, born so strong and 
 healthy, had become feeble, that admirably tempered 
 mind was full of doubts; that man, in whom all 
 power resided, felt that he was without support; 
 that firm character had little confidence in itself. 
 Warlike valor had changed by degrees to ferocity, 
 discretion to dissimulation; the dainty, refined love 
 of the Valois to an insatiable frantic craving for 
 pleasure. That great man, misunderstood, per- 
 verted, worn smooth on all the facets of his noble 
 soul, a king without power, having a generous heart 
 but not a friend, driven hither and thither by a 
 thousand opposing plans, presented the melancholy 
 spectacle of a man of twenty-four who had lost 
 all his illusions, was suspicious of everything, and 
 had determined to stake everything, even his life. 
 Within a short time, he had awakened to a realizing 
 sense of his mission, his power, his resources, and 
 the obstacles which his mother placed in the way 
 of the pacification of the kingdom; but that newly- 
 acquired light shone in a broken lantern.
 
 Two men whom this prince loved so well that he 
 had excepted one of them from the massacre of Saint 
 Bartholomew, and had gone to dine with the other 
 at the time when his enemies accused him of having 
 given poison to the king, his first surgeon Ambroise 
 Pare and his first physician Jean Chapelain, had 
 come from the provinces in hot haste at a summons 
 from Catherine, and had arrived at the Louvre in 
 time for the king's retiring. Both were watching 
 their master anxiously, and some courtiers ques- 
 tioned them in undertones; but the two learned 
 men measured their replies, concealing the death- 
 sentence which they had mentally pronounced. From 
 time to time the king raised his heavy eyelids and 
 tried to hide from the courtiers the glance he cast at 
 his mother. Suddenly he rose and stood in front of 
 the fireplace. 
 
 " Monsieur de Chiverni," he said, "why do you 
 retain the title of Chancellor of Anjou and Poland? 
 Are you in our service or our brother's?" 
 
 "I am entirely at your service, sire," replied 
 Chiverni, bowing low. 
 
 " In that case, come to-morrow; I have it in mind 
 to send you to Spain, for strange things are happen- 
 ing at the court of Madrid, messieurs." 
 
 The king glanced at his wife and threw himself 
 back into his chair. 
 
 (381)
 
 382 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 " Strange things are happening everywhere," he 
 said, in an undertone, to the Marechal de Tavannes, 
 one of the favorite friends of his youth. 
 
 He rose again and led the companion of his youth- 
 ful amusements into the embrasure of the window 
 at the corner of the room, and said to him: 
 
 " I have need of you, stay until the last. I wish 
 to ascertain whether you will be for me or against 
 me. Do not look surprised. I am breaking my 
 leash. My mother is the cause of all the evil here. 
 Three months hence I shall either be dead, or king 
 in fact as well as in name. Silence, on your life! 
 You have my secret, you and Solern and Villeroy. 
 If it becomes known, it will be through one of you 
 three. Do not keep so close to me, go and pay 
 court to my mother, tell her that I am dying and 
 that you do not regret it, because I am a poor 
 creature." 
 
 Charles IX. walked back and forth with his hand 
 resting on his former favorite's shoulder, ostensibly 
 talking to him about his aches and pains, to mislead 
 the curious onlookers; then, fearing that his cold- 
 ness might be too apparent, he went to talk with the 
 two queens, calling to Birague to join them. At that 
 moment, Pinard, one of the secretaries of State, 
 glided like an eel along the wall from the door to 
 Catherine's chair. He whispered a word or two in 
 the queen-mother's ear, to which she replied with a 
 nod. The king did not ask his mother what they 
 had said to each other, but returned to his chair 
 and said nothing, after casting a glance of withering
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 383 
 
 anger and jealousy upon the whole court. That 
 little incident was of the utmost moment in the eyes 
 of all. It was like the drop of water which makes 
 the glass overflow that cool exercise of authority 
 by the queen-mother without reference to the king. 
 Queen Elisabeth and the Comtesse de Fiesco with- 
 drew, unnoticed by the king; but the queen-mother 
 accompanied her daughter-in-law to the door. Al- 
 though the evident falling-out between the mother 
 and the son imparted the very greatest interest to the 
 movements, the glances, and the attitudes of both, 
 their cold demeanor gave the courtiers to under- 
 stand that they were in the way; they left the hall 
 when the young queen had gone. At ten o'clock, 
 there remained only a few intimate friends, the two 
 Gondis, Tavannes, the Count of Solern, Birague, 
 and the queen-mother. 
 
 The king remained buried in the blackest melan- 
 choly. The silence was most tedious. Catherine 
 seemed embarrassed, she wished to retire, she 
 wished that the king should escort her from the 
 room; but the king remained absorbed in his rev- 
 erie; she rose to bid him good-night, Charles IX. 
 was compelled to follow her example; she took his 
 arm and walked a few steps with him so that she 
 could put her lips to his ear and whisper: 
 
 "Monsieur, I have some important matters to 
 discuss with you." 
 
 Before leaving the room, the queen-mother glanced 
 into a mirror and bestowed upon the two Gondis a 
 wink which escaped the king's notice as he was at
 
 384 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 the same moment glancing significantly at the 
 Count of Solern and Villeroy. Tavannes was lost 
 in thought. 
 
 " Sire," said the Marechal de Retz, emerging from 
 his meditation, " it seems to me that you are royally 
 bored; pray, do you never amuse yourself now? 
 yive-Dieul where are the times when we used to 
 divert ourselves by wandering around the streets at 
 night like vagabonds?" 
 
 "Ah! those were the good old times," the king 
 replied, not without a sigh. 
 
 "Why do you not go?" said Birague, with a 
 glance at the Gondis. 
 
 " I always remember those days with great pleas- 
 ure," cried the Marechal de Retz. 
 
 " I would like right well to see you on the roofs, 
 Monsieur le Marechal," said Tavannes. " May you 
 break your neck, damned Italian cat!" he added in 
 the king's ear. 
 
 " I cannot say whether you or I would cross a 
 courtyard or a street the faster; but what I do know 
 is that neither of us is more afraid of death than the 
 other," replied the Due de Retz. 
 
 " Well, sire, do you feel like playing the vagabond 
 as in your youth ?" said the grand master of the ward- 
 robe. 
 
 It will be seen that, at twenty-four, tne unhappy 
 king no longer seemed young to anybody, even to 
 his flatterers. Tavannes and he recalled, like school- 
 boys, some of the amusing capers they had cut in 
 Paris, and the excursion was speedily arranged.
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 385 
 
 The two Italians, being challenged to leap from roof 
 to roof, and from one side of the street to the other, 
 offered to wager that they would follow the king. 
 They separated to assume the costume of vagabonds. 
 The Count of Solern, remaining alone with the 
 king, gazed at him in amazement. Although the 
 worthy German, whose compassion had been aroused 
 when he discovered the king's position, was the 
 soul of loyalty and honor, he lacked quickness of 
 perception. Surrounded by people who were hos- 
 tile to him, unable to trust anybody, even his wife, 
 who had been guilty of some indiscretions, not 
 knowing that his mother and her servants were his 
 enemies, Charles IX. had been fortunate enough to 
 find in the Count of Solern a whole-souled devotion 
 which warranted perfect confidence. Tavannes and 
 Villeroy knew only a portion of the king's secrets. 
 The Count of Solern alone knew the whole plan; 
 he was, moreover, especially useful to his master 
 in that he had at his disposal a number of trust- 
 worthy and attached retainers who obeyed his or- 
 ders blindly. The count, who held a commission 
 in the archers of the guard, had been engaged for 
 some time in sifting out men who were devotedly 
 attached to the king to form a picked company. 
 The king thought of everything. 
 
 " Well, Solern," said Charles, " do we not need 
 an excuse for passing the night out-of-doors? I 
 had Madame de Belleville for a pretext, to be sure; 
 but this is much better, for my mother may find out 
 what happened at Marie's." 
 25
 
 386 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 Solern, who was to accompany the king, asked 
 permission to beat up the streets with some of his 
 Germans, and Charles consented. About eleven 
 o'clock, the king, who had become very gay, started 
 out with his three courtiers to explore the Saint- 
 Honore quarter. 
 
 " I will go and surprise my love," said Charles to 
 Tavannes, turning into Rue de 1'Autruche. 
 
 To make this night scene more intelligible to those 
 persons who have not the topography of old Paris in 
 their minds, it is necessary to explain where Rue de 
 1'Autruche was. The construction of the Louvre 
 of Henri II. was being continued amid houses and 
 heaps of ruins. On the site of the wing which 
 to-day faces the Pont des Arts there was a garden. 
 In the place where the colonnade now stands, 
 there were moats and a drawbridge, upon which 
 a Florentine, the Marechal d'Ancre, was one day 
 to be assassinated. At the end of the garden rose 
 the towers of the H6tel de Bourbon, the residence 
 of the princes of that house down to the day when 
 the treachery of the great Connetable de Bourbon, 
 ruined by the sequestration of his property which 
 Francois I. ordered, to avoid pronouncing judgment 
 as between his Francois's mother and the con- 
 stable, terminated that lawsuit so fatal to France by 
 the confiscation of his whole estate. That mansion, 
 which produced an imposing effect on the bank 
 of the river, was not demolished until the days of 
 Louis XIV. Rue de 1'Autruche began at Rue Saint- 
 Honore and ended at the Hotel de Bourbon on the
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 387 
 
 quay. It was called Rue d'Autriche on some old 
 plans, Rue de 1'Austruc on others, but has now dis- 
 appeared from the map like so many others. Rue 
 des Poulies is probably laid out on the site of the 
 houses toward the Rue Saint-Honore end. The au- 
 thorities are not agreed as to the etymology of the 
 name. Some suppose that it comes from a Hotel 
 d'Osteriche Osterrichen occupied by a daughter 
 of that family who married a French nobleman in 
 the fourteenth century. Others claim that the royal 
 aviaries used to be on that street, and that all Paris 
 flocked thither at one time to see a live ostrich 
 autruche. Be that as it may, that crooked street was 
 notable by reason of the mansions of several princes 
 of the blood who lived in the neighborhood of the 
 Louvre. Since royalty had deserted Faubourg Saint- 
 Antoine, where it sheltered itself under the walls of 
 the Bastille for two centuries, to take up its abode 
 at the Louvre, many great noblemen had established 
 themselves in the neighborhood. Now, at the Rue 
 Saint-Honore end of the Rue de 1'Autruche, corre- 
 sponding to the Hotel de Bourbon on the quay, was the 
 old H6tel d'Alencon. That residence of the counts of 
 that name, which was always included in the appa- 
 nage of the title, belonged at this time to the fourth 
 son of Henri II., who subsequently assumed the 
 title of Due d'Anjou, and who died under Henri III., 
 whom he caused a deal of trouble. The appanage 
 thereupon reverted to the crown, including the old 
 mansion, which was torn down. In those days, a 
 prince's palace included a vast number of buildings;
 
 388 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 to form an idea of their extent, one should measure 
 the space covered by the Hotel Soubise in the 
 Marais, to-day. A hotel included all the appurte- 
 nances demanded by those magnificent existences 
 which may well appear problematical to many 
 persons who see the paltry condition of a prince of 
 to-day. There were enormous stables, quarters for 
 physicians, librarians, chancellors, clergy, treasurers, 
 officers of the household, pages, paid retainers, and 
 valets attached to the prince's service. Near Rue 
 Saint-Honore, in a garden of the mansion, was 
 a pretty little house which the famous Duchesse 
 d'Alencon built in 1520, and which had afterward 
 been surrounded by private houses built by trades- 
 men. There the king had installed Marie Touchet. 
 Although the Due d'Alencon was conspiring against 
 his brother, he was incapable of thwarting him on 
 that point. 
 
 As it was necessary to pass his loved one's house, 
 in order to descend Rue Saint-Honore, which in those 
 days offered no opportunity for footpads except be- 
 yond the Barriere des Sergents, it would have been 
 hard for the king not to stop there. In quest of 
 adventures, looking for some belated bourgeois to 
 pillage or a patrol to fight, he looked up at all the 
 windows, and closely scrutinized those in which 
 there were lights, to see what was going on or to 
 listen to conversations. But he found his good city 
 in a deplorable state of tranquillity. Suddenly, as 
 they were passing the house of a famous perfumer 
 named Rene, who supplied the court, the king
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 389 
 
 seemed to conceive one of those sudden inspirations 
 which are suggested by previous observations, as he 
 noticed a bright light in the last window under the 
 eaves. 
 
 This perfumer was strongly suspected of curing 
 rich uncles when they claimed to be ill; the court 
 ascribed to him the invention of the famous Elixir 
 of Inheritances, and he was accused of having poi- 
 soned Jeanne d'Albret, mother of Henri IV., who 
 was buried without her head having been opened, 
 despite the formal order of Charles IX., says a con- 
 temporary. For two months past, the king had been 
 trying to invent some stratagem whereby he could 
 pry into the secrets of Rene's laboratory, which 
 Cosmo Ruggieri often visited. The king proposed, 
 if he should find anything suspicious, to proceed 
 personally in the matter without the intervention of 
 police or law officers, upon whom his mother would 
 act by fear or bribery. 
 
 It is certain that, during the sixteenth century, 
 and in the years immediately preceding and follow- 
 ing it, poisoning had attained a degree of perfection 
 unknown to modern chemistry, as history has re- 
 corded. Italy, the cradle of modern science, was at 
 that period the inventor and mistress of these secret 
 processes, many of which are lost. Thence the un- 
 savory reputation which Italians bore for the two 
 following centuries. Novelists have overworked it 
 to such a degree that they never introduce Italians 
 who do not play the part of assassins and poisoners. 
 If Italy then monopolized the traffic in subtle poisons
 
 390 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 of which some historians speak, we must simply 
 recognize her supremacy in toxicology as in all 
 branches of human knowledge and in the arts, in 
 which she led the way for all Europe. The crimes 
 of the period were not hers, she served the pas- 
 sions of the age just as she built splendid edifices, 
 commanded armies, painted beautiful frescoes, sang 
 songs, loved queens, made herself attractive to 
 kings, planned festivals or ballets, and guided poli- 
 cies. At Florence, that ghastly art had attained 
 such perfection that a woman dividing a peach with 
 a duke, using a knife with a golden blade, of which 
 only one side had been poisoned, ate the unpoisoned 
 half and dealt out death with the other. A pair of 
 scented gloves instilled a fatal disease through the 
 pores. Poison was placed in a bouquet of natural 
 roses, of which the mere perfume, inhaled once, 
 would cause death. Don John of Austria is said to 
 have been poisoned by a pair of boots. 
 
 Thus King Charles IX. was justifiably curious, 
 and the reader will easily imagine that the sombre 
 suspicions which filled his mind made him impatient 
 to surprise Rene at work. 
 
 The old fountain, situated at the corner of Rue de 
 TArbre-Sec, since rebuilt, afforded the noble band 
 the means of reaching the roof of a house adjoining 
 Rene's, whom the king pretended that he intended 
 to visit. Followed by his companions, he began to 
 climb along the roofs to the dire alarm of divers 
 worthy bourgeois awakened by these pretended rob- 
 bers, who called them absurd names, listened to the
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 391 
 
 quarrels and diversions of each household, and in 
 some cases began to force an entrance. When the 
 Italians saw Tavannes and the king step on the roof 
 of the house adjoining Rene's, the Marechal de Retz 
 sat down, saying that he was tired, and his brother 
 remained by his side. 
 
 " So much the better," thought the king, who 
 was very glad to leave his spies behind. 
 
 Tavannes made sport of the two Florentines, who 
 were left alone amid profound silence, and in a place 
 where they had naught but the sky over their heads 
 and only cats for auditors. They availed themselves 
 of that circumstance to exchange thoughts which they 
 would not have expressed in words in any other spot 
 on earth, thoughts suggested by the events of the 
 evening. 
 
 "Albert," said the grand master to the marshal, 
 "the king will prevail over the queen; we are 
 making a great mistake, so far as our own fortunes 
 are concerned, by remaining faithful to Catherine's. 
 If we go over to the king at the moment when 
 he is looking for supporters against his mother and 
 adroit men to serve him, we shall not be driven 
 away like wild beasts when the queen-mother is 
 banished, imprisoned, or killed." 
 
 " With such ideas as those, you will not prosper, 
 Charles," the marshal gravely replied. "You will 
 follow your king to the tomb, and he has not long 
 to live; he is worn out by dissipation. Cosmo Rug- 
 gieri has predicted that he will die next year." 
 
 " The dying boar often kills the hunter," said
 
 392 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 Charles de Gondi. " This conspiracy of the Due 
 d'Alencon, the King of Navarre, and the Prince of 
 Conde, in which La Mole and Coconnas are in- 
 volved, is more dangerous than profitable. In the 
 first place, the King of Navarre, whom the queen- 
 mother hoped to take red-handed, has become 
 suspicious of her and is taking no part in it. He 
 proposes to profit by the conspiracy, without run- 
 ning any of the risks involved in it. In the second 
 place, to-day they all have the idea of placing the 
 crown on the head of the Due d'Alencon, who is 
 turning Calvinist." 
 
 " Budelone! don't you see that this conspiracy 
 enables our queen to ascertain what the Huguenots 
 are able to do with the Due d'Alencon, and what the 
 king means to do with the Huguenots? for the king is 
 negotiating with them; but, to make the king ride a 
 wooden horse, to-morrow the queen will tell him all 
 about this conspiracy, which will neutralize all his 
 plans." 
 
 "Ah!" said Charles de Gondi, "by dint of fol- 
 lowing our advice, she has become stronger than 
 we. That is excellent." 
 
 " Excellent for the Due d'Anjou, who would rather 
 be King of France than King of Poland, and to whom 
 1 am going to make the whole matter clear." 
 
 " Are you leaving Paris, Albert?" 
 
 " To-morrow. Was not I assigned to the duty of 
 attending the King of Poland? 1 shall overtake him 
 at Venice, where their Highnesses have undertaken 
 to entertain him."
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 393 
 
 "You are prudence itself." 
 
 " Che bestia! I swear to you that we do not incur 
 the slightest danger by remaining at court. If there 
 were any danger, should I go away? I should remain 
 with our dear mistress." 
 
 "Dear!" echoed the grand master; "she is just 
 the woman to drop her instruments on the spot when 
 she finds them heavy." 
 
 " O coglione! you want to be a soldier, and yet 
 you are afraid of death, eh? Every profession has 
 its duties, and we have our duties to fortune. When 
 we attach ourselves to kings, the source of all tem- 
 poral power, who protect and exalt and enrich our 
 families, we must vow to them the same love that 
 fills the martyr's heart for Heaven; we must be pre- 
 pared to suffer in their cause; when they sacrifice 
 us to their throne, we can afford to die, for we die 
 as much for ourselves as for them, and our families 
 survive. Eccol" 
 
 "You are right, Albert; she has given you the 
 venerable duchy of Retz." 
 
 "Listen," rejoined the marshal. "The queen 
 relies confidently on the skill of the Ruggieri to 
 reconcile her with her son. When our rascal re- 
 fused to make any further use of Rene, the crafty 
 creature readily divined what her son suspected. 
 But who knows what the king carries in his bag? 
 Perhaps he is hesitating only concerning his course 
 of conduct toward his mother, for he hates her, do 
 you understand? He told the queen something of 
 his plans, the queen talked them over with Madame
 
 394 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 de Fiesco, Madame de Fiesco reported everything to 
 the queen-mother, and since then the king conceals 
 everything from his wife." 
 
 " It was time," said Charles de Condi. 
 
 "Time for what?" 
 
 "To find something for the king to do," replied 
 the grand master, who, although he was not so fully 
 in Catherine's confidence as his brother, was no less 
 clear-sighted. 
 
 "Charles, I have helped you to a great career," 
 said the marshal, gravely; "but if you wish to be 
 a duke also, be, as I am, our mistress's ame damnee; 
 she will remain queen, for she is stronger than all 
 the rest of them. Madame de Sauves is with her, 
 and the Due d'Alencon and the King of Navarre are 
 always with Madame de Sauves; Catherine will con- 
 tinue to hold them all in leash under this king, yes, 
 and under King Henri III. God grant that he be not 
 ungrateful !" 
 
 "Why?" 
 
 " His mother does too much for him." 
 
 " Oho! But I hear a noise in Rue Saint-Honore," 
 exclaimed the grand master; " Rene's door just 
 closed. Don't you hear the footsteps of several 
 men? The Ruggieri are arrested." 
 
 "Ah! diavolo! there's prudence for you! The 
 king has not been as impetuous as usual. But 
 where will he put them in prison? Let us go and 
 see what happens." 
 
 The two brothers reached the corner of Rue de 
 1'Autruche as the king entered his mistress's house.
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 395 
 
 By the light of the torch held by the concierge, they 
 could distinguish Tavannes and the Ruggieri. 
 
 "Well, well, Tavannes," cried the grand master, 
 running after the king's companion, who was return- 
 ing to the Louvre, " what has happened to you?" 
 
 " We alighted in a full consistory of sorcerers; we 
 arrested two of them who are friends of yours, and 
 who will be able to explain, for the benefit of French 
 noblemen, by what means you succeeded in getting 
 two offices under the crown into your hands, being 
 a foreigner," remarked Tavannes, half-jesting, half- 
 serious. 
 
 "And the king?" queried the grand master, like 
 a man who cared but little for Tavannes's enmity. 
 
 " He remains with his mistress." 
 
 " My brother and I have prospered by virtue of 
 the most absolute devotion to our masters, a noble 
 and honorable course which you, too, have adopted, 
 my dear duke," retorted the Marechal de Retz. 
 
 The three courtiers walked along together in si- 
 lence. Just as they parted, each of them being 
 joined by his retainers to escort him home, two men 
 glided swiftly along the walls that bordered Rue de 
 1'Autruche. Those two men were the king and the 
 Count of Solern, who soon reached the bank of 
 the Seine at a point where a boat and rowers, 
 selected by the German nobleman, awaited them. 
 In a few seconds they were on the opposite shore. 
 
 " My mother has not gone to bed !" exclaimed the 
 king; " she will see us; we made a bad choice for 
 a rendezvous."
 
 396 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 " She will think it is a duel," replied Solern; 
 "and how could she distinguish us at this dis- 
 tance?" 
 
 " Oh! well, let her see me," cried Charles, "my 
 mind is made up now!" 
 
 The king and his confidant leaped ashore and 
 walked rapidly in the direction of the Pre-aux- 
 Clercs. On arriving there, Solern, who was in 
 advance of the king, met a man acting as sentinel, 
 with whom he exchanged a few words and who then 
 withdrew to join his companions. A moment later, 
 two men, who seemed to be of princely rank, judg- 
 ing from the respectful manner of their picket, left 
 the place where they were hiding behind a dilapi- 
 dated fence and approached the king, before whom 
 they bent the knee; but Charles raised them before 
 their knees reached the ground, and said: 
 
 " No ceremony, we are all gentlemen here." 
 
 The three gentlemen were soon joined by a ven- 
 erable old man, who might have been taken for the 
 Chancellor de 1'Hopital, had he not died in the pre- 
 ceding year. All four walked rapidly, in order to 
 reach a place where their conference could not be 
 heard by their attendants, and Solern followed at a 
 short distance s to watch over the king. That faithful 
 retainer yielded to a suspicion which Charles, like a 
 man whose life has become too heavy a burden, did 
 not share. Solern was the only witness, on the 
 king's side, of the conference, which soon became 
 animated. 
 
 "Sire," said one of the three, "the Connetable
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 397 
 
 de Montmorency, who was the king your father's 
 best friend and who knew all his secrets, agreed 
 with the Marechal de Saint-Andre that Madame 
 Catherine must be sewn in a bag and thrown into 
 the river. Had that been done, many excellent men 
 would still be on their feet." 
 
 "I have enough executions on my conscience, 
 monsieur," replied the king. 
 
 " Very well, sire," said the youngest of the four, 
 "from any place of exile, Queen Catherine will 
 find a way to throw everything into confusion and 
 to find auxiliaries. Have we not everything to fear 
 from the Guises, who, nine years ago, formed the 
 plan of a monstrous Catholic alliance to the secret 
 of which Your Majesty was not admitted, and which 
 menaces your throne? That alliance is an invention 
 of Spain, which has not abandoned its project of 
 levelling the Pyrenees. Sire, Calvinism would save 
 France by placing a moral barrier between it and a 
 nation which dreams of world-empire. If the queen- 
 mother be proscribed, she will look to Spain and the 
 Guises for support." 
 
 "Messieurs," said the king; "understand that 
 with your aid, peace being re-established without 
 distrust, I will agree to make every individual in the 
 kingdom tremble. Tete-Dieu! ft is high time for 
 the royal power to assert itself. Be assured that my 
 mother is right in this, you are as deeply interested 
 as I am. Your property, your privileges are indis- 
 solubly connected with our throne; when you have 
 allowed the religion to be crushed, the hands of
 
 398 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 which you make use will be raised against the 
 throne and against you. I am no longer anxious to 
 fight against ideas with weapons which do not reach 
 them. Let us see if Protestantism will make prog- 
 ress if left to itself; but, above all, let us see what 
 that factious spirit will attack. The admiral, God 
 rest his soul ! was not my enemy, he swore that 
 he would keep the revolt within the limits of the 
 spiritual world, and would leave in the temporal 
 kingdom a royal master and submissive subjects. 
 Messieurs, if it be still in your power to do so, set 
 the example, assist your sovereign to quell mutinous 
 subjects who deprive us all of tranquillity. The 
 war diminishes the revenues of all of us and ruins 
 the realm. I am weary of this constant warfare, 
 so weary that, if it be absolutely necessary, I will 
 sacrifice my mother. I will go further, 1 will have 
 both Protestants and Catholics in attendance on me 
 in equal numbers, and I will place the axe of Louis XI. 
 over them, to make them equal. If Messieurs de 
 Guise are planning a Holy Alliance which attacks 
 our crown, the executioner shall begin his task with 
 them. I understand the miseries of my people, and 
 I am disposed to cut freely into the ranks of the 
 great men who bring disaster on our kingdom. I 
 care little about consciences, I propose henceforth to 
 have submissive subjects, who will work under my 
 guidance, for the prosperity of the State. Messieurs, 
 I give you ten days to negotiate with your people, 
 break up your plots, and return to me, who will be- 
 come your father. If you refuse, you will see great
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 399 
 
 changes, for I shall act with people of low degree 
 who will descend upon the nobles at my bidding. I 
 will take for my model some king who has succeeded 
 in pacifying his kingdom by crushing stronger men 
 than you who dared to defy him. If the Catholic 
 troops fail me, I have my brother of Spain, whom I 
 will summon to the succor of a menaced throne; and 
 if I lack a minister to execute my will, he will lend 
 me the Duke of Alva." 
 
 " In that case, sire, we should have the Germans 
 to match your Spaniards," said one of his interloc- 
 utors. 
 
 " Cousin," said Charles IX., coldly, " my wife is 
 called Elisabeth of Austria, and you might fail to 
 procure assistance in that direction; but take my 
 advice, let us fight alone, and not call in the for- 
 eigner. You are the object of my mother's hatred, 
 and you are sufficiently attached to me to be my 
 second in the duel I am about to fight with her: very 
 good, listen to this. You seem to me so worthy of 
 esteem, that I offer you the office of constable; you 
 will not betray us as the other did." 
 
 The prince to whom Charles spoke, took his hand 
 and struck his own upon it. 
 
 " Ventre-saint-gris ! " he said, "this is enough, 
 brother, to make one forget many injuries. But, 
 sire, the head cannot go forward without the tail, 
 and our tail is difficult to move. Give us more than 
 ten days; we need at least a month to make our 
 people listen to reason. At the end of that time, we 
 shall be masters."
 
 400 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 " A month, so be it. My only representative will 
 be Villeroy; you will trust him alone, whatever 
 others may say to you." 
 
 " One month," said the three noblemen, with one 
 voice; "that will be long enough." 
 
 " There are five of us, messieurs," said the king, 
 "five men of honor. If there be treachery, we 
 shall know whom to blame." 
 
 The three strangers kissed the king's hand and 
 left him, with marks of the greatest respect. 
 
 When he recrossed the Seine, the clock on the 
 Louvre was striking four. 
 
 Queen Catherine had not retired. 
 
 " My mother is still awake," said Charles to the 
 Count of Solern. 
 
 " She has her forge as well as you," replied the 
 German. 
 
 "My dear count, what do you think of a king 
 who is reduced to the necessity of conspiring?" said 
 Charles, bitterly, after a pause. 
 
 " I think, sire, that if you would allow me to 
 throw yonder woman into the water, as the young 
 prince suggested, France would soon be at peace." 
 
 " Parricide, after the Saint Bartholomew, count? 
 No, no! exile. When she has once fallen, my 
 mother will not have a single retainer, not an ad- 
 herent." 
 
 " Very well, sire," rejoined Solern, " order me to 
 go and arrest her at once and escort her out of the 
 kingdom; for she will have changed your mind to- 
 morrow."
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 401 
 
 "Well, come to my forge," said the king; "no 
 one will overhear us there; besides, I do not wish 
 my mother to suspect the capture of the Ruggieri. 
 Knowing that I am here, the good woman will sus- 
 pect nothing, and we can decide upon the necessary 
 measures for her arrest." 
 
 When the king, followed by Solern, entered the 
 lower room which he used as a workshop, he pointed 
 to the forge and all its appurtenances with a smile: 
 
 " I do not believe," he said, "that among all the 
 kings France will have hereafter, there will be 
 another who will take pleasure in such work. But 
 when I am really king, I will not forge swords, but 
 will cause them all to be replaced in their scab- 
 bards." 
 
 " Sire," said Solern, " the fatigue of the tennis- 
 court, your work at this forge, hunting, and, if I 
 may venture to say it, love, are cabriolets which the 
 devil gives you to carry you more rapidly to Saint- 
 Denis." 
 
 "Solern!" said the king, sorrowfully, "if you 
 knew what a fire has been kindled in my heart and 
 my body! nothing can extinguish it. Are you sure 
 of the men who have the custody of the Ruggieri?" 
 
 "As of myself." 
 
 "Very well; during the day that is beginning, I 
 shall determine upon my course of action. Reflect 
 upon the means of carrying it out, I will give you 
 my final orders at five o'clock, at Madame de Belle- 
 ville's." 
 
 26
 
 As the first rays of dawn were contending for 
 mastery with the light in the workshop, the king, 
 whom Solern had left alone, heard his door open 
 and saw his mother, outlined in the half-light like a 
 ghost. Although very nervous and impressionable, 
 Charles was not startled, albeit, under existing cir- 
 cumstances, the apparition acquired a sombre and 
 mysterious significance. 
 
 "Monsieur," she said, "you are killing your- 
 self" 
 
 " I am proving the accuracy of horoscopes," he 
 retorted, with a bitter smile. " But are not you 
 yourself, madame, as early a riser as I?" 
 
 "We have both been up all night, monsieur, but 
 for very different reasons. When you went to confer 
 with your bitterest enemies in the open country, con- 
 cealing your movements from your mother, abetted 
 by Tavannes and the Gondis, with whom you pre- 
 tended to be going out to scour the streets, I read 
 despatches which contained the proofs of a danger- 
 ous conspiracy in which your brother the Due d'Al- 
 encon, your brother-in-law the King of Navarre, the 
 Prince de Conde, and half of the grandees in the king- 
 dom are involved. They aim at nothing less than 
 robbing you of the crown by taking forcible posses- 
 sion of your person. These gentry already have 
 fifty thousand excellent troops under their orders." 
 (403)
 
 404 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 "Indeed!" said the king, with an incredulous 
 air. 
 
 "Your brother is turning Huguenot," added the 
 queen. 
 
 "My brother is going over to the Huguenots?" 
 cried Charles, brandishing the sword he held in his 
 hand. 
 
 "Yes, the Due d'Alencon, a Huguenot at heart, 
 will soon be one in fact. Your sister, the Queen of 
 Navarre, has but little affection left for you; she 
 loves Monsieur le Due d'Alencon, she loves Bussy, 
 she also loves little La Mole." 
 
 " What a heart!" exclaimed the king. 
 
 " Little La Mole," continued the queen, " can 
 think of no better way to become great than by pre- 
 senting France with a king of his making. He will 
 be constable, it is said." 
 
 "Wretched Margot!" cried the king; "this is 
 what comes of her marriage to a heretic." 
 
 "That would amount to nothing, save with the 
 head of the younger branch of your family, whom 
 you have placed near the throne despite my advice, 
 and who would like to see you killing one another! 
 The House of Bourbon is the enemy of the House of 
 Valois; understand this, monsieur: a younger branch 
 should always be kept in absolute poverty, for it is 
 a conspirator by birth, and it is mere folly to give it 
 arms when it has none, or to allow it to keep them 
 when it seizes them. Let every scion of a younger 
 branch be incapable of doing any injury, that is the 
 law of thrones. The sovereigns of Asia follow that
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 405 
 
 rule. The proofs I speak of are up yonder in my 
 closet, where I begged you to go with me when I left 
 you last evening, but you had other plans. A month 
 hence, if we do not look to ourselves, you will have 
 shared the fate of Charles the Simple." 
 
 "A month hence!" cried Charles IX., thunder- 
 struck by the coincidence of that date with the 
 delay demanded by the princes that very night. 
 "Within the month we shall be masters!" he said 
 to himself, repeating their words. "You say that 
 you have proofs, madame?" he added aloud. 
 
 " They are irrefutable, monsieur, they come from 
 my daughter Marguerite. She is alarmed herself by 
 the probabilities of such a combination, and despite 
 her affection for your brother D'Alencon, the throne 
 of the Valois has, this time, appealed to her heart 
 more strongly than all her amours. She demands as 
 the price of her revelations that nothing be done to 
 La Mole; but that fellow seems to me a dangerous 
 knave whom we should put out of the way, as well 
 as the Comte de Coconnas, your brother D'Alencon's 
 man. As for the Prince de Conde, that child agrees 
 to everything, provided that I am thrown into the 
 river; I don't know whether he means that as a sort 
 of wedding-present for giving him his pretty wife. 
 This is a serious matter, monsieur. You talk about 
 predictions! I know of one which gives the throne 
 of the Valois to the House of Bourbon, and, if we 
 do not beware, it will be fulfilled. Do not be angry 
 with your sister, she has behaved well in this. My 
 son," she continued, after a pause, giving a tender
 
 406 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 intonation to her voice, " many evil-minded people 
 in the service of Messieurs de Guise seek to sow 
 discord between you and me, although we are the 
 only persons in this kingdom whose interests are 
 precisely identical: remember that. You reproach 
 yourself now for the Saint Bartholomew, I know; 
 you accuse me of having forced it upon you. 
 Catholicism, monsieur, is the natural bond between 
 Spain, France, and Italy, three countries which 
 may, by secretly and skilfully following a shrewdly- 
 devised plan, be united under the House of Valois, 
 with the assistance of time. Do not destroy the 
 chances of such a result by cutting the cord which 
 holds those three kingdoms together in the circle of 
 one faith. Why should not the Valois and the 
 Medici carry out for their own glory the plan of 
 Charles V., who lacked the necessary brains? Let 
 us relegate the race of Joanna the Mad to the new 
 world, where it has gained a foothold. The Medici, 
 masters at Florence and Rome, will subdue Italy 
 for you; they will ensure you all its advantages 
 by a commercial treaty and a treaty of alliance, 
 acknowledging that they hold Piedmont, the Milan- 
 ais, and Naples, to which you have just claims, as 
 fiefs of the French crown. These, monsieur, are 
 the reasons for the war to the death which we are 
 waging on the Huguenots. Why do you compel us 
 to tell you these things again and again? Charle- 
 magne made a mistake in extending his power to- 
 ward the north. Yes, France is a body whose heart 
 lies on the Gulf of Lyon, and whose two arms are
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 407 
 
 Spain and Italy. In that way, she rules the Med- 
 iterranean, which is, as it were, a basket into which 
 fall the treasures of the Orient, upon which those 
 Venetian gentry are fattening to-day in the teeth of 
 Philip II. If the friendship of the Medici and your 
 own rights justify you in hoping for Italy, force 
 or alliances, perhaps an inheritance, will give you 
 Spain. As to this last matter, give warning to the 
 ambitious House of Austria, to which the Guelphs 
 sold Italy, and which still dreams of possessing 
 Spain. Although your wife is of that House, hum- 
 ble Austria, squeeze it tight in order to suffocate 
 it; there are the enemies of your kingdom, for 
 thence aid is furnished the reformers. Do not 
 listen to the people who find their profit in our 
 lack of harmony, and who are constantly belabor- 
 ing your brain with the idea that I am an enemy 
 in your own household. Have I prevented your 
 having heirs? Why does your mistress bear you a 
 son and the queen a daughter? Why have you 
 not to-day three heirs who would cut at the root 
 the hopes upon which all these seditious schemes 
 are based? Is it for me, monsieur, to answer these 
 questions? If you had a son, would Monsieur 
 d'Alencon be conspiring?" 
 
 As she concluded, Catherine fastened upon her 
 son the fascinating gaze which the bird of prey 
 fastens upon its victim. At that moment, the 
 daughter of the Medici was beautiful in her pecul- 
 iar style of beauty; her real sentiments shone 
 upon her face, which, like that of the gambler
 
 408 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 seated at the green cloth, gleamed with innumer- 
 able greedy thoughts. Charles IX. no longer saw 
 before him the mother of a single man, but, as was 
 said of her, the mother of armies and of empires 
 mater castrorum. She had unfolded the wings of 
 her genius and was soaring boldly in the lofty re- 
 gions of the policy of the Medici and Valois, out- 
 lining the gigantic plans which formerly terrified 
 Henri II., and which, transmitted by the genius of 
 the Medici to Richelieu, are inscribed forever in the 
 archives of the House of Bourbon. But Charles IX., 
 seeing that his mother took so many precautions, 
 said to himself that they must be necessary, and 
 wondered to what end she took them. He lowered 
 his eyes, he hesitated, his distrust could not yield to 
 mere words. Catherine was astonished to find how 
 deeply suspicion had taken root in her son's heart. 
 
 "Well, monsieur," she said, "will you never 
 understand me? What are you and I compared 
 with the eternity of kingly crowns? Do you sup- 
 pose that I have other designs than those which 
 should occupy our thoughts while we dwell on this 
 sphere and hold sway over empires?" 
 
 "Madame, I will go with you to your closet, we 
 must act " 
 
 "Act!" cried Catherine, "let us allow them to 
 go on and take them in the act; the law will deliver 
 you from them. For God's sake, monsieur, let us 
 seem to be well-disposed toward them." 
 
 The queen withdrew. The king remained alone 
 for a moment, utterly overwhelmed.
 
 AT MME. DE BELLEVILLE'S 
 
 Marie, surprised by his silence, knelt in order to 
 examine more carefully her royal master's pale face, 
 and detected then the indications of terrible weariness 
 and of a melancholy more consuming than all the 
 melancholies she had previously charmed away.

 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 409 
 
 "In which direction is the ambush?" he cried. 
 "Is she deceiving me, or are they? Which is the 
 better policy? Deus! discerne meam causam," he 
 continued, with tears in his eyes. " Life is a bur- 
 den to me. I prefer death, natural or violent, to 
 this constant tugging in opposite directions," he 
 added, bringing the hammer down upon the anvil 
 with such force that the walls of the Louvre trem- 
 bled. "Mon Dieu!" he continued, looking up at 
 the sky as he left the palace, "do Thou, for whose 
 holy religion I fight, endow me with the keenness of 
 Thy glance that I may penetrate my mother's heart 
 by questioning the Ruggieri." 
 
 The little house in which Madame de Belleville 
 lived, and in which Charles IX. had bestowed his 
 prisoners, was the last but one on Rue de 1'Autruche 
 toward Rue Saint-Honore. The street-gate, flanked 
 by two small brick pavilions, seemed very simple 
 in design at a time when gateways and their sur- 
 roundings were so elaborately ornamented. It con- 
 sisted of two stone pilasters, cut as diamonds are 
 cut, and the arch represented a recumbent woman 
 holding a cornucopia. The door, which was heavily 
 bound with iron, had a wicket at the level of the 
 eye through which to scrutinize persons who sought 
 admission. There was a concierge in each pavilion. 
 The extremely capricious pleasure of King Charles 
 required the services of a concierge night and day. 
 There was a small courtyard paved in the Venetian 
 style. At that period, when carriages had not been 
 invented, ladies went about on horseback or in litters,
 
 410 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 and a courtyard might be magnificent with no danger 
 of injury from horses or carriages. We must con- 
 stantly bear this fact in mind, in order to understand 
 the narrowness of the streets, the diminutive size 
 of the courtyards, and certain details of fifteenth- 
 century dwellings. 
 
 The house, which had one floor above the ground- 
 floor, was crowned by a carved frieze which sup- 
 ported a roof with four sides, with a flat space at the 
 apex. The roof was pierced with dormer-windows, 
 with pediments and frames which the chisel of some 
 great artist had covered with dentils and arabesques. 
 Each of the three windows on the first floor also was 
 noticeable by reason of its embroidery of stonework 
 which the brick walls threw into bold relief. On 
 the ground-floor, a double stoop, very delicately 
 decorated, with a true lover's knot in stone on the 
 landing, led to the main entrance, surrounded by 
 bosses carved in the Venetian style with diamond- 
 like facets, a system of decoration which was re- 
 peated in the windows at the right and left. 
 
 A garden laid out and planted in the fashion then 
 in vogue, and abounding in rare flowers, occupied 
 a space behind the house equal in extent to the 
 courtyard. The walls were covered with vines. A 
 silvery pine stood in the centre of a small lawn. 
 This lawn was separated from the flower-beds by 
 winding paths leading to a small clump of trimmed 
 yews at the farther end. Upon the walls were 
 laid mosaics of multicolored pebbles, arranged in 
 patterns that were commonplace, it is true, but
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 411 
 
 pleasing to the eye, none the less, because of the 
 wealth of bright coloring, blending with that of the 
 flowers. The facade on the garden resembled that 
 on the courtyard; it had a dainty carved balcony 
 over the door in front of the window in the centre. 
 On the garden, and on the courtyard as well, the 
 decorations of this central window projected several 
 feet and were carried up to the frieze, so that it re- 
 sembled a small pavilion, like a lantern. The frames 
 of the other windows were incrusted with valuable 
 marbles surrounded by stone. 
 
 Despite the exquisite taste which characterized 
 the whole house, it had a melancholy aspect. The 
 rooms were darkened by the neighboring houses and 
 by the roofs of the Hotel d'Alencon, which cast a 
 shadow on the courtyard and garden; moreover, pro- 
 found silence reigned there. But that silence, that 
 shadow, that solitude, were full of comfort for a soul 
 that could give itself over to a single thought, as in 
 a cloister where one meditates, or in the quiet house 
 where one loves. 
 
 Who could fail now to divine the interior refine- 
 ment of that retreat, the only spot in his whole 
 realm where the last but one of the Valois could 
 pour out his heart, tell of his sorrows, display his 
 taste for the arts, and abandon himself to the poetic 
 life which he loved inclinations thwarted, one and 
 all, by the cares of the most burdensome of royalties. 
 There only, his greatness of soul and his exalted 
 merit were appreciated ; there alone did he abandon 
 himself, during a few fleeting months, the last months
 
 412 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 of his life, to the joys of paternity, joys into which 
 he plunged with the frenzy which the presentiment of 
 a horrible death near at hand imparted to all his acts. 
 
 The next afternoon, Marie was putting the finish- 
 ing touches to her toilet in her oratory, which was 
 the boudoir of those days. She was adjusting the 
 curls of her lovely black hair to adapt them to a new 
 velvet cap, and scrutinizing herself carefully in the 
 mirror. 
 
 " It is nearly four o'clock, that interminable coun- 
 cil is at an end," she said to herself. " Jacob has 
 returned from the Louvre, where there is great ex- 
 citement because of the number of councillors sum- 
 moned and the length of the session. What can 
 possibly have happened? some disaster. Mon Dieul 
 does he know how the heart is worn away by wait- 
 ing in vain! Perhaps he has gone hunting? If he 
 has enjoyed himself, all will be for the best. If I 
 see that he is in good spirits, I will forget that I have 
 suffered." 
 
 She ran her hands up and down her dress to 
 smooth a slight wrinkle, then turned sidewise to see 
 how her dress fitted her; but as she turned, she 
 saw the king on the couch. The carpet deadened 
 his footsteps so completely that he had been able to 
 steal in unheard. 
 
 "You startled me," she said, with a little shriek 
 of surprise, quickly checked. 
 
 "Were you thinking of me?" said the king. 
 
 " When do I not think of you?" she asked, sitting 
 down by his side.
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 413 
 
 She removed his cap and cloak, and ran her hands 
 through his hair, as if she would comb it with her 
 fingers. Charles allowed her to do it and made no 
 reply. Marie, surprised by his silence, knelt in 
 order to examine more carefully her royal master's 
 pale face, and detected then the indications of terri- 
 ble weariness and of a melancholy more consuming 
 than all the melancholies she had previously charmed 
 away. She forced back a tear and refrained from 
 speaking, in order not to intensify by imprudent 
 words a suffering of which she did not as yet know 
 the nature. She did what loving women do on 
 such occasions: she kissed that brow furrowed by 
 premature wrinkles, and those haggard cheeks, try- 
 ing to impress the freshness of her own heart upon 
 that careworn heart, pouring forth her spirit in 
 gentle caresses which met with no success. She 
 raised her head to the level of the king's, embraced 
 him gently in her slender arms, then hid her face 
 against that suffering breast, watching for the oppor- 
 tune moment to question the dejected invalid. 
 
 " Chariot, dear, will you not tell your poor, anxious 
 sweetheart the thoughts which cloud your dear brow 
 and drive the color from your sweet red lips?" 
 
 " With the exception of Charlemagne," he said in 
 a low, hollow voice, " every king of France named 
 Charles has come to a miserable end." 
 
 "Nonsense!" said she, "how about Charles VIII.?" 
 
 " In the prime of life," replied the king, " that un- 
 fortunate prince struck his head against the frame 
 of a door at the chateau of Amboise, which he was
 
 414 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 decorating, and he died in horrible agony. His 
 death gave the crown to our family." 
 
 "Charles VII. reconquered his kingdom." 
 
 "Little one," the king lowered his voice, "he 
 died of hunger, dreading lest he should be poisoned 
 by the dauphin, who had already caused the death 
 of beautiful Agnes Sorel. The father feared his son; 
 to-day, the son fears his mother!" 
 
 "Why do you burrow in the past?" she said, 
 thinking of the horrible life of Charles VI. 
 
 "What can you expect, dearest? kings can ascer- 
 tain what fate awaits them without having recourse 
 to soothsayers; they need only consult history. I 
 am at this moment intent upon avoiding the fate of 
 Charles the Simple, who was robbed of his crown, 
 and died in prison after seven years of captivity." 
 
 "Charles V. drove out the English!" she ex- 
 claimed, triumphantly. 
 
 "Not he, but Du Guesclin; for he was poisoned 
 by Charles of Navarre, and simply languished for 
 years." 
 
 "But Charles IV.?" 
 
 " He married three times, but never had an heir, 
 notwithstanding the virile beauty which distinguished 
 the children of Philippe le Bel. The first Valois line 
 came to an end with him, and the second line will 
 end in the same way; the queen has given me a 
 daughter only, and I shall not leave her enceinte 
 when I die, for a minority would be the greatest 
 calamity with which the kingdom could be afflicted. 
 In any event, would a son of mine live? This name
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 415 
 
 Charles is of evil augury, Charlemagne exhausted all 
 its good fortune. If I should become King of France 
 again, I should tremble to call myself Charles X." 
 
 " Who has designs on your crown, pray?" 
 
 " My brother D'Alencon is conspiring against me. 
 I see enemies everywhere " 
 
 "Monsieur," said Marie, with a bewitching little 
 pout, "tell me something more cheerful." 
 
 " My precious jewel," replied the king, earnestly, 
 "never call me 'monsieur,' even in jest; you re- 
 mind me of my mother, who constantly stabs me 
 with that title, by which she seems to rob me of my 
 crown. She says ' my son ' to the Due d'Anjou, I 
 mean the King of Poland." 
 
 "SIRE," said Marie, clasping her hands as if she 
 were praying, "there is a realm in which you are 
 adored. YOUR MAJESTY fills it with his glory and 
 his might; and there the word ' monsieur ' means 
 my beloved lord." 
 
 She unclasped her hands, and with a pretty gesture 
 pointed to her heart. The words were so musiquees 
 to use a word then in vogue to depict the melodies 
 of love that Charles put his arm about her waist, 
 lifted her with the nervous strength for which he 
 was noted, seated her on his knee, and gently 
 rubbed his brow against the curls which his mis- 
 tress had arranged so coquettishly. 
 
 Marie deemed the moment favorable, and ventured 
 a kiss or two, which Charles endured rather than ac- 
 cepted; then, between two kisses, she said to him: 
 
 "If my people did not lie, you prowled about Paris
 
 416 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 all last night, as in the days when you used to do 
 foolish things like a genuine younger son." 
 
 "Yes," said the king, still lost in thought. 
 
 "I suppose you beat the watch and stripped an 
 honest bourgeois or two? Who, pray, are the men 
 whom you gave me to keep, and who are such 
 criminals that you forbade any communication with 
 them? Never was maiden held in stricter seclusion 
 than those fellows, who have neither eaten nor 
 drunk; Solern's Germans will allow no one to go 
 near the room in which you placed them. Is it a 
 jest? or is it a serious matter?" 
 
 "Yes," said the king, rousing himself from his 
 reverie, "I set out for a run over the roofs with 
 Tavannes and the Gondis; I hoped to find in them 
 the companions of my escapades in the old days, 
 but our legs are not what they used to be: we dared 
 not jump across the streets. However, we did cross 
 two courtyards, leaping from one roof to the other. 
 At last, when we had arrived at a certain gable a 
 few steps ffom here, Tavannes and I agreed, as we 
 clung to the bar of a chimney, that we would do 
 no more of it. Neither of us, if he had been alone, 
 would have taken that last leap." 
 
 "You went first, I will wager." 
 
 The king smiled. 
 
 " I know why you risk your life thus." 
 
 " Oh! the lovely sorceress!" 
 
 "You are tired of life." 
 
 "A plague on sorcerers! I am haunted by them," 
 said the king, resuming a serious expression.
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 417 
 
 "My sorcery is love," she replied, with a smile. 
 " Since the blessed hour when you first loved me, 
 have I not always divined your thoughts? And if 
 you will allow me to tell you the truth, the thoughts 
 which torment you to-day are unworthy of a king." 
 
 "Am I a king?" said he, bitterly. 
 
 "Can you not be? What did Charles VII. do, 
 whose name you bear? he listened to his mistress, 
 monseigneur, and reconquered his kingdom when 
 it was overrun by the English as yours is by the 
 adherents of the new religion. Your last coup d'Etat 
 marked out the path that you must follow. Exter- 
 minate the heresy." 
 
 "You blamed the ruse," said Charles, "and to- 
 day" 
 
 " It is something that is done," she rejoined; 
 "besides, I am of Madame Catherine's opinion, that 
 it was better to do it yourself than to let the Guises 
 do it." 
 
 " Charles VII. had only men to contend with, and I 
 am confronted with ideas," replied the king. " One 
 can kill men, but one cannot kill words! The Emperor 
 Charles V. abandoned the attempt, his son Philip II. 
 is exhausting his strength at it, and it will be the 
 death of all us kings. Upon whom can I lean for sup- 
 port? On the right, among the Catholics, I find the 
 Guises threatening me; on the left are the Calvin- 
 ists, who will never forgive me for the death of poor 
 Pere Coligny and the August bloodletting; more- 
 over, they aim at the suppression of the throne; and 
 lastly, in front of me, I have my mother " 
 27
 
 418 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 "Arrest her, reign alone," said Marie, in a low 
 tone, close to the king's ear. 
 
 " I intended to do so yesterday, and to-day I can- 
 not. It is very easy for you to talk about it." 
 
 " The distance is not so very great between an 
 apothecary's daughter and a doctor's," rejoined 
 Marie Touchet, who was fond of jesting concerning 
 the origin erroneously attributed to Catherine. 
 
 The king frowned. 
 
 " Do not take such liberties, Marie! Catherine 
 de' Medici is my mother, and you should tremble at 
 the thought of" 
 
 " What is it that you dread?" 
 
 " Poison!" exclaimed the king, beside himself. 
 
 " Poor child !" cried Marie, restraining her tears, 
 for the spectacle of such strength joined to such 
 weakness had moved her deeply. "Ah!" she con- 
 tinued, " you make me hate Madame Catherine, 
 who used to seem to me so kind and good, but 
 whose acts of kindness now seem to me base per- 
 fidy. Why is she so kind to me and so cruel to 
 you? During my stay in Dauphine, I learned cer- 
 tain facts concerning the beginning of your reign, 
 which you have always concealed from me, and it 
 seems to me that the queen, your mother, has 
 caused all your misfortunes." 
 
 " How so?" cried the king, profoundly interested. 
 
 " Women whose hearts and whose purposes are 
 pure rely upon their virtues to govern the men they 
 love; but women who wish them no good govern 
 them by using their evil inclinations as levers; now,
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 419 
 
 the queen has transformed some of your noble qual- 
 ities into vices, and has made you believe that your 
 evil instincts were virtues. Was that the proper 
 part for a mother to play? Be a tyrant after the 
 manner of Louis XL, inspire profound terror; imi- 
 tate King Philip, banish the Italians, drive out the 
 Guises, and confiscate the estates of the Calvinists; 
 you will magnify yourself in that solitude and you 
 will save the throne. The moment is favorable, 
 your brother is in Poland." 
 
 "We are two babes in politics," said Charles, 
 bitterly, "we know how to do nothing but make 
 love. Alas! my dearest love, I thought of all this 
 yesterday. I determined to accomplish great things: 
 bah! my mother simply breathed on my house of 
 cards. At a distance, questions are clearly outlined, 
 like mountain-peaks, and everyone says: ' I would 
 make an end of Calvinism, I would bring Messieurs 
 de Guise to their senses, I would sever my connec- 
 tion with the court of Rome, I would lean on the 
 people, on the bourgeoisie;' in a word, everything 
 seems most simple at a distance; but when you 
 undertake to climb the mountains, the difficulties 
 become more and more evident as you draw nearer 
 and nearer to them. Calvinism is in itself of the 
 very slightest interest to the party leaders, and 
 Messieurs de Guise, those fanatical Catholics, 
 would be in despair to see Calvinism destroyed. 
 Everyone obeys his own selfish interests first of 
 all, and religious opinions serve as a cloak for insa- 
 tiable ambitions. The party of Charles IX. is the
 
 420 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 weakest of all: the parties of the King of Navarre, 
 of the King of Poland, of the Due d'Alencon, of 
 the Condes, of the Guises, and of my mother, form 
 coalitions against one another and leave me all 
 alone, even in my council. Of all these elements 
 of disturbance, my mother is the strongest, and she 
 has demonstrated to me the utter futility of my 
 plans. We are surrounded by subjects who snap 
 their fingers at the law. The axe of Louis XI., of 
 which you just spoke, we have not. The Parlia- 
 ment would never convict the Guises, nor the King 
 of Navarre, nor the Condes, nor my brothers; it 
 would think that it was setting the kingdom on fire. 
 One must have the courage required to commit 
 murder; the throne will come to terms some day 
 with these insolent villains who have nullified the 
 law; but where are we to find faithful arms? The 
 council held this morning filled me with disgust of 
 everything: on all sides treachery, on all sides clash- 
 ing interests. I am weary of wearing my crown, I 
 have no wish save to die in peace." 
 
 And he relapsed into his gloomy musing. 
 
 " Disgusted with everything!" echoed Marie Tou- 
 chet, sorrowfully, respecting her lover's dejected 
 torpor. 
 
 Charles was, in fact, utterly prostrated both in 
 mind and body, a condition produced by the exhaus- 
 tion of all his faculties and intensified by the dis- 
 couragement consequent upon the extent of the 
 disaster, the evident impossibility of triumph, or 
 the sight of obstacles so numerous that genius itself
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 421 
 
 would be dismayed. The king's prostration was 
 proportioned to the height of exaltation which his 
 courage and his ideas had recently attained; then, 
 too, a paroxysm of nervous melancholy, engendered 
 by the disease from which he was suffering, had 
 seized him when he came forth from the protracted 
 council held in his closet. Marie saw that he was 
 in the throes of one of those attacks in which 
 everything is painful and annoying, even love; so 
 she knelt on the floor, her head resting on the king's 
 knees, who kept his hand in his mistress's hair, 
 without moving, without a word, without a sigh; 
 and she was as motionless as he. Charles was 
 buried in the lethargy of impotence, and Marie in 
 the despairing stupor of the loving woman who sees 
 in the distance the boundaries at which love ends. 
 
 The lovers remained thus in absolute silence for 
 a long moment, one of those moments when every 
 reflection makes a wound, when the clouds of an 
 inward tempest cast a veil over everything, even 
 the memories of happiness. Marie believed that 
 she was partly responsible for this terrifying fit of 
 depression. She asked herself, not without terror, 
 if the excessive joy with which the king had greeted 
 her return, and the violent passion which she did 
 not feel strong enough to contend against, had not 
 enfeebled Charles IX. in body and mind. As she 
 raised her eyes, streaming with tears, toward her 
 lover, she saw tears in his eyes and on his pallid 
 cheeks. That sympathy which united them even in 
 grief moved the king so deeply that he threw off his
 
 422 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 lethargy like a horse pricked with the spur; he put 
 his arm around Marie's waist, and before she could 
 guess his purpose, he had seated her on the couch. 
 
 "I will be king no more," he said, "I will be 
 your lover, nothing else, and forget everything in 
 pleasure! I prefer to die happy, and not consumed 
 by the anxieties of the throne." 
 
 The tone in which he spoke and the fire that 
 gleamed in his eyes, but now lifeless, caused Marie 
 a horrible pang instead of gratifying her. At that 
 moment, she accused her love of complicity in caus- 
 ing the disease of which the king was dying. 
 
 "You forget your prisoners," she said, springing 
 abruptly to her feet. 
 
 " What are those men to me! I give them leave 
 to assassinate me." 
 
 " What! are they assassins?" she exclaimed. 
 
 " Be not alarmed, we have them fast, dear child! 
 do not think of them, but of me; do you not love 
 me?" 
 
 "Sire!" she cried. 
 
 "'Sire?'" he repeated, while his eyes flashed 
 fire, so violent was the first outburst of wrath called 
 forth by his mistress's unseasonable respect. " You 
 have an understanding with my mother!" 
 
 " O God!" cried Marie, gazing at the portrait on 
 her prie-Dieu, and striving to reach it in order to 
 kneel and pray. "O God, grant that he understand 
 me!" 
 
 " Aha!" rejoined the king, in a threatening tone, 
 "so you have something to reproach yourself for?"
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 423 
 
 He gazed at her as he held her in his arms, he 
 buried his eyes in hers. 
 
 " I have heard of the mad passion of a certain 
 D'Entragues for you," he said, wildly, "and, since 
 Captain Balzac, their grandfather, married a Vis- 
 conti at Milan, the knaves stick at nothing." 
 
 Marie met the king's gaze with such a proud ex- 
 pression that he was ashamed. At that moment, 
 little Charles de Valois, who had just awakened, 
 and whom his nurse was evidently bringing to his 
 mother, made himself heard in the adjoining salon. 
 
 " Come in, La Bourguignonne!" said Marie, taking 
 the child from the nurse and carrying him to the king. 
 " You are more of a child than he," she said, half 
 offended, half mollified. 
 
 " He is very beautiful," said Charles, taking his 
 son in his arms. 
 
 " I alone know how closely he resembles you," 
 said Marie: " he has your gestures and your smile 
 already." 
 
 " So small?" queried the king, with a smile. 
 
 " Men will never believe such things," she said; 
 " but take him, my Chariot, play with him, watch 
 him! see, am I not right?" 
 
 " It is true!" exclaimed the king, surprised by a 
 motion on the part of the child which seemed to him 
 a miniature copy of one of his own gestures. 
 
 " The lovely blossom!" said the mother. " He 
 will never leave me! he will never cause me any 
 grief." 
 
 The king played with his son, jumped him up and
 
 424 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 down, kissed him with intense passion, said to him 
 the foolish, unmeaning words, the fascinating ono- 
 matopoeia which mothers and nurses invent; he talked 
 in a childish voice, and finally his brow cleared, a 
 joyful expression returned to his saddened face, 
 and when Marie saw that her lover had forgotten 
 everything, she laid her head on his shoulder and 
 whispered these words in his ear: 
 
 " Will you not tell me, my Chariot, why you give 
 me assassins to watch, and who these men are, 
 and what you intend to do with them? And, lastly, 
 where did you go on the roofs? I trust that there's 
 no woman in the case?" 
 
 " Do you still love me so much?" said the king, 
 surprised by the clear radiance of one of those ques- 
 tioning glances which women know how to cast on 
 occasion. 
 
 "Could you doubt me?" she replied, the tears 
 glistening between her lovely eyelids. 
 
 " There are women concerned in my adventure; 
 but they are witches. Where was I?" 
 
 " You were within a few steps of here, on the 
 gable end of a house," said Marie; " on what 
 street?' 
 
 " Rue Saint-Honore, dearest," said the king, who 
 seemed to have recovered his self-control, and with 
 it the determination to prepare his mistress for the 
 scene about to take place under her roof. "As we 
 passed through that street last night in our wander- 
 ings, my eyes were attracted by a bright light from 
 a window under the eaves of the house occupied
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 425 
 
 by Rene, purveyor of perfumery and gloves to my 
 mother, yourself, and the court. I have violent sus- 
 picions as to what goes on in that man's house, and 
 if I am poisoned, the poison is brewed there." 
 
 " I leave him to-morrow," said Marie. 
 
 "Ah! so you kept him when I gave him up?" 
 cried the king. " My life was here," he continued 
 in a gloomy tone, " doubtless they have sown death 
 here for me." 
 
 "But, my child, I have just returned from Dau- 
 phine, with our dauphin," she said, with a smile, 
 " and Rene has not supplied me with anything since 
 the Queen of Navarre's death. Go on you climbed 
 up to the roof of Rene's house?" 
 
 "Yes. In a moment, followed by Tavannes, I 
 had reached a spot whence I could see, unseen my- 
 self, the interior of the devil's kitchen, and observe 
 things there which inspired the measures I have 
 taken. Did you ever examine the eaves of that 
 damned Florentine's house? The windows on the 
 street are always closed, except the last one from 
 which he can see the Hotel de Soissons and the 
 column my mother built for her astrologer, Cosmo 
 Ruggieri. Under those eaves there is a sleeping- 
 room and a corridor lighted only from the courtyard, 
 so that, in order to see what is going on there, one 
 must climb where no man would ever dream of 
 climbing, to the coping of a high wall which ends at 
 Rene's roof. The men who have set up in those 
 rooms the crucibles in which they distil death counted 
 on the cowardice of Parisians to ensure their not
 
 426 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 being watched; but they reckoned without their 
 Charles de Valois. I crawled along the gutter to a 
 window, where 1 could stand up straight against the 
 jamb by passing my arm around the monkey with 
 which it was ornamented." 
 
 " And what did you see, dear heart?" said Marie, 
 trembling with apprehension. 
 
 " A den in which the works of darkness are car- 
 ried on," replied the king. " The first object on 
 which my eyes fell was a tall old man seated in a 
 chair, with a magnificent beard as white as old 
 L'Hopital's, and dressed like him, in a black velvet 
 gown. Upon his broad forehead, furrowed deep by 
 wrinkles, upon his crown of white hair, upon his 
 placid, watchful face, pale from toil and sleepless 
 nights, were concentrated the beams of a lamp 
 which cast a brilliant light. He was dividing his at- 
 tention between a venerable manuscript, the parch- 
 ment of which must have been several centuries old, 
 and two crucibles with fires beneath, in which un- 
 godly concoctions were brewing. The floor, ceiling, 
 and walls of the laboratory were nowhere visible, 
 there were so many animals covering them, and 
 skeletons, dried plants, minerals, and ingredients of 
 all kinds; on one side, books, distilling apparatus, 
 boxes filled with utensils of magic and astrology; on 
 the other, horoscopes, phials, pierced figures, en- 
 -voutees and, it may be, poisons which he furnishes 
 Rene in payment for the hospitality and shelter 
 which my mother's perfumer accords him. Tavan- 
 nes and I were thunderstruck, I promise you, by the
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 427 
 
 aspect of that devil's arsenal; for, simply by looking 
 at it, you fall under the spell, and, had I not been King 
 of France, I should have been afraid. ' Tremble for 
 us both!' I said to Tavannes. But Tavannes's eyes 
 were fascinated by that most mysterious of spec- 
 tacles. On the couch beside the old man lay a girl 
 of the most peculiar type of beauty, slender and long 
 as a snake, white as an ermine, pale as a corpse, 
 motionless as a statue. It may have been a woman 
 recently exhumed for the purposes of some experi- 
 ment or other, for she seemed to our eyes to be still 
 wearing her shroud; her eyes were fixed, and I did 
 not see her breathe. The old villain did not pay the 
 least attention to her; I gazed at him with such pro- 
 found interest that his mind passed into me, I verily 
 believe; by dint of studying him, I ended by admiring 
 that glance, so keen and penetrating and bold, de- 
 spite the chills of age; those lips moved by thoughts 
 emanating from a desire that seemed unique; lips 
 which remained always grave amid their innumer- 
 able folds. Everything about the man indicated a 
 hope which nothing can daunt, which nothing can 
 check. His attitude, he quivered every instant 
 in his immobility, the lines of his face, so sharp, 
 so perfectly shaped by a passion that performs the 
 functions of a sculptor's chisel, that idea concen- 
 trated on some criminal or scientific experiment, that 
 unwearied intelligence, following close on the heels 
 of nature, vanquished by nature, and bent without 
 breaking under the burden of its audacity which it 
 does not abandon, threatening creation with the fire
 
 428 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 it derives therefrom all combined to fascinate me 
 for a moment. That old man seemed to me more 
 kingly than myself, for his glance embraced the 
 whole world and dominated it. I have resolved to 
 forge no more swords, I propose to soar above the 
 abysses of life as that old man does; his learning 
 seemed to me the surest form of royalty. In fact, 
 I believe in the occult sciences." 
 
 " You, the oldest son, the avenger of the Cath- 
 olic, Apostolic, and Roman Church?" said Marie. 
 
 "Yes, I!" 
 
 "What can have happened to you? Go on; I 
 choose to be afraid for you, and you shall have 
 courage for me." 
 
 "With a glance at his clock, the old man rose," 
 continued the king; "he went out, I cannot say how, 
 but I heard the window on Rue Saint-Honore open. 
 Soon a light shone in the darkness; then I saw an- 
 other light, on the column of the Hotel de Soissons, 
 answer the old man's, and by it we could distin- 
 guish Cosmo Ruggieri at the top of the column. 
 'Ah! they have an understanding!' I said to Tavan- 
 nes, who was horribly suspicious of everything, and 
 who shared my opinion that we should seize those 
 two men and have their ghastly laboratory exam- 
 ined at once. But, before proceeding to a general 
 seizure, we concluded to wait and see what hap- 
 pened. After about a quarter of an hour, the lab- 
 oratory door opened, and Cosmo Ruggieri, my 
 mother's adviser, the bottomless pit which swal- 
 lows all the secrets of the court, the man to whom
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 429 
 
 women apply for help against their husbands and 
 their lovers, and to whom the husbands and lovers 
 apply for help against their unfaithful wives and 
 mistresses, the man who deals in the future and the 
 past, receiving money from every hand, the man who 
 sells horoscopes and is supposed to know every- 
 thing that half-devil entered, greeting the old man 
 with a ' Good-evening, brother!' He brought with 
 him a frightful little old woman, toothless, hunch- 
 backed, distorted, crooked as an Indian image, but 
 more horrible; she was as wrinkled as an old apple, 
 her skin had a tinge of saffron, her chin met her nose, 
 her mouth was an almost invisible line, her eyes re- 
 sembled the black spots on dice, her brow exhaled 
 sardonic bitterness, her hair escaped in gray wisps 
 from beneath a filthy cap; she leaned on a crutch 
 as she walked; she smelt of witchcraft and the 
 stake; she frightened us, for neither Tavannes nor 
 myself took her for a human being God never 
 made anything so hideous as that. She seated 
 herself on a stool beside the pretty white snake 
 with which Tavannes had fallen in love. The 
 two brothers paid no attention to the old woman 
 or the young one, who formed a ghastly couple. 
 On the one hand, life in death; on the other, death 
 in life." 
 
 " My charming poet!" cried Marie, kissing the 
 king. 
 
 " * Good-evening, Cosmo/ the old alchemist re- 
 plied. 
 
 "And they both looked at the crucible.
 
 430 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 "'What is the moon's power to-day?' the old 
 man asked. 
 
 " 'Why, caro Lorenzo,' replied my mother's astrol- 
 oger, ' the high tides of September are not yet at an 
 end; we can ascertain nothing while everything is 
 in such confusion.' 
 
 " ' What says the Orient to us to-night?' 
 
 " ' He has discovered,' replied Cosmo, ' a creative 
 force in the air which gives back to the earth all 
 that it takes from it; he concludes, with us, that 
 everything on earth is the result of a gradual trans- 
 formation, but that all different things are forms of 
 the same substance.' 
 
 " ' That is what my predecessor believed,' said 
 Lorenzo. ' Bernard Palissy told me this morning 
 that metals were the result of compression, and that 
 fire, which divides everything, also unites every- 
 thing; that fire has the power to compress as well 
 as to separate. That fellow has genius.' 
 
 " Although I was in such a position that I could not 
 be seen, Cosmo said, taking the dead girl's hand: 
 
 " ' There is some one near us! Who is it?' 
 
 " ' The king!' she said. 
 
 " Thereupon I showed myself at the window and 
 tapped on the glass; Ruggieri opened the window 
 and I leaped into that hell's kitchen, followed by 
 Tavannes. 
 
 " ' Yes, the king,' I said to the two Florentines, 
 who seemed paralyzed with fear. ' With all your 
 crucibles and your books, your magic and your sci- 
 ence, you could not divine my visit. I am very
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 431 
 
 pleased to see the illustrious Lorenzo Ruggieri of 
 whom the queen my mother speaks so mysteri- 
 ously,' I said to the old man, who rose and bowed. 
 ' You are in the kingdom without my permission, 
 goodman. In whose interest are you working here, 
 you, whose ancestors, from father to son, have been 
 dear to the heart of the House of Medici? Hark 
 ye! You have your hand in so many purses, that 
 people of ordinary greed would long since have 
 been stuffed to repletion with gold; you are too 
 cunning to embark upon criminal enterprises im- 
 prudently, but you would have done well not to 
 shut yourselves up like idiots in this kitchen; you 
 must have secret designs, since you are content 
 neither with money nor with power. Whom do you 
 serve? God or the devil? What do you make here? 
 I will have the whole truth, I am capable of under- 
 standing it and of maintaining secrecy concerning 
 your enterprises, however blameworthy they may 
 be. You will tell me everything, therefore, with- 
 out concealment. If you deceive me, you will be 
 severely dealt with. Pagans or Christians, Calvin- 
 ists or Mahometans, you have my royal word that 
 you may leave the kingdom unpunished, in case you 
 have any peccadilloes upon your consciences. How- 
 ever, I will give you the rest of the night and to- 
 morrow morning to search your consciences, for you 
 are my prisoners, and you will follow me to a place 
 where you will be guarded like precious treasures.' 
 
 " Before complying with my orders, the two Flor- 
 entines consulted each other with a sly glance, and
 
 432 CATHERINE DE' MEDIC! 
 
 Lorenzo Ruggieri informed me that 1 might be cer- 
 tain that no torture could extort their secrets from 
 them; notwithstanding their apparent feebleness, 
 neither pain nor human feelings had any power 
 over them; confidence alone could make their lips 
 tell what their minds withheld. I need not be sur- 
 prised, he said, that they dealt upon a footing of 
 equality with a king who acknowledged no one but 
 God above him, for their thoughts also came from 
 God. Therefore they claimed from me as much 
 confidence as they accorded me. Now, before un- 
 dertaking to answer my questions unreservedly, 
 they asked me to place my left hand in the young 
 girl's, and my right in the old woman's. As I did 
 not choose to give them any reason for thinking 
 that I was afraid of witchcraft, 1 held out my hands. 
 Lorenzo took the right hand, Cosmo the left, and 
 placed them in the hands of the old and the young 
 woman, so that 1 was like Jesus Christ between 
 his two thieves. Throughout the time that the sor- 
 ceresses were examining my hands, Cosmo held a 
 mirror before me, requesting me to look at myself 
 in it, and his brother talked with the two women in 
 a strange tongue. Neither Tavannes nor myself 
 could gather the meaning of a single sentence. 
 Before we brought the two men here, we placed 
 seals on all the exits of that laboratory, which 
 Tavannes undertook to guard until Bernard Palissy 
 and Chapelain, my physician, should be brought 
 there, by my express order, to make an exact in- 
 ventory of all the drugs that were kept or made
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 433 
 
 there. In order to keep them in ignorance of the 
 investigations that were being made in their kitchen, 
 and to prevent them from having communication 
 with any person outside, for they might have con- 
 cocted some scheme with my mother, I placed the 
 two devils in secret confinement here in your house, 
 guarded by Solern's Germans, who are equal to 
 the strongest prison-walls. Rene himself has been 
 kept in sight in his room by Solern's equerry, and 
 the same is true of the two witches. Now, my 
 dearest darling, since I hold the keys of the cabal, 
 the kings of Thune, the leaders of the legions of 
 sorcery, the princes of Bohemia, the masters of the 
 future, the heirs of all the famous fortune-tellers, I 
 propose to read in your mind and heart, so that we 
 may know what will become of us!" 
 
 " I shall be very happy if they can lay my heart 
 bare," said Marie, with no sign of apprehension. 
 
 " I know why sorcerers have no terrors for you: 
 you cast spells yourself." 
 
 "Will you not have one of these peaches?" she 
 replied, offering him some beautiful fruit on a gilt 
 plate. " See the grapes and pears; I picked them 
 all myself at Vincennes." 
 
 " Then I will eat some of them, for there is no 
 other poison to dread than the love-philters that 
 come from your hands." 
 
 " You should eat a great deal of fruit, Charles; 
 it would cool your blood, which you are drying up 
 with all your violent passions." 
 
 " Should I not also love you a little less?" 
 28
 
 434 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 " Perhaps," she said. " If the things you love 
 injure you, and I have thought so! I can find in 
 my love the strength to deny them to you. I adore 
 Charles the man more than I love the king, and I 
 wish the man to live without these tormenting cares 
 that make him sad and thoughtful." 
 
 " Royalty is ruining me." 
 
 " True," she replied. " If you were only a poor 
 prince like your brother-in-law, the King of Navarre, 
 the little lady-killer who has not a sou, who pos- 
 sesses naught but a paltry kingdom in Spain, where 
 he will never set foot, and Beam in France, which 
 gives him barely enough to live on, I should be 
 happy, much happier than if I were really Queen 
 of France." 
 
 " But are you not more than the queen? She has 
 King Charles only for the welfare of the kingdom, 
 for what is the queen but politics in another form?" 
 
 Marie smiled, and said with a sweet little pout: 
 
 " Nothing else, indeed, sire. What about my son- 
 net is it written?" 
 
 " Dear little one, verses are as difficult to write as 
 edicts of pacification, but I shall finish yours soon. 
 Mon Dieu! how pleasant life is to me here! I wish 
 I need never go away. And yet the two Florentines 
 must be questioned. Tete-Dieu! I considered that 
 one Ruggieri in the kingdom was more than enough, 
 and behold there are two of them! Listen, my 
 dearest love, you do not lack wit, you would make 
 an excellent lieutenant of police, for you divine 
 everything "
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 435 
 
 "But, sire, we imagine whatever we dread, and 
 to us the probable is the true; there, in a word, is 
 the whole secret of our shrewdness." 
 
 "Very well, assist me to probe these two men. 
 At this moment, all my plans depend on the result of 
 their examination. Are they innocent? are they 
 guilty? My mother is behind them." 
 
 " I hear Jacob's voice on the stairs," said Marie. 
 
 Jacob was the king's favorite valet, who attended 
 him in all his expeditions of pleasure; he came to 
 ask if his master wished to speak with the two 
 prisoners. 
 
 The king made an affirmative sign, and the mistress 
 of the house gave her orders. 
 
 "Jacob," she said, "make everybody leave the 
 house except Monsieur le Dauphin d'Auvergne and 
 his nurse, who may remain. Do you yourself re- 
 main in the room below; but, first of all, close the 
 windows, draw the curtains in the salon, and light 
 the candles." 
 
 The king's impatience was so great that, before 
 the preparations were completed, he took his seat 
 upon a raised chair beside which his pretty mistress 
 had placed herself, in front of a high white marble 
 fireplace in which a bright fire was blazing. There 
 was a portrait of the king in a red velvet frame in 
 place of the mirror. Charles rested his elbow on 
 the arm of his chair, the better to scrutinize the two 
 Florentines.
 
 When the windows were closed and the curtains 
 drawn, Jacob lighted the candles in a carved silver 
 candelabrum, and placed it on the table at which 
 the two Florentines were to sit, so that they might 
 recognize the handiwork of their compatriot Ben- 
 venuto Cellini. The rich aspect of that apartment, 
 decorated to suit the taste of the king, became 
 more striking in the bright light. One could see 
 more clearly than by daylight the reddish-brown of 
 the upholstery. The furniture, carved with great 
 delicacy, reflected candle-light and fire-light in its 
 polished ebony panels. The gilding, sparingly dis- 
 tributed, gleamed here and there like eyes, and 
 gave life to the sombre brown which was the pre- 
 vailing color in that abode of love. 
 
 Jacob knocked twice, and, at a word from within, 
 admitted the two Florentines. Marie Touchet was 
 impressed at once by the grandeur of aspect which 
 attracted the attention of great and small to Lorenzo 
 Ruggieri. That austere old man, whose silvery 
 beard was heightened in effect by a black velvet 
 cape, had a forehead like a marble dome. His stern 
 face, whence two black eyes cast a penetrating flame, 
 caused the thrill of emotion that one feels in pres- 
 ence of a genius newly come forth from his pro- 
 found solitude, a genius the more impressive because 
 his power was not blunted by contact with men. 
 (437)
 
 438 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 One might have likened him to the steel of a blade 
 that has never been used. 
 
 As for Cosmo Ruggieri, he wore the costume of 
 the courtiers of that period. Marie looked at the king 
 and made a gesture signifying that he had not exag- 
 gerated at all in what he had told her, and thanking 
 him for exhibiting that extraordinary man to her. 
 
 " I would have liked to see the witches, too," 
 she whispered in the king's ear. 
 
 Charles IX., once more lost in thought, did not 
 reply; he was absent-mindedly picking bread-crumbs 
 from his doublet and breeches. 
 
 " Your science can produce no effect on the 
 sky, nor compel the sun to appear, my Florentine 
 friends," he began, pointing to the curtains which 
 the gray Parisian atmosphere had lowered. "The 
 light is fading." 
 
 " Our science, sire, will furnish us with a sky to 
 suit our whim," said Lorenzo. " The weather is 
 always fine to him who works in a laboratory by 
 the light of his furnaces." 
 
 " True," said the king." Well, father," he con- 
 tinued, using a title which he commonly applied to 
 old men, "will you explain to us fully the aim of 
 your studies?" 
 
 "Who will guarantee us impunity?" 
 
 " The king's word," replied Charles, whose curi- 
 osity was keenly excited by the question. 
 
 Lorenzo seemed to hesitate, whereupon Charles 
 exclaimed : 
 
 "What detains you? we are alone."
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 439 
 
 "Is the King of France here?" inquired the tall 
 old man. 
 
 Charles reflected a moment, then answered : 
 
 "No." 
 
 " But will he not come?" persisted Lorenzo. 
 
 "No," said Charles, restraining an angry out- 
 burst. 
 
 The imposing old man took a chair and sat down. 
 Cosmo, astounded by such presumption, dared not 
 imitate his brother. 
 
 " The king is not here, monsieur, "said Charles IX., 
 with bitter irony; " but you are in the presence of a 
 lady whose permission you should await." 
 
 " He whom you see before you, madame," said 
 the tall old man, thereupon, "is as far above kings 
 as kings are above their subjects, and you will not 
 think me lacking in courtesy when you know my 
 power." 
 
 Hearing those insolent words, uttered with true 
 Italian emphasis, Charles and Marie glanced at each 
 other and at Cosmo, whose eyes were fixed upon his 
 brother, and who seemed to be saying to himself: 
 " How will he extricate himself from the evil plight 
 in which we are?" 
 
 Indeed, there was but one person present who 
 could appreciate the grandeur and craft of Lorenzo 
 Ruggieri's opening; that person was neither the 
 king nor his young mistress, on whom the old man 
 had cast the spell of his audacity, but the wily 
 Cosmo. Although far superior to the cleverest 
 courtiers, and, perhaps, to Catherine de' Medici, his
 
 440 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 patroness, the astrologer acknowledged his brother 
 Lorenzo as his master. 
 
 That aged scholar, shrouded in solitude, had 
 passed judgment upon the sovereigns of Europe, 
 almost all of whom were exhausted by the constant 
 turmoil of an epoch when political crises were so 
 sudden, so unexpected, so absorbing, so intense; he 
 knew their ennui, their weariness; he knew with 
 what warmth they pursued the strange, the new, 
 the odd, and especially how they delighted to soar 
 in intellectual spheres, to avoid being always at 
 odds with men and events. To those who have ex- 
 hausted the interest of politics, naught remains but 
 pure thought; Charles V. had proved it by his abdi- 
 cation. Charles IX., who forged sonnets and swords 
 to escape the consuming anxieties of public affairs in 
 an age when the throne was in no less danger than 
 the king, and who had only the cares of kingship 
 without its pleasures, was certain to be rudely 
 awakened by the audacious denial of his power 
 which Lorenzo had ventured to make. Impiety in 
 religious matters was by no means surprising at a 
 time when Catholicism was being so savagely scru- 
 tinized; but the overturning of all religion put for- 
 ward as a foundation for the wild antics of a mys- 
 terious art was certain to make a deep impression 
 on the king and to draw him out of his gloomy pre- 
 occupation. Furthermore, a conquest in which all 
 mankind was involved was an undertaking which 
 could but render everything else of trifling conse- 
 quence in the eyes of the Ruggieri. Upon their
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 441 
 
 success in imparting that idea to the king depended 
 an important concession which the brothers could 
 not ask and which they must obtain! The essential 
 point was to make Charles forget his suspicions by 
 bringing him face to face with some new idea. 
 
 The two Italians were well aware that the stake 
 in that strange game was their own lives; and the 
 glances, at once submissive and proud, with which 
 they met the keen and suspicious glances of Marie 
 and the king, were a whole play in themselves. 
 
 "Sire," said Lorenzo Ruggieri, "you have asked 
 me for the truth; but in order to lay it before you 
 in all its nakedness, 1 must cause you to sound the 
 depth of the supposed well, the abyss from which it 
 is about to come forth. May the nobleman, the poet, 
 forgive us for words which the eldest son of the 
 Church might consider blasphemous! I do not believe 
 that God concerns Himself with the affairs of men." 
 
 Although firmly resolved to maintain a kingly 
 stoicism, Charles IX. could not restrain a move- 
 ment of surprise. 
 
 " Except for that conviction, I should have no faith 
 in the miraculous work to which I have devoted my- 
 self; but, to pursue it, it is necessary to believe in 
 it; and if God's finger guides everything, I am a 
 madman. Let me inform the king, therefore, that 
 our aim is to obtain a triumph over the present prog- 
 ress of human nature. I am an alchemist, sire. But 
 do not think with the vulgar herd that I seek to 
 make gold ! The manufacture of gold is not the ob- 
 ject, but an incident, of our investigations; otherwise
 
 442 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 our effort would not be called the GREAT WORK! 
 The great work is something bolder than that. If, 
 therefore, I should admit to-day the presence of God 
 in matter, at my voice, the flame of furnaces lighted 
 for centuries would be extinguished to-morrow. But 
 to deny the direct action of God is not to deny God, 
 mark that! We place the Author of all things on a 
 far higher plane than that to which earthly religions 
 degrade him. Do not accuse of atheism those who 
 seek immortality. Following Lucifer's example, we 
 are jealous of God, and jealousy predicates passion- 
 ate love! Although that doctrine is the basis of our 
 labors, all adepts are not imbued with it. Cosmo," 
 said the old man, pointing to his brother, " Cosmo 
 is religious; he pays for masses for the repose of our 
 father's soul and goes to hear them. Your mother's 
 astrologer believes in the divinity of Christ, in the 
 Immaculate Conception, in transubstantiation; he 
 believes in the Pope's indulgences, in hell, in an 
 endless number of things. His hour is not yet 
 come! for I have cast his horoscope, and he will 
 live well-nigh a hundred years: he is destined to live 
 through two more reigns, and to see two kings of 
 France assassinated." 
 
 " Who will be?" queried the king. 
 
 " The last of the Valois and the first of the Bour- 
 bons," replied Lorenzo. "But Cosmo will come 
 over to my opinions. Indeed, it is impossible to be 
 an alchemist and a Catholic, to believe in man's 
 despotic power over matter and in the sovereignty 
 of the spirit."
 
 CATHERINE DE* MEDICI 443 
 
 "Cosmo will live to be a hundred?" said the 
 king, making no attempt to restrain the terrible 
 contraction of his eyebrows. 
 
 "Yes, sire," replied Lorenzo, confidently, "he 
 will die peaceably and in his bed." 
 
 " If you have the power to foretell the moment 
 of your death, why do you not know the result of 
 your experiments?" 
 
 Charles glanced at Marie Touchet with a smile of 
 triumph. 
 
 The two brothers swiftly exchanged a joyous 
 glance. 
 
 "He is interested in alchemy," they thought; 
 " we are saved !" 
 
 " Our prognostics rest upon the present condition 
 of the relations between nature and man; but what 
 we are striving to do is to change those relations 
 entirely." 
 
 The king became thoughtful. 
 
 " But if you are certain of dying, you are certain 
 of your failure," he said. 
 
 " As our predecessors were!" rejoined Lorenzo, 
 raising his hand and letting it fall again with a 
 solemn and emphatic gesture proportioned to the 
 grandeur of his thought. " But your mind has 
 gone at one leap to the end of the road; we must 
 retrace our steps, sire! If you are not familiar with 
 the ground on which our edifice is built, you may 
 tell us that it will crumble, and judge the science 
 cultivated from century to century by the greatest 
 men as ordinary men judge it."
 
 444 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 The king made a sign of assent. 
 
 " I believe, then, that this earth belongs to man, 
 that he controls it, and can appropriate all its forces, 
 all the substances of which it consists. Man is not 
 a creation issuing directly from God's hands, but a 
 consequence of the elemental principle sown in the 
 boundless expanse of the ether, where myriads of 
 creatures are produced, differing absolutely in the 
 different planets, because the conditions of life are 
 different. Yes, sire, the subtle motion which we call 
 life takes its source beyond all visible worlds; the 
 different creations divide it up among themselves at 
 the will of their environments, and the least impor- 
 tant creatures participate in it, taking so much as 
 they are able to take, at their own risk and peril; 
 it is for them to defend themselves against death. 
 Therein lies the whole secret of alchemy. If man, 
 the most perfect animal on this globe, bore within 
 himself a portion of God, he would not die, but he 
 does die. To avoid this difficulty, Socrates and his 
 school invented the soul. I, the successor of many 
 unknown kings who have guided the destinies of 
 this science, I am for the old theories against the 
 new; I am for the transformations of matter which 
 I see with my eyes as against the impossible immor- 
 tality of a soul which I do not see. I do not recog- 
 nize the sphere of the soul. If that sphere existed, 
 the substances whose marvellous combination pro- 
 duces your body, and which are so beautiful in 
 madame, would not be resolved after your death to 
 return each to its own place, water to water, fire
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 445 
 
 to fire, metal to metal, just as, when my coal is 
 burned out, its elements have returned to their 
 original molecules. If you assert that something 
 survives us, that something is not ourselves; for 
 everything that goes to make up the actual ego per- 
 ishes! Now, it is this actual ego which I seek to 
 continue beyond the allotted term of its life; I seek 
 to prolong the duration of the present period of 
 transformation. What! do you say that trees live 
 centuries, and that men live only years, when the 
 former are passive and the latter active! when the 
 former are without speech or motion, and the others 
 talk and move! No creation here on earth should 
 be superior to ours, either in power or in duration. 
 Already we have enlarged the scope of our faculties, 
 we can look into the planets! We should be able 
 to extend our lives! I place life before power. Of 
 what use is power if life escapes us? A sensible man 
 should have no other occupation than to discover, not 
 whether there is another life, but the secret upon 
 which his present life depends, in order that he may 
 continue it at his pleasure. That is the quest which 
 is whitening my hair; but I march on fearlessly in 
 the darkness, leading to the battle the minds which 
 share my faith. Life will be ours some day!" 
 
 " But how?" cried the king, rising abruptly. 
 
 "As it is the first condition of our faith to believe 
 that the world belongs to man, you must grant me 
 that point," said Lorenzo. 
 
 "Very well, so be it!" rejoined the impatient 
 Charles de Valois, fascinated already.
 
 446 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 "If we eliminate God from this world, sire, what 
 remains? Man! Let us examine our domain. The 
 material world is made up of elements; those ele- 
 ments are themselves made up of principles. Those 
 principles are resolved into a single one which is 
 endowed with motion. The number THREE is the 
 formula of creation: matter, motion, product!" 
 " Stop there!" cried the king. " The proof?" 
 "Do you not see its effects?" replied Lorenzo. 
 " We have subjected to the heat of our crucibles the 
 acorn which contains the germ of an oak as well as 
 the embryo which contains the germ of a man; from 
 that small quantity of matter came forth a pure 
 principle to which some force, some motion, must be 
 joined. In default of a creator, must not that princi- 
 ple impose upon itself the successive forms which 
 constitute our world ? for this phenomenon of life is 
 everywhere the same. Yes, in metals as in beings, 
 in plants as in men, life begins with an impercepti- 
 ble germ which develops itself. There is a primi- 
 tive principle! let us grasp it at the point where it 
 acts upon itself, where it is a unit, where it is really 
 a principle, not a creature, a cause, not an effect, 
 we shall see it by itself, formless, ready to assume 
 all the forms which we see it assume in life. When 
 we are face to face with this atom, when we have 
 surprised motion at its starting-point, we shall know 
 its laws; thenceforth, being able to impose upon it 
 whatever form we please among all those which we 
 see it assume, we shall possess gold enough to buy 
 the world, and we will give ourselves centuries of
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 447 
 
 life to enjoy it. That is what my people and I are 
 seeking. All our powers, all our thoughts, are de- 
 voted to that search, nothing can turn us aside from 
 it. An hour squandered upon any other passion 
 would be a theft of a portion of our greatness! Just 
 as you have never known one of your dogs to forget 
 the beast and the quarry, so I have never known 
 one of my patient subjects to be distracted by a 
 woman or by any avaricious motive. If the adept 
 craves wealth and power, that craving is due to our 
 needs: he grasps a fortune as the thirsty dog laps 
 up a drop of water as he runs; because his furnaces 
 demand a diamond to melt or ingots to be pulverized. 
 To every man his own work! This one seeks the 
 secret of vegetable life, he watches the slow growth 
 of plants, he notes the parity of motion in all species 
 and the parity of nutrition; he finds that sunlight, 
 air, and water are everywhere necessary to fruc- 
 tify and nourish. That one examines the blood of 
 animals. Another studies the laws of motion in gen- 
 eral and its connection with the revolution of the 
 heavenly bodies. Almost all persist in contending 
 with the intractable nature of metal: for, although 
 we find several elementary principles in all things, 
 we find that all metals resemble one another in their 
 smallest details. Hence the common error concern- 
 ing our labors. See all those patient, unwearying 
 athletes, always conquered and always returning to 
 the conflict! Mankind is behind us, sire! as the 
 whipper-in is behind your pack. It cries out to us: 
 ' Hasten! Omit nothing! Sacrifice everything, even
 
 448 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 a man, ye who sacrifice yourselves! Hasten! Strike 
 off the head and arm of DEATH, my enemy!' Yes, 
 sire! we are inspired by a sentiment which looks 
 forward to the welfare of generations to come. We 
 have buried a vast number of men and such men! 
 who have died in this quest. When we embark 
 upon this career, we may not be working for our- 
 selves; we may die without finding the secret! and 
 what a death is that of the man who does not believe 
 in another life! We are glorious martyrs, we have 
 the egotism of the whole race in our hearts, we live 
 in our successors. As we go forward, we discover 
 secrets with which we endow the mechanical and 
 liberal arts. Our furnaces emit gleams of light 
 which arm societies with more perfect instruments 
 of industry. Powder came forth from our alembics, 
 we shall overcome the lightning. There are political 
 revolutions in our assiduous vigils." 
 
 "Can it be possible?" cried the king, rising a 
 second time from his chair. 
 
 "Why not?" said the grand master of the new 
 Order of Templars. "Tradidit mundum disputation- 
 ibust God has abandoned the world to us! Once 
 more, hear what I say: Man is master here below, 
 and all matter is his. All forces, all instruments, are 
 at his disposal. Who created us? motion. What 
 power keeps life in us? motion. Why should not 
 science grasp the secret of that motion? Nothing on 
 earth is lost, nothing escapes from our planet to go 
 elsewhere; otherwise the stars would fall one upon 
 another; thus the waters of the Flood still exist, in
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 449 
 
 their elemental principles, and not a single drop has 
 vanished. All around us, below, above, are the 
 elements whence issued the innumerable millions of 
 men who thronged the earth before and after the 
 Flood. What do we seek? to grasp the force which 
 disunites; at the same stroke we shall grasp the 
 force which reunites. We are the product of a 
 visible industry. When the waters covered our 
 globe, there came forth men who found the ele- 
 ments of their life in the envelope of the earth, in 
 the air, and in their food. Therefore earth and air 
 contain the principle of human transformations, they 
 take place before our eyes, with other things which 
 are before our eyes; therefore we may surprise that 
 secret, not restricting the search to the life of a 
 single man, but extending it, so far as its duration 
 is concerned, to mankind itself. Thus we are 
 brought face to face with Matter, in which I be- 
 lieve, and which I, the grand master of the Order, 
 propose to penetrate. Christopher Columbus gave 
 a world to the King of Spain; I seek an immortal 
 people for the King of France! Stationed beyond 
 the most distant frontier which separates us from 
 knowledge of Matter, like a patient observer of 
 molecular movements, I destroy forms, I shatter the 
 bonds of every combination, I imitate death in order 
 that I may imitate life! In fine, I knock incessantly 
 at the door of creation and shall continue to knock 
 at it to my last day. When I am dead, the knocker 
 will pass into other hands as indefatigable, just as 
 unknown giants handed it down to me. Fabulous 
 29
 
 450 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 images, not hitherto understood, like those of Prome- 
 theus, Ixion, Adonis, Pan, etc., which form a part of 
 the religious beliefs of all countries, in all ages, inform 
 us that this hope was born with the human race. 
 Chaldasa, India, Persia, Egypt, Greece, the Moors, 
 transmitted to one another Magism, the most exalted 
 of the occult sciences, which holds in trust the fruit of 
 the vigils of each succeeding generation. Therein 
 was the bond of the grand and majestic Order of 
 the Temple. When one of your ancestors, sire, 
 burned the Templars, he burned only the men, the 
 secrets remain in our keeping. The rebuilding of 
 the Temple is the watchword of an unknown nation, 
 races of fearless investigators, all turned toward the 
 Orient of life, all brethren, all inseparable, united by 
 an idea, stamped with the seal of toil. I am the sov- 
 ereign of that people, first by election and not by 
 birth. I guide them all toward the essence of life! 
 grand master, red-cross knights, companions, nov- 
 ices, one and all we follow the imperceptible mole- 
 cule which shuns our crucibles, which eludes our 
 eyes; but we will make for ourselves eyes more 
 powerful than those nature gave us, we will dis- 
 cover the primitive atom, the elementary corpuscle 
 courageously sought by all the sages who have pre- 
 ceded us in this sublime pursuit. Sire, when a man 
 is mounted upon that abyss, and when he has divers 
 under his command as bold as my brethren, all other 
 human interests seem very trivial; so we are not 
 dangerous. Religious disputes and political discus- 
 sions are far from us, we are far above all such
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 451 
 
 things. When one is contending with nature, one 
 does not descend to throttle a man or two. More- 
 over, every result, however small, is fixed and deter- 
 minable in our science; we can measure and predict 
 them all; whereas everything is fluctuating in the 
 combinations into which men and their interests enter. 
 We will subject the diamond to the heat of our cruci- 
 ble, we will make diamonds, we will make gold ! We 
 will make vessels move with a little water and a little 
 fire, as one of our brethren did at Barcelona. We 
 will do without the wind, we will make the wind, 
 we will make light, we will transform the face of 
 empires by new industries! But we will never stoop 
 to mount a throne, to be gehennaed by the peoples!" 
 
 Despite his determination not to allow himself to 
 be deceived by Florentine wiles, the king, as well 
 as his innocent mistress, was already caught, en- 
 tangled in the folds and meshes of that pompous 
 charlatan's loquacity. The eyes of the lovers at- 
 tested the dazzling effect of all that mysterious 
 wealth spread out before them; they seemed to see 
 a long line of subterranean caverns full of gnomes 
 at work. The impatience of curiosity dissipated the 
 unrest of suspicion. 
 
 "Why, in that case," cried the king, "you are 
 great statesmen, who can give us light." 
 
 " No, sire," said Lorenzo, artlessly. 
 
 " Why not?" demanded the king. 
 
 "Sire, it is given to no mortal to foretell what 
 will result from an assemblage of some millions of 
 men: we can say what one man will do, how long he
 
 452 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 will live, whether he will be happy or unhappy; 
 but we cannot say what many wills combined will 
 effect, and it is even more difficult to calculate the 
 fluctuating movements of their interests, for inter- 
 ests are men rather than things; but we can, in soli- 
 tude, perceive the greater part of the future. The 
 Protestantism which devours you will be devoured 
 in its turn by its own material consequences, which 
 will become theories in due time. Europe is giving 
 its attention to religion to-day; to-morrow, it will 
 attack royalty." 
 
 " The Saint Bartholomew, then, was a grand con- 
 ception?" 
 
 " Yes, sire, for if the people triumph, they will 
 have a Saint Bartholomew of their own! When 
 religion and royalty are crushed, the people will 
 turn upon the great; after the great, they will strike 
 at the rich. Finally, when Europe is no longer 
 aught but a flock of men without cohesion, because 
 it is without leaders, it will be consumed by vulgar 
 conquerors. Twenty times already the world has 
 presented that spectacle, and Europe is preparing 
 to present it once more. Ideas devour epochs as 
 men are devoured by their passions. When man 
 shall be cured, it may be that mankind will be 
 cured. Science is the soul of mankind, we are its 
 pontiffs; and he who gives his attention to the soul 
 cares but little about the body." 
 
 " How far have you gone?" asked the king. 
 
 "We move slowly, but we lose none of our con- 
 quests."
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 453 
 
 "So you are the king of sorcerers?" said the 
 king, piqued to find himself of so little consequence 
 before that man. 
 
 The imposing grand master bestowed upon Charles 
 a flaming glance which paralyzed him. 
 
 "You are king of men, and I am king of ideas," 
 he replied. "Moreover, if there were real sorcer- 
 ers, you would have been unable to burn them," 
 he replied, with a touch of irony. " We have our 
 martyrs, too." 
 
 " But how can you cast horoscopes?" inquired 
 the king; "how did you know that the man who 
 stood by your window last night was the King of 
 France? What power enabled one of your brethren 
 to tell my mother the destinies of her three sons? 
 Can you, grand master of the order which seeks to 
 mould the world, can you tell me what the queen, 
 my mother, is thinking about at this moment?" 
 
 "Yes, sire." 
 
 That answer was given before Cosmo could pull 
 his brother's sleeve to bid him be silent. 
 
 " Do you know why my brother, the King of 
 Poland, is returning to France?" 
 
 "Yes, sire." 
 
 "Why?" 
 
 " To take your place." 
 
 " Our nearest kin are our most cruel enemies!" 
 cried the king, springing to his feet in a rage and 
 pacing the room with long strides. " Kings have 
 neither brothers nor sons nor mother. Coligny 
 was right; my executioners are not the Huguenot
 
 454 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 preachers, they are in the Louvre! You are impos- 
 tors or regicides! Jacob, call Solern." 
 
 "Sire," said Marie Touchet, "the Ruggieri have 
 your word as a gentleman. You desired to taste 
 the tree of science, do not complain of its bitter- 
 ness." 
 
 The king smiled a smile of bitter scorn: his ma- 
 terial royalty seemed to him a pitiful thing in face 
 of the boundless intellectual royalty of old Lorenzo 
 Ruggieri. Charles could hardly govern France; the 
 grand master of the red-cross knights governed an 
 intelligent and submissive world. 
 
 "Answer me frankly; I pledge my word as a gen- 
 tleman that your answer, even though it be a con- 
 fession of horrible crimes, shall be as if it had never 
 been uttered. You dabble in poisons?" 
 
 " In order to know what gives life, surely we 
 must know what causes death." 
 
 "You possess the secret of preparing many 
 poisons?" 
 
 "Yes, sire, but in theory only, not in practice; 
 we know them, but do not make use of them." 
 
 " Has my mother ever asked for any?" asked the 
 king, breathlessly. 
 
 " Sire," replied Lorenzo, " Queen Catherine is 
 too adroit to employ such methods. She knows 
 that the king or queen who uses poison dies by 
 poison; the Borgias, and Bianca, the Grand Duchess 
 of Tuscany, are notable examples of the dangers 
 inherent in such wretched expedients. Everything 
 is known at court. You can kill a poor devil in any
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 455 
 
 way you choose, and what is the use of poisoning 
 him? But when you attack persons of prominence, 
 is there a single chance of secrecy ? The shot that 
 killed Coligny could have been fired only by you, 
 or the queen-mother, or the Guises. No one was 
 deceived as to that. Believe me, one cannot use 
 poison twice in political life with impunity. Princes 
 always have successors. As for the humble, if, 
 like Luther, they become sovereigns by virtue of 
 the power of ideas, one does not kill their doctrines 
 by putting the men out of the way. The queen is 
 a Florentine, she knows that poison can safely be 
 used only as the instrument of personal vengeance. 
 My brother, who has not left her since she came to 
 France, knows how much chagrin Madame Diane 
 caused her; she never dreamed of poisoning her, 
 although she might have done it; what would the 
 king, your father, have said? and yet, had she done 
 it, she would have acted more within her right and 
 with absolute certainty of impunity. Madame de 
 Valentinois still lives." 
 
 " And what of the pierced images?" rejoined the 
 king. 
 
 "Sire," said Cosmo, "those things are so per- 
 fectly innocent, that we make use of them to gratify 
 blind passions, as the doctors give pills made of 
 dough to imaginary invalids. A desperate woman 
 believes that by piercing the heart of an image she 
 brings misfortune on the head of the unfaithful 
 swain whom it represents. What would you have? 
 they are our taxes."
 
 456 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 " The Pope sells indulgences," remarked Lorenzo, 
 smiling. 
 
 " Has my mother dealt in the images?" 
 
 " Of what use are such ridiculous methods to one 
 who is all-powerful?" 
 
 " Could Queen Catherine save you at this mo- 
 ment?" rejoined the king, with a threatening expres- 
 sion. 
 
 "Why, we are in no danger, sire," said Lorenzo 
 Ruggieri tranquilly. " I knew, before I entered this 
 house, that I should go from it safe and sound, as 
 well as I know how ill-disposed the king will be to- 
 ward my brother a few days hence; but if he be in 
 any peril, he will triumph over it. If the king reigns 
 by the sword, he reigns by the law as well!" he 
 added, alluding to the celebrated device on a medal 
 struck for Charles IX. 
 
 "You know everything, I shall die soon, that is 
 all very well," said the king, concealing his anger 
 beneath a feverish impatience ; " but how will 
 my brother die, who, as you say, is to be King 
 Henri III.?" 
 
 "A violent death." 
 
 "And Monsieur d'Alencon?" 
 
 " He will not reign." 
 
 "Will Henri de Bourbon reign?" 
 
 "Yes, sire." 
 
 " And how will he die?" 
 
 " A violent death." 
 
 " And when I am dead, what will become of ma- 
 dame?" asked the king, indicating Marie Touchet.
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 457 
 
 " Madame de Belleville will marry, sire." 
 
 "You are impostors! Send them away, sire," 
 said Marie. 
 
 " My love, the Ruggieri have my word as a gen- 
 tleman," said the king, with a smile. "Will Marie 
 have children?" 
 
 "Yes, sire, madame will live to be more than 
 eighty." 
 
 "Shall we have them hanged?" the king asked 
 his mistress. " And what of my son the Comte 
 d'Auvergne?" he added, going to fetch him. 
 
 " Why did you tell him that I should marry?" 
 Marie Touchet asked the brothers during the brief 
 moment that they were alone. 
 
 " Madame," replied Lorenzo, with dignity, "the 
 king ordered us to tell the truth, and we are doing 
 so." 
 
 " Is it true, then?" said she. 
 
 " As true as it is that the Governor of Orleans 
 loves you to distraction." 
 
 " But I do not love him!" she cried. 
 
 " Very true, madame," said Lorenzo; " but your 
 horoscope declares that you will marry the man who 
 loves you at this moment." 
 
 " Can you not lie a little for my sake?" she said, 
 smiling, "for suppose the king should believe your 
 predictions!" 
 
 "Is it not necessary, too, that he believe in our 
 innocence?" said Cosmo, with a shrewd glance at 
 the favorite. " The precautions taken by the king 
 in our regard have caused us to conclude, while we
 
 458 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 have been confined in this pretty little jail of yours, 
 that the occult sciences have been slandered to 
 him." 
 
 " Never fear," replied Marie, " I know him well, 
 and his suspicions have vanished." 
 
 " We are innocent," said the tall old man, proudly. 
 
 "So much the better," said Marie, "for the king 
 is having your laboratory, your crucibles, and your 
 phials examined by experts at this moment." 
 
 The brothers glanced at each other with a smile. 
 
 Marie Touchet mistook for amused innocence that 
 smile, which really meant: " Poor fools, do you 
 suppose that, if we make poisons, we do not know 
 where to hide them?" 
 
 " Where are the king's people?" inquired Cosmo. 
 
 "At Rene's house," Marie replied. 
 
 Cosmo and Lorenzo again exchanged glances which 
 conveyed the same thought: " The H6tel de Soissons 
 is inviolable!" 
 
 The king had so entirely forgotten his suspicions, 
 that, when he went to fetch his son, and Jacob 
 stopped him to hand him a note sent by Chapelain, 
 he opened it with a feeling of absolute certainty that 
 he should find in it what he actually did find con- 
 cerning the examination of the laboratory; his 
 physician wrote that they found nothing except 
 materials and appliances used in alchemy. 
 
 "Will his life be a happy one?" said the king, 
 exhibiting his son to the two alchemists. 
 
 " That is for Cosmo to say," said Lorenzo, look- 
 ing toward his brother.
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 459 
 
 Cosmo took the child's little hand and examined 
 it very carefully. 
 
 "Monsieur," said Charles to the old man, "if 
 you find it necessary to deny the existence of the 
 spirit in order to believe in the possibility of your 
 undertaking, explain to me how you can doubt that 
 which constitutes your power. The thought which 
 you seek to annul is the torch which furnishes light 
 for your investigations. Ah! is it not as if you were 
 to deny motion even while you are moving?" cried 
 the king, who was well-pleased that he had thought 
 of that argument, and glanced triumphantly at his 
 mistress. 
 
 " Thought," replied Lorenzo Ruggieri, " is the ex- 
 ercise of an inward sense, as the faculty of seeing 
 several objects and discerning their dimensions and 
 their color is a result of the sense of sight. That 
 has nothing to do with the claims that are made con- 
 cerning another life. Thought is a faculty which 
 ceases even in our lifetime with the forces which 
 produce it." 
 
 "You are logical," said the king, in amazement. 
 " But alchemy is an atheistical science." 
 
 " Materialistic, sire, which is a very different 
 matter. Materialism is the outcome of the Indian 
 doctrines transmitted through the mysteries of Isis 
 to Chaldasa and Egypt, and brought to Greece by 
 Pythagoras, one of the demi-gods of mankind: his 
 doctrine of transformations is the mathematics of ma- 
 terialism, the living law of its phases. To each of 
 the different creations which compose the terrestrial
 
 460 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 creation belongs the power of retarding the move- 
 ment which carries it onward into another." 
 
 "Then alchemy is the science of sciences!" ex- 
 claimed Charles, enthusiastically. " I long to see 
 you at work." 
 
 "Whenever you please, sire; you will be no more 
 impatient than the queen, your mother " 
 
 "Oh! so that is why she is so fond of you!" 
 exclaimed the king. 
 
 "The House of Medici has secretly encouraged 
 our investigations for more than a century." 
 
 "Sire," said Cosmo, "this child will live nearly 
 a hundred years; he will have his trials, but he will 
 be happy and held in honor, as having in his veins 
 the blood of the Valois." 
 
 " I will go to visit you, messieurs," said the king, 
 once more in a good humor. " You may go." 
 
 The two brothers saluted Marie and Charles IX., 
 and retired. They descended the stairs with solemn 
 faces, not looking at each other or speaking; they 
 did not even turn to look at the windows when 
 they were in the courtyard, feeling certain that the 
 king's eye was watching them: in fact, they did 
 catch a glimpse of Charles at the window when 
 they turned sidewise to pass through the street- 
 gate. When they were on Rue de 1'Autruche they 
 looked in front and behind to see whether they were 
 followed or awaited; they went as far as the moats 
 of the Louvre without uttering a word; but at that 
 point, finding that they were alone, Lorenzo said to 
 Cosmo, in the Florentine of that period:
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 461 
 
 "Affe d'Iddio! como le abbiamo infinocchiato ! " 
 Pardieu! how we did gull him! 
 
 "Gran merces! a lui sta di spartojarsi," Much 
 good may it do him! it is for him to get himself out of 
 the mire, said Cosmo. " We have done the queen 
 a good turn; I trust she will do as much for me!" 
 
 Some days after this scene, which impressed 
 Marie Touchet as much as the king, during one of 
 those moments when the mind is in some sort set 
 free from the body by plenitude of pleasure, Marie 
 cried: 
 
 " Charles, I can understand Lorenzo Ruggieri, but 
 Cosmo said nothing at all." 
 
 " True," said the king, surprised by that sudden 
 gleam; "there was as much falsehood as truth in 
 their discourse. Those Italians are as supple as the 
 silk they make." 
 
 This suspicion explains the animosity which the 
 king manifested toward Cosmo at the time of the trial 
 of the participants in the La Mole and Coconnas con- 
 spiracy: finding that Cosmo was one of the artisans 
 of that enterprise, he believed that he had been 
 fooled by the two Italians, for it was demonstrated 
 to him that his mother's astrologer did not devote 
 his attention exclusively to the stars, the powder of 
 projection, and the elementary atom. Lorenzo had 
 left the kingdom. 
 
 Notwithstanding the incredulity of a vast number 
 of people on this subject, the events which followed 
 that scene confirmed the prophecies made by the 
 Ruggieri. The king died three months later.
 
 462 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 The Comte de Gondi followed Charles IX. to the 
 grave, as his brother, the Marechal de Retz, had 
 predicted, the latter being a friend of the Ruggieri 
 and a believer in their prognostications. 
 
 Marie Touchet married Charles de Balzac, Mar- 
 quis d'Entragues, Governor of Orleans, by whom 
 she had two daughters. The more celebrated of those 
 daughters, half-sister to the Comte d'Auvergne, was 
 Henri IV. 's mistress, and at the time of the Biron 
 conspiracy tried to place her brother on the throne 
 of France and expel the House of Bourbon. 
 
 The Comte d'Auvergne, become Due d'Angou- 
 lme, lived to see the reign of Louis XIV. He coined 
 money on his estates, and altered the legends on the 
 coins, but Louis XIV. allowed him to do as he chose, 
 such great respect had he for the blood of the Valois. 
 
 Cosmo Ruggieri lived until the reign of Louis XIII.; 
 he saw the downfall of the Medici in France, and 
 the downfall of the Concini. History has been at 
 great pains to record that he died an atheist, that is 
 to say, a materialist. 
 
 The Marquise d'Entragues lived more than eighty 
 years. 
 
 The famous Comte de Saint-Germain, who caused 
 so much excitement under Louis XIV., was a pupil 
 of Cosmo and Lorenzo. That famous alchemist was 
 no less than a hundred and thirty years old, the 
 age which some biographers assign to Marion De- 
 lorme. The count must have learned from the 
 Ruggieri the anecdotes concerning the Saint Bar- 
 tholomew and the reigns of the Valois, in which he
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 463 
 
 was pleased to ascribe a prominent part to himself, 
 always telling them in the first person. The Comte 
 de Saint-Germain was the last of the alchemists 
 who really understood that science; but he left no 
 writings behind him. The cabalistic doctrine set 
 forth in this Study is derived from that mysterious 
 individual. 
 
 It is a strange fact that the lives of three men 
 the old man to whom I owe this information, the 
 Comte de Saint-Germain, and Cosmo Ruggieri 
 embrace European history from Francois I. to Na- 
 poleon. Only fifty such lives would be required to 
 carry us back to the earliest known period of the 
 world's history. " What are fifty generations for 
 the study of the mysteries of life?" said the Comte 
 de Saint-Germain. 
 
 Paris, November-December 1836.
 
 PART THIRD
 
 THE TWO DREAMS 
 
 Bodard de Saint- James, Treasurer of the Navy, 
 aroused more attention and caused more gossip by 
 his luxurious mode of life, than any other financier 
 in Paris in the year 1786. About that time, he built 
 his famous Folly at Neuilly, and his wife purchased, 
 to crown the canopy of her bed, an ornament made 
 of feathers, the price of which had horrified the 
 queen. It was much easier then than it is to-day to 
 force one's self into social prominence and to make 
 all Paris talk about one; often nothing more was 
 needed than a bright remark or a woman's whim. 
 
 Bodard owned the superb mansion on Place Yen- 
 dome which the farmer-general Dange had, shortly 
 before, been compelled to leave. That illustrious 
 epicurean died, and on the day of his funeral, 
 Monsieur de Bievre, his intimate friend, laughingly 
 made the remark that now one could pass through 
 Place Vendome without danger. This allusion to the 
 house of the defunct as a gambling-hell was his only 
 funeral oration. The house is the one facing the 
 Chancellerie. 
 
 To complete Bodard's history in a few words he 
 was a poor man, he failed for fourteen millions just 
 after the failure of the Prince de Guemenee. The 
 (467)
 
 468 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 stupidity of which he was guilty in not anticipating 
 the most serene bankruptcy, to use Lebrun-Pindare's 
 phrase, was the reason why his name was never 
 mentioned. He died, like Bourvalais, Bouret, and 
 many others, in a garret. 
 
 It was Madame de Saint- James's ambition to re- 
 ceive none but people of quality, an old absurdity, 
 constantly renewed. To her mind, even the caps of 
 counsellors in Parliament were of little consequence; 
 she wished to see in her salons titled personages 
 who had at least the grande entree at Versailles. 
 To say that many blue ribbons called upon the 
 financier's wife would be to say what is not true; 
 but it is very certain that she had succeeded in ob- 
 taining the goodwill and favorable notice of some 
 members of the Rohan family, as the too notorious 
 affair of the Diamond Necklace proved. 
 
 One evening, it was in August, 1786, I believe, I 
 was very much surprised to see in the salon of that 
 treasurer's wife, who was such a prude in the matter 
 of proofs of respectability, two strange faces which 
 seemed to me of a decidedly inferior type. The 
 hostess came to me in a window-recess in which I 
 had designedly ensconced myself. 
 
 "Tell me," I said, with a questioning glance in 
 the direction of one of the strangers, " what sort of 
 a creature is that? How do you happen to have such 
 people at your house?" 
 
 " He is a charming man." 
 
 " Do you see him through the spectacles of love, 
 or am I mistaken?"
 
 CATHERINE DE* MEDICI 469 
 
 "You are not mistaken," she said, with a laugh, 
 " he is as ugly as a caterpillar; but he has done me 
 the most important service that a woman can receive 
 from a man." 
 
 As I gazed at her mischievously, she hastened to 
 add: 
 
 " He has completely cured me of those horrible 
 blotches which marred my complexion and made me 
 resemble a peasant." 
 
 I shrugged my shoulders angrily. 
 
 "He's a quack," I cried. 
 
 " No," she replied, " he is the pages' surgeon; he 
 has a pretty wit, I promise you, and he writes too. 
 He is very strong in physics." 
 
 " If his style resembles his face!" I retorted, with 
 a smile. " But what about the other?" 
 
 "Whom do you mean by the other?" 
 
 " That smug, spruce little coxcomb, who looks as 
 if he had been drinking verjuice!" 
 
 "Why, he belongs to a very good family," she 
 replied. " He comes from some province or other 
 oh! yes, Artois; he is entrusted with the settlement 
 of a matter in which the cardinal is interested, and 
 His Eminence came in person to introduce him to 
 Monsieur de Saint- James. They both selected Saint- 
 James for arbitrator. In that respect, the provincial 
 exhibited no great wit; but who can the people be 
 who are foolish enough to entrust a lawsuit to that 
 fellow? He's as mild as a sheep and as shy as a 
 girl; His Eminence is very kindly disposed to him." 
 
 " What is it all about?"
 
 470 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 " Three hundred thousand francs." 
 
 "Why, is he an advocate?" I exclaimed, with a 
 slight start. 
 
 "Yes," she said. 
 
 Overwhelmed with confusion by that humiliating 
 admission, Madame Bodard returned to her place at 
 the faro-table. 
 
 All the tables were full. I had nothing to do, no 
 one to talk to; I had just lost two thousand crowns 
 to M. de Laval, whom I had met at the house of an 
 impure person. I threw myself into an easy-chair 
 near the fireplace. If there ever was a surprised 
 man on this earth, it certainly was myself, when 
 I saw opposite me, on the other side of the fire- 
 place, the controller-general. M. de Calonne seemed 
 drowsy, or else he was buried in one of those fits of 
 meditation which tyrannize over statesmen. When 
 I called the attention of Beaumarchais, who was 
 walking toward me, to the minister, the father of 
 Figaro explained the mystery without speaking. 
 He pointed first to my own head and then to Bo- 
 dard's with a mischievous gesture, which consisted 
 in holding out his hand with two fingers separated 
 and the rest closed. My first impulse was to rise 
 and go and make some cutting remark to Calonne; 
 but I retained my seat: in the first place, because I 
 was contemplating playing a trick on that favorite; 
 and in the second place, because Beaumarchais took 
 my hand in familiar fashion. 
 
 "What do you want, monsieur?" I said. 
 
 He winked in the direction of the controller.
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 471 
 
 "Don't wake him," he whispered, "we are too 
 lucky when he's asleep." 
 
 " But sleep means another financial scheme," I 
 rejoined. 
 
 " Certainly," observed the statesman, who had 
 divined our words simply by the movement of our 
 lips; " and if it should please God that we sleep a 
 long while, there would not be the awakening which 
 you will see!" 
 
 " Monseigneur," said the dramatist, "I have to 
 thank you." 
 
 " For what?" 
 
 "Monsieur de Mirabeau has started for Berlin. 
 I do not know that we might not both have been 
 drowned in that affair of the Waters." 
 
 " You have too much memory and too little grati- 
 tude," retorted the minister, dryly, annoyed to have 
 one of his secrets revealed before me. 
 
 " That is possible," said Beaumarchais, stung to 
 the quick, " but I have millions which will adjust 
 many accounts." 
 
 Calonne pretended not to hear. 
 
 It was half-past twelve when play ceased. We 
 took our places at table. There were ten of us: 
 Bodard and his wife, the controller-general, Beau- 
 marchais, the two strangers, two pretty women 
 whose names may not be mentioned, and a farmer- 
 general whose name, I believe, was Lavoisier. Of 
 thirty persons whom I found in the salon when I 
 arrived, only those ten remained. Even the two 
 creatures consented to sup with us only at the
 
 472 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 urgent entreaty of Madame de Saint-James, who 
 thought that she paid her debt to one by feeding 
 him, and perhaps invited the other to please her 
 husband, with whom she was inclined to be coquet- 
 tish, I cannot quite say why. After all, Monsieur 
 de Calonne was a power, and if anyone had occa- 
 sion to be annoyed, it was myself. 
 
 The supper began by being horribly dreary. 
 Those two strangers and the farmer-general em- 
 barrassed us. I motioned to Beaumarchais to ply 
 with drink the son of >Esculapius whom he had at 
 his right, giving him to understand that I would do 
 as much for the lawyer. As that was the only 
 means we had of amusing ourselves, and as it gave 
 promise of impertinences on the part of the two 
 men, which amused us in anticipation, Monsieur de 
 Calonne approved my plan. In two seconds, the 
 three ladies joined our bacchanalian conspiracy. 
 They promised, by most significant glances, to 
 play their part, and the Sillery filled the glasses 
 more than once with its silvery foam. The sur- 
 geon was an easy victim; but when I attempted to 
 pour a second bumper for my neighbor, he said, 
 with the cool politeness of a money-lender, that he 
 would not drink any more. 
 
 At that moment, by some chance or other, Ma- 
 dame de Saint- James had introduced the subject of 
 the magnificent suppers given by the Cardinal de 
 Rohan to Count Cagliostro. 1 was paying no spe- 
 cial attention to what the mistress of the house 
 said; for, since her replies to my questions, 1 had
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 473 
 
 been watching with unconquerable curiosity the 
 pinched, sallow face of my neighbor, whose most 
 prominent feature was a nose, turned up and pointed 
 at the same time, which made him at times resem- 
 ble a weasel. Suddenly his cheeks flushed as he 
 heard Madame de Saint- James disputing with Mon- 
 sieur de Calonne. 
 
 " But I assure you, monsieur, that I have seen 
 Queen Cleopatra," she was saying with an impe- 
 rious air. 
 
 " I believe you, madame," interposed my neigh- 
 bor. "I myself have spoken to Catherine de' 
 Medici." 
 
 " Oho!" exclaimed Monsieur de Calonne. 
 
 The little provincial said the words in a voice 
 which had an indefinable sonorous quality, if we 
 may borrow that term from the vocabulary of phys- 
 ical science. That sudden bell-like utterance from 
 a man who had hardly spoken hitherto, and always 
 in a low and pleasantly modulated tone, surprised 
 us to the last degree. 
 
 " Why, he is talking!" cried the surgeon, who was 
 in a very satisfactory condition, thanks to Beaumar- 
 chais's efforts. 
 
 " His neighbor must have pressed a spring," 
 observed the satirist. 
 
 My man flushed slightly when he heard the words, 
 although they were spoken hardly above a whisper. 
 
 "And how was the late queen?" queried Calonne. 
 
 " I would not assert positively that the person 
 with whom I supped last night was Catherine de'
 
 474 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 Medici herself. Such a prodigy will justly seem 
 impossible to a Christian as well as to a philoso- 
 pher," replied the advocate, resting the tips of his 
 fingers lightly on the table and leaning back in his 
 chair as if he proposed to speak at some length. 
 " Nevertheless, I am able to swear that the woman 
 resembled Catherine de' Medici as closely as if she 
 were her sister. She whom I saw wore a black 
 velvet dress absolutely like the one which that 
 queen wears in the portrait owned by the king; 
 her head was covered with the characteristic velvet 
 cap; and, finally, she had the pale complexion and 
 the features with which you are all familiar. I 
 could not refrain from exhibiting my surprise to His 
 Eminence. The rapidity of the evocation seemed 
 to me the more marvellous, because Count Cagli- 
 ostro could not have guessed the name of the 
 personage with whom I was about to desire an 
 interview. I was confounded. The magic of the 
 spectacle presented by a supper-table at which were 
 seated famous women of the past deprived me of 
 all presence of mind. I listened, afraid to ask ques- 
 tions. When I escaped from the meshes of that 
 witchcraft, about midnight, I almost doubted myself. 
 But all that marvellous experience seemed to me 
 perfectly natural in comparison with the hallucina- 
 tion I was still to undergo. I do not know how I 
 can describe in words the condition of my senses. 
 But I declare, in all the sincerity of my heart, that 
 I am no longer surprised that there should be found 
 of old minds weak enough, or strong enough, to
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 475 
 
 believe in the mysteries of magic and the power of 
 the devil. For my own part, until I am more fully 
 informed, I regard as possible the apparitions de- 
 scribed by Cardan and other thaumaturgists." 
 
 These words, uttered with incredible force of 
 diction, were of a nature to arouse the most intense 
 curiosity in all the guests. So our eyes all turned 
 toward the speaker, and we sat very still. Our 
 eyes alone betrayed the presence of life by reflect- 
 ing the flickering light of the candles in the candela- 
 bra. By dint of gazing steadfastly at the stranger, 
 it seemed as if we could see the pores of his face, 
 especially those of his forehead, exude the inward 
 emotion which agitated him. Apparently cold and 
 precise, he seemed to contain a concealed fire, whose 
 flame reacted upon us. 
 
 "I do not know," he continued, "whether the 
 face that had been evoked made itself invisible and 
 followed me; but as soon as I laid my head upon my 
 pillow, I saw Catherine's tall figure standing before 
 me. I felt instinctively that I was in a luminous 
 sphere, for my eyes, which were fastened upon the 
 queen with painful fixity, saw nothing but her. 
 Suddenly she leaned toward me " 
 
 At these words, the ladies with one accord made a 
 gesture of interest. 
 
 " But I am not sure that I ought to go on," con- 
 tinued the advocate; "although I am inclined to 
 think that it was only a dream, what I still have 
 to tell is very serious." 
 
 " Is it a question of religion? "asked Beaumarchais.
 
 476 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 "Or is there something improper in it?" said 
 Calonne. "The ladies will forgive you." 
 
 "It is a question of government," replied the 
 advocate. 
 
 "Go on," remarked the minister, "Voltaire, Di- 
 derot, and their like have trained our ears pretty 
 thoroughly." 
 
 He became very attentive, and his neighbor, 
 Madame de Genlis, very much preoccupied. The 
 provincial still hesitated. Thereupon Beaumarchais 
 said to him, sharply: 
 
 " Pray, go on, master! don't you know that when 
 the laws allow so little liberty, the people take their 
 revenge in morals?" 
 
 Thereupon our fellow-guest began: 
 
 "Whether it was that certain ideas were fer- 
 menting in my mind, unknown to me, or that I was 
 impelled by some external power, I said to her: 
 
 " ' Ah ! madame, you committed a very grave 
 crime!' 
 
 " 'What was that?' she asked, in a grave tone. 
 
 " ' The crime for which the signal was given by 
 the bell on the Palais de Justice, on the 24th of 
 August.' 
 
 " She smiled scornfully, and several deep wrin- 
 kles appeared on her pallid cheeks. 
 
 " ' Do you call that a crime?' she rejoined; ' that 
 was only a misfortune. The undertaking, which 
 was poorly managed, having missed its aim, did not 
 result in the benefit which we expected for France, 
 Europe, and the Catholic Church. What would you
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 477 
 
 have! our orders were imperfectly obeyed. We 
 could not find as many Montlucs as we needed. 
 Posterity will not hold us responsible for the lack of 
 communications which prevented us from imparting 
 to our undertaking that unity of action which is 
 essential to great coups d'Etat: there was the mis- 
 fortune! If, on the 25th of August, not the shadow 
 of a Huguenot had remained in France, my name 
 would have been handed down to the most distant 
 future ages as that of a lovely image of Providence. 
 How often did the perspicacious minds of Sixtus V., 
 Richelieu, and Bossuet secretly blame me for failing 
 in my undertaking after daring to conceive it! And 
 what sincere regret was felt for my death! Thirty 
 years after the Saint Bartholomew, the disease still 
 endured; it had already caused ten times more noble 
 blood to flow than remained to be shed on August 
 26, 1572. The revocation of the Edict of Nantes, 
 in honor of which you caused medals to be struck, 
 cost more tears, more blood, and more money, did 
 more to kill prosperity in France, than three Saint 
 Bartholomews. Letellier was able to carry out with 
 a penful of ink the decree which the throne had 
 secretly promulgated since my death; but if that 
 far-reaching execution was necessary on the 2 5th of 
 August, 1572, on the 25th of August, 1685, it was 
 useless. Under Henri de Valois's second son, heresy 
 was hardly pregnant; under Henri de Bourbon's 
 second son, that teeming mother had cast her spawn 
 over the whole universe. You accuse me of a crime 
 and you erect statues to the son of Anne of Austria!
 
 478 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 Yet he and I tried to accomplish the same thing: he 
 succeeded, I failed; but Louis XIV. found the Prot- 
 estants unarmed, whereas in my reign they had 
 powerful armies, statesmen, generals, and Germany 
 on their side.' 
 
 " I felt a sort of inward thrill creep over me as 
 she spoke thus, slowly and distinctly. I fancied 
 that I was breathing the fumes of the blood of 
 Heaven knows how many victims. Catherine had 
 increased in stature. She was like an evil spirit, 
 and it seemed to me that she was trying to force her 
 way into my conscience, in search of repose." 
 
 " He dreamed that," said Beaumarchais, in an 
 undertone; "he certainly did not invent it." 
 
 " ' My brain is bewildered/ I said to the queen. 
 ' You applaud yourself for an act which three gen- 
 erations condemn, stigmatize as a crime, and ' 
 
 "'Say further/ she interposed, 'that all subse- 
 quent pens have been even more unjust to me than 
 my contemporaries were. No one has undertaken my 
 defence. I am accused of ambition, I, a sovereign, 
 and rich beyond desire. I am accused of cruelty, I, 
 who have upon my conscience the cutting off of only 
 two heads. And even to the most impartial minds 
 I am still a puzzling problem. Do you imagine, 
 forsooth, that I was swayed by feelings of hatred, 
 that I breathed naught but rage and vengeance?' 
 
 "She smiled pityingly. 
 
 " ' I was as calm and cold as reason itself. I con- 
 demned the Huguenots pitilessly, but without temper; 
 they were the rotten orange in my basket of fruit.
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 479 
 
 As Queen of England, I would have dealt with the 
 Catholics in the same way, if they had been sedi- 
 tious. In order that our power should have any life 
 at all in those days, it was essential that there should 
 be but one God, one faith, one master in the State. 
 Luckily for me, I carved my justification imperish- 
 ably in one remark. When Birague mistakenly 
 announced the loss of the battle of Dreux, I ex- 
 claimed: " Very well, we will go to the conven- 
 ticle!" You accuse me of hating those who pro- 
 fessed the Reformed religion? I esteemed them 
 greatly and I did not know them. If I felt aversion 
 for any political leaders, it was for the cowardly 
 Cardinal de Lorraine, and for his brother, a shrewd 
 and brutal soldier, both of whom kept spies about 
 me. They were my children's foes, they sought to 
 tear the crown from their hands; I saw them every 
 day, and they drove me to frenzy. If we had not 
 brought about the Saint Bartholomew, the Guises 
 would have done it with the aid of Rome and its 
 monks. The League, which was not powerful until 
 I was an old woman, would have begun in 1573.' 
 
 " ' But, madame, instead of ordering that horrible 
 slaughter, pray excuse my frankness, why not 
 have employed the boundless resources of your 
 political system in giving to the reformers the wise 
 institutions which made the reign of Henri IV. so 
 glorious and so peaceful?' 
 
 " She smiled again, shrugged her shoulders, and 
 the deep wrinkles gave to her pale face an expres- 
 sion of bitter irony.
 
 480 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 " ' Nations,' she said, ' need rest after desperate 
 struggles: that is the secret of that reign. But 
 Henri IV. committed two irreparable mistakes: he 
 neither abjured Protestantism, nor allowed France 
 to be Catholic, after becoming a Catholic himself. 
 He alone found himself in a position of change with- 
 out shaking France to its foundations. Either no 
 stole or no conventicle! that should have been his 
 thought. To leave in a government two hostile 
 elements with nothing to hold the balance between 
 them, that is a crime in a king, for thus he sows the 
 seed of revolution. To God alone does it belong to 
 bring good and evil constantly face to face in His 
 work. But it may be that that sentence was in- 
 scribed at the root of the policy of Henri IV., and 
 perhaps it caused his death. It is impossible that 
 Sully did not cast a covetous glance at the vast 
 possessions of the clergy, which, by the way, the 
 clergy did not absolutely own, for the nobility squan- 
 dered at least two-thirds of their revenues. Sully 
 was a Huguenot, but he owned abbeys.' 
 
 " She paused, and seemed to reflect. 
 
 " ' But,' she continued, ' do you realize that it is 
 the niece of a Pope whom you are calling to account 
 for her Catholicism?' 
 
 " Again she paused. 
 
 " ' After all, I could have been a Calvinist with a 
 good heart,' she added, with a gesture of indiffer- 
 ence. ' The superior men of your age cannot still 
 believe that religion counted for aught in that suit, 
 the most important of all that Europe ever tried, a
 
 THE APPARITION 
 
 "/ do not know" he continued, " whether the face 
 that had been evoked made itself invisible and 
 followed me ; but as soon as I laid my head upon 
 my pillow, I saw Catherine's tall figiire standing 
 before me"
 
 -Ly 4. ?**** >- j4>
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 481 
 
 far-reaching revolution retarded by trivial causes 
 which did not prevent it from bursting on the world, 
 as I failed to strangle it. A revolution,' she con- 
 tinued, with a searching glance at me, ' which is 
 still in progress and which you may finish. Yes, 
 you who listen to me!' 
 
 " I shuddered. 
 
 " ' What! has no one realized as yet that the old 
 interests and the new interests seized upon Rome 
 and Luther merely as banners? Why! to avoid a 
 struggle almost identical with this, Louis IX., by 
 leading away from France a hundred-fold more peo- 
 ple than I condemned to death, and leaving them on 
 the sands of Egypt, earned the name of Saint-Louis! 
 And I? But I failed!' 
 
 " She beat her head, and said nothing for a mo- 
 ment. It was no longer a queen whom I saw before 
 me, but rather one of those ancient Druidesses who 
 sacrificed human beings, and who had the art of 
 unrolling the pages of the future by exhuming the 
 information buried in the past. But soon she raised 
 her queenly and majestic face once more. 
 
 " ' By directing the attention of the middle class to 
 
 the abuses of the Roman Church,' she said, ' Luther 
 
 and Calvin aroused throughout Europe a spirit of 
 
 investigation which inevitably led the people to 
 
 insist upon examining everything. Examination 
 
 leads to doubt. Instead of the faith that is essential 
 
 to the social structure, they dragged after them and 
 
 into distant lands an inquisitive philosophy, armed 
 
 ^with hammers, greedy for ruins. Science burst 
 
 31
 
 482 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 forth, resplendent with its false brilliancy, from the 
 bosom of heresy. The question at issue was not so 
 much reform within the Church, as the indefinite 
 liberty of man, which is the death of all power. I 
 have seen it myself. The consequence of the suc- 
 cesses obtained by the Huguenots in their struggle 
 against the priesthood, even then more powerfully 
 armed and more formidable than the crown, was the 
 ruin of the monarchical power built up by Louis XI. 
 at such enormous expense on the ruins of feudalism. 
 It involved nothing less than the annihilation of re- 
 ligion and royalty, over whose remains all the middle 
 classes of Europe were to form a compact. There- 
 fore the struggle was a war to the death between 
 the new coalitions and the laws, the ancient beliefs. 
 The Catholics represented the material interests of 
 the monarchy, the nobles, and the clergy. It was a 
 duel without quarter between two giants, the Saint 
 Bartholomew, unfortunately, was only a wound. 
 Remember that, to spare a few drops of blood at 
 an opportune moment, it is allowed to be shed later 
 in torrents. The intelligence which soars above a 
 nation cannot avoid one misfortune, the misfortune 
 of finding no peers by whom to be impartially tried 
 when it has succumbed beneath the weight of an 
 unlucky event. My peers were few, fools were in 
 the majority: everything is explained by those two 
 facts. If my name is held in execration in France, 
 the blame must be laid upon those mediocre minds 
 which form the great bulk of each succeeding gen- 
 eration. In the great crises through which I passed,
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 483 
 
 to reign did not mean to give audiences, to review 
 armies, to sign decrees. I may have made mistakes, 
 1 was only a woman. But why did not a man appear 
 who was in advance of his generation? The Duke 
 of Alva was a heart of bronze, Philip II. was stupe- 
 fied by his ultra-Catholicism, Henri IV. was a gam- 
 bling soldier and a rake, the admiral was obstinate 
 on principle. Louis XI. came too early, Richelieu 
 too late. Virtuous or criminal, whether the Saint 
 Bartholomew be attributed to me or not, I accept the 
 burden; I shall remain, as it were, the visible link 
 of an invisible chain connecting those two great 
 men. Some day, paradoxical writers will ask them- 
 selves whether the nations have not sometimes be- 
 stowed the name of executioner upon victims. It 
 will not be the first time that mankind has preferred 
 to immolate a god rather than accuse itself. You 
 are all inclined to shed upon two hundred knaves 
 opportunely sacrificed the tears which you deny to 
 the misfortunes of a generation, a century, or a 
 world. Lastly, you forget that political liberty, 
 the tranquillity of a nation, aye, science itself, are 
 gifts for which destiny imposes taxes of blood !' 
 
 " ' May not the nations be happy some day at less 
 cost?' I cried, with tears in my eyes. 
 
 " ' Truth comes forth from its well, only to take 
 baths of blood wherein it takes on new life. Chris- 
 tianity itself the essence of all truth, since it comes 
 from God was it established without martyrs? did 
 not blood flow in torrents? will it not always flow? 
 You will know, you who are destined to be one of the
 
 484 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 masons of the social edifice begun by the apostles. 
 So long as you pass your levelling instrument over 
 men's heads, you will be applauded; but when you 
 attempt to take up the trowel, you will be killed.' 
 
 "Blood! blood! that word rang in my ears like 
 a knell. 
 
 " ' In your judgment, then,' I said, ' Protestantism 
 would have had the right to reason as you did?' 
 
 "Catherine had disappeared, as if a breath had 
 extinguished the supernatural light which enabled 
 my mind to see that figure, whose proportions had 
 become gigantic. I suddenly discovered that there 
 was a part of my inner self which assented to the 
 atrocious doctrines put forth by the Italian. I awoke 
 bathed in perspiration, weeping, just at the moment 
 when my victorious common sense was saying to 
 me in a soft voice that it was the function neither 
 of a king nor of a nation to apply those principles, 
 worthy of a race of atheists." 
 
 "And how will the crumbling monarchies be 
 saved?" queried Beaumarchais. 
 
 "God is at hand, monsieur," was my neighbor's 
 reply. 
 
 " In that case," said Monsieur de Calonne, with 
 the incredible frivolity which was characteristic of 
 him, " we have the resource of believing, in accord- 
 ance with Bossuet's gospel, that we are God's 
 instruments." 
 
 As soon as the ladies had discovered that the 
 dream consisted in an interview between the queen 
 and the lawyer, they began to whisper. I will spare
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 485 
 
 you a repetition of the phrases followed by exclama- 
 tion points with which they interspersed the advo- 
 cate's narrative. But such remarks as: " He is a 
 deathly bore! Pray, my dear, when will he finish?" 
 reached my ear. 
 
 When the stranger ceased to speak, the ladies held 
 their peace. Monsieur Bodard was asleep. The 
 half-tipsy surgeon, Lavoisier, Beaumarchais, and I 
 were the only ones who had listened; Monsieur de 
 Calonne was jesting with his fair neighbor. At 
 that moment, there was a touch of solemnity in 
 the silence. The flame of the candles seemed to 
 me to have a magic coloring. One and the same 
 sentiment had attached us all by mysterious bonds 
 to that man who, for my part, enabled me to con- 
 ceive the inexplicable effects of fanaticism. Nothing 
 less than the hollow, cavernous voice of Beaumar- 
 chais's neighbor would have sufficed to arouse us. 
 
 " I, too, have dreamed !" he cried. 
 
 Thereupon I looked more particularly at the 
 surgeon, and experienced an indefinable feeling of 
 horror. His earthy complexion, his features, at 
 once ignoble and grand, presented an exact idea of 
 what you will allow me to call canaille. A few 
 bluish and black spots were scattered over his face, 
 like splashes of mud, and his eyes emitted a threat- 
 ening flame. That face seemed more forbidding than 
 it really was, perhaps because of the snow heaped on 
 his head by a coiffure a frimas. 
 
 " That man must bury many a patient," I said to 
 my neighbor.
 
 486 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 " I would not trust my dog to him," he replied. 
 
 " I hate him instinctively." 
 
 " For my part, I despise him." 
 
 " But how unjust we are, after all!" I rejoined. 
 
 "Oh! mon Dieu! he may become as famous as 
 Volange the actor by the day after to-morrow," re- 
 plied the stranger. 
 
 Monsieur de Calonne called my attention to the 
 surgeon with a gesture which seemed to say: " That 
 fellow seems to me likely to be amusing." 
 
 " Do you happen to have dreamed of a queen?" 
 asked Beaumarchais. 
 
 " No, I dreamed of a nation," he replied, with an 
 emphasis which made us laugh. " I was attending 
 a patient whose leg I was to amputate on the day 
 after my dream." 
 
 "And did you find the nation in your patient's 
 leg?" inquired Monsieur de Calonne. 
 
 " Precisely," replied the surgeon. 
 
 " How amusing he is!" cried the Comtesse de 
 Genlis. 
 
 "I was surprised enough," said the narrator, in 
 nowise embarrassed by the interruptions, and thrust- 
 ing his hands into his breeches pockets, "to find 
 someone to speak to in that leg. I enjoyed the 
 extraordinary power of entering into my patient's 
 body. When I first found myself under his skin, 
 I saw a marvellous number of tiny beings who were 
 moving about, thinking and arguing. Some lived in 
 the man's body, others in his mind. His ideas were 
 beings which were born, grew to maturity, and died.
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 487 
 
 They were ill, in good health, merry, sad, and each 
 of them had its own special physiognomy; they 
 fought or caressed one another. Some ideas rushed 
 forth to live in the intellectual world. I suddenly 
 realized that there were two universes, the visible 
 universe and the invisible; that the earth had, like 
 man, a body and a soul. Nature was illumined for 
 me, and I comprehended its immensity when I saw 
 the ocean of beings scattered about everywhere, in 
 masses and by species, making one single uniform 
 animate Matter, from the marbles in the earth up to 
 God. Magnificent spectacle! In a word, there was 
 a universe in my patient. When I plunged my knife 
 into his gangrened leg, I crushed a myriad of those 
 creatures. You laugh, mesdames, to learn that you 
 are given over to the beasts " 
 
 " No personalities," said Monsieur de Calonne, 
 "speak for yourself and your patient." 
 
 " My man, frightened by the cries of his animal- 
 cu\3, attempted to interrupt my operation; but I 
 went on, and I told him that malignant organisms 
 were already eating into the bones. He made a 
 movement to resist, not understanding what I was 
 about to do for his well-being, and my knife entered 
 my own side." 
 
 " He is stupid," said Lavoisier. 
 
 " No," rejoined Beaumarchais, " he is drunk." 
 
 " But, messieurs, my dream has a meaning," 
 cried the surgeon. 
 
 " Oh! oh!" cried Bodard, waking up, " my leg is 
 asleep."
 
 488 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 " Monsieur," said his wife, " your animalcule are 
 dead." 
 
 "That man has a vocation," observed my neigh- 
 bor, who had gazed imperturbably at the surgeon 
 while he was speaking. 
 
 " It is to monsieur's vocation," said the ill-favored 
 guest, "what action is to speech, the body to the 
 mind." 
 
 But his tongue thickened, he could not pronounce 
 his words distinctly. Luckily for us, the conversation 
 took a different turn. Half an hour later, we had for- 
 gotten the pages' surgeon, who was sound asleep. 
 The rain was pouring in torrents when we rose from 
 the table. 
 
 " The lawyer is no fool," I said to Beaufnarchais. 
 
 " Oh! he is stolid and cold. But you see that the 
 provinces still contain some worthy folk who take 
 political theories and our French history seriously. 
 It is a leaven which will work." 
 
 "Have you your carriage?" Madame de Saint- 
 James asked me. 
 
 "No," I answered, dryly. " I did not know that 
 I should need it to-night. I suppose you would like 
 me to drive the controller home? Can it be that he 
 came to your house en polisson ? " 
 
 That expression, then much in vogue, was applied 
 to a person who, in the garb of a coachman, drove 
 his own carriage to Marly. Madame de Saint- James 
 walked hastily away, rang, ordered the Saint- 
 James equipage, and took the lawyer aside. 
 
 "Monsieur de Robespierre, will you do me the
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 favor to take Monsieur Marat home? for he is unable 
 to stand," she said. 
 
 "Gladly, madame," replied Monsieur de Robes- 
 pierre, gallantly, "I should be glad if you would 
 command me to do something more difficult." 
 
 Paris, January 1828.
 
 NOTE 
 
 The following is the ballad, published by Abbe de la Place 
 in his collection of interesting miscellany, where also is to be 
 found the dissertation to which we have referred : 
 
 LE CONVOI DU DUG DE GUISE 
 
 Qui veut ouir chanson? (Bis.) 
 C'est du grand due de Guise ; 
 
 Et bon bon bon bon, 
 
 Di dan di dan bon, 
 C'est du grand due de Guise ! 
 
 (This last line was probably given in a comical manner.) 
 Qui est mort et enterri. 
 
 Qui est mort et enterre. (Bis.) 
 Aux quatre coins du poele, 
 
 Et bon, etc., 
 Quatre gentilshomm's y avoit. 
 
 Quatre gentilshomm's y avoit. (Bis.) 
 L'un portoit son grand casque, 
 
 Et bon, etc., 
 Et I'autre ses pistolets. 
 
 Et I'autre ses pistolets, (Bis.) 
 Et I'autre son epee, 
 
 Et bon, etc., 
 
 Qui tant d 'hugu'nots a tues. 
 (491)
 
 492 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 Qui tant d'hugu'nots a tues. (Bis.) 
 Venoit le quatrieme, 
 
 Et bon, etc., 
 Qui etoit le plus dolent- 
 
 Qui etoit le plus dolent; (Bis.) 
 Apres venoient les pages, 
 
 Et bon, etc., 
 Et les valets de pied. 
 
 Et les valets de pied, (Bis.) 
 Avecque de grands crepes, 
 
 Et bon, etc., 
 Et des souliers cires. 
 
 Et des souliers cires, (Bis.) 
 Et des beaux bas d'estame, 
 
 Et bon, etc., 
 Et des culottes de piau. 
 
 Et des culottes de piau. (Bis.) 
 La ceremonie faite, 
 
 Et bon, etc., 
 Chacun s'alla coucher. 
 
 Chacun s'alla coucher: (Bis.) 
 Les uns avec leurs femmes, 
 
 Et bon, etc., 
 Et les autres tout seuls. 
 
 This curious discovery would seem to establish to a certain 
 extent the culpability of Theodore de Beze, who thus attempted 
 to lessen by ridicule the horror caused by that assassination. 
 It seems that the air was the principal merit of this ditty.
 
 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 493 
 
 TRANSLATION 
 THE FUNERAL OF THE DUG DE GUISE 
 
 Who'll listen to a song ? 
 
 'Tis of the great Due de Guise ; 
 
 Bon bon, etc., 
 Who now is dead and buried. 
 
 Who now is dead and buried. 
 At the corners of the pall, 
 
 Bon bon, etc., 
 There were four gentlemen. 
 
 There were four gentlemen ; 
 One wore his helmet tall, 
 
 Bon bon, etc., 
 Another his pistols bore. 
 
 Another his pistols bore, 
 And another his trusty sword, 
 
 Bon bon, etc., 
 Which slew Huguenots galore. 
 
 Which slew Huguenots galore. 
 And then there came the fourth, 
 
 Bon bon, etc., 
 Most sorrowful of all. 
 
 Most sorrowful of all ; 
 Behind him came the pages, 
 
 Bon bon, etc., 
 And then the footmen all. 
 
 And then the footmen all, 
 With long crepes on their arms 
 
 Bon bon, etc., 
 And shoes all nicely waxed.
 
 494 CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 And shoes all nicely waxed, 
 And worsted stockings on, 
 
 Bon bon, etc., 
 And breeches made of skin. 
 
 And breeches made of skin. 
 When the services were done, 
 
 Bon bon, etc., 
 They all went off to bed. 
 
 They all went off to bed ; 
 Some with their good wives, 
 
 Bon bon, etc., 
 And others all alone.
 
 LIST OF ETCHINGS 
 
 VOLUME XLVII 
 
 PAGB 
 
 AT THE SIEGE OF CALAIS Fronts. 
 
 IN CATHERINE'S CHAMBER 64 
 
 AT THE CHATEAU OF BLOIS 176 
 
 AT MME. DE BELLEVILLE'S 408 
 
 THE APPARITION 480 
 
 47 C H., C. de' M., N. & R. 495
 
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