; Ili il 11 111 il
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES 
 
 GIFT
 
 THE WORKS OF 
 
 HONOREDE BALZAC 
 
 About Cathenn Medici 
 
 .herine de 
 
 GAM 
 
 "Treason, Madame! ... Be sure that this fel- 
 low does not escape !" 
 
 (About Catherine de Medici, page /J/) 
 
 TRANSLATED BY CLARA BELL 
 M AN INTRODUCTION BY GEORGE SAINTSBURY 
 
 FRED I.UKAU K ' S> 
 
 PUBLISHERS WlftW VORK
 
 THE WORKS OF 
 
 HONORE-DE-BALZAC 
 
 About Catherine de Medici 
 
 (Sur Catherine de Medicis) 
 
 AND 
 
 GAMBARA 
 
 TRANSLATED BY CLARA BELL 
 WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY GEORGE SAINTSBURY 
 
 FRED DEFAU & COMPANY 
 PUBLISHERS NEW YORK
 
 This Edition Limited to 1000 Copies 
 8i6 
 
 No. 
 
 Copyrighted 1901 
 
 BY 
 JOHN D. AVIL 
 
 Sill Rights Rcser-vc/i
 
 College 
 library 
 
 VQ 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 INTRODUCTION ix 
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE D> MEDICI: 
 
 PREFACE 3 
 
 PART I. THE CAI.VINIST MARTYR - 44 
 
 " II. THE RUGGIERl'S SECRET - 233 
 
 " III. THE TWO DREAMS - - 308 
 
 GAMBARA - . . . -32? 
 
 L053073
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 PHOTOGRAVURES 
 
 "TREASON, MADAME! BE SURE THAT 
 THIS FEU.OW DOES NOT ESCAPE 1 ." 
 
 (131) - - - - - Frontisfiiect 
 
 PAOK 
 CHRISTOPHE IN PRISON - 163 
 
 LORKNZO RUGGIERI .... 290 
 
 COUNT ANDREA MARCOSINI ... 328
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 THIS book (as to which it is important to remember the Surl 
 if injustice is not to be done to the intentions of the author) 4 
 has plenty of interest of more kinds than one ; but it is per- 
 haps more interesting because of the place it holds in Bal- 
 zac's work than for itself. He had always considerable 
 hankerings after the historical novel: his early and lifelong 
 devotion to Scott would sufficiently account for that. More 
 than one of the (Euvres de Jeunesse attempts the form in a 
 more or less conscious way : the Chouans, the first successful 
 book, definitely attempts it; but by far the most ambitious 
 attempt is to be found in the book before us. It is most 
 probable that it was of this, if of anything of his own, that 
 Balzac was thinking when, in 1846, he wrote disdainfully to 
 Madame Hanska about Dumas, and expressed himself to- 
 wards Les Trois Mousquetaires (which had whiled bim 
 through a day of cold and inability to work) nearly as un- 
 gratefully as Carlyle did towards Captain Marryat. And 
 though it is, let it be repeated, a mistake, and a rather un- 
 fair mistake, to give such a title to the book as might induce 
 readers to regard it as a single and definite novel, of which 
 Catherine is the heroine, though it is made up of three parts 
 written at very different times, it has a unity which the in- 
 troduction shows to some extent, and which a rejected preface 1 
 given by M. de Lovenjoul shows still better. 
 
 To understand this, we must remember that Balaae, 
 though not exactly an historical scholar, was a considerable
 
 
 T INTRODUCTION 
 
 student of history; and that, although rather an amateur 
 politician, he was a constant thinker and writer on political 
 subjects. We must add to these remembrances the fact of 
 his intense interest in all such matters as Alchemy, the Elixir 
 of Life, and so forth, to which the sixteenth century in 
 general, and Catherine de' Medici in particular, were known 
 to be devoted. All these interests of his met in the present 
 book, the parts of which appeared in inverse order, and the 
 genesis of which is important enough to make it desirable 
 to incorporate some of the usual bibliographical matter in 
 the substance of this preface. The third and shortest, Les 
 Deux Reves, a piece partly suggestive of the famous Prophecy 
 of Cazotte and other legends of the Eevolution (but with 
 more retrospective than prospective view), is dated as early 
 as 1828 (before the turning-point), and was actually pub- 
 lished in a periodical in 1830. La Confidence des Ruggieri, 
 written in 1836 (and, as I have noted in the general intro- 
 duction, according to its author, in a single night) followed, 
 and Le Martyr Calmniste, which had several titles, and was 
 advertised as in preparation for a long time, did not come 
 till 1841. 
 
 It is unnecessary to say that all are interesting. The per- 
 sonages, both imaginary and historical, appear at times in 
 a manner worthy of Balzac; many separate scenes are ex- 
 cellent; and, to those who care to perceive them, the various 
 occupations of the author appear in the most interesting 
 manner. Politically, his object was, at least by his own ac- 
 count, to defend the maxim that private and public morality 
 are different ; that the policy of a state cannot be, and ought 
 not to be, governed by the same considerations of duty to its 
 neighbors as those which ought to govern the conduct of an 
 individual. The very best men those least liable to the
 
 INTRODUCTION Tl 
 
 slightest imputation of corrupt morals and motives have 
 endorsed this principle; though it has been screamed at by 
 a few fanatics, a somewhat larger number of persons who 
 found their account in so doing, and a great multitude of 
 hasty, dense, or foolish folk. But it was something of a mark 
 of that amateurishness which spoilt Balzac's dealing with the 
 subject to choose the sixteenth century for his text. For 
 every cool-headed student of history and ethics will admit 
 that it was precisely the abuse of this principle at this time, 
 and by persons of whom Catherine de' Medici, if not the 
 most blamable, has had the most blame put on her, that 
 brought the principle itself into discredit. Between the as- 
 sertion that the strictest morality of the Sermon on the Mount 
 must obtain between nation and nation, between governor 
 and governed, and the maxim that in politics the end of public 
 safety justifies any means whatever, there is a perfectly im- 
 mense gulf fixed. 
 
 If, however, we turn from this somewhat academic point, 
 and do not dwell very much on the occult and magical sides 
 of the matter, interesting as they are, we shall be brought 
 at once face to face with the question, Is the handling of 
 this book the right and proper one for an historical novel? 
 Can we in virtue of it rank Balzac (this is the test which 
 he would himself, beyond all question, have accepted) a long 
 way above Dumas and near Scott? 
 
 I must say that I can see no possibility of answer except, 
 "Certainly not." For the historical novel depends almost 
 more than any other division of the kind upon interest of 
 gtory. Interest of story is not, as has been several times 
 pointed out, at any time Balzac's main appeal, and he has 
 succeeded in it here less than in most other places. He has 
 discussed too much; he has brought in too many personages
 
 rll INTRODUCTION 
 
 without sufficient interest of plot; but, above all, he exhibits 
 throughout an incapacity to handle his materials in the pe- 
 culiar way required. How long he was before he grasped 
 "the way to do it," even on his own special lines, is the com- 
 monplace and refrain of all writing about him. Now, to this 
 special kind he gave comparatively little attention, and the 
 result is that he mastered it less than any other. In the best 
 stories of Dumas (and the best number some fifteen or twenty 
 at least) the interest of narrative, of adventure, of what will 
 happen to the personages, takes you by the throat at once, 
 and never lets you go till the end. There is little or nothing 
 of this sort here. The three stories are excellently well-in- 
 formed studies, very curious and interesting in divers ways. 
 The Ruggieri is perhaps something more; but it is, as its 
 author no doubt honestly entitled it, much more an Etude 
 Philosophique than an historical novelette. In short, this 
 was not Balzac's way. We need not be sorry it is very 
 rarely necessary to be that that he tried it; we may easily 
 forgive him for not recognizing the ease and certainty with 
 which Dumas trod the path. But we should be most of all 
 thankful that he did not himself enter it frequently, or ever 
 pursue it far. 
 
 The most important part of the bibliography of the book 
 has been given above. The rest is a little complicated, and 
 for its ins and outs reference must be made to the usual au- 
 thority. It should be enough to say that the Martyr, under 
 the title of Les Lecamus, first appeared in the Siecle during 
 the spring of 1841. Souverain published it as a book two 
 years later with the other two, as Catherine de Medicis Ex- 
 pliquee. The second part, entitled, not La Confidence, but 
 Le Secret des Ruggieri, had appeared much earlier in the 
 Chronique de Paris during the winter of 1836-37, and had
 
 INTRODUCTION xlll 
 
 been published as a book in the latter year; it was joined to 
 Catherine de Medicis Expliquee as above. The third part, 
 after appearing in the Monde as early as May 1830, also ap- 
 peared in the Deux Mondes for December of the same year, 
 then became one of the Romans et Contes Philosophiques, 
 then an Etude Philosophique, and in 1843 joined Catherine 
 de Medicis Expliquee. The whole was inserted in the 
 Comedie in 1846. G. S. 
 
 Gambara exhibits a curious and, it must be admitted, a 
 somewhat incoherent mixture of two of Balzac's chief out- 
 side interests Italy and music. In his helter-skelter ram- 
 blings, indulged in despite his enormous literary labors, he 
 took many a peep at Italy ; and it is evident that for him the 
 country exercised a powerful fascination. In his eyes it was 
 ideal ideal in its music, in its painting, and in those who 
 fanned the fires divine. His affection for Italy was, in fact, 
 about as ardent and untutored as that for the arts. The 
 story of Gambara is an illustration of these two sentiments; 
 it can best be understood when the author's attitude is 
 known. 
 
 There is a little about the forceful character of Andrea 
 Marcosini that reminds one of de Marsay. He has an inherent 
 nobleness unknown to the latter, but unfortunately made sub- 
 servient to a banality which even the genius of Balzac can- 
 not efface. This marring clause of the Count and Marianna 
 is hardly to be excused on the ground of dramatic necessity, 
 since other themes of this nature are not cloyed by baser 
 earth. The introductory scene in the restaurant is good, and 
 stands out brightly contrasted with Gambara's music-ravings 
 and the faint echo of Giardini's cookery conceits. Each is
 
 xiv INTRODUCTION 
 
 but the quest of something unattained a note more grandly 
 uttered in La Peau de Chagrin, or La Recherche de I'Absolu, 
 or the wonderful sketch, Le Chef d'CEuvre Inconnu. But as 
 a fresh embodiment of this thought, Gambara may be wel- 
 comed, for in such themes as these the novelist is most dis- 
 tinctly in his element. 
 
 The first appearance of Gambara was in the Revue et Ga- 
 zette Musicale de Paris during July and August 1837, in four 
 chapters and a conclusion. In 1839 it was included in a book 
 with the Cabinet des Antiques. Ten years later it was included 
 as Le Livre des Douleurs with Seraphita, Les Proscrits, and 
 Massimilla Doni. It took its place in the Comedie in 1846.
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 To Monsieur le Marquis de Pastoret, 
 Member of the Academie des Beaux-Arts. 
 
 When we consider the amazing number of volumes written 
 to ascertain the spot where Hannibal crossed the Alps, without 
 our knowing to this day whether it was, as Whitaker and Rivaz 
 say, by Lyons, Geneva, the Saint-Bernard, and the Valley of 
 Aosta; or, as we are told by Letronne, Follard, Saint-Simon, and 
 Fortia d' Urban, by the Isere, Grenoble, Saint-Bonnet, Mont 
 Genevre, Fenestrella, and the Pass of Susa, or, according to 
 Larauza, by the Mont Cenis and Susa; or, as Strabo, Polybius 
 and de Luc tell us, by the Rhone, Vienne, Yenne, and the Mont 
 du Chat; or, as certain clever people opine, by Genoa, la 
 Bochetta, and la Scrivia the view I hold, and which Napoleon 
 had adopted to say nothing of the vinegar with which some 
 learned men have dressed the Alpine rocks, can we wonder, Mon- 
 sieur le Marquis, to find modern history so much neglected that 
 some most important points remain obscure, and that the most 
 odious calumnies still weigh on names which ought to be re- 
 vered? And it may be noted incidentally that by dint of ex- 
 planations it has become problematical whether Hannibal ever 
 crossed the Alps at all. Father M6nestrier believes that the 
 Scoras spoken of by Polybius was the Sa6me; Letronne, Larauza, 
 .and Schweighauser believe it to be the Isere; Cochard, a learned 
 man of Lyons, identifies it with the DrCme. But to any one who 
 has eyes, are there not striking geographical and linguistic af- 
 finities between Scoras and Scrivia, to say nothing of the almost
 
 2 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 certain fact that the Carthaginian fleet lay at la Spezzia or in 
 the Gulf of Genoa? 
 
 I could understand all this patient research if the battle of 
 Cannae could be doubted; but since its consequences are well 
 known, what is the use of blackening so much paper with 
 theories that are but the Arabesque of hypothesis, so to speak; 
 while the most important history of later times, that of the 
 Reformation, is so full of obscurities that the name remains un- 
 known of the man* who was making a boat move by steam at 
 Barcelona at the time when Luther and Calvin were inventing 
 the revolt of mind? 
 
 We, I believe, after having made, each in his own way, the 
 same investigation as to the great and noble character of 
 Catherine de' Medici, have come to the same opinion. So I 
 thought that my historical studies on the subject might be suit- 
 ably dedicated to a writer who has labored so long on the his- 
 tory of the Reformation; and that I should thus do public 
 homage, precious perhaps for its rarity, to the character and 
 fidelity of a man true to the Monarchy. 
 
 PAKIS, January 1842. 
 
 *The inventor of this experiment was probably Salomon of Caux, not of Caus. 
 This great man was always unlucky ; after his death even his name was misspelt. 
 Salomon, whose original portrait, at the age of forty-six, was discovered by the 
 author of the Human Comedy, was bom at Caux, in Normandy.
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 PREFACE 
 
 WHEN men of learning are struck by a historical blunder, 
 and try to correct it, "Paradox !" is generally the cry ; but to 
 those who thoroughly examine the history of modern times, 
 it is evident that historians are privileged liars, who lend their 
 pen to popular beliefs, exactly as most of the newspapers of 
 the day express nothing but the opinions of their readers. 
 
 Historical independence of thought has been far less con- 
 spicuous among lay writers than among the priesthood. The 
 purest light thrown on history has come from the Benedic- 
 tines, one of the glories of France so long, that is to say, as 
 the interests of the monastic orders are not in question. 
 Since the middle of the eighteenth century, some great and 
 learned controversialists have arisen who, struck by the need 
 for rectifying certain popular errors to which historians have 
 lent credit, have published some remarkable works. Thus Mon- 
 sieur Launoy, nicknamed the Bvicter of Saints, made ruth- 
 less war on certain saints who have sneaked into the Church 
 Calendar. Thus the rivals of the Benedictines, the two little 
 known members of the Academie des Inscriptions et Belles- 
 lettres, began their memoires, their studious notes, full of 
 patience, erudition, and logic, on certain obscure passages 
 of history. Thus Voltaire, with an unfortunate bias, and 
 sadly perverted passions, often brought the light of his in- 
 tellect to bear on historical prejudices. Diderot, with this 
 end in view, began a book much too long on a period of 
 the history of Imperial Rome. But for the French Revolu- 
 tion, criticism, as applied to history, might perhaps have 
 laid up the materials for a good and true history of France, 
 for which evidence had long been amassed by the great French 
 Benedictines. Louis XVI., a man of clear mind, himself
 
 4 ABOUT CATHEKINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 translated the English work, which so much agitated the 
 last century, in which Walpole tried to explain the career of 
 Eichard III. 
 
 How is it that persons so famous as kings and queens, so 
 important as generals of great armies, become objects of 
 aversion or derision? Half the world hesitates between the 
 song on Marlborough and the history of England, as they 
 do between popular tradition and history as concerning 
 Charles IX. 
 
 At all periods when great battles are fought between the 
 masses and the authorities, the populace creates an ogresque 
 figure to coin a word for the sake of its exactitude. Thus 
 in our own time, but for the Memorials of Saint-Helena, 
 and the controversies of Eoyalists and Bonapartists, there 
 was scarcely a chance but that Napoleon would have been mis- 
 understood. Another Abbe de Pradt or two, a few more 
 newspaper articles, and Napoleon from an Emperor would 
 have become an Ogre. 
 
 How is error propagated and accredited? The mystery 
 is accomplished under our eyes without our discerning the 
 process. No one suspects how greatly printing has helped 
 to give body both to the envy which attends persons in high 
 places, and to the popular irony which sums up the converse 
 view of every great historical fact. For instance, every bad 
 horse in France that needs flogging is called after the Prince 
 de Polignac ; and so who knows what opinion the future may 
 hold as to the Prince de Polignac's coup d'Etat? In conse- 
 quence of a caprice of Shakespeare's a stroke of revenge 
 perhaps, like that of Beaumarchais on Bergasse (Begearss) 
 Falstaff, in England, is a type of the grotesque; his name 
 raises a laugh, he is the King of Buffoons. Now, instead of 
 .being enormously fat, ridiculously amorous, vain, old, 
 drunken, and a corrupter of youth, Falstaff was one of the 
 most important figures of his time, a Knight of the Garter, 
 holding high command. At the date of Henry V.'s accession, 
 Falstaff was at most four-and-thirty. This General, who dis- 
 tinguished himself at the battle of Agincourt, where he took
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 5 
 
 the Due d'Alengon prisoner, in 1420 took the town of Monte- 
 reau, which was stoutly defended. Finally, under Henry VI., 
 he beat ten thousand Frenchmen with fifteen hundred men 
 who were dropping with fatigue and hunger. So much for 
 valor! 
 
 If we turn to literature, Eabelais, among the French, a 
 sober man who drank nothing but water, is thought of as 
 a lover of good cheer and a persistent sot. Hundreds of ab- 
 surd stories have been coined concerning the author of one 
 of the finest books in French literature, Pantagruel. 
 
 Aretino, Titian's friend, and the Voltaire of his day, is 
 now credited with a reputation, in complete antagonism with 
 his works and character, which he acquired by his over free 
 wit, characteristic of the writings of an age when gross jests 
 were held in honor, and queens and cardinals indited tales 
 which are now considered licentious. Instances might be 
 infinitely multiplied. 
 
 In France, and at the most important period of our his- 
 tory, Catherine de' Medici has suffered more from popular 
 error than any other woman, unless it be Brunehaut or Frede- 
 gonde ; while Marie de' Medici, whose every action was preju- 
 dicial to France, has escaped the disgrace that should cover 
 her name. Marie dissipated the treasure amassed by Henri 
 IV. ; she never purged herself of the suspicion that she was 
 cognizant of his murder; Epernon, who had long known 
 Kavaillac, and who did not parry his blow, was intimate with 
 the Queen ; she compelled her son to banish her from France, 
 where she was fostering the rebellion of her other son, Gas- 
 ton; and Richelieu's triumph over her on the Journee des 
 Dupes was due solely to the Cardinal's revealing to Louis 
 XIII. certain documents secreted after the death of 
 Henri IV. 
 
 , Catherine de' Medici, on the contrary, saved the throne 
 of France, she maintained the Royal authority under circum- 
 stances to which more than one great prince would have suc- 
 cumbed. Face to face with such leaders of the factions and 
 ambitions of the houses of Guise and of Bourbon as the two
 
 6 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 Cardinals de Lorraine and the two "Balafres," the two 
 Princes de Conde, Queen Jeanne d'Albret, Henri IV., the 
 Connetable de Montmorency, Calvin, the Colignys, and Theo- 
 dore de Beze, she was forced to put forth the rarest fine quali- 
 ties, the most essential gifts of statesmanship, under the fire 
 of the Calvinist press. These, at any rate, are indisputable 
 facts. And to the student who digs deep into the history of 
 the sixteenth century in France, the figure of Catherine de' 
 Medici stands out as that of a great king. 
 
 When once calumnies are undermined by facts laboriously 
 brought to light from under the contradictions of pamphlets 
 and false anecdotes, everything is explained to the glory of 
 this wonderful woman, who had none of the weakness of her 
 sex, who lived chaste in the midst of the gallantries of the 
 most licentious Court in Europe, and who, notwithstanding 
 her lack of money, erected noble buildings, as if to make 
 good the losses caused by the destructive Calvinists, who in- 
 jured Art as deeply as they did the body politic. 
 
 Hemmed in between a race of princes who proclaimed 
 themselves the heirs of Charlemagne, and a factious younger 
 branch that was eager to bury the Connetable de Bourbon's 
 treason under the throne ; obliged, too, to fight down a heresy 
 on the verge of devouring the Monarchy, without friends, 
 and aware of treachery in the chiefs of the Catholic party 
 and of republicanism in the Calvinists, Catherine used the 
 most dangerous but the surest of political weapons Craft. She 
 determined to deceive by turns the party that was anxious 
 to secure the downfall of the House of Valois, the Bourbons 
 who aimed at the Crown, and the Keformers the Radicals 
 of that day, who dreamed of an impossible republic, like those 
 of our own day, who, however, have nothing to reform. In- 
 deed, so long as she lived, the Valois sat on the throne. The 
 great de Thou understood the worth of this woman when he 
 exclaimed, on hearing of her death : 
 
 "It is not a woman, it is Royalty that dies in her !" 
 
 Catherine had, in fact, the sense of Royalty in the highest 
 degree, and she defended it with admirable courage and per-
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 7 
 
 sistency. The reproaches flung at her by Calvinist writers 
 are indeed her glory ; she earned them solely by her triumphs. 
 And how was she to triumph but by cunning ? Here lies the 
 whole question. 
 
 As to violence that method bears on one of the most 
 hotly disputed points of policy, which, in recent days, has 
 been answered here, on the spot where a big stone from Egypt 
 has been placed to wipe out the memory of regicide, and to 
 stand as an emblem of the materialistic policy which now 
 rules us; it was answered at les Carmes and at the Abbaye; 
 it was answered on the steps of Saint Koch ; it was answered 
 in front of the Louvre in 1830, and again by the people 
 against the King, as it has since been answered once more 
 by la Fayette's "best of all republics" against the republican 
 rebellion, at Saint-Merri and the Eue Transnonnain. 
 
 Every power, whether legitimate or illegitimate, must de- 
 fend itself when it is attacked; but, strange to say, while 
 the people is heroic when it triumphs over the nobility, the 
 authorities are murderers when they oppose the people ! And, 
 finally, if after their appeal to force they succumb, they are 
 regarded as effete idiots. The present Government (1840) 
 will try to save itself, by two laws, from the same evil as 
 attacked Charles X., and which he tried to scotch by two 
 decrees. Is not this a bitter mockery ? May those in power 
 meet cunning with cunning? Ought they to kill those who 
 try to kill them? 
 
 The massacres of the Revolution are the reply to the massa- 
 cre of Saint-Bartholomew. The People, being King, did by 
 the nobility and the King as the King and the nobility did 
 by the rebels in the sixteenth century. And popular writers, 
 who know full well that, under similar conditions, the people 
 would do the same again, are inexcusable when they blame 
 Catherine de' Medici and Charles IX. 
 
 "All power is a permanent conspiracy," said Casimir 
 Perier, when teaching what power ought to be. We admire 
 the anti-social maxims published by audacious writers; why, 
 then, are social truths received in France with such disfavor
 
 8 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 when they are boldly stated ? This question alone sufficiently 
 accounts for historical mistakes. Apply the solution of this 
 problem to the devastating doctrines which flatter popular 
 passion, and to the conservative doctrines which would repress 
 the ferocious or foolish attempts of the populace, and you 
 will see the reason why certain personages are popular or 
 unpopular. Laubardemont and Laffemas, like some people 
 now living, were devoted to the maintenance of the power 
 they believed in. Soldiers and judges, they obeyed a Royal 
 authority. D'Orthez, in our day, would be discharged from 
 office for misinterpreting orders from the Ministry, but 
 Charles X. left him to govern his province. The power of 
 the masses is accountable to no one; the power of one is 
 obliged to account to its subjects, great and small alike. 
 
 Catherine, like Philip II. and the Duke of Alva, like the 
 Guises and Cardinal Granvelle, foresaw the future to which 
 the Reformation was dooming Europe. They saw mon- 
 archies, religion, and power all overthrown. Catherine, from 
 the Cabinet of the French kings, forthwith issued sentence 
 of death on that inquiring spirit which threatened modern 
 society a sentence which Louis XIV. finally carried out. 
 The revocation of the Edict of Nantes was a measure that 
 proved unfortunate, simply in consequence of the irritation 
 Louis XIV. had aroused in Europe. At any other time 
 England, Holland, and the German Empire would not have 
 encouraged on their territory French exiles and French 
 rebels. 
 
 Why, in these days, refuse to recognize the greatness which 
 the majestic adversary of that most barren heresy derived 
 from the struggle itself? Calvinists have written strongly 
 against Charles IX.'s stratagems ; but travel through France : 
 as you see the ruins of so many fine churches destroyed, and 
 consider the vast breaches made by religious fanatics in the 
 social body; when you learn the revenges they took, while 
 deploring the mischief of individualism the plague of 
 France to-day, of which the germ lay in the questions of 
 liberty of conscience which they stirred up you will ask
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 9 
 
 yourself on which side were the barbarians. There are al- 
 ways, as Catherine says in the third part of this Study, "un- 
 luckily, in all ages, hypocritical writers ready to bewail two 
 hundred scoundrels killed in due season." Caesar, who tried 
 to incite the Senate to pity for Catiline's party, would very 
 likely have conquered Cicero if he had had newspapers and 
 an Opposition at his service. 
 
 Another consideration accounts for Catherine's historical 
 and popular disfavor. In France the Opposition has always 
 been Protestant, because its policy has never been anything 
 but negative; it has inherited the theories of the Lutherans, 
 the Calvinists, and the Protestants on the terrible texts of 
 liberty, tolerance, progress, and philanthropy. The oppo- 
 nents of power spent two centuries in establishing the very 
 doubtful doctrine of freewill. Two more were spent in work- 
 ing out the first corollary of freewill liberty of conscience. 
 Our age is striving to prove the second political liberty. 
 
 Standing between the fields already traversed and the fields 
 as yet untrodden, Catherine and the Church proclaimed the 
 salutary principle of modern communities, Una fides, unus 
 Dominus, but asserting their right of life and death over all 
 innovators. Even if she had been conquered, succeeding times 
 have shown that Catherine was right. The outcome of free- 
 will, religious liberty, and political liberty (note, this does 
 not mean civil liberty) is France as we now see it. 
 
 And what is France in 1840? A country exclusively ab- 
 sorbed in material interests, devoid of patriotism, devoid of 
 conscience; where authority is powerless; where electoral 
 rights, the fruit of freewill and political liberty, raise none 
 but mediocrities ; where brute force is necessary to oppose the 
 violence of the populace; where discussion, brought to bear 
 on the smallest matter, checks every action of the body 
 politic; and where individualism the odious result of the 
 indefinite subdivision of property, which destroys family co- 
 hesion will devour everything, even the nation, which sheer 
 selfishness will some day lay open to invasion. Men will say, 
 "Why not the Tzar?" as they now say, "Why not the Due
 
 10 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 d'Orleans ?" We do not care for many things even now ; fifty 
 years hence we shall care for nothing. 
 
 Therefore, according to Catherine and according to all 
 who wish to see Society soundly organized man as a social 
 unit, as a subject, has no freewill, has no right to accept th 
 dogma of liberty of conscience, or to have political liberty. 
 Still, as no community can subsist without some guarantee 
 given to the subject against the sovereign, the subject derives 
 from that certain liberties under restrictions. Liberty no, 
 but liberties yes; well defined and circumscribed liberties. 
 This is in the nature of things. For instance, it is beyond 
 human power to fetter freedom of thought ; and no sovereign 
 may ever tamper with money. 
 
 The great politicians who have failed in this long contest 
 it has gone on for five centuries have allowed their subjects 
 wide liberties; but they never recognize their liberty to pub- 
 lish anti-social . opinions, nor the unlimited freedom of the 
 subject. To them the words subject and free are, politically 
 speaking, a contradiction in terms; and, in the same way, 
 the statement that all citizens are equal is pure nonsense, 
 and contradicted by Nature every hour. To acknowledge 
 the need for religion, the need for authority, and at the same 
 time to leave all men at liberty to deny religion, to attack 
 its services, to oppose the exercise of authority by the public 
 and published expression of opinion, is an impossibility such 
 as the Catholics of the sixteenth century would have nothing 
 to say to. Alas ! the triumph of Calvinism will cost France 
 more yet than it has ever done; for the sects of to-day re- 
 ligious, political, humanitarian, and leveling are the train of 
 Calvinism; and when we see the blunders of those in power, 
 their contempt for intelligence, their devotion to those ma- 
 terial interests in which they seek support, and which are the 
 most delusive of all props, unless by the special aid of Provi- 
 dence the genius of destruction must certainly win the day 
 from the genius of conservatism. The attacking forces, who 
 have nothing to lose, and everything to win, are thoroughly 
 in agreement; whereas their wealthy opponents refuse to
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 11 
 
 make any sacrifice of money or of self-conceit to secure de- 
 fenders. 
 
 Printing came to the aid of the resistance inaugurated 
 by the Vaudois and the Albigenses. As soon as human 
 thought no longer condensed, as it had necessarily been in 
 order to preserve the most communicable form had assumed 
 a multitude of garbs and become the very people, instead of 
 remaining in some sense divinely axiomatic, there were two 
 vast armies to contend with that of ideas and that of men. 
 Uoyal power perished in the struggle, and we, in France, at 
 this day are looking on at its last coalition with elements 
 which make it difficult, not to say impossible. 
 
 Power is action; the electoral principle is discussion. No 
 political action is possible when discussion is permanently 
 established. So we ought to regard the woman as truly great 
 who foresaw that future, and fought it so bravely. The 
 House of Bourbon was able to succeed to the House of Valois, 
 and owed it to Catherine de' Medici that it found that crown 
 to wear. If the second Balafre had been alive, it is very 
 doubtful that the Bearnais, strong as he was, could have seized 
 the throne, seeing how dearly it was sold by the Due de 
 Mayenne and the remnant of the Guise faction. The neces- 
 sary steps taken by Catherine, who had the deaths of Fran- 
 cois II. and Charles IX. on her soul both dying opportunely 
 for her safety are not, it must be noted, what the Calvinist 
 and modern writers blame her for! Though there was no 
 poisoning, as some serious authors have asserted, there were 
 other not less criminal plots. It is beyond question that she 
 hindered Pare from saving one, and murdered the other 
 morally by inches. 
 
 But the swift death of Frangois II. and the skilfully con- 
 trived end of Charles IX. did no injury to Calvinist interests. 
 The causes of these two events concerned only the uppermost 
 sphere, and were never suspected by writers or by the lower 
 orders at the time; they were guessed only by de Thou, by 
 1'Hopital, by men of the highest talents, or the chiefs of the 
 two parties who coveted and clung to the Crown, and who 
 thought such means indispensable.
 
 12 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 Popular songs, strange to say, fell foul of Catherine's 
 morality. The anecdote is known of a soldier who was roast- 
 ing a goose in the guardroom of the Chateau of Tours while 
 Catherine and Henri IV. were holding a conference there, 
 and who sang a ballad in which the Queen was insultingly 
 compared to the largest cannon in the hands of the Calvinists. 
 Henri IV. drew his sword to go out and kill the man; Cath- 
 erine stopped him, and only shouted out: 
 
 "It is Catherine who provides the goose!" 
 
 Though the executions at Amboise were attributed to Cath- 
 erine, and the Calvinists made that able woman responsible 
 for all the inevitable disasters of the struggle, she must be 
 judged by posterity, like Eobespierre at a future date. 
 
 And Catherine was cruelly punished for her preference 
 for the Due d'Anjou, which made her hold her two elder sons 
 so cheap. Henri III. having ceased, like all spoilt children, 
 to care for his mother, rushed voluntarily into such debauch- 
 ery as made him, what the mother had made Charles IX., 
 a childless husband, a king without an heir. Unhappily, 
 Catherine's youngest son, the Due d'Alengon, died a natural 
 death. The Queen-mother made every effort to control her 
 son's passions. History preserves the tradition of a supper 
 to nude women given in the banqueting-hall at Chenonceaux 
 on his return from Poland, but it did not cure Henri III. of 
 his bad habits. 
 
 This great Queen's last words summed up her policy, which 
 was indeed so governed by good sense that we see the Cabinets 
 of every country putting it into practice in similar circum- 
 stances. 
 
 "Well cut, my son," said she, when Henri III. came to her, 
 on her deathbed, to announce that the enemy of the throne 
 had been put to death. "Now you must sew up again." 
 
 She thus expressed her opinion that the sovereign must 
 make friends with the House of Lorraine, and make it useful, 
 as the only way to hinder the effects of the Guises' hatred, 
 by giving them a hope of circumventing the King. But this 
 indefatigable cunning of the Italian and the woman was
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 13 
 
 incompatible with Henri III.'s life of debauchery. When 
 once the Great Mother was dead, the Mother of Armies 
 (Mater castrorum), the policy of the Valois died too. 
 
 Before attempting to write this picture of manners in 
 action, the author patiently and minutely studied the prin- 
 cipal reigns of French history, the quarrels of the Burgun- 
 dians and the Armagnacs, and those of the Guises and the 
 Valois, each in the forefront of a century. His purpose 
 was to write a picturesque history of France. Isabella of 
 Bavaria, Catherine and Marie de' Medici, each fills a con- 
 spicuous place, dominating from the fourteenth to the seven- 
 teenth centuries, and leading up to Louis XIV. 
 
 Of these three queens, Catherine was the most interesting 
 and the most beautiful. Hers was a manly rule, not dis- 
 graced by the terrible amours of Isabella, nor those, even 
 more terrible though less known, of Marie de' Medici. Isa- 
 bella brought the English into France to oppose her son, 
 was in love with her brother-in-law, the Due d'Orleans, and 
 with Boisbourdon. Marie de' Medici's account is still heavier. 
 Neither of them had any political genius. 
 
 In the course of these studies and comparisons, the author 
 became convinced of Catherine's greatness; by initiating 
 himself into the peculiar difficulties of her position, he dis- 
 cerned how unjust historians, biased by Protestantism, had 
 been to this queen; and the outcome was the three sketches 
 here presented, in which some erroneous opinions of her, of 
 those who were about her, and of the aspect of the times, 
 are combated. 
 
 The work is placed among my Philosophical Studies, be- 
 cause it illustrates the spirit of a period, and plainly shows 
 the influence of opinions. 
 
 But before depicting the political arena on which Catherine 
 comes into collision with the two great obstacles in her 
 career, it is necessary to give a short account of her previous 
 life from the point of view of an impartial critic, so that
 
 14 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 the reader may form a general idea of this large and royal 
 life up to the time when the first part of this narrative opens. 
 
 Never at any period, in any country, or in any ruling family 
 was there more contempt felt for legitimacy than by the famous 
 race of the Medici (in French commonly written and pro- 
 nounced Medicis). They held the same opinion of monarchy 
 as is now professed in Kussia : The ruler on whom the crown 
 devolves is the real and legitimate monarch. Mirabeau was 
 justified in saying, "There has been but one mesalliance in 
 my family that with the Medici;" for, notwithstanding the 
 exertions of well-paid genealogists, it is certain that the 
 Medici, till the time of Averardo de' Medici, gonfaloniere of 
 Florence in 1314, were no more than Florentine merchants 
 of great wealth. The first personage of the family who filled 
 a conspicuous place in the history of the great Tuscan Re- 
 public was Salvestro de' Medici, gonfaloniere in 1378. This 
 Salvestro had two sons Cosmo and Lorenzo de' Medici. 
 
 From Cosmo descended Lorenzo the Magnificent, the Due 
 de Nemours, the Duke of Urbino, Catherine's father, Pope 
 Leo X., Pope Clement VII., and Alessandro, not indeed 
 Duke of Florence, as he is sometimes called, but Duke della 
 cittd di Penna, a title created by Pope Clement VII. as a 
 step towards that of Grand Duke of Tuscany. 
 
 Lorenzo's descendants were Lorenzino the Brutus of 
 Florence who killed Duke Alessandro; Cosmo, the first 
 Grand Duke, and all the rulers of Florence till 1737, when 
 the family became extinct. 
 
 But neither of the two branches that of Cosmo or that 
 of Lorenzo succeeded in a direct line, till the time when 
 Marie de' Medici's father subjugated Tuscany, and the Grand 
 Dukes inherited in regular succession. Thus Alessandro de' 
 Medici, who assumed the title of Duke della cittd di Penna,\ 
 and whom Lorenzino assassinated, was the son of the Duke 
 of Urbino, Catherine's father, by a Moorish slave. Hence 
 Lorenzino, the legitimate son of Lorenzo, had a double right 
 to kill Alessandro, both as a usurper in the family and as an 
 oppressor of the city. Some historians have indeed supposed
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 15 
 
 that Alessandro was the son of Clement VII. The event 
 that led to the recognition of this bastard as head of the 
 Republic was his marriage with Margaret of Austria, the 
 natural daughter of Charles V. 
 
 Francesco de' Medici, the husband of Bianca Capello, rec- 
 ognized as his son a child of low birth bought by that notork 
 ous Venetian lady ; and, strange to say, Fernando, succeeding 
 Francesco, upheld the hypothetical rights of this boy. In- 
 deed, this youth, known as Don Antonio de' Medici, was rec- 
 ognized by the family during four ducal reigns; he won the 
 affection of all, did them important service, and was uni- 
 versally regretted. 
 
 Almost all the early Medici had natural children, whose 
 lot was in every case splendid. The Cardinal Giulio de' 
 Medici, Pope Clement VII., was the illegitimate son of 
 Giuliano I. Cardinal Ippolito de' Medici was also a bastard, 
 and he was within an ace of being Pope and head of the 
 family. 
 
 Certain inventors of anecdote have a story that the Duke 
 of Urbino, Catherine's father, told her: "A figlia d'inganno 
 non manca mai figliuolanza" (A clever woman can always 
 have children, a propos to some natural defect in Henri, the 
 second son of Frangois I., to whom she was betrothed). This 
 Lorenzo de' Medici, Catherine's father, had married, for the 
 second time, in 1518, Madeleine de la Tour d'Auvergne, and 
 died in 1519, a few days after his wife, who died in giving 
 birth to Catherine. Catherine was thus fatherless and 
 motherless as soon as she saw the light. Hence the strange 
 events of her childhood, chequered by the violent struggles 
 of the Florentines, in the attempt to recover their liberty, 
 against the Medici who were determined to govern Florence, 
 but who were so circumspect in their policy that Catherine's 
 father took the title of Duke of Urbino. 
 
 At his death, the legitimate head of the House of the Medici 
 was Pope Leo X., who appointed Giuliano's illegitimate son, 
 Giulio de' Medici, then Cardinal, Governor of Florence. Leo 
 X. was Catherine's grand-uncle, and this Cardinal Giulio,
 
 16 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 afterwards Clement VII., was her left-handed uncle only. 
 This it was which made Brantome so wittily speak of that 
 Pope as an "uncle in Our Lady." 
 
 During the siege by the Medici to regain possession of 
 Florence, the Republican party, not satisfied with having shut 
 up Catherine, then nine years old, in a convent, after strip- 
 ping her of all her possessions, proposed to expose her to 
 the fire of the artillery, between two battlements the sug- 
 gestion of a certain Battista Cei. Bernardo Castiglione went 
 even further in a council held to determine on some conclu- 
 sion to the business; he advised that, rather than surrender 
 Catherine to the Pope who demanded it, she should be handed 
 over to the tender mercies of the soldiers. All revolutions of 
 the populace are alike. Catherine's policy, always in favor 
 of royal authority, may have been fostered by such scenes, 
 which an Italian girl of nine could not fail to understand. 
 
 Alessandro's promotion, to which Clement VII., himself 
 a bastard, largely contributed, was no doubt owing partly 
 to the fact of his being illegitimate, and to Charles V.'s af- 
 fection for his famous natural daughter Margaret. Thus the 
 Pope and the Emperor were moved by similar feelings. At 
 this period Venice was mistress of the commerce of the world ; 
 Eome governed its morals; Italy was still supreme, by the 
 poets, the generals, and the statesmen who were her sons. At 
 no other time has any one country had so curious or so various 
 a multitude of men of genius. There were so many, that 
 the smallest princelings were superior men. Italy was over- 
 flowing with talent, daring, science, poetry, wealth, and gal- 
 lantry, though rent by constant internal; wars, and at all 
 times the arena on which conquerors met to fight for her fair- 
 est provinces. 
 
 When men are so great, they are not afraid to confess their 
 weakness; hence, no doubt, this golden age for bastards. 
 And it is but justice to declare that these illegitimate sons 
 of the Medici were ardent for the glory and the advancement 
 of the family, alike in possessions and in power. And as 
 soon as the Duke della citta di Penna, the Moorish slave's
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDIGI 17 
 
 son, was established as Tyrant of Florence, he took up the in- 
 terest shown by Pope Clement VII. for Lorenzo II.'s daugh- 
 ter, now eleven years of age. 
 
 As we study the march of events and of men in that strange 
 sixteenth century, we must never forget that the chief ele- 
 ment of political conduct was unremitting craft, destroying 
 in every nature the upright conduct, the squareness which 
 imagination looks for in eminent men. In this, especially, 
 lies Catherine's absolution. This observation, in fact, dis- 
 poses of all the mean and foolish accusations brought against 
 her by the writers of the reformed faith. It was indeed the 
 golden age of this type of policy, of which Machiavelli and 
 Spinoza formulated the code, and Hobbes and Montesquieu; 
 for the Dialogue of "Sylla and Eucrates" expresses Montes- 
 quieu's real mind, which he could not set forth in any other 
 form in consequence of his connection with the Encyclo- 
 pedists. These principles are to this day the unconfessed 
 morality of every Cabinet where schemes of vast dominion 
 are worked out. In France we were severe on Napoleon 
 when he exerted this Italian genius which was in his blood, 
 and its plots did not always succeed; but Charles V., Cath- 
 erine, Philip II., Giulio II., would have done just as he did in 
 the affairs of Spain. 
 
 At the time when Catherine was born, history, if related 
 from the point of view of honesty, would seem an impossible 
 romance. Charles V., while forced to uphold the Catholic 
 Church against the attacks of Luther, who by threatening the 
 tiara threatened his throne, allowed Eome to be besieged, and 
 kept Pope Clement VII. in prison. This same Pope, who 
 had no more bitter foe than Charles V., cringed to him that 
 he might place Alessandro de' Medici at Florence, and the 
 Emperor gave his daughter in marriage to the bastard Duke. > 
 No sooner was he firmly settled there than Alessandro, in 
 concert with the Pope, attempted to injure Charles V. by an 
 alliance, through Catherine de' Medici, with Francis I., and 
 both promised to assist the French king to conquer Italy. 
 
 Lorenzino de' Medici became Alessandro's boon companion,
 
 18 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 and pandered to him to get an opportunity of killing him; 
 and Filippo Strozzi, one of the loftiest spirits of that age, 
 regarded this murder with such high esteem that he vowed 
 that each of his sons should marry one of the assassin's 
 daughters. The sons religiously fulfilled the father's pledge 
 at a time when each of them, under Catherine's protection, 
 could have made a splendid alliance; for one was Doria's 
 rival, and the other Marshal of France. 
 
 Cosmo de' Medici, Alessandro's successor, avenged the 
 death of the Tyrant with great cruelty, and persistently for 
 twelve years, during which his hatred never flagged against 
 the people who had, after all, placed him in power. He was 
 eighteen years of age when he succeeded to the government; 
 his first act was to annul the rights of Alessandro's legitimate 
 sons, at the time when he was avenging Alessandro ! Charles 
 V. confirmed the dispossession of his grandson, and recog- 
 nized Cosmo instead of Alessandro's son. 
 
 Cosmo, raised to the throne by Cardinal Cibo, at once sent 
 the prelate into exile. Then Cardinal Cibo accused his 
 creature, Cosmo, the first Grand Duke, of having tried to 
 poison Alessandro's son. The Grand Duke, as jealous of 
 his authority as Charles V. was of his, abdicated, like the 
 Emperor, in favor of his son Francesco, after ordering the 
 death of Don Garcias, his other son, in revenge for that of 
 Cardinal Giovanni de' Medici, whom Gareias had as- 
 sassinated. 
 
 Cosmo I. and his son Francesco, who ought to have been 
 devoted, soul and body, to the Eoyal House of France, the 
 only power able to lend them support, were the humble ser- 
 vants of Charles Y. and Philip II., and consequently the 
 secret, perfidious, and cowardly foes of Catherine de' Medici, 
 one of the glories of their race. 
 
 Such are the more important features contradictory and 
 illogical indeed the dishonest acts, the dark intrigues of the 
 House of the Medici alone. From this sketch some idea may 
 be formed of the other princes of Italy and Europe. Every 
 envoy from Cosmo I. to the Court of France had secret in-
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 19 
 
 structions to poison Strozzi, Queen Catherine's relation, when 
 he should find him there. Charles V. had three ambassadors 
 from Francis I. murdered. 
 
 It was early in October 1533 that the Duke della citta di 
 Penna left Florence for Leghorn, accompanied by Catherine 
 de' Medici, sole heiress of Lorenzo II. The Duke and the 
 Princess of Florence, for this was the title borne by the girl, 
 now fourteen years of age, left the city with a large following 
 of servants, officials, and secretaries, preceded by men-at- 
 arms, and escorted by a mounted guard. The young Princess 
 as yet knew nothing of her fate, excepting that the Pope 
 and Duke Alessandro were to have an interview at Leghorn; 
 but her uncle, Filippo Strozzi, soon told her of the future that 
 lay before her. 
 
 Filippo Strozzi had married Clarissa de' Medici, whole 
 sister to Lorenzo de' Medici, Duke of Urbino, Catherine's 
 father; but this union, arranged quite as much with a view 
 to converting one of the stoutest champions of the popular 
 cause to the support of Medici as to secure the recall of that 
 then exiled family, never shook the tenets of the rough sol- 
 dier who was persecuted by his party for having consented to 
 it. In spite of some superficial change of conduct, somewhat 
 overruled by this alliance, he remained faithful to the popular 
 side, and declared against the Medici as soon as he perceived 
 their scheme of subjugating Florence. This great man even 
 refused the offer of a principality from Leo X. At that time 
 Filippo Strozzi was a victim to the policy of the Medici, so 
 shifty in its means, so unvarying in its aim. 
 
 After sharing the Pope's misfortunes and captivity, when, 
 surprised by Colonna, he took refuge in the castle of Saint- 
 Angelo, he was given up by Clement VII. as a hostage and 
 carried to Naples. As soon as the Pope was free, he fell 
 upon his foes, and Strozzi was then near being killed; he 
 was forced to pay an enormous bribe to get out of the prison, 
 where he was closely guarded. As soon as he was at liberty, 
 with the natural trustfulness of an honest man, he was
 
 20 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 simple enough to appear before Clement VII., who perhaps 
 had nattered himself that he was rid of him. The Pope had 
 so much to be ashamed of that he received Strozzi very un- 
 graciously. Thus Strozzi had very early begun his appren- 
 ticeship to the life of disaster, which is that of a man who 
 is honest in politics, and whose conscience will not lend 
 itself to the caprices of opportunity, whose actions are pleas- 
 ing only to virtue, which is persecuted by all by the popu- 
 lace, because it withstands their blind passions ; by authority, 
 because it resists its usurpations. 
 
 The life of these great citizens is a martyrdom, through 
 which they have nothing to support them but the strong 
 voice of conscience, and the sense of social duty, which in all 
 cases dictates their conduct. 
 
 There were many such men in the Republic of Florence, 
 all as great as Strozzi and as masterly as their adversaries 
 on the Medici side, though beaten by Florentine cunning. 
 In the conspiracy of the Pazzi, what can be finer than the 
 attitude of the head of that house ? His trade was immense, 
 and he settled all his accounts with Asia, the Levant, and 
 Europe before carrying out that great plot, to she end that 
 his correspondents should not be the losers if he should fail. 
 
 And the history of the rise of the Medici family in the 
 fourteenth and fifteenth centuries is one of the finest that 
 remains unwritten, though men of great genius have at- 
 tempted it. It is not the history of a republic, or of any 
 particular community or phase of civilization; it is the 
 history of political man, and the eternal history of political 
 developments, that of usurpers and conquerors. 
 
 On his return to Florence, Filippo Strozzi restored the 
 ancient form of government, and banished Ippolito de' 
 Medici, another bastard, as well as Alessandro, with whom 
 he was now acting. But he then was afraid of the incon- 
 stancy of the populace; and as he dreaded Pope Clement's 
 vengeance, he went to take charge of a large commercial house 
 he had at Lyons in correspondence with his bankers at Venice 
 and Rome, in France, and in Spain. A strange fact ! These
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 2l 
 
 men, who bore the burden of public affairs as well as that 
 of a perennial struggle with the Medici, to say nothing of 
 their squabbles with their own party, could also endure the 
 cares of commerce and speculation, of banking with all its 
 complications, which the vast multiplicity of coinages and 
 frequent forgeries made far more difficult then than now. 
 The word banker is derived from the bench on which they 
 eat, and which served also to ring the gold and silver pieces 
 on. Strozzi found in his adored wife's death a pretext to 
 offer to the Eepublican party, whose police is always all the 
 more terrible because everybody is a voluntary spy in the 
 name of Liberty, which justifies all things. 
 
 Filippo's return to Florence happened just at the time 
 when the city was compelled to bow to Alessandro's yoke; 
 but he had previously been to see Pope Clement, with whom 
 matters were so promising that his feelings towards Strozzi 
 had changed. In the moment of triumph the Medici so 
 badly needed such a man as Strozzi, were it only to lend a 
 grace to Alessandro's assumption of dignity, that Clement 
 persuaded him to sit on the bastard's council, which was 
 about to take oppressive measures, and Filippo had accepted 
 a diploma as senator. But for the last two years and a half 
 like Seneca and Burrhus with Nero he had noted the be- 
 ginnings of tyranny. He found himself the object of dis- 
 trust to the populace, and so little in favor with the Medici, 
 whom he opposed, that he foresaw a catastrophe. And as 
 soon as he heard from Alessandro of the negotiations for the 
 marriage of Catherine with a French Prince, which were 
 perhaps to be concluded at Leghorn, where the contracting 
 powers had agreed to meet, he resolved to go to France and 
 follow the fortunes of his niece, who would need a guardian. 
 Alessandro, delighted to be quit of a man so difficult to 
 manage in what concerned Florence, applauded this decision, 
 which spared him a murder, and advised Strozzi to place him 
 self at the head of Catherine's household. 
 
 In point of fact, to dazzle the French Court, the Medici 
 had constituted a brilliant suite for the young girl whom 
 -3
 
 22 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDIGI 
 
 they quite incorrectly styled the Princess of Florence, and 
 who was also called the Duchess of Urhino. The procession, 
 at the head of it Duke Alessandro, Catherine, and Strozzi, 
 consisted of more than a thousand persons, exclusive of the 
 escort and serving-men ; and when the last of them were still 
 at the gate of Florence, the foremost had already got beyond 
 the first village outside the town where straw plait for hats 
 is now made. 
 
 It was beginning to be generally known that Catherine 
 ''was to marry a son of Francis the First, but as yet it was 
 no more than a rumor which found confirmation in the 
 country from this triumphant progress from Florence to 
 Leghorn. From the preparations required, Catherine sus- 
 pected that her marriage was in question, and her uncle 
 revealed to her the abortive scheme of her ambitious family, 
 who had aspired to the hand of the Dauphin. Duke Ales- 
 sandro still hoped that the Duke of Albany might succeed 
 in changing the determination of the French King, who, 
 though anxious to secure the aid of the Medici in Italy, would 
 only give them the Due d'Orleans. This narrowness lost 
 Italy to France, and did not hinder Catherine from being 
 Queen. 
 
 This Duke of Albany, the son of Alexander Stuart, 
 brother of James III. of Scotland, had married Anne de 
 la Tour de Boulogne, sister to Madeleine, Catherine's mother ; 
 he was thus her maternal uncle. It was through her mother 
 that Catherine was so rich and connected with so many 
 families ; for, strangely enough, Diane de Poitiers, her rival, 
 was also her cousin. Jean de Poitiers, Diane's father, was 
 son of Jeanne de la Tour de Boulogne, the Duchess of 
 Urbino's aunt. Catherine was also related to Mary Stuart, 
 'her daughter-in-law. 
 
 Catherine was now informed that her dower in money 
 would amount to a hundred thousand ducats. The ducat 
 was a gold piece as large as one of our old louis d'or, but only 
 half as thick. Thus a hundred thousand ducats in those 
 days represented, in consequence of the high value of gold,
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICl 23 
 
 six millions of francs at the present time, the ducat being 
 worth about twelve francs. The importance of the banking- 
 house of Strozzi, at Lyons, may be imagined from this, as 
 it was his factor there who paid over the twelve hundred 
 thousand livres in gold. The counties of Auvergne and 
 Lauraguais also formed part of Catherine's portion, and the 
 Pope Clement VII. made her a gift of a hundred thousand 
 ducats more in jewels, precious stones, and other wedding 
 gifts, to which Duke Alessandro contributed. 
 
 On reaching Leghorn, Catherine, still so young, must have 
 been flattered by the extraordinary magnificence displayed 
 by Pope Clement VII., her "uncle in Our Lady," then the 
 head of the House of Medici, to crush the Court of France. 
 He had arrived at the port in one of his galleys hung with 
 crimson satin trimmed with gold fringe, and covered with an 
 awning of cloth of gold. This barge, of which the decorations 
 had cost nearly twenty thousand ducats, contained several 
 rooms for the use of Henri de France's future bride, furnished 
 with the choicest curiosities the Medici had been able to 
 collect. The oarsmen, magnificently dressed, and the seamen 
 were under the captaincy of a Prior of the Order of the 
 Knights of Ehodes. The Pope's household filled three more 
 barges. 
 
 The Duke of Albany's galleys, moored by the side of the 
 Pope's, formed, with these, a considerable flotilla. 
 
 Duke Alessandro presented the officers of Catherine's 
 household to the Pope, with whom he held a secret confer- 
 ence, introducing to him, as seems probable, Count Sebastian 
 Montecuculi, who had just left the Emperor's service 
 rather suddenly, it was said and the two Generals, Antonio 
 de Leyva and Fernando Gonzaga. Was there a premeditated 
 plan between these two bastards to make the Due d'Orleans 
 the Dauphin? What was the reward promised to Count 
 Sebastian Montecuculi, who, before entering the service of 
 Charles V., had studied medicine ? History is silent on these 
 points. We shall see indeed in what obscurity the subject 
 is wrapped. It is so great that some serious and conscientious 
 historians have recently recognized Montecuculi's innocence.
 
 24 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 Catherine was now officially informed by the Pope himself 
 of the alliance proposed for her. The Duke of Albany had 
 had great difficulty in keeping the King of France to his 
 promise of giving even his second son to Catherine de' 
 Medici; and Clement's impatience was so great, he was so 
 much afraid of seeing his schemes upset either by some in 
 trigue on the part of the Emperor, or by the haughtiness of 
 France, where the great nobles cast an evil eye on this union,; 
 that he embarked forthwith and made for Marseilles. He 
 arrived there at the end of October 1533. 
 
 In spite of his splendor, the House of the Medici was 
 eclipsed by the sovereign of France. To show to what a 
 pitch these great bankers carried their magnificence, the 
 dozen pieces given by the Pope in the bride's wedding purse 
 consisted of gold medals of inestimable historical interest, 
 for they were at that time unique. But Francis I., who loved 
 festivity and display, distinguished himself on this occasion. 
 The wedding feasts for Henri de Valois and Catherine went 
 on for thirty-four days. It is useless to repeat here details 
 which may be read in every history of Provence and Mar- 
 seilles as to this famous meeting between the Pope and the 
 King of France, which was the occasion of a jest of the Duke 
 of Albany's as to the duty of fasting; a retort recorded by 
 Brantome which vastly amused the Court, 'and shows the 
 tone of manners at that time. 
 
 Though Henri de Valois was but three weeks older than 
 Catherine, the Pope insisted on the immediate consummation 
 of the marriage between these two children, so greatly did 
 he dread the subterfuges of diplomacy and the trickery 
 commonly practised at that period. Clement, indeed, anxious 
 for proof, remained thirty-four days at Marseilles, in the 1 
 hope, it is said, of some visible evidence in his young rela- 
 tion, who at fourteen was marriageable. And it was, no 
 doubt, when questioning Catherine before his departure, that 
 he tried to console her by the famous speech ascribed to 
 Catherine's father: "A. figlia d'inganno, non manca mai la 
 figliuolanza."
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 25 
 
 The strangest conjectures have been given to the world 
 as to the causes of Catherine's barrenness during ten years. 
 Few persons nowadays are aware that various medical works 
 contain suppositions as to this matter, so grossly indecent 
 that they could not be repeated.* This gives some clue to 
 the strange calumnies which still blacken this Queen, whose 
 every action was distorted to her injury. The reason lay 
 simply with her husband. It is sufficient evidence that at 
 a time when no prince was shy of having natural children, 
 Diane de Poitiers, far more highly favored than his wife, 
 had no children ; and nothing is commoner in surgical experi- 
 ence than such a malformation as this Prince's, which gave 
 rise to a jest of the ladies of the Court, who would have made 
 him Abbe de Saint- Victor, at a time when the French lan- 
 guage was as free as the Latin tongue. After the Prince was 
 operated on, Catherine had ten children. 
 
 The delay was a happy thing for France. If Henri II. 
 had had children by Diane de Poitiers, it would have caused 
 serious political complications. At the time of his treatment, 
 the Duchesse de Valentinois was in the second youth of wo- 
 manhood. These facts alone show that the history of Cath- 
 erine de' Medici remains to be entirely re-written; and that, 
 as Napoleon very shrewdly remarked, the history of France 
 should be in one volume only, or in a thousand. 
 
 When we compare the conduct of Charles V. with that of 
 the King of France during the Pope's stay at Marseilles, it 
 is greatly to the advantage of Francis as indeed in every 
 instance. Here is a brief report of this meeting as given by 
 a contemporary : 
 
 "His Holiness the Pope, having been conducted to the 
 Palace prepared for him, as I have said, outside the port, 
 each one withdrew to his chamber until the morrow, when 
 his said Holiness prepared to make his entry. Which was 
 done with great sumptuousness and magnificence, he being 
 set on a throne borne on the shoulders of two men in his 
 pontifical habit, saving only the tiara, while before him went 
 *8eeayle. Ait. Fernet.
 
 2 6 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 a white palfry bearing the Holy Sacrament, the said palfrey 
 being led by two men on foot in very fine raiment holding a 
 bridle of white silk. After him came all the cardinals in 
 their habit, riding their pontifical mules, and Madame the 
 Duches? of Urbino in great magnificence, with a goodly com- 
 pany of ladies and gentlemen alike of France and of Italy. 
 And the Pope, with all this company, being come to the place 
 prepared where they should lodge, each one withdrew ; and all 
 this was ordered and done without any disorder or tumult., 
 Now, while as the Pope was maMng his entry, the King 
 crossed the water in his frigate and went to lodge there 
 whence the Pope had come, to the end that on the morrow 
 he might come from thence to pay homage to the Holy Father, 
 as beseemed a most Christian King. 
 
 "The King being then ready, set forth to go to the Palace 
 where the Pope was, accompanied by the Princes of his 
 blood, Monseigneur the Due de Vendosmois (father of the 
 Vidame de Chartres), the Comte de Saint-Pol, Monsieur de 
 Montmorency, and Monsieur de la Eoche-sur-Yon, the Due 
 de Nemours (brother to the Duke of Savoy who died at that 
 place), the Duke of Albany, and many others, counts, barons, 
 and nobles, the Due de Montmorency being at all times about 
 the King's person. The King, being come to the Palace, was 
 received by the Pope and all the College of Cardinals as- 
 sembled in consistory, with much civility (fort kumaine- 
 ment). This done, each one went to the place appointed 
 to him, and the King took with him many cardinals to feast 
 them, and among them Cardinal de' Medici, the Pope's 
 nephew, a very magnificent lord with a fine escort. On the 
 morrow, those deputed by his Holiness and by the King 
 began to treat of those matters whereon they had met to agree. 
 First of all, they treated of the question of faith, and a bull 
 was read for the repression of heresy, and to hinder things 
 from coming to a greater combustion (une plus grande com- 
 bustion) than they are in already. Then, was performed the 
 marriage ceremony between the Due d'Orleans, the King's 
 second son, and Catherine de' Medici, Duchess of Urbino,
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 27 
 
 his Holiness' niece, under conditions the same, or nearly the 
 same, as had been formerly proposed to the Duke of Albany. 
 The said marriage was concluded with great magnificence, 
 and our Holy Father married them.* This marriage being 
 thus concluded, the Holy Father held a consistory, wherein 
 he created four cardinals to wait on the King, to wit : Cardi- 
 nal le Veneur, heretofore Bishop of Lisieux and High Al- 
 moner; Cardinal de Boulogne, of the family of la Chambre^ 
 half-brother on his mother's side 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 paid down the marriage portion in the pres- 
 ence of the Court, he observed some surprise on the part of 
 the French nobles ; they said pretty loudly that it was a small 
 price for such a mesalliance what would they say to-day? 
 Cardinal Ippolito replied : 
 
 "Then you are not informed as to your King's secrets. 
 His Holiness consents to bestow on France three pearls of in- 
 estimable price Genoa, Milan, and Naples." 
 
 The Pope left Count Sebastian Montecuculi to present 
 himself at the French Court, where he made an offer of his 
 services, complaining of Antonio de Leyva and Fernando 
 Gonzaga, for which reason he was accepted. Montecuculi was 
 not one of Catherine's household, which was composed en- 
 tirely of French ladies and gentlemen; for, by a law of the 
 realm which the Pope was rejoiced to see carried out, Cath- 
 erine was naturalized by letters patent before her marriage. 
 Montecuculi was at first attached to the household of the 
 Queen, Charles V.'s sister. Then, not long after, he entered 
 the Dauphin's service in the capacity of cupbearer. 
 
 The Duchesse d' Orleans found herself entirely swamped 
 at the Court of Francis I. Her young husband was in love! 
 with Diane de Poitiers, who was certainly her equal in point' 
 of birth, and a far greater lady. The daughter of the Medici 
 
 *At that time in French, as in Italian, the words marry and espouse were used in a 
 contrary sense to their present meaning. Marier was the fact of being married, 
 tpouscr was the priestly function.
 
 28 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 took rank below Queen Eleanor, Charles V.'s sister, and the 
 Duchesse d'Etampes, whose marriage to the head of the 
 family of de Brosse had given her one of the most powerful 
 positions and highest titles in France. Her aunt, the 
 Duchess of Albany, the Queen of Navarre, the Duchesse de 
 Guise, the Duchesse de Vendome, the wife of the Connetable, 
 and many other women, by their birth and privileges as well 
 as by their influence in the most sumptuous Court ever held 
 .by a French King not excepting Louis XIV. wholly 
 eclipsed the daughter of the Florentine merchants, who was 
 indeed more illustrious and richer through the Tour de Bou- 
 logne family than through her descent from the Medici. 
 
 Filippo Strozzi, a republican at heart, regarded his niece's 
 position as so critical and difficult, that he felt himself inca- 
 pable of directing her in the midst of conflicting interests, 
 and deserted her at the end of a year, being indeed recalled 
 to Italy by the death of Clement VII. Catherine's conduct, 
 when we remember that she was but just fifteen, was a marvel 
 of prudence. She very adroitly attached herself to the King, 
 her father-in-law, leaving him as rarely as possible; she was 
 with him on horseback, in hunting, and in war. 
 
 Her adoration of Francis I. saved the House of Medici 
 from all suspicion when the Dauphin died poisoned. At that 
 time Catherine and the Due d'Orleans were at the King^s 
 headquarters in Provence, for France had already been in- 
 vaded by Charles V., the King's brother-in-law. The whole 
 Court had remained on the scene of the wedding festivities, 
 now the theatre of the most barbarous war. Just as Charles 
 V., compelled to retreat, had fled, leaving the bones of his 
 army in Provence, the Dauphin was returning to Lyons by 
 the Ehone. Stopping at Tournon for the night, to amuse 
 himself, he went through some athletic exercises, such as 
 {formed almost the sole education he or his brother received, 
 in consequence of their long detention as hostages. The 
 Prince being very hot it was in the month of August 
 was so rash as to ask for a glass of water, which was given 
 to him, iced, by Montecuculi. The Dauphin died almost in- 
 stantaneously.
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 29 
 
 The King idolized his son. The Dauphin was indeed, as . 
 historians are agreed, a very accomplished Prince. His 
 father, in despair, gave the utmost publicity to the proceed- 
 ings against Montecuculi, and placed the matter in the hands 
 of the most learned judges of the day. 
 
 After heroically enduring the first tests of torture without 
 confessing anything, the Count made an avowal by which he 
 fully implicated the Emperor and his two generals, Antonio 
 de Leyva and Fernando Gonzaga. This, however, did not 
 satisfy Francis I. Never was a case more solemnly thrashed 
 out than this. An eye-witness gives the following account of 
 what the King did : 
 
 "The King called all the Princes of the Blood, and all the 
 Knights of his Order, and many other high personages of 
 the realm, to meet at Lyons; the Pope's Legate and Nuncio, 
 the cardinals who were of his Court, and the ambassadors of 
 England, Scotland, Portugal, Venice, Ferrara, and others; 
 together with all the princes and great nobles of foreign coun- 
 tries, both of Italy and of Germany, who were at that time 
 residing at his Court, to-wit: The Duke of Wittemberg, in 
 Allemaigne ; the Dukes of Somma, of Arianna, and of Atria ; 
 the Princes of Melphe [Malfi?] (who had desired to marry 
 Catherine), and of Stilliano, Neapolitan; the Marquis di 
 Vigevo, of the House of Trivulzio, Milanese ; the Signor Gio- 
 vanni Paolo di Ceri, Eoman; the Signor Cesare Fregose, 
 Genoese; the Signor Annibale Gonzaga, Mantuan, and many 
 more. Who being assembled, he caused to be read in their 
 presence, from the beginning to the end, the trial of that 
 wretched man who had poisoned his late Highness the Dau- 
 phin, with all the interrogations, confessions, confrontings, 
 and other proceedings usual in criminal trials, not choosing 
 that the sentence should be carried out until all those present 
 had given their opinion on this monstrous and miserable 
 matter." 
 
 Count Montecuculi's fidelity and devotion may seem ex- 
 traordinary in our day of universal indiscretion, when every- 
 body, and even Ministers, talk over the most trivial incidents
 
 30 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 in which they have put a finger; but in those times princes 
 could command devoted servants, or knew how to choose 
 them. There were monarchical Moreys then, because there 
 was faith. Never look for great things from self-interest: 
 interests may change; but look for anything from feeling, 
 from religious faith, monarchical faith, patriotic faith. 
 These three beliefs alone can produce a Berthereau of 
 ^Geneva, a Sydney or a Strafford in England, assassins toj 
 murder Thomas a Becket, or a Montecuculi; Jacques Cceur 
 and Jeanne d'Arc, or Richelieu and Danton; a Bonchamp, a 
 Talmont, or a Clement, a Chabot. 
 
 Charles V. made use of the highest personages to carry 
 out the murder of three ambassadors from Francis I. A 
 year later Lorenzino, Catherine's cousin, assassinated Duke 
 Alessandro after three years of dissimulation, and in circum- 
 stances which gained him the surname of the Florentine 
 Brutus. The rank of the victim was so little a check on such 
 undertakings that neither Leo X. nor Clement VII. seems to 
 have died a natural death. Mariana, the historian of Philip 
 II., almost jests in speaking of the death of the Queen of 
 Spain, a Princess of France, saying that "for the greater 
 glory of, the Spanish throne God suffered the blindness of 
 the doctors who treated the Queen for dropsy." When King 
 Henri II. allowed himself to utter a scandal which deserved 
 a sword-thrust, he could find la Chataignerie willing to 
 take it. At that time royal personages had their meals 
 served to them in padlocked boxes of which they had the 
 key. Hence the droit de cadenas, the right of the padlock, 
 an honor which ceased to exist in the reign of Louis XIV. 
 
 The Dauphin died of poison, the same perhaps as caused 
 the death of MADAME, under Louis XIV. Pope Clement 
 had been dead two years; Duke Alessandro, steeped in de- 
 bauchery, seemed to have no interest in the Due d'Orleans* 
 elevation. Catherine, now seventeen years old, was with 
 her father-in-law, whom she devotedly admired; Charles V. 
 alone seemed to have an interest in the Dauphin's death, 
 because Francis I. intended his son to form an alliance which
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 81 
 
 would have extended the power of France. Thus the Count's 
 confession was very ingeniously based on the passions and 
 policy of the day. Charles V. had fled after seeing his 
 troops overwhelmed in Provence, and with them his good 
 fortune, his reputation, and his hopes of aggrandizement. 
 And note, that even if an innocent man had confessed under 
 torture, the King afterwards gave him freedom of speech 
 before an august assembly, and in the presence of men with 
 whom innocence had a fair chance of a hearing. The King 
 wanted the truth, and sought it in good faith. 
 
 In spite of her now brilliant prospects, Catherine's position, 
 at court was unchanged by the Dauphin's death; her child- 
 lessness made a divorce seem probable when her husband 
 should become king. The Dauphin was now enslaved by 
 Diane de Poitiers, who had dared to be the rival of Madame 
 d'Etampes. Catherine was therefore doubly attentive and 
 insinuating to her father-in-law, understanding that he was 
 her sole mainstay. 
 
 Thus the first ten years of Catherine's married life were 
 spent in the unceasing regrets caused by repeated disap- 
 pointments when she hoped to have a child, and the vexations 
 of her rivalry with Diane. Imagine what the life must be 
 of a princess constantly spied on by a jealous mistress who 
 was favored by the Catholic party, and by the strong support 
 the Senechale had acquired through the marriage of her 
 daughters one to Eobert de la Mark, Due de Bouillon, 
 Prince de Sedan; the other to Claude de Lorraine, Due 
 d'Aumale. 
 
 L Swamped between the party of the Duchesse d'Etampes 
 and that of the Senechale (the title borne by Diane de 
 Poitiers during the reign of Francis L), who divided the 
 Court and political feeling between the two mortal foes, 
 Catherine tried to be the friend of both the Duchess and 
 Diane de Poitiers. She, who was to become so great a queen, 
 played the part of a subaltern. Thus she served her appren- 
 ticeship to the double-faced policy which afterwards was 
 the secret clue to her life. At a later date the queen found
 
 82 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 herself between the Catholics and the Calvinists, aa the 
 woman had been, for ten years, between Madame d'Etampes 
 and Madame de Poitiers. 
 
 She studied the contradictions of French policy. Francis 
 upheld Calvin and the Lutherans, to annoy Charles V. Then, 
 after having covertly and patiently fostered the Eeformation 
 in Germany, after tolerating Calvin's presence at the Court 
 of Navarre, he turned against it with undisguised severity.) 
 So Catherine could see the Court and the women of the 
 Court playing with the fire of heresy; Diane at the head of 
 the Catholic party with the Guises, only because the Duchesse 
 d'Etampes was on the side of Calvin and the Protestants. 
 
 This was Catherine's political education ; and in the King's 
 private circle she could study the mistakes made by the 
 Medici. The Dauphin was antagonistic to his father on 
 every point; he was a bad son. He forgot the hardest but 
 the tiniest axiom of Royalty, namely, that the throne is a 
 responsible entity, and that a son who may oppose his father 
 during his lifetime must carry out his policy on succeeding 
 to the throne. Spinoza, who was as deep a politician as he 
 was a great philosopher, says, in treating of the case of a 
 king who has succeeded to another by a revolution or by 
 treason: "If the new King hopes to secure his throne and 
 protect his life, he must display so much zeal in avenging his 
 predecessor's death that no one shall feel tempted tc repent 
 such a crime. But to avenge him worthily it is not enough 
 that he should shed the blood of his subjects; he must con- 
 firm the maxims of him whose place he fills, and walk in 
 the same ways of government." 
 
 It was the application of this principle which gave the 
 Medici to Florence. Cosmo I., Alessandro's successor, eleven 
 years later instigated the murder, at Venice, of the Florentine 
 Brutus, and, as has been said, persecuted the Strozzi without 
 mercy. It was the neglect of this principle that overthrew 
 Louis XVI. That King was false to every principle of gov- 
 ernment when he reinstated the Parlements suppressed by 
 his grandfather. Louis XV. had been clear-sighted; the
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 33 
 
 Parlements, and especially that of Paris, were quite half 
 to blame for the disorders that necessitated the assembling 
 of the States-General. Louis XV.'s mistake was that when 
 he threw down that barrier between the throne and the people, 
 he did not erect a stronger one, that he did not substitute 
 for the Parlements a strong constitutional rule in the prov- 
 inces. There lay the remedy for the evils of the Monarchy, 
 the voting power for taxation and the incidence of the taxes, 
 with consent gradually won to the reforms needed in the 
 monarchical rule. 
 
 Henri II/s first act was to give all his confidence to the 
 Connetable de Montmorency, whom his father had desired 
 him to leave in banishment. The Connetable de Mont- 
 morency, with Diane de Poitiers, to whom he was closely at- 
 tached, was master of the kingdom. Hence Catherine was 
 even less powerful and happy as Queen of France than she 
 had been as the Dauphiness. 
 
 At first, from the year 1543, she had a child every year for 
 ten years, and was fully taken up by her maternal functions 
 during that time, which included the last years of Francis 
 I.'s reign, and almost the whole of her husband's. It is im- 
 possible not to detect in this constant child-bearing the ma- 
 licious influence of a rival who thus kept the legitimate wife 
 out of the way. This feminine and barbarous policy was no 
 doubt one of Catherine's grievances against Diane. Being 
 thus kept out of the tide of affairs, this clever woman spent 
 her time in observing all the interests of the persons at 
 Court, and all the parties formed there. The Italians who 
 had followed her excited violent suspicions. After the exe- 
 cution of Montecuculi, the Connetable de Montmorency, 
 Diane, and most of the crafty politicians at Court were racked 
 with doubts of the Medici; but Francis I. always scouted 
 them. Still the Gondi, the Biraguas, the Strozzi, the Kug- 
 gieri, the Sardini, in short, all who were classed as the 
 Italians who had arrived in Catherine's wake, were compelled 
 to exercise every faculty of wit, policy, and courage to enable
 
 34 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 them to remain at Court under the burden of disfavor that 
 weighed on them. During the supremacy of Diane de 
 Poitiers, Catherine's obligingness went so far that some clever 
 folks have seen in it an evidence of the profound dissimula- 
 tion to which she was compelled by men and circumstances, 
 and by the conduct of Henri II. But it is going too far to 
 say that she never asserted her rights as a wife and a queen. 
 Her ten children (besides one miscarriage) were a sufficient 
 explanation of the King's conduct, who was thus set free 
 to spend his time with Diane de Poitiers. But the King 
 certainly never fell short of what he owed to himself; he 
 gave the Queen an entry worthy of any that had previously 
 taken place, on the occasion of her coronation. The records 
 of the Parlement and of the Exchequer prove that these two 
 important bodies went to meet Catherine outside Paris, as 
 far as Saint-Lazare. Here, indeed, is a passage from du 
 Tillet's narrative : 
 
 "A scaffolding had been erected at Saint-Lazare, whereon 
 was a throne (which du Tillet calls a chair of state, chair e 
 de parement). Catherine seated herself on this, dressed in 
 a surcoat, or sort of cape of ermine, covered with jewels; 
 beneath it a bodice, with a court train, and on her head a 
 crown of pearls and diamonds; she was supported by the 
 Marechale de la Mark, her lady of honor. Around her, stand- 
 ing, were the princes of the Blood and other princes and 
 noblemen richly dressed, with the Chancellor of France in 
 a robe of cloth of gold in a pattern on a ground of red 
 cramoisy.* In front of the Queen and on the same scaffold- 
 ing were seated, in two rows, twelve duchesses and countesses, 
 dressed in surcoats of ermine, stomachers, trains, and fillets, 
 that is to say, coronets, whether duchesses or countesses. 
 There were the Duchesse d'Estouteville, de Montpensier 
 the elder and the younger the Princesse de la Roche-sur- 
 Yon; the Duchesses de Guise, de Nivernois, d'Aumale, de 
 Valentinois (Diane de Poitiers) ; Mademoiselle the legiti- 
 
 * The old French word cramaisi did not mean merely a crimson red, but denoted a 
 Special excellence of the dye. (See Rabelais. \
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 35 
 
 mized bastard 'of France' (a title given to the King's daugh- 
 ter Diane, who became Duchesse de Castro-Farnese, and 
 afterwards Duchesse de Montmorency-Damville), Madame 
 la Connetable, and Mademoiselle de Nemours, not to mention 
 the other ladies who could find no room. The four capped 
 Presidents (a mortier), with some other members of the 
 Court and the chief clerk, du Tillet, went up on to the plat- 
 form and did their service, and the First President Lizet, 
 kneeling on one knee, addressed the Queen. The Chancellor, 
 likewise on one knee, made response. She made her entrance 
 into Paris at about three in the afternoon, riding in an open 
 litter, Madame Marguerite de France sitting opposite to her, 
 and by the side of the litter came the Cardinals d'Amboise, 
 de Chatillon, de Boulogne, and de Lenoncourt, in their 
 rochets. She got out at the Church of Notre-Dame, and 
 was received by the clergy. After she had made her prayer, 
 she was carried along the Eue de la Calandre to the Palace, 
 where the royal supper was spread in the great hall. She 
 sat there in the middle at a marble table, under a canopy 
 of velvet powdered with gold fleurs de lys." 
 
 It will here be fitting to controvert a popular error which 
 some persons have perpetuated, following Sauval in the mis- 
 take. It has been said that Henri II. carried his oblivion 
 of decency so far as to place his mistress' initials even on the 
 buildings which Catherine had advised him to undertake or 
 to carry on at such lavish expense. But the cipher, which 
 is to be seen at the Louvre, amply refutes those who have 
 so little comprehension as to lend credit to such nonsense, 
 a gratuitous slur on the honor of our kings and queens. The 
 H for Henri and the two C's, face to face, for Catherine seem 
 indeed to make two D's for Diane; and this coincidence was 
 no doubt pleasing to the King. But it is not the less certain 
 that the royal cipher was officially constructed of the initials 
 of the King and the Queen. And this is so true, that the 
 same cipher is still to be seen on the corn-market in Paris 
 which Catherine herself had built. It may also be found in 
 the crypt of Saint-Denis on Catherine's tomb, which she
 
 36 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 caused to be constructed during her lifetime by the side ot 
 that of Henri II., and on which she is represented from life 
 by the sculptor to whom she sat. 
 
 On a solemn occasion, when he was setting out on an 
 expedition to Germany, Henri II. proclaimed Catherine Re- 
 gent during his absence, as also in the event of his death 
 on March 25, 1552. Catherine's bitterest enemy, the author 
 of the Discours merveilleux sur les deportements de Catherine 
 II., admits that she acquitted herself of these functions to 
 the general approbation, and that the King was satisfied with 
 her administration. Henri II. had men and money at the 
 right moment. And after the disastrous day of Saint-Quen- 
 tin, Catherine obtained from the Parisians considerable sums, 
 which she forwarded to Compiegne, whither the King had 
 come. 
 
 In politics Catherine made immense efforts to acquire 
 some little influence. She was clever enough to gain over 
 to her interests the Connetable de Montmorency, who was 
 all-powerful under Henri II. The King's terrible reply to 
 Montmorency's insistency is well known. This answer was 
 the result of the good advice given by Catherine in the rare 
 moments when she was alone with the King, and could ex- 
 plain to him the policy of the Florentines, which was to 
 set the magnates of a kingdom by the ears and build up the 
 sovereign authority on the ruins Louis XL's system, sub- 
 sequently carried out by Richelieu. Henri II., who saw only 
 through the eyes of Diane and the Connetable, was quite a 
 feudal King, and on friendly terms with the great Houses 
 of the realm. 
 
 After an ineffectual effort in her favor made by the Con- 
 netable, probably in the year 1556, Catherine paid great 
 court to the Guises, and schemed to detach them from Diane's 
 party so as to set them in opposition to Montmorency. But, 
 unfortunately, Diane and the Connetable were as virulent 
 against the Protestants as the Guises were. Hence their 
 antagonism lacked the vims which religious feeling would 
 have given it. Besides, Diane boldly defied the Queen's plans
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 37 
 
 by coquetting with the Guises and giving her daughter to the 
 Due d'Aumale. She went so far that she has been accused 
 by some writers of granting more than smiles to the gallant 
 Cardinal de Lorraine.* 
 
 The signs of grief and the ostentatious regret displayed 
 by Catherine on the King's death cannot be regarded as 
 genuine. The fact that Henri II. had been so passionately 
 and faithfully attached to Diane de Poitiers made it incum- 
 bent on Catherine that she should play the part of a ne- 
 glected wife who idolized her husband; but, like every clever 
 woman, she carried on her dissimulation, and never ceased 
 to speak with tender regret of Henri II. Diane herself, it 
 is well known, wore mourning all her life for her husband, 
 Monsieur de Breze. Her colors were black and white, and 
 the King was wearing them at the tournament when he was 
 fatally wounded. Catherine, in imitation no doubt of her 
 rival, wore mourning for the King to the end of her life. 
 
 On the King's death, the Duchesse de Valentinois was 
 shamelessly deserted and dishonored by the Connetable de 
 Montmorency, a man in every respect beneath his reputation. 
 Diane sent to offer her estate and Chateau of Chenonceaux 
 to the Queen. Catherine then replied in the presence of 
 witnesses, "I can never forget that she was all the joy of 
 my dear Henri; I should be ashamed to accept, I will give 
 her an estate in exchange. I would propose that of Chau- 
 mont-on-the-Loire." The deed of exchange was, in fact, 
 signed at Blois in 1559. Diane, whose sons-in-law were the 
 Due d'Aumale and the Due de Bouillon, kept her whole for- 
 tune and died peacefully in 1566 at the age of sixty-six. She 
 was thus nineteen years older than Henri II. These dates,! 
 copied from the epitaph on her tomb by an historian who ' 
 
 *Some satirist of the time has left the following lines on Henri II. [in which tha 
 pun on the words Sire and Cire (wax) would be lost in translation] : 
 
 " Sire, si vous laissez, comme Charles desire, 
 Comme Diane veut, par trop vous gouverner, 
 Fondre, pfitrir, mollir, refondre, retourner, 
 Sire, vous n'etes plus, vous n'etes plus que cire." 
 
 Charles was the Cardinal de Lorraine. 
 '4
 
 38 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 studied the question at the end of the last century, clear up 
 many historical difficulties; for many writers have said she 
 was forty when her father was sentenced in 1523, while others 
 have said she was but sixteen. She was, in fact, four-and- 
 twenty. 
 
 After reading everything both for and against her conduct 
 with Francis I., at a time when the House of Poitiers was in 
 the greatest danger, we can neither confirm nor deny any- 
 thing. It is a passage of history that still remains obscure. 
 We can see by what happens in our own day how history is 
 falsified, as it were, in the making. 
 
 Catherine, who founded great hopes on her rival's age, 
 several times made an attempt to overthrow her. On one 
 occasion she was very near the accomplishment of her hopes. 
 In 1554, Madame Diane, being ill, begged the King to go to 
 Saint-Germain pending her recovery. This sovereign 
 coquette would not be seen in the midst of the paraphernalia 
 of doctors, nor bereft of the adjuncts of dress. To receive 
 the King on his return, Catherine arranged a splendid ballet, 
 in which five or six young ladies were to address him in 
 verse. She selected for the purpose Miss Fleming, related 
 to her uncle, the Duke of Albany, and one of the loveliest 
 girls imaginable, fair and golden-haired; then a young con- 
 nection of her own, Clarissa Strozzi, with magnificent black 
 hair and rarely fine hands; Miss Lewiston, maid of honor 
 to Mary Stuart; Mary Stuart herself; Madame Elizabeth 
 de France, the unhappy Queen of Spain ; and Madame Claude. 
 Elizabeth was nine years old, Claude eight, and Mary Stuart 
 twelve. Obviously, the Queen aimed at showing off Clarissa 
 Strozzi and Miss Fleming without other rivals in the King's 
 eyes. The King succumbed : he fell in love with Miss Flem- 
 ing, and she bore him a son, Henri de Valois, Comte d'An- 
 gouleme, Grand Prior of France. 
 
 But Diane's influence and position remained unshaken. 
 Like Madame de* Pompadour later with Louis XV., the 
 Duchesse de Valentinois was forgiving. But to what sort of 
 love are we to ascribe this scheme on Catherine's part ? Love 
 of power or love of her husband ? Women must decide.
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 39 
 
 A great deal is said in these days as to the license of the 
 press; but it is difficult to imagine to what a pitch it was 
 carried when printing was a new thing. Aretino, the Vol- 
 taire of his time, as is well known, made monarchs tremble, 
 and foremost of them all Charles V. But few people know 
 perhaps how far the audacity of pamphleteers could go. 
 This Chateau of Chenonceaux had been given to Diane, nay, 
 she was entreated to accept it, to induce her to overlook one 
 of the most horrible publications ever hurled at a woman, 
 one which shows how violent was the animosity between her 
 and Madame d'Etampes. In 1537, when she was eight-and- 
 thirty, a poet of Champagne, named Jean Voute, published 
 a collection of Latin verses, and among them three epigrams 
 aimed at her. We must conclude that the poet was under 
 high patronage from the fact that his volume is introduced 
 by an eulogium written by Simon Macrin, the King's First 
 Gentleman of the Bed-chamber. Here is the only passage 
 quotable to-day from these epigrams, which bear the title: 
 In Pictaviam, anum aulicam. (Against la Poitiers, an old 
 woman of the Court.) 
 
 "Non trahit esca ficta prsedam." 
 
 "A painted bait catches no game," says the poet, after 
 telling her that she paints her face and buys her teeth and 
 hair ; and he goes on : "Even if you could buy the finest es- 
 sence that makes a woman, you would not get what you want 
 of your lover, for you would need to be living, and you are 
 dead." 
 
 This volume, printed by Simon de Colines, was dedicated 
 "To a Bishop !" To Frangois Bohier, the brother of the man 
 who, to save his credit at Court and atone for his crime, made 
 an offering on the accession of Henri II. of the chateau of 
 Chenonceaux, built by his father, Thomas Bohier, Councillor 
 o'f State under four Kings : Louis XL, Charles VIII., Louis 
 XII., and Francis I. What were the pamphlets published 
 against Madame de Pompadour and Marie Antoinette
 
 40 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 in comparison with verses that might have been written by 
 Martial! Voute must have come to a bad end. Thus the 
 estate and chateau of Chenonceaux cost Diane nothing but 
 the forgiveness of an offence a duty enjoined by the Gospel. 
 Not being assessed by a jury, the penalties inflicted on the 
 Press were rather severer then than they are now. 
 
 The widowed Queens of France were required to remain 
 for forty days in the King's bed-chamber, seeing no light 
 ( but that of the tapers; they might not come out till after 
 the funeral. This inviolable custom annoyed Catherine 
 greatly ; she was afraid of cabals. She found a way to evade 
 it. The Cardinal de Lorraine coming out one morning at 
 such a time! at such a juncture! from the house of "the 
 fair Roman," a famous courtesan of that day, who lived in 
 the Eue Culture-Sainte-Catherine, was roughly handled by 
 a party of roisterers. "Whereat his Holiness was much 
 amazed," says Henri Estienne, "and gave it out that heretics 
 were lying in wait for him." And on this account the Court 
 moved from Paris to Saint-Germain. The Queen would not 
 leave the King her son behind, but took him with her. 
 
 The accession of Francis II., the moment when Catherine 
 proposed to seize the reins of power, was a disappointment 
 that formed a cruel climax to the twenty-six years of endur- 
 ance she had already spent at the French Court. The Guises, 
 with incredible audacity, at once usurped the sovereign power. 
 The Due de Guise was placed in command of the army, and 
 the Connetable de Montmorency was shelved. The Cardinal 
 took the control of the finances and the clergy. 
 
 Catherine's political career opened with one of those dramas 
 which, though it was less notorious than some others, was notj 
 the less horrible, and initiated her no doubt into the agitating 
 shocks of her life. Whether it was that Catherine, after 
 vainly trying the most violent remedies, had thought she 
 might bring the King back to her through jealousy ; whether 
 on coming to her second youth she had felt it hard never to 
 have known love, she had shown a warm interest in a gen- 
 tlemfcn of royal blood, Franqois de Vendome, son of Louis
 
 ABOUT CATHEKINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 de Vendome the parent House of the Bourbons the 
 Vidame de Chartres, the name by which he is known to his- 
 tory. Catherine's covert hatred of Diane betrayed itself in 
 many ways, which historians, studying only political devel- 
 opments, have failed to note with due attention. Catherine's 
 attachment to the Vidame arose from an insult offered by 
 the young man to the favorite. Diane looked for the most 
 splendid matches for her daughters, who were indeed of the 
 best blood in the kingdom. Above all, she was ambitious 
 of an alliance with the Koyal family. And her second daugh- 
 ter, who became the Duchesse d'Aumale, was proposed in 
 marriage to the Vidame, whom Francis I., with sage policy, 
 kept in poverty. For, in fact, when the Vidame de Chartres 
 and the Prince de Conde first came to Court, Francis I. 
 gave them appointments! What? the office of chamberlains 
 in ordinary, with twelve hundred crowns a year, as much as 
 he bestowed on the humblest of his gentlemen. And yet, 
 though Diane offered him immense wealth, some high office 
 under the Crown, and the King's personal favor, the Vidame 
 refused. And then this Bourbon, factious as he was, married 
 Jeanne, daughter of the Baron d'Estissac, by whom he had 
 no children. 
 
 This proud demeanor naturally commended the Vidame 
 to Catherine, who received him with marked favor, and made 
 him her devoted friend. Historians have compared the last 
 Due de Montmorency, who was beheaded at Toulouse, with 
 the Vidame de Chartres for his power of charming, his 
 merits, and his talents. 
 
 Henri II. was not jealous; he did not apparently think it 
 possible that a Queen of France could fail in her duty, or 
 that a Medici could forget the honor done her by a Valois. 
 When the Queen was said to be flirting with the Vidame 
 de Chartres, she had been almost deserted by the King since 
 the birth of her last child. So this attempt came to nothing 
 as the King died wearing the colors of Diane de Poitiers. 
 
 So, at the King's death, Catherine was on terms of gallant 
 familiarity with the Vidame, a state of things in no way out
 
 42 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 of harmony with the manners of the time, when love was at 
 once so chivalrous and so licentious that the finest actions 
 seemed as natural as the most blamable. But, as usual, his- 
 torians have blundered by regarding exceptional cases as the 
 rule. 
 
 Henri II.'s four sons nullified every pretension of the 
 Bourbons, who were all miserably poor, and crushed under 
 the scorn brought upon them by the Connetable de Mont- 
 morency's treason, in spite of the reasons which had led him 
 to quit the country. The Vidame de Chartres, who was to 
 the first Prince de Conde what Eichelieu was to Mazarin, 
 a father in politics, a model, and yet more a master in gal- 
 lantry, hid the vast ambition of his family under a semblance 
 of levity. Being unable to contend with the Guises, the 
 Montmorencys, the Princes of Scotland, the Cardinals, and 
 the Bouillons, he aimed at distinction by his gracious man- 
 ners, his elegance, and his wit, which won him the favors 
 of the most charming women, and the heart of many he 
 never thought about. He was a man privileged by nature, 
 whose fascinations were irresistible, and who owed to his love 
 affairs the means of keeping up his rank. The Bourbons 
 would not have taken offence, like Jarnac, at la Chataignerie's 
 scandal; they were very ready to accept lands and houses 
 from their mistresses witness the Prince de Conde, who 
 had the estate of Saint- Valery from Madame la Marechale 
 de Saint-Andre. 
 
 During the first twenty days of mourning for Henri II., 
 a sudden change came over the Vidame's prospects. Courted 
 by the Queen-mother, and courting her as a man may court 
 a queen, in the utmost secrecy, he seemed fated to play an 
 important part; and Catherine, in fact, resolved to make 
 him useful. The Prince received letters from her to the 
 Prince de Conde, in which she pointed out the necessity for 
 a coalition against the Guises. The Guises, informed of this 
 intrigue, made their way into the Queen's chamber to compel 
 her to sign an order consigning the Vidame to the Bastille, 
 and Catherine found herself under the cruel necessity of
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDIOf 43 
 
 submitting. The Vidame died after a few months' captivity, 
 on the day when he came out of prison, a short time before 
 the Amboise conspiracy. 
 
 This was the end of Catherine de' Medici's first and only 
 love affair. Protestant writers declared that the Queen had 
 him poisoned to bury the secret of her gallantries in the 
 tomb. 
 
 , Such was this woman's apprenticeship to the exercise of 
 royal power.
 
 44 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 PART I 
 
 THE CALVINIST MARTYR 
 
 FEW persons in these days know how artless were the dwell- 
 ings of the citizens of Paris in the sixteenth century, and 
 how simple their lives. This very simplicity of habits and 
 thought perhaps was the cause of the greatness of this primi- 
 tive citizen class for they were certainly great, free and 
 noble, more so perhaps than the citizens of our time. Their 
 history remains to be written; it requires and awaits a man 
 of genius. Inspired by an incident which, though little known, 
 forms the basis of this narrative, and is one of the most re- 
 markable in the history of the citizen class, this reflection 
 will no doubt occur to every one who shall read it to the end. 
 Is it the first time in history that the conclusion has come 
 before the facts? 
 
 In 1560, the houses of the Rue de la Vieille-Pelleterie lay 
 close to the left bank of the Seine, between the Pont Notre- 
 Dame and the Pont au Change. The public way and the 
 houses occupied the ground now given up to the single path 
 of the present quay. Each house, rising from the river, had 
 a way down to it by stone or wooden steps, defended by strong 
 iron gates, or doors of nail-studded timber. These houses, 
 like those of Venice, had a door to the land and one to the 
 water. At the moment of writing this sketch, only one house 
 remains of this kind as a reminiscence of old Paris, and that 
 is doomed soon to disappear; it stands at the corner of the 
 Petit-Pent, the little bridge facing the guard-house of the 
 Hotel-Dieii. 
 
 Of old each dwelling presented, on the river side, the
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 45 
 
 peculiar physiognomy stamped on it either by the trade and 
 the habits of its owners, or by the eccentricity of the con- 
 structions devised by them for utilizing or defiling the Seine. 
 The bridges being built, and almost all choked up by more 
 mills than were convenient for the requirements of naviga- 
 tion, the Seine in Paris was divided into as many pools as 
 there were bridges. Some of these old Paris basins would 
 have afforded delightful studies of color for the painter. 
 jWhat a forest of timbers was built into the cross-beams that 
 supported the mills, with their immense sails and wheels ! 
 What curious effects were to be found in the joists that shored 
 up the houses from the river. Genre painting as yet, un- 
 fortunately, was not, and engraving in its infancy; so we 
 have no record of the curious scenes which may still be found, 
 on a small scale, in some provincial towns where the rivers 
 are fringed with wooden houses, and where, as at Vendome, 
 for instance, the pools, overgrown with tall grasses, are di- 
 vided by railings to separate the various properties on each 
 bank. 
 
 The name of this street, which has now vanished from the 
 map, sufficiently indicates the kind of business carried on 
 there. At that time the merchants engaged in any particular 
 trade, far from dispersing themselves about the city, gath- 
 ered together for mutual protection. Being socially bound 
 by the guild which limited their increase, they were also 
 united into a brotherhood by the Church. This kept up 
 prices. And then the masters were not at the mercy of their 
 workmen, and did not yield, as they do now, to all their 
 vagaries; on the contrary, they took charge of them, treated 
 them as their children, and taught them the finer mysteries 
 of their craft. A workman, to become a master, was required 
 to produce a masterpiece always an offering to the patron 
 saint of the guild. And will you venture to assert that 
 the absence of competition diminished their sense of perfec- 
 tion, or hindered beauty of workmanship, when your admira- 
 tion of the work of the older craftsmen has created the new 
 trade of dealers in 'bric-a-brac^
 
 46 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the fur trade was 
 one of the most flourishing industries. The difficulty of 
 obtaining furs, which, coming from the North, necessitated 
 long and dangerous voyages, gave a high value to skins and 
 furriers' work. Then, as now, high prices led to demand, 
 for vanity knows no obstacles. 
 
 In France, and in other kingdoms, not only was the use 
 of furs restricted by law to the great nobility, as is proved 
 by the part played by ermine in ancient coats-of-arms ; but 
 certain rare furs, such as vair, which was beyond doubt im- 
 perial sable, might be worn only by kings, dukes, and men of 
 high rank holding certain offices. Vair (a name still used in 
 heraldry, vair and counter vair) was sub-divided into grand 
 vair and menu vair. The word has within the last hundred 
 years fallen so completely into disuse, that in hundreds of 
 editions of Perrault's fairy tales, Cinderella's famous slipper, 
 probably of fur, menu vair, has become a glass slipper, pa/rir- 
 toufle de verre. Not long since a distinguished French poet 
 was obliged to restore and explain the original spelling of 
 this word, for the edification of his brethren of the press, 
 when giving an account of the "Cenerentola," in which a 
 ring is substituted for the symbolical slipper an unmeaning 
 change. 
 
 The laws against the use of fur were, of course, perpetually 
 transgressed, to the great advantage of the furriers. The 
 high price of textiles and of furs made a garment in 
 those days a durable thing, in keeping with the furni- 
 ture, armor, and general details of the sturdy life of the time. 
 A nobleman or lady, every rich man as well as every citizen, 
 possessed at most two dresses for each season, and they lasted 
 a lifetime or more. These articles were bequeathed to their 
 children. Indeed, the clauses relating to weapons and rai- 
 ment in marriage contracts, in these days unimportant by 
 reason of the small value of clothes that are constantly re- 
 newed, were at that period of great interest. High prices 
 had led to durability. 
 
 A lady's outfit represented a vast sum of money; it was
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 47 
 
 included in her fortune, and safely bestowed in those enor- 
 mous chests which endanger the ceilings of modern houses. 
 The full dress of a lady in 1840 would have been the 
 deshabille of a fine lady of 1540. The discovery of America, 
 the facility of transport, the destruction of social distinctions, 
 which has led to the effacement of visible distinctions, have 
 all contributed to reduce the furrier's craft to the low ebb 
 at which it stands, almost to nothing. The article sold by af 
 furrier at the same price as of old say twenty livres has) 
 fallen in value with the money: the livre or franc was then 
 worth twenty of our present money. The citizen's wife or 
 the courtesan who, in our day, trims her cloak with sable, 
 does not know that in 1440 a malignant constable of the 
 watch would have taken her forthwith into custody, and 
 haled her before the judge at le Chatelet. The English 
 ladies who are so fond of ermine are unconscious of the fact 
 that formerly none but queens, duchesses, and the Chancellor 
 of France were permitted to wear this royal fur. There are 
 at this day various ennobled families bearing the name of 
 Pelletier or Lepelletier, whose forebears were obviously 
 wealthy furriers; for most of our citizen names were origi- 
 nally surnames of that kind. 
 
 This digression not only explains the long squabbles as 
 to precedence which the Drapers' Guild carried on for two 
 centuries with the Mercers and the Furriers, each insisting 
 on marching first, as being the most important, but also ac- 
 counts for the consequence of one Master Lecamus, a furrier 
 honored with the patronage of the two Queens, Catherine 
 de' Medici and Mary Stuart, as well as that of the legal 
 profession, who for twenty years had been the Syndic of his 
 Corporation, and who lived in this street. The house oc-' 
 cupied by Lecamus was one of the three forming the three 
 corners of the cross-roads at the end of the Pont au Change, 
 where only the tower now remains that formed the fourth 
 corner. At the angle of this house, forming the corner of 
 the bridge and of the quay, now called the Quai aux Fleurs,
 
 48 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 the architect had placed a niche for a Madonna, before whom 
 tapers constantly burned, with posies of real flowers in their 
 season, and artificial flowers in the winter. 
 
 On the side towards the Sue du Pont, as well as on that 
 to the Rue de la Vieille-Pelleterie, the house was supported 
 on wooden pillars. All the houses of the trading quarters 
 were thus constructed, with an arcade beneath, where foot 
 passengers walked under cover on a floor hardened by the 
 fmud they brought in, which made it a rather rough pave- 
 ment. In all the towns of France these arcades have been 
 called piliers in England rows a general term to which 
 the name of a trade is commonly added, as "Piliers des 
 Halles," "Piliers de la Boucherie." These covered ways, 
 required by the changeable and rainy climate of Paris, gave 
 the town a highly characteristic feature, but they have en- 
 tirely disappeared. Just as there now remains one house 
 only on the river-bank, so no more than about a hundred feet 
 are left of the old Piliers in the market, the last that have 
 survived till now; and in a few days this remnant of the 
 gloomy labyrinth of old Paris will also be destroyed. The 
 existence of these relics of the Middle Ages is, no doubt, in- 
 compatible with the splendor of modern Paris. And these 
 remarks are not intended as a lament over those fragments 
 of the old city, but as a verification of this picture by the 
 last surviving examples now falling into dust, and to win 
 forgiveness for such descriptions, which will be precious in 
 the future which is following hard on the heels of this age. 
 
 The walls were of timber covered with slates, The spaces 
 between the timbers had been filled up with bricks, in a way 
 that may still be seen in some provincial towns, laid in a 
 zigzag pattern known as Point de Hongrie. The window- 
 sills and lintels, also of wood, were handsomely carved, as 
 ,were the corner tabernacle above the Madonna, and the pillars 
 in front of the shop. Every window, every beam dividing 
 the stories, was graced with arabesques of fantastic figures 
 and animals wreathed in scrolls of foliage. On the street side, 
 as on the river side, the house was crowned with a high-
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 49 
 
 pitched roof having a gable to the river and one to the 
 street. This roof, like that of a Swiss chalet, projected far 
 enough to cover a balcony on the second floor, with an orna- 
 mental balustrade ; here the mistress might walk under shel- 
 ter and command a view of the street, or of the pool shut 
 in between two bridges and two rows of houses. 
 
 Houses by the river were at that time highly valued. The 
 system of drainage and water supply was not yet invented; 
 the only main drain was one round Paris, constructed by 
 Aubriot, the first man of genius and determination who 
 in the time of Charles V. thought of sanitation for Paris. 
 Houses, situated like this of the Sieur Lecamus found in the 
 river a necessary water-supply, and a natural outlet for 
 rain water and waste. The vast works of this kind under 
 the direction of the Trade Provosts are only now disappear- 
 ing. None but octogenarians can still remember having 
 seen the pits which swallowed up the surface waters, in the 
 Eue Montmartre, Eue du Temple, etc. These hideous yawn- 
 ing culverts were in their day of inestimable utility. Their 
 place will probably be for ever marked by the sudden rising 
 of the roadway over what was their open channel another 
 archaeological detail which, in a couple of centuries, the his- 
 torian will find inexplicable. 
 
 One day, in 1816, a little girl, who had been sent to an 
 actress at the Ambigu with some diamonds for the part of 
 a queen, was caught in a storm, and so irresistibly swept 
 away by the waters to the opening of the drain in the Eue 
 du Temple, that she would have been drowned in it but for 
 the help of a passer-by, who was touched by her cries. But 
 she had dropped the jewels, which were found in a man-hole. , 
 This accident made a great commotion, and gave weight 
 to the demands for the closing of these gulfs for swallowing 
 water and little girls. These curious structures, five feet 
 high, had more or less movable gratings, which led to the 
 flooding of cellars when the stream produced by heavy rain 
 was checked by the grating being choked with rubbish, which 
 the residents often forgot to remove.
 
 50 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 The front of Master Lecamus' shop was a large window, 
 but filled in with small panes of leaded glass, which made 
 the place very dark. The furs for wealthy purchasers were 
 carried to them for inspection. To those who came to buy 
 in the shop, the goods were displayed outside between the 
 pillars, which, during the day, were always more or less 
 blocked by tables and salesmen sitting on stools, as they 
 could still be seen doing under the arcade of the Halles some 
 'fifteen years since. From these outposts the clerks, appren- 
 tices, and sewing girls could chat, question, and answer each 
 other, and hail the passer-by in a way which Walter Scott has 
 depicted in the Fortunes of Nigel. The signboard, repre- 
 senting an ermine, was hung out as we still see those of 
 village inns, swinging from a handsome arm of pierced and 
 gilt ironwork. Over the ermine were these words : 
 
 LECAMUS 
 
 Furrier 
 
 To Her Majesty the Queen and the King our 
 Sovereign Lord 
 
 On one side, and on the other: 
 
 "To Her Majesty the Queen Mother 
 And to the Gentlemen of the Parlement." 
 
 The words "To Her Majesty the Queen" had been lately 
 added; the gilt letters were new. This addition was a con- 
 sequence of the recent changes produced by Henri II. 's sudden 
 
 i and violent death, which overthrew many fortunes at Court, 
 and began that of the Guises. 
 
 ,. The back shop looked over the river. In this room sat 
 the worthy citizen and his wife, Mademoiselle Lecamus. The 
 wife of a man who was not noble had not at any time any 
 right to the title of Dame, or lady; but the wives of the 
 citizens of Paris were allowed to call themselves Demoiselle
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 51 
 
 (as we might say Mistress), as part of the privileges granted 
 and confirmed to their husbands by many kings to whom 
 they had rendered great services. Between this back room 
 and the front shop was a spiral ladder or staircase of wood, 
 a sort of corkscrew leading up to the next story, where the 
 furs were stored, to the old couple's bedroom, and again to 
 the attics, lighted by dormer windows, where their children 
 'slept, the maid-servant, the clerks, and the apprentices. 
 
 This herding of families, servants, and apprentices, and 
 the small space allotted to each in the dwelling, where the 
 apprentices all slept in one large room under the tiles, ac- 
 counts for the enormous population at that time crowded 
 together in Paris on a tenth of the ground now occupied by 
 the city, and also for the many curious details of mediaeval 
 life, and the cunning love affairs, though these, pace the 
 grave historian, are nowhere recorded but by the story writers, 
 and without them would have been lost. 
 
 At this time a grand gentleman such as the Admiral de 
 Coligny, for instance had three rooms for himself in Paris, 
 and his people lived in a neighboring hostelry. There were 
 not fifty mansions in all Paris, not fifty palaces, that is to say, 
 belonging to the sovereign princes or great vassals, whose ex- 
 istence was far superior to that of the greatest German rulers, 
 such as the Duke of Bavaria or the Elector of Saxony. 
 
 The kitchen in the Lecamus' house was on the river side 
 below the back shop. It had a glass door opening on to 
 an ironwork balcony, where the cook could stand to draw 
 up water in a pail and to wash the household linen. Thus 
 the back shop was at once the sitting-room, the dining-room, 
 and the counting-house. It was in this important room 
 always fitted with richly-carved wood, and adorned by some 
 chest or artistic article of furniture that the merchant spent 
 most of his life; there he had jolly suppers after his day's 
 /work; there were held secret debates on the political interests 
 of the citizens and the Royal family. The formidable guilds 
 of Paris could at that time arm a hundred thousand men. 
 Their resolutions were stoutly upheld by their serving-men,
 
 52 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 their clerks, their apprentices, and their workmen. Their 
 Provost was their commander-in-chief, and they had, in the 
 Hotel de Ville, a palace where they had a right to assemble. 
 
 In that famous "citizens' parlor" (parlouer aux bourgeois) 
 very solemn decisions were taken. But for the continual 
 sacrifices which had made war unendurable to the Guilds, 1 
 wearied out with losses and famine, Henri IV., a rebel-made 5 
 king, might never have entered Paris. 
 
 Every reader may now imagine for himself the character- 
 istic appearance of this corner of Paris where the bridge and 
 the Quay now open out, where the trees rise from the Quai 
 aux Fleurs, and where nothing is left of the past but the 
 lofty and famous clock-tower whence the signal was tolled 
 for the Massacre of Saint-Bartholomew. Strange coinci- 
 dence ! One of the houses built round the foot of that tower 
 at that time surrounded by wooden shops the house of 
 the Lecamus, was to be the scene of one of the incidents 
 that led to that night of horrors, which proved, unfortunately, 
 propitious rather than fatal to Calvinism. 
 
 At the moment when this story begins, the audacity of the 
 new religious teaching was setting Paris by the ears. A 
 Scotchman, named Stuart, had just assassinated President 
 Minard, that member of the Parlement to whom public 
 opinion attributed a principal share in the execution of Anne 
 du Bourg, a councillor burnt on the Place de Greve after the 
 tailor of the late King, who had been tortured in the presence 
 of Henri II. and Diane de Poitiers. Paris was so closely 
 watched, that the archers on guard compelled every passer-by 
 to pray to the Virgin, in order to detect heretics, who yielded 
 unwillingly, or even refused to perform an act opposed to 
 their convictions. 
 
 The two archers on guard at the corner of the Lecamus' 
 house had just gone off duty; thus Christophe, the furrier's 
 son, strongly suspected of deserting the Catholic faith, had 
 been able to go out without fear of being compelled to adore 
 the Virgin's image. At seven in the evening of an April day,
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 53 
 
 1560, night was falling, and the apprentices, seeing only a 
 few persons walking along the arcades on each side of the 
 street, were carrying in the goods laid out for inspection 
 preparatory to closing the house and the shop. Christophe 
 Lecamus, an ardent youth of two-and-twenty, was standing 
 in the door, apparently engaged in looking after the appren- 
 tices. 
 
 "Monsieur," said one of these lads to Christophe, pointing, 
 out a man who was pacing to and fro under the arcade with 
 a doubtful expression, "that is probably a spy or a thief, 
 but whatever he is, such a lean wretch cannot be an honest 
 man. If he wanted to speak to us on business, he would come 
 up boldly instead of creeping up and down as he is doing. 
 And what a face!" he went on, mimicking the stranger, 
 "with his nose hidden in his cloak ! What a jaundiced eye, 
 and what a starved complexion !" 
 
 As soon as the stranger thus described saw Christophe 
 standing alone in the doorway, he hastily crossed from the 
 opposite arcade where he was walking, came under the pillars 
 of the Lecamus' house, and passing along by the shop before 
 the apprentices had come out again to close the shutters, he 
 went up to the young man. 
 
 "I am Chaudieu !" he said in a low voice. 
 
 On hearing the name of one of the most famous ministers, 
 and one of the most heroic actors in the terrible drama called 
 the Eeformation, Christophe felt such a thrill as a faithful 
 peasant would have felt on recognizing his King under a 
 disguise. 
 
 "Would you like to see some furs?" said Christophe, to 
 deceive the apprentices whom he heard behind him. "Though 
 it is almost dark, I can show you some myself." 
 
 He invited the minister to enter, but the man replied that 
 he would rather speak to him out of doors. Christophe 
 fetched his cap and followed the Calvinist. 
 
 Chaudieu, though banished by an edict, as secret pleni- 
 potentiary of Theodore de Beze and Calvin who directed 
 the Reformation in France from Geneva went and came, 
 
 s r
 
 54 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 defying the risk of the horrible death inflicted by the Parle- 
 ment, in concert with the Church and the Monarch, on a 
 leading reformer, the famous Anne du Bourg. This man, 
 whose brother was a captain in the army, and one of Admiral 
 Coligny's best warriors, was the arm used by Calvin to stir 
 up France at the* beginning of the twenty-two years of re- 
 ;' ( ligious wars which were on the eve of an outbreak. This 
 preacher of the reformed faith was one of those secret wheels 
 'which may best explain the immense spread of the Eeforma- 
 tion. 
 
 Chaudieu led Christophe down to the edge of the water 
 by an underground passage like that of the Arche Marion, 
 filled in some ten years since. This tunnel between the house 
 of Lecamus and that next it ran under the Kue de la Vieille- 
 Pelleterie, and was known as le Pont aux Fourreurs. It was 
 used by the dyers of the Cit6 as a way down to the river to 
 wash their thread, silk, and materials. A little boat lay 
 there, held and rowed by one man. In the bows sat a stranger, 
 a small man, and very simply dressed. In an instant the boat 
 was in the middle of the river, and the boatman steered it 
 under one of the wooden arches of the Pont au Change, where 
 he quickly secured it to an iron ring. No one had said a 
 word. 
 
 "Here we may talk in safety, there are neither spies nor 
 traitors," said Chaudieu to the two others. "Are you filled 
 with the spirit of self-sacrifice that should animate a martyr ? 
 Are you ready to suffer all things for our holy Cause? Do 
 you fear the torments endured by the late King's tailor, and 
 the Councillor du Bourg, which of a truth await us all?" 
 He spoke to Christophe, looking at him with a radiant face. 
 
 "I will testify to the Gospel," replied Christophe simply, 
 looking up at the windows of the back shop. 
 
 The familiar lamp standing on a table, where his father 
 was no doubt balancing his books, reminded him by its mild 
 beam of the peaceful life and family joys he was renouncing. 
 It was a brief but complete vision. The young man's fancy 
 took in the homely harmony of the whole scene the places
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 65 
 
 where he had spent his happy childhood, where Babette Lal- 
 lier lived, his future wife, where everything promised him 
 a calm and busy life ; he saw the past, he saw the future, and 
 he sacrificed it all. At any rate, he staked it. 
 
 Such were men in those days. 
 
 "We need say no more," cried the impetuous boatman. 
 "We know him for one of the saints. If the Scotchman had 
 not dealt the blow, he would have killed the infamous 
 Minard." 
 
 "Yes," said Lecamus, "my life is in the hands of the 
 brethren, and I devote it with joy for the success of the 
 Eeformation. I have thought of it all seriously. I know 
 what we are doing for the joy of the nations. In two words, 
 the Papacy makes for celibacy, the Reformation makes foi 
 the family. It is time to purge France of its monks, to 
 restore their possessions to the Crown, which will sell them 
 sooner or later to the middle classes. Let us show that we 
 can die for our children, and to make our families free and 
 happy 1" 
 
 The young enthusiast's face, with Chaudieu's, the boat- 
 man's, and that of the stranger seated in the bows, formed 
 a picture that deserves to be described, all the more so be- 
 cause such a description entails the whole history of that 
 epoch, if it be true that it is given to some men to sum up 
 in themselves the spirit of their age. 
 
 Religious reform, attempted in Germany by Luther, in 
 Scotland by John Knox, and in France by Calvin, found 
 partisans chiefly among those of the lower classes who had 
 begun to think. The great nobles encouraged the movement 
 only to serve other interests quite foreign to the religious 
 question. These parties were joined by adventurers, by gen- 
 tlemen who had lost all, by youngsters to whom every form 
 of excitement was acceptable. But among the artisans and 
 men employed in trade, faith was genuine, and founded on 
 intelligent interests. The poorer nations at once gave their 
 adherence to a religion which brought the property of the 
 Church back to the State, which suppressed the convents,
 
 56 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 and deprived the dignitaries of the Church of their enormous 
 revenues. Everybody in trade calculated the profits from 
 this religious transaction, and devoted themselves to it body, 
 soul, and purse; and among the youth of the French citizen 
 class, the new preaching met that noble disposition for self- 
 sacrifice of every kind which animates the young to whomj 
 egoism is unknown. 
 
 Eminent men, penetrating minds, such as are always to 
 be found among the masses, foresaw the Republic in the 
 Reformation, and hoped to establish throughout Europe a 
 form of government like that of the United Netherlands, 
 which at last triumphed over the greatest power of the time 
 Spain, ruled by Philip II., and represented in the Low Coun- 
 tries by the Duke of Alva. Jean Hotoman was at that time 
 planning the famous book in which this scheme is set forth, 
 which diffused through France the leaven of these ideas, 
 stirred up once more by the League, subdued by Richelieu, 
 and afterwards by Louis XIV., to reappear with the Econo- 
 mists and the Encyclopedists under Louis XV., and burst 
 into life under Louis XVI.; ideas which were always ap- 
 proved by the younger branches, by the House of Orleans 
 in 1789, as by the House of Bourbon in 1589. 
 
 The questioning spirit is the rebellious spirit. A rebellion 
 is always either a cloak to hide a prince, or the swaddling 
 wrapper of a new rule. The House of Bourbon, a younger 
 branch than the Valois, was busy at the bottom of the 
 Reformation. At the moment when the little boat lay moored 
 under the arch of the Pont au Change, the question was 
 further complicated by the ambition of the Guises, the rivals 
 of the Bourbons. Indeed, the Crown as represented by/ 
 Catherine de' Medici could, for thirty years, hold its own in 1 
 the strife by setting these two factions against each other; 
 whereas later, instead of being clutched at by many hands, 
 the Crown stood face to face with the people without a barrier 
 between ; for Richelieu and Louis XIV. had broken down the 
 nobility, and Louis XV. had overthrown the Parlements. 
 Now a king alone face to face with a nation, as Louis XVI. 
 was, must inevitably succumb.
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 57 
 
 Christophe Lecamus was very typical of the ardent and 
 devoted sons of the people. His pale complexion had that 
 warm burnt hue which is seen in some fair people; his hair 
 was of a coppery yellow; his eyes were bluish-gray, and 
 sparkled brightly. In them alone was his noble soul visible, 
 for his clumsy features did not disguise the somewhat tri- 
 angular shape of a plain face by lending it the look of 
 dignity which a man of rank can assume, and his forehead 
 was low, and characteristic only of great energy. His vitality 
 seemed to be seated no lower down than his chest, which 
 was somewhat hollow. Sinewy, rather than muscular, Chris- 
 tophe was of tough texture, lean but wiry. His sharp nose 
 showed homely cunning, and his countenance revealed in- 
 telligence of the kind that acts wisely on one point of a circle, 
 but has not the power of commanding the whole circumfer- 
 ence. His eyes, set under brows that projected like a pent- 
 house, and faintly outlined with light down, were surrounded 
 with broad light-blue circles, with a sheeny white patch at 
 the root of the nose, almost always a sign of great excitability. 
 Christophe was of the people the race that fights and allows 
 itself to be deceived; intelligent enough to understand and 
 to serve an idea, too noble to take advantage of it, too mag- 
 nanimous to sell himself. 
 
 By the side of old Lecamus' only son, Chaudieu, the ardent 
 minister, lean from watchfulness, with brown hair, a yellow 
 skin, a contumacious brow, an eloquent mouth, fiery hazel 
 eyes, and a short rounded chin, symbolized that Christian 
 zeal which gave the Reformation so many fanatical and 
 earnest preachers, whose spirit and boldness fired whole com- 
 munities. This aide-de-camp of Calvin and Theodore de 
 Beze contrasted well with the furrier's son. He represented 
 the living cause of which Christophe was the effect. You 
 could not have conceived of the active firebrand of the popular 
 machine under any other aspect. 
 
 The boatman, an impetuous creature, tanned by the open 
 air, the dews of night, and the heats of the day, with firmly 
 set lips, quick motions, a hungry, tawny eye like a vulture's.
 
 58 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 and crisp black hair, was the characteristic adventurer who 
 risks his all in an undertaking as a. gambler stakes his whole 
 fortune on a card. Everything in the man spoke of terrible 
 passions and a daring that would flinch at nothing. His 
 quivering muscles were as able to keep silence as to speak. 
 His look was assertive rather than noble. His nose, upturned 
 but narrow, scented battle. He seemed active and adroit. 
 In any age you would have known him for a party leader. 
 He might have been Pizarro, Hernando Cortez, or Morgan^ 
 the Destroyer if there had been no Keformation a doer of 
 violent deeds. 
 
 The stranger who sat on a seat, wrapped in his cloak, evi- 
 dently belonged to the highest social rank. The fineness of 
 his linen, the cut, material, and perfume of his raiment, the 
 make and texture of his gloves, showed a man of the Court, 
 as his attitude, his haughtiness, his cool demeanor, and his 
 flashing eye revealed a man of war. His appearance was at 
 first somewhat alarming, and inspired respect. We respect 
 a man who respects himself. Though short and hunchbacked, 
 his manner made good all the defects of his figure. The ice 
 once broken, he had the cheerfulness of decisiveness and an 
 indescribable spirit of energy which made him attractive. 
 He had the blue eyes and the hooked nose of the House of 
 Navarre, and the Spanish look of the marked physiognomy 
 that was characteristic of the Bourbon kings. 
 
 With three words the scene became of the greatest in- 
 terest. 
 
 "Well, then," said Chaudieu, as Christophe Lecamus made 
 his profession of faith, "this boatman is la Kenaudie ; and this 
 is Monseigneur the Prince de Conde," he added, turning to 
 the hunchback. 
 
 Thus the four men were representative of the faith of the, 
 people, the intellect of eloquence, the arm of the soldier, and 
 Royalty cast into the shade. 
 
 "You will hear what we require of you/' the minister went 
 on, after allowing a pause for the young man's astonishment. 
 "To the end that you may make no mistakes, we are com-
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE* MEDICI 59 
 
 pelled to initiate you into the most important secrets of the 
 Reformation/' 
 
 The Prince and la Eenaudie assented by a gesture, when 
 the minister ceased speaking, to allow the Prince to say 
 something if he should wish it. Like all men of rank en- 
 gaged in conspiracies, who make it a principle not to appear 
 before some critical moment, the Prince kept silence. Not 
 from cowardice: at such junctures he was the soul of th^ 
 scheme, 'shrank from no danger, and risked his head; bufi 
 with a sort of royal dignity, he left the explanation of thfc 
 enterprise to the preacher, and was content to study the new 
 instrument he was compelled to make use of. 
 
 "My son," said Chaudieu in Huguenot phraseology, "we 
 are about to fight the first battle against the Roman whore. 
 In a few days our soldiers must perish at the stake, or the 
 Guises must be dead. So, ere long, the King and the two 
 Queens will be in our power. This is the first appeal to arms 
 by our religion in France, and France will not lay them down 
 till she has conquered it is of the nation that I speak, and 
 not of the kingdom. Most of the nobles of the kingdom see 
 what the Cardinal de Lorraine and the Duke his brother are 
 driving at. Under pretence of defending the Catholic faith, 
 the House of Lorraine claims the Crown of France as its in- 
 heritance. It leans on the Church, and has made it a for- 
 midable ally; the monks are its supporters, its acolytes and 
 spies. It asserts itself as a protector of the throne it hopes 
 to usurp, of the Valois whom it hopes to destroy. 
 
 "We have decided to rise up in arms, and it is because the 
 liberties of the people are threatened as well as the interests 
 of the nobility. We must stifle in its infancy a faction as 
 atrocious as that of the Bourguignons, who of old put Paris 
 and France to fire and sword. A Louis XI. was needed to 
 end the quarrel between the Burgundians and the Crown, 
 but now a Prince of Conde will prevent the Lorraines front 
 going too far. This is not a civil war ; it is a duel between the 
 Guises and the Reformation a duel to the death ! We will 
 see their heads low, or they shall crush ours 1"
 
 00 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 "Well spoken !" said the Prince. 
 
 "In these circumstances, Christophe," la Renaudie put in, 
 "we must neglect no means of strengthening our party for 
 there is a party on the side of the Reformation, the party 
 of offended rights, of the nobles who are sacrificed to the 
 Guises, of the old army leaders so shamefully tricked at Fon- 
 tainebleau, whence the Cardinal banished them by erecting 
 gibbets to hang those who should ask the King for the price 
 of their outfit and arrears of pay." 
 
 "Yes, my son," said Chaudieu, seeing some signs of terror 
 in Christophe, "that is what requires us to triumph by fight- 
 ing instead of triumphing by conviction and martyrdom. 
 The Queen-mother is ready to enter into our views ; not that 
 she is prepared to abjure the Catholic faith she has not got 
 so far as that, but she may perhaps be driven to it by our 
 success. Be that as it may, humiliated and desperate as she is 
 at seeing the power she had hoped to wield at the King's 
 death in the grasp of the Guises, and alarmed by the influence 
 exerted by the young Queen Marie, who is their niece and 
 partisan, Queen Catherine will be inclined to lend her support 
 to the princes and nobles who are about to strike a blow for 
 her deliverance. At this moment, though apparently devoted 
 to the Guises, she hates them, longs for their ruin, and will 
 make use of us to oppose them; but Monseigneur can make 
 use of her to oppose all the others. The Queen-mother will 
 consent to all we propose. We have the Connetable on our 
 side Monseigneur has just seen him at Chantilly, but he will 
 not stir without orders from his superiors. Being Mon- 
 seigneur's uncle, he will not leave us in the lurch, and our 
 generous Prince will not hesitate to rush into danger to enlist 
 Anne de Montmorency. 
 
 "Everything is ready; and we have cast our eyes on you 
 to communicate to Queen Catherine our treaty of alliance, 
 our schemes for edicts, and the basis of the new rule. The 
 Court is at Blois. Many of our friends are there; but those 
 are our future chiefs and, like Monseigneur," and he bowed 
 to the Prince, "they must never be suspected ; we must sacri-
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 61 
 
 fice ourselves for them. The Queen-mother and our friends 
 are under such close espionage, that it is impossible to com- 
 municate with them through any one who is known, or of any 
 consequence. Such a person would at once be suspected, and 
 would never be admitted to speak with Madame Catherine. 
 God should indeed give us at this moment the shepherd David 
 with his sling to attack Goliath de Guise. Your father a 
 good Catholic, more's the pity is furrier to the two Queens; 
 he always has some garment or trimming in hand for them ; 
 persuade him to send you to the Court. You will arouse no 
 suspicions, and will not compromise Queen Catherine. Any 
 one of our leaders might lose his head for an imprudence 
 which should give rise to a suspicion of the Queen-mother's 
 connivance with us. But where a man of importance, once 
 caught out, gives a clue to suspicions, a nobody like you 
 escapes scot-free. You see ! The Guises have so many spies, 
 that nowhere but in the middle of the river can we talk with- 
 out fear. So you, my son, are like a man on guard, doomed 
 to die at his post. Understand, if you are taken, you are 
 abandoned by us all. If need be, we shall cast opprobrium 
 and disgrace on you. If we shall be forced to it, we should 
 declare that you were a creature of the Guises whom they 
 sent to play a part to implicate us. So what we ask of you 
 is entire self-sacrifice. 
 
 "If you perish," said the Prince de Conde, "I pledge my 
 word as a gentleman that your family shall be a sacred trust 
 to the House of Navarre; I will bear it in my heart and 
 serve it in every way." 
 
 "That word, my Lord, is enough," replied Christophe, for- 
 getting that this leader of faction was a Gascon. "We live 
 in times when every man, prince or citizen, must do his duty." 
 
 "That is a true Huguenot ! If all our men were like him," 
 said la Renaudie, laying his hand on Christophe's shoulder, 
 "we should have won by to-morrow." 
 
 "Young man," said the Prince, "I meant to show you that 
 while Chaudieu preaches and the gentleman bears arms, the 
 prince fights. Thus, in so fierce a game every stake has its 
 value."
 
 62 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 "Listen," said la Eenaudie ; "I will not give you the paper* 
 till we reach Beaugency, for we must run no risks on the road, 
 You will find me on the quay there; my face, voice, and 
 clothes will be so different, that you may not recognize me. 
 But I will say to you, 'Are you a Guepin ?' and you must reply, 
 'At your service.' As to the manner of proceeding, I will 
 tell you. You will find a horse at la Pinte fleurie, near Saint- 
 Germain 1' Auxerrois. Ask there for Jean le Breton, who will 
 ( take you to the stable and mount you on a nag of mine known 
 to cover thirty leagues in eight hours. Leave Paris by the 
 Bussy Gate. Breton has a pass for me; take it for yourself 
 and be off, riding round outside the towns. You should reach 
 Orleans by daybreak." 
 
 "And the horse?" asked Lecamus. 
 
 "He will hold out till you get to Orleans," replied la 
 Kenaudie. "Leave him outside the suburb of Bannier, for the 
 gates are well guarded ; we must not arouse suspicion. You, 
 my friend, must play your part well. You must make up 
 any story that may seem to you best to enable you to go to the 
 third house on your left on entering Orleans; it is that of 
 one Tourillon, a glover. Knock three raps on the door and 
 call out, 'In the service of Messieurs de Guise !' The man 
 affects to be a fanatical Guisard; we four only know that he is 
 on our side. He will find you a boatman, such another as 
 himself of course, but devoted to our cause. Go down to the 
 river at once, get into a boat painted green with a white 
 border. You ought to be at Beaugency by noonday to- 
 morrow. There I will put you in the way of getting a boat 
 to carry you down to Blois without running any danger. 
 Our enemies the Guises do not command the Loire, only the 
 river-ports. 
 
 "You may thus see the Queen in the course of to-morrow 
 or of the next day." 
 
 "Your words are graven here," said Christophe, touching 
 his forehead. 
 
 Chaudieu embraced his son with religious fervency; he 
 proud of him.
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 63 
 
 "The Lord protect you!" he said, pointing to the sunset 
 which crimsoned the old roofs covered with shingles, and 
 shot fiery gleams among the forest of beams round which 
 the waters foamed. 
 
 "You are of the stock of old Jacques Bonhomme," said 
 la Eenaudie to Christophe, wringing his hand. 
 
 "We shall meet again, Monsieur," said the Prince, with a 
 gesture of infinite graciousness, almost of friendliness. 
 
 With a stroke of the oar, la Eenaudie carried the young 
 conspirator back to the steps leading up to the house, and 
 the boat vanished at once under the arches of the Pont au 
 Change. 
 
 Christophe shook the iron gate that closed the entrance 
 from the river-side and called out; Mademoiselle Lecamus 
 heard him, opened one of the windows of the back-shop, and 
 asked how he came there. Christophe replied that he was 
 half-frozen, and that she must first let him in. 
 
 "Young master/' said la Bourguignonne, "you went out 
 by the street door and come in by the river-gate"? Your 
 father will be in a pretty rage." 
 
 Christophe, bewildered by the secret conference which had 
 brought him into contact with the Prince de Conde, la 
 Eenaudie, and Chaudieu, and even more agitated by the 
 expected turmoil of an imminent civil war, made no reply; 
 he hurried up from the kitchen to the back-shop. There, on 
 seeing him, his mother, who was a bigoted old Catholic, could 
 not contain herself. 
 
 "I will wager," she broke out, "that the three men you were 
 talking to were ref " 
 
 "Silence, wife," said the prudent old man, whose white 
 head was bent over a book. "Now, my lazy oafs," he went 
 on to three boys who had long since finished supper, "what 
 are you waiting for to take you to bed? It is eight o'clock. 
 You must be up by five in the morning. And first you have 
 the President de Thou's robes and cap to carry home. Go all 
 three together, and carry sticks and rapiers. If you meet any 
 more ne'er-do-weels of your own kidney, at any rate there 
 will be three of you/'
 
 64 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 "And are we to carry the ermine surcoat ordered by the 
 young Queen, which is to be delivered at the Hotel de Sois- 
 sons, from whence there is an express to Blois and to the 
 Queen- mother ?" asked one of the lads. 
 
 "No," said the Syndic; "Queen Catherine's account 
 amounts to three thousand crowns, and I must get the money. 
 I think I will go to Blois myself." 
 
 "I should not think of allowing you, at your age, father, 
 and in such times as these, to expose yourself on the high- 
 roads. I am two-and-twenty ; you may send me on this er- 
 rand," said Christophe, with an eye on a box which he had no 
 doubt contained the surcoat. 
 
 "Are you glued to the bench ?" cried the old man to the ap- 
 prentices, who hastily took up their rapiers and capes, and 
 Monsieur de Thou's fur gown. 
 
 This illustrious man was to be received on the morrow 
 by the Parlement as their President ; he had just signed the 
 death-warrant of the Councillor du Bourg, and was fated, 
 before the year was out, to sit in judgment on the Prince de 
 Conde. 
 
 "La Bourguignonne," said the old man, "go and ask my 
 neighbor Lallier if he will sup with us this evening, furnish- 
 ing the wine ; we will give the meal. And, above all, tell him 
 to bring his daughter." 
 
 The Syndic of the Guild of Furriers was a handsome old 
 man of sixty, with white hair and a broad high forehead. As 
 furrier to the Court for forty years past, he had witnessed 
 all the revolutions in the reign of Francis I., and had re- 
 tained his royal patent in spite of feminine rivalries. He had 
 seen the arrival at Court of Catherine de' Medici, then but 
 just fifteen; he had seen her succumb to the Duchesse 
 d'Etampes, her father-in-law's mistress, and to the Duchesse 
 de Valentinois, mistress to the late King, her husband. But 
 through all these changes the furrier had got into no diffi- 
 culties, though the Court purveyors often fell into disgrace 
 with the ladies they served. His prudence was as great as
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 65 
 
 his wealth. He maintained an attitude of excessive hu- 
 mility. Pride had never caught him in its snares. The man 
 was so modest, so meek, so obliging, so poor at Court and 
 in the presence of queens, princesses, and favorites that his 
 servility had saved his shop-sign. 
 
 Such a line of policy betrayed, of course, a cunning and 
 clear-sighted man. Humble as he was to the outer world, 
 at home he was a despot. He was the unquestioned master 
 in his own house. He was highly respected by his fellow 
 merchants and derived immense consideration from his long 
 tenure of the first place in business. Indeed, he was gladly 
 helpful to others; and among the services he had done, the 
 most important perhaps was the support he had long afforded 
 to the most famous surgeon of the sixteenth century Am- 
 broise Pare, who owed it to Lecamus that he could pursue his 
 studies. In all the disputes that arose between the merchants 
 of the guild, Lecamus was for conciliatory measures. Thus 
 general esteem had confirmed his supremacy among his 
 equals, while his assumed character had preserved him the 
 favor of the Court. 
 
 Having, for political reasons, manreuvred in his parish for 
 the glory of his trade, he did what was needful to keep him- 
 self in a sufficient odor of sanctity with the priest of the 
 Church of Saint-Pierre aux Bceufs, who regarded him as one 
 of the men most devoted in all Paris to the Catholic faith. 
 Consequently, when the States-General were convoked, Le- 
 camus was unanimously elected to represent the third estate 
 by the influence of the priests, which was at that time enor- 
 mous in Paris. 
 
 This old man was one of those deep and silent ambitious 
 men who for fifty years are submissive to everybody in turn, 
 creeping up from place to place, no one knowing how, till they 
 -are seen peacefully seated in a position which no one, not 
 even the boldest, would have dared to admit was the goal of 
 his ambition at the beginning of his life so long was the 
 climb, so many gulfs were there to leap, into which he might 
 fall ! Lecamus, who had hidden awav a large fortune, would
 
 66 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 run no risks, and was planning a splendid future for his son. 
 Instead of that personal ambition which often sacrifices the 
 future to the present, he had family ambition, a feeling that 
 seems lost in these days, smothered by the stupid regulation 
 of inheritance by law. Lecamus foresaw himself President 
 ,oif the Paris Parlement in the person of his grandson. 
 
 Christophe, the godson of the great historian de Thou, had 
 received an excellent education, but it had led him to scepti- 
 cism and inquiry, which indeed were increasing apace among 
 the students and Faculties of the University. Christophe 
 was at present studying for the bar, the first step to a 
 judgeship. The old furrier pretended to be undecided as 
 to his son's career; sometimes he would make Christophe 
 his successor, and sometimes he would have him a pleader; 
 but in his heart he longed to see this son in the seat of a 
 Councillor of the Parlement. The furrier longed to place the 
 house of Lecamus on a par with the old and honored families 
 of Paris citizens which had produced a Pasquier, a Mole, a 
 Miron, a Seguier, Lamoignon, du Tillet, Lecoigneux, Lesca- 
 lopier, the Goix, the Arnaulds, all the famous sheriffs and 
 high-provosts of corporations who had rallied to defend the 
 throne. 
 
 To the end that Christophe might in that day do credit 
 to his rank, he wanted him to marry the daughter of the rich- 
 est goldsmith in the Cite, his neighbor Lallier, whose nephew, 
 at a later day, presented the keys of Paris to Henry TV. The 
 most deeply rooted purpose in the good man's heart was to 
 spend half his own fortune and half of Lallier's in the pur- 
 chase of a lordly estate, a long and difficult matter in those 
 days. 
 
 ' But he was too deep a schemer, and knew the times too 
 well, to overlook the great movements that were being 
 hatched; he saw plainly, and saw truly, when he looked for- t 
 ward to the division of the kingdom into two camps. The 
 useless executions on the Place de 1'Estrapade, that of Henri 
 II.'s tailor, and that, still more recent, of the Councillor 
 Anne du Bourg, besides the connivance of the reigning
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 67 
 
 favorite in the time of Francis I., and of many nobles now, 
 at the progress of reform, all were alarming indications. 
 The furrier was determined, come what might, to remain 
 faithful to the Church, the Monarchy, and the Parlement, 
 but he was secretly well content that his son should join 
 the Eeformation. He knew that he had wealth enough to 
 ransom Christophe if the lad should ever compromise himself 
 seriously; and then, if France should turn Calvinist, his son 
 could save the family in any furious outbreaks in the capital 
 such as the citizens could vividly remember, and as would 
 recur again and again through four reigns. 
 
 Like Louis XL, the old furrier never confessed these 
 thoughts even to himself ; his cunning completely deceived his 
 wife and his son. For many a day this solemn personage had 
 been the recognized head of the most populous quarter of 
 Paris the heart of the city bearing the title of Quartenier, 
 which became notorious fifteen years later. Clothed in cloth, 
 like every prudent citizen who obeyed the sumptuary laws, 
 Master Lecamus the Sieur Lecamus, a title he held in 
 virtue of an edict of Charles V. permitting the citizens of 
 Paris to purchase Seigneuries, and their wives to assume the 
 fine title of demoiselle or mistress wore no gold chain, no 
 silk; only a stout doublet with large buttons of blackened 
 silver, wrinkled hose drawn up above his knee, and leather 
 shoes with buckles. His shirt, of fine linen, was pulled out, 
 in the fashion of the time, into full puffs through his half- 
 buttoned waistcoat and slashed trunks. 
 
 Though the full light of the lamp fell on the old man's 
 broad and handsome head, Christophe had no inkling of 
 the thoughts hidden behind that rich Dutch-looking com- 
 plexion ; still he understood that his old father meant to take 
 some advantage of his affection for pretty Babette Lallier. 
 And Christophe, as a man who had laid his own schemes, 
 smiled sadly when he heard the invitation sent to his fair 
 mistress. 
 
 As soon as la Bourguignonne and the apprentices were 
 gone, old Lecamus looked at his wife with an expression that 
 fully showed his firm and resolute temper.
 
 C8 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 "You will never :est till you have got the boy hanged with 
 your damned tongue !" said he in stern tones. 
 
 "I would rather see him hanged, but saved, than alive and 
 a Huguenot," was the gloomy reply. "To think that the child 
 I bore within me for nine months should not be a good 
 Catholic, but hanker after the heresies of Colas that he 
 must spend all eternity in hell " and she began to cry, 
 
 "You old fool !" said the furrier, "then give him a chance 
 of life, if only to convert him! Why, you said a thing, 
 oefore the apprentices, which might set our house on fire, 
 and roast us all in it like fleas in straw." 
 
 The mother crossed herself, but said nothing. 
 
 "As for you," said the good man, with a scrutinizing 
 look at his son, "tell me what you were doing out there 
 
 on the water with Come close to me while I speak to 
 
 you," he added, seizing his son by the arm, and drawing him 
 close to him while he whispered in the lad's ear "with the 
 Prince de Conde." Christophe started. "Do you suppose 
 that the Court furrier does not know all their faces? And 
 do you fancy that I am not aware of what is going on? 
 Monseigneur the Grand Master has ordered out troops to 
 Amboise. And when troops are removed from Paris to Am- 
 boise while the Court is at Blois, when they are marched 
 by way of Chartres and Vendome instead of by Orleans, the 
 meaning is pretty clear, heh? Trouble is brewing. 
 
 "If the Queens want their surcoats, they will send for 
 them. The Prince de Conde may be intending to kill Mes- 
 sieurs de Guise, who on their part mean to get rid of him 
 perhaps. Of what use can a furrier's son be in such a broil ? 
 When you are married, when you are a pleader in the Parle- 
 -nent, you will be as cautious as your father. A furrier's 
 son has no business to be of the new religion till all the 
 rest of the world is. I say nothing against the Reformers; 
 lit is no business of mine ; but the Court is Catholic, the two 
 Queens are Catholics, the Parlement is Catholic; we serve 
 them with furs, and we must be Catholic. 
 
 "You do not stir from here, Christophe, or I will place
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 89 
 
 you with your godfather the President de Thou, who vrill 
 keep you at it, blackening paper night and day, instead of 
 leaving you to blacken your soul in the hell-broth of these 
 damned Genevese." 
 
 "Father," said Christophe, leaning on the back of the old 
 man's chair, "send me off to Blois with Queen Marie's sur- 
 coat, and to ask for the money, or I am a lost man. And 
 you love me " 
 
 "Lost!" echoed his father, without any sign of surprise. 
 "If you stay here, you will not be lost. I shall know where 
 to find you." 
 
 "I shall be killed." 
 
 "Why?" 
 
 "The most zealous Huguenots have cast their eyes on me 
 to serve them in a certain matter, and if I fail to do what 
 I have just promised, they will kill me in the street, in the 
 face of day, here, as Minard was killed. But if you send me 
 to the Court on business of your own, I shall probably be 
 able to justify my action to both parties. Either I shall 
 succeed for them without running any risk, and so gain a 
 good position jn the party ; or, if the danger is too great, I 
 can do your business only." 
 
 The old man started to his feet as if his seat were of red- 
 hot iron. 
 
 "Wife," said he, "leave us, and see that no one intrudes on 
 Christophe and me." 
 
 When Mistress Lecamus had left the room, the furrier 
 took his son by a button and led him to the corner of the 
 room which formed the angle towards the bridge. 
 
 ''Christophe," said he, quite into his son's ear, as he had 
 juet now spoken of the Prince de Conde, "be a Huguenot 
 if that is your pet vice, but with prudence, in your secret 
 heart, and not in such a way as to be pointed at by every one 
 fin the neighborhood. What you have just now told me shows 
 me what confidence the leaders have in you. What are you 
 to do at the Court?" 
 
 "I cannot tell you/' said Christophe; "I do not quite 
 know that myself yet."
 
 70 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 "H'm, h'm," said the old man, looking at the lad, "the 
 young rascal wants to hoodwink his father. He will go far ! 
 Well, well," he went on, in an undertone, "you are not 
 going to Blois to make overtures to the Guises, nor to the 
 little King our Sovereign, nor to little Queen Mary. All 
 these are Catholics ; but I could swear that the Italian Queen 
 owes the Scotch woman and the Lorraines some grudge: I 
 know her. She has been dying to put a finger in the pie. 
 The late King was so much afraid of her that, like the; 
 jewelers, he used diamond to cut diamond, one woman 
 against another. Hence Queen Catherine's hatred of the 
 poor Duchesse de Valentinois, from whom she took the fine 
 Chateau of Chenonceaux. But for Monsieur le Connetable, 
 the Duchess would have had her neck wrung at least 
 
 "Hands off, my boy ! Do not trust yourself within reach 
 of the Italian woman, whose only passions are in her head; 
 a bad sort that. Ay, the business you are sent to the Court 
 to do will give you a bad headache, I fear," cried the father, 
 seeing that Christophe was about to speak. "My boy, I have 
 two schemes for your future life; you will not spoil them 
 by being of service to Queen Catherine. But, for God's sake, 
 keep your head on your shoulders! And the Guises would 
 cut it off as la Bourguignonne cuts off a turnip, for the 
 people who are employing you would throw you over at 
 once." 
 
 "I know that, father," said Christophe. 
 
 "And you are so bold as that ! You know it, and you will 
 risk it?" 
 
 "Yes, father." 
 
 "Why, the Devil's in it !" cried the old man, hugging his 
 son, "we may understand each other; you are your father's 
 son. My boy, you will be a credit to the family, and your, 
 old father may be plain with you, I see. But do not be! 
 more of a Huguenot than the Messieurs de Coligny; and do' 
 not draw your sword. You are to be a man of the pen; 
 stick to your part as a sucking lawyer. Well, tell me no 
 more till you have succeeded. If I hear nothing of you for
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 71 
 
 four days after you reach Blois, that silence will tell me that 
 you are in danger. Then the old man will follow to save 
 the young one. I have not sold furs for thirty years without 
 knowing the seamy side of a Court robe. I can find means 
 of opening doors." 
 
 Christophe stared with amazement at hearing his father 
 speak thus ; but he feared some parental snare, and held his 
 tongue. 
 
 Then he said: 
 
 "Very well, make up the account; write a letter to the 
 Queen. I must be off this moment, or dreadful things will 
 happen." 
 
 "Be off? But how?" 
 
 "I will buy a horse. Write, for God's sake!" 
 
 "Here ! Mother ! Give your boy some money," the furrier 
 called out to his wife. 
 
 She came in, flew to her chest, and gave a purse to Chris- 
 tophe, who excitedly kissed her. 
 
 "The account was ready," said his father; "here it is. I 
 will write the letter." 
 
 Christophe took the bill and put it in his pocket. 
 
 "But at any rate you will sup with us," said the goodman. 
 "In this extremity you and the Lallier girl must exchange 
 rings." 
 
 "Well, I will go to fetch her," cried Christophe. 
 
 The young man feared some indecision in his father, whose 
 character he did not thoroughly appreciate ; he went up to his 
 room, dressed, took out a small trunk, stole downstairs, and 
 placed it with his cloak and rapier under a counter in the 
 shop. 
 
 "What the devil are you about ?" asked his father, hearing 
 him there. 
 
 "I do not want any one to see my preparations for leaving ; 
 I have put everything under the counter/' he whispered in 
 reply. 
 
 "And here is the letter," said his father. 
 
 Christophe took the paper, and went out as if to fetch their 
 neighbor.
 
 72 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 A few moments after Christophe had gone out, old Lallier 
 and his daughter came in, preceded by a woman-servant 
 carrying three bottles of old wine. 
 
 "Well, and where is Christophe?" asked the furrier and 
 his wife. 
 
 "Christophe ?" said Babette ; "we have not seen him." 
 
 "A pretty rogue is my son!" cried Lecamus. "He trickaj 
 me as if I had no beard. Why, old gossip, what will come 
 to us ? We live in times when the children are all too clever 
 for their fathers !" 
 
 "But he has long been regarded by all the neighbors as 
 a mad follower of Colas," said Lallier. 
 
 "Defend him stoutly on that score," said the furrier to the 
 goldsmith. "Youth is foolish, and runs after anything new; 
 but Babette will keep him quiet, she is even newer than 
 Calvin/' 
 
 Babette smiled. She truly loved Christophe, was affronted 
 by everything that was ever said against him. She was a girl 
 of the good old middle-class type, brought up under her 
 mother's eye, for she had never left her; her demeanor was 
 as gentle and precise as her features; she was dressed in 
 stuff of harmonious tones of gray ; her ruff, plainly pleated, 
 was a contrast by its whiteness to her sober gown; on her 
 head was a black velvet cap, like a child's hood in shape, 
 but trimmed, on each side of her face, with frills and ends 
 of tan-colored gauze. Though she was fair-haired, with a 
 white skin, she seemed cunning and crafty, though trying 
 to hide her wiliness under the expression of a simple and 
 honest girl. 
 
 As long as the two women remained in the room, coming 
 to and fro to lay the cloth, and place the jugs, the large 
 pewter dishes, and the knives and forks, the goldsmith and 
 his daughter, the furrier and his wife, sat in front of the 
 high chimney-place, hung with red serge and black fringes, 
 talking of nothing. It was in vain that Babette asked 
 where Christophe could be; the young Huguenot's father 
 and mother made ambiguous replies; but as soon as the
 
 73 
 
 party had sat down to their meal, and the two maids were 
 in the kitchen, Lecamus said to his future daughter-in-law: 
 
 "Christophe is gone to the Court." 
 
 "To Blois ! What a journey to take without saying good- 
 bye to me !" said Babette. 
 
 "He was in a great hurry," said his old mother. 
 
 "Old friend," said the furrier to Lallier, taking up the 
 thread of the conversation, "we are going to see hot work in 
 France; the Eeformers are astir." 
 
 "If they win the day, it will only be after long fighting, 
 which will be very bad for trade," said Lallier, incapable 
 of looking higher than the commercial point of view. 
 
 "My father, who had seen the end of the wars between the 
 Bourguignons and the Armagnacs, told me that our family 
 would never have lived through them if one of his grand- 
 fathers his mother's father had not been one of the Goix, 
 the famous butchers at the Halle, who were attached to the 
 Bourguignons, while the other, a Lecamus, was on the side 
 of the Armagnacs; they pretended to be ready to flay each 
 other before the outer world, but at home they were very good 
 friends. So we will try to save Christophe. Perhaps a time 
 may come when he will save us." 
 
 "You are a cunning dog, neighbor," said the goldsmith. 
 
 "No," replied Lecamus. "The citizen class must take 
 care of itself, the populace and the nobility alike owe it a 
 grudge. Everybody is afraid of the middle class in Paris 
 excepting the King, who knows us to be his friends." 
 
 "You who know so much, and who have seen so much," 
 said Babette timidly, "pray tell me what it is that the Ke- 
 formers want." 
 
 "Ay, tell us that, neighbor!" cried the goldsmith. "1 
 knew the late King's tailor, and I always took him to be a 
 simple soul, with no great genius ; he was much such another 
 as you are, they would have given him the Host without re- 
 quiring him to confess, and all the time he was up to his 
 eyes in this new religion. He ! a man whose ears were worth 
 many hundred thousand crowns. He must have known
 
 74 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 some secrets worth "hearing for the King and Madame de 
 Valentinois to be present when he was tortured." 
 
 "Ay! and terrible secrets too," said the furrier. "The 
 Keformation, my friends," he went on, in a low voice, "will 
 give the Church lands back to the citizen class. When eccle- 
 siastical privileges are annulled, the Eeformers mean to claim 
 equality of taxation for the nobles and the middle class, and 
 to have only the King above all alike if indeed they havey 
 a king at all." 
 
 "What, do away with the Throne ?" cried Lallier. 
 
 "Well, neighbor," said Lecamus, "in the Low Countries 
 the citizens govern themselves by provosts over them, who 
 elect a temporary chief." 
 
 "God bless me! Neighbor, we might do all these fine 
 things, and still be Catholics," said the goldsmith. 
 
 "We are too old to see the triumph of the middle class in 
 Paris, but it will triumph, neighbor, all in good time ! Why, 
 the King is bound to rely on us to hold his own, and we 
 have always been well paid for our support. And the last 
 time all the citizens were ennobled, and they had leave to 
 buy manors, and take the names of their estates without any 
 special letters patent from the King. You and I, for in- 
 stance, grandsons of the Goix in the female line, are we not 
 as good as many a nobleman?" 
 
 This speech was so alarming to the goldsmith and the 
 two women, that it was followed by a long silence. The 
 leaven of 1789 was already germinating in the blood of 
 Lecamus, who was not yet so old but that he lived to see the 
 daring of his class under the Ligue. 
 
 "Is business pretty firm in spite of all this turmoil?" 
 Lallier asked the furrier's wife. 
 
 "It always upsets trade a little," said she. 
 
 "Yes, and so I have a great mind to make a lawyer of 
 my son," added Lecamus. "People are always going to law." 
 
 The conversation then dwelt on the commonplace, to the 
 goldsmith's great satisfaction, for he did not like political 
 disturbances or over-boldness of thought.
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 75 
 
 The banks of the Loire, from Blois as far as Angers, were 
 always greatly favored by the two last branches of the Koyal 
 Family who occupied the throne before the advent of the 
 Bourbons. This beautiful valley so well deserves the prefer- 
 ence of kings, that one of our most elegant writers describes 
 it as follows : "There is a province in France which is never 
 sufficiently admired. As fragrant as Italy, as flowery as the 
 banks of the Guadalquivir, beautiful besides with its own 
 peculiar beautj. Wholly French, it has always been French, 
 unlike our Northern provinces, debased by Teutonic in- 
 fluence, or our Southern provinces, which have been the con- 
 cubines of the Moors, of the Spaniards, of every nation that 
 has coveted them this pure, chaste, brave, and loyal tract 
 is Touraine ! There is the seat of historic France. Auvergne 
 is Auvergne, Languedoc is Languedoc and nothing more ; but 
 Touraine is France, and the truly national river to us is the 
 Loire which waters Touraine. We need not, therefore, be 
 surprised to find such a quantity of monuments in the de- 
 partments which have taken their names from that of the 
 Loire and its derivations. At every step in that land of 
 enchantment we come upon a picture of which the foreground 
 is the river, or some calm reach, in whose liquid depths are 
 mirrored a chateau, with its turrets, its woods, and its danc- 
 ing springs. It was only natural that large fortunes should 
 centre round spots where Eoyalty preferred to live, and 
 where it so long held its Court, and that distinguished birth 
 and merit should crowd thither and build palaces on a par 
 with Royalty itself." 
 
 Is it not strange, indeed, that our sovereigns should never 
 have taken the advice indirectly given them by Louis XI., 
 and have made Tours the capital of the kingdom ? Without 
 any very great expenditure, the Loire might have been navi- 
 gable so far for trading vessels and light ships of war. There 
 'the seat of Government would have been safe from surprise 
 and high-handed invasion. There the strongholds of the 
 north would not have needed such sums for their fortifica- 
 tions, which alone have cost as much money as all the
 
 78 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 dors of Versailles. If Louis XIV. had listened to Vauban's 
 advice, and had his palace built at Mont-Louis, between the 
 Loire and the Cher, perhaps the Revolution of 1789 would 
 never have taken place. 
 
 So these fair banks bear, at various spots, clear marks of 
 royal favor. The chateaux of Chambord, Blois, Amboise, 
 Chenonceaux, Chaumont, Plessis-les-Tours, all the residences 
 built by kings' mistresses, by financiers, and noblemen, at 
 Veretz, Azay-le-Rideau, Usse, Villandri, Valengay, Chante- 
 loup, and Duretal, some of which have disappeared, though 
 most are still standing, are splendid buildings, full of the 
 wonders of the period that has been so little appreciated by 
 the literary sect of Medievalists. 
 
 Of all these chateaux, that of Blois, where the Court was 
 then residing, is the one on which the magnificence of the 
 Houses of Orleans and of Valois has most splendidly set its 
 stamp ; and it is the most curious to historians, archaeologists, 
 and Catholics. At that time it stood quite alone. The towa, 
 enclosed in strong walls with towers, lay below the strong- 
 hold, for at that time the chateau served both as a citadel and 
 as a country residence. Overlooking the town, of which the 
 houses, then as now, climb the hill on the right bank of the 
 river, their blue slate roofs in close array, there is a triangular 
 plateau, divided by a stream, now unimportant since it runs 
 underground, but in the fifteenth century, as historians tell 
 us, flowing at the bottom of a rather steep ravine, part of 
 which remains as a deep hollow way, almost a precipice, be- 
 tween the suburb and the chateau. 
 
 It was on this plateau, with a slope to the north and south, 
 that the Comtes de Blois built themselves a "castel" in the 
 architecture of the twelfth century, where the notorious Thi- 
 bault le Tricheur, Thibault le Vieux, and many more held 
 a court that became famous. In those days of pure feudal 
 rule, when the King was no more than inter pares primus 
 (the first among equals), as a King of Poland finely ex- 
 pressed it, the Counts of Champagne, of Blois, and of Anjou, 
 the mere Barons of Normandy, and the Dukes of Brittany
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 77 
 
 lived in the style of sovereigns and gave kings to the proudest 
 kingdoms. The Plantagenets of Anjou, the Lusignans of 
 Poitou, the Koberts and Williams of Normandy, by their au- 
 dacious courage mingled their blood with royal races, and 
 sometimes a simple knight, like du Glaicquin (or du Gues- 
 clin), refused royal purple and preferred the Constable's 
 sword. 
 
 When the Crown had secured Blois as a royal demesne, 
 Louis XII., who took a fancy to the place, perhaps to get 
 away from Plessis and its sinister associations, built on to 
 the chateau, at an angle, so as to face east and west, a wing 
 connecting the residence of the Counts of Blois with the older 
 structure, of which nothing now remains but the immense 
 hall where the States-General sat under Henri III. Francis 
 I., before he fell in love with Chambord, intended to finish 
 the chateau by building on the other two sides of a square; 
 but he abandoned Blois for Chambord, and erected only one 
 wing, which in his time and in that of his grandsons prac- 
 tically constituted the chateau. 
 
 This third building of Francis I.'s is much more extensive 
 and more highly decorated than the Louvre de Henri II., as 
 it ia called. It is one of the most fantastic efforts of the 
 architecture of the Eenaissance. Indeed, at a time when a 
 more reserved style of building prevailed, and no one cared 
 for the Middle Ages, a time when literature was not so inti- 
 mately allied with art as it now is, la Fontaine wrote of the 
 Chateau of Blois in his characteristically artless language: 
 "Looking at it from outside, the part done by order of 
 Francis I. pleased me more than all the rest; there are a 
 number of little windows, little balconies, little colonnades, 
 little ornaments, not regularly ordered, which make up some- 
 thing great which I found very pleasing." 
 
 Thus the Chateau of Blois had the attraction of represent- 
 ing three different kinds of architecture three periods, three 
 systems, three dynasties. And there is not, perhaps, any 
 other royal residence which in this respect can compare with 
 it. The vast building shows, in one enclosure, in one court-
 
 78 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 yard, a complete picture of that great product of national 
 life and manners which Architecture always is. 
 
 At the time when Christophe was bound for the Court, 
 that portion of the precincts on which a fourth palace now 
 stands the wing added seventy years later, during his exile, 
 by Gaston, Louis XIII.'s rebellious brother was laid out 
 in pastures and terraced gardens, picturesquely scattered 
 among the foundation stones and unfinished towers begun byi 
 Francis I. These gardens were joined by a bold flying bridge, 
 which some old inhabitants still alive saw destroyed to 
 a garden on the other side of the chateau, which by the slope 
 of the ground lay on the same level. The gentlemen attached 
 to Queen Anne de Bretagne, or those who approached her 
 with petitions from her native province, to discuss, or to 
 inform her of the state of affairs there, were wont to await 
 her pleasure here, her lever, or the hour of her walking out. 
 Hence history has handed down to us as the name of this 
 pleasaunce Le Perchoir aux Bretons (the Breton's Perch) ; 
 it now is an orchard belonging to some private citizen, pro- 
 jecting beyond the Place des Jesuites. That square also was 
 then included in the domain of this noble residence which had 
 its upper and its lower gardens. At some distance from the 
 Place des Jesuites, a summer-house may still be seen built 
 by Catherine de' Medici, as local historians tell us, to accom- 
 modate her hot baths. This statement enables us to trace 
 the very irregular arrangement of the gardens which went 
 up and down hill, following the undulations of the soil; the 
 land about the chateau is indeed very uneven, a fact which 
 added to its strength, and, as we shall see, caused the diffi- 
 culties of the Due de Guise. 
 
 The gardens were reached by corridors and terraces; the 
 chief corridor was known as the Galerie des Cerfs (or stags), 
 on account of its decorations. This passage led to a magnifi- 
 cent staircase, which undoubtedly suggested the famous dou- 
 ble staircase at Chambord, and which led to the apartments 
 on each floor. 
 
 Though la Fontaine preferred the chateau of Francis I.
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 79 
 
 to that of Louis XII., the simplicity of the Pere du Peuple 
 may perhaps charm the genuine artist, much as he may 
 admire the splendor of the more chivalrous king. The 
 elegance of the two staircases which lie at the two extremi- 
 ties of Louis XII. 's building, the quantity of fine and origi- 
 nal carving, of which, though time has damaged them, the 
 remains are still the delight of antiquaries; everything, to 
 the almost cloister-like arrangement of the rooms, points 
 to very simple habits. As yet the Court was evidently non-, 
 existent, or had not attained such development as Francis 
 I. and Catherine de' Medici subsequently gave it, to the great 
 detriment of feudal manners. As we admire the brackets,, 
 the capitals of some of the columns, and some little figures 
 of exquisite delicacy, it is impossible not to fancy that Michel 
 Colomb, the great sculptor, the Michael Angelo of Brittany, 
 must have passed that way to do his Queen Anne a pleasure, 
 before immortalizing her on her father's tomb the last 
 Duke of Brittany. 
 
 Whatever la Fontaine may say, nothing can be more stately 
 than the residence of Francis, the magnificent King. Thanks 
 to I know not what coarse indifference, perhaps to utter 
 forgetfulness, the rooms occupied by Catherine de' Medici 
 and her son Francis II. still remain almost in their original 
 state. The historian may reanimate them with the tragical 
 scenes of the Eeformation, of which the struggle of the 
 Guises and the Bourbons against the House of Valois formed 
 a complicated drama played out on this spot. 
 
 The buildings of Francis I. quite crush the simpler resi- 
 dence of Louis XII. by sheer mass. From the side of the 
 lower gardens, that is to say, from the modern Place des 
 Jesuites, the chateau is twice as lofty as from the side towards 
 the inner court. The ground floor, in which are the famous 
 corridors, is the second floor in the garden front. Thus the 
 first floor, where Queen Catherine resided, is in fact the 
 third, and the royal apartments are on the fourth above the 
 lower garden, which at that time was divided from the 
 foundations by a very deep moat. Thus the chateau, im-
 
 80 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 posing as it is from the court, seems quite gigantic when seen 
 from the Place as la Fontaine saw it, for he owns that he 
 never had been into the court or the rooms. From the Place 
 des Jesuites every detail looks small. The balconies you can 
 walk along, the colonnades of exquisite workmanship, the 
 sculptured windows their recesses within, as large as small 
 rooms, and used, in fact, at that time as boudoirs have 
 a general effect resembling the painted fancies of operatic 
 scenery when the artist represents a fairy palace. But once 
 inside the court, the infinite delicacy of this architectural 
 ornamentation is displayed, to the joy of the amazed spectator, 
 though the stories above the ground floor are, even there, 
 as high as the Pavilion de 1'Horloge at the Tuileries. 
 
 This part of the building, where Catherine and Mary 
 Stuart held magnificent court, had in the middle of the 
 facade a hexagonal hollow tower, up which winds a stair- 
 case in stone, an arabesque device invented by giants and 
 executed by dwarfs to give this front the effect of a dream. 
 The balustrade of the stairs rises in a spiral of rectangular 
 panels composing the five walls of the tower, and forming 
 at regular intervals a transverse cornice, enriched outside 
 and in with florid carvings in stone. This bewildering 
 creation, full of delicate and ingenious details and marvels 
 of workmanship, by which these stones speak to us, can 
 only be compared to the overcharged and deeply cut 
 ivory carvings that come from China, or are made at 
 Dieppe. In short, the stone is like lace. Flowers and figures 
 of men and animals creep down the ribs, multiply at every 
 step, and crown the vault with a pendant, in which the 
 chisels of sixteenth century sculptors have outdone the art- 
 less stone-carvers who, fifty years before, had made the pend- 
 ants for two staircases in Louis XII.'s building. Though 
 we may be dazzled as we note these varied forms repeated 
 with infinite prolixity, we nevertheless perceive that Francis 
 I. lacked money for Blois, just as Louis XIV. did for Ver- 
 sailles. In more than one instance a graceful head looks 
 out from a block of stone almost in the rough. More than
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 81 
 
 one fanciful boss is but sketched with a few strokes of the 
 chisel, and then abandoned to the damp, which has over- 
 grown it with green mould. On the facade, by the side of 
 one window carved like lace, another shows us the massive 
 frame eaten into by time, which has carved it after a manner 
 of its own. 
 
 The least artistic, the least experienced eye finds here a 
 delightful contrast between this front, rippling with marvels 
 of design, and the inner front of Louis XII.'s chateau, con- 
 sisting on the ground floor of arches of the airiest lightness, 
 upheld by slender columns, resting on elegant balustrades, 
 and two stories above with windows wrought with charming 
 severity. Under the arches runs a gallery, of which the 
 walls were painted in fresco; the vaulting too must have 
 been painted, for some traces are still visible of that mag- 
 nificence, imitated from Italian architecture a reminiscence 
 of our Kings' journeys thither when the Milanese belonged to 
 them. 
 
 Opposite the residence of Francis I. there was at that time 
 the chapel of the Counts of Blois, its fagade almost harmo- 
 nizing with the architecture of Louis XII.'s building. No 
 figure of speech can give an adequate idea of the solid dignity 
 of these three masses of building. In spite of the varieties 
 of style, a certain imposing royalty, showing the extent of 
 its fear by the magnitude of its defences, held the three 
 buildings together, different as they were; two of them 
 flanking the immense hall of the States-General, as vast and 
 lofty as a church. 
 
 And certainly neither the simplicity nor the solidity of 
 those citizen lives which were described at the beginning of 
 this narrative lives in which Art was always represented 
 was lacking to this royal residence. Blois was the fertile 
 and brilliant example which found a living response from 
 citizens and nobles, from money and rank, alike in towns 
 and in the country. You could not have wished that the 
 home of the King who ruled Paris as it was in the sixteenth 
 century should be other than this. The splendid raiment
 
 82 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 of the upper classes, the luxury of feminine attire, must have 
 seemed singularly suited to the elaborate dress of the curi- 
 ously wrought stones. 
 
 From floor to floor, as he mounted the wonderful stairs 
 of his castle of Blois, the King of France could see further 
 and further over the beautiful Loire, which brought him 
 ..news of all his realm, which it parts into two confronted 
 and almost rival halves. If, instead of placing Chambord 
 in a dead and gloomy plain two leagues away, Francis I. had 
 built a Chambord to complete Blois on the site of the gar- 
 dens, where Gaston subsequently erected his palace, Versailles 
 would never have existed, and Blois would inevitably have 
 become the capital of France. 
 
 Four Valois and Catherine de' Medici lavished their wealth 
 on the Chateau of Blois, but any one can guess how prodigal 
 the sovereigns were, only from seeing the thick dividing wall, 
 the spinal column of the building, with deep alcoves cut 
 into its substance, secret stairs and closets contrived within 
 it, surrounding such vast rooms as the council hall, the 
 guard-room, and the royal apartments, in which a company 
 of infantry now finds ample quarters. Even if the visitor 
 should fail to understand at a first glance that the marvels 
 of the interior are worthy of those of the exterior, the re- 
 mains of Catherine de' Medici's room into which Chris- 
 tophe was presently admitted are sufficient evidence of the 
 elegant art which peopled these rooms with lively fancies, 
 with salamanders sparkling among flowers, with all the most 
 brilliant hues of the palette of the sixteenth century decorat- 
 ing the darkest staircase. In that room the observer may 
 still see the traces of that love of gilding which Catherine 
 had brought from Italy, for the princesses of her country 
 loved (as the author above quoted delightfully expresses it) 
 io overlay the chateaux of France with the gold gained in 
 'trade by their ancestors, and to stamp the walls of royal 
 rooms with the sign of their wealth. 
 
 The Queen-mother occupied the rooms on the first floor 
 that had formerly been those of Queen Claude de France,
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 83 
 
 Francis I/s wife ; and the delicate sculpture is still to be seen 
 of double C's, with a device in pure white of swans and lilies, 
 signifying Candidio" candidis, the whitest of the white, the 
 badge of that Queen whose name, like Catherine's, began 
 with C, and equally appropriate to Louis XII.'s daughter 
 and to the mother of the Valois; for notwithstanding the 
 violence of Calvinist slander, no doubt was ever thrown on 
 Catherine de' Medici's enduring fidelity to Henri II. 
 
 The Queen-mother, with two young children still on her 
 hands a bcpr, afterwards the Due d'Alengon, and Margue- 
 rite, who became the wife of Henri IV., and whom Charles 
 IX. called Margot needed the whole of this first floor. 
 
 King Francis II. and his Queen Mary Stuart had the 
 royal apartments on the second floor that Francis I. had oc- 
 cupied, and which were also those of Henri III. The royal 
 apartments, and those of the Queen-mother, are divided from 
 end to end of the chateau into two parts by the famous party 
 wall, four feet thick, which supports the thrust of the im- 
 mensely thick walls of the rooms. Thus on the lower as 
 well as on the upper floor the rooms are in two distinct suites. 
 That half which, facing the south, is lighted from the court, 
 held the rooms for state receptions and public business; 
 while, to escape the heat, the private rooms had a north 
 aspect, where there is a splendid frontage with arcades and 
 balconies, and a view over the county of the Vendomois, the 
 Perchoir aux Bretons, and the moats of the town the only 
 town mentioned by the great fable writer, the admirable la 
 Fontaine. 
 
 Francis I.'s chateau at that time ended at an enormous 
 tower, only begun, but intended to mark the vast angle 
 l'the palace would have formed in turning a flank; Gaston 
 subsequently demolished part of its walls to attach his palace 
 to the tower; but he never finished the work, and the tower 
 remains a ruin. This royal keep was used as a prison, or, 
 according to popular tradition, as oubliettes. What poet 
 would not feel deep regret or weep for France as he wanders 
 now through the hall of this magnificent chateau, and sees
 
 84 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 the exquisite arabesques of Catherine de' Medici's room, 
 whitewashed and almost smothered by order of the governor 
 of the barracks at the time of the cholera for this royal 
 residence is now a barrack. 
 
 The paneling of Catherine de' Medici's closet, of which 
 more particular mention will presently be made, is the last 
 relic of the rich furnishing collected by five artistic kings. 
 
 As we make our way through this labyrinth of rooms, halls, 
 staircases, and turrets, we can say with horrible certainty, 
 "Here Mary Stuart cajoled her husband in favor of the 
 Guises. There those Guises insulted Catherine. Later, on 
 this very spot, the younger Balafre fell under the swords 
 of the avengers of the Crown. A century earlier Louis XII. 
 signaled from that window to invite the advance of his 
 friend the Cardinal d'Amboise. From this balcony 
 d'Spernon, Kavaillac's accomplice, welcomed Queen Marie 
 de' Medici, who, it is said, knew of the intended regicide and 
 left things to take their course !" 
 
 In the chapel where Henri IV. and Marguerite d.t Valois 
 were betrothed the last remnant of the old chateau of the 
 Counts of Blois the regimental boots are made. This won- 
 derful structure, where so many styles are combined, where 
 such great events have been accomplished, is in a state of 
 ruin which is a disgrace to France. How grievous it is to 
 those who love the memorial buildings of old France, to feel 
 that ere long these eloquent stones will have gone the way 
 of the house at the corner of the Eue de la Vieille-Pelleterie : 
 they will survive, perhaps, only in these pages. 
 
 It is necessary to observe that, in order to keep a keener' 
 eye on the Court, the Guises, though they had a mansion 
 in the town, which is still to be seen, had obtained permission 
 to reside above the rooms of Louis XII. in the apartments 
 since used by the Duchesse de Nemours, in the upper story on 
 the second floor. 
 
 Francis II. and his young Queen, Mary Stuart, in lore 
 like two children of sixteen, ae they were, had been suddenly
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDI'CI 85 
 
 transferred, one cold winter's day, from Saint-Germain, 
 which the Due de Guise thought too open to surprise, to the 
 stronghold, as it then was, of Blois, isolated on three sides 
 by precipitous slopes, while its gates were strictly guarded. 
 The Guises, the Queen's uncles, had the strongest reasons 
 for not living in Paris, and for detaining the Court in a 
 place which could be easily guarded and defended. 
 
 A struggle for the throne was being carried on, which' 
 was not ended till twenty-eight years later, in 1588, when, 
 in this same chateau of Blois, Henri III., bitterly humiliated 
 by the House of Lorraine, under his mother's very eyes, 
 planned the death of the boldest of the Guises, the second 
 Balafre (or scarred), son of the first Balafre, by whom 
 Catherine de' Medici was tricked, imprisoned, spied on, and 
 threatened. 
 
 Indeed, the fine Chateau of Blois was to Catherine the 
 strictest prison. On the death of her husband, who had al- 
 ways kept her in leading-strings, she had hoped to rule ; but, 
 on the contrary, she found herself a slave to strangers, whose 
 politeness was infinitely more cruel than the brutality of 
 jailers. She could do nothing that was not known. Those of 
 her ladies who were attached to her either had lovers devoted 
 to the Guises, or Argus eyes watching over them. Indeed, at 
 that time the conflict of passions had the capricious vagaries 
 which they always derive from the powerful antagonism of 
 two hostile interests in the State. Love-making, which 
 served Catherine well, was also an instrument in the hands 
 of the Guises. Thus the Prince de Conde, the, leader of the 
 Keformed party, was attached to the Marechale de Saint- 
 Andre, whose husband was the Grand Master's tool. The 
 Cardinal, who had learned from the affair of the Vidame de 
 Chartres that Catherine was unconquered rather than un- 
 conquerable, was paying court to her. Thus the play of 
 passions brought strange complications into that of politics, 
 making a double game of chess, as it were, in which it was 
 necessary to read both the heart and brain of a man, and to 
 judgp. on occasion, whether oae would not belie the other.
 
 86 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 Though she lived constantly under the eye of the Cardinal 
 de Lorraine or of his brother, the Due Francois de Guise, 
 who both distrusted her, Catherine's most immediate and 
 shrewdest enemy was her daughter-in-law, Queen Mary, a 
 little fair girl as mischievous as a waiting-maid, as proud 
 as a Stuart might be who wore three crowns, as learned as 
 an ancient scholar, as tricky as a school-girl, as much in 
 love with her husband as a courtesan of her lover, devoted 
 'to her uncles, whom she admired, and delighted to find that 
 King Francis, by her persuasion, shared her high opinion 
 of them. A mother-in-law is always a person disliked by 
 her daughter-in-law, especially when she has won the crown 
 and would like to keep it as Catherine had imprudently 
 too plainly shown. Her former position, when Diane de 
 Poitiers ruled King Henri II., had been more endurable; at 
 least she had enjoyed the homage due to a Queen, and the 
 respect of the Court; whereas, now, the Duke and the Car- 
 dinal, having none about them but their own creatures, 
 seemed to take pleasure in humiliating her. Catherine, a 
 prisoner among courtiers, was the object, not every day, 
 but every hour, of blows offensive to. her dignity; for the 
 Guises persisted in carrying on the same system as the late 
 King had employed to thwart her. 
 
 The six-and-thirty years of disaster which devastated 
 France may be said to have begun with the scene in which 
 the most perilous part had been allotted to the son of the 
 Queen's furrier a part which makes him the leading figure 
 in this narrative. The danger into which this zealous re- 
 former was falling became evident in the course of the morn- 
 ing when he set out from the river-port of Beaugency, 
 carrying precious documents which compromised the loftiest 
 heads of the nobility, and embarked for Blois in company 
 with a crafty partisan, the indefatigable la Kenaudie, who 
 had arrived on the quay before him. 
 
 While the barque conveying Christophe was being wafted 
 down the Loire before a light easterly breeze, the famous 
 Cardinal de Lorraine, and the second Due de Guise, one of
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 87 
 
 the greatest war captains of the time, were considering their 
 position, like two eagles on a rocky peak, and looking cau- 
 tiously round before striking the first great blow by which 
 they tried to kill the Keformation in France. This was to 
 be struck at Amboise, and it was repeated in Paris twelve 
 years later, on the 24th August 1572. 
 
 In the course of the previous night, three gentlemen, who 
 played an important part in the twelve years' drama that 
 arose from this double plot by the Guises on one hand and the 
 'Keformers on the other, had arrived at the chateau at a 
 furious gallop, leaving their horses half dead at the postern 
 gate, held by captains and men who were wholly devoted 
 to the Due de Guise, the idol of the soldiery. 
 
 A word must be said as to this great man, and first of all 
 a word to explain his present position. 
 
 His mother was Antoinette de Bourbon, great-aunt of 
 Henri IV. But of what account are alliances ! At this 
 moment he aimed at nothing less than his cousin de Condi's 
 head. Mary Stuart was his niece. His wife was Anne, 
 daughter of the Duke of Ferrara. The Grand Conn6table 
 Anne de Montmorency addressed the Due de Guise as "Mon- 
 seigneur," as he wrote to the King, and signed himself "Your 
 very humble servant." Guise, the Grand Master of the 
 King's household, wrote in reply, "Monsieur le Connetable," 
 and signed, as in writing to the Parlement, "Your faithful 
 friend." 
 
 As for the Cardinal, nicknamed the Transalpine Pope, 
 and spoken of by Estienne as "His Holiness," the whole 
 Monastic Church of France was on his side, and he treated 
 with the Pope as his equal. He was vain of his eloquence, 
 and one of the ablest theologians of his time, while he kept 
 watch over France and Italy by the instrumentality of three 
 religious Orders entirely devoted to him, who were on foot 
 for him day and night, serving him as spies and reporters. 
 
 These few words are enough to show to what a height of 
 power the Cardinal and the Duke had risen. In spite of 
 their wealth and the revenues of their officers, they were so
 
 88 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 entirely disinterested, or so much carried away by the tide 
 of politics, and so generous too, that both were in debt no 
 doubt after the manner of Caesar. Hence, when Henri III. 
 had seen his threatening foe murdered, the second Balafre, 
 the House of Guise was inevitably ruined. Their vast outlay 
 for above a century, in hope of seizing the Crown, accounts/ 
 for the decay of this great House under Louis XIII. and' 
 Louis XIV., when the sudden end of MADAME revealed to all 
 Europe how low a Chevalier de Lorraine had fallen. 
 
 So the Cardinal and the Duke, proclaiming themselves 
 the heirs of the deposed Carlovingian kings, behaved very 
 insolently to Catherine de' Medici, their niece's mother-in- 
 law. The Duchesse de Guise spared Catherine no mortifica- 
 tion; she was an Este, and Catherine de' Medici was the 
 daughter of self-made Florentine merchants, whom the sov- 
 ereigns of Europe had not yet admitted to their royal fra- 
 ternity. Francis I. had regarded his son's marriage with 
 a Medici as a mesalliance, and had only allowed it in the 
 belief that this son would never be the Dauphin. Hence his 
 fury when the Dauphin died, poisoned by the Florentine 
 Montecuculi. 
 
 The Estes refused to recognize the Medici as Italian 
 princes. These time-honored merchants were, in fact, strug- 
 gling with the impossible problem of maintaining a throne 
 in the midst of Eepublican institutions. The title of Grand 
 Duke was not bestowed on the Medici till much later by 
 Philip II., King of Spain ; and they earned it by treason to 
 France, their benefactress, and by a servile attachment to 
 the Court of Spain, which was covertly thwarting them in 
 Italy. f 
 
 "Flatter none but your enemies!" This great axiom, ut- 1 
 tered by Catherine, would seem to have ruled all the policy of 
 this merchant race, which never lacked great men till its 
 destinies had grown great, and which broke down a little 
 too soon under the degeneracy which is always the end of 
 royal dynasties and great families. 
 
 For three generations there was a prelate and a warrior
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 89 
 
 of the House of Lorraine ; but, which is perhaps not less re- 
 markable, the Churchman had always shown as did the 
 present Cardinal a singular likeness to Cardinal Ximenes, 
 whom the Cardinal de Kichelieu also resembled. These five 
 prelates all had faces that were at once mean and terrifying ; 
 while the warrior's face was of that Basque and mountain 
 ,type which reappears in the features of Henri IV. In both 
 the father and the son it was seamed by a scar, which did 
 not destroy the grace and affability that bewitched their sol- 
 diers as much as their bravery. 
 
 The way and the occasion of the Grand Master's being 
 wounded is not without interest here, for it was healed by 
 the daring of one of the personages of this drama, Ambroise 
 Pare, who was under obligation to the Syndic of the fur- 
 riers. At the siege of Calais the Duke's head was pierced 
 by a lance which, entering below the right eye, went through 
 to the neck below the left ear, the end broke off and remained 
 in the wound. The Duke was lying in his tent in the midst 
 of the general woe, and would have died but for the bold 
 promptitude and devotion of Ambroise Pare. 
 
 "The Duke is not dead, gentlemen," said Pare, turning 
 to the bystanders, who were dissolved in tears. "But he 
 soon will be/' he added, "unless I treat him as if he were, 
 and I will try it at the risk of the worst that can befall 
 me. . . . You see!" 
 
 He set his left foot on the Duke's breast, took the stump of 
 the lance with his nails, loosened it by degrees, and at last 
 drew the spear-head out of the wound, as if it had been from 
 some senseless object instead of a man's head. Though he 
 cured the Prince he had handled so boldly, he could not 
 hinder him from bearing to his grave the terrible scar from 
 which he had his name. His son also had the same nickname 
 for a similar reason. 
 
 Having gained entire mastery over the King, who was 
 ruled by his wife, as a result of the passionate and mutual 
 affection which the Guises knew how to turn to account, the 
 two great Princes of Lorraine reigned over France, and had
 
 90 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 not an enemy at Court but Catherine de' Medici. And no 
 great politician ever played a closer game. The respective 
 attitudes of Henri II.'s ambitious widow, and of the no 
 less ambitious House of Lorraine, was symbolized, as it were, 
 by the positions they held on the terrace of the chateau on 
 the very morning when Christophe was about to arrive there. 
 The Queen-mother, feigning extreme affection for the 
 Guises, had asked to be informed as to the news brought 
 by the three gentlemen who had arrived from different partst 
 cf the kingdom; but she had been mortified by a polite dis- 
 missal from the Cardinal. She was walking at the further 
 end of the pleasaunce above the Loire, where she was having 
 an observatory erected for her astrologer, Kuggieri; the 
 building may still be seen, and from it a wide view is to be 
 had over the beautiful valley. The two Guises were on the 
 opposite side overlooking the Vendomois, the upper part of 
 the town, the Perchoir aux Bretons, and the postern gate of 
 the chateau. 
 
 Catherine had deceived the brothers, tricking them by an 
 assumption of dissatisfaction ; for she was really very glad to 
 be able to speak with one of the gentlemen who had come in 
 hot haste, and who was in her secret confidence; who boldly 
 played a double game, but who was, to be sure, well paid 
 for it. This gentleman was Chiverni, who affected to be the 
 mere tool of the Cardinal de Lorraine, but who was in reality 
 in Catherine's service. Catherine had two other devoted 
 allies in the two Gondis, creatures of her own; but they, as 
 Florentines, were too open to the suspicions of the Guises 
 to be sent into the country ; she kept them at the Court, where 
 their every word and action was closely watched, but where 
 they, on their side, watched the Guises and reported to Cath- 
 erine. These two Italians kept a third adherent to the. 
 Queen-mother's faction, Birague, a clever Piedmontese who,, 
 iike Chiverni, pretended to have abandoned Catherine to 
 attach himself to the Guises, and who encouraged them in 
 their undertakings while spying for Catherine. 
 
 Chiverni had arrived from ficouen and Paris. The last
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 91 
 
 to ride in was Saint-Andre, Marshal of France, who rose to 
 be such an important personage that the Guises adopted him 
 as the third of the triumvirate they formed against 
 Catherine in the following year. But earlier than either 
 of these, Vieilleville, the builder of the Chateau of 
 Duretal, who had also by his devotion to the Guises earned 
 the rank of Marshal, had secretly come and more secretly 
 gone, without any one knowing what the mission might bef 
 that the Grand Master had given him. Saint- Andre, it was', 
 known, had been instructed to take military measures to en- 
 tice all the reformers who were under arms to Amboise, as 
 the result of a council held by the Cardinal de Lorraine, the 
 Due de Guise, Birague, Chiverni, Vieilleville, and Saint- 
 Andre. As the heads of the House of Lorraine thus em- 
 ployed Birague, it is to be supposed that they trusted to their 
 strength, for they knew that he was attached to the Queen- 
 mother ; but it is possible that they kept him about them with 
 a view to discovering their rival's secret designs, as she allowed 
 him to attend them. In those strange times the double part 
 played by some political intriguers was known to both the 
 parties who employed them; they were like cards in the 
 hands of players, and the craftiest won the game. 
 
 All through this sitting the brothers had been impene- 
 trably guarded. Catherine's conversation with her friends 
 will, however, fully explain the purpose of this meeting, con- 
 vened by the Guises in the open air, at break of day, in the 
 terraced garden, as though every one feared to speak within 
 the walls full of ears of the Chateau of Blois. 
 
 The Queen-mother, who had been walking about all the 
 morning with the two Gondis, under pretence of examining 
 rhe observatory that was- being built, but, in fact, anxiously 
 watching the hostile party, was presently joined by Chiverni. 
 She was standing at the angle of the terrace opposite the 
 Church of Saint-Nicholas, and there feared no listeners. The 
 wall is as high as the church-towers, and the Guises always 
 held council at the other corner of the terrace, below the 
 dungeon then begun, walking to and from the Perchoir
 
 92 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 des Bretons and the arcade by the bridge which joined the 
 gardens to the Perchoir. There was nobody at the bottom of 
 the ravine. 
 
 Chiverni took the Queen's hand to kiss it, and slipped into 
 her fingers a tiny letter without being seen by the Italians. 
 Catherine quickly turned away, walked to the corner of the 
 parapet, and read as follows : 
 
 . "You are powerful enough to keep the balance true be- 
 tween the great ones, and to make them contend as to which 
 shall serve you best; you have your house full of kings, and 
 need not fear either Lorraines or Bourbons so long as you set 
 them against each other ; for both sides aim at snatching the 
 crown from your children. Be your advisers' mistress, and 
 not their slave ; keep up each side by the other ; otherwise the 
 kingdom will go from bad to worse, and great wars may 
 ensue. L'HOPITAL." 
 
 The Queen placed this letter in the bosom of her stom- 
 acher, reminding herself to burn it as soon as she should be 
 alone. 
 
 "When did you see him ?" she asked Chiverni. 
 
 "On returning from seeing the Connetable at Melun; he 
 was going though with the Duchesse de Berri, whom he was 
 most anxious to convey in safety to Savoy, so as to return 
 here and enlighten the Chancellor Olivier, who is, in fact, 
 the dupe of the Lorraines. Monsieur de 1'Hopital is resolved 
 to adhere to your cause, seeing the aims that Messieurs de 
 Guise have in view. And he will hasten back as fast as pos- 
 sible to give you his vote in the Council." 
 
 "Is he sincere?" said Catherine. "For you know that 
 when the Lorraines admitted him to the Council, it was to 
 enable them to rule." 
 
 : "L'Hopital is a Frenchman of too good a stock not to be 
 honest," said Chiverni; "besides, that letter is a sufficient 
 pledge." 
 
 "And what answer does the Connetable send to these gen* 
 tlemen?"
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 93 
 
 "He says the King is his master, and he awaits his orders, 
 On this reply, the Cardinal, to prevent any resistance, will 
 propose to appoint his brother Lieutenant-General of the 
 realm." 
 
 "So soon!" cried Catherine in dismay. <r Well, and did 
 Monsieur ,de 1'Hopital give you any further message for 
 me?" 
 
 "He told me, madame, that you alone can stand between 1 
 the throne and Messieurs de Guise." 
 
 "But does he suppose that I will use the Huguenots as a 
 means of defence ?" 
 
 "Oh, madame," cried Chiverni, surprised by her per- 
 spicacity, "we never thought of placing you in such a diffi- 
 cult position." 
 
 "Did he know what a position I am in?" asked the Queen 
 calmly. 
 
 "Pretty nearly. He thinks you made a dupe's bargain 
 when, on the death of the late King, you accepted for your 
 share the fragments saved from the ruin of Madame Diane. 
 Messieurs de Guise thought they had paid their debt to the 
 Queen by gratifying the woman." 
 
 "Yes," said Catherine, looking at the two Gondis, "I made 
 a great mistake there." 
 
 "A mistake the gods might make!" replied Charles de 
 Gondi. 
 
 "Gentlemen," said the Queen, "if I openly take up the 
 cause of the Eeformers, I shall be the slave of a party." 
 
 "Madame," said Chiverni eagerly, "I entirely agree with 
 you. You must make use of them, but not let them make use 
 of you." 
 
 "Although, for the moment, your strength lies there," said 
 Charles de Gondi, "we must not deceive ourselves; successi 
 and failure are equally dangerous !" 
 
 "I know it," said the Queen. "One false move will be a 
 pretext eagerly seized by the Guises to sweep me off the 
 board !" 
 
 "A Pope's niece, the mother of four Valois, the Queen of
 
 94 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 France, the widow of the most ardent persecutor of the Hu- 
 guenots, an Italian and a Catholic, the aunt of Leo X., can 
 you form an alliance with the Kef ormation ?" asked Charles 
 de Gondi. 
 
 "On the other hand," Albert replied, "is not seconding the 
 Guises consenting to usurpation? You have to deal with a 
 race that looks to the struggle between the Church and the 
 Kefonnation to give them a crown for the taking. You may 
 avail yourself of Huguenot help without abjuring the 
 Faith." 
 
 "Remember, madame, that your family, which ought to 
 be wholly devoted to the King of France, is at this moment 
 in the service of the King of Spain," said Chiverni. "And it 
 would go over to the Eeformation to-morrow if the Reforma- 
 tion could make the Duke of Florence King !" 
 
 "I am very well inclined to give the Huguenots a helping 
 hand for a time," said Catherine, "were it only to be re- 
 venged on that soldier, that priest, and that woman !" 
 
 And with an Italian glance, her eye turned on the Duke 
 and the Cardinal, and then to the upper rooms of the chateau 
 where her son lived and Mary Stuart. "Those three snatched 
 the reins of government from my hands," she went on, "when 
 I had waited for them long enough while that old woman 
 held them in my place." 
 
 She jerked her head in the direction of Chenonceaux, the 
 chateau she had just exchanged for Chaumont with Diane 
 de Poitiers. "Ma," she said in Italian, "it would seem that 
 these gentry of the Geneva bands have not wit enough to 
 apply to me ! On my honor, I cannot go to meet them ! And 
 not one of you would dare to carry them a message." She 
 stamped her foot. "I hoped you might have met the hunch- 
 back at ficouen," she said to Chiverni. "He has brains." 
 
 "He was there, madame," replied Chiverni, "but he could 
 not induce the Connetable to join him. Monsieur de Mont- 
 morency would be glad enough to overthrow the Guises, who 
 obtained his dismissal; but he will have nothing to do with 
 heresy."
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 85 
 
 "And who, gentlemen, is to crush these private whims that 
 are an offence to Eoyalty ? By Heaven ! these nobles must be 
 made to destroy each other as Louis XI. made them, the 
 greatest of your kings. In this kingdom there are four or 
 five parties, and my son's is the weakest of them all." 
 
 "The Reformation is an idea," remarked Charles de Gondl, 
 "and the parties crushed by Louis the Eleventh were based 
 only on interest." 
 
 "There is always an idea to back up interest," replied 
 "Chiverni. "In Louis XL's time the idea was called the 
 Great Fief !" 
 
 "Use heresy as an axe," said Albert de Gondi. "You will 
 not incur the odium of executions." 
 
 "Ha !" said the Queen, "but I know nothing of the strength 
 or the schemes of these folks, and I cannot communicate with 
 them through any safe channel. If I were found out in any 
 such conspiracy, either by the Queen, who watches me as if 
 I were an infant in arms, or by my two jailers, who let no one 
 come into the chateau, I should be banished from the coun- 
 try, and taken back to Florence under a formidable escort 
 captained by some ruffianly Guisard ! Thank you, friends ! 
 Oh, daughter-in-law ! I hope you may some day be a prisoner 
 in your own house; then you will know what you have in- 
 flicted on me !" 
 
 "Their schemes !" exclaimed Chiverni. "The Grand Mas- 
 ter and the Cardinal know them ; but those two foxes will not 
 tell. If you, madame, can make them tell, I will devote 
 myself to you, and come to an understanding with the Prince 
 de Conde." 
 
 "Which of their plans have they failed to conceal from 
 you?" asked the Queen, glancing towards the brothers de 
 Suise. 
 
 "Monsieur de Vieilleville and Monsieur de Saint-Andre" 
 have just had their orders, of which we know nothing; but 
 the Grand Master is concentrating his best troops on the 
 left bank, it would seem. Within a few days you will find 
 yourself at Amboise. The Grand Master came to this terrace
 
 6 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 to study the position, and he does not think Blois favorable 
 to his private schemes. Well, then, what does he want?" 
 said Chiverni, indicating the steep cliffs that surround the 
 chateau. "The Court could nowhere be safer from sudden 
 attack than it is here." 
 
 "Abdicate or govern," said Albert de Gondi in the Queen's 
 ear as she stood thinking. 
 
 A fearful expression of suppressed rage flashed across the 
 Queen's handsome ivory-pale face. She was not yet forty, 
 and she had lived for twenty-six years in the French Court, 
 absolutely powerless, she, who ever since she had come there 
 had longed to play the leading part. 
 
 "Never so long as this son lives ! His wife has bewitched 
 him!" 
 
 After a short pause these terrible words broke from her ifl 
 the language of Dante. 
 
 Catherine's exclamation had its inspiration in a strange 
 prediction, spoken a few days before at the Chateau of Chau- 
 mont, on the opposite bank of the Loire, whither she had 
 gone with her astrologer Euggieri to consult a famous sooth- 
 sayer. This woman was brought to meet her by Nostra- 
 damus, the chief of those physicians who in that great six- 
 teenth century believed in the occult sciences, with Euggieri, 
 Cardan, Paracelsus, and many more. This fortune-toller, of 
 whose life history has no record, had fixed the reign of Fran- 
 cis II. at one year's duration. 
 
 "And what is your opinion of all this?" Catherine asked 
 Chiverni. 
 
 "There will be fighting," said the cautious gentleman. 
 "The King of Navarre : 
 
 "Oh ! say the Queen !" Catherine put in. 
 
 "Very true, the Queen," said Chiverni, smiling, "has made 
 the Prince de Conde the chief of the reformed party; he, as 
 a younger son, may dare much; and Monsieur le Cardinal 
 talks of sending for him to come here." 
 
 "If only he comes !" cried the Queen, "I am saved !" 
 
 So it will be seen that the leaders of the great Eeforming
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 97 
 
 movement had been right in thinking of Catherine as an 
 ally. 
 
 "This is the jest of it/' said the Queen; "the Bourbons 
 are tricking the Huguenots, and Master Calvin, de Beze, and 
 the rest are cheating the Bourbons; but shall we be strong 
 enough to take in the Huguenots, the Bourbons, and the 
 Guises ? In front of three such foes we are justified in feel- 
 ing our pulse," said she. 
 
 "They have not the King," replied Albert. "You must 
 always win, having the King on your side." 
 
 "Maladetta Maria!" said Catherine, between her teeth. 
 
 "The Guises are already thinking of diverting the affec- 
 tions of the middle class," said Birague. 
 
 The hope of snatching the Crown had not been premedi- 
 tated by the two heads of the refractory House of Guise; 
 there was nothing to justify the project or the hope; cir- 
 cumstances suggested such audacity. The two Cardinals and 
 the two Balafres were, as it happened, four ambitious men, 
 superior in political gifts to any of the men about them. 
 Indeed, the family was only subdued at last by Henri IV., 
 himself a leader of faction, brought up in the great school 
 of which Catherine and the Guises were the teachers and he 
 had profited by their lessons. 
 
 At this time these two brothers were the arbiters of the 
 greatest revolution attempted in Europe since that carried 
 through in England under Henry VIII., which had resulted 
 from the invention of printing. They were the enemies of 
 the Keformation, the power was in their hands, and they 
 meant to stamp out heresy; but Calvin, their opponent, 
 though less famous than Luther, was a stronger man. Calvin 
 saw Government where Luther had only seen Dogma. Where 
 xhe burly, beer-drinking, uxorious German fought with the 
 "Devil, flinging his inkstand at the fiend, the man of Picardy, 
 frail and unmarried, dreamed of plans of campaign, of di- 
 recting battles, of arming princes, and of raising whole na- 
 tions by disseminating republican doctrines in the hearts of
 
 38 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 the middle classes, so as to make up, by increased progress in 
 the Spirit of Nations, for his constant defeats on the battle- 
 field. 
 
 The Cardinal de Lorraine and the Due de Guise knew 
 quite as well as Philip II. and the Duke of Alva where the 
 Monarchy was aimed at, and how close the connection was 
 between Catholicism and sovereignty. Charles V., intoxi- 
 cated with having drunk too deeply of Charlemagne's cup, 
 and trusting too much in the strength of his rule, for he 
 believed that he and Soliman might divide the world between 
 them, was not at first conscious that his front was attacked; 
 as soon as Cardinal Granvelle showed him the extent of the 
 festering sore, he abdicated. 
 
 The Guises had a startling conception; they would extin- 
 guish heresy with a single blow. They tried to strike that 
 blow for the first time at Amboise, and they made a second 
 attempt on Saint-Bartholomew's Day; this time they were in 
 accord with Catherine de' Medici, enlightened as she was 
 by the flames of twelve years' wars, and yet more by the 
 ominous word "Kepublic" spoken and even published at a 
 later date by the writers of the Reformation, whose ideas 
 Lecamus, the typical citizen of Paris, had already under- 
 stood. The two Princes, on the eve of striking a fatal blow 
 to the heart of the nobility, in order to cut it off from the first 
 from a religious party whose triumph would be its ruin, were 
 now discussing the means of announcing their Coup d'Etat 
 to the King, while Catherine was conversing with her four 
 counselors. 
 
 "Jeanne d'Albret knew what she was doing when she pro- 
 claimed herself the protectress of the Huguenots! She has 
 in the Reformation a battering-ram which she makes good 
 play with!" said the Grand Master, who had measured the 
 depth of the Queen of Navarre's scheming. 
 
 Jeanne d'Albret was, in point of fact, one of the cleverest 
 personages of her time. 
 
 "Theodore de Beze is at Nerac, having taken Calvin's 
 orders."
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 99 
 
 ''What men those common folk can lay their hands on!'* 
 cried the Duke. 
 
 "Ay, we have not a man on our side to match that fellow 
 la Renaudie," said the Cardinal. "He is a perfect Catiline." 
 
 "Men like him always act on their own account/' replied 
 the Duke. "Did not I see la Renaudie's Value? I loaded 
 him with favors, I helped him to get away when he was con- 
 demned by the Bourgogne Parlement, I got him back into 
 France by obtaining a revision of his trial, and I intended 
 to do all I could for him, while he was plotting a diabolical 
 conspiracy against us. The rascal has effected an alliance 
 between the German Protestants and the heretics in France 
 by smoothing over the discrepancies of dogma between Luther 
 and Calvin. He has won over the disaffected nobles to the 
 cause of the Reformation without asking them to abjure 
 Catholicism. So long ago as last year he had thirty com- 
 manders on his side ! He was everywhere at once : at Lyons, 
 in Languedoc, at Nantes. Finally, he drew up the Articles 
 settled in Council and distributed throughout Germany, in 
 which theologians declare that it is justifiable to use force 
 to get the King out of our hands, and this is being dissemi- 
 nated in every town. Look for him where you will, you will 
 nowhere find him! 
 
 "Hitherto I have shown him nothing but kindness ! We 
 shall have to kill him like a dog, or to make a bridge of gold 
 for him to cross and come into our house." 
 
 "Brittany and Languedoc, the whole kingdom indeed, is 
 being worked upon to give us a deadly shock," said the Car- 
 dinal. "After yesterday's festival, I spent the rest of the 
 night in reading all the information sent me by my priest- 
 hood; but no one is involved but some impoverished gentle- 
 'men and artisans, people who may be either hanged or left; 
 alive, it matters not which. The Colignys and the Condea 
 are not yet visible, though they hold the threads of the con- 
 spiracy." 
 
 "Ay," said the Duke; "and as soon as that lawyer Ave- 
 nelles had let the cat out of the bag, I told Braguelonne tc
 
 100 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 give the conspirators their head: they have no suspicions, 
 they think they can surprise us, and then perhaps the leaders 
 will show themselves. My advice would be that we should 
 allow ourselves to be beaten for forty-eight hours " 
 
 "That would be half-an-hour too long," said the Cardinal 
 in alarm. 
 
 "How brave you are !" retorted la Balaf re. 
 
 The Cardinal went on with calm indifference : 
 
 "Whether the Prince de Conde be implicated or no, if we 
 are assured that he is the leader, cut off his head. What we 
 want for that business is judges rather than soldiers, and 
 there will never be any lack of judges! Victory in the 
 Supreme Court is always more certain than on the field of 
 battle, and costs less/' 
 
 "I am quite willing," replied the Duke. "But do you be- 
 lieve that the Prince de Conde is powerful enough to inspire 
 such audacity in those who are sent on first to attack us ? Is 
 there not ?" 
 
 "The King of Navarre," said the Cardinal. 
 
 "A gaby who bows low in my presence," replied the Duke. 
 "That Florentine woman's graces have blinded you, I 
 think " 
 
 "Oh, I have thought of that already," said the prelate. 
 "If I aim at a gallant intimacy with her, is it not that I may 
 read to the bottom of her heart ?" 
 
 "She has no heart," said his brother sharply. "She is even 
 more ambitious than we are." 
 
 "You are a brave commander," said the Cardinal; "but 
 take my word for it, our skirts are very near touching, and 
 I made Mary Stuart watch her narrowly before you ever sus- 
 pected her. Catherine has no more religion in her than my 
 (shoe. If she is not the soul of the conspiracy, it is not for 
 llack of goodwill ; but we will draw her out and 'see how far 
 she will support us. Till now I know for certain that she 
 has not held any communication with the heretics." 
 
 "It is time that we should lay everything before the King, 
 and the Queen-mother, who knows nothing," said the Duke,
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 101 
 
 "and that is the only proof of her innocence. La Renaudie 
 will understand from my arrangements that we are warned. 
 Last night Nemours must have been following up the detach- 
 ments of the Reformed party, who were coming in by the 
 cross-roads, and the conspirators will be compelled to attack 
 us at Amboise; I will let them all in. Here," and he pointed 
 to the three steep slopes of rock on which the Chateau de 
 Blois is built, just as Chiverni had done a moment since, 
 "we should have a fight with no result ; the Huguenots could 
 come and go at will. Blois is a hall with four doors, while 
 Amboise is a sack." 
 
 "I will not leave the Florentine Queen," said the Cardinal. 
 
 "We have made one mistake," remarked the Duke, playing 
 with his dagger, tossing it in the air, and catching it again 
 by the handle; "we ought to have behaved to her as to the 
 Reformers, giving her liberty to move, so as to take her in 
 the act." 
 
 The Cardinal looked at his brother for a minute, shaking 
 his head. 
 
 "What does Pardaillan want ?" the Duke exclaimed, seeing 
 this young gentleman coming along the terrace. Pardaillan 
 was to become famous for his fight with la Renaudie, in which 
 both were killed. 
 
 "Monseigneur, a youth sent here by the Queen's furrier 
 is at the gate, and says that he has a set of ermine to deliver 
 to Her Majesty. Is he to be admitted ?" 
 
 "To be sure ; an ermine surcoat she spoke of but yesterday," 
 said the Cardinal. "Let the shop-clerk in. She will need 
 the mantle for her journey by the Loire." 
 
 "Which way did he come, that he was not stopped before 
 reaching the gate ?" asked the Grand Master. 
 
 "I do not know," said Pardaillan. 
 
 "I will go to see him in the Queen's rooms," said la Balafre. 
 '"Tell him to await her lever in the guard-room. But, Par- 
 daillan, is he young?" 
 
 "Yes, Monseigneur; he says he is Lecamus' son." 
 
 "Lecamus is a good Catholic," said the Cardinal, who, like 
 8
 
 102 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 the Duke, was gifted with a memory like Caesar's. "The 
 priest of Saint-Pierre aux Bceufs trusts him, for he is officer 
 of the peace for the Palace." 
 
 "Make this youth chat with the Captain of the Scotch 
 Guard, all the same," said the Grand Master, with an em- 
 phasis which gave the words a very pointed meaning. "But 
 Ambroise is at the chateau; through him we shall know at 
 once if he really is the son of Lecamus, who was formerly 
 his very good friend. Ask for Ambroise Pare." 
 
 At this moment the Queen came towards the brothers, who 
 hurried to meet her with marks of respect, in which Catherine 
 never failed to discern deep irony. 
 
 "Gentlemen," said she, "will you condescend to inform me 
 of what is going on? Is the widow of your late sovereign 
 of less account in your esteem than Messieurs de Vieilleville, 
 Birague, and Chiverni?" 
 
 "Madame," said the Cardinal, with an air of gallantry, 
 "our first duty as men, before all matters of politics, is not 
 to alarm ladies by false rumors. This morning, indeed, we 
 have had occasion to confer on State affairs. You will pardon 
 my brother for having in the first instance given orders on 
 purely military matters which must be indifferent to you 
 the really important points remain to be discussed. If you 
 approve, we will all attend the lever of the King and Queen ; 
 it is close on the hour/' 
 
 "Why, what is happening, Monsieur le Grand Maitre?" 
 asked Catherine, affecting terror. 
 
 "The Befonnation, madame, is no longer a mere heresy; 
 it is a party which is about to take up arms and seize the 
 King." 
 
 Catherine, with the Cardinal, the Duke, and the gentlemen, 
 made their way towards the staircase by the corridor, which 
 was crowded with courtiers who had not the right of entree, 
 and who ranged themselves against the wall. 
 
 Gondi, who had been studying the Princes of Lorraine 
 while Catherine was conversing with them, said in good Tus- 
 can and in Catherine's ear these two words, which became
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 103 
 
 bywords, and which express one aspect of that royally power- 
 ful nature: 
 
 "Odiate e aspettate!" Hate and wait. 
 
 Pardaillan, who had delivered to the officer on guard at 
 the gatehouse the order to admit the messenger from the 
 Queen's furrier, found Christophe standing outside the 
 portico and staring at the fagade built by good King Louis 
 XII., whereon there was at that time an even more numerous 
 array of sculptured figures of the coarsest buffoonery if we 
 may judge by what has survived. The curious will detect, 
 for instance, a figure of a woman carved on the capital of 
 one of the columns of the gateway holding up her skirts, and 
 saucily exhibiting "what Brunei displayed to Marphise" to a 
 burly monk crouching in the capital of the corresponding 
 column at the other jamb of this gate, above which once stood 
 a statue of Louis XII. Several of the windows of this front, 
 ornamented in this grotesque taste, and now unfortunately 
 destroyed, amused, or seemed to amuse, Christophe, whom the 
 gunners of the Guard were already pelting with their pleas- 
 antries. 
 
 "He would like to be lodged there, he would," said the 
 sergeant-at-arms, patting his store of charges for his musket, 
 which hung from his belt in the sugar-loaf-shaped cartridges. 
 
 "Hallo, you from Paris, you never saw so much before!" 
 said a soldier. 
 
 "He recognizes good King Louis !" said another. 
 
 Christophe affected not to hear them, and tried to look 
 even more helplessly amazed, so that his look of blank 
 stupidity was an excellent recommendation to Pardaillan. 
 
 "The Queen is not yet risen," said the young officer. 
 "Come and wait in the guardroom." 
 
 Christophe slowly followed Pardaillan. He purposely lin-, 
 gered to admire the pretty covered balcony with an arched 
 front, where, in the reign of Louis XII., the courtiers could 
 wait under cover till the hour of reception if the weather 
 was bad, and where at this moment some of the gentlemen 
 attached to the Guises were grouped; for the staircase, still
 
 104 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 so well preserved, which led to their apartments is at the end 
 of that gallery, in a tower of which the architecture is 
 greatly admired by the curious. 
 
 "Now, then ! have you come here to study graven images ?" 
 cried Pardaillan, seeing Lecamus riveted in front of th. 
 elegant stonework of the outer parapet which unites of 
 if you will, separates the columns of each archway. 
 
 Christophe followed the young captain to the grand stair-* 
 case, not without glancing at this almost Moorish-looking 
 structure from top to bottom with an expression of ecstasy. 
 On this fine morning the court was full of captains-at-arms 
 and of courtiers chatting in groups; and their brilliant cos- 
 tumes gave life to the scene, in itself so bright, for the mar- 
 vels of architecture that decorated the fagade were still quite 
 new. 
 
 "Come in here," said Pardaillan to Lecamus, signing to 
 him to follow him through the carved door on the second 
 floor, which was thrown open by a sentry on his recognizing 
 Pardaillan. 
 
 Christophe's amazement may easily be imagined on enter- 
 ing this guardroom, so vast, that the military genius of our 
 day has cut it across by a partition to form two rooms. It 
 extends, in fact, both on the second floor, where the King 
 lived, and on the first, occupied by the Queen-mother, for a 
 third of the length of the front towards the court, and is 
 lighted by two windows to the left and two to the right of 
 the famous staircase. The young captain made his way to- 
 ward the door leading to the King's room, which opened 
 out of this hall, and desired one of the pages-in-waiting to 
 tell Madame Dayelle, one of the Queen's ladies, that the fur-t 
 rier was in the guardroom with her surcoats. 
 i At a sign from Pardaillan, Christophe went to stand by the 
 ' side of an officer seated on a low stool in the corner of a chim- 
 ney-place as large as his father's shop, at one end of this vast 
 hall opposite another exactly like it at the other end. In 
 talking with this gentleman, Christophe succeeded in in- 
 teresting him *>y telling him the trivial details of his trade i
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 105 
 
 and he seemed so completely the craftsman, that the officer 
 volunteered this opinion to the captain of the Scotch Guard, 
 who came in to cross-question the lad while scrutinizing him 
 closely out of the corner of his eye. 
 
 Though Christophe Lecamus had had ample warning, he 
 still did not understand the cold ferocity of the interested 
 parties between whom Chaudieu had bid him stand. To an 
 observer who should have mastered the secrets of the drama,, 
 as the historian knows them now, it would have seemed 
 terrible to see this young fellow, the hope of two families, 
 risking his life between two such powerful and pitiless ma- 
 chines as Catherine and the Guises. But how few brave 
 hearts ever know the extent of their danger ! From the way 
 in which the quays of the city and the chateau were guarded, 
 Christophe had expected to find snares and spies at every 
 step, so he determined to conceal the importance of his errand 
 and the agitation of his mind under the stupid tradesman's 
 stare, which he had put on before Pardaillan, the officer of 
 the Guard, and the captain. 
 
 The stir which in a royal residence attends the rising of 
 the King began to be perceptible. The nobles, leaving their 
 horses with their pages or grooms in the outer court, for no 
 one but the King and Queen was allowed to enter the inner 
 court on horseback, were mounting the splendid stairs in twos 
 and threes and filling the guardroom, a large room with two 
 fireplaces where the huge mantels are now bereft of adorn- 
 ment, where squalid red tiles have taken the place of the 
 fine mosaic flooring, where royal hangings covered the rough 
 walls now daubed with whitewash, and where every art of aoi 
 age unique in its splendor was displayed at its best. 
 
 Catholics and Protestants poured in as much to hear the 
 news and study each other's faces as to pay their court to 
 the King. His passionate affection for Mary Stuart, which 
 neither the Queen-mother nor the Guises attempted to check, 
 and Mary's politic submissiveness in yielding to it, deprived 
 the King of all power ; indeed, though he was now seventeen, 
 he knew nothing of Eoyalty but its indulgences, and of mar-
 
 106 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 riage nothing but the raptures of first love. In point of fact, 
 everybody tried to ingratiate himself with Queen Mary and 
 her uncles, the Cardinal de Lorraine and the Grand Master 
 of the Household. 
 
 All this bustle went on under the eyes of Christophe, who 
 watched each fresh arrival with very natural excitement. A 
 magnificent curtain, on each side of it a page and a yeoman 
 of the Scotch Guard then on duty, showed him the entrance 
 to that royal chamber, destined to be fatal to the son of the 
 Grand Master, for the younger Balafre fell dead at the foot 
 of the bed now occupied by Mary Stuart and Francis II. 
 The Queen's ladies occupied the chimney-place opposite to 
 that where Christophe was still chatting with the captain of 
 the Guard. This fireplace, by its position, was the seat of 
 honor, for it is built into the thick wall of the council-room, 
 between the door into the royal chamber and that into the 
 council-room, so that the ladies and gentlemen who had a 
 right to sit there were close to where the King and the 
 Queens must pass. The courtiers were certain to see Cath- 
 erine; for her maids of honor, in mourning, like the rest of 
 the Court, came up from her rooms conducted by the Count- 
 ess Fieschi, and took their place on the side next the council- 
 room, facing those of the young Queen, who, led by the Duch- 
 esse de Guise, took the opposite angle next the royal bed- 
 chamber. 
 
 Between the courtiers and the young ladies, all belonging 
 to the first families in the kingdom, a space was kept of some 
 few paces, which none but the greatest nobles were permitted 
 to cross. The Countess Fieschi and the Duchesse de Guise 
 were allowed by right of office to be seated in the midst of 
 their noble charges, who all remained standing. 
 
 One of the first to mingle with these dangerous bevies 
 was the Due de Orleans, the King's brother, who came down 
 from his rooms above, attended by his tutor, Monsieur de 
 Cypierre. This young Prince, who was destined to reign be- 
 fore the end of the year, under the name of Charles IX., 
 at the age of ten was excessively shy. The Due d'Anjou and
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 107 
 
 the Due d'Alengon, his two brothers, and the infant Princess 
 Marguerite, who became the wife of Henri IV., were still 
 too young to appear at Court, and remained in their mother's 
 apartments. The Due d'Orleans, richly dressed in the fashion 
 of the time, in silk trunk hose, a doublet of cloth of gold, 
 brocaded with flowers in black, and a short cloak of em- 
 broidered velvet, all black, for he was still in mourning for 
 the late King his father, bowed to the two elder ladies, and 
 .joined the group of his mother's maids of honor. Strongly 
 ^disliking the Guisards (the adherents of the Guises), he re- 
 plied coldly to the Duchess' greeting, and went to lean his 
 elbow on the back of the Countess Fieschi's tall chair. 
 
 His tutor, Monsieur de Cypierre, one of the finest char- 
 acters of that age, stood behind him as a shield. Amyot, 
 in a simple abbe's gown, also attended the Prince; he was 
 his instructor as well as being the teacher of the three other 
 royal children, whose favor was afterwards so advantageous 
 to him. 
 
 Between this chimney-place "of honor" and that at the 
 further end of the hall where the Guards stood in groups 
 with their captain, a few courtiers, and Christophe carrying 
 his box the Chancellor Olivier, 1'Hopital's patron and prede- 
 cessor, in the costume worn ever since by the Chancellors 
 of France, was walking to and fro with Cardinal de Tour- 
 non, who had just arrived from Eome, and with whom he 
 exchanged a few phrases in murmurs. On them was centered 
 the general attention of the gentlemen packed against the 
 wall dividing the hall from the King's bedroom, standing 
 like a living tapestry against the rich figured hangings. In 
 spite of the serious state of affairs, the Court presented the 
 same appearance as every Court must, in every country, 
 at every time, and in the midst of the greatest perils. Cour- 
 tiers always talk of the most trivial subjects while thinking 
 of the gravest, jesting while watching every physiognomy, 
 and considering questions of love and marriage with heiresses 
 in the midst of the most sanguinary catastrophes. 
 
 "What did you think of yesterday's fete?" asked Bour-
 
 108 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 deilles, the Lord of Brantome, going up to Mademoiselle 
 de Piennes, one of the elder Queen's maids of honor. 
 
 "Monsieur du Baif and Monsieur du Bellay had had the 
 most charming ideas," said she, pointing to the two gentle- 
 men who had arranged everything, and who were standing 
 close at hand. "I thought it in atrocious taste," she added in 
 a whisper. 
 
 "You had no part in it?" said Miss Lewiston from the 
 other side. 
 
 "What are you reading, madame ?" said Amyot to Madame 
 Fieschi. 
 
 "Amadis de Gaule, by the Seigneur des Essarts, purveyor- 
 in-ordinary to the King's Artillery." 
 
 "A delightful work," said the handsome girl, who became 
 famous as la Fosseuse, when she was lady-in-waiting to 
 Queen Margaret of Navarre. 
 
 "The style is quite new," remarked Amyot. "Shall you 
 adopt such barbarisms?" he asked, turning to Brantome. 
 
 "The ladies like it! What is to be said?" cried Bran- 
 tome, going forward to bow to Madame de Guise, who had in 
 her hand Boccaccio's Famous Ladies. "There must be some 
 ladies of your House there, madame," said he. "But Master 
 Boccaccio's mistake was that he did not live in these days; 
 he would have found ample matter to enlarge his volumes." 
 
 "How clever Monsieur de Brantome is !" said the beautiful 
 Mademoiselle de Limeuil to the Countess Fieschi. "He came 
 first to us, but he will stay with the Guises." 
 
 "Hush!" said Madame Fieschi, looking at the fair 
 Limeuil. "Attend to what concerns you " 
 
 The young lady turned to the door. She was expecting 
 Sardini, an Italian nobleman, whom, subsequently, she made 
 marry her after a little accident that overtook her in the 
 Queen's dressing-room, and which procured her the honor 
 of having a queen for her midwife. 
 
 "By Saint Alipantin, Mademoiselle Davila seems to grow 
 prettier every morning," said Monsieur de Eobertet, Secre- 
 tary of State, as he bowed to the Queen-mother's ladies.
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 109 
 
 The advent of the Secretary of State, though he was ex- 
 actly as important as a Cabinet Minister in these days, made 
 no sensation whatever. 
 
 "If you think that, monsieur, do lend me the epigram 
 against Messieurs de Guise ; I know you have it," said Made- 
 moiselle Davila to Robertet. 
 
 "I have it no longer," replied the Secretary, going across 
 to speak to Madame de Guise. 
 
 ) "I have it," said the Comte de Grammont to Mademoiselle 
 Davila; "but I will lend it you on only one condition." 
 
 "On condition ? For shame !" said Madame Fieschi. 
 
 "You do not know what I want," replied Grammont. 
 
 "Oh, that is easy to guess," said la Limeuil. 
 
 The Italian custom of calling ladies, as French peasants 
 call their wives, la Such-an-one, was at that time the fashion 
 at the Court of France. 
 
 "You are mistaken," the Count replied eagerly; "what I 
 ask is, that a letter should be delivered to Mademoiselle de 
 Matha, one of the maids on the other side a letter from 
 my cousin de Jarnac." 
 
 "Do not compromise my maids ; I will give it her myself," 
 said the Countess Fieschi. "Have you heard any news of 
 what is going on in Flanders ?" she asked Cardinal de Tour- 
 non. "Monsieur d'Egmont is at some new pranks, it would 
 seem." 
 
 "He and the Prince of Orange," said Cypierre, with a 
 highly expressive shrug. 
 
 "The Duke of Alva and Cardinal de Granvelle are going 
 there, are they not, monsieur?" asked Amyot of Cardinal 
 de Tournon, who stood, uneasy and gloomy, between the 
 two groups after his conversation with the Chancellor. 
 * "We, happily, are quiet, and have to defy heresy only on the 
 stage," said the young Duke, alluding to the part he had 
 played the day before, that of a Knight subduing a Hydra 
 with the word "Reformation" on its brow. 
 
 Catherine de' Medici, agreeing on this point with her 
 daughter-in-law, had allowed a theatre to be constructed
 
 110 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 in the great hall, which was subsequently used for the meet- 
 ings of the States at Blois, the hall between the buildings 
 of Louis XII. and those of Francis I. 
 
 The Cardinal made no reply, and resumed his walk in the 
 middle of the hall, talking in a low voice to Monsieur de 
 Robertet and the Chancellor. Many persons know nothing 
 of the difficulties that Secretaryships of State, now trans- 
 formed into Cabinet Ministries, met with in the course of 
 their establishment, and how hard the Kings of France 
 found it to create them. At that period a Secretary like 
 Robertet was merely a clerk, of hardly any account among 
 the princes and magnates who settled the affairs of State. 
 There were at that time no ministerial functionaries but the 
 Superintendent of Finance, the Chancellor, and the Keeper 
 of the King's Seals. The King granted a seat in the Council, 
 by letters patent, to such of his subjects as might, in his 
 opinion, give useful advice in the conduct of public affairs. 
 A seat in the Council might be given to a president of a law 
 court in the Parlement, to a bishop, to an untitled favorite. 
 Once admitted to the Council, the subject strengthened his 
 position by getting himself appointed to one of the Crown 
 offices to which a salary was attached the government of a 
 province, a constable's sword, a marshal's baton, the com- 
 mand of the Artillery, the post of High Admiral, the colo- 
 nelcy of some military corps, the captaincy of the galleys or 
 often some function at Court, such as that of Grand Master of 
 the Household, then held by the Due de Guise. 
 
 "Do you believe that the Due de Nemours will marry 
 Franchise?" asked Madame de Guise of the Due d'Orleans' 
 instructor. 
 
 "Indeed, madame, I know nothing but Latin," was the 
 reply. 
 
 This made those smile who were near enough to hear it. 
 Just then the seduction of Franchise de Rohan by the Due 
 de Nemours was the theme of every conversation ; but as the 
 Due de Nemours was cousin to the King, and also allied 
 to the House of Valois through his mother, the Guises re-
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 111 
 
 garded him as seduced rather than as a seducer. The in- 
 fluence of the House of Eohan was, however, so great, that 
 after Francis II.'s death the Due de Nemours was obliged to 
 quit France in consequence of the lawsuit brought against 
 him by the Eohans, which was compromised by the offices 
 of the Guises. His marriage to the Duchesse de Guise, 
 after Poltrot's assassination, may account for the Duchess' 
 question to Amyot, by explaining some rivalry, no doubt,,, 
 between her and Mademoiselle de Eohan. 
 
 "Look, pray, at that party of malcontents," said the Comte" 
 de Grammont, pointing to Messieurs de Coligny, Cardinal de 
 Chatillon, Danville, Thore, Moret, and several other gentle- 
 men suspected of meddling in the Eeformation, who were 
 standing all together between two windows at the lower end 
 of the hall. 
 
 "The Huguenots are on the move," said Cypierre. "We 
 know that Theodore de Beze is at Nerac to persuade the 
 Queen of Navarre to declare herself on their side by publicly 
 renouncing the Catholic faith," he added, with a glance at 
 the Bailli d'Orleans, who was Chancellor to the Queen of 
 Navarre, and a keen observer of the Court. 
 
 "She will do it," said the Bailli d'Orleans drily. 
 
 This personage, the Jacques Cceur of his day, and one of 
 the richest middle-class men of his time, was named Groslot, 
 and was envoy from Jeanne d'Albret to the French Court. 
 
 "Do you think so?" said the Chancellor of France to the 
 Chancellor of Navarre, quite understanding the full import 
 of Groslot's remark. 
 
 "Don't you know," said the rich provincial, "that the 
 Queen of Navarre has nothing of the woman in her but her 
 sex? She is devoted to none but manly things; her mind 
 is strong in important matters, and her heart undaunted by< 
 the greatest adversities." 
 
 "Monsieur le Cardinal," said the Chancellor Olivier to 
 Monsieur de Tournon, who had heard Groslot, "what do 
 you think of such boldness ?" 
 
 "The Queen of Navarre does well to choose for her Chan-
 
 112 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 cellor a man from whom the House of Lorraine will need 
 to borrow, and who offers the King his house when there is 
 a talk of moving to Orleans/' replied the Cardinal. 
 
 The Chancellor and the Cardinal looked at each other, 
 not daring to speak their thoughts; but Kobertet expressed 
 them, for he thought it necessary to make a greater display 
 of devotion to the Guises than these great men, since he was 
 so far beneath them. 
 
 "It is most unfortunate that the House of Navarre, instead 
 of abjuring the faith of their fathers, do not abjure the 
 spirit of revenge and rebellion inspired by the Connetable 
 de Bourbon. We shall see a repetition of the wars of the 
 Armagnacs and the Bourguignons." 
 
 "No," said Groslot, "for there is something of Louis XI. in 
 the Cardinal de Lorraine." 
 
 "And in Queen Catherine too," observed Eobertet. 
 
 At this moment Madame Dayelle, Mary Stuart's favorite 
 waiting-woman, crossed the room, and went to the Queen's 
 chamber. The appearance of the waiting-woman made a 
 little stir. 
 
 "We shall be admitted directly," said Madame Fieschi. 
 
 "I do not think so," said the Duchesse de Guise. "Their 
 Majesties will come out, for a State Council is to be held." 
 
 La Dayelle slipped into the royal chamber after scratching 
 at the door, a deferential custom introduced by Catherine 
 de' Medici, and adopted by the French Court. 
 
 "What is the weather like, my dear Dayelle ?" asked Queen 
 Mary, putting her fair fresh face out between the curtains. 
 
 "Oh! madame " 
 
 "What is the matter, Dayelle ? You might have the bow- 
 men at your heels " 
 
 "Oh! madame is the King still sleeping?" 
 i "Yes." 
 
 "We are to leave the castle, and Monsieur le Cardinal de- 
 sired me to tell you so, that you might suggest it to the 
 King." 
 
 "Do you know why, my good Dayelle?"
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 113 
 
 "The Keformers mean to carry you off." 
 
 "Oh, this new religion leaves me no peace ! I dreamed 
 last night that I was in prison I who shall wear the united 
 crowns of the three finest kingdoms in the world." 
 
 "Indeed! but, madame, it was only a dream." 
 
 "Carried off! That would be rather amusing. But for 
 the sake of religion, and by heretics horrible!" 
 
 The Queen sprang out of bed and seated herself in front 
 of the fireplace in a large chair covered with red velvet, after 
 wrapping herself in a loose black velvet gown handed to her 
 by Dayelle, which she tied about the waist with a silken 
 cord. Dayelle lighted the fire, for the early May mornings 
 are cool on the banks of the Loire. 
 
 "Then did my uncles get this news in the course of the 
 night?" the Queen inquired of Dayelle, with whom she was 
 on familiar terms. 
 
 "Early this morning Messieurs de Guise were walking on 
 the terrace to avoid being overheard, and received there some 
 messengers arriving in hot haste from various parts of the 
 kingdom where the Eeformers are busy. Her Highness the 
 Queen-mother went out with her Italians hoping to be con- 
 sulted, but she was not invited to join the council." 
 
 "She must be furious." 
 
 "All the more so because she had a little wrath left over 
 from yesterday," replied Dayelle. "They say she was far 
 from rejoiced by the sight of your Majesty in your dress of 
 woven gold and your pretty veil of tan-colored crape " 
 
 "Leave us now, my good Dayelle; the King is waking. 
 Do not let any one in, not even those who have the entree. 
 There are matters of State in hand, and my uncles will noti 
 disturb us." 
 
 "Why, my dear Mary, are you out of bed already? Is it 
 daylight?" said the young King, rousing himself. 
 
 "My dear love, while we were sleeping, malignants have 
 been wide awake, and compel us to leave this pleasant home." 
 
 "What do you mean by malignants, my sweetheart? Did 
 we not have the most delightful festival last evening but for
 
 114 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 the Latin which those gentlemen insisted on dropping into 
 our good French ?" 
 
 "Oh !" said Mary, "that is in the best taste, and Rabelais 
 brought Latin into fashion." 
 
 "Ah! you are so learned, and I am only sorry not to be 
 able to do you honor in verse. If I were not King, I would 
 take back Master Amyot from my brother, who is being made 
 so wise " 
 
 "You have nothing to envy your brother for; he writes 
 verses and shows them to me, begging me to show him mine. 
 Be content, you are by far the best of the four, and will be 
 as good a king as you are a charming lover. Indeed, that 
 perhaps is the reason your mother loves you so little. But be 
 easy; I, dear heart, will love you for all the world." 
 
 "It is no great merit in me to love such a perfect Queen," 
 said the young King. "I do not know what hindered me 
 from embracing you before the whole Court last night, when 
 you danced the branle with tapers. I could see how all the 
 women looked serving- wenches by you, my sweet Marie!" 
 
 "For plain prose your language is charming, my dear 
 heart : it is love that speaks, to be sure. And, you know, my 
 dear, that if you were but a poor little page, I should still love 
 you just as much as I now do, and yet it is a good thing to be 
 able to say, 'My sweetheart is a King !' " 
 
 "Such a pretty arm ! Why must we get dressed ? I like 
 to push my fingers through your soft hair and tangle your 
 golden curls. Listen, pretty one; I will not allow you to 
 let your women kiss your fair neck and your pretty shoulders 
 any more! I am jealous of the Scotch mists for having 
 touched them." 
 
 "Will you not come to see my beloved country ? The Scotch 
 ,would love you, and there would be no rebellions, as there 
 'are here." 
 
 "Who rebels in our kingdom?" said Frangois de Valois, 
 wrapping himself in his gown, and drawing his wife on to his 
 knee. 
 
 "Yes, this is very pretty play," said she, withdrawing her
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI US 
 
 cheek from his kiss. "But you have to reign, if you please, 
 my liege." 
 
 "Who talks of reigning ? This morning I want to " 
 
 "Need you say 'I want to/ when you can do what you 
 will ? That is the language of neither king nor lover. How- 
 ever, that is not the matter on hand we have important 
 business to attend to." 
 
 "Oh !" said the King, "it is a long time since we have had 
 any business to do. Is it amusing?" 
 
 "Not at all," said Mary ; "we must make a move." 
 
 "I will wager, my pretty one, that you have seen one of 
 your uncles, who manage matters so well that, at seventeen, 
 I am a King only in name. I really know not why, since the 
 first Council, I have ever sat at one ; they could do everything 
 quite as well by setting a crown on my chair ; I see everything 
 through their eyes, and settle matters blindfold." 
 
 "Indeed, monsieur," said the Queen, standing up and as- 
 suming an air of annoyance, "you had agreed never again 
 to give me the smallest trouble on that score, but to leave 
 my uncles to exercise your royal power for the happiness of 
 your people. A nice people they are! Why, if you tried 
 to govern them unaided, they would swallow you whole like 
 a strawberry. They need warriors to rule them a stern 
 master gloved with iron ; while you you are a charmer whom 
 I love just as you are, and should not love if you were 
 different do you hear, my lord?" she added, bending down 
 to kiss the boy, who seemed inclined to rebel against this 
 speech, but who was mollified by the caress. 
 
 "Oh, if only they were not your uncles!" cried Francis. 
 "I cannot endure that Cardinal; and when he puts on his 
 insinuating air and his submissive ways, and says to me with 
 a bow, 'Sire, the honor of the Crown and the faith of your 
 
 fathers is at stake, your Majesty will never allow ' and 
 
 this and that I am certain he toils for nothing but his 
 cursed House of Lorraine." 
 
 "How well you mimic him !" cried the Queen. "But why 
 do you not make these Guises inform you of what is going
 
 116 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 forward, so as to govern by and by on your own. account 
 when you are of full age ? I am your wife, and your honor 
 is mine. We will reign, sweetheart never fear! But all 
 will not be roses for us till we are free to please ourselves. 
 There is nothing so hard for a King as to govern ! 
 
 "Am I the Queen now, I ask you? Do you think that 
 your mother ever fails to repay me in evil for what good 
 my uncles may do for the glory of your throne? And mark 
 the difference! My uncles are great princes, descendants 
 of Charlemagne, full of goodwill, and ready to die for you; 
 while this daughter of a leech, or a merchant, Queen of 
 France by a mere chance, is as shrewish as a citizen's wife 
 who is not mistress in her house. The Italian woman is 
 provoked that she cannot set every one by the ears, and she 
 is always coming to me with her pale, solemn face, and 
 then with her pinched lips she begins: 'Daughter, you are 
 the Queen; I am only the second lady in the kingdom' she 
 is furious, you see, dear heart 'but if I were in your place, 
 I would not wear crimson velvet while the Court is in mourn- 
 ing, and I would appear in public with my hair plainly 
 dressed and with no jewels, for what is unseemly in any lady 
 is even more so in a queen. Nor would I dance myself; I 
 would only see others dance !' That is the kind of thing she 
 says to me." 
 
 "Oh, dear Heaven!" cried the King, "I can hear her! 
 Mercy, if she only knew " 
 
 "Why, you still quake before her. She wearies you say 
 so? We will send her away. By my faith, that she should 
 deceive you might be endured, but to be so tedious " 
 
 "In Heaven's name, be silent, Marie," said the King, at 
 once alarmed and delighted. "I would not have you lose her 
 favor." 
 
 "Never fear that she will quarrel with me, with the three 
 finest crowns in the world on my head, my little King," said 
 Mary Stuart. "Even though she hates me for a thousand 
 reasons, she flatters me, to win me from my uncles." 
 
 "Hates you?"
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 117 
 
 "Yes, my angel ! And if I had not a thousand such proofs 
 as women can give each other, and such as women only 
 can understand, her persistent opposition to our happy love- 
 making would be enough. Now, is it my fault if your father 
 could never endure Mademoiselle de' Medici? In short, she 
 likes me so little, that you had to be quite in a rage to pre- 
 vent our having separate sets of rooms here and at Saint- 
 Germain. She declared that it was customary for the Kings 
 and Queens of France. Customary ! It was your father's 
 custom; that is quite intelligible. As to your grandfather, 
 Francis, the good man established the practice for the con- 
 venience of his love affairs. So be on your guard; if we are 
 obliged to leave this place, do not let the Grand Master 
 divide us." 
 
 "If we leave? But I do not intend to leave this pretty 
 chateau, whence we see the Loire and all the country around 
 a town at our feet, the brightest sky in the world above us, 
 and these lovely gardens. Or if I go, it will be to travel with 
 you in Italy and see Raphael's pictures and Saint- Peter's at 
 Rome." 
 
 "And the orange-trees. Ah, sweet little King, if you could 
 know how your Mary longs to walk under orange-trees in 
 flower and fruit ! Alas ! I may never see one ! Oh ! to hear 
 an Italian song under those fragrant groves, on the shore of 
 a blue sea, under a cloudless sky, and to clasp each other 
 thus ! " 
 
 "Let us be off," said the King. 
 
 "Be off !" cried the Grand Master, coming in. "Yes, Sire, 
 you must be off from Blois. Pardon my boldness; but cir- 
 cumstances overrule etiquette, and I have come to beg you 
 to call a Council." 
 
 Mary and Francis had started apart on being thus taken 
 by surprise, and they both wore the same expression of 
 offended sovereign Majesty. 
 
 "You are too much the Grand Master, Monsieur de Guise/' 
 taid the young King, suppressing his wrath. 
 9
 
 U8 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 "Devil take lovers !" muttered the Cardinal in Catherine's 
 ear. 
 
 "My son," replied the Queen-mother, appearing behind 
 the Cardinal, "the safety of your person is at stake as well as 
 of your kingdom." 
 
 "Heresy was awake while you slept, Sire," said the Car- 
 dinal. 
 
 "Withdraw into the hall," said the little King; "we will 
 ,hold a Council." 
 
 "Madame," said the Duke to the Queen, "your furrier's 
 son has come with some furs which are seasonable for your 
 journey, as we shall probably ride by the Loire. But he also 
 wishes to speak with madame," he added, turning to the 
 Queen-mother. "While the King is dressing, would you and 
 Her Majesty dismiss him forthwith, so that this trifle may 
 no further trouble us." 
 
 "With pleasure," replied Catherine; adding to herself, "If 
 he thinks to be rid of me by such tricks, he little knows me." 
 
 The Cardinal and the Duke retired, leaving the two Queens 
 with the King. As he went through the guardroom to go 
 to the council-chamber, the Grand Master desired the usher 
 to bring up the Queen's furrier. 
 
 When Christophe saw this official coming towards him 
 from one end of the room to the other, he took him, from his 
 dress, to be some one of importance, and his heart sank 
 within him; but this sensation, natural enough at the ap- 
 proach of a critical moment, became sheer terror when the 
 usher, whose advance had the effect of directing the eyes of 
 the whole splendid assembly to Christophe with his bundles 
 and his abject looks, said to him : 
 
 "Their Highnesses the Cardinal de Lorraine and the 
 Grand Master desire to speak to you in the council-room." 
 
 "Has any one betrayed me ?" was the thought of this hap- 
 less envoy of the Reformers. 
 
 Christophe followed the usher, his eyes bent on the ground, 
 and never looked up till he found himself in the spacious 
 council-room as large almost as the guardroom. The two
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 119 
 
 Guises were alone, standing in front of the splendid chimney- 
 place that backed against that in the guardroom, where the 
 maids of honor were grouped. 
 
 "You have come from Paris ? Which road did you take ?" 
 the Cardinal said to Christophe. 
 
 "I came by water, monseigneur," replied the lad. 
 
 "And how did you get into Blois ?" said the Grand Master. 
 
 "By the river port, monseigneur/' 
 
 "And no one interfered with you?" said the Duke, who 
 was examining the young man closely. 
 
 "No, monseigneur. I told the first soldier, who made as 
 though he would stop me, that I had come on duty to wait 
 on the two Queens, and that my father is furrier to their 
 Majesties." 
 
 "What is doing in Paris?" asked the Cardinal. 
 
 "They are still trying to discover the murderer who killed 
 President Minard." 
 
 "Are not you the son of my surgeon's greatest friend?" 
 asked the Due de Guise, deceived by Christophe's expression 
 of candor, now that his fears were allayed. 
 
 "Yes, monseigneur." 
 
 The Grand Master went out, hastily lifted the curtain 
 which screened the double doors of the council-chamber, and 
 showed his face to the crowd, among whom he looked for 
 the King's surgeon-in-chief. Ambroise Pare, standing in a 
 corner, was aware of a glance shot at him by the Duke, and 
 went to him. Ambroise, already inclined to the Eeformed 
 religion, ended by adopting it; but the friendship of the 
 Guises and of the French kings preserved him from the vari- 
 ous disasters that befell the heretics. The Duke, who felt 
 that he owed his life to Ambroise Pare, had appointed him 
 surgeon-in-chief to the King within a few days past. 
 
 <r What is it, monseigneur," said the leech. "Is the King 
 ill? I should not be surprised." 
 
 "Why?" 
 
 "The Queen is too fascinating," said the surgeon. 
 
 "Ah !" replied the Duke, surprised. "However, that is nni
 
 120 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 the case/' he went on after a pause. "Ambroise, I want 
 you to see a friend of yours," and he led him on to the thresh- 
 old of the council-chamber door and pointed to Christophe. 
 
 "Ah, to be sure," cried the surgeon, holding out his hand 
 to the youth. "How is your father, my boy?" 
 
 "Very well, Master Ambroise," Christophe replied. 
 
 "And what are you doing at Court?" Pare went on. "It 
 is not your business to carry parcels; your father wants to 
 make a lawyer of you. Do you want the protection of these 
 two great Princes to become a pleader?" 
 
 "Why, yes, indeed," replied Christophe, "but for my 
 father's sake; and if you can intercede for us, add your en- 
 treaties," he went on, with a piteous air, "to obtain an order 
 from Monseigneur the Grand Master for the payment of the 
 moneys due to my father, for he does not know which way 
 to turn " 
 
 The Cardinal and his brother looked at each other, and 
 seemed to be satisfied. 
 
 "Leave us now," said the Grand Master to Ambroise with 
 a nod. "And you, my friend," he added to Christophe, "set- 
 tle your business quickly, and get back to Paris. My secretary 
 will give you a pass, for, by Heaven, the roads will not be 
 pleasant to travel on !" 
 
 Neither of the brothers had the slightest suspicion of the 
 important interests that lay in Christophers hands, being now 
 quite assured that he was certainly the son of Lecamus, a 
 good Catholic, purveyor to the Court, and that he had come 
 solely to get his money. 
 
 "Take him round to be near the door of the Queen's cham- 
 ber; she will ask for him no doubt," said the Cardinal t< 
 the surgeon. 
 
 While the furrier's son was being thus cross-questioned in 
 the council-room, the King had left his mother and the 
 Queen together, having gone into his dressing-room, which 
 was beyond a room adjoining the bedroom. 
 
 Catherine, standing in the recess of the deep window, was
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 121 
 
 looking out on the gardens lost in melancholy thought. She 
 foresaw that one of the greatest commanders of the age, in 
 the course of that morning, in the very next hour, would 
 take the place of her son the King, under the terrible title 
 of Lieutenant- General of tne kingdom. In the face of such 
 peril she was alone, without a plan, without defence. In- 
 deed, as she stood there in her mourning, which she had not 
 ceased to wear since the death of Henri II., she might have 
 been compared to a phantom, so still were her pale features 
 as she stood absorbed in thought. Her black eyes seemed 
 to wander in the indecision for which great politicians are 
 so often blamed, which in them is the result of the breadth 
 of sight which enables them to see every difficulty, and to 
 balance one against the other, adding up the sum-total of 
 risk before taking a part. There was a ringing in her ears, a 
 turmoil in her blood; but she stood there, nevertheless, calm 
 and dignified, while gauging the depths of the political abyss 
 beyond the real gulf that lay at her feet. 
 
 Since the day when the Vidame de Chartres had been ar- 
 rested, this was the second of those terrible days of which 
 there were henceforth to be so many in the course of her royal 
 career; but she never again made a mistake in the school of 
 power. Though the sceptre seemed always to fly from her 
 grasp, she meant to seize it, and, in fact, did seize it, by that 
 sheer force of will which had never given way to the scorn 
 of her father-in-law, Francis I., and his Court by whom, 
 though Dauphiness, she had been so little thought of nor 
 to the constant denials of Henri II., nor to the unresting 
 antagonism of her rival, Diane de Poitiers. A man would 
 not have understood this Queen in check; but Mary Stuart, 
 so fair, so crafty, so clever, so girlish, and yet so omniscient, 
 watched her out of the corner of her eye while affecting to 
 warble an Italian air with an indifferent countenance. With- 
 out understanding the tempest of ambition which brought a 
 cold moisture to the Florentine Queen's brow, the pretty Scotch 
 girl, with her saucy face, knew that the high position of her 
 uncle the Due de Guise was filling Catherine with suppressed
 
 122 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 fury. Now, nothing amused her so much as watching her 
 mother-in-law, whom she regarded as an intriguing adven- 
 turess, who, having been humbled, was always prepared for 
 revenge. The face of. the elder was grave and gloomy, a 
 little cadaverous, by reason of the livid complexion of the 
 Italians, which by daylight looks like yellow ivory, though 
 by candle-light it is dazzling; while the younger face was 
 bright and fresh. At sixteen Mary Stuart had that creamy 
 fairness for which she was so famous. Her bright, rosy face,! 
 with clearly-cut features, sparkled with childish mischief, 
 very frankly expressed in the regular arch of her brows, the 
 brightness of her eyes, and the pert smile of her pretty mouth. 
 She had then in perfection that kittenish grace which nothing 
 neither captivity nor the sight of the horrible block ever 
 completely quelled. 
 
 Thus these two Queens, one in the morning, the other in 
 the summer of life, were at this time a perfect contrast. 
 Catherine was an imposing sovereign, an impenetrable widow, 
 with no passion but the love of power. Mary was a feather- 
 brained and light-hearted wife, who thought of her crowns 
 as playthings. One looked forward to impending misfortunes ; 
 she even had a glimpse of the murder of the Guises, guessing 
 that this would be the only way to strike down men who were 
 capable of raising themselves above the throne and the Parle- 
 ment; she saw rivers of blood in a long struggle the other 
 little dreamed that she would herself be murdered by form 
 of law. 
 
 A curious reflection brought a little calm to the Italian 
 Queen. 
 
 "According to the soothsayer and to Suggieri's forecast, 
 this reign is soon to end. My difficulties will not last," 
 thought she. / 
 
 And thus, strange to say, an occult science, now forgotten' 
 judicial astrology was a support to Catherine at this 
 juncture, as it was throughout her life; for the belief grew 
 constantly from seeing the predictions of those who prac- 
 tised it realized with the greatest exactitude.
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 123 
 
 "You are very serious, madame," said Mary Stuart, taking 
 from Dayelle's hands her little cap, pinched down over the 
 parting of her hair with two frilled wings of handsome lace 
 beyond the puffs of wavy yellow hair that shadowed her 
 temples. 
 
 The painters of the time have so amply perpetuated this 
 cap, that it now belongs essentially to the Queen of Scots, 
 though it was Catherine who invented it when she went into* 
 mourning for Henri II. ; but she could not wear it with such; 
 good effect as her daughter-in-law, to whom it was infinitely 
 more becoming. And this was not the smallest of the griev- 
 ances harbored by the Queen-mother against the young 
 Queen. 
 
 "Does your Majesty mean that for a reproof?" said Cath- 
 erine, turning to her daughter-in-law. 
 
 "I owe respect, and should not dare " said the Scotch- 
 woman meaningly, with a glance at Dayelle. 
 
 Between the two Queens the favorite waiting-woman stood 
 like the figure-head on a fire-dog; an approving smile might 
 cost her her life. 
 
 "How can I be as gay as you after losing the late King, 
 and when I see my son's kingdom on the eve of a conflagra- 
 tion?" 
 
 "Politics do not much concern women.," replied Mary 
 Stuart. "Besides, my uncles are there." 
 
 These two sentences, in the circumstances, were two poi- 
 soned arrows. 
 
 "Let us see our furs then," the Italian replied, "and so 
 turn our minds to our own business, while your uncles settle 
 that of the kingdom." 
 
 "Oh, but we shall attend the Council, madame; we are of 
 more use there than you suppose." 
 
 "We?" said Catherine, with feigned astonishment. "I, for 
 my part, do not know Latin !" 
 
 "You fancy me so learned?" said Mary Stuart, with a 
 laugh. "Nay, madame, I swear to you that at this moment 
 I am studying in the hope of rivaling the Medici and of 
 knowing some day how to heal the wounds of the country."
 
 124 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 This sharp shaft pierced Catherine to the heart, for it was 
 an allusion to the origin of the Medici, who were descended, 
 as some said, from a leech, or, as others had it, from a rich 
 drug merchant. She had no reply ready. Dayelle colored 
 when her mistress looked to her for the applause which every- 
 body, and even queens, expect from their inferiors when they 
 have no better audience. 
 
 "Your witticisms, madame, cannot, unfortunately, heal 
 either the maladies of the State or those of the Church," said 
 Catherine, with calm and dignified coldness. "My fore- 
 fathers' knowledge of such matters won them thrones; while 
 you, if you persist in jesting in the midst of danger, are like 
 enough to lose yours/' 
 
 At this juncture Dayelle opened the door to Christophe, 
 shown in by the chief physician himself after scratching at 
 the door. 
 
 The young Eeformer wanted to study Catherine's counte- 
 nance, and affected a shyness, which was natural enough on 
 finding himself in this place ; but he was surprised by Mary's 
 eagerness. She rushed at the boxes to look at her surcoat. 
 
 "Madame," said Christophe, addressing Catherine. 
 
 He turned his back on the other Queen and Dayelle, 
 promptly taking advantage of the attention the two were de- 
 voting to the furs to strike a bold blow. 
 
 "What do you want of me?" asked Catherine, looking 
 keenly at him. 
 
 Christophe had placed the agreement proposed by the 
 Prince de Conde, with the Eeformer's plan of action and an 
 account of their forces, over his heart, between his cloth 
 jerkin and his shirt, wrapped inside the furrier's bill of what 
 Queen Catherine owed him. 
 
 "Madame," said he, "my father is in dreadful want of 
 money, and if you would condescend to look through the ac- 
 counts," he added, unfolding the paper and slipping the 
 agreement under it, "you will see that your Majesty owes him 
 six thousand crowns. May your goodness have pity on us! 
 See, madame."
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 125 
 
 And he held out the document. 
 
 "Kead it. This dates so far back as the accession of the 
 late King." 
 
 Catherine was bewildered by the preamble to the address, 
 but she did not lose her presence of mind; she hastily rolled 
 up the paper, admiring the young man's readiness and daring. 
 She saw from these masterly tactics that he would understand 
 her, so she tapped him on the head with the roll of paper, 
 and said: "You are very ill advised, my young friend, in 
 handing the bill in before the furs. Learn some knowledge 
 of women ! You must never ask for your money till we are 
 perfectly satisfied." 
 
 "Is that the tradition?" said the young Queen to her 
 mother-in-law, who made no reply. 
 
 "Ah, mesdames, excuse my father," said Christophe. "If 
 he had not wanted the money, you would not have your furs. 
 The country is up in arms, and there is so much danger on 
 the roads, that only our great need induced me to come. No 
 one else would risk his life." 
 
 "This lad is quite fresh," said Mary Stuart, smiling. 
 
 It is not superfluous to the better understanding of this 
 important little scene to remark that a surcoat was, as the 
 name implies, a sort of close-fitting jacket or spencer which 
 ladies wore over their dress, and which wrapped them closely, 
 shaped down to the hips. This garment protected the back, 
 chest, and throat from the cold. Surcoats were lined with 
 fur which turned up over the stuff, forming a more or less 
 wide border. Mary Stuart while trying on her surcoat was 
 looking at herself in a large Venetian mirror, to see the effect 
 of it at the back; thus she had left her mother-in-law 
 liberty to glance at the packet of papers, of which the volume 
 might otherwise have excited her suspicions. 
 
 "Does a man ever speak to a lady of the dangers he has 
 incurred when he is safe and sound in her presence ?" said she, 
 turning round on Christophe. 
 
 "Oh, madame, I have your account too," said he, looking at 
 her with well-acted simplicity.
 
 126 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 The young Queen looked at him from head to foot without 
 taking the paper ; but she observed, without drawing any con- 
 clusions at the moment, that he had taken Queen Catherine's 
 bill out of his breast, and drew hers out of his pocket. Nor 
 did she see in the lad's eyes the admiration that her beauty 
 won her from all the world ; but she was thinking so much of 
 her surcoat, that she did not at once wonder what could be 
 the cause of his indifference. 
 
 "Take it, Dayelle," said she to the waiting-woman. '"You 
 can give the account to Monsieur de Versailles (Lomenie), 
 and desire him, from me, to pay it." 
 
 "Indeed, madame, but if you do not give me an order 
 signed by the King, or by His Highness the Grand Master, 
 who is at hand, your gracious promise will have no effect." 
 
 "You are rather hastier than beseems a subject, my friend/' 
 said Mary Stuart. "So you do not believe in royal prom- 
 ises?" 
 
 The King came in dressed in his long silk hose and trunks, 
 the breeches of the time, but wore neither doublet nor cloak ; 
 he had only a rich wrapper of velvet lined throughout with 
 fur; for wrapper, a word of modern use, can alone describe 
 the neglige of this apparel. 
 
 "Who is the rascal that doubts your word ?" said the young 
 King, who, though at a distance, had heard his wife's speech. 
 
 The door of the King's closet was hidden by the bed. This 
 closet was subsequently called the old closet (le Cabinet 
 vieux) to distinguish it from the splendid painted closet con- 
 structed for Henri III. on the other side of the room ad- 
 joining the hall of the States-General. Henri III. hid the 
 assassins in the old closet, and sent to desire the Due de Guise 
 to attend him there; while he, during the murder, remained 
 concealed in the new closet, whence he emerged only to see 
 this overweening subject die a subject for whom there could 
 be no prison, no tribunal, no judges, no laws in the kingdom. 
 But for these dreadful events, the historian could now hardly 
 identify the former uses of these rooms and halls filled with 
 soldiers. A sergeant writes to his sweetheart on the spot 
 where Catherine gravely considered her struggle with parties.
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 127 
 
 "Come, my boy," said the Queen-mother; "I will see that 
 you are paid. Trade must flourish, and money is its main 
 sinew." 
 
 "Ay, go, my good youth," said the young Queen, laughing; 
 "my august mother understands matters of trade better than 
 I do." 
 
 Catherine was about to leave the room without replying to 
 this innuendo; but it struck her that her indifference might 
 , arouse suspicions, and she retorted on her daughter-in-law : 
 
 "And you, my dear, trade in love." 
 
 Then she went downstairs. 
 
 "Put all those things away, Dayelle. And come to the 
 council-room, Sire," said the young Queen to the King, en- 
 chanted at having to decide the important question of the 
 lieutenancy of the kingdom in her mother-in-law's absence. 
 
 Mary Stuart took the King's arm. Dayelle went out first, 
 speaking a word to the pages, and one of them young 
 Teligny, fated to perish miserably on the night of Saint- 
 Bartholomew shouted out : 
 
 "The King." 
 
 On hearing the cry, the two musketeers carried arms, and 
 the two pages led the way towards the council-chamber be- 
 tween the line of courtiers on one side and the line formed 
 by the maids of honor to the two Queens on the other. All 
 the members of the Council then gathered round the door of 
 the hall, which was at no great distance from the staircase. 
 The Grand Master, the Cardinal, and the Chancellor ad- 
 vanced to meet the two young sovereigns, who smiled to some 
 of the maids, or answered the inquiries of some of the Court 
 favorites more intimate than the rest. 
 
 The Queen, however, evidently impatient, dragged Francis 
 II. on towards the vast council-room. As soon as the heavy 
 thud 01 the arquebuses dropping on the floor again an- 
 nounced that the royal pair had gone in, the pages put on 
 their caps, and the conversations in the various groups took 
 their course again on the gravity of the business about to be 
 discussed.
 
 128 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 "Chiverni was sent to fetch, the Connetable, and he has 
 not come/' said one. 
 
 "There is no prince of the blood present," remarked an- 
 other. 
 
 The Chancellor and Monsieur de Tournon looked anxious. 
 
 "The Grand Master has sent word to the Keeper of the 
 Seals to be sure not to fail to attend this Council; a good 
 many letters patent will be issued, no doubt." I 
 
 "How is it that the Queen-mother remains below, in her 
 own rooms, at such a juncture?" 
 
 "They are going to make things hot for us," said Groslot 
 to Cardinal de Chatillon. 
 
 In short, every one had something to say. Some were 
 pacing the room from end to end, others were flitting round 
 the maids of honor, as though it could be possible to catch a 
 few words through a wall three feet thick, or two doors and 
 the heavy curtains that screened them. 
 
 The King, seated at one end of the long table covered with, 
 blue velvet, which stood in the middle of the room, his young 
 Queen in an armchair at his side, was waiting for his mother. 
 Eobertet was mending his pens. The two Cardinals, the 
 Grand Master, the Chancellor, the Keeper of the Seals in 
 short, the whole assembly, looked at the little King, wonder- 
 ing why he did not give the word for them all to be seated. 
 
 "Are we to sit in council in the absence of the Queen- 
 mother?" the Chancellor asked, addressing the young King. 
 
 The two Guises ascribed Catherine's absence to some cun- 
 ning trick of their niece's. Then, spurred by a significant 
 look, the much daring Cardinal said to the King: 
 
 "Is it your Majesty's goodwill that we should proceed 
 without madame your mother?" 
 
 Francis, not daring to have an opinion of his own, re 
 plied : 
 
 "Gentlemen, be seated." 
 
 The Cardinal briefly pointed out the dangers of the situa- 
 tion. This great politician, who showed astounding skill 
 in this business, broached the question of the lieutenancy
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 129 
 
 amid utter silence. The young King was, no doubt, con- 
 scious of an awkwardness, and guessed that his mother had 
 a real sense of the rights of the Crown, and a knowledge of 
 the danger that threatened his power, for he replied to a 
 direct question on the Cardinal's part: 
 
 "We will wait for my mother." 
 
 Enlightened hy this inexplicable delay on Queen Cath- 
 erine's part, Mary Stuart suddenly recalled in a single flash 
 of thought three incidents which were clear in her memory. 
 In the first place, the bulk of the packet presented to her 
 mother-in-law, which she had seen, though so inattentive at 
 the moment (for a woman who seems to see nothing is still 
 a lynx), then the place where Christophe had carried them 
 to separate them from hers. 
 
 "Why?" she said to herself. And then she remembered 
 the boy's cold look, which she at once ascribed to the Re- 
 formers' hatred of the Guises' niece. A voice within her cried, 
 "Is he not an envoy from the Huguenots?" 
 
 Acting, as all hasty persons do, on the first impulse, she ex- 
 claimed : 
 
 "I myself will go and fetch my mother." 
 
 She rushed away and down the stairs, to the great amaze- 
 ment of the gentlemen and ladies of the Court. She went 
 down to her mother-in-law's rooms, crossed the guardroom, 
 opened the door of the bedroom as stealthily as a thief, crept 
 noiselessly over the carpet as silently as a shadow, and could 
 see her nowhere. Then she thought she could surprise her in 
 the splendid private room between the bedroom and the 
 oratory. The arrangement of this oratory is perfectly recog- 
 nizable to this day; the fashion of the time then allowed 
 it to serve all the purposes in private life which are now 
 served by a boudoir. 
 
 By a piece of good-fortune, quite unaccountable when we 
 see in how squalid a state the Crown has left this chateau, 
 the beautiful paneling of Catherine's closet exists to this day ; 
 in the fine carving the curious may still discern traces of
 
 130 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 Italian magnificence, and discover the hiding-places the 
 Queen-mother had contrived there. 
 
 A somewhat exact description of these curiosities is in- 
 deed indispensable to a comprehension of the scene that took 
 place there. The woodwork at that time consisted of about a 
 hundred and eighty small oblong panels, of which a hundred 
 or so still remain, each carved with a different design, ob- 
 viously suggested by the most elegant Italian arabesques. 
 The wood is holm-oak ; the red ground which is found under 
 the coat of limewash, applied at the time of the cholera a 
 quite useless precaution shows plainly that these panels 
 were gilt; and in spots where the whitewash has rubbed off 
 we see that some portions of the design were in color, blue, 
 red, or green against the gold background. The number of 
 these panels shows an evident intention to cheat investiga- 
 tion ; but if there could be a doubt, the keeper of the chateau, 
 while holding up Catherine's memory to the execration of 
 all living men, shows to visitors, at the bottom of the panel- 
 ing, and on a level with the floor, a somewhat heavy skirting 
 which can be raised, and under which there are a number 
 of ingenious springs. By pressing a knob thus concealed, 
 the Queen could open certain of these panels, known to her 
 alone, behind which lay a hiding-place of the same oblong 
 shape as the panels, but of varying depth. To this day a 
 practised hand would find it difficult to detect which of these 
 panels would open on its invisible hinges; and when the eye 
 was diverted by the skilfully combined colors and gilding 
 that covered the cracks, it is easy to imagine that it was im- 
 possible to discover one or two panels among nearly two 
 hundred. 
 
 At the moment when Mary Stuart laid her hand on the 
 somewhat elaborate latch of the door to the closet, the Italian 
 Queen, having convinced herself already of the importance 
 of the Prince de Conde schemes, had just pressed the spring 
 hidden by the skirting, one of the panels had fallen open, 
 and Catherine had turned to the table to take up the papers 
 and hide them, to turn her attention to the safeguard of
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 131 
 
 the devoted messenger who had brought them to her. When 
 she heard the door open, she at once guessed that no one but 
 Queen Mary would venture to come in unannounced. 
 
 "You are lost," she said to Christophe, seeing that she 
 could neither hide the papers nor close the panel promptly 
 enough to preserve the secret of her hiding-place. 
 
 Christophe's only reply was a sublime look. 
 
 "Povero mio!" said Catherine, before turning to her 
 daughter-in-law. "Treason, madame !" she exclaimed. "I 
 have them fast ! Send for the Cardinal and the Duke. And 
 be sure," she added, pointing to Christophe, "that this fellow 
 does not escape !" 
 
 Thus in an instant this masterful woman saw that it would 
 be necessary to give up the hapless young man ; she could not 
 hide him, it was impossible to help him to escape; and be- 
 sides, though a week ago he might have been saved, now the 
 G-uises had, since that morning, been aware of the conspiracy, 
 and they too must have the lists which she held in her hand, 
 and were drawing all the Eeformers into a trap. And so, 
 pleased at finding her adversaries in the mind she had hoped 
 for, now that the plot had become known, policy required 
 her to assume the merit of discovering it. 
 
 These dreadful considerations flashed through her mind 
 in the brief moment while the young Queen was opening the 
 door. Mary Stuart stood silent for an instant. Her expres- 
 sion lost its brightness and assumed that keenness which sus- 
 picion always gives the eye, and which in her was terrible by 
 the sudden contrast. She looked from Christophe to the 
 Queen-mother, and from the Queen-mother to Christophe, 
 with a glance of malignant doubt. Then she snatched up a 
 bell, which brought in one of Catherine's maids of honor. 
 
 "Mademoiselle du Rouet, send in the captain of the Guard," 
 said Mary Stuart, in breach of every law of etiquette, neces- 
 sarily set aside in such circumstances. 
 
 While the young Queen gave her order, Catherine stood 
 looking at Christophe, as much as to say, "Courage !" The 
 young Reformer understood, and replied by an expression 
 which conveyed, "Sacrifice me, as they have sacrificed me!"
 
 132 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 "Put your trust in me," Catherine answered by a gesture. 
 
 Then when her daughter-in-law turned upon her, she was 
 deeply engaged in examining the papers. 
 
 "Yon are of the Eeformed religion?" said Mary Stuart 
 to Christophe. 
 
 "Yes, madame." 
 
 "Then I was not mistaken," she muttered to herself, as she 
 read in the young man's eyes the same expression in which 
 'coldness and aversion lurked behind a look of humility. 
 
 Pardaillan appeared at once, sent down by the two Princes 
 of Lorraine and the King. The captain sent for by Mary 
 Stuart followed this young man a most devoted adherent of 
 the Guises. 
 
 "Go from me to the King, beg him, with the Cardinal 
 and the Grand Master, to come here at once, and tell them 
 I would not take such a liberty but that something of 
 serious importance has occurred. Go, Pardaillan. And 
 you, Lewiston, keep guard over this Eeformed traitor," she 
 added to the Scotchman in their native tongue, pointing to 
 Christophe. 
 
 The two Queens did not speak till the King came. It 
 was a terrible pause. Mary Stuart had shown her mother- 
 in-law the whole extent of the part her uncles made her 
 play; her unsleeping and habitual distrust stood revealed; 
 and her youthful conscience felt how disgraceful such a part 
 must be to a great Queen. Catherine, on her side, had be- 
 trayed herself in her alarm, and feared that she had been 
 understood; she was trembling for the future. The two 
 women, one ashamed and furious, the other vicious but calm, 
 withdrew into the window bay, one leaning on the right side, 
 the other on the left ; but their looks were so expressive, that 
 each turned away, and with a common instinct looked out 
 of the window at the sky. These two women, clever as they 
 were, at that moment had no more wit than the commonest. 
 Perhaps it is always so when circumstances overpower men. 
 There is always a moment when even genius is conscious of 
 its smallness in the presence of a great catastrophe.
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 133 
 
 As for Christophe, he felt like a man falling into an abyss. 
 Lewiston, the Scotch captain, listened to the silence, looking 
 at the furrier's son and the two Queens with a soldier's 
 curiosity. The King's entrance put an end to this painful 
 situation. 
 
 The Cardinal went straight up to Queen Catherine. 
 
 "I have in my hand all the threads of the plot hatched 
 by the heretics; they sent this boy to me carrying this treaty 
 and these documents," said Catherine in an undertone. 
 
 While Catherine was explaining matters to the Cardinal, 
 Queen Mary was speaking a few words in the Grand Master's 
 ear. 
 
 "What is this all about ?" asked the young King, standing 
 alone amid this conflict of violent interests. 
 
 "The proofs of what I was telling your Majesty are already 
 to hand," said the Cardinal, seizing the papers. 
 
 The Due de Guise, unmindful of the fact that he was in- 
 terrupting him, drew his brother aside and said in a whisper : 
 
 "This then makes me Lieutenant- General without any op- 
 position." 
 
 A keen glance was the Cardinal's only reply, by which 
 he conveyed to his brother that he had already appreciated 
 the advantages to be derived from Catherine's false position. 
 
 "Who sent you ?" asked the Duke of Christophe. 
 
 "Chaudieu the preacher," he replied. 
 
 "Young man, you lie," said the Duke roughly. "It was the 
 Prince de Conde." 
 
 "The Prince de Conde, monseigneur," replied Christophe, 
 with a look of surprise. "I never saw him. I belong to 
 the Palais. I am working under Monsieur de Thou. I am 
 his clerk, and he does not know that I have joined the re- 
 ligion. I only submitted to the preacher's entreaties." 
 
 "That will do," said the Cardinal. "Call Monsieur de 
 Robertet," he added to Lewiston, "for this young villain is 
 craftier than old politicians. He has taken us in, my brother 
 and me, when we should have given him the Host without 
 
 confession." 
 
 10
 
 134 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 "You are no child, by Heaven !" cried the Duke, "and you 
 shall be treated as a man." 
 
 "They hoped to win over your august mother," said the 
 Cardinal, turning to the King, and trying to lead him aside 
 to bring him to his way of thinking. 
 
 "Alas!" replied Catherine, speaking to her son with a 
 reproachful air, and stopping him just as the Cardinal was 
 taking him into the oratory to subjugate him with dangerous 
 eloquence, "you here see the effect of the position I am placed 
 in. I am supposed to rebel against my lack of influence in 
 public affairs I, the mother of four princes of the House of 
 Valois." 
 
 The young King prepared to listen. Mary Stuart, seeing 
 his brow knit, led him off into the window recess, where she 
 cajoled him with gentle speeches in a low voice; much the 
 same, no doubt, as those she had lavished on him when he 
 rose. 
 
 The two brothers meanwhile read the papers handed over 
 to them by the Queen-mother. Finding in them much in- 
 formation of which their spies and Monsieur de Braguelonne, 
 the governor of the Chatelet, knew nothing, they were in- 
 clined to believe in Catherine's good faith. Eobertet came in 
 and had private instructions with regard to Christophe. The 
 hapless tool of the leaders of the Eeformation was led away 
 by four men of the Scotch Guard, who took him downstairs 
 and handed him over to Monsieur de Montresor, the Provost 
 of the chateau. This terrible personage himself escorted 
 Christophe with five or six sergeants to the prison situated 
 in the vaulted cellars of the now ruined tower, which the 
 verger of the chateau of Blois shows the visitor, and says 
 that these were the oubliettes. 
 
 After such an event the Council could only be an empty 
 form: the King, the young Queen, the Grand Master, and 
 the Cardinal de Lorraine went back to the council-room,' 
 taking with them Catherine, quite conquered, who only spoke 
 to approve of the measures demanded by the Guises. In spite 
 of some slight opposition on the part of the Chancellor
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 135 
 
 Olivier, the only person to utter a word suggesting the inde- 
 pendence needful to the exercise of his functions, the Due de 
 Guise was appointed Lieutenant- General of the kingdom. 
 Eobertet carried the motions with a promptitude arguing such 
 devotion as might be well called complicity. 
 
 The King, with his mother on his arm, once more crossed 
 the guardroom, and announced to the Court that he proposed 
 to move to Amboise on the following day. This royal resi' 
 dence had been unused since Charles VIII. had very invol- 
 untarily killed himself there by striking his head against the 
 pediment of a door that was being carved for him, believing 
 that he could pass under the scaffolding without bending his 
 head. Catherine, to mask the schemes of the Guises, had 
 announced her intention of finishing the chateau of Amboise 
 on behalf of the Crown at the same time as her own chateau 
 of Chenonceaux. But no one was deceived by this pretence, 
 and the Court anticipated strange events. 
 
 After spending about two hours in accustoming himself 
 to the darkness of his dungeon, Christophe found that it was 
 lined with boards, clumsy indeed, but thick enough to make 
 the square box healthy and habitable. The door, like that 
 into a pig-sty, had compelled him to bend double to get into 
 it. On one side of this trap a strong iron grating admitted a 
 little air and light from the passage. This arrangement, ex- 
 actly like that of the crypts at Venice, showed very plainly 
 that the architect of the chateau of Blois belonged to the 
 Venetian school, which gave so many builders to Europe in 
 the Middle Ages. By sounding the walls above the woodwork, 
 Christophe discovered that the two walls which divided this 
 cell from two others, to the right and left, were built of brick ; 
 and as he knocked, to estimate the thickness of the wall, he 
 was not a little surprised to hear some one knocking on the 
 other side. 
 
 "Who are you ?" asked his neighbor, speaking into the cor- 
 ridor. 
 
 "I am Christophe Lecamus."
 
 136 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 "And I," said the other voice, "am Captain Chaudieu. I 
 was caught this evening at Beaugency; but, happily, there 
 is nothing against me." 
 
 "Everything is discovered," said Christophe; "so you are 
 saved from the worst of it." 
 
 "We have three thousand men at this present time in the 
 forests of Vendomois, all men determined enough to seize 
 the Queen-mother and the King on their journey. Happily, 
 la Benaudie was cleverer than I ; he escaped. You had just 
 set out when the Guisards caught us." 
 
 "But I know nothing of la Eenaudie." 
 
 "Pooh! my brother told me everything," replied the cap- 
 tain. 
 
 On hearing this, Christophe went back to his bench and 
 made no further reply to anything the so-called captain 
 could say to him, for he had had enough experience of the 
 law to know how necessary it was to be cautious in prison. 
 
 In the middle of the night he saw the pale gleam of a 
 lantern in the passage, after hearing the unlocking of the 
 ponderous bolts that closed the iron door of the cellar. The 
 provost himself had come to fetch Christophe. This atten- 
 tion to a man who had been left in the dungeon without food 
 struck Christophe as strange; but the upset at Court had, 
 no doubt, led to his being forgotten. One of the provost's 
 sergeants bound his hands with a cord, which he held till 
 they had reached one of the low rooms in Louis XII.'s part 
 of the chateau, which evidently was the ante-room to the 
 apartments of some person of importance. The sergeant and 
 the provost bid him be seated on a bench, where the sergeant 
 tied his feet as he had already tied his hands. At a sign from 
 Monsieur de Montresor, the sergeant then left them. 
 
 "Now listen to me, my young friend," said the provost to 
 ( Christophe, and the lad observed that he was in full dress at 
 that hour of the night, for his fingers fidgeted with the collar 
 of his Order. This circumstance made the furrier's son 
 thoughtful; he saw that there was more to come. At this 
 moment, certainly, they could not be going either to try him 
 or to hang him.
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 137 
 
 "My young friend, you may spare yourself much suffering 
 by telling me here and now all you know of the communica- 
 tions between Queen Catherine and Monsieur de Conde. 
 Not only will you not be hurt, but you will be taken into 
 the service of Monseigneur, the Lieutenant-General of the 
 kingdom, who likes intelligent people, and who was favorably 
 impressed by your looks. The Queen-mother is to be packed 
 off to Florence, and Monsieur de Conde will no doubt stand 
 his trial. So, take my word for it, small men will do well 
 to attach themselves to the great men in power. Tell me 
 everything, and it will be to your advantage." 
 
 "Alas, monsieur," replied Christophe, "I have nothing to 
 say. I have confessed all I know to Messieurs de Guise in 
 the Queen's room. Chaudieu persuaded me to place those 
 papers in the hands of the Queen-mother, by making me be- 
 lieve that the peace of the country was involved." 
 
 "You never saw the Prince de Conde?" 
 
 "Never," said Christophe. 
 
 Thereupon Monsieur de Montresor left Christophe and 
 went into an adjoining room. 
 
 Christophe was not long left to himself. The door by 
 which he had entered soon opened for several men to pass in, 
 who did not shut it, letting various far from pleasant sounds 
 come in from the courtyard. Blocks of wood and instru- 
 ments were brought in, evidently intended to torture the 
 Keformers' messenger. Christophe's curiosity soon found 
 matter for reflection in the preparations the newcomers were 
 making under his very eyes. Two coarse and poorly-clad 
 varlets obeyed the orders of a powerful and thick-set man, 
 who, on coming in, had a look at Christophe like that of a 
 cannibal at his victim; he had scrutinized him from head to 
 foot, taking stock of his sinews, of their strength and power 
 of resistance, with the calculating eye of a connoisseur. This 
 man was the Blois executioner. Backwards and forwards 
 several times, his men brought in a mattress, wooden wedges, 
 planks, and other objects, of which the use seemed neither 
 obvious nor hopeful to the unhappy boy for whom the prepa-
 
 138 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 rations were being made, and whose blood ran cold in his veins 
 with apprehension, which though vague was appalling. Two 
 other men came in when Monsieur de Montresor reappeared. 
 
 "What, is nothing ready yet?" said the chief provost, to 
 whom the two newcomers bowed respectfully. "Do you know," 
 he went on to the big man and his two satellites, "that Mon- 
 sieur le Cardinal supposes you to be getting on with your 
 work ? Doctor," he added, turning to one of the newcomers, 
 "here is your man," and he pointed to Christophe. 
 
 The doctor went up to the prisoner, untied his hands, and 
 sounded his back and chest. Science quite seriously repeated 
 the torturer's investigation. Meanwhile, a servant in the 
 livery of the House of Guise brought in several chairs, a table, 
 and all the materials for writing. 
 
 "Begin your report," said Monsieur de Montresor to the 
 second person who had come in, dressed in black, who was a 
 clerk. 
 
 Then he came back to stand by Christophe, to whom he said 
 very mildly : 
 
 "My boy, the Chancellor, having learned that you refuse to 
 give satisfactory replies to my questions, has decided that 
 you must be put to the torture ordinary and extraordinary." 
 
 "Is he in good health, and can he bear it ?" the clerk asked 
 of the doctor. 
 
 "Yes," said the man of medicine, a physician attached to 
 the House of Lorraine. 
 
 "Well, then, retire to the adjoining room; we will send for 
 you if it is necessary to consult you." 
 
 The physician left the room. 
 
 His first panic past, Christophe collected all his courage. 
 The hour of his martyrdom was come. He now looked on 
 with cold curiosity at the arrangements nwie by the execu- 
 tioner and his varlets. After hastily making up a bed, they 
 proceeded to prepare a machine called the boot, consisting of 
 boards, between which each leg of the -fictim was placed, 
 surrounded with pads. The machinery uised by bookbinders 
 to press the volumes between two boards, which they tighten
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 139 
 
 with cords, will give a very exact idea of the way in which 
 each leg was encased. It is easy, then, to imagine the effect 
 of a wedge driven home by a mallet between the two cases 
 in which the legs were confined, and which, being tightly 
 bound with rope, could not yield. The wedges were driven 
 in at the knees and ankles, as if to split a log of wood. The 
 choice of tbese two spots where there is least flesh, and where, 
 in consequence, the wedge found room at the expense of the 
 bones, made this form of torture horribly painful. In or-', 
 dinary torture four wedges were driven in two at the knees 
 and two at the ankles; in extraordinary torture as many as 
 eight were employed, if the physician pronounced that the 
 victim's powers of endurance were not exhausted. 
 
 At this period the boots were also applied to the hands ; but 
 as time pressed, the Cardinal, the Lieutenant-General of the 
 kingdom, and the Chancellor spared Christophe this. 
 
 The preamble to the examination was written; the provost 
 himself had dictated a few sentences, walking about the room 
 with a meditative air, and requiring Christophe to tell him 
 his name Christian name age, and profession; then he 
 asked him from whom he had received the papers he had 
 delivered to the Queen. 
 
 "From Chaudieu the minister," said he. 
 
 "Where did he give them to you?" 
 
 "At my own home in Paris." 
 
 "When he handed them to you, he must have told you 
 whether the Queen-mother would receive you well." 
 
 "He told me nothing of the kind," replied Christophe. 
 "He only desired me to give them secretly to Queen Cath- 
 erine." 
 
 "Then have you often seen Chaudieu, that he knew that 
 you were coming here ?" 
 
 "It was not from me that he heard that I was to carry the 
 furs to the two Queens, and at the same time to ask in my 
 father's behalf for the money owed him by the Queen-mother ; 
 nor had I time to ask him who had told him." 
 
 "But those papers, given to you without any wrapper or
 
 140 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 seal, contain a treaty between the rebels and Queen Catherine. 
 You must have known that they exposed you to the risk of 
 suffering the punishment dealt out to those who are impli- 
 cated in a rebellion." 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "The persons who induced you to commit an act of high 
 treason must have promised you some reward and the Queen- 
 mother's patronage." 
 
 "I did it out of attachment to Chaudieu, the only person 
 I saw." 
 
 "Then you persist in declaring that you did not see the 
 Prince de Conde?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "Did. not the Prince de Conde tell you that the Queen- 
 mother was inclined to enter into his views in antagonism 
 to the Guises?" 
 
 "I did not see him." 
 
 "Take care. One of your accomplices, la Eenaudie, is 
 arrested. Strong as he is, he could not resist the torture 
 that awaits you, and at last confessed that he, as well as the 
 Prince, had had speech with you. If you wish to escape the 
 anguish of torture, I beg you to tell the simple truth. Then 
 perhaps you may win your pardon." 
 
 Christophe replied that he could not tell anything of which 
 he had no knowledge, nor betray accomplices, when he had 
 none. On hearing this, the provost nodded to the execu- 
 tioner, and went back into the adjoining room. 
 
 On seeing this, Christophe knit his brows, wrinkling his 
 forehead with a nervous spasm, and preparing to endure. He 
 clenched his fists with such a rigid clutch that the nails ran 
 into the flesh without his feeling it. The three men took him 
 up, carried him to the camp bed, and laid him there, his legs 
 hanging down. While the executioner tied him fast with 
 stout ropes, his two men each fitted a leg into a boot; the 
 cords were tightened by means of a wrench without giving 
 the victim any great pain. When each leg was thus held in 
 a vise, the executioner took up his mallet and his wedges, and 
 looked alternately at the sufferer and the clerk.
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 141 
 
 "Do you persist in your denial ?" said the clerk. 
 
 "I have told the truth," replied Christophe. 
 
 "Then go on," said the clerk, shutting his eyes. 
 
 The cords were tightened to the utmost, and this moment, 
 perhaps, was the most agonizing of all the torture; the flesh 
 was so suddenly compressed that the blood was violently 
 thrown hack into the trunk. The poor boy could not help 
 screaming terribly; he seemed about to faint. The doctor 
 was called back. He felt Christophe's pulse, and desired the 
 executioner to wait for a quarter of an hour before driving 
 in the wedges, to give time for the blood to recover its circu- 
 lation and sensation to return. 
 
 The clerk charitably told Christophe that if he could not 
 better endure even the beginnings of the suffering he could 
 not escape, he would do better to reveal all he knew; but 
 Christophe's only reply was : 
 
 "The King's tailor ! the King's tailor !" 
 
 "What do you mean by saying that ?" asked the clerk. 
 
 "Foreseeing the torments I shall go through," said Chris- 
 tophe, slowly, to gain time and to rest, "I am summoning all 
 my strength, and trying to reinforce it by remembering the 
 martyrdom endured for the sacred cause of the Eeformation 
 by the late King's tailor, who was tortured in the presence 
 of the King and of Madame de Valentinois; I will try to be 
 worthy of him !" 
 
 While the physician was advising the hapless man not to 
 drive his torturers to extremities, the Cardinal and the Duke, 
 impatient to know the results of this examination, came in 
 and desired Christophe to reveal the truth at once. The 
 furrier's son repeated the only confession he would allow him- 
 self to make, implicating nobody but Chaudieu. 
 
 The Princes nodded. On this, the executioner and his 
 foreman seized their mallets, each took a wedge and drove 
 it home between the boots, one standing on the right, and the 
 other on the left. The executioner stood at the knees, the 
 assistant at the ankles, opposite. The eyes of the witnesses 
 of this hideous act were fixed on Christophe's, who, excited
 
 142 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 no doubt by the presence of these grand personages, flashed 
 such a look at them that his eyes sparkled like flame. 
 
 At the two next wedges a horrible groan escaped him. 
 Then when he saw the men take up the wedges for the 
 severer torture, he remained silent ; but his gaze assumed such 
 dreadful fixity, and flashed at the two Princes such a piercing 
 magnetic fluid, that the Duke and the Cardinal were both 
 obliged to look down. Philippe le Bel had experienced the] 
 same defeat when he presided at the torture by hammer, in- ( 
 flicted in his presence on the Templars. This consisted in 
 hitting the victim on the chest with one arm of the balanced 
 hammer used to coin money, which was covered with a 
 leather pad. There was one knight whose eyes were so fixed 
 on the King that he was fascinated, and could not take his 
 gaze off the sufferer. At the third blow the King rose and 
 went away, after hearing himself called upon to appear before 
 the judgment of God within a year as he did. 
 
 At the fifth wedge, the first of the greater torture, Chris- 
 tophe said to the Cardinal : 
 
 "Cut my misery short, monseigneur; it is useless." 
 
 The Cardinal and the Duke withdrew, and Christophe 
 could hear from the next room these words, spoken by 
 Queen Catherine: 
 
 "Go on, go on ; after all, he is only a heretic !" 
 
 She thought it prudent to appear more severe to her ac- 
 complice than his executioners were. 
 
 The sixth and seventh wedges were driven in, and Chris- 
 tophe complained no more, his face shone with a strange 
 radiance, due, no doubt, to the immense strength he derived 
 from fanatical excitement. In what else but in feeling can 
 we hope to find the fulcrum enabling a man to endure such 
 anguish? At last, when the executioner was about to insert 
 the eighth wedge, Christophe smiled. This dreadful torment 
 had lasted one hour. 
 
 The clerk went to fetch the leech, to know whether the 
 eighth wedge could be driven in without endangering the 
 sufferer's life. The Duke meanwhile came in again to se 
 Christophe.
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 143 
 
 "By our Lady ! you are a fine fellow," said he, leaning down 
 to speak in his ear. "I like a brave man. Enter my service, 
 you shall be happy and rich, my favors will heal your bruised 
 limbs; I will ask you to do nothing cowardly, like rejoining 
 your own party to betray their plans ; there are always plenty 
 of traitors, and the proof is to be found in the prisons of Blois. 
 Only tell me on what terms are the Queen-mother and the 
 Prince de Conde." i 
 
 "I know nothing about it, monseigneur," cried Lecamus. 
 
 The doctor came in, examined the victim, and pronounced 
 that he could bear the eighth wedge. 
 
 "Drive it in," said the Cardinal. "After all, as the Queen 
 says, he is only a heretic," he added, with a hideous smile 
 at Christophe. 
 
 Catherine herself slowly came in from the adjoining room, 
 stood in front of Christophe, and gazed at him coldly. She 
 was the object of attentive scrutiny to the two brothers, who 
 looked alternately at the Queen-mother and her accomplice. 
 The whole future life of this ambitious woman depended on 
 this solemn scrutiny; she felt the greatest admiration for 
 Christophe's courage, and she looked at him sternly; she 
 hated the Guises, and she smiled upon them. 
 
 "Come," said she, "young man, confess that you saw the 
 Prince de Conde; you will be well rewarded." 
 
 "Oh, madame, what a part you are playing !" cried Chris- 
 tophe, in pity for her. 
 
 The Queen started. 
 
 "He is insulting me ! Is he not to be hanged ?" said she 
 to the two brothers, who stood lost in thought. 
 
 "What a woman !" cried the Grand Master, who was con- 
 sulting his brother in the window recess. 
 
 "I will stay in France and be revenged," thought the 
 Queen. "Proceed, he must confess or let him die !" she ex- 
 claimed, addressing Monsieur de Montresor. 
 
 The provost turned away, the executioners were busy, Cath- 
 erine had an opportunity of giving the martyr a look, which 
 no one else saw, and which fell like dew on Christophe. The
 
 144 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 great Queen's eyes seemed to glisten with moisture ; they were, 
 in fact, full of tears, two tears at once repressed and dry. 
 The wedge was driven home, one of the boards between which 
 it was inserted split. Christophe uttered a piercing cry; 
 then his face became radiant ; he thought he was dying. 
 
 "Let him die," said the Cardinal, echoing Queen Cath- 
 erine's words with a sort of irony. "No, no," he added to 
 the provost, "do not let us lose this clue." 
 
 The Duke and the Cardinal held a consultation in a low 
 voice. 
 
 "What is to be done with him ?" asked the executioner. 
 
 "Send him to prison at Orleans," said the Duke. "And, 
 above all," he said to Monsieur de Montresor, "do not hang 
 him without orders from me." 
 
 The excessive sensitiveness of every internal organ, strung 
 to the highest pitch by the endurance which worked upon 
 every nerve in his frame, no less affected every sense in Chris- 
 tophe. He alone heard these words spoken by the Due de 
 Guise in the Cardinal's ear : 
 
 "I have not given up all hope of hearing the truth from this 
 little man." 
 
 As soon as the two Princes had left the room, the execu- 
 tioners unpacked the victim's legs, with no attempt at gentle 
 handling. 
 
 "Did you ever see a criminal with such fortitude?" said 
 the head man to his assistants. "The rogue has lived through 
 the infliction of the eighth wedge; he ought to have died. I 
 am the loser of the price of his body." 
 
 "Untie me without hurting me, my good friends," said 
 poor Christophe. "Some day I will reward you." 
 
 "Come, show some humanity," said the doctor. "Mon- 
 seigneur the Duke esteems the young man, and commended 
 .him to my care," cried the leech. 
 
 "I am off to Amboise with my men," said the executioner 
 roughly. "Take care of him yourself. And here is the 
 jailer." 
 
 The executioner went off, leaving Christophe in the hands
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 145 
 
 of the smooth-spoken doctor, who, with the help of Chris- 
 tophe's warder, lifted him on to a bed, gave him some broth, 
 which he made him swallow, sat down by his side, felt his 
 pulse, and tried to comfort him. 
 
 "You are not dying," he said, "and you must feel a com- 
 fort to your mind when you reflect that you have done your 
 duty: The Queen charged me to take good care of you/' he 
 added, in a low voice. 
 
 "The Queen is very good," said Christophe, in whom acute 
 anguish had developed wonderful lucidity of mind, and who, 
 after enduring so much, was determined not to spoil the 
 results of his devotion. "But she might have saved me so 
 much suffering by not delivering me to my tormentors, and 
 by telling them herself the secrets, of which I know nothing." 
 
 On hearing this reply, the doctor put on his cap and cloak 
 and left Christophe to his fate, thinking it vain to hope to 
 gain anything from a man of that temper. The jailer had 
 the poor boy carried on a litter by four men to the town 
 prison, where Christophe fell asleep, in that deep slumber 
 which, it is said, comes upon almost every mother after the 
 dreadful pains of childbirth. 
 
 The two Princes of Lorraine, when they transferred the 
 Court to Amboise, had no hope of finding there the leader 
 of the Eeformed party, the Prince de Conde, whom they had 
 ordered to appear in the King's name to take him in a 
 snare. As a vassal of the Crown, and as a Prince of the 
 Blood, Conde was bound to obey the behest of the King. Not 
 to come to Amboise would be a felony; but, by coming, he 
 would place himself in the power of the Crown. Now, at this 
 moment, the Crown, the Council, the Court, and every kind 
 of power, were in the hands of the Due de Guise and the 
 Cardinal de Lorraine. 
 
 In this difficult dilemma, the Prince de Conde showed the 
 spirit of decisiveness and astuteness, which made him a 
 worthy representative of Jeanne d'Albret and the brave Gen- 
 eral of the Reformers' forces- He traveled at the heels of the
 
 146 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 last conspirators to Vendorne to support them in case of 
 success. But when this first rush to arms ended in the brief 
 skirmish in which the flower of the nobility whom Calvin 
 had misled all perished, the Prince, and a following of fifty 
 gentlemen, arrived at the chateau d' Amboise the very day 
 after this affair, which the Guises, with crafty policy, spoke 
 .of as the riots at Amboise. On hearing of the Prince's ad- 
 vance, the Duke sent out the Marechal de Saint-Andre to 
 -receive him with an escort of a hundred men-at-arms. When 
 the Bearnais came to the gate of the chateau, the marshal in 
 command refused to admit the Prince's suite. 
 
 "You must come in alone, sir," said the Chancellor Olivier, 
 Cardinal de Tournon, and Birague, who awaited him outside 
 the portcullis. 
 
 "And why?" 
 
 "You are suspected of felony," replied the Chancellor. 
 
 The Prince, who saw that his party was being cut off by 
 the Due de Nemours, quietly replied : 
 
 "If that is the case, I will go in to my cousin alone and 
 prove my innocence." 
 
 He dismounted and conversed with perfect freedom with 
 Birague, Tournon, the Chancellor Olivier, and the Due de 
 Nemours, from whom he asked details of the riot. 
 
 "Monseigneur," said the Due de Nemours, "the rebels had 
 sympathizers inside Amboise. Captain Lanoue had got in 
 some men-at-arms, who opened the gate to them through 
 which they got into the town, and of which they had the 
 command " 
 
 "That is to say, you got them into a sack," replied the 
 Prince, looking at Birague. 
 
 "If they had been supported by the attack that was to 
 have been made on the Porte des Bons-Hommes by Captain 
 Chaudieu, the preacher's brother, they would have succeeded," 
 said the Due de Nemours, "but, from the position I had taken 
 up, in obedience to the Due de Guise, Captain Chaudieu was 
 obliged to make a detour to avoid fighting me.. Instead of 
 arriving at night like the rest, that rebel did not come up till
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 147 
 
 daybreak, just as the King's troops had crushed those who 
 had got into the town." 
 
 "And you had a reserve to recapture the gate that had 
 been given up to them ?" 
 
 "Monsieur le Marechal de Saint-Andre was on the spot 
 with five hundred men." 
 
 The Prince warmly praised these military manoeuvres. 
 
 "To have acted thus," said he in conclusion, "the Lieu- 
 tenant-General must have known the Keformers' secrets. 
 They have evidently been betrayed." 
 
 The Prince was treated with greater strictness at each 
 step. After being parted from his followers on entering 
 the chateau, the Cardinal and the Chancellor stood in his 
 way when he turned to the stairs leading to the King's apart- 
 ments. 
 
 "We are instructed by the King, sir, to conduct you to 
 your own rooms." 
 
 "Am I then a prisoner?" 
 
 "If that were the King's purpose, you would not be at- 
 tended by a Prince of the Church and by me," replied the 
 Chancellor. 
 
 The two functionaries led the Prince to an apartment 
 where a guard of honor so called was allotted to him, 
 anywhere he remained for several hours without seeing any 
 one. From his window he looked out on the Loire, the rich 
 country which makes such a beautiful valley between Am- 
 boise and Tours, and he was meditating on his situation, 
 wondering what the Guises might dare to do to his person, 
 when he heard the door of his room open, and saw the King's 
 fool come in, Chicot, who had once been in his service. 
 
 "I heard you were in disgrace," said the Prince. 
 
 "You cannot think how sober the Court has become since 
 the death of Henri II." 
 
 "And yet the King loves to laugh, surely." 
 
 "Which King? Francis II. or Francis of Lorraine?" 
 
 "Are you so fearless of the Duke that you speak so ?" 
 
 "He will not punish me for that, sir," replied Chicot, 
 smiling.
 
 148 ABOUT CATHERINE DE 1 MEDICI 
 
 "And to what do I owe the honor of this visit ?" 
 
 "Was it not due to you after your coming here? I have 
 brought you my cap and bauble." 
 
 "I cannot get out then?" 
 
 "Try!" 
 
 "And if I do get out?" 
 
 "I will confess that you have won the game by playing 
 against the rules." 
 
 "Chicot, you frighten me. Have you been sent by some 
 one who is interested in my fate?" 
 
 Chicot nodded "Yes." He went nearer to the Prince, and 
 conveyed to him that they were watched and overheard. 
 
 "What have you to say to me?" asked Monsieur de Conde. 
 
 "That nothing but daring can get you out of the scrape," 
 said the fool, whispering the words into his ear. "And this 
 is from the Queen-mother." 
 
 "Tell those who have sent you," replied the Prince, "that 
 I should never have come to this chateau if I had anything to 
 blame myself for, or to fear." 
 
 "I fly to carry your bold reply," said the fool. 
 
 Two hours later, at one in the afternoon, before the King's 
 dinner, the Chancellor and Cardinal de Tournon came to 
 fetch the Prince to conduct him to Francis II. in the great 
 hall where the Council had sat. There, before all the Court, 
 the Prince de Cond6 affected surprise at the cool reception 
 the King had given him, and he asked the reason. 
 
 "You are accused, cousin," said the Queen-mother sternly, 
 "of having meddled with the plots of the Eeformers, and 
 you must prove yourself a faithful subject and a good 
 Catholic if you wish to avert the King's anger from your 
 House." 
 
 On hearing this speech, spoken by Catherine in the midst 
 of hushed silence, as she stood with her hand in the King's 
 arm and with the Due d' Orleans on her left hand, the Prince 
 de Conde drew back three steps, and with an impulse of dig- 
 nified pride laid his hand on his sword, looking at the persons 
 present.
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 149 
 
 "Those who say so, madame, lie in their throat!" he ex- 
 claimed in angry tones. 
 
 He flung his glove at the King's feet, saying: 
 
 "Let the man who will maintain his calumny stand forth !" 
 
 A shiver ran through the whole Court when the Due de 
 Guise was seen to quit his place; but instead of picking up 
 the glove as they expected, he went up to the intrepid hunch- 
 back. 
 
 "If you need a second, Prince, I beg of you to accept my 
 services," said he. "I will answer for you, and will show 
 the Keformers how greatly they deceive themselves if they 
 hope to have you for their leader." 
 
 The Prince de Conde could not help offering his hand to 
 the Lieutenant-General of the kingdom. Chicot picked up 
 the glove and restored it to Monsieur de Conde. 
 
 "Cousin," said the boy-King, "you should never draw your 
 sword but in defence of your country. Come to dinner." 
 
 The Cardinal de Lorraine, puzzled by his brother's action, 
 led him off to their rooms. The Prince de Conde, having 
 weathered the worst danger, gave his hand to Queen Mary 
 Stuart to lead her to the dining-room; but, while making 
 flattering speeches to the young Queen, he was trying to 
 discern what snare was at this moment being laid for him 
 by the Balafre's policy. In vain he racked his brain, he 
 could not divine the Guises' scheme; but Queen Mary be- 
 trayed it. 
 
 "It would have been a pity," said she, laughing, "to see 
 so clever a head fall; you must allow that my uncle is mag- 
 nanimous." 
 
 "Yes, madame, for my head fits no shoulders but my own, 
 although one is larger than the other. But is it magnanimity 
 in your uncle? Has he not rather gained credit at a cheap 
 rate? Do you think it such an easy matter to have the law 
 of a Prince of the Blood?" 
 
 "We have not done yet," replied she. "We shall see how 
 you behave at the execution of the gentlemen, your friends, 
 over which the Council have determined to make the greatest 
 display."
 
 150 
 
 "I shall do as the King does," said Conde 1 . 
 
 "The King, the Queen-mother, and I shall all be present, 
 with all the Court and the Ambassadors " 
 
 "Quite a high day?" said the Prince ironically. 
 
 "Better than that," said the young Queen, "an auto- 
 da-fe, a function of high political purport. The gentlemen 
 of France must be subjugated by the Crown; they must be 
 cured of tlieir taste for faction and manoeuvring " 
 
 "You will not cure them of their warlike temper by show- 
 ing them their danger, madame, and at this game you risk the 
 Crown itself," replied the Prince. 
 
 At the end of this dinner, which was gloomy enough, Queen 
 Mary was so unfortunately daring as to turn the conversation 
 publicly on the trial which the nobles, taken under arms, 
 were at that moment undergoing, and to speak of the neces- 
 sity for giving the utmost solemnity to their execution. 
 
 "But, madame," said Francis II., "is it not enough for the 
 King of France to know that the blood of so many brave 
 gentlemen must be shed? Must it be a cause of triumph?" 
 
 "No, sir, but an example," replied Catherine. 
 
 "Your grandfather and your father were in the habit of 
 seeing heretics burned," said Mary Stuart. 
 
 "The kings who reigned before me went their way," said 
 Francis, "and I mean to go mine." 
 
 "Philip II.," Catherine went on, "who is a great king lately, 
 when he was in the Netherlands, had an auto-da-fe postponed 
 till he should have returned to Valladolid." 
 
 "What do you think about it, cousin?" said the King to 
 the Prince de Conde. 
 
 "Sir, you cannot avoid going; the Papal Nuncio and the 
 Ambassadors must be present. For my part, I am delighted 
 to go if the ladies are to be of the party." 
 
 The Prince, at a glance from Catherine de' Medici, had 
 boldly taken his line. 
 
 While the Prince de Conde was being admitted to the 
 chateau of Amboise, the furrier to the two Queens was also 
 arriving from Paris, brought thither by the uneasiness pro-
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 151 
 
 duced by the reports of the Kebellion, not only in himself and 
 his family, but also in the Lalliers. 
 
 At the gate of the chateau, when the old man craved ad- 
 mission, the captain of the Guard, at the words "Queen's 
 furrier," answered at once : 
 
 "My good man, if you want to be hanged, you have only 
 to set foot in the courtyard." 
 
 On hearing this, the unhappy father sat down on a rail 
 a little way off, to wait till some attendant on either of the 
 Queens, or some woman of the Court, should pass him, to 
 ask for some news of his son; but he remained there the 
 whole day without seeing anybody he knew, and was at last 
 obliged to go down into the town, where he found a lodging, 
 not without difficulty, in an inn on the Square where the 
 executions were to take place. He was obliged to pay a livre 
 a day to secure a room looking out on the Square. 
 
 On the following day, he was brave enough to look on 
 from his window at the rebels who had been condemned to the 
 wheel, or to be hanged, as men of minor importance; and 
 the Syndic of the Furriers' Guild was glad enough not to 
 find his son among the sufferers. 
 
 When it was all over, he went to place himself in the 
 clerk's way. Having mentioned his name, and pressed a 
 purse full of crown-pieces into the man's hand, he begged him 
 to see whether, in the three former days of execution, the 
 name of Christophe Lecamus had occurred. The registrar, 
 touched by the despairing old father's manners and tone of 
 voice, conducted him to his own house. After carefully com- 
 paring notes, he could assure the old man that the said Chris- 
 tophe was not among those who had hitherto been executed, 
 nor was he named among those who were to die within the 
 next few days. 
 
 "My dear master," said the clerk to the furrier, "the 
 Parlement is now engaged in trying the lords and gentlemen 
 concerned in the business, and the principal leaders. So, 
 possibly, your son is imprisoned in the chateau, and will be 
 one in the magnificent execution for which my lords the Due
 
 152 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 de Guise and the Cardinal de Lorraine are making great 
 preparations. Twenty-seven barons are to be beheaded, with 
 eleven counts and seven marquises, fifty gentlemen in all, 
 and leaders of the Eeformers. As the administration of jus- 
 tice in Touraine has no connection with that of the Paris 
 Parlement, if you positively must have some news of your 
 son, go to my Lord the Chancellor Olivier, who, by the orders 
 of the Lieutenant-General of the kingdom, has the manage- 
 ment of the proceedings." 
 
 Three times did the poor old man go to the Chancellor's 
 house and stand in a file of people in the courtyard, in com- 
 mon with an immense number of people who had come to 
 pray for their relations' lives; but as titled folks were ad- 
 mitted before the middle class, he was obliged to give up all 
 hope of speaking with the Chancellor, though he saw him 
 several times coming out of his house to go either to the 
 chateau or to the Commission appointed by the Parlement, 
 along a way cleared for him by soldiers, between two hedges 
 of petitioners who were thrust aside. 
 
 It was a dreadful scene of misery, for among this crowd 
 were wives, daughters, and mothers, whole families in tears. 
 Old Lecamus gave a great deal of gold to the servants at the 
 chateau, enjoining on them that they should deliver certain 
 letters he wrote to la Dayelle, Queen Mary's waiting-woman, 
 or to the Queen-mother's woman; but the lackeys took the 
 good man's money, and then, by the Cardinal's orders, handed 
 all letters to the Provost of the Law Court. As a consequence 
 of their unprecedented cruelty, the Princes of Lorraine had 
 cause to fear revenge ; and they never took greater precautions 
 than during the stay of the Count at Amboise, so that neither 
 the most effectual bribery, that of gold, nor the most diligent 
 inquiries brought the furrier any light as to his son's fate. 
 He wandered about the little town in a melancholy way, 
 watching the tremendous preparations that the Cardinal was 
 making for the shocking spectacle at which the Prince de 
 Cond6 was to be present. 
 
 Public curiosity was being stimulated, by every means in
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 153 
 
 use at the time, from Paris to Nantes. The execution had 
 been announced from the pulpit by every preacher, in a 
 breath with the King's victory over the heretics. 
 
 Three elegant stands, the centre one apparently to be the 
 finest of the three, were being erected against the curtain- 
 wall of the chateau, at the foot of which the execution was 
 to take place. All round the open space raised wooden seats 
 were being put up, after the fashion of an amphitheatre, to 
 accommodate the enormous crowd attracted by the notoriety 
 of this auto-da-fe. About ten thousand persons were camp- 
 ing out in the fields on the day before this hideous spectacle. 
 The roofs were crowded with spectators, and windows were 
 let for as much as ten livres, an enormous sum at that time. 
 
 The unhappy father had, as may be supposed, secured one 
 of the best places for commanding a view of the Square 
 where so many men of family were to perish, on a huge scaf- 
 fold erected in the middle, and covered with black cloth. On 
 the morning of the fatal day, the headsman's block, on 
 which the victim laid his head, kneeling in front of it, was 
 placed on the scaffold, and an armchair, hung with black, 
 for the Eecorder of the Court, whose duty it was to call the 
 condemned by name and read their sentence. The enclosure 
 was guarded from early morning by the Scotch soldiers and 
 the men-at-arms of the King's household, to keep the crowd 
 out till the hour of the executions. 
 
 After a solemn mass in the chapel of the chateau and in 
 every church in the town, the gentlemen were led forth, the 
 last survivors of all the conspirators. These men, some of 
 whom had been through the torture chamber, were collected 
 round the foot of the scaffold, and exhorted by monks, who 
 strove to persuade them to renounce the doctrines of Calvin. 
 But not one would listen to these preachers, turned on to 
 them by the Cardinal de Lorraine, among whom, no doubt, 
 these gentlemen feared that there might be some spies on 
 behalf of the Guises. 
 
 To escape being persecuted with these exhortations, they 
 began to sing a psalm turned into French verse by Clement
 
 154 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 Marot. Calvin, as is well known, had decreed that God 
 should be worshiped in the mother-tongue of every country, 
 from motives of common sense as well as from antagonism 
 to the Roman Church. It was a pathetic moment for all 
 those among the throng, who felt for these gentlemen, when 
 ^hey heard this verse sung at the moment when the Court 
 appeared on the scene: 
 
 Lord, help us in our need! 
 Lord, bless us with Thy grace! 
 And on the saints in sore distress 
 Let shine Thy glorious face! 
 
 The eyes of the Reformers all centered on the Prince de 
 Conde, who was intentionally placed between Queen Mary 
 and the Due d'Orleans. Queen Catherine de' Medici sat next 
 her son, with the Cardinal on her left. The Papal Nuncio 
 stood behind the two Queens. The Lieutenant-General of the 
 kingdom was on horseback, below the Royal stand, with two 
 marshals of France and his captains. As soon as the Prince 
 de Conde appeared, all the gentlemen sentenced to death, to 
 whom he was known, bowed to him, and the brave hunchback 
 returned the salutation. 
 
 "It is hard," said he to the Due d'Orleans, "not to be civil 
 to men who are about to die/' 
 
 The two other grand stands were fillec by invited guests, 
 by courtiers, and the attendants on their Majesties ; in short, 
 the rank and fashion of the chateau from Blois, who thus 
 rushed from festivities to executions, just as they afterwards 
 rushed from the pleasures of Court life to the perils of war, 
 with a readiness which to foreigners will always be one of 
 the mainsprings of their policy in France. The poor Syndic 
 of the Furriers' Guild felt the keenest joy at failing to discern 
 his son among the fifty-seven gentlemen condemned to death. 
 
 At a signal from the Due de Guise, the clerk, from the 
 top of the scaffold, called out at once, in a loud voice :
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 155 
 
 "Jean-Louis-Alberic, Baron de Raunay, guilty of heresy, 
 of the crime of high treason, and of bearing arms against the 
 King's Majesty." 
 
 A tall, handsome man mounted the scaffold with a firm 
 step, bowed to the people and to the Court, and said : 
 
 "The indictment is false; I bore arms to deliver the King 
 from his enemies of Lorraine !" 
 
 He laid his head on the block, and it fell. 
 
 The Reformers sang: 
 
 Thou, Lord, hast proved our faith 
 And searched our soul's desire, 
 And purified our froward hearts. 
 As silver proved by fire. 
 
 "Robert-Jean-Rene Briquemaut, Comte de Villemongis, 
 guilty of high treason and rebellion against the King," cried 
 the Recorder. 
 
 The Count dipped his hands in the Baron de Raunay's 
 blood, and said: 
 
 "May this blood be on the head of those who are truly 
 guilty!" 
 
 The Reformers sang on : 
 
 Thou, Lord, hast led our feet 
 Where foes had laid their snare; 
 To Thee, O Lord, the glory be, 
 Though we should perish there. 
 
 "Confess, my lord Nuncio," said the Prince de Conde, 
 "that if French gentlemen know how to plot, they also know 
 how to die." 
 
 "What hatred you are entailing on the heads of your chil-j 
 dren, brother," said the Duchesse de Guise to the Cardinal 
 de Lorraine. 
 
 "The sight makes me feel sick," said the young King, who 
 had turned pale at the sight of all this bloodshed. 
 
 "Pooh ! Rebels !" said Catherine de' Medici.
 
 15i ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 Still the hymn went on, still the axe was plied. At last the 
 sublime spectacle of men who could die singing, and, above 
 all, the impression produced on the crowd by the gradual 
 dwindling of the voices, became stronger than the terror in- 
 spired by the Guises. 
 
 "Mercy I" cried the mob, when they heard at last only the 
 feeble chant of a single victim, reserved till the last, as being 
 the most important. 
 
 He was standing alone at the foot of the steps leading up 
 to the scaffold, and sang : 
 
 Lord, help us in our need! 
 Lord, bless us with Thy grace! 
 And on the saints in sore distress 
 Let shine Thy glorious face! 
 
 "Come, Due de Nemours," said the Prince de Conde, who 
 was tired of his position ; "you, to whom the securing of the 
 victory is due, and who helped to entrap all these people, do 
 not you feel that you ought to ask the life of this one? It 
 is Castelnau, who, as I was told, had your promise for courte- 
 ous treatment when he surrendered " 
 
 "Did I wait to see him here before trying to save him?'* 
 said the Due de Nemours, stung by this bitter reproof. 
 
 The clerk spoke slowly, intentionally, no doubt: 
 
 "Michel-Jean-Louis, Baron de Castelnau-Chalosse, ac- 
 cused and convicted of the crime of high treason, and of 
 fighting against his Majesty the King." 
 
 "No," retorted Castelnau haughtily; "it can be no crime 
 to oppose the tyranny and intended usurpation of the 
 Guises !" 
 
 The headsman, who was tired, seeing some stir in the royal 
 seats, rested on his axe. 
 
 "Monsieur le Baron," said he, "I should be glad not to hurt 
 you. One minute may perhaps save you." 
 
 And all the people shouted again for mercy. 
 
 "Come," said the King, "a pardon for poor Castelnau, who 
 saved the Due d'Orleans."
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 157 
 
 The Cardinal intentionally misinterpreted the word 
 "Come." He nodded to the executioner, and Castelnau's head 
 fell at the moment when the King pronounced his pardon. 
 
 "That one goes to your account, Cardinal," said Catherine. 
 
 On the day after this horrible massacre, the Prince de 
 Conde set out for Navarre. 
 
 This affair made a great sensation throughout France and 
 in every foreign Court. The torrents of noble blood then} 
 shed caused the Chancellor Olivier such deep grief, that this 
 admirable judge, seeing the end at which the Guises were 
 aiming, felt that he was not strong enough to hold his own 
 against them. Although they had made him what he was, 
 he would not sacrifice his duty and the Monarchy to them; 
 he retired from public life, suggesting that 1'Hopital should 
 be his successor. Catherine, on hearing of Olivier's choice, 
 proposed Birague for the post of Chancellor, and urged her 
 request with great pertinacity. The Cardinal, who knew 
 nothing of the note written to Catherine by 1'Hopital, and 
 who believed him still faithful to the House of Lorraine, 
 upheld him as Birague's rival, and the Queen-mother af- 
 fected to be overridden. 
 
 L'Hopital was no sooner appointed than he took steps to 
 prevent the introduction into France of the Holy Office, which 
 the Cardinal de Lorraine wished to establish; and he so 
 effectually opposed the Anti-Gallican measures and policy of 
 the Guises, and showed himself so sturdy a Frenchman, that 
 within three months of his appointment he was exiled, to 
 reduce his spirit, to his estate of le Vignay, near Etampes. 
 
 Old Lecamus impatiently waited till the Court should 
 leave Amboise, for he could find no opportunity of speaking 
 to either Queen Mary or Queen Catherine ; but he hoped to be 
 able to place himself in their way at the time when the Court 
 should be moving along the river-bank on the way back to 
 Blois. The furrier dressed himself as a poor man, at the 
 risk of being seized as a spy, and favored by this disguise, he 
 mingled with the beggars who stood by the wayside. 
 
 After the departure of the Prince de Conde, the Duke and
 
 158 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 the Cardinal thought that they had silenced the Reformed 
 party, and they left the Queen-mother a little more liberty. 
 Lecamus knew that Catherine, instead of traveling in a litter, 
 liked to ride on horseback on a planchette, as it was called, 
 a side saddle with a foot-rest. This sort of stirrup was in- 
 vented by or for Catherine, who, having hurt her leg, rested 
 both feet on a velvet sling, sitting sideways, and supporting 
 one knee in a hollow cut in the saddle. As the Queen had 
 very fine legs, she was accused of having hit on this device 
 for displaying them. 
 
 Thus the old man was able to place himself in sight of the 
 Queen-mother ; but when she saw him, she affected anger. 
 
 "Go away from hence, good man, and let no one see you 
 speaking to me," she said with some anxiety. "Get yourself 
 appointed delegate to the States-General from the corporation 
 of Paris Guilds, and be on my side in the Assembly at 
 Orleans, you will then hear something definite about your 
 son " 
 
 "Is he alive ?" said the old man. 
 
 "Alas !" said the Queen, "I hope it." 
 
 And Lecamus was obliged to return home with this sad 
 reply, and the secret as to the convocation of the States- 
 General, which the Queen had told him. 
 
 Some days before this, the Cardinal de Lorraine had re- 
 ceived information as to the guilt of the Court of Navarre. 
 At Lyons, and at Mouvans in Dauphine, the Reformers, 
 commanded by the most enterprising of the Bourbon princes, 
 had tried to inflame the population. This daring attempt, 
 after the dreadful executions at Amboise, astonished the 
 Guises, who, to put an end to heresy, no doubt, by some 
 means of which they kept the secret, proposed to assemble 
 the States-General at Orleans. Catherine de' Medici, who 
 saw a support for her own policy in the representations of 
 the nation, consented with joy. The Cardinal, who aimed at 
 recapturing his prey, and overthrowing the House of Bour- 
 bon, convoked the States solely to secure the presence of the
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 1S9 
 
 Prince de Conde and of the King of Navarre, Antoine de 
 Bourbon, father of Henri IV. He then meant to make use 
 of Christophe to convict the Prince of high treason if he 
 were able once more to get him into the King's power. 
 
 After spending two months in the prison of Blois, Chris- 
 tophe one morning was carried out on a litter lying on a mat- 
 tress, was embarked on a barge, and taken up the river to 
 Orleans before a westerly breeze. He reached that town the 
 same evening, and was taken to the famous tower of Saint- 
 Aignan. Christophe, who knew not what to make of his 
 transfer, had time enough for meditation on his behavior 
 and on his future prospects. There he remained two months 
 more, on his bed, unable to use his legs. His bones were 
 crushed. When he begged to be allowed the help of a sur- 
 geon, the jailer told him that his orders with regard to his 
 prisoner were so strict that he dared not allow any one else 
 even to bring him his food. This severity, of which the effect 
 was absolutely solitary confinement, surprised Christophe. 
 His idea was that he must be either hanged or released; he 
 knew nothing whatever of the events happening at Amboise. 
 
 In spite of the secret warnings to remain at home sent 
 to them by Catherine de' Medici, the two chiefs of the 
 House of Bourbon determined to appear at the meeting of 
 the States-General, since autograph letters from the King 
 were reassuring; and when the Court was settling at Orleans, 
 Groslot, the Chancellor of Navarre, announced their advent, 
 to the surprise of all. 
 
 Francis II. took up his quarters in the house of the Chan- 
 cellor of Navarre, who was also the Bailli or Eecorder of 
 Orleans. This man Groslot, whose double appointment is 
 one of the odd features of a time when Eeformers were in 
 possession of abbeys Groslot, the Jacques Cceur of Orleans, 
 one of the richest citizens of his day, did not leave his name 
 to his house. It came to be known as the Bailliage, having 
 been purchased, no doubt, from his heirs, by the Crown, or by 
 the provincial authorities, to be the seat of that tribunal. 
 This elegant structure, built by the citizens of the sixteenth
 
 160 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 century, adds a detail to the history of a time when the King, 
 the nobility, and the middle- class vied with each other in 
 wealth, elegance, and splendor; especially in their dwellings 
 as may be seen at Varangeville, Ango's magnificent manor- 
 house, and the Hotel d'Hercules, as it is called, in Paris, 
 which still exists, but in a condition that is the despair of 
 archaeologists and of lovers of mediasval art. 
 
 Those who have been to Orleans can hardly have failed 
 to observe the Hotel de Ville in the Place de FEstape. This 
 townhall is the Old Bailli's Court, the Hotel Groslot, the 
 most illustrious and most neglected house in Orleans. 
 
 The remains of this hotel plainly show to the archasologist's 
 eye how magnificent it must once have been, at a time when 
 citizens built their houses more of wood than of stone, and 
 the upper ranks alone had the right to build manor-houses, 
 a word of special meaning. Since it served as the King's resi- 
 dence at a time when the Court made so much display of 
 pomp and luxury, the Hotel Groslot must then have been the 
 largest and finest house in Orleans. 
 
 It was on the Place de FEstape that the Guises and the 
 King held a review of the municipal guard, to which Mon- 
 sieur de Cypierre was nominated captain during the King's 
 visit. At that time, the Cathedral of Sainte-Croix after- 
 wards finished by Henri IV., who desired to set the seal to his 
 conversion was being built, and the surrounding ground, 
 strewn with blocks of stone and encumbered with piles of 
 timber, was held by the Guises, who lodged in the Bishop's 
 palace, now destroyed. 
 
 The town was in military occupation, and the measures 
 adopted by the Guises plainly showed how little liberty they 
 intended to give to the States-General, while the delegates 
 flocked into the town and raised the rents of the most 
 wretched lodgings. The Court, the municipal militia, the 
 nobles, and the citizens all alike expected some Coup d'Etat; 
 and their expectations were fulfilled when the Princes of the 
 Blood arrived. 
 
 As soon as the two Princes entered the King's room, the
 
 ABOUT CATHEKINE DE' MEDICI 161 
 
 Court saw with dismay how insolent was the behavior of the 
 Cardinal de Lorraine, who, to assert his audacious preten- 
 sions, kept his head covered, while the King of Navarre 
 before him was bareheaded. Catherine de' Medici stood with 
 downcast eyes, not to betray her indignation. A solemn ex- 
 planation then took place between the young King and the 
 two heads of the younger branch. It was brief, for at the 
 first words spoken by the Prince de Conde, Francis II. closed 
 the discussion by saying: 
 
 "My lords and cousins, I fancied the incident of Amboise 
 was at an end; it is not so, and we shall see cause to regret 
 our indulgence !" 
 
 "It is not the King who speaks thus," said the Prince de 
 Conde, "but Messieurs de Guise." 
 
 "Good-day, monsieur," said the little King, crimson with 
 rage. 
 
 As he went through the great hall, the Prince was stopped 
 by the two captains of the Guards. When the officer of the 
 French Guard stepped forward, the Prince took a letter out 
 of the breast of his doublet and said, in the presence of all 
 the Court: 
 
 "Can you read me this, Monsieur de Maille-Breze ?" 
 
 "With pleasure," said the French captain: 
 
 " 'Cousin, come in all security ; I give you my royal word 
 that you may. If you need a safe conduct, these presents will 
 serve you.' '' 
 
 "And signed ?" said the bold and mischievous hunch- 
 back. 
 
 "Signed Trangois,' " said Maille. 
 
 "Nay, nay," replied the Prince, "it is signed Tour good 
 cousin and friend, Frangois !' Gentlemen," he went on, 
 Turning to the Scotch Guard, "I will follow you to the prison 
 whither you are to escort me by the King's orders. There is 
 enough noble spirit in this room to understand that." 
 
 The utter silence that reigned in the room might have
 
 162 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 enlightened the Guises, but silence is the last thing that 
 princes listen to. 
 
 "Monseigneur," said the Cardinal de Tournon, who was 
 following the Prince, "since the day at Amboise you have 
 taken steps in opposition to royal authority at Lyons and at 
 Mouvans in Dauphine things of which the King knew noth- 
 ing when he addressed you in those terms." 
 
 "Rascals !" cried the Prince, laughing. 
 
 "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 ! But you owe homage to the 
 Crown," replied the President de Thou. 
 
 "Ah, you are here, President !" exclaimed the Prince iron- 
 ically. "And is all the Parlement with you?" 
 
 With these words the Prince flashed a look of contempt 
 at the Cardinal and left the room; he understood that his 
 head was in peril. 
 
 On the following day, when Messieurs de Thou, de Viole, 
 d'Espesse, Bourdin the public prosecutor, and du Tillet, the 
 chief clerk, came into his prison, he kept them standing, and 
 expressed his regrets at seeing them engaged on a business 
 which did not concern them ; then he said to the clerk : 
 
 "Write." 
 
 And he dictated as follows : 
 
 "I, Louis de Bourbon, Prince de Conde, peer of the realm, 
 Marquis de Conti, Comte de Soissons, Prince of the Blood 
 of France, formally refuse to recognize any Commission ap- 
 pointed to try me, inasmuch as that by virtue of my rank and 
 the privileges attaching to every member of the Eoyal Family, 
 I can only be attainted, heard, and judged by a Parlement of 
 all the peers in their places, the Chambers in full assembly,' 
 and the King seated on the bed of justice. You ought to 
 know this better than any one, gentlemen, and this is all you 
 will get of me. For the rest, I trust in God and my Right." 
 
 The magistrates proceeded nevertheless, in spite of the 
 determined silence of the Prince.
 
 4BOUT ! 
 
 Th* K-^J of Navarre *- >***;, * h : 
 his prt* .- * a. wider ow 
 the wfc*'* ' ireuce t*tw** .* ^ u 
 
 for >( the Kieg KIW ' -v f 
 the ^ 
 
 . ut4 r'oaei f * */ -V. i^r- 
 
 
 . ..'; to a ntHtt-Hinan, were wot 
 judges. Tbi" C*r<iin! had thought of i.;> 
 ir:'j :-?*'. *!!;? fat- U f*ce with Chri*t>ph, vk 
 pia.^-<: r,'i *'lh'>ut ;<uTpoe. in s lower room 
 of i9au.t-Aiiu<n. Hud the window kinked out o 
 Each time h<- was exam>n<id by the magistrates. 
 entrenchtnl bmwdf in systematic denial, whj-. 
 prolonged the aitair till the meeting of the State 
 
 " Christophe in prison 
 
 )> the citizens of Pari as a deputy for the "T 
 cain to Orleans * few days* after the Prinot*'* 
 tv*-pt. of wfe?<-h St- f -*1 S.*WH at Etampes, incrrte^^. 
 *%. k -i iiione in the work? 
 MKV'- .ri;- ; -V ovv under the P*>tt 
 
 study t;e ; j : 
 at Court '.*;.' 
 
 plan for r,-%t"ais 
 recourse to Quo-i 
 rier. No one of ;t 
 him any satisfac^<> 
 and he had sunk t< 
 to addrci-.-- himscMf 
 sieur de Thou ha-1 
 of the Prince de 
 great jurist. The 
 and leaniod that f.v
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 163 
 
 The King of Navarre was at liberty, but closely watched; 
 his prison was a wider one than the Prince's, and that was 
 the whole difference between his position and his brother's; 
 for the heads of the King and the Prince were to be felled at 
 the same time. 
 
 So Christophe was so closely confined by order of the Car- 
 dinal and the Lieutenant-General of the kingdom only to 
 afford proof to the judges of the Prince's guilt. The letters 
 found on the person of La Sagne, the Prince's secretary, 
 intelligible to a statesman, were not clear enough for the 
 judges. The Cardinal had thought of bringing the Prince 
 accidentally face to face with Christophe, who had been 
 placed, not without a purpose, in a lower room of the tower 
 of Saint-Aignan, and the window looked out on the yard. 
 Each time he was examined by the magistrates, Christophe 
 entrenched himself in systematic denial, which naturally 
 prolonged the affair till the meeting of the States-General. 
 
 Lecamus, who had made a point of getting himself elected 
 by the citizens of Paris as a deputy for the "Third Estate," 
 came to Orleans a few days after the Prince's arrest. This 
 event, of which he had news at Etampes, increased his alarms, 
 for he understood he who alone in the world knew of his 
 son's interview with the Prince under the Pont -au Change 
 that Christophe's fate was bound up with that of the rashly 
 daring head of the Eeformation party. So he determined to 
 study the mysterious interests which had become so entangled 
 at Court since the States had met, so as to hit upon some 
 plan for rescuing his son. It was in vain to think of having 
 recourse to Queen Catherine, who refused to receive the fur- 
 rier. No one of the Court to whom he had access could give 
 him any satisfactory information with regard to Christophe, 
 and he had sunk to such depths of despair that he was about 
 to address himself to the Cardinal, when he heard that Mon- 
 sieur de Thou had accepted the office of one of the judges 
 of the Prince de Conde a blot on the good fame of tnat 
 great jurist. The Syndic went to call on his son's patron, 
 and learned that Christophe was alive but a prisoner.
 
 164 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 Tourillon, the glover, to whose house la Renaudie had sent 
 Christophe, had offered a room to the Sieur Lecamus for the 
 whole time during which the States-General should be sitting. 
 He believed the furrier to be, like himself, secretly attached to 
 the Reformed religion; but he soon perceived that a father 
 who fears for his son's life thinks no more of shades of re- 
 ligious dogma; he throws himself soul and body on the 
 mercy of God, never thinking of the badge he wears before 
 'men. 
 
 The old man, repulsed at every attempt, wandered half- 
 witless about the streets. Against all his expectations, his 
 gold was of no avail; Monsieur de Thou had warned him 
 that even if he should bribe some servant of the Guise house- 
 hold, he would only be so much out of pocket, for the Duke 
 and the Cardinal allowed nothing to be known concerning 
 Christophe. This judge, whose fair fame is somewhat tar- 
 nished by the part he played at this juncture, had tried to 
 give the unhappy father some hope; but he himself trembled 
 for his godson's life, and his consolations only added to the 
 furrier's alarm. The old man was always prowling round 
 the house; in three months he grew quite thin. 
 
 His only hope now lay in the warm friendship which had 
 so long bound him to the Hippocrates of the sixteenth cen- 
 tury. Ambroise Pare tried to say a word to Queen Mary 
 as he came out of the King's room; but the instant he men- 
 tioned Christophe, the daughter of the Stuarts, annoyed by 
 the prospect before her in the event of any ill befalling the 
 King, whom she believed to have been poisoned by the Re- 
 formers, as he had been taken suddenly ill, replied : 
 
 "If my uncles would take my opinion, such a fanatic would 
 have been hanged before now." 
 
 On the evening when this ominous reply had been repeated 
 to Lecamus by his friend Pare, on the Place de TEstape, he 
 went home half dead, and retired to his room, refusing to 
 eat any supper. 
 
 Tourillon, very uneasy, went upstairs, and found the old 
 man in tears; and as the poor furrier's feeble eyes showed
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 165 
 
 the reddened and wrinkled linings of the lids, the glover 
 believed that they were tears of blood. 
 
 "Be comforted, father/' said the Huguenot, "the citizens 
 of Orleans are enraged at seeing their town treated as if it 
 had been taken by assault, and guarded by Monsieur de 
 Cypierre's soldiery. If the Prince de Conde's life should 
 be in danger, we should very soon demolish the tower of 
 Saint- Aignan, for the whole town is on the Reformers' side, 
 and would rise in rebellion, you may be quite certain." 
 
 "But even if the Guises were seized, would their death give 
 me back my son?" said the unhappy father. 
 
 At this instant there was a timid rap at the outer door; 
 Tourillon went down to open it. It was quite dark. In these 
 troubled times the master of every household took elaborate 
 precautions. Tourillon looked out through the bars of a wicket 
 in the door, and saw a stranger, whose accent betrayed him as 
 an Italian. This man, dressed in black, asked to see Lecamus 
 on matters of business, and Tourillon showed him in. At the 
 sight of the stranger the old furrier quaked visibly, but the 
 visitor had time to lay a finger on his lips. Lecamus, under- 
 standing the gesture, immediately said : 
 
 "You have come to offer furs for sale, I suppose ?" 
 
 "Si" replied the stranger in Italian, with an air of privity. 
 
 This man was, in fact, the famous Euggieri, the Queen- 
 mother's astrologer. Tourillon went downstairs, perceiving 
 that he was not wanted. 
 
 "Where can we talk without fear of being overheard?" 
 said the astute Florentine. 
 
 "Only in the open fields," replied Lecamus. "But we shall 
 not be allowed out of the town; you know how strictly the; 
 gates are guarded. No one can pass out without an order 
 from Monsieur de Cypierre, not even a member of the As- 
 sembly like myself. Indeed, at to-morrow's sitting we all in- 
 tend to complain of this restriction on our liberty." 
 
 "Work like a mole, never let your paws be seen in any kind 
 of business," replied the wily Florentine. "To-morrow will 
 no doubt be a decisive day. From my calculations, to-morrow, 
 or soon after, you will perhaps see your son."
 
 166 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 "God grant it ! Though you are said to deal only with the 
 Devil V 
 
 "Come and see me at home," said the astrologer, smiling. 
 "I watch the stars from the tower belonging to the Sieur 
 Touchet du Beauvais, the Lieutenant of the Bailiwick, whose 
 daughter has found favor in the eyes of the little Due d' Or- 
 leans. I have cast the girl's horoscope, and it does in fact por- 
 tend that she will become a great lady and be loved by a King. 
 The Lieutenant is a clever fellow, he is interested in science, 
 and the Queen found me lodgings with the good man, who is 
 cunning enough to be a rabid Gruisard till Charles IX. comes 
 to the throne." 
 
 The furrier and the astrologer made their way to the Sieur 
 du Beauvais' house without being seen or interfered with; 
 and in the event of Lecamus being discovered, Euggieri meant 
 to afford him a pretext in his desire to consult the astrologer 
 as to his son's fate. 
 
 When they had climbed to the top of the turret where the 
 astrologer had established himself, Lecamus said: 
 
 "Then my son is really alive ?" 
 
 "At present," said the Italian. "But we must make haste 
 to save him. Kemember, seller of skins, that I would not 
 give two farthings for yours if in the whole course of your 
 life you breathe one word of what I am about to tell you." 
 
 "The warning is not needed, master. I have been furrier 
 to the Court since the time of the late King Louis XII., and 
 this is the fourth reign I have lived under." 
 
 "And you may soon say the fifth," replied Euggieri. 
 
 "What do you know of my son?" 
 
 "Well, he has been through the torture-chamber." 
 
 "Poor boy !" sighed the old man, looking up to heaven. 
 
 "His knees and ankles are a little damaged, but he has 
 gained royal protection, which will be over him as long as he 
 lives," the Florentine added, on seeing the father's horror. 
 "Your little Christophe has done good service to our great 
 Queen Catherine. If we can get your son out of the clutches 
 of the Cardinal, you will see him Councillor in the Parlement
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 167 
 
 yet. And a man would let his bones be broken three times 
 over to find himself in the good graces of that beloved sov- 
 ereign a real genius she, who will triumph over every ob- 
 stacle. 
 
 "I have cast the horoscope of the Due de Guise: he will 
 be killed within a year. Come now, Christophe did meet the 
 Prince de Conde " 
 
 "You know the future, do not JOB. know the past ?" the fur- 
 rier put in. 
 
 "I am not questioning you, I am informing you, good man. 
 Well, your son will be placed to-morrow where the Prince will 
 pass by. If he recognizes him, or if the Prince recognizes 
 your son, Monsieur de Conde forfeits his head. As to what 
 would become of his accomplice God only knows ! But be 
 easy. Neither your son nor the Prince is doomed to die; I 
 have read their destiny; they will live. But by what means 
 they may escape I know not. Now we will do what we can, 
 apart from the certainty of my calculations. Monsieur de 
 Conde shall get a prayer-book to-morrow, delivered to him 
 by a safe hand, in which he shall find a warning. God grant 
 that your son may be secretive, for he can have no warning ! 
 And a mere flash of recognition would cost the Prince his 
 life. Thus, although the Queen-mother has every reason to 
 depend on Christophe's fidelity " 
 
 "He has been put to cruel tests," cried the furrier. 
 
 "Do not speak in that way. Do you suppose that the Queen 
 is dancing for joy? She is indeed going to take her meas- 
 ures exactly as though the Guises had decided on the Prince's 
 death ; and she is wise, that shrewd and prudent Queen ! Now 
 she counts on you to help her in every way. You have some 
 influence in the Third Estate,' where you are the representa- 
 tive of the Guilds of Paris ; and even if the Guisards should 
 promise to set your son at liberty, try to deceive them and 
 stir up your class against the Princes of Lorraine. Vote for 
 the Queen-mother as Kegent ; the King of Navarre will give 
 his assent to that publicly, to-morrow, in the Assembly." 
 
 "But the King?"
 
 168 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 "The King will die," said Kuggieri ; "I have read it in the 
 stars. What the Queen requires of you in the Assembly is 
 very simple; but she needs a greater service from you than 
 that. You maintained the great Ambroise Pare while he was 
 a student ; you are his friend " 
 
 "Ambroise loves the Due de Guise in these days better than 
 he loves me," said the furrier. "And he is right; he owes 
 his place to him. Still, he is faithful to the King. And, al- 
 though he has a leaning towards the Eeformation, he will do 
 nothing but his duty." 
 
 "A plague on all honest men !" cried the Florentine. "Am- 
 broise boasted this evening that he could pull the little King- 
 through. If the King recovers his health, the Guises must 
 triumph, the Princes are dead men, the House of Bourbon is 
 extinct, we go back to Florence, your son is hanged, and the 
 Guises will make short work of the rest of the Eoyal 
 Family " 
 
 "Great God!" cried Lecanras. 
 
 "Do not exclaim in that way ; it is like a citizen who knows 
 nothing of Court manners; but go forthwith to Ambroise, 
 and find out what he means to do to save the King. If it 
 seems at all certain, come and tell me what the operation 
 is in which he has such faith." 
 
 "But " Lecamus began. 
 
 "Obey me blindly, my good friend, otherwise you will be 
 dazzled." 
 
 "He is right," thought the furrier. 
 
 And he went off to the King's surgeon, who lived in an 
 inn in the Place du Martroi. 
 
 At this juncture Catherine de' Medici found herself, polit- 
 ically speaking, in the same extremities as she had been in 
 when Christophe had seen her at Blois. Though she had 
 inured herself to the struggle, and had exerted her fine in- 
 tellect in that first defeat, her situation, though precisely 
 the same now as then, was even more critical and dangerous 
 than at the time of the riots at Amboise. Events had grown
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 169 
 
 in magnitude, and the Queen had grown with them. Though 
 she seemed to proceed in agreement with the Princes of Lor- 
 raine, Catherine held the threads of a conspiracy skilfully 
 plotted against her terrible associates, and was only waiting 
 for a favorable moment to drop her mask. 
 
 The Cardinal had just found himself deceived by Cath- 
 erine. The crafty Italian had seen in the younger branch 
 of the Eoyal Family an obstacle she could use to cKeck the 
 pretensions of the Guises ; and, in spite of the counsel of the 
 two Gondis, who advised her to leave the Guises to act with 
 what violence they could against the Bourbons, she had, by 
 warning the Queen of Navarre, brought to nought the plot to 
 seize Beam concerted by the Guises with the King of Spain. 
 As this State secret was known only to themselves and to 
 Catherine, the Princes of Lorraine were assured of her be- 
 trayal, and they wished to send hex back to Florence; but 
 to secure proofs of Catherine's treachery to the State the 
 House of Lorraine was the State the Duke and Cardinal 
 had just made her privy to their scheme for making away 
 with the King of Navarre. 
 
 The precautions which were immediately taken by Antoine 
 de Bourbon proved to the brothers that this secret, known 
 but to three people, had been divulged by the Queen-mother. 
 The Cardinal de Lorraine accused Catherine of her breach of 
 faith in the presence of the King, threatening her with ban- 
 ishment if any fresh indiscretions on her part should im- 
 peril the State. Catherine, seeing herself in imminent dan- 
 ger, was compelled to act as a high-handed sovereign. She 
 gave ample proof indeed of her fine abilities, but it must also 
 be confessed that she was well served by the friends sha 
 trusted. 
 
 L'Hopital sent her a letter in these terms : 
 
 "Do not allow a Prince of the Blood to be killed by a 
 committee, or you will soon be carried off yourself ." 
 
 Catherine sent Birague to le Vignay, desiring the Chan-
 
 170 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 cellor to come to the Assembly of the States-General, although 
 he was in banishment. Birague returned the same evening 
 with 1'Hopital, halting within three leagues of Orleans, and 
 the Chancellor thus declared himself on the side of the 
 Queen-mother. 
 
 Chiverni, whose fidelity was with good reason regarded 
 as doubtful by the Guises, had fled from Orleans, and by 
 a forced march, which nearly was his death, he reached 
 fCcouen in ten hours. He there told the Connetable de Mont- 
 morency of the danger his nephew the Prince de Conde was 
 in, and of the encroachments of the Guises. Anne de Mont- 
 morency, furious at learning that the Prince owed his life 
 merely to the sudden illness of which Francis II. was dying, 
 marched up with fifteen hundred horse and a hundred gen- 
 tlemen under arms. The more effectually to surprise the 
 Guises, he had avoided Paris, coming from ficouen to Corbeil, 
 and from Corbeil to Pithiviers by the Valley of the Essonne. 
 
 "Man to man, and both to pull, leaves each but little wool !" 
 he said, on the occasion of this dashing advance. 
 
 Anne de Montmorency, who had been the preserver* of 
 France when Charles V. invaded Provence, and the Due de 
 Guise, who had checked the Emperor's second attempt at 
 Metz, were, in fact, the two greatest French warriors of their 
 time. 
 
 Catherine had waited for the right moment to stir up the 
 hatred of the man whom the Guises had overthrown. The 
 Marquis de Simeuse, in command of the town of Gien, on 
 hearing of the advance of so considerable a force as the Con- 
 n^table brought with him, sprang to horse, hoping to warn 
 the Duke in time. The Queen-mother, meanwhile, certain 
 that the Connetable would come to his nephew's rescue, and 
 confident of the Chancellor's devotion to the royal cause, 
 had fanned the hopes and encouraged the spirit of the Re- 
 formed party. The Colignys and the adherents of the im- 
 periled House of Bourbon had made common cause with the 
 Queen-mother's partisans; a coalition between various an- 
 tagonistic interests, attacked by a common foe, was silently
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 171 
 
 formed in the Assembly of the States, where the question was 
 boldly broached of making Catherine Regent of France in the 
 event of the young King's death. Catherine herself, whose 
 faith in astrology was far greater than her belief in Church 
 I dogmas, had ventured to extremes against her foes when she 
 saw her son dying at the end of the time fixed as his term 
 of life by the famous soothsayer brought to the chateau de 
 Chaumont by Nostradamus. 
 
 A few days before the terrible close of his reign, Francis 
 II. had chosen to go. out on the Loire, so as not to be in the 
 town at the hour of the Prince de Conde's intended execution. 
 Having surrendered the Prince's head to the Cardinal de 
 Lorraine, he feared a riot quite as much as he dreaded the 
 supplications of the Princesse de Conde. As he was embark- 
 ing, a fresh breeze, such as often sweeps the Loire at the 
 approach of winter, gave him so violent an earache that he 
 was forced to return home ; he went to bed, never to leave it 
 alive. 
 
 In spite of the disagreement of the physicians, who, all 
 but Chapelain, were his enemies and opponents, Ambroise 
 Pare maintained that an abscess had formed in the head, 
 and that if no outlet were pierced the chances of the King's 
 death were greater every day. 
 
 In spite of the late hour and the rigorous enforcement of 
 the curfew at that time in Orleans, which was ruled as in a 
 state of siege, Fare's lamp was shining in his window where 
 he was studying. Lecamus called to him from below; and 
 when he had announced his name, the surgeon gave orders 
 that his old friend should be admitted. 
 
 "You give yourself no rest, Ambroise, and while saving 
 the lives of others you will wear out your own," said the 
 furrier as he went in. 
 
 Indeed, there sat the surgeon, his books open, his instru- 
 ments lying about, and before him a skull not long since 
 buried, dug up from the grave, and perforated. 
 
 "I must save the King." 
 
 "Then you are very sure you can, Ambroise ?" said the old 
 man, shuddering.
 
 172 ABOUT CATHERINE DE MEDICI 
 
 "As sure as I am alive. The King, my good old friend, 
 has some evil humor festering on his brain, which will fill it 
 up, and the danger is pressing; but by piercing the skull I 
 let the matter out and free his head. I have already per- 
 formed this operation three times ; it was invented by a Pied- 
 montese, and I have been so lucky as to improve upon it. The 
 first time it was at the siege of Metz, on Monsieur de Pienne, 
 whom I got out of the scrape, and who has only been all the 
 wiser for it; the second time it saved the life of a poor man 
 on whom I wished to test the certainty of this daring opera- 
 tion to which Monsieur de Pienne had submitted; the third 
 time was on a gentleman in Paris, who is now perfectly well. 
 Trepanning for that is the name given to it is as yet 
 little known. The sufferers object to it on the score of the 
 imperfection of the instrument, but that I have been able 
 to improve. So now I am experimenting on this head, to be 
 sure of not failing to-morrow on the King's." 
 
 "You must be very sure of yourself, for your head will be 
 in danger if you " 
 
 "I will wager my life that he is cured," replied Pare, 
 with the confidence of genius. "Oh, my good friend, what is 
 it to make a hole in a skull with due care? It is what sol- 
 diers do every day with no care at all." 
 
 "But do you know, my boy," said the citizen, greatly dar- 
 ing, "that if you save the King, you ruin France? Do you 
 know that your instrument will place the crown of the Valois 
 on the head of a Prince of Lorraine, calling himself the 
 direct heir of Charlemagne? Do you know that surgery 
 and politics are, at this moment, at daggers drawn? Yes, 
 the triumph of your genius will be the overthrow of your 
 religion. If the Guises retain the Eegency, the blood of the 
 Reformers will flow in streams! Be a great citizen rather 
 than a great surgeon, and sleep through to-morrow morning, 
 leaving the King's room free to those leeches who, if they 
 do not save the King, will save France." 
 
 "I !" cried Pare. "I leave a man to die when I can cure 
 him? Never! If I am to be hanged for a Calvinist, I will
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 173 
 
 go to the chateau, all the same, right early to-morrow. l)o 
 not you know that the only favor I mean to ask, when I 
 have saved the King, is your Christophe's life? There will 
 surely be a moment when Queen Mary can refuse me 
 nothing?" 
 
 "Alas, my friend, has not the little King already refused 
 the Princesse de Conde any pardon for her husband? Do 
 not kill your religion by enabling the man to live who ought 
 to die." 
 
 "Are you going to puzzle yourself by trying to find out 
 how God means to dispose of things in the future?" said 
 Pare. "Honest folks have but one motto 'Do your duty, 
 come what may.' I did this at the siege of Calais when I 
 set my foot on the Grand Master; I risked being cut down 
 by all his friends and attendants, and here I am, surgeon to 
 the King; I am a Eeformer, and yet I can call the Guises 
 my friends. I will save the King!" cried the surgeon, with 
 the sacred enthusiasm of conviction that genius knows, "and 
 fjrod will take care of France !" 
 
 There was a knock at the door, and a few minutes later 
 one of Ambroise Fare's servants gave a note to Lecamus, who 
 read aloud these ominous words : 
 
 "A scaffold is being erected at the Convent of the Kecollets 
 for the beheading of the Prince de Conde to-morrow." 
 
 Ambroise and Lecamus looked at each other, both overpow- 
 ered with horror. 
 
 "I will go and make sure," said the furrier. 
 
 Out on the square, Euggieri took Lecamus by the arm, 
 asking what was Pare's secret for saving the King; but the 
 old man, fearing some treachery, insisted on going to see the 
 scaffold. So the astrologer and the furrier went together to 
 the Kecollets, where, in fact, they found carpenters at work 
 by torchlight. 
 
 "Hey day, my friend," said Lecamus to one of them ; "what 
 business is this ?"
 
 174 
 
 "We are preparing to hang some heretics, since the bleeding 
 at Amboise did not cure them," said a young friar, who was 
 superintending the workmen. 
 
 "Monseigneur the Cardinal does well," said the prudent 
 Ruggieri. "But in my country we do even better." 
 
 "What do you do?" 
 
 "We burn them, brother." 
 
 Lecamus was obliged to lean on the astrologer; his legs 
 refused to carry him, for he thought that his son might next, 
 day be swinging to one of those gibbets. The poor old man 
 stood between two sciences astrology and medicine; each 
 promised to save his son, for whom the scaffold was visibly 
 rising. In this confusion of mind he was as wax in the 
 hands of the Florentine. 
 
 "Well, my most respectable vendor of vair, what have you 
 to say to these pleasantries of Lorraine?" said Ruggieri. 
 
 "Woe the day ! You know I would give my own skin to 
 see my boy's safe and sound." 
 
 "That is what I call talking like a skinner," replied the 
 Italian, "But if you will explain to me the operation that 
 Ambroise proposes to perform on the King, I will guarantee 
 your son's life." 
 
 "Truly?" cried the old furrier. 
 
 "What shall I swear by ?" said Ruggieri. 
 
 On this the unhappy old man repeated his conversation 
 with Pare to the Italian, who was off, leaving the disconsolate 
 father in the road the instant he had heard the great sur- 
 geon's secret. 
 
 "Whom the devil does he mean mischief to?" cried Le- 
 camus, as he saw Ruggieri running at his utmost speed 
 towards the Place de 1'Estape. 
 
 Lecamus knew nothing of the terrible scene which was 
 going on by the King's bedside, and which had led to the 
 order being given for the erection of the scaffold for the 
 Prince, who had been sentenced in default, as it were, though 
 his execution was postponed for the moment by the King's 
 illness.
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 175 
 
 There was no one in the hall, on the stairs, or in the court- 
 yard of the Bailli's house but those on actual duty. The 
 crowd of courtiers had resorted to the lodgings of the King 
 of Navarre, who, by the law of the land, was Regent. The 
 French nobles, terrified indeed by the insolence of the Guises, 
 felt an impulse to close their ranks round the chief of the 
 younger branch, seeing that the Queen-mother was sub- 
 servient to the Guises, and not understanding her Italian 
 policy. Antoine de Bourbon, faithful to his secret compact' 
 with Catherine, was not to renounce his claim to the re- 
 gency in her favor till the States-General should have voted 
 on the question. 
 
 This absolute desertion had struck the Grand Master when, 
 on his return from a walk through the town as a precau- 
 tionary measure he found no one about the King but the 
 friends dependent on his fortunes. The room where Francis 
 II.'s bed had been placed adjoins the great hall of the 
 bailiff's residence, and was at that time lined with oak panel- 
 ing. The ceiling, formed of narrow boards, skilfully ad- 
 justed and painted, showed an arabesque pattern in blue on 
 a gold ground, and a piece of it, pulled down about fifty years 
 ago, has been preserved by a collector of antiquities. This 
 room, hung with tapestry, and the floor covered with a carpet, 
 was so dark that the burning tapers scarcely gave it light. 
 The enormous bedstead, with four columnar posts and silk 
 curtains, looked like a tomb. On one side of the bed, by the 
 King's pillow, were Queen Mary and the Cardinal de Lor- 
 raine ; on the other sat Catherine in an armchair. The phy- 
 sician-in-ordinary, the famous Jean Chapelain, afterwards in 
 attendance on Charles IX., was standing by the fireplace. 
 Perfect silence reigned. 
 
 The young King, pale and slight, lost in the sheets, was 
 hardly to be seen, with his small, puckered face on the pillow. 
 The Duchesse de Guise, seated on a stool, was supporting 
 Mary Stuart; and near Catherine, in a window recess, 
 Madame de Fieschi was watching the Queen-mother's looks 
 and gestures, for she understood the perils of her position.
 
 176 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 In the great hall, notwithstanding the late hour, Monsieur 
 de Cypierre, the Due d'Orleans' tutor, appointed to be gov- 
 ernor of the town, occupied a chimney corner with the two 
 Gondis. Cardinal de Tournon, who at this crisis had taken 
 part with Queen Catherine, on finding himself treated as an 
 inferior by the Cardinal de Lorraine, whose equal he un- 
 doubtedly was in the Church, was conversing in a low voice 
 with the brothers Gondi. The Marechal de Vieilleville and 
 Monsieur de Saint-Andre, Keeper of the Seals, were dis- 
 cussing in whispers the imminent danger of the Guises. 
 
 The Due de Guise crossed the hall, glancing hastily about 
 him, and bowed to the Due d'Orleans, whom he recognized. 
 
 "Monseigneur," said he, "this may give you a lesson in 
 the knowledge of men. The Catholic nobility of the kingdom 
 have crowded round a heretic prince, believing that the States 
 assembled will place the Eegency in the hands of the heir 
 to the traitor who so long kept your illustrious grandfather a 
 prisoner." 
 
 And after this speech, which was calculated to make a deep 
 impression on the prince's mind, he went into the bedroom 
 where the young King was lying, not so much asleep as 
 heavily drowsy. As a rule, the Due de Guise had the art 
 of overcoming, by his affable expression, the sinister appear- 
 ance of his scarred features; but at this moment he could 
 not force a smile, seeing the instrument of power quite 
 broken. The Cardinal, whose civic courage was equal to his 
 brother's military valor, came forward a step or two to meet 
 the Lieutenant-General. 
 
 "Kobertet believes that little Pinard has been bought over 
 by the Queen-mother," he said in his ear, as he led him back 
 into the hall. "He has been made use of to work on the 
 members of the Assembly." 
 
 "Bah! what matters our being betrayed by a secretary, 
 when there is treason everywhere?" cried the Duke. "The 
 town is for the Eeformers, and we are on the eve of a revolt. 
 Yes! the Guepins are malcontents," he added, giving the 
 people of Orleans their common nickname, "and if Pare can-
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 177 
 
 not save the King, we shall see a desperate outbreak. Before 
 long we shall have to lay siege to Orleans, which is a vermin's 
 nest of Huguenots." 
 
 "In the last minute," said the Cardinal, "I have been 
 watching that Italian woman, who sits there without a spark 
 of feeling. She is waiting for her son's death, God forgive 
 her! I wonder whether it would not be well to arrest her 
 and the King of Navarre too." 
 
 "It is more than enough to have the Prince de Conde in 
 prison," replied the Duke. 
 
 The sound of a horse ridden at top-speed came up from the 
 gate. The two Princes went to the window, and by the light 
 of the gatekeeper's torch and of the cresset that was always 
 burning under the gateway, the Duke recognized in the 
 rider's hat the famous cross of Lorraine, which the Cardinal 
 had made the badge of their partisans. He sent one of the 
 men-at-arms, who stood in the ante-room, to say that the 
 newcomer was to be admitted ; and he went to the head of the 
 stairs to meet him, followed by his brother. 
 
 "What is the news, my dear Simeuse?" asked the Duke, 
 with the charming manner he always had for a soldier, as 
 he recognized the Commandant of Gien. 
 
 "The Connetable is entering Pithiviers; he left Ecouen 
 with fifteen hundred horse and a hundred gentlemen " 
 
 "Have they any following ?" said the Duke. 
 
 "Yes, monseigneur," replied Simeuse. "There are two 
 thousand six hundred of them in all. Some say that Thore 
 is behind with a troop of infantry. If Montmorency amuses 
 himself with waiting for his son, you have time before you 
 to undo him." 
 
 "And is that all you know ? Are his motives for this rush 
 to arms commonly reported?" 
 
 "Anne speaks as little as he writes; do you go and meet 
 him, brother, while I will greet him here with his nephew's 
 head," said the Cardinal, ordering an attendant to fetch 
 Robertet. 
 
 "Vieilleville," cried the Duke to the Marshal, who came
 
 178 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 in, "the Connetable de Montmorency has dared to take up 
 arms. If I go out to meet him, will you be responsible for 
 keeping order in the town ?" 
 
 "The instant you are out of it, the townsfolk will rise ; and 
 who can foresee the issue of a fray between horsemen and 
 citizens in such narrow streets ?" replied the Marshal. 
 
 "My Lord !" said Eobertet, flying up the stairs, "the Chan- 
 cellor is at the gates, and insists on coming in ; are we to ad- 
 mit him?" 
 
 "Yes, admit him," said the Cardinal de Lorraine. "The 
 Constable and the Chancellor together would be too danger- 
 ous ; we must keep them apart. We were finely tricked by the 
 Queen-mother when we elected 1'Hopital to that office." 
 
 Eobertet nodded to a captain who awaited the reply at the 
 foot of the stairs, and returned quickly to take the Cardinal's 
 orders. 
 
 "My Lord," said he, making a last effort, "I take the 
 liberty of representing to you that the sentence requires the 
 approval of the King in Council. If you violate the law for 
 a Prince of the Blood, it will not be respected in favor of a 
 Cardinal or of a Due de Guise." 
 
 "Pinard has disturbed your mind, Eobertet," said the Car- 
 dinal sternly. "Do you not know that the King signed the 
 warrant on the day when he went out, leaving it to us to 
 carry it out ?" 
 
 "Though you are almost requiring my head of me when 
 you give me this duty which, however, will be that of the 
 town-provost I obey, my Lord." 
 
 The Grand Master heard the debate without wincing; 
 but he took his brother by the arm, and led him to a corner 
 of the hall. 
 
 1 "Of course," said he, "the direct heirs of Charlemagne 
 have the right to take back the crown which was snatched 
 from their family by Hugues Capet; but can they? The 
 pear is not ripe. Our nephew is dying, and all the Court is 
 gone over to the King of Navarre." 
 
 "The King's heart failed him; but for that, the Bearnais
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 179 
 
 would have been stabbed," replied the Cardinal, "and we 
 could easily have disposed of the children." 
 
 "We are in a bad position here," said the Duke. "The 
 revolt in the town will be supported by the States-General. 
 L'Hopital, whom we have befriended so well, and whose ele- 
 vation Queen Catherine opposed, is now our foe, and we need 
 the law on our side. The Queen-mother has too many ad- 
 herents now to allow of our sending her away. And besides, 
 there are three more boys !" 
 
 "She is no longer a mother; she is nothing but a queen," 
 said the Cardinal. "In my opinion, this is the very moment 
 to be rid of her. Energy, and again energy ! that is what I 
 prescribe." 
 
 Having said this, the Cardinal went back into the King's 
 room, and the Duke followed him. The prelate went straight 
 up to Catherine. 
 
 "The papers found on La Sagne, the Prince de Conde's 
 secretary, have been communicated to you," said he. "You 
 know that the Bourbons mean to dethrone your children ?'~ 
 
 "I know it all," said the Queen. 
 
 "Well, then, will you not have the King of Navarre ar- 
 rested?" 
 
 "There is a Lieutenant-General of the kingdom," replied 
 she. 
 
 At this moment Francis complained of the most violent 
 pain in his ear, and began to moan lamentably. The phy- 
 sician left the fireplace, where he was warming himself, and 
 came to examine the patient's head. 
 
 "Well, monsieur?" said the Grand Master, addressing him. 
 
 "I dare not apply a compress to draw the evil humors. 
 Master Ambroise has undertaken to save his Majesty by an 
 operation, and I should annoy him by doing so." 
 
 "Put it off till to-morrow," said Catherine calmly, "and be 
 present, all of you medical men ; for you know what calum- 
 nies the death of a prince gives ground for." 
 
 She kissed her son's hands and withdrew. 
 
 "How coolly that audacious trader's daughter can speak of
 
 180 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 the Dauphin's death, poisoned as he was hy Montccuculi, 
 a Florentine of her suite !" cried Mary Stuart. 
 
 "Marie," said the little King, "my grandfather never cast 
 a suspicion on her innocence." 
 
 "Cannot we hinder that woman from coming here to- 
 morrow ?" said the Queen in an undertone to her two uncles. 
 
 "What would become of us if the King should die?" 
 replied the Cardinal. "Catherine would hurl us all into his 
 grave." 
 
 And so that night the question stood plainly stated between 
 Catherine de' Medici and the House of Lorraine. The ar- 
 rival of the Chancellor and the Connetable de Montmorency 
 pointed to rebellion, and the dawn of the morrow would 
 prove decisive. 
 
 On the following day the Queen-mother was the first to 
 appear. She found no one in her son's room but Mary Stuart, 
 pale and fatigued from having passed the night in prayer by 
 the bedside. The Duchesse de Guise had kept the Queen 
 company, and the maids of honor had relieved each other. 
 The young King was asleep. 
 
 Neither the Duke nor the Cardinal had yet appeared. The 
 prelate, more daring than the soldier, had spent this last 
 night, it is said, in vehement argument, without being able 
 to induce the Duke to proclaim himself King. With the 
 States-General sitting in the town, and the prospect of a 
 battle to be fought with the Constable, the "Balafre" did 
 not think the opportunity favorable; he refused to arrest the 
 Queen-mother, the Chancellor, Cardinal de Tournon, the 
 Gondis, Euggieri, and Birague, in face of the revolt that 
 would inevitably result from such violent measures. He made 
 his brother's schemes dependent on the life of Francis II. 
 
 Perfect silence reigned in the King's bedchamber. Cath- 
 erine, attended by Madame de Fieschi, came to the bedside 
 and gazed at her son with an admirable assumption of grief. 
 She held her handkerchief to her eyes, and retreated to the 
 window, where Madame de Fieschi brought her a chair. 
 From thence she could look down into the courtyard.
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 181 
 
 It had been agreed between Catherine and Cardinal de 
 Tournon that if Montmorency got safely into the town, he, 
 the Cardinal, would come to her, accompanied by the two 
 Gondis; in case of disaster, he was to come alone. At nine 
 in the morning the two Princes of Lorraine, accompanied by 
 their suite, who remained in the hall, came to the King's 
 room. The captain on duty had informed them that Am- 
 broise Pare had but just arrived with Chapelain and three 
 other physicians, prompted by Catherine, and all hating Am- 
 broise. 
 
 In a few minutes the great hall of the Bailliage presented 
 precisely the same appearance as the guardroom at Blois on 
 the day when the Due de Guise was appointed Lieutenant- 
 General of the kingdom, and when* Christophe was tortured ; 
 with only this difference, that then love and glee reigned in 
 the royal rooms, and that the Guises were triumphant; 
 whereas now death and grief prevailed, and the Princes of 
 Lorraine felt the power slipping from their grasp. 
 
 The maids of honor of the two Queens were grouped on 
 opposite sides of the great fireplace, where an immense fire 
 was blazing. The room was full of courtiers. 
 
 The news, repeated no one knows by whom, of a bold plan 
 of Ambroise Fare's for saving the King's life, brought in 
 every gentleman who had any right to appear at Court. The 
 outer steps of the house and the courtyard were thronged 
 with anxious groups. The scaffold erected for the Prince, 
 opposite the Convent of the Eecollets, astonished all the 
 nobles. People spoke in whispers, and here, as at Blois, the 
 conversation was a medley of serious and frivolous subjects, 
 of grave and trivial talk. They were beginning to feel used 
 to turmoils, to sudden rebellion, to a rush to arms, to revolts, 
 to the great and sudden events which marked the long period 
 during which the House of Valois was dying out, in spite of 
 Queen Catherine's efforts. Deep silence was kept for some 
 distance outside the bedroom door, where two men-at-arms 
 were on guard, with two pages, and the captain of the Scotch 
 company.
 
 182 
 
 Antoine de Bourbon, a prisoner in his lodgings, finding 
 himself neglected, understood the hopes of the courtiers; he 
 was overwhelmed at hearing of the preparations made during 
 the night for his brother's execution. 
 
 In front of the hall fireplace stood one of the finest and 
 grandest figures of his time, the Chancellor de 1'Hopital, 
 in his crimson robes bordered with ermine, and wearing his 
 square cap, in right of his office. This brave man, regarding 
 his benefactors as the leaders of a rebellion, had espoused the 
 cause of his king, as represented by the Queen-mother; and 
 at the risk of his head he had gone to ficouen to consult the 
 Connetable de Montmorency. No one dared to disturb the 
 meditations in which he was plunged. Eobertet, the Secre- 
 tary of State, two marshals of France, Vieilleville and Saint- 
 Andre, and the Keeper of the Seals, formed a group in front 
 of the Chancellor. 
 
 The men of the Court were not actually laughing, but 
 their tone was sprightly, especially among those who were 
 disaffected to the Guises. 
 
 The Cardinal had at last secured Stuart, the Scotchman 
 who had murdered President Minard, and was arranging 
 for his trial at Tours. He had also confined in the chateaux 
 of Blois and of Tours a considerable number of gentlemen 
 who had seemed compromised, to inspire a certain degree 
 of terror in the nobles ; they, however, were not terrified, but 
 saw in the Reformation a fulcrum for the love of resistance 
 they derived from a feeling of their inborn equality with 
 the King. Now, the prisoners at Blois had contrived to es- 
 cape, and, ,by a singular fatality, those who had been shut up 
 at Tours had just followed their example. 
 
 "Madame," said the Cardinal de Chatillon to Madame de 
 Fieschi, "if any one takes an interest in the prisoners from 
 ,Tours, they are in the greatest danger." 
 
 On hearing this speech, the Chancellor looked round at the 
 group of the elder Queen's maids of honor. 
 
 "Yes, for young Desvaux, the Prince de Conde's equerry, 
 who was imprisoned at Tours, added a bitter jest to his escape.
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 183 
 
 He is said to have written a note to Messieurs de Guise to this 
 effect : 
 
 " 'We have heard of the escape of your prisoners at Blois ; 
 it has grieved us so much, that ~7fe are about to run alter 
 them; we will bring them back to you as soon as we have 
 arrested them.' >: 
 
 Though he relished this pleasantry, the Chancellor looked 
 sternly at Monsieur de Chatillon. 
 
 At this instant louder voices were heard in the King's 
 bedchamber. The two marshals, with Robertet and the Chan- 
 cellor, went forward, for it was not merely a question of life 
 and death to the King; everybody was in the secret of the 
 danger to the Chancellor, to Catherine, and to her adherents. 
 The silence that ensued was absolute. 
 
 Ambroise had examined the King; the moment seemed 
 favorable for the operation ; if it were not performed, he might 
 die at any moment. As soon as the brothers de Guise came in, 
 he explained to them the causes of the King's sufferings, and 
 demonstrated that in such extremities trepanning was abso- 
 lutely necessary. He only awaited the decision of the phy- 
 sicians. 
 
 "Pierce my son's skull as if it were a board, and with that 
 horrible instrument!" cried Catherine de' Medici. "Maitre 
 Ambroise, I will not permit it." 
 
 The doctors were consulting, but Catherine spoke so loud 
 that, as she intended, her words were heard in the outer room. 
 
 "But, madame, if that is the only hope of saving him?" 
 said Mary Stuart, weeping. 
 
 "Ambroise," said Catherine, "remember that you answer 
 for the King with your head." 
 
 "We are opposed to the means proposed by Maitre Am- 
 broise," said the three physicians. "The King may be saved 
 by injecting a remedy into the ear which will release the 
 humors through that passage."
 
 184 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 The Due de Guise, who was studying Cathefrine's face, sud- 
 denly went up to her, and led her into the window-bay. 
 
 "You, madame," said he, "wish your son to die; you are 
 in collusion with your enemies, and that since we came from 
 Blois. This morning Councillor Viole told your furrier's 
 son that the Prince de Conde was to be beheaded. That young 
 man, who, under torture, had denied all knowledge of the 
 Prince de Conde, gave him a farewell greeting as he passed 
 the window of the lad's prison. You looked on at your hap- 
 less accomplice's sufferings with royal indifference. Now, you 
 are opposed to your eldest son's life being saved. You will 
 force us to believe that the death of the Dauphin, which 
 placed the crown on the head of the late King, was not 
 natural, but that Montecuculi was your " 
 
 "Monsieur le Chancelier!" Catherine called out, and at 
 this signal Madame de Fieschi threw open the double doors 
 of the bedchamber. 
 
 The persons assembled in the hall could thus see the whole 
 scene in the King's room: the little King, deadly pale, his 
 features sunk, his eyes dim, but repeating the word "Marie," 
 while he held the hand of the young Queen, who was weeping ; 
 the Duchesse de Guise standing, terrified by Catherine's au- 
 dacity; the two Princes of Lorraine, not less anxious, but 
 keeping close to the Queen-mother, and resolved to have her 
 arrested by Maille-Breze ; and finally, the great surgeon Am- 
 broise Pare, with the King's physician. He stood holding 
 his instruments, but not daring to perform the operation, 
 for which perfect quiet was as necessary as the approbation 
 of the medical authorities. 
 
 "Monsieur le Chancelier," said Catherine, "Messieurs de 
 Guise wish to authorize a strange operation on the King's 
 person. Ambroise proposes to perforate his head. I, as his 
 mother, and one of the commission of Eegency, protest 
 against what seems to me to be high treason. The three 
 physicians are in favor of an injection which, to me, seems 
 quite as efficacious and less dangerous than the cruel process 
 recommended by Ambroise."
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 185 
 
 At these words there was a dull murmur in reply. The 
 Cardinal admitted the Chancellor, and then shut the bedroom 
 doors. 
 
 "But I am Lieutenant-General of the realm," said the Due 
 de Guise, "and you must understand, Monsieur le Chancelier, 
 that Ambroise, surgeon to his Majesty, answers for the King's 
 life." 
 
 "Well, since this is the state of affairs," said the great 
 Ambroise Pare, "I know what to be doing." 
 
 He put out his arm over the bed. 
 
 "This bed and the King are mine," said he. "I constitute 
 myself the sole master, and singly responsible; I know the 
 duties of my office, and I will operate on the King without 
 the physicians' sanction." 
 
 "Save him!" cried the Cardinal, "and you shall be the 
 richest man in France." 
 
 "Only go on !" said Mary Stuart, pressing Fare's hand. 
 
 "I cannot interfere," said the Chancellor, "but I skrfll 
 record the Queen-mother's protest." 
 
 "Robertet," the Due de Guise called out. 
 
 Robertet came in, and the Duke pointed to the Chancellor. 
 
 "You are Chancellor of France," he said, "in the place of 
 this felon. Monsieur de Maille, take Monsieur de 1'Hopital 
 to prison with the Prince de Conde. As to you, madame," 
 and he turned to Catherine, "your protest will not be recog- 
 nized, and you would do well to remember that such actions 
 need the support of adequate force. I am acting as a faithful 
 and loyal subject of King Francis II., my sovereign. Pro- 
 ceed, Ambroise," he said to the surgeon. 
 
 "Monsieur de Guise," said 1'Hopital, "if you use any vio- 
 lence, either on the person of the King or on that of his 
 Chancellor, remember that in the hall without there is enough 
 French nobility to arrest all traitors." 
 
 "Gentlemen, gentlemen," said the surgeon, "if you prolong 
 this debate, you may as well shout 'Vive Charles IX. / for 
 King Francis is dying." 
 
 Catherine stood unmoved, looking out of window.
 
 188 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 ''Well, then, we will use force to remain masters in the 
 King's bedroom," said the Cardinal, trying to keep the door ; 
 but he was startled and horrified, for the great hall was quite 
 deserted. The Court, sure that the King was dying, had 
 gone back to Antoine of Navarre. 
 
 "Come ; do it, do it," cried Mary Stuart to Ambroise. "I 
 and you, Duchess," she said to Madame de Guise, "will pro- 
 tect you." <l 
 
 "Nay, madame," said Pare, "my zeal carried me too far;' 
 the doctors, with the exception of my friend Chapelain, are 
 in favor of the injection; I must yield to them. If I were 
 physician and surgeon-in-chief, he could be saved! Give it 
 me," he said, taking a small syringe from the hand of the 
 chief physician, and filling it. 
 
 "Good God !" cried Mary Stuart ; "I command you " 
 
 "Alas ! madame," replied Pare, "I am subordinate to these 
 gentlemen." 
 
 The young Queen and the Duchesse de Guise stood between 
 the surgeon and the doctors and the other persons present. 
 The chief physician held the King's head, and Ambroise 
 made the injection into the ear. The two Princes of Lor- 
 raine were watchful; Eobertet and Monsieur de Maille stood 
 motionless. At a sign from Catherine, Madame de Fieschi 
 left the room unnoticed. At the same instant 1'Hopital boldly 
 threw open the door of the King's bedroom. 
 
 "I have arrived in the nick of time," exclaimed a man, 
 whose hasty steps rang through the hall, and who, in another 
 minute, was at the door of the King's room. "What, gentle- 
 men ! You thought to cut off my fine nephew, the Prince de 
 Conde's head? You have roused the lion from his lair, and 
 here he is !" added the Connetable de Montmorency. "Am- 
 broise, you are not to stir up my King's brains with your 1 
 instruments ! The Kings of France do not allow themselves 
 to be knocked about in that way unless by their enemies' sword 
 in fair fight! The first Prince of the Blood, Antoine de 
 Bourbon, the Prince de Conde, the Queen-mother, and the 
 Chancellor are all opposed to the operation."
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 187 
 
 To Catherine's great satisfaction, the King of Navarre 
 and the Prince de Conde both made their appearance. 
 
 "What is the meaning of this ?" said the Due de Guise, lay- 
 ing his hand on his poniard. 
 
 "As Lord High Constable, I have dismissed all the sentinels 
 from their posts. Blood and thunder! we are not in an 
 enemy's country, I suppose. The King our Master is sur- 
 rounded by his subjects, and the States-General of the realm 
 may deliberate in perfect liberty. I have just come from the;. 
 Assembly, gentlemen; I laid before it the protest of my 
 nephew de Conde, who has been rescued by three hundred 
 gentlemen. You meant to let the royal blood, and to deci- 
 mate the nobility of France. Henceforth I shall not trust 
 anything you propose, Messieurs de Lorraine. And if you 
 give the order for the King's head to be opened, by this 
 sword, which saved France from Charles V., I say it shall 
 not be done !" 
 
 "All the more so," said Ambroise Pare, "because it is too 
 late, suffusion has begun." 
 
 <r Your reign is over, gentlemen," said Catherine to the two 
 Guises, seeing from Pare's manner that there was now no 
 hope. 
 
 "You, madame, have killed your son!" said Mary Stuart, 
 springing like a liomess from the bed to the window, and seiz- 
 ing the Italian Queen by the arm with a vehement clutch. 
 
 "My dear," replied Catherine de' Medici, with a keen, cold 
 look that expressed the hatred she had suppressed for six 
 months past, "you, to whose violent passion this death is' 
 due, will now go to reign over your own Scotland and you 
 will go to-morrow. I am now Eegent in fact as well as in 
 name." 
 
 The three physicians had made a sign to the Queen-mother. 
 
 "Gentlemen," she went on, addressing the Guises, "it is 
 an understood thing between Monsieur de Bourbon whom I 
 hereby appoint Lieutenant-General of the kingdom and my- 
 self that the conduct of affairs is our business. Come, Mon- 
 sieur le Chancelier."
 
 188 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 "The King is dead!" said the Grand Master, obliged to 
 carry out the functions of his office. 
 
 "God save King Charles IX. !" cried the gentlemen who 
 had come with the King of Navarre, the Prince de Conde, 
 and the Constable. 
 
 The ceremonies performed when a King of France dies 
 were carried out in solitude. When the king-at-arms called 
 out three times in the great hall, "The King is dead !" after 
 the official announcement by the Due de Guise, there were but 
 a few persons present to answer "God save the King !" 
 
 The Queen-mother, to whom the Countess Fieschi brought 
 the Due d'Orleans, now Charles IX., left the room leading 
 the boy by the hand, and followed by the whole Court. Only 
 the two Guises, the Duchesse de Guise, Mary Stuart, and 
 Dayelle remained in the room where Francis II. had breathed 
 his last, with two guards at the door, the Grand Master's 
 pages and the Cardinal's, and their two private secretaries. 
 
 "Vive la France !" shouted some of the Eef ormers, a first 
 cry of opposition. 
 
 Robertet, who owed everything to the Duke and the Car- 
 dinal, terrified by their schemes and their abortive attempts, 
 secretly attached himself to the Queen-mother, whom the 
 Ambassadors of Spain, England, the German Empire, and 
 Poland met on the stairs, at their head Cardinal Tournon, 
 who had gone to call them after looking up from the court- 
 yard to Catherine de' Medici just as she was protesting 
 against Ambroise Pare's operation. 
 
 "Well, the sons of Louis d'Outre-Mer, the descendants of 
 Charles de Lorraine, have proved cravens," said the Cardinal 
 to the Duke. 
 
 "They would have been packed off to Lorraine," replied 
 his brother. "I declare to you, Charles," he went on, "if 
 .the crown were there for the taking, I would not put out my 
 hand for it. That will be my son's task." 
 
 "Will he ever have the army and the Church on his side 
 as you have?" 
 
 "He will have something better."
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 189 
 
 "What?" 
 
 "The people." 
 
 "And there is no one to mourn for him hut me the poor 
 boy who loved me so well!" said Mary Stuart, holding the 
 cold hand of her first husband. 
 
 "How can we be reconciled to the Queen?" said the Car- 
 dinal. 
 
 "Wait till she quarrels with the Huguenots," said the 
 Duchess. 
 
 The clashing interests of the House of Bourbon, of Cath- 
 erine, of the Guises, and of the Eeformers produced such 
 confusion in Orleans, that it was not till three days after that 
 the King's body, quite forgotten where it lay, was placed in 
 a coffin by obscure serving men, and carried to Saint-Denis 
 in a covered vehicle, followed only by the Bishop of Senlis 
 and two gentlemen. When this dismal little procession ar- 
 rived at the town of Etampes, a follower of the Chancellor de 
 THopital attached to the hearse this bitter inscription, which 
 history has recorded : "Tanneguy du Chastel, where are you ? 
 Yet you too were French !" A stinging innuendo, striking at 
 Catherine, Mary Stuart, and the Guises. For what French- 
 man does not know that Tanneguy du Chastel spent thirty 
 thousand crowns (a million of francs in these days) on the 
 obsequies of Charles VII., the benefactor of his family? 
 
 As soon as the tolling bells announced the death of Francis 
 II., and the Connetable de Montmorency had thrown open 
 the gates of the town, Tourillon went up to his hayloft and 
 made his way to a hiding-place. 
 
 "What, can he be dead?" exclaimed the glover. 
 
 On hearing the voice, a man rose and replied, "Pret a 
 servir" ("Eeady to serve," or "Eeady, aye ready"), the 
 , watchword of the Reformers of Calvin's sect. 
 
 This man was Chaudieu, to whom Tourillon related the 
 events of the last week, during which he had left the preacher 
 alone in his hiding-place, with a twelve-ounce loaf for his sole 
 sustenance
 
 190 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 "Be off to the Prince de Conde, brother, ask him for a safe- 
 conduct for me, and find me a horse," cried the preacher. "I 
 must set out this moment." 
 
 "Write him a line then, that I may be admitted." 
 
 "Here," said Chaudieu, after writing a few lines, "ask for 
 a pass from the King of Navarre, for under existing circum- 
 stances I must hasten to Geneva." 
 
 ; Within two hours all was ready, and the zealous minister 
 was on his way to Geneva, escorted by one of the King of 
 Navarre's gentlemen, whose secretary Chaudieu was supposed 
 to be, and who was the bearer of instructions to the Re- 
 formed party in Dauphine. 
 
 Chaudieu's sudden departure was at once permitted, to 
 further the interests of Queen Catherine, who, to gain time, 
 made a bold suggestion which was kept a profound secret. 
 This startling scheme accounts for the agreement so unex- 
 pectedly arrived at between the Queen and the leaders of the 
 Protestant party. The crafty woman had, as a guarantee of 
 her good faith, expressed a desire to heal the breach between 
 the two Churches in an assembly which could be neither 
 a Synod, nor a Council, nor a Convocation, for which indeed 
 a new name was needed, and, above all else, Calvin's consent. 
 It may be said in passing, that, when this mystery came out, 
 it led to the alliance of the Guises with the Connetable de 
 Montmorency against Catherine and the King of Navarre 
 a strange coalition, known to history as the Triumvirate, 
 because the Marechal de Saint-Andre was the third person 
 in this purely Catholic combination, to which Catherine's 
 strange proposal for a meeting gave rise. The Guises were 
 then enabled to judge very shrewdly of Catherine's policy; 
 they saw that the Queen cared little enough for this assembly, 
 and only wanted to temporize with her allies till Charles IX. 
 should be of age; indeed, they deceived Montmorency by mak- 
 ing him believe in a collusion between Catherine and the 
 Bourbons, while Catherine was taking them all in. The 
 Queen, it will be seen, had in a short time made great strides. 
 
 The spirit of argument and discussion which was then in
 
 ABOUT GATHERINE DE' MEDICI 191 
 
 the air was particularly favorable to this scheme. The 
 Catholics and the Huguenots were all to shine in turn in 
 this tournament of words. Indeed, that is exactly what hap- 
 pened. Is it not extraordinary that historians should have 
 mistaken the Queen's shrewdest craft for hesitancy? Cath- 
 erine never went more directly to the end she had in view 
 than when she seemed to have turned her back on it. So 
 the King of Navarre, incapable of fathoming Catherine's mo- 
 tives, despatched Chaudieu to Calvin; Chaudieu having 
 secretly intended to watch the course of events at Orleans, 
 where he ran, every hour, the risk of being seized and hanged 
 without trial, like any man who had been condemned to ban- 
 ishment. 
 
 At the rate of traveling then possible Chaudieu could not 
 reach Geneva before the month of February, the negotiations 
 could not be completed till March, and the meeting could not 
 be called till the beginning of May 1561. Catherine in- 
 tended to amuse the Court meanwhile, and lull party-feeling 
 by the King's coronation, and by his first Bed of Justice in 
 the Parlement when 1'Hopital and de Thou passed the royal 
 letter, by which Charles IX. intrusted the Government of 
 the kingdom to his mother, seconded by Antoine de Navarre 
 as Lieutenant-General of the realm the weakest prince of 
 his time. 
 
 Was it not one of the strangest things of that day to see 
 a whole kingd'oni in suspense for the Yea or Nay of a French 
 citizen, risen from obscurity, and living at Geneva? The 
 Pope of Eome held in check by the Pope of Geneva? The 
 two Princes of Lorraine, once so powerful, paralyzed by the 
 brief concord between the first Prince of the Blood, the 
 Queen-mother, and Calvin? Is it not one of the most preg- 
 nant lessons that history has preserved to kings, a lesson that 
 should teach them to judge of men, to give genius its due 
 without any hesitation, and to seek it out, as Louis XIV. 
 did, wherever God has hidden it ? 
 
 Calvin, whose real name was not Calvin, but Cauvin, was 
 the son of a cooper at Noyon, in Picardy. Calvin's birth-
 
 192 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 place accounts to a certain degree for the obstinacy mingled 
 with eccentric irritability which characterized the arbiter of 
 the destinies of France in the sixteenth century. No one is 
 less known than this man, who was the maker of Geneva and 
 of the spirit of its people. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who 
 knew little of history, was utterly ignorant of this man's 
 influence on his Republic. 
 
 At first, indeed, Calvin, dwelling in one of the humblest 
 houses in the upper town, near the Protestant Church of 
 Saint-Pierre, over a carpenter's shop one point of resem- 
 blance between him and Robespierre had no great authority 
 in Geneva. His influence was for a long time checked by 
 the hatred of the Genevese. 
 
 In the sixteenth century Geneva could boast of Farel, one 
 of those famous citizens who have remained unknown to the 
 world, some of them even to Geneva itself. In the year 1537, 
 or thereabouts, this Farel attached Calvin to Geneva by 
 pointing out to him that it might become the stronghold of 
 a reformation more thorough than that of Luther. Farel and 
 Cauvin looked on Lutheranism as an incomplete achieve- 
 ment, ineffectual, and with no hold on France. Geneva, 
 lying between France and Italy, speaking the French tongue, 
 was admirably placed for communicating with Germany, 
 Italy, and France. Calvin adopted Geneva as the seat of 
 his spiritual fortunes, and made it the citadel of his dogmas. 
 At Farel's request, the town council of Geneva authorized 
 Calvin to lecture on theology in the month of September 
 1538. Calvin left preaching to Farel, his first disciple, and 
 patiently devoted himself to teaching his doctrine. His 
 authority, which in later years of his life was para- 
 mount, took long to establish. The great leader met with 
 serious difficulties; he was even banished from Geneva for 
 some time in consequence of the austerity of his doctrines. 
 There was a party of very good folk who clung to the old 
 luxury and customs of their fathers. But, as is always the 
 case, these worthy people dreaded ridicule; they would not 
 admit what was the real object of their struggles, and the 
 battle was fought over details apart from the real question.
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 193 
 
 Calvin insisted on leavened bread being used for the Sacra- 
 ment, and on there being no holy days but Sunday. These 
 innovations were disapproved of at Berne and at Lausanne. 
 The Genevese were required to conform to the ritual of 
 Switzerland. Calvin and Farel resisted; their political ene- 
 mies made a pretext of this refractoriness to exile them from 
 Geneva, whence they were banished for some years. At a 
 later period Calvin came back in triumph, invited by his 
 flock. 
 
 Such persecution is always a consecration of moral power 
 when the prophet can wait. And this return was the era of 
 this Mahomet. Executions began, and Calvin organized his 
 religious Terror. As soon as this commanding spirit reap- 
 peared, he was admitted to the citizenship of Geneva; but 
 after fourteen years' residence there, he was not yet on the 
 Council. At the time when Catherine was despatching a min- 
 ister to treat with him, this king in the realm of thought had 
 no title but that of Pastor of the Church of Geneva. Indeed, 
 Calvin never had more than a hundred and fifty francs a 
 year in money, fifteen hundred-weight of corn and two casks 
 of wine for his whole remuneration. His brother, a tailor, 
 kept a shop a few paces away from the Place Saint-Pierre, 
 in a street where one of Calvin's printing-places may still be 
 seen. 
 
 Such disinterestedness, which in Voltaire and Baker was 
 lacking, but which is conspicuous in the life of Eabelais, of 
 Campanella, of Luther, of Vico, of Descartes, of Male- 
 branche, of Spinoza, of Loyola, of Kant, and of Jean-Jacques 
 Eousseau, surely forms a noble setting for these sublime and 
 ardent souls. 
 
 Eobespierre's life, so like that of Calvin, can alone per- 
 haps enable our contemporaries to understand Calvin's. He 
 .founding his power on a similar basis, was as cruel and as 
 'tyrannical as the Arras lawyer. It is strange too that 
 Picardy Arras and Noyon should have given to the world 
 these two great instruments of reform*. Those who examine 
 into the motives of the executions ordered by Calvin will find.
 
 194 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 on a different scale, no doubt, all of 1793 at Geneva. Calvin 
 had Jacques Gruet beheaded "for having written impious 
 letters and worldly verse, and labored to overthrow Church 
 ordinances." Just consider this sentence, and ask yourself 
 if the worst despotism can show in its annals a more ab- 
 'surdly preposterous indictment. 
 
 Valentin Gentilis, condemned to death for involuntary 
 heresy, escaped the scaffold only by making more humiliating 
 amends than ever were inflicted by the Catholic Church. 
 Seven years before the conference presently to be held in 
 Calvin's house on the Queen-mother's proposals, Michel Ser- 
 vet (or Servetus), a Frenchman, passing through Geneva, 
 was put in prison, tried, condemned on Calvin's testimony, 
 and burned alive for having attacked the mystery of the 
 Trinity in a work which had not been either composed or 
 printed at Geneva. Compare with this the eloquent defence 
 of Jean-Jacques Kousseau, whose book, attacking the Catholic 
 religion, written in France and published in Holland, was 
 indeed burned by the hand of the executioner ; but the writer, 
 a foreigner, was only banished from the kingdom, where he 
 had been trying to strike at the fundamental truths of re- 
 ligion and government; and compare the conduct of the 
 Parlement with that of the Genevese tyrant. 
 
 Bolsee, again, was brought to judgment for having other 
 ideas than Calvin on the subject of predestination. Weigh all 
 this, and say whether Fouquier-Tinville did anything worse. 
 Calvin's fierce religious intolerance was, morally speaking, 
 more intense, more implacable, than the fierce political in- 
 tolerance of Eobespierre. On a wider stage than was offered 
 iy Geneva, Calvin would have shed more blood than the terri- 
 le apostle of political equality, as compared with Catholic 
 equality. 
 
 Three centuries earlier a monk, also a son of Picardy, had 
 led the whole of Western Europe to invade the East. Peter 
 the Hermit, Calvin, and Eobespierre, sons of the same soil, 
 at intervals of three centuries, were, in a political sense, the 
 levers of Archimedes. Each in turn was an embodied idea 
 finding its fulcrum in the interests of man.
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 195 
 
 Calvin is, beyond doubt, the almost unrecognized maker 
 of that dismal town of Geneva, where, only ten years since, 
 a man, pointing out a carriage gate the first in the town, 
 for till then there had only been house doors in Geneva said, 
 "Through that gate luxury drove into Geneva." Calvin, 
 by the severity of his sentences and the austerity of his doc- 
 trine, introduced the hypocritical feeling that has been well 
 called Puritanism [the nearest English equivalent perhaps 
 to the French word momerie]. Good conduct, according to 
 the momiers or puritans, lay in renouncing the arts and the 
 graces of life, in eating well but without luxury, and in 
 silently amassing money without enjoying it otherwise than 
 as Calvin enjoyed his power in fancy. 
 
 Calvin clothed the citizens in the same gloomy livery as 
 he threw over life in general. He formed in the Consistory 
 a perfect Calvinist inquisition, exactly like the revolutionary 
 tribunal instituted by Eobespierre. The Consistory handed 
 over the victims to be condemned by the Council, which 
 Calvin ruled through the Consistory just as Eobespierre ruled 
 the Convention through the Jacobin Club. Thus an eminent 
 magistrate of Geneva was sentenced to two months' impris- 
 onment, to lose his office, and to be prohibited from ever 
 filling any other, because he led a dissolute life and had 
 made friends among Calvin's foes. In this way Calvin was 
 actually a legislator; it was he who created the austere 
 manners, sober, respectable, hideously dull, but quite irre- 
 proachable, which have remained unchanged in Geneva to this 
 day; they prevailed there indeed before the English habits 
 were formed that are universally known as Puritanism, under 
 the influence of the Cameronians, the followers of Cameron, 
 a Frenchman who trod in Calvin's steps. These manners 
 have been admirably described by Walter Scott. 
 
 The poverty of this man, an absolute sovereign, who treated 
 as a power with other powers, asking for their treasure, 
 demanding armies, and filling his hamds with their money 
 for the poor, proves that the Idea, regarded as the sole means 
 of dominion, begets political misers, men whose only en-
 
 196 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 joyment is intellectual, and who, like the Jesuits, love power 
 for its own sake. Pitt, Luther, Calvin, and Robespierre, all 
 these Harpagons in greed of dominion, died penniless. His- 
 tory has preserved the inventory made in Calvin's rooms after 
 his death, and everything, including his books, was valued 
 at fifty crowns. Luther's possessions amounted to as much; 
 indeed, his widow, the famous Catherine de Bora, was obliged 
 to petition for a pension of fifty crowns bestowed on her by 
 $, German Elector. 
 
 Potemkin, Mazarin, and Richelieu, men of thought and 
 action, who all three founded or prepared the foundations 
 of empires, each left three hundred millions of francs; but 
 these men had a heart, they loved women and the arts, they 
 built and conquered; while, with the exception of Luther, 
 whose wife was the Helen of this Iliad, none of the others 
 could accuse himself of ever having felt his heart throb for 
 a woman. 
 
 This brief history was needed to explain Calvin's position 
 at Geneva. 
 
 One day early in February 1561, on one of the mild even- 
 ings which occur at that time of year on the shores of Lake 
 Leman, two men on horseback arrived at Pre-1'fiveque, so 
 called from the ancient residence of the Bishop of Geneva, 
 driven out thirty years before. These two men, acquainted, 
 no doubt, with the law of Geneva as to the closing of the gates, 
 very necessary then, and absurd enough in these days, rode 
 towards the Porte de Rives; but they suddenly drew rein at 
 the sight of a man of fifty, walking with the help of a 
 woman-servant's arm, and evidently returning to the town. 
 This personage, rather stout in figure, walked slowly and 
 with difficulty, dragging one foot before the other with evi- 
 dent pain, and wearing broad, laced shoes of black velvet. 
 
 "It is he," said Chaudieu's companion, who dismounted, 
 gave his bridle to the preacher, and went forward open- 
 armed to meet the master. 
 
 The man on foot, who was in fact Jean Calvin, drew back 
 to avoid the embrace, and cast the severest glance at his dis-
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 197 
 
 ciple. At the age of fifty Calvin looked like a man of seventy. 
 Thick-set and fat, he seemed all the shorter because frightful 
 pain from the stone obliged him to walk much bent. These 
 sufferings were complicated with attacks of the worst form 
 of gout. Anybody might have quaked at the aspect of that 
 face,, almost as broad as it was long, and bearing no more 
 signs of good-nature, in spite of its roundness, than that of 
 the dreadful King Henry VIII., whom Calvin, in fact, re- 
 sembled. His sufferings, which never gave him a reprieve, 
 were visible in two deep furrows on each side of his nose, 
 following the line of his moustache, and ending, like it, in a 
 full gray beard. 
 
 This face, though red and inflamed like a drunkard's, 
 showed patches where his complexion was yellow; still, and 
 in spite of the velvet cap that covered his massive, broad 
 head, it was possible to admire a large and nobly formed 
 forehead, and beneath it two sparkling brown eyes, which 
 in moments of wrath could flash fire. Whether by reason 
 of his bulk, or because his neck was too thick and short, 
 or as a consequence of late hours and incessant work, Calvin's 
 head seemed sunk between his broad shoulders, which com- 
 pelled him to wear a quite shallow, pleated ruff, on which 
 his face rested like John the Baptist's in the charger. Be- 
 tween his moustache and his beard there peeped, like a rose, 
 a sweet and eloquent mouth, small, and fresh, and perfectly 
 formed. This face was divided by a square nose remarkable 
 for its long aquiline outline, resulting in high-lights at the 
 tip, significantly in harmony with the prodigious power ex- 
 pressed in this magnificent head. 
 
 Though it was difficult to detect in these features any 
 trace of the constant headaches which tormented Calvin in 
 the intervals of a slow fever that was consuming him, pain, 
 constantly defied by study and a strong will, gave this ap- 
 parently florid face a terrible tinge, attributable, no doubt, 
 to the hue of the layer of fat due to the sedentary habits of 
 a hard worker. It bore the marks of the perpetual struggle 
 of a sickly temperament against one of the strongest wills 
 14
 
 198 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 known in the history of mankind. Even the lips, though 
 beautiful, expressed cruelty. A chaste life, indispensable 
 to vast projects, and compulsory in such conditions of sickly 
 health, had set its stamp on the face. There was regret in 
 the serenity of that mighty brow, and suffering in the gaze 
 of the eyes, whose calmness was a terror. 
 
 Calvin's dress gave effect to his head, for he wore the 
 famous black cloth gown, belted with a cloth band and brass 
 buckle, which was adopted as the costume of Calvinist preach-, 
 ers, and which, having nothing to attract the eye, directed 
 all the spectator's attention to the face. 
 
 "I am in too great pain to embrace you, Theodore," said 
 Calvin to the elegant horseman. 
 
 Theodore de Beze, at that time two-and-forty, and, by 
 Calvin's desire, a free citizen of Geneva for two years past, 
 was the most striking contrast to the terrible minister to 
 whom he had given his allegiance. Calvin, like all men of 
 the middle class who have risen to moral supremacy, like 
 all inventors of a social system, was consumed with jealousy. 
 He abhorred his disciples, would suffer no equal, and could 
 not endure the slightest contradiction. However, between 
 him and Theodore de Beze the difference was so great; this 
 elegant gentleman, gifted with a charming appearance, pol- 
 ished, courteous, and accustomed to Court life, was, in his 
 eyes, so unlike all his fierce Janissaries, that for him he set 
 aside his usual impulses. He never loved him, for this 
 crabbed lawgiver knew absolutely nothing of friendship; but 
 having no fear of finding his successor in him, he liked to 
 play with Theodore, as Eichelieu at a later time played with 
 his cat. He found him pliant and amusing. When he saw 
 that de Beze succeeded to perfection in every mission, he took 
 delight in the polished tool of which he believed himself to 
 be the soul and guide ; so true is it that even those men who 
 seem most surly cannot live without some semblance of affec- 
 tion. 
 
 Theodore was Calvin's spoilt child. The great Reformer 
 never scolded him, overlooked his irregularities, his love
 
 'ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 199 
 
 affairs, his handsome dress, and his choice language. Pos- 
 sibly Calvin was well content to show that the Reformation 
 could hold its own even among Court circles. Theodore de 
 Beze wanted to introduce a taste for art, letters, and poetry 
 into Geneva, and Calvin would listen to his schemes without 
 knitting his grizzled brows. Thus the contrast of character 
 and person was as complete as the contrast of mind in these 
 two celebrated men. 
 
 Calvin accepted Chaudieu's very humble bow, and replied 
 by slightly bending his head. Chaudieu slipped the bridles 
 of both horses over his right arm and followed the two great 
 Reformers, keeping on the right of Theodore de Beze, who was 
 walking on Calvin's right. Calvin's housekeeper ran for- 
 ward to prevent the gate being shut, by telling the captain of 
 the Guard that the Pastor had just had a severe attack of 
 pain. 
 
 Theodore de Beze was a native of the Commune of Veze- 
 lay, the first to demand for itself corporate government, of 
 which the curious tale has been told by one of the Thierrys. 
 Thus the spirit of citizenship and resistance which were en- 
 demic at Vezelay no doubt contributed an item to the great 
 rising of the Reformers in the person of this man, who is 
 certainly a most singular figure in the history of heresy. 
 
 "So you still suffer great pain ?" said Theodore to Calvin. 
 
 "The sufferings of the damned, a Catholic would say," 
 replied the Reformer, with the bitterness that colored his least 
 remarks. "Ah ! I am going fast, iny son, and what will be- 
 come of you when I am gone ?" 
 
 "\7e will fight by the light of your writings," said Chau- 
 dieu. 
 
 Calvin smiled; his purple face assumed a more gracious 
 expression, and he looked kindly on Chaudieu. 
 
 "Well, have you brought me any news ?" he asked. "Have 
 they killed a great many of us ?" he added, with a smile, and 
 a sort of mocking glee sparkled in his brown eyes. 
 
 "N"o," said Chaudieu; "peace is the order of the day." 
 
 "So much the worse, so much the worse !" cried Calvin.
 
 200 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 "Every form of peace would be a misfortune if it were not 
 always, in fact, a snare. Our strength lies in persecution. 
 Where should we be if the Church took up the Eef ormation ?" 
 
 "Indeed," said Theodore, "that is what the Queen-mother 
 seems inclined to do." 
 
 "She is quite capable of it/' said Calvin. "I am studying 
 that woman." 
 
 "From hence?" cried Chaudieu. 
 
 "Does distance exist for the spirit?" said Calvin severely, 
 regarding the interruption as irreverent. "Catherine longs 
 for power, and women who aim at that lose all sense of honor 
 and faith. What is in the wind?" 
 
 "Well, she suggests a sort of Council," said Theodore de 
 Beze. 
 
 "Near Paris ?" asked Calvin roughly. 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "Ah ! that is well !" said Calvin. 
 
 "And we are to try to come to an understanding, and draw 
 up a public Act to consolidate the two Churches." 
 
 "Ah ! if only she had courage enough to separate the French 
 Church from the Court of Rome, and to create a patriarch 
 in France, as in the Greek Church !" cried the Reformer, 
 whose eyes glistened at this idea, which would place him on a 
 throne. "But, my son, can a Pope's niece be truthful ? She 
 only wants to gain time." 
 
 "And do not we need time to recover from our check at 
 Amboise, and to organize some formidable resistance in vari- 
 ous parts of the kingdom ?" 
 
 "She has sent away the Queen of Scotland," said Chaudieu. 
 
 "That is one less, then," said Calvin, as they passed through 
 the Porte de Rives. "Elizabeth of England will keep her 
 busy. Two neighboring queens will soon be fighting; one is 
 handsome, and the other ugly enough a first cause of irrita- 
 tion ; and then there is the question of legitimacy 
 
 He rubbed his hands, and his glee had such a ferocious 
 taint that de Beze shuddered, for he too saw the pool of blood 
 at which his master was gazing.
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 201 
 
 "The Guises have provoked the House of Bourbon," said 
 de Beze after a pause ; "they broke the stick between them at 
 Orleans." 
 
 "Ay," said Calvin; "and you, my son, did not believe me 
 when, as you last started for Nerac, I told you that we should 
 end by stirring up war to the death between the two branches 
 of the royal family in France. 
 
 "So at last I have a court, a king, a dynasty on my side. 
 My doctrine has had its effect on the masses. The citizen 
 class understand me; henceforth they will call those who go 
 to Mass idolaters, those who paint the walls of their place 
 of worship, and put up pictures and statues there. Oh, the 
 populace find it far easier to demolish cathedrals and palaces 
 than to discuss justification by faith or the real presence ! 
 Luther was a wrangler, I am an army ! He was a reasoner, 
 I am a system ! He, my child, was but a tormentor, I am a 
 Tarquin ! 
 
 "Yes, they of the truth will destroy churches, will tear down 
 pictures, will make millstones of the statues to grind the 
 bread of the people. There are bodies in great States, I will 
 have only individuals; bodies are too resistant, and see 
 clearly when individuals are blind. 
 
 "Now, we must combine this agitating doctrine with polit- 
 ical interests, to consolidate it and to keep up the material 
 of my armies. I have satisfied the logic of thrifty minds 
 and thinking brains by this bare, undecorated worship which 
 lifts religion into the sphere of the ideal. I have made the 
 mob understand the advantages of the suppression of cere- 
 monial. 
 
 "Now it is your part, Theodore, to enlist people's interests. 
 Do not overstep that line. In the way of doctrine every- 
 thing has been done, everything has been said; add not one 
 jot! Why does Cameron, that little pasteur in Gascony, 
 meddle with writing?" 
 
 Calvin, Theodore de Beze, and Chaudieu went along the 
 streets of the upper town and through the crowd, without 
 any attention being paid to the men who were unchaining the
 
 202 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 mob in cities and ravaging France. After this terrifying 
 harangue, they walked on in silence, till they reached the 
 little square of Saint-Pierre, and made their way towards 
 the minister's dwelling. Calvin's lodging consisted of three 
 rooms on the second floor of this house, which is hardly 
 known, and of which no one ever tells you in Geneva 
 where, indeed, there is no statue to Calvin. The rooms were 
 floored and wainscoted with pine, and on one side there were 
 a kitchen and a servant's room. The entrance, as is com- 
 monly the case in Genevese houses, was through the kitchen, 
 which opened into a small room with two windows, parlor, 
 dining, and drawing-room in one. Next to this was the 
 study where, for fourteen years, Calvin's mind had carried 
 on the battle with pain, and beyond was his bedroom. Four oak 
 chairs with tapestry seats, placed round a long table, formed 
 all the furniture of the sitting-room. A white earthenware 
 stove in one corner of the room gave out a pleasant warmth; 
 paneling of unvarnished pine covered the walls, and there 
 was no other decoration. The bareness of the place was quite 
 in keeping with the frugal and simple life led by the Ke- 
 former. 
 
 "Well," said de Beze, as he went in, taking advantage of a 
 few minutes when Chaudieu had left them to put up the 
 horses at a neighboring inn, "what am I to do? Will you 
 agree to this meeting?" 
 
 "Certainly," said Calvin. "You, my son, will bear the 
 brunt of the struggle. Be decisive, absolute. . Nobody, 
 neither the Queen, nor the Guises, nor I want pacification 
 as a result; it would not suit our purpose. I have much 
 confidence in Duplessis-Mornay. Give him the leading part. 
 
 We are alone " said he, with a suspicious glance into the 
 
 kitchen, of which the door was open, showing two shirts and 
 some collars hung to dry on a line. "Go and shut all the 
 'doors. Well," he went on, when Theodore had done his bid- 
 ding, "we must compel the King of Navarre to join the 
 fruises and the Connetable de Montmorency, by advising him 
 jo desert Queen Catherine de' Medici. Let us take full ad-
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 203 
 
 vantage of his weakness; he is but a poor creature. If he 
 prove a turncoat to the Italian woman, she, finding herself 
 bereft of his support, must inevitably join the Prince de 
 Conde and Coligny. Such a manoeuvre may possibly com- 
 promise her so effectually that she must remain on ouj 
 side " 
 
 Theodore de Beze raised the hem of Calvin's gown and 
 kissed it. 
 [ "Oh, master," said he, "you are indeed great I" 
 
 "Unfortunately, I am dying, my dear Theodore. If I 
 should die before seeing you again," he went on, whispering 
 in the ear of his Minister for Foreign Affairs, "remember 
 to strike a great blow by the hand of one of our martyrs." 
 
 "Another Minard to be killed?" 
 
 "Higher than a lawyer." 
 
 "A king!" 
 
 "Higher still. The man who wants to be king." 
 
 "The Due de Guise?" cried Theodore, with a gesture of 
 dismay. 
 
 "Well," cried Calvin, fancying that he discerned refusal, 
 or at least an instinct of resistance, and failing to notice the 
 entrance of Chaudieu, "have we not a right to strike as we 
 are struck ? Yes, and in darkness and silence ! May we not 
 return wound for wound, and death for death? Do the 
 Catholics hesitate to lay snares for us and kill us ? I trust to 
 you ! Burn their churches. Go on, my sons ! If you have 
 any devoted youths " 
 
 "I have," Chaudieu put in. 
 
 "Use them as weapons of war. To triumph, we may use 
 every means. The Balafre, that terrible man of war, is, like 
 me, more than a man ; he is a dynasty, as I am a system ; he 
 is capable of annihilating us ! Death to the Due de Guise !" 
 
 "I should prefer a peaceful victory, brought about by time 
 and reason," said de Beze. 
 
 "By time!" cried Calvin, flinging over his chair. "By 
 reason ! Are you mad ? Conquer by reason ? Do you know 
 nothing of men, you who live among them idiot? What
 
 204 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 is so fatal to my teaching, thrice-dyed simpleton, is that it 
 is based on reason. By the thunders of Saint Paul, by the 
 sword of the Mighty ! Pumpkin as you are, Theodore, cannot 
 you see the power that "the catastrophe at Amboise has given 
 to my reforms? Ideas can never grow till they are watered 
 with blood. The murder of the Due de Guise would give 
 rise to a fearful persecution, and I hope for it with all my 
 might! To us reverses are more favorable than success! 
 The Kef ormation can be beaten and endure, do you hear, oaf ? 
 Whereas Catholicism is overthrown if we win a single battle. 
 
 "What are these lieutenants of mine? Wet rags and not 
 men ! Guts on two legs ! Christened baboons ! God, wilt 
 Thou not grant me another ten years to live? If I die too 
 soon, the cause of religion is lost in the hands of such rascals ! 
 
 "You are as helpless as Antoine de Navarre! Begone! 
 leave me ! I must have a better messenger ! You are an ass, 
 a popinjay, a poet ! Go, write your Catullics, your Tibullics, 
 your acrostics ! Hoo !" 
 
 The pain he suffered was entirely swamped by the fires of 
 his wrath. Gout vanished before this fearful excitement. 
 Calvin's face was blotched with purple, like the sky before 
 a storm. His broad forehead shone. His eyes flashed fire. 
 He was not like the same man. He let himself give way 
 to this sort of epileptic frenzy, almost madness, which was 
 habitual with him ; but, then, struck by the silence of his two 
 listeners, and observing Chaudieu, who said to de Beze, "The 
 burning bush of Horeb!" the minister sat down, was dumb, 
 and covered his face with his hands, with their thickened 
 joints, and his fingers quivered in spite of their strength. 
 
 A few minutes later, while still trembling from the last 
 shocks of this tempest the result of his austere life he said 
 in a broken voice: 
 
 : "My vices, which are many, are less hard to subdue than 
 my impatience ! Ah ! wild beast, shall I never conquer you?" 
 he exclaimed, striking his breast. 
 
 "My beloved master," said de Beze in a caressing tone, 
 taking his hands and kissing them, "Jove thunders, but he 
 can smile."
 
 ABOUT CATHBKINE DE' MEDICI 205 
 
 Calvin looked at his disciple with a softened expression. 
 
 "Do not misunderstand me, my friends/' he said. 
 
 "I understand that the shepherds of nations have terrible 
 burdens to bear," replied Theodore. "You have a world on 
 your shoulders." 
 
 "I," said Chaudieu, who had become thoughtful under the 
 master's abuse, "have three martyrs on whom we can depend. 
 Stuart, who killed the President, is free " 
 
 "That will not do," said Calvin mildly, and smiling, as a 
 great man can smile when fair weather follows a storm on his 
 face, as if he were ashamed of the tempest. "I know men. 
 He who kills one President will not kill a second." 
 
 "Is it absolutely necessary ?" said de Beze. 
 
 "What, again?" cried Calvin, his nostrils expanding. 
 "There, go ; you will put me in a rage again. You have my 
 decision. You, Chaudieu, walk in your own path, and keep 
 the Paris flock together. God be with you. Dinah ! Light 
 my friends out." 
 
 "Will you not allow me to embrace you?" said de Beze 
 with emotion. "Who can tell what the morrow will bring 
 forth ? We may be imprisoned in spite of safe-conducts " 
 
 "And yet you want to spare them !" said Calvin, embracing 
 de Beze. 
 
 He took Chaudieu's hand, saying: 
 
 "Mind you, not Huguenots, not Eef ormers : be Calvinists ! 
 Speak only of Calvinism. Alas ! this is not ambition, for I 
 am a dying man ! Only, everything of Luther's must be 
 destroyed, to the very names of Lutheran and Lutheranism." 
 
 "Indeed, divine man, you deserve such honor !" cried Chau- 
 dieu. 
 
 "Uphold uniformity of creed. Do not allow any further 
 examination or reconstruction. If new sects arise from 
 among us, we are lost." 
 
 To anticipate events and dismiss Theodore de Beze, who 
 returned to Paris with Chaudieu, it may be said that Poltrot, 
 who, eighteen months later, fired a pistol at the Due de Guise, 
 confessed, under torture, that he had been urged to the crime
 
 206 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 by Theodore de Beze; however, he retracted his statement 
 at a later stage. Indeed. Bossuet, who weighed all the his- 
 torical evidence, did not think that the idea of this attempt 
 was due to Theodore de Beze. Since Bossuet, however, a dis- 
 sertation of an apparently trivial character, a propos to a 
 famous ballad, enabled a compiler of the eighteenth century 
 to prove that the song sung throughout France by the Hu- 
 guenots on the death of the Due de Guise was written by 
 Theodore de Beze; and, moreover, that the well-known ballad 
 or lament on Malbrouck the Duke of Marlborough is pla- 
 giarized from Theodore de Bze.* 
 
 On the day when Theodore de Beze and Chaudieu reached 
 Paris, the Court had returned thither from Eeims, where 
 Charles IX. had been crowned. This ceremony, to which 
 Catherine gave unusual splendor, making it the occasion of 
 great festivities, enabled her to gather round her the leaders 
 of every faction. 
 
 After studying the various parties and interests, she saw 
 a choice of two alternatives either to enlist them on the side 
 of the Throne, or to set them against each other. The Con- 
 netable de Montmorency, above all else a Catholic, whose 
 nephew, the Prince de Conde, was the leader of the Kef orma- 
 tion, and whose children also had a leaning to that creed, 
 blamed the Queen-mother for allying herself with that 
 party. The Guises, on their side, worked hard to gain over 
 Antoine de Bourbon, a Prince of no strength of character, 
 and attach him to their faction, and his wife, the Queen of 
 Navarre, informed by de Beze, allowed this to be done. These 
 difficulties checked Catherine, whose newly-acquired authority 
 needed a brief period of tranquillity ; she impatiently awaited 
 Calvin's reply by de Beze and Chaudieu, sent to the great 
 Eeformer on behalf of the Prince de Conde, the King of 
 Navarre, Coligny, d'Andelot, and Cardinal de Chatillon. 
 
 Meanwhile, the Queen-mother was true to her promises 
 to the Prince de Conde. The Chancellor quashed the trial, 
 * See note at the end of this volume.
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 20? 
 
 in which Christophe was involved, by referring the case 
 to the Paris Parlement, and they annulled the sentence pro- 
 nounced by the Commission, declaring it incompetent to try a 
 Prince of the Blood. The Parlement re-opened the trial by 
 the desire of the Guises and the Queen-mother. La Sagne's 
 papers had been placed in Catherine's hands, and she had 
 burnt them. This sacrifice was the first pledge given, quite, 
 vainly, by the Guises to the Queen-mother. The Parlement 
 not having this decisive evidence, reinstated the Prince in all 
 his rights, possessions, and honors. 
 
 Christophe, thus released when Orleans was in all its ex- 
 citement over the King's accession, was excluded from the 
 case, and, as a compensation for his sufferings, was passed 
 as a pleader by Monsieur de Thou. 
 
 The Triumvirate the coalition of interests which were 
 imperiled by Catherine's first steps in authority was hatch- 
 ing under her very eyes. Just as in chemistry hostile ele- 
 ments fly asunder at the shock that disturbs their compulsory 
 union, so in politics the alliance of antagonistic interests 
 can never last long. Catherine fully understood that, sooner 
 or later, she must fall back on the Connetable and the Guises 
 to fight the Huguenots. The convocation, which served to 
 flatter the vanity of the orators on each side, and as an excuse 
 for another imposing ceremony after that of the coronation, 
 to clear the blood-stained field for the religious war that had, 
 indeed, already begun, was as futile in the eyes of the Guises 
 as it was in Catherine's. The Catholics could not fail to be 
 the losers; for the Huguenots, under the pretence of discus- 
 sion, would be able to proclaim their doctrine in the face of 
 all France, under the protection of the King and his mother. 
 The Cardinal de Lorraine, flattered by Catherine into the 
 hope of conquering the heretics by the eloquence of the 
 Princes of the Church, induced his brother to consent. To 
 the Queen-mother six months of peace meant much. 
 
 A trivial incident was near wrecking the power which 
 Catherine was so laboriously building up. This is the scene 
 as recorded by history ; it occurred on the very day when the
 
 208 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 envoys from Geneva arrived at the Hotel de Coligny in the 
 Rue Bethisy, not far from the Louvre. At the coronation, 
 Charles IX., who was much attached to his instructor, Amyot, 
 made him High Almoner of France. This affection was fully 
 shared by the Due d'Anjou (Henri III.), who also was 
 Amyot's pupil. 
 
 Catherine heard this from the two Gondis on the way home 
 from Eeims to Paris. She had relied on this Crown appoint- 
 ment to gain her a supporter in the Church, and a person of 
 importance to set against the Cardinal de Lorraine; she had 
 intended to bestow it on Cardinal de Tournon, so as to find 
 in him, as in PHopital, a second crutch to use her own 
 words. On arriving at the Louvre, she sent for the preceptor. 
 Her rage at seeing the catastrophe that threatened her policy 
 from the ambition of this self-made man the son of a 
 shoemaker was such that she addressed him in this strange 
 speech recorded by certain chroniclers: 
 
 "What I I can make the Guises cringe, the Colignys, the 
 Montmorencys, the House of Navarre, the Prince de Conde, 
 and I am to be balked by a priestling like you, who were no^ 
 content to be Bishop of Auxerre !" 
 
 Amyot excused himself. He had, in fact, asked for noth- 
 ing; the King had appointed him of his own free will to 
 this office, of which he, a humble teacher, regarded himself 
 as unworthy. 
 
 "Rest assured, Master," for it was by this name that the 
 Kings Charles IX. and Henri III. addressed this great writer, 
 "that you will not be left standing for twenty-four hours 
 unless you induce your pupil to change his mind." 
 
 Between death promised him in such an uncompromising 
 way, and the abdication of the highest ecclesiastical office 
 in the kingdom, the shoemaker's son, who had grown covet- 
 ous, and hoped perhaps for a Cardinal's hat, determined to 
 temporize. He hid in the abbey of Saint-Germain en Laye. 
 
 At his first dinner, Charles IX., not seeing Amyot, asked 
 for him. Some Guisard, no doubt, told the King what had 
 passed between Amyot and the Queen-mother.
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 209 
 
 "What I" cried he, "has he been made away with because 
 I created him High Almoner ?" 
 
 He went off to his mother in the violent state of a child 
 when one of his fancies is contravened. 
 
 "Madame," said he, as he entered her room, "did I not 
 comply with your wishes, and sign the letter you asked of me 
 for the Parlement, by virtue of which you govern my king- 
 dom ? Did you not promise me, when you laid it before me, 
 that my will should be yours ? and now the only favor I have 
 cared to bestow excites your jealousy. The Chancellor talks 
 of making me of age at fourteen, three years from hence, 
 and you treat me as a child ! By God, but I mean to be King, 
 and as much a King as my father and grandfather were 
 kings I" 
 
 The tone and vehemence with which he spoke these words 
 were a revelation to Catherine of her son's true character; 
 it was like a blow from a bludgeon on her heart. 
 
 "And he speaks thus to me," thought she, "to me, who 
 made him King." "Monsieur," she said, "the business of 
 being King in such times as these is a difficult one, and you 
 do not yet know the master minds you have to deal with. 
 You will never have any true and trustworthy friend but 
 your mother, or other adherents than those whom she long 
 since attached to her, and but for whom you would perhaps 
 not be alive at this day. The Guises are averse both to your 
 position and your person, I would have you know. If they 
 could sew me up in a sack and throw me into the river," said 
 she, pointing to the Seine, "they would do it to-night. Those 
 Lorrainers feel that I am a lioness defending her cubs, and 
 that stays the bold hands they stretch out to clutch the crown. 
 To whom, to what is your preceptor attached ? where are his 
 allies? what is his authority? what services can he do you? 
 what weight will his words have? Instead of gaining a but- 
 tress to uphold your power, you have undermined it. 
 
 "The Cardinal de Lorraine threatens you; he plays the 
 King, and keeps his hat on his head in the presence of the 
 first Prince of the Blood; was it not necessary to counter-
 
 210 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 balance him with another cardinal, invested with authority 
 
 equal to his own? Is Amyot, a shoemaker who might tie 
 
 the bows of his shoes, the man to defy him to his face ? Well, 
 
 well, you are fond of Amyot. You have appointed him! 
 
 Your first decision shall be respected, my Lord ! But before 
 
 deciding any further, have the kindness to consult me. Listen 
 
 to reasons of State, and your boyish good sense will perhaps 
 
 . agree with my old woman's experience before deciding, when 
 
 'you know all the difficulties." 
 
 "You must bring back my master!" said the King, not 
 listening very carefully to the Queen, on finding her speech 
 full of reproofs. 
 
 "Yes, you shall have him," replied she. "But not he, 
 nor even that rough Cypierre, can teach you to reign." 
 
 "It is you, my dear mother," he exclaimed, mollified by his 
 triumph, and throwing off the threatening and sly expression 
 which Nature had stamped on his physiognomy. 
 
 Catherine sent Gondi to find the High Almoner. When 
 the Florentine had discovered Amyot's retreat, and the 
 Bishop heard that the courtier came from the Queen, he was 
 seized with terror, and would not come out of the Abbey. 
 In this extremity Catherine was obliged to write to him 
 herself, and in such terms that he came back and obtained 
 the promise of her support, but only on condition of his 
 obeying her blindly in all that concerned the King. 
 
 This little domestic tempest being lulled, Catherine came 
 back to the Louvre. It was more than a year since she had 
 left it, and she now held council with her nearest friends 
 as to how she was to deal with the young King, whom Cy- 
 pierre had complimented on his firmness. 
 
 "What is to be done?" said she to the two Gondis, Eug- 
 gieri, Birague, and Chiverni, now tutor and Chancellor to 
 the Due d'Anjou. 
 
 "First of all," said Birague, "get rid of Cypierre; he is 
 not a courtier, he will never fall in with your views, and will 
 think he is doing his duty by opposing you." 
 
 "Whom can I trust ?" cried the Queen.
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 211 
 
 "One of us," said Birague. 
 
 "By my faith/' said Gondi, "I promise to make the King 
 as pliant as the King of Navarre." 
 
 "You let the late King die to save your other children; 
 well, then, do as the grand Signers of Constantinople do: 
 crush this one's passions and fancies," said Albert de Gondi. 
 "He likes the arts, poetry, hunting, and a little girl he saw at 
 Orleans; all this is quite enough to occupy him." 
 i "Then you would be the King's tutor ?" said Catherine, to 
 the more capable of the two Gondis. 
 
 "If you will give me the necessary authority; it might be 
 well to make me a Marshal of France and a Duke. Cypierre 
 is too small a man to continue in that office. Henceforth 
 the tutor of a King of France should be a Marshal and Duke, 
 or something of the kind " 
 
 "He is right," said Birague. 
 
 "Poetry and hunting," said Catherine, in a dreamy voice. 
 
 "We will hunt and make love !" cried Gondi. 
 
 "Besides," said Chiverni, "you are sure of Amyot, who will 
 always be afraid of a drugged cup in case of disobedience, 
 and with Gondi you will have the King in leading strings." 
 
 "You were resigned to the loss of one son to save the three 
 others and the Crown; now you must have the courage to 
 keep this one occupied to save the kingdom to save yourself 
 perhaps," said Euggieri. 
 
 "He has just offended me deeply," said Catherine. 
 
 "He does not know how much he owes you ; and if he did, 
 you would not be safe," Birague replied with grave emphasis. 
 
 "It is settled," said the Queen, on whom this reply had a 
 startling effect; "you are to be the King's governor, Gondi. 
 The King must make me a return in favor of one of my 
 friends for the concession I have made for fhat cowardly 
 Bishop. But the fool has lost the Cardinal's hat; so long 
 as I live I will hinder the Pope from fitting it to his head ! 
 We should have been very strong with Cardinal de Tournon 
 to support us. What a trio they would have made: he as 
 High Almoner with 1'Hopital and de Thou ! As to the citi-
 
 212 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 zens of Paris, I mean to make my son coax them over, and 
 we will lean on them." 
 
 And Gondi was, in fact, made a Marshal, created Due de 
 Eetz and tutor to the King, within a few days. 
 
 This little council was just over when Cardinal de Tour- 
 non came to announce to the Queen the messengers from 
 Calvin. Admiral Coligny escorted them to secure them re- 
 spectful treatment at the Louvre. The Queen summoned her 
 battalion of maids of honor, and went into the great recep- 
 tion-room built by her husband, which no longer exists in the 
 Louvre of our day. 
 
 At that time the staircase of the Louvre was in the clock- 
 tower. Catherine's rooms were in the older part of the 
 building, part of which survives in the Cour du Musee. The 
 present staircase to the galleries was built where the Salle 
 des ballets was before it. A ballet at that time meant a sort 
 of dramatic entertainment performed by all the Court. 
 
 Kevolutionary prejudice led to the most ridiculous mistake 
 as to Charles IX. a propos to the Louvre. During the Eevolu- 
 tion a belief defamatory of this King, whose character has 
 been caricatured, made a monster of him. Chenier's tragedy 
 was written under the provocation of a tablet hung up on the 
 window of the part of the palace that projects towards the 
 Quay. On it were these words, "From this window Charles 
 IX. of execrable memory fired on the citizens of Paris." It 
 may be well to point out to future historians and studious 
 persons that the whole of that side of the Louvre, now called 
 the Old Louvre the projecting wing at a right angle to the 
 Quay, connected the galleries with the Louvre by what is 
 called the Galerie d'Apollon, and the Louvre with the Tuile- 
 ries by the picture gallery was not in existence in the time 
 of Charles IX. The principal part of the site of the river- 
 front, where lies the garden known as le Jardin de Flnfante, 
 was occupied by the Hotel de Bourbon, which belonged, in 
 fact, to the House of Navarre. It would have been physically 
 impossible for Charles IX. to fire from the Louvre de Henri 
 II. on a boat full of Huguenots crossing the Seine, though
 
 ABOtJT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 213 
 
 he could see the river from some windows, which are now 
 built up, in that part of the palace. 
 
 Even if historians and libraries did not possess maps in 
 which the Louvre at the time of Charles IX. is perfectly 
 shown, the building bears in itself the refutation of the error. 
 The several Kings who have contributed to this vast structure 
 have never failed to leave their cipher on the work in some 
 form of monogram. The venerable buildings, now all dis- 
 colored, of that part of the Louvre that goes down to thb 
 Quay bear the initials of Henri II. and of Henri IV. ; quite 
 different from those of Henri III., who added to his H Cath- 
 erine's double C in a way that looks like D to superficial 
 observers. It was Henri IV. who was able to add his own 
 palace, the Hotel de Bourbon, with its gardens and domain, 
 on to the Louvre. He first thought of uniting Catherine 
 de' Medici's palace to the Louvre by finishing the galleries, 
 of which the exquisite sculpture is too little appreciated. 
 
 But if no plan of Paris under Charles IX. were in exist- 
 ence, nor the monograms of the two Henrys, the difference 
 in the architecture would be enough to give the lie to this 
 calumny. The rusticated bosses of the Hotel de la Force, 
 and of this portion of the Louvre, are precisely characteristic 
 of the transition from the architecture of the Eenaissance to 
 the architecture of Henri III., Henri IV., and Louis XIII. 
 
 This archffiological digression, in harmony, to be sure, with 
 the pictures at the beginning of this narrative, enables us to 
 see the aspect of this other part of Paris, of which nothing 
 now remains but that portion of the Louvre, where the beau- 
 tiful bas-reliefs are perishing day hy day. 
 
 When the Court was informed that the Queen was about 
 to give audience to Theodore de Beze and Chaudieu, intro- 
 duced by Admiral Coligny, every one who had a right to go 
 into the throne room hastened to be present at this interview. 
 It was about six o'clock; Admiral Coligny had supped, and 
 was picking his teeth as he walked upstairs between the two 
 Calvinists. This playing with a toothpick was a confirmed 
 habit with the Admiral; he involuntarily picked his teeth
 
 214 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 in the middle of a battle when meditating a retreat. "Never 
 trust the Admiral's toothpick, the Constable's 'No/ or Cath- 
 erine's 'Yes,' " was one of the proverbs of the Court at the 
 time. And after the massacre of Saint-Bartholomew, the 
 mob made horrible mockery of the Admiral's body, which 
 hung for three days at Montfaucon, by sticking a grotesque 
 toothpick between his teeth. Chroniclers have recorded this 
 hideous jest. And, indeed, this trivial detail in the midst 
 of a tremendous catastrophe is just like the Paris mob, which 
 thoroughly deserves this grotesque parody of a line of 
 Boileau's : 
 
 Le Francais, n<5 malin, cr6a la guillotine. 
 
 (The Frenchman, a born wag, invented the guillotine.) 
 
 In all ages, the Parisians have made fun before, during, 
 and after the most terrible revolutions. 
 
 Theodore de Beze was in Court dress, black silk long hose> 
 slashed shoes, full trunks, a doublet of black silk, also slashed, 
 and a little black velvet cloak, over which fell a fine white 
 ruff, deeply gauffered. He wore the tuft of beard called a 
 virgule (a comma) and a moustache. His sword hung by 
 his side, and he carried a cane. All who know the pictures 
 at Versailles, or the portraits by Odieuvre, know his round 
 and almost jovial face, with bright eyes, and the remarkably 
 high and broad forehead, which is characteristic of the poeta 
 and writers of that time. De Beze had a pleasant face, 
 which did him good service. He formed a striking contrast 
 to Coligny, whose austere features are known to all, and to 
 the bitter and bilious-looking Chaudieu, who wore the preach- 
 er's gown and Calvinist bands. 
 
 The state of affairs in the Chamber of Deputies in our 
 own day, and that, no doubt, in the Convention too, may en- 
 able us to understand how at that Court and at that time 
 persons, who six months after would be fighting to the death 
 and waging heinous warfare, would meanwhile meet, address 
 each other with courtesy, and exchange jests.
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 215 
 
 When Coligny entered the room, Birague, who would coldly 
 advise the massacre of Saint-Bartholomew, and the Cardinal 
 de Lorraine, who would tell his servant Besme not to miss 
 the Admiral, came forward to meet him, and the Piedmontese 
 said, with a smile: 
 
 "Well, my dear Admiral, so you have undertaken to intro- 
 duce these gentlemen from Geneva?" 
 
 "And you will count it to me for a crime, perhaps," replied 
 the Admiral in jest, "while, if you had undertaken it, you 
 would have scored it as a merit." 
 
 "Master Calvin, I hear, is very ill," said the Cardinal de 
 Lorraine to Theodore de Beze. "I hope we shall not be sus- 
 pected of having stirred his broth for him !" 
 
 "Nay, monseigneur, you would lose too much by that," 
 said Theodore de Beze shrewdly. 
 
 The Due de Guise, who was examining Chaudieu, stared 
 at his brother and Birague, who were both startled by this 
 speech. 
 
 "By God!" exclaimed the Cardinal, "heretics are of the 
 right faith in keen politics !" 
 
 To avoid difficulties, the Queen, who was announced at this 
 moment, remained standing. She began by conversing with 
 the Connetable, who spoke eagerly of the scandal of her ad- 
 mitting Calvin's envoys to her presence. 
 
 "But, you see, my dear Constable, we receive them without 
 ceremony." 
 
 "Madame," said the Admiral, approaching Catherine, 
 "these are the two doctors of the new religion who have come 
 to an understanding with Calvin, and have taken his in- 
 structions as to a meeting where the various Churches of 
 France may compromise their differences." 
 
 "This is Monsieur Theodore de Beze, my wife's very great 
 favorite," said the King of Navarre, coming forward and 
 taking de Beze by the hand. 
 
 "And here is Chaudieu !" cried the Prince de Conde. "My 
 friend the Due de Guise knows the captain," he added, look-
 
 216 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 ing at la Balafre; "perhaps he would like to make acquaint- 
 ance with the minister/' 
 
 This sally made everybody laugh, even Catherine. 
 
 "By my troth," said the Due de Guise, "I am delighted to 
 see a man who can so well choose a follower, and make use 
 of him in his degree. One of your men," said he to the 
 preacher, "endured, without dying or confessing anything, 
 the extreme of torture; I fancy myself brave, but I do not 
 know that I could endure so well !" 
 
 "Hm!" observed Ambroise Pare, "you said not a word 
 when I pulled the spear out of your face at Calais." 
 
 Catherine, in the middle of the semicircle formed right 
 and left of the maids of honor and Court officials, kept 
 silence. While looking at the two famous Reformers, she 
 was trying to penetrate them with her fine, intelligent, black 
 eyes, and study them thoroughly. 
 
 "One might be the sheath and the other the blade," Albert 
 de Gondi said in her ear. 
 
 "Well, gentlemen," said Catherine, who could not help 
 smiling, "has your master given you liberty to arrange a 
 public conference where you may convert to the Word of 
 God those modern Fathers of the Church who are the glory 
 of our realm?" 
 
 "We have no master but the Lord," said Chaudieu. 
 
 "Well, you acknowledge some authority in the King of 
 France?" said Catherine, smiling, and interrupting the 
 minister. 
 
 "And a great deal in the Queen," added de Beze, bowing 
 low. 
 
 "You will see," she went on, "that the heretics will be 
 my most dutiful subjects." 
 
 "Oh, madame!" cried Coligny, "what a splendid kingdom 
 we will make for you! Europe reaps great profit from our 
 divisions. It has seen one-half of France set against the 
 other for fifty years past." 
 
 "Have we come here to hear chants in praise of heretics ?" 
 said the Connetable roughly.
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 217 
 
 "No, but to bring them to amendment," answered the 
 Cardinal de Lorraine in a whisper, "and we hope to achieve 
 it by a little gentleness." 
 
 "Do you know what I should have done in the reign of the 
 King's father?" said Anne de Montmorency. "I should have 
 sent for the Provost to hang those two rascals high and dry 
 on the Louvre gallows." 
 
 "Well, gentlemen, and who are the learned doctors you will 
 bring into the field ?" said the Queen, silencing the Constable 
 with a look. 
 
 "Duplessis-Mornay and Theodore de Beze are our leaders," 
 said Chaudieu. 
 
 "The Court will probably go to the chateau of Saint-Ger- 
 main ; and as it would not be seemly that this colloquy should 
 take place in the same town, it shall be held in the little 
 town of Poissy," replied Catherine. 
 
 "Shall we be safe there, madame ?" asked Chaudieu. 
 
 "Oh !" said the Queen, with a sort of simplicity, "you will, 
 no doubt, know what precautions to take. Monsieur the 
 Admiral will make arrangements to that effect with my 
 cousins de Guise and Montmorency." 
 
 "Fie on it all!" said the Constable; "I will have no part 
 in it." 
 
 The Queen took Chaudieu a little way apart. 
 
 "What do you do to your sectarians to give them such a 
 spirit?" said she. "My furrier's son was really sublime." 
 
 "We have faith," said Chaudieu. 
 
 At this moment the room was filled with eager groups,' 
 all discussing the question of this assembly, which, from the 
 Queen's suggestion, was already spoken of as the "Convoca- 
 tion of Poissy." Catherine looked at Chaudieu, and felt it 
 safe to say: 
 
 "Yes, a new faith." 
 
 "Ah, madame, if you were not blinded by your connection 
 with the Court of Rome, you would see that we are returning 
 to the true doctrine of Jesus Christ, who, while sanctifying 
 the equality of souls, has given all men on earth equal rights."
 
 218 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 "And do you think yourself the equal of Calvin?" said 
 Catherine shrewdly. "Nay, nay, we are equals only in 
 church. What, really? Break all bonds between the 
 people and the throne?" cried Catherine. "You are not 
 merely heretics; you rebel against obedience to the King 
 while avoiding all obedience to the Pope." 
 
 She sharply turned away, and returned to Theodore de 
 Beze. , 
 
 "I trust to you, monsieur," she said, "to carry through* 
 this conference conscientiously. Take time over it." 
 
 "I fancied," said Chaudieu to the Prince de Conde, the 
 King of Navarre, and Admiral Coligny, "that affairs of State 
 were taken more seriously." 
 
 "Oh, we all know exactly what we mean," said the Prince 
 de Conde, with a significant glance at Theodore de Beze. 
 
 The hunchback took leave of his followers to keep an as- 
 signation. This great Prince and party leader was one of 
 the most successful gallants of the Court; the two hand- 
 somest women of the day fought for him with such infatua- 
 tion, that the Marechale de Saint-Andre, the wife of one 
 of the coming Triumvirate, gave him her fine estate at Saint- 
 Valery to win him from the Duchesse de Guise, the wife of 
 the man who had wanted to bring his head under the axe; 
 being unable to wean the Due de Nemours from his flirta- 
 tions with Mademoiselle de Eohan, she fell in love, mean- 
 while, with the leader of the Eeformed party. 
 
 "How different from Geneva !" said Chaudieu to Theodore 
 de Beze on the little bridge by the Louvre. 
 
 "They are livelier here, and I cannot imagine why they 
 are such traitors," replied de Beze. 
 
 "Meet a traitor with a traitor-and-a-half," said Chaudieu 
 in a whisper. "I have saints in Paris that I can rely on,' 
 and I mean to make a prophet of Calvin. Christophe will rid 
 us of the most dangerous of our enemies." 
 
 "The Queen-mother, for whom the poor wretch endured 
 torture, has already had him passed, by high-handed orders, 
 as pleader before the Parlement, and lawyers are more apt to
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 219 
 
 be tell-tales than assassins. Remember Avenelles, who sold 
 the secret of our first attempt to take up arms." 
 
 "But I know Christophe," said Chaudieu, with an air of 
 conviction, as he and the Calvinist parted. 
 
 Some days after the reception of Calvin's secret envoys 
 by Catherine, and towards the end of that year for the year 
 then began at Easter, and the modern calendar was not 
 adopted till this very reign Christophe, still stretched on 
 an armchair, was sitting on that side of the large sombre 
 room where our story began, in such a position as to look 
 out on the river. His feet rested on a stool. Mademoiselle 
 Lecamus and Bahett'e Lallier had just renewed the application 
 of compresses, soaked in a lotion brought by Ambroise, to 
 whose care Catherine had commended Christophe. When 
 once he was restored to his family, the lad had become the 
 object of the most devoted care. Babette, with her father's 
 permission, came to the house every morning, and did not 
 leave till the evening. Christophe, a subject of wonder to 
 the apprentices, gave rise in the neighborhood to endless 
 tales, which involved him in poetic mystery. He had been 
 put to torture, and the famous Ambroise Pare was exerting 
 all his skill to save him. What, then, had he done to be 
 treated so? On this point neither Christophe nor his father 
 breathed a word. Catherine, now all-powerful, had an in- 
 terest in keeping silence, and so had the Prince de Conde. 
 The visits of Ambroise Pare, the surgeon to the King and 
 to the House of Guise, permitted by the Queen-mother and 
 the Princes of Lorraine to attend a youth accused of heresy, 
 added to the singularity of this business, which no one could 
 see through. And then the priest of Saint-Pierre aux Boeufs 
 came several times to see his churchwarden's son, and these i 
 visits made the causes of Christophe's condition even more 
 inexplicable. 
 
 The old furrier, who had a plan of his own, replied 
 evasively when his fellows of the guild, traders, and friends 
 spoke of his son :
 
 220 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 "I am very happy, neighbor, to have been able to save him ! 
 You know! it is well not to put your finger between the 
 wood and the bark. My son put his hand to the stake and 
 took out fire enough to burn my house down ! They imposed 
 on his youth, and we citizens never get anything but scorn 
 and harm by hanging on to the great. This quite determines 
 me to make a lawyer of my boy; the law courts will teach 
 him to weigh his words and deeds. The young Queen, who is 
 now in Scotland, had a great deal to do with it ; but perhaps 
 Christophe was very imprudent too. I went through terrible 
 grief. All this will probably lead to my retiring from busi- 
 ness; I will never go to Court any more. My son has had 
 enough of the Reformation now ; it has left him with broken 
 arms and legs. But for Ambroise, where should I be ?" 
 
 Thanks to these speeches and to his prudence, a report 
 was spread in the neighborhood that Christophe no longer 
 followed the creed of Colas. Every one thought it quite 
 natural that the old Syndic should wish to see his son a 
 lawyer in the Parlement, and thus the priest's calls seemed 
 quite a matter of course. In thinking of the old man's woes, 
 no one thought of his ambition, which would have been 
 deemed monstrous. 
 
 The young lawyer, who had spent ninety days on the bed 
 put up for him in the old sitting-room, had only been out of it 
 for a week past, and still needed the help of crutches to enable 
 him to walk. Babette's affection and his mother's tenderness 
 had touched Christophe deeply ; still, having him in bed, the 
 two women lectured him soundly on the subject of religion. 
 President de Thou came to see his godson, and was most 
 paternal. Christophe, as a pleader in the Parlement, ought 
 to be a Catholic, he would be pledged to it by his oath; and 
 the President, who never seemed to doubt the young man's 
 orthodoxy, added these important words : 
 
 "You have been cruelly tested, my boy. I myself know 
 nothing of the reasons Messieurs de Guise had for treating 
 you thus; but now I exhort you to live quietly henceforth, 
 and not to interfere in broils, for the favor of the King and
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDIOI 221 
 
 Queen will not be shown to such as brew storms. You are 
 not a great enough man to drive a bargain with the King, 
 like the Duke and the Cardinal. If you want to be councillor 
 in the Parlement some day, you can only attain that high 
 office by serious devotion to the cause of Koyalty." 
 
 However, neither Monsieur de Thou's visit, nor Babette's 
 charms, nor the entreaties of Mademoiselle Lecamus his 
 mother, had shaken the faith of the Protestant martyr. 
 Christophe clung all the more stoutly to his religion in pro- 
 portion to what he had suffered for it. 
 
 "My father will never allow me to marry a heretic/' said 
 Babette in his ear. 
 
 Christophe replied only with tears, which left the pretty 
 girl speechless and thoughtful. 
 
 Old Lecamus maintained his dignity as a father and a 
 Syndic, watched his son, and said little. The old man, hav- 
 ing got back his dear Christophe, was almost vexed with 
 himself, and repentant of having displayed all his affection 
 for his only son ; but secretly he admired him. At no time in 
 his life had the furrier pulled so many wires to gain his ends ; 
 for he could see the ripe harvest of the crop sown with so 
 much toil, and wished to gather it all. 
 
 A few days since he had had a long conversation with 
 Christophe alone, hoping to discover the secret of his son's 
 tenacity. Christophe, who was not devoid of ambition, be- 
 lieved in the Prince de Conde. The Prince's generous speech 
 which was no more than the stock-in-trade of princes 
 was stamped on his heart. He did not know that Conde had 
 wished him at the devil at the moment when he bid him such! 
 a touching farewell through the bars of his prison at Orleans.. 
 
 "A Gascon would have understood," the Prince had said to 
 himself. 
 
 And in spite of his admiration for the Prince, Christophe 
 cherished the deepest respect for Catherine, the great Queen 
 who had explained to him in a look that she was compelled 
 by necessity to sacrifice him, and then, during his torture, 
 had conveyed to him in another glance an unlimited promise 
 by an almost imperceptible tear.
 
 222 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 During the deep calm of the ninety days and nights he 
 had spent in recovering, the newly-made lawyer thought over 
 the events at Blois and at Orleans. He weighed, in spite of 
 himself, it may be said, the influence of these two patrons; 
 he hesitated between the Queen and the Prince. He had 
 certainly done more for Catherine than for the Reformation ; 
 and the young man's heart and mind, of course, went forth 
 to the Queen, less by reason of this difference than because 
 she was a woman. In such a case a man will always found 
 his hopes on a woman rather than on a man. 
 
 "I immolated myself for her what will she not do 
 for me?" 
 
 This was the question he almost involuntarily asked himself 
 as he recalled the tone in which she had said, "My poor boy !" 
 
 It is difficult to conceive of the pitch of self -consciousness 
 reached by a man alone and sick in bed. Everything, even 
 the care of which he is the object, tends to make him think 
 of himself alone. By exaggerating the Prince de Conde's 
 obligations to him, Christophe looked forward to obtaining 
 some post at the Court of Navarre. The lad, a novice still 
 in politics, was all the more forgetful of the anxieties which 
 absorb party leaders, and of the swift rush of men and events 
 which overrule them, because he lived almost in solitary im- 
 prisonment in that dark parlor. Every party is bound to be 
 ungrateful when it is fighting for dear life ; and when it has 
 won the day, there are so many persons to be rewarded, that 
 it is ungrateful still. The rank and file submit to this 
 oblivion, but the captains turn against the new master who 
 for so long has marched as their equal. 
 
 Christophe, the only person to remember what he had suf- 
 fered, already reckoned himself as one of the chiefs of the 
 Reformation by considering himself as one of its martyrs. 
 Lecamus, the old wolf of trade, acute and clear-sighted, had 
 guessed his son's secret thoughts ; indeed, all his manoeuvring 
 was based on the very natural hesitancy that possessed the 
 lad. 
 
 "Would not it be fine," he had. said the day before to
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 223 
 
 Babette, "to be the wife of a Councillor to the Parlement; 
 you would be addressed as madame." 
 
 "You are crazy, neighbor/' said Lallier. "In the first 
 place, where would you find ten thousand crowns a year in 
 landed estate, which a Councillor must show, and from whom 
 could you purchase a connection? The Queen-mother and 
 Eegent would have to give all her mind to it to get your son 
 into the Parlement; and he smells of the stake too strongly 
 io be admitted." 
 
 "What would you give, now, to see your daughter a Coun- 
 cillor's wife ?" 
 
 "You want to sound the depth of my purse, you old fox !" 
 exclaimed Lallier. 
 
 Councillor to the Parlement ! The words distracted Chris- 
 tophe's brain. 
 
 Long after the conference was over, one morning when 
 Christophe sat gazing at the river, which reminded him of 
 the scene that was the beginning of all this story, of the 
 Prince de Conde, la Renaudie, and Chaudieu, of his journey 
 to Blois, and of all he hoped for, the Syndic came to sit 
 down by his son with ill-disguised glee under an affectation 
 of solemnity. 
 
 "My boy," said he, "after what took place between you 
 and the heads of the riot at Amboise, they owed you so 
 much that your future might veiy well be cared for by the 
 House of Xavarre." 
 
 "Yes," replied Christophe. 
 
 "Well," his father went on, "I have definitely applied for 
 permission for you to purchase a legal business in Beam. Our 
 good friend Pare undertook to transmit the letters I wrote 
 in your name to the Prince de Conde and Queen Jeanne. 
 Here, read this reply from Monsieur de Pibrac, Vice-Chan- 
 cellor of Navarre : 
 
 "To Master Lecamus, Syndic of the Guild of Furriers. 
 "His Highness the Prince de Conde bids me express to you 
 his regret at being unable to do anything for his fellow-
 
 224 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 prisoner in the Tour de Saint- Aignan, whom he remembers 
 well, and to whom, for the present, he offers the place of 
 man-at-arms in his own company, where he will have the 
 opportunity of making his way as a man of good heart 
 which he is. 
 
 "The Queen of Navarre hopes for an occasion of reward- 
 ing Master Christophe, and will not fail. 
 
 "And with this, Monsieur le Syndic, I pray God have youj 
 in His keeping. PIBEAC, 
 
 "Chancellor of Navarre. 
 
 "Nerac." 
 
 "Nerac! Pibrac! Crac!" cried Babette. "There is noth- 
 ing to be got out of these Gascons ; they think only of them- 
 selves." 
 
 Old Lecainus was looking at his son with ironical amuse- 
 ment. 
 
 "And he wants to set a poor boy on horseback whose 
 knees and ankles were pounded up for him!" cried the 
 mother. "What a shameful mockery !" 
 
 "I do not seem to see you as a Councillor in Navarre," said 
 the old furrier. 
 
 "I should like to know what Queen Catherine would do 
 for me if I petitioned her," said Christophe, much crest- 
 fallen. 
 
 "She made no promises," said the old merchant, "but I 
 am sure she would not make a fool of you, and would re- 
 member your sufferings. Still, how could she make a coun- 
 eillor-at-law of a Protestant citizen ?" 
 
 "But Christophe has never abjured !" exclaimed Babette. 
 "He may surely keep his own secret as to his religious opin- 
 ions." 
 
 "The Prince de Conde would be less scornful of a Coun- 
 cillor to the Parlement of Paris," said Lecamus. 
 
 "A Councillor, father! Is it possible?" 
 
 "Yes, if you do nothing to upset what I am managing for 
 you. My neighbor Lallier here is ready to pay two hundred
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 225 
 
 thousand livres, if I add as much again, for the purchase of 
 a fine estate entailed on the heirs male, which we will hand 
 over to you." 
 
 "And I will add something more for a house in Paris," said 
 Lallier. 
 
 "Well, Christophe?" said Babette. 
 
 "You are talking without the Queen," replied the young 
 lawyer. 
 
 Some days after this bitter mortification, an apprentice 
 brought this brief note to Christophe: 
 
 "Chaudieu wishes to see his son." 
 
 "Bring him in," said Christophe. 
 
 "0 my saint and martyr!" cried the preacher, embrac- 
 ing the young man, "have you got over your sufferings ?" 
 
 "Yes, thanks to Pare." 
 
 "Thanks to God, who gave you strength to endure them! 
 But what is this I hear? You have passed as a pleader, you 
 have taken the oath of fidelity, you have confessed the Whore, 
 the Catholic, Apostolic, Romish Church." 
 
 "My father insisted." 
 
 "But are we not to leave father and mother and children 
 and wife for the sacred cause of Calvinism, and to suffer 
 all things? Oh, Christophe, Calvin, the great Calvin, the 
 whole party, the whole world, the future counts on your 
 courage and your greatness of soul ! We want your life." 
 
 There is this strange feature in the mind of man;; the 
 most devoted, even in the act of devoting himself, always 
 builds up a romance of hope even in the most perilous crisis. 
 Thus, when on the river under the Pont au Change,, the 
 prince, the soldier, and the preacher had required Ohris- 
 tophe to carry to Queen Catherine the document which, if 
 'discovered, would have cost him his life, the boy had trusted 
 tto his wit, to chance, to his perspicacity, and had boldly 
 marched on between the two formidable parties the Guises 
 and the Queen who had so nearly crushed him. While in 
 the torture-chamber he still had said to himself, "I shdl live 
 through it it is only gain I"
 
 226 
 
 But at this brutal command, "Die!" to a man who was 
 still helpless, hardly recovered from the injuries he had suf- 
 fered, and who clung all the more to life for having seen 
 death so near, it was impossible to indulge in any such illu- 
 sions. 
 
 Christophe calmly asked, "What do you want of me?" 
 
 "To fire a pistol bravely, as Stuart fired at Minard." 
 
 "At whom?" 
 
 "The Due de Guise/' 
 
 "Assassination ?" 
 
 "Revenge! Have you forgotten the hundred gentlemen 
 massacre on one scaffold ! A child, little d'Aubigne, said as 
 he saw the butchery, 'They have beheaded all France.' '' 
 
 "We are to take blows and not to return them, is the teach- 
 ing of the Gospel," replied Christophe. "If we are to imitate 
 the Catholics, of what use is it to reform the Church ?" 
 
 "Oh, Christophe, they have made a lawyer of you, and you 
 argue !" said Chaudieu. 
 
 "No, my friend," the youth replied. "But principles are 
 ungrateful, and you and yours will only be the playthings 
 of the House of Bourbon." 
 
 "Oh, Christophe, if you had only heard Calvin, you would 
 know that we can turn them like a glove ! The Bourbons are 
 the glove, and we the hand." 
 
 "Head this," said Christophe, handing Pibrac's letter to 
 the minister. 
 
 "Alas, boy ! you are ambitious ; you can no longer sacrifice 
 yourself;" and Chaudieu went away. 
 
 Not long after this visit, Christophe, with the families 
 i>f Lallier and Lecamus, had met to celebrate the plighting 
 of Babette and Christophe in the old parlor, whence Chris- 
 tophe's couch was now removed, for he could climb the stairs 
 now, and was beginning to drag himself about without 
 crutches. It was nine in the evening, and they waited for 
 Ambroise Pare. The family notary was sitting at a table 
 covered with papers. The furrier was selling his house and
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 227 
 
 business to his head-clerk, who was to pay forty thousand 
 livres down for the house, and to mortgage it as security for 
 the stock-in-trade, besides paying twenty thousand livres on 
 account. 
 
 Lecamus had purchased for his son a magnificent house 
 in the Eue de Saint-Pierre aux Bceufs, built of stone by 
 Philibert de 1'Orme, as a wedding gift. The Syndic had 
 also spent two hundred and fifty thousand livres out of his 
 fortune, Lallier paying an equal sum, for the acquisition 
 of a fine manor and estate in Picardy, for which five hun- 
 dred thousand livres were asked. This estate being a de- 
 pendence of the Crown, letters patent from the King called 
 letters of rescript were necessary, besides the payment of 
 considerable fines and fees. Thus the actual marriage was to 
 be postponed till the royal signature could be obtained. 
 
 Though the citizens of Paris had obtained the right of pur- 
 chasing manors and lands, the prudence of the Privy Coun- 
 cil had placed certain restrictions on the transfer of lands 
 belonging to the Crown; and the estate on which Lecamus 
 had had his eye for the last ten years was one of these. Am- 
 broise had undertaken to produce the necessary permission 
 this very evening. Old Lecamus went to and fro between the 
 sitting-room and the front door with an, impatience that 
 showed the eagerness of his ambition. 
 
 At last Ambroise appeared. 
 
 "My good friend!" exclaimed the surgeon in a great fuss, 
 and looking at the supper-table, "what is your napery like? 
 Very good. Now bring waxlights, and make haste, make 
 haste. Bring out the best of everything you have." 
 
 "What is the matter ?" asked the priest of Saint-Pierre aux 
 Bosufs. 
 
 "The Queen-mother and the King are coming to sup with 
 you," replied the surgeon. "The Queen and King expect to 
 meet here an old Councillor, whose business is to be sold to 
 Christophe, and Monsieur de Thou, who has managed the 
 bargain. Do not look as if you expected them; I stole out 
 of the Louvre."
 
 228 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 In an instant all were astir. Christophe's mother and 
 Babette's aunt trotted about in all the flurry of housewives 
 taken by surprise. In spite of the confusion into which the 
 announcement had thrown the party, preparations were made 
 with miraculous energy. Christophe, amazed, astounded, 
 overpowered by such condescension, stood speechless, looking! 
 on at all the bustle. 
 
 "The Queen and the King here !" said the old mother. 
 
 "The Queen?" echoed Babette; "but what for, what to 
 do?" 
 
 Within an hour everything was altered; the old room was 
 smartened up, the table shone. A sound of horses was heard 
 in the street. The gleam of torches carried by the mounted 
 escort brought all the neighbors' noses to the windows. The 
 rush was soon over; no one was left under the arcade but 
 the Queen-mother and her son, King Charles IX., Charles 
 de Gondi, Master of the Wardrobe, and tutor to the King; 
 Monsieur de Thou, the retiring Councillor; Pinard, Secre- 
 tary of State, and two pages. 
 
 "Good folks," said the Queen as she went in, "the King, 
 my son, and I have come to sign the marriage contract of 
 our furrier's son, but on condition that he remains a Catholic. 
 Only a Catholic can serve in the Parlement, only a Catholic 
 can own lands dependent on the Crown, only a Catholic 
 can sit at table with the King what do you say, Pinard ?" 
 
 The Secretary of State stepped forward, holding the let- 
 ters patent. 
 
 "If we are not all Catholics here," said the little King, 
 "Pinard will throw all the papers into the fire ; but we are all 
 Catholics?" he added, looking round proudly enough at the 
 company. 
 
 "Yes, Sire," said Christophe Lecamus, bending the knee, 
 3iot without difficulty, and kissing the hand the young King 
 held out to him. 
 
 Queen Catherine, who also held out her hand to Chris- 
 tophe, pulled him up rather roughly, and leading him into 
 a corner, said:
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 22ft 
 
 "Understand, boy, no subterfuges! We are playing an 
 honest game?" 
 
 "Yes, madame," he said, dazzled by this splendid reward 
 and by the honor the grateful Queen had done him. 
 
 "Well, then, Master Lecarnus, the King, my son, and I 
 permit you to purchase the offices and appointments of this 
 good man Groslay, Councillor to the Parlement, who is 
 here," said the Queen. "I hope, young man, that you will 
 follow in the footsteps of your Lord President." 
 
 De Thou came forward and said: 
 
 "I will answer for him, madame." 
 
 "Very well, then proceed, notary," said Pinard. 
 
 "Since the King, our master, does us the honor of signing 
 my daughter's marriage-contract," cried Lallier, "I will pay 
 the whole price of the estate." 
 
 "The ladies may be seated," said the young King gra- 
 ciously. "As a wedding gift to the bride, with my mother's 
 permission, I remit my fines and fees." 
 
 Old Lecamus and Lallier fell on their knees and kissed the 
 boy-King's hand. 
 
 "By Heaven, Sire, what loads of money these citizens 
 have !" said Gondi in his ear. 
 
 And the young King laughed. 
 
 "Their Majesties being so graciously inclined," said old 
 Lecamus, "will they allow me to present to them my suc- 
 cessor in the business, and grant him the royal patent as 
 furrier to their Majesties ?" 
 
 "Let us see him," said the King, and Lecamus brought 
 forward his successor, who was white with alarm. 
 
 Old Lecamus was shrewd enough to offer the young King 
 a silver cup which he had bought from Benvenuto Cellini 
 when he was staying in Paris at the Tour de Nesle, at a cost 
 of not less than two thousand crowns. 
 
 "Oh, mother ! what a fine piece of work !" cried the youth, 
 lifting the cup by its foot. 
 
 "It is Florentine," said Catherine. 
 
 "Pardon me, madame," said Lecamus; "it was made in 
 16
 
 280 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 France, though by a Florentine. If it had come from Flor- 
 ence, it should have been the Queen's; but being made in 
 France, it is the King's." 
 
 "I accept it, my friend," cried Charles IX., "and hence- 
 forth I drink out of it." 
 
 "It is good enough," the Queen remarked, "to be included 
 among the Crown treasure." 
 
 "And you, Master Ambroise," she went on in an under- 
 tone, turning to the surgeon, and pointing to Christophe, 
 "have you cured him ? Will he walk ?" 
 
 "He will fly," said the surgeon, with a smile. "You have 
 stolen him from us very cleverly !" 
 
 "The abbey will not starve for lack of one monk !" replied 
 the Queen, in the frivolous tone for which she has been 
 blamed, but which lay only on the surface. 
 
 The supper was cheerful; the Queen thought Babette 
 pretty, and, like the great lady she was, she slipped a diamond 
 ring on the girl's finger in compensation for the value of the 
 silver cup. 
 
 King Charles IX., who afterwards was perhaps rather too 
 fond of thus invading his subjects' homes, supped with a 
 good appetite; then, on a word from his new tutor, who had 
 been instructed, it is said, to efface the virtuous teaching of 
 Cypierre, he incited the President of Parlement, the old re- 
 tired councillor, the Secretary of State, the priest, the notary, 
 and the citizens to drink so deep, that Queen Catherine rose 
 to go at the moment when she saw that their high spirits were 
 becoming uproarious. 
 
 As the Queen rose, Christophe, his father, and the two 
 women took up tapers to light her as far as the door of the 
 shop. Then Christophe made so bold as to pull the Queen's 
 wide sleeve and give her a meaning look. Catherine stopped, 
 dismissed the old man and the women with a wave of her 
 hand, and said to the young man "What ?" 
 
 "If you can make any use of the information, madame," 
 said he, speaking close to the Queen's ear, "I can tell you that 
 assassins are plotting against the Due de Guise's life."
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 231 
 
 "Yon are a loyal subject," said Catherine with a smile, 
 "and I will never forget you." 
 
 She held out her hand, famous for its beauty, drawing off 
 her glove as a mark of special favor. And Christophe, as 
 he kissed that exquisite hand, was more Eoyalist than ever. 
 
 "Then I shall be rid of that wretch without my having 
 anything to do with it," was her reflection as she put on her 
 glove. 
 
 She mounted her mule and returned to the Louvre with 
 her two pages. 
 
 Christophe drank, but he was gloomy; Fare's austere face 
 reproached him for his apostasy ; however, later events justi- 
 fied the old Syndic. Christophe would certainly never have 
 escaped in the massacre of Saint-Bartholomew; his wealth 
 and lands would have attracted the butchers. History has re- 
 corded the cruel fate of the wife of Lallier's successor, a 
 beautiful woman, whose naked body remained hanging by the 
 hair for three days to one of the starlings of the Pont au 
 Change. Babette could shudder then as she reflected that 
 such a fate might have been hers if Christophe had remained 
 a Calvinist, as the Keformers were soon generally called. 
 Calvin's ambition was fulfilled, but not till after his death. 
 
 This was the origin of the famous Lecamus family of law- 
 yers. Tallemant des Reaux was mistaken in saying they had 
 come from Picardy. It was afterwards to the interest of the 
 Lecamus family to refer their beginnings to the time when 
 they had acquired their principal estate, situated in that 
 province. 
 
 Christophe's son, and his successor under Louis XIII., was 
 father of that rich President Lecamus, who in Louis XIV.'s 
 time built the magnificent mansion which divided with the 
 Hotel Lambert the admiration of Parisians and foreigners, 
 and which is certainly one of the finest buildings in Paris. 
 This house still exists in the Rue de Thorigny, though it was 
 pillaged at the beginning of the Revolution, as belonging to 
 Monsieur de Juigne, Archbishop of Paris. All the paintings
 
 232 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 were then defaced, and the lodgers who have since dwelt there 
 have still further damaged it. This fine residence, earned 
 in the old house in the Hue de la Pelleterie, still shows what 
 splendid results were then the outcome of family spirit. We 
 may be allowed to douht whether modern individualism, re- 
 sulting from the repeated equal division of property, will/ 
 ever raise such edifices.
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 PART II 
 
 THB EUGGIERI'S SECRET. 
 
 BETWEEN eleven o'clock and midnight, towards the end of 
 October 1573, two Florentines, brothers, Albert de Gondi, 
 Marshal of France, and Charles de Gondi la Tour, Master 
 of the Wardrobe to King Charles IX., were sitting at the top 
 of a house in the Hue Saint-Honore on the edge of the gutter. 
 Such gutters were made of stone; they ran along below the 
 roof to catch the rain-water, and were pierced here and there 
 with long gargoyles carved in the form of grotesque creatures 
 with gaping jaws. In spite of the zeal of the present genera- 
 tion in the destruction of ancient houses, there were still in 
 Paris many such gutter-spouts when, not long since, the 
 police regulations as to waste-pipes led to their disappear- 
 ance. A few sculptured gutters are still to be seen in the 
 Saint- Antoine quarter, where the low rents have kept owners 
 from adding rooms in the roof. 
 
 It may seem strange that two persons invested with such 
 important functions should have chosen a perch more be- 
 fitting cats. But to any one who has hunted through the his- 
 torical curiosities of that time, and seen how many interests 
 were complicated about the throne, so that the domestic poll* 
 tics of France can only be compared to a tangled skein ofl 
 thread, these two Florentines are really cats, and quite in 
 their place in the gutter. Their devotion to the person of 
 Catherine de' Medici, who had transplanted them to the 
 French Court, required them to shirk none of the conse- 
 quences of their intrusion there. 
 
 But to explain how and why these two courtiers were 
 perched up there, it will be necessary to relate a scene which
 
 234 ' ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 had just taken place within a stone's throw of this gutter, at 
 the Louvre, in the fine brown room which is, perhaps, all 
 that remains of Henri II.'s apartments where the Court 
 was in attendance after supper on the two Queens and the 
 King. At that time middle-class folk supped at six o'clock, 
 and men of rank at seven; but people of exquisite fashion 
 supped between eight and nine ; it was the meal we nowadays 
 call dinner. 
 
 Some people have supposed that etiquette was the inven- 
 tion of Louis XIV. ; but this is a mistake ; it was introduced 
 into France by Catherine de' Medici, who was 'so exacting 
 that the Connetable Anne de Montmorency had more diffi- 
 culty in obtaining leave to ride into the courtyard of the 
 Louvre than in winning his sword, and even then the permis- 
 sion was granted only on the score of his great age. Eti- 
 quette was slightly relaxed under the first three Bourbon 
 Kings, but assumed an Oriental character under Louis the 
 Great, for it was derived from the Lower Empire, which bor- 
 rowed it from Persia. In 1573 not only had very few per- 
 sons a right to enter the courtyard of the Louvre with their 
 attendants and torches, just as in Louis XIV.'s time only 
 dukes and peers might drive under the porch, but the func- 
 tions which gave the privilege of attending their Majesties 
 after supper could easily be counted. The Marechal de Eetz, 
 whom we have just seen keeping watch on the gutter, once 
 offered a thousand crowns of that day to the clerk of the 
 closet to get speech of Henri III. at an hour when he had 
 no right of entree. And how a certain venerable historian 
 mocks at a view of the courtyard of the chateau of Blois, into 
 which the draughtsman introduced the figure of a man on 
 horseback ! 
 
 At this hour, then, there were at the Louvre none but the 
 most eminent persons in the kingdom. Queen Elizabeth of 
 'Austria and her mother-in-law, Catherine de' Medici, were 
 seated to the left of the fireplace. In the opposite corner 
 the King, sunk in his armchair, affected an apathy excusable 
 on the score of digestion, for he had eaten like a prince re-
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 235 
 
 turned from hunting. Possibly, too, he wished to avoid 
 speech in the presence of so many persons whose interest it 
 was to detect his thoughts. 
 
 The courtiers stood, hat in hand, at the further end of the 
 room. Some conversed in undertones; others kept an eyr 
 on the King, hoping for a glance or a word. One, being ad- 
 dre'ssed by the Queen-mother, conversed with her for a few 
 minutes. Another would be so bold as to speak a word to 
 Charles IX., who replied with a nod or a short answer. A 
 German noble, the Count of Solern, was standing in the chim- 
 ney corner by the side of Charles V.'s grand-daughter, with 
 whom he had come to France. Near the young Queen, 
 seated on a stool, was her lady-in-waiting, the Countess 
 Fieschi, a Strozzi, and related to Catherine. The beautiful 
 Madame de Sauves, a descendant of Jacques Cceur, and mis- 
 tress in succession of the King of Navarre, of the King of 
 Poland, and of the Due d'Alengon, had been invited to sup- 
 per, but she remained standing, her husband being merely a 
 Secretary of State. Behind these two ladies were the two 
 Gondis, talking to them. They alone were laughing of all 
 the dull assembly. Gondi, made Due de Eetz and Gentle* 
 man of the Bedchamber, since obtaining the Marshal's baton 
 though he had never commanded an army, had been sent as 
 the King's proxy to be married to the Queen at Spires. This 
 honor plainly indicated that he, like his brother, was one of 
 the few persons whom the King and Queen admitted to a 
 certain familiarity. 
 
 On the King's side the most conspicuous figure was the 
 Marechal de Tavannes, who was at Court on business ; Keuf- 
 ville de Villeroy, one of the shrewdest negotiators of the 
 time, who laid the foundation of the fortunes of his family; 
 .Messieurs de Birague and de Chiverni, one in attendance on 
 'the Queen-mother, the other Chancellor of Anjou and of 
 Poland, who, knowing Catherine's favoritism, had attached 
 himself to Henry III., the brother whom Charles IX. re- 
 garded as an enemy; Strozzi, a cousin of Queen Catherine's, 
 and a few more gentlemen, among whom were to be noted
 
 6 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 the old Cardinal de Lorraine, and his nephew, the young 
 Due de Guise, both very much kept at a distance by Catherine 
 and by the King. These two chiefs of the Holy Alliance, 
 afterwards known as the League, established some years since 
 with Spain, made a display of the submission of servants who 
 await their opportunity to become the masters; Catherine 
 and Charles IX. were watching each other with mutual at- 
 tention. 
 
 At this Court as gloomy as the room in which it had 
 assembled each one had reasons for sadness or absence of 
 mind. The young Queen was enduring all the torments of 
 jealousy, and disguised them ineffectually by attempting to 
 smile at her husband, whom she adored as a pious woman 
 of infinite kindness. Marie Touchet, Charles IX.'s only mis- 
 tress, to whom he was chivalrously faithful, had come home 
 a month since from the chateau of Fayet, in Dauphine, 
 whither she had retired for the birth of her child; and she 
 had brought back with her the only son Charles IX. ever had 
 Charles, at first Comte d'Auvergne, and afterwards Due 
 d'Angouleme. 
 
 Besides the grief of seeing her rival the mother of the 
 King's son, while she had only a daughter, the poor Queen 
 was enduring the mortification of complete desertion. Dur- 
 ing his mistress' absence, the King had made it up with his 
 wife with a vehemence which history mentions as one of the 
 causes of his death. Thus Marie Touchet's return made the 
 pious Austrian princess understand how little her husband's 
 heart had been concerned in his love-making. Nor was this 
 the only disappointment the young Queen had to endure in 
 this matter; till now Catherine de' Medici had seemed to 
 be her friend; but, in fact, her mother-in-law, for political 
 ends, had encouraged her son's infidelity, and preferred to 
 support the mistress rather than the wife. And this is the 
 reason why. 
 
 When Charles IX. first confessed his passion for Marie 
 Touchet, Catherine looked with favor on the girl for rea- 
 sons affecting her own prospects of dominion. Marie
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 237 
 
 Touchet was brought to Court at a very early age, at the 
 time of life when a girl's best feelings are in their bloom; 
 she loved the King passionately for his own sake. Terrified 
 at the gulf into which ambition had overthrown the Duchesse 
 de Valentinois, better known as Diane de Poitiers, she was 
 afraid too, no doubt, of Queen Catherine, and preferred 
 happiness to splendor. She thought perhaps that a pair of 
 lovers so young as she and the King were could not hold their 
 own against the Queen-mother. 
 
 And, indeed, Marie, the only child of Jean Touchet, the 
 lord of Beauvais and le Quillard, King's Councillor, and 
 Lieutenant of the Bailiwick of Orleans, half-way between the 
 citizen class and the lowest nobility, was neither altogether 
 a noble nor altogether bourgeoise, and was probably ignorant 
 of the objects of innate ambition aimed at by the Pisseleus 
 and the Saint- Valliers, women of family who were struggling 
 for their families with the secret weapons of love. Marie 
 Touchet, alone, and of no rank, spared Catherine de' Medici 
 the annoyance of finding in her son's mistress the daughter 
 of some great house who might have set up for her rival. 
 
 Jean Touchet, a wit in his day, to whom some poets dedi- 
 cated their works, wanted nothing of the Court. Marie, a 
 young creature, with no following, as clever and well-in- 
 formed as she was simple and artless, suited the Queen- 
 mother to admiration, and won her warm affection. 
 
 In point of fact, Catherine persuaded the Parlement to 
 acknowledge the son which Marie Touchet bore to the King in 
 the month of April, and she granted him the title of Comte 
 d'Auvergne, promising the King that she would leave the boy 
 her personal estate, the Comtes of Auvergne and Lauraguais. 
 Afterwards, Marguerite, Queen of Navarre, disputed the 
 gift when she became Queen of France, and annulled it ; but 
 later still, Louis XIII., out of respect to the Koyal blood of 
 the Valois, indemnified the Comte d'Auvergne by making 
 him Due d'Angouleme. 
 
 Catherine had already given Marie Touchet, who asked for 
 nothing, the manor of Belleville, an estate without a title,
 
 288 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 near Vincennes, whither she came when, after hunting, the 
 King slept at that Eoyal residence. Charles IX. spent the 
 greater part of his later days in that gloomy fortress, and, 
 according to some authors, ended his days there as Louis XII. 
 had ended his. Though it was very natural that a lover so 
 entirely captivated should lavish on the woman he adored 
 fresh proofs of affection when he had to expiate his legiti- 
 mate infidelities, Catherine, after driving her son back to his 
 wife's arms, certainly pleaded for Marie Touchet as women, 
 can, and had won the King hack to his mistress again. 
 Whatever could keep Charles IX. employed in anything but 
 politics was pleasing to Catherine; and the kind intentions 
 she expressed towards this child for the moment deceived 
 Charles IX., who was beginning to regard her as his enemy. 
 
 The motives on which Catherine acted in this business 
 escaped the discernment of the Queen, who, according to 
 Brantome, was one of the gentlest Queens that ever reigned, 
 and who did no harm nor displeasure to any one, even read- 
 ing her Hours in secret. But this innocent Princess began 
 to perceive what gulfs yawn round a throne, a terrible dis- 
 covery which might well make her feel giddy; and some still 
 worse feeling must have inspired her reply to one of her 
 ladies, who, at the King's death, observed to her that if she 
 had had a son, she would be Queen-mother and Kegent : 
 
 "Ah, God be praised that He never gave me a son ! What 
 would have come of it? 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 has had mercy on 
 the kingdom, and has ordered everything for the best." 
 
 This Princess, of whom Brantome thinks he has given an 
 ample description when he had said that she had a com- 
 plexion of face as fine and delicate as that of the ladies of 
 her Court, and very pleasing,, and that she had a beautiful 
 shape though but of middle height, was held of small ac- 
 count at the Court; and the King's state affording her an 
 excuse for her double grief, her demeanor added to the 
 gloomy hues of a picture to which a young Queen less cruelly
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 239 
 
 stricken than she was might have given some brightness. The 
 pious Elizabeth was at this crisis a proof of the fact that 
 qualities which add lustre to a woman in ordinary life may 
 be fatal in a Queen. A Princess who did not devote her whole 
 night to prayer would have been a valuable ally for Charles 
 IX., who found no help either in his wife or in his mistress. 
 
 As to the Queen-mother, she was absorbed in watching 
 the King; he during supper had made a display of high 
 spirits, which she interpreted as assumed to cloak some plan ' 
 against herself. Such sudden cheerfulness was in too strong 
 a contrast to the fractious humor he had betrayed by his per- 
 sistency in hunting, and by a frenzy of toil at his forge, where 
 he wrought iron, for Catherine to be duped by it. Though 
 she could not guess what statesman was lending himself to 
 these schemes and plots for Charles IX. could put his 
 mother's spies off the scent Catherine had no doubt that 
 some plan against her was in the wind. . 
 
 The unexpected appearance of Tavannes, arriving at the 
 same time as Strozzi, whom she had summoned, had greatly 
 aroused her suspicions. By her power of organization 
 Catherine was superior to the evolution of circumstances; 
 but against sudden violence she was powerless. 
 
 As many persons know nothing of the state of affairs, com- 
 plicated by the multiplicity of parties which then racked 
 France, each leader having his own interests in view, it is 
 needful to devote a few words to describing the dangerous 
 crisis in which the Queen-mother had become entangled. 
 And as this will show Catherine de' Medici in a new light, 
 it will carry us to the very core of this narrative. 
 
 Two words will fully summarize this strange woman, so 
 interesting to study, whose influence left such deep traces on 
 France. These two words are dominion and astrology 
 Catherine de' Medici was excessively ambitious; she had no 
 passion but for power. Superstitious and a fatalist, as many 
 a man of superior mind has been, her only sincere belief was 
 in the occult sciences. Without this twofold light, she must 
 always remain misunderstood; and by giving the first place
 
 240 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MBDICI 
 
 to her faith in astrology, a light will be thrown on the two 
 philosophical figures of this Study. 
 
 There was a man whom Catherine clung to more than 
 to her children; this man was Cosmo Kuggieri. She gave 
 him rooms in her Hotel de Soissons ; she had made him her 
 chief counselor, instructing him to tell her if the stars ratified 
 the advice and common-sense of her ordinary advisers. 
 
 Certain curious antecedent facts justified the power which 
 Kuggieri exerted over his mistress till her latest breath. One 
 of the most learned men of the sixteenth century was be- 
 yond doubt the physician to Catherine's father, Lorenzo de' 
 Medici, Duke of Urbino. This leech was known as Kuggiero 
 the elder (vecchio Ruggier, and in French Roger I'Ancien, 
 with authors who have written concerning alchemy), to dis- 
 tinguish him from his two sons, Lorenzo Euggiero, called the 
 Great by writers on the Cabala, and Cosmo Euggiero, Cather- 
 ine's astrologer, also known as Roger by various French his- 
 torians. French custom altered their name to Euggieri, as 
 it did Catherine's from Medici to Medicis. 
 
 The elder Euggieri, then, was so highly esteemed by the 
 family of the Medici that the two Dukes, Cosmo and 
 Lorenzo, were godfathers to his sons. In his capacity of 
 mathematician, astrologer, and physician to the Ducal 
 House three offices that were often scarcely distinguished 
 he cast the horoscope of Catherine's nativity, in concert with 
 Bazile, the famous mathematician. At that period the oc- 
 cult sciences were cultivated with an eagerness which may 
 seem surprising to the sceptical spirits of this supremely 
 analytical age, who perhaps may find in this historical sketch 
 the germ of the positive sciences which flourish in the nine- 
 teenth century bereft, however, of the poetic grandeur 
 brought to them by the daring speculators of the sixteenth; 
 for they, instead of applying themselves to industry, exalted 
 art and vivified thought. The protection universally granted 
 to these sciences by the sovereigns of the period was indeed 
 justified by the admirable works of inventors who, starting 
 from the search for the magnum opus, arrived at astonishing 
 results.
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 241 
 
 Never, in fact, were rulers more curious for these mysteries. 
 The Fugger family, in whom every modern Lucullus must 
 recognize his chiefs, and every banker his masters, were be- 
 yond a doubt men of business, not to be caught nodding ; well, 
 these practical men, while lending the capitalized wealth 
 of Europe to the sovereigns of the sixteenth century who 
 ran into debt quite as handsomely as those of to-day these 
 illustrious entertainers of Charles V. furnished funds for the, 
 retorts of Paracelsus. At the beginning of the sixteenth cen-' 
 tury, Euggieri the elder was the head of that secret college 
 whence came Cardan, Nostradamus, and Agrippa, each in 
 turn physician to the Valois; and all the astronomers, as- 
 trologers, and alchemists who at that period crowded to the 
 Courts of the Princes of Christendom, and who found especial 
 welcome and protection in France from Catherine de' Medici. 
 
 In the horoscope cast for Catherine by Bazile and Rug- 
 gieri the elder, the principal events of her life were predicted 
 with an accuracy that is enough to drive disbelievers to de- 
 spair. This forecast announced the disasters which, during 
 the siege of Florence, affected her early life, her marriage 
 with a Prince of France, his unexpected accession to the 
 throne, the birth and the number of her children. Three of 
 her sons were to reign in succession, her two daughters were 
 to become queens ; all were to die childless. And this was all 
 so exactly verified, that many historians have regarded it as 
 a prophecy after the event. 
 
 It is well known that Nostradamus brought to the chateau 
 of Chaumont, whither Catherine went at the time of la 
 Renaudie's conspiracy, a woman who had the gift of reading 
 the future. Now in the time of Francis II., when the 
 Queen's sons were still children and in good health, before 
 Elizabeth de Valois had married Philip II. of Spain, or Mar- 
 guerite de Valois had married Henri de Bourbon, King of 
 Navarre, Nostradamus and this soothsayer confirmed all the 
 details of the famous horoscope. 
 
 This woman, gifted no doubt with second-sight, and one 
 of the extensive association of indefatigable inquirers for
 
 242 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 the magnum opus, though her life has evaded the ken of 
 history, foretold that the last of these children to wear the 
 crown would perish assassinated. Having placed the Queen 
 in front of a magical mirror in which a spinning-wheel was 
 reflected, each child's face appearing at the end of a spoke, 
 the soothsayer made the wheel turn, and the Queen counted 
 the number of turns. Each turn was a year of a reign. 
 When Henri IV. was placed on the wheel, it went round 
 twenty-two times. The woman some say it was a man 
 told the terrified Queen that Henri de Bourhon would cer- 
 tainly be King of France, and reign so many years. Queen 
 Catherine vowed a mortal hatred of the Bearnais on hearing 
 that he would succeed the last, murdered Valois. 
 
 Curious to know what sort of death she herself would die, 
 she was warned to beware of Saint-Germain. Thenceforth, 
 thinking that she would be imprisoned or violently killed at 
 the chateau of Saint- Germain, she never set foot in it, though, 
 by its nearness to Paris, it was infinitely better situated for 
 her plans than those where she took refuge with the King in 
 troubled times. When she fell ill, a few days after the Due 
 de Guise was assassinated, during the assembly of the States- 
 General at Blois, she asked the name of the prelate who came 
 to minister to her. She was told that his name was Saint- 
 Germain. 
 
 "I am a dead woman !" she cried. 
 
 She died the next day, having lived just the number of 
 years allotted to her by every reading of her horoscope. 
 
 This scene, known to the Cardinal de Lorraine, who 
 ascribed it to the Black Art, was being realized; Francis II. 
 had reigned for two turns only of the wheel, and Charles IX. 
 was achieving his last. When Catherine spoke these strange 
 words to her son Henri as he set out for Poland, "You will 
 soon return !" they must be ascribed to her faith in the 
 occult sciences, and not to any intention of poisoning 
 Charles IX. Marguerite de France was now Queen of Na- 
 varre; Elizabeth was Queen of Spain; the Due d'Anjou was 
 King of Poland.
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 243 
 
 Many other circumstances contributed to confirm Cather- 
 ine's belief in the occult sciences. On the eve of the tourna- 
 ment where Henri II. was mortally wounded, Catherine saw 
 the fatal thrust in a dream. Her astrological council, con- 
 sisting of Nostradamus and the two Euggieri, had foretold 
 the King's death. History has recorded Catherine's earnest 
 entreaties that he should not enter the lists. The prognostic, 
 'and the dream begotten of the prognostic, were verified. 
 
 The chronicles of the time relate another and not less 
 strange fact. The courier who brought news of the victory 
 of Moncontour arrived at night, having ridden so hard that 
 he had killed three horses. The Queen-mother was roused, 
 and said, "I knew it." 
 
 "In fact," says Brantome, "she had the day before an- 
 nounced her son's success and some details of the fight." 
 
 The astrologer attached to the House of Bourbon foretold 
 that the youngest of the Princes in direct descent from Saint- 
 Louis, the son of Antoine de Bourbon, would be King of 
 France. This prophecy, noted by Sully, was fulfilled pre- 
 cisely as described by the horoscope, which made Henri IV. 
 remark that by dint of lies these astrologers hit on the truth. 
 
 Be this as it may, most of the clever men of the time be- 
 lieved in the far-reaching "science of the Magi," as it waa 
 called by the masters of astrology or sorcery, as it was 
 termed by the people and they were justified by the verifica- 
 tion of horoscopes. 
 
 It was for Cosmo Euggieri, her mathematician and as- 
 trologer her wizard, if you will that Catherine erected the 
 pillar against the corn-market in Paris, the only remaining 
 relic of the Hotel de Soissons. Cosmo Euggieri, like con- 
 fessors, had a mysterious influence which satisfied him, as it 
 does them. His secret ambition, too, was superior to that of 
 rulgar minds. This man, depicted by romance-writers and 
 playwrights as a mere juggler, held the rich abbey of Saint" 
 Mahe in Lower Brittany, and had refused high ecclesiastical 
 preferment; the money he derived in abundance from the 
 superstitious mania of the time was sufficient for his private
 
 244 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 undertakings ; and the Queen's hand, extended to protect his 
 head, preserved every hair of it from harm. 
 
 As to Catherine's devouring thirst for dominion, her de- 
 sire to acquire power was so great that, in order to grasp it, 
 she could ally herself with the Guises, the enemies of the 
 throne; and to keep the reins of State in her own hands, she 
 adopted every means, sacrificing her friends, and even her 
 children. This woman could not live without the intrigues of i 
 rule, as a gambler cannot live without the excitement of play. 
 Though she was an Italian and a daughter of the luxurious 
 Medici, the Calvinists, though they calumniated her plenti- 
 fully, never accused her of having a lover. 
 
 Appreciating the maxim "Divide to reign," for twelve years 
 she had been constantly playing off one force against another. 
 As soon as she took the reins of government into her hands, 
 she was compelled to encourage discord to neutralize the 
 strength of two rival Houses and save the throne. This 
 necessary system justified Henri II.'s foresight. Catherine 
 was the inventor of the political see-saw, imitated since by 
 every Prince who has found himself in a similar position; 
 she upheld, by turns, the Calvinists against the Guises, and 
 the Guises against the Calvinists. Then, after using the two 
 creeds to check each other in the heart of the people, she 
 set the Due d'Anjou against Charles IX. After using things 
 to counteract each other, she did the same with men, always 
 keeping the clue to their interests in her own hands. 
 
 But in this tremendous game, which requires the head of 
 a Louis XI. or a Louis XVIII., the player inevitably is the 
 object of hatred to all parties, and is condemned to win un- 
 failingly, for one lost battle makes every interest his enemy, 
 until indeed by dint of winning he ends by finding no one to 
 play against him. The greater part of Charles IX.'s reign 
 was the triumph of the domestic policy carried out by this 
 wonderful woman. What extraordinary skill Catherine must 
 have brought into play to get the chief command of the army 
 given to the Due d'Anjou, under a brave young King thirst- 
 ing for glory, capable and .generous and in the face of the
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI . 245 
 
 Conne'table Anne de Montmorency! The Due d'Anjou, in 
 the eyes of all Europe, reaped the honors of Saint-Bartholo- 
 mew's Day, while Charles IX. had all the odium. After in- 
 stilling into the King's mind a spurious and covert jealousy 
 of his brother, she worked upon this feeling so as to exhaust 
 Charles IX. 's really fine qualities in the intrigues of rivalry 
 with his brother. Cypierre, their first tutor, and Amyot, 
 Charles IX. 's preceptor, had made their royal charge so noble 
 a man, and had laid the foundations of so great a reign, that 
 the mother hated the son from the very first day when she 
 feared to lose her power after having conquered it with so 
 much difficulty. 
 
 These facts have led certain historians to believe that the 
 Queen-mother had a preference for Henri III. ; but her be- 
 havior at this juncture proves that her heart was absolutely 
 indifferent towards her children. The Due d'Anjou, when 
 he went to govern Poland, robbed her of the tool she needed 
 to keep Charles IX. 's mind fully occupied by these domestic 
 intrigues, which had hitherto neutralized his energy by giving 
 food to his vehement feelings. Catherine then hatched the 
 conspiracy of la Mole and Coconnas, in which the Due 
 d'Alengon had a hand ; and he, when he became Due d'Anjou 
 on his brother's being made King, lent himself very readily 
 to his mother's views, and displayed an ambition which was 
 encouraged by his sister Marguerite, Queen of Navarre. 
 
 This plot, now rinened to the point which Catherine de- 
 sired, aimed at putting the young Duke and his brother-in- 
 law, the King of Navarre, at the head of the Calvinists, at 
 seizing Charles IX., thus making the King, who had no heir, 
 a prisoner, and leaving the throne free for the Duke, who 
 proposed to establish Calvinism in France. Only a few days 
 before his death, Calvin had won the reward he hoped for 
 the Keformed creed was called Calvinism in his honor. 
 
 La Mole and Coconnas had been arrested fifty days before 
 the night on which this scene opens, to be beheaded in the 
 following April; and if le Laboureur and other judicious 
 
 writers had not amply proved that they were the victims of 
 517
 
 246 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 the Queen-mother, Cosmo Ruggieri's participation in the af- 
 fair would be enough to show that she secretly directed it. 
 This man, suspected and hated by the King for reasons which 
 will be presently sufficiently explained, was implicated by the 
 inquiries. He admitted that he had furnished la Mole with 
 an image representing the King and stabbed to the heart with 
 two needles. This form of witchcraft was at that time a 
 capital crime. This kind of bedevilment (called in French 
 envouter, from the Latin vultus, it is said) represented one 
 of the most infernal conceptions that hatred could imagine, 
 and the word admirably expresses the magnetic and terrible 
 process carried on, in occult science, by constantly active 
 malevolence on the person devoted to death; its effects being 
 incessantly suggested by the sight of the wax figure. The law 
 at that time considered, and with good reason, that the idea 
 thus embodied constituted high treason. Charles IX. desired 
 the death of the Florentine; Catherine, more powerful, ob- 
 tained from the Supreme Court, through the intervention of 
 her Councillor Lecamus, that her astrologer should be con- 
 demned only to the galleys. As soon as the King was dead, 
 Ruggieri was pardoned by an edict of Henri III.'s, who re- 
 instated him in his revenues and received him at Court. 
 
 Catherine had, by this time, struck so many blows on her 
 son's heart, that at this moment he was only anxious to shake 
 off the yoke she had laid on him. Since Marie Touchet's ab- 
 sence, Charles IX., having nothing to occupy him, had taken, 
 to observing very keenly all that went on around him. He had 
 set very skilful snares for certain persons whom he had trust- 
 ed, to test their fidelity. He had watched his mother's proceed- 
 ings, and had kept her in ignorance of his own, making use 
 of all the faults she had inculcated in order to deceive her. 
 Eager to efface the feeling of horror produced in France by 
 the massacre of Saint-Bartholomew, he took an active interest 
 in public affairs, presided at the council, and tried by well- 
 planned measures to seize the reins of government. Though 
 the Queen might have attempted to counteract her son's en-
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 247 
 
 deavors by using all the influence that maternal authority 
 and her habit of dominion could have over his mind, the 
 downward course of distrust is so rapid that, at the first leap, 
 the son had gone too far to be recalled. 
 
 On the day when his mother's words to the King of Poland 
 were repeated to Charles IX., he already felt so ill that the 
 most hideous notions dawned on his mind; and when such 
 suspicions take possession of a son and a King, nothing can 
 remove them. In fact, on .his deathbed his mother was 
 obliged to interrupt him, exclaiming, "Do not say that, mon- 
 sieur !" when Charles IX., intrusting his wife and daughter to 
 the care of Henri IV., was about to put him on his guard 
 against Catherine. 
 
 Though Charles IX. never failed in the superficial respect 
 of which she was so jealous, and she never called the Kings, 
 her sons, anything but monsieur, the Queen-mother had, for 
 some months past, detected in Charles' manner the ill-dis- 
 guised irony of revenge held in suspense. But he must be a 
 clever man who could deceive Catherine. She held in her 
 hand this conspiracy of the Due d'Alengon and la Mole, so 
 as to be able to divert Charles' efforts at emancipation by his 
 new rivalry of a brother; but before making use of it, she 
 was anxious to dissipate the want of confidence which might 
 make her reconciliation with the King impossible for how 
 could he leave the power in the hands of a mother who was 
 capable of poisoning him ? 
 
 Indeed, at this juncture she thought herself so far in dan- 
 ger that she had sent for Strozzi, her cousin, a soldier famous 
 for his death. She held secret councils with Birague and the 
 Gondis, and never had she so frequently consulted the oracle 
 of the Hotel de Soissons. 
 
 Though long habits of dissimulation and advancing years 
 had given Catherine that Abbess-like countenance, haughty 
 and ascetic, expressionless and yet deep, reserved but scru- 
 tinizing, and so remarkable for any student of her portraits, 
 those about her perceived a cloud over this cold, Florentine 
 mirror. No sovereign was ever a more imposing figure than
 
 248 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 this woman had made herself since the day when she had 
 succeeded in coercing the Guises after the death of Fran- 
 cis II. Her black velvet hood, with a peak over the forehead, 
 for she never went out of mourning for Henri II., was, as 
 it were, a womanly cowl round her cold, imperious features, 
 to which she could, however, on occasion, give insinuating 
 Italian charm. She was so well made, that she introduced 
 the fashion for women to ride on horseback in such a way 
 as to display their legs; this is enough to prove that hers 
 were of perfect form. Every lady in Europe thenceforth rode 
 on a side-saddle, a la planchette, for France had long set the 
 fashions. 
 
 To any one who can picture this impressive figure, the scene 
 in the great room that evening has an imposing aspect. The 
 two Queens, so unlike in spirit, in beauty, and in dress, and 
 almost at daggers drawn, were both much too absent-minded 
 to give the impetus for which the courtiers waited to raise 
 their spirits. 
 
 The dead secret of the drama which, for the past six 
 months, the son and mother had been cautiously playing, was 
 guessed by some of their followers; the Italians, more es- 
 pecially, had kept an attentive lookout, for if Catherine should 
 lose the game, they would all be the victims. Under these 
 circumstances, at a moment when Catherine and her son were 
 vying with each other in subterfuges, the King was the centre 
 of observation. 
 
 Charles IX., tired by a long day's hunting, and by the 
 serious reflections he brooded over in secret, looked forty this 
 evening. He had reached the last stage of the malady which 
 killed him, and which gave rise to grave suspicions of poison. 
 According to de Thou, the Tacitus of the Valois, the surgeon 
 found unaccountable spots in the King's body (ex causa in- 
 cognita reperti livores). His funeral was even more care- 
 lessly conducted than that of Francis II. Charles the Ninth 
 was escorted from Saint-Lazare to Saint-Denis by Brantome 
 and a few archers of the Guard commanded by the Comte 
 de Solern. This circumstance, added to the mother's sup-
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 249 
 
 posed hatred of her son, may confirm the accusation brought 
 against her by de Thou ; at least it gives weight to the opinion 
 here expressed, that she cared little for any of her children, 
 an indifference which is accounted for by her faith in the 
 pronouncement of astrology. Such a woman could not care 
 for tools that were to break in her hands. Henri III. was the 
 last King under whom she could hope to reign; and that was 
 all. 
 
 In our day it seems allowable to suppose that Charles IX. 
 died a natural death. His excesses, his manner of life, the 
 sudden development of his powers, his last struggles to seiza 
 the reins of government, his desire to live, his waste oi 
 strength, his last sufferings and his last pleasures, all indi-< 
 cate, to impartial judges, that he died of disease of the Iungs 3 
 a malady at that time little understood, and of which noth-. 
 ing was known ; and its symptoms might lead Charles himseli 
 to believe that he was poisoned. 
 
 The real poison given him by his mother lay in the evil 
 counsels of the courtiers with whom she surrounded him, who 
 induced him to waste his intellectual and physical powers, 
 and who thus were the cause of a disease which was purely in- 
 cidental and not congenital. 
 
 Charles the Ninth, at this period of his life more than at 
 any other, bore the stamp of a sombre dignity not unbecoming 
 in a King. The majesty of his secret thoughts was reflected 
 in his face, which was remarkable for the Italian complexion 
 he inherited from his mother. This ivory pallor, so beautiful 
 by artificial light, and so well suited with an expression of 
 melancholy, gave added effect to his deep blue eyes showing 
 narrowly under thick eyelids, and thus acquiring that keen 
 acumen which imagination pictures in the glance of a King, 
 while their color was an aid to dissimulation. Charles' eyes 
 derived an awe-inspiring look from his high, marked eye- 
 brows accentuating a lofty forehead which he could lift 
 or lower with singular facility. His nose was long and broad, 
 and thick at the tip a true lion's nose; he had large ears; 
 light reddish hair ; lips of the color of blood, the lips of a con-
 
 250 ABOUT CATHERINE DE ( MEDICI 
 
 sumptive man ; the upper lip thin and satirical, the lower full 
 enough to indicate fine qualities of feeling. 
 
 The wrinkles stamped on his brow in early life, when ter- 
 rible anxieties had blighted its freshness, made his face in- 
 tensely interesting more than one had been caused by re- 
 morse for the massacre of Saint-Bartholomew, a deed which 
 had been craftily foisted on him; but there were two other 
 lines on his face which would have been eloquent to any' 
 student who at that time could have had a special revelation 
 of the principles of modern physiology. These lines made 
 a deep furrow from the cheek-bones to each corner of the 
 mouth, and betrayed the efforts made by an exhausted or- 
 ganization to respond to mental strain and to violent physical 
 enjoyment. Charles IX. was worn out. The Queen-mother, 
 seeing her work, must have felt some remorse, unless, indeed, 
 politics stifle such a feeling in all who sit under the purple. 
 If Catherine could have foreseen the effects of her intrigues 
 on her son, she might perhaps have shrunk from them? 
 
 It was a terrible spectacle. The King, by nature so strong, 
 had become weak; the spirit, so nobly tempered, was racked 
 by doubts; this man, the centre of authority, felt himself 
 helpless ; the naturally firm temper had lost confidence in its 
 power. The warrior's valor had degenerated into ferocity, 
 reserve had become dissimulation, the refined and tender 
 passion of the Valois was an insatiable thirst for pleasure. 
 This great man, misprized, perverted, with every side of his 
 noble spirit chafed to a sore, a King without power, a loving 
 heart without a friend, torn a thousand ways by conflicting 
 schemes, was, at four-and-twenty, the melancholy image of 
 a man who has found everything wanting, who distrusts 
 every one, who is ready to stake his all, even his life. Only 
 lately had he understood his mission, his power, his re- 
 sources, and the obstacles placed by his mother in the way 
 of the pacification of the kingdom; and the light glowed in 
 a broken lamp. 
 
 Two men, for whom the King had so great a regard that 
 he had saved one from the massacre of Saint-Barthoiomew,
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 251 
 
 and had dined with the other at a time when his enemies 
 accused him of poisoning the King his chief physician Jean 
 Chapelain, and the great surgeon Ambroise Pare had been 
 sent for from the country by Catherine, and, obeying the 
 summons in hot haste, arrived at the King's bedtime. They 
 looked anxiously at their sovereign, and some of the courtiers 
 made whispered inquiries, but they answered with due re- 
 serve, saying nothing of the sentence each had secretly pro 
 nounced. Now and again the King would raise his heavy^ 
 eyelids and try to conceal from the bystanders the glance 
 he shot at his mother. Suddenly he rose, and went to stand 
 in front of the fireplace. 
 
 "Monsieur de Chiverni," said he, "why do you keep the 
 title of Chancellor of Anjou and Poland? Are you our ser- 
 vant or our brother's?" 
 
 "I am wholly yours, Sire," replied Chiverni, with a bow. 
 
 "Well, then, come to-morrow; I mean to send you to 
 Spain, for strange things are doing at the Court of Madrid, 
 gentlemen." 
 
 The King looked at his wife and returned to his chair. 
 
 "Strange things are doing everywhere," he added in a 
 whisper to Marshal Tavannes, one of the favorites of his 
 younger days. And he rose to lead the partner of his youthful 
 pleasures into the recess of an oriel window, saying to him : 
 
 "I want you ; stay till the last. I must know whether you 
 will be with me or against me. Do not look astonished. I 
 am breaking the leading strings. My mother is at the bottom 
 of all the mischief here. In three months I shall either be 
 dead, or be really King. As you love your life, silence ! You 
 are in my secret with Solern and Villeroy. If the least hint 
 is given, it will come from one of you three. Do not keep 
 too close to me; go and pay your court to my mother; tell 
 her that I am dying, and that you cannot regret it, for that 
 I am but a poor creature." 
 
 Charles IX. walked round the room leaning on his old 
 favorite's shoulder, and discussing his sufferings with him, 
 to mislead inquisitive persons ; then, fearing that his coldness
 
 252 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 might be too marked, he went to talk with the two Queens, 
 calling Birague to his side. 
 
 Just then Pinard glided in at the door and came up to 
 Queen Catherine, slipping in like an eel, close to the wall. 
 He murmured two words in the Queen-mother's ear, and 
 she replied with an affirmative nod. The King did not ask 
 what this meant, hut he went back to his chair with a scowl 
 round the room of horrible rage and jealousy. This little in- 
 ,cident was of immense importance in the eyes of all the Court. 
 This exertion of authority without any appeal to the King 
 was like the drop of water that makes the glass overflow. 
 The young Queen and Countess Fieschi withdrew without the 
 King's paying her the least attention, but the Queen-mother 
 attended her daughter-in-law to the door. Though the mis- 
 understanding between the mother and son lent enormous 
 interest to the movements, looks, and attitude of Catherine 
 and Charles IX., their cold composure plainly showed the 
 courtiers that they were in the way; as soon as the Queen 
 had gone they took their leave. At ten o'clock no one re- 
 mained but certain intimate persons the two Gondis, 
 Tavannes, the Comte de Solera, Birague, and the Queen- 
 mother. 
 
 The King sat plunged in the deepest melancholy. This 
 silence was fatiguing. Catherine seemed at a loss ; she wished 
 to retire, and she wanted the King to attend her to the door, 
 but Charles remained obstinately lost in thought ; she rose to 
 bid him good-night, Charles was obliged to follow her ex- 
 ample; she took his arm, and went a few steps with him to 
 speak in his ear these few words : 
 
 "Monsieur, I have matters of importance to discuss with 
 you." 
 
 As she left, the Queen-mother met the eyes of the Grondis 
 reflected in a glass, and gave them a significant glance, 
 which her son could not see all the more so because he him- 
 self was exchanging meaning looks with the Comte de Solern 
 and Yilleroy; Tavannes was absorbed in thought. 
 
 "Sire," said the Marechal de Ketz, coming out of his medi-
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 253 
 
 tations, "you seem right royally bored. Do you never amuse 
 yourself nowadays ? Heaven above us ! where are the times 
 when we went gadding about the streets of nights ?" 
 
 "Yes, those were good times," said the King, not without a 
 sigh. 
 
 "Why not be off now ?" said Monsieur de Birague, bowing 
 himself out, with a wink at the Gondis. 
 
 "I always think of that time with pleasure," cried the 
 Marechal de Ketz. 
 
 "I should like to see you on the roofs, Monsieur le Mare- 
 chal," said Tavannes. "Sacre chat d'ltalie, if you might but 
 break your neck," he added in an undertone to the King. 
 
 "I know not whether you or I should be nimblest at 
 jumping across a yard or a street; but what I do know is, 
 that neither of us is more afraid of death than the other," 
 replied the Due de Eetz. 
 
 "Well, sir, will you come to scour the town as you did 
 when you were young?" said the Master of the Wardrobe 
 to the King. 
 
 Thus at four-and-twenty the unhappy King was no longer 
 thought young, even by his flatterers. Tavannes and the 
 King recalled, like two school-fellows, some of the good tricks 
 they had perpetrated in Paris, and the party was soon made 
 up. The two Italians, being dared to jump from roof to 
 roof across the street, pledged themselves to follow where 
 the King should lead. They all went to put on common 
 clothes. 
 
 The Comte de Solera, left alone with the King, looked at 
 him with amazement. The worthy German, though filled 
 with compassion as he understood the position of the King 
 of France, was fidelity and honor itself, but he had not a lively 
 imagination. King Charles, surrounded by enemies, and 
 trusting no one, not even his wife who, not knowing that 
 hie mother and all her servants were inimical to him, had 
 committed some little indiscretions was happy to have found 
 in Monsieur de Solern a devotion which justified complete 
 confidence. Tavannes and Villeroy were only partly in the
 
 254 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 secret. The Comte de Solern alone knew the whole of the 
 King's schemes; and he was in every way very useful to his 
 master, inasmuch as that he had a handful of confidential 
 and attached men at his orders who obeyed him blindly. 
 Monsieur de Solern, who held a command in the Archers 
 of the Guard, had for some days been picking from among 
 his men some who were faithful in their adherence to the 
 King, to form a chosen company. The King could think 
 Jof everything. 
 
 "Well, Solern," said Charles IX., "we were needing a pre- 
 text for spending a night out of doors. I had the excuse, 
 of course, of Madame de Belleville; but this is better, for 
 my mother can find out what goes on at Marie's house." 
 
 Monsieur de Solern, as he was to attend the King, asked 
 if he might not go the rounds with some of his Germans, 
 and to this Charles consented. By eleven o'clock the King, 
 in better spirits now, set out with his three companions to 
 explore the neighborhood of the Eue Saint-Honore. 
 
 "I will take my lady by surprise," said Charles to Tavannes 
 as they went along the Kue de 1'Autruche. 
 
 To make this nocturnal ploy more intelligible to those 
 who may be ignorant of the topography of old Paris, it will 
 be necessary to explain the position of the Rue de 1'Autruche. 
 The part of the Louvre, begun by Henri II., was still being 
 built amid the wreck of houses. Where the wing now stands 
 looking over the Pont des Arts, there was at that time a 
 garden. In the place of the Colonnade there were a moat 
 and a drawbridge on which, somewhat later, a Florentine, 
 the Marechal d'Ancre, met his death. Beyond this garden 
 rose the turrets of the Hotel de Bourbon, the residence of 
 the princes of that branch till the day when the Constable's 
 treason (after he was ruined by the confiscation of his pos- 
 sessions, decreed by Francis I., to avoid having to decide 
 between him and his mother) put an end to the trial that 
 had cost France so dear, by the confiscation of the Constable's 
 estates. 
 
 This chateau, which looked well from the river, was not 
 destroyed till the time of Louis XIV.
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 255 
 
 The Rue de 1'Autruche ran from the Rue Saint-Honore, 
 ending at the Hotel de Bourbon on the quay. This street, 
 named de 1'Autriche on some old plans, and de 1'Austruc on 
 others, has, like many more, disappeared from the map. The 
 Rue des Poulies would seem to have been cut across the 
 ground occupied by the houses nearest to the Rue Saint- 
 Honore. Authors have differed, too, as to the etymology of 
 the name. Some suppose it to be derived from a certain 
 Hotel d'Osteriche (Osterrichen) inhabited in the fourteenth 
 century by a daughter of that house who married a French 
 nobleman. Some assert that this was the site of the Royal 
 Aviaries, whither, once on a time, all Paris crowded to see a 
 living ostrich. 
 
 Be it as it may, this tortuous street was made notable 
 by the residences of certain princes of the blood, who dwelt 
 in the vicinity of the Louvre. Since the sovereign had de- 
 serted the Faubourg Saint-Antoine, where for several cen- 
 turies he had lived in the Bastille, and removed to the Louvre, 
 many* of the nobility had settled near the palace. The Hotel 
 de Bourbon had its fellow in the old Hotel d'Alengon in the 
 Rue Saint-Honore. This; the palace of the Counts of that 
 name, always an appanage of the Crown, was at this time 
 owned by Henri II.'s fourth son, who subsequently took the 
 title of Due d'Anjou, and who died in the reign of Henri III., 
 to whom he gave no little trouble. The estate then reverted 
 to the Crown, including the old palace, which was pulled 
 down. In those days a prince's residence was a vast assem- 
 blage of buildings; to form some idea of its extent, we have 
 only to go and see the space covered by the Hotel de Soubise, 
 which is still standing in the Marais. Such a palace included 
 all the buildings necessary to these magnificent lives, which 
 may seem almost problematical to many persons to see how 
 poor is the state of a prince in these days. There were im- 
 mense stables, lodgings for physicians, librarians, chancellor, 
 chaplains, treasurers, officials, pages, paid servants, and 
 lackeys, attached to the Prince's person. 
 
 Not far from the Rue Saint-Honore, in a garden belonging
 
 258 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 to the Hotel, stood a pretty little house built in 1520 by com- 
 mand of the celebrated Duchesse d'Alengon, which had since 
 been surrounded with other houses erected by merchants. 
 Here the King had installed Marie Touchet. Although the 
 Due d'Alengon was engaged in a conspiracy against the King 
 at that time, he was incapable of annoying him in such a 
 matter. 
 
 As the King was obliged to pass by his lady's door on his 
 way down the Hue Saint-Honore, where at that time highway 
 robbers had no opportunities within the Barriere des Ser- 
 gents, he could hardly avoid stopping there. While keeping 
 a lookout for some stroke of luck a belated citizen to be 
 robbed, or the watch to be thrashed the King scanned every, 
 window, peeping in wherever he saw lights, to see what was 
 going on, or to overhear a conversation. But he found his 
 good city in a provokingly peaceful state. On a sudden, as he 
 came in front of the house kept by a famous perfumer named 
 Rene, who supplied the Court, the King was seized with one 
 of those swift inspirations which are suggested by antecedent 
 observation, as he saw a bright light shining from the top- 
 most window of the roof. 
 
 This perfumer was strongly suspected of doctoring rich 
 uncles when they complained of illness; he was credited at 
 Court with the invention of the famous filixir a successions 
 the Elixir of Inheritance and had been accused of poisoning 
 Jeanne d'Albret, Henri IV. 's mother, who was buried without 
 her head having been opened, in spite of the express orders 
 of Charles IX., as a contemporary tells us. For two months 
 past the King had been seeking some stratagem to enable 
 him to spy out the secrets of Rene's laboratory, whither Cosmo 
 Ruggieri frequently resorted. Charles intended, if anything 
 should arouse his suspicions, to take steps himself without 
 the intervention of the Police or the Law, over whom his 
 mother would exert the influence of fear or of bribery. 
 
 It is beyond all doubt that during the sixteenth century, 
 and the years immediately preceding and following it, poison- 
 ing had been brought to a pitch of perfection which remains
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 257 
 
 unknown to modern chemistry, but which is indisputably 
 proved by history. Italy, the cradle of modern science, was 
 at that time the inventor and mistress of these secrets, many 
 of which are lost. Eomancers have made such extravagant 
 use of this fact, that whenever they introduce Italians they 
 make them play the part of assassins and poisoners. 
 
 But though Italy had then the monopoly of those subtle 
 poisons of which historians tell us, we must regard her 
 supremacy in toxicology merely as part of her pre-eminence 
 in all branches of knowledge and in the arts, in which she 
 led the way for all Europe. The crimes of the period were 
 not hers alone; she served the passions of the age, as she 
 built magnificently, commanded armies, painted glorious 
 frescoes, sang songs, loved Queens, and directed politics. At 
 Florence this hideous art had reached such perfection, that 
 a woman dividing a peach with a duke could make use of a 
 knife of which one side only was poisoned, and, eating the 
 untainted half, dealt death with the other. A pair of per- 
 fumed gloves introduced a mortal malady by the pores of 
 the hand ; poison could be concealed in a bunch of fresh roses 
 of which the fragrance, inhaled but once, meant certain death. 
 Don Juan of Austria, it is said, was poisoned by a pair of 
 boots. 
 
 So King Charles had a right to be inquisitive, and it 
 is easy to imagine how greatly the dark suspicions which tor- 
 mented him added to his eagerness to detect Eene in the act. 
 
 The old fountain, since rebuilt, at the corner of the Hue 
 de PArbre-Sec, afforded this illustrious crew the necessary 
 access to the roof of a house, which the King pretended that 
 he wished to invade, not far from Rene's. Charles, followed 
 by his companions, began walking along the roofs, to the 
 great terror of the good folks awakened by these marauders, 
 who would call to them, giving them some coarsely grotesque 
 tname, listen to family squabbles or love-makings, or do some 
 vexatious damage. 
 
 When the two Gondis saw Tavannes and the King clam- 
 bering along the roof adjoining Rene's, the Marechal de Retz
 
 258 ABOUT CATHERINE DB' MEDICI 
 
 sat down, saying he was tired, and his brother remained with 
 him. 
 
 "So much the better," thought the King, glad to be quit 
 of his spies. 
 
 Tavannes made fun of the two Italians, who were then 
 left alone in the midst of perfect silence in a place where 
 ( they had only the sky above them and the cats for listeners. 
 And the brothers took advantage of this position to speak out 
 thoughts which they never would have uttered elsewhere - 
 thoughts suggested by the incidents of the evening. 
 
 "Albert," said the Grand Master to the Marshal, "the King 
 will get the upper hand of the Queen ; we are doing bad busi- 
 ness so far as our fortunes are concerned by attaching our- 
 selves to Catherine's. If we transfer our services to the King 
 now, when he is seeking some support against his mother, 
 and needs capable men to rely upon, we shall not be turned 
 out like wild beasts when the Queen-mother is banished, im- 
 prisoned, or killed." 
 
 "You will not get far, Charles, by that road," the Marshal 
 replied. "You will follow your master into the grave, and 
 he has not long to live; he is wrecked by dissipation; Cosmo 
 Ruggieri has foretold his death next year." 
 
 "A dying boar has often gored the hunter," said Charles 
 de Gondi. "This plot of the Due d'Alengon with the King of 
 Navarre and the Prince de Conde, of which la Mole and 
 Coconnas are taking the onus, is dangerous rather than use- 
 ful. In the first place, the King of Navarre, whom the 
 Queen-mother hopes to take in the fact, is too suspicious of 
 her, and will have nothing to do with it. He means to get 
 the benefit of the conspiracy and run none of the risks. And 
 now, the last idea is to place the crown on the head of the 
 Due d'Alengon, who is to turn Calvinist." 
 
 "Budelone! Dolt that you are, do not you see that this 
 plot enables our Queen to learn what the Huguenots can 
 do with the Due d'Alengon, and what the King means to do 
 with the Huguenots? For the King is temporizing with 
 them. And Catherine, to set the King riding on a wooden 
 horse, will betray the plot which must nullify his schemes."
 
 ABOUT CATHEKINE DE' MEDICI 259 
 
 "Ay I" said Charles de Gondi, "by dint of taking our advice 
 she can beat us at our own game. That is very good." 
 
 "Good for the Due d'Anjou, who would rather be King of 
 France than King of Poland ; I am going to explain matters 
 to him." 
 
 "You are going, Albert ?" 
 
 f "To-morrow. Is it not my duty to attend the King of 
 Poland ? I shall join him at Venice, where the Signori have 
 undertaken to amuse him." 
 
 "You are prudence itself." 
 
 "Che bestia! I assure you solemnly that there is not the 
 slightest danger for either of us at Court. If there were, 
 should I leave? I would stick to our kind mistress." 
 
 "Kind!" said the Grand Master. "She is the woman to 
 drop her tools if she finds them too heavy." 
 
 "0 coglione! You call yourself a soldier, and are afraid 
 of death? Every trade has its duties, and our duty is to 
 Fortune. When we attach ourselves to monarchs who are 
 the fount of all temporal power, and who protect and en- 
 noble and enrich our families, we have to give them such love 
 as inflames the soul of the martyr for heaven; when they 
 sacrifice us for the throne we may perish, for we die as much 
 for ourselves as for them, but our family does not perish. 
 Ecco; I have said !" 
 
 "You are quite right, Albert; you have got the old duchy 
 of Ketz." 
 
 "Listen to me," said the Due de Retz. "The Queen has 
 great hopes of the Euggieri and their arts to reconcile her to 
 her son. When that artful youth refused to have anything to 
 do with Rene, our Queen easily guessed what her son's sus- 
 picions were. But who can tell what the King has in his 
 pocket ? Perhaps he is only doubting as to what fate he in- 
 tends for his mother ; he hates her, you understand ? He said 
 something of his purpose to the Queen, and the Queen talked 
 of it to Madame de Fieschi; Madame de Fieschi carried it 
 on to the Queen-mother, and since then the King has kept 
 out of his wife's way."
 
 260 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 "It was high time " said Charles de Gondi. 
 
 "What to do?" asked the Marshal. 
 
 "To give the King something to do," replied the Grand 
 Master, who, though he was on less intimate terms with 
 Catherine than his brother, was not less clear-sighted. 
 
 "Charles," said de Eetz gravely, "I have started on a splen- 
 did road; but if you want to be a Duke, you must, like me, 
 'be our mistress' ready tool. She will remain Queen; she is 
 ( the strongest. Madame de Sauves is still devoted to her ; and 
 the King of Navarre and the Due d'Alengon are devoted to 
 Madame de Sauves; Catherine will always have them in lead- 
 ing strings under this King, as she will have them under 
 King Henri III. Heaven send he may not be ungrateful !" 
 
 "Why?" 
 
 "His mother does too much for him." 
 
 "Hark ! There is a noise in the Eue Saint-Honore," cried 
 Charles de Gondi. "Eene's door is being locked. Cannot 
 you hear a number of men? They must have taken the 
 Euggieri." 
 
 "The devil r What a piece of prudence! The King has 
 not shown his usual impetuosity. But where will he imprison 
 them? Let us see what is going on." 
 
 The brothers reached the corner of the Eue de 1'Autruche 
 at the moment when the King was entering his mistress'" 
 house. By the light of the torches held by the gatekeeper 
 they recognized Tavannes and the Euggieri. 
 
 "Well, Tavannes," the Grand Master called out as he ran 
 after the King's companion, who was making his way back 
 to the Louvre, "what adventures have you had ?" 
 
 "We dropped on a full council of wizards, and arrested two 
 who are friends of yours, and who will explain for the benefit 
 of French noblemen by what means you, who are not French- 
 men, have contrived to clutch two Crown offices," said Ta- 
 Vannes, half in jest. 
 
 "And the King?" asked the Grand Master, who was not 
 much disturbed by Tavannes' hostility. 
 
 "He is staying with his mistress."
 
 ABOUT CATHBRINE DE' MEDICI 261 
 
 "We have riaen to where we stand by the most absolute 
 devotion to our masters, a brilliant and noble career which 
 you too have adopted, my dear Duke/' replied the Marechal 
 de Eetz. 
 
 The three courtiers walked on in silence. As they bid 
 each other good-night, rejoining their retainers, who escorted 
 them home, two men lightly glided along the Hue de TAu- 
 truche in the shadow of the wall. These were the King and 
 the Comte de Solern, who soon reached the river-bank at a 
 spot where a boat and rowers, engaged by the German Count, 
 were awaiting them. In a few minutes they had reached the 
 opposite shore. 
 
 "My mother! is not in bed," cried the King, "she will see 
 us ; we have not made a good choice of our meeting-place." 
 
 "She will think some duel is in the wind," said Solern. 
 "And how is she to distinguish who we are at this distance ?" 
 
 "Well ! Even if she sees me !" cried Charles IX. "I have 
 made up my mind now." 
 
 The King and his friend jumped on shore, and hurried 
 off towards the Pre aux Clercs. On arriving there, the Comte 
 de Solern, who went first, parleyed with a man on sentry, 
 with whom he exchanged a few words, and who then withdrew 
 to a group of others. 
 
 Presently two men, who seemed to be princes by the way the 
 outposts saluted them, left the spot where they were in hiding 
 behind some broken fencing, and came to the King, to whom 
 they bent the knee; but Charles IX. raised them before they 
 could touch the ground, saying : 
 
 "No ceremony ; here we are all gentlemen together." 
 
 These three were now joined by a venerable old man, who 
 might have been taken for the Chancellor de 1'Hopital, but 
 that he had died the year before. Then all four walked on 
 as quickly as possible to reach a spot where their conversation 
 could not be overheard by their retainers, and Solern followed 
 them at a little distance to keep guard over the King. This 
 faithful servant felt some doubts which Charles did not share,
 
 262 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 for to him indeed life was too great a burden. The Count 
 was the only witness to the meeting on the King's side. 
 
 It soon became interesting. 
 
 "Sire," said one of the speakers, "the Connetable de Mont- 
 morency, the best friend the King, your father, had, and 
 possessed of all his secrets, agreed with the Marechal de Saint- 
 Andre that Madame Catherine should be sewn up in a sack 
 and thrown into the river. If that had been done, many 
 good men would be alive now." 
 
 "I have executions enough on my conscience, monsieur," 
 replied the King. 
 
 "Well, Sire," said the youngest of the four gentlemen, 
 "from the depths of exile Queen Catherine would still manage 
 to interfere and find men to help her. Have we not every- 
 thing to fear from the Guises, who, nine years since, schemed 
 for a monstrous Catholic alliance, in which your Majesty is 
 not included, and which is a danger to the throne? This 
 alliance is a Spanish invention for Spain still cherishes 
 the hope of leveling the Pyrenees. Sire, Calvinism can save 
 France by erecting a moral barrier between this nation and 
 one that aims at the empire of the world. If the Queen- 
 mother finds herself in banishment, she will throw herself 
 on Spain and the Guises." 
 
 "Gentlemen," said the King, "I will have you to know 
 that, with your help, and with peace established on a basis 
 of confidence, I will undertake to make every soul in the 
 kingdom quake. By God and every sacred relic ! it is time 
 that the Eoyal authority should assert a itself. Understand 
 this clearly; so far, my mother is right, power is slipping 
 from your grasp, as it is from mine. Your estates, your priv- 
 ileges are bound to the throne; when you have allowed re- 
 ligion to be overthrown, the hands you are using as tools 
 will turn against the Monarchy and against you. 
 
 "I have had enough of fighting ideas with weapons that 
 cannot touch them. Let us see whether Protestantism can 
 make its way if left to itself; above all, let us see what the 
 spirit of that faction means to attack. The Admiral, God
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 263 
 
 be merciful to him, was no enemy of mine. He swore to me 
 that he would restrain the revolt within the limits of spiritual 
 feeling, and in the temporal kingdom secure mastery to the 
 King and submissive subjects. Now, gentlemen, if the thing 
 is still in your power, set an example, and help your sovereign 
 to control the malcontents who are disturbing the peace of 
 both parties alike. War robs us of all our revenue, and ruins 
 the country ; I am weary of this troubled State so much so, 
 that, if it should be absolutely necessary, I would sacrifice my 
 mother. I would do more; I would have about me a like 
 number of Catholics and of Protestants, and I would hang 
 Louis XL's axe over their heads to keep them equal. If 
 Messieurs de Guise plot a Holy Alliance which endangers the 
 Crown, the executioner shall begin on them. 
 
 "I understand the griefs of my people, and am quite 
 ready to cut freely at the nobles who bring trouble on our 
 country. I care little for questions of conscience; I mean 
 henceforth to have submissive subjects who will work, under 
 my rule, at the prosperity of the State. 
 
 "Gentlemen, I give you ten days to treat with your ad- 
 herents, to break up your plots, and return to me, who will 
 be a father to you. If you are refractory, you will see great 
 changes. I shall make use of smaller men who, at my bid- 
 ding, will rush upon the great lords. I will follow the ex- 
 ample of a king who pacified his realm by striking down 
 greater men than you are who dared to defy him. If Catholic 
 troops are wanting, I can appeal to my brother of Spain to 
 defend a threatened throne; nay, and if I need a Minister 
 to carry out my will, he will lend me the Duke of Alva." 
 
 "In that event, Sire, we can find Germans to fight your 
 Spaniards," said one of the party. 
 
 "I may remind you, cousin," said Charles IX. coldly, "that 
 my wife's name is Elizabeth of Austria; your allies on that 
 side might fail you. But take my advice; let us fight this 
 alone without calling in the foreigner. You are the object 
 of m}' mother's hatred, and you care enough for me to play 
 the part of second in my duel with her well, then, listen.
 
 284 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 You stand so high in my esteem, that I offer you the office of 
 High Constable; you will not betray us as the other has 
 done." 
 
 The Prince thus addressed took the King's hand in a 
 friendly grasp, exclaiming : 
 
 "God's 'ounds, brother, that is indeed forgiving evil ! But,' 
 Sire, the head cannot move without the tail, and our tail 
 is hard to drag along. Give us more than ten days. We 
 still need at least a month to make the rest hear reason. By 
 the end of that time we shall be the masters." 
 
 "A month, so be it; Villeroy is my only plenipotentiary. 
 Take no word but his, whatever any one may say." 
 
 "One month," said the three other gentlemen; "that will 
 be enough time." 
 
 "Gentlemen," said the King, "we are but five, all men of 
 mettle. If there is any treachery, we shall know with whom 
 to deal." 
 
 The three gentlemen left the King with every mark of deep 
 respect and kissed his hand. 
 
 As the King recrossed the Seine, four o'clock was striking 
 by the Louvre clock. 
 
 Queen Catherine was still up. 
 
 "My mother is not gone to bed," said Charles to the Comte 
 de Solera. 
 
 "She too has her forge," said the German. 
 
 "My dear Count, what must you think of a king who is 
 reduced to conspiracy?" said Charles IX. bitterly, after a 
 pause. 
 
 "I think, Sire, that if you would only allow me to throw 
 that woman into the river, as our young friend said, France^ 
 would soon be at peace." 
 
 "Parricide! and after Saint-Bartholomew's!" said the 
 King. "No, no Exile. Once fallen, my mother would not 
 have an adherent or a partisan." 
 
 "Well, then, Sire," the Count went on, "allow me to take 
 her into custody now, at once, and escort her beyond the 
 frontier; for by to-morrow she will have won you round."
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 265 
 
 *Well," said the King, "come to my forge ; no one can hear 
 us there. Besides, I am anxious that my mother should know 
 nothing of the arrest of the Kuggieri. If she knows I am 
 within, the good lady will suspect nothing, and we will con- 
 cert the measures for arresting her." 
 
 When, the King, attended by Solern, went into the low 
 room which served as his workshop, he smiled as he pointed 
 to his forge and various tools. 
 
 "I do not suppose," said he, "that of all the kings France 
 may ever have, there will be another with a taste for such a 
 craft. But when I am really King, I shall not forge swords ; 
 they shall all be sheathed." 
 
 "Sire," said the Comte de Solern, "the fatigues of tennis, 
 your work at the forge, hunting, and may I say it? love- 
 making, are chariots lent you by the Devil to hasten your 
 journey to Saint-Denis." 
 
 "Ah, Solern !" said the King sadly, "if only you could feel 
 the fire they have set burning in my heart and body. Nothing 
 can slake it. Are you sure of the men who are guarding 
 the Kuggieri ?" 
 
 "As sure as of myself." 
 
 "Well, in the course of this day I shall have made up my 
 mind. Think out the means of acting, and I will give you 
 my final instructions at five this evening, at Madame de 
 Belleville's/' 
 
 The first gleams of daybreak were struggling with the 
 lights in the King's workshop, where the Comte de Solern 
 had left him alone, when he heard the door open and saw 
 his mother, looking like a ghost in the gloom. Though 
 Charles IX. was highly strung and nervous, he did not start, 
 although under the circumstances this apparition had an 
 ominous and grotesque aspect. 
 
 "Monsieur," said she, "you are killing yourself " 
 
 "I am fulfilling my horoscopes," he retorted, with a bitter 
 Bmile. "But you, madame, are you as ill as I am ?" 
 
 "We have both watched through the night, monsieur, but
 
 266 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 with very different purpose. When you were setting out 
 to confer with your bitterest enemies in the open night, and 
 hiding it from your mother, with the connivance of Tavannes 
 and the Gondis, with whom you pretended to be scouring the 
 town, I was reading dispatches which prove that a terrible 
 conspiracy is hatching, in which your brother the Due 
 d'Alengon is implicated with your brother-in-law, the King of 
 Navarre, the Prince de Conde, and half the nobility of your 
 kingdom. Their plan is no less than to snatch the Crown 
 from you by taking possession of your person. These gentle- 
 men have already a following of fifty thousand men, all good 
 soldiers." 
 
 "Indeed !" said the King incredulously. 
 
 "Your brother is becoming a Huguenot," the Queen 
 went on. 
 
 "My brother joining the Huguenots ?" cried Charles, bran- 
 dishing the iron bar he held. 
 
 "Yes. The Due d'Alengon, a Huguenot at heart, is about 
 to declare himself. Your sister, the Queen of Navarre, has 
 scarcely a tinge of affection left for you. She loves Monsieui 
 le Due d'Alengon, she loves Bussy, and she also loves little. 
 la Mole." 
 
 "What a large heart !" said the King. 
 
 "Little la Mole, to grow great," the Queen went on, "can 
 think of no better means than making a King of France to 
 his mind. Then, it is said, he is to be High Constable." 
 
 "That damned Margot!" cried the King. "This is what 
 comes of her marrying a heretic " 
 
 "That would be nothing ; but then there is the head of the 
 younger branch, whom you have placed near the throne 
 against my warnings, and who only wants to see you all kill 
 each other ! The House of Bourbon is the enemy of the 
 House of Valois. Mark this, monsieur, a younger branch 
 'must always be kept in abject poverty, for it is born with 
 the spirit of conspiracy, and it is folly to give it weapons 
 when it has none, or to leave them in its possession when it 
 takes them. The younger branches must be impotent for
 
 267 
 
 mischief that is the law of sovereignty. The sultans of 
 Asia observe it. 
 
 "The proofs are upstairs in my closet, whither I begged 
 you to follow me when we parted last night, but you had 
 other projects. Within a month, if we do not take a high 
 hand, your fate will be that of Charles the Simple." 
 
 "Within a month!" exclaimed Charles, amazed at the 
 coincidence of this period with the term fixed by the princes 
 that very night. "In a month we shall be the masters," 
 thought he to himself, repeating their words. "You have 
 proofs, madame?" he asked aloud. 
 
 "They are unimpeachable, monsieur; they are supplied 
 by my daughter Marguerite. Terrified by the probable out- 
 come of such a coalition, in spite of her weakness for your 
 brother d'Alengon, the throne of the Valois lay, for once, 
 nearer to her heart than all her amours. She asks indeed, 
 as the reward of her revelation, that la Mole shall go scot 
 free; but that popinjay seems to me to be a rogue we ought 
 to get rid of, as well as the Comte de Coconnas, your brother 
 d'Alengon's right-hand man. As to the Prince de Conde, 
 that boy would agree to anything so long as I may be flung 
 into the river; I do not know if that is his idea of a hand- 
 some return on his wedding-day for the pretty wife I got 
 him. 
 
 "This is a serious matter, monsieur. You spoke of predic- 
 tions ! I know of one which says that the Bourbons will 
 possess the throne of the Yalois; and if we do not take care, 
 it will be fulfilled. Do not be vexed with your sister, she has 
 acted well in this matter." 
 
 "My son," she went on, after a pause, with an assumption 
 of tenderness in her tone, "many evil-minded persons, in 
 the interest of the Guises, want to sow dissension between 
 you and me, though we are the only two persons in the realm 
 whose interests are identical. Eeflect. You blame yourself 
 now, I know, for Saint-Bartholomew's night; you blame me 
 for persuading you to it. But Catholicism, monsieur, ought 
 to be the bond of Spain, France, and Italy, three nations
 
 268 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 which by a secretly and skilfully worked scheme may, in the 
 course of time, be united under the House of Valois. Do not 
 forfeit your chances by letting the cord slip which includes 
 these three kingdoms in the pale of the same faith. 
 
 "Why should not the Valois and the Medici carry out, to 
 their great glory, the project of Charles V., who lost his head ? 
 Let those descendants of Jane the Crazy people the new 
 world which they are grasping at. The Medici, masters of 
 Florence and Eome, will subdue Italy to your rule ; they will 
 secure all its advantages by a treaty of commerce and alliance, 
 and recognize you as their liege lord for the fiefs of Piedmont, 
 the Milanese, and Naples over which you have rights. These, 
 monsieur, are the reasons for the war to 'the death we are 
 waging with the Huguenots. Why do you compel us to repeat 
 these things ? 
 
 "Charlemagne made a mistake when he pushed northwards. 
 France is a body of which the heart is on the Gulf of Lyons, 
 and whose two arms are Spain and Italy. Thus we should 
 command the Mediterranean, which is like a basket into 
 which all the wealth of the East is poured to the benefit of 
 the Venetians now, in the teeth of Philip II. 
 
 "And if the friendship of the Medici and your inherited 
 rights can thus entitle you to hope for Italy, force, or alliance, 
 or perhaps inheritance, may give you Spain. There you must 
 step in before the ambitious House of Austria, to whom the 
 Guelphs would have sold Italy, and who still dream of pos- 
 sessing Spain. Though your wife is a daughter of that line, 
 humble Austria, hug her closely to stifle her ! There lie the 
 enemies of your dominion, since from thence comes aid for 
 the Eeformers. Do not listen to men who would profit by our 
 disagreement, and who fill your head with trouble by repre- 
 senting me as your chief enemy at home. Have I hindered 
 you from having an heir? Is it my fault that your mistress 
 has a son and your wife only a daughter? Why have you not 
 by this time three sons, who would cut off all this sedition at 
 the root? Is it my part, monsieur, to reply to these ques- 
 tions ? If you had a son, would Monsieur d'Alengon conspire 
 against you?"
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 269 
 
 As she spoke these words, Catherine fixed her eyes on 
 Charles IX. with the fascinating gaze of a bird of prey on 
 its victim. The daughter of the Medici was beautiful in her 
 way; her real feelings illumined her face, which, like that 
 of a gambler at the green-table, was radiant with ambitious 
 greed. Charles IX. saw her no longer as the mother of one 
 man, but, as she had been called, the mother of armies and 
 empires (mater castrorum). Catherine had spread the 
 ( pinions of her genius, and was boldly soaring in the realm 
 of high politics of the Medici and the Valois, sketching the 
 vast plans which had frightened Henri II., and which, trans- 
 mitted by the Medici to Eichelieu, were stored in the Cabinet 
 of the House of Bourbon. But' Charles IX., seeing his mother 
 take so many precautions, supposed them to be necessary, 
 and wondered to what end she was taking them. He looked 
 down; he hesitated; his distrust was not to be dispelled by 
 words. 
 
 Catherine was astonished to see what deeply founded sus- 
 picion lurked in her son's heart. 
 
 "Well, monsieur," she went on, "do you not choose to un- 
 derstand me? What are we, you and I, compared with the 
 eternity of a royal Crown? Do you suspect me of any pur- 
 poses but those which must agitate us who dwell in the sphere 
 whence empires are governed?" 
 
 "Madame," said he, "I will follow you to your closet we 
 must act " 
 
 "Act ?" cried Catherine. "Let them go their way and take 
 them in the act; the law will rid you of them. For God's 
 sake, monsieur, let them see us smiling." 
 
 The Queen withdrew. The King alone remained standing 
 for a minute, for he had sunk into extreme dejection. 
 ) "On which side are the snares ?" he said aloud. "Is it she 
 who is deceiving me, or they? What is the better policy? 
 Deus! discerne causam meam" he cried, with tears in his 
 eyes. "Life is a burden to me. Whether natural or com- 
 pulsory, I would rather meet death than these contradictory 
 torments," he added, and he struck the hammer on his anvil
 
 270 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 with such violence that the vaults of the Louvre quaked. 
 "Great God!" he exclaimed, going out and looking up at 
 the sky, "Thou for whose holy religion I am warring, give 
 me the clearness of Thine eyes to see into my mother's heart 
 by questioning the Ruggieri." 
 
 The little house inhabited by the Lady of Belleville, where 
 Charles had left his prisoners, was the last but one in the 
 Rue de FAutruche, near the Eue Saint-Honore. The street- 
 gate, guarded by two little lodges built of brick, looked very 
 plain at a time when gates and all their accessories were so 
 elaborately treated. The entrance consisted of two stone 
 pillars, diamond-cut, and the architrave was graced with the 
 reclining figure of a woman holding a cornucopia. The gate, 
 of timber covered with heavy iron scroll-work, had a wicket 
 peephole at the level of the eye for spying any one who de- 
 sired admittance. In each lodge a porter lived, and Charles* 
 caprice insisted that a gatekeeper should be on the watch day 
 and night. 
 
 There was a little courtyard in front of the house paved 
 with Venetian mosaic. At that time, when carriages had not 
 been invented, and ladies rode on horseback or in litters, the 
 courtyards could be splendid with no fear of injury from 
 horses or vehicles. We must constantly bear these facts in 
 mind to understand the narrowness of the streets, the small 
 extent of the forecourts, and various other details of the 
 dwellings of the fifteenth century. 
 
 The house, of one story above the ground floor, had at the 
 top a sculptured frieze, on which rested a roof sloping up 
 from all the four sides to a flat space at the top. The sides 
 were pierced by dormer-windows adorned with architraves 
 and side-posts, which some great artist had chiseled into deli- 
 cate arabesques. All the three windows of the first-floor 
 rooms were equally conspicuous for this embroidery in stone, 
 thrown into relief by the red-brick walls. On the ground 
 floor a double flight of outside steps, elegantly sculptured the 
 balcony being remarkable for a true lovers' knot led to the
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 271 
 
 house door, decorated in the Venetian style with stone cut 
 into pointed lozenges, a form of ornament that was repeated 
 on the window-jambs on each side of the door. 
 
 A garden laid out in the fashion of the time, and full of 
 rare flowers, occupied a space behind the house of equal ex- 
 tent with the forecourt. A vine hung over the walls. A 
 silver pine stood in the centre of a grass plot ; the flower bor- 
 ders were divided from the turf by winding paths leading to 
 a little bower of clipped yews at the further end. The garden 
 walls, covered with a coarse mosaic of colored pebbles, pleased 
 the eye by a richness of color that harmonized with the hues 
 of the flowers. The garden front of the house, like the front 
 to the court, had a pretty balcony from the middle window 
 over the door; and on both fagades alike the architectural 
 treatment of this middle window was carried up to the frieze 
 of the cornice, with a bow that gave it the appearance of a 
 lantern. The sills of the other windows were inlaid with fine 
 marbles let into the stone. 
 
 Notwithstanding the perfect taste evident in this building, 
 it had a look of gloom. It was shut out from the open day by 
 neighboring houses and the roofs of the Hotel d'Alengon, 
 which cast their shadow over the courtyard and garden; 
 then absolute silence prevailed. Still, this silence, this sub- 
 dued light, this solitude, were restful to a soul that could give 
 itself up to a single thought, as in a cloister where we may 
 meditate, or in a snug home where we may love. 
 
 Who can fail now to conceive of the interior elegance of 
 this dwelling, the only spot in all his kingdom where the 
 last Valois but one could pour out his heart, confess his suf- 
 ferings, give play to his taste for the arts, and enjoy the 
 poetry he loved pleasures denied him by the cares of his 
 most ponderous royalty. There alone were his lofty soul 
 and superior qualities appreciated; there alone, for a few 
 brief months, the last of his life, could he know the joys of 
 fatherhood, to which he abandoned himself with the frenzy 
 which his presentiment of an imminent and terrible death 
 lent to all his actions.
 
 272 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 In the afternoon of this day, Marie was finishing her toilet 
 in her oratory the ladies' boudoir of that time. She was 
 arranging the curls of her fine black hair, so as to leave a 
 few locks to turn over a new velvet coif, and was looking at- 
 tentively at herself in the mirror. 
 
 "It is nearly four o'clock! That interminable Council 
 must be at an end by now," said she to herself. "Jacob is 
 back from the Louvre, where they are greatly disturbed by 
 reason of the number of councillors convened, and by the 
 duration of the sitting. What can have happened, some dis- 
 aster ? Dear Heaven ! does he know how the spirit is worn 
 by waiting in vain? He is gone hunting, perhaps. If he is 
 amused, all is well. If I see him happy, I shall forget my 
 sorrows " 
 
 She pulled down her bodice round her waist, that there 
 might not be a wrinkle in it, and turned to see how her dress 
 fitted in profile; but then she saw the King reclining on a 
 couch. The carpeted floors deadened the sound of footsteps 
 so eifectually, that he had come in without being heard. 
 
 "You startled me," she said, with a cry of surprise, which 
 she instantly checked. 
 
 "You were thinking of me, then?" said the King. 
 
 "When am I not thinking of you ?" she asked him, sitting 
 down by his side. 
 
 She took off his cap and cloak, and passed her hands 
 through his hair as if to comb it with her fingers. Charles 
 submitted without speaking. Marie knelt down to study her 
 royal Master's pale face, and discerned in it the lines of 
 terrible fatigue and of a more devouring melancholy than 
 any she had ever been able to scare away. She checked a 
 tear, and kept silence, not to irritate a grief she as yet knew 
 nothing of by some ill-chosen word. She did what tender 
 wives do in such cases ; she kissed the brow seamed with pre- 
 'cocious wrinkles and the hollow cheeks, trying to breathe the 
 freshness of her own spirit into that careworn soul throigh 
 its infusion into gentle caresses, which, however, had no ef- 
 fect. She raised her head to the level of the King's, embrac-
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 273 
 
 ing him fondly with her slender arms, and then laid her 
 face on his laboring breast, waiting for the opportune moment 
 to question the stricken man. 
 
 "My Chariot, will you not tell your poor, anxious friend 
 what are the thoughts that darken your brow and take the 
 color from your dear, red lips?" 
 
 "With the exception of Charlemagne," said he, in a dull, 
 hollow voice, "every King of France of the name of Charles 
 has come to a miserable end." 
 
 "Pooh!" said she. "What of Charles VIII.?" 
 
 "In the prime of life," replied the King, "the poor man 
 knocked his head against a low doorway in the chateau d'Am- 
 boise, which he was decorating splendidly, and he died in 
 dreadful pain. His death gave the Crown to our branch." 
 
 "Charles VII. reconquered his kingdom." 
 
 "Child, he died" and the King lowered his voice "of 
 starvation, in the dread of being poisoned by the Dauphin, 
 who had already caused the death of his fair Agnes. The 
 father dreaded his son. Now, the son dreads his mother !" 
 
 "Why look back on the past?" said she, remembering the 
 terrible existence of Charles VI. 
 
 "Why not, dear heart? Kings need not have recourse to 
 diviners to read the fate that awaits them; they have only 
 to study history. I am at this time engaged in trying to 
 escape the fate of Charles the Simple, who was bereft of his 
 crown, and died in prison after seven years' captivity." 
 
 "Charles V. drove out the English !" she cried triumph- 
 antly. 
 
 "Not he, but du Guesclin; for he, poisoned by Charles of 
 Navarre, languished in sickness." 
 
 "But Charles IV. ?" said she. 
 
 "He married three times and had no heir, in spite of ther 
 masculine beauty that distinguished the sons of Philip the 
 Handsome. The first Valois dynasty ended in him. The 
 second Valois will end in the same way. The Queen 
 has only brought me a daughter, and I shall die without leav- 
 ing any child to come, for a minority would be the greatest
 
 274 ABOUT CATHERINE DE* MEDICI 
 
 misfortune that could befall the kingdom. Besides, if I had 
 a son, would he live ? Charles is a name of ill-omen, Charle- 
 magne exhausted all the luck attending it. If I could be 
 King of France again, I would not be called Charles X." 
 
 "Who then aims at your crown ?" 
 
 "My brother d'Alengon is plotting against me. I see ene- 
 mies on every side " 
 
 "Monsieur," said Marie, with an irresistible pout. "Tell 
 me some merrier tales." 
 
 "My dearest treasure," said the King vehemently, "never 
 call me Monsieur, even in jest. You remind me of my mother, 
 who incessantly offends me with that word. I feel as if she 
 deprived me of my crown. She says 'My son' to the Due 
 d'Anjou, that is to say, the King of Poland." 
 
 "Sire," said Marie, folding her hands as if in prayer, 
 "there is a realm where you are adored, which your Majesty 
 fills entirely with glory and strength; and there the word 
 Monsieur means my gentle lord." 
 
 She unclasped her hands, and with a pretty action pointed 
 to her heart. The words were so sweetly musical musiquees, 
 to use an expression of the period, applied to love songs that 
 Charles took Marie by the waist, raised her with the strength 
 for which he was noted, seated her on his knee, and gently 
 rubbed his forehead against the curls his mistress had ar- 
 ranged with such care. 
 
 Marie thought this a favorable moment; she ventured on 
 a kiss or two, which Charles allowed rather than accepted; 
 then, between two kisses, she said : 
 
 "If my people told the truth, you were scouring Paris all 
 night, as in the days when you played the scapegrace younger 
 son?" 
 
 "Yes," said the King, who sat lost in thought. 
 
 "Did not you thrash the watch and rob certain good citi- 
 zens? And who are the men placed under my guard, and 
 who are such criminals that you have forbidden all communi- 
 cation with them? No girl was ever barred in with greater 
 severity than these men, who have had neither food nor drink.
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 275 
 
 Solera's Germans have not allowed any one to go near the 
 room where you left them. Is it a joke ? Or is it a serious 
 matter?" 
 
 "Yes," said the King, rousing himself from his reverie, 
 "last night I went scampering over the roofs with Tavannes 
 and the Gondis. I wanted to have the company of my old 
 comrades in folly. But our legs are not what they were; 
 we did not dare jump across the streets. However, we crossed 
 'two courtyards by leaping from roof to roof. The last time, 
 however, when we alighted on a gable close by this, as we 
 clung to the bar of a chimney, we decided, Tavannes and I, 
 that we could not do it again. If either of us had been alone, 
 he would not have tried it." 
 
 "You were the first to jump, I will wager." 
 
 The King smiled. 
 
 "I know why you risk your life so." 
 
 "Hah, fair sorceress !" 
 
 "You are weary of life." 
 
 "Begone with witchcraft ! I am haunted by it 1" said the 
 King, grave once more. 
 
 "My witchcraft is love," said she, with a smile. "Since 
 the happy day when you first loved me, have I not always 
 guessed your thoughts? And if you will suffer me to say 
 so, the thoughts that torment you to-day are not worthy of a 
 King." 
 
 "Am I a King?" said he bitterly. 
 
 "Can you not be King? What did Charles VII. do, whose 
 name you bear? He listened to his mistress, my lord, and 
 he won back his kingdom, which was invaded by the English 
 then as it is now by the adherents of the New Eeligion. Your 
 last act of State opened the road you must follow: Exter- 
 minate heresy." 
 
 "You used to blame the stratagem," said Charles, "and 
 now " 
 
 "It is accomplished," she put in. "Besides, I am of Mad- 
 ame Catherine's opinion. It was better to do it yourself than 
 to leave it to the Guises."
 
 276 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 "Charles VII. had only men to fight against, and I have 
 to battle with ideas," the King went on. "You may kill men ; 
 you cannot kill words ! The Emperor Charles V. gave up 
 the task; his son, Don Philip, is spending himself in the at- 
 tempt. We shall die of it, we kings. On whom can I de- 
 pend? On my right, with the Catholics I find the Guises 
 threatening me ; on my left, the Calvinists will never forgive 
 the death of my poor Father Coligny, nor the blood-letting 
 of August ; besides, they want to be rid of us altogether. And 
 in front of me, my mother " 
 
 "Arrest her; reign alone," said Marie, whispering in his 
 car. 
 
 "I wanted to do so yesterday but I do not to-day. You 
 speak of it lightly enough." 
 
 "There is no such great distance between the daughter 
 of an apothecary and the daughter of a leech," said Marie 
 Touchet, who would often laugh at the parentage falsely 
 given "her. 
 
 The King knit his brows. 
 
 "Marie, take no liberties. Catherine de' Medici is my 
 mother, and you ought to tremble at " 
 
 "But what are you afraid of?" 
 
 "Poison!" cried the King, beside himself. 
 
 "Poor boy !" said Marie, swallowing her tears, for so much 
 strength united to so much weakness moved her deeply. 
 "Oh !" she went on, "how you make me hate Madame Cath- 
 erine, who used to seem so kind ; but her kindness seems to 
 be nothing but perfidy. Why does she do me so much good 
 and you so much evil? While I was away in Dauphine I 
 heard a great many things about the beginning of your reign 
 which you had concealed from me; and the Queen your 
 mother seems to have been the cause of all your misfortunes." 
 
 "How?" said the King, with eager interest. 
 
 "Women whose soul and intentions are pure rule the men 
 they love through their virtues ; but women who do not truly 
 wish them well find a motive power in their evil inclinations. 
 Now the Queen has turned many fine qualities in you into
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 277 
 
 vices, and made you believe that your bad ones were virtues. 
 Was that acting a mother's part ? Be a tyrant like Louis XI., 
 make everybody dreadfully afraid of you, imitate Don Philip, 
 banish the Italians, hunt out the Guises, and confiscate the 
 estates of the Calvinists; you will rise to stand in solitude, 
 and you will save the Crown. The moment is favorable ; your 
 brother is in Poland." 
 
 "We are two infants in politics," said Charles bitterly. 
 "We only know how to love. Alas ! dear heart, yesterday 1 
 could think of all this; I longed to achieve great things. 
 Puff ! my mother has blown down my house of cards. From 
 afar difficulties stand out as clearly as mountain peaks. I 
 say to myself, 'I will put an end to Calvinism; I will bring 
 Messieurs de Guise to their senses ; I will cut adrift from the 
 Court of Rome ; I will rely wholly on the people of the middle 
 class ;' in short, at a distance everything looks easy, but when 
 we try to climb the mountains, the nearer we get, the more 
 obstacles we discern. 
 
 "Calvinism in itself is the last thing the party-leaders care 
 about; and the Guises, those frenzied Catholics, would be in 
 despair if the Calvinists were really exterminated. Every 
 man thinks of his own interests before all else, and religious 
 opinions are but a screen for insatiable ambition. Charles 
 IX.'s party is the weakest of all; those of the King of Na- 
 varre, of the King of Poland, of the Due d'Alengon, of the 
 Condes, of the Guises, of my mother, form coalitions against 
 each other, leaving me alone even in the Council Chamber. 
 In the midst of so many elements of disturbance my mother 
 is the stronger, and she has just shown me that my plans are 
 inane. We are surrounded by men who defy the law. The 
 axe of Louis XI. of which you speak is not in our grasp. The 
 Parlement would never sentence the Guises, nor the King 
 of Navarre, nor the Condes, nor my brothers. It would think 
 it was setting the kingdom in a blaze. What is wanted is the 
 courage to command murder; the throne must come to that, 
 with these insolent wretches who have nullified justice; but 
 where can I find faithful hands? The Council I held this 
 19
 
 278 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 morning disgusted me with everything treachery on all 
 sides, antagonistic interests everywhere ! 
 
 "I am tired of wearing the crown; all I ask is to die in 
 peace." 
 
 And he sank into gloomy somnolence. 
 
 "Disgusted with everything !" echoed Marie Touchet sadly, 
 but respecting her lover's heavy torpor. 
 
 Charles was, in fact, a prey to utter prostration of mind 
 and body, resulting from over-fatigue of every faculty, and 
 enhanced by the dejection caused by the vast scale of his mis- 
 fortunes and the evident impossibility of overcoming them 
 in the face of such a multiplicity of difficulties as genius it- 
 self takes alarm at. The King's depression was proportionate 
 to the height to which his courage and his ideas had soared 
 during the last few months ; and now a fit of nervous melan- 
 choly, part, in fact, of his malady, had come over him as he 
 left the long sitting of the Council he had held in his closet. 
 Marie saw that he was suffering from a crisis when everything 
 is irritating and importunate even love ; so she remained on 
 her knees, her head in the King's lap as he sat with his fingers 
 buried in her hair without moving, without speaking, with- 
 ous sighing, and she was equally still. Charles IX. was sunk 
 in the lethargy of helplessness ; and Marie, in the dark despair 
 of a loving woman, who can see the border-line ahead where 
 love must end. 
 
 Thus the lovers sat for some little time in perfect silence, 
 in the mood when every thought is a wound, when the clouds 
 of a mental storm hide even the remembrance of past happi- 
 ness. 
 
 Marie believed herself to be in some sort to blame for this 
 terrible dejection. She wondered, not without alarm, whether 
 the King's extravagant joy at welcoming her back, and the 
 vehement passion she could not contend with, were not help- 
 ing to wreck his mind and frame. As she looked up at her 
 lover, her eyes streaming with tears that bathed her face, 
 she saw tears in his eyes too and on his colorless cheeks. This 
 sympathy, uniting them even in sorrow, touched Charles IX.
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 279 
 
 so deeply, that he started up like a horse that feels the spur. 
 He put his arm round Marie's waist, and before she knew 
 what he was doing had drawn her down on the couch. 
 
 "I will be King no more!" he said. "I will be nothing 
 but your lover, and forget everything in that joy. I will die 
 happy, arid not eaten up with the cares of a throne." 
 
 The tone in which he spoke, the fire that blazed in eyes, 
 just now so dull, instead of pleasing Marie, gave her a terrible 
 pang; at that moment she blamed her love for contributing 
 to the illness of which the King was dying. 
 
 "You forget your prisoners," said she, starting up sud- 
 denly. 
 
 "What do I care about the men? They have my permis- 
 sion to kill me." 
 
 "What? Assassins!" said she. 
 
 "Do not be uneasy, we have them safe, dear child. Now, 
 think not of them, but of me. Say, do you not love me ?" 
 
 "Sire !" she cried. 
 
 "Sire !" he repeated, flashing sparks from his eyes, so vio- 
 lent was his first surge of fury at his mistress' ill-timed defer- 
 ence. "You are in collusion with my mother." 
 
 "Great God !" cried Marie, turning to the picture over 
 her praying-chair, and trying to get to it to put up a prayer. 
 "Oh ! make him understand me !" 
 
 "What!" said the King sternly. "Have you any sin on 
 your soul ?" 
 
 And still holding her in his arms, he looked deep into her 
 eyes. "I have heard of the mad passion of one d'Entragues 
 for you," he went on, looking wildly at her, "and since their 
 grandfather Capitaine Balzac married a Vieconti of Milan, 
 those rascals hesitate at nothing." 
 
 Marie gave the King such a look of pride that he was 
 ashamed. Just then the cry was heard of the infant Charles 
 de Valois from the adjoining room ; he was just awaJce, and 
 his nurse was no doubt bringing him to his mother. 
 
 "Come in, la Bourguignonne," said Marie, taking the child 
 from his nurse and bringing him to the King. "You are
 
 280 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 more of a child than he/' she said, half angry, but hall 
 pleased. 
 
 "He is a fine boy," said Charles IX., taking his son in his 
 arms. 
 
 "No one but me can know how like you he is," said Marie. 
 "He has your smile and ways already." 
 
 "What, so young ?" said the King, smiling. 
 
 "Men will never believe such things," said she ; "but look,' 
 my Chariot/ play with him, look at him now, am I not 
 right?" 
 
 "It is true," said the King, startled by a movement on the 
 infant's part, which struck him as the miniature reproduction 
 of a trick of his own. 
 
 "Pretty flower !" said his mother. "He will never go away 
 from me; he will never make me unhappy." 
 
 The King played with the child, tossing it, kissing it with 
 'entire devotion, speaking to it in those vague and foolish 
 words, the onomatopoeia of mothers and nurses ; his voice was 
 childlike, his brow cleared, joy came back to his saddened 
 countenance; and when Marie saw that her lover had for- 
 gotten everything, she laid her head on his shoulder and 
 whispered in his ear: 
 
 "Will not you tell me, my Chariot, why you put assassins 
 in my keeping, and who these men are, and what you intend 
 to do with them? And whither were you going across the 
 roofs ? I hope there was no woman in the case." 
 
 "Then you still love me so well ?" said the King, caught by 
 the bright flash of one of those questioning looks which 
 women can give at a critical moment. 
 
 "You could doubt me," replied she, as the tears gathered 
 under her beautiful girlish eyelids. 
 
 "There are women in my adventure, but they are witches. 
 Where was I ?" 
 
 "We were quite near here, on the gable of a house," said 
 Marie. "In what street ?" 
 
 "In the Rue Saint-Honore, my jewel," said the King, who 
 seemed to have recovered himself, and who, as he recalled his
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 281 
 
 ideas, wanted to give his mistress some notion of the scene 
 that was about to take place here. "As I crossed it in pur- 
 suit of some sport, my eyes were attracted by a bright light 
 in a top window of the house inhabited by Kene, my mother's 
 perfumer and glover yours too, the whole Court's. I have 
 strong suspicions as to what goes on in that man's house, and 
 if I am poisoned that is where the poison is prepared." 
 
 "I give him up to-morrow," said Marie. 
 
 "What, you have still dealt with him since I left him?" 
 said the King. "My life was here," he added gloomily, "and 
 here no doubt they have arranged for my death." 
 
 "But, my dear boy, I have but just come home from Dau- 
 phine with our Dauphin," said she, with a smile, "and I 
 have bought nothing of Kene since the Queen of Navarre 
 died. Well, go on; you climbed up to Kene's roof ?" 
 
 "Yes," the King went on. "In a moment I, followed by 
 Tavannes, had reached a spot whence, without being seen, I 
 could see into the devil's kitchen, and note certain things 
 which led me to take strong measures. Do you ever happen 
 to have noticed the attics that crown that damned Floren- 
 tine's house? All the windows to the street are constantly 
 kept shut excepting the last, from which the Hotel de Sois- 
 sons can be seen, and the column my mother had erected for 
 her astrologer Cosmo Euggieri. There is a room in this top 
 story with a corridor lighted from the inner yard, so that in 
 order to see what is being done within, a man must get to a 
 perch which no one would ever think of climbing, the coping 
 of a high wall which ends against the roof of Rene's house. 
 The creatures who placed the alembics there to distil death, 
 trusted to the faint hearts of the Parisians to escape inspec- 
 tion; but they counted without their Charles de Valois. I 
 crept along the gutter, and supported myself against the 
 window jamb with my arm round the neck of a monkey that 
 is sculptured on it." 
 
 "And what did you see, dear heart ?" said Marie, in alarm. 
 
 "A low room where deeds of darkness are plotted," replied 
 the King. "The first thing on which my eyes fell was a tall
 
 282 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 old man seated in a chair, with a magnificent beard like old 
 FHopital's, and dressed, like him, in black velvet. The con- 
 centrated rays of a brightly burning lamp fell on his high 
 forehead, deeply furrowed by hollow lines, on a crown of white 
 hair and a calm, thoughtful face, pale with vigils and study. 
 His attention was divided between a manuscript on parch- 
 ment several centuries old, and two lighted stoves on which 
 some heretical mixtures were cooking. Neither the floor nor 
 the ceiling was visible; they were so covered with animals 
 hung up there, skeletons, dried herbs, minerals, and drugs, 
 with which the place was stuffed; here some books and re- 
 torts, with chests full of instruments for magic and astrology ; 
 there diagrams for horoscopes, phials, wax figures, and per- 
 haps the poisons he concocts for Eene in payment for the 
 shelter and hospitality bestowed on him by my mother's 
 glover. 
 
 "Tavannes and I were startled, I can tell you, at the sight 
 of this diabolical arsenal; for merely at the sight of it one 
 feels spellbound, and but that my business is to be King of 
 France, I should have been frightened. 'Tremble for us 
 both,' said I to Tavannes. 
 
 "But Tavannes' eyes were riveted on the most mysterious 
 object. On a couch by the old man's side lay a girl at full 
 length, of the strangest beauty, as long and slender as a 
 snake, as white as an ermine, as pale as death, as motion- 
 less as a statue. Perhaps it was a woman just dug out of her 
 grave, for she seemed to be still wrapped in her shroud; her 
 eyes were fixed, and I could not see her breathe. The old 
 wretch paid no sort of heed to her. I watched him so cu- 
 riously that his spirit I believe passed into me. By dint of 
 studying him, at last I admired that searching eye, keen and 
 bold, in spite of the chills of age; that mouth, mobile with, 
 thoughts that came from what seemed a single fixed desire, 
 graven in a myriad wrinkles. Everything in the man 
 spoke of a hope which nothing can discourage and nothing 
 dismay. His attitude, motionless but full of thrilling life, 
 his features so chiseled, so deeply cut by a passion that has
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 283 
 
 done the work of the sculptor's tool, that mind dead-set on 
 some criminal or scientific purpose, that searching intelligence 
 on the track of Nature though conquered by her, and bent, 
 without having broken, under the burden of an enterprise 
 it will never give up, threatening creation with fire borrowed 
 from itself I was fascinated for a moment. 
 
 "That old man was more a King than I, for his eye saw 
 the whole world and was its master. I am determined to tem- 
 per no more swords ; I want to float over abysses, as that old 
 man does; his science seems to me a sovereignty. In short, 
 I believe in these occult sciences." 
 
 "You, the eldest son, and the defender of the Holy Cath- 
 olic, Apostolic, and Eoman Church!" cried I^Earie. 
 
 "I." \ 
 
 "Why, what has come over you ? Go on ; I will be fright- 
 ened for you, and you shall be brave for me." 
 
 "The old man looked at the clock and rose," the King went 
 on. "He left the room, how I could not see, but I heard 
 him open the window towards the Rue Saint-Honore. Pres- 
 ently a light shone out, and then I saw another light, answer- 
 ing to the old man's, by which we could perceive Cosmo Rug- 
 gieri .on the top of the column. 
 
 " 'Oh, ho ! They understand each other,' said I to 
 Tavannes, who at once thought the whole affair highly sus- 
 picious, and was quite of my opinion that we should seize 
 these two men, and at once make a search in their abominable 
 workshop. But before proceeding to a raid, we wanted to 
 see what would happen. By the end of a quarter of an hour 
 the door of the laboratory opened, and Cosmo Euggieri, my 
 mother's adviser the bottomless pit in which all the Court 
 secrets are buried, of whom wives crave help against their 
 husbands and their lovers, and husbands and lovers take coun- 
 sel against faithless women, who gains money out of the 
 past and the future, taking it from every one, who sells 
 horoscopes, and is supposed to know everything, that half- 
 demon came in saying to the old man, 'Good-evening, 
 brother/
 
 284 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 "He had with him a horrible little old woman, toothless, 
 hunchbacked, crooked, and bent like a lady's marmoset, but 
 far more hideous; she was wrinkled like a withered apple, 
 her skin was of the color of saffron, her chin met her nose, 
 her mouth was a hardly visible slit, her eyes were like the 
 black spots of the deuce on dice, her brow expressed a bitter 
 temper, her hair fell in gray locks from under a dirty coif; 
 she walked with a crutch ; she stank of devilry and the stake ; 
 and she frightened us, for neither Tavannes nor I believed 
 that she was a real woman; God never made one so horrible 
 as she. 
 
 "She sat down on a stool by the side of the fair white ser- 
 pent with whom Tavannes was falling in love. 
 
 "The two brothers paid no heed to either the old woman 
 or the young one, who, side by side, formed a horrible con- 
 trast. On one hand life in death, on the other death in life." 
 
 "My sweet poet !" cried Marie, kissing the King. 
 
 " 'Good-evening, Cosmo/ the old alchemist replied. And 
 then both men looked at the stove. 'What is the power of the 
 moon to-night?' the old man asked Cosmo. 'Why, caro Lo- 
 renzo/ my mother's astrologer replied, 'the high tides of Sep- 
 tember are not yet over; it is impossible to read anything 
 in the midst of such confusion.' 'And what did the Orient 
 say this evening?' 'He has just discovered,' said Cosmo, 
 'that there is a creative force in the air which gives back to 
 the earth all it takes from it; he concludes, with us, that 
 everything in this world is the outcome of a slow transforma- 
 tion, but all the various forms are of one and the same mat- 
 ter.' 'That is what my predecessor thought,' replied Lorenzo. 
 'This morning Bernard Palissy was telling me that the metals 
 are a result of compression, and that fire, which parts all 
 things, joins all things also ; fire has the power of compressing 
 as well as that of diffusing. That worthy has a spark of 
 genius in him/ 
 
 "Though I was placed where I could not be seen, Cosmo 
 went up to the dead girl, and taking her hand, he said, 
 'There is some one near! Who is it?' 'The King,' said she.
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 285 
 
 "I at once showed myself, knocking on the window-pane; 
 Euggieri opened the window, and I jumped into this wizard's 
 kitchen, followed by Tavannes. 
 
 " 'Yes, the King,' said I to the two Florentines, who 
 seemed terror-stricken. 'In spite of your furnaces and books, 
 your witches and your learning, you could not divine my 
 visit. I am delighted to see the famous Lorenzo Euggieri, 
 of whom the Queen my mother speaks with such mystery,' 
 said I to the old man, who rose and bowed. 'You are in this 
 kingdom without my consent, my good man. Whom are you 
 working for here, you, who from father to son have dwelt in 
 the heart of the House of the Medici? Listen to me. You 
 have your hand in so many purses, that the most covetous 
 would by this have had their fill of gold ; you are far too cun- 
 ning to plunge unadvisedly into criminal courses, but you 
 ought not either to rush like feather-brains into this kitchen ; 
 you must have some secret schemes, you who are not content 
 with gold or with power? Whom do you serve, God or the 
 Devil? What are you concocting here? I insist on the 
 whole truth. I am honest man enough to hear and keep 
 the secret of your undertakings, however blamable they may 
 be. So tell me everything without concealment. If you de- 
 ceive me, you will be sternly dealt with. But Pagan or Chris- 
 tian, Calvinist or Mohammedan, you have my Eoyal word 
 for it that you may leave the country unpunished, even if you 
 have some peccadilloes to confess. At any rate, I give you 
 the remainder of this night and to-morrow morning to ex- 
 amine your consciences, for you are my prisoners, and you 
 must now follow me to a place where you will be guarded like 
 a treasure/ 
 
 "Before yielding to my authority, the two Florentines 
 glanced at each other with a wily eye, and Lorenzo Euggieri 
 replied that I might be certain that no torture would wring 
 their secrets from them; that in spite of their frail appear- 
 ance, neither pain nor human feeling had any hold on them. 
 Confidence alone could win from their lips what their mind 
 had in its keeping. I was not to be surprised if at that mo-
 
 286 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 ment they treated on an equal footing with a King who ac- 
 knowledged no one above him but God, for that their ideas 
 also came from God alone. Hence they demanded of me 
 such confidence as they would grant. So, before pledging 
 themselves to answer my questions without reserve, they de- 
 sired me to place my left hand in the young girl's and my 
 right hand in the old woman's. Not choosing to let them 
 suppose that I feared any devilry, I put out my hands. 
 Lorenzo took the right and Cosmo the left, and each placed 
 one in the hand of a woman, so there I was like Jesus Christ 
 between the two thieves. All the time the two witches were 
 studying my hands, Cosmo held a mirror before me, desiring 
 me to look at m} r self, while his brother talked to the two wo- 
 men in an unknown tongue. Neither Tavannes nor I could 
 catch the meaning of a single sentence. 
 
 "We set seals on every entrance to this laboratory before 
 bringing away the men, and Tavannes undertook to keep 
 guard till Bernard Palissy and Chapelain, my physieian-in- 
 chief, shall go there to make a close examination of all the 
 drugs stored or made there. It was to hinder their knowing 
 anything of the search going on in their kitchen, and to pre- 
 vent their communicating with any one whatever outside 
 for they might have sent some message to my mother that 
 I brought these two demons to be shut up here with Solern's 
 Germans to watch them, who are as good as the stoutest 
 prison-walls. Eene himself is confined to his room under the 
 eye of Solern's groom, and the two witches also. And now, 
 sweetheart, as I hold the key of the Cabala, the kings of 
 Thunes, the chiefs of witchcraft, the princes of Bohemia, the 
 masters of the future, the inheritors of all the famous sooth- 
 sayers, I will read and know your heart, and at last we will 
 know what is to become of us." 
 
 "I shall be very glad if you can lay my heart bare," said 
 Marie without showing the least alarm. 
 
 "I know why necromancers do not frighten you; you cast 
 spells yourself." 
 
 <r Will you not have some of these peaches ?" said she, offer-
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 287 
 
 ing him some fine fruit on a silver-gilt plate. "Look at these 
 grapes and pears; I went myself to gather them all at Vin- 
 cennes." 
 
 "Then I will eat some, for there can be no poison in them 
 but the philters distilled from your fingers." 
 
 "You ought to eat much fruit, Charles ; it would cool your 
 blood, which you scorch by such violent living." 
 
 "And ought I not to love you less too ?" 
 
 "Perhaps " said she. "If what you love is bad for you, 
 
 and I have thought so I should find power in my love to 
 refuse to let you have it. I adore Charles far more than I 
 love the King, and I want the man to live without the trou- 
 bles that make him sad and anxious." 
 
 "Koyalty is destroying me." 
 
 "It is so," replied she. "If you were only a poor prince 
 like your brother-in-law the King of Navarre, that wretched 
 debauchee who has not a sou or a stitch of his own, who has 
 merely a poor little kingdom in Spain where he will never 
 set foot, and Beam in France, which yields him scarcely 
 enough to live on, I should be happy, much happier than if 
 I were really Queen of France." 
 
 "But are you not much more than the Queen? King 
 Charles is hers only for the benefit of the kingdom, for the 
 Queen, after all, is part of our politics." 
 
 Marie smiled with a pretty little pout, saying : 
 
 "We all know that, my liege. And my sonnet is it fin- 
 ished?" 
 
 "Dear child, it is as hard to write verses as to draw up an 
 edict of pacification. I will finish them for you soon. Ah 
 God ! life sits lightly on me here, would I could never leave 
 you ! But I must, nevertheless, examine the two Florentines. 
 By all the sacred relics, I thought one Euggieri quite enough 
 in France, and behold there are two! Listen, my dearest 
 heart, you have a good mother-wit, you would make a capital 
 lieutenant of police, for you detect everything 
 
 "Well, Sire, we women take all we dread for granted, and 
 to us what is probable is certain; there is all our subtlety in 
 two words."
 
 286 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 "Well, then, help me to fathom these two men. At this 
 moment every determination I may come to depends on this 
 examination. Are they innocent ? Are they guilty ? Behind 
 them stands my mother." 
 
 "I hear Jacob on the winding stair," said Marie. 
 
 Jacob was the King's favorite body servant, who accom- 
 panied him in all his amusements; he now came to ask 
 whether his Master would wish to speak to the two prisoners. 
 
 At a nod of consent, the mistress of the house gave some 
 orders. 
 
 "Jacob," said she, "make every one in the place leave the 
 house, excepting the nurse and Monsieur le Dauphin 
 d'Auvergne they may stay. Do you remain in the room 
 downstairs; but first of all shut the windows, draw the cur- 
 tains, and light the candles." 
 
 The King's impatience was so great that, while these prepa- 
 rations were being made, he came to take his place in a large 
 settle, and his pretty mistress seated herself by his side in the 
 nook of a wide, white marble chimney-place, where a bright 
 fire blazed on the hearth. In the place of a mirror hung a por- 
 trait of the King, in a red velvet frame. Charles rested his 
 elbow on the arm of the seat, to contemplate the two Italians 
 at his ease. 
 
 The shutters shut, and the curtains drawn, Jacob lighted 
 the candles in a sort of candelabrum of chased silver, placing 
 it on a table at which the two Florentines took their stand- 
 seeming to recognize the candlestick as the work of their 
 fellow-townsman, Benvenuto Cellini. Then the effect of this 
 rich room, decorated in the King's taste, was really brilliant. 
 The russet tone of the tapestries looked better than by day- 
 light. The furniture, elegantly carved, reflected the light of 
 the candles and of the fire in its shining bosses. The gilding, 
 judiciously introduced, sparkled here and there like eyes, and 
 gave relief to the brown coloring that predominated in this 
 nest for lovers. 
 
 Jacob knocked twice, and at a word brought in the two 
 Florentines. Marie Touchet was immediately struck by the
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 289 
 
 grand presence which distinguished Lorenzo in the sight of 
 great and small alike. This austere and venerable man, 
 whose silver beard was relieved against an overcoat of black 
 velvet, had a forehead like a marble dome. His severe counte- 
 nance, with two black eyes that darted points of fire, inspired 
 a thrill as of a genius emerged from the deepest solitude, and 
 all the more impressive because its power was not dulled by 
 contact with other men. It was as the steel of a blade that 
 ,has not yet been used. 
 
 Cosmo Kuggieri wore the Court dress of the period. Marie 
 nodded to the King, to show him that he had not exaggerated 
 the picture, and to thank him for introducing her to this ex- 
 traordinary man. 
 
 "I should have liked to see the witches too," she whispered. 
 
 Charles IX., sunk again in brooding, made no reply ; he was 
 anxiously nipping off some crumbs of bread that happened 
 to lie on his doublet and hose. 
 
 "Your science cannot work on the sky, nor compel the sun 
 to shine, Messieurs de Florence," said the King, pointing 
 to the curtains which had been drawn to shut out the gray 
 mist of Paris. "There is no daylight." 
 
 "Our science, Sire, enables us to make a sky as we will," 
 said Lorenzo Ruggieri. "The weather is always fair for those 
 who work in a laboratory by the light of a furnace." 
 
 "That is true," said the King. "Well, father," said he, 
 using a word he was accustomed to employ to old men } 
 "explain to us very clearly the object of your studies." 
 
 "Who will guarantee us impunity?" 
 
 "The word of a King !" replied Charles, whose curiosity 
 was greatly excited by this question. 
 
 Lorenzo Ruggieri seemed to hesitate, and Charles ex- 
 claimed : 
 
 "What checks you ? we are alone." 
 
 "Is the King of France here ?" asked the old man. 
 
 Charles IX. reflected for a moment, then he replied, "No." 
 
 "But will he not come ?" Lorenzo urged. 
 
 "No," replied Charles, restraining an impulse of rage.
 
 290 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 The imposing old man took a chair and sat down. Cosmo, 
 amazed at his boldness, dared not imitate his brother. 
 
 Charles IX. said, with severe irony : 
 
 "The King is not here, monsieur, but you are in the pres- 
 ence of a lady whose permission you ought to wait for." 
 
 "The man you see before you, madame," said the grand 
 old man, "is as far above kings as kings are above their sub- 
 jects, and you shall find me courteous, even when you know 
 my power.*' 
 
 Hearing these bold words, spoken with Italian emphasis, 
 Charles and Marie looked at each other and then at Cosmo, 
 who, with his eyes fixed on his brother, seemed to be asking 
 himself, "How will he get himself out of the awkward posi- 
 tion we are in ?" 
 
 In fact, one person only could appreciate the dignity and 
 skill of Lorenzo Kuggieri's first move; not the King, nor his 
 young mistress, over whom the elder man had cast the spell 
 of his audacity, but his not less wily brother Cosmo. Though 
 he was superior to the cleverest men at Court, and perhaps 
 to his patroness Catherine de' Medici, the astrologer knew 
 Lorenzo to be his master. 
 
 The learned old man, buried in solitude, had gauged the 
 sovereigns of the earth, almost all of them wearied out by 
 the perpetual shifting of politics: for at that time great 
 crises were so sudden, so far reaching, so fierce, and so unex- 
 pected! He knew their satiety, their lassitude; he knew 
 with what eagerness they pursued all that was new, strange, 
 or uncommon; and, above all, how glad they were to rise 
 now and then to intellectual regions so as to escape from the 
 perpetual struggle with men and things. To those who have 
 exhausted politics, nothing remains but abstract thought; 
 this Charles V. had proved by his abdication. 
 
 Charles IX., who made sonnets and swords to recreate 
 himself after the absorbing business of an age when the 
 Throne was in not less ill-odor than the King, .and when 
 Royalty had only its cares and none of its pleasures, could 
 not but be strangely startled by Lorenzo's audacious negation
 
 
 t 
 

 
 Th- iTipcring old man u^** -'t down. Coamo, 
 
 uri MI his boldness, 'ta^< r^ !\i brother. 
 
 L> JX. said, ws;h <. .- - 
 
 King is not I ; ; , ;u' =;(-' o.?.r, iu4 ott are in the pr>: 
 H of a lady v. :.-.' . >u ought to wait for." 
 
 "The man you *. ioaajn," aaid the gr*r.-- 
 
 Lorenzo Ruggieri 
 he wa* */;p 
 to Jus a- .'.-,-v . 
 
 ^ '.n! "^trnt.-c they pursued ail iha* ^ 
 or Q^OQCUBOB; and. above all, how glad i; 
 now w-l ttMH to intellectual regions so as tc 
 jw>rp"' ; stni^ic w'th men and things. T 
 exhansftr^' ;wi;tt(fi. noshing remains but ' 
 this Chiir;t> V. had proved by his abdi-*' 
 Cliarlfw IX., who made sonnet^ an*' ' ! ^ 
 himself after the absorbing bmir-- ! *:' 
 Throne was in not lew ii!-od*r '.h<" 
 'Un'alty had only its earfs nd th-iK 
 iui but be strangely startled by Ijon-?^: ,
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 291 
 
 of his power. Eeligious impiety had ceased to be surprising 
 at a time when Catholicism was closely inquired into ; but the 
 subversion of all religion, assumed as a groundwork for the 
 wild speculations of mystical arts, naturally amazed the 
 King, and roused him from his gloomy absence of mind. 
 Besides, a victory to be won over mankind was an undertaking 
 which would make every other interest seem trivial in the 
 eyes of the Euggieri. An important debt to be paid depended 
 on this idea to be suggested to the King; the brothers could 
 not ask for this, and yet they must obtain it. The first thing 
 was to make Charles IX. forget his suspicions by making 
 him jump at some new idea. 
 
 The two Italians knew full well that in this strange game 
 their 'lives were at stake; and the glances deferent but 
 proud that they exchanged with Marie and the King, whose 
 looks were keen and suspicious, were a drama in themselves. 
 
 "Sire," said Lorenzo Euggieri, "you have asked for the 
 truth. But to show her to you naked, I must bid you sound 
 the well, the pit, from which she will rise. I pray you let 
 the gentleman, the poet, forgive us for saying what the 
 Eldest Son of the Church may regard as blasphemy I do 
 not believe that God troubles himself about human affairs." 
 
 Though fully resolved to preserve his sovereign indiffer- 
 ence, Charles IX. could not control a gesture of surprise. 
 
 <r But for that conviction, I should have no faith in the 
 miraculous work to which I have devoted myself. But, to 
 carry it out, I must believe it ; and if the hand of God rules 
 all things, I am a madman. So, be it known to the King, 
 we aim at winning a victory over the immediate course of 
 human nature. 
 
 "I am an alchemist, Sire; but do not suppose, with the 
 vulgar, that I am striving to make gold. The composition 
 of gold is not the end, but only an incident of our researches ; 
 else we should not call our undertaking Magnum Opus, the 
 great work. The Great Work is something far more am- 
 bitious than that. If I, at this day, could recognize the 
 presence of God in matter, the fire of the furnaces that have
 
 292 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 been burning for centuries would be extinguished to-morrow 
 at my bidding. 
 
 "But make no mistake to deny the direct interference 
 of God is not to deny God. We place the Creator of all 
 things far above the level to which .eligions reduce Him. 
 Those who hope for immortality are not to be accused of 
 Atheism. Following the example of Lucifer, we are jealous 
 of God, and jealousy is a proof of violent love. Though this 
 jdoctrine lies at the root of our labors, all adepts do not ac- 
 cept it. Cosmo," said the old man, indicating his brother, 
 "Cosmo is devout; he pays for masses for the repose of our 
 father's soul, and he goes to hear them. Your mother's 
 astrologer believes in the Divinity of Christ, in the Immacu- 
 late Conception, and in Transubstantiation ; he believes in 
 the Pope's indulgences, and in hell he believes in an 
 infinite number of things. His hour is not yet come, for I 
 have read his horoscope ; he will live to be nearly a hundred. 
 He will live through two reigns, and see two Kings of France 
 assassinated " 
 
 "Who will be ?" asked the King. 
 
 "The last of the Valois and the first of the Bourbons," re- 
 plied Lorenzo. "But Cosmo will come to my way of think- 
 ing. In fact, it is impossible to be an alchemist and a 
 Catholic ; to believe in the dominion of man over matter, and 
 in the supreme power of mind." 
 
 "Cosmo will live to be a hundred ?" said the King, knitting 
 his brows in the terrible way that was his wont. 
 
 "Yes, Sire," said Lorenzo decisively. "He will die peace- 
 fully in his bed." 
 
 "If it is in your power to predict the moment of your 
 death, how can you be ignorant of the result of your in- 
 quiries?" asked the King. And he smiled triumphantly as 
 he looked at Marie Touchet. 
 
 The brothers exchanged a swift look of satisfaction 
 
 "He is interested in alchemy," thought they, "so we are 
 safe."
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 293 
 
 "Our prognostics are based on the existing relations of man 
 to nature ; but the very point we aim at is the complete altera- 
 tion of those relations," replied Lorenzo. 
 
 The King sat thinking. 
 
 "But if you are sure that you must die, you are assured 
 of defeat," said Charles IX. 
 
 "As our predecessors were/' replied Lorenzo, lifting his 
 hand and letting it drop with a solemn and emphatic gesture, 
 as dignified as his thoughts. "But your mind has rushed 
 on to the goal of our attempts, Sire; we must come back 
 again, Sire ! Unless you know the ground on which our 
 edifice is erected, you may persist in saying that it will fall, 
 and judge this science, which has been pursued for centuries 
 by the greatest minds, as the vulgar judge it." 
 
 The King bowed assent. 
 
 "I believe, then, that this earth belongs to man, that he 
 is master of it, and may appropriate all the forces, all the 
 elements thereof. Man is not a creature proceeding directly 
 from the hand of God, but the result of the principle dif- 
 fused throughout the infinite Ether, wherein myriads of be- 
 ings are produced; and these have no resemblance to each 
 other between star and star, because the conditions of life 
 are everywhere different. Ay, my Liege, the motion we call 
 life has its source beyond all visible worlds; creation draws 
 from it as the surrounding conditions may require, and the 
 minutest beings share in it by taking all they are able, at 
 their own risk and peril; it is their part to defend them- 
 selves from death. This is the sum total of alchemy. 
 
 "If man, the most perfect animal on this globe, had within 
 him a fraction of the Godhead, he could not perish but he 
 does perish. To escape from this dilemma, Socrates and his 
 school invented the soul. I the successor of the great un- 
 known kings who have ruled this science I am for the old 
 ^theories against the new; I believe in the transmutation of 
 matter which I can see, as against the eternity of a soul 
 which I cannot see. I do not acknowledge the world of 
 souls. If such a world existed, the substances, of which the
 
 294 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 beautiful combination produces your body and which in 
 madame are so dazzling would not separate and resolve 
 themselves after your death to return each to its own place ; 
 the water to water, the fire to fire, the metal to metal, just 
 as when my charcoal is burnt its elements are restored to 
 their original molecules. 
 
 "Though you say that something lives on, it is not we our- 
 selves ; all that constitutes our living self perishes. 
 
 "Now, it is my living self that I desire to perpetuate be- 
 yond the common term of life; it is the present manifesta- 
 tion for which I want to secure longer duration. What! 
 trees live for centuries, and men shall live but for years, 
 while those are passive and we are active; while they are 
 motionless and speechless, and we walk and talk! No crea- 
 ture on earth ought to be superior to us either in power or 
 permanency. We have already expanded our senses; we can 
 see into the stars. We ought to be able to extend our life. 
 I place life above power. Of what use is power if life slips 
 from us ? 
 
 "A rational man ought to have no occupation but that of 
 seeking not whether there is another life but the secret 
 on which our present life is based, so as to be able to pro- 
 long it at will ! This is the desire that has silvered my hair. 
 But I walk on boldly in the darkness, leading to battle 
 those intellects which share my faith. Life will some day 
 be ours." 
 
 "But how ?" cried the King, starting to his feet. 
 
 "The first condition of our faith is the belief that this world 
 is for man; you must grant me that," said Lorenzo. 
 
 "Well and good, so be it !" said Charles de Valois, impa- 
 tient, but already fascinated. 
 
 ''Well, then, Sire, if we remove God from this world, what 
 is left but man? Now let us survey our domain. The ma-j 
 terial world is composed of elements; those elements have a* 
 first principle within them. All these principles resolve 
 themselves into one which is gifted with motion. The num- 
 ber Three is the formula of creation : Matter, Motion, Produc- 
 tion!"
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 296 
 
 "Proof, proof ? Pause there !" cried the King. 
 
 "Do you not see the effects ?" replied Lorenzo. "We have 
 analyzed in our crucibles the acorn from which an oak would 
 have risen as well as the embryo which would have become a 
 man ; from these small masses of matter a pure element was 
 derived to which some force, some motion would have been 
 added. In the absence of a Creator, must not that first prin- 
 ciple be able to assume the external forms which constitute 
 our world? For the phenomena of life are everywhere the 
 same. Yes, in metals as in living beings, in plants as in man, 
 life begins by an imperceptible embryo which develops spon- 
 taneously. There is a first principle ! We must detect it at 
 the point where it acts on itself, where it is one, where it is 
 a Principle before it is a Creature, a cause before it is an 
 effect; then we shall see it Absolute formless, but capable 
 of assuming all the forms we see it take. 
 
 "When we are face to face with this particle or atom, and 
 have detected its motion from the starting point, we shall 
 know its laws; we are thenceforth its masters, and able to 
 impose on it the form we may choose, among all we see; we 
 shall possess gold, having the world, and can give ourselves 
 centuries of life to enjoy our wealth. That is what we seek, 
 my disciples and I. All our powers, all our thoughts are 
 directed to that search; nothing diverts us from it. One 
 hour wasted on any other passion would be stolen from our 
 greatness ! You have never found one of your hunting-dogs 
 neglectful of the game or the death, and I have never known 
 one of my persevering subjects diverted by a woman or a 
 thought of greed. 
 
 "If the adept craves for gold and power, that hunger 
 comes of our necessities; he clutches at fortune as a thirsty 
 hound snatches a moment from the chase to drink, because 
 his retorts demand a diamond to consume, or ignots to be 
 reduced to powder. Each one has his line of work. This one 
 seeks the secret of vegetable nature, he studies the torpid life 
 of plants, he notes the parity of motion in every species and 
 the parity of nutrition; in every case he discerns that sun,
 
 296 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 air, and water are needed for fertility and nourishment. An- 
 other investigates the blood of animals. A third studies 
 the laws of motion generally and its relation to the orbits 
 of the staxs. Almost all love to struggle with the intractable 
 nature of metals; for though we find various elements in 
 everything, we always find metals the same throughout, down 
 to their minutest particles. 
 
 "Hence the common error as to our labors. Do you see 
 all these patient toilers, these indefatigable athletes, always 
 vanquished, and always returning to the assault ? Humanity, 
 Sire, is at our heels, as your huntsman is at the heels of 
 the pack. It cries to us, 'Hurry on ! Overlook nothing ! Sac- 
 rifice everything, even a man you who sacrifice yourselves ! 
 Hurry onward! Cut off the head and hands of Death, my 
 foe!' 
 
 "Yes, Sire, we are animated by a sentiment on which the 
 happiness depends of generations to come. We have buried 
 many men and what men ! who have died in the pursuit. 
 When we set foot on that road it is not to work for ourselves : 
 we may perish without discovering the secret. And what a 
 death is that of a man who does not believe in a future life ! 
 We are glorious martyrs; we bear the selfishness of the whole 
 race in our hearts; we live in our successors. On our way 
 we discover secrets which enrich the mechanical and liberal 
 arts. Our furnaces shed gleams of light which help society 
 to possess more perfect forms of industry. Gunpowder was 
 discovered in our retorts; we shall conquer the thunder yet. 
 Our patient vigils may overthrow politics." 
 
 "Can that be possible!" cried the King, sitting up again 
 on the settle. 
 
 "Why not?" replied the Grand Master of the New Tem- 
 plars. "Tradidit mundum disputationibus! God has given us 
 the world. Listen to this once again ! Man is lord on earth 
 and matter is his. Every means, every power is at his ser- 
 vice. What created us ? A motion. What power keeps life 
 in us? A motion. And should not science grasp this mo- 
 tion? Nothing on earth is lost, nothing flies off from our
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 29? 
 
 planet to go elsewhere; if it were so, the stars would fall on 
 one another. The waters of the Deluge are all here, and not 
 a drop lost. Around us, above, below, are the elements whence 
 have proceeded the innumerable millions of men who have 
 trodden the earth, before and since the Deluge. What is it 
 that remains to be done ? To detect the disintegrating force ; 
 on the other hand, to discover the combining force. We are 
 the outcome of a visible toil. When the waters covered our 
 globe, men came forth from them who found the elements of 
 life in the earth's covering, in the atmosphere, and in food. 
 Earth and air, theo, contain the first principle of human 
 transformations; these go on under our eyes, by the agency 
 of what is under our eyes; hence we can discover the secret 
 by not confining our efforts to the span of one man's life, 
 but making the task endure as long as mankind itself. We 
 have, in fact, attacked matter as a whole; Matter, in which 
 I believe, and which I, Grand Master of our Order, am bent 
 on penetrating. 
 
 "Christopher Columbus gave a world to the King of Spain ; 
 I am seeking to give the King of France a people that shall 
 never die. I, an outpost on the remotest frontier which cuts 
 us off from the knowledge of things, a patient student of 
 atoms, I destroy forms, I dissolve the bonds of every com- 
 bination, I imitate Death to enable me to imitate Life. In 
 short, I knock incessantly at the door of Creation, and shall 
 still knock till my latest day. When I die, my knocker will 
 pass into other hands not less indefatigable, as unknown 
 giants bequeathed it to me. 
 
 "Fabulous images, never understood, such as those of Pro- 
 metheus, of Ixion, of Adonis, of Pan, etc., which are part 
 of the religious beliefs of every people and in every age, show 
 us that this hope had its birth with the human race. Chaldaea, 
 India, Persia, Egypt, Greece, and the Moors have transmitted 
 Magian lore, the highest of all the occult sciences, the store- 
 house of the results of generations of watchers. Therein lay 
 the bond of the noble and majestic Order of the Temple. 
 When he burned the Templars, a predecessor of yours, Sire,
 
 29S ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDIOI 
 
 only burned men; their secrets remain with us. The recon- 
 struction of the Temple is the watchword of an unrecognized 
 people, a race of intrepid seekers, all looking to the Orient 
 of life, all brethren, all inseparable, united by an idea, 
 stamped with the seal of toil. I am the sovereign of this 
 people, their chief by election and not by birth. I guide them 
 all towards the essence of life ! Grand Master, Kosicrucians^ 
 companions, adepts, we all pursue the invisible molecule 
 which escapes our crucibles, and still evades our sight; but 
 we shall make ourselves eyes manifold more powerful than 
 those bestowed on us by nature; we shall get to the primi- 
 tive atom, the corpuscular element so perseveringly sought 
 by all the sages who have preceded us in the sublime pursuit. 
 
 "Sire, when a man stands astride on that abyss, and has 
 at his command divers so intrepid as my brethren, other 
 human interests look very small; hence we are not danger- 
 ous. Eeligious disputes and political struggles are far from 
 us; we are immeasurably beyond them. Those who contend 
 with nature do not condescend to take men by the throat. 
 
 "Moreover, every result in our science is appreciable; we 
 can measure every effect, we can predict it, whereas in the 
 combinations which include men and their interests every- 
 thing is unstable. We shall submit the diamond to our cru- 
 cible ; we shall make diamonds ; we shall make gold ! Like 
 one of our craft at Barcelona, we shall make ships move by 
 the help of a little water and fire. We shall dispense with 
 the wind, nay, we shall make the wind, we shall make light 
 and renew the face of empires by new industries ! But we 
 will never stoop to mount a throne to be gehennaed by na- 
 tions." 
 
 Notwithstanding his desire to avoid being entrapped by 
 Florentine cunning, the King, as well as his simple-minded 
 mistress, was by this time caught and carried away in the 
 rhetoric and rhodomontade of this pompous and specious flow 
 of words. The lovers' eyes betrayed how much they were 
 dazzled by the vision of mysterious riches spread out before 
 them ; they saw, as it were, subterranean caverns in long per-
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 290 
 
 epective full of toiling gnomes. The impatience of curiosity 
 dissipated the alarms of suspicion. 
 
 "But, then/' exclaimed the King, "you are great politicians, 
 and can enlighten us." 
 
 "No, Sire," said Lorenzo simply. 
 
 "Why not?" asked the King. 
 
 "Sire, it is given to no one to be able to predict what will 
 come of a concourse of some thousands of men; we may be 
 able to tell what one man will do, how long he will live, and 
 whether he will be lucky or unlucky ; but we cannot tell how 
 several wills thrown together will act, and any calculation of 
 the swing of their interests is even more difficult, for inter- 
 ests are men plus things ; only in solitude can we discern the 
 general aspect of the future. The Protestantism that is de- 
 vouring you will be devoured in its turn by its practical out- 
 come, which, in its day, will become a theory too. Europe, 
 so far, has not gone further than religion ; to-morrow it will 
 attack Koyalty." 
 
 "Then the night of Saint-Bartholomew was a great con- 
 ception ?" 
 
 "Yes, Sire; for when the people triumph, they will have 
 their Saint-Bartholomew. When Eeligion and Koyalty are 
 swept away, the people will attack the great, and after the 
 great they will fall upon the rich. Finally, when Europe is 
 no more than a dismembered herd of men for lack of leaders, 
 it will be swallowed up by vulgar conquerors. The world 
 has presented a similar spectacle twenty times before, and Eu- 
 rope is beginning again. Ideas devour the ages as men are 
 devoured by their passions. When man is cured, human 
 nature will cure itself perhaps. Science is the soul of man- 
 kind, and we are its pontiffs; and those who study the soul 
 care but little for the body." 
 
 "How far have you gone ?" asked the King. 
 
 "We move but slowly ; but we never lose what we have once 
 conquered." 
 
 "So you, in fact, are the King of the Wizards," said 
 Charles IX., piqued at finding himself so small a personage 
 in the presence of this man.
 
 300 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 The imposing Grand Master of Adepts flashed a look at 
 him that left him thunder-stricken. 
 
 "You are the King of men/' replied he; "I am the King 
 of Ideas. Besides, if there were real wizards, you could not 
 have burned them !" he added, with a touch of irony. "We 
 too have our martyrs." 
 
 "But hy what means," the King went on, "do you cast 
 nativities ? How did you know that the man near your win- 
 dow last night was the King of France ? What power enabled 
 one of your race to foretell to my mother the fate of her three 
 sons? Can you, the Grand Master of the Order that would 
 fain knead the world, can you, I say, tell me what the Queen 
 my mother is thinking at this moment ?" 
 
 "Yes, Sire." 
 
 The answer was spoken before Cosmo could pull his 
 brother's coat to warn him. 
 
 "You know why my brother, the King of Poland, is re- 
 turning home?" 
 
 "Yes, Sire." 
 
 "And why?" 
 
 "To take your place." 
 
 "Our bitterest enemies are our own kith and kin," cried 
 the King, starting up in a fury, and striding up and down 
 the room. "Kings have no brothers, no sons, no mother! 
 Coligny was right; my executioners are in the conventicles, 
 they are at the Louvre. You are either impostors or regicides ! 
 Jacob, call in Solern." 
 
 "My Lord," said Marie Touchet, "the Euggieri have your 
 word of honor. You have chosen to eat of the fruit of the 
 tree of knowledge; do not complain of its bitterness." 
 
 The King smiled with an expression of deep contempt ; his 
 material sovereignty seemed small in his eyes in comparison 
 with the supreme intellectual sovereignty of old Lorenzo Eug- 
 gieri. Charles IX. could scarcely govern France; the Grand 
 Master of the Eosicrucians commanded an intelligent and 
 submissive people. 
 
 "Be frank; I give you my word as a gentleman that youi
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 301 
 
 reply, even if it should contain the avowal of the worst crimes, 
 shall be as though it had never been spoken," the King said. 
 "Do you study poisons ?" 
 
 "To know what will secure life, it is needful to know what 
 will cause death." 
 
 "You have the secret of many poisons ?" 
 
 "Yes, but in theory only, and not in practice; we know 
 them, but do not use them." 
 I "Has my mother asked for any ?" 
 
 "The Queen-mother, Sire, is far too clever to have recourse 
 to such means. She knows that the sovereign who uses poi- 
 son shall perish by poison; the Borgias, and Bianca, Grand 
 Duchess of Tuscany, are celebrated examples of the daggers 
 incurred by those who use such odious means. At Court 
 everything is known. You can kill a poor wretch outright; 
 of what use, then, is it to poison him? But if you attempt 
 the life of conspicuous persons, what chance is there of se- 
 crecy? Nobody could have fired at Coligny but you, or the 
 Queen-mother, or one of the Guises. No one made any mis- 
 take about that. Take my word for it, in politics poison can- 
 not be used twice with impunity; princes always have suc- 
 cessors. 
 
 "As to smaller men, if, like Luther, they become sovereigns 
 by the power of ideas, by killing them you do not kill their 
 doctrine. The Queen is a Florentine; she knows that poi- 
 son can only be the instrument of private vengeance. My 
 brother, who has never left her since she came to France, 
 knows how deeply Madame Diane aggrieved her; she never 
 thought of poisoning her, and she could have done so. What 
 would the King your father have said? No woman would 
 have been more thoroughly justified, or more certain of im- 
 punity. But Madame de Valentinois is alive to this day." 
 
 "And the magic of wax images ?" asked the King. 
 
 "Sire," said Cosmo, "these figures are sc entirely innocuous 
 that we lend ourselves to such magic to satisfy blind pas- 
 sions, like physicians who give bread pills to persons who 
 fancy themselves sick. A desperate woman imagines that
 
 302 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 by stabbing the heart of an image she brings disaster on the 
 faithless lover it represents. What can we say? These are 
 our taxes." 
 
 "The Pope sells indulgences/' said Lorenzo Kuggieri, smil- 
 ing. 
 
 "Does my mother make use of such images ?" 
 
 "Of what use would such futile means be to her who can 
 do what she will ?" 
 
 "Could Queen Catherine save you at this moment ?" asked 
 Charles ominously. 
 
 "We are in no danger, Sire/' said Lorenzo calmly. "I 
 knew before I entered this house that I should leave it safe 
 and sound, as surely as I know the ill-feeling that the King 
 will bear my brother a few days hence ; but, even if he should 
 run some risk, he will triumph. Though the King reigns by 
 the sword, he also reigns by justice," he added, in allusion to 
 the famous motto on a medal struck for Charles IX. 
 
 "You know everything; I shall die before long, and that 
 is well," returned the King, hiding his wrath under feverish 
 impatience. "But how will my brother die, who, according 
 to you, is to be Henri III. ?" 
 
 "A violent death." 
 
 "And Monsieur d'AlenQon?" 
 
 "He will never reign." 
 
 "Then Henri de Bourbon will be King?" 
 
 "Yes, Sire." 
 
 "And what death will he die?" 
 
 "A violent death." 
 
 "And when I am dead, what will become of madame?" 
 asked the King, turning to Marie Touchet. 
 
 "Madame de Belleville will marry, Sire." 
 
 "You are impostors! Send them away, my Lord," said' 
 Marie Touchet. 
 
 "Dear heart, the Kuggieri have my word as a gentleman," 
 said Charles, smiling. "Will Marie have children ?" 
 
 "Yes and madame will live to be more than eighty." 
 
 "Must I have them hanged?" said the King to his mis-
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 303 
 
 tress. "And my son, the Comte d'Auvergne?" said Charles, 
 rising to fetch the child. 
 
 "Why did you tell him that I should marry?" said Marie 
 Touchet to the two brothers during the few moments when 
 they were alone. 
 
 "Madame," replied Lorenzo with dignity, "the King re- 
 quired us to tell the truth, and we told it/' 
 
 "Then it is true?" said she. 
 
 "As true as that the Governor of Orleans loves you to dis- 
 traction." 
 
 "But I do not love him," cried she. 
 
 "That is true, madame," said Lorenzo. "But your horo- 
 scope shows that you are to marry the man who at this pres- 
 ent loves you." 
 
 "Could you not tell a little lie for my sake ?" said she with 
 a smile. "For if the King should believe your forecast " 
 
 "Is it not necessary that he should believe in our inno- 
 cence?" said Cosmo, with a glance full of meaning. "The 
 precautions taken by the King against us have given us rea- 
 son, during the time we spent in your pretty jail, to suppose 
 that the occult sciences must have been maligned in his ears." 
 
 "Be quite easy," replied Marie; "I know him, and his 
 doubts are dispelled." 
 
 "We are innocent," said the old man haughtily. 
 
 "So much the better; for at this moment the King is hav- 
 ing your laboratory searched and your crucibles and phials 
 examined by experts." 
 
 The brothers looked at each other and smiled. 
 
 Marie took this smile for the irony of innocence; but it 
 mehnt : "Poor simpletons ! Do you suppose that if we know 
 how to prepare poisons, we do not also know how to conceal 
 them?" 
 
 "Where are the King's people, then ?" asked Cosmo. 
 
 "In Kene's house," replied Marie; and the Euggieri ex- 
 changed a glance which conveyed from each to each the same 
 thought, "The Hotel de Soissons is inviolable !" 
 
 The King had so completely thrown off his suspicions, that
 
 304 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 when he went to fetch his son, and Jacob intercepted him to 
 give him a note written by Chapelain, he opened it in the cer- 
 tainty of finding in it what his physician told him concern- 
 ing his visit to the laboratory, where all that had been dis- 
 covered bore solely on alchemy. 
 
 "Will he live happy ?" asked the King, showing his infant 
 son to the two alchemists. 
 
 "This is Cosmo's concern/' said Lorenzo, turning to his 
 ^'brother. 
 
 Cosmo took the child's little hand and studied it carefully. 
 
 "Monsieur," said Charles IX. to the elder man, "if you 
 are compelled to deny the existence of the spirit to believe 
 that your enterprise is possible, tell me how it is that you 
 can doubt that which constitutes your power. The mind 
 you desire to annihilate is the torch that illumines your 
 search. Ah, ha ! Is not that moving while denying the fact 
 of motion ?" cried he, and pleased at having hit on this argu- 
 ment, he looked triumphantly at his mistress. 
 
 "Mind," said Lorenzo Ruggieri, "is the exercise of an in- 
 ternal sense, just as the faculty of seeing various objects and 
 appreciating their form and color is the exercise of our sight. 
 That has nothing to do with what is assumed as to another 
 life. Mind thought is a faculty which may cease even dur- 
 ing life with the forces that produce it." 
 
 "You are logical," said the King with surprise. "But 
 alchemy is an atheistical science." 
 
 "Materialist, Sire, which is quite a different thing. Ma- 
 terialism is the outcome of the Indian doctrines transmitted 
 through the mysteries of Isis to Chaldgea and Egypt, and 
 brought back to Greece by Pythagoras, one of the demi-gods 
 among men; his doctrine of transmigration is the mathe- 
 matics of materialism, the living law of its phases. Each 
 of the different creations which make up the earthly creation 
 possesses the power of retarding the impulse that drags it into 
 another form." 
 
 "Then alchemy is the science of sciences !" cried Charles 
 IX., fired with enthusiasm. "I must see you at work."
 
 ABOUT CATHEEINE DE' MEDICI 305 
 
 "As often as you will, Sire. You cannot be more eager 
 than the Queen your mother." 
 
 "Ah! That is why she is so much attached to you!" 
 cried the King. 
 
 "The House of Medici has secretly encouraged our re- 
 search for almost a century past." 
 
 "Sire," said Cosmo, "this child will live nearly a hundred 
 years; he will meet with some checks, but will be happy and 
 honored, having in his veins the blood of the Valois." 
 
 "I will go to see you," said the King, who had recovered 
 his good humor. "You can go." 
 
 The brothers bowed to Marie and Charles IX. and with- 
 drew. They solemnly descended the stairs, neither looking 
 at each other nor speaking; they did not even turn to look 
 up at the windows from the courtyard, so sure were they that 
 the King's eye was on them; and, in fact, as they turned to 
 pass through the gate, they saw Charles IX. at a window. 
 
 As soon as the alchemist and the astrologer were in the 
 Rue de 1'Autruche, they cast a look in front and behind to 
 see that no one was either following them or waiting for 
 them, and went on as far as the Louvre moat without speak- 
 ing a word; but there, finding that they were alone, Lorenzo 
 said to Cosmo in the Florentine Italian of the time : 
 
 "Affe d'lddio! como le abbiamo infinocchiato !" (By God, 
 we have caught them finely!) 
 
 "Gran merces! a lui sta di spartojarsi" (Much good may 
 it do him; he must make what he can of it) said Cosmo. 
 "May the Queen do as much for me ! We have done a good 
 stroke for her." 
 
 Some days after this scene, which had struck Marie 
 Touchet no less than the King, in one of those moments when 
 in the fulness of joy the mind is in some sort released from 
 the body, Marie exclaimed : 
 
 "Charles, I understand Lorenzo Ruggieri; but Cosmo said 
 nothing." 
 
 "That is true," said the King, startled by this sudden flash
 
 306 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 of light, "and there was as much falsehood as truth in what 
 they said. Those Italians axe as slippery as the silk they 
 spin." 
 
 This suspicion explains the hatred of Cosmo that the King 
 betrayed on the occasion of the trial on the conspiracy of 
 la Mole and Coconnas. When he found that Cosmo was 
 one of the contrivers of that plot, the King believed himself 
 duped by the two Italians; for it proved to him that his 
 mother's astrologer did not devote himself exclusively to 
 studying the stars, fulminating powder and final atoms. Lo- 
 renzo had then left the country. 
 
 In spite of many persons' incredulity of such things, the 
 events which followed this scene confirmed the prophecies 
 uttered by the Ruggieri. 
 
 The King died three months later. The Comte de Gondi 
 followed Charles IX. to the tomb, as he had been told that 
 he would by his brother, the Marechal de Retz, a friend of 
 the Ruggieri, and a believer in their foresight. 
 
 Marie Touchet married Charles de Balzac, Marquis d'En- 
 tragues, Governor of Orleans, by whom she had two daugh- 
 ters. The more famous of these two, the Comte d'Auvergne's 
 half-sister, was Henri IV.'s mistress, and at the time of 
 Biron's conspiracy tried to place her brother on the throne 
 of France and oust the Bourbons. 
 
 The Comte d'Auvergne, made Due d'Angouleme, lived till 
 the reign of Louis XIV. He coined money in his province, 
 altering the superscription; but Louis XIV. did not inter- 
 fere, so great was his respect for the blood of the Valois. 
 
 Cosmo lived till after the accession of Louis XIII. ; he 
 saw the fall of the House of Medici in France, and the over- 
 throw of the Concini. History has taken care to record that 
 he died an atheist that is to say, a materialist. 
 , The Marquise d'Entragues was more than eighty when she 
 died. 
 
 Lorenzo and Cosmo had for their disciple the famous 
 Comte de Saint-Germain, who became notorious under 
 Louis XV. The great alchemist was not less than a hundred
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 0f 
 
 and thirty years old, the age to which some biographers say 
 Marion Delorme attained. The Count may have heard from 
 the Ruggieri anecdotes of the Massacre of Saint-Bartholomew 
 and of the reigns of the Valois, in which they could at pleas- 
 ure assume a part by speaking in the first person. The Comte 
 de Saint-Germain is the last professor of alchemy who ex- 
 plained the science well, hut he left no writings. The doc- 
 itrine of the Cabala set forth in this volume was derived from 
 that mysterious personage. 
 
 It is a strange thing! Three men's lives, that of the old 
 man from whom this information was obtained, that of the 
 Comte de Saint-Germain, and that of Cosmo Kuggieri, em- 
 brace European history from the reign of Francis I. to that 
 of Napoleon. Only fifty lives of equal length would cover the 
 time to as far back as the first known epoch of the world. 
 "What are fifty generations for studying the mysteries of 
 life ?" the Comte de Saint-Germain used to say. 
 
 PARIS, November-December 1886.
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE BE' MEDICI 
 
 PART III 
 
 THE TWO DREAMS 
 
 IN 1786 Bodard de Saint-James, treasurer to the Navy, was 
 of all the financiers of Paris the one whose luxury gave rise 
 to most remark and gossip. At that time he was building 
 his famous Folly at Neuilly, and his wife bought, to crown 
 the tester of her bed, a plume of feathers of which the price 
 had dismayed the Queen. It was far easier then than now 
 to make oneself the fashion and be talked of by all Paris; 
 a witticism was often quite enough, or the caprice of a 
 woman. 
 
 Bodard lived in the fine house in the Place Vendome which 
 the farmer-general Dange had not long since been compelled 
 to quit. This notorious Epicurean was lately dead; and on 
 the day when he was buried, Monsieur de Bievre, his intimate 
 friend, had found matter for a jest, saying that now one could 
 cross the Place Vendome without danger (or Dange). This 
 allusion to the terrific gambling that went on in the de- 
 ceased man's house was his funeral oration. The house is 
 that opposite to the Chancellerie. 
 
 To complete Bodard's history as briefly as possible, he was 
 a poor creature, he failed for fourteen millions of francs 
 after the Prince de Guemenee. His clumsiness in not antici- ' 
 pating that Serene bankruptcy to use an expression of 
 Lebrun-Pindare's led to his never even being mentioned.! 
 He died in a garret, like Bourvalais, Bouret, and many others. 
 
 Madame de Saint-James indulged an ambition of never 
 receiving any but people of quality a stale absurdity that 
 is ever new. To her the cap of a lawyer in the Parlement 
 was but a small affair; she wanted to see her rooms filled with
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 309 
 
 persons of title who had at least the minor privileges of 
 entree at Versailles. To say that many blue ribbons were to 
 be seen in the lady's house would be untrue; but it is quite 
 certain that she had succeeded in winning the civility and 
 attention of some members of the Eohan family, as was 
 proved subsequently in the too famous case of the Queen's 
 necklace. 
 
 One evening it was, I believe, in August 1786 I was 
 greatly surprised to see in this millionaire's room, precise as 
 she was in the matter of proofs of rank, two new faces, which 
 struck me as being of decidedly inferior birth. 
 
 She came up to me as I stood in a window recess, where 
 I had intentionally ensconced myself. 
 
 "Do tell me," said I, with a questioning glance at one of 
 these strangers, "who is that specimen? How did he get 
 into your house ?" 
 
 "He is a charming man." 
 
 "Do you see him through the prism of love, or am I mis- 
 taken in him?" 
 
 "You are not mistaken," she replied, laughing; "he is as 
 ugly as a toad; but he has done me the greatest service a 
 woman can accept from a man." 
 
 As I looked at her with mischievous meaning, she hastened 
 to add: "He has entirely cured me of the ugly red patches 
 which spoiled my complexion and made me look like a peas- 
 ant woman." 
 
 I shrugged my shoulders with disgust. 
 
 "A quack !" I exclaimed. 
 
 "No," said she, "he is a physician to the Court pages. He 
 is clever and amusing, I assure you ; and he has written books 
 too. He is a very learned physicist." 
 
 "If his literary style is like his face ! " said I, smiling. 
 
 "And the other?" 
 
 "What other?" 
 
 "That little prim man, as neat as a doll, and who looks as 
 if he drank verjuice." 
 
 "He is a man of good family," said she. "He has come
 
 310 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 from some province I forget which. Ah ! yes, from Artois. 
 He is in Paris to wind up some affair that concerns the Car- 
 dinal, and His Eminence has just introduced him to Monsieur 
 de Saint-James. They have agreed in choosing Monsieur de 
 Saint-James to be arbitrator. In that the gentleman from 
 the provinces has not shown much wisdom. What are peo- 
 ple thinking of when they place a case in that man's hands ? 
 He is as gentle as a lamb, and as shy as a girl. His Emi- 
 nence is most kind to him." 
 
 "What is it about ?" said I. 
 
 "Three hundred thousand livres," said she. 
 
 "What! a lawyer?" I asked, with a little start of astonish- 
 ment. 
 
 "Yes," replied she. 
 
 And, somewhat disturbed by having to make this humiliat- 
 ing confession, Madame Bodard returned to her game of faro. 
 
 Every table was made up. I had nothing to do or to 
 say. I had just lost two thousand crowns to Monsieur de 
 Laval, whom I had met in a courtesan's drawing-room. I 
 went to take a seat in a deep chair near the fire. If ever on 
 this earth there was an astonished man, it certainly was I 
 on discovering that my opposite neighbor was the Controller- 
 General. Monsieur de Calonne seemed to be drowsy, or else 
 he was absorbed in one of those brown studies which come 
 over a statesman. When I pointed out the Minister to Beau- 
 marchais, who came to speak to me, the creator of Figaro 
 explained the mystery without speaking a word. He pointed 
 first to my head and then to Bodard's in an ingeniously sig- 
 nificant way, by directing his thumb to one and his little 
 finger to the other, with the rest of the fingers closed. My 
 first impulse was to go and say something sharp to Calonne, 
 but I sat still; in the first place, because I intended to play 
 the favorite a trick, and also because Beaumarchais had some- 
 what familiarly seized my hand. 
 
 "What is it, monsieur?" said I. 
 
 With a wink he indicated the Minister. 
 
 "Do not wake him," he said in a low tone; "we may be 
 only too thankful when he sleeps."
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 811 
 
 "But even sleeping is a scheme of finance," said I. 
 
 "Certainly it is," replied the statesman, who had read our 
 words by the mere motion of our lips. "And would to God 
 we could sleep a long time; there would not be such an 
 awakening as you will see !" 
 
 "Monseigneur," said the play-writer, "I owe you some 
 thanks." 
 
 "What for?" 
 
 "Monsieur de Mirabeau is gone to Berlin. I do not know 
 whether in this matter of the Waters we may not both be 
 drowned." 
 
 "You have too much memory and too little gratitude," 
 replied the Minister drily, vexed at this betrayal of one of his 
 secrets before me. 
 
 "Yery possibly," said Beaumarchais, greatly nettled. "But 
 I have certain millions which may square many accounts." 
 Calonne affected not to have heard. 
 
 It was half-past twelve before the card-tables broke up. 
 Then we sat down to supper ten of us : Bodard and his wife, 
 the Controller-General, Beaumarchais, the two strangers, two 
 pretty women whose names may not be mentioned, and a 
 farmer-general named, I think, Lavoisier. Of thirty persons 
 whom I had found on entering the drawing-room but these 
 ten remained. And the two "specimens" would only stay to 
 supper on the pressing invitation of the lady of the house, 
 who thought she could discharge her debt to one by giving 
 him a meal, and asked the other perhaps to please her hus- 
 band, to whom she was doing the civil wherefore I know 
 not. Monsieur de Calonne was a power, and if any one had 
 cause to be annoyed it would have been I. 
 
 The supper was at first deadly dull. The two men and 
 the farmer-general weighed on us. I signed to Beaumar- 
 chais to make the son of Esculapius, by whom he was sitting, 
 drink till he was tipsy, giving him to understand that I would 
 deal with the lawyer. As this was the only kind of amuse- 
 ment open to us, and as it gave promiee of some blundering 
 impertinence on the part of the two strangers, which amused
 
 312 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 us by anticipation, Monsieur de Calonne smiled on the 
 scheme. In two seconds the ladies had entered into our 
 Bacchic plot. By significant glances they expressed their 
 readiness to play their part, and the wine of Sillery crowned 
 our glasses again and again with silvery foam. The surgeon 
 was easy enough to deal with; but as I was about to pour out 
 my neighbor's second glass, he told me with the cold polite- 
 ness of a money-lender that he would drink no more. 
 
 At this time, by what chance I know not, Madame de Saint- 
 James had turned the conversation on the wonderful suppers 
 to the Comte de Cagliostro, given by the Cardinal de Rohan. 
 My attention was not too keenly alive to what the mistress of 
 the house was saying ; for since her reply I had watched, with 
 invincible curiosity, my neighbor's pinched, thin face, of 
 which the principal feature was a nose at once wide and sharp, 
 which made him at times look very like a ferret. Suddenly 
 his cheeks flushed as he heard Madame de Saint-James dis- 
 puting with Monsieur de Calonne. 
 
 "But I assure you, monsieur," said she in a positive tone, 
 "that I have seen Queen Cleopatra." 
 
 "I believe it, madame," said my neighbor. "I have spoken 
 to Catherine de' Medici." 
 
 "Oh ! oh !" said Monsieur de Calonne. 
 
 The words spoken by the little provincial had an inde- 
 scribably sonorous tone to use a word borrowed from 
 physical science. This sudden clearness of enunciation, from 
 a man who till now had spoken very little and very low, in 
 the best possible taste, surprised us in the highest degree. 
 
 "Why, he is talking !" exclaimed the surgeon, whom Beau- 
 marchais had worked up to a satisfactory condition. 
 
 "His neighbor must have touched a spring," replied the 
 satirist. 
 
 Our man colored a little as he heard these words, though 
 they were spoken in a murmur. 
 
 "And what was the late lamented Queen like?" asked 
 Calonne. 
 
 "I will not assert that the pers6n with whom I supped last
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 313 
 
 night was Catherine de' Medici herself; such a miracle must 
 seem as impossible to a Christian as to a philosopher/' re- 
 plied the lawyer, resting his finger-tips lightly on the table, 
 and leaning back in his chair as if preparing to speak at some 
 length. "But, at any rate, I can swear that that woman was 
 as like to Catherine de' Medici as though they had been sis- 
 ters. The lady I saw wore a black velvet dress, absolutely 
 like that which the Queen is wearing in the portrait belong- 
 ing to the King; on her head was the characteristic black vel- 
 vet cap; her complexion was colorless, and her face the face 
 you know. I could not help expressing my surprise to His 
 Eminence. The suddenness of the apparition was all the 
 more wonderful because Monsieur le Comte de Cagliostro 
 could not guess the name of the personage in whose company 
 I wished to be. I was utterly amazed. The magical spec- 
 tacle of a supper where such illustrious women of the past 
 were the guests robbed me of my presence of mind. When, at 
 about midnight, I got away from this scene of witchcraft, 
 I almost doubted my own identity. 
 
 "But all these marvels seemed quite natural by comparison 
 with the strange hallucination under which I was presently 
 to fall. I know not what words I can use to describe the con- 
 dition of my senses. But I can declare, in all sincerity of 
 heart, that I no longer wonder that there should have been, 
 of old, spirits weak enough or strong enough to believe in 
 the mysteries of magic and the power of the Devil. For my 
 part, till I have ampler information, I regard the apparitions 
 of which Cardan and certain other thaumaturgists have 
 spoken as quite possible." 
 
 These words, pronounced with incredible eloquence of tone, 
 were of a nature to rouse extreme curiosity in those present. 
 Our looks all centered on the orator, and we sat motionless. 
 Our eyes alone showed life as they reflected the bright wax 
 lights in the candlesticks. By dint of watching the stranger, 
 we fancied we could see an emanation from the pores of his 
 face, and especially from those of his brow, of the inner feel- 
 ings that wholly possessed him. This man, apparently so
 
 314 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 cold and strictly reserved, seemed to have within him a hidden 
 fire, of which the flame came forth to us. 
 
 "I know not," he went on, "whether the figure I had seen 
 called up made itself invisible to follow me; but as soon 
 as I had laid my head on my pillow, I saw the grand shade 
 of Catherine rise before me. I instinctively felt myself in 
 a luminous sphere; for my eyes, attracted to the Queen with 
 painful fixity, saw her alone. Suddenly she bent over 
 me " 
 
 At these words the ladies with one consent betrayed keener 
 curiosity. 
 
 "But," said the lawyer, "I do not know whether I ought 
 to go on; although I am inclined to think that it was but a 
 dream, what remains to be told is serious." 
 
 "Does it bear on religion?" asked Beaumarchais. 
 
 "Or is it in any way indecent?" asked Calonne. "These 
 ladies will forgive it." 
 
 "It bears on government," replied the lawyer. 
 
 "Go on," said the Minister. "Voltaire, Diderot, and their 
 like have done much to educate our ears." 
 
 The Controller- General was all attention, and his neighbor, 
 Madame de Genlis, became absorbed. The stranger still hesi- 
 tated. Then Beaumarchais exclaimed impetuously : 
 
 "Come, proceed, Maitre ! Do not you know that when the 
 laws leave folks so little liberty, people revenge themselves by 
 laxity of manners?" 
 
 So the lawyer went on : 
 
 "Whether it was that certain ideas were fermenting in my 
 soul, or that I was prompted by some unknown power, I said 
 to her: 
 
 " 'Ah, madame, you committed a very great crime.' 
 
 " 'Which ?' she asked in a deep voice. 
 
 " 'That for which the signal was given by the Palace clock 
 on the 24th of August/ 
 
 "She smiled scornfully, and some deep furrows showed on 
 her pallid cheeks. 
 
 " 'Do y/>u call that a crime ?' replied she ; 'it was only an
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 315 
 
 accident. The undertaking was badly managed, and the good 
 result we looked for failed for France, for all Europe, and 
 for the Catholic Church. How could we help it ? Our orders 
 were badly carried out. We could not find so many Montlucs 
 as we needed. Posterity will not give us credit for the defec- 
 tive communications which hindered us from giving our work 
 the unity of impulse which is necessary to any great Coup 
 d'lZtaf; that was our misfortune. If by the 25th of August 
 not the shadow of a Huguenot had been left in France, I, 
 should have been regarded to the remotest posterity as a 
 noble incarnation of Providence. How often have the clear- 
 seeing spirits of Sixtus V., of Eichelieu, of Bossuet, secretly 
 accused me of having failed in my undertaking, after daring 
 to conceive of it ! And how many regrets attended my death ! 
 
 " 'The disease was still rife thirty years after that Saint- 
 Bartholomew's night; and it had caused the shedding of ten 
 times more noble blood in France than was left to be shed 
 on August 26, 1572. The revocation of the Edict of Nantes, 
 for which you had medals struck, cost more tears, more blood 
 and money, and killed more prosperity in France than three 
 Saint-Bartholomews. Letellier, with a dip of ink, carried 
 into effect the decree which the Crown had secretly desired 
 since my day; but though on August 25, 1572, this tremen- 
 dous execution was necessary, on August 25, 1685, it was 
 useless. Under Henri de Valois' second son heresy was 
 scarcely pregnant; under Henri de Bourbon's second son 
 the teeming mother had cast her spawn over the whole world. 
 
 " 'You accuse me of crime, and you raise statues to the son 
 of Anne of Austria! But he and I aimed at the same end. 
 He succeeded ; I failed ; but Louis XIV. found the Protestants 
 disarmed, while in my day they had powerful armies, states- 
 men, captains, and Germany to back them/ 
 
 "On hearing these words slowly spoken, I felt within me a 
 tremulous thrill. I seemed to scent the blood of I know 
 not what victims. Catherine had grown before me. She 
 stood there like an evil genius, and I felt as if she wanted 
 to get into my conscience to find rest there "
 
 316 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 "He must have dreamed that," said Beaumarchais, in a 
 low voice. "He certainly never invented it." 
 
 "'My reason is confounded/ said I to the Queen. TTou 
 pride yourself on an action which three generations have 
 condemned and held accursed, and ' 
 
 " ' Add/ said she, 'that writers have been more unjust to me 
 than my contemporaries were. No one undertakes my de- 
 fence. I am accused of ambition I who was so rich and 
 a Queen. I am taxed with cruelty I who have but two de- 
 capitations on my conscience. And to the most impartial 
 minds I am still, no doubt, a great riddle. Do you really 
 believe that I was governed by feelings of hatred, that I 
 breathed only vengeance and fury?' She smiled scornfully. 
 'I was as calm and cold as Keason itself. I condemned the 
 Huguenots without pity, but without anger; they were the 
 rotten orange in my basket. If I had been Queen of England., 
 I should have judged the Catholics in the same way, if they 
 had been seditious. To give our power any vitality at that 
 period, only one God could be allowed in the State, only 
 one faith and one master. Happily for me, I left my excuse 
 recorded in one sentence. When Birague brought me a false 
 report of the loss of the battle of Dreux "Well and good," 
 said I, "then we will go to Sermon." Hate the leaders of 
 the New Keligion? I esteemed them highly, and I did not 
 know them. If I ever felt an aversion for any political person- 
 age, it was for that cowardly Cardinal de Lorraine, and for 
 his brother, a wily and brutal soldier, who had me watched 
 by their spies. They were my children's enemies ; they wanted 
 to snatch the crown from them; I saw them every day, and 
 they were more than I could bear. If we had not carried out 
 the plan for Saint-Bartholomew's Day, the Guises would 
 have done it with the help of Eome and its monks. The 
 Ligue, which had no power till I had grown old, would have 
 begun in 1573.' 
 
 " 'But, madame/ said I, 'instead of commanding that hor- 
 rible butchery excuse my frankness why did you not em- 
 ploy the vast resources of your political genius in giving the
 
 ABOUT CATHEKINE DE' MEDICI 317 
 
 Reformers the wise institutions which made Henri IV.'s reign 
 so glorious and peaceful ?' 
 
 "She smiled again, shrugging her shoulders, and her hollow 
 wrinkles gave her pale features an ironical expression full of 
 bitterness. 
 
 " 'After a furious struggle a nation needs repose/ said she. 
 "That is the secret of that reign. But Henri IV. committed 
 two irremediable blunders. He ought neither to have abjured 
 Protestantism nor to have left France Catholic after his own 
 conversion. He alone has ever been in a position to change 
 the face of France without a shock. Either not a single stole, 
 or not a single conventicle ! That is what he ought to have 
 seen. To leave two hostile principles at work in a govern- 
 ment with nothing to balance them is a crime in a King; it 
 is sowing the seed of revolutions. It belongs to God alone 
 to leave good and evil for ever at odds in the work of His 
 hand. But this sentence was perhaps inscribed at the founda- 
 tions of Henri IV.'s policy, and perhaps it was what led to 
 his death. It is impossible that Sully should not have cast 
 a covetous eye on the immense possessions of the clergy 
 though the clergy were not their sole masters, for the nobles 
 dissipated at least two-thirds of the Church revenues. Sully 
 the Eeformer owned abbeys nevertheless.' She paused, to 
 think, as it seemed. 
 
 " 'But does it occur to you/ said she, 'that you are asking a 
 Pope's niece her reason for remaining Catholic?' Again 
 she paused 'And, after all, I would just as soon have been 
 a Calvinist/ she went on, with a gesture of indifference. 'Can 
 the superior men of your age still think that religion had 
 really anything to do with that great trial, the most tremen- 
 dous of those that Europe has been required to decide a 
 vast revolution retarded by trivial causes, which will not hin- 
 der it from overflowing the whole world, since I failed to stop 
 it. A revolution/ said she, with a look of deep meaning, 
 'which is still progressing, and which you may achieve. Yes, 
 .You, who hear me V 
 
 "I shuddered.
 
 318 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 "'What! Has no one yet understood that old interests 
 on one hand, and on the other new interests, had taken Koine 
 and Luther to be their standards of battle ! What ! When 
 Louis IX., to avoid a somewhat kindred struggle, dragged 
 after him a population a hundred times greater than that 
 I condemned to death, and left them in the sands of Egypt, 
 he earned the title of Saint, while I! But I,' she added, 
 'failed/ 
 
 "She looked down and stood silent for a minute. It was 
 no longer a Queen that I beheld, but rather one of those 
 Druidesses of old who sacrificed men, and could unroll the 
 pages of the future while exhuming the lore of the past. But 
 she presently raised her royal and majestic face. 
 
 " 'By directing the attention of the middle classes to the 
 abuses of the Eoman Church/ said she, 'Luther and Calvin 
 gave birth in Europe to a spirit of investigation which in- 
 evitably led the nations to examine everything. Examination 
 leads to doubt. Instead of the faith indispensable to social 
 existence, they brought in their train, and long after them, 
 an inquisitive philosophy, armed with hammers, and greedy 
 of destruction. Science, with its false lights, sprang glittering 
 from the womb of heresy. Eeform in the Church was not so 
 much what was aimed at as the indefinite liberty of man, 
 which is fatal to power. I have seen that. The result of 
 the successes of the Eeformers in their contest against the 
 priesthood even at that time better armed and more for- 
 midable than the Crown- was the destruction of the mon- 
 archical power raised with so much difficulty by Louis XI. 
 on the ruins of feudality. Their aim was nothing less than 
 the annihilation of Eeligion and Eoyalty, and over their 
 wreck the middle classes of all lands were to join in a common 
 compact. Thus this contest was war to the death between 
 these new allies and ancient laws and beliefs. The Catholics 
 were the representative expression of the ' material interests 
 of the Crown, the Nobility, and the Priesthood. 
 
 " 'It was a duel to the death between two giants ; the night 
 of Saint-Bartholomew was, unfortunately, only a wound.
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 31Q 
 
 Kemember that, to save a few drops of blood at the right mo- 
 ment, a torrent had to be shed at a later day. There is a mis- 
 fortune which the Intelligence that looks down on a kingdom 
 cannot avert; that, namely, of having no peers by whom to 
 be judged when he succumbs under the burden of events. 
 My peers are few; fools are in the majority; these two propo- 
 sitions account for everything. If my name is held in exe- 
 cration in France, the inferior minds which constitute the 
 mass of every generation are to blame. 
 
 " 'In such great crises as I have been through, reigning 
 does not mean holding audience, reviewing troops, and sign- 
 ing decrees. I may have made mistakes ; I was but a woman. 
 But why was there no man then living who was superior to the 
 age? The Duke of Alva had a soul of iron, Philip II. was 
 stultified by Catholic dogmas, Henri IV. was a gambler and 
 a libertine, the Admiral was systematically pig-headed. 
 Louis XI. had lived too soon; Eichelieu came too late. 
 Whether it were virtuous or criminal, whether the Massacre 
 of Saint-Bartholomew is attributed to me or no, I accept the 
 burden. I shall always stand between those two great men as 
 a visible link in an unrecognized chain. Some day paradox- 
 ical writers will wonder whether nations have not sometimes 
 given the name of executioner to those who, in fact, were 
 victims. Not once only will mankind be ready to immolate 
 a God rather than accuse itself ! You are all ready to shed 
 tears for two hundred louts, when you refuse them for the 
 woes of a generation, of a century, of the whole world ! And 
 you also forget that political liberty, the peace of a nation, 
 and science itself are gifts for which Fate demands a heavy 
 tax in blood !' 
 
 " 'May the nations never be happy at less cost ?' cried I, 
 with tears in my eyes. 
 
 " 'Great Truths leave their wells only to find fresh vigor 
 in baths of blood. Christianity itself, the essence of all truth, 
 since it proceeds from God, was not established without mar- 
 tyrs. Has not blood flowed in torrents? Must it not for 
 ever flow? You will know you who are to be one of the
 
 320 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 builders of the social edifice founded by the apostles. As 
 long as you use your instruments to level heads, you will be 
 applauded; then, when you want to take up the trowel, you 
 will be killed.' 
 
 " 'Blood ! blood !' the words rang in my brain like the 
 echo of a bell. 
 
 " 'According to you/ said I, 'Protestantism has the same 
 right as you have to argue thus ?' , 
 
 "But Catherine had vanished as though some draught of 
 air had extinguished the supernatural light which enabled 
 my mind to see the figure which had grown to gigantic pro- 
 portions. I had suddenly discerned in myself an element 
 which assimilated the horrible doctrines set forth by the 
 Italian Queen. 
 
 "I woke in a sweat, and in tears ; and at the moment when 
 reason, triumphing within me, assured me in her mild tones 
 that it was not the function of a King, nor even of a nation, 
 to practise these principles, worthy only of a people of 
 atheists " 
 
 "And how are perishing monarchies to be saved ?" asked 
 Beaumarchais. 
 
 "God is above all, monsieur," replied my neighbor. 
 
 "Well, then," said Monsieur de Calonne, with the flippancy 
 which characterized him, "we have always the resource of 
 believing ourselves to be instruments in the hand of God, 
 as the gospel according to Bossuet has it." 
 
 As soon as the ladies understood that the whole scene was 
 a conversation between the Queen and the lawyer, they had 
 begun whispering. Indeed, I have spared the reader the 
 exclamations and interruptions with which they broke into 
 the lawyer's narrative. However, such phrases as, "What a 
 deadly bore!" and "My dear, when will he have done?" 
 reached my ear. 
 
 When the stranger ceased speaking, the ladies were silent. 
 Monsieur Bodard was asleep. The surgeon being half drunk, 
 Lavoisier, Beaumarchais, and I alone had been listening; 
 Monsieur de Calonne was playing with the lady at his side.
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 321 
 
 At this moment the silence was almost solemn. The light 
 of the tapers seemed to me to have a magical hue. A com- 
 mon sentiment linked us by mysterious bonds to this man 
 who, to me, suggested the inexplicable effects of fanaticism. 
 It needed nothing less than the deep hollow voice of Beau- 
 marchais' neighbor to rouse us. 
 
 "I too dreamed !" he exclaimed. 
 
 I then looked more particularly at the surgeon, and felt 
 an indescribable sentiment of horror. His earthy complexion, 
 his features, large but vulgar, were the exact expression of 
 what I must be allowed to call la canaille, the rough mob. 
 A few specks of dull blue and black dotted his skin like spots 
 of mud, and his eyes flashed with sinister fires. The face 
 looked more ominous perhaps than it really was, because 
 a powdered wig a la frimas crowned his head with snow. 
 
 "That man must have buried more than one patient," said 
 I to my neighbor. 
 
 "I would not trust my dog to his care/' he replied. 
 
 "I hate him involuntarily," said I. 
 
 "I despise him," replied he. 
 
 "And yet how unjust!" cried I. 
 
 "Oh ! bless me, by the day after to-morrow he may be &a 
 famous as Volange the actor," replied the stranger. 
 
 Monsieur de Calonne pointed to the surgeon with a gesture 
 that seemed to convey, "This fellow might amuse us." 
 
 "And did you too dream of a Queen ?" asked Beaumarchais. 
 
 "No, I dreamed of a people," said he with emphasis, making 
 us laugh. "I was attending a patient whose leg I was to 
 amputate the next day " 
 
 "And you found a people in your patient's thigh?" asked 
 Monsieur de Calonne. 
 
 "Exactly so!" replied the surgeon. 
 
 "Is not he amusing ?" cried Madame de Genlis. 
 
 "I was greatly surprised," the speaker went on, never heed- 
 ing these interruptions, and stuffing his hands into his 
 breeches pockets, "to find some one to talk to in that leg. I 
 had the strange power of entering into my patient. When
 
 322 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 I first found myself in his skin, I discerned there an amazing 
 number of tiny beings, moving, thinking, and arguing. Some 
 lived in the man's body, and some in his mind. His ideas 
 were creatures that were born, grew, and died; they were 
 sick, gay, healthy, sad and all had personal individuality 
 They fought or fondled. A few ideas flew forth and went to 
 dwell in the world of intellect. Suddenly I understood that 
 there are two worlds the visible and the invisible universe; 
 that the earth, like man, has a body and a soul. A new light 
 was cast on nature, and I perceived its immensity when I 
 saw the ocean of beings everywhere distributed in masses and 
 in species, all of one and the same living matter, from marble 
 rocks up to God. A magnificent sight ! In short, there was 
 a universe in my patient. When I inserted my lancet in his 
 gangrened leg, I destroyed a thousand such beings. You 
 laugh, ladies, at the idea that you are a prey to a thousand 
 creatures " 
 
 "No personalities," said Monsieur de Colonne, "speak for 
 yourself and your patient." 
 
 "My man, horrified at the outcry of his animalcules, wanted 
 to stop the operation; but I persisted, telling him that ma- 
 lignant creatures were already gnawing at his bones. He 
 made a motion to resist me, not understanding that what I 
 was doing was for his good, and my lancet pierced me in the 
 side " 
 
 "He is too stupid," said Lavoisier. 
 
 "No, he is drunk," replied Beaumarchais. 
 
 "But, gentlemen, my dream has a meaning," cried the 
 surgeon. 
 
 "Oh, oh !" cried Bodard, waking, "my leg is asleep !" 
 
 "Your animalcules are dead," said his wife. 
 
 "That man has a vocation," said my neighbor, who had' 
 imperturbably stared at the surgeon all the time he was 
 talking. 
 
 "It is to Monsieur's vocation what action is to speech, 
 or the body to the soul," said the ugly guest. 
 
 But his tongue was heavy, and he got confused; he could
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 323 
 
 only utter unintelligible words. Happily, the conversation 
 took another turn. By the end of half an hour we had for- 
 gotten the surgeon to the Court pages, and he was asleep. 
 
 When we rose from table, the rain was pouring in tor- 
 rents. 
 
 "The lawyer is no fool," said I to Beaumarchais. 
 
 "Oh ! he is dull and cold. But you see the provinces can 
 still produce good folks who take political theories and the 
 history of France quite seriously. It is a leaven that will 
 spread." 
 
 "Have you a carriage ?" Madame de Saint- James asked me. 
 
 "No," said I shortly. "I did not know that I should want 
 it this evening. You thought, perhaps, that I should take 
 home the Controller- General ? Did he come to your house 
 en polisson?" (the fashionable name at the time for a person 
 who drove his own carriage at Marly dressed as a coachman). 
 Madame de Saint-James left me hastily, rang the bell, ordered 
 her husband's carriage, and took the lawyer aside. 
 
 "Monsieur de Robespierre, will you do me the favor of see- 
 ing Monsieur Marat home, for he is incapable of standing 
 upright?" said she. 
 
 "With pleasure, madame," replied Monsieur de Robespierre 
 with an air of gallantry ; "I wish you had ordered me to do 
 something more difficult." 
 
 PARIS, January 1828.
 
 324 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 
 
 NOTE. 
 
 This is the song published by the Abb6 de la Place in his collec- 
 tion of interesting fragments, in which may be found the disserta- 
 tion alluded to. [It will be seen that it goes to the old tune of 
 Malbrouk s'en va-t-en guerre,'} 
 
 THE DUG DE GUISE'S BURIAL. 
 
 Qui veut ouir chanson? (Bis,) 
 C'est du Grand Due de Guise; 
 
 Et bon bon bon bon, 
 
 Di dan di dan don, 
 C'est du Grand Due de Guise! 
 
 (This last line was spoken, no doubt, in a comic tone.) 
 Qui est mort et enterri, 
 
 Qui est mort et enterrg. (Bis.) 
 Aux quatre coins du pole, 
 
 Et bon bon bon bon, 
 
 Di dan di dan don, 
 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 6pe"e, 
 
 Et bon, etc. 
 Qui tant d'Hugu'nots a tuts. 
 
 Qui tant d'Hugu'nots a tu6s. (Bit.) 
 Venoit le quatrieme, 
 
 Et bon, etc. 
 Qui etoit le plus dolent.
 
 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 325 
 
 Qui etoit le plus dolent; (Bis.) 
 Apr&s venoient les pages, 
 
 Et bon, etc. 
 Et les valets de pied. 
 
 Et les valets de pied, (Bis.) 
 Avecque de grands crgpes, 
 
 Et bon, etc. 
 Et des souliers cires. 
 
 Et des souliers cir6s. (Bis.) 
 Et des beaux bas d'estame, 
 
 Et bon, etc. 
 Et des culottes de piau. 
 
 Et des culottes de piau. (Bis.) 
 La cSremonie 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 seuU. 
 
 The discovery of these curious verses seems to prove, to a cer- 
 tain extent, the guilt of Theodore de Beze, who tried to mitigate 
 the horror caused by this murder by turning it to ridicule. The 
 principal merit of this song lay, it would appear, in the tune.
 
 GAMBARA
 
 CorYKiQHT, 1898, 
 BY J. M. DENT & COMPANY
 
 GAMBARA 
 
 To Monsieur le Marquis de Belloy 
 
 IT was sitting by the fire, in a mysterious and magnincent retreat, 
 now a thing of the past but surviving in our memory, whence 
 our eyes commanded a view of Paris from the heights of Bellevue 
 to those of Belleville, from Montmartre to the triumphal Arc de 
 1'fJtoile, that one morning, refreshed by tea, amid the myriad sug- 
 gestions that shoot up and die like rockets from your sparkling flow 
 of talk , lavish of ideas, you tossed to my pen a figure worthy of 
 Hoffmann, that casket of unrecognized gems, that pilgrim seated at 
 the gate of Paradise with ears to hear the songs of the angels but no 
 longer a tongue to repeat them, playing on the ivory keys with fingers 
 crippled by the stress of divine inspiration, believing that he is ex- 
 pressing celestial music to his bewildered listeners. 
 
 It was you who created GAMBARA ; I have only clothed him. Let 
 me render unto Csesar the things that are Caesar's, regretting only 
 that you do not yourself take up the pen at a time when gentlemen 
 ought to wield it as well as the sword, if they are to save their 
 country. You may neglect yourself, but you owe your talents to us. 
 
 NEW YEAR'S DAY of 1831 was pouring out its packets of 
 sugared almonds, four o'clock was striking, there was a mob 
 in the Palais-Koyal, and the eating-houses were beginning to 
 fill. At this moment a coupe drew up at the perron and a 
 young man stepped out; a man of haughty appearance, and. 
 no doubt a foreigner; otherwise he would not have displayed 
 the aristocratic chasseur who attended him in a plumed hat, 
 nor the coat of arms which the heroes of July still attacked. 
 This gentleman went into the Palais-Koyal, and followed 
 
 (327)
 
 328 GAMBARA 
 
 the crowd round the galleries, unamazed at the slowness to 
 which the throng of loungers reduced his pace; he seemed 
 accustomed to the stately step which is ironically nicknamed 
 the ambassador's strut; still, his dignity had a touch of the 
 theatrical. Though his features were handsome and impos- 
 ing, his hat, from beneath which thick black curls stood out, 
 was perhaps tilted a little too much over the right ear, and 
 belied his gravity by a too rakish effect. His eyes, inatten- 
 tive and half closed, looked down disdainfully on the crowd. 
 
 "There goes a remarkably good-looking young man," said 
 a girl in a low voice, as she made way for him to pass. 
 
 "And who is only too well aware of it !" replied her com- 
 panion aloud who was very plain. 
 
 After walking all round the arcades, the young man 
 looked by turns at the sky and at his watch, and with a 
 shrug of impatience went into a tobacconist's shop, lighted 
 a cigar, and placed himself in front of a looking-glass to 
 glance at his costume, which was rather more ornate than 
 the rules of French taste allow. He pulled down his collar 
 and his black velvet waistcoat, over which hung many fes- 
 toons of the thick gold chain that is made at Venice; then, 
 having arranged the folds of his cloak by a single jerk of 
 his left shoulder, draping it gracefully so as to show the 
 velvet lining, he started again on parade, indifferent to the 
 glances of the vulgar. 
 
 As soon as the shops were lighted up and the dusk seemed 
 to him black enough, he went out into the square in front 
 of the Palais-Eoyal, but as a man anxious not to be recog- 
 nized ; for he kept close under the houses as far as the foun- 
 tain, screened by the hackney-cab stand, till he reached the 
 Eue Froid-Manteau, a dirty, poky, disreputable street a 
 sort of sewer tolerated by the police close to the purified 
 purlieus of the Palais-Eoyal, as an Italian major-domo 
 allows a careless servant to leave the sweepings of the rooms 
 in a corner of the staircase. 
 
 The young man hesitated. He might have been a bedizened 
 citizen's wife craning her neck over a gutter swollen by the
 
 
 ,<*
 
 
 
 d round the g; 
 throng of \< 
 od to the stat? 
 uwador's stnit 
 i. Thouirh hi, 
 
 sir slowness to 
 j*ce; he seemed 
 eally nicknamed 
 i a touch of the 
 ionic and irnpos 
 
 itirls stood out, 
 k- right ear, and 
 h* eyes, inatten- 
 h on the crowd, 
 ^u^ man," said 
 
 Count Andrea Marcosini 
 
 >ier com- 
 
 i U4T "nan 
 i with a 
 
 '- whic 
 ; mad 
 ioak b 
 
 hun^ many fes- 
 t Venice; then, 
 
 a single jerk of 
 a* to show the 
 
 i-l fferent to the 
 
 .; u;i >n d the dusk seemed 
 t Aat into the square in front 
 5 loan anxious not to be recog- 
 f the house* as far as the foun- 
 ; >-cab stand, till he reached the 
 \. poky, disreputable rtT*l 
 the pulioe close to the puriSt-d 
 al, as an Italian tna}.x i -dain. 
 i eave the su-cer-intft- "* ''** ro.>jj.-.-
 
 GAMBARA 329 
 
 rain. But the hour was not unpropitious for the indulgence 
 of some discreditable whim. Earlier, he might have been de- 
 tected; later, he might find himself cut out. Tempted by a 
 glance which is encouraging without being inviting, to have 
 followed a young and pretty woman for an hour, or perhaps 
 for a day, thinking of her as a divinity and excusing her light 
 conduct by a thousand reasons to her advantage; to have 
 allowed oneself to believe in a sudden and irresistible affinity ; 
 to have pictured, under the promptings of transient excite- 
 ment, a love-adventure in an age when romances are written 
 precisely because they never happen; to have dreamed of 
 balconies, guitars, stratagems, and bolts, enwrapped in Alma- 
 viva's cloak; and, after inditing a poem in fancy, to stop at 
 the door of a house of ill-fame, and, crowning all, to discern 
 in Rosina's bashfulness a reticence imposed by the police 
 is not all this, I say, an experience familiar to many a man. 
 who would not own it? 
 
 The most natural feelings are those we are least willing to 
 confess, and among them is fatuity. When the lesson is 
 carried no further, the Parisian profits by it, or forgets it, 
 and no great harm is done. But this would hardly be the 
 case with this foreigner, who was beginning to think he might 
 pay too dearly for his Paris education. 
 
 This personage was a Milanese of good family, exiled 
 from his native country, where some "liberal" pranks had 
 made him an object of suspicion to the Austrian Government. 
 Count Andrea Marcosini had been welcomed in Paris with 
 the cordiality, essentially French, that a man always finds 
 there, when he has a pleasant wit, a sounding name, two hun- 
 dred thousand francs a year, and a prepossessing person. To 
 such a man banishment could but be a pleasure tour; his 
 property was simply sequestrated, and his friends let him 
 know that after an absence of two years he might return to 
 his native land without danger. 
 
 After rhyming crudeli affanni with i miei tiranni in a dozen 
 or so of sonnets, and maintaining as many hapless Italian 
 refugees out of his own purse, Count Andrea, who was so
 
 330 GAMBARA 
 
 unlucky as to be a poet, thought himself released from pa- 
 triotic obligations. So, ever since his arrival, he had given 
 himself up recklessly to the pleasures of every kind which 
 Paris offers gratis to those who can pay for them. His 
 talents and his handsome person won him success among 
 women, whom he adored collectively as beseemed his years, 
 but among whom he had not as yet distinguished a chosen 
 one. And indeed this taste was, in him, subordinate to those 
 for music and poetry which he had cultivated from his child- 
 hood; and he thought success in these both more difficult 
 and more glorious to achieve than in affairs of gallantry, since 
 nature had not inflicted on him the obstacles men take most 
 pride in defying. 
 
 A man, like many another, of complex nature, he was easily 
 fascinated by the comfort of luxury, without which he could 
 hardly have lived; and, in the same way, he clung to the 
 social distinctions which his principles contemned. Thus his 
 theories as an artist, a thinker, and a poet were in frequent 
 antagonism with his tastes, his feelings, and his habits as a 
 man of rank and wealth; but he comforted himself for his 
 inconsistencies by recognizing them in many Parisians, like 
 himself liberal by policy and aristocrats by nature. 
 
 Hence it was not without some uneasiness that he found 
 himself, on December 31, 1830, under a Paris thaw, following 
 at the heels of a woman whose dress betrayed the most abject, 
 inveterate, and long-accustomed poverty, who was no hand- 
 somer than a hundred others to be seen any evening at the 
 play, at the opera, in the world of fashion, and who was cer- 
 tainly not so young as Madame de Manerville, from whom he 
 had obtained an assignation for that very day, and who was 
 perhaps waiting for him at that very hour. 
 
 But in the glance at once tender and wild, swift and deep, 
 which that woman's black eyes had shot at him by stealth, 
 there was such a world of buried sorrows and promised joys ! 
 And she had colored so fiercely when, on coming out of a 
 shop where she had lingered a quarter of an hour, her 
 look frankly met the Count's, who had been waiting for her
 
 GAMBARA 331 
 
 hard by! In fact, there were so many buts and ifs, that, 
 possessed by one of those mad temptations for which there is 
 no word in any language, not even in that of the orgy, he had 
 set out in pursuit of this woman, hunting her down like a 
 hardened Parisian. 
 
 On the way, whether he kept behind or ahead of this damsel, 
 he studied every detail of her person and her dress, hoping 
 to dislodge the insane and ridiculous fancy that had taken up 
 an abode in his brain ; but he presently found in his examina- 
 tion a keener pleasure than he had felt only the day before 
 in gazing at the perfect shape of a woman he loved, as she 
 took her bath. Now and again, the unknown fair, bending 
 her head, gave him a look like that of a kid tethered with its 
 head to the ground, an(J finding herself still the object of his 
 pursuit, she hurried on as if to fly. Nevertheless, each time 
 that a block of carriages, or any other delay, brought Andrea 
 to her side, he saw her turn away from his gaze without any 
 signs of annoyance. These signals of restrained feelings 
 spurred the frenzied dreams that had run away with him, 
 and he gave them the rein as far as the Rue Froid-Manteau, 
 down which, after many windings, the damsel vanished, 
 thinking she had thus spoilt the scent of her pursuer, who 
 was, in fact, startled by this move. 
 
 It was now quite dark. Two women, tattooed with rouge, 
 who were drinking black-currant liqueur at a grocer's 
 counter, saw the young woman and called her. She paused 
 at the door of the shop, replied in a few soft words to the 
 cordial greeting offered her, and went on her way. Andrea, 
 who was behind her, saw her turn into one of the darkest 
 yards out of this street, of which he did not know the name. 
 The repulsive appearance of the house where the heroine of 
 his romance had been swallowed up made him feel sick. He 
 drew back a step to study the neighborhood, and finding an 
 ill-looking man at his elbow, he asked him for information. 
 The man, who held a knotted stick in his right hand, placed 
 the left on his hip and replied in a single word: 
 
 "Scoundrel I"
 
 332 GAMBABA 
 
 But on looking at the Italian, who stood in the light of a 
 street-lamp, he assumed a servile expression. 
 
 "I beg your pardon, sir," said he, suddenly changing his 
 tone. "There is a restaurant near this, a sort of table-d'hote, 
 where the cooking is pretty bad and they serve cheese in the 
 soup. Monsieur is in search of the place, perhaps, for it is 
 easy to see that he is an Italian Italians are fond of velvet 
 and of cheese. But if monsieur would like to know of a better 
 eating-house, an aunt of mine, who lives a few steps off, is 
 very fond of foreigners." 
 
 Andrea raised his cloak as high as his moustache, and 
 fled from the street, spurred by the disgust he felt at this foul 
 person, whose clothes and manner were in harmony with the 
 squalid house into which the fair unknown had vanished. 
 He returned with rapture to the thousand luxuries of his own 
 rooms, and spent the evening at the Marquise d'Espard's to 
 cleanse himself, if possible, of the smirch left by the fancy 
 that had driven him so relentlessly during the day. 
 
 And yet, when he was in bed, the vision came back to him, 
 but clearer and brighter than the reality. The girl was 
 walking in front of him ; now and again as she stepped across 
 a gutter her skirts revealed a round calf; her shapely hips 
 swayed as she walked. Again Andrea longed to speak to her 
 and he dared not, he, Marcosini, a Milanese nobleman! 
 Then he saw her turn into the dark passage where she had 
 eluded him, and blamed himself for not having followed her. 
 
 "For, after all," said he to himself, "if she really wished 
 to avoid me and put me off her track, it is because she loves 
 me. With women of that stamp, coyness is a proof of love. 
 Well, if I had carried the adventure any further, it would, 
 perhaps, have ended in disgust. I will sleep in peace." 
 
 The Count was in the habit of analyzing his keenest sensa- 
 tions, as men do involuntarily when they have as much brains 
 as heart, and he was surprised when he saw the strange 
 damsel of the Eue Froid-Manteau once more, not in the 
 pictured splendor of his dream but in the bare reality of 
 dreary fact. And, in spite of it all, if fancy had stripped
 
 GAMBARA 333 
 
 the woman of her livery of misery, it would have spoilt her 
 for him ; for he wanted her, he longed for her, he loved her 
 with her muddy stockings, her slipshod feet, her straw bon- 
 net ! He wanted her in the very house where he had seen her 
 go in. 
 
 "Am I bewitched by vice, then?" he asked himself in dis- 
 may. "Nay, I have not yet reached that point. I am but 
 three-and-twenty, and there is nothing of the senile fop about 
 me." 
 
 The very vehemence of the whim that held possession of 
 him to some extent reassured him. This strange struggle, 
 these reflections, and this love in pursuit may perhaps puzzle 
 some persons who are accustomed to the ways of Paris life; 
 but they may be reminded that Count Andrea Marcosini was 
 not a Frenchman. 
 
 Brought up by two abbes, who, in obedience to a very pious 
 father, had rarely let him out of their sight, Andrea had not 
 fallen in love with a cousin at the age of eleven, or seduced 
 his mother's maid by the time he was twelve; he had not 
 studied at school, where a lad does not learn only, or best, 
 the subjects prescribed by the State; he had lived in Paris 
 but a few years, and he was still open to those sudden but 
 deep impressions against which French education and man- 
 ners are so strong a protection. In southern lands a great 
 passion is often born of a glance. A gentleman of Gascony 
 who had tempered strong feelings by much reflection had 
 fortified himself by many little recipes against sudden apo- 
 plexies of taste and heart, and he advised the Count to in- 
 dulge at least once a month in a wild orgy to avert those 
 storms of the soul which, but for such precautions, are apt to 
 break out at inappropriate moments. Andrea now remem- 
 bered this advice. 
 
 "Well," thought he, "I will begin to-morrow, January 1st." 
 
 This explains why Count Andrea Marcosini hovered so 
 shyly before turning down the Kue Froid-Manteau. The 
 man of fashion hampered the lover, and he hesitated for some
 
 834 GAMBARA 
 
 time ; but after a final appeal to his courage he went on with 
 a firm step as far as the house, which he recognized without 
 difficulty. 
 
 There he stopped once more. Was the woman really what 
 he fancied her ? Was he not on the verge of some false move ? 
 
 At this juncture he remembered the Italian table-d'hote, 
 and at once jumped at a middle course, which would serve 
 the ends alike of his curiosity and of his reputation. He 
 went in to dine, and made his way down the passage; at the 
 bottom, after feeling about for some time, he found a stair- 
 case with damp, slippery steps, such as to an Italian noble- 
 man could only seem a ladder. 
 
 Invited to the first floor by the glimmer of a lamp and a 
 strong smell of cooking, he pushed a door which stood ajar 
 and saw a room dingy with dirt and smoke, where a wench 
 was busy laying a table for about twenty customers. None of 
 the guests had yet arrived. 
 
 After looking round the dimly lighted room where the 
 paper was dropping in rags from the walls, the gentleman 
 seated himself by a stove which was roaring and smoking in 
 the corner. 
 
 Attracted by the noise the Count made in coming in and 
 disposing of his cloak, the major-domo presently appeared. 
 Picture to yourself a lean, dried-up cook, very tall, with a 
 nose of extravagant dimensions, casting about him from time 
 to time, with feverish keenness, a glance that he meant to be 
 cautious. On seeing Andrea, whose attire bespoke consid- 
 erable affluence, Signor Giardini bowed respectfully. 
 
 The Count expressed his intention of taking his meals as 
 a rule in the society of some of his fellow-countrymen; he 
 paid in advance for a certain number of tickets, and ingenu- 
 ously gave the conversation a familiar bent to enable him to 
 achieve his purpose quickly. 
 
 Hardly had he mentioned the woman he was seeking when 
 Signor Giardini, with a grotesque shrug, looked knowingly 
 at his customer, a bland smile on his lips. 
 
 "Basta!" he exclaimed. "Capisco. Your Excellency has
 
 GAMBARA S35 
 
 come spurred by two appetites. La Signora Gambara will 
 not have wasted her time if she has gained the interest of a 
 gentleman so generous as you appear to be. I can tell you 
 in a few words all we know of the woman, who is really to be 
 pitied. 
 
 "The husband is, I believe, a native of Cremona and has 
 just come here from Germany. He was hoping to get the 
 Tedeschi to try some new music and some new instruments^ 
 Isn't it pitiable?" said Giardini, shrugging his shoulders. 
 "Signor Gambara, who thinks himself a great composer, does 
 not seem to me very clever in other ways. An excellent fel- 
 low with sense and wit, and sometimes very agreeable, espe- 
 cially when he has had a few glasses of wine which does not 
 often happen, for he is desperately poor; night and day he 
 toils at imaginary symphonies and operas instead of trying 
 to earn an honest living. His poor wife is reduced to working 
 for all sorts of people the women on the streets ! What is to 
 be said ? She loves her husband like a father, and takes care 
 of him like a child. 
 
 "Many a young man has dined here to pay his court to 
 madame; but not one has succeeded/'" said he, emphasizing 
 the word. "La Signora Marianna is an honest woman, mon- 
 sieur, much too honest, worse luck for her ! Men give nothing 
 for nothing nowadays. So the poor soul will die in harness. 
 
 "And do you suppose that her husband rewards her for her 
 devotion ? Pooh, my lord never gives her a smile ! And 
 all their cooking is done at the baker's ; for not only does the 
 wretched man never earn a sou; he spends all his wife can 
 make on instruments which he carves, and lengthens, and 
 shortens, and sets up and takes to pieces again till they pro- 
 duce sounds that would scare a cat; then he is happy. And 
 yet you will find him the mildest, the gentlest of men. And, 
 he is not idle ; he is always at it. What is to be said ? He is 
 crazy and does not know his business. I have seen him, mon- 
 sieur, filing and forging his instruments and eating black 
 bread with an appetite that I envied him I, who have the 
 best table in Paris.
 
 886 GAMBARA 
 
 "Yes, Excellenza, in a quarter of an hour you shall know 
 the man I am. I have introduced certain refinements into 
 Italian cookery that will amaze you! Excellenza, I am a 
 Neapolitan that is to say, a born cook. But of what use i? 
 instinct without knowledge? Knowledge! I have spent 
 thirty years in acquiring it, and you see where it has left me. 
 My history is that of every man of talent. My attempts, my 
 experiments, have ruined three restaurants in succession at 
 Naples, Parma, and Home. To this day, when I am reduced 
 to make a trade of my art, I more often than not give way 
 to my ruling passion. I give these poor refugees some of my 
 choicest dishes. I ruin myself! Folly! you will say? I 
 know it; but how can I help it? Genius carries me away, 
 and I cannot resist concocting a dish which smiles on my 
 fancy. 
 
 "And they always know it, the rascals! They know, I 
 can promise you, whether I or my wife has stood over the 
 fire. And what is the consequence ? Of sixty-odd customers 
 whom I used to see at my table every day when I first started 
 in this wretched place, I now see twenty on an average, and 
 give them credit for the most part. The Piedmontese, the 
 Savoyards, have deserted, but the connoisseurs, the true 
 Italians, remain. And there is no sacrifice that I would not 
 make for them. I often give them a dinner for five and 
 twenty sous which has cost me double." 
 
 Signor Giardini's speech had such a full flavor of Nea- 
 politan cunning that the Count was delighted, and could have 
 fancied himself at Gerolamo's. 
 
 "Since that is the case, my good friend," said he familiarly 
 to the cook, "and since chance and your confidence have let 
 me into the secret of your daily sacrifices, allow me to pay 
 double/' 
 
 As he spoke Andrea spun a forty-franc piece on the stove, 
 out of which Giardini solemnly gave him two francs and fifty 
 centimes in change, not without a certain ceremonious mys- 
 tery that amused him hugely. 
 
 "In a few minutes now," the man added, "you will see your
 
 GAMBABA 837 
 
 donnina. I will seat you next the husband, and if you wish to 
 stand in his good graces, talk about music. I have invited 
 every one for this evening, poor things. Being New Year's 
 Day, I am treating the company to a dish in which I believe I 
 have surpassed myself." i 
 
 Signor Giardini's voice was drowned by the noisy greetings 
 of the guests, who streamed in two and two, or one at a time, 
 after the manner of tables-d'hote. Giardini stayed by the 
 Count, playing the showman by telling him who the company 
 were. He tried by his witticisms to bring a smile to the lips of 
 a man who, as his Neapolitan instinct told him, might be a 
 wealthy patron to turn to good account. 
 
 "This one," said he, "is a poor composer who would like 
 to rise from song-writing to opera, and cannot. He blames 
 the managers, music-sellers, everybody, in fact, but him- 
 self, and he has no worse enemy. You can see what a florid 
 complexion, what self-conceit, how little firmness in his fea- 
 tures ! he is made to write ballads. The man who is with him, 
 and looks like a match-hawker, is a great musical celebrity 
 Gigelmi, the greatest Italian conductor known; but he has 
 gone deaf, and is ending his days in penury, deprived of all 
 that made it tolerable. Ah ! here comes our great Ottoboni, 
 the most guileless old fellow on earth ; but he is suspected of 
 being the most vindictive of all who are plotting for the re- 
 generation of Italy. I cannot think how they can bear to 
 banish such a good old man." 
 
 And here Giardini looked narrowly at the Count, who, 
 feeling himself under inquisition as to his politics, entrenched 
 himself in Italian impassibility. 
 
 "A man whose business it is to cook for all comers can have 
 no political opinions, Excellenza," Giardini went on. "But 
 to see that worthy man, who looks more like a lamb than a 
 lion, everybody would say what I say, were it before the 
 Austrian ambassador himself. Besides, in these times liberty 
 is no longer proscribed; it is going its rounds again. At 
 least, so these good people think," said he, leaning over to 
 speak in the Count's ear, "and why should I thwart their
 
 338 GAMBABA 
 
 hopes ? I, for my part, do not hate an absolute government. 
 Exeellenza, every man of talent is for despotism ! 
 
 "Well, though full of genius, Ottoboni takes no end of 
 pains to educate Italy; he writes little books to enlighten 
 the intelligence of the children and the common people, and 
 he smuggles them very cleverly into Italy. He takes im- 
 .mense trouble to reform the moral sense of our luckless coun- 
 try, which, after all, prefers pleasure to freedom, and per- 
 haps it is right." 
 
 The Count preserved such an impenetrable attitude that 
 the cook could discover nothing of. his political views. 
 
 "Ottoboni/' he ran on, "is a saint; very kind-hearted; all 
 the refugees are fond of him ; for, Excellenza, a liberal may 
 have his virtues. Oho! Here comes a journalist," said 
 Giardini, as a man came in dressed in the absurd way which 
 used to be attributed to a poet in a garret ; his coat was thread- 
 bare, his boots split, his hat shiny, and his overcoat de- 
 plorably ancient. "Excellenza, that poor man is full of 
 talent, and incorruptibly honest. He was born into the 
 wrong times, for he tells the truth to everybody ; no one can 
 endure him. He writes theatrical articles for two small 
 papers, though he is clever enough to work for the great 
 dailies. Poor fellow ! 
 
 "The rest are not worth mentioning, and Your Excellency 
 will find them out," he concluded, seeing that on the entrance 
 of the musician's wife the Count had ceased to listen to him. 
 
 On seeing Andrea here, Signora Marianna started visibly 
 and a bright flush tinged her cheeks. 
 
 "Here he is!" said Giardini, in an undertone, clutching 
 the Count's arm and nodding to a tall man. "How pale 
 and grave he is, poor man ! His hobby has not trotted to his 
 mind to-day, I fancy." 
 
 Andrea's prepossession for Marianna was crossed by the 
 captivating charm which Gambara could not fail to exert over 
 every genuine artist. The composer was now forty; but al- 
 though his high brow was bald and lined with a few parallel,
 
 GAMBARA 339 
 
 but not deep, wrinkles; in spite, too, of hollow temples 
 where the blue veins showed through the smooth, transparent 
 skin, and of the deep sockets in which his black eyes were 
 sunk, with their large lids and light lashes, the lower part 
 of his face made him still look young, so calm was its outline, 
 so soft the modeling. It could be seen at a glance that in this 
 man passion had been curbed to the advantage of the intel- 
 lect; that the brain alone had grown old in some great 
 struggle. 
 
 Andrea shot a swift look at Marianna, who was watching 
 him. And he noted the beautiful Italian head, the exquisite 
 proportion and rich coloring that revealed one of those or- 
 ganizations in which every human power is harmoniously 
 balanced, he sounded the gulf that divided this couple, 
 brought together by fate. Well content with the promise he 
 inferred from this dissimilarity between the husband and 
 wife, he made no attempt to control a liking which ought to 
 have raised a barrier between the fair Marianna and himself. 
 He was already conscious of feeling a sort of respectful pity 
 for this man, whose only joy she was, as he understood the 
 dignified and serene acceptance of ill fortune that was ex^ 
 pressed in Gambara's mild and melancholy gaze. 
 
 After expecting to see one of the grotesque figures so often 
 set before us by German novelists and writers of libretti, 
 he beheld a simple, unpretentious man, whose manners and 
 demeanor were in nothing strange and did not lack dignity. 
 Without the faintest trace of luxury, his dress was more 
 decent than might have been expected from his extreme pov- 
 erty, and his linen bore witness to the tender care which 
 watched over every detail of his existence. Andrea looked at 
 Marianna with moistened eyes; and she did not color, but 
 half smiled, in a way that betrayed, perhaps, some pride at 
 this speechless homage. The Count, too thoroughly fascinated 
 to miss the smallest indication of complaisance, fancied that 
 she must love him, since she understood him so well. 
 
 From this moment he set himself to conquer the husband 
 rather than the wife, turning all his batteries against the poor
 
 340 GAMBARA 
 
 Gambara, who quite guilelessly went on eating Signer Giar- 
 dini's bocconi, without thinking of their flavor. 
 
 The Count opened the conversation on some trivial subject, 
 but at the first words he perceived that this brain, supposed to 
 be infatuated on one point, was remarkably clear on all others, 
 and saw that it would be far more important to enter into 
 this very clever man's ideas than to flatter his conceits. 
 
 The rest of the company, a hungry crew whose brain only 
 responded to the sight of a more or less good meal, showed 
 much animosity to the luckless Gambara, and waited only till 
 the end of the first course, to give free vent to their satire. 
 A refugee, whose frequent leer betrayed ambitious schemes 
 on Marianna, and who fancied he could establish himself 
 in her good graces by trying to make her husband ridiculous, 
 opened fire to show the newcomer how the land lay at the 
 table-d'hote. 
 
 "It is a very long time since we have heard anything about 
 the opera on 'Mahomet' !" cried he, with a smile at Marianna. 
 "Can it be that Paolo Gambara, wholly given up to domestic 
 cares, absorbed by the charms of the chimney-corner, is ne- 
 glecting his superhuman genius, leaving his talents to get 
 cold and his imagination to go flat?" 
 
 Gambara knew all the company; he dwelt in a sphere so 
 far above them all that he no longer cared to repel an attack. 
 He made no reply. 
 
 "It is not given to everybody," said the journalist, "to have 
 an intellect that can understand Monsieur Gambara's musical 
 efforts, and that, no doubt, is why our divine maestro hesi- 
 tates to come before the worthy Parisian public." 
 
 "And yet," said the ballad-monger, who had not opened his 
 mouth but to swallow everything that came within his reach, 
 "I know some men of talent who think highly of the judg- 
 ments of Parisian critics. I myself have a pretty reputation 
 as a musician," he went on, with an air of diffidence. "I owe 
 it solely to my little songs in vaudevilles, and the success of 
 my dance music in drawing-rooms; but I propose ere long 
 to bring out a mass composed for the anniversary of Bee-
 
 GAMBARA 341 
 
 thoven's death, and I expect to be better appreciated in Paris 
 than anywhere else. You will perhaps do me the honor of 
 hearing it ?" he said, turning to Andrea. 
 
 "Thank you/' said the Count. "But I do not conceive 
 that I am gifted with the organs needful for the appreciation 
 of French music. If you were dead, monsieur, and Beethoven 
 had composed the mass, I would not have failed to attend 
 the performance." 
 
 This retort put an end to the tactics of those who wanted 
 to set Gambara off on his high horse to amuse the new guest. 
 Andrea was already conscious of an unwillingness to expose 
 so noble and pathetic a mania as a spectacle for so much 
 vulgar shrewdness. It was with no base reservation that he 
 kept up a desultory conversation, in the course of which 
 Signer Giardini's nose not infrequently interposed between 
 two remarks. Whenever Gambara uttered some elegant 
 repartee or some paradoxical aphorism, the cook put his head 
 forward, to glance with pity at the musician and with mean- 
 ing at the Count, muttering in his ear, "E matto I" 
 
 Then came a moment when the chef interrupted the flow 
 of his judicial observations to devote himself to the second 
 course, which he considered highly important. During his 
 absence, which was brief, Gambara leaned across to address 
 Andrea. 
 
 "Our worthy host," said he, in an undertone, "threatens to 
 regale us to-day with a dish of his own concocting, which I 
 recommend you to avoid, though his wife has had an eye on 
 him. The good man has a mania for innovations. He ruined 
 himself by experiments, the last of which compelled him to 
 fly from Rome without a passport a circumstance he does 
 not talk about. After purchasing the good-will of a popular 
 restaurant he was trusted to prepare a banquet given by a 
 lately made Cardinal, whose household was not yet complete. 
 Giardini fancied he had an opportunity for distinguishing 
 himself and he succeeded ! for that same evening he was 
 accused of trying to poison the whole conclave, and was 
 obliged to leave Rome and Italy without waiting to pack up.
 
 342 GAMBABA 
 
 This disaster was the last straw. Now," and Gambara put 
 his finger to his forehead and shook his head. 
 
 "He is a good fellow, all the same," he added. "My wife 
 will tell you that we owe him many a good turn." 
 
 Giardini now came in carefully bearing a dish which he 
 set in the middle of the table, and he then modestly resumed 
 his seat next to Andrea, whom he served first. As soon as he 
 had tasted the mess, the Count felt that an impassable gulf 
 divided the second mouthful from the first. He was much 
 embarrassed, and very anxious not to annoy the cook, who 
 was watching him narrowly. Though a French restaurateur 
 may care little about seeing a dish scorned if he is sure of 
 being paid for it, it is not so with an Italian, who is not often 
 satiated with praises. 
 
 To gain time, Andrea complimented Giardini enthusiastic- 
 ally, but he leaned over to whisper in his ear, and slipping 
 a gold piece into his hand under the table, begged him to go 
 out and buy a few bottles of champagne, leaving him free to 
 take all the credit of the treat. 
 
 When the Italian returned, every plate was cleared, and the 
 room rang with praises of the master-cook. The champagne 
 soon mounted these southern brains, and the conversation, 
 till now subdued in the stranger's presence, overleaped the 
 limits of suspicious reserve to wander far over the wide fields 
 of political and artistic opinions. 
 
 Andrea, to whom no form of intoxication was known but 
 those of love and poetry, had soon gained the attention of 
 the company and skilfully led it to a discussion of matters 
 musical. 
 
 "Will you tell me, "monsieur," said he to the composer of 
 dance-music, "how it is that the Napoleon of these tunes 
 can condescend to usurp the place of Palestrina, Pergolesi, 
 and Mozart, poor creatures who must pack and vanish at 
 the advent of that tremendous Mass for the Dead ?" 
 
 "Well, monsieur," replied the composer, "a musician al- 
 ways finds it difficult to reply when the answer needs the co- 
 operation of a hundred skilled executants. Mozart, Haydn,
 
 GAMBARA 343 
 
 and Beethoven, without an orchestra, would be of no great 
 account." 
 
 "Of no great account!" said Marcosini. "Why, all the 
 world knows that the immortal author of Don Giovanni and 
 the Requiem was named Mozart ; and I am so unhappy as not 
 to know the name of the inexhaustible writer of quadrilles 
 which are so popular in our drawing-rooms " 
 
 "Music exists independently of execution," said the re- 
 tired conductor, who, in spite of his deafness, had caught a 
 few words of the conversation. "As he looks through the 
 C-minor symphony by Beethoven, a musician is transported 
 to the world of fancy on the golden wings of the subject in 
 G-natural repeated by the horns in E. He sees a whole 
 realm, by turns glorious in dazzling shafts of light, gloomy 
 under clouds of melancholy, and cheered by heavenly strains." 
 
 "The new school has left Beethoven far behind," said the 
 ballad-writer, scornfully. 
 
 "Beethoven is not yet understood," said the Count. "How; 
 can he be excelled?" 
 
 Gambara drank a large glass of champagne, accompanying 
 the draught by a covert smile of approval. 
 
 "Beethoven," the Count went on, "extended the limits of 
 instrumental music, and no one has followed in his track." 
 
 Gambara assented with a nod. 
 
 "His work is especially noteworthy for simplicity of con- 
 struction and for the way the scheme is worked out," the 
 Count went on. "Most composers make use of the orchestral 
 parts in a vague, incoherent wa} r , combining them for a 
 merely temporary effect; they do not persistently contribute 
 to the whole mass of the movement by their steady and regu- 
 lar progress. Beethoven assigns its part to each tone-quality 
 from the first. Like the various companies which, by their dis- 
 ciplined movements, contribute to winning a battle, the or- 
 chestral parts of a symphony by Beethoven obey the plan 
 ordered for the interest of all, and are subordinate to an 
 admirably conceived scheme. 
 
 "In this he may be compared to a genius of a different
 
 344 GAMBARA 
 
 type. In Walter Scott's splendid historical novels, some 
 personage, who seems to have least to do with the action of 
 the story, intervenes at a given moment and leads up to the 
 climax by some thread woven into the plot." 
 
 "E vero!" remarked Gambara, to whom common sense 
 seemed to return in inverse proportion to sobriety. 
 
 Andrea, eager to carry the test further, for a moment for- 
 got all his predilections ; he proceeded to attack the European' 
 fame of Rossini, disputing the position which the Italian 
 school has taken by storm, night after night for more than 
 thirty years, on a hundred stages in Europe. He had under- 
 taken a hard task. The first words he spoke raised a strong 
 murmur of disapproval; but neither repeated interruptions, 
 nor exclamations, nor frowns, nor contemptuous looks, could 
 check this determined advocate of Beethoven. 
 
 "Compare," said he, "that sublime composer's works with 
 what by common consent is called Italian music. What 
 feebleness of ideas, what limpness of style ! That monotony 
 of form, those commonplace cadenzas, those endless bravura 
 passages introduced at haphazard irrespective of the dra- 
 matic situation, that recurrent crescendo that Rossini brought 
 into vogue, are now an integral part of every composition ; 
 those vocal fireworks result in a sort of babbling, chattering, 
 vaporous music, of which the sole merit depends on the 
 greater or less fluency of the singer and his rapidity of 
 vocalization. 
 
 "The Italian school has lost sight of the high mission of 
 art. Instead of elevating the crowd, it has condescended to 
 the crowd; it has won its success only by accepting the suf- 
 frages of all comers, and appealing to the vulgar minds which 
 constitute the majority. Such a success is mere street jug- 
 gling- 
 
 "In short, the compositions of Rossini, in whom this music-' 
 is personified, with those of the writers who are more or less 
 of his school, to me seem worthy at best to collect a crowd in 
 the street round a grinding organ, as an accompaniment to 
 the capers of a puppet show. I even prefer French music,
 
 GAMBARA 345 
 
 and I can say no more. Long live German music !" cried he, 
 "'when it is tuneful," he added in a low voice. 
 
 This sally was the upshot of a long preliminary discussion, 
 in which, for more than a quarter of an hour, Andrea had 
 divagated in the upper sphere of metaphysics, with the ease 
 of a somnambulist walking over the roofs. 
 
 Gambara, keenly interested in all this transcendentalism, 
 had not lost a word; he took up his parable as soon as An- 
 drea seemed to have ended, and a little stir of revived atten- 
 tion was evident among the guests, of whom several had been 
 about to leave. 
 
 "You attack the Italian school with much vigor," said Gam- 
 bara, somewhat warmed to his work by the champagne, "and, 
 for my part, you are very welcome. I, thank God, stand out- 
 side this more or less melodic frippery. Still, as a man of 
 the world, you are too ungrateful to the classic land whence 
 Germany and France derived their first teaching. While the 
 compositions of Carissimi, Cavalli, Scarlatti, and Rossi were 
 being played throughout Italy, the violin players of the 
 Paris opera house enjoyed the singular privilege of being al- 
 lowed to play in gloves. Lulli, who extended the realm of 
 harmony, and was the first to classify discords, on arriving in 
 France found but two men a cook and a mason whose 
 voice and intelligence were equal to performing his music; 
 he made a tenor of the former, and transformed the latter 
 into a bass. At that time Germany had no musician except- 
 ing Sebastian Bach. But you, monsieur, though you are so 
 young," Gambara added, in the humble tone of a man who 
 expects to find his remarks received with scorn or ill-nature, 
 "must have given much time to the study of these high mat- 
 ters of art ; you could not otherwise explain them so clearly." 
 
 This word made many of the hearers smile, for they had 
 understood nothing of the fine distinctions drawn by Andrea. 
 Giardini, indeed, convinced that the Count had been talking 
 mere rhodomontade, nudged him with a laugh in his sleeve, as 
 at a good joke in which he flattered himself that he was a 
 partner.
 
 346 GAMBARA 
 
 "There is a great deal that strikes me as very true in all 
 you have said," Gambara went on; "but be careful. Your 
 argument, while reflecting on Italian sensuality, seems to me 
 to lean towards German idealism, which is a no less fatal 
 heresy. If men of imagination and good sense, like you, 
 desert one camp only to join the other; if they cannot keep 
 to the happy medium between two forms of extravagance, we 
 shall always be exposed to the satire of the sophists, who deny 
 all progress, who compare the genius of man to this table-' 
 cloth, which, being too short to cover the whole of Signer 
 Giardini's table, decks one end at the expense of the other." 
 
 Giardini bounded in his seat as if he had been stung by a 
 horse-fly, but swift reflection restored him to his dignity as a 
 host; he looked up to heaven and again nudged the Count, 
 who was beginning to think the cook more crazy than Gam- 
 bara. 
 
 This serious and pious way of speaking of art interested the 
 Milanese extremely. Seated between these two distracted 
 brains, one so noble and the other so common, and making 
 game of each other to the great entertainment of the crowd, 
 there was a moment when the Count found himself wavering 
 between the sublime and its parody, the farcical extremes 
 of human life. Ignoring the chain of incredible events 
 which had brought them to this smoky den, he believed him- 
 self to be the plaything of some strange hallucination, and 
 thought of Gambara and Giardini as two abstractions. 
 
 Meanwhile, after a last piece of buffoonery from the deaf 
 conductor in reply to Gambara, the company had broken up 
 laughing loudly. Giardini went off to make coffee, which he 
 begged the select few to accept, and his wife cleared the 
 table. The Count, sitting near the stove between Marianna 
 and Gambara, was in the very position which the mad mu- 
 sician thought most desirable, with sensuousness on one side 
 and idealism on the other. Gambara finding himself for the 
 first time in the society of a man who did not laugh at him 
 to his face, soon diverged from generalities to talk of himself, 
 of his life, his work, and the musical regeneration of which he 
 believed himself to be the Messiah.
 
 GAMBABA 347 
 
 "Listen," said he, "you who so far have iiot insulted me. 
 I will tell you the story of my life ; not to make a boast of my 
 perseverance, which is no virtue of mine, but to the greater 
 glory of Him who has given me His strength. You seem 
 kind and pious ; if you do not believe in me at least you will 
 pity me. Pity is human ; faith comes from God." 
 
 Andrea turned and drew back under his chair the foot that 
 had been seeking that of the fair Marianna, fixing his eyes 
 on her while listening to Gambara. 
 
 "I was born at Cremona, the son of an instrument maker, 
 a fairly good performer and an even better composer," the 
 musician began. "Thus at an early age I had mastered the 
 laws of musical construction in its twofold aspects, the ma- 
 terial and the spiritual ; and as an inquisitive child I observed 
 many things which subsequently recurred to the mind of the 
 full-grown man. 
 
 "The French turned us out of our own home my father 
 and me. We were ruined by the war. Thus, at the age of 
 ten I entered on the wandering life to which most men have 
 been condemned whose brains were busy with innovations, 
 whether in art, science, or politics. Fate, or the instincts of 
 their mind which cannot fit into the compartments where 
 the trading class sit, providentially guides them to the spots 
 where they may find teaching. Led by my passion for music 
 I wandered throughout Italy from theatre to theatre, living 
 on very little, as men can live there. Sometimes I played the 
 bass in an orchestra, sometimes I was on the boards in the 
 chorus, sometimes under them with the carpenters. Thus 
 I learned every kind of musical effect, studying the tones of 
 instruments and of the human voice, wherein they differed 
 and how they harmonized, listening to the score and applying 
 the rules taught me by my father. 
 
 "It was hungry work, in a land where the sun always 
 shines, where art is all pervading, but where there is no pay 
 for the artist, since Home is but nominally the Sovereign of 
 the Christian world. Sometimes made welcome, sometimes
 
 348 GAMBARA 
 
 scouted for my poverty, I never lost courage. I heard a 
 voice within me promising me fame. 
 
 "Music seemed to me in its infancy, and I think so still. 
 All that is left to us of musical effort before the seventeenth 
 century, proves to me that early musicians knew melody only ; 
 they were ignorant of harmony and its immense resources. 
 Music is at once a science and an art. It is rooted in physics 
 and mathematics, hence it is a science; inspiration makes it 
 an art, unconsciously utilizing the theorems of science. It 
 is founded in physics by the very nature of the matter it 
 works on. Sound is air in motion. The air is formed of 
 constituents which, in us, no doubt, meet with analogous 
 elements that respond to them, sympathize, and magnify 
 them by the power of the mind. Thus the air must include 
 a vast variety of molecules of various degrees of elasticity, 
 and capable of vibrating in as many different periods as there 
 are tones from all kinds of sonorous bodies ; and these mole-> 
 cules, set in motion by the musician and falling on our ear, 
 answer to our ideas, according to each man's temperament. I 
 myself believe that sound is identical in its nature with light. 
 Sound is light, perceived under another form; each acts 
 through vibrations to which man is sensitive and which he 
 transforms, in the nervous centres, into ideas. 
 
 "Music, like painting, makes use of materials which have 
 the property of liberating this or that property from the 
 surrounding medium and so suggesting an image. The in- 
 struments in music perform this part, as color does in paint- 
 ing. And whereas each sound produced by a sonorous body 
 is invariably allied with its major third and fifth, whereas it 
 acts on grains of fine sand lying on stretched parchment so as 
 to distribute them in geometrical figures that are always the 
 same, according to the pitch, quite regular when the com- 
 bination is a true chord, and indefinite when the sounds are 
 dissonant, I say that music is an art conceived in the very 
 bowels of nature. 
 
 "Music is subject to physical and mathematical laws. 
 Physical laws are but little known, mathematics are well un-
 
 GAMBARA 349 
 
 derstood; and it is since their relations have been studied, 
 that the harmony has been created to which we owe the works 
 of Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, and Eossini, grand geniuses, 
 whose music is undoubtedly nearer to perfection than that 
 of their precursors, though their genius, too, is unquestion- 
 able. The old masters could sing, but they had not art and 
 science at their command, a noble alliance which enables 
 us to merge into one the finest melody and the power of har- 
 mony. 
 
 "Now, if a knowledge of mathematical laws gave us these 
 four great musicians, what may we not attain to if we can 
 discover the physical laws in virtue of which grasp this 
 clearly we may collect, in larger or smaller quantities, ac- 
 cording to the proportions we may require, an ethereal sub- 
 stance diffused in the atmosphere which is the medium alike 
 of music and of light, of the phenomena of vegetation and of 
 animal life ! Do you follow me ? Those new laws would arm 
 the composer with new powers by supplying him with instru- 
 ments superior to those now in use, and perhaps with 
 a potency of harmony immense as compared with that now 
 at his command. If every modified shade of sound answers 
 to a force, that must be known to enable us to combine all 
 these forces in accordance with their true laws. 
 
 "Composers work with substances of which they know 
 nothing. Why should a brass and a wooden instrument a 
 bassoon and horn have so little identity of tone, when they 
 act on the same matter, the constituent gases of the air? 
 Their differences proceed from some displacement of those 
 constituents, from the way they act on the elements which are 
 their affinity and which they return, modified by some occult 
 and unknown process. If we knew what the process was, 
 science and art would both be the gainers. Whatever ex- 
 tends science enhances art. 
 
 "Well, these are the discoveries I have guessed and made. 
 Yes/' said Gambara, with increasing vehemence, "hitherto 
 men have noted effects rather than causes. If they could but 
 master the causes, music would be the greatest of the arts.
 
 350 GAMBARA 
 
 Is it not the one which strikes deepest to the soul ? You see 
 in painting no more than it shows you; in poetry you have 
 only what the poet says ; music goes far beyond this. Does it 
 not form your taste, and rouse dormant memories? In a 
 concert-room there may be a thousand souls ; a strain is flung 
 out from Pasta's throat, the execution worthily answering to 
 the ideas that flashed through Kossini's mind as he wrote the 
 air. That phrase of Rossini's, transmitted to those attentive 
 t souls, is worked out in so many different poems. To one it 
 presents a woman long dreamed of; to another, some distant 
 shore where he wandered long ago. It rises up before him 
 with its drooping willows, its clear waters, and the hopes that 
 then played under its leafy arbors. One woman is reminded 
 of the myriad feelings that tortured her during an hour of 
 jealous} 7 , while another thinks of the unsatisfied cravings 
 of her heart, and paints in the glowing hues of a dream an 
 ideal lover, to whom she abandons herself with the rapture 
 of the woman in the Eoman mosaic who embraces a chimera ; 
 yet a third is thinking that this very evening some hoped- 
 for joy is to be hers, and rushes by anticipation into the tide 
 of happiness, its dashing waves breaking against her burning 
 bosom. Music alone has this power of throwing us back on 
 ourselves; the other arts give us infinite pleasure. But I 
 am digressing. 
 
 "These were my first ideas, vague indeed; for an inventor 
 at the beginning only catches glimpses of the dawn, as it were. 
 So I kept these glorious ideas at the bottom of my knapsack, 
 and they gave me spirit to eat the dry crust I often dipped in 
 the water of a spring. I worked, I composed airs, and, after 
 playing them on any instrument that came to hand, I went off 
 again on foot across Italy. Finally, at the age of two-and- 
 twenty, I settled in Venice, where for the first time I en- 
 joyed rest and found myself in a decent position. I there 
 made the acquaintance of a Venetian nobleman who liked my 
 ideas, who encouraged me in my investigations, and who got 
 me employment at the Venice theatre. 
 
 "Living was cheap, lodging inexpensive. I had a room in
 
 6AMBARA 351 
 
 that Capello palace from which the famous Bianca came 
 forth one evening to become a Grand Duchess of Tuscany. 
 And I would dream that my unrecognized fame would also 
 emerge from thence one day to be crowned. 
 
 U I spent my evenings at the theatre and my days in work. 
 Then came disaster. The performance of an opera in which 
 I had experimented, trying my music, was a failure. No one 
 understood my score for the Martiri. Set Beethoven before 
 the Italians and they are out of their depth. No one had 
 patience enough to wait for the effect to be produced by the 
 different motives given out by each instrument, which were 
 all at last to combine in a grand ensemble. 
 
 "I had built some hopes on the success of the Martiri, for 
 we votaries of the blue divinity Hope always discount results. 
 When a man believes himself destined to do great things, it 
 is hard not to fancy them achieved; the bushel always has 
 some cracks through which the light shines. 
 
 "My wife's family lodged in the same house, and the hope 
 of winning Marianna, who often smiled at me from her win- 
 dow, had done much to encourage my efforts. I now fell into 
 the deepest melancholy as I sounded the depths of the gulf 
 I had dropped into; for I foresaw plainly a life of poverty, 
 a perpetual struggle in which love must die. Marianna acted 
 as genius does; she jumped across every obstacle, both feet 
 at once. I will not speak of the little happiness which shed 
 its gilding on the beginning of my misfortunes. Dismayed 
 at my failure, I decided that Italy was not intelligent enough, 
 and too much sunk in the dull round of routine to accept the 
 innovations I conceived of ; so I thought of going to Germany. 
 
 "I traveled thither by wa}' of Hungary, listening to the 
 myriad voices of nature, and trying to reproduce that sublime 
 harmony by the help of instruments which I constructed or 
 altered for the purpose. These experiments involved me in 
 vast expenses which had soon exhausted my savings. And 
 yet those were our golden days. In Germany I was appre- 
 ciated. There has been nothing in my life more glorious than 
 that time. I can think of nothing to compare with the vehe-
 
 352 GAMBARA 
 
 ment joys I found by the side of Marianna, whose beauty was 
 then of really heavenly radiance and splendor. In short, I 
 was happy. 
 
 "During that period of weakness I more than once expressed 
 my passion in the language of earthly harmony. I even wrote 
 some of those airs, just like geometrical patterns, which are 
 so much admired in the world of fashion that you move in. 
 But as soon as I made a little way I met with insuperable 
 obstacles raised by my rivals, all hypercritical or unapprecia- 
 tive. 
 
 "I had heard of France as being a country where novelties 
 were favorably received, and I wanted to get there ; my wife 
 had a little money and we came to Paris. Till then no one 
 had actually laughed in my face ; but in this dreadful city I 
 had to endure that new form of torture, to which abject pov- 
 erty ere long added its bitter sufferings. Eeduced to lodging 
 in this mephitic quarter, for many months we have lived ex- 
 clusively on Marianna's sewing, she having found employ- 
 ment for her needle in working for the unhappy prostitutes 
 who make this street their hunting ground. Marianna as- 
 sures me that among those poor creatures she has met with 
 such consideration and generosity as I, for my part, ascribe 
 to the ascendency of virtue so pure that even vice is com- 
 pelled to respect it." 
 
 "Hope on," said Andrea. "Perhaps you have reached the 
 end of your trials. And while waiting for the time when my 
 endeavor, seconding yours, shall set your labors in a true 
 light, allow me, as a fellow-countryman and an artist like 
 yourself, to offer you some little advance on the undoubted 
 success of your score." 
 
 "All that has to do with matters of material existence I 
 leave to my wife," replied Gambara. "She will decide as to 
 what we may accept without a blush from so thorough a 
 gentleman as you seem to be. For my part, and it is long 
 since I have allowed myself to indulge such full confidences, 
 I must now ask you to allow me to leave you. I see a 
 melody beckoning to me, dancing and floating before me,
 
 GAMBAEA 353 
 
 bare and quivering, like a girl entreating her lover for her 
 clothes which he has hidden. Good-night. I must go and 
 dress my mistress. My wife I leave with you." 
 
 He hurried away, as a man who blames himself for the loss 
 of valuable time; and Marianna, somewhat embarrassed, 
 prepared to follow him. 
 
 Andrea dared not detain her. 
 
 Giardini came to the rescue. 
 
 "But you heard, signora," said he. "Your husband has 
 left you to settle some little matters with the Signor Conte." 
 
 Marianna sat down again, but without raising her eyes to 
 Andrea, who hesitated before speaking. 
 
 "And will not Signor Gambara's confidence entitle me to 
 his wife's?" he said in agitated tones. "Can the fair Mari- 
 anna refuse to tell me the story of her life ?" 
 
 "My life !" said Marianna. "It is the life of the ivy. If 
 you wish to know the story of my heart, you must suppose me 
 equally destitute of pride and of modesty if you can ask me 
 to tell it after what you have just heard." 
 
 "Of whom, then, can I ask it?" cried the Count, in whom 
 passion was blinding his wits. 
 
 "Of yourself," replied Marianna. "Either you understand 
 me by this time, or you never will. Try to ask yourself." 
 
 "I will, but you must listen. And this hand, which I am 
 holding, is to lie in mine as long as my narrative is truthful." 
 
 "I am listening," said Marianna. 
 
 "A woman's life begins with her first passion," said An- 
 drea. "And my dear Marianna began to live only on the day 
 when she first saw Paolo Gambara. She needed some deep 
 passion to feed upon, and, above all, some interesting weak- 
 ness to shelter and uphold. The beautiful woman's nature 
 with which she is endowed is perhaps not so truly passion as 
 maternal love. 
 
 "You sigh, Marianna? I have touched one of the aching 
 wounds in your heart. It was a noble part for you to play, 
 so young as you were, that of protectress to a noble but 
 wandering intellect. You said to yourself : Taolo will be my
 
 354 . GAMBARA 
 
 genius ; I shall be his common sense ; between us we shall be 
 that almost divine being called an angel, the sublime 
 creature that enjoys and understands, reason never stifling 
 love.' 
 
 "And then, in the first impetus of youth, you heard the 
 thousand voices of nature which the poet longed to reproduce. 
 Enthusiasm clutched you when Paolo spread before you the 
 treasures of poetry, while seeking to embody them in the 
 sublime but restricted language of music; you admired him 
 when delirious rapture carried him up and away from you, 
 for you liked to believe that all this devious energy would at 
 last come down and alight as love. But you knew not the 
 tyrannous and jealous despotism of the ideal over the minds 
 that fall in love with it. Gambara, before meeting you, had 
 given himself over to the haughty and overbearing mistress, 
 with whom you have struggled for him to this day. 
 
 "Once, for an instant, you had a vision of happiness. 
 Paolo, tumbling from the lofty sphere where his spirit was 
 constantly soaring, was amazed to find reality so sweet ; you 
 fancied that his madness would be lulled in the arms of love. 
 But before long Music again clutched her prey. The daz- 
 zling mirage which had cheated you into the joys of reciprocal 
 love made the lonely path on which you had started look more 
 desolate and barren. 
 
 "In the tale your husband has just told me, I could read, 
 as plainly as in the contrast between your looks and his, all the 
 painful secrets of that ill-assorted union, in which you have 
 accepted the sufferer's part. Though your conduct has been 
 unfailingly heroical, though your firmness has never once 
 given way in the exercise of your painful duties, perhaps, 
 in the silence of lonely nights, the heart that at this moment 
 is beating so wildly in your breast, may, from time to time, 
 have rebelled. Your husband's superiority was in itself your 
 worst torment. If he had been less noble, less single-minded, 1 
 you might have deserted him; but his virtues upheld yours; 
 you wondered, perhaps, whether his heroism or your own 
 would be the first to give way.
 
 GAMBARA 355 
 
 clung to your really magnanimous task as Paolo 
 clung to his chimera. If you had had nothing but a devotion 
 to duty to guide and sustain you, triumph might have seemed 
 easier; you would only have had to crush your heart, and 
 transfer your life into the world of abstractions; religion 
 would have absorbed all else, and you would have lived for 
 an idea, like those saintly women who kill all the instincts of 
 nature at the foot of the altar. But the all-pervading charm: 
 of Paolo, the loftiness of his mind, his rare and touching, 
 proofs of tenderness, constantly drag you down from that ideal 
 realm where virtue would fain maintain you ; they perennially 
 revive in you the energies you have exhausted in contending 
 with the phantom of love. You never suspected this ! The 
 faintest glimmer of hope led you on in pursuit of the sweet 
 vision. 
 
 "At last the disappointments of many years have under- 
 mined your patience, an angel would have lost it long 
 since, and now the apparition so long pursued is no more 
 than a shade without substance. Madness that is so nearly 
 allied to genius can know no cure in this world. When this 
 thought first struck you, you looked back on your past youth, 
 sacrificed, if not wasted; you then bitterly discerned the 
 blunder of nature that had given you a father when you 
 looked for a husband. You asked yourself whether you had 
 not gone beyond the duty of a wife in keeping yourself 
 wholly for a man who was bound up in his science. Mari- 
 anna, leave your hand in mine ; all I have said is true. And 
 you looked about you but now you were in Paris, not in 
 Italy, where men know how to love 
 
 "Oh ! Let me finish the tale," cried Marianna. "I would 
 rather say things myself. I will be honest ; I feel that I am 
 speaking to my truest friend. Yes, I was in Paris when all 
 you have expressed so clearly took place in my mind; but 
 when I saw you I was saved, for I had never met with the 
 love I had dreamed of from my childhood. My poor dress 
 and my dwelling-place had hidden me from the eyes of 
 men of your class. A few young men, whose position did
 
 356 GAMBARA 
 
 not allow of their insulting me, were all the more intolerable 
 for the levity with which they treated me. Some made game 
 of my husband, as if he were merely a ridiculous old man; 
 others basely tried to win his good graces to betray me; one 
 and all talked of getting me away from him, and none under- 
 stood the devotion I feel for a soul that is so far away from 
 us only because it is so near heaven, for that friend, that 
 brother, whose handmaid I will always be. 
 
 "You alone understood, did you not ? the tie that binds me 
 to him. Tell me that you feel a sincere and disinterested re- 
 gard for my Paolo " 
 
 "I gladly accept your praises," Andrea interrupted; "but 
 go no further; do not compel me to contradict you. I love 
 you, Marianna, as we love in the beautiful country where we 
 both were born. I love } r ou with all my soul and with all my 
 strength; but before offering you that love, I will be worthy 
 of yours. I will make a last attempt to give back to you the 
 man you have loved so long and will love forever. Till suc- 
 cess or defeat is certain, accept without any shame the modest 
 ease I can give you both. We will go to-morrow and choose 
 a place where he may live. 
 
 "Have you such regard for me as will allow you to make 
 me the partner in your guardianship?" 
 
 Marianna, surprised at such magnanimity, held out her 
 hand to the Count, who went away, trying to evade the civili- 
 ties of Giardini and his wife. 
 
 On the following day Giardini took the Count up to the 
 room where the Gambaras lodged. Though Marianna fully 
 knew her lover's noble soul, -for there are natures which 
 quickly enter into each other's spirit, Marianna was too 
 good a housewife not to betray her annoyance at receiving 
 such a fine gentleman in so humble a room. Everything was 
 exquisitely clean. She had spent the morning in dusting her 
 motley furniture, the handiwork of Signer Giardini, who had 
 put it together, at odd moments of leisure, out of the frag- 
 ments of the instruments rejected by Gambara.
 
 GAMBARA 357 
 
 Andrea had never seen anything quite so crazy. To keep a 
 decent countenance he turned away from a grotesque bed, 
 contrived by the ingenious cook in the case of an old harpsi- 
 chord, and looked at Marianna's narrow couch, of which the 
 single mattress was covered with a white muslin counterpane, 
 a circumstance that gave rise in his mind to some sad but 
 sweet thoughts. 
 
 He wished to speak of his plans and of his morning's work ; 
 but Gambara, in his enthusiasm, believing that he had at last 
 met with a willing listener, took possession of him, and com- 
 pelled him to listen to the opera he had written for Paris. 
 
 "In the first place, monsieur," said the composer, "allow 
 me to explain the subject in a few words. Here, the hearers 
 receiving a musical impression do not work it out in them- 
 selves, as religion bids us work out the texts of Scripture in 
 prayer. Hence it is very difficult to make them understand 
 that there is in nature an eternal melody, exquisitely sweet, a 
 perfect harmony, disturbed only by revolutions independent 
 of the divine will, as passions are uncontrolled by the will of 
 men. 
 
 "I, therefore, had to seek a vast framework in which effect 
 and cause might both be included; for the aim of my music 
 is to give a picture of the life of nations from the loftiest 
 point of view. My opera, for which I myself wrote the 
 libretto, for a poet would never have fully developed the 
 subject, is the life of Mahomet, a figure in whom the magic 
 of Sabaeanism combined with the Oriental poetry of the He- 
 brew Scriptures to result in one of the greatest human epics, 
 the Arab dominion. Mahomet certainly derived from the 
 Hebrews the idea of a despotic government, and from the 
 religion of the shepherd tribes or Sabseans the spirit of ex- 
 pansion which created the splendid empire of the Khalifs. 
 His destiny was stamped on him in his birth, for his father 
 was a heathen and his mother a Jewess. Ah ! my dear Count, 
 to be a great musician a man must be very learned. Without 
 knowledge he can get no local color and put no ideas into his 
 ^msic. The composer who sings for singing's sake is an arti- 
 san, not an artist.
 
 358 GAMBARA 
 
 "This magnificent opera is the continuation of the great 
 work I projected. My first opera was called The Martyrs, 
 and I intend to write a third on Jerusalem delivered. You 
 perceive the beauty of this trilogy and what a variety of 
 motives it offers, the Martyrs, Mahomet, the Deliverance of 
 Jerusalem : the God of the West, the God of the East, and the 
 struggle of their worshipers over a tomb. But we will not 
 dwell on my fame, now for ever lost. 
 
 "This is the argument of my opera." He paused. "The 
 first act," he went on, "shows Mahomet as a porter to Kadi j ah, 
 a rich widow with whom his uncle placed him. He is in love 
 and ambitious. Driven from Mecca, he escapes to Medina, 
 and dates his era from his flight, the Hegira. In the second 
 act he is a Prophet, founding a militant religion. In the 
 third, disgusted with all things, having exhausted life, Ma- 
 homet conceals the manner of his death in the hope of being 
 regarded as a god, last effort of human pride. 
 
 "Now you shall judge of my way of expressing in sound 
 a great idea, for which poetry could find no adequate expres- 
 sion in words." 
 
 Gambara sat down to the piano with an absorbed gaze, and 
 his wife brought him the mass of papers forming his score; 
 but he did not open them. 
 
 "The whole opera," said he, "is founded on a bass, as on a 
 fruitful soil. Mahomet was to have a majestic bass voice, 
 and his wife necessarily had a contralto. Kadijah was quite 
 old twenty! Attention! This is the overture. It begins 
 with an andante in C major, triple time. Do you hear the 
 sadness of the ambitious man who is not satisfied with love ? 
 Then, through his lamentation, by a transition to the key of 
 E flat, allegro, common time, we hear the cries of the epileptic 
 lover, his fury and certain warlike phrases, for the mighty, 
 scimitar of the Khalifs begins to gleam before him. The 
 charms of the one and only woman give him the impulse 
 to multiplied loves which strikes us in Don Giovanni. Now, 
 as you hear these themes, do you not catch a glimpse of 
 Mahomet's Paradise?
 
 GAMBARA 359 
 
 "And next we have a cantabile (A flat major, six-eight 
 time), that might expand the soul that is least susceptible to 
 music. Kadi j ah has understood Mahomet ! Then Kadi j ah 
 announces to the populace the Prophet's interviews with the 
 Angel Gabriel (maestoso sostenuto in F major). The mag- 
 istrates and priests, power and religion, feeling themselves 
 attacked by the innovator, as Christ and Socrates also at- 
 tacked effete or worn-out powers and religions, persecute 
 Mahomet and drive him out of Mecca (stretto in C major). 
 Then comes my beautiful dominant (G major, common 
 time). Arabia now harkens to the Prophet; horsemen arrive 
 (G major, E flat, B flat, G minor, and still common time). 
 The mass of men gathers like an avalanche ; the false Prophet 
 has begun on a tribe the work he will achieve over a world 
 (G major). 
 
 "He promises the Arabs universal dominion, and they be- 
 lieve him because he is inspired. The crescendo beings (still 
 in the dominant). Here come some flourishes (in C major) 
 from the brass, founded on the harmony, but strongly marked, 
 and asserting themselves as an expression of the first 
 triumphs. Medina has gone over to the Prophet, and the 
 whole army marches on Mecca (an explosion of sound in C 
 major). The whole power of the orchestra is worked up like 
 a conflagration ; every instrument is employed ; it is a torrent 
 of harmony. 
 
 "Suddenly the tutti is interrupted by a flowing air (on 
 the minor third). You hear the last strain of devoted love. 
 The woman who had upheld the great man dies concealing 
 her despair, dies at the moment of triumph for him in whom 
 love has become too overbearing to be content with one woman ; 
 and she worships him enough to sacrifice herself to the 
 greatness of the man who is killing her. What a blaze of 
 love! 
 
 "Then the Desert rises to overrun the world (back to 
 major) . The whole strength of the orchestra comes in again, 
 collected in a tremendous quintet grounded on the funda- 
 mental bass, and he is dying! Mahomet is world-weary;
 
 360 GAMBARA 
 
 he has exhausted everything. Now he craves to die a god. 
 Arabia, in fact, worships and prays to him, and we return 
 to the first melancholy strain (C minor) to which the curtain 
 rose. 
 
 "Now, do you not discern," said Gambara, ceasing to play, 
 and turning to the Count, "in this picturesque and vivid 
 music abrupt, grotesque, or melancholy, but always grand 
 the complete expression of the life of an epileptic, mad 
 for enjoyment, unable to read or write, using all his defects 
 as stepping-stones, turning every blunder and disaster into a 
 triumph ? Did not you feel a sense of his fascination exerted 
 over a greedy and lustful race, in this overture, which is an 
 epitome of the opera ?" 
 
 At first calm and stern, the maestro's face, in which Andrea 
 had been trying to read the ideas he was uttering in inspired 
 tones, though the chaotic flood of notes afforded no clue to 
 them, had by degrees glowed with fire and assumed an im- 
 passioned force that infected Marianna and the cook. 
 Marianna, too, deeply affected by certain passages in which 
 she recognized a picture of her own position, could not con- 
 ceal the expression of her eyes from Andrea. 
 
 Gambara wiped his brow, and shot a glance at the ceiling 
 of such fierce energy that he seemed to pierce it and soar to 
 the very skies. 
 
 "You have seen tlhe vestibule," said he ; "we will now enter 
 the palace. The opera begins: 
 
 "Act I. Mahomet, alone on the stage, begins with an air 
 (F natural, common time), interrupted by a chorus of camel- 
 drivers gathered round a well at the back of the stage (they 
 sing in contrary time twelve-eight). What majestic woe! 
 It will appeal to the most frivolous women, piercing to their 
 inmost nerves if they have no heart. Is not this the very ex- 
 pression of crushed genius?" 
 
 To Andrea's great astonishment, for Marianna was ac- 
 customed to it, Gambara contracted his larynx to such a 
 pitch that the only sound was a stifled cry not unlike the bark 
 of a watch-dog that has lost its voice. A slight foam came to 
 the composer's lips and made Andrea shudder.
 
 GAMBARA 361 
 
 "His wife appears (A minor). Such a magnificent duet! 
 In this number I have shown that Mahomet has the will and 
 his wife the brains. Kadi j ah announces that she is about 
 to devote herself to an enterprise that will rob her of her 
 young husband's love. Mahomet means to conquer the world ; 
 this his wife has guessed, and she supports him by persuading 
 the people of Mecca that her husband's attacks of epilepsy are 
 the effect of his intercourse with the angels (chorus of the 
 first followers of Mahomet, who come to promise him their 
 aid, C sharp minor, sotto voce). Mahomet goes off to seek 
 the Angel Gabriel (recitative in F major). His wife en- 
 courages the disciples (aria, interrupted by the chorus; 
 gusts of chanting support Kadijah's broad and majestic air, 
 A major). 
 
 "Abdallah, the father of Ayesha, the only maiden Ma- 
 homet had found really innocent, wherefore he changed the 
 name of Abdallah to Abubekir (the father of the virgin), 
 comes forward with Ayesha and sings against the chorus, 
 in strains which rise above the other voices and supplement 
 the air sung by Kadi j ah in contrapuntal treatment. Omar, 
 the father of another maiden who is to be Mahomet's con- 
 cubine, follows Abubekir's example; he and his daughter 
 join in to form a quintette. The girl Ayesha is first soprano, 
 Hafsa second soprano; Abubekir is a bass, Omar a baritone. 
 
 "Mahomet returns, inspired. He sings his first bravura 
 air, the beginning of the finale (E major), promising the 
 empire of the world to those who believe in him. The 
 Prophet, seeing the two damsels, then, by a gentle transi- 
 tion (from B major to G major), addresses them in amorous 
 tones. Ali, Mahomet's cousin, and Khaled, his greatest gen- 
 eral, both tenors, now arrive and announce the persecution; 
 the magistrates, the military, and the authorities have all 
 proscribed the Prophet (recitative). Mahomet declares in 
 an invocation (in C) that the Angel Gabriel is on his side, 
 and points to a pigeon that is seen flying away. The chorus 
 of believers responds in accents of devotion (on a modulation 
 to B major). The soldiers, magistrates, and officials then
 
 862 GAMBARA 
 
 come on (tempo di marcia, common time, B major). A 
 chorus in two divisions (stretto in E major). Mahomet 
 yields to the storm (in a descending phrase of diminished 
 sevenths) and makes his escape. The fierce and gloomy tone 
 of this finale is relieved by the phrases given to the three wo- 
 men who foretell Mahomet's triumph, and these motives are 
 further developed in the third act in the scene where Ma- 
 homet is enjoying his splendor." 
 
 I The tears rose to Gambara's eyes, and it was only upon con- 
 trolling his emotion that he went on. 
 
 "Act II. The religion is now established. The Arabs are 
 guarding the Prophet's tent while he speaks with God (chorus 
 in A minor). Mahomet appears (a prayer in F). What a 
 majestic and noble strain is this that forms the bass of the 
 voices, in which I have perhaps enlarged the borders of 
 melody. It was needful to express the wonderful energy of 
 this great human movement which created an architecture, 
 a music, a poetry of its own, a costume and manners. As 
 you listen, you are walking under the arcades of the Gen- 
 eralife, the carved vaults of the Alhambra. The runs and 
 trills depict that delicate mauresque decoration, and the 
 gallant and valorous religion which was destined to wage 
 war against the gallant and valorous chivalry of Christen- 
 dom. A few brass instruments awake in the orchestra, an- 
 nouncing the Prophet's first triumph (in a broken cadenza). 
 The Arabs adore the Prophet (E flat major), and Khaled, 
 Amru, and Ali arrive (tempo di marcia). The armies of 
 the faithful have taken many towns and subjugated the three 
 Arabias. Such a grand recitative ! Mahomet rewards his 
 generals by presenting them with maidens. 
 
 "And here," said Gambara, sadly, "there is one of those 
 wretched ballets, which interrupt the thread of the finest 
 musical tragedies! But Mahomet elevates it once more by 
 'his great prophetic scene, which poor Monsieur Voltaire be- 
 gins with these words : 
 
 "Arabia's time at last has come!
 
 GAMBARA 363 
 
 "He is interrupted by a chorus of triumphant Arabs 
 (twelve-eight time, accelerando). The tribes arrive in 
 crowds ; the horns and brass reappear in the orchestra. Gen- 
 eral rejoicings ensue, all the voices joining in by degrees, and 
 Mahomet announces polygamy. In the midst of all this 
 triumph, the woman who has been of such faithful service to 
 Mahomet sings a magnificent air (in B major). 'And I/ 
 says she, 'am I no longer loved?' 'We must part. Thou art 
 :"but a woman, and I am a Prophet ; I may still have slaves but 
 no equal.' Just listen to this duet (G- sharp minor). What 
 anguish ! The woman understands the greatness her hands 
 have built up; she loves Mahomet well enough to sacrifice 
 herself to his glory; she worships him as a god, without 
 criticising him, without murmuring. Poor woman ! His 
 first dupe and his first victim ! 
 
 "What a subject for the finale (in B major) is her grief, 
 brought out in such sombre hues against the acclamations of - 
 the chorus, and mingling with Mahomet's tones as he throws 
 his wife aside as a tool of no further use, still showing her 
 that he can never forget her! What fireworks of triumph! 
 what a rush of glad and rippling song go up from the two 
 young voices (first and second soprano) of Ayesha and Hafsa, 
 supported by Ali and his wife, by Omar and Abubekir! 
 Weep ! rejoice ! Triumph and tears ! Such is life." 
 
 Marianna could not control her tears, and Andrea was so 
 deeply moved that his eyes were moist. The Neapolitan cook 
 was startled by the magnetic influence of the ideas expressed 
 by Gambara's convulsive accents. 
 
 The composer looked round, saw the group, and smiled. 
 
 "At last you understand me !" said he. 
 
 No conqueror, led in pomp to the Capitol under the purple 
 beams of glory, as the crown was placed on his head amid 
 the acclamations of a nation, ever wore such an expression. 
 The composer's face was radiant, like that of a holy martyr. 
 No one dispelled the error. A terrible smile parted 
 Marianna's lips. The Count was appalled by the guileless- 
 ness of this mania.
 
 394 GAMBARA 
 
 "Act III/' said the enchanted musician, reseating him- 
 self at the piano. "(Andantino, solo.) Mahomet in his 
 seraglio, surrounded by women, but not happy. Quartette 
 of Houris (A major). What pompous harmony, what trills 
 as of ecstatic nightingales! Modulation (into F sharp 
 minor). The theme is stated (on the dominant E and re- 
 peated in F major). Here every delight is grouped and ex- 
 pressed to give effect to the contrast of the gloomy finale of 
 the first act. After the dancing, Mahomet rises and sings a 
 grand bravura air (in F minor), repelling the perfect and 
 devoted love of his first wife, but confessing himself con- 
 quered by polygamy. Never has a musician had so fine a 
 subject ! The orchestra and the chorus of female voices ex- 
 press the joys of the Houris, while Mahomet reverts to the 
 melancholy strain of the opening. Where is Beethoven," 
 cried Gambara, "to appreciate this prodigious reaction of my 
 opera on itself ? How completely it all rests on the bass. 
 
 "It is thus that Beethoven composed his E minor sym- 
 phony. But his heroic work is purely instrumental, whereas 
 here, my heroic phrase is worked out on a sextette of the 
 finest human voices, and a chorus of the faithful on guard 
 at the door of the sacred dwelling. I have every resource 
 of melody and harmony at my command, an orchestra and 
 voices. Listen to the utterance of all these phases of human 
 life, rich and poor ; battle, triumph, and exhaustion ! 
 
 "Ali arrives, the Koran prevails in every province (duet 
 in D minor). Mahomet places himself in the hands of his 
 two fathers-in-law; he will abdicate his rule and die in re- 
 tirement to consolidate his work. A magnificent sextette (B 
 flat major). He takes leave of all (solo in F natural). His 
 two fathers-in-law, constituted his vicars or Khalifs, appeal 
 to the people. A great triumphal march, and a prayer by 
 all the Arabs kneeling before the sacred house, the Kasbah, 
 from which a pigeon is seen to fly away (the same key). 
 This prayer, sung by sixty voices and led by the women (in 
 B flat), crowns the stupendous work expressive of the life of
 
 GAMBARA 365 
 
 nations and of man. Here you have every emotion, human 
 and divine." 
 
 Andrea gazed at Gambara in blank amazement. Though 
 at first he had been struck by the terrible irony of the situa- 
 tion, this man expressing the feelings of Mahomet's wife 
 without discovering them in Marianna, the husband's 
 hallucination was as nothing compared with the composer's. 
 There was no hint even of a poetical or musical idea in the 
 hideous cacophony with which he had deluged their ears ; the 
 first principles of harmony, the most elementary rules of com- 
 position, were absolutely alien to this chaotic structure. In- 
 stead of the scientifically compacted music which Gambara 
 described, his fingers produced sequences of fifths, sevenths, 
 and octaves, of major thirds, progressions of fourths with no 
 supporting bass, a medley of discordant sounds struck out 
 haphazard in such a way as to be excruciating to the least 
 sensitive ear. It is difficult to give any idea of the grotesque 
 performance. New words would be needed to describe this 
 impossible music. 
 
 Andrea, painfully affected by this worthy man's madness, 
 colored, and stole a glance at Marianna; while she, turning 
 pale and looking down, could not restrain her tears. In the 
 midst of this chaos of notes, Gambara had every now and 
 then given vent to his rapture in exclamations of delight. 
 He had closed his eyes in ecstasy; had smiled at his piano; 
 had looked at it with a frown ; put out his tongue at it after 
 the fashion of the inspired performer, in short, was quite 
 intoxicated with the poetry that filled his brain, and that he 
 had vainly striven to utter. The strange discords that clashed 
 under his fingers had obviously sounded in his ears like 
 celestial harmonies. 
 
 A deaf man, seeing the inspired gaze of his blue eyes 
 open on another world, the rosy glow that tinged his cheeks, 
 and, above all, the heavenly serenity which ecstasy stamped 
 on his proud and noble countenance, would have supposed 
 that he was looking on at the improvisation of a really great 
 artist. The illusion would have been all the more natural
 
 366 6AMBARA 
 
 because the performance of this mad music required i 
 executive skill to achieve such fingering. Gambara must have 
 worked at it for years. 
 
 Nor were his hands alone employed; his feet were con- 
 stantly at work with complicated pedaling; his body swayed 
 to and fro; the perspiration poured down his face while he 
 toiled to produce a great crescendo with the feeble means 
 the thankless instrument placed at his command. He 
 stamped, puffed, shouted; his fingers were as swift as the 
 serpent's double tongue; and finally, at the last crash on 
 the keys, he fell back in his chair, resting his head on the top 
 of it. 
 
 "Per Bacco! I am quite stunned," said the Count as he 
 left the house. "A child dancing on the keyboard would 
 make better music." 
 
 "Certainly mere chance could not more successfully avoid 
 hitting two notes in concord than that possessed creature 
 has done during the past hour," said Giardini. 
 
 "How is it that the regular beauty of Marianna's features is 
 not spoiled by incessantly hearing such a hideous medley?'' 
 said the Count to himself. "Marianna will certainly grow 
 
 ugly." 
 
 "Signor, she must be saved from that," cried Giardini. 
 
 "Yes," said Andrea. "I have thought of that. Still, to 
 be sure that my plans are not based on error, I must con- 
 firm my doubts by another experiment. I will return and 
 examine the instruments he has invented. To-morrow, after 
 dinner, we will have a little supper. I will send in some 
 wine and little dishes." 
 
 The cook bowed. 
 
 Andrea spent the following day in superintending the ar- 
 rangement of the rooms where he meant to install the artist 
 in a humble home. 
 
 In the evening the Count made his appearance, and found 
 the wine, according to his instructions, set out with some 
 care by Marianna and Giardini. . Gambara proudly exhibited 
 the little drums, on which lay the powder by means of which
 
 GAMBARA 367 
 
 he made his observations on the pitch and quality of the 
 sounds emitted by his instruments. 
 
 "You see," said he, "by what simple means I can prove the 
 most important propositions. Acoustics thus can show me 
 the analogous effects of sound on every object of its impact. 
 All harmonies start from a common centre and preserve the 
 closest relations among themselves; or rather, harmony, like 
 light, is decomposable by our art as a ray is by a prism." 
 
 He then displayed the instruments constructed in accord- 
 ance with his laws, explaining the changes he had introduced 
 into their constitution. And finally he announced that to 
 conclude this preliminary inspection, which could only satisfy 
 a superficial curiosity, he would perform on an instrument 
 that contained all the elements of a complete orchestra, and 
 which he called a Panharmonicon. 
 
 "If it is the machine in that huge case, which brings 
 down on us the' complaints of the neighborhood whenever you 
 work at it, you will not play on it long," said Giardini. "The 
 police will interfere. Eemember that !" 
 
 "If that poor idiot stays in the room," said Gambara in a 
 whisper to the Count, "I cannot possibly play." 
 
 Andrea dismissed the cook, promising a handsome reward 
 if he would keep watch outside and hinder the neighbors or the 
 police from interfering. Giardini, who had not stinted him- 
 self while helping Gambara to wine, was quite willing. 
 
 Gambara, without being drunk, was in the condition when 
 every power of the brain is over-wrought; when the walls 
 of the room are transparent; when the garret has no roof, 
 and the soul soars in the empyrean of spirits. 
 
 Marianna, with some little difficulty, removed the covers 
 from an instrument as large as a grand piano, but with an 
 upper case added. This strange-looking instrument, besides 
 this second body and its keyboard, supported the openings or 
 bells of various wind instruments and the closed funnels of 
 a few organ pipes. 
 
 "Will you play me the prayer you say is so fine at the end 
 of your opera?" said the Count.
 
 868 GAMBARA 
 
 To the great surprise of both Marianna and the Count, 
 Gambara began with a succession of chords that proclaimed 
 him a master; and their astonishment gave way first to 
 amazed admiration and then to perfect rapture, effacing all 
 thought of the place and the performer. The effects of a 
 real orchestra \?ould not have been finer than the voices of 
 the wind instruments, which were like those of an organ and 
 combined wonderfully with the harmonies of the strings. 
 But the unfinished condition of the machine set limits to 
 the composer's execution, and his idea seemed all the greater ; 
 for, often, the very perfection of a work of art limits its sug- 
 gestiveness to the recipient soul. Is not this proved by the 
 preference accorded to a sketch rather than a finished picture 
 when on their trial before those who interpret a work in their 
 own mind rather than accept it rounded off and complete? 
 
 The purest and serenest music that Andrea had ever 
 listened to rose up from under Gambara's fingers like the 
 vapor of incense from an altar. The composer's voice grew 
 young again, and, far from marring the noble melody, it 
 elucidated it, supported it, guided it, just as the feeble and 
 quavering voice of an accomplished reader, such as Andrieux, 
 for instance, can expand the meaning of some great scene by 
 Corneille or Eacine by lending personal and poetical feeling. 
 
 This really angelic strain showed what treasures lay hidden 
 in that stupendous opera, which, however, would never find 
 comprehension so long as the musician persisted in trying to 
 explain it in his present demented state. His wife and the 
 Count were equally divided between the music and their sur- 
 prise at this hundred-voiced instrument, inside which a 
 stranger might have fancied an invisible chorus of girls were 
 hidden, so closely did some of the tones resemble the human 
 voice; and they dared not express their ideas by a look or a 
 word. Marianna's face was lighted up by a radiant beam 
 of hope which revived the glories of her youth. This 
 renascence of beauty, co-existent with the luminous glow of 
 her husband's genius, cast a shade of regret on the Count's 
 exquisite pleasure in this mysterious hour.
 
 GAMBARA 369 
 
 f *You are our good genius!" whispered Marianna. "I 
 am tempted to believe that you actually inspire him; for I, 
 who never am away from him, have never heard anything 
 like this." 
 
 "And Kadijah's farewell !" cried Gambara, who sang the 
 cavatina which he had described the day before as sublime, 
 and which now brought tears to the eyes of the lovers, so per- 
 fectly did it express the loftiest devotion of love. 
 
 "Who can have taught you such strains ?" cried the Count. 
 
 "The Spirit," said Gambara. "When he appears, all is 
 fire. I see the melodies there before me; lovely, fresh in 
 vivid hues like flowers. They beam on me, they ring out, 
 and I listen. But it takes a long, long time to reproduce 
 them." 
 
 "Some more I" said Marianna. 
 
 Gambara, who could not tire, played on without effort or 
 antics. He performed his overture with such skill, bringing 
 out such rich and original musical effects, that the Count 
 was quite dazzled, and at last believed in some magic like 
 that commanded by Paganini and Liszt, a style of execution 
 which changes every aspect of music as an art, by giving it 
 a poetic quality far above musical inventions. 
 
 "Well, Excellenza, and can you cure him ?" asked Giardini, 
 as Andrea came out. 
 
 "I shall soon find out," replied the Count. "This man's 
 intellect has two windows; one is closed to the world, the 
 other is open to the heavens. The first is music, the second 
 is poetry. Till now he has insisted on sitting in front of 
 the shuttered window; he must be got to the other. It was 
 you, Giardini, who first started me in the right track, by tell- 
 ing me that your client's mind was clearer after drinking a 
 few glasses of wine." 
 
 "Yes," cried the cook, "and I can see what your plan is." 
 
 "If it is not too late to make the thunder of poetry audi- 
 ble to his ears, in the midst of the harmonies of some noble 
 music, we must put him into a condition to receive it and ap-
 
 370 GAMBAEA 
 
 predate it. Will you help me to intoxicate Gambara, my 
 good fellow ? Will you be none the worse for it ?" 
 
 "What do you mean, Excellenza?" 
 
 Andrea went off without answering him, laughing at the 
 acumen still left to this cracked wit. 
 
 On the following day he called for Marianna, who had 
 spent the morning in arranging her dress, a simple but 
 decent outfit, on which she had spent all her little savings. 
 The transformation would have destroyed the illusions of a 
 mere dangler; but Andrea's caprice had become a passion. 
 Marianna, diverted of her picturesque poverty, and looking 
 like any ordinary woman of modest rank, inspired dreams of 
 wedded life. 
 
 He handed her into a hackney coach, and told her of the 
 plans he had in his head; and she approved of everything, 
 happy in finding her admirer more lofty, more generous, 
 more disinterested than she had dared to hope. He took her 
 to a little apartment, where he had allowed himself to remind 
 her of his good offices by some of the elegant trifles which 
 have a charm for the most virtuous women. 
 
 "I will never speak to you of love till you give up all hope 
 of your Paolo," said the Count to Marianna, as he bid her 
 good-bye at the Hue Froid-Manteau. "You will be witness 
 to the sincerity of my attempts. If they succeed, I may 
 find myself unequal to keeping up my part as a friend ; but in 
 that case I shall go far away, Marianna. Though I have 
 firmness enough to work for your happiness, I shall not have 
 so much as will enable me to look on at it." 
 
 "Do not say such things. Generosity, too, has its dan- 
 gers," said she, swallowing down her tears. "But are you 
 going now?" 
 
 "Yes," said Andrea; "be happy, without any drawbacks." 
 
 If Giardini might be believed, the new treatment was 
 beneficial to both husband and wife. Every evening after 
 his wine, Gambara seemed less self-centered, talked more, 
 and with great lucidity ; he even spoke at last of reading the
 
 GAMBARA 371 
 
 papers. Andrea could not help quaking at his unexpectedly 
 rapid success ; but though his distress made him aware of the 
 strength of his passion, it did not make him waver in his 
 virtuous resolve. 
 
 One day he called to note the progress of this singular 
 cure. Though the state of the patient at first gave him sat- 
 isfaction, his joy was dashed by Marianna's beauty, for an 
 easy life had restored its brilliancy. He called now every 
 evening to enjoy calm and serious conversation, to which he 
 contributed lucid and well considered arguments controvert- 
 ing Gambara's singular theories. He took advantage of the 
 remarkable acumen of the composer's mind as to every point 
 not too directly bearing on his manias, to obtain his assent 
 to principles in various branches of art, and apply them sub- 
 sequently to music. All was well so long as the patient's 
 brain was heated with the fumes of wine; but as soon as he 
 had recovered or, rather, lost his reason, he was a mono- 
 maniac once more. 
 
 However, Paolo was already more easily diverted by the 
 impression of outside things ; his mind was more capable of 
 addressing itself to several points at a time. 
 
 Andrea, who took an artistic interest in his semi-medical 
 treatment, thought at last that the time had come for a great 
 experiment. He would give a dinner at his own house, to 
 which he would invite Giardini for the sake of keeping the 
 tragedy and the parody side by side, and afterwards take the 
 party to the first performance of Robert le Diable. He had 
 3een it in rehearsal, and he judged it well fitted to open his 
 patient's eyes. 
 
 By the end of the second course, Gambara was already 
 tipsy, laughing at himself with a very good grace; while 
 Giardini confessed that his own culinary innovations were 
 not worth a rush. Andrea had neglected nothing that could 
 contribute to this twofold miracle. The wines of Orvieto 
 and of Montefiascone, conveyed with the peculiar care needed 
 in moving them, Lachrymachristi and Giro, all the heady 
 liqueurs of la cara Patria, went to their brains with the
 
 372 GAMBARA 
 
 intoxication alike of the grape and of fond memory. At 
 dessert the musician and the cook both abjured every heresy ; 
 one was humming a cavatina by Kossini, and the other piling 
 delicacies on his plate and washing them down with 
 Maraschino from Zara, to the prosperity of the French cuisine. 
 
 The Count took advantage of this happy frame of mind, 
 and Gambara allowed himself to be taken to the opera like 
 a lamb. 
 
 At the first introductory notes Gambara's intoxication 
 appeared to clear away and make way for the feverish excite- 
 ment which sometimes brought his judgment and his imagina- 
 tion into perfect harmony ; for it was their habitual disagree- 
 ment, no doubt, that caused his madness. The ruling idea 
 of that great musical drama appeared to him, no doubt, in 
 its noble simplicity, like a lightning flash, illuminating the 
 utter darkness in which he lived. To his unsealed eyes this 
 music revealed the immense horizons of a world in which 
 he found himself for the first time, though recognizing it 
 as that he had seen in his dreams. He fancied himself trans- 
 ported into the scenery of his native land, where that beautiful 
 Italian landscape begins at what Napoleon so cleverly de- 
 scribed as the glacis of the Alps. Carried back by memory 
 to the time when his young and eager brain was as yet un 
 troubled by the ecstasy of his too exuberant imagination 
 he listened with religious awe and would not utter a single 
 word. The Count respected the internal travail of his soul. 
 Till half-past twelve Gambara sat so perfectly motionless 
 that the frequenters of the opera house took him, no doubt, 
 for what he was a man drunk. 
 
 On their return, Andrea began to attack Meyerbeer's work, 
 in order to wake up Gambara, who sat sunk in the half -torpid 
 state common in drunkards. 
 
 ''What is there in that incoherent score to reduce you to 
 a condition of somnambulism?" asked Andrea, when they 
 got out at his house. "The story of Robert le Diable, to be 
 sure, is not devoid of interest, and Holtei has worked it out 
 with great skill in a drama that is very well written and full
 
 GAMBARA 873 
 
 of strong and pathetic situations; but the French librettist 
 has contrived to extract from it the most ridiculous farrago 
 of nonsense. The absurdities of the libretti of Vesari and 
 Schikander are not to compare with those of the words of 
 Robert le Diable ; it is a dramatic nightmare, which oppresses 
 the hearer without deeply moving him. 
 
 "And Meyerbeer has given the devil a too prominent part. 
 Bertram and Alice represent the contest between right and 
 wrong, the spirits of good and evil. This antagonism of- 
 fered a splendid opportunity to the composer. The sweetest 
 melodies, in juxtaposition with harsh and crude strains, was 
 the natural outcome of the form of the story; but in the 
 German composer's score the demons sing better than the 
 saints. The heavenly airs belie their origin, and when the 
 composer abandons the infernal motives he returns to them 
 as soon as possible, fatigued with the effort of keeping aloof 
 from them. Melody, the golden thread that ought never to 
 be lost throughout so vast a plan, often vanishes from Meyer- 
 beer's work. Feeling counts for nothing, the heart has no 
 part in it. Hence we never come upon those happy inven- 
 tions, those artless scenes, which captivate all our sympathies 
 and leave a blissful impression on the soul. 
 
 "Harmony reigns supreme, instead of being the foundation 
 from which the melodic groups of the musical picture stand 
 forth. These discordant combinations, far from moving 
 the listener, arouse in him a feeling analogous to that which 
 he would experience on seeing a rope-dancer hanging to a 
 thread and s\vaying between life and death. Never does a 
 soothing strain come in to mitigate the fatiguing suspense. 
 It really is as though the composer had had no other object 
 in view than to produce a baroque effect without troubling 
 himself about musical truth or unity, or about the capabilities 
 of human voices which are swamped by this flood of instru- 
 mental noise." 
 
 "Silence, my friend !" cried Gambara. "I am still under 
 the spell of that glorious chorus of hell, made still more ter- 
 rible by the long trumpets, a new method of instrumenta-
 
 874 GAMBARA 
 
 tion. The broken cadenzas which give such force to Robert's 
 scene, the cavatina in the fourth act, the finale of the first, 
 all hold me in the grip of a supernatural power. No, not 
 even Gluck's declamation ever produced so prodigious an 
 effect, and I am amazed by such skill and learning." 
 
 "Signer Maestro," said Andrea, smiling, "allow me to con- 
 tradict you. Gluck, before he wrote, reflected long; he cal- 
 culated the chances, and he decided on a plan which might 
 ,be subsequently modified by his inspirations as to detail, but 
 hindered him from ever losing his way. Hence his power 
 of emphasis, his declamatory style thrilling with life and 
 truth. I quite agree with you that Meyerbeer's learning is 
 transcendent; but science is a defect when it evicts inspira- 
 tion, and it seems to me that we have in this opera the pain- 
 ful toil of a refined craftsman who in his music has but 
 picked up thousands of phrases out of other operas, damned 
 or forgotten, and appropriated them, while extending, modify- 
 ing, or condensing them. But he has fallen into the error 
 of all selectors of centos, an abuse of good things. This 
 clever harvester of notes is lavish of discords, which, when 
 too often introduced, fatigue the ear till those great effects 
 pall upon it which a composer should husband with care 
 to make the more effective use of them when the situation 
 requires it. These enharmonic passages recur to satiety, and 
 the abuse of the plagal cadence deprives it of its religious 
 solemnity. 
 
 "I know, of course, that every musician has certain forms 
 to which he drifts back in spite of himself ; he should watch 
 himself so as to avoid that blunder. A picture in which 
 there were no colors but blue and red would be untrue to 
 nature, and fatigue the eye. And thus the constantly re- 
 curring rhythm in the score of Robert le Diable makes the 
 work, as a whole, appear monotonous. As to the effect of the 
 long trumpets, of which you speak, it has long been known 
 in Germany; and what Meyerbeer offers us as a novelty was 
 constantly used by Mozart, who gives just such a chorus to 
 the devils in Don Giovanni"
 
 GAMBARA 375 
 
 By plying Gambara, meanwhile, with fresh libations, 
 Andrea thus strove, by his contradictoriness, to bring the mu- 
 sician back to a true sense of music, by proving to him that 
 his so-called mission was not to try to regenerate an art be- 
 yond his powers, but to seek to express himself in another 
 form ; namely, that of poetry. 
 
 "But, my dear Count, you have understood nothing of 
 that stupendous musical drama," said Gambara, airily, as 
 standing in front of Andrea's piano he struck the keys, 
 listened to the tone, and then seated himself, meditating for 
 a few minutes as if to collect his ideas. 
 
 "To begin with, you must know," said he, "that an ear 
 as practised as mine at once detected that labor of choice 
 and setting of which you spoke. Yes, the music has been 
 selected, lovingly, from the storehouse of a rich and fertile 
 imagination wherein learning has squeezed every idea to 
 extract the very essence of music. I will illustrate the pro- 
 cess." 
 
 He rose to carry the candles into the adjoining room, 
 and before sitting down again he drank a full glass of Giro, 
 a Sardinian wine, as full of fire as the old wines of Tokay 
 can inspire. 
 
 "Now, you see," said Gambara, "this music is not written 
 for misbelievers, nor for those who know not love. If you 
 have never suffered from the virulent attacks of an evil 
 spirit who shifts your object just as you are taking aim, 
 who puts a fatal end to your highest hopes, in one word, 
 if you have never felt the devil's tail whisking over the world, 
 the opera of Robert le Diable must be to you, what the 
 Apocalypse is to those who believe that all things will end 
 with them. But if, persecuted and wretched, you understand 
 that Spirit of Evil, the monstrous ape who is perpetually 
 employed in destroying the work of God, if you can con- 
 ceive of him as having, not indeed loved, but ravished, an al- 
 most divine woman, and achieved through her the joy of 
 paternity ; as so loving his son that he would rather have him 
 eternally miserable with himself than think of him as eter-
 
 376 GAMBARA 
 
 nally happy with God; if, finally, you can imagine the mother's 
 soul for ever hovering over the child's head to snatch it from 
 the atrocious temptations offered by its father, even then 
 you will have but a faint idea of this stupendous drama, 
 which needs but little to make it worthy of comparison with 
 Mozart's Don Giovanni. Don Giovanni is in its perfection 
 the greater, I grant; Robert le Diable expresses ideas, Don 
 Giovanni arouses sensations. Don Giovanni is as yet the 
 only musical work in which harmony and melody are com- 
 bined in exactly the right proportions. In this lies its only 
 superiority, for Robert is the richer work. But how vain 
 are such comparisons since each is so beautiful in its own 
 way! 
 
 "To me, suffering as I do from the demon's repeated 
 shocks, Robert spoke with greater power than to you ; it struck 
 me as being at the same time vast and concentrated. 
 
 "Thanks to you, I have been transported to the glorious 
 land of dreams where our senses expand, and the world works 
 on a scale which is gigantic as compared with man." 
 
 He was silent for a space. 
 
 "I am trembling still," said the ill-starred artist, "from the 
 four bars of cymbals which pierced to my marrow as they 
 open that short, abrupt introduction with its solo for trom- 
 bone, its flutes, oboes, and clarionet, all suggesting the most 
 fantastic effects of color. The andante in C minor is a 
 foretaste of the subject of the evocation of the ghosts in the 
 abbey, and gives grandeur to the scene by anticipating the 
 spiritual struggle. I shivered." 
 
 Gambara pressed the keys with a firm hand and expanded 
 Meyerbeer's theme in a masterly fantasia, a sort of outpour- 
 ing of his soul after the manner of Liszt. It was no longer 
 the piano, it was a whole orchestra that they heard ; the very 
 genius of music rose before them. 
 
 "That is worthy of Mozart!" he exclaimed. "See how 
 that German can handle his chords, and through what mas- 
 terly modulations he raises the image of terror to come to 
 the dominant C. I can hear all hell in it !
 
 GAMBARA 377 
 
 "The curtain rises. What do I see? The only scene to 
 which we gave the epithet infernal: an orgy of knights in 
 Sicily. In that chorus in F every human passion is unchained 
 in a bacchanalian allegro. Every thread by which the devil 
 holds us is pulled. Yes, that is the sort of glee that comes 
 over men when they dance on the edge of a precipice; they 
 make themselves giddy. What go there is in that chorus ! 
 
 "Against that chorus the reality of life the simple life 
 of every-day virtue stands out in the air, in G minor, sung by 
 Kaimbaut. For a moment it refreshed my spirit to hear 
 the simple fellow, representative of verdurous and fruitful 
 Normandy, which he brings to Eobert's mind in the midst 
 of his drunkenness. The sweet influence of his beloved na- 
 tive land lends a touch of tender color to this gloomy open- 
 ing. 
 
 "Then comes the wonderful air in C major, supported 
 by the chorus in C minor, so expressive of the subject. 'Je 
 suis Robert!' he immediately breaks out. The wrath of the 
 prince, insulted by his vassal, is already more than natural 
 anger; but it will die away, for memories of his childhood 
 come to him, with Alice, in the bright and graceful allegro 
 in A major. 
 
 "Can you not hear the cries of the innocent dragged 
 into this infernal drama, a persecuted creature? 'Non, 
 non,' " sang Gambara, who made the consumptive piano sing. 
 "His native land and tender emotions have come back to him ; 
 his childhood and its memories have blossomed anew in 
 Kobert's heart. And now his mother's shade rises up, bring- 
 ing with it soothing religious thoughts. It is religion that 
 lives in that beautiful song in E major, with its wonderful 
 harmonic and melodic progression in the words : 
 
 ' ' Car dans leg cieux, coinme sur la terre, 
 Sa mere va prier pour lui. 
 
 "Here the struggle begins between the unseen powers and 
 the only human being who has the fire of hell in his veins 
 to enable him to resist them; and to make this quite clear.
 
 378 GAMBARA 
 
 as Bertram tomes on, the great musician has given the or- 
 chestra a passage introducing a reminiscence of Eaimbaut's 
 ballad. What a stroke of art ! What cohesion of all the 
 parts ! What solidity of structure ! 
 
 "The devil is there, in hiding, but restless. The conflict 
 of the antagonistic powers opens with Alice's terror; she 
 recognizes the devil of the image of Saint Michael in her 
 village. The musical subject is worked out through an end- 
 less variety of phases. The antithesis indispensable in opera 
 is emphatically presented in a noble recitative, such as a Gluck 
 might have composed, between Bertram and Eobert: 
 
 " Tu ne sauras jamais & quel excea je t'aime. 
 
 "In that diabolical C minor, Bertram, with his terrible bass, 
 begins his work of undermining which will overthrow every 
 effort of the vehement, passionate man. 
 
 "Here, everything is appalling. Will the crime get pos- 
 session of the criminal ? Will the executioner seize his victim ? 
 Will sorrow consume the artist's genius? Will the disease 
 kill the patient? or, will the guardian angel save the Chris- 
 tian? 
 
 "Then comes the finale, the gambling scene in which 
 Bertram tortures his son by rousing him to tremendous 
 emotions. Kobert, beggared, frenzied, searching every- 
 thing, eager for blood, fire, and sword, is his own son; in 
 this mood he is exactly like his father. What hideous glee 
 we hear in Bertram's words : 'Je ris de tes coups !' And how 
 perfectly the Venetian barcarole comes in here. Through 
 what wondrous transitions the diabolical parent is brought on 
 to the stage once more to make Robert throw the dice. 
 
 "This first act is overwhelming to any one capable of work- 
 ing out the subjects in his very heart, and lending them the 
 breadth of development which the composer intended them to 
 call forth. 
 
 "Nothing but love could now be contrasted with this noble 
 symphony of song, in which you will detect no monotony,
 
 GAMBARA 379 
 
 no repetition of means and effects. It is one, but many; 
 the characteristic of all that is truly great and natural. 
 
 "I breathe more freely; I find myself in the elegant circle 
 of a gallant court ; I hear Isabella's charming phrases, fresh, 
 but almost melancholy, and the female chorus in two divi- 
 sions, and in imitation, with a suggestion of the Moorish color- 
 ing of Spain. Here the terrifying music is softened to gen- 
 tler hues, like a storm dying away, and ends in the florid 
 prettiness of a duet wholly unlike anything that has come 
 before it. After the turmoil of a camp full of errant heroes, 
 we have a picture of love. Poet ! I thank thee ! My heart 
 could not have borne much more. If I could not here and 
 there pluck the daisies of a French light opera, if I could 
 not hear the gentle wit of a woman able to love and to charm, 
 I could not endure the terrible deep note on which Bertram 
 comes in, saying to his son: 'Si je le permets!' when Robert 
 has promised the princess he adores that he will conquer with 
 the arms she has bestowed on him. 
 
 "The hopes of the gambler cured by love, the love of a 
 most beautiful woman, did you observe that magnificent 
 Sicilian, with her hawk's eye secure of her prey? (What 
 interpreters that composer has found !) the hopes of the man 
 are mocked at by the hopes of hell in the tremendous cry: 
 'A toi, Robert de Normandie!' 
 
 "And are not you struck by the gloom and horror of those 
 long-held notes, to which the words are set: 'Dans la foret 
 prochaine'? We find here all the sinister spells of Jerusa- 
 lem Delivered, just as we find all chivalry in the chorus with 
 the Spanish lilt, and in the march tune. How original is 
 the allegro with the modulations of the four cymbals (tuned 
 to C, D, C, G,) ! How elegant is the call to the lists ! The 
 whole movement of the heroic life of the period is there; 
 the mind enters into it; I read in it a romance, a poem of 
 chivalry. The exposition is now finished; the resources of 
 music would seem to be exhausted; you have never heard 
 anything like it before; and yet it is homogeneous. You 
 have had life set before you, and its one and only crux: 'Shall
 
 380 GAMBARA 
 
 I be happy or unhappy?' is the philosopher's query. ' Shall 
 I be saved or damned?' asks the Christian." 
 
 With these words Gambara struck the last chord of the 
 chorus, dwelt on it with a melancholy modulation, and then 
 rose to drink another large glass of Giro. This half -African 
 vintage gave his face a deeper flush, for his passionate and 
 wonderful sketch of Meyerbeer's opera had made him turn 
 a little pale. 
 
 "That nothing may be lacking to this composition," he 
 went on, "the great artist has generously added the only 
 buffo duet permissible for a devil: that in which he tempts 
 the unhappy troubadour. The composer has set jocosity 
 side by side with horror a jocosity in which he mocks at 
 the only realism he had allowed himself amid the sublime 
 imaginings of his work the pure calm love of Alice and 
 Kaimbaut; and their life is overshadowed by the forecast of 
 evil. 
 
 "None but a lofty soul can feel the noble style of these 
 buffo airs; they have neither the superabundant frivolity of 
 Italian music nor the vulgar accent of French commonplace ; 
 rather have they the majesty of Olympus. There is the 
 bitter laughter of a divine being mocking the surprise of a 
 troubadour Don-Juanizing himself. But for this dignity 
 we should be too suddenly brought down to the general tone 
 of the opera, here stamped on that terrible fury of diminished 
 sevenths which resolves itself into an infernal waltz, and 
 finally brings us face to face with the demons. 
 
 "How emphatically Bertram's couplet stands out in B 
 minor against that diabolical chorus, depicting his paternity, 
 but mingling in fearful despair with these demoniacal strains. 
 
 "Then comes the delightful transition of Alice's reappear- 
 ance, with the ritornel in B flat. I can still hear that air of 
 angelical simplicity the nightingale after a storm. Thus 
 the grand leading idea of the whole is worked out in the de- 
 tails; for what could be more perfectly in contrast with the 
 tumult of devils tossing in the pit than that wonderful air 
 given to Alice ? 'Quand j'ai quitte la Normandie.'
 
 GAMBARA 381 
 
 "The golden thread of melody flows on, side by side with 
 the mighty harmony, like a heavenly hope ; it is embroidered 
 on it, and with what marvelous skill ! Genius never lets 
 go of the science that guides it. Here Alice's song is in B 
 flat leading into F sharp, the key of the demon's chorus. Do 
 you hear the tremolo in the orchestra? The host of devils 
 clamor for Eobert. 
 
 "Bertram now reappears, and this is the culminating point 
 of musical interest; after a recitative, worthy of comparison 
 with the finest work of the great masters, comes the fierce 
 conflict in E flat between two tremendous forces one on the 
 words 'Oui, tu me connais!' on a diminished seventh; the 
 other, on that sublime F, 'Le del est avec moi.' Hell and 
 the Crucifix have met for battle. Next we have Bertram 
 threatening Alice, the most violent pathos ever heard the 
 Spirit of Evil expatiating complacently, and, as usual, ap- 
 pealing to personal interest. Robert's arrival gives us the 
 magnificent unaccompanied trio in A flat, the first skirmish 
 between the two rival forces and the man. And note how 
 clearly that is expressed," said Gambara, epitomizing the 
 scene with such passion of expression as startled Andrea. 
 
 "All this avalanche of music, from the clash of cymbals 
 in common time, has been gathering up to this contest of three 
 voices. The magic of evil triumphs! Alice flies, and you 
 have the duet in D between Bertram and Eobert. The devil 
 sets his talons in the man's heart; he tears it to make it his 
 own; he works on every feeling. Honor, hope, eternal and 
 infinite pleasures he displays them all. He places him, 
 as he did Jesus, on the pinnacle of the Temple, and shows 
 him all the treasures of the earth, the storehouse of sin. He 
 nettles him to flaunt his courage ; and the man's nobler mind 
 is expressed in his exclamation: 
 
 4 ' Des chevaliers de ma patrie 
 L'honneur toujours fut le soutien ! 
 
 "And finally, to crown the work, the theme comes in which'
 
 382 GAMBARA 
 
 sounded the note of fatality at the beginning. Thus, the 
 leading strain, the magnificent call to the dead : 
 
 4 ' Nonnes qui reposez sous cette f roide pierre, 
 M ; entendez-vous ? 
 
 "The career of the music, gloriously worked out, is 
 gloriously finished by the allegro vivace of the bacchanalian 
 chorus in D minor. This, indeed, is the triumph of hell! 
 Roll on, harmony, and wrap us in a thousand folds! Roll 
 on, bewitch us ! The powers of darkness have clutched their 
 prey; they hold him while they dance. The great genius, 
 born to conquer and to reign, is lost ! The devils rejoice, 
 misery stifles genius, passion will wreck the knight !" 
 
 And here Gambara improvised a fantasia of his own on 
 the bacchanalian chorus, with ingenious variations, and hum- 
 ming the air in a melancholy drone as if to express the secret 
 sufferings he had known. 
 
 "Do you hear the heavenly lamentations of neglected love ?" 
 he said. "Isabella calls to Robert above the grand chorus 
 of knights riding forth to the tournament, in which the motifs 
 of the second act reappear to make it clear that the third 
 act has all taken place in a supernatural sphere. This is 
 real life again. This chorus dies away at the approach of the 
 hellish enchantment brought by Robert with the talisman. 
 The deviltry of the third act is to be carried on. Here we 
 have the duet with the viol ; the rhythm is highly expressive 
 of the brutal desires of a man who is omnipotent, and the 
 Princess, by plaintive phrases, tries to win her lover back to 
 moderation. The musician has here placed himself in a 
 situation of great difficulty, and has surmounted it in the 
 loveliest number of the whole opera. How charming is the 
 melody of the cavatina 'Grace pour toil' All the women 
 present understood it well; each saw herself seised and 
 snatched away on the stage. That part alone would suffice to 
 make the fortune of the opera. Every woman felt herself en- 
 gaged in a struggle with some violent lover. Never was mu- 
 sic so passionate and so dramatic.
 
 GAMBARA 383 
 
 "The whole world now rises in arms against the reprobate. 
 This finale may be criticised for its resemblance to that of 
 Don Giovanni; but there is this immense difference: in Isa- 
 bella we have the expression of the noblest faith, a true 
 love that will save Robert, for he scornfully rejects the in- 
 fernal powers bestowed on him, while Don Giovanni persists 
 in his unbelief. Moreover, that particular fault is common 
 to every composer who has written a finale since Mozart. 
 The finale to Don Giovanni is one of those classic forms that 
 are invented once for all. 
 
 "At last religion wins the day, uplifting the voice that 
 governs worlds, that invites all sorrow to come for consola- 
 tion, all repentance to be forgiven and helped. 
 
 "The whole house was stirred by the chorus : 
 
 ' ' Malheureux ou coupables, 
 Hatez-vous d'accourir! 
 
 "In the terrific tumult of raving passions, the holy Voice 
 would have been unheard; but at this critical moment it 
 sounds like thunder; the divine Catholic Church rises glo- 
 rious in light. And here I was amazed to find that after 
 such lavish use of harmonic treasure, the composer had come 
 upon a new vein with the splendid chorus: 'Gloire a la 
 Providence' in the manner of Handel. 
 
 "Robert rushes on with his heartrending cry : 'Si je pouvais 
 prier!' and Bertram, driven by the infernal decree, pursues 
 his son, and makes a last effort. Alice has called up the 
 vision of the Mother, and now comes the grand trio to which 
 the whole opera has led up: the triumph of the soul over 
 matter, of the Spirit of Good over the Spirit of Evil. The 
 strains of piety prevail over the chorus of hell, and happiness 
 appears glorious; but here the music is weaker. I only saw 
 a cathedral instead of hearing a concert of angels in bliss, 
 and a divine prayer consecrating the union of Robert and Isa- 
 bella. We ought not to have been left oppressed by the 
 spells of hell ; we ought to emerge with hope in our heart. 
 
 "I, as musician and a Catholic, wanted another prayer like
 
 384 GAMBARA 
 
 that in Mose. I should have liked to see how Germany would 
 contend with Italy, what Meyerbeer could do in rivalry with 
 Eossini. 
 
 "However, in spite of this trifling blemish, the writer can- 
 not say that after five hours of such solid music, a Parisian 
 prefers a bit of ribbon to a musical masterpiece. You heard 
 how the work was applauded; it will go through five hun- 
 dred performances ! If the French really understand that 
 music " 
 
 "It is because it expresses ideas," the Count put in. 
 
 "No ; it is because it sets forth in a definite shape a picture 
 of the struggle in which so many perish, and because every 
 individual life is implicated in it through memory. Ah ! 
 I, hapless wretch, should have been too happy to hear the 
 sound of those heavenly voices I have so often dreamed of." 
 
 Hereupon Gambara fell into a musical day-dream, im- 
 provising the most lovely melodious and harmonious cava- 
 tina that Andrea would ever hear on earth; a divine strain 
 divinely performed on a theme as exquisite as that of filii 
 et filice, but graced with additions such as none but the loftiest 
 musical genius could devise. 
 
 The Count sat lost in keen admiration; the clouds cleared 
 away, the blue sky opened, figures of angels appeared lifting 
 the veil that hid the sanctuary, and the light of heaven 
 poured down. 
 
 There was a sudden silence. 
 
 The Count, surprised at the cessation of the music, looked 
 at Gambara, who, with fixed gaze, in the attitude of a vision- 
 ary, murmured the word : "God !" 
 
 Andrea waited till the composer had descended from the 
 enchanted realm to which he had soared on the many-hued 
 wings of inspiration, intending to show him the truth by 
 the light he himself would bring down with him. 
 
 "Well," said he, pouring him out another bumper of wine 
 and clinking glasses with him, "this German has, you see, 
 written a sublime opera without troubling himself with 
 theories, while those musicians who write grammars of 
 harmony may, like literary critics, be atrocious composers."
 
 GAMBARA 385 
 
 "Then you do not like my music ?" 
 
 "I do not say so. But if, instead of carrying musical 
 principles to an extreme which takes you too far you 
 would simply try to arouse our feelings, you would be better 
 understood, unless indeed you have mistaken your vocation. 
 You are a great poet." 
 
 "What," cried Gambara, "are twenty-five years of study 
 all in vain? Am I to learn the imperfect language of men 
 when I have the key to the heavenly tongue? Oh, if you 
 are right, I should die." 
 
 "No, no. You are great and strong; you would begin life 
 again, and I would support you. We would show the world 
 the noble and rare alliance of a rich man and an artist in 
 perfect sympathy and understanding." 
 
 "Do you mean it?" asked Gambara, struck with amaze- 
 ment. 
 
 "As I have told you, you are a poet more than a musician." 
 
 "A poet, a poet! It is better than nothing. But tell 
 me truly, which do you esteem most highly, Mozart or 
 Homer?" 
 
 "I admire them equally." 
 
 "On your honor?" 
 
 "On my honor." 
 
 "H'm! Once more. What do you think of Meyerbeer 
 and Byron?" 
 
 "You have measured them by naming them together." 
 
 The Count's carriage was in waiting. The composer and 
 his noble physician ran down-stairs, and in a few minutes 
 they were with Marianna. 
 
 As they went in, Gambara threw himself into his wife's 
 arms, but she drew back a step and turned away her head; 
 'the husband also drew back and beamed on the Count. 
 ) "Oh, monsieur !" said Gambara in a husky voice, "you 
 "might have left me my illusions." He hung his head, and 
 then fell. 
 
 "What have you done to him ? He is dead drunk !" cried
 
 386 GAMBABA 
 
 Marianna, looking down at her husband with a mingled ex- 
 pression of pity and disgust. 
 
 The Count, with the help of his servant, picked up Gam- 
 bara and laid him on his bed. 
 
 Then Andrea left, his heart exultant with horrible glad- 
 ness. 
 
 The Count let the usual hour for calling slip past next 
 day, for he began to fear lest he had duped himself and had 
 made this humble couple pay too dear for their improved 
 circumstances and added wisdom, since their peace was de- 
 stroyed for ever. 
 
 At last Giardini came to him with a note from Marianna. 
 
 "Come," she wrote, "the mischief is not so great as you so 
 cruelly meant it to be." 
 
 "Excellenza," said the cook, while Andrea was making 
 ready, "you treated us splendidly last evening. But apart 
 from the wine, which was 'excellent, your steward did not 
 put anything on the table that was worthy to set before a 
 true epicure. You will not deny, I suppose, that the dish I 
 sent up to you on the day when you did me the honor to sit 
 down at my board, contained the quintessence of all those 
 that disgraced your magnificent service of plate ? And when 
 I awoke this morning I remembered the promise you once 
 made me of a place as chef. Henceforth I consider myself 
 as a member of your household." 
 
 "I thought of the same thing a few days ago," replied 
 Andrea. "I mentioned you to the secretary of the Austrian 
 Embassy, and you have permission to recross the Alps as 
 soon as you please. I have a castle in Croatia which I rarely 
 visit. There you may combine the offices of gate-keeper, 
 butler, and steward, with two hundred crowns a year. Your; 
 wife will have as much for doing all the rest of the work. 
 You may make all the experiments you please in anima vili, 
 that is to say on the stomach of my vassals. Here is a cheque 
 for your traveling expenses." 
 
 Giardini kissed the Count's hand after the Neapolitan 
 fashion.
 
 GAMBARA 387 
 
 "Excellenza," said he, "I accept the cheque, but beg to 
 decline the place. It would dishonor me to give up my art 
 by losing the opinion of the most perfect epicures, who are 
 certainly to be found in Paris." 
 
 When Andrea arrived at Gambara's lodgings, the musi- 
 cian rose to welcome him. 
 
 "My generous friend," said he, with the utmost frank- 
 ness, "you either took advantage, last evening, of the weak- 
 ness of my brain to make a fool of me, or else your brain 
 is no more capable of standing the test of the heady liquors 
 of our native Latium, than mine is. I will assume this latter 
 hypothesis; I would rather doubt your digestion than your 
 heart. Be this as it may, henceforth I drink no more wine 
 for ever. The abuse of good liquor last evening led me 
 into much guilty folly. When I remember that I very 
 
 nearly " He gave a glance of terror at Marianna. "As 
 
 to the wretched opera you took me to hear, I have thought 
 it over, and it is, after all, music written on ordinary lines, 
 a mountain of piled-up notes, verba et voces. It is but the 
 dregs of the nectar I can drink in deep draughts as I repro- 
 duce the heavenly music that I hear ! It is a patchwork 
 of airs of which I could trace the origin. The passage, 
 'Gloire a la Providence' is too much like a bit of Handel; 
 the chorus of knights is closely related to the Scotch air in 
 La Dame Blanche; in short, if this opera is a success, it is 
 because the music is borrowed from everybody's so it ought 
 to be popular. 
 
 "I will say good-bye to you, my dear friend. I have had 
 some ideas seething in my brain since the morning that only 
 wait to soar up to God on the wings of song, but I wished to 
 see you. Good-bye; I must ask forgiveness of the Muse. 
 We shall meet at dinner to-night but no wine ; at any rate, 
 none for me. I am firmly resolved " 
 
 "I give him up !" cried Andrea, flushing red. 
 
 "And you restore my sense of conscience," said Marianna. 
 "I dared not appeal to it! My friend, my friend, it is no 
 fault of ours; he does not want to be cured/'
 
 388 GAMBARA 
 
 Six years after this, in January 1837, such artists as 
 were so unlucky as to damage their wind or stringed instru- 
 ments, generally took them to the Eue Froid-Manteau, to a 
 squalid and horrible house, where, on the fifth floor, dwelt an 
 old Italian named Gambara. 
 
 For five years past he had been left to himself, deserted by 
 his wife; he had gone through many misfortunes. An in- 
 .strument on which he had relied to make his fortune, and 
 which he called a Panliarmonicon, had been sold by order 
 of the Court on the public square, Place du Chatelet, together 
 with a cartload of music paper scrawled with notes. The 
 day after the sale, these scores had served in the market 
 to wrap up butter, fish, and fruit. 
 
 Thus the three grand operas of which the poor man would 
 boast, but which an old Neapolitan cook, who was now but 
 a patcher up of broken meats, declared to be a heap of non- 
 sense, were scattered throughout Paris on the trucks of coster- 
 mongers. But at any rate, the landlord had got his rent and 
 the bailiffs their expenses. 
 
 According to the Neapolitan cook who warmed up for 
 the street-walkers of the Eue Froid-Manteau the fragments 
 left from the most sumptuous dinners in Paris Signora 
 Gambara had gone off to Italy with a Milanese nobleman, 
 and no one knew what had become of her. Worn out with 
 fifteen years of misery, she was very likely ruining the Count 
 by her extravagant luxury, for they were so devotedly ador- 
 ing that, in all his life, Giardini could recall no instance of 
 such a passion. 
 
 Towards the end of that very January, one evening when 
 Giardini was chatting with a girl who had come to buy her 
 supper, about the divine Marianna so poor, so beautiful, 
 so heroically devoted, and who had, nevertheless, "gone the 
 way of them all," the cook, his wife, and the street-girl saw 
 coming towards them a woman fearfully thin, with a sun- 
 burned, dusty face; a nervous walking skeleton, looking at 
 the numbers, and trying to recognize a house. 
 
 "Ecco la Marianna!" exclaimed the cook.
 
 GAMBAEA 389 
 
 Marianna recognized Giardini, the erewhile cook, in the 
 poor fellow she saw, without wondering by what series of 
 disasters he had sunk to keep a miserable shop for second- 
 hand food. She went in and sat down, for she had come 
 from Fontainebleau. She had walked fourteen leagues that 
 day, after begging her bread from Turin to Paris. 
 
 She frightened that terrible trio ! Of all her wondrous 
 beauty nothing remained but her fine eyes, dimmed and 
 sunken. The only thing faithful to her was misfortune. 
 
 She was welcomed by the skilled old instrument mender, 
 who greeted her with unspeakable joy. 
 
 "Why, here you are, my poor Marianna !" said he, warmly. 
 "During your absence they sold up my instrument and my 
 operas." 
 
 It would have been difficult to kill the fatted calf for the 
 return of the Samaritan, but Giardini contributed the fag 
 end of a salmon, the trull paid for wine, Gambara 
 produced some bread, Signora Giardini lent a cloth, and the 
 unfortunates all supped together in the musician's garret. 
 
 When questioned as to her adventures, Marianna would 
 make no reply; she only raised her beautiful eyes to heaven 
 and whispered to Giardini: 
 
 "He married a dancer!" 
 
 "And how do you mean to live?" said the girl. "The 
 journey has ruined you, and " 
 
 "And made me an old woman," said Marianna. "No, 
 that is not the result of fatigue or hardship, but of grief." 
 
 "And why did you never send your man here any money ?" 
 asked the girl. 
 
 Marianna's only answer was a look, but it went to the wo- 
 man's heart. 
 
 "She is proud with a vengeance!" she exclaimed. "And 
 much good it has done her !" she added, in Giardini's ear. 
 
 All that year musicians took especial care of their instru- 
 ments, and repairs did not bring in enough to enable the 
 poor couple to pay their way; the wife, too, did not earn 
 much by her needle, and they were compelled to turn their
 
 390 GAMBARA 
 
 talents to account in the lowest form of employment. They 
 would go out together in the dark to the Champs Elyses 
 and sing duets, which Gambara, poor fellow, accompanied 
 on a wretched guitar. On the way, Marianna, who on these 
 expeditions covered her head with a sort of veil of coarse 
 muslin, would take her husband to a grocer's shop in the 
 Faubourg Saint-Honore and give him two or three thimble- 
 fuls of brandy to make him tipsy; otherwise he could not 
 play. Then they would stand up together in front of the 
 smart people sitting on the chairs, and one of the greatest 
 geniuses of the time, the unrecognized Orpheus of Modern 
 Music, would perform passages from his operas pieces so 
 remarkable that they could extract a few half-pence from 
 Parisian supineness. When some dilettante of comic operas 
 happened to be sitting there and did not recognize from what 
 work they were taken, he would question the woman dressed 
 like a Greek priestess, who held out a bottle-stand of stamped 
 metal in which she collected charity. 
 
 "I say, my dear, what is that music out of?" 
 
 "The opera of Mahomet," Marianna would reply. 
 
 As Eossini composed an opera called Mahomet II., the 
 amateur would say to his wife, sitting at his side: 
 
 "What a pity it is that they will never give us at the 
 Italiens any operas by Eossini but those we know. That is 
 really very fine music!" 
 
 And Gambara would smile. 
 
 Only a few days since, this unhappy couple had to pay 
 the trifling sum of thirty-six francs as arrears of rent for 
 the cock-loft in which they lived resigned. The grocer would 
 not give them credit for the brandy with which Marianna 
 plied her husband to enable him to play. Gambara was., 
 consequently, so unendurably bad that the ears of the* 
 wealthy were irresponsive, and the tin bottle-stand remained 
 empty. 
 
 It was nine o'clock in the evening. A handsome Italian, 
 the Principessa Massimilla Di Varese, took pity on the poor
 
 GAMBARA 391 
 
 creatures; she gave them forty francs and questioned them, 
 discerning from the woman's thanks that she was a Venetian. 
 Prince Emilio would know the history of their woes, and 
 Marianna told it, making no complaints of God or men. 
 
 "Madame," said Gambara, as she ended, for he was sober, 
 "we are the victims of our own superiority. My music is 
 good. But as soon as music transcends feeling and becomes 
 an idea, only persons of genius should be the' hearers, for they 
 alone are capable of responding to it ! It is my misfortune 
 that I have heard the chorus of angels, and believed that men 
 could understand those strains. The same thing happens to 
 women when their love assumes a divine aspect : men cannot 
 understand them." 
 
 This speech was well worth the forty francs bestowed by 
 Massimilla ; she took out a second gold piece, and told Mari- 
 anna she would write to Andrea Marcosini. 
 
 "Do not write to him, madame!" exclaimed Marianna. 
 "And God grant you to be always beautiful !" 
 
 "Let us provide for them," said the Princess to her hus- 
 band ; "for this man has remained faithful to the Ideal which 
 we have killed." 
 
 As he saw the gold pieces, Gambara shed tears; and then 
 a vague reminiscence of old scientific experiments crossed 
 his mind, and the hapless composer, as he wiped his eyes, 
 spoke these words, which the circumstances made pathetic : 
 
 "Water is a product of burning." 
 
 PARIS, June 1887.
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY, LOS ANGELES 
 
 COLLEGE LIBRARY 
 
 This book is due on the last date stamped below. 
 
 Oct 5 6 4 
 
 GQi, LIB. - 
 -0 J 
 
 .APR 2 1973 
 
 1 2 DEC 1980 14 DA 
 
 80RECCL 
 
 Book Slip-25m-9,'60(,B236s4)4280
 
 UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 
 
 A 001 136586 3 
 
 UCUA-College Library 
 
 PQ 2173 S96E5b 1901 
 
 College 
 Library 
 
 PQ 
 2173 
 
 1901 
 
 L 005 656 398 4