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 by 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, ever}' 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
—15
214 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDIOI
in the middle of a battle when meditating a retreat. "Never
trast 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 Frangais, n§ malin, crea 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 coldl}'
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. Piedmoniese
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 I" 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 DB' 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 w-hat 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' ilEDICI
"And do 3^ou think yourself the equal of Calvin?" said
Catherine shrewdly, "j^ay, 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 sharpl}^ 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 Reformed 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 Parlemeut, 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 np 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 nob'
adopted till this very reign — Christophe, still stretched oa
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 Babette 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 x\mbroise 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
visits made the causes of Christophe's condition even more
inexplicable.
The old furrier, who had a pl.-m 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 Eeformation 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
follovt'ed 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' MEDICI 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 Royalty."
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 suchj
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 Eeformation;
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
Eeformation 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."
'â– '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
Regent would have to give all her mind to it to get your son
into the Parlement; and he smells of the stake too strongly
to 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
j;o 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 bo}'," 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 very well be cared for by the
House of Navarre."
"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, A^ice-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' MEDIGI
prisoner in the Tour de Saint-Aignan, whom lie 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 youl
in His keeping. Pibrac,
"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 Lecamus 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 mo 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-
cillor-at-law of a Protestant citizen?"
"But Christophe has never abjured !" exclaimed Babotte.
"He may surely keep his own secret as to his religious opin-
ions."
"The Prince de Conde would be les? 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, jou
have taken the oath of fidelity, you have confessed the Whore,
the Catholic, Apostolic, Eomish 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 lif(3."
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 c risis.
Thus, when on the river under the Pont au Change, the
prince, the soldier, and the preacher had required Chris-
tophe to carry to Queen Catherine the document which, if
discovered, would have cost him his life, the boy had trusted
'to 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 sht.ll livo
through it — it is only pain I"
220 ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI
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'Aubigue, said as