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,>
like Chiverni, j^retended to have abandoned Catherine to
attach himself to the Guises, and who encouraged them in
their undertakings while spying for Caflierine.
Ghiverni had arrived from Ecouen and Paris. The last
ABOUT CATflERINE 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 the}^ formed against
Catherine in the folloAving 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 be^
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 pari
played by some political intriguers was known to both the
parties who employed them; they were like cards in thfi
hands of pla^'ers, 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
die 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
<"burch of Snint-Nicholas, and there feared no listeners. The
wall is as high as the chnrch-towers, and the Guises always
held council at the other corner of the terrace, below the
dunofpon then be?un, walkino; 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.
Cliiverni took the Queen's hand to kiss it, and shpped 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 : —
"Tou 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 conve}^ 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 I'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 De
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 03
"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. "Well, and did
Monsieur de I'Hopital give you any further message for
me?'^
"He told me, madame, that you alone can stand between'
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 Reformers, 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; success
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
Eeformation to give them a crown for the taking. You may
avail yourself of Huguenot help without abjuring the
Faith."
"Eemember, 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 Refomiation to-morrow if the Reforma-
tion could m.ake 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 Elcouen," 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 95
''And who, gentlemen, is to crush these private whims that
are an offence to Ko3^alty ? 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 Gondi,
"and the parties crushed by Louis the Eleventh were based
only on interest." t
"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 Cond^."'
"Whicli of their plans have they failed to conceal from
you?" asked the Queen, glancing towards the brothers de
uruise.
"Monsieur de Vieilloville 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
96 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 in
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 Ruggieri to consult a famous sooth-
sayer. This woman was brought to m.eet her by Nostra-
damus, the chief of those physicians who in that great six-
teenth century believed in the occult sciences, with Ruggieri,
Cardan, Paracelsus, and many more. This fortune-teller, of
whose life history has no record, had fixed the reign of Fran-
cis II. at one year's duration.
"x\nd 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, '^las 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 Reforming
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 Reformation, 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
vhe 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
98 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
b}^ 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 Eeformation, 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 Eeformation 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 tim.e.
"Theodore de Beze is at Nerac, having taken Calvin's
orders."
ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI 99
''What men those common foik 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 se^ la Eenaudie's value? I loaded
I 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 ip 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 Condes
are not yet visible, though they hold the threads of the con-
spiracy."
"Ay," said the Duke; "and as soon a? 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 Balafre.
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
Ishoe. If she is not the soul of the conspiracy, it is not for
'lack 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
**aiid 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 Csesar's. "The
priest of Saint-Pierre aux Boeufs 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, v/ith 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 c&me 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 Chivemi ?"
"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 Eeformation, 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 ro3'ally power-
ful nature :
"Odiate e aspettate!" Hate and wait.
Pardaillan, who had delivered to the officer on guard at