Catherine de Medici ............................................................................................................................................1

Honore de Balzac .....................................................................................................................................1 .................................................................................................................................................................1

INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................................2

PART I. THE CALVINIST MARTYR ................................................................................................21

LONGER EXISTS IN A PARIS WHICH NO LONGER EXISTS .....................................................21

II. THE BURGHERS ............................................................................................................................30

III. THE CHATEAU DE BLOIS ..........................................................................................................37

IV. THE QUEENMOTHER ...............................................................................................................42

V. THE COURT ...................................................................................................................................49

VI. THE LITTLE LEVER OF FRANCOIS II. .....................................................................................57

VII. A DRAMA IN A SURCOAT .......................................................................................................64

VIII. MARTYRDOM ...........................................................................................................................70

IX. THE TUMULT AT AMBOISE ......................................................................................................77

X. COSMO RUGGIERO ......................................................................................................................85

XI. AMBROISE PARE ........................................................................................................................92

XII. DEATH OF FRANCOIS II ...........................................................................................................98

XIII. CALVIN .....................................................................................................................................103

XIV. CATHERINE IN POWER .........................................................................................................112

XV. COMPENSATION .....................................................................................................................119

PART II. THE SECRETS OF THE RUGGIERI ................................................................................126

I. THE COURT UNDER CHARLES IX. ...........................................................................................126

II. SCHEMES AGAINST SCHEMES ...............................................................................................131

III. MARIE TOUCHET ......................................................................................................................144

IV. THE KING'S TALE .....................................................................................................................151

V. THE ALCHEMISTS ......................................................................................................................155

There is a general cry of paradox when scholars, struck by some historical error, attempt to correct it; but, for

whoever studies modern history to its depths, it is plain that historians are privileged liars, who lend their pen

to popular beliefs precisely as the newspapers of the day, or most of them, express the opinions of their

Historical independence has shown itself much less among lay writers than among those of the Church. It is

from the Benedictines, one of the glories of France, that the purest light has come to us in the matter of

history,so long, of course, as the interests of the order were not involved. About the middle of the

eighteenth century great and learned controversialists, struck by the necessity of correcting popular errors

endorsed by historians, made and published to the world very remarkable works. Thus Monsieur de Launoy,

nicknamed the "Expeller of Saints," made cruel war upon the saints surreptitiously smuggled into the Church.

Thus the emulators of the Benedictines, the members (too little recognized) of the Academie des Inscriptions

et Belleslettres, began on many obscure historical points a series of monographs, which are admirable for

patience, erudition, and logical consistency. Thus Voltaire, for a mistaken purpose and with illjudged

passion, frequently cast the light of his mind on historical prejudices. Diderot undertook in this direction a

book (much too long) on the era of imperial Rome. If it had not been for the French Revolution, criticism

applied to history might then have prepared the elements of a good and true history of France, the proofs for

which had long been gathered by the Benedictines. Louis XVI., a just mind, himself translated the English

work in which Walpole endeavored to explain Richard III.,a work much talked of in the last century.

Why do personages so celebrated as kings and queens, so important as the generals of armies, become objects

of horror or derision? Half the world hesitates between the famous song on Marlborough and the history of

England, and it also hesitates between history and popular tradition as to Charles IX. At all epochs when

great struggles take place between the masses and authority, the populace creates for itself an ogreesque

personageif it is allowable to coin a word to convey a just idea. Thus, to take an example in our own time,

if it had not been for the "Memorial of Saint Helena," and the controversies between the Royalists and the

Bonapartists, there was every probability that the character of Napoleon would have been misunderstood. A

few more Abbe de Pradits, a few more newspaper articles, and from being an emperor, Napoleon would have

How does error propagate itself? The mystery is accomplished under our very eyes without our perceiving it.

No one suspects how much solidity the art of printing has given both to the envy which pursues greatness,

and to the popular ridicule which fastens a contrary sense on a grand historical act. Thus, the name of the

Prince de Polignac is given throughout the length and breadth of France to all bad horses that require

whipping; and who knows how that will affect the opinion of the future as to the coup d'Etat of the Prince de

Polignac himself? In consequence of a whim of Shakespeareor perhaps it may have been a revenge, like

that of Beaumarchais on Bergasse (Bergearss) Falstaff is, in England, a type of the ridiculous; his very

name provokes laughter; he is the king of clowns. Now, instead of being enormously potbellied, absurdly

amorous, vain, drunken, old, and corrupted, Falstaff was one of the most distinguished men of his time, a

Knight of the Garter, holding a high command in the army. At the accession of Henry V. Sir John Falstaff

was only thirtyfour years old. This general, who distinguished himself at the battle of Agincourt, and there

took prisoner the Duc d'Alencon, captured, in 1420, the town of Montereau, which was vigorously defended.

Moreover, under Henry VI. he defeated ten thousand French troops with fifteen hundred weary and famished

So much for war. Now let us pass to literature, and see our own Rabelais, a sober man who drank nothing but

water, but is held to be, nevertheless, an extravagant lover of good cheer and a resolute drinker. A thousand

ridiculous stories are told about the author of one of the finest books in French literature,"Pantagruel."

Aretino, the friend of Titian, and the Voltaire of his century, has, in our day, a reputation the exact opposite of

his works and of his character; a reputation which he owes to a grossness of wit in keeping with the writings

of his age, when broad farce was held in honor, and queens and cardinals wrote tales which would be called,

in these days, licentious. One might go on multiplying such instances indefinitely.

In France, and that, too, during the most serious epoch of modern history, no woman, unless it be Brunehaut

or Fredegonde, has suffered from popular error so much as Catherine de' Medici; whereas Marie de' Medici,

all of whose actions were prejudicial to France, has escaped the shame which ought to cover her name. Marie

de' Medici wasted the wealth amassed by Henri IV.; she never purged herself of the charge of having known

of the king's assassination; her intimate was d'Epernon, who did not ward off Ravaillac's blow, and who was

proved to have known the murderer personally for a long time. Marie's conduct was such that she forced her

son to banish her from France, where she was encouraging her other son, Gaston, to rebel; and the victory

Richelieu at last won over her (on the Day of the Dupes) was due solely to the discovery the cardinal made,

and imparted to Louis XIII., of secret documents relating to the death of Henri IV.

Catherine de' Medici, on the contrary, saved the crown of France; she maintained the royal authority in the

midst of circumstances under which more than one great prince would have succumbed. Having to make

head against factions and ambitions like those of the Guises and the house of Bourbon, against men such as

the two Cardinals of Lorraine, the two Balafres, and the two Condes, against the queen Jeanne d'Albret, Henri

IV., the Connetable de Montmorency, Calvin, the three Colignys, Theodore de Beze, she needed to possess

and to display the rare qualities and precious gifts of a statesman under the mocking fire of the Calvinist

Those facts are incontestable. Therefore, to whosoever burrows into the history of the sixteenth century in

France, the figure of Catherine de' Medici will seem like that of a great king. When calumny is once

dissipated by facts, recovered with difficulty from among the contradictions of pamphlets and false

anecdotes, all explains itself to the fame of this extraordinary woman, who had none of the weaknesses of her

sex, who lived chaste amid the license of the most dissolute court in Europe, and who, in spite of her lack of

money, erected noble public buildings, as if to repair the loss caused by the iconoclasms of the Calvinists,

who did as much harm to art as to the body politic. Hemmed in between the Guises who claimed to be the

heirs of Charlemagne and the factious younger branch who sought to screen the treachery of the Connetable

de Bourbon behind the throne, Catherine, forced to combat heresy which was seeking to annihilate the

monarchy, without friends, aware of treachery among the leaders of the Catholic party, foreseeing a republic

in the Calvinist party, Catherine employed the most dangerous but the surest weapon of public policy,craft.

She resolved to trick and so defeat, successively, the Guises who were seeking the ruin of the house of

Valois, the Bourbons who sought the crown, and the Reformers (the Radicals of those days) who dreamed of

an impossible republiclike those of our time; who have, however, nothing to reform. Consequently, so

long as she lived, the Valois kept the throne of France. The great historian of that time, de Thou, knew well

the value of this woman when, on hearing of her death, he exclaimed: "It is not a woman, it is monarchy itself

Catherine had, in the highest degree, the sense of royalty, and she defended it with admirable courage and

persistency. The reproaches which Calvinist writers have cast upon her are to her glory; she incurred them by

reason only of her triumphs. Could she, placed as she was, triumph otherwise than by craft? The whole

As for violence, that means is one of the most disputed questions of public policy; in our time it has been

answered on the Place Louis XV., where they have now set up an Egyptian stone, as if to obliterate regicide

and offer a symbol of the system of materialistic policy which governs us; it was answered at the Carmes and

at the Abbaye; answered on the steps of SaintRoch; answered once more by the people against the king

before the Louvre in 1830, as it has since been answered by Lafayette's best of all possible republics against

the republican insurrection at SaintMerri and the rue Transnonnain. All power, legitimate or illegitimate,

must defend itself when attacked; but the strange thing is that where the people are held heroic in their victory

over the nobility, power is called murderous in its duel with the people. If it succumbs after its appeal to

force, power is then called imbecile. The present government is attempting to save itself by two laws from the

same evil Charles X. tried to escape by two ordinances; is it not a bitter derision? Is craft permissible in the

hands of power against craft? may it kill those who seek to kill it? The massacres of the Revolution have

replied to the massacres of SaintBartholomew. The people, become king, have done against the king and the

nobility what the king and the nobility did against the insurgents of the sixteenth century. Therefore the

popular historians, who know very well that in a like case the people will do the same thing over again, have

"All power," said Casimir Perier, on learning what power ought to be, "is a permanent conspiracy." We

admire the antisocial maxims put forth by daring writers; why, then, this disapproval which, in France,

attaches to all social truths when boldly proclaimed? This question will explain, in itself alone, historical

errors. Apply the answer to the destructive doctrines which flatter popular passions, and to the conservative

doctrines which repress the mad efforts of the people, and you will find the reason of the unpopularity and

also the popularity of certain personages. Laubardemont and Laffemas were, like some men of today,

devoted to the defence of power in which they believed. Soldiers or judges, they all obeyed royalty. In these

days d'Orthez would be dismissed for having misunderstood the orders of the ministry, but Charles X. left

him governor of a province. The power of the many is accountable to no one; the power of one is compelled

Catherine, like Philip the Second and the Duke of Alba, like the Guises and Cardinal Granvelle, saw plainly

the future that the Reformation was bringing upon Europe. She and they saw monarchies, religion, authority

shaken. Catherine wrote, from the cabinet of the kings of France, a sentence of death to that spirit of inquiry

which then began to threaten modern society; a sentence which Louis XIV. ended by executing. The

revocation of the Edict of Nantes was an unfortunate measure only so far as it caused the irritation of all

Europe against Louis XIV. At another period England, Holland, and the Holy Roman Empire would not have

Why refuse, in these days, to the majestic adversary of the most barren of heresies the grandeur she derived

from the struggle itself? Calvinists have written much against the "craftiness" of Charles IX.; but travel

through France, see the ruins of noble churches, estimate the fearful wounds given by the religionists to the

social body, learn what vengeance they inflicted, and you will ask yourself, as you deplore the evils of

individualism (the disease of our present France, the germ of which was in the questions of liberty of

conscience then agitated),you will ask yourself, I say, on which side were the executioners. There are,

unfortunately, as Catherine herself says in the third division of this Study of her career, "in all ages

hypocritical writers always ready to weep over the fate of two hundred scoundrels killed necessarily." Caesar,

who tried to move the senate to pity the attempt of Catiline, might perhaps have got the better of Cicero could

Another consideration explains the historical and popular disfavor in which Catherine is held. The Opposition

in France has always been Protestant, because it has had no policy but that of negation; it inherits the theories

of Lutherans, Calvinists, and Protestants on the terrible words "liberty," "tolerance," "progress," and

"philosophy." Two centuries have been employed by the opponents of power in establishing the doubtful

doctrine of the libre arbitre,liberty of will. Two other centuries were employed in developing the first

corollary of liberty of will, namely, liberty of conscience. Our century is endeavoring to establish the second,

Placed between the ground already lost and the ground still to be defended, Catherine and the Church

proclaimed the salutary principle of modern societies, una fides, unus dominus, using their power of life and

death upon the innovators. Though Catherine was vanquished, succeeding centuries have proved her

justification. The product of liberty of will, religious liberty, and political liberty (not, observe this, to be

confounded with civil liberty) is the France of today. What is the France of 1840? A country occupied

exclusively with material interests,without patriotism, without conscience; where power has no vigor;

where election, the fruit of liberty of will and political liberty, lifts to the surface none but commonplace men;

where brute force has now become a necessity against popular violence; where discussion, spreading into

everything, stifles the action of legislative bodies; where money rules all questions; where

individualismthe dreadful product of the division of property ad infinitumwill suppress the family and

devour all, even the nation, which egoism will some day deliver over to invasion. Men will say, "Why not the

Czar?" just as they said, "Why not the Duc d'Orleans?" We don't cling to many things even now; but fifty

Thus, according to Catherine de' Medici and according to all those who believe in a wellordered society, in

social man, the subject cannot have liberty of will, ought not to teach the dogma of liberty of conscience, or

demand political liberty. But, as no society can exist without guarantees granted to the subject against the

sovereign, there results for the subject liberties subject to restriction. Liberty, no; liberties, yes,precise and

It is, assuredly, beyond the reach of human power to prevent the liberty of thought; and no sovereign can

interfere with money. The great statesmen who were vanquished in the long struggle (it lasted five centuries)

recognized the right of subjects to great liberties; but they did not admit their right to publish antisocial

thoughts, nor did they admit the indefinite liberty of the subject. To them the words "subject" and "liberty"

were terms that contradicted each other; just as the theory of citizens being all equal constitutes an absurdity

which nature contradicts at every moment. To recognize the necessity of a religion, the necessity of authority,

and then to leave to subjects the right to deny religion, attack its worship, oppose the exercise of power by

public expression communicable and communicated by thought, was an impossibility which the Catholics of

Alas! the victory of Calvinism will cost France more in the future than it has yet cost her; for religious sects

and humanitarian, equalitylevelling politics are, today, the tail of Calvinism; and, judging by the mistakes

of the present power, its contempt for intellect, its love for material interests, in which it seeks the basis of its

support (though material interests are the most treacherous of all supports), we may predict that unless some

providence intervenes, the genius of destruction will again carry the day over the genius of preservation. The

assailants, who have nothing to lose and all to gain, understand each other thoroughly; whereas their rich

adversaries will not make any sacrifice either of money or selflove to draw to themselves supporters.

The art of printing came to the aid of the opposition begun by the Vaudois and the Albigenses. As soon as

human thought, instead of condensing itself, as it was formerly forced to do to remain in communicable form,

took on a multitude of garments and became, as it were, the people itself, instead of remaining a sort of

axiomatic divinity, there were two multitudes to combat,the multitude of ideas, and the multitude of men.

The royal power succumbed in that warfare, and we are now assisting, in France, at its last combination with

elements which render its existence difficult, not to say impossible. Power is action, and the elective principle

is discussion. There is no policy, no statesmanship possible where discussion is permanent.

Therefore we ought to recognize the grandeur of the woman who had the eyes to see this future and fought it

bravely. That the house of Bourbon was able to succeed to the house of Valois, that it found a crown

preserved to it, was due solely to Catherine de' Medici. Suppose the second Balafre had lived? No matter how

strong the Bearnais was, it is doubtful whether he could have seized the crown, seeing how dearly the Duc de

Mayenne and the remains of the Guise party sold it to him. The means employed by Catherine, who certainly

had to reproach herself with the deaths of Francois II. and Charles IX., whose lives might have been saved in

time, were never, it is observable, made the subject of accusations by either the Calvinists or modern

historians. Though there was no poisoning, as some grave writers have said, there was other conduct almost

as criminal; there is no doubt she hindered Pare from saving one, and allowed the other to accomplish his

own doom by moral assassination. But the sudden death of Francois II., and that of Charles IX., were no

injury to the Calvinists, and therefore the causes of these two events remained in their secret sphere, and were

never suspected either by the writers of the people of that day; they were not divined except by de Thou,

l'Hopital, and minds of that calibre, or by the leaders of the two parties who were coveting or defending the

Popular songs attacked, strangely enough, Catherine's morals. Every one knows the anecdote of the soldier

who was roasting a goose in the courtyard of the chateau de Tours during the conference between Catherine

and Henri IV., singing, as he did so, a song in which the queen was grossly insulted. Henri IV. drew his

sword to go out and kill the man; but Catherine stopped him and contented herself with calling from the

Though the executions at Amboise were attributed to Catherine, and though the Calvinists made her

responsible for all the inevitable evils of that struggle, it was with her as it was, later, with Robespierre, who

is still waiting to be justly judged. Catherine was, moreover, rightly punished for her preference for the Duc

d'Anjou, to whose interests the two elder brothers were sacrificed. Henri III., like all spoilt children, ended in

becoming absolutely indifferent to his mother, and he plunged voluntarily into the life of debauchery which

made of him what his mother had made of Charles IX., a husband without sons, a king without heirs.

Unhappily the Duc d'Alencon, Catherine's last male child, had already died, a natural death.

The last words of the great queen were like a summing up of her lifelong policy, which was, moreover, so

plain in its commonsense that all cabinets are seen under similar circumstances to put it in practice.

"Enough cut off, my son," she said when Henri III. came to her death bed to tell her that the great enemy of

By which she meant that the throne should at once reconcile itself with the house of Lorraine and make use of

it, as the only means of preventing evil results from the hatred of the Guises,by holding out to them the

hope of surrounding the king. But the persistent craft and dissimulation of the woman and the Italian, which

she had never failed to employ, was incompatible with the debauched life of her son. Catherine de' Medici

Before undertaking to write the history of the manners and morals of this period in action, the author of this

Study has patiently and minutely examined the principal reigns in the history of France, the quarrel of the

Burgundians and the Armagnacs, that of the Guises and the Valois, each of which covers a century. His first

intention was to write a picturesque history of France. Three womenIsabella of Bavaria, Catharine and

Marie de' Medicihold an enormous place in it, their sway reaching from the fourteenth to the seventeenth

century, ending in Louis XIV. Of these three queens, Catherine is the finer and more interesting. Hers was

virile power, dishonored neither by the terrible amours of Isabella nor by those, even more terrible, though

less known, of Marie de' Medici. Isabella summoned the English into France against her son, and loved her

brotherinlaw, the Duc d'Orleans. The record of Marie de' Medici is heavier still. Neither had political

It was in the course of these studies that the writer acquired the conviction of Catherine's greatness; as he

became initiated into the constantly renewed difficulties of her position, he saw with what injustice

historiansall influenced by Protestantshad treated this queen. Out of this conviction grew the three

sketches which here follow; in which some erroneous opinions formed upon Catherine, also upon the persons

who surrounded her, and on the events of her time, are refuted. If this book is placed among the Philosophical

Studies, it is because it shows the Spirit of a Time, and because we may clearly see in it the influence of

But before entering the political arena, where Catherine will be seen facing the two great difficulties of her

career, it is necessary to give a succinct account of her preceding life, from the point of view of impartial

criticism, in order to take in as much as possible of this vast and regal existence up to the moment when the

Never was there any period, in any land, in any sovereign family, a greater contempt for legitimacy than in

the famous house of the Medici. On the subject of power they held the same doctrine now professed by

Russia, namely: to whichever head the crown goes, he is the true, the legitimate sovereign. Mirabeau had

reason to say: "There has been but one mesalliance in my family,that of the Medici"; for in spite of the

paid efforts of genealogists, it is certain that the Medici, before Everardo de' Medici, gonfaloniero of Florence

in 1314, were simple Florentine merchants who became very rich. The first personage in this family who

occupies an important place in the history of the famous Tuscan republic is Silvestro de' Medici, gonfaloniero

From Cosmo are descended Lorenzo the Magnificent, the Duc de Nemours, the Duc d'Urbino, father of

Catherine, Pope Leo X., Pope Clement VII., and Alessandro, not Duke of Florence, as historians call him, but

Duke della citta di Penna, a title given by Pope Clement VII., as a half way station to that of Grandduke of

From Lorenzo are descended the Florentine Brutus Lorenzino, who killed Alessandro, Cosmo, the first

grandduke, and all the sovereigns of Tuscany till 1737, at which period the house became extinct.

But neither of the two branchesthe branch Cosmo and the branch Lorenzoreigned through their direct

and legitimate lines until the close of the sixteenth century, when the granddukes of Tuscany began to

succeed each other peacefully. Alessandro de' Medici, he to whom the title of Duke della citta di Penna was

given, was the son of the Duke d'Urbino, Catherine's father, by a Moorish slave. For this reason Lorenzino

claimed a double right to kill Alessandro,as a usurper in his house, as well as an oppressor of the city.

Some historians believe that Alessandro was the son of Clement VII. The fact that led to the recognition of

this bastard as chief of the republic and head of the house of the Medici was his marriage with Margaret of

Francesco de' Medici, husband of Bianca Capello, accepted as his son a child of poor parents bought by the

celebrated Venetian; and, strange to say, Ferdinando, on succeeding Francesco, maintained the substituted

child in all his rights. That child, called Antonio de' Medici, was considered during four reigns as belonging

to the family; he won the affection of everybody, rendered important services to the family, and died

Nearly all the first Medici had natural children, whose careers were invariably brilliant. For instance, the

Cardinal Giulio de' Medici, afterwards Pope under the name of Clement VII., was the illegitimate son of

Giuliano I. Cardinal Ippolito de' Medici was also a bastard, and came very near being Pope and the head of

Lorenzo II., the father of Catherine, married in 1518, for his second wife, Madeleine de la Tour de Boulogne,

in Auvergne, and died April 25, 1519, a few days after his wife, who died in giving birth to Catherine.

Catherine was therefore orphaned of father and mother as soon as she drew breath. Hence the strange

adventures of her childhood, mixed up as they were with the bloody efforts of the Florentines, then seeking to

recover their liberty from the Medici. The latter, desirous of continuing to reign in Florence, behaved with

such circumspection that Lorenzo, Catherine's father, had taken the name of Duke d'Urbino.

At Lorenzo's death, the head of the house of the Medici was Pope Leo X., who sent the illegitimate son of

Giuliano, Giulio de' Medici, then cardinal, to govern Florence. Leo X. was greatuncle to Catherine, and this

It was during the siege of Florence, undertaken by the Medici to force their return there, that the Republican

party, not content with having shut Catherine, then nine years old, into a convent, after robbing her of all her

property, actually proposed, on the suggestion of one named Batista Cei, to expose her between two

battlements on the walls to the artillery of the Medici. Bernardo Castiglione went further in a council held to

determine how matters should be ended: he was of opinion that, so far from returning her to the Pope as the

latter requested, she ought to be given to the soldiers for dishonor. This will show how all popular revolutions

resemble each other. Catherine's subsequent policy, which upheld so firmly the royal power, may well have

been instigated in part by such scenes, of which an Italian girl of nine years of age was assuredly not

The rise of Alessandro de' Medici, to which the bastard Pope Clement VII. powerfully contributed, was no

doubt chiefly caused by the affection of Charles V. for his famous illegitimate daughter Margaret. Thus Pope

and emperor were prompted by the same sentiment. At this epoch Venice had the commerce of the world;

Rome had its moral government; Italy still reigned supreme through the poets, the generals, the statesmen

born to her. At no period of the world's history, in any land, was there ever seen so remarkable, so abundant a

collection of men of genius. There were so many, in fact, that even the lesser princes were superior men. Italy

was crammed with talent, enterprise, knowledge, science, poesy, wealth, and gallantry, all the while torn by

intestinal warfare and overrun with conquerors struggling for possession of her finest provinces. When men

are so strong, they do not fear to admit their weaknesses. Hence, no doubt, this golden age for bastards. We

must, moreover, do the illegitimate children of the house of the Medici the justice to say that they were

ardently devoted to the glory, power, and increase of wealth of that famous family. Thus as soon as the Duca

della citta di Penna, son of the Moorish woman, was installed as tyrant of Florence, he espoused the interest

of Pope Clement VII., and gave a home to the daughter of Lorenzo II., then eleven years of age.

When we study the march of events and that of men in this curious sixteenth century, we ought never to

forget that public policy had for its element a perpetual craftiness and a dissimulation which destroyed, in all

characters, the straightforward, upright bearing our imaginations demand of eminent personages. In this,

above all, is Catherine's absolution. It disposes of the vulgar and foolish accusations of treachery launched

against her by the writers of the Reformation. This was the great age of that statesmanship the code of which

was written by Macchiavelli as well as by Spinosa, by Hobbes as well as by Montesquieu,for the dialogue

between Sylla and Eucrates contains Montesquieu's true thought, which his connection with the

These principles are today the secret law of all cabinets in which plans for the conquest and maintenance of

great power are laid. In France we blamed Napoleon when he made use of that Italian genius for craft which

was bred in his bone,though in his case it did not always succeed. But Charles V., Catherine, Philip II., and

Pope Julius would not have acted otherwise than as he did in the affair of Spain. History, in the days when

Catherine was born, if judged from the point of view of honesty, would seem an impossible tale. Charles V.,

obliged to sustain Catholicism against the attacks of Luther, who threatened the Throne in threatening the

Tiara, allowed the siege of Rome and held Pope Clement VII. in prison! This same Clement, who had no

bitterer enemy than Charles V., courted him in order to make Alessandro de' Medici ruler of Florence, and

obtained his favorite daughter for that bastard. No sooner was Alessandro established than he, conjointly with

Clement VII., endeavored to injure Charles V. by allying himself with Francois I., king of France, by means

of Catherine de' Medici; and both of them promised to assist Francois in reconquering Italy. Lorenzino de'

Medici made himself the companion of Alessandro's debaucheries for the express purpose of finding an

opportunity to kill him. Filippo Strozzi, one of the great minds of that day, held this murder in such respect

that he swore that his sons should each marry a daughter of the murderer; and each son religiously fulfilled

his father's oath when they might all have made, under Catherine's protection, brilliant marriages; for one was

the rival of Doria, the other a marshal of France. Cosmo de' Medici, successor of Alessandro, with whom he

had no relationship, avenged the death of that tyrant in the cruellest manner, with a persistency lasting twelve

years; during which time his hatred continued keen against the persons who had, as a matter of fact, given

him the power. He was eighteen years old when called to the sovereignty; his first act was to declare the

rights of Alessandro's legitimate sons null and void,all the while avenging their father's death! Charles V.

confirmed the disinheriting of his grandsons, and recognized Cosmo instead of the son of Alessandro and his

daughter Margaret. Cosmo, placed on the throne by Cardinal Cibo, instantly exiled the latter; and the cardinal

revenged himself by accusing Cosmo (who was the first grandduke) of murdering Alessandro's son. Cosmo,

as jealous of his power as Charles V. was of his, abdicated in favor of his son Francesco, after causing the

death of his other son, Garcia, to avenge the death of Cardinal Giovanni de' Medici, whom Garcia had

assassinated. Cosmo the First and his son Francesco, who ought to have been devoted, body and soul, to the

house of France, the only power on which they might really have relied, made themselves the lacqueys of

Charles V. and Philip II., and were consequently the secret, base, and perfidious enemies of Catherine de'

Such were the leading contradictory and illogical traits, the treachery, knavery, and black intrigues of a single

house, that of the Medici. From this sketch, we may judge of the other princes of Italy and Europe. All the

envoys of Cosmos I. to the court of France had, in their secret instructions, an order to poison Strozzi,

Catherine's relation, when he arrived. Charles V. had already assassinated three of the ambassadors of

It was early in the month of October, 1533, that the Duca della citta di Penna started from Florence for

Livorno, accompanied by the sole heiress of Lorenzo II., namely, Catherine de' Medici. The duke and the

Princess of Florence, for that was the title by which the young girl, then fourteen years of age, was known,

left the city surrounded by a large retinue of servants, officers, and secretaries, preceded by armed men, and

followed by an escort of cavalry. The young princess knew nothing as yet of what her fate was to be, except

that the Pope was to have an interview at Livorno with the Duke Alessandro; but her uncle, Filippo Strozzi,

Filippo Strozzi had married Clarice de' Medici, halfsister on the father's side of Lorenzo de' Medici, Duke of

Urbino, father of Catherine; but this marriage, which was brought about as much to convert one of the firmest

supporters of the popular party to the cause of the Medici as to facilitate the recall of that family, then

banished from Florence, never shook the stern champion from his course, though he was persecuted by his

own party for making it. In spite of all apparent changes in his conduct (for this alliance naturally affected it

somewhat) he remained faithful to the popular party, and declared himself openly against the Medici as soon

as he foresaw their intention to enslave Florence. This great man even refused the offer of a principality made

At the time of which we are now writing Filippo Strozzi was a victim to the policy of the Medici, so

vacillating in its means, so fixed and inflexible in its object. After sharing the misfortunes and the captivity of

Clement VII. when the latter, surprised by the Colonna, took refuge in the Castle of SaintAngelo, Strozzi

was delivered up by Clement as a hostage and taken to Naples. As the Pope, when he got his liberty, turned

savagely on his enemies, Strozzi came very near losing his life, and was forced to pay an enormous sum to be

released from a prison where he was closely confined. When he found himself at liberty he had, with an

instinct of kindness natural to an honest man, the simplicity to present himself before Clement VII., who had

perhaps congratulated himself on being well rid of him. The Pope had such good cause to blush for his own

Strozzi thus began, early in life, his apprenticeship in the misfortunes of an honest man in politics,a man

whose conscience cannot lend itself to the capriciousness of events; whose actions are acceptable only to the

virtuous; and who is therefore persecuted by the world,by the people, for opposing their blind passions; by

power for opposing its usurpations. The life of such great citizens is a martyrdom, in which they are sustained

only by the voice of their conscience and an heroic sense of social duty, which dictates their course in all

things. There were many such men in the republic of Florence, all as great as Strozzi, and as able as their

adversaries the Medici, though vanquished by the superior craft and wiliness of the latter. What could be

more worthy of admiration than the conduct of the chief of the Pazzi at the time of the conspiracy of his

house, when, his commerce being at that time enormous, he settled all his accounts with Asia, the Levant, and

Europe before beginning that great attempt; so that, if it failed, his correspondents should lose nothing.

The history of the establishment of the house of the Medici in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries is a

magnificent tale which still remains to be written, though men of genius have already put their hands to it. It

is not the history of a republic, nor of a society, nor of any special civilization; it is the history of

STATESMEN, the eternal history of Politics,that of usurpers, that of conquerors.

As soon as Filippo Strozzi returned to Florence he reestablished the preceding form of government and

ousted Ippolito de' Medici, another bastard, and the very Alessandro with whom, at the later period of which

we are now writing, he was travelling to Livorno. Having completed this change of government, he became

alarmed at the evident inconstancy of the people of Florence, and, fearing the vengeance of Clement VII., he

went to Lyon to superintend a vast house of business he owned there, which corresponded with other

bankinghouses of his own in Venice, Rome, France, and Spain. Here we find a strange thing. These men

who bore the weight of public affairs and of such a struggle as that with the Medici (not to speak of

contentions with their own party) found time and strength to bear the burden of a vast business and all its

speculations, also of banks and their complications, which the multiplicity of coinages and their falsification

rendered even more difficult than it is in our day. The name "banker" comes from the banc (Anglice, bench)

upon which the banker sat, and on which he rang the gold and silver pieces to try their quality. After a time

Filippo found in the death of his wife, whom he adored, a pretext for renewing his relations with the

Republican party, whose secret police becomes the more terrible in all republics, because every one makes

Filippo returned to Florence at the very moment when that city was compelled to adopt the yoke of

Alessandro; but he had previously gone to Rome and seen Pope Clement VII., whose affairs were now so

prosperous that his disposition toward Strozzi was much changed. In the hour of triumph the Medici were so

much in need of a man like Filippowere it only to smooth the return of Alessandrothat Clement urged

him to take a seat at the Council of the bastard who was about to oppress the city; and Strozzi consented to

But, for the last two years and more, he had seen, like Seneca and Burrhus, the beginnings of tyranny in his

Nero. He felt himself, at the moment of which we write, an object of so much distrust on the part of the

people and so suspected by the Medici whom he was constantly resisting, that he was confident of some

impending catastrophe. Consequently, as soon as he heard from Alessandro of the negotiation for Catherine's

marriage with the son of Francois I., the final arrangements for which were to be made at Livorno, where the

negotiators had appointed to meet, he formed the plan of going to France, and attaching himself to the

Alessandro, delighted to rid himself of a man so unaccommodating in the affairs of Florence, furthered a plan

which relieved him of one murder at least, and advised Strozzi to put himself at the head of Catherine's

household. In order to dazzle the eyes of France the Medici had selected a brilliant suite for her whom they

styled, very unwarrantably, the Princess of Florence, and who also went by the name of the little Duchess

d'Urbino. The cortege, at the head of which rode Alessandro, Catherine, and Strozzi, was composed of more

than a thousand persons, not including the escort and servants. When the last of it issued from the gates of

Florence the head had passed that first village beyond the city where they now braid the Tuscan straw hats. It

was beginning to be rumored among the people that Catherine was to marry a son of Francois I.; but the

rumor did not obtain much belief until the Tuscans beheld with their own eyes this triumphal procession from

Catherine herself, judging by all the preparations she beheld, began to suspect that her marriage was in

question, and her uncle then revealed to her the fact that the first ambitious project of his house had aborted,

and that the hand of the dauphin had been refused to her. Alessandro still hoped that the Duke of Albany

would succeed in changing this decision of the king of France who, willing as he was to buy the support of

the Medici in Italy, would only grant them his second son, the Duc d'Orleans. This petty blunder lost Italy to

The Duke of Albany, son of Alexander Stuart, brother of James III., king of Scotland, had married Anne de la

Tour de Boulogne, sister of Madeleine de la Tour de Boulogne, Catherine's mother; he was therefore her

maternal uncle. It was through her mother that Catherine was so rich and allied to so many great families; for,

strangely enough, her rival, Diane de Poitiers, was also her cousin. Jean de Poitiers, father of Diane, was son

of Jeanne de Boulogne, aunt of the Duchess d'Urbino. Catherine was also a cousin of Mary Stuart, her

Catherine now learned that her dowry in money was a hundred thousand ducats. A ducat was a gold piece of

the size of an old French louis, though less thick. (The old louis was worth twentyfour francsthe present

one is worth twenty). The Comtes of Auvergne and Lauraguais were also made a part of the dowry, and Pope

Clement added one hundred thousand ducats in jewels, precious stones, and other wedding gifts; to which

On arriving at Livorno, Catherine, still so young, must have been flattered by the extreme magnificence

displayed by Pope Clement ("her uncle in NotreDame," then head of the house of the Medici), in order to

outdo the court of France. He had already arrived at Livorno in one of his galleys, which was lined with

crimson satin fringed with gold, and covered with a tentlike awning in cloth of gold. This galley, the

decoration of which cost twenty thousand ducats, contained several apartments destined for the bride of Henri

of France, all of which were furnished with the richest treasures of art the Medici could collect. The rowers,

magnificently apparelled, and the crew were under the command of a prior of the order of the Knights of

Rhodes. The household of the Pope were in three other galleys. The galleys of the Duke of Albany, anchored

Duke Alessandro presented the officers of Catherine's household to the Pope, with whom he had a secret

conference, in which, it would appear, he presented to his Holiness Count Sebastiano Montecuculi, who had

just left, somewhat abruptly, the service of Charles V. and that of his two generals, Antonio di Leyva and

Ferdinando di Gonzago. Was there between the two bastards, Giulio and Alessandro, a premeditated intention

of making the Duc d'Orleans dauphin? What reward was promised to Sebastiano Montecuculi, who, before

entering the service of Charles V. had studied medicine? History is silent on that point. We shall see presently

what clouds hang round that fact. The obscurity is so great that, quite recently, grave and conscientious

Catherine then heard officially from the Pope's own lips of the alliance reserved for her. The Duke of Albany

had been able to do no more than hold the king of France, and that with difficulty, to his promise of giving

Catherine the hand of his second son, the Duc d'Orleans. The Pope's impatience was so great, and he was so

afraid that his plans would be thwarted either by some intrigue of the emperor, or by the refusal of France, or

by the grandees of the kingdom looking with evil eye upon the marriage, that he gave orders to embark at

once, and sailed for Marseille, where he arrived toward the end of October, 1533.

Notwithstanding its wealth, the house of the Medici was eclipsed on this occasion by the court of France. To

show the lengths to which the Medici pushed their magnificence, it is enough to say that the "dozen" put into

the bride's purse by the Pope were twelve gold medals of priceless historical value, which were then unique.

But Francois I., who loved the display of festivals, distinguished himself on this occasion. The wedding

It is useless to repeat the details, which have been given in all the histories of Provence and Marseille, as to

this celebrated interview between the Pope and the king of France, which was opened by a jest of the Duke of

Albany as to the duty of keeping fasts,a jest mentioned by Brantome and much enjoyed by the court,

Many conjectures have been made as to Catherine's barrenness, which lasted ten years. Strange calumnies

still rest upon this queen, all of whose actions were fated to be misjudged. It is sufficient to say that the cause

was solely in Henri II. After the difficulty was removed, Catherine had ten children. The delay was, in one

respect, fortunate for France. If Henri II. had had children by Diane de Poitiers the politics of the kingdom

would have been dangerously complicated. When the difficulty was removed the Duchesse de Valentinois

had reached the period of a woman's second youth. This matter alone will show that the true life of Catherine

de' Medici is still to be written, and alsoas Napoleon said with profound wisdomthat the history of

Here is a contemporaneous and succinct account of the meeting of Clement VII. and the king of France:

When Strozzi delivered the dowry in presence of the court he noticed some surprise on the part of the French

seigneurs; they even said aloud that it was little enough for such a mesalliance (what would they have said in

"You must be illinformed as to the secrets of your king. His Holiness has bound himself to give to France

The Pope left Sebastiano Montecuculi to present himself to the court of France, to which the count offered his

services, complaining of his treatment by Antonio di Leyva and Ferdinando di Gonzago, for which reason his

services were accepted. Montecuculi was not made a part of Catherine's household, which was wholly

composed of French men and women, for, by a law of the monarchy, the execution of which the Pope saw

with great satisfaction, Catherine was naturalized by letters patent as a Frenchwoman before the marriage.

Montecuculi was appointed in the first instance to the household of the queen, the sister of Charles V. After a

The new Duchesse d'Orleans soon found herself a nullity at the court of Francois I. Her young husband was

in love with Diane de Poitiers, who certainly, in the matter of birth, could rival Catherine, and was far more

of a great lady than the little Florentine. The daughter of the Medici was also outdone by Queen Eleonore,

sister of Charles V., and by Madame d'Etampes, whose marriage with the head of the house of Brosse made

her one of the most powerful and best titled women in France. Catherine's aunt the Duchess of Albany, the

Queen of Navarre, the Duchesse de Guise, the Duchesse de Vendome, Madame la Connetable de

Montmorency, and other women of like importance, eclipsed by birth and by their rights, as well as by their

power at the most sumptuous court of France (not excepting that of Louis XIV.), the daughter of the

Florentine grocers, who was richer and more illustrious through the house of the Tour de Boulogne than by

The position of his niece was so bad and difficult that the republican Filippo Strozzi, wholly incapable of

guiding her in the midst of such conflicting interests, left her after the first year, being recalled to Italy by the

death of Clement VII. Catherine's conduct, when we remember that she was scarcely fifteen years old, was a

model of prudence. She attached herself closely to the king, her fatherinlaw; she left him as little as she

could, following him on horseback both in hunting and in war. Her idolatry for Francois I. saved the house of

the Medici from all suspicion when the dauphin was poisoned. Catherine was then, and so was her husband,

at the headquarters of the king in Provence; for Charles V. had speedily invaded France and the late scene of

At the moment when Charles V. was put to flight, leaving the bones of his army in Provence, the dauphin

was returning to Lyon by the Rhone. He stopped to sleep at Tournon, and, by way of pastime, practised some

violent physical exercises,which were nearly all the education his brother and he, in consequence of their

detention as hostages, had ever received. The prince had the imprudenceit being the month of August, and

the weather very hotto ask for a glass of water, which Montecuculi, as his cupbearer, gave to him, with

ice in it. The dauphin died almost immediately. Francois I. adored his son. The dauphin was, according to all

accounts, a charming young man. His father, in despair, gave the utmost publicity to the proceedings against

Montecuculi, which he placed in the hands of the most able magistrates of that day. The count, after

heroically enduring the first tortures without confessing anything, finally made admissions by which he

implicated Charles V. and his two generals, Antonio di Leyva and Ferdinando di Gonzago. No affair was

ever more solemnly debated. Here is what the king did, in the words of an ocular witness:

The fidelity, devotion, and cautious skill of the Comte de Montecuculi may seem extraordinary in our time,

when all the world, even ministers of State, tell everything about the least little event with which they have to

do; but in those days princes could find devoted servants, or knew how to choose them. Monarchical Moreys

existed because in those days there was faith. Never ask devotion of selfinterest, because such interest may

change; but expect all from sentiments, religious faith, monarchical faith, patriotic faith. Those three beliefs

produced such men as the Berthereaus of Geneva, the Sydneys and Straffords of England, the murderers of

Thomas a Becket, the Jacques Coeurs, the Jeanne d'Arcs, the Richelieus, Dantons, Bonchamps, Talmonts,

The dauphin was poisoned in the same manner, and possibly by the same drug which afterwards served

MADAME under Louis XIV. Pope Clement VII. had been dead two years; Duke Alessandro, plunged in

debauchery, seemed to have no interest in the elevation of the Duc d'Orleans; Catherine, then seventeen, and

full of admiration for her fatherin law, was with him at the time; Charles V. alone appeared to have an

interest in his death, for Francois I. was negotiating for his son an alliance which would assuredly have

aggrandized France. The count's confession was therefore very skilfully based on the passions and politics of

the moment; Charles V. was then flying from France, leaving his armies buried in Provence with his

happiness, his reputation, and his hopes of dominion. It is to be remarked that if torture had forced

admissions from an innocent man, Francois I. gave Montecuculi full liberty to speak in presence of an

imposing assembly, and before persons in whose eyes innocence had some chance to triumph. The king, who

In spite of her now brilliant future, Catherine's situation at court was not changed by the death of the dauphin.

Her barrenness gave reason to fear a divorce in case her husband should ascend the throne. The dauphin was

under the spell of Diane de Poitiers, who assumed to rival Madame d'Etampes, the king's mistress. Catherine

redoubled in care and cajolery of her fatherinlaw, being well aware that her sole support was in him. The

first ten years of Catherine's married life were years of everrenewed grief, caused by the failure, one by one,

of her hopes of pregnancy, and the vexations of her rivalry with Diane. Imagine what must have been the life

of a young princess, watched by a jealous mistress who was supported by a powerful party, the Catholic

party,and by the two powerful alliances Diane had made in marrying one daughter to Robert de la Mark,

Duc de Bouillon, Prince of Sedan, and the other to Claude de Lorraine, Duc d'Aumale.

Catherine, helpless between the party of Madame d'Etampes and the party of the Senechale (such was Diane's

title during the reign of Francois I.), which divided the court and politics into factions for these mortal

enemies, endeavored to make herself the friend of both Diane de Poitiers and Madame d'Etampes. She, who

was destined to become so great a queen, played the part of a servant. Thus she served her apprenticeship in

that doublefaced policy which was ever the secret motor of her life. Later, the queen was to stand between

Catholics and Calvinists, just as the woman had stood for ten years between Madame d'Etampes and Madame

de Poitiers. She studied the contradictions of French politics; she saw Francois I. sustaining Calvin and the

Lutherans in order to embarrass Charles V., and then, after secretly and patiently protecting the Reformation

in Germany, and tolerating the residence of Calvin at the court of Navarre, he suddenly turned against it with

excessive rigor. Catherine beheld on the one hand the court, and the women of the court, playing with the fire

of heresy, and on the other, Diane at the head of the Catholic party with the Guises, solely because the

Such was the political education of this queen, who saw in the cabinet of the king of France the same errors

committed as in the house of the Medici. The dauphin opposed his father in everything; he was a bad son. He

forgot the cruel but most vital maxim of royalty, namely, that thrones need solidarity; and that a son who

creates opposition during the lifetime of his father must follow that father's policy when he mounts the

throne. Spinosa, who was as great a statesman as he was a philosopher, saidin the case of one king

It was the application of this maxim which gave Florence to the Medici. Cosmo I. caused to be assassinated at

Venice, after eleven years' sway, the Florentine Brutus, and, as we have already said, persecuted the Strozzi.

It was forgetfulness of this maxim which ruined Louis XVI. That king was false to every principle of royal

government when he reestablished the parliaments suppressed by his grandfather. Louis XV. saw the matter

clearly. The parliaments, and notably that of Paris, counted for fully half in the troubles which necessitated

the convocation of the Statesgeneral. The fault of Louis XV. was, that in breaking down that barrier which

separated the throne from the people he did not erect a stronger; in other words, that he did not substitute for

parliament a strong constitution of the provinces. There lay the remedy for the evils of the monarchy; thence

should have come the voting on taxes, the regulation of them, and a slow approval of reforms that were

The first act of Henri II. was to give his confidence to the Connetable de Montmorency, whom his father had

enjoined him to leave in disgrace. The Connetable de Montmorency was, with Diane de Poitiers, to whom he

was closely bound, the master of the State. Catherine was therefore less happy and less powerful after she

became queen of France than while she was dauphiness. From 1543 she had a child every year for ten years,

and was occupied with maternal cares during the period covered by the last three years of the reign of

Francois I. and nearly the whole of the reign of Henri II. We may see in this recurring fecundity the influence

of a rival, who was able thus to rid herself of the legitimate wife,a barbarity of feminine policy which must

Thus set aside from public life, this superior woman passed her time in observing the selfinterests of the

court people and of the various parties which were formed about her. All the Italians who had followed her

were objects of violent suspicion. After the execution of Montecuculi the Connetable de Montmorency,

Diane, and many of the keenest politicians of the court were filled with suspicion of the Medici; though

Francois I. always repelled it. Consequently, the Gondi, Strozzi, Ruggieri, Sardini, etc.,in short, all those

who were called distinctively "the Italians,"were compelled to employ greater resources of mind, shrewd

policy, and courage, to maintain themselves at court against the weight of disfavor which pressed upon them.

During her husband's reign Catherine's amiability to Diane de Poitiers went to such great lengths that

intelligent persons must regard it as proof of that profound dissimulation which men, events, and the conduct

of Henri II. compelled Catherine de' Medici to employ. But they go too far when they declare that she never

claimed her rights as wife and queen. In the first place, the sense of dignity which Catherine possessed in the

highest degree forbade her claiming what historians call her rights as a wife. The ten children of the marriage

explain Henri's conduct; and his wife's maternal occupations left him free to pass his time with Diane de

Poitiers. But the king was never lacking in anything that was due to himself; and he gave Catherine an

"entry" into Paris, to be crowned as queen, which was worthy of all such pageants that had ever taken place.

The archives of the Parliament, and those of the Cour des Comptes, show that those two great bodies went to

meet her outside of Paris as far as Saint Lazare. Here is an extract from du Tillet's account of it:

We may here put an end to one of those popular beliefs which are repeated in many writers from Sauval

down. It has been said that Henri II. pushed his neglect of the proprieties so far as to put the initials of his

mistress on the buildings which Catherine advised him to continue or to begin with so much magnificence.

But the double monogram which can be seen at the Louvre offers a daily denial to those who are so little

clearsighted as to believe in silly nonsense which gratuitously insults our kings and queens. The H or Henri

and the two C's of Catherine which back it, appear to represent the two D's of Diane. The coincidence may

have pleased Henri II., but it is none the less true that the royal monogram contained officially the initial of

the king and that of the queen. This is so true that the monogram can still be seen on the column of the Halle

au Ble, which was built by Catherine alone. It can also be seen in the crypt of SaintDenis, on the tomb

which Catherine erected for herself in her lifetime beside that of Henri II., where her figure is modelled from

On a solemn occasion, when he was starting, March 25, 1552, for his expedition into Germany, Henri II.

declared Catherine regent during his absence, and also in case of his death. Catherine's most cruel enemy, the

author of "Marvellous Discourses on Catherine the Second's Behavior" admits that she carried on the

government with universal approval and that the king was satisfied with her administration. Henri received

both money and men at the time he wanted them; and finally, after the fatal day of SaintQuentin, Catherine

obtained considerable sums of money from the people of Paris, which she sent to Compiegne, where the king

In politics, Catherine made immense efforts to obtain a little influence. She was clever enough to bring the

Connetable de Montmorency, allpowerful under Henri II., to her interests. We all know the terrible answer

that the king made, on being harassed by Montmorency in her favor. This answer was the result of an attempt

by Catherine to give the king good advice, in the few moments she was ever alone with him, when she

explained the Florentine policy of pitting the grandees of the kingdom one against another and establishing

the royal authority on their ruins. But Henri II., who saw things only through the eyes of Diane and the

Connetable, was a truly feudal king and the friend of all the great families of his kingdom.

After the futile attempt of the Connetable in her favor, which must have been made in the year 1556,

Catherine began to cajole the Guises for the purpose of detaching them from Diane and opposing them to the

Connetable. Unfortunately, Diane and Montmorency were as vehement against the Protestants as the Guises.

There was therefore not the same animosity in their struggle as there might have been had the religious

question entered it. Moreover, Diane boldly entered the lists against the queen's project by coquetting with

the Guises and giving her daughter to the Duc d'Aumale. She even went so far that certain authors declared

she gave more than mere goodwill to the gallant Cardinal de Lorraine; and the lampooners of the time made

It is impossible to regard as sincere the signs of grief and the ostentation of mourning which Catherine

showed on the death of Henri II. The fact that the king was attached by an unalterable passion to Diane de

Poitiers naturally made Catherine play the part of a neglected wife who adores her husband; but, like all

women who act by their head, she persisted in this dissimulation and never ceased to speak tenderly of Henri

II. In like manner Diane, as we know, wore mourning all her life for her husband the Senechal de Breze. Her

colors were black and white, and the king was wearing them at the tournament when he was killed. Catherine,

no doubt in imitation of her rival, wore mourning for Henri II. for the rest of her life. She showed a

consummate perfidy toward Diane de Poitiers, to which historians have not given due attention. At the king's

death the Duchesse de Valentinois was completely disgraced and shamefully abandoned by the Connetable, a

man who was always below his reputation. Diane offered her estate and chateau of Chenonceaux to the

"I can never forget that she made the happiness of my dear Henri. I am ashamed to accept her gift; I wish to

give her a domain in place of it, and I shall offer her that of ChaumontsurLoire."

Accordingly, the deed of exchange was signed at Blois in 1559. Diane, whose sonsinlaw were the Duc

d'Aumale and the Duc de Bouillon (then a sovereign prince), kept her wealth, and died in 1566 aged

sixtysix. She was therefore nineteen years older than Henri II. These dates, taken from her epitaph which

was copied from her tomb by the historian who concerned himself so much about her at the close of the last

century, clear up quite a number of historical difficulties. Some historians have declared she was forty, others

that she was sixteen at the time of her father's condemnation in 1523; in point of fact she was then

twentyfour. After reading everything for and against her conduct towards Francois I. we are unable to affirm

or to deny anything. This is one of the passages of history that will ever remain obscure. We may see by what

happens in our own day how history is falsified at the very moment when events happen.

Catherine, who had founded great hopes on the age of her rival, tried more than once to overthrow her. It was

a dumb, underhand, terrible struggle. The day came when Catherine believed herself for a moment on the

verge of success. In 1554, Diane, who was ill, begged the king to go to SaintGermain and leave her for a

short time until she recovered. This stately coquette did not choose to be seen in the midst of medical

appliances and without the splendors of apparel. Catherine arranged, as a welcome to her husband, a

magnificent ballet, in which six beautiful young girls were to recite a poem in his honor. She chose for this

function Miss Fleming, a relation of her uncle the Duke of Albany, the handsomest young woman, some say,

that was ever seen, white and very fair; also one of her own relations, Clarice Strozzi, a magnificent Italian

with superb black hair, and hands that were of rare beauty; Miss Lewiston, maid of honor to Mary Stuart;

Mary Stuart herself; Madame Elizabeth of France (who was afterwards that unfortunate Queen of Spain); and

Madame Claude. Elizabeth and Claude were eight and nine years old, Mary Stuart twelve; evidently the

queen intended to bring forward Miss Fleming and Clarice Strozzi and present them without rivals to the

king. The king fell in love with Miss Fleming, by whom he had a natural son, Henri de Valois, Comte

d'Angouleme, grandprior of France. But the power and influence of Diane were not shaken. Like Madame

de Pompadour with Louis XV., the Duchesse de Valentinois forgave all. But what sort of love did this

attempt show in Catherine? Was it love to her husband or love of power? Women may decide.

A great deal is said in these days of the license of the press; but it is difficult to imagine the lengths to which

it went when printing was first invented. We know that Aretino, the Voltaire of his time, made kings and

emperors tremble, more especially Charles V.; but the world does not know so well the audacity and license

of pamphlets. The chateau de Chenonceaux, which we have just mentioned, was given to Diane, or rather not

given, she was implored to accept it to make her forget one of the most horrible publications ever levelled

against a woman, and which shows the violence of the warfare between herself and Madame d'Etampes. In

1537, when she was thirtyeight years of age, a rhymester of Champagne named Jean Voute, published a

collection of Latin verses in which were three epigrams upon her. It is to be supposed that the poet was sure

of protection in high places, for the pamphlet has a preface in praise of itself, signed by Salmon Macrin, first

valetdechambre to the king. Only one passage is quotable from these epigrams, which are entitled: IN

"A painted trap catches no game," says the poet, after telling Diane that she painted her face and bought her

teeth and hair. "You may buy all that superficially makes a woman, but you can't buy that your lover wants;

This collection, printed by Simon de Colines, is dedicated to a bishop!to Francois Bohier, the brother of

the man who, to save his credit at court and redeem his offence, offered to Diane, on the accession of Henri

II., the chateau de Chenonceaux, built by his father, Thomas Bohier, a councillor of state under four kings:

Louis XI., Charles VIII., Louis XII., and Francois I. What were the pamphlets published against Madame de

Pompadour and against Marie Antoinette compared to these verses, which might have been written by

Martial? Voute must have made a bad end. The estate and chateau cost Diane nothing more than the

forgiveness enjoined by the gospel. After all, the penalties inflicted on the press, though not decreed by juries,

The queens of France, on becoming widows, were required to remain in the king's chamber forty days

without other light than that of wax tapers; they did not leave the room until after the burial of the king. This

inviolable custom was a great annoyance to Catherine, who feared cabals; and, by chance, she found a means

to evade it, thus: Cardinal de Lorraine, leaving, very early in the morning, the house of the belle Romaine, a

celebrated courtesan of the period, who lived in the rue CultureSainteCatherine, was set upon and

maltreated by a party of libertines. "On which his holiness, being much astonished" (says Henri Estienne),

"gave out that the heretics were preparing ambushes against him." The court at once removed from Paris to

Saint Germain, and the queenmother, declaring that she would not abandon the king her son, went with

The accession of Francois II., the period at which Catherine confidently believed she could get possession of

the regal power, was a moment of cruel disappointment, after the twentysix years of misery she had lived

through at the court of France. The Guises laid hands on power with incredible audacity. The Duc de Guise

was placed in command of the army; the Connetable was dismissed; the cardinal took charge of the treasury

Catherine now began her political career by a drama which, though it did not have the dreadful fame of those

of later years, was, nevertheless, most horrible; and it must, undoubtedly, have accustomed her to the terrible

after emotions of her life. While appearing to be in harmony with the Guises, she endeavored to pave the way

for her ultimate triumph by seeking a support in the house of Bourbon, and the means she took were as

follows: Whether it was that (before the death of Henri II.), and after fruitlessly attempting violent measures,

she wished to awaken jealousy in order to bring the king back to her; or whether as she approached

middleage it seemed to her cruel that she had never known love, certain it is that she showed a strong

interest in a seigneur of the royal blood, Francois de Vendome, son of Louis de Vendome (the house from

which that of the Bourbons sprang), and Vidame de Chartres, the name under which he is known in history.

The secret hatred which Catherine bore to Diane was revealed in many ways, to which historians,

preoccupied by political interests, have paid no attention. Catherine's attachment to the vidame proceeded

from the fact that the young man had offered an insult to the favorite. Diane's greatest ambition was for the

honor of an alliance with the royal family of France. The hand of her second daughter (afterwards Duchesse

d'Aumale) was offered on her behalf to the Vidame de Chartres, who was kept poor by the farsighted policy

of Francois I. In fact, when the Vidame de Chartres and the Prince de Conde first came to court, Francois I.

gave themwhat? The office of chamberlain, with a paltry salary of twelve hundred crowns a year, the same

that he gave to the simplest gentlemen. Though Diane de Poitiers offered an immense dowry, a fine office

under the crown, and the favor of the king, the vidame refused. After which, this Bourbon, already factious,

married Jeanne, daughter of the Baron d'Estissac, by whom he had no children. This act of pride naturally

commended him to Catherine, who greeted him after that with marked favor and made a devoted friend of

Historians have compared the last Duc de Montmorency, beheaded at Toulouse, to the Vidame de Chartres,

in the art of pleasing, in attainments, accomplishments, and talent. Henri II. showed no jealousy; he seemed

not even to suppose that a queen of France could fail in her duty, or a Medici forget the honor done to her by

a Valois. But during this time when the queen was, it is said, coquetting with the Vidame de Chartres, the

king, after the birth of her last child, had virtually abandoned her. This attempt at making him jealous was to

At the time of the king's death Catherine was, therefore, on terms of gallantry with the vidame,a situation

which was quite in conformity with the manners and morals of a time when love was both so chivalrous and

so licentious that the noblest actions were as natural as the most blamable; although historians, as usual, have

The four sons of Henri II. of course rendered null the position of the Bourbons, who were all extremely poor

and were now crushed down by the contempt which the Connetable de Montmorency's treachery brought

upon them, in spite of the fact that the latter had thought best to fly the kingdom.

The Vidame de Chartreswho was to the first Prince de Conde what Richelieu was to Mazarin, his father in

policy, his model, and, above all, his master in gallantryconcealed the excessive ambition of his house

beneath an external appearance of lighthearted gaiety. Unable during the reign of Henri II. to make head

against the Guises, the Montmorencys, the Scottish princes, the cardinals, and the Bouillons, he distinguished

himself by his graceful bearing, his manners, his wit, which won him the favor of many charming women and

the heart of some for whom he cared nothing. He was one of those privileged beings whose seductions are

irresistible, and who owe to love the power of maintaining themselves according to their rank. The Bourbons

would not have resented, as did Jarnac, the slander of la Chataigneraie; they were willing enough to accept

the lands and castles of their mistresses,witness the Prince de Conde, who accepted the estate of

During the first twenty days of mourning after the death of Henri II. the situation of the vidame suddenly

changed. As the object of the queen mother's regard, and permitted to pay his court to her as court is paid to a

queen, very secretly, he seemed destined to play an important role, and Catherine did, in fact, resolve to use

him. The vidame received letters from her for the Prince de Conde, in which she pointed out to the latter the

necessity of an alliance against the Guises. Informed of this intrigue, the Guises entered the queen's chamber

for the purpose of compelling her to issue an order consigning the vidame to the Bastille, and Catherine, to

save herself, was under the hard necessity of obeying them. After a captivity of some months, the vidame

died on the very day he left prison, which was shortly before the conspiracy of Amboise. Such was the

conclusion of the first and only amour of Catherine de' Medici. Protestant historians have said that the queen

caused the vidame to be poisoned, to lay the secret of her gallantries in a tomb!

We have now shown what was the apprenticeship of this woman for the exercise of her royal power.

Few persons in the present day know how plain and unpretentious were the dwellings of the burghers of Paris

in the sixteenth century, and how simple their lives. Perhaps this simplicity of habits and of thought was the

cause of the grandeur of that old bourgeoisie which was certainly grand, free, and noble,more so, perhaps,

than the bourgeoisie of the present day. Its history is still to be written; it requires and it awaits a man of

genius. This reflection will doubtless rise to the lips of every one after reading the almost unknown incident

which forms the basis of this Study and is one of the most remarkable facts in the history of that bourgeoisie.

In 1560, the houses of the rue de la VieillePelleterie skirted the left bank of the Seine, between the pont

NotreDame and the pont au Change. A public footpath and the houses then occupied the space covered by

the present roadway. Each house, standing almost in the river, allowed its dwellers to get down to the water

by stone or wooden stairways, closed and protected by strong iron railings or wooden gates, clamped with

iron. The houses, like those in Venice, had an entrance on terra firma and a water entrance. At the moment

when the present sketch is published, only one of these houses remains to recall the old Paris of which we

speak, and that is soon to disappear; it stands at the corner of the PetitPont, directly opposite to the

Formerly each dwelling presented on the riverside the fantastic appearance given either by the trade of its

occupant and his habits, or by the originality of the exterior constructions invented by the proprietors to use

or abuse the Seine. The bridges being encumbered with more mills than the necessities of navigation could

allow, the Seine formed as many enclosed basins as there were bridges. Some of these basins in the heart of

old Paris would have offered precious scenes and tones of color to painters. What a forest of crossbeams

supported the mills with their huge sails and their wheels! What strange effects were produced by the piles or

props driven into the water to project the upper floors of the houses above the stream! Unfortunately, the art

of genre painting did not exist in those days, and that of engraving was in its infancy. We have therefore lost

that curious spectacle, still offered, though in miniature, by certain provincial towns, where the rivers are

overhung with wooden houses, and where, as at Vendome, the basins, full of water grasses, are enclosed by

immense iron railings, to isolate each proprietor's share of the stream, which extends from bank to bank.

The name of this street, which has now disappeared from the map, sufficiently indicates the trade that was

carried on in it. In those days the merchants of each class of commerce, instead of dispersing themselves

about the city, kept together in the same neighborhood and protected themselves mutually. Associated in

corporations which limited their number, they were still further united into guilds by the Church. In this way

prices were maintained. Also, the masters were not at the mercy of their workmen, and did not obey their

whims as they do today; on the contrary, they made them their children, their apprentices, took care of them,

and taught them the intricacies of the trade. In order to become a master, a workman had to produce a

masterpiece, which was always dedicated to the saint of his guild. Will any one dare to say that the absence

of competition destroyed the desire for perfection, or lessened the beauty of products? What say you, you

whose admiration for the masterpieces of past ages has created the modern trade of the sellers of

In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries the trade of the furrier was one of the most flourishing industries. The

difficulty of obtaining furs, which, being all brought from the north, required long and perilous journeys,

gave a very high price and value to those products. Then, as now, high prices led to consumption; for vanity

likes to override obstacles. In France, as in other kingdoms, not only did royal ordinances restrict the use of

furs to the nobility (proved by the part which ermine plays in the old blazons), but also certain rare furs, such

as vair (which was undoubtedly Siberian sable), could not be worn by any but kings, dukes, and certain lords

clothed with official powers. A distinction was made between the greater and lesser vair. The very name has

been so long disused, that in a vast number of editions of Perrault's famous tale, Cinderella's slipper, which

was no doubt of vair (the fur), is said to have been made of verre (glass). Lately one of our most distinguished

poets was obliged to establish the true orthography of the word for the instruction of his brotherfeuilletonists

in giving an account of the opera of the "Cenerentola," where the symbolic slipper has been replaced by a

Naturally the sumptuary laws about the wearing of fur were perpetually infringed upon, to the great

satisfaction of the furriers. The costliness of stuffs and furs made a garment in those days a durable

thing,as lasting as the furniture, the armor, and other items of that strong life of the fifteenth century. A

woman of rank, a seigneur, all rich men, also all the burghers, possessed at the most two garments for each

season, which lasted their lifetime and beyond it. These garments were bequeathed to their children.

Consequently the clause in the marriagecontract relating to arms and clothes, which in these days is almost a

dead letter because of the small value of wardrobes that need constant renewing, was then of much

importance. Great costs brought with them solidity. The toilet of a woman constituted a large capital; it was

reckoned among the family possessions, and was kept in those enormous chests which threaten to break

through the floors of our modern houses. The jewels of a woman of 1840 would have been the undress

Today, the discovery of America, the facilities of transportation, the ruin of social distinctions which has

paved the way for the ruin of apparent distinctions, has reduced the trade of the furrier to what it now

is,next to nothing. The article which a furrier sells today, as in former days, for twenty livres has

followed the depreciation of money: formerly the livre, which is now worth one franc and is usually so

called, was worth twenty francs. Today, the lesser bourgeoisie and the courtesans who edge their capes with

sable, are ignorant than in 1440 an illdisposed policeofficer would have incontinently arrested them and

marched them before the justice at the Chatelet. Englishwomen, who are so fond of ermine, do not know that

in former times none but queens, duchesses, and chancellors were allowed to wear that royal fur. There are

today in France several ennobled families whose true name is Pelletier or Lepelletier, the origin of which is

evidently derived from some rich furrier's counter, for most of our burgher's names began in some such way.

This digression will explain, not only the long feud as to precedence which the guild of drapers maintained

for two centuries against the guild of furriers and also of mercers (each claiming the right to walk first, as

being the most important guild in Paris), but it will also serve to explain the importance of the Sieur

Lecamus, a furrier honored with the custom of two queens, Catherine de' Medici and Mary Stuart, also the

custom of the parliament,a man who for twenty years was the syndic of his corporation, and who lived in

The house of Lecamus was one of three which formed the three angles of the open space at the end of the

pont au Change, where nothing now remains but the tower of the Palais de Justice, which made the fourth

angle. On the corner of this house, which stood at the angle of the pont au Change and the quai now called

the quai aux Fleurs, the architect had constructed a little shrine for a Madonna, which was always lighted by

waxtapers and decked with real flowers in summer and artificial ones in winter. On the side of the house

toward the rue du Pont, as on the side toward the rue de la VieillePelleterie, the upper story of the house was

supported by wooden pillars. All the houses in this mercantile quarter had an arcade behind these pillars,

where the passers in the street walked under cover on a ground of trodden mud which kept the place always

dirty. In all French towns these arcades or galleries are called les piliers, a general term to which was added

the name of the business transacted under them,as "piliers des Halles" (markets), "piliers de la Boucherie"

These galleries, a necessity in the Parisian climate, which is so changeable and so rainy, gave this part of the

city a peculiar character of its own; but they have now disappeared. Not a single house in the river bank

remains, and not more than about a hundred feet of the old "piliers des Halles," the last that have resisted the

action of time, are left; and before long even that relic of the sombre labyrinth of old Paris will be

demolished. Certainly, the existence of such old ruins of the middleages is incompatible with the grandeurs

of modern Paris. These observations are meant not so much to regret the destruction of the old town, as to

preserve in words, and by the history of those who lived there, the memory of a place now turned to dust, and

to excuse the following description, which may be precious to a future age now treading on the heels of our

The walls of this house were of wood covered with slate. The spaces between the uprights had been filled in,

as we may still see in some provincial towns, with brick, so placed, by reversing their thickness, as to make a

pattern called "Hungarian point." The windowcasings and lintels, also in wood, were richly carved, and so

was the corner pillar where it rose above the shrine of the Madonna, and all the other pillars in front of the

house. Each window, and each main beam which separated the different storeys, was covered with

arabesques of fantastic personages and animals wreathed with conventional foliage. On the street side, as on

the river side, the house was capped with a roof looking as if two cards were set up one against the

other,thus presenting a gable to the street and a gable to the water. This roof, like the roof of a Swiss

chalet, overhung the building so far that on the second floor there was an outside gallery with a balustrade, on

which the owners of the house could walk under cover and survey the street, also the river basin between the

These houses on the river bank were very valuable. In those days a system of drains and fountains was still to

be invented; nothing of the kind as yet existed except the circuit sewer, constructed by Aubriot, provost of

Paris under Charles the Wise, who also built the Bastille, the pont SaintMichel and other bridges, and was

the first man of genius who ever thought of the sanitary improvement of Paris. The houses situated like that

of Lecamus took from the river the water necessary for the purposes of life, and also made the river serve as a

natural drain for rainwater and household refuse. The great works that the "merchants' provosts" did in this

direction are fast disappearing. Middleaged persons alone can remember to have seen the great holes in the

rue Montmartre, rue du Temple, etc., down which the waters poured. Those terrible open jaws were in the

olden time of immense benefit to Paris. Their place will probably be forever marked by the sudden rise of the

paved roadways at the spots where they opened,another archaeological detail which will be quite

inexplicable to the historian two centuries hence. One day, about 1816, a little girl who was carrying a case of

diamonds to an actress at the Ambigu, for her part as queen, was overtaken by a shower and so nearly washed

down the great drainhole in the rue du Temple that she would have disappeared had it not been for a passer

who heard her cries. Unluckily, she had let go the diamonds, which were, however, recovered later at a

manhole. This event made a great noise, and gave rise to many petitions against these engulfers of water and

little girls. They were singular constructions about five feet high, furnished with iron railings, more or less

movable, which often caused the inundation of the neighboring cellars, whenever the artificial river produced

by sudden rains was arrested in its course by the filth and refuse collected about these railings, which the

The front of this shop of the Sieur Lecamus was all window, formed of sashes of leaded panes, which made

the interior very dark. The furs were taken for selection to the houses of rich customers. As for those who

came to the shop to buy, the goods were shown to them outside, between the pillars,the arcade being, let us

remark, encumbered during the daytime with tables, and clerks sitting on stools, such as we all remember

seeing some fifteen years ago under the "piliers des Halles." From these outposts, the clerks and apprentices

talked, questioned, answered each other, and called to the passers,customs which the great Walter Scott

The sign, which represented an ermine, hung outside, as we still see in some village hostelries, from a rich

bracket of gilded iron filagree. Above the ermine, on one side of the sign, were the words:

The words "Madame la Roynemere" had been lately added. The gilding was fresh. This addition showed the

recent changes produced by the sudden and violent death of Henri II., which overturned many fortunes at

The backshop opened on the river. In this room usually sat the respectable proprietor himself and

Mademoiselle Lecamus. In those days the wife of a man who was not noble had no right to the title of dame,

"madame"; but the wives of the burghers of Paris were allowed to use that of "mademoiselle," in virtue of

privileges granted and confirmed to their husbands by the several kings to whom they had done service.

Between this backshop and the main shop was the well of a corkscrew staircase which gave access to the

upper story, where were the great wareroom and the dwellingrooms of the old couple, and the garrets

lighted by skylights, where slept the children, the servantwoman, the apprentices, and the clerks.

This crowding of families, servants, and apprentices, the little space which each took up in the building where

the apprentices all slept in one large chamber under the roof, explains the enormous population of Paris then

agglomerated on onetenth of the surface of the present city; also the queer details of private life in the

middle ages; also, the contrivances of love which, with all due deference to historians, are found only in the

pages of the romancewriters, without whom they would be lost to the world. At this period very great

seigneurs, such, for instance, as Admiral de Coligny, occupied three rooms, and their suites lived at some

neighboring inn. There were not, in those days, more than fifty private mansions in Paris, and those were fifty

palaces belonging to sovereign princes, or to great vassals, whose way of living was superior to that of the

The kitchen of the Lecamus family was beneath the backshop and looked out upon the river. It had a glass

door opening upon a sort of iron balcony, from which the cook drew up water in a bucket, and where the

household washing was done. The backshop was made the diningroom, office, and salon of the merchant.

In this important room (in all such houses richly panelled and adorned with some special work of art, and also

a carved chest) the life of the merchant was passed; there the joyous suppers after the work of the day was

over, there the secret conferences on the political interests of the burghers and of royalty took place. The

formidable corporations of Paris were at that time able to arm a hundred thousand men. Therefore the

opinions of the merchants were backed by their servants, their clerks, their apprentices, their workmen. The

burghers had a chief in the "provost of the merchants" who commanded them, and in the Hotel de Ville, a

palace where they possessed the right to assemble. In the famous "burghers' parlor" their solemn deliberations

took place. Had it not been for the continual sacrifices which by that time made war intolerable to the

corporations, who were weary of their losses and of the famine, Henri IV., that factionist who became king,

Every one can now picture to himself the appearance of this corner of old Paris, where the bridge and quai

still are, where the trees of the quai aux Fleurs now stand, but where no trace remains of the period of which

we write except the tall and famous tower of the Palais de Justice, from which the signal was given for the

Saint Bartholomew. Strange circumstance! one of the houses standing at the foot of that tower then

surrounded by wooden shops, that, namely, of Lecamus, was about to witness the birth of facts which were

destined to prepare for that night of massacre, which was, unhappily, more favorable than fatal to Calvinism.

At the moment when our history begins, the audacity of the new religious doctrines was putting all Paris in a

ferment. A Scotchman named Stuart had just assassinated President Minard, the member of the Parliament to

whom public opinion attributed the largest share in the execution of Councillor Anne du Bourg; who was

burned on the place de Greve after the king's tailorto whom Henri II. and Diane de Poitiers had caused the

torture of the "question" to be applied in their very presence. Paris was so closely watched that the archers

compelled all passers along the street to pray before the shrines of the Madonna so as to discover heretics by

The two archers who were stationed at the corner of the Lecamus house had departed, and Cristophe, son of

the furrier, vehemently suspected of deserting Catholicism, was able to leave the shop without fear of being

made to adore the Virgin. By seven in the evening, in April, 1560, darkness was already falling, and the

apprentices, seeing no signs of customers on either side of the arcade, were beginning to take in the

merchandise exposed as samples beneath the pillars, in order to close the shop. Christophe Lecamus, an

ardent young man about twentytwo years old, was standing on the sill of the shopdoor, apparently

"Monsieur," said one of them, addressing Christophe and pointing to a man who was walking to and fro

under the gallery with an air of indecision, "perhaps that's a thief or a spy; anyhow, the shabby wretch can't

be an honest man; if he wanted to speak to us he would come over frankly, instead of sidling along as he

doesand what a face!" continued the apprentice, mimicking the man, "with his nose in his cloak, his yellow

When the stranger thus described caught sight of Christophe alone on the doorsill, he suddenly left the

opposite gallery where he was then walking, crossed the street rapidly, and came under the arcade in front of

the Lecamus house. There he passed slowly along in front of the shop, and before the apprentices returned to

Hearing the name of one of the most illustrious ministers and devoted actors in the terrible drama called "The

Reformation," Christophe quivered as a faithful peasant might have quivered on recognizing his disguised

"Perhaps you would like to see some furs? Though it is almost dark I will show you some myself," said

Christophe, wishing to throw the apprentices, whom he heard behind him, off the scent.

With a wave of his hand he invited the minister to enter the shop, but the latter replied that he preferred to

converse outside. Christophe then fetched his cap and followed the disciple of Calvin.

Though banished by an edict, Chaudieu, the secret envoy of Theodore de Beze and Calvin (who were

directing the French Reformation from Geneva), went and came, risking the cruel punishment to which the

Parliament, in unison with the Church and Royalty, had condemned one of their number, the celebrated Anne

du Bourg, in order to make a terrible example. Chaudieu, whose brother was a captain and one of Admiral

Coligny's best soldiers, was a powerful auxiliary by whose arm Calvin shook France at the beginning of the

twenty two years of religious warfare now on the point of breaking out. This minister was one of the hidden

Chaudieu led Christophe to the water's edge through an underground passage, which was like that of the

Marion tunnel filled up by the authorities about ten years ago. This passage, which was situated between the

Lecamus house and the one adjoining it, ran under the rue de la VieillePelleterie, and was called the

PontauxFourreurs. It was used by the dyers of the City to go to the river and wash their flax and silks, and

other stuffs. A little boat was at the entrance of it, rowed by a single sailor. In the bow was a man unknown to

Christophe, a man of low stature and very simply dressed. Chaudieu and Christophe entered the boat, which

in a moment was in the middle of the Seine; the sailor then directed its course beneath one of the wooden

arches of the pont au Change, where he tied up quickly to an iron ring. As yet, no one had said a word.

"Here we can speak without fear; there are no traitors or spies here," said Chaudieu, looking at the two as yet

unnamed men. Then, turning an ardent face to Christophe, "Are you," he said, "full of that devotion that

should animate a martyr? Are you ready to endure all for our sacred cause? Do you fear the tortures applied

to the Councillor du Bourg, to the king's tailor,tortures which await the majority of us?"

"I shall confess the gospel," replied Lecamus, simply, looking at the windows of his father's backshop.

The family lamp, standing on the table where his father was making up his books for the day, spoke to him,

no doubt, of the joys of family and the peaceful existence which he now renounced. The vision was rapid, but

complete. His mind took in, at a glance, the burgher quarter full of its own harmonies, where his happy

childhood had been spent, where lived his promised bride, Babette Lallier, where all things promised him a

sweet and full existence; he saw the past; he saw the future, and he sacrificed it, or, at any rate, he staked it

"We need ask no more," said the impetuous sailor; "we know him for one of our saints. If the Scotchman had

"Yes," said Lecamus, "my life belongs to the church; I shall give it with joy for the triumph of the

Reformation, on which I have seriously reflected. I know that what we do is for the happiness of the peoples.

In two words: Popery drives to celibacy, the Reformation establishes the family. It is time to rid France of her

monks, to restore their lands to the Crown, who will, sooner or later, sell them to the burghers. Let us learn to

The face of the young enthusiast, that of Chaudieu, that of the sailor, that of the stranger seated in the bow,

lighted by the last gleams of the twilight, formed a picture which ought the more to be described because the

description contains in itself the whole history of the timesif it is, indeed, true that to certain men it is

The religious reform undertaken by Luther in Germany, John Knox in Scotland, Calvin in France, took hold

especially of those minds in the lower classes into which thought had penetrated. The great lords sustained

the movement only to serve interests that were foreign to the religious cause. To these two classes were added

adventurers, ruined noblemen, younger sons, to whom all troubles were equally acceptable. But among the

artisan and merchant classes the new faith was sincere and based on calculation. The masses of the poorer

people adhered at once to a religion which gave the ecclesiastical property to the State, and deprived the

dignitaries of the Church of their enormous revenues. Commerce everywhere reckoned up the profits of this

But among the young men of the French bourgeoisie the Protestant movement found that noble inclination to

sacrifices of all kinds which inspires youth, to which selfishness is, as yet, unknown. Eminent men, sagacious

minds, discerned the Republic in the Reformation; they desired to establish throughout Europe the

government of the United Provinces, which ended by triumphing over the greatest Power of those

times,Spain, under Philip the Second, represented in the Low Countries by the Duke of Alba. Jean

Hotoman was then meditating his famous book, in which this project is put forth,a book which spread

throughout France the leaven of these ideas, which were stirred up anew by the Ligue, repressed by

Richelieu, then by Louis XIV., always protected by the younger branches, by the house of Orleans in 1789, as

by the house of Bourbon in 1589. Whoso says "Investigate" says "Revolt." All revolt is either the cloak that

hides a prince, or the swaddlingclothes of a new mastery. The house of Bourbon, the younger sons of the

At the moment when the little boat floated beneath the arch of the pont au Change the question was strangely

complicated by the ambitions of the Guises, who were rivalling the Bourbons. Thus the Crown, represented

by Catherine de' Medici, was able to sustain the struggle for thirty years by pitting the one house against the

other house; whereas later, the Crown, instead of standing between various jealous ambitions, found itself

without a barrier, face to face with the people: Richelieu and Louis XIV. had broken down the barrier of the

Nobility; Louis XV. had broken down that of the Parliaments. Alone before the people, as Louis XVI. was, a

Christophe Lecamus was a fine representative of the ardent and devoted portion of the people. His wan face

had the sharp hectic tones which distinguish certain fair complexions; his hair was yellow, of a coppery

shade; his grayblue eyes were sparkling. In them alone was his fine soul visible; for his illproportioned

face did not atone for its triangular shape by the noble mien of an elevated mind, and his low forehead

indicated only extreme energy. Life seemed to centre in his chest, which was rather hollow. More nervous

than sanguine, Cristophe's bodily appearance was thin and threadlike, but wiry. His pointed noise expressed

the shrewdness of the people, and his countenance revealed an intelligence capable of conducting itself well

on a single point of the circumference, without having the faculty of seeing all around it. His eyes, the

arching brows of which, scarcely covered with a whitish down, projected like an awning, were strongly

circled by a paleblue band, the skin being white and shining at the spring of the nose,a sign which almost

always denotes excessive enthusiasm. Christophe was of the people,the people who devote themselves,

who fight for their devotions, who let themselves be inveigled and betrayed; intelligent enough to

comprehend and serve an idea, too upright to turn it to his own account, too noble to sell himself.

Contrasting with this son of Lecamus, Chaudieu, the ardent minister, with brown hair thinned by vigils, a

yellow skin, an eloquent mouth, a militant brow, with flaming brown eyes, and a short and prominent chin,

embodied well the Christian faith which brought to the Reformation so many sincere and fanatical pastors,

whose courage and spirit aroused the populations. The aidedecamp of Calvin and Theodore de Beze

contrasted admirably with the son of the furrier. He represented the fiery cause of which the effect was seen

The sailor, an impetuous being, tanned by the open air, accustomed to dewy nights and burning days, with

closed lips, hasty gestures, orange eyes, ravenous as those of a vulture, and black, frizzled hair, was the

embodiment of an adventurer who risks all in a venture, as a gambler stakes all on a card. His whole

appearance revealed terrific passions, and an audacity that flinched at nothing. His vigorous muscles were

made to be quiescent as well as to act. His manner was more audacious than noble. His nose, though thin,

turned up and snuffed battle. He seemed agile and capable. You would have known him in all ages for the

leader of a party. If he were not of the Reformation, he might have been Pizarro, Fernando Cortez, or Morgan

The fourth man, sitting on a thwart wrapped in his cloak, belonged, evidently, to the highest portion of

society. The fineness of his linen, its cut, the material and scent of his clothing, the style and skin of his

gloves, showed him to be a man of courts, just as his bearing, his haughtiness, his composure and his

allembracing glance proved him to be a man of war. The aspect of this personage made a spectator uneasy

in the first place, and then inclined him to respect. We respect a man who respects himself. Though short and

deformed, his manners instantly redeemed the disadvantages of his figure. The ice once broken, he showed a

lively rapidity of decision, with an indefinable dash and fire which made him seem affable and winning. He

had the blue eyes and the curved nose of the house of Navarre, and the Spanish cut of the marked features

"Well," said Chaudieu, as young Lecamus ended his speech, "this boatman is La Renaudie. And here is

Monsiegneur the Prince de Conde," he added, motioning to the deformed little man.

Thus these four men represented the faith of the people, the spirit of the Scriptures, the mailed hand of the

"You shall now know what we expect of you," resumed the minister, after allowing a short pause for

Christophe's astonishment. "In order that you may make no mistake, we feel obliged to initiate you into the

The prince and La Renaudie emphasized the minister's speech by a gesture, the latter having paused to allow

the prince to speak, if he so wished. Like all great men engaged in plotting, whose system it is to conceal

their hand until the decisive moment, the prince kept silencebut not from cowardice. In these crises he was

always the soul of the conspiracy; recoiling from no danger and ready to risk his own head; but from a sort of

royal dignity he left the explanation of the enterprise to his minister, and contented himself with studying the

"My child," said Chaudieu, in the Huguenot style of address, "we are about to do battle for the first time with

the Roman prostitute. In a few days either our legions will be dying on the scaffold, or the Guises will be

dead. This is the first call to arms on behalf of our religion in France, and France will not lay down those

arms till they have conquered. The question, mark you this, concerns the nation, not the kingdom. The

majority of the nobles of the kingdom see plainly what the Cardinal de Lorraine and his brother are seeking.

Under pretext of defending the Catholic religion, the house of Lorraine means to claim the crown of France

as its patrimony. Relying on the Church, it has made the Church a formidable ally; the monks are its support,

its acolytes, its spies. It has assumed the post of guardian to the throne it is seeking to usurp; it protects the

house of Valois which it means to destroy. We have decided to take up arms because the liberties of the

people and the interests of the nobles are equally threatened. Let us smother at its birth a faction as odious as

that of the Burgundians who formerly put Paris and all France to fire and sword. It required a Louis XI. to put

a stop to the quarrel between the Burgundians and the Crown; and today a prince de Conde is needed to

prevent the house of Lorraine from reattempting that struggle. This is not a civil war; it is a duel between

the Guises and the Reformation,a duel to the death! We will make their heads fall, or they shall have ours."

"In this crisis, Christophe," said La Renaudie, "we mean to neglect nothing which shall strengthen our

party,for there is a party in the Reformation, the party of thwarted interests, of nobles sacrificed to the

Lorrains, of old captains shamefully treated at Fontainebleau, from which the cardinal has banished them by

setting up gibbets on which to hang those who ask the king for the cost of their equipment and their

"This, my child," resumed Chaudieu, observing a sort of terror in Christophe, "this it is which compels us to

conquer by arms instead of conquering by conviction and by martyrdom. The queenmother is on the point

of entering into our views. Not that she means to abjure; she has not reached that decision as yet; but she may

be forced to it by our triumph. However that may be, Queen Catherine, humiliated and in despair at seeing

the power she expected to wield on the death of the king passing into the hands of the Guises, alarmed at the

empire of the young queen, Mary, niece of the Lorrains and their auxiliary, Queen Catherine is doubtless

inclined to lend her support to the princes and lords who are now about to make an attempt which will deliver

her from the Guises. At this moment, devoted as she may seem to them, she hates them; she desires their

overthrow, and will try to make use of us against them; but Monseigneur the Prince de Conde intends to

make use of her against all. The queenmother will, undoubtedly, consent to all our plans. We shall have the

Connetable on our side; Monseigneur has just been to see him at Chantilly; but he does not wish to move

without an order from his masters. Being the uncle of Monseigneur, he will not leave him in the lurch; and

this generous prince does not hesitate to fling himself into danger to force Anne de Montmorency to a

decision. All is prepared, and we have cast our eyes on you as the means of communicating to Queen

Catherine our treaty of alliance, the drafts of edicts, and the bases of the new government. The court is at

Blois. Many of our friends are with it; but they are to be our future chiefs, and, like Monseigneur," he added,

motioning to the prince, "they must not be suspected. The queenmother and our friends are so closely

watched that it is impossible to employ as intermediary any known person of importance; they would

instantly be suspected and kept from communicating with Madame Catherine. God sends us at this crisis the

shepherd David and his sling to do battle with Goliath of Guise. Your father, unfortunately for him a good

Catholic, is furrier to the two queens. He is constantly supplying them with garments. Get him to send you on

some errand to the court. You will excite no suspicion, and you cannot compromise Queen Catherine in any

way. All our leaders would lose their heads if a single imprudent act allowed their connivance with the

queenmother to be seen. Where a great lord, if discovered, would give the alarm and destroy our chances, an

insignificant man like you will pass unnoticed. See! The Guises keep the town so full of spies that we have

only the river where we can talk without fear. You are now, my son, like a sentinel who must die at his post.

Remember this: if you are discovered, we shall all abandon you; we shall even cast, if necessary, opprobrium

and infamy upon you. We shall say that you are a creature of the Guises, made to play this part to ruin us.

"If you perish," said the Prince de Conde, "I pledge my honor as a noble that your family shall be sacred for

"Those words, my prince, suffice," replied Christophe, without reflecting that the conspirator was a Gascon.

"There speaks the true Huguenot. If all our men were like that," said La Renaudie, laying his hand on

"Young man," resumed the prince, "I desire to show you that if Chaudieu preaches, if the nobleman goes

"Now listen to me," said La Renaudie. "I will not give you the papers until you reach Beaugency; for they

must not be risked during the whole of your journey. You will find me waiting for you there on the wharf; my

face, voice, and clothes will be so changed you cannot recognize me, but I shall say to you, 'Are you a

guepin?' and you will answer, 'Ready to serve.' As to the performance of your mission, these are the means:

You will find a horse at the 'Pinte Fleurie," close to SaintGermain l'Auxerrois. You will there ask for Jean le

Breton, who will take you to the stable and give you one of my ponies which is known to do thirty leagues in

eight hours. Leave by the gate of Bussy. Breton has a pass for me; use it yourself, and make your way by

"He will not give out till you reach Orleans," replied La Renaudie. "Leave him at the entrance of the faubourg

Bannier; for the gates are well guarded, and you must not excite suspicion. It is for you, friend, to play your

part intelligently. You must invent whatever fable seems to you best to reach the third house to the left on

entering Orleans; it belongs to a certain Tourillon, glovemaker. Strike three blows on the door, and call out:

'On service from Messieurs de Guise!' The man will appear to be a rabid Guisist; no one knows but our four

selves that he is one of us. He will give you a faithful boatman,another Guisist of his own cut. Go down at

once to the wharf, and embark in a boat painted green and edged with white. You will doubtless land at

Beaugency tomorrow about midday. There I will arrange to find you a boat which will take you to Blois

without running any risk. Our enemies the Guises do not watch the rivers, only the landings. Thus you will be

Chaudieu embraced his child with singular religious effusion; he was proud of him.

"God keep thee!" he said, pointing to the ruddy light of the sinking sun, which was touching the old roofs

covered with shingles and sending its gleams slantwise through the forest of piles among which the water was

"You belong to the race of the Jacques Bonhomme," said La Renaudie, pressing Christophe's hand.

"We shall meet again, monsieur," said the prince, with a gesture of infinite grace, in which there was

With a stroke of his oars La Renaudie put the boat at the lower step of the stairway which led to the house.

Christophe landed, and the boat disappeared instantly beneath the arches of the pont au Change.

Christophe shook the iron railing which closed the stairway on the river, and called. His mother heard him,

opened one of the windows of the back shop, and asked what he was doing there. Christophe answered that

"Ha! my master," said the Burgundian maid, "you went out by the streetdoor, and you return by the

Christophe, bewildered by a confidence which had just brought him into communication with the Prince de

Conde, La Renaudie, and Chaudieu, and still more moved at the prospect of impending civil war, made no

answer; he ran hastily up from the kitchen to the back shop; but his mother, a rabid Catholic, could not

"Hold your tongue, wife!" said the cautious old man with white hair who was turning over a thick ledger.

"You dawdling fellows," he went on, addressing three journeymen, who had long finished their suppers,

"why don't you go to bed? It is eight o'clock, and you have to be up at five; besides, you must carry home

tonight President de Thou's cap and mantle. All three of you had better go, and take your sticks and rapiers;

"Are we going to take the ermine surcoat the young queen has ordered to be sent to the hotel des Soissons?

there's an express going from there to Blois for the queenmother," said one of the clerks.

"No," said his master, "the queenmother's bill amounts to three thousand crowns; it is time to get the money,

"Father, I do not think it right at your age and in these dangerous times to expose yourself on the highroads.

I am twentytwo years old, and you ought to employ me on such errands," said Christophe, eyeing the box

"Are you glued to your seats?" cried the old man to his apprentices, who at once jumped up and seized their

The next day the Parliament was to receive in state, as its president, this illustrious judge, who, after signing

the death warrant of Councillor du Bourg, was destined before the close of the year to sit in judgment on the

"Here!" said the old man, calling to the maid, "go and ask friend Lallier if he will come and sup with us and

bring the wine; we'll furnish the victuals. Tell him, above all, to bring his daughter."

Lecamus, the syndic of the guild of furriers, was a handsome old man of sixty, with white hair, and a broad,

open brow. As court furrier for the last forty years, he had witnessed all the revolutions of the reign of

Francois I. He had seen the arrival at the French court of the young girl Catherine de' Medici, then scarcely

fifteen years of age. He had observed her giving way before the Duchesse d'Etampes, her fatherinlaw's

mistress; giving way before the Duchesse de Valentinois, the mistress of her husband the late king. But the

furrier had brought himself safely through all the chances and changes by which court merchants were often

involved in the disgrace and overthrow of mistresses. His caution led to his good luck. He maintained an

attitude of extreme humility. Pride had never caught him in its toils. He made himself so small, so gentle, so

compliant, of so little account at court and before the queens and princesses and favorites, that this modesty,

Such a policy was, of course, indicative of a shrewd and perspicacious mind. Humble as Lecamus seemed to

the outer world, he was despotic in his own home; there he was an autocrat. Most respected and honored by

his brother craftsmen, he owed to his long possession of the first place in the trade much of the consideration

that was shown to him. He was, besides, very willing to do kindnesses to others, and among the many

services he had rendered, none was more striking than the assistance he had long given to the greatest

surgeon of the sixteenth century, Ambroise Pare, who owed to him the possibility of studying for his

profession. In all the difficulties which came up among the merchants Lecamus was always conciliating.

Thus a general good opinion of him consolidated his position among his equals; while his borrowed

Not only this, but having intrigued for the honor of being on the vestry of his parish church, he did what was

necessary to bring him into the odor of sanctity with the rector of SaintPierre aux Boeufs, who looked upon

him as one of the men most devoted to the Catholic religion in Paris. Consequently, at the time of the

convocation of the StatesGeneral he was unanimously elected to represent the tiers etat through the

influence of the clergy of Paris,an influence which at that period was immense. This old man was, in short,

one of those secretly ambitious souls who will bend for fifty years before all the world, gliding from office to

office, no one exactly knowing how it came about that he was found securely and peacefully seated at last

where no man, even the boldest, would have had the ambition at the beginning of life to fancy himself; so

great was the distance, so many the gulfs and the precipices to cross! Lecamus, who had immense concealed

wealth, would not run any risks, and was silently preparing a brilliant future for his son. Instead of having the

personal ambition which sacrifices the future to the present, he had family ambition,a lost sentiment in our

time, a sentiment suppressed by the folly of our laws of inheritance. Lecamus saw himself first president of

Christophe, godson of the famous historian de Thou, was given a most solid education; but it had led him to

doubt and to the spirit of examination which was then affecting both the Faculties and the students of the

universities. Christophe was, at the period of which we are now writing, pursuing his studies for the bar, that

first step toward the magistracy. The old furrier was pretending to some hesitation as to his son. Sometimes

he seemed to wish to make Christophe his successor; then again he spoke of him as a lawyer; but in his heart

he was ambitious of a place for this son as Councillor of the Parliament. He wanted to put the Lecamus

family on a level with those old and celebrated burgher families from which came the Pasquiers, the Moles,

the Mirons, the Seguiers, Lamoignon, du Tillet, Lecoigneux, Lescalopier, Goix, Arnauld, those famous

sheriffs and grandprovosts of the merchants, among whom the throne found such strong defenders.

Therefore, in order that Christophe might in due course of time maintain his rank, he wished to marry him to

the daughter of the richest jeweller in the city, his friend Lallier, whose nephew was destined to present to

Henri IV. the keys of Paris. The strongest desire rooted in the heart of the worthy burgher was to use half of

his fortune and half of that of the jeweller in the purchase of a large and beautiful seignorial estate, which, in

those days, was a long and very difficult affair. But his shrewd mind knew the age in which he lived too well

to be ignorant of the great movements which were now in preparation. He saw clearly, and he saw justly, and

knew that the kingdom was about to be divided into two camps. The useless executions in the Place de

l'Estrapade, that of the king's tailor and the more recent one of the Councillor Anne du Bourg, the actual

connivance of the great lords, and that of the favorite of Francois I. with the Reformers, were terrible

indications. The furrier resolved to remain, whatever happened, Catholic, royalist, and parliamentarian; but it

suited him, privately, that Christophe should belong to the Reformation. He knew he was rich enough to

ransom his son if Christophe was too much compromised; and on the other hand if France became Calvinist

his son could save the family in the event of one of those furious Parisian riots, the memory of which was

everliving with the bourgeoisie,riots they were destined to see renewed through four reigns.

But these thoughts the old furrier, like Louis XI., did not even say to himself; his wariness went so far as to

deceive his wife and son. This grave personage had long been the chief man of the richest and most populous

quarter of Paris, that of the centre, under the title of quartenier,the title and office which became so

celebrated some fifteen months later. Clothed in cloth like all the prudent burghers who obeyed the

sumptuary laws, Sieur Lecamus (he was tenacious of that title which Charles V. granted to the burghers of

Paris, permitting them also to buy baronial estates and call their wives by the fine name of demoiselle, but not

by that of madame) wore neither gold chains nor silk, but always a good doublet with large tarnished silver

buttons, cloth gaiters mounting to the knee, and leather shoes with clasps. His shirt, of fine linen, showed,

according to the fashion of the time, in great puffs between his halfopened jacket and his breeches. Though

his large and handsome face received the full light of the lamp standing on the table, Christophe had no

conception of the thoughts which lay buried beneath the rich and florid Dutch skin of the old man; but he

understood well enough the advantage he himself had expected to obtain from his affection for pretty Babette

Lallier. So Christophe, with the air of a man who had come to a decision, smiled bitterly as he heard of the

When the Burgundian cook and the apprentices had departed on their several errands, old Lecamus looked at

his wife with a glance which showed the firmness and resolution of his character.

"You will not be satisfied till you have got that boy hanged with your damned tongue," he said, in a stern

"I would rather see him hanged and saved than living and a Huguenot," she answered, gloomily. "To think

that a child whom I carried nine months in my womb should be a bad Catholic, and be doomed to hell for all

"Old silly," said the furrier; "let him live, if only to convert him. You said, before the apprentices, a word

"Now, then, you," said the old man, with a judicial glance at his son, "explain to me what you were doing on

the river withcome closer, that I may speak to you," he added, grasping his son by the arm, and drawing

him to him"with the Prince de Conde," he whispered. Christophe trembled. "Do you suppose the court

furrier does not know every face that frequents the palace? Think you I am ignorant of what is going on?

Monseigneur the Grand Master has been giving orders to send troops to Amboise. Withdrawing troops from

Paris to send them to Amboise when the king is at Blois, and making them march through Chartres and

Vendome, instead of going by Orleansisn't the meaning of that clear enough? There'll be troubles. If the

queens want their surcoats, they must send for them. The Prince de Conde has perhaps made up his mind to

kill Messieurs de Guise; who, on their side, expect to rid themselves of him. The prince will use the

Huguenots to protect himself. Why should the son of a furrier get himself into that fray? When you are

married, and when you are councillor to the Parliament, you will be as prudent as your father. Before

belonging to the new religion, the son of a furrier ought to wait until the rest of the world belongs to it. I don't

condemn the Reformers; it is not my business to do so; but the court is Catholic, the two queens are Catholic,

the Parliament is Catholic; we must supply them with furs, and therefore we must be Catholic ourselves. You

shall not go out from here, Christophe; if you do, I will send you to your godfather, President de Thou, who

will keep you night and day blackening paper, instead of blackening your soul in company with those

"Father," said Christophe, leaning upon the back of the old man's chair, "send me to Blois to carry that

surcoat to Queen Mary and get our money from the queenmother. If you do not, I am lost; and you care for

"Lost?" repeated the old man, without showing the least surprise. "If you stay here you can't be lost; I shall

"The most powerful among the Huguenots have cast their eyes on me to serve them in a certain matter; if I

fail to do what I have just promised to do, they will kill me in open day, here in the street, as they killed

Minard. But if you send me to court on your affairs, perhaps I can justify myself equally well to both sides.

Either I shall succeed without having run any danger at all, and shall then win a fine position in the party; or,

"Wife," he said, "leave us; and watch that we are left quite alone, Christophe and I."

When Mademoiselle Lecamus had left them the furrier took his son by a button and led him to the corner of

"Christophe," he said, whispering in his ear as he had done when he mentioned the name of the Prince of

Conde, "be a Huguenot, if you have that vice; but be so cautiously, in the depths of your soul, and not in a

way to be pointed at as a heretic throughout the quarter. What you have just confessed to me shows that the

"Hum! hum!" muttered the old man, looking at his son, "the scamp means to hoodwink his father; he'll go far.

You are not going to court," he went on in a low tone, "to carry remittances to Messieurs de Guise or to the

little king our master, or to the little Queen Marie. All those hearts are Catholic; but I would take my oath the

Italian woman has some spite against the Scotch girl and against the Lorrains. I know her. She has a desperate

desire to put her hand into the dough. The late king was so afraid of her that he did as the jewellers do, he cut

diamond by diamond, he pitted one woman against another. That caused Queen Catherine's hatred to the poor

Duchesse de Valentinois, from whom she took the beautiful chateau of Chenonceaux. If it hadn't been for the

Connetable, the duchess might have been strangled. Back, back, my son; don't put yourself in the hands of

that Italian, who has no passion except in her brain; and that's a bad kind of woman! Yes, what they are

sending you to do at court may give you a very bad headache," cried the father, seeing that Christophe was

about to reply. "My son, I have plans for your future which you will not upset by making yourself useful to

Queen Catherine; but, heavens and earth! don't risk your head. Messieurs de Guise would cut it off as easily

as the Burgundian cuts a turnip, and then those persons who are now employing you will disown you utterly."

"What! are you really so strong, my son? You know it, and are willing to risk all?"

"By the powers above us!" cried the father, pressing his son in his arms, "we can understand each other; you

are worthy of your father. My child, you'll be the honor of the family, and I see that your old father can speak

plainly with you. But do not be more Huguenot than Messieurs de Coligny. Never draw your sword; be a pen

man; keep to your future role of lawyer. Now, then, tell me nothing until after you have succeeded. If I do not

hear from you by the fourth day after you reach Blois, that silence will tell me that you are in some danger.

The old man will go to save the young one. I have not sold furs for thirtytwo years without a good

knowledge of the wrong side of court robes. I have the means of making my way through many doors."

Christophe opened his eyes very wide as he heard his father talking thus; but he thought there might be some

"Well, make out the bill, and write a letter to the queen; I must start at once, or the greatest misfortunes may

The mother returned, went to her chest, took out a purse of gold, and gave it to Christophe, who kissed her

"The bill was all ready," said his father; "here it is. I will write the letter at once."

"But you will sup with us, at any rate," said the old man. "In such a crisis you ought to exchange rings with

The young man was distrustful of his father's stability in the matter. The old man's character was not yet fully

known to him. He ran up to his room, dressed himself, took a valise, came downstairs softly and laid it on a

"I don't want any one to see my preparations for departure, and I have put them on a counter in the shop," he

A few moments after his departure the goodman Lallier and his daughter arrived, preceded by a

"Ha! ha! my son is a bold scamp! He tricks me as if I had no beard. My dear crony, what think you he will

turn out to be? We live in days when the children have more sense than their fathers."

"Excuse him on that point, crony," said the furrier. "Youth is foolish; it runs after new things; but Babette will

Babette smiled; she loved Christophe, and was angry when anything was said against him. She was one of

those daughters of the old bourgeoisie brought up under the eyes of a mother who never left her. Her bearing

was gentle and correct as her face; she always wore woollen stuffs of gray, harmonious in tone; her

chemisette, simply pleated, contrasted its whiteness against the gown. Her cap of brown velvet was like an

infant's coif, but it was trimmed with a ruche and lappets of tanned gauze, that is, of a tan color, which came

down on each side of her face. Though fair and white as a true blonde, she seemed to be shrewd and roguish,

all the while trying to hide her roguishness under the air and manner of a welltrained girl. While the two

servantwomen went and came, laying the cloth and placing the jugs, the great pewter dishes, and the knives

and forks, the jeweller and his daughter, the furrier and his wife, sat before the tall chimneypiece draped

with lambrequins of red serge and black fringes, and were talking of trifles. Babette asked once or twice

where Christophe could be, and the father and mother of the young Huguenot gave evasive answers; but

when the two families were seated at table, and the two servants had retired to the kitchen, Lecamus said to

"Crony," said the furrier, resuming a suspended conversation. "We are going to have troublous times in

"If they triumph, it will only be after a long war, during which business will be at a standstill," said Lallier,

"My father, who saw the wars between the Burgundians and the Armagnacs told me that our family would

never have come out safely if one of his grandfathershis mother's fatherhad not been a Goix, one of

those famous butchers in the Market who stood by the Burgundians; whereas the other, the Lecamus, was for

the Armagnacs; they seemed ready to flay each other alive before the world, but they were excellent friends

in the family. So, let us both try to save Christophe; perhaps the time may come when he will save us."

"No," replied Lecamus. "The burghers ought to think of themselves; the populace and the nobility are both

against them. The Parisian bourgeoisie alarms everybody except the king, who knows it is his friend."

"You who are so wise and have seen so many things," said Babette, timidly, "explain to me what the

"Yes, tell us that, crony," cried the jeweller. "I knew the late king's tailor, and I held him to be a man of

simple life, without great talent; he was something like you; a man to whom they'd give the sacrament

without confession; and behold! he plunged to the depths of this new religion,he! a man whose two ears

were worth all of a hundred thousand crowns apiece. He must have had secrets to reveal to induce the king

"And terrible secrets, too!" said the furrier. "The Reformation, my friends," he continued in a low voice, "will

give back to the bourgeoisie the estates of the Church. When the ecclesiastical privileges are suppressed the

Reformers intend to ask that the vilain shall be imposed on nobles as well as on burghers, and they mean to

insist that the king alone shall be above othersif indeed, they allow the State to have a king."

"Hey! crony," said Lecamus, "in the Low Countries the burghers govern themselves with burgomasters of

"God bless me, crony; we ought to do these fine things and yet stay Catholics," cried the jeweller.

"We are too old, you and I, to see the triumph of the Parisian bourgeoisie, but it will triumph, I tell you, in

times to come as it did of yore. Ha! the king must rest upon it in order to resist, and we have always sold him

our help dear. The last time, all the burghers were ennobled, and he gave them permission to buy seignorial

estates and take titles from the land without special letters from the king. You and I, grandsons of the Goix

These words were so alarming to the jeweller and the two women that they were followed by a dead silence.

The ferments of 1789 were already tingling in the veins of Lecamus, who was not yet so old but what he

"Are you selling well in spite of these troubles?" said Lallier to Mademoiselle Lecamus.

"That's one reason why I am so set on making my son a lawyer," said Lecamus; "for squabbles and law go on

The conversation then turned to commonplace topics, to the great satisfaction of the jeweller, who was not

The banks of the Loire, from Blois to Angers, were the favorite resort of the last two branches of the royal

race which occupied the throne before the house of Bourbon. That beautiful valley plain so well deserves the

honor bestowed upon it by kings that we must here repeat what was said of it by one of our most eloquent

But is it not incomprehensible that Royalty did not follow the advice indirectly given by Louis XI. to place

the capital of the kingdom at Tours? There, without great expense, the Loire might have been made

accessible for the merchant service, and also for vesselsofwar of light draught. There, too, the seat of

government would have been safe from the dangers of invasion. Had this been done, the northern cities

would not have required such vast sums of money spent to fortify them, sums as vast as were those

expended on the sumptuous glories of Versailles. If Louis XIV. had listened to Vauban, who wished to build

his great palace at Mont Louis, between the Loire and the Cher, perhaps the revolution of 1789 might never

These beautiful shores still bear the marks of royal tenderness. The chateaus of Chambord, Amboise, Blois,

Chenonceaux, Chaumont, Plessis lesTours, all those which the mistresses of kings, financiers, and nobles

built at Veretz, AzayleRideau, Usse, Villandri, Valencay, Chanteloup, Duretal, some of which have

disappeared, though most of them still remain, are admirable relics which remind us of the marvels of a

Among all these chateaus, that of Blois, where the court was then staying, is one on which the magnificence

of the houses of Orleans and of Valois has placed its brilliant signmanual,making it the most interesting

of all for historians, archaeologists, and Catholics. It was at the time of which we write completely isolated.

The town, enclosed by massive walls supported by towers, lay below the fortress,for the chateau served, in

fact, as fort and pleasurehouse. Above the town, with its bluetiled, crowded roofs extending then, as now,

from the river to the crest of the hill which commands the right bank, lies a triangular plateau, bounded to the

west by a streamlet, which in these days is of no importance, for it flows beneath the town; but in the fifteenth

century, so say historians, it formed quite a deep ravine, of which there still remains a sunken road, almost an

It was on this plateau, with a double exposure to the north and south, that the counts of Blois built, in the

architecture of the twelfth century, a castle where the famous Thibault de Tircheur, Thibault le Vieux, and

others held a celebrated court. In those days of pure fuedality, in which the king was merely primus inter

pares (to use the fine expression of a king of Poland), the counts of Champagne, the counts of Blois, those of

Anjou, the simple barons of Normandie, the dukes of Bretagne, lived with the splendor of sovereign princes

and gave kings to the proudest kingdoms. The Plantagenets of Anjou, the Lusignans of Poitou, the Roberts of

Normandie, maintained with a bold hand the royal races, and sometimes simple knights like du Glaicquin

When the Crown annexed the county of Blois to its domain, Louis XII., who had a liking for this residence

(perhaps to escape Plessis of sinister memory), built at the back of the first building another building, facing

east and west, which connected the chateau of the counts of Blois with the rest of the old structures, of which

nothing now remains but the vast hall in which the Statesgeneral were held under Henri III.

Before he became enamoured of Chambord, Francois I. wished to complete the chateau of Blois by adding

two other wings, which would have made the structure a perfect square. But Chambord weaned him from

Blois, where he built only one wing, which in his time and that of his grandchildren was the only inhabited

part of the chateau. This third building erected by Francois I. is more vast and far more decorated than the

Louvre, the chateau of Henri II. It is in the style of architecture now called Renaissance, and presents the

most fantastic features of that style. Therefore, at a period when a strict and jealous architecture ruled

construction, when the Middle Ages were not even considered, at a time when literature was not as clearly

welded to art as it is now, La Fontaine said of the chateau de Blois, in his hearty, goodhumored way: "The

part that Francois I. built, if looked at from the outside, pleased me better than all the rest; there I saw

numbers of little galleries, little windows, little balconies, little ornamentations without order or regularity,

The chateau of Blois had, therefore, the merit of representing three orders of architecture, three epochs, three

systems, three dominions. Perhaps there is no other royal residence that can compare with it in that respect.

This immense structure presents to the eye in one enclosure, round one courtyard, a complete and perfect

image of that grand presentation of the manners and customs and life of nations which is called Architecture.

At the moment when Christophe was to visit the court, that part of the adjacent land which in our day is

covered by a fourth palace, built seventy years later (by Gaston, the rebellious brother of Louis XIII., then

exiled to Blois), was an open space containing pleasuregrounds and hanging gardens, picturesquely placed

These gardens communicated, by a bridge of a fine, bold construction (which the old men of Blois may still

remember to have seen demolished) with a pleasureground on the other side of the chateau, which, by the

lay of the land, was on the same level. The nobles attached to the Court of Anne de Bretagne, or those of that

province who came to solicit favors, or to confer with the queen as to the fate and condition of Brittany,

awaited in this pleasureground the opportunity for an audience, either at the queen's rising, or at her coming

out to walk. Consequently, history has given the name of "Perchoir aux Bretons" to this piece of ground,

which, in our day, is the fruitgarden of a worthy bourgeois, and forms a projection into the place des

Jesuites. The latter place was included in the gardens of this beautiful royal residence, which had, as we have

said, its upper and its lower gardens. Not far from the place des Jesuites may still be seen a pavilion built by

Catherine de' Medici, where, according to the historians of Blois, warm mineral baths were placed for her to

use. This detail enables us to trace the very irregular disposition of the gardens, which went up or down

according to the undulations of the ground, becoming extremely intricate around the chateau,a fact which

helped to give it strength, and caused, as we shall see, the discomfiture of the Duc de Guise.

The gardens were reached from the chateau through external and internal galleries, the most important of

which was called the "Galerie des Cerfs" on account of its decoration. This gallery led to the magnificent

staircase which, no doubt, inspired the famous double staircase of Chambord. It led, from floor to floor, to all

Though La Fontaine preferred the chateau of Francois I. to that of Louis XII., perhaps the naivete of that of

the good king will give true artists more pleasure, while at the same time they admire the magnificent

structure of the knightly king. The elegance of the two staircases which are placed at each end of the chateau

of Louis XII., the delicate carving and sculpture, so original in design, which abound everywhere, the remains

of which, though time has done its worst, still charm the antiquary, all, even to the semicloistral distribution

of the apartments, reveals a great simplicity of manners. Evidently, the court did not yet exist; it had not

developed, as it did under Francois I. and Catherine de' Medici, to the great detriment of feudal customs. As

we admire the galleries, or most of them, the capitals of the columns, and certain figurines of exquisite

delicacy, it is impossible not to imagine that Michel Columb, that great sculptor, the MichelAngelo of

Brittany, passed that way for the pleasure of Queen Anne, whom he afterwards immortalized on the tomb of

Whatever La Fontaine may choose to say about the "little galleries" and the "little ornamentations," nothing

can be more grandiose than the dwelling of the splendid Francois. Thanks to I know not what indifference, to

forgetfulness perhaps, the apartments occupied by Catherine de' Medici and her son Francois II. present to us

today the leading features of that time. The historian can there restore the tragic scenes of the drama of the

Reformation,a drama in which the dual struggle of the Guises and of the Bourbons against the Valois was

The chateau of Francois I. completely crushes the artless habitation of Louis XII. by its imposing masses. On

the side of the gardens, that is, toward the modern place des Jesuites, the castle presents an elevation nearly

double that which it shows on the side of the courtyard. The groundfloor on this side forms the second floor

on the side of the gardens, where are placed the celebrated galleries. Thus the first floor above the

groundfloor toward the courtyard (where Queen Catherine was lodged) is the third floor on the garden side,

and the king's apartments were four storeys above the garden, which at the time of which we write was

separated from the base of the castle by a deep moat. The chateau, already colossal as viewed from the

courtyard, appears gigantic when seen from below, as La Fontaine saw it. He mentions particularly that he

did not enter either the courtyard or the apartments, and it is to be remarked that from the place des Jesuites

all the details seem small. The balconies on which the courtiers promenaded; the galleries, marvellously

executed; the sculptured windows, whose embrasures are so deep as to form boudoirs for which indeed

they servedresemble at that great height the fantastic decorations which scenepainters give to a fairy

But in the courtyard, although the three storeys above the ground floor rise as high as the clocktower of the

Tuileries, the infinite delicacy of the architecture reveals itself to the rapture of our astonished eyes. This

wing of the great building, in which the two queens, Catherine de' Medici and Mary Stuart, held their

sumptuous court, is divided in the centre by a hexagon tower, in the empty well of which winds up a spiral

staircase,a Moorish caprice, designed by giants, made by dwarfs, which gives to this wonderful facade the

effect of a dream. The baluster of this staircase forms a spiral connecting itself by a square landing to five of

the six sides of the tower, requiring at each landing transversal corbels which are decorated with arabesque

carvings without and within. This bewildering creation of ingenious and delicate details, of marvels which

give speech to stones, can be compared only to the deeply worked and crowded carving of the Chinese

ivories. Stone is made to look like lacework. The flowers, the figures of men and animals clinging to the

structure of the stairway, are multiplied, step by step, until they crown the tower with a keystone on which

the chisels of the art of the sixteenth century have contended against the naive cutters of images who fifty

However dazzled we may be by these recurring forms of indefatigable labor, we cannot fail to see that money

was lacking to Francois I. for Blois, as it was to Louis XIV. for Versailles. More than one figurine lifts its

delicate head from a block of rough stone behind it; more than one fantastic flower is merely indicated by

chiselled touches on the abandoned stone, though dampness has since laid its blossoms of mouldy greenery

upon it. On the facade, side by side with the tracery of one window, another window presents its masses of

jagged stone carved only by the hand of time. Here, to the least artistic and the least trained eye, is a ravishing

contrast between this frontage, where marvels throng, and the interior frontage of the chateau of Louis XII.,

which is composed of a groundfloor of arcades of fairy lightness supported by tiny columns resting at their

base on a graceful platform, and of two storeys above it, the windows of which are carved with delightful

sobriety. Beneath the arcade is a gallery, the walls of which are painted in fresco, the ceiling also being

painted; traces can still be found of this magnificence, derived from Italy, and testifying to the expeditions of

Opposite to Francois I.'s wing was the chapel of the counts of Blois, the facade of which is almost in harmony

with the architecture of the later dwelling of Louis XII. No words can picture the majestic solidity of these

three distinct masses of building. In spite of their nonconformity of style, Royalty, powerful and firm,

demonstrating its dangers by the greatness of its precautions, was a bond, uniting these three edifices, so

different in character, two of which rested against the vast hall of the Statesgeneral, towering high like a

Certainly, neither the simplicity nor the strength of the burgher existence (which were depicted at the

beginning of this history) in which Art was always represented, were lacking to this royal habitation. Blois

was the fruitful and brilliant example to which the Bourgeoisie and Feudality, Wealth and Nobility, gave such

splendid replies in the towns and in the rural regions. Imagination could not desire any other sort of dwelling

for the prince who reigned over France in the sixteenth century. The richness of seignorial garments, the

luxury of female adornment, must have harmonized delightfully with the lacework of these stones so

wonderfully manipulated. From floor to floor, as the king of France went up the marvellous staircase of his

chateau of Blois, he could see the broad expanse of the beautiful Loire, which brought him news of all his

kingdom as it lay on either side of the great river, two halves of a State facing each other, and semirivals. If,

instead of building Chambord in a barren, gloomy plain two leagues away, Francois I. had placed it where,

seventy years later, Gaston built his palace, Versailles would never have existed, and Blois would have

Four Valois and Catherine de' Medici lavished their wealth on the wing built by Francois I. at Blois. Who can

look at those massive partitionwalls, the spinal column of the castle, in which are sunken deep alcoves,

secret staircases, cabinets, while they themselves enclose halls as vast as that great councilroom, the

guardroom, and the royal chambers, in which, in our day, a regiment of infantry is comfortably lodgedwho

can look at all this and not be aware of the prodigalities of Crown and court? Even if a visitor does not at

once understand how the splendor within must have corresponded with the splendor without, the remaining

vestiges of Catherine de' Medici's cabinet, where Christophe was about to be introduced, would bear

sufficient testimony to the elegances of Art which peopled these apartments with animated designs in which

salamanders sparkled among the wreaths, and the palette of the sixteenth century illumined the darkest

corners with its brilliant coloring. In this cabinet an observer will still find traces of that taste for gilding

which Catherine brought with her from Italy; for the princesses of her house loved, in the words of the author

already quoted, to veneer the castles of France with the gold earned by their ancestors in commerce, and to

The queenmother occupied on the first upper floor of the apartments of Queen Claude of France, wife of

Francois I., in which may still be seen, delicately carved, the double C accompanied by figures, purely white,

of swans and lilies, signifying candidior candidismore white than the whitestthe motto of the queen

whose name began, like that of Catherine, with a C, and which applied as well to the daughter of Louis XII.

as to the mother of the last Valois; for no suspicion, in spite of the violence of Calvinist calumny, has

The queenmother, still charged with the care of two young children (him who was afterward Duc d'Alencon,

and Marguerite, the wife of Henri IV., the sister whom Charles IX. called Margot), had need of the whole of

The king, Francois II., and the queen, Mary Stuart, occupied, on the second floor, the royal apartments which

had formerly been those of Francois I. and were, subsequently, those of Henri III. This floor, like that taken

by the queenmother, is divided in two parts throughout its whole length by the famous partitionwall, which

is more than four feet thick, against which rests the enormous walls which separate the rooms from each

other. Thus, on both floors, the apartments are in two distinct halves. One half, to the south, looking to the

courtyard, served for public receptions and for the transaction of business; whereas the private apartments

were placed, partly to escape the heat, to the north, overlooking the gardens, on which side is the splendid

facade with its balconies and galleries looking out upon the open country of the Vendomois, and down upon

the "Perchoir des Bretons" and the moat, the only side of which La Fontaine speaks.

The chateau of Francois I. was, in those days, terminated by an enormous unfinished tower which was

intended to mark the colossal angle of the building when the succeeding wing was built. Later, Gaston took

down one side of it, in order to build his palace on to it; but he never finished the work, and the tower

remained in ruins. This royal stronghold served as a prison or dungeon, according to popular tradition.

As we wander today through the halls of this matchless chateau, so precious to art and to history, what poet

would not be haunted by regrets, and grieved for France, at seeing the arabesques of Catherine's boudoir

whitewashed and almost obliterated, by order of the quartermaster of the barracks (this royal residence is now

a barrack) at the time of an outbreak of cholera. The panels of Catherine's boudoir, a room of which we are

about to speak, is the last remaining relic of the rich decorations accumulated by five artistic kings. Making

our way through the labyrinth of chambers, halls, stairways, towers, we may say to ourselves with solemn

certitude: "Here Mary Stuart cajoled her husband on behalf of the Guises." "There, the Guises insulted

Catherine." "Later, at that very spot the second Balafre fell beneath the daggers of the avengers of the

Crown." "A century earlier, from this very window, Louis XII. made signs to his friend Cardinal d'Amboise

to come to him." "Here, on this balcony, d'Epernon, the accomplice of Ravaillac, met Marie de' Medici, who

In the chapel, where the marriage of Henri IV. and Marguerite de Valois took place, the sole remaining

fragment of the chateau of the counts of Blois, a regiment now makes it shoes. This wonderful structure, in

which so many styles may still be seen, so many great deeds have been performed, is in a state of dilapidation

which disgraces France. What grief for those who love the great historic monuments of our country to know

that soon those eloquent stones will be lost to sight and knowledge, like others at the corner of the rue de la

It is necessary to remark that, in order to watch the royal court more closely, the Guises, although they had a

house of their own in the town, which still exists, had obtained permission to occupy the upper floor above

the apartments of Louis XII., the same lodgings afterwards occupied by the Duchesse de Nemours under the

The young king, Francois II., and his bride Mary Stuart, in love with each other like the girl and boy of

sixteen which they were, had been abruptly transferred, in the depth of winter, from the chateau de

SaintGermain, which the Duc de Guise thought liable to attack, to the fortress which the chateau of Blois

then was, being isolated and protected on three sides by precipices, and admirably defended as to its entrance.

The Guises, uncles of Mary Stuart, had powerful reasons for not residing in Paris and for keeping the king

and court in a castle the whole exterior surroundings of which could easily be watched and defended. A

struggle was now beginning around the throne, between the house of Lorraine and the house of Valois, which

was destined to end in this very chateau, twentyeight years later, namely in 1588, when Henri III., under the

very eyes of his mother, at that moment deeply humiliated by the Lorrains, heard fall upon the floor of his

own cabinet, the head of the boldest of all the Guises, the second Balafre, son of that first Balafre by whom

Catherine de' Medici was now being tricked, watched, threatened, and virtually imprisoned.

This noble chateau of Blois was to Catherine de' Medici the narrowest of prisons. On the death of her

husband, who had always held her in subjection, she expected to reign; but, on the contrary, she found herself

crushed under the thraldom of strangers, whose polished manners were really far more brutal than those of

jailers. No action of hers could be done secretly. The women who attended her either had lovers among the

Guises or were watched by Argus eyes. These were times when passions notably exhibited the strange effects

produced in all ages by the strong antagonism of two powerful conflicting interests in the State. Gallantry,

which served Catherine so well, was also an auxiliary of the Guises. The Prince de Conde, the first leader of

the Reformation, was a lover of the Marechale de SaintAndre, whose husband was the tool of the Grand

Master. The cardinal, convinced by the affair of the Vidame de Chartres, that Catherine was more

unconquered than invulnerable as to love, was paying court to her. The play of all these passions strangely

complicated those of politics, making, as it were, a double game of chess, in which both parties had to

watch the head and heart of their opponent, in order to know, when a crisis came, whether the one would

Though she was constantly in presence of the Cardinal de Lorraine or of Duc Francois de Guise, who both

distrusted her, the closest and ablest enemy of Catherine de' Medici was her daughterinlaw, Queen Mary, a

fair little creature, malicious as a waitingmaid, proud as a Stuart wearing three crowns, learned as an old

pedant, giddy as a schoolgirl, as much in love with her husband as a courtesan is with her lover, devoted to

her uncles whom she admired, and delighted to see the king share (at her instigation) the regard she had for

them. A motherinlaw is always a person whom the daughterinlaw is inclined not to like; especially

when she wears the crown and wishes to retain it, which Catherine had imprudently made but too well

known. Her former position, when Diane de Poitiers had ruled Henri II., was more tolerable than this; then at

least she received the external honors that were due to a queen, and the homage of the court. But now the

duke and the cardinal, who had none but their own minions about them, seemed to take pleasure in abasing

her. Catherine, hemmed in on all sides by their courtiers, received, not only day by day but from hour to hour,

terrible blows to her pride and her selflove; for the Guises were determined to treat her on the same system

The thirtysix years of anguish which were now about to desolate France may, perhaps, be said to have

begun by the scene in which the son of the furrier of the two queens was sent on the perilous errand which

makes him the chief figure of our present Study. The danger into which this zealous Reformer was about to

fall became imminent the very morning on which he started from the port of Beaugency for the chateau de

Blois, bearing precious documents which compromised the highest heads of the nobility, placed in his hands

by that wily partisan, the indefatigable La Renaudie, who met him, as agreed upon, at Beaugency, having

While the towboat, in which Christophe now embarked floated, impelled by a light east wind, down the

river Loire the famous Cardinal de Lorraine, and his brother the second Duc de Guise, one of the greatest

warriors of those days, were contemplating, like eagles perched on a rocky summit, their present situation,

and looking prudently about them before striking the great blow by which they intended to kill the Reform in

France at Amboise,an attempt renewed twelve years later in Paris, August 24, 1572, on the feast of

During the night three seigneurs, who each played a great part in the twelve years' drama which followed this

double plot now laid by the Guises and also by the Reformers, had arrived at Blois from different directions,

each riding at full speed, and leaving their horses halfdead at the posterngate of the chateau, which was

guarded by captains and soldiers absolutely devoted to the Duc de Guise, the idol of all warriors.

One word about that great man,a word that must tell, in the first instance, whence his fortunes took their

His mother was Antoinette de Bourbon, greataunt of Henri IV. Of what avail is consanguinity? He was, at

this moment, aiming at the head of his cousin the Prince de Conde. His niece was Mary Stuart. His wife was

Anne, daughter of the Duke of Ferrara. The Grand Connetable de Montmorency called the Duc de Guise

"Monseigneur" as he would the king,ending his letter with "Your very humble servant." Guise, Grand

Master of the king's household, replied "Monsieur le connetable," and signed, as he did for the Parliament,

As for the cardinal, called the transalpine pope, and his Holiness, by Estienne, he had the whole monastic

Church of France on his side, and treated the Holy Father as an equal. Vain of his eloquence, and one of the

greatest theologians of his time, he kept incessant watch over France and Italy by means of three religious

orders who were absolutely devoted to him, toiling day and night in his service and serving him as spies and

These few words will explain to what heights of power the duke and the cardinal had attained. In spite of

their wealth and the enormous revenues of their several offices, they were so personally disinterested, so

eagerly carried away on the current of their statesmanship, and so generous at heart, that they were always in

debt, doubtless after the manner of Caesar. When Henri III. caused the death of the second Balafre, whose

life was a menace to him, the house of Guise was necessarily ruined. The costs of endeavoring to seize the

crown during a whole century will explain the lowered position of this great house during the reigns of Louis

XIII. and Louis XIV., when the sudden death of MADAME told all Europe the infamous part which a

Calling themselves the heirs of the dispossessed Carolovingians, the duke and cardinal acted with the utmost

insolence towards Catherine de' Medici, the motherinlaw of their niece. The Duchesse de Guise spared her

no mortification. This duchesse was a d'Este, and Catherine was a Medici, the daughter of upstart Florentine

merchants, whom the sovereigns of Europe had never yet admitted into their royal fraternity. Francois I.

himself has always considered his son's marriage with a Medici as a mesalliance, and only consented to it

under the expectation that his second son would never be dauphin. Hence his fury when his eldest son was

poisoned by the Florentine Montecuculi. The d'Estes refused to recognize the Medici as Italian princes. Those

former merchants were in fact trying to solve the impossible problem of maintaining a throne in the midst of

republican institutions. The title of grandduke was only granted very tardily by Philip the Second, king of

Spain, to reward those Medici who bought it by betraying France their benefactress, and servilely attaching

themselves to the court of Spain, which was at the very time covertly counteracting them in Italy.

"Flatter none but your enemies," the famous saying of Catherine de' Medici, seems to have been the political

rule of life with that family of merchant princes, in which great men were never lacking until their destinies

became great, when they fell, before their time, into that degeneracy in which royal races and noble families

For three generations there had been a great Lorrain warrior and a great Lorrain churchman; and, what is

more singular, the churchmen all bore a strong resemblance in the face to Ximenes, as did Cardinal Richelieu

in after days. These five great cardinals all had sly, mean, and yet terrible faces; while the warriors, on the

other hand, were of that type of Basque mountaineer which we see in Henri IV. The two Balafres, father and

son, wounded and scarred in the same manner, lost something of this type, but not the grace and affability by

It is not useless to relate how the present Grand Master received his wound; for it was healed by the heroic

measures of a personage of our drama,by Ambroise Pare, the man we have already mentioned as under

obligations to Lecamus, syndic of the guild of furriers. At the siege of Calais the duke had his face pierced

through and through by a lance, the point of which, after entering the cheek just below the right eye, went

through to the neck, below the left eye, and remained, broken off, in the face. The duke lay dying in his tent

in the midst of universal distress, and he would have died had it not been for the devotion and prompt courage

of Ambroise Pare. "The duke is not dead, gentlemen," he said to the weeping attendants, "but he soon will die

if I dare not treat him as I would a dead man; and I shall risk doing so, no matter what it may cost me in the

end. See!" And with that he put his left foot on the duke's breast, took the broken wooden end of the lance in

his fingers, shook and loosened it by degrees in the wound, and finally succeeded in drawing out the iron

head, as if he were handling a thing and not a man. Though he saved the prince by this heroic treatment, he

could not prevent the horrible scar which gave the great soldier his nickname,Le Balafre, the Scarred. This

Absolutely masters of Francois II., whom his wife ruled through their mutual and excessive passion, these

two great Lorrain princes, the duke and the cardinal, were masters of France, and had no other enemy at court

than Catherine de' Medici. No great statesmen ever played a closer or more watchful game.

The mutual position of the ambitious widow of Henri II. and the ambitious house of Lorraine was pictured, as

it were, to the eye by a scene which took place on the terrace of the chateau de Blois very early in the

morning of the day on which Christophe Lecamus was destined to arrive there. The queenmother, who

feigned an extreme attachment to the Guises, had asked to be informed of the news brought by the three

seigneurs coming from three different parts of the kingdom; but she had the mortification of being

courteously dismissed by the cardinal. She then walked to the parterres which overhung the Loire, where she

was building, under the superintendence of her astrologer, Ruggieri, an observatory, which is still standing,

and from which the eye may range over the whole landscape of that delightful valley. The two Lorrain

princes were at the other end of the terrace, facing the Vendomois, which overlooks the upper part of the

Catherine had deceived the two brothers by pretending to a slight displeasure; for she was in reality very well

pleased to have an opportunity to speak to one of the three young men who had arrived in such haste. This

was a young nobleman named Chiverni, apparently a tool of the cardinal, in reality a devoted servant of

Catherine. Catherine also counted among her devoted servants two Florentine nobles, the Gondi; but they

were so suspected by the Guises that she dared not send them on any errand away from the court, where she

kept them, watched, it is true, in all their words and actions, but where at least they were able to watch and

study the Guises and counsel Catherine. These two Florentines maintained in the interests of the

queenmother another Italian, Birago,a clever Piedmontese, who pretended, with Chiverni, to have

abandoned their mistress, and gone over to the Guises, who encouraged their enterprises and employed them

Chiverni had come from Paris and Ecouen. The last to arrive was Saint Andre, who was marshal of France

and became so important that the Guises, whose creature he was, made him the third person in the triumvirate

they formed the following year against Catherine. The other seigneur who had arrived during the night was

Vieilleville, also a creature of the Guises and a marshal of France, who was returning from a secret mission

known only to the Grand Master, who had entrusted it to him. As for SaintAndre, he was in charge of

military measures taken with the object of driving all Reformers under arms into Amboise; a scheme which

now formed the subject of a council held by the duke and cardinal, Birago, Chiverni, Vieilleville, and

SaintAndre. As the two Lorrains employed Birago, it is to be supposed that they relied upon their own

powers; for they knew of his attachment to the queenmother. At this singular epoch the double part played

by many of the political men of the day was well known to both parties; they were like cards in the hands of

gamblers,the cleverest player won the game. During this council the two brothers maintained the most

impenetrable reserve. A conversation which now took place between Catherine and certain of her friends will

explain the object of this council, held by the Guises in the open air, in the hanging gardens, at break of day,

The queenmother, under pretence of examining the observatory then in process of construction, walked in

that direction accompanied by the two Gondis, glancing with a suspicious and inquisitive eye at the group of

enemies who were still standing at the farther end of the terrace, and from whom Chiverni now detached

himself to join the queenmother. She was then at the corner of the terrace which looks down upon the

Church of SaintNicholas; there, at least, there could be no danger of the slightest overhearing. The wall of

the terrace is on a level with the towers of the church, and the Guises invariably held their council at the

farther corner of the same terrace at the base of the great unfinished keep or dungeon,going and returning

between the Perchoir des Bretons and the gallery by the bridge which joined them to the gardens. No one was

within sight. Chiverni raised the hand of the queenmother to kiss it, and as he did so he slipped a little note

from his hand to hers, without being observed by the two Italians. Catherine turned to the angle of the parapet

The queen put the letter in the hollow of her corset, resolving to burn it as soon as she was alone.

"On my way back from visiting the Connetable, at Melun, where I met him with the Duchesse de Berry,

whom he was most impatient to convey to Savoie, that he might return here and open the eyes of the

chancellor Olivier, who is now completely duped by the Lorrains. As soon as Monsieur l'Hopital saw the true

object of the Guises he determined to support your interests. That is why he is so anxious to get here and give

"Is he sincere?" asked Catherine. "You know very well that if the Lorrains have put him in the council it is

"L'Hopital is a Frenchman who comes of too good a stock not to be honest and sincere," said Chiverni;

"He replied that he was the servant of the king and would await his orders. On receiving that answer the

cardinal, to suppress all resistance, determined to propose the appointment of his brother as

"Have they got as far as that?" exclaimed Catherine, alarmed. "Well, did Monsieur l'Hopital send me no other

"He told me to say to you, madame, that you alone could stand between the Crown and the Guises."

"Ah! madame," cried Chiverni, surprised at such astuteness, "we never dreamed of casting you into such

"Very nearly. He thinks you were duped after the death of the king into accepting that castle on Madame

Diane's overthrow. The Guises consider themselves released toward the queen by having satisfied the

"Gentlemen," said Catherine, "if I go over openly to the Reformers I shall become the slave of a party."

"Madame," said Chiverni, eagerly, "I approve entirely of your meaning. You must use them, but not serve

"Though your support does, undoubtedly, for the time being lie there," said Charles de Gondi, "we must not

"I know it," said the queen; "a single false step would be a pretext on which the Guises would seize at once to

"The niece of a Pope, the mother of four Valois, a queen of France, the widow of the most ardent persecutor

of the Huguenots, an Italian Catholic, the aunt of Leo X.,can she ally herself with the Reformation?" asked

"But," said his brother Albert, "if she seconds the Guises does she not play into the hands of a usurpation?

We have to do with men who see a crown to seize in the coming struggle between Catholicism and Reform. It

"Reflect, madame, that your family, which ought to have been wholly devoted to the king of France, is at this

moment the servant of the king of Spain; and tomorrow it will be that of the Reformation if the Reformation

"I am certainly disposed to lend a hand, for a time, to the Huguenots," said Catherine, "if only to revenge

myself on that soldier and that priest and that woman!" As she spoke, she called attention with her subtile

Italian glance to the duke and cardinal, and then to the second floor of the chateau on which were the

apartments of her son and Mary Stuart. "That trio has taken from my hands the reins of State, for which I

waited long while the old woman filled my place," she said gloomily, glancing toward Chenonceaux, the

chateau she had lately exchanged with Diane de Poitiers against that of Chaumont. "Ma," she added in

Italian, "it seems that these reforming gentry in Geneva have not the wit to address themselves to me; and, on

my conscience, I cannot go to them. Not one of you would dare to risk carrying them a message!" She

stamped her foot. "I did hope you would have met the cripple at Ecouenhe has sense," she said to Chiverni.

"The Prince de Conde was there, madame," said Chiverni, "but he could not persuade the Connetable to join

him. Monsieur de Montmorency wants to overthrow the Guises, who have sent him into exile, but he will not

"What will ever break these individual wills which are forever thwarting royalty? God's truth!" exclaimed the

queen, "the great nobles must be made to destroy each other, as Louis XI., the greatest of your kings, did with

those of his time. There are four or five parties now in this kingdom, and the weakest of them is that of my

"The Reformation is an idea," said Charles de Gondi; "the parties that Louis XI. crushed were moved by

"Ideas are behind selfish interests," replied Chiverni. "Under Louis XI. the idea was the great Fiefs"

"Make heresy an axe," said Albert de Gondi, "and you will escape the odium of executions."

"Ah!" cried the queen, "but I am ignorant of the strength and also of the plans of the Reformers; and I have no

safe way of communicating with them. If I were detected in any manoeuvre of that kind, either by the queen,

who watches me like an infant in a cradle, or by those two jailers over there, I should be banished from

France and sent back to Florence with a terrible escort, commanded by Guise minions. Thank you, no, my

daughterinlaw!but I wish you the fate of being a prisoner in your own home, that you may know what

"Their plans!" exclaimed Chiverni; "the duke and the cardinal know what they are, but those two foxes will

not divulge them. If you could induce them to do so, madame, I would sacrifice myself for your sake and

"How much of the Guises' own plans have they been forced to reveal to you?" asked the queen, with a glance

"Monsieur de Vieilleville and Monsieur de SaintAndre have just received fresh orders, the nature of which

is concealed from us; but I think the duke is intending to concentrate his best troops on the left bank. Within a

few days you will all be moved to Amboise. The duke has been studying the position from this terrace and

decides that Blois is not a propitious spot for his secret schemes. What can he want better?" added Chiverni,

pointing to the precipices which surrounded the chateau. "There is no place in the world where the court is

"Abdicate or reign," said Albert in a low voice to the queen, who stood motionless and thoughtful.

A terrible expression of inward rage passed over the fine ivory face of Catherine de' Medici, who was not yet

forty years old, though she had lived for twentysix years at the court of France,without power, she, who

from the moment of her arrival intended to play a leading part! Then, in her native language, the language of

"Nothing so long as that son lives!His little wife bewitches him," she added after a pause.

Catherine's exclamation was inspired by a prophecy which had been made to her a few days earlier at the

chateau de Chaumont on the opposite bank of the river; where she had been taken by Ruggieri, her astrologer,

to obtain information as to the lives of her four children from a celebrated female seer, secretly brought there

by Nostradamus (chief among the physicians of that great sixteenth century) who practised, like the Ruggieri,

the Cardans, Paracelsus, and others, the occult sciences. This woman, whose name and life have eluded

"True, the queen," said Chiverni, smiling, "the queen has given the Prince de Conde as leader to the

Reformers, and he, in his position of younger son, can venture all; consequently the cardinal talks of ordering

Thus the leaders of the great movement of the Reformation in France were justified in hoping for an ally in

"There is one thing to be considered," said the queen. "The Bourbons may fool the Huguenots and the Sieurs

Calvin and de Beze may fool the Bourbons, but are we strong enough to fool Huguenots, Bourbons, and

"But they have not the king," said Albert de Gondi. "You will always triumph, having the king on your side."

"The Lorrains are, even now, endeavoring to turn the burghers against you," remarked Birago.

The hope of gaining the crown was not the result of a premeditated plan in the minds of the restless Guises.

Nothing warranted such a hope or such a plan. Circumstances alone inspired their audacity. The two cardinals

and the two Balafres were four ambitious minds, superior in talents to all the other politicians who

surrounded them. This family was never really brought low except by Henri IV.; a factionist himself, trained

in the great school of which Catherine and the Guises were masters,by whose lessons he had profited but

At this moment the two brothers, the duke and cardinal, were the arbiters of the greatest revolution attempted

in Europe since that of Henry VIII. in England, which was the direct consequence of the invention of

printing. Adversaries to the Reformation, they meant to stifle it, power being in their hands. But their

opponent, Calvin, though less famous than Luther, was far the stronger of the two. Calvin saw government

where Luther saw dogma only. While the stout beerdrinker and amorous German fought with the devil and

flung an inkbottle at his head, the man from Picardy, a sickly celibate, made plans of campaign, directed

battles, armed princes, and roused whole peoples by sowing republican doctrines in the hearts of the

burghers recouping his continual defeats in the field by fresh progress in the mind of the nations.

The Cardinal de Lorraine and the Duc de Guise, like Philip the Second and the Duke of Alba, knew where

and when the monarchy was threatened, and how close the alliance ought to be between Catholicism and

Royalty. Charles the Fifth, drunk with the wine of Charlemagne's cup, believing too blindly in the strength of

his monarchy, and confident of sharing the world with Suleiman, did not at first feel the blow at his head; but

no sooner had Cardinal Granvelle made him aware of the extent of the wound than he abdicated. The Guises

had but one scheme, that of annihilating heresy at a single blow. This blow they were now to attempt, for

the first time, to strike at Amboise; failing there they tried it again, twelve years later, at the Saint

Bartholomew,on the latter occasion in conjunction with Catherine de' Medici, enlightened by that time by

the flames of a twelve years' war, enlightened above all by the significant word "republic," uttered later and

printed by the writers of the Reformation, but already foreseen (as we have said before) by Lecamus, that

The two Guises, now on the point of striking a murderous blow at the heart of the French nobility, in order to

separate it once for all from a religious party whose triumph would be its ruin, still stood together on the

terrace, concerting as to the best means of revealing their coupd'Etat to the king, while Catherine was

"Jeanne d'Albret knew what she was about when she declared herself protectress of the Huguenots! She has a

batteringram in the Reformation, and she knows how to use it," said the duke, who fathomed the deep

"Theodore de Beze is now at Nerac," remarked the cardinal, "after first going to Geneva to take Calvin's

"Ah! we have none on our side of the quality of La Renaudie!" cried the cardinal. "He is a true Catiline."

"Such men always act for their own interests," replied the duke. "Didn't I fathom La Renaudie? I loaded him

with favors; I helped him to escape when he was condemned by the parliament of Bourgogne; I brought him

back from exile by obtaining a revision of his sentence; I intended to do far more for him; and all the while he

was plotting a diabolical conspiracy against us! That rascal has united the Protestants of Germany with the

heretics of France by reconciling the differences that grew up between the dogmas of Luther and those of

Calvin. He has brought the discontented great seigneurs into the party of the Reformation without obliging

them to abjure Catholicism openly. For the last year he has had thirty captains under him! He is everywhere

at once,at Lyon, in Languedoc, at Nantes! It was he who drew up those minutes of a consultation which

were hawked about all Germany, in which the theologians declared that force might be resorted to in order to

withdraw the king from our rule and tutelage; the paper is now being circulated from town to town. Wherever

we look for him we never find him! And yet I have never done him anything but good! It comes to this, that

we must now either thrash him like a dog, or try to throw him a golden bridge by which he will cross into our

"Bretagne, Languedoc, in fact the whole kingdom is in league to deal us a mortal blow," said the cardinal.

"After the fete was over yesterday I spent the rest of the night in reading the reports sent me by the monks; in

which I found that the only persons who have compromised themselves are poor gentlemen, artisans, as to

whom it doesn't signify whether you hang them or let them live. The Colignys and Condes do not show their

"Yes," replied the duke, "and, therefore, as soon as that lawyer Avenelles sold the secret of the plot, I told

Braguelonne to let the conspirators carry it out. They have no suspicion that we know it; they are so sure of

surprising us that the leaders may possibly show themselves then. My advice is to allow ourselves to be

The cardinal, quite unmoved, replied: "Whether the Prince de Conde is compromised or not, if we are certain

that he is the leader, we should strike him down at once and secure tranquillity. We need judges rather than

soldiers for this businessand judges are never lacking. Victory is always more certain in the parliament

"I consent, willingly," said the duke; "but do you think the Prince de Conde is powerful enough to inspire,

himself alone, the audacity of those who are making this first attack upon us? Isn't there, behind him"

"Pooh! a fool who speaks to me cap in hand!" replied the duke. "The coquetries of that Florentine woman

"Oh! as for that," exclaimed the priest, "if I do play the gallant with her it is only that I may read to the

"She has no heart," said the duke, sharply; "she is even more ambitious than you and I."

"You are a brave soldier," said the cardinal; "but, believe me, I distance you in this matter. I have had

Catherine watched by Mary Stuart long before you even suspected her. She has no more religion than my

shoe; if she is not the soul of this plot it is not for want of will. But we shall now be able to test her on the

scene itself, and find out then how she stands by us. Up to this time, however, I am certain she has held no

"Well, it is time now to reveal the whole plot to the king, and to the queenmother, who, you say, knows

nothing of it,that is the sole proof of her innocence; perhaps the conspirators have waited till the last

moment, expecting to dazzle her with the probabilities of success. La Renaudie must soon discover by my

arrangements that we are warned. Last night Nemours was to follow detachments of the Reformers who are

pouring in along the crossroads, and the conspirators will be forced to attack us at Amboise, which place I

intend to let them enter. Here," added the duke, pointing to three sides of the rock on which the chateau de

Blois is built; "we should have an assault without any result; the Huguenots could come and go at will. Blois

is an open hall with four entrances; whereas Amboise is a sack with a single mouth."

"We have made a blunder," remarked the duke, who was playing with his dagger, tossing it into the air and

catching it by the hilt. "We ought to have treated her as we did the Reformers,given her complete freedom

"What does Pardaillan want?" said the duke, observing the approach of the young nobleman who was later to

become celebrated by his encounter with La Renaudie, in which they both lost their lives.

"Monseigneur, a man sent by the queen's furrier is at the gate, and says he has an ermine suit to convey to

"Ah! yes,the ermine coat she spoke of yesterday," returned the cardinal; "let the shopfellow pass; she will

"How did he get here without being stopped until he reached the gate?" asked the duke.

"I'll ask to see him when he is with the queen," thought the Balafre. "Let him wait in the salle des gardes," he

"Lecamus is a good Catholic," remarked the cardinal, who, like his brother the duke, was endowed with

Caesar's memory. "The rector of SaintPierreauxBoeufs relies upon him; he is the provost of that quarter."

"Nevertheless," said the duke, "make the son talk with the captain of the Scotch guard," laying an emphasis

on the verb which was readily understood. "Ambroise is in the chateau; he can tell us whether the fellow is

really the son of Lecamus, for the old man did him good service in times past. Send for Ambroise Pare."

It was at this moment that Queen Catherine went, unattended, toward the two brothers, who hastened to meet

her with their accustomed show of respect, in which the Italian princess detected constant irony.

"Messieurs," she said, "will you deign to inform me of what is about to take place? Is the widow of your

former master of less importance in your esteem than the Sieurs Vieilleville, Birago, and Chiverni?"

"Madame," replied the cardinal, in a tone of gallantry, "our duty as men, taking precedence of that of

statecraft, forbids us to alarm the fair sex by false reports. But this morning there is indeed good reason to

confer with you on the affairs of the country. You must excuse my brother for having already given orders to

the gentlemen you mention,orders which were purely military, and therefore did not concern you; the

matters of real importance are still to be decided. If you are willing, we will now go the lever of the king and

"But what is all this, Monsieur le duc?" cried Catherine, pretending alarm. "Is anything the matter?"

"The Reformation, madame, is no longer a mere heresy; it is a party, which has taken arms and is coming

Catherine, the cardinal, the duke, and the three gentlemen made their way to the staircase through the gallery,

which was crowded with courtiers who, being off duty, no longer had the right of entrance to the royal

apartments, and stood in two hedges on either side. Gondi, who watched them while the queenmother talked

with the Lorraine princes, whispered in her ear, in good Tuscan, two words which afterwards became

proverbs,words which are the keynote to one aspect of her regal character: "Odiate e aspettate""Hate

Pardaillan, who had gone to order the officer of the guard at the gate of the chateau to let the clerk of the

queen's furrier enter, found Christophe openmouthed before the portal, staring at the facade built by the

good king Louis XII., on which there was at that time a much greater number of grotesque carvings than we

see there today, grotesque, that is to say, if we may judge by those that remain to us. For instance,

persons curious in such matters may remark the figurine of a woman carved on the capital of one of the portal

columns, with her robe caught up to show to a stout monk crouching in the capital of the corresponding

column "that which Brunelle showed to Marphise"; while above this portal stood, at the time of which we

write, the statue of Louis XII. Several of the windowcasings of this facade, carved in the same style, and

now, unfortunately, destroyed, amused, or seemed to amuse Christophe, on whom the arquebusiers of the

"He would like to live there," said the subcorporal, playing with the cartridges of his weapon, which were

prepared for use in the shape of little sugarloaves, and slung to the baldricks of the men.

Christophe pretended not to hear, and tried to exaggerate his amazement, the result being that his silly attitude

and his behavior before the guard proved an excellent passport to the eyes of Pardaillan.

"The queen has not yet risen," said the young captain; "come and wait for her in the salle des gardes."

Christophe followed Pardaillan rather slowly. On the way he stopped to admire the pretty gallery in the form

of an arcade, where the courtiers of Louis XII. awaited the receptionhour when it rained, and where, at the

present moment, were several seigneurs attached to the Guises; for the staircase (so well preserved to the

present day) which led to their apartments is at the end of this gallery in a tower, the architecture of which

"Well, well! did you come here to study the carving of images?" cried Pardaillan, as Christophe stopped

before the charming sculptures of the balustrade which unites, or, if you prefer it, separates the columns of

Christophe followed the young officer to the grand staircase, not without a glance of ecstasy at the

semiMoorish tower. The weather was fine, and the court was crowded with staffofficers and seigneurs,

talking together in little groups,their dazzling uniforms and court dresses brightening a spot which the

"Come in here," said Pardaillan, making Lecamus a sign to follow him through a carved wooden door leading

to the second floor, which the doorkeeper opened on recognizing the young officer.

It is easy to imagine Christophe's amazement as he entered the great salle des gardes, then so vast that

military necessity has since divided it by a partition into two chambers. It occupied on the second floor (that

of the king), as did the corresponding hall on the first floor (that of the queenmother), one third of the whole

front of the chateau facing the courtyard; and it was lighted by two windows to right and two to left of the

tower in which the famous staircase winds up. The young captain went to the door of the royal chamber,

which opened upon this vast hall, and told one of the two pages on duty to inform Madame Dayelles, the

On a sign from Pardaillan Christophe placed himself near an officer, who was seated on a stool at the corner

of a fireplace as large as his father's whole shop, which was at the end of the great hall, opposite to a precisely

similar fireplace at the other end. While talking to this officer, a lieutenant, he contrived to interest him with

an account of the stagnation of trade. Christophe seemed so thoroughly a shopkeeper that the officer imparted

that conviction to the captain of the Scotch guard, who came in from the courtyard to question Lecamus, all

However much Christophe Lecamus had been warned, it was impossible for him to really apprehend the cold

ferocity of the interests between which Chaudieu had slipped him. To an observer of this scene, who had

known the secrets of it as the historian understands it in the light of today, there was indeed cause to tremble

for this young man,the hope of two families,thrust between those powerful and pitiless machines,

Catherine and the Guises. But do courageous beings, as a rule, measure the full extent of their dangers? By

the way in which the port of Blois, the chateau, and the town were guarded, Christophe was prepared to find

spies and traps everywhere; and he therefore resolved to conceal the importance of his mission and the

tension of his mind under the emptyheaded and shopkeeping appearance with which he presented himself to

the eyes of young Pardaillan, the officer of the guard, and the Scottish captain.

The agitation which, in a royal castle, always attends the hour of the king's rising, was beginning to show

itself. The great lords, whose horses, pages, or grooms remained in the outer courtyard,for no one, except

the king and the queens, had the right to enter the inner courtyard on horseback,were mounting by groups

the magnificent staircase, and filling by degrees the vast hall, the beams of which are now stripped of the

decorations that then adorned them. Miserable little red tiles have replaced the ingenious mosaics of the

floors; and the thick walls, then draped with the crown tapestries and glowing with all the arts of that unique

period of the splendors of humanity, are now denuded and whitewashed! Reformers and Catholics were

pressing in to hear the news and to watch faces, quite as much as to pay their duty to the king. Francois II.'s

excessive love for Mary Stuart, to which neither the queenmother nor the Guises made any opposition, and

the politic compliance of Mary Stuart herself, deprived the king of all regal power. At seventeen years of age

he knew nothing of royalty but its pleasures, or of marriage beyond the indulgence of first passion. As a

matter of fact, all present paid their court to Queen Mary and to her uncles, the Cardinal de Lorraine and the

This stir took place before Christophe, who watched the arrival of each new personage with natural

eagerness. A magnificent portiere, on either side of which stood two pages and two soldiers of the Scotch

guard, then on duty, showed him the entrance to the royal chamber, the chamber so fatal to the son of the

present Duc de Guise, the second Balafre, who fell at the foot of the bed now occupied by Mary Stuart and

Francois II. The queen's maids of honor surrounded the fireplace opposite to that where Christophe was being

"talked with" by the captain of the guard. This second fireplace was considered the chimney of honor. It was

built in the thick wall of the Salle de Conseil, between the door of the royal chamber and that of the

councilhall, so that the maids of honor and the lords in waiting who had the right to be there were on the

direct passage of the king and queen. The courtiers were certain on this occasion of seeing Catherine, for her

maids of honor, dressed like the rest of the court ladies, in black, came up the staircase from the

queenmother's apartment, and took their places, marshalled by the Comtesse de Fiesque, on the side toward

the councilhall and opposite to the maids of honor of the young queen, led by the Duchesse de Guise, who

occupied the other side of the fireplace on the side of the royal bedroom. The courtiers left an open space

between the ranks of these young ladies (who all belonged to the first families of the kingdom), which none

but the greatest lords had the right to enter. The Comtesse de Fiesque and the Duchesse de Guise were, in

virtue of their office, seated in the midst of these noble maids, who were all standing.

The first gentleman who approached the dangerous ranks was the Duc d'Orleans, the king's brother, who had

come down from his apartment on the third floor, accompanied by Monsieur de Cypierre, his governor. This

young prince, destined before the end of the year to reign under the title of Charles IX., was only ten years

old and extremely timid. The Duc d'Anjou and the Duc d'Alencon, his younger brothers, also the Princesse

Marguerite, afterwards the wife of Henri IV. (la Reine Margot), were too young to come to court, and were

therefore kept by their mother in her own apartments. The Duc d'Orleans, richly dressed after the fashion of

the times, in silken trunkhose, a closefitting jacket of cloth of gold embroidered with black flowers, and a

little mantle of embroidered velvet, all black, for he still wore mourning for his father, bowed to the two

ladies of honor and took his place beside his mother's maids. Already full of antipathy for the adherents of the

house of Guise, he replied coldly to the remarks of the duchess and leaned his arm on the back of the chair of

the Comtesse de Fiesque. His governor, Monsieur de Cypierre, one of the noblest characters of that day,

stood beside him like a shield. Amyot (afterwards Bishop of Auxerre and translator of Plutarch), in the simple

soutane of an abbe, also accompanied the young prince, being his tutor, as he was of the two other princes,

Between the "chimney of honor" and the other chimney at the end of the hall, around which were grouped the

guards, their captain, a few courtiers, and Christophe carrying his box of furs, the Chancellor Olivier,

protector and predecessor of l'Hopital, in the robes which the chancellors of France have always worn, was

walking up and down with the Cardinal de Tournon, who had recently returned from Rome. The pair were

exchanging a few whispered sentences in the midst of great attention from the lords of the court, massed

against the wall which separated the salle des gardes from the royal bedroom, like a living tapestry backed by

the rich tapestry of art crowded by a thousand personages. In spite of the present grave events, the court

presented the appearance of all courts in all lands, at all epochs, and in the midst of the greatest dangers. The

courtiers talked of trivial matters, thinking of serious ones; they jested as they studied faces, and apparently

concerned themselves about love and the marriage of rich heiresses amid the bloodiest catastrophes.

"What did you think of yesterday's fete?" asked Bourdeilles, seigneur of Brantome, approaching

"Messieurs du Baif et du Bellay were inspired with delightful ideas," she replied, indicating the organizers of

the fete, who were standing near. "I thought it all in the worst taste," she added in a low voice.

"You had no part to play in it, I think?" remarked Mademoiselle de Lewiston from the opposite ranks of

"'Amadis de Gaule,' by the Seigneur des Essarts, commissary in ordinary to the king's artillery," she replied.

"A charming work," remarked the beautiful girl who was afterwards so celebrated under the name of

"The style is a novelty in form," said Amyot. "Do you accept such barbarisms?" he added, addressing

"They please the ladies, you know," said Brantome, crossing over to the Duchesse de Guise, who held the

"Decamerone" in her hand. "Some of the women of your house must appear in the book, madame," he said.

"It is a pity that the Sieur Boccaccio did not live in our day; he would have known plenty of ladies to swell

"How shrewd that Monsieur de Brantome is," said the beautiful Mademoiselle de Limueil to the Comtesse de

"Hush!" said Madame de Fiesque glancing at the beautiful Limueil. "Attend to what concerns yourself."

The young girl turned her eyes to the door. She was expecting Sardini, a noble Italian, with whom the

queenmother, her relative, married her after an "accident" which happened in the dressingroom of

Catherine de' Medici herself; but which the young lady won the honor of having a queen as midwife.

"By the holy Alipantin! Mademoiselle Davila seems to me prettier and prettier every morning," said

Monsieur de Robertet, secretary of State, bowing to the ladies of the queenmother.

The arrival of the secretary of State made no commotion whatever, though his office was precisely what that

"If you really think so, monsieur," said the beauty, "lend me the squib which was written against the

"It is no longer in my possession," replied the secretary, turning round to bow to the Duchesse de Guise.

"I have it," said the Comte de Grammont to Mademoiselle Davila, "but I will give it you on one condition

The Italian custom of calling ladies, as peasants call their wives, "la Suchaone" was then the fashion at the

"You are mistaken," said the count, hastily, "the matter is simply to give a letter from my cousin de Jarnac to

"You must not compromise my young ladies," said the Comtesse de Fiesque. "I will deliver the letter

myself.Do you know what is happening in Flanders?" she continued, turning to the Cardinal de Tournon.

"He and the Prince of Orange," remarked Cypierre, with a significant shrug of his shoulders.

"The Duke of Alba and Cardinal Granvelle are going there, are they not, monsieur?" said Amyot to the

Cardinal de Tournon, who remained standing, gloomy and anxious between the opposing groups after his

"Happily we are at peace; we need only conquer heresy on the stage," remarked the young Duc d'Orleans,

alluding to a part he had played the night before,that of a knight subduing a hydra which bore upon its

Catherine de' Medici, agreeing in this with her daughterinlaw, had allowed a theatre to be made of the

great hall (afterwards arranged for the Parliament of Blois), which, as we have already said, connected the

The cardinal made no answer to Amyot's question, but resumed his walk through the centre of the hall,

talking in low tones with Monsieur de Robertet and the chancellor. Many persons are ignorant of the

difficulties which secretaries of State (subsequently called ministers) met with at the first establishment of

their office, and how much trouble the kings of France had in creating it. At this epoch a secretary of State

like Robertet was purely and simply a writer; he counted for almost nothing among the princes and grandees

who decided the affairs of State. His functions were little more than those of the superintendent of finances,

the chancellor, and the keeper of the seals. The kings granted seats at the council by letterspatent to those of

their subjects whose advice seemed to them useful in the management of public affairs. Entrance to the

council was given in this way to a president of the Chamber of Parliament, to a bishop, or to an untitled

favorite. Once admitted to the council, the subject strengthened his position there by obtaining various crown

offices on which devolved such prerogatives as the sword of a Constable, the government of provinces, the

grandmastership of artillery, the baton of a marshal, a leading rank in the army, or the admiralty, or a

captaincy of the galleys, often some office at court, like that of grandmaster of the household, now held, as

"Do you think that the Duc de Nemours will marry Francoise?" said Madame de Guise to the tutor of the Duc

This answer made all who were within hearing of it smile. The seduction of Francoise de Rohan by the Duc

de Nemours was the topic of all conversations; but, as the duke was cousin to Francois II., and doubly allied

to the house of Valois through his mother, the Guises regarded him more as the seduced than the seducer.

Nevertheless, the power of the house of Rohan was such that the Duc de Nemours was obliged, after the

death of Francois II., to leave France on consequence of suits brought against him by the Rohans; which suits

the Guises settled. The duke's marriage with the Duchesse de Guise after Poltrot's assassination of her

husband in 1563, may explain the question which she put to Amyot, by revealing the rivalry which must have

"Do see that group of the discontented over there?" said the Comte de Grammont, motioning toward the

Messieurs de Coligny, the Cardinal de Chatillon, Danville, Thore, Moret, and several other seigneurs

suspected of tampering with the Reformation, who were standing between two windows on the other side of

"The Huguenots are bestirring themselves," said Cypierre. "We know that Theodore de Beze has gone to

Nerac to induce the Queen of Navarre to declare for the Reformersby abjuring publicly," he added,

looking at the bailli of Orleans, who held the office of chancellor to the Queen of Navarre, and was watching

This personage, the Orleans Jacques Coeur, one of the richest burghers of the day, was named Groslot, and

"Do you really think so?" said the chancellor of France, appreciating the full importance of Groslot's

"Are you not aware," said the burgher, "that the Queen of Navarre has nothing of the woman in her except

sex? She is wholly for things virile; her powerful mind turns to the great affairs of State; her heart is

"Monsieur le cardinal," whispered the Chancellor Olivier to Monsieur de Tournon, who had overheard

"The Queen of Navarre did well in choosing for her chancellor a man from whom the house of Lorraine

borrows money, and who offers his house to the king, if his Majesty visits Orleans," replied the cardinal.

The chancellor and the cardinal looked at each other, without venturing to further communicate their

thoughts; but Robertet expressed them, for he thought it necessary to show more devotion to the Guises than

"It is a great misfortune that the house of Navarre, instead of abjuring the religion of its fathers, does not

abjure the spirit of vengeance and rebellion which the Connetable de Bourbon breathed into it," he said aloud.

"We shall see the quarrels of the Armagnacs and the Bourguignons revive in our day."

At this moment Madame Dayelle, the favorite bedchamber woman of Queen Mary Stuart, crossed the hall,

"I don't think so," replied the Duchesse de Guise. "Their Majesties will come out; a grand council is to be

Madame Dayelle glided into the royal chamber after scratching on the door,a respectful custom, invented

"How is the weather, my dear Dayelle?" said Queen Mary, showing her fresh young face out of the bed, and

"What's the matter, my Dayelle? You look as if the archers of the guard were after you."

"We are to leave the chateau; Monsieur le cardinal requests me to tell you so, and to ask you to make the king

"Ah! that new religion does not leave me a minute's peace! I dreamed last night that I was in prison,I, who

"Carry me off! well, 'twould be rather pleasant; but on account of religion, and by hereticsoh, that would

The queen sprang from the bed and placed herself in a large armchair of red velvet before the fireplace, after

Dayelle had given her a dressinggown of black velvet, which she fastened loosely round her waist by a

silken cord. Dayelle lit the fire, for the mornings are cool on the banks of the Loire in the month of May.

"My uncles must have received some news during the night?" said the queen, inquiringly to Dayelle, whom

"Messieurs de Guise have been walking together from early morning on the terrace, so as not to be overheard

by any one; and there they received messengers, who came in hot haste from all the different points of the

kingdom where the Reformers are stirring. Madame la reine mere was there too, with her Italians, hoping she

"All the more because she was so angry yesterday," replied Dayelle. "They say that when she saw your

Majesty appear in that beautiful dress of woven gold, with the charming veil of tancolored crape, she was

"Leave us, my good Dayelle, the king is waking up. Let no one, even those who have the little entrees,

"Why! my dear Mary, already out of bed? Is it daylight?" said the young king, waking up.

"My dear darling, while we were asleep the wicked waked, and now they are forcing us to leave this

"What makes you think of wicked people, my treasure? I am sure we enjoyed the prettiest fete in the world

last nightif it were not for the Latin words those gentlemen will put into our French."

"Ah!" said Mary, "your language is really in very good taste, and Rabelais exhibits it finely."

"You are such a learned woman! I am so vexed that I can't sing your praises in verse. If I were not the king, I

would take my brother's tutor, Amyot, and let him make me as accomplished as Charles."

"You need not envy your brother, who writes verses and shows them to me, asking for mine in return. You

are the best of the four, and will make as good a king as you are the dearest of lovers. Perhaps that is why

your mother does not like you! But never mind! I, dear heart, will love you for all the world."

"I have no great merit in loving such a perfect queen," said the little king. "I don't know what prevented me

from kissing you before the whole court when you danced the branle with the torches last night! I saw plainly

that all the other women were mere servants compared to you, my beautiful Mary."

"It may be only prose you speak, but it is ravishing speech, dear darling, for it is love that says those words.

And youyou know well, my beloved, that were you only a poor little page, I should love you as much as I

do now. And yet, there is nothing so sweet as to whisper to one's self: 'My lover is king!'"

"Oh! the pretty arm! Why must we dress ourselves? I love to pass my fingers through your silky hair and

tangle its blond curls. Ah ca! sweet one, don't let your women kiss that pretty throat and those white

shoulders any more; don't allow it, I say. It is too much that the fogs of Scotland ever touched them!"

"Won't you come with me to see my dear country? The Scotch love you; there are no rebellions there!"

"Who rebels in this our kingdom?" said Francois, crossing his dressinggown and taking Mary Stuart on his

"Oh! 'tis all very charming, I know that," she said, withdrawing her cheek from the king; "but it is your

"Why say wish when you have only to will all? That's not the speech of a king, nor that of a lover.But no

more of love just now; let us drop it! We have business more important to speak of."

"Oh!" cried the king, "it is long since we have had any business. Is it amusing?"

"I'll wager, darling, you have seen your uncles, who manage so well that I, at seventeen years of age, am no

better than a roi faineant. In fact, I don't know why I have attended any of the councils since the first. They

could manage matters just as well by putting the crown in my chair; I see only through their eyes, and am

"Oh! monsieur," said the queen, rising from the king's knee with a little air of indignation, "you said you

would never worry me again on this subject, and that my uncles used the royal power only for the good of

your people. Your people!they are so nice! They would gobble you up like a strawberry if you tried to rule

them yourself. You want a warrior, a rough master with mailed hands; whereas youyou are a darling

whom I love as you are; whom I should never love otherwise, do you hear me, monsieur?" she added,

kissing the forehead of the lad, who seemed inclined to rebel at her speech, but softened at her kisses.

"Oh! how I wish they were not your uncles!" cried Francois II. "I particularly dislike the cardinal; and when

he puts on his wheedling air and his submissive manner and says to me, bowing: 'Sire, the honor of the crown

and the faith of your fathers forbid your Majesty to this and that,' I am sure he is working only for his

"Oh, how well you mimicked him!" cried the queen. "But why don't you make the Guises inform you of what

is going on, so that when you attain your grand majority you may know how to reign yourself? I am your

wife, and your honor is mine. Trust me! we will reign together, my darling; but it won't be a bed of roses for

us until the day comes when we have our own wills. There is nothing so difficult for a king as to reign. Am I

a queen, for example? Don't you know that your mother returns me evil for all the good my uncles do to raise

the splendor of your throne? Hey! what difference between them! My uncles are great princes, nephews of

Charlemagne, filled with ardor and ready to die for you; whereas this daughter of a doctor or a shopkeeper,

queen of France by accident, scolds like a burgherwoman who can't manage her own household. She is

discontented because she can't set every one by the ears; and then she looks at me with a sour, pale face, and

says from her pinched lips: 'My daughter, you are a queen; I am only the second woman in the kingdom' (she

is really furious, you know, my darling), 'but if I were in your place I should not wear crimson velvet while

all the court is in mourning; neither should I appear in public with my own hair and no jewels, because what

is not becoming in a simple lady is still less becoming in a queen. Also I should not dance myself, I should

"Oh, how you tremble before her. She worries you. Only say so, and we will send her away. Faith, she's

"For Heaven's sake, Mary, hold your tongue!" said Francois, frightened and also pleased; "I don't want you to

"Don't be afraid that she will ever break with me, who will some day wear the three noblest crowns in the

world, my dearest little king," cried Mary Stuart. "Though she hates me for a thousand reasons she is always

"Yes, my angel; and if I had not proofs of that feeling such as women only understand, for they alone know

its malignity, I would forgive her perpetual opposition to our dear love, my darling. Is it my fault that your

father could not endure Mademoiselle Medici or that his son loves me? The truth is, she hates me so much

that if you had not put yourself into a rage, we should each have had our separate chamber at SaintGermain,

and also here. She pretended it was the custom of the kings and queens of France. Custom, indeed! it was

your father's custom, and that is easily understood. As for your grandfather, Francois, the good man set up the

custom for the convenience of his loves. Therefore, I say, take care. And if we have to leave this place, be

"Leave Blois! Mary, what do you mean? I don't wish to leave this beautiful chateau, where we can see the

Loire and the country all round us, with a town at our feet and all these pretty gardens. If I go away it will be

"And the orangetrees? Oh! my darling king, if you knew the longing your Mary has to ramble among the

"Go!" exclaimed the grandmaster as he entered the room. "Yes, sire, you must leave Blois. Pardon my

boldness in entering your chamber; but circumstances are stronger than etiquette, and I come to entreat you to

Finding themselves thus surprised, Mary and Francois hastily separated, and on their faces was the same

"You are too much of a grandmaster, Monsieur de Guise," said the king, though controlling his anger.

"My son," said the queenmother, appearing behind the cardinal; "it is a matter concerning your safety and

"Withdraw into the hall," cried the little king, "and then we will hold a council."

"Madame," said the grandmaster to the young queen; "the son of your furrier has brought some furs, which

was just in time for the journey, for it is probable we shall sail down the Loire. But," he added, turning to the

queenmother, "he also wishes to speak to you, madame. While the king dresses, you and Madame la reine

had better see and dismiss him, so that we may not be delayed and harassed by this trifle."

"Certainly," said Catherine, thinking to herself, "If he expects to get rid of me by any such trick he little

The cardinal and the duke withdrew, leaving the two queens and the king alone together. As they crossed the

salle des gardes to enter the councilchamber, the grandmaster told the usher to bring the queen's furrier to

him. When Christophe saw the usher approaching from the farther end of the great hall, he took him, on

account of his uniform, for some great personage, and his heart sank within him. But that sensation, natural as

it was at the approach of the critical moment, grew terrible when the usher, whose movement had attracted

the eyes of all that brilliant assembly upon Christophe, his homely face and his bundles, said to him:

"Messeigneurs the Cardinal de Lorraine and the Grandmaster wish to speak to you in the council chamber."

Christophe followed the usher with lowered eyes, which he did not raise till he stood in the great

councilchamber, the size of which is almost equal to that of the salle des gardes. The two Lorrain princes

were there alone, standing before the magnificent fireplace, which backs against that in the salle des gardes

"Did no one question you?" exclaimed the duke, who was watching the young man closely.

"No, monseigneur. To the first soldier who looked as if he meant to stop me I said I came on duty to the two

"Are you not the son of my surgeon's greatest friend?" said the Duc de Guise, misled by the candor of

The Grandmaster turned aside, abruptly raised the portiere which concealed the double door of the

councilchamber, and showed his face to the whole assembly, among whom he was searching for the king's

surgeon. Ambroise Pare, standing in a corner, caught a glance which the duke cast upon him, and

immediately advanced. Ambroise, who at this time was inclined to the reformed religion, eventually adopted

it; but the friendship of the Guises and that of the kings of France guaranteed him against the evils which

overtook his coreligionists. The duke, who considered himself under obligations for life to Ambroise Pare,

"Ah!" exclaimed the duke in astonishment. "However, that is not the matter now," he added after a pause.

"Ambroise, I want you to see a friend of yours." So saying he drew him to the door of the council room, and

"Ha! true, monseigneur," cried the surgeon, extending his hand to the young furrier. "How is your father, my

"What are you doing at court?" asked the surgeon. "It is not your business to carry parcels; your father

intends you for the law. Do you want the protection of these two great princes to make you a solicitor?"

"Indeed I do!" said Christophe; "but I am here only in the interests of my father; and if you could intercede

for us, please do so," he added in a piteous tone; "and ask the Grand Master for an order to pay certain sums

"Now leave us," said the duke to the surgeon, making him a sign. "And you my friend," turning to

Christophe; "do your errand quickly and return to Paris. My secretary will give you a pass, for it is not safe,

Neither of the brothers formed the slightest suspicion of the grave importance of Christophe's errand,

convinced, as they now were, that he was really the son of the good Catholic Lecamus, the court furrier, sent

"Take him close to the door of the queen's chamber; she will probably ask for him soon," said the cardinal to

While the son of the furrier was undergoing this brief examination in the councilchamber, the king, leaving

the queen in company with her motherinlaw, had passed into his dressingroom, which was entered

Standing in the wide recess of an immense window, Catherine looked at the gardens, her mind a prey to

painful thoughts. She saw that in all probability one of the greatest captains of the age would be foisted that

very day into the place and power of her son, the king of France, under the formidable title of

lieutenantgeneral of the kingdom. Before this peril she stood alone, without power of action, without

defence. She might have been likened to a phantom, as she stood there in her mourning garments (which she

had not quitted since the death of Henri II.) so motionless was her pallid face in the grasp of her bitter

reflections. Her black eyes floated in that species of indecision for which great statesmen are so often blamed,

though it comes from the vast extent of the glance with which they embrace all difficulties,setting one

against the other, and adding up, as it were, all chances before deciding on a course. Her ears rang, her blood

tingled, and yet she stood there calm and dignified, all the while measuring in her soul the depths of the

political abyss which lay before her, like the natural depths which rolled away at her feet. This day was the

second of those terrible days (that of the arrest of the Vidame of Chartres being the first) which she was

destined to meet in so great numbers throughout her regal life; it also witnessed her last blunder in the school

of power. Though the sceptre seemed escaping from her hands, she wished to seize it; and she did seize it by

a flash of that power of will which was never relaxed by either the disdain of her fatherinlaw, Francois I.,

and his court,where, in spite of her rank of dauphiness, she had been of no account,or the constant

repulses of her husband, Henri II., and the terrible opposition of her rival, Diane de Poitiers. A man would

never have fathomed this thwarted queen; but the fairhaired Maryso subtle, so clever, so girlish, and

already so welltrainedexamined her out of the corners of her eyes as she hummed an Italian air and

assumed a careless countenance. Without being able to guess the storms of repressed ambition which sent the

dew of a cold sweat to the forehead of the Florentine, the pretty Scotch girl, with her wilful, piquant face,

knew very well that the advancement of her uncle the Duc de Guise to the lieutenantgeneralship of the

kingdom was filling the queenmother with inward rage. Nothing amused her more than to watch her

motherinlaw, in whom she saw only an intriguing woman of low birth, always ready to avenge herself.

The face of the one was grave and gloomy, and somewhat terrible, by reason of the livid tones which

transform the skin of Italian women to yellow ivory by daylight, though it recovers its dazzling brilliancy

under candlelight; the face of the other was fair and fresh and gay. At sixteen, Mary Stuart's skin had that

exquisite blond whiteness which made her beauty so celebrated. Her fresh and piquant face, with its pure

lines, shone with the roguish mischief of childhood, expressed in the regular eyebrows, the vivacious eyes,

and the archness of the pretty mouth. Already she displayed those feline graces which nothing, not even

captivity nor the sight of her dreadful scaffold, could lessen. The two queensone at the dawn, the other in

the midsummer of life presented at this moment the utmost contrast. Catherine was an imposing queen, an

impenetrable widow, without other passion than that of power. Mary was a lighthearted, careless bride,

making playthings of her triple crowns. One foreboded great evils,foreseeing the assassination of the

Guises as the only means of suppressing enemies who were resolved to rise above the Throne and the

Parliament; foreseeing also the bloodshed of a long and bitter struggle; while the other little anticipated her

own judicial murder. A sudden and strange reflection calmed the mind of the Italian.

"That sorceress and Ruggiero both declare this reign is coming to an end; my difficulties will not last long,"

And so, strangely enough, an occult science forgotten in our daythat of astrologysupported Catherine at

this moment, as it did, in fact, throughout her life; for, as she witnessed the minute fulfilment of the

"You are very gloomy, madame," said Mary Stuart, taking from the hands of her waitingwoman, Dayelle, a

little cap and placing the point of it on the parting of her hair, while two wings of rich lace surrounded the

The pencil of many painters have so frequently represented this head dress that it is thought to have

belonged exclusively to Mary Queen of Scots; whereas it was really invented by Catherine de' Medici, when

she put on mourning for Henri II. But she never knew how to wear it with the grace of her daughterinlaw,

to whom it was becoming. This annoyance was not the least among the many which the queenmother

"I owe you all respect, and should not dare to do so," said the Scottish queen, maliciously, glancing at

Placed between the rival queens, the favorite waitingwoman stood rigid as an andiron; a smile of

"Can I be as gay as you, after losing the late king, and now beholding my son's kingdom about to burst into

"Public affairs do not concern women," said Mary Stuart. "Besides, my uncles are there."

"Let us look at our furs, madame," replied the Italian, sarcastically; "that will employ us on our legitimate

"Oh! but we will go the Council, madame; we shall be more useful than you think."

"We!" said Catherine, with an air of astonishment. "But I do not understand Latin, myself."

"You think me very learned," cried Mary Stuart, laughing, "but I assure you, madame, I study only to reach

Catherine was silenced by this sharp thrust, which referred to the origin of the Medici, who were descended,

some said, from a doctor of medicine, others from a rich druggist. She made no direct answer. Dayelle

colored as her mistress looked at her, asking for the applause that even queens demand from their inferiors if

"Your charming speeches, madame, will unfortunately cure the wounds of neither Church nor State," said

Catherine at last, with her calm and cold dignity. "The science of my fathers in that direction gave them

thrones; whereas if you continue to trifle in the midst of danger you are liable to lose yours."

It was at this moment that Ambroise Pare, the chief surgeon, scratched softly on the door, and Madame

The young reformer intended to study Catherine's face, all the while affecting a natural embarrassment at

finding himself in such a place; but his proceedings were much hastened by the eagerness with which the

He turned his back on the other queen and on Dayelle, instantly profiting by the attention the two women

Christophe had put the treaty proposed by the Prince de Conde, the plan of the Reformers, and the detail of

their forces in his bosom between his shirt and his cloth jacket, folding them, however, within the bill which

"Madame," he said, "my father is in horrible need of money, and if you will deign to cast your eyes over your

bill," here he unfolded the paper and put the treaty on the top of it, "you will see that your Majesty owes him

six thousand crowns. Have the goodness to take pity on us. See, madame!" and he held the treaty out to her.

Catherine was bewildered by the preamble of the treaty which met her eye, but she did not lose her head. She

folded the paper quickly, admiring the audacity and presence of mind of the youth, and feeling sure that after

performing such a masterly stroke he would not fail to understand her. She therefore tapped him on the head

"It is very clumsy of you, my little friend, to present your bill before the furs. Learn to know women. You

"Is that traditional?" said the young queen, turning to her motherin law, who made no reply.

"Ah, mesdames, pray excuse my father," said Christophe. "If he had not had such need of money you would

not have had your furs at all. The country is in arms, and there are so many dangers to run in getting here that

nothing but our great distress would have brought me. No one but me was willing to risk them."

It may not be useless, for the understanding of this trifling, but very important scene, to remark that a surcoat

was, as the name implies (sur cotte), a species of closefitting spencer which women wore over their bodies

and down to their thighs, defining the figure. This garment protected the back, chest, and throat from cold.

These surcoats were lined with fur, a band of which, wide or narrow as the case might be, bordered the outer

material. Mary Stuart, as she tried the garment on, looked at herself in a large Venetian mirror to see the

effect behind, thus leaving her motherinlaw an opportunity to examine the papers, the bulk of which might

"Never tell women of the dangers you have run when you have come out of them safe and sound," she said,

"Ah! madame, I have your bill, too," he said, looking at her with wellplayed simplicity.

The young queen eyed him, but did not take the paper; and she noticed, though without at the moment

drawing any conclusions, that he had taken her bill from his pocket, whereas he had carried Queen

Catherine's in his bosom. Neither did she find in the lad's eyes that glance of admiration which her presence

invariably excited in all beholders. But she was so engrossed by her surcoat that, for the moment, she did not

"Take the bill, Dayelle," she said to her waitingwoman; "give it to Monsieur de Versailles (Lomenie) and

"Oh! madame," said Christophe, "if you do not ask the king or monseigneur the grandmaster to sign me an

"You are rather more eager than becomes a subject, my friend," said Mary Stuart. "Do you not believe my

The king now appeared, in silk stockings and trunkhose (the breeches of that period), but without his

doublet and mantle; he had, however, a rich loose coat of velvet edged with minever.

"Who is the wretch who dares to doubt your word?" he said, overhearing, in spite of his distance, his wife's

The door of the dressingroom was hidden by the royal bed. This room was afterwards called "the old

cabinet," to distinguish it from the fine cabinet of pictures which Henri III. constructed at the farther end of

the same suite of rooms, next to the hall of the States general. It was in the old cabinet that Henri III. hid the

murderers when he sent for the Duc de Guise, while he himself remained hidden in the new cabinet during

the murder, only emerging in time to see the overbearing subject for whom there were no longer prisons,

tribunals, judges, nor even laws, draw his last breath. Were it not for these terrible circumstances the historian

of today could hardly trace the former occupation of these cabinets, now filled with soldiers. A

quartermaster writes to his mistress on the very spot where the pensive Catherine once decided on her course

"Come with me, my friend," said the queenmother, "and I will see that you are paid. Commerce must live,

"Go, my lad," cried the young queen, laughing; "my august mother knows more than I do about commerce."

Catherine was about to leave the room without replying to this last taunt; but she remembered that her

"Put away these furs, Dayelle, and let us go to the Council, monsieur," said Mary to the young king,

enchanted with the opportunity of deciding in the absence of the queenmother so important a question as the

Mary Stuart took the king's arm. Dayelle went out before them, whispering to the pages; one of whom (it was

young Teligny, who afterwards perished so miserably during the SaintBartholomew) cried out:

Hearing the words, the two soldiers of the guard presented arms, and the two pages went forward to the door

of the Councilroom through the lane of courtiers and that of the maids of honor of the two queens. All the

members of the Council then grouped themselves about the door of their chamber, which was not very far

from the door to the staircase. The grandmaster, the cardinal, and the chancellor advanced to meet the young

sovereign, who smiled to several of the maids of honor and replied to the remarks of a few courtiers more

privileged than the rest. But the queen, evidently impatient, drew Francois II. as quickly as possible toward

the Councilchamber. When the sound of arquebuses, dropping heavily on the floor, had announced the

entrance of the couple, the pages replaced their caps upon their heads, and the private talk among the

"The grandmaster sent word to the keeper of the seals to be sure not to miss this Council; therefore you may

"They'll cut out plenty of work for us," remarked Groslot to Cardinal de Chatillon.

In short, everybody had a word to say. Some went and came, in and out of the great hall; others hovered

about the maids of honor of both queens, as if it might be possible to catch a few words through a wall three

Seated at the upper end of a long table covered with blue velvet, which stood in the middle of the room, the

king, near to whom the young queen was seated in an armchair, waited for his mother. Robertet, the

secretary, was mending pens. The two cardinals, the grandmaster, the chancellor, the keeper of the seals,

and all the rest of the council looked at the little king, wondering why he did not give them the usual order to

The two Lorrain princes attributed the queenmother's absence to some trick of their niece. Incited presently

"Is it the king's good pleasure to begin the council without waiting for Madame la reinemere?"

The cardinal then explained succinctly the dangers of the situation. This great political character, who showed

extraordinary ability under these pressing circumstances, led up to the question of the lieutenancy of the

kingdom in the midst of the deepest silence. The young king doubtless felt the tyranny that was being

exercised over him; he knew that his mother had a deep sense of the rights of the Crown and was fully aware

of the danger that threatened his power; he therefore replied to a positive question addressed to him by the

Suddenly enlightened by the queenmother's delay, Mary Stuart recalled, in a flash of thought, three

circumstances which now struck her vividly; first, the bulk of the papers presented to her motherin law,

which she had noticed, absorbed as she was,for a woman who seems to see nothing is often a lynx; next,

the place where Christophe had carried them to keep them separate from hers: "Why so?" she thought to

herself; and thirdly, she remembered the cold, indifferent glance of the young man, which she suddenly

attributed to the hatred of the Reformers to a niece of the Guises. A voice cried to her, "He may have been an

emissary of the Huguenots!" Obeying, like all excitable natures, her first impulse, she exclaimed:

Then she left the room hurriedly, ran down the staircase, to the amazement of the courtiers and the ladies of

honor, entered her motherinlaw's apartments, crossed the guardroom, opened the door of the chamber

with the caution of a thief, glided like a shadow over the carpet, saw no one, and bethought her that she

should surely surprise the queenmother in that magnificent dressingroom which comes between the

bedroom and the oratory. The arrangement of this oratory, to which the manners of that period gave a role in

By an almost inexplicable chance, when we consider the state of dilapidation into which the Crown has

allowed the chateau of Blois to fall, the admirable woodwork of Catherine's cabinet still exists; and in those

delicately carved panels, persons interested in such things may still see traces of Italian splendor, and

discover the secret hidingplaces employed by the queenmother. An exact description of these curious

arrangements is necessary in order to give a clear understanding of what was now to happen. The woodwork

of the oratory then consisted of about a hundred and eighty oblong panels, one hundred of which still exist,

all presenting arabesques of different designs, evidently suggested by the most beautiful arabesques of Italy.

The wood is liveoak. The red tones, seen through the layer of whitewash put on to avert cholera (useless

precaution!), shows very plainly that the ground of the panels was formerly gilt. Certain portions of the

design, visible where the wash has fallen away, seem to show that they once detached themselves from the

gilded ground in colors, either blue, or red, or green. The multitude of these panels shows an evident intention

to foil a search; but even if this could be doubted, the concierge of the chateau, while devoting the memory of

Catherine to the execration of the humanity of our day, shows at the base of these panels and close to the

floor a rather heavy footboard, which can be lifted, and beneath which still remain the ingenious springs

which move the panels. By pressing a knob thus hidden, the queen was able to open certain panels known to

her alone, behind which, sunk in the wall, were hidingplaces, oblong like the panels, and more or less deep.

It is difficult, even in these days of dilapidation, for the besttrained eye to detect which of those panels is

thus hinged; but when the eye was distracted by colors and gilding, cleverly used to conceal the joints, we can

readily conceive that to find one or two such panels among two hundred was almost an impossible thing.

At the moment when Mary Stuart laid her hand on the somewhat complicated lock of the door of this oratory,

the queenmother, who had just become convinced of the greatness of the Prince de Conde's plans, had

touched the spring hidden beneath the footboard, and one of the mysterious panels had turned over on its

hinges. Catherine was in the act of lifting the papers from the table to hide them, intending after that to secure

the safety of the devoted messenger who had brought them to her, when, hearing the sudden opening of the

door, she at once knew that none but Queen Mary herself would dare thus to enter without announcement.

"You are lost!" she said to Christophe, perceiving that she could no longer put away the papers, nor close

"Povero mio!" said Catherine, before she looked at her daughterin law. "Treason, madame! I hold the

traitors at last," she cried. "Send for the duke and the cardinal; and see that that man," pointing to Christophe,

In an instant the able woman had seen the necessity of sacrificing the poor youth. She could not hide him; it

was impossible to save him. Eight days earlier it might have been done; but the Guises now knew of the plot;

they must already possess the lists she held in her hand, and were evidently drawing the Reformers into a

trap. Thus, rejoiced to find in these adversaries the very spirit she desired them to have, her policy now led

her to make a merit of the discovery of their plot. These horrible calculations were made during the rapid

moment while the young queen was opening the door. Mary Stuart stood dumb for an instant; the gay look

left her eyes, which took on the acuteness that suspicion gives to the eyes of all, and which, in hers, became

terrible from the suddenness of the change. She glanced from Christophe to the queenmother and from the

queenmother back to Christophe,her face expressing malignant doubt. Then she seized a bell, at the

"Mademoiselle du Rouet, send for the captain of the guard," said Mary Stuart to the maid of honor, contrary

While the young queen gave this order, Catherine looked intently at Christophe, as if saying to him,

The Reformer understood, and replied by another glance, which seemed to say, "Sacrifice me, as they have

"Rely on me," said Catherine by a gesture. Then she absorbed herself in the documents as her

"I was not mistaken," she murmured as she again noticed in the eyes of the young Reformer the same cold

Pardaillan suddenly appeared, sent by the two Lorrain princes and by the king to escort the queens. The

captain of the guard called for by Mary Stuart followed the young officer, who was devoted to the Guises.

"Go and tell the king and the grandmaster and the cardinal, from me, to come here at once, and say that I

should not take the liberty of sending for them if something of the utmost importance had not occurred. Go,

Pardaillan.As for you, Lewiston, keep guard over that traitor of a Reformer," she said to the Scotchman in

The young queen and queenmother maintained a total silence until the arrival of the king and princes. The

Mary Stuart had betrayed to her motherinlaw, in its fullest extent, the part her uncles were inducing her to

play; her constant and habitual distrust and espionage were now revealed, and her young conscience told her

how dishonoring to a great queen was the work that she was doing. Catherine, on the other hand, had yielded

out of fear; she was still afraid of being rightly understood, and she trembled for her future. Both women, one

ashamed and angry, the other filled with hatred and yet calm, went to the embrasure of the window and

leaned against the casing, one to right, the other to left, silent; but their feelings were expressed in such

speaking glances that they averted their eyes and, with mutual artfulness, gazed through the window at the

sky. These two great and superior women had, at this crisis, no greater art of behavior than the vulgarest of

their sex. Perhaps it is always thus when circumstances arise which overwhelm the human being. There is,

inevitably, a moment when genius itself feels its littleness in presence of great catastrophes.

As for Christophe, he was like a man in the act of rolling down a precipice. Lewiston, the Scotch captain,

listened to this silence, watching the son of the furrier and the two queens with soldierly curiosity. The

entrance of the king and Mary Stuart's two uncles put an end to the painful situation.

"I hold the threads of the conspiracy of the heretics," said Catherine. "They have sent me this treaty and these

During the time that Catherine was explaining matters to the cardinal, Queen Mary whispered a few words to

"What is all this about?" asked the young king, who was left alone in the midst of the violent clash of

"The proofs of what I was telling to your Majesty have not been long in reaching us," said the cardinal, who

The Duc de Guise drew his brother aside without caring that he interrupted him, and said in his ear, "This

A shrewd glance was the cardinal's only answer; showing his brother that he fully understood the advantages

"The Prince de Conde, monseigneur!" replied Christophe, with a puzzled look. "I never met him. I am

studying law with Monsieur de Thou; I am his secretary, and he does not know that I belong to the Reformed

"Enough!" exclaimed the cardinal. "Call Monsieur de Robertet," he said to Lewiston, "for this young scamp

is slyer than an old statesman; he has managed to deceive my brother, and me too; an hour ago I would have

"The heretics have attempted to beguile your august mother," said the cardinal, addressing the king, and

"Alas!" said the queenmother to her son, assuming a reproachful look and stopping the king at the moment

when the cardinal was leading him into the oratory to subject him to his dangerous eloquence, "you see the

result of the situation in which I am; they think me irritated by the little influence that I have in public

The young king listened attentively. Mary Stuart, seeing the frown upon his brow, took his arm and led him

away into the recess of the window, where she cajoled him with sweet speeches in a low voice, no doubt like

those she had used that morning in their chamber. The two Guises read the documents given up to them by

Catherine. Finding that they contained information which their spies, and Monsieur Braguelonne, the

lieutenant of the Chatelet, had not obtained, they were inclined to believe in the sincerity of Catherine de'

Medici. Robertet came and received certain secret orders relative to Christophe. The youthful instrument of

the leaders of the Reformation was then led away by four soldiers of the Scottish guard, who took him down

the stairs and delivered him to Monsieur de Montresor, provost of the chateau. That terrible personage

himself, accompanied by six of his men, conducted Christophe to the prison in the vaulted cellar of the tower,

now in ruins, which the concierge of the chateau de Blois shows you with the information that these were the

After such an event the Council could be only a formality. The king, the young queen, the Grandmaster, and

the cardinal returned to it, taking with them the vanquished Catherine, who said no word except to approve

the measures proposed by the Guises. In spite of a slight opposition from the Chancelier Olivier (the only

person present who said one word that expressed the independence to which his office bound him), the Duc

de Guise was appointed lieutenantgeneral of the kingdom. Robertet brought the required documents,

showing a devotion which might be called collusion. The king, giving his arm to his mother, recrossed the

salle des gardes, announcing to the court as he passed along that on the following day he should leave Blois

for the chateau of Amboise. The latter residence had been abandoned since the time when Charles VIII.

accidentally killed himself by striking his head against the casing of a door on which he had ordered carvings,

supposing that he could enter without stooping below the scaffolding. Catherine, to mask the plans of the

Guises, remarked aloud that they intended to complete the chateau of Amboise for the Crown at the same

time that her own chateau of Chemonceaux was finished. But no one was the dupe of that pretext, and all

After spending about two hours endeavoring to see where he was in the obscurity of the dungeon, Christophe

ended by discovering that the place was sheathed in rough woodwork, thick enough to make the square hole

into which he was put both healthy and habitable. The door, like that of a pigpen, was so low that he

stooped almost double on entering it. Beside this door was a heavy iron grating, opening upon a sort of

corridor, which gave a little light and a little air. This arrangement, in all respects like that of the dungeons of

Venice, showed plainly that the architecture of the chateau of Blois belonged to the Venetian school, which

during the Middle Ages, sent so many builders into all parts of Europe. By tapping this species of pit above

the woodwork Christophe discovered that the walls which separated his cell to right and left from the

adjoining ones were made of brick. Striking one of them to get an idea of its thickness, he was somewhat

"I," replied the voice, "am Captain Chaudieu, brother of the minister. I was taken prisoner tonight at

"All is discovered," said Christophe; "you are fortunate to be saved from the fray."

"We have three thousand men at this moment in the forests of the Vendomois, all determined men, who mean

to abduct the king and the queenmother during their journey. Happily La Renaudie was cleverer than I; he

Hearing that, Christophe sat down upon his bench and made no further answer to the pretended captain, for

he knew enough of the police to be aware how necessary it was to act with prudence in a prison. In the

middle of the night he saw the pale light of a lantern in the corridor, after hearing the ponderous locks of the

iron door which closed the cellar groan as they were turned. The provost himself had come to fetch

Christophe. This attention to a prisoner who had been left in his dark dungeon for hours without food, struck

the poor lad as singular. One of the provost's men bound his hands with a rope and held him by the end of it

until they reached one of the lower halls of the chateau of Louis XII., which was evidently the antechamber to

the apartments of some important personage. The provost and his men bade him sit upon a bench, and the

man then bound his feet as he had before bound his hands. On a sign from Monsieur de Montresor the man

"Now listen to me, my friend," said the provostmarshal, toying with the collar of the Order; for, late as the

This little circumstance gave the young man several thoughts; he saw that all was not over; on the contrary, it

"My friend, you may spare yourself cruel torture by telling me all you know of the understanding between

Monsieur le Prince de Conde and Queen Catherine. Not only will no harm be done to you, but you shall enter

the service of Monseigneur the lieutenantgeneral of the kingdom, who likes intelligent men and on whom

your honest face has produced a good impression. The queenmother is about to be sent back to Florence,

and Monsieur de Conde will no doubt be brought to trial. Therefore, believe me, humble folks ought to attach

themselves to the great men who are in power. Tell me all; and you will find your profit in it."

"Alas, monsieur," replied Christophe; "I have nothing to tell. I told all I know to Messieurs de Guise in the

queen's chamber. Chaudieu persuaded me to put those papers under the eyes of the queenmother; assuring

Thereupon Monsieur de Montresor left Christophe and went into the adjoining room; but the youth was not

left long alone. The door through which he had been brought opened and gave entrance to several men, who

did not close it. Sounds that were far from reassuring were heard from the courtyard; men were bringing

wood and machinery, evidently intended for the punishment of the Reformer's messenger. Christophe's

anxiety soon had matter for reflection in the preparations which were made in the hall before his eyes.

Two coarse and illdressed servingmen obeyed the orders of a stout, squat, vigorous man, who cast upon

Christophe, as he entered, the glance of a cannibal upon his victim; he looked him over and estimated

him,measuring, like a connoisseur, the strength of his nerves, their power and their endurance. The man

was the executioner of Blois. Coming and going, his assistants brought in a mattress, several mallets and

wooden wedges, also planks and other articles, the use of which was not plain, nor their look comforting to

the poor boy concerned in these preparations, whose blood now curdled in his veins from a vague but most

terrible apprehension. Two personages entered the hall at the moment when Monsieur de Montresor

"Hey, nothing ready!" cried the provostmarshal, to whom the new comers bowed with great respect.

"Don't you know," he said, addressing the stout man and his two assistants, "that Monseigneur the cardinal

thinks you already at work? Doctor," added the provost, turning to one of the newcomers, "this is the man";

The doctor went straight to the prisoner, unbound his hands, and struck him on the breast and back. Science

now continued, in a serious manner, the truculent examination of the executioner's eye. During this time a

servant in the livery of the house of Guise brought in several armchairs, a table, and writingmaterials.

"Begin the proces verbal," said Monsieur de Montresor, motioning to the table the second personage, who

was dressed in black, and was evidently a clerk. Then the provost went up to Christophe, and said to him in a

very gentle way: "My friend, the chancellor, having learned that you refuse to answer me in a satisfactory

"Yes," replied the latter, who was one of the physicians of the house of Lorraine.

"In that case, retire to the next room; we will send for you whenever we require your advice."

His first terror having passed, Christophe rallied his courage; the hour of his martyrdom had come.

Thenceforth he looked with cold curiosity at the arrangements that were made by the executioner and his

men. After hastily preparing a bed, the two assistants got ready certain appliances called boots; which

consisted of several planks, between which each leg of the victim was placed. The legs thus placed were

brought close together. The apparatus used by binders to press their volumes between two boards, which they

fasten by cords, will give an exact idea of the manner in which each leg of the prisoner was bound. We can

imagine the effect produced by the insertion of wooden wedges, driven in by hammers between the planks of

the two bound legs, the two sets of planks of course not yielding, being themselves bound together by

ropes. These wedges were driven in on a line with the knees and the ankles. The choice of these places where

there is little flesh, and where, consequently, the wedge could only be forced in by crushing the bones, made

this form of torture, called the "question," horribly painful. In the "ordinary question" four wedges were

driven in,two at the knees, two at the ankles; but in the "extraordinary question" the number was increased

to eight, provided the doctor certified that the prisoner's vitality was not exhausted. At the time of which we

write the "boots" were also applied in the same manner to the hands and wrists; but, being pressed for time,

the cardinal, the lieutenantgeneral, and the chancellor spared Christophe that additional suffering.

The proces verbal was begun; the provost dictated a few sentences as he walked up and down with a

meditative air, asking Christophe his name, baptismal name, age, and profession; then he inquired the name

"In giving them to you he must have told you whether the queenmother would receive you with pleasure?"

"He told me nothing of that kind," said Christophe. "He merely asked me to give them to Queen Catherine

"You must have seen Chaudieu frequently, or he would not have known that you were going to Blois."

"The minister did not know from me that in carrying furs to the queen I was also to ask on my father's behalf

for the money the queenmother owes him; and I did not have time to ask the minister who had told him of

"But these papers, which were given to you without being sealed or enveloped, contained a treaty between

the rebels and Queen Catherine. You must have seen that they exposed you to the punishment of all those

"The persons who persuaded you to this act of high treason must have promised you rewards and the

"I did it out of attachment to Chaudieu, the only person whom I saw in the matter."

"The Prince de Conde did not tell you that the queenmother was inclined to enter into his views against the

"Take care! one of your accomplices, La Renaudie, has been arrested. Strong as he is, he was not able to bear

the 'question,' which will now be put to you; he confessed at last that both he and the Prince de Conde had an

interview with you. If you wish to escape the torture of the question, I exhort you to tell me the simple truth.

Christophe answered that he could not state a thing of which he had no knowledge, or give himself

accomplices when he had none. Hearing these words, the provostmarshal signed to the executioner and

retired himself to the inner room. At that fatal sign Christophe's brows contracted, his forehead worked with

nervous convulsion, as he prepared himself to suffer. His hands closed with such violence that the nails

entered the flesh without his feeling them. Three men seized him, took him to the camp bed and laid him

there, letting his legs hang down. While the executioner fastened him to the rough bedstead with strong cords,

the assistants bound his legs into the "boots." Presently the cords were tightened, by means of a wrench,

without the pressure causing much pain to the young Reformer. When each leg was thus held as it were in a

vice, the executioner grasped his hammer and picked up the wedges, looking alternately at the victim and at

The cords were tightened with great force. This was perhaps the most painful moment of the torture; the flesh

being suddenly compressed, the blood rushed violently toward the breast. The poor boy could not restrain a

dreadful cry and seemed about to faint. The doctor was called in. After feeling Christophe's pulse, he told the

executioner to wait a quarter of an hour before driving the first wedge in, to let the action of the blood subside

and allow the victim to recover his full sensitiveness. The clerk suggested, kindly, that if he could not bear

this beginning of sufferings which he could not escape, it would be better to reveal all at once; but Christophe

"Seeing what torture I must bear," said Christophe, slowly, hoping to gain time to rest, "I call up all my

strength, and try to increase it by thinking of the martyrdom borne by the king's tailor for the holy cause of

the Reformation, when the question was applied to him in presence of Madame la Duchesse de Valentinois

While the physician exhorted the unfortunate lad not to force them to have recourse to more violent

measures, the cardinal and the duke, impatient to know the result of the interrogations, entered the hall and

themselves asked Christophe to speak the truth, immediately. The young man repeated the only confession he

had allowed himself to make, which implicated no one but Chaudieu. The princes made a sign, on which the

executioner and his assistant seized their hammers, taking each a wedge, which then they drove in between

the joints, standing one to right, the other to left of their victim; the executioner's wedge was driven in at the

The eyes of all present fastened on those of Christophe, and he, no doubt excited by the presence of those

great personages, shot forth such burning glances that they appeared to have all the brilliancy of flame. As the

third and fourth wedges were driven in, a dreadful groan escaped him. When he saw the executioner take up

the wedges for the "extraordinary question" he said no word and made no sound, but his eyes took on so

terrible a fixity, and he cast upon the two great princes who were watching him a glance so penetrating, that

the duke and cardinal were forced to drop their eyes. Philippe le Bel met with the same resistance when the

torture of the pendulum was applied in his presence to the Templars. That punishment consisted in striking

the victim on the breast with one arm of the balance pole with which money is coined, its end being covered

with a pad of leather. One of the knights thus tortured, looked so intently at the king that Philippe could not

detach his eyes from him. At the third blow the king left the chamber on hearing the knight summon him to

appear within a year before the judgmentseat of God,as, in fact, he did. At the fifth blow, the first of the

"extraordinary question," Christophe said to the cardinal: "Monseigneur, put an end to my torture; it is

The cardinal and the duke reentered the adjoining hall, and Christophe distinctly heard the following words

She judged it prudent to be more stern to her accomplice than the executioners themselves.

The sixth and seventh wedges were driven in without a word of complaint from Christophe. His face shone

with extraordinary brilliancy, due, no doubt, to the excess of strength which his fanatic devotion gave him.

Where else but in the feelings of the soul can we find the power necessary to bear such sufferings? Finally, he

smiled when he saw the executioner lifting the eighth and last wedge. This horrible torture had lasted by this

The clerk now went to call the physician that he might decide whether the eighth wedge could be driven in

without endangering the life of the victim. During this delay the duke returned to look at Christophe.

"Ventredebiche! you are a fine fellow," he said to him, bending down to whisper the words. "I love brave

men. Enter my service, and you shall be rich and happy; my favors shall heal those wounded limbs. I do not

propose to you any baseness; I will not ask you to return to your party and betray its plans,there are always

traitors enough for that, and the proof is in the prisons of Blois; tell me only on what terms are the

The physician came, examined the victim, and said that he could bear the eighth wedge.

"Then insert it," said the cardinal. "After all, as the queen says, he is only a heretic," he added, looking at

At this moment Catherine came with slow steps from the adjoining apartment and stood before Christophe,

coldly observing him. Instantly she was the object of the closest attention on the part of the two brothers, who

watched alternately the queen and her accomplice. On this solemn test the whole future of that ambitious

woman depended; she felt the keenest admiration for Christophe, yet she gazed sternly at him; she hated the

"Young man," said the queen, "confess that you have seen the Prince de Conde, and you will be richly

"He insults me!" she exclaimed. "Why do you not hang him?" she cried, turning to the two brothers, who

"What a woman!" said the duke in a glance at his brother, consulting him by his eye, and leading him to the

"I shall stay in France and be revenged upon them," thought the queen. "Come, make him confess, or let him

The provostmarshal turned away his eyes, the executioners were busy with the wedges; Catherine was free

to cast one glance upon the martyr, unseen by others, which fell on Christophe like the dew. The eyes of the

great queen seemed to him moist; two tears were in them, but they did not fall. The wedges were driven; a

plank was broken by the blow. Christophe gave one dreadful cry, after which he was silent; his face

"Let him die?" said the cardinal, echoing the queen's last words with a sort of irony; "no, no! don't break that

"Send him to the prison at Orleans," said the duke, addressing Monsieur de Montresor; "and don't hang him

The extreme sensitiveness to which Christophe's internal organism had been brought, increased by a

resistance which called into play every power of the human body, existed to the same degree, in his senses.

He alone heard the following words whispered by the Duc de Guise in the ear of his brother the cardinal:

When the princes had left the hall the executioners unbound the legs of their victim roughly and without

"Did any one ever see a criminal with such strength?" said the chief executioner to his aids. "The rascal bore

"Unbind me gently; don't make me suffer, friends," said poor Christophe. "Some day I will reward you"

"Come, come, show some humanity," said the physician. "Monseigneur esteems the young man, and told me

"I am going to Amboise with my assistants,take care of him yourself," said the executioner, brutally.

The executioner departed, leaving Christophe in the hands of the soft spoken doctor, who by the aid of

Christophe's future jailer, carried the poor boy to a bed, brought him some broth, helped him to swallow it,

"You won't die of this," he said. "You ought to feel great inward comfort, knowing that you have done your

"The queen is very good," said Christophe, whose terrible sufferings had developed an extraordinary lucidity

in his mind, and who, after enduring such unspeakable sufferings, was determined not to compromise the

results of his devotion. "But she might have spared me much agony be telling my persecutors herself the

Hearing that reply, the doctor took his cap and cloak and left Christophe, rightly judging that he could worm

nothing out of a man of that stamp. The jailer of Blois now ordered the poor lad to be carried away on a

stretcher by four men, who took him to the prison in the town, where Christophe immediately fell into the

deep sleep which, they say, comes to most mothers after the terrible pangs of childbirth.

By moving the court to the chateau of Amboise, the two Lorrain princes intended to set a trap for the leader

of the party of the Reformation, the Prince de Conde, whom they had made the king summon to his presence.

As vassal of the Crown and prince of the blood, Conde was bound to obey the summons of his sovereign. Not

to come to Amboise would constitute the crime of treason; but if he came, he put himself in the power of the

Crown. Now, at this moment, as we have seen, the Crown, the council, the court, and all their powers were

solely in the hands of the Duc de Guise and the Cardinal de Lorraine. The Prince de Conde showed, at this

delicate crisis, a presence of mind and a decision and willingness which made him the worthy exponent of

Jeanne d'Albret and the valorous general of the Reformers. He travelled at the rear of the conspirators as far

as Vendome, intending to support them in case of their success. When the first uprising ended by a brief

skirmish, in which the flower of the nobility beguiled by Calvin perished, the prince arrived, with fifty

noblemen, at the chateau of Amboise on the very day after that fight, which the politic Guises termed "the

Tumult of Amboise." As soon as the duke and cardinal heard of his coming they sent the Marechal de

SaintAndre with an escort of a hundred men to meet him. When the prince and his own escort reached the

"You must enter alone, monseigneur," said the Chancellor Olivier, the Cardinal de Tournon, and Birago, who

The prince, who saw that his suite were already surrounded by the troop of the Duc de Nemours, replied

tranquilly: "If that is so, I will go alone to my cousin, and prove to him my innocence."

He dismounted, talked with perfect freedom of mind to Birago, the Cardinal de Tournon, the chancellor, and

"Monseigneur," replied the duke, "the rebels had confederates in Amboise. A captain, named Lanoue, had

introduced armed men, who opened the gate to them, through which they entered and made themselves

"That is to say, you opened the mouth of a sack, and they ran into it," replied the prince, looking at Birago.

"If they had been supported by the attack which Captain Chaudieu, the preacher's brother, was expected to

make before the gate of the Bon Hommes, they would have been completely successful," replied the Duc de

Nemours. "But in consequence of the position which the Duc de Guise ordered me to take up, Captain

Chaudieu was obliged to turn my flank to avoid a fight. So instead of arriving by night, like the rest, this rebel

and his men got there at daybreak, by which time the king's troops had crushed the invaders of the town."

"And you had a reserve force to recover the gate which had been opened to them?" said the prince.

"The lieutenantgeneral must have been fully aware of the plans of the Reformers, to have acted as he did,"

The prince was treated with increasing harshness. After separating him from his escort at the gates, the

cardinal and the chancellor barred his way when he reached the staircase which led to the apartments of the

"We are directed by his Majesty, monseigneur, to take you to your own apartments," they said.

"If that were the king's intention you would not be accompanied by a prince of the Church, nor by me,"

These two personages escorted the prince to an apartment, where guards of honorsocalledwere given

him. There he remained, without seeing any one, for some hours. From his window he looked down upon the

Loire and the meadows of the beautiful valley stretching from Amboise to Tours. He was reflecting on the

situation, and asking himself whether the Guises would really dare anything against his person, when the

door of his chamber opened and Chicot, the king's fool, formerly a dependent of his own, entered the room.

"You'd never believe how virtuous the court has become since the death of Henri II."

"Chicot, you alarm me. Are you sent here by some one who takes an interest in me?"

"Yes," said Chicot, nodding. He came nearer to the prince, and made him understand that they were being

"Boldness alone can pull you out of this scrape; the message comes from the queenmother," replied the fool,

"Tell those who sent you," replied Conde, "that I should not have entered this chateau if I had anything to

Two hours later, that is, about one o'clock in the afternoon, before the king's dinner, the chancellor and

Cardinal de Tournon came to fetch the prince and present him to Francois II. in the great gallery of the

chateau of Amboise, where the councils were held. There, before the whole court, Conde pretended surprise

at the coldness with which the little king received him, and asked the reason of it.

"You are accused, cousin," said the queenmother, sternly, "of taking part in the conspiracy of the

Reformers; and you must prove yourself a faithful subject and a good Catholic, if you do not desire to draw

Hearing these words said, in the midst of the most profound silence, by Catherine de' Medici, on whose right

arm the king was leaning, the Duc d'Orleans being on her left side, the Prince de Conde recoiled three steps,

laid his hand on his sword with a proud motion, and looked at all the persons who surrounded him.

"Those who said that, madame," he cried in an angry voice, "lied in their throats!"

Then he flung his glove at the king's feet, saying: "Let him who believes that calumny come forward!"

The whole court trembled as the Duc de Guise was seen to leave his place; but instead of picking up the

"If you desire a second in that duel, monseigneur, do me the honor to accept my services," he said. "I will

answer for you; I know that you will show the Reformers how mistaken they are if they think to have you for

The prince was forced to take the hand of the lieutenantgeneral of the kingdom. Chicot picked up the glove

"Cousin," said the little king, "you must draw your sword only for the defence of the kingdom. Come and

The Cardinal de Lorraine, surprised at his brother's action, drew him away to his own apartments. The Prince

de Conde, having escaped his apparent danger, offered his hand to Mary Stuart to lead her to the dining hall;

but all the while that he made her flattering speeches he pondered in his mind what trap the astute Balafre

was setting for him. In vain he worked his brains, for it was not until Queen Mary herself betrayed it that he

"'Twould have been a great pity," she said laughing, "if so clever a head had fallen; you must admit that my

"Yes, madame; for my head is only useful on my shoulders, though one of them is notoriously higher than the

other. But is this really your uncle's generosity? Is he not getting the credit of it rather cheaply? Do you think

"All is not over yet," she said. "We shall see what your conduct will be at the execution of the noblemen,

your friends, at which the Council has decided to make a great public display of severity."

"The king, the queenmother, and myself will be present at the execution, together with the whole court and

"Better than that," said the young queen, "an act of faith, an act of the highest policy. 'Tis a question of

forcing the noblemen of France to submit themselves to the Crown, and compelling them to give up their

"You will not break their belligerent tempers by the show of danger, madame; you will risk the Crown itself

At the end of the dinner, which was gloomy enough, Queen Mary had the cruel boldness to turn the

conversation openly upon the trial of the noblemen on the charge of being seized with arms in their hands,

"Madame," said Francois II., "is it not enough for the king of France to know that so much brave blood is to

"It was the custom of your father and your grandfather to be present at the burning of heretics," said Mary

"The kings who reigned before me did as they thought best, and I choose to do as I please," said the little

"Philip the Second," remarked Catherine, "who is certainly a great king, lately postponed an auto da fe until

"Sire, you cannot avoid it, and the papal nuncio and all the ambassadors should be present. I shall go

Thus the Prince de Conde, at a glance from Catherine de' Medici, bravely chose his course.

At the moment when the Prince de Conde was entering the chateau d'Amboise, Lecamus, the furrier of the

two queens, was also arriving from Paris, brought to Amboise by the anxiety into which the news of the

tumult had thrown both his family and that of Lallier. When the old man presented himself at the gate of the

chateau, the captain of the guard, on hearing that he was the queens' furrier, said:

"My good man, if you want to be hanged you have only to set foot in this courtyard."

Hearing these words, the father, in despair, sat down on a stone at a little distance and waited until some

retainer of the two queens or some servantwoman might pass who would give him news of his son. But he

sat there all day without seeing any one whom he knew, and was forced at last to go down into the town,

where he found, not without some difficulty, a lodging in a hostelry on the public square where the

executions took place. He was obliged to pay a pound a day to obtain a room with a window looking on the

square. The next day he had the courage to watch, from his window, the execution of all the abettors of the

rebellion who were condemned to be broken on the wheel or hanged, as persons of little importance. He was

When the execution was over he went into the square and put himself in the way of the clerk of the court.

After giving his name, and slipping a purse full of crowns into the man's hand, he begged him to look on the

records and see if the name of Christophe Lecamus appeared in either of the three preceding executions. The

clerk, touched by the manner and the tones of the despairing father, took him to his own house. After a

careful search he was able to give the old man an absolute assurance that Christophe was not among the

persons thus far executed, nor among those who were to be put to death within a few days.

"My dear man," said the clerk, "Parliament has taken charge of the trial of the great lords implicated in the

affair, and also that of the principal leaders. Perhaps your son is detained in the prisons of the chateau, and he

may be brought forth for the magnificent execution which their Excellencies the Duc de Guise and the

Cardinal de Lorraine are now preparing. The heads of twentyseven barons, eleven counts, and seven

marquises,in all, fifty noblemen or leaders of the Reformers,are to be cut off. As the justiciary of the

county of Tourine is quite distinct from that of the parliament of Paris, if you are determined to know about

your son, I advise you to go and see the Chancelier Olivier, who has the management of this great trial under

The poor old man, acting on this advice, went three times to see the chancellor, standing in a long queue of

persons waiting to ask mercy for their friends. But as the titled men were made to pass before the burghers,

he was obliged to give up the hope of speaking to the chancellor, though he saw him several times leave the

house to go either to the chateau or to the committee appointed by the Parliament, passing each time

between a double hedge of petitioners who were kept back by the guards to allow him free passage. It was a

horrible scene of anguish and desolation; for among these petitioners were many women, wives, mothers,

daughters, whole families in distress. Old Lecamus gave much gold to the footmen of the chateau, entreating

them to put certain letters which he wrote into the hand either of Dayelle, Queen Mary's woman, or into that

of the queenmother; but the footmen took the poor man's money and carried the letters, according to the

general order of the cardinal, to the provostmarshal. By displaying such unheardof cruelty the Guises knew

that they incurred great dangers from revenge, and never did they take such precautions for their safety as

they did while the court was at Amboise; consequently, neither the greatest of all corrupters, gold, nor the

incessant and active search which the old furrier instituted gave him the slightest gleam of light on the fate of

his son. He went about the little town with a mournful air, watching the great preparations made by order of

the cardinal for the dreadful show at which the Prince de Conde had agreed to be present.

Public curiosity was stimulated from Paris to Nantes by the means adopted on this occasion. The execution

was announced from all pulpits by the rectors of the churches, while at the same time they gave thanks for the

victory of the king over the heretics. Three handsome balconies, the middle one more sumptuous than the

other two, were built against the terrace of the chateau of Amboise, at the foot of which the executions were

appointed to take place. Around the open square, stagings were erected, and these were filled with an

immense crowd of people attracted by the widespread notoriety given to this "act of faith." Ten thousand

persons camped in the adjoining fields the night before the day on which the horrible spectacle was appointed

to take place. The roofs on the houses were crowded with spectators, and windows were let at ten pounds

apiece,an enormous sum in those days. The poor old father had engaged, as we may well believe, one of

the best places from which the eye could take in the whole of the terrible scene, where so many men of noble

blood were to perish on a vast scaffold covered with black cloth, erected in the middle of the open square.

Thither, on the morning of the fatal day, they brought the chouquet,a name given to the block on which the

condemned man laid his head as he knelt before it. After this they brought an arm chair draped with black,

for the clerk of the Parliament, whose business it was to call up the condemned noblemen to their death and

read their sentences. The whole square was guarded from early morning by the Scottish guard and the

gendarmes of the king's household, in order to keep back the crowd which threatened to fill it before the hour

After a solemn mass said at the chateau and in the churches of the town, the condemned lords, the last of the

conspirators who were left alive, were led out. These gentlemen, some of whom had been put to the torture,

were grouped at the foot of the scaffold and surrounded by monks, who endeavored to make them abjure the

doctrines of Calvin. But not a single man listened to the words of the priests who had been appointed for this

duty by the Cardinal of Lorraine; among whom the gentlemen no doubt feared to find spies of the Guises. In

order to avoid the importunity of these antagonists they chanted a psalm, put into French verse by Clement

Marot. Calvin, as we all know, had ordained that prayers to God should be in the language of each country, as

much from a principle of common sense as in opposition to the Roman worship. To those in the crowd who

pitied these unfortunate gentlemen it was a moving incident to hear them chant the following verse at the

The eyes of all the Reformers turned to their leader, the Prince de Conde, who was placed intentionally

between Queen Mary and the young Duc d'Orleans. Catherine de' Medici was beside the king, and the rest of

the court were on her left. The papal nuncio stood behind Queen Mary; the lieutenantgeneral of the

kingdom, the Duc de Guise, was on horseback below the balcony, with two of the marshals of France and his

staff captains. When the Prince de Conde appeared all the condemned noblemen who knew him bowed to

"It would be hard," he remarked to the Duc d'Orleans, "not to be civil to those about to die."

The two other balconies were filled by invited guests, courtiers, and persons on duty about the court. In short,

the whole company of the chateau de Blois had come to Amboise to assist at this festival of death, precisely

as it passed, a little later, from the pleasures of a court to the perils of war, with an easy facility, which will

always seem to foreigners one of the main supports of their policy toward France.

The poor syndic of the furriers of Paris was filled with the keenest joy at not seeing his son among the

At a sign from the Duc de Guise, the clerk seated on the scaffold cried in a loud voice:

"JeanLouisAlberic, Baron de Raunay, guilty of heresy, of the crime of lesemajeste, and assault with

A tall handsome man mounted the scaffold with a firm step, bowed to the people and the court, and said:

"That sentence lies. I took arms to deliver the king from his enemies, the Guises."

"RobertJeanRene Briquemart, Comte de Villemongis, guilty of the crime of lesemajeste, and of attempts

"You must admit, monseigneur," said the Prince de Conde to the papal nuncio, "that if these French

"What hatreds, brother!" whispered the Duchesse de Guise to the Cardinal de Lorraine, "you are drawing

"The sight makes me sick," said the young king, turning pale at the flow of blood.

The chants went on; the axe still fell. The sublime spectacle of men singing as they died, and, above all, the

impression produced upon the crowd by the progressive diminution of the chanting voices, superseded the

"Mercy!" cried the people with one voice, when they heard the solitary chant of the last and most important

of the great lords, who was saved to be the final victim. He alone remained at the foot of the steps by which

"Come, Duc de Nemours," said the Prince de Conde, weary of the part he was playing; "you who have the

credit of the skirmish, and who helped to make these men prisoners, do you not feel under an obligation to

ask mercy for this one? It is Castelnau, who, they say, received your word of honor that he should be

"Do you think I waited till he was here before trying to save him?" said the Duc de Nemours, stung by the

"MichelJeanLouis, Baron de CastelnauChalosse, accused and convicted of the crime of lesemajeste, and

"No," said Castelnau, proudly, "it cannot be a crime to oppose the tyranny and the projected usurpation of the

The executioner, sick of his task, saw a movement in the king's gallery, and fumbled with his axe.

"Monsieur le baron," he said, "I do not want to execute you; a moment's delay may save you."

"Come!" said the king, "mercy for that poor Castelnau, who saved the life of the Duc d'Orleans."

"Go on," he motioned to the executioner, and the head of Castelnau fell at the very moment when the king

The affair produced a great sensation in France and at all the foreign courts. The torrents of noble blood then

shed caused such anguish to the chancellor Olivier that his honorable mind, perceiving at last the real end and

aim of the Guises disguised under a pretext of defending religion and the monarchy, felt itself no longer able

to make head against them. Though he was their creature, he was not willing to sacrifice his duty and the

Throne to their ambition; and he withdrew from his post, suggesting l'Hopital as his rightful successor.

Catherine, hearing of Olivier's suggestion, immediately proposed Birago, and put much warmth into her

request. The cardinal, knowing nothing of the letter written by l'Hopital to the queenmother, and supposing

him faithful to the house of Lorraine, pressed his appointment in opposition to that of Birago, and Catherine

allowed herself to seem vanquished. From the moment that l'Hopital entered upon his duties he took

measures against the Inquisition, which the Cardinal de Lorraine was desirous of introducing into France; and

he thwarted so successfully all the antigallican policy of the Guises, and proved himself so true a

Frenchmen, that in order to subdue him he was exiled, within three months of his appointment, to his

The worthy old Lecamus waited impatiently till the court left Amboise, being unable to find an opportunity to

speak to either of the queens, and hoping to put himself in their way as the court advanced along the

riverbank on its return to Blois. He disguised himself as a pauper, at the risk of being taken for a spy, and by

means of this travesty, he mingled with the crowd of beggars which lined the roadway. After the departure of

the Prince de Conde, and the execution of the leaders, the duke and cardinal thought they had sufficiently

silenced the Reformers to allow the queenmother a little more freedom. Lecamus knew that, instead of

travelling in a litter, Catherine intended to go on horseback, a la planchette,such was the name given to a

sort of stirrup invented for or by the queenmother, who, having hurt her leg on some occasion, ordered a

velvetcovered saddle with a plank on which she could place both feet by sitting sideways on the horse and

passing one leg through a depression in the saddle. As the queen mother had very handsome legs, she was

accused of inventing this method of riding, in order to show them. The old furrier fortunately found a

moment when he could present himself to her sight; but the instant that the queen recognized him she gave

"Go away, my good man, and let no one see you speak to me," she said with anxiety. "Get yourself elected

deputy to the Statesgeneral, by the guild of your trade, and act for me when the Assembly convenes at

Lecamus was obliged to return to Paris with nothing better than those doubtful words and the secret of the

approaching convocation of the Statesgeneral, thus confided to him by the queenmother.

The Cardinal de Lorraine obtained, within a few days of the events just related, certain revelations as to the

culpability of the court of Navarre. At Lyon, and at Mouvans in Dauphine, a body of Reformers, under

command of the most enterprising prince of the house of Bourbon had endeavored to incite the populace to

rise. Such audacity, after the bloody executions at Amboise, astonished the Guises, who (no doubt to put an

end to heresy by means known only to themselves) proposed the convocation of the Statesgeneral at

Orleans. Catherine de' Medici, seeing a chance of support to her policy in a national representation, joyfully

agreed to it. The cardinal, bent on recovering his prey and degrading the house of Bourbon, convoked the

States for the sole purpose of bringing the Prince de Conde and the king of Navarre (Antoine de Bourbon,

father of Henri IV.) to Orleans, intending to make use of Christophe to convict the prince of high treason if

After two months had passed in the prison at Blois, Christophe was removed on a litter to a towboat, which

sailed up the Loire to Orleans, helped by a westerly wind. He arrived there in the evening and was taken at

once to the celebrated tower of SaintAignan. The poor lad, who did not know what to think of his removal,

had plenty of time to reflect on his conduct and on his future. He remained there two months, lying on his

pallet, unable to move his legs. The bones of his joints were broken. When he asked for the help of a surgeon

of the town, the jailer replied that the orders were so strict about him that he dared not allow any one but

himself even to bring him food. This severity, which placed him virtually in solitary confinement, amazed

Christophe. To his mind, he ought either to be hanged or released; for he was, of course, entirely ignorant of

In spite of certain secret advice sent to them by Catherine de' Medici, the two chiefs of the house of Bourbon

resolved to be present at the Statesgeneral, so completely did the autograph letters they received from the

king reassure them; and no sooner had the court established itself at Orleans than it learned, not without

amazement, from Groslot, chancellor of Navarre, that the Bourbon princes had arrived.

Francois II. established himself in the house of the chancellor of Navarre, who was also bailli, in other words,

chief justice of the law courts, at Orleans. This Groslot, whose dual position was one of the singularities of

this periodwhen Reformers themselves owned abbeysGroslot, the Jacques Coeur of Orleans, one of the

richest burghers of the day, did not bequeath his name to the house, for in after years it was called Le

Bailliage, having been, undoubtedly, purchased either by the heirs of the Crown or by the provinces as the

proper place in which to hold the legal courts. This charming structure, built by the bourgeoisie of the

sixteenth century, which completes so admirably the history of a period in which king, nobles, and burghers

rivalled each other in the grace, elegance, and richness of their dwellings (witness Varangeville, the splendid

manorhouse of Ango, and the mansion, called that of Hercules, in Paris), exists to this day, though in a state

to fill archaeologists and lovers of the Middle Ages with despair. It would be difficult, however, to go to

Orleans and not take notice of the HoteldeVille which stands on the place de l'Estape. This hoteldeville,

or townhall, is the former Bailliage, the mansion of Groslot, the most illustrious house in Orleans, and the

The remains of this old building will still show, to the eyes of an archaeologist, how magnificent it was at a

period when the houses of the burghers were commonly built of wood rather than stone, a period when

noblemen alone had the right to build manors,a significant word. Having served as the dwelling of the king

at a period when the court displayed much pomp and luxury, the hotel Groslot must have been the most

splendid house in Orleans. It was here, on the place de l'Estape, that the Guises and the king reviewed the

burgher guard, of which Monsieur de Cypierre was made the commander during the sojourn of the king. At

this period the cathedral of SainteCroix, afterward completed by Henri IV.,who chose to give that proof

of the sincerity of his conversion,was in process of erection, and its neighborhood, heaped with stones and

cumbered with piles of wood, was occupied by the Guises and their retainers, who were quartered in the

The town was under military discipline, and the measures taken by the Guises proved how little liberty they

intended to leave to the States general, the members of which flocked into the town, raising the rents of the

poorest lodgings. The court, the burgher militia, the nobility, and the burghers themselves were all in a state

of expectation, awaiting some coupd'Etat; and they found themselves not mistaken when the princes of the

blood arrived. As the Bourbon princes entered the king's chamber, the court saw with terror the insolent

bearing of Cardinal de Lorraine. Determined to show his intentions openly, he remained covered, while the

king of Navarre stood before him bare headed. Catherine de' Medici lowered her eyes, not to show the

indignation that she felt. Then followed a solemn explanation between the young king and the two chiefs of

the younger branch. It was short, for that the first words of the Prince de Conde Francois II. interrupted him,

"Messieurs, my cousins, I had supposed the affair of Amboise over; I find it is not so, and you are compelling

"It is not the king so much as the Messieurs de Guise who now address us," replied the Prince de Conde.

"Adieu, monsieur," cried the little king, crimson with anger. When he left the king's presence the prince

found his way barred in the great hall by two officers of the Scottish guard. As the captain of the French

guard advanced, the prince drew a letter from his doublet, and said to him in presence of the whole court:

"No, no!" exclaimed the prince, "it is signed: 'Your good cousin and friend, Francois,'Messieurs," he said

to the Scotch guard, "I follow you to the prison to which you are ordered, on behalf of the king, to conduct

The profound silence which followed these words ought to have enlightened the Guises, but silence is that to

"Monseigneur," said the Cardinal de Tournon, who was following the prince, "you know well that since the

affair at Amboise you have made certain attempts both at Lyon and at Mouvans in Dauphine against the royal

authority, of which the king had no knowledge when he wrote to you in those terms."

"You mean to say in Bearn. But you owe homage to the Crown," replied President de Thou.

"Ha! you here, president?" cried the prince, sarcastically. "Is the whole Parliament with you?"

So saying, he cast a look of contempt upon the cardinal and left the hall. He saw plainly enough that they

meant to have his head. The next day, when Messieurs de Thou, de Viole, d'Espesse, the procureur general

Bourdin, and the chief clerk of the court du Tillet, entered his presence, he kept them standing, and expressed

his regrets to see them charged with a duty which did not belong to them. Then he said to the clerk, "Write

"You ought to know that, gentlemen, better than others," he added; "and this reply is all that you will get

The magistrates continued to address him notwithstanding his obstinate silence. The king of Navarre was left

at liberty, but closely watched; his prison was larger than that of the prince, and this was the only real

difference in the position of the two brothers,the intention being that their heads should fall together.

Christophe was therefore kept in the strictest solitary confinement by order of the cardinal and the

lieutenantgeneral of the kingdom, for no other purpose than to give the judges proof of the culpability of the

Prince de Conde. The letters seized on Lasagne, the prince's secretary, though intelligible to statesmen, where

not sufficiently plain proof for judges. The cardinal intended to confront the prince and Christophe by

accident; and it was not without intention that the young Reformer was placed in one of the lower rooms in

the tower of SaintAignan, with a window looking on the prison yard. Each time that Christophe was brought

before the magistrates, and subjected to a close examination, he sheltered himself behind a total and complete

Old Lecamus, who by that time had got himself elected deputy of the tiersetat by the burghers of Paris,

arrived at Orleans a few days after the arrest of the Prince de Conde. This news, which reached him at

Etampes, redoubled his anxiety; for he fully understoodhe, who alone knew of Christophe's interview with

the prince under the bridge near his own housethat his son's fate was closely bound up with that of the

leader of the Reformed party. He therefore determined to study the dark tangle of interests which were

struggling together at court in order to discover some means of rescuing his son. It was useless to think of

Queen Catherine, who refused to see her furrier. No one about the court whom he was able to address could

give him any satisfactory information about Christophe; and he fell at last into a state of such utter despair

that he was on the verge of appealing to the cardinal himself, when he learned that Monsieur de Thou (and

this was the great stain upon that good man's life) had consented to be one of the judges of the Prince de

Conde. The old furrier went at once to see him, and learned at last that Christophe was still living, though a

Tourillon, the glover (to whom La Renaudie sent Christophe on his way to Blois), had offered a room in his

house to the Sieur Lecamus for the whole time of his stay in Orleans during the sittings of the Statesgeneral.

The glover believed the furrier to be, like himself, secretly attached to the Reformed religion; but he soon saw

that a father who fears for the life of his child pays no heed to shades of religious opinion, but flings himself

prone upon the bosom of God without caring what insignia men give to Him. The poor old man, repulsed in

all his efforts, wandered like one bewildered through the streets. Contrary to his expectations, his money

availed him nothing; Monsieur de Thou had warned him that if he bribed any servant of the house of Guise

he would merely lose his money, for the duke and cardinal allowed nothing that related to Christophe to

transpire. De Thou, whose fame is somewhat tarnished by the part he played at this crisis, endeavored to give

some hope to the poor father; but he trembled so much himself for the fate of his godson that his attempts at

consolation only alarmed the old man still more. Lecamus roamed the streets; in three months he had shrunk

visibly. His only hope now lay in the warm friendship which for so many years had bound him to the

Hippocrates of the sixteenth century. Ambroise Pare tried to say a word to Queen Mary on leaving the

chamber of the king, who was then indisposed; but no sooner had he named Christophe than the daughter of

the Stuarts, nervous at the prospect of her fate should any evil happen to the king, and believing that the

"If my uncles had only listened to me, that fanatic would have been hanged already."

The evening on which this fatal answer was repeated to old Lecamus, by his friend Pare on the place de

l'Estape, he returned home half dead to his own chamber, refusing to eat any supper. Tourillon, uneasy about

him, went up to his room and found him in tears; the aged eyes showed the inflamed red lining of their lids,

"Comfort yourself, father," said the Reformer; "the burghers of Orleans are furious to see their city treated as

though it were taken by assault, and guarded by the soldiers of Monsieur de Cypierre. If the life of the Prince

de Conde is in any real danger we will soon demolish the tower of SaintAignan; the whole town is on the

"But, even if they hang the Guises, it will not give me back my son," said the wretched father.

At that instant some one rapped cautiously on Tourillon's outer door, and the glover went downstairs to open

it himself. The night was dark. In these troublous times the masters of all households took minute

precautions. Tourillon looked through the peepholes cut in the door, and saw a stranger, whose accent

indicated an Italian. The man, who was dressed in black, asked to speak with Lecamus on matters of

business, and Tourillon admitted him. When the furrier caught sight of his visitor he shuddered violently; but

the stranger managed, unseen by Tourillon, to lay his fingers on his lips. Lecamus, understanding the gesture,

This personage was no other than the famous Ruggiero, astrologer to the queenmother. Tourillon went

below to his own apartment, feeling convinced that he was one too many in that of his guest.

"Where can we talk without danger of being overheard?" said the cautious Florentine.

"We ought to be in the open fields for that," replied Lecamus. "But we are not allowed to leave the town; you

know the severity with which the gates are guarded. No one can leave Orleans without a pass from Monsieur

de Cypierre," he added,"not even I, who am a member of the Statesgeneral. Complaint is to be made at

"Work like a mole, but don't let your paws be seen in anything, no matter what," said the wary Italian.

"Tomorrow will, no doubt, prove a decisive day. Judging by my observations, you may, perhaps, recover

"Come to my place," said the astrologer, smiling. "I live in the tower of Sieur Touchet de Beauvais, the

lieutenant of the Bailliage, whose daughter the little Duc d'Orleans has taken such a fancy to; it is there that I

observe the planets. I have drawn the girl's horoscope, and it says that she will become a great lady and be

beloved by a king. The lieutenant, her father, is a clever man; he loves science, and the queen sent me to

lodge with him. He has had the sense to be a rabid Guisist while awaiting the reign of Charles IX."

The furrier and the astrologer reached the house of the Sieur de Beauvais without being met or even seen;

but, in case Lecamus' visit should be discovered, the Florentine intended to give a pretext of an astrological

consultation on his son's fate. When they were safely at the top of the tower, where the astrologer did his

"Yes, he still lives," replied Ruggiero; "and the question now is how to save him. Remember this, seller of

skins, I would not give two farthings for yours if ever in all your life a single syllable should escape you of

"That is a useless caution, my friend; I have been furrier to the court since the time of the late Louis XII.; this

"His knees and ankles were a bit injured, but he has won a royal protection which will extend over his whole

life," said the Florentine hastily, seeing the terror of the poor father. "Your little Christophe has done a

service to our great queen, Catherine. If we manage to pull him out of the claws of the Guises you will see

him some day councillor to the Parliament. Any man would gladly have his bones cracked three times over to

stand so high in the good graces of this dear sovereign,a grand and noble genius, who will triumph in the

end over all obstacles. I have drawn the horoscope of the Duc de Guise; he will be killed within a year. Well,

"My good man, I am not questioning you, I am telling you a fact. Now, if your son, who will tomorrow be

placed in the prince's way as he passes, should recognize him, or if the prince should recognize your son, the

head of Monsieur de Conde will fall. God knows what will become of his accomplice! However, don't be

alarmed. Neither your son nor the prince will die; I have drawn their horoscope,they will live; but I do not

know in what way they will get out of this affair. Without distrusting the certainty of my calculations, we

must do something to bring about results. Tomorrow the prince will receive, from sure hands, a

prayerbook in which we convey the information to him. God grant that your son be cautious, for him we

cannot warn. A single glance of recognition will cost the prince's life. Therefore, although the queenmother

"Don't speak so! Do you think the queenmother is on a bed of roses? She is taking measures as if the Guises

had already decided on the death of the prince, and right she is, the wise and prudent queen! Now listen to

me; she counts on you to help her in all things. You have some influence with the tiersetat, where you

represent the body of the guilds of Paris, and though the Guisards may promise you to set your son at liberty,

try to fool them and maintain the independence of the guilds. Demand the queenmother as regent; the king

of Navarre will publicly accept the proposal at the session of the States general."

"The king will die," replied Ruggiero; "I have read his horoscope. What the queenmother requires you to do

for her at the Statesgeneral is a very simple thing; but there is a far greater service which she asks of you.

"Ambroise now loves the Duc de Guise more than he loves me; and he is right, for he owes his place to him.

Besides, he is faithful to the king. Though he inclines to the Reformed religion, he will never do anything

"Curse these honest men!" cried the Florentine. "Ambroise boasted this evening that he could bring the little

king safely through his present illness (for he is really ill). If the king recovers his health, the Guises triumph,

the princes die, the house of Bourbon becomes extinct, we shall return to Florence, your son will be hanged,

"Don't cry out in that way,it is like a burgher who knows nothing of the court,but go at once to

Ambroise and find out from him what he intends to do to save the king's life. If there is anything decided on,

"He is right," thought the furrier. "I had better not know more"; and he went at once in search of the king's

Catherine de' Medici was at this moment in a political extremity very much like that in which poor

Christophe had seen her at Blois. Though she had been in a way trained by the struggle, though she had

exercised her lofty intellect by the lessons of that first defeat, her present situation, while nearly the same, had

become more critical, more perilous than it was at Amboise. Events, like the woman herself, had magnified.

Though she seemed to be in full accordance with the Guises, Catherine held in her hand the threads of a

wisely planned conspiracy against her terrible associates, and was only awaiting a propitious moment to

throw off the mask. The cardinal had just obtained the positive certainty that Catherine was deceiving him.

Her subtle Italian spirit felt that the Younger branch was the best hindrance she could offer to the ambition of

the duke and the cardinal; and (in spite of the advice of the two Gondis, who urged her to let the Guises

wreak their vengeance on the Bourbons) she defeated the scheme concocted by them with Spain to seize the

province of Bearn, by warning Jeanne d'Albret, queen of Navarre, of that threatened danger. As this state

secret was known only to them and to the queenmother, the Guises knew of course who had betrayed it, and

resolved to send her back to Florence. But in order to make themselves perfectly sure of what they called her

treason against the State (the State being the house of Lorraine), the duke and cardinal confided to her their

intention of getting rid of the king of Navarre. The precautions instantly taken by Antoine proved

conclusively to the two brothers that the secrets known only to them and the queenmother had been

divulged by the latter. The cardinal instantly taxed her with treachery, in presence of Francois

II.,threatening her with an edict of banishment in case of future indiscretion, which might, as they said, put

Catherine, who then felt herself in the utmost peril, acted in the spirit of a great king, giving proof of her high

capacity. It must be added, however, that she was ably seconded by her friends. L'Hopital managed to send

Catherine sent Birago to Vignay to tell the chancellor (l'Hopital) to come to Orleans at once, in spite of his

being in disgrace. Birago returned the very night of which we are writing, and was now a few miles from

Orleans with l'Hopital, who heartily avowed himself for the queenmother. Chiverni, whose fidelity was very

justly suspected by the Guises, had escaped from Orleans and reached Ecouen in ten hours, by a forced march

which almost cost him his life. There he told the Connetable de Montmorency of the peril of his nephew, the

Prince de Conde, and the audacious hopes of the Guises. The Connetable, furious at the thought that the

prince's life hung upon that of Francois II., started for Orleans at once with a hundred noblemen and fifteen

hundred cavalry. In order to take the Messieurs de Guise by surprise he avoided Paris, and came direct from

"Soldier against soldier, we must leave no chances," he said on the occasion of this bold march.

Anne de Montmorency, who had saved France at the time of the invasion of Provence by Charles V., and the

Duc de Guise, who had stopped the second invasion by the emperor at Metz, were, in truth, the two great

warriors of France at this period. Catherine had awaited this precise moment to rouse the inextinguishable

hatred of the Connetable, whose disgrace and banishment were the work of the Guises. The Marquis de

Simeuse, however, who commanded at Gien, being made aware of the large force approaching under

command of the Connetable, jumped on his horse hoping to reach Orleans in time to warn the duke and

Sure that the Connetable would come to the rescue of his nephew, and full of confidence in the Chancelier

l'Hopital's devotion to the royal cause, the queenmother revived the hopes and the boldness of the Reformed

party. The Colignys and the friends of the house of Bourbon, aware of their danger, now made common cause

with the adherents of the queenmother. A coalition between these opposing interests, attacked by a common

enemy, formed itself silently in the Statesgeneral, where it soon became a question of appointing Catherine

as regent in case the king should die. Catherine, whose faith in astrology was much greater than her faith in

the Church, now dared all against her oppressors, seeing that her son was ill and apparently dying at the

expiration of the time assigned to his life by the famous sorceress, whom Nostradamus had brought to her at

Some days before the terrible end of the reign of Francois II., the king insisted on sailing down the Loire,

wishing not to be in the town of Orleans on the day when the Prince de Conde was executed. Having yielded

the head of the prince to the Cardinal de Lorraine, he was equally in dread of a rebellion among the

townspeople and of the prayers and supplications of the Princesse de Conde. At the moment of embarkation,

one of the cold winds which sweep along the Loire at the beginning of winter gave him so sharp an earache

that he was obliged to return to his apartments; there he took to his bed, not leaving it again until he died. In

contradiction of the doctors, who, with the exception of Chapelain, were his enemies, Ambroise Pare insisted

that an abscess was formed in the king's head, and that unless an issue were given to it, the danger of death

would increase daily. Notwithstanding the lateness of the hour, and the curfew law, which was sternly

enforced in Orleans, at this time practically in a state of siege, Pare's lamp shone from his window, and he

was deep in study, when Lecamus called to him from below. Recognizing the voice of his old friend, Pare

"You take no rest, Ambroise; while saving the lives of others you are wasting your own," said the furrier as

he entered, looking at the surgeon, who sat, with opened books and scattered instruments, before the head of

"As sure as I am of my own existence. The king, my old friend, has a morbid ulcer pressing on his brain,

which will presently suffice it if no vent is given to it, and the danger is imminent. But by boring the skull I

expect to release the pus and clear the head. I have already performed this operation three times. It was

invented by a Piedmontese; but I have had the honor to perfect it. The first operation I performed was at the

siege of Metz, on Monsieur de Pienne, whom I cured, who was afterwards all the more intelligent in

consequence. His was an abscess caused by the blow of an arquebuse. The second was on the head of a

pauper, on whom I wanted to prove the value of the audacious operation Monsieur de Pienne had allowed me

to perform. The third I did in Paris on a gentleman who is now entirely recovered. Trepanningthat is the

name given to the operationis very little known. Patients refuse it, partly because of the imperfection of the

instruments; but I have at last improved them. I am practising now on this skull, that I may be sure of not

"You ought indeed to be very sure you are right, for your own head would be in danger in case"

"I'd wager my life I can cure him," replied Ambroise, with the conviction of a man of genius. "Ah! my old

friend, where's the danger of boring into a skull with proper precautions? That is what soldiers do in battle

"My son," said the burgher, boldly, "do you know that to save the king is to ruin France? Do you know that

this instrument of yours will place the crown of the Valois on the head of the Lorrain who calls himself the

heir of Charlemagne? Do you know that surgery and policy are at this moment sternly opposed to each other?

Yes, the triumph of your genius will be the death of your religion. If the Guises gain the regency, the blood of

the Reformers will flow like water. Be a greater citizen than you are a surgeon; oversleep yourself tomorrow

morning and leave a free field to the other doctors who if they cannot cure the king will cure France."

"I!" exclaimed Pare. "I leave a man to die when I can cure him? No, no! were I to hang as an abettor of

Calvin I shall go early to court. Do you not feel that the first and only reward I shall ask will be the life of

"Alas! my friend," returned Lecamus, "the little king has refused the pardon of the Prince de Conde to the

princess. Do not kill your religion by saving the life of a man who ought to die."

"Do not you meddle with God's ordering of the future!" cried Pare. "Honest men can have but one motto: Fais

ce que dois, advienne que pourra!do thy duty, come what will. That is what I did at the siege of Calais

when I put my foot on the face of the Duc de Guise,I ran the risk of being strangled by his friends and his

servants; but today I am surgeon to the king; moreover I am of the Reformed religion; and yet the Guises

are my friends. I shall save the king," cried the surgeon, with the sacred enthusiasm of a conviction bestowed

A knock was heard on the street door and presently one of Pare's servants gave a paper to Lecamus, who read

Ambroise and Lecamus looked at each other with an expression of the deepest horror.

No sooner was he in the open street than Ruggiero took his arm and asked by what means Ambroise Pare

proposed to save the king. Fearing some trickery, the old man, instead of answering, replied that he wished to

go and see the scaffold. The astrologer accompanied him to the place des Recollets, and there, truly enough,

"Hey, my friend," said Lecamus to one of the men, "what are you doing here at this time of night?"

"We are preparing for the hanging of heretics, as the bloodletting at Amboise didn't cure them," said a

"Monseigneur the cardinal is very right," said Ruggiero, prudently; "but in my country we do better."

Lecamus was forced to lean on the astrologer's arm, for his legs gave way beneath him; he thought it probable

that on the morrow his son would hang from one of those gibbets. The poor old man was thrust between two

sciences, astrology and surgery, both of which promised him the life of his son, for whom in all probability

that scaffold was now erecting. In the trouble and distress of his mind, the Florentine was able to knead him

"Well, my worthy dealer in minever, what do you say now to the Lorraine jokes?" whispered Ruggiero.

"That is talking like your trade," said the Italian; "but explain to me the operation which Ambroise means to

Thereupon the poor old man repeated his conversation with Ambroise Pare to the astrologer, who, the

moment that the secret of the great surgeon was divulged to him, left the poor father abruptly in the street in

"What the devil does he mean, that miscreant?" cried Lecamus, as he watched Ruggiero hurrying with rapid

Lecamus was ignorant of the terrible scene that was taking place around the royal bed, where the imminent

danger of the king's death and the consequent loss of power to the Guises had caused the hasty erection of the

scaffold for the Prince de Conde, whose sentence had been pronounced, as it were by default,the execution

Absolutely no one but the persons on duty were in the halls, staircases, and courtyard of the royal residence,

Le Bailliage. The crowd of courtiers were flocking to the house of the king of Navarre, on whom the regency

would devolve on the death of the king, according to the laws of the kingdom. The French nobility, alarmed

by the audacity of the Guises, felt the need of rallying around the chief of the younger branch, when, ignorant

of the queenmother's Italian policy, they saw her the apparent slave of the duke and cardinal. Antoine de

Bourbon, faithful to his secret agreement with Catherine, was bound not to renounce the regency in her favor

The solitude in which the king's house was left had a powerful effect on the mind of the Duc de Guise when,

on his return from an inspection, made by way of precaution through the city, he found no one there but the

friends who were attached exclusively to his own fortunes. The chamber in which was the king's bed adjoined

the great hall of the Bailliage. It was at that period panelled in oak. The ceiling, composed of long, narrow

boards carefully joined and painted, was covered with blue arabesques on a gold ground, a part of which

being torn down about fifty years ago was instantly purchased by a lover of antiquities. This room, hung with

tapestry, the floor being covered with a carpet, was so dark and gloomy that the torches threw scarcely any

light. The vast fourpost bedstead with its silken curtains was like a tomb. Beside her husband, close to his

pillow, sat Mary Stuart, and near her the Cardinal de Lorraine. Catherine was seated in a chair at a little

distance. The famous Jean Chapelain, the physician on duty (who was afterwards chief physician to Charles

IX.) was standing before the fireplace. The deepest silence reigned. The young king, pale and shrunken, lay

as if buried in his sheets, his pinched little face scarcely showing on the pillow. The Duchesse de Guise,

sitting on a stool, attended Queen Mary, while on the other side, near Catherine, in the recess of a window,

Madame de Fiesque stood watching the gestures and looks of the queenmother; for she knew the dangers of

In the hall, notwithstanding the lateness of the hour, Monsieur de Cypierre, governor of the Duc d'Orleans

and now appointed governor of the town, occupied one corner of the fireplace with the two Gondis. Cardinal

de Tournon, who in this crisis espoused the interests of the queenmother on finding himself treated as an

inferior by the Cardinal de Lorraine, of whom he was certainly the ecclesiastical equal, talked in a low voice

to the Gondis. The marshals de Vieilleville and Saint Andre and the keeper of the seals, who presided at the

Statesgeneral, were talking together in a whisper of the dangers to which the Guises were exposed.

The lieutenantgeneral of the kingdom crossed the room on his entrance, casting a rapid glance about him,

"Monseigneur," he said, "this will teach you to know men. The Catholic nobility of the kingdom have gone to

pay court to a heretic prince, believing that the Statesgeneral will give the regency to the heirs of a traitor

Then having said these words, which were destined to plough a furrow in the heart of the young prince, he

passed into the bedroom, where the king was not so much asleep as plunged in a heavy torpor. The Duc de

Guise was usually able to correct the sinister aspect of his scarred face by an affable and pleasing manner, but

on this occasion, when he saw the instrument of his power breaking in his very hands, he was unable to force

a smile. The cardinal, whose civil courage was equal to his brother's military daring, advanced a few steps to

"Robertet thinks that little Pinard is sold to the queenmother," he whispered, leading the duke into the hall;

"Well, what does it signify if we are betrayed by a secretary when all else betrays us?" cried the

lieutenantgeneral. "The town is for the Reformation, and we are on the eve of a revolt. Yes! the Wasps are

discontented"; he continued, giving the Orleans people their nickname; "and if Pare does not save the king we

shall have a terrible uprising. Before long we shall be forced to besiege Orleans, which is nothing but a bog

"I have been watching that Italian woman," said the cardinal, "as she sits there with absolute insensibility.

She is watching and waiting, God forgive her! for the death of her son; and I ask myself whether we should

"It is already more than we want upon our hands to have the Prince de Conde in prison," replied the duke.

The sound of a horseman riding in haste to the gate of the Bailliage echoed through the hall. The duke and

cardinal went to the window, and by the light of the torches which were in the portico the duke recognized on

the rider's hat the famous Lorraine cross, which the cardinal had lately ordered his partisans to wear. He sent

an officer of the guard, who was stationed in the antechamber, to give entrance to the newcomer; and went

"What is it, my dear Simeuse?" asked the duke, with that charm of manner which he always displayed to

"The Connetable has reached Pithiviers; he left Ecouen with two thousand cavalry and one hundred nobles."

"Yes, monseigneur," replied Simeuse; "in all, two thousand six hundred men. Some say that Thore is behind

them with a body of infantry. If the Connetable delays awhile, expecting his son, you still have time to

"Montmorency talks as little as he writes; go you and meet him, brother, while I prepare to welcome him with

the head of his nephew," said the cardinal, giving orders that Robertet be sent to him at once.

"Vieilleville!" cried the duke to the marechal, who came immediately. "The Connetable has the audacity to

come here under arms; if I go to meet him will you be responsible to hold the town?"

"As soon as you leave it the burghers will fly to arms; and who can answer for the result of an affair between

"Monseigneur," said Robertet, rushing hastily up the stairs, "the Chancelier de l'Hopital is at the gate and asks

"Yes, open the gate," answered the cardinal. "Connetable and chancelier together would be dangerous; we

must separate them. We have been boldly tricked by the queenmother into choosing l'Hopital as chancellor."

Robertet nodded to a captain of the guard, who awaited an answer at the foot of the staircase; then he turned

"Monseigneur, I take the liberty," he said, making one last effort, "to point out that the sentence should be

approved by the king in council. If you violate the law on a prince of the blood, it will not be respected for

"Pinard has upset your mind, Robertet," said the cardinal, sternly. "Do you not know that the king signed the

order of execution the day he was about to leave Orleans, in order that the sentence might be carried out in

The lieutenantgeneral listened to this discussion without a word, but he took his brother by the arm and led

"Undoubtedly," he said, "the heirs of Charlemagne have the right to recover the crown which was usurped

from their house by Hugh Capet; but can they do it? The pear is not yet ripe. Our nephew is dying, and the

"The king's heart failed him, or the Bearnais would have been stabbed before now," said the cardinal; "and

"We are very illplaced here," said the duke; "the rebellion of the town will be supported by the

Statesgeneral. L'Hopital, whom we protected while the queenmother opposed his appointment, is today

against us, and yet it is allimportant that we should have the justiciary with us. Catherine has too many

supporters at the present time; we cannot send her back to Italy. Besides, there are still three Valois

"She is no longer a mother, she is all queen," said the cardinal. "In my opinion, this is the moment to make an

So saying, the cardinal returned to the king's chamber, followed by the duke. The priest went straight to the

"The papers of Lasagne, the secretary of the Prince de Conde, have been communicated to you, and you now

At this instant Francois II. groaned piteously, complaining aloud of the terrible pains in his ear. The physician

left the fireplace where he was warming himself, and went to the bedside to examine the king's head.

"I dare not take upon myself to apply a blister to draw the abscess. Maitre Ambroise has promised to save the

"Let us postpone the treatment till tomorrow morning," said Catherine, coldly, "and order all the physicians

to be present; for we all know the calumnies to which the death of kings gives rise."

She went to her son and kissed his hand; then she withdrew to her own apartments.

"With what composure that audacious daughter of a shopkeeper alluded to the death of the dauphin,

"Can we prevent that woman from coming here tomorrow?" said the queen to her uncles in a low voice.

"What will become of us if the king dies?" returned the cardinal, in a whisper. "Catherine will shovel us all

Thus the question was plainly put between Catherine de' Medici and the house of Lorraine during that fatal

night. The arrival of the Connetable de Montmorency and the Chancelier de l'Hopital were distinct

indications of rebellion; the morning of the next day would therefore be decisive.

On the morrow the queenmother was the first to enter the king's chamber. She found no one there but Mary

Stuart, pale and weary, who had passed the night in prayer beside the bed. The Duchesse de Guise had kept

her mistress company, and the maids of honor had taken turns in relieving one another. The young king slept.

Neither the duke nor the cardinal had yet appeared. The priest, who was bolder than the soldier, had, it was

afterward said, put forth his utmost energy during the night to induce his brother to make himself king. But,

in face of the assembled Statesgeneral, and threatened by a battle with Montmorency, the Balafre declared

the circumstances unfavorable; he refused, against his brother's utmost urgency, to arrest the king of Navarre,

the queenmother, l'Hopital, the Cardinal de Tournon, the Gondis, Ruggiero, and Birago, objecting that such

violent measures would bring on a general rebellion. He postponed the cardinal's scheme until the fate of

The deepest silence reigned in the king's chamber. Catherine, accompanied by Madame de Fiesque, went to

the bedside and gazed at her son with a semblance of grief that was admirably simulated. She put her

handkerchief to her eyes and walked to the window where Madame de Fiesque brought her a seat. Thence she

It had been agreed between Catherine and the Cardinal de Tournon that if the Connetable should successfully

enter the town the cardinal would come to the king's house with the two Gondis; if otherwise, he would come

alone. At nine in the morning the duke and cardinal, followed by their gentlemen, who remained in the hall,

entered the king's bedroom,the captain on duty having informed them that Ambroise Pare had arrived,

together with Chapelain and three other physicians, who hated Pare and were all in the queenmother's

A few moments later and the great hall of the Bailliage presented much the same aspect as that of the Salle

des gardes at Blois on the day when Christophe was put to the torture and the Duc de Guise was proclaimed

lieutenantgovernor of the kingdom,with the single exception that whereas love and joy overflowed the

royal chamber and the Guises triumphed, death and mourning now reigned within that darkened room, and

the Guises felt that power was slipping through their fingers. The maids of honor of the two queens were

again in their separate camps on either side of the fireplace, in which glowed a monstrous fire. The hall was

filled with courtiers. The newsspread about, no one knew howof some daring operation contemplated

by Ambroise Pare to save the king's life, had brought back the lords and gentlemen who had deserted the

house the day before. The outer staircase and courtyard were filled by an anxious crowd. The scaffold erected

during the night for the Prince de Conde opposite to the convent of the Recollets, had amazed and startled the

whole nobility. All present spoke in a low voice and the talk was the same mixture as at Blois, of frivolous

and serious, light and earnest matters. The habit of expecting troubles, sudden revolutions, calls to arms,

rebellions, and great events, which marked the long period during which the house of Valois was slowly

being extinguished in spite of Catherine de' Medici's great efforts to preserve it, took its rise at this time.

A deep silence prevailed for a certain distance beyond the door of the king's chamber, which was guarded by

two halberdiers, two pages, and by the captain of the Scotch guard. Antoine de Bourbon, king of Navarre,

held a prisoner in his own house, learned by his present desertion the hopes of the courtiers who had flocked

to him the day before, and was horrified by the news of the preparations made during the night for the

Standing before the fireplace in the great hall of the Bailliage was one of the greatest and noblest figures of

that day,the Chancelier de l'Hopital, wearing his crimson robe lined and edged with ermine, and his cap on

his head according to the privilege of his office. This courageous man, seeing that his benefactors were

traitorous and self seeking, held firmly to the cause of the kings, represented by the queenmother; at the

risk of losing his head, he had gone to Rouen to consult with the Connetable de Montmorency. No one

ventured to draw him from the reverie in which he was plunged. Robertet, the secretary of State, two

marshals of France, Vieilleville, and SaintAndre, and the keeper of the seals, were collected in a group

before the chancellor. The courtiers present were not precisely jesting; but their talk was malicious, especially

Presently voices were heard to rise in the king's chamber. The two marshals, Robertet, and the chancellor

went nearer to the door; for not only was the life of the king in question, but, as the whole court knew well,

the chancellor, the queenmother, and her adherents were in the utmost danger. A deep silence fell on the

Ambroise Pare had by this time examined the king's head; he thought the moment propitious for his

operation; if it was not performed suffusion would take place, and Francois II. might die at any moment. As

soon as the duke and cardinal entered the chamber he explained to all present that in so urgent a case it was

necessary to trepan the head, and he now waited till the king's physician ordered him to perform the

"Cut the head of my son as though it were a plank!with that horrible instrument!" cried Catherine de'

The physicians were consulting together; but Catherine spoke in so loud a voice that her words reached, as

"Ambroise," cried Catherine; "remember that your head will answer for the king's life."

"We are opposed to the treatment suggested by Maitre Ambroise," said the three physicians. "The king can be

saved by injecting through the ear a remedy which will draw the contents of the abscess through that

The Duc de Guise, who was watching Catherine's face, suddenly went up to her and drew her into the recess

"Madame," he said, "you wish the death of your son; you are in league with our enemies, and have been since

Blois. This morning the Counsellor Viole told the son of your furrier that the Prince de Conde's head was

about to be cut off. That young man, who, when the question was applied, persisted in denying all relations

with the prince, made a sign of farewell to him as he passed before the window of his dungeon. You saw your

unhappy accomplice tortured with royal insensibility. You are now endeavoring to prevent the recovery of

your eldest son. Your conduct forces us to believe that the death of the dauphin, which placed the crown on

"Monsieur le chancilier!" cried Catherine, at a sign from whom Madame de Fiesque opened both sides of the

The company in the hall then saw the scene that was taking place in the royal chamber: the livid little king,

his face half dead, his eyes sightless, his lips stammering the word "Mary," as he held the hand of the

weeping queen; the Duchesse de Guise motionless, frightened by Catherine's daring act; the duke and

cardinal, also alarmed, keeping close to the queenmother and resolving to have her arrested on the spot by

MailleBreze; lastly, the tall Ambroise Pare, assisted by the king's physician, holding his instrument in his

hand but not daring to begin the operation, for which composure and total silence were as necessary as the

"Monsieur le chancelier," said Catherine, "the Messieurs de Guise wish to authorize a strange operation upon

the person of the king; Ambroise Pare is preparing to cut open his head. I, as the king's mother and a member

of the council of the regency,I protest against what appears to me a crime of lesemajeste. The king's

physicians advise an injection through the ear, which seems to me as efficacious and less dangerous than the

When the company in the hall heard these words a smothered murmur rose from their midst; the cardinal

"I am lieutenantgeneral of the kingdom," said the Duc de Guise; "and I would have you know, Monsieur le

"Ah! if this be the turn that things are taking!" exclaimed Ambroise Pare. "I know my rights and how I should

proceed." He stretched his arm over the bed. "This bed and the king are mine. I claim to be sole master of this

case and solely responsible. I know the duties of my office; I shall operate upon the king without the sanction

"I cannot prevent it," said the chancellor; "but I shall record the protest of the queenmother."

"I appoint you chancellor of France in the place of that traitor," he said. "Monsieur de Maille, take Monsieur

de l'Hopital and put him in the prison of the Prince de Conde. As for you, madame," he added, turning to

Catherine; "your protest will not be received; you ought to be aware that any such protest must be supported

by sufficient force. I act as the faithful subject and loyal servant of king Francois II., my master. Go on,

"Monsieur de Guise," said l'Hopital; "if you employ violence either upon the king or upon the chancellor of

France, remember that enough of the nobility of France are in that hall to rise and arrest you as a traitor."

"Oh! my lords," cried the great surgeon; "if you continue these arguments you will soon proclaim Charles

"Well, then, we shall employ force to make ourselves masters of this room," said the cardinal, advancing to

But when he opened it even he was terrified; the whole house was deserted! The courtiers, certain now of the

"Well, go on, perform your duty," cried Mary Stuart, vehemently, to Ambroise. "Iand you, duchess," she

"Madame," said Ambroise; "my zeal was carrying me away. The doctors, with the exception of my friend

Chapelain, prefer an injection, and it is my duty to submit to their wishes. If I had been chief surgeon and

chief physician, which I am not, the king's life would probably have been saved. Give that to me, gentlemen,"

The young queen placed herself between the surgeon, the doctors, and the other persons present. The chief

physician held the king's head, and Ambroise made the injection into the ear. The duke and the cardinal

watched the proceeding attentively. Robertet and Monsieur de Maille stood motionless. Madame de Fiesque,

at a sign from Catherine, glided unperceived from the room. A moment later l'Hopital boldly opened the door

"I arrive in good time," said the voice of a man whose hasty steps echoed through the great hall, and who

stood the next moment on the threshold of the open door. "Ah, messieurs, so you meant to take off the head

of my good nephew, the Prince de Conde? Instead of that, you have forced the lion from his lair andhere I

am!" added the Connetable de Montmorency. "Ambroise, you shall not plunge your knife into the head of my

king. The first prince of the blood, Antoine de Bourbon, the Prince de Conde, the queenmother, the

To Catherine's great satisfaction, the king of Navarre and the Prince de Conde now entered the room.

"It means that in my capacity as Connetable, I have dismissed the sentinels of all your posts. Tete Dieu! you

are not in an enemy's country, methinks. The king, our master, is in the midst of his loyal subjects, and the

Statesgeneral must be suffered to deliberate at liberty. I come, messieurs, from the Statesgeneral. I carried

the protest of my nephew de Conde before that assembly, and three hundred of those gentlemen have released

him. You wish to shed royal blood and to decimate the nobility of the kingdom, do you? Ha! in future, I defy

you, and all your schemes, Messieurs de Lorraine. If you order the king's head opened, by this sword which

"All the more," said Ambroise Pare; "because it is now too late; the suffusion has begun."

"Your reign is over, messieurs," said Catherine to the Guises, seeing from Pare's face that there was no longer

"Ah! madame, you have killed your own son," cried Mary Stuart as she bounded like a lioness from the bed

"My dear," replied Catherine, giving her daughterinlaw a cold, keen glance in which she allowed her

hatred, repressed for the last six months, to overflow; "you, to whose inordinate love we owe this death, you

will now go to reign in your Scotland, and you will start tomorrow. I am regent de facto." The three

physicians having made her a sign, "Messieurs," she added, addressing the Guises, "it is agreed between

Monsieur de Bourbon, appointed lieutenantgeneral of the kingdom by the Statesgeneral, and me that the

conduct of the affairs of the State is our business solely. Come, monsieur le chancelier."

"The king is dead!" said the Duc de Guise, compelled to perform his duties as Grandmaster.

"Long live King Charles IX.!" cried all the noblemen who had come with the king of Navarre, the Prince de

The ceremonies which follow the death of a king of France were performed in almost total solitude. When the

kingatarms proclaimed aloud three times in the hall, "The king is dead!" there were very few persons

The queenmother, to whom the Comtesse de Fiesque had brought the Duc d'Orleans, now Charles IX., left

the chamber, leading her son by the hand, and all the remaining courtiers followed her. No one was left in the

house where Francois II. had drawn his last breath, but the duke and the cardinal, the Duchesse de Guise,

Mary Stuart, and Dayelle, together with the sentries at the door, the pages of the Grandmaster, those of the

"Vive la France!" cried several Reformers in the street, sounding the first cry of the opposition.

Robertet, who owed all he was to the duke and cardinal, terrified by their scheme and its present failure, went

over secretly to the queen mother, whom the ambassadors of Spain, England, the Empire, and Poland,

hastened to meet on the staircase, brought thither by Cardinal de Tournon, who had gone to notify them as

soon as he had made Queen Catherine a sign from the courtyard at the moment when she protested against

"Well!" said the cardinal to the duke, "so the sons of Louis d'Outre mer, the heirs of Charles de Lorraine

"We should have been exiled to Lorraine," replied the duke. "I declare to you, Charles, that if the crown lay

there before me I would not stretch out my hand to pick it up. That's for my son to do."

"Ah!" exclaimed Mary Stuart, clasping the stiffened hand of her first husband, now dead, "there is none but

The conflicting interests of the house of Bourbon, of Catherine, of the Guises, and of the Reformed party

produced such confusion in the town of Orleans that, three days after the king's death, his body, completely

forgotten in the Bailliage and put into a coffin by the menials of the house, was taken to SaintDenis in a

covered waggon, accompanied only by the Bishop of Senlis and two gentlemen. When the pitiable procession

reached the little town of Etampes, a servant of the Chancelier l'Hopital fastened to the waggon this severe

inscription, which history has preserved: "Tanneguy de Chastel, where art thou? and yet thou wert a

Frenchman!"a stern reproach, which fell with equal force on Catherine de' Medici, Mary Stuart, and the

Guises. What Frenchman does not know that Tanneguy de Chastel spent thirty thousand crowns of the

coinage of that day (one million of our francs) at the funeral of Charles VII., the benefactor of his house?

No sooner did the tolling of the bells announce to the town of Orleans that Francois II. was dead, and the

rumor spread that the Connetable de Montmorency had ordered the flinging open of the gates of the town,

than Tourillon, the glover, rushed up into the garret of his house and went to a secret hidingplace.

Hearing the words, a man rose to his feet and answered, "Ready to serve!"the password of the Reformers

This man was Chaudieu, to whom Tourillon now related the events of the last eight days, during which time

he had prudently left the minister alone in his hidingplace with a twelvepound loaf of bread for his sole

"Go instantly to the Prince de Conde, brother: ask him to give me a safeconduct; and find me a horse," cried

"Here," said Chaudieu, after writing a few words, "ask for a pass from the king of Navarre, for I must go to

Two hours later all was ready, and the ardent minister was on his way to Switzerland, accompanied by a

nobleman in the service of the king of Navarre (of whom Chaudieu pretended to be the secretary), carrying

with him despatches from the Reformers in the Dauphine. This sudden departure was chiefly in the interests

of Catherine de' Medici, who, in order to gain time to establish her power, had made a bold proposition to the

Reformers which was kept a profound secret. This strange proceeding explains the understanding so suddenly

apparent between herself and the leaders of the Reform. The wily woman gave, as a pledge of her good faith,

an intimation of her desire to heal all differences between the two churches by calling an assembly, which

should be neither a council, nor a conclave, nor a synod, but should be known by some new and distinctive

name, if Calvin consented to the project. When this secret was afterwards divulged (be it remarked in

passing) it led to an alliance between the Duc de Guise and the Connetable de Montmorency against

Catherine and the king of Navarre, a strange alliance! known in history as the Triumvirate, the Marechal

de SaintAndre being the third personage in the purely Catholic coalition to which this singular proposition

for a "colloquy" gave rise. The secret of Catherine's wily policy was rightly understood by the Guises; they

felt certain that the queen cared nothing for this mysterious assembly, and was only temporizing with her new

allies in order to secure a period of peace until the majority of Charles IX.; but none the less did they deceive

the Connetable into fearing a collusion of real interests between the queen and the Bourbons, whereas, in

The queen had become, as the reader will perceive, extremely powerful in a very short time. The spirit of

discussion and controversy which now sprang up was singularly favorable to her position. The Catholics and

the Reformers were equally pleased to exhibit their brilliancy one after another in this tournament of words;

for that is what it actually was, and no more. It is extraordinary that historians have mistaken one of the

wiliest schemes of the great queen for uncertainty and hesitation! Catherine never went more directly to her

own ends than in just such schemes which appeared to thwart them. The king of Navarre, quite incapable of

understanding her motives, fell into her plan in all sincerity, and despatched Chaudieu to Calvin, as we have

seen. The minister had risked his life to be secretly in Orleans and watch events; for he was, while there, in

hourly peril of being discovered and hung as a man under sentence of banishment.

According to the then fashion of travelling, Chaudieu could not reach Geneva before the month of February,

and the negotiations were not likely to be concluded before the end of March; consequently the assembly

could certainly not take place before the month of May, 1561. Catherine, meantime, intended to amuse the

court and the various conflicting interests by the coronation of the king, and the ceremonies of his first "lit de

justice," at which l'Hopital and de Thou recorded the letterspatent by which Charles IX. confided the

administration to his mother in common with the present lieutenant general of the kingdom, Antoine de

Is it not a strange spectacle this of the great kingdom of France waiting in suspense for the "yes" or "no" of a

French burgher, hitherto an obscure man, living for many years past in Geneva? The transalpine pope held in

check by the pontiff of Geneva! The two Lorrain princes, lately allpowerful, now paralyzed by the

momentary coalition of the queenmother and the first prince of the blood with Calvin! Is not this, I say, one

of the most instructive lessons ever given to kings by history,a lesson which should teach them to study

men, to seek out genius, and employ it, as did Louis XIV., wherever God has placed it?

Calvin, whose name was not Calvin but Cauvin, was the son of a cooper at Noyon in Picardy. The region of

his birth explains in some degree the obstinacy combined with capricious eagerness which distinguished this

arbiter of the destinies of France in the sixteenth century. Nothing is less known than the nature of this man,

who gave birth to Geneva and to the spirit that emanated from that city. JeanJacques Rousseau, who had

very little historical knowledge, has completely ignored the influence of Calvin on his republic. At first the

embryo Reformer, who lived in one of the humblest houses in the upper town, near the church of

SaintPierre, over a carpenter's shop (first resemblance between him and Robespierre), had no great authority

in Geneva. In fact for a long time his power was malevolently checked by the Genevese. The town was the

residence in those days of a citizen whose fame, like that of several others, remained unknown to the world at

large and for a time to Geneva itself. This man, Farel, about the year 1537, detained Calvin in Geneva,

pointing out to him that the place could be made the safe centre of a reformation more active and thorough

than that of Luther. Farel and Calvin regarded Lutheranism as an incomplete work,insufficient in itself and

without any real grip upon France. Geneva, midway between France and Italy, and speaking the French

language, was admirably situated for ready communication with Germany, France, and Italy. Calvin

thereupon adopted Geneva as the site of his moral fortunes; he made it thenceforth the citadel of his ideas.

The Council of Geneva, at Farel's entreaty, authorized Calvin in September, 1538, to give lectures on

theology. Calvin left the duties of the ministry to Farel, his first disciple, and gave himself up patiently to the

work of teaching his doctrine. His authority, which became so absolute in the last years of his life, was

obtained with difficulty and very slowly. The great agitator met with such serious obstacles that he was

banished for a time from Geneva on account of the severity of his reform. A party of honest citizens still

clung to their old luxury and their old customs. But, as usually happens, these good people, fearing ridicule,

would not admit the real object of their efforts, and kept up their warfare against the new doctrines on points

altogether foreign to the real question. Calvin insisted that leavened bread should be used for the communion,

and that all feasts should be abolished except Sundays. These innovations were disapproved of at Berne and

at Lausanne. Notice was served on the Genevese to conform to the ritual of Switzerland. Calvin and Farel

resisted; their political opponents used this disobedience to drive them from Geneva, whence they were, in

fact, banished for several years. Later Calvin returned triumphantly at the demand of his flock. Such

persecutions always become in the end the consecration of a moral power; and, in this case, Calvin's return

was the beginning of his era as prophet. He then organized his religious Terror, and the executions began. On

his reappearance in the city he was admitted into the ranks of the Genevese burghers; but even then, after

fourteen years' residence, he was not made a member of the Council. At the time of which we write, when

Catherine sent her envoy to him, this king of ideas had no other title than that of "pastor of the Church of

Geneva." Moreover, Calvin never in his life received a salary of more than one hundred and fifty francs in

money yearly, fifteen hundredweight of wheat, and two barrels of wine. His brother, a tailor, kept a shop

close to the place SaintPierre, in a street now occupied by one of the large printing establishments of

Geneva. Such personal disinterestedness, which was lacking in Voltaire, Newton, and Bacon, but eminent in

the lives of Rabelais, Spinosa, Loyola, Kant, and JeanJacques Rousseau, is indeed a magnificent frame to

The career of Robespierre can alone picture to the minds of the present day that of Calvin, who, founding his

power on the same bases, was as despotic and as cruel as the lawyer of Arras. It is a noticeable fact that

Picardy (Arras and Noyon) furnished both these instruments of reformation! Persons who wish to study the

motives of the executions ordered by Calvin will find, all relations considered, another 1793 in Geneva.

Calvin cut off the head of Jacques Gruet "for having written impious letters, libertine verses, and for working

to overthrow ecclesiastical ordinances." Reflect upon that sentence, and ask yourselves if the worst tyrants in

their saturnalias ever gave more horribly burlesque reasons for their cruelties. Valentin Gentilis, condemned

to death for "involuntary heresy," escaped execution only by making a submission far more ignominious than

was ever imposed by the Catholic Church. Seven years before the conference which was now to take place in

Calvin's house on the proposals of the queenmother, Michel Servet, a Frenchman, travelling through

Switzerland, was arrested at Geneva, tried, condemned, and burned alive, on Calvin's accusation, for having

"attacked the mystery of the Trinity," in a book which was neither written nor published in Geneva.

Remember the eloquent remonstrance of JeanJacques Rousseau, whose book, overthrowing the Catholic

religion, written in France and published in Holland, was burned by the hangman, while the author, a

foreigner, was merely banished from the kingdom where he had endeavored to destroy the fundamental

proofs of religion and of authority. Compare the conduct of our Parliament with that of the Genevese tyrant.

Again: Bolsee was brought to trial for "having other ideas than those of Calvin on predestination." Consider

these things, and ask yourselves if FourquierTinville did worse. The savage religious intolerance of Calvin

was, morally speaking, more implacable than the savage political intolerance of Robespierre. On a larger

stage than that of Geneva, Calvin would have shed more blood than did the terrible apostle of political

equality as opposed to Catholic equality. Three centuries earlier a monk of Picardy drove the whole West

upon the East. Peter the Hermit, Calvin, and Robespierre, each at an interval of three hundred years and all

three from the same region, were, politically speaking, the Archimedean screws of their age,at each epoch

Calvin was undoubtedly the maker of that melancholy town called Geneva, where, only ten years ago, a man

said, pointing to a porte cochere in the upper town, the first ever built there: "By that door luxury has

invaded Geneva." Calvin gave birth, by the sternness of his doctrines and his executions, to that form of

hypocritical sentiment called "cant."[*] According to those who practice it, good morals consist in

renouncing the arts and the charms of life, in eating richly but without luxury, in silently amassing money

without enjoying it otherwise than as Calvin enjoyed powerby thought. Calvin imposed on all the citizens

of his adopted town the same gloomy pall which he spread over his own life. He created in the Consistory a

Calvinistic inquisition, absolutely similar to the revolutionary tribunal of Robespierre. The Consistory

denounced the persons to be condemned to the Council, and Calvin ruled the Council through the Consistory,

just as Robespierre ruled the Convention through the Club of the Jacobins. In this way an eminent magistrate

of Geneva was condemned to two months' imprisonment, the loss of all his offices, and the right of ever

obtaining others "because he led a disorderly life and was intimate with Calvin's enemies." Calvin thus

became a legislator. He created the austere, sober, commonplace, and hideously sad, but irreproachable

manners and customs which characterize Geneva to the present day,customs preceding those of England

called Puritanism, which were due to the Cameronians, disciples of Cameron (a Frenchman deriving his

doctrine from Calvin), whom Sir Walter Scott depicts so admirably. The poverty of a man, a sovereign

master, who negotiated, power to power, with kings, demanding armies and subsidies, and plunging both

hands into their savings laid aside for the unfortunate, proves that thought, used solely as a means of

domination, gives birth to political misers,men who enjoy by their brains only, and, like the Jesuits, want

power for power's sake. Pitt, Luther, Calvin, Robespierre, all those Harpagons of power, died without a

penny. The inventory taken in Calvin's house after his death, which comprised all his property, even his

books, amounted in value, as history records, to two hundred and fifty francs. That of Luther came to about

the same sum; his widow, the famous Catherine de Bora, was forced to petition for a pension of five hundred

francs, which as granted to her by an Elector of Germany. Potemkin, Richelieu, Mazarin, those men of

thought and action, all three of whom made or laid the foundation of empires, each left over three hundred

millions behind them. They had hearts; they loved women and the arts; they built, they conquered; whereas

with the exception of the wife of Luther, the Helen of that Iliad, all the others had no tenderness, no beating

This brief digression was necessary in order to explain Calvin's position in Geneva.

During the first days of the month of February in the year 1561, on a soft, warm evening such as we may

sometimes find at that season on Lake Leman, two horsemen arrived at the Prel'Eveque,thus called

because it was the former countryplace of the Bishop of Geneva, driven from Switzerland about thirty years

earlier. These horsemen, who no doubt knew the laws of Geneva about the closing of the gates (then a

necessity and now very ridiculous) rode in the direction of the Porte de Rive; but they stopped their horses

suddenly on catching sight of a man, about fifty years of age, leaning on the arm of a servantwoman, and

walking slowly toward the town. This man, who was rather stout, walked with difficulty, putting one foot

after the other with pain apparently, for he wore round shoes of black velvet, laced in front.

"It is he!" said Chaudieu to the other horseman, who immediately dismounted, threw the reins to his

The man, who was Jean Calvin, drew back to avoid the embrace, casting a stern look at his disciple. At fifty

years of age Calvin looked as though he were sixty. Stout and stocky in figure, he seemed shorter still

because the horrible sufferings of stone in the bladder obliged him to bend almost double as he walked. These

pains were complicated by attacks of gout of the worst kind. Every one trembled before that face, almost as

broad as it was long, on which, in spite of its roundness, there was as little humankindness as on that of

Henry the Eighth, whom Calvin greatly resembled. Sufferings which gave him no respite were manifest in

the deepcut lines starting from each side of the nose and following the curve of the moustache till they were

lost in the thick gray beard. This face, though red and inflamed like that of a heavy drinker, showed spots

where the skin was yellow. In spite of the velvet cap, which covered the huge square head, a vast forehead of

noble shape could be seen and admired; beneath it shone two dark eyes, which must have flashed forth flame

in moments of anger. Whether by reason of his obesity, or because of his thick, short neck, or in consequence

of his vigils and his constant labors, Calvin's head was sunk between his broad shoulders, which obliged him

to wear a fluted ruff of very small dimensions, on which his face seemed to lie like the head of John the

Baptist on a charger. Between his moustache and his beard could be seen, like a rose, his small and fresh and

eloquent little mouth, shaped in perfection. The face was divided by a square nose, remarkable for the

flexibility of its entire length, the tip of which was significantly flat, seeming the more in harmony with the

prodigious power expressed by the form of that imperial head. Though it might have been difficult to

discover on his features any trace of the weekly headaches which tormented Calvin in the intervals of the

slow fever that consumed him, suffering, ceaselessly resisted by study and by will, gave to that mask,

superficially so florid, a certain something that was terrible. Perhaps this impression was explainable by the

color of a sort of greasy layer on the skin, due to the sedentary habits of the toiler, showing evidence of the

perpetual struggle which went on between that valetudinarian temperament and one of the strongest wills

ever known in the history of the human mind. The mouth, though charming, had an expression of cruelty.

Chastity, necessitated by vast designs, exacted by so many sickly conditions, was written upon that face.

Regrets were there, notwithstanding the serenity of that allpowerful brow, together with pain in the glance

Calvin's costume brought into full relief this powerful head. He wore the wellknown cassock of black cloth,

fastened round his waist by a black cloth belt with a brass buckle, which became thenceforth the distinctive

dress of all Calvinist ministers, and was so uninteresting to the eye that it forced the spectator's attention upon

"I suffer too much, Theodore, to embrace you," said Calvin to the elegant cavalier.

Theodore de Beze, then fortytwo years of age and lately admitted, at Calvin's request, as a Genevese

burgher, formed a violent contrast to the terrible pastor whom he had chosen as his sovereign guide and ruler.

Calvin, like all burghers raised to moral sovereignty, and all inventors of social systems, was eaten up with

jealousy. He abhorred his disciples; he wanted no equals; he could not bear the slightest contradiction. Yet

there was between him and this graceful cavalier so marked a difference, Theodore de Beze was gifted with

so charming a personality enhanced by a politeness trained by court life, and Calvin felt him to be so unlike

his other surly janissaries, that the stern reformer departed in de Beze's case from his usual habits. He never

loved him, for this harsh legislator totally ignored all friendship, but, not fearing him in the light of a

successor, he liked to play with Theodore as Richelieu played with his cat; he found him supple and agile.

Seeing how admirably de Beze succeeded in all his missions, he took a fancy to the polished instrument of

which he knew himself the mainspring and the manipulator; so true is it that the sternest of men cannot do

without some semblance of affection. Theodore was Calvin's spoilt child; the harsh reformer never scolded

him; he forgave him his dissipations, his amours, his fine clothes and his elegance of language. Perhaps

Calvin was not unwilling to show that the Reformation had a few men of the world to compare with the men

of the court. Theodore de Beze was anxious to introduce a taste for the arts, for literature, and for poesy into

Geneva, and Calvin listened to his plans without knitting his thick gray eyebrows. Thus the contrast of

character and person between these two celebrated men was as complete and marked as the difference in their

Calvin acknowledged Chaudieu's very humble salutation by a slight inclination of the head. Chaudieu slipped

the bridles of both horses through his arms and followed the two great men of the Reformation, walking to

the left, behind de Beze, who was on Calvin's right. The servantwoman hastened on in advance to prevent

the closing of the Porte de Rive, by informing the captain of the guard that Calvin had been seized with

Theodore de Beze was a native of the canton of Vezelay, which was the first to enter the Confederation, the

curious history of which transaction has been written by one of the Thierrys. The burgher spirit of resistance,

endemic at Vezelay, no doubt, played its part in the person of this man, in the great revolt of the Reformers;

for de Beze was undoubtedly one of the most singular personalities of the Heresy.

"A Catholic would say, 'like a lost soul,'" replied the Reformer, with the bitterness he gave to his slightest

remarks. "Ah! I shall not be here long, my son. What will become of you without me?"

Calvin smiled; his red face changed to a pleased expression, and he looked favorably at Chaudieu.

"Well, have you brought me news? Have they massacred many of our people?" he said smiling, and letting a

"So much the worse," cried Calvin; "so much the worse! All pacification is an evil, if indeed it is not a trap.

Our strength lies in persecution. Where should we be if the Church accepted Reform?"

"Is there any distance for the mind?" replied Calvin, sternly, for he thought the interruption irreverent.

"Catherine seeks power, and women with that in their eye have neither honor nor faith. But what is she doing

"I bring you a proposal from her to call a species of council," replied Theodore de Beze.

"We are to try to understand each other and draw up some public agreement which shall unite the two

"Ah! if she would only have the courage to separate the French Church from the court of Rome, and create a

patriarch for France as they did in the Greek Church!" cried Calvin, his eyes glistening at the idea thus

presented to his mind of a possible throne. "But, my son, can the niece of a Pope be sincere? She is only

"One less!" remarked Calvin, as they passed through the Porte de Rive. "Elizabeth of England will restrain

that one for us. Two neighboring queens will soon be at war with each other. One is handsome, the other

ugly,a first cause for irritation; besides, there's the question of illegitimacy"

He rubbed his hands, and the character of his joy was so evidently ferocious that de Beze shuddered: he saw

"The Guises have irritated the house of Bourbon," said Theodore after a pause. "They came to an open

"Ah!" said Calvin, "you would not believe me, my son, when I told you the last time you started for Nerac

that we should end by stirring up war to the death between the two branches of the house of France? I have, at

least, one court, one king and royal family on my side. My doctrine is producing its effect upon the masses.

The burghers, too, understand me; they regard as idolators all who go to Mass, who paint the walls of their

churches, and put pictures and statues within them. Ha! it is far more easy for a people to demolish churches

and palaces than to argue the question of justification by faith, or the real presence. Luther was an argufier,

but I,I am an army! He was a reasoner, I am a system. In short, my sons, he was merely a skirmisher, but I

am Tarquin! Yes, my faithful shall destroy pictures and pull down churches; they shall make millstones of

statues to grind the flour of the peoples. There are guilds and corporations in the StatesgeneralI will have

nothing there but individuals. Corporations resist; they see clear where the masses are blind. We must join to

our doctrine political interests which will consolidate it, and keep together the materiel of my armies. I have

satisfied the logic of cautious souls and the minds of thinkers by this bared and naked worship which carries

religion into the world of ideas; I have made the peoples understand the advantages of suppressing ceremony.

It is for you, Theodore, to enlist their interests; hold to that; go not beyond it. All is said in the way of

doctrine; let no one add one iota. Why does Cameron, that little Gascon pastor, presume to write of it?"

Calvin, de Beze, and Chaudieu were mounting the steep steps of the upper town in the midst of a crowd, but

the crowd paid not the slightest attention to the men who were unchaining the mobs of other cities and

After this terrible tirade, the three marched on in silence till they entered the little place SaintPierre and

turned toward the pastor's house. On the second story of that house (never noted, and of which in these days

no one is ever told in Geneva, where, it may be remarked, Calvin has no statue) his lodging consisted of three

chambers with common pine floors and wainscots, at the end of which were the kitchen and the bedroom of

his womanservant. The entrance, as usually happened in most of the burgher households of Geneva, was

through the kitchen, which opened into a little room with two windows, serving as parlor, salon, and

diningroom. Calvin's study, where his thought had wrestled with suffering for the last fourteen years, came

next, with the bedroom beyond it. Four oaken chairs covered with tapestry and placed around a square table

were the sole furniture of the parlor. A stove of white porcelain, standing in one corner of the room, cast out a

gentle heat. Panels and a wainscot of pine wood left in its natural state without decoration covered the walls.

Thus the nakedness of the place was in keeping with the sober and simple life of the Reformer.

"Well?" said de Beze as they entered, profiting by a few moments when Chaudieu left them to put up the

"Of course," replied Calvin. "And it is you, my son, who will fight for us there. Be peremptory, be arbitrary.

No one, neither the queen nor the Guises nor I, wants a pacification; it would not suit us at all. I have

confidence in DuplessisMornay; let him play the leading part. Are we alone?" he added, with a glance of

distrust into the kitchen, where two shirts and a few collars were stretched on a line to dry. "Go and shut all

the doors. Well," he continued when Theodore had returned, "we must drive the king of Navarre to join the

Guises and the Connetable by advising him to break with Queen Catherine de' Medici. Let us all get the

benefit of that poor creature's weakness. If he turns against the Italian she will, when she sees herself

deprived of that support, necessarily unite with the Prince de Conde and Coligny. Perhaps this manoeuvre

"Unfortunately, my dear Theodore, I am dying. If I die without seeing you again," he added, sinking his voice

and speaking in the ear of his minister of foreign affairs, "remember to strike a great blow by the hand of

"Well?" cried Calvin, who thought he saw disappointment or resistance in the gesture, and did not see at the

same moment the entrance of Chaudieu. "Have we not the right to strike as we are struck?yes, to strike in

silence and in darkness. May we not return them wound for wound, and death for death? Would the Catholics

hesitate to lay traps for us and massacre us? Assuredly not. Let us burn their churches! Forward, my children!

"Use them as engines of war! our cause justifies all means. Le Balafre, that horrible soldier, is, like me, more

than a man; he is a dynasty, just as I am a system. He is able to annihilate us; therefore, I say, Death to the

"Time!" exclaimed Calvin, dashing his chair to the ground, "reason! Are you mad? Can reason achieve

conquests? You know nothing of men, you who deal with them, idiot! The thing that injures my doctrine, you

triple fool! is the reason that is in it. By the lightning of Saul, by the sword of Vengeance, thou

pumpkinhead, do you not see the vigor given to my Reform by the massacre at Amboise? Ideas never grow

till they are watered with blood. The slaying of the Duc de Guise will lead to a horrible persecution, and I

pray for it with all my might. Our reverses are preferable to success. The Reformation has an object to gain in

being attacked; do you hear me, dolt? It cannot hurt us to be defeated, whereas Catholicism is at an end if we

should win but a single battle. Ha! what are my lieutenants?rags, wet rags instead of men! whitehaired

cravens! baptized apes! O God, grant me ten years more of life! If I die too soon the cause of true religion is

lost in the hands of such boobies! You are as great a fool as Antoine de Navarre! Out of my sight! Leave me;

I want a better negotiator than you! You are an ass, a popinjay, a poet! Go and make your elegies and your

The pains of his body were absolutely overcome by the fire of his anger; even the gout subsided under this

horrible excitement of his mind. Calvin's face flushed purple, like the sky before a storm. His vast brow

shone. His eyes flamed. He was no longer himself. He gave way utterly to the species of epileptic motion, full

of passion, which was common with him. But in the very midst of it he was struck by the attitude of the two

witnesses; then, as he caught the words of Chaudieu saying to de Beze, "The Burning Bush!" he sat down,

was silent, and covered his face with his two hands, the knotted veins of which were throbbing in spite of

Some minutes later, still shaken by this storm raised within him by the continence of his life, he said in a

"My sins, which are many, cost me less trouble to subdue, than my impatience. Oh, savage beast! shall I

"My dear master," said de Beze, in a tender voice, taking Calvin's hand and kissing it, "Jupiter thunders, but

"I understand that the pastors of peoples bear great burdens," replied Theodore. "You have a world upon your

"I have three martyrs," said Chaudieu, whom the master's outburst had rendered thoughtful, "on whom we

"You are mistaken," said Calvin, gently, smiling after the manner of great men who bring fair weather into

their faces as though they were ashamed of the previous storm. "I know human nature; a man may kill one

"Again!" exclaimed Calvin, his nostrils swelling. "Come, leave me, you will drive me to fury. Take my

decision to the queen. You, Chaudieu, go your way, and hold your flock together in Paris. God guide you!

"Will you not permit me to embrace you?" said Theodore, much moved. "Who knows what may happen to us

"And yet you want to spare them!" cried Calvin, embracing de Beze. Then he took Chaudieu's hand and said:

"Above all, no Huguenots, no Reformers, but Calvinists! Use no term but Calvinism. Alas! this is not

ambition, for I am dying,but it is necessary to destroy the whole of Luther, even to the name of Lutheran

"Maintain the uniformity of the doctrine; let no one henceforth change or remark it. We are lost if new sects

We will here anticipate the events on which this Study is based, and close the history of Theodore de Beze,

who went to Paris with Chaudieu. It is to be remarked that Poltrot, who fired at the Duc de Guise fifteen

months later, confessed under torture that he had been urged to the crime by Theodore de Beze; though he

retracted that avowal during subsequent tortures; so that Bossuet, after weighing all historical considerations,

felt obliged to acquit Beze of instigating the crime. Since Bossuet's time, however, an apparently futile

dissertation, apropos of a celebrated song, has led a compiler of the eighteenth century to prove that the

verses on the death of the Duc de Guise, sung by the Huguenots from one end of France to the other, was the

work of Theodore de Beze; and it is also proved that the famous song on the burial of Marlborough was a

[*] One of the most remarkable instances of the transmission of songs is that of Marlborough. Written in the

first instance by a Huguenot on the death of the Duc de Guise in 1563, it was preserved in the French army,

and appears to have been sung with variations, suppressions, and additions at the death of all generals of

importance. When the intestine wars were over the song followed the soldiers into civil life. It was never

forgotten (though the habit of singing it may have lessened), and in 1781, sixty years after the death of

Marlborough, the wetnurse of the Dauphin was heard to sing it as she suckled her nursling. When and why

the name of the Duke of Marlborough was substituted for that of the Duc de Guise has never been

ascertained. See "Chansons Populaires," par Charles Nisard: Paris, Dentu, 1867.Tr.

The day on which Theodore de Beze and Chaudieu arrived in Paris, the court returned from Rheims, where

Charles IX. was crowned. This ceremony, which Catherine made magnificent with splendid fetes, enabled

her to gather about her the leaders of the various parties. Having studied all interests and all factions, she

found herself with two alternatives from which to choose; either to rally them all to the throne, or to pit them

one against the other. The Connetable de Montmorency, supremely Catholic, whose nephew, the Prince de

Conde, was leader of the Reformers, and whose sons were inclined to the new religion, blamed the alliance of

the queenmother with the Reformation. The Guises, on their side, were endeavoring to gain over Antoine de

Bourbon, king of Navarre, a weak prince; a manoeuvre which his wife, Jeanne d'Albret, instructed by de

Beze, allowed to succeed. The difficulties were plain to Catherine, whose dawning power needed a period of

tranquillity. She therefore impatiently awaited Calvin's reply to the message which the Prince de Conde, the

king of Navarre, Coligny, d'Andelot, and the Cardinal de Chatillon had sent him through de Beze and

Chaudieu. Meantime, however, she was faithful to her promises as to the Prince de Conde. The chancellor put

an end to the proceedings in which Christophe was involved by referring the affair to the Parliament of Paris,

which at once set aside the judgment of the committee, declaring it without power to try a prince of the blood.

The Parliament then reopened the trial, at the request of the Guises and the queenmother. Lasagne's papers

had already been given to Catherine, who burned them. The giving up of these papers was a first pledge,

uselessly made by the Guises to the queenmother. The Parliament, no longer able to take cognizance of

those decisive proofs, reinstated the prince in all his rights, property, and honors. Christophe, released during

the tumult at Orleans on the death of the king, was acquitted in the first instance, and appointed, in

compensation for his sufferings, solicitor to the Parliament, at the request of his godfather Monsieur de Thou.

The Triumvirate, that coming coalition of selfinterests threatened by Catherine's first acts, was now forming

itself under her very eyes. Just as in chemistry antagonistic substances separate at the first shock which jars

their enforced union, so in politics the alliance of opposing interests never lasts. Catherine thoroughly

understood that sooner or later she should return to the Guises and combine with them and the Connetable to

do battle against the Huguenots. The proposed "colloquy" which tempted the vanity of the orators of all

parties, and offered an imposing spectacle to succeed that of the coronation and enliven the bloody ground of

a religious war which, in point of fact, had already begun, was as futile in the eyes of the Duc de Guise as in

those of Catherine. The Catholics would, in one sense be worsted; for the Huguenots, under pretext of

conferring, would be able to proclaim their doctrine, with the sanction of the king and his mother, to the ears

of all France. The Cardinal de Lorraine, flattered by Catherine into the idea of destroying the heresy by the

eloquence of the Church, persuaded his brother to consent; and thus the queen obtained what was

A slight event, occurring at this time, came near compromising the power which Catherine had so painfully

built up. The following scene, preserved in history, took place, on the very day the envoys returned from

Geneva, in the hotel de Coligny near the Louvre. At his coronation, Charles IX., who was greatly attached to

his tutor Amyot, appointed him grandalmoner of France. This affection was shared by his brother the Duc

d'Anjou, afterwards Henri III., another of Anjou's pupils. Catherine heard the news of this appointment from

the two Gondis during the journey from Rheims to Paris. She had counted on that office in the gift of the

Crown to gain a supporter in the Church with whom to oppose the Cardinal de Lorraine. Her choice had

fallen on the Cardinal de Tournon, in whom she expected to find, as in l'Hopital, another crutchthe word is

her own. As soon as she reached the Louvre she sent for the tutor, and her anger was such, on seeing the

disaster to her policy caused by the ambition of this son of a shoemaker, that she was betrayed into using the

following extraordinary language, which several memoirs of the day have handed down to us:

"What!" she cried, "am I, who compel the Guises, the Colignys, the Connetables, the house of Navarre, the

Prince de Conde, to serve my ends, am I to be opposed by a priestling like you who are not satisfied to be

Amyot excused himself. He assured the queen that he had asked nothing; the king of his own will had given

him the office of which he, the son of a poor tailor, felt himself quite unworthy.

"Be assured, maitre," replied Catherine (that being the name which the two kings, Charles IX. and Henri III.,

gave to the great writer) "that you will not stand on your feet twentyfour hours hence, unless you make your

Between the death thus threatened and the resignation of the highest ecclesiastical office in the gift of the

crown, the son of the shoemaker, who had lately become extremely eager after honors, and may even have

coveted a cardinal's hat, thought it prudent to temporize. He left the court and hid himself in the abbey of

SaintGermain. When Charles IX. did not see him at his first dinner, he asked where he was. Some Guisard

"Has he been forced to disappear because I made him grandalmoner?" cried the king.

He thereupon rushed to his mother in the violent wrath of angry children when their caprices are opposed.

"Madame," he said on entering, "did I not kindly sign the letter you asked me to send to Parliament, by means

of which you govern my kingdom? Did you not promise that if I did so my will should be yours? And here,

the first favor that I wish to bestow excites your jealousy! The chancellor talks of declaring my majority at

fourteen, three years from now, and you wish to treat me as a child. By God, I will be king, and a king as my

The tone and manner in which these words were said gave Catherine a revelation of her son's true character;

"He speaks to me thus, he whom I made a king!" she thought. "Monsieur," she said aloud, "the office of a

king, in times like these, is a very difficult one; you do not yet know the shrewd men with whom you have to

deal. You will never have a safer and more sincere friend than your mother, or better servants than those who

have been so long attached to her person, without whose services you might perhaps not even exist today.

The Guises want both your life and your throne, be sure of that. If they could sew me into a sack and fling me

into the river," she said, pointing to the Seine, "it would be done tonight. They know that I am a lioness

defending her young, and that I alone prevent their daring hands from seizing your crown. To whomto

whose party does your tutor belong? Who are his allies? What authority has he? What services can he do

you? What weight do his words carry? Instead of finding a prop to sustain your power, you have cut the

ground from under it. The Cardinal de Lorraine is a living threat to you; he plays the king; he keeps his hat on

his head before the princes of the blood; it was urgently necessary to invest another cardinal with powers

greater than his own. But what have you done? Is Amyot, that shoemaker, fit only to tie the ribbons of his

shoes, is he capable of making head against the Guise ambition? However, you love Amyot, you have

appointed him; your will must now be done, monsieur. But before you make such gifts again, I pray you to

consult me in affectionate good faith. Listen to reasons of state; and your own good sense as a child may

perhaps agree with my old experience, when you really understand the difficulties that lie before you."

"Then I can have my master back again?" cried the king, not listening to his mother's words, which he

"Yes, you shall have him," she replied. "But it is not here, nor that brutal Cypierre who will teach you how to

"It is for you to do so, my dear mother," said the boy, mollified by his victory and relaxing the surly and

Catherine sent Gondi to recall the new grandalmoner. When the Italian discovered the place of Amyot's

retreat, and the bishop heard that the courtier was sent by the queen, he was seized with terror and refused to

leave the abbey. In this extremity Catherine was obliged to write to him herself, in such terms that he returned

to Paris and received from her own lips the assurance of her protection,on condition, however, that he

This little domestic tempest over, the queen, now reestablished in the Louvre after an absence of more than

a year, held council with her closest friends as to the proper conduct to pursue with the young king whom

"What is best to be done?" she said to the two Gondis, Ruggiero, Birago, and Chiverni who had lately

"Before all else," replied Birago, "get rid of Cypierre. He is not a courtier; he will never accommodate

"On my honor!" exclaimed Gondi, "I'll promise you to make the king as docile as the king of Navarre."

"You allowed the late king to perish to save your other children," said Albert de Gondi. "Do, then, as the

great signors of Constantinople do,divert the anger and amuse the caprices of the present king. He loves art

and poetry and hunting, also a little girl he saw at Orleans; there's occupation enough for him."

"Will you really be the king's governor?" said Catherine to the ablest of the Gondis.

"Yes, if you will give me the necessary authority; you may even be obliged to make me marshal of France

and a duke. Cypierre is altogether too small a man to hold the office. In future, the governor of a king of

"Moreover," remarked Chiverni, "you are sure of Amyot, who will always fear poison in case of

disobedience; so that you and he and Gondi can hold the king in leadingstrings."

"He does not know what he owes to you; if he did know, you would be in danger," replied Birago, gravely,

"Then, it is agreed," exclaimed Catherine, on whom Birago's reply made a powerful impression, "that you,

Gondi, are to be the king's governor. My son must consent to do for one of my friends a favor equal to the

one I have just permitted for his knave of a bishop. That fool has lost the hat; for never, as long as I live, will

I consent that the Pope shall give it to him! How strong we might have been with Cardinal de Tournon! What

a trio with Tournon for grandalmoner, and l'Hopital, and de Thou! As for the burghers of Paris, I intend to

Accordingly, Albert de Gondi became a marshal of France and was created Duc de Retz and governor of the

At the moment when this little private council ended, Cardinal de Tournon announced to the queen the arrival

of the emissaries sent to Calvin. Admiral Coligny accompanied the party in order that his presence might

ensure them due respect at the Louvre. The queen gathered the formidable phalanx of her maids of honor

about her, and passed into the reception hall, built by her husband, which no longer exists in the Louvre of

At the period of which we write the staircase of the Louvre occupied the clock tower. Catherine's apartments

were in the old buildings which still exist in the court of the Musee. The present staircase of the museum was

built in what was formerly the salle des ballets. The ballet of those days was a sort of dramatic entertainment

Revolutionary passions gave rise to a most laughable error about Charles IX., in connection with the Louvre.

During the Revolution hostile opinions as to this king, whose real character was masked, made a monster of

him. Joseph Cheniers tragedy was written under the influence of certain words scratched on the window of

the projecting wing of the Louvre, looking toward the quay. The words were as follows: "It was from this

window that Charles IX., of execrable memory, fired upon French citizens." It is well to inform future

historians and all sensible persons that this portion of the Louvre called today the old Louvrewhich

projects upon the quay and is connected with the Louvre by the room called the Apollo gallery (while the

great halls of the Museum connect the Louvre with the Tuileries) did not exist in the time of Charles IX. The

greater part of the space where the frontage on the quay now stands, and where the Garden of the Infanta is

laid out, was then occupied by the hotel de Bourbon, which belonged to and was the residence of the house of

Navarre. It was absolutely impossible, therefore, for Charles IX. to fire from the Louvre of Henri II. upon a

boat full of Huguenots crossing the river, although at the present time the Seine can be seen from its

windows. Even if learned men and libraries did not possess maps of the Louvre made in the time of Charles

IX., on which its then position is clearly indicated, the building itself refutes the error. All the kings who

cooperated in the work of erecting this enormous mass of buildings never failed to put their initials or some

special monogram on the parts they had severally built. Now the part we speak of, the venerable and now

blackened wing of the Louvre, projecting on the quay and overlooking the garden of the Infanta, bears the

monograms of Henri III. and Henri IV., which are totally different from that of Henri II., who invariably

joined his H to the two C's of Catherine, forming a D,which, by the bye, has constantly deceived

superficial persons into fancying that the king put the initial of his mistress, Diane, on great public buildings.

Henri IV. united the Louvre with his own hotel de Bourbon, its garden and dependencies. He was the first to

think of connecting Catherine de' Medici's palace of the Tuileries with the Louvre by his unfinished galleries,

the precious sculptures of which have been so cruelly neglected. Even if the map of Paris, and the

monograms of Henri III. and Henri IV. did not exist, the difference of architecture is refutation enough to the

calumny. The vermiculated stone copings of the hotel de la Force mark the transition between what is called

the architecture of the Renaissance and that of Henri III., Henri IV., and Louis XIII. This archaeological

digression (continuing the sketches of old Paris with which we began this history) enables us to picture to our

minds the then appearance of this other corner of the old city, of which nothing now remains but Henri IV.'s

addition to the Louvre, with its admirable basreliefs, now being rapidly annihilated.

When the court heard that the queen was about to give an audience to Theodore de Beze and Chaudieu,

presented by Admiral Coligny, all the courtiers who had the right of entrance to the reception hall, hastened

thither to witness the interview. It was about six o'clock in the evening; Coligny had just supped, and was

using a toothpick as he came up the staircase of the Louvre between the two Reformers. The practice of using

a toothpick was so inveterate a habit with the admiral that he was seen to do it on the battlefield while

planning a retreat. "Distrust the admiral's toothpick, the No of the Connetable, and Catherine's Yes," was a

court proverb of that day. After the SaintBartholomew the populace made a horrible jest on the body of

Coligny, which hung for three days at Montfaucon, by putting a grotesque toothpick into his mouth. History

has recorded this atrocious levity. So petty an act done in the midst of that great catastrophe pictures the

Parisian populace, which deserves the sarcastic jibe of Boileau: "Frenchmen, born malin, created the

guillotine." The Parisian of all time cracks jokes and makes lampoons before, during, and after the most

Theodore de Beze wore the dress of a courtier, black silk stockings, low shoes with straps across the instep,

tight breeches, a black silk doublet with slashed sleeves, and a small black velvet mantle, over which lay an

elegant white fluted ruff. His beard was trimmed to a moustache and virgule (now called imperial) and he

carried a sword at his side and a cane in his hand. Whosoever knows the galleries of Versailles or the

collections of Odieuvre, knows also his round, almost jovial face and lively eyes, surmounted by the broad

forehead which characterized the writers and poets of that day. De Beze had, what served him admirably, an

agreeable air and manner. In this he was a great contrast to Coligny, of austere countenance, and to the sour,

bilious Chaudieu, who chose to wear on this occasion the robe and bands of a Calvinist minister.

The scenes that happen in our day in the Chamber of Deputies, and which, no doubt, happened in the

Convention, will give an idea of how, at this court, at this epoch, these men, who six months later were to

fight to the death in a war without quarter, could meet and talk to each other with courtesy and even laughter.

Birago, who was coldly to advise the SaintBartholomew, and Cardinal de Lorraine, who charged his servant

Besme "not to miss the admiral," now advanced to meet Coligny; Birago saying, with a smile:

"Well, my dear admiral, so you have really taken upon yourself to present these gentlemen from Geneva?"

"Perhaps you will call it a crime in me," replied the admiral, jesting, "whereas if you had done it yourself you

"They say that the Sieur Calvin is very ill," remarked the Cardinal de Lorraine to Theodore de Beze. "I hope

The Duc de Guise, who was watching Chaudieu, looked fixedly at his brother and at Birago, who were both

To avoid embarrassment, the queen, who was announced at this moment, had arranged to remain standing

during the audience. She began by speaking to the Connetable, who had previously remonstrated with her

"You see, my dear Connetable," she said, "that I receive them without ceremony."

"Madame," said the admiral, approaching the queen, "these are two teachers of the new religion, who have

come to an understanding with Calvin, and who have his instructions as to a conference in which the

"This is Monsieur de Beze, to whom my wife is much attached," said the king of Navarre, coming forward

"And this is Chaudieu," said the Prince de Conde. "My friend the Duc de Guise knows the soldier," he added,

"Faith!" replied the Duc de Guise, "I am enchanted to see a gars who knows so well how to choose his men

and to employ them in their right sphere. One of your agents," he said to Chaudieu, "actually endured the

extraordinary question without dying and without confessing a single thing. I call myself brave; but I don't

"Hum!" muttered Ambroise, "you did not say a word when I pulled the javelin out of your face at Calais."

Catherine, standing at the centre of a semicircle of the courtiers and maids of honor, kept silence. She was

observing the two Reformers, trying to penetrate their minds as, with the shrewd, intelligent glance of her

"One seems to be the scabbard, the other the blade," whispered Albert de Gondi in her ear.

"Well, gentlemen," said Catherine at last, unable to restrain a smile, "has your master given you permission to

unite in a public conference, at which you will be converted by the arguments of the Fathers of the Church

"But surely you will allow some little authority to the king of France?" said Catherine, smiling.

"You will find," continued the queen, "that our most submissive subjects are heretics."

"Ah, madame!" cried Coligny, "we will indeed endeavor to make you a noble and peaceful kingdom! Europe

has profited, alas! by our internal divisions. For the last fifty years she has had the advantage of one half of

"Are we here to sing anthems to the glory of heretics," said the Connetable, brutally.

"No, but to bring them to repentance," whispered the Cardinal de Lorraine in his ear; "we want to coax them

"Do you know what I should have done under the late king?" said the Connetable, angrily. "I'd have called in

the provost and hung those two knaves, then and there, on the gallows of the Louvre."

"Well, gentlemen, who are the learned men whom you have selected as our opponents?" inquired the queen,

"DuplessisMornay and Theodore de Beze will speak on our side," replied Chaudieu.

"The court will doubtless go to SaintGermain, and as it would be improper that this colloquy should take

place in a royal residence, we will have it in the little town of Poissy," said Catherine.

"Ah!" replied the queen, with a sort of naivete, "you will surely know how to take precautions. The Admiral

"How do you contrive to give such strength of character to your converts?" said the queen, leading Chaudieu

At this moment the hall presented a scene of animated groups, all discussing the question of the proposed

assembly, to which the few words said by the queen had already given the name of the "Colloquy of Poissy."

"Ah, madame, if you were not blinded by your alliance with the court of Rome, you would see that we are

returning to the true doctrines of Jesus Christ, who, recognizing the equality of souls, bestows upon all men

"Do you think yourself the equal of Calvin?" asked the queen, shrewdly. "No, no; we are equals only in

church. What! would you unbind the tie of the people to the throne?" she cried. "Then you are not only

heretics, you are revolutionists,rebels against obedience to the king as you are against that to the Pope!" So

saying, she left Chaudieu abruptly and returned to Theodore de Beze. "I count on you, monsieur," she said,

"I had supposed," said Chaudieu to the Prince de Conde, the King of Navarre, and Admiral Coligny, as they

"Oh! we know very well what you want," exclaimed the Prince de Conde, exchanging a sly look with

The prince now left his adherents to attend a rendezvous. This great leader of a party was also one of the most

favored gallants of the court. The two choice beauties of that day were even then striving with such desperate

eagerness for his affections that one of them, the Marechale de SaintAndre, the wife of the future triumvir,

gave him her beautiful estate of SaintValery, hoping to win him away from the Duchesse de Guise, the wife

of the man who had tried to take his head on the scaffold. The duchess, not being able to detach the Duc de

Nemours from Mademoiselle de Rohan, fell in love, en attendant, with the leader of the Reformers.

"What a contrast to Geneva!" said Chaudieu to Theodore de Beze, as they crossed the little bridge of the

"The people here are certainly gayer than the Genevese. I don't see why they should be so treacherous,"

"To treachery oppose treachery," replied Chaudieu, whispering the words in his companion's ear. "I have

saints in Paris on whom I can rely, and I intend to make Calvin a prophet. Christophe Lecamus shall deliver

"The queenmother, for whom the poor devil endured his torture, has already, with a high hand, caused him

to be appointed solicitor to the Parliament; and solicitors make better prosecutors than murderers. Don't you

"I know Christophe," said Chaudieu, in a positive tone, as he turned to leave the envoy from Geneva.

A few days after the reception of Calvin's emissaries by the queen, that is to say, toward the close of the year

(for the year then began at Easter and the present calendar was not adopted until later in the reign of Charles

IX.), Christophe reclined in an easy chair beside the fire in the large brown hall, dedicated to family life, that

overlooked the river in his father's house, where the present drama was begun. His feet rested on a stool; his

mother and Babette Lallier had just renewed the compresses, saturated with a solution brought by Ambroise

Pare, who was charged by Catherine de' Medici to take care of the young man. Once restored to his family,

Christophe became the object of the most devoted care. Babette, authorized by her father, came very morning

and only left the Lecamus household at night. Christophe, the admiration of the apprentices, gave rise

throughout the quarter to various tales, which invested him with mysterious poesy. He had borne the worst

torture; the celebrated Ambroise Pare was employing all his skill to cure him. What great deed had he done to

be thus treated? Neither Christophe nor his father said a word on the subject. Catherine, then allpowerful,

was concerned in their silence as well as the Prince de Conde. The constant visits of Pare, now chief surgeon

of both the king and the house of Guise, whom the queenmother and the Lorrains allowed to treat a youth

accused of heresy, strangely complicated an affair through which no one saw clearly. Moreover, the rector of

SaintPierreauxBoeufs came several times to visit the son of his churchwarden, and these visits made the

causes of Christophe's present condition still more unintelligible to his neighbors.

The old syndic, who had his plan, gave evasive answers to his brother furriers, the merchants of the

neighborhood, and to all friends who spoke to him of his son: "Yes, I am very thankful to have saved him."

"Well, you know, it won't do to put your finger between the bark and the tree.""My son touched fire and

came near burning up my house." "They took advantage of his youth; we burghers get nothing but shame

and evil by frequenting the grandees.""This affair decides me to make a lawyer of Christophe; the practice

of law will teach him to weigh his words and his acts.""The young queen, who is now in Scotland, had a

great deal to do with it; but then, to be sure, my son may have been imprudent.""I have had cruel

anxieties.""All this may decide me to give up my business; I do not wish ever to go to court again.""My

son has had enough of the Reformation; it has cracked all his joints. If it had not been for Ambroise, I don't

Thanks to these ambiguous remarks and to the great discretion of such conduct, it was generally averred in

the neighborhood that Christophe had seen the error of his ways; everybody thought it natural that the old

syndic should wish to get his son appointed to the Parliament, and the rector's visits no longer seemed

extraordinary. As the neighbors reflected on the old man's anxieties they no longer thought, as they would

otherwise have done, that his ambition was inordinate. The young lawyer, who had lain helpless for months

on the bed which his family made up for him in the old hall, was now, for the last week, able to rise and move

about by the aid of crutches. Babette's love and his mother's tenderness had deeply touched his heart; and

they, while they had him helpless in their hands, lectured him severely on religion. President de Thou paid his

godson a visit during which he showed himself most fatherly. Christophe, being now a solicitor of the

Parliament, must of course, he said, be Catholic; his oath would bind him to that; and the president, who

assumed not to doubt of his godson's orthodoxy, ended his remarks by saying with great earnestness:

"My son, you have been cruelly tried. I am myself ignorant of the reasons which made the Messieurs de

Guise treat you thus; but I advise you in future to live peacefully, without entering into the troubles of the

times; for the favor of the king and queen will not be shown to the makers of revolt. You are not important

enough to play fast and loose with the king as the Guises do. If you wish to be some day counsellor to the

Parliament remember that you cannot obtain that noble office unless by a real and serious attachment to the

Nevertheless, neither President de Thou's visit, nor the seductions of Babette, nor the urgency of his mother,

were sufficient to shake the constancy of the martyr of the Reformation. Christophe held to his religion all the

Christophe answered only by tears, which made the young girl silent and thoughtful.

Old Lecamus maintained his paternal and magisterial dignity; he observed his son and said little. The stern

old man, after recovering his dear Christophe, was dissatisfied with himself; he repented the tenderness he

had shown for this only son; but he admired him secretly. At no period of his life did the syndic pull more

wires to reach his ends, for he saw the field ripe for the harvest so painfully sown, and he wanted to gather

the whole of it. Some days before the morning of which we write, he had had, being alone with Christophe, a

long conversation with him in which he endeavored to discover the secret reason of the young man's

resistance. Christophe, who was not without ambition, betrayed his faith in the Prince de Conde. The

generous promise of the prince, who, of course, was only exercising his profession of prince, remained

graven on his heart; little did he think that Conde had sent him, mentally, to the devil in Orleans, muttering,

"A Gascon would have understood me better," when Christophe called out a touching farewell as the prince

But besides this sentiment of admiration for the prince, Christophe had also conceived a profound reverence

for the great queen, who had explained to him by a single look the necessity which compelled her to sacrifice

him; and who during his agony had given him an illimitable promise in a single tear. During the silent months

of his weakness, as he lay there waiting for recovery, he thought over each event at Blois and at Orleans. He

weighed, one might almost say in spite of himself, the relative worth of these two protections. He floated

between the queen and the prince. He had certainly served Catherine more than he had served the

Reformation, and in a young man both heart and mind would naturally incline toward the queen; less because

she was a queen than because she was a woman. Under such circumstances a man will always hope more

This question Christophe put to himself almost involuntarily as he remembered the tone in which she had

said the words, Povero mio! It is difficult to believe how egotistical a man can become when he lies on a bed

of sickness. Everything, even the exclusive devotion of which he is the object, drives him to think only of

himself. By exaggerating in his own mind the obligation which the Prince de Conde was under to him he had

come to expect that some office would be given to him at the court of Navarre. Still new to the world of

political life, he forgot its contending interests and the rapid march of events which control and force the hand

of all leaders of parties; he forgot it the more because he was practically a prisoner in solitary confinement on

his bed in that old brown room. Each party is, necessarily, ungrateful while the struggle lasts; when it

triumphs it has too many persons to reward not to be ungrateful still. Soldiers submit to this ingratitude; but

their leaders turn against the new master at whose side they have acted and suffered like equals for so long.

Christophe, who alone remembered his sufferings, felt himself already among the leaders of the Reformation

by the fact of his martyrdom. His father, that old fox of commerce, so shrewd, so perspicacious, ended by

divining the secret thought of his son; consequently, all his manoeuvres were now based on the natural

"Wouldn't it be a fine thing," he had said to Babette, in presence of the family a few days before his interview

with his son, "to be the wife of a counsellor of the Parliament? You would be called madame!"

"You are crazy, compere," said Lallier. "Where would you get ten thousand crowns' income from landed

property, which a counsellor must have, according to law; and from whom could you buy the office? No one

but the queenmother and regent could help your son into Parliament, and I'm afraid he's too tainted with the

Counsellor to the Parliament! The words worked powerfully in Christophe's brain.

Sometime after this conversation, one morning when Christophe was gazing at the river and thinking of the

scene which began this history, of the Prince de Conde, Chaudieu, La Renaudie, of his journey to Blois,in

short, the whole story of his hopes,his father came and sat down beside him, scarcely concealing a joyful

"My son," he said, "after what passed between you and the leaders of the Tumult of Amboise, they owe you

"Well," continued his father, "I have asked their permission to buy a legal practice for you in the province of

Bearn. Our good friend Pare undertook to present the letters which I wrote on your behalf to the Prince de

Conde and the queen of Navarre. Here, read the answer of Monsieur de Pibrac, vicechancellor of

"Nerac, Pibrac, crack!" cried Babette. "There's no confidence to be placed in Gascons; they think only of

"They propose to put on horseback a poor boy whose knees and ankles were shattered for their sakes!" cried

"I wish I knew what Queen Catherine would do for me, if I made a claim upon her," said Christophe, cast

"She made you no promise," said the old man, "but I am certain that she will never mock you like these

others; she will remember your sufferings. Still, how can the queen make a counsellor of the Parliament out

"But Christophe has not abjured!" cried Babette. "He can very well keep his private opinions secret."

"The Prince de Conde would be less disdainful of a counsellor of the Parliament," said Lallier.

A few days after this rather bitter disillusion, an apprentice brought Christophe the following laconic little

"Oh! my sacred martyr!" said the minister, embracing him; "have you recovered from your sufferings?"

"Thanks rather to God, who gave you the strength to endure the torture. But what is this I hear? Have you

allowed them to make you a solicitor? Have you taken the oath of fidelity? Surely you will not recognize that

"But ought we not to leave fathers and mothers and wives and children, all, all, for the sacred cause of

Calvinism; nay, must we not suffer all things? Ah! Christophe, Calvin, the great Calvin, the whole party, the

whole world, the Future counts upon your courage and the grandeur of your soul. We want your life."

It is a remarkable fact in the mind of man that the most devoted spirits, even while devoting themselves, build

romantic hopes upon their perilous enterprises. When the prince, the soldier, and the minister had asked

Christophe, under the bridge, to convey to Catherine the treaty which, if discovered, would in all probability

cost him his life, the lad had relied on his nerve, upon chance, upon the powers of his mind, and confident in

such hopes he bravely, nay, audaciously put himself between those terrible adversaries, the Guises and

Catherine. During the torture he still kept saying to himself: "I shall come out of it! it is only pain!" But when

this second and brutal demand, "Die, we want your life," was made upon a boy who was still almost helpless,

scarcely recovered from his late torture, and clinging all the more to life because he had just seen death so

"A vengeance. Have you forgotten the hundred gentlemen massacred on the scaffold at Amboise? A child

who saw that butchery, the little d'Aubigne cried out, 'They have slaughtered France!'"

"You should receive the blows of others and give none; that is the religion of the gospel," said Christophe. "If

you imitate the Catholics in their cruelty, of what good is it to reform the Church?"

"Oh! Christophe, they have made you a lawyer, and now you argue!" said Chaudieu.

"No, my friend," replied the young man, "but parties are ungrateful; and you will be, both you and yours,

"Christophe, if you could hear Calvin, you would know how we wear them like gloves! The Bourbons are the

"Read that," said Christophe, giving Chaudieu Pibrac's letter containing the answer of the Prince de Conde.

"Oh! my son; you are ambitious, you can no longer make the sacrifice of yourself!I pity you!"

Some days after that scene, the Lallier family and the Lecamus family were gathered together in honor of the

formal betrothal of Christophe and Babette, in the old brown hall, from which Christophe's bed had been

removed; for he was now able to drag himself about and even mount the stairs without his crutches. It was

nine o'clock in the evening and the company were awaiting Ambroise Pare. The family notary sat before a

table on which lay various contracts. The furrier was selling his house and business to his headclerk, who

was to pay down forty thousand francs for the house and then mortgage it as security for the payment of the

Lecamus was also buying for his son a magnificent stone house, built by Philibert de l'Orme in the rue

SaintPierreauxBoeufs, which he gave to Christophe as a marriage portion. He also took two hundred

thousand francs from his own fortune, and Lallier gave as much more, for the purchase of a fine seignorial

manor in Picardy, the price of which was five hundred thousand francs. As this manor was a tenure from the

Crown it was necessary to obtain letterspatent (called rescriptions) granted by the king, and also to make

payment to the Crown of considerable feudal dues. The marriage had been postponed until this royal favor

was obtained. Though the burghers of Paris had lately acquired the right to purchase manors, the wisdom of

the privy council had been exercised in putting certain restrictions on the sale of those estates which were

dependencies of the Crown; and the one which old Lecamus had had in his eye for the last dozen years was

among them. Ambroise was pledged to bring the royal ordinance that evening; and the old furrier went and

came from the hall to the door in a state of impatience which showed how great his longrepressed ambition

"My old friend!" cried the surgeon, in an agitated manner, with a glance at the supper table, "let me see your

linen. Good. Oh! you must have wax candles. Quick, quick! get out your best things!"

"The queenmother and the young king are coming to sup with you," replied the surgeon. "They are only

waiting for an old counsellor who agreed to sell his place to Christophe, and with whom Monsieur de Thou

has concluded a bargain. Don't appear to know anything; I have escaped from the Louvre to warn you."

In a second the whole family were astir; Christophe's mother and Babette's aunt bustled about with the

celerity of housekeepers suddenly surprised. But in spite of the apparent confusion into which the news had

thrown the entire family, the precautions were promptly made, with an activity that was nothing short of

marvellous. Christophe, amazed and confounded by such a favor, was speechless, gazing mechanically at

In less than an hour all was changed; the hall was decorated; the suppertable sparkled. Presently the noise of

horses sounded in the street. The light of torches carried by the horsemen of the escort brought all the

burghers of the neighborhood to their windows. The noise soon subsided and the escort rode away, leaving

the queenmother and her son, King Charles IX., Charles de Gondi, now Grandmaster of the wardrobe and

governor of the king, Monsieur de Thou, Pinard, secretary of State, the old counsellor, and two pages, under

"My worthy people," said the queen as she entered, "the king, my son, and I have come to sign the

marriagecontract of the son of my furrier,but only on condition that he remains a Catholic. A man must

be a Catholic to enter Parliament; he must be a Catholic to own land which derives from the Crown; he must

be a Catholic if he would sit at the king's table. That is so, is it not, Pinard?"

"If we are not all Catholics," said the little king, "Pinard will throw those papers into the fire. But we are all

Catholics here, I think," he continued, casting his somewhat haughty eyes over the company.

"Yes, sire," replied Christophe, bending his injured knees with difficulty, and kissing the hand which the king

Queen Catherine stretched out her hand to Christophe and, raising him hastily, drew him aside into a corner,

"Yes, madame," he answered, won by the dazzling reward and the honor done him by the grateful queen.

"Very good. Monsieur Lecamus, the king, my son, and I permit you to purchase the office of the goodman

Groslay, counsellor of the Parliament, here present. Young man, you will follow, I hope, in the steps of your

"Inasmuch as the king our master does us the favor to sign my daughter's marriage contract," cried Lallier, "I

"The ladies may sit down," said the young king, graciously: "As a wedding present to the bride I remit, with

"Mordieu! sire, what quantities of money these burghers have!" whispered de Gondi in his ear.

"As their Highnesses are so kind," said old Lecamus, "will they permit me to present to them my successor,

and ask them to continue to him the royal patent of furrier to their Majesties?"

Old Lecamus had bethought himself of presenting to the king a silver goblet which he had bought of

Benvenuto Cellini when the latter stayed in Paris at the hotel de Nesle. This treasure of art had cost the furrier

"Oh! my dear mother, see this beautiful work!" cried the young king, lifting the goblet by its stem.

"Pardon me, madame," said Lecamus, "it was made in Paris by a Florentine. All that is made in Florence

"I accept it, my good man," cried Charles IX.; "and it shall henceforth be my particular drinking cup."

"It is beautiful enough," said the queen, examining the masterpiece, "to be included among the crownjewels.

Well, Maitre Ambroise," she whispered in the surgeon's ear, with a glance at Christophe, "have you taken

"He will run," replied the surgeon, smiling. "Ah! you have cleverly made him a renegade."

"Ha!" said the queen, with the levity for which she has been blamed, though it was only on the surface, "the

The supper was gay; the queen thought Babette pretty, and, in the regal manner which was natural to her, she

slipped upon the girl's finger a diamond ring which compensated in value for the goblet bestowed upon the

king. Charles IX., who afterwards became rather too fond of these invasions of burgher homes, supped with a

good appetite. Then, at a word from his new governor (who, it is said, was instructed to make him forget the

virtuous teachings of Cypierre), he obliged all the men present to drink so deeply that the queen, observing

that the gaiety was about to become too noisy, rose to leave the room. As she rose, Christophe, his father, and

the two women took torches and accompanied her to the shopdoor. There Christophe ventured to touch the

queen's wide sleeve and to make her a sign that he had something to say. Catherine stopped, made a gesture

"It may serve you to know, madame," replied Christophe, whispering in her ear, "that the Duc de Guise is

"You are a loyal subject," said Catherine, smiling, "and I shall never forget you."

She held out to him her hand, so celebrated for its beauty, first ungloving it, which was indeed a mark of

favor,so much so that Christophe, then and there, became altogether royalist as he kissed that adorable

"So they mean to rid me of that bully without my having a finger in it," thought she as she replaced her glove.

Then she mounted her mule and returned to the Louvre, attended by her two pages.

Christophe went back to the suppertable, but was thoughtful and gloomy even while he drank; the fine,

austere face of Ambroise Pare seemed to reproach him for his apostasy. But subsequent events justified the

manoeuvres of the old syndic. Christophe would certainly not have escaped the massacre of

SaintBartholomew; his wealth and his landed estates would have made him a mark for the murderers.

History has recorded the cruel fate of the wife of Lallier's successor, a beautiful woman, whose naked body

hung by the hair for three days from one of the buttresses of the Pont au Change. Babette trembled as she

thought that she, too, might have endured the same treatment if Christophe had continued a Calvinist,for

such became the name of the Reformers. Calvin's personal ambition was thus gratified, though not until after

Such was the origin of the celebrated parliamentary house of Lecamus. Tallemant des Reaux is in error when

he states that they came originally from Picardy. It is only true that the Lecamus family found it for their

interest in after days to date from the time the old furrier bought their principal estate, which, as we have said,

was situated in Picardy. Christophe's son, who succeeded him under Louis XIII., was the father of the rich

president Lecamus who built, in the reign of Louis XIV., that magnificent mansion which shares with the

hotel Lambert the admiration of Parisians and foreigners, and was assuredly one of the finest buildings in

Paris. It may still be seen in the rue Thorigny, though at the beginning of the Revolution it was pillaged as

having belonged to Monsieur de Juigne, the archbishop of Paris. All the decorations were then destroyed; and

the tenants who lodge there have greatly damaged it; nevertheless this palace, which is reached through the

old house in the rue de la Pelleterie, still shows the noble results obtained in former days by the spirit of

family. It may be doubted whether modern individualism, brought about by the equal division of inheritances,

Between eleven o'clock and midnight toward the end of October, 1573, two Italians, Florentines and brothers,

Albert de Gondi, Duc de Retz and marshal of France, and Charles de Gondi la Tour, Grandmaster of the

robes of Charles IX., were sitting on the roof of a house in the rue SaintHonore, at the edge of a gutter. This

gutter was one of those stone channels which in former days were constructed below the roofs of houses to

receive the rainwater, discharging it at regular intervals through those long gargoyles carved in the shape of

fantastic animals with gaping mouths. In spite of the zeal with which our present general pulls down and

demolishes venerable buildings, there still existed many of these projecting gutters until, quite recently, an

ordinance of the police as to waterconduits compelled them to disappear. But even so, a few of these carved

gargoyles still remain, chiefly in the quartier SaintAntoine, where low rents and values hinder the building

It certainly seems strange that two personages invested with such important offices should be playing the part

of cats. But whosoever will burrow into the historic treasures of those days, when personal interests jostled

and thwarted each other around the throne till the whole political centre of France was like a skein of tangled

thread, will readily understand that the two Florentines were cats indeed, and very much in their places in a

gutter. Their devotion to the person of the queenmother, Catherine de' Mediciwho had brought them to

the court of France and foisted them into their high officescompelled them not to recoil before any of the

consequences of their intrusion. But to explain how and why these courtiers were thus perched, it is necessary

to relate a scene which had taken place an hour earlier not far from this very gutter, in that beautiful brown

room of the Louvre, all that now remains to us of the apartments of Henri II., in which after supper the

courtiers had been paying court to the two queens, Catherine de' Medici and Elizabeth of Austria, and to their

In those days the majority of the burghers and great lords supped at six, or at seven o'clock, but the more

refined and elegant supped at eight or even nine. This repast was the dinner of today. Many persons

erroneously believe that etiquette was invented by Louis XIV.; on the contrary it was introduced into France

by Catherine de' Medici, who made it so severe that the Connetable de Montmorency had more difficulty in

obtaining permission to enter the court of the Louvre on horseback than in winning his sword; moreover, that

unheardof distinction was granted to him only on account of his great age. Etiquette, which was, it is true,

slightly relaxed under the first two Bourbon kings, took an Oriental form under the Great Monarch, for it was

introduced from the Eastern Empire, which derived it from Persia. In 1573 few persons had the right to enter

the courtyard of the Louvre with their servants and torches (under Louis XIV. the coaches of none but dukes

and peers were allowed to pass under the peristyle); moreover, the cost of obtaining entrance after supper to

the royal apartments was very heavy. The Marechal de Retz, whom we have just seen, perched on a gutter,

offered on one occasion a thousand crowns of that day, six thousand francs of our present money, to the usher

of the king's cabinet to be allowed to speak to Henri III. on a day when he was not on duty. To an historian

who knows the truth, it is laughable to see the wellknown picture of the courtyard at Blois, in which the

On the present occasion, therefore, none but the most eminent personages in the kingdom were in the royal

apartments. The queen, Elizabeth of Austria, and her motherinlaw, Catherine de' Medici, were seated

together on the left of the fireplace. On the other side sat the king, buried in an armchair, affecting a lethargy

consequent on digestion,for he had just supped like a prince returned from hunting; possibly he was

seeking to avoid conversation in presence of so many persons who were spies upon his thoughts. The

courtiers stood erect and uncovered at the end of the room. Some talked in a low voice; others watched the

king, awaiting the bestowal of a look or a word. Occasionally one was called up by the queenmother, who

talked with him for a few moments; another risked saying a word to the king, who replied with either a nod or

a brief sentence. A German nobleman, the Comte de Solern, stood at the corner of the fireplace behind the

young queen, the granddaughter of Charles V., whom he had accompanied into France. Near to her on a stool

sat her lady of honor, the Comtesse de Fiesque, a Strozzi, and a relation of Catherine de' Medici. The

beautiful Madame de Sauves, a descendant of Jacques Coeur, mistress of the king of Navarre, then of the

king of Poland, and lastly of the Duc d'Alencon, had been invited to supper; but she stood like the rest of the

court, her husband's rank (that of secretary of State) giving her no right to be seated. Behind these two ladies

stood the two Gondis, talking to them. They alone of this dismal assembly were smiling. Albert Gondi, now

Duc de Retz, marshal of France, and gentleman of the bedchamber, had been deputed to marry the queen by

proxy at Spire. In the first line of courtiers nearest to the king stood the Marechal de Tavannes, who was

present on court business; Neufville de Villeroy, one of the ablest bankers of the period, who laid the

foundation of the great house of that name; Birago and Chiverni, gentlemen of the queenmother, who,

knowing her preference for her son Henri (the brother whom Charles IX. regarded as an enemy), attached

themselves especially to him; then Strozzi, Catherine's cousin; and finally, a number of great lords, among

them the old Cardinal de Lorraine and his nephew, the young Duc de Guise, who were held at a distance by

the king and his mother. These two leaders of the Holy Alliance, and later of the League (founded in

conjunction with Spain a few years earlier), affected the submission of servants who are only waiting an

opportunity to make themselves masters. Catherine and Charles IX. watched each other with close attention.

At this gloomy court, as gloomy as the room in which it was held, each individual had his or her own reasons

for being sad or thoughtful. The young queen, Elizabeth, was a prey to the tortures of jealousy, and could

illdisguise them, though she smiled upon her husband, whom she passionately adored, good and pious

woman that she was! Marie Touchet, the only mistress Charles IX. ever had and to whom he was loyally

faithful, had lately returned from the chateau de Fayet in Dauphine, whither she had gone to give birth to a

child. She brought back to Charles IX. a son, his only son, Charles de Valois, first Comte d'Auvergne, and

afterward Duc d'Angouleme. The poor queen, in addition to the mortification of her abandonment, now

endured the pang of knowing that her rival had borne a son to her husband while she had brought him only a

daughter. And these were not her only troubles and disillusions, for Catherine de' Medici, who had seemed

her friend in the first instance, now, out of policy, favored her betrayal, preferring to serve the mistress rather

When Charles IX. openly avowed his passion for Marie Touchet, Catherine showed favor to the girl in the

interests of her own desire for domination. Marie Touchet, who was very young when brought to court, came

at an age when all the noblest sentiments are predominant. She loved the king for himself alone. Frightened at

the fate to which ambition had led the Duchesse de Valentinois (better known as Diane de Poitiers), she

dreaded the queenmother, and greatly preferred her simple happiness to grandeur. Perhaps she thought that

lovers as young as the king and herself could never struggle successfully against the queenmother. As the

daughter of Jean Touchet, Sieur de Beauvais and Quillard, she was born between the burgher class and the

lower nobility; she had none of the inborn ambitions of the Pisseleus and SaintValliers, girls of rank, who

battled for their families with the hidden weapons of love. Marie Touchet, without family or friends, spared

Catherine de' Medici all antagonism with her son's mistress; the daughter of a great house would have been

her rival. Jean Touchet, the father, one of the finest wits of the time, a man to whom poets dedicated their

works, wanted nothing at court. Marie, a young girl without connections, intelligent and welleducated, and

also simple and artless, whose desires would probably never be aggressive to the royal power, suited the

queenmother admirably. In short, she made the parliament recognize the son to whom Marie Touchet had

just given birth in the month of April, and she allowed him to take the title of Comte d'Auvergne, assuring

Charles IX. that she would leave the boy her personal property, the counties of Auvergne and Laraguais. At a

later period, Marguerite de Valois, queen of Navarre, contested this legacy after she was queen of France, and

the parliament annulled it. But later still, Louis XIII., out of respect for the Valois blood, indemnified the

Catherine had already given Marie Touchet, who asked nothing, the manor of Belleville, an estate close to

Vincennes which carried no title; and thither she went whenever the king hunted and spent the night at the

castle. It was in this gloomy fortress that Charles IX. passed the greater part of his last years, ending his life

The queenmother kept close watch upon her son. All the occupations of his personal life, outside of politics,

were reported to her. The king had begun to look upon his mother as an enemy, but the kind intentions she

expressed toward his son diverted his suspicions for a time. Catherine's motives in this matter were never

understood by Queen Elizabeth, who, according to Brantome, was one of the gentlest queens that ever

reigned, who never did harm or even gave pain to any one, "and was careful to read her prayerbook

secretly." But this single minded princess began at last to see the precipices yawning around the throne,a

dreadful discovery, which might indeed have made her quail; it was some such remembrance, no doubt, that

led her to say to one of her ladies, after the death of the king, in reply to a condolence that she had no son,

"Ah! I thank God that I have no son. I know well what would have happened. My poor son would have been

despoiled and wronged like the king, my husband, and I should have been the cause of it. God had mercy on

This princess, whose portrait Brantome thinks he draws by saying that her complexion was as beautiful and

delicate as the ladies of her suite were charming and agreeable, and that her figure was fine though rather

short, was of little account at her own court. Suffering from a double grief, her saddened attitude added

another gloomy tone to a scene which most young queens, less cruelly injured, might have enlivened. The

pious Elizabeth proved at this crisis that the qualities which are the shining glory of women in the ordinary

ways of life can be fatal to a sovereign. A princess able to occupy herself with other things besides her

prayerbook might have been a useful helper to Charles IX., who found no prop to lean on, either in his wife

The queenmother, as she sat there in that brown room, was closely observing the king, who, during supper,

had exhibited a boisterous goodhumor which she felt to be assumed in order to mask some intention against

her. This sudden gaiety contrasted too vividly with the struggle of mind he endeavored to conceal by his

eagerness in hunting, and by an almost maniacal toil at his forge, where he spent many hours in hammering

iron; and Catherine was not deceived by it. Without being able even to guess which of the statesmen about

the king was employed to prepare or negotiate it (for Charles IX. contrived to mislead his mother's spies),

Catherine felt no doubt whatever that some scheme for her overthrow was being planned. The unlookedfor

presence of Tavannes, who arrived at the same time as Strozzi, whom she herself had summoned, gave her

food for thought. Strong in the strength of her political combination, Catherine was above the reach of

circumstances; but she was powerless against some hidden violence. As many persons are ignorant of the

actual state of public affairs then so complicated by the various parties that distracted France, the leaders of

which had each their private interests to carry out, it is necessary to describe, in a few words, the perilous

game in which the queenmother was now engaged. To show Catherine de' Medici in a new light is, in fact,

Two words explain this woman, so curiously interesting to study, a woman whose influence has left such

deep impressions upon France. Those words are: Power and Astrology. Exclusively ambitious, Catherine de'

Medici had no other passion than that of power. Superstitious and fatalistic, like so many superior men, she

had no sincere belief except in occult sciences. Unless this double mainspring is known, the conduct of

Catherine de' Medici will remain forever misunderstood. As we picture her faith in judicial astrology, the

light will fall upon two personages, who are, in fact, the philosophical subjects of this Study.

There lived a man for whom Catherine cared more than for any of her children; his name was Cosmo

Ruggiero. He lived in a house belonging to her, the hotel de Soissons; she made him her supreme adviser. It

was his duty to tell her whether the stars ratified the advice and judgment of her ordinary counsellors. Certain

remarkable antecedents warranted the power which Cosmo Ruggiero retained over his mistress to her last

hour. One of the most learned men of the sixteenth century was physician to Lorenzo de' Medici, Duc

d'Urbino, Catherine's father. This physician was called Ruggiero the Elder (Vecchio Ruggier and Roger

l'Ancien in the French authors who have written on alchemy), to distinguish him from his two sons, Lorenzo

Ruggiero, called the Great by cabalistic writers, and Cosmo Ruggiero, Catherine's astrologer, also called

Roger by several French historians. In France it was the custom to pronounce the name in general as

Ruggieri. Ruggiero the elder was so highly valued by the Medici that the two dukes, Cosmo and Lorenzo,

stood godfathers to his two sons. He cast, in concert with the famous mathematician, Basilio, the horoscope

of Catherine's nativity, in his official capacity as mathematicion, astrologer, and physician to the house of

At the period of which we write the occult sciences were studied with an ardor that may surprise the

incredulous minds of our own age, which is supremely analytical. Perhaps such minds may find in this

historical sketch the dawn, or rather the germ, of the positive sciences which have flowered in the nineteenth

century, though without the poetic grandeur given to them by the audacious Seekers of the sixteenth, who,

instead of using them solely for mechanical industries, magnified Art and fertilized Thought by their means.

The protection universally given to occult science by the sovereigns of those days was justified by the noble

creations of many inventors, who, starting in quest of the Great Work (the socalled philosophers' stone),

attained to astonishing results. At no period were the sovereigns of the world more eager for the study of

these mysteries. The Fuggers of Augsburg, in whom all modern Luculluses will recognize their princes, and

all bankers their masters, were gifted with powers of calculation it would be difficult to surpass. Well, those

practical men, who loaned the funds of all Europe to the sovereigns of the sixteenth century (as deeply in debt

as the kings of the present day), those illustrious guests of Charles V. were sleeping partners in the crucibles

of Paracelsus. At the beginning of the sixteenth century, Ruggiero the elder was the head of that secret

university from which issued the Cardans, the Nostradamuses, and the Agrippas (all in their turn physicians

of the house of Valois); also the astronomers, astrologers, and alchemists who surrounded the princes of

Christendom and were more especially welcomed and protected in France by Catherine de' Medici. In the

nativity drawn by Basilio and Ruggiero the elder, the principal events of Catherine's life were foretold with a

correctness which is quite disheartening for those who deny the power of occult science. This horoscope

predicted the misfortunes which during the siege of Florence imperilled the beginning of her life; also her

marriage with a son of the king of France, the unexpected succession of that son to his father's throne, the

birth of her children, their number, and the fact that three of her sons would be kings in succession, that two

of her daughters would be queens, and that all of them were destined to die without posterity. This prediction

was so fully realized that many historians have assumed that it was written after the events.

It is well known that Nostradamus took to the chateau de Chaumont, whither Catherine went after the

conspiracy of La Renaudie, a woman who possessed the faculty of reading the future. Now, during the reign

of Francois II., while the queen had with her her four sons, all young and in good health, and before the

marriage of her daughter Elizabeth with Philip II., king of Spain, or that of her daughter Marguerite with

Henri de Bourbon, king of Navarre (afterward Henri IV.), Nostradamus and this woman reiterated the

circumstances formerly predicted in the famous nativity. This woman, who was no doubt gifted with second

sight, and who belonged to the great school of Seekers of the Great Work, though the particulars of her life

and name are lost to history, stated that the last crowned child would be assassinated. Having placed the

queenmother in front of a magic mirror, in which was reflected a wheel on the several spokes of which were

the faces of her children, the sorceress set the wheel revolving, and Catherine counted the number of

revolutions which it made. Each revolution was for each son one year of his reign. Henri IV. was also put

upon the wheel, which then made twentyfour rounds, and the woman (some historians have said it was a

man) told the frightened queen that Henri de Bourbon would be king of France and reign that number of

years. From that time forth Catherine de' Medici vowed a mortal hatred to the man whom she knew would

succeed the last of her Valois sons, who was to die assassinated. Anxious to know what her own death would

be, she was warned to beware of SaintGermain. Supposing, therefore, that she would be either put to death

or imprisoned in the chateau de SaintGermain, she would never so much as put her foot there, although that

residence was far more convenient for her political plans, owing to its proximity to Paris, than the other

castles to which she retreated with the king during the troubles. When she was taken suddenly ill, a few days

after the murder of the Duc de Guise at Blois, she asked the name of the bishop who came to assist her. Being

told it was SaintGermain, she cried out, "I am dead!" and did actually die on the morrow,having,

These predictions, which were known to the Cardinal de Lorraine, who regarded them as witchcraft, were

now in process of realization. Francois II. had reigned his two revolutions of the wheel, and Charles IX. was

now making his last turn. If Catherine said the strange words which history has attributed to her when her son

Henri started for Poland,"You will soon return,"they must be set down to her faith in occult science and

Many other circumstances corroborated Catherine's faith in the occult sciences. The night before the

tournament at which Henri II. was killed, Catherine saw the fatal blow in a dream. Her astrological council,

then composed of Nostradamus and the two Ruggieri, had already predicted to her the death of the king.

History has recorded the efforts made by Catherine to persuade her husband not to enter the lists. The

prognostic, and the dream produced by the prognostic, were verified. The memoirs of the day relate another

fact that was no less singular. The courier who announced the victory of Moncontour arrived in the night,

after riding with such speed that he killed three horses. The queenmother was awakened to receive the news,

to which she replied, "I knew it already." In fact, as Brantome relates, she had told of her son's triumph the

evening before, and narrated several circumstances of the battle. The astrologer of the house of Bourbon

predicted that the youngest of all the princes descended from Saint Louis (the son of Antoine de Bourbon)

would ascend the throne of France. This prediction, related by Sully, was accomplished in the precise terms

of the horoscope; which led Henri IV. to say that by dint of lying these people sometimes hit the truth.

However that may be, if most of the great minds of that epoch believed in this vast science,called Magic

by the masters of judicial astrology, and Sorcery by the public,they were justified in doing so by the

It was for the use of Cosmo Ruggiero, her mathematician, astronomer, and astrologer, that Catherine de'

Medici erected the tower behind the Halle aux Bles,all that now remains of the hotel de Soissons. Cosmo

Ruggiero possessed, like confessors, a mysterious influence, the possession of which, like them again,

sufficed him. He cherished an ambitious thought superior to all vulgar ambitions. This man, whom dramatists

and romancewriters depict as a juggler, owned the rich abbey of SaintMahe in Lower Brittany, and refused

many high ecclesiastical dignities; the gold which the superstitious passions of the age poured into his coffers

sufficed for his secret enterprise; and the queen's hand, stretched above his head, preserved every hair of it

The thirst for power which consumed the queenmother, her desire for dominion, was so great that in order

to retain it she had, as we have seen, allied herself to the Guises, those enemies of the throne; to keep the

reins of power, now obtained, within her hands, she was using every means, even to the sacrifice of her

friends and that of her children. This woman, of whom one of her enemies said at her death, "It is more than a

queen, it is monarchy itself that has died,"this woman could not exist without the intrigues of government,

as a gambler can live only by the emotions of play. Although she was an Italian of the voluptuous race of the

Medici, the Calvinists who calumniated her never accused her of having a lover. A great admirer of the

maxim, "Divide to reign," she had learned the art of perpetually pitting one force against another. No sooner

had she grasped the reins of power than she was forced to keep up dissensions in order to neutralize the

strength of two rival houses, and thus save the Crown. Catherine invented the game of political seesaw

(since imitated by all princes who find themselves in a like situation), by instigating, first the Calvinists

against the Guises, and then the Guises against the Calvinists. Next, after pitting the two religions against

each other in the heart of the nation, Catherine instigated the Duc d'Anjou against his brother Charles IX.

After neutralizing events by opposing them to one another, she neutralized men, by holding the thread of all

their interests in her hands. But so fearful a game, which needs the head of a Louis XI. to play it, draws down

inevitably the hatred of all parties upon the player, who condemns himself forever to the necessity of

The greater part of the reign of Charles IX. witnessed the triumph of the domestic policy of this astonishing

woman. What adroit persuasion must Catherine have employed to have obtained the command of the armies

for the Duc d'Anjou under a young and brave king, thirsting for glory, capable of military achievement,

generous, and in presence, too, of the Connetable de Montmorency. In the eyes of the statesmen of Europe

the Duc d'Anjou had all the honors of the SaintBartholomew, and Charles IX. all the odium. After inspiring

the king with a false and secret jealousy of his brother, she used that passion to wear out by the intrigues of

fraternal jealousy the really noble qualities of Charles IX. Cypierre, the king's first governor, and Amyot, his

first tutor, had made him so great a man, they had paved the way for so noble a reign, that the queenmother

began to hate her son as soon as she found reason to fear the loss of the power she had so slowly and so

painfully obtained. On these general grounds most historians have believed that Catherine de' Medici felt a

preference for Henri III.; but her conduct at the period of which we are now writing, proves the absolute

When the Duc d'Anjou went to reign in Poland Catherine was deprived of the instrument by which she had

worked to keep the king's passions occupied in domestic intrigues, which neutralized his energy in other

directions. She then set up the conspiracy of La Mole and Coconnas, in which her youngest son, the Duc

d'Alencon (afterwards Duc d'Anjou, on the accession of Henri III.) took part, lending himself very willingly

to his mother's wishes, and displaying an ambition much encouraged by his sister Marguerite, then queen of

Navarre. This secret conspiracy had now reached the point to which Catherine sought to bring it. Its object

was to put the young duke and his brotherinlaw, the king of Navarre, at the head of the Calvinists, to seize

the person of Charles IX., and imprison that king without an heir,leaving the throne to the Duc d'Alencon,

whose intention it was to establish Calvinism as the religion of France. Calvin, as we have already said, had

obtained, a few days before his death, the reward he had so deeply coveted,the Reformation was now

If Le Laboureur and other sensible writers had not already proved that La Mole and Coconnas,arrested

fifty nights after the day on which our present history begins, and beheaded the following April,even, we

say, if it had not been made historically clear that these men were the victims of the queenmother's policy,

the part which Cosmo Ruggiero took in this affair would go far to show that she secretly directed their

enterprise. Ruggiero, against whom the king had suspicions, and for whom he cherished a hatred the motives

of which we are about to explain, was included in the prosecution. He admitted having given to La Mole a

wax figure representing the king, which was pierced through the heart by two needles. This method of casting

spells constituted a crime, which, in those days, was punished by death. It presents one of the most startling

and infernal images of hatred that humanity could invent; it pictures admirably the magnetic and terrible

working in the occult world of a constant malevolent desire surrounding the person doomed to death; the

effects of which on the person are exhibited by the figure of wax. The law in those days thought, and thought

justly, that a desire to which an actual form was given should be regarded as a crime of lese majeste. Charles

IX. demanded the death of Ruggiero; Catherine, more powerful than her son, obtained from the Parliament,

through the young counsellor, Lecamus, a commutation of the sentence, and Cosmo was sent to the galleys.

The following year, on the death of the king, he was pardoned by a decree of Henri III., who restored his

But, to return now to the moment of which we are writing, Catherine had, by this time, struck so many blows

on the heart of her son that he was eagerly desirous of casting off her yoke. During the absence of Marie

Touchet, Charles IX., deprived of his usual occupation, had taken to observing everything about him. He

cleverly set traps for the persons in whom he trusted most, in order to test their fidelity. He spied on his

mother's actions, concealing from her all knowledge of his own, employing for this deception the evil

qualities she had fostered in him. Consumed by a desire to blot out the horror excited in France by the

SaintBartholomew, he busied himself actively in public affairs; he presided at the Council, and tried to seize

the reins of government by welllaid schemes. Though the queenmother endeavored to check these attempts

of her son by employing all the means of influence over his mind which her maternal authority and a long

habit of domineering gave her, his rush into distrust was so vehement that he went too far at the first bound

ever to return from it. The day on which his mother's speech to the king of Poland was reported to him,

Charles IX., conscious of his failing health, conceived the most horrible suspicions, and when such thoughts

take possession of the mind of a son and a king nothing can remove them. In fact, on his deathbed, at the

moment when he confided his wife and daughter to Henri IV., he began to put the latter on his guard against

Catherine, so that she cried out passionately, endeavoring to silence him, "Do not say that, monsieur!"

Though Charles IX. never ceased to show her the outward respect of which she was so tenacious that she

would never call the kings her sons anything but "Monsieur," the queenmother had detected in her son's

manner during the last few months an illdisguised purpose of vengeance. But clever indeed must be the man

who counted on taking Catherine unawares. She held ready in her hand at this moment the conspiracy of the

Duke d'Alencon and La Mole, in order to counteract, by another fraternal struggle, the efforts Charles IX.

was making toward emancipation. But, before employing this means, she wanted to remove his distrust of

her, which would render impossible their future reconciliation; for was he likely to restore power to the hands

of a mother whom he thought capable of poisoning him? She felt herself at this moment in such serious

danger that she had sent for Strozzi, her relation and a soldier noted for his promptitude of action. She took

counsel in secret with Birago and the two Gondis, and never did she so frequently consult her oracle, Cosmo

Though the habit of dissimulation, together with advancing age, had given the queenmother that

wellknown abbess face, with its haughty and macerated mask, expressionless yet full of depth, inscrutable

yet vigilant, remarked by all who have studied her portrait, the courtiers now observed some clouds on her

icy countenance. No sovereign was ever so imposing as this woman from the day when she succeeded in

restraining the Guises after the death of Francois II. Her black velvet cap, made with a point upon the

forehead (for she never relinquished her widow's mourning) seemed a species of feminine cowl around the

cold, imperious face, to which, however, she knew how to give, at the right moment, a seductive Italian

charm. Catherine de' Medici was so well made that she was accused of inventing sidesaddles to show the

shape of her legs, which were absolutely perfect. Women followed her example in this respect throughout

Europe, which even then took its fashions from France. Those who desire to bring this grand figure before

their minds will find that the scene now taking place in the brown hall of the Louvre presents it in a striking

The two queens, different in spirit, in beauty, in dress, and now estranged,one naive and thoughtful, the

other thoughtful and gravely abstracted,were far too preoccupied to think of giving the order awaited by

the courtiers for the amusements of the evening. The carefully concealed drama, played for the last six

months by the mother and son was more than suspected by many of the courtiers; but the Italians were

During this evening Charles IX., weary with the day's hunting, looked to be forty years old. He had reached

the last stages of the malady of which he died, the symptoms of which were such that many reflecting persons

were justified in thinking that he was poisoned. According to de Thou (the Tacitus of the Valois) the surgeons

found suspicious spotsex causa incognita reperti livoreson his body. Moreover, his funeral was even

more neglected than that of Francois II. The body was conducted from SaintLazare to SaintDenis by

Brantome and a few archers of the guard under command of the Comte de Solern. This circumstances,

coupled with the supposed hatred of the mother to the son, may or may not give color to de Thou's

supposition, but it proves how little affection Catherine felt for any of her children,a want of feeling which

may be explained by her implicit faith in the predictions of judicial astrology. This woman was unable to feel

affection for the instruments which were destined to fail her. Henri III. was the last king under whom her

reign of power was to last; that was the sole consideration of her heart and mind.

In these days, however, we can readily believe that Charles IX. died a natural death. His excesses, his manner

of life, the sudden development of his faculties, his last spasmodic attempt to recover the reins of power, his

desire to live, the abuse of his vital strength, his final sufferings and last pleasures, all prove to an impartial

mind that he died of consumption, a disease scarcely studied at that time, and very little understood, the

symptoms of which might, not unnaturally, lead Charles IX. to believe himself poisoned. The real poison

which his mother gave him was in the fatal counsels of the courtiers whom she placed about him,men who

led him to waste his intellectual as well as his physical vigor, thus bringing on a malady which was purely

fortuitous and not constitutional. Under these harrowing circumstances, Charles IX. displayed a gloomy

majesty of demeanor which was not unbecoming to a king. The solemnity of his secret thoughts was reflected

on his face, the olive tones of which he inherited from his mother. This ivory pallor, so fine by candlelight, so

suited to the expression of melancholy thought, brought out vigorously the fire of the blueblack eyes, which

gazed from their thick and heavy lids with the keen perception our fancy lends to kings, their color being a

cloak for dissimulation. Those eyes were terrible,especially from the movement of their brows, which he

could raise or lower at will on his bald, high forehead. His nose was broad and long, thick at the end,the

nose of a lion; his ears were large, his hair sandy, his lips bloodred, like those of all consumptives, the upper

lip thin and sarcastic, the lower one firm, and full enough to give an impression of the noblest qualities of the

heart. The wrinkles of his brow, the youth of which was killed by dreadful cares, inspired the strongest

interest; remorse, caused by the uselessness of the SaintBartholomew, accounted for some, but there were

two others on that face which would have been eloquent indeed to any student whose premature genius had

led him to divine the principles of modern physiology. These wrinkles made a deeply indented furrow going

from each cheekbone to each corner of the mouth, revealing the inward efforts of an organization wearied

by the toil of thought and the violent excitements of the body. Charles IX. was wornout. If policy did not

stifle remorse in the breasts of those who sit beneath the purple, the queenmother, looking at her own work,

would surely have felt it. Had Catherine foreseen the effect of her intrigues upon her son, would she have

recoiled from them? What a fearful spectacle was this! A king born vigorous, and now so feeble; a mind

powerfully tempered, shaken by distrust; a man clothed with authority, conscious of no support; a firm mind

brought to the pass of having lost all confidence in itself! His warlike valor had changed by degrees to

ferocity; his discretion to deceit; the refined and delicate love of a Valois was now a mere quenchless thirst

for pleasure. This perverted and misjudged great man, with all the many facets of a noble soul wornout,a

king without power, a generous heart without a friend, dragged hither and thither by a thousand conflicting

intrigues, presented the melancholy spectacle of a youth, only twentyfour years old, disillusioned of life,

distrusting everybody and everything, now resolving to risk all, even his life, on a last effort. For some time

past he had fully understood his royal mission, his power, his resources, and the obstacles which his mother

opposed to the pacification of the kingdom; but alas! this light now burned in a shattered lantern.

Two men, whom Charles IX. loved sufficiently to protect under circumstances of great danger,Jean

Chapelain, his physician, whom he saved from the SaintBartholomew, and Ambroise Pare, with whom he

went to dine when Pare's enemies were accusing him of intending to poison the king,had arrived this

evening in haste from the provinces, recalled by the queenmother. Both were watching their master

anxiously. A few courtiers spoke to them in a low voice; but the men of science made guarded answers,

carefully concealing the fatal verdict which was in their minds. Every now and then the king would raise his

heavy eyelids and give his mother a furtive look which he tried to conceal from those about him. Suddenly he

"Monsieur de Chiverni," he said abruptly, "why do you keep the title of chancellor of Anjou and Poland? Are

"Then come to me tomorrow; I intend to send you to Spain. Very strange things are happening at the court

"Strange things are happening everywhere," said the Marechal de Tavannes, one of the friends of the king's

The king rose again and led this companion of his youthful pleasures apart into the embrasure of the window

"I want you. Remain here when the others go. I shall know tonight whether you are for me or against me.

Don't look astonished. I am about to burst my bonds. My mother is the cause of all the evil about me. Three

months hence I shall be king indeed, or dead. Silence, if you value your life! You will have my secret, you

and Solern and Villeroy only. If it is betrayed, it will be by one of you three. Don't keep near me; go and pay

your court to my mother. Tell her I am dying, and that you don't regret it, for I am only a poor creature."

The king was leaning on the shoulder of his old favorite, and pretending to tell him of his ailments, in order

to mislead the inquisitive eyes about him; then, not wishing to make his aversion too visible, he went up to

Just then Pinard, one of the secretaries of State, glided like an eel through the door and along the wall until he

reached the queenmother, in whose ear he said a few words, to which she replied by an affirmative sign.

The king did not ask his mother the meaning of this conference, but he returned to his seat and kept silence,

This little circumstance seemed of enormous consequence in the eyes of the courtiers; and, in truth, so

marked an exercise of power by the queenmother, without reference to the king, was like a drop of water

overflowing the cup. Queen Elizabeth and the Comtesse de Fiesque now retired, but the king paid no

attention to their movements, though the queenmother rose and attended her daughterinlaw to the door;

after which the courtiers, understanding that their presence was unwelcome, took their leave. By ten o'clock

no one remained in the hall but a few intimates,the two Gondis, Tavannes, Solern, Birago, the king, and

The king sat plunged in the blackest melancholy. The silence was oppressive. Catherine seemed embarrassed.

She wished to leave the room, and waited for the king to escort her to the door; but he still continued

obstinately lost in thought. At last she rose to bid him goodnight, and Charles IX. was forced to do likewise.

As she took his arm and made a few steps toward the door, she bent to his ear and whispered:

Passing a mirror on her way, she glanced into it and made a sign with her eyes to the two Gondis, which

escaped the king's notice, for he was at the moment exchanging looks of intelligence with the Comte de

"Sire," said the latter, coming out of his reverie, "I think you are royally ennuyed; don't you ever amuse

yourself now? Vive Dieu! have you forgotten the times when we used to vagabondize about the streets at

"Why not bring them back?" said Birago, glancing significantly at the Gondis as he took his leave.

"Yes, I always think of those days with pleasure," said Albert de Gondi, Duc de Retz.

"I'd like to see you on the roofs once more, monsieur le duc," remarked Tavannes. "Damned Italian cat! I

"I don't know which of us two could climb the quickest in these days," replied de Gondi; "but one thing I do

"Well, sire, will you start upon a frolic in the streets tonight, as you did in the days of your youth?" said the

The days of his youth! so at twentyfour years of age the wretched king seemed no longer young to any one,

Tavannes and his master now reminded each other, like two schoolboys, of certain pranks they had played

in Paris, and the evening's amusement was soon arranged. The two Italians, challenged to climb roofs, and

jump from one to another across alleys and streets, wagered that they would follow the king wherever he

went. They and Tavannes went off to change their clothes. The Comte de Solern, left alone with the king,

looked at him in amazement. Though the worthy German, filled with compassion for the hapless position of

the king of France, was honor and fidelity itself, he was certainly not quick of perception. Charles IX.,

surrounded by hostile persons, unable to trust any one, not even his wife (who had been guilty of some

indiscretions, unaware as she was that his mother and his servants were his enemies), had been fortunate

enough to find in Monsieur de Solern a faithful friend in whom he could place entire confidence. Tavannes

and Villeroy were trusted with only a part of the king's secrets. The Comte de Solern alone knew the whole of

the plan which he was now about to carry out. This devoted friend was also useful to his master, in

possessing a body of discreet and affectionate followers, who blindly obeyed his orders. He commanded a

detachment of the archers of the guards, and for the last few days he had been sifting out the men who were

faithfully attached to the king, in order to make a company of tried men when the need came. The king took

"Why are you surprised, Solern?" he said. "You know very well I need a pretext to be out tonight. It is true,

I have Madame de Belleville, but this is better; for who knows whether my mother does not hear of all that

Monsieur de Solern, who was to follow the king, asked if he might not take a few of his Germans to patrol

the streets, and Charles consented. About eleven o'clock the king, who was now very gay, set forth with his

"I'll go and take my little Marie by surprise," said Charles IX. to Tavannes, "as we pass through the rue de

l'Autruche." That street being on the way to the rue SaintHonore, it would have been strange indeed for the

Looking out for a chance of mischief,a belated burgher to frighten, or a watchman to thrashthe king

went along with his nose in the air, watching all the lighted windows to see what was happening, and striving

to hear the conversations. But alas! he found his good city of Paris in a state of deplorable tranquillity.

Suddenly, as he passed the house of a perfumer named Rene, who supplied the court, the king, noticing a

strong light from a window in the roof, was seized by one of those apparently hasty inspirations which, to

This perfumer was strongly suspected of curing rich uncles who thought themselves ill. The court laid at his

door the famous "Elixir of Inheritance," and even accused him of poisoning Jeanne d'Albret, mother of Henri

of Navarre, who was buried (in spite of Charles IX.'s positive order) without her head being opened. For the

last two months the king had sought some way of sending a spy into Rene's laboratory, where, as he was well

aware, Cosmo Ruggiero spent much time. The king intended, if anything suspicious were discovered, to

proceed in the matter alone, without the assistance of the police or law, with whom, as he well knew, his

It is certain that during the sixteenth century, and the years that preceded and followed it, poisoning was

brought to a perfection unknown to modern chemistry, as history itself will prove. Italy, the cradle of modern

science, was, at this period, the inventor and mistress of these secrets, many of which are now lost. Hence the

reputation for that crime which weighed for the two following centuries on Italy. Romancewriters have so

greatly abused it that wherever they have introduced Italians into their tales they have almost always made

them play the part of assassins and poisoners.[*] If Italy then had the traffic in subtle poisons which some

historians attribute to her, we should remember her supremacy in the art of toxicology, as we do her

preeminence in all other human knowledge and art in which she took the lead in Europe. The crimes of that

period were not her crimes specially. She served the passions of the age, just as she built magnificent edifices,

commanded armies, painted noble frescos, sang romances, loved queens, delighted kings, devised ballets and

fetes, and ruled all policies. The horrible art of poisoning reached to such a pitch in Florence that a woman,

dividing a peach with a duke, using a golden fruitknife with one side of its blade poisoned, ate one half of

the peach herself and killed the duke with the other half. A pair of perfumed gloves were known to have

infiltrated mortal illness through the pores of the skin. Poison was instilled into bunches of natural roses, and

the fragrance, when inhaled, gave death. Don John of Austria was poisoned, it was said, by a pair of boots.

Charles IX. had good reason to be curious in the matter; we know already the dark suspicions and beliefs

The old fountain at the corner of the rue de l'ArbreSee, which has since been rebuilt, offered every facility

for the royal vagabonds to climb upon the roof of a house not far from that of Rene, which the king wished to

visit. Charles, followed by his companions, began to ramble over the roofs, to the great terror of the burghers

awakened by the tramp of these false thieves, who called to them in saucy language, listened to their talk, and

even pretended to force an entrance. When the Italians saw the king and Tavannes threading their way among

the roofs of the house next to that of Rene, Albert de Gondi sat down, declaring that he was tired, and his

Tavannes began to laugh at the two Florentines, left sitting alone in the midst of deep silence, in a place

where they had nought but the skies above them, and the cats for auditors. But the brothers made use of their

position to exchange thoughts they would not dare to utter on any other spot in the world,thoughts inspired

"Albert," said the Grandmaster to the marechal, "the king will get the better of the queenmother; we are

doing a foolish thing for our own interests to stay by those of Catherine. If we go over to the king now, when

he is searching everywhere for support against her and for able men to serve him, we shall not be driven away

"You wouldn't get far with such ideas, Charles," replied the marechal, gravely. "You'd follow the king into

the grave, and he won't live long; he is ruined by excesses. Cosmo Ruggiero predicts his death within a year."

"The dying boar has often killed the huntsman," said Charles de Gondi. "This conspiracy of the Duc

d'Alencon, the king of Navarre, and the Prince de Conde, with whom La Mole and Coconnas are negotiating,

is more dangerous than useful. In the first place, the king of Navarre, whom the queenmother hoped to catch

in the very act, distrusts her, and declines to run his head into the noose. He means to profit by the conspiracy

without taking any of its risks. Besides, the notion now is to put the crown on the head of the Duc d'Alencon,

"Budelone! but don't you see that this conspiracy enables the queen mother to find out what the Huguenots

can do with the Duc d'Alencon, and what the king can do with the Huguenots?for the king is even now

negotiating with them; but he'll be finely pilloried tomorrow, when Catherine reveals to him the

"Ah!" exclaimed Charles de Gondi, "by dint of profiting by our advice she's clever and stronger than we!

"All right for the Duc d'Anjou, who prefers to be king of France rather than king of Poland; I am going now

"Tomorrow. I am ordered to accompany the king of Poland; and I expect to join him in Venice, where the

"Che bestia! I swear to you there is not the slightest danger for either of us in remaining at court. If there

were, do you think I would go away? I should stay by the side of our kind mistress."

"Kind!" exclaimed the Grandmaster; "she is a woman to drop all her instruments the moment she finds them

"O coglione! you pretend to be a soldier, and you fear death! Every business has its duties, and we have ours

in making our fortune. By attaching ourselves to kings, the source of all temporal power which protects,

elevates, and enriches families, we are forced to give them as devoted a love as that which burns in the hearts

of martyrs toward heaven. We must suffer in their cause; when they sacrifice us to the interests of their throne

we may perish, for we die as much for ourselves as for them, but our name and our families perish not.

"You are right as to yourself, Albert; for they have given you the ancient title and duchy of de Retz."

"Now listen to me," replied his brother. "The queen hopes much from the cleverness of the Ruggieri; she

expects them to bring the king once more under her control. When Charles refused to use Rene's perfumes

any longer the wary woman knew at once on whom his suspicions really rested. But who can tell the schemes

that are in his mind? Perhaps he is only hesitating as to what fate he shall give his mother; he hates her, you

know. He said a few words about it to his wife; she repeated them to Madame de Fiesque, and Madame de

"To lay hold of the king's mind," replied the Grandmaster, who, if he was not so much in the queen's

"Charles, I have opened a great career to you," said his brother gravely. "If you wish to be a duke also, be, as

I am, the accomplice and cat'spaw of our mistress; she is the strongest here, and she will continue in power.

Madame de Sauves is on her side, and the king of Navarre and the Duc d'Alencon are still for Madame de

Sauves. Catherine holds the pair in a leash under Charles IX., and she will hold them in future under Henri

"Hush! what noise is that I hear in the rue SaintHonore?" cried the Grandmaster. "Listen! there is some

one at Rene's door! Don't you hear the footsteps of many men. Can they have arrested the Ruggieri?"

"Ah, diavolo! this is prudence indeed. The king has not shown his usual impetuosity. But where will they

The two brothers reached the corner of the rue de l'Autruche just as the king was entering the house of his

mistress, Marie Touchet. By the light of the torches which the concierge carried, they distinguished Tavannes

"Hey, Tavannes!" cried the grandmaster, running after the king's companion, who had turned and was

"We fell into a nest of sorcerers and arrested two, compatriots of yours, who may perhaps be able to explain

to the minds of French gentlemen how you, who are not Frenchmen, have managed to lay hands on two of

the chief offices of the Crown," replied Tavannes, half jesting, half in earnest.

"But the king?" inquired the Grandmaster, who cared little for Tavanne's enmity.

"We reached our present distinction through an absolute devotion to our masters,a noble course, my dear

The three courtiers walked on in silence. At the moment when they parted, on meeting their servants who

then escorted them, two men glided swiftly along the walls of the rue de l'Autruche. These men were the king

and the Comte de Solern, who soon reached the banks of the Seine, at a point where a boat and two rowers,

carefully selected by de Solern, awaited them. In a very few moments they reached the other shore.

"My mother has not gone to bed," cried the king. "She will see us; we chose a bad place for the interview."

"She will think it a duel," replied Solern; "and she cannot possibly distinguish who we are at this distance."

The king and his confidant sprang ashore and walked quickly in the direction of the PreauxClercs. When

they reached it the Comte de Solern, preceding the king, met a man who was evidently on the watch, and with

whom he exchanged a few words; the man then retired to a distance. Presently two other men, who seemed to

be princes by the marks of respect which the first man paid to them, left the place where they were evidently

hiding behind the broken fence of a field, and approached the king, to whom they bent the knee. But Charles

A venerable old man, who might have been taken for the Chancelier de l'Hopital, had the latter not died in the

preceding year, now joined the three gentlemen, all four walking rapidly so as to reach a spot where their

conference could not be overheard by their attendants. The Comte de Solern followed at a slight distance to

keep watch over the king. That faithful servant was filled with a distrust not shared by Charles IX., a man to

whom life was now a burden. He was the only person on the king's side who witnessed this mysterious

"Sire," said one of the newcomers, "the Connetable de Montmorency, the closest friend of the king your

father, agreed with the Marechal de SaintAndre in declaring that Madame Catherine ought to be sewn up in

a sack and flung into the river. If that had been done then, many worthy persons would still be alive."

"But, sire," said the youngest of the four personages, "if you merely banish her, from the depths of her exile

Queen Catherine will continue to stir up strife, and to find auxiliaries. We have everything to fear from the

Guises, who, for the last nine years, have schemed for a vast Catholic alliance, in the secret of which your

Majesty is not included; and it threatens your throne. This alliance was invented by Spain, which will never

renounce its project of destroying the boundary of the Pyrenees. Sire, Calvinism will save France by setting

up a moral barrier between her and a nation which covets the empire of the world. If the queenmother is

"Gentlemen," said the king, "know this, if by your help peace without distrust is once established, I will take

upon myself the duty of making all subjects tremble. TeteDieu! it is time indeed for royalty to assert itself.

My mother is right in that, at any rate. You ought to know that it is to your interest was well as mine, for your

hands, your fortunes depend upon our throne. If religion is overthrown, the hands you allow to do it will be

laid next upon the throne and then upon you. I no longer care to fight ideas with weapons that cannot touch

them. Let us see now if Protestantism will make progress when left to itself; above all, I would like to see

with whom and what the spirit of that faction will wrestle. The admiral, God rest his soul! was not my enemy;

he swore to me to restrain the revolt within spiritual limits, and to leave the ruling of the kingdom to the

monarch, his master, with submissive subjects. Gentlemen, if the matter be still within your power, set that

example now; help your sovereign to put down a spirit of rebellion which takes tranquillity from each and all

of us. War is depriving us of revenue; it is ruining the kingdom. I am weary of these constant troubles; so

weary, that if it is absolutely necessary I will sacrifice my mother. Nay, I will go farther; I will keep an equal

number of Protestants and Catholics about me, and I will hold the axe of Louis XI. above their heads to force

them to be on good terms. If the Messieurs de Guise plot a Holy Alliance to attack our crown, the executioner

shall begin with their heads. I see the miseries of my people, and I will make short work of the great lords

who care little for consciences,let them hold what opinions they like; what I want in future is submissive

subjects, who will work, according to my will, for the prosperity of the State. Gentlemen, I give you ten days

to negotiate with your friends, to break off your plots, and to return to me who will be your father. if you

refuse you will see great changes. I shall use the mass of the people, who will rise at my voice against the

lords. I will make myself a king who pacificates his kingdom by striking down those who are more powerful

even than you, and who dare defy him. If the troops fail me, I have my brother of Spain, on whom I shall call

to defend our menaced thrones, and if I lack a minister to carry out my will, he can lend me the Duke of

"But in that case, sire, we should have Germans to oppose to your Spaniards," said one of his hearers.

"Cousin," replied Charles IX., coldly, "my wife's name is Elizabeth of Austria; support might fail you on the

German side. But, for Heaven's sake, let us fight, if fight we must, alone, without the help of foreigners. You

are the object of my mother's hatred, and you stand near enough to me to be my second in the duel I am about

to fight with her; well then, listen to what I now say. You seem to me so worthy of confidence that I offer you

The prince to whom Charles IX. had addressed himself, struck his hand into that of the king, exclaiming:

"Ventresaintgris! brother; this is enough to make me forget many wrongs. But, sire, the head cannot march

without the tail, and ours is a long tail to drag. Give me more than ten days; we want at least a month to make

"A month, so be it! My only negotiator will be Villeroy; trust no one else, no matter what is said to you."

"Gentlemen, we are five," said the king,"five men of honor. If any betrayal takes place, we shall know on

The three strangers kissed the hand of Charles IX. and took leave of him with every mark of the utmost

respect. As the king recrossed the Seine, four o'clock was ringing from the clocktower of the Louvre. Lights

"Dear count, what do you think of a king who is reduced to become a conspirator?" said Charles IX., bitterly,

"I think, sire, that if you would allow me to fling that woman into the river, as your young cousin said, France

"What! a parricide in addition to the SaintBartholomew, count?" cried the king. "No, no! I will exile her.

"Well, then, sire," replied the Comte de Solern, "give me the order to arrest her at once and take her out of the

"Come to my forge," said the king, "no one can overhear us there; besides, I don't want my mother to suspect

the capture of the Ruggieri. If she knows I am in my workshop she'll suppose nothing, and we can consult

As the king entered a lower room of the palace, which he used for a workshop, he called his companion's

"I don't believe," he said, "among all the kings that France will ever have, there'll be another to take pleasure

in such work as that. But when I am really king, I'll forge no swords; they shall all go back into their

"Sire," said the Comte de Solern, "the fatigues of tennis and hunting, your toil at this forge, andif I may say

itlove, are chariots which the devil is offering you to get the faster to SaintDenis."

"Solern," said the king, in a piteous tone, "if you knew the fire they have put into my soul and body! nothing

"Very good; then, during this coming day I shall take my own course. Think of the proper means of making

the arrest, and I will give you my final orders by five o'clock at Madame de Belleville's."

As the first rays of dawn were struggling with the lights of the workshop, Charles IX., left alone by the

departure of the Comte de Solern, heard the door of the apartment turn on its hinges, and saw his mother

standing within it in the dim light like a phantom. Though very nervous and impressible, the king did not

quiver, albeit, under the circumstances in which he then stood, this apparition had a certain air of mystery and

"I am fulfilling my horoscope," he replied with a bitter smile. "But you, madame, you appear to be as early as

"We have both been up all night, monsieur; but with very different intentions. While you have been

conferring with your worst enemies in the open fields, concealing your acts from your mother, assisted by

Tavannes and the Gondis, with whom you have been scouring the town, I have been reading despatches

which contained the proofs of a terrible conspiracy in which your brother, the Duc d'Alencon, your

brotherin law, the king of Navarre, the Prince de Conde, and half the nobles of your kingdom are taking

part. Their purpose is nothing less than to take the crown from your head and seize your person. Those

"My brother! gone over to the Huguenots!" cried Charles, brandishing the piece of iron which he held in his

"Yes; the Duc d'Alencon, Huguenot at heart, will soon be one before the eyes of the world. Your sister, the

queen of Navarre, has almost ceased to love you; she cares more for the Duc d'Alencon; she cares of Bussy;

"That little La Mole," went on the queen, "wishes to make himself a great man by giving France a king of his

"Curse that Margot!" cried the king. "This is what comes of her marriage with a heretic."

"Heretic or not is of no consequence; the trouble is that, in spite of my advice, you have brought the head of

the younger branch too near the throne by that marriage, and Henri's purpose is now to embroil you with the

rest and make you kill one another. The house of Bourbon is the enemy of the house of Valois; remember

that, monsieur. All younger branches should be kept in a state of poverty, for they are born conspirators. It is

sheer folly to give them arms when they have none, or to leave them in possession of arms when they seize

them. Let every younger son be made incapable of doing harm; that is the law of Crowns; the Sultans of Asia

follow it. The proofs of this conspiracy are in my room upstairs, where I asked you to follow me last evening,

when you bade me goodnight; but instead of doing so, it seems you had other plans. I therefore waited for

you. If we do not take the proper measures immediately you will meet the fate of Charles the Simple within a

"A month!" exclaimed the king, thunderstruck at the coincidence of that period with the delay asked for by

the princes themselves. "'In a month we shall be masters,'" he added to himself, quoting their words.

"They are unanswerable, monsieur; they come from my daughter Marguerite. Alarmed herself at the

possibilities of such a combination, her love for the throne of the Valois has proved stronger, this time, than

all her other loves. She asks, as the price of her revelations that nothing shall be done to La Mole; but the

scoundrel seems to me a dangerous villain whom we had better be rid of, as well as the Comte de Coconnas,

your brother d'Alencon's right hand. As for the Prince de Conde, he consents to everything, provided I am

thrown into the sea; perhaps that is the wedding present he gives me in return for the pretty wife I gave him!

All this is a serious matter, monsieur. You talk of horoscopes! I know of the prediction which gives the

throne of the Valois to the Bourbons, and if we do not take care it will be fulfilled. Do not be angry with your

sister; she has behaved well in this affair. My son," continued the queen, after a pause, giving a tone of

tenderness to her words, "evil persons on the side of the Guises are trying to sow dissensions between you

and me; and yet we are the only ones in the kingdom whose interests are absolutely identical. You blame me,

I know, for the SaintBartholomew; you accuse me of having forced you into it. Catholicism, monsieur, must

be the bond between France, Spain, and Italy, three countries which can, by skilful management, secretly

planned, be united in course of time, under the house of Valois. Do not deprive yourself of such chances by

loosing the cord which binds the three kingdoms in the bonds of a common faith. Why should not the Valois

and the Medici carry out for their own glory the scheme of Charles the Fifth, whose head failed him? Let us

fling off that race of Jeanne la Folle. The Medici, masters of Florence and of Rome, will force Italy to support

your interests; they will guarantee you advantages by treaties of commerce and alliance which shall recognize

your fiefs in Piedmont, the Milanais, and Naples, where you have rights. These, monsieur, are the reasons of

the war to the death which we make against the Huguenots. Why do you force me to repeat these things?

Charlemagne was wrong in advancing toward the north. France is a body whose heart is on the Gulf of

Lyons, and its two arms over Spain and Italy. Therefore, she must rule the Mediterranean, that basket into

which are poured all the riches of the Orient, now turned to the profit of those seigneurs of Venice, in the

very teeth of Philip II. If the friendship of the Medici and your rights justify you in hoping for Italy, force,

alliances, or a possible inheritance may give you Spain. Warn the house of Austria as to this,that ambitious

house to which the Guelphs sold Italy, and which is even now hankering after Spain. Though your wife is of

that house, humble it! Clasp it so closely that you will smother it! There are the enemies of your kingdom;

thence comes help to the Reformers. Do not listen to those who find their profit in causing us to disagree, and

who torment your life by making you believe I am your secret enemy. Have I prevented you from having

heirs? Why has your mistress given you a son, and your wife a daughter? Why have you not today three

legitimate heirs to root out the hopes of these seditious persons? Is it I, monsieur, who am responsible for

As she ended these words, Catherine fixed upon her son the magnetic glance of a bird of prey upon its victim.

The daughter of the Medici became magnificent; her real self shone upon her face, which, like that of a

gambler over the green table, glittered with vast cupidities. Charles IX. saw no longer the mother of one man,

but (as was said of her) the mother of armies and of empires,mater castrorum. Catherine had now spread

wide the wings of her genius, and boldly flown to the heights of the Medici and Valois policy, tracing once

more the mighty plans which terrified in earlier days her husband Henri II., and which, transmitted by the

genius of the Medici to Richelieu, remain in writing among the papers of the house of Bourbon. But Charles

IX., hearing the unusual persuasions his mother was using, thought that there must be some necessity for

them, and he began to ask himself what could be her motive. He dropped his eyes; he hesitated; his distrust

was not lessened by her studied phrases. Catherine was amazed at the depths of suspicion she now beheld in

"Well, monsieur," she said, "do you not understand me? What are we, you and I, in comparison with the

eternity of royal crowns? Do you suppose me to have other designs than those that ought to actuate all royal

"Act!" cried Catherine; "let our enemies alone; let them act; take them redhanded, and law and justice will

The queen withdrew; the king remained alone for a few moments, for he was utterly overwhelmed.

"On which side is the trap?" thought he. "Which of the twoshe or theydeceive me? What is my best

policy? Deus, discerne causam meam!" he muttered with tears in his eyes. "Life is a burden to me! I prefer

death, natural or violent, to these perpetual torments!" he cried presently, bringing down his hammer upon the

"My God!" he said, as he went outside and looked up at the sky, "thou for whose holy religion I struggle, give

me the light of thy countenance that I may penetrate the secrets of my mother's heart while I question the

The little house of Madame de Belleville, where Charles IX. had deposited his prisoners, was the last but one

in the rue de l'Autruche on the side of the rue SaintHonore. The street gate, flanked by two little brick

pavilions, seemed very simple in those days, when gates and their accessories were so elaborately treated. It

had two pilasters of stone cut in facets, and the coping represented a reclining woman holding a cornucopia.

The gate itself, closed by enormous locks, had a wicket through which to examine those who asked

admittance. In each pavilion lived a porter; for the king's extremely capricious pleasure required a porter by

day and by night. The house had a little courtyard, paved like those of Venice. At this period, before carriages

were invented, ladies went about on horseback, or in litters, so that courtyards could be made magnificent

without fear of injury from horses or carriages. This fact is always to be remembered as an explanation of the

narrowness of streets, the small size of courtyards, and certain other details of the private dwellings of the

The house, of one story only above the groundfloor, was capped by a sculptured frieze, above which rose a

roof with four sides, the peak being flattened to form a platform. Dormer windows were cut in this roof, with

casings and pediments which the chisel of some great artist had covered with arabesques and dentils; each of

the three windows on the main floor were equally beautiful in stone embroidery, which the brick of the walls

showed off to great advantage. On the groundfloor, a double portico, very delicately decorated, led to the

entrance door, which was covered with bosses cut with facets in the Venetian manner, a style of decoration

which was further carried on round the windows placed to right and left of the door.

A garden, carefully laid out in the fashion of the times and filled with choice flowers, occupied a space

behind the house equal to that of the courtyard in front. A grapevine draped its walls. In the centre of a grass

plot rose a silver firtree. The flowerborders were separated from the grass by meandering paths which led

to an arbor of clipped yews at the farther end of the little garden. The walls were covered with a mosaic of

variously colored pebbles, coarse in design, it is true, but pleasing to the eye from the harmony of its tints

with those of the flowerbeds. The house had a carved balcony on the garden side, above the door, and also

on the front toward the courtyard, and around the middle windows. On both sides of the house the

ornamentation of the principal window, which projected some feet from the wall, rose to the frieze; so that it

formed a little pavilion, hung there like a lantern. The casings of the other windows were inlaid on the stone

In spite of the exquisite taste displayed in the little house, there was an air of melancholy about it. It was

darkened by the buildings that surrounded it and by the roofs of the hotel d'Alencon which threw a heavy

shadow over both court and garden; moreover, a deep silence reigned there. But this silence, these

halflights, this solitude, soothed a royal soul, which could there surrender itself to a single emotion, as in a

It is easy now to imagine the interior charm and choiceness of this haven, the sole spot in his kingdom where

this dying Valois could pour out his soul, reveal his sufferings, exercise his taste for art, and give himself up

to the poesy he loved,pleasures denied him by the cares of a cruel royalty. Here, alone, were his great soul

and his high intrinsic worth appreciated; here he could give himself up, for a few brief months, the last of his

life, to the joys of fatherhood, pleasures into which he flung himself with the frenzy that a sense of his

In the afternoon of the day succeeding the nightscene we have just described, Marie Touchet was finishing

her toilet in the oratory, which was the boudoir of those days. She was arranging the long curls of her

beautiful black hair, blending them with the velvet of a new coif, and gazing intently into her mirror.

"It is nearly four o'clock; that interminable council must surely be over," she thought to herself. "Jacob has

returned from the Louvre; he says that everybody he saw was excited about the number of the councillors

summoned and the length of the session. What can have happened? Is it some misfortune? Good God! surely

he knows how suspense wears out the soul! Perhaps he has gone ahunting? If he is happy and amused, it is

She drew her hands round her slender waist as if to smooth some trifling wrinkle in her gown, turning

sideways to see if its folds fell properly, and as she did so, she caught sight of the king on the couch behind

her. The carpet had so muffled the sound of his steps that he had slipped in softly without being heard.

"You frightened me!" she said, with a cry of surprise, which was quickly repressed.

She took off his cap and cloak, passing her hands through his hair as though she combed it with her fingers.

Charles let her do as she pleased, but made no answer. Surprised at this, Marie knelt down to study the pale

face of her royal master, and then saw the signs of a dreadful weariness and a more consummate melancholy

than any she had yet consoled. She repressed her tears and kept silence, that she might not irritate by

mistaken words the sorrow which, as yet, she did not understand. In this she did as tender women do under

like circumstances. She kissed that forehead, seamed with untimely wrinkles, and those livid cheeks, trying to

convey to the wornout soul the freshness of hers,pouring her spirit into the sweet caresses which met with

no response. Presently she raised her head to the level of the king's, clasping him softly in her arms; then she

lay still, her face hidden on that suffering breast, watching for the opportune moment to question his dejected

"My Charlot," she said at last, "will you not tell your poor, distressed Marie the troubles that cloud that

"Except Charlemagne," he said in a hollow voice, "all the kings of France named Charles have ended

"That poor prince!" exclaimed the king. "In the flower of his age he struck his head against a low door at the

chateau of Amboise, which he was having decorated, and died in horrible agony. It was his death which gave

"Darling, he died" (the king lowered his voice) "of hunger; for he feared being poisoned by the dauphin, who

had already caused the death of his beautiful Agnes. The father feared his son; today the son dreads his

"Why drag up the past?" she said hastily, remembering the dreadful life of Charles VI.

"Ah! sweetest, kings have no need to go to sorcerers to discover their coming fate; they need only turn to

history. I am at this moment endeavoring to escape the fate of Charles the Simple, who was robbed of his

"No, not he, but du Guesclin. He himself, poisoned by Charles de Navarre, dragged out a wretched

"He married three times to obtain an heir, in spite of the masculine beauty of the children of Philippe le Bel.

The first house of Valois ended with him, and the second is about to end in the same way. The queen has

given me only a daughter, and I shall die without leaving her pregnant; for a long minority would be the

greatest curse I could bequeath to the kingdom. Besides, if I had a son, would he live? The name of Charles is

fatal; Charlemagne exhausted the luck of it. If I left a son I would tremble at the thought that he would be

"Monsieur," said Marie, with a charming little pout, "do tell me something gayer."

"Ah! my little jewel, my treasure, don't call me 'monsieur,' even in jest; you remind me of my mother, who

stabs me incessantly with that title, by which she seems to snatch away my crown. She says 'my son' to the

"Sire," exclaimed Marie, clasping her hands as though she were praying, "there is a kingdom where you are

worshipped. Your Majesty fills it with his glory, his power; and there the word 'monsieur,' means 'my

She unclasped her hands, and with a pretty gesture pointed to her heart. The words were so musiques (to use

a word of the times which depicted the melodies of love) that Charles IX. caught her round the waist with the

nervous force that characterized him, and seated her on his knee, rubbing his forehead gently against the

pretty curls so coquettishly arranged. Marie thought the moment favorable; she ventured a few kisses, which

"If my servants were not mistaken you were out all night in the streets, as in the days when you played the

"Did you fight the watchman and frighten some of the burghers? Who are the men you brought here and

locked up? They must be very criminal, as you won't allow any communication with them. No girl was ever

locked in as carefully, and they have not had a mouthful to eat since they came. The Germans whom Solern

left to guard them won't let any one go near the room. Is it a joke you are playing; or is it something serious?"

"Yes, you are right," said the king, coming out of his reverie, "last night I did scour the roofs with Tavannes

and the Gondis. I wanted to try my old follies with the old companions; but my legs were not what they once

were; I did not dare leap the streets; though we did jump two alleys from one roof to the next. At the second,

however, Tavannes and I, holding on to a chimney, agreed that we couldn't do it again. If either of us had

"I'll wager that you sprang first." The king smiled. "I know why you risk your life in that way."

"Ah, sorceress! But I am being hunted down by sorcery," said the king, resuming his anxious look.

"My sorcery is love," she replied, smiling. "Since the happy day when you first loved me, have I not always

divined your thoughts? Andif you will let me speak the truththe thoughts which torture you today are

"Cannot you be one? What did Charles VII. do? He listened to his mistress, monseigneur, and he reconquered

his kingdom, invaded by the English as yours is now by the enemies of our religion. Your last coup d'Etat

"That is over," she said; "besides, I agree with Madame Catherine that it was better to do it yourselves than

"Charles VII. had only men to fight; I am face to face with ideas," resumed the king. "We can kill men, but

we can't kill words! The Emperor Charles V. gave up the attempt; his son Philip has spent his strength upon

it; we shall all perish, we kings, in that struggle. On whom can I rely? To right, among the Catholics, I find

the Guises, who are my enemies; to left, the Calvinists, who will never forgive me the death of my poor old

Coligny, nor that bloody day in August; besides, they want to suppress the throne; and in front of me what

"I meant to do so yesterday; today I no longer intend it. You speak of it rather coolly."

"Between the daughter of an apothecary and that of a doctor there is no great difference," replied Touchet,

"Marie, don't take such liberties. Catherine de' Medici is my mother, and you ought to tremble lest"

"Poor child!" cried Marie, restraining her tears; for the sight of such strength united to such weakness touched

her deeply. "Ah!" she continued, "you make me hate Madame Catherine, who has been so good to me; her

kindness now seems perfidy. Why is she so kind to me, and bad to you? During my stay in Dauphine I heard

many things about the beginning of your reign which you concealed from me; it seems to me that the queen,

"Women whose souls and whose intentions are pure use virtue wherewith to rule the men they love; but

women who do not seek good rule men through their evil instincts. Now, the queen made vices out of certain

of your noblest qualities, and she taught you to believe that your worst inclinations were virtues. Was that the

part of a mother? Be a tyrant like Louis XI.; inspire terror; imitate Philip II.; banish the Italians; drive out the

Guises; confiscate the lands of the Calvinists. Out of this solitude you will rise a king; you will save the

"We are two children at statecraft," said Charles, bitterly; "we know nothing except how to love. Alas! my

treasure, yesterday I, too, thought all these things; I dreamed of accomplishing great deedsbah! my mother

blew down my house of cards! From a distance we see great questions outlined like the summits of

mountains, and it is easy to say: 'I'll make an end of Calvinism; I'll bring those Guises to task; I'll separate

from the Court of Rome; I'll rely upon my people, upon the burghers' ah! yes, from afar it all seems simple

enough! but try to climb those mountains and the higher you go the more the difficulties appear. Calvinism,

in itself, is the last thing the leaders of that party care for; and the Guises, those rabid Catholics, would be

sorry indeed to see the Calvinists put down. Each side considers its own interests exclusively, and religious

opinions are but a cloak for insatiable ambition. The party of Charles IX. is the feeblest of all. That of the

king of Navarre, that of the king of Poland, that of the Duc d'Alencon, that of the Condes, that of the Guises,

that of my mother, are all intriguing one against another, but they take no account of me, not even in my own

council. My mother, in the midst of so many contending elements, is, nevertheless, the strongest among

them; she has just proved to me the inanity of my plans. We are surrounded by rebellious subjects who defy

the law. The axe of Louis XI. of which you speak, is lacking to us. Parliament would not condemn the

Guises, nor the king of Navarre, nor the Condes, nor my brother. No! the courage to assassinate is needed; the

throne will be forced to strike down those insolent men who suppress both law and justice; but where can we

find the faithful arm? The council I held this morning has disgusted me with everything; treason everywhere;

contending interests all about me. I am tired with the burden of my crown. I only want to die in peace."

"Disgusted with everything!" repeated Marie Touchet, sadly; but she did not disturb the black torpor of her

Charles was the victim of a complete prostration of mind and body, produced by three things,the

exhaustion of all his faculties, aggravated by the disheartenment of realizing the extent of an evil; the

recognized impossibility of surmounting his weakness; and the aspect of difficulties so great that genius itself

would dread them. The king's depression was in proportion to the courage and the loftiness of ideas to which

he had risen during the last few months. In addition to this, an attack of nervous melancholy, caused by his

malady, had seized him as he left the protracted council which had taken place in his private cabinet. Marie

saw that he was in one of those crises when the least word, even of love, would be importunate and painful;

so she remained kneeling quietly beside him, her head on his knee, the king's hand buried in her hair, and he

himself motionless, without a word, without a sigh, as still as Marie herself, Charles IX. in the lethargy of

impotence, Marie in the stupor of despair which comes to a loving woman when she perceives the boundaries

The lovers thus remained, in the deepest silence, during one of those terrible hours when all reflection

wounds, when the clouds of an inward tempest veil even the memory of happiness. Marie believed that she

herself was partly the cause of this frightful dejection. She asked herself, not without horror, if the excessive

joys and the violent love which she had never yet found strength to resist, did not contribute to weaken the

mind and body of the king. As she raised her eyes, bathed in tears, toward her lover, she saw the slow tears

rolling down his pallid cheeks. This mark of the sympathy that united them so moved the king that he rushed

from his depression like a spurred horse. He took Marie in his arms and placed her on the sofa.

"I will no longer be a king," he cried. "I will be your lover, your lover only, wholly given up to that

happiness. I will die happy, and not consumed by the cares and miseries of a throne."

The tone of these words, the fire that shone in the halfextinct eyes of the king, gave Marie a terrible shock

instead of happiness; she blamed her love as an accomplice in the malady of which the king was dying.

"Oh, don't be frightened, little one; we hold them fast. Don't think of them, but of me. Do you love me?"

"Sire!" he repeated, sparks darting from his eyes, so violent was the rush of his anger at the untimely respect

"O God!" cried Marie, looking at the picture above her priedieu and turning toward it to say her prayer,

"Ah!" said the king suspiciously, "you have some wrong to me upon your conscience!" Then looking at her

from between his arms, he plunged his eyes into hers. "I have heard some talk of the mad passion of a certain

Entragues," he went on wildly. "Ever since their grandfather, the soldier Balzac, married a viscontessa at

Marie looked at the king with so proud an air that he was ashamed. At that instant the cries of little Charles de

Valois, who had just awakened, were heard in the next room. Marie ran to the door.

"Come in, Bourguignonne!" she said, taking the child from its nurse and carrying it to the king. "You are

"I alone know how like he is to you," said Marie; "already he has your smile and your gestures."

"Oh, I know men don't believe such things; but watch him, my Charlot, play with him. Look there! See! Am I

"True!" exclaimed the king, astonished by a motion of the child which seemed the very miniature of a gesture

"Ah, the pretty flower!" cried the mother. "Never shall he leave us! He will never cause me grief."

The king frolicked with his son; he tossed him in his arms, and kissed him passionately, talking the foolish,

unmeaning talk, the pretty, baby language invented by nurses and mothers. His voice grew child like. At last

his forehead cleared, joy returned to his saddened face, and then, as Marie saw that he had forgotten his

"Won't you tell me, Charlot, why you have made me keep murderers in my house? Who are these men, and

what do you mean to do with them? In short, I want to know what you were doing on the roofs. I hope there

"Then you love me as much as ever!" cried the king, meeting the clear, interrogatory glance that women

"There are women in my adventure," said the king; "but they are sorceresses. How far had I told you?"

"Rue SaintHonore, sweetest," said the king, who seemed to have recovered himself. Collecting this

thoughts, he began to explain to his mistress what had happened, as if to prepare her for a scene that was

"As I was passing through the street last night on a frolic," he said, "I chanced to see a bright light from the

dormer window of the house occupied by Rene, my mother's glover and perfumer, and once yours. I have

strong doubts about that man and what goes on in his house. If I am poisoned, the drug will come from

"Ah! so you kept him after I had given him up?" cried the king. "I thought my life was safe with you," he

"But, my dearest, I have only just returned from Dauphine with our dauphin," she said, smiling, "and Rene

has supplied me with nothing since the death of the Queen of Navarre. Go on; you climbed to the roof of

"Yes," returned the king. "In a second I was there, followed by Tavannes, and then we clambered to a spot

where I could see without being seen the interior of that devil's kitchen, in which I beheld extraordinary

things which inspired me to take certain measures. Did you ever notice the end of the roof of that cursed

perfumer? The windows toward the street are always closed and dark, except the last, from which can be seen

the hotel de Soissons and the observatory which my mother built for that astrologer, Cosmo Ruggiero. Under

the roof are lodgingrooms and a gallery which have no windows except on the courtyard, so that in order to

see what was going on within, it was necessary to go where no man before ever dreamed of climbing,along

the coping of a high wall which adjoins the roof of Rene's house. The men who set up in that house the

furnaces by which they distil death, reckoned on the cowardice of Parisians to save them from being

overlooked; but they little thought of Charles de Valois! I crept along the coping until I came to a window,

against the casing of which I was able to stand up straight with my arm round a carved monkey which

"A den, where works of darkness were being done," replied the king. "The first object on which my eyes

lighted was a tall old man seated in a chair, with a magnificent white beard, like that of old l'Hopital, and

dressed like him in a black velvet robe. On his broad forehead furrowed deep with wrinkles, on his crown of

white hair, on his calm, attentive face, pale with toil and vigils, fell the concentrated rays of a lamp from

which shone a vivid light. His attention was divided between an old manuscript, the parchment of which must

have been centuries old, and two lighted furnaces on which heretical compounds were cooking. Neither the

floor nor the ceiling of the laboratory could be seen, because of the myriads of hanging skeletons, bodies of

animals, dried plants, minerals, and articles of all kinds that masked the walls; while on the floor were books,

instruments for distilling, chests filled with utensils for magic and astrology; in one place I saw horoscopes

and nativities, phials, wax figures under spells, and possibly poisons. Tavannes and I were fascinated, I do

assure you, by the sight of this devil'sarsenal. Only to see it puts one under a spell, and if I had not been

King of France, I might have been awed by it. 'You can tremble for both of us,' I whispered to Tavannes. But

Tavannes' eyes were already caught by the most mysterious feature of the scene. On a couch, near the old

man, lay a girl of strangest beauty,slender and long like a snake, white as ermine, livid as death,

motionless as a statue. Perhaps it was a woman just taken from her grave, on whom they were trying

experiments, for she seemed to wear a shroud; her eyes were fixed, and I could not see that she breathed. The

old fellow paid no attention to her. I looked at him so intently that, after a while, his soul seemed to pass into

mine. By dint of studying him, I ended by admiring the glance of his eye,so keen, so profound, so bold, in

spite of the chilling power of age. I admired his mouth, mobile with thoughts emanating from a desire which

seemed to be the solitary desire of his soul, and was stamped upon every line of the face. All things in that

man expressed a hope which nothing discouraged, and nothing could check. His attitude,a quivering

immovability,those outlines so free, carved by a single passion as by the chisel of a sculptor, that IDEA

concentrated on some experiment criminal or scientific, that seeking Mind in quest of Nature, thwarted by

her, bending but never broken under the weight of its own audacity, which it would not renounce, threatening

creation with the fire it derived from it,ah! all that held me in a spell for the time being. I saw before me an

old man who was more of a king than I, for his glance embraced the world and mastered it. I will forge

swords no longer; I will soar above the abysses of existence, like that man; for his science, methinks, is true

"You, the eldest son, the defender of the Holy Catholic, Apostolic, and Roman Church?" said Marie.

"What happened to you? Go on, go on; I will fear for you, and you will have courage for me."

"Looking at a clock, the old man rose," continued the king. "He went out, I don't know where; but I heard the

window on the side toward the rue SaintHonore open. Soon a brilliant light gleamed out upon the darkness;

then I saw in the observatory of the hotel de Soissons another light replying to that of the old man, and by it I

beheld the figure of Cosmo Ruggiero on the tower. 'See, they communicate!' I said to Tavannes, who from

that moment thought the matter frightfully suspicious, and agreed with me that we ought to seize the two men

and search, incontinently, their accursed workshop. But before proceeding to do so, we wanted to see what

was going to happen. After about fifteen minutes the door opened, and Cosmo Ruggiero, my mother's

counsellor,the bottomless pit which holds the secrets of the court, he from whom all women ask help

against their husbands and lovers, and all the men ask help against their unfaithful wives and mistresses, he

who traffics on the future as on the past, receiving pay with both hands, who sells horoscopes and is supposed

to know all things,that semidevil came in, saying to the old man, 'Goodday to you, brother.' With him

he brought a hideous old woman,toothless, humpbacked, twisted, bent, like a Chinese image, only worse.

She was wrinkled as a withered apple; her skin was saffroncolored; her chin bit her nose; her mouth was a

mere line scarcely visible; her eyes were like the black spots on a dice; her forehead emitted bitterness; her

hair escaped in straggling gray locks from a dirty coif; she walked with a crutch; she smelt of heresy and

witchcraft. The sight of her actually frightened us, Tavannes and me! We didn't think her a natural woman.

God never made a woman so fearful as that. She sat down on a stool near the pretty snake with whom

Tavannes was in love. The two brothers paid no attention to the old woman nor to the young woman, who

together made a horrible couple,on the one side life in death, on the other death in life"

"'Goodday, Cosmo,' replied the old alchemist. And they both looked into the furnace. 'What strength has the

moon today?' asked the elder. 'But, caro Lorenzo,' replied my mother's astrologer, 'the September tides are

not yet over; we can learn nothing while that disorder lasts.' 'What says the East tonight?' 'It discloses in the

air a creative force which returns to earth all that earth takes from it. The conclusion is that all things here

below are the product of a slow transformation, but that all diversities are the forms of one and the same

substance.' 'That is what my predecessor thought,' replied Lorenzo. 'This morning Bernard Palissy told me

that metals were the result of compression, and that fire, which divides all, also unites all; fire has the power

to compress as well as to separate. That man has genius.' Though I was placed where it was impossible for

them to see me, Cosmo said, lifting the hand of the dead girl: 'Some one is near us! Who is it' 'The king,' she

answered. I at once showed myself and rapped on the window. Ruggiero opened it, and I sprang into that

hellish kitchen, followed by Tavannes. 'Yes, the king,' I said to the two Florentines, who seemed terrified. 'In

spite of your furnaces and your books, your sciences and your sorceries, you did not foresee my visit. I am

very glad to meet the famous Lorenzo Ruggiero, of whom my mother speaks mysteriously,' I said, addressing

the old man, who rose and bowed. 'You are in this kingdom without my consent, my good man. For whom

are you working here, you whose ancestors from father to son have been devoted in heart to the house of

Medici? Listen to me! You dive into so many purses that by this time, if you are grasping men, you have

piled up gold. You are too shrewd and cautious to cast yourselves imprudently into criminal actions; but,

nevertheless, you are not here in this kitchen without a purpose. Yes, you have some secret scheme, you who

are satisfied neither by gold nor power. Whom do you serve,God or the devil? What are you concocting

here? I choose to know the whole truth; I am a man who can hear it and keep silence about your enterprise,

however blamable it maybe. Therefore you will tell me all, without reserve. If you deceive me you will be

treated severely. Pagans or Christians, Calvinists or Mohammedans, you have my royal word that you shall

leave the kingdom in safety if you have any misdemeanors to relate. I shall leave you for the rest of the night

and the forenoon of tomorrow to examine your thoughts; for you are now my prisoners, and you will at once

follow me to a place where you will be guarded carefully.' Before obeying me the two Italians consulted each

other by a subtle glance; then Lorenzo Ruggiero said I might be assured that no torture could wring their

secrets from them; that in spite of their apparent feebleness neither pain nor human feelings had any power of

them; confidence alone could make their mouth say what their mind contained. I must not, he said, be

surprised if they treated as equals with a king who recognized God only as above him, for their thoughts

came from God alone. They therefore claimed from me as much confidence and trust as they should give to

me. But before engaging themselves to answer me without reserve they must request me to put my left hand

into that of the young girl lying there, and my right into that of the old woman. Not wishing them to think I

was afraid of their sorcery, I held out my hands; Lorenzo took the right, Cosmo the left, and each placed a

hand in that of each woman, so that I was like Jesus Christ between the two thieves. During the time that the

two witches were examining my hands Cosmo held a mirror before me and asked me to look into it; his

brother, meanwhile, was talking with the two women in a language unknown to me. Neither Tavannes nor I

could catch the meaning of a single sentence. Before bringing the men here we put seals on all the outlets of

the laboratory, which Tavannes undertook to guard until such time as, by my express orders, Bernard Palissy,

and Chapelain, my physician, could be brought there to examine thoroughly the drugs the place contained

and which were evidently made there. In order to keep the Ruggieri ignorant of this search, and to prevent

them from communicating with a single soul outside, I put the two devils in your lower rooms in charge of

Solern's Germans, who are better than the walls of a jail. Rene, the perfumer, is kept under guard in his own

house by Solern's equerry, and so are the two witches. Now, my sweetest, inasmuch as I hold the keys of the

whole cabal,the kings of Thune, the chiefs of sorcery, the gypsy fortunetellers, the masters of the future,

the heirs of all past soothsayers,I intend by their means to read you, to know your heart; and, together, we

"I shall be glad if they can lay my heart bare before you," said Marie, without the slightest fear.

"Will you have a peach?" she said, offering him some delicious fruit on a gold plate. "See these grapes, these

"Yes, I'll eat them; there is no poison there except a philter from your hands."

"You ought to eat a great deal of fruit, Charles; it would cool your blood, which you heat by such

"Perhaps so," she said. "If the things you love injure youand I have feared itI shall find strength in my

heart to refuse them. I adore Charles more than I love the king; I want the man to live, released from the

"Yes," she replied. "If you were only a poor prince, like your brotherinlaw of Navarre, without a penny,

possessing only a miserable little kingdom in Spain where he never sets his foot, and Bearn in France which

doesn't give him revenue enough to feed him, I should be happy, much happier than if I were really Queen of

"But you are more than the Queen of France. She has King Charles for the sake of the kingdom only; royal

Marie smiled and made a pretty little grimace as she said: "Yes, yes, I know that, sire. And my sonnet, have

"Dearest, verses are as difficult to write as treaties of peace; but you shall have them soon. Ah, me! life is so

easy here, I wish I might never leave you. However, we must send for those Italians and question them.

TeteDieu! I thought one Ruggiero in the kingdom was one too many, but it seems there are two. Now listen,

my precious; you don't lack sense, you would make an excellent lieutenant of police, for you can penetrate

"But, sire, we women suppose all we fear, and we turn what is probable into truths; that is the whole of our

"Well, help me to sound these men. Just now all my plans depend on the result of their examination. Are they

Jacob was the favorite valet of the king, and the one who accompanied him on all his private excursions. He

now came to ask if it was the king's good pleasure to speak to the two prisoners. The king made a sign in the

"Jacob," she said, "clear the house of everybody, except the nurse and Monsieur le Dauphin d'Auvergne, who

may remain. As for you, stay in the lower hall; but first, close the windows, draw the curtains of the salon,

The king's impatience was so great that while these preparations were being made he sat down upon a raised

seat at the corner of a lofty fireplace of white marble in which a bright fire was blazing, placing his pretty

mistress by his side. His portrait, framed in velvet, was over the mantle in place of a mirror. Charles IX.

rested his elbow on the arm of the seat as if to watch the two Florentines the better under cover of his hand.

The shutters closed, and the curtains drawn, Jacob lighted the wax tapers in a tall candelabrum of chiselled

silver, which he placed on the table where the Florentines were to stand,an object, by the bye, which they

would readily recognize as the work of their compatriot, Benvenuto Cellini. The richness of the room,

decorated in the taste of Charles IX., now shone forth. The redbrown of the tapestries showed to better

advantage than by daylight. The various articles of furniture, delicately made or carved, reflected in their

ebony panels the glow of the fire and the sparkle of the lights. Gilding, soberly applied, shone here and there

Jacob presently gave two knocks, and, receiving permission, ushered in the Italians. Marie Touchet was

instantly affected by the grandeur of Lorenzo's presence, which struck all those who met him, great and small

alike. The silvery whiteness of the old man's beard was heightened by a robe of black velvet; his brow was

like a marble dome. His austere face, illumined by two black eyes which cast a pointed flame, conveyed an

impression of genius issuing from solitude, and all the more effective because its power had not been dulled

by contact with men. It was like the steel of a blade that had never been fleshed.

As for Cosmo Ruggiero, he wore the dress of a courtier of the time. Marie made a sign to the king to assure

him that he had not exaggerated his description, and to thank him for having shown her these extraordinary

Again absorbed in thought, Charles IX. made her no answer; he was idly flicking crumbs of bread from his

"Your science cannot change the heavens or make the sun to shine, messieurs," he said at last, pointing to the

"Our science can make the skies what we like, sire," replied Lorenzo Ruggiero. "The weather is always fine

"That is true," said the king. "Well, father," he added, using an expression familiar to him when addressing

"The word of a king," replied Charles IX., whose curiosity was keenly excited by the question.

Lorenzo Ruggiero seemed to hesitate, and Charles IX. cried out: "What hinders you? We are here alone."

The imposing old man then took a chair, and seated himself. Cosmo, astonished at this boldness, dared not

Charles IX. remarked, with cutting sarcasm: "The king is not here, monsieur, but a lady is, whose permission

"He whom you see before you, madame," said the old man, "is as far above kings as kings are above their

Hearing these audacious words, with Italian emphasis, Charles and Marie looked at each other, and also at

Cosmo, who, with his eyes fixed on his brother, seemed to be asking himself: "How does he intend to get us

In fact, there was but one person present who could understand the boldness and the art of Lorenzo

Ruggiero's first step; and that person was neither the king nor his young mistress, on whom that great seer

had already flung the spell of his audacity,it was Cosmo Ruggiero, his wily brother. Though superior

himself to the ablest men at court, perhaps even to Catherine de' Medici herself, the astrologer always

Buried in studious solitude, the old savant weighed and estimated sovereigns, most of whom were worn out

by the perpetual turmoil of politics, the crises of which at this period came so suddenly and were so keen, so

intense, so unexpected. He knew their ennui, their lassitude, their disgust with things about them; he knew the

ardor with which they sought what seemed to them new or strange or fantastic; above all, how they loved to

enter some unknown intellectual region to escape their endless struggle with men and events. To those who

have exhausted statecraft, nothing remains but the realm of pure thought. Charles the Fifth proved this by his

abdication. Charles IX., who wrote sonnets and forged blades to escape the exhausting cares of an age in

which both throne and king were threatened, to whom royalty had brought only cares and never pleasures,

was likely to be roused to a high pitch of interest by the bold denial of his power thus uttered by Lorenzo.

Religious doubt was not surprising in an age when Catholicism was so violently arraigned; but the upsetting

of all religion, given as the basis of a strange, mysterious art, would surely strike the king's mind, and drag it

from its present preoccupations. The essential thing for the two brothers was to make the king forget his

The Ruggieri were well aware that their stake in this game was their own life, and the glances, so humble,

and yet so proud, which they exchanged with the searching, suspicious eyes of Marie and the king, were a

"Sire," said Lorenzo Ruggiero, "you have asked me for the truth; but, to show the truth in all her nakedness, I

must also show you and make you sound the depths of the well from which she comes. I appeal to the

gentleman and the poet to pardon words which the eldest son of the Church might take for blasphemy,I

Though determined to maintain a kingly composure, Charles IX. could not repress a motion of surprise.

"Without that conviction I should have no faith whatever in the miraculous work to which my life is devoted.

To do that work I must have this belief; and if the finger of God guides all things, thenI am a madman.

Therefore, let the king understand, once for all, that this work means a victory to be won over the present

course of Nature. I am an alchemist, sire. But do not think, as the commonminded do, that I seek to make

gold. The making of gold is not the object but an incident of our researches; otherwise our toil could not be

called the GREAT WORK. The Great Work is something far loftier than that. If, therefore, I were forced to

admit the presence of God in matter, my voice must logically command the extinction of furnaces kept

burning throughout the ages. But to deny the direct action of God in the world is not to deny God; do not

make that mistake. We place the Creator of all things far higher than the sphere to which religions have

degraded Him. Do not accuse of atheism those who look for immortality. Like Lucifer, we are jealous of our

God; and jealousy means love. Though the doctrine of which I speak is the basis of our work, all our disciples

are not imbued with it. Cosmo," said the old man, pointing to 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 Immaculate Conception, in Transubstantiation; he believes also in the Pope's

indulgences and in hell, and in a multitude of such things. His hour has not yet come. I have drawn his

horoscope; he will live to be almost a centenarian; he will live through two more reigns, and he will see two

"The last of the Valois and the first of the Bourbons," replied Lorenzo. "But Cosmo shares my opinion. It is

impossible to be an alchemist and a Catholic, to have faith in the despotism of man over matter, and also in

"Cosmo to die a centenarian!" exclaimed the king, with his terrible frown of the eyebrows.

"Yes, sire," replied Lorenzo, with authority; "and he will die peaceably in his bed."

"If you have power to foresee the moment of your death, why are you ignorant of the outcome of your

Charles IX. smiled as he said this, looking triumphantly at Marie Touchet. The brothers exchanged a rapid

"Our prognostics depend on the immediate relations which exist at the time between man and Nature; but our

"Like our predecessors," replied Lorenzo, raising his hand and letting it fall again with an emphatic and

solemn gesture, which presented visibly the grandeur of his thought. "But your mind has bounded to the

confines of the matter, sire; we must return upon our steps. If you do not know the ground on which our

edifice is built, you may well think it doomed to crumble with our lives, and so judge the Science cultivated

from century to century by the greatest among men, as the common herd judge of it."

"I think," continued Lorenzo, "that this earth belongs to man; he is the master of it, and he can appropriate to

his use all forces and all substances. Man is not a creation issuing directly from the hand of God; but the

development of a principle sown broadcast into the infinite of ether, from which millions of creatures are

produced, differing beings in different worlds, because the conditions surrounding life are varied. Yes,

sire, the subtle element which we call life takes its rise beyond the visible worlds; creation divides that

principle according to the centres into which it flows; and all beings, even the lowest, share it, taking so much

as they can take of it at their own risk and peril. It is for them to protect themselves from death,the whole

purpose of alchemy lies there, sire. If man, the most perfect animal on this globe, bore within himself a

portion of the divine, he would not die; but he does die. To solve this difficulty, Socrates and his school

invented the Soul. I, the successor of so many great and unknown kings, the rulers of this science, I stand for

the ancient theories, not the new. I believe in the transformations of matter which I see, and not in the

possible eternity of a soul which I do not see. I do not recognize that world of the soul. If such a world

existed, the substances whose magnificent conjunction produced your body, and are so dazzling in that of

Madame, would not resolve themselves after your death each into its own element, water to water, fire to fire,

metal to metal, just as the elements of my coal, when burned, return to their primitive molecules. If you

believe that a certain part of us survives, we do not survive; for all that makes our actual being perishes. Now,

it is this actual being that I am striving to continue beyond the limit assigned to life; it is our present

transformation to which I wish to give a greater duration. Why! the trees live for centuries, but man lives only

years, though the former are passive, the others active; the first motionless and speechless, the others gifted

with language and motion. No created thing should be superior in this world to man, either in power or in

duration. Already we are widening our perceptions, for we look into the stars; therefore we ought to be able

to lengthen the duration of our lives. I place life before power. What good is power if life escapes us? A wise

man should have no other purpose than to seek, not whether he has some other life within him, but the secret

springs of his actual form, in order that he may prolong its existence at his will. That is the desire which has

whitened my hair; but I walk boldly in the darkness, marshalling to the search all those great intellects that

"The first condition of our faith being that the earth belongs to man, you must grant me that point," said

"Then, sire, if we take God out of this world, what remains? Man. Let us therefore examine our domain. The

material world is composed of elements; these elements are themselves principles; these principles resolve

themselves into an ultimate principle, endowed with motion. The number THREE is the formula of creation:

"Do you not see the effects?" replied Lorenzo. "We have tried in our crucibles the acorn which produces the

oak, and the embryo from which grows a man; from this tiny substance results a single principle, to which

some force, some movement must be given. Since there is no overruling creator, this principle must give to

itself the outward forms which constitute our worldfor this phenomenon of life is the same everywhere.

Yes, for metals as for human beings, for plants as for men, life begins in an imperceptible embryo which

develops itself. A primitive principle exists; let us seize it at the point where it begins to act upon itself, where

it is a unit, where it is a principle before taking definite form, a cause before being an effect; we must see it

single, without form, susceptible of clothing itself with all the outward forms we shall see it take. When we

are face to face with this atomic particle, when we shall have caught its movement at the very instant of

motion, then we shall know the law; thenceforth we are the masters of life, masters who can impose upon that

principle the form we choose,with gold to win the world, and the power to make for ourselves centuries of

life in which to enjoy it! That is what my people and I are seeking. All our strength, all our thoughts are

strained in that direction; nothing distracts us from it. One hour wasted on any other passion is a theft

committed against our true grandeur. Just as you have never found your hounds relinquishing the hunted

animal or failing to be in at the death, so I have never seen one of my patient disciples diverted from this

great quest by the love of woman or a selfish thought. If an adept seeks power and wealth, the desire is

instigated by our needs; he grasps treasure as a thirsty dog laps water while he swims a stream, because his

crucibles are in need of a diamond to melt or an ingot of gold to reduce to powder. To each his own work.

One seeks the secret of vegetable nature; he watches the slow life of plants; he notes the parity of motion

among all the species, and the parity of their nutrition; he finds everywhere the need of sun and air and water,

to fecundate and nourish them. Another scrutinizes the blood of animals. A third studies the laws of universal

motion and its connection with celestial revolutions. Nearly all are eager to struggle with the intractable

nature of metal, for while we find many principles in other things, we find all metals like unto themselves in

every particular. Hence a common error as to our work. Behold these patient, indefatigable athletes, ever

vanquished, yet ever returning to the combat! Humanity, sire, is behind us, as the huntsman is behind your

hounds. She cries to us: 'Make haste! neglect nothing! sacrifice all, even a man, ye who sacrifice yourselves!

Hasten! hasten! Beat down the arms of DEATH, mine enemy!' Yes, sire, we are inspired by a hope which

involves the happiness of all coming generations. We have buried many menand what men!dying of

this Search. Setting foot in this career we cannot work for ourselves; we may die without discovering the

Secret; and our death is that of those who do not believe in another life; it is this life that we have sought, and

failed to perpetuate. We are glorious martyrs; we have the welfare of the race at heart; we have failed but we

live again in our successors. As we go through this existence we discover secrets with which we endow the

liberal and the mechanical arts. From our furnaces gleam lights which illumine industrial enterprises, and

perfect them. Gunpowder issued from our alembics; nay, we have mastered the lightning. In our persistent

"Why not?" said the grandmaster of the new Templars. "Tradidit mundum disputationibus! God has given

us the earth. Hear this once more: man is master here below; matter is his; all forces, all means are at his

disposal. Who created us? Motion. What power maintains life in us? Motion. Why cannot science seize the

secret of that motion? Nothing is lost here below; nothing escapes from our planet to go

elsewhere,otherwise the stars would stumble over each other; the waters of the deluge are still with us in

their principle, and not a drop is lost. Around us, above us, beneath us, are to be found the elements from

which have come innumerable hosts of men who have crowded the earth before and since the deluge. What is

the secret of our struggle? To discover the force that disunites, and then, then we shall discover that which

binds. We are the product of a visible manufacture. When the waters covered the globe men issued from them

who found the elements of their life in the crust of the earth, in the air, and in the nourishment derived from

them. Earth and air possess, therefore, the principle of human transformations; those transformations take

place under our eyes, by means of that which is also under our eyes. We are able, therefore, to discover that

secret, not limiting the effort of the search to one man or to one age, but devoting humanity in its duration

to it. We are engaged, hand to hand, in a struggle with Matter, into whose secret, I, the grandmaster of our

order, seek to penetrate. Christophe Columbus gave a world to the King of Spain; I seek an everliving

people for the King of France. Standing on the confines which separate us from a knowledge of material

things, a patient observer of atoms, I destroy forms, I dissolve the bonds of combinations; I imitate death that

I may learn how to imitate life. I strike incessantly at the door of creation, and I shall continue so to strike

until the day of my death. When I am dead the knocker will pass into other hands equally persistent with

those of the mighty men who handed it to me. Fabulous and uncomprehended beings, like Prometheus, Ixion,

Adonis, Pan, and others, who have entered into the religious beliefs of all countries and all ages, prove to the

world that the hopes we now embody were born with the human races. Chaldea, India, Persia, Egypt, Greece,

the Moors, have transmitted from one to another Magic, the highest of all the occult sciences, which holds

within it, as a precious deposit the fruits of the studies of each generation. In it lay the tie that bound the

grand and majestic institution of the Templars. Sire, when one of your predecessors burned the Templars, he

burned men only,their Secret lived. The reconstruction of the Temple is a vow of an unknown nation, a

race of daring seekers, whose faces are turned to the Orient of life,all brothers, all inseparable, all united

by one idea, and stamped with the mark of toil. I am the sovereign leader of that people, sovereign by

election, not by birth. I guide them onward to a knowledge of the essence of life. Grandmaster,

RedCrossbearers, companions, adepts, we forever follow the imperceptible molecule which still escapes

our eyes. But soon we shall make ourselves eyes more powerful than those which Nature has given us; we

shall attain to a sight of the primitive atom, the corpuscular element so persistently sought by the wise and

learned of all ages who have preceded us in the glorious search. Sire, when a man is astride of that abyss,

when he commands bold divers like my disciples, all other human interests are as nothing. Therefore we are

not dangerous. Religious disputes and political struggles are far away from us; we have passed beyond and

above them. No man takes others by the throat when his whole strength is given to a struggle with Nature.

Besides, in our science results are perceivable; we can measure effects and predict them; whereas all things

are uncertain and vacillating in the struggles of men and their selfish interests. We decompose the diamond in

our crucibles, and we shall make diamonds, we shall make gold! We shall impel vessels (as they have at

Barcelona) with fire and a little water! We test the wind, and we shall make wind; we shall make light; we

shall renew the face of empires with new industries! But we shall never debase ourselves to mount a throne to

In spite of his strong determination not to be taken in by Italian wiles, the king, together with his gentle

mistress, was already caught and snared by the ambiguous phrases and doublings of this pompous and

humbugging loquacity. The eyes of the two lovers showed how their minds were dazzled by the mysterious

riches of power thus displayed; they saw, as it were, a series of subterranean caverns filled with gnomes at

"But," cried the king, "if this be so, you are great statesmen who can enlighten us."

"Sire, it is not given to any man to foresee what will happen when thousands of men are gathered together.

We can tell what one man will do, how long he will live, whether he will be happy or unhappy; but we cannot

tell what a collection of wills may do; and to calculate the oscillations of their selfish interests is more

difficult still, for interests are men plus things. We can, in solitude, see the future as a whole, and that is all.

The Protestantism that now torments you will be destroyed in turn by its material consequences, which will

turn to theories in due time. Europe is at the present moment getting the better of religion; tomorrow it will

"Yes, sire; for if the people triumph it will have a SaintBartholomew of its own. When religion and royalty

are destroyed the people will attack the nobles; after the nobles, the rich. When Europe has become a mere

troop of men without consistence or stability, because without leaders, it will fall a prey to brutal conquerors.

Twenty times already has the world seen that sight, and Europe is now preparing to renew it. Ideas consume

the ages as passions consume men. When man is cured, humanity may possibly cure itself. Science is the

essence of humanity, and we are its pontiffs; whoso concerns himself about the essence cares little about the

"Then you are the king of sorcerers?" retorted the king, piqued at being of no account in the presence of this

The majestic grandmaster of the Rosicrucians cast a look on Charles IX. which withered him.

"You are the king of men," he said; "I am the king of ideas. If we were sorcerers, you would already have

"But by what means are you able to cast nativities?" persisted the king. "How did you know that the man who

came to your window last night was King of France? What power authorized one of you to tell my mother the

fate of her three sons? Can you, grandmaster of an art which claims to mould the world, can you tell me

This answer was given before Cosmo could pull his brother's robe to enjoin silence.

"Our most cruel enemies are our nearest in blood!" exclaimed the king, violently, rising and walking about

the room with hasty steps. "Kings have neither brothers, nor sons, nor mothers. Coligny was right; my

murderers are not among the Huguenots, but in the Louvre. You are either imposters or regicides!Jacob,

"Sire," said Marie Touchet, "the Ruggieri have your word as a gentleman. You wanted to taste of the fruit of

The king smiled, with an expression of bitter selfcontempt; he thought his material royalty petty in presence

of the august intellectual royalty of Lorenzo Ruggiero. Charles IX. knew that he could scarcely govern

France, but this grandmaster of Rosicrucians ruled a submissive and intelligent world.

"Answer me truthfully; I pledge my word as a gentleman that your answer, in case it confesses dreadful

crimes, shall be as if it were never uttered," resumed the king. "Do you deal with poisons?"

"To discover that which gives life, we must also have full knowledge of that which kills."

"Yes, sire,in theory, but not in practice. We understand all poisons, but do not use them."

"Sire," replied Lorenzo, "Queen Catherine is too able a woman to employ such means. She knows that the

sovereign who poisons dies by poison. The Borgias, also Bianca Capello, Grand Duchess of Tuscany, are

noted examples of the dangers of that miserable resource. All things are known at courts; there can be no

concealment. It may be possible to kill a poor deviland what is the good of that?but to aim at great men

cannot be done secretly. Who shot Coligny? It could only be you, or the queenmother, or the Guises. Not a

soul is doubtful of that. Believe me, poison cannot be twice used with impunity in statecraft. Princes have

successors. As for other men, if, like Luther, they are sovereigns through the power of ideas, their doctrines

are not killed by killing them. The queen is from Florence; she knows that poison should never be used

except as a weapon of personal revenge. My brother, who has not been parted from her since her arrival in

France, knows the grief that Madame Diane caused your mother. But she never thought of poisoning her,

though she might easily have done so. What could your father have said? Never had a woman a better right to

do it; and she could have done it with impunity; but Madame de Valentinois still lives."

"Sire," said Cosmo, "these things are so absolutely harmless that we lend ourselves to the practice to satisfy

blind passions, just as physicians give bread pills to imaginary invalids. A disappointed woman fancies that

by stabbing the heart of a waxfigure she has brought misfortunes upon the head of the man who has been

"What good would such harmless means be to one who has the actual power to do all things?"

"Has Queen Catherine the power to save you at this moment?" inquired the king, in a threatening manner.

"Sire, we are not in any danger," replied Lorenzo, tranquilly. "I knew before I came into this house that I

should leave it safely, just as I know that the king will be evilly disposed to my brother Cosmo a few weeks

hence. My brother may run some danger then, but he will escape it. If the king reigns by the sword, he also

reigns by justice," added the old man, alluding to the famous motto on a medal struck for Charles IX.

"You know all, and you know that I shall die soon, which is very well," said the king, hiding his anger under

nervous impatience; "but how will my brother die,he whom you say is to be Henri III.?"

"When I am dead what will become of madame?" asked the king, motioning to Marie Touchet.

"Dearest, the Ruggieri have my word as a gentleman," replied the king, smiling. "Will madame have

"Shall I order them to be hanged?" said the king to his mistress. "But about my son, the Comte d'Auvergne?"

"Why did you tell him I should marry?" said Marie to the two brothers, the moment they were alone.

"Madame," replied Lorenzo, with dignity, "the king bound us to tell the truth, and we have told it."

"As true as it is that the governor of the city of Orleans is madly in love with you."

"That is true, madame," replied Lorenzo; "but your horoscope declares that you will marry the man who is in

"Can you not lie a little for my sake?" she said smiling; "for if the king believes your predictions"

"Is it not also necessary that he should believe our innocence?" interrupted Cosmo, with a wily glance at the

young favorite. "The precautions taken against us by the king have made us think during the time we have

spent in your charming jail that the occult sciences have been traduced to him."

"Do not feel uneasy," replied Marie. "I know him; his suspicions are at an end."

"So much the better for you," said Marie, "for your laboratory, and your retorts and phials are now being

The brothers looked at each other smiling. Marie Touchet took that smile for one of innocence, though it

really signified: "Poor fools! can they suppose that if we brew poisons, we do not hide them?"

Again the brothers glanced at each other with a look which said: "The hotel de Soissons is inviolable."

The king had so completely forgotten his suspicions that when, as he took his boy in his arms, Jacob gave

him a note from Chapelain, he opened it with the certainty of finding in his physician's report that nothing

"Will he live a happy man?" asked the king, presenting his son to the two alchemists.

"That is a question which concerns Cosmo," replied Lorenzo, signing his brother.

"Monsieur," said Charles IX. to the old man, "if you find it necessary to deny the existence of the soul in

order to believe in the possibility of your enterprise, will you explain to my why you should doubt what your

power does? Thought, which you seek to nullify, is the certainty, the torch which lights your researches. Ha!

ha! is not that the motion of a spirit within you, while you deny such motion?" cried the king, pleased with

"Thought," replied Lorenzo Ruggiero, "is the exercise of an inward sense; just as the faculty of seeing several

objects and noticing their size and color is an effect of sight. It has no connection with what people choose to

call another life. Thought is a faculty which ceases, with the forces which produced it, when we cease to

"You are logical," said the king, surprised. "But alchemy must therefore be an atheistical science.'

"A materialist science, sire, which is a very different thing. Materialism is the outcome of Indian doctrines,

transmitted through the mysteries of Isis to Chaldea and Egypt, and brought to Greece by Pythagoras, one of

the demigods of humanity. His doctrine of reincarnation is the mathematics of materialism, the vital law of

its phases. To each of the different creations which form the terrestrial creation belongs the power of

"Alchemy is the science of sciences!" cried Charles IX., enthusiastically. "I want to see you at work."

"Whenever it pleases you, sire; you cannot be more interested than Madame the Queenmother."

"The house of Medici has secretly protected our Search for more than a century."

"Sire," said Cosmo, "this child will live nearly a hundred years; he will have trials; nevertheless, he will be

"I will go and see you in your laboratory, messieurs," said the king, his goodhumor quite restored. "You

The brothers bowed to Marie and to the king and then withdrew. They went down the steps of the portico

gravely, without looking or speaking to each other; neither did they turn their faces to the windows as they

crossed the courtyard, feeling sure that the king's eye watched them. But as they passed sideways out of the

gate into the street they looked back and saw Charles IX. gazing after them from a window. When the

alchemist and the astrologer were safely in the rue de l'Autruche, they cast their eyes before and behind them,

to see if they were followed or overheard; then they continued their way to the moat of the Louvre without

uttering a word. Once there, however, feeling themselves securely alone, Lorenzo said to Cosmo, in the

"Much good may it do him; let him make what he can of it!" said Cosmo. "We have given him a helping

Some days after this scene, which struck the king's mistress as forcibly as it did the king, Marie suddenly

exclaimed, in one of those moments when the soul seems, as it were, disengaged from the body in the

"Charles, I understand Lorenzo Ruggiero; but did you observe that Cosmo said nothing?"

"True," said the king, struck by that sudden light. "After all, there was as much falsehood as truth in what

This suspicion explains the rancor which the king showed against Cosmo when the trial of La Mole and

Coconnas took place a few weeks later. Finding him one of the agents of that conspiracy, he thought the

Italians had tricked him; for it was proved that his mother's astrologer was not exclusively concerned with

stars, the powder of projection, and the primitive atom. Lorenzo had by that time left the kingdom.

In spite of the incredulity which most persons show in these matters, the events which followed the scene we

Charles de Gondi followed Charles IX. to the grave, as had been foretold to him jestingly by his brother the

Marie Touchet married Charles de Balzac, Marquis d'Entragues, the governor of Orleans, by whom she had

two daughters. The most celebrated of these daughters, the halfsister of the Comte d'Auvergne, was the

mistress of Henri IV., and it was she who endeavored, at the time of Biron's conspiracy, to put her brother on

The Comte d'Auvergne, who became the Duc d'Angouleme, lived into the reign of Louis XIV. He coined

money on his estates and altered the inscriptions; but Louis XIV. let him do as he pleased, out of respect for

Cosmo Ruggiero lived till the middle of the reign of Louis XIII.; he witnessed the fall of the house of the

Medici in France, also that of the Concini. History has taken pains to record that he died an atheist, that is, a

The famous Comte de SaintGermain, who made so much noise under Louis XIV., was a pupil of Lorenzo

and Cosmo Ruggiero. This celebrated alchemist lived to be one hundred and thirty years old,an age which

some biographers give to Marion de Lorme. He must have heard from the Ruggieri the various incidents of

the SaintBartholomew and of the reigns of the Valois kings, which he afterwards recounted in the first

person singular, as though he had played a part in them. The Comte de SaintGermain was the last of the

alchemists who knew how to clearly explain their science; but he left no writings. The cabalistic doctrine

And here, behold a strange thing! Three lives, that of the old man from whom I have obtained these facts, that

of the Comte de Saint Germain, and that of Cosmo Ruggiero, suffice to cover the whole of European history

from Francois I. to Napoleon! Only fifty such lives are needed to reach back to the first known period of the

world. "What are fifty generations for the study of the mysteries of life?" said the Comte de SaintGermain.

In 1786 Bodard de SaintJames, treasurer of the navy, excited more attention and gossip as to his luxury than

any other financier in Paris. At this period he was building his famous "Folie" at Neuilly, and his wife had

just bought a set of feathers to crown the tester of her bed, the price of which had been too great for even the

Bodard owned the magnificent mansion in the place Vendome, which the fermiergeneral, Dange, had lately

been forced to leave. That celebrated epicurean was now dead, and on the day of his interment his intimate

friend, Monsieur de Bievre, raised a laugh by saying that he "could now pass through the place Vendome

without danger." This allusion to the hellish gambling which went on in the dead man's house, was his only

To end in a few words the history of Bodard,he became a poor man, having failed for fourteen millions

after the bankruptcy of the Prince de Guemenee. The stupidity he showed in not anticipating that

"serenissime disaster," to use the expression of Lebrun Pindare, was the reason why no notice was taken of

his misfortunes. He died, like Bourvalais, Bouret, and so many others, in a garret.

Madame Bodard de SaintJames was ambitious, and professed to receive none but persons of quality at her

house,an old absurdity which is ever new. To her thinking, even the parliamentary judges were of small

account; she wished for titled persons in her salons, or at all events, those who had the right of entrance at

court. To say that many cordons bleus were seen at her house would be false; but it is quite certain that she

managed to obtain the goodwill and civilities of several members of the house of Rohan, as was proved later

One eveningit was, I think, in August, 1786I was much surprised to meet in the salons of this lady, so

exacting in the matter of gentility, two new faces which struck me as belonging to men of inferior social

position. She came to me presently in the embrasure of a window where I had ensconced myself.

"Tell me," I said to her, with a glance toward one of the newcomers, "who and what is that queer species?

"You are not blind," she said, laughing. "The man is as ugly as a caterpillar; but he has done me the most

As I looked at her rather maliciously she hastened to add: "He's a physician, and he has completely cured me

of those odious red blotches which spoiled my complexion and made me look like a peasant woman."

"No," she said, "he is the surgeon of the court pages. He has a fine intellect, I assure you; in fact, he is a

"Heavens! if his style resembles his face!" I said scoffingly. "But who is the other?"

"That spruce, affected little popinjay over there, who looks as if he had been drinking verjuice."

"He is a rather wellborn man," she replied; "just arrived from some province, I forget whichoh! from

Artois. He is sent here to conclude an affair in which the Cardinal de Rohan is interested, and his Eminence

in person had just presented him to Monsieur de SaintJames. It seems they have both chosen my husband as

arbitrator. The provincial didn't show his wisdom in that; but fancy what simpletons the people who sent him

here must be to trust a case to a man of his sort! He is as meek as a sheep and as timid as a girl. His Eminence

Somewhat confused by this humiliating avowal, Madame Bodard returned to her place at a farotable.

All the tables were full. I had nothing to do, no one to speak to, and I had just lost two thousand crowns to

Monsieur de Laval. I flung myself on a sofa near the fireplace. Presently, if there was ever a man on earth

most utterly astonished it was I, when, on looking up, I saw, seated on another sofa on the opposite side of

the fireplace, Monsieur de Calonne, the comptrollergeneral. He seemed to be dozing, or else he was buried

in one of those deep meditations which overtake statesmen. When I pointed out the famous minister to

Beaumarchais, who happened to come near me at that moment, the father of Figaro explained the mystery of

his presence in that house without uttering a word. He pointed first at my head, then at Bodard's with a

malicious gesture which consisted in turning to each of us two fingers of his hand while he kept the others

doubled up. My first impulse was to rise and say something rousing to Calonne; then I paused, first, because I

thought of a trick I could play the statesman, and secondly, because Beaumarchais caught me familiarly by

"Indeed, yes!" said Calonne, who had guessed our words from the mere motion of our lips. "Would to God

we could sleep long, and then the awakening you are about to see would never happen."

"Monsieur de Mirabeau has started for Berlin. I don't know whether we might not both have drowned

"You have too much memory, and too little gratitude," replied the minister, annoyed at having one of his

"Possibly," said Beaumarchais, cut to the quick; "but I have millions that can balance many a score."

It was long past midnight when the play ceased. Supper was announced. There were ten of us at table: Bodard

and his wife, Calonne, Beaumarchais, the two strange men, two pretty women, whose names I will not give

here, a fermiergeneral, Lavoisier, and myself. Out of thirty guests who were in the salon when I entered it,

only these ten remained. The two queer species did not consent to stay until they were urged to do so by

Madame Bodard, who probably thought she was paying her obligations to the surgeon by giving him

something to eat, and pleasing her husband (with whom she appeared, I don't precisely know why, to be

The supper began by being frightfully dull. The two strangers and the fermiergeneral oppressed us. I made a

sign to Beaumarchais to intoxicate the son of Esculapius, who sat on his right, giving him to understand that I

would do the same by the lawyer, who was next to me. As there seemed no other way to amuse ourselves,

and it offered a chance to draw out the two men, who were already sufficiently singular, Monsieur de

Calonne smiled at our project. The ladies present also shared in the bacchanal conspiracy, and the wine of

Sillery crowned our glasses again and again with its silvery foam. The surgeon was easily managed; but at the

second glass which I offered to my neighbor the lawyer, he told me with the frigid politeness of a usurer that

At this instant Madame de SaintJames chanced to introduce, I scarcely know how, the topic of the

marvellous suppers to the Comte de Cagliostro, given by the Cardinal de Rohan. My mind was not very

attentive to what the mistress of the house was saying, because I was watching with extreme curiosity the

pinched and livid face of my little neighbor, whose principal feature was a turnedup and at the same time

pointed nose, which made him, at times, look very like a weasel. Suddenly his cheeks flushed as he caught

"But I assure you, monsieur," she was saying, with an imperious air, "that I saw Cleopatra, the queen."

"I can believe it, madame," said my neighbor, "for I myself have spoken to Catherine de' Medici."

The words uttered by the little provincial were said in a voice of strange sonorousness, if I may be permitted

to borrow that expression from the science of physics. This sudden clearness of intonation, coming from a

man who had hitherto scarcely spoken, and then in a low and modulated tone, surprised all present

"Why, he is talking!" said the surgeon, who was now in a satisfactory state of drunkenness, addressing

My man flushed again as he overheard the words, though they were said in a low voice.

"I will not swear that the person with whom I supped last night at the house of the Cardinal de Rohan was

Catherine de' Medici in person. That miracle would justly seem impossible to Christians as well as to

philosophers," said the little lawyer, resting the tips of his fingers on the table, and leaning back in his chair

as if preparing to make a speech. "Nevertheless, I do assert that the woman I saw resembled Catherine de'

Medici as closely as though they were twinsisters. She was dressed in a black velvet gown, precisely like

that of the queen in the wellknown portrait which belongs to the king; on her head was the pointed velvet

coif, which is characteristic of her; and she had the wan complexion, and the features we all know well. I

could not help betraying my surprise to his Eminence. The suddenness of the evocation seemed to me all the

more amazing because Monsieur de Cagliostro had been unable to divine the name of the person with whom

I wished to communicate. I was confounded. The magical spectacle of a supper, where one of the illustrious

women of past times presented herself, took from me my presence of mind. I listened without daring to

question. When I roused myself about midnight from the spell of that magic, I was inclined to doubt my

senses. But even this great marvel seemed natural in comparison with the singular hallucination to which I

was presently subjected. I don't know in what words I can describe to you the state of my senses. But I

declare, in the sincerity of my heart, I no longer wonder that souls have been found weak enough, or strong

enough, to believe in the mysteries of magic and in the power of demons. For myself, until I am better

informed, I regard as possible the apparitions which Cardan and other thaumaturgists describe."

These words, said with indescribable eloquence of tone, were of a nature to rouse the curiosity of all present.

We looked at the speaker and kept silence; our eyes alone betrayed our interest, their pupils reflecting the

light of the waxcandles in the sconces. By dint of observing this unknown little man, I fancied I could see

the pores of his skin, especially those of his forehead, emitting an inward sentiment with which he was

saturated. This man, apparently so cold and formal, seemed to contain within him a burning altar, the flames

"I do not know," he continued, "if the Figure evoked followed me invisibly, but no sooner had my head

touched the pillow in my own chamber than I saw once more that grand Shade of Catherine rise before me. I

felt myself, instinctively, in a luminous sphere, and my eyes, fastened upon the queen with intolerable fixity,

"But," continued the lawyer, "I am not sure that I ought to relate what happened, for though I am inclined to

"Go on, then," said the minister; "Voltaire, Diderot, and their fellows have already begun to tutor us on that

Calonne became very attentive, and his neighbor, Madame de Genlis, rather anxious. The little provincial still

"Go on, maitre, go on! Don't you know that when the laws allow but little liberty the people seek their

"Whether it was that certain ideas were fermenting in my brain, or that some strange power impelled me, I

said to her: 'Ah! madame, you committed a very great crime.' 'What crime?' she asked in a grave voice. 'The

crime for which the signal was given from the clock of the palace on the 24th of August,' I answered. She

smiled disdainfully, and a few deep wrinkles appeared on her pallid cheeks. 'You call that a crime which was

only a misfortune,' she said. 'The enterprise, being illmanaged, failed; the benefit we expected for France,

for Europe, for the Catholic Church was lost. Impossible to foresee that. Our orders were ill executed; we did

not find as many Montlucs as we needed. Posterity will not hold us responsible for the failure of

communications, which deprived our work of the unity of movement which is essential to all great strokes of

policy; that was our misfortune! If on the 25th of August not the shadow of a Huguenot had been left in

France, I should go down to the uttermost posterity as a noble image of Providence. How many, many times

have the clearsighted souls of Sixtus the Fifth, Richelieu, Bossuet, reproached me secretly for having failed

in that enterprise after having the boldness to conceive it! How many and deep regrets for that failure

attended my deathbed! Thirty years after the SaintBartholomew the evil it might have cured was still in

existence. That failure caused ten times more blood to flow in France than if the massacre of August 24th had

been completed on the 26th. The revocation of the Edict of Nantes, in honor of which you have struck

medals, has cost more tears, more blood, more money, and killed the prosperity of France far more than three

Saint Bartholomews. Letellier with his pen gave effect to a decree which the throne had secretly

promulgated since my time; but, though the vast execution was necessary of the 25th of August, 1572, on the

25th of August, 1685, it was useless. Under the second son of Henri de Valois heresy had scarcely conceived

an offspring; under the second son of Henri de Bourbon that teeming mother had cast her spawn over the

whole universe. You accuse me of a crime, and you put up statues to the son of Anne of Austria!

Nevertheless, he and I attempted the same thing; he succeeded, I failed; but Louis XIV. found the Protestants

without arms, whereas in my reign they had powerful armies, statesmen, warriors, and all Germany on their

side.' At these words, slowly uttered, I felt an inward shudder pass through me. I fancied I breathed the fumes

of blood from I know not what great mass of victims. Catherine was magnified. She stood before me like an

evil genius; she sought, it seemed to me, to enter my consciousness and abide there."

"He dreamed all that," whispered Beaumarchais; "he certainly never invented it."

"'My reason is bewildered,' I said to the queen. 'You praise yourself for an act which three generations of men

have condemned, stigmatized, and' 'Add,' she rejoined, 'that historians have been more unjust toward me

than my contemporaries. None have defended me. I, rich and allpowerful, am accused of ambition! I am

taxed with cruelty,I who have but two deaths upon my conscience. Even to impartial minds I am still a

problem. Do you believe that I was actuated by hatred, that vengeance and fury were the breath of my

nostrils?' She smiled with pity. 'No,' she continued, 'I was cold and calm as reason itself. I condemned the

Huguenots without pity, but without passion; they were the rotten fruit in my basket and I cast them out. Had

I been Queen of England, I should have treated seditious Catholics in the same way. The life of our power in

those days depended on their being but one God, one Faith, one Master in the State. Happily for me, I uttered

my justification in one sentence which history is transmitting. When Birago falsely announced to me the loss

of the battle of Dreux, I answered: "Well then; we will go to the Protestant churches." Did I hate the

reformers? No, I esteemed them much, and I knew them little. If I felt any aversion to the politicians of my

time, it was to that base Cardinal de Lorraine, and to his brother the shrewd and brutal soldier who spied upon

my every act. They were the real enemies of my children; they sought to snatch the crown; I saw them daily

at work and they wore me out. If we had not ordered the SaintBartholomew, the Guises would have done

the same thing by the help of Rome and the monks. The League, which was powerful only in consequence of

my old age, would have begun in 1573.' 'But, madame, instead of ordering that horrible murder (pardon my

plainness) why not have employed the vast resources of your political power in giving to the Reformers those

wise institutions which made the reign of Henri IV. so glorious and so peaceful?' She smiled again and

shrugged her shoulders, the hollow wrinkles of her pallid face giving her an expression of the bitterest

sarcasm. 'The peoples,' she said, 'need periods of rest after savage feuds; there lies the secret of that reign. But

Henri IV. committed two irreparable blunders. He ought neither to have abjured Protestantism, nor, after

becoming a Catholic himself, should he have left France Catholic. He, alone, was in a position to have

changed the whole of France without a jar. Either not a stole, or not a conventiclethat should have been his

motto. To leave two bitter enemies, two antagonistic principles in a government with nothing to balance

them, that is the crime of kings; it is thus that they sow revolutions. To God alone belongs the right to keep

good and evil perpetually together in his work. But it may be,' she said reflectively, 'that that sentence was

inscribed on the foundation of Henri IV.'s policy, and it may have caused his death. It is impossible that Sully

did not cast covetous eyes on the vast wealth of the clergy,which the clergy did not possess in peace, for

the nobles robbed them of at least twothirds of their revenue. Sully, the Reformer, himself owned abbeys.'

She paused, and appeared to reflect. 'But,' she resumed, 'remember you are asking the niece of a Pope to

justify her Catholicism.' She stopped again. 'And yet, after all,' she added with a gesture of some levity, 'I

should have made a good Calvinist! Do the wise men of your century still think that religion had anything to

do with that struggle, the greatest which Europe has ever seen?a vast revolution, retarded by little causes

which, however, will not be prevented from overwhelming the world because I failed to smother it; a

revolution,' she said, giving me a solemn look, 'which is still advancing, and which you might consummate.

Yes, you, who hear me!' I shuddered. 'What! has no one yet understood that the old interests and the new

interests seized Rome and Luther as mere banners? What! do they not know Louis IX., to escape just such a

struggle, dragged a population a hundredfold more in number than I destroyed from their homes and left their

bones on the sands of Egypt, for which he was made a saint? while IBut I,' she added, 'failed.' She bowed

her head and was silent for some moments. I no longer beheld a queen, but rather one of those ancient

druidesses to whom human lives are sacrificed; who unroll the pages of the future and exhume the teachings

of the past. But soon she uplifted her regal and majestic form. 'Luther and Calvin,' she said, 'by calling the

attention of the burghers to the abuses of the Roman Church, gave birth in Europe to a spirit of investigation

which was certain to lead the peoples to examine all things. Examination leads to doubt. Instead of faith,

which is necessary to all societies, those two men drew after them, in the far distance, a strange philosophy,

armed with hammers, hungry for destruction. Science sprang, sparkling with her specious lights, from the

bosom of heresy. It was far less a question of reforming a Church than of winning indefinite liberty for

man which is the death of power. I saw that. The consequence of the successes won by the religionists in

their struggle against the priesthood (already better armed and more formidable than the Crown) was the

destruction of the monarchical power raised by Louis IX. at such vast cost upon the ruins of feudality. It

involved, in fact, nothing less than the annihilation of religion and royalty, on the ruins of which the whole

burgher class of Europe meant to stand. The struggle was therefore war without quarter between the new

ideas and the law,that is, the old beliefs. The Catholics were the emblem of the material interests of

royalty, of the great lords, and of the clergy. It was a duel to the death between two giants; unfortunately, the

SaintBartholomew proved to be only a wound. Remember this: because a few drops of blood were spared at

that opportune moment, torrents were compelled to flow at a later period. The intellect which soars above a

nation cannot escape a great misfortune; I mean the misfortune of finding no equals capable of judging it

when it succumbs beneath the weight of untoward events. My equals are few; fools are in the majority: that

statement explains it all. If my name is execrated in France, the fault lies with the commonplace minds who

form the mass of all generations. In the great crises through which I passed, the duty of reigning was not the

mere giving of audiences, reviewing of troops, signing of decrees. I may have committed mistakes, for I was

but a woman. But why was there then no man who rose above his age? The Duke of Alba had a soul of iron;

Philip II. was stupefied by Catholic belief; Henri IV. was a gambling soldier and a libertine; the Admiral, a

stubborn mule. Louis XI. lived too soon, Richelieu too late. Virtuous or criminal, guilty or not in the

SaintBartholomew, I accept the onus of it; I stand between those two great men,the visible link of an

unseen chain. The day will come when some paradoxical writer will ask if the peoples have not bestowed the

title of executioner among their victims. It will not be the first time that humanity has preferred to immolate a

god rather than admit its own guilt. You are shedding upon two hundred clowns, sacrificed for a purpose, the

tears you refuse to a generation, a century, a world! You forget that political liberty, the tranquillity of a

nation, nay, knowledge itself, are gifts on which destiny has laid a tax of blood!' 'But,' I exclaimed, with tears

in my eyes, 'will the nations never be happy at less cost?' 'Truth never leaves her well but to bathe in the

blood which refreshes her,' she replied. 'Christianity, itself the essence of all truth, since it comes from God,

was fed by the blood of martyrs, which flowed in torrents; and shall it not ever flow? You will learn this, you

who are destined to be one of the builders of the social edifice founded by the Apostles. So long as you level

heads you will be applauded, but take your trowel in hand, begin to reconstruct, and your fellows will kill

you.' Blood! blood! the word sounded in my ears like a knell. 'According to you,' I cried, 'Protestantism has

the right to reason as you do!' But Catherine had disappeared, as if some puff of air had suddenly

extinguished the supernatural light which enabled my mind to see that Figure whose proportions had

gradually become gigantic. And then, without warning, I found within me a portion of myself which adopted

the monstrous doctrine delivered by the Italian. I woke, weeping, bathed in sweat, at the moment when my

reason told me firmly, in a gentle voice, that neither kings nor nations had the right to apply such principles,

"Therefore," remarked Monsieur de Calonne, with the inconceivable levity which characterized him, "we

have the agreeable resource of believing ourselves the instruments of God, according to the Gospel of

As soon as the ladies discovered that the tale related only to a conversation between the queen and the

lawyer, they had begun to whisper and to show signs of impatience,interjecting, now and then, little

phrases through his speech. "How wearisome he is!" "My dear, when will he finish?" were among those

When the strange little man had ceased speaking the ladies too were silent; Monsieur Bodard was sound

asleep; the surgeon, half drunk; Monsieur de Calonne was smiling at the lady next him. Lavoisier,

Beaumarchais, and I alone had listened to the lawyer's dream. The silence at this moment had something

solemn about it. The gleam of the candles seemed to me magical. A sentiment bound all three of us by some

mysterious tie to that singular little man, who made me, strange to say, conceive, suddenly, the inexplicable

influences of fanaticism. Nothing less than the hollow, cavernous voice of Beaumarchais's neighbor, the

I looked at him more attentively, and a feeling of some strange horror came over me. His livid skin, his

features, huge and yet ignoble, gave an exact idea of what you must allow me to call the scum of the earth. A

few bluishblack spots were scattered over his face, like bits of mud, and his eyes shot forth an evil gleam.

The face seemed, perhaps, darker, more lowering than it was, because of the white hair piled like hoarfrost on

"That man must have buried many a patient," I whispered to my neighbor the lawyer.

Monsieur de Calonne here motioned us to look at the surgeon, with a gesture that seemed to say: "I think he'll

"No, I dreamed of a People," replied the surgeon, with an emphasis which made us laugh. "I was then in

"Did you find the People in the leg of your patient?" asked Monsieur de Calonne.

"I was somewhat surprised," went on the speaker, without noticing the interruption, and sticking his hands

into the gussets of his breeches, "to hear something talking to me within that leg. I then found I had the

singular faculty of entering the being of my patient. Once within his skin I saw a marvellous number of little

creatures which moved, and thought, and reasoned. Some of them lived in the body of the man, others lived

in his mind. His ideas were things which were born, and grew, and died; they were sick and well, and gay,

and sad; they all had special countenances; they fought with each other, or they embraced each other. Some

ideas sprang forth and went to live in the world of intellect. I began to see that there were two worlds, two

universes,the visible universe, and the invisible universe; that the earth had, like man, a body and a soul.

Nature illumined herself for me; I felt her immensity when I saw the oceans of beings who, in masses and in

species, spread everywhere, making one sole and uniform animated Matter, from the stone of the earth to

God. Magnificent vision! In short, I found a universe within my patient. When I inserted my knife into his

gangrened leg I cut into a million of those little beings. Oh! you laugh, madame; let me tell you that you are

"No personalities!" interposed Monsieur de Calonne. "Speak for yourself and for your patient."

"My patient, frightened by the cries of his animalcules, wanted to stop the operation; but I went on regardless

of his remonstrances; telling him that those evil animals were already gnawing at his bones. He made a

sudden movement of resistance, not understanding that what I did was for his good, and my knife slipped

"That man has a vocation," announced my little neighbor, who had stared imperturbably at the surgeon while

"It is to yours," said the ugly man, "what the action is to the word, the body to the soul."

But his tongue grew thick, his words were indistinct, and he said no more. Fortunately for us the conversation

took another turn. At the end of half an hour we had forgotten the surgeon of the king's pages, who was fast

"True, but he is cold and dull. You see, however, that the provinces are still sending us worthy men who take

a serious view of political theories and the history of France. It is a leaven which will rise."

Madame de SaintJames then rang the bell, ordered her own carriage to be brought round, and said to the

"Monsieur de Robespierre, will you do me the kindness to drop Monsieur Marat at his own door?for he is

"With pleasure, madame," replied Monsieur de Robespierre, with his finical gallantry. "I only wish you had

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