caused herself to be interrogated in the chamber of the dying man, before his family and a number of the nobility. The duke, in his last moments, earnestly conjured her, as the common mother of her people, to terminate a contest which desolated France; while he pronounced that person who should presume to offer other counsels, an enemy to his king and country. It was the duke of Guise only who had opposed limits to the intriguing genius of the regent; his death, which must be considered as a misfortune to France, left her without a competitor. To prove her respect for his dying counsels, she made immediate overtures towards a pacification. Through the mediation of the constable and the prince of Condé, a peace was accordingly concluded in terms not unfavourable to the huguenots. During the tranquillity that succeeded to this storm, the restless spirit of Catherine could not remain passive: she sought to sow distrust between the admiral and Condé, by the insidious proposals which she made to the latter; but, aware of her duplicity, he avoided the snare. His political caution, however, availed him little; Catherine knew how to suit to the character of her victims the proper temptation. It was by volup tuousness and effeminate pleasures that she sought to enervate the mind of the hero, and, by destroy ing his activity, to disgust him with the fatigues of a camp. For this purpose she used with success the charms of the ladies in her train. The princess of Condé expired a victim to grief from the neglect and infidelities of her husband. Having amused the prince with promises of admitting him to a share in the government, Catherine, to evade his demands, employed a subtle expedient. By an edict of Charles V. in 1363, it was necessary that a king of France, before he attained his majority, should have completed his fourteenth year. Charles IX. wanted yet twelve months of this period. By a declaration of his being no longer a minor, Catherine was aware that she should retain, in his name, the supreme authority unmolested: she accordingly procured an act for the purpose to be registered in the parliament of Rouen, which the young king addressed on the occasion in a speech from the throne. The queen-mother arose as her son ceased to speak, and declared before the parliament, that it was with infinite joy she resigned to him the administration. Having thus said, she prepared to take the oath of allegiance, when Charles, descending from the throne, uncovered himself, and advanced to meet her: Catherine embraced him on her knees, while the king de clared, that he should more than ever desire her counsel and assistance. Paris refused to confirm the edict, but Charles, tutored by his mother, reprimanded them in terms so severe, that after a considerable delay the decree passed the parlia ment. The queen, splendid in all her plans, caused the palace of the Tournelles, in which her husband had expired, to be destroyed, and that of the Tuilleries to be erected in its place. In this design the most celebrated artists of the age were employed, and rewarded with a magnificence truly liberal. Every branch of polite literature received the patronage of Catherine, while, for the embellishment of France, Italy, her native country, was despoiled. She piqued herself on her respect for the memory of Francis I. in whose court her youth had passed, and whom she affected to emulate. Her refinement, her delicacy, the magnificence of her projects, and the elegance of her taste, outstripped the period in which she lived. Having determined, from various motives, to carry her son on a progress through his dominions, she concealed, under the mask of pleasure, the deep designs she secretly planned. Infractions had been made by each party in the treaty of peace, which seemed to promise no long duration. It was conjectured by many, that a principal inducement to the tour proposed by Catherine, was to enable herself to estimate the real strength of the huguenots. All her magnificence was displayed in the preparations for this journey; during which the celebrated interview between the king and his sister, the queen of Spain, took place. The latter, escorted by a splendid train, advanced to the frontiers to meet her brother; while Catherine, impatient to embrace her favourite daughter, crossed the river Bidassou, which parts the two kingdoms. The young queen was received at Bayonne with extraordinary pomp; the interview lasted more than three weeks, during which was exhibited every brilliant spectacle and elegant diversion which the genius of Catherine, fertile in expedients, could invent or procure. It was amidst the reign of pleasures, over which the queen-mother presided as the tutelar deity, that projects of ambition were formed, and sanguinary schemes of vengeance deeply meditated. A gallery of secret communication was constructed between the houses of the queen of Spain and her mother: their meetings thus facilitated, Catherine held with the duke of Alva, the Spanish minister, fre quent conferences, which respected the extirpation of the huguenots. This circumstance is avowed by Davila, though in a manner somewhat softened.—“ The duke of Alva," says he, "advised the most sanguinary measures, while the queen inclined to temporise: she dreaded the renewal of civil commotions, and felt reluctant to embrue her hands in the blood of the princes and first nobility of France."-However this might have been, it appears certain, that during these interviews a foundation was laid for the tragical events that succeeded. Rumours of this confederacy for the destruction of the protestants got abroad; suspicions, which the character of Catherine but too well justified, distrust, and jealousy, hourly increased. The queen-mother, after this meeting, conducted her son to Nerac, a city of Gascony, in which Jane queen of Navarre resided, and thence continued their progress. New sources of war were daily disclosing themselves; the edicts in favour of the reformed were violated with impunity in every province. It was long before the calvinist chiefs could be induced to break the truce, till a combination of causes urged them to commence hostilities; when, as a preliminary to |