e Huguenots, an Italian
Catholic, the aunt of Leo X.,--can _she_ ally herself with the
Reformation?" asked Charles de Gondi.

"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
is possible to support the Reformers without abjuring."

"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 to-morrow it will be that of the Reformation if the
Reformation could make a king of the Duke of Florence."

"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
Ecouen--_he_ 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
encourage heresy."

"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 children."

"The Reformation is an _idea_," said Charles de Gondi; "the parties that
Louis XI. crushed were moved by self-interests only."

"Ideas are behind selfish interests," replied Chiverni. "Under Louis XI.
the idea was the great Fiefs--"

"Make heresy an axe," said Alb