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 history, foretold
one year as the length of Francois's reign.

"Give me your opinion on all this," said Catherine to Chiverni.

"We shall have a battle," replied the prudent courtier. "The king of
Navarre--"

"Oh! say the queen," interrupted Catherine.

"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 him here."

"If he comes," cried the queen, "I am saved!"

Thus the leaders of the great movement of the Reformation in France were
justified in hoping for an ally in Catherine de' Medici.

"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
Guises? In presence of three such enemies it is allowable to feel one's
pulse."

"But they have not the king," said Albert de Gondi. "You will always
triumph, having the king on your side."

"_Maladetta Maria_!" muttered Catherine between her teeth.

"The Lorrains are, even now, endeavoring to turn the burghers against
you," remarked Birago.

V. THE COURT

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 too well.

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. Calvi