ct of banishment in case of future indiscretion, which might,
as they said, put the kingdom in danger.

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 her a note, written in the following terms:--

"Do not allow a prince of the blood to be put to death by a
committee; or you will yourself be carried off in some way."

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
queen-mother. 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 Ecouen to Corbeil, and from Corbeil to
Pithiviers by the valley of the Essonne.

"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 cardinal.

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 queen-mother revived the hopes and the boldness of the
Reformed party. The Colignys and the friends of the house of Bourbon,
aware of their dange