ere 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 wet-nurse 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.

XIV. CATHERINE IN POWER

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 queen-mother 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
queen-mother. 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 queen-mother. 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 t