care it will be fulfilled. Do not be
angry with your sister; she has behaved well in this affair. My son,"
continued the queen, after a pause, giving a tone of tenderness to
her words, "evil persons on the side of the Guises are trying to sow
dissensions between you and me; and yet we are the only ones in the
kingdom whose interests are absolutely identical. You blame me, I know,
for the Saint-Bartholomew; you accuse me of having forced you into
it. Catholicism, monsieur, must be the bond between France, Spain,
and Italy, three countries which can, by skilful management, secretly
planned, be united in course of time, under the house of Valois. Do not
deprive yourself of such chances by loosing the cord which binds the
three kingdoms in the bonds of a common faith. Why should not the Valois
and the Medici carry out for their own glory the scheme of Charles the
Fifth, whose head failed him? Let us fling off that race of Jeanne la
Folle. The Medici, masters of Florence and of Rome, will force Italy to
support your interests; they will guarantee you advantages by treaties
of commerce and alliance which shall recognize your fiefs in Piedmont,
the Milanais, and Naples, where you have rights. These, monsieur, are
the reasons of the war to the death which we make against the Huguenots.
Why do you force me to repeat these things? Charlemagne was wrong in
advancing toward the north. France is a body whose heart is on the Gulf
of Lyons, and its two arms over Spain and Italy. Therefore, she must
rule the Mediterranean, that basket into which are poured all the riches
of the Orient, now turned to the profit of those seigneurs of Venice,
in the very teeth of Philip II. If the friendship of the Medici and your
rights justify you in hoping for Italy, force, alliances, or a possible
inheritance may give you Spain. Warn the house of Austria as to
this,--that ambitious house to which the Guelphs sold Italy, and which
is even now hankering after Spain. Though your wife is of that house,
humble it! Clasp it so closely that you will smother it! _There_ are
the enemies of your kingdom; thence comes help to the Reformers. Do not
listen to those who find their profit in causing us to disagree, and who
torment your life by making you believe I am your secret enemy. Have _I_
prevented you from having heirs? Why has your mistress given you a son,
and your wife a daughter? Why have you not to-day three legitimate heirs
to root out the hopes of these