edom at his
residence of Chantilly, begging her at the same time to take under her
protection the heirs of his house. Henry II.'s favorite, Diana de
Poitiers, was dismissed more harshly. "The king sent to tell Madame de
Valentinois," writes the Venetian ambassador, "that for her evil
influence (_mali officii_) over the king his father she would deserve
heavy chastisement; but, in his royal clemency, he did not wish to
disquiet her any further; she must, nevertheless, restore to him all the
jewels given her by the king his father." "To bend Catherine de' Medici,
Diana was also obliged," says De Thou, "to give up her beautiful house at
Chenonceaux on the Cher, and she received in exchange the castle of
Chaumont on the Loire." The Guises obtained all the favors of the court
at the same time that they were invested with all the powers of the
state.

In order to give a good notion of Duke Francis of Guise and his brother
the Cardinal of Lorraine, the two heads of the house, we will borrow the
very words of those two men of their age who had the best means of seeing
them close and judging them correctly, the French historian De Thou and
the Venetian ambassador John Micheli. "The Cardinal of Lorraine," says
De Thou, "was of an impetuous and violent character; the Duke of Guise,
on the contrary, was of a gentle and moderate disposition. But as
ambition soon overleaps the confines of restraint and equity, he was
carried away by the violent counsels of the cardinal, or else surrendered
himself to them of his own accord, executing with admirable prudence and
address the plans which were always chalked out by his brother." The
Venetian ambassador enters into more precise and full details. "The
cardinal," he says, "who is the leading man of the house, would be, by
common consent, if it were not for the defects of which I shall speak,
the greatest political power in this kingdom. He has not yet completed
his thirty-seventh year; he is endowed with a marvellous intellect, which
apprehends from half a word the meaning of those who converse with him;
he has an astonishing memory, a fine and noble face, and a rare eloquence
which shows itself freely on any subject, but especially in matters of
politics. He is very well versed in letters: he knows Greek, Latin, and
Italian. He is very strong in the sciences, chiefly in theology. The
externals of his life are very proper and very suitable to his dignity,
which could not be said