Catherine De Medici

VI

THE LITTLE LEVER OF FRANCOIS II.

Madame Dayelle glided into the royal chamber after scratching on the door,—­a respectful custom, invented by Catherine de’ Medici and adopted by the court of France.

“How is the weather, my dear Dayelle?” said Queen Mary, showing her fresh young face out of the bed, and shaking the curtains.

“Ah! madame—­”

“What’s the matter, my Dayelle?  You look as if the archers of the guard were after you.”

“Oh! madame, is the king still asleep?”

“Yes.”

“We are to leave the chateau; Monsieur le cardinal requests me to tell you so, and to ask you to make the king agree to it.

“Do you know why, my good Dayelle?”

“The Reformers want to seize you and carry you off.”

“Ah! that new religion does not leave me a minute’s peace!  I dreamed last night that I was in prison,—­I, who will some day unite the crowns of the three noblest kingdoms in the world!”

“Therefore it could only be a dream, madame.”

“Carry me off! well, ’twould be rather pleasant; but on account of religion, and by heretics—­oh, that would be horrid.”

The queen sprang from the bed and placed herself in a large arm-chair of red velvet before the fireplace, after Dayelle had given her a dressing-gown of black velvet, which she fastened loosely round her waist by a silken cord.  Dayelle lit the fire, for the mornings are cool on the banks of the Loire in the month of May.

“My uncles must have received some news during the night?” said the queen, inquiringly to Dayelle, whom she treated with great familiarity.

“Messieurs de Guise have been walking together from early morning on the terrace, so as not to be overheard by any one; and there they received messengers, who came in hot haste from all the different points of the kingdom where the Reformers are stirring.  Madame la reine mere was there too, with her Italians, hoping she would be consulted; but no, she was not admitted to the council.”

“She must have been furious.”

“All the more because she was so angry yesterday,” replied Dayelle.  “They say that when she saw your Majesty appear in that beautiful dress of woven gold, with the charming veil of tan-colored crape, she was none too pleased—­”

“Leave us, my good Dayelle, the king is waking up.  Let no one, even those who have the little entrees, disturb us; an affair of State is in hand, and my uncles will not disturb us.”

“Why! my dear Mary, already out of bed?  Is it daylight?” said the young king, waking up.

“My dear darling, while we were asleep the wicked waked, and now they are forcing us to leave this delightful place.”

“What makes you think of wicked people, my treasure?  I am sure we enjoyed the prettiest fete in the world last night—­if it were not for the Latin words those gentlemen will put into our French.”

“Ah!” said Mary, “your language is really in very good taste, and Rabelais exhibits it finely.”

“You are such a learned woman!  I am so vexed that I can’t sing your praises in verse.  If I were not the king, I would take my brother’s tutor, Amyot, and let him make me as accomplished as Charles.”

“You need not envy your brother, who writes verses and shows them to me, asking for mine in return.  You are the best of the four, and will make as good a king as you are the dearest of lovers.  Perhaps that is why your mother does not like you!  But never mind!  I, dear heart, will love you for all the world.”

“I have no great merit in loving such a perfect queen,” said the little king.  “I don’t know what prevented me from kissing you before the whole court when you danced the branle with the torches last night!  I saw plainly that all the other women were mere servants compared to you, my beautiful Mary.”

“It may be only prose you speak, but it is ravishing speech, dear darling, for it is love that says those words.  And you—­you know well, my beloved, that were you only a poor little page, I should love you as much as I do now.  And yet, there is nothing so sweet as to whisper to one’s self:  ‘My lover is king!’”

“Oh! the pretty arm!  Why must we dress ourselves?  I love to pass my fingers through your silky hair and tangle its blond curls.  Ah ca! sweet one, don’t let your women kiss that pretty throat and those white shoulders any more; don’t allow it, I say.  It is too much that the fogs of Scotland ever touched them!”

“Won’t you come with me to see my dear country?  The Scotch love you; there are no rebellions there!”

“Who rebels in this our kingdom?” said Francois, crossing his dressing-gown and taking Mary Stuart on his knee.

“Oh! ’tis all very charming, I know that,” she said, withdrawing her cheek from the king; “but it is your business to reign, if you please, my sweet sire.”

“Why talk of reigning?  This morning I wish—­”

“Why say wish when you have only to will all?  That’s not the speech of a king, nor that of a lover.—­But no more of love just now; let us drop it!  We have business more important to speak of.”

“Oh!” cried the king, “it is long since we have had any business.  Is it amusing?”

“No,” said Mary, “not at all; we are to move from Blois.”

“I’ll wager, darling, you have seen your uncles, who manage so well that I, at seventeen years of age, am no better than a roi faineant.  In fact, I don’t know why I have attended any of the councils since the first.  They could manage matters just as well by putting the crown in my chair; I see only through their eyes, and am forced to consent to things blindly.”

“Oh! monsieur,” said the queen, rising from the king’s knee with a little air of indignation, “you said you would never worry me again on this subject, and that my uncles used the royal power only for the good of your people.  Your people!—­they are so nice!  They would gobble you up like a strawberry if you tried to rule them yourself.  You want a warrior, a rough master with mailed hands; whereas you—­you are a darling whom I love as you are; whom I should never love otherwise, —­do you hear me, monsieur?” she added, kissing the forehead of the lad, who seemed inclined to rebel at her speech, but softened at her kisses.

“Oh! how I wish they were not your uncles!” cried Francois II.  “I particularly dislike the cardinal; and when he puts on his wheedling air and his submissive manner and says to me, bowing:  ’Sire, the honor of the crown and the faith of your fathers forbid your Majesty to —­this and that,’ I am sure he is working only for his cursed house of Lorraine.”

“Oh, how well you mimicked him!” cried the queen.  “But why don’t you make the Guises inform you of what is going on, so that when you attain your grand majority you may know how to reign yourself?  I am your wife, and your honor is mine.  Trust me! we will reign together, my darling; but it won’t be a bed of roses for us until the day comes when we have our own wills.  There is nothing so difficult for a king as to reign.  Am I a queen, for example?  Don’t you know that your mother returns me evil for all the good my uncles do to raise the splendor of your throne?  Hey! what difference between them!  My uncles are great princes, nephews of Charlemagne, filled with ardor and ready to die for you; whereas this daughter of a doctor or a shopkeeper, queen of France by accident, scolds like a burgher-woman who can’t manage her own household.  She is discontented because she can’t set every one by the ears; and then she looks at me with a sour, pale face, and says from her pinched lips:  ’My daughter, you are a queen; I am only the second woman in the kingdom’ (she is really furious, you know, my darling), ’but if I were in your place I should not wear crimson velvet while all the court is in mourning; neither should I appear in public with my own hair and no jewels, because what is not becoming in a simple lady is still less becoming in a queen.  Also I should not dance myself, I should content myself with seeing others dance.’—­that is what she says to me—­”

“Heavens!” cried the king, “I think I hear her coming.  If she were to know—­”

“Oh, how you tremble before her.  She worries you.  Only say so, and we will send her away.  Faith, she’s Florentine and we can’t help her tricking you, but when it comes to worrying—­”

“For Heaven’s sake, Mary, hold your tongue!” said Francois, frightened and also pleased; “I don’t want you to lose her good-will.”

“Don’t be afraid that she will ever break with me, who will some day wear the three noblest crowns in the world, my dearest little king,” cried Mary Stuart.  “Though she hates me for a thousand reasons she is always caressing me in the hope of turning me against my uncles.”

“Hates you!”

“Yes, my angel; and if I had not proofs of that feeling such as women only understand, for they alone know its malignity, I would forgive her perpetual opposition to our dear love, my darling.  Is it my fault that your father could not endure Mademoiselle Medici or that his son loves me?  The truth is, she hates me so much that if you had not put yourself into a rage, we should each have had our separate chamber at Saint-Germain, and also here.  She pretended it was the custom of the kings and queens of France.  Custom, indeed! it was your father’s custom, and that is easily understood.  As for your grandfather, Francois, the good man set up the custom for the convenience of his loves.  Therefore, I say, take care.  And if we have to leave this place, be sure that we are not separated.”

“Leave Blois!  Mary, what do you mean?  I don’t wish to leave this beautiful chateau, where we can see the Loire and the country all round us, with a town at our feet and all these pretty gardens.  If I go away it will be to Italy with you, to see St. Peter’s, and Raffaelle’s pictures.”

“And the orange-trees?  Oh! my darling king, if you knew the longing your Mary has to ramble among the orange-groves in fruit and flower!”

“Let us go, then!” cried the king.

“Go!” exclaimed the grand-master as he entered the room.  “Yes, sire, you must leave Blois.  Pardon my boldness in entering your chamber; but circumstances are stronger than etiquette, and I come to entreat you to hold a council.”

Finding themselves thus surprised, Mary and Francois hastily separated, and on their faces was the same expression of offended royal majesty.

“You are too much of a grand-master, Monsieur de Guise,” said the king, though controlling his anger.

“The devil take lovers,” murmured the cardinal in Catherine’s ear.

“My son,” said the queen-mother, appearing behind the cardinal; “it is a matter concerning your safety and that of your kingdom.”

“Heresy wakes while you have slept, sire,” said the cardinal.

“Withdraw into the hall,” cried the little king, “and then we will hold a council.”

“Madame,” said the grand-master to the young queen; “the son of your furrier has brought some furs, which was just in time for the journey, for it is probable we shall sail down the Loire.  But,” he added, turning to the queen-mother, “he also wishes to speak to you, madame.  While the king dresses, you and Madame la reine had better see and dismiss him, so that we may not be delayed and harassed by this trifle.”

“Certainly,” said Catherine, thinking to herself, “If he expects to get rid of me by any such trick he little knows me.”

The cardinal and the duke withdrew, leaving the two queens and the king alone together.  As they crossed the salle des gardes to enter the council-chamber, the grand-master told the usher to bring the queen’s furrier to him.  When Christophe saw the usher approaching from the farther end of the great hall, he took him, on account of his uniform, for some great personage, and his heart sank within him.  But that sensation, natural as it was at the approach of the critical moment, grew terrible when the usher, whose movement had attracted the eyes of all that brilliant assembly upon Christophe, his homely face and his bundles, said to him:—­

“Messeigneurs the Cardinal de Lorraine and the Grand-master wish to speak to you in the council chamber.”

“Can I have been betrayed?” thought the helpless ambassador of the Reformers.

Christophe followed the usher with lowered eyes, which he did not raise till he stood in the great council-chamber, the size of which is almost equal to that of the salle des gardes.  The two Lorrain princes were there alone, standing before the magnificent fireplace, which backs against that in the salle des gardes around which the ladies of the two queens were grouped.

“You have come from Paris; which route did you take?” said the cardinal.

“I came by water, monseigneur,” replied the reformer.

“How did you enter Blois?” asked the grand-master.

“By the docks, monseigneur.”

“Did no one question you?” exclaimed the duke, who was watching the young man closely.

“No, monseigneur.  To the first soldier who looked as if he meant to stop me I said I came on duty to the two queens, to whom my father was furrier.”

“What is happening in Paris?” asked the cardinal.

“They are still looking for the murderer of the President Minard.”

“Are you not the son of my surgeon’s greatest friend?” said the Duc de Guise, misled by the candor of Christophe’s expression after his first alarm had passed away.

“Yes, monseigneur.”

The Grand-master turned aside, abruptly raised the portiere which concealed the double door of the council-chamber, and showed his face to the whole assembly, among whom he was searching for the king’s surgeon.  Ambroise Pare, standing in a corner, caught a glance which the duke cast upon him, and immediately advanced.  Ambroise, who at this time was inclined to the reformed religion, eventually adopted it; but the friendship of the Guises and that of the kings of France guaranteed him against the evils which overtook his co-religionists.  The duke, who considered himself under obligations for life to Ambroise Pare, had lately caused him to be appointed chief-surgeon to the king.

“What is it, monseigneur?” said Ambroise.  “Is the king ill?  I think it likely.”

“Likely?  Why?”

“The queen is too pretty,” replied the surgeon.

“Ah!” exclaimed the duke in astonishment.  “However, that is not the matter now,” he added after a pause.  “Ambroise, I want you to see a friend of yours.”  So saying he drew him to the door of the council-room, and showed him Christophe.

“Ha! true, monseigneur,” cried the surgeon, extending his hand to the young furrier.  “How is your father, my lad?”

“Very well, Maitre Ambroise,” replied Christophe.

“What are you doing at court?” asked the surgeon.  “It is not your business to carry parcels; your father intends you for the law.  Do you want the protection of these two great princes to make you a solicitor?”

“Indeed I do!” said Christophe; “but I am here only in the interests of my father; and if you could intercede for us, please do so,” he added in a piteous tone; “and ask the Grand Master for an order to pay certain sums that are due to my father, for he is at his wit’s end just now for money.”

The cardinal and the duke glanced at each other and seemed satisfied.

“Now leave us,” said the duke to the surgeon, making him a sign.  “And you my friend,” turning to Christophe; “do your errand quickly and return to Paris.  My secretary will give you a pass, for it is not safe, mordieu, to be travelling on the high-roads!”

Neither of the brothers formed the slightest suspicion of the grave importance of Christophe’s errand, convinced, as they now were, that he was really the son of the good Catholic Lecamus, the court furrier, sent to collect payment for their wares.

“Take him close to the door of the queen’s chamber; she will probably ask for him soon,” said the cardinal to the surgeon, motioning to Christophe.

While the son of the furrier was undergoing this brief examination in the council-chamber, the king, leaving the queen in company with her mother-in-law, had passed into his dressing-room, which was entered through another small room next to the chamber.

Standing in the wide recess of an immense window, Catherine looked at the gardens, her mind a prey to painful thoughts.  She saw that in all probability one of the greatest captains of the age would be foisted that very day into the place and power of her son, the king of France, under the formidable title of lieutenant-general of the kingdom.  Before this peril she stood alone, without power of action, without defence.  She might have been likened to a phantom, as she stood there in her mourning garments (which she had not quitted since the death of Henri II.) so motionless was her pallid face in the grasp of her bitter reflections.  Her black eyes floated in that species of indecision for which great statesmen are so often blamed, though it comes from the vast extent of the glance with which they embrace all difficulties,—­setting one against the other, and adding up, as it were, all chances before deciding on a course.  Her ears rang, her blood tingled, and yet she stood there calm and dignified, all the while measuring in her soul the depths of the political abyss which lay before her, like the natural depths which rolled away at her feet.  This day was the second of those terrible days (that of the arrest of the Vidame of Chartres being the first) which she was destined to meet in so great numbers throughout her regal life; it also witnessed her last blunder in the school of power.  Though the sceptre seemed escaping from her hands, she wished to seize it; and she did seize it by a flash of that power of will which was never relaxed by either the disdain of her father-in-law, Francois I., and his court,—­where, in spite of her rank of dauphiness, she had been of no account,—­or the constant repulses of her husband, Henri II., and the terrible opposition of her rival, Diane de Poitiers.  A man would never have fathomed this thwarted queen; but the fair-haired Mary—­so subtle, so clever, so girlish, and already so well-trained—­examined her out of the corners of her eyes as she hummed an Italian air and assumed a careless countenance.  Without being able to guess the storms of repressed ambition which sent the dew of a cold sweat to the forehead of the Florentine, the pretty Scotch girl, with her wilful, piquant face, knew very well that the advancement of her uncle the Duc de Guise to the lieutenant-generalship of the kingdom was filling the queen-mother with inward rage.  Nothing amused her more than to watch her mother-in-law, in whom she saw only an intriguing woman of low birth, always ready to avenge herself.  The face of the one was grave and gloomy, and somewhat terrible, by reason of the livid tones which transform the skin of Italian women to yellow ivory by daylight, though it recovers its dazzling brilliancy under candlelight; the face of the other was fair and fresh and gay.  At sixteen, Mary Stuart’s skin had that exquisite blond whiteness which made her beauty so celebrated.  Her fresh and piquant face, with its pure lines, shone with the roguish mischief of childhood, expressed in the regular eyebrows, the vivacious eyes, and the archness of the pretty mouth.  Already she displayed those feline graces which nothing, not even captivity nor the sight of her dreadful scaffold, could lessen.  The two queens—­one at the dawn, the other in the midsummer of life —­presented at this moment the utmost contrast.  Catherine was an imposing queen, an impenetrable widow, without other passion than that of power.  Mary was a light-hearted, careless bride, making playthings of her triple crowns.  One foreboded great evils,—­foreseeing the assassination of the Guises as the only means of suppressing enemies who were resolved to rise above the Throne and the Parliament; foreseeing also the bloodshed of a long and bitter struggle; while the other little anticipated her own judicial murder.  A sudden and strange reflection calmed the mind of the Italian.

“That sorceress and Ruggiero both declare this reign is coming to an end; my difficulties will not last long,” she thought.

And so, strangely enough, an occult science forgotten in our day—­that of astrology—­supported Catherine at this moment, as it did, in fact, throughout her life; for, as she witnessed the minute fulfilment of the prophecies of those who practised the art, her belief in it steadily increased.

“You are very gloomy, madame,” said Mary Stuart, taking from the hands of her waiting-woman, Dayelle, a little cap and placing the point of it on the parting of her hair, while two wings of rich lace surrounded the tufts of blond curls which clustered on her temples.

The pencil of many painters have so frequently represented this head-dress that it is thought to have belonged exclusively to Mary Queen of Scots; whereas it was really invented by Catherine de’ Medici, when she put on mourning for Henri II.  But she never knew how to wear it with the grace of her daughter-in-law, to whom it was becoming.  This annoyance was not the least among the many which the queen-mother cherished against the young queen.

“Is the queen reproving me?” said Catherine, turning to Mary.

“I owe you all respect, and should not dare to do so,” said the Scottish queen, maliciously, glancing at Dayelle.

Placed between the rival queens, the favorite waiting-woman stood rigid as an andiron; a smile of comprehension might have cost her her life.

“Can I be as gay as you, after losing the late king, and now beholding my son’s kingdom about to burst into flames?”

“Public affairs do not concern women,” said Mary Stuart.  “Besides, my uncles are there.”

These words were, under the circumstances, like so many poisoned arrows.

“Let us look at our furs, madame,” replied the Italian, sarcastically; “that will employ us on our legitimate female affairs while your uncles decide those of the kingdom.”

“Oh! but we will go the Council, madame; we shall be more useful than you think.”

“We!” said Catherine, with an air of astonishment.  “But I do not understand Latin, myself.”

“You think me very learned,” cried Mary Stuart, laughing, “but I assure you, madame, I study only to reach the level of the Medici, and learn how to cure the wounds of the kingdom.”

Catherine was silenced by this sharp thrust, which referred to the origin of the Medici, who were descended, some said, from a doctor of medicine, others from a rich druggist.  She made no direct answer.  Dayelle colored as her mistress looked at her, asking for the applause that even queens demand from their inferiors if there are no other spectators.

“Your charming speeches, madame, will unfortunately cure the wounds of neither Church nor State,” said Catherine at last, with her calm and cold dignity.  “The science of my fathers in that direction gave them thrones; whereas if you continue to trifle in the midst of danger you are liable to lose yours.”

It was at this moment that Ambroise Pare, the chief surgeon, scratched softly on the door, and Madame Dayelle, opening it, admitted Christophe.