or woman passed her time
in observing the self-interests of the court people and of the various
parties which were formed about her. All the Italians who had
followed her were objects of violent suspicion. After the execution
of Montecuculi the Connetable de Montmorency, Diane, and many of the
keenest politicians of the court were filled with suspicion of the
Medici; though Francois I. always repelled it. Consequently, the Gondi,
Strozzi, Ruggieri, Sardini, etc.,--in short, all those who were
called distinctively "the Italians,"--were compelled to employ greater
resources of mind, shrewd policy, and courage, to maintain themselves at
court against the weight of disfavor which pressed upon them.

During her husband's reign Catherine's amiability to Diane de Poitiers
went to such great lengths that intelligent persons must regard it as
proof of that profound dissimulation which men, events, and the conduct
of Henri II. compelled Catherine de' Medici to employ. But they go too
far when they declare that she never claimed her rights as wife
and queen. In the first place, the sense of dignity which Catherine
possessed in the highest degree forbade her claiming what historians
call her rights as a wife. The ten children of the marriage explain
Henri's conduct; and his wife's maternal occupations left him free to
pass his time with Diane de Poitiers. But the king was never lacking in
anything that was due to himself; and he gave Catherine an "entry" into
Paris, to be crowned as queen, which was worthy of all such pageants
that had ever taken place. The archives of the Parliament, and those of
the Cour des Comptes, show that those two great bodies went to meet
her outside of Paris as far as Saint Lazare. Here is an extract from du
Tillet's account of it:--

"A platform had been erected at Saint-Lazare, on which was a
throne (du Tillet calls it a _chair de parement_). Catherine took
her seat upon it, wearing a surcoat, or species of ermine
short-cloak covered with precious stones, a bodice beneath it with
the royal mantle, and on her head a crown enriched with pearls and
diamonds, and held in place by the Marechale de la Mark, her lady
of honor. Around her _stood_ the princes of the blood, and other
princes and seigneurs, richly apparelled, also the chancellor of
France in a robe of gold damask on a background of crimson-red.
Before the queen, and on the same platform, were seated, in two
rows, twelve duc