in the crypt of Saint-Denis, on the tomb which Catherine erected
for herself in her lifetime beside that of Henri II., where her figure
is modelled from nature by the sculptor to whom she sat for it.

On a solemn occasion, when he was starting, March 25, 1552, for his
expedition into Germany, Henri II. declared Catherine regent during his
absence, and also in case of his death. Catherine's most cruel enemy,
the author of "Marvellous Discourses on Catherine the Second's Behavior"
admits that she carried on the government with universal approval and
that the king was satisfied with her administration. Henri received both
money and men at the time he wanted them; and finally, after the fatal
day of Saint-Quentin, Catherine obtained considerable sums of money from
the people of Paris, which she sent to Compiegne, where the king then
was.

In politics, Catherine made immense efforts to obtain a little
influence. She was clever enough to bring the Connetable de Montmorency,
all-powerful under Henri II., to her interests. We all know the terrible
answer that the king made, on being harassed by Montmorency in her
favor. This answer was the result of an attempt by Catherine to give the
king good advice, in the few moments she was ever alone with him, when
she explained the Florentine policy of pitting the grandees of the
kingdom one against another and establishing the royal authority on
their ruins. But Henri II., who saw things only through the eyes of
Diane and the Connetable, was a truly feudal king and the friend of all
the great families of his kingdom.

After the futile attempt of the Connetable in her favor, which must have
been made in the year 1556, Catherine began to cajole the Guises for
the purpose of detaching them from Diane and opposing them to the
Connetable. Unfortunately, Diane and Montmorency were as vehement
against the Protestants as the Guises. There was therefore not the same
animosity in their struggle as there might have been had the religious
question entered it. Moreover, Diane boldly entered the lists against
the queen's project by coquetting with the Guises and giving her
daughter to the Duc d'Aumale. She even went so far that certain authors
declared she gave more than mere good-will to the gallant Cardinal de
Lorraine; and the lampooners of the time made the following quatrain on
Henri II:

"Sire, if you're weak and let your will relax
Till Diane and Lorraine do govern you,
Pound, knea