or a Medici forget the honor done to her by a Valois. But during
this time when the queen was, it is said, coquetting with the Vidame
de Chartres, the king, after the birth of her last child, had virtually
abandoned her. This attempt at making him jealous was to no purpose, for
Henri died wearing the colors of Diane de Poitiers.

At the time of the king's death Catherine was, therefore, on terms of
gallantry with the vidame,--a situation which was quite in conformity
with the manners and morals of a time when love was both so chivalrous
and so licentious that the noblest actions were as natural as the most
blamable; although historians, as usual, have committed the mistake in
this case of taking the exception for the rule.

The four sons of Henri II. of course rendered null the position of the
Bourbons, who were all extremely poor and were now crushed down by the
contempt which the Connetable de Montmorency's treachery brought upon
them, in spite of the fact that the latter had thought best to fly the
kingdom.

The Vidame de Chartres--who was to the first Prince de Conde what
Richelieu was to Mazarin, his father in policy, his model, and, above
all, his master in gallantry--concealed the excessive ambition of his
house beneath an external appearance of light-hearted gaiety. Unable
during the reign of Henri II. to make head against the Guises, the
Montmorencys, the Scottish princes, the cardinals, and the Bouillons,
he distinguished himself by his graceful bearing, his manners, his wit,
which won him the favor of many charming women and the heart of some
for whom he cared nothing. He was one of those privileged beings
whose seductions are irresistible, and who owe to love the power of
maintaining themselves according to their rank. The Bourbons would not
have resented, as did Jarnac, the slander of la Chataigneraie; they
were willing enough to accept the lands and castles of their
mistresses,--witness the Prince de Conde, who accepted the estate of
Saint-Valery from Madame la Marechale de Saint-Andre.

During the first twenty days of mourning after the death of Henri II.
the situation of the vidame suddenly changed. As the object of the queen
mother's regard, and permitted to pay his court to her as court is paid
to a queen, very secretly, he seemed destined to play an important role,
and Catherine did, in fact, resolve to use him. The vidame received
letters from her for the Prince de Conde, in which she pointed out