deed. Henry, having retired
to the castle of Blois, about one hundred miles south of Paris,
arranged all the details, while he was daily, with the most consummate
hypocrisy, receiving his victim with courteous words and smiles. The
king summoned a council to attend him in his cabinet at Blois on the
23d of December. It was appointed at an early hour, and the Duke of
Guise attended without his usual retinue. He had been repeatedly
warned to guard against the treachery of Henry, but his reply was,

[Illustration: ASSASSINATION OF HENRY, DUKE OF GUISE.]

"I do not know that man on earth who, hand to hand with me, would not
have his full share of fear. Besides, I am always so well attended
that it would not be easy to find me off my guard."

The duke arrived at the door of the cabinet after passing through long
files of the king's body-guard. Just as he was raising the tapestry
which veiled the entrance, Lorgnac sprang upon him and plunged a
dagger into his throat. Others immediately joined in the assault, and
the duke dropped, pierced with innumerable wounds, dead upon the
floor.

Henry, hearing the noise and knowing well what it signified, very
coolly stepped from his cabinet into the ante-chamber, and, looking
calmly upon the bloody corpse, said,

"Do you think he is dead, Lorgnac?"

"Yes, sire," Lorgnac replied, "he looks like it."

"Good God, how tall he is!" said the king. "He seems taller dead than
when he was living." Then giving the gory body a kick, he exclaimed,
"Venomous beast, thou shalt cast forth no more venom."

In the same manner the duke had treated the remains of the noble
Admiral Coligni, a solemn comment upon the declaration, "With what
measure ye mete it shall be measured to you again."

Cardinal Guise, the brother of the duke, was immediately arrested by
order of the king, and sent to prison, where he was assassinated.
Henry III. soon after repaired to the bedside of Catharine his mother,
who was lying sick in one of the chambers of the castle. Nothing can
show more clearly the character of the times and of the personages
than the following laconic dialogue which ensued:

"How do you do, mother, this morning?" inquired the king.

"I am better than I have been," she replied.

"So am I," Henry rejoined, gayly, "for I have made myself this morning
King of France by putting to death the King of Paris."

"Take care," this hardened woman exclaimed, "that you do not soon find
yourself _king o