n was pursued, and disclosed
more and more evidence of the complicity of the Guises. The young duke and
his uncle Aumale, conscious of the suspicion in which they were held, and
fearful perhaps of the king's anger, should the part they had taken become
known, prepared to retire from Paris, and came to Charles to ask for leave
of absence, telling him at the same time that they had long noticed that
their services were not pleasing to him. Charles, with little show of
courtesy, bade them depart. Should they prove guilty, he said, he would
find means to bring them to justice.[963]

[Sidenote: Catharine and Anjou come to a final decision.]

And now the time had arrived when Catharine and the Duke of Anjou must
come to a final decision respecting the means of extricating themselves
from their present embarrassments. Maurevel's shot had done no execution.
Coligny was likely to recover, to be more than ever the idol of the
Huguenots, to become more than ever the favorite of the king. In that case
the influence of Catharine and her younger son would be irretrievably
lost; especially if the judicial investigation now in progress should
reveal the fact that they were the prime movers in the plan of
assassination. Certainly neither Henry of Guise nor his mother would
consent to bear the entire responsibility. More than that, the Huguenots
were uttering loud demands for justice, which to guilty consciences
sounded like threats of retribution.

We must here recur to Henry of Anjou's own account of this critical
period; for that strange confession throws the only gleam of light upon
the process by which the young king was moved to the adoption of a course
whereby he earned the reputation--of which it will be difficult to divest
him--of a monster of cruelty. "I went," says Anjou, "to see my mother, who
had already risen. I was filled with anxiety, as also she was on her side.
We adopted at that time no other determination than to despatch the
admiral by whatever means possible. As artifice and cunning could no
longer be employed, we must proceed by open measures. But, to do this, we
must bring the king to this same resolution. We decided that we would go
in the afternoon to his private room, and would bring in the Duke of
Nevers, Marshals Tavannes and Retz, and Chancellor Birague, solely to
obtain their advice as to the means we should employ in executing the plan
upon which my mother and I had already agreed.

[Sidenote: They ply