'Este, daughter of Renee of
France, Duchess of Ferrara, took her departure one day, saying, as she
did so, to Catherine de' Medici, "Ah! madame, what a whirlwind of hatred
is gathering about the heads of my poor children!" There was, throughout
a considerable portion of the country, a profound feeling of indignation
against the Guises. One of their victims, Villemongey, just as it came
to his turn to die, plunged his hands into his comrades' blood, saying,
"Heavenly Father, this is the blood of Thy children: Thou wilt avenge
it!" John d'Aubigne, a nobleman of Saintonge, as he passed through
Amboise one market-day with his son, a little boy eight years old,
stopped before the heads fixed upon the posts, and said to the child,
"My boy, spare not thy head, after mine, to avenge these brave chiefs; if
thou spare thyself, thou shalt have my curse upon thee." The Chancellor
Olivier himself, for a long while devoted to the Guises, but now
seriously ill and disquieted about the future of his soul, said to
himself, quite low, as he saw the Cardinal of Lorraine, from whom he had
just received a visit, going out, "Ah! cardinal, you are getting us all
damned!"

[Illustration: Louis de Bourbon, Prince of Condo----285]

The mysterious chieftain, the mute captain of the conspiracy of Amboise,
Prince Louis of Conde, remained unattainted, and he remained at Amboise
itself. People were astounded at his security. He had orders not to
move away; his papers were seized by the grand prelate; but his coolness
and his pride did not desert him for an instant. We will borrow from the
_Histoire des Princes de Conde_ (t. i. pp. 68-71), by the Duke of
Aumale, the present heir, and a worthy one, of that line, the account of
his appearance before Francis II., "in full council, in presence of the
two queens, the knights of the order, and the great officers of the
crown. 'As I am certified,' said he, 'that I have near the king's person
enemies who are seeking the ruin of me and mine, I have begged him to do
me so much favor as to hear my answer in this company here present. Now,
I declare that, save his own person and the persons of his brothers, of
the queen his mother and of the queen regnant, those who have reported
that I was chief and leader of certain sedition-mongers, who are said to
have conspired against his person and state, have falsely and miserably
lied. And renouncing, for the nonce, my quality as prince of the blood,
which I h