king would not by any means
consent to have the admiral touched; feeling, however, some fear of the
danger which we had so well depicted and represented, to him, he desired
that, in a case of such importance, every one should at once state his
opinion." When each of those present had spoken, the king appeared still
undecided. The queen-mother then resolved "to let him hear the truth in
toto from Marshal de Retz, from whom she knew that he would take it
better than from any other," says his sister Marguerite de Valois in her
Memoires, "as one who was more in his confidence and favor than any
other. The which came to see him in the evening, about nine or ten, and
told him that, as his faithful servant, he could not conceal from him the
danger he was in if he were to abide by his resolution to do justice on
M. de Guise, because it was necessary that he should know that the attack
upon the admiral was not M. de Guise's doing alone, but that my brother
Henry, the King of Poland, afterwards King of France, and the queen my
mother, had been concerned in it; which M. de Guise and his friends would
not fail to reveal, and which would place his Majesty in a position of
great danger and embarrassment." Towards midnight, the queen-mother went
down to the king, followed by her son Henry and four other councillors.
They found the king more put out than ever. The conversation began
again, and resolved itself into a regular attack upon the king. "The
Guises," he was told, "will denounce the king himself, together with his
mother and brother; the Huguenots will believe that the king was in
concert with the party, and they will take the whole royal family to
task. War is inevitable. Better to win a battle in Paris, where we hold
all the chiefs in our clutches, than put it to hazard in the field.
After a struggle of an hour and a half, Charles, in a violent state of
agitation, still hesitated; when the queen-mother, fearing lest, if there
were further delay, all would be discovered, said to him, 'Permit me and
your brother, sir, to retire to some other part of the kingdom.' Charles
rose from his seat. 'By God's death,' said he, 'since you think proper
to kill the admiral, I consent; but all the Huguenots in Paris as well,
in order that there remain not one to reproach me afterwards. Give the
orders at once.'" And he went back into his room.

In order to relieve and satisfy her own passions and those of her
favorite son, which