etter to negotiate between the different parties than to make her
decisive choice between them; prudent tendencies grow with years, and in
1588 she was sixty-nine. It is difficult, however, to believe that,
being the habitual confidant of her favorite son, she was ignorant of a
design long meditated, and known to many persons many days before its
execution. The event once accomplished, ill as she was, and contrary to
the advice of her physicians, she had herself carried to the Cardinal of
Bourbon's, who was still under arrest by the king's orders, to promise
him speedy release. "Ah! madame," said the cardinal, as he saw her
enter, "these are some of your tricks; you are death to us all." However
it may be, thirteen days after the murder of the Duke of Guise, on the
5th of January, 1589, Catherine de' Medici herself died. Nor was her
death, so far as affairs and the public were concerned, an event: her
ability was of the sort which is worn out by the frequent use made
of it, and which, when old age comes on, leaves no long or grateful
reminiscence. Time has restored Catherine de' Medici to her proper place
in history; she was quickly forgotten by her contemporaries.

She had good reason to say to her son, as her last advice, "Now for the
sewing." It was not long before Henry III. perceived that to be king, it
was not sufficient to have murdered his rival. He survived the Duke of
Guise only seven months, and during that short period he was not really
king, all by himself, for a single day; never had his kingship been so
embarrassed and impotent; the violent death of the Duke of Guise had
exasperated much more than enfeebled the League; the feeling against his
murderer was passionate and contagious; the Catholic cause had lost its
great leader; it found and accepted another in his brother the Duke of
Mayenne, far inferior to his elder brother in political talent and prompt
energy of character, but a brave and determined soldier, a much better
man of party and action than the sceptical, undecided, and indolent Henry
III. The majority of the great towns of France--Paris, Rouen, Orleans,
Toulouse, Lyons, Amiens--and whole provinces declared eagerly against the
royal murderer. He demanded support from the states-general, who refused
it; and he was obliged to dismiss them. The Parliament of Paris,
dismembered on the 16th of January, 1589, by the council of Sixteen,
became the instrument of the Leaguers. The majority o