ne, and a factious younger branch that was
eager to bury the Constable de Bourbon's treason under the throne;
obliged too, to fight down a heresy on the verge of devouring the
monarchy, without friends, and aware of treachery in the chiefs
of the Catholic party and of republicanism in the Calvinists,
Catherine used the most dangerous but the surest of political
weapons--Craft. She determined to deceive by turns the party
that was anxious to secure the downfall of the house of Valois,
the Bourbons who aimed at the Crown, and the Reformers.... Indeed,
so long as she lived, the Valois sat on the throne. The great
M. de Thou understood the worth of this woman when he exclaimed
on hearing of her death: 'It is not a woman, it is Royalty that
dies in her'!"

On the contrary, if one will follow the genial Dumas through
the pages of his Valois Romances, he will find a French writer
who, while loyal to the kingly line, does not hesitate to paint
this woman in unlovely colors. She is here the low intriguer who
does not stop at assassination to gain her ends. On only one
point, indeed, do historians and romancers seem to agree: she
is always interesting--never commonplace. She fills a definite
niche in an important period, and her personal reputation must
be handled as a thing apart.

This portrait of her by Brantome is one of a series of papers
comprising his "Lives of Illustrious Ladies,"--or as he preferred
to call it, "Book of the Ladies." Brantome himself lived an
adventurous life. Born in Perigord in 1537, he was only eighteen
years younger than the queen he here discusses. His family, the
de Bourdeilles, was one of the oldest and most respected in that
province. "Not to boast of myself," he says, "I can assert that
none of my race has ever been home-keeping; they have spent as
much time in travels and wars as any, no matter who they be,
in France." The young Pierre had his first experience in Court
life, at the Court of Marguerite, sister of Francis I., to whom
his mother was lady-in-waiting. As he was the youngest of the
family, he was destined for the priesthood--which he always regarded
from the militant, rather than the spiritual side--and when only
sixteen King Henry II. bestowed upon him the Abbey of Brantome.

The record of his life thereafter is one of travel and adventure
in many lands. It is the period of the Renaissance, when wars and
conquests, intrigues and romances, poetry and song flourish,--in
all of wh