e
it remained in her power to do them good or evil.

In this manner this Queen knew how to give and drill in a lesson
to her Council. I might tell of other instances, but I have other
points to treat upon, the first of which will be to answer those
whom I have often heard accuse her of being the first to fly
to arms, thus being the cause of our civil wars.

Whoever will look to the source of the thing will not believe
it; for, the triumvirate being created, with the King of Navarre
at its head, she, seeing the plots that were being concocted,
and knowing the change of faith made by the King of Navarre--who
from being Huguenot and very strict, had turned Catholic--and
knowing by this change she had cause to fear for the King, for
the kingdom, and for herself, and that he might move against
them, she reflected and wondered to what tended such plots, such
numerous meetings, colloquies and secret audiences; and, not being
able to fathom the mystery, it is said that one day she bethought
herself to go to the room above which the secret session was
being held, and there, by means of a tube which she had caused
to be surreptitiously inserted under the tapestry, she listened
unperceived to all their plans.

Among other things she heard one that was very terrible and bitter
for her, and that was when Marechal de Saint-Andre, one of the
triumvirate, proposed that the Queen be taken, put in a sack and
flung into the river, since otherwise they would never succeed
in their plans.

But the late M. de Guise, who was always fair and generous, said
that such a thing must not be, for it was going too far, and
was too unjust to thus cruelly slay the wife and mother of our
kings, and that he was utterly opposed to the plan.

For this the said Queen has always loved him, and proved it by
her treatment of his children, after his death, by giving them
his entire possessions.

I leave to your imagination what such a sentence meant to the
Queen, hearing it as she did with her own ears, and also whether
she did not have cause for fear, notwithstanding her defence
by M. de Guise.

From what I have heard told by one of the Queen's intimates,
the Queen feared, as indeed she had cause to, that they would
strike the blow without the knowledge of M. de Guise. For, in
a deed so detestable, an upright man is to be distrusted, and
should never be informed of the act. She was thus compelled to
look out for her own safety, and to employ for it