e and splendour. The Marshal replied: "It is not in
your power, nor in that of any King who is to succeed, unless
you make a compact with God that He resuscitate the Queen Mother
and bring her back to your aid." But that was not what the King
desired, for there was no one, at the time she died, whom he
hated so much, and without reason that I could see. But he ought
to know better than I.

How unlucky indeed was the day when such a Queen died, and at
the time when we had the greatest need of her, as we still have!

She died at Blois from melancholy over the massacre which occurred
there, and the sad tragedy which was enacted, seeing that
unthinkingly she had caused the princes to come there, thinking
to do the right thing; whereas, on the contrary, as the Cardinal
de Bourbon said to her: "Alas, Madame! you have led us all to
the slaughter, without intending it." That so touched her heart,
and also the death of these poor gentlemen, that she took to
her bed, having been previously ill, and never again rose from
it.

They say that when the King told her of M. de Guise's death,
saying that now he was King indeed, without rival or master,
she asked him if he had put the affairs of his kingdom in order
before striking the blow. He replied that he had. "God grant
it, my son!" said she. Very prudent that she was, she foresaw
clearly what might happen to him and to all the kingdom.

Various reports have gone about concerning her death, some even
saying that it was from poison. Possibly so, possibly not; but
she is believed to have died of despair of soul, as she had reason
for. She was placed upon her bed of state, as I have heard said,
by one of her ladies, in pomp neither more nor less than Queen
Anne, of whom I have spoken elsewhere, and clad in the same royal
vesture, which has not served since her death for any others;
and was then carried into the church of the castle, in the same
pomp and solemnity as at the funeral of Queen Anne, where she
still lies and reposes. The King had wished to carry her body
to Chartres, and thence to Saint Denis, to place it by the side
of the King her husband, in the same imposing vault which he
had caused to be built, but the ensuing war prevented him.

This is what I can say at this time of our great Queen, who has
assuredly given us so worthy a subject to speak in praise of her,
that this brief essay is not long enough to sing her praises.
I know it well, and also that the quality