enough to fight this nephew of
hers, insisted that they must strike at the Duke of Durazzo in his
ambition and hopes, and tell him, to begin with--what was the fact--that
the queen was pregnant. If, in spite of this news, he persisted in his
plans, she would find some means or other, she said, of causing trouble
and discord in her nephew's family, and wounding him in his most intimate
affections or closest interests, by publicly dishonouring him through his
wife or his mother.

Charles smiled coldly when his aunt came to tell him from the queen that
she was about to bring into the world an infant, Andre's posthumous
child. What importance could a babe yet unborn possibly have--as a fact,
it lived only a few months--in the eyes of a man who with such admirable
coolness got rid of people who stood in his wary, and that moreover by
the hand of his own enemies? He told the empress that the happy news she
had condescended to bring him in person, far from diminishing his
kindness towards his cousin, inspired him rather with more interest and
goodwill; that consequently he reiterated his suggestion, and renewed his
promise not to seek vengeance for his dear Andre, since in a certain
sense the crime was not complete should a child be destined to survive;
but in case of a refusal he declared himself inexorable. He cleverly
gave Catherine to understand that, as she had some interest herself in
the prince's death, she ought for her own sake to persuade the queen to
stop legal proceedings.

The empress seemed to be deeply impressed by her nephew's threatening
attitude, and promised to do her best to persuade the queen to grant all
he asked, on condition, however, that Charles should allow the necessary
time for carrying through so delicate a business. But Catherine profited
by this delay to think out her own plan of revenge, and ensure the means
of certain success. After starting several projects eagerly and then
regretfully abandoning them, she fixed upon an infernal and unheard-of
scheme, which the mind would refuse to believe but for the unanimous
testimony of historians. Poor Agnes of Duras, Charles's mother, had for
some few days been suffering with an inexplicable weariness, a slow
painful malady with which her son's restlessness and violence may have
had not a little to do. The empress resolved that the first effect of
her hatred was to fall upon this unhappy mother. She summoned the Count
of Terlizzi and Dona Canc