"The occasion is this, my son," replied the Queen: "I find that you are opposing Guise, when you have no power to oppose him; and you are opposing him in things where your opposition will not increase your power, but will increase his. Were you to oppose him firmly but stedfastly on points where reason, and right, and the welfare of the State were upon your side, however blind they might be for a time, the people would come over to your side in the end. But if you oppose him in things where your pride, or your vanity, or your selfishness is concerned, depend upon it his party will every day increase; for Guise having identified himself with the people and the Catholic Church, his foibles will be treated far more leniently by both church and people than yours."
"Guise!--Guise!--Guise!" cried the King in a bitter tone. "For ever, Guise! I am sick to death of the very name. What would you have, Madam? Have I not yielded almost every thing to him? Have not all his demands been granted, till they become so numerous that I have not wherewithal to stop their mouths? Did I not sign the decree of July? Did I not declare old scarlet Bourbon next heir to the Crown? Did I not satisfy the cravings of Nemours and of Mayenne? Did I not banish Epernon; give the Duke all sorts of posts; yield him up towns and cities? Did I not render him king of one half of France? What is it that I have refused him?"
"In many points you mistake, my son," replied the Queen. "You have yielded more than one of these things, not to him, but to the League. You refused to him, too, the sword of Constable; and in that perhaps you were right. At all events he himself seemed to think that you were so, for he has not pressed the demand: but after promising to the League, as one of their towns of surety, the city of Orleans, which both you and I know was promised, you would now persuade Guise and the League that it was inserted in the edict by mistake, and that the town promised was Dourlans, a heap of hovels on a little hill, as if you thought that, by such a trumpery evasion, you could deceive the keen wit of a Lorraine. Guise, of course, set his foot upon the small deception. But what are you doing now? Quarrelling with him because he demands that which has been recognised as a right of every generalissimo in the kingdom; namely, the right of having his own prevôt and guards. Such has ever been the case, as you well know. The matter is a trifle, except to your own jealous disposition; and even were he not right, it would still be but a trifle. But when he is right, and you are wrong, the refusal is an insult, and the matter becomes of importance."
"Madam," said the King bitterly, "in spite of all you say. Guise shall not absolutely be King of France. Has he not here, within these three days, refused me an impost necessary to maintain my dignity as a King, and to provide for the safety of the State? Does he not try to keep me a beggar, that I may have no means of asserting my own rights and dignity?"
"No," replied the Queen; "No, Henry! He did not refuse you the impost; it was the States. If I heard rightly, he spoke in favour of it."
"Ay, spoke!" cried the King. "But how did he speak? Lukewarmly--unwillingly. The States soon saw which way his wishes turned. Had he not been playing the hypocrite, he would have commanded it in a moment. Did he not show how he could command in that business of Savoy? Four-and-twenty hours were sufficient for him to make every man in Clergy and in Commons eat their words. This is something very like sovereign power, madam. It is power such as I never possessed myself."
"Ay, and then you were grateful to him for its exercise," replied Catherine; "and swore eternal friendship to him on the altar!"
"Certainly, but his ambitious views have become far more outrageous since then," replied the King angrily. "Has he not exacted that Henry of Navarre shall be excluded by name from the succession? Has he not forced the Count de Soissons to receive absolution from the Pope? Has not he blazed abroad, throughout all the world, the letters of the Pope himself, thanking him for his efforts to put down heresy, and exhorting him to persevere, as if he and none other were King of France? And now he must have guards, must he! now he must have guards! When will the crown be wanted? His leading staff is already the sceptre, for it sways all things; his chair is already the throne, for from it emanates every movement of the States-General of France. Yes, madam, yes! the throne and sceptre he has gained; and I see the leaves of his ducal coronet gradually changing themselves into fleurs-de-lis, and the bandlets of the close crown ready to meet above his head."
"But to the guards which he demands," said Catherine de Medici, "he has a right, as Lieutenant-general of the kingdom; and why should you oppose him on a point where he is right?
"Ay, the guards! the guards!" cried Henry. "Let him have them, madam; let him have them. But nevertheless, in a few days, all this will be over." And so saying, without waiting for further reply, the King turned and quitted his mother's chamber.