Sic cruce detractum fixit tua lancea Christum,
Per latus illorum quos sua membra vocat.
At Deus omnipotens, Christi justissimus ultor,
Sanguine, dixit, erit lancea tincta tuo. Ib., ubi supra.
[732] "O que si ce bon roy eusse vescu," says Montluc, "ou si ceste paix ne se fust faite, qu'il eust bien rembarré les Luthériens en Allemagne." Mémoires, Petitot ed., ii. 483.
[733] Davila, Civil Wars of France, p. 6. Hist. du tumulte d'Amboise, Recueil des choses mémorables, in initio; Mém. de Condé, i. 320.
[734] Yet Catharine herself, in a letter written in 1563 to her son Charles IX., just after he had declared himself to be of age, admits the full truth of her opponents' assertion, that Francis II. was a minor!—"que l'on cognoisse les désordres qui out esté jusques icy par la minorité du Roy vostre frère, qui empeschoit que l'on ne pouvoit faire ce que l'on désiroit." Avis donnez par Catherine de Médicis à Charles IX., pour la police de sa cour, etc., printed in Cimber et Danjou, Archives curieuses, v. 245-254.
[735] "Di natura benignissima, e cerca di gratificare ciascuno, e massime gl' Italiani quanto più gli è possibile, ed è tanto amato, non solamente da tutta la corte, ma da tutto il regno che è cosa incredibile." Rel. del clarmo Giovanni Soranzo, 1558, Relaz. Ven., ii. 429, 430.
[736] "La Royne mère, ambitieuse et craintive." Mém. de Tavannes, ii. 256.
[737] Relaz. di Giovanni Michiel (1561), Tommaseo, i. 426.
[738] La Planche, 204, 205: "The Duchesse of Valentinoys and Duches of Buillon are commaunded, that neither they nor any of theirs shall resort to the courte.... The yong Frenche Quene hath sent to the Duches of Valentinoys, to make accompt of the French King's cabenet and of all his jewels." Throkmorton to Queen, July 13, 1559, Forbes, State Papers, i. 158, 159.
[739] Regnier de la Planche, p. 203: "Lequel (Henry) ... avoit entièrement résolu, après avoir achevé ces mariages, et renvoyé les estrangers, de les déchasser arrière de soy, comme une peste de son royaume." So Hist. ecclés., liv. iii. I can scarcely agree with De Thou (ii., 681, liv. xxiii.) in supposing Catharine deceived in the character of the Guises: "Comme elle ne connoissoit pas encore le caractère de ces Princes, elle crut qu'ils se soumettroient en tout à ses volontés," etc. This statement does injustice to the perspicacity of Catharine, who for so many years had been quietly, but none the less carefully, studying these courtiers and all others that figured on the stage of French politics. La Planche, with his usual acumen, makes much of the advantage which this circumstance conferred upon her (ubi supra): "La royne mère, italienne, florentine, et de la race des Medicis, et qui plus est, ayant depuis vingt-deux ans [rather, for twenty-five years] eu tout loisir de considérer les humeurs et façons de toutes ces gens, regardoit ce jeu, et sceut si bien empoigner l'occasion, qu'elle gaigna finalement la partie."