Catherine smiled a smile of scorn; and advancing to the door of the outer room, she flung it open with the words.
"The King is dead!"
"The King, is dead!" was repeated along the corridors of the Louvre.
A pause ensued.
"The King is dead! Long live the King, Henry the Third of France!" again said Catherine.
"Long live the King!" was once more shouted from mouth to mouth.
"Gentlemen, his Majesty has been pleased, before his death, to sign a warrant appointing his mother Regent of France," announced Catherine once more to those assembled without.
"Long live the Queen Regent," was the cry which announced to many an anxious heart of the various parties in the State, that the reign of the dreaded Queen-mother had commenced.
"Let some of those without advance and seize that woman!" was the first order of the Regent. "Heed not her words! She is mad!"
Catherine of Medicis spoke with greater truth than she herself believed. The shock of that scene of death, and strife, and evil passions, had again turned the old woman's brain.