he distinguished himself by his graceful bearing, his manners, his wit, which won him the favor of many charming women and the heart of some for whom he cared nothing.  He was one of those privileged beings whose seductions are irresistible, and who owe to love the power of maintaining themselves according to their rank.  The Bourbons would not have resented, as did Jarnac, the slander of la Chataigneraie; they were willing enough to accept the lands and castles of their mistresses,—­witness the Prince de Conde, who accepted the estate of Saint-Valery from Madame la Marechale de Saint-Andre.

During the first twenty days of mourning after the death of Henri II. the situation of the vidame suddenly changed.  As the object of the queen mother’s regard, and permitted to pay his court to her as court is paid to a queen, very secretly, he seemed destined to play an important role, and Catherine did, in fact, resolve to use him.  The vidame received letters from her for the Prince de Conde, in which she pointed out to the latter the necessity of an alliance against the Guises.  Informed of this intrigue, the Guises entered the queen’s chamber for the purpose of compelling her to issue an order consigning the vidame to the Bastille, and Catherine, to save herself, was under the hard necessity of obeying them.  After a captivity of some months, the vidame died on the very day he left prison, which was shortly before the conspiracy of Amboise.  Such was the conclusion of the first and only amour of Catherine de’ Medici.  Protestant historians have said that the queen caused the vidame to be poisoned, to lay the secret of her gallantries in a tomb!

We have now shown what was the apprenticeship of this woman for the exercise of her royal power.

PART I

THE CALVINIST MARTYR

I

A HOUSE WHICH NO LONGER EXISTS AT THE CORNER OF A STREET
WHICH NO LONGER EXISTS IN A PARIS WHICH NO LONGER EXISTS

Few persons in the present day know how plain and unpretentious were the dwellings of the burghers of Paris in the sixteenth century, and how simple their lives.  Perhaps this simplicity of habits and of thought was the cause of the grandeur of that old bourgeoisie which was certainly grand, free, and noble,—­more so, perhaps, than the bourgeoisie of the present day.  Its history is still to be written; it requires and it awaits a man of genius.  This reflection will doubtless rise to the lips of every one after reading the almost unknown incident which forms the basis of this Study and is one of the most remarkable facts in the history of that bourgeoisie.  It will not be the first time in history that conclusion has preceded facts.