As soon as I made this discovery I resolved to write
to my sister, Madame de Lorraine, who had a great
influence in the House of Porcian, begging her to
use her endeavours to withdraw M. de Guise from Court,
and make him conclude his match with the Princess,
laying open to her the plot which had been concerted
to ruin the Guises and me. She readily saw through
it, came immediately to Court, and concluded the match,
which delivered me from the aspersions cast on my
character, and convinced the Queen my mother that
what I had told her was the real truth. This
at the same time stopped the mouths of my enemies
and gave me some repose.
At length the King of Spain, unwilling that the King
of Portugal should marry out of his family, broke
off the treaty which had been entered upon for my
marriage with him.
Death of the Queen of Navarre—Marguerite’s Marriage with Her Son, the
King of Navarre, Afterwards Henri IV. of France.—The Preparations for
That Solemnisation Described.—The Circumstances Which Led to the
Massacre of the Huguenots on St. Bartholomew’s Day.
Some short time after this a marriage was projected
betwixt the Prince of Navarre, now our renowned King
Henri IV., and me.
The Queen my mother, as she sat at table, discoursed
for a long time upon the subject with M. de Meru,
the House of Montmorency having first proposed the
match. After the Queen had risen from table,
he told me she had commanded him to mention it to
me. I replied that it was quite unnecessary,
as I had no will but her own; however, I should wish
she would be pleased to remember that I was a Catholic,
and that I should dislike to marry any one of a contrary
persuasion.
Soon after this the Queen sent for me to attend her
in her closet. She there informed me that the
Montmorencys had proposed this match to her, and that
she was desirous to learn my sentiments upon it.
I answered that my choice was governed by her pleasure,
and that I only begged her not to forget that I was
a good Catholic.
This treaty was in negotiation for some time after
this conversation, and was not finally settled until
the arrival of the Queen of Navarre, his mother, at
Court, where she died soon after.
Whilst the Queen of Navarre lay on her death-bed,
a circumstance happened of so whimsical a nature that,
though not of consequence to merit a place in the
history, it may very well deserve to be related by
me to you. Madame de Nevers, whose oddities you
well know, attended the Cardinal de Bourbon, Madame
de Guise, the Princesse de Conde, her sisters, and
myself to the late Queen of Navarre’s apartments,
whither we all went to pay those last duties which
her rank and our nearness of blood demanded of us.
We found the Queen in bed with her curtains undrawn,
the chamber not disposed with the pomp and ceremonies
of our religion, but after the simple manner of the
