her prayer, she was conducted by the rue de la Calandre to the palace, where the royal supper was served in the great hall.  She there appeared, seated at the middle of the marble table, beneath a velvet dais strewn with golden fleur-de-lis.”

We may here put an end to one of those popular beliefs which are repeated in many writers from Sauval down.  It has been said that Henri II. pushed his neglect of the proprieties so far as to put the initials of his mistress on the buildings which Catherine advised him to continue or to begin with so much magnificence.  But the double monogram which can be seen at the Louvre offers a daily denial to those who are so little clear-sighted as to believe in silly nonsense which gratuitously insults our kings and queens.  The H or Henri and the two C’s of Catherine which back it, appear to represent the two D’s of Diane.  The coincidence may have pleased Henri II., but it is none the less true that the royal monogram contained officially the initial of the king and that of the queen.  This is so true that the monogram can still be seen on the column of the Halle au Ble, which was built by Catherine alone.  It can also be seen in the crypt of Saint-Denis, on the tomb which Catherine erected for herself in her lifetime beside that of Henri II., where her figure is modelled from nature by the sculptor to whom she sat for it.

On a solemn occasion, when he was starting, March 25, 1552, for his expedition into Germany, Henri II. declared Catherine regent during his absence, and also in case of his death.  Catherine’s most cruel enemy, the author of “Marvellous Discourses on Catherine the Second’s Behavior” admits that she carried on the government with universal approval and that the king was satisfied with her administration.  Henri received both money and men at the time he wanted them; and finally, after the fatal day of Saint-Quentin, Catherine obtained considerable sums of money from the people of Paris, which she sent to Compiegne, where the king then was.

In politics, Catherine made immense efforts to obtain a little influence.  She was clever enough to bring the Connetable de Montmorency, all-powerful under Henri II., to her interests.  We all know the terrible answer that the king made, on being harassed by Montmorency in her favor.  This answer was the result of an attempt by Catherine to give the king good advice, in the few moments she was ever alone with him, when she explained the Florentine policy of pitting the grandees of the kingdom one against another and establishing the royal authority on their ruins.  But Henri II., who saw things only through the eyes of Diane and the Connetable, was a truly feudal king and the friend of all the great families of his kingdom.