to the Cardinal of Bourbon’s, who was still under arrest by the king’s orders, to promise him speedy release.  “Ah! madame,” said the cardinal, as he saw her enter, “these are some of your tricks; you are death to us all.”  However it may be, thirteen days after the murder of the Duke of Guise, on the 5th of January, 1589, Catherine de’ Medici herself died.  Nor was her death, so far as affairs and the public were concerned, an event:  her ability was of the sort which is worn out by the frequent use made of it, and which, when old age comes on, leaves no long or grateful reminiscence.  Time has restored Catherine de’ Medici to her proper place in history; she was quickly forgotten by her contemporaries.

She had good reason to say to her son, as her last advice, “Now for the sewing.”  It was not long before Henry III. perceived that to be king, it was not sufficient to have murdered his rival.  He survived the Duke of Guise only seven months, and during that short period he was not really king, all by himself, for a single day; never had his kingship been so embarrassed and impotent; the violent death of the Duke of Guise had exasperated much more than enfeebled the League; the feeling against his murderer was passionate and contagious; the Catholic cause had lost its great leader; it found and accepted another in his brother the Duke of Mayenne, far inferior to his elder brother in political talent and prompt energy of character, but a brave and determined soldier, a much better man of party and action than the sceptical, undecided, and indolent Henry III.  The majority of the great towns of France—­Paris, Rouen, Orleans, Toulouse, Lyons, Amiens—­and whole provinces declared eagerly against the royal murderer.  He demanded support from the states-general, who refused it; and he was obliged to dismiss them.  The Parliament of Paris, dismembered on the 16th of January, 1589, by the council of Sixteen, became the instrument of the Leaguers.  The majority of the other Parliaments followed the example set by that of Paris.  The Sorbonne, consulted by a petition presented in the name of all Catholics, decided that Frenchmen were released from their oath of allegiance to Henry III., and might with a good conscience turn their arms against him.  Henry made some obscure attempts to come to an arrangement with certain chiefs of the Leaguers; but they were rejected with violence.  The Duke of Mayenne, having come to Paris on the 15th of February, was solemnly received at Notre-Dame, amidst shouts of “Hurrah for the Catholic princes! hurrah for the house of Lorraine!” He was declared lieutenant-general of the crown and state of France.  He organized a council-general of the League, composed of forty members and charged with the duty of providing for all matters of war, the finance and the police of the realm, pending a fresh convocation of states-general.  To counterbalance in some degree the popular element, Mayenne introduced into it fourteen personages of his own choice and a certain number of magistrates and bishops; the delegates of the united towns were to have seats at the council whenever they happened to be at Paris.  “Never,” says M. Henry Martin [Histoire de France, t. i. p. 134] very truly, “could the League have supposed itself to be so near becoming a government of confederated municipalities under the directorate of Paris.”