la Marck is half mad.’” “These are fine family portraits, Duke,” said Madame.  The Duc de Gontaut laughed, during the whole of this conversation, immoderately.  Madame repeated it, one day, when she kept her bed.  M. de G——­ also began to talk of his sister, Madame du Roure.  I think, at least, that is the name he mentioned.  He was very gay, and had the art of creating gaiety.  Somebody said, he is an excellent piece of furniture for a favourite.  He makes her laugh, and asks for nothing either for himself or for others; he cannot excite jealousy, and he meddles in nothing.  He was called the White Eunuch.  Madame’s illness increased so rapidly that we were alarmed about her; but bleeding in the foot cured her as if by a miracle.  The King watched her with the greatest solicitude; and I don’t know whether his attentions did not contribute as much to the cure as the bleeding.  M. de Choiseul remarked, some days after, that she appeared in better spirits.  I told him that I thought this improvement might be attributed to the same cause.

THE MEMOIRS OF CATHERINE DE MEDICI

BY THE ABBE BRANTOME

INTRODUCTION

The figure of Catherine de Medici is remarkable in history as being the pivotal point for more controversy than has ever centred about any other Queen of France.  Of Italian descent, she became the wife of one French monarch, the mother of three others, and the dominant force behind that glittering Court which Brantome eulogises.  Both of her daughters likewise ascended thrones,—­Elisabeth, became the wife of Philip II. of Spain; while Marguerite (whose memoirs are found elsewhere in this volume) wedded Henry of Navarre, the life-long rival of the ambitious Queen Mother, who was destined to become Henry IV., displacing her tottering dynasty.

Brantome’s tribute to this famous Queen will be read with great interest, but it is unnecessary to caution the reader to accept it cum grana salis, for Brantome’s likes and dislikes are at all times apt to run away with his historical judgment.  Says Louis Moland in an introduction to the French edition of the Abbe’s works:  “The admiration which he professes for these grand princesses whom he has the honour of depicting so influences him that, despite his notorious credulity on this point, he shows them all, or nearly all, as perfectly virtuous.”  Nevertheless, his portraits, though coloured with the most favourable tints, are of great value as portraits from life.  “I saw it,” “I was there,” are his favourite expressions in narrating an incident.

The study of Catherine is a typical example of his work.  He had lived at her Court and received many favours at her hands.  He now sets himself the task of answering her calumniators and paying a tribute to her memory.  This spirit of chivalry is certainly admirable, albeit the results may show as more partisan than accurate.  It is interesting to compare this with Honore de Balzac’s more extended work, “Sur Catherine de Medicis,” which is designated as a romance but is actually a careful historical portrait of the Queen.