buted to reduce his brother to that situation, repeatedly called upon the queen-mother to declare whether she had not solemnly pledged her word that neither he nor his brother should meet with any molestation; but that artful and perfidious princess refused to answer him. The prince of Condé was tried by a commission appointed for the purpose; found guilty of lèze majesté, and condemned to suffer decapitation. The day of his execution was fixed at an early period, and the late of this gallant man appeared inevitable; but the Sovereign Arbiter of the world, who baffles the presumptuous hopes of aspiring mortals, and speaks comfort to despair, had otherwise ordained. Whilst the king was attending vespers at the Jacobins, he suddenly fainted, and was conveyed senseless and motionless to his apartment; when he recovered his senses, he complained of a violent pain in his ears, which was occasioned by an abscess forming in his head. Whilst he was dying, the Guises at first meditated the immediate execution of Condé, but the queen concluded an accommodation both with him and his brother, on condition that on the king's demise he should renounce all pretensions to the regency, and submit to a reconciliation with the Guises, who she assured him had been in no wise instrumental to his imprisonment. He was accordingly liberated.
The king's death, which took place 1560, threw the whole court into confusion; the crown devolved on his brother Charles IX, then only eleven years of age. His early years incapacitating him to hold the reins of government, Catherine, at first, assumed the authority, though not the title of regent. But was soon obliged to relinquish a portion of her power to the king of Navarre, one of the first princes of the blood.
The states general were assembled, to adopt some
