both the Queen-mother and the Prince himself looked forward to his own
death, in order that Henry might succeed him; and he consequently issued
a command that the sovereign-elect should immediately repair to Paris to
receive at the hands of the foreign delegates the crown which they were
about to offer to him.

The summons was obeyed. The ambassadors, who duly arrived, were
magnificently received; Henri d'Anjou was declared King of Poland; and,
finally, he found himself compelled to depart for his own kingdom.
Unfortunately for Marguerite, she had not sufficient self-control to
conceal the joy with which she saw the immediate succession to the
French throne thus transferred to her favourite brother; and her evident
delight so exasperated the Queen-mother, that she communicated to
Charles the suspicions which she herself entertained of the treachery of
the Princess; but the King, worn down by both physical and mental
suffering, treated her warnings with indifference, and she was
consequently compelled to await with patience the progress of events.

The death of the French monarch, which shortly afterwards took place,
and the accession of Henri d'Anjou, whom a timely warning had enabled to
abandon the crown of Poland for that of France, for a time diverted the
attention of Catherine from the suspected machinations of her daughter,
when, as if to convince her of her injustice, she suddenly received
secret intelligence from the young Queen of Navarre, that the Duc
d'Alençon had entered into a new league with the Bourbon Princes. It is
difficult to account for the motive which led Marguerite to make this
revelation, when her extraordinary affection for her brother, and the
anxiety which she had universally exhibited for the safety of her
husband, are remembered; thus much, however, is certain, that she did
not betray the conspiracy (which had been revealed to her by a Lutheran