the passion he had for Madam de Martigues and for liberty
hindered him from feeling this loss as it deserved to be felt.
The Cardinal, during the ten days' illness of the King, was at
leisure to form his designs, and lead the Queen into resolutions
agreeable to what he had projected; so that the King was no
sooner dead but the Queen ordered the Constable to stay at
Tournelles with the corpse of the deceased King in order to
perform the usual ceremonies. This commission kept him at a
distance and out of the scene of action; for this reason the
Constable dispatched a courier to the King of Navarre, to hasten
him to Court that they might join their interest to oppose the
great rise of the House of Guise. The command of the Army was
given to the Duke of Guise and the care of the finances to the
Cardinal of Loraine. The Duchess of Valentinois was driven from
Court; the Cardinal de Tournon, the Constable's declared enemy,
and the Chancellor Olivier, the declared enemy of the Duchess of
Valentinois, were both recalled. In a word, the complexion of
the Court was entirely changed; the Duke of Guise took the same
rank as the Princes of the blood, in carrying the King's mantle
at the funeral ceremonies: He and his brothers carried all before
them at Court, not only by reason of the Cardinal's power with
the Queen-Mother, but because she thought it in her power to
remove them should they give her umbrage; whereas she could not
so easily remove the Constable, who was supported by the Princes
of the blood.

When the ceremonial of the mourning was over, the Constable came
to the Louvre, and was very coldly received by the King; he
desired to speak with him in private, but the King called for
Messieurs de Guise, and told him before them, that he advised him