"So do I," replied the king: "I feel much better; this morning I have become King of France again; the King of Paris is dead." "You have had the Duke of Guise killed ?" asked Catherine "have you reflected well?
God grant that you become not king of nothing at all.

I hope the cutting is right; now for the sewing." According to the majority of the historians, Catherine had neither been in the secret nor had anything to do with the preparations for the measure.

Granted that she took no active part in it, and that she avoided even the appearance of having any previous knowledge of it; she was not fond of responsibility, and she liked better to negotiate between the different parties than to make her decisive choice between them; prudent tendencies grow with years, and in 1588 she was sixty-nine.

It is difficult, however, to believe that, being the habitual confidant of her favorite son, she was ignorant of a design long meditated, and known to many persons many days before its execution.

The event once accomplished, ill as she was, and contrary to the advice of her physicians, she had herself carried to the Cardinal of Bourbon's, who was still under arrest by the king's orders, to promise him speedy release.