Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 10.djvu/148

128 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 58. in the streets. Catherine, who hated both their houses, calculated that by judicious irritation she might set the Duke and the Admiral at each other's throats, and rid herself at once of both of the too dangerously powerful subjects. The Admiral's own declaration had failed to persuade the Guises that he was innocent of the murder of the Duke's father Poltrot was still generally believed to have been privately instigated by him and Catherine intimated to the Duchesse de Nemours, the late Duke of Guise's widow, that if she would, she might have her revenge. Were Coligny killed, the King would be again manageable, ^he Huguenots would probably take arms to avenge his death. After a few days of fury a little water would wash the blood from the streets of Paris, and the catastrophe would be explained to the world as the last act of the civil war. 1 In becoming acquainted with the women among whom she was educated, we cease to wonder at the Queen of Scots' depravity. To the Duchesse the assassin- ation of the Admiral was the delightful gratification of a laudable desire. The Duke of Guise and his uncle the Duke of Aumale were taken into counsel ; an in- strument was found in a man named Maurevert, who had tried his hand already in the same enterprise, and having failed, was eager for a new opportunity. He was placed in a house between the Louvre and the Rue de 1 This is the explanation given by the Duke of Anjou of his mother's conduct ; and as he made no attempt to palliate either her treachery or his own, there is no reason to ques- tion his truth. Histoire de France. MARTIN, vol. ix.