Catherine's exclamation had its inspiration in a strange prediction, spoken a few days before at the Château of Chaumont, on the opposite bank of the Loire, whither she had gone with her astrologer Ruggieri to consult a famous soothsayer. This woman was brought to meet her by Nostradamus, the chief of those physicians who in that great sixteenth century believed in the occult sciences, with Ruggieri, Cardan, Paracelsus, and many more. This fortune-teller, of whose life history has no record, had fixed the reign of Francis II. at one year's duration. "And what is your opinion of all this?" Catherine asked Chiverni. "There will be fighting," said the cautious gentleman. "The King of Navarre----" "Oh! say the Queen!" Catherine put in. "Very true, the Queen," said Chiverni, smiling, "has made the Prince de Condé the chief of the reformed party; he, as a younger son, may dare much; and Monsieur le Cardinal talks of sending for him to come here." "If only he comes!" cried the Queen, "I am saved!" So it will be seen that the leaders of the great Reforming movement had been right in thinking of Catherine as an ally. "This is the jest of it," said the Queen; "the Bourbons are tricking the Huguenots, and Master Calvin, de Bèze, and the rest are cheating the Bourbons; but shall we be strong enough to take in the Huguenots, the Bourbons, and the Guises? In front of three such foes we are justified in feeling our pulse," said she. "They have not the King," replied Albert. "You must always win, having the King on your side." "_Maladetta Maria!_" said Catherine, between her teeth. "The Guises are already thinking of diverting the affections of the middle class," said Birague. * * * * * The hope of snatching the Crown had not been premeditated by the two heads of the refractory House of Guise; there was nothing to justify the project or the hope; circumstances suggested such audacity. The two Cardinals and the two _Balafrés_ were, as it happened, four ambitious men, superior in political gifts to any of the men about them. Indeed, the family was only subdued at last by Henri IV., himself a leader of faction, brought up in the great school of which Catherine and the Guises were the teachers--and he had profited by their lessons.