On a solemn occasion, when he was starting, March 25, 1552, for his
expedition into Germany, Henri II. declared Catherine regent during
his absence, and also in case of his death. Catherine's most cruel
enemy, the author of "Marvellous Discourses on Catherine the Second's
Behavior" admits that she carried on the government with universal
approval and that the king was satisfied with her administration.
Henri received both money and men at the time he wanted them; and
finally, after the fatal day of Saint-Quentin, Catherine obtained
considerable sums of money from the people of Paris, which she sent to
Compiegne, where the king then was.

In politics, Catherine made immense efforts to obtain a little
influence. She was clever enough to bring the Connetable de
Montmorency, all-powerful under Henri II., to her interests. We all
know the terrible answer that the king made, on being harassed by
Montmorency in her favor. This answer was the result of an attempt by
Catherine to give the king good advice, in the few moments she was
ever alone with him, when she explained the Florentine policy of
pitting the grandees of the kingdom one against another and
establishing the royal authority on their ruins. But Henri II., who
saw things only through the eyes of Diane and the Connetable, was a
truly feudal king and the friend of all the great families of his
kingdom.

After the futile attempt of the Connetable in her favor, which must
have been made in the year 1556, Catherine began to cajole the Guises
for the purpose of detaching them from Diane and opposing them to the
Connetable. Unfortunately, Diane and Montmorency were as vehement
against the Protestants as the Guises. There was therefore not the
same animosity in their struggle as there might have been had the