Page:A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country (1804).djvu/606

592 strokes of decision, and still anxious to preserve her credit with both parties, asked their messenger, whether those great captains thought a woman and child better able than themselves to decide on the propriety of ordering Frenchmen to cut each others throats? Then conducting him to her son's apartment, she found him with his nurse, who was going to retire; but Catherine exclaimed, "Nurse, stay where you are; since it has become the custom for generals to consult women on what they are to do, say, shall we give battle or not?" The decision of the question was left to the commanders; the battle was fought: victory at first favoured the protestants, but at length sided with the catholics, and the prince of Condé was taken prisoner. The king of Navarre had been before killed in battle, and the duke of Guise was soon after shot by a cowardly assassin; with his dying voice he recommended peace to the queen; and, during the interval betwixt his wound and death, displayed a dignified and manly composure: he was esteemed the greatest general of his time. By his death the reins of government fell entirely into the hands of the queen. Both parties sincerely desiring peace, it was at last concluded, with a limited toleration to the protestants, 1563; and the prince of Condé returned to court. The declaration of the king's majority was hastened, from the assiduous application Catherine had given to settling the foreign and domestic affairs of the state. It must be owned, that at this time, she shewed herself abundantly capable of exercising, and not altogether unworthy of that supreme authority in the government, to which she had always aspired with excessive eagerness. By her