summaryrefslogtreecommitdiff
path: root/30708.txt
diff options
context:
space:
mode:
authorRoger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org>2025-10-14 19:54:19 -0700
committerRoger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org>2025-10-14 19:54:19 -0700
commit84e5a69bf2822ce84c1c445fb9f548b114460b9f (patch)
tree6ffb23134de155a9a7c70136b05700e5be85839a /30708.txt
initial commit of ebook 30708HEADmain
Diffstat (limited to '30708.txt')
-rw-r--r--30708.txt31893
1 files changed, 31893 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/30708.txt b/30708.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8fadd6e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/30708.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,31893 @@
+Project Gutenberg's History of the Rise of the Huguenots, by Henry Baird
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: History of the Rise of the Huguenots
+ Volume 2
+
+Author: Henry Baird
+
+Release Date: December 18, 2009 [EBook #30708]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY OF RISE OF HUGUENOTS VOL 2 ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Paul Dring, Sigal Alon, Daniel J. Mount and
+the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ HISTORY OF THE
+
+ RISE OF THE HUGUENOTS.
+
+ BY
+
+ HENRY M. BAIRD,
+
+ PROFESSOR IN THE UNIVERSITY OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK.
+
+
+ _IN TWO VOLUMES._
+
+ VOL. II.
+
+ _FROM THE EDICT OF JANUARY (1562), TO THE
+ DEATH OF CHARLES THE NINTH (1574)._
+
+
+ London:
+ HODDER AND STOUGHTON,
+ 27, PATERNOSTER ROW.
+ MDCCCLXXX.
+
+ Hazell, Watson, and Viney, Printers, London and Aylesbury.
+
+
+
+
+ CONTENTS
+
+ OF
+
+ VOLUME SECOND.
+
+
+ BOOK II.
+
+ CHAPTER XIII.
+
+ 1562-1563.
+
+ Page
+ THE FIRST CIVIL WAR 3
+ Unsatisfactory Character of the Edict of January 3
+ Huguenot Leaders urge its Observance 3
+ Seditious Sermons 5
+ Opposition of Parliaments 6
+ New Conference at St. Germain 7
+ Defection of Antoine of Navarre, and its Effects 9
+ He is cheated with Vain Hopes 10
+ Jeanne d'Albret constant 10
+ Immense Crowds at Huguenot Preaching 11
+ The Canons of Sainte-Croix 12
+ The Guises meet Christopher of Wuertemberg at Saverne 13
+ Their Lying Assurances 15
+ The Guises deceive Nobody 17
+ Throkmorton's Account of the French Court 17
+ The Massacre of Vassy 19
+ The Huguenots call for the Punishment of the Murderers 23
+ The Pretence of Want of Premeditation 24
+ Louis of Conde appeals to the King 26
+ Beza's Remonstrance 27
+ An Anvil that had worn out many Hammers 28
+ Guise enters Paris 28
+ The Queen Mother takes Charles to Melun 30
+ Her Letters imploring Conde's Aid 31
+ Revolutionary Measures of the Triumvirs 32
+ Conde retires to Meaux 33
+ La Noue justifies his Prudence 33
+ The Huguenot Summons 34
+ Admiral Coligny's Reluctance to take up Arms 34
+ Guise and Navarre seize the King and bring him to Paris 36
+ Montmorency's Exploit at the "Temples" 37
+ He earns the Title of "Le Capitaine Brulebanc" 37
+ Conde throws himself into Orleans 38
+ His "Justification" 39
+ Stringent Articles of Association 40
+ The Huguenot Nobles and Cities 41
+ Can Iconoclasm be repressed? 42
+ An Uncontrollable Impulse 43
+ It bursts out at Caen 44
+ The "Idol" of the Church of Sainte-Croix 45
+ Massacre of Huguenots at Sens 46
+ Disorders and War in Provence and Dauphiny 47
+ William of Orange and his Principality 48
+ Massacre by Papal Troops from Avignon 49
+ Merciless Revenge of the Baron des Adrets 50
+ His Grim Pleasantry at Mornas 51
+ Atrocities of Blaise de Montluc 51
+ The Massacre at Toulouse 52
+ The Centenary celebrated 53
+ Foreign Alliances sought 54
+ Queen Elizabeth's Aid invoked 55
+ Cecil's Urgency and Schemes 56
+ Divided Sympathies of the English 56
+ Diplomatic Manoeuvres 57
+ Conde's Reply to the Pretended "Petition" 59
+ Third National Synod of the Protestants 61
+ Interview of Catharine and Conde at Toury 62
+ The "Loan" of Beaugency 63
+ Futile Negotiations 64
+ Spasmodic Efforts in Warfare 65
+ Huguenot Discipline 66
+ Severities of the Parisian Parliament 68
+ Military Successes of the "Triumvirs" at Poitiers and Bourges 71
+ Help from Queen Elizabeth 73
+ Siege of Rouen 76
+ Ferocity of the Norman Parliament 80
+ Death of Antoine, King of Navarre 81
+ The English in Havre 84
+ Conde takes the Field and appears before Paris 85
+ Dilatory Diplomacy 90
+ The Battle of Dreux 93
+ Montmorency and Conde Prisoners 94
+ Riotous Conduct of the Parisians 96
+ Orleans Invested 98
+ Coligny again in Normandy 99
+ Huguenot Reverses 101
+ Assassination of Duke Francois de Guise 103
+ Execution of Poltrot 105
+ Beza and Coligny accused 106
+ They vindicate Themselves 106
+ Estimates of Guise's Character 109
+ Renee de France at Montargis 110
+ Deliberations for Peace 113
+ The "Noblesse" in favor of the Terms--the Ministers against them 114
+ The Edict of Pacification 115
+ Remonstrance of the English Ambassador 116
+ Coligny's Disappointment 116
+ Results of the First Civil War 118
+ It prevents France from becoming Huguenot 119
+
+ * * * * *
+
+ Huguenot Ballads and Songs 120
+
+
+ CHAPTER XIV.
+
+ 1563-1567.
+
+ THE PEACE OF AMBOISE AND THE BAYONNE CONFERENCE 126
+ Charles demands Havre of the English 126
+ The Siege 127
+ How the Peace was received 128
+ Vexatious Delays in Normandy 129
+ The Norman Parliament protests and threatens 130
+ A Rude Rebuff 131
+ Commissioners to enforce the Edict 132
+ A Profligate Court alienated from Protestantism 132
+ Profanity a Test of Catholicity 134
+ Admiral Coligny accused of Guise's Murder 135
+ His Defence espoused by the Montmorencies 135
+ Petition of the Guises 136
+ The King adjourns the Decision 137
+ Embarrassment of Catharine 137
+ Charles's Majority proclaimed 138
+ The King and the Refractory Parisian Parliament 139
+ The Pope's Bull against Princely Heretics 141
+ Proceedings against Cardinal Chatillon 141
+ The Queen of Navarre cited to Rome 141
+ Spirited Reply of the French Council 142
+ Catharine seeks to seduce the Huguenot Leaders 144
+ Weakness of Conde 145
+ Recent Growth of Protestantism 146
+ Milhau-en-Rouergue 147
+ Montpellier--Bearn 148
+ Jeanne d'Albret's Reformation 148
+ Attempt to kidnap her 150
+ Close of the Council of Trent 152
+ Cardinal Lorraine's Attempt to secure the Acceptance of its
+ Decrees 154
+ His Altercation with L'Hospital 155
+ General Plan for suppressing Heresy 156
+ "Progress" of Charles and his Court 157
+ Calumnies against the Huguenots 159
+ Their Numbers 159
+ Catharine's New Zeal--Citadels in Protestant Towns 160
+ Interpretative Declarations infringing upon the Edict 160
+ Assaults upon Unoffending Huguenots--No Redress 162
+ Conde appeals to the King 163
+ Conciliatory Answers to Huguenot Inhabitants of Bordeaux and
+ Nantes 164
+ Protestants excluded from Judicial Posts 165
+ Marshal Montmorency checks the Parisian Mob 166
+ His Encounter with Cardinal Lorraine 166
+ The Conference at Bayonne 167
+ What were its Secret Objects? 168
+ No Plan of Massacre adopted 169
+ History of the Interview 170
+ Catharine and Alva 172
+ Catharine rejects all Plans of Violence 175
+ Cardinal Granvelle's Testimony 176
+ Festivities and Pageantry 176
+ Henry of Bearn an Actor 177
+ Roman Catholic Confraternities 179
+ Hints of the Future Plot of the "League" 180
+ The Siege of Malta and French Civilities to the Sultan 181
+ Constable Montmorency defends Cardinal Chatillon 182
+ The Court at Moulins 183
+ Feigned Reconciliation of the Guises and Coligny 184
+ L'Hospital's Measure for the Relief of the Protestants 185
+ Another Altercation between Cardinal Lorraine and the Chancellor 186
+ Progress of the Reformation at Cateau-Cambresis 187
+ Insults and Violence 192
+ Huguenot Pleasantries 192
+ Alarm of the Protestants 193
+ Attempts to murder Coligny and Porcien 194
+ Alva sent to the Netherlands 195
+ The Swiss Levy 196
+ Conde and Coligny remonstrate 197
+ Discredited Assurances of Catharine 198
+ "The very Name of the Edict employed to destroy the Edict itself" 199
+
+ * * * * *
+
+ The Huguenot Attempts at Colonization in Florida 199
+ The First and Second Expeditions (1562, 1564) 199
+ Third Expedition (1565) 200
+ Massacre by Menendez 200
+ Indignation of the French Court 201
+ Sincere Remonstrances 201
+ Sanguinary Revenge of De Gourgues 202
+
+
+ CHAPTER XV.
+
+ 1567-1568.
+
+ THE SECOND CIVIL WAR AND THE SHORT PEACE 203
+ Coligny's Pacific Counsels 203
+ Rumors of Plots to destroy the Huguenots 203
+ D'Andelot's Warlike Counsels prevail 204
+ Cardinal Lorraine to be seized and King Charles liberated 205
+ The Secret slowly leaks out 206
+ Flight of the Court to Paris 207
+ Cardinal Lorraine invites Alva to France 208
+ Conde at Saint Denis 209
+ The Huguenot Movement alienates the King 210
+ Negotiations opened 210
+ The Huguenots abate their Demands 211
+ Montmorency the Mouthpiece of Intolerance 211
+ Insincerity of Alva's Offer of Aid 212
+ The Battle of St. Denis (Nov. 10, 1567) 213
+ Constable Montmorency mortally wounded 215
+ His Character 216
+ The Protestant Princes of Germany determine to send Aid 217
+ The Huguenots go to meet it 219
+ Treacherous Diplomacy 220
+ Catharine implores Alva's Assistance 221
+ Conde and John Casimir meet in Lorraine 222
+ Generosity of the Huguenot Troops 223
+ The March toward Orleans 223
+ The "Michelade" at Nismes 224
+ Huguenot Successes in the South and West 226
+ La Rochelle secured for Conde 226
+ Spain and Rome oppose the Negotiations for Peace 228
+ Santa Croce demands Cardinal Chatillon's Surrender 229
+ A Rebuff from Marshal Montmorency 229
+ March of the "Viscounts" to meet Conde 230
+ Siege of Chartres 231
+ Chancellor L'Hospital's Memorial 232
+ Edict of Pacification (Longjumeau, March 23, 1568) 234
+ Conde for and Coligny against the Peace 235
+ Conde's Infatuation 235
+ Was the Court sincere? 236
+ Catharine short-sighted 238
+ Imprudence of the Huguenots 238
+ Judicial Murder of Rapin at Toulouse 239
+ Seditious Preachers and Mobs 240
+ Treatment of the Returning Huguenots 241
+ Expedition and Fate of De Cocqueville 242
+ Garrisons and Interpretative Ordinances 244
+ Oppression of Royal Governors 245
+ "The Christian and Royal League" 246
+ Insubordination to Royal Authority 247
+ Admirable Organization of the Huguenots 247
+ Murder runs Riot throughout France 248
+ La Rochelle, etc., refuse Royal Garrisons 250
+ Coligny retires for Safety to Tanlay, Conde to Noyers 251
+ D'Andelot's Remonstrance 252
+ Catharine sides with L'Hospital's Enemies 254
+ Remonstrance of the three Marshals 255
+ Catharine's Intrigues 255
+ The Court seeks to ruin Conde and Coligny 256
+ Teligny sent to remonstrate 256
+ The Oath exacted of the Huguenots 257
+ The Plot Disclosed 259
+ Intercepted Letter from Spain 259
+ Isabella of Spain her Husband's Mouthpiece 261
+ Charles begs his Mother to avoid War 262
+ Her Animosity against L'Hospital 263
+ Another Quarrel between Lorraine and the Chancellor 263
+ Fall of Chancellor L'Hospital 264
+ The Plot 265
+ Marshal Tavannes its Author 266
+ Conde's Last Appeal to the King 267
+ Flight of the Prince and Admiral 268
+ Its Wonderful Success 269
+ The Third Civil War opens 270
+
+ * * * * *
+
+ The City of La Rochelle and its Privileges 270
+
+
+ CHAPTER XVI.
+
+ 1568-1570.
+
+ THE THIRD CIVIL WAR 274
+ Relative Advantages of Huguenots and Roman Catholics 274
+ Enthusiasm of Huguenot Youth 274
+ Enlistment of Agrippa d'Aubigne 275
+ The Court proscribes the Reformed Religion 275
+ Impolicy of this Course 277
+ A "Crusade" published at Toulouse 278
+ Fanaticism of the Roman Catholic Preachers 279
+ Huguenot Places of Refuge 280
+ Jeanne d'Albret and D'Andelot reach La Rochelle 281
+ Successes in Poitou, Angoumois, etc. 282
+ Powerful Huguenot Army in the South 284
+ Effects a Junction with Conde's Forces 284
+ Huguenot Reprisals and Negotiations 287
+ William of Orange tries to aid the Huguenots 288
+ His Declaration in their behalf 290
+ Aid sought from England 291
+ Generously accorded by Clergy and Laity 292
+ Misgivings of Queen Elizabeth 294
+ Her Double Dealing and Effrontery 295
+ Fruitless Sieges and Plots 297
+ Growing Superiority of Anjou's Forces 298
+ The Armies meet on the Charente 299
+ Battle of Jarnac (March 13, 1569) 301
+ Murder of Louis, Prince of Conde 302
+ The Prince of Navarre remonstrates against the Perfidy shown 305
+ Exaggerated Bulletins 307
+ The Pope's Sanguinary Injunctions 308
+ Sanguinary Action of the Parliament of Bordeaux 310
+ Queen Elizabeth colder 310
+ The Queen of Navarre's Spirit 311
+ The Huguenots recover Strength 312
+ Death of D'Andelot 312
+ New Responsibility resting on Coligny 314
+ The Duke of Deux Ponts comes with German Auxiliaries 315
+ They overcome all Obstacles and join Coligny 317
+ Death of Deux Ponts 318
+ Huguenot Success at La Roche Abeille 319
+ Furlough of Anjou's Troops 320
+ Huguenot Petition to the King 320
+ Coligny's Plans overruled 324
+ Disastrous Siege of Poitiers 324
+ Cruelties to Huguenots in the Prisons of Orleans 326
+ Montargis a Safe Refuge 327
+ Flight of the Refugees to Sancerre 328
+ The "Croix de Gastines" 329
+ Ferocity of Parliament against Coligny and Others 330
+ A Price set on Coligny's Head 330
+ The Huguenots weaker 332
+ Battle of Moncontour (Oct. 3, 1569) 333
+ Coligny wounded 334
+ Heavy Losses of the Huguenots 335
+ The Roman Catholics exultant 336
+ Mouy murdered by Maurevel 337
+ The Assassin rewarded with the Collar of the Order 338
+ Fatal Error committed by the Court 338
+ Siege of St. Jean d'Angely 340
+ Huguenot Successes at Vezelay and Nismes 344
+ Coligny encouraged 347
+ Withdrawal of the Troops of Dauphiny and Provence 348
+ The Admiral's Bold Plan 348
+ He Sweeps through Guyenne 349
+ "Vengeance de Rapin" 351
+ Coligny pushes on to the Rhone 351
+ His Singular Success and its Causes 351
+ He turns toward Paris 353
+ His Illness interrupts Negotiations 353
+ Engagement of Arnay-le-Duc 354
+ Coligny approaches Paris 356
+ Progress of Negotiations 356
+ The English Rebellion affects the Terms offered 358
+ Better Conditions proposed 360
+ Charles and his Mother for Peace 360
+ The War fruitless for its Authors 361
+ Anxiety of Cardinal Chatillon 363
+ The Royal Edict of St. Germain (Aug. 8, 1570) 363
+ Dissatisfaction of the Clergy 365
+ "The Limping and Unsettled Peace" 366
+
+
+ CHAPTER XVII.
+
+ 1570-1572.
+
+ THE PEACE OF ST. GERMAIN 367
+ Sincerity of the Peace 367
+ The Designs of Catharine de' Medici 369
+ Charles the Ninth in Earnest 370
+ Tears out the Parliament Record against Cardinal Chatillon 371
+ His Assurances to Walsingham 371
+ Gracious Answer to German Electors 372
+ Infringement on Edict at Orange 373
+ Protestants of Rouen attacked 374
+ The "Croix de Gastines" pulled down 375
+ Projected Marriage of Anjou to Queen Elizabeth of England 377
+ Machinations to dissuade Anjou 379
+ Charles indignant at Interference 379
+ Alencon to be substituted as Suitor 380
+ Anjou's new Ardor 380
+ Elizabeth interposes Obstacles 381
+ Papal and Spanish Efforts 382
+ Vexation of Catharine at Anjou's fresh Scruples 383
+ Louis of Nassau confers with the King 384
+ Admiral Coligny consulted 386
+ Invited to Court 387
+ His Honorable Reception 389
+ Disgust of the Guises and Alva 390
+ Charles gratified 391
+ Proposed Marriage of Henry of Navarre to the King's Sister 392
+ The Anjou Match falls through 396
+ The Praise of Alencon 398
+ Pius the Fifth Alarmed 400
+ Cardinal of Alessandria sent to Paris 400
+ The King's Assurances 400
+ Jeanne d'Albret becomes more favorable to her Son's Marriage 403
+ Her Solicitude 403
+ She is treated with Tantalizing Insincerity 404
+ She is shocked at the Morals of the Court 405
+ Her Sudden Death 407
+ Coligny and the Boy-King 408
+ The Dispensation delayed 410
+ The King's Earnestness 411
+ Mons and Valenciennes captured 412
+ Catharine's Indecision 413
+ Queen Elizabeth inspires no Confidence 414
+ Rout of Genlis 415
+ Determines Catharine to take the Spanish Side 416
+ Loss of the Golden Opportunity 416
+ The Admiral does not lose Courage 417
+ Charles and Catharine at Montpipeau 418
+ Rumors of Elizabeth's Desertion of her Allies 419
+ Charles thoroughly cast down 420
+ Coligny partially succeeds in reassuring him 421
+ Elizabeth toys with Dishonorable Proposals from the Netherlands 422
+ Fatal Results 423
+ The Memoires inedits de Michel de la Huguerye 423
+ His View of a long Premeditation 423
+ Studied Misrepresentation of Jeanne d'Albret 424
+
+
+ CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+ 1572.
+
+ THE MASSACRE OF ST. BARTHOLOMEW'S DAY 426
+ The Huguenot Nobles reach Paris 426
+ The Betrothal of Henry of Navarre to Margaret of Valois 427
+ Entertainment in the Louvre 429
+ Coligny's Letter to his Wife 430
+ Festivities and Mock Combats 431
+ Huguenot Grievances to be redressed 432
+ Catharine and Anjou jealous of Coligny's Influence over the King 433
+ The Duchess of Nemours and Guise 434
+ Was the Massacre long premeditated? 435
+ Salviati's Testimony 435
+ Charles' Cordiality to Coligny 436
+ Coligny wounded 437
+ Agitation of the King 439
+ Coligny courageous 440
+ Visited by the King and his Mother 441
+ Catharine attempts to break up the Conference 443
+ Charles writes Letters expressing his Displeasure 444
+ The Vidame de Chartres advises the Huguenots to leave Paris 445
+ Catharine and Anjou come to a Final Decision 446
+ They ply Charles with Arguments 447
+ The King consents reluctantly 449
+ Few Victims first selected 450
+ Religious Hatred 452
+ Precautionary Measures 452
+ Orders issued to the Prevot des Marchands 454
+ The First Shot and the Bell of St. Germain l'Auxerrois 455
+ Murder of Admiral Coligny 456
+ His Character and Work 460
+ Murder of Huguenot Nobles in the Louvre 465
+ Navarre and Conde spared 468
+ The Massacre becomes general 470
+ La Rochefoucauld and Teligny fall 470
+ Self-defence of a few Nobles 471
+ Victims of Personal Hatred 472
+ Adventures of young La Force 472
+ Pitiless Butchery 474
+ Shamelessness of the Court Ladies 476
+ Anjou, Montpensier, and others encourage the Assassins 476
+ Wonderful Escapes 477
+ Death of the Philosopher Ramus 478
+ President Pierre de la Place 479
+ Regnier and Vezins 480
+ Escape of Chartres and Montgomery 481
+ Charles himself fires on them 482
+ The Massacre continues 484
+ Pillage of the Rich 485
+ Orders issued to lay down Arms 487
+ Little heeded 487
+ Miracle of the "Cimetiere des Innocents" 488
+ The King's First Letter to Mandelot 490
+ Guise throws the Responsibility on the King 491
+ Charles accepts it on Tuesday morning 492
+ The "Lit de Justice" 492
+ Servile Reply of Parliament 493
+ Christopher De Thou 493
+ Ineffectual Effort to inculpate Coligny 495
+ His Memory declared Infamous 496
+ Petty Indignities 496
+ A Jubilee Procession 498
+ Charles declares he will maintain his Edict of Pacification 498
+ Forced Conversion of Navarre and Conde 499
+
+
+ CHAPTER XIX.
+
+ 1572.
+
+ THE MASSACRE IN THE PROVINCES, AND THE RECEPTION OF THE TIDINGS
+ ABROAD 501
+ The Massacre in the Provinces 501
+ The Verbal Orders 502
+ Instructions to Montsoreau at Saumur 503
+ Two Kinds of Letters 504
+ Massacre at Meaux 505
+ At Troyes 507
+ The Great Bloodshed at Orleans 508
+ At Bourges 511
+ At Angers 512
+ Butchery at Lyons 513
+ Responsibility of Mandelot 517
+ Rouen 519
+ Toulouse 521
+ Bordeaux 522
+ Why the Massacre was not Universal 524
+ Policy of the Guises 525
+ Spurious Accounts of Clemency 525
+ Bishop Le Hennuyer, of Lisieux 525
+ Kind Offices of Matignon at Caen and Alencon 526
+ Of Longueville and Gordes 526
+ Of Tende in Provence 527
+ Viscount D'Orthez at Bayonne 528
+ The Municipality of Nantes 529
+ Uncertain Number of Victims 530
+ News of the Massacre received at Rome 530
+ Public Thanksgivings 532
+ Vasari's Paintings in the Vatican 533
+ French Boasts count for Nothing 535
+ Catharine writes to Philip, her son-in-law 536
+ The Delight of Philip of Spain 537
+ Charles instigates the Murder of French Prisoners 539
+ Alva jubilant, but wary 540
+ England's Horror 541
+ Perplexity of La Mothe Fenelon 541
+ His Cold Reception by Queen Elizabeth 543
+ The Ambassador disheartened 546
+ Sir Thomas Smith's Letter 546
+ Catharine's Unsuccessful Representations 547
+ Briquemault and Cavaignes hung for alleged Conspiracy 548
+ The News in Scotland 550
+ In Germany 550
+ In Poland 552
+ Sympathy of the Genevese 554
+ Their Generosity and Danger 557
+ The Impression at Baden 558
+ Medals and Vindications 559
+ Disastrous Personal Effect on King Charles 560
+ How far was the Roman Church Responsible? 562
+ Gregory probably not aware of the intended Massacre 564
+ Paul the Fifth instigates the French Court 564
+ He counsels exterminating the Huguenots 565
+
+ * * * * *
+
+ A New Account of the Massacre at Orleans 569
+
+
+ CHAPTER XX.
+
+ 1572-1574.
+
+ THE SEQUEL OF THE MASSACRE, TO THE DEATH OF CHARLES THE NINTH 572
+ Widespread Terror 572
+ La Rochelle and other Cities in Huguenot Hands 573
+ Nismes and Montauban 573
+ La Rochelle the Centre of Interest 576
+ A Spurious Letter of Catharine 577
+ Designs on the City 577
+ Mission of La Noue 579
+ He is badly received 580
+ The Royal Proposals rejected 581
+ Marshal Biron appears before La Rochelle 582
+ Beginning of the Fourth Religious War 582
+ Description of La Rochelle 582
+ Resoluteness of the Defenders 583
+ Their Military Strength 584
+ Henry, Duke of Anjou, appointed to conduct the Siege 585
+ The Besieged pray and fight 585
+ Bravery of the Women 586
+ La Noue retires--Failure of Diplomacy 587
+ English Aid miscarries 588
+ Huguenot Successes in the South 589
+ Sommieres and Villeneuve 589
+ Beginning of the Siege of Sancerre 589
+ The Incipient Famine 590
+ Losses of the Army before La Rochelle 591
+ Roman Catholic Processions 592
+ Election of Henry of Anjou to the Crown of Poland 593
+ Edict of Pacification (Boulogne, July, 1573) 593
+ Meagre Results of the War 594
+ The Siege and Famine of Sancerre continue 595
+ The City capitulates 597
+ Reception of the Polish Ambassadors 598
+ Discontent of the South with the Terms of Peace 599
+ Assembly of Milhau and Montauban 600
+ Military Organization of the Huguenots 600
+ Petition to the King 601
+ "Les Fronts d'Airain" 603
+ Catharine's Bitter Reply 604
+ The Huguenots firm 604
+ Decline of Charles's Health 605
+ Project of an English Match renewed 606
+ Intrigues with the German Princes 608
+ Death of Louis of Nassau 610
+ Anjou's Reception at Heidelberg 610
+ Frankness of the Elector Palatine 611
+ Last Days of Chancellor L'Hospital 613
+ The Party of the "Politiques" 615
+ Hotman's "Franco-Gallia" 615
+ Treacherous Attempt on La Rochelle 616
+ Huguenots reassemble at Milhau 617
+ They complete their Organization 618
+ The Duke of Alencon 619
+ Glandage Plunders the City of Orange 620
+ Montbrun's Exploits in Dauphiny 621
+ La Rochelle resumes Arms (Beginning of the Fifth Religious War) 622
+ Diplomacy tried in Vain 623
+ The "Politiques" make an Unsuccessful Rising 625
+ Flight of the Court from St. Germain 626
+ Alencon and Navarre examined 627
+ Execution of La Mole and Coconnas 628
+ Conde retires to Germany 629
+ Reasons for the Success of the Huguenots 630
+ Montgomery lands in Normandy 631
+ He is forced to Surrender 632
+ Delight of Catharine 632
+ Execution of Montgomery 633
+ Last Days of Charles the Ninth 635
+ Distress of his Young Queen 636
+ Death and Funeral Rites of Charles 638
+ Had Persecution, War and Treachery Succeeded? 639
+
+
+
+
+BOOK SECOND.
+
+_FROM THE EDICT OF JANUARY (1562) TO THE DEATH OF CHARLES THE NINTH
+(1574)._
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+THE FIRST CIVIL WAR.
+
+
+[Sidenote: Inconsistencies of the Edict of January.]
+
+The Edict of January was on its very face a compromise, and as such rested
+on no firm foundation. Inconsistent with itself, it fully satisfied
+neither Huguenot nor Roman Catholic. The latter objected to the toleration
+which the edict extended; the former demanded the unrestricted freedom of
+worship which it denied. If the existence of two diverse religions was
+compatible with the welfare of the state, why ignominiously thrust the
+places of Protestant worship from the cities into the suburbs? If the two
+were irreconcilable, why suffer the Huguenots to assemble outside the
+walls?
+
+[Sidenote: Huguenot leaders urge the observance of the edict.]
+
+Yet there was this difference between the attitude assumed by the rival
+parties with reference to the edict: while the Roman Catholic leaders made
+no secret of their intention to insist upon its repeal,[1] the Huguenot
+leaders were urgent in their advice to the churches to conform strictly to
+its provisions, restraining the indiscreet zeal of their more impetuous
+members and exhibiting due gratitude to Heaven for the amelioration of
+their lot. To the _people_ it was, indeed, a bitter disappointment to be
+compelled to give up the church edifices, and to resort for public service
+to the outskirts of the town. Less keen was the regret experienced by
+others not less sincerely interested in the progress of the purer
+doctrines, who, on account of their appreciation of the violence of the
+opposition to be encountered, had not been so sanguine in their
+expectations. And so Beza and other prominent men of the Protestant
+Church, after obtaining from Chancellor L'Hospital some further
+explanations on doubtful points, addressed to their brethren in all parts
+of France a letter full of wholesome advice. "God," said they, "has
+deigned to employ new means of protecting His church in this kingdom, by
+placing those who profess the Gospel under the safeguard of the king, our
+natural prince, and of the magistrates and governors established by him.
+This should move us so much the more to praise the infinite goodness of
+our Heavenly Father, who has at length answered the cry of His children,
+and lovingly to obey the king, in order that he may be induced to aid our
+just cause." The provisional edict, they added, was not all that might yet
+be hoped for. As respected the surrender of the churches, those Huguenots
+who had seized them on their own individual authority ought rather to
+acknowledge their former indiscretion than deplore the necessity for
+restitution. In fine, annoyance at the loss of a few privileges ought to
+be forgotten in gratitude for the gain of many signal advantages.[2] The
+letter produced a deep impression, and its salutary advice was followed
+scrupulously, if not cheerfully, even in southern France, where the
+Huguenots, in some places, outnumbered the adherents of the Romish Church.
+
+[Sidenote: Seditious Sermons.]
+
+The papal party was less ready to acquiesce. The Edict of January was,
+according to its representative writers, the most pernicious law for the
+kingdom that could have been devised. By forbidding the magistrates from
+interfering with the Protestant conventicles held in the suburbs, by
+permitting the royal officers to attend, by conferring upon the ministers
+full liberty of officiating, a formal approval was, for the first time,
+given to the new sect under the authority of the royal seal.[3] The
+pulpits resounded with denunciations of the government. The King of
+Navarre and the queen mother were assailed under scriptural names, as
+favoring the false prophets of Baal. Scarcely a sermon was preached in
+which they did not figure as Ahab and Jezebel.[4] A single specimen of the
+spirited discourses in vogue will suffice. A Franciscan monk--one
+Barrier--the same from whose last Easter sermon an extract has already
+been given[5]--after reading the royal ordinance in his church of
+Sainte-Croix, in Provins, remarked: "Well now, gentlemen of Provins, what
+must I, and the other preachers of France, do? Must we obey this order?
+What shall we tell you? What shall we preach? 'The Gospel,' Sir Huguenot
+will say. And pray, stating that the errors of Calvin, of Martin Luther,
+of Beza, Malot, Peter Martyr, and other preachers, with their erroneous
+doctrine, condemned by the Church a thousand years ago, and since then by
+the holy oecumenical councils, are worthless and damnable--is not this
+preaching the Gospel? Bidding you beware of their teaching, bidding you
+refuse to listen to them, or read their books; telling you that they only
+seek to stir up sedition, murder, and robbery, as they have begun to do in
+Paris and numberless places in the realm--is not this preaching 'the
+Gospel?' But some one may say: 'Pray, friar, what are you saying? You are
+not obeying the king's edict; you are still talking of Calvin and his
+companions; you call them and those who hold their sentiments _heretics_
+and _Huguenots_; you will be denounced to the courts of justice, you will
+be thrown into prison--yes, you will be hung as a seditious person.' I
+answer, _that_ is not unlikely, for Ahab and Jezebel put to death the
+prophets of God in their time, and gave all freedom to the false prophets
+of Baal. 'Stop, friar, you are saying too much, you will be hung.' Very
+well, then there will be a gray friar hung! Many others will therefore
+have to be hung, for God, by His Holy Spirit, will inspire the pillars of
+His church to uphold the edifice, which will never be overthrown until the
+end of the world, whatever blows may be struck at it."[6]
+
+[Sidenote: Opposition of the parliaments.]
+
+The parliaments exhibited scarcely less opposition to the edict than did
+the pulpits of the Roman Catholic churches. One--the Parliament of
+Dijon--never registered it at all;[7] while that of Paris instituted a
+long and decided resistance. "_Non possumus, nec debemus," "non possumus,
+nec debemus pro conscientia_," were the words in which it replied when
+repeatedly pressed to give formal sanction.[8] The counsellors were
+equally displeased with the contents of the edict, and with the
+irregularity committed in sending it first to the provincial parliaments.
+Even when the king, yielding to their importunity, by a supplementary
+"declaration," interpreted the provision of the edict relative to the
+attendance of royal officers upon the reformed services, as applicable
+only to the bailiffs, seneschals, and other minor magistrates, and
+strictly prohibited the attendance of the members of parliament and other
+high judicatories,[9] the counsellors, instead of proceeding to the
+registry of the obnoxious law, returned a recommendation that the
+intolerant Edict of _July_ be enforced![10] It was not possible until
+March to obtain a tardy assent to the reception of the January Edict into
+the legislation of the country, and then only a few of the judges
+vouchsafed to take part in the act.[11] The delay served to inflame yet
+more the passions of the people.
+
+[Sidenote: New conference.]
+
+Scarcely had the edict which was to adjust the relations of the two
+religious parties been promulgated, when a new attempt was made to
+reconcile the antagonistic beliefs by the old, but ever unsuccessful
+method of a conference between theologians. On the twenty-eighth of
+January a select company assembled in the large council-chamber of the
+royal palace of St. Germain, and commenced the discussion of the first
+topic submitted for their deliberation--the question of pictures or images
+and their worship. Catharine herself was present, with Antoine of Navarre
+and Jeanne d'Albret, Michel de l'Hospital, and other members of the
+council. On the papal side appeared the Cardinals of Bourbon, Tournon, and
+Ferrara, and a number of less elevated dignitaries. Beza and Marlorat were
+most prominent on the side of the reformed. The discussion was long and
+earnest, but it ended leaving all the disputants holding the same views
+that they had entertained at the outset. Beza condemned as idolatrous the
+practice of admitting statues or paintings into Christian churches, and
+urged their entire removal. The Inquisitor De Mouchy, Fra Giustiniano of
+Corfu, Maillard, dean of the Sorbonne, and others, attempted to refute his
+positions in a style of argument which exhibited the extremes of profound
+learning and silly conceit. Bishop Montluc of Valence,[12] and four
+doctors of theology--Salignac, Bouteiller, D'Espense, and Picherel--not
+only admitted the flagrant abuses of image-worship, but drew up a paper in
+which they did not disguise their sentiments. They recommended the removal
+of representations of the Holy Trinity, and of pictures immodest in
+character, or of saints not recognized by the Church. They reprobated the
+custom of decking out the portraits of the saints with crowns and dresses,
+the celebration of processions in their honor, and the offering of gifts
+and vows. And they yielded so far to the demands of the Protestants as to
+desire that only the simple cross should be permitted to remain over the
+altar, while the pictures should be placed high upon the walls, where they
+could neither be kissed nor receive other objectionable marks of
+adoration.[13] It was a futile task to reconcile views so discordant even
+among the Roman Catholic partisans. Two weeks were spent in profitless
+discussion, and, on the eleventh of February, the new colloquy was
+permitted to dissolve without having entered upon any of the more
+difficult questions that still remained upon the programme marked out for
+it.[14] The cardinals had prevailed upon Catharine de' Medici to refer the
+settlement to the Council of Trent.[15] The joy of De Mouchy, the
+inquisitor, and of his companions, knew no bounds when Chancellor
+L'Hospital declared the queen's pleasure, and requested the members to
+retire to their homes, and reduce their opinions to writing for future
+use. They were ready to throw themselves on Beza's neck in their delight
+at being relieved of the necessity of debating with him![16]
+
+[Sidenote: Defection of Antoine and its results.]
+
+[Sidenote: Constancy of Jeanne.]
+
+But, in truth, the time for the calm discussion of theological
+differences, the time for friendly salutation between the champions of the
+rival systems of faith, was rapidly drawing to a close. If some rays of
+sunshine still glanced athwart the landscape, conveying to the unpractised
+eye the impression of quiet serenity, there were also black and portentous
+clouds already rising far above the horizon. Those who could read the
+signs of the times had long watched their gathering, and they trembled
+before the coming of the storm. Although they were mercifully spared the
+full knowledge of the overwhelming ruin that would follow in the wake of
+that fearful war of the elements, they saw the angry commotion of the sky,
+and realized that the air was surcharged with material for the most
+destructive bolts of heaven. And yet it is the opinion of a contemporary,
+whose views are always worthy of careful consideration, that, had it not
+been for the final defection of the King of Navarre at this critical
+juncture, the great woes impending over France might still have been
+delayed or averted.[17] That unhappy prince seemed determined to earn the
+title of the "Julian Apostate" of the French Reformation. Plied by the
+arts of his own servants, D'Escars (of whom Mezeray pithily remarks that
+he was ready to sell himself for money to anybody, save his master) and
+the Bishop of Auxerre; flattered by the Triumvirate, tempted by the
+Spanish Ambassador, Cardinal Tournon, and the papal legate, he had long
+been playing a hypocritical part. He had been unwilling to break with the
+Huguenots before securing the golden fruit with which he was lured on, and
+so he was at the same time the agent and the object of treachery. Even
+after he had sent in his submission to the Pope by the hands of D'Escars,
+he pretended, when remonstrated with by his Protestant friends, that "he
+would take care not to go so far that he could not easily extricate
+himself."[18] He did not even show displeasure when faithfully rebuked and
+warned.[19] Yet he had after long hesitation completely cast in his lot
+with the papal party. He was convinced at last that Philip was in earnest
+in his intention to give him the island of Sardinia, which was depicted to
+him as a terrestrial paradise, "worth four Navarres."[20] It was widely
+believed that he had received from the Holy See the promise of a divorce
+from his heretical consort, which, while permitting him to retain the
+possessions which she had justly forfeited by her spiritual rebellion,
+would enable him to marry the youthful Mary of Scots, and add a
+substantial crown to his titular claims.[21] But we would fain believe
+that even Antoine of Bourbon had not sunk to such a depth of infamy.
+Certain it is, however, that he now openly avowed his new devotion to the
+Romish Church, and that the authority of his name became a bulwark of
+strength to the refractory parliament in its endeavor to prevent the
+execution of the edict of toleration.[22] But he was unsuccessful in
+dragging with him the wife whom he had been the instrument of inducing
+first to declare herself for the persecuted faith of the reformers. And
+when Catharine de' Medici, who cared nothing for religion, tried to
+persuade her to arrange matters with her husband, "Sooner," she said,
+"than ever go to mass, had I my kingdom and my son in my hand, I would
+cast them both into the depth of the sea, that they might not be a
+hinderance to me."[23] Brave mother of Henry the Fourth! Well would it
+have been, both for her son and for France, if that son had inherited more
+of Jeanne d'Albret's devotion to truth, and less of his father's lewdness
+and inconstancy!
+
+[Sidenote: Immense crowds at Huguenot preaching.]
+
+[Sidenote: The canons of Sainte Croix.]
+
+As early as in February, Beza was of the opinion that the King of Navarre
+would not suffer him to remain longer in the realm to which he himself had
+invited him so earnestly only six months before. At all events, he would
+be publicly dismissed by the first of May, and with him many others. With
+this disquieting intelligence came also rumors of an alliance between the
+enemies of the Gospel and the Spaniard, which could not be treated with
+contempt as baseless fabrications.[24] But meanwhile the truth was making
+daily progress. At a single gathering for prayer and preaching, but a few
+days before, twenty-five thousand persons, it was computed, had been in
+attendance, representing all ranks of the population, among whom were many
+of the nobility.[25] In the city of Troyes, a few weeks later, eight or
+nine thousand persons assembled from the neighboring country to celebrate
+the Lord's Supper, and the number of communicants was so great that they
+could not all partake on a single day; so the services were repeated on
+the morrow.[26] Elsewhere there was equal zeal and growth. Indeed, so
+rapid was the advance of Protestantism, so pressing the call for
+ministers, that the large and flourishing church of Orleans, in a letter
+written the last day of February, proclaimed their expectation of
+establishing a theological school to supply their own wants and those of
+the adjacent regions; and it is no insignificant mark of the power with
+which the reformatory movement still coursed on, that the canons of the
+great church of Sainte Croix had given notice of their intention to attend
+the lectures that were to be delivered![27] In such an encouraging strain
+did "the ministers, deacons, and elders" of the most Protestant city of
+northern France write on the day before that deplorable massacre of Vassy,
+which was to be the signal for an appeal from argument to arms, upon which
+the newly enkindled spirit of religious inquiry was to be quenched in
+partisan hatred and social confusion. Within less than two months the
+tread of an armed host was to be heard in the city which it had been hoped
+would be thronged by the pious students of the gospel of peace, and
+frenzied soldiers would be hurling upon the floors of Sainte Croix the
+statues of the saints that had long occupied their elevated niches.
+
+We must now turn to the events preceding the inauspicious occurrence the
+fruits of which proved so disastrous to the French church and state.
+
+[Sidenote: The Guises meet the Duke of Wuertemberg at Saverne.]
+
+Having at length made sure of the co-operation of the King of Navarre in
+the contest upon which they had now resolved with the view of preventing
+the execution of the Edict of January, the Guises desired to strengthen
+themselves in the direction of Germany, and secure, if not the assistance,
+at least the neutrality of the Protestant princes. Could the Protestants
+on the other side of the Rhine be made indifferent spectators of the
+struggle, persuaded that their own creed resembled the faith of the Roman
+Catholics much more than the creed of the Huguenots; could they be
+convinced that the Huguenots were uneasy and rebellious radicals, whom it
+were better to crush than to assist; could, consequently, the "reiters"
+and "lansquenets" be kept at home--it would, thought the Guises, be easy,
+with the help of the German Catholics, perhaps of Spain also, to render
+complete the papal supremacy in France, and to crush Conde and the
+Chatillons to the earth. Accordingly, the Guises extended to Duke
+Christopher of Wuertemberg an invitation to meet them in the little town of
+Saverne (or Zabern, as it was called by the Germans), in Alsace, not far
+from Strasbourg.[28] The duke came as he was requested, accompanied by his
+theologians, Brentius and Andreae; and the interview, beginning on the
+fifteenth of February,[29] lasted four days. Four of the Guises were
+present; but the conversations were chiefly with Francis, the Duke of
+Guise, and Charles, the Cardinal of Lorraine; the Cardinal of Guise and
+the Grand Prior of the Knights of St. John taking little or no active
+part. Christopher and Francis had been comrades in arms a score of years
+back, for the former had served several years, and with no little
+distinction, in the French wars. This circumstance afforded an
+opportunity for the display of extraordinary friendship. And what did the
+brothers state, in this important consultation, respecting their own
+sentiments, the opinions of the Huguenots, and the condition of France?
+Happily, a minute account, in the form of a manuscript memorandum taken
+down at the time by Duke Christopher, is still extant in the archives of
+Stuttgart.[30] Little known, but authentic beyond the possibility of
+cavil, this document deserves more attention than it has received from
+historians; for it places in the clearest light the shameless mendacity of
+the Guises, and shows that the duke had nearly as good a claim as the
+cardinal, his brother, to the reputation which the Venetian ambassador
+tells us that Charles had earned "_of rarely telling the truth_."
+
+[Sidenote: Lying assurances.]
+
+Duke Christopher made the acquaintance of Charles of Lorraine as a
+preacher on the morning after his arrival, when he heard him, in a sermon
+on the temptation in the wilderness, demonstrate that no other mediators
+or intercessors must be sought for but Jesus Christ, who is our only
+Saviour and the only propitiation for our sins. That day Christopher had a
+long conversation with Guise respecting the unhappy condition of France,
+which the latter ascribed in great part to the Huguenot ministers, whose
+unconciliatory conduct, he said, had rendered abortive the Colloquy of
+Poissy. Wuertemberg corrected him by replying that the very accounts of the
+colloquy which Guise had sent him showed that the unsuccessful issue was
+owing to the prelates, who had evidently come determined to prevent any
+accommodation. He urged that the misfortunes that had befallen France were
+much rather to be ascribed to the cruel persecutions that had been
+inflicted on so many guiltless victims. "I cannot refrain from telling
+you," he added, "that you and your brother are strongly suspected in
+Germany of having contributed to cause the death, since the decease of
+Henry the Second--and even before, in his lifetime--of several thousands
+of persons who have been miserably executed on account of their faith. As
+a friend, and as a Christian, I must warn you. Beware, beware of innocent
+blood! Otherwise the punishment of God will fall upon you in this life and
+in the next." "He answered me," writes Wuertemberg, "_with great sighs_: 'I
+know that my brother and I are accused of that, and of many other things
+also. But _we are wronged_,[31] as we shall both of us explain to you
+before we leave.'"
+
+The cardinal entered more fully than his brother into the doctrinal
+conference, talking now with Wuertemberg, now with his theologian Brentius,
+and trying to persuade both that he was in perfect accord with them. While
+pressing his German friends to declare the Zwinglians and the Calvinists
+heretics--which they carefully avoided doing--and urging them to state the
+punishment that ought to be inflicted on heretics, there seemed to be no
+limit to the concessions which Lorraine was willing to make. He _adored_
+and _invoked_ only Christ in heaven. He merely _venerated_ the wafer. He
+acknowledged that his party went too far in calling the mass a sacrifice,
+and celebrating it for the living and the dead. The mass was not a
+sacrifice, but a commemoration of the sacrifice offered on the altar of
+the cross ("non sacrificium, sed memoria sacrificii praestiti in ara
+crucis"). He believed that the council assembled at Trent would do no
+good. When the Romish hierarchy, with the Pope at its head, as the
+pretended vicar of God on earth, was objected to, he replied that that
+matter could easily be adjusted. As for himself, "in the absence of a red
+gown, he would willingly wear a black one."
+
+[Sidenote: The Guises deceive no one.]
+
+He was asked whether, if Beza and his colleagues could be brought to
+consent to sign the Augsburg confession, he also would sign it. "You have
+heard it," he replied, "I take God to witness that I believe as I have
+said, and that by God's grace I shall live and die in these sentiments. I
+repeat it: I have read the Confession of Augsburg, I have also read
+Luther, Melanchthon, Brentius, and others; I entirely approve their
+doctrines, and I might speedily agree with them in all that concerns the
+ecclesiastical hierarchy. _But I am compelled still to dissemble for a
+time_, that I may gain some that are yet weak in the faith." A little
+later he adverted to Wuertemberg's remarks to Guise. "You informed my
+brother," he said, "that in Germany we are both of us suspected of having
+contributed to the execution of a large number of innocent Christians
+during the reigns of Henry and of Francis the Second. Well! I swear to
+you, in the name of God my Creator, and pledging the salvation of my soul,
+_that I am guilty of the death of no man condemned for religion's sake_.
+Those who were then privy to the deliberations of state can testify in my
+favor. On the contrary, whenever crimes of a religious character were
+under discussion, I used to say to King Henry or to King Francis the
+Second, that they did not belong to my department, that they had to do
+with the secular power, and I went away."[32] He even added that, although
+Du Bourg was in orders, he had begged the king to spare him as a learned
+man. "In like manner," says Wuertemberg, "the Duke of Guise with great
+oaths affirmed that he was innocent of the death of those who had been
+condemned on account of their faith. 'The attempt,' he added, 'has
+frequently been made to kill us, both the cardinal and myself, with
+fire-arms, sword, and poison, and, although the culprits have been
+arrested, I never meddled with their punishment.'" And when the Duke of
+Wuertemberg again "conjured them not to persecute the poor Christians of
+France, for God would not leave such a sin unpunished," both the cardinal
+and the Duke of Guise gave him their right hands, promising on their
+princely faith, and by the salvation of their souls, that they would
+neither openly nor secretly persecute the partisans of the "new
+doctrines!" Such were the barefaced impostures which this "par nobile
+fratrum" desired Christopher of Wuertemberg to publish for their
+vindication among the Lutherans of Germany. But the liars were not
+believed. The shrewd Landgrave of Hesse, on receiving Wuertemberg's
+account, even before the news of the massacre of Vassy, came promptly to
+the conclusion that the whole thing was an attempt at deception.
+Christopher himself, in the light of later events, added to his manuscript
+these words: "Alas! It can now be seen how they have kept these promises!
+_Deus sit ultor doli et perjurii, cujus namque res agitur._"[33]
+
+[Sidenote: Throkmorton's account of the French court.]
+
+Meanwhile events of the greatest consequence were occurring at the
+capital. The very day after the Saverne conference began, Sir Nicholas
+Throkmorton wrote to Queen Elizabeth an account of "the strange issue" to
+which affairs had come at the French court since his last despatch, a
+little over a fortnight before. His letter gives a vivid and accurate view
+of the important crisis in the first half of February, 1562, which we
+present very nearly in the words of the ambassador himself. "The Cardinal
+of Ferrara," says Throkmorton, "has allured to his devotion the King of
+Navarre, the Constable, Marshal St. Andre, the Cardinal of Tournon, and
+others inclined to retain the Romish religion. All these are bent to
+repress the Protestant religion in France, and to find means either to
+range [bring over to their side] the Queen of Navarre, the Prince of
+Conde, the Admiral, and all others who favor that religion, or to expel
+them from the court, with all the ministers and preachers. The queen
+mother, fearing this conspiracy might be the means of losing her authority
+(which is as dear to her as one religion or the other), and mistrusting
+that the Constable was going about to reduce the management of the whole
+affair into the King of Navarre's hands, and so into his own, has caused
+the Constable to retire from the court, as it were in disgrace, and
+intended to do the like with the Cardinal of Tournon and the Marshal St.
+Andre. The King of Navarre being offended with these proceedings, and
+imputing part of her doings to the advice of the Admiral, the Cardinal
+Chatillon, and Monsieur D'Andelot, intended to compel those personages to
+retire also from the court. In these garboils [commotions] the Prince of
+Conde, being sick at Paris, was requested to repair to the court and stand
+her [Catharine] in stead. In this time there was great working on both
+sides to win the house of Guise. So the Queen Mother wrote to them--they
+being in the skirts of Almain--to come to the court with all speed. The
+like means were made [use of] by the King of Navarre, the Cardinal of
+Ferrara and the Constable, to ally them on their part. During these
+solicitations the Duke D'Aumale arrived at the court from them, who was
+requested to solicit the speedy repair to the court of the Duke of Guise
+and the Cardinal of Lorraine.
+
+"The Prince of Conde went from hence in a horse litter to the court of St.
+Germain, where he found the Protestant preachers prohibited from preaching
+either in the King's house or in the town, and that the King of Navarre
+had solemnly vowed to retain and maintain the Romish religion, and had
+given order that his son should be instructed in the same. The Prince,
+finding the Queen of Navarre and the house of Chatillon ready to leave the
+court, fell again dangerously sick. Nevertheless his coming so revived
+them, as by the covert aid of the Queen Mother, they attempted to make the
+Protestant preachers preach again at the town's end of St. Germain, and
+were entreated to abide at the court, where there is an assembly which is
+like to last until Easter. The Cardinal of Ferrara assists daily at these
+disputes. The King of Navarre persists in the house of Chatillon retiring
+from the court, and it is believed the Queen of Navarre, and they, will
+not tarry long there."[34]
+
+Such was the picture drawn by the skilful pencil of the English envoy. It
+was certainly dark enough. Catharine and Navarre had sent Lansac to assure
+the Pope that they purposed to live in and defend the Roman Catholic
+religion. Sulpice had gone on a like mission to Spain. It was time,
+Throkmorton plainly told Queen Elizabeth, that she should show as great
+readiness in maintaining the Protestant religion as Ferrara and his
+associates showed in striving to overthrow it. And in a private despatch
+to Cecil, written the same day, he urged the secretary to dissuade her
+Majesty from longer retaining candles and cross on the altar of the royal
+chapel, at a time when even doctors of the Sorbonne consented to the
+removal of images of all sorts from over the altar in places of
+worship.[35]
+
+From Saverne the Cardinal of Lorraine returned to his archbishopric of
+Rheims, while the duke, accompanied by the Cardinal of Guise, proceeded in
+the direction of the French capital. On his route he stopped at Joinville,
+one of the estates of the family, recently erected in their favor into a
+principality. Here he was joined by his wife, Anne d'Este; here, too, he
+listened to fresh complaints made by his mother, Antoinette of Bourbon,
+against the insolence of the neighboring town of Vassy, where a
+considerable portion of the inhabitants had lately had the audacity to
+embrace the reformed faith.
+
+[Sidenote: Vassy in Champagne.]
+
+[Sidenote: Origin of the Huguenot Church.]
+
+Vassy, an important town of Champagne--though shorn of much of its
+influence by the removal of many of its dependencies to increase the
+dignity of Joinville--and one of the places assigned to Mary of Scots for
+her maintenance, had apparently for some time contained a few professors
+of the "new doctrines." It was, however, only in October, 1561, after the
+Colloquy of Poissy, that it was visited by a Protestant minister, who,
+during a brief sojourn, organized a church with elders and deacons.
+Notwithstanding the disadvantage of having no pastor, and of having
+notoriously incurred the special hatred of the Guises, the reformed
+community grew with marvellous rapidity. For the Gospel was preached not
+merely in the printed sermons read from the pulpit, but by the lips of
+enthusiastic converts. When, after a short absence, the founder of the
+church of Vassy returned to the scene of his labors, he came into
+collision with the Bishop of Chalons, whose diocese included this town.
+The bishop, unaccustomed to preach, set up a monk in opposition; but no
+one would come to hear him. The prelate then went himself to the
+Protestant gathering, and sat through the "singing of the commandments"
+and a prayer. But when he attempted to interrupt the services and asserted
+his episcopal authority, the minister firmly repelled the usurpation,
+taking his stand on the king's edict. Then, waxing warm in the discussion,
+the dauntless Huguenot exposed the hypocrisy of the pretended shepherd,
+who, not entering the fold by canonical election, but intruding himself
+into it without consulting his charge, was more anxious to secure his own
+ease than to lead his sheep into green pastures. The bishop soon retired
+from a field where he had found more than his match in argument: but the
+common people, who had come to witness his triumph over the Huguenot
+preacher, remained after his unexpected discomfiture, and the unequal
+contest resulted in fresh accessions to the ranks of the Protestants.
+Equally unsuccessful was the Bishop of Chalons in the attempt to induce
+the king to issue a commission to the Duke of Guise against the
+unoffending inhabitants, and Vassy was spared the fate of Merindol and
+Cabrieres. At Christmas nine hundred communicants, after profession of
+their faith, partook of the Lord's Supper according to the reformed rites;
+and in January, 1562, after repeated solicitations, the church obtained
+the long-desired boon of a pastor, in the person of the able and pious
+Leonard Morel. Thus far the history of Vassy differed little from that of
+hundreds of other towns in that age of wonderful awakening and growth, and
+would have attracted little attention had not its proximity to the
+Lorraine princes secured for it a tragic notoriety.[36]
+
+[Sidenote: Approach of the Duke of Guise.]
+
+On the twenty-eighth of February, Guise, with two hundred armed retainers,
+left Joinville. That night he slept at Dommartin-le-Franc. On Sunday
+morning, the first of March, he continued his journey. Whether by accident
+or from design, it is difficult to say, he drew near to Vassy about the
+time when the Huguenots were assembling for worship, and his ears caught
+the sound of their bell while he was still a quarter of a league distant.
+The ardor of Guise's followers was already at fever-heat. They had seen a
+poor artisan apprehended in a town that lay on their track, and summarily
+hung by their leader's order, for the simple offence of having had his
+child baptized after the reformed rites. When Guise heard the bell of the
+Vassy church, he turned to his suite to inquire what it meant. "It is the
+Huguenots' preaching," some one replied. "_Par la mort-Dieu_," broke in a
+second, "they will soon be huguenotted after another fashion!" Others
+began to make eager calculations respecting the extent of the plunder. A
+few minutes later an unlucky cobbler was espied, who, from his dress or
+manner, was mistaken for a Huguenot minister. It was well that he could
+answer the inquiries of the duke, before whom he was hurried, by assuring
+him that he was no clergyman and had never studied; otherwise, he was
+told, his case had been an extremely ugly one.[37]
+
+[Sidenote: The massacre.]
+
+On entering Vassy Guise repaired to the monastery chapel to hear mass
+said. He was followed by some of the gentlemen of his suite. Meantime,
+their valets found their way to the doors of the building in which the
+Protestants were worshipping, scarcely more than a stone's throw distant.
+This motley crowd was merely the vanguard of the Papists. Soon two or
+three gentlemen sent by Guise, according to his own account, to admonish
+the Huguenot assembly of their want of due obedience, entered the edifice,
+where they found twelve hundred persons quietly listening to the word of
+God. They were politely invited to sit down: but they replied by noisy
+interruption and threats. "_Mort-Dieu_, they must all be killed!" was
+their exclamation as they returned to report to Guise what they had seen.
+The defenceless Huguenots were thrown into confusion by these significant
+menaces, and hastened to secure the entrance. It was too late. The duke
+himself was approaching, and a volley from the arquebuses of his troop
+speedily scattered the unarmed worshippers. It is unnecessary to describe
+in all its details of horror the scene that ensued. The door of the
+sheep-fold was open and the wolf was already upon his prey. All the
+pent-up hatred of a band of fanatical and savage soldiers was vented upon
+a crowd of men, women, and children, whose heterodoxy made them pleasing
+victims, and whose unarmed condition rendered victory easy. No age, no sex
+was respected. It was enough to be a Huguenot to be a fit object for the
+sword or the gun. To escape from the doomed building was only possible by
+running the gauntlet of the troops that lay in wait. Those who sought to
+climb from the roof to the adjacent houses were picked off by the
+arquebuses of the besieging party. Only after an hour and a half had
+elapsed were the soldiers of Guise called off by the trumpet sounding a
+joyful note of victory. The evidence of their prowess, however, remained
+on the field of contest, in fifty or sixty dead or dying men and women,
+and in nearly a hundred more or less dangerously wounded.[38]
+
+In a few hours more Guise was resuming his journey toward Paris. He was
+told that the Huguenots of Vassy had forwarded their complaints to the
+king. "Let them go, let them go!" he exclaimed. "They will find there
+neither their Admiral nor their Chancellor."[39]
+
+Upon whose head rests the guilt of the massacre of Vassy? This was the
+question asked by every contemporary so soon as he realized the startling
+fact that the blow there struck was a signal that called every man to take
+the sword, and stand in defence of his own life. It is the question which
+history, more calm and dispassionate, because farther removed from the
+agitations of the day, now seeks to solve, as she looks back over the
+dreary torrents of blood that sprang from that disastrous source. The
+inquiry is not an idle one--for justice ought to find such a vindication
+in the records of past generations as may have been denied at the time of
+the commission of flagrant crimes.
+
+The Huguenots declared Guise to be a murderer. Theodore Beza, in eloquent
+tones, demanded the punishment of the butcher of the human race. So
+imposing was the cry for retribution that the duke himself recognized the
+necessity of entering a formal defence, which was disseminated by the
+press far and wide through France and Germany. He denied that the massacre
+was premeditated. He averred that it was merely an unfortunate incident
+brought about by the violence of the Protestants of Vassy, who had
+provided themselves with an abundant supply of stones and other missiles,
+and assailed those whom he had sent to remonstrate courteously with them.
+He stated the deaths at only twenty-five or thirty. Most of these had been
+occasioned by the indignant valets, who, on seeing their masters wounded,
+had rushed in to defend them. So much against his will had the affair
+occurred, that he had repeatedly but ineffectually commanded his men to
+desist. When he had himself received a slight wound from a stone thrown by
+the Huguenots, the sight of the blood flowing from it had infuriated his
+devoted followers.
+
+The Duke's plea of want of premeditation we may, perhaps, accept as
+substantially true--so far, at least, as to suppose that he had formed no
+deliberate plan of slaughtering the inhabitants of Vassy who had adopted
+the reformed religion.[40] It is difficult, indeed, to accept the argument
+of Brantome and Le Laboureur, who conceive that the fortuitous character
+of the event is proved by the circumstance that the deed was below the
+courage of Guise. Nor, perhaps, shall we give excessive credit to the
+asseverations of the duke, repeated, we are told, even on his death-bed.
+For why should these be more worthy of belief than the oaths with which
+the same nobleman had declared to Christopher of Wuertemberg that he
+neither had persecuted, nor would persecute the Protestants of France? But
+the Duke of Guise admits that he knew that there was a growing community
+of Huguenots at Vassy--"scandalous, arrogant, extremely seditious
+persons," as he styles them. He tells us that he intended, as the
+representative of Mary Stuart, and as feudal lord of some of their number,
+to admonish them of their disobedience; and that for this purpose he sent
+Sieur de la Bresse (or Brosse) with others to interrupt their public
+worship. He accuses them, it is true, of having previously armed
+themselves with stones, and even of possessing weapons in an adjoining
+building; but what reason do the circumstances of the case give us for
+doubting that the report may have been based upon the fact that those who
+in this terror-stricken assembly attempted to save their lives resorted to
+whatever missiles they could lay their hands upon? If the presence of his
+wife, and of his brother the cardinal, is used by the duke as an argument
+to prove the absence of any sinister intentions on his part, how much
+stronger is the evidence afforded to the peaceable character of the
+Protestant gathering by the numbers of women and children found there? But
+the very fact that, as against the twenty-five or thirty Huguenots whom he
+concedes to have been slain in the encounter, he does not pretend to give
+the name of a single one of his own followers that was killed, shows
+clearly which side it was that came prepared for the fight. And yet who
+that knows the sanguinary spirit generally displayed by the Roman Catholic
+masses in the sixteenth century, could find much fault with the Huguenots
+of Vassy if they had really armed themselves to repel violence and protect
+their wives and children--if, in other words, they had used the common
+right of self-preservation?[41]
+
+The fact is that Guise was only witnessing the fruits of his
+instructions, enforced by his own example. He had given the first taste of
+blood, and now, perhaps without his actual command, the pack had taken the
+scent and hunted down the game. He was avowedly on a crusade to
+re-establish the supremacy of the Roman Catholic religion throughout
+France. If he had not hesitated to hang a poor pin-dealer for allowing his
+child to be baptized according to the forms of Calvin's liturgy; if he was
+on his way to Paris to restore the Edict of July by force of arms, it is
+idle to inquire whether he or his soldiers were responsible for the blood
+shed in peace. "He that sowed the seed is the author of the harvest."
+
+[Sidenote: Conde appeals to the king.]
+
+The news quickly flew to Conde that the arch-enemy of the Protestants had
+begun the execution of the cruel projects he had so long been devising
+with his fanatical associates; that Guise was on his way toward seditious
+Paris, with hands yet dripping with the blood of the inhabitants of a
+quiet Champagnese town, surprised and murdered while engaged in the
+worship of their God. Indignant, and taking in the full measure of the
+responsibility imposed upon him as the most powerful member of the
+Protestant communion, the prince, who was with the court at the castle of
+Monceaux--built for herself by Catharine in a style of regal
+magnificence--laid before the king and his mother a full account of the
+tragic occurrence. It was a pernicious example, he argued, and should be
+punished promptly and severely. Above all, the perpetrators ought not to
+be permitted to endanger the quiet of France by entering the capital.
+Catharine was alarmed and embarrassed by the intelligence; but, her fear
+of a conjunction between Guise and Navarre overcoming her reluctance to
+affront the Lorraine family, induced her to consent; and she wrote to the
+Duke, who had by this time reached his castle of Nanteuil, forbidding him
+to go to Paris, but inviting him to visit the court with a small escort.
+At the same time she gave orders to Saint Andre to repair at once to
+Lyons, of which he was the royal governor. But neither of the triumvirs
+showed any readiness to obey her orders. The duke curtly replied that he
+was too busy entertaining his friends to come to the king; the marshal
+promptly refused to leave the king while he was threatened by such
+perils.[42]
+
+[Sidenote: Beza's remonstrance.]
+
+[Sidenote: An anvil that has worn out many hammers.]
+
+The King of Navarre now came from Paris to Monceaux, to guard the
+interests of the party he had espoused. He was closely followed by
+Theodore Beza and Francour, whom the Protestants of Paris had deputed, the
+former on behalf of the church, the latter of the nobility, to demand of
+the king the punishment of the authors of the massacre. The queen mother,
+as was her wont, gave a gracious audience, and promised that an
+investigation should be made. But Navarre, being present, seemed eager to
+display a neophyte's zeal, and retorted by blaming the Huguenots for going
+in arms to their places of worship. "True," said Beza, "but arms in the
+hands of the wise are instruments of peace, and the massacre of Vassy has
+shown the necessity under which the Protestants were laid." When Navarre
+exclaimed: "Whoever touches my brother of Guise with the tip of his
+finger, touches my whole body!" the reformer reminded him, as one whom
+Antoine had himself brought to France, that the way of justice is God's
+way, and that kings _owe_ justice to their subjects. Finally, when he
+discovered, by Navarre's adoption of all the impotent excuses of Guise,
+that the former had sold himself to the enemies of the Gospel, Theodore
+Beza made that noble reply which has become classic as the motto of the
+French Reformation: "Sire, it is, in truth, the lot of the Church of God,
+in whose name I am speaking, to endure blows and not to strike them. _But
+also may it please you to remember that it is an anvil that has worn out
+many hammers._"[43]
+
+[Sidenote: Guise's entry into Paris.]
+
+At Nanteuil, Guise had been visited by the constable, with two of his
+sons, by Saint Andre, and by other prominent leaders. Accompanied by them,
+he now took the decided step of going to Paris in spite of Catharine's
+prohibition. His entry resembled a triumphal procession.[44] In the midst
+of an escort estimated by eye-witnesses at two thousand horse, Francis of
+Guise avoided the more direct gate of St. Martin, and took that of St.
+Denis, through which the kings of France were accustomed to pass. Vast
+crowds turned out to meet him, and the cries of "_Vive Monsieur de
+Guise!_" sounding much like regal acclammations, were uttered without
+rebuke on all sides. The "prevost des marchands" and other members of the
+municipal government received him with great demonstrations of joy, as the
+defender of the faith. At the same hour the Prince of Conde, surrounded by
+a large number of Protestant noblemen, students, and citizens, was riding
+to one of the preaching-places.[45] The two cavalcades met, but no
+collision ensued. The Huguenot and the papist courteously saluted each
+other, and then rode on. It is even reported that between the leaders
+themselves less sincere amenities were interchanged. Guise sent word to
+Conde that he and his company, whom he had assembled only on account of
+the malevolent, were at the prince's commands. Conde answered by saying
+that his own men were armed only to prevent the populace of Paris from
+making an attack upon the Protestants as they went to their place of
+worship.[46]
+
+[Sidenote: Anxieties of Catharine de' Medici.]
+
+For weeks the position of the queen mother had been one of peculiar
+difficulty and anxiety. That she was "well inclined to advance the true
+religion," and "well affected for a general reformation in the Church," as
+Admiral Coligny at this time firmly believed,[47] is simply incredible.
+But, on the other hand, there can be little doubt that Catharine saw her
+interest in upholding the Huguenot party, of which Conde and the three
+Chatillon brothers were acknowledged leaders. Unfortunately, the King of
+Navarre, "hoping to compound with the King of Spain for his kingdom of
+Navarre," had become the tool of the opposite side--he was "_all Spanish
+now_"[48]--and Chantonnay, Philip's ambassador, was emboldened to make
+arrogant demands. The envoy declared that, "unless the house of Chatillon
+left the court, he was ordered to depart from France." Grave diplomatists
+shook their heads, and thought the menace very strange, "the rather that
+another prince should appoint what counsellors should remain at court;"
+and sage men inferred that "to such princes as are afraid of shadows the
+King of Spain will enterprise far enough."[49] None the less was Catharine
+deeply disturbed. She felt distrust of the heads of the Roman Catholic
+party, but she feared to break entirely with them, and was forced to
+request the Protestant leaders to withdraw for a time from the vicinity of
+Paris. That city itself presented to the eye a sufficiently strange and
+alarming aspect, "resembling more a frontier town or a place besieged than
+a court, a merchant city, or university." Both sides were apprehensive of
+some sudden commotion, and the Protestant scholars, in great numbers,
+marched daily in arms to the "sermons," in spite of the opposition of the
+rector and his council.[50] The capital was unquestionably no place for
+Catharine and her son, at the present moment.
+
+[Sidenote: She removes the king to Melun.]
+
+[Sidenote: and thence to Fontainebleau.]
+
+[Sidenote: Her painful indecision.]
+
+At length, Catharine de' Medici, apprehensive of the growing power of the
+triumvirate, and dreading lest the king, falling into its hands, should
+become a mere puppet, her own influence being completely thrown into the
+shade, removed the court from Monceaux to Melun, a city on the upper
+Seine, about twenty-five miles south-east of Paris.[51] She hoped
+apparently that, by placing herself nearer the strongly Huguenot banks of
+the Loire, she would be able at will to throw herself into the arms of
+either party, and, in making her own terms, secure future independence.
+But she was not left undisturbed. At Melun she received a deputation from
+Paris, consisting of the "prevost des marchands" and three "echevins,"
+who came to entreat her, in the name of the Roman Catholic people of the
+capital, to return and dissipate by the king's arrival the dangers that
+were imminent on account of Conde's presence, and to give the people the
+power to defend themselves by restoring to them their arms. Still
+hesitating, still experiencing her old difficulty of forming any plans for
+the distant future, and every moment balancing in her mind what she should
+do the next, she nevertheless pushed on ten miles farther southward, to
+the royal palace of Fontainebleau, and found herself not far from half the
+way to Orleans. But change of place brought the vacillating queen mother
+no nearer to a decision. Soubise, the last of the avowed Protestants to
+leave her, still dreamed he might succeed in persuading her. Day after
+day, in company with Chancellor L'Hospital, the Huguenot leader spent two
+or three hours alone with her in earnest argument. "Sometimes," says a
+recently discovered contemporary account, "they believed that they had
+gained everything, and that she was ready to set off for Conde's camp;
+then, all of a sudden, so violent a fright seized her, that she lost all
+heart." At last the time came when the triumvirs were expected to appear
+at Fontainebleau on the morrow, to secure the prize of the king's person.
+Soubise and the indefatigable chancellor made a last attempt. Five or six
+times in one day they returned to the charge, although L'Hospital
+mournfully observed that he had abandoned hope. He knew Catharine well:
+she could not be brought to a final resolution.[52] It was even so.
+Soubise himself was forced to admit it when, at the last moment--almost
+too late for his own safety--he hurriedly left, Catharine still begging
+him to stand by her, and made his way to his friends.
+
+[Sidenote: She implores Conde's aid.]
+
+It seems to have been during this time of painful anxiety that Catharine
+wrote at least the last of those remarkable letters to Conde which that
+prince afterward published in his own justification, and respecting the
+authenticity of which the queen would have been glad had she been able to
+make the world entertain doubts. They breathed a spirit of implicit
+confidence. She called herself his "good cousin," that was not less
+attached to him than a mother to a son. She enjoined upon him to remember
+the protection which he was bound to give to "the children, the mother,
+and the kingdom." She called upon him not to desert her. She declared
+that, in the midst of so many adverse circumstances, she would be driven
+almost to despair, "were it not for her trust in God, and the assurance
+that Conde would assist her in preserving the kingdom and service of the
+king, her son, in spite of those who wished to ruin everything." More than
+once she told him that his kindness would not go unrequited; and she
+declared that, if she died before having an opportunity to testify her
+gratitude, she would charge her children with the duty.[53]
+
+In Paris events were rapidly succeeding each other. Marshal Montmorency,
+the constable's eldest son, was too upright a man to serve the purposes of
+the triumvirs; and, with his father's consent and by Navarre's authority,
+he was removed, and Cardinal Bourbon installed in his place as governor of
+the city.[54] A few days after Antoine himself came to Paris and lodged in
+the constable's house. Here, with Guise, Saint Andre, and the other chief
+statesmen who were of the same party, conferences were held to which
+Conde and his associates were not invited; and to these irregular
+gatherings, notwithstanding the absence of the king, the name of the
+_royal council_ was given.[55]
+
+[Sidenote: Conde retires to Meaux.]
+
+There were nine or ten thousand horse--Papist and Huguenot--under arms in
+Paris.[56] It was evident that Conde and Guise could not longer remain in
+the city without involving it in the most bloody of civil contests. Under
+these circumstances the prince offered, through his brother, the Cardinal
+of Bourbon, to accede to the wish of Catharine, and leave Paris by one
+gate at the same moment that the triumvirs should leave by another.
+Indeed, without waiting to obtain their promise, he retired[57] with his
+body of Protestant noblesse to Meaux, where he had given a rendezvous to
+Admiral Coligny and others whom he had summoned from their homes. This
+step has generally been stigmatized as the first of Conde's egregious
+mistakes. Beza opposed it at the time, and likened the error to that of
+Pompey in abandoning Rome;[58] and the "History of the Reformed Churches"
+has perpetuated the comparison.[59] The same historical parallel was drawn
+by Etienne Pasquier.[60] But the judicious Francois de la Noue, surnamed
+_Bras-de-Fer_, thought very differently; and we must here, as in many
+other instances, prefer the opinion of the practical soldier to that of
+the eminent theologian or the learned jurist. Parliament, the clergy, the
+municipal government, the greater part of the university, and almost all
+the low populace, with the partisans and servants of the hostile princes
+and noblemen, were intensely Roman Catholic.[61] The three hundred
+resident Protestant gentlemen, with, as many more experienced soldiers,
+four hundred students, and a few untrained burgesses, were "but as a fly
+matched with an elephant." The novices of the convents and the priests'
+chambermaids, armed only with sticks, could have held them in check.[62]
+It were better to lose the advantages of the capital than to be
+overwhelmed within its walls by superior forces, being completely cut off
+from that part of France where the main strength of the Protestants lay.
+
+[Sidenote: The Huguenot summons.]
+
+From Meaux messengers were sent to the Protestant churches in all parts of
+France to request their aid, both in money and in men. "Since," said the
+letter they bore, "God has brought us to such a point that no one can
+disturb our repose without violating the protection it has pleased our
+king to accord us, and consequently without declaring himself an enemy of
+his Majesty and of this kingdom's peace, there is no law, divine or human,
+that does not permit us to take measures for defence, calling for help on
+those whom God has given the authority and the will to remedy these
+evils."[63]
+
+[Sidenote: Admiral Coligny's reluctance.]
+
+Happily for the Huguenot cause, however, the nobles and gentry that
+favored it had not waited to receive this summons, but had, many of them,
+already set out to strengthen the forces of the prince. Among others, and
+by far more important than all the rest, came Gaspard de Coligny, whose
+absence from court during the few previous weeks has been regarded as one
+of the most untoward circumstances of the time. At his pleasant castle of
+Chatillon-sur-Loing, surrounded by his young family, he received
+intelligence, first, of the massacre, then of the ominous events that had
+occurred at the capital. Conde sent to solicit his support; his brothers
+and many friends urged him to rush at once to the rescue. But still, even
+after the threatening clouds had risen so high that they must soon burst
+over the devoted heads of the Huguenots, the admiral continued to
+hesitate. Every instinct of his courageous nature prompted the skilful
+defender of St. Quentin to place himself at once at the post of danger.
+But there was one fear that seemed likely to overcome all his martial
+impulses. _It was the fear of initiating a civil war._ He could not refer
+to the subject without shuddering, for the horrors of such a contest were
+so vividly impressed upon his mind that he regarded almost anything as
+preferable to the attempt to settle domestic difficulties by an appeal to
+the sword. But the tears and sighs of his wife, the noble Charlotte de
+Laval, at length overmastered his reluctance. "To be prudent in men's
+esteem," she said, "is not to be wise in that of God, who has given you
+the science of a general that you might use it for the good of His
+children." When her husband rehearsed again the grounds of his hesitation,
+and, calling upon her seriously to consider the suffering, the privations,
+the anxiety, the bereavements, the ignominy, the death which would await
+not only those dearest to her, but herself, if the struggle should prove
+unsuccessful, offered her three weeks to make her decision, with true
+womanly magnanimity she replied: "The three weeks are already past; you
+will never be conquered by the strength of your enemies. Make use of your
+resources, and bring not upon your head the blood of those who may die
+within three weeks. I summon you in God's name not to defraud us any more,
+or I shall be a witness against you at His judgment." So deep was the
+impression which these words made upon Coligny, that, accepting his wife's
+advice as the voice of heaven, he took horse without further delay, and
+joined Conde and the other Protestant leaders.[64]
+
+[Sidenote: The king seized and brought to Paris.]
+
+It was unfortunate that the prince, for a week after leaving Paris, should
+have felt too feeble to make any movement of importance. Otherwise, by a
+rapid march, he might, according to his plan,[65] have reached
+Fontainebleau in advance of his opponents, and, with the young king and
+his mother under his protection, have asserted his right as a prince of
+the blood to defend Charles against those who had unjustly usurped the
+functions of royalty. As it was, the unlucky delay was turned to profit by
+his enemies. These now took a step that put further deliberation on
+Catharine's part out of the question, and precluded any attempt to place
+the person of the king in Conde's hands. Leaving a small garrison in
+Paris, Guise proceeded with a strong body of troops to Fontainebleau,
+determined to bring the king and his mother back to Paris. Persuasion was
+first employed; but, that failing, the triumvirate were prepared to resort
+to force. Navarre, acting at Guise's suggestion, at length told Catharine
+distinctly that, as guardian of the minor king, he must see to it that he
+did not fall into his brother's hands; as for Catharine, she might remain
+or follow him, as she pleased.[66] Tears and remonstrances were of no
+avail.[67] Weeping and sad, Charles is said to have repeatedly exclaimed
+against being led away contrary to his will;[68] but the triumvirs would
+not be balked of their game, and so brought him with his mother first to
+Melun, then, after a few days, to the prison-like castle of Vincennes, and
+finally to the Louvre.[69]
+
+[Sidenote: The constable's exploits at the "temples."]
+
+[Sidenote: D'Andelot and Conde throw themselves into Orleans.]
+
+The critical step had been taken to demonstrate that the reign of
+tolerance, according to the prescriptions of the Edict of January, was at
+an end. The constable, preceding the king to Paris, immediately upon his
+arrival instituted a system of arbitrary arrests. On the next morning (the
+fourth of April) he visited the "temple of Jerusalem,"[70] one of the two
+places which had been accorded to the Huguenots for their worship outside
+of the walls. Under his direction the pulpit and the benches of the
+hearers were torn up, and a bonfire of wood and Bibles was speedily
+lighted, to the great delight of the populace of Paris. In the afternoon
+the same exploits were repeated at the other Huguenot church, known from
+its situation, outside of the gate of St. Antoine, as "_Popincourt_."
+Here, however, not only the benches, but the building itself was burned,
+and several adjacent houses were involved in the conflagration. Having
+accomplished these outrages and encouraged the people to imitate his
+lawless example, the aged constable returned to the city. He had well
+earned the contemptuous name which the Huguenots henceforth gave him of
+"Le Capitaine _Brulebanc_."[71] If the triumvirate succeeded, it was plain
+that all liberty of worship was proscribed. It was even believed that the
+Duchess of Guise had been sent to carry a message, in the king's name, to
+her mother, the aged Renee of France, to the effect that if she did not
+dismiss the Huguenot preachers from Montargis, and become a good Catholic,
+he would have her shut up for the rest of her life in a convent.[72]
+Whatever truth there may have been in this story, one thing was certain:
+in Paris it would have been as much as any man's life was worth to appear
+annoyed at the constable's exploit, or to oppose the search made for arms
+in suspected houses. Every good Catholic had a piece of the Huguenots'
+benches or pulpit in his house as a souvenir; "so odious," says a
+contemporary, "is the new religion in this city."[73] Meantime, on Easter
+Monday (the thirtieth of March) Conde left Meaux at the head of fifteen
+hundred horse, the flower of the French nobility, "better armed with
+courage than with corselets"--says Francois de la Noue. As they approached
+the capital, the whole city was thrown into confusion, the gates were
+closed, and the chains stretched across the streets.[74] But the host
+passed by, and at St. Cloud crossed the Seine without meeting any
+opposition. Here the news of the seizure of the person of Charles by the
+triumvirs first reached the prince, and with it one great object of the
+expedition was frustrated.[75] The Huguenots, however, did not delay, but,
+instead of turning toward Fontainebleau, took a more southerly route
+directly for the city of Orleans. D'Andelot, to whom the van had been
+confided, advanced by a rapid march, and succeeded by a skilful movement
+in entering the city, of which he took possession in the name of the
+Prince of Conde, acting as lieutenant of the king unlawfully held in
+confinement. Catharine de' Medici, who, having been forced into the party
+of the triumvirs, had with her usual flexibility promptly decided to make
+the most of her position, sent messengers to Conde hoping to amuse him
+with negotiations while a powerful Roman Catholic detachment should by
+another road reach Orleans unobserved.[76] But the danger coming to
+Andelot's knowledge, he succeeded in warning Conde; and the prince, with
+the main body of the Protestant horse, after a breakneck ride, threw
+himself, on the second of April, into the city, which now became the
+headquarters of the religion in the kingdom.[77] The inhabitants came out
+to meet him with every demonstration of joy, and received him between
+double lines of men, women, and children loudly singing the words of the
+French psalms, so that the whole city resounded with them.[78]
+
+[Sidenote: Conde's justification.]
+
+No sooner had the Prince of Conde established himself upon the banks of
+the Loire, than he took measures to explain to the world the necessity and
+propriety of the step upon which he had ventured. He wrote, and he induced
+the Protestant ministers who were with him to write, to all the churches
+of France, urging them to send him reinforcements of troops and to fill
+his empty treasury.[79] At the same time he published a "declaration" in
+justification of his resort to arms. He recapitulated the successive steps
+that revealed the violent purposes of the triumvirs--the retreat of the
+Guises and of the constable from court, Nemours's attempt to carry the
+Duke of Orleans out of the kingdom, the massacre at Vassy, Guise's refusal
+to visit the royal court and his defiant progress to the capital, the
+insolent conduct of Montmorency and Saint-Andre, the pretended _royal_
+council held away from the king, the detention of Charles and of his
+mother as prisoners. And from all these circumstances he showed the
+inevitable inference to be that the triumvirs had for one of their chief
+objects the extirpation of the religion "which they call new," "either by
+open violence or by the change of edicts, and the renewal of the most
+cruel persecutions that have ever been exercised in the world." It was not
+party interest that had induced him to take up arms, he said, but loyalty
+to God, to his king, and to his native land, a desire to free Charles from
+unlawful detention, and a purpose to insist upon the execution of the
+royal edicts, especially that of January, and to prevent new ministers of
+state from misapplying the sums raised for the payment of the national
+debts. He warned all lovers of peace not to be astonished at any edicts
+that might emanate from the royal seal so long as the king remained a
+prisoner, and he begged Catharine to order the triumvirs to lay down their
+arms. If they did so, he declared that he himself, although of a rank far
+different from theirs, would consent to follow their example.[80]
+
+[Sidenote: Stringent articles of association.]
+
+The Huguenots had thrown off the shackles which a usurping party about the
+king endeavored to fasten upon them; but they had not renounced the
+restraints of law. And now, at the very commencement of a great struggle
+for liberty, they entered into a solemn compact to banish licentious
+excesses from their army. Protesting the purity of their motives, they
+swore to strive until the king's majority to attain the objects which had
+united them in a common struggle; but they promised with equal fervor to
+watch over the morals of their associates, and to suffer nothing that was
+contrary to God's honor or the king's edicts, to tolerate no idolatrous or
+superstitious practices, no blasphemy, no uncleanness or theft, no
+violation of churches by private authority. They declared their intention
+and desire to hear the Word of God preached by faithful ministers in the
+midst of the camps of war.[81]
+
+[Sidenote: Huguenot nobles and cities.]
+
+The papal party was amazed at the opposition its extreme measures had
+created. In place of the timid weakling whom the triumvirate had expected,
+they saw a giant spring from the ground to confront them.[82] To Orleans
+flocked many of the highest nobles of the land. Besides Conde--after
+Navarre and Bourbon, the prince of the blood nearest to the crown--there
+were gathered to the Protestant standard the three Chatillons, Prince
+Porcien, Count de la Rochefoucauld, the Sieurs de Soubise, de Mouy, de
+Saint Fal, d'Esternay, Piennes, Rohan, Genlis, Grammont, Montgomery, and
+others of high station and of large influence and extensive landed
+possessions.[83] And, what was still more important, the capture of
+Orleans was but the signal for a general movement throughout France. In a
+few weeks the Huguenots, rising in their unsuspected strength, had
+rendered themselves masters of cities in almost every province. Along the
+Loire, Beaugency, Blois, Tours, and Angers declared for the Prince of
+Conde; in Normandy, Rouen, Havre, Dieppe, and Caen; in Berry and the
+neighboring provinces, Bourges, La Rochelle, Poitiers; along the Saone and
+Rhone, Chalons, Macon, Lyons, Vienne, Valence, Montelimart, Tournon,
+Orange; Gap and Grenoble in Dauphiny; almost the whole of the papal
+"Comtat Venaissin;" the Vivarais; the Cevennes; the greater part of
+Languedoc and Gascony, with the important cities of Montauban, Castres,
+Castelnaudary, Beziers, Pezenas, Montpellier, Aiguesmortes, and
+Nismes.[84] In northern France alone, where the number of Protestants was
+small, the Huguenots obtained but a slight foothold.[85]
+
+[Sidenote: Can iconoclasm be repressed?]
+
+In the midst of this universal movement there was one point in the compact
+made by the confederates at Orleans, which it was found impossible to
+execute. How could the churches, with their altars, their statues, their
+pictures, their relics, their priestly vestments, be guaranteed from
+invasion? To the Huguenot masses they were the temples and instruments of
+an idolatrous worship. Ought Christians to tolerate the existence of such
+abominations, even if sanctioned by the government? It was hard to draw a
+nice line of distinction between the overthrow of idolatry by public
+authority and by personal zeal. If there were any difference in the merit
+of the act, it was in favor of the man who vindicated the true religion at
+the risk of his own life. Nay, the Church itself had incontrovertibly
+given its sanction to this view by placing among the martyrs those
+primitive Christians who had upon their own responsibility entered heathen
+temples and overthrown the objects of the popular devotion. In those early
+centuries there had been manifested the same reckless exposure of life,
+the same supreme contempt for the claims of art in comparison with the
+demands of religion. The Minerva of Phidias or Praxiteles was no safer
+from the iconoclastic frenzy of the new convert from heathenism than the
+rude idol of a less cultivated age. The command, "Thou shalt not make unto
+thee any graven image," had not excepted from its prohibition the
+marvellous products of the Greek chisel.
+
+It was here, therefore, that the chief insubordination of the Huguenot
+people manifested itself--not in licentious riot, not in bloodshed, not in
+pillage. Calvin, with his high sense of law and order, might in his
+letters reiterate the warnings against the irregularity which we have seen
+him uttering on a previous occasion;[86] the ministers might threaten the
+guilty with exclusion from the ordinances of the Church; Conde might
+denounce the penalty of death. The people could not restrain themselves or
+be restrained. They must remove what had been a stumbling-block to them
+and might become a snare to others. They felt no more compunction in
+breaking an image or tearing in pieces a picture, than a traveller, whom a
+highwayman has wounded, is aware of, when he destroys the weapons dropped
+by his assailant in his hurried flight. Indeed, they experienced a strange
+satisfaction in visiting upon the lifeless idol the punishment for the
+spiritual wrongs received at the hands of false teachers of religion.[87]
+
+[Sidenote: It bursts out at Caen.]
+
+We have an illustration of the way in which the work of demolition was
+accomplished in events occurring about this time at Caen. Two or three
+inhabitants of this old Norman city were at Rouen when the churches were
+invaded and sacked by an over-zealous crowd of sympathizers with the "new
+doctrines." On their return to their native city, they began at once to
+urge their friends to copy the example of the provincial capital. The news
+reaching the ears of the magistrates of Caen, these endeavored--but to no
+purpose, as the sequel proved--to calm the feverish pulse of the people.
+On a Friday night (May eighth), the storm broke out, and it raged the
+whole of the next day. Church, chapel, and monastery could testify to its
+violence. Quaint windows of stained glass and rich old organs were dashed
+in pieces. Saints' effigies, to employ the quaint expression of a Roman
+Catholic eye-witness, "were massacred." "So great was the damage
+inflicted, without any profit, that the loss was estimated at more than a
+hundred thousand crowns." Still less excusable were the acts of vandalism
+which the rabble--ever ready to join in popular commotions and always
+throwing disgrace upon them--indulged. The beautiful tombs of William,
+Duke of Normandy and conqueror of England, and of the Duchess-queen
+Mathilda, the pride of Caen, which had withstood the ravages of nearly
+five hundred years, were ruthlessly destroyed. The monument of Bishop
+Charles of Martigny, who had been ambassador under Charles the Eighth and
+Louis the Twelfth, shared the same fate. The zealous Roman Catholic who
+relates these occurrences claims to have striven, although to no purpose,
+to rescue the ashes of the conqueror from dispersion.[88]
+
+[Sidenote: The "idol" of Sainte Croix.]
+
+The contagion spread even to Orleans. Here, as in other places where the
+Huguenots had prevailed, there were but few of the inhabitants that had
+not been drawn over to the reformed faith, or at least pretended to
+embrace it. Yet Conde, in his desire to convince the world that no
+partisan hatred moved him, strictly prohibited the intrusion of
+Protestants into the churches, and assured the ecclesiastics of protection
+so long as they chose to remain in the city. For a time, consequently,
+their services continued to be celebrated in the presence of the faithful
+few and with closed doors; but soon, their fears getting the better of
+their prudence, the priests and monks one by one made their retreat from
+the Protestant capital. On the twenty-first of April, word was brought to
+Conde that some of the churches had been broken into during the preceding
+night, and that the work of destruction was at that very moment going
+forward in others. Hastening, in company with Coligny and other leaders,
+to the spacious and imposing church of the Holy Rood (Sainte Croix), he
+undertook, with blows and menaces, to check the furious onslaught. Seeing
+a Huguenot soldier who had climbed aloft, and was preparing to hurl from
+its elevated niche one of the saints that graced the wall of the church,
+the prince, in the first ebullition of his anger, snatched an arquebuse
+from the hands of one of his followers, and aimed it at the adventurous
+iconoclast. The latter had seen the act, but was in no wise daunted. Not
+desisting an instant from his pious enterprise, "Sir," he cried to Conde,
+"have patience until I shall have overthrown this idol; and then let me
+die, if that be your pleasure!"[89]
+
+The Huguenot soldier's fearless reply sounded the knell of many a sacred
+painting and statue; for the destruction was accepted as God's work rather
+than man's.[90] Henceforth little exertion was made to save these objects
+of mistaken devotion, while the greatest care was taken to prevent the
+robbery of the costly reliquaries and other precious possessions of the
+churches, of which inventories were drawn up, and which were used only at
+the last extremity.[91]
+
+[Sidenote: Massacre of Huguenots at Sens.]
+
+Far different in character from the bloodless "massacres" of images and
+pictures in cities where the Huguenots gained the upper hand, were the
+massacres of living men wherever the papists retained their superiority.
+One of the most cruel and inexcusable was that which happened at Sens--a
+city sixty-five or seventy miles toward the south-east from Paris--where,
+on an ill-founded and malicious rumor that the reformed contemplated
+rising and destroying their Roman Catholic neighbors, the latter, at the
+instigation, it is said, of their archbishop, the Cardinal of Guise, and
+encouraged by the violent example of Constable Montmorency at Paris,[92]
+fell on the Protestants, murdered more than a hundred of both sexes and of
+every age, and threw their dead bodies into the waters of the Yonne.[93]
+While these victims of a blind bigotry were floating on under the windows
+of the Louvre toward the sea, Conde addressed to the queen mother a letter
+of warm remonstrance, and called upon her to avenge the causeless murder
+of so many innocent men and women; expressing the fear that, if justice
+were denied by the king and by herself, the cry of innocent blood would
+reach high heaven, and God would be moved to inflict those calamities
+with which the unhappy realm was every day threatened.[94]
+
+A few days before Conde penned this appeal, the English ambassador had
+written and implored his royal mistress to seize the golden opportunity to
+inspirit the frightened Catharine de' Medici, panic-stricken by the
+violent measures of the Roman Catholic party; assuring her that "not a day
+passed but that the Spanish ambassador, the Bishop of Rome, or some other
+papist prince's minister put terror into the queen mother's mind."[95] But
+Throkmorton's words and Cecil's entreaties were alike powerless to induce
+Elizabeth to improve her advantage. The opportunity was fast slipping by,
+and the calamities foretold by Conde were coming on apace.
+
+[Sidenote: Disorders in Provence and Dauphiny.]
+
+In truth, few calamities could exceed in horror those that now befell
+France. In the south-eastern corner of the kingdom, above all other parts,
+civil war, ever prolific in evil passions, was already bearing its
+legitimate fruits. For several years the fertile, sunny hills of Provence
+and Dauphiny had enjoyed but little stable peace, and now both sides
+caught the first notes of the summons to war and hurried to the fray.
+Towns were stormed, and their inhabitants, whether surrendering on
+composition or at the discretion of the conqueror, found little justice or
+compassion. The men were more fortunate, in being summarily put to the
+sword; the women were reserved for the vilest indignities, and then shared
+the fate of their fathers and husbands. The thirst for revenge caused the
+Protestant leaders and soldiers to perpetrate deeds of cruelty little less
+revolting than those which disgraced the papal cause; but there was, at
+least, this to be said in their favor, that not even their enemies could
+accuse them of those infamous excesses of lewdness of which their
+opponents were notoriously guilty.[96] Their vengeance was satisfied with
+the lives, and did not demand the honor of the vanquished.
+
+[Sidenote: The city of Orange.]
+
+The little city of Orange, capital of William of Nassau's principality,
+contained a growing community of Protestants, whom the prince had in vain
+attempted to restrain. About a year and a half before the outburst of the
+civil war, William the Silent, then a sincere Roman Catholic,[97] on
+receiving complaints from the Pope, whose territories about Avignon--the
+Comtat Venaissin--ran around three sides of the principality, had
+expressed himself "_marvellously sorry_ to see how those _wicked heresies_
+were everywhere spreading, and that they had even penetrated into his
+principality of Orange."[98] And when he received tidings that the
+Huguenots were beginning to preach, he had written to his governor and
+council, "to see to it by all means in the world, that no alteration be
+permitted in our true and ancient religion, and in no wise to consent that
+those wicked men should take refuge in his principality." As Protestantism
+advanced in Orange, he purposed to give instructions to use persuasion and
+force, "in order to remedy a disorder so pernicious to all
+Christendom."[99] While he was unwilling to call in French troops, lest he
+should prejudice his sovereign rights, he declared his desire to be
+authorized to employ the pontifical soldiers in the work of
+repression.[100] But in spite of these restrictive measures, the reformed
+population increased rather than diminished, and the bishop of the city
+now called upon Fabrizio Serbelloni, a cousin of Pope Pius the Fourth, and
+papal general at Avignon, to assist him by driving out the Protestants,
+who, ever since the massacre of Vassy, had feared with good reason the
+assault of their too powerful and hostile neighbors, and had taken up arms
+in self-defence. They had not, however, apprehended so speedy an attack as
+Serbelloni now made (on the fifth of June), and, taken by surprise, were
+able to make but a feeble resistance. The papal troops entered the city
+through the breach their cannon had effected. Never did victorious army
+act more insolently or with greater inhumanity. None were spared; neither
+the sick on their beds, nor the poor in their asylums, nor the maimed that
+hobbled through the streets. Those were most fortunate that were first
+despatched. The rest were tortured with painful wounds that prolonged
+their agonies till death was rather desired than dreaded, or were hurled
+down upon pikes and halberds, or were hung to pot-hooks and roasted in the
+fire, or were hacked in pieces. Not a few of the women were treated with
+dishonor; the greater part were hung to doors and windows, and their dead
+bodies, stripped naked, were submitted to indignities for which the annals
+of warfare, except among the most ferocious savages, can scarcely supply a
+parallel. That the Almighty might not seem to be insulted in the persons
+only of living creatures formed in His own image, the fresh impiety was
+perpetrated of derisively stuffing leaves torn from French Bibles into the
+gaping wounds of the dead lying on this field of carnage. Nor did the
+Roman Catholics of Orange fare much better than their reformed neighbors.
+Mistaken for enemies, they were massacred in the public square, where they
+had assembled, expecting rather to receive a reward for their services in
+assisting the pontifical troops to enter, than to atone for their
+treachery by their own death.[101]
+
+[Sidenote: Francois de Beaumont, Baron des Adrets.]
+
+But the time for revenge soon came around. The barbarous warfare initiated
+by the adherents of the triumvirate in Dauphiny and Provence bred or
+brought forward a leader and soldiers who did not hesitate to repay
+cruelty with cruelty. Francois de Beaumont, Baron des Adrets, was a
+merciless general, who affected to believe that rigor and strict
+retaliation were indispensable to remove the contempt in which the
+Huguenots were held, and who knew how by bold movements to appear where
+least expected, and by vigor to multiply the apparent size of his army.
+Attached to the Reformation only from ambition, and breathing a spirit
+far removed from the meekness of the Gospel, he soon awakened the horror
+of his comrades in arms, and incurred the censure of Conde for his
+barbarities; so that, within a few months, becoming disgusted with the
+Huguenots, he went over to the papal side, and in the second civil war was
+found fighting against his former associates.[102] Meantime, his brief
+connection with the Huguenots was a blot upon their escutcheon all the
+more noticeable because of the prevailing purity;[103] and the injury he
+inflicted upon the cause of Protestantism far more than cancelled the
+services he rendered at Lyons and elsewhere. At Pierrelate he permitted
+his soldiers to take signal vengeance on the garrison for the recent
+massacre. At Mornas the articles of the capitulation, by which the lives
+of the besieged were guaranteed, were not observed; for the Protestant
+soldiers from Orange, recognizing among them the perpetrators of the
+crimes which had turned their homes into a howling desert, fell upon them
+and were not--perhaps could not be--restrained by their leader.[104] The
+fatal example of Orange was but too faithfully copied, and precipitating
+the prisoners from the summit of a high rock became the favorite mode of
+execution.[105] Only one of the unfortunates, who happened to break his
+fall by catching hold of a wild fig-tree growing cut of the side of the
+cliff, was spared by his enemies.[106] A number of the naked corpses were
+afterward placed in an open boat without pilot or tiller, and suffered to
+float down the Rhone with a banner on which were written these words: "O
+men of Avignon! permit the bearers to pass, for they have paid the toll at
+Mornas."[107]
+
+[Sidenote: Blaise de Montluc.]
+
+[Sidenote: Massacre at Toulouse.]
+
+The atrocities of Des Adrets and his soldiers in the East were, however,
+surpassed by those which Blaise de Montluc inflicted upon the Huguenots of
+the West, or which took place under his sanction. His memoirs, which are
+among the most authentic materials for the history of the wars in which he
+took part, present him to us as a remorseless soldier, dead to all
+feelings of sympathy with human distress, glorying in having executed
+more Huguenots than any other royal lieutenant in France,[108] pleased to
+have the people call the two hangmen whom he used to take about with him
+his "lackeys."[109] It is not surprising that, under the auspices of such
+an officer, fierce passions should have had free play. At Toulouse, the
+seat of the most fanatical parliament in France, a notable massacre took
+place. Even in this hot-bed of bigotry the reformed doctrines had made
+rapid and substantial progress, and the great body of the students in the
+famous law-school, as well of the municipal government, were favorable to
+their spread.[110] The common people, however, were as virulent in their
+hostility as the parliament itself. They had never been fully reconciled
+to the publication of the Edict of January, and had only been restrained
+from interference with the worship of the Protestants by the authority of
+the government. Of late the Huguenots had discovered on what treacherous
+ground they stood. A funeral procession of theirs had been attacked, and
+several persons had been murdered. A massacre had been perpetrated in the
+city of Cahors, not far distant from them. In both cases the entire
+authority of parliament had been exerted to shield the guilty. The
+Huguenots, therefore, resolved to forestall disaster by throwing Toulouse
+into the hands of Conde, and succeeded so far as to introduce some
+companies of soldiers within the walls and to seize the "hotel de ville."
+They had, however, miscalculated their strength. The Roman Catholics were
+more numerous, and after repeated conflicts they were able to demand the
+surrender of the building in which the Protestants had intrenched
+themselves. Destitute alike of provisions and of the means of defence, and
+menaced with the burning of their retreat, the latter accepted the
+conditions offered, and--a part on the day before Pentecost, a part after
+the services of that Sunday, one of the chief festivals of the Reformed
+Church--they retired without arms, intending to depart for more hospitable
+cities. Scarce, however, had the last detachment left the walls, when the
+tocsin was sounded, and their enemies, respecting none of their promises,
+involved them in a horrible carnage. It was the opinion of the best
+informed that in all three thousand persons perished on both sides during
+the riot at Toulouse, of whom by far the greater number were Huguenots.
+Even this effusion of blood was not sufficient. The next day Montluc
+appeared in the city. And now, encouraged by his support, the Parliament
+of Toulouse initiated a system of judicial inquiries which were summary in
+their character, and rarely ended save in the condemnation of the accused.
+Within three months two hundred persons were publicly executed. The
+Protestant leader was quartered. The parliament vindicated its orthodoxy
+by the expulsion of twenty-two counsellors suspected of a leaning to the
+Reformation; and informers were allured by bribes, as well as frightened
+by ecclesiastical menaces, in order that the harvest of confiscation might
+be the greater.[111]
+
+Such were the deeds which the Roman Catholics of southern France have up
+to our times commemorated by centenary celebrations;[112] such the pious
+achievements for which Blaise de Montluc received from Pope Pius the
+Fourth the most lavish praise as a zealous defender of the Catholic
+faith.[113]
+
+[Sidenote: Foreign alliances sought.]
+
+Meanwhile, about Paris and Orleans the war lagged. Both sides were
+receiving reinforcements. The ban and rear-ban were summoned in the king's
+name, and a large part of the levies joined Conde as the royal
+representative in preference to Navarre and the triumvirate.[114] Charles
+the Ninth and Catharine had consented to publish a declaration denying
+Conde's allegation that they were held in duress.[115] The Guises had sent
+abroad to Spain, to Germany, to the German cantons of Switzerland, to
+Savoy, to the Pope. Philip, after the abundant promises with which he had
+encouraged the French papists to enter upon the war, was not quite sure
+whether he had better answer the calls now made upon him. He was by no
+means confident that the love of country of the French might not, after
+all, prove stronger than the discord engendered by their religious
+differences, and their hatred of the Spaniard than their hatred of their
+political rivals.[116] "Those stirrings," writes Sir Thomas Chaloner from
+Spain, "have here gevyn matter of great consultation day by day to this
+king and counsaile. One wayes they devise howe the Gwisans may be ayded
+and assisted by them, esteming for religion sake that the prevaylment of
+that syde importithe them as the ball of theire eye. Another wayes they
+stand in a jelousie whither theis nombers thus assembled in Fraunce, may
+not possibly shake hands, and sett upon the Lowe Countries or Navarre,
+both peecs, upon confidence of the peace, now being disprovided of
+garisons. So ferfurthe as they here repent the revocation of the Spanish
+bands owt of Flanders.... So as in case the new bushops against the
+people's mynd shall need be enstalled, the Frenche had never such an
+opertunyte as they perchauns should fynd at this instant."[117] To the
+Duke of Wuertemberg the Guises had induced Charles and Catharine to write,
+throwing the blame of the civil war entirely upon Conde;[118] but
+Christopher, this time at least, had his eyes wide open, and his reply was
+not only a pointed refusal to join in the general crusade against the
+Calvinists, but a noble plea in behalf of toleration and clemency.[119]
+
+[Sidenote: Queen Elizabeth's aid invoked.]
+
+The Huguenots, on the other hand, had rather endeavored to set themselves
+right in public estimation and to prepare the way for future calls for
+assistance, than made any present requisitions. Elizabeth's ambassador,
+Throkmorton, had been carefully instructed as to the danger that overhung
+his mistress with all the rest of Protestant Christendom. He wrote to her
+that the plot was a general one, including England. "It may please your
+Majesty the papists, within these two days at Sens in Normandy, have slain
+and hurt two hundred persons--men and women. Your Majesty may perceive how
+dangerous it is to suffer papists that be of great heart and enterprise to
+lift up their crests so high."[120] In another despatch he warned her of
+her danger. "It standeth your Majesty upon, for the conservation of your
+realm in the good terms it is in (thanks be to God), to countenance the
+Protestants as much as you may, until they be set afoot again, I mean in
+this realm; for here dependeth the great sway of that matter."[121]
+
+[Sidenote: Cecil's urgency and schemes.]
+
+[Sidenote: Divided sympathies of the English.]
+
+Cecil himself adopted the same views, and urged them upon Elizabeth's
+attention. Not succeeding in impressing her according to his wish, he
+resorted to extraordinary measures to compass the end. He instructed
+Mundt, his agent in Germany, to exert himself to induce the Protestant
+princes to send "special messengers" to England and persuade Elizabeth to
+join in "a confederacy of all parts professing the Gospel." In fact, the
+cunning secretary of state went even farther, and dictated to Mundt just
+what he should write to the queen. He was to tell her Majesty "that if she
+did not attempt the furtherance of the Gospel in France, and the keeping
+asunder of France and Spain, she would be in greater peril than any other
+prince in Christendom," for "the papist princes that sought to draw her to
+their parts meant her subversion"--a truth which, were she to be informed
+of by any of the German princes, might have a salutary effect.[122] But
+the vacillating queen could not be induced as yet to take the same view,
+and needed the offer of some tangible advantages to move her. No wonder
+that Elizabeth's policy halted. Every occurrence across the channel was
+purposely misrepresented by the emissaries of Philip, and the open
+sympathizers of the Roman Catholic party at the English court were almost
+more numerous than the hearty Protestants. A few weeks later, a
+correspondent of Throkmorton wrote to him from home: "Here are daily
+bruits given forth by the Spanish ambassador, as it is thought, far
+discrepant from such as I learn are sent from your lordship, and the
+papists have so great a voice here as they have almost as much credit, the
+more it is to be lamented. I have not, since I came last over, come in any
+company where almost the greater part have not in reasoning defended
+papistry, allowed the Guisians' proceedings, and seemed to deface the
+prince's quarrel and design. How dangerous this is your lordship doth
+see."[123] The Swiss Protestant cantons were reluctant to appear to
+countenance rebellion. Berne sent a few ensigns to Lyons at the request of
+the Protestants of that city, but wished to limit them strictly to the
+defensive, and subsequently she yielded to the urgency of the Guises and
+recalled them altogether.[124] But as yet no effort was made by Conde to
+call in foreign assistance. The reluctance of Admiral Coligny, while it
+did honor to the patriotism which always moved him, seems to have led him
+to commit a serious mistake. The admiral hoped and believed that the
+Huguenots would prove strong enough to succeed without invoking foreign
+assistance; moreover, he was unwilling to set the first example of
+bringing in strangers to arbitrate concerning the domestic affairs of
+France.[125] And, indeed, had his opponents been equally patriotic, it is
+not improbable that his expectation would have been realized. For, if
+inferior to the enemy in infantry, the Huguenots, through the great
+preponderance of noblemen and gentlemen in their army, were at first far
+superior in cavalry.
+
+[Sidenote: Diplomatic manoeuvres.]
+
+The beaten path of diplomatic manoeuvre was first tried. Four times were
+messengers sent to Conde, in the king's name, requiring his submission.
+Four times he responded that he could not lay down his arms until Guise
+should have retired from court and been punished for the massacre of
+Vassy, until the constable and Saint Andre should have returned to their
+governments, leaving the king his personal liberty, and until the Edict of
+January should be fully re-established.[126] These demands the opposing
+party were unwilling to concede. It is true that a pretence was made of
+granting the last point, and, on the eleventh of April, an edict,
+ostensibly in confirmation of that of January, was signed by Charles, by
+the advice of Catharine, the King of Navarre, the Cardinals of Bourbon and
+Guise, the Duke of Guise, the constable, and Aumale. But there was a
+glaring contradiction between the two laws, for Paris was expressly
+excepted from the provisions. In or around the capital no exercises of the
+reformed religion could be celebrated.[127] Such was the trick by which
+the triumvirs hoped to take the wind out of the confederates' sails.
+Though the concession could not be accepted by the Protestants, it might
+be alleged to show foreigners the unreasonableness of Conde and his
+supporters. Meantime, in reply to the prince's declaration as to the
+causes for which he had taken up arms, the adherents of Guise published in
+their own vindication a paper, wherein they gravely asserted that, but for
+the duke's timely arrival, fifteen hundred Huguenots, gathered from every
+part of the kingdom, would have entered Paris, and, with the assistance of
+their confederates within the walls, would have plundered the city.[128]
+
+The month of May witnessed the dreary continuation of the same state of
+things. On the first, Conde wrote to the queen mother, reiterating his
+readiness to lay down the arms he had assumed in the king's defence and
+her's, on the same conditions as before. On the fourth, Charles,
+Catharine, and Antoine replied, refusing to dismiss the Guises or to
+restore the Edict of January in reference to Paris, but, at the same time,
+inviting the prince to return to court, and promising that, after he
+should have submitted, and the revolted cities should have been restored
+to their allegiance, the triumvirs would retire to their governments.[129]
+
+On the same day two petitions were presented to Charles. Both were signed
+by Guise, Montmorency, and Saint Andre. In the first they prayed his
+Majesty to interdict the exercise of every other religion save the "holy
+Apostolic and Roman," and require that all royal officers should conform
+to that religion or forfeit their positions; to compel the heretics to
+restore the churches which had been destroyed; to punish the sacrilegious;
+to declare rebels all who persisted in retaining arms without permission
+of the King of Navarre. Under these conditions they would consent, they
+said, to leave France--nay, to go to the ends of the world. In the second
+petition they demanded the submission of the confederates of Orleans, the
+restitution of the places which had been seized, the exaction of an oath
+to observe the royal edicts, both new and old, and the enforcement of the
+sole command of Navarre over the French armies.[130]
+
+[Sidenote: Conde's reply to the pretended petition.]
+
+Conde's reply (May twentieth) was the most bitter, as well as the ablest
+and most vigorous paper of the initiatory stage of the war. It well
+deserves a careful examination. The pretended _petition_, Louis of Bourbon
+wrote to the queen mother, any one can see, even upon a cursory perusal,
+to be in effect nothing else than a _decree_ concocted by the Duke of
+Guise, Constable Montmorency, and Marshal Saint Andre, with the assistance
+of the papal legate and nuncio and the ministers of foreign states.
+Ambition, not zeal for the faith, is the motive. In order to have their
+own way, not only do the signers refuse to have a prince of the blood near
+the monarch, but they intend removing and punishing all the worthy members
+of the royal privy council, beginning with Michel de l'Hospital, the
+chancellor. In point of fact, they have already made a ridiculous
+appointment of six new counsellors. The queen mother is to be banished to
+Chenonceaux, there to spend her time in laying out her gardens. La
+Roche-sur-Yon will be sent elsewhere. New instructors are to be placed
+around the king to teach him riding, jousting, the art of love--anything,
+in short, to divert his mind from religion and the art of reigning well.
+The conspiracy is more dangerous than the conspiracy of Sulla or Caesar, or
+that of the Roman triumvirs. Its authors point to their titles, and allege
+the benefits they have conferred; but their boasts may easily be answered
+by pointing to their insatiable avarice, and to the princely revenues they
+have accumulated during their long connection with the public
+administration. They speak of the present dangerous state of the country.
+What was it before the massacre of Vassy? After the publication of the
+Edict of January universal peace prevailed. That peace these very
+petitioners disturbed. What means the coalition of the constable and
+Marshal Saint Andre? What mean the barbarities lately committed in Paris,
+but that the peace was to be broken by violent means? As to the obedience
+the petitioners profess to exhibit to the queen, they showed her open
+contempt when they refused to go to the provinces which they governed
+under the king's orders; when they came to the capital contrary to her
+express direction, and that in arms; when by force they dragged the king,
+her son, and herself from Fontainebleau to the Louvre. They have accused
+the Huguenots of treating the king as a prisoner, because these desire
+that the decree drawn up by the advice of the three estates of the realm
+should be made irrevocable until the majority of Charles the Ninth; but
+how was it when three persons, of whom one is a foreigner and the other
+two are servants of the crown, dictate a _new_ edict, and wish that edict
+to be absolutely irrevocable? There is no need of lugging the Roman
+Catholic religion into the discussion, and undertaking its defence, for no
+one has thought of attacking it. The demand made by the petitioners for a
+compulsory subscription to certain articles of theirs is in opposition to
+immemorial usage; for no subscription has ever been exacted save to the
+creed of the Apostles. It is a second edict, and in truth nothing else
+than the introduction of that hateful Spanish inquisition. Ten thousand
+nobles and a hundred thousand soldiers will not be compelled either by
+force or by authority to affix their signatures to it. But, to talk of
+enforcing submission to a Roman Catholic confession is idle, so long as
+the Duke of Guise and the Cardinal of Lorraine do not retract their own
+adhesion to the Augsburg Confession lately given in with such
+protestations to a German prince. The charge of countenancing the breaking
+of images the prince would answer by pointing to the penalties he has
+inflicted in order to repress the irregularity. And yet, if it come to the
+true desert of punishment, what retribution ought not to be meted out for
+the crimes perpetrated by the petitioners, or under their auspices and
+after their examples, at Vassy, at Sens, at Paris, at Toulouse, and in so
+many other places? For the author of the petition should have remembered
+that it is nowhere written that a dead image ever cried for vengeance;
+but the blood of man--God's living image--demands it of heaven, and draws
+it down, though it tarry long. As for the accusation brought against Conde
+and the best part of the French nobility, that they are rebels, the prince
+hopes soon to meet his accusers in the open field and there decide the
+question whether a foreigner and two others of such a station as they are
+shall undertake to judge a prince of the blood. To allege Navarre's
+authority comes with ill-grace from men who wronged that king so openly
+during the late reign of Francis the Second. Finally, the Prince of Conde
+would set over against the petition of the triumvirate, one of his own,
+containing for its principal articles that the Edict of January, which his
+enemies seek to overturn, shall be observed inviolate; that all the king's
+subjects of every order and condition shall be maintained in their rights
+and privileges; that the professors of the reformed faith shall be
+protected until the majority of Charles; that arms shall be laid down on
+either side; above all, that _foreign_ arms, which he himself, so far from
+inviting to France, has, up to the present moment, steadfastly declined
+when voluntarily offered, and which he will never resort to unless
+compelled by his enemies, shall be banished from the kingdom.[131]
+
+[Sidenote: Third National Synod.]
+
+While the clouds of war were thus gathering thick around Orleans, within
+its walls a synod of the reformed churches of France had assembled on the
+twenty-fifth of April, to deliberate of matters relating to their
+religious interests. Important questions of discipline were discussed and
+settled, and a day of public fasting and prayer was appointed in view of
+the danger of a declared civil war.[132]
+
+[Sidenote: Interview of Catharine and Conde.]
+
+The actual war was fast approaching. The army of the Guises, under the
+nominal command of the King of Navarre, was now ready to march in the
+direction of Orleans. Before setting out, however, the triumvirs resolved
+to make sure of their hold upon the capital, and royal edicts (of the
+twenty-sixth and twenty-seventh of May) were obtained ordering the
+expulsion from Paris of all known Protestants.[133] Then, with an army of
+four thousand foot and three thousand horse, the King of Navarre marched
+toward the city of Chateaudun.[134] On hearing of the movement of his
+brother's forces, the Prince of Conde advanced to meet him at the head of
+six thousand foot and two thousand horse. There were those, however, who
+still believed it to be possible to avert a collision and settle the
+matters in dispute by amicable discussion. Of this number was Catharine
+de' Medici. Hastily leaving the castle of Vincennes, she hurried to the
+front, and at the little town of Toury, between the two armies, she
+brought about an interview between Conde, the King of Navarre, and
+herself. Such was the imbittered feeling supposed to animate both sides,
+that the escorts of the two princes had been strictly enjoined to avoid
+approaching each other, lest they should be tempted to indulge in
+insulting remarks, and from these come to blows. But, to the great
+surprise of all, they had no sooner met than papist and Huguenot rushed
+into each other's arms and embraced as friends long separated. While the
+principals were discussing the terms of union, their followers had already
+expressed by action the accord reigning in their hearts, and the white
+cloaks of Conde's attendants were to be seen indiscriminately mingled with
+the crimson cloaks of his brother's escort. Yet, after all, the interview
+came to nothing. Neither side could accept the only terms the other would
+offer, and Catharine returned disappointed to Paris, to be greeted by the
+populace with the most insulting language for imperilling the orthodoxy
+of the kingdom.[135] Not, however, altogether despairing of effecting a
+reconciliation, Conde addressed a letter to the King of Navarre,
+entreating him, before it should be too late, to listen to his brotherly
+arguments. The answer came in a new summons to lay down his arms.[136]
+
+[Sidenote: The "loan" of Beaugency.]
+
+Yet, while they had no desire for a reconciliation on any such terms as
+the Huguenots could accept, there were some substantial advantages which
+the Roman Catholic leaders hoped to reap under cover of fresh
+negotiations. All the portion of the valley of the Loire lying nearest to
+Paris was in the hands of the confederates of Orleans. It was impossible
+for Navarre to reach the southern bank, except by crossing below Amboise,
+and thus exposing the communications of his army with Paris to be cut off
+at any moment. To attain his end with less difficulty, Antoine now sent
+word to his brother that he was disposed to conclude a peace, and proposed
+a truce of six days. Meanwhile, he requested Conde to gratify him by the
+"loan" of the town of Beaugency, a few miles below Orleans, where he might
+be more comfortably lodged than in his present inconvenient quarters. The
+request was certainly sufficiently novel, but that it was granted by Conde
+may appear even more strange.
+
+[Sidenote: Futile negotiations.]
+
+This was not the only act of folly in which the Huguenot leaders became
+involved. Under pretence of showing their readiness to contribute their
+utmost to the re-establishment of peace, the constable, Guise, and Saint
+Andre, after obtaining a declaration from Catharine and Antoine that their
+voluntary retreat would do no prejudice to their honor,[137] retired from
+the royal court, but went no farther than the neighboring city of
+Chateaudun. The Prince of Conde, swallowing the bait, did not hesitate a
+moment to place himself, the very next day, in the hands of the queen
+mother and his brother, and was led more like a captive than a freeman
+from Beaugency to Talsy, where Catharine was staying. Becoming alarmed,
+however, at his isolated situation, he wrote to his comrades in arms, and
+within a few hours so goodly a company of knights appeared, with Coligny,
+Andelot, Prince Porcien, La Rochefoucauld, Rohan, and other distinguished
+nobles at their head, that any treacherous plans that may have been
+entertained by the wily Italian princess were rendered entirely futile.
+She resolved, therefore, to entrap them by soft speeches. With that utter
+disregard for consistency so characteristic both of her actions and of her
+words, Catharine publicly[138] thanked the Huguenot lords for the services
+they had rendered the king, who would never cease to be grateful to them,
+and recognized, for her own part, that her son and she herself owed to
+them the preservation of their lives. But, after this flattering preamble,
+she proceeded to make the unpalatable proposition that they should consent
+to the repeal of the edict so far as Paris was concerned, under the
+guarantee of personal liberty, but without permission to hold public
+religious worship. The prince and his associates could listen to no such
+terms. Indeed, carried away by the fervor of their zeal, they protested
+that, rather than surrender the rights of their brethren, they would leave
+the kingdom. "We shall willingly go into exile," they said, "if our
+absence will conduce to the restoration of public tranquillity." This
+assurance was just what Catharine had been awaiting. To the infinite
+surprise of the speakers themselves, she told them that she appreciated
+their disinterested motives, and accepted their offer; that they should
+have safe-conducts to whatever land they desired to visit, with full
+liberty to sell their goods and to receive their incomes; but that their
+voluntary retirement would last only until the king's majority, which
+would be declared so soon as he had completed his fourteenth year![139] It
+needs scarcely be said that, awkward as was the predicament in which they
+had placed themselves, the prince and his companions had little
+disposition to follow out Catharine's plan. On their return to the
+Protestant camp, the clamor of the soldiers against any further exposure
+of the person of their leader to peril, and the opportune publication of
+an intercepted letter said to have been written by the Duke of Guise to
+his brother, the Cardinal of Lorraine, on the eve of his departure for
+Chateaudun, and disclosing treacherous designs,[140] decided the Huguenot
+leaders to break off the negotiations.[141]
+
+The long period of comparative inaction was now succeeded by a spasmodic
+effort at energetic conduct. The six days' truce had scarcely expired when
+the prince resolved to throw himself unexpectedly upon the neighboring
+camp of the Roman Catholics, before Montmorency, Guise, and Saint Andre
+had resumed their accustomed posts. One of those nocturnal attacks, which,
+under the name of _camisades_, figure so frequently in the military
+history of the period, was secretly organized, and the Protestant
+soldiers, wearing white shirts over their armor, in order that they might
+easily recognize each other in the darkness of the night, started with
+alacrity, under D'Andelot's command, on the exciting adventure. But their
+guides were treacherous, or unskilful, and the enterprise came to
+naught.[142] Disappointed in this attempt, and unable to force the enemy
+to give battle, Conde turned his attention to Beaugency, which the King
+of Navarre had failed to restore, and carried it by storm. He would gladly
+have followed up the advantage by laying siege to Blois and Tours, which
+the triumvirate had taken and treated with the utmost cruelty; but heavy
+rains, and the impossibility of carrying on military operations on account
+of the depth of the mud, compelled him to relinquish his project, and
+reduced the main army to renewed inactivity.[143]
+
+The protracted delays and inexcusable sluggishness of the leaders had
+borne their natural fruits. Many of the Protestant gentlemen had left the
+camp in disgust at the mistakes committed; others had retired to their
+homes on hearing that their families were exposed to the dangers of war
+and stood in need of their protection; a few had been corrupted by the
+arts of the enemy. For it was a circumstance often noticed by
+contemporaries, that no envoy was ever sent from Orleans to the court who
+did not return, if not demoralized, yet so lukewarm as to be incapable of
+performing any good service in future.[144] Yet the dispersion of the
+higher rank of the reformed soldiers, and the consequent weakening of
+Conde's army in cavalry, were attended with this incidental advantage,
+that they contributed greatly to the strengthening of the party in the
+provinces, and necessitated a similar division of the opposing
+forces.[145]
+
+[Sidenote: Huguenot discipline.]
+
+Never, perhaps, was there an army that exhibited such excellent discipline
+as did the army of the Protestants in this the first stage of its warfare.
+Never had the morals and religion of soldiers been better cared for. It
+was the testimony of a soldier, one of the most accomplished and
+philosophical writers of his times--the brave "Bras de Fer"--that the
+preaching of the Gospel was the great instrument of imbuing the army with
+the spirit of order. Crimes, he tells us, were promptly revealed; no
+blasphemy was heard throughout the camp, for it was universally frowned
+upon. The very implements of gambling--dice and cards--were banished.
+There were no lewd women among the camp-followers. Thefts were unfrequent
+and vigorously punished. A couple of soldiers were hung for having robbed
+a peasant of a small quantity of wine.[146] Public prayers were said
+morning and evening; and, instead of profane or indelicate songs, nothing
+was heard but the psalms of David. Such were the admirable fruits of the
+careful discipline of Admiral Coligny, the true leader of the Protestant
+party; and they made a deep impression upon such enthusiastic youths as
+Francois de la Noue and Teligny. Their more experienced author, however,
+was not imposed upon by these flattering signs. "It is a very fine thing,"
+he told them, "if only it last; but I much fear that these people will
+spend all their goodness at the outset, and that, two months hence,
+nothing will remain but malice. I have long commanded infantry, and I know
+that it often verifies the proverb which says: '_Of a young hermit, an old
+devil!_' If this army does not, we shall give it a good mark."[147] The
+prediction was speedily realized; for, although the army of the prince
+never sought to rival the papal troops in the extent of its license, the
+standard of soldierly morality was far below that which Coligny had
+desired to establish.[148]
+
+[Sidenote: Severities of the parliament.]
+
+So far as cruelty was concerned, everything in the conduct of their
+antagonists was calculated to provoke the Protestants to bitter
+retaliation. The army of Guise was merciless. If the infuriated Huguenots
+selected the priests that fell into their hands for the especial monuments
+of their retribution, it was because the priesthood as a body had become
+the instigators of savage barbarity, instead of being the ministers of
+peace; because when they did not, like Ronsard the poet, themselves buckle
+on the sword, or revel in blood, like the monks of Saint Calais,[149] they
+still fanned, as they had for years been fanning, the flame of civil war,
+denouncing toleration or compromise, wielding the weapons of the church to
+enforce the pious duty of exterminating every foul calumny invented to the
+disadvantage of the reformers. No wonder, then, that the ecclesiastical
+dress itself became the badge of deadly and irreconcilable hostility, and
+that in the course of this unhappy war many a priest was cut down without
+any examination into his private views or personal history. Parliament,
+too, was setting the example of cruelty by reckless orders amounting
+almost to independent legislation. By a series of "arrets" succeeding each
+other rapidly in the months of June and July, the door was opened wider
+and wider for popular excess. When the churches of Meaux were visited by
+an iconoclastic rabble on the twenty-sixth of June, the Parisian
+parliament, on the thirtieth of June, employed the disorder as the pretext
+of a judicial "declaration" that made the culprits liable to all the
+penalties of treason, and permitted any one to put them to death without
+further authorization. The populace of Paris needed no fuller powers to
+attack the Huguenots, for, within two or three days, sixty men and women
+had been killed, robbed, and thrown into the river. Parliament, therefore,
+found it convenient to terminate the massacre by a second order
+restricting the application of the declaration to persons taken in the
+very act.[150] A few days later (July, 1562), other arrets empowered all
+inhabitants of towns and villages to take up arms against those who
+molested priests, sacked churches, or "held conventicles and unlawful
+assemblies," whether public or secret; and to arrest the ministers,
+deacons, and other ecclesiastical functionaries for trial, as guilty of
+treason against God as well as man.[151] Not content with these appeals to
+popular passion,[152] however, the Parisian judges soon gave practical
+exemplifications of their intolerant principles; for two royal
+officers--the "lieutenant general" of Pontoise, and the "lieutenant" of
+Senlis--were publicly hung; the former for encouraging the preaching of
+God's word "in other form than the ancient church" authorized, the latter
+for "celebrating the Lord's Supper according to the Genevese fashion."
+These were, according to the curate of St. Barthelemi, the first
+executions at Paris for the simple profession of "Huguenoterie" since the
+pardon proclaimed by Francis the Second at Amboise.[153] A few days
+later, a new and more explicit declaration pronounced all those who had
+taken up arms, robbed churches and monasteries, and committed other
+sacrilegious acts at Orleans, Lyons, Rouen, and various other cities
+mentioned by name, to be rebels, and deprived them of all their offices.
+Yet, by way of retaliation upon Conde for maintaining that he had entered
+upon the war in order to defend the persons of the king and his mother,
+unjustly deprived of their liberty, parliament pretended to regard the
+prince himself as an unwilling captive in the hands of the confederates;
+and, consequently, excepted him alone from the general attainder.[154] But
+the legal fiction does not seem to have been attended with the great
+success its projectors anticipated.[155] The people could scarcely credit
+the statement that the war was waged by the Guises simply for the
+liberation of their mortal enemy, Conde, especially when Conde himself
+indignantly repelled the attempt to separate him from the associates with
+whom he had entered into common engagements, not to add that the
+reputation of the Lorraine family, whose mouthpiece parliament might well
+be supposed to be, was not over good for strict adherence to truth.
+
+Meanwhile the triumvirs were more successful in their military operations
+than the partisans of the prince. Their auxiliaries came in more promptly,
+for the step which Conde now saw himself forced to take, in consequence of
+his opponents' course, they had long since resolved upon. They had
+received reinforcements from Germany, both of infantry and cavalry, under
+command of the Rhinegrave Philip of Salm and the Count of Rockendorf;
+while Conde had succeeded in detaching but few of the Lutheran troopers by
+a manifesto in which he endeavored to explain the true nature of the
+struggle. Soldiers from the Roman Catholic cantons had been allowed a free
+passage through the Spanish Franche-Comte by the regent of the Low
+Countries, Margaret of Parma. The Pope himself contributed liberally to
+the supply of money for paying the troops.[156] But the Protestant
+reinforcements from the Palatinate and Zweibruecken (Deux-Ponts), and from
+Hesse, which D'Andelot, and, after him, Gaspard de Schomberg, had gone to
+hasten, were not yet ready; while Elizabeth still hesitated to listen to
+the solicitations of Briquemault and Robert Stuart, the Scotchman, who had
+been successively sent to her court.[157]
+
+[Sidenote: Military successes of the triumvirs.]
+
+[Sidenote: Fall of Bourges.]
+
+After effecting the important capture of the city of Poitiers, Marshal
+Saint Andre, at the head of a Roman Catholic army, had marched, about the
+middle of August, toward Bourges, perhaps the most important place held by
+the Protestants in central France. Beneath the walls of this city he
+joined the main army, under Navarre's nominal command, but really led by
+the Duke of Guise. The siege was pressed with vigor, for the king was
+present in person with the "Guisards." To the handful of Huguenots their
+assailants appeared to be "a marvellous army of French, Germans, reiters,
+Spaniards, and other nations, numbering in all eighty or a hundred
+thousand men, with the bravest cavalry that could be seen."[158] And, when
+twenty or twenty-five cannon opened upon Bourges with balls of forty or
+fifty pounds' weight, and when six hundred and forty discharges were
+counted on a single day, and every building in the town was shaken to its
+very foundations, the besieged, numbering only a few hundred men, would
+have been excusable had they lost heart. Instead of this, they obstinately
+defended their works, repaired the breach by night, and inflicted severe
+injury on the enemy by nocturnal sallies. To add to the duke's
+embarrassment, Admiral Coligny, issuing from Orleans, was fortunate enough
+to cut off an important convoy of provisions and ammunition coming from
+Paris to the relief of the besiegers.[159] Despairing of taking the city
+by force, they now turned to negotiation. Unhappily, M. d'Ivoy, in command
+of the Huguenot garrison, was not proof against the seductive offers made
+him. Disregarding the remonstrances of his companions in arms, who pointed
+to the fact that the enemy had from day to day, through discouragement or
+from sheer exhaustion, relaxed their assaults, he consented (on the
+thirty-first of August) to surrender Bourges to the army that had so long
+thundered at its gates. D'Ivoy returned to Orleans, but Conde, accusing
+him of open perfidy, refused to see him; while the Protestants of Bourges
+shared the usual fate of those who trusted the promises of the Roman
+Catholic leaders, and secured few of the religious privileges guaranteed
+by the articles of capitulation.[160]
+
+With the fall of Bourges, the whole of central France, as far as to the
+gates of Orleans, yielded to the arms of Guise. Everywhere the wretched
+inhabitants of the reformed faith were compelled to submit to gross
+indignities, or seek safety in flight. To many of these homeless fugitives
+the friendly castle of Montargis, belonging to the Duchess of Ferrara, to
+which reference will shortly be made, afforded a welcome refuge.[161]
+
+[Sidenote: Help from Queen Elizabeth.]
+
+The necessity of obtaining immediate reinforcements had at length brought
+Conde and the other great Huguenot lords to acquiesce in the offer of the
+only terms upon which Elizabeth of England could be persuaded to grant
+them actual support. As the indispensable condition to her interference,
+she demanded that the cities of Havre and Dieppe should be placed in her
+hands. These would be a pledge for the restoration of Calais, that old
+English stronghold which had fallen into the power of the French during
+the last war, and for whose restoration within eight years there had been
+an express stipulation in the treaties Cateau-Cambresis. This humiliating
+concession the Huguenots reluctantly agreed to make. Elizabeth in turn
+promised to send six thousand English troops (three thousand to guard each
+of the cities), who should serve under the command of Conde as the royal
+lieutenant, and pledged her word to lend the prince and his associates one
+hundred and forty thousand crowns toward defraying the expenses of the
+war.[162] On the twentieth of September the Queen of England published to
+the world a declaration of the motives that led her to interfere, alleging
+in particular the usurpation of the royal authority by the Guises, and the
+consequent danger impending over the Protestants of Normandy through the
+violence of the Duke of Aumale.[163]
+
+The tidings of the alliance and of some of its conditions had already
+reached France, and they rather damaged than furthered the Protestant
+cause. As the English queen's selfish determination to confine her
+assistance to the protection of the three cities became known, it alarmed
+even her warmest friends among the French Protestants. Conde and Coligny
+earnestly begged the queen's ambassador to tell his mistress that "in case
+her Majesty were introduced by their means into Havre, Dieppe, and Rouen
+with six thousand men, only to keep those places, it would be unto them a
+great note of infamy." They would seem wantonly to have exposed to a
+foreign prince the very flower of Normandy, in giving into her hands
+cities which they felt themselves quite able to defend without assistance.
+So clearly did Throkmorton foresee the disastrous consequences of this
+course, that, even at the risk of offending the queen by his presumption,
+he took the liberty to warn her that if she suffered the Protestants of
+France to succumb, with minds so alienated from her that they should
+consent to make an accord with the opposite faction, the possession of the
+cities would avail her but little against the united forces of the French.
+He therefore suggested that it might be quite as well for her Majesty's
+interests, "that she should serve the turn of the Huguenots as well as her
+own."[164] Truly, Queen Elizabeth was throwing away a glorious opportunity
+of displaying magnanimous disinterestedness, and of conciliating the
+affection of a powerful party on the continent. In the inevitable struggle
+between Protestant England and papal Spain, the possession of such an ally
+as the best part of France would be of inestimable value in abridging the
+contest or in deciding the result. But the affection of the Huguenots
+could be secured by no such cold-blooded compact as that which required
+them to appear in the light of an unpatriotic party whose success would
+entail the dismemberment of the kingdom. To make such a demand at the very
+moment when her own ambassador was writing from Paris that the people "did
+daily most cruelly use and kill every person, no age or sex excepted, that
+they took to be contrary to their religion," was to show but too clearly
+that not religious zeal nor philanthropic tenderness of heart, so much as
+pure selfishness, was the motive influencing her.[165] And yet the English
+queen was not uninformed of, nor wholly insensible to, the calls of
+humanity. She could in fact, on occasion, herself set them forth with
+force and pathos. Nothing could surpass the sympathy expressed in her
+autograph letter to Mary of Scots, deprecating the resentment of the
+latter at Elizabeth's interference--a letter which, as Mr. Froude notices,
+was not written by Cecil and merely signed by the queen, but was her own
+peculiar and characteristic composition. "Far sooner," she wrote, "would I
+pass over those murders on land; far rather would I leave unwritten those
+noyades in the rivers--those men and women hacked in pieces; but the
+shrieks of the strangled wives, great with child--the cries of the infants
+at their mothers' breasts--pierce me through. What drug of rhubarb can
+purge the bile which these tyrannies engender?"[166]
+
+The news of the English alliance, although not unexpected, produced a very
+natural irritation at the French court. When Throkmorton applied to
+Catharine de' Medici for a passport to leave the kingdom, the queen
+persistently refused, telling him that such a document was unnecessary in
+his case. But she significantly volunteered the information that "some of
+his nation had lately entered France without asking for passports, who she
+hoped would speedily return without leave-taking!"[167]
+
+[Sidenote: Siege of Rouen, October.]
+
+Meanwhile the English movement rather accelerated than retarded the
+operations of the royal army. After the fall of Bourges, there had been a
+difference of opinion in the council whether Orleans or Rouen ought first
+to be attacked. Orleans was the centre of Huguenot activity, the heart
+from which the currents of life flowed to the farthest extremities of
+Gascony and Languedoc; but it was strongly fortified, and would be
+defended by a large and intrepid garrison. A siege was more likely to
+terminate disastrously to the assailants than to the citizens and
+Protestant troops. The admiral laughed at the attempt to attack a city
+which could throw three thousand men into the breach.[168] Rouen, on the
+contrary, was weak, and, if attacked before reinforcements were received
+from England, but feebly garrisoned. Yet it was the key of the valley of
+the Seine, and its possession by the Huguenots was a perpetual menace of
+the capital.[169] So long as it was in their hands, the door to the heart
+of the kingdom lay wide open to the united army of French and English
+Protestants. Very wisely, therefore, the Roman Catholic generals abandoned
+their original design[170] of reducing Orleans so soon as Bourges should
+fall, and resolved first to lay siege to Rouen. Great reason, indeed, had
+the captors of such strongholds as Marienbourg, Calais, and Thionville, to
+anticipate that a place so badly protected, so easily commanded, and
+destitute of any fortification deserving the name, would yield on the
+first alarm.[171] It was true that a series of attacks made by the Duke of
+Aumale upon Fort St. Catharine, the citadel of Rouen, had been signally
+repulsed, and that, after two weeks of fighting, on the twelfth of July he
+had abandoned the undertaking.[172] But, with the more abundant resources
+at their command, a better result might now be expected. Siege was,
+therefore, a second time laid, on the twenty-ninth of September, by the
+King of Navarre.
+
+The forces on the two sides were disproportionate. Navarre, Montmorency,
+and Guise were at the head of sixteen thousand foot and two thousand
+horse, in addition to a considerable number of German mercenaries.
+Montgomery,[173] who commanded the Protestants, had barely eight hundred
+trained soldiers.[174] The rest of the scanty garrison was composed of
+those of the citizens who were capable of bearing arms, to the number of
+perhaps four thousand more. But this handful of men instituted a stout
+resistance. After frequently repulsing the assailants, the double fort of
+St. Catharine, situated near the Seine, on the east of the city, and
+Rouen's chief defence, was taken rather by surprise than by force. Yet,
+after this unfortunate loss, the brave Huguenots fought only with the
+greater desperation. Their numbers had been reinforced by the accession of
+some five hundred Englishmen of the first detachment of troops which had
+landed at Havre on the third of October, and whom Sir Adrian Poynings had
+assumed the responsibility of sending to the relief of the beleaguered
+capital of Normandy.[175] With Killigrew of Pendennis for their captain,
+they had taken advantage of a high tide to pass the obstructions of boats
+filled with stone and sand that had been sunk in the river opposite
+Caudebec, and, with the exception of the crew of one barge that ran
+ashore, and eleven of whom were hung by the Roman Catholics, "for having
+entered the service of the Huguenots contrary to the will of the Queen of
+England," they succeeded in reaching Rouen.[176]
+
+These, however, were not the only auxiliaries upon whom the Huguenot chief
+could count. The women were inspired with a courage that equalled, and a
+determination that surpassed, that of their husbands and brothers. They
+undertook the most arduous labors; they fought side by side on the walls;
+they helped to repair at night the breaches which the enemy's cannon had
+made during the day; and after one of the most sanguinary conflicts during
+the siege, it was found that there were more women killed and wounded than
+men. Yet the courage of the Huguenots sustained them throughout the
+unequal struggle. Frequently summoned to surrender, the Rouenese would
+listen to no terms that included a loss of their religious liberty. Rather
+than submit to the usurpation of the Guises, they preferred to fall with
+arms in their hands.[177] For fall they must. D'Andelot was on his way
+with the troops he had laboriously collected in Germany; another band of
+three thousand Englishmen was only detained by the adverse winds; Conde
+himself was reported on his way northward to raise the siege--but none
+could arrive in time. The King of Navarre had been severely wounded in the
+shoulder, but Guise and the constable pressed the city with no less
+decision. At last the walls on the side of the suburbs of St. Hilaire and
+Martainville were breached by the overwhelming fire of the enemy. The
+population of Rouen and its motley garrison, reduced in numbers, worn out
+with toils and vigils, and disheartened by a combat which ceased on one
+day only to be renewed under less favorable circumstances on the next,
+were no longer able to continue their heroic and almost superhuman
+exertions.
+
+[Sidenote: Fall of Rouen.]
+
+[Sidenote: The Norman parliament.]
+
+On Monday, the twenty-sixth of October, the army of the triumvirate forced
+its way over the rubbish into Rouen, and the richest city of France,
+outside of Paris, fell an unresisting prey to the cupidity of an
+insubordinate soldiery. Rarely had so tempting a prize fallen into the
+hands of a conquering army; rarely were the exactions of war more
+remorsely inflicted.[178] But the barbarities of a licentious army were
+exceeded in atrocity by the cooler deliberations of the Norman parliament.
+That supreme court, always inimical to the Protestants, had retired to the
+neighboring city of Louviers, in order to maintain itself free from
+Huguenot influence. It now returned to Rouen and exercised a sanguinary
+revenge. Augustin Marlorat, one of the most distinguished among the
+reformed ministers of France, and the most prominent pastor of the church
+of Rouen, had been thrown into prison; he was now brought before the
+parliament, and with others was sentenced to death as a traitor and a
+disturber of the public repose, then dragged on a hurdle to the place of
+execution and ignominiously hung.[179]
+
+The ferocity of the Norman parliament alarming the queen mother, she
+interfered to secure the observance of the edict of amnesty she had
+recently prepared. But serious results followed in the case of two
+prominent partisans of Guise who had fallen into Conde's hands, and were
+in prison when the tidings reached Orleans. On the recommendation of his
+council, the prince retaliated by sending to the gallows Jean Baptiste
+Sapin, a member of the Parisian parliament, and the Abbe de Gastines, who
+had been captured while travelling in company with an envoy whom the court
+were sending to Spain.[180]
+
+[Sidenote: Death of Antoine de Bourbon, King of Navarre.]
+
+The fall of Rouen was followed within a few weeks by the death of the King
+of Navarre. His painful wound was not, perhaps, necessarily mortal, but
+the restless and vainglorious prince would not remain quiet and allow it
+to heal. He insisted on being borne in a litter through the breach into
+the city which had been taken under his nominal command. It was a sort of
+triumphal procession, marching to the sound of cymbals, and with other
+marks of victory. But the idle pageant only increased the inflammation in
+his shoulder. Even in his sick-room he allowed himself no time for serious
+thought; but, prating of the orange-groves of Sardinia which he was to
+receive from the King of Spain, and toying with Rouhet, the beautiful maid
+of honor by whom Catharine had drawn him into her net, he frittered away
+the brief remnant of an ignoble life. When visibly approaching his end, he
+is said, at the suggestion of an Italian physician, to have confessed
+himself to a priest, and to have received the last sacraments of the
+Romish Church. Yet, with characteristic vacillation he listened, but a few
+hours later, with attention and apparent devoutness, to the reading of
+God's Word, and answered the remonstrances of his faithful Huguenot
+physician by the assurance that, if he recovered his health, he would
+openly espouse the Augsburg Confession, and cause the pure Gospel to be
+preached everywhere throughout France.[181] His death occurred on the
+seventeenth of November, 1562, at Les Andelys, a village on the Seine. He
+had insisted, contrary to his friends' advice, upon being taken by boat
+from Rouen to St. Maur-des-Fosses, where, within a couple of leagues of
+Paris, he hoped to breathe a purer air; but death overtook him before he
+had completed half his journey.[182]
+
+Had Antoine embraced with sincerity and steadfastly maintained either of
+the two phases of religious belief which divided between them the whole of
+western Christendom, his death would have left a void which could have
+been filled with difficulty. He was the first prince of the blood, and
+entitled to the regency. His appearance was prepossessing, his manners
+courteous. He was esteemed a capable general, and was certainly not
+destitute of administrative ability. If, with hearty devotion, he had
+given himself to the reformed views, the authority of his great name and
+eminent position might have secured for their adherents, if not triumph,
+at least toleration and quiet. But two capital weaknesses ruined his
+entire course. The love of empty glory blinded him to his true interests;
+and the love of sensual pleasure made him an easy dupe. He was robbed of
+his legitimate claims to the first rank in France by the promise of a
+shadowy sceptre in some distant region, which every sensible statesman of
+his time knew from the first that Philip the Second never had entertained
+the slightest intention of conferring; while, by the siren voices of her
+fair maids of honor, Catharine de' Medici was always sure of being able to
+lure him on to the most humiliating concessions. Deceived by the
+emissaries of the Spanish king and the Italian queen mother, Antoine would
+have been an object rather of pity than of disgust, had he not himself
+played false to the friends who supported him. As it was, he passed off
+the stage, and scarcely left a single person to regret his departure.
+Huguenots and papists were alike gratified when the world was relieved of
+so signal an example of inconstancy and perfidy.[183] Antoine left behind
+him his wife, the eminent Jeanne d'Albret, and two children--a son, the
+Prince of Bearn, soon to appear in history as the leader of the Huguenot
+party, and, on the extinction of the Valois line, to succeed to the throne
+as Henry the Fourth; and a daughter, Catharine, who inherited all her
+mother's signal virtues. The widow and her children were, at the time of
+Antoine's death, in Jeanne's dominions on the northern slopes of the
+Pyrenees, whither they had retired when he had first openly gone over to
+the side of the Guises. There, in the midst of her own subjects, the Queen
+of Navarre was studying, more intelligently than any other monarch of her
+age, the true welfare of her people, while training her son in those
+principles upon which she hoped to see him lay the foundations of a great
+and glorious career.
+
+[Sidenote: The English in Havre.]
+
+The sagacity of the enemy had been well exhibited in the vigor with which
+they had pressed the siege of Rouen. Conde, with barely seven thousand
+men, had several weeks before shut himself up in Orleans, after
+despatching the few troops at his disposal for the relief of Bourges and
+Rouen, and could do nothing beyond making his own position secure, while
+impatiently awaiting the long-expected reinforcements from England and
+Germany.[184] The dilatoriness that marked the entire conduct of the war
+up to this time had borne its natural fruit in the gradual diminution and
+dispersion of his forces, in the loss of one important city after another,
+and almost of entire provinces, and, worst of all, in the discouragement
+pervading all classes of the Huguenot population.[185] Now, however, he
+was on the eve of obtaining relief. Two days after the fall of Rouen, on
+the twenty-eighth of October, a second detachment of the English fleet
+succeeded in overcoming the contrary winds that had detained them ten days
+in crossing the channel, and landed three thousand troops at the port of
+Havre.[186] D'Andelot had finally been able to gather up his German
+"reiters" and "lansquenets,"[187] and was making a brilliant march through
+Alsace, Lorraine, Burgundy, and Champagne, skilfully avoiding the enemy's
+forces sent out to watch and intercept him.[188] On the sixth of
+November, he presented himself before the gates of Orleans, and was
+received with lively enthusiasm by the prince and his small army.[189]
+
+Now at length, on the seventh of November, Conde could leave the walls
+which for seven months had sheltered him in almost complete inaction, and
+within which a frightful pestilence had been making havoc among the flower
+of the chivalry of France; for, whilst fire and sword were everywhere
+laying waste the country, heaven had sent a subtle and still more
+destructive foe to decimate the wretched inhabitants. Orleans had not
+escaped the scourge. The city was crowded with refugees from Paris and
+from the whole valley of the Loire. Among these strangers, as well as
+among the citizens, death found many victims. In a few months it was
+believed that ten thousand persons perished in Orleans alone; while in
+Paris, where the disease raged more than an entire year, the number of
+deaths was much larger.[190]
+
+[Sidenote: Conde takes the field.]
+
+With the four thousand lansquenets and the three thousand reiters brought
+him from Germany,[191] Conde was able to leave a force, under command of
+D'Andelot, sufficient to defend the city of Orleans, and himself to take
+the field with an army of about fifteen thousand men.[192] "Our enemies,"
+he said, "have inflicted two great losses upon us in taking our
+castles"--meaning Bourges and Rouen--"but I hope that now we shall have
+their knights, if they move out upon the board."[193]
+
+As he was leaving Orleans, he was waited upon by a deputation of fifty
+reformed ministers, who urged him to look well to the discipline and
+purity of the army. They begged him, by salutary punishment, to banish
+from the camp theft and rapine, and, above all, that more insidious and
+heaven-provoking sin of licentiousness, which, creeping in, had doubtless
+drawn down upon the cause such marked signs of the Lord's displeasure,
+that, of all the congregations in France, only the churches of a few
+islands on the coasts, and the churches of Montauban, Havre, Orleans,
+Lyons, and of the cities of Languedoc[194] and Dauphiny, continued to rear
+their heads through the storm that had prostrated all the rest; and, to
+this end, they warned him by no means to neglect to afford his soldiers
+upon the march the same opportunities of hearing God's Word and of public
+prayer which they had enjoyed in Orleans.[195]
+
+The Huguenot army directed its course northward, and the different
+divisions united under the walls of Pluviers, or Pithiviers, a weak place,
+which surrendered after six hours of cannonading, with little loss to the
+besieging party. The greater part of the garrison was dismissed unharmed,
+after having been compelled to give up its weapons. Two of the officers,
+as guilty of flagrant breach of faith and other crimes, were summarily
+hung.[196] And here the Huguenot cause was stained by an act of cruelty
+for which no sufficient excuse can be found. Several Roman Catholic
+priests, detected, in spite of their disguise, among the prisoners, were
+put to death, without other pretext save that they had been the chief
+instigators of the resistance which the town had offered. Unhappily, the
+Huguenot regarded the priest, and the Roman Catholic the reformed
+minister, as the guilty cause of the civil war, and thought it right to
+vent upon his head the vengeance which his own religion should have taught
+him to leave to the righteous retribution of a just God. After the fall of
+Pithiviers, no resistance was attempted by Etampes and other slightly
+garrisoned places of the neighborhood, the soldiers and the clergy taking
+refuge, before the approach of the army, in the capital.
+
+[Sidenote: The prince appears before Paris.]
+
+The prince was now master of the country to the very gates of Paris, and
+it was the opinion of many, including among them the reformer, Beza, that
+the city itself might be captured by a sudden advance, and the war thus
+ended at a blow.[197] They therefore recommended that, without delay, the
+army should hasten forward and attack the terrified inhabitants before
+Guise and the constable should have time to bring the army and the king
+back from Normandy, where they still lingered. The view was so plausible,
+indeed, that it was adopted by most of the reformed historians, and, being
+indorsed by later writers, has caused the failure to march directly
+against the capital to be regarded as a signal error of Conde in this
+campaign. But it would certainly appear hazardous to adopt this conclusion
+in the face of the most skilful strategists of the age. It has already
+been seen that Francois de la Noue, one of the ablest generals of whom the
+Huguenots could ever boast, regarded the idea of capturing Paris at the
+beginning of the struggle, with the comparatively insignificant forces
+which the prince could bring to the undertaking, as the most chimerical
+that could be entertained. Was it less absurd now, when, if the Protestant
+army had received large accessions, the walls of Paris could certainly be
+held by the citizens for a few days, until an army of fully equal size,
+under experienced leaders, could be recalled from the lower Seine? Such,
+at least, was the conclusion at which Admiral Coligny, the commanding
+spirit in the council-chamber and the virtual head of the Huguenot army,
+arrived, when he calmly considered the perils of attacking, with twelve or
+fifteen thousand men and four pieces of artillery, the largest capital of
+continental Europe--a city whose population amounted to several hundred
+thousand souls, among whom there was now not a single avowed Protestant,
+and whose turbulent citizens were not unaccustomed to the use of arms. He
+resolved, therefore, to adopt the more practicable plan of making the city
+feel the pressure of the war by cutting off its supplies of provisions and
+by ravaging the surrounding country. Thus, Paris--"the bellows by whose
+blasts the war was kept in flames," and "the kitchen that fed it"--would
+at last become weary of sustaining in idleness an insolent soldiery, and
+of seeing its villages given over to destruction, and compel the king's
+advisers to offer just terms of peace, or to seek a solution of the
+present disputes on the open field.[198]
+
+But, whatever doubt may be entertained respecting the propriety of the
+plan of the campaign adopted by the Prince of Conde, there can be none
+respecting the error committed in not promptly carrying that plan into
+execution. The army loitered about Etampes instead of pressing on and
+seizing the bridges across the Seine. Over these it ought to have crossed,
+and, entering the fruitful district of Brie, to have become master of the
+rivers by which the means of subsistence were principally brought to
+Paris. With Corbeil and Lagny in his possession, Conde would have held
+Paris in as deadly a grasp as Henry the Fourth did twenty-eight years
+later, when Alexander of Parma was forced to come from Flanders to its
+assistance.[199] When, at last, the Huguenot army took the direction of
+Corbeil, commanding one of the bridges, the news arrived of the death of
+Antoine of Navarre. And with this intelligence came fresh messengers from
+Catharine, who had already endeavored more than once by similar means to
+delay the Huguenots in their advance. She now strove to amuse Conde with
+the hope of succeeding his brother as lieutenant-general of the kingdom
+during Charles's minority.[200]
+
+In vain did the soldiers chafe at this new check upon their enthusiasm,
+in vain did prudent counsellors remonstrate. There was a traitor even in
+the prince's council, in the person of Jean de Hangest, sieur de Genlis
+(brother of D'Ivoy, the betrayer of Bourges), whose open desertion we
+shall soon have occasion to notice, and this treacherous adviser was
+successful in procuring a delay of four days.[201] The respite was not
+thrown away. Before the Huguenots were again in motion, Corbeil was
+reinforced and rendered impregnable against any assaults which, with their
+feeble artillery, they could make upon it. Repulsed from its walls, after
+several days wasted in the vain hope of taking it, the prince moved down
+the left bank of the Seine, and, on the twenty-eighth of November,
+encamped opposite to Paris in the villages of Gentilly and Arcueil.[202]
+New proffers came from Catharine; there were new delays on the road. At
+Port a l'Anglais a conference with Conde had been projected by the queen
+mother, resulting merely in one between the constable and his nephew
+Coligny--as fruitless as any that had preceded; for Montmorency would not
+hear of tolerating in France another religion besides the Roman Catholic,
+and the Admiral would rather die a thousand deaths than abandon the
+point.[203]
+
+Under the walls of Paris new conferences took place. The Parisians worked
+night and day, strengthening their defences, and making those preparations
+which are rarely completed except under the spur of an extraordinary
+emergency. Meanwhile, every day brought nearer the arrival of the Spanish
+and Gascon auxiliaries whom they were expecting. At a windmill near the
+suburb of St. Marceau, the Prince of Conde, Coligny, Genlis, Grammont, and
+Esternay met the queen mother, the Prince of La Roche-sur-Yon, the
+constable, his son Marshal Montmorency, and Gonnor, at a later time known
+as Marshal Cosse. On both sides there were professions of the most ardent
+desire for peace, and "Huguenot" and "papist" embraced each other
+cordially at parting. But the dangerous intimacy soon bore the bitter
+fruit of open treachery. A _camisade_ had been secretly planned by the
+Huguenots, and the attack was about to be made on the enemy's works, when
+word was brought that one of the chiefs intrusted with the knowledge of
+all their plans--the same Genlis, who had been the principal advocate of
+the delays upon the route--had gone over to the enemy, and the enterprise
+was consequently abandoned.[204]
+
+The deliberations being set on foot by the one party, at least, only in
+order to gain time, it is not surprising that they accomplished nothing.
+The court would concede none of the important demands of the prince. It
+was resolved to exclude Protestantism not only from Paris, but from Lyons,
+from all the seats of parliaments, from frontier towns, and from cities
+which had not enjoyed the right of having preaching according to the Edict
+of January. The exercises of the reformed worship could not be tolerated
+in any place where the court sojourned--a cunning provision which would
+banish from the royal presence all the princes and high nobility, such as
+Renee of France, Conde, and the Chatillons, since these could not consent
+to live without the ordinances of their faith for themselves and their
+families and retainers. The triumvirs would not agree to the recall of
+those who had been exiled. They were willing to have all proceedings
+against the partisans of Conde suspended; but they would neither consent
+that all edicts, ordinances, and sentences framed against the Huguenots be
+declared null and void, nor assent to the restoration of those dignities
+which had been taken from them. In other words, as the prince remarked,
+the Protestant lords were to put a halter about their own necks for their
+enemies to tighten whenever the fancy should take them so to do.[205]
+
+At last the Parisian defences were completed, and the Spanish and Gascon
+troops, to the number of seven thousand men, arrived. Then the mask of
+conciliation was promptly laid aside. Two weeks of precious time had been
+lost, the capital was beyond doubt impregnable, and the unpleasant fact
+stared the prince in the face that, after leaving a sufficient force to
+garrison it, the constable and Guise might still march out with an army
+outnumbering his own.[206] On the tenth of December the Huguenot army
+broke up its encampment, and moved in the direction of Chartres,
+hesitating at first whether to lay siege to that city or to press on to
+Normandy in order to obtain the needed funds and support of the English.
+The decision was made in a few days to adopt the latter course, and Conde
+had proceeded as far as the vicinity of Dreux on the river Eure, when he
+found himself confronted by the enemy, who, enjoying the advantage of
+possessing the cities and bridges on the route, could advance with greater
+ease by the principal roads. The triumvirs, so lately declining battle in
+front of Paris, were now as eager as they had before been reluctant to try
+their fortunes in the open field. No longer having the King of Navarre
+behind whose name and authority to take shelter, they desired to cover
+their designs by the queen mother's instructions. So, before bringing on
+the first regular engagement, in which two armies of Frenchmen were to
+undertake each other's destruction, they had sent Michel de Castelnau, the
+well-known historian, on the fifteenth of December, to inquire of
+Catharine de' Medici whether they should give the Huguenots battle. But
+the queen was too timid, or too cunning, to assume the weighty
+responsibility which they would have lifted from their own shoulders.
+"Nurse," she jestingly exclaimed, when Castelnau announced his mission,
+calling to the king's old Huguenot foster-mother who was close at hand,
+"the generals have sent to ask a woman's advice about fighting; pray, what
+is your opinion?" And the envoy could get no more satisfactory answer than
+that the queen mother referred the whole matter to themselves, as
+experienced military men.[207]
+
+[Sidenote: The battle of Dreux, December 19, 1562.]
+
+On the nineteenth of December, 1562, the armies met. The enemy had that
+morning crossed the Eure, and posted himself with sixteen thousand foot
+and two thousand horse, and with twenty-two cannon, between two villages
+covering his wings, and with the city of Dreux and the village of Treon
+behind him as points of refuge in case of defeat. The constable commanded
+the main body of the army. Guise, to rebut the current charge of being the
+sole cause of the war, affected to lead only his own company of horse in
+the right wing, which was under Marshal Saint Andre. The prince's army was
+decidedly inferior in numbers; for, although he had four thousand
+horse,[208] his infantry barely amounted to seven thousand or eight
+thousand men, and he had only five pieces of artillery. Yet the first
+movements of the Huguenots were brilliant and effective. Conde, with a
+body of French horse, fell upon the battalion of Swiss pikes. It was a
+furious onset, long remembered as one of the most magnificent cavalry
+charges of the age.[209] Nothing could stand before it. The solid phalanx
+was pierced through and through, and the German reiters, pouring into the
+way opened by the French, rode to and fro, making havoc of the brave but
+defenceless mountaineers. They even penetrated to the rear, and plundered
+the camp of the enemy, carrying off the plate from Guise's tent. Meanwhile
+Coligny was even more successful than the prince. With a part of the
+Huguenot right he attacked and scattered the troops surrounding his
+uncle, the constable. In the melee Montmorency himself, while fighting
+with his usual courage, had his jaw fractured by a pistol-shot, and was
+taken prisoner. But now the tide turned. The Swiss, never for a moment
+dreaming of retreat or surrender, had promptly recovered from their
+confusion and closed their ranks. The German infantry, or lansquenets,
+were brought up to the attack, but first hesitated, and then broke before
+the terrible array of pikes. D'Andelot, ill with fever, had thus far been
+forced to remain a mere spectator of the contest. But now, seeing the
+soldiers whom he had been at such pains to bring to the scene of action in
+ignominious retreat, he threw himself on his horse and labored with
+desperation to rally them. His pains were thrown away. The lansquenets
+continued their course, and D'Andelot, who scarcely escaped falling into
+the enemy's hands, probably concurred in the verdict pronounced on them by
+a contemporary historian, that no more cowardly troops had entered the
+country in fifty years.[210] It was at this moment that the Duke of Guise,
+who had with difficulty held his impatient horse in reserve on the Roman
+Catholic right, gave the signal to his company to follow him, and fell
+upon the French infantry of the Huguenots, imprudently left unprotected by
+cavalry at some distance in the rear. The move was skilfully planned and
+well executed. The infantry were routed. Conde, coming to the rescue, was
+unable to accomplish anything. His horse was killed under him, and, before
+he could be provided with another, he was taken prisoner by Damville, a
+son of the constable. The German reiters now proved to be worth little
+more than the lansquenets. Returning from the pursuit of the fugitives of
+the constable's division, and perceiving the misfortunes of the infantry,
+they retired to the cover of a wood, and neither the prayers nor the
+expostulations of the admiral could prevail on them to face the enemy
+again that day.[211] But Guise could not follow up his advantage. The
+battle had lasted five hours. Almost the whole of the Huguenot cavalry and
+the remnants of the infantry had been drawn up by Coligny in good order on
+the other side of a ravine; and the darkness would not allow the Duke,
+even had he been so disposed, to renew the engagement.[212]
+
+On either side the loss had been severe. Marshal Saint Andre,
+Montberon--one of the constable's sons--and many other illustrious Roman
+Catholics, were killed. Montmorency was a prisoner. The Huguenots, if they
+had lost fewer prominent men and less common soldiers, were equally
+deprived of their leading general. What was certain was, that the
+substantial fruits of victory remained in the hands of the Duke of Guise,
+to whom naturally the whole glory of the achievement was ascribed. For,
+although Admiral Coligny thought himself sufficiently strong to have
+attacked the enemy on the following day,[213] if he could have persuaded
+his crestfallen German auxiliaries to follow him, he deemed it advisable
+to abandon the march into Normandy--difficult under any circumstances on
+account of the lateness of the season--and to conduct his army back to
+Orleans. This, Coligny--never more skilful than in conducting the most
+difficult of all military operations, a retreat in the presence of an
+enemy--successfully accomplished.[214]
+
+The first tidings of the battle of Dreux were brought to Paris by
+fugitives from the constable's corps. These announced the capture of the
+commanding general, and the entire rout of the Roman Catholic army. The
+populace, intense in its devotion to the old form of faith, and
+recognizing the fatal character of such a blow,[215] was overwhelmed with
+discouragement. But Catharine de' Medici displayed little emotion. "Very
+well!" she quietly remarked, "_then we shall pray to God in French_."[216]
+But the truth was soon known, and the dirge and the _miserere_ were
+rapidly replaced by the loud _te deum_ and by jubilant processions in
+honor of the signal success of the Roman Catholic arms.[217]
+
+[Sidenote: Riotous conduct of the Parisian mob.]
+
+Recovering from their panic, the Parisian populace continued to testify
+their unimpeachable orthodoxy by daily murders. It was enough, a
+contemporary writer tells us, if a boy, seeing a man in the streets, but
+called out, "Voyla ung Huguenot," for straightway the idle vagabonds, the
+pedlers, and porters would set upon him with stones. Then came out the
+handicraftsmen and idle apprentices with swords, and thrust him through
+with a thousand wounds. His dead body, having been robbed of clothes, was
+afterward taken possession of by troops of boys, who asked nothing better
+than to "trail" him down to the Seine and throw him in. If the victim
+chanced to be a "town-dweller," the Parisians entered his house and
+carried off all his goods, and his wife and children were fortunate if
+they escaped with their lives. With the best intentions, Marshal
+Montmorency could not put a stop to these excesses; he scarcely succeeded
+in protecting the households of foreign ambassadors from being involved in
+the fate of French Protestants.[218] Yet the same men that were ready at
+any time to imbue their hands in the blood of an innocent Huguenot, were
+full of commiseration for a Roman Catholic felon. A shrewd murderer is
+said to have turned to his own advantage the religious feeling of the
+people who had flocked to see him executed. "Ah! my masters," he exclaimed
+when already on the fatal ladder, "I must die now for killing a Huguenot
+who despised our Lady; but as I have served our Lady always truly, and put
+my trust in her, so I trust now she will show some miracle for me."
+Thereupon, reports Sir Thomas Smith, the people began to murmur about his
+having to die for a Huguenot, ran to the gallows, beat the hangman, and
+having cut the fellow's cords, conveyed him away free.[219]
+
+[Sidenote: Orleans invested.]
+
+[Sidenote: Coligny returns to Normandy.]
+
+Of the triumvirs, at whose instigation the war had arisen, one was
+dead,[220] a second was a prisoner in the hands of the enemy, the
+third--the Duke of Guise--alone remained. Navarre had died a month before.
+On the other hand, the Huguenots had lost their chief. Yet the war raged
+without cessation. As soon as the Duke of Guise had collected his army and
+had, at Rambouillet, explained to the king and court, who had come out to
+meet him, the course of recent events, he followed the Admiral toward
+Orleans. Invested by the king with the supreme command during the
+captivity of the constable, and leading a victorious army, he speedily
+reduced Etampes and Pithiviers, captured by Conde on his march to Paris.
+Meantime, Coligny had taken a number of places in the vicinity of Orleans,
+and his "black riders" had become the terror of the papists of
+Sologne.[221] Not long after Guise's approach, fearing that his design was
+to besiege the city of Orleans, Coligny threw himself into it. His stay
+was not long, however. His German cavalry could do nothing in case of a
+siege, and would only be a burden to the citizens. Besides, he was in want
+of funds to pay them. He resolved, therefore, to strike boldly for
+Normandy.[222] Having persuaded the reiters to dispense with their heavy
+baggage-wagons,[223] which had proved so great an incumbrance on the
+previous march, he started from Orleans on the first of February with four
+thousand troopers, leaving his brother D'Andelot as well furnished as
+practicable to sustain the inevitable siege. The lightness of his army's
+equipment precluded the possibility of pursuit; its strength secured it an
+almost undisputed passage.[224] In a few days it had passed Dreux and the
+scene of the late battle, and at Dives, on the opposite side of the
+estuary of the Seine from Havre, had received from the English the
+supplies of money which they had long been desirous of finding means to
+convey to the Huguenots.[225] The only considerable forces of the Guise
+faction in Normandy were on the banks of the river, too busy watching the
+English at Havre to be able to spare any troops to resist Coligny. Turning
+his attention to the western shores of the province, he soon succeeded in
+reducing Pont-l'Eveque, Caen, Bayeux, Saint Lo, and the prospect was
+brilliant of his soon being able, in conjunction with Queen Elizabeth's
+troops, to bring all Normandy over to the side of the prince.[226]
+Meanwhile, however, there were occurring in the centre of the kingdom
+events destined to give an entirely different turn to the relations of the
+Huguenots and papists in France. To these we must now direct our
+attention.
+
+Francois de Guise, relieved of the admiral's presence, had begun the siege
+of Orleans four days after the departure of the latter for Normandy (on
+the fifth of February), and manifested the utmost determination to destroy
+the capital city, as it might be regarded, of the confederates. Indeed,
+when the court, then sojourning at Blois, in alarm at the reports sent by
+Marshal de Brissac from Rouen, respecting Coligny's conquests and his own
+impotence to oppose him, ordered Guise to abandon his undertaking and
+employ his forces in crushing out the flames that had so unexpectedly
+broken forth in Normandy, the duke declined to obey until he should have
+received further orders, and gave so cogent reasons for pursuing the
+siege, that the king and his council willingly acquiesced in his
+plan.[227] From his independent attitude, however, it is evident that
+Guise was of Pasquier's mind, and believed he had gained as much of a
+victory in the capture of the constable, his friend in arms, but dangerous
+rival at court, taken by the Huguenots at Dreux, as by the capture of the
+Prince of Conde, his enemy, who had fallen into his hands in the same
+engagement.[228]
+
+[Sidenote: Capture of the Portereau.]
+
+The city of Orleans, on the north bank of the Loire, was protected by
+walls originally of no great worth, but considerably strengthened since
+the outbreak of the civil war. On the opposite side of the river, a
+suburb, known as the _Portereau_, was fortified by weaker walls, in front
+of which two large bastions had recently been erected. The suburb was
+connected with Orleans by means of a bridge across the Loire, of which the
+end toward the Portereau was defended by two towers of the old mediaeval
+construction, known as the "tourelles," and that toward the city by the
+city wall and a large square tower.[229] Against the Portereau the duke
+directed the first assault, hoping easily to become master of it, and
+thence attack the city from its weakest side. His plan proved successful
+beyond his expectations. While making a feint of assailing with his whole
+army the bastion held by the Gascon infantry, he sent a party to scale the
+bastion guarded by the German lansquenets, who, being taken by surprise,
+yielded an entrance almost without striking a blow. In a few minutes the
+Portereau was in the hands of Guise, and the bridge was crowded with
+fugitives tumultuously seeking a refuge in the city. Orleans itself was
+nearly involved in the fate of its suburb; for the enemy, following close
+upon the heels of the fleeing host, was at the very threshold of the
+"tourelles," when D'Andelot, called from his sick-bed by the tumult,
+posting himself at the entrance with a few gentlemen in full armor, by
+hard blows beat back the troops, already sanguine of complete
+success.[230] A few days later the "tourelles" themselves were scaled and
+taken.[231]
+
+After so poor a beginning, the small garrison of Orleans had sufficient
+reason to fear the issue of the trial to which they were subjected. But,
+so far from abandoning their courage, they applied themselves with equal
+assiduity to their religious and to their military duties. "In addition to
+the usual sermons and the prayers at the guard-houses, public
+extraordinary prayers were made at six o'clock in the morning; at the
+close of which the ministers and the entire people, without exception,
+betook themselves to work with all their might upon the fortifications,
+until four in the evening, when every one again attended prayers."
+Everywhere the utmost devotion was manifested, women of all ranks sharing
+with their husbands and brothers in the toils of the day, or, if too
+feeble for these active exertions, spending their time in tending the sick
+and wounded.[232]
+
+[Sidenote: "A new and very terrible device."]
+
+Not only did the Huguenots, when they found their supply of lead falling
+short, make their cannon-balls of bell-metal--of which the churches and
+monasteries were doubtless the source--and of brass, but they turned this
+last material to a use till now, it would appear, unheard of. "I have
+learned this day, the fifteenth instant, of the Spaniards," wrote the
+English ambassador from the royal court, which was at a safe distance, in
+the city of Blois, "that they of Orleans shoot brass which is hollow, and
+so devised within that when it falls it opens and breaks into many pieces
+with a great fire, and hurts and kills all who are about it. Which is a
+new device and very terrible, for it pierces the house first, and breaks
+at the last rebound. Every man in Portereau is fain to run away, they
+cannot tell whither, when they see where the shot falls."[233]
+
+[Sidenote: Huguenot reverses.]
+
+It could not, however, be denied that there was much reason for
+discouragement in the general condition of the Protestant cause throughout
+the country. Of the places so brilliantly acquired in the spring of the
+preceding year, the greater part had been lost. Normandy and Languedoc
+were the only bright spots on the map of France. Lyons still remained in
+the power of the Huguenots, in the south-east; but, though repeated
+assaults of the Duke of Nemours had been repulsed, it was threatened with
+a siege, for which it was but indifferently prepared.[234] Des Adrets, the
+fierce chieftain of the lower Rhone, had recently revealed his real
+character more clearly by betraying the cause he had sullied by his
+barbarous advocacy, and was now in confinement.[235] Indeed, everything
+seemed to point to a speedy and complete overthrow of an undertaking which
+had cost so much labor and suffering,[236] when an unexpected event
+produced an entire revolution in the attitude of the contending parties
+and in the purposes of the leaders.
+
+[Sidenote: Assassination of Francois de Guise.]
+
+This event was the assassination of Francois de Guise. On the evening of
+the eighteenth of February, 1563, in company with a gentleman or two, he
+was riding the round of his works, and arranging for a general attack on
+the morrow. So confident did he feel of success, that he had that morning
+written to the queen mother, it is said, that within twenty-four hours he
+would send her news of the capture of Orleans, and that he intended to
+destroy the entire population, making no discrimination of age or sex,
+that the very memory of the rebellious city might be obliterated.[237] At
+a lonely spot on the road, a man on horseback, who had been lying in wait
+for him, suddenly made his appearance, and, after discharging a pistol at
+him from behind, rode rapidly off, before the duke's escort, taken up with
+the duty of assisting him, had had time to make any attempt to apprehend
+the assassin. Three balls, with which the pistol was loaded, had lodged in
+Guise's shoulder, and the wound, from the first considered dangerous,
+proved mortal within six days. The murderer had apparently made good his
+escape; but a strange fatality seemed to attend him. During the darkness
+he became so confused that, after riding all night, he found himself
+almost at the very place where the deed of blood had been committed, and
+was compelled to rest himself and his jaded horse at a house, where he was
+arrested on suspicion by some of Guise's soldiers. Taken before their
+superior officers, he boldly avowed his guilt, and boasted of what he had
+done. His name he gave as Jean Poltrot, and he claimed to be lord of
+Merey, in Angoumois; but he was better known, from his dark complexion and
+his familiarity with the Spanish language, by the sobriquet of
+"L'Espagnolet." He was an excitable, melancholy man, whose mind,
+continually brooding over the wrongs his country and faith had experienced
+at the hands of Guise, had imbibed the fanatical notion that it was his
+special calling of God to rid the world of "the butcher of Vassy," of the
+single execrable head that was accountable for the torrents of blood which
+had for a year been flowing in every part of France.
+
+After having been a page of M. d'Aubeterre, father-in-law of the Huguenot
+leader Soubise, Merey, at the beginning of the civil war, had been sent by
+the daughter of D'Aubeterre to her husband, then with Conde at Orleans.
+Subsequently he had accompanied Soubise on his adventurous ride with a few
+followers from Orleans to Lyons, when the latter assumed command in behalf
+of the Huguenots. Soubise appears to have valued him highly as one of
+those reckless youths that court rather than shun personal peril, while he
+shared the common impression that the lad was little better than a fool.
+True, for years--ever since the tumult of Amboise, where his kinsman, La
+Renaudie and another relative had been killed--Merey had been constantly
+boasting to all whom he met that he would kill the Duke of Guise; but
+those who heard him "made no more account of his words than if he had
+boasted of his intention to obtain the imperial crown."[238]
+
+He had given expression to his purpose at Lyons, in the presence of M. de
+Soubise, the Huguenot governor, and again to Admiral Coligny before he
+started on his expedition to Normandy. But the Huguenot generals evidently
+imagined that there was nothing in the speech beyond the prating of a
+silly braggart. Soubise, indeed, advised him to attend to his own duties,
+and to leave the deliverance of France to Almighty God; but neither the
+admiral nor the soldiers, to whom he often repeated the threat, paid any
+attention to it. In short, he was regarded as one of those frivolous
+characters, of whom there is an abundance in every camp, who expect to
+acquire a cheap notoriety by extravagant stories of their past or
+prospective achievements, but never succeed in earning more, with all
+their pains, than the contempt or incredulity of their listeners. Still,
+Poltrot was a man of some value as a scout, and Coligny had employed
+him[239] for the purpose of obtaining information respecting the enemy's
+movements, and had furnished him at one time with twenty crowns to defray
+his expenses, at another with a hundred, to procure himself a horse. The
+spy had made his way to the Roman Catholic camp, and, by pretending to
+follow the example of others in renouncing his Huguenot associations, had
+conciliated the duke's favor to such an extent that he excited no
+suspicion before the commission of the treacherous act.
+
+[Sidenote: Execution of Poltrot.]
+
+But, if Poltrot was a fanatic, he was not of the stuff of which martyrs
+are made. When questioned in the presence of the queen and council to
+discover his accomplices, his constancy wholly forsook him, and he said
+whatever was suggested. In particular he accused the admiral of having
+paid him to execute the deed, and Beza of having instigated him by holding
+forth the rewards of another world. La Rochefoucauld, Soubise, and others
+were criminated to a minor degree. During his confinement in the prisons
+of the Parisian parliament, to which he was removed, he continually
+contradicted himself. But his weakness did not save him. He was condemned
+to be burned with red-hot pincers, to be torn asunder by four horses, and
+to be quartered. Before the execution of this frightful sentence, he was,
+by order of the court, put to torture. But, instead of reiterating his
+former accusations, he retracted almost every point.[240] To purchase a
+few moments' reprieve, he sought an interview with the first president of
+the parliament, Christopher de Thou; and we have it upon the authority of
+that magistrate's son, the author of an imperishable history of his times,
+that, entering into greater detail, Poltrot persisted constantly in
+exculpating Soubise, Coligny, and Beza. A few minutes later, beside
+himself with terror and not knowing what he said in his delirium, he
+declared the admiral to be innocent; then, at the very moment of
+execution, he accused not only him, but his brother, D'Andelot, of whom he
+had said little or nothing before.[241]
+
+[Sidenote: Beza and Coligny are accused, but vindicate themselves.]
+
+Coligny heard in Normandy the report of the atrocious charges that had
+been wrung from Poltrot. Copies of the assassin's confession were
+industriously circulated in the camp, and he thus became acquainted with
+the particulars of the accusation. With Beza and La Rochefoucauld, who
+were with him at Caen, he published, on the twelfth of March, a long and
+dignified defence. The reformer for himself declared, that, although he
+had more than once seen persons ill-disposed toward the Duke of Guise
+because of the murders perpetrated by him at Vassy, he had never been in
+favor of proceeding against him otherwise than by the ordinary methods of
+law. For this reason he had gone to Monceaux to solicit justice of
+Charles, of his mother, and of the King of Navarre. But the hopes which
+the queen mother's gracious answer had excited were dashed to the earth by
+Guise's violent resort to arms. Holding the duke to be the chief author
+and promoter of the present troubles, he admitted that he had a countless
+number of times prayed to God that He would either change his heart or rid
+the kingdom of him. But he appealed to the testimony of Madame de Ferrare
+(Renee de France, the mother-in-law of Guise), and all who had ever heard
+him, when he said that never had he publicly mentioned the duke by name.
+As for Poltrot himself, he had never met him.
+
+The admiral himself was not less frank. Ever since the massacre of Vassy
+he had regarded Guise and his party as common enemies of God, of the king,
+and of the public tranquillity; but never, upon his life and his honor,
+had he approved of such attacks as that of Poltrot. Indeed, he had
+steadfastly employed his influence to deter men from executing any plots
+against the life of the duke; until, being duly informed that Guise and
+Saint Andre had incited men to undertake to assassinate Conde, D'Andelot,
+and himself, he had desisted from expressing his opposition. The different
+articles of the confession he proceeded to answer one by one; and he
+forwarded his reply to the court with a letter to Catharine de' Medici, in
+which he earnestly entreated her that the life of Poltrot might be spared
+until the restoration of peace, that he might be confronted with him, and
+an investigation be made of the entire matter before unsuspected judges.
+"But do not imagine," he added, "that I speak thus because of any regret
+for the death of the Duke of Guise, which I esteem the greatest of
+blessings to the realm, to the Church of God, to myself and my family,
+and, if improved, the means of giving rest to the kingdom."[242]
+
+The admiral's frankness was severely criticised by some of his friends. He
+was advised to suppress those expressions that were liable to be perverted
+to his injury, but he declared his resolution to abide by the consequences
+of a clear statement of the truth. And indeed, while the worldly wisdom of
+Coligny's censors has received a species of justification in the avidity
+with which his sincere avowals have been employed as the basis of graver
+accusations which he repelled, the candor of his defence has set upon his
+words the indelible impress of veracity which following ages can never
+fail to read aright. That Catharine recognized his innocence is evident
+from the very act by which she endeavored to make him appear guilty. He
+had begged that Poltrot might be spared till after the conclusion of
+peace, that he might himself have an opportunity to vindicate his
+innocence by confronting him in the presence of impartial judges. It was
+Catharine's interest, she thought, to confirm her own power by attaching a
+stigma to the honor of the Chatillons, and so depriving them of much of
+their influence in the state.[243] Accordingly, on Thursday, the
+eighteenth of March, Poltrot was put to death and his mouth sealed forever
+to further explanations. _The next day the Edict of Pacification was
+signed at Amboise._[244] After all, it is evident that Coligny's innocence
+or guilt, in this particular instance, must be judged by his entire course
+and his well-known character. If his life bears marks of perfidy and
+duplicity, if the blood of the innocent can be found upon his skirts, then
+must the verdict of posterity be against him. But if the careful
+examination of his entire public life, as well as the history of his
+private relations, reveals a character not only above reproach, but the
+purest, most beneficent, and most patriotic of all that France can boast
+in political stations in the sixteenth century, the confused and
+contradictory allegations of an enthusiast who had not counted the cost of
+his daring attempt--allegations wrung from him by threats and
+torture--will not be allowed to weigh for an instant against Coligny's
+simple denial.[245]
+
+[Sidenote: Various estimates of Guise.]
+
+Of the Duke of Guise the estimates formed by his contemporaries differed
+as widely as their political and religious views. With the Abbe Bruslart
+he was "the most virtuous, heroic, and magnanimous prince in Europe, who
+for his courage was dreaded by all foreign nations." To the author of the
+history of the reformed churches his ambition and presumption seemed to
+have obscured all his virtues.[246] The Roman Catholic preachers regarded
+his death as a stupendous calamity, a mystery of Divine providence, which
+they could only interpret by supposing that the Almighty, jealous of the
+confidence which His people reposed rather in His creature than in
+Himself, had removed the Duke of Guise in order to take the cause of His
+own divinity, of His spouse the Church, of the king and kingdom, under His
+own protection.[247] The Bishop of Riez wrote and published a highly
+colored account of the duke's last words and actions, in the most approved
+style of such posthumous records, and introduced edifying specimens of a
+theological learning, which, until the moment of his wounding, Guise had
+certainly never possessed, making him, of course, persist to the end in
+protesting his innocence of the guilt of Vassy.[248] The Protestants,
+while giving him credit for some compunctions of conscience for his
+persecuting career, and willingly admitting that, but for his pernicious
+brother, the Cardinal of Lorraine, he might have run a far different
+course, were compelled to view his death as a great blessing to
+France.[249]
+
+[Sidenote: Renee de France at Montargis.]
+
+A famous incident, illustrating the perils to which the Huguenots of the
+central provinces were subjected during the siege, is too characteristic
+to be passed over in silence. More than once, in the course of the war,
+the town and castle of Montargis, the Duchess of Ferrara's residence, had
+been threatened on account of the asylum it afforded to defenceless
+Protestants flocking thither from all quarters. When the minds of the
+Roman Catholics had become exasperated by nine or ten months of civil war,
+they formed a settled determination to break up this "nest of Huguenots."
+Accordingly the Baron de la Garde--Captain Poulain, of Merindol
+memory--brought an order, in the king's name, from the Duke of Guise, at
+that time before the walls of Orleans, commanding Renee to leave
+Montargis, which had become important for military purposes, and to take
+up her abode at Fontainebleau, St. Germain, or Vincennes. The duchess
+replied that it was idle to say that so weak a place as Montargis could,
+without extensive repairs, be of any military importance; and that to
+remove to any place in the vicinity of Paris would be to expose herself to
+assassination by the fanatical populace. She therefore sent Poulain back
+to the king for further instructions. Meantime, Poulain was followed by
+Malicorne, a creature of the duke's, at the head of some partisan troops.
+This presumptuous officer had the impertinence to demand the immediate
+surrender of the castle, and went so far as to threaten to turn some
+cannon against it, in case of her refusal. But he little understood the
+virile courage of the woman with whom he had to do. "Malicorne," she
+answered him, "take care what you undertake. There is not a man in this
+kingdom that can command me but the king. If you attempt what you
+threaten, I shall place myself first upon the breach, that I may find out
+whether you will be audacious enough to kill a king's daughter. Moreover,
+I am not so ill-connected, nor so little loved, but that I have the means
+of making the punishment of your temerity felt by you and your offspring,
+even to the very babes in the cradle." The upstart captain was not
+prepared for such a reception, and, after alleging his commission as the
+excuse for the insolence of his conduct, delayed an enterprise which the
+wound and subsequent death of Guise entirely broke off.[250] Montargis
+continued during this and the next civil wars to be a safe refuge for
+thousands of distressed Protestants.
+
+A great obstacle to the conclusion of peace was removed by Guise's death.
+There was no one in the Roman Catholic camp to take his place. The
+panegyric pronounced upon the duke by the English ambassador, Sir Thomas
+Smith, may perhaps be esteemed somewhat extravagant, but has at least the
+merit of coming from one whose sympathies were decidedly adverse to him.
+"The papists have lost their greatest stay, hope, and comfort. Many
+noblemen and gentlemen did follow the camp and that faction, rather for
+the love of him than for any other zeal or affection. He was indeed the
+best captain or general in all France, some will say in all Christendom;
+for he had all the properties which belong [to], or are to be wished in a
+general: a ready wit and well advised, a body to endure pains, a courage
+to forsake no dangerous adventures, use and experience to conduct any
+army, much courtesy in entertaining of all men, great eloquence to utter
+all his mind. And he was very liberal both of money and honor to young
+gentlemen, captains, and soldiers; whereby he gat so much love and
+admiration amongst the nobility and the soldiers in France, that I think,
+now he is gone, many gentlemen will forsake the camp; and they begin to
+drop away already. Then he was so earnest and so fully persuaded in his
+religion, that he thought nothing evil done that maintained that sect; and
+therefore the papists again thought nothing evil bestowed upon him; all
+their money and treasure of the Church, part of their lands, even the
+honor of the crown of France, they could have found in their hearts to
+have given him. And so all their joy, hope, and comfort one little stroke
+of a pistolet hath taken away! Such a vanity God can show men's hope to
+be, when it pleaseth Him."[251]
+
+Of the four generals on the Roman Catholic side under whose auspices the
+war began, three were dead and the fourth was in captivity. The treasury
+was exhausted. The interest of old debts was left unpaid; new debts had
+been contracted. Less than half the king's revenues were available on
+account of the places which the Huguenots held or threatened. The
+alienation of one hundred thousand livres of income from ecclesiastical
+property had been recently ordered, greatly to the annoyance of the
+clergy. The admiral's progress had of late been so rapid that but two or
+three important places of lower Normandy remained in friendly hands.
+After the reduction of these he would move down through Maine and Anjou
+to Orleans, with a better force than had been marshalled at Dreux;[252]
+the English would gain such a foothold on French soil as it would be
+difficult to induce them to relinquish. And where could competent
+generals be secured for the prosecution of hostilities? The post of
+lieutenant-general, now vacant, had, indeed, been offered to the Duke
+Christopher of Wuertemberg; but what prospect was there that a Protestant
+would consent to conduct a war against Protestants?[253]
+
+[Sidenote: Deliberations for peace.]
+
+Catharine was urgent for an immediate conclusion of peace. For the purpose
+of fixing its conditions, Conde was brought, under a strong guard, to the
+camp of the army before Orleans, and, on the small "Isle aux Bouviers" in
+the middle of the Loire, he and the constable, released on their honor,
+held a preliminary interview on Sunday, the seventh of March, 1563.[254]
+At first there seemed little prospect of harmonizing their discordant
+pretensions; for, if the question of the removal of the triumvirs had lost
+all its practical importance, the old bone of contention remained in the
+re-establishment of the Edict of January. On this point Montmorency was
+inflexible. He had been the prime instrument in expelling Protestantism
+from Paris, and had distinguished himself by burning the places of
+worship. It could hardly be expected that he should rebuild what he had so
+laboriously torn down. And, whatever had been his first intentions, Conde
+proved less tenacious than might have been anticipated from his previous
+professions. The fact was, that the younger Bourbon was not proof against
+the wiles employed with so much success against his elder brother.
+Flattered by Catharine, he was led to suppose that after all it made
+little difference whether the full demands of the Huguenots were expressly
+granted in the edict of pacification or not. The queen mother was
+resolved, so he was assured, to confer upon him the dignity and office of
+lieutenant-general, left vacant by Navarre's death. When this should be
+his, it would be easy to obtain every practical concession to which the
+Huguenots were entitled. So much pleased was the court with the ardor he
+displayed, that he was at last permitted to go to Orleans on his own
+princely parole, in order to consult his confederates.
+
+The Huguenot ministers whose advice he first asked, seeing his
+irresolution, were the more decided in opposing any terms that did not
+expressly recognize the Edict of January. Seventy-two united in a letter
+(on the ninth of March, 1563), in which they begged him not to permit the
+cause to suffer disaster at his hands, and rather to insure an extension,
+than submit to an abridgment of the liberty promised by the royal
+ordinance.[255] From the ministers, however, Conde went to the Huguenot
+"noblesse," with whom his arguments of expediency had more weight, and
+who, weary of the length and privations of the war, and content with
+securing their own privileges, readily accepted the conditions reprobated
+by the ministers. The pacification was accordingly agreed upon, on the
+twelfth of March, and officially published in the form of a royal edict,
+dated at Amboise, on the nineteenth of March, 1563.
+
+[Sidenote: Edict of Pacification, March 12, 1563.]
+
+Charles the Ninth, by advice of his mother, the Cardinal of Bourbon, the
+Princes of Conde and La Roche-sur-Yon, the Dukes of Montmorency, Aumale,
+and Montpensier, and other members of his privy council, grants, in this
+document, to all barons, chatellains, and gentlemen possessed of the right
+to administer "haute justice," permission to celebrate in their own houses
+the worship of "the religion which they call reformed" in the presence of
+their families and retainers. The possessors of minor fiefs could enjoy
+the same privilege, but it extended to their families only. In every
+bailiwick or senechaussee, the Protestants should, on petition, receive
+one city in whose suburbs their religious services might be held, and in
+all cities where the Protestant religion was exercised on the seventh of
+March of the present year, it should continue in one or two places
+_inside_ of the walls, to be designated hereafter by the king. The
+Huguenots, while secured in their liberty of conscience, were to restore
+all churches and ecclesiastical property which they might have seized, and
+were forbidden to worship according to their rites in the city of Paris or
+its immediate neighborhood. The remaining articles of the peace were of a
+more personal or temporary interest. Foreign troops were to be speedily
+dismissed; the Protestant lords to be fully reinstated in their former
+honors, offices, and possessions; prisoners to be released; insults based
+upon the events of the war to be summarily punished. And Charles declared
+that he held his good cousin, the Prince of Conde, and all the other
+lords, knights, gentlemen, and burgesses that had served under him, to be
+his faithful subjects, believing that what they had done was for good ends
+and for his service.[256]
+
+[Sidenote: Sir Thomas Smith's remonstrance.]
+
+Such was the Edict of Amboise--a half-way measure, very different from
+that which was desired on either side. The English ambassador declared he
+could find no one, whether Protestant or papist, that liked the "accord,"
+or thought it would last three weeks. And he added, by way of warning to
+Coligny and Conde: "What you, who are the heads and rulers, do, I cannot
+tell; but every man thinketh that it is but a traine and a deceipt to
+sever the one of you from another, and all of you from this stronghold
+[Orleans], and then thei will talke with you after another sorte."[257] He
+urged the Huguenots to learn a lesson from the fate of Bourges, Rouen, and
+other cities which had admitted the "papists," and to consider that these
+fine articles came from the queen mother, the Cardinals of Bourbon,
+Ferrara, and Guise, and others like them, who desired to take the
+Protestants like fish in a net. And he gave D'Andelot the significant
+hint--very significant it was, in view of what afterwards befell his
+brother Gaspard--that the report spread by the enemy respecting Poltrot's
+confession was only a preparation that, _in case any of the Huguenot
+noblemen should be assassinated, it might be said that the deed had been
+done in just revenge by the Guises_, who would not hesitate to sacrifice
+them either by force or by treason.[258]
+
+[Sidenote: Coligny's disappointment.]
+
+Of the other party, Catharine de' Medici alone was jubilant over the
+edict. On the contrary, the Roman Catholic people of Paris regarded it as
+an approval of every sort of impiety and wicked action, and the parliament
+would register it only after repeated commands (on the twenty-seventh of
+March), and then with a formal declaration of its reluctance.[259] But no
+one was so much disappointed as the admiral. Hastening from Normandy to
+Orleans, he reached that city on the twenty-third of March, only to find
+that the peace had been fully concluded several days before. In the
+council of the confederates, the next day, he spoke his mind freely. He
+reminded Conde that, from the very commencement of hostilities, the
+triumvirs had offered the restoration of the Edict of January with the
+exclusion of the city of Paris; and that never had affairs stood on a
+better footing than now,[260] when two of the three chief authors of the
+war were dead, and the third was a prisoner. But the poor had surpassed
+the rich in devotion; the cities had given the example to the nobles. In
+restricting the number of churches to one in a bailiwick, the prince and
+his counsellors had ruined more churches by a single stroke of the pen
+than all the forces of their enemies could have overthrown in ten years.
+Coligny's warm remonstrance was heard with some regret for the
+precipitancy with which the arrangement had been made; but it was too
+late. The peace was signed. Besides, Conde was confident that he would
+soon occupy his brother's place, when the Huguenots would obtain all their
+demands.
+
+But while the prince refused to draw back from the articles of peace to
+which he had pledged himself, he consented to visit the queen mother in
+company with the admiral, and endeavor to remove some of the restrictions
+placed upon Protestant worship. And Catharine was too well satisfied with
+her success in restoring peace, to refuse the most pressing of the
+admiral's requests. However, she took good care that none of her promises
+should be in writing, much less be incorporated in the Edict of
+Pacification. "The prince and the admyrall," wrote the special envoy
+Middlemore to Queen Elizabeth, "have bene twice with the quene mother
+since my commynge hyther, where the admirall hath bene very earnest for a
+further and larger lybertye in the course of religion, and so hath
+obtayned that there shall be preachings within the townes in every
+balliage, wheras before yt was accordyd but in the suburbs of townes only,
+and that the gentylmen of the visconte and provoste of Parys shall have in
+theyr houses the same libertye of religion as ys accordyd elzwhere. So as
+the sayd admyrall doth now seame to lyke well inoughe that he shewyd by
+the waye to mislyke so muche, which was the harde articles of religion
+concludyd upon by the prince in his absence."[261]
+
+On Sunday, the twenty-eighth of March, 1563--the anniversary of that
+Sunday which they had kept with so much solemnity at Meaux, on the eve of
+their march to Orleans--the Huguenot nobles and soldiers celebrated the
+Lord's Supper, in the simple but grand forms of the Geneva liturgy, within
+the walls of the church of the Holy Rood, long since stripped of its
+idolatrous ornaments, and on the morrow began to disperse to the homes
+from which for a year they had been separated.[262] The German reiters, at
+the same time, set out on their march toward Champagne, whence they soon
+after retired to their own country.
+
+[Sidenote: Results of the war.]
+
+The war that had just closed undoubtedly constituted a turning-point in
+the Huguenot fortunes. The alliance between the persecuted reformers, on
+the one hand, and the princes of the blood and the nobility of France, on
+the other, had borne fruit, and it was not altogether good fruit. The
+patient confessors, after manfully maintaining their faith through an
+entire generation against savage attack, and gaining many a convert from
+the witnesses of their constancy, had grasped the sword thrust into their
+hands by their more warlike allies. In truth, it would be difficult to
+condemn them; for it was in self-defence, not against rightful authority,
+but against the tyranny of a foreign and hostile faction. Candidly viewing
+their circumstances at the distance of three centuries, we can scarcely
+see how they could have acted otherwise than as they did. Yet there was
+much that, humanly speaking, was unfortunate in the conjuncture. War is a
+horrible remedy at any time. Civil war super-adds a thousand horrors of
+its own. And a civil war waged in the name of religion is the most
+frightful of all. The holiest of causes is sure to be embraced from impure
+motives by a host of unprincipled men, determined in their choice of party
+only by the hope of personal gain, the lust of power, or the thirst for
+revenge--a class of auxiliaries too powerful and important to be
+altogether rejected in an hour when the issues of life or death are
+pending, even if by the closest and calmest scrutiny they could be
+thoroughly weeded out--a process beyond the power of mortal man at any
+time, much more in the midst of the tumult and confusion of war. The
+Huguenots had made the attempt at Orleans, and had not shrunk from
+inflicting the severest punishments, even to death, for the commission of
+theft and other heinous crimes. They had endeavored in their camp to
+realize the model of an exemplary Christian community. But they had
+failed, because there were with them those who, neither in peace nor in
+war, could bring themselves to give to so strict a moral code any other
+obedience than that which fear exacts. Such was the misery of war. Such
+the melancholy alternative to which, more than once, the reformed saw
+themselves reduced, of perishing by persecution or of saving themselves by
+exposing their faith to reproach through alliance with men of as little
+religion or morality as any in the opposite camp.
+
+[Sidenote: It prevents France from becoming Huguenot.]
+
+The first civil war prevented France from becoming a Huguenot country.
+This was the deliberate conclusion of a Venetian ambassador, who enjoyed
+remarkable opportunities for observing the history of his times.[263] The
+practice of the Christian virtue of patience and submission under
+suffering and insult had made the reformers an incredible number of
+friends. The waging of war, even in self-defence, and the reported acts of
+wanton destruction, of cruelty and sacrilege--it mattered little whether
+they were true or false, they were equally credited and produced the same
+results--turned the indifference of the masses into positive aversion. It
+availed the Huguenots little in the estimate of the people that the crimes
+that were almost the rule with their opponents were the exception with
+them; that for a dozen such as Montluc, they were cursed with but one
+Baron des Adrets; that the barbarities of the former received the
+approbation of the Roman Catholic priesthood, while those of the latter
+were censured with vehemence by the Protestant ministers. Partisan spirit
+refused to hold the scales of justice with equal hand, and could see no
+proofs of superior morality or devotion in the adherents of the reformed
+faith.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+ [Sidenote: Huguenot ballads and songs.]
+
+ Besides their psalms, hallowed by so many thrilling
+ associations, the Huguenots possessed a whole cycle of song.
+ The meagre portion of this that has come down to us is among
+ the most valuable of the monuments illustrative of their modes
+ of thought and their religious and political aspirations. At
+ the same time it brings vividly before us the great crises of
+ their history. M. Henri Bordier has done a service not easily
+ estimated at its full worth, by the publication of a
+ considerable collection of the popular songs of the
+ Protestants, under the title, "Le Chansonnier Huguenot du XVIe
+ Siecle" (Paris, 1871). These songs are grouped in four
+ divisions: religious songs, polemic and satirical songs, songs
+ of war, and songs of martyrdom.
+
+ The three oldest Huguenot songs known to exist belong to the
+ first two divisions, and have been saved from destruction by
+ the enemies of their authors, in the very attempt to secure
+ their suppression. They have recently been found upon the
+ records of the Parliament of Paris, where they obtained a
+ place, thanks to the zeal of the "lieutenant general" of Meaux
+ in endeavoring to ferret out the composers of anti-papal
+ ballads. They were entered, without regard to metre, as so
+ much prose. A stanza or two of the song entitled _Chanson
+ nouvelle sur le chant: "N'allez plus au bois jouer,"_ and
+ evidently adapted to the tune of a popular ballad of the day,
+ may suffice to indicate the character of the most vigorous of
+ these compositions. It is addressed to Michel d'Arande, a
+ friend of Farel, whom Bishop Briconnet had invited to preach
+ the Gospel in his diocese of Meaux, and begins:
+
+ Ne preschez plus la verite,
+ Maistre Michel!
+ Contenue en l'Evangille,
+ Il y a trop grand danger
+ D'estre mene
+ Dans la Conciergerie.
+ Lire, lire, lironfa.
+
+ Il y a trop grand danger
+ D'estre mene
+ Dans la Conciergerie
+ Devant les chapperons fourrez
+ Mal informez
+ Par gens plains de menterie.
+ Lire, lire, lironfa.
+
+ The "chants religieux," of which M. Bordier's collection
+ reproduces twenty-five, are partly poetical paraphrases of the
+ Ten Commandments, the Lord's Prayer, etc., and partly original
+ compositions on a variety of themes, such as patient endurance
+ of insult, etc. They display great familiarity with the Holy
+ Scriptures, and sometimes not a little poetic fire.
+
+ The "chants polemiques" treat of a number of subjects,
+ prominent among which are the monks and nuns, and the
+ doctrines of the papal church. In one the expiring papacy is
+ represented as summoning to her bedside cardinals, bishops,
+ and other members of the clergy, to witness her last
+ struggles. In another the Sorbonne is held up to ridicule, in
+ company with all the mediaeval doctors of theology. In a third
+ the poet more seriously combats the belief in purgatory as
+ unscriptural. But it is the mass that bears the brunt of
+ attack. The Host figures under the designation, current in the
+ literature of the sixteenth century,[264] of _Le Dieu de
+ Pate_, or _Le Dieu de Farine_. The pompous and complicated
+ ceremonial, with its repetitions devoid of meaning for the
+ illiterate spectator, is, on the whole, the favorite object of
+ satire. In strict accordance with the spirit of the rough
+ controversy of the times, little mercy is shown to religious
+ antagonists. There is a good specimen of this style of
+ treatment in an interesting song dating from about 1564,
+ entitled "Noel nouveau de la description ou forme et maniere
+ de dire la Messe, sur ce chant: Hari, bouriquet." Of the
+ fifteen stanzas of which it is composed, two or three may
+ serve as samples. The preliminary service over, the priest
+ comes to the consecration of the wafer:
+
+ Un morceau de paste
+ Il fait adorer;
+ Le rompt de sa patte
+ Pour le devorer,
+ Le gourmand qu'il est.
+ Hari, hari l'asne, le gourmand qu'il est,
+ Hari bouriquet!
+
+ Le Dieu qu'il faict faire,
+ La bouche le prend;
+ Le coeur le digere,
+ Le ventre le rend,
+ Au fond du retrait!
+ Hari, hari l'asne, au fond du retrait,
+ Hari bouriquet!
+
+ Le peuple regarde
+ L'yvrongne pinter
+ Qui pourtant n'a garde
+ De luy presenter
+ A boire un seul traict.
+ Hari, hari l'asne, a boire un seul traict,
+ Hari bouriquet!
+
+ Acheve et despouille
+ Tous ses drapeaux blancs,
+ En sa bourse fouille
+ Et y met six blancs.
+ C'est de peur du frais.
+ Hari, hari l'asne, c'est de peur du frais,
+ Hari bouriquet!
+
+ A somewhat older song (written before 1555) purports to be the
+ dirge of the Mass uttered by itself--_Desolation de la Messe
+ expirant en chantant_. The Mass in perplexity knows not how to
+ begin the customary service:
+
+ _Spiritus_, _Salve_, _Requiem_,
+ Je ne scay si je diray bien.
+ Quel _Introite_, n' _Oremus_
+ Je prenne; _Sancti_, _Agimus_.
+ Feray-je des Martyrs ou Vierges?
+ _De ventre ad te clamamus!_
+ Sonnez la, allumez ces cierges:
+ Y a-t-il du pain et du vin?
+
+ Ou est le livre et le calice
+ Pour faire l'office divin?
+ Ca, cest autel, qu'on le tapisse!
+ Helas, la piteuse police.
+ Ame ne me vient secourir.
+ Sans Chapelain, Moine, Novice,
+ Me faudra-il ainsi perir?
+
+ Pope and cardinals are summoned in vain. No one comes, no one
+ will bring reliquary or consecrated wafer. The Mass must
+ finally resign all hope and die:
+
+ Helas chantant, brayant, virant,
+ Tant que le crime romp et blesse
+ Puis que voy tost l'ame expirant,
+ Dites au moins adieu la Messe.
+ A tous faisant mainte promesse
+ Ore ai-je tout mon bien quitte
+ Veu qu'a la mort tens et abaisse
+ _Ite Missa est_; donc _Ite_,
+ _Ite Missa est_.
+
+ The "chants de guerre" furnish a running commentary upon the
+ military events of the last forty years of the sixteenth
+ century, which is not devoid of interest or importance. The
+ hopeful spirit characterizing the earlier ballads is not lost
+ even in the latest; but the brilliant anticipations of a
+ speedy triumph of the truth, found before the outbreak of the
+ first civil war, or immediately thereafter, are lacking in
+ other productions, dating from the close of the reign of Henry
+ the Third. In a spirited song, presumably belonging to 1562,
+ the poet, adopting the nickname of Huguenots given to the
+ Protestants by their opponents, retaliates by applying an
+ equally unwelcome term to the Roman Catholics, and forecasting
+ the speedy overthrow of the papacy:
+
+ Vous appellez Huguenots
+ Ceux qui Jesus veullent suivre,
+ Et n'adorent vos marmots
+ De boys, de pierre et de cuyvre.
+ Hau, Hau, Papegots,
+ Faictes place aux Huguenots.
+
+ Nostre Dieu renversera
+ Vous et vostre loy romaine,
+ Et du tout se mocquera
+ De vostre entreprise vaine.
+ Hau, Hau, Papegots,
+ Faictes place aux Huguenots.
+
+ Vostre Antechrist tombera
+ Hors de sa superbe place
+ Et Christ partout regnera
+ Et sa loy pleine de grace.
+ Hau, Hau, Papegots,
+ Faictes place aux Huguenots.
+
+ The current expectation of the Protestants is attested in a
+ long narrative ballad by Antoine Du Plain on the siege of
+ Lyons (1563), in which Charles the Ninth figures as another
+ Josiah destined to abolish the idolatrous mass:
+
+ Ce Roy va chasser l'Idole
+ Plain de dole
+ Cognoissant un tel forfait:
+ Selon la vertu Royale,
+ Et loyale,
+ Comme Iosias a fait.
+
+ It is noticeable that the words "va chasser l'Idole" are an
+ anagram of the royal title _Charles de Valois_--an anagram
+ which gave the Huguenots no little comfort. The same play upon
+ words appears with a slight variation in a "Huictain au Peuple
+ de Paris, sur l'anagrammatisme du nom du tres-Chrestien Roy de
+ France, Charles de Valois IX. de ce nom" (Recueil des Choses
+ Memorables, 1565, p. 367), of which the last line is,
+
+ "O Gentil Roy qui _chassa leur idole_."
+
+ But after the massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day the hopes of
+ the Huguenots were blighted. If the king is not referred to by
+ name, his mother figures as the guilty cause of all the
+ misfortune of France. She is a second Helen born for the ruin
+ of her adopted country, according to Etienne de Maisonfleur.
+
+ Helene femme estrangere
+ Fut la seule mesnagere
+ Qui ruina Ilion,
+ Et la reine Catherine
+ Est de France la ruine
+ Par l'Oracle de Leon.
+
+ "Leon" is Catharine's uncle, Pope Leo the Tenth, who was said
+ to have predicted the total destruction of whatever house she
+ should be married into. See also the famous libel "Discours
+ merveilleux de la vie de Catherine de Medicis" (Ed. of
+ Cologne, Pierre du Marteau, 1693), p. 609.
+
+ The massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day naturally contributes a
+ considerable fund of laments, etc., to the Huguenot popular
+ poetry of the century. A poem apparently belonging to a more
+ remote date, discovered by Dr. Roullin, and perhaps the only
+ Breton song of the kind that has come down to us, is as simple
+ and unaffected a narrative as any of the modern Greek
+ _moerologia_ (Vaurigaud, Essaie sur l'hist. des eglises ref.
+ de Bretagne, 1870, i. 6). It tells the story of a Huguenot
+ girl betrayed to the executioner by her own mother. In spite
+ of a few dialectic forms, the verses are easily understood.
+
+ Voulz-vous ouir l'histoire
+ D'une fille d'espit
+ Qui n'a pas voulu croire
+ Chose que l'on lui dit.
+
+ --Sa mere dit: "Ma fille,
+ A la messe allons donc!"
+ --"Y aller a la messe,
+ Ma mere, ce n'est qu'abus.
+
+ Apportez-moi mes livres
+ Avec mes beaux saluts.
+ J'aimerais mieux etre brulee
+ Et vantee au grand vent
+
+ Que d'aller a la messe
+ En faussant mon serment."
+ --Quand sa tres-chere mere
+ Eut entendu c' mot la,
+
+ Au bourreau de la ville
+ Sa fille elle livra.
+ "Bourreau, voila ma fille!
+ Fais a tes volontes;
+
+ Bourreau, fais de ma fille
+ Comme d'un meurtrier."
+ Quand elle fut sur l'echelle,
+ Trois rollons ja montee,
+
+ Elle voit sa mere
+ Qui chaudement pleurait.
+ "Ho! la cruelle mere
+ Qui pleure son enfant
+
+ Apres l'avoir livree
+ Dans les grands feux ardents.
+ Vous est bien fait, ma mere,
+ De me faire mourir.
+
+ Je vois Jesus, mon pere,
+ Qui, de son beau royaume,
+ Descend pour me querir.
+ Son royaume sur terre
+ Dans peu de temps viendra,
+ Et cependant mon ame
+ En paradis ira."
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] The nuncio alone seems to have thought that the edict would work so
+well, that "in six months, or a year at farthest, there would not be a
+single Huguenot in France!" His ground of confidence was that many, if not
+most of the reformed, were influenced, not by zeal for religion, but by
+cupidity. Santa Croce to Card. Borromeo, Jan. 17, 1562, Aymon, i. 44;
+Cimber et Danjou, vi. 30.
+
+[2] Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., i. 428, 429. The letter is followed by an
+examination of the edict, article by article, as affecting the
+Protestants. Ib. i. 429-431.
+
+[3] Abbe Bruslart, Mem. de Conde. i. 70. Barbaro spoke the universal
+sentiment of the bigoted wing of the papal party when he described "the
+decree" as "full of concealed poison," as "the most powerful means of
+advancing the new religion," as "an edict so pestiferous and so poisonous,
+that it brought all the calamities that have since occurred." Tommaseo,
+Rel. des Amb. Ven., ii. 72.
+
+[4] Claude Haton, 211. "Et longtemps depuis ne faisoient sermon qu'ilz
+_Acab_ et _Hiesabel_ et leurs persecutions ne fussent mis par eux en
+avant," etc. In fact, Catharine seemed fated to have her name linked to
+that of the infamous Queen of Israel. A Protestant poem, evidently of a
+date posterior to the massacre of Saint Bartholomew, is still extant in
+the National Library of Paris, in which the comparison of the two is drawn
+out at full length. The one was the ruin of Israel, the other of France.
+The one maintained idolatry, the other papacy. The one slew God's holy
+prophets, the other has slain a hundred thousand followers of the Gospel.
+Both have killed, in order to obtain the goods of their victims. But the
+unkindest verses are the last--even the very dogs will refuse to touch
+Catharine's "carrion."
+
+ "En fin le jugement fut tel
+ Que les chiens mengent Jhesabel
+ Par une vangeance divine;
+ Mais la charongne de Catherine
+ Sera differente en ce point,
+ Car les chiens ne la vouldront point."
+
+Appendix to Mem. de Claude Haton, ii. 1, 110.
+
+[5] _Ante_, i. 477.
+
+[6] Mem. de Claude Haton, 211, 212.
+
+[7] Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., i. 431.
+
+[8] Abbe Bruslart, Mem. de Conde. i. 70, 71.
+
+[9] Declaration of Feb. 14, 1561/2, Du Mont, Corps diplomatique, v. 91,
+92.
+
+[10] And, indeed, with modifications which were to render it still more
+severe. Letter of Beza to Calvin, Feb. 26, 1562, Baum, ii., App., 167.
+
+[11] The registry took place on Friday, March 6th. Isambert, xiv. 124; La
+Fosse, 45, who says "Ledict edict fut publie en la salle du palais en ung
+vendredy, 5e [6e] de ce moys, _la ou il y eut bien peu de conseillers et
+le president Baillet qui signerent_."
+
+[12] The same prelate to whom Cardinal Lorraine doubtless referred in no
+complimentary terms, when, at the assembly of the clergy at Poissy, he
+said, "qu'il estoit contrainct de dire, _Duodecim sumus, sed unus ex nobis
+Diabolus est_, et passant plus outre, qu'il y avoit ung evesque de la
+compagnie ... qui avoit revele ce qui se faisoit en laditte assemblee,"
+etc. Journal de Bruslart, Mem. de Conde, i. 50.
+
+[13] See the document in Schlosser, Leben des Theodor de Beze, App.,
+359-361; Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., i. 436, 437.
+
+[14] Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., i. 436-450; Baum, ii. 512-545. In
+connection with Prof. Baum's long and thorough account of the colloquy,
+Beza's correspondence, printed in the appendix, is unusually interesting.
+
+[15] "Cardinalium intercessione ac precibus mox soluta sunt omnia." Beza
+to Bullinger, March 2, 1562. Baum, ii., App., 169.
+
+[16] "Nihil hoc consilio gratius accidere potuit nostris adversariis
+quibus iste ludus minime placebat, adeo ut _ipse Demochares ... pene sui
+oblitus in meos amplexus rueret_, et ejus sodales honorifice me
+salutarent!" Beza to Calvin, Feb. 26, 1562, ibid., 165. The Venetian
+Barbaro represents this second conference as an extremely efficient means
+of spreading heresy: "La qual [in San Germano] apporto un grandissimo
+scandalo e pregiudizio alla religion nostra, e diede alla loro,
+reputazione e fomento maggiore." Rel. des Amb. Ven., ii. 74.
+
+[17] Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., i. 432.
+
+[18] "Qu'il ne s'y mettroit si avant qu'il ne s'en pust aisement tirer."
+Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., _ubi supra_.
+
+[19] See the frank letter of Calvin, written to him about this time, in
+Bonnet, Lettres franc., ii. 441; Calvin's Letters, Amer. ed., iv. 247.
+
+[20] "That pestilent yle of Sardigna!" exclaimed Sir Thomas Smith, a
+clever diplomatist and a nervous writer, "that the pore crowne of it
+should enter so farre into the pore Navarrian hed (which, I durst
+warraunt, shall never ware it), [as to] make him destroy his owen
+countrey, and to forsake the truth knowen!" Forbes, State Papers, ii. 164.
+
+[21] Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., _ubi supra_; De Thou, iii. (liv.
+xxviii.), 96-99.
+
+[22] Letter of Beza to Calvin, Feb. 1, 1562, Baum, ii., App., 163.
+
+[23] Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., i. 433.
+
+[24] Letter to Calvin, Feb. 26, 1562, _apud_ Baum, ii., App., 167, 168.
+
+[25] Ibid., _ubi supra_.
+
+[26] Recordon, Le protestantisme en Champagne (Paris, 1863), from MSS. of
+Nicholas Pithou, p. 105. This learned jurist, the equal of his more
+celebrated brothers in ability, and their superior in moral courage, has
+left his testimony respecting the beneficent influence of the reformed
+doctrines upon his fellow-citizens: "A la verite la ville de Troyes en
+general fit une perte incroyable en la rupture de cette Eglise. Car
+c'etait une grande beaute et chose plus que emerveillable de la voir si
+bien fleurie. Il se voyoit en la jeunesse, touchee par la predication de
+la parole de Dieu, qui auparavant etait si depravee que rien plus, un
+changement si subit et si etrange que les catholiques memes en etoient
+tout etonnes. Car, tels qui au precedent se laissaient aller du tout a
+leurs voluptez et s'etaient plongez en gourmandises, yvrogneries et jeux
+defendus, tellement qu'ils y passaient la plus grande et meilleure partie
+du temps, et faisaient un fort mauvais menage, depuis qu'ils etaient
+entres dans l'Eglise quittaient du tout leur vie passee et la detestaient,
+se rangeant et se soumettant allegrement a la discipline ecclesiastique,
+ce qui etait si agreable aux parents de tels personnages, que, quoiqu'ils
+fussent catholiques, ils en louaient Dieu." Ibid., pp. 107, 108.
+
+[27] "Nous avons esperance que non seulement la jeunesse d'icy se
+faconnera par la main d'un si excellent ouvrier qui nous est venu; mais
+que les chanoines mesmes de Sainte-Croix le viendront ouyr en ses lecons,
+ce qu'ils ont desja declare. De quoy sortiront des fruicts surmontant
+toute expectation." Gaberel, Hist. de l'egl. de Geneve, i., Pieces
+justificatives, 168.
+
+[28] The archives of Stuttgart contain the instructive correspondence
+which the Duke of Guise had, ever since the previous summer, maintained
+with the Duke of Wuertemberg. From the letters published in the Bulletin of
+the French Protestant Historical Society (February and March, 1875), we
+see that Francois endeavored to alienate Christopher from the Huguenots by
+representing the latter as bitter enemies of the Augsburg Confession, and
+as speaking of it with undisguised contempt. (Letter of July 2, 1561,
+Bull., xxiv. 72.) Christopher made no reply to these statements, but urged
+his correspondent to a candid examination of religious truth, irrespective
+of age or prescription, reminding him (letter of Nov. 22, 1561) that our
+Lord Jesus Christ "did not say 'I am the _ancient custom_,' but 'I am the
+_Truth_.'" (Ibid., xxiv. 114.) And he added, sensibly enough, that, had
+the pagan ancestors of both the French and the Germans followed the rule
+of blind obedience to custom, they would certainly never have become
+Christians.
+
+[29] Guise's original invitation was for Saturday, January 31st, but
+Christopher pleaded engagements, and named, instead, Sunday, Feb. 15th.
+(Ibid., xxiv. 116, 117.)
+
+[30] The relation was first noticed and printed by Sattler, in his
+Geschichte von Wuertemberg unter den Herzoegen. I have used the French
+translation by M. A. Muntz, in the Bulletin, iv. (1856) 184-196.
+
+[31] In a letter of Wuertemberg to Guise, written subsequently to the
+massacre of Vassy, he reminds him of the advice he had given him, and of
+Guise's assurances: "Vous savez aussi avec quelle asseurance vous m'avez
+respondu _que l'on vous faisoit grand tort_ de ce que l'on vous vouloit
+imposer estre cause et autheur de la mort de tant de povres chrestiens qui
+ont espandu leur sang par ci-devant," etc. Memoires de Guise, 494.
+
+[32] There are some characters with whom mendacity has become so essential
+a part of their nature, that we cease to wonder at any possible extreme of
+lying. It was, however, no new thing with the cardinal to assume
+immaculate innocence. Over two years before this time, at the beginning of
+the reign of Francis II., when bloody persecution was at its height, Sir
+Nicholas Throkmorton wrote to Queen Elizabeth, Sept. 10, 1559: "I am
+enformed that they here begin to persecute againe for religion more than
+ever they did; and that at Paris there are three or four executed for the
+same, and diverse greate personages threatened shortly to be called to
+answer for their religion. Wherin the Cardinal of Lorraine having bene
+spoken unto, within these two daies, hathe said, _that it is not his
+faulte; and that there is no man that more hateth extremites, then he
+dothe_; and yet it is knowne that it is, notwithstanding, _alltogither by
+his occasion_." Forbes, State Papers, i. 226, 227.
+
+[33] Bulletin, iv. 196. De Thou's account of the Saverne conference (iii.
+(liv. xxix.) 127, 128) is pretty accurate so far as it goes, but has a
+more decidedly polemic tone than the Duke of Wuertemberg's memorandum.
+
+[34] Throkmorton to the Queen, Paris, Feb. 16, 1562. State Paper Office. I
+have followed closely the condensation in the Calendars.
+
+[35] Same to Cecil, of same date. State Paper Office.
+
+[36] Discours entier de la persecution et cruaute exercee en la ville de
+Vassy, par le duc de Guise, le 1. de mars, 1562; reprinted in Memoires de
+Conde, iii. 124-149, and Cimber et Danjou, iv. 123-156. This lengthy
+Huguenot narrative enters into greater details respecting the early
+history of the church of Vassy than any of the other contemporary
+relations. The account bears every mark of candor and accurate
+information.
+
+[37] "Que son cas estoit bien sale s'il eust este ministre."
+
+[38] The "Destruction du Saccagement" has preserved the names of
+forty-five persons who died by Tuesday, March 3d; the "Discours entier"
+has a complete list of forty-eight that died within a month, and refers to
+others besides. A contemporary engraving is extant depicting in quaint but
+lively style the murderous affair. Montfaucon reproduces it. So does also
+M. Horace Gourjon in a pamphlet entitled "Le Massacre de Vassy" (Paris,
+1844). He gives, in addition, an exterior view of the barn in which the
+Huguenots were worshipping.
+
+[39] Besides a brief Latin memoir of minor importance, there were
+published two detailed accounts of the massacre written by Huguenots. The
+one is entitled "Destruction du Saccagement, exerce cruellement par le Duc
+de Guise et sa cohorte, en la ville de Vassy, le premier jour de Mars,
+1561. A Caens. M.D.LXII.," and having for its epigraph the second verse of
+the 79th psalm in Marot's poetical version, "The dead bodies of thy
+servants have they given to be meat unto the fowls of the heaven, the
+flesh of thy saints unto the beasts of the earth." (The year 1562, it will
+be remembered, did not commence in France until Easter Sunday, March
+29th.) The account seems to have been composed on the spot and within a
+very few days of the occurrence. This may be inferred from the list of
+those who died being given only up to Tuesday, March 3d. The other
+narrative: "Discours entier de la persecution et cruaute exercee en la
+ville de Vassy," etc., enters into much greater detail, and is preceded by
+a full account of the early history of the Church. It was written and
+published a little later in the spring of 1562. Both memoirs are reprinted
+in the invaluable Archives curieuses of Messrs. Cimber et Danjou, iv.
+103-110, and 123-156, as well as in the Memoires de Conde, iii. 111-115,
+124-149 (the former document with the title "Relation de l'occasion"),
+etc. Another contemporary account was written in Guise's interest, and
+contains a long extract of a letter of his to the Duke of Wuertemberg:
+"Discours au vray et en abbrege de ce qui est dernierement aduenu a Vassi,
+y passant Monseigneur le Duc de Guise. A Paris. M.D.LXII.... Par priuilege
+expres dudict Seigneur." (Cimber, iv. 111-122; Mem. de Conde, iii.
+115-122). To these authorities must be added Guise's vindication in
+parliament (Cimber, iv. 157, etc., from Reg. of Parl.; Mem. de Guise, 488,
+etc.), and his letter and that of the Cardinal of Lorraine to Christopher
+of Wuertemberg, March 22 (Ib. 491, 492). Compare J. de Serres, De statu
+rel. et reip. (1571), ii. 13-17; De Thou, iii. 129, etc.; Jehan de la
+Fosse, 45. Davila, bk. iii. in init., is more accurate than Castelnau,
+iii., c. 7. Claude Haton's account (Memoires, i. 204-206) may be classed
+with the curiosities of literature. This veracious chronicler would have
+it that a crowd of Huguenots, with stones in their hands, and singing at
+the top of their voices, attempted to prevent the passage of the duke and
+his company through the outskirts of Vassy, where they were apparently
+worshipping in the open air! Of course they were the aggressors.
+
+[40] And yet there is great force in M. Sismondi's observation (Hist. des
+Francais, xviii. 264): "Malgre leur assertion, il est difficile de ne pas
+croire qu'au moment ou ils se reunissoient en armes pour disputer aux
+protestans l'exercise public de leur culte que leur accordoit l'edit de
+janvier, c'etoit un coup premedite que l'attaque du duc de Guise contre
+une congregation de huguenots, composee, a ce qu'il assure, en partie de
+ses vassaux, et qui se trouvoit la premiere sur son passage a peu de
+distance de ses terres."
+
+[41] It is extremely unfortunate that Mr. Froude should have based his
+account of French affairs at this important point upon so inaccurate and
+prejudiced a writer as Varillas. To be correct in his delineation of these
+transactions was almost as important for his object, as to be correct in
+the narration of purely English occurrences. If he desired to avoid the
+labor, from which he might well wish to be excused, of mastering the great
+accumulation of contemporary and original French authorities, he might
+have resorted with propriety, as he has done in the case of the massacre
+of St. Bartholomew's Day, to Henri Martin's noble history, or to the
+history of Sismondi, not to speak of Soldan, Von Polenz, and a host of
+others. Varillas wrote, about a century after the events he described, a
+number of works of slender literary, and still slighter historical value.
+His "Histoire de Charles IX." (Cologne, 1686)--the work which Mr. Froude
+has but too often followed--begins with an adulatory dedication to Louis
+XIV., the first sentence of which sufficiently reveals the author's
+prepossessions: "Sire, it is impossible to write the history of Charles
+IX. without beginning the panegyric of your Majesty." No wonder that Mr.
+Froude's account of the massacre of Vassy (History of England, vii. 401,
+402), derived solely from this source (Hist. de Charles IX., i. 126,
+etc.), is as favorable to Guise as his most devoted partisan could have
+desired. But where in the world--even in Varillas--did the English
+historian ever find authority for the statement (vii. 402) that, in
+consequence of the necessity felt by Guise for temporizing, a little later
+"_the affair at Vassy was censured in a public decree_"? To have allowed
+_that_ would have been for Guise to admit that he was guilty of murder,
+and that his enemies had not slandered him when they styled him a "butcher
+of the human race." The duke _never did_ make such an acknowledgment; on
+the contrary, he asseverated his innocence in his last breath. What was
+really done on the occasion referred to was to try to shift the
+responsibility of the war from the shoulders of the papists to those of
+the Huguenots, by pretending to re-enact the edict of January with
+restrictions as to the capital.
+
+[42] Jean de Serres, ii. 17, 18; De Thou, iii. 132, 133.
+
+[43] "Sire, c'est a la verite a l'Eglise de Dieu, au nom de laquelle je
+parle, d'endurer les coups, et non pas d'en donner. Mais aussi vous
+plaira-t-il vous souvenir que _c'est une enclume qui a use beaucoup de
+marteaux_." Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., ii. 1, 2; Pierre de Lestoile,
+Journal de Henri III. (ed. Petitot), i. 55; De Thou, iii. 132, 133.
+
+[44] Journal de Jehan de la Fosse, 45, 46; Santa Croce to Borromeo, Aymon,
+i. 96, 97; Jean de Serres, ii. 18; Chantonnay, _ubi supra_, ii. 27; Hist,
+eccles. des egl. ref., ii. 2, 3; Throkmorton to the Queen, March 20th,
+State Paper Office; De Thou, iii. 133; etc. The date was the 15th of
+March, according to La Fosse; the 16th, according to Languet (ii. 212) and
+Throkmorton; the 18th, according to Santa Croce; the 20th, according to J.
+de Serres. I prefer to all the authority of a letter of one Chastaigner,
+written from Paris to a friend in Poitou on the very day of Guise's entry.
+It is dated March 17th. "Quant aux nouvelles de Monsieur de Guyse, il est
+arrive ce soir en ceste ville, Monsieur le connestable et Monsieur le
+marechal de Saint-Andre avec luy, et en tout avoient bien deux mil
+chevaulx, les ungs disent plus." (Archives of Poitiers, and printed in
+Bulletin, xiii. (1864), 15, 16.)
+
+[45] This was not by accident. It had been planned by Conde, to show that
+the Huguenots were brave and determined, and it succeeded so well that it
+not only made an impression on the party of Guise, but also largely
+augmented the courage of his own men. Letter of Beza to Calvin, March 22,
+1562, _apud_ Baum, ii., App., 171. Conde had returned to Paris by the
+urgent request of the Protestants. Jean de Serres, ii. 19.
+
+[46] Letter of Chastaigner, _ubi supra_.
+
+[47] Throkmorton to the queen, March 6th, State Paper Office.
+
+[48] "The King of Navarre was never so earnest on the Protestant side as
+he is now furious on the papists' part, insomuch as men suspect he will
+become a persecutor." Throkmorton to Cecil, March 9th, State Paper Office.
+Summary in Calendar.
+
+[49] Throkmorton to the queen, March 6, 1562, State Paper Office.
+
+[50] The same to Cecil, same date, State Paper Office.
+
+[51] "Whilst these assemblies were in the town, the queen mother conceived
+great jealousy (the King of Navarre being allied to the said duke
+[Guise]), lest she should be put from the government and the king taken
+from her hands, to prevent which she left Monceaux, her own house, _for
+Orleans_, thinking they were secure there, because the Prince of
+Rochesurion (being governor of the king's person and also of Orleans) was
+not conjoined with the King of Navarre, the Duke of Guise, and the
+constable, in their purposes. The King of Navarre, perceiving this, would
+not consent to the king going to Orleans, and, after great disputes
+betwixt the queen mother and him, she, with the king, were constrained to
+reside all this Easter at Fontainebleau." Throkmorton to the queen, March,
+20, 1562, State Paper Office, Summary in Calendar.
+
+[52] "Combien que le Chancelier luy dict, qu'il n'y esperoit plus rien,
+qu'elle n'avoit point de resolution, qu'il la congnoissoit bien." Memoires
+de la vie de Jehan l'Archevesque, Sieur de Soubise, printed from the
+hitherto unknown MS. in the Bulletin, xxiii. (1874), 458, 459.
+
+[53] Four of the seven letters that constituted the whole correspondence
+are printed in the Mem. de Conde, iii. 213-215. Jean de Serres gives two
+of them in his Comment. de statu rel. et reip., ii. 38, 39. They were laid
+by Conde's envoy before the princes of Germany, as evidence that he had
+not taken up arms without the best warrant, and that he could not in any
+way be regarded as a rebel. They contain no allusion to any promise to lay
+down his arms so soon as she sent him word--the pretext with which she
+strove at a later time to palliate, in the eyes of the papal party at home
+and abroad, a rather awkward step. The cure of Meriot, while admitting the
+genuineness of the letters, observes: "La cautelle et malice de la dame
+estoit si grande, qu'elle se delectoit de mettre les princes en division
+et hayne les ungs contre les aultres, affin qu'elle regnast et qu'elle
+demeurast gouvernante seulle de son filz et du royaume." Mem. de Cl.
+Haton, i. 269. The queen mother's exculpatory statements may be examined
+in Le Laboureur, Add. aux Mem. de Castelnau, i. 763, 764.
+
+[54] Bruslart, in Mem. de Conde, i. 75, 76; J. de Serres, ii. 20; La
+Fosse, 46; De Thou, iii. 134. The date is variously given--March 17th or
+18th.
+
+[55] J. de Serres, ii. 21; De Thou, _ubi supra_; the Prince of Conde's
+declaration of the causes which have constrained him to undertake the
+defence of the royal authority, etc., _ap._ Mem. de Conde, iii. 222, etc.;
+same in Latin in J. de Serres, ii. 46.
+
+[56] Throkmorton to the queen, March 20, State Paper Office.
+
+[57] March 23d. "Ce meme jour (lundi xxiii.) le Prince de Conde s'en
+partit de Paris pour s'en aller a une sienne maison, combien qu'il avoit
+dict qu'il ne bougeroit de Paris que M. de Guise ne s'en fut parti."
+Journal anonyme de l'an 1562, _ap._ Baum, iii. App., 175, note.
+
+[58] Letter of March 28th, Baum, ii., App., 175, 176.
+
+[59] Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., ii. 3.
+
+[60] Letter to Fonssomme, OEuvres choisies, ii. 248.
+
+[61] One of the latest exploits of the populace was the disinterring of a
+Huguenot buried in the cemetery of the Holy Innocents, and throwing his
+body into a public sewer! March 15th, Journal de Jehan de la Fosse, 45.
+
+[62] "Je cuide que si les novices des couvens et les chambrieres des
+prestres seulement se fussent presentez a l'impourveue avec des bastons de
+cotterets (cotrets) es mains, que cela leur eust fait tenir bride." Mem.
+de la Noue, c. ii.
+
+[63] Circular letter dated Paris, March 25th, _apud_ Baum, ii., App., 172.
+
+[64] Agrippa d'Aubigne, i. 132, 133 (liv. iii., c. 2). This striking
+incident rests on the sole authority of Agrippa d'Aubigne, who claims to
+have learned it "de ceux qui estoient de la partie." Hotman, who wrote his
+_Gasparis Colinii Vita_ (1575) at the earnest request of the admiral's
+_second_ wife, makes no allusion to a story throwing so much lustre upon
+the _first_.
+
+[65] Throkmorton to the queen, April 10, 1562, State Paper Office.
+
+[66] "Ou il faut que venez avec nous, ou nous emmenerons le Roy sans
+vous." Letter of Conde to the Emperor Ferdinand, April 20th, Mem. de
+Conde, iii. 305, etc.
+
+[67] "Alors Leurs Majestez, ne pouvant mieux, eurent recours a quelques
+larmes." Mem. de Castelnau, liv. iii., c. 8.
+
+[68] "Le Roy enfant de bonne nature et grande esperance, tesmoignoit non
+seulement par paroles, mais aussi avec abondance de larmes, extreme dueil
+et tristesse; et souventefois s'escriant, deploroit sa condition par
+telles paroles: 'Pourquoy ne me laissez-vous? Pour quelle raison me voy-je
+circuy et environne de gens armez? Pourquoy contre ma volonte me
+tirez-vous du lieu ou je prenoye mon plaisir? Pourquoy deschirez-vous
+ainsi mon estat en ce mien aage?'" Letter of Conde, _ubi supra_, iii. 306.
+
+[69] Charles the Ninth's entry into Paris was a sorry pageant compared
+with that of Guise only a few weeks earlier. "Only the merchants and a few
+counsellors of the city were present," says Jehan de la Fosse (p. 47). The
+king rode between the queen mother and the King of Navarre. According to
+Chamberlain, it was a _sober_, but not a _solemn_ entry (C. to Chaloner,
+April 7, 1562, State Paper Office). Either when Guise returned to Paris
+from Fontainebleau, or on his previous entry into the city--it is
+difficult from Claude Haton's confused narrative to determine which was
+intended--the people sang: "Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the
+Lord." Memoires, i. 245.
+
+[70] The singular name of this building is explained by the sign that hung
+before it. "Apvril. En ung samedy. M. Anne de Montmorenssy, connetable de
+France, fut devant brasque _en la maison ou pendoit pour enseigne la ville
+de Jerusalem_, ou preschoient les huguenots, et fist mettre le feu dedans
+la maison." Journal de J. de la Fosse, 46.
+
+[71] La Fosse, _ubi supra_; J. de Serres, ii. 27; Hist. eccles. des egl.
+ref., ii. 8; De Thou, iii. 136, 137; Bruslart, Mem. de Conde, i. 80; Santa
+Croce to Borromeo, April 5 (Aymon, i. 125); Throkmorton to the queen, _ubi
+supra_.
+
+[72] Santa Croce to Borromeo, April 5th, Aymon, i. 126, and Cimber et
+Danjou, vi. 74.
+
+[73] Chantonnay, _ubi supra_, ii. 32.
+
+[74] Journal de Jehan de la Fosse, 46. The "Porte St. Honore," before
+which the Huguenots, after passing north of the city, presented themselves
+(Bruslart, Mem. de Conde, i. 78), was in Francis I.'s time near the
+present "Palais Royal," in the time of Louis XIII. near the "Madeleine."
+See the map in Dulaure, Histoire de Paris.
+
+[75] Mem de la Noue, c. i. The letter of Beza to Calvin from Meaux, March
+28, 1562, shows, however, that even before the prince left that city it
+was known that the triumvirs had set out for Fontainebleau. Beza, not
+apparently without good reason, blamed the improvidence of Conde in not
+forestalling the enemy. "Hostes, relicto in urbe non magno praesidio, in
+aulam abierunt quod difficile non erat et prospicere et impedire. Sed
+aliter visum est certis de causis, quas tamen nec satis intelligo nec
+probo." Baum, ii., App., 176.
+
+[76] Yet, if we may credit the unambiguous testimony of Jean de Tavannes,
+Catharine did not cease to endeavor to favor the Huguenots. He assures us
+that, a few months later, during the summer, his father, Gaspard de
+Tavannes, intercepted at Chalons a messenger whom Catharine had despatched
+to her daughter the Duchess of Savoy ("qui agreoit ces nouvelles
+opinions") ostensibly as a lute-player. Among his effects the prying
+governor of Burgundy found letters signed by the queen mother, containing
+some rather surprising suggestions. "La Royne luy escrivoit qu'elle estoit
+resolue de favoriser les Huguenots, d'ou elle esperoit son salut contre le
+gouvernement du triumvirat ... qu'elle soupconnoit vouloir oster la
+couronne a ses enfans; et prioit madame de Savoye d'aider lesdits
+Huguenots de Lyon, Dauphine et Provence, et qu'elle persuadast son mary
+d'empescher les Suisses et levee d'Italie des Catholiques." Mem. de
+Tavannes (Petitot ed.), ii. 341, 342. Tavannes did not dare to detain the
+messenger, nor to take away his letters; and if, as his son asserts, the
+enmity of Catharine, which the discovery of her secret gained for him,
+delayed his acquisition of the marshal's baton for ten years, he certainly
+had some reason to remember and regret his ill-timed curiosity.
+
+[77] Mem. de la Noue, c. iii.; De Thou, iii. 138; Letter of Beza, of April
+5th, Baum, ii., App., 177; Jean de Serres, ii. 24, 25; Bruslart, Mem. de
+Conde, i. 79. Chamberlain (to Chaloner, April 7, 1562), who on his way
+from Orleans met the first detachment within a mile of that city--"a
+thousand handsome gentlemen, well mounted, each having two or three daggs,
+galloping towards him." State Paper Office.
+
+[78] Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., ii. 7.
+
+[79] April 7th. Mem. de Conde, iii. 221; Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., ii.,
+9; J. de Serres, ii. 58, 59; De Thou, iii. 139. The historian of the
+reformed churches, as well as Beza in his letter of March 28th (Baum, ii.,
+App., 176), complains bitterly of the slowness and parsimony of the
+Parisian Protestants, who seemed to be unable to understand that war was
+actually upon them.
+
+[80] April 8th. "Declaration faicte par M. le prince de Conde, pour
+monstrer les raisons qui l'ont contraint d'entreprendre la defence de
+l'authorite du Roy," etc. Mem. de Conde, iii. 222-235; Jean de Serres, ii.
+42-57; Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., ii. 9, 10; De Thou, iii. 139-141.
+
+[81] Traicte d'association, etc., April 11th. Mem. de Conde, iii. 258-262;
+J. Serres, ii. 31-37; De Thou, iii. 141.
+
+[82] See Pasquier's letter to Fonssomme, already referred to, which
+contains a vivid picture of the confusion reigning in Paris, the surprise
+of the papal party, and the delight of the untrained populace at the
+prospect of war. OEuvres (ed. Feugere), ii. 246-250.
+
+[83] Mem. de Castelnau, liv. iii., c. 8.
+
+[84] Ibid., liv. iii., c. 9.
+
+[85] Even so late as May 8, 1562, the English minister resident at the
+court, than whom probably no other person in France felt obliged to keep
+himself better informed, wrote to Cecil respecting the Prince of Conde's
+strength: "I can assur you att thys dyspatche _he ys the strongest
+partie_, and in suche state his matter standeth, that _these men_ [the
+court] _wold fayne have a reasonable end, thoughe yt were with some
+dishonnour_." MSS. State Paper Office, Duc d'Aumale, Princes de Conde,
+Pieces justif., i. 370.
+
+[86] It is strange that a historian at once so conscientious and generally
+so well-informed as M. Rosseeuw Saint-Hilaire should, in his Histoire
+d'Espagne, ix. 60, 61, have made the grave mistake of holding Calvin
+responsible for the excesses of the iconoclasts. See the Bulletin, xiv.
+127, etc., for a complete refutation.
+
+[87] Like the undeceived dupe in the old Athenian comedy, who mournfully
+laments that he had been led to worship a bit of earthenware as a god:
+
+ Oimoi deilaios,
+ Hote kai se chutreoun onta theon hegesamen.
+ (ARISTOPHANES, CLOUDS, 1473, 1474.)
+
+On the other hand, the zealous Roman Catholic had his arguments for the
+preservation and worship of images, some of which may strike us as
+sufficiently whimsical. "I confess," says one, "that God has forbidden
+idols and idolatry, but He has not forbidden the images (or pictures)
+which we hold for the veneration of the saints. For if that were so, _He
+would not have left us the effigy of his holy face_ painted in His
+likeness, on the cloth which that good lady Veronica presented Him, which
+yet to-day is looked upon with so much devotion in the church of St. Peter
+at Rome, nor the impression of His holy body represented in the 'saint
+suaire' which is at Chambery. Is it not found that Saint Luke thrice made
+with his own hand the portrait of Our Lady?... That holy evangelist ought
+certainly to have known the will of his Lord and Master better than you,
+my opponent, who wish to interpret the Scripture according to your
+sensuality." Discours des Guerres de Provence (Arch. curieuses, iv. 501,
+502). Of course, the author never dreamed that his _facts_ might possibly
+be disputed.
+
+[88] Les Recherches et Antiquitez de la ville de Caen, par Charles de
+Bourgueville, sieur du lieu, de Bras, et de Brucourt. A Caen, 1588. Pt.
+ii. 170-172. From page 76 onward the author gives us a record of notable
+events in his own lifetime. So also at Clery, it is to be regretted that,
+not content with greatly injuring the famous church of Our Lady, the
+Huguenot populace, inflamed by the indiscretion of the priests, desecrated
+the monuments of the brave Dunois, and of Louis the Eleventh and his
+queen. Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., ii. 23. According to the author of the
+"Horribles cruautes des Huguenots en France" (Cimber et Danjou, vi. 304),
+they even burned the bones of Louis; nor did they respect those of the
+ancestors of the Prince of Conde.
+
+[89] "Monsieur, ayez patience que j'aie abattu cette idole, et puis que je
+meure, s'il vous plait."
+
+[90] "Comme etant ce fait plutot oeuvre de Dieu que des hommes." Hist.
+eccles. des egl. ref., ii. 20. "L'impetuosite des peuples etait telle
+contre les images, qu'il n'etait possible aux hommes d'y resister." Ibid.
+ii. 23.
+
+[91] Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., ii. 20-22.
+
+[92] "Ledict moys," says Jehan de la Fosse in his journal (p. 47), "des
+citoyens de Sens tuerent beaucoup de huguenots, voyant que monsieur le
+connetable avoict faict bruler Popincourt."
+
+[93] Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., ii. 242-245; Jean de Serres, ii. 40; De
+Thou, iii. 144. The massacre commenced on Sunday, April 12th (not 14th, as
+the Hist. eccles. states), and was continued the next day or two.
+According to De Serres, the horrors of Sens seemed to efface those of
+Vassy itself. Read the really terrible paragraph on the subject in the
+contemporary "Remonstrance au Roy sur le faict des Idoles abbatues et
+dejettees hors des Temples" (Mem. de Conde, iii. 355-364), beginning "Ou
+sont les meurtres, les boucheries des hommes passes au fil de l'espee, par
+l'espace de neuf jours en la ville de Sens?" The address to the Cardinal
+of Guise is not less severe than the address to his brother in the famous
+"_Tigre_": "Te suffisoit-il pas, Cardinal, que le monde sceust que tu es
+Atheiste, Magicien, Necromantien, sans le publier davantage, et faire
+ouvrir en pleine rue les femmes grosses pour voir le siege de leurs
+enfans?" P. 360. White (Mass. of St. Bartholomew, 200) confounds in his
+account the two brother cardinals, and makes _Lorraine_ to have been
+Archbishop of Sens.
+
+[94] Letter of Conde of April 19th, Mem. de Conde, iii. 300, 301; Hist.
+eccles. des egl. ref., ii. 246, 247; J. de Serres, ii. 40-42.
+
+[95] Throkmorton to Cecil, April 10, 1562. State Paper Office.
+
+[96] I will not sully these pages even by a reference to the unnatural and
+beastly crimes which De Thou and other trustworthy historians ascribe to
+the Roman Catholic troops, especially the Italian part.
+
+[97] So late as January, 1561, he wrote: "Quant a la religion, que sa
+Majeste se peult asseure que je viveray et moreray en icelle." Gachard,
+Correspondance de Guillaume le Taciturne, ii. 6.
+
+[98] "Et suis mervilleusement mari de veoir comme ces mechantes heresies
+se augmente partout," etc.
+
+[99] "Qu'il fasse tout debvoir du monde, tant par puplication, comme par
+force (autant qui j'en porrois la avoir) de remedier a telle desordre, qui
+est si domagable a tout la christiente."
+
+[100] Letter to Card. Granvelle, Oct. 21, 1560, Gachard, i. 461-463.
+
+[101] De Thou (whose graphic account I have principally followed), iii.
+226-228; J. de Serres, ii. 183, 184; Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., iii.
+164-167.
+
+[102] Agrippa d'Aubigne has inserted in his history (i. 154-156) an
+interesting conversation which he held with the Baron des Adrets, then an
+old man, a dozen years later, in the city of Lyons. In answer to the
+question, Why he had resorted to acts of cruelty unbecoming to his great
+valor? the baron replied that no one commits cruelty in avenging cruelty;
+for, if the first measures are _cruelty_, the second are _justice_. His
+severities, he urged, were needed in order to show proper spirit in view
+of the past, and proper regard for the future. His soldiers must be forced
+to commit themselves beyond hope of pardon--they must, especially in a war
+in which their opponents cloaked themselves with the royal authority,
+fight without respect of persons. "The soldier cannot be taught," said he
+with characteristic bluntness, "to carry his sword and his hat in his hand
+at the same time." When asked what motive he had in subsequently leaving
+his old comrades in arms, he explained that it was neither fear nor
+avarice, but disgust at their timid policy and at seeing himself
+superseded. And to D'Aubigne's third question--a somewhat bold one, it
+must be confessed--Why success had never attended his recent undertakings,
+he answered "with a sigh": "_Mon enfant_, nothing is too warm for a
+captain who has no greater anxiety for victory than have his soldiers.
+With the Huguenots I had _soldiers_; since then I have had only
+_hucksters_, who cared for nothing but money. The former were moved by
+apprehension unmingled with fear, and revenge, passion, and honor were the
+wages they fought for. I could not give those Huguenot soldiers _reins_
+enough; the others have worn out my _spurs_."
+
+[103] And yet I agree with Von Polenz, Gesch. des Franz. Calvinismus
+(Gotha, 1859), ii. 188, 189, note, in regarding the Roman Catholic
+accounts of Des Adrets's cruelties and perfidy as very much exaggerated,
+and in insisting upon the circumstance that the barbarity practised at
+Orange had furnished him not only the example, but the incentive.
+
+[104] According to Jean de Serres, this leader was the Baron des Adrets in
+person; according to De Thou, Montbrun commanded by the baron's
+appointment. So also Histoire eccles., iii. 171.
+
+[105] So at Montbrison, the Baron des Adrets reserved thirty prisoners
+from the common slaughter to expiate the massacre of Orange by a similar
+method. One of them was observed by Des Adrets to draw back twice before
+taking the fatal leap. "What!" said the chief, "do you take _two springs_
+to do it?" "I will give you _ten_ to do it!" the witty soldier replied;
+and the laugh he evoked from those grim lips saved his life. De Thou (iii.
+231, 232) and others.
+
+[106] J. de Serres, ii. 188; Castelnau, liv., iv. c. ii. But the "Discours
+des Guerres de la comte de Venayscin et de la Prouence ... par le seigneur
+Loys de Perussiis, escuyer de Coumons, subiect uassal de sa sainctete"
+(dedicated to "Fr. Fabrice de Serbellon, cousin-germain de N. S. P. et son
+general en la cite d'Avignon et dicte comte,") Avignon, 1563, and
+reprinted in Cimber (iv. 401, etc.), makes no mention of the fig-tree, and
+regards the preservation as almost miraculous. There is a faithful
+representation of the ruined Chateau of Mornas above the frightful
+precipice, in Count Alexander de Laborde's magnificent work, Les Monuments
+de la France (Paris, 1836), plate 179.
+
+[107] Discours des Guerres de la comte de Venayscin, etc., 453; De Thou,
+iii. 240.
+
+[108] Mem. de Blaise de Montluc, iii. 393 (Petitot ed.): "pouvant dire
+avec la verite qu'il n'y a lieutenant de Roy en France qui ait plus faict
+passer d'Huguenots par le cousteau ou par la corde, que moy."
+
+[109] "Me deliberay d'user de toutes les cruautez que je pourrois." Ib.,
+iii. 20. "Je recouvray secrettement deux bourreaux, lesquels on appella
+depuis mes laquais, parce qu'ils estoient souvent apres moy." Ib., iii.,
+21. Consult the succeeding pages for an account of Montluc's brutality,
+which could scarcely be credited, but that Montluc himself vouches for it.
+
+[110] Since the publication of the Edict of January at Toulouse (on the
+6th of February), the Protestant minister had sworn to observe its
+provisions before the seneschal, viguier, and capitouls, and, when he
+preached, these last had been present to prevent disturbance. A place of
+worship, twenty-four cannes long by sixteen in width (174 feet by 116),
+had been built on the spot assigned by the authorities. Hist. eccles. des
+egl. ref., iii. 1.
+
+[111] De Thou, iii. 294; Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., iii. 1-32.
+
+[112] Even in 1762, Voltaire remonstrated against a jubilee to "thank God
+for four thousand murders." Yet a century later, in 1862, Monseigneur
+Desprez, Archbishop of Toulouse, gave notice of the recurrence of the
+celebration in these words: "The Catholic Church always makes it a duty to
+recall, in the succession of ages, the most remarkable events of its
+history--particularly those which belong to it in a special manner. It is
+thus that we are going to celebrate this year the jubilee commemorative of
+a glorious act accomplished among you three hundred years ago." The
+archbishop was warm in his admiration of the last centennial procession,
+"at which were present all the persons of distinction--the religious
+orders, the officiating minister under his canopy, the red robes, and the
+members of parliament pressing behind the university, the seneschal, the
+_bourgeoisie_, and finally a company of soldiers." But the French
+government, not agreeing with the prelate in the propriety of perpetuating
+the reminiscence, forbade the procession and all out-door solemnities, and
+declared "the celebration of a jubilee of the 16th to the 23d of May next,
+enjoined by the Archbishop of Toulouse, to be nothing less than the
+commemoration of a mournful and bloody episode of our ancient religious
+discords." See a letter from a correspondent of the New York Evening Post,
+Paris, April 10, 1862.
+
+[113] Papal brief of April 23, 1562: "Ista sunt vere catholico viro digna
+opera, ista haud dubie divina sunt beneficia. Agimus omnipotenti Deo
+gratias, qui tam praeclaram tibi mentem dedit," etc. Soldan, ii. 61.
+
+[114] De Thou, iii. 149-151.
+
+[115] Ibid., iii. 143, April 7th.
+
+[116] Catharine de' Medici stated to Sir Harry Sydney, the special English
+envoy, in May, 1562, that her son-in-law, the King of Spain, had offered
+Charles thirty thousand foot and six thousand horse "payd of his owne
+charge," besides what the Duke of Savoy and others were ready to furnish.
+Letter of Sidney and Throkmorton to Queen Elizabeth, May 8, 1562, MSS.
+State Paper Office. Duc d'Aumale, Princes de Conde, Pieces justif., i.
+363.
+
+[117] Sir T. Chaloner, ambassador in Spain, to Sir Nicholas Throkmorton,
+May 1, 1562, Haynes, State Papers, 382, 383.
+
+[118] April 17th. Mem. de Conde, iii. 281-284.
+
+[119] May 15th and 16th, Mem. de Conde, iii. 284-287.
+
+[120] Froude, History of England, vii. 404.
+
+[121] Throkmorton to the queen, April 1, 1562, State Paper Office.
+
+[122] Cecil to Mundt, March 22, 1562, State Paper Office.
+
+[123] Wm. Hawes to Throkmorton, July 15, 1562, State Paper Office.
+
+[124] Hist. eccles., iii. 143-145; De Thou, iii. 233, 234.
+
+[125] Almost all the members of Conde's council favored a call upon the
+German Protestant princes for prompt support. But "the admiral broke off
+this plan of theirs, saying that he would prefer to die rather than
+consent that those of the religion should be the first to bring foreign
+troops into France." It was, therefore, concluded to send two gentlemen to
+Germany, to remain there until the conclusion of the war, in order to
+explain the position of the Huguenots. Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., ii.
+23.
+
+[126] Mem. de Conde, i. 79, 80. Cf. Baum, ii., App., 177.
+
+[127] Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., ii. 14; Mem. de Conde, i. 81-83, and
+iii. 256; De Thou, iii. 143.
+
+[128] "Que sans sa venue a Paris, il fust arrive vers les Pasques, plus de
+quinze centz chevaulx de tous costez du royaume, pour saccager la ville,"
+etc. Response a la Declaration que faict le Prince de Conde, etc. Mem. de
+Conde, iii. 242.
+
+[129] Mem. de Conde, iii. 388-391; Hist, eccles. des egl. ref., ii. 30,
+31; Jean de Serres, ii. 63; De Thou, iii. 152.
+
+[130] J. de Serres, ii. 112-117; Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., ii. 27-29;
+Mem. de Conde, iii. 392, 393; De Thou, iii. 153, 154.
+
+[131] Jean de Serres, ii. 118-150; Mem. de Conde, iii. 395-416; Hist.
+eccles. des egl. ref., ii. 32-46; De Thou, iii. 154-157. It is incredible
+that, as De Thou suggests, this answer should have been penned by Montluc,
+Bishop of Valence. On the other hand, it bears every mark of having
+proceeded from the pen of that learned, eloquent, and sprightly writer,
+Theodore Beza. As a literary production it fully deserves the warm
+encomium passed upon it by Professor Baum: "It is a masterpiece in respect
+both to the arrangement and to the treatment of the matter; and, with its
+truly Demosthenian strength, may, with confidence, be placed by the side
+of the most eloquent passages to which the French language can point."
+Baum, Theodor Beza, ii. 642.
+
+[132] J. de Serres, ii. 93, etc.; De Thou, iii. 158. See the acts of the
+third National Synod in Aymon, Tous les Synodes, i. 23-31. The Second
+National synod had been held at Poitiers, on the tenth of March, 1561. Its
+acts are in Aymon, i. 13-22.
+
+[133] J. de Serres, ii. 170; De Thou, iii. 160; Jehan de la Fosse, 50;
+Hist. eccles. des egl. ref. ii. 47.
+
+[134] De Thou, iii. 160.
+
+[135] Journal de Bruslart, Memoires de Conde, i. 87; Claude Haton, i. 284;
+Hist. eccles. des egl. ref. ii. 48.
+
+[136] See the prince's affectionate letter to Antoine, June 13th, Hist.
+eccles. des egl. ref. ii. 49; De Thou, _ubi supra_; J. de Serres, ii. 156.
+
+[137] Mem. de Guise, 495.
+
+[138] It was in the presence of seven knights of the order of St. Michael,
+of the secretaries of state, etc. See Conde's long remonstrance against
+the judgment of the Parisian parliament, Aug. 8, 1562. Hist. eccles. des
+egl. ref., ii. 71; Mem. de Conde, iii. 587.
+
+[139] Unlucky Bishop Montluc has received the doubtful credit of having
+laid this pretty snare for the Huguenot chiefs, but with what reason it is
+beyond my ability to conjecture. The same brain could scarcely have
+indited the bitter reply to the petition of the triumvirs, and devised the
+cunning project of entangling their opponents. Evidently the Bishop of
+Valence has received some honors to which he is not entitled.
+
+[140] Mem. de Guise, 494; Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., ii. 59.
+"Conclusion," says the duke in his confidence in the success of his
+project, "la religion reformee, en nous conduisant et tenant bon, comme
+nous ferons jusques au bout, s'en va aval l'eau, et les admiraux, mal ce
+qui est possible: toutes nos forces entierement demeurent, les leurs
+rompues, les villes rendues sans parler d'edits ne de presches et
+administration de sacremens a leur mode." A memorandum of eight articles
+from the triumvirs to Navarre, seized at the same time, showed the
+intention to arrest the Prince of Conde. Ib., ii. 60.
+
+[141] J. de Serres, ii. 170-180; Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., _ubi supra_;
+De Thou, iii. 164-168. Harangue of Bishop Spifame to the emperor, Le
+Laboureur, Add. aux Mem. de Castelnau, ii. 28-38. Memoires de Jehan de
+l'Archevesque, Sieur de Soubise, Bulletin, xxiii. (1874) 460, 461.
+
+[142] La Noue, c. v., p. 597; De Thou, iii. 168, 169, etc.
+
+[143] J. de Serres, ii. 180; Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., ii. 61, 62.
+
+[144] Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., ii. 62; La Noue, c. iv.
+
+[145] La Noue, c. vii., p. 600. "Ledict seigneur prince de Conde," says
+Jean Glaumeau of Bourges, in his journal, "voyant qu'il ne pouvoit avoir
+raison avec son ennemy et qu'il ne le pouvoit rencontrer, ayant une armee
+de viron trente ou quarante milles hommes, de peur qu'ilz n'adurassent
+(endurassent) fain ou soif, commence a les separer et envoya en ceste
+ville de Bourges, tant de cheval que de pied, viron quatre milles, et y
+arriverent le samedi xie jour de juillet." Bulletin, v. (1857) 387.
+
+[146] Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., ii. 61.
+
+[147] "Si celle-cy y faut, nous ferons la croix a la cheminee." Mem. de la
+Noue, c. vi. 598, 599.
+
+[148] The author of the Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., ii. 61, regards the
+failure of the confederates promptly to put to the death--as Admiral
+Coligny and others had insisted upon their doing--a Baron de Courtenay,
+who had outraged a village girl, and their placing him under a guard from
+which he succeeded in making his escape, as "the door, so to speak,
+through which Satan entered the camp."
+
+[149] De Thou, iii. 171.
+
+[150] Abbe Bruslart, Mem. de Conde, i. 90; Hist. eccles. des egl. ref.,
+ii. 66; Journal de Jehan de la Fosse, 52. The latter erroneously calls it
+an edict "de par le roi;" but certainly gives the essence of the order
+according to the popular estimate when he says "qu'il estoit permis au
+peuple de tuer tout huguenot qu'il trouveroit, d'ou vint qu'il y en eust
+en la ville de Paris plusieurs tues et jetes en l'eau."
+
+[151] Mem. de Conde, i. 91. Text of arret of July 13th, ib., iii. 544; of
+arret of July 17th, ib., iii. 547. Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., _ubi
+supra_; Recordon, p. 108.
+
+[152] Nicholas Pithou has left in his MSS., which, unfortunately, have not
+yet been published entire, a thrilling narrative of the savage excesses
+committed partly by the authorities of Troyes, partly by the soldiers and
+the rabble, under their eyes and with their approval. There is nothing
+more abominable in the annals of crime than what was committed at this
+time with the connivance of the ministers of law. The story of the
+sufferings of Pithou's sister, Madame de Valentigny, will be found of
+special interest. See Recordon, 107-129.
+
+[153] Mem. de Conde, i. 91, and Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., _ubi supra_.
+J. de la Fosse, 53, 54, "pour huguenoterye." Even with these judicial
+executions the people interfered, cutting off the heads of the victims,
+using them for footballs, and finally burning them. The contemptuous
+disobedience of the _people_ of Paris and their cruelty are frequent
+topics touched upon in Throkmorton's correspondence. He acknowledges
+himself to be afraid, because of "the daily despites, injuries, and
+threatenings put in use towards him and his by the insolent, raging
+people." He sees that "neither the authority of the king, the queen
+mother, or any other person can be sanctuary" for him; for they "daily
+most cruelly kill every person (no age or sex excepted) whom they take to
+be contrary to their religion, notwithstanding daily proclamations under
+pain of death to the contrary." He declares that the king and his mother
+are, "for their own safety, constrained to lie at Bois de Vincennes, not
+thinking good to commit themselves into the hands of the furious
+Parisians;" and that the Chancellor of France, "being the most sincere man
+of this prince's council," is in as great fear of his life as Throkmorton
+himself, being lodged hard by the Bois de Vincennes, where he has the
+protection of the king's guards; and yet even there he has been threatened
+with a visit from the Parisians, and with being killed in his own house.
+See both of Throkmorton's despatches to the queen, of August 5, 1562,
+State Paper Office. One of them is printed in Forbes, ii. 7, etc.
+
+[154] Mem. de Conde, i. 91-93; Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., _ubi supra_;
+De Thou, iii. 192, 193; J. de La Fosse, 54.
+
+[155] It appears from a letter of the Nuncio Santa Croce (April 29th),
+that, as early as two months before, the court flattered itself with the
+hope of deriving great advantages from excluding Conde from the ban, and
+affecting to regard him as a prisoner (Aymon, i. 152, and Cimber et
+Danjou, vi. 91). "Con che pensano," he adds, "di quietar buona parte del
+popolo, che non sentendo parlar di religione, e parendoli ancora che la
+guerra si faccia per la liberatione del Principe de Conde, stara a
+vedere."
+
+[156] "The byshopp off Rome hathe lent these hys cheampions and frends on
+hundrethe thousand crowns, and dothe pay monthely besyds six thousand
+sowldiers." Throkmorton to the Council, July 27, 1562, Forbes, State
+Papers, ii. 5.
+
+[157] De Thou, iii. 191, etc.; Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., ii. 64, etc.
+
+[158] The number was, in fact, only about 15,000 foot and 3,000 horse,
+according to De Thou, iii. 198.
+
+[159] Although Coligny captured six cannon and over forty wagons of
+powder, he was compelled reluctantly to destroy, or render useless, and
+abandon munitions of war of which he stood in great need; for the enemy
+had taken the precaution to kill or drive away the horses, and the wagons
+could not be dragged to Orleans, a distance of over twenty miles. It
+happened that Sir Nicholas Throkmorton, whose instructive correspondence
+furnishes so lucid a commentary upon the events from 1559 to 1563, was
+travelling under escort of the royal train, to take leave of Charles IX.
+at Bourges. In the unexpected assault of the Huguenots he was stripped of
+his money and baggage, and even his despatches. Under these circumstances
+he thought it necessary to accompany Coligny to Orleans. Catharine, who
+knew well Throkmorton's sympathy with the Protestants, and hated him
+heartily ("Yt is not th' Ambassador of Englande," he had himself written
+only a few days earlier, "which ys so greatlye stomackyd and hatyd in this
+countreye, but yt ys the persone of Nicholas Throkmorton," Forbes, ii.
+33), would have it that he had purposely thrown himself into the hands of
+the Huguenots. His confidential correspondence with Queen Elizabeth does
+not bear out the charge. Despatch from Orleans, Sept. 9, 1562, Forbes,
+State Papers, ii. 36, etc. Catharine assured Sir Thomas Smith, on his
+arrival at court as English ambassador, that she wished he had been sent
+before, instead of Throkmorton, "for they took him here to be the author
+of all these troubles," declaring that Throkmorton was never well but when
+he was making some broil, and that he was so "passionate and affectionate"
+on the Huguenots' side, that he cared not what trouble he made. Despatch
+of Smith, Rouen, Nov. 7, 1562, State Paper Office.
+
+[160] Histoire eccles., ii. 296-306 (the terms of capitulation, ii. 304,
+305); Mem. de Castelnau, liv. iii., c. xi. (who maintains they were
+implicitly observed); Throkmorton, in Forbes, State Papers, ii. 41;
+Davila, bk. iii., p. 71; De Thou, iii. 198, 199. "Bituriges turpiter a
+duce praesidii proditi sese dediderunt, optimis quidem conditionibus, sed
+quas biduo post perfidiosissimus hostis infregit." Beza to Bullinger,
+Sept. 24, 1562, Baum, ii., Appendix, 194. M. Bourquelot has published a
+graphic account of the capture of Bourges in May, by the Huguenots, under
+Montgomery, and of the siege in August, from the MS. Journal of Jean
+Glaumeau, in the National Library (Bulletin de l'hist. du prot. fr., v.
+387-389). M. L. Lacour reprints in the same valuable periodical (v.
+516-518) a contemporary hymn of some merit, "Sur la prise de Bourges." We
+are told that a proverb is even now current in Berry, not a little
+flattering to the Huguenot rule it recalls:
+
+ "L'an mil cinq cent soixante et deux
+ Bourges n'avoit pretres ny gueux." (Ibid., v. 389.)
+
+[161] Jean de Serres, De statu relig. et reip., ii. 258, 259.
+
+[162] This conclusion was arrived at as early as Aug. 29th. Froude, Hist.
+of England, vii. 433. Seventy thousand crowns were to be paid to the
+prince's agents at Strasbourg or Frankfort so soon as the news should be
+received of the transfer of Havre, thirty thousand more within a month
+thereafter. The other forty thousand were in lieu of the defence of Rouen
+and Dieppe, should it seem impracticable to undertake it. Havre was to be
+held until the Prince should have effected the restitution of Calais and
+the adjacent territory according to the treaties of Cateau-Cambresis,
+although the time prescribed by those treaties had not expired, and until
+the one hundred and forty thousand crowns should have been repaid without
+interest. The compact, signed by Queen Elizabeth at Hampton Court, Sept.
+20, 1562, is inserted in Du Mont, Corps Diplomatique, v. 94, 95, and in
+Forbes, State Papers, ii., 48-51.
+
+[163] See the declaration in Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., ii. 415, 416;
+and Forbes, State Papers, ii. 79, 80. J. de Serres, ii. 261, etc. Cf.
+Forbes, State Papers, ii. 60, 69-79.
+
+[164] Throkmorton to the queen, Sept. 24, 1562. Forbes, State Papers, ii.
+64, 65.
+
+[165] Froude, _ubi supra_. In fact, Elizabeth assured Philip the
+Second--and there is no reason to doubt her veracity in this--that she
+would recall her troops from France so soon as Calais were recovered and
+peace with her neighbors were restored, and that, in the attempt to secure
+these ends, she expected the countenance rather than the opposition of her
+brother of Spain. Queen Elizabeth to the King of Spain, Sept. 22, 1562.
+Forbes, State Papers, ii. 55. It is not improbable, indeed, that there
+were ulterior designs even against Havre. "It is ment," her minister Cecil
+wrote to one of his intimate correspondents, "to kepe Newhaven in the
+Quene's possession untill Callice be eyther delyvered, or better assurance
+of it then presently we have." But he soon adds that, in a certain
+emergency, "I think the Quene's Majestie nead not be ashamed to utter her
+right to Newhaven as parcell of the Duchie of Normandy." T. Wright, Queen
+Elizabeth and her Times (London, 1838), i. 96.
+
+[166] Froude, History of England, vii. 460, 461.
+
+[167] Catharine to Throkmorton, Etampes, Sept. 21, 1562, State Paper
+Office.
+
+[168] Mem. de la Noue, c. vii.; De Thou, iii. 206, 207 (liv. xxxi).
+Throkmorton is loud in his praise of the fortifications the Huguenots had
+thrown up, and estimates the soldiers within them at over one thousand
+horse and five thousand foot soldiers, besides the citizen militia.
+Forbes, ii. 39.
+
+[169] Cuthbert Vaughan appreciated the importance of this city, and warned
+Cecil that "if the same, for lack of aid, should be surprised, it might
+give the French suspicion on our part that the queen meaneth but an
+appearance of aid, thereby to obtain into her hands such things of theirs
+as may be most profitable to her, and in time to come most noyful to
+themselves." Forbes, ii. 90. Unfortunately it was not Cecil, but Elizabeth
+herself, that restrained the exertions of the troops, and she was hard to
+move. And so, for lack of a liberal and hearty policy, Rouen was suffered
+to fall, and Dieppe was given up without a blow, and Warwick and the
+English found themselves, as it were, besieged in Havre. Whereas, with
+those places, they might have commanded the entire triangle between the
+Seine and the British Channel. See Throkmorton's indignation, and the
+surprise of Conde and Coligny, Forbes, State Papers, ii. 193, 199.
+
+[170] In a letter to Lansac, Aug. 17, 1562, Catharine writes: "Nous nous
+acheminons a Bourges pour en deloger le jeune Genlis.... L'ayant leve de
+la, comme je n'y espere grande difficulte, nous tournerons vers Orleans
+pour faire le semblable de ceux qui y sont." Le Laboureur, i. 820.
+
+[171] Mem. de Francois de la Noue, c. viii. (p. 601.)
+
+[172] Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., ii. 375, 376, 383; J. de Serres, ii.
+181; De Thou, iii. 179-181.
+
+[173] It was undoubtedly a Roman Catholic fabrication, that Montgomery
+bore on his escutcheon _a helmet pierced by a lance_ (un heaume perce
+d'une lance), in allusion to the accident by which he had given Henry the
+Second his mortal wound, in the joust at the Tournelles. Abbe Bruslart,
+Mem. de Conde, i. 97, who, however, characterizes it as "chose fort dure a
+croire."
+
+[174] Mem. de la Noue, c. viii.
+
+[175] When Lord Robert Dudley began to break to the queen the
+disheartening news that Rouen had fallen, Elizabeth betrayed "a marvellous
+remorse that she had not dealt more frankly for it," and instead of
+exhibiting displeasure at Poynings's presumption, seemed disposed to blame
+him that he had not sent a thousand men instead, for his fault would have
+been no greater. Dudley to Cecil, Oct. 30, 1562, Forbes, State Papers, ii.
+155.
+
+[176] De Thou, iii. 328; Froude, vii. 436; Sir Thomas Smith to
+Throkmorton, Paris, Oct. 17, 1562, Forbes, State Papers, ii. 117.
+
+[177] "But thei will have there preaching still. Thei will have libertie
+of their religion, and thei will have no garrison wythin the towne, but
+will be masters therof themselves: and upon this point thei stand."
+Despatch of Sir Thomas Smith, Poissy, Oct. 20, 1562, Forbes, State Papers,
+ii. 123.
+
+[178] The plundering lasted eight days. While the Swiss obeyed orders, and
+promptly desisted, "the French suffered themselves to be killed rather
+than quit the place whilst there was anything left." Castelnau, liv. iii.,
+c. 13. The _cure_ of Meriot waxes jocose over the incidents of the
+capture: "Tout ce qui fut trouve en armes par les rues et sur les
+murailles fut passe par le fil de l'espee. La ville fut mise au pillage
+par les soldatz du camp, qui se firent gentis compaignons. _Dieu scait que
+ceux qui estoient mal habillez pour leur yver_ (hiver) _ne s'en allerent
+sans robbe neufve._ Les huguenotz de la ville furent en tout maltraictez,"
+etc. Mem. de Claude Haton, i. 288.
+
+[179] On the siege of Rouen, see the graphic account of De Thou, iii.
+(liv. xxxiii.) 328-335; the copious correspondence of the English envoys
+in France, Forbes, State Papers, vol. ii.; the Hist. eccles. des egl.
+ref., ii. 389-396 (and Marlorat's examination and sentence _in extenso_,
+398-404); J. de Serres, ii. 259; La Noue, c. viii.; Davila (interesting,
+and not so inaccurate here as usual, perhaps because he had a
+brother-in-law, Jean de Hemery, sieur de Villers, in the Roman Catholic
+army, but who greatly exaggerates the Huguenot forces), ch. iii. 73-75;
+Castelnau, liv. iii., c. 13.
+
+[180] It is to be noted, however, that the order of the Prince of Conde,
+in the case of Sapin (November 2, 1562), makes no mention of the judicial
+murder of Marlorat, but alleges only his complicity with parliament in
+imprisoning the king, his mother, and the King of Navarre, in annulling
+royal edicts by magisterial orders, in constraining the king's officers to
+become idolaters, in declaring knights of the Order of St. Michael and
+other worthy gentlemen rebels, in ordering the tocsin to be rung, and
+inciting to assassination, etc. Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., ii. 115, 116.
+See Bruslart, Mem. de Conde, i. 100. When Conde was informed that the
+Parisian parliament had gone in red robes to the "Sainte Chapelle," to
+hear a requiem mass for Counsellor Sapin, he laughed, and said that he
+hoped soon to multiply their _litanies_ and _kyrie eleysons_. Hist.
+eccles., _ubi supra_.
+
+[181] As early as October 27th, Navarre sent a gentleman to Jeanne
+d'Albret, then at Pau in Bearn, "desiring to have her now to cherish him,
+and do the part of a wife;" and the messenger told Sir Thomas Smith, with
+whom he dined that day in Evreux, "that the king pretendeth to him, that
+this punishment [his wounds] came to him well-deserved, for his unkindness
+in forsaking the truth." Forbes, State Papers, ii. 167. The authenticity
+of the story of Antoine of Navarre's death-bed repentance is sufficiently
+attested by the letter written, less than a year later (August, 1563), by
+his widow, Jeanne d'Albret, to the Cardinal of Armagnac: "Ou sont ces
+belles couronnes que vous luy prometties, et qu'il a acquises a combattre
+contre la vraye Religion et sa conscience; comme la confession derniere
+qu'il en a faite en sa mort en est seur tesmoignage, et les paroles dites
+a la Royne, en protestation de faire prescher les ministres par tout s'il
+guerissoit." Pierre Olhagaray, Histoire de Foix, Bearn, et Navarre (Paris,
+1609), p. 546. See also Brantome (edition Lalanne), iv. 367, and the
+account, written probably by Antoine's physician, De Taillevis, among the
+Dupuy MSS. of the Bibliotheque nationale, ibid., iv. 419.
+
+[182] Lestoile (Collection Michaud et Poujoulat), 15; Hist. eccles. des
+egl. ref., ii. 397, 406-408; De Thou, 336, 337; Relation de la mort du roi
+de Navarre, Cimber et Danjou, iv. 67, etc.
+
+[183] I am convinced that the historian De Thou has drawn of this fickle
+prince much too charitable a portrait (iii. 337). It seems to be saying
+too much to affirm that "his merit equalled that of the greatest captains
+of his age;" and if "he loved justice, and was possessed of uprightness,"
+it must be confessed that his dealings with neither party furnish much
+evidence of the fact. (I retain these remarks, although I find that the
+criticism has been anticipated by Soldan, ii. 78). Recalling the earlier
+relations of the men, it is not a little odd that, when the news of
+Navarre's death reached the "holy fathers" of the council then in session
+in the city of Trent, the papal legates and the presidents paid the
+Cardinal of Lorraine a formal visit to _condole_ with him on the decease
+of his dear relative! (Acta Conc. Tridentini, _apud_ Martene et Durand,
+Amplissima Collectio, tom. viii. 1299). The farce was, doubtless, well
+played, for the actors were of the best in Christendom.
+
+[184] Letter of Beza to Bullinger, Sept. 1, 1562, Baum, iii., App., 190.
+The Huguenots had sustained a heavy loss also in the utter defeat and
+dispersion by Blaise de Montluc of some five or six thousand troops of
+Gascony, which the Baron de Duras was bringing to Orleans.
+
+[185] The sentiments of well-informed Huguenots are reflected in a letter
+of Calvin, of September, 1562, urging the Protestants of Languedoc to make
+collections to defray the expense entailed by D'Andelot's levy. "D'entrer
+en question ou dispute pour reprendre les faultes passees, ce n'est pas le
+temps. Car, quoy qu'il en soit, Dieu nous a reduicts a telle extremite que
+si vous n'estes secourus de ce coste-la, on ne voit apparence selon les
+hommes que d'une piteuse et horrible desolation." Bonnet, Lettres franc.,
+ii. 475.
+
+[186] Hist. eccles., ii. 421.
+
+[187] See "Capitulation des reytres et lansquenetz levez pour monseigneur
+le prince de Conde, du xviii. d'aoust 1562," Bulletin, xvi. (1867),
+116-118. The reiters came chiefly from Hesse.
+
+[188] Claude Haton, no friend to Catharine, makes the Duke d'Aumale, in
+command of eight or nine thousand troops, avoid giving battle to
+D'Andelot, and content himself with watching his march from Lorraine as
+far as St. Florentin, in obedience to secret orders of the queen mother,
+signed with the king's seal. Memoires, i. 294, 295. The fact was that
+D'Andelot adroitly eluded both the Duke of Nevers, Governor of Champagne,
+who was prepared to resist his passage, and Marshal Saint Andre, who had
+advanced to meet him with thirteen companies of "gens-d'armes" and some
+foot soldiers. Davila, bk. iii. 76; De Thou, iii. (liv. xxxiii.) 356.
+
+[189] Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., ii. 114, 115. The writer ascribes the
+fall of Rouen to the delay of the reiters in assembling at their
+rendezvous. Instead of being ready on the first of October, it was not
+until the tenth that they had come in sufficient numbers to be mustered
+in.
+
+[190] Eighty thousand, according to the Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., ii.
+91, 92; twenty-five thousand, according to Claude Haton, Memoires, 332,
+333.
+
+[191] Letter of Beza to Bullinger, Sept. 1st, Baum, ii., App., 191; Hist.
+eccles. des egl. ref., ii. 114, 115; Davila, bk. iii., 77; De Thou, iii.
+355, 356.
+
+[192] Letter of Beza to Calvin, Dec. 14, 1562, Baum, ii., App., 196. The
+authority of Beza, who had recently returned from a mission on which he
+had been sent by Conde to Germany and Switzerland and who wrote from the
+camp, is certainly to be preferred to that of Claude Haton, who states the
+Huguenot forces at 25,000 men (Memoires, i. 298). The prince's chief
+captains--Coligny, Andelot, La Rochefoucauld, and Mouy--Haton rates as the
+best warriors in France after the Duke of Guise. According to
+Throkmorton's despatches from Conde's camp near Corbeil, the departure
+from Orleans took place on the 8th of November, and the prince's French
+forces amounted only to six thousand foot soldiers, indifferently armed,
+and about two thousand horse. Forbes, State Papers, ii. 195. But this did
+not include the Germans--some seven thousand five hundred men more. Ibid.,
+ii. 196. Altogether, he reckons the army at "6,000 horsemen of all sorts
+and nations, and 10,000 footmen." Ibid., ii. 202.
+
+[193] Mem. de La Noue, c. viii., p. 602.
+
+[194] The Protestants of Languedoc held in Nismes (Nov. 2-13, 1562) the
+first, or at least one of the very first, of those "political assemblies"
+which became more and more frequent as the sixteenth century advanced.
+Here the Count of Crussol, subsequently Duke d'Uzes, was urged to accept
+the office of "head, defender, and conservator" of the reformed party in
+Languedoc. To the count a council was given, and he was requested not to
+find the suggestion amiss that he should in all important matters, such as
+treaties with the enemy, consult with the general assembly of the
+Protestants, or at least with the council. By this good office he would
+demonstrate the closeness of the bond uniting him as head to the body of
+his native land, besides giving greater assurance to a people too much
+inclined to receive unfounded impressions ("ung puple souvent trop
+meticulleux et de legiere impression"). Proces-verbal of the Assembly of
+Nismes, from MS. Bulletin, xxii. (1873), p. 515.
+
+[195] Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., ii. 117; De Thou, iii. 357. Calvin's,
+or the Geneva liturgy, was probably used but in part. Special prayers,
+adapted to the circumstances of the army, had been composed, under the
+title of "Prieres ordinaires des soldatz de l'armee conduicte par Monsieur
+le Prince de Conde, accomodees selon l'occurrence du temps." Prof. Baum
+cites a simple, but beautiful evening prayer, which was to be said when
+the sentinels were placed on guard for the night. Theodor Beza, ii. 624,
+note.
+
+[196] Throkmorton (Forbes, ii. 195, 197) represents the executions as more
+general, and as an act of severity, "chiefly in revenge of the great
+cruelty exercised by the Duke of Guise and his party at Rouen against the
+soldiers there, but specially against your Majesty's subjects."
+
+[197] Throkmorton was convinced of the practicability of capturing Paris
+by a rapid movement even from before Corbeil: "The whole suburbes on this
+syde the water is entrenched, where there is sundry bastions and cavaliers
+to plante th' artillerye on, which is verey daungerous for th'
+assaylantes. Nevertheles, if the Prince had used celeritie, in my opinion,
+with little losse of men and great facilitie he might have woon the
+suburbes; and then the towne coulde not longe have holden, somme parte of
+the sayd suburbes havinge domination therof." Forbes, ii. 217.
+
+[198] Memoires de Francois de la Noue, c. ix., p. 603 (Collection Michaud
+et Poujoulat). See also Davila (bk. iii. 77), who represents the advice of
+the admiral rather to have been to employ the army in recapturing the
+places along the Loire, while Conde insisted on trying to become master of
+Paris. De Thou, iii. 358. Beza, in his letter of Dec. 14th, says: "Quum
+enim urbs repentino impetu facile capi posset, etc." So also the Hist.
+eccles. des egl. ref., ii. 118.
+
+[199] See Motley, United Netherlands, iii. 59.
+
+[200] "The Prince of Conde and his campe having approched the towne of
+Corbeille, and being ready to batter the same, the queene mother sente her
+principal escuyer, named Monsieur de Sainte-Mesme, with a lettre to the
+sayd prince, advertisinge him of the deathe of the kinge, his brother. The
+sayd de Sainte-Mesme had also in credence to tell the prince from the
+queene, that she was verey desirous to have an ende of theise troubles:
+and also that she was willinge that the sayd prince should enjoy his ranke
+and aucthorite due unto him in this realme.... This the queene mother's
+lettre and sweete words hathe empeached the battrye and warlyke procedings
+against Corbeill; the prince therby beeing induced to desist from using
+any violence against his ennemyes. I feare me, that this delaying will
+torne much to the prince's disadvantage; and that there is no other good
+meaning at this time in this faire speeche, then there was in the treaty
+of Bogeancy (Beaugency) in the monethe of July last." Throkmorton to the
+queen, from Essonne, opposite Corbeil, Nov. 22, 1562, Forbes, ii. 209.
+
+[201] Letter of Beza to Calvin, Dec. 14th, Baum, ii., App., 197.
+
+[202] Ib., _ubi supra_.
+
+[203] Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., ii. 120; De Thou, iii. 359.
+
+[204] Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., ii. 132; De Thou, iii. 361; Mem. de
+Castelnau, liv. iv., c. iv.; Forbes, ii. 227, 228. Even in September, the
+English ambassador wrote from Orleans, "there is greate practise made by
+the queene mother and others to winne Monsieur de Janlis and Monsieur de
+Grandmont from the prince." Forbes, ii. 41.
+
+[205] "Par ce moyen, un chacun de nous trainera son licol, jusques a ce
+que les dessusdits le serrent a leur appetit." Hist. eccles. des egl.
+ref., ii. 126. The details of the conferences, with the articles offered
+on either side, are given at great length, pp. 121-136.
+
+[206] "The queene mother and hyr councelours," wrote Throkmorton to
+Elizabeth, four or five days later (Dec. 13, 1562), "have at the length
+once agayne showed, howe sincerely they meane in their treatyes. For when
+their force out of Gascoigne together with two thousand five hundred
+Spainardes were arrived, and when they had well trenched and fortefyed the
+faulxbourges and places of advantage of Paris; espienge, that the prince
+coulde remayne no longer with his campe before Paris for lack of victuaill
+and fourrage, having abused him sufficiently with this treaty eight or ten
+dayes: the sayd queene mother ... refused utterly the condicions before
+accorded." Forbes, State Papers, ii. 226. It is not strange that the
+ambassador, after the meagre results of the past five weeks, "could not
+hope of any great good to be done, until he saw it;" although he was
+confident that "if matters were handled stoutly and roundly, without
+delay," the prince might constrain his enemies to accord him favorable
+conditions.
+
+[207] Mem. de Castelnau, liv. iv., c. iv.
+
+[208] Five thousand, according to the Duke d'Aumale (Les Princes de Conde,
+i. 190).
+
+[209] "Quatre-vingtz salades ... lesquels sembloient estre _quatre-vingtz
+saettes_ du ciel!" Explanation of plan of battle sent by Guise to the
+king, reprinted in Mem. de Conde, iv. 687.
+
+[210] "Etant chose certaine qu'il n'entra de cinquante ans en France des
+plus couards hommes que ceux-la, bien qu'ils eussent la plus belle
+apparence du monde." Hist. eccles. ii. 144.
+
+[211] It ought perhaps, in justice to the reiters, to be noticed that
+Coligny attributes their failure not to cowardice, as in the case of both
+the French and the German infantry, but to their not understanding orders,
+and to the occasional absence of an interpreter.
+
+[212] La Noue in his commentaries (Ed. Mich., c. x., p. 605 seq.) makes
+some interesting observations on the singular incidents of the battle of
+Dreux. The author of the Histoire eccles., ii. 140, and De Thou, iii. 367,
+criticise both the Roman Catholic and the Protestant generals. They find
+the former to blame for not waiting to engage the Huguenots until they had
+reached the rougher country they were approaching, where the superiority
+of Conde in cavalry would have been of little avail. They censure the
+latter for leaving his own infantry unprotected, and for attacking the
+enemy's infantry instead of his cavalry. If this had been routed, the
+other would have made no further resistance.
+
+[213] He had, according to Beza's letter to Calvin, Dec. 27th (Baum, ii.
+Appendix, 202), lost only one hundred and fifty of his horsemen; or,
+according to the Histoire eccles. (ii. 146), only twenty-seven.
+
+[214] For details of the battle of Dreux, see Hist. eccles., ii. 140-148;
+Mem. de Castelnau, liv. ii., c. v.; De Thou, iii. 365, etc.; Pasquier,
+Lettres (Ed. Feugere), ii. 251-254; Guise's relation, reprinted in Mem. de
+Conde, iv. 685, etc., and letters subsequently written, ibid. iv. 182,
+etc.; Coligny's brief account, written just after the battle, ibid. iv.
+178-181; the Swiss accounts, Baum, ii. Appendix, 198-202; Vieilleville,
+liv. viii., c. xxxvi.; Davila, 81, seq. Cf. letter of Catharine, _ubi
+infra_, and two plans of the engagement, in vol. v. of Mem. de Conde. The
+Duc d'Aumale gives a good military sketch, i. 189-205.
+
+[215] "Et non sans cause," says Abbe Bruslart; "d'autant que de ceste
+bataille despendoit tout l'estat de la religion chrestienne et du
+royaume." Mem. de Conde, i. 105. A despatch of Smith to the Privy Council,
+St. Denis, Dec. 20, 1562, gives this first and incorrect account. MS.
+State Paper Office.
+
+[216] H. Martin, Hist. de France, x. 156. Le Laboureur, ii. 450.
+Catharine's own account to her minister at Vienna, it is true, is very
+different. "J'en demeuray pres de 24 heures _en une extreme ennuy et
+fascherie_, et jusques a ce que le S. de Losses arriva par-devers moy, qui
+fut hier sur les neuf heures du matin." Letter to the Bishop of Rennes,
+Dec. 23, 1562, _apud_ Le Laboureur, Add. aux Mem. de Castelnau, ii. 66-68.
+
+[217] The Council of Trent, on receiving an account of the battle, Dec.
+28th, offered solemn thanksgivings. Acta Concil. Trid. _apud_ Martene et
+Durand, Ampl. Coll., t. viii. 1301, 1302; Letter of the Card. of Lorraine
+to the Bishop of Rennes, French ambassador in Germany, _apud_ Le
+Laboureur, Add. aux Mem. de Castelnau, ii. 70.
+
+[218] Sir Thomas Smith to Cecil, February 4, 1563, State Paper Office.
+
+[219] Same to same, February 26, 1563, State Paper Office.
+
+[220] For Marshal Saint Andre, who had once gravely suggested in the
+council the propriety of sewing the queen mother up in a bag and throwing
+her into the river, it is understood that the Medici shed few tears.
+Brantome and Le Laboureur, Add. aux Mem. de Castelnau, ii. 81. The marshal
+had been shot by a victim whom he had deprived of his possessions by
+confiscation. Ibid., _ubi supra_.
+
+[221] "Black devils," Guise calls them in a letter of Jan. 17th. "M. de
+Chatillon et ces diables noirs sont a Jerjuau." Mem. de Guise, 502.
+
+[222] Coligny had notified the English court of his intention early in
+January, and Cecil entertained high hopes of the result: "A gentleman is
+arryved at Rye, sent from the Admyrall Chastillion, who assureth his
+purpose to prosecute the cause of God and of his contrey, and meaneth to
+joyne with our power in Normandy, which I trust shall make a spedy end of
+the whole." Letter to Sir T. Smith, January 14th, Wright, Q. Eliz., i.
+121.
+
+[223] How important a matter this was, may be inferred from the fact that
+the Admiral took pains to dwell upon it, in a letter to Queen Elizabeth,
+written two or three days before his departure: "Advisant au reste vostre
+Majeste, Madame, que j'ay faict condescendre les reistres a laisser tous
+leur bagages et empechemens en ceste ville (_chose non auparavant ouye_):
+de sorte que dedans le dix ou douziesme de ce moys de Febvrier prochain au
+plus tard, avec l'aide de Dieu, nous serons bien prez du Havre de Grace,"
+etc. Letter from Orleans, Jan. 29, 1563, Forbes, ii. 319.
+
+[224] "En cest equipage, nous faisions telle diligence, que souvent nous
+prevenions la renommee de nous mesmes en plusieurs lieux ou nous
+arrivions." Mem. de la Noue, c. xi. La Noue states the force at two
+thousand reiters, five hundred French horse, and one thousand mounted
+arquebusiers.
+
+[225] "The 8th of that moneth" (February), says Stow, "the said Admirall
+came before Hunflew with six thousand horsemen, reisters and others of his
+owne retinues, beside footmen, and one hundred horsemen of the countries
+thereabout, and about sixe of the clocke at night, there was a great peale
+of ordinance shot off at Newhaven (Havre) for a welcome to the sayd
+Admirall." Annals (London, 1631), 653. The passage is inaccurately quoted
+by Wright, Queen Eliz., i. 125, note.
+
+[226] Hist. des egl. ref., ii. 156, 157; Mem. de Castelnau, liv. iv., c.
+vii. and viii.
+
+[227] Mem. de Castelnau, liv. iv., c. ix.
+
+[228] OEuvres (Ed. Feugere), ii. 254; and again, ii. 257.
+
+[229] Davila, bk. iii., p. 85.
+
+[230] Castelnau (liv. iv., c. ix.), who was present, gives a less graphic
+account than Davila (bk. iii., pp. 85, 86), who was not. Hist. eccles. des
+egl. ref., ii. 159-161; La Noue, c. xi. 607-609.
+
+[231] Feb. 9th--the day before Sir Thomas Smith reached Blois. Letter to
+Privy Council, Feb. 17, 1563, State Paper Office; Hist. eccles. des egl.
+ref., ii. 160.
+
+[232] Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., ii. 162.
+
+[233] Sir Thomas Smith to the Privy Council, Feb. 15th and 17th, 1563,
+State Paper Office, Calendar, pp. 138, 141. It is now known, of course,
+that _bombs_ had been occasionally used long before 1563, by the Arabs in
+Spain, and others. But this kind of missile was practically a novelty, and
+was not adopted in ordinary warfare till near a century later.
+
+[234] It was at a most trying moment--when M. de Soubise, the Protestant
+governor, found that only two weeks' provisions remained in the city, and
+therefore felt compelled to issue an order to force some 7,000
+non-combatants--women, children, and the poor--to leave Lyons, that Viret,
+the Huguenot pastor, had an opportunity to display the great ascendancy
+which his eminent piety and discretion had secured him over all ranks in
+society. According to the newly published Memoirs of Soubise, Viret boldly
+remonstrated against an act which was equivalent to a surrender of
+thousands of defenceless persons to certain butchery, and declared that
+the ordinary rules of military necessity did not apply to a war like this,
+"in which the poorest has an interest, since we are fighting for the
+liberty of our consciences," adding his own assurance that help would come
+from some other quarter. Finally the governor yielded, saying: "Even
+should it turn out ill and my reputation suffer, as though I had not done
+my duty as a captain, yet, at your word, I will do as you ask, being well
+assured that God will bless my act." Bulletin, xxiii. (1874), 497. It will
+be remembered that Pierre Viret had been the able coadjutor of Farel in
+the reformation of Geneva, twenty-eight years before. The siege of Lyons
+was made the subject of a lengthy song by Antoine Du Plain (reprinted in
+the Chansonnier Huguenot, 220 seq.), containing not a few historical data
+of importance.
+
+[235] "Nous venons maintenans d'estre advertyz de Lion par M. de Soubize,
+comme le Baron des Adrez, ayant este practique par M. de Nemours, avoit
+complote de faire entrer quelque gendarmerie et gens de pied de M. de
+Nemours dedans Rommans, ville du Daulphine: dont il a este empesche par le
+sieur de Mouvans, et par la noblesse du pays; qui se sont saisiz de sa
+personne, et le ont mene prisonnier a Valence, pour le envoyer en
+Languedoc devers mon frere, nagueres cardinal de Chastillon, et Monsieur
+de Crussol (qui ont presque delivre tout le dict pays de Languedoc de la
+tyrannie des ennemys de Dieu et du Roy) a fin de le faire punir, et servir
+d'exemple aux autres deserteurs de Dieu, de leur debvoir, et de la
+patrie." Admiral Coligny to Queen Elizabeth, Orleans, January 29, 1562/3,
+Forbes, ii. 320.
+
+[236] The gloomy picture is painted by Henri Martin, x. 158, etc.
+
+[237] This statement does not rest upon any documentary proof that I am
+aware of. It is, however, vouched for by the Hist. eccles. des egl. ref.,
+ii. 162. Moreover, Admiral Coligny, in his later defence, expressly
+states, "on the testimony of men worthy of belief," that Guise "was
+accustomed to boast that, on the capture of the city, he would spare none
+of the inhabitants, and that no respect would be paid to age or sex." Jean
+de Serres, iii. 29; Mem. de Conde, iv. 348.
+
+[238] Mem. de Soubise, Bulletin, xxiii. (1874) 499.
+
+[239] Not without some hesitation, however. So little confidence in his
+good judgment did his frivolous appearance inspire, that Coligny observed:
+"I would not trust him, without knowing him better than I do, had not
+Monsieur de Soubise sent him to me." Mem. de Soubise, Bulletin, xxiii.
+(1874) 502.
+
+[240] The Proces verbal of Poltrot's examination just before his death,
+March 18th, is inserted in the Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., ii. 187-198.
+In this he declares that his first testimony was _false_ and extorted by
+the fear of death, and exculpates Soubise, Beza, Coligny, etc., from
+having instigated him. He says that when put to torture he will say
+anything the questioners want him to. Accordingly, when so tortured, he
+accuses them, and when released a moment after the horses have begun to
+rend him in pieces, he conjures up a plot of the Huguenots to sack Paris,
+etc. May it not properly be asked, what such testimony as this is worth?
+For or against Coligny, volumes of it would not affect his character in
+our estimation.
+
+[241] The direct testimony of Jacques Auguste de Thou, on a matter with
+which he was evidently intimately acquainted through his father, is
+unimpeachable, and will outweigh with every unprejudiced mind all the
+stories of Davila, Castelnau, etc., founded on mere report. De Thou,
+Histoire univ. (liv. xxxiv.), iii. 403.
+
+[242] Poltrot's pretended confession of Feb. 26th, at Camp Saint Hilaire,
+near Saint Mesmin, with the replies signed by Coligny, la Rochefoucauld,
+and Beza to each separate article, is inserted in full in Mem. de Conde,
+iv. 285-303, and the Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., ii. 176-186. Coligny's
+letter to Catharine, ibid., ii. 186, 187, Mem. de Conde, iv. 303.
+
+[243] That Catharine de' Medici was no very sincere mourner for Guise is
+sufficiently certain; and it is well known that there were those who
+believed her to have instigated his murder (See Mem. de Tavannes, Pet.
+ed., ii. 394). This is not surprising when we recall the fact that almost
+every great crime or casualty that occurred in France, for the space of a
+generation, was ascribed to her evil influence. Still the Viscount de
+Tavannes makes too great a draft upon our credulity, when he pretends that
+she made a frank admission of guilt to his father. "Depuis, au voyage de
+Bayonne, passant par Dijon, elle dit au sieur de Tavannes: 'Ceux de Guise
+se vouloient faire roys, je les en ay bien garde devant Orleans.'" The
+expression "devant Orleans" can hardly be tortured into a reference to
+anything else than Guise's assassination.
+
+[244] I entirely agree with Prof. Baum (Theodor Beza, ii. 719) in
+regarding "this single circumstance as more than sufficient to demonstrate
+both the innocence of Coligny and his associates, and the consciously
+guilty fabrication of the accusations."
+
+[245] Besides the authorities already referred to, the Journal of
+Bruslart, Mem. de Conde, i. 123, 124; Davila, bk. iii. 86, 87; Claude
+Haton, i. 322, etc.; J. de Serres, ii. 343-345; and Pasquier, Lettres
+(OEuvres choisies), ii. 258, may be consulted with advantage. Prof. Baum's
+account is, as usual, vivid, accurate, and instructive (Theodor Beza, ii.
+706, etc.). Varillas, Anquetil, etc., are scarcely worth examining. There
+is the ordinary amount of blundering about the simplest matters of
+chronology. Davila places the wounding of Guise on the 24th of February,
+his death three days later, etc.
+
+[246] Mem. de Conde, i. 124; Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., ii. 164.
+
+[247] Claude Haton, i. 325, 326.
+
+[248] See Riez's letter to the king, reprinted in Mem. de Conde, iv.
+243-265, and in Cimber and Danjou's invaluable collection of contemporary
+pamphlets and documents, v. 171-204; Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., ii. 164.
+
+[249] Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., _ubi supra_. There is extant an
+affecting letter from the aged Renee of Ferrara to Calvin, in which she
+complains with deep feeling of the reformed, and especially their
+preachers, for the severity with which even after his death they attacked
+the memory of her son-in-law, and even spoke of his eternal condemnation
+as an ascertained fact. "I know," she said, "that he was a persecutor; but
+I do not know, nor, to speak freely, do I believe that he was reprobated
+of God; for he gave signs to the contrary before his death. But they want
+this not to be mentioned, and they desire to shut the mouths of those who
+know it." Cimber et Danjou, v. 399, etc. Calvin's reply of the 24th of
+January, 1564, is admirable for its kind, yet firm tone (Bonnet, Lettres
+franc. de Calvin, ii. 550, etc., Calvin's Letters, Am. edit., iv. 352,
+etc.). He freely condemned the beatification of the King of Navarre, while
+the Duke of Guise was consigned to perdition. The former was an apostate;
+the latter an open enemy of the truth of the Gospel from the very
+beginning. Indeed, to pronounce upon the doom of a fellow-sinner was both
+rash and presumptuous, for there is but one Judge before whose seat we all
+must give account. Yet, in condemning the authors of the horrible troubles
+that had befallen France, and which all God's children had felt scarcely
+less poignantly than Renee herself, sprung though she was from the royal
+stock, it was impossible not to condemn the duke "who had kindled the
+fire." Yea, for himself, although he had always prayed God to show Guise
+mercy, the reformer avowed, in almost the very words of Beza, that he had
+often desired that God would lay His hand upon the duke to free His Church
+of him, unless He would convert him. "And yet I can protest," he added,
+"that but for me, before the war, active and energetic men would have
+exerted themselves to destroy him from the face of the earth, whom my sole
+exhortation restrained."
+
+Some of the composers of Huguenot ballads were bitter enough in their
+references to Guise's death and pompous funeral; see, among others, the
+songs in the Chansonnier Huguenot, pp. 253 and 257.
+
+[250] Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., ii. 285, 286. The story is well told in
+Memorials of Renee of France, 215-217. De Thou (liv. xxx.), iii. 179, has
+incorrectly placed this occurrence among the events of the first months of
+the war. During the second war Brantome once stopped to pay his respects
+to Renee, and saw in the castle over 300 Huguenots that had fled there for
+security. In a letter of May 10, 1563, Calvin speaks of her as "the
+nursing mother of the poor saints driven out of their homes and knowing
+not whither to go," and as having made her castle what a princess looking
+only to this world would regard almost an insult to have it called--"God's
+hostelry" or "hospital" (ung hostel-Dieu). God had, as it were, called
+upon her by these trials to pay arrears for the timidity of her younger
+days. Lettres franc., ii. 514 (Amer. trans., iv. 314).
+
+[251] Despatch to the queen, Blois, February 26, 1562/3, Forbes, State
+Papers, ii. 340. "Of the thre things that did let this realme to come to
+unity and accorde," adds Smith, "I take th' one to be taken away. How th'
+other two wil be now salved--th' one that the papists may relent somwhat
+of their pertinacie, and the Protestants have som affiaunce or trust in
+there doengs, and so th' one live with th' other in quiet, I do not yet
+se."
+
+[252] Mem. de Castelnau, liv. iv., c. xii.; Davila, bk. iii. 88; Journal
+de Bruslart, Mem. de Conde, i. 124; Letter of Catharine to Gonnor, March
+3d, ibid., iv. 278; Hist. eccles., ii. 200.
+
+[253] Rascalon, Catharine's agent, proffered the dignity in a letter of
+the 13th of March, and the duke declined it on the 17th of the same month.
+At the same time he gave some wholesome advice respecting the observance
+of the Edict, etc. Hist. eccles., ii. 165-168.
+
+[254] "La Royne ... y a si vivement procede, que ayant ordonne que sur la
+foy de l'un et de l'autre nous nous entreveorions en l'Isle aux Bouviers,
+joignant presque les murs de ceste ville, dimenche dernier cela fut
+execute." Conde to Sir Thomas Smith, Orleans, March 11, 1563, Forbes, ii.
+355.
+
+[255] Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., ii. 170, 171. Coupled with demands for
+the restitution of the edict without restriction or modification, the
+prohibition of insults, the protection of the churches, the permission to
+hold synods, the recognition of Protestant marriages, and that the
+religion be no longer styled "new," "inasmuch as it is founded on the
+ancient teaching of the Prophets and Apostles," we find the Huguenot
+ministers, true to the spirit of the age, insisting upon "the rigorous
+punishment of all Atheists, Libertines, Anabaptists, Servetists, and other
+heretics and schismatics."
+
+[256] The text of the edict of Amboise is given by Isambert, Recueil des
+anc. lois franc., xiv. 135-140; J. de Serres, ii. 347-357; Hist. eccles.
+des egl. ref., ii. 172-176; Agrippa d'Aubigne, i. (liv. iii.) 192-195. See
+Pasquier, Lettres (OEuvres choisies), ii. 260.
+
+[257] Smith to the queen, April 1, 1563, in Duc d'Aumale, Princes de
+Conde, i. Documents, 439.
+
+[258] Smith to D'Andelot, March 13, 1563, State Paper Office.
+
+[259] Journal de Bruslart, Mem. de Conde, i. 125: "de expresso Regis
+mandato iteratis vicibus facto." Claude Haton is scarcely more
+complimentary than Bruslart: "elle (la paix) estoit faicte du tout au
+desavantage de l'honneur de Dieu, de la religion catholicque et de
+l'authorite du jeune roy et repos public de son royaume." Memoires, i.
+327, 328.
+
+[260] Elizabeth of England was herself, apparently, awakening to the
+importance of the struggle, and new troops subsidized by her would soon
+have entered France from the German borders. "This day," writes Cecil to
+Sir Thomas Smith, ambassador at Paris, Feb. 27, 1562/3, "commission
+passeth hence to the comte of Oldenburg to levy eight thousand footemen
+and four thousand horse, who will, I truste, passe into France with spede
+and corradg. He is a notable, grave, and puissant captayn, and fully bent
+to hazard his life in the cause of religion." Th. Wright, Queen Elizabeth
+and her Times, i. 125. But Elizabeth's troops, like Elizabeth's money,
+came too late. Of the latter, Admiral Coligny plainly told Smith a few
+weeks later: "If we could have had the money at Newhaven (Havre) _but one
+xiii daies sooner_, we would have talked with them after another sorte,
+and would not have bene contented with this accord." Smith to the queen,
+April 1, 1563, in Duc d'Aumale, i. 439.
+
+[261] Letter from Orleans, March 30, 1563, MSS. State Paper Office, Duc
+d'Aumale, i. 411.
+
+[262] Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., ii. 203. Theodore Beza was the preacher
+on this occasion, and betrayed his own disappointment by speaking of the
+liberty of religion they had received as "not so ample, peradventure, as
+they would wish, yet such as they ought to thank God for." Smith to the
+queen, March 31, State Paper Office.
+
+[263] Relazione di Correro, 1569. Rel. des Amb. Ven., ii. 118-120.
+
+[264] It appears at least as early as in Farel's Epistre a tous Seigneurs,
+written in 1530, p. 166 of Fick's edition.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+THE PEACE OF AMBOISE, AND THE BAYONNE CONFERENCE.
+
+
+[Sidenote: The restoration of Havre demanded.]
+
+[Sidenote: Fall of Havre.]
+
+Scarcely had the Edict of Amboise been signed when a demand was made upon
+the English queen for the city of Havre, placed in her possession by the
+Huguenots, as a pledge for the restoration of Calais in accordance with
+the treaty of Cateau-Cambresis, and as security for the repayment of the
+large sums she had advanced for the maintenance of the war. But Elizabeth
+was in no favorable mood for listening to this summons. Instead of being
+instructed to evacuate Havre, the Earl of Warwick was reinforced by fresh
+supplies of arms and provisions, and received orders to defend to the last
+extremity the only spot in France held by the queen. A formal offer made
+by Conde to secure a renewal of the stipulation by which Calais was to be
+given up in 1567, and to remunerate Elizabeth for her expenditures in the
+cause of the French Protestants, was indignantly rejected; and both sides
+prepared for open war.[265] The struggle was short and decisive. The
+French were a unit on the question of a permanent occupation of their soil
+by foreigners. Within the walls of Havre itself a plot was formed by the
+French population to betray the city into the hands of their countrymen;
+and Warwick was forced to expel the natives in order to secure the lives
+of his own troops.[266] But no vigilance of the besieged could insure the
+safety of a detached position on the borders of so powerful a state as
+France. Elizabeth was too weak, or too penurious, to afford the recruits
+that were loudly called for. And now a new and frightful auxiliary to the
+French made its appearance. A contagious disease set in among the English
+troops, crowded into a narrow compass and deprived of their usual
+allowance of fresh meat and wholesome water. The fearful mortality
+attending it soon revealed the true character of the scourge. Few of those
+that fell sick recovered. Gathering new strength from day to day, it
+reigned at length supreme in the fated city. Soon the daily crowd of
+victims became too great to receive prompt sepulture, and the corpses
+lying unburied in the streets furnished fresh fuel for the raging
+pestilence. Seven thousand English troops were reduced in a short time to
+three thousand, in a few days more to fifteen hundred men.[267] The hand
+of death was upon the throat of every survivor. At length, too feeble to
+man their works, despairing of timely succor, unable to sustain at the
+same moment the assault of their opponents and the fearful visitation of
+the Almighty, the English consented to surrender; and, on the
+twenty-eighth of July, a capitulation was signed, in accordance with
+which, on the next day, Havre, with all its fortifications and the ships
+of war in its harbor, fell once more into the hands of the French.[268]
+
+[Sidenote: How the peace was received.]
+
+The pacification of Amboise, a contemporary chronicler tells us, was
+received with greater or less cordiality in different localities of
+France, very much according to the number of Protestants they had
+contained before the war. "This edict of peace was very grievous to hear
+published and to have executed in the case of the Catholics of the
+peaceable cities and villages where there were very few Huguenots. But it
+was a source of great comfort to the Catholics of the cities which were
+oppressed by the Huguenots, as well as of the neighboring villages in
+which the Catholic religion had been intermitted, mass and divine worship
+not celebrated, and the holy sacraments left unadministered--as in the
+cities of Lyons and Orleans, and their vicinity, and in many other cities
+of Poitou and Languedoc, where the Huguenots were masters or superior in
+numbers. As the peace was altogether advantageous to the Huguenots, they
+labored hard to have it observed and published."[269]
+
+[Sidenote: Vexatious delays in Normandy.]
+
+But to secure publication and observance was not always possible.[270] Not
+unfrequently the Huguenots were denied by the illiberality of their
+enemies every privilege to which they were entitled by the terms of the
+edict. At Troyes, the Roman Catholic party, hearing that peace had been
+made, resolved to employ the brief interval before the edict should be
+published, and the mayor of the city led the populace to the prisons,
+where all the Huguenots that could be found were at once murdered.[271]
+The vexatious delays, and the actual persecution still harder to be borne,
+which were encountered at Rouen, have been duly recorded by an anonymous
+Roman Catholic contemporary, as well as in the registers of the city hall
+and of the Norman parliament, and may serve as an indication of what
+occurred in many other places. From the chapter of the cathedral and the
+judges of the supreme provincial court, down to the degraded rabble, the
+entire population was determined to interpose every possible obstacle in
+the way of the peaceable execution of the new law. Before any official
+communication respecting it reached them, the clergy declared, by solemn
+resolution, their intention to reserve the right of prosecuting all who
+had plundered their extensive ecclesiastical domain. The municipality
+wrote at once to the king, to his mother, and to others at court,
+imploring that Rouen and its vicinity might be exempted from all exercise
+of the "new religion." Parliament sent deputies to Charles the Ninth to
+remonstrate against the broad concessions made in favor of the
+Protestants, and, even when compelled to go through the form of a
+registration, avoided a publication of the edict, in order to gain time
+for another fruitless protest addressed to the royal government.
+
+When it came to the execution of the law, the affair assumed a more
+threatening aspect. The Roman Catholics had resolved to resist the return
+of the "for-issites," or fugitive Huguenots. At first they excused their
+opposition by alleging that there were bandits and criminals of every kind
+in the ranks of the exiles. Next they demanded that a preliminary list of
+their names and abodes should be furnished, in order that their arms might
+be taken away. Finally they required, with equal perverseness, that, in
+spite of the express stipulation of the king's rescript, the "for-issites"
+should return only as private individuals, and should not venture to
+resume their former offices and dignities. Meantime the "for-issites,"
+driven to desperation by the flagrant injustice of which they were the
+victims, began to retaliate by laying violent hands upon all objects of
+Roman Catholic devotion in the neighboring country, and by levying
+contributions upon the farms and villas of their malignant enemies. The
+Rouenese revenged themselves in turn by wantonly murdering the Huguenots
+whom they found within the city walls.
+
+[Sidenote: Protest of the Norman parliament.]
+
+The embittered feeling did not diminish at once after the more intrepid of
+the Huguenots had, under military compulsion, been readmitted into Rouen.
+There were daily complaints of ill-usage. But the insolence of the
+dominant party rose to a still higher pitch when there appeared a royal
+edict--whether genuine or forged has not as yet been settled--by which the
+cardinal demands of the Huguenots were granted. The alleged concessions
+may not strike us as very extraordinary. They consisted chiefly in
+disarming the Roman Catholics equally with the adherents of the opposite
+creed, and in erecting a new chamber in parliament to try impartially
+cases in dispute between the adherents of the two communions.[272] This
+was certainly decreeing but a small measure of the equality in the eye of
+the law which the Protestants might claim as a natural and indefeasible
+right. The citizens of the Norman capital, however, regarded the enactment
+as a monstrous outrage upon society. Charles the Ninth, happened at this
+time to be passing through Gaillon, a place some ten leagues distant from
+Rouen, on his way to the siege of Havre; and Damours, the
+advocate-general, was deputed to bear to him a protest drawn up by
+parliament. The tone of the paper was scarcely respectful to the monarch;
+it was positively insulting to the members of the royal council who
+professed the Protestant faith. It predicted the possible loss of
+Normandy, or of his entire kingdom, in case the king pursued a system of
+toleration. The Normans, it said, would not submit to Protestant
+governors, nor to the return of the exiles in arms, nor to their
+resumption of their former dignities. If the "for-issites" continued their
+excesses, they would be set upon and killed. The Roman Catholic burgesses
+of Rouen even proclaimed a conditional loyalty. Should the king not see
+fit to accede to their demands, they declared themselves ready to place
+the keys of their city in his hands to dispose of at his pleasure, at the
+same time craving permission to go where they pleased and to take away
+their property with them.
+
+[Sidenote: A rude rebuff.]
+
+Truly the spirit of the "Holy League" was already born, though the times
+were not yet ripe for the promulgation of such tenets. The
+advocate-general was a fluent speaker, and he had been attended many a
+weary mile by an enthusiastic escort. Parliamentary counsellors, municipal
+officers, clergy, an immense concourse of the lower stratum of the
+population--all were at Gaillon, ready to applaud his well-turned
+sentences. But he had chosen an unlucky moment for his oratorical display.
+His glowing periods were rudely interrupted by one of the princely
+auditors. This was Louis of Conde--now doubly important to the court on
+account of the military undertaking that was on foot--who complained of
+the speaker's insolent words. So powerful a nobleman could not be
+despised. And so the voluble Damours, with his oration but half delivered,
+instead of meeting a gracious monarch's approval and returning home amid
+the plaudits of the multitude, was hastily taken in charge by the archers
+of the royal guard and carried off to prison. The rest of the Rouenese
+disappeared more rapidly than they had come. The avenues to the city were
+filled with fugitives as from a disastrous battle. Even the grave
+parliament, which the last winter had been exhibiting its august powers in
+butchering Huguenots by the score, beginning with the arch-heretic
+Augustin Marlorat, lost for a moment its self-possession, and took part in
+the ignominious flight. Shame, however, induced it to pause before it had
+gone too far, and, putting on the gravest face it could summon, it
+reappeared ere long at Gaillon with becoming magisterial gravity. Never
+had there been a more thorough discomfiture.[273] A few days later the
+Marshal de Bourdillon made his entry into Rouen with a force of Swiss
+soldiers sufficient to break down all resistance, the "for-issites" were
+brought in, a new election of municipal officers was held, and comparative
+quiet was restored in the turbulent city.[274]
+
+[Sidenote: Commissioners to enforce the edict.]
+
+[Sidenote: Alienation of a profligate court.]
+
+[Sidenote: Profanity a test of Catholicity.]
+
+So far as a character so undecided could frame any fixed purpose,
+Catharine de' Medici was resolved to cement, if possible, a stable peace.
+The Chancellor, Michel de l'Hospital, still retained his influence over
+her, and gave to her disjointed plans somewhat of the appearance of a
+deliberate policy. That policy certainly seemed to mean peace. And to
+prove this, commissioners were despatched to the more distant provinces,
+empowered to enforce the execution of the Edict of Amboise.[275] Yet never
+was the court less in sympathy with the Huguenots than at this moment. If
+shameless profligacy had not yet reached the height it subsequently
+attained under the last Valois that sat upon the throne of France, it was
+undoubtedly taking rapid strides in that direction. For the giddy throng
+of courtiers, living in an atmosphere that reeked with corruption,[276]
+the stern morality professed by the lips and exemplified in the lives of
+Gaspard de Coligny and his noble brothers, as well as by many another of
+nearly equal rank, could afford but few attractions. Many of these
+triflers had, it is true, exhibited for a time some leaning toward the
+reformed faith. But their evanescent affection was merely a fire kindled
+in the light straw: the fuel was soon consumed, and the brilliant flame
+which had given rise to such sanguine expectations died out as easily as
+it sprang up.[277] When once the novelty of the simple worship in the rude
+barn, or in the retired fields, with the psalms of Marot and Beza sung to
+quaint and stirring melodies, had worn off; when the black gown of the
+Protestant minister had become as familiar to the eye as the stole and
+chasuble of the officiating priest, and the words of the reformed
+confession of sins as familiar to the ear as the pontifical litanies and
+prayers, the "assemblee" ceased to attract the curious from the salons of
+St. Germain and Fontainebleau. Besides, it was one thing to listen to a
+scathing account of the abuses of churchmen, or a violent denunciation of
+the sins of priest and monk, and quite another to submit to a faithful
+recital of the iniquities of the court, and hear the wrath of God
+denounced against the profane, the lewd, and the extortionate. There were
+some incidents, occurring just at the close of the war, that completed the
+alienation which before had been only partial. The Huguenots had attempted
+by stringent regulations to banish swearing, robbery, and other flagrant
+crimes from their army. They had punished robbery in many instances with
+death. They had succeeded so far in doing away with oaths, that their
+opponents had paid unconscious homage to their freedom from the despicable
+vice. In those days, when in the civil struggle it was so difficult to
+distinguish friends from foes, there was one proof of unimpeachable
+orthodoxy that was rarely disputed. He must be a good Catholic who could
+curse and swear. The Huguenot soldier would do neither.[278] So nearly,
+indeed, did the Huguenot affirmation approach to the simplicity of the
+biblical precept, that one Roman Catholic partisan leader of more than
+ordinary audacity had assumed for the motto on his standard the
+blasphemous device: "'Double 's death' has conquered 'Verily.'"[279] But
+the strictness with which theft and profanity were visited in the Huguenot
+camp produced but a slight impression, compared with that made by the
+punishment of death inflicted by a stern judge at Orleans, just before the
+proclamation of peace, on a man and woman found guilty of adultery. Almost
+the entire court cried out against the unheard-of severity of the sentence
+for a crime which had never before been punished at all. The greater part
+of these advocates of facile morals had even the indiscretion to confess
+that they would never consent to accept such people as the Huguenots for
+their masters.[280]
+
+[Sidenote: Admiral Coligny accused.]
+
+[Sidenote: His defence espoused by Conde and the Montmorencies.]
+
+Even after the publication of the Edict of Amboise, there was one matter
+left unsettled that threatened to rekindle the flames of civil war. It
+will be remembered that the murderer of the Duke of Guise, overcome by
+terror in view of his fate had charged Gaspard de Coligny with having
+instigated the perpetration of the foul crime; that, as soon as he heard
+the accusation, the admiral had not only answered the allegations, article
+by article, but had written, earnestly begging that Poltrot's execution
+might be deferred until the return of peace should permit him to be
+confronted with his accuser. This very reasonable demand, we have seen,
+had been rejected, and the miserable assassin had been torn into pieces by
+four horses, upon the Place de Greve, on the very day preceding that which
+witnessed the signing of the Edict of Amboise. If, however, the queen
+mother had hoped to diminish the difficulties of her position by taking
+this course, she had greatly miscalculated. In spite of his protestations,
+and of a second and more popular defence which he now made,[281] the
+Guises persisted in believing, or in pretending to believe, Coligny to be
+the prime cause of the murder of the head of their family. His very
+frankness was perverted into a proof of his complicity. The admiral's
+words, as an eminent historian of our own day observes, bear the seal of
+sincerity, and we need go for the truth nowhere else than to his own
+avowals.[282] But they did not satisfy his enemies. The danger of an open
+rupture was imminent. Coligny was coming to court from his castle of
+Chatillon-sur-Loing, with a strong escort of six hundred gentlemen; but so
+inevitable did a bloody collision within the walls of Paris seem to the
+queen, that she begged Conde to dissuade him for the present from carrying
+out his purpose. Meantime, Conde and the two Montmorencies--the constable
+and his son, the marshal--espoused Coligny's cause as their own, by
+publicly declaring (on the fifteenth of May) his entire innocence, and
+announcing that any blow aimed at the Chatillons, save by legal process,
+they would regard and avenge as aimed at themselves.[283] Taking excuse
+from the unsettled relations of the kingdom with England and at home, the
+privy council at the same time enjoined both parties to abstain from acts
+of hostility, and adjourned the judicial investigation until after arms
+had been laid down.[284]
+
+[Sidenote: Petition of the Guises.]
+
+At length, on the twenty-sixth of September--two months after the
+reduction of Havre--the Guises renewed their demand with great solemnity.
+Charles was at Meulan (on the Seine, a few miles below Paris), when a
+procession of mourners entered his presence. It was the family of Guise,
+headed by the late duke's widow, his mother, and his children, coming to
+sue for vengeance on the murderer. All were clad in the dress that
+betokened the deepest sorrow, and the dramatic effect was complete.[285]
+They brought a petition couched in decided terms, but making no mention of
+the name of Coligny, and signed, not only by themselves, but by three of
+the Bourbons--the Cardinal Charles, the Duke of Montpensier, and his
+son--and by the Dukes of Longueville and Nemours.[286] Under the
+circumstances, the king could not avoid granting their request and
+ordering inquisition to be made by the peers in parliament assembled.[287]
+But the friends of the absent admiral saw in the proposed investigation
+only an attempt on the part of his enemies to effect through the forms of
+law the ruin of the most prominent Huguenot of France. It was certain,
+they urged, that he could expect no justice at the hands of the presidents
+and counsellors of the Parisian parliament. Nor did they find it difficult
+to convince Catharine that to permit a public trial would be to reopen
+old sores and to risk overturning in a single hour the fabric of peace
+which for six months she had been laboring hard to strengthen.[288] The
+king was therefore induced to evoke the consideration of the complaint of
+the Guises to his own grand council. Here again new difficulties sprang
+up. The Duchess of Guise was as suspicious of the council as Coligny of
+the parliament, and challenged the greater number of its members as too
+partial to act as judges. In fact, it seemed impossible to secure a jury
+to settle the matter in dispute. After months spent to no purpose in
+wrangling, Charles determined to remove the question both from the
+parliament and from the council, and on the fifth of January, 1564,
+reserved for himself and his mother the duty of adjudication. At the same
+time, on the ground that the importance of the case demanded the
+deliberations of a prince of greater age and of more experience than he as
+yet possessed, and that its discussion at present might prove prejudicial
+to the tranquillity of the kingdom, he adjourned it for three full years,
+or until such other time as he might hereafter find to be convenient.[289]
+
+[Sidenote: Embarrassment of Catharine.]
+
+The feud between the Chatillons and the Guises was not, however, the only
+embarrassment which the government found itself compelled to meet.
+Catharine was in equal perplexity with respect to the engagements she had
+entered into with the Prince of Conde. It was part of the misfortune of
+this improvident princess that each new intrigue was of such a nature as
+to require a second intrigue to bolster it up. Yet she was to live long
+enough to learn by bitter experience that there is a limit to the extent
+to which plausible but lying words will pass current. At last the spurious
+coin was to be returned discredited to her own coffers. Catharine had
+enticed Conde into concluding a peace much less favorable to the
+Huguenots than his comrades in arms had expected in view of the state of
+the military operations and the pecuniary necessities of the court, by the
+promise that he should occupy the same controlling position in the
+government as his brother, the King of Navarre, held at the time of his
+death. We have seen that he was so completely hoodwinked that he assured
+his friends that it was of little consequence how scanty were the
+concessions made in the edict. He would soon be able, by his personal
+authority, to secure to "the religion" the largest guarantees. If we may
+believe Catharine herself, he went so far in his enthusiastic desire for
+peace as to threaten to desert the Huguenots, if they declined to embrace
+the opportunity of reconciliation.[290]
+
+[Sidenote: The majority of Charles proclaimed.]
+
+How to get rid of the troublesome obligation she had assumed, was now the
+problem; since to fulfil her promise honestly was, for a person of her
+crooked policy and inordinate ambition, not to be thought of for an
+instant. The readiest solution was found in abolishing the office of
+lieutenant-general. This could be done only by declaring the termination
+of the minority of Charles. For this an opportunity presented itself,
+when, on the seventeenth of August, 1563,[291] the queen and her children,
+with a brilliant retinue, were in the city of Rouen, on their return from
+the successful campaign against Havre. That day Charles the Ninth held a
+"lit de justice" in the palace of the Parliament of Normandy. Sitting in
+state, and surrounded by his mother, his younger brothers, and a host of
+grandees, he proceeded to address the assembled counsellors, pronouncing
+himself of full age, and, in the capacity of a major king, delivered to
+them an edict, signed the day before, ordering the observance of his Edict
+of Amboise and the complete pacification of his kingdom by a universal
+laying down of arms.[292] True, Charles was but a few days more than
+thirteen years of age; but his right to assume the full powers of
+government was strenuously maintained by Chancellor L'Hospital, upon whom
+devolved the task of explaining more fully the king's motives and
+purposes. Then Catharine, the author of the pageant, rising, humbly
+approached her son's throne, and bowed to the boy in token that she
+resigned into his hands the temporary authority she had held for nearly
+three years. Charles, advancing to meet her, accepted her homage, saying,
+at the same time, in words that were but too significant and prophetic of
+the remainder of his reign: "Madame ma mere, you shall govern and command
+as much or more than ever."[293]
+
+[Sidenote: Charles and the refractory Parliament of Paris.]
+
+The Parliament of Rouen, flattered at being selected for the instrument in
+so important an act, published and registered the edict of Charles's
+majority, notwithstanding some unpalatable provisions. Not so the
+Parliament of Paris. The counsellors of the capital were even more
+indignant at the slight put upon their claim to precedence, than at the
+proposed disarming of the Roman Catholics--a measure particularly
+distasteful to the riotous population of Paris.[294] The details of their
+opposition need not, however, find a record here. In the end the firmness
+of the king, or of his advisers, triumphed. At Mantes[295] Charles
+received a deputation from the recalcitrant judges, with Christopher de
+Thou, their first president, at its head. After hearing their
+remonstrances, he replied to the delegates that, although young and
+possessed of little experience, he was as truly king of France as any of
+his predecessors, and that he intended to make himself obeyed as such. To
+prove, however, that he had not acted inconsiderately in the premises, he
+called upon the members of his council who were present to speak; and each
+in turn, commencing with Cardinal Bourbon, the first prince of the blood,
+declared that the edict of Amboise had been made with his consent and
+advice, and that he deemed it both useful and necessary. Whereupon Charles
+informed the parliamentary committee that he had not adopted this course
+because he was under any obligation to render to them an account of his
+actions. "But," said he, "now that I am of age, I wish you to meddle with
+nothing beyond giving my subjects good and speedy justice. The kings, my
+predecessors, placed you where you are, in order that they might unburden
+their consciences, and that their subjects might live in greater security
+under their obedience, not in order to constitute you my tutors, or the
+protectors of the realm, or the guardians of my city of Paris. You have
+allowed yourselves to suppose until now that you are all this. I shall not
+leave you under the delusion; but I command you that, as in my father's
+and grandfather's time you were accustomed to attend to justice alone, so
+you shall henceforth meddle with nothing else." He professed to be
+perfectly willing to listen to their representations when modestly given;
+but he concluded by threatening them that, if they persisted in their
+present insolent course, he would find means to convince them that they
+were not his guardians and teachers, but his servants.[296] These stout
+words were shrewdly suspected to come from "the shop of the
+chancellor,"[297] whose popularity they by no means augmented. But Charles
+was himself in earnest. A fresh delegation of counsellors was dismissed
+from the royal presence with menaces,[298] and the parliament and people
+of Paris were both finally compelled to succumb. Parliament registered the
+edict; the people surrendered their arms--the poor receiving the estimated
+value of the weapons, the tradesmen and burgesses a ticket to secure their
+future restoration. As a matter of course, the nobles do not appear at all
+in the transaction, their immemorial claim to be armed even in time of
+peace being respected.
+
+[Sidenote: The Pope's bull against princely heretics.]
+
+[Sidenote: Cardinal Chatillon.]
+
+Pope Pius the Fourth had been as indignant as Philip the Second himself at
+the conclusion of peace with the Huguenots. He avenged himself as soon as
+he received the tidings, by publishing, on the seventh of April, 1563, a
+bull conferring authority upon the inquisitors general of Christendom to
+proceed against heretics and their favorers--even to bishops, archbishops,
+patriarchs and cardinals--and to cite them before their tribunal by merely
+affixing the summons to the doors of the Inquisition or of the basilica of
+St. Peter. Should they fail to appear in person, they might at once be
+condemned and sentenced. The bull was no idle threat. Without delay a
+number of French prelates were indicted for heresy, and summoned to come
+to Rome and defend themselves. The list was headed by Cardinal Odet de
+Chatillon, Coligny's eldest brother, who had openly espoused the reformed
+belief, and St. Romain, Archbishop of Aix. Caraccioli, who had resigned
+the bishopric of Troyes and had been ordained a Protestant pastor, Montluc
+of Valence, and others of less note, figured among the suspected.[299] As
+they did not appear, a number of these prelates were shortly
+condemned.[300] Not content with this bold infraction of the Gallican
+liberties, the Roman pontiff went a step farther, and, through the
+Congregation of the Inquisition, cited Jeanne d'Albret, Queen of Navarre,
+to appear at Rome within six months, on pain of being held attainted of
+heresy, and having her dominions given in possession to the first Catholic
+occupant.[301]
+
+[Sidenote: The council protests against the papal bull.]
+
+In other words, not only Bearn, the scanty remnant of her titular
+monarchy, but all the lands and property to which the Huguenot queen had
+fallen heir, were to follow in the direction the kingdom of Navarre had
+taken, and go to swell the enormous wealth and dominion of the Spanish
+prince,[302] who found his interest to lie in the discord and misfortunes
+of his neighbors. Surely such an example would not be without significance
+to princes and princesses who, like Catharine, were wont occasionally to
+court the heretics on account of their power, and whose loyalty to the
+papal church could scarcely be supposed, even by the most charitable, to
+rest on any firmer foundation than self-interest. Nor was the lesson
+thrown away. Catharine and Michel de l'Hospital, and many another, read
+its import at a glance. But, instead of breaking down their opposition,
+the papal bull only forearmed them. They saw that Queen Jeanne's cause was
+their cause--the cause of any of the Valois who, whether upon the ground
+of heresy or upon any other pretext, might become obnoxious to the See of
+Rome. The royal council of state, therefore, promptly took the matter in
+hand, in connection with the recent trial of the French prelates, and
+replied to the papal missive by a spirited protest, which D'Oisel, the
+French ambassador at Rome, was commissioned to present. In his monarch's
+name he was to declare the procedure against the Queen of Navarre to be
+not only derogatory to the respect due to the royal dignity, which that
+princess could claim to an equal degree with the other monarchs of
+Christendom, but injurious to the rights and honor of the king and
+kingdom, and subversive of civil society. It was unjust, for it was
+dictated by the enemies of France, who sought to take advantage of the
+youth of the king and his embarrassments arising from civil wars, to
+oppress a widow and orphans--the widow and orphan children, indeed, of a
+king for whom the Pope had himself but recently been endeavoring so
+zealously to secure the restoration of Navarre. The malice was apparent
+from the fact that nothing similar had been undertaken by the Holy See
+against any of the monarchs who had revolted from its obedience within the
+last forty years. Sovereign power had been conferred upon the Pope for the
+salvation of souls, not that he might despoil kings and dispose of
+kingdoms according to his caprice--an undertaking his predecessors had
+engaged in hitherto only to their shame and confusion. Finally, the King
+of France begged Pius to recall the sentence against Queen Jeanne,
+otherwise he would be compelled to employ the remedies resorted to by his
+ancestors in similar cases, according to the laws of the realm.[303] Not
+content with this direct appeal, Catharine wrote to her son's ambassador
+in Germany to interest the emperor and the King of the Romans in an affair
+that no less vitally affected them.[304] So vigorous a response seems to
+have frightened the papal court, and the bull was either recalled or
+dropped--at least no trace is said to be found in the Constitutions of
+Pius the Fourth--and the proceedings against the bishops were indefinitely
+suspended.[305]
+
+But while Catharine felt it necessary, for the maintenance of her own
+authority and of the dignity of the French crown, to enter the lists
+boldly in behalf of the Queen of Navarre, she was none the less bent upon
+confirming that authority by rendering it impossible for the Huguenots
+ever again to take the field in opposition to the crown. A war for the
+sake of principle was something of which that cynical princess could not
+conceive. The Huguenot party was strong, according to her view, only
+because of the possession of powerful leaders. The religious convictions
+of its adherents went for nothing. Let the Condes, and the Colignies, and
+the Porciens, and the La Rochefoucaulds be gained over, and the people,
+deprived of a head, would subordinate their theology to their interest,
+and unity would be restored under her own rule. It was the same vain
+belief that alone rendered possible a few years later such a stupendous
+crime and folly as the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre. Many an obscure and
+illiterate martyr, who had lost his life during her husband's reign, might
+have given her a far juster estimate of the future than her Macchiavellian
+education, with all its fancied shrewdness and insight into human
+character and motives, had furnished her.
+
+[Sidenote: Catharine's attempt to seduce Conde from the Huguenots.]
+
+To overthrow the political influence of the Huguenots she must seduce
+their leaders. Of this Catharine was sure. With whom, then, should she
+commence but with the brilliant Conde? The calm and commanding admiral,
+indeed, was the true head and heart of the late war--never more firm and
+uncompromising than after defeat--as reluctant to renounce war without
+securing, beyond question, the religious liberty he sought, as he had been
+averse to take up the sword at all in the beginning. Of such a man,
+however, little hope could be entertained. But Louis of Bourbon was cast
+in another mould. Excessively small in stature and deformed in person, he
+was a general favorite; for he was amiable, witty, and talkative.[306]
+Moreover, he was fond of pleasure to an extent that attracted notice even
+in that giddy court, and as open to temptation as any of its frivolous
+denizens.[307] For such persons Catharine knew how to lay snares. Never
+did queen surround herself with more brilliant enticements for the unwary.
+Her maids of honor were at once her spies and the instruments of
+accomplishing her designs. As she had had a fair Rouhet to undermine the
+constancy of Antoine, so she had now an Isabeau de Limueil to entrap his
+younger brother. Nor did Catharine's device prove unsuccessful. Conde
+became involved in an amorous intrigue that shook the confidence of his
+Huguenot friends in his steadfastness and sincerity; while the silly girl
+whom the queen had encouraged in a course that led to ruin, as soon as her
+shame became notorious, was ignominiously banished from court--for no one
+could surpass Catharine in the personation of offended modesty.[308] Yet,
+notwithstanding a disgraceful fall which proved to the satisfaction of a
+world, always sufficiently sceptical of the depth of religious
+convictions, that ambition had much more to do with the prince's conduct
+than any sense of duty, Conde was not wholly lost to right feelings. The
+tears and remonstrances of his wife--the true-hearted Eleonore de
+Roye--dying of grief at his inconstancy, are said to have wrought a marked
+change in his character.[309] From that time Catharine's power was gone.
+In vain did she or the Guises strive to gain him over to the papal party
+by offering him, in second marriage, the widow of Marshal Saint Andre,
+with an ample dower that might well dazzle a prince of the blood with but
+a beggarly appanage;[310] or even by proposing to confer upon him the hand
+of the yet blooming Queen of Scots,[311] the Prince of Conde remained true
+to the cause he had espoused till his blood stained the fatal field of
+Jarnac.
+
+[Sidenote: Huguenot progress.]
+
+But while the queen mother was plying the great with her seductions, while
+the Roman Catholic leaders were artfully instilling into the minds of the
+people the idea that the Edict of Amboise was only a temporary
+expedient,[312] while royal governors, or their lieutenants, like
+Damville--the constable's younger son--at Pamiers, were cruelly abusing
+the Protestants whom they ought to have protected,[313] there was much in
+the tidings that came especially from southern France to encourage the
+reformers. In the midst of the confusion and carnage of war the leaven had
+yet been working. There were even to be found places where the progress of
+Protestantism had rendered the application of the provisions of the edict
+nearly, if not quite impossible. The little city of Milhau, in
+Rouergue,[314] is a striking and very interesting instance.
+
+[Sidenote: Milhau-en-Rouergue.]
+
+The edict had expressly directed that all churches should be restored to
+the Roman Catholics, and that the Protestants should resort for worship to
+other places, either in the suburbs, or--in the case of cities which the
+Huguenots had held on the seventh of March, 1563--within the walls. But,
+soon after the restoration of peace, the consuls and inhabitants of Milhau
+presented a petition to Charles the Ninth, in which they make the
+startling assertion that the entire population has become Protestant ("de
+la religion"); that for two years or thereabouts they have lived in
+undisturbed peace, whilst other cities have been the scene of
+disturbances; and that, at a recent gathering of the inhabitants, they
+unanimously expressed their desire to live in the exercise of the reformed
+faith, under the royal permission. By the king's order the petition was
+referred for examination to the commissioners for the execution of the
+edict in the province of Guyenne. All its statements were found to be
+strictly correct. There was not one papist within the city; not one man,
+woman, or child expressed a desire for the re-establishment of the Roman
+Catholic ceremonial. The monks had renounced the cowl, the priests their
+vestments. Of their own free will, some of the friars had married, some
+had taken up useful trades. The prior had voluntarily resigned the greater
+part of his revenues; retaining one-third for his own support, he had
+begged that the remainder might be devoted to the preaching of God's Word
+and the maintenance of the poor. The two churches of the place had for
+eighteen months been used for Protestant worship, and there were no other
+convenient places to be found. Indeed, had the churches been given up,
+there would have been no one to take possession. A careful domiciliary
+examination by four persons appointed by the royal judge had incontestably
+established the point. Over eight hundred houses were visited,
+constituting the greater part of the city. The occupants were summoned to
+express their preferences, and the result was contained in the solemn
+return of the commission: "We have not found a single person who desired
+or asked for the mass; but, on the contrary, all demanded the preaching of
+the Word of God, and the administration of His holy sacraments as
+instituted by Himself in that Word. And thus we certify by the oath we
+have taken to God and to the king."[315]
+
+[Sidenote: The cry for ministers.]
+
+From other places the cry of the churches for ministers to be sent from
+Geneva was unabated. In one town and its environs, so inadequate was a
+single minister to the discharge of his pastoral duties, that the peasants
+of the vicinity were compelled to baptize one another's children, or to
+leave them unbaptized.[316] At Montpellier it is the consuls that beg that
+their corps of ministers may be doubled; their two pastors cannot preach
+every day and three times upon Sunday, and yet visit the neighboring
+villages.[317]
+
+[Sidenote: Establishment of the Reformation in Bearn.]
+
+Nowhere, however, was the advance of Protestantism so hopeful as in the
+principality of Bearn, whither Jeanne d'Albret had retired, and where,
+since her husband's death, she had been dividing her cares between the
+education of her son, Henry of Navarre, and the establishment of the
+Reformation. A less courageous spirit than hers[318] might well have
+succumbed in view of the difficulties in her way. Of the nobility not
+one-tenth, of the magistracy not one-fifth, were favorable to the changes
+which she wished to introduce. The clergy were, of course, nearly
+unanimous in opposition.[319] She was, however, vigorously and wisely
+seconded in her efforts by the eminent reformed pastor, Merlin, formerly
+almoner of Admiral Coligny, whom Calvin had sent from Geneva at her
+request.[320] But when, contrary to his advice, the Queen of Navarre had
+summoned a meeting of the estates of her small territory, she detected
+unexpected symptoms of resistance. She accordingly abstained from
+broaching the unwelcome topic of reformation. But the deputies of the
+three orders themselves introduced it. Taking occasion from a prohibition
+she had issued against carrying the host in procession, they petitioned
+her to maintain them in the religion of their ancestors, in accordance
+with the promise which the princes of the country were accustomed to
+make.[321] Fortunately a small minority was found to offer a request of an
+entirely opposite tenor; and Jeanne d'Albret, with her characteristic
+firmness, declared in reply "that she would reform religion in her
+country, whoever might oppose." So much discontent did this decision
+provoke that there was danger of open sedition.[322]
+
+These internal obstacles were, however, by no means the only
+difficulties. The court of Pau was disturbed by an uninterrupted
+succession of rumors of trouble from without. Now it was the French king
+that stood ready to seize the scanty remnants of Navarre, or the Spaniard
+that was all prepared for an invasion from the south; anon it was Montluc
+from the side of Guyenne, or Damville from that of Languedoc, who were
+meditating incursions in the interest of the Roman Catholic Church. "In
+short," exclaims her indefatigable coadjutor, Raymond Merlin, "it is
+wonderful that this princess should be able to persist with constancy in
+her holy design!"[323] Then came the papal citation, and the necessity to
+avoid the alienation of the French court which would certainly result from
+suddenly abolishing the papal rites, especially in view of the
+circumstance that Catharine de' Medici had several times begged the Queen
+of Navarre by letter to refrain from taking that decided step.[324]
+
+[Sidenote: A plan to kidnap Jeanne and her children.]
+
+It speaks well for the energy and intrepidity of Jeanne d'Albret, as well
+as for the wisdom of some of her advisers, that she was able to lay in
+these troublous times such broad foundations for the Protestant system of
+worship and government as we shall shortly have occasion to see her
+laying; for she was surrounded by courtiers who beheld in her bold
+espousal of the Reformation the death-blow to their hopes of advancement
+at Paris, and were, consequently, resolute in their opposition. An
+incident occurring some months later demonstrates that the perils from her
+treacherous neighbors were not purely imaginary. This event was nothing
+less than the discovery of a plan to kidnap the Queen of Navarre and her
+young son and daughter, and to give them over into the hands of the
+Spanish Inquisition. Shortly after Antoine's death, her enemies in
+France--among whom, despite his subsequent denial, it is probable that
+Blaise de Montluc was one--had devised this plot as a promising means of
+promoting their interests. They had despatched a trusty agent to prepare a
+few of their most devoted partisans in Guyenne for its execution; he was
+then to pass into Spain, to confer with the Duke of Alva. The latter part
+of his instructions had not been fulfilled when the assassination of Guise
+took place. Nothing daunted by this mishap, the conspirators ordered their
+agent to carry out the original scheme. Alva received it with favor, and
+sent the Frenchman, with his own approval of the undertaking, to the
+Spanish court, where he held at least three midnight interviews with
+Philip. No design was ever more dear to that prudent monarch's heart than
+one which combined the rare attractions of secrecy and treachery,
+particularly if there were a reasonable hope in the end of a little
+wholesome blood-letting. Fortunately, however, the messenger had not been
+so careful in his conversation but that he disclosed to one of Isabella's
+French servants all that was essential in his commission. The momentous
+secret soon found its way to the Spanish queen's almoner, and finally to
+the queen herself. The blow impending over her cousin's head terrified
+Isabella, and melted her compassionate heart. She disclosed to the
+ambassador of Charles the Ninth the astounding fact that some of the
+Spanish troops then at Barcelona, on their way to the campaign in Barbary,
+were to be quietly sent back from the coast to the interior. Thence,
+passing through defiles in the Pyrenees, under experienced guides, they
+were to fall upon the unsuspecting court of the Queen of Navarre at Pau.
+In such a case, to be forewarned was to be forearmed. The private
+secretary of the French envoy was despatched to inform Jeanne d'Albret of
+her peril, and to notify Catharine de' Medici of the intended incursion
+into the French territories. The premature disclosure occasioned the
+abandonment of the plan; but it is said that Philip the Second never
+forgave his unfortunate wife her part in frustrating its execution.[325]
+
+[Sidenote: The Council of Trent closes its sessions.]
+
+The month of December, 1563, witnessed the close of that celebrated
+convocation, the Council of Trent. This is not the place for the
+discussion of its extraordinary history, yet it is worth while to note the
+conclusion of an assembly which exerted so weighty an influence in
+establishing the dogmas of the papal church. Resumed after its long
+suspension, on the eighteenth of January, 1562, the council from whose
+deliberations such magnificent results of harmony had been expected, began
+its work by rendering the breach between the Roman Catholic and the
+Protestant worlds incurable. Fortunately for the Roman See, all the
+leading courts in Christendom, although agreed in pronouncing for the
+necessity of reform, were at variance with one another in respect to the
+particular objects to be aimed at. It was by a skilful use of this
+circumstance that the Pope was enabled to extricate himself creditably
+from an embarrassing situation, and to secure every essential advantage.
+At the reopening of the council, the French and German bishops were not
+present, and the great majority of the members being poor Italian prelates
+dependent almost for their daily bread upon the good pleasure of the
+pontiff, it is not surprising that the first step taken was to concede to
+the Pope or his legates the exclusive right to introduce subjects for
+discussion, as well as the yet more important claim of sitting as judge
+and ratifying the decisions of the assembled Fathers before they became
+valid. Notwithstanding this disgraceful surrender of their independence
+and authority, the Roman See was by no means sure as to the results at
+which the prelates of the Council of Trent would arrive. France and the
+empire demanded radical reforms in the Pope and his court, and some
+concessions to the Protestants--the permission of marriage for the
+priesthood, the distribution of the wine to the laity in the eucharistic
+sacrament, and the use of the vernacular tongue in a portion, at least,
+of the public services. The arrival of the Cardinal of Lorraine and other
+bishops, in the month of November, 1562, to reinforce the handful of
+French prelates in attendance, enhanced the apprehensions of Pius. For,
+strange as it may appear to us, even Pius suspected Charles of favoring
+innovation--so far had the arch-hypocrite imposed on friend as well as foe
+by his declaration of adhesion to the Augsburg Confession! The fact was
+that there was no lack of dissimulation on any side, and that the prelates
+who urged reforms were among the most insincere. They had drawn up certain
+articles without the slightest expectation, and certainly without the
+faintest desire, to have them accepted. Their sole aim seemed to be to
+shift the blame for the flagrant disorders of the Church from their own
+shoulders to those of the Pope. If their suggestions had been seriously
+entertained and acted upon, no men would have had more difficulty than
+they in concealing their chagrin.[326] The monarchs--and it was their
+ambassadors who, with the papal legates, directed all the most important
+conclusions--were at heart equally averse to the restoration of canonical
+elections, and to everything which, by relieving the ecclesiastics of
+their servile dependence upon the crown, might cut off that perennial
+fountain for the payment of their debts and for defraying the expenses of
+their military enterprises, which they had discovered in the contributions
+wrung from churchmen's purses. Thus, in the end, by a series of
+compromises, in which Pope and king each obtained what he was anxious to
+secure, and sacrificed little for which he really cared, the council
+managed to confirm the greater number of the abuses it had been expected
+to remove, and to render indelible the line of demarcation between Roman
+Catholic and Protestant, which it was to have effaced.
+
+[Sidenote: Cardinal Lorraine returns to France,]
+
+The Cardinal of Lorraine returning to France, after the conclusion of the
+council (the fourth of December, 1563), made it his first object to secure
+the ratification of the Tridentine decrees. He had now thrown off the mask
+of moderation, which had caused his friends such needless alarms, and was
+quite ready to sacrifice (as the nuncio had long since prophesied he would
+sacrifice)[327] the interests of France to those of the Roman See. But the
+undertaking was beyond his strength.
+
+[Sidenote: and unsuccessfully seeks the approval of the decrees of Trent.]
+
+On Lorraine's arrival at court, then stopping at St. Maur-sur-Marne
+(January, 1564), Catharine answered his request that the king should
+approve the conclusions of Trent by saying that, if there was anything
+good in them, the king would gladly approve of it, even if it were not
+decreed by the council. And, at a supper, to which he was invited the same
+evening at the quarters of the Cardinal of Bourbon, he had to put up with
+a good deal of rough jesting from Conde and his boon companions, who plied
+him with pungent questions respecting the Pope and the doings of the holy
+Fathers.[328]
+
+[Sidenote: Wrangle between Lorraine and L'Hospital.]
+
+A few weeks later Lorraine made a more distinct effort to secure
+recognition for the late council's work. Several of the presidents of
+parliament, the avocat-general, and the procureur du roi had been summoned
+to court--which, meanwhile, had removed to Melun (February, 1564)--to give
+their advice to the privy council respecting this momentous question. The
+cardinal's proposition met with little favor. Chancellor L'Hospital
+distinguished himself by his determined opposition, and boldly refuted the
+churchman's arguments. The cardinal had long been chafing at the
+intractability of the lawyer, who owed his early advancement to the
+influence of the house of Guise, and now could no longer contain his
+anger. He spoke in a loud and imperious tone, and used taunts that greatly
+provoked the illustrious bystanders. "It is high time for you to drop your
+mask," he said to L'Hospital, "for, as for myself, I cannot discover what
+religion you are of. In fact, you seem to have no other religion than to
+injure as much as possible both me and my house. Ingrate that you are, you
+have forgotten all the benefits you have received at my hands." The
+chancellor's answer was quiet and dignified. "I shall always be ready,
+even at the peril of my life, to return my obligations to you. I cannot do
+it at the expense of the king's honor and welfare." And he added the
+pointed observation that the cardinal was desirous of effecting, by
+intrigue, what he had been unable to effect by force of arms. Others took
+up the debate, the old constable himself disclaiming any intention of
+disputing respecting doctrines which he approved, but expressing his
+surprise that Lorraine should disturb the tranquillity of the kingdom, and
+take up the cause of the Roman pontiff against a king through whose
+liberality he was in the enjoyment of an annual revenue of three or four
+hundred thousand francs. Catharine, as usual, did her best to allay the
+irritation; but the cardinal, greatly disappointed, retired to
+Rheims.[329]
+
+[Sidenote: Opposition of Du Moulin.]
+
+A few months after the scene at Melun, the most eminent of French jurists,
+the celebrated Charles Du Moulin, published an unanswerable treatise,
+proving that the Council of Trent had none of the characteristics of a
+true oecumenical synod, and that its decrees were null and void.[330] And
+the Parliament of Paris, although it ordered the seizure of the book and
+imprisoned the author for some days, could not be induced to consent to
+incorporate in the legislation of the country the Tridentine decrees, so
+hostile in spirit to the French legislation.[331] Evidently parliament,
+although too timid to say so, believed, with Du Moulin, that the
+acceptance of the decrees in question "would be against God and against
+the benefit of Jesus Christ in the Gospel, against the ancient councils,
+against the majesty of the king and the rights of his crown, against his
+recent edicts and the edicts of preceding kings, against the liberty and
+immunity of the Gallican Church, the authority of the estates and courts
+of parliament of the kingdom, and the secular jurisdiction."[332]
+
+It was shortly before this time that the report gained currency that
+Charles the Ninth had received an embassy from Philip of Spain and the
+Duke of Savoy, inviting him, it was said, to a conference with all other
+"Christian" princes, to be held on the twenty-fifth of March (1564), to
+swear submission in common to the decrees of Trent and devise means for
+the repression of heresy. But neither Charles nor his mother, still very
+much under the influence of the tolerant chancellor, was disposed to enter
+upon the path of persecution marked out for them. The conference was
+therefore, we are told, gracefully, but firmly declined.[333] The story
+was but an idle rumor, the absurdity of which is clearly seen from this
+one fact among many, that Philip had not at this time himself accepted and
+published the Tridentine decrees;[334] while, from various documents that
+have come down to us, it appears that Catharine de' Medici had for some
+months[335] been projecting a trip that should enable her son to meet
+several of the neighboring princes, for the purpose of cultivating more
+friendly relations with them. From this desire, and from the wish, by
+displaying the young monarch to the inhabitants of the different
+provinces, to revive the loyalty of his subjects, seriously weakened
+during the late civil war, apparently arose the project of that well-known
+"progress" of Charles the Ninth through the greater part of France, a
+progress which consumed many successive months.
+
+[Sidenote: The "progress" of Charles IX.]
+
+Whether the Cardinal of Lorraine had any direct part, as was commonly
+reported, in bringing about the journey of the king, is uncertain. He
+himself wrote to Granvelle that he had neither advocated nor opposed
+it;[336] but the character of the man has been delineated to little
+purpose in these pages if the reader is disposed to give any weight to his
+assertion. Certain, however, it is that the Huguenots looked upon the
+project with great suspicion, and that its execution was accepted as a
+virtual triumph of their opponents. Conde and Coligny could see as clearly
+as the cardinal the substantial advantages which a formal visit to the
+elder branch of the Lorraine family might secure to the branch of the
+family domiciled in France; and they could readily imagine that under
+cover of this voyage might be concealed the most nefarious designs against
+the peace of their co-religionists. It is not surprising that many
+Huguenot nobles accepted it as a mark of the loss of favor, and that few
+of them accompanied the court in its wanderings.[337] The English
+ambassador, noting this important fact, made, on his own account, an
+unfavorable deduction from what he saw, as to the design of the court.
+"They carry the king about this country now," he observed, "mostly to see
+the ruins of the churches and religious houses done by the Huguenots in
+this last war. They suppress the losses and hurts the Huguenots have
+suffered."[338] On the other hand, the Roman Catholic party received their
+success as a presage of speedy restoration to full power, and entertained
+brilliant hopes for the future.[339] The queen mother was beginning to
+make fair promises to the papal adherents, and the influence of the
+admiral and his brothers seemed to be at an end.
+
+Leaving the palace of Fontainebleau, the court passed through Sens and
+Troyes to the city of Bar-sur-Seine, where Charles acted as sponsor for
+his infant nephew, the son of the Duke of Lorraine. The brilliant _fetes_
+that accompanied the arrival of the king here and elsewhere could not,
+however, hide from the world one of the chief results, if not designs, of
+the journey. It was a prominent part of the queen mother's plan to seize
+the opportunity for carrying out the system of repression toward the
+Huguenots which she had already begun. While there is no reason to suppose
+that as yet she felt any disposition to lend an ear to the suggestions of
+Spanish emissaries, or of Philip himself, for a general massacre, or at
+least an open war of extermination, she was certainly very willing by less
+open means to preclude the Protestants from ever giving her trouble, or
+becoming again a formidable power in the state. The most unfavorable
+reports, in truth, were in circulation against the Huguenots. At Lyons
+they were accused of poisoning the wells, or, according to another version
+of the story, the kitchen-pots, in order to give the impression that the
+plague was in the city, and so deter the king from coming.[340] Catharine
+had no need, however, of crediting these calumnious tales in order to be
+moved to hostile action. Her desire was unabated to reign under her son's
+name, untrammelled by the restraint of the jealous love of liberty
+cherished by the Huguenots. Their numbers were large--though not so large
+as they were then supposed to be. Even so intelligent a historian as
+Garnier regards them as constituting nearly one-third of the kingdom.[341]
+M. Lacretelle is undoubtedly much more correct in estimating them at
+fifteen or sixteen hundred thousand souls, or barely one-tenth of the
+entire population of France--a country at that time much more sparsely
+inhabited, and of which a much larger part of the surface was in inferior
+cultivation, or altogether neglected, than at present.[342] But, however
+small their number in proportion to the papists, the Huguenots, from their
+superior industry and intelligence, from the circumstance that their
+strength lay in the sturdy middle class and in the nobility, including
+little of the rabble of the cities and none of that of Paris,[343] were a
+party that naturally awakened the jealousy of the queen. We need make
+little account of any exasperation in consequence of such silly devices as
+the threatening letter said to have been put in Catharine's bed-room,
+warning her that if she did not drive the papists from about her, "she and
+her L'Aubespine" (secretary of state) would feel the dagger.[344] She was
+too shrewd not to know that a Roman Catholic was more likely to have
+penned it than a Huguenot.
+
+[Sidenote: Catharine's new zeal.]
+
+In furtherance of the policy to which she had now committed herself, she
+caused the fortifications of the cities that had been strongholds of the
+Protestants during the late war to be levelled, and in their place erected
+citadels whereby the Huguenots might be kept in subjection.[345] As Easter
+approached, Catharine revealed the altered tone of her mind by notifying
+her maids of honor that she would suffer none to remain about her but
+those who were good Catholics and submitted to the ordinary test of
+orthodoxy. There is said to have been but a single girl who declined to go
+to mass, and preferred to return to her home.[346] Well would it have been
+if the queen had been as attentive to the morals[347] as to the orthodoxy
+of these pleasure-seeking attendants. But, to belong to the "religion
+ancienne et catholique" was a mantle large enough to cover a multitude of
+sins.
+
+[Sidenote: Interpretative declarations infringing upon the Edict.]
+
+[Sidenote: Declaration of Roussillon.]
+
+More direct infringements upon the liberty guaranteed by the Edict of
+Amboise had already been made or were yet in store. The legislation which
+could not conveniently be repealed by formal enactment could be rendered
+null by interpretative declarations. Charles was made to proclaim that by
+the Edict he had not intended to permit preaching in places previously
+belonging to the patrimony of the Church, or held as benefices. This was
+aimed at such prelates of doubtful catholicity as Saint Romain, Archbishop
+of Aix, or the Cardinal Bishop of Beauvais, Odet de Chatillon. He was made
+to say, that by the places where Protestant worship could be held within
+the walls, by virtue of its having been exercised on the seventh of March,
+1563, were meant only those that had been garrisoned by Protestants, and
+had undergone a successful siege. This stroke of the pen cut off several
+cities in which Protestantism had been maintained without conflict of
+arms. The Huguenot counsellors of the parliament were deprived of the
+enjoyment of their right to attend the "assemblee," or "Protestant
+congregation," by a gloss which forbade the inhabitants of Paris from
+attending the reformed worship in the neighboring districts. When the
+court reached Lyons, a city which, as we have seen, had been among the
+foremost in devotion to the Protestant cause, a fresh edict, of the
+twenty-fourth of June, prohibited the reformed rites from being celebrated
+in any city in which the king might be sojourning. Five or six weeks
+later, at the little town of Roussillon, a few miles south of Vienne, on
+the Rhone, another and more flagrant violation of the letter and spirit of
+the edict of pacification was incorporated in a declaration purporting to
+remove fresh uncertainties as to the meaning of its provisions. It forbade
+the noblemen who might possess the right to maintain Protestant services
+in their castles, to permit any persons but their own families and their
+vassals to be present. It prohibited the convocation of synods and the
+collection of money, and enjoined upon ministers of the gospel not to
+leave their places of residence, nor to open schools for the instruction
+of the young. But the most vexatious and unjust article of all was that
+which constrained all priests, monks, and nuns, who during or since the
+troubles had forsaken their vows and had married, either to resume their
+monastic profession and dismiss their consorts, or to leave the kingdom.
+As a penalty for the violation of this command, the men were to be
+sentenced to the galleys for life, the women to close confinement in
+prison. I omit in this list of grievances suffered by the Huguenots some
+minor annoyances such as that which compelled the artisan to desist from
+working in his shop with open doors on the festivals of the Roman
+Catholic Church.[348]
+
+[Sidenote: Assaults upon unoffending Huguenots.]
+
+These legal infractions were not all. Everywhere the Huguenots had to
+complain of acts of violence, committed by their papist neighbors, at the
+instigation of priests and bishops, and not infrequently of the royal
+governors. Little more than a year had passed since peace was restored,
+and already the victims of religious assassination rivalled in number the
+martyrs of the days of open persecution. At Crevant the Protestants were
+attacked on their way to their "temple;" at Tours they were attacked while
+engaged in worship. At Mans the fanatical bishop was the chief instigator
+of a work of mingled murder and rapine. At Vendome it was the royal
+governor himself, Gilbert de Curee, who fell a victim to the hatred of the
+Roman Catholic noblesse, and was treacherously killed while hunting.[349]
+If anything more was needed to render the violence insupportable, it was
+found in the fact that any attempt to obtain judicial investigation and
+redress resulted not in the condemnation of the guilty, but in the
+personal peril of the complainant.[350]
+
+[Sidenote: Conde appeals for redress.]
+
+Smarting under the repeated acts of violence to which at every moment they
+were liable, and under the successive infringements upon the Edict of
+Amboise, the Huguenots urged the Prince of Conde to represent their
+grievances to the monarch, in the excellence of whose heart they had not
+yet lost confidence. The Protestant leader did not repel the trust. His
+appeal to Charles and to the queen mother was urgent. He showed that, even
+where the letter of the edict was observed, its spirit was flagrantly
+violated. The edict provided for a place for preaching in each prefecture,
+to be selected by the king. In some cases no place had yet been
+designated. In others, the most inconvenient places had been assigned.
+Sometimes the Huguenots of a district would be compelled to go _twenty or
+twenty-five leagues_ in order to attend divine worship. The declaration
+affecting the monks and nuns who had forsaken their habit was a violation
+of the general liberty promised. So also was the prohibition of synods,
+which, though not expressly mentioned, were implied in the toleration of
+the religion to which they were indispensably necessary. But it was the
+prejudice and ill-will, of which the Huguenots were the habitual victims
+at the hands of royal governors and other officers, which moved them most
+deeply. The evident desire was to find some ground of accusation against
+them. The ears of the judges were stopped against their appeals for
+justice. It was enough that they were accused. Decrees of confiscation, of
+the razing of their houses, of death, were promptly given before any
+examination was made into the truth of their culpability. On a mere rumor
+of a commotion in the Protestant city of Montauban, an order was issued to
+demolish its walls. The case was far otherwise with turbulent Roman
+Catholic towns. The people were encouraged to acts of violence toward the
+Huguenots by the impunity of the perpetrators of similar crimes, and by
+the evident partiality of those who were set to administer justice. Out of
+six or seven score murders of Protestants since the peace, not two of the
+abominable acts had been punished. Under such circumstances it would not
+be surprising if the victims of inordinate cruelty should at length be
+driven in desperation to take their defence into their own hands.[351]
+
+[Sidenote: Conciliatory reply of the king.]
+
+The king, or his ministers, fearful of a commotion during his absence from
+Paris, answered the letter of the prince with tolerable courtesy, and even
+made a pretence of desiring to secure justice to his Protestant subjects;
+but the attempt really effected very little. Thus, for instance, while
+sojourning in the city of Valence (on the fifth of September, 1564),
+Charles received a petition of the Huguenots of Bordeaux, setting forth
+some of the grievances under which they were groaning, and gave a
+favorable answer. He permitted them, by this patent, to sing their psalms
+in their own houses. He declared them free from any obligation to furnish
+the "pain benit," and to contribute to the support of Roman Catholic
+fraternities. The Protestants were not to be molested for possessing or
+selling copies of the Bible. They must not be compelled to deck out their
+houses in honor of religious processions, nor to swear on St. Anthony's
+arm. They might work at their trades with closed doors, except on Sundays
+and solemn feasts. Magistrates were forbidden to take away the children of
+Huguenots, in order to have them baptized according to Romish rites.
+Protestants could be elected to municipal offices equally with the
+adherents of the other faith.[352] In a similar tone of conciliation the
+king published an order from Roussillon, remitting the fines that had been
+imposed upon the Huguenots of Nantes for neglecting to hang tapestry
+before their houses on Corpus Christi Day, and permitting them henceforth
+to abstain from an act so offensive to their religious convictions.[353]
+
+[Sidenote: Protestants excluded from judicial posts.]
+
+Such local concessions were, however, only the decoys by which the queen
+mother intended to lure the Huguenots on to a fatal security. A few months
+later, at Avignon, Catharine caused an ordinance to be published in the
+king's name, which Cardinal Santa Croce characterized as an excellent one.
+It excluded Protestants from holding judicial seats. Catharine told the
+nuncio that her counsellors had been desirous of extending the same
+prohibition to all other charges under government, but that she had
+deterred them. It would have driven the Huguenots to desperation, and
+might have occasioned disturbances. "We shall labor, however," she said,
+"to exclude them little by little from all their offices." At the same
+time she expressed her joy that everything was succeeding so well, and
+privately assured the nuncio "that people were much deceived in her."[354]
+
+And yet such are the paradoxes of history, especially in this age of
+surprises, that, at the very moment the king was depriving his own
+Protestant subjects of their rights, he was negotiating in behalf of the
+Protestant subjects of his neighbors! The king would not leave Avignon--so
+wrote the English envoy--without reconciling the inhabitants of the Comtat
+Venaissin and the principality of Orange, whom diversity of religion had
+brought into collision. And, by the articles of pacification which the
+ambassador enclosed, the king was seen "to have had a care for others
+also, having provided a certain liberty of religion even to the Pope's own
+subjects, which he had much difficulty in obtaining."[355]
+
+[Sidenote: Marshal Montmorency checks the Parisian mob.]
+
+[Sidenote: His encounter with Cardinal Lorraine.]
+
+While the queen mother, under cover of her son's authority, followed the
+new policy of opposition to the Huguenots upon which she had now entered,
+an incident occurred at Paris showing that even the Roman Catholics were
+not unanimous in their support of the Guises and their plan of
+exterminating heresy. The governor of the metropolis was Marshal
+Montmorency, the most worthy of all the constable's sons. He had
+vigorously exerted himself ever since the king's departure to protect the
+Huguenots in accordance with the provisions of the treaty. A Protestant
+woman, who during the war had been hung in effigy for "huguenoterie," but
+had returned from her flight since the conclusion of peace, died and was
+secretly buried by friends, one Sunday night, in the "Cimetiere des
+Innocents." The next morning a rabble, such as only Paris could afford,
+collected with the intention of disinterring the heretic. And they would
+have accomplished their design, had not Marshal Montmorency ridden in,
+sword in hand, and resolved to hang the culprits that very day. "He would
+assist the Huguenots," he is reported to have been in the habit of saying,
+"because they were the weaker party."[356] On Monday, the eighth of
+January, 1565, the Cardinal of Lorraine approached the city in full
+ecclesiastical dress, with the intention of entering it.[357] He was
+attended by his young nephew, the Duke of Guise, and by an escort of armed
+men, whom Catharine had permitted him to retain in spite of the general
+prohibition, because of the fears he undoubtedly felt for his personal
+safety. As he neared Paris he was met by a messenger sent by the governor,
+commanding him to bid his company lay down their arms, or to exhibit his
+pretended authority. The cardinal, accustomed to domineer over even such
+old noble families as the Montmorencies, would do neither, and attempted
+to ride defiantly into the city. But the marshal was no respecter of
+persons. With the troops at his command he met and dispersed the
+cardinal's escort. Lorraine fled as for his life into a shop on the Rue
+Saint Denis. Thence he was secretly conveyed to his own palace, and
+shortly after he left the city in utter discomfiture, but breathing dire
+threats against the marshal.[358] The latter, calling into Paris his
+cousin the admiral, had no difficulty in maintaining order. Great was the
+consternation of the populace, it is true, for the absurd report was
+circulated that Coligny was come to plunder the city, and to seize the
+Parliament House, the Cathedral, and the Bastile;[359] and even the first
+president, De Thou, begged him, when he came to the parliament, to explain
+the reasons of his obeying his cousin's summons, and to imitate the
+prudence of Pompey the Great when he entered the city of Rome, where
+Caesar's presence rendered a sedition imminent. The admiral, in reply,
+gracefully acknowledged the honor which parliament had done him in
+likening him to Pompey, whom he would gladly imitate, he said, because
+Pompey was a patriot. Still he saw no appositeness in the comparison, "as
+there was no Caesar in Paris."[360]
+
+[Sidenote: The conference at Bayonne, June, 1565.]
+
+Early in the month of June, 1565, Charles the Ninth and his court reached
+the neighborhood of the city of Bayonne, where, on the very confines of
+France and Spain, a meeting had been arranged between Catharine and her
+daughter Isabella, wife of Philip the Second. Catharine's first proposal
+had been that her royal son-in-law should himself be present. She had
+urged that great good to Christendom might flow from their deliberations.
+Philip the Prudent, however, and his confidential adviser, the Duke of
+Alva, were suspicious of the design. Alva was convinced that Catharine
+had only her own private ends in view.[361] Granvelle observed that little
+fruit came of these interviews of princes but discord and confusion, and
+judged that, had not the queen mother strenuously insisted upon improving
+perhaps the only opportunity which she and her daughter might enjoy of
+seeing each other, even the interview between the two queens would have
+been declined.[362] As it was, however, Philip excused himself on the plea
+of engrossing occupations.
+
+Such were the circumstances under which the Bayonne conference took
+place--a meeting which Cardinal Granvelle assured his correspondents was a
+simple visit of a daughter to her mother,[363] but to which
+contemporaries, both Roman Catholic and Protestant, ascribed a far deeper
+significance. At this meeting, according to Jean de Serres, writing only
+four or five years after the event,[364] a holy league, as it was called,
+was formed, by the intervention of Isabella, for the purpose of
+re-establishing the authority of the ancient religion and of extirpating
+the new. France and Spain mutually promised to render each other
+assistance in the good work; and both pledged themselves to the support of
+the Holy See by all the means in their power. Philip himself was not
+present, either, it was conjectured, in order that the league might the
+better be kept secret, or to avoid the appearance of lowering his dignity
+before that of the French monarch.[365] The current belief--until
+recently almost the universal belief of historians--goes farther, and
+alleges that in this mysterious conference Catharine and Alva, who
+accompanied his master's wife, concocted the plan of that famous massacre
+whose execution was delayed by various circumstances for seven years. Alva
+was the tempter, and the words with which he recommended his favorite
+method of dealing with heresy, by destroying its chief upholders, were
+embodied in the ignoble sentence, "Better a salmon's head than ten
+thousand frogs."[366]
+
+In fact, a general impression that the conference had led to the formation
+of a distinct plan for the universal destruction of Protestantism gained
+ground almost immediately. Within about a month after the queen mother and
+her daughter had ended their interview, the English ambassador wrote to
+Leicester and Cecil that "they of the religion think that there has been
+at this meeting at Bayonne some complot betwixt the Pope, the King of
+Spain, and the Scottish queen, by their ambassadors, and some say also the
+Papists of England."[367]
+
+[Sidenote: No plan of massacre agreed upon.]
+
+Fortunately, however, we are not left to frame by uncertain conjecture a
+doubtful story of the transactions of this famous interview. The
+correspondence of the Duke of Alva himself with Philip the Second has been
+preserved among the manuscripts of Simancas, to dispel many inveterate
+misapprehensions. These letters not only prove that no plan for a massacre
+of the Huguenots was agreed upon by the two parties, but that Alva did
+not even distinctly declare himself in favor of such a plan. They furnish,
+however, an instructive view, such as can but rarely be so well obtained,
+of the net of treacherous intrigue which the fingers of Philip and his
+agents were for many years busy day and night in cautiously spreading
+around the throne of France.
+
+[Sidenote: June 14th.]
+
+[Sidenote: June 15th.]
+
+On Thursday, the fourteenth of June, the young Spanish queen, with her
+brilliant train of attendant grandees, crossed the narrow stream forming
+the dividing line between the two kingdoms, and was conducted by her
+mother, her brothers and sister, and a crowd of gallant French nobles, to
+the neighboring town of Saint Jean de Luz. On Friday, Catharine and
+Charles rode forward to make their solemn entry into Bayonne, where they
+were to await their guests' arrival. Before they started, Alva had already
+been at work complimenting such good Catholics as the constable, Cardinal
+Bourbon, and Prince La Roche-sur-Yon, flattering Cardinal Guise (his
+brother of Lorraine was absent from court, not yet being fully reinstated
+in favor), the Duke of Montpensier, and vain old Blaise de Montluc. Nor
+were his blandishments thrown away. Poor weak Guise--the "cardinal des
+bouteilles" he was called, from the greater acquaintance he had with the
+wine and good living than with religious or political affairs[368]--was
+overcome with emotion and gratitude, and begged Alva to implore the
+Catholic king, by the love of God, to look in pity upon an unhappy
+kingdom, where religion was fast going to ruin. Montpensier threw himself
+into Alva's arms, and told him that Philip alone was the hope of all the
+good in France, declaring for himself that he was willing to be torn in
+pieces in his behalf, and maintaining the meanwhile, that, should that
+pleasant operation be performed, "Philip" would be found written on his
+heart. To Blaise de Montluc's self-conceit Alva laid siege in no very
+covert manner, assuring him that his master had not given his consent to
+Catharine's plan for an interview until he had perused a paper written by
+the grim old warrior's hand, in which he had expressed the opinion that
+the conference would be productive of wholesome results. The implied
+praise was all that was needed to induce Montluc to explain himself more
+fully. He was opposed to the exercise of any false humanity. He ascribed
+the little success that had attended the Roman Catholic arms in the last
+struggle to the half-way measures adopted and the attempt to exercise the
+courtesies of peace in time of war. The combatants on either side
+addressed their enemies as "my brother" and "my cousin." As for himself,
+he had made it a rule to spare no man's life, but to wage a war of
+extermination. To this unburdening of his mind Alva replied by giving
+Montluc to understand that, as a good Roman Catholic, it should be his
+task to discover the means of inducing Charles and his mother to perform
+their duty, and, if he failed in this, to disclose to Philip the course
+which he must pursue, "since it was impossible to suffer matters to go on,
+as they were going, to their ruin."
+
+What the duty of the French king was, in Philip's and Alva's view, is
+evidenced by the advice of the "good" Papists which the minister reports
+to his master with every mark of approbation. It was, in the first place,
+to banish from the kingdom every Protestant minister, and prohibit utterly
+any exercise of the reformed religion. The provincial governors, whose
+orthodoxy in almost every case could be relied upon, were to be the
+instruments in the execution of this work.[369] But, besides this, it
+would be necessary to seize a few of the leaders and cut off their heads.
+Five or six, it was suggested, would be all the victims required.[370] It
+was, in fact, essentially the plan of operations with which Alva undertook
+a year or two later the reduction of the Netherlands to submission to
+Spanish tyranny and the Papal Church. Treacherous imprisonments of the
+most suspected, which could scarcely have been confined within such narrow
+numerical limits as Alva laid down, together with a "blood council" to
+complete the work, or with a massacre in which the proprieties of judicial
+investigation would be less nicely observed--such was the scheme after
+Philip's own heart.
+
+But this scheme suited the present frame of mind neither of Charles nor of
+Catharine. When the crafty Spaniard, cautiously feeling his way, begged
+the young king to be very careful of his life, "for God, he was convinced,
+was reserving him to execute a great work by his hands, in the punishment
+of the offences which were committed in that kingdom,"[371] Charles
+briskly responded: "Oh! to take up arms does not suit me. I have no
+disposition to consummate the destruction of my kingdom begun in the past
+wars."[372] The duke clearly saw that the king was but repeating a lesson
+that had been taught him by others, and contemptuously dismissed the
+topic.[373]
+
+[Sidenote: Catharine and Alva.]
+
+Catharine was not less determined than her son to avoid a resort to arms.
+It was with difficulty that Alva could get her to broach the subject of
+religion at all. Isabella having, at his suggestion, pressed her mother to
+disclose the secret communication to make which she had sought this
+interview, Catharine referred, with some bitterness, to the distrust of
+Charles and of herself evidently entertained by Philip, which would be
+likely to lead in the end to a renewal of war between France and Spain.
+And she reproached Isabella with having so soon allowed herself to become
+"Hispaniolized"[374]--a charge from which her daughter endeavored to clear
+herself as best she could. When at last Alva succeeded in bringing up the
+subject, which was, ostensibly at least, so near what Philip called his
+heart, Catharine's display of tact was such as to elicit the profound
+admiration of even so consummate a master in the art of dissimulation as
+the duke himself. Her circumspection, he declared, he had never seen
+equalled.[375] She maintained that there was no need of alarm at the
+condition of religion in France, for everything was going on better than
+when the Edict of Pacification was published. "It is your satisfaction at
+being freed from war that leads you to take so cheerful a view," urged
+Alva. "My master cannot but require the application of a more efficient
+remedy, since the cause is common to Spain; for the disease will spread,
+and Philip has no inclination to lose his crown, or, perhaps, even his
+head." Catharine now insisted upon Alva's explaining himself and
+disclosing his master's plan of action. This Alva declined to do. Although
+Philip was as conversant with the state of France as she or any other
+person in the kingdom, yet he preferred to leave to her to decide upon the
+precise nature of the specific to be administered. Catharine pressed the
+inquiry, but Alva continued to parry the question adroitly. He asks if,
+since the Edict of Toleration, ground has been gained or lost. Decidedly
+gained, she replies, and proceeds to particularize. But Alva is confident
+that she is deceiving herself or him: it is notorious that things are
+becoming worse every day.
+
+"Would you have me understand," interrupts Catharine, "that we must resort
+to arms again?"
+
+"I see no present need of assuming them," answers Alva, "and my master
+would not advise you to take them up, unless constrained by other
+necessity than that which I now see."
+
+"What, then, would Philip have me do?" asks Catharine. "Apply a prompt
+remedy," answers Alva; "for sooner or later your enemies will, by their
+own action, compel you to accept the wager of war, and that, probably,
+under less favorable circumstances than at present. All Philip's thoughts
+are intent upon the expulsion of that wretched sect of the Huguenots, and
+upon restoring the subjects of the French crown to their ancient
+obedience, and maintaining the queen mother's legitimate authority." "The
+king, my son," responds Catharine, "publishes whatever edicts he pleases,
+and is obeyed." "Then, if he enjoys such authority over his vassals,"
+breaks in Isabella, "why does he not punish those who are rebels both
+against God and against himself?"
+
+That question Catharine did not choose to answer. Instead of it she had
+some chimerical schemes to propose--a league between France, Spain, and
+Germany, that should give the law to the world, and a confirmation of the
+bonds that united the royal houses of France and Spain by two more
+marriages, viz.: of Don Carlos to Margaret, her youngest daughter, and of
+the Duke of Anjou to the Princess of Portugal. Alva, however, making light
+of such projects, which could, according to his view, effect nothing more
+than the bond already connecting the families, was not slow in bringing
+the conversation back to the religious question. But he soon had reason to
+complain of Catharine's coldness. She had already expressed her mind
+fully, she said; and she resented, as a want of the respect due to her,
+the hint that she was more indifferent than previously. She would not fail
+to do justice, she assured him. That would be difficult, rejoined Alva,
+with a chancellor at the head of the judiciary who could not certainly be
+expected to apply the remedy needed by the unsound condition of France.
+"It is his personal enemies," promptly replied Catharine, "who, out of
+hatred, accuse L'Hospital of being a bad Catholic." "Can you deny that he
+is a Huguenot?" asked the Spaniard. "I do not regard him as such," calmly
+answered the French queen. "Then you are the only person in the kingdom
+who is of that opinion!" retorted the duke. "Even before I left France,
+and during the lifetime of my father, King Henry," said Isabella,
+interrupting with considerable animation, "your Majesty knows that that
+was his reputation; and you may be certain that so long as he is retained
+in his present office the good will always be kept in fear and in
+disfavor, while the bad will find him a support and advocate in all their
+evil courses. If he were to be confined for a few days only in his own
+house, you would at once discover the truth of my words, so much better
+would the interests of religion advance."[376] But this step Catharine was
+by no means willing to take. Nor, when again pressed by Alva, who dwelt
+much on the importance to Philip of knowing her intentions as to applying
+herself in earnest to the good work, so as to be guided in his own
+actions, would she deign to give any clearer indications. Yet she
+avowed--greatly shocking the orthodox duke thereby[377]--that she
+designed, instead of securing the acceptance of the decrees of Trent by
+the French, to convene a council of "good prelates and wise men," to
+settle a number of matters not of divine or positive prescription, which
+the Fathers of Trent had left undecided. Alva expressed his extreme
+astonishment, and reminded her of the Colloquy of Poissy--the source, as
+he alleged, of all the present disgraceful situation of France.[378] But
+Catharine threw the whole blame of the failure of that conference upon the
+inordinate conceit of the Cardinal of Lorraine,[379] and persisted in the
+plan. The Spaniard came to the conclusion that Catharine's only design was
+to avoid having recourse to salutary rigor, and indulged in his
+correspondence with his master in lugubrious vaticinations respecting the
+future.[380]
+
+[Sidenote: Catharine rejects all violent plans.]
+
+[Sidenote: Cardinal Granvelle's testimony.]
+
+So far, then, was the general belief which has been adopted by the
+greater number of historians up to our own days from being correct--the
+belief that Catharine framed, at the Bayonne conference, with Alva's
+assistance, a plan for the extermination of the Protestants by a massacre
+such as was realized on St. Bartholomew's Day, 1572--that, on the
+contrary, the queen mother refused, in a peremptory manner that disgusted
+the Spanish fanatics, every proposition that looked like violence. That we
+have not read the correspondence of Alva incorrectly, and that no letter
+containing the mythical agreement of Catharine ever reached Philip, is
+proved by the tone of the letters that passed between the great agents in
+the work of persecution in the Spanish Netherlands. Cardinal Granvelle,
+who, in his retreat at Besancon, was kept fully informed by the King of
+Spain, or by his chief ministers, of every important event, and who
+received copies of all the most weighty documents, in a letter to Alonso
+del Canto expresses great regret that Isabella and Alva should have failed
+in their endeavor to induce Catharine de' Medici to adopt methods more
+proper than she was taking to remedy the religious ills of France. She
+promised marvels, he adds, but was determined to avoid recourse to arms,
+which, indeed, was not necessary, if she would only act as she should. He
+was persuaded that the plan she was adopting would entail the ruin of
+religion and of her son's throne.[381]
+
+[Sidenote: Festivities and pageantry.]
+
+While the policy of two of the most important nations on the face of the
+globe, in which were involved the interests, temporal and eternal, of
+millions of men, women, and children, formed the topic of earnest
+discussion between two women--a mother and her daughter, the mother yet to
+become infamous for her participation in a bloody tragedy of which she as
+yet little dreamed--and a Spanish grandee doomed to an equally unenviable
+immortality in the records of human suffering and human crime, the city of
+Bayonne was the scene of an ephemeral gayety that might well convey the
+impression that such merry-making was not only the sole object of the
+conference, but the great concern of life.[382] Two nations, floundering
+in hopeless bankruptcy, yet found money enough to lavish upon costly but
+unmeaning pageants, while many a noble, to satisfy an ostentatious
+display, made drafts which an impoverished purse was little able to honor.
+The banquets and jousts, the triumphal arches with their flattering
+inscriptions, the shows in which allegory revelled almost to madness--all
+have been faithfully narrated with a minuteness worthy of a loftier
+theme.[383] This is, however, no place for the detailed description which,
+though entertaining, can be read to advantage only on the pages of the
+contemporary pamphlets that have come down to us.
+
+Yet, in the discussion of the more serious concerns of a great religious
+and political party, we may for a moment pause to gaze at a single show,
+neither more magnificent nor more dignified than its fellows; but in which
+the youthful figure of a Bearnese destined to play a first part in the
+world's drama, but up to this time living a life of retirement in his
+ancestral halls, first makes his appearance among the pomps to which as
+yet he has been a stranger. The pride of the grandfather whose name he
+bore, Henry of Navarre had been permitted, at that whimsical old man's
+suggestion, to strengthen an already vigorous constitution by athletic
+sports, and by running barefoot like the poorest peasant over the sides of
+his native hills. "God designed," writes a companion of his later days who
+never rekindles more of his youthful fire than when descanting upon his
+master's varied fortunes, "to prepare an iron wedge wherewith to cleave
+the hard knots of our calamities."[384] Later in childhood, when both
+father and grandfather were dead, he was the object of the unremitting
+care of a mother whose virtues find few counterparts or equals in the
+women of the sixteenth century; and Jeanne d'Albret, in a remarkable
+letter to Theodore Beza, notes with joy a precocious piety,[385] which,
+there is reason to fear, was not hardy enough to withstand the withering
+atmosphere of a court like that with which he was now making his first
+acquaintance.
+
+One evening there was exhibited in a large hall, well lighted by means of
+blazing torches, a tournament in which the knights fought on foot.[386]
+From a castle where they held an enchanted lady captive, the knights
+challengers issued, and "received all comers with a thrust of the pike,
+and five blows with the sword." Each champion, on his arrival, endeavored
+to enter the castle, but was met at the portal by guards "dressed very
+fantastically in black," and repelled with "lighted instruments." Not a
+few of the less illustrious were captured here. The more exalted in rank
+reached the donjon, or castle-keep, but as they thought to set foot within
+it, a trap-door opened and they too found themselves prisoners. It fared
+better with the princes; for the success of each champion was measured by
+a rigid heraldic scale. These passed the donjon, but, on a bridge leading
+to the tower where slept the enchanted lady, a giant confronted them, and
+in the midst of the combat the bridge was lowered, and they were taken, as
+had been their predecessors. "The Duke of Vendome,[387] son of the late
+duke, whom they call in France the Prince of Navarre--a boy apparently ten
+or eleven years of age--crossed the bridge, and the giant pretended to
+surrender; but he too was afterward repulsed like the rest." The Duke of
+Orleans--whom the reader will more readily recognize under the title of
+Duke of Anjou, which he, about this time, received--next entered the
+lists. Naturally he penetrated further than his namesake of Navarre, and
+"the giant showed more fear of him than of the other;" but a cloud
+enveloped them both, and "thus the duke vanished from sight." King Charles
+was the last to fight, and for his prowess it was reserved for him to
+defeat the giant and deliver the lady.[388]
+
+[Sidenote: The confraternities.]
+
+The author of the pompous show had made a serious mistake. The giant
+"League," before whom so many a champion failed, it was the lot not of
+Charles, nor of Henry of Valois, but of the other Henry, of Navarre, to
+overcome. That giant was already in existence, although still in his
+infancy. For some time past the zealous papists, impatient of the sluggish
+devotion of the court, had been forming "confreries," or fraternities,
+whose members, bound together by a common oath, were pledged to the
+support of the Roman Catholic religion.[389] The plan was a dangerous one,
+and it shortly excited the apprehension of the king and his mother. "I am
+told," Charles wrote in July, 1565, to one of his governors, "that in a
+number of places in my realm there is a talk of establishing an
+association amongst my subjects, who invite one another to join it. I beg
+you to take measures to prevent that any be made for any purpose
+whatsoever; but keep my subjects so far as possible united in the desire
+to render me duty and obedience."[390] And to prove the sincerity of his
+intentions, the French king ordered the late Edict of Pacification again
+to be proclaimed by public crier in the streets of the seditious city of
+Paris--a feat which was successfully performed under Marshal Montmorency's
+supervision, by the city provost, accompanied by so strong a detachment of
+archers and arquebusiers, as effectually to prevent popular
+disturbance.[391] Already there were restless spirits that saw in another
+civil war fresh opportunity for the advancement of their selfish
+interests. Months ago Villegagnon, the betrayer of the Brazilian colony of
+Coligny, had written to Cardinal Granvelle, telling him that he had
+resigned his dignities and offices in the French court, and had informed
+Catharine de' Medici, "that until Charles was the declared enemy of the
+enemies of God and of His church, he would never again bear arms in his
+service."[392] The vice-admiral, of whom modesty was never a conspicuous
+virtue, went so far as to draw a flattering portrait of himself as a
+second Hannibal, vowing eternal enmity to the Huguenots.[393] And Nicole
+de St. Remy, whose only claim to honorable mention was found in her
+oft-paraded boast that, as a mistress of Henry the Second, she had borne
+him a son, and who held in France the congenial post of a Spanish spy,
+suggested the marriage of the Cardinal of Bourbon in view of the possible
+contingency of the death of all Catharine's sons.[394] The centre of all
+intrigue, the storehouse from which every part of France was supplied with
+material capable of once more enkindling the flames of a destructive civil
+war, was the house of the Spanish resident envoy, Frances de Alava,
+successor of the crafty Chantonnay, the brother of Granvelle. It was he
+that was in constant communication with all the Roman Catholic malcontents
+in France.[395] Catharine endeavored to check this influence, but to no
+purpose. The fanatical party were bound by a stronger tie of allegiance to
+Philip, the Catholic king, than to her, or to the Very Christian King her
+son. Catharine had particularly enjoined upon the Cardinal of Lorraine to
+have no communication with Granvelle or with Chantonnay, but the prelate's
+relations with both were never interrupted for a moment.[396]
+
+[Sidenote: Siege of Malta, and French civilities to the Sultan.]
+
+The fact was that, so far from true was it that a cordial understanding
+existed between the courts of France and Spain, such as the mythical
+league for the extirpation of heresy presupposes, the distrust and
+hostility were barely veiled under the ordinary conventionalities of
+diplomatic courtesy. While Catharine and Philip's queen were exchanging
+costly civilities at Bayonne, the Turks were engaged in a siege of Malta,
+which has become famous for the obstinacy with which it was prosecuted and
+the valor with which it was repelled. Spain had sent a small detachment of
+troops to the assistance of the grand master, Jean de la Valette, and his
+brave knights of St. John, and the Pope had contributed ten thousand
+crowns to their expenses.[397] Yet at this very moment an envoy of the
+Sultan was at the court of the Very Christian King of France, greatly to
+the disgust of the Spanish visitors and pious Catholics in general,[398]
+and only waited for the departure of Isabella and Alva to receive formal
+presentation to the monarch and his mother.[399]
+
+[Sidenote: The constable espouses Cardinal Chatillon's defence.]
+
+Meantime, although the queen mother continued her policy of depriving the
+Huguenots of one after another of the privileges to which they were
+entitled, and replaced Protestant governors of towns and provinces by
+Roman Catholics, her efforts at repression seemed, for the time at least,
+to produce little effect. "The true religion is so rooted in France,"
+wrote one who accompanied the royal progress, "that, like a fire, it
+kindles daily more and more. In every place, from Bayonne hither, and for
+the most part of the journey, there are more Huguenots than papists, and
+the most part of men of quality and mark be of the religion." If the
+writer, as is probable, was over-sanguine in his anticipations, he could
+not be mistaken in the size of the great gathering of Protestants--full
+two thousand--for the most part gentlemen and gentlewomen, which he
+witnessed with his own eyes, brought together at Nantes to listen to the
+preaching of the eloquent Perucel.[400] And it was not an insignificant
+proof of the futility of any direct attempt to crush the Huguenots, that
+Constable Montmorency pretty plainly intimated that there were limits
+which religious proscription must not transcend. The English ambassador
+wrote from France, late in November, that the Pope's new nuncio had within
+two days demanded that the red cap should be taken from the Cardinal of
+Chatillon. But the latter, who chanced to be at court, replied that "what
+he enjoyed he enjoyed by gift of the crown of France, wherewith the Pope
+had nothing to do." The old constable was even more vehement. "The Pope,"
+said he, "has often troubled the quiet of this realm, but I trust he shall
+not be able to trouble it at this time. I am myself a papist; but if the
+Pope and his ministers go about again to disturb the kingdom, _my sword
+shall be Huguenot_. My nephew shall leave neither cap nor dignity which he
+has for the Pope, seeing the edict gives him that liberty."[401]
+
+[Sidenote: The court at Moulins.]
+
+Early in the following year, Charles the Ninth convoked in the city of
+Moulins, in Bourbonnais, near the centre of France, an assembly of
+notables to deliberate on the interests of the kingdom, which had not yet
+fully recovered from the desolations of the first civil war. The extensive
+journey, which had occupied a large part of the two preceding years, had
+furnished him abundant evidence of the grievances under which his subjects
+in the various provinces were laboring, and he now summoned all that was
+most illustrious in France, and especially those noblemen whom he had
+dismissed to their governments when about to start from his capital, to
+assist him in discovering the best mode of relief. If the Florentine
+Adriani could be credited, there were other and sinister designs in the
+mind of the court, or, at least, in that of Catharine. According to this
+historian, the plan of the second "Sicilian Vespers," resolved upon at
+Bayonne, was to have been put into execution at Moulins, which, from its
+strength, was well suited for the scene of so sanguinary a drama; but,
+although the Huguenot chiefs assembled in numbers, their actions betrayed
+so much suspicion of the Roman Catholics, and it seemed so difficult to
+include all in the blow, that the massacre was deferred until the arrival
+of a more propitious time, which did not come until St. Bartholomew's Day,
+1572.[402] I need not stop to refute a story which presupposes the
+adoption of resolutions in the conference of Bayonne, which we now know,
+from documentary evidence, were never for a moment entertained by
+Catharine and her son the king.
+
+[Sidenote: Feigned reconciliation of the Guises and Coligny.]
+
+So far from having any such treacherous design, in point of fact the
+assembly of Moulins was intended in no small degree to serve as a means of
+healing the dissensions existing among the nobles. The most serious
+breaches were the feud between the Chatillons and the Guises on account of
+the suspected complicity of Admiral Coligny in the murder of the late
+duke, and that between Marshal Montmorency and the Cardinal of Lorraine,
+arising out of the affray in January, 1565. Both quarrels were settled
+amicably in the king's presence, with as much sincerity as generally
+characterizes such reconciliations. Coligny declared on oath, in the royal
+presence, that he was guiltless of Guise's murder, neither having been its
+author nor having consented to it; whereupon the king declared him
+innocent, and ordered the parties to be reconciled. The command was
+obeyed, for Anne d'Este, Guise's widow, and Cardinal Charles of Lorraine
+in turn embraced the admiral, in token of renewed friendship. How much of
+meaning these caresses contained was to be shown six years later by the
+active participation of the one in the most famous massacre which the
+annals of modern history present, and by the exultant rejoicings in which
+the other indulged when he heard of it. Young Henry of Guise, less
+hypocritical than his mother and his uncle, held aloof from the
+demonstration, and permitted the beholders to infer that he was quietly
+biding his time for vengeance.[403]
+
+[Sidenote: The chancellor introduces a measure for the relief of the
+Protestants.]
+
+[Sidenote: A new altercation between Lorraine and the chancellor.]
+
+An event of principal importance that occurred during the stay of the
+court at Moulins was a fresh altercation between Lorraine and L'Hospital.
+A tolerant but apparently unauthorized act of the chancellor furnished the
+occasion. The Edict of Pacification had made provision for the worship of
+the Huguenots in but a small number of places through the kingdom. If
+living out of reach of these more favored localities, what were they to
+do, that they might not be compelled to exist without the restraints of
+religion during their lifetime, and to die without its consolations, nor
+leave their children unbaptized and uninstructed in the articles of their
+faith? L'Hospital proposed to remedy the evil by permitting the
+Protestants, in such cases, to institute a species of private worship in
+their houses, and had procured the royal signature to an edict permitting
+them to call in, as occasion might require, ministers of the Gospel from
+other cities where their regular ministrations were tolerated by the law
+of Amboise.[404] This edict he had sent forthwith to the different
+parliaments for registration. The Parliament of Dijon, in Burgundy,
+however, instead of obeying, promptly despatched two counsellors with a
+remonstrance to the king.[405] On arriving at court, the delegation at
+first found it impossible to gain the royal ear. In such awe did the
+"maitres de requetes"--to whom petitions were customarily entrusted--stand
+of the grave and severe chancellor--that venerable old man with the white
+beard, whom Brantome likened to another Cato--that none was found bold
+enough to present the Burgundian remonstrance. At last the delegates went
+to the newly-arrived cardinal, and Lorraine readily undertook the task.
+Appearing in the royal council he introduced the matter by expressing "his
+surprise that the Catholics had no means of making themselves heard
+respecting their grievances." The objectionable edict was read, and all
+the members of the council declared that they had never before seen or
+heard of it. Cardinal Bourbon was foremost in his anger, and declared
+that if the chancellor had the right to issue such laws on his own
+responsibility, there was no use in having a council. "Sir," said
+L'Hospital, turning to the Cardinal of Lorraine, "you are already come to
+sow discord among us!" "I am not come to sow discord, but to prevent you
+from sowing it as you have done in the past, scoundrel that you are!" was
+the reply.[406] "Would you prevent these poor people, whom the king has
+permitted to live with freedom of conscience in the exercise of their
+religion, from receiving any consolation at all?" asked L'Hospital. "Yes,
+I intend to prevent it," answered the cardinal, "for everybody knows that
+to suffer such things is to tolerate secret preaching; and I shall prevent
+it so long as I shall have the power, in order to give no opportunity for
+the growth of such tyrannical practices. And," continued he, "do you, who
+have become what you now are by my means, dare to tell me that I come to
+sow discord among you? I shall take good care to keep you from doing what
+you have done heretofore." The council rose in anger, and passed into the
+adjoining apartment, where Catharine, who had not recovered from a
+temporary illness, strove to appease them as best she could. Charles
+ordered a new meeting, and, after hearing the deputies from Dijon, the
+king, conformably to the advice of the council, revoked the edict, and
+issued a prohibition of all exercise of the Protestant religion or
+instruction in its doctrines, save where it had been granted at Amboise.
+The chancellor was strictly enjoined to affix the seal of state to no
+papers relating to religious affairs without the consent of the royal
+council.
+
+[Sidenote: Protestantism on the northern frontier.]
+
+[Sidenote: Progress of the reformation at Cateau-Cambresis.]
+
+For several years the Protestants in the northern provinces of France had
+been busily communicating the religious views they had themselves embraced
+to their neighbors in Artois, Flanders, and Brabant. This intercourse
+became exceedingly close about the beginning of the year 1566; and its
+result was a renunciation of the papal church and its worship, which was
+participated in by such large numbers, and effected so instantaneously,
+that the friends and the foes of the new movement were almost equally
+surprised. The story of this sudden outburst of the reformatory spirit in
+Valenciennes, Tournay, and other places, accompanied--as are all movements
+that take a strong hold upon the popular feelings--with a certain amount
+of lawlessness, which expended itself, however, upon inanimate images and
+held sacred the lives and honor of men and women, has been well told in
+the histories of the country whose fortunes it chiefly affected.[407] I
+may be permitted, therefore, to pass over these indirect results of
+Huguenot influence, and glance at the fortunes of a border town within the
+present bounds of France, and closely connected with the history of France
+in the sixteenth century, of which little or no notice has been taken in
+this connection.[408] Cateau-Cambresis, famous for the treaty by which
+Henry the Second bartered away extensive conquests for a few paltry places
+that had fallen into the hands of the enemy, was, as its name--Chastel,
+Chateau or Cateau--imports, a castle and a borough that had grown up about
+it, both of them on lands belonging to the domain of Maximilian of Bergen,
+Archbishop and Duke of Cambray, and Prince of the Holy Roman Empire. It
+was smaller, but relatively far more important three hundred years ago
+than at the present day. For several years a few "good burgesses," with
+their families, had timidly studied the Holy Scriptures in secret,
+restrained from making an open profession of their faith by the terrible
+executions which they saw inflicted upon the Protestants in the
+Netherlands. But, encouraged by the toleration prevailing in France, they
+began to cross the frontier, and to frequent the Huguenot "assemblees" at
+Crespy, Tupigny, and Chauny. The distance was not inconsiderable, and the
+peril was great. The archbishop had not only written a letter, which was
+read in every parish church, forbidding the singing of Marot's psalms and
+the frequenting of French conventicles, but he had sent his spies to the
+conventicles to discover cases of disobedience. The Huguenots of Cateau
+multiplied in spite of these precautions. "The eyes of the aforesaid
+spies," writes a witness of the events, "were so holden that they did not
+even recognize those with whom they conversed." Yet, although the
+Huguenots met at home to read the Bible and to "sing the psalms which were
+most appropriate to the persecution and dispersion of the children of
+God," the town was as quiet as it had ever been. A slight incident,
+however, revealed the intensity of the fire secretly burning below the
+surface. A Huguenot minister was discovered on Whitsunday, in an adjoining
+village, and brought to Cateau. His captors facetiously told the suspected
+Protestants whom they met, that they had brought them a preacher, and that
+they would have no further occasion for leaving the town in quest of one.
+But the joke was not so well appreciated as it might have been by the
+adherents of the reformed faith, who seem by this time to have become
+extremely numerous. The excitement was intense. When the bailiff of
+Cambresis was detected, not long after, stealing into the place by night,
+accompanied by some sixty men, with the intention of carrying the preacher
+off to Cambray, he met with unexpected resistance. A citizen, on his way
+to his garden outside the walls, was the first to notice the guard of
+strange arquebusiers at the gate, and ran back to give the alarm. The
+tocsin was rung, and the inhabitants assembled in arms. It was now the
+turn of the bailiff to be astonished, and to listen humbly to the
+remonstrances of the people, indignant that he should have presumed to
+seize their gates and usurp the functions of the local magistrates.
+However, the intruders, after being politely informed that, according to
+strict justice, the whole party might have been summarily put to death,
+were suffered to beat a hasty retreat; not that so perfect a control could
+be put upon the ardor of some, but that they "administered sundry blows
+with the flat of their swords upon the back of the bailiff and a few of
+his soldiers."
+
+[Sidenote: Interference of the Archbishop of Cambray.]
+
+The incident itself was of trifling importance, for the Huguenot minister
+was promptly given up to the baron of the village where he had been
+captured, and was taken by his orders to Cambray. But it led to serious
+consequences. Threatened by the archiepiscopal city, the Protestants of
+Cateau, afraid to go to the French preaching-places, sent for Monsieur
+Philippe, minister of Tupigny, and held the reformed services just outside
+of their own walls. Alarmed at the progress of Protestant doctrines in his
+diocese, the Archbishop convened the estates of Cambray, and, on the
+eighteenth of August, 1566, sent three canons of the cathedral to persuade
+his subjects of Cateau to return to the Papal Church, and to threaten them
+with ruin in case of refusal. Neither argument nor menace was of any
+avail. The Protestants, who had studied their Bibles, were more than a
+match for the priests, who had not; and, as for the peril, the Huguenots
+quaintly replied: "Rather than yield to your demand, we should prefer to
+have our heads placed at our feet." When asked if they were all of this
+mind, they reiterated their determination: "Were the fires made ready to
+burn us all, we should enter them rather than accede to your request and
+return to the mass." These were brave words, but the sturdy Huguenots made
+them good a few months later.
+
+[Sidenote: The images and pictures overthrown.]
+
+Scarcely a week had passed before the news reached Cateau (on the
+twenty-fifth of August) that the "idols" had been broken in all the
+churches of Valenciennes, Antwerp, Ghent, Tournay, and elsewhere. Although
+stirred to its very depths by the exciting intelligence, the Protestant
+population still contained itself, and merely consulted convenience by
+celebrating Divine worship within the city walls, in an open cemetery.
+Unfortunately, however, the minister whom the reformed had obtained was
+ill-suited to these troublous times. Monsieur Philippe, unlike Calvin and
+the great majority of the ministers of the French Protestant church, was
+rash and impetuous. Early the next morning he entered the church of St.
+Martin, in company with three or four other persons, and commenced the
+work of destruction. Altars, statues, pictures, antiphonaries, missals,
+graduals--all underwent a common fate. From St. Martin's the iconoclasts
+visited in like manner the other ecclesiastical edifices of the town and
+its suburbs. Upon the ruins of the Romish superstition the new fabric
+arose, and Monsieur Philippe preached the same day in the principal church
+of Cateau, to a large and attentive audience.
+
+[Sidenote: The Protestant claims.]
+
+And now began an animated interchange of proclamations on the one hand,
+and of petitions on the other. The archbishop demanded the unconditional
+submission of his subjects, and gave no assurances of toleration. The
+Protestants declared themselves ready to give him their unqualified
+allegiance, as their temporal sovereign, but claimed the liberty to
+worship God. Maximilian referred to the laws and constitutions of the
+Empire of which they formed an integral part. The burgesses answered by
+showing that they had always been governed in accordance with the
+"placards" issued by the King of Spain for his provinces of the
+Netherlands, and that, whenever they had appealed in times past to the
+chamber of the Empire, as for example at Spires, they had not only been
+repelled, but even punished for their temerity.[409] They claimed,
+therefore, the benefit of the "Accord" made by the Duchess of Parma at
+Brussels a few days previously, guaranteeing the exercise of the reformed
+religion wherever it had heretofore been practised;[410] while the
+archbishop, when forced to declare himself, plainly announced that he
+would not suffer the least deviation from the Roman Catholic faith. In
+their perplexity, the Protestants had recourse to the Count of Horn, at
+Tournay, by whom they were received with the utmost kindness. The count
+even furnished them with a letter to the archbishop, entreating him to be
+merciful to them.[411]
+
+[Sidenote: The Archbishop's vengeance.]
+
+But nothing was further from the heart of Maximilian than mercy. He was
+the same blind adherent of Cardinal Granvelle and his policy, whom, a year
+or two before, Brederode, Hoogstraaten, and their fellow-revellers had
+grievously insulted at a banquet given to Egmont before his departure for
+Spain; the same treacherous, sanguinary priest who wrote to Granvelle
+respecting Valenciennes: "We had better push forward and make an end of
+all the principal heretics, whether rich or poor, without regarding
+whether the city will be entirely ruined by such a course."[412] On
+Monday, the twenty-fourth of March, 1567, the troops of the archbishop
+appeared before Cateau, and the same day the place was surrendered by the
+treachery of some of the inhabitants. At once Cateau became a scene of
+bloody executions. All that had taken part in the Protestant worship were
+brought before a tribunal, which often tried, condemned, and punished with
+death upon one and the same day. Monsieur Philippe, the rash preacher, and
+one of his deacons seem to have been the first victims. There was no lack
+of food for the gallows. To have been present at the "preachings," to have
+partaken of the communion, to have maintained that the Protestant was
+better than the Roman Catholic religion, to have uttered a jest or drawn a
+caricature reflecting upon the Papal Church and its ceremonies--any of
+these was sufficient reason for sending a man to be hung or beheaded. The
+duchess's "moderation" had effected thus much, that no one seems to have
+been burned at the stake. And so, at last, by assiduous but bloody work,
+the Reformation was completely extirpated from Cateau Cambresis. It was,
+at least, a source of mournful satisfaction that scarce one of the
+sufferers failed to exhibit great constancy and pious resignation in view
+of death.[413]
+
+[Sidenote: The idea of toleration is not understood.]
+
+Let us return from the Flemish borders to France proper, where,
+notwithstanding attempts at external reconciliation, the breach between
+the Protestants and their Roman Catholic neighbors was daily widening,
+where, in fact, the elements of a new war were gathering shape and
+consistency. It was becoming more and more difficult--especially for a
+government of temporary shifts and expedients--to control the antagonistic
+forces incessantly manifesting themselves. The idea of toleration was
+understood by neither party. The Roman Catholics of Provins were so slow
+to comprehend the liberty of conscience and religious profession of which
+the Huguenots had wrung a concession in the last edict by force of arms,
+that they undertook to prosecute the Protestants for eating roast lamb and
+capons during Lent. With little more appreciation of the altered posture
+of affairs, the Archbishop of Sens (Cardinal Guise) initiated a trial
+against a heretical curate of Courtenay, according to the rules of canon
+law, and the latter might have stood but a poor chance to recover his
+freedom had not the Huguenot lord of Courtenay seized upon the
+archbishop's "official" as he was passing his castle, and held him as a
+hostage to secure the curate's release.[414]
+
+[Sidenote: Huguenot pleasantries.]
+
+It would be asserting too much to say that the Protestants were innocent
+of any infraction upon the letter or spirit of the Edict of Amboise. They
+would have been angels, not men, had they been proof against the
+contagious spirit of raillery that infected the men of the sixteenth
+century. Where they dared, they not unfrequently held up their opponents
+to ridicule in the coarse style so popular with all classes.[415] Thus a
+contemporary Roman Catholic recounts with indignation how Prince Porcien
+held a celebration in Normandy, and among the games was one in which a
+"paper castle" was assaulted, and the defenders, dressed as _monks_, were
+taken prisoners, and were afterward paraded through the streets on asses'
+backs.[416] But these buffooneries were harmless sallies contrasted with
+the insults with which the Protestants were treated in every town where
+they were not numerically preponderating; nor were they anything more than
+rare occurrences in comparison with the latter. This page of history is
+compelled to record no violent commotion on the part of the reformed
+population, save in cases where, as at Pamiers (a town not far south of
+Toulouse, near the foot of the Pyrenees), they had been goaded to madness
+by the government deliberately trampling upon their rights of worship, at
+the instigation of the ecclesiastical authorities.[417] A trifling
+accident might then, however, be sufficient to cause their inflamed
+passions to burst out; and in the disturbances that were likely to ensue,
+little respect was usually paid to the churches or the monasteries. Such
+are wont to be the unhappy effects of the denial of justice according to
+the forms of established law. They would have been a hundred-fold more
+frequent had it not been for the persistent opposition interposed by the
+Huguenot ministers--many of them with Calvin carrying the doctrine of
+passive submission to constituted authority almost to the very verge of
+apparent pusillanimity.
+
+[Sidenote: Alarm of the Protestants.]
+
+[Sidenote: Attempts to murder the admiral and Prince Porcien.]
+
+From month to month the conviction grew upon the Protestants that their
+destruction was agreed upon. There was no doubt with regard to the desire
+of Philip the Second; for his course respecting his subjects in the
+Netherlands showed plainly enough that the extermination of heretics was
+the only policy of which his narrow mind could conceive as pleasing in the
+sight of heaven. The character of Catharine--stealthy, deceitful,
+regardless of principle--was equally well understood. Between such a queen
+and the trusted minister of such a prince, a secret conference like that
+of Bayonne could not be otherwise than highly suspicious. It is not
+strange that the Huguenots received it as an indubitable fact that the
+court from this time forward was only waiting for the best opportunity of
+effecting their ruin; for even intelligent Roman Catholics, who were not
+admitted into the confidence of the chief actors in that celebrated
+interview, came to the same conclusion. Those who knew what had actually
+been said and done might assure the world that the rumors were false; but
+the more they asseverated the less they were believed. For it is one of
+the penalties of insincere and lying diplomacy, that when once appreciated
+in its true character--as it generally is appreciated in a very brief
+space of time--it loses its persuasive power, and is treated without much
+investigation as uniform imposture.[418] With a suspicious vigilance, bred
+of the very treachery of which they had so often been the victims, the
+Huguenots saw signs of dangers that perhaps were not actually in
+preparation for them. And certainly there was enough to alarm. Not many
+months after the assembly of Moulins a cut-throat by the name of Du May
+was discovered and executed, who had been hired to murder Admiral Coligny,
+the most indispensable leader of the party, near his own castle of
+Chatillon-sur-Loing.[419] The last day of the year there was hung a
+lackey, who pretended that the Cardinal of Lorraine had tried to induce
+him to poison the Prince of Porcien; and, although he retracted his
+statements at the time of his "amende honorable,"[420] his first story was
+generally credited. The rumor was current that in December, 1566, Charles
+received special envoys from the emperor, the Pope, and the King of Spain,
+warning him that, unless he should revoke his edict of toleration, they
+would declare themselves his open enemies.[421] This was certainly
+sufficiently incredible, so far as the tolerant Maximilian was concerned;
+but stranger mutations of policy had often been noticed, and, as to Pius
+the Fifth and Philip, nothing seemed more probable.
+
+[Sidenote: Alva in the Netherlands.]
+
+[Sidenote: The Swiss levy.]
+
+With the opening of the year 1567 the portentous clouds of coming danger
+assumed a more definite shape. In the neighboring provinces of the
+Netherlands, after a long period of procrastination, Philip the Second had
+at length determined to strike a decisive blow. The Duchess of Parma was
+to be superseded in the government by a man better qualified than any
+other in Europe for the bloody work assigned him to do. Ferdinando de
+Toledo, Duke of Alva, in his sixtieth year, after a life full of brilliant
+military exploits, was to undertake a work in Flanders such as that which,
+two years before, he had recommended as the panacea for the woes of
+France--a work with which his name will ever remain associated in the
+annals of history. The "Beggars" of the Low Countries, like the Huguenots
+in their last war, had taken up arms in defence of their religious, and,
+to a less degree, of their civil rights. The "Beggars" complained of the
+violation of municipal privileges and compacts, ratified by oath at their
+sovereign's accession, as the Huguenots pointed to the infringement upon
+edicts solemnly published as the basis of the pacification of the country;
+and both refused any longer to submit to a tyranny that had, in the name
+of religion, sent to the gallows or the stake thousands of their most
+pious and industrious fellow-citizens. The cause was, therefore, common to
+the Protestants of the two countries, and there was little doubt that
+should the enemy of either prove successful at home, he would soon be
+impelled by an almost irresistible impulse to assist his ally in
+completing his portion of the praiseworthy undertaking. It is true that
+the Huguenots of France were not now in actual warfare with the
+government; but, that their time would come to be attacked, there was
+every reason to apprehend. Hence, when the Duke of Alva, in the memorable
+summer of 1567, set out from Piedmont at the head of ten thousand
+veterans, to thread his way over the Alps and along the eastern frontiers
+of France, through Burgundy and Lorraine, to the fated scene of his bloody
+task in the Netherlands, the Protestants of France saw in this neighboring
+demonstration a new peril to themselves. In the first moments of
+trepidation, their leaders in the royal council are said to have
+acquiesced in, if they did not propose, the levy of six thousand Swiss
+troops, as a measure of defence against the Spanish general; and Coligny,
+the same contemporary authority informs us, strongly advocated that they
+should dispute the duke's passage.[422] Even if this statement be true,
+they were not long in detecting, or believing that they had detected,
+proofs that the Swiss troops were really intended for the overthrow of
+Protestantism in France, rather than for any service against the Duke of
+Alva. Letters from Rome and Spain were intercepted, we learn from Francois
+de la Noue, containing evidence of the sinister designs of the court.[423]
+The Prince of La Roche-sur-Yon, a prince of the blood, a short time
+before his death, warned his cousin of Conde of the impending danger.[424]
+Conde, who, within the past few months, had repeatedly addressed the king
+and his mother in terms of remonstrance and petition for the redress of
+the oppression under which the Huguenots were suffering, but to no
+purpose, again supplicated the throne, urging in particular that the levy
+of the Swiss be countermanded, since, if they should come, there would be
+little hope of the preservation of the peace;[425] while Admiral Coligny,
+who found Catharine visiting the constable, his uncle, at his palace of
+Chantilly, with faithful boldness exposed to them both the impossibility
+of retaining the Protestants in quiet, when they saw plain indications
+that formidable preparations were being made for the purpose of
+overwhelming them. To these remonstrances, however, they received only
+what they esteemed evasive answers--excuses for not dismissing the Swiss,
+based upon representations of the danger of some Spanish incursion, and
+promises that the just requests of the Huguenots should receive the
+gracious attention of a monarch desirous of establishing his throne by
+equity.[426]
+
+"The queene returned answer by letters," wrote the English ambassador,
+Norris, to Elizabeth, "assuringe him"--Conde--"by the faythe of a
+princesse _et d'une femme de bien_ (for so she termed it), that so long as
+she might any waies prevayle with the Kinge, her sonne, he should never
+breake the sayd edicte, and therof required him to assure himselfe; and if
+he coulde come to the courte, he shoulde be as welcome as his owne harte
+could devise; if not, to passe the tyme without any suspect or jealousie,
+protesting that there was nothing ment that tended to his indempnitie,
+what so ever was bruted abrode or conceyved to the contrary, as he should
+perceyve by the sequele erst it were long."[427]
+
+Shall we blame those sturdy, straightforward men, so long fed upon
+unmeaning or readily-broken promises of redress, if they gave little
+credit to the royal assurances, and to the more honeyed words of the queen
+mother? Perhaps there existed no sufficient grounds for the immediate
+alarm of the Huguenots. Perhaps no settled plan had been formed with the
+connivance of Philip--no "sacred league" of the kind supposed to have been
+sketched in outline at Bayonne--no contemplated massacre of the chiefs,
+with a subsequent assembly of notables at Poitiers, and repeal of all the
+toleration that had been vouchsafed to the Protestants.[428] All this may
+have been false; but, if false, it was invested with a wonderful
+verisimilitude, and to Huguenots and Papists it had, so far as their
+actions were concerned, all the effect of truth. At all events the
+promises of the king could not be trusted. Had he not been promising,
+again and again, for four years? Had not every restrictive ordinance,
+every interpretation of the Edict of Amboise, every palpable infringement
+upon its spirit, if not upon its letter, been prefaced by a declaration of
+Charles's intention to maintain the edict inviolate? In the words of an
+indignant contemporary, "the very name of the edict was employed to
+destroy the edict itself."[429]
+
+ * * * * *
+
+ [Sidenote: The Huguenot attempts at colonization in Florida.]
+
+ The Huguenot expeditions to Florida have been so well sketched
+ by Bancroft and Parkman, and so fully set forth by their
+ latest historian, M. Paul Gaffarel, that I need not speak of
+ them in detail. In fact, they belong more intimately to
+ American than to French history. They owed their origin to the
+ enlightened patriotism of Coligny, who was not less desirous,
+ as a Huguenot, to provide a safe refuge for his fellow
+ Protestants, than anxious, as High Admiral of France, to
+ secure for his native country such commercial resources as it
+ had never enjoyed. "I am in my house," he wrote in 1565,
+ "studying new measures by which we may traffic and make profit
+ in foreign parts. I hope shortly to bring it to pass that we
+ shall have the best trade in Christendom." (Gaffarel, Histoire
+ de la Floride francaise, Paris, 1875, pp. 45, 46). But,
+ although the project of Huguenot emigration was conceived in
+ the brain of the great Protestant leader, apparently it was
+ heartily approved by Catharine de' Medici and her son. They
+ certainly were not averse to be relieved of the presence of as
+ many as possible of those whom their religious views, and,
+ still more, their political tendencies, rendered objects of
+ suspicion. "If wishing were in order," Catharine (Letter to
+ Forquevaulx, March 17, 1566, Gaffarel, 428) plainly told the
+ Spanish ambassador, on one occasion, "I would wish that all
+ the Huguenots were in those regions" ("si c'estoit soueter, ie
+ voudrois que touts les Huguenots fussent en ce pais-la"). In
+ the discussion that ensued between the courts of Paris and
+ Madrid, the queen mother never denied that the colonists went
+ not only with her knowledge, but with her consent. In fact,
+ she repudiated with scorn and indignation a suggestion of the
+ possibility that such considerable bodies of soldiers and
+ sailors could have left her son's French dominions without the
+ royal privity (Ibid., 427).
+
+ [Sidenote: 1562.]
+
+ The first expedition, under Jean Ribault, in 1562, was little
+ more than a voyage of discovery. The main body promptly
+ returned to France, the same year, finding that country rent
+ with civil war. The twenty-six or twenty-eight men left behind
+ to hold "Charlesfort" (erected probably near the mouth of the
+ South Edisto river, in what is now South Carolina),
+ disheartened and famishing, nevertheless succeeded in
+ constructing a rude ship and recrossing the Atlantic in the
+ course of the next year.
+
+ [Sidenote: 1564.]
+
+ A second expedition (1564), under Rene de Laudonniere, who had
+ taken part in the first, was intended to effect a more
+ permanent settlement. A strong earthwork was accordingly
+ thrown-up at a spot christened "Caroline," in honor of Charles
+ the Ninth, and the colony was inaugurated under fair auspices.
+ But improvidence and mismanagement soon bore their legitimate
+ fruits. Laudonniere saw himself constrained to build ships for
+ a return to Europe, and was about to set sail when the third
+ expedition unexpectedly made its appearance (August 28, 1565),
+ under Ribault, leader of the first enterprise.
+
+ [Sidenote: 1565.]
+
+ [Sidenote: Massacre by Menendez.]
+
+ Unfortunately the arrival of this fresh reinforcement was
+ closely followed by the approach of a Spanish squadron,
+ commanded by Pedro Menendez, or Melendez, de Abila, sent by
+ Philip the Second expressly to destroy the Frenchmen who had
+ been so presumptuous as to settle in territories claimed by
+ his Catholic Majesty. Nature seemed to conspire with their own
+ incompetency to ruin the French. The French vessels, having
+ gone out to attack the Spaniards, accomplished nothing, and,
+ meeting a terrible storm, were driven far down the coast and
+ wrecked. "Caroline" fell into the hands of Menendez, and its
+ garrison was mercilessly put to death. The same fate befell
+ the shipwrecked French from the fleet. Those who declared
+ themselves Roman Catholics were almost the only persons spared
+ by their pitiless assailants. A few women and children were
+ granted their lives; also a drummer, a hornblower, and a few
+ carpenters and sailors, whose services were valuable.
+ Laudonniere and a handful of men escaped to the woods, and
+ subsequently to Europe. About two hundred soldiers, who
+ threatened to entrench themselves and make a formidable
+ resistance, were able to obtain from Menendez a pledge that
+ they should be treated as prisoners of war, which, strange to
+ say, was observed. The rest--many hundreds--were consigned to
+ indiscriminate slaughter; Ribault himself was flayed and
+ quartered; and over the dead Huguenots was suspended a tablet
+ with this inscription: "Hung, not as Frenchmen, but as
+ Lutherans" (Gaffarel, 229; De Thou, iv. 113; Ag. d'Aubigne, i.
+ 248). Spain and Rome had achieved a grand work. The chaplain
+ Mendoza could piously write: "The greatest advantage from our
+ victory, certainly, is the triumph our Lord grants us, which
+ will cause His Holy Gospel to be introduced into these
+ regions." (Mendoza, _apud_ Gaffarel, 214).
+
+ The report of these atrocities, tardily reaching the Old
+ World, called forth an almost universal cry of horror.
+ Fair-minded men of both communions stigmatized the conduct of
+ Menendez and his companions as sheer murder; for had not the
+ French colonists of Florida been attacked before being
+ summoned to surrender, and butchered in cold blood after being
+ denied even such terms as were customarily accorded to Turks
+ and other infidels? Among princes, Philip alone applauded the
+ deed, and seemed only to regret that faith had been kept with
+ any of the detested Huguenots (Gaffarel, 234, 245). It has
+ been commonly supposed that whatever indignation was shown by
+ Catharine de' Medici and her son, was merely assumed in
+ deference to the popular clamor, and that but a feeble
+ remonstrance was really uttered. This supineness would be
+ readily explicable upon the hypothesis of the long
+ premeditation of the massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day. If the
+ treacherous murder of Admiral Coligny and the other great
+ Huguenot leaders had indeed been deliberately planned from the
+ time of the Bayonne conference in 1565, and would have been
+ executed at Moulins in 1566, but for unforeseen circumstances,
+ no protests against the Florida butchery could have been
+ sincere. On the other hand, if Catharine de' Medici was
+ earnest and persistent in her demand for the punishment of
+ Menendez, it is not conceivable that her mind should have been
+ then entertaining the project of the Parisian matins. The
+ extant correspondence between the French queen mother and her
+ envoy at the court of Madrid may fairly be said to set at rest
+ all doubts respecting her attitude. She was indignant,
+ determined, and outspoken.
+
+ So slowly did news travel in the sixteenth century, that it
+ was not until the eighteenth of February, 1566, that
+ Forquevaulx, from Madrid, despatched to the King of France a
+ first account of the events that had occurred in Florida
+ nearly five months before. The ambassador seems to have
+ expressed becoming indignation in the interviews he sought
+ with the Duke of Alva, repudiating with dignity the suggestion
+ that the blame should be laid upon Coligny, for having abused
+ his authority as admiral to set on foot a piratical expedition
+ into the territories of a friendly prince; and holding forth
+ no encouragement to believe that Charles would disavow
+ Coligny's acts. He told Alva distinctly that Menendez was a
+ butcher rather than a good soldier ("plus digne bourreau que
+ bon soldat," Forquevaulx to Charles IX., March 16, 1566,
+ Gaffarel, 425). He declared to him that the Turks had never
+ exhibited such inhumanity to their prisoners at Castelnovo or
+ at Gerbes--in fact, never had barbarians displayed such
+ cruelty. As a Frenchman, he assured the Spaniard that he
+ shuddered when he thought of so execrable a deed, and that it
+ appeared to him that God would not leave it unpunished (Ibid.,
+ 426).
+
+ Catharine's own language to the Spanish ambassador, Don
+ Francez de Alava, was not less frank. "As their common
+ mother," she said, "I can but have an incredible grief at
+ heart, when I hear that between princes so closely bound as
+ friends, allies, and relations, as these two kings, and in so
+ good a peace, and at a time when such great offices of
+ friendship are observed between them, so horrible a carnage
+ has been committed on the subjects of my son, the King of
+ France. I am, as it were, beside myself when I think of it,
+ and cannot persuade myself that the king, your master, will
+ refuse us satisfaction" (Catharine to Forquevaulx, Moulins,
+ March 17th, Gaffarel, 427). Not content with this plain
+ talking to Alava, she "prayed and ordered" Forquevaulx to make
+ Philip himself understand her desires respecting "the
+ reparation demanded by _so enormous an outrage_." He was to
+ tell his Catholic Majesty that Catharine would never rest
+ content until due satisfaction was made; and that she would
+ feel "marvellous regret" should she not only find that all her
+ pains to establish perpetual friendship between the two kings
+ had been lost, but one day be reproached by Charles for having
+ suffered such a stain upon his reputation ("que ... j'aye
+ laisse faire une telle escorne a sa reputation." Gaffarel,
+ 429).
+
+ Forquevaulx fulfilled his instructions to the very letter,
+ adding, on his own account, that in forty-one years of
+ military service he had never known so execrable an
+ execution. He seems also to have disposed effectually of the
+ Spanish claim to Florida through right of ancient discovery,
+ by emphasizing the circumstance that Menendez, after his
+ victory, thought it necessary to take formal possession of the
+ land. He informed Philip that no news could be more welcome to
+ the Huguenots than that the subjects of Charles had been
+ murdered by those very persons who were expected to strengthen
+ him by their friendship and alliance (Forquevaulx to
+ Catharine, April 9th, Gaffarel, 432). His words had little
+ effect upon any one at the Spanish court, save the young
+ queen, who felt the utmost solicitude lest her brother and her
+ husband should become involved in war with each other. ("Me
+ sembla qu'il tint a peu qu'elle ne pleurast son soul de
+ crainte qu'il ne survienne quelque alteration." Forquevaulx,
+ _ubi supra_, 430.)
+
+ But, although no progress was made toward obtaining justice,
+ the French government did not relax its efforts. Charles wrote
+ from Saint Maur, May 12, 1566, that his will was that
+ Forquevaulx should renew his complaint and insist with all
+ urgency upon a reparation of the wrong done him. "You will not
+ cease to tell them," said the king, "that they must not hope
+ that I shall ever be satisfied until I see such a reparation
+ as our friendship demands." (Gaffarel, 437.)
+
+ [Sidenote: Sanguinary revenge of De Gourgues, April, 1568.]
+
+ The French ambassador continued to press his claim, and, in
+ particular, to demand the release of the French prisoners,
+ even up to near the time when a private citizen, Dominique de
+ Gourgues, undertook to avenge his country's wrongs while
+ satisfying his thirst for personal revenge. De Gourgues was
+ not, as has usually been supposed, a Huguenot; he had even
+ been an adherent of Montluc and of the house of Guise
+ (Gaffarel, 265). But, having been captured in war by the
+ Spaniards, in 1566, he had been made a galley-slave. From that
+ time he had vowed irreconcilable hatred against the Catholic
+ king. He obtained a long-deferred satisfaction when, in April,
+ 1568, he surprised the fort of Caroline, slew most of the
+ Spanish soldiers, and placed over the remainder--spared only
+ for the more ignominious punishment of hanging upon the same
+ trees to which Huguenots had been suspended--the inscription,
+ burned with a hot iron on a pine slab: "I do this not as to
+ Spaniards, nor as to seamen, but as to traitors, robbers, and
+ murderers." (The words are given with slight variations. See
+ "La Reprinse de la Floride par le Cappitaine Gourgue,"
+ reprinted by Gaffarel, 483-515; Agrippa d'Aubigne, i. 354-356;
+ De Thou, iv. 123-126.)
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[265] Froude, Hist. of England, vii. 519. Seethe courteous summons of
+Charles, April 30, 1563, Forbes, State Papers, ii. 404, 405, and
+Elizabeth's answer, May 7th, ibid., ii. 409-411; Conde's offer in his
+letter of June 26, 1563, Forbes, ii. 442. See also the extended
+correspondence of the English envoys, in the inedited documents published
+by the Duc d'Aumale, Princes de Conde, i. 423-500.
+
+[266] Froude, vii. 520; Castelnau, liv. v., c. ii. Compare Forbes, ii.
+422.
+
+[267] "The plage dothe increace here dayly, wherby our nombres are decayde
+within these fowr days in soche sorte, as we have not remayning at this
+present (in all our judgements) 1500 able men in this towne. They dye nowe
+in bothe these peces upon the point of 100 a daye, so as we can not geyt
+men to burye theym," etc. Warwick to the Privy Council, July 11, 1563.
+Forbes, ii. 458.
+
+[268] De Thou, iii. (liv. xxxv.) 417-420; Mem. de Castelnau, liv. v., c.
+ii. and iii.; Cimber et Danjou, v. 229; Stow's Annals (London, 1631), 655,
+656; Agrippa d'Aubigne, liv. iv., c. ii. (i. 198-200); Davila, bk. iii.
+(Eng. trans., London, 1678), p. 89; Froude, vii. 519-528. Consult
+especially Dr. Patrick Forbes, Full View of the Public Transactions in the
+Reign of Queen Elizabeth (London, 1741), vol ii. pp. 373-500. This
+important collection of letters, to which I have made such frequent
+reference under the shorter title of "State Papers," ends at this point.
+Peace was definitely concluded between France and England by the treaty of
+Troyes, April 11, 1564 (Mem. de Conde, v. 79, 80). Sir Nicholas
+Throkmorton, who had long been a prisoner, held to be exchanged against
+the hostages for the restitution of Calais, given in accordance with the
+treaty of Cateau-Cambresis, now returned home. Before leaving, however, he
+had an altercation with his colleague, Sir Thomas Smith, of which the
+latter wrote a full account. Sir Nicholas, it seems, in his heat applied
+some opprobrious epithets to Smith, and even called him "traitor"--a
+charge which the latter repudiated with manly indignation. "Nay, thou
+liest, quoth I; I am as true to the queen as thou any day in the week, and
+have done her Highness as faithful and good service as thou." Smith to
+Cecil, April 13, 1564, State Paper Office.
+
+[269] Mem. de Claude Haton, i. 356, 357.
+
+[270] See the order of the fanatical Parliament of Toulouse, which it had
+the audacity to publish with, or instead of, the king's edict. It contains
+this clause: "Ce que estant veu par nous, avons ordonne et ordonnons que,
+en la ville de Thoulouse ni aultres du ressort du parlement d'icelle, ne
+se fera publicquement ni secrettement aulcun exercice de la nouvelle
+pretendue religion, en quelque sorte que ce soit, sous peine de la hart.
+Item, que tous ceux qui vouldront faire profession de laditte pretendue
+religion reformee ayent a se retirer," etc. Mem. de Claude Haton, i. 358,
+359.
+
+[271] Recordon, Le Protestantisme en Champagne, 132, 133.
+
+[272] M. Floquet, in his excellent history of the Norman Parliament (ii.
+571), repudiates as "une de ces exagerations familieres a De Beze," the
+statement of the Histoire eccles. des eglises reformees, "that in the
+Parliament of Rouen, whatever the cause might be, whoever was known to be
+of the (reformed) religion, whether plaintiff or defendant, was instantly
+condemned." Yet he quotes below (ii. 571, 573, 574), from Chancellor de
+l'Hospital's speech to that parliament, statements that fully vindicate
+the justice of the censure. "Vous pensez bien faire d'adjuger la cause a
+celuy que vous estimez plus homme de bien ou meilleur chrestien; comme
+s'il estoit question, entre les parties, lequel d'entre eux est meilleur
+poete, orateur, peintre, artisan, et enfin de l'art, doctrine, force,
+vaillance, ou autre quelconque suffisance, non de la chose qui est amenee
+en jugement." And after enumerating other complaints: "Ne trouvez point
+estrange ce que je vous en dy: car souvent sont apportez au roy de vos
+jugements qui semblent, de prime face, fort esloignez de toute droicture
+et equite."
+
+[273] Chron. MS. du xvi. siecle, Registres, etc., _apud_ Floquet, Hist. du
+parlement de Normandie, ii. 525-547.
+
+[274] Ibid., ii. 548.
+
+[275] The father of Agrippa d'Aubigne was, as his son informs us, one of
+the commissioners sent on this occasion to Guyenne. Memoires d'A.
+d'Aubigne, ed. Buchon, 474.
+
+[276] What else can be said, in view of such well authenticated statements
+as the following? On his progress through France, to which reference will
+soon be made, Charles the Ninth stopped with his court at Troyes, where no
+expense was spared in providing tournaments and games for his amusement.
+Just as he was about to leave the city, and was already booted for his
+journey, he was detained for a little while that he might witness a novel
+entertainment. He was taken to a garden where a number of young girls,
+selected for their extraordinary beauty and entirely nude, executed in his
+presence the most obscene dances. It was two churchmen that are said to
+have provided the boy-king with this infamous diversion--Cardinal Charles
+of Bourbon and Cardinal Louis of Guise. Recordon, 143.
+
+[277] "Il est notoire qu'au temps du colloque de Poissy la doctrine
+evangelique y fut proposee en liberte; ce qui causa que plusieurs, tans
+grands que petits, prindrent goust a icelle. Mais, tout ainsi qu'un feu de
+paille fait grand' flamme, et puis s'esteint incontinent d'autant que la
+matiere defaut, apres que ce qu'ils avoient receu comme une nouveaute se
+fut un peu envieilly en leur coeur, les affections s'amortirent, et la
+pluspart retourna a l'ancienne cabale de la cour, qui est bien plus propre
+pour faire rire et piaffer, et pour s'enrichir." Mem. de Franc. de la
+Noue, c. ii. (Ed. Mich, et Pouj., 591).
+
+[278] "Quelque chose qu'il sut dire avec blasphemes horribles--moyen
+ordinaire a telles gens pour prouver leur religion." Hist. eccles. des
+eglises reformees, ii. 458. To stuff leaves torn from French Bibles into
+the mouths or wounds of dying or dead Huguenots, as we have seen, was a
+diversion not unknown to their opponents. Of course, there is nothing
+astonishing in the circumstance that the invocation of Calvin's
+liturgy--"Notre aide soit au nom de Dieu qui a fait le ciel et la
+terre"--should have been a favorite formula for the beginning of a game of
+chance, or that the doxology--"Louange a Dieu de tous ses biens"--["Praise
+God from whom all blessings flow."]--should have been esteemed a fitting
+ejaculation for the winner. Ibid., ii. 310, 431.
+
+[279] "'Double mort Dieu' a vaincu 'Certes'; entendant par ce dernier mot
+ceux de la religion qui condamnent ces juremens et blasphemes." Hist.
+eccles. des egl. ref., ii. 507.
+
+[280] De Thou, iii. (liv. xxxv.) 409.
+
+[281] Declaration dated Chatillon-sur-Loing, May 5, 1563. Mem. de Conde,
+iv. 339-349; and Jean de Serres, iii. 15-29.
+
+[282] Martin, Hist. de France, x. 164.
+
+[283] De Thou, iii. (liv. xxxv.), 415, 416. Catharine had been the
+involuntary instrument of renewing the old friendship between the
+constable and his nephews, when, on Guise's death, she conferred the
+office of grand master upon his young son, instead of restoring it to Anne
+de Montmorency, to whom the dignity had formerly belonged. Three months
+later (Aug. 30, 1563) Conde drew up another paper, assuming the entire
+responsibility for all the acts of the Chatillon brothers during the war:
+"Acte par lequel M. le prince de Conde declare que tout ce que M. l'amiral
+de Coligny et M. D'Andelot son frere ont fait pendant les troubles, ils
+ont fait a sa requisition et par ses ordres." Mem. de Conde, iv. 651.
+
+[284] See Martin, x. 174, 175.
+
+[285] Davila, bk. iii. 92, and D'Aubigne, liv. iv., c. iii. (i. 201), both
+of whom mistake the place of the occurrence, supposing it to have been
+Paris.
+
+[286] Copie de la requeste presentee au Roy tres-chrestien par ceulx de la
+mayson de Guyse, etc. Mem. de Conde, iv. 667, 668.
+
+[287] Ibid., iv. 668.
+
+[288] "C'est un vray moyen pour destruire et gaster en une heure tout le
+fondement de ce qu'elle a prins grand' peine de bastir depuis six mois."
+Memoire presente a la Reine-mere, pour empecher que la maison de Guyse
+n'allat demander justice au parlement de Paris, de l'assassinat de
+Francois duc de Guise. Mem. de Conde, iv. 493-495.
+
+[289] Arret du conseil du Roy, par lequel il evoque a sa personne le
+proces meu entre les maisons de Guyse et de Chastillon, etc. Mem. de
+Conde, iv. 495.
+
+[290] "Ne parlez encore a personne," writes Catharine to M. de Gonnor
+(March 12, 1563), "des conditions, car j'ay toujours peur qu'ils ne nous
+trompent; encore que le Prince de Conde leur a declare que s'ils
+n'acceptent ces conditions et s'ils ne veulent la paix, qu'il s'en viendra
+avec le Roy mon fils, et se declarera leur ennemy, chose que je trouve
+tres-bonne." Le Laboureur, ii. 241.
+
+[291] Not September 15th, as Davila states, nor September 24th, as
+D'Aubigne seems to assert; but his narrative is confused.
+
+[292] The two documents--address and edict--in Mem. de Conde, iv. 574-581.
+
+[293] Floquet, Hist. du parlement de Normandie, ii. 584. The entire scene
+is very vividly portrayed, ibid., ii. 561-586. Bruslart, Mem. de Conde, i.
+132; De Thou, iii. (liv. xxxv.) 421-424; Jean de Serres, iii. 32; Mem. de
+Castelnau, liv. v., c. iv., etc.; Agrippa d'Aubigne, Hist. univ., liv.
+iv., c. iii. (i. 200-202); Davila, bk. iii. 90.
+
+[294] "Les Parisiens furent fort presses qu'ils eussent a mettres les
+armes bas," says the metropolitan curate, Jean de la Fosse, under date of
+May, 1563, "mais ils n'en volurent jamais rien faire." Mem. d'un cure
+ligueur, 63, 64.
+
+[295] A town on the left bank of the Seine, four leagues beyond Meulan.
+
+[296] Mem. de Conde (Bruslart), Sept., 1563, i. 133-135.
+
+[297] Ibid., _ubi supra_. "Ces parolles la sont venues de la boutique de
+Monsieur le Chancellier et non du Roy."
+
+[298] Ibid., i. 136. Even after Charles's lecture and a still more
+intemperate address of Montluc, Bishop of Valence, when parliament came to
+a vote there was a tie. To please Catharine, whose entire authority was at
+stake, the royal council of state gave the extraordinary command that the
+minute of this vote should be erased from the records of parliament, and
+the edict instantly registered. This last was forthwith done. De Thou,
+iii. (liv. xxxv.) 426, 427. Bruslart (_ubi supra_, i. 136) denies that the
+erasure was actually made as Charles had commanded.
+
+[299] De Thou, iii. (liv. xxxv.) 441, etc.
+
+[300] Letter of Card. de la Bourdaisiere, Rome, Oct. 23, 1563, in which
+sentence is said to have been pronounced, the day before, on the
+Archbishop of Aix, and the bishops of Uzes, Valence, Oleron, Lescar,
+Chartres, and Troyes. Le Laboureur, i. 863, 864.
+
+[301] Monitorium et citatio officii sanctae Inquisitionis contra
+illustrissimam et serenissimam dominam Joannam Albretiam, reginam Navarrae,
+Mem. de Conde, iv. 669-679; and Vauvilliers, Histoire de Jeanne d'Albret,
+iii. Pieces justif., 221-240. It is dated Tuesday, September 28, 1563. De
+Thou, iii. (liv. xxxv.) 442. The Card. de la Bourdaisiere (_ubi supra_)
+merely says: "Tout le monde dit a Rome, que la Reine de Navarre fut aussi
+privee audit Consistoire, mais il n'en est rien, bien est-elle citee."
+Mem. de Castelnau, liv. v., c. ix.
+
+[302] It needed no very extraordinary penetration to read "Philip" under
+the words of the monitorium: "Ita ut in casu contraventionis (quod Deus
+avertat) et contumaciae, regnum, principatus, ac alia cujuscunque status et
+dominia hujuscemodi, dentur et dari possint _cuilibet illa occupanti, vel
+illi aut illis quibus Sanctitati suae et successoribus suis dare et
+concedere magis placuerit_."
+
+[303] Summary of the protest in De Thou, iii. (liv. xxxv.) 441-447; and
+Vauvilliers, ii. 7-17; in full in Mem. de Conde, iv. 680-684. "Quant au
+fait de la Reine de Navarre, qui est celuy qui importe le plus, ledit
+sieur d'Oysel aura charge de luy faire bien entendre," says Catharine in a
+long letter to Bishop Bochetel (_ubi infra_), "qu'il n'a nulle autorite et
+jurisdiction sur ceux qui portent titre de Roy ou de Reine, et que ce
+n'est a luy de donner leur estats et royaumes en proye au premier
+conquerant."
+
+[304] See the interesting letter of Catharine to Bochetel, Bishop of
+Rennes, French ambassador at Vienna, Dec. 13, 1563, in which the papal
+assumption is stigmatized as dangerous to the peace of Christendom. "De
+nostre part nous sommes deliberez de ne le permettre ny consentir," she
+says, and she is persuaded that neither Ferdinand nor Maximilian will
+consent. Le Laboureur, i. 783.
+
+[305] De Thou, iii. (liv. xxxv.) 447. Castelnau (liv. v., c. ix.) gives a
+wrong impression by his assertion that "the Pope could never be induced to
+reverse the sentence against the Queen of Navarre."
+
+[306] Le Laboureur, ii. 610, 611; Brantome, Hommes illustres (OEuvres, ix.
+259). We cannot accept, without much caution, the portraits drawn of the
+prince by the English while they were still smarting with resentment
+against him for concluding peace with the king without securing the claims
+of Elizabeth upon Calais. "The Prince of Conde," wrote Sir Thomas Smith,
+April 13, 1563, "is thought ... to be waxen almost a new King of Navarre.
+So thei which are most zelous for the religion are marvelously offendid
+with him; and in great feare, that shortly all wil be worse than ever it
+was. Et quia nunc prodit causam religionis, as they say, dia ten
+rhathumian autou kai psychroteta pros ta kala, and begynnes even now
+gunaikomanein, as the other did; they thinke plainly, that he will declare
+himself, ere it be long, unkiend to God, to us, and to himself; being won
+by the papists, either with reward of Balaam, or ells with Cozbi the
+Midianite, to adjoigne himself to Baal-peor." Forbes, State Papers, ii.
+385.
+
+[307] "Le bon prince," says Brantome, "estoit aussi mondain qu'un autre,
+et aimoit autant la femme d'autruy que la sienne, tenant fort du naturel
+de ceux de la race de Bourbon, qui ont este fort d'amoureuse complexion."
+Hommes illustres, M. le Prince de Conde. Granvelle wrote to the Emperor
+Ferdinand from Besancon (April 12, 1564), that word had come from France,
+"que le prince de Conde y entendoit au service des dames plus qu'en aultre
+chose, et assez froid en la religion des huguenotz." Papiers d'etat, vii.
+467.
+
+[308] See Bayle's art. on Isabeau de Limueil; J. de Serres, iii. 45, 46;
+De Thou, iii. (liv. xxxv.) 42.
+
+[309] Jean de Serres, iii. 50, 51; De Thou, iii. (liv. xxxv.) 412, 413.
+Cf. Bolwiller to Cardinal Granvelle, Sept. 4, 1564, Papiers d'etat du
+cardinal de Granvelle, viii. 305. See, however, the statements in chapter
+xvi. of this history.
+
+[310] His revenue from his county of Soissons was not 1,000 crowns a year,
+and he had little from his other possessions (Le Laboureur, ii. 611).
+Secretary Courtewille, in his secret report (Dec., 1561), states that the
+Huguenot nobles of the first rank were in general poor--Vendome, Conde,
+Coligny, etc.--and that were it not for a monthly sum of 1,200 crowns,
+which the Huguenots furnished to Conde, and 1,000 which the admiral
+received in similar manner, they would hardly know how to support
+themselves. Papiers d'etat du card. de Granv., vi. 440.
+
+[311] Mary herself, however, writing to her aunt, the Duchess of Aerschot
+(Nov. 6, 1564), represents the offer of marriage as made by Conde, both to
+her grandmother and to her uncle the cardinal: "a qui il a fait toutes les
+belles offres du monde." Papiers d'etat du card. de Granv., viii. 481.
+
+[312] Jean de Serres, iii. 32, 33.
+
+[313] Ibid., iii. 45, 46; De Thou, iii. (liv. xxxv.) 414; D'Aubigne, Hist.
+univ., i. 197.
+
+[314] On the upper Tarn, in the modern department of the Aveyron.
+
+[315] The very important documents which exhibit these facts at great
+length are in the archives of the "Mairie" of Milhau and in the
+Bibliotheque nationale, and were inedited until printed in the Bulletin,
+ix. (1860) 382-392. Among the names of the Huguenots of Milhau figuring
+here is that of Benoit Ferragut, apothecary.
+
+[316] Graignan, pour l'eglise de Someyre, a la Venerable Compagnie, 19
+juin, 1563, Gaberel, Hist. de l'eglise de Geneve, i., Pieces
+justificatives, 153. "Et pourtant, je ne peux pas suffire a tout. Les
+paysans se baptisent les enfants les ungs les autres, ou sont contraincts
+de les laisser a baptiser."
+
+[317] Les consuls de Montpellier a la Ven. Comp., 30 janvier, 1563 (1564),
+ibid., i., Pieces just., 179.
+
+[318] I know of no more beautiful monument of Jeanne's courage and piety
+than the letter she wrote to the Cardinal of Armagnac, in reply to a
+letter of the cardinal, dated August 18, 1563, intended to frighten her
+into a return to the papal church. It was sent by the same messenger who
+had brought the letter of Armagnac, and it has every mark of having been
+Jeanne's own composition. Both letters are given in full by Olhagaray,
+Hist. de Foix, Bearn, et Navarre, 536-543, and 544-551; a summary in
+Vauvilliers, i. 347-362. The Queen of Navarre boldly avowed her
+sentiments, but declared her policy to be pacific: "Je ne fay rien par
+force; il n'y a ny mort ny emprisonnement, ny condemnation, qui sont les
+nerfs de la force." But she refused to recognize Armagnac--who was papal
+legate in Provence, Guyenne, and Languedoc--as having any such office in
+Bearn, proudly writing: "Je ne recognois en Bearn que Dieu auquel je dois
+rendre conte de la charge qu'il m'a baillee de son peuple." The
+publication of these letters produced a deep impression favorable to the
+Reformation.
+
+[319] Letter of Jehan Reymond Merlin to Calvin, Pau, July 23, 1563,
+printed for the first time in the Bulletin, xiv. (1865) 233, 234.
+
+[320] Olhagaray, Hist. de Foix, Bearn, et Navarre, p. 535; Vauvilliers,
+Hist. de Jeanne d'Albret, i. 319.
+
+[321] Letter of Merlin, _ubi supra_, 237, 238; Vauvilliers, i. 320.
+
+[322] Ibid., 238. "Dont plusieurs, voire des grands, s'en allerent fort
+mal contens, et singulierement quelques-uns qu'elle rabroua plus rudement
+que je n'eusse desire." Merlin adds that all now saw the excellence of his
+advice, for, had it been followed, "il y auroit apparence que la
+reformation eust este faite en ce pays par l'authorite des estats;
+maintenant il faut qu'elle se fasse de seule puissance absolue de la
+royne, voyre avec danger." In other parts of France, as well as in Bearn,
+Jeanne's reformatory movements were looked upon with great disfavor. Upon
+a glass window at Limoges (made about the year 1564, and still in
+existence, I believe) she is represented, by way of derision, as herself
+in the pulpit, and preaching to a congregation of eight Huguenots seated.
+Underneath is the bitter couplet,
+
+ "Mal sont les gens endoctrines
+ Quand par femme sont sermones."
+
+M. Hennin, Monuments de l'hist. de France, Paris, 1863, tome ix.
+(1559-1589) 76. The statement that this and a somewhat similar
+representation, also described in this work, came from an old abbey, whose
+monks thus revenged themselves upon the queen for removing their pulpit,
+seems to be a mistake.
+
+[323] Letter of Merlin, _ubi supra_, 239: "Brief c'est merveille que ceste
+princesse puisse persister constamment en son sainct vouloir." Cf. letter
+of same, Dec. 25, 1563, 245.
+
+[324] Letter of Merlin, Dec. 25, 1563, _ubi supra_, 245.
+
+[325] "Recit d'une entreprise faite en l'an 1565 contre la Reine de
+Navarre et messeigneurs les enfans," etc., etc.; Cimber et Danjou,
+Archives curieuses, vi. 281-295. The year should be 1564. The best
+authority is, however, that of De Thou, iii. (liv. xxxvi.) 496-499, who
+states that he simply gives the account as he had it from the lips of
+Secretary Rouleau, who brought the tidings to France, and from the
+children of the domestic of Isabella who detected the conspiracy. See,
+also, Leon Feer, in Bulletin, xxvi. (1877), 207, etc., 279, etc.
+
+[326] Michel de l'Hospital frankly told Santa Croce that the misfortunes
+of France came exclusively from the French themselves, "e della vita dei
+preti, molto sregolata, i quali non vogliono esser riformati, e
+principalmente quelli del Concilio, e poi nelle loro lettere rejiciunt
+culpam in Papam." "Io so," adds the nuncio himself, "che sono loro che non
+vogliono esser riformati, e hanno mandati di qua certi articoli che hanno
+parimente mandati a Roma, circa gli quali io vi posso dir che se Sua
+Santita li accordasse, conformamente alle loro petitioni, sariano i piu
+malcontenti del mondo; ma no le hanno fatte ad altro fine che per haver
+occasione di mostrar di qua, che il Papa e quello che non vuole, mentre
+che sono loro che non vogliono quella riformatione del clero." Santa Croce
+to Borromeo, March 28, 1563, Aymon, i. 230, 231; Cimber et Danjou, vi.
+138.
+
+[327] "Il quale (Cardinal di Lorreno) con la morte del suo fratello,
+havera manco spiriti, e credo io che terra piu conto della satisfattione
+di Sua Santita che di qua." Santa Croce to Borromeo, Blois, March 28,
+1563, shortly after Guise's death. Aymon, i. 233; Cimber et Danjou, vi.
+140.
+
+[328] "Sed hae nugae ipsi nequaquam placebant." Languet, letter of Feb. 3,
+1564, Epist. secr., ii. 283.
+
+[329] Letter of Santa Croce to Borromeo, Melun, Feb. 25, 1564, Aymon, i.
+258, 259; Letter of Beza to Bullinger, Geneva, March 6, 1564, Simler Coll.
+(Zurich) MSS.; Languet, March 6, 1564, Epist. secr., ii. 286, 287. There
+has been great confusion respecting this altercation between Lorraine and
+L'Hospital. According to Henri Martin (Histoire de France, x. 194), it
+took place "a propos d'un nouvel edit qui accordait aux reformes quelques
+facilites pour l'enseignement et l'exercise de leur religion en maisons
+privees dans les villes ou le culte public leur etait interdit." M. Jules
+Bonnet has kindly made search for me in the Zurich and Paris libraries,
+and obtained corroborative proof of what I already suspected, that M.
+Martin and others had confounded the scene at _Melun_ in February, 1564,
+with another quarrel between the same persons in March, 1566, at
+_Moulins_. See the documents, including the letter of Beza referred to
+above, published together with my inquiries, in the Bulletin de la Soc. du
+prot. fr., xxiv. (1875) 409-415.
+
+[330] "Conseil sur le fait du Concile de Trente," etc. Mem. de Conde, v.
+81-129. The dedication to Prince Porcien is dated May 29, 1564. See De
+Thou, iii. (liv. xxxvi.) 501.
+
+[331] Du Moulin was ordered by a royal letter to be set at large, Lyons,
+June 24, 1564.
+
+[332] Conclusion of "Conseil," etc. Mem. de Conde, v. 129.
+
+[333] De Thou, iii. (liv. xxxvi.), 499, 500; Ag. d'Aubigne, Hist. univ.,
+i. 203 (liv. iv., c. iv.); Mem. de Castelnau, liv. v., c. vi.
+
+[334] Prof. Soldan has discussed the matter at great length. Gesch. des
+Prot. in Frank., ii. 197, etc.
+
+[335] As early as Dec. 13, 1563, the queen mother had announced to the
+French ambassador in Vienna her son's expected journey, toward the end of
+February or the beginning of March, to visit his sister, the Duchess of
+Lorraine, and her infant son. Letter to Bochetel, Bishop of Rennes, Le
+Laboureur, i. 784. See, too, Languet's letter of Nov. 16, 1563, Epist.
+secr., ii. 268.
+
+[336] Lorraine to Granvelle, _ubi infra_. The progress was resolved upon,
+it will be seen, before Lorraine's return from Trent.
+
+[337] "I am going to meet their Majesties at Chalons," wrote the Cardinal
+of Lorraine from Tou-sur-Marne, between Rheims and Chalons, April 20,
+1564; "thence they are to leave for Bar, where they will, I think, remain
+no more than four or five days. I hope that the voyage will be honorable
+and profitable for our house.... As to our court, it was never so empty of
+persons belonging to the opposite religion as it is now. The few that are
+there show very great regret at this voyage, in which I can assure you
+that I have not meddled at all, either to further or to retard it; only a
+short time after my return from Trent, I succeeded in having Nancy changed
+for Bar." Papiers d'etat du card. de Granvelle, vii. 511.
+
+[338] Smith to Cecil, Tarascon, Oct. 21, 1564, State Paper Office,
+Calendar.
+
+[339] "Assuredly, sir," wrote the cardinal in the letter just cited, "the
+queen my mistress shows, daily more and more, a strong and holy affection.
+This evening I have heard, by the Cardinal of Guise, my brother, who has
+reached me, many holy intentions of their Majesties, which may God give
+them grace to put into good execution." Ibid., _ubi supra_. In a somewhat
+similar strain Granvelle about this time wrote: "I am so strongly assured
+that religion is going to take a favorable turn in France, that I know not
+what to say of it. The world in that quarter is so light and variable,
+that no great grounds of confidence can be assumed. But it is at any rate
+something that matters are not growing worse." Letter to Bolwiller, April
+9, 1564, Papiers d'etat, etc., vii. 461.
+
+[340] Letter of Granvelle to the Emperor Ferdinand, May 8, 1564, Papiers
+d'etat, vii. 613; also 622, 631.
+
+[341] "Les reformes qui formoient presque le tiers du royaume." Garnier,
+Hist. de France, xxx. 453.
+
+[342] "On peut presumer qu'il n'y eut jamais en France plus de quinze on
+seize cent mille reformes.... La France possedait a peine quinze millions
+d'habitans. Ainsi les protestans n'en formaient guere que le dixieme."
+Lacretelle, Histoire de France pendant les guerres de religion, ii. 169,
+170. The entire passage is important.
+
+[343] Giov. Michiel, Rel. des Amb. Ven., i. 412.
+
+[344] Capefigue, from MS., Hist. de la reforme, de la ligue, etc., ii.
+408.
+
+[345] Jean de Serres, iii. 47, 48; De Thou, iii., liv. xxxvi. 504; Mem. de
+Castelnau, l. v., c. x.; Pasquier, Lettres, iv., 22, _ap._ Capefigue, ii.
+410.
+
+[346] Granvelle to the Emperor Ferdinand, April 12, 1564, Pap. d'etat,
+vii. 467.
+
+[347] Of solicitude on this score, the only evidence I have come across is
+furnished by the following passage of one of the "Occurrences in France,"
+under date of April 11, 1565, sent to the English Government. "Orders are
+also taken in the court that no gentleman shall talk with the queen's
+maids, except it is in the queen's presence, or in that of Madame la
+Princesse de Roche-sur-Yon, except he be married; and if they sit upon a
+form or stool, he may sit by her, and if she sit upon the ground he may
+kneel by her, but not lie long, as the fashion was in this court." State
+Paper Office, Calendar, 331.
+
+[348] Edict of Vincennes, June 14, 1563, and Declarations of Paris, Dec.
+14, 1563; of Lyons, June 24, 1564; and of Roussillon, Aug. 4, 1564.
+Isambert, Recueil des anc. lois. franc., xiv. 141, 159, 170-172, and
+Drion, Hist. chronol., i. 102-108. See Jean de Serres, iii. 35-41, 55-63,
+and after him, De Thou, iii. (liv. xxxv.) 411, 412, 504, 505.
+
+[349] Jean de Serres, iii. 54, 55, 64, 65, etc. De Thou, iii. (liv.
+xxxvi.) 503, etc.
+
+[350] Ibid., _ubi supra_. There are no similar cases of assassination on
+the part of Huguenots at this period. That of Charry at court seems to
+have resulted partly from revenge for personal wrongs, partly from
+mistaken devotion on the part of one of D'Andelot's followers to his
+master's interests. See Languet, letter of Feb. 3, 1564, Epist. secr., ii.
+284.
+
+[351] Jean de Serres, iii. 65-82; De Thou, iii. (liv. xxxvi.) 505; Lettres
+de Monseigneur le Prince de Conde a la Roine Mere du Roy, avec
+Advertissemens depuis donnez par ledit Seigneur Prince a leurs Majestez,
+etc, (Aug. 31, 1564, etc.), Mem. de Conde, v. 201-214.
+
+[352] "Articles respondus par le Roy en son Conseil prive, sur la requeste
+presentee par plusieurs habitans de la ville de Bourdeaux," etc. The
+signature of the secretary, Robertet, was affixed Sept. 5, 1564; but such
+was the obstinacy of the judges of Bordeaux, that the document was not
+published in the parliament of that city until nearly eight months later
+(April 30, 1565). Mem. de Conde, v. 214-224. Cimber et Danjou, Archives
+curieuses, vi. 271-278. The Protestants petitioned for another town in
+place of St. Macaire, which had been assigned them for their religious
+worship--the most inconveniently situated in the entire "senechaussee."
+They desired a city which they could go to and return from on the same
+day. They stated that "la plus grande partie des plus notables familles de
+la ville de Bourdeaux est de la religion reformee." This part of their
+request the king referred to the judgment of the governor.
+
+[353] Ordonnance du roi Charles IX., 6 aout, 1564, Nantes MS., Bulletin,
+xiii. (1864), 203, 204.
+
+[354] Aymon, i. 277, 278, and Cimber et Danjou, Archives cur., vi. 167. As
+by this time both Papists and Huguenots knew Catharine de' Medici to be a
+woman utterly devoid of moral principle, it may fairly be considered an
+open question whether there was any one in France more deceived than she
+was in supposing that she had deceived others.
+
+[355] Sir Thomas Smith to the queen, from Tarascon (near Avignon), Oct.
+21, 1564, enclosing "Articles of pacification for those of the religion in
+Venaissin and Avignon agreed to by the ministers of the Pope and those of
+the Prince of Orange, Oct. 11, 1564." Signed by the vice-legate, Bishop of
+Fermo, and Fabrizio Serbellone, State Paper Office.
+
+[356] Journal d'un cure ligueur (Jehan de la Fosse), 55, 56, 68.
+
+[357] "Lundi passe, viiie du present mois, ung peu avant les trois heures
+apres midy, monsieur le reverendissime cardinal de Lorraine, vestu du
+robbon et chappeau, ... est entre en Paris." Account written two days
+after the occurrence by Del Rio, attached to the Spanish embassy in Paris.
+Papiers d'etat du card. de Granvelle, viii. 600-602.
+
+[358] Mem. de Castelnau, liv. vi., c. iii.; Jean de Serres, iii. 85, 86;
+De Thou, iii. (liv. xxxvii.) 533-537; Mem. de Claude Haton, i. 381-383;
+Journal de Jehan de la Fosse, 70-72; Conde MSS., in Duc d'Aumale, Princes
+de Conde, i. 518; Le Livre des Marchands (Ed. Pantheon) 424, 425, where
+the ludicrous features of the scene are, of course, most brightly colored.
+"J'espere bien aussi m'en resentir ung jour," wrote the cardinal himself,
+a few weeks later, from Joinville. Pap. d'etat du card. de Granvelle,
+viii. 681.
+
+[359] Jehan de la Fosse, 72.
+
+[360] Harangue de l'Admiral de France a Messieurs de la Cour de Parlement
+de Paris, du 27 janvier 1565, avec la reponse. Papiers d'etat du card. de
+Granvelle, viii. 655-657. M. de Crussol, in a letter of February 4, 1565,
+alludes to the admiral's flattering reception by the clergy and by the
+Sorbonne, "qui sont alle le visiter et offert infiny service;" and states
+that both parties were gratified by the interview. Conde MSS., in Duc
+d'Aumale, Princes de Conde, Pieces inedits, i. 520.
+
+[361] Philip II. to Alva, Dec. 14, 1563, Pap. d'etat du card. de
+Granvelle, vii. 269; Alva to Philip II., Dec. 22, 1563, ib., vii. 286,
+287.
+
+[362] Granvelle to the Baron de Bolwiller, March 13, 1565, ib., ix. 61,
+62.
+
+[363] Ibid., _ubi supra_. "Je vous asseure, comme il est veritable, qu'il
+n'y a aultre chose en cecy que simple visitation de fille a mere."
+
+[364] Prof. Kluckholn, strangely enough, speaks of Jean de Serres's
+Commentarii de statu relig., etc., as "zuerst im Jahre, 1575, erschienen"
+(Zur Geschichte des angeb. Buendnisses von Bayonne, Abhand. der k. bayer.
+Akademie, Muenchen, 1868, p. 151). I have before me the earlier edition of
+1571, containing verbatim the passage he quotes, with a single unimportant
+exception--"ecclesiarum" instead of "religiosorum."
+
+[365] J. de Serres, Comment, de statu reipublicae et religionis in Gallia
+regno, Carolo IX. rege (1571), iii. 92. The Prince of Conde, in his long
+petition sent to Charles, Aug. 23, 1568, at the outbreak of the Third
+Civil War, says expressly in reference to events a year preceding the
+Second War: "Quandoquidem ego et alii Religionis reformatae viri fuerimus
+jampridem admoniti de inito Baionae consilio cum Hispano, ad eos omnes
+plane delendos atque exterminandos qui Religionem reformatam in tuo regno
+profiteantur." Ibid., iii. 200.
+
+[366] The remark is said to have been accidentally overheard by Henry of
+Navarre, afterward Henry the Fourth, of whose presence little account was
+taken in consequence of his youth. (He was just eleven years and a half
+old.) But his intimate follower, Agrippa d'Aubigne, would have been likely
+to give him as authority, had this been the case. He only says: "Les plus
+licentieux faisoient leur profit d'un terme du Duc d'Alve a Baionne, que
+dix mille grenouilles ne valloient pas la teste d'un saumon." Hist. univ.,
+liv. iv., c. v. (i. 206). Jean de Serres, _ubi supra_, iii. 125, gives the
+expression in nearly the same words: "Satius esse unicum salmonis caput,
+quam mille ranarum capita habere."
+
+[367] Smith to Leicester and Cecil, July 2-29, 1565, State Paper Office,
+Calendar, 403.
+
+[368] "On apelloit ce bon prelat 'le cardinal des bouteilles,'" says
+Lestoile, "pource qu'il les aimoit fort, et ne se mesloit gueres d'autres
+affaires que de celles de la cuisine, ou il se connoissoit fort bien, et
+les entendoit mieux que celles de la religion et de l'estat." In
+chronicling the death of Louis, Cardinal of Guise, at Paris, March 29,
+1578, he records the suggestive fact that "he was the last of the six
+brothers of the house of Guise; yet died he young, at the age of
+forty-eight years." Journal de Henri III., p. 96 (edit. Michaud). So
+closely is the scriptural warning fulfilled, that "bloody and deceitful
+men shall not live out half their days." Cardinal Guise (not Cardinal
+Lorraine, as Mr. Henry White seems to suppose, Massacre of St.
+Bartholomew, Am. edit., 187, 188) was the abettor of the massacre of
+Vassy.
+
+[369] Cartas que el Duque de Alba scrivio, etc. Papiers d'etat du cardinal
+de Granvelle, ix. 296.
+
+[370] "Con no mas personas que con cinco o seys que son el cabo de todo
+esto, los tomasen a su mano y les cortasen las cabecas," etc. Ibid., ix.
+298.
+
+[371] "Que mirase mucho por su salud, pues que della dependia todo el bien
+de la christiandad, y creya que le tenia Dios guardado para venir por su
+mano un gran servicio, que era el castigo de las offensas que en este su
+reyno se le hazian." Cartas que el Duque de Alba scrivio a su Magestad ...
+que contienen las vistas en Bayona, etc. Papiers d'etat du card. de
+Granvelle, ix. 291.
+
+[372] "Salto luego con dezirme: 'o, el tomar las armas no conviene, que yo
+destruya mi reyno como se comenco a hazer con las guerras passadas.'"
+Ibid., _ubi supra_.
+
+[373] "Como es, descubri lo que le tenian pedricado; passe a otras
+materias," etc. Ibid., _ubi supra_.
+
+[374] "Que venia muy Espanola." Ibid., ix. 300.
+
+[375] "Ella comenco cierto la platica con el mayor tiento que yo he visto
+tener jamas a nadie en cosa." Ibid., ix. 303.
+
+[376] Cartas que el Duque de Alba scrivio, etc. Papiers d'etat du card. de
+Granvelle, ix. 315.
+
+[377] "Yo me altere _terriblemente_ de oirselo, y le dixe que me
+maravillava mucho." Ibid., ix. 317.
+
+[378] "La junta passada de adonde comencaron todas las desverguencas que
+al presente ay en este reyno." Ibid., ix. 317.
+
+[379] "En la otra el cardenal de Lorena havia sido el que avia hecho todo
+el dano, pensando poder persuadir a los ministros." Ibid., _ubi supra_.
+
+[380] "Parecenos que quiere con esta semblea (i.e., assemblee), que ellos
+llaman, remendar lo que falta en el rigor necessario al remedio de sus
+vasallos, y plega a Dios no sea," etc. Ibid., ix. 318.
+
+[381] Letter of Granvelle, Aug. 20, 1565, Papiers d'etat, ix. 481.
+
+[382] "Depuis l'arrivee n'y eust mention que de festins, recreations et
+passe-temps de diverses manieres." Relation du voyage de la reine Isabelle
+d'Espagne a Bayonne, MSS. Belgian Archives, Compte Rendu de la commission
+royale d'histoire, seconde serie, ix. (1857) 159. This paper was drawn up
+by the Secretary of State Courtewille, and sent to President Viglius.
+
+[383] Over the first triumphal arch was a representation of Isabella (or
+Elizabeth) trampling Mars under foot, with the mottoes _Sacer hymen pacem
+nobis contulit_ and _Deus nobis haec otia fecit_, and below the lines:
+
+ Elizabeth, de roy fille excellente,
+ Vous avez joint ung jour deux rois puissans;
+ France et l'Espaigne, en gloire permanente,
+ Extolleront voz ages triumphans, etc.
+
+Over a second arch at the palace gate, which was reached by a street hung
+with tapestry and decorated with the united arms of France and Spain, was
+suspended a painting of Catharine with her three sons and three daughters,
+and the inscription:
+
+ C'est a l'entour de royalle couronne
+ Que le jardin hesperien floronne:
+ Ce sont jardins de si belle feconde,
+ Qui aujourd'huy ne trouve sa seconde;
+ Ce sont rameaux vigoureux et puissans;
+ Ce sont florons de vertu verdissans.
+ Royne sans per (paire), de grace decoree,
+ Vous surmontez Pallas et Cytheree.
+
+Catharine's portraits scarcely confirm the boast of her panegyrist that
+she surpassed Venus, however well she might match Minerva in sagacity.
+
+[384] Agrippa d'Aubigne, Histoire universelle, i. 1.
+
+[385] "Le feu bon homme Monsieur de La Gaucherie y marchoit en rondeur de
+conscience, et mesme mon filz lui doibt et aux siens cette rasine (racine)
+de piete qui lui est, par la grasse de Dieu, si bien plantee au cueur par
+bonnes admonitions, que maintenant, dont je loue ce bon Dieu, elle produit
+et branches et fruitz. Je lui suplie qu'il luy fasse ceste grasse qu'il
+continue de bien en mieulx." Letter of Dec. 6, 1566, MSS. Geneva Library,
+Bulletin de la Soc. de l'hist. du prot. francais, xvi. (1867) 65.
+
+[386] "Ung tournoy a pied."
+
+[387] It will be remembered that the Spaniards never acknowledged the
+claim of Antoine or his wife to the title of sovereigns of Navarre. In all
+Spanish documents, therefore, such as that which we are here following,
+their son Henry is designated only by the dukedom of Bourbon-Vendome which
+he inherited from his father.
+
+[388] Relation du voyage de la reine Isabelle a Bayonne, MSS. Belgian
+Archives, _ubi supra_, ix. 161, 162.
+
+[389] See Jean de Serres, iii., 53, for the fraternities of the Holy Ghost
+in Burgundy. Blaise de Montluc's proposition of a league with the king as
+its head had been declined; the monarch needed no other tie to his
+subjects than that which already bound them together. Agrippa d'Aubigne,
+Hist. univ., liv. iv., c. v. (i. 206.)
+
+[390] Letter of Charles IX. to M. de Matignon, July 31, 1565, _apud_
+Capefigue, Hist. de la Reforme, de la Ligue, etc., ii. 419, 420. The same
+letter stipulated for the better protection of the Protestants by freeing
+them from domiciliary visits, etc.
+
+[391] Maniquet to Gordes, August 1, 1565, Conde MSS. in Aumale, i. 528.
+
+[392] Letter of Villegagnon to Granvelle, May 25, 1564, Papiers d'etat,
+vii. 660. The Huguenots figure as "les _Aygnos_, c'est-a-dire, en langue
+de Suisse, rebelles et conjures contre leur prince pour la liberte."
+
+[393] Letter of May 27, 1564, Ibid., vii., 666.
+
+[394] Letter of N. de St. Remy, June 5, 1564. Ibid., viii. 24, 25. "Le
+peuple l'aymeroit trop mieulx pour roy que nul aultre de Bourbon."
+
+[395] Catharine never forgave Ambassador Chantonnay for having boasted
+that, with Throkmorton's assistance, he could overturn the State. "Jusqu'a
+dire que Trokmarton, qui estoit ambassadeur d'Angleterre au commencement
+de ces troubles, pour l'intelligence qu'il a avec les Huguenots, et luy
+pour celle qu'il a avec les Catholiques de ce royaume, sont suffisans pour
+subvertir cet Estat." Letter to the Bishop of Rennes, Dec. 13, 1563, La
+Laboureur, i. 784.
+
+[396] Granvelle to Philip II., July 15, 1565. Papiers d'etat, ix. 399,
+402, etc.
+
+[397] See Alex. Sutherland's Achievements of the Knights of Malta (Phila.,
+1846), ii. 121, which contains an interesting popular account of this
+memorable leaguer.
+
+[398] Papiers d'etat du card. de Granvelle, ix. 545, etc.
+
+[399] Giovambatista Adriani, Istoria de' suoi tempi (Ed. of Milan, 1834),
+ii. 221.
+
+[400] Sir Thomas Smith to Cecil, Nantes, Oct. 12, 1565, State Paper
+Office, Calendar.
+
+[401] Sir Thomas Smith to Leicester, Nov. 23, 1565, State Paper Office.
+
+[402] "Al qual tempo si riservo tale esecuzione per alcuni sospetti, che
+apparivano negli Ugonotti, e per difficolta di condurvegli tutti, e ancora
+perche piu sicuro luogo era Parigi che Molino." Giovambatista Adriani,
+Istoria de' suoi tempi (lib. decimottavo), ii. 221.
+
+[403] De Thou, iii. (liv. xxxix.) 660-664; Castelnau, liv. vi., c. ii.;
+Jehan de la Fosse, 76; Davila, bk. iii. 98.
+
+[404] The edict, of course, is not to be found in Isambert, or any other
+collection of French laws; but a letter in Lestoile (ed. Michaud, p. 19),
+to whom we are indebted for most of our knowledge of the event, refers to
+the very wording of the document ("ce sont les mots de l'edict"). The
+letter is entitled "Memoire d'un differend meu a Moulins en 1566, entre le
+Cardinal de Lorraine et le Chancellier de l'Hopital," and begins with the
+words: "Je vous advise que _du jour d'hier_," etc. M. Bonnet has
+discovered and published, in the Bulletin de la Soc. de l'hist. du prot.
+franc., xxiv. (1875) 412-415, a second and fuller account, dated Moulins,
+March 16, 1566 (MS. French Nat. Library, Dupuy, t. lxxxvi., f. 158). As
+was seen above (p. 155), this altercation has been generally confounded
+with that of two years earlier. The letter given by Lestoile (see above)
+is also published in Mem. de Conde, v. 50, but is referred to the wrong
+event by the editor. Prof. Soldan (Gesch. des Prot. in Fr., ii. 199),
+follows the Mem. de Conde in the reference.
+
+[405] Not many months before this occurrence a guest at the Prince of
+Orange's table told Montigny that there were no Huguenots in
+Burgundy--meaning the Spanish part, or Franche-Comte. "If so," replied the
+unfortunate nobleman, "the Burgundians cannot be men of intelligence,
+since those who have much mind for the most part are Huguenots;" a saying
+which, reported to Philip, no doubt made a deep impression on his bigoted
+soul. Pap. d'etat du card. de Granvelle, vii. 187, 188. The Burgundians of
+France were equally intolerant of the reformed doctrines.
+
+[406] "Je ne suis venu pour troubler; mais pour empescher que ne
+troubliez, comme avez faict par le passe, belistre que vous estes."
+Lestoile and Mem. de Conde, _ubi supra_.
+
+[407] See Prescott, Philip II., and Motley, Rise of the Dutch Republic.
+
+[408] M. Charles L. Frossard, of Lille, discovered the MSS. on which the
+following account is wholly based, in the Archives of the Department du
+Nord, preserved in that city. As these papers appear to have been
+inedited, and are referred to, so far as I can learn, by no previous
+historian, I have deemed it proper to deviate from the rule to which I
+have ordinarily adhered, of relating in detail only those events that
+occurred within the ancient limits of the kingdom of France. However, the
+reformation at Cateau-Cambresis received its first impulses from France.
+Mr. Frossard communicated the papers to the Bulletin de la Societe de
+l'histoire du protestantisme francais, iii. (1854), 255-264, 396-417,
+525-538. They are of unimpeachable accuracy and authenticity.
+
+[409] Lille MSS., _ubi supra_, 403.
+
+[410] "De sorte qu'ils esperent que lesdits de la requeste et du compromis
+les adsisteront suyvant leur promesse, a ce qu'ils puissent jouyr de la
+mesme liberte accordez a Bruxelles, ascavoir, que l'exercise de la
+religion aye lieu par tout ou il a este usite auparavant, comme ceulx du
+Chastel en Cambresis ont eue aussy, et ce seulement par maniere de
+provision, jusques a ce que aultrement il y soict pourveu par le Roy avec
+l'advis des estatz, estimans que le Roy ne souffrira rien en son pays qui
+ne soict conforme ausdites ordonnances de l'empire." Lille MSS., _ubi
+supra_.
+
+[411] Letter of P. de Montmorency, Sept. 11, 1566, Lille MSS., _ubi
+supra_.
+
+[412] Motley, Dutch Republic, i. 458-462.
+
+[413] Lille MSS., _ubi supra_.
+
+[414] Memoires de Claude Haton, i. 416, 417.
+
+[415] The satirical literature of the period would of itself fill a
+volume. The Huguenot songs in derision of the mass are particularly
+caustic. See M. Bordier, Le Chansonnier Huguenot, and the note to the last
+chapter. The Bulletin de la Soc. de l'hist. du prot. franc., x. (1861),
+40, reprints a "dizain" commencing--
+
+ "Nostre cure est un fin boulanger,
+ Qui en son art est sage et bien appris:
+ Il vend bien cher son petit pain leger,
+ Combien qu'il ait le froment a bon prix."
+
+[416] "Chose indigne d'un prince tel qu'il se disoit." Journal d'un cure
+ligueur (Jehan de la Fosse), 73.
+
+[417] See the moderate account of the dispassionate Roman Catholic De
+Thou, iii. (liv. xxxix.) 666-670. Also Agrippa d'Aubigne, liv. iv., c. vi.
+(i. 208), and Discours des troubles advenus en la ville de Pamiers, le 5
+juin 1566, Archives curieuses (Cimber et Danjou), vi. 309-343. The
+massacre of Protestants at Foix was caused by an exaggerated and false
+account of the commotion at Pamiers, carried thither by a fugitive
+Augustinian monk.
+
+[418] The good policy of straightforward dealing on the part of an
+ambassador is set forth in a noble letter of Morvilliers, Bishop of
+Orleans, from which I permit myself to quote a few sentences: "Il y en a
+toutesfois qui pensent que, pour estre habille homme, il fault tousjours
+aller masque, laquelle opinion j'estime du tout erronee, et celluy qui la
+suit grandement deceu. Le temps m'a donne quelque experience des choses;
+mais je n'ay jamais veu homme, suivant ces chemins obliques, qui n'ait
+embrouille les affaires de son maistre, et, luy, perdre beaucoup plus
+qu'acquerir de reputation; et au contraire ceux, qui se sont conduits
+prudemment avec la verite, avoir, pour le moins, rapporte de leur
+negotiation ce fruict et l'honneur d'y avoir faict ce que les hommes, avec
+le sens et jugement humain, peuvent faire." Correspondance diplomatique de
+Bertrand de Salignac de la Mothe Fenelon, vii. 97.
+
+[419] Journal de Jehan de la Fosse, 79, 80; Vie de Coligny (Cologne,
+1686), 321-323; Gasparis Colinii Vita, 1575, 55; Agrippa d'Aubigne, Hist.
+univ., 1, 207.
+
+[420] Journal d'un cure ligueur (Jehan de la Fosse), 81.
+
+[421] "December (1566.) Au commencement vinrent plusieurs ambassades a
+Paris, tant de la part de l'Empereur, que du Pape, que du roy d'Espagne,
+lesquels manderent au roy de France, qu'il eust a faire casser l'esdict de
+janvier, ou autrement qu'ils se declareroient ennemys." Ibid., 80. The
+fanatical party affected to regard the Edict of Amboise, March, 1563, as a
+mere re-establishment of the edict of January 17, 1562.
+
+[422] Memoires de Castelnau, liv. vi., c. ii. Castelnau was certainly in a
+favorable position for learning the truth respecting these matters; and
+yet even he speaks of the "holy league," formed at Bayonne, as of
+something beyond controversy. According to a treaty and renewal of
+alliance between Charles the Ninth and the Roman Catholic cantons of
+Switzerland, entered into Dec. 7, 1564, for Charles's lifetime, and seven
+years beyond, the Swiss were to furnish him, when attacked, not less than
+six nor more than sixteen thousand men for the entire war. The success of
+the negotiation occasioned great rejoicing at Paris, and corresponding
+annoyance in the Spanish dominions. Du Mont, Corps diplomatique, v.
+129-131; Jehan de la Fosse, 70; Papiers d'etat du card. de Granvelle,
+viii. 599.
+
+[423] Mem. de Fr. de la Noue, c. xi.
+
+[424] He did more than this, according to the belief of the times, as
+expressed by Jean de Serres; for, "having been present at the Bayonne
+affair," he brought him irrefragable proof of the "holy league entered
+into by the kings of France and Spain for the ruin of the religion."
+Comment. de statu. rel. et reip., iii. 126.
+
+[425] Yet so much were intelligent observers deceived respecting the signs
+of the times, that only a little over two months before the actual
+outbreak of the second civil war (July 4, 1567), Judge Truchon
+congratulated France on the edifying spectacle of loving accord which the
+court furnished. "I have this very day," he writes, "seen the king
+holding, with his left hand, the head of my lord, the prince [of Conde],
+and with his right the head of my lord the Cardinal of Bourbon, and
+_playfully trying to strike their foreheads together_. The Duke d'Aumale
+was paying his attentions to Madame la Mareschale [de Montmorency.] ...
+The Cardinal of Chatillon was not far off. In short, all, without
+distinction, seemed to me to be so harmonious that I wish there may never
+be greater divisions in France. It was a fine example for many persons of
+lower rank," etc. Letter to M. de Gordes, MS. in Archives de Conde, Duc
+d'Aumale, Princes de Conde, i. 540, Pieces inedites.
+
+[426] Jean de Serres, iii. 128, 129. See, also, Conde's letter of Aug. 23,
+1568. Ibid., iii. 201.
+
+[427] Norris to Queen Elizabeth, Aug. 29, 1567, State Paper Office, Duc
+d'Aumale, Pieces inedites, i. 559.
+
+[428] "Sed ne frustra laborare viderentur, de Albani consilio, 'Satius
+esse unicum salmonis caput, quam mille ranarum capita habere,' ineunt
+rationes de intercipiendis optimatum iis, qui Religionem sequerentur,
+Condaeo, Amiralio, Andelotio, Rupefocaldio aliisque primoribus viris. Ratio
+videbatur praesentissima, ut a rege accerserentur, tanquam consulendi de
+iis rebus quae ad regnum constituendum facerent," etc. Jean de Serres, iii.
+125. It will be remembered that this volume was published the year before
+the St. Bartholomew's massacre. The persons enumerated, with the exception
+of those that died before 1572, were the victims of the massacre.
+
+[429] "Ita Edicti nomen usurpabatur, dum Edictum revera pessundaretur."
+Jean de Serres, iii. 60.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+THE SECOND CIVIL WAR AND THE SHORT PEACE.
+
+
+[Sidenote: Coligny's pacific counsels.]
+
+[Sidenote: Rumors of plots to destroy the Huguenots.]
+
+[Sidenote: D'Andelots warlike counsels prevail.]
+
+[Sidenote: Cardinal Lorraine to be seized and King Charles liberated.]
+
+A treacherous peace or an open war was now apparently the only alternative
+offered to the Huguenots. In reality, however, they believed themselves to
+be denied even the unwelcome choice between the two. The threatening
+preparations made for the purpose of crushing them were indications of
+coming war, if, indeed, they were not properly to be regarded, according
+to the view of the great Athenian orator in a somewhat similar case, as
+the first stage in the war itself. The times called for prompt decision.
+Within a few weeks three conferences were held at Valery and at Chatillon.
+Ten or twelve of the most prominent Huguenot nobles assembled to discuss
+with the Prince of Conde and Coligny the exigencies of the hour. Twice was
+the impetuosity of the greater number restrained by the calm persuasion of
+the admiral. Convinced that the sword is a fearful remedy for political
+diseases--a remedy that should never be applied except in the most
+desperate emergency--Coligny urged his friends to be patient, and to show
+to the world that they were rather forced into war by the malice of their
+enemies than drawn of their own free choice. But at the third meeting of
+the chiefs, before the close of the month, they were too much excited by
+the startling reports reaching them from all sides, to be controlled even
+by Coligny's prudent advice. A great friend of "the religion" at court had
+sent to the prince and the admiral an account of a secret meeting of the
+royal council, at which the imprisonment of the former and the execution
+of the latter was agreed upon. The Swiss were to be distributed in equal
+detachments at Paris, Orleans, and Poitiers, and the plan already
+indicated--the repeal of the Edict of Toleration and the proclamation of
+another edict of opposite tenor--was at once to be carried into effect.
+"Are we to wait," asked the more impetuous, "until we be bound hand and
+foot and dragged to dishonorable death on Parisian scaffolds? Have we
+forgotten the more than three thousand Huguenots put to violent deaths
+since the peace, and the frivolous answers and treacherous delays which
+have been our only satisfaction?" And when some of the leaders expressed
+the opinion that delay was still preferable to a war that would certainly
+expose their motives to obloquy, and entail so much unavoidable misery,
+the admiral's younger brother, D'Andelot, combated with his accustomed
+vehemence a caution which he regarded as pusillanimous, and pointedly
+asked its advocates what all their innocence would avail them when once
+they found themselves in prison and at their enemy's mercy, when they were
+banished to foreign countries, or were roaming without shelter in the
+forests and wilds, or were exposed to the barbarous assaults of an
+infuriated populace.[430] His striking harangue carried the day. The
+admiral reluctantly yielded, and it was decided to anticipate the attack
+of the enemy by a bold defensive movement. Some advocated the seizure of
+Orleans, and counselled that, with this refuge in their possession,
+negotiations should be entered into with the court for the dismissal of
+the Swiss; others that the party should fortify itself by the capture of
+as many cities as possible. But to these propositions the pertinent reply
+was made that there was no time for wordy discussions, the controversy
+must be settled by means of the sword;[431] and that, of a hundred towns
+the Protestants held at the beginning of the last war, they had found
+themselves unable to retain a dozen until its close. Finally, the prince
+and his companions resolved to make it the great object of their endeavors
+to drive the Cardinal of Lorraine from court and liberate Charles from his
+pernicious influence. This object was to be attained by dispersing the
+Swiss, and by conducting hostilities on a bold plan--rather by the
+maintenance of an army that could actively take the field,[432] than by
+seizing any cities save a few of the most important. On the twenty-ninth
+of September, the feast-day of St. Michael, the Huguenots having suddenly
+risen in all parts of France, Conde and Coligny, at the head of the troops
+of the neighboring provinces, were to present themselves at the court,
+which would be busy celebrating the customary annual ceremonial of the
+royal order. They would then hand to the king a humble petition for the
+redress of grievances, for the removal of the Cardinal of Lorraine, and
+for the dispersion of the Swiss troops, which, instead of being retained
+near the frontiers of the kingdom which they had ostensibly come to
+protect, had been advanced to the very vicinity of the capital.[433] It
+might be difficult to prevent the enterprise from wearing the appearance
+of a plot against the king, in whose immediate vicinity the cardinal was;
+but the event, if prosperous, would demonstrate the integrity of their
+purpose.[434]
+
+[Sidenote: The secret slowly leaks out.]
+
+The plan was well conceived, and better executed than such schemes usually
+are. The great difficulty was to keep so important a secret. It was a
+singular coincidence that, as in the case of the tumult of Amboise, over
+seven years before, the first intimations of their danger reached the
+Guises from the Netherlands.[435] But the courtiers, whose minds were
+taken up with the pleasures of the chase, and who dreamed of no such
+movement, were so far from believing the report, that Constable
+Montmorency expressed vexation that it was imagined that the Huguenots
+could get together one hundred men in a corner of the kingdom--not to
+speak of an army in the immediate vicinity of the capital--without the
+knowledge of himself, the head of the royal military establishment; while
+Chancellor de l'Hospital said that "it was a capital crime for any servant
+to alarm his prince with false intelligence, or give him groundless
+suspicions of his fellow-subjects."[436]
+
+The news, however, being soon confirmed from other sources, a spy was sent
+to Chatillon-sur-Loing to report upon the admiral's movements. He brought
+back word that he had found Coligny at home, and apparently engrossed in
+the labors of the vintage--so quietly was the affair conducted until
+within forty-eight hours of the time appointed for the general
+uprising.[437] It was not until hurried tidings came from all quarters
+that the roads to Chatillon and to Rosoy--a small place in Brie, where the
+Huguenots had made their rendezvous--were swarming with men mounted and
+armed, that the court took the alarm.
+
+[Sidenote: Flight of the court to Paris.]
+
+It was almost too late. The Huguenots had possession of Lagny and of the
+crossing of the river Marne. The king and queen, with their suite, at
+Meaux, were almost entirely unprotected, the six thousand Swiss being
+still at Chateau-Thierry, thirty miles higher up the Marne. Instant orders
+were sent to bring them forward as quickly as possible, and the night of
+the twenty-eighth of September witnessed a scene of abject fear on the
+part of the ladies and not a few of the gentlemen that accompanied Charles
+and his mother. At three o'clock in the morning, under escort of the
+Swiss, who had at last arrived, the court started for Paris, which was
+reached after a dilatory journey that appeared all the longer because of
+the fears attending it.[438] The Prince of Conde, who had been joined as
+yet only by the forerunners of his army, engaged in a slight skirmish with
+the Swiss; but a small band of four or five hundred gentlemen, armed only
+with their swords, could do nothing against a solid phalanx of the brave
+mountaineers, and he was forced to retire. Meanwhile Marshal Montmorency,
+sent by Catharine to dissuade the prince, the admiral, and Cardinal
+Chatillon from prosecuting their enterprise, had returned with the message
+that "the Huguenots were determined to defeat the preparations made to
+destroy them and their religion, which was only tolerated by a conditional
+edict, revocable by the king at his pleasure."[439]
+
+[Sidenote: Cardinal Lorraine invites Alva to invade France.]
+
+The Cardinal of Lorraine did not share in the flight of the court to
+Paris. Never able to boast of the possession of overmuch courage, he may
+have feared for his personal safety; for it was not impossible that he
+might be sacrificed by a queen rarely troubled with any feelings of
+humanity, to allay the storm raging about the ship of state; or he may
+have hoped to be of greater service to his party away from the
+capital.[440] However this may be, the Cardinal betook himself in hot
+haste to the city of Rheims, but reached his palace only after an almost
+miraculous escape from capture by his enemies.[441] Once in safety, he
+despatched two messengers in rapid succession[442] to Brussels, and begged
+Alva to send him an agent with whom he might communicate in confidence.
+The proposals made when that personage arrived at Rheims were sufficiently
+startling; for, after calling attention to Philip's rightful claim to the
+throne of France, in case of the death of Charles and his brothers, he
+offered in a certain contingency to place in the Spanish monarch's hands
+some strong places that might prove valuable in substantiating that claim.
+In return, the Cardinal wished Philip to assume the defence of the papal
+church in France, and particularly desired him to undertake the protection
+of his brothers and of himself. The message was not unwelcome either to
+Alva or to his royal master. They were willing, they said, to assist the
+King of France in combating the Huguenots,[443] and they made no objection
+to accepting the cities. At the worst, these cities would serve as pledges
+for the repayment of whatever sums the King of Spain might expend in
+maintaining the Roman Catholic faith in France. With respect to the
+propriety of Philip's becoming the formal guardian of the Guises, Alva
+felt more hesitation, for who knew how matters might turn out? And Philip,
+never quite ready for any important decision, praised his lieutenant's
+delay, and inculcated further procrastination.[444] But the succession to
+the throne of France was worthy of deep consideration. As Alva intimated,
+the famous Salic law, under which Charles's sister Isabella was excluded
+from the crown, was merely a bit of pleasantry, and force of arms would
+facilitate the acknowledgment of her claims.[445]
+
+[Sidenote: Conde at Saint Denis.]
+
+The blow which the Huguenots had aimed at the tyrannical government of the
+Cardinal of Lorraine had missed its mark, through premature disclosure;
+but they still hoped to accomplish their design by slower means. Shut up
+in Paris, the court might be frightened or starved into compliance before
+the Roman Catholic forces could be assembled to relieve the capital. With
+this object the Prince of Conde moved around to the north side of the
+city, and took up his quarters, on the second of October, in the village
+of Saint Denis. With the lower Seine, which, in one of its serpentine
+coils, here turns back upon itself, and retreats from the direction of the
+sea, in his immediate grasp, and within easy striking distance of the
+upper Seine, and its important tributary the Marne--the chief sources of
+the supply of food on which the capital depended--the Prince of Conde
+awaited the arrival of his reinforcements, and the time when the hungry
+Parisians should compel the queen to submit, or to send out her troops to
+an open field. At the same time he burned the windmills that stretched
+their huge arms on every eminence in the vicinity. It was an ill-advised
+measure, as are all similar acts of destruction, unless justified by
+urgent necessity. If it occasioned some distress in Paris,[446] it only
+embittered the minds of the people yet more, and enabled the municipal
+authorities to retaliate with some color of equity by seizing the houses
+of persons known or suspected to be Huguenots, and selling their goods to
+defray part of the expense incurred in defending the city.[447]
+
+[Sidenote: The Huguenot movement alienates the king.]
+
+The attempt "to seize the person of the king"--for such the movement was
+understood to be by the Roman Catholic party--was even more unfortunate.
+It produced in Charles an alienation[448] which the enemies of the
+Huguenots took good care to prevent him from ever completely forgetting.
+They represented the undertaking of Meaux as aimed, not at the counsellors
+of the monarch, but at the "Sacred Majesty" itself, and Conde and Coligny,
+with their associates, were pictured to the affrighted eyes of the
+fugitive boy-king as conspirators who respected none of those rights which
+are so precious in the view of royalty.
+
+[Sidenote: Negotiations opened. The Huguenots gradually abate their
+demands.]
+
+[Sidenote: Constable Montmorency the mouthpiece of intolerance.]
+
+Meantime Catharine was not slow in resorting to the arts by which she was
+accustomed to seek either to avert the evil consequences of her own
+short-sighted policy, or to gain time to defeat the plans of her
+opponents.[449] The Huguenots received a deputation consisting of the
+chancellor, the Marshal de Vieilleville, and Jean de Morvilliers--three of
+the most influential and moderate adherents of the court--through whom
+Charles demanded the reason of the sudden uprising which causelessly
+threatened his own person and the peace of the realm. The Huguenot leaders
+replied by denying any evil design, and showing that they had armed
+themselves only in self-defence against the manifested malice of their
+enemies.[450] Subsequent interviews between Conde and the envoys of
+Charles seemed to hold forth some hopes of peace. The king declared
+himself ready to furnish the Protestants with proofs of the uprightness of
+his intentions, and L'Hospital even exhibited the draft of an edict in
+which their rights should be guaranteed. As this proved unsatisfactory,
+the prince, at the chancellor's suggestion, submitted the requests of his
+associates. These related to the banishment of the foreign troops, the
+permission to come and present their petitions to the king, the
+confirmation and maintenance of the past edicts, with the repeal of all
+restrictive interpretations, the assembling of the states general, and
+the removal of the burdensome imposts under which the people groaned, and
+which were of advantage only to the crowd of Italians and others enjoying
+extraordinary credit at court.[451] If the first of these demands were
+sufficiently bold, the last demand was little calculated to conciliate
+Catharine, who naturally conceived herself doubly insulted by the covert
+allusion to her own prodigality and by the reference to her countrymen.
+She found no difficulty in inducing Charles to answer through a
+proclamation sent by a herald to the confederates, commanding Conde,
+Coligny, D'Andelot, La Rochefoucauld, Genlis, and the other leaders, by
+name, to lay down the arms which they had taken up without his
+consent.[452] Perceiving the mistake they had committed in making requests
+which, although just and appropriate, were in part but ill-suited to the
+times, the Protestants began to abate their demands. Confining themselves
+to the matter of religion, they now petitioned only for an unrestricted
+liberty of conscience and worship, confirmed by the repeal of all
+ordinances or parliamentary decisions conflicting with it. Their
+moderation inspired fresh hopes of averting the resort to arms, and a new
+conference was held, between the Huguenot position and the city of Paris,
+at the hamlet of La Chapelle Saint Denis. It was destined to be the last.
+Constable Montmorency, the chief spokesman on the Roman Catholic side,
+although really desirous of peace, could not be induced to listen to the
+only terms on which peace was possible. "The king," he said, "will never
+consent to the demand for religious toleration throughout France without
+distinction of persons or places. He has no intention of permanently
+tolerating two religions. His edicts in favor of the Protestants have been
+intended only as temporary measures; for his purpose is to preserve the
+old faith by all possible means. He would rather be forced into a war with
+his subjects than avoid it by concessions that would render him an object
+of suspicion to neighboring princes."[453]
+
+[Sidenote: Insincerity of Alva's offers of aid.]
+
+The simultaneous rising of the Huguenots in every quarter of the kingdom,
+and the immediate seizure of many important cities, had surprised and
+terrified the court; but it had also stimulated the Roman Catholic leaders
+to put forth extraordinary efforts to bring together an army superior to
+that of their opponents. Besides the Parisian militia and the troops that
+flocked in from the more distant provinces, it was resolved to call for
+the help repeatedly promised by Philip of Spain and his minister, the Duke
+of Alva, when urging Charles to break the compacts he had entered into
+with his reformed subjects. But the assistance actually furnished fell far
+short of the expectations held forth. When Castelnau, after two efforts,
+the first of which proved unsuccessful,[454] reached Brussels by a
+circuitous route, he found Alva lavish of good wishes, and urgent, like
+his master, that no arrangement should be made with the rebels before they
+had suffered condign punishment. But the envoy soon convinced himself that
+all these protestations meant little or nothing, and that the Spaniards
+were by no means sorry to see the French kingdom rent by civil war.
+Ostensibly, Alva was liberal above measure in his offers. He wished to
+come in person at the head of five thousand horse and fifteen thousand
+foot, and make short work of the destruction of Conde and his followers--a
+proposition which Castelnau, who knew that Catharine was quite as jealous
+of Spanish as of Huguenot interference in her schemes, felt himself
+compelled politely to decline; especially as the very briefest term within
+which Alva professed himself ready to move was a full month and a half.
+For seven or eight days the duke persisted in refusing the Spanish troops
+that were requested,[455] and in insisting upon his own offer--precious
+time which, had it been husbanded, might have changed the face of the
+impending battle before the walls of Paris. When, at length, pressed by
+the envoy for a definite answer or for leave to return, the duke offered
+to give him, in about three weeks' time, a body of four or five thousand
+German lansquenets--troops that would have been quite useless to Charles,
+who already had at his disposition as many pikemen as he needed, in the
+six thousand Swiss. All that Castelnau was finally able to bring home was
+an auxiliary force of about seventeen hundred horse, under Count Aremberg.
+Even now, however, the officer in command was bound by instructions which
+prevented him from taking the direct road to the beleaguered capital of
+France, and compelled him to pass westward by Beauvais and Poissy.[456]
+
+[Sidenote: Battle of Saint Denis, Nov. 10, 1567.]
+
+[Sidenote: The constable is mortally wounded.]
+
+The impatience of the Parisians, who for more than a month had been
+inactive spectators, while their city was besieged by an insignificant
+force and they were deprived of the greater part of their ordinary
+supplies of food, could scarcely be restrained. They were the more anxious
+for battle since they had received encouragement by the recapture of a few
+points of some military importance along the course of the lower Seine.
+Unable to resist the pressure any longer, Constable Anne de Montmorency
+led out his army to give battle to the Huguenots on the tenth of November,
+1567. Rarely has such an engagement been willingly entered into, where the
+disproportion between the contending parties was so considerable. The
+constable's army consisted of sixteen thousand foot soldiers (of whom six
+thousand were Swiss, and the remainder in part troops levied in the city
+of Paris) and three thousand horse, and was provided with eighteen pieces
+of artillery. To meet this force, Conde had barely fifteen hundred hastily
+mounted and imperfectly equipped gentlemen, and twelve hundred foot
+soldiers, gathered from various quarters and scarcely formed as yet into
+companies. He had not a single cannon. Of his cavalry, only one-fifth part
+were provided with lances, the rest having swords and pistols. The greater
+number had no defensive armor; and not a horse was furnished with the
+leathern _barbe_ with which the knight continued, as in the middle ages,
+to cover his steed's breast and sides. The constable had wisely chosen a
+moment when the prince had weakened himself by detaching D'Andelot, with
+five hundred horse and eight hundred arquebusiers, to seize Poissy and
+intercept the Count of Aremberg.[457] In the face of such a disparity of
+numbers and equipment, the Huguenots exhibited signal intrepidity.[458]
+With Coligny thrown forward on the right, in front of the village of Saint
+Ouen, and Genlis on the left, near Aubervilliers, they opened the attack
+upon the overwhelming numbers of the enemy, who descended from higher
+ground to meet them. Marshal de Montmorency, the constable's eldest son,
+commanding a part of the royal army, alone was successful, and had the
+valor of his troops been imitated by the rest, the defeat of the Huguenots
+would have been decisive; but the "Parisian regiment," despite its gilded
+armor,[459] yielded at the first shock of battle and fled in confusion to
+the walls of Paris. Their cowardice uncovered the position of the
+constable, and the cavalry of the Prince penetrated to the spot where the
+old warrior was still fighting hand to hand, with a vigor scarcely
+inferior to that which he had displayed more than fifty years earlier, in
+the first Italian campaign of Francis the First.[460] A Scottish
+gentleman, according to the most probable account--for the true history of
+the affair is involved in unusual obscurity--Robert Stuart by name, rode
+up to Montmorency and demanded his surrender. But the constable, maddened
+at the suggestion of a fourth captivity,[461] for all reply struck Stuart
+on the mouth, with the hilt of his sword, so violent a blow that he broke
+three of his teeth. At that very moment he received, whether from Stuart
+or from another of the Scottish gentlemen is uncertain,[462] a pistol-shot
+that entered his shoulder and inflicted a mortal wound. At a few paces
+from him, Conde, with his horse killed under him, nearly fell into the
+hands of the enemy. At last, however, his partisans succeeded in rescuing
+him, and, while he retired slowly to Saint Denis, the dying constable was
+carried to Paris, whither the Roman Catholic army returned at
+evening.[463]
+
+[Sidenote: Character of Anne de Montmorency.]
+
+The battle of Saint Denis was indecisive, and the victory was claimed by
+both sides. The losses of the Huguenots and the Roman Catholics were about
+equal--between three and four hundred men--although the number of
+distinguished Huguenot noblemen killed exceeded that of the slain
+belonging to the same rank in the royal army. If the possession of the
+field at the end of the day, and the relief of Paris, be taken as
+sufficient evidence, the honor of success belonged to the Roman Catholic
+army. But the loss of their chief commander far more than counterbalanced
+any advantage they may have gained. Not that Anne de Montmorency was a
+general of remarkable abilities. Although he had been present in a large
+number of important engagements ever since the reign of Louis the Twelfth,
+and had proved himself a brave man in all, he was by no means a successful
+military leader. The late Duke of Guise had eclipsed his glory, and in a
+much briefer career had exhibited much more striking tactical skill. The
+battle of Saint Denis, it was alleged by many, had itself been marred by
+his clumsy disposition of his troops. Proud and overbearing in his
+deportment, he alienated even those with whom his warm attachment to the
+Roman Catholic Church ought to have made him popular. Catharine de'
+Medici, we have seen, had long been his enemy. In like manner, even the
+bigoted populace of Paris forgot the pious exploits that had earned him
+the surname of "le Capitaine Brulebanc," and remembered only his
+suspicious relationship to Cardinal Chatillon, Admiral Coligny, and
+D'Andelot, those three intrepid brothers whose uncompromising morality and
+unswerving devotion to their religious convictions made them, even more
+than the Prince of Conde, true representatives of the dreaded Huguenot
+party.[464]
+
+But the loss of the principal general at this important juncture in
+military affairs dealt a severe blow to the Roman Catholic cause. There
+was no other leader of sufficient prominence to put forth an indisputable
+claim to succeed him. Catharine, not sorry to be relieved of so formidable
+a rival, was resolved that he should have no troublesome successor.
+Accordingly she induced the king to leave the office of constable vacant,
+and to confer upon her second surviving son, Henry, Duke of Anjou, whose
+unscrupulous character had already made him her favorite, the supreme
+command of the army, with the less ambitious title of royal
+lieutenant-general.[465]
+
+The death of the constable, who survived his wound only a single day, and
+the subsequent divisions of the court, furnished the Prince of Conde with
+an immunity from attack, of which, in view of his great inferiority in
+number of troops, he deemed it most prudent to take advantage by promptly
+retiring from his exposed position. Besides this, he had now an imperative
+summons to the eastern frontier of the kingdom.
+
+[Sidenote: The Protestant princes of Germany determine to aid the
+Huguenots.]
+
+At the very commencement of the war the Protestants had sent a deputation
+to the German princes to solicit their support in a struggle in which the
+adherents of the Augsburg Confession were no less vitally interested than
+the reformed. But Bochetel, Bishop of Rennes, the envoy of Charles the
+Ninth, had so skilfully misrepresented the true character of the contest,
+that the Landgrave of Hesse, and the Electors of Saxony and Brandenburg,
+persuaded that political motives, rather than zeal for religion, were the
+occasion of the revolt, had refused to assist the Huguenots, while
+permitting William of Saxony and the Marquis of Baden to levy troops for
+the king. To the Elector Palatine, Frederick the Third, surnamed "the
+Pious," who from a Lutheran had become a Calvinist, a special ambassador
+was despatched in the person of M. de Lansac. This gentleman, by more than
+usually reckless misstatements, sought to persuade the elector to abandon
+the enterprise of assistance which he had intended to intrust to his
+second son, John Casimir. But his falsehoods were refuted by the
+straightforward expose of the prince's agents,[466] and Lansac was only so
+far successful that the elector consented to delay the departure of the
+troops until he had sent a messenger to France to acquaint himself with
+the true state of the case. It needed no more than this to determine him;
+for the minister whom the elector had intrusted with the commission, after
+visiting successively the court of the king and the camp of the prince of
+Conde, returned with certain proofs that the representations of Bochetel
+and of Lansac were altogether false.[467] Consequently the army which John
+Casimir had gathered was speedily despatched to furnish Conde the support
+the Huguenots so much needed.
+
+In the letter which the elector palatine sent about the same time to the
+King of France, the motives of this apparently inimical action are vividly
+set forth. His envoy, the Councillor Zuleger, says the elector, has made a
+careful examination. Lansac and his companion have industriously
+circulated throughout Germany the report that the Edict of Toleration is
+kept entire, that Conde and the Protestants have no other object in view
+but a horrible rebellion against Charles to deprive him of his crown, and
+that the prince has had money struck as if he were king himself.[468] But
+Zuleger has, on the contrary, reported that when, in the presence of the
+royal council, he asked for proofs of Conde's intention to make himself
+king, Catharine de' Medici replied that it was a "mockery," and that,
+though Conde had struck money, both in the late and in the present
+troubles, it was with the king's inscription and arms, and not as though
+he were himself king. So far from that, Zuleger declares that, during the
+eleven days of his stay in the prince's camp, he heard prayers offered
+morning and night for the preservation of the state and for the king's
+safety. As to the maintenance of the edict, the constable before his death
+openly affirmed that Charles would not permit a free exercise of religion,
+and never intended the Edict of Orleans to be other than _provisional_.
+Indeed, the queen-mother remarked to Zuleger that it is a privilege of the
+French monarchs never to make a perpetual edict; to which Charles, who was
+present, promptly responded, "Pourquoi non?"[469]
+
+It was to form a junction with the force brought by John Casimir that the
+prince now raised the siege of Paris, two or three days subsequently to
+the battle of Saint Denis,[470] and after that D'Andelot, disappointed in
+having had no share in the engagement, had scoured the field, driving back
+into Paris an advanced guard of the enemy, and burning, by way of bravado,
+some windmills in the very suburbs.[471]
+
+[Sidenote: The Huguenots go to meet the Germans.]
+
+[Sidenote: Treacherous diplomacy.]
+
+The purpose of the Huguenot leaders could not be mistaken, and Catharine
+was determined to frustrate it. The chief object at which all her
+intrigues now aimed was to delay the Protestant army in its march toward
+Lorraine, until the Duke of Anjou, at the head of a force which was daily
+gaining new accessions of strength from the provinces, should be able to
+overtake Conde and bring on a general and decisive action. From Saint
+Denis the Huguenots had first followed the course of the upper Seine to
+Montereau. Crossing the stream at this point, Coligny, as usual commanding
+the vanguard, had, at Pont-sur-Yonne, received a powerful detachment,
+under the Count of La Rochefoucauld, which had made its way from the
+provinces of Poitou, Saintonge, and Guyenne, across the valley of the
+Loire, to reinforce the Prince of Conde's army.[472] Having effected a
+junction, the united body had changed its course, recrossed the Seine, and
+countermarched to the river Marne, at Epernay and Chalons. Coligny's
+skilful manoeuvre had disappointed the queen's plan, and she resorted to
+her accustomed arts of negotiation. So flattering, indeed, were her
+promises, that Conde, had he not been restrained by the more prudent
+counsels of his associates (among whom the Vidame of Chartres was most
+urgent in his protests against so suicidal a policy), would instantly have
+relaxed the sinews of war.[473] A petty act of treachery served to open
+his eyes, and to prevent the Protestants from involving themselves in more
+serious disaster; for the Count de Brissac took advantage of a three days'
+armistice to fall unexpectedly upon an outpost of the prince's army and
+gain an advantage, which was duly magnified by report at Paris into a
+brilliant victory.[474] Unabashed by this incident, Catharine soon after
+renewed her seductive offers (on the twentieth of December, 1567). She
+invited a conference with the Cardinal of Chatillon and other Protestant
+leaders, and herself went so far as Chalons to meet them. Thence the scene
+of the negotiations was transferred to Vincennes, in the vicinity of
+Paris, and for a time the prospect of reconciliation was bright and
+encouraging. The king's envoys consented to the re-establishment of the
+Edict of Amboise, without any past or future restrictions, until the
+decision of the religious question by that mythical assembly which, like a
+mirage of the desert, ever and anon arose to entrance and disappoint the
+longing eyes of thoughtful men in this century--a free, universal, and
+legitimate council of the Church. But the hopes founded on these promises
+were as illusory as any previously conceived. Instead of a formal and
+unambiguous ratification of the terms by Charles himself, the Cardinal of
+Chatillon was treated only to complaints about the causeless rising of the
+Protestants, and expressions of astonishment that Conde had not instantly
+countermanded the approach of the German auxiliaries on receiving the
+king's gracious proffers.[475]
+
+[Sidenote: Catharine implores Alva's assistance.]
+
+[Sidenote: Alva's view of accommodations with heretics.]
+
+Meantime Catharine was not idle in soliciting foreign aid. The Duke
+d'Aumale--who had also marched to Lorraine, in order to meet the Germans
+coming to the assistance of the Roman Catholics, under command of the
+Marquis of Baden--not being strong enough to block the passage of Conde's
+troops, Catharine wrote to Alva, begging him to send to the duke, in this
+emergency, two thousand arquebusiers. She warned him that if, through the
+failure to procure them, the German reiters of John Casimir should be
+permitted to enter the kingdom, she would hold herself exonerated, in the
+sight of God and of all Christian princes, from the blame that might
+otherwise attach to her for the peace which she would be compelled to
+make with the heretics.[476] Alva, in reply, declined to send the Spanish
+arquebusiers, who, he said, were needed by him, and could do little good
+in France; but he added that, if Aumale, who was a soldier, would
+guarantee with this accession to stop the reiters, he would let them go,
+useful as they were in the Netherlands. As to the accommodation with the
+Huguenots, which Catharine suggested, he viewed it as a frightful evil,
+and exclaimed "that it was better to have a kingdom ruined in preserving
+it for God and the king, than to retain it whole, but without religion,
+for the advantage of the devil and his partisans, the heretics."[477]
+
+[Sidenote: Conde and John Casimir meet in Lorraine.]
+
+[Sidenote: Generosity of the Huguenot troops.]
+
+About the beginning of the new year the foot-sore Huguenot army, after
+nearly two months of tedious marches through a hostile country, and no
+less tedious negotiations, reached Lorraine, only to find that their
+German allies had not yet arrived. Sick at heart, with a powerful enemy
+hanging on their rear, and seeking only an opportunity to make a sudden
+descent upon them, many of the Huguenots were disposed to take advantage
+of the proximity of the German cities to disperse and find a refuge there.
+But Conde, with his never-failing vivacity and cheerfulness, and Coligny,
+with his "grave words," succeeded in checking their despondency until the
+welcome news of John Casimir's approach was announced. He brought six
+thousand five hundred horse, three thousand foot, and four cannon of
+moderate size. His arrival did not, however, prove an occasion of
+unmingled satisfaction. The reiters, serving from purely mercenary
+motives, demanded the immediate payment of one hundred thousand crowns,
+promised as a first instalment on account of their wages, and were
+resolved to go no farther without receiving it. The Prince of Conde had
+but two thousand crowns to meet the engagement. In this new perplexity the
+Huguenots, from the leaders down to the very lowest, gave a noble
+illustration of devotion to their religion's cause. Conde and Coligny set
+the example by giving up their plate to replenish the empty coffers of the
+army. The captains urged, the ministers of the gospel preached, a generous
+sacrifice of property in the common interest. Their exhortations did not
+fall upon dull ears. Money, gold chains, silver, articles of every
+description, were lavishly contributed. An unpaid army sacrificed its own
+private property, not only without a murmur, but even joyfully. The very
+camp-servants vied with their masters, and put them to shame by their
+superior liberality.[478] In a short time a sum was raised which, although
+less than what had been pledged, contented the reiters, who declared
+themselves ready to follow their Huguenot fellow-soldiers into the heart
+of the kingdom.[479] Well might an army capable of such heroic contempt
+for personal gain or loss be deemed invincible!
+
+[Sidenote: The march toward Orleans.]
+
+And now, with feelings widely different from those which had possessed
+them in the journey toward Lorraine--a movement too nearly akin to a
+flight to inspire anything but disgust--the Huguenot soldiers, over twenty
+thousand strong, turned their faces once more westward. Their late
+pursuers, no longer seeking an engagement where the result might be worse
+than doubtful, confined themselves to watching their progress from a safe
+distance. As all the cities upon their route were in the hands of the
+Roman Catholics, the Huguenots were forced to take more circuitous and
+difficult paths through the open country. But the dispositions made by
+Coligny are said to have been so thorough and masterly, that they
+travelled safely and in comfort.[480] Not that the soldiers, dispersed at
+night through the villages, were freed from the necessity or the
+temptation to pillage;[481] for the poor farmers, robbed of the fruits of
+their honest toil, frequently had good reason to complain that those who
+had recently dispensed their own treasure with so liberal a hand were even
+more lavish of the property of others. But they were far more merciful and
+considerate toward their enemies than the Roman Catholic army to its
+friends. Even a curate of Brie--no very great lover of the Huguenots, who
+relates with infinite gusto the violation of Huguenot women by Anjou's
+soldiers[482]--admits that, excepting in the matter of the plundering of
+the churches and the distressing of priests, the Roman Catholics were a
+little worse than the heretics.[483]
+
+[Sidenote: The "Michelade" at Nismes.]
+
+Leaving the Huguenot army on its march toward Orleans, let us glance at
+the operations of the party in other quarters of the kingdom. Southern
+France, where the Protestants were most numerous, and where the excitable
+character of the people disposed them more easily than elsewhere to sudden
+outbreaks, was not behind the north in rising at the appointed time
+(September, 1567). At Nismes, indeed, a furious commotion broke out--the
+famous "Michelade," as it was called, because it immediately followed the
+feast-day of St. Michael--a commotion whose sanguinary excesses gave it an
+unenviable notoriety, and brought deep disgrace upon the Protestant cause.
+Here the turbulent populace was encouraged by the report that Lyons was in
+friendly hands, and maddened by the intelligence that, besides the common
+dangers impending over all the Huguenots of France, the Huguenots of
+Nismes had more particular occasion for fear in the troops of the
+neighboring Comtat Venaissin. These troops, it was said, had been summoned
+by the bishop and chapter of the cathedral of Nismes. The mob accordingly
+took possession of the city, closing the gates, and imprisoning a large
+number of persons--consuls, priests, and other obnoxious characters. That
+night the cathedral and the chapter-house witnessed a wild scene of
+destruction. Pictures of the saints, and altars, including everything
+associated with Roman Catholic worship, were ruthlessly destroyed. But the
+most terrible event occurred in the episcopal palace. The bishop was saved
+from capture and certain death by the intervention of a courageous man,
+himself a Protestant; but others were less fortunate. No fewer than eighty
+prisoners, brought in detachments to the court of the palace, were
+butchered in rapid succession, and their corpses thrown promiscuously into
+a well. The next morning the Protestant pastors and elders assembled, and,
+sending to the ringleaders a minister and a deacon, begged them to
+discontinue their horrible work. Already, however, had returning shame
+made everybody unwilling to avow his complicity in the crime. Quiet was
+restored. The Protestant seneschal and council released such prisoners as
+had escaped the fate of their comrades, and the bishop himself was sent
+away under an escort to a place of safety, by order of the very judge whom
+the clergy had, a year before, sought to deprive of his office as a
+heretic.[484] Nismes remained in the hands of the Protestants through the
+war.
+
+[Sidenote: Huguenot successes in the south and west.]
+
+[Sidenote: La Rochelle secured for Conde.]
+
+Meanwhile more important movements took place. Rene of Savoy, son of the
+Count de Tende, but better known as Cipierre, was Conde's agent in
+assembling the Huguenots of Provence; but Paul de Mouvans, whom we have
+met with before in this history, was the real hero of the region. In
+Dauphiny, Montbrun commanded. In Bourbonnais and the neighboring provinces
+west of the Rhone, Parcenac and Verbelai raised three thousand foot and
+five hundred horse, but sustained so severe a loss while passing through
+Forez, that the number was soon reduced to barely twelve hundred. Nearer
+the Pyrenees, seven thousand men were assembled, known as "the army of the
+viscounts," to which further reference will shortly be made. Lyons, one of
+the Huguenot strongholds in the first war, the Protestants failed to
+capture.[485] But Orleans was secured by the skill of Francois de la Noue,
+a young champion whose name was destined long to figure in the most
+brilliant deeds of arms of his party, both in France and in the Low
+Countries.[486] In the west, too, the Huguenots made the most important
+gain of the war in the city of La Rochelle, for the next half-century and
+more their secure refuge on approach of danger.
+
+This place, strong by nature, surrounded by low, marshy grounds, rendering
+it almost unapproachable from the land side, save by the causeways over
+which the roads ran, with a large and convenient harbor and with easy
+access to the sea, was already rich and populous. The citizens of La
+Rochelle were noted for their independent spirit, engendered or fostered
+by their maritime habits. Although the great importance of the city dates
+from the civil wars, when its wharves received the commerce driven from
+older ports, and when its privateers swept the shores of Brittany and the
+bosom of the English channel, it had long boasted extraordinary
+privileges, among which the most highly prized was the right to refuse
+admission to a royal garrison.[487] Besides this, the citizens were
+accustomed to choose three candidates for the office of major, from whom
+the king or the royal governor made his selection; and the magistrate thus
+appointed enjoyed an authority which the Rochellois would scarcely concede
+to their monarch.[488] La Rochelle--whose former orthodoxy Father Soulier
+attempts to establish by instancing the sentence which the "presidial" of
+the city pronounced in 1552 against some Protestants, condemning them to
+be dragged on a hurdle with a fagot of sticks bound to their backs, and
+afterward to be burned, one of them alive[489]--had been so far affected
+by the progress of the Reformation, that it was perhaps only the fear of
+losing its trade and privileges that prevented it from openly siding with
+Conde in the first religious war.[490] By this time, however,
+Protestantism had struck such deep roots, that one of the three candidates
+for the mayoralty, at the Easter elections of 1567, was Truchares, a
+political Huguenot. The king was, indeed, warned of his sentiments; but
+the royal governor, M. de Jarnac, supported his claims, and Truchares
+received the requisite confirmation.[491] Still La Rochelle hesitated to
+espouse the Protestant side. It was not until midwinter,[492] that Conde,
+returning from Lorraine, commissioned M. de Sainte-Hermine to assume
+command of the city in his name; and on the tenth of February, 1568, the
+mayor and echevins of La Rochelle opened their gates to their new friends,
+with protestations of their purpose to devote their lives and property to
+the advancement of the common cause. "The sequel proved only too clearly,"
+writes a Roman Catholic historian, "that they were very sincere in their
+promises; for, having soon after demolished all the churches, they
+employed the materials to fortify this city in such a manner that it
+served from this time forward as a citadel for the Protestants, and as a
+secure retreat for all the apostates and malcontents of the kingdom until
+it was reduced by Louis the Thirteenth."[493]
+
+[Sidenote: Spain and Rome oppose the negotiations for peace.]
+
+Meantime the irresolute queen mother, always oscillating between war and
+peace, had again begun to treat with the Huguenots. Between the fifth and
+twentieth of January she held repeated interviews with Cardinal Chatillon,
+D'Esternay, and Teligny. The bigots took the alarm. The Papal Nuncio and
+the ambassadors of Spain and Scotland did their utmost "to impeach the
+accord." A post arrived from Philip the Second, offering a hundred
+thousand crowns of gold if Charles would continue the war. The doctors of
+the Sorbonne remonstrated. All united in a common cry that "it was
+impossible to have two religions in one realm without great confusion."
+Poor Charles was so moved by the stale falsehood, as well as by the large
+promises made him, that he sent the Protestant envoys word that he would
+treat no further unless Conde and his "complices" would send the reiters
+back to Germany, and, wholly disarming, come to him with their ordinary
+retinues to purge themselves of the attempt made at Meaux.
+
+[Sidenote: Cardinal Santa Croce demands that Cardinal Chatillon be
+surrendered to the Pope.]
+
+[Sidenote: Retort of Marshal Montmorency.]
+
+Even this amount of complaisance on the part of the weak monarch, however,
+did not satisfy Cardinal Santa Croce, who, on one occasion entering the
+council chamber (on the twentieth of January), boldly demanded the
+fulfilment of the queen mother's promise to surrender Cardinal Chatillon
+into the Pope's hands. Catharine did not deny the promise, but interposed
+the plea that the present was a very unsuitable time, since Chatillon had
+come to court upon the king's safe-conduct. To this the churchman replied
+that no respect ought to be had toward the Cardinal, for he was "an
+excommunicate person," condemned of schism, and dead in the eyes of the
+law. Up to this point the Duke de Montmorency, who was present, had kept
+silence; but now, turning to the queen mother, he is reported by the
+English ambassador to have made a pungent address. "But, madam," he said,
+"is it possible that the Cardinal Chatillon's delivery should come in
+question, being warranted by the king and your Majesty to the contrary,
+and I myself being made a mean therein? Wherefore this matter is odious to
+be talked of, and against the law of arms and all good civil policy; and I
+must needs repute them my enemies who go about to make me falsify my
+promise once made." After these plain words Santa Croce "departed without
+attaining his most cruel request."[494]
+
+[Sidenote: March of the viscounts to meet Conde.]
+
+During the first few months after the assumption of arms, the Huguenots of
+southern France, surrounded by domestic enemies, had confined themselves
+to attempting to secure their own safety and that of their neighbors, by
+taking the most important cities and keeping in check the forces of the
+provincial governors--an undertaking in which they met with more success
+in the districts bordering upon the Mediterranean than in those adjoining
+the Bay of Biscay. These events, although in themselves important and
+interesting, would usurp a disproportionate place in this history. While
+Conde was absent from the vicinity of the capital, however, a body of six
+thousand troops, drawn from the army of the _viscounts_, under Mouvans and
+other experienced southern leaders, undertook a hazardous march from
+Dauphiny, intending to join the prince's army at Orleans.[495] The cities
+were in the possession of the enemy, the fords were carefully guarded, the
+entire country was hostile. But the perils which might have deterred less
+resolute men only enhanced the glory of the success of the gallant
+Huguenots. Abandoned by a considerable number of their comrades, who
+preferred a life of plunder to a fatiguing journey under arms, they met
+(on the eighth of January, 1568) and defeated, with a force consisting
+almost exclusively of infantry, the cavalry which the governor of Auvergne
+and the local nobility had assembled near the village of Cognac[496] to
+dispute their passage. Continuing their march, they reached Orleans in
+time to relieve that city, to whose friendly protection against the Roman
+Catholic bands of Martinengo and Richelieu that infested its neighborhood
+and threatened its capture Conde and the other Huguenot leaders of the
+north had entrusted their wives and children.[497]
+
+[Sidenote: Siege of Chartres.]
+
+Having stopped a brief time to rest the soldiers after the protracted
+march, the viscounts turned their victorious arms against the city of
+Blois. After the surrender of this place, they had proceeded down the
+valley of the Loire, and were about to take Montrichard, on the Cher, when
+recalled by Conde. The prince had by forced marches anticipated the army
+of Anjou, resolving to strike a blow which should be felt at the hostile
+capital itself, and had selected Chartres, an important city about fifty
+miles in a south-westerly direction from Paris, as the most convenient
+place to besiege.[498] Rapid, however, as had been his advance--and a part
+of his army had travelled sixty miles in two days--the enemy had
+sufficient notice of his intention to throw into the city a small force of
+soldiers; and when Conde arrived before the walls (on the twenty-fourth of
+February, 1568), he found the place prepared to sustain an attack, in
+which the courage of the assailants was equalled by the skill and
+resolution of the defenders. As usual, the Huguenots were badly off for
+artillery; the united armies could only muster five siege-pieces and four
+light culverines. "For, although the Catholics esteem the Huguenots to be
+'fiery' men," says a quaint old writer, who was as ready with his sword as
+with his pen, "they have always been poorly provided with such implements.
+Nor have they, like the former, a Saint Anthony, who, they say, presides
+over the element in question."[499]
+
+The operations of the siege of Chartres were interrupted by fresh
+negotiations for peace. Half a year had the flames of war been desolating
+the fairest parts of France; yet the court was no nearer the attainment of
+its ends than at the outbreak of hostilities. If the Roman Catholic forces
+had been swollen to about forty thousand men, they were confronted by a
+Huguenot army of twenty-eight or thirty thousand men in the very
+neighborhood of the capital. The voice of prudence dictated an immediate
+settlement of the dispute before more lives were sacrificed, more towns
+and villages destroyed, more treasure squandered. Catharine, reigning
+supreme under her son's name, with her usual inconstancy of purpose, was
+ready to exchange the war, into which she had plunged France by lending
+too willing an ear to the suggestions of Philip of Spain, as they came to
+her through the Cardinal of Lorraine and others, and which had produced
+only bloodshed, devastation of the kingdom, and deeper depression of the
+finances, for the peace to which Michel de l'Hospital, her better genius,
+was constantly urging her by every consideration of policy and justice.
+
+[Sidenote: Chancellor Michel de l'Hospital's memorial.]
+
+In a paper, wherein about this time the chancellor committed to writing
+the arguments he had often ineffectually employed to persuade the king and
+his mother, he combats with patriotic indignation the flimsy pretexts of
+which the priests and the Spaniard made use in pressing the continuance of
+hostilities. "'The king has more men than the Huguenots.' True, but we
+find twice as many battles on record gained by the smaller as by the
+greater number; in consequence of which fact all princes and nations have
+recognized the truth that victory is the gift of God. 'The king's cause is
+the more just.' Grant it--yet God makes use of such instruments as He
+wills to punish our iniquities--the Babylonians, for instance, of old, the
+Turks in our own days. The Huguenots have thus far succeeded beyond all
+expectation. They have little money, but what they have they use well, and
+they can get more. Their devotion to their cause is conspicuous. They are
+not a rabble hastily gotten together, which has risen imprudently, in
+disorder, without a leader, without discipline. They are experienced,
+resolute, desperate warriors, with plans formed long ago--men ready to
+risk everything for the attainment of their matured designs. Necessity and
+despair render them docile and wonderfully subject to discipline; and with
+this cooperates the high esteem they have conceived of their leaders,
+whose ambition is restrained, whose union is cemented by the same
+necessity which the ancients called 'the bond of concord.' On the
+contrary, the king's camp is rent by quarrels, envy, and rivalry; ambition
+is unbridled, avarice reigns supreme. With the termination of so wretched
+a war, there will shine forth a joyous and blessed peace, which I can
+justly term a 'precious conquest,' since it will render his Majesty
+redoubtable to all Europe, which has learned the greatness of the two
+powers which the king will restore to his own subjection.
+
+"The true method of breaking up the leagues of the Huguenots is to remove
+the necessity for forming them. This must be done by treating the
+Huguenots no longer as enemies, but as friends. For, if we examine
+carefully into the matter, we shall find that hitherto they have been
+dealt with as rebels; and this has compelled them to resort to all means
+of self-preservation. This has placed arms in their hands; this has
+engendered the horrible desolation of France. For the intrigues set on
+foot against them in all quarters were conducted with so little attempt at
+secrecy--the disfavor was so evident, the disdain was so apparent, the
+threats of the rupture of the Edict of Pacification and of the publication
+of the decrees of the Council of Trent were so open, and the injustice of
+their handling was so manifest, that they had been too dull and stupid,
+had they not avoided the treachery in store for them.[500] Even brute
+beasts perceive the coming of the storm, and seek the covert; let us not
+find fault if men, perceiving it, arm themselves for the encounter. Our
+menaces have been the messengers of our plots, as truly as the lightning
+is the messenger of the thunderbolt. We have shown them our preparatives;
+let us, therefore, cease to wonder that they stand ready to start on the
+first intimation of danger.[501] When they see that they have no longer
+anything to fear, they will certainly return to their accustomed
+occupations."[502]
+
+[Sidenote: Edict of Pacification, Longjumeau, March 23, 1568.]
+
+L'Hospital was right. The Huguenots wanted nothing but security of person
+and conscience--the latter even more than the former. And they were ready
+to lay down their arms so soon as the court could bring itself to concede
+the restoration of the Edict of Amboise, without the restrictive
+ordinances and interpretations which had shorn it of most of its value. On
+this basis negotiations now recommenced. The more prudent Huguenots
+suggested that the party ought to receive at the king's hands some of the
+cities in their possession, to be held as pledges for the execution of the
+articles of the compact. But Charles and his counsellors resented the
+proposal as insulting to the dignity of the crown,[503] and the Huguenots,
+not yet fully appreciating the fickleness or treachery of the court, did
+not press the demand--a fatal weakness, soon to be atoned for by the
+speedy renewal of the war on the part of the Roman Catholics.[504] After
+brief consultation the terms of peace were agreed upon, and were
+incorporated in the royal edict of the twenty-third of March, 1568, known,
+from the name of the place where it was signed, as the "Edict of
+Longjumeau." The cardinal provisions were few: they re-established the
+supremacy of the Edict of Amboise, expressly repealing all the
+interpretations that infringed upon it; and permitted the nobles, who
+under that law had been allowed to have religious exercises in their
+castles, to admit strangers as well as their own vassals to the services
+of the reformed worship. Conde and his followers were, at the same time,
+recognized as good and faithful servants of the crown, and a general
+amnesty was pronounced covering all acts of hostility, levy of troops,
+coining of money, and similar offences. On the other hand, the Huguenots
+bound themselves to disband and lay down their arms, to surrender the
+places they held, to renounce foreign alliances, and to eschew in future
+all meetings other than those religious gatherings permitted under the
+last peace. The new edict was not a final and irrevocable law, but was
+granted "until, by God's grace, all the king's subjects should be reunited
+in the profession of one and the same religion."[505]
+
+[Sidenote: Conde favors and Coligny opposes the peace.]
+
+The Huguenots gained by this peace all their immediate demands, and so far
+the edict might be deemed satisfactory. But what better security had they
+for its observance more than they had had for the observance of that which
+had preceded it? Coligny, prudent and far-sighted, had shown himself as
+averse to concluding it without sufficient guarantees for its faithful
+execution, as he had been opposed to beginning the war a half-year before.
+The peace, he urged, was intended by the court only as a means of saving
+Chartres, and of afterward overwhelming the reformers;[506] and he
+attempted to prove his assertions by the signal instances of bad faith
+which had provoked the recourse to arms. But Conde was impatient. If we
+may believe Agrippa d'Aubigne, his old love of pleasure was not without
+its influence;[507] but he covered his true motives under the specious
+pretext afforded him by the Huguenot nobles, who, fatigued with the
+incessant toils of the campaign, reduced to straits by a warfare which
+they had carried on at their own expense, and longing to revisit homes
+which had been repeatedly threatened with desolation, had abandoned their
+standards and scattered to their respective provinces at the first mention
+of peace.[508] Francois de la Noue, more charitable to the prince, regards
+the universal desire for peace, without much concern respecting its
+conditions, as the wild blast of a hurricane which the Huguenot captains
+could not resist if they would.[509] When whole cornets of cavalry started
+without leave, before the siege of Chartres was actually raised, what
+could generals, deserted by volunteers who had come of their own accord
+and had served for six months without pay, expect to accomplish?
+
+[Sidenote: Was the court sincere?]
+
+[Sidenote: A treacherous plot detected. The king indignant.]
+
+Was the peace of Longjumeau--"the patched-up peace," or "the short peace,"
+as it was called; that "wicked little peace," as La Noue styles it[510]--a
+compact treacherously entered into by the court? This is the old, but
+constantly recurring question respecting every principal event of this
+unhappy period; and it is one that rarely admits of an easy or a simple
+answer. So far as the persons who had been chiefly instrumental in
+forwarding the negotiations which ended in the peace of Longjumeau were
+concerned, they were Chancellor L'Hospital and the Bishops of Orleans and
+Limoges--the most moderate members of the royal council,[511] whose fair
+spirit was so conspicuous that for years they had been exposed to insult
+and open hostility as supposed Huguenots. Nothing is clearer than that the
+purpose of these men was the sincere and entire re-establishment of peace
+on a lasting foundation. The arguments of L'Hospital which I have laid
+before the reader furnish sufficient proof. This party had, through the
+force of circumstances, temporarily obtained the ascendancy in the
+council, and now had the ear of the queen mother. But there were by the
+side of its representatives at the council-board men of an entirely
+different stamp--advocates of persecution, of extermination; a few, from
+conscientious motives, preferring, with Alva, a kingdom ruined in the
+attempt to root out heresy, to one flourishing, with heresy tolerated; a
+larger number--and Cardinal Lorraine, who had now resumed his seat and his
+influence, must be classed with these--counting upon deriving personal
+advantage from the supremacy of the papal faction. It is equally manifest
+that this party could have acquiesced in the peace, which again formally
+acknowledged the principle of religious toleration, only with the design
+of embracing the first favorable opportunity for crushing the Huguenots,
+when scattered and disarmed. Their desires, at least, deceived no one of
+ordinary perspicacity. Indeed, the peace came near failing to go into
+effect at all, in consequence of the discovery of the fact that a "privy
+council" had been held in the Louvre, to which none but sworn enemies of
+the Huguenots were admitted, "wherein was conspired a surprise of Orleans,
+Soissons, Rochelle, and Auxerre," to be executed by four designated
+leaders, while the Protestants were laying down their arms. In an age of
+salaried spies, it is not astonishing that by ten o'clock the next morning
+the whole plot was betrayed to Cardinal Chatillon, who immediately sent
+word to stay the publication of the peace. When Charles heard of it, we
+are told that he swore, by the faith of a prince, that, if there had been
+any such conspiracy, it had been formed wholly without his knowledge, and,
+laying his hand on his breast, said: "This is the cardinal and Gascoigne's
+practice. In spite of them, I will proceed with the peace;" and,
+commanding pen and ink to be brought, he wrote Conde a letter promising a
+good and sincere observance of the articles agreed upon.[512]
+
+[Sidenote: Short-sightedness of Catharine.]
+
+But, besides the two parties, and wavering between them--fluctuating in
+her own purposes, as false to her own plans as she was to her promises,
+with no principles either of morality or of government, intent only on
+grasping power, the enemy of every one that stood in the way of this, even
+if it were her son or her daughter--was that enigma, Catharine de' Medici,
+whose secret has escaped so many simply because they looked for something
+deep and recondite, when the solution lay almost upon the very surface.
+Was Catharine sincerely in favor of peace? She was never sincere. Her
+Macchiavellian training, the enforced hypocrisy of her married life, the
+trimming policy she had thought herself compelled to pursue during the
+minority of the kings, her two sons, had eaten from her soul, even to its
+root, truthfulness--that pure plant of heaven's sowing. Loving peace only
+because it freed her from the fears, the embarrassments, the vexations of
+war--not because she valued human life or human happiness--she embraced it
+as a welcome expedient to enable her to escape the present perplexities of
+her position. It is improbable that Catharine distinctly premeditated a
+treacherous blow at the Huguenots, simply because she rarely premeditated
+anything very long. I am aware that this estimate of the queen is quite at
+variance with the views which have obtained the widest currency; but it is
+the estimate which history, carefully read, seems to require us to adopt.
+Catharine's plans were proverbially narrow in their scope, never extending
+much beyond the immediate present. After the catastrophe, which had
+perhaps been the result of the impulse of the moment, she was not,
+however, unwilling to accept the homage of those who deemed it a high
+compliment to her prudence to praise her consummate dissimulation. She
+probably entered upon the peace of Longjumeau without any settled purpose
+of treachery--unless that state of the soul be in itself treachery that
+has no fixed intention of upright dealing. But she had not, in adopting
+the advice of Chancellor de l'Hospital, renounced the policy of the
+Cardinal of Lorraine, in case that policy should at some future time
+appear to be advantageous; and it was much to be feared that the
+contingency referred to would soon arrive. Catharine, not less than
+Charles himself, resented "the affair of Meaux" of the preceding
+September. It was studiously held up to their eyes by the enemies of the
+Huguenots as an attempt upon the honor, and indeed even upon the personal
+liberty and life of their Majesties. Might not Catharine and Charles be
+tempted to retaliate by trying the effect of a surprise upon the Huguenots
+themselves?
+
+[Sidenote: Imprudence of the Huguenots.]
+
+The Huguenots had certainly been grossly imprudent in putting themselves
+at the mercy of a woman whom they had greatly offended, and whose natural
+place, according to those mysterious sympathies which bind men of similar
+natures, was with their adversaries. They had been warned by their secret
+friends at court, some of them by Roman Catholic relatives.[513] But the
+caution was little heeded. It was not long[514] before those who had been
+the most strenuous advocates of peace began to admit that the draught they
+had put to their own lips, and now must needs drink, was likely to prove
+little to their taste.[515]
+
+[Sidenote: Judicial murder of Rapin, at Toulouse.]
+
+The parliaments made serious objections to the reception of the edict.
+Toulouse was, as usual, pre-eminent for its intolerance. The king sent
+Rapin, a Protestant gentleman who had served with distinction under Conde
+in Languedoc, to carry the law to the parliament, and require its official
+recognition. The choice was unfortunate, for it awakened all the hatred of
+a court proverbial for its hostility to the Reformation. An accusation of
+matters quite foreign to his mission was trumped up against Rapin, and,
+contrary to all the principles of justice, and notwithstanding the
+privileged character he bore as the king's envoy, he was arrested,
+condemned to death, and executed. So atrocious a crime might perhaps have
+been punished, had not the new commotions to which we shall soon be
+obliged to pay attention, intervened and screened the culprits from their
+righteous retribution.[516] Not content with murdering Rapin, the
+Parliament of Toulouse still refused to register the edict, and not less
+than four successive orders were sent by the king before his refractory
+judges yielded an unwilling consent, even then annexing restrictive
+clauses which they took care to insert in their secret records.[517]
+
+[Sidenote: Seditious preachers and mobs.]
+
+Again Roman Catholic pulpits resounded, as they did whenever any degree of
+toleration was accorded the Protestants, with denunciations of Catharine,
+of Charles, of all in the council who had advocated such pernicious views.
+Again Ahab and Jezebel appear; but while Catharine is always Jezebel, it
+is Charles that now figures, in place of poor Antoine of Navarre, as
+Ahab.[518] Again, in the struggle of royalty with priests and monks
+breathing sedition, it is the churchman who by his arrogance carries off
+the victory with the common people, while from the sensible he receives
+merited contempt.[519] So fine a text as the edict afforded for spirited
+Lenten discourses did not present itself every day, and the clergy of
+France improved it so well that the passions of their flocks were inflamed
+to the utmost.[520] Except where their numbers were so large as to command
+respect, the Protestants scarcely dared to return to their homes.
+
+[Sidenote: Riot when the edict is published at Rouen.]
+
+The very mention of the peace, with its favorable terms for the
+Protestants, was enough to stir up the anger of the ignorant populace.
+When the Parliament of Rouen, after agreeing to the Edict of Longjumeau in
+private session, threw open its doors (on the third of April, 1568) to
+give it official publication, a rabble that had come purposely to create a
+tumult, interrupted the reading with horrible imprecations against the
+peace, the Huguenots, the edicts, the "preches," and the magistrates who
+approved such impious acts. The presidents and counsellors fled for their
+lives. The populace, as though inspired by some evil spirit, raged and
+committed havoc in the "palais de justice." The mob opened the prisons and
+liberated eight or ten Roman Catholics; then flocked to the ecclesiastical
+dungeons and would have massacred the Protestants that were still confined
+there, had these not found means to ransom their lives with money. It was
+not until six days later that the royal edict was read, in the presence of
+a large military force called in to preserve order.[521]
+
+[Sidenote: Treatment of the returning Huguenots.]
+
+In spite of the provisions of the edict, the Huguenots wandered about in
+the open country, avoiding the cities where they were likely to meet with
+insult and violence, if not death. The Protestants of Nogent, Provins, and
+Bray hesitated for three months, and then we are told that each man
+watched his opportunity and sought to enter when his Roman Catholic
+friends might be on guard to defend him from the insolence of others.
+
+[Sidenote: At Provins.]
+
+But the sufferings of the Huguenot burgess were not ended when he was once
+more in his own house. He was studiously treated as a rebel. Every
+movement was suspicious. A Roman Catholic chronicler, who has preserved in
+his voluminous diary many of the details that enable us to restore
+something of its original coloring to the picture of the social and
+political condition of the times, vividly portrays the misfortunes of the
+unfortunate Huguenots of Provins. They were not numerous. One by one,
+thirty or forty had stealthily crept into town, experiencing no other
+injury than the coarse raillery of their former neighbors. Thereupon the
+municipal government met and deliberated upon the measures of police to be
+taken "in order to hold the Huguenots in check and in fear, and to avoid
+any treachery they might intend to put into practice by the introduction
+of their brother Huguenots into the city to plunder and hold it by force."
+The determination arrived at was that each of the four captains should
+visit the Huguenot houses of his quarter, examine the inmates, and take
+all the weapons he found, giving a receipt to their owners. This was not
+the only humiliation to which the Protestants were subjected. A
+proclamation was published forbidding them from receiving any person into
+their houses, from meeting together under any pretext, from leaving their
+houses in the evening after seven o'clock in summer, or five in winter,
+from walking by day or night on the walls, or, indeed, from approaching
+within two arquebuse shots' distance of them--all upon pain of death! They
+could not even go into the country without a passport from the bailiff and
+the captain of the gate, the penalty of transgressing this regulation
+being banishment. No wonder that the Huguenots were irritated, and that
+most of them wished that they had not returned.[522] Since, however, a
+royal ordinance of the nineteenth of May expressly enjoined upon all
+fugitive Huguenots to re-enter the cities to which they belonged, and in
+case of refusal commanded the magistrates to raise a force and attack them
+as presumptive robbers and enemies of the public peace,[523] they were
+perhaps quite as safe within the walls as roaming about outside of them.
+
+[Sidenote: Expedition and fate of De Cocqueville.]
+
+Early in the summer an event occurred on the northern frontier, which,
+although in itself of little weight, augmented the suspicions which the
+Protestants began to entertain of the Spanish tendencies of the
+government. One Seigneur de Cocqueville, with a party of French and
+Flemish Huguenots, had crossed the northern boundary and invaded Philip's
+Netherland provinces. He had, however, been driven back into France. As he
+was believed to have acted under Conde's instructions, that prince was
+requested by Charles to inform him whether Cocqueville were in his
+service. When Conde disavowed him, and declined all responsibility for
+the movement, Marshal Cosse was directed to march against Cocqueville,
+and, on the eighteenth of July, the Huguenot chieftain was captured at the
+town of Saint Valery, in Picardy, where he had taken refuge. Of
+twenty-five hundred followers, barely three hundred are said to have been
+spared. In order to please Alva, the Flemings received no quarter. The
+leaders, Cocqueville, Vaillant, and Saint Amand, were brought to Paris and
+gibbeted on the Place de Greve.[524]
+
+[Sidenote: Attitude of the government suspicious.]
+
+[Sidenote: Garrisons and interpretative ordinances.]
+
+The central government itself gave the gravest grounds for fear and
+suspicion. The Huguenots had promptly disbanded. They had lost no time in
+dismissing their German allies, who, retiring with well-filled pockets to
+the other side of the Rhine, seemed alone to have profited by the
+intestine commotions of France.[525] On the contrary, the Roman Catholic
+forces showed no disposition to disarm. It is true that, in the first
+fervor of the ascendancy of the peace party, Catharine countermanded a
+levy of five thousand Saxons, much to the annoyance of Castelnau, who had
+by his unwearied diligence brought them in hot haste to Rethel on the
+Aisne, only to learn that the preliminaries of peace were on the point of
+being concluded, and that the troopers were expected to retrace their
+steps to Saxony.[526] But the Swiss and Italian soldiers, as well as the
+French gens-d'armes, were for the most part retained. To Humieres, who
+commanded for the king in Peronne, Charles wrote an explanation of his
+course: "Inasmuch as there are sometimes turbulent spirits so constituted
+that they neither can nor desire to accommodate themselves so soon to
+quiet, it has appeared to me extremely necessary to anticipate this
+difficulty, and act in such a manner that, force and authority remaining
+on my side, I may be able to keep in check those who might so far forget
+themselves as to set on foot new disturbances and be the cause of
+seditious uprising."[527] Large garrisons were thus provided for those
+towns which had rendered themselves conspicuous in the defence of the
+Huguenots during the late war, and the sufferings of the Protestants, upon
+whom, in preference to their Roman Catholic neighbors, the insolent
+soldiers were quartered, were terrible beyond description.[528] The
+horrors of the "dragonnades" of the reign of Louis the Fourteenth were
+rivalled by these earlier military persecutions. Multitudes were despoiled
+of their goods, hundreds lost their lives at the hands of their cruel
+guests. France assumed the aspect of a great camp, with sentries posted
+everywhere to maintain it in peace against some suspected foe. The
+sea-ports, the bridges, the roads were guarded; the Huguenots themselves
+were placed under a species of surveillance. Nor were the old resorts of
+the court forgotten. Again interpretative ordinances were called in to
+abrogate a portion of the law itself. Charles declared in a new
+proclamation that he had not intended by the Edict of Longjumeau to
+include Auvergne, nor any district belonging as an appanage to his mother,
+to Anjou, Alencon, or the Bourbon princes, in the toleration guaranteed by
+the edict. And thus a very considerable number of Protestants were by a
+single stroke of the pen stripped of the privileges solemnly accorded to
+them but a few weeks before.[529] Other pledges were as shamelessly
+broken. The Huguenot gentlemen whom the court had attempted to punish by
+declaring them to have forfeited their honors and dignities, were not
+reinstated according to the terms of the edict.[530]
+
+[Sidenote: Oppression by royal governors.]
+
+The conduct of individual governors furnished still greater occasion for
+complaint and alarm. The Duke of Nemours, who, in marrying Anne of Este,
+Guise's widow, two years before, seemed also to have espoused all the
+hatred which the Lorraines felt for Protestantism, and for the family of
+the Chatillons, its most prominent and faithful defenders, was governor of
+the provinces of Lyonnais and Dauphiny. This insubordinate nobleman loudly
+proclaimed his intention to disregard the Edict of Longjumeau, as opposed
+to the Roman Catholic Church and to the king's honor. In vain did the
+Protestants, who were numerous in the city of Lyons, demand to be allowed
+to enjoy the two places of worship they had possessed, before the late
+troubles, within the city walls. The duke would not listen to their just
+claims, and the court, in answer to their appeals, only responded that the
+king did not approve of the holding of Protestant services inside of
+cities, and that a place would shortly be assigned for their use in the
+vicinity.[531] Unrebuked by the queen or her son for his flagrant
+disobedience, Nemours received nothing but plaudits from the fanatical
+adherents of the religion he pretended to maintain, and was honored by the
+Pope, Pius the Fifth (on the fifth of July, 1568), with a special brief,
+in which he was praised for being the first to set a resplendent example
+of resistance to the execution of an unchristian peace.[532]
+
+Marshal Tavannes, in Burgundy, earned equal gratitude for his opposition
+to the concession of Protestant rights. Not content with remonstrance
+respecting a peace which had excited every one "to raise his voice against
+the king and Catharine," and with dark hints of the danger of handling so
+carelessly a border province like Burgundy,[533] he openly favored the
+revival of those "Confraternities of the Holy Ghost" which Charles had so
+lately condemned and prohibited. Being himself detained by illness, two of
+his sons were present at a meeting of one of these seditious assemblages,
+held in Dijon, the provincial capital, where, before a great concourse of
+people, the most inflammatory language was freely uttered.[534]
+
+[Sidenote: The "Christian and Royal League."]
+
+[Sidenote: Insubordination to royal authority.]
+
+At Troyes, the capital of Champagne, a similar association assumed the
+designation of "the Christian and Royal League." The document, containing
+the oath taken by the clergy whom the king's lieutenant had associated
+with the nobility and the provincial estates in the "holy" bond, is still
+extant, with the signatures of the bishop, the deans, canons, and inferior
+ecclesiastics appended.[535] The primary object was the maintenance of
+"the true Catholic and Roman Church of God;" and after this the
+preservation of the crown for the house of Valois was mentioned. It was to
+be sustained "against all persons, without excepting any, save the persons
+of the king, his sons and brothers, and the queen their mother, and
+without regard to any relationship or alliance," and "so long as it might
+please God that the signers should be governed according to the Roman and
+Apostolic Church."[536] In less public utterances the spirit of
+insubordination to the regal authority made itself understood even more
+clearly. When the formation of such associations was objected to, on the
+ground of the king's prohibition, the response given by those who
+pretended to be better informed than the rest was that the Cardinal of
+Lorraine could make the matter agreeable to his Majesty. Others more
+boldly announced the intention of the Roman Catholic party, in case
+Charles should refuse to sanction its course, to send him to a monastery
+for the rest of his days, and elect another king in his place. Three
+months' time was all that these blatant boasters allowed for the utter
+destruction of the Huguenots in France. An end would be made of them as
+soon as the harvest and vintage were past.[537]
+
+[Sidenote: Admirable organization of the Huguenots.]
+
+If the Roman Catholics had resolved upon a renewal of the war, they
+certainly had reason to desire a better combination of their forces than
+they had effected in the late contest. They had been startled and amazed
+at the rapidity with which, although embracing but an inconsiderable
+minority of the population, the Huguenots had succeeded in massing an army
+that held at bay that of the king. They admired the completeness of the
+organization which enabled the Prince of Conde and the admiral to summon
+the gentry of the most distant provinces, and bring them to the very
+vicinity of the court before the movement was suspected even by Constable
+Montmorency, who believed himself to be kept advised of the most trifling
+occurrences that took place in any part of France. The triumph of the
+Huguenots--for was it not a triumph which they had achieved in securing
+such terms as the Edict of Longjumeau conceded?--was a disgrace to the
+papists, who had not known how to use their overwhelming preponderance in
+numbers. Never had a more signal example been given of the superiority of
+united and zealous sympathy over discordant and soulless counsels.[538]
+While their enemies, with nothing in common but their hatred of
+Protestantism, were hampered by the want of concert between their leaders,
+or cheated of their success by their positive jealousies and quarrels, the
+Huguenots had in their common faith, in their well-ordered form of church
+government, combining the advantages of great local efficiency with those
+of a representative union, and in their common danger, the instruments
+best adapted to secure the ends they desired. "They were so closely bound
+together by this order and by these objects," wrote the Venetian
+ambassador Correro, "that there resulted a concordant will and so perfect
+a union that it made them prompt in rendering instant obedience and in
+forming common designs, and most ready to execute the commands of their
+superiors."[539]
+
+[Sidenote: Murder runs riot throughout France.]
+
+With such associations as "the Confraternities of the Holy Ghost," and
+"the Christian and Royal League" springing up in various parts of France,
+under the express sanction of the provincial governors, and publishing as
+their chief aim the extirpation of heresy from the realm; with priests and
+monks, especially those of the new order of Jesus, inflaming the passions
+of the people by seditious preaching, and persuading their hearers that
+any toleration of heretics was a compact with Satan, it is not strange
+that murder held high carnival wherever the Protestants were not so
+numerous as to be able to stand on the defensive. The victims were of
+every rank and station, from the obscure peasant to the distinguished
+Cipierre, son of the Count de Tende and a relative of the Duke of Savoy,
+the orders for whose assassination were confidently believed to have
+issued from the court.[540] At Auxerre, which had been given up by the
+Huguenots in accordance with the provisions of the peace, one hundred and
+fifty Protestants paid with their lives the price of their good faith.
+Their bodies were thrown into the public sewers. In the city of Amiens one
+hundred and fifty persons were slaughtered at one time. Instead of
+punishment, the rioters obtained their object: the reformed worship was
+forbidden in Amiens, or within three leagues of the city.[541] At Clermont
+the assassins, after plundering the wares of a wealthy merchant, who had
+refused to hang tapestry before his house at the time of the procession on
+Corpus Christi Day--La Fete-Dieu--buried him in a fire made of furniture
+taken from his own house.[542] At Ligny, in Champagne, a Huguenot was
+pursued into the very bedchamber of a royal officer, and there killed.
+Troyes, Bourges, Rouen, and a host of other places, witnessed the
+commission of atrocities which it would be rather sickening than
+profitable to narrate.[543] In Paris itself the murders of Huguenots were
+frequent. "On Sunday last," wrote Norris, the English envoy, to his royal
+mistress, "the Prince of Conde sent a gentleman to the king, to beseech
+his Majesty to administer justice against such as murder them of the
+religion, and as he entered into the city there were five slain in St.
+Anthony's street, not far from my lodging."[544] The aggregate of
+homicides committed within the brief compass of this so-called peace was
+enormous. Jean de Serres and Agrippa d'Aubigne may possibly go somewhat
+beyond the mark when they state the number of victims in three
+months--April, May, and June, 1568--at over ten thousand;[545] but they
+are substantially correct in saying that the number far exceeded that of
+the armed Huguenots slain during the six months of the preceding war;[546]
+for the Venetian ambassador, who certainly had no motive for exaggeration,
+asserts that "the principal cities of the kingdom, notwithstanding the
+conditions of the peace, refused to readmit 'the preachings' to their
+territories, and slew many thousands of Huguenots who dared to rise and
+complain."[547]
+
+[Sidenote: Rochelle and other cities refuse to receive garrisons.]
+
+[Sidenote: Conde and Coligny retire.]
+
+[Sidenote: D'Andelot's remonstrance.]
+
+While the majority of the cities held by the Protestants had, as we have
+seen, promptly opened their gates to the king, a number, perceiving the
+dangers to which they were exposed, alarmed by the attitude of the Roman
+Catholics, and doubtful of the good faith of the court, declined to allow
+the garrisons to enter. This was the case with La Rochelle, which defended
+its course by appealing to its privileges, and with Montauban, Albi,
+Milhau, Sancerre, Castres, Vezelay, and other less important towns.[548]
+The events of a few weeks had amply vindicated the wisdom and justice of
+their refusal. La Rochelle even began to repair its fortifications,
+confident that the papal faction would never rest until it had made the
+attempt to destroy the great Huguenot stronghold in the west. Evidently
+there was no safety for a Protestant under the aegis of the Edict of
+Longjumeau. The Prince of Conde dared not resume the government of the
+province nominally restored to his charge, and retired to Noyers, a small
+town in Burgundy, belonging to his wife's dower, where he would be less
+exposed than in the vicinity of Paris to any treacherous attempt upon his
+person. Admiral Coligny was not slow in following his example. He
+abandoned his stately manor of Chatillon-sur-Loing, where, with a heart
+saddened by recent domestic affliction,[549] he had been compelled to
+exercise a princely hospitality to the crowds that daily thronged to
+consult with him and to do him honor,[550] and took up his abode in the
+castle of Tanlay, belonging to his brother D'Andelot, and within a few
+miles of the prince's retreat.[551] D'Andelot himself had recently started
+for Brittany, where his first wife, Claude de Rieux, had held extensive
+possessions.[552] Before leaving, however, he had written to Catharine de'
+Medici, a letter of remonstrance full of noble sentiments. The occasion
+was the murder of one of his gentlemen, whom he had sent to the
+neighboring city of Auxerre; but his letter embraced a complete view of
+"the calamitous state of the poor kingdom," whose misery "was such as to
+cause the hair of all that heard to stand on end." "Not only," said
+D'Andelot, "can we feel no doubt that God will not leave unpunished so
+much innocent blood, which continues to cry before Him for vengeance, as
+well as so many violations of women and maidens; so many robberies; so
+much oppression--in one word, every species of iniquity. But, besides
+this, we can look for nothing else than the near-approaching desolation
+and ruin of this state: for no one that has read sacred and profane
+history will be able to deny that such things have always preceded the
+overthrow of empires and monarchies. I am well aware, madam, that there
+will be those who, on seeing this letter, will ridicule me, and will say
+that I am playing the part of prophet or preacher. I am neither the one
+nor the other, since God has not given me this calling. But I will yet
+say, with truth, that there is not a man in the kingdom, of any rank or
+quality, who loves his king and his kingdom better than I do, or who is
+more grieved at seeing those disorders that I see, which can, in the end,
+result only in general confusion. I know full well that I shall be met
+with the taking up of arms, in which I participated, with so many others,
+on the eve of last St. Michael's Day, as if we had intended to attack the
+persons of your Majesties, or anything belonging to you, or this state, as
+was published wherever it was possible, and as is still daily asserted.
+But, not to undertake other justification, I will only say that, if such
+wickedness had entered into my heart, though I might conceal it from men,
+I could not hide it from God, from whom I never have asked forgiveness for
+it, nor ever shall I." D'Andelot proceeded to show that the movement in
+question had been caused by absolute necessity, and that this was rendered
+evident to all men by that which was now occurring in every part of
+France. He told her that it was sufficiently manifest that this universal
+oppression was only designed to provoke "those of the religion" to such a
+point that they would lose patience, and to obtain a pretext for attacking
+and exterminating them. He reminded her that he had often insisted "that
+opinions in matters of religion can be changed neither by fire nor by
+force of arms, and that those deem themselves very happy who can lay down
+their lives for the service of God and for His glory." He warned her of
+those who, unlike the Huguenots, would sacrifice the interests of the
+state to their own individual ends of ambition or revenge. In conclusion,
+after alluding to a recent sudden death which much resembled a mark of the
+divine displeasure upon the murderous assault that had called forth this
+letter, he exclaimed: "I do not mean to be so presumptuous as to judge the
+dealings of God; but I do mean to say, with the sure testimony of His
+word, that all those who violate public faith are punished for it."[553]
+
+[Sidenote: Catharine takes side with the chancellor's enemies.]
+
+That salutary warning had been rung in Catharine's ears more than once,
+and was destined to be repeated again and again, with little effect: "All
+those who violate public faith are punished for it." L'Hospital had but a
+few months before been urging to a course of political integrity, and
+pointing out the rock on which all previous plans of pacification had
+split. There was but one way to secure the advantages of permanent peace,
+and that was an upright observance of the treaties formed with the
+Huguenots. But Catharine was slow to learn the lesson. Crooked paths, to
+her distorted vision, seemed to be the shortest way to success. Her
+Italian education had taught her that deceit was better, under all
+circumstances, than plain dealing, and she could not unlearn the
+long-cherished theory. Whether L'Hospital's views were originally the
+chief motives that influenced her in consenting to the peace of
+Longjumeau, or whether she had acquiesced in it as a cover to treacherous
+designs, certain it is that she now began to side openly with the
+chancellor's enemies, and that the Cardinal of Lorraine regained his old
+influence in the council. The fanatical sermons that had been a
+premonitory symptom of the previous wars were again heard with complacency
+in the court chapel; for, about the month of June, the king appointed as
+his preachers four of the most blatant advocates of persecution: Vigor, a
+canon of Notre Dame; De Sainte Foy; the gray friar, Hugonis; and Claude de
+Sainctes, whose acquaintance the reformers had made at the Colloquy of
+Poissy.[554]
+
+[Sidenote: Remonstrance of the three marshals.]
+
+[Sidenote: Catharine's intrigues.]
+
+There had been a desperate struggle in the royal council ever since the
+conclusion of the peace. The extreme Roman Catholics, recognizing the
+instability of Catharine, had long since begun to base their hopes upon
+Henry of Anjou's influence. Their opponents accepted the issue, and
+resolved to circumscribe the duke's inordinate powers. Three of the
+marshals of France--Montmorency, his brother Damville, and
+Vieilleville--presented themselves at a meeting of the royal council held
+in the queen mother's sick-chamber (on the second of May, 1568), to
+remonstrate against Anjou's retaining the office of lieutenant-general.
+Even Cardinal Bourbon supported their movement, and, sinking for the time
+his extreme religious partisanship, threatened to leave the court, and
+give the world to understand how much he had at heart the honor of his
+house and the welfare of his friends. The object of the marshals could not
+be mistaken: it was nothing less than the overthrow of the Cardinal of
+Lorraine, who sought supreme power under cover of Anjou's name. The end of
+the war, remarked the ambassador, Sir Henry Norris, had brought no end to
+the mortal hatred between the houses of Guise and Montmorency. The
+prospect of permanent peace was dark. The king was easy to be seduced, his
+mother bent upon maintaining these divisions in the court, and Anjou so
+much under the cardinal's influence that it was to be feared that the
+Huguenots would in the end be forced to have recourse once more to arms.
+In the midst of these perils, the queen mother had been exercising her
+ingenuity in playing off one party against the other; now giving
+countenance to the Guises, now to the Montmorencies. At one time she used
+Limoges, at another Morvilliers or Sens, in her secret intrigues.
+Presently she resorted to Lorraine, and, when jealous of his too great
+forwardness, would turn to the chancellor himself, "undoing in one day
+what the cardinal had intended long afore." Besides these prominent
+statesmen, she had not scrupled to take up with meaner tools--men whose
+elevation boded no good to the commonwealth, and with whom she conferred
+about the imposition of those onerous taxes which had cost her the
+forfeiture of the good-will of the people. To add to the confusion, the
+jealousy between the king and his brother Anjou had reappeared, and the
+chancellor had lost his characteristic courage and avowed his utter
+despair of being able to stem the fierce tide of human selfishness and
+passion. Cardinal Lorraine was realizing his long-cherished hope: "for
+this one man's authority had been the greatest countermand of his
+devices."[555]
+
+[Sidenote: The court tries to ruin Conde and Coligny.]
+
+The Huguenot leaders had entered into engagements to repay to the king the
+nine hundred thousand francs advanced by him to the German reiters of
+Count Casimir. This sum--a large one for the times--Charles now called
+upon Conde and Coligny to refund, and he expressly commanded that it
+should not be levied upon the Protestant churches, but be raised by those
+who had taken up arms in the late contest.[556] It was a transparent
+attempt to array the masses that had suffered little pecuniarily in the
+war against the brave men who had not only impoverished themselves, but
+hazarded their lives in defence of the common cause. Nothing less than the
+financial ruin of the prince and the admiral, who had voluntarily become
+sureties, seemed likely to satisfy their enemies.
+
+[Sidenote: Teligny sent to carry a reply.]
+
+The Prince of Conde despatched young Teligny to carry his spirited reply
+to this extraordinary demand, and, not confining himself to the exhibition
+of its flagrant injustice, he recapitulated the daily multiplying
+infractions upon the edict. The Protestants were treated as enemies, he
+said, and were safe neither at home nor abroad. An open war could not be
+more bitter.[557] Besides countless general massacres, he complained of
+the recent assassination of two of his own dependants, and of the
+surveillance exercised over all the great noblemen "of the religion," who
+were closely watched in their castles by the commanders of neighboring
+forces. Against himself the unparalleled insult had been shown of placing
+a garrison in the palace of a prince of the blood. Nay, he had arrested a
+spy caught in the very act of measuring the height of the fortifications
+of Noyers, and sounding the depth of the moat, with a view to a subsequent
+assault, and the capture not only of the prince, but of the admiral, who
+frequently came there to see him. He rehearsed the grounds of just alarm
+which the Protestants had in the threats their indiscreet enemies were
+daily uttering, and in "the confraternities of the Holy Ghost," defiantly
+instituted with the approval of the king's own governors. What safety was
+there for the Huguenots when a counsellor of a celebrated parliament had
+lately asserted, in the presence of an assembly of three thousand persons,
+"that he had commands from the leading men of the royal council
+admonishing the Catholics that they ought to give no credence to any
+edicts of the king unless they contained a peculiar mark of authenticity."
+And he was induced to believe him right, by noticing the fact that, since
+the establishment of peace, no one had obeyed the royal letters. Finally,
+in decided but respectful language, he remonstrated against the pernicious
+precedent which the court was allowing to become established, when the
+express commands of the monarch were set at naught with impunity.[558]
+
+[Sidenote: An oath to be exacted of the Huguenots.]
+
+As the time approached for the blow to be struck that should forever put
+an end to the exercise of the reformed faith in France, the conspirators
+began to betray their anxiety lest their nefarious designs might be
+anticipated and rendered futile by such a measure of defence as that which
+the Huguenots had taken on the eve of Michaelmas. They resolved,
+therefore, if possible, to bind their victims hand and foot; and no more
+convenient method presented itself than that of involving them in
+obligations of implicit obedience which would embarrass, if they did not
+absolutely preclude, any exercise of their wonderful system of combined
+action. About the beginning of August, Charles despatched to all parts of
+his dominions the form of an oath which was to be demanded of every
+Protestant subject, and the royal officers and magistrates were directed
+to make lists of those who signed as well as of those who refused to sign
+it.[559] "We protest before God, and swear by His name"--so ran the
+oath--"that we recognize King Charles the Ninth as our natural sovereign
+and only prince ... and that we will never take up arms save by his
+express command, of which he may have notified us by his letters patent
+duly verified; and that we will never consent to, nor assist with counsel,
+money, food, or anything else whatsoever, those who shall arm themselves
+against him or his will. We will make no levy or assessment of money for
+any purpose without his express commission; and will never enter into any
+secret leagues, intrigues, or plots, nor engage in any underhand practices
+or enterprises, but, on the contrary, we promise and swear to notify him
+or his officers of all that we shall be able to learn and discover that is
+devised against his Majesty.... Moreover, we protest that we will not
+leave the city, whatever necessity may arrive, but will join our hearts,
+our wills, and our abilities with our fellow-citizens in defence of that
+city, to which we will always entertain the devotion of true and faithful
+citizens, whilst the Catholics will find in us sincere and fraternal
+affection: awaiting the time when it may please God to put an end to all
+troubles, to which we hope that this reconciliation will be a happy
+prelude."[560]
+
+The trap was not ill contrived, and its bars were strong enough to hold
+anything that might venture within. Fortunately, however, the bait did not
+conceal the cruel design lurking behind it. Why, it might be asked, this
+new test? Was Conde, whom the king had only four or five months ago
+recognized by solemn edict as his "dear cousin and faithful servant and
+subject," a friend or a foe? Had peace been concluded with the Huguenots
+only that they might anew be treated as rebels and enemies? What had
+become of the prescribed amnesty? Was it at all likely that private
+citizens would bury in oblivion their former dissensions and abstain from
+mutual insults, when the monarch officially reminded them that there was
+one class of his subjects whose past conduct made them objects of grave
+suspicion? While, therefore, the Huguenots professed themselves ready to
+give the king all possible assurances of their loyal devotion, they
+declined to swear to a form that bore on its face the proof that it was
+composed, not in accordance with Charles's own ideas, but by an enemy of
+the crown and of public tranquillity. They requested that it might receive
+such modifications as would permit them to sign it with due regard to
+their own self-respect and to their religious convictions, and they
+entreated Charles to confirm their liberty of conscience and of religious
+observance; for, without these privileges, which they valued above their
+own existence, they were ready to forsake, not only their cities, but
+their very lives also.[561]
+
+[Sidenote: The plot disclosed by an intercepted letter.]
+
+At this critical moment the destiny of France was wavering in the balance,
+and the decision depended upon the answer to be given to the question
+whether Chancellor L'Hospital or Cardinal Lorraine should retain his place
+in the council. The tolerant policy of the former is too well understood
+to need an explanation. The designs of the latter are revealed by an
+intercepted letter that fell into the hands of the Huguenots about this
+time. It was written (on the ninth of August) at the little country-seat
+named Madrid,[562] whose ruins are still pointed out, near the banks of
+the Seine, on the edge of the Bois de Boulogne, and not far from the walls
+of the city of Paris. The writer, evidently a devoted partisan of the
+house of Guise, had been entrusted by the Cardinal of Lorraine[563] with a
+glimpse at the designs of the party of which the latter was the declared
+chief. A proclamation was soon to be made in the king's name, through
+Marshal Cosse, to the Protestant nobles, assuring them of the monarch's
+intention to deal kindly and peaceably with them, to preserve their
+religious liberties, and to treat them as his faithful subjects; and
+explaining the design of the movement which he was now setting on foot to
+be merely the reduction of the inhabitants of some insolent cities (those
+that, like La Rochelle, had refused to admit garrisons) to his authority.
+This announcement, the cardinal proceeded to say, might disturb some good
+Catholics, who would think that their labors and the dangers they had
+undergone were all in vain. In reality, however, it was only intended to
+secure the power in the hands of the king, and to take away from the
+Protestant leaders all occasion for assembling, until, being reduced to
+straits, that rabble, so hostile to the king and the kingdom, should be
+wholly destroyed. Thus the very remnants would be annihilated; for the
+seed would assuredly spring up again, unless the same course should be
+pursued as that of which the French had resplendent examples shown them by
+their neighbors.[564] Meanwhile, until these plans could be carried into
+effect, as they would doubtless be within the present month, the
+Protestant nobles must be carefully diverted, as some were already showing
+signs of security, and others of falling into the snare prepared for them.
+The cardinal, so he informed the writer, was confident, with God's favor,
+of an easy and most certain victory over the enemies of the faith.[565]
+
+[Sidenote: Isabella of France again her husband's mouthpiece.]
+
+Such were the cardinal's intentions as expressed by himself and reported
+almost word for word[566] in a letter to which I shall presently have
+occasion again to direct the reader's attention. It was the policy
+advocated persistently both by Pius the Fifth and by Philip the Second,
+and embodied in counsel which would have been resented by a court
+possessed of more self-respect than the French court, as impertinent
+advice. For, in the report made to Catharine by one of her servants at the
+Spanish capital, there is a wonderful similarity in the language employed
+to that used at the conference of Bayonne. Isabella of France is again the
+speaker, though much suspected of uttering rather the sentiments of
+Philip, her husband, who was present,[567] than her own. Again, after
+expressing the most vehement zeal for the welfare of her native country,
+she advocated rigorous measures against the Huguenots, in phrases almost
+identical with those which, as the Duke of Alva relates, she had addressed
+to her mother three years before. "She told me among other things," says
+the queen's agent, "that she would never believe that either the king her
+brother, or you, will ever execute the design already entered into between
+you (although, by your command, I had notified the king [Philip] and
+herself of your good-will respecting this matter), until she saw it
+performed; for you had often before made them the same promises, but no
+result had ever followed. She feared that your Majesties might be
+dissuaded from action by the smooth speeches of certain persons in your
+court, until the enemy gained the opportunity of forming new designs, not
+only against the king's authority, but even against yourselves. The
+apprehension kept her in a constant state of alarm."[568]
+
+[Sidenote: King Charles entreats his mother to avoid war.]
+
+But, although Catharine had now given in her adhesion to the Spanish and
+Lorraine party, the success of that party was as yet incomplete.
+L'Hospital was still in the privy council, and Charles himself greatly
+preferred the conciliation and peace advocated by the chancellor. The
+same letter from the pleasure-palace of "Madrid," on the banks of the
+Seine, whose contents have already occupied our attention, makes important
+disclosures respecting the attitude of the unhappy prince, of whom it may
+be questioned whether his greatest misfortune was that he had so
+unprincipled a mother, or that he had not sufficient strength of will to
+resist her pernicious designs. "I observed," wrote this correspondent
+still further in reference to the Cardinal of Lorraine, "that he was very
+much excited on account of a conversation which the king had recently had
+with the queen, and which he believed to have been suggested to him by
+others. For the king entreated his mother, almost as a suppliant, 'to take
+the greatest care lest war should again break out, and that the edict
+should everywhere be observed: otherwise he foresaw the complete ruin of
+his kingdom.'[569] And when the queen alleged the rebellion of the
+inhabitants of La Rochelle, he replied, as he had been instructed
+beforehand, 'that the Rochellois only desired to retain their ancient
+privileges. Their demand was not unreasonable; and even if it were, it was
+better to make a temporary sacrifice to the welfare of the realm than to
+plunge in new turmoil. As to the nobles, he was persuaded that they would
+live peaceably if the edict were properly executed. In short, he was
+earnestly desirous that matters should be restored to their best and most
+quiet state.' The queen and very many other illustrious persons have but
+one object of fervent desire, and that is to see the kingdom of France
+return to the condition it was in under Francis and Henry. The queen
+mother knows that this speech was dictated to him by certain men, and she
+owes the authors of it no good-will. So much the more anxiously does she
+desire, in common with a vast multitude of good Catholics, to prove to
+the king that whatever is done in this affair has for its sole object to
+liberate him from servitude and make him a king in reality, and to expel
+the pestilence and those infected by it--a result utterly unattainable in
+any other way."[570]
+
+[Sidenote: Catharine's animosity against L'Hospital.]
+
+Catharine could not doubt that it was Michel de l'Hospital that had
+infused into Charles his own just and pacific spirit. From the moment she
+had come to this conclusion the chancellor's fall was inevitable. The
+particular occasion of it, however, seems to have been the opposition
+which he offered to the reception of a papal bull. To relieve the royal
+treasury, the court had applied to Rome for permission to alienate
+ecclesiastical possessions in France yielding an income of fifty thousand
+crowns (or one hundred and fifty thousand francs), on the plea that the
+indebtedness had been incurred in defence of the Roman Catholic faith.
+Pius the Fifth granted the application, but in his bull of the first of
+August, 1568, he not only made it a condition that the funds should be
+exclusively employed under the direction of a trustworthy person--and as
+such he named the Cardinal of Lorraine--in the extermination of the
+heretics of France, or their reconciliation with the Church of Rome, but
+he ascribed to Charles in making the request the declared purpose of
+continuing a work for which his own means had proved inadequate. The
+reception of the document was in itself an act of bad faith, and the
+chancellor resisted it to the utmost of his power, urging that the pontiff
+should be requested to alter its objectionable form.[571]
+
+[Sidenote: Another quarrel between Lorraine and the chancellor.]
+
+Another of those painful scenes occurred in the privy council (on the
+nineteenth of September), of which there had been so many within the past
+four or five years. Again the disputants were the Cardinal of Lorraine and
+the chancellor. The former angrily demanded the reason why L'Hospital had
+refused to affix his signature to the bull; whereupon the latter alleged,
+among many other grounds, that to revoke the Edict of Pacification, as
+demanded by the Pope, "was the direct way to cause open wars, and to bring
+the Germans into the realm." The cardinal was "much stirred." He called
+L'Hospital a hypocrite; he said that his wife and daughter were
+Calvinists. "You are not the first of your race that has deserved ill of
+the king," he added. "I am sprung from as honest a race as you are,"
+retorted the other. Beside himself with fury, Lorraine "gave him the lie,
+and, rising incontinently out of his chair," would have seized him by the
+beard, had not Marshal Montmorency stepped in between them. "Madam," said
+the cardinal, "in great choler," turning to the queen mother, in whose
+presence the angry discussion took place, "the chancellor is the sole
+cause of all the troubles in France, and were he in the hands of
+parliament his head would not tarry on his shoulders twenty-four hours."
+"On the contrary, Madam," rejoined L'Hospital, "the cardinal is the
+original cause of all the mischiefs that have chanced as well to France,
+within these eight years, as to the rest of Christendom. In proof of which
+I refer him to the common report of even those who most favor him."[572]
+
+[Sidenote: The chancellor's fall.]
+
+But the chancellor accomplished nothing. Catharine had overcome her weak
+son's partiality for the grave old counsellor by persuading him that, as
+the chancellor's wife, his daughter, his son-in-law, and indeed his entire
+house, were avowedly Huguenots, it was impossible but that he was himself
+only restrained from making an open profession of Protestantism by the
+fear of losing his present position.[573] Finding himself not only
+stripped of all influence, and compelled to witness the enactment of
+measures repugnant to his very nature, but an object of hatred to his
+associates, Michel de l'Hospital withdrew from a council board where, as
+he asserted, even Charles himself did not dare to express his opinions
+freely.[574] Subsequently retiring altogether from the court to his
+country-seat of Vignai, not far from Etampes, he surrendered his insignia
+of office to a messenger of Catharine, who came to recommend him, in the
+king's name, to take that rest which his advanced years demanded. Monsieur
+de Morvilliers succeeded him, with the title of keeper of the seals, but
+the full powers of chancellor.[575] In quiet retirement, the venerable
+judge and legislator lingered more than four years, unhappy only in being
+spared to see the melancholy results of the rejection of his prudent
+counsels, the desolation of his native land, and the transformation of an
+amiable king into a murderer of his own subjects. Few days in this
+eventful reign were more lasting in their consequences than that which
+beheld the final removal from all direct influence upon the court of the
+only leading politician or statesman who could have forestalled the
+horrors of a generation of inhuman wars.
+
+[Sidenote: The plot.]
+
+[Sidenote: Marshal Tavannes its author.]
+
+The crisis now rapidly approached. The Huguenot chiefs were widely
+separated from each other--Montgomery in Normandy, Genlis and Mouy in
+Picardy, Rochefoucauld at Angouleme, D'Andelot in Brittany, Conde and
+Coligny in Burgundy. The royal court, now entirely in the interest of the
+Guises, resolved to execute the plan which the Roman Catholic nobles of
+this faction had sketched to Alva three years before at Bayonne, by the
+seizure of five or six of the leaders, as a measure preliminary to the
+total suppression of Protestantism in France. Gaspard de Tavannes was
+entrusted with the execution of the most important part of the scheme--the
+arrest of the prince and the admiral. Fourteen companies of gens-d'armes
+and as many ensigns of infantry stood under his orders, and Noyers was
+closely beset on all sides.[576] It was at this moment, when secrecy was
+all important to the success of the plot, that the tidings of the
+threatening storm reached its destined victims. It has long been believed
+and reported that Tavannes, unwilling to lend himself to unworthy
+machinations whose execution would have wounded his soldierly pride, took
+measures to warn Conde and Coligny of their danger. Unfortunately, the
+story rests on no better authority than his "Memoires," written by a son
+who has often shown a greater desire to vindicate his father's memory than
+to maintain historical truth, and who, writing under the rule of the
+Bourbons, had in this case, as in that of the pretended deliverance of
+Henry of Navarre and Henry of Conde, at the great Parisian massacre four
+years later, sufficient inducements for endeavoring to represent the
+reigning family as indebted to his father for its preservation.[577]
+Brantome is consistent with the entire mass of contemporary documents in
+representing Tavannes as the author of the whole scheme; and certainly one
+who was so deeply implicated in the massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day
+cannot have been too humane to think of capturing, or even assassinating,
+two nobles, although one of them was a prince of the blood. A more
+probable story is that Tavannes was the unintentional instrument of the
+disclosure, a letter of his having fallen into Huguenot hands, containing
+the words: "The deer is in the net; the game is ready."[578] But, in
+point of fact, the Huguenots needed no such hints. With their perfect
+organization, in the face of so treacherous a foe, after so many
+violations as they had of late witnessed of the royal edict, they were
+already on their guard, and the hostile preparations had not escaped their
+notice.
+
+[Sidenote: Conde's last appeal to the king.]
+
+When the news first reached him that the troops sent ostensibly to besiege
+La Rochelle were recalled, Conde, alarmed by what he heard from every
+quarter, had begged his mother-in-law, the Marchioness de Rothelin, to go
+to the court and entreat the king, in his name, to maintain the sanctity
+of his engagements, confirmed by repeated oaths. Scarcely had she
+departed, however, before he received fresh and reiterated warnings that
+his safety depended upon instant escape. He determined, nevertheless, to
+make a last attempt to avert the horrid prospect of a war which, from the
+malignant hatred exhibited by all classes of Roman Catholics, he rightly
+judged would exceed the previous contests both in duration and in
+destructiveness. He addressed to his young sovereign a letter explaining
+the necessity of the step he was about to take, accompanied by a long
+appeal, of which it would be impracticable to give even a brief summary.
+Every point in the multitudinous grievances of which the Huguenots
+complained was recapitulated. Every counter-charge with which the court
+had endeavored to parry the force of previous remonstrances was
+satisfactorily answered. In eloquent terms the prince indicted Charles,
+Cardinal of Lorraine, as the enemy alike of the royal dignity and of the
+liberties of the people, as the author of all the troubles of France, and
+the advocate and defender of robbers and murderers.[579] He reminded the
+king of the declaration of Maximilian, the present Emperor of Germany, in
+a letter written before his election to Charles himself: "All the wars and
+all the dissensions that are to-day rife among the Christians have
+originated from two cardinals--Granvelle and Lorraine."[580] And he closed
+the long and eloquent document by protesting, in the sight of God and of
+all foreign nations, that the Huguenot nobles sought the punishment of
+Lorraine and his associates alone, as the guilty causes of all the
+calamities that portended destruction to the French crown, and would
+pursue them as perjured violators of the public faith and capital enemies
+of peace and tranquillity. He therefore hoped that no one would be
+astonished if he and his allies should henceforth refuse to receive as the
+king's commands anything that might be decided upon by the royal council,
+so long as the cardinal might be present at its sessions, but should
+regard them as fabrications of the cardinal and his fellows. The causes of
+the misfortunes that might arise must be attributed, not to himself and
+his Huguenot allies, but to the cardinal and his Roman Catholic
+confederates.[581]
+
+[Sidenote: The flight of the prince and the admiral.]
+
+[Sidenote: Proves wonderfully successful.]
+
+Having despatched "this testimony of the innocence, integrity, and faith"
+of himself and of his associates, "to be transmitted to posterity in
+everlasting remembrance," the Prince of Conde set out on the same day (the
+twenty-third of August) from Noyers. Coligny had joined him, bringing from
+Tanlay his daughter, the future bride of Teligny--and, after that
+nobleman's assassination on St. Bartholomew's Day, of William of Orange,
+the hero of the revolt of the Netherlands--and his young sons, as well as
+the wife and infant son of his brother D'Andelot. Conde was himself
+accompanied by his wife, who was expecting soon to be confined, and by
+several children. His own servants and those of the admiral, with a few
+noblemen that came in from the neighborhood, swelled their escort to about
+one hundred and fifty horse.[582] With such a handful of men, and
+embarrassed in their flight by the presence of those whom their age or
+their sex disqualified for the endurance of the fatigues of a protracted
+journey, Conde and Coligny undertook to reach the friendly shelter of the
+walls of La Rochelle. It was a perilous attempt. The journey was one of
+several hundred miles, through the very heart of France. The cities were
+garrisoned by their enemies. The bridges and fords were guarded. The
+difficulties, in fact, were apparently so insurmountable, that the Roman
+Catholics seem to have expected that any attempt to escape would be made
+in the direction of Germany, where Casimir, their late ally, would
+doubtless welcome the Protestant leaders. This mistake was the only
+circumstance in their favor, for it diminished the number and the
+vigilance of the opposing troops.
+
+The march was secret and prompt. Contrary to all expectation, an unguarded
+ford was discovered not far from the city of Sancerre,[583] by which, on a
+sandy bottom, the fugitive Huguenots crossed the Loire, elsewhere deep and
+navigable as far as Roanne.[584] If the drought which had so reduced the
+stream as to render the passage practicable was justly regarded as a
+providential interposition of Heaven in their behalf, the sudden rise of
+the river immediately afterward, which baffled their pursuers, was not
+less signal a blessing.[585] Other dangers still confronted them, but
+their prudence and expedition enabled them to escape them, and on the
+eighteenth of September[586] the weary travellers, with numbers
+considerably increased by reinforcements by the way, entered the gates of
+La Rochelle amid the acclamations of the brave inhabitants.
+
+[Sidenote: The third civil war opens.]
+
+The escape of the prince and the admiral rendered useless all further
+attempt at the concealment of the treacherous designs of the papal party;
+and the third religious war dates from this moment.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+ [Sidenote: The city of La Rochelle and its privileges.]
+
+ The city of La Rochelle, said to have become a walled place
+ about 1126, had received many tokens of favor at the hands of
+ its successive masters before the accession of Queen Alienor,
+ or Eleonore, last Duchess of Aquitaine. It was by a charter of
+ this princess, in 1199, that the municipality, or "commune,"
+ was established. (Arcere, Hist. de la Rochelle, ii., Preuves,
+ 660, 661.) The terms of the charter are vague; but, as
+ subsequently constituted, the "commune" consisted of one
+ hundred prominent citizens, designated as "pairs," or peers,
+ in whom all power was vested. The first member in dignity was
+ the "maire" or mayor, selected by the Seneschal of Saintonge
+ from the list of three candidates yearly nominated by his
+ fellow-members. The historian of the city compares him, for
+ power and for the sanctity attaching to his person, to the
+ ancient tribunes of Rome. Next were the twenty-four
+ "echevins," or aldermen, one-half of whom on alternate years
+ assisted the mayor in the administration of justice. Last of
+ all came seventy-five "pairs" having no separate designation,
+ who took part in the election of the mayor, and voted, on
+ important occasions, in the "assemblee generale." (See a
+ historical discussion, Arcere, i. 193-199.)
+
+ From King John Lackland, of England, the Rochellois are said
+ to have received express exemption from the duty of marching
+ elsewhere in the king's service, without their own consent,
+ and from admitting into their city any troops from abroad. (P.
+ S. Callot, La Rochelle protestante, 1863, p. 6.) When, in
+ 1224, after standing a siege of three weeks, La Rochelle fell
+ into the hands of Louis VIII. of France, its new master
+ engaged to maintain all its privileges--a promise which was
+ well observed, for not only did the city lose nothing, but it
+ actually received new favors at the king's hands. (Arcere, i.
+ 212; Callot, 6.) In 1360, the disasters of the French,
+ consequent upon the battle of Poitiers, compelled the monarch
+ to surrender the city of La Rochelle to his captors in order
+ to regain his liberty. The concession was reluctantly made,
+ with the most flattering testimony to the past fidelity of the
+ inhabitants (see letters of John II. of France, to the
+ Rochellois, Calais, Oct., 1360, Arcere, ii, Preuves, 761), and
+ it was with still greater reluctance that the latter consented
+ to carry it into effect. "They made frequent excuses," says
+ Froissard, "and would not, for upwards of a year, suffer any
+ Englishman to enter their town. The letters were very
+ affecting which they wrote to the King of France, beseeching
+ him, by the love of God, that he would never liberate them of
+ their fidelity, nor separate them from his government and
+ place them in the hands of strangers; for they would prefer
+ being taxed every year one-half of what they were worth,
+ rather than be in the hands of the English." (Froissard, i. c.
+ 214, Johnes's Trans.) When compelled to yield, it was with the
+ words: "We will honor and obey the English, but our hearts
+ shall never change." Edward the Third had solemnly confirmed
+ their privileges (Callot, 8).
+
+ But La Rochelle's unwilling subjection to the English crown
+ was of brief duration. By a plot, somewhat clumsily contrived,
+ but happily executed (Aug., 1372), the commander of the
+ garrison, who did not know how to read, was induced to lead
+ his troops outside of the castle wall for a review. The royal
+ order that had been shown him was no forgery, but had been
+ sent on a previous occasion, and the attesting seal was
+ genuine. At a preconcerted signal, two hundred Rochellois rose
+ from ambush, and cut off the return of the English. The
+ latter, finding their antagonists reinforced by two thousand
+ armed citizens under the lead of the mayor himself, soon came
+ to terms, and, withdrawing the few men they had left behind in
+ the castle, accepted the offer of safe transportation by a
+ ship to Bordeaux. (See the entertaining account in Froissard,
+ i. c. 311.) The wary Rochellois took good care, before even
+ admitting into their city Duguesclin, Constable of France,
+ with a paltry escort of two hundred men-at-arms, to stipulate
+ that pardon should be extended to those who immediately after
+ the departure of the English had razed the hateful castle to
+ the ground, and that no other should ever be erected; that La
+ Rochelle and the country dependent upon it should henceforth
+ form a particular domain under the immediate jurisdiction of
+ the king and his parliament of Paris; that its militia should
+ be employed only for the defence of the place; and that La
+ Rochelle should retain its mint and the right to coin both
+ "black and white money." (Froissard, _ubi supra_, corrected by
+ Arcere, i. 260.) Not only did the grateful monarch readily
+ make these concessions, and confirm all La Rochelle's past
+ privileges, but, for its "immense services," by a subsequent
+ order he conferred nobility upon the "mayor," "echevins" and
+ "conseillers" of the city, both present and future, as well as
+ upon their children forever. (Letters of January 8, 1372/3,
+ Arcere, ii., Preuves, 673-675.)
+
+ The extraordinary prerogatives of which this was the origin
+ were recognized and confirmed by subsequent monarchs,
+ especially by Louis the Eleventh, Charles the Eighth, Louis
+ the Twelfth, and Francis the First. (Callot, 11.) The
+ resistance of the inhabitants to the exaction of the obnoxious
+ "gabelle," or tax upon salt, did indeed, toward the end of the
+ reign of the last-named king (1542), bring them temporarily
+ under his displeasure; but, with the exception of a
+ modification in their municipal government, made in 1530, and
+ revoked early in the reign of Henry the Second, the city
+ retained its quasi-independence without interruption until the
+ outbreak of the religious wars.
+
+ As we have seen (_ante_, p. 227), La Rochelle was in 1552 the
+ scene of the judicial murder of at least two Protestants. The
+ constancy of one of the sufferers had been the means of
+ converting many to the reformed doctrines, and among others
+ Claude d'Angliers, the presiding judge, whose name may still
+ be read at the foot of their sentence. (Arcere, i. 329.) So
+ rapidly had those doctrines spread, that on Sunday, May 31,
+ 1562, the Lord's Supper was celebrated according to the
+ fashion of Geneva, not in one of the churches, but on the
+ great square of the hay-market, in a temporary enclosure shut
+ in on all sides by tapestries and covered with an awning of
+ canvas. More than eight thousand persons took part in the
+ exercises. But if the morning's services were remarkable, the
+ sequel was not less singular. "As the disease of
+ image-breaking was almost universal," says an old chronicler,
+ "it was communicated by contagion to the inhabitants of this
+ city, in such wise that, that very afternoon about three or
+ four o'clock, five hundred men, who were under arms and had
+ just received the same sacrament, went through all the
+ churches and dashed the images in pieces. Howbeit it was a
+ folly conducted with wisdom, seeing that this action passed
+ without any one being wounded or injured." (P. Vincent, _apud_
+ Callot, 34, and Delmas, 61.) As usual, the whole affair was
+ condemned by the ministers.
+
+ Although La Rochelle had steadily refused, during the earlier
+ part of the first religious war, to declare for the Prince of
+ Conde, and had maintained a kind of neutrality, the court was
+ in constant fear lest the weight of its sympathies should yet
+ draw it in that direction. It was therefore a matter of great
+ joy when, in October, 1562, the Duke of Montpensier succeeded,
+ by a ruse meriting the designation of treachery, in throwing
+ himself into La Rochelle with a large body of troops. With his
+ arrival the banished Roman Catholic mass returned, and the
+ Protestant ministers were warned to leave at once. (Arcere, i.
+ 339.)
+
+ For two months after the restoration of peace, the Huguenots
+ of La Rochelle, embracing almost the entire population, held
+ their religious services, in accordance with the terms of the
+ Edict of Pacification, in the suburbs of the city. But, on the
+ 9th of May, 1563, Charles the Ninth was prevailed to give
+ directions that one or two places should be assigned to the
+ Huguenots within the city. This gracious permission was
+ ratified with greater solemnity in letters patent of July
+ 14th, in which the king declared the motive to be the
+ representations made to him of "the inconveniences and eminent
+ dangers that might arise in our said city of La Rochelle, if
+ the preaching and exercise of the pretended reformed religion
+ should continue to be held outside of the said city, being, as
+ it is, a frontier city in the direction of the English,
+ ancient enemies of the inhabitants of that city, where it
+ would be easy for them, by this means, to execute some evil
+ enterprise." (Commission of Charles IX., to M. de Jarnac. This
+ valuable MS., with other MSS., carried to Dublin at the
+ revocation of the Edict of Nantes, by M. Elie Bouhereau, and
+ placed in the Marsh Library, has recently been restored to La
+ Rochelle, in accordance with M. Bouhereau's written
+ directions. Delmas, 369.)
+
+ Two years later, Charles and his court, returning from their
+ long progress through France, came to La Rochelle, and spent
+ three days there (Sept., 1565). A noteworthy incident occurred
+ at his entry. The jealous citizens had not forgotten an
+ immemorial custom which was not without significance. A silken
+ cord had been stretched across the road by which the monarch
+ was to enter, that he might stop and promise to respect the
+ liberties and franchises of La Rochelle. Constable Montmorency
+ was the first to notice the cord, and in some anger and
+ surprise asked whether the magistrates of the city intended to
+ refuse their sovereign admission. The symbolism of the pretty
+ custom was duly explained to him, but for all response the old
+ warrior curtly observed that "such usages had passed out of
+ fashion," and at the same instant cut the cord with his sword.
+ (Arcere, i. 349; Delmas, 80, 81.) Charles himself refused the
+ request of the mayor that he should swear to maintain the
+ city's privileges. After so inauspicious a beginning of his
+ visit, the inhabitants were not surprised to find the king,
+ during his stay, reducing the "corps-de-ville" from 100 to 24
+ members, under the presidency of a governor invested with the
+ full powers of the mayor; ordering that the artillery should
+ be seized, two of the towers garrisoned by foreign troops, and
+ the magistrates enjoined to prosecute all ministers that
+ preached sedition; or banishing some of the most prominent
+ Protestants from La Rochelle.
+
+ It was characteristic of the government of Catharine de'
+ Medici--always destitute of a fixed policy, and consequently
+ always recalling one day what it had done the day before--that
+ scarcely two months elapsed before the queen mother put
+ everything back on the footing it had occupied before the
+ royal visit to La Rochelle.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[430] The most authentic account of these important interviews is that
+given by Francois de la Noue in his Memoires, chap. xi. It clearly shows
+how much Davila mistakes in asserting that "the prince, the admiral, and
+Andelot persuaded them, without further delay, to take arms." (Eng.
+trans., London, 1678, bk. iv., p. 110.) Davila's careless remark has led
+many others into the error of making Coligny the advocate, instead of the
+opposer, of a resort to arms. See also De Thou, iv. (liv. xlii.) 2-7, who
+bases his narrative on that of De la Noue, as does likewise Agrippa
+d'Aubigne, l. iv., c. vii. (i. 209), who uses the expression: "L'Amiral
+voulant endurer toutes extremitez et se confier en l'innocence."
+
+[431] "Ains avec le fer."
+
+[432] "Une armee gaillarde." La Noue, _ubi supra_.
+
+[433] Mem. de Castelnau, liv. vi., c. iv., c. v.; La Noue, c. xi.; De
+Thou, iv. (liv. xlii.) 5, 6. Davila, l. iv., p. 110, alludes to the
+accusation, extorted from Protestant prisoners on the rack, that "the
+chief scope of this enterprise was to murder the king and queen, with all
+her other children, that the crown might come to the Prince of Conde," but
+admits that it was not generally credited. The curate of Saint Barthelemi
+is less charitable; describing the rising of the Protestants, he says: "En
+ung vendredy 27e se partirent de toutes les villes de France les
+huguenots, sans qu'on leur eust dit mot, mais ils craignoient que si on
+venoit au dessein de leur entreprise qui estoit de prendre ou tuer le roy
+Charles neuvieme, qu'on ne les saccagea es villes." Journal d'un cure
+ligueur (J. de la Fosse), 85.
+
+[434] La Noue, and De Thou, _ubi supra_.
+
+[435] The historian, Michel de Castelnau, sieur de Mauvissiere, had been
+sent as a special envoy to congratulate the Duke of Alva on his safe
+arrival, and the Duchess of Parma on her relief. As he was returning from
+Brussels, he received, from some Frenchmen who joined him, a very
+circumstantial account of the contemplated rising of the Huguenots, and,
+although he regarded the story as an idle rumor, he thought it his duty to
+communicate it to the king and queen. Memoires, liv. vi., c. iv.
+
+[436] Mem. de Castelnau, _ubi supra_. It is probable that the French court
+partook of Cardinal Granvelle's conviction, expressed two years before,
+that the Huguenots would find it difficult to raise money or procure
+foreign troops for another war, not having paid for those they had
+employed in the last war, nor holding the strongholds they then held.
+Letter of May 7, 1565, Papiers d'etat, ix. 172.
+
+[437] Mem. du duc de Bouillon (Ancienne Collection), xlvii. 421.
+
+[438] La Fosse, p. 86, represents Charles as exclaiming, when he entered
+the Porte Saint Denis: "Qu'il estoit tenu a Dieu, et qu'il y avoit quinze
+heures qu'il estoit a cheval, et avoit eust trois alarmes."
+
+[439] Mem. de Castelnau, liv. vi., c. v.; La Noue, c. xiii. (Anc. Coll.,
+xlvii. 180-185); De Thou, iv. 8; J. de Serres, iii. 129-131; La Fosse, 86;
+Agrippa d'Aubigne, Hist. univ., i. 210.
+
+[440] "Ravi d'avoir allume le feu de la guerre," says De Thou, iv. 9.
+
+[441] De Thou, _ubi supra_.
+
+[442] The circumstance of two messengers, each bearing letters from the
+same person, while the letters made no allusion to each other, following
+one another closely, struck Alva as so suspicious, that he actually placed
+the second messenger under arrest, and only liberated him on hearing from
+his own agent on his return that the man's credentials were genuine.
+
+[443] Alva proposed to detach 5,000 men to prevent the entrance of German
+auxiliaries into France, and protect the Netherlands.
+
+[444] Letter of Alva to Philip, Nov. 1, 1567, Gachard, Correspondance de
+Philippe II., i., 593.
+
+[445] "Que la ley salica, que dizien, es baya, y las armas la allanarian."
+Ibid, i. 594.
+
+[446] The price of wheat, Jehan de la Fosse tells us (p. 86) advanced to
+fifteen francs per "septier."
+
+[447] Journal d'un cure ligueur (J. de la Fosse), 86.
+
+[448] In one of Charles's first despatches to the Lieutenant-Governor of
+Dauphiny, wherein he bids him restrain, and, if necessary, attack any
+Huguenots of the province who might undertake to come to Conde's
+assistance, there occurs an expression that smacks of the murderous spirit
+of St. Bartholomew's Day: "You shall cut them to pieces," he writes,
+"without sparing a single person; for the more dead bodies there are, the
+less enemies remain (car tant plus de mortz, moins d'ennemys!)" Charles to
+Gordes, Oct. 8, 1567, MS. in Conde Archives, D'Aumale, i. 563.
+
+[449] Davila (i. 113) makes the latter her distinct object in the
+negotiations: "The queen, to protract the time till supplies of men and
+other necessary provisions arrived, and to abate the fervor of the enemy,
+being constrained to have recourse to her wonted arts, excellently
+dissembling those so recent injuries, etc."
+
+[450] Of course "Sieur Soulier, pretre" sees nothing but perversity in
+these grounds. "Ils n'alleguerent que des raisons frivolles pour excuser
+leur armement." Histoire des edits de pacification, 64.
+
+[451] Davila is certainly incorrect in stating that the Huguenots demanded
+"that the queen mother should have nothing to do in the government" (p.
+113).
+
+[452] October 7th, Soulier, Hist. des edits de pacification, 65.
+
+[453] De Thou, iv. (liv. xlii.) 10-15; Jean de Serres, iii. 131, 132;
+Davila, bk. iv. 113-115; Agrippa d'Aubigne, Hist. universelle, l. iv., c.
+6, 7 (i. 211, 212); Castelnau, l. vi., c. 6.
+
+[454] So closely was Paris invested on the north, that, although
+accompanied by an escort of sixty horse, Castelnau was driven back into
+the faubourgs when making an attempt by night to proceed by one of the
+roads leading in this direction. He was then forced to steal down the left
+bank of the Seine to Poissy, before he could find means to avoid the
+Huguenot posts. Memoires, l. vi., c. 6.
+
+[455] Castelnau was instructed to ask for three or four regiments of
+Spanish or Italian foot, and for two thousand cavalry of the same nations.
+
+[456] I have deemed it important to go into these details, in order to
+exhibit in the clearest light the insincerity of Philip the Second--a
+prince who could not be straightforward in his dealings, even when the
+interests of the Church, to which he professed the deepest devotion, were
+vitally concerned. My principal authority is the envoy, Michel de
+Castelnau, liv. vi., c. 6. Alva's letter to Catharine de' Medici, Dec.,
+1567, Gachard, Correspondance de Philippe II., i. 608, 609, sheds some
+additional light on the transactions. I need not say that, where Castelnau
+and Alva differ in their statements, as they do in some essential points,
+I have had no hesitation in deciding whether the duke or the impartial
+historian is the more worthy of credit. See, also, De Thou, iii. (liv.
+xli.) 755.
+
+[457] Mem. de Fr. de la Noue, c. xiv. (Ancienne coll., xlvii. 189);
+Davila, bk. iv. 116; Agrippa d'Aubigne, Hist. universelle, i. 212, 213; De
+Thou, iv. 22; Martin, Hist. de France, x. 246. There is some discrepancy
+in numbers. There is, however, but little doubt that those given in the
+text are substantially correct. D'Aubigne blunders, and more than doubles
+the troops of the constable.
+
+[458] Agrippa d'Aubigne relates an incident which has often been repeated.
+Among the distinguished spectators gathered on the heights of Montmartre,
+overlooking the plain, was a chamberlain of the Turkish sultan, the same
+envoy who had been presented to the king at Bayonne. When he saw the three
+small bodies of Huguenots issue in the distance from Saint Denis, and the
+three charges, in which so insignificant a handful of men broke through
+heavy battalions and attacked the opposing general himself, the Moslem, in
+his admiration of their valor, twice cried out: "Oh, that the grand
+seignior had a thousand such men as those soldiers in white, to put at the
+head of each of his armies! The world would hold out only two years
+against him." Hist. univ., i. 217.
+
+[459] "Autant de volontaires Parisiens bien armez et _dorez comme
+calices_." Agrippa d'Aubigne, l. iv., c. 8 (i. 213). "Tenans la bataille
+desja achevee, tout ce gros si bien dore print la fuitte." (Ibid., i.
+215.)
+
+[460] At Marignano, in 1515.
+
+[461] He was taken prisoner by the Emperor Charles V. at Pavia, in company
+with Francis I.; at the battle of Saint Quentin, in 1557; and in 1562, at
+the battle of Dreux, by the Huguenots. It was rather hard that the story
+should have obtained currency, according to the cure of Meriot, that
+Constable Montmorency was shot by a royalist, who saw that he was
+purposely allowing himself to be enveloped by the troops of Conde, in
+order that he might be taken prisoner, "comme telle avoit ja este sa
+coustume en deux batailles!" Mem. de Claude Haton, i. 458.
+
+[462] Even Henry of Navarre, in a letter of July 12, 1569, published by
+Prince Galitzin (Lettres inedites de Henry IV., Paris, 1860, pp. 4-11)
+states that he is unable to say whether it was Stuart, "pour n'en scavoir
+rien;" but asserts that "il est hors de doubte et assez commung qu'il fut
+blesse en pleine bataille et combattant, et non de sang froid."
+
+[463] Memoires de Fr. de la Noue, c. xiv.; Jean de Serres, iii. 137, 138;
+De Thou, iv. 22, etc.; Agrippa d'Aubigne, Hist. univ., i. 214-217;
+Castelnau, liv. vi., c. 7; Claude Haton, i. 457; Jean de la Fosse, 88, 89;
+Charles IX. to Gordes, Nov. 11, 1567, Conde MSS., D'Aumale, i. 564.
+
+[464] "La mort dudit connestable fut plaincte de peu de gens du party des
+catholicques, a cause de la huguenotterie de l'admiral, du card. de
+Chastillon, et d'Andelot, ses nepveux, qui estoient, apres le Prince de
+Conde, chefz des rebelles huguenotz francoys et des plus meschant; et
+avoient plusieurs personnes ceste oppinion du connestable, qu'il les eust
+bien retirez de ceste rebellion s'il eust voulu, attendu que tous avoient
+este avancez en leurs estatz par le feu roy Henry, par son moyen." Claude
+Haton, i. 458.
+
+[465] Charles IX. to Gordes, Nov. 17, 1567, Conde MSS., Duc d'Aumale, i.
+565.
+
+[466] This expose, committed to writing by the elector palatine's request,
+and translated for Frederick's convenience into German, is published by
+Prof. A. Kluckholn, in a monograph read before the Bavarian Academy of
+Sciences: "Zur Geschichte des angeblichen Buendnisses von Bayonne, nebst
+einem Originalbericht ueber die Ursachen des zweiten Religionskriegs in
+Frankreich." (Abhandlungen, iii. Cl., xi. Bd., i. Abth.) Munich, 1868. The
+Huguenot envoys were Chastelier Pourtaut de Latour and Francour. The
+document is probably from the pen of the former (p. 13).
+
+[467] De Thou, iv. 28, 29; Castelnau, liv. vi., c. 8; Jean de Serres, iii.
+144, 146. Agrippa d'Aubigne, Hist. univ., i. 217, 218. Wenceslaus Zuleger's
+Report is printed in full by F. W. Ebeling, Archivalische Beitraege, 48-73,
+and by A. Kluckholn, Zwei pfaelzische Gesandtschaftsberichte, etc. Abhandl.
+der Bayer. Akad., 1868, 189-205.
+
+[468] It is needless to say that no authentic coins or medals bearing
+Conde's head, with the designation of "Louis XIII.," have ever been found.
+After the direct contradiction by Catharine de' Medici, no other testimony
+is necessary. The Jesuits, however, impudently continued to speak of
+Conde's treason as an undoubted truth, and even gave the legend of the
+supposed coin as "Ludovicus XIII., Dei gratia, Francorum Rex primus
+Christianus." See "Plaidoye de Maistre Antoine Arnauld, Advocat en
+Parlement, pour l'Universite de Paris ... contre les Jesuites, des 12 et
+13 Juillet, 1594." Memoires de la ligue, 6, 164. Arnauld stigmatizes the
+calumny as "notoirement fausse."
+
+[469] Frederick, Elector Palatine, to Charles IX., Heidelberg, Jan. 19,
+1568. Printed in full in F. W. Ebeling, Archivalische Beitraege, 74-82.
+
+[470] Agrippa d'Aubigne, _ubi supra_.
+
+[471] November 13th, "Hier au soyr, vers les sept heures," says Charles to
+Gordes, Nov. 14, 1567, MS. Conde Arch., D'Aumale, i. 565. The king
+naturally represents the movement as confused--"une bonne fuyte"--and
+confidently states that he will follow, and, by a _second_ victory, put a
+speedy end to the war.
+
+[472] Agrippa d'Aubigne, liv. iv., c. 11 (i. 219).
+
+[473] Ibid., i. 219, 220.
+
+[474] La Noue, c. xiv.; De Thou, iv. 37; Jehan de la Fosse, 89, 90;
+Agrippa d'Aubigne, i. 227. Davila, bk. iv., pp. 119, 120, represents
+Brissac's attack (which, according to him, was not made till after the
+expiration of the truce) as a part of a projected general assault. Anjou's
+main body failed to come up, and so Conde was saved. The blame was thrown
+on Marshal Gonnor (Cosse) and on M. de Carnavalet, the king's tutor, whom
+some suspected of unwillingness to allow so much noble blood to be shed.
+Others accused the one of too much friendship with the Chatillons, the
+other of a leaning to heresy ("de sentir le fagot") Agrippa d'Aubigne, i.
+227. See also Cl. Haton, i. 503. These two noblemen were accused of
+advocating other designs which were very obnoxious to the Roman Catholic
+party. "La verite est," says Jehan de la Fosse, in his journal, p. 90,
+under date of December, 1567, "que aulcuns grands seigneurs entre lesquels
+on nomme Gonor [et] Carnavallet donnoient a entendre que si Monsieur,
+frere du roy, voloit prendre une partie de ces gens et les joindre avec le
+camp des huguenots, qui [qu'ils] le feroient comte de Flandre."
+
+[475] De Thou, iv. 37-41; Castelnau, liv. vi., c. 8; La Fosse, 91.
+
+[476] Catharine de' Medici to Alva, Dec. 4, 1567, Gachard, Correspondance
+de Philippe II., i. 607.
+
+[477] Alva to Catharine de' Medici, Dec., 1567, Gachard, Correspondance de
+Philippe II., i. 608, 609.
+
+[478] It is told of one lackey that he contributed twenty crowns.
+
+[479] The scene is described in an animated manner by Francois de la Noue,
+c. xv. (Ancienne Collection, xlvii. 199-201); De Thou, iv. 41. "Marque le
+lecteur," writes Agrippa d'Aubigne, in his nervous style, "un trait qui
+n'a point d'exemple en l'antiquite, que ceux qui devoient demander paye et
+murmurer pour n'en avoir point, puissent et veuillent en leur extreme
+pauvrete contenter une armee avec 100,000 livres a quoi se monta cette
+brave gueuserie; argument aux plus sages d'aupres du roi pour prescher la
+paix; tenans pour invincible le parti qui a la passion pour difference, et
+pour solde la necessite." Hist. univ., i. 228. D'Aubigne is mistaken,
+however, in making the army contribute the entire 100,000. Davila and De
+Thou say they raised 30,000; La Noue, over 80,000.
+
+[480] Mem. de Fr. de la Noue, c. xv.
+
+[481] Ibid., _ubi supra_.
+
+[482] Memoires de Claude Haton, i. 500-503.
+
+[483] Ibid., ii. 517. "Et des lors fut le pillage mis sus par les gens de
+guerre des deux partis; et firent tous a qui mieux pilleroit et
+ranconneroit son hoste, jugeant bien en eux que qui plus en pilleroit plus
+en auroit. Les gens de guerre du camp catholicque, excepte le pillage des
+eglises et saccagemens des prebstres, estoient au reste aussi meschans, et
+quasi plus que les huguenotz."
+
+[484] Menard, Hist. de Nismes, apud Cimber et Danjou, vii. 481, etc.;
+Bouche, Histoire gen. de Languedoc, v. 276, 277. Prof. Soldan, Geschichte
+des Protestantismus in Frankreich, ii. 274-276, whose account of an event
+too generally unnoticed by Protestant historians is fair and impartial,
+calls attention to the following circumstances, which, although they do
+not excuse in the least its savage cruelties, ought yet to be borne in
+mind: 1st, That no woman was killed; 2d, that only those _men_ were killed
+who had in some way shown themselves enemies of the Protestants; and, 3d,
+that there is no evidence of any premeditation. To these I will add, as
+important in contrasting this massacre with the many massacres in which
+the Huguenots were the victims, the fact that the Protestant ministers not
+only did not instigate, but disapproved, and endeavored as soon as
+possible to put an end to the murders.
+
+[485] De Thou, iv. 33-35.
+
+[486] Agrippa d'Aubigne, i. 211.
+
+[487] Henri Martin (Histoire de France, x. 255), on the authority of
+Coustureau, Vie du duc de Montpensier, states that the Rochellois had,
+after the peace of 1563, bought from Catharine de' Medici, for 200,000
+francs, the suppression of the garrison placed in their city by the Duke
+of Montpensier, and remarks: "Ces 200,000 francs couterent cher!" The
+authority, however, is very slender in the absence of all corroborative
+evidence, and Arcere, more than a century ago, showed (Histoire de la
+Rochelle, i. 625) how improbable, or, rather, impossible the story is. If
+any gift was made to Catharine by the city, it must have been far less
+than the sum, enormous for the times and place, of 200,000 crowns; and, at
+any rate, it could not have been for the purchase of a privilege already
+enjoyed for hundreds of years. See the illustrative note at the end of
+this chapter.
+
+[488] Agrippa d'Aubigne, i. 218. "Plus absolument et avec plus d'obeisance
+que les Rochellois, qui depuis ont tousjours tenu le parti reforme, n'en
+ont voulu deferer et rendre aux princes mesmes de leur parti, contre
+lesquels ils se sont souvent picquez, en resveillant et conservant
+curieusement leurs privileges."
+
+[489] Others were beaten and banished, and suffered the other penalties
+denounced by the Edict of Chateaubriant, as Soulier goes on to show with
+much apparent satisfaction. Hist. des edits, etc., 67, 68. The text of the
+joint sentence of Couraud, Constantin, and Monjaud is interesting. It is
+given by Delmas, L'Eglise reformee de la Rochelle (Toulouse, 1870), pp.
+19-25.
+
+[490] Martin, Hist. de France, x. 254.
+
+[491] Agrippa d'Aubigne, _ubi supra_; Davila, bk. iv. 122; De Thou, iv. 27
+seq.; Soulier, 69. According to Arcere, Hist. de la Rochelle, i. 352, the
+mayor's correct name was Pontard, Sieur de Trueil-Charays.
+
+[492] The commission was dated from Montigny-sur-Aube, January 27, 1568,
+Soulier, 70. De Thou's expression (_ubi supra_), "peu de temps apres," is
+therefore unfortunate.
+
+[493] Soulier, Hist. des edits de pacification, 70.
+
+[494] Norris to Queen Elizabeth, January 23, 1568, State Paper Office. I
+retain the quaint old English form in which Norris has couched the
+marshal's speech. It is plain, in view of the perfidy proposed by Santa
+Croce, even in the royal council, that Conde was not far from right in
+protesting against the proposed limitation of Cardinal Chatillon's escort
+to twenty horse, insisting "que la qualite de mondict sieur le Cardinal,
+qui n'a acoustume de marcher par pais avecques si peu de train, ny son
+eage (age) ne permectent pas maintenant de commencer." Conde to the Duke
+of Anjou, Dec. 27, 1567, MS. Bibl. nat., Aumale, Prince de Conde, i. 568.
+
+[495] The "seven viscounts"--often referred to about this period--were the
+viscounts of Bourniquet, Monclar, Paulin, Caumont, Serignan, Rapin, and
+Montagut, or Montaigu. They headed the Protestant gentry of the provinces
+Rouergue, Quercy, etc., as far as to the foot of the Pyrenees. Mouvans
+held an analogous position in Provence, Montbrun in Dauphine, and D'Acier,
+younger brother of Crussol, in Languedoc. Agrippa d'Aubigne, i. 220, 221;
+De Thou, iv. 33; Duc d'Aumale, Princes de Conde, i. 327. When "the
+viscounts" consented, at the earnest solicitation of the second Princess
+of Conde, to part with a great part of their troops, they confided them to
+Mouvans, Rapin, and Poncenac.
+
+[496] The _village_ of Cognac, or Cognat, near Gannat, in the ancient
+Province of Auvergne (present Department of Allier), must not, of course,
+be confounded with the important _city_ of the same name, on the river
+Charente, nearly two hundred miles further west.
+
+[497] Jean de Serres, iii. 146, 147; De Thou, iv. 48-51; Agrippa
+d'Aubigne, i. 226.
+
+[498] Opinions differed respecting the propriety of the movement.
+According to La Noue, Chartres in the hands of the Huguenots would have
+been a "thorn in the foot of the Parisians;" while Agrippa d'Aubigne makes
+it "a city of little importance, as it was neither at a river crossing,
+nor a sea-port;" "but," he adds, "in those times places were not estimated
+by the standard now in vogue."
+
+[499] "Car encore que les Catholiques estiment les Huguenots estre _gens a
+feu_, si sont-il toujours mal pourveus de tels instrumens," etc. Mem. de
+la Noue, c. xviii. For the siege of Chartres, besides La Noue, see Jean de
+Serres, iii. 148; De Thou, iv., 51-53; Agrippa d'Aubigne, i. 229-232.
+
+[500] "Ils eussent este par trop lourds et stupides, s'ils n'en eussent
+evite la feste."
+
+[501] "Cessons donc de nous esbahir s'ils ont un pied en l'air et l'oeil
+en la campagne."
+
+[502] The whole of this remarkable memorial is inserted in the older
+Collection universelle de memoires, xlv. 224-260. Its importance is so
+great, as reflecting the views of a mind so impartial and liberal as that
+of Chancellor L'Hospital, that I make no apology for the prominence I have
+given to it. Besides the omission of much that might be interesting, I
+have in places rather recapitulated than translated literally the striking
+remarks of the original.
+
+[503] La Noue, c. xviii.
+
+[504] Castelnau, who was behind the scenes, assures us that had "the
+Huguenots insisted upon keeping some places in their own hands, for the
+performance of what was promised, it would have been granted, and, in all
+probability, have prevented the war from breaking out so soon again," etc.
+Mem., liv. vi., c. 11.
+
+[505] Jean de Serres, iii. 149-154; De Thou, iv. 54, 55; Davila, bk. iv.
+124; Castelnau, _ubi supra_; Agrippa d'Aubigne, i. 260, etc.
+
+[506] "L'Amiral maintenoit et remonstroit que cette paix n'estoit que pour
+sauver Chartres, et puis pour assommer separez ceux qu'on ne pourroit
+vaincre unis." Agrippa d'Aubigne, i. 232.
+
+[507] "Le Prince de Conde plus facile, desireux de la cour, ou il avoit
+laisse quelque semence d'amourettes, se servit de ce que plusieurs
+quittoient l'armee," etc. Ibid., _ubi supra_.
+
+[508] La Noue, c. xviii.
+
+[509] La Noue, c. xix.
+
+[510] "La paix fourree," Soulier, Histoire des edits de pacification, 73.
+"Ceste meschante petite paix," La Noue, c. xix. Agrippa d'Aubigne, Hist.
+universelle, i. 260, and, following him, Browning, Hist. of the Huguenots,
+i. 220, and De Felice, Hist. of the Protestants of France, 190, say that
+this peace was wittily christened "La paix boiteuse et mal-assise;" but,
+as we shall see, this designation belongs to the peace of Saint
+Germain-en-Laye, in 1570, concluding the third religious war.
+
+[511] Leopold Ranke, Civil Wars and Monarchy in France in the Sixteenth
+and Seventeenth Centuries (New York, 1853), 234.
+
+[512] Norris to Cecil, Paris, March 30, 1568, State Paper Office.
+
+[513] La Noue, c. xviii. (Anc. coll., 214).
+
+[514] A fortnight had not elapsed since the date of the Edict of
+Pacification when Conde was compelled to call the king's attention to a
+flagrant outrage committed by Foissy, a royalist, against the Sieur
+d'Esternay. After having burned Esternay's residence at Lamothe during the
+preliminary truce, Foissy subsequently to the conclusion of peace returned
+and completed his work of devastation. Conde to Charles IX., April 5,
+1568, MS., Archives du dep. du Nord, _apud_ Duc d'Aumale, i. 572.
+
+[515] "Nous avons fait la folie, ne trouvons donc estrange si nous la
+beuvons. Toutefois il y a apparence que le breuvage sera amer." La Noue,
+_ubi supra_.
+
+[516] De Thou, iv. 55, 56; Jean de Serres, Comm. de statu, etc., iii. 160;
+Conde's petition of Aug. 23d, ibid., iii. 218; Mem. de Claude Haton, i.
+357-359, who, however, makes the singular blunder of placing the incident
+of Rapin's death after the peace of Amboise in 1563. The cure's
+description of the zeal of the Toulouse parliament for the Roman Catholic
+Church confirms everything that Protestant writers have said on the
+subject: "Laditte court de parlement avoit tousjours resiste a laditte
+pretendue religion et faict executer ceux qui en faisoient profession,
+nonobstant edict a ce contraire faict en faveur d'iceux huguenotz." See
+also Raoul de Cazenove, Rapin-Thoyras, sa famille, sa vie, et ses oeuvres
+(Paris, 1866), 47-49--a truly valuable work, and a worthy tribute to a
+distinguished ancestry.
+
+[517] "Edictum promulgant, hac addita exceptione, _Reservatis clausulis
+quae secreto Senatus commentario continentur_." J. de Serres, iii. 160,
+161; De Thou, _ubi supra_. See the petition of Conde of Aug. 23d. J. de
+Serres, iii. 220, etc.
+
+[518] Mem. de Claude Haton, ii. 527, etc.
+
+[519] "Sire," said a nobleman, after listening to the arguments against
+the peace made by some of the remonstrants, and to Charles's replies, "it
+is too much to undertake to dispute with these canting knaves; it were
+better to have them strapped in the kitchen by your turnspits." Ibid., ii.
+530.
+
+[520] Playing upon the chancellor's name, Sainte Foy, one of the court
+preachers, exclaimed in the pulpit: "Be not astonished if the Huguenots
+demolish the churches, for they have turned all France into a _hospital_
+instead"--"donnant a entendre que par le chancelier nomme Hospital, la
+France estoit pauvre, pourtant qu'il a par trop encore de douceur pour les
+huguenots qui ont ruine le pais de France." Jehan de la Fosse, 93, 94.
+
+[521] Floquet, Hist. du parlement de Normandie, iii. 36-42.
+
+[522] Memoires de Claude Haton, ii. 533, 534. Similar regulations were
+made in many other places "cumplurimis in locis." Jean de Serres, iii.
+156.
+
+[523] Jean de Serres, iii. 158, 159.
+
+[524] De Thou, iv. 77, 78; Castelnau, l. vii., c. 1; D'Aubigne, i. 260; La
+Fosse, 97; Motley, Dutch Republic, ii. 184.
+
+[525] Charles was, however, near experiencing trouble with the reiters of
+Duke Casimir. He had, by the terms of the agreement with the Huguenots,
+undertaken to advance the 900,000 francs which were due, and on failing to
+fulfil his engagements his unwelcome guests threatened to turn their faces
+toward Paris. Mem. de Castelnau, liv. vi., c. 11. At last, with promises
+of payment at Frankfort, the Germans were induced to leave France. Du
+Mont, Corps diplomatique, v. 164, gives a transcript of Casimir's receipt,
+May 21, 1568, for 460,497 livres, etc.
+
+[526] Memoires de Castelnau, liv. vi., c. 9, c. 10. Duke John William of
+Saxe-Weimar was even more vexed at the issue of his expedition than
+Castelnau himself. It was with difficulty that he could be persuaded to
+accept an invitation to make a visit to the French court.
+
+[527] Paris MS., _apud_ Soldan, Gesch. des Prot. in Frankreich, ii. 300.
+Rumor, as is usual in such cases, outstripped even the unwelcome truth,
+and Norris wrote to Queen Elizabeth that the king had sent secret letters
+to two hundred and twelve places, charging the governors "to runne uppon
+them [the Huguenots] and put them to the sword." "Your Majestie will
+judge," adds Norris, "ther is smale place of surety for them of the
+Religion, either in towne or felde." Letter of June 4, 1568, _apud_
+D'Aumale, Les Princes de Conde, ii. 363, Pieces inedites.
+
+[528] When the Protestants at Rouen begged protection, the king sent four
+companies of infantry, which the citizens at first refused to admit. At
+last they were smuggled in by night, _and quartered upon the Huguenots_.
+Floquet, Hist. du parlement de Normandie, iii. 43.
+
+[529] Jean de Serres, iii. 157, 158.
+
+[530] Ibid., _ubi supra_.
+
+[531] Jean de Serres, iii. 161; Soldan, ii. 303.
+
+[532] Soldan, ii. 306.
+
+[533] Letter to Catharine, April 27, 1568, MS., _apud_ Soldan, ii. 303.
+
+[534] Jean de Serres, iii. 163, 164. Petition of Conde of Aug. 23d. Ibid.,
+iii. 215, etc.
+
+[535] MS. Bibl. nat., _apud_ Mem. de Claude Haton, ii. App., 1152, 1153.
+Less correctly given in Lestoile's Memoires. The title is "Sermens des
+Associez de la Ligue Chrestienne et Roiale," and the date is June 25,
+1568.
+
+[536] Prof. Soldan is certainly right (ii. 305) in his interpretation of
+the passage, "tant et si longuement qu'il plaira a Dieu que nous serons
+_par eux_ regis en nostredicte religion apostolique et romaine," which
+Ranke (Civil Wars and Monarchy, p. 236), and, following him, Von Polenz
+(Gesch. des franz. Calvinismus, ii. 361), have construed as referring to
+"la maison de Valois." Involved as is the phraseology, I do not see how
+the word "eux" can designate any other person or persons than "ledit sr.
+lieutenant avec mesditz sieurs de la noblesse de cedit gouvernement et
+autres associez."
+
+[537] Jean de Serres, iii. 164.
+
+[538] "Den Erfolg des letzten Krieges," well observes Prof. Soldan,
+"hatten die Hugenotten nicht ihrer Anzahl, sondern der Organisation und
+dem Geiste ihres Gemeindewesens zu verdanken. Diese bewegliche,
+weitverzweigte, aus einem festen Mittelpunkte gleichmaessig gelenkte und
+von Eifer fuer die gemeinsame Sache belebte Vereinsgliederung hatte ueber
+den lahmen und stockenden Mechanismus vielfach groesserer, aber in sich
+selbst uneiniger Kraefte einen beschaemenden Triumph erlangt." Geschichte
+des Protestantismus in Frankreich, ii. 303.
+
+[539] Relations des Amb. Ven., ii. 116.
+
+[540] Cipierre, a young nobleman only twenty-two years of age, was
+returning, with a body-guard of about thirty-five men, from a visit to his
+cousin, the duke, at Nice, where he had been treated with great honor.
+When approaching Frejus he perceived signs of treachery in a body of men
+lurking under cover of a grove, and betook himself for safety into the
+city, now, since his father's death, a part of the province of which his
+eldest brother was royal governor. The tocsin was rung, and his enemies,
+originally a band of three hundred men, being swollen by constant
+accessions to four times that number, the house in which Cipierre had
+taken refuge was assailed. After a heroic defence the small party of
+defenders surrendered their arms, on assurance that their opponents would
+at once retire. The papists, however, scarcely made a pretence of
+fulfilling their compact, for they speedily returned and massacred every
+one whom they found in the house. Cipierre himself was not among the
+number. To secure him a new breach of faith was necessary. The captain of
+the murderers pledged his own word to the magistrate that if Cipierre
+would come forth from his hiding-place he would spare his life. He
+discharged the obligation, so soon as Cipierre presented himself, by
+plunging a dagger into his breast. J. de Serres, iii. 166-168; Agrippa
+d'Aubigne, i. 262.
+
+[541] Petition of Conde, Aug. 23, 1568, J. de Serres, iii. 210, 211.
+
+[542] Vie de Coligny (Cologne, 1686), 349, 350; J. de Serres, iii. 166.
+
+[543] Ibid., iii. 165; Recordon, from MSS. of N. Pithou, 155-157; MS. Mem.
+historiques des Antiquites de Troyes, by Duhalle, _apud_ Bulletin de
+l'hist. du prot. fr., xvii. (1868) 376. Of the royal edicts guaranteeing
+the Protestants, the last author remarks that "ils firent plus de bruit
+que de fruit."
+
+[544] Duc d'Aumale, Princes de Conde, ii. 364, Pieces justificatives.
+
+[545] J. de Serres, iii. 168; Agrippa d'Aubigne, i. 262.
+
+[546] Jean de Serres does not expressly state that he refers to the
+combatants, but I presume this to be his meaning.
+
+[547] Relazione di Correro, Rel. des Amb. Ven., ii. 120.
+
+[548] "Montauban, etc., faisoient conter les cloux de leurs portes aux
+garnisons qu'on leur envoyoit." Agrippa d'Aubigne, i. 261. It was the
+_garrisons_ only that were refused; the royal governors were promptly
+accepted. M. de Jarnac, for instance, had no difficulty in securing
+recognition at La Rochelle; but he was not permitted to introduce troops
+to distress and terrify the citizens. See the letters of the "Maire,
+Echevins, Conseilliers et Pairs," of La Rochelle to Charles the Ninth,
+April 21st, June 6th and 30th, etc. Le Laboureur, Add. aux Mem. de
+Castelnau, ii. 547-551. They deny the slanderous accusation that the Roman
+Catholics have not been permitted to return since the peace, asserting, on
+the contrary, that they have greeted them as brethren and fellow-citizens.
+They appeal to M. de Jarnac himself for testimony to the good order of La
+Rochelle. "Meanwhile," they say, "we are preserving this city of yours in
+all tranquillity, and maintain it, under your obedience, with much greater
+security, devotion, affection, fidelity and loyalty, such as we have
+received from our predecessors, than would do all others who were
+strangers and mercenaries, and not its natural subjects and inhabitants."
+Norris to Queen Elizabeth, June 23, 1568: "The towne of Rochelle hathe now
+the thirde time bin admonished to render itself to the king." State Paper
+Office, Duc d'Aumale, ii. 367.
+
+[549] His wife, Charlotte de Laval, whose brave Christian injunctions, as
+we have seen, decided the reluctant admiral to take up arms in the first
+religious war (see _ante_, chapter xiii., p. 35), lay dying of a disease
+contracted in her indefatigable labors for the sick and wounded soldiers
+at Orleans, whilst the admiral was at the siege of Chartres. On the
+conclusion of the peace he hastened to her, but was too late to find her
+alive. In a touching letter, written to her husband after all hope of
+seeing him again in this world had fled, a letter the substance of which
+is preserved by one of his biographers (Vie de Coligny, Cologne, 1686, p.
+342), she lamented the loss of a privilege that would have alleviated the
+sufferings of her last hours, but consoled herself with the thought of the
+object for which he was absent. She conjured him, by the love he bore her
+and to her children, to fight to the last extremity for God and religion;
+warning him, lest through his habitual respect for the king--a respect
+which had before made him reluctant to take up arms--he should forget the
+obligations he owed to God as his first Master. She begged him to rear the
+children she left him in the pure religion, that they might one day be
+capable of taking his place; and, for their sakes, implored him not to
+hazard his life unnecessarily. She bade him beware of the house of Guise.
+"I do not know," she added, "whether I ought to say the same thing of the
+queen mother, as we are forbidden to judge evil of our neighbor; but she
+has given so many marks of her ambition that a little distrust is
+excusable." The earlier biographer of Coligny (Gasparis Colinii Vita,
+1575, p. 63, etc.) gives an affecting picture of the deep sorrow and pious
+resignation of the admiral.
+
+[550] Somewhat hyperbolically, the biographer of the admiral (Vie de
+Coligny, p. 346) says that the concourse at Chatillon and Noyers was so
+great that the Louvre was a desert in comparison! When ten gentlemen left
+by one gate, twenty entered by another. The churches raised a purse of
+100,000 crowns, one-half of which was to go to him, and the other half to
+the Prince of Conde; but, though nearly ruined by the enormous expenses of
+his hospitality, he declined to receive his portion.
+
+[551] Noyers and Tanlay are ten or twelve miles from each other, in the
+modern department of the Yonne.
+
+[552] Jean de Serres, _ubi supra_. Cf. De Thou, iv. 142; Bulletin de la
+Soc. de l'hist. du prot. fr. (1854), iii. 239. This valuable periodical is
+mistaken in stating, vii. (1858) 120, that "D'Andelot s'etait retire dans
+ses terres de Bretagne a la conclusion de la paix." He did not leave
+Tanlay until after writing the letter referred to below, and shortly
+before Coligny's arrival: "partant de chez lui, pour se rendre chez son
+frere Andelot, il trouva qu'il etoit alle en Bretagne." Vie de Coligny,
+350. D'Andelot was in Brittany at the outbreak of the third war. His
+adventures in escaping to La Rochelle will be narrated in the next
+chapter. Mr. Henry White is, of course, equally wrong when he says
+(Massacre of St. Bartholomew, New York, 1868, p. 291): "The admiral had
+gone to this charming retreat [Tanlay], to consult with his brother, to
+whom it belonged, _and who had joined him there_," and when he mentions
+D'Andelot as in the suite of Conde and Coligny in their celebrated flight
+(p. 292); "besides which, he (the prince) was accompanied by the admiral
+and his family, _by Andelot_ and his wife," etc.
+
+[553] Lettre de Francois d'Andelot a la Royne mere du Roy, de Tanlay, co
+8me juillet, 1568. MS. Library of Berne. This letter has been twice
+printed in the Bulletin de la Soc. de l'hist. du prot. francais, iv.
+(1856) 329-331, and vii. (1858) 121-123. The first reproduction is in one
+important part more correct than the second. It is not impossible, after
+all, that the author of the letter was not D'Andelot, but his brother,
+Admiral Coligny himself; for M. J. Tessier mentions (Bulletin, xxii.
+(1873) 47), that it exists in manuscript in the Paris National Library
+(MSS. Vc. Colbert, 24, f. 161), in the admiral's own handwriting, and
+signed with his usual signature, _Chastillon_. The whole tone, I must
+confess, seems rather to be his.
+
+[554] Journal d'un cure ligueur (Jehan de la Fosse), 96.
+
+[555] Norris to Queen Elizabeth, May 12, 1568, State Paper Office.
+
+[556] Jean de Serres, iii. 170; Davila, bk. iv. 128; Conde to the king,
+Noyers, June 11, 1568, MS. Paris Lib., _apud_ D'Aumale, ii. 351-353.
+
+[557] As the prince had described the state of affairs in a letter to the
+king, of July 22, 1568: "Nous nous voions tuez, pillez, saccagez, les
+femmes forcees, les filles ravies des mains de leurs peres et meres, les
+grands mis hors de leurs charges," etc. All this injustice had been
+committed with complete impunity. In fact, to use his own forcible words,
+were the king to attempt to punish the outrages done to the Protestants,
+"the trees in France would have more men than leaves upon them"--"tous les
+arbres seroient plus couvertz d'hommes que de feuilles." MS. Paris Lib.,
+_apud_ D'Aumale, ii. 355, 356.
+
+[558] J. de Serres, iii. 171-173; Davila, bk. iv. 128.
+
+[559] The Bulletin de la Soc. de l'hist. du prot. francais, ix. (1860)
+217-219, published from MSS. in the Library of the British Museum, the
+letter of Charles the Ninth to the first president of the Parisian
+parliament, dated "du chateau de Bolongne, ce premier jour d'aoust,"
+enclosing the formula. The pretext is "afin d'oster tout ce doubte et
+differend qui regne aujourd'huy parmi nos subjectz." The president is to
+associate with himself the seigneur de Nantouillet, provost of the city,
+and the seigneur de Villeroy, "prevot des marchands."
+
+[560] Bulletin, etc., ix. (1860) 218, 219; Jean de Serres, iii. 175, etc.
+
+[561] Jean de Serres (Comm. de statu rel. et reipublicae, iii. 174-183)
+inserts the reply of the Protestants to the proposed oath, article by
+article.
+
+[562] Built by Francis I., and so named because constructed on the plan of
+the palace in which he lived when a captive in Spain.
+
+[563] It is true the writer carefully avoids mentioning the cardinal's
+name, but there is no difficulty in discovering that he is intended.
+
+[564] "Uti nimirum detur opera ut vires penes Regem sint, primoresque
+religionis illius occupentur, omnes conveniendi rationes illis demantur:
+ut ad illas angustias redacti, quemadmodum facillimum erit, possit
+hujusmodi colluvies regi regnoque adversaria, plane pessundari, omnesque
+adeo reliquiae profligari: quoniam semen profecto esset in dies
+egerminaturum, nisi ea ratio observaretur, cujus a vicinis nostris adeo
+luculenta exempla demonstrentur." Jean de Serres, iii. 187.
+
+[565] The letter is given entire, with the exception of some matters of no
+general interest, in the valuable chronicle of this period, by Jean de
+Serres (s. l. 1571), iii. 185-190.
+
+[566] "Haec sunt propemodum ipsa illius verba, quae conatus sum memoriae
+mandare, ut possem ad te de rerum omnium statu certius perscribere." Ib.,
+iii. 188.
+
+[567] "Et quoniam tunc vehementius quam assuevisset, rem illam mihi
+commemoravit, et fortasse regis domini sui, qui ibi tunc erat, mandatu,
+volui hac de causa te istarum rerum facere certiorem."
+
+[568] This letter, which was also intercepted by the Huguenots, is
+preserved by Jean de Serres, iii. 184, 185. It bears unmistakable marks of
+authenticity.
+
+[569] Conde himself alludes to these words of Charles the Ninth to his
+mother, in his letter of August 23d. Referring to the king's aversion to a
+resort to violence, he says: "Quod mihi repetitis literis saepissime
+demonstrasti, et nuper quidem Reginae matri, ex eo sermone quem cum illa
+habebas, quo significabas quantum odiosa tibi esset turbarum renovatio cum
+nimirum illam orabas, daret operam ut omnia pacificarentur, efficeretque
+ne rursus ad bella civilia rediretur, quae non possent non extremum exitium
+afferre." Jean de Serres, iii, 193.
+
+[570] Letter _apud_ J. de Serres, iii. 188-190.
+
+[571] De Thou, iii. 136; Castelnau, liv. vii., c. 1, where the sum is
+erroneously trebled; Davila, bk. iv., p. 130. See also Soldan, ii., 324,
+and Von Polenz, ii. 365.
+
+[572] Norris, in a letter to Cecil, Sept. 25, 1568, gives almost the very
+words of the angry contestants. State Paper Office.
+
+[573] Davila, bk. iv. 130; De Thou, iv. (liv. xliv.) 136.
+
+[574] Ranke, Civil Wars and Monarchy in France, 236, 237.
+
+[575] Davila and De Thou, _ubi supra_. De Thou seems certainly to be
+wanting in his accustomed accuracy when he represents--iv. (liv. xliv.)
+136, 137--the submission of the test-oath to the Protestants as posterior
+to, and consequent upon the fall of L'Hospital: "La reine delivree du
+Chancelier, et n'ayant plus personne qui s'opposat a ses volontes, ne
+songea plus qu'a brouiller les affaires, etc." I have shown that the papal
+bull which L'Hospital opposed was dated at Rome on the same day (August 1,
+1568) on which Charles sent his orders to the president of the Parisian
+parliament to administer the oath to the Protestants of the capital. Yet,
+as early as on the 12th of May, 1568, the English ambassador, Norris,
+wrote to Cecil that Anjou, a cruel enemy of the Protestants, had a privy
+council of which Cardinal Lorraine was the "chiefest" member, and his own
+chancellor, who sealed everything submitted to him, "which thing he [the
+good olde chauncelor of the Kinges] hathe so to harte as he is retirid him
+to his owne house in the towne of Paris; and wheras the King's chauncelor
+I meane, who nether for love nor dread wolde seal enything against the
+statutes of the realme, or that might be prejudiciall to the same, this of
+Mr. d'Anjou's refusithe nothing that is proferid to him." State Paper
+Office, Duc d'Aumale, ii. 360.
+
+[576] Jean de Serres, iii. 191; Davila, bk. iv., p. 128.
+
+[577] See Soldan, Gesch. des Prot. in Frankreich, ii. 327, note 63. Yet
+Conde himself, shortly before the flight from Noyers, expressed himself in
+strikingly confident terms as to Tavannes's probity. In a letter to the
+king, complaining of the treacherous plots formed against himself, July
+22, 1568, the prince says he is sure that Tavannes is not privy to these
+designs, "car je le cognois de trop longue main ennemy de ceulx qui ne
+veullent qu'entretenir les troubles. Parquoy je croy que cecy se faict a
+son desceu." MS. Paris Lib., _apud_ D'Aumale, ii. 356.
+
+[578] "Le cerf est aux toiles, la chasse est preparee." See Anquetil,
+Esprit de la ligue, i. 278.
+
+[579] "Turbarum causas imputamus adversario illi tuo ac tuae dignitatis
+hosti Cardinali Lotharingo et sociis, quorum nimirum pravis consiliis et
+arcta necessitudine et familiaritate quam cum Hispano habent, dissensiones
+et simultates inter tuos subjectos ab hinc sex annis continuantur, et
+misere foventur atque aluntur per caedes atque strages, quae ipsorum nutu
+quotidie ubique perpetrantur." Jean de Serres, iii. 194. "Impurusne
+Presbyter, tigris, tyrannus," etc., ibid., iii. 196. "Cardinalis
+Lotharingus, quasi sicariorum ac praedorum patronus," etc., ibid., iii.,
+210.
+
+[580] "Quodnam item de illo judicium tulerit Caesar Maximilianus hodie
+imperans, cum ad te prescripsit, omnia bella et omnes dissensiones, quae
+inter Christianos hodie vagantur, proficisci a Granvellano et Lotharingo
+Cardinalibus." Jean de Serres, iii. 234.
+
+[581] This petition or protestation of Conde is among the longest public
+papers of the period, occupying not less than forty-three pages of the
+invaluable Commentarii de statu religionis et reipublicae of Jean de
+Serres. It well repays an attentive perusal, for it contains, in my
+judgment, the most important and authentic record of the sufferings of the
+Huguenots during the peace. The reader will notice that I have made great
+use of its authority in the preceding narrative.
+
+[582] Jean de Serres, iii. 241.
+
+[583] The place is sufficiently designated by Ag. d'Aubigne (Hist. univ.,
+i. 263) "a Bonni pres Sancerre;" by Jean de Serres (iii. 242) "ad
+Sangodoneum vicum (Saint Godon) qui tribus ferme milliaribus distat ab ea
+fluminis parte, qua transiit Condaeus;" by Hotman, Gasparis Colinii Vita,
+1575 (p. 68), "ad flumen accessit, quo Sancerrani collis radices
+alluuntur," and by the "Vie de Coligny" (p. 351), "vis a vis de Sancerre."
+It will surprise no one accustomed to the uncertainties and perplexities
+of historical investigation, that while one author, quoted by Henry White
+(Mass. of St. Bartholomew, 292), puts the crossing "near les Rosiers, four
+leagues below Saumur," Davila (p. 129) places it at Roanne. The two spots
+are, probably, not less than 230 miles apart in a straight line.
+
+[584] See De Thou, etc.
+
+[585] Recueil des choses mem. (Hist. des Cinq Rois), 336. The Life of
+Coligny (1575), p. 68, states that the rise took place within _three_
+hours after the Huguenots crossed.
+
+[586] Jean de Serres, iii. 192, and De Thou, iv. (liv. xliv.) 140. The
+dates of Conde's departure from Tanlay and arrival at La Rochelle are, as
+usual, given differently by other authorities.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+THE THIRD CIVIL WAR.
+
+
+[Sidenote: Relative advantages of the Roman Catholics and Huguenots.]
+
+[Sidenote: Enthusiasm of Huguenot youth.]
+
+[Sidenote: Enlistment of Agrippa d'Aubigne.]
+
+Having narrowly escaped falling into the hands of their treacherous
+enemies, and finding themselves compelled once more to take up arms in
+defence of their own lives and the liberties of their fellow-believers,
+the Prince of Conde and Admiral Coligny resolved to institute a vigorous
+contest. A single glance at the situation, the full dangers of which were
+now disclosed by the tidings coming from every quarter, was sufficient to
+convince them that in a bold and decided policy lay their only hope of
+success. The Roman Catholics had, it is true, enjoyed rare opportunities
+for maturing a comprehensive plan of attack; although the sequel seemed to
+prove that they had turned these opportunities to little practical use.
+But the Huguenots possessed countervailing advantages, in close sympathy
+with each other, in fervid zeal for their common faith, as well as in an
+organization all but perfect. Simultaneously with their flight from
+Noyers, the prince and the admiral had sent out a summons addressed to the
+Protestants in all parts of the kingdom, and this was responded to with
+enthusiasm by great numbers of those who had been their devoted followers
+in the two previous wars. Multitudes of young men, also, with imaginations
+inflamed by the recital of the exploits of their fathers and friends,
+burned to enroll themselves under such distinguished leaders. Many were
+the stratagems resorted to by these aspirants for military honors. Among
+others, the eminent historian, Theodore Agrippa d'Aubigne, has left an
+amusing account of the adventures he passed through in reaching the
+Huguenot recruiting station. His prudent guardian had taken the precaution
+to remove Agrippa's clothes every evening, in order to prevent him from
+carrying out his avowed purpose of entering the army; but one night, on
+hearing the report of the arquebuse--which a number of his companions,
+bent on the same course, had fired as a signal near his place of
+confinement--the youth boldly lowered himself to the ground by the sheets
+of his bed, and, with bare feet and no other clothing than a shirt, made
+his way to Jonzac. There, after receiving an outfit from some Protestant
+captains, he jotted down at the bottom of the receipt which he gave them
+in return, the whimsical declaration "that never in his life would he
+blame the war for having stripped him, since he could not possibly leave
+it in a sorrier plight than that in which he entered it."[587]
+
+[Sidenote: The court proscribes the reformed religion.]
+
+The resolution and enthusiasm of the Huguenots were greatly augmented by
+the imprudent course of the court. Notwithstanding their own guilty
+designs, Catharine and the Cardinal of Lorraine were taken by surprise
+when the news reached them that Conde and Coligny had escaped, and that
+the Huguenots were everywhere arming. So sudden an outbreak had not been
+expected; and, while awaiting the muster of that portion of the troops
+that had been dismissed, but was now summoned to assemble at Etaples on
+the 10th of September,[588] it was thought best to quiet the agitated
+minds of the people. A declaration was accordingly published, assuring all
+the adherents of the reformed faith who remained at home and furnished no
+assistance to the enemy, of the royal protection, Charles promising, at
+the same time, to give a gracious hearing to their grievances.[589] But,
+as soon as the Roman Catholic forces began to collect in large numbers,
+and the apprehension of a sudden assault by the Huguenots died away, the
+court threw off the mask of conciliation, and Charles was made to sign two
+laws unsurpassed for intolerance. The first purported to be "an
+irrevocable and perpetual edict." It rehearsed the various steps taken by
+Charles the Ninth and his brother Francis in reference to the "so-called
+reformed religion," from the time of the tumult of Amboise. It alluded to
+the edicts of July and of January--the latter adopted by the queen mother,
+by advice of the Cardinals of Bourbon and Tournon, of the constable, of
+Saint Andre, and others, because less objectionable than an edict
+tolerating the worship of that religion _within_ the walls of the cities.
+None of these concessions, it asserted, having satisfied the professors of
+the new faith, who had collected money and raised troops with the intent
+of establishing another government in place of that which God had
+instituted, the king now repealed the edicts of toleration, and henceforth
+prohibited his subjects, of whatever rank and in all parts of his
+dominions, on pain of confiscation and death, from the exercise of any
+other religious rites than those of the Roman Catholic Church. All
+Protestant ministers were ordered to leave France within fifteen days.
+Quiet and peaceable laymen were promised toleration until such time as God
+should deign to bring them back to the true fold; and pardon was offered
+to all who within twenty days should lay down their arms.[590] The second
+edict deprived all Protestant magistrates of the offices they held,
+reserving, however, to those who did not take part in the war, a certain
+portion of their former revenues.[591]
+
+In order to give greater solemnity to the transaction, Charles, clothed in
+robes of state and with great pomp, repaired to the parliament house, to
+be present at the publication of the new edicts, and with his own hands
+threw into the fire and burned up the previous edicts of pacification.
+"Thus did his Royal Highness of France," writes a contemporary German
+pamphleteer with intense satisfaction, "as was seemly and becoming to a
+Christian supreme magistrate, _pronounce sentence of death upon all
+Calvinistic and other heresies_."[592]
+
+[Sidenote: Impolicy of this course.]
+
+Nothing devised by the papal party could have been better adapted to
+further the Huguenot cause than the course it had adopted. The wholesale
+proscription of their faith united the Protestants, and led every
+able-bodied man to take up arms against a perfidious government, whose
+disregard of treaties solemnly made was so shamefully paraded before the
+world. "These edicts," admits the candid Castelnau, "only served to make
+the whole party rise with greater expedition, and furnished the Prince of
+Conde and the admiral with a handle to convince all the Protestant powers
+that they were not persecuted for any disaffection to the government, but
+purely for the sake of religion."[593]
+
+[Sidenote: Attempts to make capital of the proscriptive measures.]
+
+Efforts were not spared by the Guisard party to make capital abroad out of
+the new proscriptive measures. Copies of the edicts, translated from the
+French, were put into circulation beyond the Rhine, accompanied by a
+memorial embodying the views presented by an envoy of Charles to some of
+the Roman Catholic princes of the empire. The king herein justified
+himself for his previous clemency by declaring that he had entertained no
+other idea than that of allowing his subjects of the "pretended" reformed
+faith time and opportunity for returning to the bosom of the only true
+church. Lovers of peace and good order among the Germans were warned that
+they had no worse enemies than the insubordinate and rebellious Huguenots
+of his Very Christian Majesty's dominions, while the adherents of the
+Augsburg Confession were distinctly given to understand that Lutheranism
+was safer with the Turk than where Calvin's doctrines were professed.[594]
+
+To influence the princes the offices of skilled diplomatists were called
+into requisition, but to no purpose. When Blandy requested the emperor, in
+Charles's name, to prevent any succor from being sent to Conde from
+Germany, Maximilian replied by counselling his good friend the king to
+seek means to restore concord and harmony among his subjects, and
+professing his own inability to restrain the levy of auxiliary troops. And
+from Duke John William, of Saxony, the same envoy only obtained
+expressions of regret that the war so lately suppressed had broken out
+anew, and of discontent on the part of the German princes at the rumor
+that Charles had been so ill advised as to join in a league made by the
+Pope and the King of Spain, with the view of overwhelming the
+Protestants.[595]
+
+[Sidenote: A "crusade" preached at Toulouse.]
+
+On the other hand, the new direction taken by Catharine met with the most
+decided favor on the part of the fanatical populace, and the pulpits
+resounded with praise of the complete abrogation of all compacts with
+heresy. The Roman Catholic party in Toulouse acted so promptly,
+anticipating even the orders of the royal court, as to make it evident
+that they had been long preparing for the struggle. On Sunday, the twelfth
+of September, a league for the extermination of heresy was published,
+under the name of a _crusade_. A priest delivered a sermon with the
+consent of the Parliament of Toulouse. Next day all who desired to join in
+the bloody work met in the cathedral dedicated to St. Stephen--the
+Christian protomartyr having, by an irony of history, more than once been
+made a witness of acts more congenial to the spirit of his persecutors
+than to his own--and prepared themselves for their undertaking by a common
+profession of their faith, by an oath to expose their lives and property
+for the maintenance of the Roman Catholic religion, and by confession and
+communion. This being done, they adopted for their motto the words, "Eamus
+nos, moriamur cum Christo," and attached to their dress a white cross to
+distinguish them from their Protestant fellow-citizens. Of success they
+entertained no misgivings. Had not Attila been defeated, with his three
+hundred thousand men, not far from Toulouse? Had not God so blessed the
+arms of "our good Catholics" in the time of Louis the Eighth, father of
+St. Louis, that eight hundred of them had routed more than sixty thousand
+heretics? "So that we doubt not," said the new crusaders, "that we shall
+gain the victory over these enemies of God and of the whole human race;
+and if some of us should chance to die, our blood will be to us a second
+baptism, in consequence of which, without any hinderance, we shall pass,
+with the other martyrs, straight to Paradise."[596] A papal bull, a few
+months later (on the fifteenth of March, 1569), gave the highest
+ecclesiastical sanction to the crusade, and emphasized the complete
+extermination of the heretics.[597]
+
+[Sidenote: Fanaticism of the Roman Catholic preachers.]
+
+The faithful, but somewhat garrulous chronicler, who has left us so vivid
+a picture of the social, religious, and political condition of the city of
+Provins during a great part of the second half of this century, describes
+a solemn procession in honor of the publication of the new ordinance,
+which was attended by over two thousand persons, and even by the
+magistrates suspected of sympathy with the Protestants. Friar Jean
+Barrier, when pressed to preach, took for his text the song of Moses: "I
+will sing unto the Lord, for He hath triumphed gloriously: the horse and
+his rider hath He thrown into the sea." His treatment of the verse was
+certainly novel, although the exegesis might not find much favor with the
+critical Hebraist. The Prince of Conde was the _horse_, on whose back
+were mounted the Huguenot ministers and preachers--the _riders_ who drove
+him hither and thither by their satanic doctrine. Although they were not
+as yet drowned, like Pharaoh and his army in the Red Sea, France had great
+reason to rejoice and praise God that the king had annulled the Edict of
+January, and other pernicious laws made during his minority. As for
+himself, said the good friar, he was ready to die, like another Simeon,
+since he had lived to see the edicts establishing "the Huguenotic liberty"
+repealed, and the preachers expelled from France.[598]
+
+[Sidenote: The Huguenot places of refuge.]
+
+Similar rejoicings with similar high masses and sermons by enthusiastic
+monks, were heard in the capital[599] and elsewhere. But the jubilant
+strains were sounded rather prematurely; for the victory was yet to be
+won. The Huguenot nobles, invited by Conde, were flocking to La Rochelle;
+the Protestant inhabitants of the towns, expelled from their homes, were
+generally following the same impulse. But others, reluctant, or unable to
+traverse such an expanse of hostile territory, turned toward nearer places
+of refuge. Happily they found a number of such asylums in cities whose
+inhabitants, alarmed by the marks of treachery appearing in every quarter
+of France, had refused to receive the garrisons sent to them in the king's
+name. It was a wonderful providence of God, the historian Jean de Serres
+remarks. The fugitive Huguenots of the centre and north found the gates of
+Vezelay and of Sancerre open to them. Those of Languedoc and Guyenne were
+safe within the walls of Montauban, Milhau, and Castres. In the
+south-eastern corner of the kingdom, Aubenas, Privas, and a few other
+places afforded a retreat for the women and children, and a convenient
+point for the muster of the forces of Dauphiny.[600]
+
+[Sidenote: Jeanne d'Albret and D'Andelot reach La Rochelle.]
+
+Meantime, the Queen of Navarre, with young Prince Henry and his sister
+Catharine, started from her dominions near the Pyrenees. The court had in
+vain plied her with conciliatory letters and messages sent in the king's
+name. Gathering her troops together, and narrowly escaping the forces
+despatched to intercept her, she formed a junction with a very
+considerable body of troops raised in Perigord, Auvergne, and the
+neighboring provinces, under the Seigneur de Piles, the Marquis de
+Montamart, and others, and, after meeting the Prince of Conde, who came as
+far as Cognac to receive her, found safety in the city of La
+Rochelle.[601]
+
+From an opposite direction, Francois d'Andelot, whom the outbreak of
+hostilities overtook while yet in Brittany, was warned by Conde to hasten
+to the same point. With his accustomed energy, the young Chatillon rapidly
+collected the Protestant noblemen and gentry, not only of that province,
+but of Normandy, Touraine, Maine, and Anjou, and with such experienced
+leaders as the Count of Montgomery, the Vidame of Chartres, and Francois
+de la Noue, had reached a point on the Loire a few miles above Angers. It
+was his plan to seize and hold the city and bridge of Saumur, and thus
+secure for the Huguenots the means of easy communication between the two
+sides of the important basin intervening between the smaller basins of the
+Seine and the Garonne. His expectations, however, were frustrated
+principally by the good fortune of M. de Martigues, who succeeded in
+making a sudden dash through D'Andelot's scattered divisions, and in
+conveying to the Duke of Montpensier at Saumur so large a reinforcement as
+to render it impossible for the Huguenots to dream of dislodging him.[602]
+For a time D'Andelot was in great peril. With only about fifteen hundred
+horse and twenty-five hundred foot,[603] he stood on the banks of a river
+swollen by autumnal rains and supposed to be utterly impassable, and in
+the midst of a country all whose cities were in the hands of the enemy. He
+had even formed the desperate design of retiring twenty or thirty miles
+northward, in hope of being able to entice Montpensier to follow him so
+incautiously that he might turn upon him, and, after winning a victory,
+secure for himself a passage to the sources of the Loire or to his allies
+in Germany. At this moment the joyful announcement was made by Montgomery
+that a ford had been discovered. The news proved to be true. The crossing
+was safe and easy. Not a man nor a horse was lost. The interposition of
+heaven in their behalf was so wonderful, that, as the Huguenot troopers
+reached the southern bank, the whole army, by common and irresistible
+impulse, broke forth in praise to Almighty God, and sang that grand psalm
+of deliverance--the seventy-sixth.[604] Never had those verses of Beza
+been sung by more thankful hearts or in a nobler temple.[605]
+
+[Sidenote: Success in Poitou, Angoumois, etc.]
+
+Full of courage, the exultant troops of D'Andelot now pressed southward.
+First the city of Thouars fell into their hands; then the more important
+Partenay surrendered itself to the Huguenots. Here, according to the cruel
+rules of warfare of the sixteenth century, they deemed themselves
+justified in hanging the commander of the place, who had thrown himself
+into the castle, for having too obstinately insisted upon standing an
+assault in a spot incapable of defence, together with some priests who
+had shared his infatuation.[606] Admiral Coligny now met his brother, and
+the united army, with three cannon brought from La Rochelle, forming his
+entire siege artillery, demanded and obtained the surrender of Niort, the
+size and advantageous position of which made it a bulwark of La Rochelle
+toward the east. Angouleme, Blaye, Cognac, Pons, and Saintes, were still
+more valuable acquisitions. In short, within a few weeks, so large a
+number of cities in the provinces of Poitou, Angoumois, and Saintonge had
+fallen under the power of the Protestants, that they seemed fully to have
+retrieved the losses they had experienced through the treacherous peace of
+Longjumeau. "In less than two months," writes La Noue of his
+fellow-soldiers, "from poor vagabonds that they were, they found in their
+hands sufficient means to continue a long war."[607] And the veteran
+Admiral Coligny, amazed at the success attending measures principally
+planned by himself, was accustomed to repeat with heartfelt thankfulness
+the exclamation attributed to Themistocles: "I should be lost, if I had
+not been lost!"[608]
+
+[Sidenote: Affairs in Dauphiny, Provence, and Languedoc.]
+
+[Sidenote: Powerful Huguenot army in the south.]
+
+[Sidenote: It effects a junction with Conde's forces.]
+
+Meantime, in the south-eastern part of France, the provinces of Dauphiny,
+Provence, and Lower Languedoc, the Huguenots had not been slow in
+responding to the call of the Prince of Conde. The difficulty was rather
+in assembling their soldiers than in raising them; for there was little
+lack of volunteers after the repeal of the royal edicts in favor of the
+Protestants. With great trouble the contingents of Dauphiny and Provence
+were brought across the Rhone, and at Alais the Baron d'Acier[609]
+mustered an army to go to the succor of the Prince of Conde at La
+Rochelle. A Roman Catholic historian expresses his profound astonishment
+that the Huguenots of this part of the kingdom, when surprised by the
+violation of the peace, should so speedily have been able to mass a force
+of twenty-five thousand men, well furnished and equipped, and commanded by
+the most excellent captains of the age--Montbrun, Mouvans, Pierre-Gourde,
+and others.[610] The abbe's wonder was doubtless equalled by the
+consternation which the news spread among the enemies of the Huguenots.
+The Roman Catholics could bring no army capable of preventing the junction
+of D'Acier's troops with those of Conde; but the Duke of Montpensier
+succeeded, on the twenty-fifth of October, in inflicting a severe loss
+upon one of the divisions at Messignac, near Perigueux. Mouvans and
+Pierre-Gourde, who were distant from the main body, were attacked in their
+quarters, by a force under Brissac, which they easily repulsed. D'Acier,
+suspecting the design of the enemy, had commanded the Huguenot captains to
+make no pursuit, and to await his own arrival. But brave Mouvans was as
+impatient of orders as he was courageous in battle. Disregarding the
+authority which sat so lightly upon him, he fell into an ambuscade, where
+he atoned for his rashness by the loss of his own life and the lives of
+more than a thousand of his companions. After this disaster, D'Acier
+experienced no further opposition, and, on the first of November, he met
+the advancing army of Conde at Aubeterre, on the banks of the Dronne.[611]
+
+With the new accessions to his army, the prince commanded a force very
+considerably larger than any he had led in the previous wars. Among the
+conflicting statements, we may find it difficult to fix its numbers.
+Agrippa d'Aubigne says that, after the losses consequent upon the defeat
+of Messignac and those resulting from camp diseases, Conde's army
+consisted of only seventeen thousand foot soldiers, and two thousand five
+hundred horsemen.[612] A Huguenot bulletin, sent from La Rochelle for the
+information of Queen Elizabeth and the Protestants of England, may have
+given somewhat too favorable a view of the prince's prospects, but was
+certainly nearer the truth, in assigning him twenty-five thousand
+arquebusiers and a cavalry force of five or six thousand men.[613] On the
+other hand, Henry of Anjou, who had been placed in nominal command of the
+Roman Catholic army, had not yet been able to assemble a much superior,
+probably not an equal, number of soldiers. The large forces which,
+according to his ambassador at the English court, Charles the Ninth could
+call out,[614] existed only on paper. The younger Tavannes, whose father
+was the true head of the royal army, gives it but about twenty thousand
+men.[615]
+
+It was already nearly winter when the armies were collected, and their
+operations during the remainder of the campaign were indecisive. In the
+numerous skirmishes that occurred the Huguenots usually had the advantage,
+and sometimes inflicted considerable damage upon the enemy. But the Duke
+of Anjou, or the more experienced leaders commanding in his name,
+studiously avoided a general engagement. The instructions from the court
+were to wear out the courage and enthusiasm of Conde's adherents by
+protracting a tame and monotonous warfare.[616] The prince's true policy,
+on the contrary, lay in decided action. His soldiers were inferior to none
+in France. The flower of the higher nobility and the most substantial of
+the middle classes had flocked to his standard so soon as it was unfurled.
+But, without regular commissariat, and serving at their own costs, these
+troops could not long maintain themselves in the field.[617] The nobles
+and country gentlemen, never too provident in their habits, soon exhausted
+their ready funds, with their crowd of hungry retainers, and became a more
+pitiable class than even the burgesses. The latter, whom devotion to their
+religious convictions, rather than any thirst for personal distinction,
+had impelled to enter the service, could not remain many months away from
+their workshops and counting-rooms without involving their families in
+great pecuniary distress. It was not, however, possible for Conde and
+Coligny to bring about a combat which the duke was resolved to decline,
+and the unparalleled severity of the season suspended, at the same time,
+their design of wresting from his hands the city of Saumur, a convenient
+point of communication with northern France. Early in December the vines
+were frozen in the fields,[618] disease broke out in either camp, and the
+soldiers began to murmur at a war which seemed to be waged with the
+elements rather than with their fellow-men. While Anjou's generals,
+therefore, drew off their troops to Saumur, Chinon on the Vienne, and
+Poitiers, Conde's army went into winter quarters a little farther west, at
+Montreuil-Bellay, Loudun and Thouars, but afterward removed, for greater
+commodity in obtaining provisions, to Partenay and Niort.[619]
+
+[Sidenote: Huguenot reprisals and negotiations.]
+
+It was while the Huguenots lay thus inactive that their leaders
+deliberated respecting the best means of providing for their support
+during the coming campaign. Jeanne d'Albret, whose masculine vigor[620]
+had never been displayed more conspicuously than during this war, was
+present, and assisted by her sage counsels. It was determined, in view of
+the cruelties exercised upon the Protestants in those parts of the kingdom
+where they had no strongholds, and of the confiscation of their property
+by judicial decisions, to retaliate by selling the ecclesiastical
+possessions in the cities that were now under Huguenot power, and applying
+the proceeds to military uses. The order of sale was issued under the
+names of the young Prince of Navarre, of Conde, Coligny, D'Andelot and La
+Rochefoucauld, and a guarantee was given by them. As a reprisal the
+measure was just, and as a warlike expedient nothing could be more
+prudent; for, while it speedily filled the coffers of the Huguenot army,
+it cut off one great source of the revenues of the court, which had been
+authorized both by the Pope and by the clergy itself to lay these
+possessions under contribution.[621]
+
+Already the temper of the Protestant leaders had been sounded by an
+unaccredited agent of Catharine de' Medici, who found Conde at Mirebeau,
+and entreated him to make those advances toward a peace which would
+comport better with his dignity as a subject than with that of Charles as
+a king. But the prince, who saw in the mission of an irresponsible
+mediator only a new attempt to impede the action of the confederates, had
+dismissed him, after declaring, in the presence of a large number of his
+nobles, that he had been compelled to resort to arms in order to provide
+for his own defence. The war was, therefore, directed not against the
+king, but against those capital enemies of the crown and of the realm, the
+Cardinal of Lorraine and his associates. All knew his own vehement desire
+for peace, of which his late excessive compliance was a sufficient proof;
+but, since the king was surrounded by his enemies, he intended, with
+God's favor, to come and present his petitions to his Majesty in
+person.[622]
+
+[Sidenote: William of Orange attempts to aid the Huguenots.]
+
+Abroad the Huguenots had not been idle in endeavoring to secure the
+support of advantageous alliances. So early as in the month of August,
+after the disastrous defeat of Louis of Nassau, at Jemmingen, the Prince
+of Orange had contemplated the formation of a league for common defence
+with the Prince of Conde and Admiral Coligny. A draft of such an agreement
+has been preserved; but it is unsigned, and may be regarded rather as
+indicative of the friendly disposition of the French and Dutch patriots
+than as a compact that was ever formally adopted.[623] That same autumn
+William of Orange had undertaken an expedition intended to free the
+Netherlands from the tyranny of Alva. He had been met with consummate
+skill. The duke refused to fight, but hung remorselessly on his skirts.
+The inhabitants of Brabant extended no welcome to their liberator. The
+prince's mercenaries, vexed at their reception, annoyed by the masterly
+tactics of their enemy, and eager only to return to their homes, clamored
+for pay and for plunder. Orange, outgeneralled, was compelled to abandon
+the campaign, and would gladly have turned his arms against the oppressors
+of his fellow-believers in France; but his German troops had enlisted only
+for the campaign in the Netherlands, and peremptorily declined to transfer
+the field of battle to another country. However, the depth of the Meuse,
+which had become unfordable, furnished more persuasive arguments than
+could be brought forward by Genlis and the Huguenots who with him had
+joined the Prince of Orange, and the army of the patriots was forced to
+direct its course southward and to cross the French frontier.
+
+[Sidenote: Consternation and devices of the court.]
+
+[Sidenote: Declaration of the Prince of Orange.]
+
+Great was the consternation at the court of Charles. Paris trembled for
+its safety, and vigorous were the efforts made to get rid of such
+dangerous guests. Marshal Cosse, who commanded for his Majesty on the
+Flemish border, was too weak to copy successfully the tactics of Alva; but
+he employed the resources of diplomacy. His secretary, the Seigneur de
+Favelles, not content with remonstrating against the prince's violation of
+the territory of a king with whom he was at peace, endeavored to terrify
+him by exaggerating the resources of Charles the Ninth and by fabricating
+accounts of Huguenot reverses. Conde, he said, had been forced to recross
+the river Vienne in great confusion; and there was a flattering prospect
+that he would be compelled to shut himself up in La Rochelle; for
+"Monseigneur the Duke of Anjou" had an irresistible army of six thousand
+horse and twenty-five or thirty thousand foot, besides the forces coming
+from Provence under the Count de Tende, the six thousand newly levied
+Swiss brought by the Duke d'Aumale, and other considerable bodies of
+troops.[624] Gaspard de Schomberg[625] was despatched on a similar errand
+by Charles himself, and offered the prince, if he came merely desiring to
+pass in a friendly manner through the country, to furnish him with every
+facility for so doing. In reply, William of Orange, although the refusal
+of his soldiers to fight against Charles[626] left him no alternative but
+to embrace the course marked out for him, did not disguise his hearty
+sympathy with his suffering brethren in France. In view of the attempts
+made, according to his Majesty's edict of September last, to constrain the
+consciences of all who belonged to the Christian religion, and in view of
+the king's avowed determination to exterminate the pure Word of God, and
+to permit no other religion than the Roman Catholic--a thing very
+prejudicial to the neighboring nations, where there was a free exercise of
+the Christian religion--the prince declared his inability to credit the
+assertions of his Majesty, that it was not his Majesty's intention to
+constrain the conscience of any one. He avowed his own purpose to give
+oppressed Christians everywhere all aid, comfort, counsel, and assistance;
+asserting his conviction that the men who professed "the religion"
+demanded nothing else than the glory of God and the advancement of His
+Word, while in all matters of civil polity they were ready to render
+obedience to his Majesty. He averred, moreover, that if he should perceive
+any indications that the Huguenots were pursuing any other object than
+liberty of conscience and security for life and property, he would not
+only withdraw his assistance from them, but would use the whole strength
+of his army to exterminate them.[627] After this declaration, the prince
+prosecuted his march to Strasbourg, where he disbanded his troops, pawning
+his very plate and pledging his principality of Orange, to find the means
+of satisfying their demands. Great was the delight of the royalists, great
+the disappointment of the Huguenots, on hearing that the expedition had
+vanished in smoke. "The army of the Prince of Orange," wrote an agent of
+Conde in Paris, "after having thrice returned to the king's summons a
+sturdy answer that it would never leave France until it saw religion
+re-established, has retreated, in spite of our having given it notice of
+your intention to avow it. I know not the cause of this sudden movement,
+for which various reasons are alleged."[628] William the Silent had not,
+however, relinquished the intention of going to the assistance of the
+Huguenots, whose welfare, next to that of his own provinces, lay near his
+heart. Retaining, therefore, twelve hundred horsemen whom he found better
+disposed than the rest, he patiently awaited the departure of the new ally
+of the French Protestants, Wolfgang, Duke of Deux-Ponts (Zweibruecken), in
+whose company he had determined to cross France with his brothers Louis
+and Henry of Nassau.[629]
+
+[Sidenote: Aid sought from England.]
+
+[Sidenote: Generous response of the English people.]
+
+[Sidenote: Bishop Jewel's noble plea.]
+
+The Prince of Conde received more immediate and substantial assistance
+from beyond the Channel. When Tavannes undertook to capture Conde and
+Coligny at Noyers, it was in contemplation to seize Odet, Cardinal of
+Chatillon, the admiral's elder brother,[630] in his episcopal palace at
+Beauvais. He received, however, timely warning, and made his escape
+through Normandy to England, where Queen Elizabeth received him at her
+court with marks of distinguished favor.[631] His efforts to enlist the
+sympathies and assistance of the English monarch in behalf of his
+persecuted countrymen were seconded by Cavaignes, who soon arrived as an
+envoy from Conde. Cavaignes was instructed to ask material aid--money to
+meet the engagements made with the Duke of Deux-Ponts, and ships with
+their armaments to increase the small flotilla of privateersmen, which the
+Protestants had, for the first time, sent out from La Rochelle. Soon after
+appeared the vice-admiral, Chastelier-Pourtaut de Latour, under whose
+command the flotilla had been placed, bearing a letter from the Queen of
+Navarre to her sister of England, in which she was entreated to espouse a
+quarrel that had arisen not from ambition or insubordination, but from the
+desire, in the first place, to defend religion, and, next, to rescue a
+king who was being hurried on to ruin by treacherous advisers.[632] To
+these reiterated appeals, and to the solicitations for aid addressed to
+them by other refugees from papal violence who had found their way to the
+shores of Great Britain, the subjects of the queen returned a more
+gracious answer than the queen herself. The exiled Huguenot ministers were
+received with open arms by men who regarded them as champions of a common
+Christianity,[633] and some Protestant noblemen had in a few weeks after
+their arrival raised for their relief, the sum--considerable for those
+days--of one hundred pounds sterling. Not only the laity, but even the
+clergy of the Church of England, took a tender pride in receiving the "few
+servants of God"--some three or four thousand--whom Providence had thrown
+upon their shores. They welcomed them to their cities, and resented the
+attempts of Pope and king to secure their extradition. Could the Pope, who
+harbored six thousand usurers and twenty thousand courtesans in his own
+city of Rome, call upon the Queen of England to deny the right of asylum
+to "the poor exiles of Flanders and France, and other countries, who
+either lost or left behind them all that they had--goods, lands, and
+houses--not for adultery, or theft, or treason, but for the profession of
+the Gospel?" "It pleased God," wrote Bishop Jewel, "here to cast them on
+land: the queen of her gracious pity hath granted them harbor. Is it
+become so heinous a thing to show mercy?" "They are our brethren,"
+continued their noble-minded advocate, "they live not idly. If they have
+houses of us, they pay rent for them. They hold not our grounds but by
+making due recompense. They beg not in our streets, nor crave anything at
+our hands, but to breathe our air, and to see our sun. They labor truly,
+they live sparefully. They are good examples of virtue, travail, faith,
+and patience. The towns in which they abide are happy, for God doth follow
+them with His blessings."[634]
+
+[Sidenote: Misgivings of Queen Elizabeth.]
+
+[Sidenote: Her double-dealing and effrontery.]
+
+Queen Elizabeth was less decidedly in their favor. Her court swarmed with
+creatures of the Spanish king, who openly gloried in the victories of the
+Guises. The ambassadors of Charles and Philip strove to the utmost to
+render the Huguenots odious to her mind, and to give a false coloring to
+the war raging in France. Her jealousy of the royal prerogative was
+appealed to, by the repeated declaration that the Protestants of France
+were turbulent men, who, for the slightest occasion and upon the most
+slender suspicion, were ready to have recourse to arms--enthusiasts, who
+could not be dissuaded from rash enterprises; sectaries, who employed
+their consistories and their organized form of church government to levy
+men, to collect arms, munitions of war, and money--rebels, in fine, who
+could at any moment rise within an hour, and surprise his most Christian
+Majesty's cities and provinces. The abrogation of religious liberty was,
+therefore, not merely advisable, but absolutely necessary. Elizabeth was
+reminded, also, of her own intolerant measures toward the Roman Catholics
+of her dominions; and she was assured that her fears of a combined attack
+on all the Protestants were devoid of foundation--that Charles had neither
+taken up arms, nor revoked the edicts of toleration at the desire of any
+other prince, still less because of the instance of any private
+individuals, but of his own free will, in order to secure his
+kingdom.[635] These arguments, if they did not convince Elizabeth, gave
+her a fair excuse for trying to maintain an appearance of
+non-intervention, which the perilous position of England seemed to her to
+dictate. With the problem of Scotland and Mary Stuart yet unsolved--with a
+very considerable part of the lords and commons of her own kingdom
+scarcely concealing their affection for the Romish faith--she deemed it
+hazardous to provoke too far the enmity of Philip the Second, her
+brother-in-law, and a late suitor for her hand. As if any better way could
+be found of warding off from her island the assaults of Philip than by
+rendering efficient aid to Conde and Orange! As if England's dissimulation
+and refusal to support the "Huguenots" and the "Gueux" in any other than
+an underhand way were likely to retard the sailing of the great expedition
+that was to turn the Pope's impotent threats against the "bastard of
+England" into fearful realities! As if Protestantism, everywhere menaced,
+could hope for glorious success in any other path than a bold and combined
+defence![636] Unfortunately Elizabeth was fairly launched on a sea of
+deceitful diplomacy, and not even Cecil could hold her back. She gave La
+Mothe Fenelon, the French envoy, assurances that would have been most
+satisfactory could he have closed his eyes to the facts that gave these
+assurances the lie direct. At one time, with an appearance of sincerity,
+she told the Spanish ambassador, it is true, that she could not abandon
+the family of Chatillon, who had long been her friends, whilst she saw the
+Guises, the declared enemies of her person and state, in such authority,
+both in the council and the field; that she could not feel herself secure,
+especially since a member of the French council had inadvertently dropped
+the hint that, after everything had been settled at home, Charles would
+turn his arms against England. She had rather, consequently, anticipate
+than be anticipated.[637] But to La Mothe Fenelon himself she maintained
+unblushingly that, so far from helping the French Protestants, "there was
+nothing in the world of which she entertained such horror as of seeing a
+body rising in rebellion against its head, and that she had no notion of
+associating herself with such a monster."[638] And again and again she
+protested that she was not intriguing in France--that she had sent the
+Huguenots no assistance.[639] At the same time Admiral Winter had been
+despatched with four or five ships of war and a fleet of merchantmen, to
+carry to La Rochelle, in answer to the request of Conde and of the Queen
+of Navarre, 100,000 "angelots" and six pieces of cannon and
+ammunition.[640] When the ambassador was commissioned to lay before the
+queen a remonstrance against this flagrant breach of neutrality, and to
+demand an answer, within fifteen days, respecting her intentions,[641]
+Elizabeth, in declaring for peace, had the effrontery to assert that the
+assistance in cannon and powder (for she denied that any money was left at
+La Rochelle) was involuntary, not only with her, but even with the admiral
+himself. Having dropped into the harbor to obtain the wine and other
+commodities with which his fleet of merchantmen were to be freighted,
+Admiral Winter was approached by the governor of the city, who so strongly
+pressed him to sell or lend them some pieces of artillery and some powder,
+which they could not do without, that, considering that he, as well as the
+ships, were in their power, he thought it necessary to comply with a part
+of their requests, although it was against his will.[642] Such were the
+paltry falsehoods to which Elizabeth's insincere course naturally and
+directly led. La Mothe Fenelon was well aware that Admiral Winter, besides
+his public commission, had been furnished with a secret order, authorizing
+him to assist La Rochelle, signed by Elizabeth's own hand, without which
+the wary old seaman absolutely refused to go, doubtless fearing that he
+might be sacrificed when it suited his mistress's crooked policy. What the
+order contained was no mystery to the French envoy.[643] Neither party in
+this solemn farce was deceived, but both wanted peace. Catharine would
+have been even more vexed than surprised had Elizabeth confessed the
+truth, and so necessitated a resort to open hostilities.[644] As the honor
+of the government was satisfied, even by the notoriously false story of
+Winter's compulsion, there was no necessity for pressing the question of
+its veracity to an inconvenient length.
+
+[Sidenote: Fruitless sieges and plots.]
+
+The cold winter of 1568-1569 passed without signal events, excepting the
+great mortality among the soldiers of both camps from an epidemic
+disease--consequent upon exposure to the extraordinary severity of the
+season--and the fruitless siege of the city of Sancerre by the Roman
+Catholics. Five weeks were the troops of Martinengo detained before the
+walls of this small place, whose convenient proximity to the upper Loire
+rendered it valuable to the Huguenots, not only as a means of facilitating
+the introduction of their expected German auxiliaries into central France,
+but still more as a refuge for their allies in the neighboring provinces.
+The bravery of the besieged made them superior to the forces sent to
+dislodge them. They repulsed, with great loss to their enemies, two
+successive assaults on different parts of the works, and, at last, gaining
+new courage from the advantages they had obtained, assumed the offensive,
+and forced Martinengo and the captains by whom he had been reinforced to
+retire humiliated from the hopeless undertaking.[645] Meantime, in not
+less than three important cities which the Huguenots hoped to gain without
+striking a blow, the plans of those who were to have admitted the
+Protestants within the walls failed in the execution; and Dieppe, Havre,
+and Lusignan remained in the power of the Roman Catholic party.[646]
+
+[Sidenote: Growing superiority of Anjou's forces.]
+
+At the opening of the spring campaign the Prince of Conde found his
+position relatively to his opponents by no means so favorable as at the
+close of the previous year. His loss by disease equalled, his loss by
+desertion exceeded, that of the Duke of Anjou; for it was impossible for
+troops serving at their own expense, however zealous they might be for the
+common cause, to be kept together, especially during a season of inaction,
+so easily as the forces paid out of the royal treasury. Besides this, the
+Duke of Anjou had received considerable reinforcements. Two thousand two
+hundred German reiters, under the Rhinegrave and Bassompierre, had arrived
+in his camp. They were the first division of a force of five thousand six
+hundred men who had crossed the Rhine, near the end of December, under
+Philibert, Marquis of Baden, and others. The young Count de Tende brought
+three thousand foot soldiers from Provence and Dauphiny, and smaller
+bodies came in from other parts of France.[647] Conde, on the contrary,
+had received scarcely any accessions to his troops. The "viscounts," whose
+arrival had turned the scale at the conclusion of the last war, lingered
+in Guyenne, with an army of six thousand foot soldiers and a
+well-appointed cavalry force, preferring to protect the Protestant
+territories about Montauban and Castres, and to ravage the lands of their
+enemies, as far as to the gates of Toulouse, rather than leave their homes
+unprotected and join Conde. A dispute respecting precedence had not been
+without some influence in causing the delay, and M. de Piles, who had been
+twice sent to urge them forward, had only succeeded in bringing a corps
+of one thousand two hundred arquebusiers and two hundred horse.[648] It
+was now expected, however, that realizing the vital importance of opposing
+to Anjou a powerful Protestant army, the viscounts would abandon their
+short-sighted policy; and it was the intention of Conde and Coligny, after
+effecting a junction, to march with the combined armies to meet the Duke
+of Deux-Ponts. Anticipating this plan, the court had despatched the Dukes
+of Aumale and of Nemours to guard the entrance into France from the side
+of Germany. There seemed to be danger that the precaution would prove
+ineffectual through the jealousy existing between the two leaders; but
+this danger Catharine attempted to avert by removing the royal court to
+Metz, where she could exert her personal influence in reconciling the
+ambitious rivals.[649] In order to prevent the threatened union of Conde
+and the viscounts, the Duke of Anjou now left his winter quarters upon the
+Loire and moved southward. On the other hand, the Prince of Conde left
+Niort, and, pursuing a course nearly parallel, passed through St. Jean
+d'Angely to Saintes, thence diverging to Cognac, on the Charente.[650]
+
+[Sidenote: The armies meet on the Charente.]
+
+The Charente, although by no means one of the largest rivers of France,
+well deserves to be called one of the most capricious. For about a quarter
+of its length it runs in a northwesterly direction. At Civray it abruptly
+turns southward and flows in a meandering course as far as Angouleme,
+receiving on the way the waters of the Tardouere (Tardoire), and with it
+almost completely inclosing a considerable tract of land. At Angouleme,
+the old whim regaining supremacy, the Charente again bends suddenly
+westward, and finally empties into the ocean below Rochefort, through a
+narrow arm of the sea known as the Pertuis d'Antioche. The tract of
+country included between the river and the shores of the Bay of Biscay,
+comprising a large part of the provinces of Aunis and Saintonge, was in
+the undisputed possession of the Huguenots. They held the right bank of
+the river, and controlled the bridges. Here they intended to await the
+arrival of the viscounts. Jarnac, an important town on this side, a few
+miles above Cognac, Admiral Coligny with the advance guard of the prince's
+army had wrested from the enemy. They had also recovered Chateauneuf, a
+small place situated higher up, and midway between Jarnac and Angouleme.
+
+In pursuance of his plan, the Duke of Anjou, after crossing the Charente
+near Ruffec, had moved around to the south side, determined to prevent the
+junction of the two Huguenot armies. Once more Chateauneuf fell into his
+hands; but the garrison, after retreating to the opposite bank, had
+destroyed the bridge behind them. This bridge the Roman Catholics set
+themselves at once to repair. At the same time they began the construction
+of a bridge of boats in the immediate vicinity. While these constructions
+were pushed forward with great vigor, the royal army marched down as far
+as Cognac and made a feint of attack, but retired after drawing from the
+walls a furious cannonade. It was now that prudence demanded that the
+Protestant army should withdraw from its advanced position with only the
+Charente between its vanguard and the far superior forces of the enemy.
+This was the advice of Coligny and of others in the council of war. But
+Conde prevented its prompt execution, exclaiming: "God forbid that it
+should ever be said that a Bourbon fled before his enemies!"[651]
+
+[Sidenote: Battle of Jarnac, March 13, 1569.]
+
+The bridges being now practicable, almost the whole army of Anjou was
+thrown across the Charente under cover of the darkness, during the night
+of the twelfth and thirteenth of March, only a small force remaining on
+the left bank to protect Chateauneuf and the passage. So skilfully was
+this movement effected that it escaped the observation even of those
+divisions of the Protestant army that were close to the point of crossing.
+When at length the admiral was advised that the enemy were in force on the
+northern bank, he at once issued the order to fall back toward Conde and
+the main body of the Huguenots. Unfortunately, the divisions of Coligny's
+command were scattered; some had been discontented with the posts assigned
+them, and had on their own responsibility exchanged them for others that
+better suited their fancy. The very command to concentrate was obeyed with
+little promptness, and the afternoon was more than half spent before
+Coligny, and D'Andelot, who was with him, could begin the retreat. Never
+was dilatoriness more ill-timed. The handful of men with the admiral, near
+the abbey and hamlet of Bassac, fought with desperation, but could not
+ward off the superior numbers of the enemy. La Noue, in command of the
+extreme rear, with great courage drove back the foremost of the Roman
+Catholics, but was soon overpowered and taken prisoner. His men were
+thrown in disorder upon D'Andelot, who, by an almost superhuman effort,
+not only sustained the shock, but retook and for a short time held the
+abbey. D'Andelot was, however, in turn forced to yield the ground.
+
+Meantime Coligny had called upon Conde for assistance, and the prince,
+leaving his infantry to follow, had hurried back with the few horse that
+were within reach, and now took position on the left. But it was
+impossible for so unequal a struggle to continue long. The Huguenots were
+outflanked and almost enclosed between their adversaries and the Charente.
+It was a time for desperate and heroic venture. Coligny's forces had lost
+the ground which they had been contesting inch by inch about a raised
+causeway.
+
+Conde himself had but three hundred knights. One of his arms he carried in
+a sling, because of a recent injury. To render his condition yet more
+deplorable, his thigh had just been broken, as he rode up, by a kick from
+the unmanageable horse of his brother-in-law, La Rochefoucauld. The
+prince was no coward. Turning to his little company of followers, he
+exclaimed: "My friends, true noblesse of France, here is the opportunity
+we have long wished for in vain! Our God is the God of Battles. He loves
+to be so called. He always declares Himself for the right, and never fails
+to succor those who serve Him. He will infallibly protect us, if, after
+having taken up arms for the liberty of our consciences, we put all our
+hope in Him. Come and let us complete what the first charges have begun;
+and remember in what a state Louis of Bourbon entered into the combat for
+Christ and for his native land!" Thus having spoken, he bent forward, and,
+at the head of his devoted band, and under an ensign bearing for device
+the figure of the Roman hero Marcus Curtius and the singularly appropriate
+motto, "Doux le peril pour Christ et le Pays," he dashed upon a hostile
+battalion eight hundred strong.[652]
+
+[Sidenote: Death of Louis, Prince of Conde.]
+
+The conflict was, in the judgment of that scarred old Huguenot warrior,
+Agrippa d'Aubigne, the sharpest and most obstinate in all the civil
+wars.[653] At last Conde's horse was killed under him, and the prince was
+unable to extricate himself. The day was evidently lost, and Conde,
+calling two of the enemies' knights with whom he was acquainted, and the
+life of one of whom he had on a former occasion saved, raised his visor,
+made himself known, and surrendered. His captors pledged him their word
+that his life should be spared, and respectfully endeavored to raise him
+from the ground. Just at that moment another horseman rode up. It was
+Montesquiou, captain of Anjou's guards, who came directly from his master,
+and was charged--so it was said--with a secret commission. He drew a
+pistol as he approached, and, without inquiring into the terms of the
+capture, shot Conde in the back. The shot penetrated between the joints of
+his armor, and caused almost instantaneous death.
+
+So perished a prince even more illustrious for his courage and intrepidity
+than for his exalted rank--a prince who had conscientiously espoused the
+reformed faith, and had felt himself constrained by his duty to his God
+and to his fellow-believers to assert the rights of the oppressed
+Huguenots against illegal persecution. "Our consolation," wrote Jeanne
+d'Albret a few weeks later, "is that he died on the true bed of honor,
+both for body and soul, for the service of his God and his king, and the
+quiet of his fatherland."[654] So magnanimous a hero could not be
+insensible to the invasion of his claims as the representative of the
+family next in the succession to the Valois; but I cannot agree with those
+who believe that, in his assumption of arms in three successive wars, he
+was influenced solely, or even principally, by selfish or ambitious
+motives. His devotion to the cause which he had espoused was sincere and
+whole-souled. If his love of pleasure was a serious blot upon his
+character, let charity at least reflect upon the fearful corruption of the
+court in which he had been living from his childhood, and remember that if
+Conde yielded too readily to its fascinations, and fell into shameful
+excesses, he yet bore with meekness the pointed remonstrances of faithful
+friends, and in the end shook off the chains with which his enemies had
+endeavored to bind him fast.[655] As a soldier, no one could surpass Conde
+for bravery.[656] If his abilities as a general were not of the very
+first order, he had at least the good sense to adopt the plans of Gaspard
+de Coligny, the true hero of the first four civil wars. The relations
+between these two men were well deserving of admiration. On the part of
+Conde there was an entire absence of jealousy of the resplendent abilities
+and well-earned reputation of the admiral. On the part of Coligny there
+was an equal freedom from desire to supplant the prince either in the
+esteem of his followers or in military rank. Coligny was inflexible in his
+determination to accept no honors or distinctions that might appear to
+prejudice the respect due by a Chatillon to a prince of royal blood.[657]
+
+The Prince of Conde was, unfortunately, not the only Huguenot leader
+murdered in cold blood at the battle of Jarnac. Chastelier-Pourtaut de
+Latour, who, having lately brought his flotilla back in safety to La
+Rochelle, had hastened to take the field with the Protestants, was
+recognized after his capture as the same nobleman who, five years before,
+had killed the Sieur de Charry at Paris, and was killed in revenge by some
+of Charry's friends. Robert Stuart, the brave leader descended from the
+royal house of Scotland, who was said to have slain Constable Montmorency
+in the battle of St. Denis, was assassinated after he had been talking
+with the Duke of Anjou, within hearing and almost in sight of the duke, by
+one of the constable's adherents.[658]
+
+[Sidenote: Henry of Navarre remonstrates against the perfidy.]
+
+These flagrant violations of good faith incurred severe animadversion. A
+letter is extant, written by young Prince Henry of Navarre, or in his
+name, to Henry of Anjou, on the twelfth of July, 1569, about four months
+after the battle of Jarnac. He begins by answering the aspersions cast
+upon his mother and himself, and by asserting that, if his age (which,
+however, is not much less than that of Anjou) disqualifies him from
+passing a judgment upon the present state of affairs, he has lived long
+enough to recognize the instigators of the new troubles as the enemies of
+the public weal. It is not Henry of Navarre, whose honors and dignities
+are all dependent upon the preservation of France, who seeks the ruin of
+the kingdom; but, rather, they seek its ruin who, in their eagerness to
+usurp the crown, have gone the length of making genealogical searches to
+prove their possession of a title superior to that of the Valois, "and
+have learned how to sell the blood of the house of France against
+itself,[659] _constraining the king_, as it were, _to make use of his left
+arm to cut off his right_, so as more easily to wrest his sceptre from him
+afterward." In reply to the statement of Anjou that Stuart alone was
+killed in cold blood, Henry of Navarre affirms that he can enumerate many
+others.[660] "But I shall content myself with merely reminding you of the
+manner in which the late Prince of Conde was treated, inasmuch as it
+touches you, Sir, and because it is a matter well known and free of doubt.
+For his death has left to posterity an example of as noted treachery, bad
+faith and cruelty as was ever shown, seeing that those, Sir, who murdered
+him could not be deterred from the perpetration of so wicked an act by the
+respect they owed to the greatness of your blood, to which he had the
+honor of being so nearly related, and that they dealt with him as they
+would have done with the most miserable soldier of the whole army."[661]
+
+The Huguenot loss in the battle of Jarnac was surprisingly small in the
+number of men killed. It is probable that, including prisoners, they lost
+about four hundred men, or about twice as many as the Roman
+Catholics.[662] But the loss was in effect much more considerable. The
+dead and the prisoners were the flower of the French nobility. Among those
+that had fallen into the enemy's hands were the bastard son of Antoine of
+Navarre, Francois de la Noue, Soubise, La Loue, and others of nearly equal
+distinction. Of infantry the Huguenot army lost but few men, as the
+regiments, with the exception of that of Pluviaut, did not enter the
+engagement at all. Coming up too late, and finding themselves in danger of
+falling into the hands of the enemy's victorious cavalry, they evacuated
+Jarnac, crossed to the left bank of the Charente, and, after breaking down
+the bridge, retreated leisurely toward Cognac. Admiral Coligny, meantime,
+upon whom the command in chief now devolved, diverged to the right, and
+conducted the cavalry in safety to Saintes. The Roman Catholic army,
+apparently satisfied with the success it had gained, made no attempt at
+pursuit.
+
+The Duke of Anjou entered Jarnac in triumph. With him was brought the
+corpse of the Prince of Conde, tied to an ass's back, to be afterward
+exposed by a pillar of the house where Anjou lodged--the butt of the
+sneers and low wit of the soldiers.[663] In the first glow of exultation
+over a victory, the real credit of which belonged to Gaspard de
+Tavannes,[664] Anjou contemplated erecting a chapel on the spot where
+Conde fell. The better counsels of M. de Carnavalet, however, induced him
+to abandon a design which would have confirmed all the sinister rumors
+respecting his complicity in the assassination.[665] The prince's dead
+body was given up for interment to the Prince of Navarre, and found a
+resting-place in the ancestral tomb at Vendome.[666]
+
+[Sidenote: Exaggerated bulletins.]
+
+Henry of Anjou was not inclined to suffer his victory to pass unnoticed.
+Almost as soon as the smoke of battle had cleared away, a careful
+description of his exploit was prepared for circulation, and it was no
+fault of the compiler if the account he gave was not sufficiently
+flattering to the young prince's vanity. Conde's body had not been four
+days in the hands of the Roman Catholics, before Anjou wrote to his
+brother, the King of France, announcing the fact that he had already
+despatched messengers with the precious document to the Pope and the Duke
+of Florence, to the Dukes of Savoy, Ferrara, Parma, and Urbino, to the
+Republic of Venice and the Duke of Mantua, and to Philip of Spain; while
+copies were also under way, intended for the French ambassadors in England
+and Switzerland, for the Parliaments of Paris, Bordeaux, and Toulouse, the
+"prevot des marchands," and the "echevins" of the capital, and
+others.[667]
+
+[Sidenote: The Pope's sanguinary injunctions.]
+
+The exaggerated bulletins of the Duke of Anjou were received with great
+demonstrations of joy by all the Roman Catholic allies of France. Pope
+Pius the Fifth in particular sent warm congratulations to the "Most
+Christian King" and to Catharine de' Medici. But he was very careful to
+couple his expressions of thanks with an earnest recommendation to pursue
+the work so auspiciously begun, even to the extermination of the detested
+heretics. "The more kindly God has dealt with you and us," he promptly
+wrote to Charles, "the more vigorously and diligently must you make use of
+the present victory to pursue and destroy the remnants of the enemy, and
+wholly tear up, not only the roots of an evil so great and which had
+gathered to itself such strength, but even _the very fibres_ of the roots.
+Unless they be thoroughly extirpated, they will again sprout and grow up
+(as we have so often heretofore seen happen), where your Majesty least
+expects it." Pius pledged his word that Charles would succeed in his
+undertaking, "if no respect for men or for human considerations should be
+powerful enough to induce him to spare God's enemies, who had spared
+neither God nor him." "In no other way," he added, "will you be able to
+appease God, than by avenging the injuries done to God with the utmost
+severity, by the merited punishment of most accursed men." And he set as a
+warning before the eyes of the French monarch the example of King Saul,
+who, when commanded by God, through Samuel the Prophet, so to smite the
+Amalekites, an infidel people, that none should escape, neither man nor
+woman, neither infant nor suckling, incurred the anger and rejection of
+the Almighty by sparing Agag and the best of the spoil, instead of utterly
+destroying them.[668]
+
+Two weeks later the pontiff received the unwelcome tidings that some of
+the Huguenot prisoners taken in the battle of Jarnac had been spared. La
+Noue, Soubise, and other gentlemen had actually been left alive, and were
+likely to escape without paying the forfeit due to their crimes. At this
+dreadful intelligence the righteous indignation of Pius was kindled. On
+one and the same day (the thirteenth of April) he wrote long letters to
+Catharine, to Anjou, to the Cardinal of Lorraine, to the Cardinal of
+Bourbon, as well as to Charles himself.[669] Of all these letters the
+tenor was identical. Such slackness to execute vengeance would certainly
+provoke God's patience to anger; the king must visit condign punishment
+upon the enemies of God and the rebels against his own authority. To the
+victor of Jarnac he was specially urgent, supplicating him to counteract
+any leanings that might be shown to an impious mercy. "Your brother's
+rebels have disturbed the public tranquillity of the realm. They have, so
+far as in them lay, subverted the Catholic religion, have burned churches,
+have most cruelly slain the priests of Almighty God, have committed
+numberless other crimes; consequently they deserve to receive those
+extreme penalties (_supplicia_) that are ordained by the laws. And if any
+of their number shall attempt, through the intercession of your nobles
+with the king your brother, to escape the penalties they deserve, it is
+your duty, in view of your piety to God and zeal for the divine honor, to
+reject the prayers of all that intercede for them, and to show yourself
+equally inexorable to all."[670]
+
+[Sidenote: The sanguinary action of the Parliament of Bordeaux.]
+
+Was it in consequence of the known desire of the occupant of the Holy See
+that the policy of the French courts of justice became more and more
+sanguinary? We can scarcely doubt that the Pope's injunctions had much to
+do with these increasing severities. Beginning in March, 1569, the
+Parliament of Bordeaux issued a series of decrees condemning a crowd of
+Protestants to death. The names that appear upon the records within the
+compass of one year number not less than _twelve hundred and seventeen_.
+The victims were taken out of all grades of society--from noblemen,
+military men, judges, priests and monks, down to humble mechanics and
+laborers. The lists made out by their enemies prove at least one fact
+which the Huguenots had long maintained: that they counted in their ranks
+representatives of the first families of the country, as well as of every
+other class of the population. Happily sentence was pronounced generally
+upon the absent, and the barbarous punishment of beheading, quartering,
+and exposing to the popular gaze, remained unexecuted. But the incidental
+penalty of the confiscation of the property of reputed Huguenots, which,
+so far from being a mere formal threat, was in fact the principal object
+contemplated by the prosecution, proved to be sober reality, and the goods
+of the banished Protestants afforded rich plunder to the informers.[671]
+
+[Sidenote: Queen Elizabeth becomes colder.]
+
+Upon Elizabeth of England the first effect of the reported victory at
+Jarnac was clearly marked. Her favorite, the Earl of Leicester, assured
+the French ambassador that, although the queen was sorry to see those
+professing her religion maltreated, yet, as queen, she would arm in behalf
+of Charles when fighting against his own subjects.[672] Her own
+declarations, however, were not so strong, or perhaps, after a little
+reflection, she took a more hopeful view of the fortunes of the Huguenots.
+For, although she exhibited curiosity to hear the "true" account, which a
+special messenger from Charles the Ninth was commissioned to bring her,
+and received the tidings in a manner satisfactory to the French
+ambassador, she would not rejoice at the death of Conde, whom she held to
+be a very good and faithful servant of his Majesty's crown, and deplored a
+war which, whether victory inclined to one side or the other, must lead to
+the diminution of Charles's best forces and the ruin of his noblesse.[673]
+
+[Sidenote: Spirit of the Queen of Navarre.]
+
+In point of fact, however, the defeat which the royalists had flattered
+themselves would terminate the war, and over which they had sung Te Deums,
+weakened the Huguenots very little.[674] The Queen of Navarre, on hearing
+the intelligence, hurried to Cognac, where she presented herself to the
+army, and reminded the brave men who heard her voice that, although the
+Prince of Conde, their late leader, was dead, the good cause was not dead;
+and that the courage of such good men ought never to fail. God had
+provided, and ever would provide, fresh instruments to uphold His own
+chosen work. Her brief address restored the flagging spirits of the
+fugitives. When she returned to La Rochelle, to devise new means of
+supplying the necessities of the army, she left behind her men resolved to
+retrieve their recent losses. They did not wait long for an opportunity.
+The Roman Catholics, advancing, laid siege to Cognac, confident of easy
+success. But the garrison, which included seven thousand infantry newly
+levied, received them with determination. Sallies were frequent and
+bloody, and when, at last, the siege was raised, the army of Anjou had
+sacrificed nearly as many men before the walls of a small provincial city
+as the Huguenots had lost on the much vaunted field of Jarnac.[675]
+
+[Sidenote: The Huguenots recover strength.]
+
+The events of the next two or three months certainly exhibited no
+diminution in the power or in the spirit of the Huguenots. St. Jean
+d'Angely, into which Count Montgomery had thrown himself, defied the
+entire army of Anjou, and the siege was abandoned. Angouleme, an equally
+tempting morsel, he tried to obtain, but failed. At Mucidan, a town
+somewhat to the south-west of Perigueux, he was more successful. But he
+effected its capture at the expense of the life of Brissac, one of his
+bravest officers--a loss which he attempted to avenge by murdering the
+garrison, after it had surrendered on condition that life and property
+should be spared.[676] Within a month or two after the battle of Jarnac
+the Protestants at La Rochelle wrote, for Queen Elizabeth's information,
+that they were more powerful than ever, that Piles had brought them 4,000
+recruits, that D'Andelot was soon to bring the viscounts with a large
+force.[677]
+
+[Sidenote: Death of D'Andelot.]
+
+But the course of that indefatigable warrior was now run. D'Andelot's
+excessive labors and constant exposure had brought on a fever to which his
+life soon succumbed. There were not wanting those, it is true, who
+ascribed his sudden death, like most of the deaths of important personages
+in the latter part of this century, to poison; and Huguenot and loyal
+pamphleteers alike laid the crime at the door of Catharine de'
+Medici.[678] But there is no sufficient evidence to substantiate the
+accusation, and we must not unnecessarily ascribe this base act to a woman
+already responsible for too many undeniable crimes.[679] The death of so
+gallant and true-hearted a nobleman, a faithful and unflinching friend of
+the Reformation from the time when it first began to spread extensively
+among the higher classes of the French population, and who had amply
+atoned for a momentary act of weakness, in the time of Henry the Second,
+by an uncompromising profession of his religion on every occasion during
+the reigns of that monarch's two sons, was deeply felt by his comrades in
+arms. As "colonel-general of the French infantry," he had occupied the
+first rank in this branch of the service,[680] and his experience was as
+highly prized as his impetuous valor upon the field of battle. The
+brilliancy of his executive abilities seemed to all beholders
+indispensable to complement the more calm and deliberative temperament of
+his elder brother. It was natural, therefore, that the admiral, while
+pouring out his private grief for one who had been so dear to him, in a
+touching letter to D'Andelot's children,[681] should experience as deep a
+sorrow for the loss of his wise and efficient co-operation. He might be
+pardoned a little despondency as he recalled the prophetic words that had
+dropped from D'Andelot's lips during a brief respite from his burning
+fever: "France shall have many woes to suffer with you, and then without
+you; but all will in the end fall upon the Spaniard!"[682] The prospect
+was not bright. Peace was yet far distant--peace, which Coligny preferred
+a thousand times to his own life, but would not purchase dishonorably by
+the sacrifice of civil liberty and of the right to worship his God
+according to the convictions of his heart and conscience. The burden of
+the defence of the Protestants had appeared sufficiently heavy when Conde,
+a prince of the blood, was alive to share it with him. But now, with the
+entire charge of maintaining the party against a powerful and determined
+enemy, who had the advantage of the possession of the person of the king,
+and thus was able to cloak his ambitious designs with the pretence of the
+royal authority, and deprived of a brother whom the army had appropriately
+surnamed "le chevalier sans peur,"[683] the task might well appear to
+demand herculean strength.
+
+[Sidenote: New responsibility imposed on Admiral Coligny.]
+
+Henry of Navarre had, indeed, just been recognized as general-in-chief,
+and he was accompanied by his cousin, Henry of Conde; but Navarre was a
+boy of little more than fifteen, and his cousin was not much older.
+Nothing could for the present be expected from such striplings; and the
+public, ever ready to look upon the comical side of even the most serious
+matters, was not slow in nicknaming them the "admiral's two pages."[684]
+Coligny, however, was not crushed by the new responsibility which devolved
+upon him. No longer hampered by the authority of one whose counsels often
+verged on foolhardiness, he soon exhibited his consummate abilities so
+clearly, that even his enemies were forced to acknowledge that they had
+never given him the credit he deserved. "It was soon perceived," observes
+an author by no means friendly to the Huguenots, "that the accident (of
+Conde's death) had happened only in order to reveal in all its splendor
+the merits of the Admiral de Chatillon. The admiral had had during his
+entire life very difficult and complicated matters to unravel, and,
+nevertheless, he had never had any that were not far below his abilities,
+and in which, consequently, he had no need of exerting his full capacity.
+Thus those qualities that were rarest, and that exalted him most above
+others, remained hidden, through lack of opportunity, and would apparently
+have remained always concealed during the lifetime of the Prince of Conde,
+because the world would have attributed to the prince all those results to
+whose accomplishment it could not learn that the admiral had contributed
+more than had the former. But, after the battle of Jarnac had permitted
+the admiral to exhibit himself fully on the most famous theatre of Europe,
+the Calvinists perceived that they were not so unhappy as they thought,
+since they still had a leader who would prevent them from noticing the
+loss they had experienced, so many singular qualities had he to repair
+it."[685]
+
+[Sidenote: The Duke of Deux Ponts comes with German auxiliaries.]
+
+Wolfgang, Duke of Deux Ponts, had at length entered France, and was
+bringing to the Huguenots their long-expected succor. He had seven
+thousand five hundred reiters from lower Germany, six thousand lansquenets
+from upper Germany, and a body of French and Flemish gentlemen, under
+William of Orange and his brother, Mouy, Esternay and others, which may
+have swelled his army to about seventeen thousand men in all.[686] In
+vain did his cousin, the Duke of Lorraine, attempt to dissuade him,
+offering to reimburse him the one hundred thousand crowns he had already
+spent upon the preparations for the expedition. Even Conde's death did not
+discourage him. He came, he said, to fight, not for the prince, but for
+"the cause."[687] When about entering his Most Christian Majesty's
+dominions, he had published the reasons of his coming to assist the
+Huguenots. In this paper he treated as pure calumnies the accusations
+brought by their enemies against Conde, Coligny, and their associates, and
+proved his position by quoting the king's own express declaration, in the
+recent edicts of pacification, "that he recognized everything they had
+attempted as undertaken by his orders and for the good of the
+kingdom."[688] The point was certainly well taken. Charles's various
+declarations were not remarkably consistent. In one, Conde was "his
+faithful servant and subject," and his acts were prompted by the purest of
+motives. In the next, he and his fellow-Huguenots were incorrigible
+rebels, with whom every method of conciliation had signally failed. But
+Charles did not trouble himself to attempt to smooth away these
+contradictions. He is even said to have replied to the envoy whom Deux
+Ponts sent him (April, 1569), demanding the restitution of the Edict of
+January and the payment of thirty thousand crowns due to Prince Casimir,
+that "Deux Ponts was too insignificant a personage (_trop petit
+compagnon_) to undertake to dictate laws to him, and that, as to the
+money, he would deliberate about _that_ when the duke had laid down his
+arms."[689]
+
+The secret of this arrogant demeanor is found in the fact that the court
+believed it impossible for the Germans to join Coligny. Even so late as
+the middle of May, when Deux Ponts had penetrated to Autun in Burgundy,
+Charles regarded the attempt as well nigh hopeless. The fortunes of the
+Huguenots were desperate. "There remains for them as their last resort,"
+he wrote to one of his ambassadors, "but the single hope that the Duke of
+Deux Ponts will venture so far as to go to find them where they are. But
+there is little likelihood that an army of strangers, pursued by another
+of about equal strength--an army destitute of cities of its own, without
+means of passing the rivers, favored by no one in my kingdom, dying of
+hunger, so often harassed and put to inconvenience--should be able to make
+so long a journey without being lost and dissipated of itself, even had I
+no forces to combat it." "The duke," continued the king, "will soon repent
+of his mad project of entering France, and attempting to cross the Loire,
+where such good provision has been made to obstruct him."[690]
+
+[Sidenote: They overcome all obstacles and join Coligny.]
+
+[Sidenote: Death of Deux Ponts.]
+
+Charles had not exaggerated the difficulties of the undertaking; but Deux
+Ponts, under the blessing of Heaven, surmounted them all. The discord
+between Aumale and Nemours rendered weak and useless an army that might,
+in the hands of a single skilful general, have checked or annihilated
+him.[691] Mouy and his French comrades were good guides. The Loire was
+reached, while Aumale and Nemours followed at a respectful distance.
+Guerchy, an officer lately belonging to Coligny's army, discovered a ford
+by which a part of the Germans crossed. The main body laid siege to the
+town of La Charite, which was soon reduced (on the twentieth of May), the
+Huguenots thus gaining a bridge and stronghold that proved of great
+utility for their future operations. Six days after the king had
+demonstrated the impossibility of the enterprise, Deux Ponts was on the
+western side of the Loire.[692] Meantime, Coligny and La Rochefoucauld
+were advancing to meet him with the elite of their army and with all the
+artillery they had. On approaching Limoges on the Vienne, they learned
+that the Germans had crossed the river and were but two leagues distant.
+Coligny at once took horse, and rode to their encampment, in order to
+greet and congratulate their leader. He was too late. The general, who had
+conducted an army five hundred miles through a hostile country, was in the
+last agonies of death, and on the next day (the eleventh of June) fell a
+victim to a fever from which he had for some time been suffering. "It is a
+thing that ought for all time to be remarked as a singular and special act
+of God," said a bulletin sent by the Queen of Navarre to Queen Elizabeth,
+"that He permitted this prince to traverse so great an extent of country,
+with a great train of artillery, infantry, and baggage, and in full view
+of a large army; and to pass so many rivers, and through so many difficult
+and dangerous places, of such kind that it is not in the memory of man
+that an army has passed through any similar ones, and by which a single
+wagon could not be driven without great trouble, so that it appears a
+dream to those who have not seen it; and that being out of danger, and
+having arrived at the place where he longed to be, in order to assist the
+churches of this realm, God should have been pleased, that very day, to
+take him to Himself; and, what is more, that his death should have
+produced no change or commotion in his army."[693]
+
+Duke Wolfgang of Deux Ponts was quietly succeeded in the command of the
+German troops by Count Wolrad of Mansfeld. A day later the two armies met
+with lively demonstrations of joy. In honor of the alliance thus cemented
+a medal was struck, bearing on the one side the names and portraits of
+Jeanne and Henry of Navarre, and on the other the significant words,
+"_Pax certa, victoria integra, mors honesta_"--the triple object of their
+desires.[694]
+
+[Sidenote: Huguenot success at La Roche Abeille.]
+
+The combined army, now numbering about twenty-five thousand men, soon came
+to blows with the enemy. The Duke of Anjou, whose forces were somewhat
+superior in numbers, had approached within a very short distance of
+Coligny, but, unwilling to risk a general engagement, had intrenched
+himself in an advantageous position. A part of his army, commanded by
+Strozzi, lay at La Roche Abeille, where it was furiously assaulted by the
+Huguenots. Over four hundred royalists were left dead upon the field, and
+Strozzi himself was taken prisoner. The disaster had nearly proved still
+more serious; but a violent rain saved the fugitives by extinguishing the
+lighted matches upon which the infantry depended for the discharge of
+their arquebuses, and by seriously impeding the pursuit of the
+cavalry.[695]
+
+[Sidenote: Furlough of Anjou's troops.]
+
+Although the Duke of Anjou had recently received considerable
+reinforcements--about five thousand pontifical troops and twelve hundred
+Florentines, under the command of Sforza, Count of Santa Fiore[696]--it
+was now determined in a military council to disband the greater part of
+the army, giving to the French forces a short furlough, and, for the most
+part, trusting to the local garrisons to maintain the royal supremacy in
+places now in the possession of the Roman Catholics. In adopting this
+paradoxical course, the generals seem to have been influenced partly by a
+desire to furnish the "gentilhommes," serving at their own expense, an
+opportunity to revisit their homes and replenish their exhausted purses,
+and thus diminish the temptation to desertion which had thinned the ranks;
+partly, also, by the hope that the new German auxiliaries of the Huguenots
+would of themselves melt away in a climate to which they were
+unaccustomed.[697]
+
+[Sidenote: Huguenot petition to the king.]
+
+Meanwhile, the admiral, whose power had never been so great as it now was,
+exhibited the utmost anxiety to avert, if possible, any further effusion
+of blood. Under his auspices a petition was drawn up in the name of the
+Queen of Navarre, and the Princes, Seigneurs, Chevaliers, and gentlemen
+composing the Protestant army. A messenger was sent to the Duke of Anjou
+to request a passport for the deputies who were to carry it to the court.
+But the duke was unwilling to terminate a war in which he had (whether
+deservedly or not) acquired so much reputation, and reluctant to be forced
+to resume the place of a subject near a brother whose capricious and
+jealous humor he had already experienced. He therefore either refused or
+delayed compliance with the admiral's demand.[698] Coligny succeeded,
+however, in forwarding the document to his cousin Francis, Marshal of
+Montmorency--a nobleman who, although he had not taken up arms with the
+Huguenots, virtually maintained, on his estates near Paris, a neutrality
+which, from the suspicion it excited, was not without its perils.
+Montmorency laid the petition before Catharine and the king.
+
+[Sidenote: The single purpose of the Huguenots.]
+
+The voluminous state papers of the period would possess little claim to
+our attention, were it not for the singleness of purpose which they
+exhibit as animating the patriotic party through a long succession of
+bloody wars. The Huguenots were no rebels seeking to undermine the
+authority of the crown, no obstinate democrats striving to carry into
+execution an impracticable scheme of government,[699] no partisans
+struggling to supplant a rival faction. They were not turbulent lovers of
+change. They had for their leaders princes and nobles with interests all
+on the side of the maintenance of order, men whose wealth was wasted,
+whose magnificent palaces were plundered of their rich contents,[700]
+whose lives, with the lives of their wives and children, were jeoparded in
+times of civil commotion. Even the unauthorized usurpations of the
+foreigners from Lorraine[701] would not have been sufficient to move the
+greater part of them to a resort to the sword. Their one purpose, the sole
+object which they could not renounce, was the securing of religious
+liberty. The Guises--even that cruel and cowardly cardinal with hands
+dripping with the blood of the martyrs of a score of years--were nothing
+to them, except as impersonations of the spirit of intolerance and
+persecution. Liberty to worship their God in good conscience was their
+demand alike after defeats and after successes, under Louis de Bourbon or
+under Gaspard de Coligny. They did, indeed, sympathize with the first
+family of the blood, deprived of the position near the throne to which
+immemorial custom entitled it--and what true Frenchman did not? But
+Admiral Coligny, rather than the Prince of Conde, was the type of the
+Huguenot of the sixteenth century--Coligny, the heroic figure that looms
+up through the mist of the ages and from among the host of meaner men,
+invested with all the attributes of essential greatness--pious, loyal,
+truthful, brave, averse to war and bloodshed, slow to accept provocation,
+resolute only in the purpose to secure for himself and his children the
+most important among the inalienable prerogatives of manhood, the freedom
+of professing and practising his religious faith.
+
+The present petition differed little from its predecessors. It reiterated
+the desire of the Huguenots for peace--a desire evidenced on so many
+occasions, sometimes when prudence might have dictated a course opposite
+to that which they adopted. The return they had received for their
+moderation could be read in broken edicts, and in "pacifications" more
+sanguinary than the wars they terminated. The Protestant princes and
+gentlemen, therefore, entreated Charles "to make a declaration of his will
+respecting the liberty of the exercise of the reformed religion in the
+form of a solemn, perpetual, and irrevocable edict." They begged him "to
+be pleased to grant universally to all his subjects, of whatever quality
+or condition they might be, the free exercise of that religion in all the
+cities, villages, hamlets, and other places of his kingdom, without any
+exception, reservation, modification, or restriction as to persons, times,
+or localities, with the necessary and requisite securities." True,
+however, to the spirit of the age, which dreaded unbridled license of
+opinion as much as it did the intolerance of the papal system, the
+Huguenots were careful to preclude the "Libertines" from sheltering
+themselves beneath this protection, by calling upon Charles to require of
+all his subjects the profession of the one or the other religion[702]--so
+far were even the most enlightened men of their country and period from
+understanding what spirit they were of, so far were they from recognizing
+the inevitable direction of the path they were so laboriously pursuing!
+
+It scarcely needs be said that the petition received no attention from a
+court not yet tired of war. Marshal Montmorency was compelled to reply to
+Coligny, on the twentieth of July, that Charles refused to take notice of
+anything emanating from the admiral or his associates until they should
+submit and return to their duty. Coligny answered in a letter which closed
+the negotiations; protesting that since his enemies would listen to no
+terms of accommodation, he had, at least, the consolation of having done
+all in his power to avert the approaching desolation of the kingdom, and
+calling upon God and all the princes of Europe to bear witness to the
+integrity of his purpose.[703]
+
+[Sidenote: Coligny's plans overruled.]
+
+[Sidenote: Disastrous siege of Poitiers.]
+
+The Huguenots now took some advantage of the temporary weakness of the
+enemy in the open field. On the one hand they reduced the city of
+Chatellerault and the fortress of Lusignan, hitherto deemed
+impregnable.[704] On the other, they despatched into Bearn the now famous
+Count Montgomery, who, joining the "viscounts," was successful in wresting
+the greater part of that district from the hands of Terrides, a skilful
+captain sent by Anjou, and in restoring it to the Queen of Navarre.[705]
+Respecting their plan of future operations a great diversity of opinion
+prevailed among the Huguenot leaders. Admiral Coligny was strongly in
+favor of pressing on to the north, and laying siege to Saumur. With this
+place in his possession, as it was reasonable to suppose it soon might be,
+he would enjoy a secure passage across the river Loire into Brittany,
+Anjou, and more distant provinces, as he already had access by the bridge
+of La Charite to Burgundy, Champagne, and the German frontier.
+Unfortunately the majority of the generals regarded it as a matter of more
+immediate importance to capture Poitiers, a rich and populous city, said
+at that time to cover more ground than any other city in France, with the
+single exception of Paris. They supposed that their recent successes at
+Chatellerault and Lusignan, on either side of Poitiers, and the six pieces
+of cannon they had taken at Lusignan would materially help them. Coligny
+reluctantly yielded to their urgency, and the army which had appeared
+before Poitiers on the twenty-fourth of July, 1569,[706] began the siege
+three days later. It was a serious blunder. The Huguenots succeeded,
+indeed, in capturing a part of the suburbs, and in reducing the garrison
+to great straits for food; but they were met with great determination, and
+with a singular fertility of expedient. The Count de Lude was the royal
+governor. Henry, Duke of Guise (son of the nobleman assassinated near
+Orleans in 1563), with his brother Charles, Duke of Mayenne, and other
+good captains, had thrown himself into Poitiers two days before Coligny
+made his appearance. It was Guise's first opportunity to prove to the
+world that he had inherited his father's military genius; and the glory of
+success principally accrued to him. He met the assailants in the breach,
+and contested every inch of ground. Their progress was obstructed by
+chevaux-de-frise and other impediments. Boiling oil was poured upon them
+from the walls. Burning hoops were adroitly thrown over their heads. Pitch
+and other inflammable substances fell like rain upon their advancing
+columns. They were not even left unmolested in their camp. A dam was
+constructed on the river Clain, and the inundation spread to the Huguenot
+quarters. To these difficulties raised by man were added the ravages of
+disease. Many of the Huguenot generals, and the admiral himself, were
+disabled, and the mortality was great among the private soldiers.
+
+In spite of every obstacle, however, it seemed probable that Coligny would
+carry the day. "The admiral's power exceedeth the king's," wrote Cecil to
+Nicholas White: "he is sieging of Poitiers, the winning or losing whereof
+will make an end of the cause. He is entered within the town by assault,
+but the Duke of Guise, etc., are entrenched in a stronger part of the
+town; and without the king give a battle, it is thought that he cannot
+escape from the admiral."[707] Just at this moment, the Duke of Anjou,
+assembling the remnants of his forces, appeared before Chatellerault; and
+the peril to the Huguenot city seemed so imminent, that Coligny was
+compelled to raise the siege of Poitiers, on the ninth of September, and
+hasten to its relief. Seven weeks of precious time had been lost, and more
+than two thousand lives had been sacrificed by the Huguenots in this
+ill-advised undertaking. The besieged lost but three or four hundred
+men.[708] Great was the delight manifested in Paris, where, during the
+prevalence of the siege, solemn processions had gone from Notre Dame to
+the shrine of Sainte Genevieve, to implore the intercession of the patron
+of the city in behalf of Poitiers.[709]
+
+Meanwhile the Huguenots had been more fortunate on the upper Loire, where
+La Charite sustained a siege of four weeks by a force of seven thousand
+Roman Catholics under Sansac. Its works were weak, its garrison small, but
+every assault was bravely met. In the end the assailants, after severe
+losses experienced from the enemy and from a destructive explosion of
+their own magazine, abandoned their enterprise in a panic, on hearing an
+ill-founded rumor of Coligny's approach.[710]
+
+[Sidenote: Cruelties to the Huguenots in the prisons of Orleans.]
+
+It was fortunate for the Protestants of the north and east that they
+still had Sancerre and La Charite as asylums from the violence of their
+enemies. Far from their armed companions, there was little protection for
+their lives or their property. The edict of the preceding September,
+assuring to peaceable Protestants freedom from molestation in their homes,
+was as much a dead letter as any of its predecessors. The government, the
+courts of justice, and the populace, were equally eager to oppress them.
+At Orleans the "lieutenant-general" placed all the Huguenots of the city,
+without distinction of age or sex, in the public prisons, upon pretext of
+providing for the public security. A few days after (on the twenty-first
+of August) the people, inflamed to fanaticism by seditious priests,
+attacked these buildings. They succeeded in breaking into the first
+prison, and every man, woman, and child was murdered. The door of the
+second withstood all their attempts to gain admission. But the
+bloodthirsty mob would not be balked of its prey. The whole neighborhood
+was ransacked for wood and other combustible materials, and willing hands
+kindled the fire. As the flames rose high above the doomed house, parents
+who had lost all hope of saving their own lives sought to preserve the
+lives of their infant children by throwing them to relatives or
+acquaintances whom they recognized among their persecutors. But there are
+times when the heart of man knows no pity. The laymen who had been taught
+that heretics must be exterminated, even to the babe in the cradle, now
+put into practice the savage lesson they had learned from their spiritual
+instructors. Fathers and brothers took a cruel pleasure in receiving the
+hapless infants on the point of their pikes, or in despatching them with
+halberds, reserving the same fate for any of more mature age who might
+venture to appeal from the devouring flames to their merciless fellow-men.
+The number of the victims of sword and fire is said to have reached two
+hundred and eighty persons.[711]
+
+[Sidenote: Montargis a safe refuge.]
+
+[Sidenote: Flight of the refugees to Sancerre.]
+
+The tragic end of the Huguenots at Orleans warned the Protestants of the
+villages and open country of the dangers to which they were exposed. Many
+fled with their wives and children to Montargis, where the aged Renee of
+Ferrara was still living, the unwilling spectator of commotions which she
+had foreseen and predicted, and which she had striven to prevent. Her
+palace was still what Calvin had called it in the time of the first war,
+"God's hostelry." Renee's royal descent, her connection by marriage with
+the Guises--for Henry, the present duke, was her grandson--her well-known
+aversion to civil war,[712] and, added to these, that demeanor which ever
+betrayed a consciousness that she was a king's daughter, had thus far
+protected her from direct insult, staunch and avowed Protestant as she
+was, and had enabled her to extend to a host of fugitives for religion's
+sake a hospitality which had not yet been invaded. But, the rancor
+entertained by the two parties increasing in bitterness as the third
+conflict advanced, it became more and more difficult to repress the
+impatience felt by the fanatics of Paris to rid themselves of an asylum
+for the adherents of the hated faith within so short a distance--about
+seventy miles--of the orthodox capital. Montargis was narrowly watched.
+Early in March the duchess was warned, in a letter, of pretended plans
+formed by the refugees on her lands to succor their friends elsewhere in
+the vicinity--the writer being no other than the adventurer Villegagnon,
+the former vice-admiral, the betrayer of Coligny's Huguenot colony to
+Brazil, who was now in the Roman Catholic service, under the Duke of
+Anjou.[713] But the fresh flood of refugees to Montargis rendered further
+forbearance impossible. The preachers stirred up the people, and the
+people incited the king. Renee was told that she must dismiss the Huguenot
+preachers, or submit to receiving a Roman Catholic garrison in her castle;
+that the exercise of the Protestant religion could no longer be tolerated,
+and the fugitives must find another home. The duchess could no longer
+resist the superior forces of her enemies, and tearfully she provided the
+miserable Huguenots for their journey with such wagons as she could find.
+The company consisted of four hundred and sixty persons, two-thirds women
+and infants in the arms of their mothers. Scarcely knowing whither to
+direct their steps, they fled toward the Loire, and hastened to place the
+river between them and their pursuers. The precaution availed them little.
+They had barely reached the vicinity of Chatillon-sur-Loire,[714] when the
+approach of Cartier with a detachment of light horse and mounted
+arquebusiers was announced; and the defenceless throng, knowing that no
+pity could be expected from men whose hands had already been imbrued in
+the blood of their fellow-believers, and being exhorted by their ministers
+to meet death calmly, knelt down upon the ground and awaited the terrible
+onset. At that very instant, between the hillocks in another direction,
+and somewhat nearer to the fugitives, a band of cavalry made its
+appearance. They numbered some one hundred and twenty men, and, as they
+rode up, were taken for the advance guard of their persecutors. But, on
+coming nearer and recognizing some of the kneeling suppliants, the knights
+threw off their cloaks and displayed their white cassocks, the badge of
+the adherents of the house of Navarre. They were two cornets of Huguenot
+horse, on their way from Berry to La Charite, under the command of Bourry,
+Teil, and other captains. In the midst of the tearful acclamations of the
+women, their new friends turned upon the exultant pursuers, and so bravely
+did they fight that the Roman Catholics soon fled, leaving eighty men and
+two standards on the field. The Huguenot knights, who had so
+providentially become their deliverers, escorted the fugitives from
+Montargis to Sancerre and La Charite, where they remained in safety until
+the conclusion of peace.[715]
+
+[Sidenote: The "Croix de Gastines."]
+
+Meantime the courts of justice emulated the example of cruelty set them by
+the government and the mob. In May they began by sending to the gallows on
+the Place Maubert, in Paris, a student barely twenty-two years of age, for
+having taught some children the Huguenot doctrines (huguenoterie),
+"without any other crime," the candid chronicler adds. After so fair a
+beginning there was no difficulty in finding good subjects for hanging.
+Accordingly, on the thirtieth of June, three victims more were sacrificed
+on the old Place de Greve, "partly for heresy and for celebrating the
+Lord's Supper in their house; partly"--so it was pretended--"for having
+assisted in demolishing altars." In the great number of similar executions
+with which the sanguinary records of Paris abound, the fate of Nicholas
+Croquet and the two De Gastines--father and son--would have been
+forgotten, but for the extraordinary measures taken in respect to the
+house where the impiety had been committed of celebrating the Lord's
+Supper according to the simple scheme of its first institution. The
+Parisian parliament ordered that "the house of the Five White Crosses,
+belonging to the De Gastines, situated in the Rue Saint Denis," should be
+razed to the ground, and that upon the site a stone cross should be
+placed, with an inscription explanatory of the occasion of its erection.
+That spot was to serve as a public square for all time, and a fine of
+6,000 livres, with corporal punishment, was imposed upon any one who
+should ever undertake to build upon it.[716] It was not foreseen that
+military exigencies might presently render imperative a reconciliation
+with the Huguenots, and that the "perpetual" decree of parliament, like
+the "irrevocable" edicts of the king, might be somewhat abridged by stern
+necessity.
+
+[Sidenote: Ferocity of parliament against Coligny and others.]
+
+[Sidenote: A price set on the head of the admiral.]
+
+The work of blood continued. In July two noblemen were decapitated--the
+Baron de Laschene and the Baron de Courtene--and denunciation of reputed
+heretics was vigorously prosecuted, by command of parliament and of the
+city curates.[717] Two months later a cowardly but impotent blow was
+struck at a more distinguished personage. Parliament undertook to try
+Gaspard de Coligny, and, having found him guilty of treason (on the
+thirteenth of September), pronounced him infamous, and offered a reward of
+fifty thousand gold crowns for his apprehension, with full pardon for any
+offences the captor might have committed. Lest the exploit, however,
+should be deemed too difficult for execution, a few days later (on the
+twenty-eighth of September) the same liberal terms were held out to any
+one who should murder him. As it was not so easy to capture or
+assassinate a general who was at that moment in command of an army not
+greatly inferior to that of the Duke of Anjou, the court gave the Parisian
+populace the cheaper spectacle of a hanging of the admiral in effigy. It
+was the eve of the festival of "the Exaltation of the Cross"--Tuesday, the
+thirteenth of September--and the time was deemed appropriate for the
+execution of so determined an enemy of the worship of that sacred emblem.
+While Coligny's escutcheon was dragged in dishonor through the streets by
+four horses, the hangman amused the mob by giving to his effigy the
+traditional tooth-pick, which he was said to be in the habit of
+continually using--a facetious trait which the curate of St. Barthelemi,
+of course, does not forget to insert in his brief diary.[718]
+Nevertheless, that the decree of parliament setting a price upon the
+admiral's head was no child's play, appeared about this time from the
+abortive plot of one Dominique d'Albe, who confessed that he had been
+hired to poison the Huguenot chief, and was hanged by order of the
+princes.[719] Nor was it without practical significance that the decree
+itself had been translated into Latin, Italian, Spanish, German, Flemish,
+English, and Scotch, and scattered broadcast through Europe by the
+partisans of Guise.
+
+[Sidenote: The Huguenots weakened.]
+
+Meantime the condition of the rival armies in western France promised
+again, in the view of the court, a speedy solution of the military
+problem. The Duke of Anjou had of late been heavily reinforced. With the
+old troops that had returned to his standard, and the new troops that
+poured in upon him, he had a well-appointed army of about twenty-seven
+thousand men, of whom one-third were cavalry. Coligny, on the contrary,
+had been so weakened by his losses at the siege of Poitiers, and by the
+desertion of those whom disappointment at the delays and the expense of
+the service had rendered it impossible to retain, that he was inferior to
+his antagonist by nine or ten thousand men. He had only eleven or twelve
+thousand foot and six thousand horse.[720] The Roman Catholic general
+resolved to employ his preponderance of forces in striking a decisive
+blow. This appeared the more desirable, since it was known that Montgomery
+was returning from the reduction of Bearn, bringing with him six or seven
+thousand veterans--an addition to the Huguenot army that would nearly
+restore the equilibrium.
+
+Leaving Chinon, where he had been for some time strengthening himself, the
+Duke of Anjou crossed the swollen river Vienne, on the twenty-sixth of
+September, and started in pursuit of the Huguenots. Coligny had been
+resting his army at Faye, a small town about midway between Chinon and
+Chatellerault. It was here that the attempt upon his life, to which
+allusion has just been made, was discovered. And it was from this point
+that the Prince of Orange started in disguise, and undertook, with forty
+mounted companions, a perilous journey across France by La Charite to
+Montbeliard, for the purpose of raising in Germany the fresh troops of
+which the admiral stood in such pressing need.[721]
+
+[Sidenote: Battle of Moncontour, October 3, 1569.]
+
+The Huguenot general had moved westward, secretly averse to giving battle
+before the arrival of Montgomery, but forced to show a readiness to fight
+by the open impatience of his southern troops, and by the murmurs of the
+Germans, who openly threatened to desert unless they were either paid or
+led against the enemy. Within a couple of leagues of the town of
+Moncontour, soon to gain historic renown, Coligny, believing the Roman
+Catholics to be near, drew up his own men in order of battle (on the
+thirtieth of September); but, receiving from his scouts the erroneous
+information that there were no considerable bodies of the enemy in the
+neighborhood, he resumed his march toward the town of which La Noue had
+rendered himself master. The army was scarcely in motion before Mouy,
+commanding the rear, was attacked by a heavy detachment of the Duke of
+Anjou's vanguard, under the Duke of Montpensier. Mouy's handful of men
+stood their ground well, now facing the enemy and driving him off, now
+slowly retreating, and gave the rest of the Huguenot army the opportunity
+of gaining the opposite side of a marshy tract, through which there flowed
+a small stream. Then they themselves crossed, after losing about a hundred
+of their number. Anjou neglected the chance here afforded him of gaining
+an entire victory; and Coligny, after halting for a short time, drew off
+toward Moncontour, which he reached on the next day without further
+obstruction. The duke spent the night on the battle-field in token of
+victory, and then started in pursuit; but, in order to avoid attack while
+crossing the short, but deep river Dive, a tributary of the Loire which
+flows by the walls of Moncontour, he turned to the left, and, rapidly
+ascending to its sources, descended again on the opposite bank.
+
+[Sidenote: Coligny wounded.]
+
+[Sidenote: Heavy losses of the Huguenots.]
+
+The admiral might still have succeeded in avoiding a capital engagement,
+and in reaching Partenay or some other point of safety, had he not been
+again embarrassed by the mutiny of the Germans, who, as usual, were most
+urgent for pay on the eve of battle. As it was, before they could be
+quieted, the duke had made up for his considerable detour, and overtook
+the Protestants a short distance beyond Moncontour. Coligny, having given
+command of the right wing to Count Louis of Nassau, interposed the left,
+of which he himself assumed command, between the main body and the enemy,
+hoping to get off with a mere skirmish.[722] In this he was disappointed.
+Attacked in force, his troops made a sturdy resistance. The fight
+resembled in some of its incidents the conflicts of the paladins of a
+past age. The elder rhinegrave rode thirty paces in front of his Roman
+Catholic knights; Coligny as far in advance of the Protestants. The two
+leaders met in open field. The rhinegrave was killed on the spot. The
+admiral received a severe injury in his face. The blood, gushing freely
+from the wound, nearly strangled him before his visor could be raised.
+Reluctantly he was compelled to retire to the rear of the army. Still the
+tide of battle ran high. The Swiss troops of Anjou displayed their
+accustomed valor. It was matched by that of the Huguenots, who several
+times seemed on the point of winning the day, and already shouted,
+"Victory! Victory!" The Duke of Anjou, who, however little he was entitled
+to the credit of planning the engagement, certainly displayed great
+courage in the contest itself, was at one time in extreme peril, and the
+Marquis of Baden was killed while riding near him. On the other side, the
+Princes of Bearn and Conde, who had come to the army from Partenay, to
+encourage the soldiers by their presence, endeavored by word and example
+to sustain the courage of the outnumbered Huguenots.[723] But at the
+critical moment, when the Roman Catholic line had begun to give way,
+Marshal Cosse, who as yet had not been engaged, advanced with his fresh
+troops and changed the fortunes of the day. The personal valor of Louis of
+Nassau was unavailing. The German reiters, routed and panic-stricken, fled
+from the field. Encountering their own countrymen, the lansquenets or
+German infantry, they broke through their ranks and threw them into
+confusion. Into the breach thus made the Swiss poured in an irresistible
+flood. Inveterate hatred now found ample opportunity for satisfaction.
+The helpless lansquenets were slaughtered without mercy. No quarter was
+given. One of the German colonels, who had been the foremost cause of the
+morning's mutiny, and who had prevented his soldiers from fighting until
+their wages were paid, now made them tie handkerchiefs to their pikes to
+show that they surrendered; but they fared no better than the rest.[724]
+Others kneeled and begged for mercy of their savage foes, crying in broken
+French, "_Bon papiste, bon papiste moi!_" It was all in vain. Of four
+thousand lansquenets that entered the action, barely two hundred escaped
+with their lives. Three thousand French, enveloped by Anjou's cavalry,
+were spared by the duke's express command, but not before one thousand of
+their companions had been killed. In all, two thousand French foot
+soldiers and three hundred knights perished on the field, while with the
+valets and camp-followers the loss was much more considerable. La Noue was
+again a prisoner in the enemy's hands. So also was the famous D'Acier. His
+captor, Count Santa Fiore, received from Pius the Fifth a severe letter of
+rebuke for "having failed to obey his commands _to slay at once every
+heretic that fell into his hands_."[725]
+
+The battle of Moncontour, fought on Monday, the third of October, 1569,
+was a thorough success on the side of the Guises and of Catharine de'
+Medici. Compared with it, the battle of Jarnac was only an insignificant
+skirmish. Although, under the skilful conduct of Louis of Nassau and of
+Wolrad of Mansfeld, the remnants of the army drew off to Airvault and
+thence to Partenay, escaping the pursuit of Aumale and Biron, the Huguenot
+losses were enormous, and the spirit of the soldiers was, for the time,
+entirely crushed.[726] The Roman Catholics, on the contrary, had lost
+scarcely any infantry, and barely five hundred horse, although among the
+cavalry officers were several persons of great distinction.
+
+[Sidenote: The Roman Catholics exulting.]
+
+[Sidenote: Extravagance of parliament.]
+
+Fame magnified the exploit, and exalted the Duke of Anjou into a hero.
+Charles himself became still more jealous of his brother's growing
+reputation. Pius the Fifth, on receipt of the tidings, sent the latter a
+brief, congratulating him upon his success, renewing his advice to make
+thorough work of exterminating the heretics, and warning him against a
+mercy than which there was nothing more cruel.[727] To foreign
+courts--especially to those which betrayed a leaning to the Protestant
+side--the most exaggerated accounts of the victory were despatched. A
+"relation" of the battle of Moncontour, with which Philip the Second was
+furnished, stated the Huguenot loss at fifteen thousand men, eleven
+cannon, three thousand wagons belonging to the reiters, and eight hundred
+or nine hundred horses.[728] For a moment the court believed that the
+Protestants were ruined, and that their entire submission must inevitably
+ensue.[729] The Parisian parliament, in the excess of its joy, added the
+third of October to the number, already excessive, of its holidays,
+declaring that henceforth no pleadings should be held on the anniversary
+of so glorious a triumph.[730] About the same time, in order to exhibit
+more clearly the spirit by which it was animated, the same dignified
+tribunal gave the order that the bodies of Francis D'Andelot and his wife
+should be disinterred and hanged upon a a gibbet![731]
+
+[Sidenote: Murder of De Mouy by Maurevel.]
+
+[Sidenote: The assassin rewarded with the collar of the order.]
+
+The Roman Catholics were, nevertheless, entirely mistaken in their
+anticipations of the speedy subjugation of their opponents. The latter
+were disheartened for a few days, but not in the least disposed to give
+over the struggle. "The reformed were too numerous," a modern historian
+well remarks, "too well organized, and had struck their roots too deeply,
+to be subdued by the loss of a few pitched battles."[732] The prospect at
+first was, indeed, very dark. It seemed almost impossible for the
+Huguenots to maintain themselves in the region which for a whole year had
+been the chief field of operations. As Anjou advanced southward, Partenay
+was abandoned without a blow, and after occupying it he pushed on toward
+Niort. Of this important place the intrepid De Mouy had been placed by
+Coligny in command. Not content with a bare defence, he sallied out and
+repulsed the enemy. But his boldness proved fatal to him. There was a
+Roman Catholic "gentilhomme," Maurevel by name, who, allured by the reward
+of fifty thousand crowns offered by parliament for the capture or
+assassination of Admiral Coligny, had entered the Protestant camp with
+protestations of great disgust with his former patrons the Guises, and had
+vainly sought an opportunity to take the great chieftain's life. Three
+years later that opportunity was to present itself in the streets of Paris
+itself. Loth to return to his friends without accomplishing any noteworthy
+exploit, Maurevel joined De Mouy, with whom he so ingratiated himself that
+the general not only supplied him from his purse, but made him a companion
+and a bed-fellow. As the Huguenots were returning to Niort, the traitor
+found the conjuncture he desired. Chancing to be left alone with De Mouy,
+he drew a pistol and shot him in the loins; then putting spurs to his
+horse, reached with ease the advancing columns of Anjou. De Mouy was taken
+back to Niort mortally wounded. His friends, contrary to his earnest
+desire, insisted on taking him by boat down the Sevre to La Rochelle,
+where he died. Meanwhile Niort, in discouragement, surrendered to the
+Roman Catholic army.[733] The assassin was well rewarded. A letter is
+extant, written by Charles the Ninth to the Duke of Anjou, from
+Plessis-lez-Tours, on the tenth of October, 1569, in which the king begs
+his brother to confer on "Charles de Louvier, sieur de Moureveil, being
+the person who killed Mouy," the collar of the royal order of Saint
+Michael, to which he had been elected by the knights companions, as a
+reward for "his signal service;" and to see that he receive from the city
+of Paris a present commensurate with his merits![734]
+
+[Sidenote: Fatal error of the court.]
+
+Catharine de' Medici and the Cardinal of Lorraine came from Tours, where
+they had been watching the course of the war, Niort, and the plan of
+future operations was discussed in their presence. Almost every place of
+importance previously held by the Huguenots toward the north and east of
+La Rochelle had fallen, even to the almost impregnable Lusignan. Saint
+Jean d'Angely, on the Boutonne, was the only remaining outwork, whose
+capture must precede an attack on the citadel itself. Should the
+victorious army of the king lay siege to Saint Jean d'Angely, or should it
+continue the pursuit of Coligny and the princes, who, in order to divert
+it from the undertaking, had retired from Saint Jean d'Angely to Saintes,
+and thence, not long after, in the direction of Montauban? This was the
+question that demanded an instant answer. Jean de Serres informs us that
+the Protestant leaders were extremely anxious that their enemies should
+adopt the latter course;[735] yet the best military authorities on both
+sides declare without hesitation that the failure of the Roman Catholics
+to follow it was the one capital error that saved the Huguenots, perhaps,
+from utter destruction. "Hundreds of times have I been amazed," says the
+Roman Catholic Blaise de Montluc, "that so many great and wise captains
+who were with Monsieur (the Duke of Anjou) should have adopted the bad
+plan of laying sieges, instead of pursuing the princes, who were routed
+and reduced to such extremities that they had no means of getting to their
+feet again." And the Protestant Francois de la Noue devotes an entire
+chapter of his "discourses" to the proof of the assertion that "as the
+siege of Poitiers was the beginning of the mishaps of the Huguenots, so
+that of Saint Jean was the means of arresting the good fortune of the
+Catholics."
+
+What, it may be asked, led to the commission of so fatal an error? The
+memoirs of Tavannes, who advocated the immediate pursuit of the admiral,
+ascribe it to the reluctance of the Montmorencies to permit their cousin
+to be overwhelmed; to the jealousy felt by Cardinal Lorraine of the
+military successes which threw his brother, the Duke of Aumale, and his
+nephew, the Duke of Guise, into obscurity; and to the suggestions of De
+Retz, the king's favorite, who persuaded Charles that it was dangerous to
+permit the renown of Anjou to increase yet further.[736] It must, however,
+be remembered that the younger Tavannes is not always a good authority;
+and that where, as in the present instance, the glory of his father is
+affected, he becomes altogether untrustworthy. If we reject his account as
+apocryphal, which apparently we must do, there still remains good reason
+to believe that the siege of Saint Jean d'Angely was agreed to by the
+majority of the Roman Catholic leaders from the sincere conviction that
+its reduction, to be followed by the still more important capture of La
+Rochelle, would annihilate the Huguenot party in the west, its stronghold
+and refuge, and that it could then subsist but little longer in other
+parts of the kingdom.
+
+[Sidenote: Siege of Saint Jean d'Angely.]
+
+The defence of Saint Jean d'Angely had been intrusted by Coligny to
+competent hands. De Piles had found the fortifications weak and imperfect;
+he completed and strengthened them.[737] With a small garrison of
+Huguenots he repaired by night the breaches made by the enemy's cannon
+during the day, and repelled every attempt to storm the place. When the
+siege had advanced about two weeks, Charles himself, who was resolved not
+to suffer Henry of Anjou any longer to win all the laurels of the war,
+made his appearance in the Roman Catholic camp, on the twenty-sixth of
+October, and summoned the garrison to surrender. De Piles, however,
+declined to listen to the commands of the king, even as he had disobeyed
+those of the duke, taking refuge in the feudal theory that he could give
+up the place only to the Prince of Navarre, the royal governor of the
+province of Guyenne, at whose hands he had received it. Yet the position
+of the Protestants was growing extremely perilous. During one of the
+assaults upon the wall, De Piles himself became so thoroughly convinced
+that Saint Jean would be carried, that he caused a breach to be made in
+the fortifications in his rear, in order to facilitate the withdrawal of
+his troops. Happily, he had no need of this mode of escape on the present
+occasion. Meanwhile the most honorable terms were offered him. These he
+refused to accept; but, finding his stock of ammunition rapidly becoming
+exhausted, he agreed to a truce of ten days, that he might have time to
+send a messenger to the princes to obtain their orders; promising, in case
+he received no succor in the interval, to surrender the city on condition
+that the garrison should be permitted to retire with their horses, arms
+and personal effects, and that religious liberty should be granted to all
+the residents. But, before the armistice had quite expired, Saint Surin,
+and forty other brave horsemen from Angouleme, succeeded in piercing the
+enemy's lines, and relieved De Piles from an engagement into which he had
+entered with great reluctance. The hostages on both sides were given up,
+and the siege was renewed with greater fury than ever. In the end, seeing
+no prospect of sufficient reinforcement to enable him to maintain his
+position, De Piles capitulated (on the second of December) on similar
+terms to those that he had before declined, and the garrison marched out
+with flying banners. Seven weeks had they detained the entire army of the
+victors of Moncontour before an ill-fortified place. More than six
+thousand men had died under its walls, by the casualties of war and by the
+scarcely less destructive diseases that raged in the camp.[738] One of the
+ablest and most enterprising of the royal generals--Sebastian of
+Luxemburg, Viscount of Martigues and governor of Brittany--had been
+killed.[739] Of the Protestants, only about a hundred and eighty persons
+perished, nearly the half of them inhabitants of the town; for the men of
+Saint Jean d'Angely, and even the women and children, had labored
+industriously in defending their firesides.
+
+It was a part of the compact, that, while neither De Piles nor his
+soldiers should serve on the Huguenot side for four months, they should be
+safely conducted without the Roman Catholic lines. The Duc d'Aumale and
+other leaders seem to have endeavored conscientiously to execute the
+stipulation; but their followers could not resist the temptation to attack
+the Huguenots as they were traversing the suburbs. Nearly all were robbed,
+and a considerable number--as many, according to Agrippa d'Aubigne, as
+fell during the siege--were murdered. De Piles, on his arrival at
+Angouleme, wrote to demand the punishment of those who had committed so
+flagrant a breach of faith, and, when he could obtain no satisfaction,
+sent a herald to the king to declare that he held himself and his
+fellow-combatants absolved from all obligations, and that they would at
+once resume their places in the Huguenot army.[740]
+
+Nearly three months of precious time elapsed since the disastrous rout of
+Moncontour before the royalists completed the reduction of the region
+adjoining La Rochelle. Outside of that citadel of French Protestantism
+only the little town of Tonnay, on the Charente, still held for the Prince
+of Navarre. Yet so long as La Rochelle itself stood firm, the Duke of
+Anjou had accomplished little; and La Rochelle had made good use of the
+respite to strengthen its works. Every effort to gain a lodgement in its
+neighborhood had signally failed. The end of December came, and with it
+cold and discouragement. Anjou's army was dwindling away. The King of
+Spain and the Pope recalled their troops, as if the battle of the third of
+October had ended the war, and Santa Fiore, the pontifical general, sent
+to Rome twenty-six standards, taken by the Italians at Moncontour--a
+present from Charles the Ninth, which Pius accepted with great delight,
+and dedicated as a trophy in the Basilica of St. John Lateran.[741] Henry
+of Anjou himself was ill, or was unwilling any longer to endure separation
+from a court of whose pleasures he was inordinately fond; and, resigning
+the command of the army into the hands of the eldest son of the Duke of
+Montpensier, Francois de Bourbon--generally known as the prince
+dauphin--he hastened, at the beginning of the new year, to join Charles
+and Catharine de' Medici at Angers. The French troops, meantime, were
+either furloughed or scattered, and the generals condemned to inaction,
+while the German reiters and lansquenets and the Swiss pikemen were
+permitted to return to their own homes.[742] Such was the suicidal policy
+of the Roman Catholic party--a policy which saved the Huguenots from
+prostration; for it may with truth be affirmed that the errors committed
+in the siege of Saint Jean d'Angely, and in disbanding the powerful army
+of Anjou, completely obliterated the advantage which had been won on the
+bloody field of Moncontour.[743]
+
+While the Protestants had been forced to abandon one important place after
+another in Poitou, Saintonge and Aunis, they had in other parts of the
+kingdom been displaying their old enterprise, and had obtained
+considerable success. Vezelay in Burgundy, the birthplace of the reformer
+Theodore Beza, passed through a fiery ordeal. This ancient town, built
+upon the brow of a hill, and strong as well by reason of its situation as
+of its walls constructed in a style that was now becoming obsolete in
+France, had been captured at the beginning of the war by some of the
+neighboring Huguenot noblemen, who scaled the walls and surprised the
+garrison. One of the few points the Protestants held in the eastern part
+of the kingdom, it was regarded as a place of the greatest importance to
+their cause.
+
+[Sidenote: Huguenot successes. Vezelay.]
+
+Within a few weeks Vezelay was twice besieged by a Roman Catholic army
+under Sansac. A vigorous sortie, in which the Huguenots destroyed almost
+all the engines of war of the assailants, on the first occasion caused the
+siege to be raised. When Sansac renewed his attempt he fared no better.
+The soldiers who had thrown themselves into the place, with the
+enthusiastic citizens, repelled every attack, and promptly suppressed
+treacherous plots by putting to death two persons whom they found engaged
+in revealing their secrets to the enemy. Sansac next undertook to reduce
+Vezelay by hunger; but the Huguenots broke his lines, aided by their
+friends in La Charite and Sancerre, and supplied themselves abundantly
+with provisions. When, on the sixteenth of December, Sansac finally
+abandoned the fruitless and inglorious undertaking, he had lost, since
+October, no fewer than fifteen hundred of his soldiers.[744]
+
+[Sidenote: Brilliant capture of Nismes.]
+
+The Huguenots of Sancerre in turn made an attempt to enter Bourges, the
+capital of the province of Berry, by promising a large sum of money to the
+officer second in command of the citadel; but he revealed their plan to
+his superior, M. de la Chastre, governor of the province, and the advanced
+party which had been admitted within the gates (on the twenty-first of
+December) fell into the snare prepared for them.[745] The capture of
+Nismes--"the city of antiquities"--more than compensated for the failure
+at Bourges. Rarely has an enterprise of equal difficulty been more
+patiently prosecuted, or been crowned with more brilliant success. The
+exiled Protestants, a large and important class, had now for many months
+been subjected to the greatest hardships, and were anxiously watching an
+opportunity to return to their homes. At last a carpenter presented
+himself, who had long revolved the matter in his mind, and had discovered
+a method of introducing the Huguenots into the city which promised well.
+There was a fountain, a short distance from the walls of Nismes, known to
+the ancients by the same name as the city itself--Nemausus--whose copious
+stream, put to good service by the inhabitants, turned a number of mills
+within the municipal limits. To admit the waters a canal had been built,
+which, where it pierced the fortifications, was protected by a heavy iron
+grating. Through this wet channel the carpenter resolved that the
+Huguenots should enter Nismes. It so happened that a friend of his dwelt
+in a house which was close to the wall at this spot; with his help he
+lowered himself by night from a window into the ditch. A cord, which was
+slackened or drawn tight according as there was danger of detection or
+apparent security, served to direct his operations. The utmost caution was
+requisite, and the water-course was too contracted to permit more than a
+single person to work at once. Provided only with a file, the carpenter
+set himself to sever the stout iron bars. The task was neither pleasant
+nor easy. Night after night he stood in the cold stream, with the mud up
+to his knees, exposed to wind and rain, and working most industriously
+when the roar of the elements covered and drowned the noise he made. It
+was only for a few minutes at a time that he could work; for, as the place
+was situated between the citadel and the "porte des Carmes," a sentry
+passed it at brief intervals, and was scarcely out of hearing except when
+he went to ring the bell which announced a change of guard. Fifteen
+nights, chosen from the darkest of the season, were consumed in this
+perilous undertaking; and each morning, when the approach of dawn
+compelled him to suspend his labors, the carpenter concealed his progress
+by means of wax and mud. All this time he had been prudent enough to keep
+his own counsel; but when, on the fifteenth of November, his work was
+completed, he called upon the Huguenot leaders to follow him into Nismes.
+A detachment of three hundred men was placed at his disposal. When once
+the foremost were in the town, and had overpowered the neighboring guards,
+the Huguenots obtained an easy success. The clatter of a number of
+camp-servants, who were mounted on horseback, with orders to ride in every
+direction, shouting that the city was in the hands of the enemy,
+contributed to facilitate the capture. Most of the soldiers, who should
+have met and repelled the Protestants, shut themselves up in their houses
+and refused to leave them. In a few minutes, all Nismes, with the
+exception of the castle, which held out a few months longer, was
+taken.[746]
+
+[Sidenote: Coligny encouraged.]
+
+When Admiral Coligny, wounded and defeated, was borne on a litter from the
+field of Moncontour, where the hopes of the Huguenots had been so rudely
+dashed to the ground, his heart almost failed him in view of the prospects
+of the war and of his faith. Two persons seemed at this critical juncture
+to have exercised on his mind a singular influence in restoring him to his
+accustomed hopefulness. L'Estrange, a simple gentleman, was being carried
+away in a plight similar to his own, when, having been brought to the
+admiral's side, he looked intently upon him, and then gave expression to
+his gratitude to Heaven, that, in the midst of the chastisements with
+which it had seen fit to visit his fellow-believers, there was yet so much
+of mercy shown, in the words, "Yet is God very gentle!"[747]--a friendly
+reminder, which, the great leader was wont to say, raised him from gloom
+and turned his thoughts to high and noble resolve.[748] Nor was the heroic
+Queen of Navarre found wanting at this crisis. No sooner had she heard of
+the disaster than she started from La Rochelle, and at Niort met the
+admiral, with such remnants of the army as still clung to him. Far from
+yielding to despondency, Jeanne d'Albret urged the generals to renew the
+contest; and, having communicated to them a part of her own enthusiasm,
+returned to La Rochelle to watch over the defence of the city, and to lend
+still more important assistance to the cause, by writing to Queen
+Elizabeth and the other allies of the Huguenots, correcting the
+exaggerated accounts of the defeat of Moncontour which had been studiously
+disseminated by the Roman Catholic party, and imploring fresh assistance.
+
+[Sidenote: Withdrawal of the troops of Dauphiny and Provence.]
+
+As for Coligny, his plans were soon formed. The troops of Dauphiny and
+Provence, always among the most reluctant to leave their homes, had long
+been clamoring for permission to return. It was now impossible to retain
+them. On the fourteenth of October they started from Angouleme, whither
+they had gone without consulting the Protestant generals, and, under the
+leadership of Montbrun and Mirabel, directed their course toward their
+native provinces. In two days they reached the river Dordogne at Souillac,
+where a part of their body, while seeking to cross, was attacked by the
+Roman Catholics, and suffered great loss. The rest pushed forward to
+Aurillac, in Auvergne, which had recently been captured by a Huguenot
+captain, and soon found their way to Privas, Aubenas, and the banks of the
+Rhone.[749] Thence, after refreshing themselves for a few days, they
+crossed into Dauphiny to renew the struggle for their own firesides.[750]
+
+[Sidenote: Plan of the admiral's bold march.]
+
+On the eighteenth of October, four days after the departure of the
+Dauphinese troops from Angouleme, Coligny set forth from Saintes upon an
+expedition as remarkable for boldness of conception as for its singularly
+skilful and successful execution--an expedition which is entitled to rank
+among the most remarkable military operations of modern times.[751] In the
+face of an enemy flushed with victory, and himself leading an army reduced
+to the mere shadow of its former size, the admiral deliberately drew up
+the plan of a march of eight or nine months, through a hostile territory,
+and terminating in the vicinity of the capital itself. As sketched by
+Michel de Castelnau from the admiral's own words in conversation with him,
+the objects of the Protestant general were principally these: to satisfy
+the claims of his mutinous German mercenaries by the reduction of some of
+the enemy's rich cities in Guyenne; to strengthen himself by forming a
+junction with the army of Montgomery and such fresh troops as "the
+viscounts" might be able to raise; to meet on the lower Rhone the
+recruited forces of Montbrun and Mirabel; thence to turn northward, and,
+having reached the borders of Lorraine, to welcome the Germans whom the
+Elector Palatine and William of Orange would hold in readiness; and, at
+last, to bring the war to an end by forcing the Roman Catholics to give
+battle, under circumstances more advantageous to the reformed, in the
+immediate vicinity of Paris.[752]
+
+[Sidenote: He sweeps through Guyenne.]
+
+Coligny's army was chiefly composed of cavalry; of infantry he had but
+three thousand men.[753] The young Princes of Navarre and of Conde, whom
+he wished to accustom to the fatigues of the march and of the
+battle-field, while endearing them to the Huguenots by their participation
+in the same perils with the meanest private soldier, were his companions,
+and had commands of their own. He had left La Rochefoucauld in La Rochelle
+to protect the city and the Queen of Navarre. The admiral's course was
+first directed to Montauban, that city which has been the stronghold of
+Protestantism in southern France down to the present time. But the
+difficulties of the way, and, particularly, the improbability of finding
+easy means of crossing so near their mouths the successive rivers, which,
+rising in the mountainous region of Auvergne and the Cevennes, all flow
+westward and empty into the Garonne, or its wide estuary, the Gironde,
+compelled Coligny to make a considerable deflection to the left. He
+effected the passage of the Dordogne at Argentat, a little above the spot
+where Montbrun had sustained his recent check, and, after making a feint
+of throwing himself into Auvergne, crossed the Lot below Cadenac, and
+reached Montauban in safety.[754] The Count of Montgomery, returning from
+his victorious campaign in Bearn, had been ordered to be in readiness in
+this city. But learning that, by an unaccountable delay, he was still in
+Condom, south of the Garonne, Coligny marched westward to Aiguillon, at
+the confluence of the Lot and the Garonne. Near this place he constructed,
+with great trouble, a substantial bridge across the Garonne, with the
+intention of transporting his army to the left bank, and ravaging the
+country far down in the direction of Bordeaux. This bold movement was
+prevented by Blaise de Montluc, who, adopting the suggestion of another,
+and appropriating the credit due to the sagacity of this nameless genius,
+detached one of the numerous floating windmills that were moored in the
+Garonne, and having loaded it with stones, sent it down with the current
+against Coligny's bridge. Not only were the chains that bound the
+structure broken, but the very boats on which it rested were carried away
+as far as to Bordeaux itself. It was with great difficulty that the
+admiral brought back to the right bank the division of his army that had
+already crossed, and with it the troops of Count Montgomery.[755]
+
+The united army now returned to Montauban, where, in the midst of a rich
+district in part friendly to the Huguenots, it spent the last days of 1569
+and the greater part of the month of January, 1570. Its numbers had by
+this time received such large accessions, that Coligny wrote to Germany
+that he had six or seven thousand horse and fifteen thousand foot.[756] As
+the reformed population of Montauban had contributed enough money to
+satisfy the prince's indebtedness to the importunate reiters and
+lansquenets,[757] the troops were enthusiastic in their devotion to the
+cause, and pushed their raids under the intrepid La Loue south of the
+Garonne toward the Bay of Biscay, as far as Mont de Marsan and Roquefort
+in the "Pays des Landes."[758]
+
+[Sidenote: "Vengeance de Rapin."]
+
+[Sidenote: Coligny pushes on to the Rhone.]
+
+The Huguenots now proceeded towards Toulouse, but that city was too
+strongly fortified and garrisoned to tempt them to make an attack. They
+inflicted, however, a stern retribution upon the vicinity, devoting to
+destruction the villas and pleasure-grounds of the members of a parliament
+that had rendered itself infamous for its injustice and blind bigotry. The
+cruel fate of Rapin, murdered according to the forms of law, simply
+because he was a Protestant and brought from the king an edict containing
+too much toleration to suit the inordinate orthodoxy of these robed
+fanatics, was yet fresh in the memory of the soldiers, and fired their
+blood. On ruined and blackened walls, in more than one quarter, could be
+read subsequently the ominous words, written by no idle braggarts:
+"_Vengeance de Rapin!_" Leaving the marks of their passage in a desolated
+district, the Huguenots swept on to the friendly city of Castres, and
+thence through lower Languedoc, by Carcassonne and Montpellier, which they
+made no attempt to reduce, to Uzes and Nismes. Meanwhile Piles had from
+Castres made a marauding expedition with a body of picked troops to the
+very foot of the Pyrenees, and, in retaliation for the aid which the
+Spaniards had furnished Charles the Ninth, had penetrated to Perpignan,
+and ravaged the County of Roussillon.[759]
+
+[Sidenote: His singular success and its causes.]
+
+Thus the Huguenots--of whom Charles had contemptuously written to his
+ambassador at London, in January, that they were in so miserable a plight
+that, even since Anjou had dismissed all his men-at-arms after the capture
+of Saint Jean d'Angely, they dared not show their faces[760]--had pushed
+an army from the mouth of the Gironde to the mouth of the Rhone. If
+Viscount Monclar had fallen mortally wounded near Castres, and brave La
+Loue had been surprised and killed near Montpellier, the Protestants had,
+nevertheless, sustained little injury. They had been largely reinforced on
+the way, both by the local troops that joined them and by chivalric
+spirits such as M. de Piles, who followed them so soon as he was forced to
+surrender Saint Jean d'Angely; or, like Beaudine and Renty, who had been
+left with La Rochefoucauld to guard La Rochelle, but who, impatient of
+long inaction, at length obtained permission to attach themselves to the
+princes, and caught up with them at Castres, after a journey full of
+hazardous adventures. The Huguenot army, says La Noue, had been but an
+insignificant snow-ball when it started on its adventurous course; but the
+imprudence of its opponents permitted it to roll on, without hinderance,
+until it grew to a portentous size.[761] The jealousy existing between
+Montluc and Marshal Damville, who commanded for the king--the former as
+lieutenant-general in Gascony, and the latter as governor in
+Languedoc--undoubtedly removed many difficulties from the way of Admiral
+Coligny; and Montluc openly accused his rival, who was a Montmorency, of
+purposely furthering the designs of his heretical cousin. The accusation
+was a baseless fabrication; yet it obtained, as such stories generally do,
+a wide currency among the prejudiced and the ignorant, who could explain
+Damville's failure to impede Coligny's progress in no more satisfactory
+way than as the result of collusion between the son and the nephew of the
+late constable.[762]
+
+[Sidenote: The admiral turns toward Paris.]
+
+[Sidenote: His illness interrupts negotiations.]
+
+Coligny had not yet accomplished his main object. Turning northward, and
+hugging the right bank of the Rhone, he prosecuted his undertaking of
+carrying the war to the very gates of Paris. The few small pieces of
+artillery the Protestants possessed, it was now found difficult to drag
+over rugged hills that descended to the river's edge. They were,
+therefore, at first transported to the other side, and finally left behind
+in some castles garrisoned by the Huguenots. The recruits that had been
+expected from Dauphiny came in very small numbers, and it was with
+diminished forces that Coligny and the princes, on the twenty-sixth of
+May, reached Saint Etienne, at that time a small town, which modern
+enterprise and capital has transformed into a great manufacturing
+city.[763] A little farther, at St. Rambert on the Loire, an incident
+occurred which threatened to blight all the fair hopes the Protestants had
+now again begun to conceive of a speedy and prosperous conclusion of the
+war. Admiral Coligny fell dangerously ill, and for a time serious fears
+were entertained for his life. It was a moment of anxious suspense. Never
+before had the reformed realized the extent to which their fortunes were
+dependent on a single man. The lesson was a useful one to the young
+companions of the princes, who, in the midst of the stern discipline of
+the camp, had shown some disposition to complain of the loss of the more
+congenial gayety of the court.[764] Louis of Nassau, brother of William of
+Orange, and next in command, was the only person among the Protestants
+that could have succeeded to Coligny in his responsible position; but even
+Louis of Nassau could not exact the respect enjoyed by the admiral, both
+with his own troops and with the enemy. Indeed, it was the conduct of the
+Roman Catholics at this juncture that furnished the clearest proof of the
+indispensable importance to the Huguenots of their veteran leader. The
+negotiations, which must soon be adverted to, had for some time been in
+progress, and the court displayed considerable anxiety to secure a peace;
+but the moment it was announced that Coligny was likely to die, the
+deputies from the king broke them off and waited to see the issue. Being
+asked to explain so singular a course, and being reminded that the
+Huguenots had other generals with whom a treaty might be formed in case of
+Coligny's death, it is said that the deputies replied by expressing their
+surprise that the Protestants did not see the weight and authority
+possessed by their admiral. "Were he to die to-day," said they, "to-morrow
+we should not offer you so much as a glass of water. As if you did not
+know that the admiral's name goes farther in giving you consideration than
+had you another army equal in size to that you have at present!"[765]
+
+[Sidenote: Engagement of Arnay-le-Duc.]
+
+But Gaspard de Coligny was destined to die a death more glorious for
+himself, and to leave behind him a name more illustrious than it would
+have been had he died on the eve of the return of peace to his desolated
+country. He recovered, and once more advanced with his brave Huguenots.
+And now the distance between the Protestant camp and the Roman Catholic
+capital was rapidly diminishing. To meet the impending danger, the king
+ordered Marshal Cosse, who had succeeded the prince dauphin in command of
+the new army, to cross into Burgundy, check the admiral's course, and, if
+possible, defeat him. The two armies met on the twenty-fifth of June, in
+the neighborhood of the small town of Arnay-le-Duc.[766] Great was the
+disparity of numbers. Cosse had four thousand Swiss, six thousand French
+infantry, three thousand French, German, and Italian horse, and twelve
+cannon. Coligny's army had lost so much during its incessant marches
+through a thousand difficult places, and in a country where desertion or
+straying from the main body was so easy, that it consisted of but
+twenty-five hundred arquebusiers and two thousand horsemen, besides a few
+recruits from Dauphiny.
+
+The Germans, who constituted about one-half of the cavalry, were
+ill-equipped; but the French horse were as well armed as any corps the
+Huguenots had been able to set on foot. All were hardened by toil and
+well disciplined. Of artillery the admiral was entirely destitute.
+
+The armies took position upon opposite hills, separated by a narrow
+valley, in which flowed a brook fed by some small ponds. Cosse made the
+attack, and attempted to cross the stream; but, after an obstinate fight
+of seven hours, his troops were compelled to abandon the undertaking with
+considerable loss. Next the entrenchments thrown up by the Huguenots in
+the neighborhood of the ponds were assaulted. Here the Roman Catholics
+were subjected to a galling fire, and began to yield. Afterward, receiving
+reinforcements, they seemed to be on the point of succeeding, when Coligny
+brought up M. de Piles, the hero of Saint Jean d'Angely, who, supported by
+Count Montgomery, soon restored the superiority of the Huguenots. The
+enemy was equally unfortunate in the attempt, simultaneously made, to turn
+the admiral's position; and, foiled at every point, he retired for the
+day. On the morrow, both armies reappeared in the same order of battle,
+but neither general was eager to renew a contest in which the advantage
+was all with those who stood on the defensive, and, after indulging in a
+brief and ineffective cannonade, the order was given to the Roman Catholic
+troops to return to camp.[767]
+
+[Sidenote: Coligny approaches Paris.]
+
+After this indecisive combat, Coligny, who had no desire to bring on a
+general engagement before receiving the considerable accession of troops
+of which he was in expectation, slipped away from Cosse, and though hotly
+pursued by the enemy's cavalry, made his way to the friendly walls of La
+Charite upon the Loire. Here he busied himself with preparations for
+further undertakings, and was engaged particularly in providing his army
+with a few cannon and mortars, of which he had greatly felt the need, when
+activity was interrupted by a ten days' truce, dating from the fourteenth
+of July, the precursor of a definite treaty of peace.[768] At the
+expiration of the armistice, Coligny advanced, toward the end of July, to
+his castle of Chatillon-sur-Loing, and distributed his troops in the
+vicinity of Montargis, still nearer Paris. Marshal Cosse, at the same
+time, moved in a parallel line through Joigny, and took up his position at
+Sens, where he could at once protect the capital and prevent the Huguenots
+from making raids in that fertile and populous province, the "Ile de
+France," from which the whole country had derived its name. Leaving the
+admiral and his brave followers here, at the conclusion of an adventurous
+expedition of over twelve hundred miles, which had consumed more than nine
+months, let us glance at the negotiations for peace which had long been in
+progress, and were now at length crowned with success.
+
+[Sidenote: Progress of the negotiations.]
+
+[Sidenote: The English rebellion affects the terms offered.]
+
+So true was it of the combatants in the French civil wars, that they
+rarely carried on hostilities but they were also treating for peace, that
+since the battle of Moncontour there had hardly elapsed a month without
+the discussion of the terms on which arms could be laid aside by both
+parties. Scarcely had the first startling impression made by the defeat of
+the Huguenots passed away before Catharine de' Medici sent that skilful
+diplomatist, Michel de Castelnau, to assure the Queen of Navarre, at La
+Rochelle, of her personal esteem and affection, as well as of her fervent
+desire to employ her influence with the king, her son, in effecting a
+pacification based upon just and honorable conditions. Jeanne replied in
+courteous language; but, while she insisted upon her own hearty
+reciprocation of the queen mother's wish, she also expressed the suspicion
+which all the reformed entertained of the sincerity of the leading
+ministers in the French cabinet, whose relations with Spain and with the
+Pope showed that they were intent on nothing less than the utter ruin of
+the Huguenots.[769] In November the matter took a more definite shape,
+through Marshal Cosse, who appeared in La Rochelle with propositions of
+peace. This statesman, otherwise moderate in his counsels, was imbued with
+the notion that the Protestants were so discouraged by their late defeat,
+that they would gladly accept any terms. But the Huguenots, having
+understood that he was empowered merely to offer them liberty of
+conscience, without the right to the public worship of God, promptly broke
+off the negotiations.[770] A month or two later they were induced to
+believe that the court was disposed to larger concessions, or, if not,
+that they might at least justify themselves in the eyes of the world by
+showing that they were neither unreasonable nor desirous of prolonging the
+horrors of war. Two deputies--Jean de la Fin, Sieur de Beauvoir la Nocle,
+and Charles de Teligny: the one sent by the Queen of Navarre, the other
+sent by Coligny and the princes, who were already far on their journey
+through the south of France--came to the king at Angers, and presented the
+demands of the Huguenots. These demands certainly did not breathe a spirit
+of craven submission. The Huguenots called not only for complete liberty
+of conscience, but also for the right to hold their religious assemblies
+through the entire kingdom, without prejudice to their dignities or
+honors. They stipulated for the annulling of all sentences pronounced
+against them; the approval of all that they had done, as done for the
+welfare of the realm; the restitution of their dignities and property, and
+the giving of good and sufficient securities for the execution of the
+edict of pacification.[771] Catharine and her counsellors had undoubtedly
+gained some wholesome experience since Cosse's first proposals. They had
+already discovered that a single pitched battle had not ruined the
+Huguenots; and they now suspected that a number of additional battles
+might be required to effect that desirable result. It is not astonishing,
+however, that the queen mother was not yet ready to grant terms which
+could scarcely have been conceded even on the morrow of an overwhelming
+defeat. The articles sent by the king to the Protestant leaders as a
+counter-proposal were therefore of a very different character from those
+which they had submitted. Charles offered to the Queen of Navarre, the
+Princes of Navarre and Conde, the admiral, and their followers, entire
+amnesty, and consented to annul all judicial proceedings made against
+them during these or the late troubles. He would exact no punishment for
+any treaties which they might have formed with foreign princes, and would
+restore their goods, honors, and estates. As to the religious question, he
+would allow them to hold two cities, in which they might do as they
+pleased, the king placing in each city a capable "gentilhomme" to maintain
+his authority and the public tranquillity. Elsewhere in France he would
+tolerate no reformed minister, no exercise of any other religion than his
+own. Neither would he guarantee the restitution of the judicial and other
+offices once held by Protestants, since others had bought them, and the
+money proceeding from the sale had been spent in defraying the expenses of
+the war; especially as the clergy must look to the courts for the
+enforcement of their claims for indemnification for the destruction of the
+churches and other ecclesiastical property. The king professed himself
+willing to give all reasonable securities for the performance of his
+promises, but neglected to make any specification of the nature of those
+securities.[772] Such were the hard conditions offered--all that Catharine
+and the Guises were willing to concede at a time when it was hoped that
+the Huguenots would lose the assistance of one of their secret supporters,
+Elizabeth of England; for the Earls of Westmoreland and Northumberland had
+risen in the north, and they had not only the best wishes, but the ready
+co-operation of every Spanish and French sympathizer. Charles himself was
+writing to his ambassador at London a letter meant to meet the queen's
+eye, instructing him to congratulate Elizabeth on the progress made in
+suppressing the insurrection; and Catharine, by the same messenger, sent a
+secret letter of the same date, ordering the same diplomatic agent, in
+case the rebellion was not at an end, to give aid and comfort to the
+rebels.[773] Catharine and the Guises had not lost heart. Moved by
+repeated supplications, Pius the Fifth at last decided to excommunicate
+the heretical daughter of Henry and Anne Boleyn. But, as the bull of the
+twenty-fifth of February, 1570, had been procured solely by the entreaties
+of the rebel earls, enforced by the intercessions of the Guises, and as it
+was known that Philip the Second, so far from desiring it, was strongly
+opposed to the imprudent policy of the pontiff, the document, which
+pretended to relieve all the queen's subjects of the obligations of their
+allegiance, was committed to the charge of the Cardinal of Lorraine, to
+launch at Elizabeth's devoted head whenever the convenient moment should
+arrive.[774]
+
+At Montreal, near Carcassonne, the admiral was again overtaken by a royal
+messenger, who on this occasion was Biron, equally distinguished on the
+field and in the council-chamber. While the Protestants replied to his
+offer that with heartfelt satisfaction they greeted the king's disposition
+to restore peace to France, and sent to Charles, who was then at
+Chateaubriand, in Brittany, a delegation consisting of Teligny, Beauvoir
+la Nocle, and La Chassetiere, they distinctly stated that no terms could
+be entertained which should not include liberty of worship. For they
+declared that "the deprivation of the exercise of their religion was more
+insupportable to them than death itself."[775] But, in fact, the Huguenot
+princes and nobles placed little reliance upon the sincerity of the court,
+and had no hope of peace so long as they treated at a distance from the
+capital. Accordingly, Coligny, in his march up the valley of the Rhone,
+when again approached in the king's name by Biron, accompanied by Henry de
+Mesmes, Sieur de Malassise, peremptorily declined to enter into a truce
+which should interrupt the efficiency of his movement.[776]
+
+[Sidenote: Better conditions proposed.]
+
+[Sidenote: Charles and his mother for peace.]
+
+[Sidenote: The war fruitless for its authors.]
+
+But when at last the admiral reached the Loire, and, at La Charite and
+Chatillon, was within a few hours of Paris, the attitude of the court in
+relation to the peace seemed to undergo an entire change, and it became
+evident that the negotiations, which had previously been employed for the
+mere purpose of amusing the Huguenots, were now resorted to with the view
+of ending a war already protracted far beyond expectation. Nor is it
+difficult to discover some of the circumstances that tended to bring about
+this radical mutation of policy.[777] The resources of the kingdom were
+exhausted. It was no longer possible to furnish the ready money without
+which the German and other mercenaries, of late constituting a large
+portion of the royal troops, could not be induced to enter the kingdom.
+The Pope and Philip were lavish of nothing beyond promises and
+exhortations that above all things Charles should make no peace with the
+heretical rebels. Indeed, Philip had few men, and no money, to spare. The
+French troops were in great straits. The gentlemen, who, in return for
+their immunity from all taxation, were bound to serve the monarch in the
+field at their own expense, had exhausted their available funds in so long
+a contest, and it was impossible to muster them in such numbers as the war
+demanded. Charles himself had always been averse to war. His tastes were
+pacific. If he ever emulated the martial glory which his brother Anjou had
+so easily acquired, the feeling was but of momentary duration, and met
+with little encouragement from his mother. He had, undoubtedly, consented
+to the initiation of the war only in consequence of the misrepresentations
+made by those who surrounded him, respecting its necessity and the ease of
+its prosecution. He had now the strongest reasons for desiring the
+immediate return of peace. His marriage with the daughter of the emperor
+had for some months been arranged, but Maximilian refused to permit
+Elizabeth to become the queen of a country rent with civil commotion.
+Catharine de' Medici, also, from the advocate of war, had become anxious
+for peace--tardily returning to the conviction which she had often
+expressed in former years, that the attempt to exterminate the Huguenots
+by force of arms was hopeless. After two years she was no nearer her
+object than when the Cardinal of Lorraine persuaded her to endeavor to
+seize Conde at Noyers. Jarnac had accomplished nothing; Moncontour was
+nearly as barren a victory. A great part of what had been so laboriously
+effected by Anjou's army in the last months of 1569, La Noue had been
+undoing in the first half of 1570.[778] The Protestants, who were, a few
+months since, shut up in La Rochelle, had defeated their enemies at Sainte
+Gemme, near Lucon, and had retaken Fontenay, Niort, the Isle d'Oleron,
+Brouage, and other places. The Baron de la Garde, who had lately, in the
+capacity of "general of the galleys," been infesting the seas in the
+neighborhood of La Rochelle, was compelled to retire to Bordeaux.[779]
+Saintes had been besieged and captured, and the Huguenots were advancing
+to the reduction of St. Jean d'Angely, not long since so dearly won by the
+Roman Catholics.[780] Montluc had, it is true, met with success in Bearn,
+where Rabasteins was taken and its entire garrison massacred.[781] But
+what were these advantages at the foot of the Pyrenees, when an army under
+Gaspard de Coligny, after sweeping four hundred leagues through the
+southern and western provinces, was now in the immediate vicinity of
+Paris? His forces, indeed, were small in numbers, but would speedily grow
+formidable. The French ambassador sent from London the intelligence that
+letters of credit had been sent from England to Hamburg in order to hasten
+the entrance into France of some twelve or fifteen thousand Germans under
+Duke Casimir; that twenty-five hundred men were to be despatched from La
+Rochelle to make a descent on some point in Normandy or Brittany, in
+conjunction with the ships of the Prince of Orange; and that the English
+were to be invited to co-operate.[782] If it had proved impracticable to
+prevent the Duc de Deux Ponts from marching across France to join the
+confederates near the ocean, what hope was there that the king would be
+able to hinder the union of Coligny and Casimir? Or, why might not both be
+reinforced by the troops of La Noue, who had been accomplishing such
+exploits in Aunis and Saintonge?
+
+The princes of Germany added their intercessions to the stern logic of the
+conflict. During the festivities in Heidelberg, attending the marriage of
+John Casimir, Duke of Bavaria, and Elizabeth, daughter of the Elector of
+Saxony, in June, 1570, the Elector Palatine, the Elector of Saxony, the
+Margraves George Frederick of Brandenburg and Charles of Baden, Louis,
+Duke of Wuertemberg, the Landgraves William, Philip and George of Hesse,
+and Adolphus, Duke of Holstein, wrote a joint letter to Charles the Ninth
+of France, in which they drew his attention to the injury which the long
+war he was carrying on with his subjects was inflicting upon the states of
+the empire, and to the necessity of speedily terminating it if he would
+retain their good-will and friendship. And they assured him that there was
+no way of accomplishing this result except by permitting the exercise of
+the reformed religion throughout the kingdom, and abolishing all
+distinctions between his Majesty's subjects of different faiths.[783]
+
+[Sidenote: Anxiety of Cardinal Chatillon.]
+
+When the war had so signally failed, it is not strange that the king and
+his mother should have turned once more to the advocates of peace, with
+whose return to favor the retirement of the Guises from court was
+contemporaneous. Yet the Protestants, who knew too well from experience
+the malignity of that hated family, could not but shudder lest they might
+be putting themselves in the power of their most determined enemies. The
+Queen of Navarre wrote to Charles urging him to use his own native good
+sense, and assuring him that she feared "marvellously" that these
+well-known mischief-makers would lure him into "a patched-up-peace"--_une
+paix fourree_--like the preceding pacifications. The object they had in
+view was, indeed, the ruin of the Huguenots; but the first disaster, she
+warned him, would fall on the monarch and his royal estate.[784] Cardinal
+Chatillon, when sounded by the French ambassador in England, expressed his
+eagerness for peace. On selfish grounds alone he would be glad to exchange
+poverty in England for his revenues of one hundred and twenty thousand a
+year in France. But he had his fears. "Remembering that the king, the
+queen, and monsieur (the Duke of Anjou), to confirm the last peace, did
+him the honor to give him their word, placing their own hands in his, and
+that those who induced them to break it were those very persons with whom
+he and his associates now had to conclude the proposed peace," he said,
+"his hair stood upon end with fear." All that the Protestants wanted was
+security. They would be glad to transfer the war elsewhere--a thing his
+brother the admiral had always desired; and, if admitted to the king's
+favor, they would render his Majesty the most notable service that had
+been done to the crown for two hundred years.[785]
+
+[Sidenote: Royal Edict of pacification, St. Germain, August 8, 1570.]
+
+The terms of the long-desired peace were at last decided upon by the
+commissioners, among whom Teligny and Beauvoir la Nocle were most
+prominent on the Protestant side, while Biron and De Mesmes represented
+the court. On the eighth of August, 1570, they were officially promulgated
+in a royal edict signed at St. Germain-en-Laye.
+
+There were in this document the usual stipulations respecting amnesty,
+the prohibition of insults and recriminations, and kindred topics. The
+liberty of religious profession was guaranteed. Respecting worship
+according to the Protestant rites, the provision was of the following
+character. All nobles entitled to "high jurisdiction"[786] were permitted
+to designate one place belonging to them, where they could have religious
+services for themselves, their families, their subjects, and all who might
+choose to attend, so long as either they or their families were present.
+This privilege, in the case of other nobles, was restricted to their
+families and their friends, not exceeding ten in number. To the Queen of
+Navarre a few places were granted in the fiefs which she held of the
+French crown, where service could be celebrated even in her absence. In
+addition to these, there was a list of cities, designated by name--two in
+each of the twelve principal governments or provinces--in which, or in the
+suburbs of which, the reformed services were allowed; and this privilege
+was extended to all those places of which the Protestants had possession
+on the first of the present month of August. From all other places--from
+the royal court and its vicinity to a distance of two leagues, and
+especially from Paris and its vicinity to the distance of ten
+leagues--Protestant worship was strictly excluded. Provision was made for
+Protestant burials, to take place in the presence of not more than ten
+persons. The king recognized the Queen of Navarre, the prince her son, and
+the late Prince of Conde and his son, as faithful relations and servants;
+their followers as loyal subjects; Deux Ponts, Orange, and his brothers,
+and Wolrad Mansfeld, as good neighbors and friends. There was to be a
+restitution of property, honors, and offices, and a rescission of judicial
+sentences. To protect the members of the reformed faith in the courts of
+justice, they were to be permitted to challenge four of the judges in the
+Parliament of Paris; six--three in each chamber--in those of Rouen, Dijon,
+Aix, Rennes, and Grenoble; and four in each chamber of the Parliament of
+Bordeaux. They were to be allowed a peremptory appeal from the Parliament
+of Toulouse. To defend the Huguenots from popular violence, four cities
+were to be intrusted to them for a period of two years--La Rochelle,
+Montauban, Cognac, and La Charite--to serve as places of refuge; and the
+Princes of Navarre and Conde, with twenty of their followers, were to
+pledge their word for the safe restoration of these cities to the king at
+the expiration of the designated term.[787]
+
+[Sidenote: Dissatisfaction of the clergy.]
+
+Such were the leading features of the edict of pacification that closed
+the third religious war, by far the longest and most sanguinary conflict
+that had as yet desolated France. That the terms would be regarded as in
+the highest degree offensive by the intolerant party at home and abroad
+was to be expected. The Parisian curate, Jehan de la Fosse, only spoke the
+common sentiment of the clergy and of the bigoted Roman Catholics when he
+said that "it contained articles sufficiently terrible to make France and
+the king's faithful servants tremble, seeing that the Huguenots were
+reputed as faithful servants, and what they had done held by the king to
+be agreeable."[788] It was not astonishing, therefore, that, although the
+publication of the edict was effected without delay under the eyes of the
+court at Paris, it gave rise in Rouen to a serious riot.[789] The Papal
+Nuncio and the Spanish ambassador were indignant. Both Pius and Philip had
+bitterly opposed the negotiations of the early part of the year. Now their
+ambassadors made a fruitless attempt to put off the evil day of peace; the
+Spanish ambassador not only offering three thousand horse and six thousand
+foot to extirpate the Huguenots, but affirming that "there were no
+conditions to which he was not ready to bind himself, provided that the
+king would not make peace with the heretics and rebels."[790]
+
+[Sidenote: "The limping and unsettled peace."]
+
+For the first time in their history, the relations of the Huguenots of
+France to the state were settled, not by a royal declaration which was to
+be of force until the king should attain his majority, or until the
+convocation of a general council of the Church, but by an edict which was
+expressly stated to be "_perpetual and irrevocable_." Such the
+Protestants, although with many misgivings, hoped that it might prove. It
+was not, however, an auspicious circumstance that the popular wit, laying
+hold of the fact that one of the Roman Catholic commissioners that drew up
+its stipulations--Biron--was lame, while the other--Henri de Mesmes--was
+best known as Lord of Malassise, conferred upon the new compact the
+ungracious appellation of "_the limping and unsettled peace_"--"la paix
+boiteuse et mal-assise."[791]
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[587] Memoires d'Agrippa d'Aubigne (Ed. Buchon), 475.
+
+[588] Jean de Serres, iii. 247.
+
+[589] Mem. de Claude Haton, ii. 541; De Thou, iv. (liv. xliv.) 145.
+
+[590] The text of the edict is given by Jean de Serres, iii. 272-281. See
+also De Thou, iv. (liv. xliv.) 145, 146; Castelnau, liv. vii., c. ii. La
+Fosse (Journal d'un cure ligueur, 98), gives the correct date: "Septembre.
+_La veille du Saint Michel_ (i.e., _Sept._ 28th) fut rompu l'esdict de
+janvier, et publie dedans le palais esdict au contraire;" while the
+ambassador La Mothe Fenelon alludes to it in a despatch to Catharine as
+"votre edict du xxxe de Septembre." Correspondance diplomatique, i. 28.
+
+[591] J. de Serres, iii. 281, 282; De Thou and Castelnau, _ubi supra_,
+Recordon, Le protestantisme en Champagne, 158, 159.
+
+[592] Zway Edict, u. s. w., _ubi infra_, p. 38.
+
+[593] Castelnau, _ubi supra_.
+
+[594] I have before me this interesting publication, of which the first
+lines of the title-page (inordinately long and comprehensive, after the
+fashion of the times) run as follows: "Zway Edict, sampt einer offnen
+Patent der Koeniglichen Wuerden in Franckreich, durch welche alle
+auffrurische Predigten, versamblungen und ubung der newen unchristlichen
+Secten und vermainten Religion gantz und gar abgeschafft und allain die
+Roemische und Baepstische Catholische ware Religion gestattet werden
+sollen.... 1568."
+
+[595] De Thou, iv. (liv. xliv.) 160, 161.
+
+[596] "Notre sang nous sera ung secong bapteme, par quoy sans aucun
+empeschement, nous irons avec les autres martyrs droit en paradis."
+Publication de la croisade, Hist. de Languedoc, v. (Preuves) 216, 217. See
+the account, ibid., v. 290.
+
+[597] Ibid., v. (Preuves) 217. The laborious author of the Hist. de
+Languedoc, v. 290, makes a singular mistake in saying "that this bull is
+dated March 15th, of the year 1568, which proves that the project had been
+formed several months before its execution." The date of the bull is,
+indeed, given as stated at the close of the document; but the addition,
+"pontificatus nostri anno _quarto_," furnishes the means for correcting
+it. Pius V. was not created Pope until January 7, 1566. See De Thou, iii.
+(liv. xxxix.) 622.
+
+[598] Memoires de Claude Haton, ii. 541, 542.
+
+[599] Jehan de la Fosse, 99.
+
+[600] Jean de Serres, iii. 249.
+
+[601] Jean de Serres, iii. 255, 256; De Thou, iv. (liv. xlix.) 141. De
+Serres (iii. 256-266) gives interesting extracts of the letters which
+Jeanne wrote to Charles, to his mother, to the Duke of Anjou, and to her
+brother-in-law, the Cardinal of Bourbon. She urged the latter, by every
+consideration of blood and honor, to shake off his shameful servitude to
+the counsels of the Cardinal of Lorraine, whom she openly accused of
+having conspired to murder Bourbon, with Marshal Montmorency and
+Chancellor L'Hospital, during a recent illness of the queen.
+
+[602] Jean de Serres, iii. 267-269; De Thou, iv. (liv. xliv.) 142, 143;
+D'Aubigne, liv. v., c. 2, 3 (i. 264-268).
+
+[603] J. de Serres, _ubi supra_.
+
+[604]
+ "C'est en Judee proprement
+ Que Dieu s'est acquis un renom;
+ C'est en Israel voirement
+ Qu'on voit la force de son Nom:
+ En Salem est son tabernacle,
+ En Sion son sainct habitacle."
+
+I quote from an edition of the unaltered Huguenot psalter (1638).
+
+[605] Jean de Serres, iii. 270; De Thou, iv. (liv. xliv.) 144, 145;
+Agrippa d'Aubigne, Hist. univ. liv. v., c. 4 (i. 269) states the
+circumstance that the river fell a foot and a half during the four hours
+consumed in the crossing, and then rose again as opportunely: "Mais il
+s'en fust perdu la pluspart sans un heur nompareil; ce fut que la riviere
+s'estant diminuee d'un pied et demi durant le passage de quatre heures, se
+r'enfla sur la fin;" adding in one of those nervous sentences which
+constitute a principal charm of his writings: "Nous dirions avec crainte
+_ces courtoisies de Loire_, si nous n'avions tous ceux qui ont escrit pour
+gariment."
+
+[606] Jean de Serres, iii. 270, 271; De Thou, iv. (liv. xliv.) 147;
+Agrippa d'Aubigne, i. 269.
+
+[607] La Noue, c. xx.
+
+[608] Ibid., _ubi supra_; De Thou, iv. (liv. xliv.) 150.
+
+[609] Jacques de Crussol, Baron d'Acier (or, Assier), afterwards Duke
+d'Uzes, lieutenant-general of the royal armies in Languedoc, etc.
+According to the Abbe Le Laboureur (iii. 56-60), it was interest that
+induced him, a few years later, to become a Roman Catholic.
+
+[610] Le Laboureur, Add. aux Mem. de Castelnau, ii. 588. The same author
+elsewhere (ii. 56-60) states the army as only 20,000. Jean de Serres, iii.
+284, 285, and De Thou, iv. (liv. xliv.) 150-152, give an account of the
+difficulties encountered in bringing these troops to the place of
+rendezvous, and enumerate the leaders and contingents of the three
+provinces. According to the latter, the total was 23,000 men. See Agrippa
+d'Aubigne, liv. v., c. 5 (i. 271).
+
+[611] Jean de Serres, iii. 286, 291, 292; De Thou, iv. (liv. xliv.), 153,
+154; Agrippa d'Aubigne, _ubi supra_; Davila, bk. iv., p. 132, 133; Le
+Laboureur, ii. 588, 589. It is more than usually difficult to ascertain
+the loss of the Huguenots at Messignac. Jean de Serres, who states it at
+600, and Davila, who says that it amounted to 2,000 foot and more than
+4,000 horse, are the extremes. De Thou sets it down at more than 1,000;
+D'Aubigne at 1,000 or 1,200; Castelnau at 3,000 foot and 300 horse; and Le
+Laboureur, following him, at over 3,000 men.
+
+[612] Hist. univ., liv. v., c. 6 (i. 273).
+
+[613] "Discours envoye de la Rochelle," accompanying La Mothe Fenelon's
+despatch of January 20, 1569. Correspondance diplomatique, i. 137, 138.
+Another letter of a later date gives even larger figures--30,000 foot
+(25,000 of them arquebusiers) and 7,000 or 8,000 horse, besides recruits
+expected from Montauban. Ibid., i. 147.
+
+[614] Upwards of 23,000 horse and 200 ensigns of foot (which we may
+perhaps reckon at 40,000 men). Despatch of La Mothe Fenelon, Dec. 5, 1568,
+Corresp. diplomatique, i. 29.
+
+[615] Memoires de Tavannes, iii. 38. De Thou, iv. 154, assigns 18,000 foot
+and 3,000 horse to Conde; and 12,000 foot and 4,000 horse, exclusive of
+the Swiss (who, according to Tavannes, numbered 6,000), to Anjou.
+
+[616] Jean de Serres, iii. 295, 296.
+
+[617] "Resolution qui sembloit la plus necessaire aux Reformez, pource que
+difficilement pouvoient-ils maintenir une telle troupe sans solde et sans
+magazins reglez." Agrippa d'Aubigne, liv. v., c. 6 (i. 273).
+
+[618] See "Tableau des phenomenes meteorologiques, astronomiques, etc.,
+mentionnes dans les Memoires de Claude Haton."
+
+[619] Jean de Serres, iii. 304, 305; De Thou, iv. (liv. xliv.) 159.
+
+[620] "Cette Roine, _n'aiant de femme que le sexe_, l'ame entiere aux
+choses viriles, l'esprit puissant aux grands affaires, le coeur invincible
+aux adversitez." Agrippa d'Aubigne, ii. 8.
+
+[621] Jean de Serres, iii. 306, 307.
+
+[622] Jean de Serres, iii. 296, 297; Relation sent from La Rochelle, La
+Mothe Fenelon, i. 173. The Prince of Conde had also made a solemn
+protestation in writing, and before a large assembly, before entering upon
+any belligerent acts. The substance of these frequent documents is so
+similar that I have deemed it unnecessary to do more than refer to it. See
+J. de Serres, iii. 249, 250. The Huguenot soldiers had, at the same time,
+taken an oath to support the cause until the achievement of a peace
+securing the undisturbed enjoyment of life, honors and religious liberty,
+and to submit to a careful military discipline. Ibid., iii. 251, 252-255,
+where the oath and a summary of the rules of discipline are inserted.
+
+[623] "Projet d'alliance du Prince d'Orange avec l'Amiral de Coligny et le
+Prince de Conde pour obtenir entiere liberte de conscience dans les
+Pays-Bas et en France. Le--aout l'an 1568." Groen Van Prinsterer, Archives
+de la Maison d'Orange-Nassau, iii. 282-286.
+
+[624] Letter of Favelles (Dec., 1568), Groen Van Prinsterer, Archives,
+etc., iii. 312-316.
+
+[625] He was not a "marechal," as Mr. Motley inadvertently calls him
+(Dutch Republic, ii. 261), but a very prominent and successful negotiator,
+whose eulogy M. de Thou, an intimate friend, has pronounced in the 122d
+book of his history (ix. 285). Henry, the first Count of Schomberg made
+Marshal of France, was not born until 1583.
+
+[626] It was generally believed that Schomberg, gaining access to the
+Germans through one of the principal officers, to whom he was related, was
+the occasion of their disaffection. Jean de Serres, iii. 298. "Il mesnagea
+si bien la plus part des capitaines," says Agrippa d'Aubigne, i. 340, "que
+quand le Prince leur parla d'aller joindre le Prince de Conde, _il les
+trouva tous bons theologiens et mauvais partisans_; discourans de la
+justice des armes, sans oublier le droit des rois et les affaires qu'ils
+avoient en leur pais. Schomberg s'en revint aiant receu quelques injures
+par Genlis."
+
+[627] Letter of December 3, 1568, Cissonne, in Motley, Rise of the Dutch
+Republic, ii. 261, 262.
+
+[628] News-letter from Paris, from the Huguenot physician of the Duke of
+Jarnac, discovered in the gauntlet of the Prince of Conde, and sent by
+Anjou, with other papers found on his dead body, to King Charles. Duc
+d'Aumale, Princes de Conde, Pieces ined., ii. 391.
+
+[629] Jean de Serres, iii. 299; Groen Van Prinsterer, Archives, etc., iii.
+316; Motley, Dutch Republic, ii. 263; Ag. d'Aubigne, liv. v., c. 26 (i.
+340).
+
+[630] M. Froude falls into a very natural error, in calling him (History
+of England, Am. edit., ix. 334) "the _younger_ Chatillon." With the
+exception of a brother who died in early youth, he was the oldest of the
+family; but his quiet and more sluggish character inclined him to accept
+the cardinal's hat, when offered to him by his uncle, the constable; and,
+rich with the revenues of bishoprics and abbeys, he subsequently renounced
+all his rights as eldest son to his brother Gaspard. Froude is, however,
+in good company. Even the usually accurate Tytler-Fraser says of Cardinal
+Chatillon: "This high-born ecclesiastic was in most things the reverse of
+his _elder_ brother D'Andelot." England under Edward VI. and Mary, i. 36.
+
+[631] Lodged by Elizabeth in Sion House, not far from Hampton Court, he
+was accorded more honor than usually fell to the lot of an envoy of
+royalty. Never, says Florimond de Raemond, did the queen meet him but she
+greeted him with a kiss, and it became a popular saying that Conde's
+ambassador was a much more important personage than the envoy of the King
+of France. De ortu, progressu, et ruina haereseon (Cologne, 1614), ii. 284
+(l. vi., c. 15).
+
+[632] The letter of Jeanne to Elizabeth, Oct. 15, 1568, is inserted in
+Jean de Serres, iii. 288-291.
+
+[633] There were many English clergymen with whom the diversity of order
+in public worship created no prejudice against the reformed churches of
+France. Of this number was William Whittingham, Dean of Durham, who, when
+he accompanied the Earl of Warwick, upon the occupation of Havre in 1562,
+conformed the service of the English garrison to that of the resident
+Protestants. Understanding that some of his countrymen had made
+"frivolous" complaints of his action, the Dean justified himself by Saint
+Augustine's counsel in such matters, and by alleging the disastrous
+consequences a different course would have produced on the minds of the
+French Protestants, who, he said, "as they had conceived evil of the
+infinity of our rites and cold proceedings in religion, so if they should
+have seen us (but in form only, though not in substance), to use the same
+or like order in ceremonies which the papists had a little afore observed
+(against whom they now venture goods and body), they would to their great
+grief have suspected our doings as not sincere, and have feared in time
+the loss of that liberty which after a sort they had purchased with the
+bloodshedding of many thousands." And the dean maintains the wisdom of the
+course pursued, having "perceived that it wrought here a marvellous
+conjunction of minds between the French and us, and brought singular
+comfort to all our people." The Bishop of London seems to have concurred
+in these views, as well as Cuthbert Vaughan, and probably Warwick himself.
+Whittingham to Cecil, Newhaven (Havre), Dec. 20, 1562, State Paper Office.
+It ought to be added that Whittingham, in this letter, expresses in fact a
+preference for the French forms to the English, as "most agreeable with
+God's Word, most approaching to the form the godly Fathers used, best
+allowed of the learned and godly in these days, and according to the
+example of the best reformed churches." Dean Whittingham, who had married
+the sister of John Calvin, was a leader of the Puritan party in the Church
+of England, and the editor and principal translator of the "Genevan"
+version of the English Bible. His opponents maintained that he was "a man
+not in holy orders, either according to the Anglican or the Presbyterian
+rite." (History of the Church of England, by G. G. Perry, Canon of
+Lincoln, New York, 1879, p. 303.) But a commission appointed by the queen
+to look into the matter, after the dean had been excommunicated by the
+Archbishop of York, reported that "William Whittingham was ordained in a
+better sort than even the archbishop himself." (Historic Origin of the
+Bible, by Edwin Cone Bissell, New York, 1873, p. 57.)
+
+[634] "A view of a seditious bull sent into England from Pius Quintus,
+Bishop of Rome, 1569," etc. Works of Bishop Jewel, edited by R. W. Jelf,
+vii. 263-265.
+
+[635] Despatch of La Mothe Fenelon, Dec. 5, 1568, detailing the
+justification of Charles, which he had made in an interview with Queen
+Elizabeth, Correspondance diplomatique, i. 28-33.
+
+[636] Yet no one could speak more courageous words than Elizabeth in her
+own interests. In December, 1560, she requested the ambassador of Francis
+II. "to write to his master frankly what she was about to say, viz., that
+she meant to do her best to defend herself: that she was not of such
+poverty, nor so void of the obedience of her subjects, but she trusted to
+be able to do this. _She came of the race of lions, and therefore could
+not sustain the person of a sheep._" Communication with the French
+Ambassador, December 13, 1560, State Paper Office.
+
+[637] Despatch of La Mothe Fenelon, Dec. 21, 1568, Corresp. dipl., i. 55,
+56.
+
+[638] "Qu'elle n'avoit rien en si grand horreur, en ce monde, que de voir
+ung corps s'esmouvoir contre sa teste, et qu'elle n'avoit garde de
+s'adjoindre a ung tel monstre." Ibid., i. 60.
+
+[639] Ibid., i. 36-130.
+
+[640] Mem. de Castelnau, liv. vii., c. 2; Agrippa d'Aubigne, liv. v., c.
+10 (i. 283); De Thou, iv. (liv. xliv.) 160. La Mothe Fenelon's despatch of
+January 24, 1569 (Corr. dipl. i. 153, 154), states the assistance at 6
+cannon and furniture, 300 barrels of powder, 4,000 balls, and L7,000.
+
+[641] Despatch to La Mothe Fenelon, March 8, 1569, and "Articles presantez
+a la royne d'Angleterre par le Sr de la Mothe, etc," Corresp. diplom., i.
+224, 237-241.
+
+[642] "Considerant luy-mesmes et toute la flotte des marchands estre en
+leur pouvoir, il trouva necessaire pour luy de condescendre en partie a
+leurs demandes, _combien quv ce fut contre sa volonte_." Coppie du
+messaige qui a este declaire par la Majeste de la Royne et son conseil,
+par parolle de bouche, a l'amb. du Roy de France, par Jehan Somer, clerc
+du signet de sa Majeste le IIIe jour de mars, 1568. Corresp. diplom., i.
+242-251.
+
+[643] Despatch of Dec. 5, 1568, Corresp. diplom., i. 32, 33.
+
+[644] In his despatch of March 25, 1569, La Mothe Fenelon admits to
+Catharine his great perplexity as to how he should act, so as neither to
+show too little spirit nor to provoke Elizabeth to such a declaration as
+would compel the king, his master, to declare war at so inopportune a
+time. Corresp. diplom., i. 281.
+
+[645] Jean de Serres, iii. 307, 308; De Thou, iv. (liv. xlv.) 169, 170;
+Castelnau, liv. vii., c. 3.
+
+[646] De Thou, iv. 171, 172; Castelnau, _ubi supra_.
+
+[647] Jean de Serres, iii. 302, 309; De Thou, iv. 161; Agrippa d'Aubigne,
+i. 277.
+
+[648] De Thou, iv. (liv. xlv.) 174, 175.
+
+[649] The Earl of Leicester gives Charles a more direct part in the war.
+"The king hathe bene these two monethes about Metz in Lorrayne, to
+empeache the entry of the Duke of Bipounte, who is set forward by the
+common assent of all the princes Protestants in Germany, with twelve
+thousand horsemen, and twenty-five thousand footemen, to assiste the
+Protestants in France, and to make some final end of their garboyles."
+Letter to Randolph, ambassador to the Emperor of Muscovy, May 1, 1569,
+Wright, Queen Elizabeth, i. 313. The facilities, even for diplomatic
+correspondence, with so distant a country as Muscovy, were very scanty.
+Leicester's despatch is accordingly an interesting resume of the chief
+events that had occurred in Western Europe during the past sixty days.
+
+[650] Agrippa d'Aubigne, i. 277; De Thou, iv. 172, etc.
+
+[651] "Ja Dieu ne plaise qu'on die jamais que Bourbon ait fuyt devant ses
+ennemis." Lestoile, 21. It is probably to this circumstance that the Earl
+of Leicester alludes, when he says that "the Prince of Conde, through his
+overmuche hardines and little regard to follow the Admirall's advise had
+his arme broken with a courrire shotte," etc. Wright, Queen Elizabeth, i.
+313, 314.
+
+[652] Agrippa d'Aubigne, Hist. univ., liv. v., c. 8 (i. 280); De Thou, iv.
+175.
+
+[653] D'Aubigne, _ubi supra_. A Huguenot patriarch, named La Vergne, was
+noticed by Agrippa himself fighting in the midst of twenty-five of his
+nephews and kinsmen. The dead bodies of the old man and of fifteen of his
+followers fell almost on a single heap, and nearly all the survivors were
+taken prisoners.
+
+[654] Jeanne d'Albret to Marie de Cleves, April, 1569, Rochambeau, Lettres
+d'Antoine de Bourbon et de Jehanne d'Albret (Paris, 1877), 297.
+
+[655] I regret to say that the current representations as to the
+termination of Conde's dishonorable attachment to Isabeau de Limueil are
+proved by contemporary documents to be erroneous. The tears and
+remonstrances of his wife Eleonore de Roye (see _ante_, chapter xiv.) may
+have had some temporary effect. But an anonymous letter among the Simancas
+MSS., written March 15, 1565 (and consequently more than six months after
+Eleonore's death, which occurred July 23, 1564), portrays him as "hora piu
+che mai passionato per la sua Limolia." Duc d'Aumale, Pieces justif., i.
+552. Just as Calvin (letter of September 17, 1563, Bonnet, Lettres franc.,
+ii. 539) had rebuked the prince with his customary frankness, warning him
+respecting his conduct, and saying that "les bonnes gens en seront
+offensez, les malins en feront leur risee," so now Coligny and the
+Huguenot gentlemen of his suite united with the Protestant ministers in
+begging him to renounce his present course of life, and contract a second
+honorable marriage. The latter held up to him "il pericolo et infamia
+propria, et il scandalo commune a tutta la relligione per esserne lui
+capo;" the former threatened to leave him. I have seen no injurious
+reports affecting Conde's morals after his marriage, November 8, 1565, to
+Francoise Marie d'Orleans Longueville. Duc d'Aumale, Princes de Conde, i.
+263-278.
+
+[656] Long the idol of the Huguenots, both of high or of low degree, he
+enjoyed a popularity perpetuated in a spirited song ("La Chanson du Petit
+Homme"), current so far back as the close of the first war, 1563, the
+refrain of which, alluding to the prince's diminutive stature, is: "_Dieu
+gard' de mal le Petit Homme!_" Chansonnier Huguenot, 250, etc.
+
+[657] The author of the Vie de Coligny (Cologne, 1686) gives more than one
+instance of a deference on the part of the subject of his biography which
+may seem to the reader excessive, but which alone could satisfy the
+chivalrous feeling of the loyal knight of the sixteenth century.
+
+[658] Brantome (Hommes illustres, OEuvres, viii. 163, 164) relates that
+Honorat de Savoie, Count of Villars, begged the Duke of Anjou to have
+Stuart given over to him, and, having gained his request, murdered him.
+
+[659] "Qui par artifices merveilleusement subtils ont bien sceu vandre le
+sang de la maison de France contre soy-mesmes."
+
+[660] The Earl of Leicester wrote to Randolph: "Robert Stuart,
+Chastellier, and certaine other worthy gentlemen, to the number of six,
+were lykewise taken and slayne, as the Frenche tearme it, de sang froid."
+Wright, Queen Elizabeth, i. 314. See also Cardinal Chatillon's letter to
+the Elector Palatine, June 10, 1569, in which the writer declares
+significantly of Conde's murder by Montesquiou, "ce qu'il n'eust ose
+entreprendre sans en avoir commandement _des plus grands_." Kluckholn,
+Briefe Friedrich des Frommen, ii. 336.
+
+[661] Letter of Henry of Navarre to the Duke of Anjou, "escript au Camp
+d'Availle le xiie jour de juillet 1569." Lettres inedites de Henry IV.
+recueillies par le Prince Augustin Galitzin (Paris. 1860), 4-11.
+
+[662] The Huguenot loss is given by Jean de Serres (iii. 316) at 200
+killed and 40 taken prisoners. Agrippa d'Aubigne states it at 140
+gentilhommes (Hist. univ., i. 280). The Earl of Leicester's words are: "In
+which conflicte was slayne on both sydes, as we heare, not above foure
+hundred men" (Wright, Queen Elizabeth, i. 313, 314). Castelnau speaks of
+over a hundred Huguenot gentlemen slain and an equal number taken
+prisoners (liv. vii., c. 4). The "Adviz donne par Mr Norrys, ambassadeur
+pour la royne d'Angleterre, prins de ses lettres, envoyees de Metz, le 18
+d'Avril" (La Mothe Fenelon, i. 362), agrees with Leicester, but is unique
+in making Anjou's loss greater than that of the Huguenots. De Thou makes
+the Protestants lose 400. The untruthful Davila says, "the Huguenots lost
+not above seven hundred men, but they were most of them gentlemen and
+cavaliers of note."
+
+[663] Agrippa d'Aubigne, i. 281. La Fosse and others have preserved one of
+the good Catholic stanzas composed on this occasion:
+
+ L'an mil cinq cent soixante et neuf
+ Entre Congnac et Chateauneuf
+ Fust apporte sur une anesse
+ Le grand ennemi de la messe.
+ (Journal d'un cure ligueur, 104.)
+
+[664] "On donna l'honneur de cette defaicte a M. de Tavannes." La Fosse,
+104.
+
+[665] De Thou, iv. (liv. xlv.) 177. Claude de Sainctes, afterward Bishop
+of Evreux, who, it will be remembered, figured at the colloquy of Poissy,
+is credited with the suggestion of the chapel.
+
+[666] The principal authorities consulted for the battle of Jarnac, or of
+Bassac, as it is also frequently called, from the abbey near which it
+raged, are: Jean de Serres, iii. 309-315; De Thou, iv. (liv. xlv.)
+173-176; Castelnau, liv. vii., c. 4; Ag. d'Aubigne, i. 278-281; Le vray
+discours de la bataille donnee par monsieur le 13. iour de Mars, 1569,
+entre Chasteauneuf et Jarnac, etc., avec privilege (Cimber et Danjou,
+Archives curieuses, vi. 365, etc.); Discours de la bataille donnee par
+Monseigneur, Duc d'Anjou et de Bourbonnoys, ... contre les rebelles ...
+entre la ville d'Angoulesme et Jarnac, pres d'une maison nommee Vibrac
+appartenant a la Dame de Mezieres; an inaccurate official account, drawn
+up at Metz by Neufville on the first reception of the news, and sent by
+the Spanish ambassador, Alava, to Philip II.; La Mothe Fenelon, Corr.
+dip., vii. 3-11; Davila, bk. iv.; the "Relation originale" in Documents
+inedits tires des coll. MSS. de la bibliotheque royale (Fr. gov.), iv.
+483, etc. Compare the excellent narratives of the Duc d'Aumale and Prof.
+Soldan. The Bulletin de la Soc. de l'hist. du prot. fr., i. (1853) 429,
+gives a representation of a monument, in the form of an obelisk, about
+eleven feet in height, erected by the Department of the Charente, in 1818,
+on the spot where Conde fell. A somewhat similar monument, raised in 1770
+by the Count de Jarnac, was destroyed during the first French revolution.
+
+[667] Anjou to Charles IX., March 17, 1569, Duc d'Aumale, Les Princes de
+Conde, ii. 399.
+
+[668] Apostolicarum Pii Quinti, P. M., Epistolarum libri quinque.
+Antverpiae, 1640, 152.
+
+[669] Pii Quinti Epist., 157-166.
+
+[670] Ibid., 160, 161.
+
+[671] Boscheron des Portes, Hist. du Parlement de Bordeaux (Bordeaux,
+1877), i. 214, 216. As the Huguenots were condemned, not for heresy, but
+for rebellion, sacrilege, etc., the learned author finds no mention of
+fagot and flame.
+
+[672] La Mothe Fenelon. i. 288-294.
+
+[673] Despatch of April 12, 1569, ibid., i. 303.
+
+[674] It is evident that the results of the battle were designedly
+exaggerated by the Roman Catholics at the time, and have been overrated
+ever since. Agrippa d'Aubigne alleges that, out of 128 cornets of cavalry
+in the Huguenot army, only fifteen were engaged; and that of over 200
+ensigns of infantry, barely _six_--those under Pluviaut--came within a
+league of the battle-field. Hist. univ., _ubi supra_.
+
+[675] Jean de Serres, iii. 317, 318; De Thou, iv. (liv. xlv.) 178, 179. De
+Thou reckons the losses of the Roman Catholics before Cognac at more than
+300 men.
+
+[676] De Thou, iv. 180, 181; Agrippa d'Aubigne, i. 282; J. de Serres, iii.
+318, 319.
+
+[677] La Mothe Fenelon, i. 367. And now, to the insulting _quatrain_
+already quoted a propos of Conde's death, the Huguenot soldiers of
+Angoumois replied in rough verses of their own:
+
+ Le Prince de Conde
+ Il a ete tue;
+ Mais Monsieur l'Amiral
+ Est encore a cheval,
+ Avec La Rochefoucauld
+ Pour achever tous ces Papaux.
+
+V. Bujeaud, Chronique protestante de l'Angoumois, 40.
+
+[678] Discours merveilleux de la vie de Catherine de Medicis (Cologne,
+1683), 645. See the atrocious letter to Catharine, which the queen found
+upon her bed, Nov. 8, 1575, and which purports to have been written from
+Lausanne. In the copy published by Le Laboureur (ii. 425-429), it is
+signed "Grand Champ;" in that which the editor of Claude Haton gives in an
+appendix (p. 1111-1115) the name is "Emille Dardani." The date is
+doubtful. Le Laboureur is apparently more correct in giving it as "le
+troisieme mois de la quatrieme annee apres la trahison" (St. Bartholomew's
+Day).
+
+[679] The Vie de Coligny (Cologne, 1686), p. 360, 361, says nothing to
+indicate that the author regarded D'Andelot's death as other than natural.
+But Hotman's Gasparis Colinii Vita (1575), p. 75, mentions the suspicion,
+and considers it confirmed by the saying attributed to Birague, afterward
+chancellor, that "the war would never be terminated by arms alone, but
+that it might be brought to a close very easily by _cooks_." Cardinal
+Chatillon, in a letter to the Elector Palatine, June 10, 1569, alludes to
+his brother's having died of poison as a well-ascertained fact, "comme il
+est apparent tant par l'anatomie," etc. Kluckholn, Briefe Frederick des
+Frommen, ii 336.
+
+[680] Since the outbreak of the present war, the court had undertaken to
+deprive D'Andelot of his rank, and had divided his duties between Brissac
+and Strozzi. Brissac had been killed, and Strozzi was now recognized by
+the court as colonel-general.
+
+[681] The letter written from Saintes, May 18, 1569, is inserted in
+Gasparis Colinii Vita (1575) pp. 75-78, the author remarking, "quam ipsius
+manum, atque chirographum prae manibus jam habeo." The possession of so
+many family manuscripts on the part of the anonymous writer of this
+valuable contemporary account, is explained by the fact that he was no
+other than the distinguished Francis Hotman, in whose hands the admiral's
+widow, Jaqueline d'Entremont, or Antremont, had placed all the documents
+she possessed, entreating him to undertake the pious task of compiling a
+life of her husband. In a remarkable letter which has but lately come to
+light, dated January 15, 1572 (new style 1573), after an exordium full of
+those classical allusions of which the age was so fond, she writes: "Ne
+trouvez etrange, je vous supplie, si j'ai essaye de reveiller vostre plume
+pour laisser a la posterite autant de temoignages de la vertu de feu
+monseigneur et mari, que nos ennemis la veulent designer," etc. Bulletin,
+vi. 29.
+
+[682] "La France aura beaucoup de maux avec vous, et puis sans vous; mais
+en fin tout tombera sur l'Espagnol." Agrippa d'Aubigne, i. 283.
+
+[683] Agrippa d'Aubigne, _ubi supra_.
+
+[684] Berger de Xivrey, Lettres missives de Henri IV. (Paris, 1843), i. 7.
+
+[685] Histoire de Charles IX. par le sieur Varillas (Cologne, 1686), ii.
+161, 162. I am glad to embrace this opportunity of quoting a historian in
+whose statements of facts I have as seldom the good fortune to concur as
+in his general deductions of principles. M. de Thou (iv. 182) remarks in a
+similar spirit: "Il fit voir a la France (et ses ennemis meme en
+convinrent) qu'il etoit capable de soutenir lui seul tout le parti
+Protestant dont on croyoit auparavant qu'il ne soutenoit qu'une partie."
+
+[686] Ranke (Civil Wars and Monarchy), 241; the statement of Jean de
+Serres, iii. 325, would make the total number a little larger; the
+accounts of Agrippa d'Aubigne, i. 285, and De Thou, iv. 185, make it
+somewhat smaller.
+
+[687] Adviz, etc., La Mothe Fenelon, i. 363.
+
+[688] De Thou, iv. 184; Jean de Serres, iii. 320-323. This was in
+February. It was the more natural for Wolfgang to defend his course, as he
+was himself an ancient ally of the King of Spain. In the Papiers d'etat du
+card. de Granvelle, ix. 567, we have the text of a compact formed Oct. 1,
+1565: "Lettres de Service accordees par le roi d'Espagne a Wolfgang, comte
+Palatin et duc de Deux Ponts." According to this document, the duke was
+bound for three years to obey Philip's summons, although he refused to
+pledge himself to do anything directly or indirectly against the Augsburg
+Confession or its supporters.
+
+[689] Journal d'un cure ligueur (Jehan de la Fosse), 104.
+
+[690] Letter of Charles IX. to La Mothe Fenelon, May 14, 1569, Corresp.
+dipl., vii. 20, 21. The same incredulity respecting the possibility of
+Deux Ponts's enterprise is expressed by the anonymous author of a
+memorandum of a journey through France, in Documents inedits tires des
+MSS. de la bibl. royale, iv. 493. It is alluded to in the "Remonstrance"
+of the Protestant princes presented after the junction of the armies. Jean
+de Serres, iii. 337.
+
+[691] Castelnau, liv. vii., c. 5.
+
+[692] De Thou, iv. 185-188; Agrippa d'Aubigne, i. 285; Anquetil, Esprit de
+la ligue, i. 297.
+
+[693] Discours envoye de La Rochelle a la Royne d'Angleterre. La Mothe
+Fenelon, ii. 158, etc.
+
+[694] De Thou, iv. 188; Lestoile, 22; J. de Serres, iii. 524; Castelnau,
+liv. vii., c. 6.
+
+[695] Castelnau, liv. vii., c. 7; De Thou, iv. 192; Jean de Serres, iii.
+327 (who states the Roman Catholic loss as higher than given in the text).
+Brantome ascribes the defeat of Strozzi to the circumstance that the
+matches of _his_ troops were put out by the rain, and that his infantry,
+unsupported by cavalry, was at the mercy of Mouy and the Huguenot
+troopers. Colonnels fr., OEuvres, ed. Lalanne, vi. 60. But the "Discours
+envoye de la Rochelle a la Royne d'Angleterre" (La Mothe Fenelon, ii. 160)
+states that the Huguenots would have done much greater execution and
+perhaps put an end to the dispute, "n'eust ete que, tout ce jour la, la
+pluye fut si extreme et si grande que noz harquebouziers ne pouvoient plus
+jouer." La Roche Abeille, or La Roche l'Abeille, is a hamlet seventeen
+miles south of Limoges.
+
+[696] According to J. A. Gabutius, the biographer of Pius V. (sec. 120, p.
+646), the Pope sent 4,500 foot and 1,000 horse, and Cosmo, Duke of
+Florence, 1,000 foot and 200 horse. Besides these, many nobles attached
+themselves to the expedition as volunteers. Santa Fiore was instructed to
+leave France _the moment he should perceive that the heretics were treated
+with_. "Quod si ipse summus copiarum Dux, vel de pace vel de rerum
+compositione quidquam Catholicae religioni damnosum praesentiret; [Pius V.]
+imperavit e vestigio aut converso itinere in Italiam remearet, aut ad
+Catholicum exercitum in Belgio cum haereticis bellantem sese conferret et
+adjungeret."
+
+[697] De Thou, iv. 192; Vie de Coligny, 364; Gasparis Colinii Vita, 81;
+Jean de Serres, iii. 331. Charles IX. in a letter to La Mothe Fenelon,
+from St. Germains des Pres, July 27, 1569, alludes to the successes of the
+Huguenots, whom Anjou cannot resist, "ayant donne conge a la pluspart de
+sa gendarmerye de s'en aller faire ung tour en leurs maisons." Corresp.
+diplom., vii. 35, 36. The furlough, which was to expire on the 15th of
+August, was afterward extended by Anjou to the 1st of October.
+
+[698] See Vie de Coligny, 364; De Thou, iv. 192; Jean de Serres, iii. 345,
+346.
+
+[699] Yet the "Guisards" were never tired of asserting the contrary. Sir
+Thomas Smith tells us that Cardinal Lorraine maintained to him that "they
+[the Huguenots] desired to bring all to the form of a republic, like
+Geneva." Smith records the conversation at length in a letter to Cecil,
+wishing his correspondent to perceive "how he had need of a long spoon
+that should eat potage with the Devil." The discussion must have been an
+earnest one. Sir Thomas was not disposed to boast of being a finished
+courtier. In fact, he declares that, as to framing compliments, he is "the
+verriest calf and beast in the world," and threatens to get one Bizzarro
+to write him some, which he will get translated (for all sorts of people),
+and learn them by heart. He managed on this occasion to speak his mind to
+Lorraine pretty freely respecting the real origin of the war (the
+conversation took place in 1562), and told the churchman the
+uncomplimentary truth, that his brother's deed at Vassy was the cause of
+all the troubles. Smith to Cecil, Rouen, Nov. 7, 1562, State Paper Office.
+
+[700] Not to speak of Noyers, belonging to Conde, Coligny's stately
+residence at Chatillon-sur-Loing fell into the hands of the enemy. In
+direct violation of the terms of the capitulation, the palace was robbed
+of all its costly furniture, which was sent to Paris and sold at auction.
+Chateau-Renard, which also was the property of Coligny, was taken by the
+Roman Catholics, and became the nest of a company of half-soldiers,
+half-robbers, under an Italian--one Fretini--who laid under contribution
+travellers on the road to Lyons. De Thou, iv. 198, 199; Agrippa d'Aubigne,
+i. 292.
+
+[701] How deeply the Guises felt the taunt that they were strangers in
+France, appears from a sentence of the cardinal's to the Bishop of Rennes
+(Trent, Nov. 24, 1563), wherein, alluding to the recent birth of a son to
+the Duke of Lorraine and Catharine de' Medici's daughter, he says that he
+is "merveilleusement aise ... pource que sera occasion aux Huguenots de ne
+nous dire plus princes estrangers." Le Laboureur, ii. 313.
+
+[702] "Copie d'une Remonstrance que ceulx de la Rochelle ont mande avoyr
+envoyee au Roy, apres l'arrivee du duc de Deux Ponts." La Mothe Fenelon,
+ii. 179-188. In Latin, Jean de Serres, iii. 333-345. Gasparis Colinii
+Vita, 80.
+
+[703] Mem. de Castelnau, liv. vii., c. 6; Jean de Serres, iii. 345, 346;
+De Thou, _ubi supra_.
+
+[704] "Lusignan la pucelle." De Thou, iv. 197; Jean de Serres, iii. 331;
+Agrippa d'Aubigne, i. 290.
+
+[705] Agrippa d'Aubigne, i. 294; De Thou, iv. (liv. xlv.) 200-202; Jean de
+Serres, iii. 347.
+
+[706] Agrippa d'Aubigne, i. 298: "Presse par les interests et murmures des
+Poictevins, il sentit en cet endroit une des incommoditez qui se trouve
+aux partis de plusieurs testes; sa prudence donc cedant a sa necessite,"
+etc.
+
+[707] Letter of Sept. 8, 1569, Wright, Queen Elizabeth, i. 323.
+
+[708] Jean de Serres, iii. 348, etc.; Castelnau, liv. vii., c. 7; De Thou,
+iv. 205-214; Agrippa d'Aubigne, i. 297, etc.
+
+[709] Journal d'un cure ligueur (Jehan de la Fosse), 109.
+
+[710] Jean de Serres, iii. 332; Agrippa d'Aubigne, i. 292; De Thou, etc.
+
+[711] Agrippa d'Aubigne, liv. v., c. 13 (i. 293); De Thou, iv. (liv. xlv.)
+204; Jehan de la Fosse, 108.
+
+[712] That Renee was, like all the other prominent Huguenots, from the
+very first opposed to a resort to the horrors of war, is certain. Agrippa
+d'Aubigne goes farther than this, and asserts (i. 293) that she had become
+estranged from Conde in consequence of her blaming the Huguenots for their
+assumption of arms: "blasmant ceux qui portoient les armes, jusques a
+estre devenus ennemis, le Prince de Conde et elle, sur cette querelle." I
+can scarcely credit this account, of which I see no confirmation, unless
+it be in a letter to an unknown correspondent, in the National Library
+(MSS. Coll. Bethune, 8703, fol. 68), of which a translation is given in
+Memorials of Renee of France (London, 1859), 263, 264. It is dated
+Montargis, Aug. 20, 1569: "Praying you ... to employ yourself, as I know
+you are accustomed to do, in whatsoever way shall be possible to you, in
+striving to arrive at a good peace, in which endeavor I, on my part, shall
+put forth all my power, if it shall please God. And if it cannot be a
+general one, _at least it shall be to those who desire it, and who belong
+to us_." Who, however, was the correspondent? The subscription, "Your good
+cousin, Renee of France," would appear to point to Admiral Coligny or some
+one of equal rank. Louis de Conde was no longer living.
+
+[713] Letter of Villegagnon to the Duchess of Ferrara, Montereau, March 4,
+1569, _apud_ Mem. de Claude Haton, ii. Appendix, 1109.
+
+[714] It must be remembered that this was a different place from
+Chatillon-sur-Loing, Admiral Coligny's residence, which was not more than
+fifteen miles distant. The places are frequently confounded with each
+other. The Loing is a tributary of the Seine, into which it empties below
+Montereau, after flowing by Chatillon-sur-Loing, Montargis, and Nemours.
+
+[715] The fullest and most graphic account of this interesting incident I
+find in Agrippa d'Aubigne, i. 293 (liv. v., c. 13). See De Thou, iv. (liv.
+xlv.) 204, and Memorials of Renee of France (London, 1859), 261-263. The
+Huguenot horsemen numbered not eight hundred, as the author last quoted
+states, but about one hundred and twenty--"six vingts."
+
+[716] The "Discours de ce qui avint touchant la Croix de Gastines, l'an
+1571, vers Noel" (Memoires de l'etat de France sous Charles IX., and
+Archives curieuses, vi. 475, etc.), contains the quaint decree of the
+parliament. See Journal d'un cure ligueur (Jehan de la Fosse), 107. As
+actually erected, the monument consisted of a high stone pyramid,
+surmounted by a gilt crucifix. Besides the decree in question, there were
+engraved some Latin verses of so confused a construction that it was
+suggested that the composer intended to cast ridicule both on the Roman
+Catholics and on the Huguenots. M. de Thou, who was a boy of sixteen at
+the time--and who, as son of the first President of Parliament, and
+himself, at a later time, a leading member and president _a mortier_ of
+that body, enjoyed rare advantages for arriving at the truth--declares
+(iv. 488) that the elder Gastines was a venerable man, beloved by his
+neighbors, and, indeed, by the entire city; and that the execution was
+compassed by a cabal of seditious persons, who, by dint of soliciting the
+judges, of exciting the people, of inducing them to congregate and follow
+the judges with threats as they left parliament, succeeded in causing to
+be punished with death, in the persons of the Gastines, an offence which,
+until then, had been punished only with exile or a pecuniary fine.
+
+[717] Jehan de la Fosse, 107, 108.
+
+[718] Journal d'un cure ligueur, 110; Mem. de Castelnau, liv. vii., c. 8;
+De Thou, iv. (liv. l) 216; Gasp. Colinii Vita (1569), 87; Memoirs of G. de
+Coligny, 140, etc. The arret of the parliament is in Archives curieuses,
+vi. 377, etc. The Latin life of Coligny (89-91) inserts a manly and
+Christian letter, in the author's possession, written (Oct. 16, 1569) by
+the admiral to his own children and those of his deceased brother,
+D'Andelot, who were studying at La Rochelle, shortly after receiving
+intelligence of this judicial sentence and of the wanton injury done to
+his palace at Chatillon-sur-Loing. "We must follow our Head, Jesus Christ,
+who himself leads the way," he writes. "Men have deprived us of all that
+it was in their power to take from us, and if it be God's will that we
+never recover what we have lost, still we shall be happy, and our
+condition will be a good one, inasmuch as these losses have not arisen
+from any harm done by us to those who have brought them upon us, but
+solely from the hatred they bear toward me for the reason that it has
+pleased God to make use of me in assisting His Church."
+
+[719] Jean de Serres, iii. 356, 357; Mem. of Coligny, 136; De Thou, iv.
+216, 217; Agrippa d'Aubigne, i. 302.
+
+[720] Jean de Serres, iii. 363; De Thou, iv. (liv. xlvi.) 221; Castelnau,
+vii., c. 8.
+
+[721] De Thou, iv. 216; Agrippa d'Aubigne, i. 302. The place was also
+known by the name of Foie la Vineuse.
+
+[722] Agrippa d'Aubigne, i. 305.
+
+[723] In the heat of the engagement, the excited imaginations of the
+combatants even saw visions of celestial champions, as Theseus was fabled
+to have appeared at Marathon. A renegade Protestant captain afterward
+assured the Cardinal of Alessandria that on that eventful day he had seen
+in mid-air an array of warriors with refulgent armor and blood-red swords,
+threatening the Huguenot lines in which he fought; and he had instantly
+embraced the Roman Catholic faith, and vowed perpetual service under the
+banners of the pontiff. There were others, we are told, to corroborate his
+account of the prodigy. Joannis Antonii Gabutii Vita Pii Quinti Papae (Acta
+Sanctorum, Maii 5), Sec. 125, pp. 647, 648.
+
+[724] Agrippa d'Aubigne, i. 307. "Ne se trouva oncques gens plus fidelles
+au camp catholicque que lesditz estrangers, et singulierement les Suisses,
+lesquelz ne pardonnerent a ung seul de leur nation germanique de ceux qui
+tomberent en leurs mains." Mem. de Claude Haton, ii. 582.
+
+[725] "Che non avesse il comandamanto di lui osservato d'ammazzar subito
+qualunque heretico gli fosse venuto alle mani." Catena, Vita di Pio V.,
+_apud_ White, Mass. of St. Bartholomew, 305, and De Thou, iv. (liv. xlvi.)
+228. With singular inconsistency--so impossible is it generally to carry
+out these horrible theories of extermination--the Roman pontiff himself
+afterward liberated D'Acier without exacting any ransom. De Thou, _ubi
+supra_. "Si Santafiore lui avoit obei," says an annotator, "Jacques de
+Crussol (D'Acier) ne se seroit pas converti, et n'auroit pas laisse une si
+illustre poterite."
+
+[726] On the battle of Moncontour, consult J. de Serres, iii. 357-362; De
+Thou, iv. 224-228; Castelnau, liv. vii., c. 9; Agrippa d'Aubigne, liv. v.,
+c. 17; a Roman Catholic relation in Groen van Prinsterer, Archives de la
+Maison d'Orange Nassau, iii. 324-326.
+
+[727] "Nihil est enim ea pietate misericordiaque crudelius, quae in impios
+et ultima supplicia meritos confertur." Pius V. to Charles IX., Oct. 20,
+1569. Pii V. Epistolae (Antwerp, 1640), 242. The French victories of Jarnac
+and Moncontour were celebrated by a medal struck at Rome, with the legend,
+"_Fecit potentiam in bracchio suo, dispersit superbos_," and a
+representation of Pius kneeling and invoking the aid of heaven against the
+heretics. In the distance is seen a combat, and above it appears the
+Divine Being directing the issue. Figured in "Le Tresor de Numismatique et
+de Glyptique, par Paul Delaroche" (Medailles des Papes, plate 15, No. 5),
+Paris, 1839.
+
+[728] La Mothe Fenelon, vii. 65, etc., from Simancas MSS. So Claude Haton,
+who is rarely behindhand in such matters, makes the Protestants lose
+fifteen thousand or sixteen thousand men. Memoires, ii. 582. Admiral
+Coligny was for a time believed by the court to be dead or mortally
+wounded, "mais ne fut rien." Ibid., _ubi supra_.
+
+[729] If we may credit the curate Claude, Catharine de' Medici alone was
+vexed at the completeness of the rout and the number of Huguenots slain,
+"inasmuch as she gave them as much support as possible, and encouraged
+them in rebellion, that the civil wars might continue, in which she took
+pleasure because of the management of affairs they threw into her
+hands"--"pour le maniment des affaires qu'elle entreprenoit et manioit."
+Memoires, ii. 583.
+
+[730] Journal d'un cure ligueur (Jehan de la Fosse), 110.
+
+[731] Jehan de la Fosse, 112. The date is stated as "about Oct. 17th."
+
+[732] Ranke, Civil Wars and Monarchy in France, i. 241.
+
+[733] De Thou, iv. 230; Agrippa d'Aubigne, i. 310. The murderer's name is
+variously written Maurevel, Moureveil, Montrevel, etc.
+
+[734] This letter, respecting which I confess that I find some
+difficulties, possesses a history of its own. On the 13th of Ventose, in
+the second year of the republic, the original was sent to the national
+convention, which, the next day, ordered its insertion in the official
+bulletin, and its preservation in the national library, as emanating "from
+one of the Neros of France." See App. to Journal de Lestoile, ed. Michaud,
+pt. i., p. 307, 308, and the revolutionary bulletins.
+
+[735] "Ut sese Montalbani cum Vicecomitibus conjungerent, et sperantes
+Andium, dum se persequeretur, ab San-Jani oppugnandae instituto
+destiturum." De statu rel. et reip., iii. 365.
+
+[736] See Soldan, iii. 372, 373; Anquetil, Esprit de la ligue, i. 317,
+etc.
+
+[737] With his usual inaccuracy, Davila speaks of Saint Jean d'Angely as
+"excellently fortified" (Eng. trans., p. 166).
+
+[738] This number, given by Agrippa d'Aubigne, i. 313, and by De Thou, iv.
+(liv. xlv.) 242, seems the most probable. La Popeliniere swells it to near
+10,000 (Soldan, ii. 375), while Castelnau, liv. vii., c. 10, reduces it to
+"over 8,000." Strange to say, Jean de Serres, who, writing and publishing
+this portion of his history within a year after the conclusion of the
+third civil war, almost uniformly gives the highest estimates of the Roman
+Catholic losses, here makes them about 2,000, or lower than any one else.
+
+[739] Agrippa d'Aubigne, who was generous enough to appreciate valor even
+in an enemy, calls him "celui qui entamoit toutes les parties difficiles,
+a qui rien n'estoit dur ny hazardeux, qui en tous les exploits de son
+temps avoit fait les coups de partie" (i. 312). Lestoile in his journal
+(p. 22, Ed. Mich.) affirms that he was killed just as he had uttered a
+blasphemous inquiry of the Huguenots, where was now their "Dieu le Fort,"
+and taunted them with his having become "a ceste heure leur Dieu le
+Faible." "Le Dieu, le Fort, l'Eternel parlera," was the first line of a
+favorite Huguenot psalm.
+
+[740] On the siege of Saint Jean d'Angely, see J. de Serres, iii. 369,
+370; Agrippa d'Aubigne, i. 311-313; De Thou, iv. 238-242; Castelnau, liv.
+vii., c. 10. It scarcely needs to be mentioned that Davila, bk. v., p.
+166, knows nothing of any treachery on the part of the Roman Catholics,
+but duly mentions that De Piles did not observe his promise.
+
+[741] Davila, bk. v. (Eng. tr., p. 163 and 167); De Thou, iv. (liv. xlvi.)
+250. Gabutius, in his life of Pius V., transcribes the exultant
+inscription, dictated by the pontiff himself (Sec. 126, p. 648), and claims
+for the canonized subject of his panegyric the chief credit of the
+victory. According to him the Italians were the first to engage with the
+heretics, and the last to desist from the pursuit.
+
+[742] Davila, bk. 5th (Eng. tr., p. 167); Mem. de Claude Haton, ii. 591.
+
+[743] "L'hiver arriva, il fallut mettre les troupes en quartier; et le
+fruit d'une victoire si complette, l'effort d'une armee royale si
+formidable, fut la prise de quelques places mediocres, pendant que La
+Rochelle, la plus utile de toutes, restoit aux vaincus, et que les princes
+retablissoient les affaires, a l'aide d'un delai qu'ils n'avoient point
+ose se promettre." Anquetil, L'Esprit de la ligue, i. 317.
+
+[744] J. de Serres, iii. 372; De Thou, iv. (liv. xlvi.) 234, 235, who
+makes the loss in the first siege 300 men, and in the second over 1,000
+horsemen; Agrippa d'Aubigne, Hist. univ., l. v., c. 19 (i. 315, 316), who
+states the total at 1,400 foot and near 400 horse; while Castelnau, l.
+vii., c. 10, speaks of but 300 in all. Vezelay, famous in the history of
+the Crusades (see Michaud, Hist. des Croisades, ii. 125) as the place
+where St. Bernard in 1146 preached the Cross to an immense throng from all
+parts of Christendom, is equidistant from Bourges and Dijon, and a little
+north of a line uniting these two cities.
+
+[745] De Thou, iv. (liv. xlvi.) 246, 247; Agrippa d'Aubigne, liv. v., c.
+19 (i. 317); J. de Serres, iii. 370. About twenty prisoners were taken, to
+whom their captors promised their lives. Afterward there were strenuous
+efforts made, especially by the priests, to have them put to death as
+rebels and traitors. M. de la Chastre resisted the pressure, disregarding
+even a severe order of the Parliament of Paris, accompanied by the threat
+of the enormous fine of 2,000 marks of gold, which bade him send them to
+the capital. (Hist. du Berry, etc., par M. Louis Raynal, 1846, iv, 104,
+_apud_ Bulletin de la Soc. de l'hist. du prot. fr., iv. (1856) 27.) Even
+Charles IX. wrote to him, but the governor was inflexible. His noble reply
+has come to light, dated Jan. 21, 1570, just one month after the failure
+of the Protestant scheme. After urging the danger of retaliation by the
+Huguenots of La Charite and Sancerre upon the prisoners they held, to the
+number of more than forty, and the inexpediency of accustoming the people
+of Bourges to bloody executions which they would not fail to repeat, he
+concludes his remonstrance in these striking words: "Nevertheless, Sire,
+if you should find it expedient, for the good of your service, to put them
+to death, the channel of the courts of justice is the most proper, without
+recompensing my services, or sullying my reputation with a stain that will
+ever be a ground of reproach against me. And I beg you, Sire, to make use
+of me in other matters more worthy of a gentleman having the heart of his
+ancestors, who for five hundred years have served their king without stain
+of treachery or act unworthy of a gentleman." Inedited letter, _apud_
+Bulletin, _ubi supra_, 28, 29. M. de la Chastre became one of the marshals
+of France. He conducted, three years later, the terrible siege of
+Sancerre, famous in history. He had the reputation among the Huguenots of
+being very severe, if not bloodthirsty--a reputation which he deserved, if
+he was, as Henry of Navarre styles him, "un des principaux executeurs de
+la Sainct Barthelemy." (Deposition in the trial of La Mole, Coconnas, etc.
+Archives curieuses, viii. 150.) La Chastre tried to clear himself of the
+imputation, by recalling the events of 1569. To Jean de Lery he maintained
+"qu'il n'est point sanguinaire, ainsi qu'on a opinion, comme aussi il
+l'avoit desja bien monstre aux autres troubles, lorsqu'il avoit en sa
+puissance les sieurs d'Espeau, baron de Renty, et le capitaine Fontaine,
+qui est en son armee: car encores que la cour du parlement de Paris luy
+fist commandement de les representer, a peine de 2,000 marcs d'or, il ne
+le voulut faire." Jean de Lery, "Discours de l'extreme famine ... dans la
+ville de Sancerre," Archives curieuses, viii. 67.
+
+[746] De Thou, iv. (liv. xlvi.) 235-237; Agrippa d'Aubigne, liv. v., c. 19
+(i. 316, 317); Jean de Serres, iii. 368, 369.
+
+[747] "Si est-ce que Dieu est tres-doux."
+
+[748] Agrippa d'Aubigne, l. v., c. 18 (i. 309). The words were, as M.
+Douen reminds us (Clement Marot et le Psautier huguenot, 1878, 13) the
+first line of the seventy-third psalm of the Huguenot psalter.
+
+[749] De Thou, iv. (liv. xlvi.) 232; Jean de Serres, iii. 366.
+
+[750] Ibid., iii. 372, etc.
+
+[751] Even in December, Languet could scarcely imagine that Coligny would
+not return and winter at La Rochelle. Letter of Dec. 12, 1569, Epist.
+secr., i. 130.
+
+[752] Mem. de Castelnau, liv. vii., c. 12.
+
+[753] At least, so says Agrippa d'Aubigne, liv. v., c. 18 (i. 309).
+
+[754] De Thou, iv. (liv. xlvi.) 233; Agrippa d'Aubigne, i. 309, 318 (liv.
+v., cs. 18 and 20). The two authorities are not in exact agreement, De
+Thou stating that Coligny went to Montauban before his march to meet
+Montgomery, while D'Aubigne makes him follow the left bank of the Dordogne
+down to Aiguillon. Gasparis Colinii Vita (1575), 91, 92, supports De Thou.
+
+[755] De Thou, iv. (liv. xlvi.) 249; Agrippa d'Aubigne, liv. v., c. 20 (i.
+318); Gasparis Colinii Vita (1575), 94. The author of this valuable and
+authentic life of the admiral gives a full description of the bridge.
+Professor Soldan is mistaken in saying that the bridge was not yet
+completed (Geschichte des Prot. in Frank., ii. 377). It had been
+completed, and two days had been spent in taking over the German cavalry
+("opere effecto, biduoque in traducendis Germanis equitibus consumpto")
+when the disaster occurred.
+
+[756] Languet, Letter of January 3, 1570, Epist. secretae, i. 133.
+
+[757] Gasparis Colinii Vita (1576), 91; Vie de Coligny (Cologne, 1686),
+378, where the account of the expedition, however, is full of blunders.
+Mr. Browning, following this untrustworthy authority, makes Admiral
+Coligny cross the Garonne and pass through Bearn, on his way from Saintes
+to Montauban! A glance at the map of France will show that this would have
+required a much greater bend to the right than he in reality made to the
+left, since Bearn lay entirely south of the river Adour. To reach Bearn by
+land _before_ crossing the Garonne, as the "Vie" evidently imagines he
+did, would almost have required Aladdin's lamp. In fact, the entire
+passage is a jumble of the exploits of Montgomery and Coligny.
+
+[758] La Popeliniere, _apud_ Soldan, ii. 378.
+
+[759] De Thou, iv. (liv. xlvii.) 303-306; Agrippa d'Aubigne, liv. v., c.
+20 (i. 319, 320); Davila, bk. v., p. 168; Raoul de Cazenove,
+"Rapin-Thoyras, sa famille," etc., 49, 50.
+
+[760] La Mothe Fenelon, vii. 81.
+
+[761] "L'imprudence des Catholiques, lesquels laissant rouler, sans nul
+empeschement, ceste petite pelote de neige, en peu de temps elle _se fit
+grosse comme une maison_." Mem. de la Noue, c. xxix.
+
+[762] Of course, Davila (bk. v., p. 167, 168), who rarely rejects a good
+story of intrigue, especially if there be a dainty bit of treachery
+connected with it, adopts unhesitatingly the popular rumor of Marshal
+Damville's infidelity to his trust.
+
+[763] St. Etienne possessed already, at the time the "Vie de Coligny" was
+written, that branch of industry which still constitutes one of its chief
+sources of wealth. It was described as a "petite ville fameuse par la
+quantite d'armes qui s'y fait, et qui se transportent dans les pais
+etrangers, en sorte que c'est ce qui nourrit presque toute la province."
+P. 381.
+
+[764] Agrippa d'Aubigne, liv. v., c. 21 (i. 322).
+
+[765] Gasparis Colinii Vita, 97, 98.
+
+[766] Arnay-le-Duc, or Rene-le-Duc, as the place was indifferently called,
+is situated about thirty miles south-west of Dijon, on the road to Autun.
+
+[767] De Thou, iv. (liv. xlvii.) 312-314; Agrippa d'Aubigne, liv. v., c.
+22 (i. 321-325); Castelnau, liv. vii., c. 12; Davila, bk. v. 169.
+
+[768] De Thou, iv. (liv. xlvii.) 315. Davila attributes to the connivance
+of Marshal Cosse the escape of the Protestants from Arnay-le-Duc. This is
+consistent with the same writer's statement that it was the marshal's
+intentional slowness that enabled Coligny to seize upon Arnay-le-Duc and
+post himself so advantageously.
+
+[769] Castelnau, liv. vii., c. 10.
+
+[770] De Thou, iv. (liv. xlvii.) 301.
+
+[771] De Thou, iv. (liv. xlvii.) 302.
+
+[772] The articles, a copy of which was sent to the ambassador at the
+court of Elizabeth, in a letter from Angers, Feb. 6, 1570, are printed in
+La Mothe Fenelon, vii. 86-88. I omit reference in the text to the articles
+prohibiting foreign alliances and the levy of money, prescribing the
+dismissal of foreign troops, etc. The two cities referred to in the fifth
+article are rather to be regarded as places of worship--the only places in
+the kingdom where Protestant worship would be tolerated--than as pledges
+for the performance of the projected edict, as Prof. Soldan apparently
+regards them chiefly, if not exclusively. Geschichte des Prot. in
+Frankreich, ii. 379.
+
+[773] Charles to ambassador, Jan. 14th; letter of Catharine, same date; La
+Mothe Fenelon, vii. 77, 78.
+
+[774] See Froude, History of England, x. 9. etc.
+
+[775] De Thou, iv. (liv. xlvii.) 305. Cf. Soulier, Hist. des edits de
+pacification, 92.
+
+[776] De Thou, iv. 311. It was at St. Etienne in Forez, that the incident
+occurred.
+
+[777] For a fuller discussion of these circumstances than the limits of
+this history will permit me to give, I must refer the reader to the work
+of Prof. Soldan, Geschichte des Protestantismus in Frankreich, ii. 385.
+
+[778] La Noue was one of the most modest, as well as one of the most
+capable of generals. "I have felt myself so much the more obliged to speak
+of it," writes the historian De Thou respecting the battle of Sainte
+Gemme, "as La Noue, the most generous of men, who has written on the civil
+wars with as much fidelity as judgment, always disposed to render
+conspicuous the merit of others, and very reserved respecting his own, has
+not said a word of this victory." De Thou, iv. (liv. xlvii.) 320.
+
+[779] Brantome has written the eulogy of this personage, whose true name
+was Antoine Escalin. He was first ambassador at Constantinople, where his
+good services secured his appointment as general of the galleys. After
+undergoing the displeasure of the king, and a three years' imprisonment
+for his participation in the massacre of the Vaudois, he was reinstated in
+office. Subsequently he was temporarily displaced by the grand prior, and
+by the Marquis of Elbeuf. It is an odd mistake of Mr. Henry White (Mass.
+of St. Bartholomew, p. 14, note) when he says: "In the religious wars he
+sided with the Huguenots." Brantome says: "Il haissoit mortellement ces
+gens-la."
+
+[780] De Thou, iv. 316-325; Agrippa d'Aubigne, i. 325-335.
+
+[781] Ibid., _ubi supra_.
+
+[782] La Mothe Fenelon, iii. 210, 215. Despatch of June 21st.
+
+[783] De Thou, iv. 287, 288; Kluckholn, Briefe Friedrich des Frommen, ii.
+398.
+
+[784] La Mothe Fenelon, iii. 256, 257.
+
+[785] Letter of April 17, 1570, Rochambeau, Lettres d'Antoine de Bourbon
+et de Jehanne d'Albret (Paris, 1877), 299.
+
+[786] Chassanee in his "Consuetudines ducatus Burgundiae, fereque totius
+Galliae" (Lyons, 1552), 50, defines the "haute justice" by the possession
+of the power of life and death: "De secundo vero gradu meri imperii, seu
+altae justiciae, est habere gladii potestatem ad animadvertendum in
+facinorosos homines."
+
+[787] See the edict itself in Jean de Serres, iii. 375-390; summaries in
+De Thou, iv. (liv. xlvii.) 328, 329, and Agrippa d'Aubigne, i. 364, 365.
+
+[788] Journal d'un cure ligueur, 120.
+
+[789] Ibid., _ubi supra_.
+
+[790] Castelnau, liv. vii., c. 12. The work of this very fair-minded
+historian terminates with the conclusion of the peace. De Thou, iv. (liv.
+xlvii.) 327.
+
+[791] "On la disoit boiteuse et mal-assise," says Henri de Mesmes himself
+in his account of these transactions, adding with a delicate touch of
+sarcasm: "Je n'en ay point vu depuis vingt-cinq ans qui ait guere dure."
+Le Laboureur, Add. aux Mem. de Castelnau, ii. 776. Prof. Soldan has
+already exposed the mistake of Sismondi and others, who apply the popular
+nickname to the preceding peace of Longjumeau. See _ante_, chap. xv.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+THE PEACE OF SAINT GERMAIN.
+
+
+[Sidenote: Sincerity of the peace.]
+
+A problem of cardinal importance here confronts us, in the inquiry whether
+the peace which had at length dawned upon France was or was not concluded
+in good faith by the young king and his advisers. Was the treaty a
+necessity forced upon the court by the losses of men and treasure
+sustained during three years of almost continual civil conflict? Were the
+queen mother and those in whose hands rested the chief control of affairs,
+really tired of a war in which nothing was to be gained and everything was
+in jeopardy, a war whose most brilliant successes had been barren of
+substantial fruits, and had, in the sequel, been stripped of the greater
+part of their glory by the masterly conduct of a defeated opponent? Or,
+was the peace only a prelude to the massacre--a skilfully devised snare to
+entrap incautious and credulous enemies?
+
+The latter view is that which was entertained by the majority of the
+contemporaries of the events, who, whether friends or foes of Charles and
+Catharine, whether Papists or Protestants, could not avoid reading the
+treaty of pacification in the light of the occurrences of the "bloody
+nuptials." The Huguenot author of the "Tocsin against the murderers" and
+Capilupi, author of the appreciative "Stratagem of Charles the
+Ninth"--however much they may disagree upon other points--unite in
+regarding the royal edict as a piece of treachery from beginning to end.
+It was even believed by many of the most intelligent Protestants that the
+massacre was already perfected in the minds of its authors so far back as
+the conference of Bayonne, five years before the peace of St. Germain, in
+accordance with the suggestions of Philip the Second and of Alva. This
+last supposition, however, has been overthrown by the discovery of the
+correspondence of Alva himself, in which he gives an account of the
+discussions which he held with Catharine de' Medici on that memorable
+occasion. For we have seen that, far from convincing the queen mother of
+the necessity for adopting sanguinary measures to crush the Huguenots, the
+duke constantly deplores to his master the obstinacy of Catharine in still
+clinging to her own views of toleration. It seems equally clear that the
+peace of St. Germain was no part of the project of a contemplated massacre
+of the Protestants. The Montmorencies, not the Guises, were in power, and
+were responsible for it. The influence of the former had become paramount,
+and that of the latter had waned. The Cardinal of Lorraine had left the
+court in disgust and retired to his archbishopric of Rheims, when he found
+that the policy of war, to which he and his family were committed, was
+about to be abandoned. Even in the earlier negotiations he had no part,
+while the queen mother and the moderate Morvilliers were omnipotent.[792]
+And when Francis Walsingham made his appearance at the French court, to
+congratulate Charles the Ninth upon the restoration of peace, he found his
+strongest reasons of hope for its permanence, next to the disposition and
+the necessities of the king, in the royal "misliking toward the house of
+Guise, who have been the nourishers of these wars,"[793] and in the
+increase of the royal "favor to Montmorency, a chief worker of this peace,
+who now carrieth the whole sway of the court, and is restored to the
+government of Paris."[794]
+
+At home and abroad, the peace was equally opposed by those who could not
+have failed to be its warmest advocates had it been treacherously
+designed. We have already seen that both Pope Pius the Fifth, and the King
+of Spain insisted upon a continuance of the war, and offered augmented
+assistance, in case the government would pledge itself to make no compact
+with the heretical rebels. The pontiff especially was unremitting in his
+persuasions and threats; denouncing the righteous judgment of God upon the
+king who preferred personal advantage to the claims of religion, and
+reminding him that the divine anger was wont to punish the sins of rulers
+by taking away their kingdoms and giving them to others.[795] The project
+of a massacre of Protestants, had it in reality been entertained by the
+French court while adopting the peace, could scarcely have been kept so
+profound a secret from the king and the pontiff who had long been urging a
+resort to such measures, nor would Pius and Philip have been suffered
+through ignorance to persist in so open a hostility to the compact which
+was intended to render its execution feasible.
+
+[Sidenote: The designs of Catharine de' Medici.]
+
+If the Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day, as enacted on the fatal Sunday
+of August, was not premeditated in the form it then assumed--if the peace
+of St. Germain was not, as so many have imagined, a trick to overwhelm the
+Huguenots taken unawares--are we, therefore, to believe that the idea of
+such a deed of blood was as yet altogether foreign to the mind of
+Catharine de' Medici? I dare not affirm that it was. On the contrary,
+there is reason to believe that the conviction that she might some day
+find herself in a position in which she could best free herself from
+entanglement by some such means had long since lodged in her mind. It was
+not a strange or repulsive notion to the careful student of the code of
+morality laid down in "Il Principe." Alva had familiarized her with it,
+and the civil wars had almost invested it in her eyes with the appearance
+of justifiable retaliation. She had gloated in secret over the story of
+the Queen Blanche, mother of Louis the Ninth, and her successful struggle
+with her son's insubordinate nobles, telling her countryman, the Venetian
+ambassador Correro, with a significant laugh such as she was wont
+occasionally to indulge in, that she would be very sorry to have it known
+that she had been reading the old manuscript chronicle, for they would at
+once infer that she had taken the Castilian princess as her pattern.[796]
+More unscrupulous than the mother of St. Louis, she had revolved in her
+mind various schemes for strengthening her authority at the expense of the
+lives of a few of the more prominent Huguenot chiefs, convinced, as she
+was, that Protestantism would cease to exist in France with the
+destruction of its leaders. But, despite pontifical injunctions and
+Spanish exhortations, she formed no definite plans; or, if she did, it was
+only to unravel on the morrow what she had woven the day before. What
+Barbaro said of her at one critical juncture was true of her generally in
+all such deliberations: "Her irresolution is extreme; she conceives new
+plans from hour to hour; within the compass of a single day, between
+morning and evening, she will change her mind three times.[797]"
+
+[Sidenote: Charles the Ninth in earnest.]
+
+[Sidenote: He tears out the record against Cardinal Chatillon.]
+
+While it is scarcely possible to believe Catharine to have been more
+sincere in the adoption of this peace than in any other event of her life,
+we may feel some confidence that her son was really in favor of peace for
+its own sake. He was weary of the war, jealous of his brother Anjou,
+disgusted with the Guises, and determined to attempt to conciliate his
+Huguenot subjects, whom he had in vain been trying to crush. Apparently he
+wished to make of the amnesty, which the edict formally proclaimed, a
+veritable act of oblivion of all past offences, and intended to regard the
+Huguenots, in point of fact as well as in law, as his faithful subjects.
+An incident which occurred about two months after the conclusion of peace,
+throws light upon the king's new disposition. Cardinal Odet de Chatillon,
+deprived by the Pope of his seat in the Roman consistory, had, on motion
+of Cardinal Bourbon, been declared by the Parisian parliament to have lost
+his bishopric of Beauvais, on account of his rebellion and his adoption
+of Protestant sentiments. All such judicial proceedings had indeed been
+declared null and void by the terms of the pacification, but the
+parliaments showed themselves very reluctant to regard the royal edict. In
+October, 1570, Charles the Ninth happening to be a guest of Marshal
+Montmorency at his palace of Ecouen, a few leagues north of Paris, sent
+orders to Christopher de Thou, the first president, to wait upon him with
+the parliamentary records. Aware of the king's object, De Thou, pleading
+illness, sent four of his counsellors instead; but these were
+ignominiously dismissed, and the presence of the chief judge was again
+demanded. When De Thou at last appeared, Charles greeted him roughly.
+"Here you are," he said, "and not very ill, thank God! Why do you go
+counter to my edicts? I owe our cousin, Cardinal Bourbon, no thanks for
+having applied for and obtained sentence against the house of Chatillon,
+_which has done me so much service, and took up arms for me_." Then
+calling for the records, he ordered the president to point out the
+proceedings against the admiral's brother, and, on finding them, tore out
+with his own hand three leaves on which they were inscribed; and on having
+his attention directed by the marshal, who stood by, to other places
+bearing upon the same case, he did not hesitate to tear these out
+also.[798]
+
+[Sidenote: His assurances to Walsingham.]
+
+[Sidenote: Gracious answer to the German electors.]
+
+To all with whom he conversed Charles avowed his steadfast purpose to
+maintain the peace inviolate. He called it his own peace. He told
+Walsingham, "he willed him to assure her Majesty, that the only care he
+presently had was to entertain the peace, whereof the Queen of Navarre and
+the princes of the religion could well be witnesses, as also generally the
+whole realm."[799] And the shrewd diplomatist believed that the king spoke
+the truth;[800] although, when he looked at the adverse circumstances
+with which Charles was surrounded, and the vicious and irreligious
+education he had received, there was room for solicitude respecting his
+stability.[801] There was, indeed, much to strengthen the hands of Charles
+in his new policy of toleration. On the twenty-sixth of November he
+married, with great pomp and amid the display of the popular delight,
+Elizabeth, daughter of the Emperor Maximilian the Second. This union, far
+from imperilling the permanence of the peace in France,[802] was likely to
+render it more lasting, if the bridegroom could be induced to copy the
+conciliatory and politic example of his father-in-law. Not long after
+Charles received at Villers-Cotterets an embassy sent by the three
+Protestant electors of Germany and the other powerful princes of the same
+faith. They congratulated him upon the suppression of civil disorder in
+France, and entreated him to maintain freedom of worship in his dominions
+such as existed in Germany and even in the dominions of the Grand Turk;
+lending an ear to none who might attempt to persuade him that tranquillity
+could not subsist in a kingdom where there was more than one religion.
+Charles made a gracious answer, and the German ambassadors retired,
+leaving the friends of the Huguenots to entertain still better hopes for
+the recent treaty.[803]
+
+[Sidenote: Catharine warned by the Huguenots.]
+
+[Sidenote: Infringement on the edict at Orange.]
+
+It cannot be denied, however, that the Huguenots could see much that was
+disquieting and calculated to prevent them from laying aside their
+suspicions. There were symptoms of the old constitutional timidity on the
+part of Catharine de' Medici. She showed signs of so far yielding to the
+inveterate enemies of the Huguenots as to abstain from insisting upon the
+concession of public religious worship where it had been accorded by the
+Edict of St. Germain. No wonder that the Huguenots, on their side, warned
+her, with friendly sincerity and frankness, that, should she refuse to
+entertain their just demands, _the present peace would be only a brief
+truce, the prelude to a relentless civil war_. "We will all die," was
+their language, "rather than forsake our God and our religion, which we
+can no more sustain without public exercise than could a body live without
+food and drink."[804] Not only did the courts throw every obstacle in the
+way of the formal recognition of the law establishing the rights of the
+Huguenots, but the outbreaks of popular hatred against the adherents of
+the purer faith were alarming evidence that the chronic sore had only been
+healed over the surface, and that none of the elements of future disorder
+and bloodshed were wanting. Thus, in the little city and principality of
+Orange, the Roman Catholic populace, taking advantage of the supineness of
+the governor and of the consuls, introduced within the walls, under cover
+of a three days' religious festival, a large number of ruffians from the
+adjoining Comtat Venaissin. This was early in February, 1571. Now began a
+scene of rapine and bloodshed that might demand detailed mention, were it
+not that at the frequent repetition of such ghastly recitals the stoutest
+heart sickens. Men, and even mere boys, of the reformed faith were
+butchered in their homes, in the arms of their wives or their mothers. The
+goods of Protestants were plundered and openly sold to the highest
+bidder. Of many, a ransom was exacted for their safety. The work went on
+for two weeks. At last a deputy from Orange reached the Huguenot princes
+and the admiral at La Rochelle, and Count Louis of Nassau, who was still
+there, wrote to Charles with such urgency, in the name of his brother, the
+Prince of Orange, that measures were taken to repress and punish the
+disorder.[805]
+
+[Sidenote: The Protestants at Rouen attacked, March 4, 1571.]
+
+A much more serious infringement upon the protection granted to the
+Protestants by the edict, took place at Rouen about a month later.
+Unable to celebrate their worship within the city walls, the
+Protestants had gone out one Sunday morning to the place assigned them
+for this purpose in the suburbs. Meantime a body of four hundred Roman
+Catholics posted themselves in ambush near the gates to await their
+return. When the unsuspecting Huguenots, devoutly meditating upon the
+solemnities in which they had been engaged, made their appearance,
+they were greeted first with imprecations and blasphemies, then with a
+murderous attack. Between one hundred and one hundred and twenty are
+said to have been killed or wounded. The punishment of this audacious
+violation of the rights of the Protestants was at first left by
+parliament to the inferior or presidial judges, and the investigation
+dragged. The judges were threatened as they went to court: "Si l'on
+scavoit que vous eussiez informe, on vous creveroit les yeux; si vous
+y mectez la main, on vous coupera la gorge!" The people broke into the
+prisons and liberated the accused. The civic militia refused to
+interfere. It was evident that no justice could be obtained from the
+local magistrates. The king, however, on receiving the complaints of
+the Huguenots, displayed great indignation, and despatched Montmorency
+to Rouen with twenty-seven companies of soldiers, and a commission
+authorized to try the culprits. The greater part of these, however,
+had fled. Only five persons received the punishment of death; several
+hundred fugitives were hung in effigy. Montmorency attempted to secure
+the Protestants against further aggression by disarming the entire
+population, with the exception of four hundred chosen men, and by
+compelling the parliament, on the fifteenth of May, to swear to
+observe the Edict of Pacification--precautions whose efficacy we shall
+be able to estimate more accurately by the events of the following
+year.[806]
+
+[Sidenote: The "Croix de Gastines" again.]
+
+The strength of the popular hatred of the Huguenots was often too great
+for even the government to cope with. The rabble of the cities would hear
+of no upright execution of the provisions respecting the oblivion of past
+injuries, and resisted with pertinacity the attempt to remove the traces
+of the old conflict. The Parisians gave the most striking evidence of
+their unextinguished rancor in the matter of the "Croix de Gastines," a
+monument of religious bigotry, the reasons for whose erection in 1569 have
+been sufficiently explained in a previous chapter.[807]
+
+More than a year had passed since the promulgation of the royal edict of
+pacification annulling all judgments rendered against Protestants since
+the death of Henry the Second; and yet the Croix de Gastines still stood
+aloft on its pyramidal base, upon the site of the Huguenot place of
+meeting. Several times, at the solicitation of the Protestants, the
+government ordered its demolition. The municipal officers of Paris
+declined to obey, because it had not been erected by them; the parliament,
+because, as they alleged, the sentence was just and they could not
+retract; the Provost of Paris, because he was not above parliament, which
+had placed it there.[808] Charles himself wrote with his own hand to the
+provost: "You deliberate whether to obey me, and whether you will have
+that fine pyramid overturned. I forbid you to appear in my presence until
+it be cast down."[809] The end was not yet. The monks preached against the
+sacrilege of lowering the cross. Maitre Vigor, on the first Sunday of
+Advent, praised the people of Paris for having opposed the demolition,
+maintaining that they had acted "only from zeal for God, who upon the
+cross suffered for us." "The people," he declared, "had never murmured
+when they had taken down Gaspard de Coligny, who had been hung in effigy,
+and _would soon, God willing, be hung in very deed!_"[810] Meantime, the
+mob of Paris exhibited its zeal for the honor of the cross by assailing
+the soldiers sent to tear down the "Croix de Gastines," and by breaking
+open and plundering the contents of several Huguenot houses. It was not
+until the provost had called in the assistance of Marshal Montmorency, and
+the latter had killed a few of the seditious Parisians who opposed his
+progress, and hung one man to the windows of a neighboring house, that the
+disturbance ceased. The pyramid was then destroyed, and the cross
+transferred to the Cimetiere des Innocents, where it is said to have
+remained until the outbreak of the French Revolution.[811] The "plucking
+down of the cross" was a distasteful draught to the fanatics. "The common
+people," wrote an eye-witness, "ease their stomacks onely by uttering
+seditious words, which is borne withal, for that was doubted. The
+Protestants by the overthrow of this cross receive greater comfort, and
+the papists the contrary."[812]
+
+[Sidenote: Projected marriage of Anjou to Queen Elizabeth.]
+
+The Huguenot leaders, rejoicing at any evidence of the royal favor,
+desired to strengthen it and render it more stable. For this purpose they
+found a rare opportunity in projecting matrimonial alliances. Queen
+Elizabeth, of England, was yet unmarried, a princess of acknowledged
+ability, and reigning over a kingdom, which, if it had not at that time
+attained the wealth of industry and commerce which it now possesses, was,
+at least, one of the most illustrious in Christendom. Where could a more
+advantageous match be sought for Henry of Anjou, the French monarch's
+brother? True, the Tudor princess was no longer young, and her personal
+appearance was scarcely praised, except by her courtiers. She had been a
+candidate for many projected nuptials, but in none had the disparity of
+age been so great as in the present case, for, being a maiden of
+thirty-seven, she lacked but a single year of being twice as old as
+Anjou.[813] Besides these objections, and independently of the difference
+of creed between the queen and Anjou, she had the unenviable reputation of
+being irresolute, fickle, and capricious. And yet, in spite of all these
+difficulties, the match was seriously proposed and entertained in the
+autumn and winter succeeding the ratification of peace.
+
+It is worthy of notice that the scheme originated with the French
+Protestants. Cardinal Chatillon, the admiral's brother, and the Vidame of
+Chartres, both of them zealous partisans of the Reformation, and at this
+time engaged in negotiations in England, were the first to make mention of
+the plan, and probably it took its rise in their minds. Their object was
+manifest: if France could be united to Protestant England by so
+distinguished a marriage, the permanence of the peace of St. Germain might
+be regarded as secure. Under such auspices, the Huguenots, long proscribed
+and persecuted, might hope for such favor and toleration as they had never
+yet enjoyed.
+
+Catharine de' Medici, when approached on the subject, gave indications of
+hearty acquiescence. Of late there had been a growing estrangement between
+the French and Spanish courts. The selfishness and arrogance of Philip and
+his ministers had been particularly evident and offensive during the late
+war. It was sufficiently clear that the Catholic king opposed the peace
+less from hatred of heresy or of rebellion, than because of his scarcely
+disguised hope of profiting by the misfortunes of France. The queen mother
+was consequently quite inclined to tighten the bonds of amity and
+friendship with England, when those that had previously existed with Spain
+were loosened. The prospect of a crown for her favorite son was an
+alluring one--doubly so, because of Nostradamus's prophecy that she would
+see all her sons upon the throne, to which she gave a superstitious
+credence, trembling lest it should involve in its fulfilment their
+untimely death. It is true that, in view of Elizabeth's age, she would
+have preferred to marry the Duke of Anjou to some princess of the royal
+house of England, whom Elizabeth might first have proclaimed her heir and
+successor.[814] However, as the English queen was, perhaps, even more
+reluctant than the majority of mankind to be reminded of her advancing
+years and of her mortality, Catharine's ambassador may have deemed it
+advisable to be silent regarding the suggestion of so palpable a "memento
+mori," and contented himself with offering for her own acceptance the hand
+of one whom he recommended as "the most accomplished prince living, and
+the most deserving her good graces."[815] Elizabeth received the proposal
+with courtesy, merely alluding to the great difference between her age and
+Anjou's, but admitted her apprehension lest, since "she was already one
+whose kingdom rather than herself was to be wedded," she might marry one
+who would honor her as a queen rather than love her as a woman. In fact,
+the remembrance of the amours of the father and grandfather made her
+suspicious of the son, and the names of Madame d'Estampes and of Madame de
+Valentinois (Diana of Poitiers) inspired her with no little fear. All
+which coy suggestions La Mothe Fenelon, astute courtier that he was, knew
+well how to answer.[816]
+
+[Sidenote: Machinations to dissuade Anjou.]
+
+Soon, however, the difficulty threatened to be the unwillingness of the
+suitor, rather than the reluctance of the lady. Henry of Anjou was the
+head of the Roman Catholic party in France. Charles's orthodoxy might be
+suspected; there was no doubt of his brother's. His intimacy with the
+Guises, his successes as general of the royal forces in what was styled a
+war in defence of religion, were guarantees of his devotion to the papal
+cause. All his prestige would be lost if he married the heretical daughter
+of Henry the Eighth and Anne Boleyn. Hence desperate efforts were made to
+deter him--efforts which did not escape the Argus-eyed Walsingham. "The
+Pope, the King of Spain, and the rest of the confederates, upon the doubt
+of a match between the queen, my mistress, and monsieur, do seek, by what
+means they can, to dissuade and draw him from the same. They offer him to
+be the head and chief executioner of the league against the Turk, a thing
+now newly renewed, though long ago meant; which league is thought to
+stretch to as many as they repute to be Turks, although better Christians
+than themselves. The cause of the Cardinal of Lorraine's repair hither
+from Rheims, as it is thought, was to this purpose."[817]
+
+[Sidenote: Charles indignant at the interference.]
+
+Charles the Ninth was indignant at this interference, and said: "If this
+matter go forward, it behooveth me to make some counter-league," having
+his eye upon the German Protestant princes and Elizabeth.[818] Besides,
+there were at this juncture other reasons for displeasure, especially with
+Spain. Charles and his mother had received a rebuff from Sebastian of
+Portugal, to whom they had offered Margaret of Valois in marriage. The
+young king had replied, through Malicorne, "that they were both young,
+and that therefore about eight years hence that matter might be better
+talked of," "which disdainful answer," the English ambassador wrote from
+the French court, "is accepted here in very ill part, and is thought not
+to be done without the counsel of Spain."[819]
+
+[Sidenote: Alencon to be substituted as suitor.]
+
+With Henry of Anjou, however, much to the disgust and disappointment of
+his mother, the "league" succeeded too well. Scarcely had a month passed,
+before Catharine was compelled to write to the envoy in England, telling
+him that Henry had heard reports unfavorable to Elizabeth's character, and
+positively declined to marry her.[820] In her extreme perplexity at this
+unexpected turn of events, the queen mother suggested to La Mothe Fenelon
+that perhaps the Duke of Alencon would do as well, and might step into the
+place which his brother had so ungallantly abandoned.[821] Now, as this
+Alencon was a beardless boy of sixteen, and, unlike Charles and Henry,
+small for his age, it is not surprising that La Mothe declared himself
+utterly averse to making any mention of him for the present, lest the
+queen should come to the very sensible conclusion that the French were
+"making sport of her."[822]
+
+[Sidenote: Anjou's new ardor.]
+
+[Sidenote: Elizabeth interposes obstacles.]
+
+But there was at present no need of resorting to substitution. For a time
+the ardor of Anjou was rekindled, and rapidly increased in intensity.
+Catharine first wrote that Anjou "condescended" to marry Elizabeth;[823]
+presently, that "he desired infinitely to espouse her."[824] A month or
+two later he declared to Walsingham: "I must needs confess that, through
+the great commendation that is made of the queen your mistress, for her
+rare gifts as well of mind as of body, being (as even her very enemies
+say) the rarest creature that was in Europe these five hundred years; my
+affection, grounded upon so good respects, hath now made me yield to be
+wholly hers."[825] On the other hand, Elizabeth began to exhibit such
+coldness that her most intimate servants doubted her sincerity in the
+entire transaction. With more candor than courtiers usually exhibit in
+urging a suit which they suspect to be distasteful to their sovereign,
+Lord Burleigh, the Earl of Leicester, and Sir Francis Walsingham used
+every means of persuading the queen to decisive action. "My very good
+Lord," wrote Walsingham, on the fourteenth of May, 1571, "the Protestants
+here do so earnestly desire this match; and on the other side, the papists
+do so earnestly seek to impeach the same, as it maketh me the more earnest
+in furthering of the same. Besides, when I particularly consider her
+Majesty's state, both at home and abroad, so far forth as my poor eyesight
+can discern; and how she is beset with foreign peril, the execution
+whereof stayeth only upon the event of this match, I do not see how she
+can stand if this matter break off."[826] Lord Burleigh, in perplexity on
+account of Elizabeth's conduct, exclaimed that "he was not able to discern
+what was best;" but added: "Surely I see no continuance of her quietness
+without a marriage, and therefore I remit the success to Almighty
+God."[827] The situation of Elizabeth's servants was, indeed, extremely
+embarrassing. Their mistress had laid an insuperable obstacle in the way.
+She did not, indeed, require Anjou to abjure his faith, but her demands
+virtually involved this. Not only did she refuse to grant the duke, by the
+articles of marriage, public or even private worship for himself and his
+attendants, according to the rites of the Roman Catholic Church, but she
+wished to bind him to make no request to that effect after marriage.[828]
+In vain did Catharine protest that this was to require him to become an
+atheist, and her own advisers solemnly warn her that this could but lead
+to an entire rupture of the negotiations. Under the pretence of excluding
+all exercise of Popery from England, the queen disappointed the ardent
+hopes of thousands of sincere and thorough Protestants in France and of
+many more in England, who viewed the marriage as by far the most advisable
+cure--far better than a simple treaty of peace--for the ills of both
+kingdoms. "If you find not in her Majesty," wrote Walsingham to Leicester,
+"a resolute determination to marry--a thing most necessary for our
+staggering state--then were it expedient to take hold of amity, which may
+serve to ease us for a time, though our disease requireth another remedy;"
+and again, a few days later (on the third of August, 1571): "My lord, if
+neither marriage nor amity may take place, the poor Protestants here do
+think then their case desperate. They tell me so with tears, and therefore
+I do believe them. And surely, if they say nothing, beholding the present
+state here, I could not but see it most apparent."[829]
+
+[Sidenote: Papal and Spanish efforts.]
+
+The fears of the Protestants were not baseless. As the marriage, and the
+consequent close friendship with England, seemed to insure the growth and
+spread of the reformed faith,[830] the failure of both was an almost
+unmistakable portent of the triumph of the opposite party and of the
+renewal of persecution and bloodshed. And so also the fanatical Roman
+Catholics read the signs of the times, and again they plied Anjou with
+their seductions. "Great practices are here for the impeachment of this
+match," wrote the English ambassador, near the end of July, 1571. "The
+Papal Nuncio, Spain, and Portugal, are daily courtiers to dissuade this
+match. The clergy here have offered Monsieur a great pension, to stay him
+from proceeding. In conclusion, there is nothing left undone, that may be
+thought fit to hinder."[831]
+
+[Sidenote: Vexation of Catharine at Anjou's fresh scruples.]
+
+And these intrigues were not fruitless. Anjou now declared to his mother
+that he would not go to England without public assurances that he should
+enjoy the liberty to exercise his own religion. He was unwilling even to
+trust the queen's word, as Catharine and Charles would have wished him to
+do. Catharine meantime expressed her vexation in her despatches to La
+Mothe Fenelon.[832] "We strongly suspect," she said, "that Villequier,
+Lignerolles, or Sarret, or possibly all three, may be the authors of these
+fancies. If we succeed in obtaining some certainty respecting this matter,
+I assure you that they will repent of it."[833] But she added that, should
+the negotiation unfortunately fail, she was resolved to put forth all her
+efforts in behalf of her son Alencon, who would be more easily
+suited.[834]
+
+In fact, while Anjou was indifferent, or perhaps disgusted at the
+obstacles raised in the way of the marriage, and was unwilling to
+sacrifice his attachment to the party in connection with which he had
+obtained whatever distinction he possessed; and while Elizabeth, who was
+by no means blind, saw clearly enough that she was likely to get a husband
+who would regard his bride rather as an incumbrance than as an
+acquisition,[835] there were two persons who were as eager as Elizabeth's
+advisers, or the Huguenots themselves, to see the match effected. These
+were Charles the Ninth and Catharine de' Medici, both of whom just now
+gave abundant evidence of their disposition to draw closer to England and
+to the Huguenots of France and the Gueux of Holland, while suffering the
+breach between France and Spain to become more marked.
+
+[Sidenote: Louis of Nassau confers with the king.]
+
+Count Louis of Nassau, ever since the conclusion of peace, had remained
+with the Huguenots within the walls of La Rochelle. At the repeated
+solicitations of his brother, the Prince of Orange, he had entered into
+correspondence with the king, and urged him to embrace an opportunity such
+as might never return, to endear himself to the Netherlanders, and add
+materially to the extent and power of France by espousing the cause of
+constitutional rights. His advances were so favorably received that he now
+came in disguise, accompanied by La Noue, Teligny, and Genlis, to confer
+with Charles upon the subject. They met at Lumigny-en-Brie, whither the
+king had gone to indulge in his favorite pastime of the chase, and on
+several consecutive days held secret conferences.[836] Louis was a
+nobleman whose history and connections entitled him to respect; but his
+frank and sincere character was a still more powerful advocate in his
+behalf.[837] He proved to the king how justly he might interfere in
+defence of the Low Countries, where Philip was seeking "to plant, by
+inquisition, the foundation of a most horrible tyranny, the overthrow of
+all freedoms and liberties." He traced the course of events since the
+humiliating treaty of Cateau-Cambresis, and added: "If you think in
+conscience and honor you may not become the protector of this people, you
+should do well to forbear, for otherwise the success cannot be gained. If
+you think you may, then weigh in policy how beneficial it will be for you,
+and how much your father would have given, to have had the like
+opportunity offered unto him that is now presented unto you gratis; which,
+if you refuse, the like you must never look for."
+
+Both Charles and his mother appeared well pleased with the proposal, and
+the king, who had listened attentively to the recital of the follies into
+which Philip had fallen in consequence of listening to evil advice,
+exclaimed: "Similar counsellors, by violating my edict, wellnigh brought
+me into like terms with my subjects, wherefrom ensued the late troubles;
+but now, thank God, He has opened my eyes to discern what their meaning
+was." Next, Louis showed that success was not difficult. The Roman
+Catholics and the Protestants in the Netherlands equally detested the
+tyranny of the Spaniards. The towns were ready to receive garrisons.
+Philip had not in the whole country over three thousand troops upon whose
+fidelity he could rely. The addition of a dozen ships to those already
+possessed by the patriots would enable them effectually to prevent the
+landing of Spanish reinforcements. In short, the Netherlands were ripe for
+a division which would amply recompense France and the German princes, as
+well as Queen Elizabeth, should she, as was hoped, consent to take part in
+the enterprise: for the provinces of Flanders and Artois, which had once
+belonged to the French crown, would gladly give themselves up to Charles;
+Brabant, Gelderland, and Luxemburg would be restored to the empire; and
+Holland, Zealand, and the rest of the islands would fall to the share of
+the queen.[838]
+
+[Sidenote: Admiral Coligny consulted.]
+
+[Sidenote: He marries Jacqueline d'Entremont.]
+
+So favorably did Charles and his mother, with those counsellors to whom
+the secret was intrusted, receive the count's advances, that it was
+clearly advisable to bring them into communication with Admiral Coligny,
+to whose conduct the enterprise, if adopted, must be confided, and for
+whom the young king expressed great esteem. Indeed, so urgently was the
+admiral invited, and so intimately did the success or failure of the
+attempt to enlist France in the Flemish war seem to be dependent upon his
+personal influence, that Gaspard de Coligny, despite the ill-concealed
+solicitude of many of his more suspicious friends, consented to trust
+himself in the king's hands. As for himself, the admiral had little desire
+to leave the secure retreat of La Rochelle. Here he was surrounded by
+friends. Here his happiness had been enhanced by two marriages which
+promised to add greatly to the wealth and influence he already possessed.
+Jacqueline d'Entremont, the widow of a brave officer killed in the civil
+wars, had long entertained an admiration, which she made no attempt to
+disguise, for the bravery and piety of the stern leader of the Huguenots.
+Possessed of very extensive estates in the dominions of the Duke of Savoy,
+she had also the qualities of mind and disposition which fitted her to
+become the wife of so upright and magnanimous a man. The proposals of
+marriage are said to have come from her relatives, nor did the lady
+herself hesitate to express the wish before her death to become the Marcia
+of the new Cato.[839] The nuptials were celebrated with great pomp at La
+Rochelle, whither Jacqueline, after having been married by proxy,[840] was
+escorted by a goodly train of Huguenot nobles. Great were the rejoicings
+of the people, but not less great the anger of the Duke of Savoy, who, as
+Jacqueline's feudal lord, claimed the right to dispose of her hand, and
+had peremptorily forbidden her to marry the admiral. The barbarous revenge
+which Emmanuel Philibert too soon found it in his power to inflict upon
+the unfortunate widow of Coligny forms the subject for one of the darkest
+pages of modern history.[841] Under no less auspicious circumstances was
+consummated the union of Coligny's daughter, Louise de Chatillon, to
+Teligny, a young noble whose skill as a diplomatist seemed to have
+destined him to hold a foremost rank among statesmen. Scarcely less
+unhappy, however, than her step-mother, Louise was to behold both her
+father and her husband perish in a single hour by the same dreadful
+catastrophe.
+
+[Sidenote: Accepts the invitation to court.]
+
+Was it foolish rashness or overweening presumption that led the admiral to
+leave the new home he had made within the strong defences of La Rochelle;
+or was he moved solely by a conscientious persuasion that he had no right
+to consider personal danger when the great interests of his country and
+his faith were at stake? The former view has not been without its
+advocates, some of whom have gloried in finding the proofs of a judicial
+blindness sent by Heaven to hasten the self-induced destruction of the
+Huguenots. A more careful consideration of all the circumstances of the
+case, illustrated by a better appreciation of Coligny's character, rather
+induces me to adopt the opposite conclusion. Certainly the noble language
+of Coligny in reply to the warnings of his friends, both now and later,
+when he was about to venture within the walls of Paris, displayed no
+unconsciousness of the perils by which he was environed. "Better, however,
+were it," he said, "to die a thousand deaths, than by undue solicitude for
+life to be the occasion of keeping up distrust throughout an entire
+kingdom."
+
+About the beginning of September, 1571, Charles and his court repaired to
+Blois, on the banks of the Loire.[842] The avowed object of the movement
+was to meet Coligny and the Protestant princes. "There are many practices
+(intrigues) to overthrow this journey," wrote Walsingham, about the middle
+of the preceding month, "but the king sheweth himself to be very resolute.
+I am most constantly assured that the king conceiveth of no subject that
+he hath, better than of the admiral, and great hope there is that the king
+will use him in matters of greatest trust; for of himself he beginneth to
+see the insufficiency of others--some, for that they are more addicted to
+others than to himself; others, for that they are more Spanish than
+French, or else given more to private pleasures than public. There is none
+of any account within this realm, whose as well imperfections as virtues,
+he knoweth not. Those that do love him, do lament that he is so much given
+to pleasure: they hope the admiral's access unto the court will yield some
+redress in that case. Queen mother, seeing her son so well affected
+towards him, laboreth by all means to cause him to think well of her. She
+seemeth much to further the meeting."[843]
+
+[Sidenote: His honorable reception.]
+
+Nothing could surpass the honorable reception of the admiral, when, on the
+twelfth of September, he arrived with a small retinue at court in the city
+of Blois. On first coming into the royal presence, he humbly kneeled, but
+Charles graciously lifted him up, and embraced him, calling him his
+father, and protesting that he regarded this as one of the happiest days
+of his life, since he saw the war ended and tranquillity confirmed by
+Coligny's return. "You are as welcome," said he, "as any gentleman that
+has visited my court in twenty years." And in the same interview, he
+expressed his joy in words upon which subsequent events placed a sinister
+construction, but which nevertheless appear to have been uttered in good
+faith: "At last we have you with us, and you will not leave us again
+whenever you wish."[844] Nor was Catharine behind her son in affability.
+She surprised the courtiers by honoring the Huguenot leader with a kiss.
+And even Anjou, who chanced to be indisposed, received him in his
+bedchamber with a show of friendliness. More substantial tokens of favor
+followed. The same person, who, as the principal general of the rebels,
+had been attainted of treason, his castle and possessions being
+confiscated or destroyed by decree of the first parliament of France, and
+a reward of fifty thousand gold crowns being set upon his head, now
+received from the king's private purse the unsolicited gift of one hundred
+thousand livres, to make good his losses during the war. Moreover, he was
+presented with the revenues of his lately deceased brother, the Cardinal
+Odet de Chatillon, for the space of one year, and was intrusted with the
+lucrative office of guardian of the house of Laval during the minority of
+its heir. Indeed, throughout his stay at Blois, which was protracted
+through several weeks, Coligny was the favored confidant of Charles, who
+sometimes even made him preside in the royal council.[845]
+
+Moreover, it was doubtless at Coligny's suggestion that the king at this
+time wrote to the Duke of Savoy interceding for those Waldenses who in the
+recent wars had aided the French Protestants in arms, and who since their
+return to the ducal dominions had experienced severe persecution on that
+account. "I desire," he says in this letter, "to make a request of you, a
+request of no ordinary character, but as earnest as you could possibly
+receive from me--that, just as for the love of me you have treated your
+subjects in this matter with unusual rigor, so you would be pleased, for
+my sake, and by reason of my prayer and special recommendation, to receive
+them into your benign grace, and reinstate them in the possessions which
+have for this cause been confiscated." He added that he desired not only
+to exhibit to his Protestant subjects his intention to execute his edict,
+but to extend to their allies from abroad the same love and
+protection.[846]
+
+[Sidenote: Disgust of the Guises and of Alva.]
+
+These and other marks of honorable distinction shown to the acknowledged
+head of the Huguenots, must have been excessively distasteful both to the
+Guises and to the Spaniard. The former now retired from court, and left
+Charles completely in the hands of the Montmorencies and the admiral.[847]
+Earlier in the year, the Duke of Alva had met with a signal rebuff at the
+hands of the French, when, in return for the aid furnished to Charles by
+his Catholic Majesty during the late wars, he requested him to supply him
+with German reiters, to allow him to levy in France troops to serve
+against the Prince of Orange, and to detain the fleet which was said to be
+preparing for the prince at La Rochelle. The first two demands were
+peremptorily refused, while the ships, it was replied, were intended
+merely to make reprisals upon the Spaniards, who had taken some Protestant
+vessels, drowned a part of their crew in the ocean, and delivered others
+into the power of the Inquisition, and could not be interfered with.[848]
+The Spanish ambassador had borne with the offensiveness of this answer;
+but the favor with which the Huguenots were now received, and the openness
+with which the Flemish war was discussed, rendered his further stay
+impossible. It is true that the interviews of Louis of Nassau with the
+king were held with great secrecy, and that Charles even had the
+effrontery to deny that he had met the brother of Orange at all.[849] It
+was impossible to deny that Philip's subjects were despoiled by vessels
+which issued with impunity from La Rochelle. But, although the ambassador
+declared that these grievances must be redressed, or war would ensue, he
+was bluntly informed by Charles that "Philip might not look to give laws
+to France." Catharine partook of her son's indignation, the more so as she
+seems at this time to have shared in the current belief that her daughter
+Elizabeth had been poisoned by her royal husband.[850] At last, in
+November, the ambassador withdrew from court, without taking leave of the
+king, after having, in scarcely disguised contempt,[851] given away to the
+monks the silver plate which Charles had presented to him.
+
+[Sidenote: Charles gratified.]
+
+While the new policy of conciliation and toleration thus disgusted one, at
+least, of those foreign powers which had spurred on the government to
+engage in suicidal civil contests, it was at home producing the beneficent
+results hoped for by its authors. Charles himself appeared to be daily
+more convinced of its excellence. In a letter to President Du Ferrier,
+the French envoy at Constantinople, written during the admiral's stay at
+Blois, he exposed for the sultan's benefit the reasons for the mutation in
+his treatment of the Huguenots, and for the cordial reception he had given
+Coligny at his court. "You know," he said, "that this kingdom fell into
+discord and division, in which it still is involved. I forgot no
+prescription which I thought might cure it of this ulcerous wound; at one
+time trying mild remedies, at others applying the most caustic, without
+sparing my own person, or those whom nature made most dear to me.... But,
+having at length discovered that only time could alleviate the ill, and
+_that those who were at the windows were very glad to see the game played
+at my expense_,[852] I had recourse to my original plan, which was that of
+mildness; and by good advice I made my Edict of Pacification, which is the
+seal of public faith, under whose benign influence peace and quiet have
+been restored." And referring to Coligny's arrival, he added: "You know
+that experience is dearly bought and is worth much. I must therefore tell
+you that the chief result which I hoped from his coming begins already to
+develop, inasmuch as the greater part of my subjects, who lately lived in
+some distrust, have by this demonstration gained such assurance of my
+kindness and affection, that all partisan feeling and faction are visibly
+beginning to fade away."[853]
+
+[Sidenote: Proposed marriage of Henry of Navarre and the king's sister.]
+
+Besides the Flemish project, an important domestic affair engaged the
+attention of the king and his counsellors at the time of Coligny's visit.
+This was the proposed marriage of young Henry, the Prince of Bearn, and
+after his mother's death heir of the crown of Navarre, to Margaret of
+Valois, the youngest sister of Charles the Ninth. Margaret, who had lately
+entered upon her twentieth year, was a year and a half older than the
+prince.[854] In a court and a state of society where the birth of a
+daughter was the signal for the initiation of an unlimited number of
+matrimonial projects, it is not surprising that this match, among many
+others, was talked of in the very infancy of the parties, perhaps with
+little expectation that anything would ever come of it. The prince was a
+sprightly boy, and, it is said, so delighted his namesake, Henry the
+Second, that the monarch playfully asked him whether he would like to be
+his son-in-law--a question which the boy found no difficulty in answering
+in the affirmative. In fact, the matter went so far that, when the young
+Bearnese was little over three years of age, Antoine of Bourbon wrote to
+his sister, the Duchess of Nevers, with undisguised delight, of "the favor
+the king has been pleased to show me by the agreement between us for the
+marriage of Madam Margaret, his daughter, with my eldest son--a thing
+which I accept as so particular a token of his good grace, that I am now
+at rest and satisfied with what I could most ardently desire in this
+world."[855] But the boy's mother had not been inclined to accept the
+king's offer to take and educate him with his own children.[856] She was
+not very familiar with the disorders of the royal court; but she had seen
+enough to convince her that the quiet plains at the foot of the Pyrenees
+could furnish a safer school of manners and morals. More than once the
+idea of the connection between the crowns of France and Navarre was
+revived, and in 1562 Catharine bethought herself of it as a means of
+detaching the unfortunate Antoine from the triumvirs, whose cause he had
+espoused with such strange infatuation.[857] But other plans soon
+diverted the ambitious mind of the Italian queen. Moreover, the civil wars
+between Protestants and Roman Catholics made the marriage of the daughter
+of the "Very Christian King" to the son of the most obstinate Huguenot in
+France appear to be out of the range of propriety or likelihood. Meantime,
+Margaret's union with Sebastian of Portugal was seriously discussed.[858]
+The tiresome negotiations ended in January, 1571, with a haughty refusal
+of her hand, dictated, as we have seen, by Philip himself. A few weeks
+later, as Margaret informs us in her Memoires--which may generally be
+credited, except where the fair author's love affairs are concerned--the
+Prince of Navarre began again to be mentioned as an available candidate
+for her hand. She expressly states that it was from the Montmorencies that
+the first suggestion came[859]--that is, from Francois de Montmorency, the
+constable's oldest son. This nobleman, while he had inherited a great part
+of his father's influence, as the head of one of the most honorable feudal
+families in France, having its seat in the very neighborhood of the
+capital, had ranged himself with the party opposed to that with which Anne
+had been identified, and, although in outward profession a Roman Catholic,
+was in full sympathy with the liberal political views of his cousin,
+Admiral Coligny. This fact effectually disposes of the story that the
+marriage was proposed, however much it may subsequently have been
+entertained, as a trap to ensnare the Huguenots, thus thrown off their
+guard.
+
+Marshal Biron, another statesman of the same type, was the messenger to
+carry the royal proposals to La Rochelle. He pictured to the Queen of
+Navarre in glowing colors the advantages that would flow from this
+alliance, the strength it would impart to the friends of mutual
+toleration, the consternation and dismay it would carry into the camp of
+the enemy. At the same time he declared that Charles the Ninth felt
+confident that, although he had not as yet obtained from the Pope the
+dispensation which the relationship subsisting between the parties, as
+well as their religious differences, rendered necessary, Pius the Fifth
+would ultimately place no obstacle in the way. Jeanne d'Albret gratefully
+acknowledged the honor offered by the king to her son, but, before
+accepting it, professed herself compelled to consult her spiritual
+advisers respecting the question whether such a marriage might in good
+conscience be entered into by a member of the reformed church.[860] As for
+Margaret herself, she gives us in her Memoires little light as to the
+state of her own feelings at this time. If we may imagine her so
+indifferent, she demurely expressed her acquiescence in whatever her
+mother might decide, but begged her to remember that "she was very
+Catholic," and that "she would be very sorry to marry any one who was not
+of her religion."[861] A few months later, however, when the prospects of
+the marriage became less bright, because of the difficulties arising from
+religion, it would seem that, with a perversity not altogether
+unexampled, Margaret became more anxious to have it consummated. At least,
+Francis Walsingham writes to Lord Burleigh: "The gentlewoman, being most
+desirous thereof, falleth to reading of the Bible, and to the use of the
+prayers used by them of the religion."[862]
+
+[Sidenote: The Anjou match abandoned.]
+
+Meanwhile, the project of a marriage between Elizabeth and Anjou had, as
+we have seen, been virtually abandoned. The matter of religion was the
+ostensible stumbling-block; it can scarcely have been the real difficulty
+on either side. As to Anjou, the sincerity of his religious convictions is
+certainly not above suspicion. But he was the head of a party in his
+brother's kingdom, a party that professed unalterable devotion to the
+"Holy See" and the old faith. If the eternal rewards of his fidelity to
+the papacy were at all problematical, there was no doubt whatever in his
+mind of the advantage of so powerful support as that which the
+ecclesiastics of France could give him. He was resolved not to throw away
+this advantage by openly agreeing to renounce all exercise of his own
+religion in England, and this, too, without the certainty that the
+concession would secure to him the hand of the queen. And, unfortunately,
+it was impossible for him to gain this certainty. Elizabeth was already
+pretty well understood. Her fancies and freaks it was beyond the power of
+the most astute of her ministers to predict or to comprehend. If the
+barrier of religion were demolished, there was no possibility of telling
+what more formidable works might be unmasked. And so Henry, rather more
+sensible upon this point than even Catharine and Charles, who would have
+had him shrink from no concessions, made a virtue of necessity, definitely
+withdrew from competition for the hand of a woman for whose personal
+appearance it was impossible for him to entertain any admiration; whose
+moral character, he had often been told and he more than half suspected,
+was bad;[863] and told his friends, and probably believed, that he had
+had a narrow escape. The queen, on the other hand, was perhaps not
+conscious of insincerity of purpose. She must marry, if not from
+inclination, for protection's sake--the protection of her subjects and
+herself--so all the world told her; and a marriage that would secure to
+England the support of France against Spain was the best. But that she
+sought excuses for not taking the Duke of Anjou is evident, even though
+she strove to make it appear to others, as well as to herself, that the
+refusal came at last from him.[864] And she had her advisers--subjects who
+in secret aspired to her hand, or others--who, in an underhand way,
+stimulated her aversion to Henry. It is not unlikely that the Earl of
+Leicester, despite his ardent protestations of zealous support of the
+match, was the most insidious of its opponents. "While 'the poor
+Huguenots' were telling Walsingham in tears that an affront from England
+would bring back the Guises, and end in a massacre of themselves,
+Leicester was working privately upon the queen, who was but too willing to
+listen to him, feeding her through the ladies of the bedchamber with
+stories that Anjou was infected with a loathsome disease, and assisting
+his Penelope to unravel at night the web which she had woven under Cecil's
+direction in the day."[865]
+
+[Sidenote: The praise of Alencon.]
+
+So the negotiation of a marriage between Queen Elizabeth and the Duke of
+Anjou, after being virtually dead for about a half-year, breathed its last
+in January, 1572. But the full accord between the two kingdoms was too
+important to the interests of both, and the opportunity of obtaining a
+crown for one of her sons too precious in the eye of Catharine.
+Accordingly the discussion of the terms of the treaty of amity was pressed
+with still greater zeal, while the French envoy to England was instructed
+to offer Alencon to Elizabeth in place of his brother. And now were the
+wits of the statesmen on both sides of the channel exercised to find good
+reasons why the match would be no incongruous one. Unfortunately, Alencon,
+as already stated, was short even for his age; but this was no insuperable
+obstacle. "Nay," said Catharine de' Medici to Sir Thomas Smith, when she
+was sounding him respecting his mistress's disposition, "he is not so
+little; he is so high as you, or very near." "For that matter, madam,"
+replied Smith, "I for my part make small account, if the queen's majestie
+can fancie him. For _Pipinus Brevis_, who married _Bertha_, the King of
+Almain's daughter, was so little to her, that he is standing in
+Aquisgrave, or Moguerre, a church in Almain, she taking him by the hand,
+and his head not reaching to her girdle; and yet he had by her Charlemain,
+the great Emperor and King of France, which is reported to be almost a
+giant's stature."[866] It was not so easy to dispose of the disparity in
+years,[867] and perhaps still less of Alencon's disfigurement by
+small-pox; for that unlucky prince added this to the long catalogue of his
+misfortunes. The course of the treaty for mutual defence was, happily,
+somewhat smoother than that of the matchmaking. On the eighteenth of April
+the treaty was formally concluded,[868] and shortly after, Marshal
+Montmorency and M. de Foix were despatched to administer the oath to Queen
+Elizabeth. This solemn ceremony was performed on Sunday, the fifteenth of
+June. The deputies were received with every mark of distinction, and the
+marshal was publicly presented by the queen with the insignia of the
+Order of the Garter.[869] The commission of the French envoys instructed
+them to press upon Elizabeth the Alencon marriage as a powerful means of
+cementing the alliance; and it empowered them to expend money to the
+extent of ten or twelve thousand crowns in buying the consent of those
+lords who had hitherto opposed the union. The Earl of Leicester, whose
+straightforwardness may have been suspected, was to be tempted by the
+special offer of some French heiress in marriage, the name of Mademoiselle
+de Bourbon being suggested.[870] But the marriage was not destined to be
+accomplished, although the negotiations were kept up until the very time
+of the massacre, and Elizabeth sent to Catharine de' Medici her hearty
+acknowledgment of the honor she had done her _in offering her all her sons
+successively_.[871] At the very moment when the fearful blow fell which
+was to render any such marriage impossible, Catharine was planning and
+proposing an interview between Elizabeth on the one side, and herself and
+Alencon on the other. That the dignity of neither party might be
+compromised, it was suggested that the meeting might take place some calm
+day on the water between Dover and Boulogne.[872] Elizabeth had
+reconsidered her partial refusal, and encouraged the project; the nobles,
+the ladies of the court, the council, all favored it; and in a letter
+written four days after the streets of Paris flowed with blood, but before
+the appalling intelligence had reached him, the French ambassador wrote to
+Catharine: "All who are well affected cry to us, 'Let my Lord the Duke
+come!'"[873]
+
+[Sidenote: Pope Pius the Fifth alarmed.]
+
+[Sidenote: The Cardinal of Alessandria sent to Paris.]
+
+[Sidenote: The king's assurances.]
+
+It cannot be supposed that such a leaning could be manifested toward the
+Huguenot party, and such amity concluded with the Protestant kingdom of
+England, without arousing grave solicitude on the part of the Pope and
+other Roman Catholic sovereigns of Europe. Pius the Fifth determined, if
+possible, to deter Charles from permitting the hateful marriage between
+his sister and the heretical Prince of Navarre. He therefore promptly
+despatched his nephew, the Cardinal of Alessandria,[874] first to
+Sebastian of Portugal, whom he found no great difficulty in persuading
+again to entertain the project of a marriage with Margaret of Valois, and
+thence, with the utmost haste, to the court of Charles the Ninth.[875] The
+legate, when admitted to an audience, unfolded at great length the
+grievances of the pontiff--the mission of a heretic, formerly a bishop, as
+envoy to Constantinople, the rumored opposition of the king to the Holy
+League against the Turk, but especially the contemplated nuptials of a
+daughter of France with the son of Jeanne d'Albret. Charles replied to
+these charges in the most politic manner. He prayed that the earth might
+open and swallow him up, rather than that he should stand in the way of so
+illustrious and holy league as that against the infidel. As to his zeal
+for the Christian faith, he demonstrated it--albeit some might object that
+the fraternal affection which was reported to subsist between the parties
+hardly rendered this argument convincing--by the fact of his having
+exposed, in its defence, his dearest brother, the Duke of Anjou, to all
+the perils of war. By civil war the resources of his kingdom had been so
+weakened that they barely sufficed for its protection. He justified the
+Navarrese marriage by alleging the remarkable traits which made Henry
+superior to any other prince of the Bourbon family, and by the great
+benefit which religion would gain from his conversion. In short, Charles
+was profuse in protestations of his sincere determination to maintain the
+Catholic faith; and, drawing a valuable diamond ring from his finger, he
+presented it to the legate as a pledge, he said, of his unalterable
+fidelity to the Holy See, and a token that he would more than redeem his
+promises. The cardinal legate, however, declined to receive the gift,
+saying that he was amply satisfied with the plighted word of so great a
+king, a security more firm than any other pledge that could be given to
+him.[876] Such seem to have been the assurances given by Charles on this
+celebrated occasion, vague and indefinite, but calculated to allay to a
+certain extent the anxiety of the head of the papal church.[877] There is
+good reason to believe that the king's intention of fulfilling them, not
+to say his plan for doing so, was equally undefined; although, so far as
+his own faith was concerned, he had no thought of abandoning the church of
+his fathers. The expressions by means of which Charles is made to point
+with unmistakable clearness to a contemplated massacre,[878] of which,
+however the case may stand with respect to his mother, it is all but
+certain that he had at this time no idea, can only be regarded as fabulous
+additions of which the earliest disseminators of the story were altogether
+ignorant. The fact that the cardinal legate's rejection of the ring was
+publicly known[879] seems to be a sufficient proof that it was offered
+simply as a pledge of the king's general fidelity to the Holy See, not of
+his intention to violate his edict and murder his Protestant subjects. The
+government made the attempt in like manner to quiet the people, whom even
+the smallest amount of concession and favor to the Huguenots rendered
+suspicious; and the words uttered for this purpose were often so
+flattering to the Roman Catholics, that, in the light of subsequent
+events, they seem to have a reference to acts of treachery to which they
+were not intended to apply.
+
+[Sidenote: Jeanne d'Albret becomes more favorable to her son's marriage.]
+
+The doubt propounded by Jeanne d'Albret to the reformed ministers,
+respecting the lawfulness of a mixed marriage, having been satisfactorily
+answered, and the devout queen being convinced that the union of Henry and
+Margaret would rather tend to advance the cause to which she subordinated
+all her personal interests, than retard it by casting reproach upon it,
+the project was more warmly entertained on both sides. Yet the subject was
+not without serious difficulty. Of this the religious question was the
+great cause. To the English ambassadors, Walsingham and Smith, Jeanne
+declared (on the fourth of March, 1572) in her own forcible language,
+"that now she had the wolf by the ears, for that, in concluding or not
+concluding the marriage, she saw danger every way; and that no matter
+(though she had dealt in matters of consequence) did so much trouble her
+as this, for that she could not tell how to resolve." She could neither
+bring herself to consent that her son with his bride should reside at the
+royal court without any exercise of his own religion--a course which would
+not only tend to make him an atheist, but cut off all hope of the
+conversion of his wife--nor that Margaret of Valois should be guaranteed
+the permission to have mass celebrated whenever she came into Jeanne's own
+domains in Bearn, a district which the queen "had cleansed of all
+idolatry." For Margaret would by her example undo much of that which had
+been so assiduously labored for, and the Roman Catholics who had remained
+would become "more unwilling to hear the Gospel, they having a staff to
+lean to."[880]
+
+[Sidenote: Her solicitude.]
+
+It was this uncertainty about Margaret's course, and the consequent gain
+or loss to the Protestant faith, that rendered it almost impossible for
+Jeanne d'Albret to master her anxiety. "In view," she wrote to her son,
+"of Margaret's judgment and the credit she enjoys with the queen her
+mother and the king and her brothers, if she embrace 'the religion,' I can
+say that we are the most happy people in the world, and not only our house
+but all the kingdom of France will share in this happiness.... If she
+remain obstinate in her religion, being devoted to it, as she is said to
+be, it cannot be but that this marriage will prove the ruin, first, of our
+friends and our lands, and such a support to the papists that, with the
+good-will the queen mother bears us, we shall be ruined with the churches
+of France." It would almost seem that a prophetic glimpse of the future
+had been accorded to the Queen of Navarre. "My son, if ever you prayed
+God, do so now, I beg you, as I pray without ceasing, that He may assist
+me in this negotiation, and that this marriage may not be made in His
+anger for our punishment, but in His mercy for His own glory and our
+quiet."[881]
+
+But there were other grounds for solicitude. Catharine de' Medici was the
+same deceitful woman she had always been. She would not allow Jeanne
+d'Albret to see either Charles or Margaret, save in her presence. She
+misrepresented the queen's words, and, when called to an account, denied
+the report with the greatest effrontery. She destroyed all the hopes
+Jeanne had entertained of frank discussion.
+
+[Sidenote: The Queen of Navarre is treated with tantalizing insincerity.]
+
+"You have great reason to pity me," the Queen of Navarre wrote to her
+faithful subject in Bearn, "for never was I so disdainfully treated at
+court as I now am.... Everything that had been announced to me is changed.
+They wish to destroy all the hopes with which they brought me."[882]
+Catharine showed no shame when detected in open falsehood. She told Jeanne
+d'Albret that her son's governor had given her reason to expect that Henry
+would consent to be married by proxy according to the Romish ceremonial.
+But when she was hard pressed and saw that Jeanne did not believe her, she
+coolly rejoined: "Well, at any rate, he told me something." "I am quite
+sure of it, madam, but it was something that did not approach that!"
+"Thereupon," writes Jeanne in despair, "she burst out laughing; for,
+observe, she never speaks to me without trifling."[883]
+
+[Sidenote: She is shocked at the morals of the court.]
+
+But it was particularly the abominable immorality of the royal court that
+alarmed the Queen of Navarre for the safety of her only son, should he be
+called to sojourn there. The lady Margaret, she wrote--and her words
+deserve the more notice on account of the infamy into which the life as
+yet apparently so guileless was to lead--"is handsome, modest, and
+graceful; but nurtured in the most wicked and corrupt society that ever
+was. I have not seen a person who does not show the effects of it. Your
+cousin, the marquise, is so changed in consequence of it, that there is no
+appearance of religion, save that she does not go to mass; for, as for her
+mode of life, excepting idolatry, she acts like the papists, and my sister
+the princess still worse.... I would not for the world that you were here
+to live. It is on this account that I want you to marry, and your wife and
+you to come out of this corruption; for although I believed it to be very
+great, I find it still greater. Here it is not the men that solicit the
+women, but the women the men. Were you here, you would never escape but by
+a remarkable exercise of God's mercy.... I abide by my first opinion, that
+you must return to Bearn. My son, you can but have judged from my former
+letters, that they only try to separate you from God and from me; you will
+come to the same conclusion from this last, as well as form some idea
+respecting the anxiety I am in on your account. I beg you to pray
+earnestly to God; for you have great need of His help at all times, and
+above all at this time. I pray to Him that you may obtain it, that He may
+give you, my son, all your desires."[884]
+
+[Sidenote: Death of Jeanne d'Albret, June 9, 1572.]
+
+Such were the anxieties of the Queen of Navarre in behalf of a son whom
+she had carefully reared, hoping to see in him a pillar of the Protestant
+faith. She was to be spared the sight both of those scenes in his life
+which might have flushed her cheek with pride, and of other scenes which
+would have caused her to blush with shame. At length the last difficulties
+in the way of Henry of Navarre's marriage, so far as the court and the
+queen were concerned, were removed.[885] Charles and Catharine no longer
+insisted that Margaret should be allowed the mass when in Bearn; while
+Jeanne reluctantly abandoned her objections to the celebration of the
+marriage ceremony in the city of Paris. Accordingly, about the middle of
+May the Queen of Navarre left Blois and came to the capital for the
+purpose of devoting her attention to the final arrangements for the
+wedding. She had not, however, been long in Paris before she fell sick of
+a violent fever, to which it became evident that she must succumb. We are
+told by a writer who regards this as a manifest provocation of Heaven,
+that one of her last acts before her sudden illness had been a visit to
+the Louvre to petition the king that, on the approaching festival of
+Corpus Christi (Fete-Dieu), the "idol," as she styled the wafer, might not
+be borne in solemn procession past the house in which she lodged; and that
+the king had granted her request.[886] During the short interval before
+her death she exhibited the same devotion as previously to the purer
+Christianity she had embraced, mingled with affectionate solicitude for
+her son and daughter, so soon to be left orphans. Her constancy and
+fortitude proved her worthy of all the eulogies that were lavished upon
+her.[887] On Monday, the ninth of June, she died, sincerely mourned by the
+Huguenots, who felt that in her they had lost one of their most able and
+efficient supports, the weakness of whose sex had not made her inferior to
+the most active and resolute man of the party. Even Catharine de' Medici,
+who had hated her with all her cowardly heart, made some show of admiring
+her virtues, now that she was no longer formidable and her straightforward
+policy had ceased to thwart the underhanded and shifting diplomacy in
+which the queen mother delighted. Yet the report gained currency that
+Jeanne had been poisoned at Catharine's instigation. She had, it was said,
+bought gloves of Monsieur Rene, the queen mother's perfumer[888]--a man
+who boasted of his acquaintance with the Italian art of poisoning--and had
+almost instantly felt the effects of some subtle powder with which they
+were impregnated. To contradict this and other sinister stories, the king
+ordered an examination of her remains to be made; but no corroborative
+evidence was discovered. It is true that the physicians are said to have
+avoided, ostensibly through motives of humanity, any dissection of the
+brain, where alone the evidence could have been found.[889] Be this as it
+may, the charge of poisoning is met so uniformly in the literature of the
+sixteenth century, on occasion of every sudden death, that the most
+credulous reader becomes sceptical as to its truth, and prefers to indulge
+the hope that perhaps the age may not have been quite so bad as it was
+represented by contemporaries.
+
+The Prince of Bearn now became King of Navarre; and, as the court went
+into mourning for the deceased queen, his nuptials with Margaret of Valois
+were deferred until the month of August.
+
+[Sidenote: Coligny and the boy king.]
+
+Admiral Coligny, instead of returning to La Rochelle after his friendly
+reception at the court at Blois, had gone to Chatillon, where his ruined
+country-seat and devastated plantations had great need of his
+presence.[890] Here he was soon afterward joined by his wife, travelling
+from La Rochelle with a special safe-conduct from the king, the preamble
+of which declared Charles's will and intention to retain Coligny near his
+own person, "in order to make use of him in his most grave and important
+affairs, as a worthy minister, whose virtue is sufficiently known and
+tried."[891] Coligny was not left long in his rural retirement. Charles
+expressed, and probably felt, profound disgust with his former advisers,
+and knew not whom to trust. On one occasion, about this time, he held a
+conversation with Teligny respecting the Flemish war. Teligny had just
+entreated his Majesty not to mention to the queen mother the details into
+which he entered--a promise which Charles readily gave, and swore with his
+ordinary profanity to observe. And then the poor young king, with a
+desperation which must enlist our sympathy in his behalf, undertook to
+explain to Coligny's son-in-law his own solitude in the midst of a
+crowded court. There was no one, he said, upon whom he could rely for
+sound counsel, or for the execution of his plans. Tavannes was prudent,
+indeed; but, having been Anjou's lieutenant, and almost the author of his
+victories, would oppose a war that threatened to obscure his laurels.
+Vieilleville was wedded to his cups. Cosse was avaricious, and would sell
+all his friends for ten crowns. Montmorency alone was good and
+trustworthy, but so given to the pleasures of the chase that he would be
+sure to be absent at the very moment his help was indispensable.[892] It
+is not strange, under these circumstances, that Charles should have turned
+with sincere respect, and almost with a kind of affection, to that stern
+old Huguenot warrior, upright, honorable, pious, a master of the art of
+war, never more to be dreaded than after the reverses which he accepted as
+lessons from a Father's hands.
+
+As for Coligny himself, his task was not one of his own seeking. But he
+pitied from his heart the boy-king--still more boyish in character than in
+years--as he pitied and loved France. Above all, he was unwilling to omit
+anything that might be vitally important for the progress of the Gospel in
+his native land and abroad. His eyes were not blind to his danger. When,
+at the king's request, he came to Paris, he received letters of
+remonstrance for his imprudence, from all parts of France. He was reminded
+that other monarchs before Charles had broken their pledges. Huss had been
+burned at Constance notwithstanding the emperor's safe conduct, and the
+maxim that no faith need be kept with heretics had obtained a mournful
+currency.[893] To these warnings Admiral Coligny replied at one moment
+with some annoyance, indignant that his young sovereign should be so
+suspected; at another, with more calmness, magnanimously dismissing all
+solicitude for himself in comparison with the great ends he had in view.
+When he was urged to consider that other Huguenots, less hated by the
+papists than he was, had been treacherously assassinated--as was the
+general opinion then--Andelot, Cardinal Chatillon, and lately the Queen of
+Navarre--his reply was still the same: "I am well aware that it is against
+me principally that the enmity is directed. And yet how great a misfortune
+will it be for France, if, for the sake of my individual preservation, she
+must be kept in perpetual alarm and be plunged on every occasion into new
+troubles! Or, what benefit will it be to me to live thus in continual
+distrust of the king? If my prince wishes to slay me, he can accomplish
+his will in any part of the realm. As a royal officer, I cannot in honor
+refuse to comply with the summons of the king, meantime committing myself
+to the providence of Him who holds in his hand the hearts of kings and
+princes, and has numbered my years--nay, the very hairs of my head. If I
+succeed in going in arms to the Low Countries, I hope that I may do signal
+service, and change hatred into good-will. But, if I fall there, at least
+the enmity against me will cease, and perhaps men will live in peace,
+without its being needful to set a whole world in commotion for the
+protection of the life of a single man."[894]
+
+[Sidenote: The dispensation delayed.]
+
+[Sidenote: The king's earnestness.]
+
+The juncture was critical, although the future still looked auspicious.
+Charles was resolved that the marriage of his sister should go forward,
+and seemed almost as resolute, when he had thus secured peace at home
+between Papist and Huguenot, to embark in a war against Spain--the natural
+enemy of French repose and greatness. Gregory the Thirteenth--for Pius the
+Fifth had died on the first of May, 1572, although his maxims and his
+counsels were unhappily still alive, and endowed with a mischievous
+activity--refused to grant the dispensation for the marriage except on
+impossible conditions.[895] But Charles was too impatient to await his
+caprice. "My dear aunt," he once said to the Queen of Navarre, a short
+time before her death, "I honor you more than the Pope, and I love my
+sister more than I fear him. I am not indeed a Huguenot, but neither am I
+a blockhead; and if the Pope play the fool too much, I will myself take
+Margot," his common nickname for his sister, "by the hand, and give her
+away in marriage in full preche."[896]
+
+Charles was apparently equally in earnest in his intention to maintain his
+edict for the advantage of the Huguenots. Accordingly he published a new
+declaration to this effect, and sent it to his governors, accompanied with
+a letter expressive of his great gratification that the spirit of distrust
+was everywhere giving place to confidence, a proof of which was to be
+found in the recent restitution of the four cities of La Rochelle,
+Montauban, La Charite, and Cognac, by those in whose hands they were
+intrusted by the edict of St. Germain.[897] And Charles's correspondence
+shows still further that the projects urged by Coligny, Louis of Nassau,
+and other prominent patriots, had made a deep impression upon his
+imagination, now that for the first time the prospect of a truly noble
+campaign opened before him. In carrying out the extensive plan against the
+Spanish king, it was indispensable--so thought the wisest politicians of
+the time--to secure the co-operation of the Turk. The extent of Philip's
+dominions in the Old and the New World, the prestige of his successes, the
+enormous treasure he was said to derive yearly from his colonial
+establishments in the Indies, all gave him a reputation for power which a
+more critical examination would have dissipated; but the time for this had
+not yet arrived. Consequently Charles had sent his ambassador to
+Constantinople, intending through him to conclude an alliance offensive
+and defensive with the Moslems. And his declarations to the
+half-Protestant prelate were explicit enough: "All my humors conspire to
+make me oppose the greatness of the Spaniards, and I am deliberating how I
+may therein conduct myself the most skilfully that I can."[898] "I have
+concluded a league with the Queen of England--a circumstance which, with
+the understanding I have with the Princes of Germany, puts the Spaniards
+in a wonderful jealousy."[899] Not only so, but he instructs the
+ambassador to inform the Grand Seignior that he has a large number of
+vessels ready, with twelve or fifteen thousand troops about to embark,
+ostensibly to protect his own harbors, "but in reality intended to keep
+the Catholic king uneasy, and to give boldness to those Beggars of the
+Netherlands to bestir themselves and form such enterprises as they already
+have done."[900] If these assurances had been addressed to a Protestant
+prince, it would readily be comprehended that they might have had for
+their object to lull his co-religionists into a fatal security. But, as
+they were intended only for a Mohammedan ruler, I can see no room for the
+suspicion that Charles was at this time animated by anything else than an
+unfeigned desire to realize the plan of Coligny, of a confederacy that
+should shatter the much-vaunted empire of Philip the Second.
+
+[Sidenote: Mons and Valenciennes captured.]
+
+An event now occurred which for a time raised high the hopes of the French
+Huguenots. This was the capture of the important cities of Mons and
+Valenciennes. To Count Louis of Nassau the credit of this bold and
+successful stroke was due. With the secret connivance of Charles, he had
+recruited in France a body of five hundred horsemen and a thousand foot
+soldiers, among whom, as was natural, the Huguenot element predominated.
+With these he now set foot again in the Netherlands. The success that
+first attended his enterprise was owing, however, rather to a well
+executed trick than to any practical exhibition of generalship; for the
+gates of Mons were opened from within by a party that had entered on the
+previous day in the disguise of wine-merchants.[901] Nevertheless the
+capture of Mons, the capital of the province of Hainault (on Saturday, the
+twenty-fourth of May), was so brilliant an exploit, coming as it did close
+upon the heels of other reverses of the Duke of Alva, that the French
+Huguenots and all who sympathized with them may be pardoned for having
+indulged even in somewhat extravagant demonstrations of joy. They seem to
+have believed that it was pretty nearly over with that hated instrument of
+Spanish tyranny. They fancied that, with his five hundred horse, Louis
+might penetrate the country by a rapid movement, and either take Alva
+prisoner, or, if the duke should retire to Antwerp, raise the whole
+country in revolt.[902]
+
+[Sidenote: Catharine's indecision.]
+
+[Sidenote: Queen Elizabeth inspires no confidence.]
+
+For the next two months the Huguenot leaders were indefatigable in their
+efforts to persuade Charles to take open and decided ground against Spain;
+but they were met by Anjou and the party in his interest with arguments
+drawn from the difficulty or injustice of the undertaking, and by the
+suggestion that Elizabeth, as was her wont, would be likely to withdraw so
+soon as she saw France once engaged in war with her powerful neighbor, and
+to use Charles's embarrassments as a means of securing private advantages.
+In point of fact, Charles was personally unwilling to commit himself until
+sure of England's support. Meanwhile, Catharine, from whose Argus-eyed
+inspection nothing that was debated in the royal presence, openly or
+secretly, ever escaped notice, awaited with her accustomed irresolution
+Elizabeth's decision, before herself deciding whether to throw her
+influence into the scale with Coligny (of whose growing favor with her son
+she had begun to entertain some suspicion), or with Anjou and the
+Spaniards. But Elizabeth was as ever a riddle, not only to her allies, but
+even to her most confidential advisers. Certainly she was no friend to
+Philip and Alva; yet she would not abruptly enter into war against them.
+She could not help seeing that the interests of her person and of her
+kingdom, to say nothing of her Protestant faith, were bound up in the
+success of the Prince of Orange, who was about to cross the Rhine with
+twenty-five thousand Germans for the relief of Mons, now invested by Alva.
+For the duke wisely regarded the recapture of this place as the first step
+in extricating himself from his present embarrassments. In such a strife
+as that upon which Elizabeth must before long enter, whether with or
+without her consent, the cordial alliance of France would be valuable
+beyond computation. And yet, with a fatal perversity, she dallied with the
+proposal of marriage. One day she would not hear of Alencon, alleging that
+his age and personal blemishes placed the matter out of all consideration.
+On another she gave hopes, and agreed to take a month's
+consideration.[903] Thus she tantalized her suitor. Thus she convinced the
+cunning Italian woman who, although she made no present show of holding
+the reins of power in France, was ready at any moment to resume them, that
+there was no reliance to be placed on England's promise of support against
+Philip.[904]
+
+[Sidenote: Rout of Genlis.]
+
+The golden opportunity was in truth fast slipping away. Alva had struck
+promptly at that opponent whose thrust was likely to be most deadly. Mons
+must soon fall. A French Huguenot force, under command of Jean de Hangest,
+Sieur de Genlis, was sent forward to relieve it. But the Frenchman was no
+match for the cooler prudence of his antagonist,[905] and suffered
+himself, on the march, to be surprised (on the nineteenth of July) and
+taken prisoner by Don Frederick of Toledo and Chiappin Vitelli. Of his
+army, barely one hundred foot soldiers found their way into the
+beleaguered town. Twelve hundred were killed on the field of
+battle--almost in sight of Mons--and a much larger number butchered by the
+peasantry of the neighborhood.[906] A handful of officers and men,
+scarcely more fortunate, shared the captivity of their commander, and were
+destined to have their fortunes depend for a considerable time upon the
+fluctuating interests of two unprincipled courts.[907]
+
+The rout of Genlis was not in itself a decisive event. While Coligny could
+bring forward a far more numerous army, and Orange was in command of a
+considerable German force, the loss of this small detachment was but one
+of those many reverses that are to be looked for in every war. But,
+happening under the peculiar circumstances of the hour, it was invested
+with a consequence disproportioned to its real importance. The fate of the
+French Huguenots was quivering in the balance. The papal party was known
+to be bitterly opposed to the war against Spain, and to be merely awaiting
+an opportunity to strike a deadly blow at the heretics whom the royal
+edict still protected. Catharine was undecided; but, with her, indecision
+was the ordinary prelude to the sudden adoption of some one of many
+conflicting projects, which had been long brooded over, but between which
+the choice was, in the end, the result rather of accident, caprice, or
+temporary impressions, than of calm deliberation.
+
+[Sidenote: It determines Catharine to take the Spanish side.]
+
+[Sidenote: Loss of the golden opportunity.]
+
+This reverse at Mons, limited in its extent as it was, would be likely, so
+the Huguenot leaders of France foresaw--and they were not mistaken--to
+determine Catharine to take the Spanish side. With the queen mother in
+favor of Spain and intolerance, experience had taught them that there was
+little to expect from her weak son's intentions, however good they might
+be. The only ground of hope for Orange and the Netherlands, and the only
+prospect for security and religious toleration at home, lay in the success
+of the Flemish project at Paris; and of this but a single chance seemed to
+remain--in Elizabeth's finally espousing their cause with some good degree
+of resolution. "Such of the religion," wrote Walsingham to Lord Burleigh,
+inclosing the particulars of the disaster of Genlis, "as before slept in
+security, begin now to awake and to see their danger, and do therefore
+conclude that, unless this enterprise in the Low Countries have good
+success, their cause groweth desperate."[908] To the Earl of Leicester
+Walsingham was still more explicit in his warnings: "The gentlemen of the
+religion, since the late overthrow of Genlis, weighing what dependeth upon
+the Prince of Orange's overthrow, have made demonstration to the king,
+that, his enterprise lacking good success, it shall not then lie in his
+power to maintain his edict. They therefore desire him to weigh whether it
+were better to have foreign war with advantage, or inward war to the ruin
+of himself and his estate.[909] The king being not here, his answer is not
+yet received. They hope to receive some such resolution as the danger of
+the cause requireth. In the meantime, the marshal (Montmorency) desired
+me to move your lordship to deal with her Majesty to know whether she,
+upon overture to be made to the king, cannot be content to join with him
+in assistance of this poor prince." And the faithful ambassador did not
+forget to remind his mistress that the success of Philip in Flanders was
+still more dangerous for Elizabeth than for Charles.[910]
+
+[Sidenote: The admiral retains his courage.]
+
+Meantime, Admiral Coligny, although disappointed at the rout of the
+vanguard of the expedition which was to have been fitted out for the
+liberation of the Netherlands, and yet more at the coolness which it had
+occasioned among those who up to this moment had been not unfriendly, did
+not yield to despondency, but labored all the more strenuously to engage
+Charles in an undertaking fitted to call forth the nobler faculties of his
+soul, and to free him from the thraldom under narrow-minded and interested
+counsellors to which he had been subject all his life long. Even before
+Genlis's defeat (in June, 1572), the admiral had presented an extended
+paper, wherein the justice and the fair prospects of the war had been set
+forth with rare force and cogency.[911] It may be that now, under the
+influence of a sincere and unselfish devotion that took no account of
+personal risks, the admiral distinctly told his young master that he could
+never be a king in the true sense until he should emancipate himself from
+his mother's control, and until he should find, outside of France, some
+occupation for his brother Henry of Anjou, such as the vacancy of the
+Polish throne seemed to offer.[912] Such frankness would have been
+patriotic and timely, although a politician, influenced only by a regard
+for his own safety, would have regarded it as foolhardy in the extreme.
+
+[Sidenote: Charles and Catharine at Montpipeau.]
+
+This advice, promptly and faithfully reported to Catharine by the spies
+she kept around the king's person,[913] was the last drop in the cup of
+Coligny's offences. Charles, at the time of her discovery of this fact,
+was absent from court, seeking a few days' recreation at Montpipeau.
+Thither his mother, now really alarmed for the continuance of her
+influence, pursued him in precipitate haste.[914] Shutting herself up with
+him apart from his followers, she burst into tears and plied Charles with
+an artful harangue. For this woman, who had a masculine will and a heart
+as cold and devoid of pity as the most utter scepticism could make it, had
+the ability to counterfeit the feminine tenderness which she did not
+possess. "I had not thought it possible," she said amid her sobs to her
+son, who trembled like a culprit detected in his crime, "I had not thought
+it possible that, in return for my pains in rearing you--in return for my
+preservation of your crown, of which both Huguenots and Catholics were
+desirous of robbing you, and after having sacrificed myself and incurred
+such risks in your behalf, you would have been willing to make me so
+miserable a requital. You hide yourself from me, your mother, and take
+counsel of your enemies. You snatch yourself from my arms that saved you,
+in order to rest in the arms of those who wished to murder you. I know
+that you hold secret deliberations with the admiral. You desire
+inconsiderately to plunge into a war with Spain, and so to expose your
+kingdom, as well as yourself and us, a prey to 'those of the religion.'
+If I am so miserable, before compelling me to witness such a sight, give
+me permission to withdraw to my birthplace,[915] and send away your
+brother, who may well style himself unfortunate in having employed his
+life for the preservation of yours. Give him at least time to get out of
+danger and from the presence of enemies made in your service--the
+Huguenots, who do not wish for a war with Spain, but for a French war and
+a subversion of all estates, which will enable them to gain a secure
+footing."[916]
+
+[Sidenote: Rumors of Elizabeth's desertion of her allies.]
+
+Such was a portion of the queen mother's crafty speech. But there was
+another point upon which she doubtless touched, and which she used to no
+little purpose. A report had reached her from England to the effect that
+Queen Elizabeth had decided to issue a proclamation recalling the English
+who had gone to Flushing to assist the patriots. The story was false; so
+the secretary, Sir Thomas Smith, subsequently assured Walsingham.
+Elizabeth neither had done so, nor intended anything of the kind.[917] But
+it was wonderfully like the usual practice of Henry the Eighth's daughter,
+and Catharine believed it, and looked with horror at the precipice before
+which she stood. Deserted by her faithless ally, France was entering
+single-handed a contest of life or death with the world-empire of Spain.
+In fact, the English ambassador ascribed to the receipt of this
+intelligence alone both the queen mother's tears and entreaties at
+Montpipeau and the king's altered policy. "Touching Flemish matters," he
+wrote to Lord Burleigh, "the king had proceeded to an open dealing, had he
+not received advertisement out of England, that her Majesty meant to
+revoke such of her subjects as are presently in Flanders; whereupon such
+of his council here as incline to Spain, have put the queen mother in such
+a fear, that the enterprise cannot but miscarry without the assistance of
+England, as she with tears had dissuaded the king for the time, who
+otherwise was very resolute."[918]
+
+Catharine had not mistaken her power over the feeble intellect and the
+inconstant will of her son. Terrified less by the prospect of a Huguenot
+supremacy which she held forth, than by the menace of her withdrawal and
+that of Anjou, Charles, who was but too well acquainted with their cunning
+and ambition, admitted his fault in concealing his plans, and promised
+obedience for the future.[919]
+
+[Sidenote: Charles thoroughly cast down.]
+
+It was a sore disappointment to Admiral Coligny. The young king had, until
+this time, shown himself so favorable, that "commissions were granted,
+ready to have been sealed, for the levying of men in sundry provinces."
+But he had now lost all his enthusiasm, and spoke coldly of the
+enterprise.[920] Gaspard de Coligny did not, however, even now lose
+courage or forsake the post of duty to which God and his country evidently
+called him. In truth, the superiority of his mental and moral
+constitution, less evident in prosperity, now became resplendent, and
+chained the attention of every beholder. "How perplexed the admiral is,
+who foreseeth the mischief that is like to follow, if assistance come not
+from above," wrote Walsingham, full of admiration, to the Earl of
+Leicester, "your lordship may easily guess. And surely to say truth, he
+never showed greater magnanimity, nor never was better followed nor more
+honored of those of the religion than now he is, which doth not a little
+appal the enemies. In this storm he doth not give over the helm. He layeth
+before the king and his council the peril and danger of his estate, and
+though he cannot obtain what he would, yet doth he obtain somewhat from
+him."[921]
+
+[Sidenote: Coligny partially succeeds in reassuring him.]
+
+So wrote that shrewd observer, Sir Francis Walsingham, just two weeks
+before the bloody Sunday of the massacre, and eight days before the
+marriage of Navarre, little suspecting, in spite of his anxiety, the flood
+of misery which was so soon to burst upon that devoted land. To all human
+foresight there was still hope that Charles, weak, nerveless, addicted to
+pleasure, but not yet quite lost to a sense of honor, might yet be induced
+to adopt a policy which would place France among the foremost champions of
+intellectual and civil liberty, and transfer to the north of the Pyrenees
+the prosperity which the Spanish monarchs had misused and had employed
+only as an instrument of oppression and degradation. And, indeed, Coligny
+was partially successful; for the impression made upon Charles by his
+mother's complaints and menaces at Montpipeau gradually wore away, and
+again he listened with apparent interest to the manly arguments of the
+great Huguenot leader.
+
+[Sidenote: Elizabeth toys with dishonorable proposals from Netherlands.]
+
+[Sidenote: Fatal results.]
+
+Could Elizabeth at this moment have brought herself to a more noble
+course, could she for once have forgotten to "deal under hand," and help
+secretly while in public she disavowed--could she, in short, have realized
+for a single instant her responsibility as a great Protestant princess,
+and been willing to expose even her own life to peril in order to secure
+to the Reformation a chance of fair play, it might not even now have been
+too late. But what was she doing at this very moment? According to the
+admission of her own secretary, she was engaged in detaining volunteers
+from the Netherlands, on the pretext of "fearing too much disorder there
+through lack of some good head;" and "gently answering with a dilatory and
+doubtful answer" the Duke of Alva, when he demanded the revocation of the
+queen's subjects in Netherlands.[922] Was she projecting anything still
+more dishonorable? The Spanish envoy in England, Anton de Guaras, affirms
+it, in a letter of the thirtieth of June to the Duke of Alva; and we have
+no means of disproving his assertions. In his account of a private
+audience granted him by Queen Elizabeth, the ambassador writes: "She told
+me that emissaries were coming every day from Flushing to her, proposing
+to place the town in her hands. If it was for the service of his Majesty,
+and if his Majesty approved, she said that she would accept their offer.
+With the English who were already there, and with others whom she would
+send over for the purpose, it would be easy for her to take entire
+possession of the place, and she would then make it over to the Duke of
+Alva or to any one whom the duke would appoint to receive it."[923] Guaras
+can scarcely be suspected of misrepresenting the conversation upon so
+important a topic and in a confidential communication to the Spanish
+Governor of the Netherlands. The most charitable construction of
+Elizabeth's words seems to be that they were a clumsy attempt to
+propitiate the duke "with a dilatory answer," as Sir Thomas Smith somewhat
+euphemistically expresses it, and that she had no intention of making good
+her engagements. But it was a sad blunder on her part, and likely to be
+ruinous to her friends, the French Protestants. Alva was not slow in
+concluding that Elizabeth's offer was of greater value as documentary
+proof of her untrustworthy character, than as a means of recovering
+Flushing. "There is no positive proof," remarks the historian to whom we
+are indebted for an acquaintance with the letter of Guaras, "that Alva
+communicated Elizabeth's offers to the queen mother and the King of
+France, but he was more foolish than he gave the world reason to believe
+him to be if he let such a weapon lie idle in his writing-desk."[924] And
+so that inconstant, unprincipled Italian woman, on whose fickle purpose
+the fate of thousands was more completely dependent than even her
+contemporaries as yet knew, at last reached the definite persuasion that
+Elizabeth was preparing to play her false, at the very moment when Coligny
+was hurrying her son into war with Spain. Even if France should prove
+victorious, Catharine's own influence would be thrown into perpetual
+eclipse by that of the admiral and his associates. This result the queen
+mother resolved promptly to forestall, and for that purpose fell back upon
+a scheme which had probably been long floating dimly in her mind.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+ [Sidenote: Memoires de Michel de la Huguerye.]
+
+ The _Memoires inedits de Michel de la Huguerye_, of which the
+ first volume was recently published (Paris, 1877), under the
+ auspices of the National Historical Society, present some
+ interesting points, and deserve a special reference. At first
+ sight, the disclosures, with which the author tells us he was
+ favored, would seem to establish the bad faith of the court in
+ entering upon the peace of St. Germain, and the long
+ premeditation of the succeeding massacre. A closer examination
+ of the facts, assuming La Huguerye's thorough veracity, shows
+ that this is a mistake. La Huguerye may, indeed, have been
+ informed by companions on the way to Italy, who supposed him
+ to be a partisan of the Guises, that a great blow would be
+ struck at the Huguenots when the proper time arrived; and La
+ Huguerye may have been confident that he was telling the
+ truth, when, about Martinmas (November 11th), 1570, he stated
+ to De Briquemault, that "the king, seeing that he could not
+ attain his object by way of arms without greatly
+ weakening--nay, endangering his kingdom, had resolved upon
+ taking another road, by which, in a single day, he would
+ cleanse his whole state." He may have been assured, on what he
+ deemed good authority, that the Pope was in the plot, and
+ would keep the King of Spain from doing anything that might
+ interfere with the execution, and have inferred that, the
+ peace being a treacherous one, the only hope of the Huguenots
+ lay in skilfully enlisting Charles in its maintenance,
+ contrary to his original purpose. So he was confirmed in his
+ belief by the contents of the despatches of the Spanish
+ ambassador at the French court, treacherously submitted to the
+ Huguenots by an unfaithful agent of the envoy. But the former
+ statements were, at most, little better than rumors, to which
+ the circumstances of the hour gave color. The air was full of
+ dark hints; but, apparently, they had no more solid foundation
+ than the fact that, in an age abounding in perfidious schemes,
+ the Protestants had already placed themselves partially in the
+ power of their great enemies, and were likely soon to be more
+ completely in their hands. The information received by La
+ Huguerye was a very different thing from an authoritative
+ avowal of a concealed purpose made by Catharine or by Charles
+ himself. On the other hand, the assurances in the Spanish
+ despatches were just of the same general nature as others with
+ which the French government endeavored to quiet Philip, Alva,
+ and the Roman pontiff himself.
+
+ The only other peculiarity of La Huguerye to which I shall
+ allude is his studied misrepresentation of the character of
+ Jeanne d'Albret, Queen of Navarre. Contrary to the uniform
+ portraiture given by contemporaries of both religious parties,
+ she here appears as "an inconsiderate woman (femme legere),
+ with little forethought," "known to be jealous of the
+ authority of the admiral," "whom she thwarted by her authority
+ as much as was possible, at whatever cost or danger it might
+ be." She had "intermeddled with affairs in the last war,
+ unsolicited and of her own accord, not so much for conscience'
+ sake, as because of the hatred her house bore to the popes,
+ sole cause of the loss of the kingdom of Navarre, and
+ especially through jealousy of the late Prince of Conde, whom
+ she saw to be in the enjoyment of such credit, and to be so
+ well followed, that she suspected great injury might result to
+ her son in the event of his succession to the throne." She
+ was, consequently, "not very sorry" to hear of Conde's death
+ at Jarnac. Having been disappointed in securing for her son
+ the sole (nominal) command of the Huguenots, she vented her
+ vengeance upon Coligny, whom she held responsible for the
+ association of the young Conde in the leadership with his
+ cousin. From that time forward she took every opportunity to
+ cross the admiral, with the view of compelling him to retire
+ in disgust from the management of affairs. In one of the
+ speeches--Sallustian, I suspect--in which the Memoires abound,
+ Count Louis of Nassau is represented as lamenting: "It is a
+ great pity to have to do with a woman who has no other counsel
+ than her own head, which is too little and light (legere) to
+ contain so many reasons and precautions, and who is of such
+ weight in matters of so great consequence. And the mischief is
+ that she has such an aversion to the admiral through foolish
+ jealousy," etc. At last the admiral is goaded on to
+ unpardonable imprudence. In the spring of 1572 he yields to
+ the importunities of Marshal Cosse, and goes from La Rochelle
+ to the royal court at Blois: "weary of being near this
+ princess, he exposed himself to the evident peril, of which
+ he had had advices and arguments enough."
+
+ To all this misrepresentation, the remarks of La Huguerye's
+ editor, the Baron de Ruble, are a sufficient answer: "No other
+ historian of the period, Catholic or Huguenot, has accused the
+ Queen of Navarre of so much jealousy, frivolity, and spite. To
+ the calumnies of La Huguerye we should oppose the verdict
+ which every impartial judge can pronounce respecting this
+ princess, in accordance with the letters published by the
+ Marquis de Rochambeau and the testimony of contemporaries."
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[792] "La Royne et mons de Morvillier trettent eus deus seulz avecques
+eus, _ce sont aujourdhuy les grans cous_." See two important letters of
+Lorraine to his sister-in-law, the Duchess of Nemours, April 24th and May
+1, 1570, in Soldan, Geschichte d. Prot. in Frank., ii. Appendix, 593, 594,
+from MSS. of the Bibliotheque nationale.
+
+[793] "Though of late the Cardinal of Lorrain hath had access to the
+king's presence, yet is he not repaired in credit, neither dealeth he in
+government." Walsingham to Leicester, Aug. 29, 1570, Digges, Compleat
+Ambassador, p. 8.
+
+[794] Ibid., _ubi supra_. Yet it is but fair to add that Walsingham notes
+that "the great conference that is between the queen mother and the
+cardinal breedeth some doubt of some practise to impeach the same."
+
+[795] Letter of April 23, 1570, Pii Quinti Epistolae, 272.
+
+[796] Relations des Amb. Ven. (Tommaseo), ii. 110. Correro's relation is
+of 1569.
+
+[797] Baschet, La diplomatie venitienne, p. 518.
+
+[798] The only account of this striking occurrence which I have seen is
+given by Jehan de la Fosse, p. 122.
+
+[799] Walsingham and Norris to Elizabeth, Jan. 29, 1571, Digges, 24.
+
+[800] "The best ground of continuance," he writes to Leicester, "that I
+can learn, by those that can best judge, is the king's own inclination,
+which is thought sincerely to be bent that way." Jan. 28, 1571, Digges,
+28.
+
+[801] "Thus, sir, you see, for that he is not settled in religion, how he
+is carried away with worldly respects, a common misery to those of his
+calling." Ibid., 30.
+
+[802] Walsingham to Leicester, Aug. 29, 1570, Digges, 8.
+
+[803] De Thou, iv. 330-333. See Digges, 30.
+
+[804] Letter of the Queen of Navarre to the queen mother, Dec. 17, 1570,
+Rochambeau, Lettres d'Antoine de Bourbon et de Jehanne d'Albret (Paris,
+1877), 306. A few lines of this admirable paper (which is, however, much
+mutilated) may be quoted as having an almost prophetic significance: "Et
+vous diray, Madame, les larmes aus yeulx, avecq une afection pure et
+entiere que, s'il ne plaist au Roy et a vous nous aseureur nos tristes
+demandes, que je ne puis esperer qu'une treve ... en ce royaulme par ceste
+guerre siville, car nous y mourrons tous plustost que quiter nostre Dieu
+et nostre religion, laquelle nous ne pouvons tenir sans exersise, non plus
+qu'un corps ne saure vivre sans boire et manger.... Je vous en ay dit le
+seul moyen; ayes pitie de tant de sang repandu, de tant d'impietes
+commises en la ... de ceste guerre et _que vous ne pourrez bien d'un seul
+mot faire cesser_." "Et sur cella, Madame, je supliray Dieu qui tient les
+cueurs des Roys en sa main disposer celui du Roi et le vostre a mectre le
+repos en ce royaulme a sa gloire et contentement de Vos Majestes, _maugre
+le complot de M. le Cardinal de Lorrayne_, dont il a descouvert la trame a
+Villequagnon," etc.
+
+[805] Discours du massacre fait a Orange, from the Mem. de l'etat de
+France sous Charles IX., Archives curieuses, vi. 459-470; De Thou, iv.
+483.
+
+[806] Floquet, Histoire du Parlement du Normandie, iii. 87-112, whose
+account is in great part derived from the registers of the parliament and
+the archives of the Hotel de Ville of Rouen. De Thou, iv. (liv. l.) 483,
+certainly greatly underestimates the number of Protestants killed, when he
+limits it to _five_.
+
+[807] See _ante_, chapter xvi.
+
+[808] Jehan de la Fosse (Sept., 1571), 132.
+
+[809] Ibid. (Nov., 1571), 133.
+
+[810] Jehan de la Fosse (Dec., 1571), 134.
+
+[811] Agrippa d'Aubigne, ii. 4 (liv. i., c. 1); De Thou, iv. (liv. l.)
+487-489; Discours de ce qui avint touchant la Croix de Gastines (from Mem.
+de l'etat de Charles IX.), in Cimber et Danjou, Arch. cur., vi. 475, 476;
+Jehan de la Fosse, _ubi supra_. According to the recently published
+journal of La Fosse, Charles the Ninth expressed himself to the preachers
+of Paris, who had come to remonstrate with him in language which may at
+first sight appear somewhat suspicious: "attestant ledict roy vouloir
+vivre et mourir en la religion de ses predecesseurs roys, religion
+catholique et romaine, toutefois qu'il avoit fait abattre la croix pour
+certaine cause laquelle il vouloit taire et avoir faict plusieurs choses
+contre sa conscience, toutefois par contrainte a cause du temps, et
+supplioit les predicateurs n'avoir mauvaise opinion de luy" (pp. 138,
+139). There is good reason, however, to believe that the secret reason
+which the king was unwilling to name was not a contemplated massacre of
+the Protestants, but rather the Navarrese and English marriages, and the
+war with Spain in the Netherlands.
+
+[812] Walsingham to Burleigh, Dec. 7, 1571, Digges, p. 151. "Marshal
+Montmorency repaired to this town the third of this moneth accompanied
+with 300 horse. The next day after his arrival he and the Marshal de Coss
+conferred with the chief of this town about the plucking down of the
+cross, which was resolved on, and the same put in execution, the masons
+employed in that behalf being guarded by certain harquebusiers."
+
+[813] Queen Elizabeth was born September 7, 1533; Henry was born in
+September, 1551 (the day is variously given as the 18th, 19th, and 21st),
+and was just nineteen.
+
+[814] Letter of Catharine to La Mothe Fenelon, Oct. 20, 1570,
+Correspondance diplomatique, vii. 143-146.
+
+[815] Despatch of La Mothe Fenelon, Dec. 29, 1570. Ibid., vol. iii. 418,
+419.
+
+[816] And with a freedom which might be mistaken for Arcadian simplicity,
+did we not know that innocence was no characteristic of either court in
+that age. "J'en cognoissoys ung," he told her, "qui estoit nay a tant de
+sortes de vertu, qu'il ne failloit doubter qu'elle n'en fut fort honnoree
+et singulierement bien aymee, et dont j'espererois qu'au bout de neuf mois
+apres, elle se trouveroit mere d'ung beau filz," etc. La Mothe Fenelon,
+iii. 439, 454, 455.
+
+[817] Despatch to Cecil, Jan. 28, 1571, Digges, 26.
+
+[818] Ibid., 27.
+
+[819] Digges, 27.
+
+[820] Catharine to La Mothe Fenelon, Feb. 2, 1571, Corresp. diplom., vii.
+179; and Walsingham to Cecil, Feb. 18, 1571, Digges, 43.
+
+[821] Catharine, _ubi supra_.
+
+[822] La Mothe Fenelon, March 6, 1571, ibid., iv. 11, 12. The ambassador
+exhibits his own incredulity respecting the stories circulated to the
+queen's disadvantage.
+
+[823] To La Mothe Fenelon, Feb. 18, 1571, ibid., vii. 183.
+
+[824] To the same, March 2, 1571, ibid., vii. 190.
+
+[825] Walsingham to Burleigh, May 25, 1571, Digges, 101.
+
+[826] Digges, 96.
+
+[827] Ibid., 55.
+
+[828] "So it doth appear, if he would omit that demand, and put it in
+silence, yet will her Majestie straitly capitulate with him, that he shall
+in no way demand it hereafter at her hands. Which scruple, I believe, will
+utterly break off the matter; wherefore I am in small hope that any
+marriage will grow this way." Leicester to Walsingham, July 7, 1571,
+Digges, 116.
+
+[829] Digges, 119, 120.
+
+[830] A league with France, Walsingham maintained, would be an advancement
+of the Gospel there and everywhere, and "though it yieldeth not so much
+_temporal_ profit, yet in respect of the _spiritual fruit_ that thereby
+may insue, I think it worth the imbracing." Ibid., p. 121.
+
+[831] Digges, 120.
+
+[832] Anjou's humor, she told him, "me faict bien grande peyne." Letter of
+July 25, 1571, Corresp. diplom., vii. 234.
+
+[833] Ibid., _ubi supra_. This expression deserves to be noticed
+particularly, inasmuch as it effectually disposes of the story--which can
+scarcely be regarded otherwise than as a fable--that the assassination of
+Lignerolles, a little over four months later (December, 1571), was
+compassed by Charles IX. and his mother, because they discovered that he
+had become possessed of the secret of the projected massacre of St.
+Bartholomew. If these royal personages had anything to do with the murder,
+which is very improbable, they hated Lignerolles for marring the plan of
+the English match, which they so much desired.
+
+[834] "Je suis resolue de faire tous mes efforts pour reheussir pour mon
+fils d'Alencon, qui ne sera pas si difficile." Ibid., vii. 235.
+
+[835] It must be admitted that some indignation on Queen Elizabeth's part
+was pardonable, if, as we learn from La Mothe Fenelon (despatch of May 2,
+1571), she had heard that a certain person of high rank in the French
+court had recommended Anjou to marry the English "granny"--"ceste
+vieille"--and administer to her, under some pretext, a "French
+potion"--"un breuvage de France"--so as to become a widower within six
+months of the wedding day. Then he might marry Mary, Queen of Scots, and
+reign with her peaceably over the whole island! Correspondance
+diplomatique, iv. 84. However sincere or zealous Elizabeth may have been
+previously, I doubt whether she ever forgave the suggestion, or the fair
+princess whose charms were thus exalted above her own.
+
+[836] De Thou, iv. (liv. l.) 492.
+
+[837] "I would your lordship knew the gentleman," enthusiastically writes
+Walsingham (August 12th, 1571) to the Earl of Leicester. "For courage
+abroad and counsell at home they give him here the reputation to be
+another [name in cipher]. He is in speech eloquent and pithy; but which is
+chiefest, he is in religion, as religious in life as he is sincere in
+profession. I hope God hath raised him up in these days, to serve for an
+instrument for the advancement of His glory." Digges, 128. In another
+letter, without date, the ambassador speaks of him as "surely the rarest
+gentleman which I have talked withal since I came to France," Ibid., 176.
+
+[838] The substance of Louis of Nassau's secret interviews is best given
+by Walsingham in a long communication, of August 12, 1571, to Lord
+Burleigh, Digges, 123-127.
+
+[839] "Contre les deffences et proscriptions de son duc, qui a plat avoit
+refuse le Roi de souffrir ce mariage, elle s'en vint a la Rochelle pour
+avoir nom avant de mourir (ainsi qu'elle disoit) la Martia de Caton."
+Agrippa d'Aubigne, ii. 5.
+
+[840] "A quoi ses ennemis trouverent a redire, publiant qu'il n'apartenoit
+qu'aux _princes_ d'epouser par procurateur. Mais ceux qui parloient des
+choses sans passion, imputoient ces sortes de discours a medisance,
+soutenant de leur cote qu'il ne pouvoit faire autrement, puisqu'il n'y
+avoit pas de surete pour lui a l'aller epouser," etc. Vie de Coligny, 386.
+
+[841] A very interesting account of the long imprisonment of Coligny's
+widow is to be found in Count Jules Delaborde's monograph, "Jacqueline
+d'Entremont," _apud_ Bulletin de la Societe de l'hist. du prot. fr., xvi.
+(1867) 220-246.
+
+[842] A few months before the admiral's departure from La Rochelle, there
+had been held in this Huguenot asylum a convocation of historical
+importance. The sessions of the seventh national synod, lasting from the
+second to the eleventh of April, 1571, were consumed in important
+deliberations respecting the doctrines and discipline of the reformed
+church (see Aymon, Tous les synodes, i. 98-111). The Queen of Navarre, the
+Princes of Navarre and Conde, Count Louis of Nassau, and Admiral Coligny
+were present. At the request of the synod, they added their signatures to
+those of the ministers and elders, upon three copies of the Confession of
+Faith, engrossed on parchment, which were to be kept at La Rochelle, in
+Bearn, and at Geneva respectively (see the eighth general article). The
+moderator on this occasion was Theodore Beza, who had been specially
+invited to France. The reformer was certainly not destitute of courage,
+for he could not have forgotten the dangers to which he had been exposed
+on previous visits to France. They were even greater than Beza himself
+probably knew. In June, 1563, after the conclusion of the first civil war,
+there was a rumor at Brussels that Beza could not return to Geneva,
+because of a quarrel he had had with Calvin. Thereupon, the Duchess of
+Parma, Regent of the Netherlands, suspecting that he might be tempted to
+come through the Spanish dominions, issued secret orders that the
+frontiers should be watched, and offered a reward of one thousand florins
+to any one who should bring him, dead or alive. He was described as "homme
+de moienne stature, ayant barbe a demy blanche, et le visage hault et
+large." Letters of the Duchess of Parma, June 11th and 25th, 1563, _apud_
+Charles Paillard, Histoire des troubles religieux de Valenciennes (Paris
+and Brussels, 1875, 1876), iii. 339, 340, 356.
+
+[843] Walsingham to Burleigh, Aug. 12, 1571, Digges, 122. The ambassador
+informs Elizabeth, in this letter, of the intense desire of the French
+Protestants that she should express to the French envoy her approval of
+the invitation extended to the princes and Coligny, and should say "that
+so rare a subject as the admiral is was not to be suffered to live in such
+a corner as Rochelle." It was thought that her commendations would greatly
+advance his credit with the king.
+
+[844] I know not on what authority Miss Freer states (Henry III. of
+France, his Court and Times, i. 70) that "even Coligny was startled at the
+ominous significance of these words; the shadow, however, vanished before
+the warmth and frankness of Charles's manner." Compare Agrippa d'Aubigne,
+ii. 5.
+
+[845] Walsingham's account in a letter of La Mothe Fenelon (Corresp.
+dipl., iv. 245, 246), its accuracy being vouched for by a letter of
+Charles IX. himself (ibid., vii. 268); Tocsain contre les massacreurs,
+Cimber et Danjou, vii. 34, 35; De Thou, iv. (liv. l.) 493.
+
+[846] Charles IX. to Emmanuel Philibert, Blois, Sept. 28, 1571, _apud_
+Leger, Hist. gen. des eglises vaudoises (Leyden, 1669), i. 47, 48.
+
+[847] "Durant ce moys, Gaspard de Coligny, remis par l'edit de
+pacification en l'estat d'admiral, fut mande par le roy et vint de la
+Rochelle trouver le Roy a Bloys, et se retira hors de la cour toute la
+maison de Guise, de sorte que le Roy estoit gouverne par ledit admiral et
+Montmorency." Jehan de la Fosse, Journal d'un cure ligueur, 132.
+
+[848] Walsingham to Cecil, March 5, 1571. Digges, 48, 49.
+
+[849] "And as for conference had with the Count Lewis of Nassau, he told
+him, that he was misinformed;" first letter of Walsingham to Burleigh, of
+Aug. 12th, Digges, 122. Yet the second letter of the same date gives a
+detailed account of this conference. It must be admitted that the
+diplomacy of the sixteenth century was sufficiently barefaced in its
+impostures. Louis of Nassau told Walsingham of an enterprise of Strozzi
+against Spain, determined upon by Charles IX. "onely to amaze the king
+there;" but, as to Strozzi, "the king here meaneth notwithstanding to
+disallow [him] openly." Ibid., 125.
+
+[850] Digges, 122.
+
+[851] Jehan de la Fosse, 134.
+
+[852] "Et que ceulx qui estoient a la fenestre estoient bien aises de
+veoir jouer le jeu a mes despens." It is scarcely necessary to say that
+this characteristic expression alludes primarily to the King of Spain and
+the Duke of Alva in the Netherlands.
+
+[853] Charriere, Negociations de la France dans le Levant, Documents
+inedits (publ. by the Imperial Government), Paris, 1853, iii. 200. Cf. Sir
+James Mackintosh, Hist. of England, vol. iii., App. A., pp. 345, 346,
+audience of Sr. de la Bourdaiziere at Rome, cir. Sept., 1571.
+
+[854] Margaret being born May 14, 1552, and Henry of Navarre, Dec. 13,
+1553.
+
+[855] Letter of March 21, 1556/7, Rochambeau, Lettres d'Antoine de Bourbon
+et de Jehanne d'Albret (Paris, 1877), 145. The story of the promise of
+Margaret by her father to Henry of Navarre is confirmed by a letter of
+Charles IX., now in the National Library, dated October 5, 1571. "The
+Queen of Navarre," he writes to Ferralz (Ferrails), at Rome, "has several
+times invited me to do her son the honor to marry him to my sister,
+_whereby also the promise would be fulfilled which my father gave to the
+late King of Navarre_." Fr. von Raumer, Briefe aus Paris (Leipsic, 1830),
+i. 290.
+
+[856] Mlle. Vauvilliers, Hist. de Jeanne d'Albret (Paris, 1818), i. 106.
+
+[857] Soldan, Gesch. des Prot. in Frankreich, ii. 413.
+
+[858] "I thinke," wrote Sir Thomas Smith, as early as January 17, 1563,
+"your Majestie hath understood of the marriage practized betwixt the
+Prince of Portugall and Madame Margaret, the king's sister." Forbes, State
+Papers, ii. 287.
+
+[859] Memoires et Lettres de Marguerite de Valois, edited by M. F.
+Guessard (Publications of the French Historical Society), Paris, 1842, 23.
+
+[860] De Thou, iv. (liv. l.) 491, 492. Notwithstanding the frequent
+assertions in royal letters (as, for instance, in one which I have already
+quoted), that the Queen of Navarre herself urged the marriage, it is
+certain that she did not initiate it, while it is even maintained that she
+was only brought to consent by threats. "La reine fut ouie un temps sans
+vouloir approuver ledit mariage, jusqu'a cette extremite qu'on la menaca
+de faire declarer son fils illegitime, a cause du mariage qui avoit ete
+contracte entre elle et le Duc de Cleves. Enfin vaincue, elle declare
+qu'elle n'en esperait que tout malheur." Fr. von Raumer, Briefe aus Paris,
+i. 291.
+
+[861] Memoires de Marg. de Valois, 24. The absurdity of the story that
+Margaret was averse to this marriage, because of a romantic attachment to
+young Henry of Guise, is sufficiently clear from the circumstance that the
+Duke of Guise had been married for some time when the match between the
+Prince of Navarre and Margaret of Valois was first talked of in earnest.
+He married, on the 17th of September, 1570, Catharine of Cleves, widow of
+Prince Porcien. ("_Hodie_ celebrantur Lutetiae Ducis Guisii, qui ducit in
+uxorem viduam principis Portiani," etc. Languet, Sept. 17, 1570, Epist.
+secr., i. 163.) It is not probable that Margaret would object to the
+advantageous marriage with Henry of Navarre on account of her affection
+for a former lover, who, at the time of her nuptials, had been for two
+years married to another woman.
+
+[862] Digges, 122.
+
+[863] "La Reyna mi madre," said Anjou one day to a lady, "muestra tener
+pena de que esta desbaratado mi casamiento, y yo estoy el mas contento
+hombre del mundo de haber escapado de casar con una puta publica." Francis
+de Alava to Philip, May 11, 1571, _apud_ Froude, Hist. of Eng., x. 224.
+
+[864] She gravely proposed to her council to have a stipulation for the
+restitution of Calais inserted in the articles of marriage, and Burleigh,
+Sussex, and Leicester had some difficulty in persuading her to omit the
+mention. Lord Burleigh, June 5, 1571, Digges, 104.
+
+[865] Froude, Hist. of England, x. 230. This statement, in itself
+sufficiently credible in view of Leicester's subsequent career, rests on a
+passage in a MS. from Simancas, which Mr. Froude inserts in a foot-note.
+
+[866] Despatch of March 22, 1572, Digges, 197.
+
+[867] Unless by means of La Mothe Fenelon's arithmetic, who, in
+conversation with Queen Elizabeth, maintained that, since her majesty was
+at least _nine_ years younger in her _disposition_, and Alencon _eight_
+years older _in manly vigor_, both parties were of precisely the same age,
+namely, twenty-seven! Corresp. diplom., v. 91, etc.
+
+[868] La Mothe Fenelon, vii. 289; Dumont, Corps diplomatique, v., 211-215.
+It cannot but be regarded as a singular instance of Elizabeth's
+irresolution and of that perversity with which she was wont to try the
+patience of her council almost beyond endurance, that she gravely proposed
+to include in the treaty an article providing for the _protection_ of the
+King of Spain--a stipulation against which Walsingham earnestly protested
+as the climax of folly, since it was certain "that the end of this league
+is onely to bridle his greatness." Digges, 175.
+
+[869] "The like hath not been seen in any man's memory," wrote Lord
+Burleigh. Montmorency received "a Cupboard of Plate Gilt," "a great cup of
+gold of 111 ounces," etc. Digges, 218; De Thou, iv. (liv. li.) 537, 538.
+
+[870] La Mothe Fenelon, vii. 292.
+
+[871] Ibid., v. 13.
+
+[872] Ibid., vii. 317-319.
+
+[873] "Que Monseigneur le Duc vienne!" Despatch of Aug. 28, 1572. Corresp.
+diplom., v. 111.
+
+[874] Pius the Fifth--Saint Pius, for his name is commemorated in the
+prayers of the Church on the 5th of May--was, we are told by his
+biographer, a model of severity to his own kindred; and, if the fact that
+he elevated his grand-nephew, Michael Bonelli, to the sacred college
+should be alleged as casting some doubt upon this characteristic of his,
+we must hasten to add that he did so, we are assured, only in consequence
+of the urgent solicitations of Cardinal Farnese and others. He deserves
+the credit, however, of yielding to their persuasions with reasonable
+promptness, for the nomination of his nephew took place within two months
+of the Pope's accession. Michael, being like his uncle a native of the
+vicinity of Alessandria, in Piedmont, naturally succeeded to the
+designation of "il cardinale Alessandrino," which Pius relinquished on
+assuming the tiara. Gabutius, Vita Pii Quinti Papae, _apud_ Acta Sanctorum
+(Bolandi) Maii, Sec. 48, p. 630.
+
+[875] The Guises, in the same spirit, had at one time proposed as a
+candidate for Margaret's hand the Cardinal of Este, for whom they hoped
+easily to obtain from the Pope a dispensation from his vow of celibacy.
+Walsingham to Cecil, Feb. 18, 1571, Digges, 42.
+
+[876] Capilupi, Lo stratagema di Carlo IX., 1573, Orig. edit., p. 11;
+Gabutius, Vita Pii Quinti, _ubi supra_, Sec. 244-246, p. 676.
+
+[877] So also says Tavannes: "Il est renvoye avec paroles generales que Sa
+Majeste ne feroit rien au prejudice de l'obeissance de Sa Sainctete."
+Memoires (ed. Petitot), iii. 198. Tavannes is explicit in his declarations
+that the massacre was not premeditated. "Tant s'en faut que l'on pensast
+faire la Sainct Barthelemy a ces nopces, que sans Madame, fille du Roy,
+qui y avoit inclination, il se deslioit" (iii. 194). "L'entreprise de la
+Sainct Barthelemy, qui n'estoit pas seulement pourpensee, et dont la
+naissance vint de l'imprudence huguenotte." Ibid., iii. 198.
+
+[878] _E.g._: "Si j'avois quelque autre moyen de me vanger de mes ennemis,
+je ne ferois point ce mariage; mais je n'en ai point d'autre moyen que
+cetui-ci." Cardinal D'Ossat's letter of Sept. 22, 1599, to Villeroy,
+Lettres (ed. of 1698), ii. 100. It must be noticed that D'Ossat had a
+particular purpose in producing testimony to show that Charles IX.
+_constrained_ his sister to marry, as it would assist him in obtaining a
+divorce for Henry IV. If, as D'Ossat affirms, the Cardinal of Alessandria
+exclaimed, on hearing of the massacre, "God be praised! The King of France
+has kept his word to me," this would agree equally well with the
+supposition that Charles IX. had contented himself with general promises.
+
+[879] "_The foolish cardinal_," wrote Sir Thomas Smith, English ambassador
+at the French court during Walsingham's temporary absence (March 3,
+1571/2), "went away as wise as he came; he neither brake the marriage with
+Navarre, nor got no dismes of the Church of France, nor perswaded the King
+to enter into the League with the Turk, nor to accept the Tridentine, or
+to break off Treaty with us; and _the foolishest part of all, at his going
+away, he refused a diamond which the King offered him of 600 crowns_, yet
+he was here highly feasted. He and his train cost the King above 300
+crowns a day, as they said." Digges, 193. Gabutius adds that after the
+death of Pius V.--probably after the massacre--Charles IX. sent the ring
+to the cardinal with this inscription upon the bezel: "Non minus haec
+solida est pietas, ne pietas possit mea sanguine solvi." Vita Pii Quinti,
+_ubi supra_, Sec. 246, p. 676. The inscription had doubtless been cut since
+the first proffer of the ring. It appears to me most probable that the
+ring was offered by Charles to the cardinal with the idea that its
+acceptance would bind him to support the king in his suit for a
+dispensation for the marriage of Henry and Margaret, and that the prudent
+churchman declined it for the same reason. Subsequently, with the same
+view, Charles sent it to his ambassador at Rome, M. de Ferralz,
+instructing him to give it to the Cardinal of Alessandria. But Ferralz, on
+consultation with the Cardinal of Ferrara and others in the French
+interest, came to the conclusion that the gift would be useless, and so
+retained it, at the same time notifying his master. The reason may have
+been either that Alessandria had too little influence, since his uncle's
+death, to effect what was desired, or that the matter was of less
+consequence when once Charles had resolved to go on with the marriage
+without waiting further for the dispensation. So I understand Charles's
+words to Ferralz (Aug. 24, 1572): "J'ai aussi sceu par vostre dicte
+memoire, que par l'avis de mon cousin le cardinal de Ferrare, _vous avez
+retenu le diamant que je vous avois envoye pour le donner de ma part au
+cardinal Alexandrin_, puisque mon dict cousin et mes autres ministres
+trouvent que _le don seroit inutile et perdu_." Mackintosh, iii., App. C.,
+p. 348.
+
+[880] Despatch of March 29, 1572, Digges, 182, 183. It must be noticed
+that the permission to have mass celebrated in Bearn had been purposely
+left out in the original basis.
+
+[881] Jeanne d'Albret to Henry of Navarre, Tours, Feb. 21, 1572,
+Rochambeau, Lettres d'Antoine de Bourbon et de Jehanne d'Albret (Paris,
+1877), 340.
+
+[882] Jeanne d'Albret to M. de Beauvoir, Blois, March 11, 1572, ibid.,
+345.
+
+[883] "'Il m'a donc dit quelque chose.' 'Je croy bien qu'ouy, Madame, mais
+c'est quelque chose qui n'approche point de cela.' Elle se prist a rire,
+car nottez qu'elle ne parle a moy qu'en badinant." Same letter, ibid.,
+348. How keenly Jeanne felt this treatment may be inferred from a
+characteristic sentence: "Je vous diray encores que je m'esbahis comme je
+peux porter les traverses que j'ay, car _l'on me gratte, l'on me picque,
+l'on me flatte, l'on me brave, l'on me veult tirer les vers du nez_, sans
+se laisser aller, bref je n'ay que Martin _seul qui marche droict, encores
+qu'il ait la goutte_, et M. le comte (Nassau) qui me faict tous les bons
+offices qu'il peut." Same letter, ibid., 353.
+
+[884] The letter is inserted entire in La Laboureur, Additions aux Mem. de
+Castelnau, i. 859-861. There is much in this letter that lends probability
+to Miss Freer's view (Henry III., i. 89) that Catharine had at this time
+begun to be opposed to an alliance which she feared might result in the
+diminution of her influence at court, and that she therefore "sought, by
+denying all that had before been conceded, and by proposing in lieu
+conditions which she knew Jeanne could not accept, to throw the odium of a
+rupture on the Queen of Navarre."
+
+[885] The contract of marriage was signed at Blois, April 11th.
+
+[886] Jehan de la Fosse (Journal d'un cure ligueur), 143, 144.
+
+[887] See an interesting account of the Queen of Navarre's last days, her
+will, etc., in Vauvilliers, Hist. de Jeanne d'Albret, iii. 179-188.
+
+[888] He is said already to have obtained the surname of "l'empoisonneur
+de la reine." Vauvilliers, iii. 193.
+
+[889] Vauvilliers, Hist. de Jeanne d'Albret, _ubi supra_. Unfortunately
+for the "glove" theory, the Reveille-Matin des Massacreurs, written within
+the next year (see p. 172, Cimber and Danjou, "du mois d'aoust _dernier
+passe_"), makes Jeanne to have died in consequence of a drink (un boucon)
+given her at a festival at which Anjou was present. So in the Eusebii
+Philadelphi Dialogi, 1574 (the same book virtually), Jeanne dies, "veneno
+in quibusdam epulis propinato, quibus Dux Andegavensis intererat, ut
+quidem mihi a domestico ipsius aliquo narratum est," i. 25, 26. The
+testimony of the physicians, who seem to have been unprejudiced, is given
+in a note in Cimber et Danjou, Archives curieuses, vii. 170, 171.
+
+[890] It is said that Charles IX. suggested to him the propriety of this
+visit, accompanying the suggestion by the words: "I know that you are fond
+of gardening"--a sly reference to the occasion when Coligny, just before
+the explosion of the second civil war, was found by the royal spies busily
+engaged in his vineyards, pruning-hook in hand, and, by his apparent
+engrossment in the labors of the field, dispelled the suspicions of a
+Huguenot rising. It was ominous, according to these writers, that Charles
+should at this moment recall the circumstances of that narrow escape at
+Meaux from falling into the hands of the Huguenots. Agrippa d'Aubigne,
+Hist. univ., ii. 6.
+
+[891] "Estant nostre vouloir et intention le retenir pres de nous pour
+nous servir de luy en nos plus graves et importans affaires, comme
+ministre digne, la vertu duquel est assez cogneue et experimentee." MS.
+passport dated September 24, 1571, Biblioth. nat., _apud_ Bulletin de la
+Soc. de l'hist. du prot. francais, xvi. (1867) 220.
+
+[892] Le Tocsain contre les massacreurs (orig. ed., Rheims, 1579), 77.
+
+[893] Le Reveille-Matin des Francois et de leurs voisins. Compose par
+Eusebe Philadelphe Cosmopolite, en forme de Dialogues. A Edinbourg, de
+l'imprimerie de Jaques James. Avec permission. 1574. _Apud_ Cimber et
+Danjou, Archives curieuses, vii. 171. Dialogi Euseb. Philadelphi.
+Edimburgi, 1574, i. 26.
+
+[894] Le Tocsain contre les massacreurs, 40 (Archives curieuses). So Jean
+de Tavannes--a writer certainly not prejudiced in Coligny's favor--gives
+him credit for preferring to hazard his life rather than renew the civil
+war. Yet he adds: "Il ne voyoit ny ne prevoyoit ce qui n'estoit pour lors,
+d'autant plus qu'il n'y avoit encor rien de resolu contre luy, quoy que
+les ignorans des affaires d'estat ayent escrit ou dit." Memoires de
+Gaspard de Tavannes (Ed. Petitot), iii. 257.
+
+[895] These were four in number: that Navarre should make a secret
+profession of the Catholic faith, express a desire for the dispensation,
+restore ecclesiastical property in his domains, and marry Margaret before
+the Church. Charles IX. to Ferralz (Ferrails), July 31, 1572, _apud_
+Mackintosh, iii., Appendix III.; Fr. von Raumer, Briefe aus Paris
+(Leipsic, 1831), i. 292.
+
+[896] Journal de Lestoile, p. 24; Le Reveille-Matin des Francais, etc.;
+Arch. curieuses, vii. 172; Dialogi Eusebii Philadelphi, i. 31;
+Vauvilliers, iii. 177; Agrippa d'Aubigne, ii. 12:--"Ce vieux bigot avec
+ses cafarderies fait perdre un bon temps a ma grosse soeur Margot."
+
+[897] Charles IX. to Mandelot, Blois, May 3, 1572, Correspondance du roi
+Charles IX. et du sieur de Mandelot, Gouverneur de Lyons, edited by P.
+Paris (Paris, 1830), pp. 9-11. Also Charriere, Negociations du Levant,
+iii. 228.
+
+[898] "Toutes mes fantaisies sont bandees pour m'opposer a la grandeur des
+Espagnols," etc. Henri de Valois et la Pologne en 1572, par le Marquis de
+Noailles (3 vols., Paris, 1867), i. 8.
+
+[899] De Noailles, i. 10.
+
+[900] "De tenir le Roy Catholique en cervelle, et donner hardiesse a ces
+gueulx des Pais-Bas de se remuer et entreprendre," etc. Ibid., i. 9.
+
+[901] De Thou, iv. 674; Motley, Dutch Republic, ii. 369, etc.
+
+[902] "Thence with great celerity the Count Lodovick should send 500 horse
+to Bruxels under the conduct of M. de la Nue (Noue), where if he hap to
+find the Duke of Alva, it will grow to short wars, in respect of the
+intelligence they have with the town, who undertook with the aid of 100
+soldiers to take the duke prisoner. If he retires to Antwerp, as it is
+thought he wil, then it is likely that all the whole country will revolt.
+I the rather credit this news for that it agreeth with the plot laid by
+Count Lodovick, before his departure hence," etc. Walsingham to Burleigh,
+Paris, May 29, 1572, Digges, 204.
+
+[903] Queen Elizabeth to Walsingham, July 23, 1572, Digges, 226-230.
+
+[904] "More tremendous issues," Mr. Froude forcibly remarks, "were hanging
+upon Elizabeth's decision than she knew of. But she did know that France
+was looking to her reply--was looking to her general conduct, to ascertain
+whether she would or would not be a safe ally in a war with Spain, and
+that on her depended at that moment whether the French government would
+take its place once for all on the side of the Reformation." History of
+England, x. 370.
+
+[905] In fact, he was acting in violation of the instructions of Louis of
+Nassau, by whom he had been despatched for aid to France. Apprehending
+danger, Nassau repeatedly bid him avoid the direct road to Mons, and make
+a circuit through the territory of Cambray, and effect a junction with the
+Prince of Orange. Genlis justified his neglect of these directions by
+alleging the orders of Admiral Coligny. De Thou, iv. 680.
+
+[906] Motley, Dutch Republic, ii. 383, 384; De Thou, iv. 680, etc.
+
+[907] It may be noted, by way of anticipation, that Genlis, after an
+imprisonment of over a year, was secretly strangled by Alva's command, in
+the castle of Antwerp. With characteristic mendacity, the duke spread the
+report that the prisoner had died a natural death. Ibid., _ubi supra_.
+
+[908] Walsingham to Burleigh, July 26, 1572, Digges, 225.
+
+[909] It was such arguments as these that afterward, when everything that
+might be so employed as to justify or palliate the atrocity of Coligny's
+assassination was eagerly laid hold of, were construed as threats of a
+Huguenot rising, in case Charles should refuse to engage in the Flemish
+war. Compare, _e.g._, the unsigned extract found by Soldan (ii. 433) in
+the National Library of Paris, No. 8702, fol. 68. But does it need a word
+to prove that the reference was to a _papal_ rising, or, at least, papal
+compulsion to violate the edict of toleration?
+
+[910] Walsingham to Leicester, July 26, 1572, Digges, 225, 226.
+
+[911] This document was written by the illustrious Philippe du Plessis
+Mornay, then a youth twenty-three years of age, and bears the impress of
+his vigorous mind. De Thou gives an excellent summary (iv., liv. li.,
+543-554); and it may be found entire in the Memoires de Du Plessis Mornay
+(ii. 20-37). Morvilliers, Bishop of Orleans, and keeper of the seals until
+Birague's appointment in January, 1571, was requested by the king to
+prepare the answer of the opposite party in the royal council--a task
+which he discharged with great ability. Summary in De Thou, iv. (liv. li.)
+555-563, and Agrippa d'Aubigne, ii. 9, 10. Jean de Tavannes's memoirs of
+his father contain arguments of Marshal Tavannes and of the Duke of Anjou.
+dictated by the marshal, against undertaking the Flemish war, as both
+unjust and impolitic.
+
+[912] Memoires de Tavannes (Ed. Petitot), iii. 290.
+
+[913] In this case the chief spy, according to the Tocsain contre les
+massacreurs, p. 78, and the younger Tavannes, was Phizes, sieur de Sauve,
+the king's private secretary for the Flemish matter; and Tavannes is
+certainly correct in making a chief element in Catharine's influence, "la
+puissance que ladicte Royne a sur ses enfans par ses creatures qu'elle
+leur a donne pour serviteurs dez leur enfance." Memoires, 290, 291.
+
+[914] In fact, Catharine, who spared neither herself nor her attendants in
+her furious driving in her "_coche_" on such occasions, lost one or more
+of the horses, which dropped dead. Tocsain contre les massacreurs, p. 78.
+
+[915] Or, only to her estates in Auvergne, according to the Tocsain, pp.
+78, 79. It will be remembered that Catharine's mother was a French heiress
+of the famous family of La Tour d'Auvergne.
+
+[916] The younger Tavannes, in the memoirs of his father (Edit. Petitot),
+iii. 291, 292, gives the most complete summary of this remarkable
+conversation; but it is substantially the same as the briefer sketch in
+the Tocsain contre les massacreurs de France, Rheims 1579, pp. 78, 79--a
+treatise of which the preface (L'Imprimeur aux lecteurs, dated June 25,
+1577) shows that it was written before the death of Charles IX., but the
+publication of which was from time to time deferred in the vain hope that
+the authors of the inhuman massacre might yet repent. The new and "more
+detestable perfidy, fury, and impetuosity" of which the Huguenots were the
+victims in the first years of Henry III.'s reign, finally brought it to
+the light. The _Archives curieuses_ contain only a part of the treatise.
+
+[917] Smith to Walsingham, Aug. 22, 1572, Digges, 236.
+
+[918] Walsingham to Burleigh, Aug. 10, 1572, Digges, 233. This news and
+the interview, which must have taken place about the first week of August,
+are the burden of three letters written by Walsingham on the same day.
+"Herein nothing prevailed so much as the tears of his mother," he wrote to
+Leicester, "who without the army of England cannot consent to any open
+dealing. And because they are, as I suppose, assured by their ambassadors
+that her Majesty will not intermeddle, they cannot be induced to make any
+overture" (p. 233). Walsingham was disheartened at the loss of so critical
+an opportunity. "Pleasure and youth will not suffer us to take profit of
+advantages, and those who rule under [over] us are fearfull and
+irresolute."
+
+[919] Mem. de Tavannes, iii. 291.
+
+[920] Walsingham to Leicester, Aug. 10, 1572, Digges, 233.
+
+[921] "I am requested to desire your lordship to hold him excused in that
+he writeth not," he adds, "for that at this time he is overwhelmed with
+affairs." Walsingham to Leicester, Aug. 10, 1572, Digges, 234.
+
+[922] Sir Thomas Smith's plea in her behalf is interesting and plausible,
+but will not receive the sanction of any one who takes into account the
+vast difference in the positions of Elizabeth and Charles, or considers
+the principles of which the former was, or should have been, the advocate.
+The good secretary, I need not remind my reader, was never reluctant to
+parade his Latinity: "If you there [in France] do _tergiversari_ and work
+_tam timide_ and underhand with open and outward edicts, besides excuses
+at Rome and at Venice by your ambassadors, you, I say, which have Regem
+expertem otii, laboris amantem, cujus gens bellicosa jampridem assueta est
+caedibus tam exterioris quam vestri sanguinis, quid faciemus gens otiosa et
+paci assueta, quibus imperat Regina, et ipsa pacis atque quietis
+amantissima." Smith to Walsingham, Aug. 22, 1572, Digges, 237.
+
+[923] Puntos de Cartas de Anton de Guaras al Duque de Alva, June 30th: MS.
+Simancas, _apud_ Froude, x. 383.
+
+[924] Froude, x. 385.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+THE MASSACRE OF ST. BARTHOLOMEW'S DAY.
+
+
+[Sidenote: The Huguenot nobles reach Paris.]
+
+The marriage of Henry of Navarre and Margaret of Valois had been delayed
+in consequence of the death of the bridegroom's mother, but could now no
+longer be deferred. The young queen of Charles the Ninth was soon to
+become a mother, and it was desirable that she should have the opportunity
+to leave the crowded and unhealthy capital as soon as possible. Jeanne
+d'Albret's objection to the celebration of the wedding in Paris had been
+overruled. The bride herself, indifferent enough, to all appearance, on
+other points, was resolute as to this matter--she would have her nuptials
+celebrated in no provincial town. Accordingly, the King of Navarre,
+followed by eight hundred gentlemen of his party, as well as by his cousin
+the Prince of Conde, and the admiral, made his solemn entry into the city,
+which so few of his adherents were to leave alive. Although still clad in
+mourning for the loss of the heroic Queen of Navarre, they bore no
+unfavorable comparison with the gay courtiers, who, with Anjou and Alencon
+at their head, came out to escort them into Paris with every mark of
+respect.[925]
+
+[Sidenote: Betrothal of Henry and Margaret.]
+
+The betrothal took place in the palace of the Louvre, on Sunday the
+seventeenth of August. Afterward there was a supper and a ball; and when
+these came to an end, Margaret was conducted by her mother, her brothers,
+and a stately retinue, to the episcopal palace, on the Ile de la Cite,
+adjoining the cathedral, there, according to the immemorial custom of the
+princesses of the blood, to pass the night before her wedding. No papal
+dispensation had arrived. Gregory XIII. was as obstinate as his
+predecessor in the pontifical chair, in denying the requests of the French
+envoys to Rome.[926] But Charles was determined to proceed; and, in order
+to silence the opposition of the Cardinal of Bourbon, who still refused to
+perform the ceremony without the pope's approval, a forged letter was
+shown to him, purporting to come from the Cardinal of Lorraine, or the
+royal ambassador at Rome, and announcing that the bull of dispensation had
+actually been sealed, and would shortly arrive.[927]
+
+Preparations had been made for the wedding in a style of magnificence
+extraordinary even for that age of reckless expenditure. To show their
+cordial friendship and fidelity, Charles and his brothers, Anjou and
+Alencon, and Henry and his cousin of Conde, assumed a costume precisely
+alike--a light yellow satin, covered with silver embroidery, and enriched
+with pearls and precious stones. Margaret wore a violet velvet dress with
+fleurs-de-lis. Her train was adorned with the same emblems. She was
+wrapped in a royal mantle, and had upon her head an imperial crown
+glittering with pearls, diamonds, and other gems of incalculable value.
+The queens were resplendent in cloth of gold and silver.[928] A lofty
+platform had been erected in front of the grand old pile of Notre Dame.
+Hither Margaret was brought in great pomp, from the palace of the Bishop
+of Paris, escorted by the king, by Catharine de' Medici, by the Dukes of
+Anjou and Alencon, and by the Guises, the marshals, and other great
+personages of the realm. Upon the platform she met Henry of Navarre, with
+his cousins Conde and Conty, Admiral Coligny, Count de la Rochefoucauld,
+and a numerous train of Protestant lords from all parts of the kingdom. In
+the sight of an immense throng, the nuptial ceremony was performed by the
+Cardinal of Bourbon, Henry's uncle, according to the form which had been
+previously agreed upon.[929] The bridal procession then entered the
+cathedral by a lower platform, which extended through the nave to the
+choir. Here Henry, having placed his bride before the grand altar to hear
+mass, himself retired with his Protestant companions to the episcopal
+palace, and waited for the service to be over. When notified of its
+conclusion by Marshal Damville, Henry and his suite returned to the choir,
+and with his bride and all the attending grandees soon sat down to a
+sumptuous dinner in the episcopal palace.
+
+Among those who had been admitted to the choir of Notre Dame after the
+close of the mass, was the son of the first president of parliament, young
+Jacques Auguste de Thou, the future historian. Happening to come near
+Admiral Coligny, he looked with curious and admiring gaze upon the warrior
+whose virtues and abilities had combined to raise the house of Chatillon
+to its present distinction. He saw him point out to his cousin Damville
+the flags and banners taken from the Huguenots on the fields of Jarnac and
+Moncontour, still suspended from the walls of the cathedral, mournful
+trophies of a civil contest. "These will soon be torn down," De Thou heard
+Coligny say, "and in their place others more pleasing to the eye will be
+hung up." The words had unmistakable reference to the victories which he
+hoped soon to win in a war against Spain. It is not strange, however, that
+the malevolent endeavored to prove that they contained an allusion to the
+renewal of a domestic war, which it is certain that the admiral detested
+with his whole heart.[930]
+
+[Sidenote: Entertainment in the Louvre.]
+
+Later in the day, a magnificent entertainment was given by Charles in the
+Louvre to the municipality of Paris, the members of parliament, and other
+high officers of justice. Supper was succeeded by a short ball, and this
+in turn by one of those allegorical representations in which French fancy
+and invention at this period ran wanton. Through the great vaulted saloon
+of the Louvre a train of wonderful cars was made slowly to pass. Some were
+rocks of silver, on whose summits sat in state the king's brothers,
+Navarre, Conde, the prince dauphin, Guise, or Angouleme. On others
+sea-monsters disported themselves, and the pagan gods of the water,
+somewhat incongruously clothed in cloth of gold or various colors,
+serenely looked on. Charles himself rode in a chariot shaped like a
+sea-horse, the curved tail of which supported a shell holding Neptune and
+his trident. When the pageant stopped for a moment, singers of surpassing
+skill entertained the guests. Etienne le Roy, the king's especial
+favorite, distinguished himself by the power and beauty of his voice.[931]
+
+The entertainment was prolonged far into the night; but Admiral Coligny,
+before giving himself repose, snatched from sleep a few minutes to write
+a letter to his wife, whom he had left in Chatillon. It is the last which
+has been preserved, and is otherwise important because of the light it
+throws upon the hopes and fears of the great Huguenot at this critical
+time.
+
+[Sidenote: Coligny's letter to his wife.]
+
+"My darling," he said, "I write this bit of a letter to tell you that
+to-day the marriage of the king's sister and the King of Navarre took
+place. Three or four days will be spent in festivities, masks, and mock
+combats. After that the king has assured me and given me his promise, that
+he will devote a few days to attending to a number of complaints which are
+made in various parts of the kingdom, touching the infraction of the
+edict. It is but reasonable that I should employ myself in this matter, so
+far as I am able; for, although I have infinite desire to see you, yet
+should I feel great regret, and I believe that you would likewise, were I
+to fail to occupy myself in such an affair with all my ability. But this
+will not delay so much the departure from this city, but that I think that
+the court will leave it at the beginning of next week. If I had in view
+only my own satisfaction, I should take much greater pleasure in going to
+see you, than in being in this court, for many reasons which I shall tell
+you. But we must have more regard for the public than for our own private
+interests. I have many other things to tell you, when I am able to see
+you, for which I am so anxious that you must not think that I waste a day
+or an hour. What remains for me to say is that to-day, at four o'clock
+after noon, the bride's mass was said. Meanwhile, the King of Navarre
+walked about in a court with all those of the religion who accompanied
+him. Other incidents occurred which I will reserve to relate to you; but
+first I must see you. And meantime I pray our Lord, my darling, to keep
+you in His holy guard and protection. From Paris, this eighteenth day of
+August, 1572. _Mandez-moy comme se porte le petit ou petite._ ... I assure
+you that I shall not be anxious to attend all the festivities and combats
+that are to take place during these next days. Your very good husband and
+friend, CHATILLON."[932]
+
+[Sidenote: Festivities and mock combats.]
+
+The festivities and combats--so distasteful to a statesman who recognized
+the critical condition of French affairs, and regarded this merry-making
+as ill-timed--pursued their uninterrupted course through Tuesday,
+Wednesday, and Thursday of that eventful week. But the description of most
+of the elaborate pageants would contribute little to the value of our
+conceptions of the character of the age. An exception may perhaps be made
+in favor of an ingenious tournament that took place on Wednesday in the
+Hotel Bourbon. Here the Isles of the Blessed, the Elysian Fields, and
+Tartarus were represented by means of costly mechanisms. Charles and his
+brothers figured as knights defending Paradise, which Navarre and others,
+dressed as knights-errant, endeavored to enter by force of arms, but were
+repulsed and thrust into Tartarus. After some time the defeated champions
+were rescued from their perilous situation by the compassion of their
+victors, and the performance terminated in a startling, but harmless
+display of fireworks.[933] As the assailants were mostly Protestants, the
+defenders Roman Catholics, it was not strange that a sinister
+interpretation was soon put upon the strange plot; but, unless we are to
+suppose the authors of the massacre, whose success depended upon the
+surprise of the victims, so infatuated as to wish to forewarn them of
+their fate, it is scarcely credible that they intended to prefigure the
+ruin of the reformed faith in France.
+
+[Sidenote: Huguenot grievances to be redressed.]
+
+The time that had been allotted to pleasure was fast passing. The king was
+soon to meet Coligny, according to his promise, for the transaction of
+important business relating both to the internal and to the foreign
+affairs of France. There were religious grievances to be redressed. The
+admiral was particularly anxious to bring to the king's notice the
+flagrant outrage recently perpetrated in Troyes, where a fanatical Roman
+Catholic populace, indignant that the Huguenots, through the kindness of
+Marie de Cleves, the betrothed of the Prince of Conde,[934] had been
+permitted to hold their worship so near the city as her castle of
+Isle-au-Mont, scarcely three leagues distant,[935] had met the Protestants
+on their return from service with aggravated insult, and had killed in the
+arms of its nurse an infant that had just been baptized according to the
+reformed rites.[936] Catharine and her son Anjou saw with consternation
+that the impression made by the "tears of Montpipeau" was already in a
+great degree obliterated, and feared the complete destruction of their
+influence if Charles were longer permitted to have intercourse with
+Coligny. In that case a Flemish war would be almost inevitable. Charles's
+anger against the Spaniards had kindled anew when he heard of Alva's
+inhumanity to Genlis and his fellow-prisoners. But, when he was informed
+that Alva had put French soldiers to the torture, in order to extract the
+admission of their monarch's complicity in the enterprise, his passion was
+almost ungovernable, as he asked his attendants again and again: "Do you
+know that the Duke of Alva is putting me on trial?"[937] It seems to have
+been at this juncture that Catharine and her favorite son came to the
+definite determination to put the great Huguenot out of the way. Henry of
+Anjou is here his own accuser. In that strange confession which he made to
+his physician, Miron,[938] shortly after his arrival in Cracow--a
+confession made under the influence, not so much of remorse, as of the
+annoyance occasioned by the continual reminders of the massacre which were
+thrown in his way as he travelled to assume the throne of Poland--he gives
+us a partial view of the development of the murderous plot.
+
+[Sidenote: Jealousy of Catharine and Anjou.]
+
+[Sidenote: The Duchess of Nemours and Henry of Guise.]
+
+Several times had Anjou and Catharine perceived that, whenever Charles had
+conversed in private with the admiral, his demeanor was visibly changed
+toward them. He no longer exhibited his accustomed respect for his mother
+or his wonted kindness for his brother. Once, in particular--and it was,
+so Anjou tells us, only a few days before St. Bartholomew's Day--Henry
+happened to enter the room just after Coligny had gone out. Instantly the
+king's countenance betrayed extreme anger. He began to walk furiously to
+and fro, taking great strides, and keeping his eyes fixed upon his brother
+with an expression that boded no good, but without uttering a word. Again
+and again he placed his hand on his dagger, and Anjou expected nothing
+less than that his brother would attack him. At last, taking advantage of
+an opportunity when Charles's back was turned, he hastily retreated from
+the room. This circumstance led Catharine and Anjou to compare their
+observations and their plans. "Both of us," says Henry, "were easily
+persuaded, and became, as it were, certain that it was the admiral who had
+impressed some evil and sinister opinion of us upon the king. We resolved
+from that moment to rid ourselves of him, and to concert the means of
+doing so with the Duchess of Nemours. To her alone we believed that we
+might safely disclose our purpose, on account of the mortal hatred which
+we knew that she bore to him."[939] The Duchess of Nemours was born of an
+excellent mother; for she was Anne d'Este, daughter of Renee of France,
+the younger child of Louis the Twelfth. In her youth, at the court of her
+father, the Duke of Ferrara, and in society with that prodigy of feminine
+precocity, Olympia Morata, she had shown evidences of extraordinary
+intellectual development and of a kindly disposition.[940] Although she
+subsequently married Francis of Guise, the leading persecutor of the
+Protestants, she had not so lost her sympathy with the oppressed as to
+witness without tears and remonstrances the atrocious executions by which
+the tumult of Amboise was followed. But the assassination of her husband
+turned any affection or compassion she may have entertained for
+Protestantism into violent hatred. Against Coligny, whom, in spite of his
+protestations, she persisted in believing to be the instigator of
+Poltrot's crime, she bore an implacable enmity; and now, having so often
+failed in obtaining satisfaction from the king by judicial process, she
+eagerly accepted the opportunity of avenging herself by a deed more
+dastardly than that which she laid to the charge of her enemy. Entering
+heartily into the project which Catharine and Anjou laid before her, the
+Duchess of Nemours enlisted the co-operation of her son, Henry of Guise,
+and her brother-in-law, the Duke of Aumale, and herself arranged the
+details of the plan, which was at once to be put into execution.[941]
+
+[Sidenote: Was the massacre long premeditated?]
+
+[Sidenote: Salviati's testimony.]
+
+Such was the germ of the massacre as yet not resolved upon, which, rapidly
+developing, was to involve the murder of thousands of innocent persons
+throughout France. In opposition to the opinion that became almost
+universal among the Protestants, and gained nearly equal currency among
+the Roman Catholics--that the butchery had long been contemplated, and
+that Charles was privy to it--and notwithstanding the circumstances that
+seem to give color to this opinion,[942] I am compelled to acquiesce in
+the belief expressed by the Papal Nuncio, Salviati, who, in his
+despatches, written in cipher to the cardinal secretary of state, could
+certainly have had no motive to disguise his real sentiments, and whom it
+is impossible to suppose ignorant of any scheme for the general
+extirpation of the Protestants, had such a scheme existed for any
+considerable length of time: "As to all the statements that will be made
+respecting the firing upon the admiral and his death, different from that
+which I have written to you, you will in time find out how true they are.
+Madame the regent, having come to be at variance with him [the admiral],
+and having decided upon this step a few days before, caused him to be
+fired upon. This was _without the knowledge of the king_, but with the
+participation of the Duke of Anjou, the Duchess of Nemours, and her son,
+the Duke of Guise. If the admiral had died at once, no others would have
+been slain. But, inasmuch as he survived, and they apprehended that some
+great calamity might happen should he draw closer to the king, they
+resolved to throw aside shame, and to have him killed together with the
+rest. And this was put into execution that very night."[943]
+
+[Sidenote: The king's cordiality.]
+
+As the hour approached, Coligny exhibited no apprehension of special
+danger. Others, however, more suspicious, or possessed of less faith in
+Heaven, felt alarm; and some acted upon their fears. The very "goodness"
+of the king terrified one. Another said that he had rather be saved with
+fools than perish with the wise, and hastily forsook the capital. Dark
+hints had been thrown out by courtiers--such surmises were naturally bred
+by the defenceless position of the Protestants in the midst of a
+population so hostile to their faith as the population of Paris--that more
+blood than wine would be spilled at this wedding. And there were rumors of
+some mysterious enterprise afloat; so, at least, it was said after the
+occurrence. But Coligny moved not from the post which he believed had been
+assigned to his keeping. On Wednesday Charles assured him, with laughing
+countenance, that if the admiral would but give him four days more for
+amusement, he would not stir from Paris until he had contented him;[944]
+and the sturdy old Huguenot made no objection when the king, in order to
+prevent any disturbance which the partisans of Guise might occasion in
+seeking a quarrel with the followers of the house of Chatillon, proposed
+to introduce a considerable force of soldiers into the city. "My father,"
+said Charles, with his usual appearance of affection, "you know that you
+have promised not to give any cause of offence to the Guises so long as
+you remain here; and they have in like manner promised to respect you and
+all yours. I am fully persuaded that you will keep your word; but I am not
+so well assured of their good faith as of yours; for, besides the fact
+that it is they that would avenge themselves, I know their bravadoes and
+the favor this populace bears to them."[945]
+
+[Sidenote: Coligny is wounded, August 22.]
+
+On Friday morning, the twenty-second of August, Admiral Coligny went to
+the Louvre, to attend a meeting of the royal council, at which Henry of
+Anjou presided. It was between ten and eleven o'clock, when, according to
+the more primitive hours then kept, he left the palace to return home for
+dinner.[946] Meeting Charles just coming out of a chapel in front of the
+Louvre, he retraced his steps, and accompanied him to the tennis-court,
+where he left him playing with Guise, against Teligny and another
+nobleman. Accompanied by about a dozen gentlemen, he again sallied forth,
+but had not proceeded over a hundred paces when from behind a lattice an
+arquebuse was fired at him.[947] The admiral had been walking slowly,
+intently engaged in reading a petition which had just been handed to him.
+The shot had been well aimed, and might have proved fatal, had not the
+victim at that very moment turned a little to one side. As it was, of the
+three balls with which the arquebuse was loaded, one took off a finger of
+his right hand, and another lodged in his left arm, making an ugly wound.
+Supported by De Guerchy and Des Pruneaux, between whom he had previously
+been walking, Coligny was carried to his house in the little Rue de
+Bethisy,[948] only a few steps farther on. As he went he pointed out to
+his friends the house from which the shot had been fired. To a gentleman
+who expressed the fear that the balls were poisoned, he replied with
+composure: "Nothing will happen but what it may please God to order."[949]
+
+The attempted assassination had happened in front of the cloisters of St.
+Germain l'Auxerrois. The house was recognized as one belonging to the
+Duchess Dowager of Guise, in which Villemur, the former tutor of young
+Henry of Guise, had lodged. The door was found locked; but the indignant
+followers of Coligny soon burst it open. They found within only a woman
+and a lackey. The assassin, after firing, had fled to the rear of the
+house. There he found a horse awaiting him; this he exchanged at the Porte
+Saint Antoine for a fresh Spanish jennet. He was out of Paris almost
+before pursuit was fairly undertaken. Subsequent investigation left no
+doubt as to his identity. It was that same Maurevel of infamous memory,
+who during the third civil war had traitorously shot De Mouy, after
+insinuating himself into his friendship, and sharing his room and his bed.
+The king's assassin, "le tueur du roi"--a designation he had obtained when
+Charles or his advisers gave a special reward for that exploit[950]--had
+been selected by Catharine, Anjou and the Guises, as possessing both the
+nerve and the experience that were requisite to make sure of Coligny's
+death. It was found that he had been placed in the house by De Chailly,
+"maitre d'hotel" of the king, and that the horse by means of which he
+effected his escape had been brought to the door by the groom of the Duke
+of Guise.[951]
+
+[Sidenote: Agitation of the king.]
+
+Charles was still in the tennis-court, when De Piles came in, sent by
+Coligny, to inform him of the bloody infraction of the Edict of
+Pacification. On hearing the intelligence, the king was violently
+agitated. Throwing down his racket, he exclaimed: "Am I, then, never to
+have peace? What! always new troubles?" and retired to his room in the
+Louvre, with a countenance expressive of great dejection.[952] And when,
+later in the day, the King of Navarre, the Prince of Conde, and La
+Rochefoucauld, after seeing Coligny's wounds dressed, came to the palace
+and begged him for permission to leave a city in which there was no
+security for their lives, Charles swore to them, with his accustomed
+profanity, that he would inflict upon the author and abettors of the crime
+so signal a punishment that Coligny and his friends would be satisfied,
+and posterity have a warning example. Coligny had received the wound, he
+said, but the smart was _his_. Catharine, who was present, chimed in, and
+declared the outrage so flagrant, that just retribution must speedily be
+meted out, or insolence would be pushed so far as that the king would be
+attacked in his own palace.[953]
+
+[Sidenote: Coligny courageous.]
+
+Meantime the admiral bore his sufferings with serenity, and, far from
+needing any comfort his friends could give him, himself administered
+consolation to the noblemen around his bed. His sufferings were acute.
+Amboise Pare, the famous surgeon of the king, himself a Huguenot, was
+called in; but the instruments at hand were dull, and it was not until the
+third attempt that he could satisfactorily amputate the wounded finger.
+"My friends," said Coligny to Merlin, his minister, and to other friends,
+"why do you weep? As for me, I think myself happy in having received these
+wounds for the name of God." And when Merlin exhorted him "to thank God
+for His mercy in preserving his mental faculties sound and entire, and to
+continue to divert his thoughts and feelings from his assassin and his
+wounds, and to turn them, as he was doing, from all things else to God,
+since it was from His hands that he had received them," the admiral's
+reply was, that sincerely and from the heart he forgave the person who had
+wounded him, and those who had instigated him, holding it for certain that
+it was beyond their power to injure him, since, should they even kill him,
+death would be an assured passage to life.[954] Thus, with quiet
+submission, and with edifying prayers which it would be too long to
+insert, the Admiral de Coligny passed those hours which his enemies
+subsequently, in their desperate attempts to justify or palliate the most
+abominable of crimes, represented as given up to infamous plots against
+king and state.
+
+[Sidenote: He is visited by the king and his mother.]
+
+That afternoon, between two and three o'clock, Charles visited the wounded
+man, at the suggestion of Teligny and Damville; for Coligny had expressed
+a desire to see the monarch, that he might communicate certain matters
+which concerned him greatly, but of which he feared there was no one else
+that would inform him.[955] The king came, accompanied by his mother, his
+brothers, the Duke of Montpensier, Cardinal Bourbon, Marshals Damville,
+Tavannes and Cosse, Count de Retz, and the younger Montmorencies, Thore
+and Meru.[956] The interview was kind and reassuring. The admiral, who lay
+upon his bed, heartily thanked the king for the honor he had deigned to do
+him, and for the measures he had already taken in his behalf. And Charles
+praised the patience and magnanimity exhibited by Coligny, and bade him be
+of good courage. Then more important topics were introduced. There were
+three points respecting which the admiral wished to speak to Charles. The
+first was his own loyalty, which, however much it had been maligned by his
+enemies, he desired now solemnly to reaffirm, in the presence of Him
+before whose bar he might soon be called to stand, and he declared that
+the sole cause of the hostility he had aroused was his attempt to set
+bounds to the fury of those who presumed to violate royal edicts. Next, he
+commended to the king the Flemish project. Never had any predecessor of
+Charles enjoyed so splendid an opportunity as now offered, when several
+cities of the Netherlands had declared their desire for his favor and
+protection. But these advances were openly derided by some of the
+courtiers about the king; while state secrets were so badly kept, that
+"one could not turn an egg, nor utter a word in the council, but it was
+forthwith reported to the Duke of Alva." And, indeed, what else could be
+expected, since those who were present, and even his own brothers,
+communicated to foreigners and enemies the king's most confidential
+deliberations? He earnestly begged Charles to apply a prompt remedy to
+this matter in future. The last point was the observance of the Edict of
+Pacification. What opinion would foreign nations form of the king, if he
+suffered a law solemnly made, and frequently confirmed by oath, to be
+openly trampled upon? In proof of this assertion, he alleged the recent
+attack upon the Protestants of Troyes returning from their place of
+worship, the tragic termination of which has already been noticed.
+
+To that part of Coligny's remarks which related to the war in Flanders, it
+is said that Charles made no direct reply; but he declared that he had
+never suspected the admiral's loyalty, and that he accounted him a good
+man, and a great and generous captain. There was not another man in the
+kingdom whom he would prefer to him. And he again asseverated his
+intention to enforce a religious observance of his edicts; for which
+purpose, indeed, he had recently despatched commissioners into all the
+provinces, as the queen could inform him. "That is true, Monsieur
+l'amiral," said Catharine, "and you know it." "Yes, madam," he replied,
+"commissioners have been sent, among whom are some that condemned me to be
+hung, and set a price of fifty thousand crowns on my head." "Then,"
+rejoined Charles, "we must send others who are open to no suspicion."
+Again he promised with his accustomed oath to see that the attempt upon
+the admiral's life should be so punished that the retribution would be
+forever remembered;[957] after which he inquired whether Coligny were
+satisfied with the judges whom he had appointed to conduct the
+investigation. Coligny replied that he committed himself in this matter to
+the king's prudence, but suggested that Cavaignes, the recently appointed
+maitre de requetes, and two other Huguenots be added to the commission.
+
+The king and De Retz both endeavored to persuade the admiral to permit
+himself to be transported, for safety's sake, to the Louvre; but Coligny's
+friends would not consent to a removal which might endanger his life.
+Charles requested, before he left, to see the ball extracted from the
+wounded arm, and examined it with apparent curiosity. Catharine took it
+next, and said that she was glad that it had been removed, for she
+remembered that, when the Duke of Guise was shot, the physicians
+repeatedly said that, even if the ball were poisoned, there was no danger
+to be apprehended when once the ball was taken out. Many afterward
+regarded it as a significant circumstance that the queen mother's mind
+should have reverted on this occasion to the murder of which the Lorraine
+family still persisted in accusing Coligny of having been the
+instigator.[958]
+
+[Sidenote: Catharine attempts to break up the conference.]
+
+Such was, according to the solitary Huguenot who was present by Coligny's
+bed, and who survived the subsequent massacre, the substance of the
+conversation at this celebrated interview. But, if we may credit the
+account which purports to have been given by Henry of Anjou, there was an
+incident which he failed to mention. At a certain point in the
+conversation Coligny asked to be allowed to speak to the king in private,
+a request which Charles willingly granted, motioning Henry and Catharine
+to withdraw. They accordingly retired to the middle of the room, where
+they remained standing during the suspicious colloquy. Meanwhile their
+apprehensions were awakened as they noticed that there were more than two
+hundred gentlemen and captains of the admiral's party in this and an
+adjacent room and below stairs. The sad looks of the Huguenots, their
+gestures expressive of discontent, their suppressed whispers, as they
+passed to and fro, before and behind the queen and her favorite son, with
+less respect than the latter thought was due to them, impressed them with
+the idea that they were objects of distrust. Catharine afterward admitted
+to Henry that never in her life was she so glad to get out of any other
+place. Her impatience soon impelled her to cut short the conference
+between Charles and Coligny--much to the regret of Charles--on the pretext
+that longer conversation might retard the sick man's recovery.
+
+Scarcely had the royal party left the admiral's lodgings, when Catharine
+began to ply Charles with questions respecting Coligny's private
+communication. Several times he absolutely refused to satisfy her
+curiosity. But at last, losing all patience, he roughly answered her with
+an oath: "What the admiral told me was true: kings are recognized as such
+in France only so far as they have the power to reward or punish their
+subjects and servants; and this power and the management of the affairs of
+the entire state have insensibly slipped into your hands. But this
+authority of yours, the admiral told me, may some day become highly
+prejudicial both to me and to my whole kingdom, and I ought to look upon
+it with suspicion, and to be on my guard. Of this he had desired, as one
+of my best and most faithful subjects, to warn me before he died. Well
+then, _mon Dieu_, since you will know it, this is what the admiral was
+telling me." "This was uttered," Anjou subsequently said, "with so much
+passion and fury, that the speech cut us to the heart. We concealed our
+emotion as best we could, and vindicated ourselves. This discourse we
+pursued from the admiral's lodgings to the Louvre. There, after having
+left the king in his own room, we retired to that of the queen, my mother,
+who was nettled and offended in the highest degree by this language of the
+admiral to the king, and still more by the credit the king seemed to give
+it, fearing that this might occasion some change in our affairs and in the
+conduct of the state. To be frank, we found ourselves so unprovided with
+counsel and understanding, that, being unable to come to any determination
+at that time, we separated, deferring the matter until the morrow."[959]
+
+[Sidenote: Charles writes letters expressing his displeasure.]
+
+Meantime, Charles, not content with closing all the gates of Paris, save
+two, which were to be strictly guarded, and with ordering a speedy
+judicial investigation, despatched, on the very day of the attempt on
+Coligny's life, a circular letter to all the governors of the provinces,
+and a similar letter to his ambassadors at foreign courts, declarative of
+his profound displeasure at this audacious crime. In the former he said:
+"I am at once sending in every direction in pursuit of the perpetrator,
+with a view to catch him and inflict such punishment upon him as is
+required by a deed so wicked, so displeasing, and, moreover, so
+inconvenient; for the reparation of which I wish to forget nothing." And
+lest any persons, whether Protestants or Roman Catholics, should be
+aroused by this news to make a disturbance of the peace, he called upon
+all the governors to explain the full circumstances of the case. "Assure
+every one," he wrote, "that it is my intention to observe inviolate my
+edict of pacification, and so strictly to punish those who contravene its
+provisions, that men may judge how sincere is my will."[960] In a similar
+strain he wrote to his ambassador in England, that he was "infinitely
+sorry" (infiniment marry), and that he desired him to acquaint Queen
+Elizabeth with his determination to cause such signal justice to be
+executed, that every one in his realm might take example therefrom.
+"Monsieur de la Mothe Fenelon," he added in a postscript, "I must not
+forget to tell you that this wicked act proceeds from the enmity between
+his [the admiral's] house and the Guises. I shall know how to provide that
+they involve none of my subjects in their quarrels; for I intend that my
+edict of pacification be observed in all points."[961]
+
+[Sidenote: The Vidame de Chartres advises the Huguenots to leave Paris.]
+
+Not long after the king had left Coligny's room, the admiral Was visited
+by Jean de Ferrieres, Vidame de Chartres, a leading Huguenot, who came to
+condole with him. He also had a more practical object in view. In a
+conference of the great nobles of the reformed faith, held in the room
+adjoining the admiral's, he advocated the instant departure of the
+Protestants from Paris, and urged it at considerable length. He saw in the
+event of the day the first act of a tragedy whose catastrophe could not be
+long deferred. The Huguenots had thrust their head into the very jaws of
+the lion; it were prudent to draw it out while it was yet time. But this
+sensible advice, based less upon any distinct evidence of a plot for their
+destruction than upon the obvious temptation which their defenceless
+situation offered to a woman proverbially unscrupulous, was overruled by
+the majority of those present. Teligny, in particular, the accomplished
+and amiable son-in-law of Coligny, opposed a scheme which not only might
+endanger the admiral's life, but would certainly displease the king, by
+betraying distrust of his ability or his inclination to defend his
+Protestant subjects.[962]
+
+Saturday morning came, and with it a report from Coligny's physicians,
+announcing that his wounds would not prove serious. Meanwhile the
+investigation into the attempted assassination was pursued, and disclosed
+more and more evidence of the complicity of the Guises. The young duke and
+his uncle Aumale, conscious of the suspicion in which they were held, and
+fearful perhaps of the king's anger, should the part they had taken become
+known, prepared to retire from Paris, and came to Charles to ask for leave
+of absence, telling him at the same time that they had long noticed that
+their services were not pleasing to him. Charles, with little show of
+courtesy, bade them depart. Should they prove guilty, he said, he would
+find means to bring them to justice.[963]
+
+[Sidenote: Catharine and Anjou come to a final decision.]
+
+And now the time had arrived when Catharine and the Duke of Anjou must
+come to a final decision respecting the means of extricating themselves
+from their present embarrassments. Maurevel's shot had done no execution.
+Coligny was likely to recover, to be more than ever the idol of the
+Huguenots, to become more than ever the favorite of the king. In that case
+the influence of Catharine and her younger son would be irretrievably
+lost; especially if the judicial investigation now in progress should
+reveal the fact that they were the prime movers in the plan of
+assassination. Certainly neither Henry of Guise nor his mother would
+consent to bear the entire responsibility. More than that, the Huguenots
+were uttering loud demands for justice, which to guilty consciences
+sounded like threats of retribution.
+
+We must here recur to Henry of Anjou's own account of this critical
+period; for that strange confession throws the only gleam of light upon
+the process by which the young king was moved to the adoption of a course
+whereby he earned the reputation--of which it will be difficult to divest
+him--of a monster of cruelty. "I went," says Anjou, "to see my mother, who
+had already risen. I was filled with anxiety, as also she was on her side.
+We adopted at that time no other determination than to despatch the
+admiral by whatever means possible. As artifice and cunning could no
+longer be employed, we must proceed by open measures. But, to do this, we
+must bring the king to this same resolution. We decided that we would go
+in the afternoon to his private room, and would bring in the Duke of
+Nevers, Marshals Tavannes and Retz, and Chancellor Birague, solely to
+obtain their advice as to the means we should employ in executing the plan
+upon which my mother and I had already agreed.
+
+[Sidenote: They ply Charles with arguments.]
+
+"As soon as we had entered the room in which the king my brother was, my
+mother began to represent to him that the party of the Huguenots was
+arming against him on account of the wounding of the admiral, the latter
+having sent several despatches to Germany to make a levy of ten thousand
+horse, and to the cantons of Switzerland for another levy of ten thousand
+foot; that most of the French captains belonging to the Huguenot party had
+already left in order to raise troops within the kingdom; and that the
+time and place of assembling had been fixed upon. Let so powerful an army
+as this once be joined to their French troops--a thing which was only too
+practicable--and the king's forces would not be half sufficient to resist
+them, in view of the intrigues and leagues they had, inside and outside of
+the kingdom, with many cities, communities, and nations. Of this she had
+good and certain advices. Their allies were to revolt in conjunction with
+the Huguenots under pretext of the public good; and for him (Charles),
+being weak in pecuniary resources, she saw no place of security in France.
+And, indeed, there was besides a new consequence of which she wished to
+warn him. It was that all the Catholics, wearied by so long a war, and
+vexed by so many sorts of calamities, were determined to put an end to
+them. In case he refused to follow their counsel, they also had determined
+among themselves to elect a captain-general to undertake their protection,
+and to form a league offensive and defensive against the Huguenots. Thus
+he would remain alone, enveloped in great danger, and without power or
+authority. All France would be seen armed by two great parties, over which
+he would have no command, and from which he could exact just as little
+obedience. But, to ward off so great a danger, a peril impending over him
+and his entire state, so much ruin, and so many calamities which were in
+preparation and just at hand, and the murder of so many thousands of
+men--to avert all these misfortunes, a single thrust of the sword would
+suffice--the admiral, the head and author of all the civil wars, alone
+need be put to death. The designs and enterprises of the Huguenots would
+perish with him; and the Catholics, satisfied with the sacrifice of two or
+three men, would remain obedient to him (the king)."
+
+Such arguments, and many more of a similar character, does Henry tell us
+that he and his wily mother addressed to the unhappy Charles. At first
+their words irritated him, and, without convincing, drove him into a
+frenzy of excitement. A little later, giving credit to the oft-repeated
+assertions of his false advisers, and his imagination becoming inflamed by
+the picture of the dangers surrounding him which they so skilfully
+painted, he would, nevertheless, hear nothing of the crime to which he was
+urged, but began anxiously to consult those who were present whether there
+were no other means of escape. Each man gave his opinion in succession;
+and each supported Catharine's views, until it came to the turn of Retz,
+who, contrary to the expectation of the conspirators, gave expression to
+more noble sentiments.[964] If any one were justified in hating Coligny
+and his faction, he said, it was himself, maligned, as he had been, both
+in France and abroad; but he was unwilling, in avenging private wrongs, to
+involve France and its royal family in dishonor. The king would justly be
+taxed with perfidy, and all confidence in his word or in public faith
+would be lost. Henceforth it would be impossible to treat for terms of
+peace in those new civil wars in which the French must be involved, and of
+which their children would not see the end.
+
+[Sidenote: The king consents reluctantly.]
+
+These wholesome words at first struck speechless the advocates of murder.
+Then they undertook, by repeating their arguments, to destroy the effect
+of the prophetic warning to which the king had just listened. They
+succeeded but too well. "That instant," says Henry of Anjou, "we perceived
+a sudden change, a strange and wonderful metamorphosis in the king. He
+placed himself on our side, and adopted our opinion, going much beyond us
+and to more criminal lengths; since, whereas before it was difficult to
+persuade him, now we had to restrain him. For, rising and addressing us,
+while imposing silence upon us, he told us in anger and fury, swearing by
+God's death that, 'since we thought it good that the admiral should be
+killed, he would have it so; but that with him all the Huguenots of France
+must be killed, in order that not one might remain to reproach him
+hereafter; and that we should promptly see to it.' And going out
+furiously, he left us in his room, where we deliberated the rest of the
+day, during the evening, and for a good part of the night, and decided
+upon that which seemed advisable for the execution of such an
+enterprise."[965]
+
+This is the strange record of the change by which Charles, from being the
+friend of Admiral Coligny, became the accomplice in his murder and in
+countless other assassinations throughout France. The admission of his
+guilt by one of the principal actors in the tragedy is so frank and
+undisguised that we find it difficult to believe that the narrative can
+have emanated from his lips. But the freaks of a burdened conscience are
+not to be easily accounted for. The most callous or reticent criminal
+sometimes is aroused to a recognition of his wickedness, and burns to
+communicate to another the fearful secret whose deposit has become
+intolerable to himself. And fortunately the confession of the princely
+felon does not stand alone. The son of another of the wretches who
+persuaded Charles to imbrue his hands in the blood of his subjects has
+given us the account which he undoubtedly received from his father shortly
+before his death, and we find the two statements to be in substantial
+agreement. Tavannes says: "The king notified (of the attempt upon
+Coligny's life), is offended, and threatens the Guises, not knowing whence
+the blow came. After a while, he is appeased by the queen, assisted by the
+sieur de Retz. They make his Majesty angry with the Huguenots--a vice
+peculiar to his Majesty, who is of choleric humor. They induce him to
+believe that they have discovered an enterprise of the Huguenots directed
+against him. He is reminded of the designs of Meaux and of Amboise.
+Suddenly gained over, as his mother had promised herself that he would be,
+he abandons the Huguenots, and remains sorry, with the rest, that the
+wound had not proved mortal."[966]
+
+[Sidenote: Few victims selected at first.]
+
+And now, the assassination of the admiral having received the king's
+approval, it only remained to decide upon the number of Protestants who
+should be involved with him in a common destruction, and to perfect the
+arrangements for the execution of the murderous plot. How many, and who
+were the victims whose sacrifice was predetermined? This is a question
+which, with our present means of information, we are unable to answer.
+Catharine, it is true, used to declare in later times that she
+contemplated no general massacre; that she took upon her conscience the
+blood of only five or six persons;[967] and, although the unsupported
+assertion of so perfidious a woman is certainly not entitled to any great
+consideration, we can readily see that the heads of half a dozen leaders
+might have fully contented her. She was not seeking for revenge so much
+as paving the way for her ambition. There were few Huguenots who were
+apparently so powerful as to interfere with her projects. Coligny, their
+acknowledged head; the Count of Montgomery, personally hated as the
+occasion of the death of her husband, Henry the Second, in the ill-fated
+tournament; the Vidame of Chartres; and La Rochefoucauld--these were
+doubtless of the number. Would she have desired to include the King of
+Navarre and the Prince of Conde? Not the former, on account of his recent
+marriage with her daughter. Yet to whom the Bourbons were indebted for the
+omission of their names from the proscriptive roll we cannot tell. After
+the accession of Henry the Fourth, it became the interest of all the
+families concerned to put the conduct of their ancestors in the most
+favorable light. Thus, Jean de Tavannes states that his father saved the
+life of the Bearnese in that infamous conclave; but so little did the
+latter believe him, that, on the contrary, he persistently refused to
+confer upon him the marshal's baton, which he would otherwise have
+received, on the ground that Gaspard de Tavannes was an instigator of the
+massacre.[968]
+
+[Sidenote: Religious hatred.]
+
+Thus much must be held to be clearly established: that fancied political
+exigencies demanded the assassination of only very few persons; that
+personal hatred, on the part of the principal or of the minor
+conspirators, added many more; that a still greater number were murdered
+in cold blood, simply that their spoils might enrich the assassins. What
+part must be assigned to religious zeal?[969] To any true outgrowth of
+religion, none at all; but much to the malice and the depraved moral
+teachings of its professed representatives. The hatred of Protestantism,
+engendered in the minds of the people by long years devoted to traducing
+the character and designs of the reformers, now bore fruit after its own
+kind, in revolting crimes of every sort; while the lesson, sedulously
+inculcated by priests, bishops, and monks, that obstinate heretics might
+righteously be, and ought to be exterminated from the face of the earth,
+permitted many a Parisian burgess to commit acts from which any but the
+most diabolic nature would otherwise have recoiled in horror. But of the
+measure of the responsibility of the Roman pontiff and his clergy for this
+stupendous crime, it will be necessary to speak in the sequel.
+
+[Sidenote: Precautionary measures.]
+
+In devising the plan for the destruction of the Huguenots, the queen
+mother and her council were greatly assisted by the course pursued by the
+Huguenots themselves, and by the very circumstances of the case. Under
+pretence of taking measures to secure the safety of the Protestants, the
+"quarteniers" could go, without exciting suspicion, from house to house,
+and make a complete list of all belonging to the reformed church.[970] The
+same excuse served to justify the court in posting a body of twelve
+hundred arquebusiers, a part along the river, a part in the immediate
+neighborhood of Coligny's residence.[971] And now the Protestants
+themselves, startled by the unusual commotion which they noticed in the
+city, and by the frequent passage to and fro of men carrying arms, sent a
+gentleman to the Louvre to ask the king for a few guards to protect the
+dwelling of their wounded leader. The request was only for five or six
+guards; but Charles, feigning astonishment and deep regret that there
+should be any reason for such apprehensions, insisted, at the suggestion
+of his brother Anjou, who stood by, upon despatching fifty, under command
+of Cosseins. So well known was the captain's hostility to Coligny and the
+Protestants, that Thore, Montmorency's brother, whispered to the Huguenot
+messenger as he withdrew: "You could not have been given in guard to a
+worse enemy;" but the royal direction was so positive that no remonstrance
+seemed possible. Accordingly, Cosseins and his arquebusiers took
+possession, in the king's name, of two shops adjoining Coligny's
+abode.[972] With as little ceremony, Rambouillet, the "marechal des
+logis," turned the Roman Catholic gentlemen out of the lodgings he had
+previously assigned them in the Rue de Bethisy, and gave the quarters to
+the Protestant gentlemen instead.[973] The reason assigned for this action
+was that the Huguenots might be nearer to each other and to the admiral,
+for mutual protection; the real object seems to have been to sweep them
+more easily into the common net of destruction.
+
+And yet the majority of the Huguenot leaders were not alive to the dangers
+of their situation. In a second conference held late on Saturday, the
+Vidame of Chartres was almost alone in urging instant retreat. Navarre,
+Conde, and others thought it sufficient to demand justice, and the
+departure of the Guises, as possessing dangerous credit with the common
+people. Teligny again dwelt upon the wrong done to Charles in distrusting
+his sincerity, and deprecated a course that might naturally irritate him.
+One Bouchavannes was noticed in the conference--a professed Protestant,
+but suspiciously intimate with Catharine, Retz, and other avowed enemies
+of the faith. He said nothing, but listened attentively. So soon as the
+meeting was over, Bouchavannes went to the Louvre and related the
+discussion to the queen mother.[974] The traitor's report, doubtless
+grossly exaggerated, is supposed to have decided Catharine to prompt
+action. It is certain, at least, that the calumnious perversion of the
+speeches and resolutions of the Huguenot conference was employed to
+inflame the passions of the mob, as well as to justify the atrocities of
+the morrow in the eyes of the world.
+
+[Sidenote: Orders issued to the prevot des marchands.]
+
+It was now late in the evening of Saturday, the twenty-third of August.
+Coligny had been writing to his friends throughout France, recommending
+them to be quiet, and informing them of the investigations now in
+progress. God and the king, he said, would do justice. His wounds were not
+mortal, thank God. If his _arm_ was wounded, his _brain_ was yet
+sound.[975] Meantime, the original framers of the murderous plot had
+called in the Guises, who in reality had not left Paris.[976] It had been
+arranged that the execution should be intrusted to them, in conjunction
+with the Bastard of Angouleme, Charles's natural brother, and Marshal
+Tavannes. And now at last we emerge from the mist that envelops many of
+the preliminaries of the night of horrors. The records of the Hotel de
+Ville contain the first documentary evidence of the coming massacre. There
+is no longer any doubt, unfortunately, of Charles's approval and
+complicity. "This day, the twenty-third day of August, very late in the
+evening," Charles sends for Charron, "prevot des marchands," to come to
+the Louvre. Here, in the presence of the queen mother, the Duke of Anjou
+and other princes and lords, his Majesty "declares that he has received
+intelligence that those of the new religion intend to make a rising by
+conspiracy against himself and his state, and to disturb the peace of his
+subjects and of his city of Paris; and that this very night some great
+personages of the said new religion and rebels have conspired against him
+and his said state, going to such lengths as to send his Majesty some
+arrogant messages which sounded like menaces." Consequently, in order to
+protect himself and the royal family, Charles directs the prevot to seize
+the keys of all the gates of the city, and to keep them carefully closed,
+in order to prevent any one from entering or leaving Paris. He also
+commands him to remove all the boats moored along the Seine, so as to
+prevent any one from crossing the river; and to put under arms all
+captains, lieutenants, ensigns, and burgesses capable of doing military
+duty.[977] The orders were faithfully and promptly obeyed. Long before
+morning dawned they had been transmitted successively to the lower
+municipal officers, quarteniers, dizainiers, etc.; the wherry-men had been
+stopped, and the troops and burgesses of Paris having armed themselves as
+best they could, were assembled ready for action in front of the Hotel de
+Ville, on that famous Place de Greve, so often drenched in martyr's
+blood.[978]
+
+[Sidenote: The first shot and the bell of St. Germain l'Auxerrois.]
+
+To the guilty plotters that was a sleepless night. Unable to rest quietly,
+at a little before dawn, Catharine with her two elder sons found her way
+to the portal of the Louvre, adjoining the tennis court. There, in a
+chamber overlooking the "bassecour," they sat down to await the beginning
+of their treacherous enterprise. If we may believe Henry of Anjou, none of
+them as yet realized its full horrors; but as they quietly watched in that
+hour of stillness for the first signs of the coming outbreak, the report
+of a pistol-shot reached their ears. Instantly it wrought a marvellous
+revulsion in their feelings. Whether the shot wounded or killed any one,
+they knew not; but it brought up vividly to their imaginations the results
+of the terrible deluge of blood whose flood-gates they had raised. Hastily
+they send a servant to the Duke of Guise, and countermand the instructions
+of the evening, and bid him do no injury to the admiral. It is too late!
+The messenger soon returns with the tidings that Coligny is already dead,
+that the work is about to begin in all the rest of the city. This news
+produces a fresh change. With one of those fluctuations which are so easy
+for souls that have no firm or established principles, but shift according
+to the deceptive, ever-varying tide of apparent interest, the mother and
+her sons return heartily to their former purpose. The die is cast, the
+deed is half done; let it be fully and boldly consummated. No room now for
+pity or regret.[979]
+
+It was a Sunday morning, the twenty-fourth of August--a day sacred in the
+Roman calendar to the memory of Saint Bartholomew. Torches and blazing
+lights had been burning all night in the streets, to render the task easy.
+The houses in which Protestants lodged had been distinctly marked with a
+white cross. The assassins themselves had agreed upon badges for mutual
+recognition--a white cross on the hat, and a handkerchief tied about the
+right arm. The signal for beginning was to be given by the great bell of
+the "Palais de Justice" on the island of the old "cite."[980]
+
+The preparations had not been so cautiously made but that they attracted
+the notice of some of the Huguenots living near Coligny. Going out to
+inquire the meaning of the clash of arms, and the unusual light in the
+streets, they received the answer that there was to be a mock combat in
+the Louvre--a pleasure castle was to be assaulted for the king's
+diversion.[981] But, as they went farther and approached the Louvre, their
+eyes were greeted by the sight of more torches and a great number of armed
+men. The guards, full of the contemplated plot, could not refrain from
+insults. It soon came to blows, and a Gascon soldier wounded a Protestant
+gentleman with his halberd. It may have been at this time that the shot
+was fired which Catharine and her sons heard from the open window of the
+Louvre. Declaring that the fury of the troops could no longer be
+restrained, the queen now gave orders to ring the bell of the neighboring
+church of St. Germain l'Auxerrois.[982]
+
+[Sidenote: Murder of Admiral Coligny.]
+
+Meantime Henry of Guise, Henry of Valois, the Bastard of Angouleme, and
+their attendants, had reached the admiral's house. The wounded man was
+almost alone. Could there be any clearer proof of the rectitude of his
+purpose, of the utter falsity of the charges of conspiracy with which his
+enemies afterward attempted to blacken his memory?[983] Guerchy and other
+Protestant gentlemen had expressed the desire to spend the night with him;
+but his son-in-law, Teligny, full of confidence in Charles's good
+intentions, had declined their offers, and had, indeed, himself gone to
+his own lodgings, not far off, in the Rue St. Honore.[984] With Coligny
+were Merlin, his chaplain, Pare, the king's surgeon, his ensign Cornaton,
+La Bonne, Yolet, and four or five servants. In the court below there were
+five of Navarre's Swiss guards on duty.[985] Coligny, awakened by the
+growing noise in the streets, had at first felt no alarm, so implicitly
+did he rely upon the protestations of Charles, so confident was he that
+Cosseins and his guards would readily quell any rising of the
+Parisians.[986] But now some one knocks at the outer door, and demands an
+entrance in the king's name. Word is given to La Bonne, who at once
+descends and unlocks. It is Cosseins, followed by the soldiers whom he
+commands. No sooner does he pass the threshold than he stabs La Bonne with
+his dagger. Next he seeks the admiral's room, but it is not easy to reach
+it, for the brave Swiss, even at the risk of their own lives, defend first
+the door leading to the stairs, and then the stairs themselves. And now
+Coligny could no longer doubt the meaning of the uproar. He rose from his
+bed, and, wrapping his dressing-gown about him, asked his chaplain to
+pray; and while Merlin endeavored to fulfil his request, he himself in
+audible petitions invoked Jesus Christ as his God and Saviour, and
+committed to His hands again the soul he had received from Him. It was
+then that the person to Whom we are indebted for this account--and he can
+scarcely have been another than Cornaton--rushed into the room. When Pare
+asked him what the disturbance imported, he turned to the admiral and
+said: "My lord, it is God that is calling us to Himself! The house has
+been forced, and we have no means of resistance!" To whom the admiral,
+unmoved by fear, and even, as all who saw him testified, without the least
+change of countenance, replied: "For a long time have I kept myself in
+readiness for death. As for you, save yourselves, if you can. It were in
+vain for you to attempt to save my life. I commend my soul to the mercy of
+God." Obedient to his directions, all that were with him, save Nicholas
+Muss or de la Mouche, his faithful German interpreter, fled to the roof,
+and escaped under cover of the darkness.
+
+One of Coligny's Swiss guards had been shot at the foot of the stairs.
+When Cosseins had removed the barricade of boxes that had been erected
+farther up, the Swiss in his own company, whose uniform of green, white,
+and black, showed them to belong to the Duke of Anjou, found their
+countrymen on the other side, but did them no harm. Cosseins following
+them, however, no sooner saw these armed men, than he ordered his
+arquebusiers to shoot, and one of them fell dead. It was a German follower
+of Guise, named Besme, who first reached and entered Coligny's chamber,
+and who for the exploit was subsequently rewarded with the hand of a
+natural daughter of the Cardinal of Lorraine. Cosseins, Attin, Sarlaboux,
+and others, were behind him. "Is not this the admiral?" said Besme of the
+wounded man, whom he found quietly seated and awaiting his coming. "I am
+he," Coligny calmly replied. "Young man, thou oughtest to have respect for
+my old age and my feebleness; but thou shalt not, nevertheless, shorten my
+life."[987] There were those who asserted that he added: "At least, would
+that some man, and not this blackguard, put me to death." But most of the
+murderers--and among them Attin, who confessed that never had he seen any
+one more assured in the presence of death--affirmed that Coligny said
+nothing beyond the words first mentioned. No sooner had Besme heard the
+admiral's reply, than, with a curse, he struck him with his sword, first
+in the breast, and then on the head.[988] The rest took part, and quickly
+despatched him.
+
+In the court below, Guise was impatiently waiting to hear that his mortal
+enemy was dead. "Besme," he cried out at last, "have you finished?" "It is
+done," the assassin replied. "Monsieur le Chevalier (the Bastard of
+Angouleme) will not believe it," again said Guise, "unless he sees him
+with his own eyes. Throw him out of the window!" Besme and Sarlaboux
+promptly obeyed the command. When the lifeless remains lay upon the
+pavement of the court, Henry of Guise stooped down and with his
+handkerchief wiped away the blood from the admiral's face. "I recognize
+him," he said; "it is he himself!" Then, after ignobly kicking the face of
+his fallen antagonist, he went out gayly encouraging his followers: "Come,
+soldiers, take courage; we have begun well. Let us go on to the others,
+for so the king commands!" And often through the day Guise repeated the
+words, "The king commands; it is the king's pleasure; it is his express
+command!" Just then a bell was heard, and the cry was raised that the
+Huguenots were in arms to kill the king.[989]
+
+As for Admiral Coligny's body, after the head had been cut off by an
+Italian of the guard of the Duke de Nevers, the trunk was treated with
+every indignity. The hands were cut off, and it was otherwise mutilated in
+a shameless manner. Three days was it dragged about the streets by a band
+of inhuman boys.[990] Meantime the head had been carried to the Louvre,
+where, after Catharine and Charles had sufficiently feasted their eyes on
+the spectacle, it was embalmed and sent to Rome, a grateful present to the
+Cardinal of Lorraine and Pope Gregory the Thirteenth.[991] It has been
+questioned whether the ghastly trophy ever reached its destination.
+Indeed, the French court seems to have become ashamed of its inhumanity,
+and to have regretted that so startling a token of its barbarous hatred
+had been allowed to go abroad. Accordingly, soon after the departure of
+the courier, a second courier was despatched in great haste to Mandelot,
+governor of Lyons, bidding him stop the first and take away from him the
+admiral's head. He arrived too late, however; four hours before Mandelot
+received the king's letter, "a squire of the Duke of Guise, named Pauli,"
+had passed through the city, doubtless carrying the precious relic.[992]
+That it was actually placed in the hands of the Cardinal of Lorraine at
+Rome, need not be doubted.
+
+[Sidenote: Coligny's character and work.]
+
+Gaspard de Coligny was in his fifty-sixth year at the time of his death.
+For twelve years he had been the most prominent man in the Huguenot party,
+occupying a position secured to him not more by his resplendent abilities
+as a general than by the respect exacted by high moral principles. With
+the light and frivolous side of French character he had little in common.
+It was to a sterner and more severe class that he belonged--a class of
+which Michel de l'Hospital might be regarded as the type. Men who had
+little affinity with them, and bore them still less resemblance, but who
+could not fail to admire their excellence, were wont to liken both the
+great Huguenot warrior and the chancellor to that Cato whose grave
+demeanor and imposing dignity were a perpetual censure upon the flippancy
+and lax morality of his countrymen. Although not above the ordinary height
+of men, his appearance was dignified and commanding. In speech he was slow
+and deliberate. His prudence, never carried to the extreme of
+over-caution, was signalized on many occasions. Success did not elate him;
+reverses did not dishearten him. The siege of the city of St. Quentin,
+into which he threw himself with a handful of troops, and which he long
+defended against the best soldiers of Spain, displayed on a conspicuous
+stage his military sagacity, his indomitable determination, and the
+marvellous control he maintained over his followers. It did much to
+prevent Philip from reaping more substantial fruits from the brilliant
+victory gained by Count Egmont on the feast-day of St. Lawrence.[993] It
+was, however, above all in the civil wars that his abilities shone forth
+resplendent. Equally averse to beginning war without absolute necessity,
+and to ending it without securing the objects for which it had been
+undertaken, he was the good genius whose wholesome advice was frequently
+disregarded, but never without subsequent regret on the part of those who
+had slighted it. We have seen, in a former chapter,[994] the touching
+account given by Agrippa d'Aubigne of the appeal of the admiral's wife,
+which alone was successful in moving him to overcome his almost invincible
+repugnance to taking up arms, even in behalf of a cause which he knew to
+be most holy. I find a striking confirmation of the accuracy of the report
+in a passage of his will, wherein he defends himself from the calumnies of
+his enemies.[995] "And forasmuch as I have learned that the attempt has
+been made to impute to me a purpose to attack the persons of the king, the
+queen, and the king's brothers, I protest before God that I never had any
+such will or desire, and that I never was present at any place where such
+plans were ever proposed or discussed. And as I have also been accused of
+ambition in taking up arms with those of the reformed religion, I make the
+same protestation, that only zeal for religion, together with fear for my
+own life, compelled me to assume them. And, indeed, I must confess my
+weakness, and that the greatest fault which I have always committed in
+this respect has been that I have not been sufficiently alive to the acts
+of injustice and the slaughter to which my brethren were subjected, and
+that the dangers and the traps that were laid for myself were necessary to
+move me to do what I have done. But I also declare before God, that I
+tried every means in my power, in order so long as possible to maintain
+peace, fearing nothing so much as civil disturbances and wars, and clearly
+foreseeing that these would bring after them the ruin of this kingdom,
+whose preservation I have always desired and labored for to the utmost of
+my ability."
+
+To Coligny's strategy too much praise could scarcely be accorded. The
+Venetian ambassador, Contarini, in the report of his mission to the
+senate, in the early part of the year 1572, expressed his amazement that
+the admiral, a simple gentleman with slender resources, had waged war
+against his own powerful sovereign, who was assisted by the King of Spain
+and by a few German and several Italian princes; and that, in spite of
+many battles lost, he preserved so great a reputation that the reiters and
+lansquenets never rebelled, although their wages were much in arrears, and
+their booty was often lost in adverse combats. He was, in fact, said the
+enthusiastic Italian, entitled to be held in higher esteem than Hannibal,
+inasmuch as the Carthaginian general retained the respect of foreign
+nations by being uniformly victorious; but the admiral retained it,
+although his cause was almost always unsuccessful.[996]
+
+But all Coligny's military achievements pale in the light of his manly and
+unaffected piety. It is as a type of the best class among the Huguenot
+nobility that he deserves everlasting remembrance. From his youth he had
+been plunged in the engrossing pursuits of a soldier's life; but he was
+not ashamed, so soon as he embraced the views of the reformers, to
+acknowledge the superior claims of religion upon his time and his
+allegiance. He gloried in being a Christian. The influence of his faith
+was felt in every action of his life. In the busiest part of an active
+life, he yet found time for the recognition of God; and, whether in the
+camp or in his castle of Chatillon-sur-Loing, he consecrated no
+insignificant portion of the day to devotion. Of the ordinary life of
+Admiral Coligny, the anonymous author of his Life, who had himself been an
+inmate in his house, has left an interesting description, derived from
+what he himself saw and heard:
+
+"As soon as he had risen from bed, which was always at an early hour,
+putting on his morning-gown, and kneeling, as did those who were with him,
+he himself prayed in the form which is customary with the churches of
+France. After this, while waiting for the commencement of the sermon,
+which was delivered on alternate days, accompanied with psalmody, he gave
+audience to the deputies of the churches who were sent to him, or devoted
+the time to public business. This he resumed for a while after the service
+was over, until the hour for dinner. When that was come, such of his
+domestic servants as were not prevented by necessary engagements
+elsewhere, met in the hall where the table was spread, standing by which,
+with his wife at his side, if there had been no preaching service, he
+engaged with them in singing a psalm, and then the ordinary blessing was
+said.
+
+"On the removal of the cloth, rising and standing with his wife and the
+rest of the company, he either returned thanks himself or called on his
+minister to do so. Such, also, was his practice at supper, and, finding
+that the members of his household could not, without much discomfort,
+attend prayers so late as at bedtime--an hour, besides, which the
+diversity of his occupations prevented from being regularly fixed--his
+orders were that, so soon as supper was over, a psalm should be sung and
+prayer offered. It cannot be told how many of the French nobility began to
+establish this religious order in their own families, after the example of
+the admiral, who used often to exhort them to the practice of true piety,
+and to warn them that it was not enough for the father of a family to live
+a holy and religious life, if he did not by his example bring all his
+people to the same rule.
+
+"On the approach of the time for the celebration of the Lord's Supper,
+calling together all the members of his household, he told them that he
+had to render an account to God, not only of his own life, but also of
+their behavior, and reconciled such of them as might have had
+differences.... Moreover, he regarded the institution of colleges for
+youth, and of schools for the instruction of children, a singular benefit
+from God, and called the school a seminary of the church and an
+apprenticeship of piety; holding that ignorance of letters had introduced
+into both church and state that thick darkness in which the tyranny of the
+Pope had had its birth and increase.... This conviction led him to lay out
+a large sum in building a college at Chatillon, and there he maintained
+three very learned professors of Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, respectively,
+and a number of students.
+
+"There could not be a stronger proof of his integrity, and of the
+moderation of his desires with respect to the possession of property, than
+that, notwithstanding the high offices he held, and the opportunities they
+afforded, as is usual with courtiers, of attending to his own interests
+and acquiring great wealth, he did not increase his patrimonial estates by
+a single acre; and, although he was an excellent economist, yet the number
+of persons of high rank, and, indeed, of all conditions, that came to
+consult him on public affairs from all parts of France, obliged him to
+draw largely on the savings effected by his good management; so that he
+left to his heirs not less than forty thousand livres of debts, besides
+six thousand livres of interest which he paid annually to his
+creditors."[997]
+
+Such was the Christian hero whom his enemies represented as breathing out
+menaces upon the bed on which Maurevel's arquebuse had laid him, and as
+exclaiming: "If my arm is wounded, my head is not. If I have to lose my
+arm, I shall get the head of those who are the cause of it. They intended
+to kill me; I shall anticipate them." Such was the disinterested patriot
+whom, in the infatuation of their lying fabrications, the murderers of
+Paris, their hands still reeking with the blood of thousands of women and
+children incontestably innocent of any crime laid to the charge of their
+husbands or fathers, pictured as plotting the wholesale assassination of
+the royal family--even to the very Henry of Navarre whose wedding he had
+come to honor by his presence--that he might place upon the throne of
+France that stubborn heretic, the Prince of Conde![998]
+
+[Sidenote: Murder of Huguenot nobles in the Louvre.]
+
+While the murder of Coligny was in course of execution, or but shortly
+after, a tragedy not less atrocious was enacted in the royal palace
+itself. A number of Huguenot gentlemen of the highest distinction were
+lodged in the Louvre. Charles, after the admiral's wound, had suggested to
+the King of Navarre that he would do well to invite some of his friends to
+act as a guard against any attack that might be made upon him by the Duke
+of Guise, whom he characterized as a "mauvois garcon."[999] Late on
+Saturday night, as Margaret of Valois informs us in her Memoirs, and long
+after she and her husband had retired, these Huguenot lords, gathered
+around Henry of Navarre's bed to the number of thirty, had discussed the
+occurrences of the last two eventful days, and declared their purpose to
+go to the king on the morrow and demand the punishment of the Guises.
+Margaret herself had been purposely kept in ignorance of the plan for the
+extirpation of the Protestants. For, if the Huguenots suspected her,
+because she was a Roman Catholic, the papists suspected her equally
+because she had married a Protestant. On parting with her mother for the
+night, her elder sister Claude, Duchess of Lorraine, who happened to be on
+a visit to the French court, had vainly attempted to detain Margaret,
+expressing with tears the apprehension that some evil would befall her.
+But Catharine had peremptorily sent her to bed, assuring her with words
+which, seen in the light of subsequent revelations, approach the climax of
+profanity: "That, if God pleased, she would receive no injury."[1000] So
+deep was the impression of impending danger made upon Margaret's mind,
+that she remained awake, she tells us, until morning, when her husband
+arose, saying that he would go and divert himself with a game of tennis
+until Charles should awake. After his departure, the Queen of Navarre,
+relieved of her misgivings, as the night was now spent, ordered her maid
+to lock her door, and composed herself to sleep.[1001]
+
+Meantime the Protestant gentlemen who accompanied Navarre, and all the
+others who lodged in the Louvre, had been disarmed by Nancay, captain of
+the guard. In this defenceless condition ten or twelve of their number
+were conducted, one by one, to the gate of the building. Here soldiers
+stood in readiness, and despatched them with their halberds as they
+successively made their appearance. Such was the fate of the brave
+Pardaillan, of St. Martin, of Boursis, of Beauvais, former tutor of Henry
+of Navarre, and of others; some of whom in a loud voice called upon
+Charles, whom they saw at a window, an approving spectator of the
+butchery, to remember the solemn pledges he had given them. M. de
+Piles--that brave Huguenot captain, whose valor, if it did not save St.
+Jean d'Angely in the third civil war, had at least detained the entire
+Roman Catholic army for seven weeks before fortifications that were none
+of the best, and rendered Moncontour a field barren of substantial
+fruits[1002]--was the object of special hatred, and his conduct was
+particularly remarked for its magnanimity. Observing among the bystanders
+a Roman Catholic acquaintance in whose honor he might perhaps confide, he
+stripped himself of his cloak, and would have handed it to him, with the
+words: "De Piles makes you a present of this; remember hereafter the death
+of him who is now so unjustly put to death!" "Mon capitaine," answered the
+other, fearful of incurring the enmity of Catharine and Charles, "I am not
+of the company of these persons. I thank you for your cloak; but I cannot
+take it upon such conditions." The next moment M. de Piles fell, pierced
+by the halberd of one of the archers of the guard. "These are the men,"
+cried the murderers at their bloody work, "who resorted to violence, in
+order to kill the king afterward."[1003] One of the victims marked out for
+the slaughter escaped the death of his fellows. Margaret of Valois had not
+been long asleep, when her slumbers were rudely disturbed by loud blows
+struck upon the door, and shouts of "Navarre! Navarre!" Her attendant,
+supposing it to be Henry himself, hastily opened the door; when there
+rushed in instead, a Huguenot nobleman, the Viscount de Leran,[1004]
+wounded in the arm by sword and halberd, and pursued by four archers. In
+his terror he threw himself on Margaret's bed, and when she jumped up, in
+doubt of what could be the meaning of this strange incident, he clung to
+her night-dress which was drenched with his blood. Nancay angrily
+reproved the indiscretion of his soldiers, and Margaret, leaving the
+Huguenot in her room to have his wounds dressed, suffered herself to be
+conducted to the chamber of her sister, the Duchess of Lorraine. It was
+but a few steps; but, on the way, a Huguenot was killed at three paces'
+distance from her, and two others--the first gentleman of the King of
+Navarre, and his first valet-de-chambre--ran to her imploring her to save
+their lives. She sought and obtained the favor on her knees before
+Catharine and Charles.[1005] A few other Huguenots who were in the Louvre
+were ready to purchase their lives at any price, even to that of abjuring
+their faith. They obtained pardon on promising the king to comply with all
+his commands; and this, we are told, "the more easily, as Charles very
+well knew that they had little or no religion."[1006]
+
+[Sidenote: Navarre and Conde spared.]
+
+The King of Navarre and the Prince of Conde were spared, although there
+were not wanting those who would gladly have seen the ruin of the family
+of Bourbon. Navarre was brother-in-law of Charles, and Conde of the Duke
+of Nevers; this may have guaranteed their safety. Both of the young
+princes, however, were summoned into the king's presence, where Charles,
+acknowledging the murder of Coligny, the great cause of disturbances, and
+the similar acts then perpetrated throughout the city, as sanctioned by
+his authority, sternly told the two youths that he intended no longer to
+tolerate two religions in his dominions. He desired them, therefore, to
+conform to that creed which had been professed by all his predecessors,
+and which he intended to uphold. They must renounce the profane doctrines
+they had embraced, and return to the Catholic and Roman religion. If they
+refused, they must expect to suffer the treatment which had just been
+experienced by so many others.[1007]
+
+The replies of the two princes were singularly unlike. Henry of Navarre,
+bold enough where only physical bravery was demanded, exhibited for the
+first time that lamentable absence of moral courage which was to render
+his life, in its highest relations, a splendid failure. His countenance
+betrayed agitation and faint-heartedness.[1008] With great
+"humility"--almost whining, it would appear--he begged that his own life
+and the life of Conde might be spared, and reminded Charles of his
+promised protection. "He would act," he said, "so as to satisfy his
+Majesty; yet he besought him to remember that conscience was a great
+thing, and that it was hard to renounce the religion in which one had been
+brought up from infancy." On the other hand, Henry of Conde, in no way
+abashed,[1009] declared "that he could not believe that his royal cousin
+intended to violate a promise confirmed by so solemn an oath. As to
+fealty, he had always been an obedient subject of the king, and would ever
+be. Touching his religion, if the king had given him the exercise of its
+worship, God had given him the knowledge of it; and to Him he must needs
+give up an account. So far as his body and his possessions were concerned,
+they were in the king's hands to dispose of as he might choose. Yet it was
+his own determination to remain constant in his religion, which he would
+always maintain to be the true religion, even should he be compelled to
+lay down his life for it." So stout an answer kindled the anger of
+Charles, who was in no mood to meet with opposition. He called Conde "a
+rebel," "a seditious man," and "the son of a seditious father," and warned
+him that he would lose his head, if, within three days, he should not
+think better of the matter.[1010]
+
+[Sidenote: The massacre becomes general.]
+
+And now the great bell of the "Palais de Justice" pealed forth the tocsin.
+About the Louvre the work of blood had begun when Catharine, impatient,
+and fearful lest Charles's resolution should again waver at the last
+moment, gave orders to anticipate the appointed time by ringing the bell
+of the neighboring church of St. Germain l'Auxerrois. But now the loud and
+unusual clangor from the tower of the parliament house carried the warning
+far and wide. All Paris awoke. The conspirators everywhere recognized the
+stipulated signal, and spread among the excited townsmen the wildest and
+most extravagant reports. A foul plot, formed by the Huguenots, against
+the king, his mother, and his brothers, had come to light. They had killed
+more than fifteen of the royal guards. The king, therefore, commanded that
+quarter should not be given to a single Huguenot.[1011]
+
+Nothing more was needed to inflame the popular hatred of the Huguenots,
+nor to prepare the rabble for an indiscriminate slaughter of the
+Protestants.
+
+[Sidenote: La Rochefoucauld and Teligny fall.]
+
+Among the earliest victims of this day of carnage was Count de la
+Rochefoucauld. This witty and lively young noble had been in the Louvre
+until a late hour on Saturday night, diverting himself with the king, with
+whom he was a great favorite. Apparently in his anxiety to save La
+Rochefoucauld's life, Charles invited, and even urged him, to spend the
+night in the royal "garde-robe;" but the count, suspecting no danger,
+insisted on returning to his lodgings, while the king reluctantly
+abandoned his boon companion to his fate, rather than betray his secret.
+Early awakened from his sleep at his lodgings by loud knocking at the door
+and by demands for admission in the king's name, and seeing a band of
+masked men enter, he recalled Charles's threat at parting, that he would
+come and administer to him a whipping. The practical joke would not have
+been unlike many of the mad antics of the royal jester, and La
+Rochefoucauld, addressing himself to the person whom he supposed to be his
+Majesty in disguise, begged him to treat him with humanity. His deception
+was not long continued; for the maskers, after rifling his trunks, drew
+him from his place of concealment and murdered him. His lifeless body was
+dragged through the streets of Paris.[1012]
+
+Teligny was, perhaps, even more unfortunate than the rest, because he
+awoke too late to the fact that his own blind confidance in the word of a
+faithless prince had been a chief instrument of involving his
+father-in-law and his friends in destruction. He was among the first to
+pay the penalty of his credulity. More than one of the parties sent to
+destroy him, it is said, overcome by compassion for his youth and manly
+beauty, or by respect for his graceful manners and extraordinary learning,
+left their commission unexecuted. To avoid further peril, he ascended to
+the roof, from which he made his way to an adjoining house; but he had not
+gone far before he was seen and shot with an arquebuse by one of the Duke
+of Anjou's guards.[1013]
+
+[Sidenote: Self-defense of a few nobles.]
+
+The Huguenots, attacked in the midst of their slumbers by the courtiers
+and the soldiers of the royal guard,[1014] among whom were prominent the
+Swiss of Charles or his brother, or by the people of Paris, who every
+moment swelled the ranks of the assassins, were too much taken by
+surprise to offer even the slightest resistance. Guerchy, the same
+gentleman who had offered his services to Coligny the night before, is
+almost the only man reported to have fought for his life. With his sword
+in his right hand, and winding his cloak around his left arm, he defended
+himself for a long time, though the breastplates of his enemies were proof
+against his blows. At last, he fell, overborne by numbers.[1015] The
+Lieutenant de la Mareschaussee, if not more determined, was better
+prepared for the combat. All day long, with a single soldier as his
+comrade, he defended his house against the assailants, expecting at every
+moment to be relieved from his perilous situation by the king. But, far
+from meriting such confidence on the part of his subjects, Charles was
+indignant at his prolonged resistance, and sent a powerful detachment of
+guards, with orders to bring him the lieutenant's head. The brave
+Huguenot, however, still maintained the unequal siege, and fought till his
+last breath. The soldiers had only the poor satisfaction of pillaging his
+house, of dragging his sick daughter naked through the streets until she
+died of maltreatment, and of wounding and imprisoning his wife.[1016]
+
+[Sidenote: Victims of personal hatred.]
+
+Personal hatred, jealousy, cupidity, mingled with religious and political
+zeal, and private ends were attained in fulfilling the king's murderous
+commands. Bussy d'Amboise, meeting his Protestant cousin, the Marquis de
+Renel (half-brother of the late Prince of Porcien), by a well-directed
+blow with his poniard rid himself of an unpleasant suit at law which Renel
+had come to Paris to prosecute.
+
+[Sidenote: Adventure of young La Force.]
+
+The case of Caumont de la Force was still more revolting. His daughter,
+Madame de la Chataigneraie, in accordance with the shameless code of
+morals in vogue at the French court, had taken for her lover Archan,
+captain of the guard of Henry of Anjou; and it was to gratify her
+covetousness that Archan obtained from the Duke the order to despatch La
+Force and his two sons. The plan was successfully executed so far as the
+father and his elder son were concerned. The second, a boy of twelve,
+escaped by his remarkable presence of mind and self-control. Certain that
+his youth would excite no pity in the breast of his inhuman assailants,
+when his father and his brother fell at his side and he perceived himself
+covered with their blood, he dropped down with the exclamation that he was
+dead. So perfectly did he counterfeit death, all that long day, that,
+although his body was examined by successive bands of plunderers, and
+deprived not only of every valuable, but even of its clothing, he did not
+by a motion betray that he was alive. Most of these persons applauded the
+crime. It was well, they said, to kill the little wolves with the greater.
+But, toward evening, a more humane person came, who, while engaged in
+drawing off a stocking which had been left on the boy's foot, gave
+expression to his abhorrence of the bloody deed. To his astonishment the
+boy raised his head, and whispered, "I am not dead." The compassionate man
+at once commanded him not to stir, and went home; but as soon as it was
+dark he returned with a cloak, which he threw about young La Force's
+shoulders, and bade him follow. It was no easy matter to thread the
+streets unmolested; but his guide dispelled the suspicions of those who
+questioned him respecting the boy by declaring that it was his nephew whom
+he had found drunk, and was going to whip soundly for it. In the end the
+young nobleman reached the arsenal, where his relative, Marshal Biron, was
+in command. Even there, however, the avarice of his unnatural sister
+pursued him. Vexed that, on account of his preservation, she must fail to
+secure the entire inheritance of the family, Madame de la Chataigneraie
+tried to effect herself what she had not been able to do by means of
+another; she visited the marshal in the arsenal, and, after expressing
+great joy that her brother had been saved, begged to be permitted to see
+and care for him. Biron thought it necessary, in order to preserve the
+boy's life, to deny her request.[1017]
+
+[Sidenote: Pitiless butchery.]
+
+The frenzy that had fallen upon Paris affected all classes alike. Every
+feeling of pity seemed to have been blotted out. Natural affection
+disappeared. A man's foes were those of his own household. On the plea of
+religious zeal the most barbarous acts were committed. Spire Niquet, a
+poor bookbinder, whose scanty earnings barely sufficed to support the
+wants of his seven children, was half-roasted in a bonfire made of his own
+books, and then dragged to the river and drowned.[1018] The weaker sex was
+not spared in the universal carnage, and, as in a town taken by assault,
+suffered outrages that were worse than death. Matron and maiden alike
+welcomed as merciful the blow that liberated them from an existence now
+rendered insupportable. Women approaching maternity were selected for more
+excruciating torments, and savage delight was exhibited in destroying the
+unborn fruit of the womb. Nor was any rank respected. Madame d'Yverny, the
+niece of Cardinal Briconnet, was recognized, as she fled, by the costly
+underclothing that appeared from beneath the shabby habit of a nun which
+she had assumed; and, after suffering every indignity, upon her refusal to
+go to mass, was thrown from a bridge into the Seine and drowned.[1019]
+Occasionally the women rivalled the cruelty of the men. A poor carpenter,
+of advanced age, with whom the author of the "Tocsain contre les
+massacreurs" was personally acquainted, had been taken by night and cast
+into the river. He swam, however, to a bridge, and succeeded in climbing
+up by its timbers, and so fled naked to the house of a relative near the
+"Cousture Sainte Catherine," where his wife had taken refuge. But,
+instead of welcoming him, his wife drove him away, and he was soon
+recaptured and killed.[1020] It is related that the daughter of one Jean
+de Coulogne, a mercer of the "Palais," betrayed her own mother to death,
+and subsequently married one of the murderers.[1021] The very innocence of
+childhood furnished no sufficient protection--so literally did the pious
+Catholics of Paris interpret the oft-repeated exhortations of their holy
+father to exterminate not only the roots of heresy, but the very fibres of
+the roots.[1022] Two infants, whose parents had just been murdered, were
+carried in a hod and cast into the Seine. A little girl was plunged naked
+in the blood of her father and mother, with horrible oaths and threats
+that, if she should become a Huguenot, the like fate would befall her. And
+a crowd of boys, between nine and ten years of age, was seen dragging
+through the streets the body of a babe yet in its swaddling-clothes, which
+they had fastened to a rope by means of a belt tied about its neck.[1023]
+
+[Sidenote: Shamelessness of the court ladies.]
+
+[Sidenote: Anjou encourages the assassins.]
+
+The bodies of the more inconspicuous victims lay for hours in whatever
+spot they happened to be killed; but the court required ocular
+demonstration that the leaders of the Huguenots who had been most
+prominent in the late wars were really dead. Accordingly the naked corpses
+of Soubise, of Guerchy, of Beaudine, d'Acier's brother, and of others,
+were dragged from all quarters to the square in front of the Louvre.
+There, as an indignant contemporary writes, extended in a long row, they
+lay exposed to the view of the varlets, of whom when alive they had been
+the terror.[1024] Cruelty and lust are twin sisters: when the one is at
+hand, the other is generally not far distant. The court of Catharine de'
+Medici was noted for its impurity, as it was infamous for its recklessness
+of human life. It was not out of keeping with its general reputation that
+toward evening a bevy of ladies--among them the queen mother--tripped down
+the palace stairs to feast their eyes upon the sight of the uncovered
+dead.[1025] Indeed, the king, the queen mother, and their intimate friends
+seemed to be in an ecstasy of joy. They indulged in boisterous
+laughter[1026] as the successive reports of the municipal authorities,
+from hour to hour, brought in tidings of the extent of the massacre.[1027]
+"The war is now ended in reality," they were heard to say, "and we shall
+henceforth live in peace."[1028] The Duke of Anjou took a more active
+part. In the street and on the Pont de Notre Dame he was to be seen
+encouraging the assassins.[1029] The Duke of Montpensier was surpassed by
+no one in his zealous advocacy of the murderous work. "Let every man exert
+himself to the utmost," he cried, as he rode through the streets, "if he
+wishes to prove himself a good servant to the king."[1030] Tavannes, if we
+may believe Brantome's account, endeavored to rival him, and, all day
+long, as he rode about amid the carnage, amused himself by facetiously
+crying to the people: "Bleed! Bleed! The doctors say that bleeding is as
+good in the month of August as in May."[1031]
+
+Of the Duke of Alencon it was noticed that, alone of Catharine's sons, he
+took no part in the massacre. The Protestants even regarded him as their
+friend, and the rumor was current that the pity he exhibited excited the
+indignation of his mother and brothers. Indeed, Catharine, it was said,
+openly told him that, if he ventured to meddle with her plans, she would
+put him in a sack and throw him into the river.[1032]
+
+[Sidenote: Wonderful escapes.]
+
+Of the pastors of the Church of Paris, it was noticed as a remarkable
+circumstance that but two--Buirette and Desgorris--were killed; for it was
+certain that no lives were more eagerly sought than theirs.[1033] But
+several Protestant pastors had wonderful escapes. The celebrated
+D'Espine--the converted monk who took part in the Colloquy of Poissy--was
+in company with Madame d'Yverny when her disguise was discovered, but he
+was not recognized.[1034] In the case of Merlin, chaplain of Admiral
+Coligny, the divine interposition seemed almost as distinct as in that of
+the prophet Elijah. After reluctantly leaving Coligny, at his earnest
+request, and clambering over the roof of a neighboring house, he fell
+through an opening into a garret full of hay. Not daring to show himself,
+since he knew not whether he would encounter friends or foes, he remained
+for three days in this retreat, his sole food an egg which a hen daily
+laid within his reach.[1035]
+
+The future minister of Henry the Fourth, Maximilien de Bethune, Duke of
+Sully, at this time a boy of twelve and a student in the college of
+Burgundy in Paris, has left us in his "Economies royales" a thrilling
+account of his escape. Awakened, about three o'clock in the morning, by
+the uproar in the streets, his tutor and his valet-de-chambre went out to
+learn the occasion of it, and never returned. They were doubtless among
+the first victims. Sully's trembling host--a Protestant who consented
+through fear to abjure his faith--now came in, and advised the youth to
+save his life by going to mass. Sully was not prepared to take this
+counsel, and, so putting on his scholar's gown, he ventured upon the
+desperate step of trying to reach the college. A horrible scene presented
+itself to view. Everywhere men were breaking into houses, or slaughtering
+their captives in the public streets, while the cry of "Kill the
+Huguenots" was heard on all sides. Sully himself owed his preservation to
+two thick volumes of "Heures"--Romish books of devotion--which he had the
+presence of mind to take under his arm, and which effectually disarmed the
+suspicions of the three successive bands of soldiers that stopped him. At
+the college, after with difficulty gaining admission, he incurred still
+greater danger. Happily the principal, M. Du Faye, was a kind-hearted man.
+In vain was he urged, by two priests who were his guests, to surrender the
+Huguenot boy to death, saying that the order was to massacre even the very
+babes at the breast. Du Faye would not consent; and after having secretly
+kept Sully locked up for three days in a closet, he found means to restore
+him to his friends.[1036]
+
+[Sidenote: Death of the philosopher Ramus.]
+
+No loss was more sensibly felt by the scientific world than that of the
+learned Pierre de la Ramee, or Ramus, a philosopher second to none of his
+day. The professor might possibly have escaped if his only offence had
+been his Protestant views; but Ramus had had the temerity to attack
+Aristotle, and to attempt to reform the faulty pronunciation of the Latin
+language. For these unpardonable sins he was tracked to the cellar in
+which he had hidden, by a band of robbers under the guidance of Jacques
+Charpentier, a jealous rival, with whom he had had acrimonious
+discussions. After being compelled to give up a considerable sum of money,
+he was despatched with daggers, and thrown from an upper window into the
+court of his college. Never was philosophic heterodoxy more thoroughly
+punished; for if the whipping, dragging through the filthy streets, and
+dismembering of a corpse by indignant students with the approval of their
+teachers, could atone for such grave errors, the anger of the illustrious
+Stagirite must have been fully appeased. If anything can clearly exhibit
+the depth of moral degradation to which Roman Catholic France had fallen,
+it is the fact that Charpentier unblushingly accepted the praise which was
+liberally showered upon him for his participation in this disgraceful
+affair.[1037]
+
+[Sidenote: President Pierre de la Place.]
+
+Scarcely less signal a misfortune to France was the murder of Pierre de la
+Place, president of the Cour d'Aides, whose excellent "Commentaries on the
+State of Religion and the Republic" constitute one of our best guides
+through the short reign of Francis the Second and the early part of the
+reign of Charles the Ninth. This eminent jurist, even more distinguished
+as a writer on Christian morals than as a historian, had first embraced
+the Reformation at a time when the recent martyrdom of Anne du Bourg
+served as a significant reminder of the perils attending a profession of
+Protestant views. President de la Place had been visited in his house
+early in the morning, on the first day of the massacre, by Captain Michel,
+an arquebusier of the king, who, entering boldly with his weapons and with
+the white napkin bound on his left arm, informed him of the death of
+Coligny, and the fate in reserve for the rest of the Huguenots. The
+soldier pretended that the king wished to exempt La Place from the general
+slaughter, and bade him accompany him to the Louvre. However, a gift of a
+thousand crowns induced the fellow instead to lead the president's
+daughter and her husband to a place of safety in the house of a Roman
+Catholic friend. But La Place himself, after having applied at three
+different houses belonging to persons of his acquaintance and been denied
+admission, was compelled to return to his home and there await his doom. A
+day passed, during which La Place and his wife were subjected to constant
+alarms. At length new orders came in the king's name, enjoining upon him
+without fail to repair instantly to the palace. The meaning was
+unmistakable; it was the road to death. But neither the Huguenot's piety
+nor his courage failed him. He gently raised his wife, who had fallen on
+her knees to beg the messenger to save her husband's life, and reminded
+her that she should have recourse to God alone, not to an arm of flesh.
+And he sternly rebuked his eldest son, who, in a moment of weakness, had
+placed a white cross on his hat, in the hope of saving his life. "The true
+cross we must wear," he said, "is the trials and afflictions sent to us by
+God as sure pledges of the bliss and eternal life He has prepared for His
+own followers." It was with unruffled composure that he bade his weeping
+friends farewell. His apprehensions were soon realized; he was despatched
+by murderers who had been waiting for him, and before long his body was
+floating down the Seine toward the sea.[1038]
+
+[Sidenote: Regnier and Vezins.]
+
+From such instances of inhumanity it is a relief to turn to one of a few
+incidents wherein the finer feelings triumphed over prejudice, difference
+of religious tenets, and even personal hatred. There were in Paris two
+gentlemen, named Vezins and Regnier, of good families in the province of
+Quercy in southern France. Both were equally distinguished for their
+valor; but their dispositions were singularly unlike, for while the
+Huguenot Regnier was noted for his gentle manners, the Roman Catholic
+Vezins, who was lieutenant of the governor, the Viscount of Villars, had
+acquired unenviable notoriety because of his ferocity. Between the two
+there had for some time existed a mortal feud, which their common friends
+had striven in vain to heal. While the massacre was at its height, Regnier
+was visited by his enemy, Vezins. The latter, after effecting an entrance
+into the house by breaking down the door, fiercely ordered the
+Huguenot--who, well assured that his last hour was come, had fallen upon
+his knees to implore the mercy of God--to rise and follow him. A horse
+stood saddled at the door, upon which Regnier was told to mount. In his
+enemy's train he rode unharmed through the streets of Paris, then through
+the gates of the city. Still Vezins, without vouchsafing a word of
+explanation, kept on his way toward Cahors, the capital of Quercy, whither
+he had been despatched by the government.[1039] For many successive days
+the journey lasted. The prisoner was well guarded, but he was also well
+lodged and fed. At last the party reached the very castle of Regnier, and
+here his captor broke the long silence. "As you have seen," said he, "it
+would have depended only on myself to take advantage of the opportunity
+which I have long been seeking; but I should be ashamed to avenge myself
+in this way upon a man so brave as you. In settling our quarrel I desire
+that the danger shall be equal. Be well assured that you will find me as
+ready to decide our dispute in a manner becoming gentlemen, as I have been
+eager to save you from inevitable destruction." It need scarcely be said
+that the Huguenot could not find words sufficiently strong to express his
+gratitude; but Vezins merely replied: "I leave it to you to choose whether
+you wish me to be your friend or your enemy; I saved your life only to
+enable you to make your election." With these words he abruptly left him
+and rode away, nor would he ever consent even to take back the horse upon
+which he had brought Regnier in safety so many leagues.[1040]
+
+[Sidenote: Escape of Montgomery and Chartres.]
+
+[Sidenote: Charles himself fires at them from the Louvre.]
+
+A number of the Huguenot noblemen were lodged on the southern side of the
+Seine, outside of the walls, in the Faubourg Saint Germain. Count
+Montgomery, the Vidame of Chartres, Beauvoir la Nocle, and Frontenay, a
+member of the powerful Rohan family, were among the most distinguished.
+After the admiral, there were certainly no Huguenots whom Catharine was
+more anxious to destroy than Montgomery and Chartres. Accordingly the
+massacre, which began near the Louvre, was to have been executed
+simultaneously upon them, and the work was intrusted to M. de Maugiron.
+But the delay of the Roman Catholics saved them. Marcel, the former prevot
+des marchands, who had been instructed to furnish one thousand men, was
+not ready in time; and Dumas, who was to have acted as guide, overslept
+the appointed hour. About five o'clock in the morning a Huguenot succeeded
+in swimming across the river, and carried to Montgomery the first tidings
+of the events of the last two hours. The count at once notified his
+comrades, but, although there were among them those who had been most
+urgent to leave Paris immediately after Maurevel's attack upon Coligny,
+few of the nobles would harbor the thought that Charles was so lost to
+honor as to have plotted the assassination of his invited guests. They
+preferred to believe that the king was himself in danger through a sudden
+commotion occasioned by the Guises. Acting upon this theory, the Huguenots
+proceeded in a body toward the Seine, intending to cross and lend
+assistance to the royal cause; but, on reaching the river's bank, they
+were speedily undeceived. They saw a band of two hundred soldiers of the
+royal guard coming toward them in boats, and discharging their arquebuses,
+with cries of "_Tue! Tue!_"--"Kill! Kill!" Charles himself was descried at
+a window of the Louvre, looking with approval upon the scene. There is
+good authority also, for the story that, in his eagerness to exterminate
+the Huguenots, Charles snatched an arquebuse from the hand of an
+attendant, and fired at them, exclaiming, "Let us shoot, _mort Dieu_, they
+are fleeing!"[1041]
+
+Montgomery and his companions had by this time recognized their mistake,
+and hesitated no longer to flee from the perfidious capital. They promptly
+took to horse, and rode hard to reach Normandy and the sea. This part of
+the prey was, however, too precious to be permitted to escape.
+Accordingly, Guise, Aumale, the Bastard of Angouleme, and a number of
+"gentilhommes tueurs," started in pursuit. But an accident prevented them
+from overtaking the Huguenots. When Guise and his party reached the Porte
+de Bussy[1042]--the gate leading from the city into the faubourg in which
+the Protestants had been lodging--which was closed in accordance with the
+king's orders, they found that they had been provided by mistake with the
+wrong key, and the delay experienced in finding the right one afforded
+Montgomery an advantage in the race, of which he made good use.[1043]
+
+[Sidenote: The massacre continues.]
+
+The carnival of blood, which had been so successfully ushered in on that
+ill-starred Sunday of August, was maintained on the succeeding days with
+little abatement of its frenzied excitement. Paris soon resembled a vast
+charnel-house. The dead or dying lay in the open streets and squares, they
+blocked the doors and carriage-ways, they were heaped in the courtyards.
+When the utmost that impotent passion could do to these lifeless remains
+was accomplished, the Seine became the receptacle. Besides those Huguenots
+whom their murderers dragged to the bridges or wharves to despatch by
+drowning, both by day and by night wagons laden with the corpses of men
+and women, and even of young children, were driven down to the river and
+emptied of their human freight. But the current of the crooked Seine
+refused to carry away from the capital all these evidences of guilt. The
+shores of its first curve, from Paris to the bridge of St. Cloud, were
+covered with putrefying remains, which the municipality were compelled to
+inter, through fear of their generating a pestilence. And so we read, in
+the registers of the Hotel-de-Ville, of a payment of fifteen livres
+tournois, on the ninth of September, for the burial of the dead bodies
+found near the Convent of Chaillot, and of a second payment of twenty
+livres on the twenty-third, for the burial of eleven hundred more, near
+Chaillot, Auteuil, and St. Cloud.[1044]
+
+[Sidenote: Not a popular movement.]
+
+[Sidenote: Plunder of the rich.]
+
+The massacre was not in its origin a popular outbreak. It sprang from the
+ambition and vindictive passions of the queen mother, and others, whom the
+ministers of a corrupt religion had long accustomed to the idea that the
+extermination of heretics is not a sin, but the highest type of piety. The
+people were called in only as assistants. Probably the first intention was
+only to hold the municipal forces in readiness to overcome any resistance
+which the Protestants might offer. But the massacre succeeded beyond the
+most sanguine expectations of the conspirators. Very few of the victims
+defended themselves or their property; scarcely one Roman Catholic was
+slain. And now the populace, having had a taste of blood, could no longer
+be restrained. Whether the plunder of the Protestants entered into the
+original calculations of Catharine and her advisers, may perhaps be
+doubted. But there is no question as to the turn which the affair soon
+took in the minds of those engaged in it. Pillage was not always
+countenanced by church and state: as a violation of the second table of
+the Law, it was, under ordinary circumstances, atoned for by penance and
+ecclesiastical censures; as a breach of the royal edicts, it was likely to
+be punished with hanging or still more painful modes of execution.
+Consequently, when by furnishing arms the civil power authorized the most
+severe measures against those whom it accused of foul conspiracy against
+the king, and when the professed minister of Christ and His gospel of
+peace blessed the work of exterminating God's enemies and the king's,
+there was no lack of men willing to profit by the rare and unexpected
+opportunity. Nor did the courtiers disdain dishonest gain. The Duke of
+Anjou was known to have enriched himself by the plunder of the shop of
+Baduere, the king's jeweller.[1045] Noblemen, besides robbing their
+victims of money, extorted from them, in return for a promise to spare
+their lives, deeds of valuable lands, or papers resigning in their favor
+high offices in the government. It was frequently the case that, after
+giving such presents, the Huguenot was put out of the way at once, in
+order to prevent him from ever retracting. Thus, Martial de Lomenie, a
+secretary of the king, was murdered in prison, after having resigned his
+office in favor of Marshal Retz, and sold to him his estate of Versailles,
+at such a price as the latter chose to name, in the vain hope that this
+would secure him liberty and life.[1046] The extent to which robbery was
+carried on the occasion of the massacre is reluctantly conceded in the
+pamphlet, which was published immediately after, as an apology of the
+court for the hideous crime; and an attempt is made to justify it, which
+is worthy of the source from which it drew its inspiration: "Now this
+good-will of the people to sustain and defend its prince, to espouse his
+quarrel, and to hate those who are not of his religion, is very
+praiseworthy; and if in this execution [the massacre] some pillaging has
+taken place, we must excuse the fury of a people impelled by a worthy
+zeal--a zeal hard to be restrained and bridled when once excited."[1047]
+
+[Sidenote: Orders issued to lay down arms.]
+
+[Sidenote: Little heed given to them.]
+
+But, despite panegyrists, the massacre had not been in progress many hours
+before the very magistrates of the city appear to have become apprehensive
+lest the movement might assume dangerous dimensions. It was only about
+eleven o'clock on Sunday morning, as the registers of the Hotel de Ville
+inform us, when Charles was waited upon by the prevot des marchands and
+the echevins. They came to inform him that "a number of persons, partly
+belonging to the suite of his Majesty, partly to that of the princes,
+princesses, and lords of the court--gentlemen, archers of the king's
+body-guard, soldiers of his suite, as well as all sorts of people mingled
+with them and under their authority--were plundering and pillaging many
+houses and killing many persons in the streets." This was certainly no
+news to Charles; but as he desired, now that the massacre had begun, not
+to enrich the Roman Catholic inhabitants of Paris, but to fill his own
+coffers, he deemed it best to prohibit any further action on their part,
+and to leave the rest of the work to his own commissioned servants.
+Accordingly the municipal authorities were directed to ride through the
+city with all the troops at their disposal, and to see to it, both by day
+and night, that the bloodshed and robbery should cease. "Sir William
+Guerrier"--thus runs one of the commissions to the "quarteniers" issued
+from the central bureau of the city, in pursuance of these
+directions--"give commandment to all burgesses and inhabitants of your
+quarter, who to-day have taken up arms _according to the king's order_, to
+lay them down, and to retire and remain quietly in their houses, ...
+according to the king's command conveyed to us by my Lord of Nevers." And
+this document is accompanied with another, of the same date, applying to
+soldiers of the guard or others, who should pillage or maltreat
+Protestants, and threatening them with punishment. Such a proclamation, it
+is well known, was made by trumpet at about five o'clock that afternoon.
+The registers tell us that the instructions were so well carried out that
+all disorder "was at once appeased and ceased." They contain, however, a
+distinct refutation of this falsehood, in the frequent repetition of
+similar orders and the variety of forms in which the same statements are
+made on subsequent days. Again and again does the king direct that
+soldiers be placed at the head of every street to prevent robbery and
+murder;[1048] the guards either were never posted, or, as is more likely,
+became foremost in the work which they were sent to repress. Indeed, the
+instructions given on Monday to visit all the houses in the city and its
+suburbs where there were any Protestants, and obtain their names and
+surnames,[1049] afforded an opportunity which was not permitted to slip by
+unimproved, for the exaction of heavy bribes, as well as for more open
+plunder and violence. So notorious was it, nearly a week after the
+butchery began, that the massacre had only abated in intensity, that, on
+the thirtieth of August, measures were adopted to prevent any wrong from
+being done to foreign merchants sojourning in Paris, and especially to the
+German, English, and Flemish students of the university.[1050]
+
+[Sidenote: Miracle of the "Cimetiere des Innocents."]
+
+The smile of Heaven, it was said by the Roman Catholic clergy, rested upon
+the effort to extirpate heresy in France. They convinced the people of the
+truth of their assertion by pointing to an unusual phenomenon which they
+declared to be evidently miraculous. In the Cimetiere des Innocents and
+before a small chapel of the Virgin Mary, there grew a white hawthorn,
+which, according to some accounts, had for several years been to all
+appearance dead. Great then was the surprise of those who, on the eventful
+St. Bartholomew's Day, beheld the tree covered with a great profusion of
+blossoms as fragrant as those flowers which the hawthorn usually puts
+forth in May. It was true that no good reason could be assigned why the
+wonder might not with greater propriety be explained, as the Protestants
+afterward suggested, rather as a mark of Heaven's sympathy with oppressed
+innocence. But no doubts entered the minds of the Parisian ecclesiastics.
+They spread abroad the fame of the prodigy. They rang the church-bells in
+token of joy, and invited the blood-stained populace to witness the sight,
+and gain new courage in their murderous work. It may well be doubted
+whether either the hawthorn or the virgin of the neighboring chapel
+wrought the wonderful cures recorded by the curate of Meriot.[1051] But
+certainly the reported intervention of Heaven setting its seal upon
+treacherous assassination prolonged the slaughter of Huguenots. "It
+seemed," says Claude Haton, reflecting the popular belief, "that God, by
+this miracle, approved and accepted as well-pleasing to Him the Catholic
+uprising and the death of His great enemy the admiral and his followers,
+who for twelve years had been audaciously rending His seamless coat, which
+is His true Church and His Bride."[1052] And so, what with the
+encouragement afforded by the wonderful thorn-tree of the Cimetiere des
+Innocents--what with the continuous fair weather, which was interpreted
+after the same manner, the task of extirpating the heretical Huguenots was
+prosecuted with a perseverance that never flagged. It is true that the
+greater part of the work was done in the first three or four days; but it
+was not terminated for several weeks, and many a Huguenot, coming out of
+his place of concealment with the hope that time might have caused the
+passions of his enemies to become less violent, was murdered in cold blood
+by those who coveted his property. Several thousand persons were butchered
+in Paris alone during the first few days, besides these later victims;
+precisely how many, it is useless and perhaps impossible to fix with
+certainty.[1053]
+
+[Sidenote: The king's first letter to Mandelot.]
+
+Meantime it became necessary to explain to the world the extraordinary
+tragedy which had been enacted on so conspicuous a stage. Each of the
+different parties to the nefarious compact, with that easy faith which
+characterizes great criminals, had expected to satisfy its own resentment
+at the sole expense of the honor and reputation of the others. The king
+and his mother, while securing the death of Coligny and a few other
+personal enemies, were not unwilling to have the world believe that the
+entire occurrence had been an outburst of the old animosity of the Guises
+against the Chatillons. In fact, this was distinctly stated in the
+circular letter of Charles IX., despatched on the very Sunday on which the
+massacre began, to the governors of the principal cities of the realm.
+"Monsieur de Mandelot"--so runs one of these extraordinary epistles--"you
+have learned what I wrote to you, the day before yesterday, respecting the
+wounding of the admiral, and how that I was about to do my utmost in the
+investigation of the case and the punishment of the guilty, wherein
+nothing has been forgotten. Since then it has happened that the members of
+the house of Guise, and the other lords and gentlemen who are their
+adherents, and who have no small influence in this city, as everybody
+knows, having received certain information that the friends of the admiral
+intended to avenge this wound upon them--since they suspected them of
+being its cause and occasion--became so much excited that, between the one
+party and the other, there arose a great and lamentable commotion. The
+body of guards which had been posted around the admiral's house was
+overpowered, and he was killed with some other gentlemen, as there have
+also been others massacred in various parts of this city. This was done so
+furiously that it was impossible to apply such a remedy as could have been
+desired; for I had as much as I could do in employing my guards and other
+forces to retain my superiority in this castle of the Louvre,[1054] so as
+afterward to take measures for allaying the commotion throughout the city.
+At the present hour it has, thank God, subsided! It occurred through the
+private quarrel which has long existed between these two houses. Always
+foreseeing that some bad consequences would result from it, I have
+heretofore done all that I could to appease it, as every one knows. There
+is in this nothing leading to the rupture of the Edict of Pacification,
+which, on the contrary, I intend to be maintained as much as ever."[1055]
+
+In view of the undeniable fact that Charles affixed his signature to this
+letter in the midst of a horrible massacre for which he himself had given
+the signal, which he still directed, and concerning whose progress he
+received hourly bulletins from the municipal authorities, it must be
+admitted that the king showed himself no novice in the ignoble art of
+shameless misrepresentation.
+
+[Sidenote: Guise throws the responsibility on the king.]
+
+Guise, on his part, was not less solicitous to relieve himself of
+responsibility, and to lay the burden upon the king's shoulders. We have
+seen that, at the very moment of Coligny's assassination, he began to
+repeat the words: "It is the king's pleasure; it is his express command!"
+as his warrant for the crime. As the massacre grew in extent he and his
+associates became more reluctant to be held accountable for it,[1056] and
+at last they forced Charles to acknowledge himself its sole author. The
+queen mother and Anjou, it is said, were mainly instrumental in leading
+the monarch to take this unexpected step. His original intention had been
+to compel the Guises to leave the capital immediately after the death of
+Coligny--a movement which would have given color to the theory of their
+guilt. But it was not difficult for Catharine and Henry to convince him
+that by so doing he would only render more irreconcilable the enmity
+between the Guises and the Montmorencies, who plainly exhibited their
+intention to exact vengeance for the death of their illustrious kinsman,
+the admiral. In short, he would purchase brief respite from trouble at the
+price of a fresh civil war, more cruel than any which had preceded.[1057]
+
+[Sidenote: The king accepts it.]
+
+[Sidenote: The "Lit de Justice."]
+
+It was on Tuesday morning, the twenty-sixth of August, that the king
+formally and publicly assumed the weighty responsibility. After hearing a
+solemn mass, to render thanks to Almighty God for his happy deliverance
+from his enemies, Charles, accompanied by his brothers, the Dukes of Anjou
+and Alencon, by the King of Navarre, and by a numerous body of his
+principal lords, proceeded to the parliament house, and there, in the
+presence of all the chambers, held his "Lit de Justice."[1058] He opened
+this extraordinary meeting by an address, in which he dilated upon the
+intolerable insults he had, from his very childhood, experienced at the
+hands of Coligny, and many other culprits, who had made religion a pretext
+for rebellion. His attempts to secure peace by large concessions had
+emboldened Coligny so far that he had at last ventured to conspire to kill
+him, his mother, and his brothers, and even the King of Navarre, although
+a Huguenot like himself; intending to place the Prince of Conde upon the
+throne, and subsequently to put him also out of the way, and appropriate
+the regal authority after the destruction of the entire royal family. In
+order to ward off so horrible a blow, he had, he said, been compelled to
+resort to extreme measures of rigor. He desired all men to know that the
+steps taken on the preceding Sunday for the punishment of the guilty had
+been in accordance with his orders. He is even reported to have gone
+farther, and to have invoked the aid of parliament in condemning the
+memory and confiscating the property of those against whom he had alleged
+such abominable crimes.[1059]
+
+[Sidenote: Servile reply of parliament.]
+
+[Sidenote: Christopher de Thou.]
+
+To this allocution the parliament replied with all servility. Christopher
+de Thou, the first president, lauded the prudence of a monarch who had
+known how to bear patiently repeated insults, and at last to crush a
+conspiracy so dangerous to the quiet of the realm. And he quoted with
+approval the infamous apothegm of Louis the Eleventh: "_Qui nescit
+dissimulare, nescit regnare._" The solitary suggestion that breathed any
+manly spirit was that of Pibrac, the "avocat-general," to the effect that
+orders should be published to put an end to the work of murder and
+robbery--a request which Charles readily granted.[1060] Never had the
+supreme tribunal of justice abased itself more ignobly than when it
+listened so complaisantly to the king, and approved without qualification
+an organized massacre perpetrated unblushingly under its very eyes. As for
+the distinguished man who lent himself to be the mouthpiece of adulation
+worse than slavish, we are less inclined to commiserate the difficulty of
+his position than to pity the ingenuous historian who strives to touch
+leniently upon a fault of his father which he can neither conceal nor
+palliate.[1061] We may credit his assertion that his father remonstrated
+with the king in private with respect to that for which he had praised him
+in public, and that Christopher de Thou marked his detestation of that
+ill-starred day by applying to it the lines of Statius:
+
+ Excidat illa dies aevo, ne postera credant
+ Saecula: nos certe taceamus, et obruta multa
+ Nocte tegi propriae patiamur crimina gentis.
+
+But we cannot forget that this was not the first time that Christopher de
+Thou "accommodated" his words or his actions to the supposed "exigencies
+of the times." He was a member of that commission that sentenced Louis of
+Conde to death, in deference to the desires of another king and his
+uncles, the Guises; and the prince would doubtless have lost his head in
+consequence, but for the sudden death of Francis the Second. Since that
+time he had repeatedly acquiesced in the bloody sentences of the Parisian
+parliament. His voice was never heard opposing the proscription instituted
+in the late civil wars, even in the case of the atrocious sentence against
+Gaspard de Coligny. If we concede to his son that no one was of a less
+sanguinary or of a milder disposition than President De Thou, we must also
+insist that few judges on the bench displayed less magnanimity or
+conscientiousness.[1062]
+
+[Sidenote: Ineffectual effort to inculpate Coligny.]
+
+But it was not a simple congratulatory address that Charles, or his
+mother, required of his parliament. Tyrannical power is rarely satisfied
+with the mere acquiescence of servile judges; it demands, and ordinarily
+obtains from them, a positive indorsement of its schemes of successful
+villainy. It was necessary--especially, as we shall see later, after the
+cry of horror was heard that rose toward heaven from all parts of Europe
+on receipt of the tidings of the massacre in Paris and elsewhere--to
+palliate its atrocity by affixing to the slain Huguenots, and above all to
+Coligny, a note of rebellious and murderous designs against the king and
+the royal family. And here again the Parliament of Paris was as pliant as
+its rulers could desire. Coligny's papers, both in Paris and at
+Chatillon-sur-Loing, were subjected to close scrutiny; but nothing could
+be discovered to warrant the suspicion that any seditious design had ever
+been entertained by him. In default of something better, therefore, the
+queen mother endeavored to make capital out of two passages of these
+private manuscripts. In one--it was, we are told, the will of the admiral,
+written toward the end of the third civil war[1063]--he dissuaded Charles
+from assigning to his brothers appanages that might diminish the authority
+of the crown. Catharine triumphantly showed it to Alencon. "See!" said
+she; "this is your good friend the admiral, whom you so greatly loved and
+respected!" "I know not," replied the young prince, "how much of a friend
+he was to me; but certainly he showed by this advice how much he loved the
+king."[1064] With Walsingham a similar attempt was made to deprive the
+murdered hero of Queen Elizabeth's sympathy, but with as little success.
+"To the end you may see how little your mistress was beholden to him,"
+said Catharine de' Medici one day to the English ambassador, "you may see
+a discourse found with his testament, made at such time as he was sick at
+Rochel, wherein, amongst other advices that he gave to the king my son,
+this is one, that he willed him in any case to keep the queen, your
+mistress, and the King of Spain as low as he could, as a thing that tended
+much to the safety and maintenance of this crown." "To that I answered,"
+says Walsingham, "that in this point, howsoever he was affected towards
+the queen my mistress, he showed himself a most true and faithful subject
+to the crown of France, and the Queen's Majestie, my mistress, made the
+more account of him, for that she knew him faithfully affected to the
+same."[1065]
+
+[Sidenote: Coligny's memory declared infamous.]
+
+[Sidenote: Petty indignities.]
+
+The complete absence of proof of all designs save the most patriotic,
+and, on the other hand, the clear evidence that Coligny sought for the
+quiet and growth of the religious community to which he belonged, only in
+connection with the honor and prosperity of his own country, did not deter
+the pliant parliament from pursuing the course prescribed for it. A little
+more than two months after the Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day (October
+the twenty-seventh, 1572), the admiral's sentence was formally pronounced.
+He was proclaimed a traitor and the author of a conspiracy against the
+king; his goods were confiscated, his memory declared infamous. His
+children were degraded from their rank as nobles, and pronounced "ignoble,
+villains, _roturiers_, infamous, unworthy, and incapable of making a will,
+or of holding offices, dignities or possessions in France." It was ordered
+that his castle of Chatillon-sur-Loing should be razed to the ground,
+never to be rebuilt, and that the site should be sown with salt; that the
+trees of the park should be cut down to half their height, and a
+monumental pillar be erected on the spot, with a copy of this decree
+inscribed upon it. His portraits and statues were to be destroyed; his
+arms, wherever found, to be dragged at the horse's tail and publicly
+destroyed by the hangman; his body--if any fragments could be obtained,
+or, if not, his effigy--was to be dragged on a hurdle, and hung first on
+the Greve and then on a loftier gibbet at Montfaucon. Finally, public
+prayers and a solemn procession were ordered to take place in Paris on
+every successive anniversary of the feast of St. Bartholomew.[1066]
+
+Thus was the memory of one of the noblest characters that illustrated the
+sixteenth century pursued with envenomed hatred, after death had placed
+Coligny himself beyond the power of the murderous queen mother to inflict
+more substantial injury upon him. To his mortal remains all that malice
+could do had already been done. What remained of a mutilated body had been
+taken from the hands of those precocious criminals, the boys of Paris,
+and hung up by the feet upon the gallows at Montfaucon.[1067] A great part
+of the capital had gone out to look upon the grateful sight. Charles the
+Ninth was of the number of the visitors, and, when others showed signs of
+disgust at the stench arising from the putrefaction of a corpse long
+unburied, is said to have exclaimed "that the smell of a dead enemy is
+very sweet."[1068] Great was the merriment of the low populace; copious
+were the effusions of wit. Jacques Copp de Vellay, in his poetical
+diatribe, published with privilege--"Le Deluge des Huguenotz"--sings with
+great delight of
+
+ Mont-Faulcon, ou les attend
+ Ce grand Gaspar au curedent,
+ Attache par les piedz sans teste.[1069]
+
+At last, four or five days after Coligny's death, a body of thirty or
+forty horse, sent by Marshal Montmorency, took down the remains by night,
+and gave them decent burial.[1070]
+
+[Sidenote: A jubilee procession.]
+
+[Sidenote: Charles declares that he will maintain his edict.]
+
+Not content with the public admission of his responsibility for the
+massacre which he had made before the parliament, Charles with his court
+participated two days later (Thursday, the twenty-eighth of August) in the
+celebration of a jubilee, and walked in a procession through the streets
+of Paris; at successive "stations" rendering thanks to Heaven, with fair
+show of devotion, for the preservation of his own life, and the lives of
+his brothers and of _the King of Navarre_. It would have served greatly to
+give a color of plausibility to the report of the conspiracy of the
+Huguenots, could Navarre and Conde have been prevailed upon to appear in
+the king's company on this occasion. But it must be mentioned to their
+honor, that they were proof against the persuasions as well as the threats
+of Charles.[1071] The same day a royal declaration was published,
+reiterating the allegations made in the Palais de Justice, but protesting
+that the king was determined to maintain his edict of pacification. As,
+however, the Protestants were forbidden for the present from holding any
+public or private assemblies for worship, it must be admitted that they
+were not far wrong in regarding the declaration as only another part of
+the trap cunningly devised for their destruction.[1072]
+
+[Sidenote: Forced conversion of Navarre and Conde.]
+
+Although the conversion of the young King of Navarre and his cousin, the
+Prince of Conde, did not occur until some weeks later, it may be
+appropriately mentioned here. No means were left untried to gain them over
+to the Roman Catholic religion. The sophistries of monks were
+supplemented by the more dangerous persuasions of a renegade Protestant
+minister, Hugues Sureau du Rosier, formerly one of the pastors of the
+church of Orleans.[1073] Whatever excuse his arguments may have furnished
+by covering their renunciation of their faith with the decent cloak of
+conviction, _fear_ was certainly the chief instrument in effecting the
+desired change in the Huguenot princes. There is no room for doubt that
+the character of Charles underwent a marked change, as we shall see later,
+from the time that he consented to the massacre. He became more sullen,
+more violent, more impatient of contradiction or opposition. It is not at
+all unlikely that a mind never fully under control of reason, and now
+assuredly thrown from its poise by a desperation engendered of remorse for
+the fearful crime he had reluctantly approved, at times formed the
+resolution to kill the obstinate King of Navarre and his cousin. On one
+occasion Charles is said to have been deterred by the supplications of his
+young wife from going in person to destroy them.[1074] At length, when the
+alternative of death or the Bastile was the only one presented, the
+courage of the Bourbons began to falter. Navarre was the first to yield,
+and his sister, the excellent Catharine de Bourbon, followed his example.
+On the thirteenth of September the ambassador Walsingham wrote: "They
+prepare Bastile for some persons of quality. It is thought that it is for
+the Prince of Conde and his brethren."[1075] But three days later (the
+sixteenth of September) he wrote again: "On Sunday last, which was the
+fourteenth of this month, the young Princess of Conde was constrained to
+go to mass, being threatened otherwise to go to prison, and so
+consequently to be made away. The Prince of Conde hath also yielded to
+hear mass upon Sunday next, being otherwise threatened to go to the
+Bastile, where he is not like long to serve."[1076] Such conversions did
+not promise to prove very sincere. They were accepted, however, by the
+king and his mother; although both Navarre and Conde were detained at
+court rather as prisoners than as free princes. Pope Gregory the
+Thirteenth received the submission of both cousins to the authority of the
+See of Rome, recognized the validity of their marriages, and formally
+admitted them to his favor, by a special bull of the twenty-seventh of
+October, 1572.[1077] In return for these concessions Henry of Navarre
+repealed the ordinances which his mother had made for the government of
+Bearn, and re-established the Roman Catholic worship.[1078]
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[925] Memoires de Marguerite de Valois, 25, 26.
+
+[926] No dispensation was ever granted until _after_ the marriage, and
+after Henry of Navarre's simulated conversion to Roman Catholicism. Then,
+of course, there was no need of further hesitation, and the document was
+granted, of which a copy is printed in Documents historiques inedits, i.
+713-715. The bull is dated Oct. 27, 1572. There is, then, no necessity for
+Mr. Henry White's uncertainty (Massacre of St. Bartholomew, 370): "The new
+pope, Gregory XIII., appears to have been more compliant, or the letter
+stating that a dispensation was on the road must have been a forgery."
+
+[927] De Thou, iv. (liv. lii.), 569; Lo stratagema di Carlo IX. re di
+Francia, contro gli Ugonotti, rebelli di Dio e suoi; descritto dal signor
+Camillo Capilupi, e mandato di Roma al signor Alfonzo Capilupi. Ce
+stratageme est cy apres mis en Francois avec un avertissement au lecteur.
+1574. Orig. ed., p. 22.
+
+[928] Memoires de l'estat de France sous Charles IX. (Cimber et Danjou,
+vii. 78.)
+
+[929] "Avec certain formulaire que les uns et les autres n'improuvoyent
+point." Mem. de l'estat, _ubi supra_, vii. 79.
+
+[930] As De Thou here speaks as an eye-witness of the marriage, I follow
+his description very closely. Histoire univ., iv. (liv. lii.) 469, 470.
+Agrippa d'Aubigne was not in Paris (Memoires, edit. Pantheon, p. 478), and
+his account is meagre and deficient in originality. Hist. univ., ii. 12
+(liv. i., c. 3). It is quite in keeping with the brave Gascon's character,
+that, having come to Paris some days before, in order to obtain a
+commission to command a company of soldiers which he had raised for the
+war in Flanders, he had been obliged to leave almost instantly upon his
+arrival, because he had acted as the second of a friend in a duel, and
+wounded in the face an archer who endeavored to arrest him. Tavannes makes
+Coligny suggest the removal of the ensigns taken from the Protestants as
+"marques de troubles," and playfully claim for himself the 50,000 crowns
+promised to any one who should bring the admiral's head. Memoires, ed.
+Petitot, iii. 293.
+
+[931] Memoires de l'Etat, _ubi supra_, pp. 79, 80; De Thou, _ubi supra_. I
+have not deemed it out of place to describe some of the diversions with
+which the French court occupied itself on the eve of the massacre. The
+connection between reckless merriment and cold-blooded cruelty is often
+startlingly close. Besides this, the finances of the country were so
+hopelessly involved, as the consequence of the late civil wars, that this
+lavish expenditure was particularly ill-timed. If old Gaspard de Tavannes
+was as blunt as his son represents him to have been, he gave Charles some
+good, but, like most good, unheeded advice. "Sire," said he, a propos of
+the extravagance of the court at Guise's marriage in 1570, "you should
+make a feast, and instead of the singers who are brought in artificial
+clouds, you should bring those who would tell you this truth: 'You are
+dolts! You spend your money in festivals, in pomps and masks, and do not
+pay your men-at-arms nor your soldiers; foreigners will beat you!'"
+Memoires, ed. Petitot, iii. 183.
+
+[932] I had translated this letter from the copy given by the Memoires de
+l'estat de France (_apud_ Archives curieuses, vii. 80, 81), which agrees
+substantially with, and was probably derived from, the version given in
+Hotman's Gasparis Colinii Vita (1575), 106, 107. On comparing it, however,
+with the transcript of the original autograph in the remarkable collection
+of the late Col. Henri Tronchin, given by M. Jules Bonnet in the Bulletin
+de la Soc. de l'hist. du prot. francais, i. (1853), 369, I discover
+extraordinary discrepancies, and find that, in addition to a different
+phraseology in every sentence, one clause is inserted by Hotman of which
+there is not a trace in the Tronchin MS. I refer to the words: "Soyez
+asseuree de ma part que, parmi ces festins et passe-temps, _je ne donneray
+fascherie a personne_"--which would, of course, point to the prevailing
+fears of a collision between the admiral and the young Duke of Guise, or
+his retainers, whose hatred of Coligny was so well known that Charles IX.
+had issued a special injunction to the parties to keep the peace. The
+letter contains at the commencement of the postscript a playful allusion
+to the hope of his wife soon to be a mother.
+
+[933] Mem. de l'estat, _ubi supra_, 88, 89; De Thou, iv. (liv. lii.) 570.
+The mechanical part of these exhibitions was well executed. In the
+"_enfer_" there were "un grand nombre de diables et petis diabloteaux
+faisans infinies singeries et tintamarres avec une grande roue tournant
+dedans ledit enfer, toute environnee de clochettes." The singer, Etienne
+le Roy, was again the "deus ex machina," coming from heaven and returning
+thither, in the character of Mercury mounted upon a gigantic bird. The
+final explosion inspired so much consternation among the spectators, that
+it effectually cleared the hall.
+
+[934] They were married at Blandy, a castle belonging to the Marquise de
+Rothelin, near Melun, where its ruins are still to be seen (Saint-Fargeau,
+Dict. des communes de France, s. v.), about a week before the marriage of
+Navarre, August 10, 1572. Tocsain contre les massacreurs (Arch. curieuses,
+vii. 42). Marie of Cleves was a daughter of the Duke of Nevers, and sister
+of Catharine of Cleves, Prince Porcien's widow, whom Henry of Guise had
+married in Sept., 1570. Journal de Jehan de la Fosse, 146.
+
+[935] It is astonishing to see what considerable distances the Protestants
+were obliged to go in order to enjoy any religious privileges, and what
+fatigue they willingly underwent in order to avail themselves of them. In
+1563, immediately after the close of the first civil war, instead of being
+assigned a place for worship in the suburbs, according to the terms of the
+edict, the Protestants of Troyes were told to go to Ceant-en-Othe--full
+_eight leagues_, or about _twenty-four miles_; nor could they obtain
+justice by any remonstrances with the court! As they went to Ceant, in
+spite of its inconvenient distance, and of the death of several children
+taken thither to be baptized, the Romanists, in 1570, actually proposed to
+remove the Protestant _preche_ still farther off, to Villenauxe, _thirteen
+leagues from Troyes!_ Happily, after a while, they availed themselves of
+the hospitality of a feudal lord nearer by. Recordon, Le protestantisme en
+Champagne (MSS. of N. Pithou), 136, etc., 149, 163.
+
+[936] Ibid., pp. 168, 169. The Roman Catholics of Troyes sent, about the
+middle of August, two deputies to get the Protestant place of worship
+removed from Isle-au-Mont, who were present at the massacre.
+
+[937] Baschet, La diplomatie venitienne, p. 540.
+
+[938] This confession exists in manuscript in the National Library of
+Paris (Fonds de Bouhier, 59), under the heading: "Discours du Roy Henry
+troisiesme a un personnage d'honneur et de qualite estant pres de sa
+majeste, sur les causes et motifs de la St. Barthelemy." It is printed in
+an appendix to the Memoires de Villeroy (Petitot ed., xliv. 496-510). Its
+authenticity is vouched for by Matthieu, the historiographer of Louis
+XIII., and is corroborated by its remarkable agreement with what we can
+learn from other sources. Cf., especially, Soldan, Frankreich und die
+Bartholomaeusnacht, 224-226. Some suppose that M. de Souvre, and not Miron,
+was the person with whom the conversation at Cracow was held. Martin,
+Hist. de France, x. 315.
+
+[939] Discours du Roy Henry III., Mem. de Villeroy, 499, 500.
+
+[940] See J. Bonnet, Vie d'Olympia Morata (Paris, 1850), 20, etc.
+
+[941] Discours du Roy Henry III., ibid., p. 501. The nuncio, Salviati,
+informs us that young Guise urged his mother herself to kill Coligny.
+
+[942] The article on the massacre in the North British Review for October,
+1869--an article to which I shall have occasion more than once to
+refer--brings forward a number of passages in the diplomatic
+correspondence, especially of the minor Italian states, pointing in this
+direction. They can all, I am convinced, be satisfactorily explained,
+without admitting the conclusion, to which the writer evidently leans, of
+a _distinct_, though not a _long_ premeditation.
+
+[943] "Mad. la Regente venuta in differenza di lui, risolvendosi pochi
+giorni prima, gli la fece tirare, e senza saputa del Re, ma con
+participatione di M. di Angiu, di Mad. de Nemours, e di M. di Guisa suo
+figlio; e se moriva subito non si ammazzava altri," etc. Salviati, desp.
+of Sept. 22, 1572, _apud_ Mackintosh, Hist. of England, vol. iii.,
+Appendix K. It will be remembered that these despatches were given to Sir
+James Mackintosh by M. de Chateaubriand, who had obtained them from the
+Vatican. I need not say how much more trustworthy are the secret
+despatches of one so well informed as the nuncio, than the sensational
+"Stratagema" of Capilupi, which pretends (ed. of 1574, p. 26) that
+_Charles_ placed Maurevel in the house from which he shot at Coligny, on
+discovering that the admiral had formed the plan of firing Paris the next
+night. To believe these champions of orthodoxy, the Huguenots were born
+with a special passion for incendiary exploits. It does not seem to strike
+them that burning and pillaging Paris would not be likely to appear to
+Coligny a probable means of furthering the war in Flanders. Besides, what
+need is there of any such Huguenot plot, even according to Capilupi's own
+view, since he carries back the premeditation of the massacre on the part
+of Charles at least four years?
+
+[944] Le Reveille-Matin des Francois, etc., Archives curieuses, vii. 173;
+Eusebii Philadelphi Dialogi (1574), i. 33. It has been customary to
+interpret this language and similar expressions as covertly referring to
+the massacre which was then four days off. But this seems absurd.
+Certainly, if Charles was privy to the plan for Coligny's murder, he must
+have expected him to be killed on Friday--that is, within less than two
+days. If so, what peculiar significance in the _four_ days? For, if a
+general massacre had been at first contemplated, no interval of two days
+would have been allowed. Everybody must have known that if the arquebuse
+shot had done its work, and Coligny had been killed on the spot, every
+Huguenot would have been far from the walls of Paris long before Sunday.
+As it was, it was only the admiral's confidence, and the impossibility of
+moving him with safety, that detained them.
+
+[945] Capilupi, Lo stratagema di Carlo IX., 1574. Orig. ed., pp. 24, 25,
+and the concurrent French version, pp. 42, 43. This version is
+incorporated _verbatim_ in the Memoires de l'estat de France sous Charles
+IX. (Archives curieuses), vii. 89, 90. In like manner the "Memoires,"
+which are in great part a mere compilation, take page after page from the
+"Reveille-Matin."
+
+[946] "Ainsi qu'il sortoit presentement du Louvre, pour aller disner en
+son logis." Charles's letter of the same day to La Mothe Fenelon, Corresp.
+dipl., vii. 322.
+
+[947] It is of little moment whether the assassin at his window was
+screened by a lattice, or by a curtain, as De Thou says, or by bundles of
+straw, as Capilupi states. I prefer the account of the "Reveille-Matin,"
+as the author tells us that he was one of the twelve or fifteen gentlemen
+in Coligny's suite--"entre lesquels j'estoy" (p. 174). So the Latin ed.,
+Euseb. Philad. Dialogi, i. 34.
+
+[948] The Rue de Bethisy was the continuation of the Rue des Fosses Saint
+Germain l'Auxerrois, through which he was walking when he was shot. In the
+sixteenth century the street bore the former name, beginning at the Rue de
+l'Arbre Sec, at the corner of which Coligny appears to have lodged. In
+later times the name was confined to the part east of Rue de Roule.
+Dulaure, Histoire de Paris, iv. 259. The extension of the Rue de Rivoli,
+under the auspices of Napoleon III., has not only destroyed the house in
+which Coligny was murdered, but obliterated the Rue de Bethisy itself.
+
+[949] "Qu'il n'aviendroit que ce qu'il plairoit a Dieu." Reveille-Matin,
+175; Euseb. Philad. Dialogi (1574), i. 35; Memoires de l'estat, 94.
+
+[950] See _ante_, chapter xvi.
+
+[951] Reveille-Matin, _ubi sup._, 175; and Euseb. Philad. Dialogi. i. 34,
+35; Memoires de l'estat, _ubi sup._, 93, etc.; Jean de Serres (1575), iv.
+fol. 25; Tocsain contre les Massacreurs (orig. ed.), 113, etc.; Registres
+du Bureau de la ville de Paris (Archives curieuses, vii. 211); despatch of
+Salviati of Aug. 22. App. F to Mackintosh, Hist. of England, iii. 354; De
+Thou, iv. (liv. lii.) 574; Jehan de la Fosse, 147, 148; Baschet. La
+diplomatie venit., 548.
+
+[952] Memoires de l'estat, _ubi sup._, 94; Jean de Serres (1575), iv.,
+fols. 25, 26; Reveille-Matin, 176; Euseb. Philad. Dial., i. 35; De Thou,
+iv. (liv. lii.) 574.
+
+[953] Tocsain contre les massacreurs, Archives cur., vii. 45;
+Reveille-Matin, 177; Memoires de l'estat, 98.
+
+[954] Gasparis Colinii Vita (1574), 108-110; Memoires de l'estat de
+Charles IX., _ubi supra_, 94-98. The two accounts are evidently from the
+same hand.
+
+[955] Memoires de l'estat, _ubi supra_, 98.
+
+[956] Damville, Meru and Thore, were sons of the constable. Their eldest
+brother, Marshal Francis de Montmorency, whose greatest vice was his
+sluggishness and his devotion to his ease, had left Paris a few days
+before, on the pretext of going to the chase. His absence at the time of
+the massacre was supposed to have saved not only his life, but that of his
+brothers. The Guises would gladly have destroyed a family whose influence
+and superior antiquity had for a generation been obnoxious to their
+ambitious designs; but it was too hazardous to leave the head of the
+family to avenge his murdered brothers.
+
+[957] There was no need of going far, Coligny responded, to discover the
+author. "Qu'on en demande a Monsieur de Guise, il dira qui est celuy qui
+m'a preste une telle charite; mais Dieu ne me soit jamais en aide si je
+demande vengeance d'un tel outrage." Mem. de l'estat, _ubi supra_, 104,
+105.
+
+[958] Gasparis Colinii Vita, 114-121; Memoires de l'estat, _ubi supra_,
+102-106. The two accounts agree almost word for word. There is a briefer
+narrative in Reveille-Matin, 178, 179; and Euseb. Philad. Dialogi, i. 37.
+
+[959] Discours du roy Henry III., _ubi supra_, 502-505.
+
+[960] Le roi a Mandelot, 22 aout, Correspondance du roi Charles IX. et du
+sieur de Mandelot (Paris, 1830), 36, 37.
+
+[961] Corresp. dipl. de La Mothe Fenelon, vii. 322, 323.
+
+[962] Memoires de l'estat, _ubi supra_, 106, 107.
+
+[963] Ibid., 108.
+
+[964] There is here, however, a direct contradiction, which I shall not
+attempt to reconcile, between the account of Henry and that of the younger
+Tavannes, who represents Retz as one of the most violent in his
+recommendations. According to Tavannes, it was his father, Marshal
+Tavannes, that advocated moderation. In other respects the two accounts
+are strongly corroborative of each other.
+
+[965] Discours du roy Henry III., 505-508.
+
+[966] Memoires de Gaspard de Saulx, seigneur de Tavannes, by his son, Jean
+de Saulx, vicomte de Tavannes (Petitot edition), iii. 293, 294.
+
+[967] "Reginam quidem certum est dictitare solitam, edita strage, 'se
+tantum _sex_ hominum interfectorum sanguinem in suam conscientiam
+recipere.'" Jean de Serres (ed. of 1575), iv., fol. 29. The whole passage
+is interesting.
+
+[968] "Le roy Henry quatriesme disoit que ce qu'il ne m'avoit tenu
+promesse estoit en vengeance des services faicts par le sieur de Tavannes
+mon pere aux batailles de Jarnac et Montcontour, mais le principal, parce
+qu'il l'accusoit d'avoir conseille la Sainct Barthelemy; ce qu'il disoit a
+ses familiers, et a tort, parce que ledict sieur de Tavannes en ce
+temps-la fut cause qu'il ne courust la mesme fortune que le sieur admiral
+de Coligny." Memoires de Tavannes (Petitot edit.), iii. 222.
+
+[969] To ascribe the conduct of Catharine de' Medici herself to any such
+motive is the extreme of absurdity. Even the author of the "Tocsain contre
+les massacreurs" rejects the supposition without hesitation. (Original
+edition, p. 157.) Catharine was certainly a free-thinker, probably an
+atheist.
+
+[970] Memoires de l'estat, _ubi supra_, 108.
+
+[971] Ibid., 109.
+
+[972] Memoires de l'estat, _ubi supra_, 110, 111.
+
+[973] Ibid., 111; Gasparis Colinii Vita (1575), 124.
+
+[974] Memoires de l'estat, _ubi supra_, 112.
+
+[975] Reveille-Matin, _ubi supra_, 179; Memoires de l'estat, _ubi sup._,
+113.
+
+[976] Capilupi, 30, 31; Mem. de l'estat, _ubi sup._, 107, 108.
+
+[977] Extrait des Registres et Croniques du Bureau de la ville de Paris,
+Archives curieuses, vii. 213.
+
+[978] The successive orders are given in the Archives curieuses, vii.
+215-217.
+
+[979] Discours du roy Henry III., 509.
+
+[980] Tocsain contre les massacreurs, 121; Mem. de l'estat, _ubi sup._,
+116; Jean de Serres, iv. (1575), fol. 31.
+
+[981] Jean de Serres, iv. (1575), fol. 30.
+
+[982] Mem. de l'estat, _ubi sup._, 117, 118; Jean de Serres (1575), iv.
+32.
+
+[983] The startling inconsistency evidently struck Capilupi very strongly,
+for he tries to reconcile it, but succeeds only poorly. According to him,
+it was either a ruse to throw Charles IX. off his guard by a pretence of
+confidence in his good faith, or an act of consummate folly. Any way,
+great thanks are due to Heaven! "Et sia stato fatto questo da lui, o con
+arte, per dimostrar di non dubitare della fede del Re, per tanto piu
+assicurar sua Maesta, fin che fosse in termine d'effettuar i diabolici
+suoi pensieri; o vero scioccamente, non diffidando veramente di cosa
+alcuna; in tutti modi si ha da riconoscer da gratia particolare di Dio,"
+etc. Lo stratagema di Carlo IX., 1574, 80.
+
+[984] The topography of the massacre is made the subject of a paper,
+entitled: "Les victimes de la Saint-Barthelemy," Bulletin de la Soc. de
+l'hist. du prot. fr., ix. (1860) 34-44.
+
+[985] G. Colinii Vita (1575), 127. Mem. de l'estat, _ubi sup._, 114.
+
+[986] Mem. de l'estat, 118, 119; Jean de Serres (1575), iv., fol. 32;
+Reveille-Matin, 180; Euseb. Philad. Dialogi (1574), 39, 40.
+
+[987] Joh. Wilh. von Botzheim, in his narrative, gives several versions of
+the words. According to one they were: "_Behem_--'N'est tu pas Admiral?'
+_Admiralius_--'Ouy, je le suis. Mais vous estes bien un jeune souldat pour
+parler ainsi avec un vieil capitaine, pour le moins au respect de ma
+vielesse.' _Behem_--'Je suis assez aage (age) por te faire ta reste.'"
+Cyclopica illa atque inaudita hactenus detestanda atque execranda laniena,
+quae facta est Lutetia, Aureliis, etc., published in F. W. Ebeling,
+Archivalische Beitraege zur Geschichte Frankreichs unter Carl IX. (Leipsic,
+1872), 107, 108.
+
+[988] Capilupi puts in Besme's mouth the words: "Now, traitor, restore to
+me the blood of my master, which thou didst impiously take away from me!"
+It is not at all improbable that he used some such expression. Lo
+stratagema di Carlo IX., 34.
+
+[989] Jean de Serres, De statu reipub. et rel. (1575), iv., fols. 32, 33;
+Memoires de l'estat, _ubi supra_, 119-122; Vita Gasparis Colinii
+Castellonii, magni quondam Franciae Amirallii (_sine loco_, 1575), pp.
+127-131; 178-180. These latter accounts, which agree perfectly, are the
+best. Reveille-Matin, _ubi sup._, 182, and Euseb. Philad. Dialogi (1574),
+i. 39, 40; Tocsain contre les massacreurs (Rheims, 1579), 121-123;
+Capilupi, Lo stratagema di Carlo IX. (1574), 33, etc.; Journal d'un cure
+ligueur (Jehan de la Fosse), 148, 149; Relation of Olaegui, secretary of
+D. de Cuniga, Spanish ambassador at Paris; Particularites inedites sur la
+St. Barthelemi, Gachard in Bulletins de l'Academie royale de Belgique,
+xvi. (1849), 252, 253; Alva's bulletin prepared for distribution, ibid.,
+ix. (1842), 563. Both are very inaccurate. De Thou, iv. (liv. lii.) 584,
+585; Agrippa d'Aubigne, ii. 16 (liv. i., c. 4).
+
+[990] "Le lundy d'apres, ayant la teste ostee et les parties honteuses
+coupees _par les petits enfans_, fut d'iceulx petits enfans qui estoient
+jusques au nombre de 2 ou 300, traine, le ventre en haut, parmy les
+ruisseaux de la ville de Paris." Jehan de la Fosse, 149. See the long
+account in Von Botzheim's narration, _ubi supra_, 113.
+
+[991] Memoires de l'estat, _ubi supra_, 122.
+
+[992] Letter of Mandelot to Charles IX., Sept. 5, 1572, Correspondance du
+roi Charles IX. et du sieur de Mandelot (Edited by P. Paris, Paris, 1830),
+56-58.
+
+[993] Of this memorable enterprise Coligny has left "Memoires" which are
+contained in the collection of Petitot, etc. It is the only military
+treatise we possess coming from the admiral's hand, and it enters into the
+subject with technical minuteness. The destruction by his royal murderers
+of the admiral's papers (including diaries that would have thrown great
+light upon the transactions of the last two years of his life), see Vita
+Gasparis Colinii (1575), i. 138, was an irretrievable loss to history. We
+are told also of a much more recent act of vandalism, not even palliated
+by the miserable excuse of political expediency: "In 1810, an inhabitant
+of Chatillon having discovered in the solitary remaining tower of the old
+castle a walled chamber wherein were the archives of the Coligny family
+and of the family of Luxemburg, burned all the papers from motives of
+private interest. Some fragments that escaped this conflagration, and
+which are preserved in the mairie, prove that a correspondence between
+Catharine de' Medici and Coligny had been laid away in this repository."
+Bulletin de la Societe de l'histoire du prot. francais, iii. (1854) 351.
+
+[994] _Ante_, chapter xiii.
+
+[995] Testament olographe de l'amiral Coligny, Bulletin de la Soc. de
+l'hist. du prot. francais, i. (1852) 263, etc. The authenticity of this
+document, though called in question on historical grounds, has been
+conclusively established by M. Jules Bonnet, Bulletin, xxiv. (1875)
+332-335.
+
+[996] Alberi, Relazioni Venete, vol. iv., 1st series, _apud_ Baschet, La
+diplomatie venitienne, i. 536, 537. There is, however, the greatest
+improbability in the story that Coligny advanced such claims in his own
+behalf as his admirers made for him. We may reject as apocryphal--for they
+stand in palpable contradiction with the whole tenor of his
+utterances--the words ascribed by Lord Macaulay to the great Huguenot hero
+(History of England, New York, 1879, iv. 488): "'In one respect,' said the
+Admiral Coligni, 'I may claim superiority over Alexander, over Scipio,
+over Caesar. They won great battles, it is true. I have lost four great
+battles; and yet I show to the enemy a more formidable front than ever.'"
+Cf. Davila, bk. v., p. 179.
+
+[997] Vita Gasparis Colinii (1575), pp. 133-137, translated by D. D.
+Scott, under the title, "Memoirs of the Admiral de Coligny," 183-187. I
+have abridged the account by omitting some less important particulars.
+
+[998] Discours sur les causes de l'execution faicte es personnes de ceux
+qui avoient conjure contre le Roy et son estat. A Paris, a l'olivier de P.
+l'Huillier, rue St. Jacques. 1572. _Avec privilege._ (Archives curieuses,
+vii. 231-249.) Capilupi, Lo stratagema di Carlo IX., 1574, p. 26.
+
+[999] Memoires de l'estat, _ubi supra_, 123; Jean de Serres (1575), iv.,
+fol. 30; Reveille-Matin, 182; Eusebii Philadelphi Dialogi, i. 40.
+
+[1000] "La Royne ma mere respond, que s'il plaisoit a Dieu je n'auroit
+point de mal; mais quoy que ce fust, il falloit que j'allasse, de peur de
+leur faire soupconner quelque chose qui empeschast l'effect."
+
+[1001] Memoires de Marguerite de Valois, 32, 33.
+
+[1002] See _ante_, chapter xvi.
+
+[1003] Memoires de l'estat, _ubi supra_, 123, 124; Jean de Serres (1575),
+iv., fol. 34; Reveille-Matin, 182; Eusebii Philadelphi Dialogi, i. 40;
+Tocsain contre les massacreurs, 125, 126.
+
+[1004] Agrippa d'Aubigne, ii. 18 (liv. i., c. 4).
+
+[1005] Memoires de Marguerite de Valois, 345.
+
+[1006] Reveille-Matin, _ubi supra_, 183; Euseb. Philad. Dialogi, i. 40;
+Mem. de l'estat, _ubi supra_, 126. Charles was not generally so
+complaisant. Fervaques in vain interceded for his friend Captain Moneins.
+Tocsain, 126.
+
+[1007] Mem. de l'estat, _ubi sup._, 124; Jean de Serres (1575), iv., fol.
+35; Reveille-Matin, 182; Euseb. Philadelphi Dial., i. 40; De Thou, iv.
+(liv. lii.) 590.
+
+[1008] "Avec une contenance fort esmeue et abatue." Mem. de l'estat.
+"Humilissimo animo et consternate ore." Jean de Serres, _ubi supra_.
+
+[1009] Jean de Serres's "_consternatiori_ tamen animo" is an evident
+misprint for "_constantiori_ tamen animo."
+
+[1010] Memoires de l'estat, 124, 125; Jean de Serres, iv., fol. 35
+_verso_; Reveille-Matin, 183; Eusebii Philad. Dial. (1574), i. 40; De
+Thou, iv. (liv. lii.) 590; Agrippa d'Aubigne, Hist. univ., ii. 19 (liv.
+i., c. 4).
+
+[1011] Eusebii Phil. Dialogi, i. 40, 41; Reveille-Matin, _ubi sup._, 183,
+copied _verbatim_ in Mem. de l'estat, 126. The Reveille-Matin removes the
+apparent contradiction between the various accounts respecting the bell
+that gave the signal for the massacre by showing that _both_ bells were
+rung. So also Agrippa d'Aubigne, ii. 16 (liv. i., c. 4), after mentioning
+how Catharine, for the time being, removed Charles's hesitation by
+alleging the necessity of cutting off the corrupt members in order to save
+the Church, the Bride of Christ, and citing the saying: "Che pieta lor ser
+crudele. Che crudelta lor ser pietosa," adds: "Le roi se resout, et elle
+avance le tocsain du Palais, en faisant sonner _une heure et demie_ devant
+celui de Sainct Germain de l'Auxerrois." By neglecting the clue thus
+given, the chronological order of the events of the day has been lost by a
+number of historians. It will be noticed that the number of the royal
+guards reported to have been slain was, strangely enough, derived from
+that of the Huguenot gentlemen butchered in the Louvre by those very
+guards. The story may have been perpetuated by misapprehension of the
+facts; it could have arisen only from wilful falsehood.
+
+[1012] Tocsain contre les massacreurs (Rheims, 1579), 124, 125;
+Reveille-Matin, 126; Eusebii Philadelphi Dialogi, i. 41; Agrippa
+d'Aubigne, ii. 18; De Thou, iv. (liv. lii.) 586.
+
+[1013] Tocsain contre les massacreurs, 125; Agrippa d'Aubigne, ii. 18; De
+Thou, iv. (liv. lii.) 586; Euseb. Philad. Dialogi, _ubi supra_.
+
+[1014] "The courtiers and the soldiers of the royal guard were the
+executioners of this commission on the (Huguenot) noblesse, terminating,
+they said, by the sword and general disorder, those processes which pens
+and paper and the order of justice had hitherto failed to bring to an
+issue." Reveille-Matin, _ubi supra_, 184; Eusebii Philad. Dialogi, i 41;
+Memoires de l'estat, 127.
+
+[1015] Agrippa d'Aubigne, ii. 18.
+
+[1016] Tocsain contre les massacreurs, 136, 137.
+
+[1017] Reveille-Matin, _ubi supra_, 184, 185; Eusebii Philad. Dial., i.
+42; Mem. de l'estat, 127; Jean de Serres (1575), iv. 38; De Thou, iv.
+(liv. lii.) 588; Agrippa d'Aubigne, ii. 18. The minor details of the story
+are given, with variations, by different authors. D'Aubigne gives us
+Biron's answer to the commands and menaces with which Madame de la
+Chataigneraie sought to gain possession of young La Force: "I would
+certainly intrust him in the hands of his relative, in order to take care
+of him, but not in the hands of his next heir, who took too great care of
+him yesterday morning," ii. 21. It must be noted, however, that the
+"Memoires authentiques de Jacques Nompar de Caumont, Duc de la Force,
+Marechal de France, recueillis par le Marquis de la Grange" (Paris, 1843),
+i. 2-37, so far from accusing the sister of La Force, ascribe the
+persistent attempts to secure his death solely to Archan (or Larchant),
+who had _married_ this sister; and they state that, at her death, she left
+her property, including what she had inherited from her husband, to her
+brother.
+
+[1018] Memoires de l'estat, _ubi supra_, 146
+
+[1019] Mem. de l'estat, 146; Tocsain contre les massacreurs, 129, 130; De
+Thou, iv. (liv. lii.) 592; Claude Haton, ii. 678; Agrippa d'Aubigne, ii.
+20.
+
+[1020] Tocsain, 136.
+
+[1021] Mem. de l'estat, 146.
+
+[1022] "Radices, atque etiam radicum fibras, funditus evellas." Pii Quinti
+Epistolae, 111. See _ante_, chapter xvi., p. 308.
+
+[1023] Mem. de l'estat, 147. The children of other cities emulated the
+example of those of Paris. In Provins, in the month of October, 1572, a
+Huguenot, Jean Crespin, after having been hung by the officers of justice,
+was taken down from the gallows by "les petis enfans de Provins, _de l'age
+de douze ans et au dessoubz_," to the number of more than one hundred. By
+these mimic judges he was declared unworthy to be dragged save by his
+feet, and, his punishment by hanging being reckoned too light, he was
+roasted in a fire of straw, and presently thrown into the river. Numbers
+of older persons looked on, approving and encouraging the children; a few
+good Catholics were grieved to see such cruelty practised on a dead body.
+Mem. de Claude Haton, ii. 704-706.
+
+[1024] Mem. de l'estat, _ubi supra_, 128.
+
+[1025] "On en remarqua qui avoient les yeux attaches sur le corps du Baron
+du Pont, pour voir si elles y trouveroient quelque cause ou quelque marque
+de l'impuissance qu'on lui reprochoit." De Thou, iv. (liv. lii.) 587. See
+Euseb. Philadelphi Dial., i. 45, and Jean de Serres (1575) iv., fol. 39.
+
+[1026] "Le Roy, la Royne mere, et leurs courtisans, rioyent a gorge
+desployee." Mem. de l'estat, _ubi supra_, 132.
+
+[1027] The prevot, echevins, etc., "du tout, auroient, d'heure en heure,
+rendu compte et tesmoignage a sadicte Majeste." Extrait des registres et
+croniques du bureau de la ville de Paris, Archives curieuses, vii. 215.
+
+[1028] Mem. de l'estat, _ubi supra_.
+
+[1029] Tocsain contre les massacreurs, Rheims, 1579, p. 140.
+
+[1030] Ibid., _ubi supra_.
+
+[1031] Brantome, Homines illustres francais, M. de Thavannes.
+
+[1032] "Declarant (Alencon) qu'il ne pouvoit approuver vn tel desordre, ny
+qu'on rompit si ouvertement la foy promise, qui fut cause que sa mere luy
+dit en termes clairs que s'il bougeoit elle le feroit ietter dans vn sac
+aual l'eau." Tocsain contre les massacreurs, 141.
+
+[1033] Ib., 133.
+
+[1034] De Thou, iv. 592.
+
+[1035] His son, Jacques Merlin, at a later time pastor at La Rochelle,
+although he does not mention the particulars of his father's escape, in
+the journal published for the first time by M. Gaberel in an appendix to
+the second vol. of his Histoire de l'eglise de Geneve, pp. 153-207,
+alludes to it--"fut deliure par une grace de Dieu speciale" (p. 155).
+
+[1036] Memoires de Sully (London, 1748), i. pp. 29, 30.
+
+[1037] Tocsain contre les massacreurs, 131; Mem. de l'estat, _ubi supra_,
+142, etc. De Thou, iv. (liv. lii.) 592, 593. Strange to say, Von Botzheim
+was so far misinformed, that he makes Charpentier _weep_ for the fate of
+Ramus! Archival. Beitraege, p. 117.
+
+[1038] De Thou, iv. (liv. lii.) 596; Memoires de l'estat de France sous
+Charles IX. (Cimber et Danjou, vii. 137-142, and in M. Buchon's
+biographical notice prefixed to the "Commentaires"). An appreciative
+chapter on Pierre de la Place and his works may be read in Victor Bujeaud,
+Chronique protestante de l'Angoumois (Angouleme, 1860), 50-66.
+
+[1039] Cahors is over 300 miles in a straight line from Paris, more than
+400 miles--153 leagues--by the roads.
+
+[1040] De Thou, iv. (liv. lii.) 594, 595; Agrippa d'Aubigne, Hist. univ.,
+ii. 23.
+
+[1041] The incident of Charles IX.'s firing upon the Huguenots has been of
+late the subject of much discussion. M. Fournier and M. Mery have denied
+the existence, in 1572, of the pavilion at which tradition makes the king
+to have stationed himself. See Bulletin de la Soc. de l'hist. du prot.
+francais, v. (1857) 332, etc. It has, I think, been conclusively shown
+that they are mistaken. The pavilion _was_ in existence. But, besides,
+there is no reason why an incident should be deemed apocryphal because of
+a popular mistake in assigning the spot of its occurrence. The
+"Reveille-Matin" and the Eusebii Philadelphi Dialogi, published in 1574,
+are the earliest documents that refer to it. They place Charles at the
+window of his own room. So does Brantome, writing considerably later. Jean
+de Serres (in the fourth vol. of his Commentaria de statu, etc. (fol. 37),
+published in 1575) says: "Regem quoque ex hypaethrio (_i.e._, from a
+covered gallery) aiunt, adhibitis, ut solebat, diris contenta voce
+conclamare, et tormento etiam ipsum ejaculari." Agrippa d'Aubigne alludes
+to it not only in his Histoire universelle (ii. 19, 21), but in his
+Tragiques (Bulletin, vii. 185), a poem which he commenced as early as in
+1577 (See Bulletin, x. 202). M. Henri Bordier has been so fortunate as to
+discover and has reprinted a contemporary engraving of the massacre, in
+which Charles is represented as excitedly looking on the slaughter from a
+window in the Louvre, while behind him stand two halberdiers and several
+noblemen (Bulletin, x. 106, 107). The question is discussed in an able and
+exhaustive manner by MM. Fournier, Ludovic Lalanne, Bernard, Berty,
+Bordier, and others, in the Bulletin, v. 332-340; vi. 118-126; vii.
+182-187; x. 5-11, 105-107, 199-204.
+
+[1042] The Porte de Bussy, or Bucy, was the first gate toward the west on
+the southern side of the Seine. During the reign of Francis I. and his
+successors of the house of Valois, the walls of Paris were of small
+compass. In this quarter their general direction is well marked out by the
+Rue Mazarine. The circuit started from the Tour de Nesle, which was nearly
+opposite the eastern front of the Louvre--the short Rue de Bussy fixes the
+situation of the gate where Guise was delayed. A little west of this is
+the abbey church of St. Germain-des-Pres, which gave its name to the
+suburb opposite the Louvre and the Tuileries. This quaint pile--the oldest
+church, or, indeed, edifice of any kind in Paris--after being built in the
+sixth century, and injured by the Normans in the ninth, was rebuilt and
+dedicated in 1163 A.D., by Alexander III. in person. On that occasion the
+Bishop of Paris was not even permitted by the jealous monks to be present,
+on the ground that the abbey of St. Germain-des-Pres was exempt from his
+jurisdiction. The pontiff confirmed their position, and his sermon,
+instead of being an exposition of the Gospel, was devoted to setting forth
+the privileges accorded to the abbey by St. Germain, Bishop of Paris, in
+886. Dulaure, Histoire de Paris, ii. 79-84.
+
+[1043] Tocsain contre les massacreurs, 138, 139; Reveille-Matin, 186-188;
+Mem. de l'estat, 129-131.
+
+[1044] See Henry White, Massacre of St. Bartholomew, p. 460.
+
+[1045] Valued at from 100,000 to 200,000 crowns, Reveille-Matin, 190; Mem.
+de l'estat, 151. The interesting anonymous letter from Heidelberg, Dec.
+22, 1573, published first by the Marquis de Noailles in his "Henri de
+Valois et la Pologne en 1572" (Paris, 1867), iii. 533, from the MSS. of
+Prince Czartoryski, alludes to the costly jewels which Henry, now
+king-elect of Poland, made to the elector palatine, his host, and remarks:
+"Fortasse magna haec fuisse videbitur liberalitas et rege digna, at parva
+certe vel nulla potius fuit, si vel sumptibus quos illustrissimus noster
+princeps in deducendo et excipiendo hoc hospite sustinuit conferamus, vel
+si unde haec dona sint profecta expendamus. Ipse siquidem rex (Henry) ne
+teruncium pro iis solvisse, sed ex taberna cujusdam praedivitis aurifabri
+Parisiensis, quam scelerati sui ministri in strage illa nobilium ut alias
+multas diripuerunt, accepisse ea fertur."
+
+[1046] Memoires de l'estat, _ubi supra_, 150. Versailles, which thus
+passed into the hands of the family of Marshal Retz--the Gondi family--was
+an old castle situated in the midst of an almost unbroken forest. The
+Gondi family sold it to Louis XIII., who built a hunting lodge, afterward
+transmuted by Louis XIV. into the magnificent palace, which, for more than
+a century, was the favorite residence of the most splendid court in
+Europe. The mode in which the title was acquired did not augur well for
+the justice or the morality which was to reign there. M. L. Lacour has
+contributed an animated sketch, "Versailles et les protestants de France,"
+to the Bulletin de la Soc. de l'hist. du prot. fr., viii. (1859) 352-367.
+
+[1047] Discours sur les causes de l'execution, _ubi supra_, 249.
+
+[1048] Royal orders of Aug. 25th, Aug. 27th, etc. Order of the Prevot des
+marchands, Aug. 30th. Registres du bureau de la ville, Archives curieuses,
+vii. 222-230. Euseb. Philadelphi Dialog., i. 45.
+
+[1049] Registres du bureau de la ville, pp. 222, 223.
+
+[1050] Ibid., p. 227.
+
+[1051] "Aucuns malades languissans, ayant ouy ce miracle, se firent porter
+audit cymetiere pour veoir laditte espine; lesquelz, estans la avec ferme
+foy, firent leur priere a Dieu en l'honneur de nostre dame la vierge Marie
+et devant son ymage qui est en laditte chapelle, pour recouvrer leur
+sante, et, apres leur oraison faicte, s'en retournerent en leurs maisons
+sains et guaris de leur maladie, chose tres-veritable et bien approuvee."
+Mem. de Claude Haton, ii. 682.
+
+[1052] Ibid., _ubi supra_; Tocsain contre les massacreurs, 146;
+Reveille-Matin, 193, 194; Mem. de l'estat, 155; Jean de Serres, iv., fol.
+41; De Thou, iv. (liv. lii.) 596.
+
+[1053] Dr. White (Massacre of St. Bartholomew, 459) has tabulated the
+estimates, nine in number, afforded by twenty-one distinct authorities.
+The lowest estimate--1,000 victims--is that of the Abbe Caveyrac, whose
+undisguised aim was to place the number as low as possible, so as to
+palliate the atrocity of the massacre. Being based apparently upon the
+number of the _names_ of victims that have been recorded, it may be
+dismissed as unworthy of consideration. The highest estimate, of 10,000,
+though adopted by such writers as the authors of the Reveille-Matin and
+the Memoires de l'estat de France, is vague or excessive. The Tocsain and
+Agrippa d'Aubigne are, perhaps, too moderate in respectively stating the
+number as 2,000 and 3,000. On the whole, it appears to me, the
+contribution of Paris to the massacre of the Huguenots may be set down
+with the greatest probability at between 4,000 and 5,000 persons of all
+ages and conditions. Von Botzheim, who estimates the total at 8,000 (F. W.
+Ebeling, Archivalische Beitraege, p. 120), makes 500 of these to be women
+(Ibid., p. 119).
+
+[1054] In other letters Charles had even the effrontery to represent the
+King of Navarre as having been in like danger with his brothers and
+himself. See Eusebii Philadelphi Dialog. (1574), i. 45: "se quidem metu
+propriae salutis in arcem Luparam (the Louvre) compulsum illic se
+continuisse, una cum fratre charissimo Rege Navarrae, et dilectissimo
+Principe Condensi, ut in communi periculo eundem fortunae exitum
+experirentur!"
+
+[1055] Correspondance du roi Charles IX. et du sieur de Mandelot, 39-41.
+Letter to the Governor of Burgundy, _apud_ Mem. de l'estat, _ubi sup._,
+133-135.
+
+[1056] It was undoubtedly with the object of showing that they were not
+the prime movers in the massacre, or, as the author of the Mem. de l'estat
+expresses himself, that they had no particular quarrel save with Admiral
+Coligny, that Henry of Guise and his uncle actually rescued a few
+Huguenots from the hands of those who were about to put them to death.
+Reveille-Matin, 188; Memoires de l'estat, 150.
+
+[1057] Mem. de l'estat, _ubi supra_, 154, from Reveille-Matin, 192; De
+Thou, iv. (liv. lii.) 597, 598; Euseb. Philad. Dial., i. 47.
+
+[1058] It was while Charles was on his way to the Palais de Justice that a
+gentleman in his train, and not far from him, was recognized as being a
+Protestant, and was killed. The king, hearing the disturbance, turned
+around; but, on being informed that it was a Huguenot whom they were
+putting to death, lightly said: "Let us go on. Would to God that he were
+the last!" Reveille-Matin, 194 (copied in Mem. de l'estat, 157); Euseb.
+Philad. Dial., i. 50.
+
+[1059] De Thou, whom I have chiefly followed, iv. (liv. lii.) 599; Tocsain
+contre les massacreurs, 142; Reveille-Matin, 193, 194; Euseb. Phil. Dial.,
+i. 49; Mem. de l'estat, 156; Jean de Serres (1575), iv., fol. 43;
+Capilupi, 45; Relation of Olaegui, secretary of Don Diego de Cuniga,
+Spanish ambassador at Paris, to be laid before Philip II., Simancas MSS.,
+_apud_ Bulletins de l'Acad. Roy. des Sciences, etc., de Belgique, vol.
+xvi. (1849) 254.
+
+[1060] De Thou, Tocsain, etc., _ubi supra_.
+
+[1061] Returning to the unpleasant theme in a subsequent book of his noble
+history (iv. (liv. liii.) 644), Jacques Auguste de Thou remarks, with an
+integrity which cannot swerve even out of consideration for filial
+respect: "Ce qu'il y avoit de deplorable, etoit de voir des personnes
+respectables par leur piete, leur science, et leur integrite, revetues des
+premieres charges du Royaume, ennemies d'ailleurs de tout deguisement et
+de tout artifice, tels que Morvilliers, de Thou, Pibrac, Montluc et
+Bellievre, louer contre leurs sentimens, ou excuser par complaisance une
+action qu'ils detestoient dans le coeur, sans y etre engages par aucun
+motif de crainte ou d'esperance; mais dans la fausse persuasion ou ils
+etoient que les circonstances presentes et le bien de l'Etat demandoient
+qu'ils tinssent ce langage."
+
+[1062] The case stands much worse if we accept the statement of the author
+of the Memoires de l'estat de France sous Charles IX., who, after
+contrasting the honorable conduct of President La Vaquerie, in the time of
+Louis XI., with that of Christopher de Thou, adds: "Mais cestui-ci n'avoit
+garde de faire le semblable; il prend trop de plaisir a toute sorte
+d'injustice pour s'y vouloir opposer." (_Ubi supra_, pp. 156, 157.) So,
+also, Euseb. Philad. Dial., i. 50: "Nam quomodo sese injustitiae viriliter
+opponeret, qui ex ea tam uberes fructus colligit?" The Mem. de l'estat
+accuse him of having instigated the murder of Rouillard--a counsellor of
+parliament and canon of Notre Dame, and one of a very few Roman Catholics
+that were assassinated--because the latter loved justice, and had
+prosecuted one of the first president's friends (p. 148). According to the
+historian De Thou, on the other hand (iv. 593), Rouillard was "homme
+inquiet, querelleux, et ennemi des officiers des compagnies de ville."
+
+[1063] The passage is not in the will in the admiral's own handwriting,
+dated Archiac, June 5, 1569, a facsimile of which has been accurately
+lithographed by the French Protestant Historical Society, and which has
+also been printed in the Bulletin, i. (1852) 263-268. See _ante_, p. 461,
+462.
+
+[1064] Memoires de l'estat, _ubi supra_, 153; Gasparis Colinii Vita
+(1575), 131.
+
+[1065] "The said discourse was all written with his own hand." Walsingham
+to Smith, Sept. 14, 1572; Digges, 241, 242; Mem. de l'estat, _ubi supra_,
+153; Gasparis Colinii Vita, 131, 132.
+
+[1066] Jean de Serres (1575), iv., fols. 57, 58; Eusebii Philadelphi Dial.
+(1574), i. 82, 83; Reveille-Matin, 203-205; De Thou, iv. (liv. liii.) 645,
+646. For many years the disgraceful commemorative procession was
+faithfully observed.
+
+[1067] The slight eminence of Montfaucon, the Tyburn of Paris, was between
+the Faubourg St. Martin and the Faubourg du Temple, near the site of the
+Hopital St. Louis. See Dulaure, Atlas de Paris.
+
+[1068] "Il les en reprit et leur dist: 'Je ne bousche comme vous autres,
+car l'odeur de son ennemy est tres-bonne'--odeur certes point bonne et la
+parolle aussi mauvaise." Brantome, Le Roy Charles IX., edit. Lalanne, v.
+258. The original authority for this odious remark is Papyrius Masson
+(1575) in his life of Charles IX., which Brantome had under his eyes:
+"Servis foetorem non ferentibus, hostis mortui odor bonus est inquit." Le
+Laboureur, iii. 16.
+
+[1069] Le deluge des Huguenots avec leur Tumbeau, 1572. Reprinted in
+Archives curieuses, vii. 251-259.
+
+[1070] Tocsain contre les massacreurs, Rheims, 1579, p. 143. It has been
+well remarked by a writer in the Bulletin de la Soc. de l'hist. du prot.
+francais (iii. 346) as one of the paradoxes of history, that Coligny's
+mangled remains, "after being carefully subjected to the most ignominious
+treatment, were saved from the annihilation to which they appeared to be
+infallibly condemned, and have been transmitted from place to place, and
+from hand to hand, until our own days, and better preserved for three
+centuries than many other illustrious corpses carefully laid up in costly
+mausoleums!" Marshal Montmorency placed the admiral's body in a lead
+coffin in his castle of Chantilly, whence he sent it to Montauban.
+Francois de Coligny brought it back to Chatillon-sur-Loing, when, in 1599,
+the sentence of parliament was formally rescinded. In 1786 it was taken to
+Maupertuis and placed in a black marble sarcophagus. Since 1851 it has
+been resting in its new tomb under the ruins of that part of the castle of
+Chatillon where Coligny was probably born. Bulletin, iii. 346-351.
+
+[1071] Tocsain contre les Massacreurs, 146; Reveille-Matin, 195; Euseb.
+Philadelphi Dial., i. 51; Mem. de l'estat, 161; Jean de Serres, iv., fol.
+44 _verso_.
+
+[1072] The text of the declaration is to be found in the Memoires de
+Claude Haton, ii. 683-685, in the Recueil des anciennes lois francaises
+(Isambert), xiv. 257, etc., and in the Memoires de l'estat, _ubi supra_,
+162-164. See De Thou, iv. (liv. lii.) 600. The Reveille-Matin calls
+attention (p. 196) to the circumstance that in the first copies of the
+document the name of Navarre did not occur; but that in the next issue the
+admiral's unhappy and detestable conspiracy was represented as directed
+against "la personne dudit sieur roy et contre son estat, la royne sa
+mere, messieurs ses freres, _le roy de Navarre_, princes et seigneurs
+estans pres d'eulx." The policy of introducing Navarre, and, by
+implication, Conde, among the proposed victims of the Huguenots, was
+certainly sufficiently bold and reckless. See _ante_, p. 490.
+
+[1073] See De Thou, iv. (liv. liii.), 630; Jean de Serres, iv., fols. 53,
+54.
+
+[1074] Euseb. Philadelphi Dial., i. 52.
+
+[1075] Digges, 239, 240.
+
+[1076] Ibid., 245
+
+[1077] Documents historiques inedits, i. 713-715.
+
+[1078] Agrippa d'Aubigne, Hist. univ., ii. 30; Jean de Serres (1575), iv.,
+fol. 55.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+THE MASSACRE IN THE PROVINCES, AND THE RECEPTION OF THE TIDINGS ABROAD.
+
+
+[Sidenote: The massacre in the provinces.]
+
+The massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day would have been terrible enough had
+it been confined to Paris, for its victims in that single city were to be
+reckoned by thousands. Charles the Ninth himself, on the third day,
+admitted in a letter to Mondoucet, his envoy in the Netherlands, that "a
+very great number of the adherents of the new religion who were in this
+city had been massacred and cut to pieces."[1079] But this was little in
+comparison with the multitudes that were yet to lose their lives in other
+parts of France. Here, however, the enterprise assumed a different
+character. Not only did it not commence on the same day as in the capital,
+but it began at different dates in different places. It is evident that
+there had been no well-concerted plan long entertained and freely
+communicated to the governors of the provinces and cities. On the
+contrary, the greatest variety of procedure prevailed--all tending,
+nevertheless, to the same end of the total destruction of the Protestants.
+And this was intended from the very moment the project of the Parisian
+butchery was hastily and inconsiderately adopted by the king. Charles
+meant to be as good as his word when he announced his determination that
+not a single Huguenot should survive to reproach him with what he had
+done. More frightful than his most passionate outburst of bloodthirsty
+frenzy is the cool calculation with which he, or the minister who wrote
+the words he subscribed, predicts the chain of successive murders in
+provincial France, scarcely one of which had as yet been attempted. "_It
+is probable_," he said, in the same letter of the twenty-sixth of August,
+that has just been cited, "_that the fire thus kindled will go coursing
+through all the cities of my kingdom_, which, following the example of
+what has been done in this city, will assure themselves of all the
+adherents of the said religion."[1080]
+
+[Sidenote: Verbal orders.]
+
+No mere surmise, founded upon the probable effects of the exhibition of
+cruelty in Paris, led to the penning of this sentence. Charles had
+purposely fired the train which was to explode with the utmost violence at
+almost every point of his wide dominions. "As it has pleased God," he
+wrote to Mondoucet, "to bring matters to the state in which they now are,
+I do not intend to neglect the opportunity not only to re-establish, if I
+shall be able, lasting quietness in my kingdom, but also to serve
+Christendom."[1081] Accordingly, secret orders, for the most part verbal,
+had already been sent in all directions, commanding the provinces to
+imitate the example set by Paris. The reality of these orders does not
+rest upon conjecture, but is attested by documentary evidence over the
+king's own hand. As we have seen in the last chapter, Charles published,
+on the twenty-eighth of August, a declaration of his motives and
+intentions. This was despatched to the governors of the provinces and to
+other high officers, in company with a circular letter, of which the final
+sentence deserves particular notice. "Moreover," says the king, "whatever
+verbal command I may have given to those whom I sent to you, as well as to
+my other governors and lieutenants-general, at a time when I had just
+reason to fear some inauspicious events, from having discovered the
+conspiracy which the admiral was making against me, I have revoked and
+revoke it completely, intending that nothing therein contained be put into
+execution by you or by others; for such is my pleasure."[1082]
+
+[Sidenote: Instructions to Montsoreau at Saumur.]
+
+What was the import of these orders? The manuscripts in the archives of
+Angers seem to leave no room for doubt. This city was the capital of the
+Duchy of Anjou, given in appanage to Henry, the king's brother, and was,
+consequently, under his special government. On Tuesday, the twenty-sixth
+of August, the duke sent to the Governor of Saumur a short note running
+thus: "Monsieur de Montsoreau, I have instructed the sieur de Puigaillard
+to write to you respecting a matter that concerns the service of the king,
+my lord and brother, as well as my own. You will, therefore, not fail to
+believe and to do whatever he may tell you, just as if it were I myself."
+In the same package with these credentials Montsoreau[1083] received a
+letter from Puigaillard, like himself a knight of the royal order of St.
+Michael, which reveals only too clearly the purpose of the king and his
+Brother. "Monsieur mon compagnon, I will not fail to acquaint you with the
+fact that, on Sunday morning the king caused a very great execution to be
+made against the Huguenots; so much so that the admiral and all the
+Huguenots that were in this city were killed. And his Majesty's will is
+that the same be done wherever there are any to be found. Accordingly, if
+you desire ever to do a service that may be agreeable to the king and to
+Monsieur (the Duke of Anjou), you must go to Saumur with the greatest
+possible number of your friends, and put to death all that you can find
+there of the principal Huguenots.... Having made this execution at Saumur,
+I beg you to go to Angers and do the same, with the assistance of the
+captain of the castle. And you must not expect to receive any other
+command from the king, nor from Monseigneur, for they will send you none,
+inasmuch as they depend upon what I write you. You must use diligence in
+this affair, and lose as little time as possible. I am very sorry that I
+cannot be there to help you in putting this into execution."[1084]
+
+[Sidenote: Two kinds of letters.]
+
+The statement of the author of the Memoires de l'estat de France is,
+therefore, in full agreement with the ascertained facts of the case. He
+informs us that, soon after the Parisian massacre commenced, the secret
+council by which the plan had been drawn up despatched two widely
+differing kinds of letters. The first were of a private character, and
+were addressed to governors of cities and to seditious Roman Catholics
+where there were many Protestants, by which they were instigated to murder
+and rapine;[1085] the others were public, and were addressed to the same
+functionaries, their object being to amuse and entrap the professors of
+the reformed faith. And in addition to the double sets of written
+instructions, the same author says that messengers were sent to various
+points, to give orders for special executions.[1086] We shall not find it
+very difficult to account for the rapidity with which the massacre spread
+to the provincial towns--of which the secretary of the Spanish ambassador,
+in his hurried journey from Paris to Madrid, was an eye-witness[1087]--if
+we bear in mind the previous ripeness of the lowest classes of the Roman
+Catholic population for the perpetration of any possible acts of insult
+and injury toward their Protestant fellow-citizens. The time had come for
+the seed sown broadcast by monk and priest in Lenten and Advent discourses
+to bear its legitimate harvest in the pitiless murder of heretics.
+
+[Sidenote: The massacre at Meaux.]
+
+Meaux was naturally one of the first of smaller cities to catch the
+contagion from the capital. Not only was it the nearest city that
+contained any considerable body of Huguenots, but, if we may credit the
+report current among them, Catharine, in virtue of her rank as Countess of
+Meaux, had placed it first upon the roll. It is not impossible that the
+circumstance that this was the cradle of Protestantism in France may have
+secured it this distinction. About the middle of Sunday afternoon a
+courier reached Meaux, and at once made his way to the residence of the
+procureur-du-roi, one Cosset. The nature of the message he bore may be
+inferred from the fact that secret orders were at once given to those
+persons upon whom Cosset thought that he could rely, to be in readiness
+about nightfall. So completely had every outlet from Paris been sealed,
+that it had proved almost impossible for a Protestant to find the means of
+escaping to carry the tidings abroad. Consequently the adherents of the
+reformed faith were yet in ignorance of the impending catastrophe. At the
+time appointed, Cosset and his followers seized the gates of Meaux. It was
+the hour when the peaceable and unsuspecting people were at supper. The
+Protestants could now easily be found, and few escaped arrest, either that
+evening or on the succeeding day. Happily, however, a large number of
+Huguenots resided in a quarter of Meaux known as the "Grand Marche," and
+separated from the main part of the town by the river Marne. The
+inhabitants of the Grand Marche received timely warning of their danger;
+and the men fled by night for temporary refuge to the neighboring
+villages. It was scarcely dawn on Monday morning when the work of plunder
+begun. By eight o'clock little was left of the goods of the Huguenots on
+this side of the Marne, and the pillagers crossed the bridge to the Grand
+Marche. Finding only the women, who had remained in the vain hope of
+saving their family possessions, the papists wreaked their fury upon them.
+About twenty-five of these unhappy persons were murdered in cold
+blood;[1088] others were so severely beaten that they died within a few
+days; a few were shamefully dishonored. In most cases, if not in all,
+outward acquiescence in the ceremonies of the Roman Catholic Church would
+have saved the lives of the victims, but the Huguenot women were constant
+and would yield no hypocritical consent. One poor woman, the wife of
+"Nicholas the cap-maker," was being dragged to mass, when her bold and
+impolitic expressions of detestation of the service so enraged her
+conductors, that, being at that moment upon the bridge which unites the
+two portions of the city, they stabbed her and threw her body into the
+river. In a short time the Grand Marche, which the precise chronicler
+tells us contained more than four hundred houses, was robbed of everything
+which could be removed, for not the most insignificant article escaped the
+cupidity of the Roman Catholic populace.[1089]
+
+These were but the preliminaries of the general massacre. The prisons were
+full of Huguenots, whom it was necessary to put out of the way. Late in
+the day, on Tuesday the twenty-sixth, Cosset and his band made their
+appearance. They were provided with a list of their destined victims, more
+than two hundred in number. Of a score or two the names have been
+preserved, with their respective avocations. They were merchants, judicial
+officers, industrious artisans--in short, the representatives of the
+better class of the population of Meaux. Not one escaped. The murderous
+band were stationed in the courtyard of the prison, while Cosset, armed
+with a pistol in either hand, mounted the steps, and by his roll summoned
+the Protestants to the slaughter awaiting them below. The bloody work was
+long and tedious. The assassins adjourned awhile for their supper, and,
+unable to complete the task before weariness blunted the edge of their
+ferocity, reserved a part of the Protestants for the next day. None the
+less was the task accomplished with thoroughness, and the exultant
+cutthroats now had leisure to pursue the fugitives of the Grand Marche to
+the villages in which they had taken refuge.[1090]
+
+[Sidenote: The massacre at Troyes.]
+
+The news of the Parisian massacre reached Troyes, the flourishing capital
+of Champagne, on Tuesday, the twenty-sixth of August, and spread great
+alarm among the Protestants, who, with the recent disturbances[1091] still
+fresh in their memories, apprehended immediate death. But their enemies
+for the time confined themselves to closing the gates to prevent their
+escape. It was not until Saturday, the thirtieth, that the "bailli," Anne
+de Vaudrey, sieur de St. Phalle, sent throughout the city and brought all
+the Protestants to the prisons. Meantime one of the most turbulent of the
+Roman Catholics, named Pierre Belin, had been in Paris, having been
+deputed, some weeks before, to endeavor to procure the removal of the
+place of worship of the reformed from the castle of Isle-au-Mont, two or
+three leagues from the city, to some more distant and inconvenient spot.
+He remained in the capital until the Saturday after the massacre, and
+started that day for Troyes, with a copy of the declaration of Thursday
+forbidding injury to the persons and goods of unoffending Protestants, and
+ordering the release of any that might have been imprisoned. It was
+believed, indeed, that he was commissioned to give the declaration to the
+bailli for publication. On Wednesday, the third of September, he reached
+Troyes. As he rode through the streets, he inquired again and again
+whether the Huguenots at Troyes were all killed as they were elsewhere.
+When interrogated by peaceable Roman Catholics respecting a rumor that
+the king had revoked his sanguinary orders, he boldly denied its truth,
+accompanying his words with oaths and imprecations. Finding the bailli, he
+had no difficulty in persuading him to suppress the royal order, and to
+convene a council, at which Belin was introduced as the bearer of verbal
+instructions, and a bishop was brought forward to confirm them. Belin and
+the bishop maintained that the royal pleasure was that the heretics of
+Troyes should all be murdered on the following Saturday night, without
+distinction of rank, sex, or age, and their bodies be exposed in the
+streets to the sight of those who should on the morrow join in a solemn
+procession to be held in honor of the achievement. A writing attached to
+the neck of each was to contain the words: "Seditious persons and rebels
+against the king, who have conspired against his Majesty."
+
+The task of butchering the helpless Huguenots in the prison was first
+proposed to the public hangman. He refused to take any part in it: this,
+he said, was no duty of his office, and he would consent to perform it
+only when all the forms of law should have been observed. Other persons
+were found more pliable, and, under the leadership of one Perremet, the
+bloody scenes of the prison of Meaux were re-enacted, on Thursday, the
+fourth day of September, in that of Troyes. How many were the victims we
+know not; we have, however, the names of over thirty, apparently the most
+prominent of the number. Others were assassinated in the streets. At last,
+when all had been done that malice could effect, the king's declaration,
+which promised protection to the Huguenots, was published on Friday, the
+fifth of September.[1092]
+
+[Sidenote: The great bloodshed at Orleans.]
+
+In Orleans, a city once the headquarters of the Huguenots, where their
+iconoclastic assaults upon the churches during the first civil war had
+left permanent memorials of their former supremacy, the massacre assumed
+the largest proportions. One of the king's court preachers, Arnauld
+Sorbin, better known as M. de Sainte Foy, had written from Paris letters
+instigating the inhabitants of Orleans to imitate the example of the
+capital, and the letters came to hand with the earliest tidings of the
+Parisian massacre. The first murder took place on Monday. M. de Champeaux,
+a royal counsellor and a Protestant, who as yet was in ignorance of the
+events of St. Bartholomew's Day, received late on Monday the visit of
+Tessier, surnamed La Court, the leader of the assassins of Orleans, and
+some of his followers. Imagining it to be a friendly call--for they were
+acquaintances--Champeaux received them courteously, and invited them to
+sup with him. The meal over, his guests recounted the story of the tragic
+occurrence at Paris, and, before he was well over his surprise and horror,
+asked him for his purse. The unhappy host, still mistaking the character
+of those whom he had entertained, at first regarded the demand as a
+pleasantry; but when he had been convinced of his error and had complied,
+his treacherous visitors instantly stabbed him to death in his very
+dining-room.[1093] The general butchery began on Tuesday night, in the
+neighborhood of the ramparts, where the Protestants were most numerous,
+and from Wednesday to Saturday there was no intermission in the slaughter.
+Here, more even than elsewhere, the murderers distinguished themselves by
+their profanity and their undisguised hatred of the Protestant faith and
+worship. "Where is your God?" "Where are your prayers and your psalms?"
+"Where is the God they invoke so much? Let Him save, if He can." Such were
+the expressions with which the blows of the assassin were interlarded. At
+times he thought to aggravate his victim's sufferings by singing snatches
+of favorite psalms from the Huguenot psalm-book. It might be the
+forty-third, so appropriate to the condition of oppressed innocence, in
+its quaint old French garb:
+
+ Revenge-moi, pren la querelle
+ De moi, Seigneur, de ta merci,
+ Contre la gent fausse et cruelle:
+ De l'homme rempli de cautelle,
+ Et en sa malice endurci,
+ Delivre moi aussi.
+
+Or it might be the fifty-first--the words never more sincerely accepted,
+even when chanted to all the perfection of choral music, in the Sistine
+Chapel or in St. Peter's, than when, in the ears of constant sufferers for
+their Christian faith, ribald voices contemptuously sang or drawled the
+familiar lines:
+
+ Misericorde au povre vicieux,
+ Dieu tout-puissant, selon ta grand' clemence.[1094]
+
+"These execrable outrages," adds the chronicler who gives us this
+interesting information, "did not in the least unnerve the Protestants,
+who died with great constancy; and, if some were shaken (as were some, but
+in very small numbers), this in no wise lessened the patience and
+endurance of the rest."[1095] The number of the killed was great. The
+murderers themselves boasted of the slaughter of more than twelve hundred
+men and of one hundred and fifty women, besides a large number of children
+of nine years old and under. And there was a dreary uniformity in the
+method of their death. They were shot with pistols, then stripped, and
+dragged to the river, or thrown into the city moat.[1096] But it is, after
+all, not the numbers of nameless victims whose honorable deaths leave no
+distinct impression upon the mind, but the individual instances of
+Christian heroism, teaching lessons of imitable human virtues, that speak
+most directly to the sympathies of the reader of an age so long posterior.
+The records of French Protestantism are full of these, and one or two of
+the most striking that occurred in Orleans deserve mention. M. de
+Coudray--whom the Roman Catholics had in vain endeavored on previous
+occasions to shake--seeing his house beset and no prospect of deliverance,
+himself opened the door of his dwelling to the murderers, telling them,
+with wonderful assurance of faith: "You do but hasten the coming of that
+blessedness which I have long been expecting."[1097] Whereupon they killed
+him, in the midst of his invocation of his God. Another Huguenot, De St.
+Thomas, a schoolmaster, died uttering words as courageous as ever fell
+from lips of early Christian martyrs: "Why! do you think that you move me
+by your blasphemies and acts of cruelty? It is not within your power to
+deprive me of the assurance of the grace of my God. Strike as much as you
+please; I fear not your blows."[1098] Sometimes the dying men were allowed
+a few moments to utter a final prayer; but, if their zeal led them too
+far, their impatient murderers cut short their devotions with oaths and
+curses, and exclaimed: "Here are people that take a great while to pray to
+their God!"[1099] Of resistance there was little, so far were the
+Huguenots from having collected arms and prepared for such a conspiracy as
+was imputed to them. If a Huguenot teacher of fencing killed one or two of
+his assailants, or if a few gentlemen at different places kept them at bay
+awhile with stones or other missiles, this, so far from proving their evil
+intentions, on the contrary, furnishes undeniable proof of the very
+different results that might have ensued had their means of defence been
+equal to their courage. For fifteen days after the principal massacre the
+work went on more quietly, the dead bodies being still thrown into the
+ditch--where wolves, which in the sixteenth century abounded in the valley
+of the Loire, were permitted to feed upon them undisturbed--or into the
+river, of whose fish, fattened upon this human carrion, the people feared
+to eat.[1100]
+
+[Sidenote: Massacre at Bourges.]
+
+At Bourges the news of the massacre was received late on Tuesday.
+Meantime, some of the more sagacious of the Huguenots (among others, the
+celebrated Francis Hotman, at this time a professor of law in the
+University of Bourges), alarmed by the wounding of Admiral Coligny, had
+fled from the city. Even after the news came, the massacre was but
+partial. Although the mayor, Jean Joupitre, had received sealed orders
+(lettres de cachet) instructing him as to the part he was to take, the
+municipal officers, knowing the ill-will the Guises had always borne to
+the Huguenots, were in doubt how far the king countenanced the bloody
+work. But the royal letter of the thirtieth of August, accompanying the
+declaration of the twenty-eighth, to which reference was made above,[1101]
+so far from putting an end to the disorder, only rendered it more general.
+Bourges became the scene of another of those butcheries of Huguenots first
+gathered in the public prisons, of which there are so many similar
+instances that it seems impossible to avoid the conclusion that the orders
+to effect them emanated from a single source at court.[1102]
+
+[Sidenote: At Angers.]
+
+We have already been admitted to the secret of the instructions sent by
+the Duke of Anjou, through Puigaillard, to M. de Montsoreau, for the
+destruction of the Huguenots of Saumur and Angers. Certainly there was on
+his part no lack of readiness to fulfil his sanguinary commission; but the
+local officers were less zealous, and many of the Protestants were merely
+thrown into prison. Montsoreau's first exploit at Angers deserves
+particular mention. M. de la Riviere, the first reformed pastor of Paris,
+of whom I have spoken in a previous chapter, was at this time residing in
+Angers, and Montsoreau seems to have been acquainted with him. Going
+straight to his house, the governor met the pastor's wife, whom, according
+to the gallant custom prevailing, especially among the Trench courtiers,
+he first kissed, and then inquired for her husband. He was told that he
+was walking in his garden, and thither his hostess led him. After
+courteously embracing him, Montsoreau thus abruptly disclosed the object
+of his visit: "Monsieur de la Riviere, do you know why I am come? The king
+has ordered me to kill you, and that at once. I have a special commission
+to this effect, as you will know from these letters." While saying this he
+exhibited a pistol which he held in his hand. "I know of no crime that I
+have done," calmly replied De la Riviere; and then, after obtaining
+permission to offer a brief prayer to God, he fearlessly presented his
+breast to the cowardly assassin. Montsoreau did not complete the
+extermination of the Huguenots of Angers, and Puigaillard soon after
+arrived to prosecute it; but the Protestant prisoners whom he was to have
+murdered knew his venal disposition, and found little difficulty in
+purchasing their liberation.[1103]
+
+[Sidenote: Butchery at Lyons.]
+
+The important city of Lyons, inhabited by a population intensely hostile
+to the Reformation, had for its governor M. de Mandelot, a decided
+partisan of the Roman Catholic faction. The municipal authorities,
+however, either surpassed him in zeal, or, as is more probable, were less
+apprehensive of the dangers to be incurred by assuming the responsibility
+of a massacre; for of all the "echevins," only two opposed the violent
+measures of their associates. The written protest which they insisted upon
+entering on the official records is still extant.[1104] The first tidings
+of the wounding of Coligny by Maurevel reached Lyons on Wednesday morning,
+the twenty-seventh of August, in a letter from Charles the Ninth to
+Governor Mandelot, similar in tenor to those which were despatched to
+every other part of France.[1105] Although the king spoke only of
+displeasure at the outrage, and of his determination to avenge it, the
+populace interpreted the event according to their wishes, and instantly
+circulated reports of the murder of the admiral and all his adherents. The
+Roman Catholics, long discontented with the toleration extended to those
+who dissented from the creed of the dominant church, were jubilant and
+menacing; the Protestants were disheartened, but exhibited a self-control
+only to be accounted for by the long years of oppression which had
+wellnigh broken their spirit. The next day came the news of the events of
+Sunday, and, in the afternoon, letters from Masso and Rubys, prominent
+citizens of Lyons then at Paris, who said that they had been instructed by
+the king to order the authorities to copy the example of the capital. The
+fanatical party was now clamorous; but Mandelot, cautious and politic,
+would act on no such instructions, although he had taken the precaution of
+closing the gates, and of commanding the Protestants, on pain of
+imprisonment, to remain in their houses. Friday morning came, and with it
+the arrival of Sieur du Peyrat from court, bearing the royal letter
+written on the day of the massacre, in which it was represented as the
+exclusive work of the Guises, and the king strenuously enjoined the
+maintenance of the Edict of Pacification.[1106] These were the _public_
+instructions sent to Mandelot; but they were not all. There is a
+suspicious little postscript to the letter: "Monsieur de Mandelot, you
+will give credit to the bearer respecting the matter which I have charged
+him to tell you."[1107] What these verbal orders were which the king, not
+venturing to commit to paper, commissioned Du Peyrat to communicate, the
+reply of the governor himself distinctly reveals; it was the arrest of the
+Protestants and the confiscation of their property.[1108] Still more
+perplexed as to what course to pursue, Mandelot held a long private
+conference with the messenger, while the echevins impatiently awaited its
+conclusion. The governor now called in the municipal officers for
+consultation, and with them agreed to order the immediate imprisonment of
+the Huguenots. He was not, however, even yet fully convinced of the
+propriety of this step, for scarcely had he given the order when he
+recalled it.[1109] Fearing that the troops at his disposal might prove
+insufficient, and dreading with good reason lest the employment of the
+city militia for this purpose might lead to scenes of disorder which he
+would find himself powerless to control, he preferred to send for such
+reinforcements as the neighboring noblemen of the province could
+furnish.[1110] Meantime, the commotion throughout Lyons had rapidly
+increased. On Thursday and Friday nights many members of the Reformed
+Church had been dragged from their houses as if to prison, but most of
+them had been barbarously despatched by the way. Among others, one of the
+ministers, Monsieur Jacques l'Anglois, was stabbed and thrown into the
+river. On Saturday morning Mandelot, seeing the confusion hourly
+increasing, deemed it impolitic to wait any longer for the troops he was
+expecting, and resolved upon effecting his purpose by ruse. He therefore
+published a proclamation by sound of trumpet, bidding all the Huguenots to
+assemble at his house to hear the good pleasure of the king. The
+Huguenots, deceived by the professions of his Majesty, came in great
+numbers; but no sooner had they all arrived, than they were seized by the
+soldiers and hurried away to prison. The common prison, "La Roanne," being
+too contracted to contain so large a multitude, three hundred or more were
+placed in that of the Archbishop's palace, and others in the cloisters of
+the Celestine Monks and the Gray Friars. At the same time an inventory was
+being made of all the goods belonging to Protestants throughout the city.
+
+These measures, instead of allaying, only inflamed the passions of the
+populace the more. That night the murders surpassed those of the previous
+nights in number and atrocity, and when Sunday morning dawned the people
+were ready for still greater excesses. At about eight o'clock they entered
+unopposed the Gray Friars, and butchered every Huguenot they found. Two
+hours later, assuming the forms of law, a self-constituted commission,
+headed by Andre Mornieu, one of the echevins or aldermen, presenting
+themselves successively at the archiepiscopal prison and at the Roanne,
+summoned the inmates to abjure their faith and go to mass. Only thirty
+persons in the one, and about twenty in the other, consented. These were
+sent to the Celestine monastery and afterward released. Of the others a
+careful list was drawn up. Their fate was sealed; but an unexpected
+difficulty arose. The public hangman refused to execute the sentence of an
+unauthorized tribunal. So did the soldiers. At last assassins were
+obtained from the ranks of the turbulent inhabitants. About three o'clock
+that afternoon the archbishop's prison was visited. To describe with
+minuteness the scene of horror that ensued would scarcely be possible. Two
+hundred and sixty-three persons,[1111] of the very best and most
+industrious part of the population of Lyons,[1112] called by name
+according to the roll previously made, were murdered in rapid succession.
+Never was there an exhibition of more pitiless cruelty. Meanwhile, where
+was the governor? He had gone, in company with the commandant of the
+citadel, to suppress a threatened disturbance in the Faubourg de la
+Guillotiere, on the left bank of the Rhone. He returned only in time to
+find the deed done, and to disperse those who had gone to the Roanne to
+repeat it there. His demonstrations of anger were loud, and a liberal
+reward was offered for the detection of any that had participated in the
+slaughter.[1113] But this did not prevent the same body of cutthroats from
+visiting the Roanne, soon after nightfall, and despatching all the
+Protestants that were there, to the number of about seventy. Many of them,
+by an excess of barbarity, the assassins tied together by a single rope,
+and threw, while yet alive, into the water. On the following day the
+bodies which had not yet found a watery grave were carried to the other
+side of the Saone, where, stripped and mangled, they were about to be
+buried in the cemetery of the Abbaye d'Esnay, when the monks refused them
+admission into the consecrated ground, and pointed to the Rhone as a more
+fitting destination. Even now they were not spared further mutilation; for
+an apothecary of Lyons, having initiated the murderers into the valuable
+properties of human fat as a medicinal substance, the miserable remains
+were put to new use before being consigned to the river. Down to the
+Mediterranean these ghastly witnesses of the ferocity of the passions of
+the Lyonnese Roman Catholics carried fear and disgust, and for weeks the
+inhabitants of Arles and other places carefully abstained from drinking
+the water of the polluted stream.[1114]
+
+[Sidenote: Responsibility of Mandelot.]
+
+The part which Mandelot took in this awful tragedy has been very
+differently estimated, but I am inclined to think that the governor is not
+chargeable with any direct responsibility for the butchery in the prisons
+of Lyons. Certainly this seems to be established by his letter to the
+king, written in the morning of the day on which it occurred; for he would
+scarcely have expressed his great desire and hope to be able to prevent
+any outbreak, if he had planned, or even foreseen, the events of the
+evening.[1115] The story must therefore be apocryphal, that Mandelot, in
+commissioning one of the chief assassins to execute the bloody work,
+blasphemously said: "I intrust the whole to you, and, as Jesus Christ said
+to Saint Peter, whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in
+heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in
+heaven."[1116] It was, however, no conscientious scruple that deterred the
+governor from actively taking part. Mandelot was scandalously anxious to
+obtain his part of the plunder, and was not ashamed to appear as a
+suppliant for the confiscated property of the Huguenots almost before
+their bodies were cold.[1117] But he was unwilling, without the express
+orders of his sovereign, written with his own hand, to commit an act
+which, the more successful it might be, was the more certain to be
+disavowed and punished. He was right: a subordinate could not be too
+careful in dealing with so treacherous a court.
+
+[Sidenote: The massacre at Rouen.]
+
+Few cities were so ripe for the massacre of the Protestants as the capital
+of Normandy. There the passions of the Roman Catholics, inflamed by the
+civil wars, had not been suffered to cool. Even in the provincial
+parliament the papists could hardly submit to receive into their
+deliberations again the five or six Huguenot counsellors who had been
+expelled or had fled at the outbreak of hostilities, but whom the Edict of
+Pacification restored to their ancient functions and dignity; and the
+secret registers, among other unfortunate scenes, chronicle particularly a
+violent discussion, degenerating into angry altercation between President
+Vialard and the Huguenot member Maynet.[1118] The bloody assault of the
+populace of Rouen upon the reformed in March, 1571, mentioned in a
+previous page,[1119] had been but slightly punished. Few of the guilty
+failed to escape from the city, and the sole penalty suffered had been an
+execution in effigy. These turbulent men had ever since that time been
+watching an opportunity to return. They were now burning with a desire to
+signalize their advent by bloody reprisals. Monsieur de Carouge, governor
+of the city, was, however, a just and upright man,[1120] and they could
+not hope for countenance in their plans from him. In fact, the
+contemporary accounts inform us that he received from the king repeated
+orders to exterminate the Huguenots of Rouen,[1121] which he could not
+bring himself to execute, and that he sent messengers to remonstrate with
+his Majesty who returned without succeeding in shaking his determination;
+and hereupon the governor found himself obliged to shut himself up in the
+castle, and permit the work which had been intrusted to others also, to
+take its course.[1122] The secret records of parliament, however, reveal
+the fact that Carouge received from Paris the order to leave Rouen and
+visit other portions of Normandy, in order to restore the quiet and peace
+which had been much disturbed of late. The real, though perhaps not the
+ostensible object of this commission was to rid the city of the presence
+of a magistrate whose well known integrity might render it futile to
+attempt a massacre of the innocent. The records also show that, contrary
+to the current report, both the municipal authorities and the parliament,
+greatly alarmed at the danger menacing Rouen in case of his departure,
+implored him to remain;[1123] but that the king's peremptory commands left
+him no discretion, and he was obliged to leave the unhappy city to its
+fate. The able historian of the Norman Parliament has rightly observed
+that the governor, whether he left Rouen because he could not consent to
+execute the barbarous injunctions that were sent him, or because his
+character was so well known that the court was unwilling to intrust them
+to him, is equally deserving of praise; and not without reason does this
+writer claim similar respect for the judicial body which manifested its
+desire to save everything, by retaining him at Rouen.[1124] Here, as
+elsewhere, a great part of the Protestants had been arrested and placed in
+the prisons, to shield them from popular violence. The governor believed
+this to be the safest place for them; and at least one instance is known
+of a father who was so convinced of it that he brought thither his
+Huguenot son, whom he might have sent out of the city.[1125]
+
+The storm, so long delayed, broke out at last on Wednesday, the
+seventeenth of September, and lasted four entire days. The gates were
+closed, and the organized bands of murderers, under the leadership of
+Laurent de Maromme, one of the most sanguinary of the turbulent men who
+had returned from banishment, and of a priest, Claude Montereul, curate of
+the church of St. Pierre, had undisputed possession of the city. First
+they slaughtered like sheep the prisoners in the spacious "conciergerie"
+of the parliament house and in the other prisons of the city. Next they
+burst into the houses, and nearly every atrocity which history is
+compelled at any time reluctantly to chronicle, was perpetrated on
+unresisting men, on tender women, on unoffending children. Not less than
+five hundred persons, and perhaps even more, perished in a butchery, whose
+details I gladly pass over in silence.[1126] Grim humor and charity were
+incongruously mingled with the most brutal inhumanity. The assassins
+jocularly denominated their work one of "accommodating" their
+victims;[1127] and the clothes of the Protestants--whose bodies were
+buried in great ditches outside of the Porte Cauchoise--after having been
+carefully washed, were piously distributed among the poor.[1128] The
+tragedy finished, the farce of an investigation was instituted by the
+officers of justice, but no punishment was ever inflicted upon any Roman
+Catholic, other than that which could be recognized in the retributive
+judgments befalling a few of the most notable, and especially the cruel
+Maromme, at the hand of God.[1129]
+
+[Sidenote: At Toulouse.]
+
+The previous character of Toulouse, as among the most sanguinary cities of
+France, was already sufficiently well established. If behind some of the
+rest on this occasion in the number of victims, Toulouse was inferior only
+because its previous massacres had rendered it a suspicious place of
+sojourn in the eyes of the Huguenots. Here, too, notwithstanding deceitful
+proclamations guaranteeing safety and protection, the Protestants were
+gathered into the public prisons and jails attached to monasteries; and
+after having been reserved for several weeks, on receipt of orders from
+Paris were butchered to the number of two or three hundred. Among others,
+some Protestant members of parliament were hung in their long red gowns to
+the branches of a great elm growing in the court of the parliament
+house.[1130] The miscreants that voluntarily assumed the functions of
+executioners were in this case drawn in great part from the more unruly
+class of the law students of the university.[1131] It is needless to add
+that here, as elsewhere, the opportunity for plunder was by no means
+neglected.
+
+[Sidenote: At Bordeaux.]
+
+The procedure in Bordeaux was so extraordinary, and is so authentically
+related in a letter of a prominent judicial officer who was present, as
+well as in the records of the Parliament of Guyenne, that the story of its
+massacre must be added to the notices already given. At first the city was
+quiet, and the friends of order congratulated themselves that their
+efforts had been successful in removing the stigma which previous
+transactions had affixed to its escutcheon. Meantime this policy, united
+to the fear of a fate similar to that which had befallen their
+fellow-believers elsewhere, is said to have led to a great number of
+conversions to the Roman Catholic Church.[1132] But there were those who
+were unwilling that their prey should so easily escape them. On the fifth
+of September, M. de Montferrand, Governor of Bordeaux, affecting to have
+information of a general plot on the part of the Huguenots of the city,
+had sought and obtained permission of the parliament to introduce three
+hundred soldiers from abroad. He had thereupon forbidden the celebration
+of Protestant worship, hitherto held at a distance of three leagues from
+Bordeaux, on the plain between the Garonne and the Jalle.[1133] Meantime
+the churches resounded with the violent denunciations of a famous
+preacher, Friar Edmond Auger or Augier, "a great scourge for heresy," as
+his partisans styled him. He exhorted his hearers to imitate the example
+of Paris, and accused the royal officers of indolence and pusillanimity.
+At this juncture the governor received a visit from Monsieur de Montpezat,
+son-in-law of Villars, the newly appointed admiral. What the latter told
+him is unknown. But, on the third of October, Montferrand having given out
+that he had received from the king a roll of names of forty of the chief
+men of the place, whom he was commissioned to put to death without judge
+or trial, set about his bloody work. Persistently refusing to exhibit his
+warrant, for three days the governor butchered the citizens at will.[1134]
+One member of parliament, against whom he bore a personal grudge, he
+stabbed with his own hand. The murderers wore red bonnets supplied by one
+of the "jurats" or aldermen of the city. They executed their commission so
+thoroughly that the number of the slain was reported as two hundred and
+sixty-four persons, all Protestants. If any one be mercifully inclined to
+regard this statement as an exaggeration, and to base upon this instance a
+general theory that throughout France the number of the victims has been
+grossly over-estimated, let him read the following entry made in the
+records of the Parliament of Bordeaux, and recently brought to light; he
+will learn from this not only the approximate number of the slain as given
+by the chief agent in the bloody work, but the anxiety which the latter
+felt that he should receive due credit for his share in the great
+undertaking of the destruction of the French Protestants: "On the ninth of
+October, the Sieur de Montferrand, having been summoned to the court,
+among other things said, 'that he had been informed that there were some
+members of the court who had written to the Sieur Admiral de Villars,
+royal lieutenant in Guyenne, that the said De Montferrand had killed, on
+the day of the execution by him made, October the third, only ten or
+twelve men, a thing (under correction of the court) wholly false, inasmuch
+as there had been more than two hundred and fifty slain; and he would show
+the list to any one who might desire to see it.'"[1135]
+
+The same hand that placed upon the parliamentary registers this shameless
+and atrocious boast, for the benefit of those that should come after, has
+briefly noted the assassination of two members of parliament itself, with
+an absence of comment in which we can read the evidence of fear. "From the
+talk of to-day it appears that Messieurs Jean de Guilloche and Pierre de
+Sevyn were killed as belonging to the new religion."[1136] The tardy and
+flagrantly unnecessary effusion of blood at Bordeaux exercised no mean
+influence in emboldening the Huguenots of La Rochelle to persevere in
+their refusal to admit the emissaries of Charles the Ninth.
+
+[Sidenote: Why the massacre was not universal.]
+
+The massacre was, however, neither universal throughout France, nor
+equally destructive in all places where it occurred. The reason for this
+is to be found partly in the geographical distribution of the Huguenots,
+partly in the temper of the people, partly in the policy or the humanity
+of the governors of cities and provinces. Where the number of Protestants
+was small, and especially where they had never rendered themselves
+formidable, it was not easy for the clergy to excite the people to that
+frenzy of sectarian hatred under the influence of which they were willing
+to imbrue their hands in the blood of peaceable neighbors. In such
+places--in Provins, for instance--the Huguenots generally kept themselves
+as far as possible out of sight, while a few of the more timid consented
+to place a white cross on their hats, a convenient badge of Roman
+Catholicism which some were willing to assume, when they would rather have
+died than go to mass.[1137]
+
+[Sidenote: Policy of the Guises.]
+
+In the province of Champagne the Protestants were spared any general
+massacre by the prudent foresight of the Guises, to whom its government
+was confided. The duke, in order to free himself from the imputation of
+being the author of the bloody plot, and to prove that his private
+resentment did not extend beyond Admiral Coligny and a few other chiefs,
+had himself taken several Huguenots in Paris under his special protection.
+With the same object in view, he made his province an exception to the
+widespread slaughter.[1138]
+
+[Sidenote: Spurious accounts of clemency.]
+
+[Sidenote: Bishop Le Hennuyer, of Lisieux.]
+
+Others, however, were, merciful from more honorable motives. A number of
+instances of clemency are mentioned. It is not, indeed, always safe to
+accept the stories, some of which are suspicious from their very form,
+while others are manifest inventions of an age when tolerance had become
+more popular than persecution. To the category of fable we are compelled
+to assign the famous response which Le Hennuyer, Bishop of Lisieux, is
+reported, by authors writing long after the event, as having returned to
+the lieutenant sent to him by Charles the Ninth. History is occasionally
+capricious, but she has rarely indulged in a more remarkable freak than
+when putting into the mouth of an advocate of persecution, a courtier and
+the almoner of the king, who was not even in his diocese, but undoubtedly
+in Paris itself, at the time the incident is said to have occurred, this
+declamatory speech: "No, no, sir; I oppose, and shall always oppose, the
+execution of such an order. I am the shepherd of the church of Lisieux,
+and the people I am commanded to slaughter are my flock. Although at
+present wanderers, having strayed from the fold intrusted to me by Jesus
+Christ the great shepherd, they may, nevertheless, return. I do not read
+in the Gospel that the shepherd should suffer the blood of his sheep to
+be shed; on the contrary, I find there that he is bound to pour out his
+own blood and give his own life for them. Take the order back, for it
+shall never be executed so long as I live."[1139]
+
+[Sidenote: Kind offices of Matignon at Caen and Alencon;]
+
+[Sidenote: of Longueville and Gordes;]
+
+Fortunately, there are other instances on record which are not apocryphal.
+Monsieur de Matignon seems to have saved Caen and Alencon from becoming
+the scenes of general massacres, and thus to have endeared himself to the
+Protestants of both places.[1140] The Duke of Longueville prevented the
+massacre from extending to his province of Picardy.[1141] Gordes, Governor
+of Dauphiny, who had obtained advancement by the assistance of the
+Montmorency influence, excused himself, when repeatedly urged to kill the
+Huguenots, on the plea that Montbrun and others of their leaders were
+alive and out of his reach, and that any attempt of the kind would only
+lead to still greater difficulties. He therefore waited for more direct
+instructions. When, in his letter of the fifth of September, in reference
+to a clause in the king's letter just received, he stated that he had
+received no verbal orders, but merely his letters of the twenty-second,
+twenty-fourth, and twenty-eighth of August, Charles replied bidding him
+give himself no solicitude as to them, as they were addressed only to a
+few persons who happened to be near him,[1142] and enjoined upon him to
+enforce the royal "declaration," and cause all murder and rapine to cease
+in his government. Yet even here a number of Huguenots were imprisoned,
+and a few lost their lives at Romans.[1143]
+
+[Sidenote: of Tende in Provence.]
+
+The manly boldness of the Comte de Tende is said in like manner to have
+saved the Protestants of Provence. Receiving from the hands of La Mole, a
+gentleman of Arles and servant of the Duke of Alencon, a letter from the
+secret council ordering him to massacre all the Huguenots in his province,
+the governor replied: "I do not believe that such commands have emanated
+from the king's free will; but some of the members of his council have
+usurped the royal authority in order to satisfy their own passions. I need
+no more conclusive testimony than the letters which his Majesty sent me a
+few days ago, by which he threw upon the Guises the blame for this
+massacre of Paris. I prefer to obey these first letters, as more befitting
+the royal dignity. Besides, this last order is so cruel and barbarous,
+that even were the king himself in person to command me to put it into
+execution, I would not do it." The magnanimity of the count spared
+Provence the horrors of a repetition of the massacres of Merindol and
+Cabrieres, but perhaps cost him his own life, for he soon after died at
+Avignon, and rumor ascribed his death to poison. The infamous Count de
+Retz, Catharine's favorite, succeeded him as governor.[1144] Saint Heran,
+Governor of Auvergne, is said to have replied in very similar words; but
+as he managed to induce a great part of the Protestants within his
+jurisdiction to apostatize, less notice was taken of his
+insubordination.[1145]
+
+[Sidenote: Viscount D'Orthez at Bayonne.]
+
+Perhaps the most striking instance of a magnanimous refusal to comply with
+the bloody mandate of the Parisian court, was that of Viscount
+D'Orthez,[1146] Governor of Bayonne. This nobleman was not only of a
+violent and imperious temper, but on other occasions so severe in his
+treatment of the Protestants of the border city, that the king was obliged
+to write to him to moderate his rigor. When, however, the messenger from
+Paris (who on his way had caused an indiscriminate slaughter to be made of
+all the men, women and children who had taken refuge in the prisons of
+Dax) delivered his orders to the viscount, the latter returned the
+following laconic answer:
+
+"Sire, I have communicated your Majesty's commands to your faithful
+inhabitants and warriors in the garrison. I have found among them only
+good citizens and brave soldiers, but not one hangman. For this reason
+they and I very humbly beg your Majesty to employ our arms and our lives
+in all things possible, however hazardous they may be, as we are, so long
+as our lives shall last, your very humble, etc."[1147]
+
+[Sidenote: The municipality of Nantes.]
+
+Nor were the municipal authorities in some places behind the royal
+governors in their determination to have no part in the nefarious designs
+of the court. At Nantes, the mayor, echevins, and judges received from
+Paris, on the eighth of September, a letter of the Duke of
+Montpensier-Bourbon, Governor of Brittany, in which, after narrating the
+discovery of the pretended conspiracy of Coligny and his adherents, and
+their consequent assassination, he added: "By this his Majesty's intention
+respecting the treatment which the Huguenots are to receive in the other
+cities is sufficiently evident, as well as the means by which some assured
+rest may be expected in our poor Catholic Church."[1148] But the municipal
+and judicial officers of Nantes, instead of following the bloody path thus
+marked out for them by the governor of their province, "held a meeting in
+the town hall, and swore to maintain their previous oath not to violate
+the Edict of Pacification published in favor of the Calvinists, and
+forbade the inhabitants from indulging in any excess against them."[1149]
+
+[Sidenote: Uncertain number of the victims.]
+
+Such are the general outlines and a few details of a massacre the full
+horrors of which it is outside of the province and beyond the ability of
+history to relate. Nor is it even possible to set down figures that may be
+relied upon as expressing the true number of those who were unjustly put
+to death. The difficulty experienced by a well informed contemporary, has
+not been removed; notwithstanding the careful investigations of those who
+earnestly desired "that posterity might not-be deprived of what it needed
+to know, in order that it might become wiser at the expense of
+others."[1150] We shall be safe in supposing that the number of Huguenot
+victims throughout France was somewhere between twenty thousand, as
+conjectured by De Thou and La Popeliniere, and thirty thousand, as stated
+by Jean de Serres and the Memoires de l'estat de France, rather than in
+adopting the extreme views of Sully and Perefixe, the latter of whom
+swells the count of the slain to one hundred thousand men, women, and
+children.[1151] It can scarcely have been much less than the lower number
+I have suggested.
+
+[Sidenote: News of the massacre received at Rome.]
+
+[Sidenote: Public thanksgivings.]
+
+While the massacre begun on St. Bartholomew's Day was spreading with the
+speed of some foul contagion to the most distant parts of France, the
+tidings had been carried beyond its boundaries, and excited a thrill of
+delight, or a cry of execration, according to the character and sympathies
+of those to whom they came. Nowhere was the surprise greater, nor the joy
+more intense, than at Rome. Pope Gregory, like his predecessor, had been
+very sceptical respecting the pious intentions of the French court.
+Nuncios and legates brought them, it is true, a great profusion of
+brilliant assurances, on the part of Catharine and Charles, of devotion to
+the Roman Church, and to the interests of the Pontifical See, but
+accompanied by lugubrious vaticinations of their own, based upon the
+tolerant course on which the king, under Coligny's guidance, had entered.
+The Cardinal of Alessandria had made little account of the ring offered
+him by Charles as a pledge of his sincerity, and preferred to wait for the
+proof which the sequel might exhibit. The last defiant act of the French
+monarch, in marrying his sister to a professed heretic, and within the
+degrees of consanguinity prohibited by the Church, without obtaining the
+Pope's dispensation, served to confirm all the sinister suspicions
+entertained at Rome. Under these circumstances the papal astonishment and
+rejoicing can well be imagined, when couriers sent by the Guises brought
+the intelligence of the massacre to the Cardinal of Lorraine, and when
+letters from the King of France and from the Nuncio Salviati in Paris to
+the Pope himself confirmed its accuracy. Salviati's letters having been
+read in the full consistory, on the sixth of September, the pontiff and
+the cardinals resolved to go at once in solemn procession to the church of
+San Marco, there to render thanks to God for the signal blessing conferred
+upon the Roman See and all Christendom. A solemn mass was appointed for
+the succeeding Monday, and a jubilee published for the whole Christian
+world. In the evening the cannon from the Castle of San Angelo, and
+firearms discharged here and there throughout the city, proclaimed to all
+the joy felt for so signal a victory over the enemies of the Church. For
+three successive nights there was a general illumination. Cardinal Orsini,
+who seems to have been on the point of starting for France as a special
+legate to urge the court to withdraw from the course of toleration, now
+received different instructions, and was commissioned to congratulate
+Charles, and to encourage him to pursue the path upon which he had
+entered. Charles of Lorraine, as was natural, distinguished himself for
+his demonstrations of joy. He made a present of one thousand crowns to the
+bearer of such glad tidings.[1152] Under his auspices a brilliant
+celebration of the event took place in the church of San Luigi de'
+Francesi, which was magnificently decorated for the occasion. Gregory
+himself, attended by his cardinals and bishops, by princes, foreign
+ambassadors, and large numbers of nobles and of the people, walked thither
+under the pontifical canopy, and high mass was said. The Cardinal of
+Lorraine had affixed above the entrance a pompous declaration, in the form
+of a congratulatory notice from Charles the Ninth to Gregory and the
+"sacred college of cardinals," wherein the Very Christian King renders
+thanks to Heaven that, "inflamed by zeal for the Lord God of Hosts, like a
+smiting angel divinely sent, he had suddenly destroyed by a single
+slaughter almost all the heretics and enemies of his kingdom." The
+latinity of the placard might not be above reproach; but it is certain
+that its sentiments received the cordial approval of the assembled
+prelates.[1153] Set forth in golden characters, and decorated with festive
+leaves and ribbons,[1154] it proclaimed that the hierarchy of the Roman
+Church had no qualms of conscience in indorsing the traitorous deed of
+Charles and Catharine. But still more unequivocal proofs were not wanting.
+A well known medal was struck in honor of the event, bearing on the one
+side the head of the Pope and the words "Gregorius XIII. Pont. Max. An.
+I.," and on the other an angel with cross and sword pursuing the heretics,
+and the superscription, "Ugonottorum strages, 1572."[1155]
+
+[Sidenote: Paintings by Vasari in the Vatican.]
+
+By the order of the Pope, the famous Vasari painted in the Sala Regia of
+the Vatican palace several pictures representing different scenes in the
+Parisian massacre. Upon one an inscription was placed which tersely
+expressed the true state of the case: "Pontifex Colinii necem
+probat."[1156] The paintings may still be seen in the magnificent room
+which serves as antechamber to the Sistine Chapel.[1157]
+
+To the French ambassador, M. de Ferralz, Gregory expressed in the most
+extravagant terms his satisfaction, and that of the college of cardinals,
+not only with the events of Paris, but with the news daily coming to Rome
+of similar massacres in progress in different cities of France. He
+convinced Ferralz that no more delightful tidings could have reached the
+pontifical court. The battle of Lepanto could not compare with it. "Tell
+your master," said he to the envoy at the conclusion of his audience,
+"that this event has given me a hundred times more pleasure than fifty
+victories like that which the League obtained over the Turk last year." In
+the excess of his joy he did not forget to enjoin on every one he spoke
+to, especially all Frenchmen, to light bonfires in honor of the massacre,
+hinting that whoever should fail to do so must be unsound in the
+faith.[1158] A few weeks later, the pontiff shocked even some devout Roman
+Catholics by allowing Cardinal Lorraine and the French ambassador to
+present to him Maurevel, the assassin who had fired the arquebuse shot at
+Admiral Coligny.[1159]
+
+[Sidenote: French boasts go for nothing.]
+
+"The pontiff," says his countryman, the historian Adriani, "and all Italy
+universally rejoiced greatly, and forgave the king and queen their
+previous dissimulation."[1160] For the French at Rome now pretended that
+the massacre had long been planned by their monarch, and that every favor
+to the Huguenots for the past two years had been shown to them merely for
+the purpose of lulling them into a false security. The Pope accepted the
+plea without troubling himself much whether it were true or not, satisfied
+as he was with the event. But not so the Spanish envoy at the Roman court,
+Don Juan de Cuniga. "The French wish to give the impression," he wrote to
+his master, "that the king meditated this blow from the time he made peace
+with the Huguenots; and, in order that it may be believed that he was
+capable of preparing it and concealing it until the proper time for the
+execution, they attribute to him stratagems which do not seem allowable
+even against heretics and rebels. I deem it certain that, if the shooting
+of the arquebuse at the admiral was a thing projected a few days
+beforehand, and authorized by the king, all the rest was inspired by
+circumstances."[1161] Equally positive, though not at all doubtful
+respecting the morality of the transaction, and more jubilant, was the
+Nuncio Salviati, in Paris. While desiring that the cardinal secretary
+"should kiss the feet of his Holiness in his name," and "rejoicing with
+him in the bowels of his heart at the blessed and honorable commencement
+of his pontificate,"[1162] while declaring that, despite his previous
+belief that the court of France would not much longer tolerate the
+admiral's arrogance, he would never have imagined the tenth part of what
+he now saw with his own eyes, he also stated he could not bring himself to
+believe that, had the admiral been killed by Maurevel's shot, so much
+would have been done by a great deal.[1163] Now, however, "the queen
+intended not only to revoke the Edict of Pacification, but by means of
+justice to restore the ancient observance of the Catholic faith."
+
+[Sidenote: Catharine writes to Philip, her son-in-law.]
+
+There was another monarch whose joy was not less sincere than Gregory's.
+This was Philip of Spain. Catharine had not delayed writing to her royal
+son-in-law. In her endeavor to make capital out of the massacre she
+betrayed great satisfaction at her supposed masterly stroke of policy. Her
+letter--a misspelled scrawl--furnishes a fresh illustration of the fact
+that singular shrewdness in planning and executing criminal projects is
+not incompatible with a trust, amounting almost to fatuity, in the
+unsuspecting credulity of others. Catharine actually imagined that she
+could, by her counterfeit piety, impose upon one who knew her character so
+well as Philip of Spain. Therefore she was lavish of the use of the name
+of the Deity to cover her own villainy. "Monsieur my son," she wrote, "I
+entertain no doubt that you will appreciate, as we do, the happiness God
+has conferred upon us in giving the king, my son, the means of ridding
+himself of his subjects, rebels against God and himself, and [rejoice]
+that it has pleased Him graciously to preserve him and us all from the
+cruelty of their hands. For this we are assured that you will praise God
+with us, as well on our account as for the advantage that will accrue to
+all Christendom, and to the service, and honor, and glory of God. This, we
+hope, will soon be made known, and the fruit thereof be perceived.[1164]
+By this event we afford the testimony of our good and upright intentions,
+which have never tended but to His honor. And I rejoice still more that
+this occasion will confirm and augment the friendship between your Majesty
+and the king your brother--which is the thing I desire most of all in this
+world."[1165]
+
+[Sidenote: The delight of Philip the Second.]
+
+Philip had good reason to be glad. To all human appearance it had depended
+only upon the word of Charles to secure, at once and forever, the
+independence from the Spanish tyranny of the provinces on the lower
+Rhine, which, under William of Orange, were battling for religious and
+civil freedom. True, Genlis and his small forces had been captured or
+destroyed; but what were they in comparison with the men whom the French
+king could have marshalled under the command of Coligny, La Noue, and
+other experienced leaders? And now Charles, at a single stroke, had cut
+off all prospect of obtaining the sovereignty of the Netherlands or of any
+part, had assassinated his own generals in their beds, had butchered in
+cold blood those who would gladly have marched as soldiers to achieve his
+conquests, and had freed Philip from all fear of French interference in
+behalf of the Dutch patriots. No wonder then, that, when a courier, sent
+by the Spanish ambassador at Paris, with tidings of the events of St.
+Bartholomew's Day, reached Madrid, on the evening of Saturday, the seventh
+of September--so slowly did news travel in those days--Philip was almost
+beside himself with joy.[1166] "He showed so much gayety, contrary to his
+native temperament and custom," the French envoy, St. Goard, wrote to his
+master, "that he was evidently more delighted than with all the pieces of
+good fortune that had ever befallen him; and he called to him his
+familiars to tell them that he knew that your Majesty was his good
+brother, and that he saw that there was no one else in the world that
+deserved the title of 'Very Christian.'" Not content with gloating over
+the bloody bulletin with his cronies, he promptly sent his secretary,
+Cayas, to congratulate the French ambassador, and to inform him that "the
+king his master was going that very hour to St. Jerome, to render all
+manner of thanks to God, and to pray that in matters of so great
+importance his Majesty might be sustained by His hand." When, the next
+morning, St. Goard had been very graciously admitted to an audience, he
+tells us that Philip--the man who rarely or never gave a hearty or manly
+expression to his feelings--"began to laugh, and, with demonstrations of
+extreme pleasure and satisfaction, praised your Majesty as having earned
+your title of 'Very Christian,' telling me there was no king that could
+claim to be your companion, either in valor or in prudence." It was
+natural that Philip should chiefly extol Charles's alleged dissimulation,
+and dwell on the happiness of Christendom saved from a frightful war. It
+was equally politic for St. Goard to chime in, and echo his master's
+praise. But there was sound truth in the concluding remark he made to
+Philip: "However this may be, _Sire, you must confess that you owe your
+Netherlands to his Majesty, the King of France_."[1167]
+
+[Sidenote: Charles instigates the murder of French prisoners.]
+
+[Sidenote: The Duke of Alva jubilant but wary.]
+
+We have also more direct testimony to Philip's delight at the Parisian
+massacre, in the form of a letter from the monarch to the Duke of Alva. In
+this extraordinary communication, worthy of the depraved source from which
+it emanated, the bloodthirsty king does not attempt to conceal the
+satisfaction with which he has received the tidings of Charles's
+"honorable and Christian resolution to rid himself of the admiral and
+other important personages," both for religion's sake and because the King
+of France will now be a firmer friend to the Spanish crown--since neither
+the German Protestants nor Elizabeth will trust him any longer--a
+circumstance which will have a decided influence upon the restoration of
+his authority in the Netherlands. Another matter upon which he touches,
+places in the clearest light the infamy to which Charles and his council
+had sunk, and the hypocrisy of Philip the Catholic himself. Until the very
+moment of the Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day, Charles had been
+earnestly desirous of saving the lives of the French Huguenots who had
+been taken prisoners with Genlis near Mons; while, by the most barefaced
+assumptions of innocence, he endeavored to induce the Spaniard to believe
+that he was in no way responsible for Genlis's undertaking.[1168] Now,
+however, it is Charles himself who, by his envoys at Madrid and Brussels,
+begs from Philip the murder of his own French subjects, lest they return
+to do mischief in France. Not only the soldiers taken with Genlis, but the
+garrison of Mons, if that city, as now seemed all but certain, should fall
+into Alva's hands, must be put to death.[1169] "If Alva object," he wrote
+to Mondoucet, "that your request is the same thing as tacitly requiring
+him to kill the prisoners and cut to pieces the garrison of Mons, you will
+tell him that that is precisely what he ought to do, and that he will
+inflict a very great wrong upon himself and upon all Christendom if he
+shall do otherwise."[1170] Drawing his inspiration from the same source,
+St. Goard said to Philip himself: "One of the greatest services that can
+be done for Christendom, will be to capture Mons and put everybody to the
+edge of the sword."[1171] And so Philip thought too; for he not only wrote
+to Alva that the sooner the earth were freed of such bad plants, the less
+solicitude would be necessary in future, but he scribbled with his own
+hand on the draft of the letter: "I desire, if you have not already rid
+the world of them, you should do it at once and let me know, for I see no
+reason for delay."[1172] The more clear-headed Alva, however, saw reasons
+not only for delay, but for extending to some of the prisoners a
+counterfeit mercy; for he soon replied to his master, that "he was not at
+all of opinion that it was best to cut off the heads of Genlis and the
+other French prisoners, as the King of France asked him to do. He had
+resolved to do so before the admiral's death, but now things had changed.
+Charles must know that Philip has in his power men capable of giving him
+great trouble."[1173] None the less, however, did Alva communicate the
+glad tidings to all parts of the Netherlands, and cause solemn Te Deums to
+be sung in the churches.[1174] "These occurrences," he wrote to Count
+Bossu, Governor of Holland, "come so marvellously apropos in this
+conjunction for the affairs of the king our master, that nothing could be
+more timely. For this we cannot sufficiently render thanks to the Divine
+goodness."[1175] Philip promptly sent the Marquis d'Ayamonte to
+congratulate Charles and the queen mother.[1176] Alva had already a
+special envoy at the French court, who returned soon after the massacre to
+Brussels. On asking Catharine what reply he should carry back, the Italian
+princess, intoxicated with her success, impiously said: "I do not know
+that I can make any other answer than that which Jesus Christ gave to St.
+John's disciples, 'Go and show again those things which ye have seen and
+heard--the blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are
+cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the
+gospel preached to them.'" "And do not forget," she added, "to say to the
+Duke of Alva, 'Blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in
+me.'"[1177] Such was the new gospel of blood and rapine with which it was
+proposed to replace the Bible in the vernacular, and the Psalms of David
+translated by Marot and Beza!
+
+[Sidenote: England's horror.]
+
+[Sidenote: Perplexity of the French ambassador at London.]
+
+But Spain and Rome were only exceptions. From almost every part of the
+civilized world there arose a loud and unanimous cry of execration. It was
+natural, however, that the feeling of horror should be deepest in the
+neighboring Protestant countries, whose religion and liberties seemed to
+be menaced with destruction by the treacherous blow. Above all, in England
+with whose queen a matrimonial treaty had for months been pending, the
+abhorrence of the crime and its perpetrators was the more intense because
+of the violence of the revulsion. Resident Frenchmen were startled at the
+sudden change. The warmest friends of France became its open enemies,
+loudly reproaching the broken faith of the king, and pouring curses upon
+the people that had exercised such indignities upon unoffending citizens.
+If we may believe La Mothe Fenelon, the men who customarily wore arms
+indulged in much insulting bravado and in threats directed against any one
+that dared to gainsay them.[1178] The French ambassador has himself left
+on record the description of a remarkable interview which he had with
+Queen Elizabeth. Rarely had a diplomatic agent been placed in a more
+embarrassing position. His letters and despatches from home were of the
+most contradictory character. Scarcely had he, with protestations of
+sincerity and truthfulness, published the account of events in Paris which
+was sent him, when new instructions arrived recalling, modifying, or
+contradicting the former. First, with the startling news of the
+disturbance of the peace, by Admiral Coligny's wounding, came a letter
+from the king, expressing "infinite displeasure" at the "bad" and
+"unhappy" act, and a resolution to inflict "very exemplary justice." To
+which this postscript was appended: "Monsieur de la Mothe Fenelon, I will
+not forget to tell you that this wicked act proceeds from the enmity
+between the admiral's house and the Guises, and that I have taken steps to
+prevent their involving my subjects in their quarrels, for I intend that
+my edict of pacification shall be observed in every point."[1179] Two days
+later Charles wrote again, communicating intelligence of the massacre,
+beginning with the murder of Coligny, in almost the identical words of the
+circular he was sending to Mandelot and other governors of provinces and
+important cities.[1180] Still it is the work of the Guises, and he himself
+has had enough to do in protecting his own person in the castle of the
+Louvre. He wishes Queen Elizabeth to be assured that he has no part in the
+deed,[1181] and, in fact, that all should know that he entertains great
+displeasure for what has so unfortunately happened, and that it is the
+thing which he detests more than anything else.[1182] And he adds in a
+tone of well counterfeited innocence: "I have near me my brother the King
+of Navarre, and my cousin the Prince of Conde, to share in the same
+fortune with me."[1183] After receiving and spreading abroad these
+explanations, what must have been the unfortunate ambassador's perplexity
+and annoyance, when he received, but too late, a brief letter written on
+Monday, the day after the massacre began, containing these words: "As we
+are beginning to discover the conspiracy which the adherents of the
+pretended reformed religion had entered into against me, my mother and my
+brothers, you will not speak of the particulars of the disturbance, nor of
+its occasion until you receive fuller and more certain intelligence from
+me; for, by to-night or to-morrow morning, I hope to have cleared up the
+whole matter."[1184] No wonder the courier to whom the last letter was
+intrusted was bidden ride with all speed to overtake the other; nor that
+La Mothe Fenelon hardly knew how to extricate himself from the dilemma in
+which the king his master had placed him. Had not Charles, by throwing
+all the blame, in his first letter, upon the Guises and by positively
+denying any participation of his own, unambiguously proclaimed his
+ignorance up to that moment of any Huguenot conspiracy? How, then, could
+the French envoy go to the same Englishmen to whom he had made known the
+contents of this despatch, and tell them that the king was the author of
+the deed he had stigmatized as most detestable, and that the motive that
+had impelled him reluctantly to order the slaughter of the Huguenots was a
+conspiracy which he did not discover until a day or two after he gave the
+order? Yet this was the contradictory story which was sketched in the
+letter of the twenty-fifth of August, and more fully elaborated in
+subsequent despatches.[1185]
+
+[Sidenote: His cold reception by Queen Elizabeth.]
+
+The crestfallen ambassador is said--and the authority for the disputed
+statement is no less than that of the members of the queen's council,
+Burleigh, Leicester, Knowles, Thomas Smith, and Croft--to have exclaimed
+bitterly "that he was ashamed to be counted a Frenchman."[1186] At first
+he believed that an audience would be denied him; and when the queen at
+last vouchsafed to see him at Woodstock, it was only after he had waited
+three days in Oxford, while Elizabeth and her council met frequently to
+deliberate upon the contents of Walsingham's despatches. He was admitted
+to the private apartments of the queen, where he found her Majesty
+surrounded by the lords of the council and the principal ladies of the
+court, awaiting his coming in profound silence. Elizabeth advanced to meet
+him, and greeted him with a countenance on which sorrow and severity were
+mingled with more kindly feelings. Drawing the ambassador aside to a
+window, she began the discourse with a dignity which few sovereigns have
+ever known better how to assume. She gave particular expression to the
+regret she felt in hearing such tidings from a prince in whom she had had
+more confidence than in any other living monarch. And when the ambassador
+had stammered out the lying excuse based upon "the horrible ingratitude
+and perverse intentions of the Huguenots" against his master, and had
+tragically recounted the sorrow of Charles at being constrained to cut off
+an arm to save the rest of the body, she replied that she hoped that if
+the informations against the admiral and his were confirmed by
+investigation, the king "might be excused in some part, both toward God
+and the world, in permitting the admiral's enemies by force to prevent his
+enterprises." But she would not admit that even then the cruelty of the
+mode of punishment was capable of defence, most of all in the case of
+Coligny, who, "being in his bed, lamed both on the right hand and left
+arm, lying in danger under the care of chyrurgions, being also guarded
+about his private house with a number of the king's guard, might have
+been, by a word of the king's mouth, brought to any place to have answered
+when and how the king should have thought meet." But she preferred to
+ascribe the fault, not to Charles, but to those around him whose age and
+knowledge "ought in such case to have foreseen how offenders ought to be
+justified with the sword of the prince, and not with the bloody swords of
+murderers, being also the mortal enemies of the party murdered."[1187]
+
+Elizabeth's council was even more outspoken. "Doubtless," said they, "the
+most heinous act that has occurred in the world, since the crucifixion of
+Jesus Christ, is that which has been recently committed by the French; an
+act which the Italians and the Spaniards, ardent as they are, are far from
+applauding in their heart, since it was a deed too full of blood, for the
+greater part innocent, and too much suspected of fraud, which had violated
+the pledged security of a great king, and disturbed the serenity of the
+royal nuptials of his sister, insupportable to be heard by the ears of
+princes, and abominable to all classes of subjects, perpetrated contrary
+to all law, divine or human, and without a parallel among all acts ever
+undertaken in the presence of any prince, and which has even rather
+involved the King of France in danger than rescued him from it."[1188]
+
+[Sidenote: The ambassador disheartened.]
+
+The success of the French ambassador, therefore, was not flattering. The
+most that he could do was to correct the impression that the massacre was
+only a part of a more general plan for the extirpation of Protestantism
+everywhere. But when the news came of the barbarous butchery of Huguenots
+in Lyons and elsewhere; when Villiers, Fuguerel, and other Protestant
+ministers escaping from France, brought to London the report that one
+hundred thousand victims to religious intolerance had fallen since St.
+Bartholomew's Day;[1189] when English merchants who had witnessed the
+scenes of horror at Rouen returned, bringing a true account of what had
+occurred; when they overturned the audacious assertion that religion had
+nothing to do with the deed, by declaring that the Huguenots whose lives
+were spared were constrained to go to mass; that numbers had lost their
+lives who might have saved them by consenting to take part in services
+which they regarded as idolatrous; that there were instances of children
+taken from their parents, and forcibly rebaptized; when, in short, every
+assertion of La Mothe Fenelon was disproved, the irritation of the English
+grew deeper. And at last the French ambassador was forced to confess that
+they would believe neither him nor the despatches that he occasionally
+produced, saying that the event, which is wont to give the lie to words
+and letters, showed them what they had to fear.[1190] The life of Mary,
+Queen of Scots, was in danger. There were many who regarded it as a
+measure of self-defence to put to death so open a sympathizer with the
+work of persecution. La Mothe Fenelon, disheartened, promised Catharine
+de' Medici to do all that he could to promote the interests of France, but
+the chief influence must come from the king and herself. "Otherwise," he
+said, "your word will come to be of no authority, and I shall become
+ridiculous in everything that I tell them or promise them in your
+name."[1191]
+
+[Sidenote: Letter of Sir Thomas Smith.]
+
+About the same time one of the most acute statesmen, one of the most
+vigorous writers of the age, Sir Thomas Smith, himself a former ambassador
+at the French court, correctly and eloquently expressed the universal
+feeling of true Protestants in England, in a letter to Walsingham which
+has become deservedly famous. "What warrant can the French make, now seals
+and words of princes being traps to catch innocents and bring them to the
+butchery? If the admiral and all those murdered on that bloody Bartholomew
+day were guilty, why were they not apprehended, imprisoned, interrogated,
+and judged, but so much made of as might be, within two hours of the
+assumation? Is that the manner to handle men either culpable or suspected?
+So is the journeyer slain by the robber; so is the hen of the fox; so is
+the hind of the lion; so Abel of Cain; so the innocent of the wicked; so
+Abner of Joab. But grant they were guilty--they dreamt treason that night
+in their sleep; what did the innocent men, women, and children at Lyons?
+What did the sucking children and their mothers at Roan (Rouen) deserve?
+at Cane (Caen)? at Rochel?... Will God, think you, still sleep? Will not
+their blood ask vengeance; shall not the earth be accursed that hath
+sucked up the innocent blood poured out like water upon it?... I am glad
+you shall come home, and would wish you were at home, out of that country
+so contaminate with innocent blood, that the sun cannot look upon it but
+to prognosticate the wrath and vengeance of God. The ruin and desolation
+of Jerusalem could not come till all the Christians were either killed
+there or expelled thence."[1192]
+
+[Sidenote: Catharine's unsuccessful representations.]
+
+Neither Catharine nor Charles was insensible to the impression made upon
+the English court by the French atrocities. It became important to
+furnish, if possible, some more convincing proofs of the existence of a
+Huguenot plot, since the assurances of both monarch and ambassador had
+lost all weight. The papers of the admiral, both in Paris and in his
+castle of Chatillon-sur-Loing, had been searched in vain for anything
+which, even after the murder, might seem to justify the king in violating
+his pledged word and every principle of law and right. Not a scrap of a
+letter could be found inculpating him. Not the slightest approach to a
+hint that it would be well to make way with the king or any of the royal
+family. The most private manuscripts of the admiral, unlike those of many
+courtiers even in our own day, contained not a disrespectful expression,
+nothing that could be twisted into a mark of disaffection or treason.
+Catharine could lay her hand upon nothing that suited her purpose better
+than the paper, which, as stated in a former chapter,[1193] she showed to
+Walsingham, wherein he advised Charles to keep Elizabeth and Philip "as
+low as he could, as a thing that tended much to the safety and maintenance
+of his crown." But the finesse of the queen mother failed of accomplishing
+its object; for neither Elizabeth nor Walsingham would think less of
+Coligny for proving himself faithful to his own sovereign's interests.
+Elizabeth's incredulity was, doubtless, enhanced by the hypocritical
+pretence of Catharine that her son intended to maintain his edict of
+pacification in full force.[1194] "The king's meaning is," the queen
+mother once said to the English envoy, "that the Huguenots shall enjoy the
+liberty of their conscience." "What, Madam," observed Walsingham, "and the
+exercise of their religion too?" "No," Catharine replied, "my son will
+have exercise but of one religion in his realm." "Then, how can it agree,
+that the observation of the edict, whereof you willed me to advertise the
+queen my mistress, that the same should continue in his former strength?"
+interposed Walsingham. To that Catharine answered "that they had
+discovered certain matters of late, that they saw it necessary to abolish
+all exercise of the same." "Why, Madam," said the puzzled and somewhat
+pertinacious diplomatist, "will you have them live without exercise of
+religion?" "Even," quoth Catharine, who fancied that she had discovered a
+pertinent retort, "even as your mistress suffereth the Catholics of
+England." But the ambassador could not be so easily silenced. Parrying the
+home thrust, and trenching on an uncourtly bluntness of speech, he quietly
+called attention to a distinction which her Majesty had not perhaps
+observed. "My mistress did never promise them anything by edict; if she
+had, she would not fail to have performed it." After that, there was
+plainly nothing more to be said, and Catharine resorted to the usual
+refuge of worsted argument, and said: "The queen your mistress must direct
+the government of her own country, and the king my son his own."[1195]
+
+[Sidenote: Briquemault and Cavaignes hung for alleged conspiracy.]
+
+Some victims were needed to be immolated upon the altar of justice to
+atone for the alleged Huguenot conspiracy. They were found in Briquemault
+and Cavaignes, two distinguished Protestants. The former, a knight of the
+royal order, had, contrary to all rules of international law, been
+forcibly taken from the house of the English ambassador, whither he had
+fled for refuge.[1196] It was not difficult for the court to obtain what
+was desired from the cowardly parliament over which Christopher de Thou
+presided. Convicted by false testimony, and complaining that even their
+own words were falsified by their partial judges, the two Protestants were
+publicly hung on the Place de Greve. It was noticed that they both died
+exhibiting great fortitude,[1197] and protesting to the last that they had
+neither taken part in, nor even heard of any plot against the king or the
+state. Charles, hardened by the sight of so much blood, wished to witness
+in person this new spectacle also, and not only looked on from a
+neighboring window, but, as it was too dark to see the sufferers
+distinctly, ordered torches to be lighted, and diverted himself with great
+laughter in observing their expiring agonies. The King of Navarre and the
+Prince of Conde were likewise forced to be present, in order to give color
+to the absurd story that one or both had been included among those whom
+Coligny and the Huguenots had intended to murder. An hour after, and the
+Parisian populace cut down the bodies, dragged them in contumely through
+the streets, and amused themselves by stabbing them, shooting at them, and
+maiming them. It was an additional aggravation of the judicial crime and
+the king's ill-timed merriment, that the execution took place on the
+evening of the day upon which the young Queen of France gave birth to
+Charles's only legitimate child--a daughter, whom the Salic law excluded
+from the succession to the throne. Still unconvinced of Coligny's guilt,
+even by the conviction and death of Briquemault and Cavaignes, Queen
+Elizabeth very frankly expressed to La Mothe Fenelon her deep regret that
+her brother, the French king, had profaned the day of his daughter's birth
+by the sanguinary spectacle he had that evening gone to behold.[1198]
+
+[Sidenote: The news in Scotland;]
+
+In Scotland, when the news of the massacre arrived, the aged reformer,
+John Knox, summoned all his remaining energy to preach a last time before
+the regent and the estates. In the midst of his sermon, turning to Du
+Croc, the French ambassador, who was present, he sternly addressed to him
+these prophetic words: "Go tell your king that sentence has gone out
+against him, that God's vengeance shall never depart from him nor his
+house, that his name shall remain an execration to the posterities to
+come, and that none that shall come of his loins shall enjoy that kingdom
+unless he repent." The indignant ambassador called upon the regent "to
+check the tongue which was reviling an anointed king;" but the regent
+refused to silence the minister of God, and suffered Du Croc to leave
+Edinburgh in anger.[1199]
+
+[Sidenote: in Germany;]
+
+Monsieur de Vulcob, the French ambassador at the court of the Emperor of
+Germany, was equally unsuccessful in convincing that monarch of the truth
+of the story contained in his despatches from Paris. The emperor did not
+disguise his great disappointment and sorrow, nor his belief that the
+murderous project had been known for weeks before at Rome.[1200] It need
+scarcely be said that the negotiations of Schomberg, who had been sent to
+procure an offensive and defensive alliance between the Protestant princes
+of Germany and the crown of France, were rendered abortive by the advent
+of tidings of the treacherous massacre at Paris. Like the rest of the
+diplomatists sent out from France, the able envoy to Germany had been left
+in profound ignorance of the blow that was to disturb all his
+calculations. He had even been empowered to promise that Charles would
+assume toward the enterprise of William of Orange the same position that
+the princes would take; and he seemed likely to be successful in inducing
+the princes to make common cause with his master.
+
+To Schomberg, as to the rest, there had been despatched, on the very day
+that Coligny was wounded, a narrative of that event to be laid before the
+Protestant princes--a narrative wherein the occurrence was deplored;
+wherein Charles stated that he had taken just such measures for the
+apprehension of the perpetrator of the crime as he would have taken had
+the victim been one of his own brothers; wherein he promised to spare
+neither diligence nor trouble, and to inflict condign punishment, "in
+order that all men might know that no greater misdeed could have been
+committed in his kingdom, nor more displeasing to himself;" wherein he
+protested his unalterable determination to maintain completely and
+sedulously his edict of pacification.[1201] But to Schomberg, as to the
+other French ambassadors, there had come subsequent tidings and despatches
+giving the lie to all these assurances.
+
+And now, as he wrote home with some bitterness, "all his negotiations had
+ended in smoke."[1202] Their Highnesses "could not get it out of their
+heads" that the events of St. Bartholomew's Day were premeditated, with
+the view of enabling the Duke of Alva to make way with the forces of the
+Prince of Orange. So high did feeling run, that the rumor prevailed that
+Schomberg had been thrown into prison as an accomplice in the perfidy,
+and that Coligny's death was about to be avenged upon him.[1203]
+
+Instead of forming an alliance with Charles, the Landgrave of Hesse and
+the three Protestant electors began instantly to concert measures of
+defence against what they verily believed to be a general war of
+extermination, set on foot by the Pope and his followers, in pursuance of
+the resolutions of the Council of Trent. "The princes of the Augsburg
+Confession," wrote Landgrave William to the Electors of Saxony and
+Brandenburg, "can see in this inhuman incident, as in a mirror, how the
+papists are disposed toward all the professors of the pure doctrine. The
+Pope and his party follow even at this day the rule which they followed
+respecting John Huss in the Council of Constance. When it is their
+interest so to act, they do not deem themselves bound to keep any faith
+with heretics.... Last year the Pope and his followers obtained a glorious
+victory over the Turk. It is of the very nature of victories that they
+commonly make the victors more insolent." To Frederick the Pious, elector
+palatine, the landgrave wrote a day later: "There is nothing better for us
+Germans than to have nothing to do with them; for neither credit nor
+confidence can be reposed in them." "I marvel greatly," he added, "that
+the admiral and the other Huguenot gentlemen, although they, too, had
+doubtless studied Macchiavelli's 'Il Principe'--_the Italian
+bible_[1204]--should have been so trustful, and should not have been too
+much upon their guard to suffer themselves to be enticed unarmed into so
+suspicious a place."[1205]
+
+[Sidenote: In Poland.]
+
+Montluc, Bishop of Valence, had just been sent to Poland to endeavor to
+secure the vacant throne for Henry of Anjou. His ultimate success and its
+consequences will be seen in another place. But now the attempt seemed
+desperate. The bishop, who was the most wily and experienced negotiator
+the French court possessed, and was fully conscious of his rare
+qualifications, was vexed almost beyond endurance at the stupidity of the
+king and queen who had employed him. "By the despatch I send the king, and
+by what the Dean of Die will tell you," he wrote (on the twentieth of
+November) to one of the secretaries of state, "you will learn how this
+unfortunate blast from France has sunk the ship which we had already
+brought to the mouth of the harbor. You may imagine how well pleased the
+person who was in command of it has reason to be when he sees that by
+another's fault he loses the fruit of his labors. I say another's fault,
+for, since a desire was felt for this kingdom, the execution which has
+been made might and ought to have been deferred."[1206] Again and again
+Montluc begged that there might be no repetition of such cruelties,
+suggesting that an edict, guaranteeing that no one's conscience should be
+constrained, might be made or fabricated. If the king had no intention of
+carrying it into effect, he could at least send it to the governors, with
+private orders to make such disposition of it as he pleased.[1207] But,
+above all, there must be no fresh outrages done to the Protestants. "If
+between this and the day of the election there were to come the news of
+some cruelty," he wrote in midwinter, "we could do nothing, even had we
+here ten millions in gold with which to gain men over. The king and the
+Duke of Anjou will have to consider whether a purpose of revenge is of
+more moment to them, than the acquisition of a kingdom."[1208]
+
+[Sidenote: Sympathy of the Genevese.]
+
+The ministers of Geneva, somewhat removed from the mists that prevented
+the greater part of the Huguenot leaders from descrying the perils
+environing them, had long foreseen the coming catastrophe, and had in vain
+implored Admiral Coligny, in particular, to have a greater care for his
+safety. "How often have I predicted it to him! How often have I warned
+him!" exclaimed Theodore Beza, in the first paroxysm of grief at the
+assassination of his noble friend.[1209] The city government,
+participating in the same apprehensions, early in the fatal month of
+August, 1572, instructed some of the reformed ministers who had occasion
+to revisit their native land on private business, to hasten out of a
+country where they were exposed to the treachery of a Florentine
+woman.[1210] Their solicitude was only too well grounded. On Saturday, the
+thirtieth of August, some merchants arrived in Geneva from Lyons, with the
+appalling intelligence that their Protestant countrymen were everywhere
+the victims of unparalleled cruelty. From the inn they went on without
+delay to the city hall, and narrated to the magistrates the revolting
+atrocities of which they had been eye-witnesses. They besought the city to
+prepare hospitable shelter and food for the throng of refugees who would
+soon make their appearance, having scarce escaped the bloody snares in
+which their brethren in great numbers had lost their lives.[1211] "The
+frightful news," writes the historian of the Genevan church, describing
+the scene, "courses through the city with the speed of lightning: the
+shops are closed, and the citizens assemble on the public squares. They
+know, by past experience, the burdens and sacrifices that await men of
+good-will. Within doors, the women get in readiness an abundance of
+clothing, of medicines, and of food. The magistrates send wagons and
+litters to the villages of the district of Gex; and the peasants with
+their pastors take their station upon the border, to obtain intelligence
+and to render assistance to the first that may arrive. They have not long
+to wait. On the first of September a few travellers make their
+appearance, pale, worn out with fatigue, scarcely answering the greeting
+they receive. They cannot credit the reality of their deliverance. For
+days death has been lying in wait for them at the threshold of every
+village. Soon their numbers increase. The wounded uncover the wounds they
+have carefully concealed, that they might not be taken for reformers. They
+declare that, since the twenty-sixth of August, the country and the cities
+have been deluged with the blood of their brethren."[1212]
+
+Nobly did the citizens of the little commonwealth welcome the scarred and
+bleeding confessors of their faith, contending with magnanimous rivalry
+for the most cruelly mangled, and carrying them in triumph into their
+homes and to their frugal boards. Not one refugee was suffered to find his
+way to the city hall; and there was no need of any public distribution of
+alms.[1213] Within a few days twenty-three hundred families of French
+Protestants were gathered in the hospitable inclosure of Geneva. Besides
+those that subsequently returned to France, on the arrival of more
+propitious times, more than two hundred of these families yet remain,
+comprising the most honorable citizens of the republic.[1214]
+
+A solemn fast was instituted. In the presence of the remarkable assembly
+gathered in the old cathedral of Saint Pierre, no word of threatening, no
+prayer for vengeance was uttered. But a firm conviction of the power and
+goodness of God seemed to dwell in every heart, and was uttered in
+impressive words by Theodore Beza--since Calvin's death, eight years
+before, the leading theologian of Geneva. "The hand of the Lord is not
+shortened," said the reformer. "He will not suffer a hair of our head to
+fall to the ground without His will. Let us not, therefore, be at all
+affrighted because of the plot of the men who have unjustly devised to put
+us all to death with our wives and our children. Let us rather be assured,
+that, if the Lord has ordained to deliver all or any of us, none shall be
+able to resist Him. If it shall please Him that we all die, let us not
+fear; for it is our Father's good pleasure to give us another home, which
+is the heavenly kingdom, in which there is no change, no poverty, no want,
+no tear, no crying, no mourning, no sorrow, but, on the contrary, eternal
+joy and blessedness. It is far better to be lodged with the beggar Lazarus
+in the bosom of Abraham, than with the rich man, with Cain, with Saul,
+with Herod, or with Judas, in hell. Meanwhile, we must drink the cup which
+the Lord has prepared for us, each according to his portion. We must not
+be ashamed of the Cross of Christ, nor be loth to drink the gall of which
+He has first drunk: knowing that our sorrow shall be turned into joy, and
+that we shall laugh in our turn, when the wicked shall weep and gnash
+their teeth."[1215]
+
+Twenty Huguenot pastors from France were among the refugees, and were
+kindly invited to take part in the honorable office of preaching in the
+churches. They preferred, however, to sit among the hearers, and listen to
+the sermons of Beza and his venerated colleagues.[1216]
+
+[Sidenote: Their generosity and danger.]
+
+Heaven smiled on the generous hospitality of the little republic. The
+plague, which had been raging in Geneva, disappeared simultaneously with
+the arrival of the fugitives from France.[1217] Still the burden which
+their hosts had assumed was by no means light. They were not rich, and the
+rigorous winter that followed would have reduced them to great straits
+even without this additional drain upon their resources. Besides, they had
+incurred the dangerous enmity of the King of France. While professing deep
+gratitude to the Genevese for the advice they had given to the Protestants
+of Nismes to liberate the agents of the royal court, who had been sent to
+procure their destruction, but had been discovered and incarcerated,
+Charles the Ninth was in secret plotting the ruin of the city which
+furnished an asylum to so many of his persecuted subjects. At one time the
+danger was imminent. The Duke of Savoy was reported to have collected an
+army of eighteen thousand men near Chambery and Annecy, while rumors of
+domestic treachery took so definite a form, that it was said that two
+hundred papal soldiers in the disguise of Protestant refugees were lurking
+in Geneva itself. On the other hand, the Roman Catholic cantons of
+Fribourg and Soleure, when on the point of joining Berne and Zurich in
+sending assistance, undertook to stipulate for the reinstatement of the
+mass within the walls of Geneva; and the Genevese, who, whatever other
+faults they might possess, were no cowards, declined an alliance upon such
+conditions.[1218] But the threatened contest of arms never came. By one of
+those strange turns of affairs, which, from their frequent recurrence in
+the history of Geneva, an impartial beholder can scarcely interpret
+otherwise than as interpositions of providence in behalf of a city that
+was destined for ages to be a safe refuge for the oppressed confessors of
+a purer faith, the storm was dissipated as rapidly as it had gathered. The
+bodily ailments of Charles the Ninth were, humanly speaking, the salvation
+of Geneva.[1219]
+
+In other parts of Switzerland the King of France made great efforts to
+counteract the injurious influence upon his interests which the
+intelligence of the massacre could but exert. Almost immediately after the
+events of the last week of August, the royal ambassador, Monsieur de la
+Fontaine, and the treasurer whom the French monarch was accustomed to keep
+in Switzerland, were instructed to write out an account for the benefit of
+his Majesty's "best and perfect friends," "the magnificent seigniors,"
+wherein among the numerous falsehoods with which they attempted to feed
+the unsophistical mountaineers, was at least a single truth: "This young
+and magnanimous prince, since his accession to the throne, has, so to
+speak, reaped only thorns in place of a sceptre."[1220]
+
+[Sidenote: Impression at Baden.]
+
+A little later M. de Bellievre, his special envoy at the diet of Baden,
+was profuse in assurances to the effect that the deed was not
+premeditated, but had been rendered necessary by the machinations of the
+admiral--"a wretched man, or rather, not a man, but a furious and
+irreconcilable beast who had lost all fear of God and man." He
+particularly defended the king from all responsibility for the excesses
+that had been committed, insisting that it was the people that "had taken
+the bit in its teeth," while Charles, Anjou, and Alencon, did their best
+to check its mad impetuosity, and Catharine felt "unspeakable
+regret."[1221] But the envoy had little reason to congratulate himself
+upon his success. "Sire," he wrote with some disgust to his master, "it is
+all but impossible to get it out of the heads of the Protestants, that
+your Majesty's intention is to join the rest of the Catholic princes, in
+order by force to put (the decrees of) the Council of Trent into execution
+in their countries." They would not be satisfied entirely by Bellievre's
+plausible explanations. "Simple and rude people are violently excited by
+such things, and are very difficult to be reassured."[1222]
+
+[Sidenote: Medals and vindications.]
+
+Charles the Ninth stood convicted in the eyes of the world of a great
+crime. No elaborate vindications, by their sophistry, or by barefaced
+misstatements of facts, could clear him, in the judgment of impartial men
+of either creed, from the guilt of such a butchery of his subjects as
+scarcely another monarch on record had ever perpetrated. Medals were early
+struck in honor of the event, upon which "valor and piety"--the king's
+motto--were represented as gloriously exhibited in the destruction of
+rebels and heretics.[1223] But the wise regarded it as "a cruelty worse
+than Scythian," and deplored the realm where "_neither piety nor justice_
+restrained the malice and sword of the raging populace."[1224] The
+Protestants of all countries--and they were his natural allies against
+Spanish ambition for world-empire--had forever lost confidence in the
+honor of Charles of Valois.
+
+ Multis minatur, qui uni facit, injuriam.
+
+"If that king be author and doer of this act," wrote the Earl of
+Leicester, expressing the common judgment of the civilized world, "shame
+and confusion light upon him; be he never so strong in the sight of men,
+the Lord hath not His power for naught.... If he continue in confirming
+the fact, and allowing the persons that did it, then must he be a prince
+detested of all honest men, what religion soever they have; for as his
+fact was ugly, so was it inhumane. For whom should a man trust, if not his
+prince's word; and these men he hath put to slaughter, not only had his
+word, but his writing, and not public, but private, with open
+proclamations and all other manner of declarations that could be devised
+for the safety, which now being violated and broken, who can believe and
+trust him?"[1225]
+
+[Sidenote: Disastrous effects of the massacre on Charles himself.]
+
+Upon the king himself the results of the fearful atrocities which he had
+been induced by his mother and brother to sanction, were equally lasting
+and disastrous. The change was startling even to those who were its chief
+cause: from a gentle boy he had become transformed into a morose and cruel
+man. "The king is grown now so bloody-minded," writes one who enjoyed good
+opportunities of observing him, "as they that advised him thereto do
+repent the same, and do fear that the old saying will prove true," "_Malum
+consilium consultori pessimum_."[1226] The story of the frenzy of Charles
+who, on one occasion, seemed to be resolved to take the lives of Navarre
+and Conde, unless they should instantly recant, and was only prevented by
+the entreaties of his young wife, may be exaggerated.[1227] But certain it
+is that the unhappy king was the victim of haunting memories of the past,
+which, while continually robbing him of peace of mind, sometimes drove him
+to the borders of madness. Agrippa d'Aubigne tells us, on the often
+repeated testimony of Henry of Navarre, that one night, a week after the
+massacre, Charles leaped up in affright from his bed, and summoned his
+gentlemen of the bedchamber, as well as his brother-in-law, to listen to a
+confused sound of cries of distress and lamentations, similar to that
+which he had heard on the eventful night of the butchery. So convinced was
+he that his ears had not deceived him, that he gave orders that the new
+attack which he fancied to be made upon the partisans of Montmorency
+should at once be repressed by his guards. It was not until the soldiers
+returned with the assurance that everything was quiet throughout the city,
+that he consented to retire to his rest again. For an entire week the
+delusive cries seemed to return at the self-same hour.[1228] These
+fancies--the creations of his fevered brain--may soon have left him, not
+to return until the general closing in at the death-bed. But there were
+marks of the violence of the passions of which he was the victim in his
+altered mien and deportment. Even before the event that has fixed upon him
+an infamous notoriety, he acted at times like a madman in the indulgence
+of his whims and coarse tastes. Sir Thomas Smith, five months before the
+fatal St. Bartholomew's Day, wrote of "his inordinate hunting, so early in
+the morning and so late at night, without sparing frost, snow or rain, and
+in so desperate doings as makes her (his mother) and them that love him to
+be often in great fear."[1229] But now the picture, as faithfully drawn by
+the friendly hand of the Venetian ambassador, early in the year 1574, is
+still more pitiful. His countenance had become sad and forbidding. When
+obliged to give audience to the representatives of foreign powers, as well
+as in his ordinary interviews, he avoided the glance of those who
+addressed him. He bent his head toward the ground and shut his eyes. At
+short intervals he would open them with a start, and in a moment, as
+though the effort caused him pain, he would close them again with no less
+suddenness. "It is feared," adds the writer, "that the spirit of vengeance
+has taken possession of him; formerly he was only severe, now his friends
+dread lest he will become cruel." He must at all hazards find hard work to
+do. He was on horseback for twelve or fourteen consecutive hours, and
+pursued the same deer for two or three days, stopping only to take
+nourishment, or snatch a little rest at night. His hands were scarred and
+callous. When in the palace, his passion for violent exercise drove him to
+the forge, where for three or four hours he would work without
+intermission, with a ponderous hammer fashioning a cuirass or some other
+piece of armor, and exhibiting more pride in being able to tire out his
+gentle competitors, than in more royal accomplishments.[1230] We have no
+means of tracing accurately the influence of the massacre upon others. The
+Abbe Brantome, however, early pointed out the remarkable fact that of
+those who took a principal part in the work of murder and rapine many soon
+after met with violent deaths, either at the siege of La Rochelle or in
+the ensuing wars, and that the riches they had so iniquitously accumulated
+profited them little.[1231]
+
+[Sidenote: How far was the Roman Church responsible?]
+
+Before dismissing the consideration of the stupendous crime for which
+Divine vengeance--to use the words of Sully--"made France atone by
+twenty-six consecutive years of disaster, carnage, and horror,"[1232] it
+is at once interesting and important to glance at a historical question
+which still agitates the world, and for a correct and impartial solution
+of which we are, perhaps, more favorably situated than were even the
+contemporaries of the event. I allude to the inquiry respecting the extent
+to which the Roman Church, and the Pope in particular, must be held
+responsible for the Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day.
+
+So far as Queen Catharine was concerned (and the same is true of some of
+her advisers), it is admitted by all that no zeal for religion controlled
+her conduct. A dissolute and ambitious woman, and, moreover, almost an
+avowed atheist, she could not have acted from a sincere but mistaken
+belief that it was her duty to exterminate heresy. But among the inferior
+agents it can scarcely be doubted that there were some who believed
+themselves to be doing God service in ridding the world of the enemies of
+His church. Had not the preachers in their sermons extolled the deed as
+the most meritorious that could be performed, and as furnishing an
+unquestionable passport to paradise? The number, however, of these
+_religious_ assassins--if so we may style them--could be but small in
+comparison with the multitude of those to whom religion served merely as a
+pretext, while cupidity or partisan hatred was the true motive; men who,
+nevertheless, derived their incentive from the lessons of their spiritual
+guides, and who would never have dreamed of giving loose rein to their
+passions, but for the suggestions of these sanguinary teachers. At the bar
+of history the priesthood that countenanced assassination must be held no
+less accountable for the actions of this class than for the deeds of more
+sincere devotees.
+
+It is immaterial to the question of the responsibility of the Papal
+Church, whether the queen mother and the king's ministers were honest, or
+were Roman Catholics, or, indeed, Christians only in name. If the Pope had
+for years, by letter and by his accredited agents, been insinuating that
+the life of a heretic was a thing of little value; if he systematically
+advocated a war of extermination, and opposed every negotiation for peace,
+every truce, every edict of pacification that did not look to the
+annihilation of the Huguenots; if he had familiarized the minds of king
+and queen with the thought of justifiable massacre, it is of little
+importance to ascertain whether his too ready pupils executed the
+injunction from a pure desire to further the interests of the Papal See,
+or with more selfish designs. Unfortunately for humanity and for religion,
+the course I have indicated was that which had been consistently and
+indefatigably pursued during the entire pontificate of Pius the Fifth,
+and during the few months that had elapsed since the election of his
+successor.
+
+[Sidenote: Gregory probably not aware of the intended massacre.]
+
+Contrary to the firm persuasion of the Protestants who wrote contemporary
+accounts of the massacre, we must in all probability, as we have already
+seen,[1233] acquit Gregory the Thirteenth of any knowledge of the disaster
+impending over the admiral and the Huguenots. It was what he wished for
+and prayed for, but with little hope of seeing the accomplishment. In
+fact, he was brought to the verge of despair in respect to the hold of the
+papacy upon the kingdom of France. Nuncio Salviati, at Paris, had, indeed,
+conceived the hope that some disaster would befall the Huguenots in
+consequence of Coligny's imprudence and the desperation of the queen
+mother and of the Roman Catholic party at finding the authority slipping
+from their hands. But his astonishment and that of the pontiff at the
+general massacre of the Protestants was surpassed only by their common
+delight. The fragments of the despatches from Salviati to the Roman
+secretary of state, which have been suffered to find their way into print,
+seem to settle this point beyond all controversy.
+
+[Sidenote: Pius the Fifth instigates the French court.]
+
+[Sidenote: He indorses the cruelties of Alva.]
+
+We have in previous chapters seen the Pope assisting Charles with money
+and troops in the prosecution of the last two wars against the Huguenots.
+But this aid was accompanied with perpetual exhortations to do the work
+thoroughly, and not to repeat the mistakes committed by his predecessors.
+"That heresy cannot be tolerated in the same kingdom with the worship of
+the Catholic religion," writes Pius the Fifth to Sigismund Augustus of
+Poland, "is proved by that very example of the kingdom of France, which
+your Majesty brings up for the purpose of excusing yourself. If the former
+kings of France had not suffered this evil to grow by neglect and
+indulgence, they would easily have been able to extirpate heresy and
+secure the peace and quiet of their realm."[1234] Of all the leaders of
+the day, the Duke of Alva alone earned, by his unrelenting destruction of
+heretics, the unqualified approval of the pontiff. When the tidings of the
+successes of the "Blood Council" reached Rome, Pius could not contain
+himself for joy. He must congratulate the duke, and spur him on in a
+course upon which the blessing of Heaven so manifestly rested. "Nothing
+can occur to us," said he, "more glorious for the dignity of the Church,
+or more delightful to the truly paternal disposition of our mind to all
+men, than when we perceive that warriors and very brave generals, such as
+we previously knew you to be and now find you in this most perilous war,
+consult not their own interest, nor their own glory alone, but war in
+behalf of that Almighty God who stands ready to crown His soldiers
+contending for Him and His glory, not with a corruptible crown, but with
+one that is eternal and fadeth not away."[1235]
+
+[Sidenote: He repeatedly counsels exterminating the Huguenots.]
+
+With this express indorsement of Alva's merciless cruelty before us, it is
+not difficult to understand what Pius demanded of Charles of France. Early
+in 1569, while sending the Duke of Sforza with auxiliaries, he wrote to
+the king: "When God shall by His kindness have given to you and to us, as
+we hope, the victory, it will be your duty to punish the heretics and
+their leaders with all severity, and thus justly to avenge not only your
+own wrongs, but those of Almighty God: in order that, by your execution of
+the righteous judgment of God, they may pay the penalty which they have
+deserved by their crimes."[1236] After the battle of Jarnac and Conde's
+death, we have seen that Pius wrote promptly, bidding Charles "pursue and
+destroy the remnants of the enemy, and wholly tear up not only the roots
+of an evil so great and which had gathered to itself such strength, but
+even the very fibres of the roots." He begged him not to spare those who
+had not spared God nor their king.[1237] To Catharine and to the Duke of
+Anjou, to the Cardinal of Bourbon, and to the Cardinal of Lorraine, the
+same language was addressed. Again and again the Pope held up the example
+of Saul, who disregarded the commands of the Lord through Samuel and
+spared the Amalekites, as a solemn warning against disobedience. To the
+queen mother he said: "Under no circumstances and from no considerations
+ought the enemies of God to be spared.[1238] If your Majesty shall
+continue, as heretofore, to seek with right purpose of mind and a simple
+heart the honor of Almighty God, and shall assail the foes of the Catholic
+religion openly and freely even to extermination,[1239] be well assured
+that the Divine assistance will never fail, and that still greater
+victories will be prepared by God for you and for the king your son,
+until, _when all shall have been destroyed_, the pristine worship of the
+Catholic religion shall be restored to that most illustrious realm."[1240]
+The Duke of Anjou was urged to incite his brother to punish the rebels
+with great severity, and to be inexorable in refusing the prayers of all
+who would intercede for them.[1241] Charles was given to understand that
+if, induced by any motives, he should defer the punishment of God's
+enemies, he would certainly tempt the Divine patience to change to
+anger.[1242]
+
+The victory of Moncontour furnished an occasion for fresh exhortations to
+the king not to neglect to inflict upon the enemies of Almighty God the
+punishments fixed by the laws. "For what else would this be," said Pius,
+"than to make of no effect the blessing of God, namely, victory itself,
+whose fruit indeed consists in this, that by just punishment the execrable
+heretics, common enemies, having been taken away, the former peace and
+tranquillity should be restored to the kingdom. And do not allow yourself,
+by the suggestion of the empty name of pity, to be deceived so far as to
+seek, by pardoning Divine injuries, to obtain false praise for compassion;
+for nothing is more cruel than that pity and compassion which is extended
+to the impious and those who deserve the worst of torments."[1243] The
+work begun by victories in the field was, therefore, to be completed by
+the institution of inquisitors of the faith in every city, and the
+adoption of such other measures as might, with God's help, at length
+create the kingdom anew and restore it to its former state.[1244]
+
+As often as rumors of negotiations for peace reached him, Pius was in
+anguish of soul, and wrote to Charles, to Catharine, to Anjou, to the
+French cardinals, in almost the same words. He protested that, as light
+has no communion with darkness, so no compact between Catholics and
+heretics could be other than feigned and full of treachery.[1245] As the
+prospect of peace grew more distinct, his prognostications of coming
+disaster grew darker, and sounded almost like threats. Even if the
+heretics, in concluding the peace, had no intention of laying snares, God
+would put it into their minds as a punishment to the king. "Now, how
+fearful a thing it is to fall into the hands of the living God, who is
+wont not only to chastise the corrupt manners of men by war, but, on
+account of the sins of kings and people, to dash kingdoms in pieces, and
+to transfer them from their ancient masters to new ones, is too evident to
+need to be proved by examples."[1246] When at last the peace of Saint
+Germain was definitely concluded, the Pope did not cease to lament over "a
+pacification in which the conquered heretics imposed upon the victorious
+king conditions so horrible and so pernicious that he could not speak of
+them without tears." And he expressed at the same time his paternal fears
+lest the young Charles and those who had consented to the unholy compact
+would be given over to a reprobate mind, that seeing they might not see,
+and hearing they might not hear.[1247]
+
+To his last breath Pius retained the same thirst for the blood of the
+heretics of France. He violently opposed the marriage of the king's sister
+to Henry of Navarre, and instructed his envoy at the French court to bring
+up again that "matter of conciliation so fatal to the Catholics."[1248]
+His last letters are as sanguinary as his first. Meanwhile his acts
+corresponded with his words, and left the King of France and his mother in
+no doubt respecting the value which the pretended vicegerent of God upon
+earth, and the future Saint,[1249] set upon the life of a heretic; for,
+when the town of Mornas was on one occasion captured by the Roman Catholic
+forces, and a number of prisoners were taken, Pius--"such," his admiring
+biographer informs us, "was his burning zeal for religion"--ransomed them
+from the hands of their captors, that he might have the satisfaction of
+ordering their public execution in the pontifical city of Avignon![1250]
+And when the same holy father learned that Count Santa Fiore, the
+commander of the papal troops sent to Charles's assistance, had accepted
+the offer of a ransom for the life of a distinguished Huguenot nobleman,
+he wrote to him complaining bitterly that he had disobeyed his orders,
+which were that every heretic that fell into his hands should straightway
+be put to death.[1251] As, however, Pius wanted not Huguenot treasure, but
+Huguenot blood, with more consistency than at first appears, he ordered
+the captive nobleman whose head had been spared to be released without
+ransom.[1252]
+
+With such continual papal exhortations to bloodshed, before us, with such
+suggestive examples of the treatment which heretics ought, according to
+the pontiff, to receive, and in the light of the extravagant joy displayed
+at Rome over the consummation of the massacre, we can scarcely hesitate to
+find the head of the Roman Catholic Church guilty--if not, by a happy
+accident, of having known or devised the precise mode of its execution, at
+least of having long instigated and paved the way for the commission of
+the crime. Without the teachings of Pius the Fifth, the conspiracy of
+Catharine and Anjou would have been almost impossible. Without the
+preaching of priests and friars at Lent and Advent, the passions of the
+low populace could not have been inflamed to such a pitch as to render it
+capable of perpetrating atrocities which will forever render the reign of
+Charles the Ninth infamous in the French annals.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+ [Sidenote: A German account of the massacre at Orleans.]
+
+ One of the most vivid accounts of the massacre in any city
+ outside of Paris is the contemporary narrative of Johann
+ Wilhelm von Botzheim, a young German, who was at the time
+ pursuing his studies in Orleans. It forms the sequel to the
+ description of the Parisian massacre, to which reference has
+ already been made several times, and was first published by
+ Dr. F. W. Ebeling, in his "Archivalische Beitraege zur
+ Geschichte Frankreichs unter Carl IX." (Leipsic, 1872),
+ 129-189. It was also translated into French by M. Charles
+ Read, for the number of the Bulletin de la Societe de
+ l'histoire du protestantisme francais issued on the occasion
+ of the tercentenary of the Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day.
+ The chief interest of the narration centres in the anxieties
+ and dangers of the little community of Germans in attendance
+ upon the famous law school. Besides this, however, much light
+ is thrown upon the general features of the bloody
+ transactions. The first intimation of Coligny's wounding
+ reached the Protestants as they were returning from the
+ preche, but created less excitement because of the statement
+ accompanying it, that Charles was greatly displeased at the
+ occurrence. That night a messenger arrived with letters
+ addressed to the provost of the city, announcing the death of
+ the admiral and the Huguenots of Paris, and enjoining the like
+ execution at Orleans. Although the letters bore the royal
+ seal, the information they contained appeared so incredible
+ that the provost commanded the messenger to be imprisoned
+ until two captains, whom he at once despatched to Paris,
+ returned bringing full confirmation of the story. The provost,
+ a man averse to bloodshed, issued, early on Monday morning as
+ a precautionary measure, an order to guard the city gates. But
+ the control of affairs rapidly passed out of his hands, and,
+ threatened with death because of his moderate counsels, the
+ provost was himself forced to take refuge for safety in the
+ citadel. Ten captains at the head of as many bands of
+ soldiers, ruled the city, and were foremost in the work of
+ murder and rapine that now ensued. But there were other bands
+ engaged in the same occupation, not to speak of single persons
+ acting strictly on their own account. Moreover, four hundred
+ ruffians came in from the country, intent upon making up for
+ losses which they pretended to have sustained during the late
+ civil wars. They showed no mercy to the Huguenots that fell
+ into their hands. Of the Protestants scarcely one made
+ resistance, so hopeless was their situation. Pierre Pillier, a
+ bell founder, had indeed barred his door with iron, but,
+ finding that his assailants were on the point of forcing the
+ entrance, he first threw his money from a window, and then,
+ seizing his opportunity when the miscreants were scrambling
+ for their prize, deluged them with molten lead, after which he
+ set fire to his house, and perished, with his wife and
+ children, in the flames.
+
+ There is, happily, no need of repeating here the shocking
+ details of the butchery told by the student. As a German, and
+ not generally known to be a Protestant, he managed to escape
+ the fate of his Huguenot friends, but he witnessed, and was
+ forced to appear to applaud, the most revolting exhibitions
+ both of cruelty and of selfishness. His favorite professor,
+ the venerable Francois Taillebois, after having been twice
+ plundered by bands of marauders, was treacherously conducted
+ by the second band to the Loire, despatched with the dagger,
+ and thrown into the river. "The last lecture, which he gave on
+ Monday at nine o'clock," says his pupil, "was on the _Lex
+ Cornelia_ [de sicariis] of which he made the demonstration by
+ the sacrifice of his own life." It is pitiful to read that
+ even professors in the university were not ashamed to enrich
+ their libraries by the plunder of the law-books of their
+ colleagues, or of their scholars. The writer traced his own
+ copies of Alciat, of Mynsinger and "Speculator," to the
+ shelves of Laurent Godefroid, Professor of the Pandects, and
+ the entire library of his brother Bernhard to those of his
+ neighbor, Dr. Beaupied, Professor of Canon Law.
+
+ In the midst of the almost universal unchaining of the worst
+ passions of human or demoniacal nature, it is pleasant to note
+ a few exceptions. Some Roman Catholics were found not only
+ unwilling to imbrue their hands in the blood of their Huguenot
+ neighbors and friends, but actually ready to incur personal
+ peril in rescuing them from assassination. Such magnanimity,
+ however, was very rare. All respect for authority human or
+ divine, all sense of shame or pity, all fear of hell and hope
+ of heaven, seemed to have been obliterated from the breasts of
+ the murderers. The blasphemous words of the furious Captain
+ Gaillard, when opposed in his plan to destroy Botzheim and his
+ fellow Germans, truly expressed the sentiments which others
+ might possibly have hesitated to utter so distinctly. "Par la
+ mort Dieu! il faut qu'il soit.... Il n'y a ny Dieu, ny
+ diable, ny juge qui me puisse commander. Vostre vie est en ma
+ puissance, il fault mourir.... Baillez-moy mon espee, je
+ tuerai l'ung apres l'autre, je ne saurois tuer trestous a la
+ fois avec la pistolle." Men, with blood-stained hands and
+ clothes, boasted over their cups of having plundered and
+ murdered thirty, forty, fifty men each. At last, on Saturday
+ afternoon, after the Huguenots had been almost all killed, an
+ edict was published prohibiting murder and pillage on pain of
+ death. Gallows, too, were erected in nearly every street, to
+ hang the disobedient; but not a man was hung, and the murders
+ still continued. Soon after a second edict directed the
+ restoration of stolen property to its rightful owners; it was
+ a mere trick to entice any remaining Huguenot from his refuge
+ and secure his apprehension and death. The Huguenots were not
+ even able to recover, at a later time, the property they had
+ intrusted to their Roman Catholic friends in time of danger,
+ and did not dare to bring the latter before courts of justice.
+ The Huguenots killed at Orleans, in this writer's opinion,
+ were at least fifteen hundred, perhaps even two thousand, in
+ number.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1079] Charles IX. to Mondoucet, August 26th, Compte rendu de la com. roy.
+d'histoire, Brussels, 1852, iv. 344.
+
+[1080] "Estant croiable que ce feu ainsy allume ira courant par toutes les
+villes de mon royaume, lesquelles, a l'exemple de ce qui s'est faict en
+cestedite ville, s'assureront de tous ceulx de ladite religion." Charles
+to Mondoucet, Aug. 26th, _ubi supra_, iv. 345
+
+[1081] "Car puisqu'il a pleu a Dieu conduire les choses es termes ou elles
+sont, je ne veulx negliger l'occasion, non seulement pour remectre, s'il
+m'est possible, ung perpetuel repos en mon royaume, mais aussy servir a la
+chrestiente."
+
+[1082] "Au surplus, quelque commandement verbal que j'aye peu faire a
+ceulx que j'aye envoye tant devers vous que autres gouverneurs ... j'ay
+revocque et revocque tout cela, ne voulant que par vous ne autres en soit
+aucune chose execute." Charles IX. to Mandelot, Governor of Lyons,
+Correspondance, etc. (Paris, 1830), 53, 54; the same to the Mayor of
+Bourges, Mem. de l'estat (Archives curieuses), vii. 313. The variations of
+language are trifling.
+
+[1083] He seems at this time to have been at his castle of Montsoreau,
+situated six or seven miles above Saumur, on the left bank of the Loire,
+and within a short distance of Candes. M. de Montsoreau himself is
+described as "gentilhomme de Poictou fort renomme pour beaucoup de
+pillages et violences, qui finalement luy ont fait perdre la vie, ayant
+este tue depuis en qualite de meurtrier." Mem. l'estat, 349.
+
+[1084] These letters, and some others relating to the massacre at Angers,
+contained in the archives of the municipality, are printed in the Bulletin
+de la Soc. de l'hist. du prot. francais, xi. (1862) 120-124.
+
+[1085] I know, however, of no letters of this kind signed by Charles IX.
+himself. They all seem to have been written by his inferior agents, such
+as Puigaillard in the case of Saumur, or Masso and Rubys in that of Lyons.
+The advantage of this course was apparent. The king could not be _proved_
+to have ordered any massacre; he could throw off the responsibility upon
+others. On the other hand, such politic governors as Mandelot were
+naturally reluctant to act upon instructions which could at any moment be
+disavowed. The verbal messages of Charles himself would seem, from the
+Mandelot correspondence, to have been less definite--perhaps going to no
+greater lengths than to order the arrest of the persons and the
+sequestration of the effects of the Huguenots. May we not naturally
+suppose that the king and his council counted upon such subsequent
+massacres of the imprisoned Protestants as occurred in many places?
+
+[1086] Memoires de l'estat, 132, 133. Compare De Thou, iv. (liv. lii.)
+601.
+
+[1087] Relation of Olaegui, Simancas MSS., Bulletins de l'academie royale
+de Belgique, xvi. (1849) 254, 255.
+
+[1088] The names of nine are given. Archives curieuses, vii. 264.
+
+[1089] The procureur Cosset did not neglect his own interests, if, as we
+are informed, his house and courtyard were so full of stolen furniture
+that it was scarcely possible to enter the premises.
+
+[1090] Memoires de l'estat, _apud_ Archives curieuses, vii. 261-270.
+
+[1091] See _ante_, chapter xviii., p. 432.
+
+[1092] Recordon, le Protestantisme en Champagne (from the MSS. of N.
+Pithou, seigneur de Chamgobert), Paris, 1863, 174-192; Mem. de l'estat,
+Archives curieuses, vii. 271-292.
+
+[1093] Dr. Henry White, besides mistaking the Huguenot for the Papist, has
+incorrectly stated the circumstances. Massacre of St. Bartholomew, 450.
+See Mem. de l'estat, _ubi supra_, 295, and De Thou, iv. (liv. lii.) 601.
+
+[1094] Memoires de l'estat, _ubi supra_, 295. "Le mesme fut fait a Paris
+et en d'autres lieux aussi," writes the same historian.
+
+[1095] Ibid., _ubi supra_.
+
+[1096] Ibid., 296.
+
+[1097] Memoires de l'estat de France, _ubi supra_, 297.
+
+[1098] Mem. de l'estat, 298, 299.
+
+[1099] Ibid., 299, 300.
+
+[1100] A horrible story is told of the discovery of some human relics
+several weeks later. Ibid., 305.
+
+[1101] See _ante_, p. 502.
+
+[1102] Mem. de l'estat, 309-315.
+
+[1103] Mem. de l'estat, _ubi supra_, 349-351. "Puigaillard ... homme au
+reste indigne de vivre pour l'acte detestable par luy commis en la
+personne de sa premiere femme tuee a sa sollicitation pour en espouser une
+autre qu'il entretenoit." (P. 351.)
+
+[1104] Registres consulaires, _apud_ "La Saint-Barthelemy a Lyon et le
+gouverneur Mandelot," by M. Puyroche, p. 311. This monograph which I quote
+from the Bulletin de la Soc. de l'hist. du prot. francais, in which it
+first appeared (vol. xviii., 1869, pp. 305-323, 353-367, and 401-420), is
+by far the most accurate and complete treatise on this subject, and
+contains a fund of fresh information based upon unpublished manuscripts,
+especially the local records.
+
+[1105] Charles IX. to Mandelot, Aug. 22, 1572, Correspondance du roi
+Charles IX. et du sieur de Mandelot, published by P. Paris, 1830 (pp. 36,
+37). A portion of this letter has already been given.
+
+[1106] Charles IX. to Mandelot, Aug. 24, 1572, Correspondance, etc.,
+39-42.
+
+[1107] "Monsieur de Mandelot, vous croirez le present porteur de ce que je
+luy ay donne charge de vous dire." Ibid., 42.
+
+[1108] "Suivant icelles (the king's letters of Aug. 22d and 24th) et _ce
+que le sieur du Perat m'auroit dict de sa part_, je n'auroit failly
+pourveoir par toutz moyens a la seurete de ceste ville: _sy bien, Sire,
+que et les cors_ (corps) _et les biens de ceulx de la relligion auroient
+este saisiz et mis soubz votre main_ sans aucun tumulte ny scandale."
+Mandelot to Charles IX., Sept. 2, 1572, Correspondance, etc., 45.
+
+[1109] Puyroche, 319.
+
+[1110] "Il n'etait pas d'avis," dit-il, "que tout le peuple s'en melat,
+craignant quelque desordre, memement un sac." Puyroche, 320.
+
+[1111] "Quelques deux cens," says Mandelot to Charles IX., Sept. 2d; but
+he was anxious to make the number as small as possible. Jean de Masso,
+"receveur general" (Sept. 1st), says, "sept a huit vingt," and sieur
+Talaize (Sept. 2d), "deux cent soixante et trois." So also Coste (Sept.
+3d). Puyroche, 365, 366.
+
+[1112] Mandelot tells Charles IX. (Sept. 17th) that he had sent all the
+_poorer_ Huguenots to other prisons; that he had left here only the rich
+and those who had borne arms for the Protestant cause. To exhibit his own
+incorruptibility, he added that there were among them, of his own certain
+knowledge, at least twenty who would have paid a ransom of thirty thousand
+or even forty thousand crowns, "qui estoit assez," he significantly adds,
+"pour tenter ung homme corruptible." Correspondance du roi Charles IX. et
+du Sieur de Mandelot, 71, 72.
+
+[1113] Correspondance, etc., p. 46, 47.
+
+[1114] Puyroche, La Saint-Barthelemy a Lyon et le gouverneur Mandelot,
+_ubi supra_; Mem. de l'estat, _ubi supra_, 321-343; Crespin, Hist. des
+martyrs, 1582, p. 725, etc., _apud_ Epoques de l'eglise de Lyon (Lyon,
+1827), 173-185; De Thou, iv. (liv. lii.) 602-604, etc.; Jean de Serres
+(1575), iv., fol. 45, etc. The number of Huguenots killed is variously
+estimated, by some as high as from twelve hundred to fifteen hundred
+(Crespin, _ubi supra_). It must have been not less than seven hundred or
+eight hundred; for private letters written immediately after the
+occurrence by prominent and well-informed Roman Catholics state it at
+about seven hundred, and they would certainly not be inclined to
+exaggerate. The rumor at Paris even then set it at twelve hundred. See the
+letters in Puyroche, 365-367. Among the one hundred and twenty-three names
+that have been preserved, the most interesting is that of Claude Goudimel,
+who set Marot's and Beza's psalms to music, and who was killed by envious
+rivals. At the time of his death he was engaged in adapting the psalms to
+a more elaborate arrangement, according to a contemporary writer:
+"Excellent musicien, et la memoire duquel sera perpetuelle pour avoir
+heureusement besogne les psaumes de David en francais, la plupart desquels
+il a mis en musique en forme de motets a quatre, cinq, six et huit
+parties, et sans la mort eut tot apres rendu cette oeuvre accomplie."
+Sommaire et vrai discours de la Felonie. etc, Puyroche, 402.
+
+[1115] "Faisant cependant contenir ce peuple par toutes les remontrances
+et raisons que je puis leur persuader de ne s'emouvoir a aucune sedition
+ni tumulte, comme je m'apercois qu'il y en peut avoir quelque danger
+auquel toutes fois j'espere prevenir." Mandelot to Charles IX., Aug. 31,
+1572, Puyroche, 356. This letter is not contained in Paulin Paris,
+Correspondance de Charles IX. et du sieur de Mandelot.
+
+[1116] Mem. de l'estat, 330; De Thou, iv. (liv. lii.) 603.
+
+[1117] "Je ne veulx estre le premier a en demander a votre Majeste;
+m'asseurant que si elle a commence par quelques autres, elle me faict tant
+d'honneur de ne m'oblier (oublier)." Mandelot to Charles IX., September 2,
+1572, Correspondance, p. 49. I find the clearest evidence both of
+Mandelot's having had no hand in the massacres of August 31st, and of his
+utter want of principle, in the craven apology he makes, in his letter of
+September 17th, for not having done more, on the ground that he only knew
+his Majesty's pleasure as it were in a shadow, and very late, and that he
+had rather feared the king would be angry at what the people had done,
+than that so little had been done! "La pouvant asseurer sur ma vie que si
+elle n'a este satisfaitte en ce faict icy, je n'en ay aucune coulpe,
+n'ayant sceu quelle estoit sa volunte que par umbre, encores bien tard et
+a demy; et ay craint, Sire, que votre Majeste fust plustost courroucee de
+ce que le peuple auroit faict, que de trop peu, d'aultant que par toutes
+les autres provinces circonvoysines il ne s'est rien touche."
+Correspondance, etc., 72, 73.
+
+[1118] It is given word for word, from the MS. registers of the
+parliament, by Floquet, Hist. du parlement de Normandie, iii. 81-85.
+
+[1119] _Ante_, chapter xvii., p. 374.
+
+[1120] "Encor qu'il se soit tousjours monstre fort peu amy de telles
+inhumanitez." Memoires de l'estat, 371.
+
+[1121] "Receut lettres du Roy qui luy mandoit et commandoit expressement
+d'exterminer tous ceux qui faisoyent profession de la religion audit lieu,
+sans en excepter aucun." Mem. de l'estat, Arch. cur., vii. 370.
+
+[1122] Ibid., 371.
+
+[1123] "Il n'y a aultre que vous," said they, "qui puisse commander aux
+armes ceans, contenir le peuple en l'obeissance au roy, et la ville en
+paix." Reg. secr. du parlement, 9 Septembre, 1572, _apud_ Floquet, 120.
+See also Reg. de l'hotel-de-ville de Rouen, 7 Septembre, _ibid._
+
+[1124] Floquet, 122.
+
+[1125] Mem. de l'estat, _apud_ Archives curieuses, vii. 373.
+
+[1126] Memoires de l'estat, _apud_ Arch. curieuses, vii. 372; Floquet,
+iii. 127. Floquet is incorrect in stating that the names of only about a
+hundred are known. We have (Mem. de l'estat. Archives curieuses, vii.
+372-378) a partial list of 186 men, whose names and trades are generally
+given, and of 33 women--that is 219, besides a reference to many others
+whose names the writer did not obtain.
+
+[1127] "Les autres estoyent _accommodez_ a coups de dague. Les massacreurs
+usoyent de ce mot _accommoder_, l'accommodans a leur bestiale et
+diabolique cruaute." Mem. de l'estat, _ubi sup._, 372.
+
+[1128] Mem. de l'estat, _ubi sup._, 378.
+
+[1129] Ibid., 379. The story of the massacre is well told in the Mem. de
+l'estat, and by M. Floquet, whose original sources of information throw a
+flood of light upon the transactions; also by De Thou, iv. (liv. lii.)
+606; Agrippa d'Aubigne, ii. 27; Jean de Serres (1575), iv., fol. 50.
+
+[1130] One of them, Jean Coras, had committed an unpardonable offence.
+When passing in 1562 with the Protestant army through Roquemadour, in the
+province of Quercy, he had taken advantage of the opportunity to examine
+the relics of St. Amadour, of whom the monks boasted that they possessed
+not only the bones, but also some of the flesh. He was never forgiven for
+having exhibited the close resemblance of the holy remains to a shoulder
+of mutton. De Thou, iv. 606, note.
+
+[1131] Mem. de l'estat, Archives curieuses, vii. 381-385; De Thou, _ubi
+supra_; Agrippa d'Aubigne, ii. 27, 28 (liv. i., c. 5); Jean de Serres
+(1575), iv., fol. 50.
+
+[1132] President Lagebaston even says that, had this been suffered to go
+on a week longer--so rapidly were the Protestants flocking to the
+mass--there would not have been eight Huguenots in town.
+
+[1133] Registers of Parliament, in Boscheron des Portes, Hist. du parl. de
+Bordeaux (Bordeaux, 1877), i. 241.
+
+[1134] Letter of President Lagebaston to Charles IX., October 7, 1572,
+Mackintosh, Hist. of England, iii., App. E, 351-353. See also De Thou, iv.
+651, 652, and Agrippa d'Aubigne, ii. 27. Lagebaston was "first president"
+of the Bordalese parliament, but, so far from being able to prevent the
+massacre, received information that his own name was on Montferrand's
+list, and fled to the castle of Ha, whence he wrote to the king. His
+remonstrances against a butchery based upon a pretended order which was
+not exhibited, his delineation of the impolitic and disgraceful work, and
+his reasons why an execution, that might have been necessary to crush a
+secret conspiracy at Paris, was altogether unnecessary in a city "six or
+seven score leagues distant," where there could be no thought of a
+conspiracy, render his letter very interesting.
+
+[1135] Registres du Parlement, Boscheron des Portes, i. 246, 247.
+
+[1136] Boscheron des Portes, _ubi supra_.
+
+[1137] Claude Haton waxes facetious when describing the sudden popularity
+acquired by the sign of the cross, and the numbers of rosaries that could
+be seen in the hands, or tied to the belt, of fugitive Huguenot ladies.
+
+[1138] Tocsain contre les massacreurs, 156. See _ante_, chapter xviii., p.
+491.
+
+[1139] De Felice, Hist. of the Protestants of France (New York, 1859),
+214, and Henry White, 455, from Maimbourg, Histoire du Calvinisme, 486. I
+refer the reader to Mr. L. D. Paumier's exhaustive discussion of the story
+in his paper, "La Saint-Barthelemy en Normandie," Bulletin de la Soc. de
+l'hist. du prot. francais, vi. (1858), 466-470. Mr. Paumier has also
+completely demolished the scanty foundation on which rested the similar
+story told of Sigognes, Governor of Dieppe, pp. 470-474. See also M. C.
+Osmont de Courtisigny's monograph, "Jean Le Hennuyer et les Huguenots de
+Lisieux en 1572," in the Bulletin, xxvi. (1877) 145, etc.
+
+[1140] Tocsain contre les massacreurs, 156; Odolant Desnos, Memoires
+historiques sur la ville d'Alencon, ii. 285, _apud_ Bulletin de la Soc. de
+l'hist. du prot. francais, viii. (1859), 68. The truth of the story as to
+Alencon seems to be proved by the circumstance that when, in February,
+1575, Matignon marched against Alencon, in order to suppress the
+conspiracy which the duke, Charles's youngest brother, had entered into to
+prevent Henry of Anjou from succeeding peaceably to the throne of France,
+the grateful Protestants at once opened their gates to him. Ibid., 305,
+Bulletin, _ubi supra_.
+
+[1141] Tocsain, 156.
+
+[1142] "Par lesquelles vous me mandez n'avoir receu aucun commandement
+verbal de moy, ains seulement mes lettres du 22, 24 et 28 du passe, dont
+ne vous mettrez en aucune peine, car elles s'adressoyent seulement a
+quelques-uns qui s'estoyent trouvez pres de moy." Charles IX. to Gordes,
+Sept. 14, 1572, Archives curieuses, vii. 365, 366.
+
+[1143] Ibid., 367, 368.
+
+[1144] Memoires de l'estat, Archives curieuses, vii. 366, 367; De Thou,
+iv. 605. The Tocsain contre les massacreurs, however, p. 156, gives credit
+instead to M. de Carces.
+
+[1145] Dr. White has shown some reasons for doubting the accuracy of the
+story. Among the Dulaure MSS. is preserved a full account of the manner in
+which a Protestant, fleeing from Paris, fell in with the messenger who was
+carrying the order to St. Herem or Heran, and robbed him of his
+instructions. The Protestant hastened on to warn his brethren of their
+danger, while the messenger could only relate to the governor the contents
+of the lost despatch. Notwithstanding this, eighty Huguenots were murdered
+in one city (Aurillac) of this province. Massacre of St. Bartholomew, 454,
+455.
+
+[1146] Adiram d'Aspremont.
+
+[1147] Agrippa d'Aubigne, Hist. univ., ii. 28 (liv. i., c. 5). The
+authenticity of this letter has been much disputed, partly because of the
+Viscount's severe and cruel character (which, however, D'Aubigne himself
+notices when he tells the story), partly because it rests on the sole
+authority of D'Aubigne. It is to be observed, however, that although he
+alone relates it, he alludes to it in several of his works, as _e.g._, in
+his Tragiques. But the truth of the incident is apparently placed beyond
+all legitimate doubt by its intimate and necessary connection with an
+event which D'Aubigne narrates considerably later in his history, and from
+personal knowledge. Hist. univ., ii. 291, 292 (liv. iii., c. 13). In 1577,
+D'Aubigne, having lost much of Henry of Navarre's favor through his
+fidelity or his bluntness (see Mem. de d'Aubigne, ed. Panth., p. 486),
+retired from Nerac to the neighboring town of Castel-jaloux, of which he
+was in command. Making a foray at the head of a small detachment of
+Huguenot soldiers, he fell in with and easily routed a Roman Catholic
+troop, consisting of a score of light horsemen belonging to Viscount
+D'Orthez, and a number of men raised at Bayonne and Dax, who were
+conducting three young ladies condemned at Bordeaux to be beheaded. The
+vanquished Roman Catholics threw themselves on the ground and sued for
+mercy. On hearing who they were, D'Aubigne called to him all those who
+came from Bayonne and then cried out to his followers to treat the rest in
+memory of the massacre in the prisons of Dax. The Huguenots needed no
+further reminder. It was not long before they had cut to pieces the
+twenty-two men from Dax who had fallen into their hands. On the other hand
+they restored to the soldiers of Bayonne their horses and arms, and, after
+dressing their wounds in a neighboring village, sent them home to tell
+their governor, Viscount D'Orthez, "that they had seen the different
+treatment the Huguenots accorded to _soldiers_ and to _hangmen_." A week
+later, a herald from Bayonne arrived at Castel-jaloux, with worked scarfs
+and handkerchiefs for the entire Huguenot band. Nor did the exchange of
+courtesies end here. The mad notion seized Henry of Navarre to accept an
+invitation to a feast extended to him by the Bayonnese. Six Huguenots
+accompanied him, of whom D'Aubigne was one. The table was sumptuous, the
+presents were rare and costly. D'Aubigne being recognized, was overwhelmed
+with thanks, "his courtesy being much more liberally repaid than he had
+deserved;" while the King of Navarre and his Huguenots, at the table, "at
+the expense of the rest of France, extolled to heaven the rare and
+unexampled act and glory of the men of Bayonne." It is certainly an easier
+supposition that D'Aubigne has faithfully reproduced D'Orthez's letter to
+Charles IX., than that he has manufactured so long and consistent a story.
+The discussion in the Bulletin de la Soc. de l'histoire du prot. franc. is
+full, xi. 13-15, 116, etc., xii. 240.
+
+[1148] Letter of Louis de Bourbon, Duke of Montpensier, Aug. 26th (it
+should evidently be the 25th; for the Duke speaks of Coligny as killed
+"ledit jour d'hier," and the mythical Huguenot plot was to have been
+executed "hier ou aujourd'hui"). Bulletin de la Soc. de l'hist. du prot.
+fr., i. (1852) 60, and Soldan, Geschichte des Prot. in Frankreich, ii.,
+App., 599.
+
+[1149] The words are those of an inscription of the seventeenth or the
+early part of the eighteenth century, in the Hotel de Ville of Nantes.
+Bulletin, i. (1852) 61.
+
+[1150] Mem. de l'estat, Archives cur., vii. 385, 386.
+
+[1151] See a table in White, Massacre of St. Bartholomew, 461.
+
+[1152] Narrative appended to Capilupi, Stratagema di Carlo IX. (1574). The
+cardinal's adulatory letter to Charles IX., on receipt of the king's
+missive, is strongly corroborative of the view to which everything forces
+us, that the massacre was not long definitely premeditated. "Sire," he
+said, "estant arrive le sieur de Beauville avecques lettres de Vostre
+Majeste, qui confirmoyent les nouvelles des tres-crestiennes et heroicques
+deliberation et exequutions faictes non-seulement a Paris, mais aussi
+partout voz principales villes, je m'asseure qu'il vous plaira bien me
+tant honorer ... que de vous asseurer que entre tous voz tres humbles
+subjects, je ne suis le dernier a an (en) louer Dieu et a me resjouir. Et
+veritablement, Sire, c'est tout le myeus (mieux) que j'eusse ose jamais
+desirer ni esperer. Je me tienz asseure que des ce commencement les
+actions de Vostre Majeste accroistront chacung jour a la gloire de Dieu et
+a l'immortalite de vostre nom," etc. Card. Lorraine to the king, Rome,
+Sept. 10, 1572, MSS. Nat. Library, _apud_ Lestoile, ed. Michaud et
+Poujoulat, 25, 26, note.
+
+[1153] Conjouissance de Mr. le Cardinal de Lorraine, au nom du Roy, faicte
+au Pape, le vije jour de sept. 1572, sur la mort de l'Admiral et ses
+complices. Correspondance diplom. de La Mothe Fenelon, vii. 341, 342. Also
+Jean de Serres (1575) iv., fol. 56, and in a French translation appended
+to Capilupi, Lo stratagema di Carlo IX. (1574), 111-113, and reproduced in
+Mem. de l'estat, Arch, cur., vii. 360.
+
+[1154] "Literis romanis aureis majusculis descriptum, festa fronte
+velatum, ac lemniscatum, et supra limen aedis Sancti Ludovici Romae
+affixum."
+
+[1155] The genuineness of this medal, in spite of the clumsy attempts made
+to discredit it, is established beyond all possible doubt. The Jesuit
+Bonanni, in his "Numismata Pontificum" (2 vols. fol., Rome, 1689), has
+figured and described it as No. 27 of the medals of Gregory XIII. A
+translation of his account and a facsimile of the medal may be seen in the
+Bulletin de la Societe de l'hist. du prot. francais, i. (1852) 240-242. It
+is also admirably represented in the Tresor de Numismatique (Delaroche,
+etc., Paris, 1839), Medailles des papes, plate 15, No. 8. The late
+Alexander Thomson, Esq., of Banchory, Aberdeenshire, purchased at the
+papal mint in the city of Rome, in 1828 or 1829, among other medals for
+which he applied, not less than seven copies of this medal, six of them
+struck off expressly for him from the original die still in possession of
+the mint. See his own account, given in his Memoir by Professor Smeaton,
+and reproduced in the _New York Evangelist_ of October 17, 1872.
+
+[1156] Recueil des lettres missives de Henri IV., i. 36.
+
+[1157] See Pistolesi, Il Museo Vaticano descritto ed illustrato (Roma,
+1838) vol. viii. 97. There are three paintings, of which the first
+represents "the King of France sitting in parliament, and approving and
+ordering that the death of Gaspard Coligny, Grand Admiral of France, and
+declared to be head of the Huguenots, be registered." "The mischance of
+Coligny is delineated in the following picture in a spacious square, among
+many heads of streets (capistrade) and facades of temples. The admiral,
+clothed in the French costume of that period, is carried in the arms of
+several military men; although lifeless (estinto, read rather, _faint_),
+he still preserves in his countenance threatening and terrible looks." The
+third is the massacre of St. Bartholomew's day itself, in which the
+beholder scarcely knows which to admire most, the artistic skill of the
+painter, or his success in bringing into a narrow compass so many of the
+most revolting incidents of the tragedy--the murder of men in the streets,
+the butchery of helpless and unoffending women, the throwing of Coligny's
+remains from the window of his room, etc. Dr. Henry White gives a sketch
+of this painting, taken from De Potter's Lettres de Pie V. Of the fresco
+representing the wounding of Coligny there is an engraving in Pistolesi,
+_ubi supra_, vol. viii. plate 84. By an odd mistake, both the text and the
+index to the plates, make this belong to the reconciliation of Frederick
+Barbarossa and the pontificate of Alexander III.--on what grounds it is
+hard to imagine. The character of the wound of the person borne in the
+arms of his companions, indicated by _the loss of two fingers of his right
+hand_, from which the blood is seen to be dropping, leaves no doubt that
+he is the Admiral Coligny. Unfortunately, Pistolesi's splendid work is
+disfigured by other blunders, or typographical errors, equally gross. In
+describing other paintings of the same Sala Regia (pp. 95, 96), he
+assigns, or is made by the types to assign, various events in the quarrel
+of Barbarossa and Adrian IV. and Alexander III., to the years 1554, 1555,
+1577, etc.
+
+[1158] Ferralz to Charles IX., Rome, Sept. 11, 1572, _apud_ North British
+Review, Oct., 1869, p. 31.
+
+[1159] Prospero Count Arco to the emperor, Rome, Nov. 15, 1572, _ubi
+supra_.
+
+[1160] "Il pontefice, e universalmente tutta d'Italia grandemente se ne
+rallegro, facendo pardonare cotale effetto al Re e alla Reina, che molte
+cose avevano sostenuto di fare in benefizio di quella parte." G. B.
+Adriani, Istoria de' suoi tempi, ii. 378.
+
+[1161] Cuniga to Philip, Sept. 8th, Simancas MSS. Gachard, Bull. de
+l'acad. de Bruxelles, xvi. 249, 250.
+
+[1162] "A. N. S. mi faccia gratia di basciar i piedi in nome mio, col
+quale mi rallegro con le viscere del cuore che sia piaciuto alla Dva. Msa.
+d'incaminar, nel principio del suo pontificato, si felicemente e
+honoratamente le cose di questo regno." Salviati to Card. sec. of State,
+Aug. 24, Mackintosh, iii., App. G., p. 355.
+
+[1163] "Non si risolvo a credere che si fusse fatto tanto a un pezzo."
+Ibid., _ubi supra_.
+
+[1164] "De quoy nous aseurons que en leoures Dieu aveques nous, tant pour
+nostre particulier coment pour le bien qui en reviendre a toute la
+cretiente et au service et honeur et gloyre de Dieu," etc.
+
+[1165] "Et randons par cet ayfect le temognage de nos bonnes et droyctes
+yntantions, cor ne les avons jeames eu aultre que tendant a son honneur,"
+etc. Letter of Catharine de' Medici to Philip II., Aug. 28, 1572, in Musee
+des archives nationales; documents originaux de l'hist. de France, exposes
+dans l'Hotel Soubise (published by the Gen. Directory of the Archives,
+1872), p. 392.
+
+[1166] Philip had evidently no intimation that a massacre was in
+contemplation. When Mr. Motley says (United Netherlands, i. 15): "It is as
+certain that Philip knew beforehand, and testified his approbation of the
+massacre of St. Bartholomew, as that he was the murderer of Orange," the
+statement must be interpreted in accordance with that other statement in
+the same author's earlier work (Rise of the Dutch Republic, ii. 388): "The
+crime was not committed with the connivance of the Spanish government. On
+the contrary, the two courts were at the moment bitterly opposed to each
+other," etc. As the eminent historian can scarcely be supposed to
+contradict himself on so important a point, we must understand him to mean
+that Philip had, indeed, long since instigated Catharine and her son to
+rid themselves of the Huguenot leaders by some form of treachery or other,
+but was quite ignorant of, and unprepared for, the particular means
+adopted by them for compassing the end.
+
+[1167] St. Goard to Charles, Sept. 12th, Bodel Nijenhuis, Supplement to
+Groen van Prinsterer, Archives de la maison d'Orange Nassau, 124-126. St.
+Goard was not deceived by Philip's pious congratulations. "Ce faict," he
+writes to Catharine, a week later (ibid., pp. 126, 127), "a este aussi
+bien pris de se (ce) Roy comme on le peult penser, _pour luy estre tant
+profitable pour ses affaires_; toutesfois, comme il est le prince du monde
+qui scait et faict le plus profession de dissimuler toutes choses, si n'a
+il sceu celler en ceste-cy le plaisir qu'il en a receu, et encores que je
+infere touts ses mouvements procedder du bien que en recepvoient ses
+affaires, lesquelles il voioit pour desplorer sans ce seul remedde, si a
+il faict croire a tout le monde par ces aparens (apparences) que c'estoit
+pour le respect du bon succez que voz Majestez avoient eu en si haultes
+entreprises, tantost louant le filz d'avoir une telle mere, l'aiant si
+bien garde," etc.
+
+[1168] See the Mondoucet correspondence, Compte rendu de la commission
+royale d'histoire, second series, iv. (Brux., 1852), 340-349, pub. by M.
+Emile Gachet, especially the letter of Charles IX. of Aug. 12th, 1572.
+
+[1169] "El dicho embaxador me propuso ... con grande instancia, que sin
+dilacion se devia executar la justicia en Janlis (Genlis) y en los otros
+sus complices que hay estan presos, y en los que se tomassen en Mons."
+Philip to Alva, Sept. 18th. Simancas MSS. Gachard, Particularites inedits
+sur la St. Barthelemy, Bulletin de l'academie royale de Belgique, xvi.
+(1849), 256.
+
+[1170] Charles IX. to Mondoucet, Aug. 31st, Mondoucet correspondence, p.
+349; see also another letter of the same date, p. 348.
+
+[1171] "Estant _l'un plus grands services_ que se puisse faire pour la
+Chrestiente, que de la _prendre et passer tout au fil de l'espee_." St.
+Goard to Charles IX., Sept. 19th, Supp. to Archives de la maison d'Orange
+Nassau, 127.
+
+[1172] Philip to Alva, _ubi supra_.
+
+[1173] Alva to Philip, Oct. 13th, Gachard, Correspondance de Philippe II.
+(Brux., 1848), ii. 287.
+
+[1174] Mondoucet to Charles IX., Aug. 29th, Bull. de l'acad. roy. de Brux.
+
+[1175] Bulletin de l'acad. roy. de Bruxelles, ix. (1842), 561.
+
+[1176] Philip to Alva, _ubi supra_.
+
+[1177] Bulletin of Alva from the report of his agent, the Seigneur de
+Gomicourt, published by M. Gachard, from MSS. of Mons, in Bull. de l'acad.
+de Bruxelles, ix. (1842), 560, etc.
+
+[1178] Despatch of Sept. 14, 1572, Correspondance diplomatique, v, 121.
+
+[1179] Charles IX. to La Mothe Fenelon, Aug. 22, 1572, Corresp. dipl.,
+vii. 322, 323.
+
+[1180] See _ante_, chap, xviii., p. 490.
+
+[1181] "Ni que j'y aye aucune volonte."
+
+[1182] "C'est bien la chose que je deteste le plus."
+
+[1183] Despatch of Aug. 24th, Corresp. diplom., vii. 324, 325.
+
+[1184] Charles IX. to La Mothe Fenelon, Aug. 25, 1572, ibid., 325, 326.
+
+[1185] Charles IX., Aug. 26th and 27th, Corresp. dipl., vii. 331, etc.,
+and a justificatory "Instruction a M. de la Mothe Fenelon."
+
+[1186] Letter of Burleigh, etc., Sept. 9th, to Walsingham, Digges, 247.
+The truth of the statement is called in question by M. Cooper, editor of
+La Mothe Fenelon's Correspondance diplomatique.
+
+[1187] The interview is described both by La Mothe Fenelon (Corresp.
+diplom., v. 122-126), and by the English council, despatch of Sept. 9th to
+Walsingham (Digges, 247-249). Hume has a graphic account, History of
+England, chap. xl.
+
+[1188] This striking, and, certainly, somewhat undiplomatic speech is
+reported by the ambassador himself in his despatches (Corresp. dipl., v.
+127). It looks as if the honest Frenchman was not sorry to let the court
+know some of the severe criticisms that were uttered respecting a crime
+with which he had no sympathy. La Mothe Fenelon tells of the impression,
+proved erroneous by the king's letter, "qu'ilz avoient que ce fut ung acte
+projecte de longtemps, et que vous heussiez accorde avecques le Pape et le
+Roy d'Espaigne de faire servir les nopces de Madame, vostre seur, avec le
+Roy de Navarre, a une telle execution pour y atraper, a la foys, toutz les
+principaulx de la dicte religion assembles." La Mothe Fenelon to Charles,
+Sept. 2, 1572, _ubi supra_, v. 116.
+
+[1189] La Mothe Fenelon endeavored, he says, to persuade the English that
+there were not over five thousand, and that Catharine and Charles were
+sorry that one hundred could not have answered. Corr. diplom., v. 155.
+
+[1190] See the despondent despatch of October 2d, Corresp. diplom., v.,
+155-162.
+
+[1191] La Mothe Fenelon to Catharine, ibid., v. 164.
+
+[1192] Letter of Sept. 26th, Digges, 262.
+
+[1193] See _ante_, chapter xviii., p. 495.
+
+[1194] As well as by the queen mother's assurances respecting the massacre
+in the provinces--too heavy a draft upon the credulity of her royal
+sister. "Pour ce qu'ilz disent que, voyant les meurtres qui ont este
+faictz en plusieurs villes de ce royaume par les Catholiques contre les
+Huguenotz, ils ne se peuvent asseurer de l'intantion et volonte du Roy,
+qu'ilz n'en voyent quelque punission et justice et ses edictz mieux
+observes, _elle cognoistra bientost que ce qui est advenu es autres lieux
+que en ceste ville, a este entierement contre la volonte du Roy_, mon dict
+sieur et filz, lequel a delibere d'en faire faire telle pugnition et y
+establir bientost ung si bon ordre que ung chascun cognoistra quelle a
+este en cest endroit son intantion." Catharine to La Mothe Fenelon, Cor.
+dipl., vii. 377.
+
+[1195] Walsingham to Sir Thomas Smith, Sept. 14th, Digges, 242.
+
+[1196] Tocsain contre les massacreurs, 150.
+
+[1197] It is true that when their sentences were read to them, and
+particularly that portion which branded with infamy their innocent
+children, the courage of the old man of seventy, Briquemault, momentarily
+failed, and he condescended to offer to do great services to the king in
+retaking La Rochelle whose fortifications he had himself begun; and when
+this proposal was rejected, it is said that he made more humiliating
+advances. But the constancy and pious exhortations of his younger
+companion, who sustained his own courage by repeating many of the psalms
+in Latin, recalled Briquemault to himself, and from that moment "he had
+nothing but contempt for death." De Thou (iv. 646), a youth of nineteen,
+who was present in the chapel when the sentence was read, remembered the
+incident well. Cf. Agrippa d'Aubigne, ii. 32 (bk. i., c. 6). Walsingham,
+when he says in his letter of Nov. 1, 1572, that "Cavannes (Cavaignes)
+showed himself void of all magnanimity, etc.," has evidently confused the
+persons. Here is an instance where the later account of an eye-witness--De
+Thou--is entitled to far more credit than the contemporary statement of
+one whose means of obtaining information were not so good.
+
+[1198] "N'ayant regret sinon que vous ayez voulu profaner le jour de sa
+nayssence par ung si fascheus espectacle qu'allastes voir en greve."
+Corresp. diplom. de la Mothe Fenelon, v. 205; Tocsain contre les
+massacreurs, 151, 152; Reveille-Matin, Arch, cur., vii. 206; Walsingham to
+Smith, Nov. 1, 1572, Digges, 278, 279.
+
+[1199] Froude, x. 444, 445.
+
+[1200] "Entre autres choses, il me dist qu'on luy avoit escript de Rome,
+n'avoit que trois semaines ou environ, sur le propos des noces du Roy de
+Navarre en ces propres termes: 'que a ceste heure que tous les oyseaux
+estoient en cage, on les pouvoit prendre tous ensemble.'" M. de Vulcob to
+Charles IX., Presburg, Sept. 26th, _apud_ De Noailles, Henri de Valois et
+la Pologne en 1572 (Paris, 1867), iii., Pieces just., 214.
+
+[1201] See in Kluckholn, Briefe Friedrich des Frommen, ii. 482, a short
+letter of Charles IX. to the elector palatine, Aug. 22, 1572, referring
+him for details to the account which Schomberg would give him verbally;
+and, ibid., ii. 483, 484, the narrative signed by Charles IX. and Brulart,
+secretary of state, in a translation evidently made at the time for the
+elector's use.
+
+[1202] "Toute ma negociation s'en estoit allee en fumee." Schomberg to M.
+de Limoges, Nov. 8th, De Noailles, iii. 300.
+
+[1203] A large number of Schomberg's despatches are inserted in De
+Noailles, iii. 286, etc.
+
+[1204] "Als die sonder zweifel _die welsche bibel_ 'El principe
+Macchiavelli' auch studirt."
+
+[1205] Landgrave William to the Electors of Saxony and Brandenburg,
+Cassel, Sept. 5, 1572; same to Frederick, elector palatine, Sept, 6th. A.
+Kluckholn, Briefe Friedrich des Frommen, ii. 496-498.
+
+[1206] Bp. of Valence to M. Brulart, Konin, Nov. 20th, Colbert MSS. _apud_
+De Noailles, iii. 218.
+
+[1207] Montluc to Charles IX., January 22, 1573, De Noailles, iii. 220.
+Does not the frank suggestion furnish a clue to the method which was
+sometimes practised in other cases?
+
+[1208] Montluc to Brulart, Jan. 20, 1573, De Noailles, iii. 223. The
+worthy bishop, who was certainly at any time more at home in the cabinet
+than in the church, did not intermit his toil or yield to discouragement.
+If we may believe him, he "had not leisure so much as to say his prayers."
+The panegyrists of the massacre, and especially Charpentier, had done him
+good service by their writings, and at one time he greatly desired that
+the learned doctor might be sent to his assistance, particularly as (to
+use his own words) "all the suite of Monsieur de l'Isle and myself do not
+know enough of Latin to admit a deacon to orders, even at Puy in
+Auvergne." _Ubi supra._
+
+[1209] Beza to Thomas Tilius, Sept. 10, 1572, Bulletin, vii. 16.
+
+[1210] Registres de la compagnie, 1er aout, 1572, _apud_ Gaberel, Histoire
+de l'eglise de Geneve, ii. 320.
+
+[1211] Reg. du conseil, 30 aout, 1572; Reg. de la compagnie, Gaberel, ii.
+321.
+
+[1212] Gaberel, ii. 321, 322.
+
+[1213] Ibid., ii. 322.
+
+[1214] Ibid., ii. 307. See also in the Pieces justificatives, pp. 213-217:
+"Liste des refugies de la St. Barthelemy dont les familles existent de nos
+jours a Geneve."
+
+[1215] Gaberel, ii. 325. The author of the really able and learned article
+on the massacre, in the North British Review for October, 1869, conveys an
+altogether unfounded and cruel impression, not only with regard to Beza,
+but respecting his fellow Protestants, in these sentences: "The very men
+whose own brethren had perished in France were not hearty or unanimous in
+execrating the deed. There were Huguenots who thought that their party had
+brought ruin on itself, by provoking its enemies and following the rash
+counsels of ambitious men. This was the opinion of their chief, Theodore
+Beza, himself," etc. The belief of Beza that the French Protestants had
+merited even so severe a chastisement as this at the hands of God, by
+reason of the ambition of some and the unbelief or lack of spirituality of
+others, was a very different thing from failing to execrate the deed with
+heartiness. If the words of Bullinger to Hotman, quoted in support of the
+first sentence ("sunt tamen qui hoc factum et excusare et defendere
+tentant") really referred to Protestants at all, it can only have been to
+an insignificant number who took the position from a love of singularity,
+and who were below contempt. The execration of the deed was pre-eminently
+unanimous and hearty.
+
+[1216] Gaberel, ii. 326.
+
+[1217] Beza to T. Tilius, Dec. 3, 1572, Bulletin de la Soc. de l'hist. du
+prot. fr., vii. 17.
+
+[1218] Gaberel, ii. 330-333.
+
+[1219] Nearly four years later, on the 8th of June, 1576, Monsieur de
+Chandieu received the news of the publication of Henry III.'s edict of
+peace permitting the refugees to return home. All the Protestants who had
+not adopted Switzerland as their future country congregated at Geneva. A
+solemn religious service was held in the church of Saint Pierre, where
+French and Genevese united in that favorite Huguenot psalm (the 118th)--
+
+ La voici l'heureuse journee
+ Que Dieu a faite a plein desir--
+
+the same which the soldiers of Henry IV. set up on the field of Coutras
+(Agrippa d'Aubigne, iii. 53). M. de Chandieu then rendered thanks in
+tender and affectionate terms to all the departments of government,
+exclaiming: "We shall always regard the Church of Geneva as our
+benefactress and our mother; and from all the French reformed churches
+will arise, every Sunday, words of blessing, in remembrance of your
+admirable benefits to us." The next day the refugees started for their
+homes, accompanied, as far as the border, by a great crowd of citizens.
+Gaberel, ii. 337, 338.
+
+[1220] Les ambassadeurs de Charles IX. aux cantons suisses protestants,
+Bulletin, iii. 274-276. A copy was sent by Beza to the consuls of
+Montauban, together with a letter, Oct. 3. 1572. Also Mem. de l'estat
+(Arch. cur., vii. 158-161.)
+
+[1221] Harangue de M. de Bellievre aux Suisses a la diette tenue a Baden,
+Mackintosh, Hist. of England, iii., Appendix L.
+
+[1222] Bellievre to Charles IX., Baden, Dec. 15, 1572, Mackintosh, App. L,
+p. 360. De Thou, iv. (liv. liii.) 642.
+
+[1223] As early as September 3d the superintendent of the mint submitted
+specimens of two kinds of commemorative medals: the one bearing the
+devices, "_Virtus in Rebelles_" and "_Pietas excitavit Justitiam_;" and
+the other, "_Charles IX. dompteur des Rebelles, le 24 aoust 1572_." The
+Mem. de l'estat (Archives cur., vii. 355-357) contain the elaborate
+description furnished by the designer, accompanied with comments by the
+Protestant author. The Tresor de Numismatique, etc. (Paul Delaroche,
+etc.), Med. francaises, pt. 3d, plate 19, Nos. 3, 4, and 5, gives
+facsimiles of _three_ medals, the first two mentioned above, and a third
+on which Charles figures as Hercules armed with sword and torch
+confronting the three-headed Hydra of heresy. The motto is, "Ne ferrum
+temnat, simul ignibus obsto."
+
+[1224] Smith to Walsingham, Digges, 252.
+
+[1225] Leicester to Walsingham, Sept. 11th, Digges, 251.
+
+[1226] Walsingham to Smith, Nov. 1, Digges, 279. The politic Montluc,
+Bishop of Valence, seems to allude to the same alteration in his master:
+"Au diable soyt la cause qui de tant de maux est cause, et qui d'ung bon
+roy et humain, s'il en fust jamais, l'ont contrainct de mectre la main au
+sang, qui est un morceau si friant, que jamais prince n'en tasta qu'il n'y
+voulust revenir." De Noailles, iii. 223, 224.
+
+[1227] Agrippa d'Aubigne, ii. 29, 30.
+
+[1228] Agrippa d'Aubigne, ii. 29 (liv. i., c. 6).
+
+[1229] Letter of May 22, 1571/2, Digges, 193.
+
+[1230] Relation of Sigismondo Cavalli. I follow the resume of Baschet, La
+diplomatie venitienne, 556, 562.
+
+[1231] "Leurs butins et richesses ne leur proffitarent point, non plus
+qu'a plusieurs massacreurs, sacquemens, pillardz et paillards de la feste
+de Sainct-Barthelemy que j'ay cogneu, au moins des principaux, qui ne
+vesquirent guieres longtemps qu'ils ne fussent tuez au siege de la
+Rochelle, et autres guerres qui vindrent empres, et qui furent aussi
+pauvres que devant. Aussi, comme disoient les Espagnolz pillards, '_Que el
+diablo les avia dado, el diablo les avia llevado_.'" OEuvres, i. 277 (Ed.
+of Hist. Soc. of Fr., 1864). I need only refer to the fate of the famous
+assassin who boasted of having killed four hundred men that day with his
+own arm, and who afterward, having embraced a hermit's life, was finally
+hung for the crime of murdering travellers (Agrippa d'Aubigne, ii. 20);
+and to that of Coconnas, put to death for the part he took in the
+conspiracy of which I shall shortly have to speak.
+
+[1232] Memoires de Sully, i. 28, 29.
+
+[1233] See _ante_, p. 530-532.
+
+[1234] Apostolicarum Pii Quinti Epistolarum libri quinque. Letter of March
+26, 1568, p. 73.
+
+[1235] Pii Quinti Epistolae, 111.
+
+[1236] Ibid., 150.
+
+[1237] Ibid., 152. See _ante_, chapter xvi, p. 308.
+
+[1238] "Nullo modo, nullisque de causis, hostibus Dei parcendum est."
+
+[1239] "Catholicae religionis hostes aperte ac libere ad internecionem
+usque oppugnaverit." Ibid., 155.
+
+[1240] "Deletis omnibus," etc. Ibid., 155.
+
+[1241] Ibid., 160, 161.
+
+[1242] Ibid., 166.
+
+[1243] "Nec vero, vano pietatis nomine objecto, te eo usque decipi sinas,
+ut condonandis divinis injuriis falsam tibi misericordiae laudem quaeras:
+nihil est enim ea pietate misericordiaque crudelius, quae in impios et
+ultima supplicia meritos confertur." Ibid., 242.
+
+[1244] "Haereticae pravitatis inquisitores per singulas civitates
+constituere." Ibid., 242.
+
+[1245] Letter of Jan. 29, 1570, ibid., 267.
+
+[1246] Letter of April 23, 1570, ibid., 275.
+
+[1247] Letter to Cardinal Bourbon, Sept. 23, 1570, ibid., 282, 283.
+
+[1248] Letter to Charles IX., January 25, 1572, ibid., 443.
+
+[1249] Saint Pius V. is, I believe, the only pope that has been canonized
+since Saint Celestine V., near the end of the thirteenth century.
+
+[1250] "Qui autem a militibus captivi ducebantur, eos Pius pretio
+redemptos, in jusque sibi vindicatos, atque Avenionem perductos, publico
+supplicio afficiendos _pro ardenti suo religionis studio_ decrevit."
+Gabutius, Vita Pii Quinti, Acta Sanctorum Maii, Sec. 97, p. 642.
+
+[1251] "Id Pius ubi cognovit, de Comite Sanctae Florae conquestus est, quod
+jussa non fecisset, dudum imperantis, _necandos protinus esse haereticos
+omnes quoscumque ille capere potuisset_." Ibid., Sec. 125. It must not be
+forgotten that, in holding these sentiments, Pius V. did not stand alone;
+his predecessors on the pontifical throne were of the same mind. We have
+seen the anger of Paul IV., in 1558, upon learning that Henry II. had
+spared D'Andelot (see _ante_, chapter viii., vol. i., p. 320). Paul was
+for instantaneous execution, and _did not believe a heretic could ever be
+converted_. He told the French ambassador "que c'estoit abus d'estimer que
+un heretique revint jamais; que ce n'estoit que toute dissimulation, et
+que c'estoit un mal ou il ne falloit que le feu, et soubdain!" The last
+expression is a clue to the attitude of the Roman See to heresy under
+every successive occupant of the papal throne. Letter of La Bourdaisiere
+to the constable, Rome, Feb. 25, 1559, MS. Nat. Lib. Paris, Bulletin,
+xxvii. (1878) 105.
+
+[1252] Gabutius, _ubi supra_.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+THE SEQUEL OF THE MASSACRE, TO THE DEATH OF CHARLES THE NINTH.
+
+
+[Sidenote: Widespread terror.]
+
+The blow had been struck by which the Huguenots were to be exterminated.
+If a single adherent of the reformed faith still lived in Paris, he dared
+not show his face. France had, as usual, copied the example of the
+capital, and there were few districts to which the fratricidal plot had
+not extended. Enough blood had been shed, it would seem, to satisfy the
+most sanguinary appetite. After the massacre in which the admiral and all
+the most noted leaders had perished--after the defection of Henry of
+Navarre and his more courageous cousin, it was confidently expected that
+the feeble remnants of the Huguenots, deprived of their head, could easily
+be reduced to submission. The stipulation of Charles the Ninth, when
+yielding a reluctant consent to the infamous project, would be fulfilled:
+not one of the hated sect would remain to reproach him with his crime.
+And, in point of fact, throughout the greater number of the cities of
+France, even where there had been no actual massacre, so widespread was
+the terror, that every Protestant had either fled from the country or
+sought safety in concealment, if he had not actually apostatized from the
+faith.[1253]
+
+[Sidenote: La Rochelle and other cities in Protestant hands.]
+
+But when the storm had spent its first fury, and it became once more
+possible to look around and measure its frightful effects, it was found
+that the devastation was not universal. A few cities held for the
+Huguenots. La Rochelle and Sancerre--the former on the western coast, the
+latter in the centre of France--with Montauban, Nismes, Milhau, Aubenas,
+Privas, and certain other places of minor importance in the south, closed
+their gates, and refused to receive the royal governors sent them from
+Paris.[1254] Not that there were wanting those, even among the
+Protestants, who interposed conscientious scruples, and denied the right
+of resistance to the authority of the king;[1255] but with the vast
+majority the dictates of self-preservation prevailed over the slavish
+doctrine of unquestioning submission. The right to worship God as He
+commands cannot, they argued, be abridged even by the legitimate
+sovereign; and in this case there is even the greatest probability that he
+acts under constraint, or that wily courtiers forge his name, since the
+most contradictory orders emanate ostensibly from him.
+
+[Sidenote: Nismes.]
+
+Such was the attitude assumed by the brave inhabitants of Nismes. Here the
+Roman Catholics had displayed a more charitable disposition than in many
+other places. The "juge mage," on receipt of secret orders to massacre the
+Protestants, instead of complying, gave directions for assembling the
+extraordinary council, consisting of the magistrates and most notable
+citizens. By this council, upon his recommendation, it was unanimously
+resolved to close all the gates of Nismes, with the exception of one. This
+was to be guarded in turn by the Roman Catholics and the Protestants. All
+the citizens were directed to take a common oath that they would assist
+each other without distinction of creed, and maintain order and security,
+in obedience to the king's authority, and according to the provisions of
+his edict of pacification. It was a solemn scene when all those present in
+the great municipal meeting, the vicar-general of the diocese among the
+number, with uplifted hands called upon God to witness their
+engagement.[1256] The oath was well observed. The Viscount of Joyeuse,
+acting as lieutenant-governor of Charles in Languedoc, at first approved
+the compact; for the king's early letters, as we have seen, expressed
+indignation at Coligny's murder, and ascribed it to the personal enmity of
+the Guises. But the viscount took a different view of the matter when the
+monarch, throwing off the mask, himself accepted the responsibility.
+Joyeuse now called on the citizens of Nismes to lay down their arms, to
+expel all the refugees, and to receive a garrison. But the Nismois firmly
+declined the summons, grounding their refusal partly on their duty to
+themselves, partly on the manifest inhumanity of surrendering their
+fellow-citizens to certain butchery. As was true in more than one
+instance, it was the _people_ that, by their decision, saved the rich from
+the inevitable results of their own timid counsels. Most of the judges of
+the royal court of justice, and most of the opulent citizens, advocated a
+surrender of Nismes to Joyeuse, which must have been the prelude to a
+fresh and perhaps indiscriminate massacre.[1257]
+
+[Sidenote: Montauban.]
+
+Scarcely less important to the Protestants of southern France was the
+refuge they found in Montauban. Regnier, the same Huguenot gentleman who
+had himself been rescued from slaughter at Paris by the magnanimity of
+Vezins,[1258] was the instrument of its deliverance. On finding himself
+safe, his first impulse was to hasten to Montauban and urge his brethren
+to adopt instant measures for self-defence. But despair had taken
+possession of the inhabitants. They had heard that the dreaded black
+cavalry of the ferocious Montluc, the men-at-arms of Fontenille, and
+other troops, were on the march against them. Their enemies were already
+reported to be so near the city as Castel-Sarrasin. Not a gate, therefore,
+would the panic-stricken citizens close; not a sword would they draw.
+Nothing was left but for Regnier, with the little band of less than forty
+followers he had gathered, to abandon the devoted place. As he was
+wandering about the country, uncertain whither to betake himself, he
+unexpectedly fell in with the very enemy before whom Montauban was
+quailing. Neither Regnier nor his handful of followers hesitated. It was a
+glorious opportunity for the display of heroism in a good cause, for there
+were ten Roman Catholics to one Protestant. Happily the ground was
+favorable to the display of individual prowess; a river and a tributary
+brook rendered the field so contracted that only a few men could fight
+abreast. "Brethren and comrades," cried Regnier, "whether for life or for
+combat, there is no other road than this." Then putting forward a
+detachment of ten horsemen headed by an experienced leader, when he saw
+the enemy pause to put on their helmets, he seized the opportunity in true
+Huguenot fashion to act as the minister of his followers, and uttered a
+brief prayer, devout and courageous. Next came the charge, such as those
+men of iron determination knew well how to make. The van of the enemy made
+no attempt to resist them; the cavalry in the centre was driven back in
+confusion upon the mounted arquebusiers of the rear. The fight became in a
+few minutes a disgraceful rout, and for a whole league the handful of
+Huguenots continued the pursuit. Of nearly four hundred royalists, eighty
+were killed and fifty captured. When Regnier, returning to Montauban,
+brought the flags of the enemy and a body of prisoners outnumbering his
+own band, the citizens renounced their fears, accepted the omen as a
+pledge of Divine assistance, and cast in their lot with their brethren of
+La Rochelle.[1259]
+
+[Sidenote: La Rochelle the centre of interest.]
+
+For La Rochelle had now become the centre of interest, and Montauban,
+Nismes, and even Sancerre, whose brave and obstinate siege will soon
+occupy us, were for the time almost wholly dismissed from consideration.
+The strongly fortified Protestant town, the only point upon the shores of
+the ocean which during the former civil wars had defied every assault of
+the papal leaders, was now the safe and favorite refuge of the Huguenots,
+and the coveted prey of the enemy. Within a very short time after the
+massacre, a stream of fugitives set in toward La Rochelle. It was not long
+before her hospitable walls sheltered fifty of the Protestant nobles of
+the neighboring provinces, fifty-five ministers, and fifteen hundred
+soldiers, chiefly from Saintonge, Aunis, and Poitou. Among the new-comers
+were not a few who had with difficulty escaped from the bloody scenes at
+Paris.[1260] All were inspired with the same courage, all possessed by the
+same determination to sell their lives as dear as possible; for the
+successive accounts of the cruelties perpetrated in all parts of France
+left no doubt respecting the fate of the Rochellois should they too
+succumb.
+
+[Sidenote: A spurious letter of Catharine de' Medici.]
+
+And there were not wanting circumstances of an alarming nature. At
+Brouage, then a flourishing port some twenty-five miles south of La
+Rochelle, a considerable body of troops had been gathered under Philip
+Strozzi, the chief officer of the French infantry, while a fleet was in
+course of preparation under the well-known Baron de la Garde. This
+occurred previously to the massacre. The force, it was given out, was
+intended for a secret expedition against the Spaniards. While the
+Huguenots of Coligny, forming a junction with the troops of William of
+Orange, should attack Alva in Flanders, Strozzi and La Garde were to make
+a diversion upon the coasts of Spain itself. But the inhabitants of La
+Rochelle gave little credit to this explanation, and even the personal
+assurances of the admiral had not entirely removed their fears that their
+own destruction was intended. It is not strange, therefore, that they
+accepted the Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day as a complete demonstration
+of the correctness of their suspicions, and at once took measures for
+protecting their city against surprise or open assault. Nor is it
+altogether easy to ascertain how far their apprehensions were unfounded.
+There were intelligent and well-informed contemporary writers, who felt no
+doubt that Strozzi was waiting with sealed orders for the coming of the
+fatal twenty-fourth of August. Two months before, they say, there had been
+sent him by Catharine de' Medici a packet which he was strictly forbidden
+to open until that day. It proved to be a letter of instruction couched in
+these words: "Strozzi, I notify you that this day, the twenty-fourth of
+August, the admiral and all the Huguenots who were with him here have been
+slain. Consequently, take diligent measures to make yourself master of La
+Rochelle, and do to the Huguenots who shall fall into your hands the same
+that we have done to those who were here. Take good heed that you fail
+not, insomuch as you fear to displease the king my son, and myself.
+CATHARINE."[1261]
+
+If, as I can but believe, this letter be spurious, none the less may it
+serve to indicate how firmly the persuasion was fixed in the minds of the
+Protestants that insidious designs were cherished against La Rochelle.
+
+[Sidenote: Designs upon the city.]
+
+It was not long before those designs began to develop. Strozzi, to whom
+the inhabitants had sent a deputation, avowedly to obtain explanations
+respecting the circumstances of the massacre, but in reality to discover
+the plans of the government, graciously offered some companies of his
+soldiers for their protection. But the Rochellois with equal politeness
+declined to accept such help. Meanwhile, they set themselves vigorously at
+work, and not only organized the inhabitants and refugees into companies
+for military defence, but repaired and manned the fortifications, and
+introduced a great abundance of provisions and munitions of war into the
+city.[1262] A few days later, letters were received from Charles himself,
+which, while endeavoring to calm the minds of the inhabitants respecting
+recent occurrences, promised them full protection in their religious
+rights, proclaimed the king's unaltered determination to maintain his
+edict, and called upon them to receive with due submission M. de Biron,
+whom he sent them to be their governor. No better choice could have been
+made among the Roman Catholics; for Biron, it was currently reported, so
+far from approving of severity, had himself narrowly escaped being
+involved in the massacre, and had owed his safety mainly to the fact that
+he was in command at the arsenal.
+
+The shrewd Rochellois, however, while they greeted the king's assurances
+with all outward show of credit, were not willing to be duped. They
+listened respectfully to the king's envoys, and professed themselves his
+most devoted subjects; but they begged to be excused from receiving
+Marshal Biron as their governor until the troops of Strozzi should have
+been removed from their dangerous proximity to the city, and until the
+fleet should have set sail from Brouage. Nor, indeed, could Biron himself
+obtain better conditions, when, having sought an interview with the
+deputies of La Rochelle outside of the walls, he entreated them, with
+sincere or well-feigned emotion, to forestall the ruin impending over
+them.[1263] In vain did he humor their claim, dating from regal
+concessions and long prescription, that La Rochelle need receive no
+garrison but of her own municipal militia.[1264] In vain did he offer to
+make his entry with but one or two followers, and promise that, when they
+had duly submitted, he would secure them from injury at the hands of the
+royal troops, and would relieve them of the presence of a fleet. The
+citizens were inflexible. The experience of Castres, where lately the
+credulous inhabitants had inconsiderately admitted a governor sent them
+by the king, and had paid for their folly with their lives, confirmed them
+in the resolution rather to die with sword in hand than to be slaughtered
+like sheep.[1265]
+
+Two months (September and October) passed in fruitless
+negotiations--precious time, which the citizens put to good service in
+preparing for the inevitable struggle. It was not until the eighth of
+November that the first skirmish took place, in which one of two royal
+galleys sent to reconnoitre the situation of La Rochelle was captured and
+brought into harbor by some Huguenot boats that had sailed out intending
+to secure the neighboring Ile de Re for the Protestant cause.[1266]
+
+[Sidenote: Mission of La Noue.]
+
+Meantime the court, reluctant to undertake an enterprise so formidable as
+the regular siege of La Rochelle seemed likely to prove, resorted to
+pacific measures, and resolved to employ for the purpose a person the most
+unlikely to be selected by Roman Catholics. This was none other than the
+famous Francois de la Noue, a Protestant leader not less remarkable for
+generalship than for literary ability, of whose "Political and Military
+Discourses," written during a later captivity, it has been said with
+justice that, in perspicuity, force, and good judgment, they are not
+inferior to the most celebrated commentaries of antiquity.[1267] La Noue
+was with Louis of Nassau in the city of Mons when the news of Admiral
+Coligny's murder, and of the consequent failure of the promised support of
+France, reached him. Mons soon after surrendered to the Duke of Alva, and
+La Noue scarcely knew whither to turn for refuge, when he received from
+his old friend, the Duke of Longueville, Governor of Picardy, a cordial
+invitation to return to France. Not without many misgivings, he visited
+Paris, where, contrary to his expectations, Charles greeted him very
+graciously, and even restored to him the confiscated property of his
+wife's murdered brother, Teligny. Taking advantage of the moment, the
+king now requested La Noue to undertake the task of mediating between the
+government and La Rochelle, and thus preventing the outbreak of a new
+civil war and the effusion of more blood. At first La Noue positively
+declined the appointment; but the king was urgent, and the arguments which
+he adduced coincided with the Huguenot's own impressions of the
+hopelessness of a struggle undertaken by a single city against the united
+forces of the most powerful kingdom of Christendom. It was only after the
+most solemn protestations of Charles, that he would not make use of him as
+an instrument to deceive and ruin his Protestant brethren, that La Noue
+reluctantly consented to accept a commission from which he was more likely
+to reap embarrassment than glory.
+
+[Sidenote: He is badly received by the Rochellois.]
+
+And certainly his first reception by the Rochellois was far from
+flattering. In a conference with the deputies of the city, in the suburban
+village of Tadon[1268]--for La Noue was not permitted to enter the
+walls--the burghers clearly revealed the suspicion with which they viewed
+him. They bluntly told him, after listening to the propositions he brought
+from the king, "that they had come to confer with M. de la Noue, but that
+they did not recognize him in the person before them. The brave warrior so
+closely bound to them in former years, and who had lost an arm in their
+defence, had a different heart, never came to them with vain hopes, nor,
+under the guise of friendship, invited them to conferences destined only
+to betray them."[1269] But, in spite of this somewhat uncourteous
+reception, the well-known and trusted integrity of the great Huguenot
+captain soon broke through the thin crust of coolness, which, after all,
+was rather assumed than really felt. La Noue was suffered to enter the
+city, and at the echevinage, or city hall, was permitted to lay before the
+general assembly, or municipal government, as well as the other citizens,
+the full extent of the king's concessions. Amnesty for the past,
+confirmation of the city's privileges, passports for any who might wish
+to remove to England or Germany, safe return for those whom fear had
+banished, free exercise of the Protestant religion in two quarters of the
+city, with three ministers to be chosen by the people and approved by the
+governor--all this he offered. On the other hand, a new church must be
+built for the Roman Catholics, the strangers who had lately come must
+remove elsewhere, and, of course, the governor must be admitted, although
+the king kindly consented to let them designate any other sufficiently
+distinguished and capable person, if they preferred to do so.[1270]
+
+[Sidenote: The royal proposals rejected.]
+
+Neither the exposition of the terms of the royal clemency, nor the dark
+picture drawn of the ruin overhanging the city, shook the constancy of its
+brave advocates. They replied that they would consent to receive neither
+garrison nor royal governor, and they exhibited to La Noue their charters
+granted by Charles the Fifth, and ratified both by Louis the Eleventh and
+by the reigning monarch. They added, "that, with God's help, they hoped
+not to be caught in their beds as their brethren had been at the Parisian
+matins."[1271] Yet, even after this conference, the Rochellois were so far
+from losing their respect for La Noue, that they made him three
+propositions: either he might remain in La Rochelle as a private citizen;
+or he might assume the military command, as their commander-in-chief; or,
+if he should prefer so to do, he might pass over into England in one of
+their vessels. La Noue went to consult with Marshal Biron and others, and
+shortly returned. With their full concurrence he accepted the military
+command--the unparalleled anomaly being thus exhibited of a general of
+great experience and high reputation voluntarily given by the besiegers to
+the besieged, because of the confidence they entertained that by his
+moderation and pacific inclination he would restrain the excesses of the
+mob and hasten the return of peace.[1272]
+
+[Sidenote: Marshal Biron appears before La Rochelle.]
+
+[Sidenote: Beginning of the fourth religious war.]
+
+And now the siege, which the court had long hesitated to undertake, began
+in earnest. On the fourth of December, Marshal Biron approached La
+Rochelle with seven ensigns of horse and eighteen companies of foot, and
+two larger cannon.[1273] Meantime the most strenuous efforts were put
+forth to collect an adequate besieging force. When milder measures failed
+to secure prompt obedience, recourse was had to threats, and the nobles
+were summoned on pain, in case of disobedience, of losing their
+privileges, and being reduced to the rank of "roturiers." The menace had
+its effect, and in the month of January, 1573, the force under Biron had
+swollen to sixty companies of foot, with not less than thirty-seven large
+cannon--a considerable provision of artillery for that period.[1274]
+
+[Sidenote: Description of La Rochelle.]
+
+The city of La Rochelle occupies the head of a deep bay, stretching in a
+north-easterly direction from the ocean, and serving at present as the
+large and convenient harbor for its extensive commerce. The old town,
+whose origin is lost in the mists of antiquity, covered only a small part
+of the area since inclosed by walls. A narrow peninsula, protected on the
+one side by a sheet of water and on the other by marshes, offered a
+tempting site, and was first occupied. The larger inlet on the west was
+the old, and probably for a long time the only haven; but long before the
+middle of the sixteenth century the action of the tide, which washes in
+great quantities of sand, combining with the gradual deposit of alluvium
+made by the neighboring springs, had converted this inlet into a
+marsh--"les Marais Salans"--intersected by ditches and used only in the
+manufacture of salt. The marsh itself has since been entirely reclaimed.
+The "new" harbor, as the smaller inlet was still called, at the period of
+which I am speaking, was of much inferior capacity, and was included
+within the circuit of the walls.[1275] A chain, extended between the two
+towers guarding its narrow entrance, effectually precluded the passage of
+hostile vessels.
+
+For considerably more than one-half of their circuit, the walls of La
+Rochelle were inaccessible to the land forces; and the deep foss skirting
+them was full of water, except on the north and north-east. The
+fortifications, everywhere formidable, had, therefore, been constructed
+with extraordinary care in these directions; for it was here that the
+brunt of the attack must be borne. With Puritan simplicity and faith, the
+reformed inhabitants of La Rochelle had named the strong work at the
+northwestern angle of the circuit the "Bastion de l'Evangile," or the
+"Bastion of the Gospel." It was appropriately supported on the right by
+the "Cavalier de l'Epitre." Other forts, such as that of Cognes at the
+north-eastern angle, were but little inferior in importance; it was
+evident, however, that upon the ability of the Rochellois to defend the
+Bastion de l'Evangile must depend the salvation of the city.[1276]
+
+[Sidenote: Resoluteness of the Rochellois.]
+
+But the chief strength of the city was to be found in the manly resolution
+of the inhabitants to secure for themselves and their children the right
+to worship God according to the purer faith, or perish in the attempt. An
+incident occurring about this time served to illustrate and to confirm
+their courage. A short distance in advance of the Bastion de l'Evangile
+there stood a solitary windmill, which, on account of its advantageous
+position, the Rochellois were anxious to retain. The captain to whose
+guard it was intrusted, recognizing the ease with which he might be
+surprised and cut off, took the precaution to draw off at dusk the small
+detachment which he had placed there by day, leaving but a single soldier
+to act as sentry. Meantime, Strozzi had determined to capture the mill.
+This he attempted to do, taking advantage of a moonlight night. To the
+two culverines brought to play upon him, the solitary defender could
+answer only with his arquebuse; but so briskly did he fire, and so well
+did he counterfeit the voices of others, that the assailants believed an
+entire company to be present. At last, when he no longer could hold out,
+the soldier only surrendered after stipulating for the life of himself and
+his entire band. Notwithstanding his promise, Strozzi, when once his
+astonishment at the appearance of the single actor who had played so many
+parts had given place to anger at the deceit practised upon him, was in
+favor of hanging the Huguenot for his audacity. But Biron would only
+consent to have him sent to the galleys, a punishment which he escaped by
+finding means to slip away from the hands of the royalists.[1277]
+
+[Sidenote: Their military strength.]
+
+The entire military force of the besieged comprised about thirteen hundred
+regular troops, besides two thousand citizens, well armed and drilled, and
+under competent captains. There was an abundance of powder, of wine,
+biscuit, and other provisions, although of wheat there was but
+little.[1278] Meantime assistance was anxiously expected from England, and
+the courage of the common people, incited by the exhortations of the
+ministers, did not flag, notwithstanding the feebler spirit of the rich
+and the actual desertion of a few leaders.[1279]
+
+The besiegers were not idle. Besides occupying positions north, east, and
+south of the city, which effectually cut off communication from the land
+side, they built forts on opposite sides of the outer harbor, and stranded
+at the entrance a large carack, which was made firm in its position with
+stones and sand. The work, when provided with guns and troops, commanded
+the passage, and was christened "le Fort de l'Aiguille." In vain did the
+Rochellois attempt to destroy or capture it; the carack, while it proved
+unavailing to prevent the entrance of an occasional vessel laden with
+grain or ammunition, remained the most formidable point in the possession
+of the enemy.
+
+[Sidenote: Henry, Duke of Anjou, appointed to conduct the siege.]
+
+In order to give her favorite son a new opportunity to acquire military
+distinction, the queen mother now persuaded Charles to permit the Duke of
+Anjou to conduct the siege. He arrived before La Rochelle about the middle
+of February,[1280] with a brilliant train of princes and nobles, among
+whom were Alencon, Guise, Aumale, and Montluc, besides Henry of Navarre
+and his cousin Conde, who, as they had to sustain the role of good Roman
+Catholics, could scarcely avoid taking part in the campaign against their
+former brethren. In the ordinances soon after published by Anjou, he seems
+to have hoped to weaken the Huguenots by copying their own strictness of
+moral discipline. The very Catholic practice of profane swearing, in which
+his Majesty was so proficient, was prohibited on pain of severe
+punishment; and it was prescribed that a sermon should daily be preached
+in the camp.[1281] A good round oath none the less continued to be
+received by the soldiers, in all doubtful cases, as a sufficient proof of
+loyalty to Mother Church, nor did they cease because of the ordinance from
+ridiculing the idea that such good Christians as they needed preaching,
+which was well enough for unevangelized pagans.[1282]
+
+[Sidenote: The besieged pray and fight.]
+
+In view of the impending peril, the Protestants had recourse, as their
+custom was, to prayer and fasting. The sixteenth and eighteenth of
+February were days of public humiliation. From their knees the Huguenots
+went with redoubled courage to the ramparts. The crisis had at length
+arrived. A series of furious assaults were given, directed principally
+against the northern wall and the Bastion de l'Evangile. It was in one of
+these attacks, on the third of March, that the Duke of Aumale was killed.
+By the besieged the death of so eminent a member of the house of Lorraine
+was interpreted as a signal judgment of God upon the most cruel member of
+a persecuting family--another presage that the sword should never depart
+from the princely stock which had begun the war, until it should be
+altogether destroyed. The royalists, on the other hand, found in it a
+great source of regret; while Catharine, terrified at the danger to which
+her son might be exposed, wrote one of her ill-spelt letters to
+Montpensier, entreating him and the other veterans not to suffer any of
+the princes to go imprudently near the walls.[1283]
+
+[Sidenote: Bravery of the women.]
+
+It does not enter into the plan of this history to detail the progress of
+the siege. Let it suffice to say that the enemy was met at every point and
+repulsed. Not content with simply defending their walls, the Huguenots
+made sorties, in which many of Anjou's followers were slain. Sometimes
+dressing in the uniform of those they had killed or taken prisoners, they
+returned and penetrated into the hostile camp, learned the plans of the
+assailants, and cut off more than one man of note. The presence of women
+among them became an element of strength; for these, surmounting the
+weakness of their sex, did good service in the mines, or, donning armor,
+defended the breach and drove the enemy into the ditch.[1284] It was
+remarked that, as the supply of fresh provisions diminished, the lack was
+in some degree compensated by such an abundance of cockles on the sands as
+had never before been known. If the Protestants regarded this incident as
+a providential interposition in their behalf,[1285] the Roman Catholics
+sought to account for it by supposing that the operations of the siege had
+permitted the fish to multiply undisturbed.[1286] However this might be,
+the women of La Rochelle sallied forth to husband this new resource; but
+their imprudence in straying beyond the range of the guns was rewarded
+with insolent outrage on the part of such of the enemy as were in the
+vicinity. Even this circumstance the Huguenots knew how to turn to
+advantage. Disguising themselves in feminine attire, a troop of Huguenot
+soldiers, a day or two later, issued from the city when the tide was out,
+apparently bent on the same errand. It was not long before the royalists
+undertook to repeat a diversion which seemed to offer little danger to
+them. Scarcely, however, had they approached when the clumsy costume was
+hastily thrown aside, and the assailants discovered too late the trap into
+which they had fallen. Many a hot-headed soldier of Anjou atoned for his
+temerity with his life.[1287]
+
+[Sidenote: La Noue retires. Failure of diplomacy.]
+
+The ordinary wiles of Catharine were not left untried; but she effected
+little or nothing by negotiation. The people were not so easily cajoled
+and duped as their leaders had often been, and would accept no terms
+except such as the court utterly refused to offer--the restoration of the
+privileges conferred by the edict, its confirmation by oath, and the
+interchange of hostages, to be kept in some neutral state in Germany, with
+entire liberty of worship and exemption from royal garrison in and around
+La Rochelle, Montauban, Nismes, and Sancerre.[1288] Even Francois de la
+Noue became impatient at the excessive caution which the Huguenots seemed
+to him to display, and, redeeming the promise he had given the king before
+he took command, retired from the city (on the eleventh of March) when all
+hope of reconciliation had apparently disappeared. With wonderful prudence
+he had managed to forfeit the confidence of neither party. Yet on some
+occasions, it must be admitted, his self-control was sorely tried. For
+example, at one time a minister--not long after deposed from the sacred
+office--so far forgot himself in the heat of angry discussion as to give
+La Noue a sound box upon the ear. Even then the great captain refused to
+order the offender's punishment, and confined himself to sending him,
+under guard, to his wife, with directions to keep him carefully until he
+should recover his reason.[1289]
+
+[Sidenote: English aid miscarries.]
+
+The assistance which La Rochelle had counted upon receiving from England
+never came. Count Montgomery was a skilful negotiator. If he was unable to
+prevail upon Elizabeth to give open countenance to the Huguenots, on
+account of the league recently entered into, which Retz had been specially
+sent by Charles to confirm, he at least succeeded in obtaining a sum of
+forty thousand francs from various English, French, and Flemish
+sympathizers, with which he was permitted, notwithstanding protests from
+Paris, to fit out a fleet. Elizabeth, indeed, so far overcame her scruples
+as to allow a large vessel of her own to follow. But when Montgomery's
+squadron reached the roads of La Rochelle, the fifty-three ships of which
+it was composed, and which carried eighteen hundred or two thousand men,
+were so small and badly-appointed--in short, so inferior in strength to
+the fewer vessels of the king standing off the entrance--that they avoided
+coming to close quarters, stood off to Belle Isle, and finally returned to
+England. Queen Elizabeth, at all times very doubtful respecting the
+propriety of assisting subjects against their monarch, had meantime
+disowned the enterprise as piratical, and expressed the hope the culprits
+might be destroyed. It was not, in this case, merely her customary
+dissimulation. The plundering by some French and Netherland sailors of the
+vessel on which the Earl of Worcester was proceeding, in the queen's name,
+to stand as sponsor at the baptism of Charles's infant daughter, had
+greatly incensed her.[1290] Not, however, that Elizabeth lost any of that
+remarkable interest which she had always taken in Count Montgomery, or
+felt at all inclined to give him up to the French government for his
+breach of the peace. For when, a little later, a demand was made for the
+culprit, she assured the ambassador of Charles that she could swear she
+was ignorant that the count was in her dominions. "But," she added, "were
+he to come, I would answer your master as his father answered my sister,
+Queen Mary, when he said, 'I will not consent to be the hangman of the
+Queen of England.' So his Majesty, the King of France, must excuse me if I
+can no more act as executioner of those of my religion than King Henry
+would discharge a similar office in the case of those that were not of his
+religion."[1291]
+
+[Sidenote: Huguenot successes in the south.]
+
+[Sidenote: Sommieres.]
+
+[Sidenote: Villeneuve.]
+
+In other parts of France it had fared no better with the attempt to crush
+the Huguenots. Montauban and Nismes still held out. Various places in the
+south-east fell into Huguenot hands. The siege of Sommieres, near Nismes,
+by the Roman Catholics, was so obstinate, and the garrison capitulated on
+such favorable terms, that the Protestants were rather elated than
+discouraged. Marshal Damville had assailed it only in order to save his
+credit, and the little town detained him nearly two months,--from the
+eleventh of February to the ninth of April. Every device was employed to
+retard his success. Streams of boiling oil were poured upon the heads of
+the assailants, and red-hot hoops of iron were dexterously tossed over
+their shoulders. In the end the garrison marched out with all the honors
+of war.[1292] The Huguenots surprised Villeneuve, near the Rhone, by
+effecting an entrance, much as they had entered Nismes in 1569, through
+the grated opening by which the waters of a sewer issued from the
+walls.[1293]
+
+[Sidenote: Beginning of the siege of Sancerre.]
+
+But it was Sancerre which, next to La Rochelle, occasioned the court the
+greatest annoyance, both because of its central position[1294] and because
+of its comparative proximity to Paris. Here the Protestants of Berry and
+the adjacent provinces had found a welcome refuge. Citizens and refugees
+refused to admit a royal garrison, and foiled the attempt to capture the
+place by escalade. Treachery was at work, and, as usual, it was most rife
+among the richer class. By their connivance the citadel or castle was
+surprised by the troops sent by the governor of the province, M. de la
+Chastre; but it was retaken on the same day.[1295] Notwithstanding this
+warning, the people of Sancerre took none of the precautions which their
+situation demanded, apparently unable to believe that, when such a city as
+La Rochelle was in revolt, the king would undertake to subdue so small a
+place as Sancerre. There were no stores of provisions, and the buildings
+in proximity to the walls, from which an enemy could incommode the city,
+had not been torn down, when, between the third and ninth of January,
+1573, a force of five thousand foot and five hundred horse, under La
+Chastre, besides many nobles and gentlemen of the vicinage, made its
+appearance before the walls. The inhabitants now discovered their capital
+mistakes, but it was too late to remedy them. Hunger began almost
+immediately to make itself felt, while the places they had neglected to
+destroy or preoccupy proved very convenient to the royalists for the next
+two or three months, during which it was attempted to take Sancerre by
+assault. Yet the direct attack proved a failure, and, on the twentieth of
+March, the siege was changed to a blockade. Forts were erected in the most
+advantageous spots, and a wide trench was dug around the entire
+city.[1296] Sancerre was to be tried by the severe ordeal of hunger; and
+certainly the most frightful among ancient sieges can scarcely be said to
+have surpassed in horror that of this small city.[1297]
+
+[Sidenote: The incipient famine.]
+
+Did not the sufferings of the heroic inhabitants claim our sympathy, we
+might read with entertainment the singular devices they resorted to in
+grappling with a terrible foe whose insidious advances were more difficult
+to oppose than the open assaults of the enemy. For the famine of Sancerre
+boasts of a historian more copious and minute than Josephus or Livy. In
+reading the narrative of the famous Jean de Lery[1298]--the same writer
+to whom we are indebted for an authentic account of Villegagnon's
+unfortunate scheme of American colonization--we seem to be perusing a
+great pathological treatise. Never was physician more watchful of his
+patient's symptoms than Lery with his hand upon the pulse of famishing
+Sancerre. It would almost seem that the restless Huguenot, who united in
+his own person the opposite qualifications of clergyman and soldier,
+desired to make his little work a useful guide in similar circumstances,
+for a portion of it, at least, has been appropriately styled "a cookery
+book for the besieged."[1299]
+
+Early in the siege, not without some qualms, the inhabitants made trial of
+the flesh of a horse accidentally killed. Next an ass, and then the mules,
+of which there was a considerable number, were brought to the shambles.
+The butchers were now ordered to sell this new kind of meat, and a maximum
+price was fixed. For a fortnight the supply of cats held out, after which
+rats and mice became the chief staple of food. Dog-flesh was next
+reluctantly tasted, and found, as our conscientious chronicler observes,
+to be somewhat sweet and insipid.[1300] And so the spring of 1573 passed
+away, and summer came; but no succor arrived for the beleaguered city. On
+the contrary, there came the disheartening tidings from the west that a
+peace had been concluded by the Huguenots of La Rochelle, in which no
+mention was made of Sancerre.
+
+[Sidenote: Losses of the royal army before La Rochelle.]
+
+[Sidenote: Roman Catholic processions.]
+
+So successful had been the defence of the citadel of Protestantism on the
+shores of the ocean, so unexpectedly large the royal losses, that the
+court was only waiting for a decent pretext to abandon the unfortunate
+siege. Pestilence added its victims to those of the sword, and it was
+currently reported that forty thousand of the besiegers were swept away
+by their combined assaults.[1301] A more careful enumeration, however,
+shows that, while the Rochellois, out of thirty-one hundred soldiers, lost
+thirteen hundred, including twenty-eight "pairs," the king, out of a
+little more than forty thousand troops, had lost twenty-two thousand, ten
+thousand of whom died in the breach or in engagements elsewhere. Nor was
+the loss of officers trifling; two hundred had died, including fifty of
+great distinction, and five "maitres de camp."[1302] And, with all this
+expenditure of life, and with the heavy drafts upon the public treasure,
+little or nothing had been accomplished. Meanwhile, in other parts of
+France there existed a scarcity of food amounting almost to a famine; nor
+had the solemn processions to the shrines of the saints--processions for
+the most part rendered contemptible by the irreverent conduct both of the
+clergymen and the laity that took part in them[1303]--averted the wrath of
+heaven. The poor suffered extremely. Selfishness gained such ascendancy in
+some towns, that cruel ruses were adopted to remove the destitute that had
+taken refuge within their walls. It was not strange that the extraordinary
+mortality which soon fell upon the well-to-do burghers was viewed by many
+as a direct punishment sent by the Almighty.[1304]
+
+[Sidenote: Election of Henry of Anjou to the crown of Poland.]
+
+The event which came just in time to free the court from its embarrassment
+was the election of Henry of Anjou to the vacant throne of Poland. We have
+already witnessed the perplexity of Bishop Montluc when the tidings of the
+massacre first reached him.[1305] If he could have denied its reality, he
+would have done so. This being impossible, he was forced to content
+himself with misrepresenting the origin of the slaughter, slandering the
+admiral and the other victims, and circulating the calumnies of
+Charpentier and others who prated about a Huguenot conspiracy. A judicious
+distribution of French gold assisted his own eloquent sophistry; and the
+Duke of Anjou, portrayed as a chivalric prince and one who was not
+ill-affected to religious liberty, was chosen king over his formidable
+rivals. Charles and Catharine were alike delighted. The former could
+scarcely find words to express his joy[1306] at the prospect of being
+freed from the presence of a brother whom he feared, and perhaps hated;
+while the queen mother's gratification was even more intense at the
+peaceful solution of the prophecy of Nostradamus, than at the elevation of
+her favorite son.
+
+[Sidenote: Edict of Pacification, Boulogne, July, 1573.]
+
+The peace between the king and the Rochellois was concluded in June, and
+was formally promulgated in July, 1573, in a royal edict from Boulogne.
+The chief provision was that the Protestants in the cities of La Rochelle,
+Montauban, and Nismes should enjoy entire freedom of public worship, while
+their brethren throughout the kingdom should have liberty of conscience
+and the right to sell their property and remove wherever they might
+choose, whether within or without the realm. Only gentlemen and others
+enjoying high jurisdiction, who had remained constant in their faith, and
+had taken up arms with the three cities, were to be allowed to collect
+their friends to the number of ten to witness their marriages and
+baptisms, according to the custom of the Reformed Church. Even this
+privilege could not be exercised within the distance of two leagues from
+the royal court or from the city of Paris; nor did the edict confer the
+right to preach or celebrate the Lord's Supper.[1307] La Rochelle, Nismes,
+and Montauban gained their point, and were to be exempted from receiving
+garrisons or having citadels built, with the condition that they should
+for two years constantly keep four of their principal citizens at court as
+pledges of their fidelity. All promises of abjuration were declared null
+and void. Amnesty was proclaimed, and, to cap the climax of absurdity, the
+brave Huguenots who had defended their homes for months against Charles
+were solemnly declared to be held the king's "good, loyal, and faithful
+subjects and servants."
+
+[Sidenote: Meagre results of the war.]
+
+The results of the war on the king's side were certainly very meagre. To
+have fought for the greater part of a year with the miserable Huguenots
+that had escaped the massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day, and then to
+conclude the war by such a peace, was certainly ignominious enough for
+Charles and his mother. For the Huguenot party was now, more than ever, a
+recognized power in the state, with three strongholds--one in the west and
+two in the south. Into no one of these could a royal garrison be
+introduced. La Rochelle, in particular, having repulsed every assault of
+the best army that could be brought against it, was acknowledged
+invincible by the exemptions accorded to it in common with Nismes and
+Montauban. It was hardly by such expectations that Charles had been
+prevailed upon to throw down the gage of war to his subjects of the
+reformed faith.
+
+[Sidenote: The siege and famine of Sancerre continue.]
+
+Meanwhile, the inhabitants of Sancerre, not even named in the edict,[1308]
+had been sustained under appalling difficulties by the confident hope of
+assistance from the south. But the hope was long deferred, and they grew
+sick at heart. The prospect was already dark enough, when, on the second
+of June, a Protestant soldier, who had made his way into the city through
+the enemy's lines, brought the depressing announcement that no aid must be
+expected from Languedoc for six weeks. As but little wheat remained in
+Sancerre, the immediate effect of the intelligence was that liberty was
+given to some seventy of the poor to leave the city walls. At the same
+time the daily ration was limited to half a pound of grain. A week later
+it was reduced to one-quarter of a pound. Not long after only a single
+pound was doled out once a week, and by the end of the month the supply
+entirely gave out. The beginning of July reduced the besieged to the
+necessity of tasking their ingenuity to make palatable food of the hides
+of cattle, next of the skins of horses, dogs, and asses. The stock of even
+this unsavory material soon became exhausted; whereupon, not very
+unnaturally, parchment was turned to good account. Manuscripts a good
+century old were eaten with relish. Soaked for a couple of days in water,
+and afterward boiled as much longer, when they became glutinous they were
+fried, like tripe, or prepared with herbs and spices, after the manner of
+a hodge-podge. The writer who is our authority for these culinary details,
+informs us that he had seen the dish devoured with eagerness while the
+original letters written upon the parchment were still legible.[1309] But
+the urgent necessities of their situation did not suffer the half-famished
+inhabitants to stop here. With the proverbial ingenuity of their nation,
+they turned their attention to the parchment on old drums, and subjected
+to the skilful hands of cooks the discarded hoofs, horns, and bones of
+animals, the harness of horses, and even refuse scraps of leather. There
+seemed to be nothing they could not lay under contribution to furnish at
+least a little nutriment.
+
+And yet ghastly hunger little by little tightened her relentless embrace.
+Almost all the children under twelve years of age died. In the universal
+reign of famine there were at last found those who were ready to repeat
+the horrible crime of feeding upon the flesh of their own kindred. It was
+discovered that a husband and wife, with a neighboring crone, had
+endeavored to satisfy the gnawings of hunger by eating a newly dead child.
+Their guilt came speedily to light, and was punished according to the
+severe code of the sixteenth century. The father was sentenced by the
+council to be burned alive; his wife to be strangled and her body
+consigned to the flames; while the corpse of the old woman who had
+instigated the foul deed but had meanwhile died, was ordered to be dug up
+and burned. But the feeling of the great majority of the besieged was far
+removed from that despair which prompts to an inhuman disregard of natural
+decency and affection. Near the close of July a boy of barely ten years,
+as he lay on his death-bed, said to his weeping parents: "Why do you weep
+thus at seeing me die of hunger? I do not ask bread, mother; I know you
+have none. But since God wills that I die thus, we must accept it
+cheerfully. Was not that holy man Lazarus hungry? Have I not so read in
+the Bible?"[1310]
+
+The catastrophe could not much longer be deferred. Within the city speedy
+death stared every man in the face. Permission had, we have seen, been
+accorded to the poor, early in June, to go forth from the city walls; but
+the besieging force had mercilessly driven them back when they attempted
+to gain the open country. Numbers, unwilling to accept a second time the
+fatal hospitality of the city, preferred to remain in their exposed
+situation, miserably dragging out a precarious existence by subsisting
+upon snails, buds of trees and shrubs--even to the very grass of the
+field.
+
+[Sidenote: Sancerre capitulates.]
+
+Happily for Sancerre, the political exigencies of the royal court insured
+for the besieged Protestants, in the inevitable capitulation, more
+favorable terms than they might otherwise have obtained. As early as the
+eighteenth of July, Lery had been informed at a parley, by a former
+acquaintance on the Roman Catholic side, that a general peace had been
+concluded, and that Henry of Anjou had been elected to the throne of
+Poland. This first intimation was discredited by the cautious Protestants,
+not unused to the wiles of the enemy. But when, some twenty days later (on
+the sixth of August), the statement was confirmed, and the Sancerrois
+received the additional assurance that they would be mildly treated, their
+surprise knew no bounds. The terms of surrender were easily arranged. A
+ransom of forty thousand livres was to be exacted from the city. On the
+thirty-first of August, M. de la Chastre made his solemn entry into
+Sancerre, accompanied by a band of Roman Catholic priests chanting a _Te
+Deum_ over his success. As was too frequently the case, the promise of
+immunity to the inhabitants was but poorly kept. Scarcely had two weeks
+passed before the "bailli" Johanneau,[1311] summoned from his house by the
+archers of the prevot, on the plea that M. de la Chastre desired his
+presence, was treacherously murdered on the way to the governor's house.
+Besides assassination, other infractions of the capitulation were
+committed; the gates of the city were burned, the walls dismantled, many
+of the houses torn down. In fact, so unmercifully was Sancerre harried,
+partly by the troops, partly by the peasantry of the neighborhood, and by
+the "bailli" of Berry, that the reformed church of this place seems to
+have been, for the time, completely dispersed.[1312]
+
+Thus ended a siege which had lasted some eight months. The besieged had
+lost only eighty-four men by the direct effects of warfare; but more than
+five hundred persons perished during the last six weeks of sheer
+starvation.[1313]
+
+Sancerre owed its release from the horrors of the siege in great part to
+the same causes that had powerfully contributed to the conclusion of the
+peace. The Polish ambassadors, coming to proffer the crown to the king's
+brother, Henry of Anjou, were about to reach the French court. They were
+already not a little surprised at the discovery that the statements and
+promises made in the king's name by that not over-scrupulous negotiator,
+Montluc, Bishop of Valence, were impudent impostures, fabricated for no
+other purpose than to secure at all hazards the success of the French
+candidate for the Polish throne. To exhibit to them at this critical
+juncture the edifying spectacle of a royal governor of the province of
+Berry engaged in the reduction of a city the only crime of which was its
+desire to enjoy religious liberty--this would have been a dangerous
+venture. Consequently it was no fortuitous coincidence that Sancerre
+capitulated the very day the Polish ambassadors made their appearance.
+
+[Sidenote: Reception of the Polish ambassadors.]
+
+We shall not dwell upon the pomp attending their reception. The banquet
+held in the new palace of the Tuileries was brilliant. In the pageant
+succeeding it was displayed a massive rock of silver, with sixteen nymphs
+in as many niches, personating the provinces of the French kingdom. When,
+after some verses well sung but indifferently composed, these nymphs
+descended from their elevation, and took part in an intricate maze of
+dance, the Polish spectators remarked, in the excess of their admiration,
+that the French ballet was something that could be imitated by none of the
+kings of the earth. "I would rather," dryly adds a contemporary historian,
+"that they had said as much respecting our _armies_."[1314]
+
+[Sidenote: Discontent of the south with the terms of peace.]
+
+The Protestants of Southern France had been included in the Edict of
+Pacification. In fact, Nismes and Montauban were as distinctly referred to
+by name as La Rochelle.[1315] But the terms of peace were not to the taste
+of the enterprising and self-reliant Huguenots of Languedoc and Guyenne.
+They had learned, during the last ten years, to distrust all assurances
+emanating from the court, even when claiming the authority of the king's
+name. Experience had taught them that previous edicts were framed simply
+to secure the destruction of those whom open warfare had failed to
+destroy.[1316] Without, therefore, either definitely accepting or
+rejecting the terms offered them, the Protestants of Nismes applied to
+Marshal Damville, who, at the conclusion of the peace, found himself with
+the royal troops at the hamlet of Milhaud, a league or two from their
+gates,[1317] for a fortnight's suspension of hostilities. The request
+being granted, a truce was established which was extended by successive
+prolongations beyond the beginning of the next year.[1318]
+
+[Sidenote: Assembly of Milhau and Montauban.]
+
+Meantime the Protestants, notified by the Duke of Anjou of the conclusion
+of the peace, sent messengers to his camp requesting that as the matter
+was one vitally affecting the entire Protestant population, they might
+receive permission to meet, under protection of the royal authority, and
+deliberate respecting it. The king's consent having been obtained,
+Protestant deputies from almost all parts of the kingdom came together,
+late in the month of August, 1573, in the city of Milhau-en-Rouergue, from
+which they shortly transferred their sessions to Montauban.
+
+[Sidenote: Military organization of the Huguenots.]
+
+This important assembly resolved to accept no peace unless based upon
+equitable terms and secured by ample guarantees. In view of the
+possibility of the recurrence of war, provision was made for a complete
+military organization of the Huguenot resources in the south of France.
+For this purpose Languedoc was divided into two "generalites" or
+governments--the government of Nismes, or Lower Languedoc, placed under
+command of M. de Saint Romain, and that of Upper Languedoc, with Montauban
+for its chief city, to which the Viscount de Paulin was assigned as
+military chief. Both governments were in turn subdivided into dioceses or
+particular governments, each furnished with a governor and a deliberative
+assembly. It was provided that in Nismes and Montauban respectively a
+council should be convened consisting of deputies from all the dioceses of
+the government, and that to this council, together with the governor,
+should be intrusted the administration of the finances, with authority to
+impose taxes alike upon Protestants and Roman Catholics. The organization,
+it was estimated, could readily place twenty thousand men in the
+field.[1319]
+
+Such were the first attempts to perfect a system of warfare forced upon
+the Huguenots by the treacherous assaults of their enemies--a fatal
+necessity of instituting a state within a state, foreboding nothing but
+ruin to France.
+
+[Sidenote: Petition to the king.]
+
+One of the chief results of the deliberations at Montauban was the
+preparation of a petition to be laid before the king. This paper, which
+has come down to us with the signatures of the viscounts, barons, and
+other adherents of the Huguenot party, was intended to be an expression
+not only of their own individual views, but also of the sentiments of the
+churches they represented.[1320] The language is sharp and incisive, the
+demands are unmistakably bold. For a sufficient justification of their
+recent words and actions, the Huguenots of Guyenne point the monarch to
+his own letter of the twenty-fourth of August, 1572, by which constraint
+was laid upon them to assume arms. They call upon Charles, in accordance
+with the promise contained in that letter, to follow up the traces there
+alleged to have been found regarding the murder of Gaspard de Coligny, to
+appoint impartial judges for this purpose, and to execute exemplary
+justice upon the guilty. Not satisfied with claiming the annulling of all
+judicial proceedings, the destruction of all monuments erected to
+perpetuate the memory of the Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day, and the
+abolition of processions instituted by the parliaments of Paris and
+Toulouse with the same end in view, they call on Charles to make a
+declaration "that justly and for good reasons have 'those of the
+religion' taken arms, resisting and warring in these last troubles, as
+constrained thereto by the violent acts with which they have been assailed
+and driven to distraction." They next demand those concessions which alone
+can make the position of the Protestants in France secure and
+endurable--freedom of worship and church discipline established by
+perpetual provision, irrespective of place or time; the right of honorable
+burial; immunity from taxation for the support of Roman Catholic
+ceremonies; admission to schools and colleges; just regulations as to
+marriage; amnesty; the power to hold civil office, etc. They request
+permission to levy a sum of one hundred and twenty thousand livres among
+themselves to pay off the indebtedness incurred by them in past wars. And
+they go so far as not only to stipulate that the King of France shall
+renounce all leagues he may have contracted with the enemies of his
+Protestant subjects for their destruction, but even to propose that he
+shall conclude a defensive alliance with the Protestant states of Germany,
+Switzerland, England, and Scotland. Meanwhile, in order to prevent the
+recurrence of "a conspiracy and Sicilian Vespers," of which the Huguenots
+would be the victims, they ask to be permitted to hold forever the guard
+of those cities which they now have in their possession, and in addition
+some other cities in each of the provinces of the realm. The Protestant
+cities, it is stipulated, shall retain their walls and munitions, and the
+royal governors shall enter them accompanied only by a small retinue. The
+observance of these articles the Huguenots insist shall be solemnly sworn
+in privy and public council, and by the inhabitants of all places, the
+oath to be renewed every five years.[1321]
+
+Such stout demands did the Protestants of the south and south-west address
+to Charles the Ninth on the first anniversary of the fatal matins of
+Paris. They were, it must be admitted, somewhat different from what might
+have been expected, a brief year before, from the fugitives who made their
+escape from the bloody sword of their enemies. Moreover, the terms laid
+down by the Huguenots of Lower Languedoc and Nismes were conceived in the
+same brave language, and their demands were virtually identical. Huguenot
+troops, paid by the king, to garrison both the cities now in the hands of
+the Protestants, and two cities in each of the sixteen provinces required
+for additional protection; free worship irrespective of place; new
+parliaments in all the provinces, with Protestant judges to administer
+justice to Protestants; liberty to levy tithes for the support of reformed
+churches; punishment of the instigators and perpetrators of the atrocities
+of the Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day, as robbers and disturbers of the
+public peace.[1322] The Tiers Etat of Provence and Dauphiny added to the
+demands of Languedoc and Guyenne an urgent petition in favor of the
+reduction of the onerous imposts under which the country was
+groaning.[1323]
+
+[Sidenote: "Les fronts d'airain."]
+
+[Sidenote: Catharine's bitter reply.]
+
+The bearers of these demands were well able to give them forcible and
+fearless enunciation--Yolet, Philippi, Chavagnac, and others of the men
+known by the expressive designation of "Les fronts d'airain."[1324]
+Assuredly a brow of brass was not out of place, when the Protestant
+deputies, after a delay of some weeks, were reluctantly admitted to an
+audience. Charles the Ninth and his court were at this time at
+Villers-Cotterets, on their way to the eastern frontiers of France,
+accompanying the newly elected King of Poland as he slowly and unwillingly
+journeyed toward the capital of a kingdom regarded by him in the light of
+a detestable place of exile. Contemporary writers inform us that Yolet and
+his companions were in no degree overawed by the splendor of the scene,
+and made no weak abatement in the terms they had been instructed to
+propose. Charles heard them through with patient attention. He was not a
+little astonished at the extent of their demands, we may be certain; but
+he made no comment upon the courageous assertion of Protestant rights. Not
+so with the queen mother. When the deputies had at length finished their
+harangue, Catharine could no longer contain her indignation. "Why," she
+exclaimed with marked bitterness of tone, "if your Conde himself were
+alive and in the heart of the kingdom with twenty thousand horse and fifty
+thousand foot, and held the chief cities in his power, he would not make
+half so great demands!"[1325]
+
+[Sidenote: The Huguenots firm.]
+
+Despite the unwelcome character of the claims of the Huguenot deputies,
+some answer must be given. It was found impossible to induce the envoys to
+modify them. They denied that they had the power, even if they had the
+inclination, to alter the action of those who had sent them. They were
+therefore dismissed with expressions of good-will and the assurance that
+two royal commissioners, the Duc d'Uzes and the Chevalier de Caylus, would
+be sent to treat with the delegates whom the Huguenots might choose.
+Marshal Damville, governor of the province, was to participate in the
+negotiations and to appoint some city in the vicinity of Montauban where
+they might be held. Charles was to hear the result of their conference on
+his return from the German borders. Meanwhile he promised to instruct
+Damville to put an end to all hostilities, provided the Huguenots should
+desist from everything tending to provoke retaliation.[1326] The Tiers
+Etat received the answer to their petition more promptly. It was naturally
+to the effect that a return to the meagre scale of imposts under Louis XI.
+was utterly impracticable, in view of the burdens of the treasury arising
+from recent wars and the pensions yearly payable to various members of the
+royal family.[1327]
+
+[Sidenote: Progress of the court to the borders of France.]
+
+[Sidenote: Decline of the health of Charles IX.]
+
+It would be out of place to describe here at any length the slow progress
+of the French court as it escorted the King of Poland to the borders of
+the realm. To none of the principal personages taking part was it the
+occasion of much satisfaction. Catharine was as reluctant to part from
+Henry, her favorite son, as he was himself averse to exchange the
+pleasures of the Louvre and Saint Germain for the crown of an unruly and
+half-civilized kingdom. As for Charles, the gratification he could not
+conceal at the prospect of being soon freed from the presence of a brother
+whom he both disliked and feared was more than counterbalanced by the
+rapid decline of his own health. The boy of eleven, whom the Venetian
+ambassador had described about the time of his accession to the throne as
+handsome, amiable, and graceful in appearance, quick, vivacious, and
+humane--in short, as possessing every quality from which a great prince
+and a great king might be expected,[1328] was now a man of twenty-three.
+But his constitution, never robust, had gained nothing. The violent
+exercises to which he had been addicted even as a child, and which, though
+princely, had been pronounced dangerous by the ambassador, had been
+incessantly practised--the ball, horsemanship, arms--and bodily
+feebleness, not strength, had been the result. Other excesses had
+contributed to hasten the catastrophe. More than all, if we may believe
+the testimony of those who were familiar with the young monarch's later
+life, the mental and moral experience of the last eighteen months left
+their impress on his physical system. Charles, with the Massacre of St.
+Bartholomew's Day, had lost all the elasticity of youth. Remorse for
+complicity in the crime then perpetrated co-operated with the persuasion
+of the uselessness and complete failure of the attempt to exterminate the
+Huguenots, and the consciousness of having incurred the indelible mark of
+hatred and detestation of an impartial posterity. Even in his sleeping
+hours the curse of the murdered victims pursued him and disturbed his
+rest. Neither by day nor by night could he banish the remembrance of the
+time when blood ran so freely in the streets of Paris.
+
+No attentive observer could doubt that the end was drawing near. The court
+had gone no farther on its way to Lorraine than the little town of
+Vitry-le-Francais, on the river Marne, when Charles fell so seriously ill
+as to be unable to prosecute his journey. As was usual in such cases,
+while the physicians alleged as a sufficient explanation of the attack the
+king's immoderate exercise in the chase and in blowing the trumpet, the
+more suspicious frequenters of the court and the credulous people did not
+hesitate to invent the story that he had been poisoned. But by whom the
+crime had been committed was not settled. Some ascribed it to Catharine,
+others to Henry of Anjou, while others still laid the guilt at the door of
+a person of less note, whose honor the licentious king had offended.[1329]
+
+[Sidenote: Project of an English match renewed.]
+
+Meanwhile, neither the monarch's feeble health, nor the journeying of the
+court, interrupted the prosecution of those diplomatic intrigues from
+which Catharine still looked for valuable results. The election of Henry
+to the Polish crown left but one of her sons upon whom the regal dignity
+had not been conferred. The prophecy of Nostradamus might have its
+complete fulfilment if only a kingdom could be found for Alencon.[1330]
+Otherwise the superstitious queen mother did not doubt that she was fated
+to see not only Charles, but Henry also die, to make place for her
+youngest child on the throne of France. La Mothe Fenelon was therefore
+instructed to put forth every exertion to bring Queen Elizabeth to the
+point of consenting definitely to wed a prince her junior by about a score
+of years. Nor did the negotiations appear altogether hopeless. The suitor
+was, indeed, we have seen, as insignificant in body as he was contemptible
+in intellectual ability. Moreover, the deep traces left on his face by the
+small-pox rendered him sufficiently ungainly. The blemish was said to be
+increasing, instead of diminishing, with his years.[1331] But the French
+courtiers might perhaps have overcome this impediment had Elizabeth been
+able to see it to be her interest to contract such close relations with
+her neighbors across the channel. As it was, an agreement was actually
+made that Alencon should visit England and press his suit in person; but
+when the time arrived for him to cross to Dover, Catharine justified the
+despatch of Marshal de Retz in his place, on the plea of her son's
+illness. The excuse may have contained some truth,[1332] for, albeit
+Francis of Alencon had received the baptismal name of Hercules, he was a
+puny weakling, from whom no labors could ever be expected, but rather a
+dull existence of sloth and imbecility. It was, however, a stretch even of
+diplomatic assurance, for La Mothe Fenelon to suggest to the virgin queen
+of England, as he deliberately reports that he did, that Alencon's malady
+was probably due to his disappointment at Elizabeth's failure to
+reciprocate his honest affection![1333] Possibly his mother and his
+brother the king may about this time have begun to realize how impolitic
+it would be to strengthen overmuch the personal consideration of the young
+prince. Disgusted with the subordinate position assigned him at court, and
+especially with the failure of his efforts to obtain the appointment of
+lieutenant-general of the kingdom, lately held by Henry of Anjou, Alencon
+was even now drifting into an association with the political and religious
+malcontents whose existence could not altogether be ignored. The French
+ambassador at the English court was, however, instructed by no means to
+let the projected marriage drop.[1334]
+
+With the patriots in the Low Countries and with the Protestant princes of
+Germany, the French agents were in even more active conference. In the
+Netherlands there was a possibility of securing some high position for
+Anjou or Alencon, in Germany a chance to divert the imperial crown from
+the Hapsburg to the Valois family, it may reasonably be doubted whether
+the project was ever distinctly entertained, as the historian De Thou
+asserts,[1335] of conferring upon Anjou the command in chief of the
+confederates in Flanders, where it was expected that he would have a well
+equipped fleet at his disposition; for the correspondence of Gaspard de
+Schomberg, the French agent, contains no allusion to the proposal.
+Certainly, however, France was, at least, anxious that England should gain
+no advantage over her in this part of Europe. In fact, nothing but the
+natural fear entertained of the great power and apparently limitless
+resources of Spain deterred both Elizabeth and Charles from attempting to
+secure the sovereignty of the revolted Netherlands.
+
+[Sidenote: Intrigues with the German princes.]
+
+In Germany the field for intrigue was more open. The imperial dignity had
+not yet become purely hereditary. In choosing a new King of the Romans,
+the presumptive heir of the German Empire, the three Protestant Electors,
+if they could but secure the concurrence of one of the four Roman Catholic
+Electors, might have it in their power to correct the mistake committed by
+Frederick the Wise of Saxony, a half-century earlier, in declining the
+crown in favor of Charles of Spain. Schomberg was therefore instructed to
+recommend to the Protestants of Germany and the Low Countries, that one of
+their own number should be placed in the line of succession to the Empire,
+or, if they could find no German Protestant prince sufficiently powerful
+to oppose the Hapsburgs, that the dignity should be offered to the King of
+France. This was a somewhat startling suggestion to emanate from a king
+who, but a brief twelvemonth before had been butchering his Protestant
+subjects by tens of thousands. But the sixteenth century furnishes not a
+few paradoxes equally remarkable. Both Protestants and Roman Catholics
+often found it convenient to have very short memories. In this case,
+however, the proposal to set aside the son of the tolerant Maximilian the
+Second in behalf of a son of Catharine de' Medici met with little favor
+at the hands of one at least of the Protestant leaders. The Landgrave of
+Hesse declared he would have nothing to do with a project intended solely
+to sow divisions in the empire. The French, since the successful issue of
+their intrigues in Poland, he said, had become so arrogant that they
+thought they must be nothing less than masters of the whole world.[1336]
+As for himself, he was quite satisfied with the present emperor, whom he
+prayed that God might long preserve, and then graciously provide them in
+his place with a pious Christian leader who should rule the empire well
+and faithfully.[1337]
+
+[Sidenote: Death of Count Louis of Nassau.]
+
+At Blamont, in the duchy of Lorraine, Catharine took leave of the King of
+Poland. Here the old ally of the Huguenots, Louis of Nassau, accompanied
+by Duke Christopher, younger son of the elector palatine, met them. Louis
+had been unremitting in his efforts to obtain French assistance in the
+desperate struggle in which he and his brother were engaged. If words and
+assurances could be of any worth, he was successful. Catharine promised in
+Charles's name that France would not be behind the German Protestant
+princes in rendering assistance to the Dutch patriots. Louis was so
+cordially received by the queen mother, and especially by Alencon, that he
+departed greatly encouraged with the prospect. Alencon had pressed the
+Dutch patriot's hand, and whispered in his ear: "I now have the
+government, as my brother, the King of Poland formerly had it, and I shall
+devote myself wholly to seconding the efforts of the Prince of
+Orange."[1338] The promised succor from France Nassau never received. Four
+months later (on the fourteenth of April, 1574) the brave young count, in
+company with his friend and comrade, Duke Christopher, lost his life in
+the fatal battle of Mook, on the banks of the Meuse.[1339] Not the Prince
+of Orange nor Holland alone, but the entire Protestant world deplored the
+untimely death of one of the boldest and most unselfish of the champions
+of religion and liberty.
+
+With the details of the journey of Henry of Anjou to take possession of
+his new kingdom, we cannot here concern ourselves. One incident, however,
+naturally connects itself with the fortunes of the French Huguenots.
+
+[Sidenote: Anjou's reception at Heidelberg.]
+
+[Sidenote: Frankness of the elector palatine.]
+
+After traversing Alsace, Henry and his suite presented themselves,
+unwelcome guests, at Heidelberg, capital of the palatinate. The Elector,
+Frederick the Third, and his subjects were, perhaps, equally displeased at
+the arrival of the prime mover in the Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day.
+But, while the people felt some freedom in the expression of their
+disgust, motives of state policy prevented their prince from openly
+displaying his antipathy. However, he neither could nor would conceal the
+lively remembrance in which the events of August, 1572, were still held by
+him. It was on Friday, the eleventh of December, that the French party,
+under the escort of a large body of soldiers sent out to do them honor,
+ascended to the castle, then as now occupying a commanding site
+overlooking the valley of the Neckar.[1340] The King of Poland was
+somewhat surprised when, on entering the portal, instead of the elector,
+the rhinegrave, with two French refugees escaped from the massacre, came
+to escort him to the rooms prepared for his reception. Frederick had
+directed the rhinegrave to request Henry to excuse this apparent
+discourtesy on the ground of his feeble health. It is more probable that
+the true motive was the elector's desire to avoid incurring, by too great
+complaisance, the displeasure of the emperor, who was naturally much
+irritated at the success of the French intrigues in Poland. When, later,
+Frederick made his tardy appearance, it was only to greet Anjou in a brief
+address, reserving for the morrow their more extended conference. On
+Saturday the elector politely conducted his guest through his extensive
+picture gallery. Pausing before one painting the face of which was
+protected from sight, he ordered an attendant to draw aside the curtain.
+To his astonishment, Henry found himself confronted with a life-like
+portrait of Gaspard de Coligny. To the question, "Does your Royal Highness
+recognize the subject?" Henry replied with sufficient composure: "I do; it
+is the late Admiral of France." "Yes," rejoined Frederick, "it is the
+admiral--a man whom I have found, of all the French nobles, the most
+zealous for the glory of the French name; and I am not afraid to assert
+that in him the king and all France have sustained an irreparable loss."
+Elsewhere Henry's attention was directed to a large painting representing
+the very scenes of the massacre, and he was asked whether he could
+distinguish any of the victims. Nor did Frederick confine himself to these
+casual references. In pointed terms he exposed to the young Valois both
+the sin and the mistaken policy of the events of a twelvemonth since. The
+slaughter of the admiral and of so many other innocent men and women had
+not only provoked the Divine retribution, but had diminished not a little
+the reputation and influence of the French with all orders of persons in
+Germany.[1341] Henry listened with commendable patience to the old
+elector's denunciations, alleging by way of excuse that the French court
+had been under the influence of the passions then running high, and
+readily promised great caution and tolerance in future.[1342] He did,
+indeed, strike on his breast and begged Frederick to believe him that
+things had occurred otherwise than had been reported. But his auditor
+dryly remarked that he was fully informed of what had taken place in
+France.[1343] As the elector also took occasion to remind Anjou of sundry
+miserable deaths of notorious persecutors, such as Herod the Great, Herod
+Agrippa, and Maxentius; as he openly ridiculed the absurd suggestion that
+Coligny, a wounded man, with both arms disabled in consequence of
+Maurevel's shot, planned on his bed an attack on the king; and as,
+furthermore, he plainly denounced the shocking immorality of Catharine de'
+Medici's court ladies--it must be confessed that Frederick the Pious, on
+the present occasion, made more of a virtue of frankness than of
+diplomacy.[1344]
+
+On Sunday the French left Heidelberg, with little regret on their own part
+or on that of their hosts. Not to speak of their treatment by the elector,
+which even the historian De Thou regarded as scarcely comporting with the
+dignity with which Henry was invested,[1345] the followers of the Polish
+king met with frequent insults, both in coming and in going. One of them
+relates how he heard cries of "Those dogs from Lorraine! Those Italian
+traitors!" And a German eye-witness of the scenes expresses it as his
+opinion that the French nobles would not have been safe had they not been
+escorted by the palatine troops. The sight of "that notable cut-throat,
+the Duke of Nevers," of the Marshal de Retz, of Captain Du Gast, and "very
+many others of that band of villains who so cruelly butchered the admiral
+and other nobles in Paris," provoked the populace almost beyond endurance.
+The very diamonds and jewels presented by Henry on his departure, to the
+elector and to the ladies of his court, aroused the popular indignation;
+for they were known, as we have already seen, to have constituted a part
+of the plunder of a certain rich Huguenot jeweller, whose shop had been
+robbed at the time of the Parisian matins.[1346] There were not wanting
+those who would even have counselled the worthy elector to follow the
+course indicated by the Spanish grandee, who informed Charles the Fifth
+that he intended to burn his castle to the ground so soon as the
+traitorous Constable de Bourbon had relieved it of his polluting
+presence.[1347]
+
+[Sidenote: Last days of Chancellor de l'Hospital.]
+
+Meantime, within the borders of France all was ferment and disquiet. The
+Roman Catholic element, comprising the overwhelming majority of the
+people, had become split into two factions, both animated by
+inextinguishable hatred, and each resolved to compass the destruction of
+the other. Of conciliatory measures there was a dearth. Among the men of
+wide influence there was no one to take the place of the virtuous Michel
+de l'Hospital. That truly great statesman had died nine months before (on
+the thirteenth of March, 1573). The storm of war at that moment raging
+about La Rochelle was a fit expression of the utter failure of the aged
+chancellor's policy. For a dozen years there had not been a candid and
+sincere effort made to restore tranquillity to France which had not either
+originated with him or received his cordial support. But of the sanguine
+hopes of ultimate success entertained in the earlier stages of his
+political career, he retained little toward its close. The last years of
+his presence at court witnessed an uninterrupted struggle between the
+chancellor and that family of Guise which he had come to regard as the
+prime cause of the misery afflicting the kingdom. More than once the
+latent personal hostility had broken out in an open quarrel between
+L'Hospital and the Cardinal of Lorraine. Two or three exciting scenes of
+recrimination, which the tact of Catharine de' Medici was scarcely able to
+allay, have met us in this history. At length, when the third civil war
+burst forth, L'Hospital, seeing himself altogether powerless to resist the
+more violent counsels then in the ascendant, had received permission to
+retire from the royal court to his estate in the vicinity of
+Etampes.[1348] It was none the less an exile that it wore the appearance
+of a voluntary withdrawal. Birague discharged the real functions of the
+chancellor's office. Finally, after barely escaping a violent death in the
+Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day, the chancellor received, in January,
+1573, the formal order to give up the guardianship of the seals, which for
+more than four years had been only nominally under his control. His
+touching reply to the royal summons is the last production of the
+chancellor's pen that has come down to us. Interposing no obstacle to the
+execution of the king's will, the writer invoked the testimony of the
+queen mother that, in all things pertaining to the royal interests, "he
+had been forgetful rather of his own advantage than of the king's service,
+and had always followed _the great royal road_, turning neither to the
+right hand nor to the left, and giving himself to no private faction."
+"And now," he added, "that my maladies and my age have rendered me useless
+to do you service, just as you have seen the old galleys in the port of
+Marseilles, which, though dismantled, are yet regarded with pleasure, so I
+very humbly beg you to view me both in my present state and my past, which
+shall be an instruction and an example to all your subjects to do you good
+service. God give you grace to choose servants and counsellors more
+competent than I have been, and as affectionate and devoted to your
+service as I am." The closing words were characteristic of the life-long
+advocate of toleration: a recommendation of gentleness and clemency, in
+imitation of a long-suffering and pardoning God.[1349] Two months later
+Michel de l'Hospital ended his eventful life. France could ill afford to
+lose at this juncture a magistrate[1350] so upright--a statesman who "had
+the lilies of France in his heart."[1351]
+
+[Sidenote: The party of the "Politiques."]
+
+[Sidenote: Hotman's Franco-Gallia.]
+
+Since the siege of La Rochelle, or more properly since the day of the
+massacre, a new party had been forming, of those who could not bring
+themselves to approve the cruel acts of the court, or who, for any reason,
+were jealous of the faction now in power. As opposed to the Italian
+counsellors by whom the queen mother had surrounded the throne, it was
+pre-eminently a French or patriotic party. It demanded the expulsion of
+Florentines and of Lorrainers from the kingdom, or at least from the
+management of public affairs. The "Malcontents," or "Politiques," as they
+now began to be called,[1352] demanded a return to the former usages of
+the kingdom, in accordance with which the most important decisions were
+never made without consulting the States General. Two books appearing
+about this time made a deep impression. In an anonymous treatise entitled
+"Franco-Gallia," the authorship of which was speedily traced to the
+eminent jurist Francis Hotman, attention was drawn to the original
+constitution of the kingdom; and the writer showed by irrefragable proofs
+that the regal dignity was not hereditary like a private possession, but
+was a gift of the people, which they could as lawfully transfer from one
+to another, as originally confer. The participation of women in the
+administration of the government was declared to be abhorrent to the
+ideas of the founders of the French monarchy.[1353] In another work
+appearing not long after, the principle was enunciated that an unbounded
+obedience is due to the Almighty alone, while obedience to human
+magistrates is in its very nature subject to limitations and exceptions.
+The supreme authority of kings and other high magistrates was explained to
+be of such a nature "that if they violate the laws, to the observance of
+which they have bound themselves by oath, and become manifest tyrants,
+giving no room for better counsels, then it is lawful for the inferior
+magistrates to make provision both for themselves and for those committed
+to their charge, and oppose the tyrant."[1354] The circumstance is not
+without significance that in a Huguenot work, published early in the
+succeeding year, the guilty king who authorized the butchery of his
+innocent subjects on St. Bartholomew's Day, is for the first time
+distinctly designated as the "tyrant."[1355]
+
+[Sidenote: Treacherous attempt on La Rochelle.]
+
+The lesson that no trust could be reposed in Charles and his court was one
+which the world had learned pretty thoroughly before this; and the events
+at La Rochelle during the month of December, 1573, were well calculated to
+prevent it from being forgotten. The definite peace, made five months
+before, guaranteed the safety of the Protestants, and secured to them the
+free exercise of their religious rights. None the less was a project set
+on foot to introduce a royal garrison into the city by treachery. M. de
+Biron and other captains had been unable to conceal their disgust at the
+abandonment of the siege of La Rochelle, when, as they pretended, it must
+very shortly have fallen into the king's hands, and Biron had been soundly
+berated by Anjou for his pains. He had not, however, given up the notion
+of making himself master of the Huguenot stronghold, and there were others
+in the royal army intent upon the same end. A scheme to smuggle soldiers
+through the gates, in wagons covered with branches of trees, was so freely
+talked of that it reached the citizens' ears, and only augmented their
+suspicions. A more serious plot was set on foot, in accordance with which
+one Jacques du Lyon, Seigneur de Grandfief, prominent in the late defence
+of La Rochelle, was to gain possession of one of the city gates, and admit
+Puigaillard, who, for this purpose, had massed considerable numbers of
+royal soldiers at Nuaille, on the east, and at Saint-Vivien, on the south
+of La Rochelle. Happily the treacherous design was itself betrayed by an
+accomplice. Grandfief was killed while defending himself against those who
+had been sent to arrest him. Several of the supposed leaders[1356] were
+condemned to be broken on the wheel, and the barbarous sentence was
+executed. The papers discovered in the house of Grandfief clearly proved
+that the plot had received the full approval not only of Biron, but of the
+queen mother herself. After inflicting summary vengeance on the miserable
+instruments of perfidy, the Rochellois, therefore, addressed their
+complaints to the French court. It need not surprise us, however, to learn
+that they received in reply letters from Charles not only disowning the
+conspiracy, but assuring them that he heartily detested it, and approved
+the rigorous measures adopted.[1357]
+
+[Sidenote: The Huguenots reassemble at Milhau.]
+
+[Sidenote: They complete their organization.]
+
+Shortly before the discovery of the conspiracy at La Rochelle, the
+Huguenots had again assembled at Milhau-en-Rouergue. The delegates, about
+one hundred in number, represented very fully the gentry and tiers etat of
+the south and south-west of France, while a few names from the central and
+northern provinces indicated the weaker hold gained by Protestantism in
+that portion of the kingdom.[1358] Ostensibly meeting, with the royal
+permission, to receive the report of the commissioners sent to the king,
+and to entertain the terms proposed by Marshal Damville, the Huguenots
+availed themselves of the opportunity to perfect the organization of their
+party which had been sketched in previous political assemblies. Accepting
+it as notorious that, whether in time of peace, or of open war, or of
+truce, the Protestants were in peril from the daily intrigues and assaults
+of their enemies, all tending to their complete ruin, the Huguenot
+assembly renewed and swore to maintain a permanent union comprising all
+their brethren of the same faith not only in France proper, but in the
+papal Comtat Venaissin, the principality of Orange, and other districts
+less closely united to the crown. To this end they determined that the
+"States General," composed of a delegate from the nobility, the tiers
+etat, and the magistracy of each "generalite" or government, should meet
+every six months; while the particular assemblies of the governments
+should be convened at least as often as once in three months. The
+functions of the generals and their councils were expressly limited to the
+military and financial concerns of the Huguenots, with other matters of
+public interest. They were strictly forbidden from intermeddling, under
+any pretext, with the discharge of civil or criminal justice. This last
+function was to be referred to the royal courts, save that, instead of
+appealing to the parliaments, known to be too hostile to Protestantism to
+afford hope of obtaining justice, arbitrators were to be chosen by the
+Protestants among themselves.[1359] Not forgetting their common religious
+bond, the Huguenots at Milhau declared it to be the duty of the ministers
+of God's word and of the consistories to keep watch over criminal and
+dissolute behavior, and denounce it for punishment to the civil
+magistrate. At the same time, in order that the ministers might be the
+better able to devote themselves to their sacred functions, it was
+directed that they be regularly paid from the common funds "without
+making any further use of notices (billettes) or other unworthy and
+illusory methods, as has been done heretofore, to the great scandal of all
+good people." The levy of imposts and the creation of loans were made the
+exclusive right of the particular states, while the administration of the
+funds arising from the royal revenues was to be intrusted to the
+provincial councils.[1360]
+
+Such were the chief features in a plan for organization evidently looking
+to the speedy renewal of the warfare temporarily suspended by virtue of
+the truce.
+
+[Sidenote: The Duke of Alencon.]
+
+While the revelation of the treacherous attempt of the royal party upon La
+Rochelle proved to the Politiques, or Malcontents, the impossibility of
+relying upon the assurances given in the name of Charles the Ninth, the
+resolutions of the Huguenots in Milhau encouraged them in their project to
+remove the present advisers of the king. In the absence of any better
+leader, they looked to the Duke of Alencon as their head. He alone of the
+royal family was guiltless of the Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day. His
+antagonism to Anjou and to his mother was well known. It was even reported
+that he had himself been exposed to serious danger by reason of his avowed
+sympathy with the imprisoned King of Navarre and his cousin of Conde. In
+fact, he was himself little better than a captive at the court of
+Charles--eyed with suspicion, unable to obtain favors for his friends, and
+vainly suing to be appointed to the office of lieutenant-general of the
+kingdom. It was perhaps not strange that, in looking about for a nominal
+head, the Politiques should have settled upon Alencon, who received their
+overtures with undisguised satisfaction and large promises of support. And
+yet there could scarcely have been a more unhappy selection. Of the feeble
+children of Catharine de' Medici, he was undoubtedly the feeblest. He
+possessed neither the courage to undertake nor the fortitude to prosecute
+any really bold enterprise. All who had the misfortune at any time to
+credit his plighted word discovered in their own cases a fresh and pointed
+application of the warning against putting trust in princes. Of him
+Busbec, the emperor's ambassador, gave a life-like delineation when he
+characterized him as "a prince who allowed himself to be ensnared by the
+bad counsels of unskilful ministers, who could not distinguish friends
+from flatterers, nor a great from a good reputation; ready to undertake,
+still more ready to desist; always inconstant, restless, and frivolous;
+always prepared to disturb the best established tranquillity."[1361]
+
+[Sidenote: Glandage plunders the city of Orange.]
+
+Circumstances almost beyond their control seemed now to be forcing the
+Huguenots to make common cause with the Malcontents. Yet there were not
+wanting those who looked upon the alliance as more likely to retard than
+to advance their true interests, and who pointed with convincing force to
+the disastrous results of a similar union in the time of the tumult of
+Amboise, fourteen years before. The cloak of the reformed name, they
+argued, would certainly be assumed by men having no desire for a
+reformation of manners or morals--men whose lives would only dishonor the
+cause with which they were supposed to be identified. Nor was the fear an
+idle one, as was shown by an incident that occurred about this very time.
+The truce which had been made for Languedoc did not extend to the Comtat
+Venaissin. Naturally enough, there were many in the Huguenot ranks who,
+remembering past injuries received at the hands of the troops of the Pope,
+were not unwilling to turn their arms in this direction. But their leader
+was no Huguenot. M. de Glandage, a gentleman of Dauphiny, was a soldier of
+fortune, and would doubtless have fought with as little reluctance against
+the Protestants as for them, had it been to his advantage to enlist under
+the papal standard. As it was otherwise, he made himself master of the
+city of Orange, with the assistance of a party of citizens, and expelled
+Berchon, who, in the name of William the Silent, had strictly abstained
+from acts of hostility against the neighboring pontifical towns. Not so
+with the new governor of Orange. The city became the starting-point for a
+continuous series of incursions. It was not war, but open rapine. The very
+traders were plundered of their wares when they fell into his hands. One
+might have fancied that a mediaeval robber-baron had reappeared on the
+banks of the Rhone. It was true that Glandage, making a virtue of
+bluntness, was wont to say that "there was nothing Huguenot about him but
+the point of his sword." None the less did his violent acts bring
+discredit upon the Huguenots.[1362]
+
+[Sidenote: Montbrun's exploits in Dauphiny.]
+
+Although war had not yet been formally resumed, there were parts of France
+in which it already raged, or rather where peace had never been restored.
+This was the case in particular on both banks of the Rhone, in Dauphiny
+and in Vivarez and the adjoining districts. So rapid had been the
+movements of the veteran Huguenot chief Montbrun, and so successful every
+blow he struck, that terror spread far and wide. Important towns fell into
+his hands; a rich abbey but a few miles from Grenoble was plundered, and
+the silent monks of St. Bruno, in the secluded retreat of the Grande
+Chartreuse--the mother house of their order--were glad to summon troops to
+defend their rich fields from a similar fate.[1363] From Lyons to Avignon
+the Huguenots were stronger than the king's forces.[1364]
+
+[Sidenote: La Rochelle resumes arms. Beginning of the fifth religious
+war.]
+
+But the time for hollow truce and a desultory and irregular warfare was
+rapidly passing away. It was but little more than a month after the
+beginning of the new year before the conflagration again burst forth. The
+Protestants of all parts of the kingdom were at length of one mind; there
+was no room for doubt that any hopes offered them had as their sole
+object to sow discord among the adherents of the reformed faith. If
+anything had been wanting to prove this, it was made clear by the refusal
+of the court to extend the benefits of the Edict of Pacification of July,
+1573, to the whole of France. The limitation of the liberty of worship by
+the provisions of that edict to La Rochelle, Montauban, and Nismes, was
+evidently intended to render the inhabitants of the three strongest
+Huguenot cities selfishly indifferent to the injustice done to their
+brethren in other parts of France. In fact, this result was partially
+effected in the first of the cities named. The Rochellois were at first
+very reluctant to resume hostilities, and began to plead conscientious
+scruples forbidding them to break the compact made with the king. Happily
+their hesitation was removed by Francois de la Noue, who, returning in a
+capacity entirely different from that in which he had last appeared, used
+all the arts of persuasion to induce the Huguenot stronghold by the sea to
+become again the rallying-point for the Protestants of the west. It was
+not difficult to show the citizens, when once they would listen to reason,
+that the starving of Sancerre and numberless murders of adherents of the
+reformed doctrine throughout France were violations of the peace quite
+sufficient to justify its formal abrogation by the injured party. The
+fears dictated by apparent weakness were dispelled by pointing to the
+signal success that had crowned the arms of Montbrun in Dauphiny,[1365]
+while the reluctance of loyal subjects to rise in arms against their
+lawful sovereign, even in order to redress great wrongs, unless authorized
+by the leadership of a prince of the blood, was answered by the assurance
+that they would have a head of much higher rank than any under whose
+protection the Huguenots had heretofore taken the field.[1366] It was
+clear that the personage thus hinted at could be no other than the king's
+brother. No wonder that the Rochellois yielded to La Noue's arguments, for
+almost every Roman Catholic whose hands were clean of the blood shed in
+the massacre applauded the justice of the new uprising.[1367]
+
+[Sidenote: Diplomacy tried in vain.]
+
+The city of La Rochelle began again to repair its shattered walls, and La
+Noue was unanimously appointed to the chief command of the Huguenots in
+Saintonge and the adjacent regions. In the effort next made to prevent the
+great Protestant leader from espousing the side of his brethren, and to
+persuade the city of La Rochelle to rest content with the guarantees
+offered by the edict of 1573, and remain neutral in the coming conflict,
+Catharine and her advisers signally failed. The royal envoys--Biron,
+Strozzi and Pinart--were, indeed, courteously treated by La Noue,
+Frontenay, and Mirambeau, who repeatedly came out to meet them at the
+village of Ernandes. But the Huguenots, in reply to their reiterated
+request, declined absolutely to abate a single important point in their
+demands. They would not hear the suggestion that by the Edict of Boulogne,
+in 1573, previous ordinances had been repealed, but persisted in assuming
+that Charles had always intended that the edict of 1570 should remain in
+force, and, in proof of this, they alleged one of the king's own
+declarations after the massacre. They insisted that the privileges
+accorded to the three privileged cities of La Rochelle, Montauban, and
+Nismes, should be extended to the Protestant nobility throughout the
+kingdom; and when Biron and his companions reluctantly consented that the
+right to have baptism and marriage celebrated in their houses be conceded
+to all Protestant noblemen who enjoyed the right of "haute justice," and
+who had always remained constant in their religious opinions, La Noue
+protested against the restriction to baptism and marriage. "We desire to
+worship God freely," he said, "and you give only a part of what we need
+for the exercise of our religion. What you offer is a snare to catch us
+again and expose us to greater peril than we were ever in before. But we
+would much rather die with arms in our hands than be involved again in
+such disasters."
+
+In vain did the royalists assure them that the king was ready to grant the
+Protestants complete liberty of conscience and protection against their
+enemies, but could not give them what they demanded. In vain did they
+repeat in substance the famous exclamation of Catharine de' Medici, and
+say, among other arguments: "You could make no greater demands if the king
+had nothing ready, and you had a large and powerful army, with all the
+advantages you could desire; whereas, we know full well that you are
+feeble in every direction, and that the king has great forces, as you
+yourselves must be aware." The Huguenots had the Massacre of St.
+Bartholomew's Day on their tongues continually,[1368] and could not be fed
+with fair promises. They required securities. First, Charles must give
+them a city in each province of the kingdom, as a refuge in case they were
+assailed. Next, the maintenance of the promises made to them must be
+guaranteed by the signatures of the princes of the blood and all the chief
+nobles, by governors, by lieutenants-general, and by the gentry of the
+provinces, as well as by the chief inhabitants of the towns. Hostages must
+be interchanged. While the last and most remarkable proposal of all was,
+"that his Majesty, on his part, and the Huguenots, on theirs, should place
+a large sum of money in the hands of some German prince, who should
+promise to employ it in levying and paying a body of reiters to be used
+against that party which should violate the peace." All this was to be
+registered in the various parliaments and in the inferior courts of the
+bailiwicks and senechaussees. The king was further requested to call the
+States General within three months, to give the royal edict of
+pacification their formal sanction.[1369]
+
+We need not be surprised that a conference to which the two parties
+brought views so diametrically opposed, should have proved utterly
+abortive.
+
+[Sidenote: The "Politiques" make an unsuccessful rising.]
+
+It scarcely falls within the province of this history to narrate in detail
+the unsuccessful attempt of the Malcontents, made some weeks before the
+negotiations just described, to overthrow the government, whose bad
+counsels were believed to be the cause of the misery under which France
+was groaning; for the alliance between the Malcontents and the Huguenots
+was only fortuitous and partial. A few words of explanation, however, seem
+to be necessary. The plan contemplated a simultaneous uprising on the
+tenth of March. The day had been selected by La Noue himself, who rightly
+judged that the license and uproar indulged in by the populace up to a
+late hour in the night of "Mardi Gras" (Shrove Tuesday) would greatly
+facilitate the military undertaking.[1370] Alencon and the King of
+Navarre, who, since the massacre immediately succeeding his nuptials, had
+found himself less a guest than a captive at court, were to flee secretly
+to Sedan, where they would find safety under the protection of the Duc de
+Bouillon. For the influence of this great nobleman, together with the
+still more powerful support of the Montmorency family, was given to the
+projected movement. But the timidity and vacillation of Alencon frustrated
+the well-conceived design. Ten days or a fortnight before the set time for
+the escape of the princes from court, Navarre, who, under pretext of
+hunting, had been allowed to leave the royal palace of Saint Germain,
+received a secret visit from M. de Guitry, a gentleman who had succeeded
+in bringing into the vicinity an armed body of the confederates. The
+meeting took place by night, in Navarre's bedchamber, in the little hamlet
+of St. Prix.[1371] On the morrow Guitry found means to confer with M. de
+Thore, Turenne, and La Nocle, "all in despair by reason of Alencon's
+variable moods."[1372] This feeble prince, it would seem, was not even yet
+decided, and trembled at the peril he might run in attempting to reach
+Sedan. Under these circumstances the plan of flight was modified. Guitry
+was instructed to bring his force nearer to St. Germain, and wait for
+Alencon and Navarre, who, under his escort, were to gain Mantes, a little
+farther down the Seine, and perhaps ultimately join the confederates near
+La Rochelle. Guitry waited in vain: Alencon and Navarre never came.
+
+[Sidenote: Flight of the court from St. Germain.]
+
+Either Alencon himself, or La Mole, his favorite, in his name, betrayed
+the project to the queen mother. The discovery of a body of armed men in
+the vicinity, albeit they gave assurance that they meant no injury to the
+king, threw the entire court into consternation. Catharine, reminding
+Charles that her soothsayers had long since warned her of Saint Germain as
+a place that boded no good to her or hers, was among the first to flee,
+leaving the king, who was ill with quartan fever, to follow the next
+day.[1373] The court partook of Catharine's terror, and imitated her
+example. Layman and churchman vied in haste to gain Paris, whence in a few
+days they retreated in a more leisurely manner to the safer refuge of the
+castle of Vincennes. While some hurried by the main road, or picked their
+way along the banks of the Seine, others took to boats as a less dangerous
+means of conveyance. But, among those who joined in the disorderly flight,
+there were some who retained their composure sufficiently to note the
+ludicrous features of the scene. Long after they recalled with undisguised
+amusement the terror-stricken countenances of the new chancellor and of
+three French cardinals, as, mounted on fiery Italian or Spanish steeds,
+they clung with both hands to the saddle-bow, evidently fearing their
+horses even more than the dreaded Huguenot.[1374] It was a very pretty
+farce; but the tragedy was yet to come.
+
+[Sidenote: A second failure.]
+
+[Sidenote: Alencon and Navarre examined.]
+
+A second attempt at flight made by Alencon and Navarre also failed,
+through the treachery of one of those to whom the secret had been
+confided. Alencon and Navarre were now placed under close guard, and
+subjected to long and repeated examinations before a royal commission.
+Alencon was sufficiently craven in his bearing, and did not hesitate by
+his admissions to involve in ruin the minor instruments in the execution
+of the plan. Navarre, in his answers to the interrogatories, displayed a
+courageous frankness. He was not, in truth, content with a simple denial
+of the evil designs attributed to him. On the contrary, he availed himself
+of the opportunity to rehearse the grievances under which he had been
+suffering for nearly two years. Detained at court only to find himself an
+object of suspicion, his ears had been filled with successive rumors of an
+approaching massacre, a second St. Bartholomew's Day, when he would not be
+spared in the general destruction. These rumors had, indeed, been declared
+false by the Duke of Anjou, before the walls of La Rochelle, but that
+prince had failed to keep the promises made before his departure for
+Poland--to commend Navarre to the royal favor. Consequently he had been
+subjected to the indignity of frequently being refused admission to the
+presence of Charles, while seeing La Chastre, and others of those who had
+figured most prominently among the actors in the Parisian matins, freely
+received at the king's rising. He had at length resolved to leave the
+court in company with his cousin of Alencon, partly in order to consult
+his own safety, partly that he might restore order in his estates of Bearn
+and Navarre, now suffering from his protracted absence. When his design
+had come to the queen mother's knowledge, he had explained the motives of
+his action to her, and obtained the promise of her protection.
+Subsequently there had reached him the intelligence that he was to be
+imprisoned with Alencon in the castle of Vincennes; whereupon he had
+renewed the attempt to escape the impending peril. In his second
+examination, in the presence of Catharine de' Medici and his uncle,
+Cardinal Bourbon, Henry reiterated his statements respecting the alarming
+reports that continually reached him. At one time he learned that it was
+decided that, should Margaret of Navarre bear a son, the luckless father
+would be put out of the way, in order that the child might inherit his
+dignities. At another time, in the very chamber of King Charles, the
+opinion had been boldly uttered, that, so long as a single member of the
+house of Bourbon should survive, there would always be war in France. Nor
+had the young prince dared to complain of these menaces.[1375]
+
+It was no part of Catharine de' Medici's plan, at this juncture, to wreak
+her vengeance for the blow that had been aimed at her authority, either
+upon her son or upon her son-in-law. The Montmorencies, also, though
+suspected and long since the objects of jealousy, ultimately escaped with
+little difficulty. It is true that the eldest brother, Marshal Francois de
+Montmorency, was enticed to the court, as was also another marshal, M. de
+Cosse, and that both were thrown into the Bastile. But the younger
+Montmorencies, Thore and Meru, had escaped, while their more energetic
+brother Marshal Damville, was too firmly fixed in the governorship of
+Languedoc, to be removed without a struggle. It was hardly prudent to
+drive so influential a family to extremities. Moreover, Catharine was too
+wise to desire the utter destruction of a clan whose authority might on
+occasion be employed, as it had often been in the past, as a counterpoise
+to the formidable power of the Guises.
+
+[Sidenote: Execution of La Mole and Coconnas.]
+
+Some victims of inferior rank were needed. They were found in the persons
+of Joseph Boniface de la Mole and Hannibal, Count de Coconnas, who, with
+one M. de Tourtray, expiated their error and that of their superiors, on
+the Place de Greve. The cruel procedure known as the administration of
+justice in the sixteenth century has no more striking illustration than in
+the barbarous torture, including the terrible trial by water, inflicted
+upon these wretched men. By such means it was not difficult to extort
+admissions which the prisoner was likely to retract at a subsequent time.
+Consequently it is not quite clear, even with the full record before us,
+how far La Mole and Coconnas were really implicated. As for the sufferers
+themselves, there was little about them to call forth our special
+sympathy. La Mole, of handsome appearance, but of cowardly disposition,
+was a firm believer in the magic that passed current in his day, and was
+questioned on the rack respecting the object of a waxen figure found among
+his effects. He admitted he had employed it for sorcery, to advance his
+suit with a lady whose love he sought. Coconnas, an Italian, instead of
+inviting contempt for his poltroonery, inspires aversion for his crimes.
+No assassin had distinguished himself more at the Massacre of St.
+Bartholomew's Day. We are inclined to believe the contemporary chronicler,
+who states that Charles the Ninth himself averred that he had never liked
+Coconnas since hearing the latter's sanguinary boast that he had redeemed
+as many as thirty Huguenots from the hands of the populace, only that he
+might induce them to abjure their religion, under promise of life, and
+afterward enjoy the satisfaction of murdering them by inches under his
+dagger.[1376]
+
+Had Coconnas and La Mole been persons more entitled to our respect, we
+might have pitied their misfortune in falling into the hands of a royal
+commission with whom the evidence of the guilt of the prisoners was
+apparently of less weight than the desire to gratify the court by their
+condemnation. The first president of parliament, Christopher de Thou,
+again headed the commission. The same pliant tool of despotism who had
+signed the death-warrant of Prince Louis of Conde, just before the sudden
+close of the brief reign of Francis the Second, and had congratulated
+Charles the Ninth, twelve years later, in the name of the judiciary of the
+kingdom, on the "piety" he had displayed in butchering his unoffending
+subjects, again obeyed with docility the instructions of his superiors,
+and suppressed those more generous sentiments, which, if we may credit his
+son's account, he secretly entertained.
+
+[Sidenote: Conde retires to Germany.]
+
+Meantime the arrests and judicial proceedings at the capital did not delay
+the military enterprise in which the Huguenots and Malcontents were alike
+embarked. More fortunate than his cousin of Navarre, the Prince of Conde,
+chancing to be in Picardy at the outbreak of the pretended conspiracy of
+St. Germain, took Thore's advice and fled out of the kingdom to
+Strasbourg.[1377] Himself free from the dangers encompassing his
+confederates in France, he was able to assist them materially by
+addressing personal solicitations to the German princes, and by
+superintending the levy of auxiliary troops.
+
+[Sidenote: Reasons for the success of the Huguenots in face of great
+difficulties.]
+
+The Huguenots were entering in good earnest upon the fifth religious war,
+and used their successes with such moderation as to conciliate even
+hostile populations. Their enemies, judging only from superficial
+indications, might wonder at their strange recuperative energies.
+Catharine might exclaim, in amazement at their progress and presumption,
+that "the Huguenots were like cats, for, in falling, they always alighted
+on their feet."[1378] But those who looked into the matter more closely
+saw that this was no mere accident. A contemporary writer, who is also a
+declared antagonist, praises their prudence and good conduct at the
+present juncture. "We must not be astonished," he remarks, "if in a short
+time the Protestants carry through such great repairs and so difficult to
+be believed. No sooner have they set foot in a place than they consider
+its position and deliberate as to what can be done to render it strong, or
+at least tenable. In all diligence they execute their decisions and
+enterprises, however great and difficult they may be, by the good order
+they practise and by a prompt obedience to the commands given them. So
+that I confess that they surpass us in prudence and conduct. Moreover, so
+soon as they are in a place, they appoint persons in whom they have the
+greatest confidence, to collect the king's revenues, as well as the income
+of the ecclesiastics and of those bearing arms against them, without
+regard for any save the gentilhommes. Their receipts are faithfully
+applied to the benefit of their cause, and they know how to employ these
+sums so well, that with little money they carry on great enterprises. So
+far as possible they relieve the poor husbandmen. In this they conform to
+the fashion of the Indians, who, in time of war, do not injure the
+laborers, their families, their beasts of burden, and the implements used
+in cultivating the earth, but abstain from burning their houses and
+villages, and leave them in peace, deeming the tillers of the ground to be
+ministers of the common weal and the nursing fathers of the other
+estates.[1379] ... If necessity constrain them to make use of the
+husbandmen, they bring them to it as freely and graciously as possible,
+more by fair words than by force, employing caresses, and meantime
+protecting their cattle, their harvests, and all their property. When
+marching through the country, without indulging in insolence, abusive
+language, or plunder, they eat what they find in the houses, and keep
+their soldiers under good control. They instantly establish in the places
+they hold a council of the most capable and experienced persons.... This
+they convene daily and for so long a time as their affairs demand, and
+here they listen to the complaints made to them, whether by word of mouth
+or by written petition, and answer as well as they can to the satisfaction
+of the plaintiffs."[1380]
+
+[Sidenote: Montgomery lands in Normandy.]
+
+[Sidenote: He is forced to surrender and is taken prisoner.]
+
+About the same time that Conde was leaving France for Germany, another
+Huguenot leader was entering it from the opposite quarter. Count
+Montgomery, who from England had come to the island of Jersey, suddenly
+made his appearance in western Normandy. In this province the Huguenots
+had lately made themselves masters of the important town of Saint Lo, as
+well as of Domfront on the borders of the province of Maine.[1381] To
+these gains Montgomery soon added Carentan, an important point on the
+north, which he took care to provision. He seemed likely, indeed, to bring
+all this extensive territory under the power of the Protestants. His
+brilliant career was, however, destined to be very brief. The royal forces
+sent against him under Matignon were strong, his own troops were few.
+From Saint Lo, where he was besieged, he succeeded by a bold dash in
+escaping with a small company of horse; but at Domfront, whither he betook
+himself in hope of receiving reinforcements from the south, his manly
+defence availed nothing. Against an army of four thousand foot and one
+thousand horse, besides a large number of Roman Catholic gentlemen serving
+at their own charges, the little band of not over ninety arquebusiers and
+fifty horse could offer no protracted resistance. Domfront, strong in
+itself, was commanded by neighboring heights, and the walls, through long
+neglect, had become so weak that they crumbled and fell at the very first
+cannonade. Montgomery, deserted by some of his soldiers and enfeebled by
+the loss of others, was compelled to surrender to the besieging army. The
+story was current that he had received a pledge of life and liberty at the
+hands of Matignon.[1382] But Agrippa d'Aubigne is undoubtedly correct in
+declaring that the report was a mistaken one, and that Montgomery barely
+received the assurance that he would be placed in the hands of the king
+alone. "There have been only too many acts of perfidy in France, without
+the invention of others," says this historian. "If there were any
+infractions of the capitulation, they were in the case of some other
+gentlemen and soldiers, who were maltreated or slain."[1383]
+
+[Sidenote: Delight of Catharine de' Medici.]
+
+There was one person to whom the capture of Count Montgomery was
+peculiarly gratifying. Catharine de' Medici had never forgotten the
+murderous wound Montgomery's lance had inflicted upon her husband in the
+rough tournament held in honor of Isabella's nuptials. True, the count had
+entered the lists with Henry only by the king's express command, and the
+fatal effects of the blow that shattered Henry's visor and drove the
+splintered stock into his eye, were due to no malicious intent.
+Nevertheless, Montgomery was never sincerely forgiven; and when the slayer
+of the father was captured fighting against the son, Catharine resolved
+that no considerations of pity should prevent his expiating his unintended
+crime. Nor was the Roman Catholic party loth to see summary punishment
+inflicted upon Montgomery in revenge for the blow he had struck the
+"noblesse" of Bearn and the frightful slaughter of their partisans he had
+authorized, five years before, during the third civil war, at the storming
+of Orthez.[1384] On the other hand, the Parisian populace was excited by
+the revival of the false rumor already referred to, that Count Montgomery,
+glorying in the mischance whereby France was robbed of her king, had
+substituted for his ancestral coat of arms a novel escutcheon of his own
+device, whereon was figured a broken lance.[1385] It need not surprise us,
+therefore, that though guiltless of any crime of which the law of even
+that cruel age ordinarily took cognizance, the Huguenot leader, after
+being placed on the rack in the vain attempt to obtain from him admissions
+criminating his associates, was condemned, as a traitor found in arms
+against his king, to be beheaded and quartered, on the Place de Greve, on
+the twenty-sixth of June, 1574.
+
+[Sidenote: Execution of Montgomery on the Place de Greve.]
+
+Both enemies and friends unite in testifying to the fortitude with which
+Count Montgomery underwent the execution of his severe sentence. Roman
+Catholic writers, indeed, hint that he may have received profit from the
+ministrations of five or six theological doctors, to whom they represent
+him as gladly listening.[1386] But Protestant historians give us a
+circumstantial account that seems better entitled to credit, and leaves no
+room for doubt that Gabriel de Montgomery died constant to the faith which
+he had embraced in his retirement, after the death of Henry the Second. He
+refused to confess to the famous Vigor, Archbishop of Narbonne, and would
+neither kiss the crucifix offered to him by the priest who rode with him
+in the tumbrel, nor listen to his words, nor even look at him. To a Gray
+Friar, who attempted to convince him that he was in error and had been
+deceived, he replied: "How deceived? If I have been deceived, it was by
+members of your own order; for the first person that ever gave me a Bible
+in French, and bade me read it, was a Franciscan like yourself. And
+therein I learned the religion that I now hold, which is the only true
+religion. Having lived in it ever since, I wish, by the grace of God, to
+die in it to-day." On the scaffold, after a touching address to the
+spectators, he recited in a loud voice the Apostles' Creed, in the
+confession of which he protested that he died, and then, "having made his
+prayer to God after the manner of those of the (reformed) religion,"[1387]
+manfully offered his neck to the executioner's sword.[1388]
+
+But the scene just described belongs strictly to the reign of the next
+French monarch. The capture of Montgomery at Domfront had been followed,
+within three days, by the death of the young king against whom the count
+had been fighting.
+
+[Sidenote: Last days of Charles IX.]
+
+It is difficult to determine the exact proportions in which physical
+weakness and remorse for the past entered as ingredients of the malady
+that cut short the life of Charles the Ninth. It may not be prudent to
+accept implicitly all the stories told by contemporaries respecting the
+wretched fancies to which the king became a victim. But it would be
+carrying historical scepticism to the very verge of absurdity to reject
+the whole series of reports that come down to us respecting the strange
+hallucinations of Charles during the last months of his life. De Thou,
+perhaps the most candid and dispassionate historian of the period, has
+left the statement on record that, ever since St. Bartholomew's Day,
+Charles, who at no time slept well, used frequently to have his rest
+broken by the sudden recollection of its dreadful scenes. To lull him to
+repose, his attendants had no resource but singing, the king being
+passionately fond of music and of poetry.[1389] Agrippa d'Aubigne
+corroborates the statement, adding, on the authority of high noblemen who
+had been present, that the king would awake trembling and groaning, and
+that his agitation was sure to find expression in frightful imprecations
+and words expressive of utter despair.[1390]
+
+With the growing certainty of his approaching death, the mental distress
+of Charles proportionately increased. His old Huguenot nurse, to whom he
+talked without reserve, was the witness of the startling conflict through
+which he was passing in his last hours. While sitting near his bedside on
+one occasion, she was suddenly recalled from a revery by the sound of the
+sighs and sobs of the royal patient. To her solicitous questions as to the
+cause of his distress, she received the most piteous exclamations,
+interrupted by weeping: "Ah, my nurse, my friend, how much blood! how many
+murders! Ah, what wicked counsels have I had! My God, have pity upon me
+and pardon me! I know not where I am; so perplexed and agitated have they
+made me. What will become of me? What shall I do? I am lost; I know it
+full well." The pious attendant's earnest exhortations and consoling words
+had little effect in dispelling the gloom that had settled on the
+termination of a life so auspiciously begun. She might pray, in his
+hearing, that the blood of the murdered Huguenots might be on the heads of
+those who gave the young king such treacherous advice. She might encourage
+and urge him to rest in the confidence that, in view of his penitence, God
+would not impute to him his crime, but cover him with the mantle of
+Christ's righteousness.[1391] Her words had little power to dissipate his
+extreme despondency.
+
+[Sidenote: Distress of his young queen.]
+
+For months the life of Charles had been despaired of. Now he was visibly
+dying. The news of the capture of Montgomery, which his mother came to
+announce to him with a delight she neither was able nor anxious to hide,
+brought him no pleasure. He had, he said, ceased to care for these things.
+Meanwhile, Catharine, if not altogether devoid of natural affection--if
+not experiencing unmingled satisfaction at the prospect that the sceptre
+was likely to pass into the hands of her favorite son, the King of
+Poland--at least took care to provide for the contingency of Charles's
+speedy death, by obtaining, on the twenty-ninth of May, letters to the
+governors of provinces, and the next day the more authoritative letters
+patent conferring upon her the regency until the return of Henry from
+Poland.[1392] More sincere in her sorrow, the young Queen Elizabeth,
+Charles's wife, endeavored to ward off the stroke of Heaven by solemn
+processions. For nine successive days, laying aside all tokens of her
+royal rank, simply clad, and with uncovered face, she walked barefooted,
+and accompanied by a large number of poor boys and girls, from the wood of
+Vincennes, where the court still lingered, to the city of Paris. After
+devoutly praying for the king's recovery at the Sainte-Chapelle and at the
+shrine of Notre Dame, she returned from her pilgrimage in the same painful
+and humble manner, her ladies and the officers of her court following at a
+respectful distance.[1393]
+
+Upon Sorbin, the king's confessor, devolved the duty of administering to
+Charles the last rites of religion--Sorbin, who was accustomed to speak of
+the perfidy and cruelty of the massacre as true magnanimity and
+gentleness. It has been well remarked that, in all the dark drama of guilt
+and retribution upon which the curtain was about to fall, no part is more
+tragic than the scene in which the last words preparing the soul for
+judgment were spoken by such a confessor as Sorbin to such a penitent as
+Charles.[1394] Under such spiritual guidance the unhappy boy-king may
+possibly have expressed the sentiment which the priest ascribes to him at
+the hour of death: that his greatest regret was that he had not seen the
+Reformation wholly crushed.[1395]
+
+On Sunday, May the thirtieth, 1574, the festival of Pentecost, Charles
+died, late in the afternoon.[1396] Almost his last words had been of
+congratulation that he left no son to inherit the throne, since he knew
+very well that France had need of a man, and that under a child both king
+and kingdom were wretched.[1397]
+
+[Sidenote: Death of Charles.]
+
+The general usage was not violated in the present instance. Charles, like
+a host of prominent princes and statesmen of the sixteenth century, was
+currently reported to have fallen a victim to the poisoner's art, then in
+its prime. Nor did the examination made after his death, though clearly
+proving that the event had a natural cause, suffice to clear away the
+unhappy impression.[1398] The Huguenots had, perhaps, more reason than
+others to regard the circumstances attending it as strange, if not
+miraculous. That the king, whose guilty acquiescence in the murderous
+scheme of Catharine, Anjou, and Guise, had deluged his realm in blood,
+should himself have perished of a malady that caused blood to exude from
+every pore in his body,[1399] was certainly sufficiently singular to
+arrest the attention of the world. The phenomenon has been shown beyond
+all question to have many parallels in the annals of medicine.[1400] But
+the coincidence was so remarkable that we scarcely wonder that, in the
+eyes of many, it partook of a supernatural character.
+
+Thus perished, in the twenty-fourth year of his age, a prince whom fair
+natural endowments seemed to have destined to play a creditable, if not a
+resplendent part in the history of his period; but whom the evil counsels
+and examples of his mother, and the corrupt education which, designedly or
+through an unfortunate accident, she had given him, had so depraved, that
+his morals were regarded with disgust and reprobation by an age by no
+means scrupulously pure.[1401]
+
+[Sidenote: The funeral rites.]
+
+The forty days' funeral rites were performed in honor of the deceased king
+with all the detail of pomp customary on such occasions. For forty days,
+on a bed of cloth of gold, lay in state the life-like effigy of Charles of
+Valois, dressed in crimson and blue satin, and in ermine, with a jewelled
+crown upon its head, and with sceptre and other emblems of royalty at its
+side. For forty days the service of the king's table remained unchanged,
+and the pleasing fiction was maintained that the monarch was yet alive.
+The gentlemen in waiting, the cupbearer, the pantler, the carver, and all
+the retinue of servants who, as in feudal times, appeared at the royal
+meals, discharged each his appointed office with punctilious precision.
+Courses of viands were brought on in regular succession, and as regularly
+removed from the board. A cardinal or prelate blessed the table before the
+empty show of a meal, and rendered thanks at its conclusion. Only at the
+close, by the sad repetition of the De profundis, and other psalms
+appropriate to funeral occasions, did the pageant differ materially from
+many a scene of convivial entertainment in which Charles had taken part.
+When the prescribed term of waiting was at length over, the miserable show
+ended, the effigy was replaced by the bier, funeral decorations took the
+place of festive emblems, and the body of the late king was laid in its
+last resting-place.[1402]
+
+[Sidenote: Had persecution, war, and treachery succeeded?]
+
+The courtiers had already turned their eyes from the dead monarch to the
+successor whose speedy return from Poland all eagerly awaited. Henry the
+Third had already precipitately fled from Cracow, and was on his way to
+assume his ancestral throne. He was to find the kingdom plunged in
+disquiet, a prey to internal discord fostered by foreign princes. Neither
+Huguenot nor Roman Catholic was satisfied. A full half-century from the
+first promulgation of the reformed doctrines by Lefevre d'Etaples found
+the friends of the purer faith more resolute than ever in its assertion,
+despite fire, massacre, and open warfare. No candid beholder could deny
+that the system of persecution had thus far proved an utter failure. It
+remained to be seen whether the new king would choose to repeat a
+dangerous experiment.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1253] Jean de Serres, Commentaria de statu rel. et reipublicae, iv., fol.
+60 _verso_. I have made use, up to 1570, of the first edition of this
+work, published in three volumes in 1571, my copy being one formerly
+belonging to the library of Ludovico Manini, the last doge of Venice. From
+1570 on I refer to the edition of 1575, which comprises a fourth and rarer
+volume, bringing down the history to the close of the reign of Charles. A
+comparison between this edition and the later edition of 1577 brings out
+the interesting circumstance that many Huguenots of little courage, who at
+first apostatized, afterward returned to their old faith. Thus, the
+edition of 1575 reads (iv. 51 _v._): "Vix enim dici possit, quam multi ad
+primum illum impetum a Religione resiluerint, mortis amittendarumque
+facultatum metu, _quorum plerique etiamnum haerent in luto_." The words I
+have italicized are omitted in the edition of 1577, as quoted by Soldan,
+ii. 473.
+
+[1254] Jean de Serres, iv., fol. 61.
+
+[1255] Ib., _ubi supra_.
+
+[1256] Borrel, Histoire de l'eglise reformee de Nimes (Toulouse, 1856),
+pp. 77, 78, from Archives of the Hotel-de-ville.
+
+[1257] J. de Serres, iv., fols. 68-70; Borrel, Hist. de l'egl. ref. de
+Nimes, 78, 79; De Thou, iv. 663.
+
+[1258] See _ante_, chapter xviii., p. 480.
+
+[1259] Agrippa d'Aubigne, Hist. univ., ii. 38 (liv. i., c. 8). Neither De
+Thou, iv. (liv. liii.) 659, nor J. de Serres (either in his Commentaria de
+statu rel. et reip., iv. 68, or in his Inventaire general de l'histoire de
+France, Geneve, 1619), makes any allusion to Regnier's combat, while the
+former expressly, and the latter by implication, refer to his agency in
+persuading the inhabitants of Montauban to espouse the Protestant cause in
+arms. I incline to think, nevertheless, that D'Aubigne has neither
+misplaced nor exaggerated a brilliant little affair which was certainly to
+his taste.
+
+[1260] J. de Serres, De statu, etc., iv., fol. 63; De Thou, iv. (liv.
+liii.) 647.
+
+[1261] Reveille-Matin, 200; Eusebii Philadelphi Dialogi (1574), i. 57.
+
+[1262] Arcere, Histoire de la Rochelle, i. 405. The records of the customs
+showed that 30,000 casks of wine were brought in. An ample supply of
+powder was also secured by offering a bonus of ten per cent, to all that
+imported it from abroad.
+
+[1263] Jean de Serres, iv., fol. 65; De Thou, iv. 649.
+
+[1264] "Affirmabant vero haudquaquam se facere contra officium et antiqua
+sua privilegia, per quae illis tribueretur exemptio ab omni praeterquam ex
+sua civitate delecto ab ipsis praesidio, et facultas sese suis armis
+custodiendi." Such was the claim of the Rochellois in answer to Strozzi's
+summons. Jean de Serres, iv. 63.
+
+[1265] Arcere, i. 412.
+
+[1266] Ibid., i. 422; De Thou, iv. (liv. liii.) 654; J. de Serres, iv.,
+fols. 75, 76.
+
+[1267] Delmas, Eglise ref. de la Rochelle, 105, 106. The same author cites
+Henry IV.'s eulogy: "Il etait grand homme de guerre, et plus grand homme
+de bien." See also De Thou's strong expressions, viii. (liv. cii.) 8.
+
+[1268] See the detailed "Carte du Pays d'Aulnis, avec les Isles de Re,
+d'Oleron, et Provinces voisines, dressee en 1756," prefixed to the first
+volume of Arcere, Histoire de la Rochelle.
+
+[1269] Agrippa d'Aubigne, ii. 34, 35 (liv. i., c. 6); De Thou, iv. (liv.
+liii.) 655-656; Jean de Serres, iv., fol. 75; Arcere, i. 427-429.
+
+[1270] Arcere, i. 429, partly on MS. authority.
+
+[1271] Ibid., i. 430.
+
+[1272] The attitude of the Huguenot general had been and yet was one of
+the strangest. That he was able in the end to extricate himself without a
+stain attaching to his honor is still more remarkable. Both king and
+Protestants understood full well that he would counsel nothing which was
+not for the interest of both; and it was, therefore, no violation of his
+duty as envoy of Charles, if, as Jean de Serres informs us, when urging an
+amicable arrangement, he privately advised the Rochellois to admit no one
+into the city in the king's name, before receiving ample provisions for
+their security. Commentarii de statu religionis et reipublicae, iv., fol.
+75.
+
+[1273] Jean de Serres, iv., fol. 76.
+
+[1274] Ibid., iv., fol. 81.
+
+[1275] See the very clear account in the "Description chorographique de
+l'Aulnis," by Arcere, prefixed to his history of La Rochelle, i. 97, etc.
+
+[1276] Compare Arcere, i. 418, etc., and, especially, his plan of the city
+in 1573. See also Jean de Serres, iv., fol. 83; De Thou, iv. (liv. lv.)
+759-761; D'Aubigne, ii. 36, 37 (liv. i., c. 7).
+
+[1277] De Thou, iv. (liv. lv.) 765; Arcere, i. 436.
+
+[1278] De Thou, iv. 761; Jean de Serres, iv., fol. 68.
+
+[1279] _E.g._, of Virolet, Jean de Serres, iv., fol. 76.
+
+[1280] Feb. 15th, according to J. de Serres, iv., fol. 83. Arcere (i. 452)
+says Feb. 12th.
+
+[1281] Arcere, i. 458.
+
+[1282] So, at least, Brantome expressed himself. He was with the army
+before La Rochelle.
+
+[1283] Letter of Catharine, March 17th, Arcere, i. 466.
+
+[1284] De Thou, iv. (liv. lvi.) 789; Arcere, i. 489, 490; Jean de Serres,
+iv., fol. 99, etc.
+
+[1285] The poor, according to Jean de Serres, came to use the shell-fish
+in lieu of bread. If, as he assures us on the authority of men deserving
+credit, the supply ceased almost on that precise day upon which the royal
+army left the neighborhood, after the conclusion of peace, the reformed
+may be pardoned for regarding the fact as a miracle little inferior to
+that of the manna which never failed the ancient Israelites until they set
+foot in Canaan. Commentarii de statu religionis et reipublicae, iv. 104
+_verso_. "Dont lez reformez ont encores les tableaux en leurs maisons pour
+memoire comme d'un miracle," writes Agrippa d'Aubigne, about forty years
+later (Hist. universelle, 1616, ii. 53).
+
+[1286] Arcere, i. 504, 505.
+
+[1287] Arcere, _ubi supra_.
+
+[1288] Arcere, i. 477, 480.
+
+[1289] De Thou, iv. (liv. lvi.) 780; Arcere, i. 477; D'Aubigne, ii. 45
+(liv. i., c. 9).
+
+[1290] Jean de Serres, iv., fol. 102; Agrippa d'Aubigne, ii. 48 (liv. i.,
+c. 9); De Thou, iv. 767, 786, 787, etc.
+
+[1291] La Mothe Fenelon to Charles IX., June 3, 1573. Corresp. diplom., v.
+339.
+
+[1292] Jean de Serres (iv., fol. 87) states the length of the siege of
+Sommieres as _four_ months, and the loss of men as five thousand killed.
+The Recueil des choses memorables, 1598 (p. 485), ascribed to the same
+author, reduces the loss one-half. Cf. De Thou, iv. 746-748.
+
+[1293] Jean de Serres, iv., fols. 88, 89; De Thou, iv. (liv. lvi.) 749,
+750.
+
+[1294] "In ipso regni umbilico." Jean de Serres, iv., fol. 92.
+
+[1295] Ibid., iv., fols. 72, 77, 79; Ag. d'Aubigne, ii. 40, 41; De Thou,
+iv. (liv. liv.) 660-663.
+
+[1296] Jean de Serres, iv., fol. 93, 94.
+
+[1297] "Ut Ierosolymitanae, Samaritanae, Saguntinae famis memoriam exaequare,
+nisi et exsuperare videatur." Ibid., iv., fol. 92.
+
+[1298] "Discours de l'extreme famine, cherte de vivre, chairs, et autres
+choses non acoustumees pour la nourriture de l'homme, dont les assiegez
+dans la ville de Sancerre ont ete affligez." 1574. Reprinted in Archives
+curieuses, viii. 19-82.
+
+[1299] Edward Smedley, History of the Reformed Religion in France (London,
+1834), ii. 88.
+
+[1300] "Fade et douceastre," p. 24.
+
+[1301] De Thou, iv. (liv. lvi.) 796. As early as on the twelfth of April,
+such was the discouragement felt in Paris, that orders were published to
+make "Paradises" in each parish, and to institute processions, to
+supplicate the favor of heaven, in view of the repulses experienced by the
+Roman Catholics before La Rochelle. Journal d'un cure ligueur (Jehan de la
+Fosse), p. 158.
+
+[1302] Histoire du siege de La Rochelle par le duc d'Anjou en 1573, par A.
+Genet, capitaine du genie; _apud_ Bulletin de la Societe de l'histoire du
+prot. francais, ii. (1854) 96, 190.
+
+[1303] Memoires de Claude Haton, ii. 722.
+
+[1304] At Troyes, for instance, where the poor who had flocked to the city
+were invited to meet at one of the gates, to receive each a loaf of bread
+and a piece of money. This done, they saw the gates closed upon them, and
+were informed from the ramparts that they must go elsewhere to find their
+living until the next harvest. Claude Haton, ii. 729.
+
+[1305] _Ante_, chapter xix., p. 552.
+
+[1306] Here is his letter to Henry: "Mon frere. Dieu nous a fait la grasse
+que vous estes ellu roy de Poulogne. J'en suis si ayse que je ne scay que
+vous mander. Je loue Dieu de bon coeur; pardonnes moy, l'ayse me garde
+d'escrire. Je ne sceay que dire. Mon frere, je avons receu vostre lestre.
+Je suis vostre bien bon frere et amy, CHARLES." MS. Bibliotheque
+nationale, _apud_ Haton, ii. 733.
+
+[1307] The edict says expressly (Art. 5th): "Et y faire seulement les
+baptesmes et mariages a leur facon accoustumee sans plus grande assemblee,
+outre les parens, parrins et marrines, jusques au nombre de dix." Text in
+Agrippa d'Aubigne, ii. 98, etc., and Haag, France protestante, x.
+(Documents) 110-114. Jean de Serres (iv., fol. 107, etc.) and Von Polenz
+(Gesch. des Franz. Calvinismus, ii. 632) give a correct synopsis; but
+Soldan is wrong in including among the concessions "den Hausgottesdienst"
+(ii. 536), and De Thou still more incorrect when he speaks of "les preches
+et la Cene" (iv., liv. lvi. 796).
+
+[1308] According to Davila, Sancerre was _not comprehended_ in the terms
+made with the Rochellois, "because it was not a free town under the king's
+absolute dominion as the rest, but under the seigniory of the Counts of
+Sancerre." London trans. of 1678, 193.
+
+[1309] Jean de Lery, Discours de l'extreme famine, etc., 25-27.
+
+[1310] Jean de Lery, 38.
+
+[1311] Styled also, in the articles of capitulation, "_le gouverneur par
+election_ de ladite ville." He was an able and influential magistrate, who
+had been elected to the governorship of his native city at the time of the
+former troubles. Lery, 78-80.
+
+[1312] Agrippa d'Aubigne (Hist. univ., ii. 104) distinctly represents La
+Chastre as desirous of destroying the entire city; while Lery (p. 77) and
+Davila (p. 193) are in doubt whether Johanneau's murder was not effected
+by his orders. Yet Lery himself records a conversation he held about this
+time with La Chastre (p. 67), in which the latter protested that he was
+not, as commonly reported, of a sanguinary disposition, and appealed for
+corroboration to his merciful treatment of some Huguenot prisoners that
+fell into his hands in the third civil war, whom he refused to surrender
+to the Parisian parliament when formally summoned to do so. Claude de la
+Chastre's noble letter to Charles IX., of January 21, 1570 (Bulletin, iv.
+28), seems to be a sufficient voucher for his veracity. See _ante_,
+chapter xvi., p. 345.
+
+[1313] Jean de Lery, 42.
+
+[1314] Agrippa d'Aubigne, i. 104. It would be a great relief could we
+believe that inordinate fondness for the dance was the chief vice of the
+French court. Unfortunately the moral turpitude of the king and his
+favorites rests upon less suspicious grounds than the revolting stories
+told on hearsay by the unfriendly writer of the Eusebii Philadelphi
+Dialogi (Edinburgi, 1574), ii. 117, 118. The "Affair of Nantouillet,"
+occurring just about the time of the Polish ambassadors' arrival in Paris,
+is only too authentic. The "Prevot de Paris," M. de Nantouillet (cf.
+_ante_, chapter xv., page 258, note), grandson of Cardinal du Prat,
+Chancellor of France under Francis I., offended Anjou by somewhat
+contemptuously declining the hand of the duke's discarded mistress,
+Mademoiselle de Chateauneuf. The lady easily induced her princely lover to
+avenge her wounded vanity. One evening Charles IX., the new king of
+Poland, the King of Navarre, the Grand Prior of France, and their
+attendants, presented themselves at the stately mansion of Nantouillet, on
+the southern bank of the Seine, opposite the Louvre, and demanded that a
+banquet be prepared for them. Though the royal party was masked, the
+unwilling host knew his guests but too well, and dared not deny their
+peremptory command. In the midst of the carousal, at a preconcerted
+signal, the king's followers began to ransack the house, maltreating the
+occupants, wantonly destroying the costly furniture, appropriating the
+silver plate, and breaking open doors and coffers in search of money. The
+next day even Paris itself was indignant at the base conduct of its king.
+To the first president of parliament, who that day visited the palace and
+informed Charles of the current rumors respecting his having been present
+and conniving at the pillage, the despicable monarch denied their truth
+with his customary horrible imprecation. But when the president expressed
+his great satisfaction, and said that parliament would at once institute
+proceedings to discover and punish the guilty, Charles promptly responded:
+"By no means. You will lose your trouble;" and he added a significant
+threat for Nantouillet, that, should he pursue his attempt to obtain
+satisfaction, he would find that he had to do with an opponent infinitely
+his superior. Euseb. Phil. Dialogi, ii. 117, 118; Jean de Serres, iv.,
+fol. 114, _verso_; D'Aubigne, ii. 104; De Thou, iv. (liv. lvi.) 821.
+
+[1315] Article 4th. Text in Agrippa d'Aubigne, ii. 98.
+
+[1316] J. de Serres, iv., fol. 112.
+
+[1317] This hamlet must not be confounded with the important town of
+Milhaud, or Milhau-en-Rouergue, mentioned below, nearly seventy miles
+farther west.
+
+[1318] Histoire du Languedoc, v. 321.
+
+[1319] Jean de Serres, iv., fols. 113, 114; De Thou, v. (liv. lvii.) 12,
+13; Agrippa d'Aubigne, ii. 107; Histoire du Languedoc, v. 322. It ought to
+be noted that the Montauban assembly in reality did little more than
+confirm the regulations drawn up by previous and less conspicuous
+political assemblies of the Huguenots held at Anduze in February, and at
+Realmont, in May, 1573. This clearly appears from references to that
+earlier legislation contained in the more complete "organization" adopted
+four months later at Milhau. See the document in Haag, France Protestante,
+x. (Pieces justificatives) 124, 125. M. Jean Loutchitzki has published in
+the Bulletin, xxii. (1873) 507-511, a list of the political assemblies
+much fuller than given by any previous writer.
+
+[1320] As it is of interest to fix the geographical distribution of the
+provinces represented, I give the list contained in the preamble:
+"Guyenne, Vivaretz, Gevaudan, Seneschaussee de Toloze, Auvergne, haute et
+basse Marche, Quercy, Perigord, Limosin, Agenois, Armignac, Cominges,
+Coustraux, Bigorre, Albret, Foix, Lauraguay, Albigeois, pais de Castres et
+Villelargue, Mirepoix, Carcassonne, et autres pais et provinces
+adjacentes."
+
+[1321] Requete de l'assemblee de Montauban, in Haag, La France
+Protestante, x. (Pieces just.) 114-121.
+
+[1322] Jean de Serres, iv., fols. 113, 114; De Thou, v. (liv. lvii.) 12,
+13; Agrippa d'Aubigne, ii. 106.
+
+[1323] Histoire du Languedoc, v. 322.
+
+[1324] Agrippa d'Aubigne, _ubi supra_.
+
+[1325] Jean de Serres, iv. (lib. xii.) fol. 114; D'Aubigne and De Thou,
+_ubi supra_. See also Languet (Epistolae secretae, i. 216), who, writing
+November 14, 1573, considers the Huguenots to be virtually demanding the
+re-enactment of the edict of January, 1562.
+
+[1326] De Thou and D'Aubigne, _ubi supra_. Hist. du Languedoc, v. 322:
+"pourvu que lesdits de la religion donnent ordre de leur part, qu'il ne
+soit entrepris aucune chose au contraire, comme il est avenu ces jours
+passes, ce que je leur defens tres-expressement." Charles IX. to Damville,
+Oct. 18, 1573. Unfortunately, neither the promise nor the condition was
+observed over scrupulously.
+
+[1327] The king's aunt, the Duchess of Savoy, his mother, and his brothers
+of Anjou and Alencon.
+
+[1328] Relazione di Giov. Michiel, 1561, Tommaseo, i. 418-420.
+
+[1329] De Thou, v. (liv. lvii.) 18.
+
+[1330] Of this Queen Elizabeth reminded La Mothe Fenelon in a conversation
+reported by him June 3, 1573, Corr. dipl., v. 345, 346.
+
+[1331] La Mothe Fenelon to Charles IX., July 26, 1573, Corr. dipl., v.
+382.
+
+[1332] The story was certainly not invented by his mother, "comme il
+estoit sorty de sa derniere maladye _aussy jaune que cuyvre, tout bouffy,
+deffigure, bien fort petit et mince_." No wonder that Leicester, while
+expressing the hope that the account might be false, hinted that it
+operated against the proposed marriage. La Mothe Fenelon to Charles IX.,
+November 11, 1573, Correspondance diplomatique, v. 443.
+
+[1333] Despatch of Aug. 20, ibid., v. 394.
+
+[1334] The correspondence of La Mothe Fenelon, as preserved, is not
+destitute of interest. See volumes v. and vi., _passim_; as also Le
+Laboureur, Additions a Castelnau, vol. iii., pp. 350, _seq._
+
+[1335] De Thou, v. 12.
+
+[1336] "Achten's dafuer dieweil es den Franzosen gelungen das sie das
+Koenigreich Polen ann sich practicirt, das sie darvon so hochmuethig wordenn
+das sie muessen nun Hern der ganze weltt werdenn."
+
+[1337] Letters of Landgrave William, Sept. 8th, Oct. 17th and Nov. 6th,
+1573, Groen van Prinsterer, iv. 116*, 118*, 123*. See also Soldan, ii.
+552-556, who, as usual, is very full and satisfactory in everything
+bearing upon the relations of France to Germany. Rudolph, Maximilian's
+son, who succeeded his father three years later, was unfortunately far
+from embodying the excellences desired by the landgrave. It may be
+questioned whether the Protestants of Germany would have fared worse even
+under a Valois than under this degenerate Hapsburger.
+
+[1338] Louis of Nassau to William of Orange, December, 1573. Groen van
+Prinsterer, iv. 278-281.
+
+[1339] Motley, Rise of the Dutch Republic, ii. 534-538. J. de Serres, iv.,
+fol. 134, gives the date as April 17th. This volume of Serres was
+published in the succeeding year, 1575.
+
+[1340] The writer of an anonymous letter (now in the library of Prince
+Czartoryski), who saw Henry as he rode into Heidelberg, with Louis of
+Nassau on his right hand, and Duke Christopher, the elector's son, on his
+left, thus describes his personal appearance: "Homo procera statura,
+corpore gracili, facie oblonga pallida, oculis paululum prominentibus,
+vultu subtruculento, indutus pallio holoserico rubri coloris." Heidelberg
+letter "de transitu Henrici," etc., Dec. 22, 1573, _apud_ Marquis de
+Noailles, Henri de Valois et la Pologne (Paris, 1867), iii. (Pieces
+justif.), 532.
+
+[1341] Germany seems to have been full of blind rumors of treacherous
+designs on the part of its French neighbors. I have before me a pamphlet
+of little historical value, and evidently intended for popular
+circulation, entitled "Entdeckung etlicher heimlichen Practicken, so
+jetzund vorhanden wider unser geliebtes Vatterland, die Teutsche Nation,
+was man gaentzlich willens und ins werck zubringen, gegen den Evangelischen
+fuergenommen habe, durch einen guthertzigen und getrewen Christen unserm
+Vatterland zu guetem an tag geben. M.D.LXXIII."
+
+[1342] De Thou, v. (liv. lvii.), 22; Mem. de Pierre de Lestoile (ed.
+Michaud et Poujoulat), i. 27.
+
+[1343] "Was sich in Franckreich zugetragen, weiss man auch."
+
+[1344] The minute of the conversation drawn up by the elector palatine
+with his own hand, and printed by Lalanne in the appendix to the fourth
+volume of his edition of Brantome's Works (411-418), is by far the most
+trustworthy source of information we possess. On the last count of the
+elector's indictment, Anjou's defence was certainly very lame: "Dass ich
+selbst an seines Altvatters Hof gesehen _que c'a ete une Cour fort
+dissolue_, aber seines Brudern und Frau Mutter Hof demselbigen bey weitem
+nicht zu vergleichen." Ibid., 414.
+
+[1345] "C'est ce qui fit croire a bien des gens, que l'Electeur n'avoit
+pas recu un hote comme Henri aussi poliment qu'il le devoit." De Thou, v.
+(liv. lvii.) 22.
+
+[1346] Heidelberg letter of Dec. 22, 1573, Czartoryski MSS., De Noailles,
+Pieces justif., iii. 533. See _ante_, p. 485.
+
+[1347] Heidelberg letter, _ubi supra_, iii. 534.
+
+[1348] Jean de Serres (edit. 1571), iii. 284; A. d'Aubigne, i. 264,
+"Pource que le Chancelier de l'Hospital ne pouvoit travailler de coeur en
+mesme temps aux violentes depesches de Thavanes, de Montluc et autres, et
+aux douceurs du Mareschal de Cosse, il ne fallut qu'un souspir de probite
+pour lui faire oster les sceaux; ce que fit la Roine en le relegant en sa
+maison pres Estampes jusques a la fin de ses jours." See also Languet's
+letter of September 20, 1568.
+
+[1349] Chancellor de l'Hospital to Charles IX., January 12, 1573, copy
+discovered in the MSS. of the National Library, Paris, by Prof. Soldan,
+and printed in Appendix XI. of his history.
+
+[1350] _Ante_, chapter xv., p. 264, note.
+
+[1351] "M. le chancelier de l'Hospital qui avoit les fleurs de lys dans le
+coeur." Journal de Lestoile, p. 16.
+
+[1352] "Politici (novum enim hoc nomen ex novo negotio sub hoc tempus
+natum)." Jean de Serres, iv., fol. 132.
+
+[1353] Jean de Serres, iv., fols. 115-117. The dedication of Hotman's
+Franco-Gallia to the elector palatine is dated August 21, 1573.
+
+[1354] Jean de Serres, iv., fol. 122. Serres gives an extended summary of
+the work, whose author is unknown to him, fols. 119-128.
+
+[1355] Eusebii Philadelphi Dialog., ii. 117, _et passim_. See also the
+Tocsain contre les massacreurs, which, although published as late as 1579,
+was written before the death of Charles the Ninth (see the address of the
+printer, dated June 25, 1577), where the king is directly compared to the
+Emperor Nero. Archives curieuses, vii. 162.
+
+[1356] They had, however, generally retracted their admissions of
+complicity made on the rack.
+
+[1357] Jean de Serres, iv., fol. 118; De Thou, v. (liv. lvii.) 19, 20;
+Arcere, Histoire de la ville de la Rochelle, i. 533-540; Languet, Letter
+of Feb. 8, 1574, i. 229.
+
+[1358] See the list of members in the protocol of the proceedings first
+published in the Bulletin de la Societe de l'hist. du prot. francais, x.
+(1862) 351-353.
+
+[1359] In this, as in other particulars, the political assembly of Milhau
+merely re-enacted the provisions of the assembly of Realmont. For the
+dates of the early political assemblies of the Huguenots, which must of
+course be carefully distinguished from their synods or ecclesiastical
+assemblies, see the list in the Bulletin, etc., xxii. (1873) 508.
+
+[1360] Text of the document embodying the resolutions of the political
+assembly of Milhau, in Haag, La France protestante (vol. x.), Pieces
+justificatives, 121-126. The correct date seems to be Dec. 17th, instead
+of 16th; Bulletin, as above, x. 351. Cf. also Leonce Anquez, Histoire des
+assemblees politiques des reformes de France (1573-1622), Paris, 1859,
+7-11.
+
+[1361] Lettres d'Auger Gislen, seigneur de Busbec, amb. de l'emp. Rodolphe
+II. aupres de Henri III. Cimber et Danjou, Archives curieuses, x. 115.
+
+[1362] "Dictitabat se Religionem reformatam minime probare; ensis tantum
+sui mucronem esse Religiosum: id est, se non Religionis doctrinam, sed
+Religiosorum causam sequi. Hujusmodi exemplis magnae offensiones adversus
+Religiosos conflabantur." Jean de Serres, iv., fol. 118. The reader needs
+perhaps to be reminded that _Religiosi_ here stands as the equivalent for
+the French designation of the Huguenots as "ceux de la Religion."
+
+[1363] Agrippa d'Aubigne, ii. 113, 114 (liv. ii., c. 4); Jean de Serres,
+iv., fol. 117. Of "La Grande Chartreuse," which lies ten miles north of
+Grenoble, see a good account in R. Toepffer, Voyages en Zigzag, seconde
+serie.
+
+[1364] Languet, Epistolae secretae, i. 214, etc.
+
+[1365] E. Arnaud, Histoire des protestants du Dauphine aux xvie, xviie et
+xviiie siecles, Paris, 1875, i. 277-281; Ch. Charronet, Les guerres de
+religion et la societe protestante dans les Hautes-Alpes (1560-1789),
+Gap., 1861, p. 75, etc.
+
+[1366] Agrippa d'Aubigne, ii. 113; De Thou, v. (liv. lvii.), 30.
+
+[1367] "Fere omnes qui non fuerunt participes caedis Amiralii et aliorum,
+dicunt, Huguenotos merito corripere arma ad tutandam suam salutem, cum
+nihil observetur eorum quae hactenus fuerunt ipsis promissa." Languet,
+letter of April 14, 1574, Epistolae secretae, i. 239.
+
+[1368] "Et parmy leurs discours se representoient a chacun coup la journee
+de St. Barthelemy."
+
+[1369] The interesting particulars of the conference we obtain from two
+long and very important despatches of Biron to Charles IX., dated, the
+one, Ernandes, April 24th, the other, April 26th and 27th, 1574, MSS.
+Imperial Lib. of St. Petersburg, communicated to the Bulletin de la Soc.
+de l'hist. du prot. fr., xxii. (1873) 401-413, by M. Jean Loutchitzki.
+
+[1370] Agrippa d'Aubigne, ii. 117. Shrove Tuesday fell, in 1574, on March
+9th.
+
+[1371] Ten miles from the chateau de St. Germain, and about the same
+distance from the palace of the Louvre. A part of the old forest yet
+remains.
+
+[1372] I follow Agrippa d'Aubigne, who here must be regarded as excellent
+authority, for not only was he present, but it was by his means ("par ma
+conduitte") that Guitry was introduced into Navarre's chamber. Hist.
+univ., ii. 119.
+
+[1373] Jean de Serres (iv., fol. 138) and the Memoires de l'estat
+(Archives curieuses, "Discours de l'entreprise de St. Germain," viii.
+107-118) give the last of February for the date of the discovery of the
+undertaking of Alencon; but, from a comparison of letters, Prof. Soldan
+has shown (ii. 580) that it really was March 1st.
+
+[1374] It is Agrippa d'Aubigne (Hist. univ., ii. 119) who depicts the
+scene. As he seems to have been present on the occasion, we may rely upon
+the truthfulness of the groundwork of his sketch, while ascribing a little
+of the coloring to the free hand of the artist.
+
+[1375] The testimony of Navarre and others is preserved, and has been
+published, together with the interrogatories, in the Archives curieuses,
+viii. 127-221.
+
+[1376] Pierre de Lestoile, Memoires (ed. Michaud et Poujoulat), 30.
+Languet, letter of May 11, 1574, ii. 7, 8.
+
+[1377] Jean de Serres, iv. 136; Languet, letter of May 11, 1574, ii. 8.
+
+[1378] "Je scais bien que ce sont des chats que vos huguenots, qui se
+retrouvent tousjours sur leurs pieds." Mem. de Pierre de Lestoile (ed.
+Michaud et Poujoulat), 53.
+
+[1379] "Ains les laissant en paix comme ministres de l'utilite commune, et
+peres nourriciers des autres estats."
+
+[1380] P. Brisson, Hist. et vray discours des guerres civiles es pays de
+Poictou, _apud_ Histoire des protestants et des eglises ref. du Poitou,
+par Auguste Lievre (Poitiers, 1856), i. 189, 190.
+
+[1381] De Thou, v. (liv. lvii.) 33.
+
+[1382] De Thou, v. 44; Olhagaray, Hist. de Foix, etc., 638. Miss Freer
+("Henry III., King of France, His Court and Times," i. 366) accepts the
+statement without question, while Prof. Soldan, ii. 587, rejects it,
+basing his action upon a passage in another treatise of D'Aubigne than
+that referred to below, viz.: "Choses notables et qui semblent dignes de
+l'histoire," in Archives curieuses, viii. 411.
+
+[1383] Hist. univ., ii. 126. See a contemporary account: "La Prinse du
+Comte de Montgommery dedans le Chasteau de Donfron ... le Jeudy xxvii. de
+May, mil cinq cens soixante et quatorze. A Paris, 1574. Avec Privilege."
+Archives curieuses, viii. 223-238.
+
+[1384] Aug. 13, 1569; see Olhagaray, Histoire de Foix, Bearn, et Navarre
+(Paris, 1609), pp. 616, 617. According to this author, "le voyage de
+Bearn, et le coup de Navarreux sur la noblesse du pais luy cousta cela,"
+_i.e._, his execution. Ib., p. 639.
+
+[1385] Memoires d'un cure ligueur (Jehan de la Fosse), pp. 168, 169. See
+_ante_, chapter xiii., p. 78. Chantonnay (despatch of May 6, 1562) speaks
+of Montgomery as "se ventant que la plus belle et digne oeuvre que se soit
+jamais faicte en France, fut le coup de lance dont il tua le roy Henry. Je
+m'esbayhis comme la royne le peult dissimuler." Mem. de Conde, ii. 37.
+
+[1386] "Discours de la Mort et Execution de Gabriel Comte de Montgommery,
+par Arrest de la Court, pour les conspirations et menees par luy commises,
+contre le Roy et son estat. Qui fut a Paris, le vingtsixiesme de Iuing,
+1574. A Paris, 1574. Avec priv." (Archives cur., viii. 239-253.)
+
+[1387] Doubtless repeating the words of the Confession of Sins, beginning:
+"Seigneur Dieu, Pere Eternel et Tout-puissant," etc., a form loved by the
+Huguenots, and often on the lips of martyrs for the faith.
+
+[1388] Memoires de Lestoile, i. 38. Agrippa d'Aubigne gives us (ii. 131) a
+full account of Montgomery's address, which he himself heard, mounted, as
+he informs us, "en croupe" behind M. de Fervaques, to whom Montgomery bade
+farewell just before his death. The Huguenot captain made but two requests
+of the bystanders: "the first, that they would tell his children, whom the
+judges had declared to be degraded to the rank of 'roturiers,' that, if
+they had not virtue of nobility enough to reassert their position, their
+father consented to the act; as for the other request, he conjured them,
+by the respect due to the words of a dying man, not to represent him to
+others as beheaded for any of the reasons assigned in his judicial
+condemnation--his wars, expeditions, and ensigns won--subjects of
+frivolous praise to vain men--but to make him the companion in cause and
+in death of so many simple persons according to the world--old men, young
+men, and poor women--who in that same place (the Place de Greve) had
+endured fire and knife." D'Aubigne's narrative, as usual, is vivid, and
+mentions somewhat trivial details, which, however, are additional pledges
+of its accuracy; _e.g._, he alludes to the fact that, having spoken as
+above to those who stood on the side toward the river, he repeated his
+remarks to those on the other side of the Place de Greve, beginning with
+the words, "I was saying to the men yonder," etc.
+
+[1389] De Thou, v. (liv. lvii.) 48.
+
+[1390] Hist. univ., ii. (liv. ii.) 129.
+
+[1391] Memoires de Pierre de Lestoile (ed. Michaud et Poujoulat), i. 31.
+
+[1392] De Thou, v. 48; text in Isambert, Recueil des anc. lois fr., xiv.
+262.
+
+[1393] Memoires de Claude Haton, ii. 764
+
+[1394] North British Review, Oct., 1869, p. 27.
+
+[1395] Or, as Sorbin expressed it, "qu'il voyoit l'idole Calvinesque
+n'estre encores du tout chassee." Le vray resveille-matin des Calvinistes,
+88, ibid., _ubi supra_. The expression, it will be noticed, contains a
+distinct reference to the anagram upon the name of "Charles de
+Valois"--"va chasser l'idole," upon which the Huguenots had founded
+brilliant hopes. See _ante_, chapter xiii., p. 123. On the other hand,
+since the massacre, some Huguenot had discovered that from the same name
+could be obtained the appropriate words "_chasseur deloyal_." Recueil des
+choses memorables (1598), 506.
+
+[1396] Languet, ii. 16.
+
+[1397] Agrippa D'Aubigne, ii. 129; De Thou, v. (liv. lvii.) 50. Charles
+left but one legitimate child, a daughter, born Oct. 27, 1572, who died in
+her sixth year.
+
+[1398] Claude Haton, never more himself than when recounting the
+circumstances of a case of murder, whether by sword or by poison, fully
+credits the story; but the letter of Catharine to M. de Matignon, written
+on the 31st of May, gives an intelligible account of the results of the
+medical examination establishing the pulmonary nature of the king's
+disease.
+
+[1399] Jean de Serres, Comment de statu, etc., iv., fol. 137.
+
+[1400] See examples given by White (Massacre of St. Bartholomew, 480) and
+others.
+
+[1401] De Thou and others ascribe to Albert de Gondy, Count of Retz, one
+of Charles's early instructors and a creature of Catharine de' Medici, the
+unenviable credit of having taught the young monarch never to tell the
+truth, and to use those horrible imprecations which startled even the
+profane when coming from the lips of a dying man. De Thou, v. 47, etc. See
+also Jean de Serres, iv., fol. 137, and Brantome, Le roy Charles IXe.
+
+[1402] See the contemporary pamphlet, "Le Trespas et Obseques du
+tres-chrestien roy de France, Charles IXe. de ce Nom;" reprinted in Cimber
+et Danjou, Archives curieuses.
+
+
+
+
+ INDEX.
+
+
+ A.
+
+ Abasement of the people, fruits of the, i. 15.
+
+ "Accommodating" the Huguenots of Rouen, ii. 521.
+
+ "Accord," the Protestants of Cateau-Cambresis claim the benefit
+ of the, ii. 190.
+
+ Acier, Baron d' (Jacques de Crussol), ii. 283, 335.
+
+ Acier, D', younger brother of Crussol, ii. 230, note.
+
+ Adrets, Francois de Beaumont, Baron des, a merciless general of
+ the Huguenots, ii. 49;
+ his vindication of his course, ii. 50, note;
+ his cruelty, ii. 50, 51;
+ deserts the Huguenots, ii. 102.
+
+ Adriani, Giovambatista, the historian, his assertion that
+ a plan for "Sicilian Vespers" was to have been executed at
+ Moulins, ii. 183;
+ on the rejoicing in Italy over the Massacre of St. Bartholomew's
+ Day, ii. 534.
+
+ Agen, in Guyenne, persecution at, i. 217.
+
+ Agenois, Protestantism in, i. 428.
+
+ "Agimus a gagne Pere Eternel," meaning of the expression, i. 345.
+
+ Aiguillon, ii. 350.
+
+ Airvault, ii. 336.
+
+ Aix, Parliament of, i. 19;
+ iniquitous order respecting the Waldenses or Vaudois, i. 235. See
+ Vaudois of Provence.
+
+ Alava, Frances de, Spanish ambassador at Paris, ii. 181.
+
+ Albi, refuses to admit a garrison, ii. 250.
+
+ Albigenses, i. 61;
+ accused of Manichaeism, i. 62.
+
+ Albret, Jeanne d'. See Navarre, Queen of.
+
+ Aleander, papal nuncio, his hopes respecting Lefevre d'Etaples, i. 94.
+
+ Alencon, city of, saved from becoming a scene of massacre by M. de
+ Matignon, ii. 526.
+
+ Alencon, Francis of, fourth son of Henry II., baptized Hercules, i. 415;
+ to be substituted for Anjou, as a suitor for the hand of Queen
+ Elizabeth, ii. 380;
+ his praise, ii. 398;
+ he takes no part in the Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day, and is
+ threatened by his mother, ii. 476, 477;
+ his reply to her attempt to estrange him from the admiral, ii. 495;
+ La Mothe Fenelon instructed to press his suit with Queen
+ Elizabeth, ii. 606;
+ his disfigurement, ii. 607;
+ he is offered as candidate for election as King of the Romans, ii. 608;
+ the proposal is declined, ii. 609;
+ chosen by the party of the "Politiques" as their head, ii. 619;
+ his untrustworthy character, ii. 619, 620;
+ his irresolution, ii. 625.
+
+ Alessandria, the Cardinal of, despatched as legate to Paris, ii. 400;
+ Charles IX.'s assurances to him, ii. 400-403, 531.
+
+ Alexander III. dedicates the abbey of St. Germain-des-Pres, ii.
+ 483, note.
+
+ Alienor, or Eleonore, last Duchess of Aquitaine, her charter given
+ to La Rochelle in 1199, ii. 270.
+
+ Allens, M. d', i. 238.
+
+ Alva, Duke of, is one of the ambassadors of Philip II., and a hostage
+ for the execution of the treaty of Cateau-Cambresis, i. 325;
+ declines the joint expedition proposed by Henry II. for the destruction
+ of Geneva, i. 327;
+ is suspicious of the proposed conference at Bayonne, ii. 168
+ (see Bayonne, Conference of);
+ sent to Netherlands, ii. 195;
+ alarm caused by his march, ii. 196;
+ he is invited by Cardinal Lorraine to enter France, ii. 208;
+ he procrastinates, ib.;
+ insincerity of his offers, ii. 212;
+ sends a few troops under Count Aremberg, ii. 213;
+ is again called upon for aid, ii. 221;
+ his view of accommodations with heretics, ii. 222;
+ opposes the peace of Saint Germain, ii. 368;
+ he receives a signal rebuff from Charles IX., ii. 390, 391;
+ exults over the Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day, but hesitates
+ from policy to put the Huguenot prisoners to death, ii. 540;
+ earns the approval of Pius V. by his butcheries, ii. 564, 565.
+
+ Amboise, the peace of, March 19, 1563, terminating the first civil
+ war, ii. 115;
+ its terms condemned, ii. 116, 128;
+ Coligny's disappointment at, ii. 116, 117;
+ the terms in many places not observed, ii. 128;
+ commissioners sent out to enforce the execution of the edict, ii. 132;
+ the Parliament of Paris sternly reproved by the king for its failure
+ to record the edict, ii. 139, 140;
+ the edict infringed upon by interpretative declarations, ii. 160.
+
+ Amboise, the Tumult of, causes of, i. 375, seq.;
+ Assembly of Nantes, i. 300;
+ chronology of the Tumult, i. 381;
+ the plot betrayed, i. 382;
+ dismay of the royal court, i. 387;
+ bloody executions following, i. 391.
+
+ "Amende honorable," i. 172.
+
+ Amiens, one hundred and fifty Huguenots murdered at, ii. 249.
+
+ Amnesty, the Edict of, March, 1560, i. 385;
+ its terms ostensibly extended, but explained away, i. 390, 391.
+
+ Anagram of Charles de Valois (Charles IX.), ii. 123.
+
+ Andelot, Francois d', younger brother of Admiral Coligny, favors the
+ Reformation, i. 313;
+ denounced as a heretic by Cardinal Granvelle, i. 316;
+ his visit to Brittany, ib.;
+ he is summoned by Henry II., before whom he makes a manly defence
+ of his faith, i. 317, 318;
+ is imprisoned, i. 318;
+ his temporary weakness, i. 319;
+ disappointment of the Pope at his escape from the stake, i. 320, note;
+ is consulted by Catharine de' Medici, i. 383;
+ throws himself into Orleans, ii. 39;
+ returns with reinforcements from Germany, ii. 84;
+ is left in Orleans by Conde, ii. 85;
+ his warlike counsels at the outbreak of the second civil war prevail,
+ ii. 204;
+ sent to intercept Count of Aremberg, ii. 214;
+ spirited remonstrance (ascribed to him) addressed to Catharine
+ de' Medici, ii. 252, 253;
+ his escape from Brittany to La Rochelle, ii. 281;
+ his death ii. 312;
+ his character and exploits, ii. 313, 314.
+
+ Ange, L', orator for the tiers etat in the States General of
+ Orleans, i. 458.
+
+ Angers, massacre of, ii. 512, 513.
+
+ Anglois, Jacques l', a Protestant minister, murdered at Rouen, ii. 515.
+
+ Angouleme, ii. 283.
+
+ Angouleme, Bastard of, ii. 456, 459, 483.
+
+ Angouleme, Margaret of, afterward Queen of Navarre, sister of
+ Francis I., i. 74, 86;
+ birth and studies, i. 104;
+ personal appearance, i. 105;
+ political influence, i. 106;
+ married first to Duke of Alencon, ib.;
+ goes to Spain to visit her captive brother, ib.;
+ marriage to Henry, King of Navarre, i. 107;
+ corresponds with Bishop Briconnet, i. 108;
+ her Heptameron, i. 119;
+ her sanguine hopes, i. 133;
+ her correspondence with Count von Hohenlohe, ib.;
+ favors Protestant preachers, i. 151;
+ attacked in the College of Navarre, i. 152;
+ her "Miroir de l'ame pecheresse," ib.;
+ fruitless intercessions in the matter of the placards of 1534, i. 168;
+ she yields to the influence of the "Libertines," i. 195, 226;
+ her address to the Parliament of Bordeaux, i. 226.
+
+ "Annats," i. 25.
+
+ Anjou, Henry, Duke of (afterward Henry III., see Henry of Valois);
+ he is appointed by Charles IX. lieutenant-general, and placed in
+ supreme command of the army, ii. 217;
+ endeavors to prevent the junction of Conde and the Germans, ii. 220;
+ his forces at the beginning of the third civil war, ii. 285;
+ his army goes into winter quarters, ii. 286;
+ his growing superiority in numbers, ii. 298;
+ endeavors to prevent the southern Huguenots from reinforcing
+ Conde, ii. 299;
+ throws his troops in front of Conde, ii. 300;
+ obtains a victory at Jarnac, March 13, 1569, ii. 301, 302;
+ sends off exaggerated bulletins from the battle-field, ii. 307, 308;
+ receives congratulations and sanguinary injunctions from
+ Pius V., ii. 309;
+ he furloughs his troops, ii. 320;
+ relieves Poitiers, ii. 325;
+ his army strengthened, ii. 332;
+ defeats the Huguenots at Moncontour, ii. 332-336;
+ loses the advantages gained, through the mistake committed at St. Jean
+ d'Angely, ii. 340, seq.;
+ disbands a great part of his army, ii. 343;
+ leaves the remainder in the prince dauphin's hands, ib.;
+ his projected marriage to Queen Elizabeth, ii. 377, seq.;
+ machinations to dissuade him, ii. 379;
+ indignation of Charles at, ib.;
+ his new ardor, ii. 381;
+ papal and Spanish efforts, ii. 382;
+ the match abandoned, ii. 396;
+ his confession respecting the origin of the Massacre of St.
+ Bartholomew's Day ii. 433;
+ his jealousy of Coligny's influence, ib.;
+ he and his mother resolve upon the death of the admiral, ii. 434;
+ they call in the help of the Duchess of Nemours and Henry of
+ Guise, ib.;
+ he visits the wounded admiral, ii. 441;
+ plies Charles IX. with arguments to frighten him into authorizing
+ a massacre of the Huguenots, ii. 447, 448;
+ he rides through the streets of Paris encouraging the
+ assassins, ii. 472;
+ enriches himself from the plunder of the jeweller Baduere, ii. 485;
+ helps to persuade Charles IX. to assume the responsibility of the
+ massacre, ii. 491;
+ his letter to Montsoreau, Governor of Saumur, ii. 503;
+ sent to assume command of the army besieging La Rochelle, ii. 585;
+ issues stringent ordinances after the example of the Huguenots, ib.;
+ he is elected King of Poland, ii. 593;
+ his reception at Heidelberg by the Elector Palatine, Frederick the
+ Pious, ii. 610, seq.;
+ his personal appearance, ii. 610, note;
+ his lying assertions and the elector's frank remonstrance,
+ ii. 611, 612.
+
+ Antoine de Bourbon-Vendome, King of Navarre. See Navarre, Antoine,
+ King of.
+
+ Aosta, story of Calvin's labors at, i. 207.
+
+ Arande, Michel d', i. 74, 96;
+ his reply to Farel, i. 97.
+
+ Aremberg Count, sent by Alva to France, ii. 213, 214.
+
+ Arnay-le-Duc, battle of, June 25, 1570, ii. 354, seq.
+
+ Arras, Bishop of. See Granvelle, Cardinal.
+
+ Arras, execution of Vaudois at, i. 63.
+
+ Artois and Flanders, i. 66;
+ ii. 186.
+
+ Assembly, a political, of the Huguenots, held in Nismes, Nov.,
+ 1562, ii. 86;
+ a military organization of the Huguenots provided for by the
+ assembly of Montauban, Aug., 1573, ii. 600;
+ previous assemblies, ii. 601, note;
+ the organization perfected in the assembly of Milhau, Dec. 17,
+ 1573, ii. 617-619.
+
+ Astrology, popular belief in, i. 47.
+
+ Aubenas, a Huguenot place of refuge, ii. 280.
+
+ Aubigne, Agrippa d', at Amboise, i. 392;
+ his father's exclamation, i. 393;
+ his testimony as to Chancellor L'Hospital's complicity with the
+ conspirators of Amboise, i. 412;
+ his father appointed a commissioner for the execution of the edict
+ of pacification of Amboise, ii. 132;
+ his enlistment in the Huguenot army, ii. 275;
+ on the firing of Charles IX. on the Huguenots at the massacre, ii. 483;
+ on the magnanimous reply of the Viscount D'Orthez to the
+ king, ii. 528, note;
+ on the effect of the massacre on the king himself, ii. 560, 561;
+ his account of Regnier's deliverance of Montauban, ii. 575;
+ of the death of Count Montgomery, ii. 634, 635, note.
+
+ Aubigne, Merle d'. See Merle.
+
+ Audeberte, Anne her martyrdom, i, 278.
+
+ Auger, or Augier, Edmond, his violent sermons at Bordeaux, ii. 523.
+
+ Aumale, Claude, Duke of, i. 269;
+ marries a daughter of Diana of Poitiers, i. 273;
+ his jealousy of the Duke of Nemours, ii. 317;
+ pursues the Huguenots, ii. 336;
+ helps arrange the plan for assassinating Coligny, ii. 435;
+ receives a rough answer from Charles IX., ii. 446;
+ pursues Montgomery, ii. 482;
+ is killed before La Rochelle, March 3, 1573, ii. 585.
+
+ Aurillac, ii. 348.
+
+ Autun, the "mice" of, i. 238.
+
+ Auxerre, assassination of Huguenots at, ii. 249.
+
+ Avenelles, Des, betrays the designs of La Renaudie to the Guises, i. 382.
+
+ "Aventuriers," i. 44.
+
+ Avignon, i. 4;
+ popes at, i. 28.
+
+ Ayamonte, Marquis d', sent by Philip II. to congratulate Charles IX. on
+ the massacre of the Huguenots, ii. 540.
+
+ "Aygnos," for Huguenots, ii. 180, note.
+
+
+ B.
+
+ "Babylonish captivity," i. 28.
+
+ Baden, Marquis of, ii. 298, 334.
+
+ Baden, the Swiss Diet of, ii. 558.
+
+ Baduere, a rich jeweller in Paris and a Huguenot, great plunder obtained
+ by the Duke of Anjou from his shop, ii. 485, 613.
+
+ Ballads, Huguenot, ii. 120-125.
+
+ Balue, Cardinal, i. 34.
+
+ Barbaro, a Venetian ambassador, regards the conference of Saint Germain
+ as an efficient means of spreading heresy, ii. 9;
+ on Catharine de' Medici, ii. 370.
+
+ Barrier, a Franciscan monk and curate at Provins, his remarks to the
+ people when ordered to make proclamation of the king's tolerant
+ order, i. 477, note;
+ his seditious sermon on the edict of January, ii. 5, 6;
+ at the beginning of the third civil war, ii. 279.
+
+ Bassompierre, ii. 298.
+
+ Battle of Pavia, Feb 24, 1525, i. 122;
+ of Saint Quentin, Aug. 10, 1557, i. 302;
+ of Dreux, Dec. 19, 1562, ii. 93;
+ of Saint Denis, Nov. 10, 1567, ii. 213-215;
+ of Jarnac, March 13, 1569, ii. 301, 302;
+ of La Roche Abeille, ii. 319;
+ of Moncontour, Oct. 3, 1569, ii. 332-336;
+ of Arnay-le-Duc, June 25 and 26, 1570, ii. 354.
+
+ Baum, Professor, on the reply of Conde to the "petition" of the
+ Triumvirs, ii. 61.
+
+ Bayonne, Conference of, June, 1565, ii. 167, seq.;
+ proposed by Catharine de' Medici, ib.;
+ looked upon with suspicion by Philip II. and Alva, ii. 167, 168;
+ current misapprehensions respecting its object, ii. 168, 169;
+ what was actually proposed, ii. 171;
+ Charles declares himself against war, ii. 172;
+ the discussion between Alva, Catharine, and Isabella, ii. 172-175;
+ no plan of extermination adopted or even proposed, ii. 176;
+ festivities and pageantry, ii. 176-179;
+ the assertion of Adriani that the "Sicilian Vespers" projected at
+ Bayonne were to have been executed at Moulins, ii. 183;
+ some of the appointed victims, ii. 198, note.
+
+ Bearn, i. 108;
+ establishment of the Reformation in, ii. 148, seq.;
+ Montgomery takes a great part of, ii. 323.
+
+ Beaudine, ii. 352, 475.
+
+ Beaugency "loaned" by Conde to the King of Navarre, ii. 63;
+ retaken by the Huguenots, ii. 66.
+
+ Beauvais, riot at, occasioned by the suspected Protestantism of Cardinal
+ Chatillon, bishop of the city, i. 474, seq.
+
+ Beauvoir la Nocle, a Huguenot negotiator, ii. 357, 359, 363;
+ escapes from the massacre, ii. 481-483, 625.
+
+ Becanis, Vidal de, an inquisitor, i. 289.
+
+ Beda, or Bedier, Natalis, i. 23, 71, 151.
+
+ Belin, an agent in the massacre of Troyes, ii. 507, 508.
+
+ Bellay, Guillaume du, i. 150;
+ labors for conciliation, i. 160;
+ his representations at Smalcald to the German princes, i. 188;
+ makes in the name of Francis I., a Protestant confession, i. 189;
+ is instructed to investigate the history and character of the Waldenses
+ of Merindol, i. 239;
+ his favorable report, i. 240.
+
+ Bellay, Jean du, Bishop of Paris, leans to the reformed doctrine, i. 156.
+
+ Bellievre, his lying representations to the Swiss respecting the admiral,
+ the massacre, etc., ii. 558, 559.
+
+ Berchon, Governor of Orange, expelled, ii. 620.
+
+ Berne, canton of, intercedes for the relatives of Farel, but receives
+ a rough answer from Francis I., i. 156;
+ again applies to him, with similar results, i. 192;
+ intercedes for the Five Scholars of Lausanne, i. 284;
+ other intercessions, i. 286, 309, 310;
+ sends troops to the aid of the Huguenots, but afterward recalls
+ them, ii. 56.
+
+ Berquin, Louis de, i. 44;
+ his character, i. 128;
+ becomes a reformer, i. 129;
+ prosecuted and imprisoned but released by order of the king, i. 130;
+ becomes acquainted with Erasmus, ib.;
+ his second imprisonment, i. 131;
+ and release, i. 132;
+ intercessions of Margaret of Angouleme, i. 132;
+ his third arrest, i. 143, seq.;
+ his execution, i. 145;
+ elegies on, i. 157.
+
+ Berthault, an evangelical preacher, i. 151.
+
+ Bethisy, rue de, ii. 438, note.
+
+ Beza, or De Beze, Theodore, efforts in behalf of the persecuted
+ Protestants of Paris, i. 309;
+ consulted as to revolution, i. 377;
+ dissuades the French Protestants from armed resistance, i. 378;
+ his comment upon the edict of amnesty, i. 386;
+ invited by Antoine of Bourbon to Nerac, i. 431;
+ he returns to Geneva, i. 435;
+ he is invited to the Colloquy of Poissy, i. 494;
+ urged by the Protestants of Paris to come, i. 496;
+ his hesitation, but final consent, i. 497;
+ he reaches St. Germain, ib.;
+ his previous history, i. 497, 498;
+ he has a flattering reception, i. 502;
+ distrusts Chancellor L'Hospital, ib.;
+ has a discussion with Cardinal Lorraine, who professes to be
+ satisfied, i. 503, 504;
+ his diffidence, i. 512;
+ his retort to the sneer of a cardinal, i. 514;
+ his prayer and address, i. 514-521;
+ he is interrupted by an outcry of the theologians of the
+ Sorbonne, i. 519;
+ his brilliant success, i. 523;
+ his frankness justified, i. 524;
+ he asks a hearing to answer Cardinal Lorraine, i. 529;
+ his reply, i. 532, 533;
+ he skilfully parries the cardinal's demand that he should subscribe
+ to the Augsburg Confession, ib.;
+ his remarks on Romish "vocation," i. 534;
+ and a proper and amicable conference, i. 535;
+ he excites the anger of the prelates, i. 536;
+ replies to Lainez, i. 537;
+ at the conference of Saint Germain, i. 539, seq.;
+ is begged by Catharine de' Medici, Conde and Coligny to remain in
+ France, i. 559;
+ his anxiety to restrain the Protestants from violence, i. 565;
+ urges the Huguenots to obey the edict of January, ii. 4;
+ he demands the punishment of the authors of the massacre of
+ Vassy, ii. 27;
+ his noble answer to the King of Navarre, ii. 28;
+ he is the probable author of Conde's reply to the "petition" of the
+ Triumvirs, ii. 61;
+ his view of the practicability of taking Paris, ii. 88;
+ he is accused by Poltrot of having instigated the murder of the Duke
+ of Guise, ii. 105;
+ he vindicates his innocence, ii. 106;
+ he is moderator of the seventh national synod, ii. 388, note;
+ a price set on his head by the Duchess of Parma, ib.;
+ his remarks on Coligny's death, ii. 554;
+ his sermon on the Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day, ii. 555;
+ his lively sympathy with the persecuted Huguenots, ii. 556, note.
+
+ Bible, old translations of, unfaithful, i. 77, 78;
+ translation of Lefevre, i. 78;
+ eagerly bought, i. 79;
+ sale of French translations, i. 219;
+ translated by Olivetanus, i. 233.
+
+ Birague at the blood council, ii. 447.
+
+ Biron pursues the Huguenots after the battle of Moncontour, ii. 336;
+ negotiates with Coligny, ii. 359, 363;
+ carries to the Queen of Navarre the proposal of the marriage of Henry
+ of Navarre to Margaret of Valois, ii. 394;
+ in the Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day, ii. 473;
+ sent to La Rochelle as governor, ii. 578;
+ is not received, ib.;
+ ii. 581, 582, 616, 617;
+ his new negotiations before La Rochelle ii. 621, 622.
+
+ Blamont, ii. 609.
+
+ Blasphemous taunts addressed to the Huguenots at Orleans in the
+ massacre, ii. 509;
+ See also, ii. 570, 571.
+
+ Blaye, ii. 283.
+
+ Blondel, executed at Toulouse, for singing a profane hymn of Marot at
+ Corpus Christi, i. 297.
+
+ Bochetel, Bishop of Rennes, his false representations to the German
+ princes respecting the Huguenots, ii. 217.
+
+ Boissiere, Claude de la, a minister at the Colloquy of Poissy, i. 509.
+
+ Bombs, used by the Protestant garrison of Orleans, ii. 101.
+
+ Boniface VIII., Pope, i. 27.
+
+ Book-pedlers from Switzerland, i. 281.
+
+ Books, war upon, i. 280;
+ not to be sold by pedlers, i. 281.
+
+ Bordeaux, Parliament of, i. 19;
+ sanguinary action of, after the battle of Jarnac, ii. 310.
+
+ Bordeaux, the boldness of the "Lutherans" of, according to the
+ archbishop of the city, i. 221;
+ oppression to which the Protestants were subjected, ii. 164;
+ massacre of, Oct., 1572, ii. 522-524.
+
+ Boscheron des Portes, President, gives credit to an alleged admission
+ of disloyal intentions on the part of La Renaudie, i. 394-396.
+
+ Bossuet, Bishop of Meaux his admiration of the sagacity of the Cardinal
+ of Lorraine, i. 546.
+
+ Botzheim, Johann Wilhelm von his account of the massacre at
+ Orleans, ii. 569, seq.
+
+ Bouchavannes, ii. 453.
+
+ Bouchet, Jean, his "Deploration," i. 65.
+
+ Bouillon, Duc de, ii. 625.
+
+ Boulogne, edict of pacification of, July, 1573, ii. 593.
+
+ Bouquin, Jean, a minister at the Colloquy of Poissy, i. 509.
+
+ Bourbon, Antoine of. See Antoine, King of Navarre.
+
+ Bourbon, Cardinal his speech to the notables i. 136;
+ exhorts Francis to prove himself "Very Christian," i. 137;
+ he is made governor of Paris in place of Marshal Montmorency, ii. 33;
+ his anger at L'Hospital's action in behalf of the scattered
+ Protestants, ii. 186.
+
+ Bourg, Anne du, a learned and upright member of the Parliament
+ of Paris, makes an eloquent plea for religious liberty in
+ the "mercuriale," i. 334;
+ his arrest, i. 335;
+ his trial and successive appeals, i. 368;
+ his officious advocate, i. 369;
+ his message to the Protestants of Paris, ib.;
+ his deportment in the Bastile, i. 370;
+ intercession of the Elector Palatine in his behalf, ib.;
+ his pathetic and eloquent speech i. 371;
+ his death, i. 372;
+ a disastrous blow to the established church, i. 373;
+ account of Florimond de Raemond, i. 373, 374.
+
+ Bourg, Jean du, a wealthy draper, executed, i. 172.
+
+ Bourges, captured by Marshal Saint Andre, ii. 71, 72;
+ violence at, ii. 249;
+ unsuccessful attempt upon, ii. 344;
+ massacre of Protestants at, ii. 511, 512.
+
+ Bourges, council of, i. 29;
+ provincial council of, i. 139.
+
+ Bourniquet, Viscount of, ii. 230, note.
+
+ Bourry, a Protestant captain, ii. 329.
+
+ Bouteiller, Abbe, confers with the Protestants at Poissy, i. 538;
+ his doctrinal views, i. 548.
+
+ Brandenburg, the Elector of, declines to help the Huguenots, ii. 217.
+
+ Brantome, the Abbe de, his eulogy of Renee de France, i. 206;
+ on the massacre of Vassy, ii. 24;
+ on the firing of Charles IX. on the Huguenots, ii. 482, note;
+ on the chief actors in the Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day, ii. 562.
+
+ Brazil, a Protestant colony sent to, under Villegagnon, i. 291;
+ fails through Villegagnon's hostility to Protestantism, i. 294.
+
+ Bresse, i. 3, 66.
+
+ Bretagne, Jacques, "vierg" of Autun, his able speech for the "tiers
+ etat" at the States General of Pontoise, i. 489.
+
+ Briconnet, Guillaume, Bishop of Meaux, i. 72;
+ invites Lefevre and Farel, i. 73;
+ his warning, i. 77;
+ his weakness, i. 79, 80, 81;
+ his synodal decree, i. 80;
+ cited before parliament, i. 82;
+ becomes the jailer of the "Lutherans," i. 92;
+ his correspondence with Margaret of Angouleme, i. 108.
+
+ Briquemault, execution of, Oct. 27, 1573, for alleged complicity in a
+ Huguenot conspiracy against the king, ii. 548, 549.
+
+ Brouage, ii. 576.
+
+ Browning, W. S., his error as to the authorship of the "Vie de
+ Coligny," i. 418, note.
+
+ Brugiere, execution of, i. 276.
+
+ Bude, Guillaume, i. 144.
+
+ Burgundians, their intolerance of the Reformation, ii. 185.
+
+ Burleigh, Lord (see also Cecil), promotes the match between the Duke
+ of Anjou and Queen Elizabeth, ii. 381.
+
+ Busbec, his delineation of the character of the Duke of Alencon, ii. 620.
+
+ Bussy, or Bucy, Porte de, ii. 483.
+
+ Bussy d'Amboise murders the Marquis de Renel, ii. 472.
+
+
+ C.
+
+ Cabrieres, destruction of i. 248.
+
+ Caen, in Normandy, Protestant assemblies in, i. 408;
+ iconoclasm at, ii. 44;
+ saved from becoming a scene of massacre, by M. de Matignon, ii. 526.
+
+ Caillaud, President, exceptional fairness of, i. 219.
+
+ Calais, captured by Francis, Duke of Guise, i. 312.
+
+ Calvin, John, the real author of Rector Cop's address, i. 154;
+ his flight from Paris, i. 155;
+ his language respecting Francis I. and Charles V., i. 195;
+ becomes the apologist of the Protestants, i. 198;
+ his birth and training, ib.;
+ studies at Paris, Orleans, and Bourges, i. 199;
+ is a pupil of Melchior Wolmar, ib.;
+ translates Seneca "De Clementia," i. 200;
+ his flight to Angouleme, i. 201;
+ traditions respecting his preaching, ib.;
+ he resigns his benefices, ib.;
+ reaches Basle, i. 201;
+ writes his "Christian Institutes," i. 202;
+ the original edition in Latin, ib.;
+ the preface, i. 203, 204;
+ it has no effect in allaying persecution, but achieves distinction
+ for its author, i. 204;
+ he revises the Bible of Olivetanus, i. 205;
+ he visits Italy, ib.;
+ said to have labored at Aosta, i. 207;
+ passing through Geneva, is detained by the urgency of Farel, i. 208;
+ becomes the head of the commonwealth, i. 210;
+ his views respecting church and state, ib.;
+ respecting the punishment of heresy, i. 211;
+ approves of the execution, but not the burning of Servetus, i. 212;
+ his fault the fault of the age, ib.;
+ he shuns notoriety, i. 213;
+ his character and natural endowments, i. 214;
+ he is consulted by Protestants in every quarter of Europe, ib.;
+ his constant toils, ib.;
+ he encounters bitter opposition, but obtains the support of the
+ people, i. 215;
+ estimate of his character by Etienne Pasquier, i. 216;
+ his great influence, according to the Venetian Michiel, ib.;
+ writes against the Nicodemites and Libertines, i. 225;
+ consoles Protestant Church of Paris, i. 308;
+ and writes to stir up intercession in behalf of the prisoners, ib.;
+ his liturgy, i. 342, seq.;
+ pseudo-Roman edition of, i. 275, 344;
+ consulted as to revolution, i. 377;
+ dissuades from armed resistance, foreseeing civil war, i. 378;
+ endeavors to repress the tendency to iconoclasm, i. 487;
+ why he was not invited to the Colloquy of Poissy, i. 494;
+ his letter to Renee de France respecting the Duke of Guise, ii. 110.
+
+ Cambray, the Archbishop of, ii. 187, 189, 190;
+ his vengeance upon Cateau-Cambresis, ii. 191.
+
+ "Camisade," attempted, ii. 65.
+
+ Capilupi, author of "Lo stratagema," ii. 436, etc.
+
+ Caraffa, Cardinal, nephew of Paul IV., negotiates the breaking of the
+ truce of Vaucelles, i. 298;
+ his character, ib.
+
+ Carnavalet, M. de, ii. 220.
+
+ Caroli, Pierre, wearies out Beda, i. 118.
+
+ Caroline, a strong earthwork thrown up by the Huguenots in
+ Florida, ii. 200.
+
+ Carouge, M. de, at Rouen, ii. 519, seq.
+
+ Cartier, ii. 328.
+
+ Castelnau, Baron de, treacherous capture of, i. 388.
+
+ Castelnau, Michel de, Sieur de Mauvissiere, the historian, sent by
+ the Triumvirs to Catharine before the battle of Dreux, ii. 92;
+ sent by Charles IX. to congratulate Alva, ii. 206, note;
+ ii. 212, 213;
+ his sketch of Coligny's plan of march, ii. 348, 356.
+
+ Castel-Sarrasin, ii. 575.
+
+ Castres refuses to admit a garrison, in 1568, ii. 250;
+ a Huguenot place of refuge, ii. 280, 578.
+
+ Cateau-Cambresis, the peace of, April 3, 1559, i. 322;
+ its disgraceful and disastrous conditions, i. 323;
+ a secret treaty for the extermination of the Protestants
+ supposed, without sufficient reason, to have been drawn
+ up at the same time, i. 324-326;
+ the Reformation in, ii. 187-191;
+ iconoclasm at, ii. 190;
+ the Protestants claim the benefit of the "Accord," ib.
+
+ Cathari, i. 61, 62.
+
+ Catharine de' Medici, i. 41;
+ credits the predictions of Nostradamus, i. 47;
+ her marriage to Henry of Orleans, afterward Henry II, i. 148;
+ dissatisfaction of French people, ib.;
+ her dream the night before Henry II is mortally wounded, i. 339;
+ assumes an important part in the government, i. 348;
+ her timidity and dissimulation, i. 349;
+ she dismisses Diana of Poitiers, ib.;
+ her alliance with the Guises, i. 350;
+ asks aid of Philip II, and receives promises, i. 358;
+ is appealed to by the persecuted Protestants, i. 362;
+ she encourages them, i. 363;
+ her favorite psalm, ib.;
+ she receives a second and more urgent appeal, i. 364;
+ her indignation at the stories of the orgies in "la petite
+ Geneve," i. 365;
+ she declares that the Protestants are men of their word, i. 383;
+ she consults Coligny at the time of the Tumult of Amboise and
+ receives good advice, i. 383, 384;
+ receives a letter from the Huguenots signed Theophilus, i. 409;
+ consults Regnier de la Planche, i. 410;
+ rejects the advances of the Guises, just before the death of
+ Francis II, i. 443;
+ and makes terms with Navarre who yields the regency without a
+ struggle, i. 444;
+ her adroitness in the management of Navarre, i. 452;
+ the difficulties confronting her, i. 453;
+ her letter to her daughter Isabella, i. 454;
+ her determination to hold the Colloquy of Poissy, i. 499;
+ her excuses to the Pope and Philip II., i. 500;
+ warns her son Charles against gross superstition and against
+ innovation, ib., note;
+ her letter to Pius IV., i. 500, 501;
+ its effect at Rome, i. 501;
+ she is much pleased with the results of the first interview between
+ Beza and Cardinal Lorraine, i. 504;
+ she consents that the prelates shall not act as judges in the colloquy
+ at Poissy, but will not have the decree put in writing, i. 507;
+ she is resolute that the colloquy should be held, i. 508;
+ refuses Cardinal Tournon's request to interrupt it, i. 522;
+ her premature delight at the reported accord in the Conference of Saint
+ Germain, i. 541;
+ her financial success with the prelates, i. 543;
+ her crude notion of a conference, i. 547;
+ is compared by Roman Catholic preachers to Jezebel, ii. 5;
+ causes the retirement of Constable Montmorency, ii. 18;
+ sends for the Guises, ib.;
+ after the massacre of Vassy, orders the Duke of Guise to enter Paris,
+ but invites him to come to court with a small suite, ii. 27;
+ her anxiety, ii. 29;
+ she removes with the king from Monceaux to Melun, ii. 30;
+ and thence to Fontainebleau, ii. 31;
+ Soubise's account of her painful indecision, ib.;
+ her letters to Conde imploring his help, ii., 31, 32;
+ is brought back to Paris, ii. 36;
+ Tavannes's view of her inclination to the Huguenots, ii. 39;
+ her terror, ii. 47;
+ unites in a declaration that the king is not in duress, ii. 54;
+ confers with Conde, with a view to peace, ii. 62;
+ her crafty negotiations, ii. 64;
+ her speech to Throkmorton respecting the English in Normandy, ii. 75;
+ delays Conde by negotiations before Paris, ii. 89;
+ her reply when consulted by the Triumvirs as to the propriety of
+ engaging the Huguenots, ii. 92, 93;
+ her exclamation on receiving false tidings from the battle of
+ Dreux, ii. 96;
+ her promises to Conde at the peace of Amboise, ii. 117;
+ Huguenot songs respecting, ii. 124;
+ her embarrassment in respect to the fulfilment of her
+ promises, ii. 137;
+ resolves to declare the majority of Charles IX., ii. 138;
+ she endeavors to seduce Conde from the Huguenots, ii. 144;
+ her alienation from the Huguenots, ii. 159, 160;
+ commands her maids of honor to go to mass, ii. 160;
+ her regulation respecting the deportment of gentlemen, ii. 160, note;
+ proposes the conference at Bayonne, ii. 167 (see Bayonne,
+ Conference of);
+ she opposes violent measures, ii. 172-176;
+ forbids Cardinal Lorraine to hold communication with Granvelle
+ and Chantonnay, ii. 181;
+ she gives assurances to Conde just before the outbreak of the second
+ civil war, ii. 198;
+ she favors the colonization of Florida by the Huguenots, ii. 199;
+ her resolute demands for satisfaction for the murder of the
+ colonists, ii. 201, 202;
+ she exonerates the Huguenots from disloyal acts and
+ intentions, ii. 219;
+ her treacherous diplomacy, ii. 220, 221;
+ again invokes Alva's help, ii. 222;
+ Cardinal Santa Croce, the papal nuncio, claims the fulfilment of her
+ promise to surrender Cardinal Chatillon to the Pope, ii. 228, 229;
+ she inclines toward peace, ii. 232;
+ she is never sincere, ii. 237;
+ her short-sightedness, ii. 238;
+ sides with L'Hospital's enemies, ii. 254;
+ her intrigues, ii. 255;
+ entreated by Charles IX. to avoid war, ii. 262;
+ her animosity against L'Hospital, whom she suspects of having prompted
+ her son, ii. 263;
+ she receives congratulations and sanguinary recommendations from Pope
+ Pius V., after the battle of Jarnac, ii. 308;
+ negotiates for peace, ii. 356;
+ her duplicity, ii. 358;
+ inclines to peace, ii. 360;
+ was she sincere in concluding the peace of Saint Germain? ii. 369;
+ her study of the example of Queen Blanche, ii. 370;
+ her character, according to Barbaro, ib.;
+ she is warned by the Queen of Navarre, ii. 373;
+ she proposes to substitute Alencon for Anjou, as suitor for the hand
+ of Queen Elizabeth, ii. 380;
+ her vexation at the fresh scruples of Anjou, ii. 383;
+ she treats the Queen of Navarre with tantalizing
+ insincerity, ii. 404, 405;
+ she awaits Queen Elizabeth's decision, ii. 413;
+ the rout of Genlis determines her to take the Spanish side, ii. 416;
+ she follows Charles IX. to Montpipeau and breaks down her son's
+ resolution, ii. 418, 420;
+ she is terrified by rumors of Elizabeth's desertion of her
+ allies, ii. 419;
+ her jealousy of Coligny's influence, ii. 433;
+ she and Anjou resolve to put him out of the way, ii. 434;
+ declares to the Huguenots that the attack on Coligny must be
+ punished, ii. 440;
+ she visits the wounded admiral, ii. 441;
+ looks with suspicion on the private conference of Charles and
+ Coligny, ii. 443;
+ she cuts it short, and on the way to the Louvre discovers the advice
+ of Coligny, ii. 444;
+ learning that Coligny's wound will not prove fatal, she adopts extreme
+ measures, ii. 446;
+ she plies Charles with arguments to terrify him into authorizing a
+ massacre of the Huguenots, ii. 447, 448;
+ he yields reluctantly, ii. 449;
+ Catharine takes the responsibility upon herself for only six
+ deaths, ii. 450;
+ goes down to the square in front of the Louvre, with her ladies,
+ to view the naked corpses of the Huguenot leaders, ii. 476;
+ persuades Charles to assume the responsibility of the
+ massacre, ii. 491;
+ her unsuccessful attempt to alienate the sympathy of Queen Elizabeth
+ from Coligny, ii. 547;
+ her lying representation of the massacre in the provinces as having
+ been contrary to the king's will, ib., note;
+ not influenced by religious motives, ii. 563;
+ spurious letter of, to Philip Strozzi, ii. 577;
+ her anxiety for the safety of Henry of Anjou, ii. 586;
+ her flight from St. Germain, ii. 626;
+ her delight at the capture of Count Montgomery, ii. 631, 632;
+ she obtains from Charles IX. the regency until the return of Henry
+ of Anjou from Poland, ii. 636.
+
+ Caturce, Jean de, executed at Toulouse, i. 150.
+
+ Caumont, Viscount of, ii. 230, note.
+
+ Cavaignes, his execution, Oct. 27, 1572, for alleged complicity in a
+ Huguenot conspiracy, ii. 548;
+ his magnanimity, ii. 549, note.
+
+ Cavalry, French, i. 10.
+
+ Caylus, Chevalier de, ii. 604.
+
+ Cecil urges Elizabeth to aid the Huguenots, and plans for this
+ effect, ii. 56;
+ on siege of Poitiers, ii. 325.
+ See Burleigh.
+
+ Cental, Vaudois villages belonging to the noble house of, i. 230, 246.
+
+ Chailly, M. de, ii. 439.
+
+ Chalons-sur-Marne, the call for Protestant ministers in the vicinity
+ of, i. 562.
+
+ "Chambre ardente," a separate and special chamber of parliament, to
+ try heresy, established first at Rouen, by Francis I., i. 274;
+ afterward at Paris, by Henry II., i. 275;
+ under Francis II., i. 366.
+
+ Champeaux, M. de, ii. 509.
+
+ Chancellor of France, his oath, i. 18.
+
+ Chancellor of the university, i. 22.
+
+ "Change of religion involves change of government," accepted as an
+ aphorism, i. 104, 126.
+
+ Chantonnay, ambassador of Philip II., alarmed at the violence of the
+ proscriptive plans formed before the death of Francis II., i. 441;
+ his insolent threats, ii. 29;
+ his boast that, with Throkmorton, he could overturn the state, ii. 181.
+
+ Chapot, John, a printer from Dauphiny, executed at Paris, i. 256.
+
+ Charente, the river, ii. 299.
+
+ Charite, La, on the Loire, ii. 324;
+ siege of, 325, 355.
+
+ Charles VII. publishes the Pragmatic Sanction, i. 29.
+
+ Charles VIII. confirms the privileges of La Rochelle, ii. 271.
+
+ Charles Maximilian, second son of Henry II., afterward king as
+ Charles IX., i. 415;
+ his accession, Dec. 5, 1560, i. 449;
+ transfer of power consequent upon, i. 450;
+ financial embarrassment and religious dissension, i. 453;
+ he writes to the magistrates of Geneva to stop the coming of
+ Protestant ministers, i. 463;
+ their prompt and complete vindication, i. 464;
+ he issues a new and tolerant order, i. 476;
+ which is opposed by parliament, i. 477;
+ publishes the "Edict of July," by which all Protestant
+ conventicles are still prohibited, i. 488;
+ his conversation with his mother about superstition and
+ innovation, i. 500, note;
+ orders the restitution of churches, i. 544;
+ hopes entertained by the Protestants respecting him, i. 557;
+ his curiosity as to the mass, i. 558;
+ his health, ib., note;
+ issues an order favorable to the Huguenots, i. 560;
+ publishes the "Edict of January," in accordance with which the
+ Huguenots cease to be outlaws, i. 576, 577;
+ retires from Monceaux to Melun, ii. 30;
+ and thence to Fontainebleau, ii. 31;
+ is hurried back to Paris by Navarre and Guise, ii. 36;
+ his declaration that he is not held in duress, ii. 54;
+ his edict of April 11, 1562, ostensibly re-enacting, but really
+ annulling the edict of January, ii. 57;
+ receives reinforcements from Germany and Switzerland, ii. 70, 71;
+ issues his edict of pacification, Amboise, March 19, 1563, terminating
+ the first civil war, ii. 115;
+ demands of Queen Elizabeth the restoration of Havre, ii. 126;
+ he proclaims his own majority, Rouen, Aug. 17, 1563, ii. 138;
+ he sternly reproves the refractory Parliament of Paris, ii. 139, 140;
+ his "progress" through France, ii. 157, seq.;
+ his interpretative edicts and declarations infringe upon the edict of
+ pacification, ii. 161, 162;
+ to Conde's appeal, ii. 162;
+ he makes a conciliatory reply, ii. 164;
+ he reconciles the inhabitants of Orange and the Comtat
+ Venaissin, ii. 165;
+ he reaches Bayonne, ii. 167 (see Bayonne, Conference of);
+ forbids the formation of confraternities, ii. 180;
+ his edict obtained by Chancellor L'Hospital, for the relief of the
+ scattered Huguenots, ii. 184, 185;
+ he is reported to have been threatened by Philip II. and the
+ Pope, ii. 195;
+ his flight from Meaux to Paris, at the outbreak of the second civil
+ war, ii. 207;
+ his sanguinary injunctions to Gordes, ii. 209, note;
+ he is alienated from the Huguenots by the attempt of Meaux, ii. 210;
+ is moved by Spain, Rome, and the Sorbonne, to decline further
+ negotiations with Conde, ii. 228;
+ he issues the edict of pacification, Longjumeau, March 23, 1568,
+ terminating the second civil war, ii. 234;
+ his indignation at a treacherous plan formed to violate the
+ peace, ii. 237;
+ his proclamation that he had not, in the edict of Longjumeau, intended
+ to include Auvergne, etc., ii. 244;
+ entreats his mother to avoid war, ii. 262;
+ his edicts of Sept., 1568, proscribing the reformed
+ religion, ii. 275, 276;
+ impolicy of this action, ii. 277;
+ attempt to make capital out of them, ib.;
+ receives congratulations and sanguinary injunctions from Pope Pius V.,
+ after the battle of Jarnac, ii. 308;
+ treats the Duke of Deux-Ponts' declaration with contempt, ii. 316;
+ rewards Maurevel for the murder of De Mouy with the collar of the
+ order, ii. 338;
+ his letter, ib.;
+ offers the Huguenots impossible terms, ii. 357, 358;
+ becomes strongly inclined to peace, ii. 360;
+ he issues the edict of pacification, Saint Germain, Aug. 2, 1570,
+ terminating the third civil war, ii. 363, seq.;
+ his earnestness as to the peace, ii. 370;
+ he tears out the record of proceedings against Cardinal Chatillon from
+ the parliamentary registers, ii. 371;
+ his assurances to Walsingham, ib.;
+ his gracious answer to the German princes, ii. 372;
+ he orders the "Croix de Gastines" to be taken down, ii. 375, 376;
+ indignant at the attempts to dissuade Anjou from marrying Queen
+ Elizabeth, ii. 379;
+ and at the affront received from Sebastian of Portugal, ib.;
+ his gracious reception of Coligny at Blois, ii. 389;
+ he intercedes with the Duke of Savoy in behalf of the Waldenses of
+ Piedmont, ii. 390;
+ he denies that he has seen Louis of Nassau at all, ii. 391;
+ expresses gratification at the progress of conciliation in his
+ dominions, ii. 392;
+ enters into a treaty of amity with Queen Elizabeth,
+ April 18, 1572, ii. 398;
+ his assurances to the Cardinal of Alessandria, ii. 400-403;
+ he expresses to Teligny his disgust with his present
+ counsellors, ii. 409;
+ his earnestness respecting the Navarre marriage, ii. 411;
+ publishes anew the edict of pacification, ib.;
+ the Flemish project inflames his imagination, ii. 411, 412;
+ the more after the capture of Valenciennes and Mons, ii. 412;
+ his mother, following him to Montpipeau, by her tears succeeds in
+ breaking down his resolution, ii. 418-420;
+ he is thoroughly cast down, ii. 420;
+ Coligny partially succeeds in reassuring him, ii. 421;
+ his anger at hearing that Alva had put some French soldiers to the
+ torture, ii. 433;
+ his menacing deportment toward Anjou, ii. 434;
+ he gives Coligny assurances that he will soon attend to Protestant
+ grievances, ii. 437;
+ his agitation on learning of Coligny's wound, ii. 439;
+ his promise of punishment, ii. 440;
+ he visits Admiral Coligny, ii. 441;
+ his private conference, ii. 443;
+ he reveals its character to the queen mother, ii. 444;
+ he writes to his governors and ambassadors expressing his extreme
+ displeasure at the infraction of his edict, ii. 445;
+ he is plied with arguments to frighten him into authorizing the
+ massacre of the Huguenots, ii. 447, 448;
+ he reluctantly consents, ii. 449;
+ but stipulates that not one Huguenot shall be spared to reproach
+ him, ib.;
+ sends Cosseins to guard Coligny, ii. 452;
+ issues orders to the prevot des marchands to seize the keys of the
+ gates, and the boats upon the Seine, ii. 454;
+ he commands Navarre and Conde to abjure Protestantism, ii. 468;
+ fires an arquebuse at the fleeing Huguenots, ii. 482;
+ he is waited upon by the municipal officers, ii. 486;
+ his first letter to Mandelot throwing the blame for the massacre upon
+ the Guises, ii. 490;
+ assumes the responsibility for the massacre, ii. 492;
+ his speech at the "lit de justice," ib.;
+ his words at Montfaucon, ii. 497;
+ he declares that he will maintain the edict of pacification, ii. 498;
+ change in his character after the massacre, ii. 499;
+ his letter of Aug. 26, 1572, to Mondoucet, predicting the massacre in
+ the provinces, ii. 502;
+ the verbal orders, ib.;
+ his declaration of Aug. 28, ib.;
+ his letter to Mandelot of Aug. 28, ii. 502, 503;
+ the double set of letters, ii. 504;
+ instigates the murder of French prisoners by the Duke of Alva, ii. 539;
+ his letters to La Mothe Fenelon, ii. 542, 543;
+ he profanes the day of his daughter's birth by witnessing the execution
+ of Briquemault and Cavaignes, ii. 549;
+ plots the destruction of Geneva, ii. 557;
+ his guilt in the eyes of the world, ii. 559;
+ disastrous effects of the massacre on the king himself, ii. 560, 561;
+ sends La Noue to treat with the Rochellois, ii. 579;
+ his joy at the election of Anjou as King of Poland, ii. 593;
+ issues his edict of pacification, Boulogne, July, 1573, terminating the
+ fourth civil war, ii. 593, 594;
+ takes part in the disgraceful "affair of Nantouillet," ii. 598, 599;
+ decline of his health, ii. 605;
+ his illness at Vitry le-Francais, ii. 606;
+ his last days, ii. 638;
+ distress of his young queen, ii. 636;
+ representations of Sorbin his confessor, ii. 637;
+ his death, May 30, 1574, ii. 637, 638;
+ his funeral rites, ii. 638, 639.
+
+ Charles, Duke of Orleans, youngest son of Francis I, represents himself
+ to the German princes as favoring the Reformation, i. 227, 228;
+ his death, i. 259.
+
+ Charlesfort, ii. 199.
+
+ Charpentier, Jacques, instigates the murder of his rival professor,
+ Pierre de la Ramee, or Ramus, ii. 478.
+
+ Charpentier, Pierre, a Protestant jurist, who escapes from the
+ Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day, bribed by the king to write a
+ justification of the massacre for circulation abroad, ii. 553, 593.
+
+ Chartres, besieged by the Huguenots under the Prince of Conde, ii. 231.
+
+ Chartres, Francois de Vendome, Vidame of, thrown into the
+ Bastile, i. 425.
+
+ Chartres, Jean de Ferrieres, Vidame of, ii. 220, 377;
+ advises the Huguenots to leave Paris, ii. 445, 451, 453;
+ escapes from the massacre, ii. 481-483.
+
+ Chartreuse, La Grande, ii. 621.
+
+ Chassanee, Barth. de, on church of the Virgin "pariturae," i. 59;
+ he declares "Lutheranism" in France suppressed, i. 137;
+ his defence of the "mice of Autun," i. 238;
+ his clemency to the Waldenses, ib.;
+ his definition of "haute justice," ii. 364, note.
+
+ Chassetiere, La, ii. 359.
+
+ Chastelier-Pourtaut de Latour, ii. 218, 292;
+ treacherously murdered at Jarnac, 304.
+
+ Chastre, M. de la, Governor of Berry, his noble letter to the
+ king refusing to put to death some captured
+ Huguenots, ii. 344, 345, note;
+ ii. 597, note;
+ lays siege to Sancerre, ii. 590;
+ his character, ii. 597, note.
+
+ Chataigneraie, Madame de la, ii. 472, 474, note.
+
+ Chateaubriand, edict of, June 27, 1551, i. 279;
+ its effects, i. 282.
+
+ Chatellain, Jean, of Metz, i. 114;
+ his trial and execution, i. 115, 116.
+
+ Chatellerault taken by the Huguenots, ii. 323.
+
+ Chatillon, Odet de, Cardinal, elder brother of Admiral Coligny,
+ appointed by Paul IV. one of the three inquisitors-general, i. 299;
+ his Protestant proclivities, ib.;
+ riot at Beauvais in consequence of the suspicion that he is a
+ Protestant, i. 474, seq.;
+ his communion under both forms, i. 499;
+ he is cited by the Pope, ii. 141;
+ the papal nuncio demands that the red cap be taken from him, ii. 182;
+ the constable assumes his defence, ii. 182, 183;
+ treats with Catharine, ii. 221;
+ Cardinal Santa Croce, the papal nuncio, claims the fulfilment
+ of Catharine de' Medici's promise to surrender him to the
+ Pope, ii. 229;
+ his escort of twenty horse, ib., note;
+ his reception by Queen Elizabeth, ii. 291;
+ his anxiety respecting the peace, ii. 363;
+ Charles IX tears out the record against him from the parliamentary
+ registers, ii. 371, 377;
+ death of, ii. 389.
+
+ Chatillon-sur-Loire, ii. 328.
+
+ Chavagnac, ii. 603.
+
+ Christaudins, a nickname for the French Protestants i. 330.
+
+ Christopher, Duke, younger son of the elector palatine, ii. 609, 610.
+
+ Churches, order for the restitution of the, i. 544;
+ the surrender of, urged by Beza, ii. 4.
+
+ Cipierre (Rene of Savoy, son of the Count of Tende), ii. 225;
+ murder of, ii. 248, 249.
+
+ Cities, privileges of, i. 9.
+
+ Clemangis, Nicholas de, i. 23, 63.
+
+ Clemency, spurious account of, ii. 525.
+
+ Clement VII., Pope, his brief and bull indorsing the Inquisitorial
+ Commission, i. 126, seq.;
+ gives lands of heretics to first comer, i. 128;
+ meets Francis I. at Marseilles, i 148;
+ proposes to him a crusade, i. 149.
+
+ Clergy, wealth and power of, i. 51;
+ plurality of benefices, ib.;
+ non-residence, i. 52;
+ revenues, ib.;
+ morals of, i. 53;
+ have no regard for the spiritual wants of the people, i. 53;
+ before the concordat, i. 54, 55;
+ aversion to use of the French language, i. 56;
+ ignorance of the Bible, i. 57;
+ sad straits of, i. 459;
+ alone, make no progress, i. 460.
+
+ Clerici, Nicholas, Dean of the Sorbonne, i. 256.
+
+ Clermont, murder at, ii. 249.
+
+ Clery, violence of the iconoclasts at, ii. 44.
+
+ Cleves, Marie of, daughter of the Duke of Nevers, marries Henry of
+ Conde, ii. 432, note;
+ permits the Protestants of Troyes to worship at Isle-au-Mont, ib.
+
+ Coconnas, a leading actor in the Massacre of St Bartholomew's Day,
+ his fate, ii. 562;
+ he is executed on the Place de Greve, ii. 628, 629.
+
+ Cocqueville, expedition of, into Flanders, and its fate, ii. 242, 243.
+
+ Coct, Anemond de, i. 83.
+
+ Cognac, ii. 283, 299, 300.
+
+ Cognat, or Cognac, village in Auvergne, near which the "Viscounts" defeat
+ the forces collected to oppose them, ii. 230.
+
+ Coin, a strange, i. 59.
+
+ Coligny, Gaspard de, Admiral of France, sends a Protestant colony to
+ Brazil, i. 291;
+ when converted to Protestantism, i. 292;
+ opposes the breaking of the truce of Vaucelles i. 297;
+ is consulted by Catharine de' Medici at the time of the Tumult of
+ Amboise, and gives her sound advice, i. 383, 384;
+ presents two Huguenot petitions at Fontainebleau, i. 416, 417;
+ his speech, i. 421;
+ Quintin forced to apologize to, i. 460;
+ he presents a Huguenot petition to the States General of
+ Orleans, i. 461;
+ declares that the "Edict of July" can never be executed, i. 484;
+ his reluctance to take up arms, ii. 34;
+ his wife's remonstrance, ii. 35;
+ his aversion to calling in foreign assistance, ii. 57;
+ his remarks on the discipline of the Huguenot army, ii. 67;
+ on the practicability of capturing Paris, ii. 88;
+ his success with the Huguenot right at Dreux, ii. 93, 94;
+ draws off the army after the defeat, to Orleans, ii. 95;
+ takes a number of places in Sologne, ii. 98;
+ returns to Normandy, ib.;
+ his successes, ii. 99;
+ he is accused by Poltrot of having instigated the murder of
+ Guise, ii. 105;
+ he vindicates his innocence, ii. 107;
+ his manly frankness, ib.;
+ his innocence established, ii. 108;
+ his defence espoused by Conde and the Montmorencies, ii. 135;
+ the petition of the Guises aimed at him, ii. 136;
+ the settlement of the feud delayed, ii. 137;
+ he comes to Paris, on Marshal Montmorency's invitation, ii. 167;
+ is likened by parliament to Pompey the Great, ib.;
+ is reconciled to the Guises at Moulins, ii. 184;
+ attempt to assassinate, ii. 194;
+ remonstrates with Catharine de' Medici, before the outbreak of the
+ second civil war, ii. 197;
+ projects the Huguenot colonization of Florida, ii. 199;
+ opposes taking up arms at the outbreak of the second civil
+ war, ii. 203;
+ at the battle of St. Denis, ii. 214;
+ opposes the peace of Longjumeau, ii. 235;
+ death of his wife, Charlotte de Laval, ii. 251;
+ he retires to Tanlay, ii. 252;
+ he is possibly the author of the spirited remonstrance attributed
+ to D'Andelot, ii. 252, 253;
+ attempt of court to ruin, ii. 256;
+ plot to seize, ii. 265;
+ his flight to La Rochelle, ii. 268;
+ his exclamation at the great success of the Huguenots at the beginning
+ of the third civil war, ii. 283;
+ his relations with the Prince of Conde, ii. 304;
+ after the death of Conde at Jarnac, draws off the cavalry to
+ Saintes, ii. 306;
+ his new responsibility, ii. 314;
+ his greatness, ii. 315;
+ success of a part of his army at La Roche Abeille, ii. 319;
+ his castle plundered, ii. 321;
+ wishes to lay siege to Saumur, ii. 324;
+ reluctantly consents to lay siege to Poitiers, ib.;
+ declared infamous by parliament, and a price set on his
+ head, ii. 330, 331;
+ his remarks upon the injuries done to him, ii. 331, note;
+ his army weakened, ii. 332;
+ starts to meet Montgomery, ib.;
+ wounded and defeated at Moncontour, ii. 332-336;
+ encouraged by L'Estrange, ii. 347;
+ his bold plan of march, ii. 348;
+ he sweeps through Guyenne, ii. 349;
+ his wonderful success, ii. 352;
+ turns toward Paris, ii. 353;
+ his illness interrupts negotiations, ib.;
+ he engages Marshal Cosse at Arnay-le-Duc, ii. 354;
+ approaches Paris, ii. 355, 356;
+ he is consulted respecting the Flemish project, ii. 386;
+ he marries his second wife, Jacqueline d'Entremont, ib.;
+ marriage of his daughter Louise de Chatillon to Teligny, ii. 387;
+ he accepts an invitation to come to court at Blois, ib.;
+ his honorable reception, ii. 389;
+ he receives a present of one hundred thousand livres from the
+ king, ib.;
+ revisits Chatillon-sur-Loing, ii. 408;
+ accepts the king's invitation to Paris, ii. 409;
+ he is remonstrated with as to his imprudence, but replies
+ magnanimously, ii. 409, 410;
+ he retains his courage after the rout of Genlis, ii. 417;
+ the memorial on the advantages of a Flemish war, ib.;
+ his magnanimity under discouragement, ii. 420;
+ he is partially successful in reassuring the king, ii. 421;
+ at the marriage of Henry of Navarre, ii. 428;
+ his last letter to his wife, ii. 430;
+ Catharine and Anjou resolve to despatch him, ii. 434;
+ they call in the Duchess of Nemours and Henry of Guise, ib.;
+ Coligny receives assurances from the king that he will soon pay
+ attention to the Huguenot complaints, ii. 447;
+ he is wounded by Maurevel, Aug. 22, 1572, ii. 438;
+ his intrepidity, ii. 440;
+ he is visited by Charles and Catharine, ii. 441-444;
+ he dictates letters to his friends, requesting them to remain
+ quiet, ii. 453;
+ his house is entered by Cosseins and his band, ii. 457;
+ he is stabbed by Besme and despatched by others, ii. 458;
+ his body is thrown into the court, where Henry of Guise recognizes
+ and kicks it, ii. 459;
+ his body is ignominiously treated, ib.;
+ the head is sent on to Rome, ii. 460;
+ his character and work, ib.;
+ his reluctance to resort to arms, ii. 461;
+ destruction of his papers, ib., note;
+ his will, ii. 462, note;
+ his ability as a general, ib.;
+ a remark ascribed to him by Lord Macaulay, ii. 463, note;
+ his daily life, ii. 463;
+ a patron of learning, ii. 464;
+ his integrity, ii. 465;
+ the attempt of Catharine to inculpate him, ii. 495;
+ his memory declared infamous, his castle razed, etc., ii. 496;
+ indignities to his remains, 496, 497;
+ his burial-place, ii. 497, note;
+ Walsingham defends his memory, ii. 547.
+
+ College Royal, founded, i. 43;
+ opposed by the Sorbonne, i. 44.
+
+ Colloquy of Poissy. See Poissy, Colloquy of.
+
+ Commission to try Lutherans, i. 124;
+ a new form of inquisition, i. 125;
+ its powers, i. 126;
+ indorsed and enlarged by the Pope, ib.
+
+ Compiegne, edict of July 24, 1557, i. 301.
+
+ Comtat Venaissin, i. 4;
+ history of, i. 231;
+ Montbrun in, i. 414;
+ the inhabitants of, reconciled by Charles IX. to those of
+ Orange, ii. 165;
+ included in the Huguenot scheme of organization, ii. 618.
+
+ Concordat of Leo X. and Francis I., i. 35, 36;
+ excites dissatisfaction, i. 37;
+ opposed by parliament, ib.;
+ reluctantly registered, i. 39;
+ opposed by the university, ib.;
+ advantageous to the crown, i. 41.
+
+ Conde, Henry, Prince of, son of Louis: he and his cousin, Henry
+ of Navarre, are recognized as generals-in-chief of the
+ Huguenots, ii. 314;
+ nicknamed "one of the admiral's pages," ib.;
+ at Moncontour, ii. 334;
+ at Paris, ii. 428, 439;
+ he is commanded by the king to abjure Protestantism, and
+ threatened, ii. 468;
+ his brave reply, ii. 469;
+ his forced conversion, ii. 498, 499;
+ he escapes to Germany, ii. 629, 630.
+
+ Conde, Louis de Bourbon, Prince of, favors the Reformation, i. 313;
+ his peril after the Tumult of Amboise, i. 393;
+ he is summoned by Francis II., ib.;
+ his defiance and Guise's offer, i. 394;
+ pressure upon him to come to Orleans, i. 432;
+ his infatuation, i. 435;
+ is arrested on his reaching court, i. 436;
+ his remark to his brother the Cardinal of Bourbon, ib.;
+ his courage, i. 437;
+ his wife repulsed, i. 438;
+ he is tried by a commission and is sentenced to death, i. 439, 440;
+ he is cleared by parliament, i. 465;
+ and reconciled to Guise, i. 466;
+ revives the courage of the Protestants at court, ii. 18;
+ he demands the punishment of the author of the massacre of
+ Vassy, ii. 26, 27;
+ meets Guise entering Paris, ii. 29;
+ receives letters from Catharine imploring his help, ii. 31, 32;
+ retires from Paris to Meaux, ii. 33;
+ his course justified by La Noue, ib.;
+ he is too weak to anticipate the Triumvirs at Fontainebleau, ii. 36;
+ throws himself into Orleans, ii. 38, 39;
+ publishes a justification of his assumption of arms, ii. 40;
+ his measures to repress iconoclasm, ii. 43, 45;
+ replies to the petition of the Triumvirs, ii. 59-61;
+ eloquence of the reply, ii. 61;
+ holds an interview with Catharine de' Medici, ii. 62;
+ "loans" Beaugency to the King of Navarre, ii. 63;
+ he retakes it, and furloughs a part of his army, ii. 66;
+ he takes the field, ii. 85;
+ is urged by the Protestant ministers to enforce morality in the
+ army, ii. 86;
+ captures Pithiviers, ii. 87;
+ appears before Paris, ib.;
+ his delay, ii. 89;
+ suffers himself to be amused with fruitless conferences, ii. 90, 91;
+ engages the enemy at Dreux, ii. 93;
+ is taken prisoner, ii. 94;
+ settles with the constable the terms of peace, ii. 113;
+ is deceived by the assurances of Catharine de' Medici, ii. 117;
+ he complains of the insolent speech of Damours, ii. 131;
+ he espouses the defence of Coligny against the Guises, ii. 135;
+ he is enticed by Catharine de' Medici, ii. 144;
+ his amorous intrigue with Isabeau de Limueil, ii. 145;
+ death of his wife, Eleonore de Roye, ib.;
+ he disappoints Catharine by remaining steadfast to the Huguenot
+ cause, ii. 146;
+ remonstrates with the government just before the outbreak of the second
+ civil war, ii. 197;
+ at St. Denis, ii. 209;
+ gives the battle of St. Denis, Nov. 10, 1567, ii. 213;
+ he is exonerated by Catharine de' Medici from the charge of disloyal
+ acts and intentions, ii. 219;
+ goes to meet the Germans, ii. 219, 220;
+ meets John Casimir and his army, ii. 222;
+ marches towards Orleans, ii. 223;
+ favors the peace of Longjumeau, ii. 235;
+ retires to Noyers, ii. 251;
+ attempt of court to ruin, ii. 256;
+ his answer, ii. 257;
+ plot to seize, ii. 265;
+ his last appeal, ii. 267;
+ his flight to La Rochelle, ii. 268;
+ his forces, ii. 285;
+ goes into winter quarters, ii. 286;
+ endeavors to join the auxiliaries from the south, ii. 299;
+ is wounded and treacherously killed in the battle of Jarnac,
+ March 13, 1569, ii. 301, 302;
+ his character, ii. 303, 304;
+ his body treated with ignominy, ii. 306, 307.
+
+ Conference, rumored, between Roman Catholic princes, for the extirpation
+ of heresy, ii. 156.
+
+ Confession of faith of the French Protestant churches, i. 335.
+
+ Confraternities, institution of, ii. 179;
+ forbidden by Charles IX., ii. 180;
+ Tavannes favors the revival of, ii. 246;
+ the "Christian and Royal League" formed at Troyes, ib.
+
+ Contarini, a Venetian ambassador, his estimate of Admiral Coligny as a
+ general, ii. 462, 463.
+
+ Controversial pamphlets against the Protestants, i. 311, 312.
+
+ Conty, ii. 428.
+
+ Cop, Rector, his extraordinary address before the university, i. 153;
+ his threatened arrest and flight, i. 154.
+
+ Coras, Jean, a Protestant member of the Parliament of Toulouse, put to
+ death, ii. 522.
+
+ Cornu, Pierre, his remark on Pauvan's speech, i. 92.
+
+ Correro, Venetian ambassador, on the number of Huguenots murdered during
+ the short peace, ii. 250;
+ on Catharine de' Medici, ii. 370.
+
+ Cosse, Marshal, ii. 220, 289, 334;
+ engages Coligny at Arnay-le-Duc, ii. 354;
+ negotiates for peace, ii. 356;
+ the king's estimate of, ii. 409;
+ thrown into the Bastile, ii. 628.
+
+ Cosseins sent with fifty guards ostensibly for Coligny's
+ protection, ii. 452.
+
+ Cosset, an agent in the massacre at Meaux, ii. 505-507.
+
+ Coucy, declaration of, July 16, 1535, extends a partial
+ forgiveness, i. 179.
+
+ Coudray, M. de, his courageous and pious death, ii. 510.
+
+ Courault, an evangelical preacher, i. 151.
+
+ Court of France, change in its sentiments respecting the
+ Reformation, i. 195;
+ fatal error of, ii. 339;
+ flight from Saint Germain, ii. 626.
+
+ Courtenay, the Sieur de, ii. 192.
+
+ Courtene, Baron de, decapitated, ii. 330.
+
+ Courteville, or Courtewille, secretary of Philip II., sent on a secret
+ mission, i. 568.
+
+ "Cramp-rings," their use, i. 100.
+
+ Crevant, the Protestants of, attacked, ii. 162.
+
+ Croc, Du, French ambassador in Scotland, ii. 550.
+
+ Croquet, Nicholas, put to death at Paris, for celebrating the Lord's
+ Supper, ii. 329.
+
+ Crusade, a, preached at Toulouse, ii. 278;
+ is indorsed by a papal bull, ii. 279.
+
+ Crussol, Antoine de, Count, appointed by a political assembly at
+ Nismes, head and conservator of the reformed party in
+ Languedoc, ii. 86;
+ cf. ii. 283.
+
+ Crussol, Madame de, her remark to Cardinal Lorraine, i. 505.
+
+ Cuniga, Don Juan de, Spanish envoy at Rome, denies the premeditation
+ of the Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day, ii. 535.
+
+ Curee, royal governor of Vendome, killed by the Roman Catholic
+ noblesse, ii. 162.
+
+
+ D.
+
+ Damours, advocate-general in the Parliament of Rouen, makes a violent
+ and seditious speech before Charles IX. at Gaillon, ii. 131;
+ on Conde's complaint he is arrested, ib.
+
+ Damville, Marshal, ii. 255, 428, 441, 599, 604, 628.
+
+ Dauphin, Prince, name given to the son of the Duke of
+ Montpensier, ii. 343.
+
+ Dauphiny, orders for the extermination of the Huguenots in, sent out
+ in the name of Francis II., i. 406;
+ disorders and bloodshed in, ii. 47;
+ troops of, withdraw from the west, ii. 348;
+ Gordes refuses to massacre the Protestants of, ii. 526;
+ demands of the tiers etat of, ii. 603;
+ exploits of Montbrun in, ii 621, 622.
+
+ Dax, massacre in the prisons of, ii. 528, note.
+
+ Decemvirate, the bloody, i. 321.
+
+ Declarations, royal. See Edicts.
+
+ Dehors, a merchant of Rouen, hung for reproving the seditious
+ populace, i. 445.
+
+ Demochares, or De Mouchy, a doctor of the Sorbonne and an inquisitor
+ of the faith, his controversial pamphlet, i. 311.
+
+ Desire, Artus, despatched by the Sorbonne to invoke the aid of
+ Philip II., i. 467, 468.
+
+ Deux Ponts, reinforcements to the Huguenots from, ii. 71;
+ the Duke of, comes with German auxiliaries, ii. 315;
+ his declaration treated with contempt by Charles IX., ii. 316;
+ succeeds in penetrating France, and bringing to Coligny
+ reinforcements, ii. 317;
+ his death, ii. 318, 364.
+
+ Diana of Poitiers, Duchess of Valentinois, i. 261, 262;
+ the infatuation of Henry II. for her, 262;
+ undertakes to silence a poor tailor arrested as a
+ Protestant, i. 277;
+ instigates persecution in order to secure the confiscated property
+ of the Protestants, i. 282;
+ is dismissed from court on the accession of Francis II., i. 349.
+
+ Dieppe, Protestant assemblies in, i. 408;
+ great Protestant "temple" destroyed, ib.
+
+ "Dieu de Pate," an opprobrious designation of the Roman Catholic
+ host, ii. 121.
+
+ Domfront, ii. 632.
+
+ Douen, O., author of Clement Marot et le Psautier huguenot, ii. 347.
+
+ "Dragonnades," ii. 244.
+
+ Dreux, the battle of, Dec. 19, 1562, ii. 93, seq.;
+ mistakes of both sides at, 95, note.
+
+ Du Chesne, or Quercu, i. 23, 50.
+
+ Duprat, Cardinal, i. 109, 123.
+
+
+ E.
+
+ Ebeling, F. W., ii. 569.
+
+ Ecclesiastical discipline adopted by the French Protestant
+ churches, i. 336.
+
+ Ecouen, the magnificent seat of the Montmorency family, i. 353.
+
+ Edicts, Declarations, and Ordinances, Royal:
+ Edict of Francis I., January 13, 1535, abolishing the art of
+ printing, i. 169;
+ declaration of Coucy, July 16, 1535, extending partial
+ forgiveness, i. 179;
+ edict of Lyons, May 31, 1536, i. 192;
+ edict of Fontainebleau, June 1, 1540, cutting off appeal, i. 218;
+ letters patent of Lyons, August 30, 1542, enjoining vigilance, i. 220;
+ ordinance of Paris, July 23, 1543, defining the provinces of the
+ lay and ecclesiastical judges, and making heresy punishable as
+ sedition, i. 221, 222;
+ Henry II.'s edict of Fontainebleau, Dec. 11, 1547, against books from
+ Geneva, i. 275;
+ edict of Paris, Nov. 19, 1549, conferring power of arrest for heresy
+ upon the ecclesiastical judges, i. 278;
+ edict of Chateaubriand, June 27, 1551, removing appeal from the
+ presidial judges, i. 279;
+ edicts establishing the Spanish Inquisition in France,
+ 1555, i. 287, 288;
+ edict of Compiegne, July 24, 1557, confirming the papal appointment
+ of three inquisitors-general, i. 300, 312;
+ Francis II.'s edict of amnesty, Amboise, March, 1560, i. 385;
+ restrictive edict of March 22, 1560, i. 390;
+ edict of Romorantin, May, 1560, continuing the
+ persecution, i. 410, 411;
+ Charles IX.'s letters-patent, Fontainebleau, April 19, 1561, enjoining
+ toleration and permitting the return of exiles, i. 476, 477;
+ "Edict of July," July 11, 1561, forbidding conventicles, etc., i. 483;
+ edict for the restitution of the churches, Oct. 18, 1561, i. 544;
+ royal letters interpreting previous edicts, i. 561;
+ "Edict of January," January 17, 1562, recognizing Huguenot
+ rights, i. 576, 577;
+ declaration of the king that he is not in duress, ii. 54;
+ edict of April 11, 1562, ostensibly re-enacting, but really annulling
+ the edict of January, ii. 57;
+ edict of pacification, Amboise, March 19, 1563, terminating the first
+ civil war, ii. 115;
+ restrictive declarations infringing upon the edict of
+ Amboise, ii. 160, 161;
+ declaration of Roussillon, Aug. 4, 1564, ii. 161, 162;
+ other declarations, ii. 162, note;
+ edict, in 1566, for the relief of the scattered
+ Huguenots, ii. 184, 185;
+ edict of pacification, Longjumeau, March 23, 1568, terminating the
+ second civil war, ii. 234;
+ Charles IX. throws the edicts of pacification into the fire, ii. 276;
+ proscriptive edicts of Sept., 1568, ib.;
+ edict of pacification, Saint Germain, Aug. 8, 1570, terminating the
+ third civil war, ii. 363-365;
+ edict of pacification, Boulogne, July, 1573, terminating the fourth
+ civil war, ii. 593, 594.
+
+ Edward III., of England, confirms the privileges of La Rochelle, ii. 271.
+
+ Eidgenossen, explanation of name of Huguenots, i. 397.
+
+ Elbeuf, Marquis of, i. 269.
+
+ Elector Palatine, Frederick III., the Pious, intercedes for Anne du
+ Bourg, and desires to make him professor of law in the University
+ of Heidelberg, i. 371;
+ sends theologians to France, who come too late for the Colloquy
+ of Poissy, i. 544;
+ sends his son, John Casimir, to help the Huguenots in the second
+ civil war, ii. 218;
+ he previously sends Zuleger to see the state of affairs in
+ France, ii. 218, 219;
+ receives Henry of Anjou, king elect of Poland, at Heidelberg, ii. 610.
+
+ Elizabeth, Queen, of England, her help invoked, ii. 55, 71;
+ her hard conditions, ii. 73;
+ her declaration, Sept. 20, 1562, ii. 74;
+ her aid rather damages than furthers the Protestant cause, ib.;
+ her letter to Mary of Scots, ii. 76;
+ her tardy recognition of the importance of the Huguenot
+ struggle, ii. 117;
+ she is summoned to restore Havre, ii. 126;
+ her misgivings as to helping the Huguenots in the third civil
+ war, ii. 294;
+ her double-dealing and effrontery, ii. 295-297;
+ her coldness after the Huguenot defeat at Jarnac, ii. 310;
+ projected marriage with the Duke of Anjou, ii. 377, seq.;
+ proposition to substitute Alencon, ii. 380;
+ Anjou's new ardor, ib.;
+ she interposes obstacles, ib.;
+ the Anjou match abandoned, 396;
+ Alencon suggested in his place and duly lauded, ii. 398;
+ enters into a treaty of amity with France, April 18, 1572, ii. 398;
+ her perversity, ib., note;
+ she inspires the French with no confidence, ii. 414;
+ rumors that she means to desert her allies, ii. 419, 420;
+ she toys with dishonorable proposals from the Netherlands, ii. 422;
+ her cold reception of La Mothe Fenelon after the massacre, ii. 543;
+ declaration of her council, ii. 544;
+ she censures Charles IX. for profaning the day of his
+ daughter's birth by witnessing the execution of Briquemault
+ and Cavaignes, ii. 549, 550;
+ she secretly sends assistance to La Rochelle, ii. 588;
+ she disowns the enterprise of Montgomery after its failure, ib.;
+ she refuses to become executioner for the King of France, ii. 589.
+
+ England, divided sympathies of the English, ii. 56;
+ generous response of the English people, ii. 292;
+ its horror at the Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day, ii. 541;
+ great irritation in, ii. 545.
+
+ English rebellion, the, encourages the French court in the war against
+ the Huguenots, ii. 358.
+
+ Entremont, Jacqueline d', marries Admiral Coligny, ii. 386.
+
+ Epilepsy cured by kings and queens of England, i. 100.
+
+ Escars, D', a treacherous servant of Antoine, King of Navarre, ii. 9.
+
+ Esnay, the inhumanity of the monks of, ii. 517.
+
+ Espense, Claude d', speech of, at the Colloquy of Poissy, i. 532;
+ confers with the Protestants, i. 538.
+
+ Espine, Jean de l', a converted Carmelite monk, and a minister at the
+ Colloquy of Poissy i. 509, 510;
+ in the Conference of Saint Germain, 539;
+ his escape on St. Bartholomew's Day, ii. 477.
+
+ Essarts, in Poitou, persecution at, i. 216.
+
+ Este, Anne d', daughter of Renee de France, married successively to
+ the Duke of Guise and the Duke of Nemours, at the hollow
+ reconciliation at Moulins, ii. 184;
+ she enters readily into the plan for assassinating Admiral
+ Coligny, ii. 434, 435.
+
+ Esternay, M. d', his residence burned, ii. 239;
+ comes to the help of the Huguenots, ii. 315.
+
+ Estrange, L', encourages Coligny, ii. 347.
+
+ Estrapade, an ingenious contrivance for prolonging the torture of
+ Protestant martyrs, i. 177, 178.
+
+ Etampes captured by Conde, ii. 87;
+ retaken by Guise, ii. 97.
+
+ Etienne, or Stephens, Robert, on the ignorance of the Bible on the
+ part of the clergy, i. 57.
+
+ Expiatory procession, the great, of January 21, 1535, i. 173-176.
+
+
+ F.
+
+ Faculty of Arts, its displeasure at the proceedings against the rector,
+ Nicholas Cop, i. 154.
+
+ Farel, Guillaume, i. 68;
+ his devotion, i. 69;
+ invited to Meaux, i. 73;
+ goes to Dauphiny, i. 83;
+ at Montbeliard, i. 117;
+ intercession of Berne for his relatives, i. 156;
+ probably not the author of the placard of 1534, i. 164;
+ labors in Geneva, i. 197;
+ urges Calvin to remain at Geneva, i. 208;
+ his recollections, i. 209;
+ his efforts for the persecuted at Paris, i. 309;
+ his liturgy, i. 342.
+
+ "Fashion of Geneva," the, i. 341, seq.
+
+ Fat, human, put to a new use by an apothecary of Lyons, ii. 517.
+
+ Faur, Du, his speech in the "mercuriale" of 1559, i. 334;
+ his arrest, i. 335.
+
+ Ferralz, M. de, ii. 534.
+
+ Ferrara, Duchess of. See Renee de France.
+
+ Ferrara, Ippolito d'Este, Cardinal of, sent as legate to France, i. 548;
+ his character, i. 550;
+ his reception by the French people, i. 550, 551;
+ Chancellor L'Hospital opposes his recognition, i. 551, 552;
+ his intrigues and success, i. 552, 553;
+ ii. 17.
+
+ Feudal system, decline of, i. 5.
+
+ Fiefs, absorbed in royal domain, i. 8.
+
+ Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, writes against Lefevre, i. 71.
+
+ Five scholars of Lausanne, the, martyrdom of, i. 283, seq.
+
+ Florida, the Huguenot attempts to colonize, ii. 199;
+ the first expedition, 1562, ii. 199;
+ the second expedition, 1564, ii. 199, 200;
+ the third expedition and its disastrous close, ii. 200;
+ efforts of the French government to obtain satisfaction from
+ Philip II., ii. 201, 202;
+ sanguinary revenge of Dominique de Gourgues, ii. 202.
+
+ Florimond de Raemond, his remarks on the effects of the execution of Du
+ Bourg and others, i. 373, 374.
+
+ Foix, Catharine de, her remark to John d'Albret, i. 107.
+
+ Foix, M. de, ii. 398.
+
+ Foix, progress of Protestantism in, i. 562.
+
+ Folion, Nicholas, a minister at the Colloquy of Poissy, i. 509.
+
+ Fontaine, M. de la, writes a lying account of the French massacre, in
+ order to deceive the Swiss, ii. 558.
+
+ Fontainebleau, the assembly of notables, August 21, 1560, i. 415;
+ speech of Chancellor L'Hospital, i. 416;
+ Admiral Coligny presents two petitions for the Huguenots, i. 416, 417;
+ speeches of Montluc, i. 418;
+ of Marillac, i. 420;
+ of Coligny, i. 421;
+ rejoinder of Guise, i. 422;
+ speech of Cardinal Lorraine, i. 423;
+ the results, i. 424;
+ the States General to be convened, and, meantime, all punishment for
+ the matter of religion to cease, ib.
+
+ Fontainebleau, edict of, given by Francis I., June 1, 1540, i. 218;
+ by Henry II., Dec. 11, 1547, i. 275;
+ letters-patent of, by Charles IX., April 19, 1561, i. 477.
+
+ Fontenay, ii. 361.
+
+ Fontenille, ii. 575.
+
+ Fool, court, sensible remark of the, i. 351.
+
+ Forquevaulx, French ambassador at Madrid, insists upon satisfaction for
+ the murder of the Huguenot colonists in Florida, ii. 201.
+
+ Fosse, Vore de la, sent on a mission to Melanchthon, i. 182.
+
+ France, at accession of Francis I., i. 3;
+ territorial development, i. 4;
+ subdivision in tenth century, i. 5;
+ foremost kingdom of Christendom, i. 6;
+ contrast with England, i. 7;
+ assimilation of language, etc., i. 8;
+ military resources, i. 10;
+ infested by highwaymen, i. 44;
+ changes in boundaries during the sixteenth century, i. 66;
+ population of in the sixteenth century, ii. 159.
+
+ Francis I., his reply to Charles V., i. 14;
+ and to Montmorency, i. 15;
+ his concordat with the Pope, i. 35;
+ haughty demeanor toward the parliament, i. 38;
+ and university, i. 39;
+ his acquirements overrated, i. 42;
+ patronage of art, ib.;
+ founds the College Royal, i. 43;
+ interferes for Lefevre, i. 72;
+ his personal appearance, i. 99;
+ character and tastes, i. 100, 101;
+ he is said miraculously to cure the king's evil, ib.;
+ contrasted with Charles V., i. 101;
+ his religious convictions, and fear of innovation, i. 102;
+ loose morals, i. 103, 104;
+ anxiety for papal support, i. 104;
+ at Madrid, abdicates in favor of the dauphin, i. 107;
+ his captivity, i. 122;
+ he violates his pledges to Charles V., i. 134;
+ his pecuniary straits, i. 135;
+ assembles the notables ib.;
+ promises to prove himself "Very Christian," i. 137;
+ treats with the Germans, i. 147;
+ and with Henry VIII., i. 148;
+ his interview with Clement VII., ib.;
+ declines the Pope's proposal of a crusade, i. 149;
+ rejects the intercession of the Bernese, i. 155;
+ his letter to the Bishop of Paris ordering him to authorize
+ two counsellors of parliament to proceed against the
+ "Lutherans,", i. 156;
+ favorably impressed by Melanchthon's plan of reconciliation, i. 162;
+ his anger when a copy of the placard of 1534 is posted on his
+ bedchamber door, i. 167;
+ which is enhanced by political considerations, i. 168;
+ his disgraceful edict abolishing the art of printing i. 169;
+ the edict suspended, i. 170;
+ orders an expiatory procession, i. 173;
+ he takes part in it with great apparent devoutness, i. 175;
+ his memorable speech in the episcopal palace, i. 176;
+ his declaration of Coucy, July 16, 1535, extending a partial
+ forgiveness, i. 179;
+ is said to have been begged by Paul III. to moderate his
+ cruelty, i. 180;
+ his clemency dictated by policy, i. 181;
+ his letter to the German princes in extenuation of his
+ conduct, i. 182;
+ formally invites Melanchthon, i. 184;
+ acquiesces in the Sorbonne's condemnation of Melanchthon's
+ articles, i. 188;
+ his representations through Du Bellay to the German princes at
+ Smalcald, i. 188;
+ Du Bellay makes, in his name, a Protestant confession, i. 189;
+ he does not deceive the Germans, i. 190;
+ his edict of Lyons, May 31, 1536, i. 192;
+ rejects the intercession of Strasbourg, Zurich, and Berne, ib.;
+ his orthodoxy no longer questioned, i. 194;
+ how viewed by the reformers in his later days, i. 195;
+ issues the edict of Fontainebleau, June 1, 1540, cutting off
+ appeal, i. 218;
+ his letters-patent from Lyons, August 30, 1542, i. 220;
+ his declaration at Angouleme, respecting "sacramentarians," i. 221;
+ his ordinance of Paris, July 23, 1543, making heresy punishable as
+ treason, i. 221;
+ gives force of law to the Sorbonne's Twenty-five Articles, i. 224;
+ sends a letter of pardon to the Waldenses of Provence, i. 241;
+ delays the execution of the Arret de Merindol, i. 243;
+ is led by calumnious accusations to revoke his order, i. 244;
+ his death, i. 258;
+ impartial estimates of his character, ib.;
+ his three sons, i. 259;
+ confirms the privileges of La Rochelle, ii. 271.
+
+ Francis, the dauphin, son of Francis I., his death, i. 259.
+
+ Francis II., eldest son of Henry II., and husband of Mary, Queen of
+ Scots: his accession, i. 347;
+ his edict of amnesty, i. 385;
+ makes the Duke of Guise his lieutenant-general, with absolute
+ power, i. 389, 390;
+ extends the terms of the amnesty, i. 390;
+ but explains it away by another edict, i. 390, 391;
+ he is visibly affected by the executions of Amboise, i. 392;
+ he is made to order the extermination of the Huguenots of
+ Dauphiny, i. 406;
+ issues the edict of Romorantin, i. 410;
+ universal commotion in his kingdom, i. 413, 414;
+ he convokes the notables at Fontainebleau, i. 415;
+ declares that he takes Coligny's presentation of the Huguenot
+ petition in good part, i. 417;
+ is urged to stab Antoine, King of Navarre, but cannot muster
+ courage to do it, i. 440, 441;
+ sends for Navarre and Conde, i. 425;
+ orders the arrest and trial of Conde, i. 436;
+ further designs for the extermination of the Huguenots before the
+ termination of his reign, i. 444, 442;
+ his failing health, i. 442;
+ his death, i. 444;
+ saves the Huguenots, i. 449;
+ recognized as a direct answer to their prayers, i. 450;
+ his mean funeral obsequies, "the enemy of the Huguenots being buried
+ like a Huguenot," ib.
+
+ "Franco-Gallia," by Francois Hotman, a book touching on the royal
+ authority, ii. 615.
+
+ Francour, Francoeur, or Francourt, goes with Beza to demand punishment
+ for the massacre of Vassy, ii. 27, 218.
+
+ Frederick III., the Pious. See Elector Palatine.
+
+ Freer, Miss, on Coligny's reception at Blois, and his alleged
+ alarm, ii. 389, note.
+
+ French language, aversion of clergy for, i. 56.
+
+ Fribourg, the canton of, ii. 557.
+
+ "Fribours," a nickname for the Protestants, i. 398.
+
+ Froissy, his outrageous conduct toward M d'Esternay, ii. 239.
+
+ Froment, the reformer, labors in Geneva, i. 197.
+
+ Frontenay, or Fontenay, M. de, escapes from the massacre, ii. 481-483;
+ negotiates with Biron, ii. 623.
+
+ "Fronts d'airain," ii. 603.
+
+ Froude, James Anthony, mistakes in his account of the Colloquy of
+ Poissy, i. 497, note;
+ his singularly inaccurate account of French affairs about the time of
+ the massacre of Vassy, ii. 25, 26;
+ his error respecting Cardinal Chatillon, ii. 291, note;
+ his remarks on the fatal policy of Queen Elizabeth, ii. 423.
+
+
+ G.
+
+ Gaillard, Captain, his blasphemy and fury at the massacre in
+ Orleans, ii. 570, 571.
+
+ Gallars, Nicholas des, a minister at the Colloquy of Poissy, i. 509;
+ takes part in the Conference of Saint Germain, i. 539.
+
+ Gallican liberties, the, i. 25.
+
+ Garde, Baron de la. See Poulain.
+
+ Garnier, M., incorrectly estimates the Huguenots as constituting
+ nearly one-third of the population of France, ii. 159.
+
+ Garrisons in Huguenot towns, ii. 244.
+
+ Gastines, Abbe de, executed by order of Conde, by way of
+ retaliation, ii. 80.
+
+ "Gastines, Croix de," ii. 329;
+ erected on the site of the house of the Gastines, put to death for
+ having celebrated the Lord's Supper, ib.;
+ character of the elder Gastines, ii. 330;
+ the cross taken down by order of the king, ii. 375, 376.
+
+ Geneva becomes the centre of Protestant activity, i. 196;
+ secures its independence with the assistance of Francis I. and the
+ Bernese, i. 197;
+ according to the Venetian Suriano "the mine from which the ore of
+ heresy is extracted," i. 214;
+ war upon books from, i. 280;
+ the "Five from Geneva" executed at Chambery, i. 297;
+ danger menacing the city, i. 326;
+ a joint expedition against it proposed by Henry II., but declined by
+ the Duke of Alva, i. 327;
+ character and influence of the ministers from, i. 402;
+ their numbers, i. 403;
+ books from, destroyed, i. 428;
+ the children in Languedoc, according to Villars, all know the Geneva
+ catechism by heart, i. 429;
+ Charles IX. writes to the magistrates of Geneva to stop the coming of
+ Protestant ministers, i. 463;
+ their answer, i. 464;
+ sympathy of the citizens for the Huguenots escaped from the Massacre
+ of St. Bartholomew's Day, ii. 554, seq.;
+ a fast appointed at ii. 555;
+ its hospitality and danger, ii. 557;
+ good advice given to Nismes, ib.;
+ the city saved by the illness of Charles IX., ib.
+
+ Geneva, Little, a part of Paris so called from the number of Protestants
+ inhabiting it, i. 361;
+ pretended orgies in, i. 365.
+
+ Genlis, a knight of the Order, forsakes Conde and goes over to the
+ enemy, ii. 90, 91.
+
+ Genlis, Jean de Hangest, Seigneur de, ii. 384;
+ rout of July 19, 1572, ii. 415;
+ he is taken prisoner, ib.;
+ his death, ib., note.
+
+ German Protestant princes are not deceived by Du Bellay's representations
+ in the name of Francis I., i. 190;
+ nor by those of the Duke of Orleans, i. 228;
+ intercede for the Vaudois of Provence, i. 242;
+ for the persecuted Protestants, i. 313, 314;
+ their aid invoked by the Huguenots in the second civil war, ii. 217;
+ intercession of the, ii. 362;
+ after the massacre, ii. 551, seq.
+
+ German troops, insubordination of, ii. 332.
+
+ Germany, rumors of treacherous designs on the part of France after the
+ Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day, ii. 611, note.
+
+ Gerson, John, i. 23, 64.
+
+ Giustiniano, Marino, the Venetian ambassador reports the reasons
+ Francis I. had assigned to him for abating the severity of
+ the persecution of the Protestants, i. 181.
+
+ Glandage, M. de, plunders the city of Orange, ii. 620;
+ declares that only the point of his sword is Huguenot, ii. 621.
+
+ Gondy, Albert de. See Retz.
+
+ Gordes, Governor of Dauphiny, refuses to allow the Protestants to be
+ massacred, ii. 526.
+
+ Goudimel, an excellent musician, sets the psalms of Marot and Beza to
+ music in several parts, ii. 517, note;
+ he is murdered, ib.
+
+ Governors, royal, oppression of Protestants by, ii. 245.
+
+ Grandfief, M. de, ii. 617.
+
+ Grand Marche, a part of Meaux inhabited by Huguenots, massacre
+ at, ii. 505-507.
+
+ Granvelle, Cardinal, his conference with the Cardinal of
+ Lorraine, i. 315.
+
+ Gravelines, the rout of, i. 321.
+
+ Gregory XIII., Pope, receives the submission of the King of Navarre
+ and the Prince of Conde, recognizes the validity of their
+ marriages, and admits them to his favor, by a bull of
+ Oct. 27, 1572, ii. 500;
+ his incredulity as to the "pious" intentions of Charles IX. and
+ Catharine de' Medici, ii. 530, 564;
+ orders public rejoicings at Rome over the news of the massacre of
+ the Protestants, ii. 531, 532;
+ commemorative medals, ii. 532;
+ commemorative paintings by Vasari, ii. 533;
+ his extravagant expressions of joy, ii. 534;
+ gives audience to Maurevel, ib.
+
+ Grignan, Count de, Governor of Provence, i. 245.
+
+ Grimaudet, Francois, representative of the tiers etat of Anjou, his
+ scathing exposure of the morals of the clergy, i. 430.
+
+ Gualtieri, Sebastiano, Bishop of Viterbo, nuncio to France, i. 548;
+ his despondency and recall, i. 548, 549;
+ hated by Catharine de' Medici, on account of his boorish ways, i. 552.
+
+ Guerchy, ii. 317, 438;
+ he defends himself on St. Bartholomew's Day, but is overpowered and
+ killed, ii. 472, 475.
+
+ Guilloche Jean de, a Protestant member of the Parliament of Bordeaux,
+ killed, ii. 524.
+
+ Guillotiere, Faubourg de la, at Lyons, ii. 516.
+
+ Guise, the family of, i. 266;
+ warning of Francis I. against, ib.
+
+ Guise, Claude, Duke of, i. 266;
+ his six sons, i 268.
+
+ Guise, Francis, Duke of, i. 261;
+ his great credit with Henry II., i. 268, 269;
+ his character, i. 269;
+ captures the city of Calais, i. 312;
+ his great power on the accession of Francis II., i. 351, 352;
+ indignation against him and his brother, i. 375;
+ their confidence before the Tumult of Amboise, i. 382;
+ the Duke is made lieutenant-general of the kingdom, i. 389, 390;
+ his perplexity, i. 413;
+ his angry rejoinder to Coligny at the assembly of
+ Fontainebleau, i. 422;
+ he and Lorraine make advances to Catharine de' Medici, which she
+ refuses, i. 443;
+ their alarm on the accession of Charles IX., i. 450;
+ with Montmorency and St. Andre forms the Triumvirate, i. 470, 471;
+ his exultation over the "Edict of July," i. 484;
+ goes with his brothers to meet the Duke of Wuertemberg at
+ Saverne, ii. 13;
+ his lying assurances, ii. 15;
+ he proceeds to Vassy, ii. 21;
+ where a bloody massacre takes place, ii. 22;
+ pamphlets respecting the massacre, ii. 22, 23;
+ he attempts to vindicate himself from being the author of the
+ massacre, ii. 24;
+ is forbidden by Catharine de' Medici to enter Paris, but is invited
+ to come with a small suite to court, ii. 27;
+ makes a triumphal entry into Paris, ii. 28;
+ meets Conde and the Protestants going to a "preche," ii. 29;
+ brings Charles IX. and Catharine de' Medici back to Paris, ii. 36;
+ sends for foreign aid, ii. 54;
+ reply of his adherents to Conde's declaration, ii. 58;
+ an intercepted letter of, ii. 65, note;
+ his good generalship at Dreux, ii. 94;
+ retakes Pithiviers and Etampes, ii. 97;
+ lays siege to Orleans, ii. 99;
+ captures the Portereau, ii. 100;
+ is shot by Poltrot, Feb 18, 1563, ii. 103;
+ Beza and Coligny, accused of having instigated the murder, vindicate
+ themselves, ii. 105, seq.;
+ his character, ii. 109, 110, 112;
+ The petition of his family aimed at Coligny, ii. 136;
+ the settlement of the feud delayed, ii. 137;
+ the hollow reconciliation at Moulins, ii. 184. See Triumvirs.
+
+ Guise, Henry, Duke of, son of Francis, throws himself into
+ Poitiers, ii. 324;
+ marries Catharine of Cleves, widow of Prince Porcien, ii. 432;
+ his aid called in by Catharine de' Medici and Anjou in the
+ assassination of Coligny, ii. 434;
+ he comes to take leave of Charles, and receives a rough
+ answer, ii. 446;
+ goes with a band to assassinate Coligny, ii. 456;
+ kicks the dead body of the admiral, ii. 459;
+ pursues Montgomery and his companions, ii. 483;
+ throws the responsibility of the massacre upon the king, ii. 491;
+ policy of, in rescuing a few Huguenots, ii. 491, note;
+ in making his province of Champagne an exception to the
+ massacre, ii. 525.
+
+ Guise, Louis, Cardinal of, younger brother of the Cardinal of
+ Lorraine, i 269;
+ at Saverne, ii. 13;
+ author of the massacre of Sens, ii. 46;
+ at the Bayonne conference, ii. 170;
+ tries a heretical curate, ii. 192.
+
+ Guitry, M. de, ii. 625.
+
+
+ H.
+
+ Hans, Jean de, a seditious preacher, i. 567.
+
+ Haton, Claude, on morals of clergy, i. 53, 54;
+ on their non-residence and plurality, i. 457;
+ complains of Huguenot boldness, i. 570;
+ his singular account of the massacre of Vassy, ii. 23;
+ on the miracle of the Cimetiere des Innocents, ii. 488;
+ on the rosaries in the hands of Huguenot ladies, ii. 525.
+
+ "Haute justice" ii. 364, note.
+
+ Havre, the English in, ii. 84;
+ surrender of, demanded of Queen Elizabeth, ii. 126;
+ fall of, July 29, 1563, ii. 127.
+
+ Heidelberg, reception of Henry of Anjou at, ii. 610.
+
+ Hennuyer, Le, Bishop of Lisieux, apocryphal speech ascribed to, ii. 525.
+
+ Henry of Orleans, afterwards Henry II., married to Catharine de'
+ Medici, i. 148;
+ ascends the throne, March 31, 1547, i. 258;
+ his insubordination, i. 259;
+ his great bodily vigor, ib.;
+ his character, i. 260;
+ his inordinate love of pleasure, ib.;
+ is ruled by Diana of Poitiers, Constable Montmorency, and Cardinal
+ Lorraine, ib.;
+ his court, according to Dr. Wotton, i. 261;
+ rapacity of the courtiers, i. 272, 273;
+ is persuaded to persecute the Protestants to atone for his immoral
+ life. i. 274;
+ publishes an edict, Fontainebleau, Dec. 11, 1547, against books from
+ Geneva, etc., i. 275;
+ witnesses the execution of a poor tailor of the Rue St.
+ Antoine, i. 277;
+ his edict conferring power of arrest for heresy upon ecclesiastical
+ judges, Paris, Nov. 19, 1549, i. 278;
+ he issues the edict of Chateaubriand, June 27, 1551, removing appeal
+ from the decisions of presidial judges, i. 279;
+ his more than papal strictness, i. 286;
+ makes repeated attempts to introduce the Spanish
+ Inquisition, i. 287, 288, 289;
+ he breaks the truce of Vaucelles at the solicitation of Pope Paul IV.,
+ and renews war with Philip II., i. 297;
+ issues the edict of Compiegne, July 24, 1557, i. 300;
+ rejects the Swiss intercession after the affair of the Rue St.
+ Jacques, i. 310;
+ compels parliament to register the inquisition edict, i. 312;
+ his indignation at the psalm-singing on the Pre aux Clercs, i. 315;
+ summons Francois d'Andelot, whom he orders to be
+ imprisoned, i. 317, 318;
+ desperate schemes to obtain money, i. 321;
+ makes the treaty of Cateau-Cambresis with Philip of Spain and Mary of
+ England, i. 322;
+ communicates to William, Prince of Orange, his own designs and those of
+ Philip II. against the Protestants, i. 325;
+ proposes a joint French and Spanish expedition against Geneva, i. 327;
+ attends a _mercuriale_ of the Parliament of Paris, i. 332;
+ orders the arrest of Du Bourg and other counsellors, i. 335;
+ marriage festivities for his daughter, i. 338;
+ is mortally wounded by Montgomery in the tournament,
+ June 30, 1559, i. 339;
+ his death, July 10, 1559, i. 340;
+ epigrams upon the event, i. 346.
+
+ Henry of Valois, third son of Henry II., afterward king of France as
+ Henry III., baptized first Edward Alexander, i. 415;
+ is made Duke of Anjou. See Anjou, Duke of.
+
+ Heptameron of the Queen of Navarre, i. 119, seq.
+
+ Heresy, views of Calvin respecting the punishment of, i. 211;
+ made punishable as treason by Francis I., i. 222.
+
+ Herminjard, M., on Briconnet's defection, i. 81.
+
+ Hesse, the Landgrave of, his opinion of the representations of the
+ Guises, ii. 17;
+ declines to help the Huguenots, ii. 217;
+ his distrust after the Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day, ii. 552;
+ will have nothing to do with the candidature of Alencon for King of
+ the Romans, ii. 609.
+
+ Heu, Gaspard de, his judicial assassination, i. 379, 380.
+
+ Hospital, Michel de l', Chancellor, i. 13;
+ rebukes Parliament of Bordeaux, i. 19;
+ his character, i. 412;
+ little good expected of him, ib.;
+ one of the original conspirators of Amboise, ib.;
+ speech at the Assembly of Fontainebleau, i. 416;
+ refuses to sign the sentence of the Prince of Conde, i. 440;
+ his address at the opening of the States General of Orleans, i. 455;
+ declares the co-existence of two religions impossible, ib.;
+ and that names of factions must be abolished, i. 456;
+ his strange representation of the character of previous
+ persecutions, ib., note;
+ he is distrusted by Beza, i. 502;
+ his speech at the opening of the Colloquy of Poissy, i. 512;
+ he opposes the ratification of the plenary powers of the papal
+ legate, i. 552;
+ his speech to the notables at Saint Germain, i. 574;
+ entreats Catharine to throw herself into the arms of the
+ Huguenots, ii. 31;
+ his danger from the fury of the Paris populace, ii. 69;
+ his censure of the Norman parliament, ii. 130, note;
+ his language to Santa Croce respecting the lives of French
+ priests, ii. 153, note;
+ he is attacked by Cardinal Lorraine in the royal council at Melun,
+ Feb., 1564, ii. 154, 155;
+ sends out, without the authority of the council, an edict for the
+ relief of the scattered Huguenots, ii. 184, 185;
+ his altercation at Moulins with Cardinal Lorraine, ii. 186;
+ envoy to the Huguenots, ii. 210;
+ his striking memorial counselling just and pacific treatment of the
+ Huguenots, ii. 232, 233;
+ Catharine de' Medici sides with his enemies, ii. 254;
+ her animosity against him, because she suspects him of having prompted
+ Charles IX. to entreat her to avoid war, ii. 263;
+ another quarrel of L'Hospital and Lorraine respecting the chancellor's
+ refusal to affix his signature to a papal bull, ii. 263, 264;
+ his fall from power, ii. 264;
+ he retires to Vignai, ii. 264, 265;
+ his last days, ii. 613;
+ his farewell letter to the king, ii. 614;
+ his death, ii. 615.
+
+ Host, reverence for, i. 50.
+
+ Hotman, Francois, author of the "Vita Gasparis Colinii," i. 418;
+ also of the "Epistre au Tigre de la France," i. 446;
+ his escape from the massacre of Bourges, ii. 511;
+ his "Franco-Gallia," ii. 615.
+
+ Hugh Capet, Count of Paris, i. 4.
+
+ Hugonis, a violent Roman Catholic preacher, ii. 254.
+
+ Huguenots, various explanations of the origin of the
+ designation, i. 397-399;
+ message of the escaped prisoners of Tours, i. 399;
+ they petition Francis II. at Fontainebleau for liberty of
+ worship, i. 417;
+ general plans of extermination formed by their enemies before the
+ death of Francis, i. 441, 442;
+ the Spanish ambassador, Chantonnay, alarmed at the intemperance and
+ violence of the scheme, i. 441, note;
+ return of Huguenot exiles, i. 463;
+ popular curiosity to hear their psalms and sermons, i. 468;
+ their growing boldness, i. 478;
+ they are said to have 2,150 churches, i. 560;
+ difficulty of restraining their impetuosity, i. 561;
+ Romish complaints of their boldness, i. 570;
+ immense crowds at the preches, ii. 11;
+ massacred at Vassy, ii. 22;
+ summoned to Meaux, ii. 34;
+ they seize Orleans, which becomes their centre during the first civil
+ war, ii. 39;
+ they justify their assumption of arms, ii. 40;
+ their stringent articles of association, ii. 40, 41;
+ nobles and cities that espouse their cause, ii. 41;
+ their strict discipline, ii. 66;
+ cruelty at Pithiviers, ii. 87;
+ reverses of, ii. 101, 102;
+ their ballads and songs, ii. 120-125;
+ they lose favor at court, ii. 132, 133, 158;
+ progress of, ii. 146;
+ they are accused of poisoning the wells in Lyons, ii. 159;
+ number of Huguenots in France, ib.;
+ assaults upon unoffending Huguenots at Crevant, Tours, Mans, and
+ Vendome, ii. 162;
+ no redress obtained, ib.;
+ various acts of oppression, ii. 163;
+ excluded from judicial posts, ii. 165;
+ progress of, ii. 181;
+ Huguenot pleasantries, ii. 192;
+ they suspect treacherous designs, ii. 193;
+ alarmed by the march of Alva and the Swiss levy, ii. 196, 203;
+ they plan to seize Cardinal Lorraine and liberate Charles IX., ii. 205;
+ the sudden rising, ii. 206;
+ they abate their demands at the outbreak of the second civil
+ war, ii. 210;
+ admiration of the sultan's envoy for their bravery at the battle of
+ St. Denis, ii. 214, note;
+ they solicit the help of the German princes, ii. 217;
+ they are exonerated by Catharine de' Medici from the charge of
+ disloyalty, ii. 219;
+ their generous sacrifices, ii. 223;
+ their imprudence in concluding the peace of Longjumeau without
+ guarantees, ii. 238;
+ treatment of returning Huguenots, ii. 241;
+ deprived of their rights by interpretative ordinances, etc., ii. 244;
+ admirable organization of, ii. 247;
+ oath to be exacted of, ii. 257;
+ the plot against them disclosed by an intercepted letter, ii. 259;
+ advantages at the beginning of the third civil war, ii. 274;
+ enthusiasm of their youth, ib.;
+ the Protestant religion proscribed, ii. 275;
+ their places of refuge, ii. 280;
+ great successes in Poitou, Angoumois, etc., ii. 282;
+ the great army collected in southern France joins Conde, ii. 284;
+ negotiations and reprisals, ii. 287;
+ they suffer defeat at Jarnac, ii. 301, seq.;
+ they recover strength, ii. 312;
+ their success at La Roche Abeille, ii. 319;
+ they send a petition to the king, ii. 320, 322, 323;
+ their single purpose, ii. 321, 322;
+ they commit a serious blunder in laying siege to Poitiers, ii. 324;
+ flight of refugees from Montargis, ii. 328;
+ defeated at Moncontour, ii. 332-334;
+ their heavy losses, ii. 335;
+ their terms of peace, ii. 357;
+ their successes compensate for their defeats, ii. 361;
+ the Huguenot nobles flock to Paris to attend the marriage of Henry of
+ Navarre, ii. 426;
+ many alarmed by the king's cordiality, ii. 436;
+ their constancy in the massacre at Orleans, ii. 510, 511, etc.;
+ return of many who had apostatized, ii. 573, note;
+ discontent of the Huguenots of the south with the terms on the edict
+ of pacification of Boulogne, ii. 599;
+ they obtain a truce from Marshal Damville, ib.;
+ military organization of, provided for in the political assembly of
+ Milhau and Montauban, ii. 600;
+ their bold demands contained in a petition to the king, ii. 601, 602;
+ demands of Lower Languedoc and Nismes, ii. 603;
+ those of the tiers etat of Provence and Dauphiny, ib.;
+ indignation of Catharine de' Medici at their boldness, ii. 604;
+ they remain firm, ib.;
+ they reassemble at Milhau, and perfect their organization, Dec. 17,
+ 1573, ii. 617-619;
+ injury to their cause, arising from their alliance with the
+ "Politiques," or Malcontents, ii. 620;
+ the Huguenots resume arms, 1574, undertaking the fifth civil
+ war, ii. 622;
+ failure of the conferences between Biron and the
+ Huguenots, ii. 623, 624;
+ their stout demands, ii. 624;
+ some reasons of their military successes, ii. 630, 631;
+ failure of persecution, war, and treachery, of which they had been
+ the victims, ii. 639. See Coligny, Conde, etc.
+
+ Huguerye, Michel de la, his Memoires inedits, ii. 423;
+ his assertions as to the premeditation of the Massacre of St.
+ Bartholomew's Day, ib.;
+ his misrepresentation of the character of Jeanne d'Albret, Queen of
+ Navarre, ii. 424.
+
+
+ I.
+
+ Iconoclasm at Paris, i. 141, 143;
+ by a monk at Troyes, for a "pious" object, i. 169;
+ in various parts of France, i. 479;
+ at Montauban, i. 485, 486;
+ can it be repressed? ii. 42;
+ stringent but ineffectual measures against, ii. 43;
+ at Caen, ii. 44;
+ at Orleans, ii. 45;
+ at Valenciennes, etc., ii. 189;
+ at Cateau-Cambresis, ii. 190.
+
+ Images, whimsical defence of, ii. 43.
+
+ Impatience with "public idols," i. 487;
+ repressed by Calvin, ib.
+
+ Inconsistency of the laws and practice of the courts, i. 481.
+
+ Indiscreet partisans of reform, i. 162.
+
+ Informers against the Protestants, i. 361.
+
+ Inquisition, the, is jealously watched in France, i. 125 (see Commission
+ to try Lutherans);
+ also, i. 288.
+
+ Inquisition, Spanish, proposition to introduce into France, i. 287;
+ opposed by parliament and withdrawn, i. 288;
+ a second attempt ib.;
+ manly speech of President Seguier against it, i. 289;
+ a third attempt, i. 298, 299;
+ the Pope appoints three inquisitors-general, i. 299;
+ the papal bull confirmed by Henry II., i. 300;
+ the inquisition edict registered by Henry in a "lit de
+ justice," i. 312.
+
+ Insubordination to royal authority, ii. 247.
+
+ Interpretative ordinances, ii. 244.
+
+ Isabella, or Elizabeth, daughter of Henry II. of France and Catharine
+ de' Medici, born April 2, 1545, married to Philip II. of Spain,
+ June, 1559, i. 338;
+ discloses the plot to kidnap Jeanne d'Albret, Queen of
+ Navarre, ii. 151;
+ her discussion with her mother in the Bayonne conference, ii. 172-175;
+ again her husband's mouthpiece, ii. 261.
+
+ "Italian Bible," the, Macchiavelli's Il Principe, ii. 552, note.
+
+ Ivoy, M. d', surrenders Bourges, ii. 72;
+ treachery of his brother before Paris, ii. 90.
+
+
+ J.
+
+ January, the Edict of, by Charles IX. (January 17, 1562), a celebrated
+ ordinance, i. 576;
+ marks the termination of the period of persecution according to the
+ forms of law, i. 577;
+ inconsistencies of, ii. 3;
+ the Huguenot leaders urge its observance, ib.;
+ opposition of the papal party, ii. 4.
+
+ Jarnac, battle of, March 13, 1569, ii. 301, 302;
+ the loss small in numbers, ii. 306;
+ exaggerated bulletins of, ii. 307, 308.
+
+ "Jerusalem," temple de, one of the Protestant places of worship at
+ Paris, destroyed by Constable Montmorency, ii. 37.
+
+ Jewel, Bishop, on the French Protestant refugees, ii. 293.
+
+ John Casimir, son of the elector palatine, comes to the assistance
+ of the Huguenots, and meets Conde in Lorraine, ii. 222;
+ letter of the princes assembled at his marriage, ii. 362.
+
+ John Lackland, King of England, confers upon the inhabitants of La
+ Rochelle exemption from the duty of marching elsewhere or
+ receiving a garrison from abroad, ii. 270.
+
+ Joupitre, Jean, mayor of Bourges, ii. 511.
+
+ Joyeuse, Viscount of, ii. 574.
+
+ Julius II., Pope, his bull giving Navarre to the first comer, believed
+ to be a forgery, i. 107.
+
+ Julius III., Pope, his bull permitting the use of eggs, butter, and
+ cheese, to be eaten during Lent, condemned and burned by order
+ of Henry II. and parliament, i. 286.
+
+ July, the Edict of, by Charles IX. (July 11, 1561), a severe measure,
+ prohibiting conventicles for preaching or celebrating the
+ sacraments, i. 483;
+ exultation of Guise, i. 484;
+ Admiral Coligny declares that it cannot be executed, ib.;
+ disappointment of Protestants, ib.
+
+ Jumieges, at the fair of, a friar pulled from the pulpit, and another
+ preacher put in his place, i. 430.
+
+ Jurieu, Pierre, his remarks respecting the origin of the name
+ "Huguenot," i. 398.
+
+ Justice, abuses in administration of, i. 19.
+
+
+ K.
+
+ Killigrew of Pendennis reaches Rouen, ii. 78.
+
+ King, the "fons omnis jurisdictionis," i. 122;
+ emperor in his own dominions, ib.
+
+ King's authority, checks upon, i. 15.
+
+ King's evil, cured by the touch of the French monarchs, i. 100.
+
+ Knox, John on the affair of the Rue St. Jacques, i. 303, 307, 308;
+ his sermon on the Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day, and his
+ denunciation of Charles IX., ii. 550.
+
+
+ L.
+
+ La Court, ii. 509.
+
+ Lacretelle, M., estimates the Huguenots as numbering 1,500,000 souls,
+ or one-tenth of the population of France, ii. 159.
+
+ La Force, Jacques Nompar de Caumont, Duke of, his wonderful escape in
+ the Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day, ii. 472, 473.
+
+ Lagebaston, President of the Parliament of Bordeaux, ii. 523.
+
+ Lainez, second general of the Order of Jesus, makes an intemperate
+ speech at Poissy, i. 536;
+ compares the Protestant ministers to apes and foxes, i. 537.
+
+ Lambert, Francois, first monk converted, i. 112;
+ his history, i. 113;
+ his imprudent appeals, i. 114;
+ his marriage and his death, ib.
+
+ Languedoc, fifteen cities in this province receive Protestant
+ ministers, i. 429;
+ the children learn religion only from the Geneva
+ catechism, ib.;
+ of twenty-two bishops in Languedoc, all but five or six
+ non-residents, ib.
+
+ Languet, Hubert his description of the persecution under
+ Francis II., i. 366;
+ of the confusion after the Tumult of Amboise, i. 397.
+
+ Lansac, a special envoy of Charles IX. to Germany, his unscrupulous
+ misrepresentations, ii. 217, 218;
+
+ "Lansquenets," i. 11.
+
+ Laschene, a Protestant nobleman, decapitated at Paris, ii. 330.
+
+ Laudonniere Rene de, leads the second colonial expedition to
+ Florida, ii. 199;
+ escapes from the massacre of the Huguenots, and succeeds in returning
+ to France, ii. 200.
+
+ Lausanne, the "Five scholars of," arrested, i. 283;
+ tried and executed, i. 284, 285.
+
+ Leclerc, Jean, a wool-carder of Meaux, tears down a papal bull, i. 87;
+ he is branded, i. 88;
+ and burned alive at Metz, i. 89.
+
+ Leclerc, Pierre, a minister and martyr at Meaux, i. 253, 255.
+
+ Le Coq, his evangelical sermon, i. 151.
+
+ "Le Dieu le Fort," ii. 341.
+
+ Lefevre d'Etaples, Jacques, i. 44, 67;
+ restores letters to France, i. 68;
+ his studies, ib.;
+ devotion, i. 69;
+ his commentary on the Pauline epistles, i. 70;
+ foresees the Reformation, ib.;
+ controversy with Beda, i. 71;
+ invited to Meaux, i. 73;
+ spiritual progress of, i. 75;
+ translates the New Testament, i. 77;
+ his exultation, i. 79;
+ retires to Strasbourg, i. 84-93;
+ tutor of the Duke of Orleans, i. 94;
+ librarian at Blois, ib.;
+ hopes entertained by Aleander respecting, i. 94;
+ mental sufferings and death, i. 95, 96.
+
+ Leicester, Earl of, ii. 381, 397;
+ it is proposed to offer him the hand of Mademoiselle de
+ Bourbon, ii. 399;
+ on Charles IX. and the massacre, ii. 559, 560.
+
+ Le Laboureur, on the massacre of Vassy, ii. 24.
+
+ Lent, the Pope's bull permitting eggs, butter, and cheese to be
+ eaten during the fast, condemned by parliament, and publicly
+ burned, i. 286;
+ negligent observance of, in court of Charles IX., i. 468.
+
+ Leo X., his concordat, i. 35, 36.
+
+ Leran, Viscount de, wounded and pursued into the room of Margaret
+ of Valois, on St. Bartholomew's Day, ii. 467.
+
+ Lery, Jean, goes to Brazil with Villegagnon, and, on his return, writes
+ a history of the expedition, i. 292;
+ ii. 345, note;
+ his account of the siege of Sancerre, ii. 590, 591, 594-598.
+
+ "Lettres de cachet," ii. 511.
+
+ Lhomme, or Lhommet, Martin, a bookseller, hung for having a copy of the
+ "Tigre" in his possession, i. 445.
+
+ Libertine party, the, i. 195, 225.
+
+ Lieutenant de la Mareschaussee, his ineffectual defence and death on St.
+ Bartholomew's Day, ii. 472.
+
+ Ligny, violence at, ii. 249.
+
+ Limousin, Protestantism in, i. 428.
+
+ Limueil, Isabeau de, her amorous intrigue with the Prince of
+ Conde, ii. 145, 303.
+
+ "Lit de justice," i. 18, 312;
+ ii. 492.
+
+ Liturgies of Farel and Calvin, i. 275, 276, 341, seq., 515.
+
+ Livry, the hermit of, i. 92.
+
+ Lomenie, Martial de, a secretary of the king. Marshal Retz obtains
+ his office and his estate of Versailles, and then causes him
+ to be murdered, ii. 485.
+
+ Longjumeau, edict of pacification of, March 23, 1568, ii. 234;
+ the peace opposed by Coligny, and favored by Conde, ii. 235;
+ discussion of the question of the sincerity of the court, ii. 236, 237;
+ the edict thrown into the fire by Charles IX. in the parliament
+ house, ii. 276.
+
+ Longjumeau Sieur de, assault upon his house, i. 476.
+
+ Longueville, Duke of, prevents the massacre of the Protestants from
+ extending to Picardy, ii. 526.
+
+ Lorraine, Charles, Cardinal of, i. 261;
+ he exchanges the title of Cardinal of Guise for that of Cardinal of
+ Lorraine, i. 269;
+ various estimates of his character, i. 270, 271;
+ his servility toward Diana of Poitiers, i. 273;
+ hypocrisy to the Swiss envoys, i. 310;
+ his conference with Cardinal Granvelle, i. 315;
+ his great power on the accession of Francis II., i. 351;
+ indignation of the people against him and his brother, i. 375;
+ message he receives from the escaped Huguenot prisoners of
+ Tours, i. 399;
+ perplexity of, i. 413;
+ his politic speech at Fontainebleau, i. 422;
+ his hypocritical assurances to Throkmorton, i. 424, note;
+ pasquinade against, i. 447;
+ a virulent pamphlet against him entitled "Epistre au Tigre de la
+ France," i. 409, 444-448;
+ effrontery of, in offering to represent the three orders at the States
+ General, i. 457;
+ favors the holding of the Colloquy of Poissy, i. 495;
+ he meets Beza and professes to be well satisfied, i. 503, 504;
+ but subsequently boasts that he overthrew Beza in the first
+ interview, i. 505;
+ his speech in reply to Beza, i. 528, 529;
+ he demands of the Huguenot ministers subscription to the Augsburg
+ Confession, i. 533;
+ retires in disgust from Saint Germain, i. 555;
+ goes with his brothers to meet the Duke of Wuertemberg at
+ Saverne, ii. 13;
+ his lying assurances, ii. 15, 16;
+ he declares himself, on oath, guiltless of the death of any man for
+ religion's sake, ii. 16;
+ he returns to France from the Council of Trent, and unsuccessfully
+ seeks the approval of the decrees, ii. 154;
+ his wrangle at Melun, Feb, 1564, with Chancellor
+ L'Hospital, ii. 154, 155;
+ his encounter with Marshal Montmorency in Paris, ii. 166;
+ forbidden by Catharine to hold communication with Granvelle and
+ Chantonnay, ii. 181;
+ he disregards the prohibition, ib.;
+ his altercation with L'Hospital at Moulins, ii. 186;
+ the Huguenots plan to seize him, ii. 205;
+ his flight to Rheims, ii. 207;
+ he invites Alva to enter France, ii. 208;
+ his plot revealed, ii. 259, 260;
+ makes another attack upon L'Hospital, and is prevented by Marshal
+ Montmorency from making a bodily assault, ii. 264;
+ his jealousy of Anjou, ii. 339;
+ retires from court at the peace of Saint Germain, ii. 368;
+ his rejoicing at Rome over the news of the Massacre of St.
+ Bartholomew's Day, ii. 531, 532.
+
+ Lorraine, John, first Cardinal of, i. 267;
+ his many ecclesiastical benefices, ib.
+
+ Lorraine, Mary of, married to James V. of Scotland, i. 268.
+
+ Loue, La, taken prisoner at Jarnac, ii. 306, 351;
+ killed near Montpellier, ii. 352.
+
+ Louis VIII., of France, confirms the privileges of La Rochelle, ii. 271.
+
+ Louis IX., St Louis, disliked in Perigord, i. 6;
+ his Pragmatic Sanction, i. 26.
+
+ Louis XI., his aversion to assembling the States General, i. 12;
+ consents to abrogate the Pragmatic Sanction, i. 32;
+ subsequently re-enacts it, i. 33;
+ confirms the privileges of La Rochelle, ii. 271.
+
+ Louis XII., re-enacts the Pragmatic Sanction, i. 35;
+ his motto, ib.;
+ confirms the privileges of La Rochelle, ii. 271.
+
+ Louise de Savoie, mother of Francis I., i. 50, 60;
+ encourages reformed preachers, i. 74;
+ regent, i. 109;
+ change in her attitude, i. 110, 123.
+
+ Lude, Count of, ii. 324.
+
+ Luns, Philippine de, a young lady of wealth and rank, strangled and
+ burned at Paris, i. 307.
+
+ Lusignan, "la pucelle," taken by the Huguenots, ii. 323.
+
+ Luther, his teachings condemned by the Sorbonne, i. 108;
+ wide circulation of his works, i. 112;
+ his books proscribed, ib.;
+ his letters respecting Melanchthon's projected visit to
+ France, i. 185, 186.
+
+ "Lutherans," rage of populace of Paris against, i. 302.
+
+ Lyon, Jacques du, Seigneur de Grandfief, plots to surrender La
+ Rochelle, ii. 617.
+
+ Lyons, frontier town at accession of Francis I., i. 3;
+ council of, i. 140;
+ inspection of books at great fairs of, i. 281;
+ in the hands of Maligny, i. 427;
+ besieged, ii. 102;
+ Huguenots accused of poisoning wells in, ii. 159;
+ massacre at, ii. 513, seq.
+
+
+ M.
+
+ Macaulay, Lord, a remark ascribed by him to Admiral
+ Coligny, ii. 463, note.
+
+ Macchiavelli's Il Principe, "the Italian Bible," ii. 552, note.
+
+ Mackintosh, Sir James, receives from M. de Chateaubriand important
+ documents bearing upon the Massacre of St. Bartholomew's
+ Day, ii. 436.
+
+ Macon, persecution at, i. 217.
+
+ Madrid, a royal country-seat, ii. 259.
+
+ Madrid, treaty of, declared null, i. 136.
+
+ Magic, resort to, i. 48.
+
+ Maigret, Friar Aime, preaches at Lyons, i. 118.
+
+ Malassise, M. de, Henry de Mesmes, ii. 359, 363, 366.
+
+ Maligny seizes Lyons, but, not being supported, fails to keep the
+ place, i. 427.
+
+ Malot, Jean, a minister at the colloquy of Poissy, i. 509.
+
+ Malta, siege of, by the Turks, in 1565, ii. 181.
+
+ Mandelot, M. de, Governor of Lyons, ii. 513;
+ his perplexity, ii. 514;
+ his responsibility for the massacre in Lyons, ii. 517;
+ a suppliant for the spoils of the Huguenots, ii. 518.
+
+ Mangin, a martyr at Meaux, i. 254, 255;
+
+ Mans, Protestants of, plundered or killed, ii. 162.
+
+ Mansfeld, Count of. See Wolrad.
+
+ Marcel, prevot des marchands, ii. 482, etc.
+
+ Marche-aux-pourceaux, i. 46.
+
+ Marcourt, Antoine, probable author of the placard of 1534, i. 164.
+
+ "Mardi Gras," the rising of, ii. 625.
+
+ Margaret of Valois, youngest daughter of Henry II., born May 14, 1552,
+ her hand declined by Sebastian of Portugal, ii. 379;
+ proposed marriage to Henry of Navarre, ii. 392;
+ the proposal comes from the Montmorencies, ii. 394;
+ absurdity of the story of a romantic attachment of Margaret, in 1571,
+ to Henry of Guise, ii. 395, note;
+ she is said to be at first indifferent, afterward anxious to marry
+ Henry of Navarre, ii. 395, 396;
+ described by Jeanne d'Albret, ii. 405;
+ the betrothal, ii. 426;
+ the marriage, ii. 427;
+ the entertainment in the Louvre, ii. 429;
+ on the morning of St. Bartholomew's Day, ii. 466.
+
+ Marillac, Bishop of Vienne, i. 418;
+ his speech at Fontainebleau, i. 420, 421.
+
+ Marlorat, Augustin, a prominent Huguenot minister at the Colloquy of
+ Poissy, i. 509;
+ in the Conference of Saint Germain, i. 539;
+ he is hung by order of the Parliament of Rouen, ii. 80.
+
+ Maromme, Laurent de, a leader of the murderers at Rouen, ii. 520, 521.
+
+ Marot, Clement, i. 42;
+ his flight to Ferrara, i. 179.
+
+ Marsac, Louis de, his words at the stake, i. 278.
+
+ Marshals, remonstrance of the, ii. 255.
+
+ Martigues, Sebastian of Luxemburg, Viscount of, ii. 341;
+ his impiety, ib., note.
+
+ Martin Theodoric, of Beauvais, his elegies on Louis de Berquin, i. 157;
+ remarks respecting Barthelemi Milon, i. 172.
+
+ Martyr, Peter, or Pietro Martiro Vermigli, a native of Florence and a
+ reformer, invited to the Colloquy of Poissy, i. 494;
+ his arrival, i. 527;
+ his speech, i. 536;
+ takes part in the Conference of Saint Germain, i. 539;
+ his candid paper, i. 540.
+
+ Martyrs, Protestant, constancy of, i. 177;
+ ingenious contrivance for prolonging their sufferings, ib.
+
+ Mary, Queen of Scots, wife of Francis II., i. 347;
+ ii. 146, 545.
+
+ Mass, Roman Catholic, songs against, ii. 121, seq.
+
+ Massacre, of Protestants in Holy Week, 1561, i. 474;
+ of Vassy, March 1, 1562, ii. 22;
+ of Sens, April 12, 1562, ii. 46, 55;
+ of Orange, June 5, 1562, ii. 49;
+ of Toulouse, ii. 52-54;
+ of Troyes, ii. 128, 129;
+ of Roman Catholics at Nismes ii. 234, 225;
+ in prisons of Orleans, Aug. 21, 1569, ii. 326;
+ of the garrison of Rabasteins, ii. 361;
+ at Paris (see Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day);
+ of Meaux, Aug. 25 and 26, 1572, ii. 505-507;
+ of Troyes, Sept. 4, 1572, ii. 507, 508;
+ of Orleans, ii. 508 seq.;
+ of Bourges, Sept. 12, 1572, ii. 511, 512;
+ of Angers, ii. 512, 513;
+ of Lyons, ii. 513-518;
+ of Rouen, Sept., 1572, ii. 519-521;
+ of Toulouse, ii. 521, 522;
+ of Bordeaux, Oct, 1572, ii. 522-524;
+ why the massacre is not universal, ii. 524, 525;
+ cases of mercy, ii. 526, 527.
+
+ Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day, in Paris, the question of its
+ premeditation, chapter xvii. passim;
+ La Huguerye's statements, ii. 423, 424;
+ a significant mock combat, ii. 431;
+ the plan as sketched by Anjou, ii. 433 seq.;
+ Salviati's testimony respecting the want of premeditation and the
+ ignorance of the king, ii. 435, 436;
+ Coligny wounded, ii. 437;
+ Catharine and Anjou resolve upon extreme measures, ii. 446;
+ the blood council, ii. 447, seq.;
+ Charles reluctantly consents, ii. 449;
+ few victims selected at first, ii. 450;
+ religious hatred as a motive, ii. 452;
+ precautions taken, ib.;
+ the municipal officers of Paris called in, ii. 454;
+ murder of Coligny, ii. 457, seq.;
+ of Huguenot leaders in the Louvre, ii. 465, seq.;
+ on the signal bell from the Palais de Justice, the massacre becomes
+ general, ii. 470;
+ the part taken by the courtiers and the royal guard, ii. 471;
+ pitiless butchery, ii. 474;
+ shamelessness of the court ladies, ii. 476;
+ wonderful escapes, ii. 477;
+ the dead bodies buried by the municipality of Paris, ii. 484;
+ the massacre not at first a popular movement, ii. 484, 485;
+ pillage of the rich, ii. 485;
+ action of the municipal officers, ii. 486;
+ ineffectual orders issued to lay down arms, ii. 487;
+ miracle of the hawthorn of the Cimetiere des Innocents, ii. 488;
+ number of the victims in Paris, ii. 489;
+ speech of the king at the "lit de justice," ii. 492;
+ servility of parliament, ii. 493;
+ Coligny's memory declared infamous, ii. 496;
+ the verbal orders, ii. 502;
+ two kinds of letters sent out, ii. 504;
+ uncertain number of victims, ii. 530.
+
+ Masso, an agent in the massacre at Lyons, ii. 504, note;
+ 514, 516.
+
+ Matignon, M. de, saves the Protestants of Caen and Alencon from
+ massacre, ii. 526.
+
+ Maubert, Place, ii. 339.
+
+ Maurevel murders De Mouy, ii. 337;
+ he is rewarded with the collar of the order, ii. 338;
+ wounds Admiral Coligny, ii. 438, 439.
+
+ "Mauvais Garcons," highwaymen, i. 44.
+
+ Maximilian, Emperor of Germany, styles the French king "a king of
+ asses," i. 14;
+ ii. 360, etc.
+
+ May, Du, attempts to assassinate Admiral Coligny, ii. 194.
+
+ Mayenne, Charles, Duke of, son of Francis, Duke of Guise, ii. 324.
+
+ Maynet, a Huguenot member of the Parliament of Rouen, ii. 519.
+
+ Mazurier, Martial, i. 75, 82, 90, 91.
+
+ Medici family, the, is reputed to be destined to be fatal to
+ Christendom, i. 569.
+
+ Meaux, Reformation at, i. 67 seq., 74, 75, 83, 86, 92;
+ new persecutions at, i. 253;
+ the "Fourteen of Meaux," i. 254;
+ their execution, i. 255;
+ iconoclasm at, ii. 68;
+ consequent severity of the Parliament of Paris, ib.;
+ massacre at, Aug. 25 and 26, 1572, ii. 505-507.
+
+ Medals, commemorative of the junction of the Huguenots and their
+ German allies, ii. 318;
+ of the battles of Jarnac and Moncontour, ii. 336, note;
+ of the Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day, ii. 532, 533, 559.
+
+ Melanchthon, i. 43;
+ answers the Sorbonne's condemnation of Luther, i. 109;
+ visited by a French agent, i. 160;
+ draws up a plan of reconciliation, ib.;
+ his extravagant concessions, i. 161;
+ his own misgivings, i. 162;
+ his plan makes a favorable impression on Francis I., ib.;
+ is entreated to come to France, i. 182;
+ his perplexity, i. 183;
+ he is formally invited by Francis, and consents, i. 184;
+ but fails to obtain permission from the Elector of Saxony, i. 185;
+ his chagrin, i. 186;
+ his articles reprobated by the Sorbonne, i. 187;
+ approves of the execution of Servetus, i. 212.
+
+ Menendez, or Melendez, de Abila, sent by Philip II. to destroy the
+ Huguenot settlements in Florida, ii. 200;
+ his cruelty and success, ib.
+
+ Mercenary troops, i. 11.
+
+ "Mercuriale," nature of, i. 331;
+ Henry II. goes in person to one of the Parliament of Paris,
+ June 10, 1559, i. 332;
+ that of June 23, 1561, i. 480, seq.
+
+ Merindol, some inhabitants of, summoned to Aix, i. 235;
+ the infamous "Arret de Merindol," November 18, 1540, i. 236;
+ preparations to carry it into effect, i. 237;
+ it is delayed by friendly interposition, i. 238;
+ the place is taken and destroyed, i. 247.
+
+ Merle, d'Aubigne, a singular mistake of, i. 200.
+
+ Merlin, Jehan Reymond, a Protestant pastor, at the Colloquy of
+ Poissy, i. 509;
+ counsels moderation to the Queen of Navarre, ii. 149;
+ chaplain of Coligny, ii. 440, 457;
+ his wonderful escape, ii. 477.
+
+ Meru, a younger Montmorency, ii. 441, note, 628.
+
+ Messignac, Huguenot loss at, ii. 284.
+
+ Metz, labors of Jean Chatellain at, i. 114;
+ anger of the people at his execution, i. 116.
+
+ "Michelade," the, at Nismes, ii. 224, 225.
+
+ Milhau-en-Rouergue, calls for ministers, i. 479;
+ the entire population becomes Protestant, ii. 147;
+ refuses to admit a garrison, ii. 250;
+ a Huguenot place of refuge, ii. 280;
+ political Huguenot assembly at, ii. 600;
+ second assembly, Dec. 17, 1573, at which the scheme of organization
+ is perfected, ii. 617-619.
+
+ Miracles popular, i. 57;
+ miracle of the hawthorn tree of the Cimetiere des Innocents, ii. 486.
+
+ Milon, Barthelemi, a paralytic, executed, i. 172;
+ remarks of Martin Theodoric, of Beauvais, respecting ib.
+
+ Minard, President, assassination of, i. 370.
+
+ Ministers, Protestant, the popular clamor for, i. 479;
+ their moderation, i. 479, 480;
+ the demand unabated for, ii. 148.
+
+ Mirabel, a Huguenot leader, ii. 348.
+
+ Mirambeau, a Huguenot negotiator, ii. 623.
+
+ Miron, the Duke of Anjou's confession to, ii. 433.
+
+ Mole, La, one of the party of the Politiques, ii. 626;
+ he is executed on the Place de Greve, ii. 628, 629.
+
+ Monastic orders incur contempt, i. 60.
+
+ Monclar, Viscount of, ii. 230, 352.
+
+ Moncontour, battle of, Oct 3, 1569, ii. 332 seq.;
+ exultation of the Roman Catholic party after, ii. 336;
+ medals struck at Rome, ib., note;
+ extravagant action of parliament, ii. 337.
+
+ Money coined by the Huguenots, with the name and arms of
+ Charles IX., ii. 219.
+
+ Mons, capture of, by Count Louis of Nassau, ii. 412.
+
+ Montagut, or Montaigu, Viscount of, ii. 230, note.
+
+ Montargis, the residence of the Duchess of Ferrara, affords a safe
+ refuge to the Huguenots, ii. 73, 327;
+ flight of Huguenots from Montargis to Sancerre, ii. 328.
+
+ Montauban, the Protestants of, being maligned, vindicate their
+ loyalty, i. 480;
+ beg that no more ex-monks be sent into France as Protestant
+ ministers, ib.;
+ iconoclasm at, i. 485, 486;
+ it refuses to admit a garrison in, 1568, ii. 250;
+ a Huguenot place of refuge, ii. 280;
+ Coligny at, ii. 349;
+ becomes, through Regnier's agency, a Protestant stronghold, ii. 574;
+ political Huguenot assembly at, ii. 600;
+ it provides for a military organization of the Huguenots, ib.
+
+ Montbeliard, Farel at, i. 117.
+
+ Montbrun, nephew of Cardinal Tournon, a Huguenot leader, in the Comtat
+ Venaissin, etc., i. 414;
+ ii. 226, 230, 284, 348, 526;
+ his exploits in Dauphiny, ii. 621, 622.
+
+ Mont de Marsan, ii. 351.
+
+ Montecuccoli, Count of, accused of having poisoned the dauphin, Francis,
+ and drawn asunder by four horses, i. 259.
+
+ Montelimart, Huguenots of, i. 404.
+
+ Montereul, Claude a curate, active in the massacre of Rouen, ii. 520.
+
+ Montesquiou, captain of Anjou's guards, treacherously murders the Prince
+ of Conde, ii. 302.
+
+ Montferrand, M. de, Governor of Bordeaux, ii. 522;
+ his brutal boast before the parliament that he had killed more than
+ two hundred and fifty persons, ii. 524.
+
+ Montgomery, Gabriel, Count of, captain of the Scotch guard, mortally
+ wounds Henry II. in the tournament, i. 339;
+ commands the Protestants at Rouen, ii. 78;
+ escapes with D'Andelot to La Rochelle, at the beginning of the third
+ civil war, ii. 281, 282;
+ throws himself into St. Jean d'Angely, ii. 312;
+ takes for the Huguenots a great part of Bearn, ii. 323;
+ goes to Coligny's assistance, ii. 332;
+ his raids, ii. 349, 451;
+ escapes from the Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day, ii. 481-483;
+ obtains help from England for La Rochelle, ii. 588;
+ Queen Elizabeth's interest in him, ib.;
+ he lands in Normandy, ii. 630;
+ takes Carentan, ib.;
+ is taken prisoner at Domfront, ii. 631;
+ delight of Catharine de' Medici, ii. 631, 632;
+ his sentence and execution, ii. 633;
+ his constancy, ii. 634.
+
+ Montigny's remark as to the Burgundians, ii. 185.
+
+ Montluc, Bishop of Valence, his speech in the assembly of notables of
+ Fontainebleau, i. 418, 419;
+ his description of the Protestant ministers, i. 403, 418;
+ his evangelical preaching, i. 469;
+ confers with the Protestants at Poissy, i. 538;
+ Cardinal Lorraine's reference to him in the Colloquy of Poissy, ii. 8;
+ at the Conference of Saint Germain, ib.;
+ he is erroneously credited with writing Conde's reply to the
+ Triumvirs, etc., ii. 61, 64;
+ he is sent to secure the election of Anjou to the throne of
+ Poland, ii. 552;
+ his embarrassment, ii. 553, 560, note;
+ his success, ii. 592, 593.
+
+ Montluc, Blaise de, a cruel general, ii. 51, 52;
+ at Toulouse, ii. 53, 54;
+ is praised by Pius IV. for his part in the massacre, ii. 54;
+ his conversation with Alva at the Bayonne conference, ii. 171;
+ breaks down Coligny's bridge of boats, ii. 350;
+ accuses Damville, ii. 352;
+ succeeds in Bearn, ii. 361, 574.
+
+ Montmorency, Anne de, Grand Master and Constable, i. 261;
+ his ancient family and valor, i. 263;
+ his cruelty, i. 263, 264;
+ his unpopularity, i. 264;
+ disgraced by Francis I., but recalled by Henry II., i. 265;
+ opposes the breaking of the truce of Vaucelles, i. 297;
+ taken prisoner at the battle of St. Quentin, i. 302;
+ favors the peace of Cateau-Cambresis, i. 322;
+ his fall from power at the accession of Francis II., i. 347;
+ retires to his estates, i. 352, 353;
+ his wealth, ib.;
+ indignation of Catharine de' Medici with him, i. 352;
+ his disgust at the progress of Protestantism and the popular demand
+ for restitution, i. 469;
+ joins in the triumvirate, notwithstanding his son's
+ remonstrances, i. 470, 471;
+ disappointment of the Protestants at, i. 470, note;
+ his exploits at Paris in burning the Protestant preaching-places earn
+ him the title of "le Capitaine Brulebanc," ii. 37;
+ is taken prisoner at the battle of Dreux, ii. 94;
+ he espouses the defence of Coligny, ii. 135;
+ he takes sides against Cardinal Lorraine at Melun, ii. 155;
+ opposes the nuncio's demand that the red cap be taken away from
+ Cardinal Chatillon, ii. 182, 183;
+ at the Conference of La Chapelle Saint Denis declares that the king
+ will not tolerate two religions, ii. 211;
+ he is mortally wounded in the battle of Saint Denis, ii. 215;
+ three times a prisoner in previous wars, ib., note;
+ his character and exploits, ii. 216;
+ his conduct on entering La Rochelle, ii. 273. See Triumvirs.
+
+ Montmorency, Francois de, Marshal, eldest son of the constable,
+ remonstrates with his father on the formation of the
+ triumvirate, i. 470;
+ he is temporarily removed from the governorship of Paris, ii. 32;
+ his inability to check the excesses of the turbulent mob, ii. 97;
+ espouses Coligny's defence, ii. 135;
+ takes energetic measures with the Parisians, ii. 166;
+ his encounter with Cardinal Lorraine, ii. 166, 167;
+ he brings Coligny to Paris, ii. 167;
+ proclaims the edict of Amboise by public crier, ii. 180;
+ hollow reconciliation with the Guises, ii. 184;
+ at Saint Denis, ii. 214;
+ his retort to Catharine de' Medici, when Santa Croce demands the
+ surrender of Cardinal Chatillon to the Pope, ii. 229;
+ remonstrance of, ii. 255;
+ reply to Coligny, ii. 323;
+ proposes the marriage of Henry of Navarre to Margaret of
+ Valois, ii. 394;
+ his honorable reception by Queen Elizabeth, ii. 399;
+ Charles's estimate of, ii. 409;
+ thrown into the Bastile, ii. 628.
+
+ Montpezat, M. de, ii. 523.
+
+ Montpellier, gathering of Huguenots for worship in the large
+ school-rooms, i. 428, 429;
+ the chapter of the cathedral introduces a garrison, whereupon the
+ Protestants rise and strip the churches, i. 563, 564;
+ the consuls write to Geneva to double their corps of Protestant
+ ministers, ii. 148.
+
+ Montpensier, the Duke of, at the Bayonne conference, ii. 170;
+ incites the massacre of Protestants, ii. 476, 529.
+
+ Montpipeau, the "tears" of, ii. 418, 419.
+
+ Montreal, ii. 359.
+
+ Montsoreau, M. de, his letter to Puigaillard, ii. 503;
+ he treacherously murders M. de la Riviere, ii. 512.
+
+ Morata, Olympia, her precocity, i. 206.
+
+ Morel, Francois de, a minister at the Colloquy of Poissy, i. 509.
+
+ Mornas, cruelty of Huguenots at, ii. 50, 51.
+
+ Mornieu, Andre, an echevin, heads the murderers of Lyons, ii. 515.
+
+ Mortier, Du, a privy councillor, refuses to sign the sentence of the
+ Prince of Conde, i. 440.
+
+ Morvilliers, Bishop of Orleans, a skilful negotiator, his noble words
+ on straightforward diplomacy, ii. 194, note;
+ royal envoy, ii. 210, 255, 265, 368;
+ replies to Coligny's memorial, ii. 417, note.
+
+ Mothe Fenelon, La, French ambassador in England, his recommendation of
+ the Duke of Anjou, ii. 379;
+ his perplexity in defending the massacre, ii. 541;
+ declares himself ashamed to be counted a Frenchman, ii. 543;
+ his cold reception by Queen Elizabeth, ib.;
+ confesses that he is not believed, ii. 545;
+ he is instructed to press the suit of Alencon for Queen Elizabeth's
+ hand, ii. 606.
+
+ Motley, Mr. J. L., ii. 289, note, 537.
+
+ Mouchy, De, apologizes for using French language, i. 56;
+ at the Conference of Saint Germain, ii. 7;
+ his delight at its dismissal, ii. 8.
+
+ Moulin, Charles Du, a jurist, writes an able treatise against the
+ Council of Trent, ii. 155, 156.
+
+ Moulins, the assembly of notables at, in 1566, ii. 183;
+ alleged plan of the "Sicilian Vespers" to be executed at, ib.;
+ reconciliation of Coligny and the Guises, and of the Montmorencies
+ and Guises at, ii. 184;
+ fresh encounter of Cardinal Lorraine and Chancellor L'Hospital
+ at, ii. 185, 186.
+
+ Mouvans, a Huguenot leader in Provence, i. 407;
+ his message to the Duke of Guise, i. 408;
+ ii. 226, 230, 284.
+
+ Mouy, M. de, ii. 315, 333;
+ murdered by Maurevel, ii. 337.
+
+ Mucidan, ii. 312.
+
+ Muntz, on Clemangis, i. 64.
+
+ Murderer, the, of a Huguenot rescued, ii. 97.
+
+
+ N.
+
+ Nancay, captain of the guard, superintends the butchery of the Huguenot
+ leaders in the Louvre, ii. 466.
+
+ Nantes, the Protestants of, not to be compelled to hang tapestry on
+ Corpus Christi Day, ii. 164;
+ the municipality of, refuses to massacre the Protestants, ii. 529.
+
+ Nantouillet, the affair of, ii. 598, 599, note.
+
+ Nassau, Louis, Count of, brother of the Prince of Orange, enters
+ France with the Duke of Deux-Ponts, ii. 315;
+ at Moncontour, ii. 333, 335, 364;
+ confers with Charles IX. and urges him to espouse the cause of the
+ Netherlands, ii. 384, 385;
+ captures Mons and Valenciennes, ii. 412;
+ receives from Charles IX. assurances of help for the Prince of
+ Orange, ii. 609;
+ his death, ii. 610.
+
+ Navarre conquered by the Spanish, i. 107;
+ little left to the king, i. 108.
+
+ Navarre, Bastard of, taken prisoner at Jarnac, ii. 306.
+
+ Navarre, Antoine de Bourbon-Vendome, King of, husband of Jeanne d'Albret,
+ favors the Reformation, i. 313;
+ rejects Montmorency's advances, i. 352;
+ his irresolution and pusillanimity, i. 354, 355;
+ wants indemnity for the kingdom of Navarre, i. 356;
+ is received at court with studied discourtesy, ib.;
+ is deaf to remonstrance, i. 357;
+ meets fresh indignity, i. 358;
+ his irresolution embarrasses Montbrun at Lyons, i. 427;
+ invites Beza to Nerac, i. 431;
+ his short-lived zeal, i. 432;
+ pressure upon him and Conde to force them to come to Orleans, ib.;
+ his concessions, i. 433;
+ at Limoges the Huguenot gentry offer him aid, i. 434;
+ he dismisses his escort, i. 435;
+ his infatuation, ib.;
+ reaches Orleans, i. 436;
+ is treated almost like a prisoner, ib.;
+ his danger, i. 440;
+ makes an ignominious compact with Catharine de' Medici just before
+ the death of Francis II., i. 444;
+ his opportunity at Charles IX.'s accession, i. 451;
+ his contemptible character, ib.;
+ his humiliation, i. 466;
+ he receives more consideration in consequence of the bold demands of
+ the Particular Estates of Paris, i. 467;
+ his assurances to M. Gluck, the Danish ambassador, that he would have
+ the gospel preached throughout France ib.;
+ he invites Beza to the Colloquy of Poissy, i. 494;
+ his urgency, i. 496;
+ he is plied by the arts of the papal legate, i. 553;
+ his apostasy, ii. 9;
+ his defence of Guise after the massacre of Vassy, ii. 27;
+ and Beza's reply, ii. 28;
+ has become "all Spanish now," ii. 29;
+ seizes Charles IX. and brings him back to Paris, ii. 36;
+ he is mortally wounded at the siege of Rouen, ii. 79;
+ his last hours and death, ii. 81;
+ his character, ii. 82;
+ extravagant eulogy of De Thou, ii. 83;
+ mourning at the Council of Trent, ib.;
+ his delight at the prospective marriage of his son to Margaret of
+ Valois, ii. 393.
+
+ Navarre, Henry of, son of Antoine de Bourbon-Vendome and Jeanne
+ d'Albret, Queen of Navarre, afterward Henry IV. of France,
+ born Dec. 14, 1553. Takes part in a tournament at the Bayonne
+ Conference, ii. 179;
+ remonstrates against the perfidy displayed by the Roman Catholics in
+ the murder of Conde and other Protestants at Jarnac, ii. 305;
+ with his cousin Conde, he becomes nominal general-in-chief of the
+ Huguenots, ii. 314;
+ they are nicknamed "the admiral's pages," ib.;
+ at Moncontour, ii. 334;
+ proposed marriage of Henry to Margaret of Valois, ii. 392 seq.;
+ by the death of his mother he becomes King of Navarre, June 9,
+ 1572, ii. 408;
+ the papal dispensation delayed, ii. 410;
+ the betrothal, ii. 426;
+ the marriage, ii. 427;
+ a significant mock combat, ii. 431;
+ complains to the king of the attack on Coligny, ii. 439;
+ his name not on the proscriptive roll, ii. 451;
+ he is summoned by Charles IX. and ordered to abjure the Protestant
+ religion, ii. 468;
+ his very humble reply, ii. 469;
+ his name associated with the royal family as having been an object of
+ the pretended Huguenot conspiracy, ii. 490;
+ his forced conversion, ii. 498, 499;
+ his submission accepted by Pope Gregory XIII. and the validity of his
+ marriage recognized, ii. 500;
+ he re-establishes the Roman Catholic Church in Bearn, ib.;
+ attempts flight, ii. 625, 627;
+ his examination and defence, ii. 627, 628.
+
+ Navarre, Jeanne d'Albret, Queen of, daughter of Henry, King of Navarre,
+ and Margaret of Angouleme, sister of Francis I., marries Antoine
+ of Bourbon-Vendome, i. 313;
+ reluctantly embraces the Reformation, i. 431, 432;
+ her constancy, ii. 10;
+ her letter to the Cardinal of Armagnac, ii. 82;
+ she is cited to Rome and threatened with deposition as a heretic,
+ Sept. 28, 1563, ii. 141;
+ the royal council protests against the infraction of national
+ liberties, and the insult to royalty, ii. 142;
+ she establishes the Reformation in Bearn, ii. 148;
+ meets much opposition, ii. 149;
+ Spanish and other plots against, ii. 150;
+ a plot to kidnap her and her children, ii. 150, 151;
+ goes to La Rochelle at the beginning of the third civil war, ii. 281;
+ her spirited letters, ib.;
+ her words on Conde's death, ii. 303;
+ her courage after the battle of Jarnac, ii. 311;
+ her offices after the defeat of Moncontour, ii. 347;
+ negotiates with Catharine de' Medici for peace, ii. 356;
+ her letter warning the queen mother respecting the observance of the
+ peace, ii. 373, and note;
+ her reply to the royal proposal of a marriage of Henry of Navarre to
+ Margaret of Valois, ii. 395;
+ she becomes more favorable to it, ii. 403;
+ her solicitude, ii. 404;
+ she is treated with tantalizing insincerity, ib.;
+ she is shocked at the morals of the court, ii. 405;
+ she goes to Paris, ii. 406;
+ her last illness and death, ii. 406, 407;
+ the story that she was poisoned, ii. 407;
+ her character and motives traduced by the Memoires inedits de Michel
+ de la Huguerye, ii. 424.
+
+ Navarre, Margaret of. See Angouleme, Margaret of.
+
+ Navy, French, i. 11.
+
+ Negotiations for peace of St. Germain, ii. 356 seq.
+
+ Nemours, Duchess of. See Este, Anne d'.
+
+ Nemours, Duke of, fails to keep his word pledged to the Baron de
+ Castelnau, i. 388, 389;
+ marries the widow of the Duke of Guise, and oppresses the Protestants
+ of Lyonnais and Dauphiny, ii. 245;
+ praised by Pius V. in a special brief, ib.;
+ his jealousy of Aumale, ii. 317.
+
+ Nevers, Duke of, at the blood council, ii. 447.
+
+ New Testament, the, translated by Lefevre, i. 77.
+
+ New York, Huguenot church of, i. 345.
+
+ Nicodemites, the, i. 235, 538, 539.
+
+ Niort, ii. 283, 337, 338, 361.
+
+ Niquet, Spire, a poor bookbinder, roasted in a fire made of his own
+ books, in the massacre of Paris, ii. 474.
+
+ Nismes, great concourse of the Huguenots of, i. 407;
+ Huguenots guard the gates, i. 428;
+ massacre of Roman Catholics by the Protestants, known as the
+ "Michelade," ii. 224;
+ brilliant capture of, by the Huguenots in the third civil
+ war, ii. 345, 346;
+ in Protestant hands, in 1572, ii. 573, 574;
+ obtains a truce, ii. 599.
+
+ Normandy, progress of Protestantism in, i. 287;
+ burdens of taxation in, i. 313;
+ popular awakening in, i. 408;
+ Admiral Coligny's successes in (Feb., 1563), ii. 99. See Rouen.
+
+ Non-residence of clergy, Claude Haton on, i. 457.
+
+ Norris, Sir Henry, English ambassador, on the murder of Protestants
+ in Paris, ii. 249;
+ on the condition of the French court, ii. 255.
+
+ Northumberland, Earl of, his rebellion, ii. 358.
+
+ Nostradamus, predictions of, i. 47;
+ ii. 606.
+
+ Notables, assemblies of, i. 12;
+ assembly at Fontainebleau, i. 415.
+
+ Noue, Francois de la, justifies Conde's military conduct in evacuating
+ Paris, ii. 33;
+ his description of the discipline of the Huguenot army, ii. 66, 67;
+ on the irresistible desire for peace in 1568, ii. 235;
+ taken prisoner at Jarnac, ii. 306;
+ also at Moncontour, ii. 335;
+ his success at Sainte Gemme, ii. 361, 384;
+ he is sent by Charles IX. to treat with La Rochelle, ii. 579;
+ he is badly received, ii. 580;
+ he is subsequently chosen leader, ii. 581;
+ he retires when the hope of reconciliation disappears, ii. 587;
+ persuades the Huguenots to enter upon the fifth religious
+ war, 1574, ii. 622.
+
+
+ O.
+
+ Oath to be exacted of the Huguenots, ii. 257.
+
+ Ossat, D', Cardinal, ii. 401.
+
+ Obedience, spirit of, pervading all classes, i. 8.
+
+ OEcolampadius, his correspondence with Lefevre, i. 86.
+
+ Official, or vicar, duties of i. 52.
+
+ Olaegui, secretary of the Spanish ambassador, reports the rapid spread
+ of the Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day to the provinces, ii. 505.
+
+ Olivetanus, or Olivetan, Pierre Robert, translates the Bible for the
+ Vaudois, i. 233.
+
+ Olivier, Chancellor, at first refuses to seal the royal commission to
+ the Duke of Guise, making him lieutenant-general of France, with
+ absolute powers, i. 390;
+ his remark as to the Cardinal of Lorraine, and death, i. 411, 412.
+
+ Oppede, Jean Meynier, Baron d', first president of the Parliament of
+ Aix, i. 243, seq.;
+ his death, i. 252.
+
+ Orange, city and principality of, i. 4, 66;
+ origin of Protestantism in, ii. 48;
+ great regret of the Prince of Orange, ib.;
+ massacre of Protestants at, ii. 49;
+ the inhabitants reconciled by Charles IX. to those of the Comtat
+ Venaissin, ii. 165;
+ infringement upon the peace at, ii. 373;
+ included in the Huguenot scheme of organization, ii. 618;
+ plundered by M. de Glandage, ii. 620.
+
+ Orange, William the Silent, Prince of, learns from Henry II. the
+ designs of Philip and himself for the extermination of the
+ Protestants, i. 325;
+ attempts to assist the Huguenots, ii. 288;
+ outgeneralled by Alva, ib.;
+ enters France and terrifies the court, ii. 289;
+ the insubordination of his troops compels him to retire, ib.;
+ his declaration, ii. 290;
+ re-enters France with the Duke of Deux-Ponts, ii. 315;
+ goes to Germany to obtain reinforcements for Coligny, ii. 332, 364.
+
+ Ordinances, royal. See Edicts.
+
+ Organization of the Huguenots, admirable, ii. 247.
+
+ Orgies, pretended, in "la petite Geneve," i. 365.
+
+ Orleans, the "ghost" of, i. 57, 58;
+ progress of Protestantism at, ii. 12;
+ the canons of the cathedral promise to attend the Protestant
+ theological lectures, ii. 12;
+ seized by Conde, it becomes the Huguenot centre during the first
+ civil war, ii. 39;
+ iconoclasm at, ii. 45;
+ left by Conde and Coligny in D'Andelot's hands, ii. 85, 98;
+ besieged by Guise, ii. 99;
+ capture of the Portereau, ii. 100;
+ use of bombs by the garrison, ii. 101;
+ massacre of Huguenots in the prisons of, Aug. 21, 1569, ii. 326;
+ the great massacre of, 1572, ii. 508, seq.;
+ a German account of the same, ii. 569-571.
+
+ Orsini, Cardinal, ii. 531.
+
+ Orthez, Viscount D', Governor of Bayonne, magnanimously refuses
+ to murder the Protestants, ii. 528.
+
+ Ory, Oriz, or Oritz, Inquisitor of the Faith, i. 224, 288.
+
+
+ P.
+
+ "Paix boiteuse et mal-assise," ii. 366.
+
+ Pamiers, persecution at, ii. 146;
+ Huguenot commotion at, ii. 193.
+
+ Pamphlets against the Guises, i. 409;
+ Cardinal Lorraine has twenty-two on his table directed against
+ himself, i. 423;
+ the "Epistre au Tigre de la France," i. 444, 448.
+
+ Panier, Paris, a doctor of civil law, put to death, i. 266.
+
+ Parcenac, ii. 226.
+
+ Paris, nobles flock to, i. 8;
+ learns obedience, i. 9;
+ wealth and population, i. 10;
+ persecution at, i. 216, 220;
+ first Protestant church organized, i. 294;
+ the example followed elsewhere, i. 296;
+ alarm at, after defeat of St. Quentin, i. 302;
+ progress of Protestantism in, i. 562, 563;
+ immense crowds at the Huguenot preaching, ii. 11;
+ fanaticism of the people, ii. 37, 38;
+ their delight at the prospect of war, ii. 41;
+ their fury, ii. 69;
+ approached by Conde, ii. 89;
+ insubordination and riot at, ii. 96, 97;
+ the people disarmed, ii. 141;
+ the citizen soldiers at the battle of Saint Denis, ii. 215;
+ processions at ii. 325;
+ line of the walls in the sixteenth century, ii. 483;
+ the municipal officers call the king's attention to the
+ massacre, ii. 486.
+
+ Parliament of Bordeaux, i. 19.
+
+ Parliament of Paris, i. 16;
+ claims right of remonstrance, i. 17;
+ humored by the crown, i. 18;
+ protests against repeal of Pragmatic Sanction, i. 33;
+ opposes the concordat, i. 37;
+ reluctantly registers it, i. 39;
+ proceeds vigorously against the "Lutherans," i. 171;
+ denounced by the Sorbonne as altogether heretical i. 328;
+ its inconsistent sentences, i. 329;
+ the mercuriale of 1559, i. 330, seq.;
+ different issues of the trials of the five imprisoned judges, i. 375;
+ the mercuriale of 1561, i. 481, seq.;
+ diversity of sentiment in, i. 482, 483;
+ its decision embodied in the "Edict of July," i. 483;
+ its opposition to the edict of January, ii. 6;
+ which it reluctantly registers, ii. 7;
+ its excessive severity, ii. 68;
+ it affects to regard Conde as a prisoner in the hands of the
+ Protestant confederates, ii. 70;
+ sternly reproved by Charles IX. for failing to record the edict of
+ Amboise, ii. 139, 140;
+ declares Coligny infamous, and sets a price on his head, ii. 330, 331;
+ extravagance after the victory of Moncontour, ii. 337;
+ its servile reply to Charles IX., ii. 493;
+ it declares Coligny's memory infamous, ii. 496.
+
+ Parliament of Rouen, or Normandy, puts to death Augustin
+ Marlorat, ii. 80. See Rouen.
+
+ Parliaments, provincial, i. 17.
+
+ Parma, Duchess of, Regent of the Netherlands, sets a price on the
+ head of Theodore Beza, ii. 388, note.
+
+ Partenay falls into the hands of the Huguenots, ii. 282.
+
+ Pasquier, Etienne, on barbarism at the university, i. 42;
+ his estimate of Calvin, i. 216;
+ on Paris at the beginning of the first civil war, ii. 41.
+
+ Pasquinade against the Cardinal of Lorraine, i. 447.
+
+ Patriarche, the, a Protestant place of worship, i. 571, 573.
+
+ Paul III., Pope, his alleged intercession for the Protestants, i. 180;
+ grounds of doubt respecting it, i. 181.
+
+ Paul IV., Pope, his disappointment at the escape of Andelot from the
+ stake, i. 320;
+ ii. 568;
+ believes that no heretic can be converted, ib.
+
+ Paulin, Viscount of, ii. 230, note; 600.
+
+ Pauvan, Jacques, i. 89;
+ his theses, i. 90;
+ burned on the Place de Greve, i. 91.
+
+ Pavia, battle of, Feb. 24, 1525, i. 122.
+
+ Peace of Amboise, March 19, 1563, terminating the first civil
+ war, ii. 115;
+ peace of Longjumeau, or "short" peace, after the second civil
+ war, ii. 234;
+ number of Protestants murdered during, ii. 250;
+ peace of St Germain, after the third civil war, ii. 363.
+
+ People, rights of, overlooked, i. 11;
+ "incomparable kindness of," i. 14;
+ submission to nobles, i. 15.
+
+ Perigord, Protestantism in, i. 428.
+
+ Perry, Mr. G. G., his remarks on Whittingham, ii. 293.
+
+ Persecution, failure of, i. 220;
+ more systematic, i. 224;
+ severity of, i. 296, 359.
+
+ Petit, Guillaume, the king's confessor, i. 72.
+
+ Petition of the Triumvirs, ii. 58.
+
+ Peyrat, M. du, ii. 514.
+
+ Pezenas, in Languedoc, i. 428.
+
+ Philip the Fair and Pope Boniface VIII., i. 27.
+
+ Philip II., King of Spain, offers aid to Catharine de' Medici, i. 358;
+ opposed to a French national council, i. 426;
+ plots with the Pope, ib;
+ his aid invoked by the Sorbonne i. 467, 468;
+ his threats of invasion, i. 555;
+ his message to Catharine de' Medici, i. 567;
+ he is commended by the Pope, i. 568;
+ he sends Courteville on a secret mission, ib.;
+ hesitates to aid the French Roman Catholics, ii. 54;
+ his offers on paper, ib.;
+ looks with suspicion on the projected conference at Bayonne, ii. 167;
+ is said to have threatened Charles IX., ii. 195;
+ he approves Alva's procrastinating policy respecting assistance to
+ the Guises, ii. 208;
+ offers 200,000 crowns if Charles will continue the war against the
+ Huguenots, ii. 228;
+ recalls his troops, ii. 342;
+ opposes the peace, ii. 360, 365;
+ his ambassador leaves the French court in disgust, after giving away
+ the silver plate Charles had given him, ii. 391;
+ his delight at hearing of the massacre of St. Bartholomew's
+ Day, ii., 536 seq.
+
+ Philippe, M., an inconsiderate minister at Cateau-Cambresis, leads
+ the iconoclasts, ii. 190;
+ he is executed, ii. 191.
+
+ Philippi, ii. 603.
+
+ Pibrac, avocat-general, ii. 493.
+
+ Picardy, the Duke of Longueville prevents the massacre of the
+ Protestants from extending to, ii. 526.
+
+ Pierre-Gourde, M. de, ii. 284.
+
+ Piles, M. de, ii. 312;
+ his brave defence of St. Jean d'Angely, ii. 340;
+ ravages the Spanish county of Roussillon, ii. 351, 355, 439;
+ his murder at the Louvre on St. Bartholomew's Day, ii. 467.
+
+ Pinart, ii. 623.
+
+ Pithiviers, or Pluviers, captured by Conde, ii. 87;
+ retaken by Guise, ii. 97.
+
+ Pius IV., Pope, his solicitude respecting France, i. 548;
+ sends the Cardinal of Ferrara as legate, ib.;
+ commends Philip II., i. 568;
+ praises Blaise de Montluc, by a brief, for his part in the massacre
+ of Toulouse, ii. 54;
+ his bull against princely heretics, April 7, 1563, ii. 141.
+
+ Pius V., Pope, is said to have threatened Charles IX., ii. 195;
+ his nuncio tries to prevent peace being concluded with the
+ Huguenots, ii. 228;
+ praises the Duke of Nemours for his severity, ii. 245;
+ approves by a bull the crusade at Toulouse, ii. 279;
+ his sanguinary injunctions after the battle of Jarnac, ii. 308, 309;
+ severely reproves Santa Fiore for sparing any heretics, ii. 335, 568;
+ his congratulatory letters after the battle of Moncontour, ii. 336;
+ recalls his troops ii. 342;
+ his bull against Queen Elizabeth, ii. 359;
+ opposes the peace ii. 360, 365, 369;
+ alarmed at the prospects of the Huguenot ascendancy in France, he
+ despatches his nephew, the Cardinal of Alessandria, as legate,
+ to Paris, ii. 400;
+ the king's assurances, ii. 400-403;
+ the conditions required for granting a dispensation for the marriage
+ of Henry of Navarre and Margaret of Valois, ii. 410, note;
+ gives no dispensation until after the marriage, his bull being dated
+ Oct 27, 1572, ii. 427;
+ his letters to Charles, Catharine, Anjou, etc., instigating them to
+ exterminate the heretics, ii. 564, seq.;
+ his thirst for Huguenot blood, ii. 567, 568;
+ redeems the Huguenot captives of Mornas in order to have the
+ satisfaction of ordering their public execution, ii. 568.
+
+ Placard, the, of 1534. Feret sent to Neufchatel to have it
+ printed, i. 164;
+ its authorship, ib.;
+ its publication opposed by Courault and other prudent
+ reformers, i. 165;
+ its contents, ib.;
+ it produces great popular excitement in Paris, i. 167;
+ a copy posted on the door of the king's bedchamber, ib.;
+ anger of Francis I., ib.;
+ barbarous executions consequent upon it, i. 171, 177;
+ marks an epoch in the history of the Huguenots, i. 193.
+
+ Placard, the year of the, i. 164, etc.
+
+ Placards and pasquinades, both for and against the reformed
+ doctrines, i. 163.
+
+ Place, Pierre de la, President of the Cour d'Aides, and a historian,
+ murdered in the massacre at Paris, ii. 479.
+
+ Plague, the, in Paris and Orleans, ii. 85.
+
+ Planche, Regnier de la, consulted by Catharine de' Medici, i. 410.
+
+ Pleasantries, Huguenot, ii. 192.
+
+ Plessis Mornay, Philippe du, writes for Coligny a memorial on the
+ Flemish project, ii. 416.
+
+ Poissy, the prelates at, i. 493;
+ Beza and other French Protestants invited to a conference, i. 494;
+ wrangling of the prelates, i. 499;
+ their demand, i. 542;
+ their character, i. 547.
+
+ Poissy, the Colloquy of, the Huguenots petition for fair treatment
+ at, i. 505;
+ vexatious delay, i. 506;
+ the Huguenots determine to leave unless their petition is
+ granted, i. 507;
+ an informal decree in their favor, ib.;
+ the last efforts of the Sorbonne to prevent the conference prove
+ abortive, i. 508;
+ the Huguenot ministers and delegates of churches proceed from St.
+ Germain to Poissy, i. 509;
+ list of the former, ib.;
+ the assembly in the nuns' refectory, i. 510;
+ the prelates, i. 511;
+ diffidence of Beza, i. 512;
+ Chancellor L'Hospital's oration at the opening, ib.;
+ the Huguenots are summoned, i. 513;
+ a cardinal's sneer and Beza's retort, i. 514;
+ Beza's prayer and address, i. 514-521;
+ he is interrupted by the theologians of the Sorbonne with cries of
+ "Blasphemy!" i. 519;
+ Cardinal Tournon tries to cut short the conference, i. 521;
+ but Catharine declines to permit its interruption, i. 522;
+ advantages gained, ib.;
+ the prelates' notion of a conference, i. 526;
+ arrival of Peter Martyr, i. 527;
+ Cardinal Lorraine replies to Beza, i. 528;
+ Cardinal Tournon's new demand, i. 529;
+ Beza asks a hearing, ib.;
+ he replies, i. 532, 533;
+ speeches of Claude D'Espense and Claude de Sainctes, i. 532;
+ Cardinal Lorraine's demand that the Huguenot ministers should
+ subscribe to the Augsburg Confession, i. 533;
+ Beza's reply, i. 533-565;
+ anger of the prelates, i. 536;
+ speeches of Martyr and Lainez, i. 536;
+ close of the colloquy, i. 537;
+ is followed by a private conference, i. 538;
+ and the arrival of five Protestant theologians from Germany, i. 544;
+ causes of the failure of the colloquy, i. 546.
+
+ Poitiers, demands of the clergy at, i. 431;
+ captured by the king, ii. 71;
+ siege of, by the Huguenots, ii. 324, 325.
+
+ Poland, news of the massacre, how received in, ii. 553;
+ Henry of Anjou elected king, ii. 593;
+ ambassadors from, come to France, ii. 598;
+ their magnificent reception, ib.
+
+ "Politiques," or Malcontents, the party of the, ii. 615;
+ their unsuccessful rising, ii. 625.
+
+ Poltrot, Jean, de Merey, assassinates Francois de Guise, ii. 103;
+ his history, ii. 104;
+ his torture and execution, ii. 105;
+ accuses Beza and Coligny of having instigated the murder, ii. 106.
+
+ Poncher, Bishop of Paris, i. 71.
+
+ Pons, ii. 283.
+
+ Pont, Baron du, ii. 476.
+
+ Popincourt, a Protestant place of worship at Paris, destroyed by
+ Constable Montmorency, ii. 37.
+
+ Populace, cruelty of, i. 366.
+
+ Porcien, the Prince of, ii. 193;
+ attempt to assassinate, ii. 194.
+
+ Poulain, Poulin, or Polin, otherwise called Baron de la Garde, i. 246;
+ ii. 361, 576.
+
+ Pragmatic Sanction of St Louis, i. 26;
+ of Bourges, i. 29, 30;
+ anger of the Pope at, i. 31;
+ abrogated, i. 32;
+ re-enacted, i. 33, 35;
+ abrogated by Francis I., i. 36;
+ still recognized by parliament, i. 40;
+ its restoration demanded, i. 459.
+
+ Pre aux Clercs, the public grounds of the university, psalm-singing on
+ the, i. 314.
+
+ Prelates, French, cited to Rome and condemned, ii. 141.
+
+ Prerogative, royal, books upon, ii. 615, 616.
+
+ Presidial judges, no appeal from their decisions in cases of
+ heresy, i. 279.
+
+ Primacy of France divided between the Archbishops of Lyons and
+ Sens, i. 118.
+
+ Princes, scanty revenues of, i. 8.
+
+ Prior, the Grand, of France, i. 269;
+ at Saverne, ii. 13.
+
+ Privas, a Huguenot place of refuge, ii. 280.
+
+ Processions, indecent, i. 59;
+ expiatory, i. 142, and especially, i. 173, etc.;
+ to intercede for help in the war against La Rochelle, ii. 592.
+
+ Profane oaths a test of Catholicity, ii. 134, 585.
+
+ Profligacy of the court, the, ii. 132, note;
+ alienation of, from the Huguenots, ii. 133.
+
+ Protestants of France, appeal to the Swiss and Germans, i. 191;
+ persecuted in various places, i. 216, 217;
+ the tongues of the victims cut out, i. 217;
+ or iron balls forced into their mouths, i. 257;
+ place a remonstrance in the chamber of Henry II., i. 308;
+ they appeal to Catharine de' Medici, i. 362;
+ a second and more urgent appeal, i. 364. See Huguenots.
+
+ Protestantism, causes of its sudden development in the last years of
+ Henry II. and the reign of Francis II., i. 399-403.
+
+ Provence, Huguenots of, under Mouvans, i. 407;
+ disorders and bloodshed in, ii. 47;
+ saved from witnessing a massacre of the Protestants in 1572 by the
+ magnanimity of the Count de Tende, ii. 527;
+ demands of the tiers etat of, ii. 603.
+
+ Provins, preaching of friars at, ii. 5, 6, 279;
+ intolerance at, ii. 191, 241, 242.
+
+ Psalms, versified by Marot and Beza, sung on the Pre aux Clercs, i. 314;
+ indignation of Henry II. at, i. 315;
+ set to music for worship by Bourgeois and others, especially by
+ Goudimel, in several parts, ii. 517, note.
+
+ Puigaillard, ii. 503, 504, 512, 513, 617.
+
+ Punishments, barbarous, i. 45;
+ especially for heresy, i. 46.
+
+ Puyroche, M., his monograph on the massacre at Lyons, ii. 513, note.
+
+
+ Q.
+
+ Quercu, or De Chesne, i. 23, 50.
+
+ Quintin, Jean, orator for the clergy in the States General of Orleans,
+ makes a speech of insufferable arrogance, i. 458;
+ he pictures the sad straits of the clergy, and asks for the
+ restoration of the Pragmatic Sanction, i. 459;
+ his word for the down-trodden people, i. 460;
+ he is compelled to apologize to Admiral Coligny, ib.
+
+
+ R.
+
+ Rabasteins, massacre of the garrison of, ii. 361.
+
+ Ramee, Pierre de la, or Ramus, assassinated at the instigation of
+ Charpentier, ii. 478.
+
+ Rapin, a Protestant gentleman sent by the king, judicially murdered
+ by the Parliament of Toulouse, ii. 239.
+
+ "Rapin, Vengeance de," ii. 351.
+
+ Rapin, Viscount of, ii. 230, note.
+
+ Read, M. Charles, i. 446;
+ ii. 569.
+
+ Rector of the university, i. 22.
+
+ Reform, abortive efforts at, i. 61.
+
+ Reformation, the French, becomes a popular movement, i. 196.
+
+ Regnier, a Huguenot gentleman of Quercy, spared in the massacre
+ at Paris, through the magnanimity of his personal enemy
+ Vezins, ii. 480;
+ by his bravery and determination saves Montauban for the
+ Huguenots, ii. 574, 575.
+
+ "Reiters," i. 11.
+
+ Relics, reverence for, i. 49;
+ great variety of, i. 50.
+
+ Renaissance, era of the, i. 41.
+
+ Renaudie, Godefroy de Barry, Seigneur de la, leader in the Tumult
+ of Amboise, i. 379;
+ assembles the malcontents at Nantes, i. 380;
+ is betrayed by Des Avenelles, i. 382;
+ his death, i. 389;
+ his body hung and quartered, i. 392;
+ inscription over his remains, ib.;
+ an alleged admission of disloyal intentions on his part, i. 394.
+
+ Renee de France, Duchess of Ferrara, her hospitality, i, 179;
+ her court, i. 205;
+ her eulogy by Brantome, i. 206;
+ on her return to France, rebukes the Duke of Guise, i. 437;
+ affords a safe asylum to the Huguenots at
+ Montargis, ii. 73, 110, 111, 327;
+ her letter to Calvin respecting the Duke of Guise, ii. 109;
+ her answer to Malicorne, ii. 111;
+ her aversion to war, ii. 327, note.
+
+ Renel, Marquis de, murdered by Bussy d'Amboise, ii. 472.
+
+ Rentigny, Madame de, courageously refuses a pardon based on
+ recantation, and is executed as a Protestant, i. 311.
+
+ Renty, ii. 352.
+
+ Representative government, long break in history of, i. 13;
+ demanded by the "tiers etat" at Pontoise, i. 492.
+
+ Rescue of Protestant prisoners, i. 367.
+
+ Retz, De, Count and Marshal (Albert de Gondy), ii. 339, 443;
+ at the blood council, ii. 447, 448, 449;
+ obtains the office and property of Lomenie, including Versailles,
+ and then causes him to be put to death, ii. 485, 527, 638.
+
+ Re-union of Romanists and Protestants, hopes of, long
+ entertained, i. 159.
+
+ Rhinegrave, the, ii. 71, 298, 334.
+
+ Ribault, Jean leads the first expedition to colonize Florida, ii. 199;
+ returns to Florida in command of the third expedition, ii. 200;
+ flayed and quartered by the Spaniards, ib.
+
+ Riviere, M. de la, first Protestant pastor of Paris, i. 295;
+ he is treacherously murdered, at Angers, by M. de Montsoreau, ii. 512.
+
+ Roanne, la, the common prison of Lyons, ii. 515;
+ butchery of Huguenots in, ii. 516.
+
+ Roche Abeille, La, Huguenot victory at, ii. 319.
+
+ Rochefort, De, orator for the noblesse in the States General of
+ Orleans, i. 457.
+
+ Rochefoucauld, Count de la, escapes into Germany, hearing of the
+ proscriptive plans of the court, i. 442;
+ ii. 349, 428, 439, 451;
+ he is murdered on St. Bartholomew's Day, ii. 470.
+
+ Rochelle, La, the city of, secured for the Prince of Conde by the skill
+ of Francois de la Noue, ii. 226, seq.;
+ the alleged payment to Catharine de' Medici, in order to be free from
+ a garrison, ib., note;
+ execution of Protestants at, in 1552, ii. 227, 272;
+ refuses, in 1568, to receive a garrison, ii. 250;
+ its government and privileges, ii. 270-273;
+ iconoclasm at, ii. 272;
+ places for Protestant worship in, accorded by Charles IX., ib.;
+ Constable Montmorency's roughness, ii. 273;
+ becomes a city of refuge, ii. 280;
+ strengthens its works, ii. 342;
+ the tidings of the massacre at Bordeaux determine it to refuse to
+ admit the emissaries of Charles IX., ii. 524;
+ in Protestant hands, ii. 573;
+ a great number of refugees in, ii. 576;
+ refuses to receive Biron, who is sent as royal governor, ii. 578;
+ first skirmish before, ii. 579;
+ mission of La Noue to, ib.;
+ he is badly received, ii. 580;
+ the Rochellois reject the royal proposals, ii. 581;
+ they make advances to La Noue, ib.;
+ description of La Rochelle, ii. 582, 583;
+ resoluteness of the Rochellois, ii. 583;
+ their military strength, ii. 584;
+ they fight and pray, ii. 585;
+ bravery of the women, ii. 586;
+ determination of the inhabitants, ii. 587;
+ La Noue retires, ib.;
+ the promised aid from England miscarries, ii. 588;
+ great losses of the royal army before, ii. 591;
+ treacherous attempt upon, Dec., 1573, ii. 616;
+ the severe punishment for it approved by Charles IX., ii. 617;
+ resumes arms, at the persuasion of La Noue, in the beginning of
+ the fifth religious war, 1574, ii. 622.
+
+ Roche-sur-Yon, La, Prince of, his warning respecting the danger
+ impending over the Huguenots from the designs adopted at
+ Bayonne, ii. 197.
+
+ Rochetti, Louis de, an inquisitor, becomes a Protestant and is burned
+ alive at Toulouse i. 289.
+
+ Roma, De, a Dominican monk, his threat, i. 76;
+ his cruelty, i. 235.
+
+ Roman Church, how far responsible for the Massacre of St. Bartholomew's
+ Day, ii. 562, seq.
+
+ Romans, the Huguenots of, i. 404.
+
+ Rome, quarrels of France with, i. 279;
+ Protestants never more exposed to disaster than when such quarrels
+ exist, ib.;
+ the couriers going to, stripped of their dispatches on the
+ frontiers, i. 495;
+ rejoicings at, over the news of the massacre of the Protestants
+ in France, ii. 530.
+
+ Romorantin, the edict of, May, 1560, i. 410.
+
+ Ronsard, the poet, takes the sword against the Huguenots, ii. 68.
+
+ Roquefort, ii. 351.
+
+ Rouen, capital of Normandy, persecution at, i. 217;
+ rescue of a Protestant bookbinder at, i. 367;
+ Protestant assemblies in, i. 408;
+ seven thousand gather in the new market-place and sing psalms, i. 430;
+ besieged by the king, ii. 77;
+ makes a brave defence, ii. 79;
+ its fall, ib.;
+ vexatious delays in publishing the edict of Amboise at, ii. 129;
+ partiality of parliament, ii. 130;
+ its protest against the return of Protestant exiles, ii. 131;
+ it meets with a decided rebuff, ii. 131, 132;
+ riot when the edict of pacification of Longjumeau is
+ published at, ii. 241;
+ troops quartered upon the Huguenots, ii. 244;
+ violence at, ii. 249;
+ Protestants attacked at, March 4, 1571, ii. 374;
+ massacre of, ii. 519-521.
+
+ Roussel, Gerard, i. 74, 75, 83, 150, 151;
+ retires to Strasbourg, i. 84;
+ his excessive caution, i. 85;
+ his theology and fortunes, i. 97;
+ his death, i. 98.
+
+ Roussillon, county of, Spanish, ravaged by M. de Piles, ii. 351.
+
+ Roussillon, declaration of Aug. 4, 1564, infringing upon the edict of
+ pacification of Amboise, ii. 161, 162.
+
+ Roy, Etienne le, a singer ii. 429, 431.
+
+ "Royal council," the name given to meetings at which the king is not
+ present, ii. 33.
+
+ Roye, Eleonore de, wife of Louis de Conde, her grief and
+ death, ii. 145, 303, note.
+
+ Roye, Madame de, mother-in-law of Conde, arrested, i. 437;
+ but subsequently declared innocent, i. 465.
+
+ Ruble, Baron de, his remarks respecting La Huguerye's misrepresentation
+ of the character of the Queen of Navarre, ii. 425.
+
+ Rubys, an agent in the massacre at Lyons, ii. 504, note, 514.
+
+ Russanges, De, a goldsmith, betrays the Protestants of Paris, i. 360.
+
+
+ S.
+
+ Sacramentarians excepted from the pardon extended in the Declaration of
+ Coucy, i. 179.
+
+ Sadolet, Bishop, his kindness to the Waldenses or Vaudois of
+ Provence, i. 242.
+
+ Sague, an agent of the King of Navarre, arrested, i. 424.
+
+ Sainctes, Claude de, his speech at the Colloquy of Poissy, i. 532;
+ complains of Huguenot boldness, i. 570;
+ a violent advocate of persecution, ii. 254.
+
+ "Saint," the prefix of, insisted upon by the Sorbonne, i. 223.
+
+ Saint Andre, Jacques d'Albon, Marshal of, i. 266;
+ his rapid advancement, i. 272;
+ makes terms with the Guises, i. 354;
+ his influence with Constable Montmorency, i. 469;
+ becomes one of the triumvirs, i. 470, 471;
+ he returns a defiant answer to Catharine de' Medici, when ordered to
+ go to his government, ii. 27;
+ lays siege to and takes Bourges, ii. 71, 72;
+ is killed in the battle of Dreux, ii. 95;
+ enmity of Catharine de' Medici toward, ii. 97. See Triumvirs.
+
+ Saint Denis, battle of, Nov. 10, 1567, ii. 213.
+
+ Saint Etienne, ii. 353.
+
+ Saint Germain, Conference of, 1561, i. 539;
+ its article on the eucharist rejected by the Roman Catholic
+ prelates, i. 541;
+ assembly of notables at, i. 574;
+ conference of, January 28, 1562, ii. 7;
+ its profitless discussions, ii. 8;
+ delight of Mouchy and his companions at its close, ii. 8, 9;
+ flight of the court from, ii. 626.
+
+ Saint Germain, the edict of pacification of, ending the third civil
+ war, Aug. 8, 1570, ii. 363;
+ dissatisfaction of the clergy, ii. 365;
+ sincerity of the peace, ii. 367.
+
+ Saint-Germain-des-Pres, the old abbey of, ii. 483, note.
+
+ Saint Germain l'Auxerrois, church of, i. 174;
+ bell of, ii. 455, 470, note.
+
+ Saint Goard, ii. 537, 538.
+
+ Saint Heran, Governor of Auvergne, his reported magnanimity, ii. 527.
+
+ Saint Hippolyte, Wolfgang Schuch at, i. 116.
+
+ Saint Jacques, Rue, affair of, Sept. 4, 1557, i. 303, 304;
+ savage treatment of the prisoners, i. 305;
+ malicious rumors respecting Protestants, i. 306;
+ trials and executions, i. 307.
+
+ Saint Jean d'Angely, ii. 312;
+ disastrous siege of, by the Roman Catholic army, ii. 339, seq.
+
+ Saint Lo, in Normandy, i. 408;
+ ii. 631, 632.
+
+ Saint Medard, the "tumult" of, i. 571, seq.
+
+ Saint Michael's Day, the Huguenots to rise upon
+ (Sept. 29, 1567), ii. 205;
+ the secret leaks out, ii. 206.
+
+ Saint Paul, Francois de, a minister at the Colloquy of Poissy, i. 509.
+
+ Saint Quentin, defeat of, August 10, 1557, i. 302.
+
+ Saint Remy, Nicole de, a mistress of Henry II., and a Spanish spy,
+ suggests the marriage of Cardinal Bourbon in the contingency of
+ the death of all Catharine de' Medici's sons, ii. 180, 181.
+
+ Saint Romain, Archbishop of Aix, cited by the Pope, ii. 141, 161.
+
+ Saint Romain, M. de, ii. 600.
+
+ Saint Thomas, M. de, ii. 511.
+
+ Sainte Chapelle, founded by Saint Louis, its relics, i. 174.
+
+ Sainte Foy, De, or Arnauld Sorbin, a violent Roman Catholic
+ preacher, ii. 254;
+ instigates the massacre of Orleans, ii. 508;
+ acts as confessor of Charles IX. before his death, ii. 637.
+
+ Sainte Gemme, La Noue's success at, ii. 361.
+
+ Saintes, ii. 283, 361.
+
+ Salcede, sentenced to be boiled alive for counterfeiting, i. 46.
+
+ Salic law, the, a bit of pleasantry, ii. 208.
+
+ Salignac, Abbe, confers with the Protestants at Poissy, i. 538;
+ his professed sympathy with the Reformation, and his
+ timidity, i. 538, 539.
+
+ Salviati, papal nuncio in France, his testimony respecting the want
+ of premeditation of the Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day, and
+ the king's ignorance, ii. 435, 436, 531, 535, 564.
+
+ Sancerre refuses to admit a garrison, in 1568, ii. 250;
+ ford near, ii. 269;
+ a Huguenot place of refuge, ii. 280;
+ fruitless siege of, by Martinengo, ii. 297;
+ siege of, in 1573, ii. 589;
+ incipient famine in, ii. 590;
+ terrible straits of, ii. 595, 596;
+ capitulation of, ii. 597.
+
+ Sansac, ii. 325, 344.
+
+ Santa Croce, Cardinal, sent as nuncio to France, i. 548;
+ his reluctance, i. 549;
+ his alarm at the time of the assembly of notables at Saint
+ Germain, i. 575;
+ he claims the surrender of Cardinal Chatillon to the
+ Pope, ii. 228, 229.
+
+ Santa Fiore, pontifical general in France, his
+ instructions, ii. 319, note;
+ severely reproved by Pius V. for having spared any heretics
+ that fell into his hands, ii. 335, 568;
+ recalled, 342.
+
+ Sapin, a member of the Parliament of Paris, executed by order of Conde,
+ by way of retaliation, ii. 80.
+
+ Saumur, ii. 324, 503, 504, 512.
+
+ Saunier, or Saulnier, Matthieu, i. 90.
+
+ Saverne, conference of, between the Duke of Wuertemberg and the
+ Guises, ii, 13-17.
+
+ Savoy, Duke of, intercession of Charles IX. with, in behalf of the
+ Waldenses, or Vaudois, of Piedmont, ii. 390;
+ collects an army to overwhelm Geneva, ii. 557.
+
+ Saxony, the elector of, refuses to let Melanchthon go to France, i. 185;
+ his severe language to the reformer, ib.;
+ refuses to help the Huguenots, ii. 217.
+
+ Schism, the, i. 28.
+
+ Schmidt, Professor C., on Roussel's mysticism, i. 97.
+
+ Schomberg, Gaspard de, a negotiator, ii. 71, 290, 550, 551, 608.
+
+ Schuch, Wolfgang, tragic end of, i. 116.
+
+ Sebastian, King of Portugal, affronts Charles IX. by declining the
+ hand of Margaret of Valois, ii. 379.
+
+ Sebeville, Pierre de, i. 83.
+
+ Seguier, President of the Parliament of Paris, makes a manly speech
+ against the introduction of the Spanish Inquisition, i. 289, 290;
+ his leaning to Protestantism, i. 329.
+
+ Senlis, the bishop of, translates the "Hours" of Margaret of Angouleme
+ in a Protestant fashion, i. 151.
+
+ Sens, provincial council of, i. 138;
+ its decrees against heresy, i. 139;
+ persecution at, i. 256;
+ massacre of, ii. 46, 55.
+
+ Serbelloni, Fabrizio, cousin of Pope Pius IV., massacres the Protestants
+ at Orange, ii. 48, 49.
+
+ Serignan, Viscount of, ii. 230, note.
+
+ Sermons, seditious and fanatical, ii. 5, 240, 279, 523.
+
+ Serres, Jean de, the historian, ii. 572, note, et al.
+
+ Servetus, Michael, burned contrary to the desire of Calvin, i. 212;
+ his execution approved by Melanchthon and other reformers, ib.
+
+ Sevyn, Pierre de, a Protestant member of the Parliament of Bordeaux,
+ killed, ii. 524.
+
+ Shakerley, Thomas, organist of the Cardinal of Ferrara, papal legate: he
+ is a spy in the pay of Throkmorton, i. 566, note;
+ his account of the French court, ib.
+
+ Sigismund Augustus, King of Poland, letter of Pius V. to him, ii. 564.
+
+ Sismondi, M. de, on the massacre of Vassy, ii. 24.
+
+ Smith, Sir Thomas, his account of the riotous conduct of the Parisian
+ mob, ii. 96, 97;
+ his tribute to the Duke of Guise, ii. 112;
+ his remonstrance against the edict of pacification of
+ Amboise, ii. 116;
+ his altercation with Sir Nicholas Throkmorton, ii. 128;
+ his words as to the Prince of Conde, ii. 145, note;
+ his view of the design of the "progress" of Charles IX., ii 158;
+ on the growth of Protestantism in France, ii. 182;
+ his account of an interview with the Cardinal of
+ Lorraine, ii. 321, note;
+ his account of the offer of a ring by Charles IX. to the Cardinal
+ of Alessandria, ii. 402, note;
+ his plea for Queen Elizabeth, ii. 422, note;
+ his letter respecting the Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day, ii. 546.
+
+ Soldan, Professor, his view respecting the cities offered by the king
+ to the Huguenots, ii. 358, note;
+ as to the terms of the edict of Boulogne, ii. 594, note.
+
+ Soleure, the canton of, ii. 557.
+
+ Sommieres, brave defence of, ii. 589.
+
+ Sorbin. See Sainte Foy, De.
+
+ Sorbonne, or theological faculty, i. 22;
+ its great authority, i. 23;
+ its intolerance, i. 24;
+ declaration of, i. 71;
+ condemns Luther's teachings, i. 108;
+ its recommendations, i. 110;
+ reprobates Melanchthon's articles, i. 187;
+ publishes twenty-five articles of faith, March 10, 1543, i. 223;
+ denounces the Parliament of Paris as heretical, i. 328;
+ despatches Artus Desire to invoke the aid of Philip II., i. 467, 468;
+ declares it impossible to have two religions in a kingdom without
+ confusion, ii. 228.
+
+ Soubise, M. de, entreats Catharine to throw herself into the arms of
+ the Huguenots, ii. 31;
+ at Lyons, ii. 102;
+ his humanity, ib.;
+ taken prisoner at Jarnac, ii. 306.
+
+ Souillac, Huguenot reverse at, ii. 348.
+
+ Spanish ambassador's house in Paris the centre of intrigue, ii. 181.
+
+ Spanish troops recalled, ii. 342.
+
+ States General an object of suspicion, i. 11;
+ rarely convoked, i. 12;
+ compensating advantages, i. 13.
+
+ States General of Orleans, elections for, i. 430;
+ complaints inserted in the "cahiers," ib.;
+ demands of clergy at Poitiers, i. 431;
+ opening of, Dec. 13, 1560, i. 454;
+ the chancellor's address, i. 455;
+ Cardinal Lorraine's effrontery, i. 456;
+ De Rochefort's address for the noblesse, ib.;
+ L'Ange for the tiers etat, i. 458;
+ Jean Quintin's arrogant speech for the clergy, ib.;
+ Admiral Coligny presents a Huguenot petition, i. 461;
+ the States prorogued, ib.;
+ meanwhile persecution to cease, i. 462;
+ meet at Pontoise, i. 488;
+ speech of Bretagne, _vierg_ of Autun, for the tiers etat, i. 489;
+ demands of the tiers etat, i. 490;
+ representative government, religious toleration and an impartial
+ council insisted upon, i. 492;
+ the prelates at Poissy, i. 493;
+ an invitation extended to Beza and other Frenchmen, i. 494.
+
+ Strasbourg intercedes for Protestants of France, i. 191;
+ but receives an unsatisfactory reply, i. 192.
+
+ Strozzi, Philip, ii. 319, 576, 583, 584, 623.
+
+ Stuart, a Scotch gentleman, said to have shot the constable in the
+ battle of Saint Denis, ii. 215;
+ murdered in cold blood at Jarnac, ii. 304.
+
+ Sturm, John, lecturer in Paris, and afterward rector of the University
+ of Strasbourg, writes to beg Melanchthon to come to France, i. 182.
+
+ Sully, Maximilien de Bethune, Duke of, his escape in the massacre of
+ Paris, ii. 477.
+
+ Sureau du Rosier, Hugues, an instrument in the forced conversion of
+ Navarre and Conde, ii. 499.
+
+ Suriano, Michel, a Venetian ambassador, his account of the Protestant
+ ministers, i. 463;
+ his lugubrious account of France, i. 569.
+
+ Swiss, hesitation of the Protestant cantons to seem to countenance
+ rebellion, ii. 56;
+ bravery at the battle of Dreux, ii. 94;
+ levy of six thousand men sent for, ii. 196;
+ causes distrust among the Huguenots, ib.;
+ they escort Charles IX. to Paris, ii. 207;
+ after the Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day, ii. 558.
+
+ Sympathy of the judges with the Protestants, i. 300.
+
+ Synod, the first national, held in Paris, May, 1559, i. 335-337;
+ the second, Poitiers, March 10, 1561, ii. 62, note;
+ the third, Orleans, April 25, 1562, ii. 61;
+ the seventh, La Rochelle, April 2-11, 1571, ii. 387.
+
+
+ T.
+
+ Tadon, ii. 580.
+
+ Tailor of the Rue St. Antoine, his bold speech and
+ execution, i. 276, 277.
+
+ Talaize, ii. 516, note.
+
+ Tanquerel, a doctor of the Sorbonne, declares that the Pope can depose
+ heretical kings, i. 566.
+
+ Tavannes, Gaspard de, Marshal, remonstrates against the peace, and
+ favors the revival of the confraternities, ii. 245, 246;
+ author of plot to seize Conde and Coligny, ii. 266, 339;
+ the king's estimate of his character, ii. 409;
+ his blunt advice, ii. 429, note;
+ at the council of blood, ii. 447, 448 note;
+ he rides through the streets of Paris encouraging the
+ "blood-letting," ii. 476.
+
+ Teil, a Protestant captain, ii. 329.
+
+ Teligny, ii. 256, 357, 359, 363, 384;
+ marries Louise de Chatillon, daughter of Admiral Coligny, ii. 387;
+ a conversation with Charles IX., ii. 408, 409;
+ opposes the proposition of the Vidame de Chartres to leave Paris, as
+ a mark of distrust of the king, ii. 446, 453;
+ he is among the first victims of the massacre, ii. 471.
+
+ Tende, the Count of, ii. 298;
+ he refuses to massacre the Protestants in Provence, ii. 527;
+ his speedy death attributed to poison, ib.
+
+ Terrides, a captain of Anjou, ii. 323.
+
+ Tessier, ii. 509.
+
+ Theatrical effects, i. 58.
+
+ Theophilus, letter signed, to Catharine de' Medici, i. 409.
+
+ Thionville, brilliant capture of, i. 321.
+
+ Thore, a younger Montmorency, ii. 441, 452, 625, 628.
+
+ Thou, Christopher de, First President of the Parliament of Paris,
+ member of the commission that condemned Conde to death, i 438;
+ his son's attempt to clear the memory of, i. 440;
+ ii. 371;
+ his unmanly speech at the "lit de justice," when Charles IX. assumes
+ the responsibility of the massacre, ii. 493;
+ presides at the trial of La Mole and Coconnas, ii. 629.
+
+ Thou, Jacques Auguste, de, the historian, son of
+ Christopher, ii. 330, note;
+ at the marriage of Henry of Navarre to Margaret of Valois, ii. 428;
+ on his father's part in the action of parliament at the time of the
+ massacre, ii. 493, note.
+
+ Thouars falls into the hands of the Huguenots, ii. 282.
+
+ "Three Bishoprics," the, i. 66.
+
+ Throkmorton, Sir Nicholas, English ambassador, his account of the wound
+ of Henry II., i. 340;
+ of the dismay after the Tumult of Amboise, i. 387;
+ of the perplexity of the Guises, i. 413;
+ his information respecting plans of Philip II. and the
+ Pope, i. 426, 427;
+ respecting the illness of Francis II., i. 443;
+ his account of matters at the French court,
+ February 16, 1562, ii. 17, 18;
+ urges Cecil to induce Queen Elizabeth to put away the candles and
+ cross from the altar in her royal chapel, ii. 19;
+ regards the Huguenots as the stronger party, ii. 42;
+ entreats Queen Elizabeth to inspirit Catharine de' Medici, ii. 47;
+ invokes her aid for the Huguenots, ii. 55;
+ is captured by the Huguenots and remains with them, ii. 72;
+ is hated by Catharine de' Medici, ib.;
+ his frankness with Queen Elizabeth, ii. 74;
+ he asks her to help heartily, ii. 75;
+ his altercation with Sir Thomas Smith, ii. 128;
+ Chantonnay's boast that with his assistance he could overturn the
+ state, ii. 181.
+
+ Tiers Etat, its patient endurance, i. 13;
+ its radical demands at the States General of Pontoise, i. 490 seq.
+
+ "Tiger, Letter to the, of France," a virulent pamphlet against Cardinal
+ Lorraine, i. 444-448;
+ written by Francois Hotman, i. 446.
+
+ Title-pages, deceptive, i. 275.
+
+ Toledo, Don Frederick of, routs Genlis and takes him prisoner, ii. 415.
+
+ Toleration, religious, demanded by the tiers etat at Pontoise, i. 492.
+
+ Toulouse, execution of Jean de Caturce at, i. 150;
+ character of the city according to Protestant and Roman Catholic
+ authors, ib;
+ massacre of Huguenots at, May, 1562, ii. 52-54;
+ commemorated in 1762, but the commemoration forbidden by the French
+ government in 1862, ii. 54;
+ the parliament, instead of publishing the edict of Amboise, forbids
+ the profession of the reformed religion, ii. 128;
+ the parliament of, murders judicially M. Rapin, a Protestant gentleman
+ sent by the king, ii. 239;
+ reluctantly registers the edict of pacification of 1568, ii. 240;
+ a "crusade" preached at, ii. 278;
+ massacre of, in 1572, ii. 521, 522.
+
+ Tour, Jean de la, a minister at the Colloquy of Poissy, i. 509.
+
+ Tournon, Cardinal of, i. 139;
+ his arguments to dissuade Francis I. from intercourse with
+ heretics, i. 188;
+ instigates the persecution of Protestants, i. 282;
+ his reported bad faith, i. 285;
+ tries to cut short the Colloquy of Poissy, i. 521;
+ his new demand, i. 529.
+
+ Tours, the Protestants of, attacked while at worship, ii. 162.
+
+ Tourtray M. de, executed on the Place de Greve, ii. 628.
+
+ Toussain, Pierre, on the timidity of Lefevre and Gerard Roussel, i. 86.
+
+ Trade despised, i. 15.
+
+ Traps for heretics, i. 367.
+
+ Treacherous diplomacy, ii. 220.
+
+ Treaty of amity between Charles IX. and Queen Elizabeth,
+ April 18, 1572, ii. 398.
+
+ Treaty of Cateau-Cambresis, i. 322.
+
+ Trent, the Council of, closes its sessions, Dec., 1563, ii. 152;
+ confirms the abuses of the Roman Catholic Church, and renders
+ indelible the line of demarcation between the two
+ religions, ii. 153, 154;
+ Cardinal Lorraine makes a fruitless attempt to have the decrees
+ received in France, ii. 155;
+ able treatise of Du Moulin against them, ii. 155, 156.
+
+ Triumvirate, the, formed by Montmorency, Guise, and St.
+ Andre, i. 470, 471;
+ a spurious statement of its objects, i. 471-473;
+ it retires in disgust from Saint Germain, i. 556.
+
+ Triumvirs, petition of, ii. 58;
+ they amuse Conde before Paris with negotiations until
+ reinforcements arrive, ii. 90, 91;
+ they consult Catharine de' Medici respecting the
+ engagement, ii. 92, 93.
+
+ "Trivium" and "quadrivium," i. 20.
+
+ Trouillas, an advocate, pretended orgies in the house of, i. 365;
+ he insists on being put on trial for these orgies, and not for
+ heresy, and is tardily released, i. 365, 366.
+
+ Troyes, progress of Protestantism in, i. 562;
+ great crowds at the Huguenot services, ii. 11;
+ massacre of Huguenots in the prisons of, ii. 128, 129;
+ formation of the "Christian and Royal League" at, ii. 246;
+ violence at, ii. 249;
+ Protestants returning from worship attacked, ii. 432, 433;
+ massacre of, Sept 4, 1572, ii. 507, 508.
+
+ Truchares, a political Huguenot, mayor of La Rochelle, ii. 227.
+
+ Truchon, a judge, much edified by the signs of concord, just before
+ the outbreak of the second civil war, ii. 197.
+
+ Tuileries, new palace of the, built by Catharine de' Medici, ii. 598.
+
+ Turenne, ii. 625.
+
+ Turks, French civilities to, ii. 181.
+
+ Tytler-Fraser, Mr., ii. 291, note.
+
+
+ U.
+
+ University of Paris, i. 20;
+ the four nations, i. 21;
+ the faculties, ib.;
+ chancellor and rector, i. 22;
+ number of its students, i. 24;
+ gives name to a quarter of the city, i. 24;
+ barbarism at, i. 42.
+
+ Unlettered persons forbidden to discuss matters of faith, i. 281.
+
+ Uzes, Duke of, ii. 604.
+
+
+ V.
+
+ Val, Du, Bishop of Seez, confers with the Protestants at Poissy, i. 538.
+
+ Valence, Huguenots of, seize the church of the Franciscans, i. 404;
+ a public assembly of the citizens, i. 405;
+ progress of good morals, ib.;
+ orders sent for the extermination of the Protestants, i. 406;
+ treacherous treatment of, i. 407.
+
+ Valenciennes captured by Count Louis of Nassau, ii. 412.
+
+ Valery, ii. 203.
+
+ Valette, Jean de la, Grand Master of the Knights of Malta, ii. 181.
+
+ Varillas, M, an untrustworthy historian, ii. 25, 26;
+ his good remarks respecting Admiral Coligny, ii. 315.
+
+ Vasari paints three pictures in the Vatican, by order of Pope Gregory
+ XIII. to commemorate the Massacre of St. Bartholomew's
+ Day, ii. 533, and note.
+
+ Vassy, a town in Champagne, part of the dower of Mary, Queen of
+ Scots, ii. 19;
+ establishment of the Huguenot church at, ii. 19, 20;
+ arrival of the Duke of Guise, ii. 21;
+ massacre of, March 1, 1562, ii. 21, 22;
+ pamphlets respecting it, ii. 22, 23;
+ upon whom rests the guilt of the butchery, ii. 23-26.
+
+ Vatable, i. 43.
+
+ Vaud, Pays de, conquered by Berne, i. 197.
+
+ "Vauderie," crime of, i. 63.
+
+ Vaudrey, Anne de, bailli of Troyes, an agent in the massacre of
+ Troyes, ii. 507, 508.
+
+ Vaudois, execution of, at Arras, i. 63.
+
+ Vaudois, or Waldenses, of Piedmont, mission of the four "evangelical"
+ cantons in their behalf, i. 309;
+ Charles IX. intercedes in their behalf with the Duke of Savoy, ii. 390.
+
+ Vaudois, or Waldenses, of Provence, i. 230;
+ their industry and thrift, ib.;
+ their villages in the Comtat Venaissin, i. 231;
+ they send delegates to the Swiss and German reformers, i. 232;
+ their doctrines and practices, ib.;
+ cause the Bible to be translated by Olivetanus, i. 233;
+ preliminary persecutions of, i. 234;
+ iniquitous order of the Parliament of Aix against, i. 235;
+ followed by the "Arret de Merindol," i. 236;
+ temporarily saved by Chassanee, i. 238;
+ report of Du Bellay respecting their character and history, i. 240;
+ pardoned by Francis I., i. 241;
+ are again summoned by the Parliament of Aix, ib.;
+ they publish a new confession, i. 242;
+ stealthy organization of an expedition against, i. 245;
+ villages burned, and the inhabitants butchered, i. 246, 247;
+ destruction of Merindol, i. 247;
+ destruction of Cabrieres, i. 248;
+ of La Coste, i. 249;
+ the results, i. 250;
+ Francis led to give his approval to the massacre, i. 251;
+ an investigation ordered, ib.;
+ impunity of most of the culprits, i. 252.
+
+ Venaissin, Comtat. See Comtat Venaissin.
+
+ Venetian ambassadors, opinions of, i. 10.
+
+ Verbal orders respecting the massacre in the provinces, ii. 502, 514.
+
+ Verbelai, ii. 226.
+
+ Verez, De, throws himself into Geneva with a body of French
+ soldiers, i. 197.
+
+ Vergne, La, ii. 302.
+
+ Versailles, the title how obtained by the king, ii. 485.
+
+ Vertueil, the King of Navarre dismisses his escort at, i. 435.
+
+ "Very Christian King," title of, i. 35.
+
+ Vezelay, birthplace of Theodore Beza, i. 497;
+ refuses to admit a garrison in 1568, ii. 250;
+ a place of refuge, ii. 280;
+ sustains a successful siege, ii. 343, 344.
+
+ Vezins, a Roman Catholic gentleman of Quercy, magnanimously saves the
+ life of his personal enemy, the Huguenot Regnier, ii. 480, 481.
+
+ Vialard, President, at Rouen, ii. 519.
+
+ Vieilleville, Marshal of, magnanimously refuses to take advantage of
+ a royal patent giving him a share of the confiscated property of
+ heretics, i. 282;
+ sent as envoy to the Huguenots, ii. 210;
+ remonstrance of, ii. 255;
+ the king's estimate of, ii. 409.
+
+ "Vierg," the designation of an officer at Autun, i. 489.
+
+ Vigor, Archbishop of Narbonne, a violent Roman Catholic
+ preacher, ii. 254, 375, 634.
+
+ Villars, Count de, burns books from Geneva at Pont St. Esprit, i. 428;
+ influences Constable Montmorency, i. 469;
+ appointed admiral after the death of Coligny, ii. 523, 524.
+
+ Villegagnon, Vice-admiral of Brittany, sent with a Protestant colony to
+ Brazil, i. 291;
+ founds Fort Coligny, i. 292;
+ becomes an enemy of the Protestants, i. 293;
+ and brings ruin on the expedition, i. 294;
+ vows eternal enmity to the Huguenots, ii. 180;
+ writes to Renee of France, ii. 327.
+
+ Villemadon's letter of remonstrance to Catharine de' Medici, i. 363.
+
+ Villemongys, i. 392.
+
+ Villeneuve, capture of, by the Huguenots, ii. 589.
+
+ Viole, Claude, his speech in the "mercuriale" of 1559, i. 334.
+
+ Virel, Jean, a minister at the Colloquy of Poissy, i. 509.
+
+ Viret, the reformer, intercedes for the poor non-combatants at
+ Lyons, ii. 102.
+
+ Visconte, affair in the house of, i. 361.
+
+ "Viscounts," the army of the, ii. 226;
+ they march to meet Conde, and defeat the troops collected by the
+ Governor of Auvergne at Cognac, or Cognat, ii. 230;
+ relieve Orleans, ib.;
+ take Blois, ib.;
+ list of the viscounts, ii. 230, note.
+
+ Visions of celestial hosts, ii. 334.
+
+ Vitelli, Chiappin, routs Genlis and takes him prisoner, ii. 415.
+
+ Vivarez, Montbrun's exploits in, ii. 621.
+
+ Vore de la Fosse sent to Melanchthon, i. 182;
+ his interviews with him, and his letters, i. 183.
+
+ Vulcob, M. de, French ambassador to the Emperor of Germany, ii. 550.
+
+
+ W.
+
+ Waldenses. See Vaudois.
+
+ Walsingham, Francis, on the peace of Saint Germain, ii. 368;
+ receives the assurances of the king as to his intention to observe
+ the peace, ii. 371;
+ on the attempts to dissuade Anjou from marrying Queen
+ Elizabeth, ii. 379;
+ on the English marriage and the anxiety of the Huguenots, ii. 382;
+ his enthusiastic description of Count Louis of Nassau, ii. 384, note;
+ urges Queen Elizabeth to advocate the invitation of Coligny to
+ court, ii. 388, note;
+ he sets forth the critical nature of the situation, ii. 416;
+ he mentions rumors of Elizabeth's desertion of her allies, ii. 420;
+ he praises Coligny's magnanimity, ii. 421;
+ his reply to Catharine de' Medici respecting Coligny's
+ loyalty, ii. 495, 547;
+ on the forced conversions of Navarre and Conde, ii. 499;
+ his conversation with the queen mother as to the maintenance of the
+ edict of pacification, ii. 547, 548.
+
+ War, the first civil, or religious, April, 1562, to
+ March 19, 1563, ii. 34-115;
+ its results, ii. 118;
+ it prevents France from becoming Huguenot, ii. 119;
+ the second civil war, Sept., 1567, to March 23, 1568, ii. 203-234;
+ the third civil war, Sept., 1568, to Aug. 8, 1570, ii. 274-366;
+ the fourth civil war, Dec., 1572, to July, 1573, ii. 582-593;
+ meagre results of, ii. 594;
+ beginning of the fifth civil war, 1574, ii. 622.
+
+ Westmoreland, Earl of, his rebellion, ii. 358.
+
+ White, Henry, Dr., the remark respecting Cardinal Lorraine which he
+ ascribes to Beza, i. 529;
+ cf. also ii. 46, 252, 427, note, 527, note.
+
+ Whittingham, Wm., Dean of Durham, ii. 292, note.
+
+ Winter, severity of the, 1568-1569, ii. 286, 297.
+
+ Winter, Admiral, carries money, cannon, and ammunition to La
+ Rochelle, ii. 296.
+
+ Wolmar, Melchior, i. 43;
+ a teacher of Calvin, i. 199.
+
+ Wolrad, Count of Mansfeld, succeeds the Duke of Deux-Ponts in command
+ of the German auxiliaries of the Huguenots, ii. 318, 335, 364.
+
+ Worship, Protestant places of, assigned at the most inconvenient
+ distances, ii. 163, 164, note, 432, note.
+
+ Wotton, Dr., his view of the court of Henry II. of France, i. 261.
+
+ Wringle, Pierre de, or Van, the printer of Serrieres, near
+ Neufchatel, i. 233.
+
+ Wuertemberg, Christopher, Duke of, sends theologians to Poissy, who come
+ too late for the colloquy, i. 544;
+ meets the Guises at Saverne, ii. 13;
+ he remonstrates with them respecting the persecution of the
+ Huguenots, ii. 14;
+ his judgment on the whole matter, ii. 17;
+ he declines the offer of the post of lieutenant-general of the
+ king, ii. 113.
+
+
+ Y.
+
+ Year, the old French, begins at Easter, i. 276.
+
+ Yolet, ii. 603.
+
+ Yverny, Madame d', butchered in the massacre at Paris, ii. 474.
+
+
+ Z.
+
+ Zuleger, a councillor of the elector palatine, sent to France to see
+ the state of affairs at the time of the second civil war, ii. 218;
+ he reports favorably to the Huguenots, ii. 219.
+
+ Zurich, intercedes for the French Protestants, i. 191;
+ but receives an unsatisfactory reply, i. 192;
+ intercedes with Henry II., after the affair of the Rue St. Jacques,
+ with little success, i. 309, 310.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of History of the Rise of the Huguenots, by
+Henry Baird
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY OF RISE OF HUGUENOTS VOL 2 ***
+
+***** This file should be named 30708.txt or 30708.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+ https://www.gutenberg.org/3/0/7/0/30708/
+
+Produced by Paul Dring, Sigal Alon, Daniel J. Mount and
+the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+https://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See
+paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works. See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+ the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+ you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is
+ owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+ has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+ Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments
+ must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+ prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+ returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+ sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+ address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+ the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+ you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+ does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+ License. You must require such a user to return or
+ destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+ and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+ Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+ money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+ electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+ of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+ distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+https://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at https://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+ Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+ Chief Executive and Director
+ gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+
+Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit https://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including including checks, online payments and credit card
+donations. To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+ https://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
generated by cgit v1.2.3 (git 2.25.1) at 2026-03-23 23:03:25 +0000