Chapter XV (3)

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.