Chapter XX (3)

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.