CHAPTER VII.

CHARLES IX.

PART II.

THE prince de Condé, and all the Protestants of rank, with the exception of admiral Coligny, were desirous at once to take arms in the cause of their religion and their suffering people. Coligny is said only to have yielded to the representations of his wife on their behalf. Paris presented a singular scene. The duke of Guise, after the journey just recorded, entered the capital with the air of a conqueror and a sovereign; escorted by Montmorency and two thousand gentlemen, with a strong party of cavalry. He was hailed as the defender of the church, and the deliverer of the people. Condé vainly attempted to attract a portion of popularity. The trains of the rival princes often met in the streets, and it was to the natural generosity of the duke that the latter owed his safety, as his orders, or interference, prevented the collisions which must otherwise have occurred between the numerous followers of Guise and the scanty band of the prince.

Catharine, terrified at these demonstrations”

on the part of the ambitious Guise, wrote pressing letters to Condé and Coligny for help against him. The prince made use of these letters from the sovereign to stimulate the Protestants; they were aroused from all parts and from every class, and prepared to defend the queen and resist their own enemies.

The duke was too good a general to lose time in operations. With far greater despatch than the poor conspirators of Amboise had used, he and his colleagues set out with a party of horse for the palace of Fontainebleau, and, arriving there before they were expected, informed the queen that they had come to carry the king away with them; but that she was at liberty either to come with them, or to go where she pleased.

In vain the foiled and disappointed Catharine tried every artifice to delay the time, in hope of succour arriving from Condé. An artful mind is almost always cowardly. Catharine feared, by resigning her son, to lose her own authority in the state, and, by accompanying him, to endanger her own life or liberty. Montmorency decided the case by ordering his party to horse, and the poor little king and his unhappy mother were conveyed to the fortress of Meulan, and, finally, for greater security, brought to Paris. Had the conspirators of Amboise been equally prompt, and, by one bold step, as successful, the fate of Protestantism in France would possibly have been different; and then different, too, might have been the history of that fine country-a

history which, for glory and for guilt, must be pre-eminent in that of nations. Those conspirators were unsuccessful, and suffered the doom of traitors. The achievement of Guise, though its object was the same, has been differently regarded. The former, however, designed to take young Francis 11. from the hands of the Roman Catholics; the latter took young Charles IX. from the hands of the Protestants. The prince de Condé, and Coligny, who, when he saw open war had become inevitable, took the most prudent measures for carrying it on, brought a party of a thousand horse, to secure the queen and her royal son; but the promptitude of Guise had already gained the prize.

The condition of the Protestants of Paris was now deplorable; they were everywhere insulted and injured. The superstitious Montmorency did not consider it beneath his dignity to lead his soldiers to the suburbs of the city, where Protestant worship had been legally permitted, to force open the doors of places of worship, break the pulpits and benches; then, leaving these houses of prayer in flames behind him, re-enter Paris, and be cheered by the mob, who, says the witty Brantome, gave the general the title of captain Burn-Bench.

After a sanguinary conflict, Condé and Andelot got possession of Orléans. Civil war burst forth throughout France. Many of the principal towns were gained by the Huguenots, as the French Protestants were now universally named. Nismes, Montauban, Lyons, Bourges,

Valence, and Rouen, were all among the most important places of France. Orléans commanded the river Loire, and Rouen the Seine, two great channels of communication with Paris; and these were all possessed by them.

It is not intended to enter at large on the details of a war which bigotry and intolerance kindled. The horrors of a religious war are said to exceed those of all other wars; and in the tumult of evil passions, excited in civil contest, where personal, not national, enmities are indulged, who would think of looking for the spirit of Christianity, the spirit Christ breathed upon his disciples when he sent them out as lambs in the midst of wolves, to be attacked, but not to attack; to be slain, but not to slay? Admiral Coligny knew and felt the too probable influence of such a war on the troops engaged in it; and when some one praised their good order, he quietly answered, It is a good thing while it lasts."

The Protestant army was naturally composed, in great part, of raw, undisciplined volunteers, such a multitude as rush to arms in the outbreak of a civil war, believing that a single conflict will secure to them the object for which they contend, and utterly unprepared for the patient, persevering struggle by which it is usually attained. Coligny's first object was to organize these troops, and to take measures for the maintenance of decency and decorum among them. All immorality and profaneness were strictly forbidden, and ministers

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were appointed to each division of the army, for the performance of religious duties. The demoralizing and unchristianizing influence of war had not been felt when the following account was given of the Huguenot army:"When this war first began, the chief captains in the Huguenot army still recollected the fine military order that prevailed in the wars of Francis 1. and Henry, his son; with which remembrance the soldiers had the continual exhortations of their ministers, who admonished them not to use their arms for the oppression of the poor people. The zeal of religion was then strong in them, more especially in the nobility, so that, without constraint, each man held himself in subjection. If a crime were committed, the guilty were banished, or given over to justice; their companions would not intercede for them, so great was their detestation of wickedness and love of virtue. Throughout this great multitude the name of God was never blasphemed; neither dice nor cards were in the camp; evening and morning, when the guards were changed, public prayers were made, and psalms were sung throughout the camp; a piety unusual to men accustomed to war." must hope that in many individuals the grace of God kept alive devotion in their hearts; but, in the mass, the Huguenot army did not continue undefiled by the corruption of war, and the rage of the worst of human passions.

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Supplies neither of men nor of money were