fying spectacle. Each regiment had its | clusion of the war. The civil strife ended, chaplain. Every morning public prayers Huguenot and Catholic fought side by were offered for the king and themselves, side to expel the English from France. that God would keep them "vivans en They might temporarily unite in the pres toute sobriété et modestie, sans noises, ence of a common enemy, but they could mutineries, blasphêmes, paillardises.' not live at home in peace. Coligny from But none knew better than Coligny the the first regarded the treaty as a "rope of value of this appearance. "J'ay com- sand." He spent the greater part of the mandé," he said, "à l'infanterie longtemps, comparatively peaceful years which the et la connois; elle accomplit souvent le truce secured to France at Châtillon. proverbe qui dit de jeune hermite vieux There he set an example of religious toleradiable." After the first success everything tion to the world. Nowhere was a priest went against the Huguenots. Bourges safer than under the walls of the castle and Rouen were taken. Guise's general- of the Huguenot leader. At Châtillon ship turned the battle of Dreux from a also he founded his college for instruction defeat into a victory. Condé was a pris-in Greek, Hebrew, and Latin. He made oner. Hard pressed, Coligny drew off his defeated troops to Normandy to create a diversion and receive the aid of Eliza beth. Orleans itself was on the point of surrender when Guise was murdered by Poltrot de Méré. The assassin was known to Coligny, who had once assisted him with money. The admiral was vehemently suspected of complicity with the crime. His defence was in some points halting. He admitted that he had heard of Poltrot's threats, and that he made no effort to divert him from his purpose, but he repudiated all connivance at the murder. In his letter to the queen on the subject he adds:

Though Coligny was formally acquitted of the crime by a decree issued from Moulins.t the Guises, and above all the widowed duchess, afterwards Madame de Nemours, never accepted his acquittal.

The death of Guise gave the Huguenots the Peace of Amboise (March, 1563), which promised liberty of conscience everywhere, and permitted the public performance of Protestant services on the estates of great nobles, in the houses of the gentry, in one chosen town within each bailliage, and in the strongholds of which the Huguenots were possessed at the con

Response à l'interrogatoire qu'on dict auoir esté fait à un nommé Jean de Poltrot, soy disant Seigneur de Merey, sur la mort du feu duc de Guise. Orleans, 1562.

+ Décret declarant le dit Sieur de Châtillon, Amiral de France, purgé, deschargé, et innocent du faict dudit homicide, et des charges qu'on luy a voulu, ou pourroit, pour ce regard, imputer. Moulins, 1565.

his own house a model of sober and godly living. Prayers began and ended the day. Singing and preaching preceded dinner. Audiences to the deputies of the churches of the provinces occupied much of his leisure. But he found time to devote to his colonial enterprises and to foreign politics. As he had organized Villegagnon's expedition in 1555, and equipped the expedition of Jean Ribaud to Florida in 1560, so now in 1564 he returned to his project. The new expedition was led by Laudonnière, one of Ribaud's companions. But the enterprise failed, like all its predecessors, because the colonists could not endure the hardships and monotony of colonial life. Meanwhile his plans of foreign policy assumed definite shape. His great idea was to detach France from her Spanish alliance, and to place her at the head of a league to resist the enormous power of Spain. In this he anticipated the policy of Henry IV., Richelieu, and Mazarin. Á war with Spain would, he believed, prove a safety-valve for domestic discontent; it would bring religious toleration in its train. He himself would gain honor against the foreign foe. He would defeat Alva and avenge St. Quentin.

Catharine still temporized. She refused to adopt Coligny's plan. On the other hand she repudiated the policy proposed to her by Alva and her daughter Eliza beth. Her conference at Bayonne with the Spanish agents and the queen of Spain in 1565 aroused the darkest suspi cions among the Huguenots. Was she preparing another Sicilian Vespers? The recent publication of Alva's letters proves that, so far as Catharine and Charles IX. were concerned, the suspicion was unfounded. But at the time the alarm and misgiving were general. Very little was required to cause an outbreak between two parties, each prepared to take the

field, mistrustful of the other's intentions, that one salmon was worth the heads of and determined not to be surprised. In ten thousand frogs? A warning reached 1567 a Spanish army was on its way through Condé and Coligny. A horseman galBurgundy to execute the vengeance of loped past the castle of Noyers, sounding Philip II. on the Netherlands. The his horn and crying out: "The stag is in French troops watched its progress. But the snare! the hunt is up!" Royal guards the Spaniards reached the Low Countries, held the gatehouses, fords, and bridges. and instead of the royal troops being dis- Instant flight was necessary. At midbanded they were ordered to Paris. Wil-night on August 25, 1568, the Huguenot liam the Silent sent despatches warning leaders, with their families and one hunthe Huguenots that both armies were to be combined for their destruction. A hasty council was summoned. Coligny as usual recommended patience; but the danger seemed urgent and he was overruled. In the second war of religion the perfection of the Huguenot organization was strikingly exemplified. Spies were sent to watch the movements of Coligny at Châtillon. They found him dressed as a farmer, pruning his fruit trees. Two days later the Huguenots had risen all over France, and fifty towns were in their | hands. The court only saved itself from capture at Meaux by a hasty flight to Paris. Condé endeavored to starve the city into surrender. But it was "the ant besieging the elephant." The battle of Dreux (November 10, 1567) compelled him to retreat. Catharine opened negotiations with the Huguenot leader, and, against the advice of Coligny, he signed the treaty of Longjumeau (March, 1568).

dred and fifty men, left Noyers to run the gauntlet of their enemies and reach Rochelle. The pursuit was hot. Led by a huntsman, who knew the fords and forest paths, they reached the Loire at a spot above Cosne, near Sancerre. They crossed the river, their horses only wading kneedeep. As day broke, the river rose in flood, and the fugitives were saved. They fell on their knees on the farther bank, singing the 114th Psalm - "What ailed thee, O thou sea?" etc. They reached Rochelle in safety. The Huguenots rose to arms all over the country. The court issued an edict, forbidding under pain of death any other worship except the Catholic, offered a free pardon to those who would acknowledge their errors, and banished all ministers of the Reformed religion from the kingdom. In this spirit began the third religious war.

Coligny commenced the war under discouraging circumstances. His eldest son, Peace was again restored. The Hugue- Gaspard, was dead. His wife died a few nots laid down their arms, returned home, weeks later. Shortly afterwards his daughdismissed their mercenaries. Catharine ter Renée and his brother Andelot died. had succeeded in her object. She had been His castle at Châtillon was taken and taken by surprise. She only wished to sacked. But his energies were not regain time. She believed the Huguenots laxed. His wife had died entreating him, to be losing, the Catholics to be gaining by the love he bore to her and his children, ground. Her hesitation was at an end. to fight to the last extremity for God's She did not disband the Switzers. Cita- service and the advancement of true reli. dels were raised in all the Protestant gion. Averse as he was to war, no alterstrongholds. L'Hôpital was dismissed native was possible. His first step was from the chancellorship. Nothing was to fit out a navy of thirty ships, in order done to restrain the violence of the Cath- to keep the communication open with Enolics. Coligny could obtain no redress for gland. His fleet was subjected to the the seizure of his treasures. Shots were same rules of discipline which William of fired at him; he was ordered to reduce Orange afterwards introduced among the his retinue; one of his gentlemen was Gueux. A minister sailed with each ship; murdered. He removed to Tanlay, Ande- only men of good character were permitted lot's castle near Tonnerre, so as to be to serve; one-third of the booty went to close to Condé at Noyers. He wrote to the "Cause." On land he and Condé held complain of the way in which he was de- the field with the most powerful army nied justice, and in which the king was which the Huguenots had ever raised. In blinded to the real state of the kingdom. the spring of 1569 the Catholics, largely In reply Catharine appointed Tavannes, reinforced, assumed the offensive. At his rival and enemy, to investigate his Jarnac they gained a victory over the Calgrievances. Meanwhile troops were se- vinists, in which Condé was killed. The cretly gathered in the neighborhood of blow was at first sight crushing; but the Noyers and Tanlay. Had not Alva said | widowed Jeanne d'Albret, with her young

son, Henry of Navarre, revived the en- the determined enmity of Catharine. Over
thusiasm of the Huguenots. A medal the king he gained a personal influence,
was struck in her honor, with the inscrip- which bore fruit in a complete change of
tion, "Pax certa, victoria integra, mors
honesta." Within a week after Jarnac,
Coligny was in the field, only to be once
more disastrously defeated at Moncontour.
With Condé and Andelot dead, with
troops dispirited by two successive de-
feats, himself grievously wounded, pro-
scribed as a traitor, and with a price of
fifty thousand crowns set upon his head,
many men would have abandoned the
struggle. His fleet was at hand to con-
vey him to England. But Coligny was
made of sterner stuff. He was never
more formidable than in the moment of
defeat.

policy. Charles IX. had himself married
the daughter of the tolerant Emperor
Maximilian; he now projected the be-
trothal of his sister Marguerite to Henry of
Navarre, and the marriage of his brother,
the Duc d'Anjou, with Queen Elizabeth.
He wrote to his ambassador at Constanti-
nople that he was determined to make war
upon Spain, and troops were actually de-
spatched to the assistance of the Low
Countries. All Coligny's dreams seemed
to be approaching realization. He
ceived permission to equip another expe-
dition to America; he revived his hopes
of founding a colonial empire, strengthen-
In the following spring (1570) he set his ing the French navy, humiliating Spain.
face northwards. From all the mountain" Qui empesche la guerre d'Espagne," he
districts of the Vivarais, the Cevennes,
and the Forez, the Huguenots flocked to
his standard. A new spirit animated his
followers. They sang as they marched
through a hostile country and deserted
villages:-

Le prince de Condé

Il a esté tué,

Mais monsieur l'Amiral
Est encore à cheval

Avec la Rochefoucauld

Pour chasser tous ces papaux, papaux.

His name was more powerful than that of
the king.
"De l'amiral de France," says
Brantôme, "il était plus parlé que du roi
de France." With him were Henry of
Navarre, the little Prince of Condé, and
Louis of Nassau. At St. Etienne he fell
ill, and for a week the army halted. Cath-
arine sent Biron to negotiate. He would
only see Coligny. In vain the other chiefs
offered themselves, saying that their cause
did not depend only on the admiral. If
he were dead," retorted the ambassador,
66 we would not offer you a cup of water."
Coligny recovered and pressed on. He
defeated the royal army at Arnay-le-Duc,
and reached La Charité, within forty miles
of Paris. Catharine at last yielded. On
August 8, 1570, a treaty was signed at St.
Germain-en-Laye. It established liberty
of religion in all cities which the Protes-
tants then held, restored confiscated prop-
erty, released all prisoners, granted civil
equality, and, as pledges of good faith,
assigned to the custody of the Huguenots
La Rochelle, Cognac, Montauban, and La
Charité.

Coligny was now the most powerful man
in France. His position drew upon him

re

said to Tavannes, "n'est pas bon Français et a une croix rouge dans le ventre." The unhappy, red-haired youth who bears the sinister title of Charles IX. had thrown himself with characteristic impetuosity into the arms of Coligny. His conduct was innocent of duplicity. He was quite unable to follow the cold-blooded, temporizing policy of his mother. But he was not without good qualities. Musical and artistic in his tastes, more truthful than any of his family, he was capable of true affection. Only his detestable education had exaggerated all his faults. Distracted by the intrigues of his family, morbidly jealous of his brother, he was eager to escape his mother's ascendency. Too weak, irresolute, and capricious to resist her influence, he passed with sudden alternations from one extreme of feeling to another, just as his excitable temperament found relief in blowing horns, forging armor, or hunting like a madman. Over such a mind Coligny's hold was necessarily precarious.

In August, 1572, the king's resolution was shaken by the defeat of the French troops on their way to William of Orange and the massacre of the West Indian expedition. Catharine, alarmed at the personal influence of Coligny, redoubled her efforts to regain her ascendency. Yet the admiral refused to listen to the warnings of his friends. He trusted that his hold upon the king was strong enough to resist the machinations of his enemies. He still lingered in Paris, although it was the general impression that some calamity awaited the Huguenots. Strangers meeting in the road discussed the admiral's infatuation. Duplessis-Mornay warned him

that the coming marriage of Henry of | miral. But every Huguenot in France Navarre concealed some treacherous de- must be killed, too, that none may live to sign.* That event was celebrated on reproach me.' The order was enough. August 18, and from Monday to Friday The gates of the city were closed; the masks, tournaments, and festivities were boats fastened up; the Catholics were held with lavish magnificence. So serene distinguished by white crosses of paper was Coligny's confidence in the success of or other material; in each house in certain his anti-Spanish policy that at the mar- streets a man was ready, with his arms riage ceremony he pointed to the banners beside him and a light, prepared for some of Jarnac and Moncontour floating in unknown enterprise. The final signal Notre Dame, and promised to replace was to be given by the tolling of the great them with better. Yet in the midst of bells of the Louvre and St. Germain this seeming prosperity Catharine and l'Auxerrois. Just before daybreak came the Guises had plotted the admiral's a summons at the gate of the admiral's death. On Friday, August 22, Coligny hotel from a messenger sent, as he alwas returning from the Louvre to his hotel leged, by the king to speak with Coligny. in the Rue de Bétizy. Suddenly a shot No sooner had La Bonne opened the gate was fired from an empty corner house than he was stabbed by an officer of the which belonged to Madame de Nemours, royal guard, who entered with his musthe widow of the murdered Duc de Guise. keteers, killing all they met. Resistance The admiral's left arm was shattered, and was useless. The murderers burst into a finger of his right hand was broken. the room where Coligny was quietly When the house was forced open, the seated. A German named Behm struck blunderbus swas found smoking on the the first blow, and the murder was soon table, but the would-be assassin had es- completed.* In the dim twilight Guise caped. At the news of the attempt upon and his followers sat on horseback in the Coligny's life the Huguenot leaders as courtyard below. The body was thrown sembled in his room. Some were anxious from the window; a lighted torch was to leave Paris at once. Others used brought, and Guise, dismounting, wiped threatening language and loudly demanded the blood from the face and looked on the justice. But the investigation which was features of the dead man. "It is he!" promised into the attempted assassination, he cried joyfully, and kicked the body the concern and promises of the king, and with his foot, just as Henry III. afterthe confidence of "Porte-paix " Teligny, wards spurned his corpse at Blois. From the son-in-law of Coligny, allayed the dawn to night Paris rang with the hamfears of the Huguenots. Throughout the mering of bells, the cries of men and twenty-third a number of suspicious cir- women, groans, shrieks, and execrations, cumstances increased their misgivings. the reports of arquebuses, the crash of It was rumored that Montmorency and doors broken down with axes or stones, his troops had been hastily summoned to the shouts of the rabble as they sacked Paris. Men on horseback were met bear and pillaged the houses or dragged the ing pistols and carbines at their saddle. dead bodies through the streets to the bows, in defiance of the prohibition to river. Sunday and Monday, August 24 bear arms. Porters were seen carrying and 25, were clear, bright days, and the weapons into the Louvre. Yet Teligny king, standing at the windows of the remained so confident in the king's good Louvre, said that the sky itself rejoiced at faith that no watch was kept even at the the slaughter of the Huguenots. At noon admiral's hotel, and that just before day-on Monday a hawthorn bush burst into break on the twenty-fourth Coligny was almost alone.

In the gardens of the Louvre a plot had been hatched which not improbably had been long premeditated by Catharine. On the evening of the twenty-third the queen mother revealed her plan to Charles IX., and urged him to sanction its execution in self-defence against the attacks of the Huguenots. At last Charles yielded to the persistence of those about him. "If you wish it," he said, "kill the ad

• Mémoires de Duplessis-Mornay, i. 38.

blossom in the churchyard of St. Innocent. The portent, which the author of the "Réveille-Matin" declares to have been

This is the account given by the Réveille-Matin translated and edited by D. D. Scott, Edinburgh, 1844, des Français (see Memoires of Gaspard de Coligny, 8vo.), by De Thou, by Courtilz de Sandras (see La Vie Golding's Lyf. Another account says that the admide Gaspard de Coligny, Cologne, 1686, 12mo), and in ral resisted bravely with his sword and afterwards with his bed-clothes (see Layard, The Massacre of St. BarArchives of Venice, London, 1888, 8vo, p. 23). A third tholomew, illustrated from the State Papers in the account says that the admiral was compelled to leap from the window into the courtyard below, where, "his limbs all broken, he was immediately despatched" (Layard, p. 6).