CHAP XXIII

1572

broken up in June, to reassemble in August for the marriage of the Princess. The Admiral went down to August Chatillon, and while there he received a warning not to trust himself again in Paris. But he dared not, by absenting himself, impair his influence with the King. His intentions were thoroughly loyal. He said that he would rather be torn by horses than disturb again the internal peace of France; and he had been many times within hearing of the bells of Notre Dâme with fewer friends about him than he would find assembled in the Capital. The retinues of the King of Navarre and the Prince of Condé, his own followers, the trains of Rochefoucault, Montgomery, and Montmorency, the noblemen and gentlemen of Languedoc and Poitou-all these would be there, and these were the men who for ten years had held at bay the united strength of Catholic France, and were now gathering in arms to encounter Alva. If evil was intended towards them some other opportunity would be chosen, and personal danger, at least for the present, he could not anticipate.

Thus at the appointed time the Admiral returned to the Court, and notwithstanding Elizabeth's tricks, he found the King unchanged. The Duke of Guise shook hands with him in Charles' presence, and Charles again spoke to him with warmth and confidence of the Flanders expedition. On the 18th of August the great event came off which the Catholics had tried in vain to prevent, and which was regarded as the symbol of the intended policy of France. The dispensation from Rome was still withheld, but the Cardinal of Bourbon ventured in the face of its absence to officiate at the ceremony in the cathedral. The sister of the King became the bride of a professed heretic, and when the Princess afterwards attended mass, her husband ostentatiously with

drew, and remained in the cloister. A few more days
and Coligny would be on his way to the army. Though
England had failed him, and might perhaps be hostile,
the King still meant to persevere.
The Queen-mother
had tried all her arts-tears, threats, entreaties—and
at times not without effect. Charles's instincts
were generous, but his purpose was flexible, and his
character was half formed. His mother had ruled him
from the time that he had left his cradle, and he had
no high convictions, no tenacity of principle or vigour
of will, to contend against her. But there was a certain
element of chivalry about him which enabled him to
recognise in Coligny the noblest of his subjects, and
he had a soldier's ambition to emulate his father and
grandfather. The Duke of Anjou, who related after-
wards the secret history of these momentous days, said
that whenever the King had been alone with the Admi-
ral, the Queen-mother found him afterwards cold and
reserved towards herself. Anjou himself went one
day1 into his brother's cabinet; the King did not speak
to him, but walked up and down the room fingering
his dagger, and looking as if he could have stabbed
him. If the war was to be prevented, something must
be done, and that promptly. Guise, notwithstanding his
seeming cordiality with Coligny, was supposed to be
meditating mischief, and the King, by Coligny's advice,
kept the Royal Guard under arms in the streets. Cathe-
rine, who hated both their houses, calculated that by
judicious irritation she might set the Duke and the
Admiral at each other's throats, and rid herself at once
of both of the too dangerously powerful subjects. The
Admiral's own declaration had failed to persuade the

1 The 19th or 20th of August.

CHAP XXIII

1572 August

CHAP XXIII

1572 August

Guises that he was innocent of the murder of the Duke's father-Poltrot was still generally believed to have been privately instigated by him-and Catherine intimated to the Duchesse de Nemours, the late Duke of Guise's widow, that if she would, she might have her revenge. Were Coligny killed, the King would be again manageable. The Huguenots would probably take arms to avenge his death. After a few days of fury a little water would wash the blood from the streets of Paris, and the catastrophe would be explained to the world as the last act of the civil war.1

In becoming acquainted with the women among whom she was educated, we cease to wonder at the Queen of Scots' depravity. To the Duchesse the assassination of the Admiral was the delightful gratification of a laudable desire. The Duke of Guise and his uncle the Duke of Aumale were taken into counsel; an instrument was found in a man named Maurevert, who had tried his hand already in the same enterprise, and having failed, was eager for a new opportunity. He was placed in a house between the Louvre and the Rue de Bethisi, where his intended victim lodged; and after waiting for two days, on the morning of the 22nd, as the Admiral was slowly walking past, reading, Maurevert succeeded in shooting him. The work was not done effectually; the gun was loaded with slugs, one of which shattered a finger, the other lodged in an arm. The Admiral was assisted home-the house from which the shot was fired was recognised as belonging to the Guise family, and the assassin was seen galloping out of

1 This is the explanation given by the Duke of Anjou of his mother's conduct; and as he made no attempt

to palliate either her treachery or

his own, there is no reason to question his truth.-Histoire de France. MARTIN, vol. ix.

St. Antoine on a horse known to be the Duke's. The King, when the news reached him, was playing tennis with Guise himself and Teligny the Admiral's son-in-law. He dashed his racket on the pavement, and went angrily to the palace. Navarre and Condé came to him to say that their lives were in danger, and to ask permission to leave Paris. The King said it was he who had been wounded, and he would make such an example of the murderers as should be a lesson to all posterity. Condé and all who were afraid might come to the Louvre for protection. Charles placed a guard at Coligny's house; he sent his own surgeon to attend him, and went himself to his bedside.

The Queen-mother and Anjou, not daring to trust the King out of their sight, accompanied him. The Admiral desired to speak to Charles alone, and he sent them out of the room. When he followed them, they pressed him to tell them what Coligny had said. Charles, after a pause, answered: 'He said that you two had too much hand in the management of the State; and, by God's death, he spoke true.'

So passed the 22nd of August. The next morning Guise and Aumale came to the palace to say that if their presence in Paris caused uneasiness, they were ready to leave the city; and the King bade them go. His words and manner were so completely reassuring that the Huguenot leaders put away their misgivings.

The Vidame of Chartres still urged flight, distrusting Charles's power to protect them; but Condé, Teligny, Rochefoucault, Montgomery, all opposed him. To retire would be to leave the Admiral in danger. His wound appeared only to have increased the King's resolution to stand by him; and being themselves most anxious to prevent disturbance and give no cause of

CHAP XXIII

1572

Aug. 22

CHAP

XXIII

1572 Aug. 23

offence, they would not even permit their followers to watch in the streets. A few hundred of them paraded in arms in the afternoon under the windows of the Hôtel Guise; but not a single act of violence was committed to excuse a Catholic rising; and when they broke up at night, they left the city ostentatiously to the ordinary police and the Royal Guard.

So far, the Queen-mother's plot had failed. The Admiral was not dead. The Huguenots had not broken the peace. The Guises were disgraced; and, if they were arrested, they were likely to reveal the name of their instigator. That same afternoon Catherine sent for the Count de Retz, Marshal Tavannes, and the Duc de Nevers, to the gardens of the Tuileries: all these were members of Charles's Council, ardent Catholics, and passionately opposed to the Spanish war. After some hours' consultation, they adjourned, still undecided what to do, to the King's Cabinet. For many years -ever since his father's death-to get possession of the King's person had been a favourite scheme of the Prince of Condé and the Admiral. They had wished to separate him from his Italian mother, to bring him up a Protestant, or to keep him, at all events, as a security for their own safety. The conspiracy of Amboise had been followed once, if not twice, by similar projects. The Admiral especially, ever prompt and decisive, was known throughout to have recommended such a method of ending the civil war. That at this particular crisis a fresh purpose of the same kind was formed or thought of, is in itself extremely improbable, and the Court afterwards entirely failed to produce evidence of such a thing. It is likely, however, that impatient expressions tending in that direction might have been used by the Admiral's friends. The temptation may easily