Volume II Part 26 (1/2)

[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 ”c.u.mplurimis 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. Pet.i.tion 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 t.i.tle is ”Sermens des a.s.sociez de la Ligue Chrestienne et Roiale,” and the date is June 25, 1568.

[536] Prof. Soldan is certainly right (ii. 305) in his interpretation of the pa.s.sage, ”tant et si longuement qu'il plaira a Dieu que nous serons _par eux_ regis en nostredicte religion apostolique et romaine,” which Ranke (Civil Wars and Monarchy, p. 236), and, following him, Von Polenz (Gesch. des franz. Calvinismus, ii. 361), have construed as referring to ”la maison de Valois.” Involved as is the phraseology, I do not see how the word ”eux” can designate any other person or persons than ”ledit sr.

lieutenant avec mesditz sieurs de la n.o.blesse de cedit gouvernement et autres a.s.sociez.”

[537] Jean de Serres, iii. 164.

[538] ”Den Erfolg des letzten Krieges,” well observes Prof. Soldan, ”hatten die Hugenotten nicht ihrer Anzahl, sondern der Organisation und dem Geiste ihres Gemeindewesens zu verdanken. Diese bewegliche, weitverzweigte, aus einem festen Mittelpunkte gleichma.s.sig gelenkte und von Eifer fur die gemeinsame Sache belebte Vereinsgliederung hatte uber den lahmen und stockenden Mechanismus vielfach grosserer, aber in sich selbst uneiniger Krafte einen beschamenden Triumph erlangt.” Geschichte des Protestantismus in Frankreich, ii. 303.

[539] Relations des Amb. Ven., ii. 116.

[540] Cipierre, a young n.o.bleman only twenty-two years of age, was returning, with a body-guard of about thirty-five men, from a visit to his cousin, the duke, at Nice, where he had been treated with great honor.

When approaching Frejus he perceived signs of treachery in a body of men lurking under cover of a grove, and betook himself for safety into the city, now, since his father's death, a part of the province of which his eldest brother was royal governor. The tocsin was rung, and his enemies, originally a band of three hundred men, being swollen by constant accessions to four times that number, the house in which Cipierre had taken refuge was a.s.sailed. After a heroic defence the small party of defenders surrendered their arms, on a.s.surance that their opponents would at once retire. The papists, however, scarcely made a pretence of fulfilling their compact, for they speedily returned and ma.s.sacred every one whom they found in the house. Cipierre himself was not among the number. To secure him a new breach of faith was necessary. The captain of the murderers pledged his own word to the magistrate that if Cipierre would come forth from his hiding-place he would spare his life. He discharged the obligation, so soon as Cipierre presented himself, by plunging a dagger into his breast. J. de Serres, iii. 166-168; Agrippa d'Aubigne, i. 262.

[541] Pet.i.tion of Conde, Aug. 23, 1568, J. de Serres, iii. 210, 211.

[542] Vie de Coligny (Cologne, 1686), 349, 350; J. de Serres, iii. 166.

[543] Ibid., iii. 165; Recordon, from MSS. of N. Pithou, 155-157; MS. Mem.