Volume II Part 39 (2/2)

[795] Letter of April 23, 1570, Pii Quinti Epistolae, 272.

[796] Relations des Amb. Ven. (Tommaseo), ii. 110. Correro's relation is of 1569.

[797] Baschet, La diplomatie venitienne, p. 518.

[798] The only account of this striking occurrence which I have seen is given by Jehan de la Fosse, p. 122.

[799] Walsingham and Norris to Elizabeth, Jan. 29, 1571, Digges, 24.

[800] ”The best ground of continuance,” he writes to Leicester, ”that I can learn, by those that can best judge, is the king's own inclination, which is thought sincerely to be bent that way.” Jan. 28, 1571, Digges, 28.

[801] ”Thus, sir, you see, for that he is not settled in religion, how he is carried away with worldly respects, a common misery to those of his calling.” Ibid., 30.

[802] Walsingham to Leicester, Aug. 29, 1570, Digges, 8.

[803] De Thou, iv. 330-333. See Digges, 30.

[804] Letter of the Queen of Navarre to the queen mother, Dec. 17, 1570, Rochambeau, Lettres d'Antoine de Bourbon et de Jehanne d'Albret (Paris, 1877), 306. A few lines of this admirable paper (which is, however, much mutilated) may be quoted as having an almost prophetic significance: ”Et vous diray, Madame, les larmes aus yeulx, avecq une afection pure et entiere que, s'il ne plaist au Roy et a vous nous aseureur nos tristes demandes, que je ne puis esperer qu'une treve ... en ce royaulme par ceste guerre siville, car nous y mourrons tous pl.u.s.tost que quiter nostre Dieu et nostre religion, laquelle nous ne pouvons tenir sans exersise, non plus qu'un corps ne saure vivre sans boire et manger.... Je vous en ay dit le seul moyen; ayes pitie de tant de sang repandu, de tant d'impietes commises en la ... de ceste guerre et _que vous ne pourrez bien d'un seul mot faire cesser_.” ”Et sur cella, Madame, je supliray Dieu qui tient les cueurs des Roys en sa main disposer celui du Roi et le vostre a mectre le repos en ce royaulme a sa gloire et contentement de Vos Majestes, _maugre le complot de M. le Cardinal de Lorrayne_, dont il a descouvert la trame a Villequagnon,” etc.

[805] Discours du ma.s.sacre fait a Orange, from the Mem. de l'etat de France sous Charles IX., Archives curieuses, vi. 459-470; De Thou, iv.

483.

[806] Floquet, Histoire du Parlement du Normandie, iii. 87-112, whose account is in great part derived from the registers of the parliament and the archives of the Hotel de Ville of Rouen. De Thou, iv. (liv. l.) 483, certainly greatly underestimates the number of Protestants killed, when he limits it to _five_.

[807] See _ante_, chapter xvi.

[808] Jehan de la Fosse (Sept., 1571), 132.

[809] Ibid. (Nov., 1571), 133.

[810] Jehan de la Fosse (Dec., 1571), 134.

[811] Agrippa d'Aubigne, ii. 4 (liv. i., c. 1); De Thou, iv. (liv. l.) 487-489; Discours de ce qui avint touchant la Croix de Gastines (from Mem.

de l'etat de Charles IX.), in Cimber et Danjou, Arch. cur., vi. 475, 476; Jehan de la Fosse, _ubi supra_. According to the recently published journal of La Fosse, Charles the Ninth expressed himself to the preachers of Paris, who had come to remonstrate with him in language which may at first sight appear somewhat suspicious: ”attestant ledict roy vouloir vivre et mourir en la religion de ses predecesseurs roys, religion catholique et romaine, toutefois qu'il avoit fait abattre la croix pour certaine cause laquelle il vouloit taire et avoir faict plusieurs choses contre sa conscience, toutefois par contrainte a cause du temps, et supplioit les predicateurs n'avoir mauvaise opinion de luy” (pp. 138, 139). There is good reason, however, to believe that the secret reason which the king was unwilling to name was not a contemplated ma.s.sacre of the Protestants, but rather the Navarrese and English marriages, and the war with Spain in the Netherlands.

[812] Walsingham to Burleigh, Dec. 7, 1571, Digges, p. 151. ”Marshal Montmorency repaired to this town the third of this moneth accompanied with 300 horse. The next day after his arrival he and the Marshal de Coss conferred with the chief of this town about the plucking down of the cross, which was resolved on, and the same put in execution, the masons employed in that behalf being guarded by certain harquebusiers.”

[813] Queen Elizabeth was born September 7, 1533; Henry was born in September, 1551 (the day is variously given as the 18th, 19th, and 21st), and was just nineteen.

[814] Letter of Catharine to La Mothe Fenelon, Oct. 20, 1570, Correspondance diplomatique, vii. 143-146.

[815] Despatch of La Mothe Fenelon, Dec. 29, 1570. Ibid., vol. iii. 418, 419.

[816] And with a freedom which might be mistaken for Arcadian simplicity, did we not know that innocence was no characteristic of either court in that age. ”J'en cognoissoys ung,” he told her, ”qui estoit nay a tant de sortes de vertu, qu'il ne failloit doubter qu'elle n'en fut fort honnoree et singulierement bien aymee, et dont j'espererois qu'au bout de neuf mois apres, elle se trouveroit mere d'ung beau filz,” etc. La Mothe Fenelon, iii. 439, 454, 455.

[817] Despatch to Cecil, Jan. 28, 1571, Digges, 26.

[818] Ibid., 27.

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