XXIII. CHAP. rumour of meat having been eaten of a Friday in a house sufficed for the capture of the inhabitants, the seizure and sale of its furniture; and numbers of Reformed families were thus either thrust into prison or driven from the capital.* The same system was pursued in the provinces, especially at Poitiers, Toulon, and Aixt; and a general feeling sprang up amongst the Reformers of the necessity of resistance. Another meeting of the chiefs took place; but they still deprecated war; and at length their impatient followers resolved on moving without them. A gentleman of Perigord, named De la Renaudie, who had been in exile in Switzerland on account of a process in which he was nonsuited and imprisoned, and whose relatives had suffered persecution and spoliation, returned secretly to France, and summoned the Protestants to send deputies to Nantes to consider of a common mode of action. They came from each province, were persuaded to immediate action by the emissary's eloquence, and agreed to furnish 500 men each, who, with him at their head, might surprise the king at Blois, and rescue him from the Guises. La Renaudie, no doubt, gave it to be understood that he acted in the name, and with the sanction of the Prince of Condé, who was thus considered the "mute captain" of the enterprise. Coligny, however, remained a stranger to it; and Calvin's letters show his disapproval of the movement, and the low opinion he had of its leader.§ This meeting and engagement took place on the 1st of February, 1560, the execution of the project being fixed for the month of March. The Guises had warn La Planche. + Ibid. Harangues de la Renaudie, MSS. Fontanieu, 292. They are also given by De Thou. § J'ai toujours dit que si le fait me déplaisait, la personne De la Renaudie me dégoutait encore plus. -Calvin to Coligny. Bonnet's Collections of Calvin's Letters, t. ii. XXIII. ing before that time*, and the king was removed by CHAP. them from the palace of Blois to the strong castle of Amboise. Coligny and his brother were summoned thither, and came without hesitation. Catherine, from a wish to avoid civil war, took advantage of their presence to seize some authority; and by their and her counsel the king issued, early in March, an edict, granting pardon and indulgence to all, save conspirators and traitors, setting forth, "That sedition and conspiracy being preached by Genevese of low condition, and many arrested who were accused of it, the king, having conferred with his mother, consented to pardon the past at her desire, and in order not to stain the first years of his reign with blood.† Condé also came to Amboise, but it is more than probable with the intention of favouring from within the castle the designs of the conspirators in their attack. In consequence of the removal of the court, the day for the enterprise was deferred; but the Guises were fully informed of every circumstance. La Renaudie had disclosed it to his host in Paris, one Avenelles, and he to a secretary of the Cardinal of Lorraine.‡ The first body of conspirators showed themselves under Castelnau§ and Mazères, those who had been deputed to Nantes by the Huguenots of Gascony and Bearn, in the suburbs of Tours, on the 14th of March. Although their arms were concealed beneath their cloaks, they were challenged by Sancerre, who had been sent there by the court. They defied him at first, but thought fit afterwards to dismiss the soldiers, the * Letters from the Guises to the constable in February show their foreknowledge of the plot. MS. Bethune, 8674. See also Throgmorton's letter of March 7, in Forbes. Castelnau says that the Cardinal of Lorraine was warned by Granvelle and by a gentleman of the Duc de Nevers. + Printed copy in Fontanieu. Place, &c. A baron of Gascoigne, of 10,000 francs revenue. Throgmorton's letters from Amboise, March 21, 1560, in Forbes. XXIII. CHAP. chiefs repairing to the château of Noisay, between Tours and Amboise, where they expected to meet La Renaudie.* Instead of his coming, the Duke of Nemours appeared the next day suddenly at Noisay, and seized Mazères, who was loitering without the château. Castelnau shut himself up within, not being attended with more than twenty-one followers, chiefly officers.† Nemours had brought 500 lances from Amboise and invested the castle. Castelnau, summoned to surrender, declared that he and his friends had come with no intention of offering violence, but merely in order to present a remonstrance to the young king. Nemours observed that if such were the case they had better come to court, and he gave his word of prince that no harm should befal them. They surrendered, but had no sooner entered Amboise, than they were committed to prison.‡ La Renaudie, who had not expected the outburst so soon, hastened to repair the disaster of Castelnau. He ordered a band of his followers on foot to cross the forest and meet him at Amboise, whither he himself marched with a certain force, and where he hoped to unite with others concealed in the cellars of the town, and even in the château itself. In crossing the forest, the scattered bands of conspirators were surprised by the cavaliers of the court, and dragged, most of them, prisoners into Amboise.§ Two days after (the 18th), La Renaudie himself fell in with a troop of the victorious cavalry, commanded by his cousin * Account published in Memoirs of Condé. † Laubespine's letter to the Constable of the 19th, from Amboise. MSS. Bethune, 8675. La Place. Whilst the French Protestant writers allege that those taken on the 16th were treated with the ut most severity, and for the most part hanged, Throgmorton, who was at Amboise, says that "the fifty captives, a great number being artificers, were taken before the king, and all pardoned and dismissed by him save four." Yet the journal of Bruslart says that thirteen were executed on the 17th. Pardaillan. XXIII. They rushed upon each other, La Re- CHAP. naudie running his antagonist through the body, and being himself shot by the valet of the slain. The conspirators thus defeated, the struggle continued in the château between the Guises and Catherine, supported by her chancellor. The king, like his mother, was alarmed, and thought with justice that it was the presence and policy of the Guises which gave rise to all these perils, whilst they affirmed that the conspirators sought the king's life, not theirs. The contending parties in the court, however, concluded a compromise, by which the Duke of Guise was declared lieutenantgeneral of the kingdom, with extraordinary powers, he at the same time consenting to the amnesty already drawn up. The chancellor refused to sign his patent as lieutenant-general till he did so. The prevalence of Olivier's moderation proved but short-lived, for the associates of La Renaudie, little counting upon the mercy of the Guises, resolved to attack the château of Amboise, by this time stripped of its garrison, one body undertaking to cross the bridge and force the great gate, whilst another was to break into a small door at the edge of the river. The treason of an officer named Lignières disclosed the plan to the court, and this last forlorn hope of the conspirators, received with an overwhelming fire, was routed, thrown into the river, or brought in captive. There was then no mercy for the chiefs. Guise took revenge, not only of these, but of the authors of the amnesty, his opponents in the council. Castelnau, Mazères, and the other chiefs, were put to the torture, in order to make them confess that their design was not merely upon the Guises, but against the king. This some were weak enough to admit in their torments. But Castelnau was firm, and reproached so bitterly the chancellor for sanctioning the execution of persons guilty of believing what he himself approved, that Olivier was wrung with shame and remorse. Catherine XXIII. CHAP. did her utmost to save Castelnau, but the cardinal was inexorable. When these chiefs were executed, Guise compelled the king, the queen mother, and the whole court, to attend and witness the scene from the windows, and the platform of the château. There some of the unwilling witnesses were struck with the act of Villemongis, who, gathering in his hand some blood fallen from his brother victims, flung it aloft, calling on God "to avenge the innocent." Anne of Esté, Duchess of Guise, burst into tears, being the only one present who durst show weakness. The chancellor Olivier took to his bed immediately after. The Cardinal of Lorraine coming to visit him, the dying chancellor turned away, exclaiming, "You have damned us all."* It was not without strong presumption that the Prince of Condé was accused of being privy to these attempts. The young king reproaching him with it, the prince desired to be heard before all the court and the knights of the Order. When they were assembled, Condé stigmatised, as a "poltroon and a liar, whoever accused him of conspiring against state and crown, which he was prepared to uphold with more zeal than his enemies.” The prince might have added, that he did not consider the late conspiracy directed either against state or king. The Duke of Guise, however, instead of pressing the prince hard and accepting the challenge, declared he was ready to vouch for Condé's sincerity, and be his second against any one who persisted in the charge. * Vieilleville recounts, that the Duc de Nemours was furious, on account of the signature which he had given to Castelnau and his companions, when they surrendered, promising they should not be harmed. Had he given but his word, says Vieilleville, he might have got off by contradicting it, but his signature! See Le Laboureur, Addition aux Mémoires de Castelnau, De Thou, D'Aubigné, La Popelinière, the memoirs of Condé and those of Guise, La Planche, who goes to the end of Francis the Second's reign, and La Place, who continues to the Colloque de Poissy: also Tumulte d'Amboise in Cimber and Danjou, Archives, tom. iv. |