CHAP.
XXV.

Whilst the Duke of Mayenne, at the crisis brought on by the death of his brother, displayed an energy and an activity that promised well for his cause, Henry the Third appeared paralysed by the great crime which he had committed. He seemed at first to think, that, Guise slain, all France was at his feet. He was soon undeceived by finding himself master of little more than Tours, Blois, and Beaugency. Raised to a sense of danger, he despatched Sancey to Switzerland to raise troops, and ordered the Duke of Nevers to bring up the army from Poitou; the greater part of it, indeed, disbanded, as armies usually do on such occasions. And the monarch, thus placed between two parties, was necessarily reduced to seek an accommodation with one or the other.

A great inducement with the king to attempt a reconciliation with the League was the conduct and advice of Morosini, the Papal nuncio. This plenipotentiary of the holy see seemed to look upon the murder of the Duke of Guise as a venial offence as a kind of vengeance which a sovereign had a right to take. The slaying of the Cardinal of Guise was more serious. But Morosini gave the king hopes that he might be pardoned all, provided he remained true to the Catholic cause. And inspired by these sentiments and this policy, the legate undertook to reconcile Henry with Mayenne. The latter rejected the proffers of the papal envoy with indignation*; and the Pope himself, who might have condoned the assassination of Guise, but could not overlook that of a cardinal, threatened him with excommunication.

This affront decided Henry the Third to recur to the alliance of the Huguenots, notwithstanding the remonstrance of his general the Duke of Nevers, and his own reluctance to give the semblance of truth to the

Davila, Henry's Letter to the Pope.

accusations of the League, who represented the monarch
as favourable to the Huguenots all throughout, and
being in secret understanding with them. But what
the king required was an accession of energy rather
than of force. For although so many historians of the
day represent him as almost dethroned, he was neither
so desolate, nor his rival so triumphant, as they would
make it appear.

The force of the League and the hostility to Henry
had become more and more confined to the towns, and
more and more repudiated by the plat pays, or open
country, with its gentry and its feudal lords. Even
before the death of Guise, there had many of them
fallen off or began to waver; while those who remained
firm were so more from personal confidence in the
duke, and from hopes of his future influence and lead,
than from comprehending what was the real aim of his
ambition. When the duke fell, there was no longer a
chief in the League who could command personal ad-
herence, or under whom a noble following the profession
of arms could look for advancement or profit or renown.
There was in the noble class, also, a strong jealousy
of the towns, which displayed no little hostility to
them. The conduct of the gendarmes, and indeed
of all feudal and rustic soldiers, and their chiefs, was so
insolent and rapacious in towns, that the municipalities
would not receive them. And these having flung off
the authority of both king and royal functionaries, and
aristocratic influence, tended more and more de se com-
biner à la manière des Suisses, to use the expression of
Duplessis; that is, to form civic republics like the
Swiss.

Nor was it merely the burgess class and town populations which displayed enmity to the gentry. The peasants rose in many places, especially in Normandy, against the exactions and rapine of the soldiers, the town classes and the League favouring and exciting

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XXV.

XXV.

CHAP. them. This compelled the gentry to hoist the royalist banner in opposition to that of the League, and to unite in order to crush the Gautiers, as the insurgent peasants were called, in the name of the king.

Their rising, indeed, produced a strong reaction in favour of the crown, and made the gentry, who were the sole military class of the period, rally to it. Hence it was that the Duke of Mayenne, though declared by the League and the Parisians lieutenant-general of the kingdom, and although boasting of the adherence of the greater number of its cities and towns, could not collect an imposing or numerous army. One of the inducements offered to the lower classes by the faction to join them, was the promise of the abolition of taillage and dues. This promise, though not always observed, still · deprived the League of the revenues it might otherwise have procured. The towns themselves did not display the energy or the sagacity necessary to supply the defects of this party. They were passionate enough in forming frantic processions, scribbling libels, and by and by in bribing assassins. But they shrunk from taking the field, preferring to remain, like the Parisians, in their quartiers. They did not form corps of volunteers, or bands of fighting-men, as they had during the English war. And they knew neither how to present an efficient force to the League, nor did the chiefs of the League know how to make use of their resources. It is, indeed, a melancholy fact, that the civic, or burgess, or middle class in France, have seldom had the sagacious energy to embrace an enlightened principle, and have never shown courage or wisdom to uphold it.

The towns and town classes thus remaining passive, ready to defend their walls, but not venturing beyond them, the active combatants on either side were the gentry, who joined that standard or general which offered best prospects and most pay. Although Mayenne personally no longer commanded their adherence,

XXV.

still the subsidies he received from Spain attracted CHAP. many to his standard, whilst his character for poverty drove the greater part away from the King of Navarre. Henry the Third, though poor for the moment, but, in case of success, master of the royal revenue, naturally commanded the allegiance of all those who despised Mayenne and abhorred town domination.

In the first instance, indeed, and under the impression of the crime that had been committed, the gentry forming the army of the Duke of Nevers disbanded; and so many prepared to desert or betray him, that Henry felt it necessary to act the part of gaoler, and conduct in person his chief prisoners from Blois to the castle of Amboise. The least important of them he was obliged to allow their guards to retain for ransom.

The Huguenots in the meantime advanced towards the Loire, taking Chatellerault, and proceeding to within six leagues of Tours, whither the king had removed his quarters from Blois.* In the first days of March Henry of Navarre sent forth a declaration, addressed to the estates of the kingdom, and drawn up by Duplessis-Mornay. There could not be a more able, powerful, or moderate document. It is, indeed, not such as one might expect to come from the mouth of the victor of Coutras; for he speaks humbly of the Protestant force and cause. What he chiefly and loudly demands peace. "The house is falling, the boat is sinking; there is but one way of safety, and that is peace. I ask and entreat," said Henry, "not for myself alone, nor yet for the king, but for all France. And in order to obtain it, I shall be more tractable a thousand times

is

"The king's army," writes Henry, "is lodged two leagues from ours, without our making any demands. The soldiers of both armies meet and embrace, instead of combating, without any truce or comVOL. III.

R

"

mands to that effect. The king's
officers must come to us; for mine
won't change masters.' Henry's
letter of March 8th to Mad. de
Grammont. Lettres Missives de
Henry IV.

CHAP.
XXV.

than I have ever been. What opposes the peace?
The declaration of the States that they will have but
one religion in the country. No doubt a most desirable
thing. But can it be compassed by the sword? Ten
armies have not accomplished it, nor four years of civil
war. You have sought to convert us with the dagger
aimed at the throat. Even if my conscience would
have permitted me to change in such a case, my honour
could not but refuse. Call a national council; let it
discuss the differences of religion, and I am ready to
submit to its decision. Weigh well this offer, the al-
ternative of continuing the war. What is to become of
France or of the state? what the fate of the noblesse
if the nature of government be changed? The towns,
in closing their gates, suffering no authority to com-
mand, and cantoning themselves like the Swiss repub-
licans will they be the better of this, with the open
country at their gates, and its gentry hostile to them
and eager for plunder?
for plunder? What is the prospect of those
who fill the great offices of the monarchy-of law,
finance, or police? What are traders to expect? Or
can agriculturists be certain to reap the produce of
their lands? And the labourer, in the midst of all this
confusion, what can he do but starve ?"

Such truthful eloquence would have made little
impression upon Henry the Third had not the League.
and Mayenne repudiated his every offer.
He had
small reliance in the power and resources of the Hugue-
nots; and his first anxiety was to appease the Pope, as
the best means of conciliating or disarming the League.
Sixtus the Fifth had often disapproved of the froward-
ness of Henry's subjects; and when the king's envoy
related to him the coming of Guise from Soissons to
that of the barricades, the Pope expressed his surprise
that Henry had not thrown him out of the window of
the Louvre. The letter of Henry to Rome after the
murder expressed his assurance that the Pontiff would