consider the action "not only as licit, but pious, restoring repose to the public by the sacrifice of an individual." * But however the Pope, or even Mayenne, might bend, the King of Spain remained rigid. To him the leaguers chiefly looked for money, for support, and for counsel. Philip's aim was the elevation of his daughter, the infanta, to the throne of France, as descended from the Valois, through her mother, the Salic law being set aside to permit it. Her marriage with one of the leading French grandees of the Catholic party was also contemplated by him as a probable necessity. Co-operation towards such an end could not be expected, or even demanded, from Henry the Third, who, thus repudiated by Pope, Spain, and the House of Lorraine, was compelled to turn to the King of Navarre. The Duchesse d'Angoulême carried on the negotiations which Duplessis-Mornay completed. The king ceded Saumur as a passage over the Loire to the Huguenots, who were to march against Mayenne. Due promise of tolerance was at the same time given to the religionists. The truce or treaty of the 3rd April, 1589, was followed by an interview between the two kings. It took place in the grounds of the old chateau of Plessis les Tours. It was not without much dissuasion from his followers that Henry of Navarre proceeded to meet the prince who had successively sacrificed Coligny and Guise. But he saw that the king must accept his friendship. The acclamations of all present greeted both kings, but the chief regards of the spectators were turned to him of Navarre, conspicuous by his worn doublet, and the * Henry the Third's letter to Pisani, his envoy at Rome. †The terms of the truce are in Duplessis-Mornay, in a letter to Henry the Fourth, t. ii. p. 471. Extracts from Philip's letter to the Duke of Sessa, especially one of Oct. 8, 1590, in De Mesmes, 8931. CHAP. XXV. CHAP. grey hat with the large white plume, by which he was wont to bid his soldiers rally. Although the four thousand staunch soldiers of the Huguenot army at once enabled Henry to stand fast upon the Loire, his own strength as king was far superior even to this timely aid. The League, in truth, commanded but the services and revenues of the town populations, and not even of the wealthier citizens of these. The noble class had been more and more alienated from the Guises by the exclusive dependence which these placed in the towns; the princes of the blood, indeed, and those grandees who assumed parity with them, having no king to look up to; for Henry the Third was odious, contemptible in character and crime, and Henry of Navarre's prospects of being his successor were not great. "How can I hope," said he, "with a handful of Protestants to conquer and put down the great majority of the country, which is Catholic?" The French did not see how he could become king without attempting this; and the reign of Elizabeth was before them as an example of what was to be expected from a Protestant sovereign. In despair of seeing the crown nobly and powerfully worn, the French grandees aimed at establishing each his authority in his province, and whilst the towns were advancing de se cantonner, like the Swiss, the great nobles meditated following the example of the German princes, who wielded sovereignty in their own lands, under merely nominal obedience to an emperor. This desire, evinced by the Montmorencies and the Epernons amongst the moderates or politiques, by Bouillon and Turenne amongst the Protestants, as well as by the House of Lorraine, was now shared or supported by the great body of the noblesse. The lesser gentry, however, as well as the noblesse de robe, clung alike to * Cayet. XXV. royalty, as the sheet anchor of the state, as the bond of CHAP. unity which held together the kingdom and the race, which promised to render both prosperous and great, and to prevent their falling into civil and political, as well as religious, anarchy and division. When Henry the Third proved himself able to raise a royal standard and keep it floating, these men flocked to it. And the king, who in May was obliged to humble himself for the support of the 5000 Huguenots of Henry's army, was, in the lapse of a few weeks, at the head of 40,000 men. The greater number of them were Catholic gentry. Epernon sent 2000 soldiers, and Sancy contrived to secure the service of 12,000 Swiss. Whilst the cause of royalty thus resuscitated, the towns and townsfolk who supported the League, and who were so zealous in conciliabules and processions, devised no efficient or practical means of resistance. They showed themselves, what the middle class have always done in France, unconscious of their own interests, and incapable of supporting them. They neither formed nor found an army; and the Duke of Mayenne, notwithstanding the stipend of Spain, could muster but a very inferior force. Like an able general, however, he strove to strike where he could; he attacked a royal division near Amboise, and defeated them before their reinforcements could arrive. Learning that Henry the Third was in Tours, with the suburb of that city, St. Symphorien, on the north of the river, occupied by not more than 1500 of his guard, Mayenne, after a forced march, attacked it suddenly, on the morning of the 8th of May with 10,000 men. king himself had been nearly surprised, but gained the suburb in time to rally its garrison. He durst not call to him the Swiss in Tours lest the townsfolk should rise; and the Huguenots were at some distance. Crillon and Chatillon, however, who commanded in the Faubourg, though they could not defend it, at least The XXV. CHAP. maintained their position at the head of the bridge, which Crillon, though wounded, prevented them from crossing. Mayenne thus gained but the pillage of St. Symphorien for his troops, who committed every outrage and cruelties. And at last, the Huguenots arriving, he decamped with as great speed as he had advanced. The superiority of the royalists in the field was soon manifest everywhere. In Normandy, the Duke of Montpensier, who held for the king, routed, at the head of the nobility, Brissac, who led large bands of the peasantry. Near Senlis, the Duc de Longue ville defeated Aumale and the Parisians to the number of 6000 the townsmen and their general escaping from the field with precipitancy, and not stopping till they got to Paris. In a short time all the towns, as far as and around the capital, were compelled to surrender to the two kings-Etampes in the south, and Poissy and Pontoise to the west. One of their divisions advanced to Vincennes, which had all along maintained the royal standard, and sent some cannon shot into the streets of the capital; while the cavalry of Navarre galloped through its southern suburbs. In the last days of July the king established his head-quarters at St. Cloud. His brother of Navarre posted his troops in the villages upon the river as far as Vaugirard. Mayenne placed his small force to defend the Faubourgs St. Germain and St. Honoré; but he despaired of resisting the assault, which was expected on the 25th of August. There was no hope, save in the perpetration of an audacious crime. A fanatic to undertake it was soon found. Jacques Clement, a young Dominican friar, signalised for his adventurous spirit, and debauched, was visited in his convent by what he considered an angel, who bade him go forth to kill the king and earn the palm of martyrdom. In the convent where his vision took place there of course His purpose and mis- XXV. was not wanting confessors to explain and urge it, and CHAP. to promise impunity from punishment in this world and splendid rewards in the next. sion were made no secret of. to the Duchess of Montpensier, encouragement that a woman could give. He also saw Mayenne, and had from him also flattering promises and directions. He was provided with a passport,, and every means of deception that could facilitate access to the king's presence, and was despatched with the assent and encomiums of the whole body of the League to commit the act of assassination. He reached St. Cloud on the evening of the 13th of August, 1589, and, having a letter from Epernon's brother-in-law, was well received and treated, and the next morning was brought to the king's presence, under the pretext that he had important intelligence to communicate-it was expected, of a project of the royalists to deliver up one of the gates of the capital. As he demanded to pour the secret into the king's ear, Henry ordered his attendants to retire whilst the monk approached him. They did so, and almost immediately heard the monarch cry out, "Ah! the wicked monk has killed me." Clement had plunged a knife into Henry's bowels. The king plucked it out as he exclaimed, and struck Clement, who was in an instant despatched by the guards.* * L'Estoile, Le Martyr de J. Clement, Mendoza's letter in Cape figue, Ranke, Hist. of France, &c. |