ire and the sword from France;
then to drown it in blood in Holland; then to turn to England and
purify that kingdom from the taint of heresy; then to march upon
Germany; and thus to advance from kingdom to kingdom, in their holy
crusade, until Protestantism should be every where ingulfed in blood
and flame, and the whole of Europe should be again brought back to the
despotism of Rome.

The Duke of Guise was the soul of this mammoth conspiracy, though
Philip II., the bigoted King of Spain, was its recorded
commander-in-chief. The Protestants were justly alarmed by the
enormous energy of the new power thus suddenly evoked against them.
The Pope, though at first hostile, soon, with his cardinals, espoused
the cause of the League, and consecrated to its support all the
weapons which could be wielded by the Vatican. From France, the
demoniac organization spread through all the kingdoms of Europe.
Hundreds of thousands were arrayed beneath its crimson banner. Even
Henry III. in the Louvre, surrounded by his parasites and his
concubines, trembled as he saw the shadow of this fearful apparition
darkening his court.

He immediately perceived that he must mount the car or be crushed by
it. Adroitly he leaped into the seat of the charioteer and seized the
reins. The demands of the League he adopted as his own, and urged them
with energy. He issued a proclamation commending the League to his
subjects, and announcing that he, to set them an example, had signed
its covenant and its oath. The Duke of Guise and his followers were
quite bewildered by this unexpected step.

The League had demanded the assembling of the States-General, a body
somewhat resembling the Congress of the United States. The king
immediately summoned them to meet. They declared war against the
Protestants. The king adopted the declaration as his own decree, and
called loudly for supplies to prosecute the war with vigor. He
outleagued the most violent of the Leaguers in denunciations of the
Protestants, in declaring that but one religion should be tolerated in
France, and in clamoring for arms and munitions of war, that _heresy_
might be utterly extirpated. The Leaguers thus found, to their great
perplexity, the weapon which they had forged wrested from their hands
and wielded against them. They had organized to drive the imbecile
Henry III. from the throne. He had seized upon that organization, and
was using it to establish himself more firmly there.

The