ill-fated
realm, there could not then, perhaps, have been found one single
prosperous and happy home.

CHAPTER X.

WAR AND WOE.

1590-1591

Ferocity of the combatants.--Liberality of Henry.--Preparations for
a battle.--Striking phenomenon.--The omen.--Manoeuvres.--Night before
the battle.--Morning of the battle.--Henry's address to his army.--The
prayer of Henry.--Anecdote.--Magnanimity of Henry.--The battle of
Ivry.--Heroism of Henry.--The Leaguers vanquished.--Flight of the
Leaguers.--Detestable conduct of Mayenne.--Lines on the battle of
Ivry.--Paris in consternation.--Inexplicable delay.--Magnanimity to
the Swiss Catholics.--Paris blockaded.--Death of the Cardinal of
Bourbon.--Horrors of famine.--Kindness of Henry.--Murmurs in
Paris.--The assault.--The suburbs taken.--The Duchess of
Montpensier.--Great clemency of Henry.--Murmurs in the camp.--Desultory
warfare.--Awful condition of France.--Attempts to conciliate the
Catholics.--Curious challenge.--A new dynasty contemplated.--Trouble
in the camp of Henry.--Motives for abjuring Protestantism.

Civil war seems peculiarly to arouse the ferocity of man. Family
quarrels are notoriously implacable. Throughout the whole kingdom of
France the war raged with intense violence, brother against brother,
and father against child. Farm-houses, cities, villages, were burned
mercilessly. Old men, women, and children were tortured and slain with
insults and derision. Maiden modesty was cruelly violated, and every
species of inhumanity was practiced by the infuriated antagonists. The
Catholic priests were in general conspicuous for their brutality. They
resolved that the Protestant heresy should be drowned in blood and
terror.

Henry IV. was peculiarly a humane man. He cherished kind feelings for
all his subjects, and was perfectly willing that the Catholic religion
should retain its unquestioned supremacy. His pride, however, revolted
from yielding to compulsory conversion, and he also refused to become
the persecutor of his former friends. Indeed, it seems probable that
he was strongly inclined toward the Catholic faith as, on the whole,
the safest and the best. He consequently did every thing in his power
to mitigate the mercilessness of the strife, and to win his Catholic
subjects by the most signal clemency. But no efforts of his could
restrain his partisans in different parts of the kingdom from severe
retaliation.

Through the long months of a cold and drea