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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
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