the queens, his mother and wife--and he said it with all
respect to their presence--whoever had asserted to the king that Conde
was the chief of certain seditious individuals who were said to have
conspired against his person and estate, had "falsely and miserably
lied." To prove his innocence he offered to waive for the time the
privileges of his rank as prince of the blood, and in single combat
force his accuser at the point of the sword to confess himself a
poltroon and a calumniator. As Conde looked proudly around, no one
ventured to accept the gauntlet he had thrown down. On the contrary, the
Duke of Guise, his most bitter enemy, promptly stepped forward to offer
him his services as second in the single combat proposed! Hereupon Conde
begged the king to esteem him hereafter a faithful and honorable man,
and entreated his Majesty to lend no ear to the authors of such
calumnies, but to regard them as common enemies of the crown and of the
public peace.[844]

* * * * *

[Sidenote: An alleged admission of disloyal intentions by La
Renaudie.]

It is well known that the Huguenots were accused by their enemies
of intending to remodel the government of France. According to
some, the king was to be retained, but shorn of his authority;
according to others, he was to be dispensed with altogether. Under
any circumstances, the Swiss confederation was to be imitated or
reproduced in France. That which gave the pretended scheme most of
its air of probability, in the eyes of the unreflecting, and
compensated for the entire absence of proof of its substantial
reality, was the familiarity of many of the Huguenots--both
religious and political--with Geneva, Basle, Berne, and other small
republican states. These were fountains of Protestant doctrine;
these had afforded many a refugee shelter from persecution in
France. It was notorious that the free institutions of these cities
were the object of admiration on the part of the Calvinists.[845]

I believe that no contemporary writer has brought forward a
particle of evidence in support of this view, and impartial men
have rejected it as incredible. But a history of the Parliament of
Bordeaux, lately published,[846] contains an extract from the
records of that court, which, if trustworthy, would go far to
establish the reality of treasonable de