n which the influence of the party
inclined to Protestant and liberal principles was preponderant; in which
the advice of the moderate Chancellor L'Hospital was supreme; in which
the plans of the Guises, of Montmorency and St. Andre, were set aside,
to make room for those of Conde and Montluc, Bishop of Valence. It is
this fact that furnishes the clue to a circumstance which at first sight
seems an inexplicable paradox, namely, that almost the very day on which
the intolerant resolution, compelling the Huguenots to surrender the
churches, even in places where they constituted the vast majority of the
population, was adopted, the members of the triumvirate, formed for the
express purpose of upholding the papal church in France, left the court
in disgust. It was scarcely to be expected that these ambitious nobles,
accustomed to occupy the first rank, and to dispose of the national
concerns according to their own private pleasure, should submit with
good grace to the decisions of a council in which the Bourbons held the
sway, and a hated chancellor's opinions were followed whom they
themselves had raised to his elevated position. Much less was it natural
for them to remain when the measures which the administration proposed
were of enlarged toleration, instead of greater repression. Accordingly,
the Duke of Guise left Saint Germain for Joinville, one of his estates
on the borders of Lorraine, while his brother, the cardinal, repaired to
his archbishopric of Rheims. Here, while pretending to apply himself
with unheard-of diligence to his duties as a spiritual shepherd, and
preaching, as was reported, rather the Lutheran than the Romish view of
the eucharist, he was making bids as high as those of the duke, if of a
different kind, for the favor and support of the neighboring German
princes who adhered to the Confession of Augsburg. Catharine, not sorry
to be rid of their presence, and "best pleased when the world was
discordant," gave them a kind dismissal. The elements were less
propitious. An extraordinarily severe storm that swept over St. Germain
on the day of their departure gave rise to a report among the courtiers
that "the devil was carrying them off." It was little suspected,
quaintly remarks the narrator of this incident, how soon he was going
to bring them back![1214] Cardinal Tournon and Constable Montmorency
followed the example of the Guises, and went into retirement.

[Sidenote: Hopes entertained of the young k