this time
had any other object in view than the release of those imprisoned for
conscience' sake. It is true that she took pains to protest that she
would avoid meddling with prisoners incarcerated for other crimes than
such as her brother was accustomed to pardon; but as the interference of
Francis in behalf of Berquin, Marot, and others accused of heresy, was
sufficiently notorious, her guarantee could scarcely be considered very
broad. Certainly she was not likely to find a "true heretic" worthy of
the stake among all those imprisoned as "Lutherans" in the city of
Bordeaux.

[Sidenote: Negotiations in Germany.]

[Sidenote: Hypocritical representations made by Charles of Orleans.]

While Francis, as we have seen, was from year to year aggravating the
severity of his enactments against the adherents of the Reformation in
his own kingdom, he did not forget his old role of ally of the
Protestant princes of the empire. It would be too wide a digression from
the true scope of this work, should we turn aside to chronicle the
successive attempts of the French monarch to secure these powerful
auxiliaries in his struggle with his great rival of the house of
Hapsburg. One incident must suffice. The hypocrisy of Francis could,
perhaps, go no farther than it carried him when, in 1543, his son
Charles, Duke of Orleans, at the head of a royal army took possession of
the Duchy of Luxemburg. The duke, who can hardly be imagined to have
allowed himself to take any important step, certainly no step fraught
with such momentous consequences as might be expected to follow this,
without explicit instructions from his father, at once despatched an
envoy to the Elector of Saxony and the Landgrave of Hesse. The
subordinate agent in this game of duplicity was instructed to assure the
great Protestant leaders that it was the earnest desire of the Duke of
Orleans to see the Gospel preached throughout the whole of France. It
was true that filial reverence had hitherto restrained him from
gratifying his desires in this direction in his Duchy of Orleans; but in
the government of Luxemburg and of all other territories acquired by
right of arms, he hoped to be permitted by his royal father to follow
his own preferences, and there he solemnly promised to introduce the
proclamation of God's holy word. In return for these liberal
engagements, the duke desired the German princes, then on the point of
meeting for conference at Frankfort, to admit him