the Cardinal of Lorraine, to whom they had the
imprudence to intrust their petition. In reply to their address to the
king, they were told (on the fifth of November), in the name of his
Majesty, that he invited the confederates in future to trouble
themselves no further with the internal affairs of his kingdom,
especially in matters of religion, since he was resolved to follow in
the steps of his predecessors.[645] Discouraged by this rebuff, they
did not even attempt to press the matter upon the king's notice, or by a
personal interview endeavor to mitigate his anger against their
brethren. It had been better never to have engaged in the intercession
than support it so weakly.[646] The German princes could not be induced
to give to the affair the consideration it merited; but a letter of the
Count Palatine seems to have somewhat diminished the violence of the
persecution.[647]

[Sidenote: Constancy of most of the prisoners.]

The constancy of the victims, by disconcerting the plans of their
enemies, doubtless contributed much to the temporary lull. No one
attracted in this respect greater attention than the most illustrious
person among the prisoners--the daughter of the Seigneur de Rambouillet
and wife of De Rentigny, standard-bearer of the Duke of Guise--who
resolutely rejected the pardon, based on a renunciation of her faith,
which her father and husband brought her from the king, and urged her
with tears to accept.[648] Others, who, on account of their youth, were
expected to be but poor advocates of their doctrinal views, proved more
than a match for their examiners. The course was finally adopted of
distributing the prisoners, about one hundred in number, in various
monastic establishments, whose inmates might win them back to the Roman
Catholic Church, whether by argument or by harsher means. The judges
could thus rid themselves of the irksome task of lighting new fires, and
the energies of the religious orders were put to some account. But the
result hardly met the expectations formed. If a few Protestants obtained
their liberty, and incurred the censures of their brethren, by unworthy
confessions of principle,[649] many more were allowed to escape by the
monks, who soon had reason to desire "that their cloisters might be
purged of such pests, through fear lest the contagion should spread
farther," and found it "burdensome to support without compensation so
large a number of needy persons."[650]

[Sidenote: