warrior who had himself held the honorable post of
Colonel-General of the French infantry, and was second to none in
reputation for valor and skill. The most trifling concession would be
sufficient to secure the scion of the powerful families of Chatillon and
Montmorency. Even this concession, however, could not for a considerable
time be gained. D'Andelot resisted every temptation, and his
correspondence breathed the most uncompromising determination.

[Sidenote: D'Andelot's constancy.]

[Sidenote: His temporary weakness.]

In a long and admirable letter to Henry, it is true, he humbly asked
pardon for the offence his words had given. And he begged the king to
believe that, "save in the matter of obedience to God and of
conscience," he would ever faithfully expose life and means to fulfil
the royal commands. But he also reiterated his inability to attend the
mass, and plainly denounced as blasphemy the approval of any other
sacrifice than that made upon the Cross.[669] To the ministers of Paris
he wrote, expressing a resolution equally strong; and the letters of the
latter, as well as of the great Genevese reformer, were well calculated
to sustain his courage. But D'Andelot was not proof against the
sophistries of Ruze, a doctor of the Sorbonne and confessor of the king.
Moved by the entreaties of his wife,[670] of his uncle the constable,
and of his brother the Cardinal of Chatillon, he was induced, after two
months of imprisonment, to consent to be present, but without taking any
part, at a celebration of the mass. By the same priest D'Andelot sent a
submissive message to the king, to which the bearer, we have reason to
believe, attributed a meaning quite different from that which D'Andelot
had intended to convey. The noble prisoner was at once released; but the
voice of conscience, uniting with that of his faithful friends, soon led
him to repent bitterly of his temporary, but scandalous weakness. From
this time forward he resumes the character of the intrepid defender of
the Protestant doctrines--a character of which he never again divests
himself.[671]

[Sidenote: The bloody decemvirate.]

[Sidenote: Anxiety for peace.]

Meanwhile, Henry and his adviser, the Cardinal of Lorraine, who really
little deserved the reproaches showered on them by the Pope, took steps
to encounter the new assaults which the reformed doctrines were making
on the established church in every quarter of the kingdom. If the
Parliament