oceeded to an open dealing, had he
not received advertisement out of England, that her Majesty meant to
revoke such of her subjects as are presently in Flanders; whereupon such
of his council here as incline to Spain, have put the queen mother in such
a fear, that the enterprise cannot but miscarry without the assistance of
England, as she with tears had dissuaded the king for the time, who
otherwise was very resolute."[918]

Catharine had not mistaken her power over the feeble intellect and the
inconstant will of her son. Terrified less by the prospect of a Huguenot
supremacy which she held forth, than by the menace of her withdrawal and
that of Anjou, Charles, who was but too well acquainted with their cunning
and ambition, admitted his fault in concealing his plans, and promised
obedience for the future.[919]

[Sidenote: Charles thoroughly cast down.]

It was a sore disappointment to Admiral Coligny. The young king had, until
this time, shown himself so favorable, that "commissions were granted,
ready to have been sealed, for the levying of men in sundry provinces."
But he had now lost all his enthusiasm, and spoke coldly of the
enterprise.[920] Gaspard de Coligny did not, however, even now lose
courage or forsake the post of duty to which God and his country evidently
called him. In truth, the superiority of his mental and moral
constitution, less evident in prosperity, now became resplendent, and
chained the attention of every beholder. "How perplexed the admiral is,
who foreseeth the mischief that is like to follow, if assistance come not
from above," wrote Walsingham, full of admiration, to the Earl of
Leicester, "your lordship may easily guess. And surely to say truth, he
never showed greater magnanimity, nor never was better followed nor more
honored of those of the religion than now he is, which doth not a little
appal the enemies. In this storm he doth not give over the helm. He layeth
before the king and his council the peril and danger of his estate, and
though he cannot obtain what he would, yet doth he obtain somewhat from
him."[921]

[Sidenote: Coligny partially succeeds in reassuring him.]

So wrote that shrewd observer, Sir Francis Walsingham, just two weeks
before the bloody Sunday of the massacre, and eight days before the
marriage of Navarre, little suspecting, in spite of his anxiety, the flood
of misery which was so soon to burst upon that devoted land. To all human
foresight there was still