[843] Walsingham to Burleigh, Aug. 12, 1571, Digges, 122. The ambassador
informs Elizabeth, in this letter, of the intense desire of the French
Protestants that she should express to the French envoy her approval of
the invitation extended to the princes and Coligny, and should say "that
so rare a subject as the admiral is was not to be suffered to live in such
a corner as Rochelle." It was thought that her commendations would greatly
advance his credit with the king.

[844] I know not on what authority Miss Freer states (Henry III. of
France, his Court and Times, i. 70) that "even Coligny was startled at the
ominous significance of these words; the shadow, however, vanished before
the warmth and frankness of Charles's manner." Compare Agrippa d'Aubigne,
ii. 5.

[845] Walsingham's account in a letter of La Mothe Fenelon (Corresp.
dipl., iv. 245, 246), its accuracy being vouched for by a letter of
Charles IX. himself (ibid., vii. 268); Tocsain contre les massacreurs,
Cimber et Danjou, vii. 34, 35; De Thou, iv. (liv. l.) 493.

[846] Charles IX. to Emmanuel Philibert, Blois, Sept. 28, 1571, _apud_
Leger, Hist. gen. des eglises vaudoises (Leyden, 1669), i. 47, 48.

[847] "Durant ce moys, Gaspard de Coligny, remis par l'edit de
pacification en l'estat d'admiral, fut mande par le roy et vint de la
Rochelle trouver le Roy a Bloys, et se retira hors de la cour toute la
maison de Guise, de sorte que le Roy estoit gouverne par ledit admiral et
Montmorency." Jehan de la Fosse, Journal d'un cure ligueur, 132.

[848] Walsingham to Cecil, March 5, 1571. Digges, 48, 49.

[849] "And as for conference had with the Count Lewis of Nassau, he told
him, that he was misinformed;" first letter of Walsingham to Burleigh, of
Aug. 12th, Digges, 122. Yet the second letter of the same date gives a
detailed account of this conference. It must be admitted that the
diplomacy of the sixteenth century was sufficiently barefaced in its
impostures. Louis of Nassau told Walsingham of an enterprise of Strozzi
against Spain, determined upon by Charles IX. "onely to amaze the king
there;" but, as to Strozzi, "the king here meaneth notwithstanding to
disallow [him] openly." Ibid., 125.

[850] Digges, 122.

[851] Jehan de la Fosse, 134.

[852] "Et que ceulx qui estoient a la fenestre estoient bien aises de
veoir jouer le jeu a mes despens." It is scarcely necessary to say that
this characteristic expression alludes primarily to the King of Spain and