Edinburgh in anger.[1199]

[Sidenote: in Germany;]

Monsieur de Vulcob, the French ambassador at the court of the Emperor of
Germany, was equally unsuccessful in convincing that monarch of the truth
of the story contained in his despatches from Paris. The emperor did not
disguise his great disappointment and sorrow, nor his belief that the
murderous project had been known for weeks before at Rome.[1200] It need
scarcely be said that the negotiations of Schomberg, who had been sent to
procure an offensive and defensive alliance between the Protestant princes
of Germany and the crown of France, were rendered abortive by the advent
of tidings of the treacherous massacre at Paris. Like the rest of the
diplomatists sent out from France, the able envoy to Germany had been left
in profound ignorance of the blow that was to disturb all his
calculations. He had even been empowered to promise that Charles would
assume toward the enterprise of William of Orange the same position that
the princes would take; and he seemed likely to be successful in inducing
the princes to make common cause with his master.

To Schomberg, as to the rest, there had been despatched, on the very day
that Coligny was wounded, a narrative of that event to be laid before the
Protestant princes--a narrative wherein the occurrence was deplored;
wherein Charles stated that he had taken just such measures for the
apprehension of the perpetrator of the crime as he would have taken had
the victim been one of his own brothers; wherein he promised to spare
neither diligence nor trouble, and to inflict condign punishment, "in
order that all men might know that no greater misdeed could have been
committed in his kingdom, nor more displeasing to himself;" wherein he
protested his unalterable determination to maintain completely and
sedulously his edict of pacification.[1201] But to Schomberg, as to the
other French ambassadors, there had come subsequent tidings and despatches
giving the lie to all these assurances.

And now, as he wrote home with some bitterness, "all his negotiations had
ended in smoke."[1202] Their Highnesses "could not get it out of their
heads" that the events of St. Bartholomew's Day were premeditated, with
the view of enabling the Duke of Alva to make way with the forces of the
Prince of Orange. So high did feeling run, that the rumor prevailed that
Schomberg had been thrown into prison as an accomplice in the perfidy,
and that Coligny's de