thousand foot, and held the chief cities in his power, he would not make
half so great demands!"[1325]

[Sidenote: The Huguenots firm.]

Despite the unwelcome character of the claims of the Huguenot deputies,
some answer must be given. It was found impossible to induce the envoys to
modify them. They denied that they had the power, even if they had the
inclination, to alter the action of those who had sent them. They were
therefore dismissed with expressions of good-will and the assurance that
two royal commissioners, the Duc d'Uzes and the Chevalier de Caylus, would
be sent to treat with the delegates whom the Huguenots might choose.
Marshal Damville, governor of the province, was to participate in the
negotiations and to appoint some city in the vicinity of Montauban where
they might be held. Charles was to hear the result of their conference on
his return from the German borders. Meanwhile he promised to instruct
Damville to put an end to all hostilities, provided the Huguenots should
desist from everything tending to provoke retaliation.[1326] The Tiers
Etat received the answer to their petition more promptly. It was naturally
to the effect that a return to the meagre scale of imposts under Louis XI.
was utterly impracticable, in view of the burdens of the treasury arising
from recent wars and the pensions yearly payable to various members of the
royal family.[1327]

[Sidenote: Progress of the court to the borders of France.]

[Sidenote: Decline of the health of Charles IX.]

It would be out of place to describe here at any length the slow progress
of the French court as it escorted the King of Poland to the borders of
the realm. To none of the principal personages taking part was it the
occasion of much satisfaction. Catharine was as reluctant to part from
Henry, her favorite son, as he was himself averse to exchange the
pleasures of the Louvre and Saint Germain for the crown of an unruly and
half-civilized kingdom. As for Charles, the gratification he could not
conceal at the prospect of being soon freed from the presence of a brother
whom he both disliked and feared was more than counterbalanced by the
rapid decline of his own health. The boy of eleven, whom the Venetian
ambassador had described about the time of his accession to the throne as
handsome, amiable, and graceful in appearance, quick, vivacious, and
humane--in short, as possessing every quality from which a great prince
and a great king might be