s must give
them a city in each province of the kingdom, as a refuge in case they were
assailed. Next, the maintenance of the promises made to them must be
guaranteed by the signatures of the princes of the blood and all the chief
nobles, by governors, by lieutenants-general, and by the gentry of the
provinces, as well as by the chief inhabitants of the towns. Hostages must
be interchanged. While the last and most remarkable proposal of all was,
"that his Majesty, on his part, and the Huguenots, on theirs, should place
a large sum of money in the hands of some German prince, who should
promise to employ it in levying and paying a body of reiters to be used
against that party which should violate the peace." All this was to be
registered in the various parliaments and in the inferior courts of the
bailiwicks and senechaussees. The king was further requested to call the
States General within three months, to give the royal edict of
pacification their formal sanction.[1369]

We need not be surprised that a conference to which the two parties
brought views so diametrically opposed, should have proved utterly
abortive.

[Sidenote: The "Politiques" make an unsuccessful rising.]

It scarcely falls within the province of this history to narrate in detail
the unsuccessful attempt of the Malcontents, made some weeks before the
negotiations just described, to overthrow the government, whose bad
counsels were believed to be the cause of the misery under which France
was groaning; for the alliance between the Malcontents and the Huguenots
was only fortuitous and partial. A few words of explanation, however, seem
to be necessary. The plan contemplated a simultaneous uprising on the
tenth of March. The day had been selected by La Noue himself, who rightly
judged that the license and uproar indulged in by the populace up to a
late hour in the night of "Mardi Gras" (Shrove Tuesday) would greatly
facilitate the military undertaking.[1370] Alencon and the King of
Navarre, who, since the massacre immediately succeeding his nuptials, had
found himself less a guest than a captive at court, were to flee secretly
to Sedan, where they would find safety under the protection of the Duc de
Bouillon. For the influence of this great nobleman, together with the
still more powerful support of the Montmorency family, was given to the
projected movement. But the timidity and vacillation of Alencon frustrated
the well-conceived design. Ten days or a fo