but for me, before the war, active and energetic men would have
exerted themselves to destroy him from the face of the earth, whom my sole
exhortation restrained."

Some of the composers of Huguenot ballads were bitter enough in their
references to Guise's death and pompous funeral; see, among others, the
songs in the Chansonnier Huguenot, pp. 253 and 257.

[250] Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., ii. 285, 286. The story is well told in
Memorials of Renee of France, 215-217. De Thou (liv. xxx.), iii. 179, has
incorrectly placed this occurrence among the events of the first months of
the war. During the second war Brantome once stopped to pay his respects
to Renee, and saw in the castle over 300 Huguenots that had fled there for
security. In a letter of May 10, 1563, Calvin speaks of her as "the
nursing mother of the poor saints driven out of their homes and knowing
not whither to go," and as having made her castle what a princess looking
only to this world would regard almost an insult to have it called--"God's
hostelry" or "hospital" (ung hostel-Dieu). God had, as it were, called
upon her by these trials to pay arrears for the timidity of her younger
days. Lettres franc., ii. 514 (Amer. trans., iv. 314).

[251] Despatch to the queen, Blois, February 26, 1562/3, Forbes, State
Papers, ii. 340. "Of the thre things that did let this realme to come to
unity and accorde," adds Smith, "I take th' one to be taken away. How th'
other two wil be now salved--th' one that the papists may relent somwhat
of their pertinacie, and the Protestants have som affiaunce or trust in
there doengs, and so th' one live with th' other in quiet, I do not yet
se."

[252] Mem. de Castelnau, liv. iv., c. xii.; Davila, bk. iii. 88; Journal
de Bruslart, Mem. de Conde, i. 124; Letter of Catharine to Gonnor, March
3d, ibid., iv. 278; Hist. eccles., ii. 200.

[253] Rascalon, Catharine's agent, proffered the dignity in a letter of
the 13th of March, and the duke declined it on the 17th of the same month.
At the same time he gave some wholesome advice respecting the observance
of the Edict, etc. Hist. eccles., ii. 165-168.

[254] "La Royne ... y a si vivement procede, que ayant ordonne que sur la
foy de l'un et de l'autre nous nous entreveorions en l'Isle aux Bouviers,
joignant presque les murs de ceste ville, dimenche dernier cela fut
execute." Conde to Sir Thomas Smith, Orleans, March 11, 1563, Forbes, ii.
355.

[255] Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., ii.