of heresy. But neither Charles nor his mother, still very
much under the influence of the tolerant chancellor, was disposed to enter
upon the path of persecution marked out for them. The conference was
therefore, we are told, gracefully, but firmly declined.[333] The story
was but an idle rumor, the absurdity of which is clearly seen from this
one fact among many, that Philip had not at this time himself accepted and
published the Tridentine decrees;[334] while, from various documents that
have come down to us, it appears that Catharine de' Medici had for some
months[335] been projecting a trip that should enable her son to meet
several of the neighboring princes, for the purpose of cultivating more
friendly relations with them. From this desire, and from the wish, by
displaying the young monarch to the inhabitants of the different
provinces, to revive the loyalty of his subjects, seriously weakened
during the late civil war, apparently arose the project of that well-known
"progress" of Charles the Ninth through the greater part of France, a
progress which consumed many successive months.

[Sidenote: The "progress" of Charles IX.]

Whether the Cardinal of Lorraine had any direct part, as was commonly
reported, in bringing about the journey of the king, is uncertain. He
himself wrote to Granvelle that he had neither advocated nor opposed
it;[336] but the character of the man has been delineated to little
purpose in these pages if the reader is disposed to give any weight to his
assertion. Certain, however, it is that the Huguenots looked upon the
project with great suspicion, and that its execution was accepted as a
virtual triumph of their opponents. Conde and Coligny could see as clearly
as the cardinal the substantial advantages which a formal visit to the
elder branch of the Lorraine family might secure to the branch of the
family domiciled in France; and they could readily imagine that under
cover of this voyage might be concealed the most nefarious designs against
the peace of their co-religionists. It is not surprising that many
Huguenot nobles accepted it as a mark of the loss of favor, and that few
of them accompanied the court in its wanderings.[337] The English
ambassador, noting this important fact, made, on his own account, an
unfavorable deduction from what he saw, as to the design of the court.
"They carry the king about this country now," he observed, "mostly to see
the ruins of the churches and religious