nd she resented, as a want of the respect due to her,
the hint that she was more indifferent than previously. She would not fail
to do justice, she assured him. That would be difficult, rejoined Alva,
with a chancellor at the head of the judiciary who could not certainly be
expected to apply the remedy needed by the unsound condition of France.
"It is his personal enemies," promptly replied Catharine, "who, out of
hatred, accuse L'Hospital of being a bad Catholic." "Can you deny that he
is a Huguenot?" asked the Spaniard. "I do not regard him as such," calmly
answered the French queen. "Then you are the only person in the kingdom
who is of that opinion!" retorted the duke. "Even before I left France,
and during the lifetime of my father, King Henry," said Isabella,
interrupting with considerable animation, "your Majesty knows that that
was his reputation; and you may be certain that so long as he is retained
in his present office the good will always be kept in fear and in
disfavor, while the bad will find him a support and advocate in all their
evil courses. If he were to be confined for a few days only in his own
house, you would at once discover the truth of my words, so much better
would the interests of religion advance."[376] But this step Catharine was
by no means willing to take. Nor, when again pressed by Alva, who dwelt
much on the importance to Philip of knowing her intentions as to applying
herself in earnest to the good work, so as to be guided in his own
actions, would she deign to give any clearer indications. Yet she
avowed--greatly shocking the orthodox duke thereby[377]--that she
designed, instead of securing the acceptance of the decrees of Trent by
the French, to convene a council of "good prelates and wise men," to
settle a number of matters not of divine or positive prescription, which
the Fathers of Trent had left undecided. Alva expressed his extreme
astonishment, and reminded her of the Colloquy of Poissy--the source, as
he alleged, of all the present disgraceful situation of France.[378] But
Catharine threw the whole blame of the failure of that conference upon the
inordinate conceit of the Cardinal of Lorraine,[379] and persisted in the
plan. The Spaniard came to the conclusion that Catharine's only design was
to avoid having recourse to salutary rigor, and indulged in his
correspondence with his master in lugubrious vaticinations respecting the
future.[380]

[Sidenote: Catharine rejects all vi