congratulated France on the edifying spectacle of loving accord which the
court furnished. "I have this very day," he writes, "seen the king
holding, with his left hand, the head of my lord, the prince [of Conde],
and with his right the head of my lord the Cardinal of Bourbon, and
_playfully trying to strike their foreheads together_. The Duke d'Aumale
was paying his attentions to Madame la Mareschale [de Montmorency.] ...
The Cardinal of Chatillon was not far off. In short, all, without
distinction, seemed to me to be so harmonious that I wish there may never
be greater divisions in France. It was a fine example for many persons of
lower rank," etc. Letter to M. de Gordes, MS. in Archives de Conde, Duc
d'Aumale, Princes de Conde, i. 540, Pieces inedites.

[426] Jean de Serres, iii. 128, 129. See, also, Conde's letter of Aug. 23,
1568. Ibid., iii. 201.

[427] Norris to Queen Elizabeth, Aug. 29, 1567, State Paper Office, Duc
d'Aumale, Pieces inedites, i. 559.

[428] "Sed ne frustra laborare viderentur, de Albani consilio, 'Satius
esse unicum salmonis caput, quam mille ranarum capita habere,' ineunt
rationes de intercipiendis optimatum iis, qui Religionem sequerentur,
Condaeo, Amiralio, Andelotio, Rupefocaldio aliisque primoribus viris. Ratio
videbatur praesentissima, ut a rege accerserentur, tanquam consulendi de
iis rebus quae ad regnum constituendum facerent," etc. Jean de Serres, iii.
125. It will be remembered that this volume was published the year before
the St. Bartholomew's massacre. The persons enumerated, with the exception
of those that died before 1572, were the victims of the massacre.

[429] "Ita Edicti nomen usurpabatur, dum Edictum revera pessundaretur."
Jean de Serres, iii. 60.

CHAPTER XV.

THE SECOND CIVIL WAR AND THE SHORT PEACE.

[Sidenote: Coligny's pacific counsels.]

[Sidenote: Rumors of plots to destroy the Huguenots.]

[Sidenote: D'Andelots warlike counsels prevail.]

[Sidenote: Cardinal Lorraine to be seized and King Charles liberated.]

A treacherous peace or an open war was now apparently the only alternative
offered to the Huguenots. In reality, however, they believed themselves to
be denied even the unwelcome choice between the two. The threatening
preparations made for the purpose of crushing them were indications of
coming war, if, indeed, they were not properly to be regarded, according
to the view of the great Athenian orator in a somewhat similar case, as
the first