stage in the war itself. The times called for prompt decision.
Within a few weeks three conferences were held at Valery and at Chatillon.
Ten or twelve of the most prominent Huguenot nobles assembled to discuss
with the Prince of Conde and Coligny the exigencies of the hour. Twice was
the impetuosity of the greater number restrained by the calm persuasion of
the admiral. Convinced that the sword is a fearful remedy for political
diseases--a remedy that should never be applied except in the most
desperate emergency--Coligny urged his friends to be patient, and to show
to the world that they were rather forced into war by the malice of their
enemies than drawn of their own free choice. But at the third meeting of
the chiefs, before the close of the month, they were too much excited by
the startling reports reaching them from all sides, to be controlled even
by Coligny's prudent advice. A great friend of "the religion" at court had
sent to the prince and the admiral an account of a secret meeting of the
royal council, at which the imprisonment of the former and the execution
of the latter was agreed upon. The Swiss were to be distributed in equal
detachments at Paris, Orleans, and Poitiers, and the plan already
indicated--the repeal of the Edict of Toleration and the proclamation of
another edict of opposite tenor--was at once to be carried into effect.
"Are we to wait," asked the more impetuous, "until we be bound hand and
foot and dragged to dishonorable death on Parisian scaffolds? Have we
forgotten the more than three thousand Huguenots put to violent deaths
since the peace, and the frivolous answers and treacherous delays which
have been our only satisfaction?" And when some of the leaders expressed
the opinion that delay was still preferable to a war that would certainly
expose their motives to obloquy, and entail so much unavoidable misery,
the admiral's younger brother, D'Andelot, combated with his accustomed
vehemence a caution which he regarded as pusillanimous, and pointedly
asked its advocates what all their innocence would avail them when once
they found themselves in prison and at their enemy's mercy, when they were
banished to foreign countries, or were roaming without shelter in the
forests and wilds, or were exposed to the barbarous assaults of an
infuriated populace.[430] His striking harangue carried the day. The
admiral reluctantly yielded, and it was decided to anticipate the attack
of the enemy by a bold