hand, I would
cast them both into the depth of the sea, that they might not be a
hinderance to me."[23] Brave mother of Henry the Fourth! Well would it
have been, both for her son and for France, if that son had inherited more
of Jeanne d'Albret's devotion to truth, and less of his father's lewdness
and inconstancy!

[Sidenote: Immense crowds at Huguenot preaching.]

[Sidenote: The canons of Sainte Croix.]

As early as in February, Beza was of the opinion that the King of Navarre
would not suffer him to remain longer in the realm to which he himself had
invited him so earnestly only six months before. At all events, he would
be publicly dismissed by the first of May, and with him many others. With
this disquieting intelligence came also rumors of an alliance between the
enemies of the Gospel and the Spaniard, which could not be treated with
contempt as baseless fabrications.[24] But meanwhile the truth was making
daily progress. At a single gathering for prayer and preaching, but a few
days before, twenty-five thousand persons, it was computed, had been in
attendance, representing all ranks of the population, among whom were many
of the nobility.[25] In the city of Troyes, a few weeks later, eight or
nine thousand persons assembled from the neighboring country to celebrate
the Lord's Supper, and the number of communicants was so great that they
could not all partake on a single day; so the services were repeated on
the morrow.[26] Elsewhere there was equal zeal and growth. Indeed, so
rapid was the advance of Protestantism, so pressing the call for
ministers, that the large and flourishing church of Orleans, in a letter
written the last day of February, proclaimed their expectation of
establishing a theological school to supply their own wants and those of
the adjacent regions; and it is no insignificant mark of the power with
which the reformatory movement still coursed on, that the canons of the
great church of Sainte Croix had given notice of their intention to attend
the lectures that were to be delivered![27] In such an encouraging strain
did "the ministers, deacons, and elders" of the most Protestant city of
northern France write on the day before that deplorable massacre of Vassy,
which was to be the signal for an appeal from argument to arms, upon which
the newly enkindled spirit of religious inquiry was to be quenched in
partisan hatred and social confusion. Within less than two months the
tread of an armed ho