to be better informed than the rest was that the Cardinal of
Lorraine could make the matter agreeable to his Majesty. Others more
boldly announced the intention of the Roman Catholic party, in case
Charles should refuse to sanction its course, to send him to a monastery
for the rest of his days, and elect another king in his place. Three
months' time was all that these blatant boasters allowed for the utter
destruction of the Huguenots in France. An end would be made of them as
soon as the harvest and vintage were past.[537]

[Sidenote: Admirable organization of the Huguenots.]

If the Roman Catholics had resolved upon a renewal of the war, they
certainly had reason to desire a better combination of their forces than
they had effected in the late contest. They had been startled and amazed
at the rapidity with which, although embracing but an inconsiderable
minority of the population, the Huguenots had succeeded in massing an army
that held at bay that of the king. They admired the completeness of the
organization which enabled the Prince of Conde and the admiral to summon
the gentry of the most distant provinces, and bring them to the very
vicinity of the court before the movement was suspected even by Constable
Montmorency, who believed himself to be kept advised of the most trifling
occurrences that took place in any part of France. The triumph of the
Huguenots--for was it not a triumph which they had achieved in securing
such terms as the Edict of Longjumeau conceded?--was a disgrace to the
papists, who had not known how to use their overwhelming preponderance in
numbers. Never had a more signal example been given of the superiority of
united and zealous sympathy over discordant and soulless counsels.[538]
While their enemies, with nothing in common but their hatred of
Protestantism, were hampered by the want of concert between their leaders,
or cheated of their success by their positive jealousies and quarrels, the
Huguenots had in their common faith, in their well-ordered form of church
government, combining the advantages of great local efficiency with those
of a representative union, and in their common danger, the instruments
best adapted to secure the ends they desired. "They were so closely bound
together by this order and by these objects," wrote the Venetian
ambassador Correro, "that there resulted a concordant will and so perfect
a union that it made them prompt in rendering instant obedience and in
forming