explanation. The designs of the latter are revealed by an
intercepted letter that fell into the hands of the Huguenots about this
time. It was written (on the ninth of August) at the little country-seat
named Madrid,[562] whose ruins are still pointed out, near the banks of
the Seine, on the edge of the Bois de Boulogne, and not far from the walls
of the city of Paris. The writer, evidently a devoted partisan of the
house of Guise, had been entrusted by the Cardinal of Lorraine[563] with a
glimpse at the designs of the party of which the latter was the declared
chief. A proclamation was soon to be made in the king's name, through
Marshal Cosse, to the Protestant nobles, assuring them of the monarch's
intention to deal kindly and peaceably with them, to preserve their
religious liberties, and to treat them as his faithful subjects; and
explaining the design of the movement which he was now setting on foot to
be merely the reduction of the inhabitants of some insolent cities (those
that, like La Rochelle, had refused to admit garrisons) to his authority.
This announcement, the cardinal proceeded to say, might disturb some good
Catholics, who would think that their labors and the dangers they had
undergone were all in vain. In reality, however, it was only intended to
secure the power in the hands of the king, and to take away from the
Protestant leaders all occasion for assembling, until, being reduced to
straits, that rabble, so hostile to the king and the kingdom, should be
wholly destroyed. Thus the very remnants would be annihilated; for the
seed would assuredly spring up again, unless the same course should be
pursued as that of which the French had resplendent examples shown them by
their neighbors.[564] Meanwhile, until these plans could be carried into
effect, as they would doubtless be within the present month, the
Protestant nobles must be carefully diverted, as some were already showing
signs of security, and others of falling into the snare prepared for them.
The cardinal, so he informed the writer, was confident, with God's favor,
of an easy and most certain victory over the enemies of the faith.[565]

[Sidenote: Isabella of France again her husband's mouthpiece.]

Such were the cardinal's intentions as expressed by himself and reported
almost word for word[566] in a letter to which I shall presently have
occasion again to direct the reader's attention. It was the policy
advocated persistently both by Pius th