e Fifth and by Philip the Second,
and embodied in counsel which would have been resented by a court
possessed of more self-respect than the French court, as impertinent
advice. For, in the report made to Catharine by one of her servants at the
Spanish capital, there is a wonderful similarity in the language employed
to that used at the conference of Bayonne. Isabella of France is again the
speaker, though much suspected of uttering rather the sentiments of
Philip, her husband, who was present,[567] than her own. Again, after
expressing the most vehement zeal for the welfare of her native country,
she advocated rigorous measures against the Huguenots, in phrases almost
identical with those which, as the Duke of Alva relates, she had addressed
to her mother three years before. "She told me among other things," says
the queen's agent, "that she would never believe that either the king her
brother, or you, will ever execute the design already entered into between
you (although, by your command, I had notified the king [Philip] and
herself of your good-will respecting this matter), until she saw it
performed; for you had often before made them the same promises, but no
result had ever followed. She feared that your Majesties might be
dissuaded from action by the smooth speeches of certain persons in your
court, until the enemy gained the opportunity of forming new designs, not
only against the king's authority, but even against yourselves. The
apprehension kept her in a constant state of alarm."[568]

[Sidenote: King Charles entreats his mother to avoid war.]

But, although Catharine had now given in her adhesion to the Spanish and
Lorraine party, the success of that party was as yet incomplete.
L'Hospital was still in the privy council, and Charles himself greatly
preferred the conciliation and peace advocated by the chancellor. The
same letter from the pleasure-palace of "Madrid," on the banks of the
Seine, whose contents have already occupied our attention, makes important
disclosures respecting the attitude of the unhappy prince, of whom it may
be questioned whether his greatest misfortune was that he had so
unprincipled a mother, or that he had not sufficient strength of will to
resist her pernicious designs. "I observed," wrote this correspondent
still further in reference to the Cardinal of Lorraine, "that he was very
much excited on account of a conversation which the king had recently had
with the queen, and which h