unworthy
machinations whose execution would have wounded his soldierly pride, took
measures to warn Conde and Coligny of their danger. Unfortunately, the
story rests on no better authority than his "Memoires," written by a son
who has often shown a greater desire to vindicate his father's memory than
to maintain historical truth, and who, writing under the rule of the
Bourbons, had in this case, as in that of the pretended deliverance of
Henry of Navarre and Henry of Conde, at the great Parisian massacre four
years later, sufficient inducements for endeavoring to represent the
reigning family as indebted to his father for its preservation.[577]
Brantome is consistent with the entire mass of contemporary documents in
representing Tavannes as the author of the whole scheme; and certainly one
who was so deeply implicated in the massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day
cannot have been too humane to think of capturing, or even assassinating,
two nobles, although one of them was a prince of the blood. A more
probable story is that Tavannes was the unintentional instrument of the
disclosure, a letter of his having fallen into Huguenot hands, containing
the words: "The deer is in the net; the game is ready."[578] But, in
point of fact, the Huguenots needed no such hints. With their perfect
organization, in the face of so treacherous a foe, after so many
violations as they had of late witnessed of the royal edict, they were
already on their guard, and the hostile preparations had not escaped their
notice.

[Sidenote: Conde's last appeal to the king.]

When the news first reached him that the troops sent ostensibly to besiege
La Rochelle were recalled, Conde, alarmed by what he heard from every
quarter, had begged his mother-in-law, the Marchioness de Rothelin, to go
to the court and entreat the king, in his name, to maintain the sanctity
of his engagements, confirmed by repeated oaths. Scarcely had she
departed, however, before he received fresh and reiterated warnings that
his safety depended upon instant escape. He determined, nevertheless, to
make a last attempt to avert the horrid prospect of a war which, from the
malignant hatred exhibited by all classes of Roman Catholics, he rightly
judged would exceed the previous contests both in duration and in
destructiveness. He addressed to his young sovereign a letter explaining
the necessity of the step he was about to take, accompanied by a long
appeal, of which it would be impractic