ach other, following
one another closely, struck Alva as so suspicious, that he actually placed
the second messenger under arrest, and only liberated him on hearing from
his own agent on his return that the man's credentials were genuine.

[443] Alva proposed to detach 5,000 men to prevent the entrance of German
auxiliaries into France, and protect the Netherlands.

[444] Letter of Alva to Philip, Nov. 1, 1567, Gachard, Correspondance de
Philippe II., i., 593.

[445] "Que la ley salica, que dizien, es baya, y las armas la allanarian."
Ibid, i. 594.

[446] The price of wheat, Jehan de la Fosse tells us (p. 86) advanced to
fifteen francs per "septier."

[447] Journal d'un cure ligueur (J. de la Fosse), 86.

[448] In one of Charles's first despatches to the Lieutenant-Governor of
Dauphiny, wherein he bids him restrain, and, if necessary, attack any
Huguenots of the province who might undertake to come to Conde's
assistance, there occurs an expression that smacks of the murderous spirit
of St. Bartholomew's Day: "You shall cut them to pieces," he writes,
"without sparing a single person; for the more dead bodies there are, the
less enemies remain (car tant plus de mortz, moins d'ennemys!)" Charles to
Gordes, Oct. 8, 1567, MS. in Conde Archives, D'Aumale, i. 563.

[449] Davila (i. 113) makes the latter her distinct object in the
negotiations: "The queen, to protract the time till supplies of men and
other necessary provisions arrived, and to abate the fervor of the enemy,
being constrained to have recourse to her wonted arts, excellently
dissembling those so recent injuries, etc."

[450] Of course "Sieur Soulier, pretre" sees nothing but perversity in
these grounds. "Ils n'alleguerent que des raisons frivolles pour excuser
leur armement." Histoire des edits de pacification, 64.

[451] Davila is certainly incorrect in stating that the Huguenots demanded
"that the queen mother should have nothing to do in the government" (p.
113).

[452] October 7th, Soulier, Hist. des edits de pacification, 65.

[453] De Thou, iv. (liv. xlii.) 10-15; Jean de Serres, iii. 131, 132;
Davila, bk. iv. 113-115; Agrippa d'Aubigne, Hist. universelle, l. iv., c.
6, 7 (i. 211, 212); Castelnau, l. vi., c. 6.

[454] So closely was Paris invested on the north, that, although
accompanied by an escort of sixty horse, Castelnau was driven back into
the faubourgs when making an attempt by night to proceed by one of the
roads leading in this dire