, 1568, State Paper Office. I
retain the quaint old English form in which Norris has couched the
marshal's speech. It is plain, in view of the perfidy proposed by Santa
Croce, even in the royal council, that Conde was not far from right in
protesting against the proposed limitation of Cardinal Chatillon's escort
to twenty horse, insisting "que la qualite de mondict sieur le Cardinal,
qui n'a acoustume de marcher par pais avecques si peu de train, ny son
eage (age) ne permectent pas maintenant de commencer." Conde to the Duke
of Anjou, Dec. 27, 1567, MS. Bibl. nat., Aumale, Prince de Conde, i. 568.

[495] The "seven viscounts"--often referred to about this period--were the
viscounts of Bourniquet, Monclar, Paulin, Caumont, Serignan, Rapin, and
Montagut, or Montaigu. They headed the Protestant gentry of the provinces
Rouergue, Quercy, etc., as far as to the foot of the Pyrenees. Mouvans
held an analogous position in Provence, Montbrun in Dauphine, and D'Acier,
younger brother of Crussol, in Languedoc. Agrippa d'Aubigne, i. 220, 221;
De Thou, iv. 33; Duc d'Aumale, Princes de Conde, i. 327. When "the
viscounts" consented, at the earnest solicitation of the second Princess
of Conde, to part with a great part of their troops, they confided them to
Mouvans, Rapin, and Poncenac.

[496] The _village_ of Cognac, or Cognat, near Gannat, in the ancient
Province of Auvergne (present Department of Allier), must not, of course,
be confounded with the important _city_ of the same name, on the river
Charente, nearly two hundred miles further west.

[497] Jean de Serres, iii. 146, 147; De Thou, iv. 48-51; Agrippa
d'Aubigne, i. 226.

[498] Opinions differed respecting the propriety of the movement.
According to La Noue, Chartres in the hands of the Huguenots would have
been a "thorn in the foot of the Parisians;" while Agrippa d'Aubigne makes
it "a city of little importance, as it was neither at a river crossing,
nor a sea-port;" "but," he adds, "in those times places were not estimated
by the standard now in vogue."

[499] "Car encore que les Catholiques estiment les Huguenots estre _gens a
feu_, si sont-il toujours mal pourveus de tels instrumens," etc. Mem. de
la Noue, c. xviii. For the siege of Chartres, besides La Noue, see Jean de
Serres, iii. 148; De Thou, iv., 51-53; Agrippa d'Aubigne, i. 229-232.

[500] "Ils eussent este par trop lourds et stupides, s'ils n'en eussent
evite la feste."

[501] "Cessons donc de nous esbahir s