t policy of the pontiff, the document, which
pretended to relieve all the queen's subjects of the obligations of their
allegiance, was committed to the charge of the Cardinal of Lorraine, to
launch at Elizabeth's devoted head whenever the convenient moment should
arrive.[774]

At Montreal, near Carcassonne, the admiral was again overtaken by a royal
messenger, who on this occasion was Biron, equally distinguished on the
field and in the council-chamber. While the Protestants replied to his
offer that with heartfelt satisfaction they greeted the king's disposition
to restore peace to France, and sent to Charles, who was then at
Chateaubriand, in Brittany, a delegation consisting of Teligny, Beauvoir
la Nocle, and La Chassetiere, they distinctly stated that no terms could
be entertained which should not include liberty of worship. For they
declared that "the deprivation of the exercise of their religion was more
insupportable to them than death itself."[775] But, in fact, the Huguenot
princes and nobles placed little reliance upon the sincerity of the court,
and had no hope of peace so long as they treated at a distance from the
capital. Accordingly, Coligny, in his march up the valley of the Rhone,
when again approached in the king's name by Biron, accompanied by Henry de
Mesmes, Sieur de Malassise, peremptorily declined to enter into a truce
which should interrupt the efficiency of his movement.[776]

[Sidenote: Better conditions proposed.]

[Sidenote: Charles and his mother for peace.]

[Sidenote: The war fruitless for its authors.]

But when at last the admiral reached the Loire, and, at La Charite and
Chatillon, was within a few hours of Paris, the attitude of the court in
relation to the peace seemed to undergo an entire change, and it became
evident that the negotiations, which had previously been employed for the
mere purpose of amusing the Huguenots, were now resorted to with the view
of ending a war already protracted far beyond expectation. Nor is it
difficult to discover some of the circumstances that tended to bring about
this radical mutation of policy.[777] The resources of the kingdom were
exhausted. It was no longer possible to furnish the ready money without
which the German and other mercenaries, of late constituting a large
portion of the royal troops, could not be induced to enter the kingdom.
The Pope and Philip were lavish of nothing beyond promises and
exhortations that above all things Charles