lion and his adoption
of Protestant sentiments. All such judicial proceedings had indeed been
declared null and void by the terms of the pacification, but the
parliaments showed themselves very reluctant to regard the royal edict. In
October, 1570, Charles the Ninth happening to be a guest of Marshal
Montmorency at his palace of Ecouen, a few leagues north of Paris, sent
orders to Christopher de Thou, the first president, to wait upon him with
the parliamentary records. Aware of the king's object, De Thou, pleading
illness, sent four of his counsellors instead; but these were
ignominiously dismissed, and the presence of the chief judge was again
demanded. When De Thou at last appeared, Charles greeted him roughly.
"Here you are," he said, "and not very ill, thank God! Why do you go
counter to my edicts? I owe our cousin, Cardinal Bourbon, no thanks for
having applied for and obtained sentence against the house of Chatillon,
_which has done me so much service, and took up arms for me_." Then
calling for the records, he ordered the president to point out the
proceedings against the admiral's brother, and, on finding them, tore out
with his own hand three leaves on which they were inscribed; and on having
his attention directed by the marshal, who stood by, to other places
bearing upon the same case, he did not hesitate to tear these out
also.[798]

[Sidenote: His assurances to Walsingham.]

[Sidenote: Gracious answer to the German electors.]

To all with whom he conversed Charles avowed his steadfast purpose to
maintain the peace inviolate. He called it his own peace. He told
Walsingham, "he willed him to assure her Majesty, that the only care he
presently had was to entertain the peace, whereof the Queen of Navarre and
the princes of the religion could well be witnesses, as also generally the
whole realm."[799] And the shrewd diplomatist believed that the king spoke
the truth;[800] although, when he looked at the adverse circumstances
with which Charles was surrounded, and the vicious and irreligious
education he had received, there was room for solicitude respecting his
stability.[801] There was, indeed, much to strengthen the hands of Charles
in his new policy of toleration. On the twenty-sixth of November he
married, with great pomp and amid the display of the popular delight,
Elizabeth, daughter of the Emperor Maximilian the Second. This union, far
from imperilling the permanence of the peace in France,[802] was li