Longjumeau was none the less known
as the little peace, the patched-up peace, the lame and rickety peace;
and neither they who wished for it nor they who spurned it prophesied its
long continuance.

Scarcely six months having elapsed, in August, 1568, the third religious
war broke out. The written guarantees given in the treaty of Longjumeau
for security and liberty on behalf of the Protestants were misinterpreted
or violated. Massacres and murders of Protestants became more numerous,
and were committed with more impunity than ever: in 1568 and 1569, at
Amiens, at Auxerre, at Orleans, at Rouen, at Bourges, at Troyes, and at
Blois, Protestants, at one time to the number of one hundred and forty or
one hundred and twenty, or fifty-three, or forty, and at another singly,
with just their wives and children, were massacred, burned, and hunted by
the excited populace, without any intervention on the part of the
magistrates to protect them or to punish their murderers. The
contemporary Protestant chroniclers set down at ten thousand the number
of victims who perished in the course of these six months, which were
called a time of peace: we may, with De Thou, believe this estimate to be
exaggerated; but, without doubt, the peace of Longjumeau was a lie, even
before the war began again.

During this interval Conde was living in Burgundy, at Noyers, a little
fortress he possessed through his wife, Frances of Orleans, and Coligny
was living not far from Noyers, at Tanlay, which belonged to his brother
D'Andelot. They soon discovered, both of them, not only what their party
had to suffer, but what measures were in preparation against themselves.
Agents went and sounded the depth of the moats of Noyers, so as to report
upon the means of taking the place. The queen-mother had orders given to
Gaspard de Tavannes to surround the Prince of Conde at Noyers. "The
queen is counselled by passion rather than by reason," answered the old
warrior; "I am not the sort of man to succeed in this ill-planned
enterprise of distaff and pen; if her Majesty will be pleased to declare
open war, I will show how I understand my duty." Shocked at the
dishonorable commands given him, Tavannes resolved to indirectly raise
Conde's apprehensions, in order to get him out of Burgundy, of which he,
Tavannes, held the governorship; and he sent close past the walls of
Noyers bearers of letters containing these words: "The stag is in the
toils; the hunt is r