honorable mention of him." [_Memoires de La Noue, in the Petitot
collection,_ 1st series, t. xxxiv. p. 288.]

The negotiations were short. The war had been going on for two years.
The two parties, victorious and vanquished by turns, were both equally
sick of it. In vain did Philip II., King of Spain, offer Charles IX. an
aid of nine thousand men to continue it. In vain did Pope Pius V. write
to Catherine de' Medici, "As there can be no communion between Satan and
the children of the light, it ought to be taken for certain that there
can be no compact between Catholics and heretics, save one full of fraud
and feint." "We have beaten our enemies," says Montluc, "over and over
again; but notwithstanding that, they had so much influence in the king's
council that the decrees were always to their advantage. We won by arms,
but they won by those devils of documents." Peace was concluded at St.
Germain-en-Laye on the 8th of August, 1570, and it was more equitable and
better for the Reformers than the preceding treaties; for, besides a
pretty large extension as regarded free exercise of their worship and
their civil rights in the state, it granted "for two years, to the
princes of Navarre and Conde and twenty noblemen of the religion, who
were appointed by the king, the wardenship of the towns of La Rochelle,
Cognac, Montauban, and La Charite, whither those of the religion who
dared not return so soon to their own homes might retire." All the
members of the Parliament, all the royal and municipal officers, and the
principal inhabitants of the towns where the two religions existed were
further bound over on oath "to maintenance of the edict."

Peace was made; but it was the third in seven years, and very shortly
after each new treaty civil war had recommenced. No more was expected
from the treaty of St. Germain-en-Laye than had been effected by those of
Amboise and Longjumeau, and on both sides men sighed for something more
stable and definitive. By what means to be obtained and with what
pledges of durability? A singular fact is apparent between 1570 and
1572; there is a season, as it were, of marriages and matrimonial
rejoicings. Charles IX. went to receive at the frontier of his kingdom
his affianced bride, Archduchess Elizabeth of Austria, daughter of the
emperor, Maximilian II., who was escorted by the Archbishop of Treves,
chancellor of the empire; the nuptials were celebrated at Mezieres, on
the 26th of Nove