r should dare to violate these
regulations should be regarded as a traitor and punished as a disturber
of the public peace. "As soon as the different authorities in the state,
Marshal de Damville as well as the rest, were informed of this novelty,"
says De Thou, "they made every effort to prevent it from taking effect.
'Nothing could be of more dangerous example,' they said, 'than to suffer
the people to make treaties in this way and on their own authority,
without waiting for the consent of his Majesty or of those who
represented him in the provinces.' The folks of the Vivarais, on the
contrary, presumed to justify themselves by saying that the step they had
taken did not in any way infringe the king's authority; that it was
rather an opening given by them for securely establishing tranquillity in
the kingdom; that nothing was more advantageous or could contribute more
towards peace than to raze all those fortresses set up in the heart of
the state, which were like so many depots of revolt; that by a diminution
of the garrisons the revenues of his Majesty would be proportionately
augmented; that, at any rate, there would result this advantage, that the
lands, which formed almost the whole wealth of the kingdom, would be
cultivated, that commerce would flourish, and that the people, delivered
from fear of the many scoundrels who, found a retreat in those places,
would at last be able to draw breath after the many misfortunes they had
experienced."

It was in this condition of disorganization and red-hot anarchy that
Henry III., on his return from Poland, and after the St. Bartholomew,
found France; it was in the face of all these forces, full of life, but
scattered and excited one against another, that, with the aid of his
mother, Catherine, he had to re-establish unity in the state, the
effectiveness of the government, and the public peace. It was not a task
for which the tact of an utterly corrupted woman and an irresolute prince
sufficed. What could the artful manoeuvrings of Catherine and the
waverings of Henry III. do towards taming both Catholics and Protestants
at the same time, and obliging them to live at peace with one another,
under one equitable and effective power? Henry IV. was as yet unformed,
nor was his hour yet come for this great work. Henry III. and Catherine
de' Medici failed in it completely; their government of fifteen years
served only to make them lose their reputation for ability, and to
a