eace and your Majesty's service." Catherine proposed
to him an interview. Henry hesitated to comply. From Jarnac, where he
was, he sent Viscount de Turenne to Catherine to make an agreement with
her for a few days' truce. "Catherine gave Turenne to understand that,
in order to have peace, the King of Navarre must turn Catholic, and put a
stop to the exercise of the Reformed religion in the towns he held."
When this was reported by his envoy, Henry, who had set out for the
interview, was on the point of retracing his steps; he went on, however,
as he was curious to see Catherine, to satisfy his mind upon the point
and to answer her." They met on the 14th of December, 1586, at the
castle of St. Brice, near Cognac, both of them with gloomy looks.
Catherine asked Henry whether Turenne had spoken to him about what, she
said, was her son's most express desire.

"I am astounded," said Henry, "that your Majesty should have taken so
much pains to tell me what my ears are split with hearing; and likewise
that you, whose judgment is so sound, should delude yourself with the
idea of solving the difficulty by means of the difficulty itself. You
propose to me a thing that I cannot do without forfeiture of conscience
and honor, and without injury to the king's service. I should not carry
with me all those of the religion; and they of the League would be so
much the more irritated in that they would lose their hope of depriving
me of the right which I have to the throne. They do not want me with
you, madame, for they would then be in sorry plight, you better served,
and all your good subjects more happy." The queen-mother did not dispute
the point. She dwelt "upon the inconveniences Henry suffered during the
war." "I bear them patiently, madame," said Henry, "since you burden me
with them in order to unburden yourself of them." She reproached him
with not doing as he pleased in Rochelle. "Pardon me, madame," said he,
"I please only as I ought." The Duke of Nevers, who was present at the
interview, was bold enough to tell him that he could not impose a tax
upon Rochelle. "That is true," said Henry: "and so we have no Italian
amongst us." He took leave of the queen-mother, who repeated what she
had said to Viscount de Turenne, "charging him to make it known to the
noblesse who were of his following." "It is just eighteen months,
madame," said he, "since I ceased to obey the king. He has made war upon
me like a wolf, you