they did not raise in him the same distrust; he knew
the King of Navarre's loyalty, and did not suspect him of aiming to
become, whilst he himself was living, King of France. Besides, he
considered the Protestants less powerful and less formidable than the
Leaguers. Henry de Guise, on the contrary, was evidently, in his eyes,
an ambitious conspirator, determined to push his own fortunes on to the
very crown of France if the chances were favorable to him, and not only
armed with all the power of Catholicism, but urged forward by the
passions of the League, perhaps further and certainly more quickly than
his own intentions travelled. Since 1584, the Leaguers had, at Paris,
acquired strong organization amongst the populace; the city had been
partitioned out into five districts under five heads, who, shortly
afterwards, added to themselves eleven others, in order that, in the
secret council of the association, each amongst the sixteen quarters of
Paris might have its representative and director. Thence the famous
Committee of Sixteen, which played so great and so formidable a part in
the history of that period. It was religious fanaticism and democratic
fanaticism closely united, and in a position to impose their wills upon
their most eminent leaders, upon the Duke of Guise himself.

In vain did Henry III. attempt to resume some sort of authority in Paris;
his government, his public and private life, and his person were daily
attacked, insulted, and menaced from the elevation of the pulpit and in
the public thoroughfares by qualified preachers or mob-orators. On the
16th of December, 1587, the Sorbonne voted, after a deliberation which,
it was said, was to be kept secret, "that the government might be taken
away from princes who were found not what they ought to be, just as the
administration of a property from a guardian open to suspicion." On the
30th of December, the king summoned to the Louvre his court of Parliament
and the faculty of theology. "I know of your precious resolution of the
16th of this month," said he to the Sorbonne; "I have been requested to
take no notice of it, seeing that it was passed after dinner. I have no
mind to avenge myself for these outrages, as I might, and as Pope Sixtus
V. did when he sent to the galleys certain Cordeliers for having dared to
slander him in their sermons. There is not one of you who has not
deserved as much, and more; but it is my good pleasure to forget all, and