elf and assume the conqueror's air by
putting a stop to the insurrection. He issued from his house on
horseback, unarmed, with a white wand in his hand; he rode through the
different districts, exhorting the inhabitants to keep up their
barricades, whilst remaining on the defensive and leaving him to complete
their work. He was greeted on all sides with shouts of "Hurrah! for
Guise!" "You wrong me, my friends," said he; "you should shout, 'Hurrah!
for the king!'" He had the French Guards and the Swiss set at liberty;
and they defiled before him, arms lowered and bareheaded, as before their
preserver. Next morning, May 13, he wrote to D'Entragues, governor of
Orleans, "Notify our friends to come to us in the greatest haste
possible, with horses and arms, but without baggage, which they will
easily be able to do, for I believe that the roads are open hence to you.
I have defeated the Swiss, and cut in pieces a part of the king's guards,
and I hold the Louvre invested so closely that I will render good account
of whatsoever there is in it. This is so great a victory that it will be
remembered forever." That same day, the provost of tradesmen and the
royalist sheriffs repaired to the Louvre, and told the king that, without
great and immediate concessions, they could not answer for anything; the
Louvre was not in a condition of defence; there were no troops to be
depended upon for resistance, no provisions, no munitions; the investment
was growing closer and closer every hour, and the assault might commence
at any instant. Henry III. sent his mother once more to the Duke of
Guise, and himself went out about four o'clock, dressed in a country suit
and scantily attended, as if for a walk in the Tuileries. Catherine
found the duke as inflexible as he had been the day before. He
peremptorily insisted upon all the conditions he had laid down already,
the lieutenant-generalship of the kingdom for himself, the unity of the
Catholic faith, forfeiture on the part of the King of Navarre and every
other Huguenot prince as heir to the throne, perpetual banishment of the
king's favorites, and convocation of the states-general. "The king," he
said, "purposes to destroy all the grandees of the kingdom and to harry
all those who oppose his wishes and the elevation of his minions; it is
my duty and my interest to take all the measures necessary for my own
preservation and that of the people." Catherine yielded on nearly every
point,