essed by the states, the which were
otherwise on the point of breaking up, that he promised to swear the
edict and have it sworn before entering upon consideration of any
matter."

The next day but one, in fact, on the 18th of October, at the second
session of the states-general, "the edict of July 21 was read and
published with the greatest solemnity; the king swore to maintain it in
terms calculated to dissipate all anxieties on the part of the Catholics.
The deputies swore after him. The Archbishop of Bourges delivered an
address on the sanctity of oaths, and those present began to think the
session over, when the king rose a second time to recommend the deputies
not to leave Blois before the papers were drawn up and the ordinances
made. He reminded them that at the last assembly of the states the
suggestions and counsels of the three estates had been so ill carried out
that, instead of a reformation and an establishment of good laws,
everything had been thrown into confusion. Accordingly the king added to
this suggestion a solemn oath that he would not budge from the city until
he had made an edict, sacred and inviolable. The enthusiasm of the
deputies was at its height; a rush took place to the church of St.
Sauveur to chant a Te Deum. All the princes were there to give thanks to
God. Never were king, court, and people so joyous." The Duke of Guise
wrote to the Spanish ambassador, "At length we have, in full assembly of
the states, had our edict of union solemnly sworn and established as
fundamental law of this realm, having surmounted all the difficulties and
hinderances which the king was pleased to throw in the way; I found
myself four or five times on the point of rupture: but I was verily
assisted by so many good men."

After as well as before the opening of the states-general, the friends of
the Duke of Guise were far from having, all of them, the same confidence
that he had in his position and in his success. "Stupid owl of a
Lorrainer!" said Sieur de Vins, commanding, on behalf of the League, in
Dauphiny, on reading the duke's despatches, "has he so little sense as to
believe that a king whose crown he, by dissimulating, has been wanting to
take away, is not dissimulating in turn to take away his life?" "As they
are so thick together," said M. de Vins' sister, when she knew that the
Duke of Guise was at Blois with the king, "you will hear, at the very
first opportunity, that one or the other has k