ad
written, _Opus principis otiosi_."

The Massacre of St Bartholomew, which has given an infamous immortality to
the name of Charles IX., was unquestionably the great cause of reviving
the religious wars which in the early part of his reign seemed to have
been in a great measure stilled. Mr James does not add much to the
information on the subject already furnished by the French historians, but
he sums it up in a dramatic and interesting manner.

Our space will not permit of our quoting the entire passage, and we shall
rather proceed to the period when the assassination of Henry III. opened
to the King of Navarre the throne of France. The situation of the monarch,
when this brilliant but perilous succession opened to him, is thus justly
described by Mr James:--

"The situation of Henry IV., on his accession to the throne, was
probably the most perilous in which a new monarch was ever placed.
The whole kingdom was convulsed, from end to end, by factions, the
virulence of which against each other had been nourished during many
years of civil war, and not one element of discord and confusion
seemed wanting to render the state of turbulence and anarchy which
existed of long duration. Not only the fierce and relentless spirit
of religious fanaticism, not only the grasping cupidity of selfish
and unprincipled nobles, not only the ambition of powerful and
distinguished leaders entered as ingredients into the strange mass of
contending passions which the country presented, but the long
indulgence of lawless courses, the habits of strife and bloodshed,
the want of universally recognised tribunals, the annihilation of
external commerce, and the utter destitution of financial resources
on all parts, seemed to place insurmountable obstacles in the way of
any speedy restoration of order and prosperity.

"The capital was in a state of rebellion against its legitimate
sovereign; the large towns were, in many instances, held forcibly by
the party opposed to the great majority of the inhabitants; the small
towns and villages were generally disaffected to the royal cause, or
wavering between opposite factions; and the rural districts were
divided in their affections, sometimes presenting three or four
different shades of opinion within the space of as many leagues. One
province was nearly entirely Protestant, a