Peace!
Blessed be they who procure it and demand it! Malediction and every
devil take all else!" In the villages they passed through, the peasantry
threw themselves upon their knees, and, with clasped hands, demanded of
them peace. The conference was in session from the 4th of May to the
11th of June, holding many discussions, always temperately and with due
regard for propriety, but without arriving at any precise solution of the
questions proposed. Clearly neither to this conference nor to the
states-general of the League was it given to put an end to this stormy
and at the same time resultless state of things; Henry IV. alone could
take the resolution and determine the issue which everybody was awaiting
with wistfulness or with dread, but without being able to accomplish it.
D'Aubigne ends his account of the conference at Suresnes with these
words: "Those who were present at it reported to the king that there were
amongst the Leaguers so many heart-burnings and so much confusion that
they were all seeking, individually if not collectively, some pretext for
surrendering to the king, and consequently, that one mass would settle it
entirely." [_Histoire Universelle,_ bk. iii. chap. xx. p. 386.]

Powers that are conscious of their opportuneness and utility do not like
to lose time, but are prompt to act. Shortly after his conversations
with Rosny, whose opinion was confirmed by that of Chancellor de Chiverny
and Count Gaspard de Schomberg, Henry IV. set to work. On the 26th of
April, 1593, he wrote to the Grand Duke of Tuscany, Ferdinand de' Medici,
that he had decided to turn Catholic "two months after that the Duke of
Mayenne should have come to an agreement with him on just and suitable
terms;" and, foreseeing the expense that would be occasioned to him by
"this great change in his affairs," he felicitated himself upon knowing
that the grand duke was disposed to second his efforts towards a levy of
four thousand Swiss, and advance a year's pay for them. On the 28th of
April, he begged the Bishop of Chartres, Nicholas de Thou, to be one of
the Catholic prelates whose instructions he would be happy to receive on
the 15th of July, and he sent the same invitation to several other
prelates. On the 16th of May, he declared to his council his resolve to
become a convert. Next day, the 17th, the Archbishop of Bourges
announced it to the conference at Suresnes. This news, everywhere spread
abroad, produced a livel