rance.

"The Prince of Conde, the Admiral, his brothers, and our other
leaders may be skilful generals and brave men," the Countess de
Laville said indignantly to Francois when, with the troop, reduced
by war, fever, and hardship to one-third of its number, he had
returned to the chateau, "but they cannot have had their senses
about them, when they permitted themselves to be cozened into
laying down their arms, without receiving a single guarantee that
the terms of the treaty should be observed.

"Far better never to have taken up arms at all. The king has come
to regard us as enemies. The Catholics hate us more than ever, for
our successful resistance. Instead of being in a better position
than we were before, we shall be in a worse. We have given up all
the towns we had captured, thrown away every advantage we had
gained and, when we are again driven to take up arms, we shall be
in a worse position than before; for they no longer despise us, and
will in future be on their guard. There will be no repeating the
surprise of last September.

"I am disappointed above all in the Admiral, D'Andelot, La
Rochefoucauld, and Genlis. Conde I have never trusted as one to be
relied upon, in an extremity. He is a royal prince, has been
brought up in courts, and loves gaiety and ease; and although I say
not that he is untrue to the Huguenot cause, yet he would gladly
accommodate matters; and as we see, even in this treaty, the great
bulk of the Huguenots all over the country have been utterly
deserted, their liberty of worship denied, and their very lives are
at the mercy of the bigots.

"What do you think, Philip? Have you had enough of fighting for a
party who wilfully throw away all that they have won by their
sacrifices? Are you thinking of returning home, or will you wait
for a while, to see how matters go on?"

"I will, with your permission, wait," Philip said. "I lament this
peace, which seems to me to leave us in a worse position than
before the war; but I agree with you that it cannot last, and that
ere long the Huguenots will be driven again to take up arms.
Francois and I have become as brothers and, until the cause is
either lost or won, I would fain remain."

"That is well, Philip. I will be glad to have you with us, my
nephew. La Noue wrote to me, a month since, saying that both my son
and you had borne yourselves very gallantly; that he was well
pleased to have had you with him; and that he thought that, if
t