able to counterbalance the
intrigues of the Catholic party, and confirm the king in his
present good intentions towards us."

"I saw him two days ago, and offered to ride in his train,"
Francois said; "but he refused, decidedly, to let me.

"'The friends who will accompany me,' he said, 'have, like myself,
well-nigh done their work. The future is for you and those who are
young. I cannot dream that the king would do wrong to invited
guests; but should aught happen, the blow shall fall upon none of
those who should be the leaders of the next generation.'"

The news of the reception of the Admiral, at Blois, was anxiously
awaited by the Huguenots of the west; and there was great joy when
they heard that he had been received most graciously by the king,
who had embraced him, and protested that he regarded it as one of
the happiest days in his life; as he saw, in his return to his
side, the end of trouble and an assurance of future tranquillity.
Even Catharine de Medici received the Admiral with warmth. The king
presented him, from his private purse, with the large sum of a
hundred thousand livres; to make good some of the great losses he
had suffered in the war. He also ordered that he should receive,
for a year, the revenues of his brother the cardinal, who had
lately died; and appointed him guardian of one of the great
estates, during the minority of its heir--a post which brought with
it considerable profits.

At Coligny's suggestion, Charles wrote to the Duke of Savoy
interceding for the Waldenses, who were being persecuted cruelly
for having assisted the Huguenots of France.

So angered were the Guises, by the favour with which the king
treated the Admiral, that they retired from court; and the king was
thus left entirely to the influence of Montmorency and Coligny. The
ambassador of Spain, who was further angered by Charles granting
interviews to Louis of Nassau, and by his holding out hopes to the
Dutch of assistance in their struggle against Alva, also left
France in deep dudgeon, and with threats of war.

The result was, naturally, to cause a better state of feeling
throughout France. Persecutions everywhere ceased; and the
Huguenots, for the first time for many years, were able to live in
peace, and without fear of their neighbours.

The negotiations for the marriage between the Prince of Navarre and
Marguerite de Valois continued. The prince was now eighteen and a
half, and the princess twenty. The ide