individual so greatly his inferior in birth, he
preferred retiring for a time to Italy, should his Majesty graciously
accord him permission to absent himself. Louis required no entreaties to
concede this favour to his arrogant kinsman; and, accordingly, to the
undisguised satisfaction of the harassed army, the Prince departed for
Rome; the Duc de Lesdiguieres replaced him in his command; and, finally,
the King having acceded to the conditions demanded by the citizens of
the beleaguered town, they consented to receive him within their walls,
provided that at his departure he withdrew the whole of his troops.

All the terms of the treaty were observed save this last demand. An
edict of pacification was duly signed and registered; and Louis, in the
month of November, quitted Montpellier with the bulk of his army, but
left two regiments in garrison within the very heart of the city. The
Protestants were, however, too weary of warfare, and too much exhausted
by suffering, to resent this infraction of their rights; and they
consequently saw the King set forth for Lyons without expostulation or
remonstrance.[76] Had they been enabled to make a final effort, it is
probable that they might have imposed still more favourable conditions,
as after the departure of Conde Louis relapsed into his usual
helplessness; for although perfectly competent to direct the manoeuvres
of a body of troops on a review-ground, he was totally unequal to the
command of an army; and with the littleness of a narrow mind, he was at
the same time jealous of his generals; neither was he able to comprehend
either the precise political position of his own kingdom, or that of
Europe; and thus, although he assumed an appearance of authority, so
soon as the controlling influence of the paramount favourite was
withdrawn, his powers were paralyzed, and he no longer possessed any
defined principle of action.

The entry of the King at Lyons was celebrated with the utmost
magnificence. Had he achieved the conquest of half Europe he could not
have been greeted with more enthusiasm than awaited him on this
occasion, when his hand still reeked with the blood of hundreds of his
own subjects, and the shrieks of injured women and slaughtered children
were still appealing to Heaven for vengeance. Triumphal arches,
ecclesiastical and municipal processions, salvos of artillery,
flourishes of trumpets, all the pomp and circumstance of war blent with
the splendour of triumph,