ctavius fifteen centuries earlier, and which confronted
Louis Philippe three centuries later--that is to say, having been raised
to sovereign power by a party which was not in the majority, he soon
found himself obliged to separate from this party and to abjure his
religious beliefs, as others have abjured or will yet abjure their
political beliefs; consequently, just as Octavius had his Antony, and
Louis Philippe was to have his Lafayette, Henri IV was to have his
Biron. When monarchs are in this position they can no longer have a will
of their own or personal likes and dislikes; they submit to the force of
circumstances, and feel compelled to rely on the masses; no sooner are
they freed from the ban under which they laboured than they are obliged
to bring others under it.

However, before having recourse to extreme measures, Henri IV with
soldierly frankness gathered round him all those who had been his
comrades of old in war and in religion; he spread out before them a map
of France, and showed them that hardly a tenth of the immense number of
its inhabitants were Protestants, and that even that tenth was shut up
in the mountains; some in Dauphine, which had been won for them by
their three principal leaders, Baron des Adrets, Captain Montbrun,
and Lesdiguieres; others in the Cevennes, which had become Protestant
through their great preachers, Maurice Secenat and Guillaume Moget; and
the rest in the mountains of Navarre, whence he himself had come.
He recalled to them further that whenever they ventured out of
their mountains they had been beaten in every battle, at Jarnac, at
Moncontour, and at Dreux. He concluded by explaining how impossible it
was for him, such being the case, to entrust the guidance of the State
to their party; but he offered them instead three things, viz., his
purse to supply their present needs, the Edict of Nantes to assure their
future safety, and fortresses to defend themselves should this edict one
day be revoked, for with profound insight the grandfather divined the
grandson: Henri IV feared Louis XIV.

The Protestants took what they were offered, but of course like all who
accept benefits they went away filled with discontent because they had
not been given more.

Although the Protestants ever afterwards looked on Henri IV as a
renegade, his reign nevertheless was their golden age, and while it
lasted Nines was quiet; for, strange to say, the Protestants took no
revenge for St. Bartho