t this crisis that Henri de
Rohan rose to eminence in the South. He was one of the most illustrious
representatives of that great race which, allied as it was to the royal
houses of Scotland, France, Savoy, and Lorraine; had taken as their
device, "Be king I cannot, prince I will not, Rohan I am."

Henri de Rohan was at this time about forty years of age, in the prime
of life. In his youth, in order to perfect his education, he had visited
England, Scotland, and Italy. In England Elizabeth had called him her
knight; in Scotland James VI had asked him to stand godfather to
his son, afterwards Charles I; in Italy he had been so deep in the
confidence of the leaders of men, and so thoroughly initiated into the
politics of the principal cities, that it was commonly said that,
after Machiavel, he was the greatest authority in these matters. He
had returned to France in the lifetime of Henry IV, and had married the
daughter of Sully, and after Henri's death had commanded the Swiss and
the Grison regiments--at the siege of Juliers. This was the man whom the
king was so imprudent as to offend by refusing him the reversion of
the office of governor of Poitou, which was then held by Sully, his
father-in-law. In order to revenge himself for the neglect he met with
at court, as he states in his Memoires with military ingenuousness, he
espoused the cause of Conde with all his heart, being also drawn in this
direction by his liking for Conde's brother and his consequent desire to
help those of Conde's religion.

From this day on street disturbances and angry disputes assumed another
aspect: they took in a larger area and were not so readily appeased. It
was no longer an isolated band of insurgents which roused a city, but
rather a conflagration which spread over the whole South, and a general
uprising which was almost a civil war.

This state of things lasted for seven or eight years, and during this
time Rohan, abandoned by Chatillon and La Force, who received as the
reward of their defection the field marshal's baton, pressed by Conde,
his old friend, and by Montmorency, his consistent rival, performed
prodigies of courage and miracles of strategy. At last, without
soldiers, without ammunition, without money, he still appeared to
Richelieu to be so redoubtable that all the conditions of surrender
he demanded were granted. The maintenance of the Edict of Nantes
was guaranteed, all the places of worship were to be restored to the