tharine, and asserted their rights.

Charles was a consumptive. The hemorrhages characteristic of his
disease reminded him of the torrents of blood that he had caused to
flow from his country. Broken in body and haunted by superstitious
terrors the wretched man died on May 30, 1574. [Sidenote: Henry III,
1547-89] He was succeeded by his brother, Henry III, recently elected
king of Poland, a man of good parts, interested in culture and in
study, a natural orator, not destitute of intelligence. His mother's
pet and spoiled child, brought up among the girls of the "flying
squadron," he was in a continual state of nervous and sensual
titillation that made him avid of excitement and yet unable to endure
it. A thunderstorm drove him to hide in the cellar and to tears. He
was at times overcome by fear of death and hell, and at times had
crises of religious fervour. But his life was a perpetual debauch,
ever seeking new forms of pleasure in strange ways. He would walk the
streets at night accompanied by gay young rufflers in search of
adventures. He had a passion for some handsome young men, commonly
called "the darlings," whom he kept about him dressed as women.

His reign meant a new lease of power to his mother, who worshipped him
and to whom he willingly left the arduous business of government. By
this time she was bitterly hated by the Huguenots, who paid their
compliments to her in a pamphlet entitled _A wonderful Discourse on the
Life, Deeds and Debauchery of Catharine de' Medici_, perhaps written in
part by the scholar Henry Estienne. She was accused not only of crimes
of which she was really guilty, like the massacre of St. Bartholomew,
but of having murdered {221} the dauphin Francis, her husband's elder
brother, and others who had died natural deaths, and of having
systematically depraved her children in order to keep the reins of
authority in her own hands.

Frightened by the odium in which his mother was held, Henry III thought
it wise to disavow all part or lot in St. Bartholomew and to concede to
the Huguenots liberty of worship everywhere save in Paris and in
whatever place the court might be for the moment.

So difficult was the position of the king that by this attempt to
conciliate his enemies he only alienated his friends. The bigoted
Catholics, finding the crown impotent, began to take energetic measures
to help themselves. In 1576 they formed a League to secure the benefit
of association.