t, put himself at
the head of these troops, and prepared to invade the kingdom. The duke
of Alencon, the king of Navarre, the family of Montmorency, and many
considerable men even among the Catholics, displeased, either on a
private or public account, with the measures of the court, favored the
progress of the Hugonots; and every thing relapsed into confusion.

{1574.} The king, instead of repenting his violent counsels, which
had brought matters to such extremities, called aloud for new
violences;[***] nor could even the mortal distemper, under which he
labored, moderate the rage and animosity by which he was actuated. He
died without male issue, at the age of twenty-five years; a prince,
whose character, containing that unusual mixture of dissimulation and
ferocity, of quick resentment and unrelenting vengeance, executed the
greatest mischiefs, and threatened still worse, both to his native
country and to all Europe.

* Digges, p. 343.

** Digges, p. 335, 341.

*** Davila, lib.

Henry, duke of Anjou, who had some time before been elected king of
Poland, no sooner heard of his brother's death, than he hastened to
take possession of the throne of France; and found the kingdom not only
involved in the greatest present disorders, but exposed to infirmities
for which it was extremely difficult to provide any suitable remedy.

{1575.} The people were divided into two theological factions, furious
from their zeal, and mutually enraged from the injuries which they had
committed or suffered; and as all faith had been violated and moderation
banished, it seemed impracticable to find any terms of composition
between them. Each party had devoted itself to leaders whose commands
had more authority than the will of the sovereign; and even the
Catholics, to whom the king was attached, were entirely conducted by the
counsels of Guise and his family. The religious connections had, on both
sides, superseded the civil; or rather, (for men will always be guided
by present interest,) two empires being secretly formed in the kingdom,
every individual was engaged by new views of interest to follow those
leaders to whom, during the course of past convulsions, he had been
indebted for his honors and preferment.

Henry, observing the low condition of the crown, had laid a scheme for
restoring his own authority, by acting as umpire between the parties, by
moderating their differences, and by reducing both to a dependenc