The violence of the league having constrained Henry to declare war
against the Hugonots, these religionists seemed exposed to the utmost
danger; and Elizabeth sensible of the intimate connection between her
own interests and those of that party, had supported the king of Navarre
by her negotiations in Germany, and by large sums of money, which she
remitted for levying forces in that country. This great prince, not
discouraged by the superiority of his enemies, took the field; and in
the year 1587 gained at Coutras a complete victory over the army of
the French king; but as his allies, the Germans were at the same time
discomfited by the army of the league, under the duke of Guise, his
situation, notwithstanding his victory, seemed still as desperate as
ever. The chief advantage which he reaped by this diversity of success,
arose from the dissensions which by that means took place among his
enemies. The inhabitants of Paris, intoxicated with admiration of Guise,
and strongly prejudiced against their king, whose intentions had become
suspicious to them, took to arms and obliged Henry to fly for his
safety. That prince, dissembling his resentment, entered into a
negotiation with the league; and having conferred many high offices on
Guise and his partisans, summoned an assembly of the states at Blois, on
pretence of finding expedients to support the intended war against
the Hugonots. The various scenes of perfidy and cruelty which had been
exhibited in France, had justly begotten a mutual diffidence among all
parties; yet Guise, trusting more to the timidity than honor of the
king, rashly put himself into the hands of that monarch, and expected,
by the ascendant of his own genius, to make him submit to all his
exorbitant pretensions. Henry, though of an easy disposition, not steady
to his resolutions, or even to his promises, wanted neither courage nor
capacity; and finding all his subtleties eluded by the vigor of Guise,
and even his throne exposed to the most imminent danger, he embraced
more violent counsels than were natural to him, and ordered that prince
and his brother, the cardinal of Guise, to be assassinated in his
palace.

This cruel execution, which the necessity of it alone could excuse, had
nearly proved fatal to the author, and seemed at first to plunge him
into greater dangers than those which he sought to avoid by taking
vengeance on his enemy. The partisans of the league were inflamed with
the utmost r