and Denmark was still
more uneasy. Montluc had discovered how every party had its vulnerable
point, by which it could be managed. The cards had now got fairly
shuffled, and he depended on his usual good play.

Our bishop got hold of a palatine to write for the French cause in the
vernacular tongue; and appears to have held a more mysterious
intercourse with another palatine, Albert Lasky. Mutual accusations were
made in the open diet: the Poles accused some Lithuanian lords of
having contracted certain engagements with the czar; these in return
accused the Poles, and particularly this Lasky, with being corrupted by
the gold of France. Another circumstance afterwards arose; the Spanish
ambassador had forty thousand _thalers_ sent to him, but which never
passed the frontiers, as this fresh supply arrived too late for the
election. "I believe," writes our secretary with great simplicity, "that
this money was only designed to distribute among the trumpeters and the
tabourines." The usual expedient in contested elections was now
evidently introduced; our secretary acknowledging that Montluc daily
acquired new supporters, because he did not attempt to gain them over
_merely by promises_--resting his whole cause on this argument, that the
interest of the nation was concerned in the French election.

Still would ill fortune cross our crafty politician when everything was
proceeding smoothly. The massacre was refreshed with more damning
particulars; some letters were forged, and others were but too true; all
parties, with rival intrepidity, were carrying on a complete scene of
deception. A rumour spread that the French king disavowed his accredited
agent, and apologised to the emperor for having yielded to the
importunities of a political speculator, whom he was now resolved to
recall. This somewhat paralysed the exertions of those palatines who had
involved themselves in the intrigues of Montluc, who was now forced
patiently to wait for the arrival of a courier with renewed testimonials
of his diplomatic character from the French court. A great odium was
cast on the French in the course of this negotiation by a distribution
of prints, which exposed the most inventive cruelties practised by the
Catholics on the Reformed; such as women cleaved in half in the act of
attempting to snatch their children from their butchers; while Charles
the Ninth and the Duke of Anjou were hideously represented in their
persons, and as spectators