st eloquent preacher they had. Needless to say, Alais was situated in
the mountains, that inexhaustible source of Huguenot eloquence. At once
the controversial spirit was aroused; it did not as yet amount to war,
but still less could it be called peace: people were no longer
assassinated, but they were anathematised; the body was safe, but the
soul was consigned to damnation: the days as they passed were used by
both sides to keep their hand in, in readiness for the moment when the
massacres should again begin.

CHAPTER II

The death of Henri IV led to new conflicts, in which although at first
success was on the side of the Protestants it by degrees went over to the
Catholics; for with the accession of Louis XIII Richelieu had taken
possession of the throne: beside the king sat the cardinal; under the
purple mantle gleamed the red robe. It was at 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