the hilt of his sword with his hand, he said, " The sharp edge of this will soon cut your edict to pieces" (Smiles, llur/ueiwts, p. 48 ; comp. Davila, Ilistoire des Guerres ci- viles de France, ii, 379). This massacre was the match applied to the charge ready to explode. It was the signal to Catholic France to rise in mass against the heretics, and to Protestant France a warning for their lives. An army of Roman Catholics gathered, at the head of which w^re the duke of Guise, the constable of Montmorency, and marshal St. Andre, who seized the king and the regent under pretence of providing for their safety, proclaimed the Huguenots, who had at the same time been gathering at Orleans under Conde, reb- els, and sent an army against them. Thus began the first var of the Jlvgutnots. September 11, 15G2, the royal troops, after much bloodshed, took Rouen, and De- cember 19 a battle was fought at Dreux, in which, after a terrible struggle, the Protestants yielded. One of the leaders of the Romanists, marshal St. Andre, fell in bat- tle ; another, the constable of Jlontmorency, was made prisoner by the Huguenots, and the leader of the latter in turn fell into the hands of the Guises. An exchange of prisoners, however, was immediately effected. The duke of Guise nov/ marched against Orleans, but was assassinated in his own camp, Feb. 18, 1563, before he had been able to attack this great stronghold of the Protestants. The queen mother, realizing the loss which the Romanists, to whose side she had been forced by policy, had sustained in the death of the duke of Guise, and informed of a threatened invasion of the English on the coast of Normandy, concluded the peace of Amboise, Jlarch 19, by which the Protestants were again granted the privileges of the edict of 1562, with several addi- tions. The armies now united, and made common cause against the English. As soon, however, f.s Catharine thought herself able to dispense with the aid of the Hu- guenots, whom she both feared and hated, and on w hose destruction the Avas resolved, she again restricted the privileges conceded them in the edict of Amboise, form- ed a close alliance with Spain for the extirpation of heresy, and made attempts to secure the imprisonment, and death if possible, of Conde and of the admiral Co- ligny (q. v.). The Huguenots now became alarmed, and their leaders adopted the resolution, Sept. 29, 1567, to secure, at the castle of Morceaux, the king's person, in whose name Catharine de INIedicis was acting. The court, having received information of this decision, fled to Paris. Conde immediately followed, and, laying siege to the city, opened the sccovd var of the Ih((jU(nots. After a siege of one month, Conde and the constable Jlontmorency met for battle, November 10, 1567, at St. Denis. Here 2700 Huguenots fought against no less than 20,000 royal troops. But so well did the Huguenots maintain their ground, that the victory was undecided. The superior force of the royal troops led Conde to fall back into Lorraine, where he was re-enforced bj^ 10,COO German warriors, under prince John Casimir. Conde with these forces now threatened Paris (Feb. 1568), and Catharine, in her fright, at once offered a treaty of peace, which was contracted at Longjimieau March 27, 1568, re-estabhshing the terms of the treaty of Amboise. gen- erally knovm as the petite pair (little peace) of Long- jumcau. Notwithstanding this treaty, which both par- ties seem to have signed only because they felt midcr compulsion, Catharine continued all manner of persecu- tions against the Protestants. "The pulpits, encour- aged by the court, resounded with the horrid maxim that faith need not be kept with heretics, and that to massacre them was just, pious, and useful for salvation" (De Thou, Vie de Colirpii/, p. 350). In less than three months more than 3000 Protestants were either assassi- nated or executed. L'Hopital, the friend of peace, and the upholder cf the rights of all citizens without dis- tinction of creed, who had become obnoxious to Rome and her adherents, was dismissed or forced to resign, and (he seizure of Conde and Coligny resolved upfin. Fortunately, however, for the Protestants, some of the
HUGUENOTS
393
HUGUENOTS
I
royal officers were unwilling to be instruments in the massacre likely to ensue upon such an act, and Conde and Coligny received warning to flee for tlieir lives. Eochellc, one of the strongholds of the Protestants, which had baffled all the attacks and plans of Catha- rine, ^vas open to receive them, and thither they conse- quently directed their steps for safety, closely pursued by the roj-al blood-hunters. Measures had also been planned for entrapping the other leading Protestants, but they all failed in the execution. " The cardinal of Chatillon, an adherent to the Protestant cause, who was at his sec (Beauvais), escaped into Normandy, took tlie disguise of a sailor, and crossed over to England in a small vessel, and there became of great service to the Protestant cause by his negotiations. The queen of Navarre, warned in time by Coligny, also hastened to Eochellc with her son and daughter, contributing some money and four thousand soldiers. The chicfs-in-gen- eral took the defensive, and immediately raised levies in their different provinces. The guerrillas maintained by these persons kept the Catholic army in full employ- ment, and preserved Rochelle from a general attack till proper measures had been taken for its defence." Cath- arine, outwitted in her diabolical attempts, now resolved to cajole the Huguenots into submission, and to this end published an edict declaring the willingness of the government to protect the Protestants in future, as well as to render them justice for the past. But so com- pletely was this edict at variance with her conduct that it passed unnoticed. Enraged at this, she now promul- gated several edicts against the Protestants, revoking every edict that had ever been published in their favor, and forbade, under the penalty of death, the exercise of any other religion than the Roman Catholic. This sud- den revocation of all former edicts made her acts a pub- lic declaration that she was resolved on a war of relig- ion, and tlie Huguenots, fortified in their strongholds, and v.'ith assistance which they had obtained from Ger- many and England, now began the third rclu/ioiis trar. On March 13, 1569, the two contending armies met in battle at Jarnac, near La Rochelle, in which the Catho- lics, headed by the duke of Anjou, later Henry HI, de- feated the Protestants, making prince Conde a prisoner, whom the}' afterwards, on recognition in the camp, mur- dered in cold blood. The Protestants being thus left ■without a leader, the command was intrusted to Colig- ny. But the admiral, ever unselfish in his motives, find- ing that the army had become greatly dispirited by their recent reverses, urged Jeanne D'Albret, queen of Navarre, to give them her son as princely leader. She at once hastened to Cognac, where the army was en- camped, and presented her son, prince Henry of Beam, afterwards Henry IV, then in his IGth year, and Henr\', son of the lately fallen Conde, still younger, as the lead- ers of tlie cause, under the guidance of Coligny. Hav- ing obtained further re-enforcements from Germany, the Huguenots now laid siege to Poitiers, but on Oct. 3, 1569, were again defeated in a battle at jMoncontour. Still sustained by means from England, Switzerland, and Germany, the Huguenots Avere enabled to take Nhnes in 1569, to free prince Henry of Navarre and the eldest Henry of Conde in La Rochelle, to beat the royal army at Lu^on and Arnay-le-Duc in 1570, to besiege Paris, and, finally, to dictate (Aug. 8, 1570) the terms of the peace of St. Germain-en-Layo, by whicli they were to hold La Rochelle, La Charite. IMontauban, and Cog- nac for two years, and were guaranteed liberty of wor- ship outside of Paris, equality before the law, admission to the universities, and a general amnesty. " Under the terms of this treaty, France enjoyed a state of quiet for about two years, but it was only the quiet tliat pre- ceded the outbreak of another storm."