Hintery. 
— 
aved by the 
death of 
Francis. 
574 
the crime laid to his 
his cape ce. To this 
would be necessary to 
justice. On this, the King of Navarre was conducted 
to an adjoining apartment, where, however, he was al- 
lowed the liberty of conversation ; but the Prince of 
Condé was strictly confined, and with such precautions 
plein indicated that it was resolved to take away his 
ife. The Protestants immediately took the alarm ; but 
the Guises were afraid to to extremities too 
suddenly ; and the admiral, though he remained at Or- 
leans, was unmolested. His brother D’Andilot, some 
time before, icious of the treachery of the Guises, 
had withdrawn into Brittany. 
The chancellor and five judges were appointed to in- 
terrogate the Prince of Condé in prison ; but-he refused 
¢, and he offered to e 
er Francis replied, that it 
}to answer to their questions, and boldly demanded to 
be tried in the most public manner. This, he said; he 
claimed as due to his dignity and rank, not less than to 
his innocence. Catherine of Medicis, by whose advice, 
or at Jeast with whose concurrence, the king had taken 
these steps, and who, at first, with her characteristic 
duplicity, affected to deplore the violence which she 
herself consented to, soon discovered the error she 
had committed, in uniting herself too closely with the 
Princes of Lorraine, and in destroying that ce of 
parties most favourable to the success of her own in- 
trigues, and to her own views and interest: But she 
gone too far to recede; and the fate of Condé 
seemed inevitable, when he was preserved by the 
death of the king. Francis, on his return from the 
chace, was seized with a violent pain in his ear; in a 
short time an imposthume was formed, and the surgeons 
declared that nothing could save him. The Duke of 
Guise and the Cardinal of Lorraine thus beholding 
their power, in all probability, drawing to a conclusion, 
while the very same cause must preserve the life of 
their rival, hurried on the process in a most shameful 
and indecent manner, neglecting even the forms of 
justice. As the judges were entirely under their in- 
fluence, they found him guilty without the slightest he- 
sitation; and he was condemned to have his head 
struck off on a scaffold before the apartment of the 
king. 
"Before, however, the execution could take place, it 
was indispensably that the signature of the 
chancellor should be put to the order for that purpose. 
De l'Hospital was a man always averse to violent 
measures ; and in this case, as the king’s death was ex- 
pected every hour, he was reasonably afraid lest he 
should be called to account if he lent the authority of 
his official character to the execution of such an unjust 
and illegal sentence. The Guises in vain appealed to 
Francis; he was now too weak to understand what 
they wanted ; and even while they were urging him 
to issue his orders to the chancellor to affix his signa- 
ture to the warrant for their rival's death, he breathed 
his last. Thus was the Prince of Condé snatched from 
the very jaws of destruction. The character of Francis 
was not marked by any strong or discriminating fea- 
tures; nor could it i be expected, when we re- 
flect on his extreme youth—on the manner in which 
that youth had been t—and on the talents and in- 
trigues of those by w he was constantly surround- 
ed, and who, however they might differ among them- 
selves, took especial care that the king should never 
think or act for himself. His death opened up a new 
scene for intrigue and ambition ; and so eagerly were 
Catherine and the Princes of Lorraine engaged in secu. 
by the usual modes of go 
FRANCE. 
then only ten years of age. extreme youth 
son afforded Cahetine-tetctigla field for her powers of 
ambition and pt She was resolved not to com- 
mit the management of Charles to any person, but to 
wield herself the whole machine of ponent at the 
same time she was fully aware, that her power would 
nap he soaneeeeyeeeatee unless she acted on her fa- 
vourite maxim, divide and govern. After, therefore, she 
had obtained for herself the i t of to 
her son, Pen eg ay an niet cab ers of the 
i re ies in the state. The King of Navarre was 
Sian Leebeneneigenatal of the hingilan ; the sentence 
against Condé was annulled, and he was pronounced in- 
nocent ; the constable Montmorency was recalled to 
court ; and thus the princes of Lorraine, se they 
still enjoyed high offices and great power, found a coun- 
terpoise to the weight of their influence. To this e, 
Catherine gave the name of the Triumvirate. 
short time, however, she began to dread the effects of 
that which she had taken such pains to accomplish ; “* Medicis 
and her endeavours were now directed to weaken the 
force, and divide the interests of the three t parties, 
With this view, she tempted the King of Navarre, by 
the charms of one of her maids of honour, to renounce 
his claim to the regency as first prince of the blood ; and 
she deceived Coligny: by the protection she afforded to 
the doctrines and followers of Calvin. This conduct 
alarmed or disgusted the other branches of the Triumvi~ 
rate, who, in their turn, used their efforts to weaken 
and divide the party of the Queen. The King of Na-« 
varre, always vacillating and inconstant, was soon drawn 
over, by the vain promise of receiving the island of Sar- 
dinia as a compensation for his kingdom of Navarre. 
In the mean time, the States- 
1560, at Orleans ; but their labours were of no effect 
in tranquillizi 
third estate the nobility concurred in demanding 
the reform of the clergy, to whose ignorance and vice 
they ascribed not only the rapid spread of Calvinism, 
but all the evils which afflicted the nation. The cler~ 
gy, however, as might naturally be expected, proclaim 
ed their own innocence, and ascribed the growth of 
Calvinism, and the distracted state of the country, to 
the love of innovation. Catherine, always attentive to 
her own schemes, having at this time professed her de- 
sire that the Calvinists should be protected, and even 
displayed some sym of favouring their doctrine, 
p the expedient of a conference between them 
and the Catholics. The cardinal of Lorraine, filled with 
vanity, and not doubting that at this conference he 
should for ever silence the sup’ of the new doc- 
trine, willingly consented to 
fee ie. Soma ts Sar a and in in- 
creasing persecutin irit Catholics, and the 
zeal of the Calvinists, © he cardinal of Lorraine, and 
Theodore Beza, were the principal disputants. Lai- 
nez, the second general of the order of the Jesuits, and 
the principal author of their regulations, was sent by 
Pope Pius IV. to attend this conference ; but the vio- 
lence and persecuting ee which he manifested in his 
harangues, alarmed and displeast Catherine, who, at 
this time, deemed it her policy to keep her bi un- 
der the management of her ambition. In , hows 
na Conduct of 
general again met, in Meeting of 
" the States. 
the nation. At this assembly, the general. 
is scheme. In 1561, conference 
therefore, the famous conference of Paissi was held, of Paissi, 
which terminated, as might have been anticipated, in A. D. 1561. 
' 
i 
- 
mrs a, 
