52 EMPLOYMENT OF THE PLEBISCITE [350 



warning expressed by Sully can give little substance to the 

 claim of those who wish to present the case of Metz, Toul, 

 and Verdun, or at least of Verdun, as instances of cession 

 by consent. In fact it is quite possible to adduce reputable 

 evidence to the effect that, whatever consent was given was 

 nothing short of an acceptance of the inevitable. Le Bas, 

 for instance, describes the capture of Metz as a ruse. The 

 people of Metz were told by their bishop, Cardinal Lenon- 

 court, that the King of France was marching into Germany 

 to establish freedom and that he desired nothing but quar- 

 ters in Metz ; and so Le Bas writes, " the city having thus 

 fallen into the power of the King of France, the bourgeois 

 were forced to render to him the oath of fidelity."^* He 

 then relates how the French army passed through Luneville 

 and Sarrebourg (Saarburg), entering Alsace through Sa- 

 verne (Zabern). The King's connctahlc "presented himself 

 en effet before Strasbourg, accompanied by two hundred of 

 his bravest soldiers who passed as ambassadors curious to 

 see the city. But the inhabitants having learned in advance 

 of the coup planned against them . . . received them by 

 an artillery volley which killed ten or a dozen and forced 

 the others to flee. . . ." As related by Le Bas, "the cities 

 of Toul and Verdun were taken by ruse like Metz, and these 

 three cities have remained since then with France."^' For 

 Henry H had at first announced that he was guarding them 

 for the Empire, but after he had mastered them he declared 

 haughtily that he wished to unite them to his monarchy and 

 he recalled that the entire left side of the Rhine had formed 

 part of the Kingdom of France under the Merovingians 

 and Carlovingians."^" The emperor's attempt to reconquer 

 the lost cities miscarried through the failure of his siege of 

 Metz, on January i, 1583.^^ The Treaty of Muenster of 



''* P. Le Bas, France, Ann.-'les historiques, Paris, 1840-1843, vol. i, 

 PP- 316-320. 



'''•' The same version of the conquest of these cities is found in E. 

 Lavisse, Histoire de France, Paris, 1900-1911, vol. v, part 2, pp. 

 149-150. 



^' See note 74. 



" Ibid. 



