guenots responsible, was repugnant alike to his pride and to his
exorbitant avarice. His prejudices were, moreover, skilfully fanned into
a flame by interested companions. His wife, Madeleine de Savoie--partly
from conviction, partly through jealousy of his children by a former
marriage--her brother, the Count of Villars,[1018] and the Marshal of
St. Andre--a crafty, insidious adviser--plied him with plausible
arguments. Diana, the Duchess of Valentinois, solicited him by daily
messages. How could the first Christian baron abandon the ancient faith?
How could the favorite of Henry the Second consent to let his rich
acquisitions escape him?[1019]

[Sidenote: Marshal Montmorency remonstrates.]

On one occasion the constable was himself induced to attend the service
in the castle at which Bishop Montluc preached; but he came out highly
displeased at the doctrines he had heard,[1020] and more convinced than
ever that there was a secret compact between Catharine de' Medici and
the King of Navarre to change the religion of the country. The next day
a number of high nobles, in part ancient enemies--Montmorency, Guise,
Montpensier, St. Andre--met in the obscure chapel of the "basse-court,"
where a Dominican monk held forth to the common retainers of the royal
court. The constable's eldest son, the upright but sluggish Marshal de
Montmorency, himself having a secret leaning for the reformed doctrines,
was alarmed by this threatening demonstration, and immediately sought,
in a private interview with his father, to deter him from entering the
arena as the ally of his former antagonists and the opponent of his own
nephews, Coligny and D'Andelot. Better, he urged, to be umpire than
participant in so ungrateful a contest. The Chatillons, of whom Anne had
said that, if they were as good Christians in deed as they were in
profession, they would exercise forgiveness toward the Guises,
themselves came to see their offended uncle, and protested that they
wished the cardinal and his brothers no evil, but desired merely to
remove their ability to do them further damage. Neither his son nor his
nephews made any impression on the obstinate disposition of the
constable. He had caught at the bait by which skilful anglers allured
him. He fancied himself the chosen champion of the church of his
fathers, now assaulted by redoubtable enemies. What a glorious prospect
lay before him if he succeeded! What a halo would surround his name, if
the splen