ile surrounded by his courtiers.
He treated the whole with scepticism, but expressed the pious hope, that
such a peace might be in store for the nations of Christendom. In
private he was not so temperate. But without expending his wrath in
empty menaces, he took effectual means to bring things back to their
former state,--to induce the French king to renew the treaty with
himself, and at once to begin hostilities. He knew the vacillating
temper of the monarch he had to deal with. Cardinal Caraffa was
accordingly despatched on a mission to Paris, fortified with ample
powers for the arrangement of a new treaty, and with such tempting
promises on the part of his holiness as might insure its acceptance by
the monarch and his ministers.

The French monarchy was, at that time, under the sceptre of Henry the
Second, the son of Francis the First, to whose character his own bore no
resemblance; or rather the resemblance consisted in those showy
qualities which lie too near the surface to enter into what may be
called character. He affected a chivalrous vein, excelled in the
exercises of the tourney, and indulged in vague aspirations after
military renown. In short, he fancied himself a hero, and seems to have
imposed on some of his own courtiers so far as to persuade them that he
was designed for one. But he had few of the qualities which enter into
the character of a hero. He was as far from being a hero as he was from
being a good Christian, though he thought to prove his orthodoxy by
persecuting the Protestants, who were now rising into a formidable sect
in the southern parts of his kingdom. He had little reliance on his own
resources, leading a life of easy indulgence, and trusting the direction
of his affairs to his favorites and his mistresses.

The most celebrated of these was Diana of Poictiers, created by Henry
duchess of Valentinois, who preserved her personal charms and her
influence over her royal lover to a much later period than usually
happens. The persons of his court in whom the king most confided were
the Constable Montmorency and the duke of Guise.

Anne de Montmorency, constable of France, was one of the proudest of the
French nobility,--proud alike of his great name, his rank, and his
authority with his sovereign. He had grown gray in the service of the
court, and Henry, accustomed to his society from boyhood, had learned to
lean on him for the execution of his measures. Yet his judgments, though
confiden