o lay down their
arms. If they did so, he declared that he himself, although of a rank far
different from theirs, would consent to follow their example.[80]

[Sidenote: Stringent articles of association.]

The Huguenots had thrown off the shackles which a usurping party about the
king endeavored to fasten upon them; but they had not renounced the
restraints of law. And now, at the very commencement of a great struggle
for liberty, they entered into a solemn compact to banish licentious
excesses from their army. Protesting the purity of their motives, they
swore to strive until the king's majority to attain the objects which had
united them in a common struggle; but they promised with equal fervor to
watch over the morals of their associates, and to suffer nothing that was
contrary to God's honor or the king's edicts, to tolerate no idolatrous or
superstitious practices, no blasphemy, no uncleanness or theft, no
violation of churches by private authority. They declared their intention
and desire to hear the Word of God preached by faithful ministers in the
midst of the camps of war.[81]

[Sidenote: Huguenot nobles and cities.]

The papal party was amazed at the opposition its extreme measures had
created. In place of the timid weakling whom the triumvirate had expected,
they saw a giant spring from the ground to confront them.[82] To Orleans
flocked many of the highest nobles of the land. Besides Conde--after
Navarre and Bourbon, the prince of the blood nearest to the crown--there
were gathered to the Protestant standard the three Chatillons, Prince
Porcien, Count de la Rochefoucauld, the Sieurs de Soubise, de Mouy, de
Saint Fal, d'Esternay, Piennes, Rohan, Genlis, Grammont, Montgomery, and
others of high station and of large influence and extensive landed
possessions.[83] And, what was still more important, the capture of
Orleans was but the signal for a general movement throughout France. In a
few weeks the Huguenots, rising in their unsuspected strength, had
rendered themselves masters of cities in almost every province. Along the
Loire, Beaugency, Blois, Tours, and Angers declared for the Prince of
Conde; in Normandy, Rouen, Havre, Dieppe, and Caen; in Berry and the
neighboring provinces, Bourges, La Rochelle, Poitiers; along the Saone and
Rhone, Chalons, Macon, Lyons, Vienne, Valence, Montelimart, Tournon,
Orange; Gap and Grenoble in Dauphiny; almost the whole of the papal
"Comtat Venaissin;" the Vivarais; the Ce