which
the triumvirs hoped to take the wind out of the confederates' sails.
Though the concession could not be accepted by the Protestants, it might
be alleged to show foreigners the unreasonableness of Conde and his
supporters. Meantime, in reply to the prince's declaration as to the
causes for which he had taken up arms, the adherents of Guise published in
their own vindication a paper, wherein they gravely asserted that, but for
the duke's timely arrival, fifteen hundred Huguenots, gathered from every
part of the kingdom, would have entered Paris, and, with the assistance of
their confederates within the walls, would have plundered the city.[128]

The month of May witnessed the dreary continuation of the same state of
things. On the first, Conde wrote to the queen mother, reiterating his
readiness to lay down the arms he had assumed in the king's defence and
her's, on the same conditions as before. On the fourth, Charles,
Catharine, and Antoine replied, refusing to dismiss the Guises or to
restore the Edict of January in reference to Paris, but, at the same time,
inviting the prince to return to court, and promising that, after he
should have submitted, and the revolted cities should have been restored
to their allegiance, the triumvirs would retire to their governments.[129]

On the same day two petitions were presented to Charles. Both were signed
by Guise, Montmorency, and Saint Andre. In the first they prayed his
Majesty to interdict the exercise of every other religion save the "holy
Apostolic and Roman," and require that all royal officers should conform
to that religion or forfeit their positions; to compel the heretics to
restore the churches which had been destroyed; to punish the sacrilegious;
to declare rebels all who persisted in retaining arms without permission
of the King of Navarre. Under these conditions they would consent, they
said, to leave France--nay, to go to the ends of the world. In the second
petition they demanded the submission of the confederates of Orleans, the
restitution of the places which had been seized, the exaction of an oath
to observe the royal edicts, both new and old, and the enforcement of the
sole command of Navarre over the French armies.[130]

[Sidenote: Conde's reply to the pretended petition.]

Conde's reply (May twentieth) was the most bitter, as well as the ablest
and most vigorous paper of the initiatory stage of the war. It well
deserves a careful examination. The