rds the indelible impress of veracity which following ages can never
fail to read aright. That Catharine recognized his innocence is evident
from the very act by which she endeavored to make him appear guilty. He
had begged that Poltrot might be spared till after the conclusion of
peace, that he might himself have an opportunity to vindicate his
innocence by confronting him in the presence of impartial judges. It was
Catharine's interest, she thought, to confirm her own power by attaching a
stigma to the honor of the Chatillons, and so depriving them of much of
their influence in the state.[243] Accordingly, on Thursday, the
eighteenth of March, Poltrot was put to death and his mouth sealed forever
to further explanations. _The next day the Edict of Pacification was
signed at Amboise._[244] After all, it is evident that Coligny's innocence
or guilt, in this particular instance, must be judged by his entire course
and his well-known character. If his life bears marks of perfidy and
duplicity, if the blood of the innocent can be found upon his skirts, then
must the verdict of posterity be against him. But if the careful
examination of his entire public life, as well as the history of his
private relations, reveals a character not only above reproach, but the
purest, most beneficent, and most patriotic of all that France can boast
in political stations in the sixteenth century, the confused and
contradictory allegations of an enthusiast who had not counted the cost of
his daring attempt--allegations wrung from him by threats and
torture--will not be allowed to weigh for an instant against Coligny's
simple denial.[245]

[Sidenote: Various estimates of Guise.]

Of the Duke of Guise the estimates formed by his contemporaries differed
as widely as their political and religious views. With the Abbe Bruslart
he was "the most virtuous, heroic, and magnanimous prince in Europe, who
for his courage was dreaded by all foreign nations." To the author of the
history of the reformed churches his ambition and presumption seemed to
have obscured all his virtues.[246] The Roman Catholic preachers regarded
his death as a stupendous calamity, a mystery of Divine providence, which
they could only interpret by supposing that the Almighty, jealous of the
confidence which His people reposed rather in His creature than in
Himself, had removed the Duke of Guise in order to take the cause of His
own divinity, of His spouse the Church, of the king