undertake. There is not a man in this
kingdom that can command me but the king. If you attempt what you
threaten, I shall place myself first upon the breach, that I may find out
whether you will be audacious enough to kill a king's daughter. Moreover,
I am not so ill-connected, nor so little loved, but that I have the means
of making the punishment of your temerity felt by you and your offspring,
even to the very babes in the cradle." The upstart captain was not
prepared for such a reception, and, after alleging his commission as the
excuse for the insolence of his conduct, delayed an enterprise which the
wound and subsequent death of Guise entirely broke off.[250] Montargis
continued during this and the next civil wars to be a safe refuge for
thousands of distressed Protestants.

A great obstacle to the conclusion of peace was removed by Guise's death.
There was no one in the Roman Catholic camp to take his place. The
panegyric pronounced upon the duke by the English ambassador, Sir Thomas
Smith, may perhaps be esteemed somewhat extravagant, but has at least the
merit of coming from one whose sympathies were decidedly adverse to him.
"The papists have lost their greatest stay, hope, and comfort. Many
noblemen and gentlemen did follow the camp and that faction, rather for
the love of him than for any other zeal or affection. He was indeed the
best captain or general in all France, some will say in all Christendom;
for he had all the properties which belong [to], or are to be wished in a
general: a ready wit and well advised, a body to endure pains, a courage
to forsake no dangerous adventures, use and experience to conduct any
army, much courtesy in entertaining of all men, great eloquence to utter
all his mind. And he was very liberal both of money and honor to young
gentlemen, captains, and soldiers; whereby he gat so much love and
admiration amongst the nobility and the soldiers in France, that I think,
now he is gone, many gentlemen will forsake the camp; and they begin to
drop away already. Then he was so earnest and so fully persuaded in his
religion, that he thought nothing evil done that maintained that sect; and
therefore the papists again thought nothing evil bestowed upon him; all
their money and treasure of the Church, part of their lands, even the
honor of the crown of France, they could have found in their hearts to
have given him. And so all their joy, hope, and comfort one little stroke
of a pistolet hath