taken away! Such a vanity God can show men's hope to
be, when it pleaseth Him."[251]

Of the four generals on the Roman Catholic side under whose auspices the
war began, three were dead and the fourth was in captivity. The treasury
was exhausted. The interest of old debts was left unpaid; new debts had
been contracted. Less than half the king's revenues were available on
account of the places which the Huguenots held or threatened. The
alienation of one hundred thousand livres of income from ecclesiastical
property had been recently ordered, greatly to the annoyance of the
clergy. The admiral's progress had of late been so rapid that but two or
three important places of lower Normandy remained in friendly hands.
After the reduction of these he would move down through Maine and Anjou
to Orleans, with a better force than had been marshalled at Dreux;[252]
the English would gain such a foothold on French soil as it would be
difficult to induce them to relinquish. And where could competent
generals be secured for the prosecution of hostilities? The post of
lieutenant-general, now vacant, had, indeed, been offered to the Duke
Christopher of Wuertemberg; but what prospect was there that a Protestant
would consent to conduct a war against Protestants?[253]

[Sidenote: Deliberations for peace.]

Catharine was urgent for an immediate conclusion of peace. For the purpose
of fixing its conditions, Conde was brought, under a strong guard, to the
camp of the army before Orleans, and, on the small "Isle aux Bouviers" in
the middle of the Loire, he and the constable, released on their honor,
held a preliminary interview on Sunday, the seventh of March, 1563.[254]
At first there seemed little prospect of harmonizing their discordant
pretensions; for, if the question of the removal of the triumvirs had lost
all its practical importance, the old bone of contention remained in the
re-establishment of the Edict of January. On this point Montmorency was
inflexible. He had been the prime instrument in expelling Protestantism
from Paris, and had distinguished himself by burning the places of
worship. It could hardly be expected that he should rebuild what he had so
laboriously torn down. And, whatever had been his first intentions, Conde
proved less tenacious than might have been anticipated from his previous
professions. The fact was, that the younger Bourbon was not proof against
the wiles employed with so much success against his elder b