dore Beza was the preacher
on this occasion, and betrayed his own disappointment by speaking of the
liberty of religion they had received as "not so ample, peradventure, as
they would wish, yet such as they ought to thank God for." Smith to the
queen, March 31, State Paper Office.

[263] Relazione di Correro, 1569. Rel. des Amb. Ven., ii. 118-120.

[264] It appears at least as early as in Farel's Epistre a tous Seigneurs,
written in 1530, p. 166 of Fick's edition.

CHAPTER XIV.

THE PEACE OF AMBOISE, AND THE BAYONNE CONFERENCE.

[Sidenote: The restoration of Havre demanded.]

[Sidenote: Fall of Havre.]

Scarcely had the Edict of Amboise been signed when a demand was made upon
the English queen for the city of Havre, placed in her possession by the
Huguenots, as a pledge for the restoration of Calais in accordance with
the treaty of Cateau-Cambresis, and as security for the repayment of the
large sums she had advanced for the maintenance of the war. But Elizabeth
was in no favorable mood for listening to this summons. Instead of being
instructed to evacuate Havre, the Earl of Warwick was reinforced by fresh
supplies of arms and provisions, and received orders to defend to the last
extremity the only spot in France held by the queen. A formal offer made
by Conde to secure a renewal of the stipulation by which Calais was to be
given up in 1567, and to remunerate Elizabeth for her expenditures in the
cause of the French Protestants, was indignantly rejected; and both sides
prepared for open war.[265] The struggle was short and decisive. The
French were a unit on the question of a permanent occupation of their soil
by foreigners. Within the walls of Havre itself a plot was formed by the
French population to betray the city into the hands of their countrymen;
and Warwick was forced to expel the natives in order to secure the lives
of his own troops.[266] But no vigilance of the besieged could insure the
safety of a detached position on the borders of so powerful a state as
France. Elizabeth was too weak, or too penurious, to afford the recruits
that were loudly called for. And now a new and frightful auxiliary to the
French made its appearance. A contagious disease set in among the English
troops, crowded into a narrow compass and deprived of their usual
allowance of fresh meat and wholesome water. The fearful mortality
attending it soon revealed the true character of the scourge. Few of those
that fell sick re