iament, and challenged the greater number of its members as too
partial to act as judges. In fact, it seemed impossible to secure a jury
to settle the matter in dispute. After months spent to no purpose in
wrangling, Charles determined to remove the question both from the
parliament and from the council, and on the fifth of January, 1564,
reserved for himself and his mother the duty of adjudication. At the same
time, on the ground that the importance of the case demanded the
deliberations of a prince of greater age and of more experience than he as
yet possessed, and that its discussion at present might prove prejudicial
to the tranquillity of the kingdom, he adjourned it for three full years,
or until such other time as he might hereafter find to be convenient.[289]

[Sidenote: Embarrassment of Catharine.]

The feud between the Chatillons and the Guises was not, however, the only
embarrassment which the government found itself compelled to meet.
Catharine was in equal perplexity with respect to the engagements she had
entered into with the Prince of Conde. It was part of the misfortune of
this improvident princess that each new intrigue was of such a nature as
to require a second intrigue to bolster it up. Yet she was to live long
enough to learn by bitter experience that there is a limit to the extent
to which plausible but lying words will pass current. At last the spurious
coin was to be returned discredited to her own coffers. Catharine had
enticed Conde into concluding a peace much less favorable to the
Huguenots than his comrades in arms had expected in view of the state of
the military operations and the pecuniary necessities of the court, by the
promise that he should occupy the same controlling position in the
government as his brother, the King of Navarre, held at the time of his
death. We have seen that he was so completely hoodwinked that he assured
his friends that it was of little consequence how scanty were the
concessions made in the edict. He would soon be able, by his personal
authority, to secure to "the religion" the largest guarantees. If we may
believe Catharine herself, he went so far in his enthusiastic desire for
peace as to threaten to desert the Huguenots, if they declined to embrace
the opportunity of reconciliation.[290]

[Sidenote: The majority of Charles proclaimed.]

How to get rid of the troublesome obligation she had assumed, was now the
problem; since to fulfil her promise honestly