of Protestantism gained
ground almost immediately. Within about a month after the queen mother and
her daughter had ended their interview, the English ambassador wrote to
Leicester and Cecil that "they of the religion think that there has been
at this meeting at Bayonne some complot betwixt the Pope, the King of
Spain, and the Scottish queen, by their ambassadors, and some say also the
Papists of England."[367]

[Sidenote: No plan of massacre agreed upon.]

Fortunately, however, we are not left to frame by uncertain conjecture a
doubtful story of the transactions of this famous interview. The
correspondence of the Duke of Alva himself with Philip the Second has been
preserved among the manuscripts of Simancas, to dispel many inveterate
misapprehensions. These letters not only prove that no plan for a massacre
of the Huguenots was agreed upon by the two parties, but that Alva did
not even distinctly declare himself in favor of such a plan. They furnish,
however, an instructive view, such as can but rarely be so well obtained,
of the net of treacherous intrigue which the fingers of Philip and his
agents were for many years busy day and night in cautiously spreading
around the throne of France.

[Sidenote: June 14th.]

[Sidenote: June 15th.]

On Thursday, the fourteenth of June, the young Spanish queen, with her
brilliant train of attendant grandees, crossed the narrow stream forming
the dividing line between the two kingdoms, and was conducted by her
mother, her brothers and sister, and a crowd of gallant French nobles, to
the neighboring town of Saint Jean de Luz. On Friday, Catharine and
Charles rode forward to make their solemn entry into Bayonne, where they
were to await their guests' arrival. Before they started, Alva had already
been at work complimenting such good Catholics as the constable, Cardinal
Bourbon, and Prince La Roche-sur-Yon, flattering Cardinal Guise (his
brother of Lorraine was absent from court, not yet being fully reinstated
in favor), the Duke of Montpensier, and vain old Blaise de Montluc. Nor
were his blandishments thrown away. Poor weak Guise--the "cardinal des
bouteilles" he was called, from the greater acquaintance he had with the
wine and good living than with religious or political affairs[368]--was
overcome with emotion and gratitude, and begged Alva to implore the
Catholic king, by the love of God, to look in pity upon an unhappy
kingdom, where religion was fast going to ruin. Montpe