st was to be heard in the city which it had been hoped
would be thronged by the pious students of the gospel of peace, and
frenzied soldiers would be hurling upon the floors of Sainte Croix the
statues of the saints that had long occupied their elevated niches.

We must now turn to the events preceding the inauspicious occurrence the
fruits of which proved so disastrous to the French church and state.

[Sidenote: The Guises meet the Duke of Wuertemberg at Saverne.]

Having at length made sure of the co-operation of the King of Navarre in
the contest upon which they had now resolved with the view of preventing
the execution of the Edict of January, the Guises desired to strengthen
themselves in the direction of Germany, and secure, if not the assistance,
at least the neutrality of the Protestant princes. Could the Protestants
on the other side of the Rhine be made indifferent spectators of the
struggle, persuaded that their own creed resembled the faith of the Roman
Catholics much more than the creed of the Huguenots; could they be
convinced that the Huguenots were uneasy and rebellious radicals, whom it
were better to crush than to assist; could, consequently, the "reiters"
and "lansquenets" be kept at home--it would, thought the Guises, be easy,
with the help of the German Catholics, perhaps of Spain also, to render
complete the papal supremacy in France, and to crush Conde and the
Chatillons to the earth. Accordingly, the Guises extended to Duke
Christopher of Wuertemberg an invitation to meet them in the little town of
Saverne (or Zabern, as it was called by the Germans), in Alsace, not far
from Strasbourg.[28] The duke came as he was requested, accompanied by his
theologians, Brentius and Andreae; and the interview, beginning on the
fifteenth of February,[29] lasted four days. Four of the Guises were
present; but the conversations were chiefly with Francis, the Duke of
Guise, and Charles, the Cardinal of Lorraine; the Cardinal of Guise and
the Grand Prior of the Knights of St. John taking little or no active
part. Christopher and Francis had been comrades in arms a score of years
back, for the former had served several years, and with no little
distinction, in the French wars. This circumstance afforded an
opportunity for the display of extraordinary friendship. And what did the
brothers state, in this important consultation, respecting their own
sentiments, the opinions of the Huguenots, and the condition of France