e Paris by one
gate at the same moment that the triumvirs should leave by another.
Indeed, without waiting to obtain their promise, he retired[57] with his
body of Protestant noblesse to Meaux, where he had given a rendezvous to
Admiral Coligny and others whom he had summoned from their homes. This
step has generally been stigmatized as the first of Conde's egregious
mistakes. Beza opposed it at the time, and likened the error to that of
Pompey in abandoning Rome;[58] and the "History of the Reformed Churches"
has perpetuated the comparison.[59] The same historical parallel was drawn
by Etienne Pasquier.[60] But the judicious Francois de la Noue, surnamed
_Bras-de-Fer_, thought very differently; and we must here, as in many
other instances, prefer the opinion of the practical soldier to that of
the eminent theologian or the learned jurist. Parliament, the clergy, the
municipal government, the greater part of the university, and almost all
the low populace, with the partisans and servants of the hostile princes
and noblemen, were intensely Roman Catholic.[61] The three hundred
resident Protestant gentlemen, with, as many more experienced soldiers,
four hundred students, and a few untrained burgesses, were "but as a fly
matched with an elephant." The novices of the convents and the priests'
chambermaids, armed only with sticks, could have held them in check.[62]
It were better to lose the advantages of the capital than to be
overwhelmed within its walls by superior forces, being completely cut off
from that part of France where the main strength of the Protestants lay.

[Sidenote: The Huguenot summons.]

From Meaux messengers were sent to the Protestant churches in all parts of
France to request their aid, both in money and in men. "Since," said the
letter they bore, "God has brought us to such a point that no one can
disturb our repose without violating the protection it has pleased our
king to accord us, and consequently without declaring himself an enemy of
his Majesty and of this kingdom's peace, there is no law, divine or human,
that does not permit us to take measures for defence, calling for help on
those whom God has given the authority and the will to remedy these
evils."[63]

[Sidenote: Admiral Coligny's reluctance.]

Happily for the Huguenot cause, however, the nobles and gentry that
favored it had not waited to receive this summons, but had, many of them,
already set out to strengthen the forces of the prin