stant correspondence
with Prince Henry, he hastened to entreat his interest with his royal
father to avert the impending danger.

Unaware of this fact, the Marechal commenced his harangue by assuring
the English monarch of the respect and attachment felt for his person by
his own sovereign and his august mother, and their decided resolution
that the alliance with Spain should in no way interfere with the good
understanding which they were anxious to maintain with the Protestant
Princes. To this assurance James listened complacently; and encouraged
by his evident satisfaction, the envoy proceeded to inform him that he
was moreover authorized to state that the Pope had no intention of
exercising any severity against the reformed party in France, but would
confine himself to attempting their conversion by means of the pulpit
eloquence and good example of the Roman priesthood. The satisfaction of
James increased as he listened, and when he had warmly expressed his
gratification at the intelligence, Bouillon ventured to insinuate that
the Regent had been deeply wounded by the fact of his having entered
into the Protestant League of Germany; and besought him, in her name, to
be favourable to his Catholic subjects.

At this point of the discourse James cautiously replied that the League
involved no question of religion, but was purely a measure adopted for
the reciprocal security of the confederated states; and that, as
regarded the English Catholics, he would willingly permit the peaceable
exercise of their faith in his dominions, so soon as they should have
given pledges of their fidelity and obedience. Still undismayed,
Bouillon then exposed what was to himself personally the most important
feature of his mission, and urged his Britannic Majesty to express his
disapproval of the proceedings of the Assembly at Saumur, and especially
of the attitude assumed by the Duc de Rohan. Here, however, he was fated
to discover that James had not for a moment been the dupe of his
sophistical eloquence, ably as it had been exerted. A cloud gathered
upon the brow of the English monarch, and as the Marechal paused for a
reply, he was startled by the coldness and decision with which it was
delivered.

"If the Queen your mistress," said James with marked emphasis, "sees fit
to infringe the edicts accorded to the Protestants of her kingdom, I
shall not consider that the alliance into which I have entered with
France ought to prevent me fro