lcontent
Protestants continued, and became day by day more vehement; in 1596 and
1597 the assemblies of Saumur, Loudun, and Vendome became their organs of
expression; and messengers were sent with them to the camp before La
Fere, which Henry IV. was at that time besieging. He deferred his reply.
Two of the principal Protestant leaders, the Dukes of Bouillon and La
Tremoille, suddenly took extreme measures; they left the king and his
army, carrying off their troops with them, one to Auvergne and the other
to Poitou. The deputies from the assembly of Loudun started back again
at the same time, as if for the purpose of giving the word to arm in
their provinces. Du Plessis-Mornay and his wife, the most zealous of the
Protestants who were faithful at the same time to their cause and to the
king, bear witness to this threatening crisis. "The deputies," says
Madame du Mornay in her Memoires, "returned each to his own province,
with the intention of taking the cure of their evils into their own
hands, whence would infallibly have ensued trouble enough to complete the
ruin of this state had not the king, by the management of M. du Plessis,
been warned of this imminent danger, and by him persuaded to send off and
treat in good earnest with the said assembly." "These gentry, rebuffed
at court," says Du Plessis-Mornay himself in a letter to the Duke of
Bouillon, "have resolved to take the cure into their own hands; to that
end they have been authorized, and by actions which do not seem to lead
them directly thither they will find that they have passed the Rubicon
right merrily." It was as it were a new and a Protestant League just
coming to a head. Henry IV. was at that time engaged in the most
important negotiation of his reign. After a long and difficult siege he
had just retaken. Amiens. He thought it a favorable moment at which to
treat for peace with Spain, and put an end to an onerous war which he had
been for so long sustaining. He informed the Queen of England of his
intention, "begging her, if the position of her affairs did not permit
her to take part in the treaty he was meditating with Spain, to let him
know clearly what he must do to preserve amity and good understanding
between the two crowns, for he would always prefer an ally like her to
reconciled foes such as the Spaniards." He addressed the same
notification to the Dutch government. Elizabeth on one hand and the
states-general on the other tried to dis