, finally, restored the security and preponderance of the
French League, whilst taking the reins once more into his own hands. But
the French League before long found itself, in its turn, placed in a
situation quite as embarrassing, if not so provocative of odium, as that
in which the Spanish League had lately been; for it had become itself the
tool of personal and unlawful ambition. The Lorraine princes, it is
true, were less foreign to France than the King of Spain was; they had
even rendered her eminent service; but they had no right to the crown.
Mayenne had opposed to him the native and lawful heir to the throne,
already recognized and invested with the kingly power by a large portion
of France, and quite capable of disputing his kingship with the ablest
competitors. By himself and with his own party alone, Mayenne was not in
a position to maintain such a struggle; in order to have any chance he
must have recourse to the prince whose partisans he had just overthrown
and chastised.

[Illustration: Charles de Lorraine, Duke of Mayenne----35]

On the 11th of November, 1591, Henry IV. had laid siege to Rouen with a
strong force, and was pushing the operations on vigorously. In order to
obtain the troops and money without which he could not relieve this
important place, the leader of the French League treated humbly with the
patron of the Spanish League. "In the conferences held at La Fere and at
Lihom-Saintot, between the 10th and the 18th of January, 1592," says M.
Poirson, "the Duke of Parma, acting for the King of Spain, and Mayenne
drew up conventions which only awaited. the ratification of Philip II.
to be converted into a treaty. Mayenne was to receive four millions of
crowns a year and a Spanish army, which together would enable him to
oppose Henry IV. He had, besides, a promise of a large establishment for
himself, his relatives, and the chiefs of his party. In exchange, he
promised, in his own name and that of the princes of his house and the
great lords of the League, that Philip II.'s daughter, the Infanta
Isabella (Clara Eugenia), should be recognized as sovereign and
proprietress of the throne of France, and that the states-general,
convoked for that purpose, should proclaim her right and confer upon her
the throne. It is true," adds M. Poirson, "that Mayenne stipulated that
the Infanta should take a husband, within the year, at the suggestion of
the councillors and great officers of the crown, t