to have acquired of
tranquillity was destined to be soon destroyed.

Two powerful parties were arrayed against the Huguenots, one of which
consisted of their avowed and implacable enemies. This was headed by
the Guises, with whom the Constable Montmorenci, and the Marechal St.
Andre had been induced to enter into league. Less fanatically violent,
but far more formidable, through its false show of moderation and
favor, was the party of the Queen-mother, Catherine de Medici.
Catherine dreaded the power of the house of Guise; and was often glad
to avail herself of the Protestant interest as a counterpoise against
them. But though the jealousy which animated herself and her sons
against the Princes of Lorraine was great, their hatred of the
Huguenots was greater; and their occasional simulation of friendship
enabled them to wreak it more malignantly and more completely.

They had sided with Coligni and Conde and the other Protestant chiefs
in enacting the Edict of Pacification, and had thereby given a check
to the power of the Duke of Guise and his confederates. But when their
temporary purpose was served, the wise provisions of that edict were
set at naught; the Protestants were again exposed to outrage and
slaughter at the hands of their foes, nor could any redress be
obtained from the royal tribunals. At length occurred the massacre of
Vassi, where the armed followers of the Duke of Guise attacked a
defenceless body of Protestants, while engaged in the services of
their church, and slaughtered several hundreds of them under the eye
of Guise, if not by his orders. Reeking from this carnage, the bands
of the Lorraines entered Paris, where they were enthusiastically
received by the fanatic populace, which was devoted to the Catholic
cause.

Conde now left the capital, and summoned the Protestant nobility and
gentry to rally round him in defence of their lives and their creed.
Coligni long delayed joining him, and evinced a hesitation and a
reluctance to embark in civil war, which emphatically attest the
goodness while they in no degree detract from the greatness of his
character. His wife, who naturally thought that anxiety on her account
aided in restraining him, exhorted him in words of more than Roman
magnanimity to arm in defence of the thousand destined victims, who
looked up to him for guidance and protection. Coligni urged on her and
on the friends who thronged round him, the fearful risks of the
enterprise, and