The
capital of France constantly proclaimed loyalty to Rome by the pompous
processions which filed out of its magnificent churches and paraded the
streets to awe the mob, always swayed by the violence of fanatic
priests. The Huguenots did not attempt to capture a stronghold, where
it was boasted that "the novices of the convents and the priests'
housekeepers could have driven them out with broomsticks."

{102}

Such rude weapons would have been ineffectual in the South-East of
France, where all the most flourishing towns had embraced the reformed
religion. The majority of the Huguenots were drawn from the most
warlike, intelligent, and industrious of the population of these towns,
but princes also adopted Calvinism, and the Bourbons of Navarre made
their court a refuge for believers in the new religion.

Navarre was at this time a narrow strip of land on the French side of
the Pyrenees, but her ruler was still a sovereign monarch and owed
allegiance to no overlord. Henry, Prince of Bourbon and King of
Navarre, was born in 1555 at Bearns, in the mountains. His mother was
a Calvinist, and his early discipline was rigid. He ran barefoot with
the village lads, learnt to climb like a chamois, and knew nothing more
luxurious than the habits of a court which had become enamoured of
simplicity. He was bewildered on his introduction to the shameless,
intriguing circle of Catherine de Medici.

The Queen-Mother did not allow King Charles IX to have much share in
the government of France at that period. She had an Italian love of
dissimulation, and followed the methods of the rulers of petty Italian
states in her policy, which was to play off one rival faction against
another. Henry of Guise led the Catholic party against the Huguenots,
whose leaders were Prince Louis de Bourbon and his uncle, the noble
Admiral de Coligny. Guise was so determined to gain power that he
actually asked the help of Spain in his attempt to crush the "heretics"
of his own nation.

The Huguenots at that time had won many notable concessions from the
Crown, which increased the bitter hostility of the Catholics. The
Queen-Mother, however, {103} concealed her annoyance when she saw the
ladies of the court reading the New Testament instead of pagan poetry,
or heard their voices chanting godly psalms rather than the old
love-ballads. She did not object openly to the pious form of speech
which was known as the "language of Canaan." She was a p