t
kingdom. It might be questionable however whether that corpulent Duke,
who spent more time in eating than Henry IV. did in sleeping, and was
longer in reading a letter than Henry in winning a battle, were likely to
prove a very dangerous rival even with all Spain at his back--to the
lively Bearnese. But time would necessarily be consumed before the end
was reached, and time and Philip were two. Henry of Navarre and France
was ready to open his ears to instruction; but even he had declared,
several years before, that "a religion was not to be changed like a
shirt." So while the fresh garment was airing for him at Rome, and while
he was leisurely stripping off the old, he might perhaps be taken at a
disadvantage. Fanaticism on both sides, during this process of
instruction, might be roused. The Huguenots on their part might denounce
the treason of their great chief, and the Papists, on theirs, howl at the
hypocrisy of the pretended conversion. But Henry IV. had philosophically
prepared himself for the denunciations of the Protestants, while
determined to protect them against the persecutions of the Romanism to
which he meant to give his adhesion. While accepting the title of
renegade, together with an undisputed crown, he was not the man to
rekindle those fires of religious bigotry which it was his task to
quench, now that they had lighted his way to the throne. The demands of
his Catholic supporters for the exclusion from the kingdom of all
religions but their own, were steadily refused.

And thus the events of 1588 and 1589 indicated that the great game of
despotism against freedom would be played, in the coming years, upon the
soil of France. Already Elizabeth had furnished the new King with L22,000
in gold--a larger sum; as he observed, than he had ever seen before in
his life, and the States of the Netherlands had provided him with as much
more. Willoughby too, and tough Roger Williams, and Baskerville, and
Umpton, and Vere, with 4000 English pikemen at their back, had already
made a brief but spirited campaign in France; and the Duke of Parma,
after recruiting his health; so, far as it was possible; at Spa, was
preparing himself to measure swords with that great captain of Huguenots;
who now assumed the crown of his ancestors, upon the same ground. It
seemed probable that for the coming years England would be safe from
Spanish invasion, and that Holland would have a better opportunity than
it had ever enjoyed befo