declaration of Calvin that it was
lawful to slay those who hindered the preaching of the gospel. Hearing
of the conspiracy, Guise and his brother were ready. They transferred
the court from Blois to Amboise, by which move they upset the plans of
the petitioners and also put the king into a more defensible castle.
Soldiers, assembled for the occasion, met the Huguenots as they
advanced in a body towards Amboise, [Sidenote: The tumult of Amboise,
March 1560] shot down La Renaudie and some others on the spot and
arrested the remaining twelve hundred, to be kept for subsequent trial
and execution. The suspicion that fastened on the prince of Conde, a
brother of the king of Navarre, was given some color by his frank
avowal of sympathy with the conspirators. Though the Guises pressed
their advantage to the utmost in forbidding all future assemblies of
heretics, the tumult of Amboise was vaguely felt, in the sultry
atmosphere of pent-up passions, to be the avant-courier of a terrific
storm.

The early death of the sickly king left the throne to his brother
Charles IX, a boy of nine. [Sidenote: Charles IX, 1560-74] As he was
a minor, the regency fell to his mother, Catharine de' Medici, who for
almost thirty years was the real ruler of France. [Sidenote: Policy of
Catharine de' Medici] Notwithstanding what Brantome calls "ung
embonpoint tres-riche," she was active of body and mind. Her large
correspondence partly reveals the secrets of her power: much tact and
infinite pains to keep in touch with as many people and as many details
of business as possible. Her want of beauty was supplied by gracious
manners and an elegant taste in art. As a connoisseur and an
indefatigable collector she gratified her love of the magnificent not
only by beautiful palaces and gorgeous clothes, but in having a store
of pictures, statues, tapestries, furniture, porcelain, silver, books,
and manuscripts.

A "politique" to her fingertips, Catharine had neither sympathy nor
patience with the fanatics who {212} would put their religion above
peace and prosperity. Surrounded by men as fierce as lions, she showed
no little of the skill and intrepidity of the tamer in keeping them,
for a time, from each others' throats. Soon after Charles ascended the
throne, she was almost hustled into domestic and foreign war by the
offer of Philip II of Spain to help her Catholic subjects against the
Huguenots without her leave. She knew if that were don