unishment, and never are so effectually suppressed as by being totally
neglected. After the parliament had granted the queen a supply of one
subsidy and two fifteenths, the session was finished by a prorogation.
The convocation likewise voted the queen a subsidy of six shillings in
the pound, payable in three years.

While the English parties exerted these calm efforts against each other
in parliamentary votes and debates, the French factions, inflamed to
the highest degree of animosity, continued that cruel war which their
intemperate zeal, actuated by the ambition of their leaders, had kindled
in the kingdom. The admiral was successful in reducing the towns of
Normandy which held for the king; but he frequently complained that
the numerous garrison of Havre remained totally inactive, and was not
employed in any military operation against the common enemy. The queen,
in taking possession of that place, had published a manifesto,[*] in
which she pretended that her concern for the interests of the French
king had engaged her in that measure, and that her sole intention was
to oppose her enemies of the house of Guise, who held their prince in
captivity, and employed his power to the destruction of his best
and most faithful subjects. It was chiefly her desire to preserve
appearances, joined to the great frugality of her temper, which made her
at this critical juncture keep her soldiers in garrison, and restrain
them from committing further hostilities upon the enemy.[**]

* Forbes, vol. ii.

** Forbes, vol. ii. p. 276, 277.

The duke of Guise, meanwhile, was aiming a mortal blow at the power of
the Hugonots; and had commenced the siege of Orleans, of which Andelot
was governor, and where the constable was detained prisoner. He had the
prospect of speedy success in this undertaking; when he was assassinated
by Poltrot, a young gentleman whose zeal, instigated (as is pretended,
though without any certain foundation) by the admiral, and Beza, a
famous preacher, led him to attempt that criminal enterprise. The death
of this gallant prince was a sensible loss to the Catholic party;
and though the cardinal of Lorraine, his brother, still supported the
interests of the family, the danger of their progress appeared not so
imminent either to Elizabeth or to the French Protestants. The union,
therefore, between these allies, which had been cemented by their common
fears, began thenceforth to be less intimate; and the l