that nothing would more promote her interests in that kingdom,
than the gentle treatment of men so celebrated for their zeal against
the Catholic religion, she agreed to give way to her natural temper,
which inclined not to severity, and she seemed determined to restore
them to favor.[*] In this interval, Rambouillet arrived as ambassador
from France, and brought her advice from her uncle, the cardinal of
Lorraine, to whose opinion she always paid an extreme deference, by
no means to pardon these Protestant leaders, who had been engaged in a
rebellion against her.[**]

The two religions, in France, as well as in other parts of Europe, were
rather irritated than tired with their acts of mutual violence; and
the peace granted to the Hugonots, as had been foreseen by Coligny, was
intended only to lull them asleep and prepare the way for their final
and absolute destruction. The queen regent made a pretence of travelling
through the kingdom, in order to visit the provinces, and correct all
the abuses arising from the late civil war; and after having held some
conferences on the frontiers with the duke of Lorraine and the duke of
Savoy, she came to Bayonne, where she was met by her daughter, the queen
of Spain, and the duke of Alva. Nothing appeared in the congress of
these two splendid courts, but gayety, festivity, love, and joy; but
amidst these smiling appearances were secretly fabricated schemes the
most bloody, and the most destructive to the repose of mankind, that
had ever been thought of in any age or nation. No less than a total
and universal extermination of the Protestants by fire and sword was
concerted by Philip and Catharine of Medicis; and Alva, agreeably to his
fierce and sanguinary disposition, advised the queen regent to commence
the execution of this project, by the immediate massacre of all the
leaders of the Hugonots.[***]

* Melvil, p. 59, 60, 61, 62, 63. Keith, p. 322.

** Keith p. 325. Melvil, p. 63.

*** Davila, lib iii.

But that princess, though equally hardened against every humane
sentiment, would not forego this opportunity of displaying her wit
and refined politics; and she purposed rather by treachery and
dissimulation, which she called address, to lead the Protestants into
the snare, and never to draw the sword till they were totally disabled
from resistance. The cardinal of Lorraine, whose character bore a
greater affinity to that of Alva, was a chief author of this bar