st a foe, who, they thought, could
never more become dangerous. They were surprised to hear, that this
leader had appeared, without dismay, in another quarter of the kingdom;
had encouraged the young princes, whom he governed to like constancy;
had assembled an army; had taken the field; and was even strong enough
to threaten Paris. The public finances, diminished by the continued
disorders of the kingdom, and wasted by so many fruitless military
enterprises, could no longer bear the charge of a new armament, and the
king, notwithstanding his extreme animosity against the Hugonots, was
obliged, in 1570, to conclude an accommodation with them, to grant them
a pardon for all past offences, and to renew the edicts for liberty of
conscience.

Though a pacification was seemingly concluded, the mind of Charles was
nowise reconciled to his rebellious subjects, and this accommodation,
like all the foregoing, was nothing but a snare, by which the perfidious
court had projected to destroy at once, without danger, all its
formidable enemies. As the two young princes, the admiral, and the other
leaders of the Hugonots, instructed by past experience, discovered
an extreme distrust of the king's intentions, and kept themselves in
security at a distance, all possible artifices were employed to remove
their apprehensions, and to convince them of the sincerity of the
new counsels which seemed to be embraced. The terms of the peace were
religiously observed to them; the toleration was strictly maintained;
all attempts made by the zealous Catholics to infringe it were punished
with severity; offices, and favors, and honors were bestowed on the
principal nobility among the Protestants; and the king and council every
where declared that, tired of civil disorders, and convinced of the
impossibility of forcing men's consciences, they were thenceforth
determined to allow every one the free exercise of his religion.

Among the other artifices employed to lull the Protestants into a
fatal security, Charles affected to enter into close connections with
Elizabeth; and as it seemed not the interest of France to forward the
union of the two kingdoms of Great Britain, that princess the more
easily flattered herself that the French monarch would prefer her
friendship to that of the queen of Scots. The better to deceive her,
proposals of marriage were made her with the duke of Anjou; a prince
whose youth, beauty, and reputation for valor might natural