Mantes," etc.

This declaration threw the League into confusion, and filled the hearts
of the people and the Catholics of the royal party with joy. The
Protestants, although they had expected it, discovered their discontent
by signs and low murmurs, and did, for form's sake, all that such a
juncture required of them, but they did not go beyond the bounds of
obedience. All the ecclesiastics, with Du Perron, intoxicated with his
triumph, at their head, flocked together; everyone was desirous of a
share in this work. Du Perron, for whom I had obtained the bishopric of
Evreux, thought he could not show his gratitude for it in a better manner
than by exercising his functions of converter upon me. He accosted me
with the air of a conqueror, and proposed to me to be present at a
ceremony where he flattered himself he should shine with such powers of
reasoning as would dissipate the profoundest darkness. "Sir," I replied,
"all I have to do by being present at your disputes is to examine which
side produces the strongest and most effectual arguments. The state of
affairs, your number and your riches, require that yours should prevail."
In effect they did. There was a numerous court at St. Denis, and all was
conducted with great pomp and splendor. I may be excused from dwelling
upon the description of this ceremony here, since the Catholic historians
have been so prolix upon the subject.

I did not imagine I could be of any use at this time, therefore kept
myself retired, as one who had no interest in the show that was
preparing, when I was visited by Du Perron, whom the Cardinal of Bourbon
had sent to me to decide a dispute that had arisen on occasion of the
terms in which the King's profession of faith should be conceived. The
Catholic priests and doctors loaded it with all the trifles their heads
were filled with, and were going to make it ridiculous, instead of a
grave and solemn composition. The Protestant ministers, and the King
himself, disapproved of the puerilities and trifles with which they had
stuffed this instrument; and it occasioned debates which had like to have
thrown everything again into confusion. I went immediately with Du Perron
to the Cardinal of Bourbon, with whom it was agreed that those articles
of faith which were disputed by the two churches should be admitted, but
that all the rest should be suppressed as useless. The parties approved
of this regulation; and the instrument was drawn up in such a man