which threatened the demolition of the power of England: few enterprises were ever more deeply weighed, few preceded by more immense preparations, and none perhaps ever attended with a more unfortunate issue. How vain and fallacious are the bestconcerted schemes of man! Thus often the Divine Providence, in the wisdom of his impenetrable decrees, has determined the fate of an enterprise quite contrary to the presumptuous expectations of human foresight."*

Philip, who had always several projects on foot at the same time, (and perhaps this was the greatest error of his policy,) was meditating at once the invasion and conquest of England, the reduction of the Netherlands, and the dismemberment of the kingdom of France. We have seen the issue of the first of these projects the second, though not equally disastrous, fell equally short of its aim; and in the last, he did no more than foment disturbances which civil discord had already excited, and which in the end procured to him no advantage whatever. Every prospect of his ambition in France was demolished by a single stroke, the conversion of Henry IV. to the catholic religion. The character of Philip II. was that of a turbulent and most ambitious spirit his was a crafty system of policy, in which there was nothing either great or generous. He was a man fitted to harass and embroil Europe, without that soundness of judgment even to turn the distresses which he occasioned to his substantial advantage. In his own kingdoms he was a cruel, a gloomy, and an inhuman tyrant; in his family, a harsh and suspicious master, a barbarous husband, and an unnatural father. In the last of these characters, he signalized himself by the murder of his queen and of his son, the unfortunate Don Carlos, whose fate, according to the common accounts, is so extraordinary as to wear the air of a romance, though the truth of the principal facts has never been disputed. There is nothing improbable in the circumstance that this unfortunate prince should conceive an involuntary passion for his motherin-law, a beautiful princess of equal age with himself, or that she, who could have no affection for a husband of Philip's disposition, should feel a similar attachment. Popular belief does justice to these ill-fated lovers in denying that they ever had a more guilty connection. A disappointed female favorite, for whom Carlos had formerly professed a partial affection, is said, from jealousy and revenge, to have discovered to Philip their correspondence. He seized on the prince's papers, among which, it is said, were found some passionate letters from the queen, as well as a treasonable correspondence with the stadtholder to dethrone his father. As these transactions were veiled in the most profound secrecy, which none of the Spanish historians have ever attempted to penetrate, it is not known whether Don Carlos underwent a trial for his

* Bentivoglio Guerra di Fiandra, lib. iv.

crimes, or was put to death by the royal mandate alone. It is said that he had the choice of his death, and that his veins being opened, he died in the bath, while he held in his hand the picture of his mother-in-law Elizabeth. This unhappy princess, then with child by her husband, to whose bed she had never been unfaithful, was soon after poisoned in a medicine which she took by the command of the tyrant himself. These atrocious facts have never, it is true, been verified by authentic evidence; but it is equally true, that these accusations were brought against Philip by the prince of Orange in the face of all Europe, and that they were never refuted.

STATE OF FRANCE

CHAPTER XXVII.

IN THE END OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY: - Religious Contentions-Conspiracy of Amboise-Death of Francis II-Charles IX.-Massacre of St. Bartholomew-Henry III.-League of Peronne-Assassination of Henry III.-Henry of Navarre abjures the Protestant Faith, and is crowned in 1594-State of France-Character of Henry IV.-His Assassi nation in 1610.

WHILE the Spanish monarchy was possessed of so high a degree of power under Philip II. as to alarm all Europe, France was in a declining situation, divided into factions, embroiled with civil wars, and torn to pieces both by its own subjects and the ambitious designs of its neighbors. These distresses arose from religious differences, from the want of good laws, and the maladministration of its sovereigns.

The doctrine of the reformed religion had made considerable progress in some of the provinces of France, and the persecution of the Calvinists had contributed greatly to the propagation of their opinions. The reign of Henry II., and the jealousy of his catholic clergy, had raised such a spirit of persecution, as to drive those unhappy men who would otherwise have been good subjects into an open rebellion.

The death of Henry II., and the accession of Francis II., was the era of those civil commotions which embroiled France for above thirty years, and brought that kingdom to the brink of ruin. The princes of Lorraine, or the family of the Guises, had established themselves in high credit during the two preceding reigns

See Apology or Defence of the Prince of Orange against the Proscription of the King of Spain.

at the court of France. In the reign of Henry II., they had brought about the marriage of the Dauphin, now Francis II., with their niece, Mary queen of Scots, whose mother was a daughter of the duke of Guise. This match gave them such an ascendency over the young Francis, that, in fact, they ruled the kingdom. In this character it may be supposed they had powerful enemies. The two first princes of the blood, Antony of Bourbon, king of Navarre, and his brother Louis, prince of Condé, together with the constable Montmorency, were possessed of a similar ambition to that of the Guises; they were mortified by their arrogance, and were, therefore, their determined enemies. The Guises were zealots in point of religion, and intolerant catholics: the opposite party favored the doctrines of the Reformation, which had now made considerable progress among the French. Ambition, therefore, and religion coöperating together, set the whole kingdom in a flame. A conspiracy was formed by the Huguenots, at the head of whom was the prince of Condé, with the determined purpose of wresting the government out of the hands of the duke of Guise and his family. The Huguenot conspirators agreed to meet upon a certain day at the town of Amboise, and to open the enterprise by the massacre of the Guises, and by seizing the person of the king. It was discovered by one of the conspirators almost at the moment of its execution. Fifteen thousand troops, which the duke of Guise found means to assemble, cut to pieces the forces of the conspirators as they came in detached parties to the place of rendezvous: many of them sacrificed their lives with the most desperate courage; the rest were taken and executed on scaffolds and gibbets.

The tyranny of the Guises, which increased from the demolition of this conspiracy, procured them more enemies than ever; yet so formidable was their power, that for some time it repressed all opposition. The party of the prince of Condé and the Huguenots were forced to dissemble their mortification, and to affect a placid acquiescence in the government of the Guises. The prince of Condé had the imprudence to come to court; he was immediately seized by order of the duke of Guise, brought to trial for his concern in the conspiracy of Amboise, and condemned to be beheaded. His life, however, was saved by the death of the young monarch, Francis II., and the consequent disturbances in the kingdom. Charles IX., (the brother of Francis,) then a boy of ten years of age, was committed to the guardianship of the queenmother, Catharine de Medicis, on whom the states conferred, likewise, the administration of the kingdom. The court was a scene of faction and division, as well as the kingdom: the queen was equally afraid of the power of the Guises and the Condés ; she was, therefore, obliged to negotiate between the protestants and catholics, and for that purpose appointed a solemn conference at Poissy, to debate on the articles of religion. The pope sent

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thither his legate to maintain his interest, or rather to crush all disputes, by declaring the assembly illegal as not convened by himself. His remonstrance, however, was disregarded, the conference was held, and the issue was an edict of pacification, by which the protestants were permitted the exercise of their religion through all France, without the walls of the towns. The consequence of this edict was a civil war. The duke of Guise, the head of the catholic party, met with a few protestants upon the borders of Champagne, who, under the sanction of the edict, were assembled in a barn for the purpose of devotion. His servants broke up the meeting, killed about sixty men, and dispersed and wounded the rest. This inhumanity was the signal of an insurrection through the whole kingdom, which was divided between the parties of the prince of Condé and the duke of Guise, the protestants and the catholics.

Philip II., king of Spain, to increase the commotions, sent some thousands of men to the aid of the catholics. The Guises were successful at the battle of Dreux, where the constable Montmorency, who commanded the royal army, and the prince of Condé were both taken prisoners. Guise, after this victory, laid siege to Orleans, where he fell by the hands of an assassin, who accused the heads of the protestant party as having instigated him to the murder, an accusation which was not generally believed, as it touched the admiral de Coligni, one of the chief supporters of that party, whose excellent character put him far above the suspicion of so vile a piece of treachery. A short peace succeeded these disturbances, and Condé was reconciled to the court; but the admiral kept still at the head of a considerable party in the provinces. The king, who had now attained his fourteenth year, had scarcely assumed the reins of government, when the prince of Condé, who had before attempted to take his predecessor, Francis, out of the hands of the Guises at Ambojse, made a similar attempt to rescue Charles IX. from the leading-strings of the constable de Montmorency. The war was of consequence renewed; and Condé and Coligni engaging the army of the constable at St. Denis, the catholic party was defeated, and Montmorency killed. The party of the protestants was now increased by the aid of ten thousand Germans from the palatinate; yet the catholics continued the war with increased obstinacy and resolution, and France was a scene of massacre and desolation. The army of the catholics, which, on Montmorency's death, was now commanded by the king's brother, the duke of Anjou, was victorious in its turn. The prince of Condé was killed in a skirmish after the battle of Jarnac, and Coligni now supported alone the party of the Huguenots. A peace, however, was concluded between the two parties; and France had just begun to repair her losses and disasters, when a most infernal scheme was formed by the catholics for the destruction

of all the protestants in France, a measure, perhaps, unparalleled in the annals of human nature, and which excited the horror and detestation of all the kingdoms of Europe. This was the massacre of St. Bartholomew.

The plot was laid with a dissimulation equal to the atrociousness of the design. The queen mother, Catharine de Medicis, a most flagitious woman, had always expressed her hatred of the protestant party, though she had at times shown a personal favor for some of its chief supporters. Her son, Charles IX., a coward in his disposition, was a monster of cruelty in his heart. It was concerted between the mother and her son, that the leaders of the protestant party should be brought to court and taken off their guard by extraordinary marks of favor and attention. Charles had given his sister Margaret in marriage to young Henry of Navarre; and he, together with the admiral Coligni and his friends, were entertained at court with every demonstration of kindness and respect. On the 24th of August, 1572, in the night, and at the ringing of the bell for matins, a general massacre was made by the catholics of all the protestants throughout the kingdom of France. The circumstances of this abominable tragedy are too shocking to be narrated in detail. One half of the nation, with the sword in one hand and the crucifix in the other, fell with the fury of wild beasts upon their unarmed and defenceless brethren. The king himself was seen firing with a musket from a window of his palace upon those unhappy wretches who had escaped into the streets naked from their beds, and endeavored to save themselves by flight.* Father Daniel informs us, that when the news of this massacre was brought to Rome, the pope highly commended the zeal of this young monarch, and the exemplary punishment which he had inflicted on the heretics. It was no wonder, then, that the parliament of Paris decreed an annual procession on St. Bartholomew's day to offer up thanks to God, or that such was the savage fury of this nation, blinded by fanaticism, that they were not satisfied even with the death of Coligni, who fell with his brethren in that massacre, but ordered him to be executed afterwards in effigy.

In the midst of these calamities the throne of Poland became vacant, and the duke of Anjou was chosen king by the assembled states of the kingdom. He accepted the honors conferred on him with some reluctance, and had but just taken possession of his kingdom when he was called to that of France, by the sudden death of his brother, the execrable Charles IX. He set out for Paris without hesitation, and left the Poles, indignant at his departure, to choose for themselves another sovereign. France,

This dreadful massacre was general through the kingdom of France, except in a few of the provinces, which were saved by the humanity and courage of their governors.