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and executed in his sanguinary persecution of the Protestants of Holland. The connexion of Philip with England has already too well fixed his history in our minds; his object was to exterminate heresy by fire and sword, and to extinguish political and religious liberty in his own dominions and in the rest of the world. Alva was an agent singularly well qualified to carry out the designs of his master; he was barbarously cruel, but cold and dispassionate, not the less dangerous because alike incapable of tenderness or rage; he seized his victim like some vast machine, and crushed him to pieces with the certainty and coldness of a complicated series of wheels and pulleys, breaking his limbs with remorseless power, and insensible to his cries and indifferent to his resistance. Living in an age of dissimulation, the Duke of Alva was certainly not a hypocrite; he openly avowed his belief that no toleration ought to be extended to those who should dissent from the religion of the king; he stated his determina

tion to spare neither age nor sex, and, like some political economists, coolly argued on his right to exterminate as if he were demonstrating an abstract proposition, quite distinct from human rights, or the sufferings of mankind. In the midst of feasts, tournaments, processions, dancing parties, and illuminations, the wily Spaniard managed to spend a certain portion of every night in the apartments of the Queen of Spain. Thither Catherine used to repair to meet him, through a private gallery; and while the rest of the gay party of courtiers were sleeping after the fatigues of a day of pleasure, the queen and the duke were consulting upon the best method of governing France. The wily Spaniard laid it down as a principle that two religions cannot coexist in the same state; that no prince could do a more pernicious thing as regarded himself than to permit his people to live according to their consciences; that there are as many religions in the world as there are caprices in the human mind; and that to give them free licence is only to open a door to confusion and treason; that religious controversy is only another name for popular insurrection; and that all indulgence only increases the disorder. The queen, it appears, was averse to sanguinary measures; she was desirous of restoring her subjects to the bosom of the Church, but wished to do it by fair means. She spoke of the strength of the principles of the Hugonots, admitted the inconvenience of conflicting opinions, but declared her intention of reaching her object by a circuitous route; she said the port was distant and the sea difficult of navigation, she must therefore be satisfied not to steer a straight course; that it is safer to weaken the opposing power by degrees, than to attempt to stifle a flame too suddenly, as it may then burst out into a violent conflagration. These sentiments it was Alva's business to combat. He had received

absolution for making war upon the pope, and was of course anxious to give a compensation for his late sins. The pope had recommended a repetition of the Sicilian vespers, and while the queen was cautious, Alva pressed her to proceed boldly and make away with the chiefs; he said in the hearing of Henry IV. (then a child of eleven years old), that "one salmon was well worth a hundred frogs." It seems, then, from the best contemporary authority, which is quoted at large by our author, that the plan of a general massacre was now considered advisable if opportunity should offer; that Alva persuaded the queen, contrary to her better judgment, that destruction of heretics was both lawful and politic; and that while she herself might have been contented with indirect persecution, double taxation, legal restraint, and the occasional execution of a troublesome leader on feigned pretexts, nothing less than final extirpation was sufficient to satisfy the agent of the pope.

The young king was not exempt from the temptations of the Duke of Alva; he seems at this meeting to have been familiarized with notions from which in his better moments he must have shrunk with horror. The Queen of Navarre, the most zealous Hugonot of her day, perceived the change in Charles during the return of the expedition. It is hard to ascertain that any definite plan was arranged for the destruction of the Hugonots: the massacre of St. Bartholomew must have arisen out of circumstances; but this much seems clear, that the Duke of Alva prepared the minds of Catherine and Charles to betray and murder the most innocent portion of their subjects, as soon as a convenient opportunity should offer; and having thus broken down the barrier of conscience in the rulers of France, he himself repaired to Holland, where his fierce persecution of the Protestants has handed down his name to us as one of the most cruel and unrelenting agents of the Church of Rome. Let us now consider the party opposed to the court, the Hugonots, and their leaders. Here we may easily trace one of the great causes of the failure of the cause of Protestantism in France. The whole history presents us with a narrative of a political scheme rather than a religious movement. We believe true religion was never yet propagated by the sword. "The weapons of our warfare are not carnal," though they are mighty. God has appointed a way in which his cause is to be advanced, and that way he will bless and no other. The Hugonots certainly fought for liberty; they only drew the sword when they were attacked; but there seems a sad want of religious zeal even among those in whom we ought the most to expect it. The Reformation in England was strictly religious; Cranmer, Latimer,

Ridley, Hall, Davenant, and a host of writers and preachers, laid hold first on the intellects and then on the feelings of the nation. John Knox, like Luther, was a zealot of the most ardent class, sometimes intemperate, but always sincere. We look in vain for such men among the French Hugonots. Religion, by the word we mean a conscientious desire of serving God according to his will, has always been the prime moving cause of every great change in England. Oliver Cromwell was a zealot; if he was not his party thought him so, and followed his orders because they felt anxiety in the same cause. James II. lost his crown because he interfered with the religion of England, represented by the seven bishops. Radicals, Chartists, and various disturbers, have in all periods endeavoured to overturn our institutions; but the strength of the people has always been attached to Protestantism and the established Church, because they consider them the proper means of serving God. Nothing therefore has ever shaken the throne of England but a religious movement, and to be religious a movement must depend upon its leaders: we may fairly form a conjecture as to the character of any class of men from the persons whom they obey, and whom they put forward as their spokesmen when liberty and life are at stake. Here, as in the present day, France presents a strong contrast with England; there seems a strange want of all religion among the people, the power of God seems to be forgotten, his name is never mentioned, and last Easter Sunday was fixed for a general election. We regret that even among the martyrs of the sixteenth century, there is a great deficiency in Evangelical principles and virtue. Let us consider the character of some of the leading Hugonots.

The first, in point of rank, as first prince of the blood, is Anthony of Navarre. His wife, Jeanne D'Albret, was well fitted, as far as a woman can be, to take the lead in a religious war. Her letters all express zeal for God, and devotion to the cause of Protestantism; and to her early care may be traced the formation of the character of her celebrated son Henry IV. As long, however, as her husband lived, her powers seem to have been shackled, and her influence lost.

"Anthony (says our author) is a striking instance of the evils which arise, when second-rate ability, combined with weakness of moral principle and instability of temper, is elevated to influential situations. The vacillations of his selfish fears and calculations, aided by jealousy, that demon of weak minds, did more to ruin France than all the loftier errors of the rest united; so true is it, that states and families may perish as surely, through the timidity, meanness, and want of spirit in their leaders, as through the greatest excesses of ill-directed energy." -vol. i. p. 81.

After lending his name to the Hugonot party, and supporting them by his right to approach and advise the king as first prince of the blood, he allowed himself to be drawn into a league with their enemies; and, in 1562, he is found united with the cardinal and the Duke of Guise, the most powerful and the most insidious of the enemies of his party. His wife remonstrated, but he only answered her by sending her home to Navarre, and placing his son under the care of a Roman Catholic. Shortly after new troubles broke out, and we find the King of Navarre on the side of the Duke of Guise. At the siege of Rouen, in the same year, he was mortally wounded, but though he suffered great pain, he was not at first considered in a dangerous state. His amusements at this time were dances, which he gave in his bed-chamber to the young people of the camp; and his mistress, La Belle Rouet, was seated by his side. He continued to boast of all he was to do, and talked much of the riches and beauty of Sardinia. When the town was taken, he insisted on being carried through it in. a litter, which inflamed his wound, and caused serious apprehensions of danger. The terrors of conscience now succeeded to the levity of his former occupations, but he does not seem to have known whether he were a Protestant or a Roman Catholic. He began to examine his past life, and, like Cardinal Wolsey, regretted, when too late, that he had sacrificed his religion to the aggrandizement of his kingdom. When his brother, the Prince de Condé, sent to inquire for him, he returned an answer, that, if his life were spared, he should make the establishment of reform his great object. His last hours were spent in the miserable remorse of a troubled conscience: he was attended by two physicians of opposite persuasions; and a contemporary writer describes him as receiving extreme unction from a priest, and listening to portions of the Book of Job, to which his attention was drawn by a Protestant minister. He seems altogether to have been one of the most contemptible of men; in private his propensity for thieving was so great, that his attendants were obliged to empty his pockets after he was asleep, and restore the plunder of the day to its lawful owners.

We turn with pleasure from the contemplation of a character like the King of Navarre, to that of his younger brother, Louis Bourbon, Prince of Condé. In him were united several of the noble traits which constitute the hero of the world's admiration : -a skilful warrior, a generous adversary, the admiration of the ladies of the court, the most scientific knight in the tournament, and the champion of the cause of civil and religious liberty. Who is there that does not admire the character of the valiant, the liberal, and the accomplished prince? But here, unfortunately,

we must stop; we look in vain for the high principle of sound religion, which shines in private as well as in public, and is ready to sacrifice all personal gratification in the service of God. Condé fought in the cause of the Gospel, but he did so rather as a crusader than as a Christian: he valued his life little, for he was a truly brave soldier; but his own pleasures were the rock on which he split; the temptations of a dissipated court were more dangerous weapons than the swords of his opponents; and he who could conquer in the field, or take a hostile city, was yet unable to rule his own spirit, and was foiled in the conflict with his own ill-regulated passions. Catherine, ever watchful of her advantage, was too wise to overlook the weak point of the prince, and soon set snares for him, which he was unable to escape. Among the daughters of the queen, were two young ladies of the name of Limeuil to the elder of these, who was distinguished for her fine figure, her taste in dress, her beauty, and her wit, the queen confided the task of gaining the affections of the prince. The business was but too easy, for the victim was willing, and, like Samson, only too ready to betray his dearest secrets to his treacherous charmer. Catherine obtained her object, and learned the intentions of the Hugonots; but La Belle Limeuil discovered too late that she had ventured on dangerous ground; that she had been tampering not only with the affections of Condé, but with her own; what she had considered as a gay frolic, ended in a melancholy reality; she had fallen deeply in love with the knight she had intended to betray, and she now found herself deserted in her turn, like some unfaithful damsel of romance. The widow of the Maréchal de St. André had also set her affections upon the Prince de Condé ; she bestowed upon him the most valuable gifts; among others, the splendid palace of St, Valery, which her husband had built; but Condé, equally unfaithful to his religion and his knighthood, received the gifts, but deserted the giver. The tragedy, however, does not end here: the beginning of sin is like the letting out of water: his excellent wife, who had long shut her eyes to his irregularities, died shortly after, the victim of abused affections; and the Demoiselle de Limeuil found herself pointed at by a censorious court, not because she had been guilty of any irregularity, but because she had been fool enough to be caught in her own snare. Her health began to sink, and she retired from the eyes of the world; she was passionately fond of music, and, on one occasion, she desired her page to play her a melancholy air, where "tout est perdu" is the burden of the song. When this had been once or twice repeated, she called on him to play it over again, with increased emphasis, until she should desire him to leave off; he did so for

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