dinal Odet, the youngest François de Chatillon, sieur of Andelot.* Gaspard, Count of Coligny, was born in 1518, and in his earlier years was very intimate with Francis of Guise (then Prince of Joinville). He was present at the battle of Renti, all the glory of which the Lorraine party wished to ascribe to Prince Francis. Coligny thought " he might have done better," and this remark being exaggerated by false friends, the coolness already beginning to exist between them, and which was the work of Diana of Poitiers, gradually increased until they became totally estranged. The admiral was at one time a great favorite with Henry II. and the sharer of all his pleasures. He was Governor of the Isle of France, captain of a hundred men-at-arms (an expensive honor), and knight of the order of St. Michael. He had been made prisoner at the battle of St. Quentin (1557), and it was during the consequent enforced retirement from public life that he strengthened those religious convictions which he had first learned at his mother's knee. Andelot, the younger brother, was the first convert to the new opinions. Made prisoner in 1551, and detained in the castle of Milan until 1556, he employed his long captivity in studying the works of Calvin: "Such are the sad fruits of leisure and idleness," says Brantome with a sigh. He was taken with his brother at the siege of St. Quentin, but made his escape, and was present at the surprise of Calais. When he visited his vast estates in Brittany, he encouraged two Reformed ministers in his suite to preach openly wherever he halted, thus laying the foundations of many a Christian church in the north-west of France. Returning to the court where he was in high favor with Henry II., he was denounced by the Cardinal of Lorraine as a heretic and impudent violator of the edicts. To the king's questions Andelot replied that he had never gone

* Marc Duval's engraving of the three brothers is well known, and has often been copied. In the Lenoir Collection (now belonging to the Duke of Sutherland) there is a painting of the three brothers; and, if I am correctly informed, there are other portraits at Knowle Park.

to the Pré aux Clercs, although the religionists did nothing there but sing the Psalms of David, and offer up prayers for the welfare of the king and the safety of the kingdom. He confessed that he had forwarded books of consolation to his brother the admiral, and had countenanced the preaching of a good and sound doctrine, deduced from Holy Scripture. "Your Majesty," he continued, "has loaded me with such favor that I have spared neither body nor goods in your service, and I will continue to spare neither so long as I live. But having thus done my duty, your Majesty will not think it strange if I employ the rest of my time in caring for my own salvation. It is many years since I have been to mass, and I shall never go again. I entreat your Majesty to leave my conscience alone, and permit me to serve you with my body and goods, which are wholly at your disposal." Henry II., who could bear no contradiction, flew into a passion, and seizing him by the collar of St. Michael that was round his neck, exclaimed: "But I did not give you this to use it thus -keeping away from mass and refusing to follow my religion." "I did not know then, what it was to be a Christian," answered Andelot, "or I should not have accepted it on such conditions." Henry could contain himself no longer. He seized a platter which lay before him and threw it across the table, but it struck the dauphin; he then drew his sword upon Andelot, who was hurried away by the guards and afterward shut up in the castle of Melun. From prison he wrote to the church of Paris: "Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life or by death. For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain." He also addressed a letter to the king: "Sire," he wrote, " if I have done any thing to displease you, I beseech you in all humility to forgive me, and to believe that, the obedience I owe to God and my conscience excepted, you can command nothing in which I will not expose my goods, my body, and my life. And what I ask of you, Sire, is not, thanks be to God, through fear of death, and still less from a desire to recover my liberty, for I hold

nothing so dear that I would not resign it willingly for the salvation of my soul and God's glory." He was alike unmoved by the tender entreaties of his wife, Claude de Rieux, and by the prudent advice of his brother the cardinal, who urged him to satisfy Henry II. if it were only by an apparent submission. At length, however, he consented to hold a conference with a learned doctor of the Sorbonne, and to hear mass in his presence, but without previous abjuration. Calvin, who had written exhorting Andelot to be firm, now reproached him for his weakness; but it was easy for the Reformer of Geneva, who was in a place of safety, and who had never been tested by the fires of persecution, to censure one whose faith was weak, and whose affectionate, loyal nature was worked upon by those who were dearest to him.

t

But Andelot's elder brother, Gaspard, was made of sterner stuff. While in prison the Bible was his constant companion and chief study. Calvin, who had probably heard of his conversion through Andelot, wrote to him: "I shall use no long exhortation to confirm you in patience, for I have heard that our gracious God hath so strengthened you by the virtue of his Spirit, that I have rather occasion to return thanks to him than to excite you more. Only I would pray you to remember that God, by sending you this affliction, hath wished to draw you out of the crowd, that you may the better listen to him." In the end, Gaspard adopted the Reformed creed, and became the idol of the Reformed party. In his wife, Charlotte de Laval, he found an affectionate sympathizer in his religious opinions, and a support during many an hour of distress. He was of the middle height, and well-proportioned; he stooped a little as if in meditation, and his countenance was always calm and serious, except on the battle-field, where (as we are told) his face lighted up, and he would chew the tooth-pick which he used to carry in his mouth.*

*Brantome quotes an Italian saying: "Dio me guarda del bel gigneto del Principe (di Condé) e dell' animo e stecco dell' Amiraglio." There was