Henry had tided over the initial difficulty, | army southward, crossed the Loire, and took up but at what a cost!-a virtual betrayal of his his winter quarters at Tours, the old capital of great cause. Was his way now smooth? No: Clovis. the Catholics he had not really conciliated; and the Protestants, who had but too good cause, stood in doubt of him. He had two manner of peoples around his standard, but neither was enthusiastic in his support, or could be expected to strike other than feeble blows. He had assumed the crown, but had to conquer the kingdom. The League, whose soldiers were in possession of Paris, still held out against him. To have gained the capital and displayed his standard on its walls would have been a great matter, but with an army dwindled down to a few thousands, and the Catholic portion but halfhearted in his cause, Henry dared not adventure on the siege of Paris. Making up his mind to go without the prestige of the capital meanwhile, he retreated with his little host into Normandy, the army of the League, in overwhelming numbers, pressing on his steps and hemming him in, so that he was compelled to give battle to them in the neighbourhood of Dieppe. Here, with the waters of the English Channel behind him, into which his foes hoped to drive him, God wrought a great deliverance for him. With only six thousand soldiers he discomfited the army of the League, thirty thousand strong, and won a great victory. If, with six thousand men, not a few of whom were lukewarm in his cause, he could vanquish an army of thirty thousand Catholics, there was surely little need to surrender his faith in order to open his way to the crown. He who had given him this victory could give him another, equally glorious, and yet another, till he should come to reign with honour. This was the lesson which the marvellous triumph which crowned his arms at the very outset of his career was meant to teach him. Faith in God is the highest wisdom.

This affair brought substantial advantages to Henry. It added to his renown in arms, already great. Soldiers began to flock to his standard, and he now saw himself at the head of twenty thousand men. Many of the provinces of France which had hung back till now recognized him as king. The Protestant States abroad did the same thing; and thus strengthened, Henry led his

Early next spring (1590) the king was again in the field. Many of the old Huguenot chiefs, who had left him when he entered into engagements with the Catholics, now returned, attracted by the vigour of his administration and the success of his arms. With this accession he deemed himself strong enough to take Paris, the possession of which would probably decide the contest. He began his march upon the capital, but was met by the army of the League (March 14, 1590) on the plains of IVRY. His opponents were in | greatly superior numbers, having been reinforced by Spanish auxiliaries and German reiter. Here a second great victory crowned the cause of Henry of Bourbon; in fact, the battle of Ivry is one of the most brilliant on record. Before going into action, Henry made a solemn appeal to Heaven touching the justice of his cause. "If Thou seest," said he, "that I shall be one of those kings whom thou givest in thine anger, take from me my life and crown together, and may my blood be the last that shall be shed in this quarrel." The battle was now to be joined, but first the Huguenots kneeled in prayer. "They are begging for mercy," cried some one. "No," it was answered; "they never fight so terribly as after they have prayed." A few moments, and the soldiers rose, and Henry addressed a few stirring words to them. "Yonder," said he, as he fastened on his helmet, over which waved his white plume, "yonder is the enemy; here is your king: God is on our side. Should you lose your standards in the battle, rally round my plume; you will always find it on the path of victory and honour." Into the midst of the enemy advanced that white plume; where raged the thickest of the fight, there was it seen to wave, and thither did the soldiers follow. After a terrible combat of two hours, the day declared decisively in favour of the king. The army of the League was totally routed, and fled from the field, leaving its cannon and standards behind it to become the trophies of the victors.

This victory, won over great odds, was a second lesson to Henry. It was meant to teach him that God was able to open his way through ever

had many splendid qualities, and was daily performing brilliant feats. The prowess of the "White Plume" was the talk of France and Christendom. But these achievements stood him in little stead. He had not an eye to see the great opportunity which Providence put in his power. Had he said, "I will abide in my faith and will establish religious liberty in France," he would have done it. France would have blessed his memory for ever. Those dark woes already showing themselves on the horizon's distant verge would have rolled away, and a long and uninterrupted day of prosperity would have shone upon that country. But Henry had neither the wisdom nor the courage for such a resolve. He halted between two opinions; and deserted of God, he was left to his own crooked policy.

ries which Henry could not erase, and deep convictions which he could not smother. The instructions and prayers of a mother, the ripened beliefs of a life-time, the obligations he owed to the Protestants, all must have presented themselves in opposition to the step he now meditated. Were all these pledges to be profaned? were all these hallowed bonds to be rent asunder? With the Huguenots how often had he deliberated in council; how often worshipped in the same sanctuary; how often fought on the same battlefield; their arms mainly it was that had raised him to the throne ;-was he now to forsake them? Great must have been the conflict in the mind of the king. But the fatal step had been taken four years before, when, in the hope of disarming the hostility of the Catholic lords, he consented to receive instruction in the Romish faith. hesitate in a matter of this moment was to surrender-was to be lost; and the choice which Henry now made is just that which it might have been expected he would make-Rome. There is reason to fear that he had never felt the power of the gospel upon his heart. His hours of leisure were often spent in adulterous pleasures. One of his mistresses was among the chief advisers of the step he was now revolving. What good would this Huguenotism do him? Would he be so great a fool as to sacrifice a kingdom for it? Listening to such counsels as these, he laid his birthright, where so many kings before and since have laid theirs, at the feet of Rome.

To

It was now four years since Henry after a sort had been King of France; but the peaceful possession of the throne was becoming less likely than ever. Every day the difficulties around him, instead of diminishing, were thickening. Even the success which had attended his arms appeared to be deserting him. Shorn of his locks, like Samson, he was winning brilliant victories no longer. What was to be done? this had now come to be the question with the king. Henry, to use a familiar expression, "was falling between two stools." The great Catholic chiefs were leaving him; and the Huguenots, who disliked the unequal distribution he made of his service, in giving all the burdens to one party, and all the rewards to another, were also beginning to It had been arranged that a conference comdraw off. The time had come for Henry to de- posed of an equal number of Catholic bishops clare himself, and to say whether he was to be and Protestant pastors should be held, and that Catholic, or whether he was to be Protestant. the points of difference between the two Churches There were not wanting weighty reasons, as they should be debated in the presence of the king. seemed, why the king should be the former. The This was simply a device to save appearances, for bulk of his subjects were Catholics; and by Henry's mind was already made up. When the being of their religion he would conciliate the day came the king forbade the attendance of the majority, put an end to the wars between the Protestants, assigning as a reason that he would two rival parties, and open to the country an not put it in the power of the bishops to say that outget from all its troubles. By this step only they had vanquished them in the argument. could he hope ever to make himself King of all The king's conduct throughout was marked by France. So did many around him counsel. His consummate duplicity. He invited the Reformed recantation would, to a large extent, be a matter to fast, in prospect of the coming conference, and of form, and by that form how many great ends pray for a blessing upon it; and only three of State should he serve! months before his abjuration, he wrote to the But on the other side there were sacred memo- pastors assembled at Samur, saying that he

which is common to all your subjects. The glory of God alone, liberty of conscience, repose to the state, security for our lives and property-this is the summit of our wishes, and the end of our requests."

The king still thought to temporize; but new successes on the part of the Spaniards admonished him that he had done so too long, and that the policy of delay was exhausted. The League hailed the Spanish advances, and the throne which Henry had secured by his abjuration he must save by Protestant swords. Accordingly, on the 15th April 1598 was this famous decree, the Edict of Nantes, styled "perpetual and irrevocable,” issued.

many instances forbidden, their children often | majesty for an edict by which we may enjoy that compulsorily educated in the Romish faith, their last wills made void, and even their corpses dug out of the grave and thrown like carrion on the fields. When they craved redress, they were bidden be patient till Henry should be stronger in the throne. His apostasy had brought matters to a head, and satisfied the Huguenots that they must look to themselves. The bishops had made Henry swear, "I will endeavour to the utmost of my power, and in good faith, to drive out of my jurisdiction, and from the lands under my sway, all heretics denounced by the Church." Thus the sword was again hung over their heads; and can we blame them if they now formed themselves into a political organization, with a general council, or parliament, which met every year to concert measures of safety, promote unity of action, and keep watch over the affairs of the general body? To Henry's honour it must be acknowledged that he secretly encouraged this Protestant League. An apostate, he yet escaped the infamy of the perse

cutor.

The Huguenot Council applied to Henry's government for the redress of their wrongs, and the restoration of Protestant rights and privileges. Four years passed away in these negotiations, which often degenerated into acrimonious disputes, and the course of which was marked (1595) by an atrocious massacre-a repetition, in short, of the affair at Vassy. At length Henry, sore pressed in his war with Spain, and much needing the swords of the Huguenots, granted an edict in their favour, styled, from the town from which it was issued, the Edict of Nantes, which was the glory of his reign. It was a tardy concession to justice, and a late response to complaints long and most touchingly urged. "And yet, sire," so their remonstrances among us we have neither Jacobins nor Jesuits, who aim at your life, nor Leaguers, who aim at your crown. We have never presented the points of our swords instead of petitions. We are paid with considerations of state policy. It is not time yet, we are told, to grant us an edict! Yet, oh, merciful God! after thirty-five years of persecution, ten years of banishment by the edicts of the League, eight years of the present king's reign, and four of persecutions. We ask your

ran,

"This Magna Charta," says Felice, "of the French Reformation, under the ancient regime, granted the following concessions in brief :-Full liberty of conscience to all; the public exercise of the 'religion' in all those places in which it was established in 1577, and in the suburbs of cities; permission to the lords high justiciary to celebrate divine worship in their castles, and to the inferior gentry to admit thirty persons to their domestic worship; admission of the Reformed to office in the state, their children to be received into the schools, and their sick into the hospitals, and their poor to share in the alms; and the concession of a right to print their books in certain cities." This edict further provided for the erection of courts composed of an equal number of Protestants and Catholics for the protection of Protestant interests, four Protestant institutions or colleges, and the right of holding a National Synod, according to the rules of the Reformed Faith, once every three years.

The edict does not come fully up

to our idea of liberty of conscience, but it was a liberal measure for the time. It put as a guarantee a number of towns into the hands of the Protestants. It was the Edict of Nantes much more than the abjuration of Henry which conciliated the two parties in the kingdom, and gave him the peaceful possession of the throne during the few years he was yet to occupy it.

The signing of this edict inaugurated an era of tranquillity and great prosperity to France. The twelve years that followed are perhaps the most glorious in the annals of that country since the