CHAPTER VIII.

THE MEETING AT BAYONNE AND THE SECOND WAR.

[June, 1565–March, 1568.]

The Royal progress--Bayonne in June--Identical note--Amusements--Political Deliberations--The Queen of Navarre Excommunicated--Catherine’s Remonstrance--The Pope yields--State of Gascony--Assembly of Notables at Moulins--Feud between Guise and Coligny--Montmorency and the Cardinal--Disturbed state of Maine--Montluc pacifies Gascony--Embassy from Germany--Rebellion in Flanders--March of Alva--Condé leaves the Court--Rumored Plot--Huguenot Meeting at Chatillon--War resolved upon--Attempt to seize Charles--Huguenot Rising--Battle of St. Denis--Death of the Constable--German Auxiliaries--Michelade of Nismes--Siege of Chartres--Peace of Longjumeau--Death of Coligny’s Wife.

In order to test the state of public feeling and apply a remedy to the great disorders of the realm, the queen-mother decided upon an extensive tour through the south and west of France, which would give her an opportunity of showing the king to his subjects and strengthening him in their affections. It is not necessary to trace the progress of the court step by step; a few incidents, however, may be quoted to show the intolerant temper of the Catholic party. In many of the towns of Burgundy, Charles was received with shouts of “Long live the King!” and “The Mass forever!” At Chalons a medal was struck, representing the monarch trampling on Heresy, depicted as a Fury pouring out torrents of fire. At Lyons the foundations were laid of a citadel intended to crush the heretical tendencies of the inhabitants. The walls of several Protestant towns were demolished, and numerous addresses were presented to the young monarch, praying him to interdict the exercise of any form of religion but the Romish.

In the middle of June, 1565, the court reached the city of Bayonne, near the Spanish frontier, where the famous meeting took place at which it was generally supposed the extirpation of Protestantism was arranged. As early as April, 1561, Catherine had suggested a similar meeting, when she was agitated by the fear of a marriage between the widowed Mary Stuart and Don Carlos. She pretended a great desire to discuss with Philip II. the religious condition of France and the affairs of the King of Navarre, hoping by such an interview to thwart the Scottish matrimonial project.[357]

The ostensible cause of the meeting four years later was the queen’s desire to see her daughter, who had just recovered from a severe illness. Political motives were not forgotten, and among other matters to be considered between the sovereigns of France and Spain--for Catherine hoped that Philip would accompany his wife--was undoubtedly the repression of heresy. There exists among the state papers at Simancas what is called by diplomatists an “identical note” of the subjects to be discussed at Bayonne. In it we read that the two powers engaged not to tolerate the Reformed worship in their respective states, that the canons of the Council of Trent should be enforced, that all nonconformists should be incapacitated for any public office, civil or military, and that heretics should quit the realm within a month, permission being accorded them to sell their property. Although Catherine gave her assent to these declarations, so far as the discussion of them was concerned, we have indisputable evidence that she did not intend to adopt them in the same sense as Philip of Spain, for at this very time she was corresponding with the Bishop of Rennes, the French embassador to the imperial court, on the propriety of making concessions to the Huguenots. A long and tedious negotiation ensued between the two courts of France and Spain--a fencing-match of deceit--which ended in an arrangement that Isabella should go to meet her mother and brothers alone, attended by the Duke of Alva as embassador extraordinary. Fernando Alvarez de Toledo, Duke of Alva, had not yet attained that evil eminence which has linked his name with all that is blood-thirsty. He was now in his fifty-seventh year, and the most successful general in Europe. He had fleshed his maiden sword at the battle of Fontarabia, when he was only sixteen; had served under the emperor Charles V. in Germany; saved the Spanish infantry from destruction at the siege of Metz; and, as viceroy of Naples, foiled all the efforts of the Duke of Guise to recover the throne of that country for France. He had accompanied Philip II. to England during that monarch’s brief matrimonial expedition, and afterward waged a fruitless war in Italy against Francis of Guise and the pope. As a statesman he possessed great capacity, although at Bayonne he entirely failed in the chief object of his mission.[358]

The mother and daughter first met at Irun on the banks of the Bidassoa, and thence proceeded to Bayonne, where the French court had taken up its quarters. The magnificence of the processions and _fêtes_ in that remote corner of France put to shame all modern attempts of a similar kind. Isabella entered Bayonne riding on a milk-white palfrey, whose trappings of velvet, silver, and pearls were estimated at 25,000 ducats.[359] Four of the principal citizens bore a canopy of crimson velvet over her head, as she rode from the gate to the cathedral through streets hung with arras; and as the day was drawing to a close, every house and church was illuminated, and each member of the _cortège_ bore a lighted torch. A _Te Deum_, “accompanied by excellent cornets,” was sung by choristers from the chapel-royal of the Louvre, Cardinals Guise and Strozzi officiating with a number of French and Spanish bishops. The weather was so intensely hot that six soldiers of the queen’s escort fell dead, the victims of sun-stroke.[360] Other casualties of a similar nature occurring in the small and crowded city, a proclamation was issued ordering that all the sick, aged, and infirm should seek shelter in certain villages specified, at a distance from Bayonne.[361]

Some years later, when Walsingham referred to this meeting as the origin of a “general league” against the Protestants, Catherine affirmed that it “tended to no other end but to make good cheer.”[362] And so it would seem, for _fête_ followed _fête_ in rapid succession, the political business being transacted at odd moments, after those more serious occupations of the day were ended.

One day there was a grand tilting-match, the prize being a valuable diamond given by Isabella. Charles IX. and his brother of Anjou headed one band of noble tilters, all arrayed in fancy costumes; another band was led by the Duke of Nemours, while the horsemen composing that following the Duke of Longueville were dressed in cloth of gold with wings of silver tissue, so as to imitate butterflies. On the evening of another day a masque was performed in a large hall constructed for the purpose. The scene represented a giant’s castle, where a number of beautiful maidens were imprisoned in an enchanted chamber. The entrance, defended by a revolving wheel and guarded by six frightful demons, was attacked by a troop of French and Spanish gentlemen headed by Charles IX., who, after several unsuccessful assaults, overcame every obstacle, killing the giant, routing the demons, and delivering the imprisoned damsels, whom he led as witnesses of his prowess to the feet of his sister Isabella.

A pageant of a more elaborate description followed the next day. It began with a romantic prologue. A herald presented himself at Charles’s apartments in the castle, and having been led into the king’s presence, he related how, during a recent journey, he had fallen in with a gallant company of knights, who, unable to decide on the superiority of LOVE or VIRTUE, had agreed to refer the difference to the arbitration of his Majesty of France. A deputation from the supporters of each opinion was waiting below, desirous to plead their cause. The knights were admitted, they made their speeches; but the matter in dispute was so knotty that Charles declared it could only be settled by arms. A tournament was proclaimed, and all proceeded to the lists, the two queens taking their seats in a gallery hung with velvet. And now the pageant began. First came VIRTUE, seated on a rock, and attended by six nymphs. She wore an azure robe, and carried a lighted torch in her hand. After making the circuit of the arena, the car stopped before Queen Isabella, when VIRTUE, reciting some appropriate verses, presented her and each of her ladies with a massive gold chain. As soon as the goddess had retired, LOVE entered the lists in a chariot drawn by four piebald horses. He too halted before the Queen of Spain and sang some verses in praise of the joys and triumphs of love. The tournament now commenced, Charles maintaining the cause of VIRTUE, the Duke of Anjou that of LOVE. The two troops first engaged hand to hand, the king and his brother breaking a lance together. Then they divided into fours, until at last the _mêlée_ became general. At the end of about half an hour, the trumpets sounded, the combatants retired to their own side of the list, and Charles and the duke, riding forward, embraced each other, to show “that, VIRTUE and LOVE being brother and sister, the triumph of each was the glory of the other.”

On another occasion, Isabella was entertained at a rural _fête_, where the collation was spread under the leafy branches of an oak-tree, from whose root issued a fountain, the construction of which cost a sum equivalent to £400 sterling. Another day the pageant took the singular form of a whale fishery. A turtle, on which sat six Tritons, floated down the Adour; then came Neptune in a car drawn by sea-horses, with Arion on a dolphin. When the company landed, there followed a pastoral ballet, in which the dancing of the French ladies and gentlemen so delighted the Spaniards that it was repeated again and again until midnight.[363]

One of the masques given at Bayonne is remarkable for the curious picture it presents of a “wild Scotchman.” After the Prince-dauphin of Auvergne and his train of six gentlemen, all dressed like women, had filed off, the Duke of Guise and another six followed, all dressed “à l’écossais sauvage.” Over a white satin shirt embroidered with gold lace and crimson silk, they wore a _casaquin_ of yellow velvet with short skirts closely plaited “according to the custom of the savages”--it appears to have been a kilt--trimmed with a border of crimson satin, and ornamented with gold, silver, pearls, and other jewels of various colors. Their yellow satin hose was similarly adorned, and their silk boots were trimmed with silver fringe and rosettes. On their heads they wore a cap _à l’antique_ of cloth of gold, and for crest a thunder-bolt pouring out a fragrant jet of perfumed fire--the said thunder-bolt being twined round by a serpent reposing on a pillow of green and satin. Each cavalier wore on his arm a Scotch shield or targe covered with cloth of gold and bearing a device. The horses’ tra