were to see it; for the moment, it is expedient to say nothing about it.”  “News of the defeat of Senlis,” says Tavannes, “comes flying to court, and changes hearts and counsels.  Disdain, despite, is engendered in the admiral, who hurls this defeat upon the heads of those who have prevented the king from declaring himself; he raises a new levy of three thousand foot, and, not regarding who he is and where he is, he declares, in the presumption of his audacity, that he can no longer hold his partisans, and that it must be one of two wars, Spanish or civil.  It is all thunder-storm at court; everyone remains on the watch at the highest pitch of resolution.”  A grand council was assembled.  Coligny did not care.  He had already, at the king’s request, set forth in a long memorial all the reasons for his policy of a war with Spain; the king had appeared struck with them; but, “as he only sought,” says De Thou, “to gain time without its being perceived,” he handed the admiral’s memorial to the keeper of the seals, John de Morvilliers, requesting him to set forth also all the reasons for a pacific policy.  Coligny, a man of resolution and of action, did not take any pleasure in thus prolonging the discussion; nevertheless he again brought forward and warmly advocated, at the grand council, the views he had so often expressed.  They were almost unanimously rejected.  Coligny did not consider himself bound to give them up.  “I have promised,” said he, “on my own account, my assistance to the Prince of Orange; I hope the king will not take it ill if by means of my friends, and perhaps in person, I fulfil my promise.”  This reservation excited great surprise.  “Madam,” said Coligny to the queen-mother, “the king is to-day shunning a war which would promise him great advantages; God forbid that there should break out another which he cannot shun!” The council broke up in great agitation.  “Let the queen beware,” said Tavannes, “of the king her son’s secret councils, designs, and sayings; if she do not look out, the Huguenots will have him.  At any rate, before thinking of anything else, let her exert herself to regain the mother’s authority which the admiral has caused her to lose.”

The king was hunting at Brie.  The queen-mother went and joined him; she shut herself up with him in a cabinet, and, bursting into tears, she said, “I should never have thought that, in return for having taken so much pains to bring you up and preserve to you the crown, you would have had heart to make me so miserable a recompense.  You hide yourself from me, me who am your mother, in order to take counsel of your enemies.  I know that you hold secret counsels with the admiral; you desire to plunge rashly into war with Spain, in order to give your kingdom, yourself, and the persons that are yours, over as a prey to them of the religion.  If I am so miserable a creature, yet before I see that, give me leave to withdraw to the place of my birth; remove from you your brother, who may call himself unfortunate in having employed his own life to preserve yours; give him at least time to withdraw out of danger and from the presence of enemies made in doing you service; Huguenots who desire not war with Spain, but with France, and the subversion of all the Estates in order to set up themselves.”