names; the document written by L’Hospital’s
grandson did not appear until 1591, after the death
of Henry III. and Henry de Guise, and it remained
anonymous for some time. One cannot be astonished
at such timidity; Guise himself was timid before the
Leaguers, and he always ended by yielding to them
in essentials, after having attempted to resist them
upon such and such an incidental point. His own
people accused him of lacking boldness; and his sister,
the Duchess of Montpensier, openly patronized the
most violent preachers, whilst boasting that she wielded
more influence through them than her brother by his
armies. Henry III., under stress of his enemies’
zeal and his own servants’ weakness, Catherine
de’ Medici included, after having fled from Paris
and taken refuge at Chartres to escape the triumph
of the Barricades, once more began to negotiate, that
is, to capitulate with the League; he issued at Rouen,
on the 19th of July, 1588, an edict in eleven articles,
whereby he granted more than had been demanded, and
more than he had promised in 1585 by the treaty of
Nemours; over and above the measures contained in
that treaty against the Huguenots, in respect of the
present and the future, he added four fresh surety-towns,
amongst others Bourges and Orleans, to those of which
the Leaguers were to remain in possession. He
declared, moreover, “that no investigation should
be made into any understandings, associations, and
other matters into which our Catholic subjects might
have entered together; inasmuch as they have given
us to understand and have informed us that what they
did was but owing to the zeal they felt for the preservation
and maintenance of the Catholic religion.”
By thus releasing the League from all responsibility
for the past, and by giving this new treaty the name
of edict of union, Henry III. flattered himself, it
is said, that he was thus putting himself at the head
of a new grand Catholic League which would become royalist
again, inasmuch as the king was granting it all it
had desired. The edict of union was enregistered
at the Parliament of Paris on the 21st of July.
The states-general were convoked for the 15th of October
following. “On Tuesday, August 2, his Majesty,”
says L’Estoile, “being entertained by
the Duke of Guise during his dinner, asked him for
drink, and then said to him, ‘To whom shall
we drink?’ ’To whom you please, sir,’
answered the duke; ‘it is for your Majesty to
command.’ ‘Cousin,’ said the
king, ‘drink we to our good friends the Huguenots.’
’It is well said, sir,’ answered the
duke. ‘And to our good barricaders,’
said the king; ‘let us not forget them.’
Whereupon the duke began to laugh a little,”
adds L’Estoile, “but a sort of laugh that
did not go beyond the knot of the throat, being dissatisfied
at the novel union the king was pleased to make of
the Huguenots with the barricaders.” What
must have to some extent reassured the Duke of Guise
was, that a Te Deum was celebrated at Notre-Dame for
the King of Navarre’s exclusion from all right
to the crown, and that, on the 14th of August Henry
de Guise was appointed generalissimo of the royal
armies.