Let him who thinks so ill of me get him gone as soon as he pleases; I lay more store by a hundred good Frenchmen than by two hundred who could harbor sentiments so unworthy.  Besides, though you should abandon me, I should have enough of friends left to enable me, without you and to your shame, with the sole assistance of their strong arms, to maintain the rights of my authority.  But were I doomed to see myself deprived of even that assistance, still the God who has preserved me from my infancy, as if by His own hand, to sit upon the throne, will not abandon me.  I nothing doubt that He will uphold me where He has placed me, not for love of me, but for the salvation of so many souls who pray, without ceasing, for His aid, and for whose freedom He has deigned to make use of my arm.  You know that I am a Frenchman and the foe of all duplicity.  For the seventeen years that I have been King of Navarre, I do not think that I have ever departed from my word.  I beg you to address your prayers to the Lord on my behalf, that He may enlighten me in my views, direct my purposes, bless my endeavors.  And in case I commit any fault or fail in any one of my duties,—­for I acknowledge that I am a man like any other,—­pray Him to give me grace that I may correct it, and to assist me in all my goings.”

[Illustration:  Henry iv.——­11]

On the 4th of August, 1589, an official manifesto of Henry iv.’s confirmed the ideas and words of this address.  On the same day, in the camp at St. Cloud, the majority of the princes, dukes, lords, and gentlemen present in the camp expressed their full adhesion to the accession and the manifesto of the king, promising him “service and obedience against rebels and enemies who would usurp the kingdom.”  Two notable leaders, the Duke of Epernon amongst the Catholics, and the Duke of La Tremoille amongst the Protestants, refused to join in this adhesion; the former saying that his conscience would not permit him to serve a heretic king, the latter alleging that his conscience forbade him to serve a prince who engaged to protect Catholic idolatry.  They withdrew, D’Epernon into Angoumois and Saintonge, taking with him six thousand foot and twelve thousand horse; and La Tremoille into Poitou, with nine battalions of Reformers.  They had an idea of attempting, both of them, to set up for themselves independent principalities.  Three contemporaries, Sully, La Force, and the bastard of Angouleme, bear witness that Henry iv. was deserted by as many Huguenots as Catholics.  The French royal army was reduced, it is said, to one half.  As a make-weight, Saucy prevailed upon the Swiss, to the number of twelve thousand, and two thousand German auxiliaries, not only to continue in the service of the new king, but to wait six months for their pay, as he was at the moment unable to pay them.  From the 14th to the 20th of August, in Ile-de-France, in Picardy, in Normandy, in Auvergne, in Champagne, in Burgundy, in Anjou,