New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1895-10-20


no other body Of people in the kingdom woula De
| equally docile. Huguenots rever wouio asa'e'"
ate him; others might. There was every IN
ducement on the score Of safety and popularity 10
a King like Louis XIII to follow the LEAD OF MS
! prejudices II he could only discover means that
would not alarm the consciences Oh the PeoPie
| whom he meant to ruin. The same can De salu
Of the Regent his mother. In the time Oh MS
minority. 1t was here that the paieiuI ihhu-
ence Of the rivalry among ambitious nopes was
felt Sully. Bouillon and Lesdiguieres hated each
| other with v,rulence. They cared nothing In
their hearts for the Huguenot cause All that
| either Of these men seems to have aimed at was
to use the Protestant party for his own purposes
| Sully lost the opportunity of saving his power
through his own indecison. He might have
fallen in any case. but he failed to seize the
chance that was left him at the moment when
Henry w was assassnated. His first thought.
saws Professor Baird. was to hasten to the Louvre
and take the young heir to the throne and the
queen mother under his protection. But he de-
liberated too long. ard others were on the way
before him. He barely issued from the Bastile
with q troop of horse before ne fed back in
fright and gathered up, 1t is said, what food ne
could in anticipation of siege. The next day
he was invited to the Louvre, was politely re-
ceived but was not long left ignorant OF the fact
that the Regency had been settled without
| him. To have retained favor he would now
have had to humble himself. This was APP
parently easier for the Duke Of Boullon. his
rival than for him. Bouillon. as long as he
feared Sully. urged the Huguenots to make ex-
cessive demands and to persist in them. But
visit from a Catholic nobleman in behalf OF the
queen mother changed his plans. He did not
have his way with the Huguenots, but he con-
fused their deliberations to such degree that he
was looked upon at court as conqueror. HIS
motives were not misunderstood in the Huguenot
Assembly When he advocated the giving up Of
all the hostage towns which the Professionals held
for safety and complete submission to the will OF
the Regent the fiery dAubigne called him a
traitor and hangman.
There had been a time when the Huguenots
would have been driven to union by the oppres
sion which they suffered. But their enemies had
learned the lesson of politics better than they.
Open provocation to war was no longer the policy
Of the Catholic clergy Of the court. Now
they were beguiled with promises which were
never kept. Their rights were trenched upon by
a movement so gradual that they hardly knew
how to complain From the moment that Louis
XIII attained his majority 1t always the
King with whom they had to deal that King to
whom they had made vows OF obedience so
sweeping that honest men. they saw hardly
any way of evasion. The whole policy OF the
King centred upon the simple fact mat
there was no power on earth to make him Keep
his pledges, and no power on earth to make the
Huguenots break theirs He played with their
honesty THE Kings fatterers might call him
Louis the Just" exclaims Professor Baird, "and
the monarch might complacently appropriate
the ill-earned epithet but he who had cheated
De SALES out of the possession Of Navarreux, he
who had tricked Duplesss Mornay out OF the
town and castle OF Saumur, he who upheld Nalen-
cay In his knavish articles for introducing gar
rison and erecting a citadel and altering the
consulate at Montpelier. ne who. while ostenta-
tiously ordering by letter the destruction Of Fort
Louis to which his word was pledged, encouraged
the officer in charge underhand to proceed with
its erection might be esteemed ar honorable man
among savages with whom craft passes current
for the highest Of manly virtues. but can scarcely
be regarded as deserving to be accorded that
title at the hands of civilized men," The author
| might have gone further and denied Louis even
| the low attribute of cunning. In every one of
| the examples which he cites Of the Kings duplic-
ity-excspt perhaps. the building of Fort Louis
the Huguenots deliberately consented to their
own undoing for no other reason than that the
doctrine Of obedience to the King had been made
a part OF their creed.
The theft Of the stronghold Of Saumur
characteristic example Of the Kings capacity
for telling what was not true and Of l1uguenot
willingness to be deceived. In the first place,
the royal stratagem was an exact copy OF that
which only a short time before had put the i'm
pregnable fortress Of Navarreux into his posses
sion The King to Saumur with an army
when the country at peace. II Dupessis
Mornay. who had been Governor OF the place for
more than thirty years. had any doubts as TO the
Kings intentions, he might have contented him
self with the assurances he received not only
from Louis himself. but also from the Duke of
Lesdigueres. one Of the nobemen whose Prot
estantism was a calamity to his brethren in the
faith Unquestionably he knew just how much to
believe of what told him. But the Kings
word was law so long as 1t did not touch his con-
science. The garrison was to leave the fortress
as an act OF honor to the King The royal troops
would occupy 1t in token Of supremacy, and then
would make way for Dupessis Mornay and his
men But the King lodged In the castle. The
new garrison showed that 1t had come to stay
The venerable Governor and his family were
turned out Of their home. Duplessis Mornays
gallery Of paintings and his fine library including
a vast store of manuscripts were looted by the
sodery II they had been found In city taken
by open assault He recalled the Kings pledges
not yet day old. and the answer was that II he
would acquiesce in what had been done he should
have not only large grant OF money. bat mar
shal's baton. 1t Is needless to say that he re-
fused He received the written promise Of the
King that Saumur should be restored to him.
and this promise was periodically renewed His
only retaliation the remark that Saumur
was Of little account to him. but that the Kings
word ought to be dear to the King-a saying
that would have cut almost any other man in
France to the quick. but which does not appear
to have touched Louis XIII.
1t did not require many experiences of this sort