MASSr\CRE OF ST. BARTHOLOMEW I I I
The King and Queen whispered to him that they hoped to make the peace yield such fruit that the end would lTIOre than countervail the badness of the beginning; and the King added, in strict confidence, that his plan was one which, once told, could never be executed. 1 This might have been said to delude the Nuncio; but he was inclined on the whole to believe that it was sincerely meant. The impression \vas confirmed by the Archbishop of Sens, Cardinal Pellevé, who informed him that the Huguenot leaders were caressed at Court in order to detach them from their party, and that after the loss of their leaders it would not take more than three days to deal \vith the rest. 2 Salviati on his return to France was made aware that his long-deferred hopes were about to be fulfilled. He shadowed it forth obscurely in his despatches. He reported that the Queen allowed the Huguenots to pass into Flanders, believing that the admiral would become more and more presumptuous until he gave her an opportunity of retribution; for she excelled in that kind of intrigue. Some days later he knew more, and wrote that he hoped soon to have good news for his Holiness. s At the last moment his heart misgave him. On the morning of the 2 I st of August the Duke of Montpensier and the Cardinal of Bourbon spoke with so much unconcern, in his presence, of what was then so near, that he thought it hardly possible the secret could be kept. 4 The foremost of the French prelates was the Cardinal of Lorraine. He had held a prominent position at the council of Trent; and for many years he had wielded the
1 Sept, 24, 1570, 2 Nov. 28, 157 0 . 3 Quando scrissi ai giorni passati alIa S. V. Illma in cifra, che r ammiraglio s' avanzava troppo et cbe gli darebbero su runge, gia mi ero accorto, cbe non 10 volevano più tollerare, et moho più mi confefmai nell' opinione, quando con caratteri ordinarii glie scrivevo cbe speravo di dover haver occasione di dar qualche buona nova a Sua Beatitudine, benchè mai havrei creduto la x. parte di queIlo, che al presente veggo con gli occhi (Desp. Aug, 24; Theiner, Annates, i. 329), 4 Che molti siano stati consapevoli del fatto è necessario, potendogli dizer che a 21 la mattina, essendo col Cardinal di Borbone et 1\1:, de Montpensier, viddi che ragionavano si domesticamente di quello che doveva seguire, che in me medesialo restando confuso, conobbi cbe la prattica andava gagliarda, e piutosto disperai di buon fine che altrimente (same Desp. ; "Mackintosh, History of England, ii. 355
