vri.] THE RELIGIOUS WARS. log fought at Dreux, in which the Huguenots made Mont- morency prisoner, and were at first so successful that Catharine said, " Well, we shall say our prayers in French." But she spoke too hastily, for the Huguenots broke their ranks in the pursuit, Guise retrieved the day, and took Conde captive. While besieging Orleans, Guise received a mortal wound in the shoulder from an assassin named Poltrot. His family were persuaded that the murder had been sanctioned by Coligny, and were bent on revenge. But as the Triumvirate was now broken up, a treaty was made called the Pacification of Am boise, by which Conde and Montmorency were exchanged, and freedom of worship was granted to the Calvinists. Had Dreux been a victory, much more would have been gained by them. At the Council of Trent the French clergy had demanded permission for communion in both kinds, prayers in the vulgar tongue, and the marriage of the clergy. But the Italians would not hear of these things, and after the battle of Dreux the French ceased to press for them. The Council affirmed all the doctrines called in question by Calvin, but as some of its decrees seemed to trench on the civil power, Catharine would not cause its canons to be accepted in France. 6. The Second Huguenot War, 1567.— Catharine's plan of dealing with these troublous times was to keep the peace outwardly while working ruin secretly. She kept a most brilHant court full of young ladies, who were called the queen-mother's squadron. While apparently only occupied in needle-work, readings of Italian poems, hunt- ing and hawking, games, songs, dances, and pageants, they were set to bewitch and enthrall the men who came within their toils. There was a constant round of gaiety and sensual indulgence, intended to destroy the honour, morals, and energy of their victims, while the queen's bland Italian nature made all smooth. When she went to Bayonne, in 1566, to meet her daughter Elizabeth, the wife of Philip II., she had a conference with the Duke of Alva, in which she boasted of her adroitness in thus gain- ing the Prince of Conde, and Alva replied that, though ten thousand frogs were not worth the head of one salmon, the ralible might be disposed of by Sicilian vespers. Cond^s inaction under her spells did indeed enable her quietly to issue one edict after another. She thus took back each privilege granted at Amboise, until she began to raise an army and hire Swiss troops to put down the Reformers.
