Page:A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country (1804).djvu/599

Rh their birth might justly claim a share in the administration, were on various pretences excluded, and the Guises held despotic sway. The duke had secured the attachment of the troops, by the repeated proofs he had given of skill and courage in the field, while his liberality, magnificence, and courtesy endeared him to the people; his disposition was moderate, equitable, and intrepid in the hour of danger: the cardinal was chiefly indebted for his influence to the strength of his oratorical talents and religious orthodoxy; but his temper was vindictive, choleric and enterprising, too readily elated by success, and too easily depressed by defeat. Such were Catherine's associates, to whom she looked for support, yet trembled lest their excessive power should annihilate her own. At first she seemed averse to the dreadful spirit of persecution, which then raged against the Huguenots, and even reproved the cardinal for some sanguinary measures. In the discovery of the Calvinistic conspiracy, which was secretly headed by the prince of Condé, she had recourse to the advice of the Chatillons (one of whom was the Admiral Coligni) who were acknowledged protestants, to know what was the occasion of the threatened insurrection, and the best means to be adopted to prevent it. Coligni assured her it was from the cruelty of the edicts against those who professed to live according to the purity of the gospel, and the severity with which they were enforced. His observations were attended to, and by their united influence, a partial and temporary amelioration of those evils took place by means of a more merciful edict; she even liberated a great number of the rebels that were taken, whom it was supposed had not been privy to the plot, but had only wished to force a passage to the throne, that they might there present a supplication against the usurpation of the Guises, and obtain liberty of conscience. At