Page:A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country (1804).djvu/605

Rh clared their objects were the liberation of the king and queen-mother, and to obtain toleration; they thence made proposals, which, though agreeable to the queen, were rejected by the council; who prepared tor war, after constraining the king and queen-mother to declare they had come to Paris of their own will, and were then at liberty.

The most dreadful tumults, massacres, and civil wars, took place throughout the kingdom; catholics and protestants seemed to vie with each other in acts of cruelty. Foreign powers were applied to on each side, and different treaties concluded. The Guises had at length entirely engaged Catherine in their interest; she earnestly wished for peace and the abolition of the reformed religion: she made frequent overtures to the prince of Condé, and several personal interviews took place between them; but Catherine positively declared, she would never permit the re-establishment of the edict of January, (one highly favorable to the protestants, that had been suppressed); and that her son was determined to allow the public exercise of no other religion than the catholic. The conferences failed, and the most dreadful persecutions followed; the parliament of Paris pronounced an arrêt, permitting all the Catholics in towns and villages to assemble in arms at the ringing of the bells, to pursue and destroy the Huguenots; and France became a scene of carnage, in which the protestants, when it was in their power, retaliated the cruelties on their persecutors, but several cities were taken from them.

At length, on the plains of Dreux, the armies being opposite each other, the catholic chiefs sent to the queen, informing her, they had it in their power to bring the Huguenots to action, and only waited for orders. Catherine, ever an enemy to all strokes