Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 10.djvu/150

 130 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 58. So passed the 22nd of August. The next morning Guise and Aumale came to the palace to say that if their presence in Paris caused uneasiness, they were ready to leave the city ; and the King bade them go. His words and manner were so completely re- assuring that the Huguenot leaders put away their misgivings. The Yidame of Chartres still urged flight, distrusting Charles's power to protect them ; but Conde, Teligny, Kochefoucault, Montgomery, all opposed him. To re- tire would be to leave the Admiral in danger. His wound appeared only to have increased the King's resolution to stand by him ; and being themselves most anxious to prevent disturbance and give no cause of ofience, they would not even permit their followers to watch in the streets. A few hundred of them paraded in arms in the afternoon under the windows of the Hotel Guise ; but not a single act of violence was com- mitted to excuse a Catholic rising ; and when they broke up at night, they left the city ostentatiously to the ordinary police and the Royal Guard. So far, the Queen-mother's plot had failed. The Ad- miral was not dead. The Huguenots had not broken the peace. The Guises were disgraced ; and, if they were arrested, they were likely to reveal the name of their instigator. That same afternoon Catherine sent for the Count de Retz, Marshal Tavannes, and the Due de Nevers, to the gardens of the Tuileries : all these were members of Charles's council, ardent Catholics, and passionately opposed to the Spanish war. After some