Page:History of Freedom.djvu/157

 MASSACRE OF ST. B.L;\RTHOLOlVIEW I 13

was lIippolyto Aldobrandini, who, hventy years later, ascended the papal chair as Clement VIII. The com- panion \vhose presence conferred the greatest lustre on the mission \vas the general of the Jesuits, Francis Borgia, the holiest of the successors of Ignatius, and the most venerated of men then living. Austerities had brought him to the last stage of \veakness; and he \vas sinking under the malady of which he was soon to die. But it was beìieved that the \vords of such a man, pleading for the Church, would s\vay the mind of the I(ing. The ostensible purpose of the Legate's journey \"as to break off the match with Navarre, and to bring France into the Holy League. He gained neither object. When he was summoned back to Rome it v,ras understood in France that he had reaped nothing but refusals, and that he went av.ray disappointed. l The jeers of the Protestants pursued him. 2 But it was sufficiently certain beforehand that France could not plunge into a Turkish war. s The real business of the Legate, besides proposing a Catholic husband for the Princess, was to ascertain the object of the expedition which vvas fitting out in the \Vestern ports. On both points he had something favourable to report. In his last despatch, dated Lyons, the 6th of i'Æarch, he \vrote that he had failed to prevent the engagement with N avarre but that he had something for the Pope's private ear, ,vhich made his journey not altogether unprofitable. 4 The secret was soon divulged in Italy. The I(ing had met the earnest remonstrances of the Legate by assuring hÏ1n that the marriage afforded the only prospect of wreaking vengeance OD the Huguenots: the event would sho\v; he could say no more, but desired his promise to 1 Serranus, Com men ta rii, iv. 14: Davila. ii. 104, 2 Digges, p, 193. 3 Finis hujus legationis erat non tam suadere Regl ut foedus cum aliis Christian is principibus iniret (id nempe notum erat impossibile illi regno esse); sed ut rex ille praetermissus non videretur, et revera ut sciretur quo tenderent Gallorum cogitationes. Non longe nempe a Rocella naves quasdam praegrandes instruere et armare coeperat Philippus Strozza praetexens velle ad Indias a Gallis im entas navigare (Relatio gestorum in Legatiolle Card, AlexandrÍ1lÍ }fS.), 4 Con akuni particulari che io porto, de' quali ragguaglierò N. Signore a bocca, posso dire di non partirmi affatto mal espedito (Ranke, Zeitschrift, iii. 59 8 ), Le temps et les effcctz Iuy témoigneront encores d'advantage (. Iémoire baillé au légat Alexandrin, Feb, 1572; Bib, Imp, F. Dupuy, 5 2 3). I