[75] Mem de la Noue, c. i. The letter of Beza to Calvin from Meaux, March 28, 1562, shows, however, that even before the prince left that city it was known that the triumvirs had set out for Fontainebleau. Beza, not apparently without good reason, blamed the improvidence of Conde in not forestalling the enemy. "Hostes, relicto in urbe non magno praesidio, in aulam abierunt quod difficile non erat et prospicere et impedire. Sed aliter visum est certis de causis, quas tamen nec satis intelligo nec probo." Baum, ii., App., 176. [76] Yet, if we may credit the unambiguous testimony of Jean de Tavannes, Catharine did not cease to endeavor to favor the Huguenots. He assures us that, a few months later, during the summer, his father, Gaspard de Tavannes, intercepted at Chalons a messenger whom Catharine had despatched to her daughter the Duchess of Savoy ("qui agreoit ces nouvelles opinions") ostensibly as a lute-player. Among his effects the prying governor of Burgundy found letters signed by the queen mother, containing some rather surprising suggestions. "La Royne luy escrivoit qu'elle estoit resolue de favoriser les Huguenots, d'ou elle esperoit son salut contre le gouvernement du triumvirat ... qu'elle soupconnoit vouloir oster la couronne a ses enfans; et prioit madame de Savoye d'aider lesdits Huguenots de Lyon, Dauphine et Provence, et qu'elle persuadast son mary d'empescher les Suisses et levee d'Italie des Catholiques." Mem. de Tavannes (Petitot ed.), ii. 341, 342. Tavannes did not dare to detain the messenger, nor to take away his letters; and if, as his son asserts, the enmity of Catharine, which the discovery of her secret gained for him, delayed his acquisition of the marshal's baton for ten years, he certainly had some reason to remember and regret his ill-timed curiosity. [77] Mem. de la Noue, c. iii.; De Thou, iii. 138; Letter of Beza, of April 5th, Baum, ii., App., 177; Jean de Serres, ii. 24, 25; Bruslart, Mem. de Conde, i. 79. Chamberlain (to Chaloner, April 7, 1562), who on his way from Orleans met the first detachment within a mile of that city--"a thousand handsome gentlemen, well mounted, each having two or three daggs, galloping towards him." State Paper Office. [78] Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., ii. 7. [79] April 7th. Mem. de Conde, iii. 221; Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., ii., 9; J. de Serres, ii. 58, 59; De Thou, iii. 139. The historian of the reformed churches, as well as Beza in his letter of March 28th (Baum, ii., App., 176), complains bitterly of the slowness and parsimony of the Parisian Protestants, who seemed to be unable to understand that war was actually upon them. [80] April 8th. "Declaration faicte par M. le prince de Conde, pour monstrer les raisons qui l'ont contraint d'entreprendre la defence de l'authorite du Roy," etc. Mem. de Conde, iii. 222-235; Jean de Serres, ii. 42-57; Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., ii. 9, 10; De Thou, iii. 139-141.