[487] Henri Martin (Histoire de France, x. 255), on the authority of Coustureau, Vie du duc de Montpensier, states that the Rochellois had, after the peace of 1563, bought from Catharine de' Medici, for 200,000 francs, the suppression of the garrison placed in their city by the Duke of Montpensier, and remarks: "Ces 200,000 francs couterent cher!" The authority, however, is very slender in the absence of all corroborative evidence, and Arcere, more than a century ago, showed (Histoire de la Rochelle, i. 625) how improbable, or, rather, impossible the story is. If any gift was made to Catharine by the city, it must have been far less than the sum, enormous for the times and place, of 200,000 crowns; and, at any rate, it could not have been for the purchase of a privilege already enjoyed for hundreds of years. See the illustrative note at the end of this chapter. [488] Agrippa d'Aubigne, i. 218. "Plus absolument et avec plus d'obeisance que les Rochellois, qui depuis ont tousjours tenu le parti reforme, n'en ont voulu deferer et rendre aux princes mesmes de leur parti, contre lesquels ils se sont souvent picquez, en resveillant et conservant curieusement leurs privileges." [489] Others were beaten and banished, and suffered the other penalties denounced by the Edict of Chateaubriant, as Soulier goes on to show with much apparent satisfaction. Hist. des edits, etc., 67, 68. The text of the joint sentence of Couraud, Constantin, and Monjaud is interesting. It is given by Delmas, L'Eglise reformee de la Rochelle (Toulouse, 1870), pp. 19-25. [490] Martin, Hist. de France, x. 254. [491] Agrippa d'Aubigne, _ubi supra_; Davila, bk. iv. 122; De Thou, iv. 27 seq.; Soulier, 69. According to Arcere, Hist. de la Rochelle, i. 352, the mayor's correct name was Pontard, Sieur de Trueil-Charays. [492] The commission was dated from Montigny-sur-Aube, January 27, 1568, Soulier, 70. De Thou's expression (_ubi supra_), "peu de temps apres," is therefore unfortunate. [493] Soulier, Hist. des edits de pacification, 70. [494] Norris to Queen Elizabeth, January 23, 1568, State Paper Office. I retain the quaint old English form in which Norris has couched the marshal's speech. It is plain, in view of the perfidy proposed by Santa Croce, even in the royal council, that Conde was not far from right in protesting against the proposed limitation of Cardinal Chatillon's escort to twenty horse, insisting "que la qualite de mondict sieur le Cardinal, qui n'a acoustume de marcher par pais avecques si peu de train, ny son eage (age) ne permectent pas maintenant de commencer." Conde to the Duke of Anjou, Dec. 27, 1567, MS. Bibl. nat., Aumale, Prince de Conde, i. 568.