THE BEGGARS OF THE SEA. Just then something happened which gave Coligny and the Huguenots their chance for vengeance. The men who were resisting the king's officers in the Netherlands had been nicknamed the "Beggars." When they were driven from the cities they took to the sea. The "Beggars of the Sea" sometimes found a port of refuge in La Rochelle, a Huguenot town on the western coast of France, and sometimes they put into friendly English harbors. From these places they would sail out and attack Spanish vessels. When Queen Elizabeth in 1572 ordered a fleet of these "Beggars" to leave, they crossed over to their own shores and drove the Spanish garrison out of Brille. This success encouraged the Dutch and many of the southern Netherlanders to rise and expel the Spanish soldiers from their towns. THE FRENCH PROMISE AID. As soon as Coligny heard the news he urged the French king to send an army into the Netherlands and take vengeance not only for the massacre at Fort Caroline, but also for all the wrongs that he and his father and his grandfather had ever received at the hands of the Spaniards. The French king agreed and wrote a letter to the Netherlanders promising aid. [Illustration: GASPARD DE COLIGNY After the portrait in the Public Library, Geneva] MASSACRE OF HUGUENOTS IN PARIS. The plan was never carried out. While Coligny and many other Huguenots were in Paris, his enemies attempted to kill him. When the attempt failed these enemies, including the king's mother, persuaded the king that Coligny and the Huguenots were plotting against him, and goaded the king into ordering the murder of all the Huguenots in Paris and the other cities of France. Thousands of Huguenots perished. When the Netherlanders heard of what had befallen Coligny and his followers, they were crushed with grief. Coligny had missed the chance of vengeance. But the Spanish king was soon to have other enemies besides the Huguenots who were ready to help the Dutch. These new enemies were the English. THE ENGLISH DRAWN INTO THE CONFLICT. The religious troubles in England had been growing more serious. Two or three plots were made to assassinate Elizabeth in order to put on the throne Queen Mary of Scotland, who was the next heir. Philip began to encourage these plotters, especially after the pope in 1570 had excommunicated Elizabeth and forbidden her subjects to obey her as queen. She was sure to be dragged into the struggle in the Netherlands sooner or later. We have seen that she had once sheltered the "Beggars of the Sea." The murder of Coligny and his followers frightened the English and made many of them anxious to join in the conflict before their friends on the Continent, the French Huguenots and the Dutch Calvinists, were utterly destroyed.