In order to appreciate the full merit of the _Satyre Ménippée_, the reader must call to mind that after the murder of Henry III. his cousin of Navarre became King of France by inheritance. Henry IV. had the support not only of his own subjects and the Huguenots, but of the “Politiques,”--the moderate men, as we might say, among the Roman Catholics. The ardent partisans of the Church turned against him, and banded themselves with the princes of the house of Guise. The Catholic League, which had been first founded by Gaspard de Saulx-Tavannes nearly thirty years before, after the conspiracy of Amboise, was extended, and became a great organisation for the purpose of setting aside the heretic King of Navarre, and putting some assured Romanist on the throne. In reality it was little more than a cloak for the ambition of the Guises, and the partisans who saw a chance of profiting by anarchy. It had the support of the King of Spain. Paris was held, partly by the help of the more fanatical Roman Catholic clergy and the mob, partly by a so-called Spanish garrison--Moors, Neapolitans, and what not--made up out of the sweepings of Philip II.’s army. Even the conversion of Henry did not disarm the League. It called a sham meeting of the Estates of the realm to debate the question of setting him aside. At this moment a body of men in Paris combined to assail these so-called États with ridicule; and when we remember how brutally the “Guisards” had disposed of opponents and critics, it is hard to exaggerate the courage they showed. [SN: _Its authors._]