the king had troops enough to enforce obedience from his subjects, and that she would severely punish any who sought for foreign aid without the authority of the crown.” There can hardly be a doubt that, at this time, Catherine was sincere in her determination to maintain a religious toleration, even at the risk of hostilities with Spain; and she appears to have consulted Coligny as to the number of men the Reformed churches could bring into the field.[272] But events moved so swiftly that she had for the time no alternative but to go with the stream. Anthony’s defection had destroyed that balance of parties which the queen-mother had so diligently labored to maintain. As rash and violent now as he had previously been dilatory and weak, he had hastened to Paris, whence he wrote, inviting Guise to join him, and make a combined attack upon the Protestants. The Duke was at the castle of Joinville in Champagne, having just returned from Saverne in Alsace, where the Lorraine princes had met Duke Christopher of Wurtemberg. Their object in visiting Germany was to mislead the Protestants of that country, and alienate them entirely from the Calvinists of France, thinking that, if the latter were deprived of all external support, they must soon be crushed.[273] The Cardinal of Lorraine twice preached sermons so Lutheran in spirit, that his open adoption of the Confession of Augsburg was eagerly looked for;[274] and the language of the Duke of Guise and his brother Charles, in their conferences with Duke Christopher and his chancellor, Brentz, is so extraordinary, and, as regards Duke Francis, so unlike what we read of him at other times, as almost to shake our faith in the genuineness of the report of the conference.[275] Brentz entreated the cardinal to put an end to the persecutions in France. “I will do so,” he replied, adding with a solemn look, “that he had not put one single man to death on account of his religion.” Francis corroborated his brother’s words, and said: “We will do the Reformed no injury.” We shall see how well the two Lorraine princes kept their promise.