But these scattered hostilities, much as they increased the misery of France, had very little influence on the main course of events. So long as Condé and Coligny were in the field, the cause of independence was safe. The young Duke of Anjou, who, as lieutenant-general of the kingdom, had been put at the head of the royal forces, was no match for his experienced antagonists; nor could he always check the dissensions between the veteran generals who, nominally under his orders, were really the directors of all his movements. The Huguenot leaders saw the favorable opportunity, and, with unexpected caution and rapidity, Condé moved his army toward Chartres, in the hope of securing it as a base of operations against Paris. But the Royalists were too quick for him, and the garrison was reinforced before he could reach the city. Determined to take the town at all hazards--for it was on the main line of communication between Paris and the west and south--Coligny pressed the siege, when Catherine, seeing that affairs had reached a crisis, took the bold step of appearing in the enemy’s camp. A timely remonstrance from the pen of Chancellor L’Hopital had a marked effect in turning the minds of the people toward peace. Beginning with a comparison of the two parties he says, “The Huguenots are not a mob hastily collected together, but men, warlike, resolute, and in despair ... ready to venture all that men hold most dear in defense of their wives and children. The Catholic party is ill-constructed, all are tired of the war, and, even among the common people, there is nothing but murmuring.... To exterminate the enemy is impossible, unless you would fill the country with pestilence, famine, and starvation. Look at Champagne--a desert, so utterly wretched that there is nothing left the poor inhabitants but to die of hunger and despair.... But if we could destroy them all, what will you do with their innocent children? If you, spare them, will they not grow up to avenge their fathers? If the king should lose a battle, he would be deserted by thousands who now follow him through fear or love of plunder: it would be the destruction of his throne.” After combating the arguments of those who contend that the king is bound to punish rebels, and that he can not capitulate with his subjects, he advises Charles “to use clemency, as he shall meet it from God; to forget his own resentment toward his subjects, and they will forget their evil dispositions toward him, and forget their very selves to honor and obey him.”[405] If the queen-mother was not influenced by these arguments, she saw at least that it was time to put an end to the war. She had often boasted that her tongue and her pen were more than a match for the lances of her enemies; and their power was never more strikingly shown than in the present instance. She offered an amnesty for all past offenses, and an unconditional acquiescence in the demands of her son’s “loyal though