At Toulouse a somewhat similar league had been formed, and a proclamation issued against the followers of the new religion. In that singular document, which was founded on a bull issued by Pius V. in March, 1568, the Protestants are described as “atheists, men living without God, without faith, and without law.” Jesus Christ himself inspires all good Catholics with “the idea of assuming the cross, taking up arms, and preparing a war like Mattathias and the other Maccabees.” The faithful are reminded of the heretical Albigenses destroyed in that very district to the number of 60,000; and are exhorted to pursue with the same fervor these “new enemies of God,” and to show them no mercy. If the crusaders die in the expedition, “their blood will serve them as a second baptism, washing out all their sins; and they will go with the other martyrs straight to paradise.” The qualifications for taking up the cross in this holy war were “to confess their sins and arm themselves with the body and blood of our Lord;” but these arms were not thought sufficient. “If the capitouls [magistrates] will lend a few cannons, things will go on all the better. Resolved at Toulouse, 21st September, 1568. The above is done under the authority of our Holy Father the Pope.” Priests were to be the captains of this “holy army of faith,” and its motto was: _Eamus nos; moriamur cum Christo_.[421] Immediately after the signing of the treaty of Longjumeau the Protestant army had been disbanded, and the reiters in their pay had returned to Germany, not without excesses on the road; but under various excuses the royal army, including the Swiss mercenaries and the Italian auxiliaries, was still kept on foot. The motive soon became apparent: the reactionary party meditated a bold stroke that should cripple, if not entirely crush, the Huguenot party. Condé, the admiral and other chiefs were to be seized, and of the fate intended for some of them there can be no doubt. Only two months earlier, Alva’s “blood council” had condemned Counts Egmont and Horn to a violent death. As early as May, all the bridges along the Loire were guarded. This may have been a mere matter of police in the disturbed state of the country; but the Huguenots very reasonably considered it as a means of controlling their movements and preventing their escape, if danger threatened them. Their leaders were widely separated; Andelot was in Brittany, La Rochefoucault in Angoulême, D’Acier in Languedoc, Bruniquet and Montglas in Gascony, Genlis and Mouy in Picardy, Montgomery in Normandy, the Admiral at Tanlay, and Condé at his castle of Noyers in Burgundy. These two places are so near that tradition speaks of a subterranean passage between them. Tanlay is placed in a secluded spot between Tonnerre and Montbard. On a splendid chimney-piece in the large hall may still be seen a head of Coligny in a plumed helmet, admirably carved in delicately tinted marble.[422]