princes of the blood to keep aloof from the court. Coligny gave way at last; and when the Queen of Navarre expostulated with him he replied: “Madame, I confide implicitly in the word and honor of my royal master. It is not life to exist in the midst of perpetual alarms; and I would rather die by one effectual blow, than live a hundred years subject to cowardly apprehensions.” He received many warnings, but took no heed of them. The admiral left Rochelle escorted by fifty gentlemen, “not because he doubted the king’s word, but to be secure against private enemies,” and arrived at Blois on the 12th September, where he was received with the most flattering attentions. Being conducted into the audience-chamber he fell on his knees, but Charles raised him up saying, as he embraced him, “Father, we have you at last; you shall not escape when you wish. This is the happiest day of my life. You are more welcome than any one I have seen these twenty years.” The queen-mother kissed him, and took him into Anjou’s apartments, for the young duke was just then “a little indisposed.”[485] The admiral was quite charmed with his youthful sovereign: they were so much together, and so often in private conference, that Catherine grew jealous: “He sees too much of the admiral,” she said, “and too little of me.”[486] The chief topic of their conversation was the proposed war in Flanders. It was a maxim with Coligny, that France could not be quieted down except by engaging in a foreign war. When Brantome was at Rochelle he told the gossiping abbé, that if “the Huguenots were not occupied and amused abroad, they would certainly begin their quarrels again at home; such restless fellows are they, and so fond of plunder.” In the Low Countries he saw a field for their activity. Warming at the thoughts of the sufferings which the Protestants of Flanders had endured so long, he expatiated to the king on the heroic patience of William of Orange, and the glorious opportunity then presented of repaying Spain for the evils she had inflicted on France. Charles caught fire at the eloquent appeal: the martial ardor of his race broke out in him: “I too shall win battles--in my own name--with my own sword.” He entered into the scheme with his whole heart, and promised effectual help to the Prince of Orange, to whom he had already restored his little principality on the banks of the Rhone. Nor did he forget the admiral, whose property had been confiscated: he was reinstated in his seat at the council-board, and received a present of 100,000 crowns, “not so much a wedding-gift as a tribute to the first captain of the age.” Charles farther promised to use his influence with the Duke of Savoy to restore the estates of his wife which had been sequestered. He also interceded in behalf of certain Vaudois, who for fighting under Coligny had been stripped of their property and expelled from their homes. “I wish to make you a request,” wrote the king to the duke, “and it is on a matter that