Philip and the Catholics were of course overjoyed, and the Guises soon made their heavy hands felt. And then, not many days after the massacre, Catharine de Medici saw the mistake she had made, and tried so far as she could to retrace her steps, by again raising hopes of the Huguenots and redressing the balance of parties. She accordingly sent Castelnau de la Mauvissière, a moderate man known in England, to Walsingham for the purpose of once again bringing the Alençon match forward. Walsingham, sick with the horrors he had lately witnessed, bluntly told him he had no belief in their sincerity, and in a subsequent interview with Catharine he repeated the same to her, much to her indignation. But Walsingham carefully reported that Alençon himself was entirely free from complicity in the massacre, which he openly and loudly condemned, taking the side of the Huguenots and swearing with Henry of Navarre to avenge the murdered admiral. He was closely watched at Court, and was for long meditating an escape and flight to England. On the 21st of September he had a private interview with Walsingham, whom he satisfied of his good faith personally, and on the following day he signed a letter to Elizabeth which was the beginning of the extraordinary correspondence which continued for years, most of which still may be found at Hatfield.[82] The body of the letter is written by a secretary, and is full of the most fulsome flattery of Elizabeth, of “her rare virtues and infinite perfections.” “His affection and fidelity for her are such that there is nothing in the world, however great or difficult it may be, that he would not willingly do in order to render her more certain thereof;” and with this he begs her to listen to what will be said on his behalf by the bearer of the letter, a certain L’huillier, seigneur de Maisonfleur. At the bottom Alençon has scrawled a postscript himself in his ridiculously illiterate boyish French, saying, “Madame je vous supli mescuser si sete letre nest toute escripte de ma min, et croies que nay peu faire autrement.” Maisonfleur was a strangely chosen emissary for such a mission. He had been a follower of the Guises and a sergeant-carver to Catharine, and was now a Protestant and an equerry of Alençon. It was arranged that after seeing Elizabeth, he should return to Dover and receive Alençon, who had planned to escape and sail for England. When Maisonfleur arrived at Court he found the Huguenot nobles who were with the Queen had told her something of his history and she refused to give him audience. Either for this reason or from the Duke’s misgivings Alençon’s flight to England on this occasion fell through, and Maisonfleur returned to London from Dover without having seen his master. After his return he managed to obtain access of the Queen, and gradually broke down her distrust. In a letter of great length, dated December 1st, he wrote to his master under the