to the Queen’s letter taken by Montmorenci. The French king was already beginning to cry off of his bargain about aiding the revolted Netherlands against Philip. Pressure was being brought to bear upon him from the Pope and the Emperor, whispers of Huguenot plots and treasons against him were instilled into his ear from morn till night by his Catholic nobles; and the Queen-mother herself had taken fright at the arrogance of the now dominant Protestant party, who were riding roughshod over their enemies. Paris was in a ferment at the supersession of its beloved Guises; and Charles IX. and his mother felt that in avoiding the Scylla of Catholic subjection they had fallen into the Charybdis of complete Huguenot thraldom. Their connection with the “Englishwoman” had gone too far for the patience of Paris, and the King’s throne was in danger. As usual, the cooler he grew towards the English alliance the more openly was the bait of marriage held out by the Queen. There was an additional reason, too, for his holding back. The Huguenot force under Genlis, which had entered Flanders, had been completely crushed and routed by Don Fadrique de Toledo, and it was clear to Charles IX. that unless he could disconnect himself from the unsuccessful attempt, he might be dragged down by the overthrow of the Huguenot party. On the day, therefore, that the news of Genlis’s defeat reached Paris the King was closeted for hours with Montmorenci, and the result of this conference was the dispatch the same night of a young noble named La Mole to England. He was a mere lad, a great friend of Alençon’s, and the reason for choosing him was that he might fittingly seem to be pressing Alençon’s suit, and so keep Elizabeth from quite breaking away, whilst really his object was to dissociate the King from any act of hostility against Spain in Flanders, and thus practically to withdraw from the treaty of alliance of which the ink was hardly yet dry.