If, as I can but believe, this letter be spurious, none the less may it serve to indicate how firmly the persuasion was fixed in the minds of the Protestants that insidious designs were cherished against La Rochelle.
Designs upon the city.
It was not long before those designs began to develop. Strozzi, to whom the inhabitants had sent a deputation, avowedly to obtain explanations respecting the circumstances of the massacre, but in reality to discover the plans of the government, graciously offered some companies of his soldiers for their protection. But the Rochellois with equal politeness declined to accept such help. Meanwhile, they set themselves vigorously at work, and not only organized the inhabitants and refugees into companies for military defence, but repaired and manned the fortifications, and introduced a great abundance of provisions and munitions of war into the city.[1262] A few days later, letters were received from Charles himself, which, while endeavoring to calm the minds of the inhabitants respecting recent occurrences, promised them full protection in their religious rights, proclaimed the king's unaltered determination to maintain his edict, and called upon them to receive with due submission M. de Biron, whom he sent them to be their governor. No better choice could have been made among the Roman Catholics; for Biron, it was currently reported, so far from approving of severity, had himself narrowly escaped being involved in the massacre, and had owed his safety mainly to the fact that he was in command at the arsenal.
The shrewd Rochellois, however, while they greeted the king's assurances with all outward show of credit, were not willing to be duped. They listened respectfully to the king's envoys, and professed themselves his most devoted subjects; but they begged to be excused from receiving Marshal Biron as their governor until the troops of Strozzi should have been removed from their dangerous proximity to the city, and until the fleet should have set sail from Brouage. Nor, indeed, could Biron himself obtain better conditions, when, having sought an interview with the deputies of La Rochelle outside of the walls, he entreated them, with sincere or well-feigned emotion, to forestall the ruin impending over them.[1263] In vain did he humor their claim, dating from regal concessions and long prescription, that La Rochelle need receive no garrison but of her own municipal militia.[1264] In vain did he offer to make his entry with but one or two followers, and promise that, when they had duly submitted, he would secure them from injury at the hands of the royal troops, and would relieve them of the presence of a fleet. The citizens were inflexible. The experience of Castres, where lately the credulous inhabitants had inconsiderately admitted a governor sent them by the king, and had paid for their folly with their lives, confirmed them in the resolution rather to die with sword in hand than to be slaughtered like sheep.[1265]
Two months (September and October) passed in fruitless negotiations—precious time, which the citizens put to good service in preparing for the inevitable struggle. It was not until the eighth of November that the first skirmish took place, in which one of two royal galleys sent to reconnoitre the situation of La Rochelle was captured and brought into harbor by some Huguenot boats that had sailed out intending to secure the neighboring Île de Ré for the Protestant cause.[1266]
Mission of La Noue.
Meantime the court, reluctant to undertake an enterprise so formidable as the regular siege of La Rochelle seemed likely to prove, resorted to pacific measures, and resolved to employ for the purpose a person the most unlikely to be selected by Roman Catholics. This was none other than the famous François de la Noue, a Protestant leader not less remarkable for generalship than for literary ability, of whose "Political and Military Discourses," written during a later captivity, it has been said with justice that, in perspicuity, force, and good judgment, they are not inferior to the most celebrated commentaries of antiquity.[1267] La Noue was with Louis of Nassau in the city of Mons when the news of Admiral Coligny's murder, and of the consequent failure of the promised support of France, reached him. Mons soon after surrendered to the Duke of Alva, and La Noue scarcely knew whither to turn for refuge, when he received from his old friend, the Duke of Longueville, Governor of Picardy, a cordial invitation to return to France. Not without many misgivings, he visited Paris, where, contrary to his expectations, Charles greeted him very graciously, and even restored to him the confiscated property of his wife's murdered brother, Téligny. Taking advantage of the moment, the king now requested La Noue to undertake the task of mediating between the government and La Rochelle, and thus preventing the outbreak of a new civil war and the effusion of more blood. At first La Noue positively declined the appointment; but the king was urgent, and the arguments which he adduced coincided with the Huguenot's own impressions of the hopelessness of a struggle undertaken by a single city against the united forces of the most powerful kingdom of Christendom. It was only after the most solemn protestations of Charles, that he would not make use of him as an instrument to deceive and ruin his Protestant brethren, that La Noue reluctantly consented to accept a commission from which he was more likely to reap embarrassment than glory.
He is badly received by the Rochellois.
And certainly his first reception by the Rochellois was far from flattering. In a conference with the deputies of the city, in the suburban village of Tadon[1268]—for La Noue was not permitted to enter the walls—the burghers clearly revealed the suspicion with which they viewed him. They bluntly told him, after listening to the propositions he brought from the king, "that they had come to confer with M. de la Noue, but that they did not recognize him in the person before them. The brave warrior so closely bound to them in former years, and who had lost an arm in their defence, had a different heart, never came to them with vain hopes, nor, under the guise of friendship, invited them to conferences destined only to betray them."[1269] But, in spite of this somewhat uncourteous reception, the well-known and trusted integrity of the great Huguenot captain soon broke through the thin crust of coolness, which, after all, was rather assumed than really felt. La Noue was suffered to enter the city, and at the échevinage, or city hall, was permitted to lay before the general assembly, or municipal government, as well as the other citizens, the full extent of the king's concessions. Amnesty for the past, confirmation of the city's privileges, passports for any who might wish to remove to England or Germany, safe return for those whom fear had banished, free exercise of the Protestant religion in two quarters of the city, with three ministers to be chosen by the people and approved by the governor—all this he offered. On the other hand, a new church must be built for the Roman Catholics, the strangers who had lately come must remove elsewhere, and, of course, the governor must be admitted, although the king kindly consented to let them designate any other sufficiently distinguished and capable person, if they preferred to do so.[1270]
The royal proposals rejected.