[1295] Fourquevaux, II, 31, 54.
[1296] Coll. Godefroy, XCVI, William of Orange to Charles IX, December 21, 1568.
[1297] Alva sent word to Charles IX at all hazards to hold the prince of Condé back, himself promising to take care of Orange. The King sent the Spanish duke a very large commission, not only to levy upon the country for necessities but even to enter the French walled towns—so far were the two crowns now in accord (C. S. P. For., No. 2,666, December 8, 1568).
[1298] The alarm of the government at this hour over Paris may be measured by two police regulations of the time. One ordered search to be made throughout the town twice a week, in all hostelries and other places, and forbade mechanics to leave their houses on certain days. The other allowed those of the religion who had been forbidden to leave their houses on certain days to appoint one of their servants to go about the town on their affairs. He was to have a certificate signed by the captain and commissaires of the quarter, and to be unarmed. The commissaires were to make a weekly search in the houses of those of the religion, to make procès-verbal of the names of all the domestics, signed by the master of the house, and to remove all arms found therein (ibid., No. 2,671, December 11; No. 2,684, December 23, 1568). Both ordinances were registered by the Parlement. During the Christmas season no Calvinist was permitted to stir out of doors (ibid., No. 2,688, §3, December 26, 1568).
[1299] “The good disposition and order that is kept in the prince’s army is much to be commended, nothing like oppressing the country where they pass, as that of M. d’Anjou, which was waxed hateful by their insolent behavior, both to Protestants and Catholics. M. d’Anjou has bestowed the greatest part of his army in the towns upon the river of Loire.”—C. S. P. For., No. 12, January 4, 1569.
The presence of the royal army in Anjou, under the command of the duke of Anjou, was a heavy burden upon the people of the province, which already had suffered heavily from the depredations of the Huguenots in the preceding year. The municipal council of Angers, on November 4, was called upon to furnish 800 pairs of stockings, 1,500 pairs of shoes, powder, bread, hay, straw, oats, pikes, shovels, mattocks, and other implements. The town was filled with sick and wounded soldiers (Joubert, Les misères de l’Anjou, etc., 36).
[1300] Orange was also in want of pay for his troops (Languet, Epist. secr., I, 82).
[1301] Revue d’histoire diplomatique, XIV (1900), 51-52, 64.
[1302] C. S. P. For., No. 22, January 10, 1569; No. 151, March 5, 1569; La Popelinière, Book XV; De Thou and D’Aubigné add nothing new.
[1303] On the hardness of the winter of 1568-69 see La Noue, chap, xxiv; Hist. du Lang., V, 514; Commentaires et lettres de Montluc, V, 156; Whitehead, Coligny, 202.