[1556] The Politiques hoped to persuade Charles IX to stop the war at home and exact redress from Spain for the massacre in Florida by attacking the Spanish West Indies. Even the duke of Anjou favored this. See Appendix XXX.
[1557] La Popelinière, XXI, 214 and 232 bis; C. S. P. For., No. 1,042, Dr. Dale to Lord Burghley, June 16, 1573: “The hearts of all men were being discouraged with the long siege” and the King’s heart bled “to see the misery of his people that die for famine by the ways where he rode.”
[1558] La Rochelle at first refused to let La Noue enter. On the whole matter see Hauser, La Noue, chap. ii.
[1559] C. S. P. For., No. 1,547, March 21, 1573; Raumer, II, 265; the marshals Biron and Strozzi, with Pinart, were commissioned for the purpose (Arch. hist. du Poitou, XII, 233). The negotiations may be seen in detail in Loutzchiski, Doc. inédits, 62 ff.
[1560] Vie de La Noue, 95; Letter of Charles IX to the duke of Anjou, February 7, 1573, Coll. Lajariette, Paris, 1860, No. 669; Coll. Godefroy, CCLVI, No. 57. At the same time Charles IX wrote in person to Montgomery, trying to lure him from the enterprise he was engaged in. See Appendix XXXI.
[1561] C. S. P. Ven., Nos. 540, 541, April 6 and 20, 1573.
[1562] Ibid., For., No. 1,050, June 22, 1573; Chroniques fontenaisiennes, 169.
[1563] See the series of documents on this head in Coll. Godefroy, CCLVI, Nos. 25, 29, 30, 38, 41-43. 46, 73, 77.
[1564] When the army disbanded, it was a frequent sight in the villages to see the wounded or sick being transported in baggage wagons (Claude Haton, II, 737). The villages near La Rochelle where the camp had been established were burned upon the evacuation of the troops “to prevent the plague which began to be hot.”—C. S. P. For., No. 1,107, Wilkes to Walsingham, July 31, 1573; cf. No. 1,052, June 25, to the same effect.
[1565] C. S. P. For., No. 1,072, Dr. Dale to the Queen, late in June, 1573.