On such conditions was the government of Charles IX.

to establish its existence.
The death of Francis II.

put an end to a grand project of the Guises, which we do not find expressly indicated elsewhere than in the _Memoires_ of Michael de Castelnau, one of the best informed and most intelligent historians of the time.

"Many Catholics," says he, "were then of opinion that, if the authority of the Duke of Guise had continued to be armed with that of the king as it had been, the Protestants would have had enough to do.

For orders had been sent to all the principal lords of the kingdom, officers of the crown and knights of the order, to show themselves in the said city of Orleans on Christmas-day at the opening of the states, for that they might be all made to sign the confession of the Catholic faith in presence of the king and the chapter of the order; together with all the members of the privy council, reporting-masters (of petitions), domestic officers of the king's household, and all the deputies of the estates.