288.] The negotiations were short.

The war had been going on for two years.
The two parties, victorious and vanquished by turns, were both equally sick of it.

In vain did Philip II., King of Spain, offer Charles IX.

an aid of nine thousand men to continue it.

In vain did Pope Pius V.write to Catherine de' Medici, "As there can be no communion between Satan and the children of the light, it ought to be taken for certain that there can be no compact between Catholics and heretics, save one full of fraud and feint." "We have beaten our enemies," says Montluc, "over and over again; but notwithstanding that, they had so much influence in the king's council that the decrees were always to their advantage.