"As soon as the different authorities in the state, Marshal de Damville as well as the rest, were informed of this novelty," says De Thou, "they made every effort to prevent it from taking effect.
'Nothing could be of more dangerous example,' they said, 'than to suffer the people to make treaties in this way and on their own authority, without waiting for the consent of his Majesty or of those who represented him in the provinces.' The folks of the Vivarais, on the contrary, presumed to justify themselves by saying that the step they had taken did not in any way infringe the king's authority; that it was rather an opening given by them for securely establishing tranquillity in the kingdom; that nothing was more advantageous or could contribute more towards peace than to raze all those fortresses set up in the heart of the state, which were like so many depots of revolt; that by a diminution of the garrisons the revenues of his Majesty would be proportionately augmented; that, at any rate, there would result this advantage, that the lands, which formed almost the whole wealth of the kingdom, would be cultivated, that commerce would flourish, and that the people, delivered from fear of the many scoundrels who, found a retreat in those places, would at last be able to draw breath after the many misfortunes they had experienced." It was in this condition of disorganization and red-hot anarchy that Henry III., on his return from Poland, and after the St.Bartholomew, found France; it was in the face of all these forces, full of life, but scattered and excited one against another, that, with the aid of his mother, Catherine, he had to re-establish unity in the state, the effectiveness of the government, and the public peace.

It was not a task for which the tact of an utterly corrupted woman and an irresolute prince sufficed.

What could the artful manoeuvrings of Catherine and the waverings of Henry III.

do towards taming both Catholics and Protestants at the same time, and obliging them to live at peace with one another, under one equitable and effective power?
Henry IV.

was as yet unformed, nor was his hour yet come for this great work.