Stories were put about that the young French King was a leper, and was kidnapping fair-haired children, in whose blood he meant to bathe.

The Huguenots had been conspiring ever since September 1559, when they seem to have sent to Elizabeth for aid in money.

{165a} More recently they had held a kind of secret convention at Nantes, and summoned bands who were to lurk in the woods, concentrate at Amboise, attack the chateau, slay the Guises, and probably put the King and Queen Mary under the Prince de Conde, who was by the plotters expected to take the part which Arran played in Scotland.

It is far from certain that Conde had accepted the position.

In all this we may detect English intrigue and the gold of Elizabeth.