Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 10.djvu/152

I 3 2 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 58. The chiefs of the congregations were waiting for a signal from Coligny to rise in every province and town. The Catholics had discovered the plot, and did not mean to sit still to be murdered. If the King refused to act with them, they would choose another leader ; and whatever happened, he would be himself destroyed. Unable to say that the story could not be true, Charles looked inquiringly at Tavannes and de Nevers, and they both confirmed the Queen-mother's words. Shaking his incredulity with reminders of Amboise and Meaux, Catherine went on to say that one man was the cause of all the troubles in the realm. The Admiral aspired to rule all France, and she she admitted, with Anjou and the Guises, had conspired to kill him to save the King and the country. She dropped all disguise. The King, she said, must now assist them or all would be lost. The first blow had failed, but it must be repeated at once. The Admiral, with the rest of the Huguenot leaders, must die. A grown man, in possession of his senses, would have suspected the story from the proposal with which it ended. Had there been truth in it, the hands which could murder could arrest : the conspirators could be taken in their beds, and, if found guilty, could be legally punished. It was easy to say however that the Hugue- nots were present in such force that the only safety was in surprise. Charles was a weak passionate August 24. boy, alone in the dark conclave of iniquity. He stormed, raved, wept, implored, spoke of his honour, his plighted word ; swore at one moment that the Ad-