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2 The First War. [1562
Conde and Admiral de Coligny, on learning by a message from the
Queen-Mother herself that they had been forestalled, made the best of their
way to Orleans, which city d'Andelot, the second of the Chatillon brothers,
was already trying to enter. The reinforcement which they brought at
once terminated the half-hearted resistance of the town; and Orleans
passed into the hands of the Huguenots without the usual preliminary
sack. The first overt act of war had thus been committed by the weaker
side; and the last voice of wisdom was silenced. The Chancellor
LTiopital, who till now had with the assent of the Queen-Mother been
making a final effort for conciliation, was met with insult and excluded
from the Council, which was packed with creatures of the House of
Guise. Orders were sent to the regular troops to be in readiness by
May 15; the Huguenots replied by seizing the larger towns on the
Rhone, the Saone, the Loire, and the lower Seine, with others in the
south and centre. Negotiations did not on that account altogether
cease; Conde offering more than once to withdraw to his own house, if
the chiefs of the opposite party would do the like. To this, however,
they would only consent on condition that the Edict of January was
revoked—in other words, if the Protestants would surrender at discretion.
Early in June an interview took place between Conde and the Queen-
Mother at Talsy, near Orleans. The Prince held to his conditions,
which Catharine made another effort to induce the Guises to accept, but
in vain ; though the King of Navarre, if he had had any real power,
would have been ready enough to close with them. The month was
spent in parleying, while " two armies were helping the inhabitants of
the district to get in their crops." Finally, the King of Navarre met
Conde at Beaugency, where the Prince offered to place himself in the
King's hands if his terms were accepted, as a hostage for their loyal
observance by his party The Queen-Mother at once declared it im-*
possible for two religions to exist side by side in France. The Catholics
were clearly the stronger party ; the Edict of January must go. Conde
then made a last offer. If the Edict were allowed to stand, he and the
other leaders, as soon as the Guises had left the Court, would quit France
altogether and remain abroad until they should be recalled. Somewhat
to their surprise, Catharine closed with this proposal. The Catholic
chiefs, with thie exception of the King of Navarre, were ordered to leave
the camp, handing over their forces to him ; while Conde was called
upon to fulfil his part of the contract. He went so far as to meet
Catharine again at Talsy : but some intercepted letters, whether genuine
or forged, fell into Huguenot hands, in which the King of Navarre was
directed by the Lorraine party to seize his brother's person. Hereupon
the Admiral and the other Huguenot chiefs intervened, and practically
bore their leader back to their camp (June 27).
The war now began in earnest. The Parlement of Paris declared the
Huguenots rebels., and a few executions followed. The Huguenots,