From Rise of Protestantism in France to Publication of the Institutes - James Aitken Wylie

and, in short, the foundations were now laid of that
remarkable prosperity which made the little
kingdom in the Pyrenees resemble an oasis amid
the desert which France and Spain were now
beginning to become. When Margaret went to her
grave, in 1549, she left a greater to succeed her in
the government of the little territory which had so
rapidly risen from rudeness to wealth and
civilisation. Her daughter, Jeanne d'Albret, is one
of the most illustrious women in history.
We return to Calvin, in the track of whose
footsteps it is that the great movement, set for the
rising of one kingdom and the fall of another, is to
be sought. He now begins to be by very much the
chief figure of his age. Francis I. with his court,
Charles V. with his armies, are powers more
imposing but less real than Calvin. They pass
across the stage with a great noise, but half-acentury
afterwards, when we come to examine the
traces they have left behind them, it is with
difficulty that we can discover them; other kings
and other armies are busy effacing them, and
imprinting their own in their room. It is Calvin's
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