Protestantism in France From Death of Francis I to Edict of Nantes - James Aitken Wylie

Such was now the unhappy condition of
France. The laws were no longer administered. The
land, scoured by armed bands, was full of violence
and terror, of rapine and blood. The anarchy was
complete; the cup of the ruler's oppression, and the
people's suffering, was full and running over.
The Guises, intent on profiting to the utmost
from the suppression of the "Conspiracy of
Amboise," pushed hard to crush their rivals before
they had time to rally, or set on foot a second and,
it might be, more formidable insurrection. In order
to this, they resolved on two measures--first, to
dispatch the Prince of Conde, the head of the
Protestant party; and, secondly, to compel every
man and woman in the kingdom to abjure
Protestantism. In prosecution of the first, having
lured the prince to Orleans, they placed him under
arrest, and brought him to trial for complicity in the
Amboise Conspiracy. As a matter of course he was
condemned, and the Guises were now importuning
the king to sign the death-warrant and have him
executed. The moment Conde's head had fallen on
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