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

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ly<strong>in</strong>g sometimes <strong>in</strong> Africa, sometimes <strong>in</strong> the island<br />

<strong>of</strong> Sard<strong>in</strong>ia, see<strong>in</strong>g the k<strong>in</strong>gdom itself was wholly<br />

imag<strong>in</strong>ary. They even flattered him with hopes that<br />

he might come <strong>to</strong> wear the crown <strong>of</strong> Scotland. The<br />

Pope would dissolve his marriage with Jeanne<br />

d'Albret, on the ground <strong>of</strong> heresy, and he would<br />

then secure him the hand <strong>of</strong> the young and<br />

beautiful Mary Stuart. Dazzled by these illusions,<br />

which he <strong>to</strong>ok for realities, the weak, unstable,<br />

unpr<strong>in</strong>cipled An<strong>to</strong><strong>in</strong>e de Bourbon passed over <strong>to</strong><br />

the Roman camp, amid the loud vaunt<strong>in</strong>gs <strong>of</strong> those<br />

who knew how worthless, yet how handy, the prize<br />

was.[5]<br />

The way was thus prepared so far for the<br />

execution <strong>of</strong> bolder measures. The Duke <strong>of</strong> Guise,<br />

quitt<strong>in</strong>g Paris, spent the w<strong>in</strong>ter on his family estates<br />

<strong>in</strong> Lorra<strong>in</strong>e, and there, unobserved, began <strong>to</strong> collect<br />

an army, <strong>to</strong> cooperate with the troops which the<br />

K<strong>in</strong>g <strong>of</strong> Spa<strong>in</strong> had promised <strong>to</strong> send him. He hoped<br />

<strong>to</strong> take the field <strong>in</strong> spr<strong>in</strong>g with such a force as<br />

would enable him <strong>to</strong> root out Huguenotism from<br />

the soil <strong>of</strong> <strong>France</strong>, and res<strong>to</strong>re the supremacy <strong>of</strong> the<br />

old faith.<br />

168

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