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

defend their faith and liberties till death.[2] When
the spring opened the brave patriot-chief had
another army, more numerous and better
disciplined than the one he had lost, ready to take
the field and strike another blow. The fatal fields of
Jarnac and Montcontour were not to be the grave of
French Huguenotism.
When the winter had passed, and after some
encounters with the enemy, which tested the spirit
of his army, Coligny judged it best to march direct
on Paris, and make terms under the walls of the
capital. The bold project was put in instant
execution. The tidings that Coligny was
approaching struck the Government with
consternation. The court, surrendering itself to the
pleasant dream that Protestantism lay buried in the
gory mounds of its recent battle-fields, had given
itself up to those pleasures which ruin, body and
soul, those who indulge in them. The court was at
its wits' end. Not only was the redoubtable
Huguenot chief again in the field, he was on his
road to Paris, to demand a reckoning for so many
Pacifications broken, and so much blood spilt. The
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