Protestantism in Poland and Bohemia - James Aitken Wylie

aggrandisement to her family, warmly favored it;
and Montluc, Bishop of Valence, was dispatched to
Poland, furnished with ample instructions from
Coligny to prosecute the election of Henry of
Valois, Duke of Anjou. Montluc had hardly
crossed the frontier when the St. Bartholomew was
struck, and among the many victims of that
dreadful act was the author of that very scheme
which Montluc was on his way to advocate and, if
possible, consummate. The bishop, on receiving
the terrible news, thought it useless to continue his
journey; but Catherine, feeling the necessity of
following the line of foreign policy which had been
originated by the man she had murdered, sent
orders to Montluc to go forward.
The ambassador had immense dimculties to
overcome in the prosecution of his mission, for the
massacre had inspired universal horror, but by dint
of stoutly denying the Duke of Anjou's
participation in the crime, and promising that the
duke would subscribe every guarantee of political
and religious liberty which might be required of
him, he finally carried his object. Firley, the leader
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