Soon after this, the conspiracy of Amboise was formed. Of this the Prince of Conde was the invisible mover, and La Renaudie, a Protestant•gentleman, the open and avow ed author. The latter was a man of ancient family, but of ruined fortune: he had lost a law-suit, and been condemn ed to banishment for having produced fictitious titles. At Geneva and Lausanne, he imbibed the doctrines of the Re formation ; and afterwards, under a feigned name, he tra versed the different provinces of France, for the purpose of rousing the Protestants against the Duke of Guise. At length he appointed a general rendezvous at Nantes, where the parliament of Brittany was at that time sitting; and --above 200 gentlemen of fortune and family, from various parts of the kingdom, attended the summons. Before them he laid open his plan for carrying off the Guises from Amboise, where the Court then resided; to set the Prince of Conde at the head of affairs, and to secure liberty of conscience. The day was fixed for the execution of this design, and the measures so well concerted, that its suc cess appeared infallible. But while thousands of conspira tors kept the secret, it was betrayed by an advocate, who, though a Calvinist, yet regarded the plot with horror. As soon as this information was received at court, the Duke of Guise was appointed lieutenant-general of the kingdom, with supreme power in all cases, civil and military. Re naudie, though he rather suspected, from the precaution ary measures adopted by the court, that his plan was known, resolved to persevere in its execution; and several small bands of conspirators, marching only by night, suc ceeded in reaching, undiscovered, the gates of the castle of Amboise. Here, however, they were repulsed, and cut to pieces by the inhabitants, at the head of whom the Duke of Guise had place: himself. The Baron of Chatelnau, at the head of a considerable number of Calvinists, shut himself up in the castle of Noissy, where he was attacked by the Duke of Nemours, to whom, on condition that the lives of himself and his associates should be spared, he soon surrendered himself. As soon as Renaudie was in fo•med of the dangerous situation of Chatelnau, he put Limself at the head of a few men, as desperate as himself, with the of either rescuing him, or perishing in the attempt. On the road he was met by 200 cavalry of the opposite party. A most desperate action took place; but Renaudie's companions being overcome by superior numbers, he rode up to the commander of the cavalry, and thrusting a poinard through his vizor, laid him dead upon the spot. Ile himself was afterwards shot, and died fight Mg desperately to the last. Ilis body was publicly expos ed on a gibbet, and a label affixed to it, with the inscrip tion, Chief of the Rebels.
The fate of Renaudie produced not the effects which the court expected. On the contrary, the Protestant party increased in numbers, and displayed additional zeal and activity. Still the Court adhered to their measures of ri gour and duplicity. The Baron of Chatelnau, notwith standing the assurances of safety which he had received, was sacrificed to the implacable enmity of the princes of Lorraine. Every temptation was held out to him, to name the Prince of Conde as his accomplice; but though a de claration to that effect had been extorted from his com panions, he firmly refuted the aspersion, and to the last moment of his life proclaimed the innocence of the Prince of Conde.
This prince now thought himself called upon openly to vindicate his honour, which he did in the presence of the king, offering to maintain it, in single combat, against his accuser. It could not possibly be mistaken that he point
ed at the Duke of Guise ; but the Duke eluded the chal lenge, warmly praising the conduct of the prince, and of fering to be his second against any antagonist. In private, however, he strongly urged the king to secure a chief, who was so formidable, on account of his birth, talents, and en terprize. Francis, easily led, and sensible of the danger to which he might be exposed from the intrigues of the prince, seemed disposed to have listened to this advice ; but at this period, in consequence of the death of the Chancellor Olivier, and the succession of Michael De PHospital to that office, the power of the Guises suffered a decline ; for the new chancellor, being a man of cool temper, great abilities, and a friend rather to his king and country than to any of the parties which then endeavoured to gain au ascendency over them, pointed out, in the stron gest manner, to the queen-mother, the danger of the fa mily of the Guises acquiring a permanent ascendency, and advised her to follow that temporising system of policy, to which she was so naturally inclined by her disposition, and so happily adapted by her habits and talents. In conse quence of this advice, Catherine lent her support secretly to the Prince of Conde and the Protestants.
At this time, the internal state of the kingdom was so overcast with danger, that it was deemed necessary to hold a general assembly at Fontainebleau, to deliberate on the exigencies of the state. At this assembly, the Admiral Coligny presented to the king a petition from the Cal vinists, demanding the public exercise of their religion, and that their public meetings might no longer be impu ted to them as a crime ; adding, that although no name was affixed to it, yet, whenever his majesty would signify his pleasure, it would be signed by 150,000 persons. Montlue, Bishop of Valence, and Marina, Archbishop of Vienne, spoke with energy against the abuses which occasioned so many troubles and disorders ; exposed the vices of the court of Rome—the ignorance and corruption of the French clergy—the avarice of the Italians, who, without residing in the kingdom, possessed one-third of the benefices—the injustice of the persecution, which confounded the innocent with the guilty—and concluded, by stating it as their firm opinion, that the public calamities arose from the errors which had crept into religion, and from the vicious conduct of those who were its ministers. At the same time, while they, in this bold and liberal manner, advocated the cause of truth, and denounced the vicious and corrupt, they con demned the seditious religionists, and insisted on the neces sity of repressing and curbing them, marking the distinc tion, however, between those who made religion a pretext for disturbing the state, and such as adhered to their er rors from a principle of sincerity : the latter they thought it was wrong to treat as criminals. They even went far ther, and pointed out, in clear and strong terms, the dan gers which might arise from persecution. Opinions in themselves weak, thus acquired, in the view of the multi tude, strength and importance. A curiosity to know, and often a desire to embrace them, was excited, when people saw them maintained in the midst of the flames, by men of estimable character and irreproachable morals. After again insisting on the necessity of a reformation, they con cluded with proposing a national synod, if the Pope should refuse to convoke a general council, with a prohibition of exerting the severity of the law except against real crimes.