because of the great factions there are in it, which I take all the pains
in the world to disperse and break up, and also because of the small aid,
or rather the gainsaying, I meet with from the ministers of the King of
Spain." Mayenne tried to restore amongst the Leaguers both zeal and
discipline; he convoked on the 2d of March, a meeting of all that
remained of the faction of the Sixteen; he calculated upon the presence
of some twelve hundred; scarcely three hundred came; he had an harangue
delivered to them by the Rev. John Boucher, charged them to be faithful
to the old spirit of the League, promised them that he would himself be
faithful even to death, and exhorted them to be obedient in everything to
Brissac, whom he had just appointed governor of the city, and to the
provost of tradesmen. On announcing to them his imminent departure for
Soissons, to meet some auxiliary troops which were to be sent to him by
the King of Spain, "I leave to you," he said, "what is dearest to me in
the world--my wife, my children, my mother, and my sister." But when he
did set out, four days afterwards, on the 6th of March, 1594, he took
away his wife and his children; his mother had already warned him that
Brissac was communicating secretly, by means of his cousin, Sieur de
Rochepot, with the royalists, and that the provost of tradesmen,
L'Huillier, and three of the four sheriffs were agreed to bring the city
back to obedience to the king. When the Sixteen and their adherents saw
Mayenne departing with his wife and children, great were their alarm and
wrath. A large band, with the incumbent of St. Cosmo (Hamilton) at their
head, rushed about the streets in arms, saying, "Look to your city; the
policists are brewing a terrible business for it." Others, more violent,
cried, "To arms! Down upon the policists! Begin! Let us make an end of
it!" The policists, that is, the burgesses inclined to peace, repaired
on their side to the provost of tradesmen to ask for his authority to
assemble at the Palace or the Hotel de Ville, and to provide for security
in case of any public calamity. The provost tried to elude their