As there had been no written proof of his complicity in the conspiracy, the judges had thought it improper to mention his name in the sentences.

He, of course, denied any knowledge of the plot, and its proof rested therefore only on the assertion of the prisoners themselves, which, however, was circumstantial, voluntary, and generally believed! France, during the whole of this year of expectation, was ploughed throughout its whole surface by perpetual civil war.

The fatal edict of June, 1585, had drowned the unhappy land in blood.

Foreign armies, called in by the various contending factions, ravaged its-fair territory, butchered its peasantry, and changed its fertile plains to a wilderness.
The unhappy creature who wore the crown of Charlemagne and of Hugh Capet, was but the tool in the hands of the most profligate and designing of his own subjects, and of foreigners.

Slowly and surely the net, spread by the hands of his own mother, of his own prime minister, of the Duke of Guise, all obeying the command and receiving the stipend of Philip, seemed closing over him.