made Guise an offer of three hundred thousand crowns, six thousand lanzknechts, and twelve hundred lances, as soon as he should have broken with Henry III.

"The abscess will soon burst," wrote the ambassador to the king his master.
On the 8th of May, 1588, at eleven P.M., the Duke of Guise set out from Soissons, after having commended himself to the prayers of the convents in the town.

He arrived the next morning before Paris, which he entered about midday by the gate of St.Martin.

The Leaguers had been expecting him for several days.

Though he had covered his head with his cloak, he was readily recognized and eagerly cheered; the burgesses left their houses and the tradesmen their shops to see him and follow him, shouting, "Hurrah! for Guise; hurrah! for the pillar of the church!" The crowd increased at every step.