MASSACRE OF ST. BARTHOLOMEW 10 9

of language she may have used, the action of I 572 \vas uninfluenced by deliberations which \vere seven years old. During the spring and sumIîler the Tuscan agents diligently prepared their master for \vhat was to come. Petrucci wrote on the 19th of March that, for a reason \vhich he could not trust to paper, the marriage would certainly take place, though not until the Huguenots had delivered up their strongholds. Four weeks later Ala- manni announced that the Queen's pious design for restoring unity of faith would, by the grace of God, be speedily accomplished. On the 9th of August Petrucci was able to report that the plan arranged at Bayonne was near execution. l Yet he was not fully initiated. The Queen afterwards assured him that she had confided the secret to no foreign resident except the N uncio,2 and Petrucci resentfully complains that she had also consulted the Ambassador of Savoy. Venice, like Florence and Savoy, was not taken by surprise. In February the ambassador Contarini explained to the Senate the specious tranquillity in France, by saying that the Government reckoned on the death of the Admiral or the Queen of Navarre to work a momentous change. s Cavalli, his successor, judged that a business so gr06Sly mismanaged showed no signs of deliberation. 4 There \vas another Venetian at Paris who was better informed. The Republic was seeking to withdraw from the league against the Turks; and her most illustrious statesman, Giovanni Michiel, was sent to solicit the help of France in negotiating peace. 5 The account which he gave of his mission has been pronounced by a consummate judge

Ministri di Francia. . . . II Signor Duca di Alva si satisfa piu di questa delibera- tione di me, perchè io non trovo cbe serva all' estirpation dell' heresia il castigar quelli cbe banno contravenuto all' editto (Santa Croce to Borromeo, Bayonne, July I, 1565, :MS,). 1 Desjardins, Négociations avec la Toscane, Hi. 756, 7 6 5, 802, 2 10 non ho fatto intendere co sa alcuna a nessuno principe; ho ben parlato al nunzio solo (Desp, Aug, 31; Desjardins, iii, 828).

Alberi, Relazioni Iímete, xii, 25 0 .

4 Alberi, xii. 3 28 . ð Son principal but et dessein estoit de sentir queUe espérance ilz pourroient avoir de parvenir à la paix avec Ie G, S, dont il s'est ouvert et a demandé ce qu'il en pouvoit espérer et attendre (Cbarles IX. to Du Ferrier, Sept. 28, 157 2 ;

Charrière, .J.Vlgociations dans Ie Levant, iii. 3 10 ).