Note 370 — Chapter VIII · THE MEETING AT BAYONNE AND THE SECOND WAR. [June, 1565–March, 1568.]

It is clear from Alva’s letters first published in the Papiers d’Etat du Cardinal Granvelle, ix. pp. 281–330, that the general belief in a league to exterminate the Huguenots is erroneous, although Adriani (Storia Fiorent.) says expressly that Catherine had agreed upon what they called “Sicilian Vespers,” and that the king was to retire to the strong castle of Moulins in the Bourbonnais, where he would be safe. But Adriani is the only person who ever saw the MSS. in which he professed to read this. De Thou evidently did not believe the story (ii. 377, scribunt is his word); and Castelnau (liv. vi. ch. 1) implies as much.