He paused a short time and chatted with Sir Ralph
Pimpernel, who, at his request, introduced each of his companions
to him.
Lionel looked with interest and admiration at the man who was
regarded as the champion of Protestantism against Popery, and who
combined in himself a remarkable mixture of qualities seldom found
existing in one person. He was brave to excess and apparently
reckless in action, and yet astute, prudent, and calculating in
council. With a manner frank, open, and winning, he was yet able to
match the craftiest of opponents at their own weapons of scheming
and duplicity. The idol of the Huguenots of France, he was ready to
purchase the crown of France at the price of accepting the Catholic
doctrines, for he saw that it was hopeless for him in the long run
to maintain himself against the hostility of almost all the great
nobles of France, backed by the great proportion of the people and
aided by the pope and the Catholic powers, so long as he remained
a Protestant. But this change of creed was scarcely even foreseen
by those who followed him, and it was the apparent hopelessness
of his cause, and the gallantry with which he maintained it, that
attracted the admiration of Europe.
Henry's capital was at the time garrisoned by the troops of the
pope and Spain. The great nobles of France, who had long maintained
a sort of semi independence of the crown, were all against him,
and were calculating on founding independent kingdoms.
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