ABSTRACT
WHEN Bruno arrived back in Paris in 1586, having crossed the Channel with Mauvissiere, the French ambassador who had protected him from tumults in England, he found conditions much less favourable to his secret than they had been two years earlier when he had dedicated Shadows to Henri III. 1 Now Henri was almost powerless in the face of the extreme Catholic reaction, led by the Guise faction and supported by Spain. Paris was a city of fears and rumours on the eve of the Wars of the League which would drive the King of France from his throne.
