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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75970 ***
+
+
+
+  [Illustration: CÆDES COLIGNII ET SOCIORUM EJUS.
+
+  THE MASSACRE IN PARIS.
+
+  From the Picture in the Vatican by Vasari.]
+
+
+
+
+                                  THE
+
+                     MASSACRE OF ST. BARTHOLOMEW.
+
+                             PRECEDED BY A
+
+                 HISTORY OF THE RELIGIOUS WARS IN THE
+                         REIGN OF CHARLES IX.
+
+                            BY HENRY WHITE.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+                          WITH ILLUSTRATIONS.
+
+                               NEW YORK:
+
+                    HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS,
+
+                           FRANKLIN SQUARE.
+
+                                 1868.
+
+
+
+
+                               PREFACE.
+
+
+In the following pages I have endeavored to describe the great struggle
+which devastated France in the latter half of the sixteenth century,
+and culminated in the memorable tragedy of St. Bartholomew’s Day.
+The nature of that struggle can not be fairly understood, unless the
+condition of the Protestants under Francis I. and his two immediate
+successors be taken into consideration. In those fiery times of trial
+the Huguenot character was formed, and the nation gradually separated
+into two parties, so fanatically hostile, that the extermination of the
+weaker seemed the only possible means of re-establishing the unity of
+France.
+
+The three preliminary chapters necessarily contain many notices of
+the cruel persecutions which the Reformers had to suffer at the hands
+of the dominant Church; but the author would be much grieved were it
+supposed that he had written those chapters with any desire to rekindle
+the dying embers of religious strife. On that portion of his work he
+dwells with pain and regret; but such pages of history contain warnings
+that it may be well to repeat from time to time. Though there may be
+little danger of our drifting back to the atrocities of the sixteenth
+century, and though we no longer burn men, mob-law and other forms
+of terrorism are still employed to stifle free discussion, and check
+individual liberty. From this to the prison, the rack, and the stake,
+the step is not so wide as it appears. Moreover, it is good to revive
+occasionally the memory of those who have “served God in the fire,” for
+the instruction of their descendants, who have the good fortune to live
+in times when they can “honor God in the sunshine.” Such examples of
+patience and firmness under torture, of self-devotion, of child-like
+reliance on the spiritual promises of their Divine Master, of obedience
+to conscience, and of faithfulness to duty, are fruitful for all ages.
+They serve to show not only that persecution is a mistake, but that
+the final victory is not with the successful persecutor. Man’s real
+strength consists in prudence and foresight--qualities which belong
+but to few; and if this small intelligent class (and such the early
+Reformers were, even by the confession of their enemies) be driven
+out or exterminated, the ignorant masses are lost. Spain and Italy
+have never recovered from the self-inflicted wounds of the sixteenth
+century; and if France has suffered in a less degree, it is because
+persecution did not so completely succeed in destroying freedom of
+thought and liberty of conscience.
+
+The author has tried to write impartially: he has weighed conflicting
+evidence carefully, and has never willingly allowed prejudices to
+direct his judgment. That he has succeeded in holding the balance
+even, is more than he can venture to hope; but in such a cause there
+is consolation even in failure. If he has not painted the unscrupulous
+Catherine de Medicis and the half-insane Charles in such dark colors as
+preceding writers, he has carefully abstained from whitewashing them.
+He has shown that they both possessed many estimable qualities, and has
+carefully marked the steps by which they attained such an eminence in
+evil.[1]
+
+In the earlier pages of this history the followers of the new creed
+in France are called indifferently Protestants or Huguenots. The use
+of the former word is not strictly correct; but it is preferable
+to the awkward term “Reformed,” by which the French Dissenters
+designate themselves. By their enemies they were usually denominated
+Calvinists--a term which I have generally avoided on account of
+the erroneous ideas connected with it among ordinary readers. In
+the present day it is seldom used without a sneer. With all the
+complacency of ignorance, men write of “grim Calvinists who justify the
+burning of Servetus.” Calvinists, grim or otherwise, do not justify
+persecution; and as regards Servetus, his execution was approved of
+by all the Protestant divines of Germany and Switzerland, and Calvin
+was perhaps the only man who tried to save the arch-heretic’s life.
+Whatever may have been the errors of the Reformer of Geneva, he was
+one of the greatest men of his day, and as an author he stands in
+the first rank of early French prose-writers. Englishmen who owe so
+many of their liberties to the influence of his opinions during the
+counter-reformation of the seventeenth century, should be the last
+people to look unkindly upon his failings.
+
+Respecting the Massacre of St. Bartholomew, there are two theories.
+Some writers contend that it was the result of a long premeditated
+plot, and this view was so ably maintained by John Allen in the
+_Edinburgh Review_ (vol. xliv. 1826), that nothing farther was
+left to be said on the subject. Others are of opinion that it was the
+accidental result of a momentary spasm of mingled terror and fanaticism
+caused by the unsuccessful attempt to murder Coligny. This theory has
+been supported by Ranke in a review of Capefigue’s “Histoire de la
+Réforme,” printed in the second volume of his “Historisch-politische
+Zeitschrift” (1836), and in the first volume of his “Französische
+Geschichte;” by Soldan in his “Frankreich und die Bartholomäus-Nacht;”
+by Baum in his “Leben Beza’s;” and by Coquerel in the “Revue
+Théologique” in 1859. Since they wrote, many new materials tending to
+confirm their views have come to light, some of which are for the first
+time noticed in this volume.
+
+Foremost in value among the materials for this portion of the French
+history are the extracts from the “Simancas Archives,” published by
+M. Gachard in the “Correspondance de Philippe II.” The letters of
+Catherine de Medicis (as published by Alberi) throw a new light upon
+some of the obscurer parts of the reign of Charles IX.; and though it
+would be unwise to trust them implicitly, I can scarcely imagine a more
+valuable contribution to French history than a complete collection of
+her correspondence. Her letters are scattered all over France: a few
+have been printed in local histories, but far the greater part of them
+(including those in the collection of Mr. Murray of Albemarle Street)
+remain almost unknown. Much curious information has been gleaned from
+the “Relazioni” of the Venetian embassadors, edited by Alberi, or in
+the more accessible volumes of Tommaseo and Baschet. I need not point
+out the value of the documents contained in the correspondence of
+Aubespine, La Mothe-Fénelon, Cardinal Granvelle, and in the “Archives
+de la Maison d’Orange-Nassau,” published by Groen van Prinsterer. The
+letters of the English agents in France, so singularly neglected by
+many writers, help to explain several of the incidents of the Tumult
+of Amboise and the proposed war in Flanders in 1572. The omission from
+Walsingham’s correspondence of all account of the Massacre is much to
+be lamented. Though I have sought for it in vain, I still entertain
+a hope that it may some day be recovered. In the Record Office there
+is a curious report by the famous Kirkaldy of Grange, of which Mr.
+Froude has already made use in his last volume. Two other remarkable
+contemporary letters--one in Spanish, the other in German--are noticed
+in their proper place.
+
+Either personally or through the help of kind friends the author
+has searched far and wide among the provincial records of France.
+The sources of the information thus acquired have been carefully
+indicated in the notes, and the result has often been to discredit the
+statements of the older writers, carelessly copied by their successors.
+Two remarkable instances connected with Toulouse and Lyons will be
+observed in the course of the history. The Médicis MSS. at Le Puy, the
+manuscripts in the public library at Rouen, the letters of Charles IX.
+at Tours, the Acts Consulaires of Lyons, the Consular and Parliament
+Registers of Toulouse, the Registers of Caen, the Livre du Roi at
+Dijon, the Municipal Archives and Baptismal Registers at Provins, the
+Comptes Consulaires at Gap, have contributed to enrich this volume on
+several important matters. The public records of Montpelier, Nismes,
+Grenoble, Clermont-Ferrand, Bayeux, and other places, as well as the
+unpublished Memoirs of Jacques Gaches, and the MS. of President Latomy,
+which differs considerably from the printed text, have also furnished
+their contingent of information. Much curious and interesting matter
+has been found in Haag’s “France Protestante,” and in the “Bulletin de
+la Société de l’Histoire du Protestantisme François.”
+
+The reader will find very little in this volume about the internal
+development of the Reformed Church; for such information he must look
+to theological histories and to writers who have made theology their
+study. Laymen who venture into that field rarely escape the imputation
+of ignorance or heterodoxy.
+
+   _December, 1867._
+
+
+
+
+                               CONTENTS.
+
+
+                              CHAPTER I.
+
+                             INTRODUCTION.
+
+                             [1500–1547.]
+
+    Causes of the Reformation--Lefevre of Etaples--Francis
+    I.--Revival of Learning--La Renaissance--Clerical
+    Manners--Early Converts and first Victims--Jacques
+    Pavannes, Berquin--Margaret of Valois--Calvin and
+    his Institutes--The King’s Inconstancy--Edict of
+    Fontainebleau--Two Heretics burned--Treaty of
+    Crespy--Vaudois Persecution--The Baron of Oppède--Massacre
+    at Mérindol--Cry of Indignation--Sadolet, Bishop of
+    Carpentras--Tragedy of Meaux--A Cloud of Witnesses--Stephen
+    Dolet and Robert Stephens--Marot--The last Martyr--Death of
+    Francis I.--His Funeral Sermon--His Character                PAGE 1
+
+
+                              CHAPTER II.
+
+                               HENRY II.
+
+                             [1547–1559.]
+
+    Henry II.--Catherine and
+    Diana--Montmorency--Coronation--King enters
+    Paris--Fêtes--Heretic Burning--New Edicts--Chambres
+    Ardentes--Edict of Chateaubriant--Persecution at Angers,
+    Le Puy, Velay--Inquisition proposed--Resistance of
+    Parliament--Siege and Battle of St. Quentin--Affair of the
+    Rue St. Jacques--Martyrdom of Philippa de Lunz--Calvin’s
+    Letter--Pré aux Clercs and Marot’s Psalms--Peace of
+    Cateau-Cambresis--Divisions in the Paris Parliament--The
+    Mercurial of June--Du Faur and Du Bourg arrested--First
+    Synod of Reformed Churches--Confession of Faith and Book of
+    Discipline--Edict of Ecouen--The Tournament--Henry’s Death       22
+
+
+                             CHAPTER III.
+
+                         REIGN OF FRANCIS II.
+
+                             [1559–1560.]
+
+    Catherine de Medicis--The Duke of Guise and the Cardinal of
+    Lorraine--St. André--Anthony of Navarre and Condé--Coligny
+    and Andelot--Disgrace of Montmorency--Persecuting
+    Edicts--Execution of Du Bourg--Discontent in France--Edict
+    of Chambord--La Renaudie--The Meeting at Nantes--Tumult
+    of Amboise--Bloody Reprisals--Castelnau’s Trial
+    and Execution--The Duke’s Viands--Aubigné and his
+    Son--Grace of Amboise--Regnier de la Planche--Renewal
+    of Persecutions--L’Hopital made Chancellor--Edict of
+    Romorantin--Religious and Political Malcontents--Abuse
+    of the Pulpit--The Tiger--General Lawlessness--Huguenot
+    Violence--Demand for a Council--Montbrun and
+    Mouvans--L’Hopital’s Inaugural Address--Les Politiques--The
+    Notables at Fontainebleau--Montluc and Marillac--Meeting
+    at Nerac--Address presented to Anthony--The Court at
+    Orleans--Arrest and Trial of Condé--Death of Francis II.         61
+
+
+                              CHAPTER IV.
+
+                FRANCE AT THE ACCESSION OF CHARLES IX.
+
+                                [1560.]
+
+    Contrast--Power of King and Nobles--The
+    Provinces--Roads--Rate of Traveling--Forests--Wild
+    Animals--Brigandage--Inns--League of the
+    Loire--Agriculture--Condition of the
+    Peasantry--Rent--Serfage--Wages--Cost of
+    Provisions--Food--Sumptuary Laws--Social
+    Changes--Ignorance of the People--Population
+    of France--Taxation--Army and Navy--The
+    Clergy--Superstitions--Justice--Punishments--Brutality of
+    Manners--Domestic Architecture--Paris--Cities of France:
+    Orleans, Rouen, Bordeaux, Dieppe, Lyons, Boulogne, Dijon,
+    Moulins, St. Etienne, and Toulouse                              112
+
+
+                              CHAPTER V.
+
+      FROM THE ACCESSION OF CHARLES IX. TO THE MASSACRE OF VASSY.
+
+                             [1560–1562.]
+
+    Character of the Boy-King--Portrait of Catherine--The
+    States-General--The Chancellor’s Address--Speeches of
+    the Three Orators--Agitation in the Provinces--Religious
+    Amnesty--Edict of July--Provincial Assemblies
+    Convoked--Instructions of the Isle of France--The
+    Triumvirate--States of Pontoise--Proposals of
+    Reform--Colloquy of Poissy--Beza--Conference in the Queen’s
+    Chamber--King’s Speech--Beza’s Defense--Catherine’s Liberal
+    Spirit--Spread of New Doctrines--Monster Congregations--The
+    Guises Intrigue with Spain--Violence of the
+    Clergy--Massacres at Cahors and Aurillac--Amiens--Huguenot
+    Outrages--Riot of St. Médard--Notables at St.
+    Germains--Edict of January, 1562--Violence at Dijon and
+    Aix--Anthony’s Apostasy--The Duke and the Cardinal at
+    Saverne--Massacre at Vassy--Both Parties Arm--Guise Enters
+    Paris--Plot to Seize the King                                   145
+
+
+                              CHAPTER VI.
+
+                         FIRST RELIGIOUS WAR.
+
+                             [1562–1563.]
+
+    Beginning of Reaction--Causes of the War--The
+    Huguenots arm--Advice of Coligny’s Wife--Covenant of
+    Association--Massacre at Sens and Sisteron--Discipline of
+    the Armies--Catherine attempts to mediate--Conference
+    at Thoury--Negotiations broken off--Fearful state of
+    Paris--The Constable’s violence--Appeals to Foreign
+    Sympathy--Successes of the Royalists--Atrocities at Blois
+    and Tours--Rouen Besieged--The Breach stormed--The Hour
+    of Vengeance--Pastor Marlorat hanged--Death of Anthony of
+    Navarre--Disturbances in Normandy--Offer of Amnesty--Battle
+    of Dreux--Condé and Montmorency captured--St. André
+    killed--Siege of Orleans--Duke of Guise murdered--Poltrot
+    de Méré--Pacification of Amboise--Distress caused by the
+    War--Death of Coligny’s Son--Letter to his Wife                 195
+
+
+                             CHAPTER VII.
+
+                                CHAOS.
+
+                             [1562–1563.]
+
+    Nature of the Struggle--Montluc--His Barbarity--Des
+    Adrets--His Ferocity--Murders at Gaillac--The Reform
+    in Provence and Languedoc--Scenes at Orange--Revolt
+    at Valence--Disturbances at Lyons--Compromise--La
+    Rochelle--Massacre at Toulouse--Exodus of
+    Sisteron--Sauteries of Macon--Limoux--Palm Sunday
+    at Castelnaudary--The Monks of St. Calais--Violence
+    in Berry--The Châtelaine of Avallon--The Proctor
+    of Bar--Atrocities of the Bishop of Le Mans and
+    his Lieutenant--Huguenot Cruelties at Dieppe and
+    Bayeux--Angoulême--Quarrels at Court--Siege of
+    Havre--Duplicity of English Government--Charles Proclaimed
+    of Age--His Character--Council of Trent                         229
+
+
+                             CHAPTER VIII.
+
+                        THE MEETING AT BAYONNE.
+
+                       [June, 1565–March, 1568.]
+
+    The Royal progress--Bayonne in June--Identical
+    note--Amusements--Political Deliberations--The Queen of
+    Navarre Excommunicated--Catherine’s Remonstrance--The
+    Pope yields--State of Gascony--Assembly of Notables at
+    Moulins--Feud between Guise and Coligny--Montmorency and
+    the Cardinal--Disturbed state of Maine--Montluc pacifies
+    Gascony--Embassy from Germany--Rebellion in Flanders--March
+    of Alva--Condé leaves the Court--Rumored Plot--Huguenot
+    Meeting at Chatillon--War resolved upon--Attempt to seize
+    Charles--Huguenot Rising--Battle of St. Denis--Death of the
+    Constable--German Auxiliaries--Michelade of Nismes--Siege
+    of Chartres--Peace of Longjumeau--Death of Coligny’s Wife       247
+
+
+                              CHAPTER IX.
+
+                        JARNAC AND MONCONTOUR.
+
+                             [1568–1570.]
+
+    State of the Country--The National Party--Atrocities
+    and Retaliation--L’Hopital’s Retirement--The Catholic
+    League--League of Toulouse--The New Plot--The
+    Flight to Rochelle--Aid from England--Anjou,
+    Commander-in-Chief--Battle of Jarnac--Death of
+    Condé--Henry of Bearn--Siege of Cognac--Junction of Duke
+    Wolfgang--Death of Brissac--Battle of Roche-Abeille--Siege
+    of Poitiers--Moncontour--The Admiral’s letter to his
+    Children--Siege of St. Jean D’Angely--Desmarais--The Great
+    March--Cruelties at Orthez, Auxerre, Orleans, Cognat,
+    Aurillac--Coligny’s illness--Battle of Arnay-le-Duc--Treaty
+    of St. Germains                                                 283
+
+
+                              CHAPTER X.
+
+                      THE CALM BEFORE THE STORM.
+
+                   [August, 1570, to August, 1572.]
+
+    Albert and Pierre de Gondi, Birague, Strozzi,
+    Nevers, and Henry of Guise--Marriage of Charles
+    IX.--Nuptial Festivities at Paris--Embassy of the
+    German Princes--Violent Sermons--Outrages at Orange
+    and Rouen--Objects of the Politiques--Revolt in
+    Flanders--Position of Affairs--Interview between the King
+    and Prince Louis of Nassau--Spanish Threats--Coligny’s
+    Marriage--The Admiral goes to Blois--Conferences with the
+    King--Proposed Marriage of Henry and Margaret--Murder
+    of Lignerolles--The Gastine Cross--Queen of Navarre
+    at Blois--Alessandrino’s Special Embassy--Letters to
+    Rome--Negotiations--Pope refuses the Dispensation--Fears of
+    the Parisians                                                   319
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XI.
+
+                      THE MARRIAGE AND THE PLOT.
+
+                            [August, 1572.]
+
+    Proposed German and English Alliances--Anjou’s
+    Refusal--Treaty with England--Capture
+    of Mons--Defeat of Genlis--Walsingham’s
+    Dispatches--War-Excitement--Deliberations in
+    Council--Charles at Montpipeau--Catherine follows
+    him--Her tears--Increasing influence of Coligny--His
+    Death resolved on--Joan of Navarre in Paris--Her sudden
+    Death--Distrust and Warnings--Coligny’s firmness--Plot
+    and Counterplot--Henry of Navarre enters Paris--The
+    Wedding--Masque at the Hôtel Bourbon--The Admiral’s
+    last Letter--Plot to Assassinate him--The Duchess of
+    Nemours--Maurevel sent for                                      353
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XII.
+
+                          THE ASSASSINATION.
+
+                     [22d, 23d, and 24th August.]
+
+    Coligny in the Tennis-Court--The Fatal Shot--The
+    King’s Indignation and Threats--Letters to Provincial
+    Governors--Precautions in the City--Interview between
+    Charles and the Admiral--Despair of Catherine
+    and Anjou--The Huguenot Council--Threats of
+    violence--De Pilles and Pardaillan at the Louvre--The
+    Turning-point--Conversation between Catherine and
+    Anjou--Meeting in the Tuileries Garden--Guard sent
+    to Coligny--Scene in the King’s Closet--Catherine’s
+    Argument--De Retz Protests--Charles Yields at last--Guise
+    in the City--Precautions--Anjou and Angoulême ride
+    through Paris--Municipal Arrangements--Charles and La
+    Rochefoucault--Margaret and her sister Claude--Coligny’s
+    last Night                                                      379
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XIII.
+
+                        THE FESTIVAL OF BLOOD.
+
+                     [August and September, 1572.]
+
+    The Huguenot Gentleman Killed--Midnight at the
+    Louvre--Charles still hesitates--The Conspirators
+    at the window--The pistol-shot--Guise recalled too
+    late--Scene at Coligny’s Hotel--The assault and
+    murder--Indignities--Montfauçon--Scene at the Louvre--Queen
+    Margaret’s alarm--Proclamations--Salviati’s letter--List
+    of Atrocities--Death of Ramus and La Place--Charles
+    fires upon the Fugitives--Escape of Montgomery, Sully,
+    Duplessis-Mornay, Caumont--The Miracle of the White
+    Thorn--Charles conscience-stricken--Thanksgiving
+    and Justification--Execution of Briquemaut and
+    Cavaignes--Abjuration of Henry and Condé                        404
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XIV.
+
+                      MASSACRE IN THE PROVINCES.
+
+                      [August to October, 1572.]
+
+    Instructions to the Governors--The Count of Tende--Nantes
+    and Alençon--Massacres at Saumur, Angers, Lyons, Orleans,
+    Troyes, Rouen, Meaux, Bordeaux, and Toulouse--St. Hérem’s
+    letter--The stolen Dispatch--The Governor of Bayonne--The
+    Bishop of Lisieux--Chabot at Arnay-le-Duc--Senlis, Provins,
+    Château-Thierry, Dieppe, and Nismes spared--The Number of
+    Victims--Contemporary Judgments--Dorat’s Panegyric--Jean
+    Le Masle--Pierre Charpentier and Sorbin--Rejoicings at
+    Rome--Exultation of Philip II.--Horror in England--John
+    Knox’s Denunciation--The Emperor Maximilian’s regret            446
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XV.
+
+                          THE CLOSING SCENE.
+
+                             [1572–1574.]
+
+    Reaction--Tolerant Protestations of
+    Government--Walsingham’s disbelief and caution--Renewal
+    of Civil War--Mission of Cardinal Orsini--Siege of
+    Rochelle--Honorable terms of Capitulation--Siege of
+    Sancerre--Famine--Horrible scenes--Capitulation--Meeting
+    at Montauban--Troubled state of France--Intrigues of
+    Alençon--Shrove-Tuesday plot--La Mole and Coconnas
+    executed--Charles falls ill--Conversation with
+    Henry of Navarre--Charles’s visions--His Huguenot
+    nurse--Her exhortations--The King’s remorse--His dying
+    words--Suspicions of Poison--His character--His married
+    life--Judgment of Posterity                                     471
+
+
+
+
+                        LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
+
+
+    CÆDES COLIGNII ET SOCIORUM EJUS. THE MASSACRE IN
+    PARIS (from the Picture in the Vatican by Vasari)   _Frontispiece._
+
+    GASPARD DE COLIGNY                                               68
+
+    CATHERINE DE MEDICIS                                            146
+
+
+
+
+                                  THE
+
+                     MASSACRE OF ST. BARTHOLOMEW.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER I.
+
+                             INTRODUCTION.
+
+                             [1500–1547.]
+
+   Causes of the Reformation--Lefevre of Etaples--Francis
+   I.--Revival of Learning--La Renaissance--Clerical Manners--Early
+   Converts and First Victims--Jacques Pavannes, Berquin--Margaret
+   of Valois--Calvin and his Institutes--The King’s
+   Inconstancy--Edict of Fontainebleau--Two Heretics Burned--Treaty
+   of Crespy--Vaudois Persecution--The Baron of Oppede--Massacre
+   at Merindol--Cry of Indignation--Sadolet, Bishop of
+   Carpentras--Tragedy of Meaux--A Cloud of Witnesses--Stephen
+   Dolet and Robert Stephens--Marot--The Last Martyr--Death of
+   Francis I.--His Funeral Sermon--His Character.
+
+
+The sixteenth century has been rightly called the era of the
+Renaissance. Then learning and religion revived; the fine arts received
+a fresh development. Then a new spirit breathed upon the nations, and
+the people began to feel that they were intended to be something better
+than hewers of wood and drawers of water--mere beasts of burden or
+tribute-paying machines for the use of their lords. The great Reform
+movement had been preparing from afar. Had Constantinople never fallen,
+had Eastern learning not been driven to seek an asylum in the West,
+the religious revolution might have been retarded; it could not have
+been prevented. In the hour when Guttenberg printed the first sheet of
+his Bible the spiritual despotism of Rome began to totter. It was a
+strange period of excitement, when Vasco de Gama made his way to India
+round the Cape of Storms, and when Columbus returned triumphant from
+the discovery of a new world. A spirit of restlessness and scepticism
+pervaded all Europe. Monks in their cloisters, hermits in their cells,
+barons in their castles, lawyers in their courts, priests in their
+rural parsonages, all felt it alike. Princes on the throne doubted
+the infallibility of the Church, or drove the Holy Father from his
+capital. There seemed to be nothing sacred against the attacks of the
+wits and scholars of the day. Rabelais, under the mask of his cynical
+buffoonery, made the clergy a laughing-stock. Erasmus, with a satire as
+keen as Voltaire’s, assailed the most prominent abuses of the Church.
+Ulrich von Hutten, in his “Epistles of Obscure Men,” attacked the same
+abuses, with less polished weapons but in a more popular style. But
+if the iconoclasts of the sixteenth century had used no other arms
+than wit and satire, and done no more than brand the vicious lives and
+extortionate practices of the clergy, they would never have reformed
+the world. The doctrines of the Church had degenerated into an empty
+formalism leaving the heart untouched, the life unchanged. On a sudden,
+as if by mutual arrangement, a new race of preachers sprang up in
+Europe. Lefevre in France, Zuingle in Switzerland, Tyndale in England,
+and Luther in Germany, all taught the same doctrine. In each country
+the Reformation assumed a peculiar form, though preserving the same
+general characteristics; and just in the proportion as Protestantism
+has yielded to, and in its turn moulded these characteristics, it has
+survived and flourished to the present time. If the Reform was almost
+crushed out in France, it was because it took too little account of
+national character. And yet the French Reformation was exclusively of
+native growth. Lefevre and his disciple Farel began to preach, some
+years before Luther, that great doctrine of justification by faith
+which was the foundation-stone of the new Church.
+
+There are men who still deny the necessity of the great religious
+revolution of the sixteenth century, and contend that a slight reform
+in discipline, such as a pious pope would have conceded, was all that
+the Church required. But if such a reform had been possible, would
+it have been lasting? We have seen within these few years how little
+that singular phenomenon, a liberal pope, can do--how impotent he is
+when the clergy are opposed to him. It is very probable that if the
+Church had seriously undertaken to reform itself, the great disruption
+never would have taken place; for, as Ranke says, “Even the Protestants
+severed themselves slowly and reluctantly from the communion of the
+Church.”[2] France was fully prepared for a religious reform. The king
+had made his court the most learned centre in Europe; for among the
+many noble qualities possessed by Francis I., not the least of them
+was the patronage he extended to artists and men of letters. The great
+painters Leonardo da Vinci, Andrea del Sarto, and Rosso were invited
+from Italy to adorn his palaces with their magic pencils. Lascaris,
+a learned Greek, was commissioned to form the king’s library at
+Fontainebleau. Under the advice of the learned Budæus the college of
+France was established for the study of the Greek and Hebrew languages.
+This great intellectual movement, especially the study of Hebrew,
+“which turned Christians into Jews,”[3] so terrified that guardian of
+orthodoxy, the theological college of the Sorbonne, that
+
+                            They in their zeal splenetic
+    Forbade the Greek and Hebrew tongues as heathen and heretic.
+
+So wrote Marot, adding that they proved the truth of the old proverb,
+“Learning has for enemy no creature but a dunce.”
+
+The Church of France was no worse than many other portions of the Roman
+fold. So long as the people themselves were ignorant, the ignorance
+of the priesthood did not trouble them; but immediately their own
+eyes were opened, they became conscious of the deficiencies of their
+pastors. And it would have been well for them had ignorance been the
+worst failing of the clergy: they were vicious also. A contemporary
+manuscript tells us that “many are so ignorant that they can not
+interpret what is said in the course of divine service, and are unable
+to read or write; so negligent that they have left off preaching
+altogether.... They take delight in worldly pleasures, and spend the
+greater part of the day in taverns, drinking, gambling, and toying with
+women, and keep a _truande_ in their houses.”[4] How the priests
+abused the simple confidence of their flocks is evident from the pious
+frauds they practiced, particularly in the matter of relics. Of one
+instance of this tampering with the religious feelings of the people,
+it was said, “that either the Virgin Mary must have had two mothers, or
+her mother must have had two heads.” A feather from the angel Gabriel’s
+wing, or a bottle of Egyptian darkness, were silly but harmless
+deceptions; but there were others which to name is impossible.[5]
+
+In the field thus prepared for the truth, the new doctrines spread
+rapidly, one great help to their diffusion being the use of the French
+language, while the orthodox clergy stuck so obstinately to their
+Latin, that Antony de Mouchi, surnamed Demochares, felt it necessary to
+apologize for using the vernacular in a work he had written in answer
+to a Huguenot pamphlet.[6] At first the converts were more numerous
+among the educated and high-born, than among the low and unlettered
+multitude. They early received the baptism of fire. In 1524, while
+Francis I. was in captivity at Madrid, the Parliament of Paris revived
+an edict of Louis XII. concerning blasphemy, and nominated a commission
+to try Lutherans and other heretics. In the following year, a brief of
+Clement VII. ratified this encroachment on the rights of the Church,
+approving of the commissioners or inquisitors appointed, permitting
+them to enter upon their duties “with apostolical authority,” and
+ordering them to try their prisoners “without noise and without form
+of judgment, as is the custom in such cases.”[7] This bull, besides
+condemning heretics to be punished in body and goods, forbade all
+persons to supply them with corn, wine, oil, or other merchandise,
+under pain of being treated as accomplices. That this bull was
+something more than an empty threat, is evident from a letter written
+by Clement to congratulate the Parliament of Paris on the way in which
+they had carried it out, adding “that the new errors were as opposed to
+the State as to the Church.” We need not stop to show that the kingdom
+which has always put itself forward as the champion of Popery, both in
+the East and in the West, is that in which the Church and the State
+have suffered more from revolution than any Protestant country.
+
+One of the first victims in Paris was Jacques Pavannes, who procured a
+temporary respite by recanting. Although young in years, he afterward
+showed a firmness and faith that would have become a veteran warrior
+of Christ. Withdrawing his recantation, he was condemned to suffer by
+fire, and when at the stake he spoke with such unction that a doctor
+of the Sorbonne declared “it would have been better for the Church to
+have paid a million of money than have allowed Pavannes to address
+the people.” (1525). A more illustrious victim was Louis de Berquin,
+scion of a noble family of Artois: by his scholarship and wit--he was
+of the Erasmian school--he had mortally offended the monks and (if the
+expression be allowable) the old fogyism of the Sorbonne. The king and
+his sister, Margaret of Valois, had saved him two or three times; but
+at last he was caught in the toils, and his trial was hurried on so
+that Francis should not have the opportunity of interfering. (1529).
+Fourteen victims of less note suffered not long after; but ideas are
+not to be burned out at the stake or stifled in prisons, and it soon
+became evident that the new doctrines were spreading wider and wider
+every day. “The smoke of these sacrifices,” says Mezeray, “had got into
+people’s heads.”
+
+The followers of the new creed had but one friend at court, and this
+was Margaret of Valois, the king’s sister, a pious tender-hearted
+woman, who had interposed more than once to rescue the victims of
+the Sorbonne and of Rome. She was not a Protestant, and shrank from
+any rupture with Catholicism. She would have liked to see the old
+and the new Church united, each yielding something to the other.
+The age, however, was not one for compromises. Day by day the lines
+of demarkation became more strongly marked, especially after the
+publication of Calvin’s “Institutes of the Christian Religion” (1535),
+which became at once the text-book and the charter of the evangelicals
+in France. Calvin was a thorough-going reformer. To adopt a familiar
+distinction, while Luther rejected nothing that was not condemned by
+Scripture, Calvin accepted nothing that was not directly countenanced
+by it. Luther’s system was, probably, the wiser, as it did not break
+directly with the past; but either principle carried to extremes is
+faulty. Looking at the subsequent history of Protestantism in France,
+we can see how (under the Calvinistic form) it excited an antagonism
+never felt in Germany; it seemed to aim at deposing the king as well as
+the pope. And it is doubtful whether such a cold undecorated form of
+religion is suited to the warm and impulsive temperament of the Celtic
+race which forms the lowest stratum of the French population.
+
+In France it was long before the Reformation reached the lower
+classes--the masses, as it is the fashion to call them; the rural
+gentry, the men of education, the well-to-do tradesmen, artists, and
+“all who from their callings possessed any elevation of mind,” were
+the first converts.[8] They were naturally opposed by the clergy and
+the lawyers, for corporate bodies are always great enemies to change.
+
+Francis I. appears to have seen the desirability of a reform in the
+Church, not so much from religious as from political motives. He
+hated the monks, and was thwarted by the Sorbonne; he read the Holy
+Scriptures with his sister Margaret, and took the extraordinary step
+of inviting Melanchthon to France in order to arrange some compromise
+by which Popery and Protestantism might be united. It was a vain
+dream, even if the king were sincere, which is exceedingly doubtful.
+He might at one time have pleaded that the persecutions were carried
+on without his knowledge and even in defiance of him; but on 21st
+January, 1535, he took an active part in the burning of six unfortunate
+“Lutherans.” In this case his pride had been hurt by some rude and
+indefensible proceedings of the Reformed party;[9] but he could be
+equally unfeeling and unscrupulous from mere political expediency. In
+the same month of January, 1535, he issued a royal edict commanding
+the instant extirpation of heresy in every form; all who aided or
+harbored heretics, or did not inform against them, were to be punished
+as principals; and informers were to receive one-fourth part of the
+confiscation and fines--a sure mode of procuring victims. This decree
+was modified in June, when Francis was coquetting with the Protestant
+princes of Germany; but the pains and penalties were only remitted to
+such as abjured their faith and returned to the bosom of the Church.
+On 1st June, 1540, appeared the famous edict of Fontainebleau,
+confirming all previous edicts, and ordering the strictest search to
+be made for heretics; and, as if its provisions were not harsh enough,
+letters patent were issued at the end of October, 1542, enjoining every
+parliament in the kingdom to “execute prompt and rigorous judgment,”
+so that the new heresy might be destroyed root and branch. No time was
+lost in carrying out these dreadful instructions. Among the victims
+of this renewed persecution was one Delavoye, who being told that a
+warrant was out against him, and that the officers were on their way to
+seize him, refused to hide himself as his friends advised. “Hirelings
+and false prophets may do so,” he said; “but following the example of
+St. Paul, ‘_I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die for the
+name of the Lord Jesus._’” Another sufferer, Constantine by name,
+was taken to execution in a scavenger’s cart. In allusion to this he
+said, “Truly hath the apostle declared, ‘_We are as the filth of the
+earth, and the offscouring of all things._’ We stink in the nostrils
+of the men of this world; but let us rejoice, for the savor of our
+death will be acceptable to God and serviceable to the Church.”
+
+A German residing in Paris in the summer of 1542 wrote to a friend
+an account of the execution of two heretics which he had witnessed.
+In his letter we learn how sympathy for the victims tended to make
+converts. One of them was a smooth-cheeked youth under twenty years
+of age, the son of a shoe-maker; the other, a man with a long white
+beard, stooping under the burden of fourscore years. The young man had
+spoken contemptuously of images, comparing them to the gods of the
+heathen; the old man had protested against prayers to the saints, and
+had declared that all Christians were priests. Both were condemned to
+suffer at the same stake for their “Lutheranism,” as it was called.
+As the youth refused to retract, he was to have his tongue cut out.
+No change could be observed in his face when the hangman approached
+him to perform this first act of cruelty. He put the tongue out as far
+as he could, the torturer pulled it out still farther with pinchers,
+and cut it off, slapping the martyr with it on the cheek. He then
+threw the tongue among the crowd, who, “it is said,” adds the writer
+conscientiously, “picked it up and flung it back in the martyr’s face.
+As he got out of the cart, he looked as if he were going to a feast
+and not to punishment.” Unmoved by the howling and the savage cries
+of the mob, he took his place calmly at the post, where a chain was
+passed round him. He now and then spat the blood from his mouth, but
+kept his eyes fixed on heaven, as if looking there for help. When the
+executioner covered his head with sulphur and pointed to the fire, he
+still smiled and bowed, as if to show he died willingly. The old man,
+who was the father of a large family and much respected for his upright
+life, had retracted, and his punishment was consequently modified. He
+was strangled before being thrown into the flames; “yet some,” adds the
+eye-witness, “thought this punishment too mild, and would have had him
+burned alive.”[10]
+
+The history of persecution contains little novelty: it is the same
+story of calumnious accusations and savage fury from the letter of
+Pliny to the invectives of the monks in the sixteenth century. The
+council which assembled at Bourges in 1528 not only condemned all
+Lutheran doctrines whatsoever, but compared heretics with sorcerers
+and magicians in order to render them more odious. The Reformers were
+accused of being bad subjects, rebels, revolutionists, aiming at the
+overthrow of the monarchy as well as the perversion of religion. This
+Francis I. pretended to believe, though he knew better; and it is
+this charge which Calvin so eloquently refutes in his “Letter to the
+King,” prefixed to his “Christian Institutes.” “Is it possible,” he
+asks, “that we who have never been heard to utter a seditious word,
+and whose lives have always been known to be simple and peaceable,
+should be plotting the overthrow of the kingdom? And what is more,
+being now driven from our homes (he is referring particularly to the
+emigration after the persecutions of 1534), we cease not to pray for
+your prosperity.... Praised be God, we have not profited so ill by the
+gospel, that our lives can not hold forth to our detractors an example
+of liberality, chastity, compassion, temperance, patience, modesty,
+and all other virtues. Verily the truth beareth witness for us that we
+fear and honor God purely, when by our life and by our death we desire
+his name to be sanctified.” In the “Institutes” he went still farther,
+laying down principles that almost consecrate oppression. “We must show
+a wicked tyrant such honor as our Lord has condescended to ordain....
+We must show this obedience through fear of God, as we serve God
+himself, since it is from him that princes derive their power.” This
+obedience, however, he is very careful to restrict to secular matters.
+“When God ordained mortals to rule, he did not abdicate his rights. If
+kings command any thing contrary to him it should have no honor, for,
+says Peter, we ought to obey God rather than men.”
+
+The cruelties of this age may be accounted for, though they can not
+be excused. Within the memory of living men, political heretics have
+been punished quite as severely (the stake excepted) as religious
+heretics, and that too without the same excuse. The priest when he
+burned the body hoped, or professed to hope, to save the soul: the
+political heretic was often sacrificed to secure a party or a minister
+in power. The persecutors of the sixteenth century must not, therefore,
+be overwhelmed with inconsiderate reproval: they were but men, living
+in an age when persecution was a duty, and heretics had no rights.
+There is still too much of the savage in the human breast, though
+civilization has done much to extinguish it; in the reign of Francis
+I. the savage was uppermost. But so remarkably did the blood of the
+martyrs prove the seed of the Church, that a Catholic writer compares
+the “Lutherans” of this time to the fabulous hydra; when one head was
+cut off, two sprang up in its place. And no wonder; for the author of
+the “History of Heresies” writes of these martyrs, even while ascribing
+their patient endurance to satanic influence, “that Christianity had
+revived in all its primitive simplicity.”
+
+In 1544 Francis I. concluded the treaty of Crespy with the Emperor
+Charles V., by which the two monarchs bound themselves to exterminate
+heresy within their respective dominions. The king chanced to be ill of
+a dangerous disease brought on by his licentiousness, and for five or
+six weeks his life hung upon a thread. The bigoted Cardinal de Tournon,
+making him believe that his sufferings were a judgment from God, urged
+him to propitiate heaven by destroying heresy. Moved by these motives,
+and by misrepresentations which the victims had no opportunity of
+correcting, for they were never heard, Francis issued an order for the
+extirpation of the Waldenses of Provence, who appear to have excited
+the wrath of the clergy to a terrible height. These Vaudois, as they
+are usually called, the better to distinguish them from the Waldenses
+of Savoy, lived in the south-east corner of France, between the Durance
+and the Alps. They were a peaceable, God-fearing, industrious race,[11]
+and had been a living protest against the Church of Rome for hundreds
+of years--even from the days of Constantine, if their annals may be
+trusted. Louis XII. is reported to have called them “better Christians
+than himself;”[12] and a Romish missionary, who was sent to turn them
+from the error of their ways, was himself converted and forced to
+acknowledge that “he had learned more from the little Vaudois children
+than he had ever done at college.” In the wildest valleys of the Alps,
+and on rocky heights where the chamois could hardly keep his footing,
+they built their huts and tended their flocks. They had covered a
+barren district with smiling harvests, “making the desert blossom as
+the rose.” Du Bellay, governor of Piedmont, describes them as “a simple
+people,” paying their _taille_ to the crown and the _droits_
+to their lord more regularly than their orthodox neighbors. But their
+virtues were their chief crime in the eyes of the king’s clerical
+advisers. In 1540 the Parliament of Provence had condemned twenty-three
+of these poor creatures to be burned alive for contumacy, and ordered
+their country to be laid waste. The sanguinary decree farther directed
+the towns of Mérindol and Cabrières, and other places, which had been
+the refuge and retreat of the heretics, to be razed to the ground, the
+caves which had served them for an asylum to be destroyed, the forests
+cut down, the fruit-trees rooted up, the rebel chiefs put to death,
+and their wives and children banished for life.”[13] Some friends of
+the poor Vaudois succeeded in getting the decree suspended until 1st
+January, 1545; when Francis I., hoping to do a meritorious work that
+would atone for his dissolute life, ordered it to be enforced. To
+John Menier, baron of Oppède, and chief president of the Parliament
+of Provence, was entrusted the task of carrying out the royal decree.
+He was one of those happily rare individuals who delight in slaughter
+from mere blood-thirstiness. He made no distinction between believers
+and heretics. The troops under his orders--wild mercenaries with more
+of the brigand than of the disciplined soldier--wasted the country
+with fire and sword. From the frightful detail of cruelties one little
+fact may be gathered characteristic of the man. All the inhabitants
+of the town of Mérindol, which stood on the Durance,[14] were put to
+the sword, with the exception of one person, a poor idiot, who had
+ransomed his life by promising a soldier two crowns. Oppède heard of
+it, and sending for the soldier, gave him the two crowns, and having
+thus bought the prisoner, ordered him to be tied to a tree and shot
+forthwith. “I know how to treat these people,” he roared out; “I will
+send them, children and all, to live in hell.” The small town of
+Cabrières, in the same neighborhood and a little south of the poetic
+Vaucluse, was treated with similar severity. Every house was destroyed;
+between 700 and 800 persons were killed in the streets or fields; a
+number of women who had fled for refuge to a barn were burned to death,
+and those who had escaped the sword and fire were sent to the galleys
+“with circumstances of inhumanity,” says the historian, “that would
+have deserved our pity on any other occasion.”[15] “In one church,”
+says Guérin, “I saw between four and five hundred poor souls of women
+and children butchered.” Twenty-five women--
+
+    Præcipites atra ceu tempestate columbæ
+    Condensæ--
+
+who had taken refuge in a cavern in the papal territory of Avignon,
+were smothered to death, the vice-legate kindling the fire with his own
+hands.[16] In fine, twenty-four towns and villages were destroyed and
+3000 persons put to death. Such little boys and girls as the soldiers
+did not want were sold into slavery: they might be purchased for a
+crown apiece. And that none might escape, the Parliament of Provence
+issued a proclamation, forbidding the neighbors to offer the Vaudois
+either food or shelter, so that many were starved to death in the
+mountains.[17]
+
+The tale of these fearful atrocities provoked a cry of indignation from
+one end of the country to the other:[18] even the king complained that
+his orders had been exceeded, but not until after the letters patent
+of 18th August, 1545, approving of all that had been done. We are told
+that the memories of these cruelties haunted his dying-bed, and that he
+bequeathed to his son the duty of taking vengeance on the murderers of
+the Vaudois. This may be true, but when the Swiss cantons remonstrated
+with him for his cruelty, he bade them mind their own business, for
+the heretics had merely received the just reward of their crimes. The
+only person punished for these horrors--and that was at the suit of
+Madame de Cantal, whose property had been ruined by the slaughter of
+her peasantry--was one Guérin, king’s advocate in the Parliament of
+Aix.[19] M. d’Oppède appears to have been so terrified at the mere
+idea of being tried, that he fell ill and died in great suffering; a
+judgment of God, as the Reformed declared it. A Catholic historian
+of these days has ventured to apologize for cruelties which could
+find no defender in the sixteenth century. “Certain names,” he says,
+“are branded for what is the result of a popular force and movement
+by which they are carried away. In a religious and believing state
+of society there are necessities, as there have been cruel political
+necessities at another epoch. Exaltation of ideas drives men to crime
+as by a fatality.”[20] Such reasoning will justify any crime, public
+or private. To admit the cowardly doctrine of “necessity,” is to
+destroy moral responsibility, to make intellect subservient to matter,
+and justice to brute force. It makes the usurper or the murderer
+accuser, judge and executioner in his own cause. It is a vindication of
+_coups d’état_--a deification of successful villainy. If generally
+admitted, it would induce a moral torpor fatal to all intelligence.
+There were men living in the Catholic communion in the sixteenth
+century who thought very differently from the paradoxical historian
+of the nineteenth. Sadolet, Bishop of Carpentras--a man so full of
+kindness and charity that a modern writer has called him the “Fénelon
+of his age”--interfered to suspend the execution of the first decree
+against the Vaudois of Mérindol. He was a ripe scholar and corresponded
+with all the learned men of the day, heretical or orthodox, including
+Calvin and Melanchthon. To the latter he wrote: “I am not the man to
+hate another because he differs from me in opinion.”[21] When Sturm of
+Strasburg accused him of lying, he said: “You should have left such
+coarse terms to Luther: they are unbecoming a mind like yours. But you
+are mistaken, and I am sure you will return to your usual polite style.
+If ever you, Bucer, or Melanchthon have need of me, I am ready to serve
+you in more than words.” It is pleasing to meet with such a character,
+when religious prejudice ran so high on both sides.
+
+One of the most terrible tragedies to which the persecuting edicts
+gave rise occurred at Meaux, in October, 1546, when sixty persons were
+seized in the house of Stephen Mangin, where they had met to hear a
+sermon. As the soldiers were taking them through the streets to prison,
+some of the Protestant spectators burst out with Marot’s noble version
+of the seventy-ninth Psalm--
+
+    Behold, O God! how heathen hosts
+      Have thy possessions seized;
+    Thy sacred house they have defiled,
+      Thy holy city raz’d.
+
+From Meaux they were transferred to Paris for trial, which resolved
+itself into an attempt to extort a confession from them by torture.
+They were sentenced to be carried back to Meaux, and fourteen of them
+were to be burned alive in the market-place, after suffering the
+question extraordinary. Others were to be hung up by the shoulders
+during the execution of their brethren, and then to be flogged and
+imprisoned for life in a monastery. As they were passing through a
+forest on their way back, a man followed them shouting: “Brethren,
+remember Him who is in heaven above.” He was caught, flung into the
+cart, and put to death with the rest. Stephen Mangin, who was regarded
+as the ringleader, first had his tongue cut out; he was then dragged
+on a hurdle from the prison to the place of execution, where he and
+his companions, after being tortured, were burned at fourteen stakes
+arranged in a circle, praising God to their last breath. One Dr.
+Picard, a celebrated man in his day, preached a sermon on the occasion,
+in which he declared it was necessary to salvation to believe that
+these fourteen poor creatures were condemned to the bottomless pit;
+and if an angel came from heaven to say the contrary, he must not
+be listened to; “for God would not be God, if he did not damn them
+eternally.”
+
+The example thus set at Meaux was imitated in other parts of France;
+but, far from checking the progress of the new doctrines, it served to
+prove the strong faith of the converts. Thus Jean Chapot, who had been
+denounced for bringing a bale of heretical books from Geneva, would
+not give up the names of the persons to whom he had sold them, though
+he was almost torn asunder on the rack. One Mark Moreau of Troyes
+displayed similar firmness and constancy at the stake, to which he
+was condemned after being tortured, because he refused to betray the
+other Lutherans in that city. Francis Daugy cried out from the midst of
+the flames: “Be of good cheer, brethren, I see heaven opening and the
+Son of God stretching out his arms to receive me.” As the Demoiselle
+Michelle de Caignoncle was going to the stake, one of her poor
+pensioners ran by her side crying: “You will never give us alms again.”
+“Yes, once more!” she said, and threw her slippers to the woman, who
+was barefoot. One Thomas of St. Paul was taken out of the flames and
+urged to recant. “Put me back into the fire,” he exclaimed: “I am on
+the road to heaven.”
+
+Among the victims of this reign was one whose name occupies a
+conspicuous place in the history of the revival of learning. Stephen
+Dolet, famous among the poets of the Renaissance, had set up a
+printing-press at Lyons, where he appears to have been unpopular among
+those of his own trade, through supporting the compositors who had
+“struck” for higher wages. He had been twice condemned for heresy: once
+on the information of the infamous Anthony Mouchi, a doctor of the
+Sorbonne and heretic-finder to the Inquisition, who has transmitted his
+name to posterity under the form of _mouchard_. Dolet had escaped
+to Piedmont; but yearning with that love for his native country, which
+is so strong a characteristic of the French people, he returned to
+Lyons, where he was speedily arrested and carried to Paris. Here he
+was accused and convicted of atheism, the charge being founded on his
+translation of a passage in Plato. While in prison, hourly expecting
+death, he exclaimed: “My whole life has been a struggle; thank God,
+it is over at last.”[22] When he was led to the stake in the Place
+Maubert, the executioner bade him invoke the Virgin and St. Stephen,
+his patron saint, or else his tongue would be cut out and he would
+be burned alive. Dolet repeated the required formula, and then was
+hanged and burned (3d August, 1546). Dolet must not be ranked among the
+martyrs of religion: he suffered because he had offended the clergy by
+his independent spirit. The doctors of the Sorbonne would willingly
+have forgiven his being a printer and an atheist, if he had not stood
+forward as the champion of free thought.
+
+Robert Etienne (or Stephens, as he is called by English scholars) was
+more fortunate than Dolet. Up to the age of twenty-five he continued
+in the Romish Church, professing a doubtful sort of orthodoxy, like
+many other celebrated men of that day; and it is probable that he
+would have continued in this undecided equivocal state all his life,
+but for the virulent attacks made upon him by certain theologians, who
+were violent in proportion to their stupidity. His quarrel with the
+Sorbonne began as early as 1523, when that same body, which in 1470 had
+invited the first printers to Paris, took alarm at the agitation of
+men’s minds and turned fiercely against its own work. The presumption
+of a young man, and he a layman, to correct a text of Scripture, seemed
+monstrous. The publication of his Latin Bibles in 1528 and 1532, and
+more especially that of the small portable Bible in 1534, aggravated
+their hostility. But all this was as nothing to the rage excited by his
+edition of the Latin Bible in 1545, wherein he had collected the notes
+of that learned professor of Hebrew, Francis Vatable. In these notes
+the active inquisitors of the Sorbonne found a number of heretical
+propositions, such as a denial of the existence of purgatory, of the
+efficaciousness of confession, and so forth. Hitherto Robert had
+been able to escape the fate of his heterodox brother Dolet, through
+the intervention of the king and the influence of John du Bellay and
+others. But against this last tempest the royal authority seemed
+powerless. The Faculty of Theology instituted proceedings against him,
+when, unhappily for him, Francis I. died; and although Robert Etienne
+found an equally kind patron in his successor, the character of the new
+king was more impressionable. The Sorbonne attacked him more violently,
+and foreseeing that Henry would be unable to protect him, he quitted
+France, as Clement Marot, Olivetan, Amyot, and most of the professors
+of the Royal College had done before him. Beza tells us that all
+learning was suspected, and that hence many good but learned Catholics
+were numbered among the heretics. A man was liable to be condemned for
+not lifting his cap on passing an image (and they were at the corner
+of almost every street), for not kneeling at the sound of the _Ave
+Maria_ bell, and for eating meat on fast days. Clement Marot was
+sent to prison and narrowly escaped burning for eating some bacon
+during Lent.
+
+              Ils vinrent à mon logement:
+    Lors se va dire un gros paillard,
+      Par là, morbleu, voilà Clement,
+    Prenez-le, il a mangé le lard!
+
+The fasting, or not fasting, on certain days soon became a test of
+orthodoxy.
+
+One of the last victims of this reign was Jean Brugière, who, after
+several imprisonments and escapes, was taken to Paris, tried, and
+condemned to be burned alive at Issoire (3d March, 1547). He was
+transferred to Montferrand, where Ory, the inquisitor, discussed the
+“real presence” with him. “If you deny,” said Ory, “that the body of
+our Lord is in the host, when the priest has pronounced the sacramental
+words, you deny the power of God, who can do every thing.” “I do not
+deny the power of God,” answered Brugière, “for we are not disputing
+whether God has power or not to do it, so much as what he has done
+in his Holy Sacrament, and what he desires us to do.” When the time
+of his suffering came, the priests pressed a crucifix to his lips,
+and bade him call on the Virgin and saints. “Let me,” he said with a
+smile, “let me think of God before I die. I am content with the only
+advocate he has appointed for sinners.” While preparing the rope or
+chain, the executioner slipped and fell. Brugière, who remained calm
+and unmoved, held out his hand to raise him. “Cheer up! M. Pouchet, I
+hope you are not hurt,” he said. When the fire was kindled, he raised
+his eyes to the cross and exclaimed: “Oh heavenly Father, I beseech
+thee, for the love of thy Son, that thou wilt be pleased to comfort me
+in this hour by thy Holy Spirit, in order that the work begun in me
+may be perfected to thy glory and to the benefit of thy poor Church.”
+When all was over, the crowd withdrew in silence. The curate of Issoire
+said, as he returned home: “May God give me grace to die in the faith
+of Brugière.”[23]
+
+Francis I. died slowly of a disgusting malady, the consequence of his
+licentious amours. For a time his life was prolonged by the use of
+potent medicines; but the opportunity thus given him of redeeming the
+past was wasted in regrets that he had not extirpated heresy.[24] He
+used often to say, if we may credit Brantome, that this novelty--the
+Reformation--“tended to the overthrow of all monarchy, human and
+divine.” Yet none of the kings who embraced the new creed lost their
+thrones; while the devotee Henry III., and the converted Henry IV.,
+both fell by orthodox daggers. The king’s funeral sermon was preached
+by Pierre du Chastel, Bishop of Macon, whose orthodoxy had become
+suspected in consequence of the attempts he had made to save Stephen
+Dolet. When Cardinal de Tournon reproached him with this, the good
+prelate made answer: “I acted like a bishop, you like a hangman.” When
+the sermon was published, the Sorbonne hunted out several heretical
+propositions, particularly a passage where the bishop, after extolling
+Francis as a saint of the highest order, continued: “I am convinced
+that, after so holy a life, the king’s soul, on leaving his body,
+was transported to heaven without passing through the flames of
+purgatory.”[25] The Sorbonne protested against this, and a deputation
+of doctors went to St. Germains, where the court was staying, to
+denounce the heretical panegyrist. They were received by John de
+Mendoza, the first chamberlain, who desired them to be quite easy in
+their minds: “If you had known His Majesty as well as I did, you would
+have understood the meaning of the bishop’s words. The king could never
+stop anywhere, however agreeable the place might be; and if he went to
+purgatory, he only remained there long enough to look about him, and
+was off again.” _Solvuntur risu tabulæ!_ The doctors retired in
+confusion: there was no answering such a jest.
+
+The character of Francis is a “mingled yarn.” He had great virtues,
+but he also had great vices. He had noble aspirations, but he often
+suffered them to be obscured by ignoble passions. All his life long he
+allowed himself to be led by women. Had they all been like his sister,
+Margaret of Valois, it would have been well for him, for France, and
+for religion; but they were more frequently such as the Duchess of
+Valentinois, and even worse. He was ambitious, but it was more for his
+kingdom than for himself; he was a warrior, though not equal to his
+rivals; he was sumptuous and extravagant, but architects and painters,
+historians and poets, scholars and wits, were not neglected by him. He
+was impressionable and superstitious, but he often checked the fiery
+zeal of the persecutors, tried to reform the clergy in his dilettante
+fashion, and was never bigoted except when frightened by the priests,
+or when he fancied his personal dignity insulted. It is not wonderful
+that Frenchmen look back to him with pride, for he represents the
+national character in its best as well as in its worst phases.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER II.
+
+                               HENRY II.
+
+                             [1547–1559.]
+
+   Henry II.--Catherine and Diana--Montmorency--Coronation--King
+   Enters Paris--Fêtes--Heretic Burning--New Edicts--Chambres
+   Ardentes--Edict of Chateaubriant--Persecution at Angers, Le Puy,
+   Velay--Inquisition Proposed--Resistance of Parliament--Siege and
+   Battle of St. Quentin--Affair of the Rue St. Jacques--Martyrdom
+   of Philippa de Lunz--Calvin’s Letter--Pre Aux Clercs and
+   Marot’s Psalms--Peace of Cateau-Cambresis--Divisions in the
+   Paris Parliament--The Mercurial of June--Du Faur and Du Bourg
+   Arrested--First Synod of Reformed Churches--Confession of Faith
+   and Book of Discipline--Edict of Ecouen--The Tournament--Henry’s
+   Death.
+
+
+Henry II. was twenty-nine years of age when he ascended his
+father’s throne (31st March, 1547), his elder brother, the dauphin
+Francis, having died almost ten years before. He was rather tall,
+well-proportioned, fond of athletic sports, and vain of his skill
+in the tournay--a weakness that proved fatal to him at last. His
+hair was dark, his beard short and pointed, his complexion pale,
+almost livid. His large, black, lively eyes somewhat contradicted his
+melancholy, saturnine character. He rarely laughed, and, according to
+the Venetian envoy, Matteo Dandolo, some of the courtiers declared
+they had never seen him smile. His portraits would leave us to suppose
+that he was of a mild and gentle disposition; but bigotry often made
+him cruel, and his pride was impatient of opposition. He could be
+liberal, too--especially with other persons’ money. Thus he gave the
+notorious Diana of Poitiers the renomination of all the officials whose
+posts had become vacant by the death of his predecessors, by which
+she appropriated more than 100,000 crowns in the shape of fines and
+presents. Henry possessed good natural abilities, and a retentive
+memory, but was uninstructed;[26] he had a taste for music, and spoke
+Italian and Spanish. He was also religious, so far at least as not to
+ride out on Sunday until after mass. Though not much distinguished in
+war, he never shrank from danger, and at Landrecy conducted himself as
+a good captain and brave soldier.[27]
+
+His queen was Catherine de Medicis, one of the most enigmatical
+personages in history. Attempts have recently been made to reverse
+the judgment of time, and rehabilitate her character,[28] which
+possibly has been painted in darker colors than it deserved; but to
+convert her into a martyr and victim, entitled to our respect and
+sympathy, is to write not history but romance. In early life she had
+more than one narrow escape, and her later career can hardly prevent
+our regretting that she lived to be old. At her birth (so runs the
+story) astrologers foretold that she would be the ruin of the family
+and the place where she was married. She was accordingly put into a
+convent; but when her uncle, Clement VII., besieged Florence, in 1530,
+the council of that city proposed taking her out and hanging her in
+a basket over the battlements, so that she might be killed by the
+besieger’s cannon. A still worse fate was proposed by others, which, to
+the honor of humanity, she escaped. Although the niece of a pope, she
+was a portionless orphan, and apparently doomed to spend her days in
+the seclusion of a cloister. Such a life would have been happier for
+her and for France; but it was not to be so. Her marriage with Henry of
+Valois, in 1533, was strictly a political one--a bond of union between
+Francis I. and Clement VII. against the emperor. The child-bride[29]
+displayed at this time none of the darker characteristics which
+afterward distinguished her. She was rather below the middle height,
+her eyes were large and sparkling--they were peculiar to her
+family,[30] her complexion was beautiful, her voice clear as a bell;
+she dressed with care, and exercised a singular fascination over all
+who came near her. Foreigners who saw her twenty or thirty years later
+describe her as still possessing an excellent figure, with a hand and
+arm that were the despair of the sculptor. She possessed many shining
+qualities, which she often marred by devoting them to evil purposes. In
+an age when female purity was not held in high esteem, she preserved a
+reputation that scandal scarce has touched. She was prompt in action,
+fertile in resources, could read character well, and had perfect
+control over her own feelings. She never designedly made an enemy of
+any one; and with her sweet smile, musical voice, and courteous manner,
+converted many an enemy into a friend.
+
+After the disastrous battle of St. Quentin she gave the first
+indications of her skill in public matters. The king had urgent need
+of money, and as he was absent from Paris, Catherine went to the
+parliament, explained the royal necessities, and obtained a grant of
+300,000 livres. “She thanked them in such words that all wept with
+tenderness.... Throughout the city men talked of nothing but her
+majesty’s prudence.”[31] After this time (we are told) the king went
+more into her society. During her husband’s life, she possessed but
+little influence: his dislike to her at one time nearly approaching to
+hatred. He often taunted her with her plebeian origin; and, but for
+the love Francis I. bore her, she would have been repudiated and sent
+back to her relations. In the earlier years of her wedded life she was
+unpopular, because she was childless, and because her uncle, Clement,
+who deceived all who trusted in him, had evaded his engagements. By
+degrees, however, she won the love of the people, who would willingly
+have shed their blood for her.[32]
+
+If she did not love her husband, she made a great show of sincere
+attachment. When he was away from her with the army, she would put
+herself and her attendants into mourning; and go in procession to
+various shrines to pray for his happiness and success. She has been
+described as _molto religiosa_, but that means very little in
+an Italian mouth. In later years, it was not easy to tell when she
+was sincere, or when playing a part. She had been trained in that
+school whence Machiavelli derived his maxims. She thought nothing
+of right or wrong: her principles, if such they may be termed, were
+prudence, expediency, and success; and she preferred a tortuous to a
+straightforward policy. During the life of her husband, Catherine had
+filled a subordinate position, having the title, but little of the
+respect, that surrounds a queen. She never had fair play, and her early
+years were blighted by the shadow cast upon them by Diana of Poitiers.
+
+Diana, Duchess of Valentinois, was the widow of Louis de Brézé, high
+seneschal of Normandy,[33] and the most beautiful woman of the age.[34]
+In her youth she had captivated the affections, such as they were, of
+Francis I., and even during his life-time had enthralled the future
+king by her dazzling charms. Henry used to wear her colors, black and
+white;[35] consult her on affairs of state, and permit her to dispense
+the ecclesiastical patronage.[36] It has been said that the love
+between them was purely platonic: the statement--borne out in some
+degree by the difference of their years--is not, however, in accordance
+with the opinion of her contemporaries.[37] The king at one time seems
+to have been quite infatuated with her. At the foot of her portrait he
+wrote the first words of Marot’s version of the forty-second Psalm--
+
+
+
+    As pants the hart for cooling streams,
+      While heated in the chase,
+    So longs my soul for thee!
+
+Brantome describes her as “a good Catholic and very devout;” but the
+abbe’s standard is not a high one. He adds that “she hated those of
+the religion.”[38] This we can believe, but her dislike did not extend
+to their possessions, by which she grew enormously rich. The historian
+Matthieu records that the people said of her: “For twelve years an
+old woman kept heaven so close, that not a drop of justice fell on
+France, except by stealth.” She was very extravagant in her tastes, to
+meet which added much to an already oppressive taxation. The ruins
+of her little palace of Anet, on the Eure, near Dreux, still exhibit
+some faint traces of the splendor and elegance of its first occupant,
+and of its architect Philibert de l’Orme. In 1547, Henry II. made her
+a present of the castle of Chenonceau, a marvel of the Renaissance,
+built by that unfortunate superintendent of finance, Jacques de
+Beaune-Semblançay. In the letters patent conveying this magnificent
+present to his favorite, the king declared it was “in consideration of
+the great and most commendable services rendered to the crown by her
+late husband, Louis de Brézé.” But when Henry died, Catherine forced
+her to give up the château, and retained it for herself. To decorate
+this building and add to its pleasure grounds, Henry imposed a tax upon
+bells--twenty livres each. The people murmured loudly at this, and
+Rabelais, echoing the popular complaints, pretended that “the king had
+hung all the bells of the kingdom round the neck of his mare.”[39]
+
+One of Henry’s first acts, after his accession, was to dismiss his
+father’s ministers, and place the management of affairs in the hands
+of Montmorency, conjointly with the Duke of Guise, the Cardinal of
+Lorraine, and Marshal St. André, who had been the king’s playmate.
+The constable was nearly sixty years of age when he was thus recalled
+from the retirement to which Francis I. had banished him. He was a
+man of harsh manners, ignorant,[40] greedy of money, and a bigot in
+religion; or, perhaps it may be truer to say, vain of his descent
+from Pharamond, and of being “the first Christian baron of France.”
+At times he could be exceedingly pompous and haughty, and though he
+had seen much service, he possessed but little military capacity. Some
+of the stories told of his ferocity have a certain grim humor about
+them, notwithstanding their brutality. While saying his prayers, he
+would break off suddenly and order this man to be whipped, or that
+to be hanged, or a village to be burned, and then continue (“tant
+il était consciencieux,” says Brantome) as if he had done the most
+natural thing in the world. These _paternosters_ had passed into
+a proverb, during his life-time. When he marched to Bordeaux, to put
+down an insurrection occasioned in the south-west of France by the
+severity with which the infamous _gabelle_ or salt-tax was levied,
+he told the citizens as they came out to present him with the keys of
+the gates: “Begone with your keys. I don’t want them. I will open your
+gates with mine (pointing to his cannon), and have you all hanged.
+I’ll teach you to rebel against your king.” And for five weeks terror
+reigned in the city. More than one hundred and forty persons were
+hanged, decapitated, burned alive, or otherwise put to death; not a few
+of them having been torn asunder by horses, impaled, or broken on the
+wheel. “It was an exemplary punishment,” says Brantome, “but _not
+so severe_ as the case required.” The country was laid waste far
+and wide by an ill-disciplined, unpaid soldiery--a course of treatment
+which did not increase the loyalty or orthodoxy of the inhabitants.
+Montmorency was a great favorite with the king, and his son Francis
+married Diana of Angoulême, Henry’s natural daughter.[41]
+
+Henry II. was duly crowned at Rheims in July, 1547, and the particulars
+recorded of the ceremony show that we have fallen off in the matter
+of kingly pomp. On a platform erected before the gate of the city,
+there was a representation of the sun, which appeared to expand like a
+flower. In the centre was a crimson heart, out of which stepped a young
+girl in costly attire, who offered the keys of the city to the monarch.
+Henry suffered two years to elapse before he visited his capital. On
+16th June, 1549, all Paris was in commotion. A grand procession of the
+notabilities of the city, both lay and clerical, went out to meet and
+harangue him, according to the wearisome custom of the age. The king,
+richly dressed, rode a white horse, and was attended by the princes
+of the blood, foreign ambassadors, marshals of France, and knights
+of the various orders of chivalry, all well mounted. The glittering
+procession took its way through streets hung with tapestry, and under
+triumphal arches, to Notre Dame. After the usual _Te Deum_, Henry
+was escorted with boisterous acclamations to the bishop’s palace, where
+a royal banquet had been prepared for him in the great hall. Only the
+princes of the royal house ate at his table. On his right sat the
+Cardinals of Bourbon and Vendome: on his left the Dukes of Vendome,
+Montpensier, and Roche-sur-Yon. The Constable Montmorency, by virtue of
+his office, stood in front of him with a drawn sword. Henry remained at
+the palace two days, until the solemn entry of the queen. She was in a
+horse-litter profusely ornamented, and at her side rode the Cardinals
+of Amboise, Chatillon, Boulogne, and Lenoncourt. Two other litters
+were used by the princesses, their ladies following on hackneys, and
+attended by pages on foot. After the customary prayers at Notre Dame,
+and the dinner at the bishop’s palace, a ball was given (for churchmen
+could dance in those days), at which the “enfants de la ville,” some
+sixscore young men, danced with the court ladies, and acquitted
+themselves with much grace, to the evident satisfaction of Henry, who
+had arranged this little incident. After the ball there was a supper--a
+collation of preserves and sweetmeats; and to end the feast, the
+provost of the merchants and the aldermen presented the queen with a
+“buffet complet,” a complete set of double silver-gilt plate, adorned
+with fleur-de-lis and “crescents.”[42]
+
+The morrow being Corpus Christi day, the provost and aldermen waited
+upon the king at the palace of the Tournelles, to present him with a
+piece of plate, which the chronicles are careful to tell us was of
+“ducat gold.” It was a grand allegorical work of art, at that time
+unmatched in Europe.[43] The provost made a complimentary speech on
+presenting it, and the king, who was delighted with the gift, thanked
+him in language as flattering as it was gracious. This emboldened the
+provost to invite him to follow the example of his ancestors, and come
+to the Grève next Sunday--the eve of St. John--and set fire to the
+great tree. Henry complied with the request, and went, accompanied by
+the queen, the princes and princesses, and kindled the fire with a
+torch of white wax handed him by the provost. Thence he proceeded to
+the Hotel de Ville, where, after the usual collation--a good custom
+which still prevails in civic entertainments--the city dames had the
+honor of dancing with the king and his court. It was still light when
+he returned to his palace of the Tournelles.
+
+During the month Henry remained in Paris, there were frequent tournays
+in the lists, prepared by the city in the Rue St. Antoine. The provost
+had also built a fort on the islet of Louviers in the Seine, to afford
+the king the pleasing spectacle of a bombardment and a sea-fight. A
+bridge of boats had been constructed from the island of Notre Dame to
+that of Louviers for the passage of the troops that were to attack the
+fort. These were harmless amusements compared with some that followed.
+On Thursday, 4th July, Henry quitted the Tournelles at seven in the
+morning, and rode in grand procession to the great cathedral, where he
+heard high mass, and then went to dine at the episcopal palace, after
+which the royal digestion was gently stimulated by the burning of some
+heretics. On another occasion, after a similar procession and banquet,
+some more heretics were burned in the Rue St. Antoine, “where the king
+stopped and advised them to recant.”[44] Heretic-burning was one of the
+popular sports of the day, at which--if contemporary engravings are any
+authority in such matters--high-born dames attended in full dress. It
+was on one of these occasions (4th July, 1549), that Henry witnessed
+the execution of a poor tailor, who had offended Diana by language
+not unlike that which John the Baptist used with regard to Herodias.
+The sufferer, we are told, turned upon the king such a look of calm
+reproach, that he withdrew frightened from the window, and for several
+nights after fancied that the dying man haunted his bedside.
+
+Meanwhile the reformed doctrines had been spreading fast. Extending
+beyond the small circle of nobles, scholars, and church dignitaries, by
+whom they were first taught and defended, and making their way into the
+lower strata of society,[45] they had become more definite and radical.
+The uneducated shoe-maker or ploughman could not appreciate such nice
+distinctions as Margaret of Valois drew in her “Mass of Seven Points,”
+and would not have cared for such subtleties if he had understood them.
+These simple men heard the Bible read and explained to them, and the
+doctrines of Free Grace and of the Atonement sank straight into their
+hearts. There was very little but habit to keep the people faithful to
+the old Church. “They are more affected,” says Matthieu, unconsciously
+imitating Horace, “by example than by instruction, and estimate the
+truth of a doctrine by the purity of a man’s life.” Such an example was
+rarely found in the Catholic clergy. Another strong reforming agent was
+the misery of the times. With reference to Normandy, which was better
+off than many other provinces, a local historian writes: “The people
+were easily seduced; the dues and taxes were so excessive that in many
+villages there was no assessment. The _decimes_ were so high
+that the parish priests and their curates ran away for fear of being
+imprisoned, and ceased to perform divine service in many parishes near
+Caen.... Seeing this, the preachers from Geneva took possession of the
+churches and chapels.”[46]
+
+Yet great as had been the increase of numbers, the Reformed at
+this time could hardly have amounted to a hundredth part of the
+population; even in 1558 they were not estimated at more than 400,000.
+The cities along the course of the Rhone and those lying at the
+foot of the Alps were strongly Calvinistic, as was also Languedoc,
+where probably some relics of the old Albigensian spirit of revolt
+still lingered. In this province the Romish Church was especially
+hateful, as it had been enriched by the confiscated estates of the
+Albigensian nobles.[47] Anjou and Normandy were divided; Picardy felt
+the influence of Flanders, where the new doctrines were extending
+with civil liberty. Nearly all the rest of France was Catholic. The
+rural population was then, as now, under the influence of the clergy,
+as also were the inhabitants of the smaller country towns. These are
+usually a narrow-minded class, an almost inevitable consequence of
+their isolation, and the dull nature of their habits and occupations.
+In Paris, the mass of the population was Catholic, the dangerous
+classes being especially demonstrative in their orthodoxy. The progress
+of religious reform might have been more rapid but for certain
+peculiarities in the state of society, which made every innovation
+difficult. The guilds in the towns had their patron saints and annual
+festivals. If a man adopted the reformed faith, he must renounce
+these, and become a sort of outcast among his comrades, and perhaps
+the severest persecution he had to undergo was that he endured at the
+hands of his fellow-workmen. We all know how much this prevails in
+large factories and in trade unions among us: and it must have been
+incalculably worse at a time when the guilds were such close bodies
+that it was impossible to carry on a trade independently of them.
+
+Henry II., like his father, cared little about the new doctrines,
+so long as they were confined to the learned and the well-born: but
+when they spread among the lower classes, he determined to punish
+heresy as worse than treason. His father’s edicts were carried out
+with great severity; but they were so far from producing the desired
+effect, that the Reform spread more and more. In order to hasten its
+extirpation, a new edict was issued (19th November, 1549), in which,
+after complaining that the bishops and their suffragans proceeded too
+slowly and tenderly--a statement which it is hard to accept--Henry
+established special chambers of Parliament for the trial and punishment
+of heresy only. It was a kind of lay inquisition, of which all the
+judges in the realm, both civil and ecclesiastical, were members
+_ex officio_. These were the famous _chambres ardentes_,
+so called, says Mezeray, “because they burned without mercy every
+one they convicted.” But the new edict appears to have had as little
+effect as its predecessors, for in the following month of February
+the king by letters patent reproached the judges for want of zeal “in
+discharging their duty in this holy and laudable work, so acceptable
+to God.” Finally the sanguinary edict of Chateaubriant[48] was issued
+(27th June, 1551), by which all the old laws on heresy were revised and
+codified. In the preamble, after recounting the efforts of his father
+as well as his own to suppress heresy, Henry declared that “the error
+went on increasing day by day and hour by hour;” that it was “like
+the plague, so contagious that in many large cities it had infected
+the majority of the inhabitants, men and women of every station, and
+even the little children had sucked in the poison;” and that he saw
+no hope of amendment except by employing the severest measures “to
+overcome the willfulness and obstinacy of that wretched sect, and to
+purge and clear the kingdom of them.” The magistrates were, therefore,
+ordered to search unceasingly for heretics, and to make domiciliary
+visits in quest of forbidden books (among which the Latin Bible of
+Robert Stephens was included).[49] This edict made denunciation a
+trade by giving the informer one-third of the heretic’s confiscated
+property, and farther enacted that a person acquitted of heresy in any
+ordinary court of justice might be again tried before an ecclesiastical
+tribunal, and _vice versâ_, thus depriving the poor Reformer of
+all chance of escape. Every suspected person was required to possess a
+certificate of orthodoxy, and even intercession on behalf of convicted
+heretics was made penal. These severities--though they were called
+“too lenient” by the pope--drove the Reformed to emigrate in such
+numbers in spite of all attempts to stop them, that a president of the
+Parliament of Bordeaux wrote to Montmorency expressing his alarm at
+seeing on the one hand the emigration increasing every day, and on the
+other the great progress made by Calvinism. But the king was not to be
+moved from his purpose. “In God’s cause,” he said, “every one should be
+ready to put his shoulder to the wheel.” A very proper sentiment, only
+we must be sure that the cause is of God. When the Parliament of Paris
+registered the edict of Chateaubriant, they compared Henry to Numa,
+“quod Numa primus condidit templum fidei.” The decree was carried out
+with extreme severity all over the kingdom, but particularly in Saumur,
+Lyons, Nîmes, Toulouse, Paris, Guyenne, Bresse, and Champagne.
+
+In Poitou and Anjou the fires of persecution blazed fiercely. Of
+three pastors at Angers two were burned alive, and of the flock six
+were put to death, and thirty-four who fled were burned as they were
+caught. The Reformed meditated taking up arms in self-defense, but
+were strongly advised by Calvin not to do so, and they obeyed. But the
+trial of their endurance must have been severe; for so great was the
+terrorism toward the end of 1556 that the Reformed ceased from writing
+to one another, or if they wrote, directed their letters, “To the
+brethren whom we _dare not name_ lest they should suffer harm.”
+
+In other parts of France, especially in the south and centre, the
+Reformers suffered less. At Le Puy the discontent first showed itself
+in the destruction of a venerated crucifix during the Holy Week. The
+sacrilege was atoned for by a solemn procession. The shops were closed,
+all work ceased, the bells rang out noisily from the great belfry, and
+the priests in a long line climbed the steep and narrow streets of that
+gloomy-looking town, up that giant flight of one hundred and eighteen
+steps to the grand portal of the cathedral. On this lofty platform the
+procession halted--not to admire the wide prospect that now charms
+every traveler--but to chant the penitential psalms before entering
+that old grey temple. The bells, which had ceased their monotonous din
+during this solemn moment, now pealed out joyously. The priests took
+off the emblems of mourning which they had worn until this moment, and
+entered the cathedral, the citizens following, each man in his own
+guild. The very next night a similar outrage occurred, and as the real
+culprits could not be found, two men were burned for heresy, their
+tongues having been first torn out (July, 1552). But “justice” was not
+overprecise in its nomenclature in those days, for we find two thieves
+who stole a chalice put to death as heretics, and two coiners of base
+money suffered a like fate. In 1555 two “most rascally heretics”
+were burned to death in the midst of a pile of “pestilent books from
+Geneva.” Oh, those books! how tyranny and falsehood hate them!
+
+Two years later a wretched pedlar was convicted of selling “the
+damnable writings of Calvin,” and his execution ordered to take place
+on one of the chief festivals of the Church--that of Corpus Christi. It
+was a bright morning in summer. The walls of the houses were hung with
+drapery and the windows filled with spectators, while the procession
+moved along more like a Roman triumph than a Christian celebration.
+Music led the way, the guilds followed with their insignia, next came
+the religious brotherhood with their banners, while troops of boys
+and girls, all dressed in white, scattered roses and burned incense.
+The clergy in their costliest robes followed next, escorting the Holy
+Sacrament, which the bishop held up to be seen and worshiped by all.
+Again came white-robed youths and maidens, and last of all the poor
+pedlar in a shirt of sacking. He was barefoot, carried a lighted taper
+in his hand, and the rope was round his neck. Every time the procession
+halted, the wretched man fell on his knees and made the _amende
+honorable_, according to the terms of his sentence. This long agony
+lasted five hours, until at length the martyr was committed to the fire.
+
+After this the heretics of Velay, where this mournful tragedy had been
+enacted, grew bolder and began to assemble “in open day in fields,
+gardens, barns, no matter where.... Their preachers were butchers,
+brick-layers, publicans, and other venerable doctors of that sort,”
+says a contemporary manuscript. The populace jeered and hooted at
+them as they went to their meetings, and the Reformers retaliated
+by fastening rosaries to their dogs’ necks, and breaking the images
+of Our Lady, calling them “useless logs.” Sometimes the persons who
+thus insulted the established religion were discovered and punished,
+but heresy flourished nevertheless. The heretics banded together and
+entered into a covenant of mutual aid. They established a sort of
+benefit club, elected leaders, collectors, and treasurers, bought
+arms and ammunition, and kept themselves ready for all eventualities.
+The society numbered about four hundred--all resolute men, and strong
+enough to ensure freedom of worship--at least for a time.
+
+Confiscations, imprisonment, and death having failed to purge the
+kingdom of heresy, the Cardinal of Lorraine suggested (in 1555) a
+new edict, by virtue of which all persons convicted of heresy by the
+ecclesiastical judges should be punished according to the magnitude
+of the crime without appeal, and proposed the appointment of Ory as
+“inquisitor of the faith in France;”[50] but bishops and Parliament
+alike protested against it. The magistrates were especially offended
+at having a court set over them, before which they were liable to be
+tried. President Seguier remonstrated to the Council in language worthy
+of the occasion: “We abhor the establishment of a tribunal of blood,
+where secret accusation takes the place of proof; where the accused
+is deprived of every natural means of defense, and where no judiciary
+form is respected. Commence, Sire, by giving the nation an edict which
+will not cover your kingdom with burning piles, or be wetted with the
+tears and blood of your faithful subjects.” He suggested that instead
+of employing fire and sword to establish and extend religion, they
+should try the same means that had been employed to found it, namely,
+“the revival of pure doctrine, combined with the exemplary lives of the
+clergy.” Henry received the advice courteously, and the edict was not
+enforced.
+
+It might be supposed that there was little to choose between the
+Inquisition and the Chambres Ardentes; but the difference was vital.
+From the sentence of the Inquisition, which derived its authority from
+the Holy See, there could be no appeal. Its victims were handed over
+to the secular arm, and not even the king had power to come between
+them and death.[51] But it was a fundamental principle of the French
+law that the king alone, as supreme head of the state, had the power
+of life and death over the subjects of the state; and that all appeals
+should be heard and decided by lay judges.[52] In the next reign we
+shall find the great Chancellor L’Hôpital declaring the edict of
+Romorantin with all its harshness and restrictions to be more merciful
+than any copy of the Spanish tribunals of blood could be.
+
+The cardinal was not a man to be daunted by this repulse, and in April,
+1557, he procured a bull from Pius IV. ordering the establishment
+of an inquisitorial tribunal of which himself and the Cardinals of
+Bourbon and Chatillon were named directors, with authority to set up
+new courts of bishops and doctors of divinity, with full power to
+arrest, imprison, and put to death, without regard to rank or quality,
+all persons suspected of heresy. The king seems to have been as eager
+as the cardinal to obtain this bull, his embassador at Rome being
+ordered to press the matter as “the only means of extirpating false
+doctrine.”[53] The pope also sent Henry a sword and helmet as symbols
+of the war he had declared against heresy. We shall see ere long to
+what use the sword was put. Again the Parliament stood forward and
+resisted the establishment of the irresponsible tribunal. If their
+motives were selfish, their object was good, and farther proceedings
+were adjourned for a year. It is possible too that Henry yielded from
+opposition of another kind, having discovered that the new doctrines
+had made greater progress than he had imagined among the nobles, who
+were not the men to suffer patiently like poor scholars and mechanics.
+A certain amount of toleration was therefore conceded, until the treaty
+of Cateau-Cambresis made persecution an international duty.
+
+Although the persecution never ceased in France during the reign of
+Henry II., there were intervals of reaction when the fires burned dim
+and the sword of the executioner hung idle on the wall. These were
+usually connected with the foreign policy of the government--a subject
+not within the scope of these pages. It may be sufficient to mention
+generally that as the basis of every diplomatic arrangement with the
+Pope, the Emperor, or the King of Spain, was the extirpation of heresy,
+so a certain toleration accorded to heretics was a means of showing
+dissatisfaction with one or all of those three powers. The furious
+outburst of persecution which occurred at the period we have now
+reached, may be partly traced to the changes that had taken place in
+foreign countries. Mary was fiercely persecuting her English subjects,
+Cranmer having atoned for his weaknesses by his heroic martyrdom in
+1556; Philip II. had succeeded to the throne of Spain and re-enacted
+his father’s cruel edict of 1550; and Paul IV., the restorer of the
+Inquisition, sat in St. Peter’s chair. France was at war with Spain and
+had suffered many reverses; Francis, Duke of Guise, was unsuccessful in
+Italy, where Alva, as yet unstained by blood, was carrying all before
+him; while on the northern frontier the Constable Montmorency tried in
+vain to make head against the impetuous attacks of Emmanuel Philibert
+of Savoy, who commanded the Spanish troops in Flanders. Philibert
+laid siege to St. Quentin, where Admiral Coligny held out stubbornly
+against overwhelming odds. Montmorency marched to the relief of the
+city and re-enforced the garrison by 500 soldiers, under the command of
+Andelot, but suffered a bloody defeat (10th August, 1557) a few hours
+afterward, when his cavalry was routed and his infantry cut to pieces.
+He himself was wounded and made prisoner, along with Marshal St. André.
+So complete was the rout, so crushing the defeat--the severest that
+France had received since the battle of Agincourt--that the Parisians
+trembled lest the conqueror should appear before their gates. More
+than once has that beautiful city been spared by the procrastination
+of a victorious enemy, and the fear of driving a gallant nation to
+extremity. The fortress of St. Quentin fell on the 27th August, Coligny
+and his brother Andelot being made prisoners.
+
+Such national disasters were regarded as a judgment from heaven,
+and the evangelicals were made the scape-goats. Priests went into
+the pulpit and inflamed the passions of their ignorant hearers by
+the coarsest vituperations. “God is punishing us,” they shouted,
+“because we have not avenged his honor,” and the populace yielding
+to the superstitious impulse caught up the cry.[54] They soon had an
+opportunity of putting into practice the lesson they had been taught.
+On the night of the 4th September, 1557,[55] a number of adherents
+of the new religion, amounting to three or four hundred, assembled
+at a private house in the suburbs on the left bank of the river for
+the purpose of united worship. The men belonged chiefly to the upper
+classes, and the women were of good families, some of them being ladies
+in attendance on the queen.[56] The service had been conducted in
+quiet, the Lord’s-supper administered, and the congregation was about
+to separate when they found the street--the Rue St. Jacques--blockaded
+by a furious mob bearing torches and armed with every weapon they
+could catch up. “Death to the traitors! down with the Lutherans!” they
+shouted, as they rushed to the door and tried to force an entrance.
+They were kept at bay by a few resolute gentlemen who, by their rank,
+were entitled to carry swords, while the women and the elders sought
+to escape through the garden which opened into the fields. But every
+outlet was guarded and all opportunity of flight cut off. What was to
+be done? Death, a horrible death at the hands of the mob, appeared
+imminent. The only chance of safety lay in seeking the protection
+of the magistrates before the city gates were opened, and all the
+ruffianism of Paris was let loose upon them. With this intent a few
+gallant gentlemen volunteered to attempt to reach the Hotel de Ville,
+the others remaining to guard the helpless women and old men. Suddenly
+the door of the house was thrown open and the desperate little band
+rushed out and cut its way through the crowd with the loss of only one
+of their number. Throughout the long night those left behind waited in
+trembling apprehension for the dawn. They prayed to God for support,
+and sometimes one of their number would read a consolatory chapter from
+the Bible, the yells of the populace frequently drowning the voice of
+the reader.
+
+Day-light came at last, but it brought no relief. The doors were
+forced, and the unarmed worshipers would have been torn to pieces, when
+a detachment of the city guard arrived and took them off to prison,
+saving many of them for a still crueler death. As the helpless captives
+were dragged through the streets, the mob reviled and cast mud at them.
+On reaching the Châtelet, they were thrust into filthy dungeons from
+which the vilest criminals had been removed to make room for them;
+where the light of day hardly penetrated, and where “they could neither
+sit nor lie down, they were so crowded.”[57]
+
+The Reformed Church of Paris was in a pitiable state, so many of its
+members being in peril of their lives. Extraordinary prayers were
+offered up in every family for the delivery of the martyrs, and a
+remonstrance drawn up by the elders was presented to the king, who put
+it aside unnoticed. But (strange to say!) there was no eager haste to
+punish the prisoners any farther, the example of their seizure having
+frightened many back to orthodoxy. But orthodox agitators were busily
+at work to keep up the popular excitement and prevent the escape of the
+captives. The heretics and all who would shelter them were vehemently
+denounced from the pulpit, and inflammatory placards were stuck on
+every wall. A verse from one of these, posted all over Paris on
+Christmas day, 1557, will show the style in which the popular fury was
+stirred against the “Lutherans.”
+
+    Paris, en ce temps froidureux
+    Que les nuits sont longues et fraiches,
+    Tu dois bien veiller sur tous ceux
+    Qui font auprès de toi des prêches.
+    Si, de bref, tu ne les dépêches,
+    Jamais paix n’auront les chrétiens;
+    Car ceux que tu souffres et tiens
+    Te causeront tant de courroux,
+    Que tu diras, toy et les tiens:
+    Montagnes, tombez dessus nous.
+
+When the excitement had abated, and the affair was almost forgotten,
+the prisoners of the Rue St. Jacques were brought to trial. Their
+lives were forfeited by the mere fact of their presence at an unlawful
+assembly, and the alternative of recantation or death was presented to
+them; but they would not yield an inch. They found that man’s weakness
+was God’s strength.
+
+Among the captives was Philippa de Lunz, a woman of good family, a
+widow, and only twenty-two years old. She was interrogated several
+times, but her answers were such as to destroy all hope of pardon. On
+the 27th September, 1558, more than a year after her imprisonment,
+she was led out to death, in company with Nicholas Clinet or Clivet,
+a school-master, and Taurin Gravelle, an advocate, both elders in the
+Reformed Church. Before they were placed in the tumbrel that was to
+carry them to the stake in the Place Maubert, they were to have their
+tongues cut out, to prevent their praying aloud or addressing the
+people on the road to death. The two men suffered this cruel mutilation
+without a groan. Turning to Philippa, the executioner roughly bade her
+put out her tongue. She did so immediately. Even he was struck by her
+intrepidity: “Come! that’s well, _truande_,” he said; “you are not
+afraid then?” “As I do not fear for my body,” she replied, “why should
+I fear for my tongue?” The knife flashed an instant before her eyes
+and her tongue fell to the ground. She was then thrust into the cart
+at the feet of her two companions and bound to the same chain. Before
+leaving the prison she had taken off her widow’s weeds and put on the
+best garments left her, saying: “Why should I not rejoice? I am going
+to meet my husband.”
+
+Around a pile of faggots in the Place Maubert there had collected all
+that was vilest in Paris, dancing and calling out for blood, just as
+some two hundred years later a similar mob danced round the victims
+of the guillotine. The king is said to have been a spectator of the
+horrible scene that followed. It was Philippa’s fate to look on while
+her two companions were burned to death--to witness their horrible
+convulsions, and hear the shrieks which the mounting flames extorted
+from them. But even this did not shake her faith, which found support
+in earnest prayer. And now her turn had come; the executioners roughly
+seized her with their strong arms, shamefully tearing her clothes, and
+held her over the hot ashes until her feet were burned to the bone.
+Then with a horrible refinement of cruelty the savage torturers hung
+her head-downward in the fire, until the scalp was burned off and her
+eyes scorched out. After that she was strangled, and heaven received
+another saint.
+
+A few days later four more of the prisoners suffered death at the
+same place. One of them, as he opened the shutter of his cell on the
+morning of his execution, that he might behold the sunrise once more,
+exclaimed: “How glorious it will be when we are exalted above all this.”
+
+One of Calvin’s noblest letters was written at this time to the
+prisoners still remaining in the Châtelet, and more particularly to the
+women, whom he exhorted to imitate the strength and faith of Madame de
+Lunz: “If men are weak and easily troubled,” he said, “the weakness
+of your sex is still greater, according to the order of nature. But
+God, that worketh in weak vessels, will show forth his strength in the
+infirmity of his people.... He who sets us in the battle supplies us
+from time to time with the necessary arms, and gives us skill to use
+them.... Consider how great were the excellences and firmness of the
+women at the death of our Lord Jesus Christ. When the apostles had
+forsaken him, they still remained by him with marvelous constancy, and
+a woman was his messenger to inform them of his resurrection, which
+they could neither believe nor understand. If he so honored them at
+that time and gave them such excellence, do you think he has less power
+now, or that he has changed his mind?” Calvin showed that his was not a
+barren sympathy by making every effort to induce the cantons of Berne
+and Zurich and the German princes to intercede in behalf of the poor
+prisoners. Their intercession prevailed to save such as remained alive.
+The doors of the Châtelet were thrown open: the younger prisoners were
+transferred to monasteries from which they easily escaped; while others
+obtained a full pardon after making an ambiguous confession of faith
+before the bishop’s officers. Pope Paul IV. complained bitterly of this
+moderation, and declared that he was not astonished at the bad state
+of affairs in France, now that the king trusted more in the support of
+heretics than in the protection of heaven.[58]
+
+Not only did the severe measures we have described fail of their
+effect, after the first alarm had passed away, but the reformed
+doctrines made so many new converts that Beza, writing to his friend
+Bullinger about this time, declared “that the king must either destroy
+entire cities, or make some concession to the truth.”[59] The severity
+exercised upon the martyrs of the Rue St. Jacques had overleaped
+itself. A contemporary historian and a Romanist says, that such
+mournful sights disturbed many simple souls, who could not forbear
+thinking that the men and women who could undergo such tortures with
+calmness and resolution must have truth on their side, and he adds with
+touching simplicity, “They could not contain their tears, their hearts
+wept as well as their eyes.”[60]
+
+The summer of 1558 witnessed a singular protest against the persecuting
+and obstructive policy of the Church. It assumed a form, and was
+carried out with a pertinacity and a _malice_ peculiarly French.
+Clement Marot, the earliest of French poets and a favorite of the
+late king, had translated some of the Psalms of David into verse,
+which immediately became popular. They sold faster than they could be
+printed. Francis I. quoted them on his dying-bed,[61] and by his order
+the translator had presented a copy of his first series of thirty to
+Charles V., who rewarded him for it and pressed him to continue it.[62]
+The ladies and gentlemen of the French court took a strange delight in
+singing them, but not always to the most appropriate tunes. The martyrs
+of Meaux had sung them at the stake. Henry II., when dauphin, was fond
+of singing them; and on one occasion, when recovering from an illness,
+he had them chanted to him by his choristers, with the accompaniment
+of “lutes, viols, spinnets, and flutes.” His favorite was the 128th
+Psalm: _Blessed is every one that feareth the Lord_, which he is
+reported to have set to music. Catherine had her favorite: _O Lord,
+rebuke me not in thine anger_; that of Diana of Poitiers was the
+solemn _De Profundis_ (Ps. 120). The King of Navarre selected the
+43d: _Judge me, O Lord_; and even Charles IX., at a much later
+period, used to repeat, _As pants the hart_; probably because of
+its allusion to the chase. The Protestants of France sang them at all
+times, and as neither the music nor the words could be condemned as
+heretical,[63] they were sung when no other mode of divine worship
+was practicable. Thus when the citizens took their evening walk in
+the Pré aux Clercs,[64] the Hyde Park of those days, some student or
+Reformer would strike up one of Marot’s Psalms, in which they would all
+join. Many may have done this out of pure bravado, but others out of
+love for the truths they contained. The King and Queen of Navarre were
+fond of that pleasant promenade by the river-side, and took delight in
+listening to this multitudinous singing.
+
+These things cease to move us now, not because we are less religious,
+but because we are less demonstrative, and there is no opposition to
+force us into an external display of our faith. There have always been
+occasions when large bodies of men have tried to conceal or perhaps to
+alleviate their excitement by singing. Cromwell’s troopers thundered
+out a Psalm as they marched up the breach at Dunkirk, and the Girondins
+sang the Marseillaise as they stood at the foot of the guillotine.
+
+But there was something more than this in the sudden popularity which
+Marot’s Psalms acquired among all classes. It was the revival of an old
+Christian custom; it popularized a new mode of worship. In the earlier
+and purer days of the Church, singing had been congregational; but it
+had long since become the business of priest and chorister solely. The
+old tunes had grown obsolete, and airs wedded to mundane songs had been
+introduced into the Church service. “The _Miserere_ is chanted to
+a jig-tune,” said a Catholic writer. Other influences, many of them
+sacerdotal, were at work to widen the interval between the priest
+and his flock--to reduce public worship into a sort of theatrical
+performance in which he and his colleagues were the actors, and the
+others the spectators and listeners. But if the people did not sing
+at church, there is ample evidence that they sang at home; and it is
+probably owing to this circumstance that we possess so many partsongs
+in our old music-books. It is one of the glories of the Reformation
+that it gave a religious character to these songs. Luther and Calvin
+both saw how music might be employed to advance the truth, and
+neglected no opportunity of recommending the study of singing. Luther
+had but a poor opinion of a school-master who could not sing, and
+ranked music next to theology. “It has been commanded unto all men,”
+he said, “to propagate the word of God by every possible means, not
+merely by speech, but by writing, painting, sculpture, _psalms_,
+_songs_, and musical instruments.” He composed many tunes: these
+and the chorales of Senfel penetrated into France, and German airs form
+the basis of a large part of the French hymnal. Calvin took no less
+pains at Geneva, and the tunes composed by his desire were distributed
+by thousands, each part being printed separately to facilitate their
+execution. Even Catholics were to be found using these Protestant
+scores--a practice which Florimond de Remond, the historian of heresy,
+bitterly condemns: “The wise world--stupidly wise in this--which judges
+of things by outward appearance only, praised this kind of amusement,
+not seeing that under this chant, or rather new enchantment, a thousand
+pernicious novelties crept into their souls.”[65] The time came,
+however, when even psalm-singing was interdicted. At Bourges, in April,
+1559, the Reformed began to hold open-air meetings, similar to those at
+Paris, to the great annoyance of the orthodox, who caused proclamation
+to be made forbidding the singing of Psalms under pain of death, and a
+gibbet was erected, _in terrorem_, in the middle of the promenade
+(the Pré Fichault); but even that grim monitor failed to terrify the
+Reformers into submission. In the Velay, the opposition was equally
+determined. The very day an order was issued forbidding the people to
+sing the Psalms of that “sacrilegious apostate,” Marot, the heretics,
+“fearing neither God, pope, king, law, nor justice, sang them all the
+louder.”[66]
+
+Meanwhile both France and Spain had grown weary of the war, and a
+treaty of peace was concluded at Cateau-Cambresis (3d April, 1559),
+France agreeing to give up all her conquests. Indeed that country was
+exhausted, and her treasury empty, and there was little hope that the
+people would submit to additional taxation. Philip II. on his part was
+equally glad to put an end to hostilities, which prevented him from
+turning his attention to the progress of heresy in the Low Countries.
+The treaty was regarded by the Reformers as “disgraceful and injurious
+to the kingdom,” and with our subsequent knowledge we may add, full
+of danger to the Reformers themselves. During the negotiations, which
+lasted from January to April, the Duke of Guise and the Cardinal of
+Lorraine had sought a private interview with the Spanish Minister
+Granvelle, Bishop of Arras, at Peronne, in which they expressed their
+devotion to Spain, and entered into a league for the extirpation of
+heresy in Navarre, France, and the Netherlands.[67] What after-thought
+there may have been in the cardinal’s mind is uncertain, but he had
+probably hoped for the support of Spain in the ambitious views of his
+family upon the crown of France.
+
+The treaty had been concluded in opposition to the advice of the
+Guises, who consequently fell into disgrace at court, while the
+constable triumphed. Henry seems, indeed, never to have liked the
+Lorraine family, and his feeling toward them is strongly marked in
+a letter he wrote to Montmorency, then a prisoner: “I have been
+constrained to create the Duke of Guise lieutenant-general; also
+affairs have now compelled me to conclude the marriage of the dauphin
+with the duke’s niece (Mary Stuart), and likewise to do many other
+things. Time, however, _m’en fera raison_.”[68] By the treaty
+the Cardinal of Lorraine lost three sees, and he swore to be avenged
+of Montmorency and the admiral. In this he so far succeeded, with the
+help of Diana of Potiers, who worked upon the king by stories of the
+increase of heresy, that the persecution which had been suspended by
+the war (except in the affair of the Rue St. Jacques), broke out again,
+and was conducted with more regularity.
+
+The Parliament of France was originally, like the Parliament of
+England, a national council with functions both legislative and
+judicial.[69] In the course of time a separation of classes and powers
+took place: in England the judicial power fell into disuse, and the
+Parliament became a mere legislative body; in France, the Parliament
+lost its legislative authority, and subsided into a high court of
+justice of last resort, and a court of revenue. It consisted of a
+fixed number of churchmen, lay peers, and councillors--all equal in
+voice and authority. Each province had its independent Parliament,
+over which that of Paris asserted, but was rarely able to enforce,
+its authority. In the early days of the new religious movement, the
+Parliament of Paris was hardly less hostile than the Sorbonne to the
+new doctrines; but as time rolled on and the principles of the Reform
+were better known, the Parliament became divided in opinion. As in all
+similar bodies, there were three parties: those who sympathized with
+the religious reform movement, those who were opposed to it, and those
+who, either from policy or coldness of temper, floated between the
+two. To this party belonged the elder De Thou, Harlay, and Seguier,
+all members of the Tournelle. On the last Wednesday in April, 1559,
+Bourdin, the king’s proctor-general, made a proposition that as the
+laws were enforced so irregularly--the Grand Chamber burning heretics
+implacably, the Tournelle only banishing them, to the great scandal
+of justice--the two courts should come to some arrangement by which
+uniformity of action would be insured. Each judge gave his opinion, and
+there was naturally great diversity of sentiment. Arnauld du Ferrier
+proposed the convocation of a general council for the settlement of all
+religious controversies, and that in the mean time all measures against
+the Reformed should be suspended. This learned lawyer, like many others
+of his day, not only did not appear to contemplate the possibility of
+the Romish and the Reformed religions existing quietly side by side in
+France, but thought the differences between the two were so trifling
+that union might be restored by a few mutual concessions. Arnauld’s
+proposal was supported by a majority of the meeting,[70] and, among
+others, by Anthony Fumée, whose father and grandfather had filled
+the highest judicial offices. He not only vindicated the Calvinistic
+interpretation of the doctrine of the Lord’s-supper, but advised an
+address to the king, praying him to summon a general council, in which
+all erroneous doctrines should be exposed, and all heresies condemned;
+and that the persecution of those who held heterodox opinions upon
+secondary points should cease. The matter began to look so serious that
+the Duchess of Valentinois urged Henry II. “to hang half a dozen at
+least of the councillors as heretics,” and show Spain (with whom the
+marriage-treaty between Philip II. and Isabella was going on) that he
+was firm in the faith, and would not tolerate heresy. The Cardinal of
+Lorraine strongly advised a similar course; while Marshal Vieilleville
+tried to dissuade the king: “Sire,” he said, “if you think of going
+to play the theologian or inquisitor, we must get the cardinal to
+come and teach us how to hold our lances in the tournament.”[71] But
+the churchman prevailed; not, however, until the king was threatened
+with the anger of God if he refused a _Mercurial_ against those
+free-thinking lawyers. These Mercurials were assemblies of the
+Parliament held on Wednesday (_dies Mercurii_), at which the
+members of that body were censured for any thing they might have done
+contrary to their dignity or duty. The word was afterward extended
+to the censure or judgment itself. On the 15th June, 1559, “after
+dinner” (about noon) Henry, attended by the Cardinals of Lorraine
+and Guise, unexpectedly entered the great hall of the Augustines’
+convent, where the sittings of Parliament were temporarily held, just
+as the councillors were discussing the means of settling a uniform
+jurisprudence in heretical matters.[72] After taking his seat, the
+king said: “I desire to secure the repose of my kingdom, and the
+maintenance of religion. Having concluded a peace abroad, I will not
+have it disturbed at home by religious disorders. For this reason I am
+come among you, that I may hear what is your opinion about the present
+religious differences, and know why you have not carried out my edicts
+constraining the judges to condemn all Lutherans to death.” Undismayed
+by the king’s presence, the moderate party defended what they had
+done. Louis du Faur acknowledged that the present troubles were caused
+by religion, but he added: “We must trace them back to their source,
+lest we be exposed to the reproach the prophet Elijah made to King
+Ahab: ‘I have not troubled Israel, but thou and thy father’s house.’”
+Anne du Bourg was equally bold in his language: “There are certain
+crimes,” he said, “that deserve to be punished without mercy; such are
+adultery, blasphemy, and perjury, which are countenanced daily by men
+of disorderly life and infamous amours. But of what do men accuse those
+who are handed over to the executioner? of treason?... They never omit
+the name of the king from their prayers. What revolt have they headed?
+what sedition have they stirred up? What! because they have discovered,
+by the light of Holy Scripture, the great vices and the scandalous
+offenses of the Roman Church--because they have petitioned for a
+reform: is that an offense worthy of the stake?” The king trembled with
+anger, but listened with pleasure to the first president, Gilles le
+Maistre, who advised him to treat the new sectarians as the Albigenses
+had been treated by Philip Augustus, who burned six hundred of them
+in one day; and the Vaudois by Francis I., who killed them in their
+own houses, or stifled them in the caverns to which they had fled for
+refuge.[73] Henry closed the sitting by reprimanding the judges for
+their laxness in administering the laws against heresy, and ordered
+Du Faur and Du Bourg to be arrested--the first for having spoken of
+Ahab, the second for condemning adultery, both of which the king
+applied to himself. Montgomery, captain of the royal archers, seized
+the two lawyers and conveyed them to the Bastille. This was the same
+Montgomery who was shortly to be the innocent cause of Henry’s death,
+and some years later to die on the scaffold as a heretic and traitor.
+The two prisoners were put into separate dungeons, and denied the use
+of paper, ink, and books, or communication with their friends. The
+king, unwilling to leave them to be tried before an ordinary tribunal,
+appointed a commission to hear and condemn them, unless they retracted,
+and swore he would have them burned before his eyes.
+
+Du Bourg’s arrest was not a solitary act of persecution. By the
+treaty of Cateau-Cambresis, Henry and Philip had bound themselves
+to maintain the Catholic worship inviolate, to assemble a general
+council, and to extinguish heresy in their respective dominions.[74]
+To William of Orange, rightly surnamed the Taciturn, then a hostage
+for the due execution of the treaty, the king imparted the secret of
+these negotiations with the King of Spain.[75] William listened, but
+held his peace, and it was probably his knowledge of this projected
+massacre--delayed for thirteen years--that converted him into the
+liberator of the Netherlands.
+
+The violence with which the storm of persecution raged may be conceived
+from a few isolated examples. The edicts were enforced with such vigor
+that the Reformed feared to meet in groups of more than twenty or
+thirty at a time. In some places they ceased altogether to assemble,
+or else they met in the woods and fields, in caves and quarries. Great
+mystery was used in summoning the faithful together. On the evenings
+when there was to be a sermon, a man would go through the streets and
+whistle the signal. If there was reason to fear the watch or patrol,
+the summoner carried a lantern of a peculiar form, and passed along
+without uttering a word. The worshipers crept muffled up to the
+place assigned, where they sang in a suppressed voice one of Marot’s
+Psalms, prayed, and then separated, often without any sermon. It was
+this meeting by night which gave a substance to the licentious and
+calumnious stories told of the Reformed.[76]
+
+The Parliament of Bordeaux received instructions to hold the “grand
+jours,” or special assize, at Saintes, not that they might listen to
+the grievances of the people, as was the ancient custom, but to operate
+on a large scale against heresy. When all the prisons in Saintonge
+were crammed, the rest of the heretics were sent to Bordeaux. In order
+to remove the odium under which they labored, the Reformers of France
+resolved to draw up a confession of their faith, and lay it before the
+king, begging Anthony of Navarre, Governor of Guienne, to present it,
+adding that they were prepared, if necessary, “one and all to seal
+their faith with their blood.” But Anthony objected, and like a true
+man of the world as he always was, advised them to keep quiet and
+let the storm blow over. It was in circumstances such as these--in
+the “midst of burning piles, and gibbets erected in every corner of
+the city”--that the first Protestant synod met in Paris (May, 1559),
+and continued sitting four days. Francis Morel, sire of Collonges, a
+gentleman by birth, and now pastor of the metropolitan church, was
+their president. Not more than a dozen provincial churches--there
+is a slight discrepancy in the numbers--sent deputies; but, being
+earnest men, they soon succeeded in giving French Protestantism the
+organization which it has preserved, with few trifling exceptions,
+until the present day. The church in Paris had been the first to
+organize itself with pastor, elders, and deacons,[77] and the example
+was speedily followed by many provincial cities; but these churches
+were all isolated, and it was felt that by uniting into one body, they
+would be stronger against their enemies, as well as richer in the
+divine graces.
+
+In thus assembling together the deputies carried their lives in their
+hands, for, by an edict then in force, all preachers found in the
+kingdom were to be put to death. But, undeterred by peril, they drew
+up a Confession of Faith and a Book of Discipline, each consisting of
+forty articles. In the former the doctrine of non-resistance was laid
+down with a thoroughness somewhat startling. Thus the fortieth article
+says: “We must obey the laws and ordinances, pay tribute, tax, and
+other dues, and bear the yoke of subjection with good and hearty will,
+even should the magistrates be infidels.... Furthermore, we detest
+those who would reject superiorities, set up a community of goods, and
+overthrow the order of justice.” The synod clenched these doctrines by
+reference to Matthew xvii. 24, and Acts vi. 17–19. Calvin’s opinions
+on this point are briefly shown in one of his sermons delivered three
+or four years later: “All principalities are types of the kingdom of
+Jesus Christ; we must hold them precious, and pray God to make them
+prosper.”[78] Yet the ecclesiastical constitution which he drafted was
+entirely republican in form, every thing being made to depend upon
+the votes of the people, who elected a consistory (or kirk-session),
+which chose the pastor, whose final appointment rested on the decision
+of the congregation. A certain number of churches formed a conference
+or presbytery which met twice a year, and in which each church was
+represented by the pastor and one elder. These presbyteries united into
+provincial synods, and above them all presided a general assembly, the
+supreme court of legislation and appeal, composed of two pastors and
+two elders from each provincial synod.
+
+There can be little doubt that this organization of the Reformed
+churches added another element of strife to the contest between the
+two religions. The Romish clergy naturally abhorred it, as a sign
+of the increasing power and boldness of the Reformed party; while
+the statesmen of the day could not but look upon it with suspicion
+as a sort of _imperium in imperio_--a dangerous rival to the
+civil power, and savoring of rebellion, inasmuch as it ignored the
+headship alike of pope and king, acknowledging that of God alone. Men
+did not take the trouble to examine closely into the causes of their
+dislike: they felt instinctively that such an organization proclaimed
+the sovereignty of the people, and that the doctrine might easily be
+extended from spiritual to temporal matters. The subsequent history
+of the chief Calvinistic churches shows that this instinctive hatred
+was not altogether unreasonable. In Switzerland and Holland, in
+England and in North America, wherever this organization has been able
+to control the political power, a republic has followed. These are
+indeed the parts of the world where liberty flourishes most, and for
+this noble fruit we may well love the tree that bore it; but in the
+sixteenth century, the tendency of society was toward despotism, not
+toward self-government; and the statesmen of Europe must be excused
+if they were not clear-sighted enough to see that the new movement
+must inevitably succeed, or wise enough to become the leaders and
+controllers of the popular feelings. And so far it may be doubted
+whether Calvin’s influence in France was altogether for good, and
+whether the Reformed Church would not have struck deeper root in that
+country, if its organization had been less antagonistic. By separating
+itself entirely from antiquity, it risked a doubtful good for a certain
+evil. As church-government is not a matter of faith but of discipline,
+those have much to answer for who array Christians in hostile ranks on
+a secondary matter.
+
+The news of this synod and the merciful tendency of the Parliament
+inflamed Henry’s orthodoxy to such an extent that he issued an edict
+(June, 1559) more terrible even than those which had gone before.
+It was dated from Ecouen, a castle belonging to the constable, and
+situated about four leagues north of Paris. By that decree all
+convicted Lutherans were to be punished with death--instant and without
+the chance of remission. It was registered by all the Parliaments
+without any limitation or modification whatsoever, and the judges were
+forbidden, under severe penalties, to diminish the pains of the edict,
+as they had lately been in the habit of doing. Such terrible powers
+could scarcely have failed completely to eradicate heresy, if they
+had been carried out as Henry II. intended they should be. But there
+was a providence watching over France, by which the religionists were
+unexpectedly saved from the jaws of the lion.
+
+One of the regulations of the treaty of Cateau-Cambresis was that
+Philip II.--now a widower through the death of Mary of England in
+the preceding November--should marry Henry’s sister, Elizabeth of
+Valois, then just turned of thirteen. The betrothal was to take place
+at Paris, and thither came the Duke of Alva, attended by a numerous
+suite of nobles and gentlemen. Even at such a time, when we might
+suppose the king entirely occupied with nuptial festivities--for his
+sister Margaret was also to be married--he proposed a crusade against
+Geneva, “that sink of all corruption,”[79] and, but a few hours before
+his death, he had given Montgomery instructions about an expedition
+on a grand scale into the Pays de Caux for the extermination of the
+Reformed. But the finger of God was upon him.
+
+On the 26th June,[80] the Spanish marriage was celebrated, the Duke of
+Alva acting as proxy for Philip II. Magnificent rejoicings followed
+the ceremony, and a tournament was held in the lists erected at the
+end of the Rue St. Antoine. It must have been a grand sight, that
+old historic street. In front of the palace of the Tournelles stood
+a gallery in which sat the youthful Queen of Spain under a canopy of
+blue silk, ornamented with the device of her husband whom she had
+not yet seen. Around her were grouped men destined to become famous
+in history: Alva, the Prince of Orange, and Count Egmont. Catherine
+sat in a gallery apart, with Mary Stuart on her right, and Margaret,
+affianced to the Duke of Savoy, on her left. The king had declared his
+intention of entering the lists, in order to display his skill before
+the Spanish grandees. As if foreseeing evil, the queen besought him
+to forego the dangerous pastime; but, confident in himself, he only
+laughed at her fears. After two successful encounters with the Dukes of
+Savoy and Guise, he challenged Gabriel de Lorges, Count of Montgomery.
+De Lorges was captain of Henry’s Scotch guard, and had been sent to
+Scotland by Francis I. in 1545, in command of the troops dispatched
+to the assistance of the queen-regent Mary of Guise. In the first
+course the advantage lay with the count, and the king, chafed by such a
+partial discomfiture, challenged him to try another turn. The queen and
+Marshal de Vieilleville entreated him to be satisfied, and Montgomery
+declined a second encounter. But Henry would take no refusal. Once more
+they met; their lances were shivered, but both retained their seats.
+Again the trumpets sounded, again they spurred their horses, when
+Montgomery’s lance struck the king’s helmet, knocked off the plume,
+and snapped in two, a splinter from the lower portion of the shaft
+entering his right eye. There was a loud shriek from the royal gallery,
+which for a moment distracted the attention of the spectators from
+the king, who had lost all command over his horse, and was reeling in
+his saddle. The attendants were hardly quick enough to save him from
+falling to the ground. His helmet was loosed and the splinter pulled
+out. It was “of a good bigness,” says the English embassador, who was
+an eye-witness.[81] “Nothing else was done to him upon the field;
+but I noted him to be very weak, and to have the feeling of all his
+limbs almost benumbed; for being carried away as he lay along, nothing
+covered but his face, he moved neither hand nor foot, but lay as one
+amazed. There was marvelous great lamentation made for him, and weeping
+of all sorts, both men and women.” The wound proved more serious than
+Throckmorton had imagined: Henry never left his bed again. Twice he
+received the last sacraments of the Church, and calling for his son
+Francis, “commended the Church and the people to his care.” After an
+interval of repose--for the exertion of uttering these few words was
+almost too great for him--he added: “Above all things, remain steadfast
+in the true faith.”[82] Henry II. died on the 10th of July, leaving
+behind him four sons, three of whom wore the crown of France. He also
+left three daughters and a bastard son, Henry of Angoulême, who cruelly
+distinguished himself at the massacre of St. Bartholomew.
+
+The Protestants were accused of rejoicing at Henry’s death: they not
+only made songs upon it, but “offered thanks, or rather blasphemies,
+to God, daring to say that the Almighty had struck him under the walls
+of the Bastille, where he detained the innocent in prison.”[83] It is
+possible that there may be some foundation for this charge, for it
+requires a great amount of true Christian feeling to make the victims
+forbear from exulting at the removal of their persecutor by what seems
+to them the judgment of God. In his dedicatory epistle of the _Psalms
+done into French Verse_, Beza thus paints the second Henry:
+
+    Je vois un masque avec sa maigre mine
+    Qui fait trembler les lieux où il chemine.
+
+But the “Lutherans” did not tremble: they bore their testimony with
+Christian resolution, and acted up to the noble lines in the same poem:
+
+    S’il faut servir au Seigneur de témoins,
+    Mourons, mourons, louans Dieu pour le moins.
+    Au départir de ces lieux misérables,
+    Pour traverser aux cieux tant désirables.
+    _Que les tyrans soient de nous martyrer
+    Plutôt lassés, que nous de l’endurer._
+
+The sincerity of Catherine’s grief for the loss of her husband has
+been much doubted, but without sufficient cause. To a woman of her
+temper the change wrought in her position by widowhood must at first
+have been hard to bear. She certainly felt as much for her husband
+while living, as such selfish natures can feel, and commemorated her
+bereavement and regret in the ornaments of her palace of the Tuileries,
+where the broken mirrors, plumes reversed, and scattered jewelry carved
+on certain columns have been regarded as emblems of her sorrow.[84] A
+garrulous contemporary (whom we shall have frequent occasion to quote),
+lamenting the death of Henry II., praises him particularly for the
+discipline he introduced into the army,[85] which was such “that the
+peasants hardly deigned to shut the doors of their cellars, granaries,
+chests, or other lock-up places for fear of the soldiers, who conducted
+themselves most becomingly. When billeted in the villages, they would
+not venture to touch the hens or other poultry without first asking
+their host’s leave and paying for them.”[86] It is a pity to spoil
+so Arcadian a story; but if it is true, there must have been a sad
+falling off in the military discipline in a few months, for Francis II.
+writes in 1560 to the Duke of Aumale, then in Burgundy, “to punish the
+men-at-arms and archers who had lived without paying.”[87]
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER III.
+
+                         REIGN OF FRANCIS II.
+
+                             [1559–1560.]
+
+   Catherine de Medicis--The Duke of Guise and the Cardinal of
+   Lorraine--St. André--Anthony of Navarre and Condé--Coligny and
+   Andelot--Disgrace of Montmorency--Persecuting Edicts--Execution
+   of Du Bourg--Discontent in France--Edict of Chambord--La
+   Renaudie--The Meeting at Nantes--Tumult of Amboise--Bloody
+   Reprisals--Castelnau’s Trial and Execution--The Duke’s
+   Viands--Aubigné and his Son--Grace of Amboise--Regnier
+   de la Planche--Renewal of Persecutions--L’Hopital made
+   Chancellor--Edict of Romorantin--Religious and Political
+   Malcontents--Abuse of the Pulpit--The Tiger--General
+   Lawlessness--Huguenot Violence--Demand for a Council--Montbrun
+   and Mouvans--L’Hopital’s Inaugural Address--Les Politiques--The
+   Notables at Fontainebleau--Montluc and Marillac--Meeting
+   at Nerac--Address presented to Anthony--The Court at
+   Orleans--Arrest and Trial of Condé--Death of Francis II.
+
+
+Francis II., husband of the beautiful and unfortunate Mary Stuart, had
+only reached his sixteenth year when he ascended the throne (10th July,
+1559).[88] On the very day of his father’s funeral he gratified his
+mother’s ruling passion by assuring her that all authority should be in
+her hands, and that she should administer the government in his name.
+But she had to hold her own against unscrupulous rivals; and in those
+rude days the spindle had very little chance against the sword, unless
+it were aided by dissimulation. We shall see that Catherine met force
+with craft, proving herself at times more than a match for all her
+rivals. She soon found that she had no chance with the queen-consort,
+who used all her influence in behalf of the house of Lorraine. In a
+letter to her daughter Elizabeth she says: “God has deprived me of your
+father, whom I loved so dearly, as you well know, and has left me with
+three children and in a divided kingdom. I have no one in whom I can
+trust: all have some private end to serve.” Mary Stuart behaved to her
+with all the insolence of youth and beauty, calling her a Florentine
+shop-keeper,[89] and Catherine returned contempt for contempt.
+
+It will be impossible to understand the stormy period upon which we
+are now entering, unless we know something of the parties into which
+France, as well as the court, was divided, and of the individuals at
+their head. There were in reality only two parties, but it will be
+more convenient to consider them as represented by the four houses of
+Guise, Bourbon, Montmorency, and Chatillon. The most formidable of
+these claimants of the government was the first--the family of Guise,
+to which Mary Stuart belonged on her mother’s side. The power of this
+house dates from the reign of Francis I. Genealogists delight to trace
+its origin back to Charlemagne, and even to Priam, King of Troy: with
+about equal truth in both cases. The chief of the family was Claude,
+son of that Réné, Duke of Lorraine, who defeated and slew Charles
+the Bold under the walls of Nancy. Being a younger son, he had gone
+to the French court in search of fortune, and the search was not in
+vain. He married Antoinette of Bourbon, a descendant of Louis IX.,
+and dying, left six sons and four daughters, and an income of 600,000
+livres, about equivalent to 160,000_l._ sterling. The eldest
+of his sons was Francis, Duke of Guise, now in his fortieth year, a
+skillful, violent, and unscrupulous soldier. He kept up an almost royal
+establishment; and when his steward represented to him that the best
+way of getting out of his pecuniary embarrassments would be to retrench
+his expenditure, and that he would do well to dismiss a number of
+poor gentlemen who lived at his expense, he replied: “It is true I
+do not want them, but they want me.” He was exceedingly popular in
+Paris, ever ready to listen to the complaints of the humblest citizen;
+and was beloved by his soldiers, for he never failed to recompense
+any remarkable exploit. After the surprise of Calais he appointed one
+Captain Gourdan to be governor, passing over many officers of higher
+rank; and when these murmured at the preference, the duke justified
+his choice. “Captain Gourdan is very useful,” he said, “to guard the
+place he helped to take, and where he left one of his legs during the
+assault. You have two legs, gentlemen, with which you can go and seek
+your fortune elsewhere.” He was cool in the midst of danger, brave
+as his own sword, and even his name was a terror to his enemies. At
+Terouenne, the Spaniards were checked in the very moment of victory by
+shouts of “Guise! Guise!” Above all, the family of Lorraine professed
+to be the champions of orthodoxy, and Duke Francis in particular seems
+to have entertained an insurmountable aversion for heresy in every
+form. He possessed almost every advantage that fortune can shower
+upon a man. He was above the middle height, with oval face, large
+eyes, and dark complexion, but his beard and hair were reddened by
+exposure. He was not a fluent speaker, although he could use the right
+word at the right time. He married Anne of Este, daughter of Renée of
+France, granddaughter of Louis XII., and first cousin of Henry II.--a
+connection which will partly account for the ambitious schemes of his
+son.
+
+The other members of the Lorraine family were Charles, the cardinal;
+Claude, Duke of Aumale, who married Louisa de Brézé, eldest daughter of
+Diana of Poitiers; Francis, grand-prior of Malta; Louis, Archbishop of
+Sens and afterward cardinal; and René, Marquis of Elbœuf; besides three
+sisters, one of whom married, first, Louis of Orleans, and second,
+James V. of Scotland, to whom she bore a daughter, the unhappy Mary
+Stuart of Scottish history. When they were at court, the four younger
+brothers usually waited upon the cardinal at his rising, and then all
+five proceeded to pay their respects to the duke, by whom they were
+conducted to the king.
+
+Charles, better known as the Cardinal of Lorraine, was one of the
+wealthiest ecclesiastics of the day. In addition to his share of his
+father’s large fortune, he possessed benefices yielding him a yearly
+income of 300,000 livres.[90] This prelate, whom Pius V. called “the
+Ultramontane Pope,” was a man of unbounded ambition, strong passions,
+great craft, and such fertility of expedients, that his enemies
+declared he must have a familiar spirit at his elbow. He was a graceful
+speaker, and of goodly presence,[91] but such an arrant coward, that
+(like Horace) he used to make a jest of it. Charles IX. gave him
+permission to be attended by an armed guard even to the steps of the
+altar, intermixing the smell of gunpowder with the odor of incense.[92]
+His character has probably been much distorted. He had enemies
+everywhere, and, in an unscrupulous age, slander and falsehood were
+ready weapons to damage a rival. He was not so bad as many churchmen of
+his time; for if he was profligate, he was not profligate openly. He
+kept neither hawks nor hounds; he sang mass often, fasted regularly,
+wore sackcloth, and always said grace before his meals. Claude de
+Saintes, who was in almost daily attendance upon him for sixteen years,
+speaks of the mortifications of his life, and denies his excessive
+timidity.[93] Contarini, the Venetian ambassador, extols his virtuous
+habits, so unlike those of other French cardinals; and Giovanni
+Soranzo, writing seven years later (1558) says: “He is not much
+beloved; he is far from truthful, naturally deceitful and covetous,
+but _full of religion_.”[94] The religion thus praised was one of
+forms only.
+
+There is a letter of his in the public library at Rouen, addressed to
+the French embassador to the court of Spain, in which, speaking of his
+retirement to his diocese of Rheims during the season of Lent, he says:
+“I have nothing to write about but prayers and preaching, in which I
+am busied, instructing my little flock, whereat I assure you I take
+as much pleasure as I once did in the cares and toils of court, and
+I feel such sweetness and repose, that the desire to return to court
+is far from me.”[95] This “world forgetting by the world forgot” is
+too common with statesmen under a cloud to be taken literally. The
+cardinal was vindictive as churchmen (and women) alone can be, and so
+violent that he often marred his brother’s plans. The intoxication of
+prosperity had made him intolerable.[96] Nor did his religion prevent
+him from being covetous: he has been charged with robbing his uncle’s
+creditors by taking his property, and with appropriating the estate of
+Dampierre, which belonged to Treasurer Duval; that of Meudon, which
+belonged to Cardinal Sanguin-Meudon; and that of Marchais, which
+belonged to the Sire of Longueval. He also took up the mortgaged city
+of Chevreuse without paying for it; and rich as he had become through
+these exactions, he never paid his debts. He was a shameless pluralist,
+holding at once the archiepiscopal sees of Lyons, Rheims, Sens, and
+Narbonne, the bishoprics of Metz, Toul, Verdun, Terouenne, Luçon,
+Alby, and Valence, and the abbeys of Fécamp, Clugny, and Marmoutier.
+The last-named abbey he obtained by force. Hurant de Chiverny being
+unwilling to resign, the cardinal shut him up in the Bastille, where he
+died, and then took his abbey. In despite of his greediness the French
+clergy had a boundless devotion for him.[97]
+
+Among the chief adherents of the Lorraine party were the Duke of
+Nemours, Brissac, and Jacques d’Albon, Marshal of St. André. The latter
+had been a great favorite with Henry II., who loaded him with presents.
+He was brave, insinuating in address, magnificent in disposition,
+greedy, and always in want of money. He received the order of the
+Garter from Edward VI., to whom he had been sent with the decoration of
+St. Michael.
+
+Another competitor for the government was Anthony of Bourbon, first
+prince of the blood. He traced his descent from Louis IX., who left
+two sons, Philip III. and Robert: from the former descended the house
+of Valois, from the latter the house of Bourbon. Of this there were
+two branches--Vendome and Montpensier. Anthony was the head of the
+elder branch, but his younger brother, Louis of Condé, was its most
+distinguished member. The family had lost much of its wealth and
+influence--especially among the populace, who are always the first to
+take up and the last to discard a personal prejudice--in consequence
+of the treason of the Constable of Bourbon in the reign of Francis
+I., but they were still powerful enough to venture to aspire to the
+crown. Anthony, Duke of Vendome, as he was generally styled before
+his marriage with Joan of Navarre,[98] was frank and affable, but
+irresolute and deficient in moral courage; he was of noble presence,
+fond of dress, and the “mirror of fashion” among the courtiers.
+Brave in the field, he wanted energy in the council-chamber; he was
+vacillating in religious principles, and of loose private morals. Thus
+he became a mere tool in the hands of others, and though trusted by no
+one, was courted for the splendor and prestige of his name. His only
+aim in life seemed to be to exchange his petty nominal sovereignty of
+Navarre for a real kingdom no matter where.
+
+Louis, Prince of Condé, now in his twenty-ninth year, and the youngest
+of the family, was the reverse of his brother Anthony. High-shouldered,
+short, ungraceful, and at first sight ill-adapted either for court or
+camp, he shone in both. He had shared with the Duke of Guise the honor
+of defending Metz, and had rallied the flying troops after the defeat
+at St. Quentin. From policy he seems early to have adopted the Reformed
+religion, though he took no pains to live up to its principles. The
+great Reformed party was to him a means of power and advancement. By
+his marriage with Eleanor de Roye, the richest heiress in France,
+he united against the Guises the powerful houses of Montmorency,
+Chatillon, and Rochefoucault--the latter being connected with the royal
+line of Navarre.
+
+A third brother of this family was Charles, Archbishop of Rouen and
+Cardinal of Bourbon, a weak man, not overburdened with sense, who
+adhered to the Church of Rome. To the younger branch of the same house
+belonged two brothers, the Duke of Montpensier and the Prince of
+Roche-sur-Yon, both inclined to the Reform.
+
+  [Illustration: GASPARD DE COLIGNY, ADMIRAL OF FRANCE.]
+
+But besides the Duke of Guise and Anthony of Navarre, there was a
+man of noble birth and large family influence--the representative of
+a great party in the kingdom--whom it was not safe to neglect. This
+was Gaspard de Coligny, Governor of Picardy, Admiral of France, and
+second son of the Count of Chatillon. The Chatillons were originally a
+sovereign house, and Gaspard’s father had been a marshal of France. He
+had married Louisa of Montmorency, sister to the constable, and thus
+became allied to one of the noblest houses in France. The eldest son of
+this marriage was Cardinal Odet, the youngest François de Chatillon,
+sieur of Andelot.[99] Gaspard, Count of Coligny, was born in 1518, and
+in his earlier years was very intimate with Francis of Guise (then
+Prince of Joinville). He was present at the battle of Renti, all the
+glory of which the Lorraine party wished to ascribe to Prince Francis.
+Coligny thought “he might have done better,” and this remark being
+exaggerated by false friends, the coolness already beginning to exist
+between them, and which was the work of Diana of Poitiers, gradually
+increased until they became totally estranged. The admiral was at
+one time a great favorite with Henry II. and the sharer of all his
+pleasures. He was Governor of the Isle of France, captain of a hundred
+men-at-arms (an expensive honor), and knight of the order of St.
+Michael. He had been made prisoner at the battle of St. Quentin (1557),
+and it was during the consequent enforced retirement from public life
+that he strengthened those religious convictions which he had first
+learned at his mother’s knee. Andelot, the younger brother, was the
+first convert to the new opinions. Made prisoner in 1551, and detained
+in the castle of Milan until 1556, he employed his long captivity in
+studying the works of Calvin: “Such are the sad fruits of leisure and
+idleness,” says Brantome with a sigh. He was taken with his brother
+at the siege of St. Quentin, but made his escape, and was present at
+the surprise of Calais. When he visited his vast estates in Brittany,
+he encouraged two Reformed ministers in his suite to preach openly
+wherever he halted, thus laying the foundations of many a Christian
+church in the north-west of France. Returning to the court where he
+was in high favor with Henry II., he was denounced by the Cardinal
+of Lorraine as a heretic and impudent violator of the edicts. To the
+king’s questions Andelot replied that he had never gone to the Pré
+aux Clercs, although the religionists did nothing there but sing the
+Psalms of David, and offer up prayers for the welfare of the king and
+the safety of the kingdom. He confessed that he had forwarded books
+of consolation to his brother the admiral, and had countenanced the
+preaching of a good and sound doctrine, deduced from Holy Scripture.
+“Your Majesty,” he continued, “has loaded me with such favor that
+I have spared neither body nor goods in your service, and I will
+continue to spare neither so long as I live. But having thus done my
+duty, your Majesty will not think it strange if I employ the rest of
+my time in caring for my own salvation. It is many years since I have
+been to mass, and I shall never go again. I entreat your Majesty to
+leave my conscience alone, and permit me to serve you with my body
+and goods, which are wholly at your disposal.” Henry II., who could
+bear no contradiction, flew into a passion, and seizing him by the
+collar of St. Michael that was round his neck, exclaimed: “But I did
+not give you this to use it thus--keeping away from mass and refusing
+to follow my religion.” “I did not know then, what it was to be a
+Christian,” answered Andelot, “or I should not have accepted it on such
+conditions.” Henry could contain himself no longer. He seized a platter
+which lay before him and threw it across the table, but it struck the
+dauphin; he then drew his sword upon Andelot, who was hurried away by
+the guards and afterward shut up in the castle of Melun. From prison
+he wrote to the church of Paris: “_Christ shall be magnified in my
+body, whether it be by life or by death. For me to live is Christ, and
+to die is gain._” He also addressed a letter to the king: “Sire,”
+he wrote, “if I have done any thing to displease you, I beseech you in
+all humility to forgive me, and to believe that, the obedience I owe to
+God and my conscience excepted, you can command nothing in which I will
+not expose my goods, my body, and my life. And what I ask of you, Sire,
+is not, thanks be to God, through fear of death, and still less from a
+desire to recover my liberty, for I hold nothing so dear that I would
+not resign it willingly for the salvation of my soul and God’s glory.”
+He was alike unmoved by the tender entreaties of his wife, Claude de
+Rieux, and by the prudent advice of his brother the cardinal, who urged
+him to satisfy Henry II. if it were only by an apparent submission.
+At length, however, he consented to hold a conference with a learned
+doctor of the Sorbonne, and to hear mass in his presence, but without
+previous abjuration. Calvin, who had written exhorting Andelot to be
+firm, now reproached him for his weakness; but it was easy for the
+Reformer of Geneva, who was in a place of safety, and who had never
+been tested by the fires of persecution, to censure one whose faith was
+weak, and whose affectionate, loyal nature was worked upon by those who
+were dearest to him.
+
+But Andelot’s elder brother, Gaspard, was made of sterner stuff. While
+in prison the Bible was his constant companion and chief study. Calvin,
+who had probably heard of his conversion through Andelot, wrote to him:
+“I shall use no long exhortation to confirm you in patience, for I have
+heard that our gracious God hath so strengthened you by the virtue of
+his Spirit, that I have rather occasion to return thanks to him than
+to excite you more. Only I would pray you to remember that God, by
+sending you this affliction, hath wished to draw you out of the crowd,
+that you may the better listen to him.” In the end, Gaspard adopted
+the Reformed creed, and became the idol of the Reformed party. In his
+wife, Charlotte de Laval, he found an affectionate sympathizer in his
+religious opinions, and a support during many an hour of distress. He
+was of the middle height, and well-proportioned; he stooped a little
+as if in meditation, and his countenance was always calm and serious,
+except on the battle-field, where (as we are told) his face lighted
+up, and he would chew the tooth-pick which he used to carry in his
+mouth.[100]
+
+His intrepidity was remarkable, even among the fearless men of his day.
+“Do not go to Blois to the king and the queen-mother,” his friends
+said to him; “be sure there is some plot at the bottom.” “Yes, I will
+go,” he answered; “it is better to die by one bold stroke than to live
+a hundred years in fear.” He was not a fortunate commander, but was
+so fertile in resource, and so rapidly did he reorganize his beaten
+troops, that he was said to be more formidable after a defeat than
+before it.[101]
+
+At the death of Henry II. the Constable Montmorency was at the head
+of the government, but he now learned that his influence had expired
+with his old master. When a deputation from the Parliament of Paris
+waited upon Francis II. to congratulate him on his accession, he told
+them that he had selected his uncles the Cardinal of Lorraine and the
+Duke of Guise to conduct the public affairs, and that to them they
+must apply in future. Montmorency struggled for awhile, but finding
+no support, he acted upon the king’s suggestion and retired to his
+estate at Chantilly. He was deprived of the high-stewardship of the
+household, and the office was conferred on the Duke of Guise, who,
+besides assuming the war department, was lord chamberlain and master
+of the hounds. The department of finance was assigned to the cardinal,
+and thus the two brothers disposed of all France. “Not a crown could be
+spent or a soldier moved,” says Buchanan, “without their consent.”[102]
+Catherine sympathized with Montmorency in his disgrace. In a letter to
+him she says: “I very much wish your health might permit you to remain
+at court; for then I believe things would be better conducted than
+now, and that you would aid me to deliver the king from tutelage, for
+you have always desired that your master should be obeyed by all his
+subjects.”
+
+The constable, foreseeing the change that was likely to take place in
+the new reign, had profited by the last few days of the late king’s
+life, to urge Anthony of Navarre to come to court and assert his rights
+as prince of the blood to be one of the new council. A meeting of the
+chiefs of the Bourbon, or opposition, party was accordingly summoned
+at Vendome to decide on the line of conduct to be pursued. Condé,
+Coligny, Andelot, the Vidame of Chartres (Francis of Vendome), and
+Prince Porcien, all relations and friends, attended the summons. In the
+interval the Guises had been installed in office, and the question now
+arose, how their government should be resisted. Condé, Andelot, and the
+Vidame were for war; the admiral advised delay, as the queen-mother
+would be sure to join them, if she found securities on their side, and
+in that case the government must fall. Moderate counsels prevailed, and
+Anthony, after much vacillation, started for the court; but Francis II.
+refused to see him except in the presence of his ministers, who offered
+him every indignity. At length Condé joined him, and instilling some of
+his own spirit into his brother, urged him to assert his claim. It was
+granted after some little demur; but he was too much in the way, and
+to get rid of him honorably he was commissioned to escort the Princess
+Elizabeth to Spain. He fell into the trap so cunningly laid for him,
+and the Guises were once more sole masters. Catherine was still
+ostensibly consulted, and the royal edicts continued to run in this
+form: “It being the good pleasure of my lady the queen-mother, We also
+approving the things which she advises, are content and command that,”
+etc.
+
+Whatever little influence she possessed was exerted to drive her
+late rival Diana from court, and force her to disgorge much of her
+ill-gotten wealth. At her instance, the king wrote to the fallen
+favorite: “That in consequence of her evil influence (mali officii)
+over the late king his father, she deserved severe punishment; but,
+in his royal clemency, he would trouble her no farther, but she must
+return to him all the jewels that had been given her by the king his
+father.”[103]
+
+The accession of the young king produced no amelioration in the
+condition of the Lutherans. “In the midst of all these great matters
+and business,” writes Throckmorton, “they here do not stay to make
+persecution and sacrifice of poor souls. The 12th of this month [July]
+two men and one woman were executed for religion.” This was a remnant
+of the last reign. That the new reign would not be more tolerant was
+shown by a proclamation issued the next day, “by sound of trumpet, that
+all such as should speak either against the Church or the religion now
+used in France, should be brought before the several bishops, and they
+to do execution upon them.”[104] The edict of Villars-Cotteret (4th
+September) forbade all “unlawful” meetings, whether by night or by day;
+the houses in which such meetings were held were to be pulled down, and
+the proprietors held to bail for their future good behavior. Another
+edict (that of Blois, November, 1559) punished all who attended the
+assemblies with death “without hope of pardon or mitigation.” By other
+decrees (13th November) a reward of 100 crowns and a free pardon were
+offered to any person who should give information of a secret meeting.
+Nor were these severe measures confined to Paris. On 23d September,
+1559, the magistrates of Poitiers issued an order forbidding religious
+assemblies, enjoining all strangers to leave the town in twenty-four
+hours, and innkeepers to send in lists of the lodgers in their houses.
+There was to be no preaching in public or private, the citizens were
+to give neither fire nor water to the pastors whom any body might
+arrest, they were to be tried for sedition, and the lightest penalty
+was confiscation of goods.[105] The result was that the country was
+overrun with spies and informers, and the charge of heresy was often
+made the means of gratifying private revenge.
+
+Meanwhile neither Henry’s death nor the assassination of President
+Minard by a man named Stuart,[106] had any power to suspend the trial
+of Du Bourg. He made use of all the forms of the court to find some
+loop-hole of escape, and lodged appeal after appeal, all of which were
+decided against him. At length, on the 23d of December, 1559, the
+long contest was brought to an end.[107] After sentence of death had
+been delivered, he said: “I am sent to the stake, because I will not
+confess that justification, grace, and sanctification are to be found
+elsewhere than in Christ. This is the cause of my death, that I have
+embraced the pure doctrine of the Gospel. Extinguish your fires and
+return unto the Lord with real newness of heart, that your sins may be
+blotted out. Let the wicked man forsake his way and turn unto the Lord.
+Think upon these things; I am going to my death.” So great were the
+apprehensions of the court of an attempt at rescue, that the streets
+were barricaded and lined with armed men, and nearly 600 soldiers were
+stationed round the Grève, the Tyburn of those days. Du Bourg met his
+fate like a Christian hero: on reaching the place of execution he
+said: “Six feet of earth for my body, and the boundless heaven for my
+soul, are the only possession I shall soon have.” Then turning to the
+spectators he said: “I am going to die, not because I am a thief and
+a murderer, but because I love the Gospel. I rejoice to give my life
+in so good a cause.” His last words were: “My God, my God, forsake
+me not, lest I forsake thee.” The executioner then adjusted the rope
+round his neck, uttered the terrible formula: _Messire le roi vous
+salue_, and Anne du Bourg was a corpse. His lifeless body was
+afterward burned to ashes. The royal historiographer, who rarely spares
+a heretic, writes amplifying the words of the centurion at the foot of
+the cross. “His execution inspired many persons with the conviction
+that the faith possessed by so good a man could not be wrong.”[108]
+Florimond de Remond, the historian of heresy, and at that time a young
+man, was an eye-witness of Du Bourg’s death. “We burst into tears (he
+says) in our colleges on returning from the execution, and pleaded his
+cause after his decease, cursing those unrighteous judges, who had so
+unjustly condemned him. His preaching at the gallows did more evil
+than a hundred ministers could have done.”[109] Chandieu, pastor of
+the church of Paris, shows us how it was that these executions made so
+many converts. “Most people like what they see hated with such extreme
+hatred. They think themselves fortunate in knowing what leads others
+to the gibbet, and return home from the public places edified by the
+constancy of those whom they have themselves reduced to ashes.”[110]
+
+It is not necessary to dwell upon the sufferings or to count up the
+number of the victims. Regnier de la Planche describes from personal
+knowledge the lawless state of the capital. “From August to March
+there was nothing but arrests and imprisonments, sacking of houses,
+proclamations of outlawry, and executions of the members of the
+religion with cruel torments.”[111] Numbers hastened to escape from
+Paris, and sold their goods to procure the means of flight. The
+streets were filled with carts laden with furniture, the houses were
+abandoned to plunderers, the magistrates conniving at the wrong, so
+that “the poor became rich and the rich poor.” We need not point out
+what an incentive this was to denunciation, and how often men must
+have been condemned as heretics whose only fault was their wealth,
+or their having offended some neighbor. A remarkable passage from
+Theodore Beza shows how wide and general was the ruin caused by this
+terrorism. “Poor little children [the children of martyred Reformers],
+who had no bed but the flag-stones, went crying piteously through the
+streets with hunger, and yet no one dared relieve them, for fear they
+should be accused of heresy. So that they were less cared for than
+dogs.” The pettiest vexations were employed against the Reformers.
+Crosses and images, with tapers always burning before them, were set
+up at the corner of every street, and round them gathered a crowd of
+noisy worshipers, singing, praying, and beating their breasts. If any
+one refused to take off his hat as he passed, or to put money into
+the alms-box before the shrine, some dirty priest or monk would raise
+the cry of “heretic,” and the poor Reformer would be pelted, beaten,
+and perhaps dragged through the mire to prison. “Death was made a
+carnival,” says an eloquent Frenchman. It was indeed a show in which
+the mob--and the same mob reappeared in 1792--feasted their eyes on
+the sufferings of the Protestants, and often would not allow them to
+be strangled before they were burned, lest their agonies should be
+diminished. One Barbeville was thus tortured contrary to the sentence
+condemning him to be hanged first; but at the same time they rescued
+a thief from the gallows, “as if they desired to condemn Christ and
+deliver Barabbas.” To call a man “Lutheran” was to doom him to certain
+death, often too without any form of justice. By this lynch law
+many a man worked out his own private revenge: the debtor paid his
+creditor.[112] Even children dipped their hands in the martyrs’ blood
+and boasted of it.
+
+The treaty of Cateau-Cambresis had left a number of soldiers of every
+rank without employment and without resources. There was a public debt
+of forty-eight million livres, the interest of which was paid with
+difficulty; the treasury was empty, and there were no ready means of
+filling it. Perhaps the persecution of the heretics, which was always
+attended with confiscation of property, may not have been entirely
+unconnected with the financial difficulties of the royal household.
+But there certainly was no money, and when the disbanded soldiers
+applied to the Cardinal of Lorraine for their arrears of pay, he not
+only threatened to hang them, but erected two gibbets before the gate
+of the palace of St. Germains, or, as others say, of Fontainebleau. It
+was a threat as unwise as it was cruel, and nearly cost the Guises very
+dear. The malcontent soldiery joined the persecuted Huguenots--each
+party feeling a common hatred against the “Lorrainers,” and resolved to
+get rid of their common enemy. It has been asserted, but without any
+solid grounds, that Catherine looked favorably on this coalition, she
+being equally desirous of freeing herself from both duke and cardinal.
+But, whatever she may have suspected, she certainly knew nothing of
+what was actually preparing. In these humaner and more civilized days,
+obnoxious ministers and administrators are got rid of by dismissal,
+or by a vote in Parliament: in ruder times they were removed by
+revolt or assassination. In the middle of the sixteenth century the
+government of France was a despotism moderated by the dagger. Even
+within a month of the death of Henry II. a union of the malcontents was
+meditated, the Reformed only holding back until they should be assured
+of its lawfulness. They consulted Calvin, who declared that “it would
+be better they should all perish a hundred times over rather than
+expose the name of Christianity and of the Gospel to the disgrace of
+rebellion and bloodshed.” They were more successful with some German
+divines, who thought “they might lawfully oppose the usurpation of
+the Guises, even with arms, if the princes of the blood, their lawful
+magistrates by birth, or even one of them, should be at their head.”
+
+The discontent increased and grew bolder every day. “We will go and
+complain to the king,” said the oppressed peasantry. As early as the
+15th November, 1559, Killigrew wrote to Queen Elizabeth: “The king the
+last day being on hunting, was (for what cause or upon what occasion
+we know not) in such fear, as he was forced to leave his pastime, and
+to leave the hounds uncoupled, and return to the court [at Blois].
+Whereupon there was commandment given to the Scottish guard to wear
+jackets of mail and pistols.”[113] And writing again at the end of
+the year (29th December), he adds: “It is evident that the discontent
+has reached a point when something desperate may be expected.” The
+Guises knew this, and being conscious of the weak foundation on which
+their authority rested, and fearing an insurrection, they forbade the
+carrying of arms and the wearing of any kind of dress favorable to
+the concealment of weapons.[114] At that time the ordinary cloak had
+no sleeve, and reached to the middle of the calf of the leg, and the
+large trunk hose were more than an ell and a half wide. This injunction
+seems to have been binding only on the Protestants, and was intended to
+prevent them from protecting themselves. That they sometimes did this
+very effectually is proved by a little incident recorded by Killigrew.
+Seventeen persons had been arrested at Blois “for the Word’s sake,” and
+committed to the sergeants to be taken to Orleans for trial; but on the
+road their escort was attacked by sixty men on horseback, who set them
+all at liberty.
+
+Although the Ordinance of Chambord (17th December, 1559), by
+facilitating the trial of heretics and condemning to death all who
+sheltered them, seemed intended to drive the Reformed to despair,
+they as yet entertained no serious thoughts of rebellion. There were
+not wanting men of their own class who preached the doctrine of
+resistance,[115] yet none of the higher orders came forward as their
+leaders. Without such champions they would be little better than an
+undisciplined mob. At last, however, they found the man they wanted in
+Bary de la Renaudie, a gentleman of a good family in Perigord, and a
+soldier of some reputation--one of those daring men who always spring
+up in troublous times. At one period attached to Francis of Guise, who
+had helped him to escape from prison, he became his most violent enemy
+in consequence of the duke’s barbarous cruelty to Gaspard de Heu, who
+was allied to him by marriage.[116] Probably it was this enmity which
+made him renounce his religion and join the Reformers. He was just
+the man for getting up a conspiracy, and by his ability and address
+soon won over great numbers in Switzerland as well as in France. He
+constantly asserted that Calvin and Coligny approved of the design,
+and that the Prince of Condé would declare himself at the proper
+opportunity. As regards the two former, the statement is incorrect;
+but Condé appears to have played an undecided part, “letting _I
+dare not_ wait upon _I would_.”[117] The first meeting of the
+conspirators was held at Nantes in February. It was a remote place, and
+as the Parliament of Brittany was then assembled, their numbers would
+not be noticed. In their articles or bond of agreement they swore to
+respect the person of the king, but never to lay down their arms until
+they had driven the Guises from power, brought them to trial (if not
+worse),[118] and procured the suspension of every edict, both old and
+new, against the Reformed, pending the assembly of the States-General.
+Their plan was for each gentleman or captain, of whom there were
+twenty, to collect a body of troops in his own district, and so to
+arrange their march that they should all arrive at Blois at the same
+time. The 6th of March was the appointed day, afterward changed to the
+16th, when they hoped to find the Guises unprotected. It was an absurd
+scheme, and could hardly fail to miscarry, even if it had not been
+frustrated at the very outset by a circumstance which seems never to
+have entered into the minds of the conspirators. The court removed from
+the open town of Blois to the strong castle of Amboise on the Loire, in
+accordance with arrangements which had been made some time before.[119]
+That old royal residence had been forsaken by the court since the death
+of Charles VIII. Its massive walls still tower boldly on the heights
+above the river, and the cheerful little town clusters at their feet,
+as if for protection. The Guises accompanied, or rather followed, the
+king in perfect security: they did not so much as know that La Renaudie
+was in the kingdom. They had heard rumors of plots, and warning letters
+had been sent them from Spain, Italy, Germany, and Savoy; but nothing
+reached them in a definite form until some days after their arrival at
+Amboise, when one of La Renaudie’s friends[120] betrayed him to the
+Cardinal of Lorraine. “The duke and the cardinal have discovered a
+conspiracy _against themselves_, which they have bruited (to make
+the matter more odious) to be meant only against the king; whereupon
+they are in such fear as themselves do wear privy-coats [of mail], and
+are in the night guarded with pistoliers and men in arms.
+
+... On the 6th they watched all night long in the court, and the gates
+of the town were kept shut.”[121] The cardinal was indeed thoroughly
+frightened; but the duke, acting with great promptitude, strengthened
+the garrison by troops hastily drawn together from every quarter. Still
+the Guises were by no means free from apprehension, and Throckmorton
+describes the condition of the little town in the middle of March: “The
+17th, in the morning, about four of the clock, there arrived a company
+of 150 horsemen well appointed, who approached the court gates and shot
+off their pistolets at the church of the Bonhommes. Whereupon there was
+such an alarm and running up and down in the court, as if the enemies
+being encamped about them had sought to make an entry into the castle;
+and there was crying ‘To horse! to horse!’ and a watch-word given by
+shooting a harquebus that all men should be in readiness, and the drum
+was striking. And this continued an hour and a half.” Sixty gentlemen
+had bound themselves by a solemn oath to penetrate into Amboise during
+the night, thirty of whom were to slip into the castle, and open one of
+the gates to the other conspirators. But the duke was on the watch, and
+had that gate walled up. Detachments of troops were stationed on the
+roads leading to the town and along the banks of the Loire, by which
+the various bands, coming up and ignorant of what had happened, were
+captured or cut to pieces. In one of these encounters La Renaudie was
+killed; his body was quartered and exposed at the four corners of the
+bridge.
+
+The Duke of Guise, who, so long as there appeared to be any danger,
+had treated his prisoners with no undue severity, soon felt himself
+strong enough to wreak a ferocious vengeance on his enemies. He and his
+brother the cardinal, in the intoxication of their triumph, indulged
+in excesses of murder that can hardly find a parallel except in the
+massacre of St. Bartholomew, or the horrors of the French Revolution.
+The streets of Amboise ran with blood; and when the public executioners
+were wearied with decapitating so many victims, the remainder were
+bound hand and foot and thrown into the river, thus anticipating the
+frightful Noyades of 1793.[122] Throckmorton writes: “This heat caused
+upon a sudden a sharp determination to minister justice. The two men
+taken were the same forenoon hanged, and two others for company; and
+afterward the same day divers were taken, and in the evening nine more
+were hanged: all which died very assuredly and constantly for religion,
+in singing of psalms. Divers were drowned in sacks, and some appointed
+to die upon the wheel.... The 17th there were twenty-two of these
+rebels drowned in sacks, and the 18th at night twenty-five more. Among
+all these which be taken there be eighteen of the bravest captains of
+France.” Twelve hundred persons are computed to have perished in this
+massacre. The Baron of Castelnau-Chalosse, and Bricquemaut, Count of
+Villemangis, a Genevese refugee, had with others surrendered to the
+Duke of Nemours on condition that their lives should be spared; but
+the Guises were not the men to be bound by such a condition, when
+even Olivier the chancellor, not altogether a bad man, declared that
+“a prince was not required to keep his word to a rebel subject.” The
+Duke of Nemours had given a written pledge of safety, which, says
+Vieilleville, “vexed him greatly, who was concerned only about his
+signature; for if it had been his mere word, he would have been able
+to give the lie at any time to any one who might reproach him with
+it, and that without any exception, for the prince was brave and
+generous.” Pretty morality for a gentleman! When Castelnau was under
+examination he hesitated in some of his answers, upon which the Duke of
+Guise bade him “Speak out; one would think you are afraid.” “Afraid!”
+retorted the baron, “and where is the man so confident as not to be
+afraid, on seeing himself encompassed by mortal enemies as I am, when
+he has neither teeth nor nails with which to defend himself? In my
+place you would be afraid too.” On being condemned for high treason
+he remonstrated against the charge, not against the sentence, on
+the ground that he had undertaken nothing against the king; that he
+had merely leagued with a large portion of the nobility against the
+Guises, and that “these must be made kings before he could be guilty of
+lèze-majesté.”
+
+Castelnau, like Coligny, had been taken prisoner by the Spaniards, and
+had employed the long hours of his enforced inactivity in reading the
+Bible. If it did not make him a Protestant, it shook his faith in the
+Church of Rome. In the course of his examination at Amboise, Chancellor
+Olivier taunted him with his “Puritanism.” Castelnau retorted: “When
+I saw you on my return from Flanders, I told you how I had spent my
+time, and you approved of it. We were then friends; why are we not so
+now? Is it possible that you spoke with sincerity when you were not in
+favor at court, and that now, in order to please a man you despise, you
+are a traitor to God and your conscience?” The Cardinal of Lorraine
+answered for the chancellor, upon which Castelnau appealed to Guise,
+who replied that he knew nothing about theology. “Would to Heaven you
+did,” said the baron; “for I esteem you well enough to think that if
+you were as enlightened as your brother the cardinal, you would follow
+better things.” A noble testimony to the character of the duke, who
+somewhat churlishly rejoined that he understood nothing but cutting
+off heads. Coligny and D’Andelot, as well as Francis II. and Mary,
+entreated the duke and the cardinal to spare Castelnau’s life; but the
+latter answered with a blasphemous oath: “He shall die, and no man in
+France shall save him.” The baron died appealing to God, who would ere
+long visit them with signal vengeance for the innocent blood they were
+shedding. When Villemangis ascended the scaffold, he dipped his hands
+in the blood of his comrades who had been executed before him, and
+raising them toward heaven exclaimed: “Oh Lord! behold the blood of thy
+children so unjustly shed; thou wilt avenge it.”
+
+The Cardinal of Lorraine was the chief instigator of these murders: in
+his excessive cowardice he could not think himself safe unless all his
+enemies were killed. They threatened to _Stuart_ him--that is, to
+shoot him with a poisoned bullet, as James Stuart had shot President
+Minard; and one morning he found the following quatrain in his oratory:
+
+    Garde-toi, Cardinal,
+    Que tu ne sois traité
+        A la Minarde
+        D’une stuarde.[123]
+
+Imagining every one must be as fond of blood as himself, he used to
+conduct the young king and queen to the ramparts, or to the windows,
+to witness the executions,[124] pointing out the most illustrious of
+the victims and mocking at their agony. As they died almost all of them
+with firmness and serenity, he bade Francis II. “look at those insolent
+men, whom even death can not subdue. What would they not do with you,
+if they were your masters?” One afternoon, for these executions usually
+took place after dinner, for the amusement of the court, the Duchess
+of Guise was present, but she could not endure the ghastly spectacle.
+She nearly fainted away, and entering all pale and trembling into the
+queen-mother’s closet, she exclaimed: “Oh, madame, what horrors! I
+fear that a curse will come upon our house, and the innocent blood rest
+upon our heads!”
+
+The Duke of Longueville, who had been invited to Amboise, stayed
+away under pretext of illness, but sent one of his gentlemen to make
+his excuses. Guise was at table when the messenger arrived, and took
+advantage of the opportunity to strike terror into the duke and all who
+opposed the Lorraine faction. “Tell your master I am very well,” he
+said, “and report to him the viands in which I indulge.” At the word a
+tall, fine-looking man was brought in, a rope was immediately put round
+his neck, and he was hanged to a bar of the window before the eyes of
+the astonished gentleman.[125]
+
+Whatever may have been the temporary success procured by this ferocious
+victory, it disappointed the expectations of the Guises.[126] The moral
+world is so constituted that crime sooner or later works out its own
+punishment. “The butchers,” as the two Lorraine brothers were called,
+had converted their victims into martyrs, and all over France a feeling
+of resistance began to spring up that could not fail ere long to have a
+violent termination. Most of those who suffered at Amboise were of the
+Reformed religion; but there were others of the old faith who joined
+the conspiracy out of dislike to the duke and the cardinal, and who
+now began to think that no hope remained except in their swords. In
+the market-place of Amboise, where most of the victims had been put
+to death, Theodore Agrippa d’Aubigné was sworn, like young Hannibal,
+to avenge the cause of his party. The elder D’Aubigné was taking the
+boy to Paris, and passing through Amboise one fair-time, he saw the
+ghastly heads of the conspirators still grinning horribly on the walls
+and gates. Moved with indignation, he spurred his horse into the midst
+of the assembled crowd, exclaiming: “The murderers! they have beheaded
+France.” Being recognized as a Calvinist, he had to ride for his life,
+and when he was out of danger he touched his son’s right hand: “My
+boy,” he said, “do not spare your head to avenge the heads of those
+honorable gentlemen. If you do, your father’s curse be upon you.” Young
+Theodore never forgot this lesson, and his life was one long heroic, if
+not always wise, devotion to the Reformed cause.
+
+During the first terror inspired by the news of the conspiracy, an
+attempt had been made to secure the neutrality of the Reformed by
+issuing a proclamation to the effect, that “all persons (saving such
+as be preachers) detained in prison on account of their religion,
+should be immediately released”--on condition, however, that they lived
+as good Catholics like the rest of the people. This act of grace was
+issued (15th March) by the advice of Coligny, who having been hastily
+summoned to Amboise (partly to try how far he was cognizant of the
+plot), told the queen-mother plainly in a private audience that “the
+Huguenots had so increased in number and were so exasperated that they
+could not be induced to return to their duty, unless the persecutions
+and violent measures of the administration were suspended.” Chancellor
+Olivier was of the same opinion. “It is better to use mild measures
+than strong ones,” he said. At the same time instructions were sent to
+the Parliaments to make secret protests while registering the edict,
+so as to render it nugatory. Six days after it was issued, the Duke of
+Guise was named lieutenant-general (17th March, 1560). The pope sent
+a special envoy to France complaining of the amnesty, and to point
+out that “the true remedy for the disorders of the kingdom was to
+proceed judicially against the heretics, and if their number was too
+great, the king should employ the sword to bring his subjects back to
+their duty.” He offered to assist in so good a work to the extent of
+his ability, and to procure the support of the King of Spain and the
+princes of Italy.
+
+It was not Catherine’s policy to crush the Huguenots entirely, and she
+appears to have taken some pains to conciliate them. In this tumult of
+Amboise (which could hardly have been displeasing to her, considering
+her antagonism to the Guises) she saw her opportunity, and sent for
+Regnier de la Planche, that she might learn his opinion as to the
+state of affairs. Regnier, who was a man of great political experience
+and moderation, told her frankly that the religious persecutions had
+armed many of the Huguenots, while the favor shown to the Guises
+had increased the number of the discontented. He also argued that
+a national council was the only means for settling the religious
+differences. The advice was not very well received, and La Planche
+nearly suffered for his plain-speaking. Coligny, who had left Amboise
+to try and pacify Normandy, then almost in open rebellion, wrote to the
+same effect to the queen-mother, advising also the assembling of the
+States-General.
+
+No sooner was the panic over and the Guises once more felt secure, than
+the religious persecutions were renewed with all their former severity.
+The old edicts against the Christaudins or Sacramentarians were
+revived, and commissions were appointed to receive secret evidence. To
+make the persecution more effectual, the Cardinal of Lorraine tried
+once more to introduce all the forms of the Inquisition without the
+name, and obtained a resolution of the royal council entrusting the
+entire cognizance of heresy to the prelates of the Church, and ordering
+that their sentence should be final, the heretics being handed over to
+the secular arm for punishment. L’Hopital, the new chancellor, resisted
+the encroachment on the broad grounds that the right of trial and
+punishment of _all offenses_--whether against person, property,
+or religion (except in the case of ecclesiastics)--lay with the king;
+that the right of appeal to the royal tribunals could not be taken
+away; and that the judgment on those appeals should be delivered by
+lay judges. He succeeded thus far in establishing the axiom, that “no
+power in the state possessed sovereign authority of life or death over
+the subjects of such state, except the king.” But he was compelled
+to yield in other points, and being of opinion that it is politic to
+permit a small mischief to escape a greater, he gave an unwilling
+consent to the edict of Romorantin (May, 1560), which declared that
+the cognizance of heresy should remain with the bishops, who were to
+proceed in the usual manner. This was a great sacrifice to intolerance,
+but it really gave the bishops no new power. Other clauses declared all
+persons attending conventicles guilty of high treason, and assigned
+a reward of 500 crowns to informers; to which the singular provision
+was appended, that all calumnious informers should be subjected to the
+_peine du talion_, in other words, suffer the punishment to which
+their victims were liable. To a certain extent this edict recognized
+the complaints of the Reformers by ordering the bishops to reside
+in their dioceses, and the parish priests to tend their flocks more
+carefully, teach them properly, and live among them. The new chancellor
+might well be proud of his work, the first hesitating step in the path
+of toleration. The Parliament of Paris refused to register the decree
+on the ground that it encroached on the civil power, and L’Hopital had
+to struggle for ten days before he could overcome their resistance.
+The fear of a repetition of the “tumult of Amboise” had frightened the
+Cardinal of Lorraine into accepting the edict; but his brother Francis
+bluntly declared he would never draw the sword in its defense. This was
+quite in his style, for he hated the Reformed not only because they
+were rebels against the Church, but because they were attached to the
+Bourbon princes. Navarre, indeed, was not very formidable, it being
+always possible to hold him in check by playing upon his selfishness;
+but his brother, the Prince of Condé, was a high-spirited, clever,
+resolute man, one to be kept down by all means.
+
+In reading the history of this period it must be constantly borne in
+mind, that the religious malcontents were often political malcontents
+also,[127] their number being increased by all who hated the monopoly
+of power so tenaciously held by the Guises. The small gentry, who in a
+spirit of opposition had accepted the Reformed doctrines, brought a new
+and fatal element into the movement. Despising Calvin’s advice to bear
+injuries, and that opposition to lawful authority is a crime, they were
+secretly preparing the means of resistance, which their ecclesiastical
+organization greatly facilitated. The impetuous gentlemen and soldiers
+returned insult for insult, and blow for blow. Thus day by day the
+political character of the Huguenots[128] (as the Reformers were
+called after the affair of Amboise) became more prominent. It was a
+deplorable but almost inevitable result of the combination against the
+house of Lorraine, and it proved the temporary destruction of French
+Protestantism. Ere long France was divided into two hostile camps; and
+although this will not excuse the harshness with which the Huguenots
+were treated, it will in some measure account for it. The Romish party
+were contending not only for religion but for supremacy, for place, for
+authority. Who should govern the king and the state was a question now
+quite as important as which faith was right, that of Geneva or of Rome?
+The age was one of great superstition and ignorance, and the foulest
+rumors were circulated against the Protestants, and greedily swallowed.
+Claude Haton, who has left us a striking and truthful picture of his
+time, supplies us with a curious illustration of the popular faith
+touching the Huguenots. He says that mad dogs had decreased so much
+during the last two years that people believed the devils had left
+the dogs and entered into the Reformers.[129] The Catholics were by
+no means scrupulous as to the weapons they employed to exasperate the
+fierce passions of the lower classes. There were few who could read
+the pamphlets, ballads, or broadsides which the printers poured forth
+with astonishing profusion; but all could understand the rude wood-cuts
+in which the Huguenots were represented as nailing iron shoes on the
+bare feet of a pious hermit, or making a target of a priest nailed to
+a cross. The pulpit was turned into an arena for abuse, whence the
+monks, who were far more inveterate against the Reformers than the
+secular clergy, inveighed with all the power of their lungs, and the
+copiousness of their abusive vocabulary, against the new doctrines
+and its professors. The Huguenots and their allies were not slow to
+retaliate, and in fierce invective were by no means inferior to their
+persecutors. The most notorious of their satires, or “libels,” was
+that known as _The Tiger_,[130] written against the Cardinal of
+Lorraine, and for selling which in the ordinary course of business, a
+poor Parisian book-seller[131] was arrested in June, 1560, tortured
+to make him give up the name of the author, which probably he did not
+know, and then hanged. An unfortunate spectator, a merchant of Rouen,
+who had manifested some compassion for the fate of poor Martin Lhomme,
+was arrested and executed four days after as an accomplice.[132]
+
+It was a time of almost universal lawlessness. “Every day,” writes
+Throckmorton to Cecil, “there are advertisements of new stirs.”[133]
+There was no public protection, no law enforced; every man had to
+protect himself as best he could. In Paris the insecurity of life and
+property was notorious. The Catholics armed themselves against the
+Huguenots, and these in their turn procured arms in self-defense.
+Even priests and monks shouldered the spear and arquebuse, and became
+captains of companies. And when the war did really break out, such
+victors would not be very merciful, especially when the vanquished
+had imported a new element into the strife by defiling the churches,
+destroying the images, and ridiculing the ceremonies. There were many
+Huguenots who disgraced the name they assumed; but had they all been
+pious, the triumphant Romanist would not have spared them. The cause
+of pure religion suffered much from the violence of these hot-headed
+partisans. At Rheims the “Lutherans” ate meat publicly in Lent, broke
+the lanterns before the image of the Virgin over the great door of
+the cathedral, and prowled about at night defacing the crosses and
+pictures. One Gillet, a lawyer, drove a priest from a chapel, seized
+the alms in the poor-box, and gave the sacerdotal robes to his wife,
+who made caps and other articles of feminine attire out of them. At
+Rouen, when a Catholic priest spoke of purgatory in his sermon, the
+Huguenots called him “a fool,” and the children who had been trained
+for the purpose, imitated the amorous noises of cats. The Reformed
+doctrine was introduced into Brittany in 1558 by Andelot. At Croisic
+the “new apostles” were so bold as to preach in the principal church,
+Notre Dame de Pitié, of which the people and clergy complained as soon
+as Andelot’s back was turned. The bishop of the diocese marched in
+solemn procession through the streets, after which the clergy attacked
+with a large culverine a house in which the preachers had taken refuge.
+The inmates, nineteen in number, escaped during the night, and the
+prelate was very properly condemned by the government, “such violent
+practices being unusual in the kingdom,” which certainly was not a
+correct statement.
+
+It was supposed that a general council by restoring unity to the
+Church would cure many of the evils under which France suffered.
+The queen-mother supported this opinion, and we may imagine we hear
+her speaking in a letter written by Francis II. to the Bishop of
+Limoges: “The Church of God,” he says, “will never enjoy peace or
+rest, never shall we see the end of the troubles and calamities which
+this religious division is bringing over all the Christian world,
+unless a general council be convened.... It is notorious that the
+Council of Trent has not been received or approved by Germany or by
+the Protestants, who have attacked its authority, as having been
+held without them.... We Christian princes ought to try by all means
+to invite the Protestants and Germans to the council, ... it being
+my opinion that it had better not open at all, if the Germans and
+Protestants are not invited, for it would be labor in vain.” Such
+was the tone in which the king wrote to the pope, and such were the
+sentiments he desired Limoges to lay before the King of Spain. He even
+went so far as to threaten to hold a national council, if the pope were
+obstinate. “It is undeniable,” he said, “that there are so many abuses
+in the manners of churchmen, that there are but few of them who do
+their duty. Now this neglect breeds that contempt for divine things, by
+which men are led to forsake God and fall into those errors wherein we
+now see them.” In a similar strain he wrote to the Bishop of Rennes,
+his embassador at the imperial court.[134]
+
+In a somewhat similar tone wrote the Cardinal of Lorraine to the same
+bishop, urging the necessity of a council, and blaming the coldness of
+the pope. He complains of the “pitiful condition into which religion
+had fallen,” and declares a council to be “the only remedy for all our
+ills.” In nearly the same words writes Florimond de Robertet, secretary
+of state, adding that the king was resolved at all events “to convoke
+an assembly of notables.”
+
+These opinions compared with the instructions given to the French
+prelates at the Council of Trent may be taken as evidence that the
+court was sincere in its desire to purify the national church. Those
+ecclesiastics were to demand that the ceremonial should be corrected
+and all other things whereby the ignorant might be abused under a
+show of piety; that the cup should be restored to the laity; that the
+sacraments should be administered in the vulgar tongue; that during
+mass the Word of God should be read and interpreted, and the young
+people should be catechised, to the end that all might be instructed
+in what they should believe, and how they should live so as to please
+God; that prayers should be offered up in French, and that certain
+times should be appointed, as well at high mass as at vespers, wherein
+it might be lawful to sing psalms in the church. The prelates were also
+instructed to complain of the unchaste lives of the clergy.[135]
+
+There can be little doubt, therefore, that in the summer of 1560 France
+was on the brink of a great religious change, perhaps of a national
+reformation. Catherine de Medicis inclined toward it, not that she
+cared much about creeds, but because it seemed an admirable political
+weapon ready to her hand. The Cardinal of Lorraine did not oppose it,
+probably hoping to increase his wealth by the plunder of the Church,
+after the English example. All moderate-minded people wished for a
+reformation that did not involve separation from Rome. Even the violent
+Gaspard de Saulx-Tavannes listened for once to the voice of common
+sense: “Mass ought not to be said in French, no change or reform should
+be introduced into the ceremonies without the approval of a general
+council. Nevertheless, I must confess (he added) that the people would
+be much more stirred up to devotion, if they heard in their own tongue
+the chants of the priests and the psalms that are sung in church.”
+
+While these conciliatory measures were under discussion in the royal
+council-chamber, the difference between the two creeds was growing
+wider. The Reformers had increased so greatly in many of the large
+towns, particularly in the south and west (as we shall presently see),
+that in defiance of the edicts they gave up their secret meetings in
+woods and barns, and worshiped in public. The king wrote to Tavannes
+respecting the troubles in Dauphiny, ordering him to collect troops
+and “cut the religious rebels in pieces.... There is nothing I desire
+more than to exterminate them utterly, and so tear them up by the roots
+that no fresh ones may arise.... Chastise them without mercy.”[136]
+Six months later (Oct., 1560) the king sent Paul de la Barthe, marshal
+of Termes, to Poitiers with 200 men-at-arms to check heresy, and
+particularly to “catch the ministers and punish them soundly.” They
+were to be hanged without trial. He was to permit no assemblies, and
+if any were held, he was to fall upon them with the sword. “I beg of
+you, cousin,” he wrote, “to sweep the country clear of such rabble
+who disturb the world.”[137] Such orders were the fruit of the Guise
+government; it is but just, however, to say, that it is doubtful
+whether this letter was sent to the marshal, probably because on
+reflection it appeared too cruel. The Count of Villars, describing the
+effect produced by this merciless persecution, writes: “Part of the
+inhabitants of Nismes, to the number of 3000 or 4000, have retired
+into the mountains of the Gevaudan, whence they threaten to descend
+into the plain, in which case those who appear the most submissive
+will infallibly join them. The heresy extends every day.” As for the
+prisoners, he continues, their number is so great that it is impossible
+to put them all to death. On the 12th October, 1560, he informs the
+constable that he has burned two mule-loads of books from Geneva,
+valued at 1000 crowns, and set free a number of women on their promise
+“to live in obedience to God, the Roman Church, and the King.”[138] In
+the same month the magistrates of Anjou complain to the cardinal, that
+“the seditious remnants of Amboise, uniting with the depraved nobility
+to the number of 1000 or 1200, celebrate the communion and disturb the
+country.”[139]
+
+As the barbarous orders of the court could not be kept secret, they
+only served to exasperate the Huguenots. Becoming more aggressive,
+they appropriated many of the churches to their own use, turning out
+the priests, whom they often cruelly maltreated. The sacred edifices
+they purified, as they called it, by destroying the pictures, breaking
+down the roods, throwing away the relics, and giving the consecrated
+wafer to swine. We can hardly picture to ourselves the horror excited
+in Catholic minds by such outrages. It may be compared with the thrill
+of agony that ran through England, when the atrocities of the Sepoy
+mutiny became known. The Duke of Guise retaliated with unrelenting
+ferocity. He was governor of Dauphiny, and, to intimidate that
+province, he ordered one Maugiron, a creature of his and afterward
+governor of Lyons, to make an example of the people of Valence and
+Romans. These places were taken by a foul stratagem, two of the
+Huguenot ministers were beheaded, and the principal citizens were
+hanged, and their houses given up to pillage. One ferocity begot
+another. Two Reformed gentlemen, Montbrun and Mouvans, raised the
+country, destroying or defiling churches, opening convents and turning
+out the inmates, especially the nuns, and ill-using the priests,
+and defiantly celebrating public worship under arms. The subsequent
+history of Anthony Derichiend, seigneur of Mouvans, furnishes a
+striking illustration of the lawlessness and insecurity of the times.
+Being tired of war, he and his brother Paul returned to their homes
+at Castellane in Provence, intending to pass the remainder of their
+days in God’s service. They did not, however, find the quiet they had
+expected. They were much annoyed by their neighbors, and during Lent
+a grey friar went into the pulpit and so inflamed the people against
+them that they were besieged in their own house by a mob of several
+hundred men. They escaped this peril, and Anthony appealed to Henry
+for protection, which was granted (1559). While he was on his way to
+Grenoble, to lay his case before the Parliament, as the king had bidden
+him, he halted at Draguignan. The children, instigated by certain
+priests, began to hoot at him as “a Lutheran,” and in a short time
+a fierce mob crowded round the house in which he had taken shelter.
+Hoping to save his life, he surrendered into the hands of the officers
+of justice, who were too weak, and probably not over-anxious, to
+protect him. The mob tore him out of their hands, beat him to death,
+and inflicted brutalities on his corpse which it is impossible to
+describe. Among other things they plucked out his heart and other
+portions, and carried them on sticks triumphantly round the town. One
+of the wretches offered a morsel of the liver to a dog which refused to
+touch it. With a kick and an oath the man howled out: “Are you too a
+Lutheran like Mouvans?”[140] An inquiry was ordered into the outrage,
+but the passions of all the province were too much excited to permit
+justice to be done. “You have killed the old one,” said one of the
+royal commissioners, “why don’t you kill the young one? I would not
+give a straw for your courage. Down with all these rascally Lutherans,
+kill them all.” Paul now took up arms, and after inflicting much damage
+upon his adversaries, was finally compelled to take refuge at Geneva.
+
+Of the morals of these “rascally Lutherans” in this part of France, we
+have the unimpeachable testimony of Procureur Marquet of Valence, who
+says that, for the eight years he held the office of town-clerk, not
+a day passed but his registers were full of complaints of outrages of
+every kind committed during the night. The streets were unsafe after
+dark, and the citizens were not secure from robbery and violence even
+in their own houses. Then he adds: “But after the preaching of the
+Gospel, all that was altered, as if a change of life had accompanied
+a change of doctrine.” No one was found bold enough to contradict such
+testimony.
+
+One of the first persons to raise his voice against the persecution of
+the Huguenots was L’Hopital, the chancellor. In his inaugural address
+to the Parliament of Paris (5th July, 1560) he boldly declared the
+Church to be the cause of the religious disorders through its evil
+example; the soldiers were unpaid and justified their violence; the
+mass of the people both in town and country were ignorant and wicked,
+because the priests preached to them about tithes and offerings, and
+said nothing about godly living; and that the only remedy was a general
+council. He went on to argue that the diseases of the mind are not
+to be healed like those of the body, adding, that “though a man may
+recant, he does not change his heart.”[141]
+
+In this address L’Hopital spoke the sentiments of a small but
+increasing party which, under the name of the “politicians,” tried to
+hold a balance between the Huguenots and the Romanists. They might
+indeed be called “constitutionalists,” for there is no doubt their
+secret desire was to put an end to the ministerial usurpation and
+despotism of the Guises. They maintained that the dissidents had a
+right to be heard; but their arguments would have been ineffectual
+had the exchequer been in a flourishing condition. The government
+was in extreme want of money, the annual expenditure exceeding the
+income by nearly three millions of livres. Loans could only be raised
+at exorbitant rates of interest, and to impose new taxes would only
+increase the disorders of the country and perhaps drive the peasants
+into another Jacquerie. Thus all parties came at last to agree in
+the necessity of calling the States-General together; preliminary to
+which letters patent were issued, convening an assembly of Notables
+at Fontainebleau, these Notables being persons of rank and influence
+among the nobles and clergy, knights of the order of St. Michael, and
+lawyers.
+
+The king was escorted to the place of meeting by a strong guard, in
+addition to the troops under the command of the Guises. The general
+distrust and insecurity were shown by the number of armed men who
+accompanied the great chieftains of each party. The constable was
+attended by his two sons, Marshals Montmorency and Damville, and
+followed by eight hundred gentlemen on horseback. Coligny, Andelot, the
+Vidame of Chartres, and Prince Porcien entered with nine hundred of
+the inferior nobility. The meeting was opened on the 21st August, in
+the apartments of Catherine de Medicis. Grouped around the young king
+were his brothers and their mother; the Cardinals of Bourbon, Lorraine,
+Guise, and Chatillon; the Dukes of Guise and Aumale, the Constable and
+the Admiral; Marshals St. André and Brissac, the knights of the order,
+and other privy councilors. The two princes of the blood (Navarre and
+Condé) were absent, having (it is said) come to an arrangement with
+Coligny never to be present at the same place with him lest they should
+all be caught in the trap at once. Francis II. opened the proceedings
+with a few complimentary phrases, and then deputed his chancellor to
+lay before the members the condition of the country. L’Hopital, who had
+succeeded Olivier through the influence of the Duchess of Montpensier,
+a special favorite of Catherine’s, was not a man of illustrious birth;
+but by industry, integrity, and learning, he had risen step by step to
+the highest office in the state. On this occasion, with rather less
+prolixity than was customary in those days, he described the state
+as being sick, the Church corrupted, justice weakened, the nobles
+disorderly, and the zeal and loyalty which the people were wont to
+show the king wonderfully cooled; and that the remedy for all these
+evils was hard to find. He did not so much as venture to hint at
+one of the remedies; but at the second sitting, two days later (22d
+August), Coligny boldly opened up the matter by presenting a petition
+from the Huguenots, in which they justified their faith by Scripture,
+asserted their loyalty and love for the king, professed that they had
+never understood their duty so well toward their sovereign as since
+they had been converted to the new doctrine, prayed that a stop might
+be put to the cruel persecutions under which they were suffering, and
+asked permission to read the Bible and hold their meetings in open
+day, offering in return “to pay larger tribute than the rest of His
+Majesty’s subjects.” Strange to say, the prayer of the petition was
+supported by two high ecclesiastical dignitaries--John de Montluc,
+Bishop of Valence, and Charles de Marillac, Archbishop of Vienne.
+Montluc was an eloquent speaker, much esteemed for his experience
+in public affairs and knowledge of sacred literature. He denounced
+the severities and tyranny of the judges toward the Lutherans, and
+charged the Guises with violating the laws of the kingdom and sowing
+dissensions between the king and his subjects. He described the
+superior clergy as “idlers not having the fear of God before their
+eyes, or that they would have to give an account of their flocks,”
+adding that their only care was for the revenue of their sees, and
+that thirty or forty of them were non-resident, leading scandalous
+lives in Paris; the inferior clergy he characterized as ignorant and
+avaricious. He went on to say: “Let your majesty see that the word of
+God be no more profaned, but let the Scriptures be everywhere read and
+explained with purity and sincerity. Let the Gospel be preached daily
+in your house, so that the mouths of those may be shut who say that
+God’s name is never heard there.” Then turning to the two queens, Mary
+Stuart and Catherine de Medicis, he continued: “Pardon me, ladies, if I
+dare entreat you to order your damsels to sing not foolish songs, but
+the Psalms of David and spiritual hymns; and remember that the eye of
+God is over all men and in all places, and is fixed there only where
+his name is praised and exalted.” The remedy he proposed, and which
+had been mentioned in the petition presented by Coligny, was a general
+council.
+
+In one part of his speech, when giving a sketch of the progress of
+Reform in France, he passed a noble compliment on its ministers: “The
+doctrine,” he said, “which finds favor with your subjects has not been
+sown in one or two days, but has taken thirty years: it was brought
+in by 300 or 400 ministers, men of diligence and learning, of great
+modesty, gravity, and apparent holiness, professing to detest all vice,
+especially avarice; fearing not to lose their lives so that they might
+enforce their teaching, having Jesus Christ always on their lips ...
+a name so sweet that it opens the closest ears and sinks easily into
+the hearts of the most hardened. These preachers, finding the people
+without pastor or guide, with no one to instruct or teach them, were
+received readily, and listened to willingly. So that we need not be
+surprised if great numbers have embraced this new doctrine, which has
+been proclaimed by so many preachers and books.” On the other hand,
+he said that bishoprics were frequently bestowed upon children, and
+benefices conferred upon cooks, barbers and lacqueys.
+
+Marillac, who had learned experience as embassador at the court of
+Charles V., used similar but stronger language: he spoke of the
+“corrupted discipline of the Church, of multiplied abuses, frequent
+scandals, and licentious ministers,” and agreed that the only remedy
+lay in a national council. “To prepare the way for that council,” he
+said, “three or four things are necessary. Firstly, all the bishops,
+without exception, must be forced to reside in their dioceses.
+Secondly, we must show by our actions that we are determined to reform
+ourselves, and to that end we must put down simony. For spiritual
+things are given by God freely without money: _gratis accepistis,
+gratis date_. Thirdly, we must fast and confess our sins, which
+is the first step toward a cure. Fourthly, both factions must lay
+down their arms.” The next day Coligny defended the petition he had
+presented. “The king,” he said, “was beloved and not hated; and the
+people did not like to be kept from him. All the discontent was against
+those who managed affairs, and would easily be quieted, if they would
+rule according to the laws of the kingdom.” He advised the assembling
+of the States-General and the dismissal of the guard, which was not
+required for the protection of the sovereign. He also suggested the
+relaxation of the persecutions until the assembling of a council. “But
+your petition,” said Francis II., “has no signatures.” “That is true,
+Sire,” replied the admiral; “but if you will allow us to meet for the
+purpose, I will in one day obtain in Normandy alone 50,000 signatures.”
+“And I,” said the Duke of Guise,[142] interrupting him, “will find
+100,000 good Catholics to break their heads.” He then contended that
+a royal guard had become necessary since the affair of Amboise. “My
+brother and I,” he said, “have never offended or given cause of
+discontent to any as regards their private affairs.” The Cardinal of
+Lorraine argued that, to permit the Reformed to have their temples and
+the right of public worship was to approve of their “idolatry,” which
+the king could not do without the risk of eternal damnation.[143]
+He denied the loyalty of the petitioners, “who are obedient only on
+condition that the king should be of their opinion and their sect, or
+at least approves of it.” He gloried in the animosity of the Huguenots,
+adding (as if aside) “there are twenty-two of their libels against me
+now on my table, and I intend to preserve them very carefully.” In
+conclusion he called for the severest measures against such “of the
+religion” as should take up arms; but as for those who went unarmed to
+the sermon, sang psalms, and kept away from mass, he did not advise
+their punishment, seeing that all severity hitherto had been useless.
+He even expressed regret that they should have been so cruelly treated,
+and offered his life if that could bring the stray sheep back to the
+fold. He ended with an exhortation to the clergy to reform themselves,
+and desired that the bishops and others should inquire into the abuses
+of the Church and report thereon to the king. Of good words and good
+resolutions the cardinal always had an ample store upon which he could
+draw at will. They were mere counters with which to play the game of
+politics.
+
+The discussion, which also embraced the subject of the tumult of
+Amboise, the severity of the retaliation, and the alarming increase of
+the royal body-guard (which was denounced in nearly the same terms as
+our ancestors complained of a standing army), resulted in a decision
+to convene, first, the States-General, and, afterward, a national
+council, to decide upon the religious faith of the French people. The
+King of Spain remonstrated through his embassador against the meeting
+of the States, on the ground that it would “puff up the Huguenots;”
+and offered his aid to chastise them. But money was wanted, and the
+court was prepared to make any temporary sacrifice in order to procure
+supplies. The Venetian embassador saw the importance of this official
+recognition of the Reformed party. “Either their desires will be
+satisfied,” he says, “or else, if any attempt is made to keep them
+obedient to the pope, the court must resort to force, shed pitilessly
+the blood of the nobility, divide the kingdom into two parties, and
+come to a civil war, which will destroy both country and religion....
+Religious changes always lead the way to political changes;”[144]
+an assertion which is only partially true. Political and religious
+changes, when national and not merely personal, are produced by the
+operation of similar causes; and which change shall come first depends
+upon circumstances that appear to vary in every case. In 1560 the
+Venetian embassador certainly had not sufficient data from which to
+draw so sweeping a conclusion. The court saw no danger in the proposed
+assemblies, and writs were issued for the States-General to meet in
+December, 1560, at Meaux in Brie, and for a national council of bishops
+and other church dignitaries to assemble at Pontoise on the following
+month of January. The letters of convocation ran that “they were to
+confer together and resolve what should be laid before a general
+council; and until that should assemble, the clergy were to suspend all
+proceedings against heretics, and correct the abuses that had gradually
+crept into the house of God.”[145]
+
+After the Amboise failure, Anthony of Navarre kept himself aloof at
+Nerac in Gascony, where he was joined by his brother Condé, who had
+openly professed the new religion. The latter succeeded in inspiring
+the king with some of his own spirit, but could not induce him to take
+any step that would commit him with the Lorraine party. Meanwhile the
+little town on the Baise became the general rendezvous of all the
+discontented, who, undismayed by the past, were quite as ready to act
+as to speak. But there was no one to lead them, for the eldest of the
+Bourbon line still hesitated. It was supposed that a remonstrance from
+the whole Huguenot body might move him, and with that intent the chiefs
+of the Protestant party laid before him “a supplication,” in which
+they (to the number of more than a million) offered him the disposal
+of their lives and fortunes, provided he would make common cause
+with them by putting himself at their head; threatening, in case of
+refusal, to choose another leader, native or foreign. The supplication
+was nominally addressed to both princes, but was really intended for
+Navarre alone, who however was not bold enough to act upon it.
+
+At the same time the Guises, repenting that they had permitted Condé,
+“the dumb chief,” to leave Amboise, began to strengthen their hands.
+Duke Francis, now lieutenant-general of the kingdom, having full
+control over the military resources of the country, increased the
+royal body-guard by the addition of several regiments, the command of
+which he gave to the infamous Du Plessis-Richelieu, one time a monk
+but now a soldier. He also received troops from Scotland, kept up the
+veteran regiments of Brissac, which had just returned from Italy, and
+negotiated for the assistance of Swiss and German mercenaries. This
+step, as we shall see, necessarily drove the Huguenots to seek foreign
+help. Meanwhile the King of Navarre and his brother appear to have
+entered into a new plot against the Guises, of which a general Huguenot
+insurrection formed a part. It was to begin with the seizure of Lyons,
+an important town close to the Swiss frontier and on the northern
+border of the most Protestant portion of France. Here Condé was to
+rally all the disaffected nobility and gentry, while Navarre headed a
+similar rising in the west. This plot, even more obscure than that of
+Amboise, came to nothing, beyond implicating the two Bourbon princes,
+whose share in it is, nevertheless, somewhat doubtful. This was another
+triumph for the house of Lorraine, who determined to crush their rivals
+at once and forever. Francis II. proceeded to Orleans escorted by a
+numerous guard. The Prince of Roche-sur-Yon was made governor for the
+occasion; the garrisons from the neighboring towns were called in,
+which, added to the king’s escort of 4000 foot, composed a force of
+nearly 10,000 men. Hither the two brothers were summoned to explain
+their conduct, and the Count of Crussol, the bearer of the letters,
+was instructed to hint that resistance was hopeless, as the king could
+bring against them 48,000 French troops besides Swiss and German
+lansquenets. Moreover the King of Spain had promised to assist with
+two large armies, one entering France by Picardy, the other by the
+Pyrenees. Anthony at first held back, despite these hints, and had he
+been as enterprising as his brother, he might soon have been at the
+head of a force as strong as any that the Guises could muster against
+him, and for a time it was believed at court that he could do so.
+But he was always mean-spirited, always crouching, and cringing, and
+thinking of himself. Some time before this, in order to contradict a
+report coming from Spain that he favored the Amboise conspirators,[146]
+he fell upon some Protestant insurgents at Agen and cut them to
+pieces. Both he and his brother had been warned of the impending
+danger. The Princess of Condé wrote to her husband: “Every step you
+take toward the court brings you nearer to destruction. If your death
+is inevitable, it is surely more glorious to die at the head of an army
+than to perish ignominiously on the scaffold.” Catherine also intimated
+to him circuitously that “it was death for him to come to court.”[147]
+
+After he had made up his mind to go to Orleans, Anthony moved so
+slowly and irresolutely that the journey occupied him a month. On
+the road he dismissed the little band of Huguenot gentlemen who had
+gathered round him with the words: “I must obey, but I will obtain
+your pardon from the king.” “Go,” said an old captain, “go and ask
+pardon for yourself: our safety is in our swords.”[148] On the 31st
+October, 1560, he reached Orleans. It was nearly dark when he entered
+the city, accompanied by his brother Louis, the Cardinal of Bourbon,
+and a few servants. No one dared go out to meet him, and extraordinary
+precautions had been taken to guard against a hostile attack.
+Immediately on the arrival of Francis II. the city had (to use a modern
+term) been put under martial law. Artillery brought from Compiègne
+was mounted on the walls, the sentries were doubled, and the citizens
+ordered, under the severest penalties, to deliver up their arms, even
+including such knives as were of unusual length. Numerous arrests had
+been made of suspected persons, and among them was the high-bailiff of
+the city. And now from the gates to the castle where the king lodged
+armed men lined the streets in double file--an imposing but idle show.
+When Anthony reached the royal quarters, he desired, according to his
+privilege as a prince of the blood, to ride into the court-yard; but
+the great gates were shut against him, and he had to dismount and enter
+by a wicket. The Venetian embassador, Giovanni Michieli, thus describes
+his appearance about this time:--“He is now between forty-four and
+forty-five years of age. His beard is getting grey, his demeanor is
+much more imposing than that of his brother, whose stature is low, and
+figure awkward. He is tall, robust, and well-made, and his courage in
+battle is highly extolled, though he is rather a good soldier than a
+skillful general.” Another embassador mentions with astonishment the
+rich ear-rings and other ornaments Anthony delighted to wear.
+
+Francis received him frowningly, not condescending to raise his
+hat, as he was wont to do to the meanest gentleman. After kneeling,
+Anthony said he had come thither in obedience to the royal command,
+to vindicate his character against calumnious charges; to which the
+king replied that it was well, at the same time forbidding him to
+quit Orleans without permission. As Condé did not utter a word, the
+king angrily reproached him with conspiracy and rebellion. The prince
+replied calmly that these were slanders invented by his enemies, and
+that he would take care to justify himself; to which Francis made
+answer that, to give him an opportunity of so doing, he would be kept
+in prison until trial. The king then ordered the captains of his guard,
+Chavigny and Brezay, to arrest the prince. As they were leading him
+away, he said to the Cardinal of Bourbon, who had persuaded him to
+trust the king: “By your exhortations you have betrayed your brother
+to death.”[149] He was guarded very strictly; the windows of the house
+in which he was confined were closely barred, sentinels were posted
+round it, and no one was allowed to have access to him. “The King
+of Navarre,” says Throckmorton, “goeth at liberty, but as it were a
+prisoner, and is every other day on hunting.”[150] He was under strict
+surveillance; all his words and acts were closely watched.
+
+The Chatillons had been duly summoned to attend at Orleans. Andelot,
+suspecting treachery, retired to Brittany; while his brother the
+admiral, who was equally suspicious of the Guises, determined to be
+present in his place. He bade farewell to his wife, shortly to become
+a mother, as if he was never to see her face again, desiring her to
+have the babe christened by the “true ministers of the word of God.”
+Catherine received him cordially, and indeed put him on his guard, it
+being her interest thus to play off one party against the other.
+
+And now once more the Guises were triumphant, and their hands were
+strengthened by the acts of those who had plotted their ruin. Now
+that the prey was in their grasp, they would show no mercy. But
+first they must be revenged on the Huguenots, “those silly folks who
+bring such scandal on the honor of God,” as the cardinal wrote to
+De Burie. “We must make a striking example of them, so that, by the
+punishment of a few bad men, the good may be preserved.” The pastors
+were especially singled out, that their fate might be a warning for
+the future. Condé was to be tried before a packed commission, of whose
+verdict and sentence there could be no doubt. His brother’s fate was
+equally certain,[151] and as soon as the two princes of the blood were
+dispatched, the admiral with Montmorency and all the opponents of the
+Lorraine family were to be got rid of. Such a scheme of wholesale
+murder is hardly credible, though supported by the strong testimony
+of the Spanish embassador, who feared the Guises were going a “little
+too fast.”[152] Anthony of Navarre was to be the first victim. One
+day he was summoned to an audience with the king, at which it had
+been arranged that a quarrel should be got up between him and Francis
+II.; that the latter should draw his sword as in self-defense; and
+that the creatures of the Guises should then rush in and murder the
+prince. It is alleged that Anthony had been informed of the plot, but
+nevertheless would not shrink from the audience. As he was leaving his
+quarters, he said to Captain Renty, one of his faithful followers:
+“If I perish, strip off my shirt and carry it to my wife, and bid her
+take it to every Christian king in Europe, and call on him to avenge
+my death.” As soon as Anthony entered the presence-chamber, the door
+was closed behind him. Francis made some insulting observations, but
+hesitated--was it through fear or pity?--to give the signal for his
+uncle’s murder. “The coward!” muttered the Duke of Guise, who stood
+watching on the other side of the door. Anthony survived the perilous
+interview.[153]
+
+The Chancellor L’Hopital and five judges were appointed as a commission
+to try Condé in prison, and although he refused to plead before them,
+it availed him nothing. This protest and such answers as he did make
+having been laid before the king in council, the prince was found
+guilty of high treason, and condemned to lose his head. But before the
+sentence could be carried out, great changes took place in France.
+About the middle of November the king, whose health had never been
+very robust, “felt himself somewhat evil-disposed of his body, with a
+pain in his head and one of his ears.”[154] He rapidly grew worse; all
+means of relief were tried, but tried in vain. He was suffering from
+internal abscess. While he lay between life and death, the Guises made
+a desperate effort to get rid of the only antagonist whom they really
+feared. They urged Catherine to make away with their common enemy
+before it was too late; but Catherine, knowing that, in the strife
+of parties, the enemy of Guise must be a friend to her, refused to
+do any thing without consulting the chancellor. L’Hopital found the
+queen “weeping among her women, who surrounded her in deep silence,
+their eyes fixed on the ground.” It did not give him much trouble to
+show the illegality as well as the impolicy of the proposed act, and
+Condé was saved. On the 5th of December Francis II. expired in great
+agony, and as it was part of the popular faith to believe that no great
+personage could die a natural death, Ambrose Paré, the famous surgeon,
+was accused of poisoning the youthful king by pouring “a leporous
+distillment” into his ear, by command of the queen-mother.[155]
+Coligny, as one of the chief officers of the crown, had the melancholy
+charge of watching the dying king, and did not leave the bedside until
+Francis had breathed his last. Then--turning to the courtiers who were
+present, and who had gathered round the Duke of Guise--he said, with
+the pious gravity that was natural to him: “Gentlemen, the king is
+dead; let that teach us how to live.” Returning to his quarters as soon
+as he could leave the king’s chamber, he sat in deep thought before
+the fire, his tooth-pick, as usual, in his mouth, and his feet on the
+embers. Fontaine, one of his suite, observing his abstraction, caught
+him by the arm: “Sir, you have been wool-gathering enough. You have
+burned your boots.” “Ah! Fontaine,” replied the admiral, “only a week
+ago you and I would have thought ourselves well off with the loss of
+a leg each, and now we have only lost a pair of boots. It is a good
+exchange.”
+
+The Huguenots were accused of exulting at the king’s death; and we
+can almost excuse them, considering what they had suffered during his
+brief reign. Calvin looked upon it as the judgment of God. “Did you
+ever hear or read of any thing so opportune as the death of the little
+king,” he said. “Just when there was no remedy for our extreme evils,
+God suddenly appeared from heaven, and he who had pierced the eye of
+the father struck the ear of the son.”[156] Beza also regarded it in
+the same light. He says, the sword was already at our throats when “the
+Lord our God rose up and carried off that miserable boy by a death as
+foul as it was unforeseen. No royal honors were paid his corpse, and
+the enemy of the Lutherans was buried like a Lutheran.”[157]
+
+The people were but little attached to Francis, and called him “the
+king without vices,” to which the Huguenots added, “and without
+virtues.” He was in fact just what the persons about him made him. He
+was educated by Jacques Amyot, the learned translator of Plutarch, in
+an age when translating had not become a mechanical art. He had always
+been a sickly child, and there is a letter extant of his father’s, from
+which we learn, not only that Henry II. loved his children, but also
+the weakness of the dauphin’s constitution.[158] Voltaire very fairly
+describes him as a
+
+    Faible enfant qui de Guise adorait les caprices,
+    Et dont on ignorait et les vertus et les vices.
+
+                                             _Henriade._
+
+
+                                 NOTE.
+
+   One of the most violent of the satires aimed at the Cardinal of
+   Lorraine was that called “The Tiger,” about which very little is
+   known. The authorship is doubtful, the title disputed, and of
+   two works recently brought to light, it is hard to say which is
+   the original. De Thou speaks of a “libellus cui _Tigridi_
+   præfixus.” In a tract, “Religionis et Regis adversus Calvini,
+   Bezæ et Ottomanni conjuratorum factionis defensio prima” (8vo.
+   1562, fol. 17), we read: “Hic te, Ottomanne, excutere incipio.
+   Scis enim ex cujus officina _Tigris_ prodiit, liber certe
+   tigridi parente dignissimus. Tute istius libelli authorem....”
+   There is also extant a letter to Hotmann from Sturm, who was
+   rector of the High School of Strasburg in June, 1562: “Ex hoc
+   genere _Tygris_, immanis illa bellua quam _tu hic_
+   contra cardinalis existimationem divulgare curasti.” But if
+   these two authorities are conclusive as to Hotmann’s authorship,
+   they leave us in doubt as to what was the real title of the
+   satire, and which is the original of two contemporary libels.
+   To the researches of M. Charles Nodier we owe the discovery of
+   a manuscript poem entitled: “Le Tigre, Satire sur les Gestes
+   mémorables des Guysards” (4to, 1561), and beginning thus:
+
+    Méchant diable acharné, sépulcre abominable,
+    Spectacle de malheur, vipère épouvantable,
+    Monstre, tygre enragé, jusques á quand par toi
+    Verrons-nous abuser le jeune âge du roy?
+
+   The title of the other satire is “Epistre envoiée au Tygre de
+   la France,” and begins thus:--“Tigre enragé, vipère vénimeuse,
+   sépulcre d’abomination, spectacle de malheur, jusques à quand
+   sera-ce que tu abuseras de la jeunesse de nostre roy?” It
+   charges the Cardinal with incest, but the “sister” was a
+   sister-in-law, Anne of Este, wife of Duke Francis of Guise: “Qui
+   ne voit rien de saint que tu ne souilles, rien de chaste que tu
+   ne violes, rien de bon que tu ne gâtes. L’honneur de ta sœur ne
+   se peut garantir d’avec toy. Tu laisses ta robe, tu prens l’épée
+   pour l’aller voir. Le mari ne peut être si vigilant que tu ne
+   deçoives sa femme,” etc. This was first printed at Strasburg
+   in 1562, and it was for selling one or other of these that
+   Martin Lhomme was put to death. The indictment mentions “épîtres
+   divers et cartels diffamatoires,” but no verse--which is not
+   however conclusive against the poem. The date appears adverse
+   to the claim of the prose satire; but both versions are so much
+   alike as to suggest community of origin. May there not have
+   been a Latin original, and may not Henri Étienne, author of the
+   “Discours merveilleux,” have had more to do with it than Francis
+   Hotmann, professor of civil law at Strasburg? The proclamation
+   issued against it by the Parliament of Paris bears date 13th
+   July, 1560. [See Brunet: “Manuel du ibraire,” ii. 193.]
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER IV.
+
+                FRANCE AT THE ACCESSION OF CHARLES IX.
+
+                                [1560.]
+
+   Contrast--Power of King and Nobles--The Provinces--Roads--Rate
+   of Traveling--Forests--Wild Animals--Brigandage--Inns--League
+   of the Loire--Agriculture--Condition of the
+   Peasantry--Rent--Serfage--Wages--Cost of
+   Provisions--Food--Sumptuary Laws--Social Changes--Ignorance of
+   the People--Population of France--Taxation--Army and Navy--The
+   Clergy--Superstitions--Justice--Punishments--Brutality of
+   Manners--Domestic Architecture--Paris--Cities of France:
+   Orleans, Rouen, Bordeaux, Dieppe, Lyons, Boulogne, Dijon,
+   Moulins, and St. Etienne.
+
+
+In the middle of the sixteenth century, France was not the centralized,
+orderly, well-policed country which the traveler of the nineteenth
+century is so eager to visit, and which he leaves with so much regret.
+It was in name a monarchy; but unless the king were a man of resolute
+will, he became a mere pageant in the state. The nobility inherited
+much of the haughty turbulent spirit of their Frank ancestors, and
+despite--if not in consequence of--what Louis XI. had done, they still
+looked upon the sovereign as little more than the first among peers,
+_primus inter pares_, paying him the respect due to his position
+as their nominal superior; but resisting him when they pleased, and
+only kept in order by the power of rival barons. When Montluc summoned
+the mutinous nobles of the South to return to their allegiance, and
+obey the king, they exclaimed: “What king? We are the king. The one
+you speak of is a baby king: we will give him the rod, and show him
+how to earn his living like other people.” It was very much in this
+spirit that the house of Guise behaved toward Francis II. and his two
+successors.
+
+France was divided into numerous provinces,[159] partially independent
+under their own governors and parliaments, and with hardly more
+sympathy between them than there is now between Belgium and Holland.
+In almost every province you heard a separate dialect: the Normans
+and the Gascons were mutually unintelligible, and the inhabitant of
+Brittany had as little in common with the dweller in Languedoc as the
+Sussex boor with his fellow-laborer in Picardy. The river Loire divided
+the kingdom into two parts--morally as well as geographically. Even to
+this day the traveler observes a difference between the people, their
+speech, their customs, and their dress, immediately he crosses that
+boundary line. Great part of the country north of the Loire had for
+centuries been governed by traditionary rules similar to our common
+law; to the south, the code of Justinian had never fallen into complete
+desuetude; and the forms--shadowy enough sometimes--of the Roman
+municipalities still existed. The former had a strong resemblance to
+England as it was at the close of the Wars of the Roses; the latter
+reminded the Italian traveler of his native land. On both sides of the
+river there was the same impatience of that central authority which
+the modern Frenchman worships. The provincial parliaments registered
+or rejected the king’s decrees at their pleasure, and the taxes were
+levied by order of their own estates; self-government in form more than
+in reality. The governor of many a petty castle would set at naught the
+king’s express orders.
+
+Nothing has greater power to amalgamate the various parts of an empire,
+and smooth away differences, than good roads. Three (some reckon four)
+royal roads, passing through the whole length of France--the great
+highways constructed by the Roman conquerors of Gaul--were kept in
+tolerable condition, as the importance of such great arteries required;
+but the lateral communications were, with few exceptions, in a most
+unsatisfactory state. In winter, when the rivers overflowed their
+banks, or the snow lay deep, large towns within a few miles of each
+other were completely cut off from all intercourse. It often happened
+that one district was suffering from famine, while its neighbor had
+more than it could consume. The wines which in Anjou and the Orleannais
+sold for one sol the measure and even less, cost twenty and twenty-four
+sols in Normandy and Picardy. Sometimes this scarcity and variation
+in price may have been occasioned by foolish local restrictions upon
+the importation and exportation of provisions; but the more frequent
+cause was the want of branch roads--those which existed being often
+mere horse-tracks, and as impassable in bad weather as the famous road
+from Balaklava to Inkermann. Catherine de Medicis, “flying on the wings
+of desire and maternal affection,” went from Paris to Tours in three
+days.[160] Joan of Navarre, traveling with “extraordinary speed,” spent
+eighteen days on the road from Compiègne to Paris. It took eight days
+to carry the news of the St. Bartholomew Massacre to Toulouse along
+one of the best roads in France, and the same time to go from Mende
+to Paris. Thirty years later it took Coryat five hours to travel from
+Montreuil to Abbeville, a distance of twenty miles, his carriage being
+a two-wheeled cart covered with an awning stretched over thin hoops,
+not unlike that still used by our village carriers. In 1560 L’Hopital
+was twelve days going from Nice to St. Vallier (Drome), and he too was
+hurrying on as quickly as possible. Lippomano, the Venetian embassador,
+traveling on urgent business, could not exceed four leagues a day.
+These examples, taken from various parts of France, and from persons of
+different degrees of social rank, show decisively the difficulties of
+communication.
+
+This had much to do with the isolation of various parts of France. In
+the sixteenth century nobody traveled who could help it. To journey
+from Paris to Toulouse, now a matter of a few hours by railway, was
+then a work of time and danger. Large forests were numerous--of twenty
+miles and more in circuit: there was one near Blois of not less than
+ninety miles. Here the brown bear, the wild boar, and the deer still
+roamed at liberty. In the forest of Landeac, the Viscount Rohan
+preserved a drove of six hundred wild horses. Wolves would occasionally
+issue from the forests, and ravage the country in packs, as they still
+do in Poland and Russia.[161] In 1548 one of these packs issued from
+the forest of Orleans, devouring men, women, and children, until the
+peasantry rose _en masse_ to exterminate them.[162] But worse
+than these hungry animals were the brigands who found shelter “in the
+merry greenwood,” preying upon their neighbors, and especially upon
+travelers. One band of ruffians, five hundred in number, roamed the
+country, storming towns and castles, burning villages and farmsteads,
+pillaging, murdering, and committing fouler atrocities. Travelers
+rarely journeyed alone: they formed into a sort of caravan, sometimes
+escorted by soldiers, hardly less to be feared than the robbers
+themselves. If the adventurous merchant passed safely through forest
+and over heath, he arrived at an inn to find himself carefully classed.
+If he journeyed on foot, he could not dine and lodge like one who went
+on horseback. The dinner of the first was fixed by tariff at six sols,
+and the bed at eight; the latter paid respectively twelve and twenty.
+In many cases the traveler had to carry his bed and food with him, or
+he would have to go without.
+
+The rivers, now so full of busy life, were rarely disturbed by oar or
+sail; and up to the reign of Charles IX. the merchants trading along
+the Loire were forced to combine into a hanse or league in order to
+protect their property from plunder and excessive toll. They entered
+into treaties with the riverain Rob Roys, paying an annual black-mail
+which saved them from still greater exactions.[163] It was rare to find
+a bridge without fort and bar which none could pass, by land or water,
+without payment of pontage.
+
+The country was better cultivated than might have been expected from
+the rude implements employed; but then, far more than now, the fields
+were rarely divided by hedges. In Beauce, the traveler might journey
+for many a long mile through a fertile district, where the corn rippled
+in golden waves beneath the summer sun; but there was no plantation,
+scarcely a tree upon which to rest the weary eye. Few signs of life
+were visible from the highway: the peasants, for so many centuries the
+victims of foreign or domestic war, had wisely built their huts in the
+hollows and valleys, as far as possible removed from the routes of the
+brigands who composed the armies of those days.[164] Here and there a
+moated grange, or isolated farm-house, was visible, with its cluster
+of fruit-trees, a greener oasis in the surrounding plain; but it was
+enclosed with a high wall.
+
+The lot of the agricultural population--of farmers as well as of
+laborers--was a hard one. Serfage still existed in many places, and the
+ploughman or the hedger could no more wander in search of employment,
+or higher wages, than the low-roofed church in which he was christened,
+where he was married, and beneath whose shadow his weary limbs would
+rest at last. Rent was usually paid in kind or in service. If in
+kind, it was a certain share of the produce, which in Brittany was
+a twelfth.[165] But the great influx of gold and silver consequent
+upon the discovery of America was gradually introducing money rents,
+which, however, were so variable and uncertain, that no average appears
+possible. In Auvergne, in 1514, we find it as high as seven sols an
+acre, and in 1568 as low as four deniers and a measure (setier) of
+seigle. Although the feudal superior was gradually passing into the
+modern landlord, serfage was so tenacious of life that it existed more
+than two centuries longer. Only two years before the outbreak of the
+Revolution the serfs of twenty-three communities belonging to the abbey
+of Luxeul refused to be emancipated, choosing to remain as they were
+rather than pay the moderate fine required for their enfranchisement.
+A few months later the serfs of Trépot had consented to pay the sum
+demanded by their lord, when the Revolution came and freed them
+gratuitously.[166]
+
+The agricultural population had been almost untouched by that spirit
+of progress which had been felt in the great cities and towns, and had
+led the way to the revival of religion. Their condition was hardly
+better than in the days of Louis XII., when the farmer was at times
+compelled to plough his land by night, lest the tax-gatherers, who
+swarmed like locusts, should come and seize his cattle. The peasants
+in their remonstrance added piteously: “And when they are taken, we
+yoke ourselves to the plough.” Their houses were like the cabins
+still to be met with in the south and west of Ireland, and in the
+remoter parts of Scotland. In Brittany the traveler may still see many
+such dwellings--clay or mud-built, covered with turf or rushes from
+the neighboring pool. The beaten earth was the floor, a man could
+rarely stand upright beneath its low roof. In that single room, often
+windowless, the whole family huddled together. They were without the
+commonest comforts now rarely absent from the laborer’s cottage. The
+rate of labor was not high, and most of the payments were in kind. A
+laboring man received twelve deniers a day and a woman six: this was
+at a time when a dozen eggs cost eight deniers, a bushel of turnips
+four deniers, a fowl from two to six sols, a calf five livres, a sheep
+twenty-four sols, a fat pig three livres, and an ox, three or four
+years old, ten livres. The setier or twelve bushels of wheat sold for
+twenty sols, the same quantity of rye for ten, of barley for eight, and
+of oats for five. These are but uncertain data on which to calculate
+the purchasing power of a man’s wages, for at that time prices varied
+considerably more in different localities and from year to year than
+they do now.[167] Black unleavened bread--the “damper” of the gold
+diggings--formed the principal article of food among the poorer people,
+and was made of rye, barley, or buckwheat.[168] Maize appears to have
+been used more for cattle than for men. About thirteen years before
+the time of which we are treating, the poor of La Mans supported
+themselves during a famine upon acorn bread. The usual meat was pork or
+bacon--a diet which is supposed to have contributed to the virulence
+of the leprosy in earlier days, and hence a _languayeur_ had been
+appointed, whose sole business it was to examine the pigs’ tongues for
+leprosy spots. The odious _gabelle_ made salt so dear that the
+farmer had often to sell one-half of a pig to procure the means of
+pickling the other half.
+
+The people of the sixteenth century were gross and unclean eaters,
+delighting in viands we should now relegate to the tables of the
+Esquimaux. Thus they would eat dog-fish, porpoise,[169] and whale, as
+well as herons, cormorants, bitterns, cranes, and storks. Champier
+saw on the table of Francis I. “a pudding made of the blood, fat, and
+entrails of the sea-calf.” Frogs[170] fricasseed, snails boiled, and
+tortoises stewed in their shells were among the “dainty dishes” of this
+period. To wash such coarse viands down the people drank so much beer
+that the tax on it produced two-thirds more than the tax upon wine.
+The beer was sweet, for hops (if introduced) were scarce; and it was
+“doctored” by the addition of aromatics, spice, butter, honey, apples,
+bread-crumbs, etc. A taste for unsophisticated liquors is one of the
+results of advancing civilization.
+
+These were the times of sumptuary laws and other regulations to
+preserve the distinction of ranks, and fill the treasury at the expense
+of human vanity. Custom, quite as much as law, regulated the costumes
+of the different classes, from the silks and the scarlet robes of
+the nobles to the blue serge of the laborer. But on fête and gala
+days, which were more numerous than now, the variety of costumes was
+strikingly picturesque, especially where the inhabitants of different
+provinces met together. The tendency of modern civilization to bring
+every thing to one monotonous uniformity has robbed us of this variety.
+It still lingers here and there in France, where the women with
+honest pride cling to the costume peculiar to their calling, while
+the men have become lost in the common herd.[171] No bourgeois could
+build what sort of house he pleased; nor, when built, was he free to
+decorate it as he liked. Even the number of steps up to the door was
+regulated by law. The house might be painted with certain colors,
+but gilding was strictly prohibited.[172] In 1867 there is scarcely
+a mechanic so poor that his wife can not boast of a silk gown, but,
+three hundred years ago, no woman, below the rank of duchess, except
+“dames et demoiselles de maison” living “à la campagne et hors des
+villes,” could wear any silk except as trimming, and then only under
+certain restrictions, so that the “fashion” should not cost more than
+sixty sols for each dress.[173] Nay, worse than that, a fine of two
+hundred livres _parisis_ awaited any woman who should venture
+to wear a _vertugale_ or hooped petticoat more than an ell and
+a half round--a restriction which a modern house-maid would think
+very tyrannical. Although silk was not so scarce as these regulations
+would seem to imply, certain manufactures of it were so rare that
+historians record that Henry II. wore silk stockings at his coronation.
+Thirty years later such an article of dress was still regarded as an
+extravagant and wicked luxury.[174] The Ordonnance of Orleans (1560)
+forbade the use of perfumery among certain classes, who seem to have
+had no other resource but to shut up a particular kind of apple in
+their wardrobes in order to impregnate their dresses with its odor.
+Sumptuary laws regulated the meals. By the edict of January, 1563,
+Charles IX. forbade more than three courses, no course to consist
+of more than six dishes, each containing one kind of viand. The
+entertainer who infringed this impracticable law was fined 200 livres
+for the first offense, and 400 for the second; the guests who did not
+turn informers against their hosts were fined forty livres; while the
+unfortunate cook, who merely obeyed his master’s orders, was fined
+ten livres and imprisoned for a fortnight with only bread and water
+for his fare. For a second offense the penalty was doubled; and if he
+transgressed a third time, he was scourged and banished from the town.
+Experience has shown legislators the impossibility of restraining
+luxury by sumptuary laws; yet the statesmen of the fifteenth century
+may be excused for attempting thus clumsily to check the extravagant
+fashions of the day. Brantome describes, with all the minuteness of a
+modern reporter at a city dinner, the particulars of a banquet given
+by the Vidame of Chartres. The ceiling of the dining-hall, which was
+painted to represent the sky, suddenly opened, and clouds laden with
+dishes descended upon the tables. The same contrivance was used to
+remove the dishes. During the dessert an artificial storm poured down
+for half an hour a rain of perfumed water and a hail of sugar-plums.
+
+One great social change took place about this period. “The women,”
+writes L’Hopital to De Thou, “are _now_ seen boldly sitting down
+at table with the men.” Before that time, it was the custom for the
+husband only to sit with his guests, while the mistress of the house
+attended to the manner in which the table was served. Christopher de
+Thou, father of the historian, was the first person, not of royal
+or noble blood, who rode in a carriage in Paris. Until then there
+were only two in use at the court--the queen’s and that belonging to
+Diana, natural daughter of Henry II. Carriages were rarely employed
+for traveling purposes: the roads were, for the most part, too bad
+for vehicles much less rude than the country wains that bore the
+produce of the farm to market. Those who could not afford the pomp of
+litters rode on horseback: the ladies sometimes on a pillion behind
+a servant,[175] but frequently astride, like the men. Catherine de
+Medicis introduced the side-saddle. In 1571 a royal permission was
+granted for “coches à la mode d’Italie” to go from Paris to Orleans--a
+privilege soon extended to other cities of France “pour le soulagement
+de personnes.”[176] In 1562 forty-six post-horses were registered in
+Paris, the hire seems to have been twenty sols each a day.
+
+The dispatches of Killigrew, embassador to the court of France about
+this time, present a striking picture of the misery and ignorance of
+the lower classes. On the 15th November, 1559, he writes: “It is very
+secretly reported that the French king is become a leper, and for fear
+of his coming to Chatelherault the people have (it is said) removed
+their children; and of late there be certain of them wanting about
+Tours, which can not be heard of, and there is commandment given that
+there shall not be any pursuit made for the same.” A horrible light
+is thrown on these last words by a letter of the 28th January, 1560:
+“The 20th of this present month there was a man executed here at Blois,
+who lately, with a companion, traveled abroad in the country to seek
+fair children, to use their blood for curing of a disease which, they
+said, the king had: alleging that they had a command so to do. The one
+of them used to go before to make search for them, and the other came
+after to ask if such a man had been there for such a purpose: whereupon
+the people made lamentation for their children.” It was of course only
+an impudent means of extorting money.
+
+The population of France at the accession of Charles IX. has been
+variously estimated, but it probably did not much (if at all) exceed
+fifteen millions, of whom almost one-third lived in towns. Yet
+complaints of over-population were frequent; and La Noue, speaking of
+the multitude of inhabitants before the religious wars, says: “They
+swarm!” They paid in taxation a greater proportional amount than is
+contributed by their more numerous and fortunate posterity under the
+second empire. Finance was in its infancy, and taxes were levied so
+as to produce the greatest amount of vexation to the payer and the
+smallest result to the royal treasury. At the end of the century--forty
+years later than the period at which we have arrived--the duties and
+aids were farmed for 232 millions of livres, equivalent to £42,000,000
+sterling.[177]
+
+Taxes were imposed upon no regular plan, and whatever arrangement was
+made, it was liable to be broken through by the “good pleasure” of
+the king. This was especially the case in the reign of Francis I.,
+whose subjects, when groaning under oppressive charges of _tailles_,
+_taillons_, _aides_, _subsides_, _impôts_, and _gabelle_, looked back
+and longed for the good old times of Louis XII. Francis squandered
+his income in the most reckless manner; every body plundered the
+national exchequer, especially his favorites and mistresses. So great
+were the expenses of the marriage (the _nôces salées_) of his niece
+Joan of Albret with the Duke of Cleves in 1541, that to make up the
+deficiency he not only extended the gabelle or salt tax to several
+of the southern provinces, but doubled it in those where it already
+existed, expecting that the returns would be doubled also. In this
+he was disappointed, and new sources of revenue had to be invented.
+The coinage was debased, raising the value of the silver mark from
+£165 to £185;[178] a multitude of offices was created, all to be had
+for money; judgeships were made venal, lotteries were established,
+additional _décimes_ imposed on the clergy;[179] the churches were
+robbed of their ornaments of gold, silver, and precious gems;[180]
+loans were raised by means of _rentes_ or stock offered for sale at
+the Hotel-de-Ville of Paris, and the citizens were expected to become
+purchasers. Eightscore thousand crowns were thus borrowed _au denier
+douze_; that is to say, at 8⅓ per cent. The superintendents of finance
+were bound to procure money, even if they had to borrow it on their own
+security; and, when all other means failed, and a large sum was wanted
+instantly for some royal caprice or some new mistress, a financier
+was hanged and his property confiscated. Such measures necessarily
+discontented every body and profited none but a few persons at court;
+yet by some means or other Francis I. contrived to leave four millions
+of livres in the treasury, which Henry II., aided by Diana of Poitiers,
+soon squandered. The new king took one important step toward financial
+accountability by dividing the kingdom into seventeen généralités,
+each of which was farmed at a very high rate.[181] Under his two
+successors, the government speculated in French vanity by making titles
+of nobility purchasable. Pasquier thought this an “inexhaustible source
+of supply,” but it does not appear to have made any large return to
+the treasury. The “deficit” became periodical, and to fill up the gulf
+the taxes (especially the gabelle) were augmented,[182] financiers
+were prosecuted and heavily mulcted, many useless offices were created
+on purpose to be sold, and new loans were contracted. Among other
+devices--all of them very startling to a modern chancellor of the
+exchequer--was a proposal to appoint 13,000 sergens, or baillies.
+Pasquier hopes this will not be done, for “it would eclipse the memory
+of the 11,000 devils spoken of in the time of our grandfathers.”
+
+The taxation fell very heavily on the Tiers état, and particularly
+upon the agricultural classes. The towns-people, the bourgeoisie,
+were to some degree protected by charters and privileges, and had an
+organization of their own by which the taxes were levied. They were
+exempt from foreign garrisons, elected their own officers (with the
+exception of the provost of the merchants), enrolled a citizen guard,
+and had the right to barricade the streets and shut their gates,
+even against the king.[183] No charters or securities guaranteed the
+peasant from injustice. Michieli, writing in 1561, describes the
+oppression in some provinces (especially in Normandy and Picardy)
+as so excessive, that the peasantry were forced to abandon the
+country.[184] The burdens were the more severe and invidious, that
+while the seigneurs mercilessly exacted their rents, dues, corvées,
+customs, etc., they contributed nothing to the state beyond what
+they gave of their free-will as a gift. Clergy, nobility, soldiers,
+members of the king’s household, and of the high courts of parliament,
+school-masters, officers of finance, free cities (villes de franchise)
+like Paris, and noble cities (villes nobles) like Troyes, were all
+exempt; not that they did not contribute to the revenue, but only
+so much as they chose to assess themselves. In the reign of Francis
+I. the French clergy, with the consent of the pope, agreed to pay a
+_décime_, or one-tenth of their revenue, which in the next reign
+was doubled. At Poissy, in 1561, they entered into an arrangement to
+pay sixteen hundred thousand livres annually, on condition of their
+future exemption from all other taxes. Considering that they possessed
+about one-third of the landed and house-property in France, this was
+but a small contribution to the necessities of the crown. The yearly
+rental of the whole kingdom has been estimated, on what are indeed very
+vague data, to have amounted to fifteen millions of crowns, of which
+six belonged to the clergy[185] and one and a half to the king. The
+exports of corn, wine, salt, and wood were valued at twelve millions of
+francs, more than Spain received from her mines of Mexico and Peru.
+
+The army and the navy are the great causes of expenditure in our days;
+but in the sixteenth century both were so insignificant that their
+burden was hardly appreciable. France has now about three-quarters
+of a million of men under arms, but in 1560 the army barely amounted
+to 20,000 men, and these were so scattered, and under so many local
+restrictions, that the crown could not collect 10,000 men without the
+aid of mercenaries. Although the main strength consisted in cavalry,
+the importance of infantry was beginning to be felt. They were long
+looked upon as a very inferior arm; indeed, the feeling is not yet
+extinct in some countries; but every improvement in fire-arms so
+increased the power of the foot-soldier, that far-sighted men began
+to see that the victory must ultimately remain with the general who
+could make the best use of his infantry. The artillery was rude and
+awkward; the guns were clumsily mounted, and the balls rarely fitted
+the barrel. With all these defects it must not excite surprise that on
+an average they could not be discharged more than once in five minutes.
+When fixed in battery, they might be trusted to breach the wall of a
+city or castle, where the object of the engineer seems to have been to
+expose as much as possible of his defenses to the fire of the enemy.
+The cannons were almost utterly useless in the field against a body of
+men in motion; but the noise they made proved at times as effectual in
+dispiriting the enemy as their accuracy of fire. The army was officered
+by the nobility: a commoner might rise to be a sergeant, but it was
+impossible for him to obtain a commission. It was partly on this ground
+of unpaid military service that the nobles claimed exemption from
+taxation.
+
+The French navy existed but in name. When Francis I. was at war with
+England he brought twenty-five galleys from the Mediterranean into the
+Channel, the Genoese lent him ten vessels, and with others in his
+harbors he mustered a fleet of one hundred and fifty ships of large
+tonnage, and sixty small ones. One great ship of a hundred guns, called
+the _Caracon_, had been built, but it never put to sea, being
+burned in harbor. We are all familiar with the uncouth yet strangely
+picturesque forms of those ships, standing high out of the water,
+with their castles at each end, and looking as if a breath of wind
+would blow them over. They were slow and bad sailers, deficient in
+accommodation for their two crews--the soldiers to fight and the seamen
+to sail them. The navy was not quite so exclusive and aristocratic
+as the army; but if seamen worked the ship, landsmen as captains and
+admirals commanded it, as they did, until comparatively a late period,
+in our own service.
+
+The clergy were the most wealthy body in the state. La Noue reckons
+one hundred episcopal and archiepiscopal sees in France, 650 abbeys
+belonging to the orders of St. Bernard and St. Benedict, all
+“beautified with good kitchens” and 2500 priories. Jean Bouchet has
+left a curious picture of the clergy at the early part of the century,
+and there are no grounds for believing that they had at all improved in
+the interval before his death in 1555. He complains that the candidates
+for holy orders possess all the qualities not wanted, and none that
+are. Of the cardinals and bishops he says, they ought to preach the
+Gospel, and be
+
+                      Du peuple la lumière,
+    Le bon exemple et la clarté première.
+
+Montluc, Bishop of Valence, declared in a sermon preached in 1559,
+that out of ten priests there were eight who could not read. We may
+charitably suppose that he exaggerates.
+
+The clergy by no means dwelt together in unity, and their quarrels
+became such a nuisance that, in 1542, the bishops were commanded to
+put a stop to the practice of delivering abusive sermons from the
+pulpit. The order would seem to have been ineffectual, for, in 1556,
+the priests were forbidden to preach unless they had first submitted
+their sermons to the diocesan. This regulation may have been partly
+intended as a watch over heretical opinions; but in the same year the
+procurator-general issued an order of Parliament against all such as
+had indulged in “abusive language” in the pulpit. The fact is, that
+the sixteenth century was one of singular excitement in every respect.
+Society was in travail. The clergy shared in the general restlessness,
+and the press not being quick enough, they resorted to their pulpits to
+refute an antagonist, and preached sermons instead of writing leading
+articles. They spared nobody who attacked them, or did not support
+them. A friar of the order of Minims, Jean de Haas by name, preached
+in his Advent sermons (Dec., 1561) so violently against the edict of
+that year, and the king and queen-mother for sanctioning it, that the
+provost was ordered to arrest him “early in the morning,” and take him
+bound and gagged to St. Germains; but the citizens, immediately they
+heard of his capture, marched out in crowds to the royal residence,
+and, irritated with this “indignity,” as Pasquier terms it, demanded
+the preacher back. The king was forced to give him up, and Jean
+returned in triumph to Paris, “as if he were a great prince.” The
+next day he celebrated his deliverance by a solemn procession to the
+Church of St. Bartholomew.[186] At the beginning of 1572 Sorbin, the
+king’s preacher, declaimed violently against the king because he would
+not give immediate orders for murdering the Huguenots, and publicly
+exhorted the Duke of Anjou to undertake the task himself, holding
+out hopes to him of the primogeniture, as Jacob prevailed over Esau.
+But the heretics could be as violent as the orthodox. The Huguenot
+ministers poured the rankest abuse on what John Knox called “the
+monstrous regiment of women;” and some of them--unless they are greatly
+belied--even went so far as to preach regicide. The minister Sureau
+was arrested for saying that it was lawful to kill the king and his
+mother, if they did not accept the Gospel according to Calvin.[187]
+
+The state of public opinion with regard to the clergy can be more
+easily detected in the amusements of the people than in the writings of
+scholars, or the acts of government. Before the Reformation there was
+a strong anti-papal feeling throughout Europe, which showed itself in
+the light literature of the day--the tales, the poetry, and the dramas
+with which all classes amused their leisure hours. For instance, in the
+tales ascribed to Margaret of Navarre, and in the grotesque romance
+of Gargantua, monks and the secular clergy are the chief victims. In
+the rude theatrical representations of this time, the abuses of the
+Church are dealt with most unsparingly. One of these was exhibited
+before the King of Navarre and his wife, the pious Joan of Albret, in
+the year 1558. In the first scene a poor woman is represented as at the
+point of death, and crying loudly for relief from her sufferings. The
+sympathizing gossips round her bed send off hastily for the parson, who
+goes through the usual religious ceremonial, but fails to alleviate
+her anguish. Then several monks appear--some bearing relics, others
+indulgences--none of which bring relief. She is next invested with the
+frock and scapulary of St. Francis, but this too fails to restore her
+to health. At length, after much good advice has been wasted, one of
+the bystanders says there is a stranger in the town who has a certain
+specific for the poor woman’s pains. He will guarantee a perfect cure;
+but the man is a homeless wanderer, who hides himself from the eyes of
+the world, flees the light of day, lives in obscure corners, and comes
+out at night only. The sufferer begs that he may be sent for, and after
+much trouble he is found. He appears in dress and gait like other men.
+Approaching the sick bed, he whispers something in the patient’s ear,
+places a little book in her hand, which he assures her is full of
+remedies for her disorder, and vanishes. And so the scene ends.
+
+In the next, we find the woman restored to perfect health: her eyes
+sparkle with animation, and she can walk with ease. She announces
+her recovery, eulogizes the unknown physician, extols his remedy,
+and recommends it to the audience. She adds that she would willingly
+lend it, “but it is hot to the touch, and smells of fire and faggot.”
+However, if they desire to know the name of the remedy and of the
+disease of which she had been cured, they must find it out for
+themselves. She retired amid loud applause, and the spectators of that
+day found no more difficulty in solving the enigma than we do.[188]
+
+The ritual and services of the Church were not free from superstitious
+usages. The more the substance of religion died out in their hearts,
+the more the clergy adhered to the forms. Thus not to fast on Friday
+was a heinous sin; and at Angers, in 1539, those who were found to have
+eaten meat on that day were burned alive if they remained impenitent,
+and hanged if they repented. The poet Clement Marot narrowly escaped
+burning for having eaten pork in Lent. “If any one eats meat,” says
+Erasmus, they all cry out: “Heavens! the Church is in danger; the
+world is overrun with heretics.” They punish every one who “eats pork
+instead of fish.” In 1534 the Bishop of Paris gave the Countess of
+Brie permission to eat meat on “meagre” days, but only on condition
+that she ate in private and fasted regularly every Friday. Brantome
+relates that, during a procession in a certain country town, one woman
+attracted peculiar attention by her fervor, even to walking barefoot.
+She then went home to prepare her husband’s dinner. The smell of roast
+meat attracting the notice of some priests, they entered the house and
+caught her in the act of cooking, for which she was sentenced forthwith
+to go in penance through the streets carrying the half-roasted meat
+round her neck. The morals of the clergy were very relaxed, and they
+would hardly have thanked Lippomano if they had read his doubtful
+compliment.[189] But this is a subject upon which it would be as
+superfluous as it would be disagreeable to enlarge.
+
+The sixteenth century was an age of superstitions, the inevitable
+parasites of a debased religion, and often stronger than religion
+itself. Both Catherine and Charles IX. had their astronomers and
+alchemists; and an agreement is extant between the king and one Jean
+des Gallans, in which the latter promises to transmute “all imperfect
+metals into fine gold and silver.”[190] The early death of Charles is
+ascribed by Bodin to his having spared the life of the famous sorcerer
+Trois Échelles.[191] Catherine was so credulous as to believe that La
+Mole and Coconnas had compassed the king’s death by melting a waxen
+image of him before the fire, and they were particularly “questioned,”
+or tortured, as to whether they had not _envouté_ Charles IX. A
+singular chain, or amulet, once worn by the queen-mother, has been
+often engraved.[192] Nostradamus was the great oracle of the age, and
+thousands visited the little town of Salon in Provence to purchase of
+him the secrets of the future. He is reported to have shown Catherine
+the throne of France occupied by Henry IV. This was shortly before
+the accident that befell Henry II., whose death the astrologer was
+supposed to have prophesied, in a barbarous quatrain.[193] Almanacs
+and prognostications of the future were forbidden to be published as
+“against the express command of God,” unless they had received the
+imprimatur of the bishop or archbishop, who thus enjoyed a monopoly
+of fortune-telling.[194] Strange visions appeared; the Wandering Jew
+was seen in many places, a tall man with long white hair floating over
+his shoulders and walking barefoot. Signs were visible in the heavens:
+fiery swords flashed across the midnight sky, and rivers flowed back
+toward their sources. Diabolical possession was common, men and women
+were turned into wolves, and prowled about the cemeteries. The witches
+held their sabbaths undisturbed by the thunders of a Church which
+took no steps to remove the general ignorance. It has always been the
+policy of Rome to keep men ignorant, that she may keep them slaves. The
+sorcerers whom the Senate of Toulouse held to trial in 1577 were alone
+more numerous than all other classes of criminals for two years before.
+More than 400 were condemned to perish by fire, and, most surprising!
+nearly all of them bore the mark of the devil on their person.[195]
+Gregory does not tell us whether they were all executed; but it is easy
+to conclude that people, accustomed to such sentences and such judicial
+massacres, could not have felt much sympathy toward a few wretched
+heretics burned or hanged for reviling the _Bon Dieu_.
+
+A blundering sort of justice was meted out to criminals in those days,
+it being quite as probable that an innocent man would suffer as that
+the guilty would be convicted. But some one was punished, an example
+was made, and the law was satisfied. Occasionally special commissions
+were issued to try such powerful criminals as defied the ordinary
+courts of justice. The “grands jours,” or special assize of Poitou, was
+held under a guard of four hundred men, and lasted all the months of
+September and October. Twelve persons were beheaded for their crimes,
+one heretic was burned, and the houses of some gentlemen who had
+refused to appear were burned down.
+
+Many of the punishments were grossly trivial and indecent, others were
+barbarously severe. All England rings with execrations if the agony of
+a convicted murderer is unnecessarily prolonged by the bungling of the
+hangman; but in the sixteenth century offenses were sometimes punished
+with a refined ferocity worthy of the kingdom of Dahomey. No code was
+mild three hundred years ago, but practices survived in France which
+the more merciful instincts of our law had banished from England.
+Traitors were scourged, their ears were cut off, and their tongues
+pierced with a red-hot iron, after which they were hanged or torn in
+pieces by horses. Highway robbers were condemned by a special edict
+(1534), to have their arms broken in two places, as well as their ribs,
+legs, and thighs;[196] they were then to be extended face uppermost
+on a wheel elevated on a tall pole, and “there they should remain to
+repent so long as our Lord should please to let them linger.” “If the
+criminals are favored,” says an English traveler, “their breast is
+first broken. That blow is called the _blow of mercy_, because it
+doth quickly bereave them of their life.”[197] Kindness to the weak,
+tenderness and commiseration even for the criminal are the slow growth
+of civilizing influences.[198] The pen almost refuses to describe
+how some women--Huguenot women--were on one occasion buried alive.
+They were placed, each in a box or coffin without a top but with bars
+across, after which they were lowered into a deep trench and the earth
+was thrown upon them. The executioner was a master (maître) in those
+days, and represented rather the sheriff than the Calcraft of 1867. He
+was a salaried officer of justice, not very far below the judge in
+rank. The office was frequently hereditary, and its emoluments great.
+At Carcassonne in 1538, his gloves for one execution cost at one time
+twelve deniers, and twenty at another. He was paid five sols for the
+tumbrel or hurdle on which the criminal was dragged to the place of
+execution; ten for hanging him, twenty for beheading him, and five for
+the pole on which the head was exhibited. For flogging a culprit round
+the town he received seven sols six deniers. For burning a heretic at
+Toulouse, the wood, straw, chain, turpentine, brimstone, etc., cost
+five livres six sols, with an additional couple of livres if the victim
+was burned alive.
+
+The savage punishments of the age tended to brutalize the manners of
+the people, one evil thus fostering and reacting upon another. In the
+small town of Provins, now so famous for its roses, there lived one
+Crispin, who was accused of robbery and murder, tried, convicted, and
+sentenced to be hanged. As he passed for a Huguenot, the priests, up to
+the last moment, urged him to recant; but he remained firm--“_si ne
+sçavoit pas bien lire ni écrire_.” In due course he was executed,
+and the dead body left hanging on the gallows. A crowd of a hundred
+boys or more, and none over twelve years old, gathered round the spot;
+some of the more daring mounted the ladder, cut the rope and let the
+corpse fall. A cord was now fastened round the neck, another round the
+ankles, and the boys began to pull in different directions for the
+mastery. As the sides were pretty evenly matched, a truce was agreed
+upon, during which they got up a mock trial on the question, in what
+manner a Huguenot ought to be dragged to the voirie or dunghill. The
+juvenile court decided that “the said heretic should be dragged by the
+heels like a dead beast,” and were actually pulling the body to the
+Changy gate, when another gang of boys met them and insisted that the
+body should be burned. A fire was kindled into which the corpse was
+thrown, while a crowd of spectators looked on encouraging the boys by
+words and gestures. After the body had lain some time in the flames,
+it was again dragged out and thrown into the river, where a bargeman
+cut off an ear and wore it as a trophy in his hat.[199] Comment upon
+such an incident would be superfluous. It is a picture painted by a
+contemporary of a state of society that had not existed in Europe since
+the fall of Rome. The men of Provins who looked on approvingly while
+the boys were making a plaything of Crispin’s lifeless body, were the
+fathers of those who committed the atrocities of the Reign of Terror.
+
+Under the Valois dynasty, the towns and cities of France were very much
+as they had been through the long period of the Middle Ages. During the
+last fifty years, the spirit of change and improvement has spread so
+rapidly, that, except in the remoter parts of the country, the traces
+of the old towns have almost disappeared. The towns were surrounded
+with high walls, such as may still be seen confining the Haute Ville of
+Boulogne-sur-Mer, or parts of York, Chester, and Norwich. The streets
+were narrow and winding, the houses tall, the successive stories
+sometimes projecting over each other, so as almost to exclude the sun.
+With the exception of the mansions of the nobles, and sometimes of the
+wealthier traders, the houses were built of wood--often straw-thatched,
+and with windows formed alike to exclude air and light. This was one
+cause of the frequent pestilences which ravaged Europe, and of the low
+average of human life. The mansions of the nobles and gentry still
+retained a semi-fortified aspect. They were entered by huge gate-ways,
+and few windows looked into the street. The shops of the traders
+resembled greatly the modern greengrocers’ or butchers’, in being
+without glazed windows, and open to the street as soon as the shutter
+was let down. Sometimes they were connected by a sort of arcade, still
+traceable in the _Piliers des Halles_, where the name remains
+while the thing has disappeared. These middle-class dwellings were
+often covered externally with slates, or the intervals between the
+timbers were filled up with bricks arranged in fantastic patterns. The
+external wood-work was often as exquisitely carved as the internal. A
+spacious staircase with massive balustrades occupied a disproportionate
+share of the house. The roof was so arranged as to show a gable to the
+street, and it often projected so far as to permit a small gallery to
+be built out of the top story, where the inmates might enjoy the fresh
+air under shelter.
+
+There were no facilities for pedestrians: the roadways were unpaved
+(except in a few rare instances), and no smooth _trottoir_ invited
+the curious or the idle to stroll and gaze at the shops. In wet weather
+the streets were impassable from mud, in hot and dry weather they were
+almost as troublesome from the dust and stench; for the road was the
+general receptacle of the rubbish of the houses, and the scavenger’s
+trade was in embryo. Drainage was unknown, and even in Paris there was
+only one sewer, namely that constructed by Aubriot in the reign of
+Charles V.
+
+Churches and convents were numerous in every city and town, not
+unfrequently occupying one-half of their area. At Rouen there were
+forty convents and thirty-six parish churches, without reckoning the
+collegiate churches and the cathedral. Each city and town had its
+governor, who lived in the citadel or castle, which was generally so
+detached as to be secure when the town had fallen into the hands of
+the enemy. The well-known town of Boulogne-sur-Mer presents us with an
+easily accessible example of this arrangement.
+
+In the middle of the sixteenth century the population of Paris was
+between four and five hundred thousand.[200] The walls were seven
+leagues in circuit, according to Corrozet; while Giustiniani (1535)
+says that a man could make the circuit in three hours’ easy walking,
+which is nearer Coryat’s calculation (1608) of ten miles.[201] It was
+surrounded by stone walls flanked by towers, and pierced by eleven
+gates, five on the south side and six on the north. The bulwark
+enclosing the northern part of the city started from the arsenal on the
+river, ran along the boulevards of the Bastille, St. Antoine, Temple,
+St. Martin, and St. Denis to the Place des Victoires, the Palais Royal,
+and the Louvre. On the south, it ran from the Pont de la Tournelle,
+behind the gardens of the college of Henry IV., across the streets
+of St. Jacques and Mazarin to the river at the Pont des Arts.[202]
+Houses even now were found in clusters beyond the Porte St. Honoré, on
+each side of the road as far as the present Barriers of Roule and of
+Chaillot. The Faubourg Montmartre was without the walls, along the line
+of the Chaussée d’Antin, and beyond the Temple the Faubourg St. Antoine
+was fast growing in size. Giovanni Capello writing in 1554 describes
+Paris as the largest city he had ever seen, and Coryat declares it to
+be well called “_Lutetia_ (from _lutum_, mud), for many of
+the streets are the dirtiest and the stinkingest of all he ever saw.”
+It contained from three to four hundred houses of the yearly value of
+6000 livres, two hundred of 10,000, one hundred of 30,000, and twenty
+at least of 50,000.[203] Every Wednesday and Saturday 2000 horses
+entered the city laden solely with poultry and game, all of which was
+sold in two hours.
+
+The streets were dark, narrow, and winding, with a gutter running
+down the middle. In that part called the Cité the houses were tall
+and black, grim as prisons, and swarming with a squalid famishing
+population. Many of the streets were little wider than the curious rows
+or alleys in Yarmouth in which you can hardly turn a wheelbarrow. No
+lamps shed even a feeble light to guide the belated citizen. The tapers
+in the shrines at the street corners alone helped to direct his steps,
+if he chanced to be abroad without torch or lantern. It need hardly
+be said that the streets were very insecure, and acts of violence
+frequent. At intervals during the night, the watch, a company of armed
+men, went their round, but the noise they made and the torches they
+carried, were a warning to the evildoer to make his escape.
+
+The clear waters of the Seine cut the city into two parts. The stately
+quays that now line its banks scarcely existed in the reign of Charles
+IX. The gardens of private citizens extended in many places down to
+the water’s edge. The river flowed beneath five bridges--one of which
+(the Millers’ or the Birds’ bridge) was for foot passengers only. It
+joined what is now the Quai de la Mégisserie to the Quai de l’Horloge,
+and was swept away, both houses and inhabitants, by the flood of 1596.
+Thirty-four houses stood on each side of the bridge of Notre Dame, and
+the street thus formed was the favorite promenade of the Parisians. The
+road was so wide that three carriages could pass abreast, and the rents
+were higher than in any other part of the city. Among the attractions
+of this street, Gilles Corrozet does not forget to mention the charming
+women who served in the shops.[204]
+
+The modern traveler now seeks in vain for the ten islands which once
+interrupted the navigation of the Seine. That of Louviers, where
+Charles IX. used to bathe, and where he was once entertained with a
+naval fight, was united to the Quai Morland in 1847. The islands of
+Notre Dame and Vaches, composing the Isle of St. Louis, were once
+separated by a narrow ditch, which is now the Rue Poulletier. The
+Jews’ Island, where Jacques Molay was beheaded, was united to the Cité
+by Henry IV., and formed the Place Dauphine and the spur of the Pont
+Neuf, upon which the statue of the first Bourbon king still stands.
+The island of the Louvre, never little better than a mere sand bank,
+has been dredged away. The others have disappeared in the course of
+improving the navigation of the river, and, La Cité alone remains.
+This old quarter of Paris, the hot-bed of sedition, disease, and crime,
+has been so entirely metamorphosed by the hand of improvement, that
+travelers who knew it thirty years ago recognize it with difficulty.
+
+Even at this time Paris was noted for its _orfévrerie_, its works
+in gold and silver being much sought after. The Rue St. Denis was the
+principal street; its shops and warehouses were famous all over Europe.
+Along that street kings and queens used to make their solemn entrance
+into the capital, when the merchants spent their money like water to
+decorate their houses in welcome of their sovereign. Between it and
+the Rue aux Fers was the Church of the Innocents, round which lay the
+famous cemetery, enclosed with dank and sombre arcades, filled with
+shops and stalls. They were the favorite resort of lawyers, and the
+rendezvous of fashion and intrigue, as the Cathedral of St. Paul’s was
+to the English court or city gallants in the reign of the Stuarts.
+The Rue Jacob (St. Jacques) was like Paternoster Row, full of shops
+plentifully furnished with books--diversos libros diversis artibus
+aptos.
+
+The chief royal residence was the Louvre. The palace of the
+Tournelles--the Place Royale now occupies its site--was deserted after
+the accident to Henry II. The brick-fields which gave their name to the
+new palace of the Tuileries had disappeared in the previous century;
+and Catherine, having purchased the Marquis of Villeroy’s hotel with
+the adjoining property, gave Philibert Delorme instructions to commence
+that striking monument of her architectural taste.
+
+A Venetian embassador reckons that there were at this time one hundred
+and thirty-two cities in France; but as he gives no definition of the
+term “city,” his calculation is of little service. He probably meant
+walled towns, to distinguish them from such as were unfortified. The
+approaches to the cities were not then marked by airy suburbs and
+scattered villas; but the cultivated country or forest ran close up
+to the walls. One ornamental erection alone serves to mark the great
+change that has taken place. Coryat has frequent occasion to describe
+the “fair gallows of stone,” which adorned the entrance to every town.
+Most of them remained until they were swept away by the Revolution.
+
+The principal cities of France, after Paris, were Lyons, Orleans,
+Rouen, Bordeaux, and Dieppe. A paved causeway led from the capital to
+each of these places. Orleans was so large and beautiful that Charles
+V. called it the finest in France. It was populous and well-built, and
+its university contained 1600 students, “all men and not boys, as in
+the other seats of education.”
+
+Rouen, sometimes called the second city in the kingdom, carried on a
+large trade, but it had not yet become the “Manchester” of France. It
+had four yearly fairs, and its quays were crowded with ships, sometimes
+as many as two hundred “small vessels” being there at the same
+time.[205] Then, as now, the poorer people drank no wine but “bira di
+pere e poma.” When Henry II. and Catherine visited Rouen in 1550, the
+citizens welcomed them with a remarkable ballet or masque. The banks
+of the Seine were transformed so as to present a picture of Brazilian
+life. There is an old wood-cut representing the curious scene. A
+meadow, sloping down to the river, is planted with trees, colored and
+trimmed so as to resemble those of South American forests. Parroquets
+and other gaily-colored birds are flying about them, and apes and
+monkeys clambering among the branches. The natives are represented by
+three hundred mariners of Rouen, Dieppe, and Havre, who, unencumbered
+with the slightest clothing, are hunting, dancing, and fighting with as
+much animation as the fifty “real savages just arrived from America.”
+Offensive as the exhibition would be to our tastes, it was otherwise in
+the sixteenth century. The queen was delighted “aux jolys esbatements
+et schyomachie des sauvages.”[206] A somewhat similar but less undraped
+scene was represented before Charles IX. when he visited Bordeaux in
+April, 1565. Representatives--most of them stage representatives--of
+twelve nations defiled before him, among them being some real
+“Canarians, savages, Americans, Brazilians, and Taprobanians,” each
+speaking in his native tongue. A picture was painted to perpetuate the
+memory of the scene.[207] Bordeaux was a wealthy city, its foreign
+trade extensive, its population so numerous that it could furnish
+10,000 fighting men, and its parliament ranked next after Paris and
+Toulouse.
+
+In 1560, Dieppe possessed a mercantile marine equal to that of all
+the rest of France. The population of the city amounted to 60,000,
+now it is about 20,000. The ship-owners of this “northern Rochelle”
+may compare with the Medicis. When John Ango entertained Francis I.
+at his chateau of Varengeville (now an undistinguishable heap of
+ruins), he received the king with a magnificence unusual even in those
+magnificent times. The rooms were decorated with costly hangings,
+curious furniture, Italian sculpture, and precious vases. Ango lent
+money and ships to the court, and often had as many as twenty armed
+vessels afloat, with which he ventured to measure strength with the
+King of Portugal. When the government of the Low Countries seized all
+the French ships in Flemish waters, Henry II. ordered Coligny to equip
+a fleet instantly and take summary vengeance. But the ports were empty,
+and there were no ships. “It is only the people of Dieppe,” said the
+admiral, “who can supply your majesty with a fleet.” The citizens,
+proud of the honor, offered to pay half the expense, and fitted out
+nineteen vessels of one hundred and twenty tons each. Ships of Caen
+went to Africa and the New World, bringing back so much more gold than
+could be exchanged, that the king permitted the merchants to have a
+mint of their own.
+
+Lyons, owing to its fairs, possessed a stronger foreign element among
+its inhabitants than any other town in France. In 1575 Lippomano called
+it “one of the most celebrated cities;” and there was a proverb that
+“Lyons supported the crown by its taxes, and Paris by its presents.”
+The revenue contributed by the former city alone was so great, that
+when there was a talk of suspending the fairs, it was calculated
+that the change would involve a loss of ten millions of gold yearly.
+The immense business led to the appointment of special tribunals for
+the fairs, and a sort of clearing-house for bills of exchange. The
+principal merchants and bankers were Italians: Capponi, Gondi, Spini,
+Deodati. Lorenzo Capponi, one of the most munificent of his class,
+kept open house during each fair, and entertained more than 4000
+persons. After the introduction of silk-growing, Lyons received a
+great development. The first mulberry-tree planted in the 16th century
+at Alais, about a league from Montelimart, was still alive in 1802.
+In this century all Europe was supplied with books from the presses
+of Lyons--no city, Venice perhaps excepted, circulating more. The
+names of Gryphæus and Dolet, Tournes and Roville, are familiar to all
+book-collectors. In the house of Henry Stephens (Etienne) every body
+spoke Latin from garret to cellar. The old city occupied the space
+between the Cours Napoleon and a line drawn from the Pont Morand to the
+Pont de la Feuillée, the Church of St. Nizier being about the middle.
+There were only two bridges--one over each river; and a small suburb
+on the right bank of the Saone, clustering round the cathedral and the
+Church of St. Lawrence. The superior comfort of the inhabitants may be
+estimated from the report of a traveler, who mentions as a circumstance
+worthy of note, that “most of their windows were made of white paper;”
+although in some of the better houses the upper part of the window was
+filled with glass.
+
+The smaller towns of France have all undergone a change more or less
+great: even those in the agricultural districts have outgrown their
+walls. At Boulogne-sur-Mer the lower town consisted of two or three
+convents and a few fishermen’s huts clustered round the Church of St.
+Nicholas. A populous suburb now covers the site of the old harbor.
+
+Dijon, now a mere provincial town, was once a great parliament centre:
+a little capital in Eastern France.[208] It had a vast ducal palace;
+churches and abbeys were crowded close together. Of the palace of Jean
+sans Peur, the fire has spared little beyond a tall tower and some
+precious fragments. Modern improvements and renovations have destroyed
+much of the old city; but that gem of the Renaissance La Maison
+Milsand, in the Rue des Forges, still remains as an unapproachable
+model of architectural decoration.
+
+The charming little town of Moulins in the Bourbonnais filled the
+space now enclosed by the inner promenade--the Cours Doujar, d’Aquin,
+and Berulle--constructed on the ditches of the old wall. None of the
+“curious birds and beasts” remain in the park; and of the magnificent
+chateau where Charles IX. held his court little has survived beyond the
+huge unbattlemented tower; and of the steeples for which the town was
+once so famous, only one (the clock-tower) still soars above the houses.
+
+The greatest change of all has taken place in the district that lies
+around the great manufacturing town of St. Étienne. In 1560 it was a
+pleasant wooded valley; no clanging engines disturbed its silence,
+no clouds of smoke defiled the air. Now it is one of the busiest
+centres of modern industry, and in noise and dirt may almost vie with
+Birmingham.
+
+Toulon, now the great arsenal of the French navy, was a small port
+containing only 637 houses, and covering an area of 660 acres. Its
+whole artillery consisted of two bombardes and twenty-five pounds of
+powder. Its naval importance dates from the reign of Henry IV. In 1543,
+when Barbarossa’s fleet was received into the harbor, the inhabitants
+were ordered to abandon the town for six months under pain of death,
+leaving their houses and all they could not remove at the mercy of the
+Turks.[209]
+
+From this imperfect sketch of the condition of France at the
+outbreak of the Religious Wars, the reader may in some degree be
+able to understand how such a crime as the St. Bartholomew massacre
+was possible. Although right and wrong are always the same, our
+appreciation of them depends in the main upon our education and the
+circumstances around us; and it would be unfair to judge the men of the
+sixteenth century by our nineteenth century standard.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER V.
+
+      FROM THE ACCESSION OF CHARLES IX. TO THE MASSACRE AT VASSY.
+
+                             [1560–1562.]
+
+   Character of the Boy-King--Portrait of Catherine--The
+   States-General--The Chancellor’s Address--Speeches of the Three
+   Orators--Agitation in the Provinces--Religious Amnesty--Edict
+   of July--Provincial Assemblies Convoked--Instructions of the
+   Isle of France--The Triumvirate--States of Pontoise--Proposals
+   of Reform--Colloquy of Poissy--Beza--Conference in the Queen’s
+   Chamber--King’s Speech--Beza’s Defense--Catherine’s Liberal
+   Spirit--Spread of New Doctrines--Monster Congregations--The
+   Guises Intrigue with Spain--Violence of the Clergy--Massacres
+   at Cahors and Aurillac--Amiens--Huguenot Outrages--Riot of
+   St. Médard--Notables at St. Germains--Edict of January,
+   1562--Violence at Dijon and Aix--Anthony’s Apostasy--The Duke
+   and the Cardinal at Saverne--Massacre at Vassy--Both Parties
+   Arm--Guise Enters Paris--Plot to Seize the King.
+
+
+The accession of Charles IX., a child not eleven years old, was a
+revolution. “Now we fell from a fever into a frenzy,” quaintly writes
+an old historian; “a reign cursed in the city and cursed in the field;
+cursed in the beginning and cursed in the ending.”[210]
+
+The new king is described by the Venetian embassador as an amiable,
+handsome boy, with fine eyes and graceful carriage, eating and drinking
+little, quick-witted and spirited, gentle and liberal.[211]
+
+The same gossiping writer supplies a striking picture of the
+queen-mother at this time. He speaks of her keen comprehension, her
+business habits, and her sound understanding. “She never loses sight
+of the king, and permits no one to sleep in his room. She knows that
+she is envied because she is a foreigner.... Her plans are deep, and
+she holds every thing in her own hands.... She lives carelessly,
+has an enormous appetite, and, to keep down her fat, she takes much
+exercise, walks much, rides much on horseback, and hunts with the king.
+Her complexion is very dark, and she is already [_ætat._ 43] a
+stout woman.”[212] A letter she wrote about this time to her daughter
+Elizabeth is eminently characteristic:[213]
+
+“As I have given the messenger instructions to say many things to you,
+I write only to pray you, my child, not to feel sadness on my behalf;
+for I will try to demean myself so that God and the world may approve
+of my actions; for my chief care shall be the honor of God and the
+conservation of my authority; not, however, for my own benefit, but
+for the preservation of this realm and the good of your brothers,
+whom I love for the sake of him who was your common father. My dear
+child, commend your happiness to the keeping of the Almighty; for you
+have seen me as happy and prosperous as you are now yourself, when
+my only sorrow was the fear of not being sufficiently beloved by the
+king your father, who gave me more honor than I merited, but whom I so
+loved that, in his presence, I always felt awe. God has bereaved me of
+my husband; and now I weep for your brother. He has committed to my
+charge three little children, a kingdom distracted by divisions, within
+which there is not one individual in whom I can trust, or one who is
+not swayed by private partiality. Therefore, my dear, take warning by
+my fate: confide not exclusively in the love which you bear toward
+your husband, and which he renders back to you; nor in the pomps and
+luxuries of your present power: but lift up your heart to Him alone
+who can continue these blessings to you; and who, when it is His
+sovereign will, can bring you to my present condition; the which I
+would rather die than see you suffer, from dread lest your constancy
+might fail under the bitter trials which I have endured, solely through
+His sustaining aid and protection.”
+
+  [Illustration: CATHERINE DE MEDICIS.]
+
+There can be no doubt that Catherine was fully sensible of the
+difficulties and dangers of her position. More than once she quoted
+the well-known words: “_Væ tibi, terra, cujus rex est puer!_”
+She toiled and intrigued and struggled for herself and for her
+children--not for France. The Guises threatened both, and her task
+was how to thwart, if not defeat, her rivals: “_Virilibus curis
+vitia muliebria._” She was not persistent enough. Correro calls her
+“timid,”[214] and her heart often failed her at a decisive moment. Her
+first care, however, was to tranquilize the country; or, to use her
+own words to the Bishop Limoges, her embassador in Spain, “to restore
+gently all that the wickedness of the times had damaged in France.”
+Nor was this an easy matter, if we may trust the Venetian reports,
+which tell of “an administration almost without rule or guide, justice
+violated and polluted, deadly hatreds, the passions and caprices of the
+powerful ones, the opposing interests of the princes, which varied with
+the opportunities; religious troubles; disobedience and tumult among
+the people, with revolt among the grandees.”[215]
+
+Charles being only ten years old--he was born on the 27th June,
+1550--his mother, with the approval of the council of state,[216]
+assumed the authority though not the title of regent. Condé was
+released from prison and Anthony made lieutenant-general of France,
+while the Constable Montmorency resumed the superintendence of the
+army, and Guise retained his place of grand-master. When the Constable
+entered Orleans, he dismissed the soldiers he found at the gate: “I
+will take care,” he said, “that the king shall travel safely, without
+guard, all over the kingdom.”
+
+The members of the States-General were silent but not unobservant
+spectators of these things. Having been summoned to meet at Orleans by
+Francis II., the curious constitutional question arose, Whether they
+were not _ipso facto_ dissolved? but it was ingeniously argued,
+that though the man may die, the king does not, and therefore their
+sittings would be perfectly legal.
+
+The States-General, or assembly of the three orders (clergy, nobles,
+and commons), date from the beginning of the fourteenth century, when
+Philip the Fair called them together on the occasion of his quarrel
+with Pope Boniface VIII. They held but one session, yet, in that, they
+proclaimed the temporal independence of France, and scattered forever
+the ideas of universal monarchy entertained by the papacy. The States
+met at indeterminate epochs, and were at one time in a fair way to
+lead the European nations in the difficult path of representative
+government. In the assembly held at Tours, in 1484, they called for
+extensive reforms, and asserted a claim to be summoned every two
+years. They went farther, and in language as bold as that of our
+Petition of Rights, a century and a half later, declared that “the said
+States-General expected that henceforward no taxes would be imposed on
+the people until they had been consulted on the subject, nor unless
+the imposition of such taxes should be made with their free-will and
+consent, as the guardians and keepers of the liberties and privileges
+of the realm.” These resolutions came to nothing: the crown continued
+to levy taxes by proclamation, and nearly fourscore years elapsed
+before the Estates[217] were called together again. And now in 1560,
+when France was in great peril from internal commotions, they were
+to meet once more in the city of Orleans. Even had the country been
+entirely quiet, the financial condition of the state was such, that
+extraordinary means of raising supplies would have been required.
+The expenditure exceeded the annual revenue by ten millions, and
+though such a deficit may be easily met by modern finance-ministers,
+there were not three hundred years ago the same convenient methods of
+filling an empty exchequer. The Guises knew that the summoning of the
+States-General was a hostile measure aimed at them, but had not opposed
+it for two reasons: firstly, it would relieve them of the unpopularity
+they might possibly incur by attempting to raise the necessary supplies
+by increasing taxation under the royal mandate; secondly, they hoped
+to receive a large accession of strength from the Catholic members.
+Each party, indeed, labored to gain the popular support, and at the
+electoral meetings throughout the kingdom there was an excitement that
+augured well for the revival of constitutional forms of government. The
+Huguenots of Paris went to the Hotel-de-Ville and insisted that their
+remonstrance and confession should be embodied in the _cahier_
+of instructions. In that drawn up by the municipality of Provins the
+grievances of the people were declared in plain and forcible language.
+“The clergy,” they said, “are too rich, the Church too wealthy; the
+priests should have less money and keep fewer concubines; they should
+give the people more instruction in good manners, distribute more
+liberal alms to the poor, and be less disorderly in their passions,
+less luxurious in their dress, less given to haunting taverns and
+houses of ill-fame; they should not ride out a hunting so frequently
+with hawks and hounds, or so grind the people in body and goods....
+Justice is too dear, the fees are excessive, and the judge ought to
+be paid out of the public purse.... The people are oppressed by the
+soldiery, who beat and plunder them, and turn them out of house and
+home, and kill them. They are grievously oppressed by taxes, from
+which the rich by favor are exempt.... The salt is not good, dry, or
+pure; it contains a sixth part of rubbish.... The gentry do not defend
+their people or neighbors, as they are bound to do; they hold taxable
+property, and carry on trades without paying for licenses.”[218]
+
+The assembly of the Three Estates was solemnly inaugurated on the 13th
+December, 1560, in the great hall of the castle of Orleans, where the
+Black Prince had feasted, and Joan of Arc had sat in council with
+Dunois, La Hire, Xaintrailles, and the flower of French chivalry,
+while “the English wolves” under Talbot were prowling round the city
+walls. The vaulted roof, long since crumbled to ruins, was painted
+and decorated with fleur-de-lis; the walls were hung with tapestry
+representing mythological and allegorical scenes. On a small carpeted
+platform or dais, at the upper end, sat Charles IX.; at his left, the
+queen-mother; beyond her the king’s sister and the Queen of Navarre;
+while the king’s brother and Anthony of Navarre occupied similar places
+to the right of the infant monarch. At the end of the platform sat the
+Duke of Guise with his ivory staff as grand-master of the household;
+at his right the constable with the naked sword of state; at his left
+the chancellor with his golden mace. These were on low-backed chairs,
+according to the strict etiquette of the court; all the other members
+of the States sat on benches. To the right of the throne were the
+cardinals in their robes of scarlet, and the high dignitaries of the
+Church; opposite them, the nobility in court dresses of every costly
+material and hue. The members of the Third Estate, dressed in sober
+garments, faced the throne. Four secretaries of state were present to
+record the proceedings. Soldiers with spear and cross-bow, halberd and
+partisan, lined the walls; chamberlains and equerries, the esquires
+of the nobles, and the chaplains and deacons in attendance upon the
+churchmen, filled up the hall. A little behind the throne were two
+galleries set apart for the ladies and other spectators, among whom
+were several Huguenots of mark, whose grave faces and dress seemed
+almost out of place among their brilliant companions.
+
+The proceedings were opened by an address from the Chancellor Michel
+de l’Hopital, one of the greatest and noblest men of the sixteenth
+century. When he rose to speak, his lofty stature, pale face, and long
+white beard filled the spectators with admiration, and an involuntary
+murmur ran through the assembly. He seemed the very model of a senator
+and magistrate. First bending the knee to his royal master, and then
+seating himself again at the king’s desire, he proceeded to state the
+motives that had induced the government to call the Estates together,
+and to point out very explicitly that they were mere “counters in the
+king’s hands,” and that their sole duty was to “petition and obey.”
+It did not occur to any of his hearers to ask why they were assembled
+at all if such were their duties and position. Adverting to the
+religious dissensions, the chancellor advised the Catholic members “to
+adorn themselves with virtue and holy living,” and to attack their
+adversaries with arms of charity, prayer, and persuasion. “The sword,”
+he added, “is of little avail against the understanding; gentleness
+will make more converts than violence.” Yet even this large-hearted
+man could not see the possibility of two forms of religion existing
+side by side in the same state: he wanted uniformity, where he should
+have been satisfied with harmony. “It is foolish,” he said, “to look
+for peace, repose, and friendship between persons of different creeds.
+An Englishman and a Frenchman may live together on good terms,
+but not two people of different religions, who dwell in the same
+city. One faith, one law, one king.” For this reason he proposed a
+national council, which might reform abuses, and so reconcile the two
+parties, adding “that if the pope did not call one the king would.”
+The chancellor concluded his long harangue by drawing their attention
+to the disordered state of the finances. “No orphan was ever more
+destitute of resources than our young king,” he said. The public debt
+amounted to forty-three million livres, paying the enormous though
+ordinary rate of interest, namely, twelve per cent. Nor was it easy
+to see how such a debt could be met, considering that the expenditure
+exceeded twenty-two million livres, while the total annual revenue
+barely amounted to twelve millions.[219]
+
+The assembly now broke up, the three Estates proceeding to their
+separate deliberations: the Clergy in the refectory of the
+Franciscans, the Nobles at the Dominicans’, and the Tiers État at
+the Carmelites’.[220] The first act of each body was to choose its
+orator or speaker. The Clergy elected the Cardinal of Lorraine, and
+recommended the other two orders to concur in their choice. This they
+refused to do,[221] on the ground that they might have something to say
+against him[222]--a hint which drove the cardinal from Orleans. Jean
+Quentin, a canon of Notre Dame, was elected in his place, the Nobles
+having chosen Jacques de Silly, baron of Rochefort; and the Third
+Estate, an advocate of Bordeaux, named Lange (Angelus) or Langin.
+
+On the 1st January, 1561, the Three Estates assembled again in the
+great hall of the castle, where the king attended to hear the Speakers
+of the orders deliver their addresses. Jean Lange began by denouncing
+“the three ruling passions of the clergy--ignorance, avarice, and
+wantonness. Livings are given to those who have never learned. Bishops
+transfer their duties to unworthy deputies; while the prelates ruin
+themselves by prodigality and loose living. These things can only be
+reformed by means of a council--a national council.” He went on farther
+to demand the restitution to the clergy of the right of electing the
+bishops, as in the time of the primitive Church, the dedication of a
+portion of the ecclesiastical property to the foundation of hospitals,
+colleges, and schools, the suppression of every kind of tribute or
+payment to the court of Rome, and a check upon the tyranny of the
+nobles over the peasantry. Of the sufferings of this class, Lange’s
+cahier presented a distressing picture. It may be overcolored, but its
+substantial truth is unfortunately established by other evidence. “Some
+poor creatures,” he said, “having been robbed of their little store to
+pay their taxes, have starved to death during the winter. Others in
+despair have murdered their wives and children and then themselves.
+Others have been dragged to prison and there left to die for want of
+food. Some have forsaken their families and fled. Many are in such
+distress, that, having neither horse nor ox, they are constrained to
+harness their own bodies to the plough.” The last of the three hundred
+and fifty articles of this cahier contained a demand which would have
+changed the current of French history had it been granted: it was that
+the States-General should be held every five years.
+
+Jacques de Silly, the orator of the Nobility, began by making a
+preposterous defense of the divine origin of his order, and went on
+to accuse the Clergy of encroaching on the power of the judicial
+tribunals.[223] “It is your business,” he said, “not to interfere
+with edicts, but to pray, preach, and administer the sacraments.” The
+Nobility were more eager for change than the Tiers État. Those of
+Touraine demanded a church reform in conformity with the pure word of
+God; others, that all religious differences should be decided by the
+Bible alone.
+
+The Clergy wisely thought that their best policy would be to stand
+mainly on the defensive.[224] Their orator, Jean Quentin, who read his
+speech, acknowledged that their discipline needed correction, but that
+such a reform could not be brought about by profaning the churches,
+destroying the images, and expelling the priests. “I contend,” he said,
+“that it is necessary to preserve the Catholic religion in France, and
+consequently to refuse liberty of conscience to such as dissent from
+it.” He then argued that all ecclesiastical property ought to be used
+according to the wishes of the donors, and that the clergy should be
+relieved of the _décimes_ and other imposts by which they were
+oppressed. In the course of his speech, Quentin went out of his way to
+insult Coligny, as a “reviver of old heresies;” and advised “that any
+one petitioning for freedom of worship should be declared heretical,
+and proceeded against accordingly, so that the evil might be removed
+from among us.”[225] He gave point to his words by looking at the
+admiral, who complained of such language and demanded an apology, which
+was made. This humiliation, added to the satires and epigrams showered
+upon him by the offended Huguenots, gave poor Quentin such a shock that
+he is reported to have died a few days after.
+
+In the last sitting of the Estates the Abbot of Bois Aubry, secretary
+of the Clergy in the preparation of their cahier, strongly condemned
+the use of force in religious matters. “The conscience,” he said,
+“suffers no one to command it but reason; and therefore to desire in
+our days to deprive the followers of the pretended Reformed religion
+of the exercise of their reason can produce nothing but evil. It would
+be driving them to atheism;--a thing which every good Catholic should
+hold in horror and execration.... It is only by means of a Council
+that we can remedy the evil of religious diversity now among us, and
+not by the sword or the gibbet. Nine royal edicts were issued during
+the former reigns, and the courts of Parliament have published decrees
+without number, in order to abolish this so-called Reformed religion,
+by the punishment of fire and other severe pains and penalties. They
+omitted nothing to prevent its growth, and did not succeed. Our Holy
+Father (it is said) will never consent to permit the exercise of their
+religion; but what answer would he make if any one should ask him why
+he allows the Jews the exercise of their religion at Rome and Avignon,
+and in all the States of the Church? Would he say that the religion of
+the Jews, who do not believe in Christ, is better than the religion of
+those who do believe in him?”
+
+The Estates separated without settling any thing: they did nothing
+toward reconciling the two religious parties or relieving the finances
+of the kingdom. They called for the redress of many grievances; and
+when the court would have been willing to concede a few reforms
+in exchange for pecuniary supplies, the Estates said that their
+instructions, which they could not exceed, gave them no power or
+authority to raise money. They thus virtually threw away “the keys of
+the purse”--the most potent guarantee of good government. It was a
+fatal mistake, but it does not appear that the court observed it any
+more than the Estates. The government saw only that the States-General
+was a body too numerous for the dispatch of business, and it was agreed
+that the provincial Estates, grouped into thirteen assemblies, should
+each elect three deputies, and that the thirty-nine thus returned
+should meet in the following August. The bishops were also convoked to
+this assembly, and a great number of them actually obeyed the summons.
+
+The meeting of the States-General did not quiet the agitation in the
+provinces. The war of words soon became a war of blows, and serious
+riots occurred in many large towns. At Beauvais, Cardinal Chatillon,
+the admiral’s brother, nearly lost his life, because on Easter Sunday
+he had celebrated divine service in his private chapel and not in the
+cathedral, and had administered the holy communion in both kinds, after
+the Huguenot fashion. The mob broke into the houses of some persons
+suspected of heresy, and catching one Adrian Fourré, a priest, they
+killed him, and were dragging him to the _voirie_ to burn him,
+when the public executioner interfered, asserted his rights, and burned
+the body himself amid the shouts of the populace. Some of the rioters
+were afterward hanged, when the fanatic people rose and hanged the
+executioner. At Le Mans a Protestant was killed, and the bishop did
+not scruple to write to the king, asking pardon for the murderers.
+At Rennes, the Huguenots ventured to worship openly, for which they
+were attacked by a “noisy bawling bully” of a grey friar, who exhorted
+his hearers to fall upon them by night. The municipal officers did
+not attempt to silence him, fearing that if they should not succeed
+they would next day be “publicly and scandalously preached at before
+the people.”[226] In December, 1560, an image of the Virgin was found
+lying in the kennel at Carcassonne. The sacrilege was imputed to the
+Huguenots, and the mob rose upon them, and many were killed. One man
+had his mouth cut from ear to ear, and an iron bit was fastened into
+it. The town hangman murdered five Huguenots, whom he skinned, and then
+ate the heart of one of them. He also sawed another, a private enemy,
+in two.
+
+It must not, however, be supposed that the provocation and insult
+were all on one side. On the 25th March, 1561, the high bailiff of
+Blois sent the queen-mother a long account of the mischievous doings
+and profanity of the Huguenots; how they had broken open churches,
+shattered images and crucifixes, and carried away thirteen young women
+from the convent of Guiche. Even in Paris, the hot-bed of Romish
+fanaticism, the Huguenots broke the images set up in the streets, and
+in some of the churches. They also held tumultuous meetings in the Pré
+aux Clercs, which were at last put down.
+
+The government, desirous of acting with mildness in the distracted
+state of the country, had summoned a meeting of the Privy Council on
+the very day of the dissolution of the States-General of Orleans, in
+order to take into consideration the petitions of the Huguenots for
+leave to celebrate their worship in private. The prayer was refused,
+for the Lorraine party was still strong; but the queen-mother not
+long after issued a general pardon, liberating all persons who had
+been imprisoned for their religion, and commanding the magistrates
+to restore the property of which the lawful owners had been deprived
+in consequence of their heretical opinions. At the same time all the
+king’s subjects were exhorted to conform to the rites and usages of
+the national Church, and the penalty of death was denounced against
+those who, under pretense of supporting the interests of religion,
+should disturb the public tranquillity. As this was not a sufficient
+protection to the Reformed party, letters patent were issued in April,
+repeating the former salutary provisions, forbidding men to revile
+each other with the odious appellations of Papist and Huguenot, or to
+assemble in large bodies, or to make domiciliary visits under pretense
+of discovering religious practices contrary to law; and permitting the
+return of all who had been forced to leave the kingdom in consequence
+of their opinions, provided they were willing to conform externally
+to the Catholic religion. Such persons as would not submit to these
+regulations had liberty to sell their property and leave France.
+The revised edict was ordered to be read in all the churches, and a
+cordelier at Provins introduced it in the following grotesque terms:
+“My dear Christian brethren, I have received instructions to read an
+edict ordering the cats and mice to live in peace together, and that we
+in France--that is to say, the Heretics and the Catholics--should do
+the same, and that such is the king’s pleasure. I am sorry for it, and
+I am grieved to see the new reign begin so unpromisingly.”
+
+Even the small concessions made by this edict were severely blamed
+by the pope and the King of Spain;[227] while numerous outbreaks in
+various parts of France--bloody protests against toleration, like our
+own Gordon riots--showed that the people were very much divided in
+their sentiments upon it. In order, therefore, to tranquillize the
+public mind, the chancellor advised the queen-mother to consult the
+Parliament of Paris on the best means of suppressing these religious
+disorders. A solemn meeting was held in July (1561), Charles,
+Catherine, and the chief nobility being present. The debate, which
+De l’Hopital opened with a wise and conciliatory address, was long
+and stormy. “We have not met to discuss points of doctrine,” he said,
+“but to deliberate on the best means of preventing the dissensions
+occasioned by the difference of religious opinion, and to put an end
+to the license and rebellion of which that difference has hitherto
+proved a constant source. The devil has entered into these contests,
+and no one thinks of reforming himself.” In other words, religion
+was a mere pretext. The parliament was much divided: some contended
+that the edicts against the Huguenots ought to be wholly suspended
+until a meeting of the National Council; another that they should be
+carried out more strictly; while a third party were of opinion that
+the sole cognizance of heresy should be assigned to the bishops, and
+that a severe penalty, short of death, should be inflicted upon all
+who assembled, even peacefully, for religious worship.[228] This
+proposal was carried by a majority of three votes, and the result was
+the Edict of July, 1561, forbidding, under pain of death, the use of
+insulting terms, and any act of violence under color of religion. All
+public and private meetings were interdicted; the bishops were still
+to take cognizance of the crime of heresy, but the penalties were
+restricted to banishment; and, finally, the king granted a general
+amnesty, on condition that every body lived peaceably and catholically.
+The Huguenots gained little by this decree beyond the abolition of
+the death penalty in cases of heresy; indeed, it actually diminished
+the toleration they already enjoyed; and yet the Parliament of Paris
+would only register it provisionally, on the ground that it was too
+favorable. That this opinion was not shared by the Huguenots is clear
+from a hymn written on the occasion, of which the following is a
+portion:
+
+    Quant à moi, je ne peux vivre
+      Qu’avec ce qu’il interdit;
+    Aussi le mien corps je livre
+      Aux peines de son Édit.
+    Qu’il me commande exiler,
+    Qu’il fasse mes os brûler,
+    Qu’il m’étrangle d’une corde,
+    Je le veux et m’y accorde....
+
+    N’aie donc, ô peuple, crainte
+      Du supplice qui t’attend,
+    Car cette dure contrainte
+      Jusqu’à l’âme ne s’étend.
+
+That the restrictions and penalties of the July edict were unnecessary
+is clear enough from indisputable contemporaneous evidence. On April
+25th of this very year De Crussol wrote to the queen-regent from
+Montpellier, that the Reformed had petitioned him to be allowed to
+live in peace; that he found in them nothing but “great obedience and
+reverence,” and that they were loyal subjects. He goes on to complain
+of the Parliament of Toulouse, infringing the edict and detaining
+the Huguenots in prison: “It looks as if they wanted to amend the
+said edict, or to make a new one.” Six months later we find Prosper
+de Sainte Croix (Santa Croce), the papal legate, equally emphatic in
+his praise of the Reformed. Writing to Cardinal Borromeo, the pope’s
+nephew, on the 16th October, 1561, he says: “In Gascony and other
+places, I saw no mutilated images, no broken crosses, no deserted
+churches, as I had been told I should;” and then proceeds to speak of
+the proper feeling of the people on the matter where a cross had been
+broken.
+
+Ever since the accession of Charles IX. the Huguenots had been growing
+in favor at court, and the true cause of this favor was not far to
+seek. Philip II. was known to be intriguing with the Guises to marry
+the widowed Mary Stuart to his son Don Carlos. This was the first step
+in a well-devised plot to aggrandize Spain and crush the Reformation.
+By this marriage Philip would become master of Scotland, paralyze
+England by exciting the hopes of the Romanists in both countries, and
+prevent Elizabeth from sending aid to the rebels in Flanders. The
+influence of the Guises would also be so far increased that France
+would be entirely under their control. All this Catherine saw, and to
+checkmate Spain she drew nearer to England, and only three years later
+(Sept. 1564) actually proposed a marriage between Charles IX. and
+Elizabeth.[229]
+
+The favor shown to the Huguenots greatly annoyed the orthodox party.
+Old Montmorency was greatly scandalized that Condé, Coligny, and others
+ate meat in Lent; and that Archbishop Montluc, brother of the brutal
+soldier of that name, openly preached that it was not wrong to pray
+to God in French, and that the Scriptures ought to be translated into
+the vulgar tongue. The halls of St. Germain’s and Fontainebleau were
+thrown open to Huguenot ministers, and “it seemed as if the whole court
+had become Calvinist,” says the Jesuit Maimbourg. Catherine received
+the Protestant leaders with favor, and assumed the character of a
+devout inquirer after truth.[230] Chantonnay, the Spanish embassador,
+scarcely wrote a letter to his royal master in which he did not
+complain of the toleration shown to heretics,[231] and of the influence
+of the admiral, whose chaplain often preached to a congregation of
+more than 300 persons. Another time he writes: “The day after Easter
+Sunday the public preachings in the great court of Fontainebleau,
+before the lodgings of Admiral Coligny, in the presence of M. de Condé,
+have been forbidden.” On the 9th July he says that not a day passes
+without preaching “in the mansion of some lord or lady of the court.”
+The same busy correspondent informs us that in August, 1561, Beza
+preached in the hotel of the Prince of Condé at St. Germains and in
+the royal palace, and that the Reformed ministers “were more confident
+than the Catholic.” At another time we read that, in consequence of
+the favor shown to the heretics, there had occurred every day at
+Paris and elsewhere, “seditions, tumults, and murders of Protestants
+and Catholics.”[232] A little later Chantonnay mentions that certain
+bishops, adopting the doctrine and language of the heretics, called for
+reform in the Church; and that the clergy were made a laughing-stock in
+the presence even of the papal legate. “After supper the other evening,
+when the cardinal-legate was with the queen, the king, his brother the
+Duke of Orleans, and the Prince of Bearn, entered the room, followed
+by many others, all of them dressed up as cardinals, bishops, abbots,
+and priests, riding upon asses, and each carrying on the crupper behind
+him a page dressed as a loose woman.[233] There was a good laugh at
+it, and they continue to amuse themselves, calling the Prince of Bearn
+legate, because he was dressed as a cardinal.” The nuncio complained of
+this masque, for which Catherine apologized as being “only a childish
+jest.” Margaret of Valois, afterward wife of Henry IV., writes in her
+memoirs that “all the court was infected with heresy,” that “many of
+the lords and ladies tried to convert her,” that “her brother of Anjou
+[afterward Henry III.] had not escaped the unhappy influence, and that
+he used to throw her prayer-book into the fire and give her Huguenot
+hymns instead.” Considering that Margaret was at this time barely
+eight years old, her testimony, given nearly forty years later, is
+of little value, except as corroborating from another point of view,
+the evidence of other witnesses. The Duke of Bouillon writes in his
+memoirs, that another of Margaret’s brothers, Alençon, “favored the
+cause of the Religion.”[234] From all this it is pretty clear that
+France, at the beginning of the new reign, was on the brink of great
+changes, and that, if Catherine had been a woman of good principles,
+the current of French history would have been turned into another and
+a better channel. The Huguenots, believing her to be sincere in her
+protestations, exhorted her “to say but one word, and Christ would be
+worshiped in truth and purity throughout the kingdom.” But that word
+the queen-mother had no intention of uttering. Like many of those
+trained beneath the shadow of St. Peter’s, she was outwardly fervent
+enough, “pious after the Italian fashion,” but at heart she believed
+more in witchcraft and astrology than in God.
+
+Preparatory to the reassembling of the States-General, it had been
+thought advisable to call together the provincial assemblies with
+the view of coming to an understanding regarding the matters to be
+brought before the general body. Each locality had its grievances
+and its remedies to propose, the clergy being the chief object of
+attack. But an unexpected turn was given to the course of events by
+the constituency of the Isle of France, who suggested the propriety of
+making those court favorites disgorge, who had been enriched by the
+prodigality of former reigns.[235] The idea of being called upon to
+restore his ill-gotten gains alarmed Montmorency, not only for himself
+but for his son, who had married a daughter of the notorious Diana
+of Poitiers. He was also offended by the Huguenot opinions of his
+nephews, the Chatillons, and the favor shown them by the queen-mother.
+In such a state of mind it needed but little persuasion on the part of
+Diana--fit instrument for such a scheme--to reconcile the constable
+with the Lorraines. A common danger drew them close together, and that
+fatal TRIUMVIRATE was formed which brought so much evil upon
+France.[236] In token of reconciliation, and as a pledge of mutual
+support, Montmorency, the Duke of Guise, and Marshal St. André took the
+sacrament together. The constable, who feared that a religious would
+lead to a political change, carried the whole weight of his influence
+to the Catholic side, toward which the King of Navarre was gradually
+inclining. His brother Condé, aided by Coligny, alone resisted the
+violent proposals of the Romish party, and advocated the assembling
+of a national council to arrange the religious differences, in which
+course they were supported by petitions from the Huguenots too numerous
+to be neglected. To gratify so just a request, a meeting of the clergy
+was summoned, at which a number of Protestant divines were to appear to
+explain and defend their doctrine.
+
+In the interval came the meeting of the States of Pontoise (17th
+August, 1561), and their first step was to confirm the minutes of
+the Orleans meeting. The chancellor, who had grown in wisdom and
+toleration, said in his opening speech: “I do not understand those who
+desire to exclude the new religion from the kingdom--to issue edict
+after edict against it. Our only concern is, to learn whether the
+interests of the state are best served by the permission, or by the
+prohibition of the meetings of the Calvinists. To decide this, we need
+not inquire into their doctrine; for supposing the Reformed religion to
+be bad, is that a sufficient reason for proscribing its professors? Is
+it not possible to be a good subject without being a Catholic or even
+a Christian? Can not fellow-citizens, differing in religious opinions,
+still live in harmony? We have met not to establish articles of faith,
+but to regulate the state.”
+
+The orator of the nobility demanded, with the almost unanimous consent
+of the order, that all religious controversies should be decided in
+conformity with Holy Scripture;[237] that heresy should no longer be
+considered an offense against the state; and that the Apostles’ and the
+Athanasian Creeds should be the only test of orthodoxy. The nobles also
+called for reforms in the judicature and in the government, but their
+scope belongs rather to the political than the religious history of the
+times.
+
+The orator of the Tiers État demanded still greater changes: such
+as a national council, under the royal presidency, in which all the
+controverted questions should be decided by the Word of God; and a
+cessation of persecution, on the ground that it was unreasonable to
+force any man to do what his conscience condemned. The Third Estate
+farther proposed that cardinals and bishops should be disqualified
+for seats in the royal council; that the States-General should be
+convened every two years; and that the Reformed should enjoy full
+liberty of worship, either in the existing churches, or in such as
+they might build for themselves. “As both religions have the same
+foundation,” said one speaker, “there is no reason why they should
+hate and persecute one another. Perseverance in penal enactments
+will kindle a fire which no power under heaven can extinguish.”
+After suggesting various ecclesiastical reforms, he continued: “If
+the king wants money, let him do as they have done in Germany and
+England--take the money that makes the Church luxurious. One-third of
+what it possesses is enough for its wants. The people are ruined and
+can pay no more taxes.” The idea of paying their debts and getting
+rich by seizing the property of the clergy pleased even the orthodox;
+but the churchmen caught the alarm, and set every engine at work to
+ward off the threatened blow. The property of the Church was valued at
+one hundred and twenty millions. Out of this it was proposed to allot
+forty-eight millions, which would produce a revenue of four millions
+for the clergy, and which, men argued, was quite ample for their
+support. Forty-two millions were to be appropriated to the payment of
+the debt, and the balance of thirty millions would, if judiciously
+distributed in loans among the chief cities of France, develop trade
+and increase the general wealth of the country, while the interest
+would suffice to pay the army and keep the fortresses in repair. To
+carry out such a sweeping confiscation required a strong government,
+and then it could be done only at the risk of a revolution; but the
+very proposal made the clergy more willing to take their share of the
+public burdens, and they offered not only to redeem at their own cost
+all the royal domains pawned or mortgaged by the crown, but to pay
+annually for six years a tribute of sixteen hundred thousand livres.
+The queen-regent having thus obtained the necessary supplies, and a
+promise of more, the popular demands (with a few trivial exceptions)
+were evaded, but liberty of conscience was promised. If the meetings at
+Orleans and Pontoise did not effect much good, they materially promoted
+the interests of the Huguenots by recognizing the great principle of
+toleration, though more than two centuries were to pass away before it
+was fully carried out.
+
+As soon as the meetings at Pontoise were ended, all eyes were turned
+to the approaching colloquy to be held at Poissy. The clergy, in
+return for their liberal contribution toward the burdens of the state,
+had called for the thorough execution of the Edict of July. “_Non
+impetrarunt_,” says Beza laconically. The regent took the money,
+but answered their prayer in very vague terms. What she really thought
+of the matters in dispute between the two religious parties may be
+gathered from her instructions to Cardinal Ferrara to be laid before
+the pope (4th August, 1561):--“The number of those professing the
+Reformed religion is so great, and their party is so powerful, that
+they are no longer to be put down by severe laws or force of arms. They
+are neither anabaptists nor libertines; they believe all the articles
+of the Apostles’ Creed, and therefore many are of opinion that they
+ought not to be cut off from communion with the Church. What danger can
+there be in removing the images from the churches, and doing away with
+certain useless forms in the administration of the sacraments? It would
+farther be advantageous to allow to all persons the communion under
+both kinds, and to permit divine worship to be celebrated in the vulgar
+tongue.”[238]
+
+How far Catherine was sincere in her letter to Cardinal Ferrara is
+hardly a question for those who hold her to have been always more
+influenced by policy than by principle. She was sincere, when it served
+her purpose to be so. Long before the Triumvirate--that precursor of
+the League--took a definite form, she had seen the necessity of uniting
+with the Huguenots, in order to counterbalance the Lorraine party.
+It was this that made her write to the pope; that made her pretend
+to entertain Calvinistic ideas; in short, that made her deceive both
+parties. Without entirely adopting the views of Davila (at the end of
+his 2d book), we agree in his conclusion, that “she deceived not only
+simple people, but the craftiest and most skillful also.”
+
+Whatever may have been Catherine’s motives, the pope would not yield an
+inch; he wrote to encourage the Catholic party to resistance. Meanwhile
+Chancellor de l’Hôpital was addressing the Calvinists of Geneva,
+praising in the king’s name--in reality according to the queen-mother’s
+instructions--the purity of their motives and the rectitude of their
+principles, and exhorting them to restrain “the malice of certain
+preachers and dogmatizers who abuse the name and purity of the religion
+which they profess, by sowing in the minds of the king’s subjects a
+damnable disobedience, not only by their libels and slanders, but by
+their sermons.”[239]
+
+It was under such circumstances and in accordance with the promise
+made in the Edict of July, that the celebrated colloquy of Poissy
+was held, in September, 1561. On both sides great preparations had
+been made for the grand discussion; and in order to counterbalance
+the eloquence and skill of the Catholic party, Calvin, Beza, Peter
+Martyr,[240] and other ministers were invited, under safe conduct, from
+Switzerland. Calvin did not answer to the appeal, but the Protestants
+had no cause to regret his absence, for Theodore Beza was altogether
+a fitter person for such an occasion. Beza was a man of noble birth
+and a ripe scholar; he had seen much of courts, and in the fashionable
+society of Paris had acquired a remarkable grace of manner. He was
+converted by a serious illness: “As soon as I could leave my bed,” he
+told his friend and tutor, Melchior Wolmar, “I broke all my chains and
+went into voluntary exile with my wife to follow Christ.” At Geneva,
+he was nominated professor of theology, and ordained to the ministry;
+and became so strongly attached to Calvin that he scarcely ever left
+him. His appearance was a recommendation, being a handsome man of
+middle stature and pleasing address. On the 23d August, the day after
+his arrival at St. Germain’s, he preached before the court in Condé’s
+apartment, and was summoned at midnight to a private conference in the
+drawing-room of the Queen of Navarre,[241] where he was graciously
+received by the queen-mother, the Cardinals of Lorraine and Bourbon,
+and others. Catherine asked him many questions about Calvin’s health,
+age, and occupations. The Cardinal of Lorraine, after some well-turned
+compliments, declared that the difference in the Christian churches
+on transubstantiation and consubstantiation were not in his opinion a
+sufficient cause of schism. Beza replied: “We hold the bread to be the
+sacramental body, and we define _sacramentaliter_ by maintaining,
+that though the body be now in heaven and nowhere else, and the
+signs on earth with us, yet it is as truly given and received by us,
+through faith in eternal life, as the sign is given naturally by the
+hands.” The cardinal, turning to the queen-mother, observed: “Such is
+my belief, madam, and I am satisfied.” Beza took advantage of this
+unexpected concession to add, “And these are the Sacramentarians who
+have been so long and so cruelly persecuted and slandered.”
+
+Early on the morning of the 9th of September, 1561, Beza left St.
+Germain’s for Poissy (a small town about four leagues from Paris),
+escorted by a brilliant train of gentlemen, among whom must have been
+many of his old friends.[242] The members of the council, or colloquy
+as it was termed, in order not to wound the susceptibility of the papal
+court, assembled in the refectory of the great convent. The king, then
+only eleven years of age, presided, and around him were gathered the
+princes of the blood royal, with the officers and ladies of the court.
+On the two sides of the hall were ranged, according to their rank,
+six cardinals with archbishops and bishops to the number of forty and
+more, besides a vast array of doctors and lawyers who accompanied these
+prelates, all in scarlet or purple robes. Along the lower part of the
+room ran a bar, but the space beyond it was empty, the Protestants
+not being as yet admitted into the presence of the king. Charles IX.
+opened the proceedings by reading a formal speech, in which he said
+that he hoped “they would inquire into the things necessary to be
+reformed, without passion or prejudice, but solely for God’s honor,
+the discharge of their consciences, and the public peace.”...“What I
+desire,” he continued, “is that you will not separate until you have
+put matters into such good order that my subjects may live together
+in peace and unity.”[243] He was followed by Chancellor de l’Hopital,
+who, by the king’s express order, kept his seat while speaking. After
+a formal explanatory introduction he went on, “I caution you against
+subtle and curious questions that lead to nothing. We do not require
+many books, but only to understand thoroughly the Word of God, and to
+live in conformity with it as well as we can. The ministers of the new
+sect have been invited hither by his majesty to confer with you. I pray
+you receive them as a father receives his children, and graciously
+teach and instruct them, so that they can not hereafter say, they were
+condemned unheard.”
+
+After some little discussion on the chancellor’s speech, which had
+offended the Cardinal de Tournon by its liberality, the Huguenots
+were introduced into the chamber. They were thirty-three in number,
+eleven ministers and twenty-two lay deputies[244] from the Calvinistic
+churches. Immediately on entering the hall they knelt down in homage
+to the king, and taking advantage of that position, Beza implored the
+Divine blessing upon the assembly. As they stood below the bar at the
+lower end of the room, their homely dark dresses formed a striking
+contrast to the silks and furs, and gold and bright colors of the
+dignitaries of the Romish Church, who sat on the two sides of the hall.
+
+Standing a little in front of his colleagues, Beza proceeded to explain
+the articles of the faith held by himself and his brethren. His speech,
+which presents few salient points for modern readers, was a remarkable
+mixture of address, wisdom, and Scripture. He had gained the ear of an
+unwilling audience, and was listened to with many marks of approval,
+until he came to the doctrine of the Eucharist. He admitted (as we
+have already seen) the spiritual presence of Christ, but qualified
+it thus: “We say that his body is as remote from the bread and wine,
+as heaven is from earth.”[245] This so startled the Romish prelates,
+“that they began to murmur and make a great noise,”[246] calling him a
+“blasphemer.” Beza, however, took no notice of it, but continued his
+address, winding up by a statement of their doctrines on the obedience
+due to the king, appealing to their writings, to the condition of
+the Protestant states in Germany, and to Scripture. Such a defense
+would appear unnecessary in these days; but the orthodox constantly
+maintained that those who were rebels against the Church were also and
+necessarily rebels against the State. After a week’s adjournment the
+prelates, through their mouth-piece, the Cardinal of Lorraine, put in
+a reply to Beza’s statement, but would allow of no discussion except
+upon two points: the authority of the Church in matters of faith and
+the Real Presence. Beza offered to reply immediately, but the court
+rose, and when the turn of the Huguenot champion came, he spoke not
+so much with the hope of converting his antagonists as of softening
+them.[247] After his speech the public proceedings were discontinued,
+as the discussion was becoming unpopular; but at the suggestion of the
+queen-mother, several private conferences were held, at one of which a
+monk named Saintes maintained “that tradition was based on a firmer and
+surer foundation than Scripture;” and at another, the Jesuit Lainez,
+to the great scandal of all present, called the ministers “wolves,
+foxes, serpents, and assassins,” and declared that “women and soldiers
+could be no judges of points of faith.” The Reformed delegates put
+in a declaration on the Lord’s Supper, which the bishops rejected as
+heretical; and presenting a counter confession of their own, called
+upon the queen-mother to “compel the Huguenots to accept it, or else
+exterminate them, for France is a country that has never put up with
+heresy.” Catherine, however, did not yield, but sharply charged them
+with a perverse desire to prolong the disturbances of the kingdom. The
+Moderate party still clung to the hope of reconciliation, and at a
+later meeting the chancellor boldly said: “The State and Church are two
+things, not one. A man may be a good subject, though a bad Christian.
+You may excommunicate a man, but he is still a citizen.” L’Hopital was
+too far in advance of his age.[248]
+
+Catherine appears to have acted in a straightforward manner during the
+colloquy; and, when the members had separated, she did not relax in her
+exertions to arrive at an acceptable compromise. She suggested that the
+French bishops should present an address to the king, praying him to
+move the pope to permit the marriage of priests and the communion in
+both kinds. They did so, and Pius IV. replied that he had always held
+these changes to be right and fair, for which he had been taunted with
+Lutheranism at the last conclave; but he could do nothing without the
+cardinals, who would not consent.[249] Writing to the embassador at the
+imperial court (16th February, 1562), the queen-regent complains of the
+time spent in “idle disputes;” and in a letter to De Lisle, his envoy
+at Rome, Charles defends what had been done at Poissy, on the ground
+that it was impossible to carry out the existing edicts; “I therefore
+resolved,” he says, “to leave my kingdom no longer in a confusion,
+which became greater the more the remedy was deferred.” The government,
+enlightened by what had taken place in Germany and Switzerland, began
+to look upon Protestantism as a barrier against anarchy. Minds that
+had left the safe anchorage of the Church of Rome were drifting to
+and fro, and the only resting-place against the torrent which had
+hurried so many into the errors of anabaptism was the creed of Luther
+and of Calvin. Heresy was better than a revival of the excesses of
+Munster.[250]
+
+During the colloquy a synod was held, at which the impracticable
+temper of the Huguenot pastors was forcibly shown by a memoir they
+drew up, demanding “the exclusion of women from the government of the
+state, and the establishment of a legitimate regency;” thus alienating
+the queen-mother, who was drawing nearer to them every day. They
+also called for severe measures against “infidels, libertines, and
+atheists;” like some modern patriots, who love liberty so much that
+they would keep it all for themselves.
+
+Although the colloquy came to nothing, the actual result was a victory
+to the Huguenots by clearing their character from the many aspersions
+cast upon it. They had shown that they were not disloyal subjects,
+and were not in the habit of practicing infamous crimes; and their
+faith spread so rapidly in consequence, that the demand for pastors to
+preside over the new congregations was greater than the Swiss churches
+could supply. The countenance of the court gave them boldness. During
+the sittings at Poissy they assembled by thousands outside the walls
+of Paris to listen to Beza, whose enemies have computed his hearers
+at 8000, and whose friends at 50,000.[251] The smaller number appears
+quite large enough for any voice to reach in the open air. Necessity
+very early compelled these congregations to assume a sort of military
+formation. The women and children were placed in the centre nearest
+the preacher; behind them stood the men on foot, next came the men
+on horseback, and outside all were ranged armed men, soldiers or
+arquebusiers, to protect the unarmed crowd. As Paris was particularly
+lawless, Condé collected a volunteer guard of about 400 gentlemen,
+to whom were added 300 old soldiers under Andelot, with 300 students
+and as many citizens. Certainly no public worship was safe without
+some such precautions, but the wisdom of such a display of force, when
+private worship was possible, is open to doubt.
+
+From a list presented to the queen-mother about this time by Coligny,
+it would seem that there were more than 2000 Reformed and organized
+churches in France. Some have calculated the Huguenots to number
+one-half of the population, while the least sanguine reckoned them at
+one-tenth. The Chancellor l’Hopital estimated that “a fourth part of
+the kingdom was separated from the communion of the Church.” This part,
+he adds, “consists of gentlemen, of the principal citizens, and of such
+members of the poorer sort as have seen the world and are accustomed
+to bear arms. They have with them more than three-fourths of the men
+of letters, and a great proportion of the large and good houses,
+both of the nobility and third estate, being on their side, they do
+not want money to carry on their affairs.”[252] To the same effect
+wrote Castelnau; and Micheli, the Venetian embassador, one of the
+shrewdest of observers, declared that there was no province of France
+untainted by Protestantism; and that Normandy and Brittany, Gascony
+and Languedoc, Poitou and Touraine, Provence and Dauphiny--comprising
+three-fourths of the kingdom--were full of it. “In many provinces,”
+he says, “meetings are held, sermons preached, and rules of life
+adopted, entirely in accordance with the example of Geneva, and without
+any regard to the royal prohibition. Every one has embraced these
+opinions, and, what is most remarkable, even the religious body, not
+only priests, monks, and nuns--very few of the convents have escaped
+the infection--but even the bishops and many of the most distinguished
+prelates.... Your highness (the Doge) may be assured that, excepting
+the common people, who still zealously frequent the churches, all have
+fallen away. The nobles most especially, the men under forty almost
+without exception; for although many of them still go to mass, it is
+only from regard to appearances and through fear. When they are sure
+to be unobserved, they shun both mass and church.”[253] He considered
+it indispensable that religious freedom--at least an “_interim_,”
+as he called it--should be accorded to the French Protestants, if they
+would avoid a general war.
+
+Catherine and the least fanatical portion of her advisers saw clearly
+enough that a compromise was necessary. Though greatly disappointed
+at the result of the Poissy conference, she recognized the necessity
+of moderation, and had called upon the chiefs of the Huguenots to
+assist her by restoring the churches which their followers had seized
+for their religious services. She then gave them tacit permission to
+assemble to the number of five hundred[254] in places appointed for
+that purpose, forbidding them at the same time to wear arms, or to
+indulge in irritating language.[255] In Paris, the number who could
+meet together was limited to two hundred, and that in private.[256]
+But the question of toleration or persecution was too important to be
+settled in this irregular fashion, and the queen-regent summoned an
+assembly of Notables, composed of the ordinary members of the Privy
+Council, with two delegates from each parliament in the kingdom, to
+advise with her on what had become a matter of high state policy.
+
+The fanatical Romish party were by no means pleased with these
+tolerant symptoms in the court and government; and finding their power
+and influence diminishing every day, they began to look about them for
+foreign help. In their perplexity they naturally turned to the pope and
+the King of Spain; and there is a story of a petition, emanating from
+the Cardinal of Lorraine and certain doctors of the Sorbonne, imploring
+Philip II. to aid the Church of France against the heretics, on the
+ground that he was the mightiest and most religious of princes. The
+petition never reached its destination in consequence of its bearer,
+a priest, being arrested and compelled to give it up. The story is
+not well authenticated, but there is evidence enough without it to
+show that the Guises and a part of the French clergy were engaged in
+a treasonable correspondence. Supported by this correspondence, the
+King of Spain took a high tone in his letters to the queen-regent,
+blaming her for holding the colloquy at Poissy, and condemning the
+mere idea of a national council. He said bluntly that all heretics
+ought to be punished without respect of persons, and added that if she
+failed in her duty, he was determined to sacrifice every thing, even
+his life, to check the progress of the pestilence, which was equally
+threatening to France and to Spain. The Spanish embassador Chantonnay,
+whom Anquetil describes as “acting the part of a French minister of
+state,” scarcely wrote a letter to his royal master in which he did
+not denounce Catherine’s favor to the Protestants. As it was Philip’s
+interest to keep France in a disturbed state, he naturally courted the
+Guise faction, promising them both men and money, but not willing to
+give either very liberally. Secret as were their manœuvres, they did
+not escape Catherine’s vigilance, and to prevent any violent outbreak
+she disarmed the populace of Paris.[257]
+
+Catherine became more unpopular every day among the extreme Romanists,
+and the discontent with her policy became general: many of the nobility
+remonstrated with her for her toleration, and the monks gladly seized
+the opportunity of arousing the fanaticism of the populace. One of
+these tonsured preachers of sedition actually exhorted the citizens
+of Paris not to permit the watch, who were paid by them, to protect
+the heretics. The violence of the Romish clergy--especially of the
+regulars--at this time can hardly be exaggerated. Simon Vigor,[258]
+whose sermons are still extant, spoke thus ferociously from his pulpit:
+“Our nobility will not strike.... Is it not very cruel, they say, to
+draw the sword against one’s uncle or father?... Come now, which is
+nearest and dearest to you, your Catholic and Christian brother or
+your carnal Huguenot brother? The spiritual affinity or relationship
+is much higher than the carnal, and therefore I tell you that since
+you will not strike the Huguenots, you have no religion. Accordingly
+some morning God will execute justice, and permit this bastard
+nobility to be trodden down by the commonalty. I do not say that it
+ought to be done, but that God will permit it to be done.”[259] The
+garrulous Claude Haton declares that Vigor far surpassed all others
+in violence, and gives an outline of a sermon in which he accused the
+king’s government of favoring Huguenotry, and “destroying the Church of
+Christ.” Claude de Sainctes, who was in the household of the Cardinal
+of Lorraine, declared in one of his writings, “that if the fires which
+had been lighted up in France for the destruction of Calvinism had not
+been extinguished, that sect would not have spread.”[260]
+
+This incendiary language produced the intended effect, and the whole
+kingdom became the theatre of frightful disorders. At Cahors the tocsin
+called the people to arms (26th December, 1561). The Catholics shut up
+the Huguenots in their place of meeting and then set fire to it. As the
+poor wretches forced their way through the flames, they were struck
+down by the pikes and swords of the savage crowd. Similar disturbances
+occurred in other parts of France--at Pamiers, Dijon, Troyes,
+Amiens, Abbeville, Tours, Bordeaux, Montpellier, Marseilles--the
+Roman Catholics being determined to prevent all assemblies that were
+not authorized by edict. François Channeil and Louis de Brezous,
+accompanied by 600 horse and foot, entered Aurillac, and shutting the
+gates so that none might escape, began to fire upon the inhabitants,
+killing one of their own number. Many Protestants were thus murdered.
+The soldiers hanged without trial a book-seller and a hosier, who died
+bravely singing the 27th Psalm to the last moment:
+
+    God is my strong salvation,
+      What foe have I to fear?
+    In darkness and temptation
+      My light, my help is near.
+
+It was impossible that such “lynch-law” violence could have any
+permanent repressive effect upon men who felt that “persecution was the
+ladder by which they were to reach heaven.”[261] The Huguenot was not
+likely to be less fervent than the Mahometan, who looks upon the sword
+of his enemy as the key to Paradise.
+
+There were perhaps few cities where the magistrates showed so much good
+sense as at Amiens in adopting vigorous measures to preserve peace
+between both religious parties. About four years before this time
+the heretics in that city were estimated at 500, a body too numerous
+to be openly molested. The monks, therefore, organized processions
+of children between the ages of eight and twelve, and these to the
+number of 200 paraded the streets at night with toy crosses and
+banners, halting from time to time and singing the _Ave Maria_
+at certain doors, according as their leader, a man bearing a sword,
+directed them: “Sing, children, sing, in spite of the Huguenots.”
+The Jacobin preachers used their pulpits as instruments of sedition,
+employing language that could hardly fail to lead to rioting. Indeed
+(to anticipate our narrative), on the 7th and 8th of December, 1561,
+the tocsin was rung, the Catholics fell upon the Huguenots as they were
+returning from divine worship, wounded many, and maltreated some of the
+civic officers and others who had come to help the weaker party. It was
+in consequence of these and similar outbreaks that the magistrates, in
+order to prevent the mere possibility of rioting, interfered so far
+with individual liberty as to forbid the inhabitants to assemble in
+the streets to the number of more than four, or to leave their houses
+after curfew, to carry arms, to discuss the sermons, or to call each
+other names, such as “Huguenots, Lutherans, papists, hypocrites, and
+caffards,” under pain of death. Still the magistrates were not in the
+least inclined to tolerate heterodoxy, for they went on to prohibit
+assemblies either in the city or without, for the purpose of preaching,
+reading, or psalm-singing, contrary to the practice of the Church.[262]
+Although the Catholic party appears to have become stronger in the
+municipal body, still their measures inclined to tolerance. On the 22d
+May, 1562, the ministers were ordered to leave the city within three
+days, and school-masters were forbidden to teach the new doctrine to
+their pupils. Five days later we find the Notables assembled to devise
+means for compelling some eighteen or twenty Huguenots to decorate
+their houses for the procession of the Holy Sacrament, with a view “to
+avoid any demonstration of feeling on the part of the people, who would
+be scandalized by any want of reverence.” The men were summoned before
+them, and consented under protest to adorn their windows. “They pleaded
+their conscience,” says the register; “and when they were asked
+how that could be wounded by such an act, they refused to give any
+explanation.”[263] The men, however, did not keep their word, and were
+sent to prison. A proclamation was then issued ordering all persons to
+decorate their houses under pain of being fined twenty livres parisis;
+but this had so little effect that, the very next Sunday, two hundred
+and sixty persons refused to comply with the order.
+
+Although the liberal-minded Christians of our days may think these
+Amiens Reformers overscrupulous, we are hardly in position to blame
+them. They looked upon the procession of the Corpus Christi as an act
+of idolatrous worship, and to hang tapestry on the walls of their
+houses was indirectly to countenance the idolatry. It is not very long
+ago that a similar argument was urged in the House of Commons against
+the turning-out of the guard at Malta when the host was carried past
+the guard-house.
+
+But the Huguenots were almost as turbulent as the Romanists: in many
+places they had become strong enough to defy the penal laws passed
+against them. They seized upon the churches, drove the monks from
+their convents, made bonfires of the crosses, images, and relics, and
+demanded an enlargement of their privileges. During the procession of
+the Fête Dieu at Lyons (5th June, 1561) a Huguenot tried to snatch the
+host out of the priest’s hand. There was an instant riot: “Down with
+the heretics! To the Rhone with them!” was the cry. Many were drowned,
+and the principal of the college of the Trinity was dragged a corpse
+through the streets. In all times of excitement there are hot-headed
+partisans who add to the confusion and thwart the exertions of those
+who are inclined to conciliatory measures. The early Reformed Church
+was not without them: each Protestant country had its iconoclasts.
+These indiscreet Reformers were the dread of the moderate Beza: “I fear
+our friends more than our enemies,” he wrote.[264] After receiving
+intelligence of an outrage at Montpellier he said that, if he were
+judge, he would punish those “madmen” with extreme severity.[265] And
+in a letter to Calvin he says (18th January, 1562): “You will scarcely
+believe how intemperate our people are, as if they wanted to rival our
+enemies in impatience.” It was necessary to do something, for the two
+parties were coming into collision, and blood had been shed not only
+in Paris, the head-quarters of orthodoxy, but in other parts of the
+country.
+
+One day the populace of the capital having insulted the Huguenots as
+they were returning from divine service, the gentlemen of the Reform
+resolved to be present at the next meeting to the number of 2000
+horsemen, with the intention, if the insult should be repeated, of
+seizing upon the adjoining churches and expelling the monks. There
+were frequent conflicts in the city, and in one of them, known as the
+riot of St. Medard, both parties were equally violent and equally
+guilty. It appears that, on St. John’s Day, the priests of the Church
+of St. Medard, in the southern suburb beyond the walls, rang the
+bells in their belfry to drown the voice of the Huguenot preaching
+in an adjoining house. The congregation remonstrated, and one of
+their number was fired on and killed. The Huguenots drew their swords
+directly. Andelot entered the Church on horseback, and in the struggle
+that followed fifty persons were killed and wounded. The riot was
+renewed the next day by the Catholics, who broke into the house where
+the Protestants used to worship, and burned it to the ground after
+smashing the pulpit and benches to pieces. The matter was taken up by
+the Parliament of Paris, and the next year (1562), at the close of a
+procession to expiate the profanation of the church, a great number
+of citizens suspected of heresy were hanged or drowned without trial,
+among them being the captain of the watch[266] and some archers whose
+only crime was that they had not stopped the riot. They were pelted by
+the children, and “if they had possessed a hundred lives all would have
+been taken, the people were so exasperated.” The corpses of the poor
+wretches were seized by some fanatics, who dragged them through the
+streets and then flung them into the river.[267] The nuncio Santa Croce
+wrote to the court of Rome: “Some Huguenots are put to death every day.
+Yesterday, four of those who committed such sacrilege in the Church of
+St. Medard were burned, and to-day they are preparing for a similar
+spectacle.”[268]
+
+Such was the condition of France when the assembly of Notables met
+at St. Germains. The Chancellor L’Hopital, who had been growing more
+tolerant every day, addressed them in a speech full of eloquence and
+sound sense. He called their attention to the actual state of the
+Huguenots, their number, and their strength; and showed the injustice
+and impolicy of those who wished the king to put himself at the head
+of one part of his subjects, and establish peace by the destruction of
+the other. “In such a war,” he continued, “where is the king to find
+soldiers? Among his subjects. Against whom is he to lead them? Against
+his subjects. A triumph or a defeat is equally the destruction of his
+subjects. I resign controversies on religion to the theologians; our
+business is not to settle articles of faith, but to regulate the state.
+A man may be a good subject without being a Catholic. I see no reason
+why we should not live in peace with those who do not observe the same
+religious ceremonies as ourselves.”
+
+After a long and warm discussion the opinions of the Moderate or
+“political” party triumphed, and sixteen articles were drawn up, which
+became the basis of the celebrated Edict of January, 1562. It suspended
+all preceding edicts, and authorized “those of the religion” to
+assemble unarmed outside the towns to preach, pray, and perform other
+religious exercises. By this means it was hoped to avoid collision
+with the Catholics. The edict farther stipulated that the Protestants
+should restore the churches and other ecclesiastical property they
+had seized; that they should not resist the collection of tithes, or
+criticise the ceremonies of the Catholic religion in their sermons,
+books, or conversation. They were also forbidden to hold synods without
+the permission of the crown, or to travel from town to town to preach,
+but were to confine themselves to one church. As a natural corollary
+Catholic preachers were likewise enjoined to abstain from invectives,
+“as things serving rather to excite the people to sedition than
+persuade them to devotion.” The various Parliaments at first refused
+to register the edict, without which ceremony it would not have the
+force of law; but their opposition was overcome in every instance
+except that of Dijon, where it was “virtuously resisted” by Gaspard
+de Saulx-Tavannes, lieutenant-general of Burgundy, a stanch partisan
+of the Guises, and one of the most sanguinary leaders of the age. The
+Parliament of Paris was characteristically obstinate. To the first
+summons they replied, _Nec possumus nec debemus_; and when they
+yielded at last to a threat of physical force, they would only register
+the edict under protest, “considering the urgent necessity of a
+temporary measure.” The Cardinal of Lorraine accepted it, acknowledging
+to Throckmorton that some reformation was necessary, but he seemed to
+think that the reform should come from above, and not from “men of
+their own authority.”[269]
+
+The Huguenots received the edict with gratitude, if not with
+exultation. Limited as were the privileges it granted, still it was a
+victory over their opponents. The right of assembling was conceded to
+them, and for such a right the blood of their martyred brethren had
+not been shed in vain. The preachers took immediate advantage of the
+liberty given them by the edict, and preached more boldly than ever in
+fields and gardens or any open space, and, if the weather was bad, in
+such sheds and barns as they could find. “The people,” says Castelnau,
+“curious about every thing new, crowded to hear them, Catholics as
+well as Protestants.” The Romish party, who undoubtedly formed the
+great majority of the nation, and the most ignorant portion of it, were
+greatly disgusted with this Edict of Pacification, imperfect as it
+was, and began to range themselves in opposition to the crown. Brulart
+only echoed the public opinion when he declared the Edict of January
+to be “the most pernicious possible for the repose and welfare of the
+state, and the support of the kingdom,” and “a wholesale approval of
+that wretched Calvinistic sect.” Tn certain provinces it had been well
+received; but, in Burgundy, Tavannes would hear of no toleration. He
+drove a large number--report says more than 2000--of the Reformed out
+of Dijon, and issued an order to the neighboring peasantry “to massacre
+all who prayed elsewhere than in the churches, and to refuse drink,
+food, and shelter to the expelled rebels.” At Aix, the Protestants had
+been accustomed to worship under a fir-tree outside the walls. Every
+morning for weeks men and women were seen hanging from its branches;
+they had been seized in the night, and executed without trial, on the
+mere denunciation of an enemy.
+
+The Cardinal of Lorraine and the Duke of Guise had retired from the
+Privy Council in December, in order that they might take no part in
+deliberations in which they knew the majority would be against them.
+Such a silent protest added largely to their popularity, and they
+were already looked upon as the heads of an anti-Huguenot league.
+They placed orthodoxy before loyalty, and were ready to oppose the
+crown whenever it showed any toleration to heretics. Nearly twelve
+months before this date the duke had told the queen-mother in answer
+to her question, that the Catholics would not obey the king if he
+changed his religion. Still there are good reasons to believe that all
+would have gone on quietly but for the defection of the weak-minded
+Anthony of Navarre, whose ruling passion was to change his nominal
+sovereignty of Navarre for a real crown and real subjects. The Guises
+played upon this weakness; Philip II. gave him a choice of several
+thrones; and the pope’s legate “very cleverly” offered to divorce him
+from his excellent wife Joan of Albret, so that he might marry the
+widowed Mary Stuart. But there was one condition: he must apostatize.
+By such a man as Anthony, who had no principle, that little obstacle
+was soon surmounted; and in February, 1562, he sold himself to the
+enemy. Davila’s language leaves no doubt as to the motives of his
+conversion.[270]
+
+Anthony’s secession brought a great increase of power to the side of
+the Triumvirate by placing at their disposal the troops that obeyed
+him as lieutenant-general of France. The insolence of the Guises
+increased with success. Their pride and contempt for all who did not
+belong to their family or dependents almost bordered on insanity.
+They could brook no opposition, and that the Huguenots should think
+for themselves was a crime to be expiated only by death. They aimed
+at political supremacy, and Coligny, now the acknowledged Huguenot
+chief, though Condé was the nominal head, stood in the way of their
+ambition. The Triumvirate, therefore, decided upon carrying matters to
+extremity, and willingly accepted the aid proffered them by the King
+of Spain. Philip II., the self-constituted champion of Romanism, the
+“démon du midi,”[271] was trying to crush the Reform in Flanders by
+a persecution unparalleled for its merciless severity in the history
+of the world. He saw clearly that if France were reformed, or even
+if the Reformers were tolerated, success would be impossible; and he
+had therefore instructed his embassador, Chantonnay, as early as the
+16th October, 1561, to tell the regent that if religious matters were
+not arranged--by which he meant, unless the late proscriptions were
+renewed--he would send troops to the aid of the Catholics. Catherine
+was not the woman to submit to such an unsolicited intervention, even
+at the hands of her royal son-in-law, and she answered the ambassador
+haughtily, that “she did not know what his Spanish Majesty meant, but
+the king had troops enough to enforce obedience from his subjects,
+and that she would severely punish any who sought for foreign aid
+without the authority of the crown.” There can hardly be a doubt that,
+at this time, Catherine was sincere in her determination to maintain
+a religious toleration, even at the risk of hostilities with Spain;
+and she appears to have consulted Coligny as to the number of men the
+Reformed churches could bring into the field.[272] But events moved so
+swiftly that she had for the time no alternative but to go with the
+stream.
+
+Anthony’s defection had destroyed that balance of parties which the
+queen-mother had so diligently labored to maintain. As rash and violent
+now as he had previously been dilatory and weak, he had hastened to
+Paris, whence he wrote, inviting Guise to join him, and make a combined
+attack upon the Protestants. The Duke was at the castle of Joinville
+in Champagne, having just returned from Saverne in Alsace, where the
+Lorraine princes had met Duke Christopher of Wurtemberg. Their object
+in visiting Germany was to mislead the Protestants of that country,
+and alienate them entirely from the Calvinists of France, thinking
+that, if the latter were deprived of all external support, they must
+soon be crushed.[273] The Cardinal of Lorraine twice preached sermons
+so Lutheran in spirit, that his open adoption of the Confession of
+Augsburg was eagerly looked for;[274] and the language of the Duke
+of Guise and his brother Charles, in their conferences with Duke
+Christopher and his chancellor, Brentz, is so extraordinary, and, as
+regards Duke Francis, so unlike what we read of him at other times,
+as almost to shake our faith in the genuineness of the report of the
+conference.[275] Brentz entreated the cardinal to put an end to the
+persecutions in France. “I will do so,” he replied, adding with a
+solemn look, “that he had not put one single man to death on account of
+his religion.” Francis corroborated his brother’s words, and said: “We
+will do the Reformed no injury.” We shall see how well the two Lorraine
+princes kept their promise.
+
+Vassy is a small fortified town of Champagne (Haute Marne), on
+the river Braise, about sixty leagues from Paris. It now contains
+a population of little more than 3000, and, three centuries ago,
+probably did not contain half that number. The Reformed Church,
+however, must have been strong in that quarter, for on Christmas Day,
+1561, as many as 3000 persons are reported to have assembled for
+divine worship, of whom 900 partook of the Holy Communion.[276] Such
+an assertion of liberty of thought greatly offended Antoinette de
+Bourbon, the dowager duchess of Guise. She could not understand how her
+vassals--or, to speak more correctly, the vassals of Mary Stuart, her
+granddaughter--should dare choose a religion for themselves, and urged
+her son Francis to punish their presumption. The duke, notwithstanding
+what he had promised at Saverne, needed no stimulants to the discharge
+of so agreeable a duty. His way to Paris lay through Vassy, and
+as he came near the town on Sunday morning (1st March, 1562), he
+heard the sound of a bell. “What noise is that?” he asked. “They are
+calling the Huguenots to their sermon,” was the reply. “Huguenots!
+Huguenots!” he swore; “S’death! I will _huguenotize_ them before
+long.” He rode into the town, alighted at the convent where he dined,
+and after dinner--for that meal was then eaten in the forenoon--he
+ordered out his soldiers, between 200 and 300 in number, and marched
+them to the barn in which the Huguenots, trades-people for the most
+part, had assembled to hear a new preacher who had just been sent to
+them from Geneva. The ducal retainers began the strife by abusing
+the congregation as “heretics, dogs, and rebels,” murdering three,
+and wounding several who attempted to close the door. The Huguenots
+endeavored to defend themselves with such weapons as they could snatch
+up: two, who were probably gentlemen, drew their swords, others flung
+stones, one of which struck the duke in the cheek as he stood near the
+door. In a whirlwind of rage he gave his followers orders to spare
+nobody, and these orders were but too faithfully carried out.[277]
+Such as escaped the sword were killed by the arquebuse as they were
+making their way through the windows or over the roof. For one hour the
+bloody work continued, during which time between fifty and sixty of the
+Huguenots were murdered on the spot, and about two hundred wounded,
+some of them mortally. “There were left forty-two poor widows burdened
+with orphan children,” wrote Beza. Many who succeeded in escaping from
+the barn, were pursued and killed in the town, and probably none would
+have been spared but for the Duchess of Guise, who, remembering the
+bloody scenes at Amboise, interceded for the women. When all was over a
+book was brought the duke; he looked at it contemptuously, he had never
+seen such a volume before. “Here,” said he, handing it to the cardinal,
+“here is one of the Huguenot books.” “There is no harm in it,” his
+brother answered; “it is the Bible.” It was probably the one used in
+public worship. “S’blood! how is that? This book has only been printed
+a year, and they say the Bible is more than fifteen hundred years old.”
+“My brother is mistaken,” quietly observed the cardinal, as he turned
+away to hide a smile of contempt at the duke’s ignorance.[278]
+
+The news of the “blood-bath of Vassy” spread like wild-fire through
+France, everywhere creating the deepest agitation. Such an outrage was
+not only an infringement of the Edict of January, the ink of which
+was scarcely dry, but a direct defiance of it; the act (as it were)
+of a man who, in pursuance of his own ends, had resolved to trample
+upon all law.[279] If the offense were not punished, no one would be
+safe hereafter; no law would be binding. As soon as the tidings of
+the massacre reached Paris, Marshal Montmorency, the governor, who
+was not unfriendly to the Huguenots, advised the ministers to adjourn
+their preachings for a few days, lest there should be a riot; but with
+characteristic obstinacy they refused, as it would be “acknowledging
+they were in the wrong.” They farther asked for a guard to protect them
+in their ministrations. Meanwhile Beza went to Monceaux, and appealed
+personally to the queen-regent. The apostate Anthony of Navarre
+attempted to defend the Duke, and, throwing the blame on the Huguenots,
+said that Beza ought to be hanged.[280] Beza replied that the Church of
+Christ was more apt to receive blows than to inflict them, adding, in
+words that have since passed into a proverb, “Remember, Sire, it is an
+anvil on which many a hammer has been broken.” The queen-mother made a
+gracious answer, and promised that the edict should be enforced. She
+bade Navarre watch over the safety of the king, and summoned Guise to
+court, “unattended by any men-at-arms.” Marshal St. André was ordered
+to repair to his government at Lyons, but refused to go.
+
+The excitement was so great in Paris that each party took up arms,
+declaring they did so in self-defense; and had there been a reckless
+leader on either side, the streets would have run with blood shed in
+civil strife. The hotels of Montmorency and of Guise were turned into
+fortresses, and strongly garrisoned by their respective partisans. The
+constable, as representative of the oldest barony of France, was urged
+by his wife to act up to his motto, and defend the faith; and he would
+possibly have been induced to adopt an extreme course but for his son
+Marshal Montmorency, who advised moderation, and urged that it would be
+wiser to conciliate the queen-mother than attempt to coerce her.
+
+The slaughter at Vassy was as much exulted over by the ignorant and
+fanatical Catholic populace as it was bewailed by the Calvinists.
+Priests in the pulpit declared Duke Francis to be a second Moses, a
+Jehu, who “by shedding the blood of the wicked had consecrated his
+hands, and avenged the Lord’s quarrel.” Ballads were made upon it,
+and the orthodox street-singers extolled the Duke of Guise in very
+laudatory if not very polished strains:
+
+    Nous avons un bon seigneur
+      En ce pays de France,
+    Et prince de grand honneur
+
+      Vaillant par excellence,
+      Et très-humain,
+      Doux et bénin;
+
+    C’est le bon duc de Guise,
+      Qui à Vassy,
+      Par sa merci,
+    A défendu l’église.
+
+The Calvinists replied in coarse and more vigorous terms:
+
+        Un morceau de pâte
+          Il fait adorer,
+        Le rompt de sa patte
+          Pour le dévorer,
+        Le gourmet qu’il est!
+    Hari, hari l’âne, le gourmet qu’il est!
+          Hari bouriquet.
+
+        Le dieu qu’il fait faire
+          La bouche le prend,
+        Le cœur le digère,
+          Au ventre le rend
+        Au fond du retrait.
+    Hari, hari l’âne, au fond du retrait.
+          Hari bouriquet.
+
+Meanwhile the duke, escorted by a body of 1200 gentlemen on horseback,
+continued his journey to Paris, which he entered in triumph by the
+St. Denis gate--a gate usually reserved for kings.[281] The multitude
+cheered him loudly as he passed down that long narrow street, hailing
+him as a second Judas Maccabæus; the trades harangued him, and called
+upon him to extirpate heresy. On the same day--or on the next, as
+others write--Beza preached a sermon beyond the city walls, which the
+Prince of Condé attended with three or four hundred men, horse and
+foot, armed with pistols and arquebuses, to protect the preacher, who
+also wore a breastplate. The prince had gone to Paris to support the
+governor and obtain justice for the massacre. He charged the duke with
+attempting to seize the government, and advised Catherine to accept
+the aid of the Protestants. The queen-mother did not know how to act,
+fearing to trust herself wholly to either party. At last she prevailed
+upon Condé and Guise to leave the capital so as to avoid all chances of
+collision. The duke readily consented, feeling secure of the citizens;
+on the other hand, Condé clearly foresaw that he would lose the city if
+he quitted it; but being too weak to hold his ground, he withdrew to
+his estate at La Ferté-sous-Jouarre, on the Marne, to the north-east of
+Paris.
+
+The queen-mother soon found out that she had made a great mistake
+in urging Condé to leave the capital: she saw that the power had
+passed out of her hands, and that the Guises were preparing to make a
+tyrannous use of it. She feared the Triumvirate, for herself as well
+as for her son; and there is a story that she overheard St. André
+proposing to throw her into the Seine. To preserve her freedom of
+action she quitted Monceaux in great secrecy, and removed to Melun,
+taking Charles IX. with her,[282] having apparently made up her mind
+to act with decision. She appealed to Condé to protect her and the
+young king “from the greatest enemy France can have, and who is also
+yours:” and the prince lost no time in summoning Coligny, Andelot, La
+Rochefoucauld, and other chiefs of the Huguenot party to meet him at
+Meaux, to take the queen’s letters into consideration. As they were
+not strong enough to force their way back to Paris, they resolved to
+get possession of the king’s person, and carry him off to Orleans,
+knowing well the great strength their cause would derive from the royal
+presence among them. But the Triumvirate were equally clear on this
+point, and being more prompt became masters of the coveted prize.
+
+Meanwhile the Parisians had begun to murmur at the absence of their
+sovereign, and to quiet their remonstrances the queen-mother removed at
+Easter to Fontainebleau, which was farther from Condé’s head-quarters
+at Meaux. The Guises, suspecting her intentions, determined to
+anticipate them by a _coup-de-main_. The King of Navarre was
+dispatched with a strong body of Catholic gentlemen, including the
+constable, to escort the young king to Paris, on the ground that he
+was not safe so long as the Huguenots were at Meaux. Anthony, as
+first prince of the blood, was to a certain extent the guardian of
+his infant master, and no doubt he would have asserted that right had
+Catherine resisted. She held out indeed for a time, but gave way at
+last, saying, “I know how useless it is to speak to you of your duty;
+but alone, deserted, and betrayed as I am, I shall defend the liberty
+of my son--your king.” Being thus “benetted round with villains,” she
+yielded only when Navarre had actually issued orders for dismantling
+the royal apartments; for such were the scanty comforts even of royalty
+in those days, that when the court moved from place to place, carpets,
+tapestry, beds and furniture were moved also. The queen-regent sent off
+a hasty express to Condé, in the hope that he would be able to rescue
+her on the road; but the hope was vain. The journey to Paris--or, to
+be verbally accurate, to Melun and Vincennes--was a sad one; Catherine
+hardly spoke a word to the escort during the three days it occupied;
+and the boy-king, who imagined they were taking him to prison, wept
+several times with all the violence of childish grief.
+
+Condé came at last, but only to see the king and his mother carried
+off in triumph; his force was not strong enough to rescue them,
+even had the attempt been safe. Henceforth the regent was in the
+hands of the reactionists, and must follow wherever they led. With
+contemptuous politeness they assured her, if we may believe Chantonnay,
+“that they had never thought of depriving her of the government, and
+would not attempt it, so long as she gave her hand to the support
+of true religion and of the king’s authority.”[283] Supporting true
+religion meant depriving the Huguenots of their privileges, the
+first step toward which was to interdict the Reformers of Paris from
+meeting to worship within the walls of the capital--a deprivation
+partly justifiable under the circumstances. The mutual jealousy of
+the triumvirs prevented the exercise of any harsh measures toward
+Catherine: each intrigued against the other, and hoped to make use of
+her for his own private ends. Each was aware that if she were removed,
+his own position would be imperiled by the rival ambitions of his
+colleagues.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER VI.
+
+                         FIRST RELIGIOUS WAR.
+
+                             [1562–1563.]
+
+   Beginning of Reaction--Causes of the War--The Huguenots
+   arm--Advice of Coligny’s Wife--Covenant of Association--Massacre
+   at Sens and Sisteron--Discipline of the Armies--Catherine
+   attempts to mediate--Conference at Thoury--Negotiations broken
+   off--Fearful state of Paris--The Constable’s violence--Appeals
+   to Foreign Sympathy--Successes of the Royalists--Atrocities
+   at Blois and Tours--Rouen Besieged--The Breach stormed--The
+   Hour of Vengeance--Pastor Marlorat hanged--Death of Anthony of
+   Navarre--Disturbances in Normandy--Offer of Amnesty--Battle
+   of Dreux--Condé and Montmorency captured--St. André
+   killed--Siege of Orleans--Duke of Guise murdered--Poltrot de
+   Méré--Pacification of Amboise--Distress caused by the War--Death
+   of Coligny’s Son--Letter to his Wife.
+
+
+All great efforts are followed by a reaction. We have seen how
+Protestantism had been spreading over France during the last forty
+years, the attempts to crush it serving but to give it greater
+vitality. We are now approaching a period of counter-revolution; the
+tide of reform has reached its flood and will soon begin to ebb,
+slowly, irregularly, but certainly, so that at last we entirely lose
+sight of religion in the political struggle that ensued.
+
+Attempts have been made to fix upon the Huguenots the terrible
+responsibility of beginning the civil strife. It is easy to prove
+this, or any other historical untruth, by a skillful manipulation of
+documents; but the evidence of eye-witnesses of, and actors in, the
+events of the spring of 1562, points to the opposite conclusions. La
+Noue, who was present at Meaux, positively affirms that there was no
+plan or previous arrangement. “Most of the nobility,” he says, “hearing
+of the slaughter at Vassy, partly of a voluntary good-will, and partly
+for fear, determined to draw toward Paris, imagining that their
+protectors might stand in some need of them.”[284] And that there was
+good ground for this fear appears certain from a contemporary letter,
+in which the writer says: “Every thing is in such confusion at court
+that, if God does not lend a helping hand, I fear that in less than ten
+days you will have news of the prettiest (_plus beau_) massacre
+that ever was.”[285]
+
+Is it wonderful if in such a state of things the Protestant gentry
+thought it necessary to take counsel together? Of their deliberations
+we know nothing, but the result was a resolution to take up arms.
+Coligny alone appears to have held back, and without his countenance
+and support the chances of success were very small. There is a story
+told of him, which we could hope to be true, though it is at variance
+with certain known facts. He had long kept aloof, notwithstanding
+the entreaties of his brothers Andelot and the Cardinal of Chatillon
+that he would take the field; and when his wife added her entreaties
+to theirs, he drew a terrible picture of civil war and the possible
+fate of herself and their children, and begged her take three weeks
+to weigh the matter deliberately in her mind. “The three weeks are
+already past,” replied the heroic dame; “you will never be conquered
+by the virtue of your enemies; employ your own, and do not take upon
+your head the murders of three weeks.” He hesitated no longer, and the
+next day set off to join Condé at Meaux, where the Huguenot gentlemen
+held rendezvous. That prince had already committed himself too far not
+to see that none but the boldest measures could save him: “It is all
+over,” he said; “we have plunged in so deep that we must either drink
+or drown.”
+
+The confederate, knowing how greatly success depended upon prompt
+action, spent but few moments in deliberation. Their first step must be
+to secure some strong town, in which they could make a safe stand until
+reinforcements arrived. For obvious strategical and political reasons
+they selected Orleans, and thitherward, to the number of two thousand,
+they turned their horses’ heads. As the delay of even a few minutes
+might be dangerous, they rode on like a fierce whirlwind, not stopping
+to pick up any one who fell on the road. Once in Orleans, which they
+entered on the 2d April, 1562, they sent secret orders to their
+co-religionists all over France, and their first measures were crowned
+with success. Almost on the same day the Huguenots made themselves
+masters of Havre, Rouen, Caen, and Dieppe in Normandy; Blois, Tours,
+and Angers on the Loire; Poitiers and Rochelle in Poitou; Chalons and
+Troyes in Champagne; Macon in Burgundy; Gap and Grenoble in Dauphiny;
+and Nismes, Montpellier, Béziers, and Montauban in Languedoc; as well
+as a large number of castles in the north, west, and south, with the
+Cevennes district between Lyons and Toulouse.
+
+From all these quarters the best gentlemen in France rallied round
+Condé in defense of the rights of their body and the princes of
+the blood-royal against the usurpation and violence of the Guises,
+who were foreigners. Many of them were related to Condé: the three
+Chatillons were the uncles of his wife; Prince Porcien the husband of
+his niece; La Rochefoucault had married his sister-in-law. Viscount
+Rohan represented the nobles of Dauphiny; Andelot the Pays de France;
+the Count of Grammont led the Gascons; Montgomery the Normans; and
+Genlis the sober and industrious Picards. Their first step was to
+sign a Covenant of Association, binding them to spend their goods and
+their lives in restoring the king to liberty, and procuring freedom of
+worship to all Frenchmen. They necessarily made Condé their leader, and
+then sent off letters (7th May) to all the churches, desiring them “in
+God’s name” to furnish both men and money. “We have taken up arms,”
+said the confederates, “that we may deliver the King and Queen from
+the hands of their enemies, and secure the full execution of the Edict
+of January.” Condé also thought it his duty to dispatch a messenger to
+the queen-mother, with an explanation of the motives which had driven
+him to such extreme measures. Catherine would not commit herself to a
+written answer, but desired the Baron de la Garde to tell the Prince,
+“that she would never forget what he might do for the king her son.”
+
+The Catholics, if less prompt, were not less vigorous in their
+proceedings. In 1561 the citizens of Paris had been disarmed as a
+measure of precaution; now every member of the “ancient Catholic
+religion,” capable of bearing arms, was ordered to procure them and
+attend drill.[286] By this means fifteen corps of infantry, amounting
+to the almost incredible number[287] of 30,000 men (others say 24,000),
+were placed at the disposal of the Triumvirate for the protection
+of the capital. By another order, issued by Marshal Brissac, who
+had succeeded Montmorency as governor, all persons, “notoriously
+famed as being of the new religion,” were ordered to leave the city
+within twenty-four hours, or they would be hanged; as for such as
+were “suspected” only, they were required to get a certificate of
+confession.[288] The populace did not fail to take advantage of the
+opportunity thus placed within their reach, by informing against those
+whom, from any personal or other motive, they wanted to turn out of
+their houses; and if the Huguenots did not go, they were plundered and
+ill-used.
+
+And now began a war of manifestoes and remonstrances. The walls of the
+capital were covered with placards in which the Huguenots declared
+that they had taken up arms in self-defense and not for plunder,
+and the Catholics replied in terms that exhausted the vocabulary of
+abuse. The Lorraine party, or the Triumvirate, was the Ultramontane or
+foreign party; the Protestant party was especially that of national
+independence. The Huguenots, like the English Parliamentarians of
+1642, represented the middle classes, and were (perhaps unconsciously)
+democratic in their tendencies; the Royalists (as we may call them,
+since they held the king’s person, although they were not more loyal
+than their opponents) were supported by the clergy, the ignorant rural
+population, and the poverty of the towns. Both parties sought political
+power to carry out their views.
+
+It may be said that, if ever there was a time when Christians were
+justified in resorting to the sword, it was the present. The laws in
+favor of the Huguenots were constantly and systematically broken. The
+massacre at Vassy was only the first of a series of outrages equally
+barbarous. At Sens in Burgundy, a Huguenot having insulted a Catholic
+procession, the tocsin was rung, and there was a general onslaught upon
+the Reformed, without regard either to age or sex. The bodies of the
+victims, stripped and fastened to planks, were thrown into the river
+and floated down to Paris, twenty leagues distant. One of them, that of
+a Gascon officer, was dragged through the streets by boys leaping and
+shouting: “Take care of your pigs, for we have got the pigkeeper.” The
+fanatic populace destroyed every thing, even rooting up the vines in
+the Calvinist vineyards. For three days the hideous carnival of murder
+went on, and ceased only from want of victims.[289]
+
+The massacre of Sens took place in April, while the Baron de la Garde
+was on his mission of peace in the Protestant camp. It was said to
+have been perpetrated at the instigation of the Cardinal of Lorraine,
+who was archbishop of that city, and who took no steps to prevent
+the murders. As soon as the news reached the ears of Condé, he broke
+off all negotiations, and declared that he would not lay down his
+arms “until he had driven his most cruel enemies (the Guises) out of
+France.” The nuncio Santa Croce seems to allude to two massacres:
+“Since the massacre at Sens, of which I wrote in my last, another great
+slaughter of eighty Huguenots has happened, and some thirty of their
+houses have been burned in that city.” Perrenot de Chantonnay, the
+Spanish embassador, writes exultingly: “Already in many parts of this
+kingdom, as at Sens, Toulouse, Castel-Navarre, and Villefranche, the
+Catholics have risen against the Huguenots, who have had the worst of
+it; and in some places the preachers were burned in the market-place.”
+
+All over France, from the Channel to the Mediterranean, similar
+ferocious outbreaks occurred. At Sisteron, beneath the shadow of the
+Lower Alps, three hundred women and children, refugees from all parts
+of Provence, were pitilessly murdered, the men having made their
+escape. One poor woman with a baby in her arms was taken outside the
+town and put to death, and her body buried beneath the ruins of the
+house where she used to worship.
+
+All comment on these things[290] would be superfluous. Is it wonderful
+that in such a state of lawlessness the Reformed nobles and gentlemen
+armed in self-defense? With indignant eloquence, Agrippa d’Aubigné
+vindicates the rebellion in which the Huguenots sought to protect
+themselves: “So long as the adherents of the new religion were
+destroyed merely under the form of law, they submitted themselves to
+the slaughter, and never raised a hand in their own defense against
+those injuries, cruel and iniquitous as they were. But when the public
+authorities and the magistracy, divesting themselves of the venerable
+aspect of justice, put daggers into the hands of the people, abandoning
+every man to the violence of his neighbors; and when public massacres
+were perpetrated to the sound of the drum and of the trumpet, who
+could forbid the unhappy sufferers to oppose hand to hand, and sword
+to sword, and to catch the contagion of a righteous fury from a fury
+unrestrained by any sense of justice?”
+
+This appeal to arms was quite contrary to the principles of the founder
+of the French Church. In 1556, when Calvin had reason to fear that the
+Reformed would resist if they were attacked, he wrote to the church of
+Angers: “I pray you put aside such counsels; they will never be blessed
+by God, or come to a good issue.” And to the church at Paris he wrote
+in the same strain: “Show yourselves like lambs against the rage of the
+wolves, for you have the promise of the Good Shepherd, who will never
+fail you. It is better that we be all destroyed than for the Gospel to
+be reproached with leading the people to sedition and tumult. God will
+always fructify the ashes of his servants, whilst violence and excess
+will bring nothing but barrenness.”[291]
+
+It is with great hesitation that I venture to differ from so high
+an authority as Calvin; but--to oppose authority to authority--St.
+Augustine acknowledges that overwhelming necessity may justify
+Christians in drawing the sword.[292] And Knox went still farther,
+maintaining in his “Appellation” that it was not only the duty of
+a nation to resist a persecuting sovereign, but (as in the case of
+the Marian persecutions) also to depose the queen, and even “punish
+her to death, with all the sort of her idolatrous priests.” But the
+propriety of arming in defense of religion can hardly in these days
+be maintained on such grounds. The Huguenots of 1562 felt that their
+only choice lay between extermination, hypocritical conformity, or
+rebellion. They were contending against intolerable oppression; the
+laws were no protection to them; and in such circumstances they
+believed resistance to be justifiable. Why should they apostatize,
+or be burned, while they had strength to wield the sword, especially
+as the letter of the law was in their favor? Such a line of argument
+may fall below the great ideal of the Founder of Christianity, in
+which the highest victory is gained through suffering: “Unto him that
+smiteth thee on the one cheek, offer also the other.” But how can we
+apply such a rule to a whole nation, the mass of which consists of
+ordinary individuals? Upon men of low moral constitutions persecution
+has a searing, hardening, revengeful effect. It would not raise the
+victims into martyrs, or lift them up to the divine spirit of the
+Crucifixion. To forbid the use of the sword for any and every cause,
+as one very narrow sect does, is intelligible; but to say that we may
+draw it in defense of our homes and our goods, but not in defense of
+our faith, is to count the latter of less value than the former. Those
+who sympathize with Calvin argue that the midnight assassin, or the
+violator of woman’s purity, may be lawfully resisted, even unto death;
+not so another who would force a man to abjure his faith. This is
+putting the purse above the conscience. Calvin had never been tested in
+the fire. Brentius and Languet, who had both been face to face with the
+enemy, thought differently.[293] The latter, speaking of a meeting at
+La Cerisaye, which had been attacked, says: “There were some who would
+have rather been beaten than draw their swords, but I was not of their
+opinion.”[294] It may indeed be urged that the differences between
+the Romanists and Huguenots were not important enough to justify armed
+resistance; but the alternative appeal is to the conscience; and if
+men and women, young and old, rich and poor, through a long series of
+years, held their faith as dearer than their life, we must infer that
+the differences to them were vital.
+
+There is, however, a potent element of evil in armed resistance. When
+Christians unite into armies, they are too apt to become a political
+party, and losing sight of the motives and principles which first
+banded them together, to contend for mere temporal objects like any
+other body of men. It was perhaps a misfortune that the Reformed were
+so numerous in France; had they been a small, insignificant body, they
+would hardly have created such malignant animosity, and might have
+escaped being mixed up in the civil war, which was sooner or later
+inevitable between the political parties.
+
+Both armies now began to prepare for the coming struggle. Never before
+in all history, and only once since, has any thing been seen like the
+discipline at first maintained among the Huguenots. A form of prayer,
+drawn up by Beza, was repeated every night and morning; and the troops
+were “to beware of oppressing the poor commons.” As they marched over
+the open country, “they neither spoiled nor misused their hosts, but
+were content with a little.... Most of them paid honestly for all
+things.” La Noue aptly describes it as a “well-ordered disorder.”
+Speaking of the discipline of the army while it lay for a fortnight in
+the camp at Vassadonne near Orleans, he says: “Among all this great
+troop, ye should never hear God’s name blasphemed. There was not a pair
+of dice or cards, the fountains of many brawls and thefts, walking in
+any quarter.... Truly, many wondered to see them so well-disposed, and
+my late brother the Lord of Teligny and myself, discoursing thereof
+with the Lord Admiral, did greatly commend it. Whereupon he said unto
+us: ‘It is indeed a goodly matter if it would continue; but I fear this
+people will pour forth all their goodness at once, so as within these
+two months they will have nothing but malice left. I have a great while
+governed the footmen, and do know them. They will fulfill the proverb:
+A young saint, an old devil. If this fail, we may make a cross upon the
+chimney.’ We smiled, but took no farther heed thereof, until experience
+taught us that herein he was a prophet.” The admiral had not long to
+wait for the fulfillment of his prophecy. At Beaugency, the Huguenot
+force treated with more cruelty the Protestants who had been unable
+to escape than they did the Catholic soldiers who had held the town
+against them. “Thus,” continues the amusing chronicler, “thus did our
+footmen lose their virginity, and of this unlawful conjunction ensued
+the procreation of Lady Picoree, who is since grown into such dignity
+that she is now termed madame; yea, if this civil war continue, I
+doubt she will become a princess. Of the Catholics, I will say that at
+the beginning they were likewise well ordered, and did not much annoy
+the commons.” The Huguenots were the first to make the war support
+itself by contributions levied upon the enemy. When the admiral was in
+Normandy, the Catholic population of Caen was required to furnish the
+sum of 10,000, not, however, until Beza’s appeal to his co-religionists
+for money had utterly failed.[295]
+
+Before the two armies came into actual collision, Catherine interposed
+as a peace-maker. She saw plainly that, whichever side conquered, the
+crown must suffer, and that it would be ruinous to her power to allow
+one party to exterminate the other. Accordingly, several attempts
+were made to induce the Huguenots to lay down their arms. Montluc and
+Vieilleville were successively dispatched to Orleans, and as they could
+obtain nothing from the confederated nobles, Catherine determined to
+try the effect of her own power of persuasion.
+
+A conference took place on the 2d of June between her and Condé at
+Thoury in Beauce, ten leagues from Orleans. La Noue describes the armed
+escorts on each side, sitting on horseback and looking at each other
+for half an hour, “each coveting to see, one his brother, another
+his uncle, cousin, friend, or old companion.” At last they got leave
+from their respective commanders to speak with one another. They met
+with great “demonstrations of amity.” “The Catholics, imagining the
+Protestants to be lost, exhorted them to see to themselves, and not
+to enter obstinately into this miserable war, wherein near kinsmen
+must murder one another. Hereto they answered that they detested it;
+howbeit, if they had no recourse to their defense, they were assured of
+like entreaty as many other Protestants had received, who were cruelly
+slain in sundry parts of France. Each provoked the other to peace,
+and to persuade their superiors to hearken thereto.” An eye-witness
+writes: “On the 17th of June the queen set off again from the forest of
+Vincennes in great haste, and it was believed this time that she would
+conclude a peace before her return. She had taken medicine and been
+bled the day before, being ill through a fall from her hackney, going
+and coming with such dispatch.”
+
+At a subsequent interview at Talcy[296] (28th June, 1562), Condé,
+yielding to the persuasions of Montluc, Bishop of Valence, offered to
+show his good faith by leaving the country, provided the Guises would
+do the same; and a meeting was fixed for the next day at which the
+conditions of this singular agreement were to be arranged. La Noue
+tells us how “the prince returned to his camp laughing (but between his
+teeth) with the chief of his gentlemen who had heard all his talk; some
+scratching their heads where they itched not, others shaking them;
+some were pensive; and the younger sort gibed at one another, each one
+devising with what occupation he should be forced to get his living
+in a foreign land.” With similar lightness of heart, but not with
+equal chivalry, the gentlemen of France forsook their country in 1789,
+trusting to return in a few weeks to a land which most of them never
+saw again.
+
+Condé’s officers refused to follow him. Coligny supposed the
+queen-mother meant no harm, but thought that “those who had weapons
+in their hands did circumvent her to the end to betray them.” Andelot
+said to the prince: “If you forsake us now, it will be said that you
+do it for fear. The best way of coming to an agreement is to lead us
+within sight of the enemy. We can never be perfect friends, before
+we have skirmished a little together.” The Lord of Boucarde, one of
+the bravest gentlemen in the realm, “whose head was fraught with fire
+and lead,” declared: “I would be loth to walk up and down a foreign
+land with a tooth-pick in my mouth, and in the mean time see some
+flattering neighbor be the master of my house, and fatten himself with
+my revenues.” These opinions being generally approved of, Condé gave
+way, and “they all shook hands in confirmation thereof.” Beza, who was
+present at this council, afterward besought the prince “not to give
+over the good work he had begun which God, whose honor it concerned,
+would bring to perfection.” Thus the conference came to nothing; the
+queen-mother and Condé separated, “each very sorry that they had no
+better success.”
+
+The Huguenots had lost much valuable time by this attempted mediation;
+while the clergy and Parliament of Paris, improving the opportunity,
+issued an order for those of the true Church to take up arms and kill
+the heretics like mad dogs. A contemporary denounces this proclamation
+as “a means to arm thieves, vagabonds, and villains. It made the
+ploughman to leave the plough, and the craftsman to shut up his shop;
+it changed the multitude into tigers and lions, and fleshed them
+against their own countrymen.”[297] Woe to the vanquished, for atrocity
+begets atrocity! A manuscript journal of this year, kept by some person
+attached to the court, describes the fearful state of Paris. Every day
+had its tale of outrage and murder by sword, rope, or water. Houses
+were pillaged and razed to the ground; cemeteries were broken open, and
+the relics of the dead scattered to the winds. The voice of the law was
+silent, and the government looked on, as if powerless to prevent, but
+in reality pleased to see their enemies exterminated. On one occasion,
+a child, hardly six months old, who had been christened by a Huguenot
+pastor, was rechristened at the Church of St. Germain l’Auxerrois. More
+than 10,000 spectators were witnesses of the ceremony: the bells rang
+out joyous peals from every steeple, and the crowd shouted: “Praised
+be God for the recovery of the poor little soul.” These profanations
+of the holy rite of baptism were not confined to Paris. At Le Puy the
+infant of “an apostate” was christened with great pomp of minstrels,
+arquebusiers, and “taborins,” the lord-bishop of the city being
+godfather.[298]
+
+On the last day of June several persons were murdered, and among them
+a woman accused of not going to mass for ten years. She was cruelly
+beaten and then flung into the Seine, when the boatmen knocked her on
+the head with oars and poles. Two men also were killed and thrown into
+the river, charged with being Huguenots. The blood-stained doublet of
+one of them was fastened to a stick and carried in procession through
+the streets of Paris by a troop of noisy children. “This, or something
+of the sort, was done every day,” says the court chronicler, “so that
+no one could be punished.”[299] The blood-thirstiness of the multitude
+spread even to the young. Santa Croce writes to Cardinal Borromeo:
+“Monsieur d’Enghien, who is only a little boy of seven, is always
+saying that we must no longer delay to burn all the Huguenots without
+mercy.... This I learned from the constable, who expressed how greatly
+he was pleased to hear it.”
+
+The Constable Montmorency, who, as governor of Paris, should have
+supported the authority of the law, was one of the foremost to break
+it. He took such pleasure in destroying the Huguenot places of worship,
+that even the Catholics nicknamed him _Mr. Burn-bench_. In one
+day he pulled down the two meeting-houses at Popincourt,[300] and the
+mob bringing the timber to the square in front of the Hotel-de-Ville,
+burned it there with shouts of “God has not forgotten the city of
+Paris.” The pulpit was used with great effect to inflame the multitude.
+At the Fête Dieu, Charles of Guise, “the bloody cardinal,”[301] told
+his hearers “it was better to shed the last drop of their blood than
+permit God’s honor and his Church to be defiled by the presence of any
+other religion in France than that of their ancestors.”[302] Matters
+became so bad that at last Queen Elizabeth instructed her embassador
+to leave Paris, “because he could not witness such great cruelties.”
+What the queen-mother said or did to conciliate her royal sister is
+not known; but it is certain that Catherine was much grieved at this
+state of affairs--_diu multumque flevit_. There is a story of
+her adopting a rather oriental manner of learning the opinions of the
+citizens. Putting on a mask, such as the Italian ladies were accustomed
+to wear, she walked through the streets, accompanied by the Queen of
+Navarre. They went into the shops, pretending to purchase, and, as
+may be imagined, heard many strange things about themselves and the
+government.[303]
+
+All efforts at conciliation having failed, each party tried to
+strengthen itself by foreign alliances. Guise, Montmorency, and
+St. André had already, as we have seen, entered into a treasonable
+arrangement with Philip II., by which that monarch bound himself
+to aid with money and men in the extirpation of heresy in France;
+“on no pretense to spare the life of any heretic,” says the
+_Sommaire_.[304] The duke was specially charged “to blot out
+entirely the name, family, and race of Bourbon, lest from them some
+one should arise hereafter to restore the new religion.” In pursuance
+of this agreement the King of Spain wrote to the queen-mother offering
+military support.[305] Pius V. ordered collections to be made in the
+states of the Church, gathered contributions from the Italian princes,
+and sent a small force of mercenaries across the Alps.[306]
+
+In self-defense the Huguenots were forced to appeal to their brother
+Protestants for help; nor were Swiss, Germans, or English deaf to
+their appeal. By the treaty of Hampton Court (20th Sept., 1562)
+Elizabeth agreed to furnish 6000 men, of whom one-half were to garrison
+Havre, as a material guarantee until the end of the war. This was an
+impolitic concession on the part of the Huguenots; it turned many
+friends into enemies, and necessarily drove Catherine into the arms
+of the coalition. The Duke of Guise, only a few years before, had by
+the capture of Calais expelled the English from the “sacred soil” of
+France; and now the Huguenots were traitorously inviting them back.
+Unfortunately Elizabeth’s behavior only served to strengthen the
+suspicions of the French people. Her declared object was “to check the
+aspirations of the Guisian conspirators, who would never be satisfied
+until Scotland and England were united under one crown, and that worn
+by Mary Stuart.”[307] To the King of Spain she wrote, immediately after
+signing the treaty, that her aim was to preserve peace “by securing
+such ports as be next us from them (Guisians), without intent of
+offense to the king.”[308] But she did not preserve peace, and her
+actions did offend.
+
+Hostilities broke out long before these negotiations were concluded.
+By the middle of June the two armies were in the field and ready for
+action. They were not large: that under Navarre consisting of 4000
+foot and 3000 horse, that under Condé of 6000 foot and 2000 horse. The
+first movements were favorable to the Catholics. Having frustrated an
+attempt to surprise them, the royal forces prepared to attack Orleans,
+the Huguenot head-quarters, by cutting it off from the surrounding
+country. They retook Blois, Tours, Poitiers, Angers, and Bourges,
+almost without striking a blow, signalizing the capture of these cities
+by atrocities which could have been perpetrated only when the passions
+of a fierce soldiery were inflamed by religious fanaticism. At Blois a
+woman found praying with some neighbors was thrown into the water, and
+as she floated was beaten with sticks and pelted with stones until she
+died. An old man of seventy caught reading the Bible was immediately
+massacred; another had his eyes plucked out and was then knocked on
+the head; another was paraded through the city on an ass, with his
+face to the tail, pelted, hooted, and drowned. The pastor Chassebœuf
+was, by Guise’s express order, hung up to a tree without any form of
+trial.[309] There was much in the appearance of Tours to rouse the
+fanaticism of the soldiery. For some weeks the town had been in the
+hands of the Huguenots, who seized upon the churches, stole the plate,
+broke the images and ornaments, burned the service-books, desecrated
+the relics, and ordered every ecclesiastic to leave the place in
+twenty-four hours under pain of imprisonment. Contemporary records
+describe the destruction of a “Calvary” of gold and azure, one of the
+wonders of the world, which sixty years before had cost the large sum
+of ten thousand ducats. The plunder of the churches served to keep up
+the war. That of St. Martin at Tours furnished Condé with 1,200,000
+livres, without counting the jewels in the shrines.[310]
+
+When the king’s authority was restored in Tours, mass was ordered to
+be sung in St. Martin’s Church, but every thing in it had been broken
+or destroyed, except the stalls in the choir and a few of the painted
+windows. This was on the 13th June, and on the 14th and 15th of the
+following month the massacre occurred. The interval is sufficient to
+show that it was caused by something more than the usual military
+license of those rough days. We shall find a horrible sameness in these
+stories: men and women, young and old, were murdered indiscriminately;
+even children were not spared. Boats filled with victims were sunk
+in the river; thus anticipating, by more than two centuries, the
+_noyades_ of the infamous Carrier. Three hundred persons were
+shut up in a church, and after being kept there for three days without
+food, were bound two and two and taken to the _escorcherie_ (the
+knacker’s yard) and there killed. “Little children (whose parents had
+been murdered) could be bought for a crown apiece,” adds D’Aubigné. In
+five or six days the banks of the river down to Angers were covered
+with dead bodies, “dont les bestes mêmes s’espouvantoyent,” says
+Crespin, “at which even the wild beasts were horror-stricken.” After
+order had been restored by the Duke of Montpensier, a minister was
+hanged for preaching a sermon not to the taste of his hearers. Because
+the fronts of certain houses had not been decorated with hangings
+during the procession of Corpus Christi, some of the inhabitants
+were drowned, others imprisoned, and in every case the houses were
+thoroughly gutted. Two women were dragged to the river and flung into
+water so shallow, that they could not drown, whereupon they were beaten
+to death with oars and poles. Jean Bourgeau, president of the city, was
+caught while attempting to escape in a boat (30th Nov., 1562). He was
+first drowned and then hanged to a tree and disemboweled, “because not
+only had he been averse to punishing the heretics, but had moreover
+favored them by adhering to their erroneous opinions and oppressing the
+Catholics.”[311]
+
+From Tours the king’s forces marched to Poitiers, which fell after
+three days’ cannonade, and Bourges surrendered after a siege of ten
+days. The terms of capitulation conceded to the inhabitants were
+an amnesty for the past and liberty of conscience according to the
+Edict of January. Orleans was now quite insulated; but the Catholic
+chiefs, instead of following up their successes in that direction,
+drew off their army to Rouen, through which they feared that English
+forces might be poured into the country. Rouen was at that time one of
+the most important cities of France: there was none in the north to
+equal it in commerce, wealth, and population. Situated on the Seine,
+midway between its mouth and Paris, it commanded the main highway into
+the interior; and, so long as it was in hostile hands, no serious
+attempt could be made upon the strong city of Orleans. Strategical
+and political reasons being thus in favor of attacking Rouen, the
+royal army, now 18,000 strong, under the orders of the constable, sat
+down before the city on the 25th September. The Count of Montgomery’s
+garrison was about 4000 men, of whom nearly half were English. The
+trenches were opened to the sound of music, as was done more than
+once in the time of Louis XIV. In the town, as in the Huguenot armies
+generally, all was serious and severe; prayer-meetings and sermons
+with psalm-singing were the amusements of the garrison, who, like
+the Covenanters and Puritans, fought none the worse because they
+had bent the knee to God before marching to battle. The siege was
+pressed vigorously, for the cold nights and heavy rains of autumn were
+approaching, when the royal army would be unable to keep the field. The
+citizens of Paris, who were anxious to recover a city which interrupted
+all traffic with the sea, offered the king 200,000 crowns to pay and
+victual the besieging force.[312] Catherine, attended by her licentious
+maids of honor--her “flying squadron,” as they were afterward
+called--visited the army to encourage the troops by her presence. It
+is said that she went every day to Fort St. Catherine, where the fire
+was hottest; and when the constable and Guise remonstrated with her,
+representing that it was not her duty to expose her life, she answered:
+“Why should I spare myself more than you? Have I less interest in
+the result, or less courage? True, I have not your strength of body,
+but I have equal resolution of mind.” The soldiers called her “mater
+castrorum.”
+
+On the 26th October the breach was stormed. The fatigued and
+overmatched garrison made but a feeble resistance, and the city was
+won. Montgomery escaped, but those who remained had to suffer all the
+extremities of a town abandoned to the passions of an unscrupulous
+soldiery. The commanders had forbidden all pillage--for the besieged,
+though rebels, were still the king’s subjects--but the indiscipline
+of the army was too strong. The Swiss mercenaries obeyed the order,
+“but the French soldiers would sooner be killed than come away so long
+as there was any thing to take.” For three days the license endured,
+when the king, attended by his mother and the parliament, made his
+triumphal entry through the breach, and put an end to the outrages of
+the soldiery.[313]
+
+And now the hour of vengeance had come. The Catholics remembered how,
+one Sunday in May, the Huguenots, in the exultation of their triumph,
+had sacked and defaced the cathedral and thirty-six parish churches.
+“They made such work,” says Beza, “that they left neither altar nor
+image, font nor benitier.”[314] That this was not the act of a lawless
+mob, or of a sudden excitement, but of calmness and deliberation,
+is probable from what happened about the same time at Caen, in the
+same province, where the minister Cousin told the judges “that this
+idolatry had been put up with too long, and that it must be trampled
+down.” And here the destroyers, after scattering the ashes of William
+the Conqueror, breaking organs, pictures, pulpits, and statues, to the
+estimated value of 100,000 crowns, had the impudence to ask the town
+council to pay them for their two days’ work--which was done.[315]
+At Rouen, the anger of the Catholic soldiery was increased by the
+conduct of the Huguenot clergy, who had refused the honorable terms of
+surrender which had been offered them, declaring that Heaven would work
+a miracle, if all human means should fail, to prevent their falling
+into the hands of the Romanists. That miracle was not worked, and
+one of the first victims of this tampering with the Divine will was
+Marlorat, chief pastor of the city. He had been an Augustine monk,
+and, leaving his convent, escaped to Geneva, where he abjured Romanism.
+Apostate as he was in the eyes of the Catholics, he was permitted to
+appear at the conference of Poissy, where he acted as the Protestant
+leader until Beza arrived. Such an instance of toleration ought not to
+be overlooked.
+
+When Rouen fell, Marlorat hid himself, but his hiding-place was
+betrayed, and he was imprisoned. The constable went to visit him in
+his dungeon, and charged him with seducing the people. “If I have, God
+seduced me first,” he answered; “for I have preached nothing but his
+pure word.” He suffered in company with two of his flock, exhorting
+them to the last. The high bailiff swore a terrible oath, and struck
+him with his official staff to make him hold his tongue; and, as he was
+hanging, a soldier hacked his legs. Beza, who records these things,
+traces the finger of God in the misfortunes that subsequently befell
+Marlorat’s persecutors: “The captain who betrayed him was killed three
+weeks after; two of his judges died of strange diseases; the soldier
+who hacked his legs was killed by a sword; and the high bailiff in
+his cups quarreled with Marshal Vieilleville, who cut off the hand
+with which he had struck the martyr.” Many other victims fell besides
+the pastors, and the prisons were so crammed with pious men and women
+that Brevedent, the lieutenant of police, thought it his duty to
+remonstrate: “Why do you crowd the dungeons?” he asked. “Can you doubt
+what you ought to do? Is the river yet full?”
+
+In the course of the siege, Anthony of Navarre received a bullet wound
+in his shoulder, of which he died on the 17th November at Andelys.[316]
+During his feverish wanderings, he talked to his attendants of
+the orange groves of his expected kingdom of Sardinia, and of the
+golden sands of its rivers. No wife with loving hand smoothed his
+dying-pillow. She was far away in the south, training up her children
+in all godliness; but his mistress, Louise de Rouet, stayed with him
+to the last. Her character of him is by no means flattering: “The
+prince (she said) changed his religion and party almost as easily as
+he changed mistresses.” After he had received extreme unction, his
+uneasy conscience would not let him rest. “Read me a chapter of the
+Bible,” he said to his physician; and after the latter had read a
+portion of Scripture, Anthony interrupted him, and with tears in his
+eyes exclaimed: “If I do but get well, I will cause the Gospel to be
+preached throughout France.” But his good resolutions, if sincere, came
+too late; and, at the age of forty-four, he died regretted by neither
+party. Garnier mentions a curious peculiarity of this unworthy king
+without a kingdom: he was so irresistibly given to pilfering that,
+after he had gone to bed, the pages used to search his pockets in order
+to restore the property he had stolen.
+
+Condé was much grieved at the Rouen cruelties, particularly with
+the hanging of Marlorat and others, and ordered three persons to
+be hanged in retaliation.[317] The army, also, was so exasperated,
+that they massacred all the priests they found in Pluviers; and when
+the Catholics contended that the king might hang his rebellious
+subjects, they replied that “his name shrouded other men’s malice,
+wherefore, according to the proverb, they would make _such bread such
+brewisse_.” The prince’s jest is well known: “Our enemies have given
+us two shrewd checks in taking our rooks (meaning Rouen and Bourges),
+but I hope that now we may catch their knights, if they take the
+field.” But he was caught himself.
+
+The fall of Rouen not only did not restore peace, but the province of
+Normandy became more disturbed than ever. Both parties were equally
+violent, equally unscrupulous. They burned or plundered each other’s
+houses and farmsteads. The neighborhood of Rouen became a wide waste,
+and the people were reduced to beggary.[318] The government took
+advantage of their success to make a display of generosity which, had
+it been sincere, might have terminated the war. A royal edict promised
+a full and complete amnesty to all who had taken up arms, on condition
+that they ceased to attend Protestant sermons, and conformed outwardly
+to Catholicism. The numerous exceptions to this act of grace included
+the heads of the party, persons notoriously seditious, and such as had
+profaned the churches. A few gentlemen accepted these terms, but the
+vast majority saw that the edict was a mere trick to separate the army
+from its leaders.
+
+Battles and sieges now followed in quick succession, and in all parts
+of France at once. Condé, who had been reinforced by 4000 lansquenets
+and 300 reiters, brought from Germany by Andelot, after threatening
+Paris had moved into Normandy, in order to meet the auxiliaries, about
+3000 in number, promised by Queen Elizabeth. He was followed by the
+Duke of Guise, who came up with him on the banks of the Eure, a long
+narrow plain separating the two armies. The force under Condé amounted
+to 5000 foot and 8000 horse, while that under Guise consisted of 16,000
+foot and 3000 horse.[319] The latter fortified “against all chances”
+the petty town of Dreux, at the foot of a hill on whose top there stood
+a castle even then of some antiquity. A small stream ran through the
+plain, which was covered with wood, with here and there a hamlet of a
+few houses. Early in that dark winter’s morning (19th December) Condé
+prepared for battle. The prince went through the ranks exhorting his
+followers to do their duty as became Christians and loyal subjects,
+for they were fighting not against the king, but against his evil
+advisers; and reminded them of their parents and friends burned and
+massacred. After singing a psalm, wherein the God of Israel summons
+his people to avenge his cause, the troops knelt down in prayer,
+and as soon as the chaplain had ended, the whole army thundered out
+_Amen!_ For two hours the armies remained face to face within
+cannon-shot. “Every man stood fast,” says La Noue, “imagining in
+himself that they that came against him were no Spaniards, Englishmen,
+or Italians, but Frenchmen, and those of the bravest; among whom were
+their companions, friends, and kinsfolks, and also that within one hour
+they were to slay each other. This bred some horror, nevertheless,
+without quailing in courage, they thus stayed until the armies moved
+to join.” About one o’clock, Condé gave the signal to advance: before
+sunset it was all over. Heading the attack in person, he cut through
+the enemy’s line, captured some of his cannon, and took the constable
+prisoner. But, like Rupert at Edgehill, he followed up the pursuit so
+eagerly and so far, that he left his infantry exposed.[320] The Duke
+of Guise saw the opportunity, and sweeping down upon them with the
+cry of “They are ours! they are ours!” drove the German footmen off
+the field.[321] The native Huguenot infantry, now uncovered, resisted
+stoutly, but suffered in proportion. Meanwhile Condé, who was making
+his way back to the point of danger, fell to the ground in a small
+hedge-row, and before he could extricate himself from his horse, which
+had been knocked down by a bullet, a troop of Damville’s[322] brigade
+came up and took him prisoner. Coligny, who had been trying to make up
+for the prince’s rashness, saw that all was over, and made preparations
+to save the relics of the defeated army. Gathering round him the
+few troops that remained unbroken, he flung himself between the
+fugitives and the pursuing foe, to whom he presented such a resolute
+face that Guise dared not attack him. There is a story to the effect,
+that when the duke’s friends advised him to pursue the Huguenots, he
+said, “Peace, peace; I have to fight with a worse beast than all the
+Huguenots put together.” He meant Catherine de Medicis. Several fierce
+charges were made upon the Huguenot rear-guard, in one of which St.
+André was captured, and afterward murdered in cold blood.[323] Although
+a drawn battle[324] the number of killed and wounded, according to a
+statement by Ambrose Paré, was enormous: “I saw the earth covered for
+a good league all round,” he says; “they were reckoned at 2500 men at
+the outside. All that had been _polished off_ in less than two
+hours.”[325] Until 1789 a solemn procession took place every year at
+Dreux to commemorate this triumph of the Catholic cause.
+
+When the news of this battle reached Paris, the citizens gave way to
+transports of delight. The houses were illuminated; _Te Deums_
+were sung in the churches; salvos of artillery were fired from the
+Bastille. The Duke of Guise was made lieutenant-general and decorated
+with the Order of the Holy Ghost. Catherine shared the common joy, and
+when the good tidings reached Trent, where the council was sitting,
+they clapped their hands in exultation. The Catholics had, indeed,
+every reason to exult, for if victory had declared in favor of the
+Huguenots, the fortunes of France might have changed with its religion.
+“Well, then, we still have to say our prayers in French,” said
+Catherine, when the first reports of the battle assigned the victory to
+Condé.
+
+Both armies now retired to winter-quarters: Coligny leading the remnant
+of the Huguenot forces to Orleans, and Guise returning to Paris with an
+escort of 2400 Spanish arquebusiers. Now that St. André was killed and
+Montmorency a prisoner, the duke found himself the most powerful man
+in the kingdom. Reorganizing his troops and being strongly reinforced,
+he marched out early next year to lay siege to Orleans, for winter
+brought little cessation to the strife. Coligny, who was in great
+want of money, had moved into Normandy, to re-open his communications
+with England, having left his brother Andelot in command of the city.
+The latter, though suffering severely from a quartan ague, took the
+most active measures of defense; but Guise was no mean soldier, and
+had had large experience in sieges. He captured one of the suburbs by
+assault; his lines drawing closer every day effectually cut off all
+succor; the admiral was too weak to attempt to raise the siege, and the
+duke had fixed the final attack for the 19th February. Writing to the
+queen-regent, he expressed a hope that she would not be displeased if
+he destroyed every thing within the walls, “even to the dogs and rats,”
+and sowed the foundations of the city with salt. It is probable that
+there would have been a terrible massacre; but just as all hope seemed
+lost, the hand of an assassin brought deliverance (18th February,
+1563). On his death-bed Duke Francis attempted to justify himself for
+the atrocities at Vassy, protesting that he had neither premeditated
+nor ordered them. But death-bed confessions are rarely authentic
+enough to be relied on: they are too often colored by the report of
+interested witnesses.[326] On this point Maimbourg and Varillas are at
+variance--the latter affirming that the duke prayed God to pardon all
+his faults, “except that of Vassy.” He is also reported to have sent a
+message to the queen-regent, advising her to make peace without delay,
+adding that “the man who would prevent it is an enemy to the king and
+state.” The near approach of death had probably brought that wisdom and
+calm judgment in which he was so deficient, for only a month earlier
+Throckmorton wrote of him: “The duke will in no wise accord to peace
+till the Protestants be utterly exterminated.”[327] When Catherine
+heard the news of his murder, she spoke her mind pretty plainly about
+him: “The man is dead I hated most of all the world.” And when Condé
+characterized his death as the removal of a burden, she continued: “If
+the kingdom has been relieved of one burden, ten have been taken off my
+bosom.”
+
+The murderer was Jean Poltrot de Méré, a gentleman of Angoumois and
+a convert to the Reformed faith, whose temper had been soured by
+misfortune. Imagining the Duke of Guise to be the great obstacle to the
+victory of the Huguenot cause, he determined upon his assassination,
+and after watching him for several days, succeeded in shooting his
+victim as he was passing, slenderly escorted, through a wood.[328]
+Poltrot fled, and would probably have escaped; but not knowing the
+country, he rode round and round until he returned nearly to the spot
+where he had fired at the duke. He was soon captured and taken to
+Paris, where, after being tortured to force him to reveal the names
+of his accomplices, he was sentenced to a cruel death. He was dragged
+to the place of execution on a hurdle, surrounded by a strong guard
+to prevent his being torn in pieces by the populace. His right hand
+was cut off, his flesh torn by pincers, and melted lead poured into
+the wounds. His limbs were then tied to four horses, who, pulling in
+opposite directions, endeavored to tear him asunder; but they pulled in
+vain, until the hangman severed the muscles with a sword. Finally his
+head was cut off and his body burned to ashes.
+
+While stretched upon the rack in the torture-chamber, Poltrot
+acknowledged that he had been bribed by Coligny to kill the duke. It is
+true he had been much in the Huguenot camp, and the admiral had given
+him money to purchase a horse--circumstances that tended to corroborate
+his confession; but his hasty execution, without confronting him
+with the admiral, or giving the latter an opportunity of vindicating
+himself, was highly suspicious. Some persons have supposed that the
+queen-regent had a share in the murder, on the ground that she once
+said (or is reported to have said) to Tavannes: “The Guises wished to
+make themselves kings, but I took good care of them before Orleans.”
+Both suspicions are equally baseless, but the Guise family persisted
+in charging Coligny with the murder; and it must be acknowledged that
+the admiral’s conduct and language were not altogether satisfactory.
+In his remarks on Poltrot’s interrogatory he says, that when some
+one declared he would kill the duke in the midst of his soldiers, he
+had not discouraged him (ne l’avait point détourné), adding that he
+remembered well his last meeting with Poltrot, who went so far as to
+say that it would be easy to kill M. de Guise, and that he (Coligny)
+had made no reply to it, “considering it to be mere idle talk.” In a
+letter to the queen-mother, which accompanied these remarks, he says:
+“During the last few months, I have no longer contested the matter
+against those who displayed such intentions, because I had information
+that certain persons had been practiced upon to kill me.... Do not
+imagine, however, that what I say proceeds from any regret which the
+duke’s death occasions me. No, far from that, I esteem it the greatest
+blessing that could possibly have befallen this kingdom, the Church of
+God, and more especially myself and all my house.”[329] This leaves
+no doubt that Coligny assented, if he did not consent to the crime.
+He was not unwilling to profit by it, though he would do nothing to
+further it. This may diminish the lofty moral pedestal on which some
+writers have placed the Protestant hero; but he was a man, and had all
+a man’s failings, though he may have controlled them by his religious
+principles. Nor was assassination considered at all cowardly or
+disgraceful in those days; not more so than killing a man in a duel was
+until very recently among us.
+
+The news of the duke’s murder was received with a cry of horror among
+the Catholic party. Pius IV. ordered a magnificent funeral ceremony
+to be performed in St. Peter’s, and Julius Poggianus, in his sermon
+on the occasion, comparing Francis to Judas Maccabæus, called him the
+preserver of France. In a funeral service at Notre Dame in Paris,
+the vicar-general of Rouen extolled the duke, but would not pray for
+him, “car fait injure au martyr qui prie pour le martyr.” He treated
+Guise as a sort of demi-god, and declared that nothing restrained
+him from reckoning the murdered man among the saints but his respect
+for the pope, who had not yet canonized him.[330] On the other hand,
+these honors only served to call forth a torrent of vituperation from
+his enemies. The murder was openly defended, Poltrot was compared to
+Judith, and ballads were sung in his praise.[331] He was called
+
+    L’exemple merveilleux
+      D’une extrême vaillance,
+    Le dixième des preux,
+      Libérateur de France.
+
+In another ballad we are told that
+
+    Dieu suscita le vaillant de Méré,
+    Qui le Guisart a massacré.
+
+Even Beza conferred on him the martyr’s crown, and Cecil “was
+very glad to hear of the duke’s hurt, and could wish his soul in
+heaven.”[332]
+
+The times were favorable for peace. The Duke of Guise dead and the
+constable a prisoner, there was no one to take the command of the
+royal army. “I was obliged to command it myself,” said Catherine, “for
+Brissac was so ill that he could not leave his bed.” On the other hand,
+the Prince of Condé, with all his desire for liberty, was unwilling to
+change “the soft air of the court and the smiles of the ladies” for
+the austerities of the Huguenot camp. His offer to become the channel
+of negotiations between the two religions was accepted, though not
+without opposition from the embassadors of Philip II. and the pope,
+who were for continuing the war. The Duke of Tuscany expressed his
+dissatisfaction at the negotiations; and the queen-regent, to quiet
+them, seems to have hinted that the pacification would be only a trap.
+Santa Croce writes: “If any opportunity is found of infringing the
+articles of this treaty, they will not be kept.... Should the queen
+do as she promises, means will be found of punishing these people
+when they are disarmed and dispersed.” But the peace party was too
+strong, and the terms of a treaty were soon agreed upon. Before finally
+accepting them, the Prince of Condé consulted the synod then assembled
+at Orleans; but that impracticable body, while claiming absolute
+liberty for themselves, would have denied it to those whom they
+called “atheists, libertines, and anabaptists.” As it would have been
+useless to attempt to reconcile the extreme fanatics on both sides,
+the Pacification of Amboise was signed on the 19th March, 1563. The
+right of public worship conceded by the Edict of January was greatly
+restricted, the Huguenots being no longer permitted to assemble outside
+the walls of the cities, but only in a single place within every
+bailliage inhabited by Protestant nobles and their retainers. On the
+other hand, one clause expressly bore that “every man should live at
+liberty in his own house, without search or molestation, and without
+being vexed or constrained for conscience’ sake.” Although the treaty
+was acceptable to the majority of the Huguenot party, who were growing
+tired of the war, all were not equally pleased. The admiral, who had
+protested against it, characterized it by a single phrase: “That stroke
+of the pen throws down more churches than the enemy’s soldiers could
+have destroyed in ten years.”
+
+Notwithstanding the insinuations of Cardinal Santa Croce, that “she
+would pacify every thing in a few hours whenever she pleased,”[333]
+there does not appear to be any reason to doubt Catherine’s sincerity.
+It was her interest to pacify the country in a sense very different
+from that intended by the papal envoy: she had something more to fear
+than the hostility of the Huguenots. Spain was looking on, eager to
+take advantage of the distresses of France, and a continuation of the
+war could bring nothing but disaster whichever side prevailed. Less
+than a year of civil strife had been sufficient to exhaust the finances
+of the country, to accumulate an immense debt, to destroy commerce,
+and to throw half the land out of cultivation. Castelnau’s testimony
+in this matter is indisputable: “Agriculture was abandoned; multitudes
+of towns and villages, pillaged and burned, were deserted, and the
+poor laborers, driven from their homes, dispoiled of their furniture
+and cattle, robbed to-day by one party, to-morrow by another, fled
+like wild beasts, leaving all they had to the mercy of those who were
+without mercy. Commerce was quite given up: no one was secure of his
+property or life.... Thus the war, undertaken for religion, annihilated
+religion and piety.”[334] “The Catholics,” adds Claude Haton, “were
+as great thieves and brigands as the Huguenots.” The husbandman, no
+longer able to till his fields in safety, either joined the army or
+turned robber--a difference more in name than in reality. In many parts
+they banded together to protect themselves, but they soon became little
+better than brigands, attacking travelers, and ransoming the smaller
+towns and villages. In the Vendomois they were so violent that the
+gentlemen of the province united to repress their excesses and restore
+order, putting at their head the poet Ronsard, a gentleman and also
+a parish priest. “There are too many people in France,” shouted the
+leader of one of the wild gangs called Barefeet (_Pieds-Nus_);
+“we will kill a lot of them and make bread cheap.”[335] These ruffians
+committed horrible atrocities in Champagne, sacking the houses of rich
+and poor alike, killing the men and reserving the women for a worse
+fate. At Céant-en-Othe, inhabited chiefly by Protestants, they burned
+the villagers alive in their cottages. A poor girl, after enduring
+unutterable barbarities, was covered with straw and roasted alive, as
+they would have scorched a dead pig. One man was tied to a post and
+used as a target for their arquebuses.
+
+Trade suffered not less than agriculture, for commerce can not thrive
+without the security of peace and law. Intercourse between town and
+town was almost entirely cut off, for the highways were no longer
+safe except to strong bodies of armed men. Tradesmen and mechanics,
+therefore, quitted their counters and workshops for the camp; and
+members of the inferior clergy, whose revenues had been extinguished by
+the troubled state of affairs, flung aside the frock and assumed the
+cuirass. And as if to make the confusion more complete, justice could
+not be administered, so much were the tribunals overawed everywhere. In
+Paris the anarchy seems to have been complete, each man being a law to
+himself. Not even in the terrible revolution that closed the eighteenth
+century were the bonds of society more thoroughly relaxed.
+
+The royal edict which carried out the provisions of the treaty of
+Amboise met with considerable opposition from the Catholics. At first,
+all the parliaments of the kingdom refused to register it, and their
+resistance was only to be overcome by the direct intervention of the
+crown. The Parliament of Paris yielded under protest; that of Dijon
+would not give way. The Duke of Aumale, brother to the murdered Francis
+of Guise, and governor of Burgundy, supported the parliament in their
+resistance, and declared, “There shall sooner be two suns in heaven
+than two religions in my government.” When the municipality of Amiens
+was in due course instructed to act in conformity with the edict, they
+pleaded that the instructions were insufficient, and put them aside
+until the king wrote to them in a tone that was not to be trifled with.
+The disappointment of the fanatic Catholics is manifest from a plot
+formed by a “fraternal association” to massacre all the Huguenots in
+the capital. All not of the Guise faction, and such as were moderate
+either in religion or politics, were termed “suspects,” and as such
+condemned to be sacrificed. L’Hopital, “the traitor chancellor,” and
+Montmorency, “le mauvais riche,” were to be the first victims. The plot
+was discovered and frustrated by Joan of Navarre, and some of the most
+violent of the civic conspirators were hanged at their own windows
+without any form of trial.[336]
+
+The pope did not openly protest against the Pacification of
+Amboise, but virtually condemned it by a bull to the cardinal
+inquisitors-general (7th April, 1563), permitting them to take
+proceedings against heretics and their supporters, even in the states
+beyond their jurisdiction. The opposition of the court of Spain was
+entirely selfish. Philip II. knew that peace in France was dangerous to
+tyranny in the Netherlands. Strengthened by his discontent, the Spanish
+faction openly set the treaty at defiance. The government, however, was
+sincere in its desire for tranquillity, and Catherine labored earnestly
+to conciliate the malcontents. When Jacques Philippeaux was sent to
+Gap, he called upon the Huguenots to deliver up their arms, but granted
+them liberty of conscience, and permitted them to bury their dead in
+the general cemetery with their own forms and ceremonies, until another
+place could be provided. But such instances of toleration and charity
+were rare; for France was like the sea, where the waves continue to
+rise long after the storm has ceased.
+
+Early in the course of the war, Coligny had the misfortune to lose
+his son after a short illness of six days. He felt the blow keenly,
+and to comfort his wife, who took it very much to heart, he wrote the
+following letter: “Although you may grieve over the loss of our dear
+child, yet I must remind you that, as it was God’s pleasure to take
+him, so it should be ours to obey His will. He was a good child, and
+we might have entertained great hopes of one so well conducted; but
+remember, dearest, that we can not live without offending God, and that
+our boy is happy in dying at an age when he was exempt from sin. It was
+God’s will, and I offer Him my other children, if it be His pleasure.
+Do the same, if you desire He should bless you, for in Him we should
+place all our hope. Farewell, my dearly beloved. I hope to see you
+shortly, which will be a great joy to me.”
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER VII.
+
+                                CHAOS.
+
+                             [1562–1563.]
+
+   Nature of the Struggle--Montluc--His Barbarity--Des Adrets--His
+   Ferocity--Murders at Gaillac--The Reform in Provence and
+   Languedoc--Scenes at Orange--Revolt at Valence--Disturbances at
+   Lyons--Compromise--La Rochelle--Massacre at Toulouse--Exodus
+   of Sisteron--Sauteries of Macon--Limoux--Palm Sunday at
+   Castelnaudary--The Monks of St. Calais--Violence in Berry--The
+   Chatelaine of Avallon--The Proctor of Bar--Atrocities of the
+   Bishop of Le Mans and his Lieutenant--Huguenot Cruelties at
+   Dieppe and Bayeux--Angoulême--Quarrels at Court--Siege of
+   Havre--Duplicity of English Government--Charles Proclaimed of
+   Age--His Character--Council of Trent.
+
+
+While the events we have described in the preceding chapter were taking
+place in the north and west of France, the rest of that beautiful land
+was a prey to anarchy and all the direst evils of civil war. In our
+favored country, where internecine strife has been so long unknown, and
+where, even in its worst days, Englishmen never forgot that they were
+brothers, we can hardly picture to ourselves the frightful condition of
+France during the whole reign of Charles IX. A few scattered incidents
+must be taken as a sample of the hideous mass of horrors: to repeat
+a tenth part of them would sicken and disgust the least sensitive of
+readers.
+
+Foremost among the blood-stained heroes of these cruel scenes are two
+personages, distinct yet alike, to whom no parallel can be found except
+in the sanguinary butchers of the Revolution of 1789. They are Montluc
+and Des Adrets.
+
+Blaise de Montluc had distinguished himself in the Italian wars of
+Francis I. He had been made prisoner at Pavia, and had decided the
+wavering fortunes of Cerisoles. As lieutenant of Guyenne he was
+ordered to reduce that province to submission, and he did it in a very
+characteristic manner, putting his Huguenot prisoners to death without
+permitting them to say a word, “for they have golden tongues.” Terror
+was his great weapon, and he used to boast that any one could know
+which way he had passed by the “marks” he left upon the trees by the
+roadside, adding, with a grim smile, that “one man hanging frightens
+more than a hundred slain.” His “Commentaries,” an autobiographical
+sketch, which he composed when years and disease prevented his using
+the sword any longer, are a curious illustration of the state of mind
+to which a man can be brought who makes mere military discipline the
+principle of his actions. Reform was insubordination; “obedience to
+the king’s edict or death”--he allowed no middle course. One day
+he hanged six prisoners without a minute’s delay. “Why,” said the
+terrified neighbors when they heard of it, “he puts men to death
+without trial.” What need of trial? he would have replied; you are
+in arms against the king. At St. Mezard four prisoners were brought
+before him as he stood in the church-yard, his two executioners behind
+him with their swords drawn; they always accompanied him, with cords
+and other implements of their office. One of the prisoners was charged
+with seditious language. Montluc caught him violently by the throat:
+“Rascal, how dare you insult the king with your ribald tongue?” “Mercy,
+mercy!” cried the man. “What! expect me to spare you when you have
+not spared your king!” And, in a towering passion, Montluc threw the
+poor wretch to the ground, his head falling on a broken monument.
+“Strike, scoundrel!” roared Blaise to one of his executioners; and
+at the word the sword fell, decapitating the man, and chipping a
+fragment of stone from the slab. Two others were hanged on a tree hard
+by, and the fourth was scourged so severely that he died a few days
+after. Montluc complacently adds, “And this was the first execution
+I ordered after starting from home, without trial or sentence, for I
+have heard say that in these matters you should hang first.... It shut
+the mouths of many seditious people.” He avenged M. Fumel’s murder by
+hanging or breaking on the wheel in one day between thirty and forty
+persons, innocent as well as guilty. The hot-headed Huguenots of the
+south retaliated at Cahors by hanging as many Catholics as they could
+catch, fourteen or fifteen in number, who had assisted Montluc in his
+atrocities. At Gironde he made a capture of some eighty Huguenots, of
+whom he hanged seventy to the pillars of the market-house “sans autre
+cérémonie.” Describing his doings at the village of Feugaroles, he
+says: “We were so few that we were not able to kill all: the bandoliers
+shot them down like game.” In one of his expeditions he fell in with
+the Queen of Navarre, who received him very badly, and to his great
+surprise “called him a tyrant,” and otherwise reproached him. His
+ferocity he considered a virtue, and justified his cruelty as necessary
+to get the better of his enemies. “God,” he adds, “must be very
+merciful to us, considering the evils we commit.”[337] He was thankful
+not without reason, for at the end of the war he was richer by 100,000
+crowns.
+
+Still more ferocious, and, if possible, with still fewer redeeming
+qualities, was François de Beaumont, baron des Adrets, whose name is
+still used in the south to scare naughty children. Ostensibly he was
+a Protestant, but in reality a mere agent of the queen-mother against
+the Lorraine party.[338] He would sometimes amuse himself by making
+his prisoners leap from the top of a tower, or from a high window, on
+the pikes of his soldiers stationed below. On one occasion--it was
+at Montbrison, in August, 1562--a prisoner hesitated, upon which Des
+Adrets reproached him with cowardice. The other retorted: “I dare
+you to do it in ten times,” which caused his life to be spared. The
+slaughter in that little town was fearful: more than eight hundred
+men, women, and children were murdered; the streets were strewn with
+corpses, and “the gutters looked as if it had rained blood,” says a
+contemporary. At another time, though this belongs to a different
+period of his history--the baron marched to besiege Valence, where
+(as we shall see presently) the Reformed had revolted and seized upon
+the Grey Friars’ Church. In defiance of his threats, they publicly
+celebrated the Lord’s Supper in the appropriated church, as many as
+5000 partaking of the sacrament. They afterward came to terms with
+him, agreeing to open their gates and restore the church; but Des
+Adrets had no sooner entered than he seized a number of Protestants
+and sentenced them to lose their heads. They were taken to punishment
+with their mouths gagged; and after being dismembered, their limbs were
+fastened to the doors of the church they had profaned.[339] Strange to
+say, however, the baron professed to deplore the cruel necessities of
+war, and excused his barbarities by pleading that it was not cruelty
+to retaliate. “The first acts are cruelties,” he said, “the second
+mere justice.” De Thou, who saw him at Grenoble, describes his green
+and vigorous old age, his fierce eyes, and thin, fleshless features,
+marked, like Sylla’s, with red spots, as of blood.[340]
+
+The ferocity of Des Adrets was exceeded by the atrocities committed
+under the eyes of Cardinal Strozzi, Bishop of Albi, who excited the
+populace of Gaillac to massacre their Protestant brethren, with whom
+they had hitherto lived on friendly terms. About seventy Huguenots
+were seized as they were attending divine worship, and thrust into a
+dungeon of the abbey of St. Michael, situated on a precipitous rock
+above the river Tarn. A laborer, wearing the judicial cap and robe
+of a magistrate whom he had killed, went through the farce of trying
+the prisoners and condemning them to be thrown from the wall into the
+river. Boatmen were stationed on the banks of the stream to brain such
+as were not killed by the fall.
+
+In the south of France, the Reformed doctrines had extended more
+widely and struck deeper root than in other parts of that kingdom.
+This difference was owing to a combination of many causes. The great
+cities of Provence and Languedoc still retained many of their municipal
+privileges, dating from the time of the Roman dominion, which made them
+almost republican. This begat the spirit of independence which always
+accompanies self-government. Moreover, the Albigensian crusade of the
+thirteenth century had not exterminated heresy: the opinions that had
+been so bitterly persecuted fastened their roots deep in the hearts of
+the southern population, where they lay, generation after generation,
+waiting for the opportunity of displaying themselves. It came at
+last, and with it a desire to revenge themselves on the descendants
+of those who had devastated the fair south with fire and sword. It
+was an oppressed nation rising against their oppressors, the sins of
+the fathers being visited upon the children. At the first outbreak
+of hostilities, the Huguenots seized upon the churches, which they
+purified of all marks of idolatry, destroying the relics and making
+a jest of the consecrated wafer. In some towns they entirely forbade
+the Catholic worship, turned the nuns from their convents, and even
+compelled them to marry. Beza, in a letter to the Queen of Navarre,
+expressed himself plainly, though not very strongly, upon the matter:
+“About this destruction of images I can say nothing more than what I
+have always felt and preached, that such a mode of procedure does not
+at all please me.” The violation of sepulture he declared to be utterly
+without excuse, and that Condé was determined to punish it.
+
+At Orange, the capital of the little principality which gave a title to
+William III. of England, and to his still more illustrious predecessor,
+the liberator of Holland, the Huguenots had long enjoyed an unusual
+immunity from persecution; but the news of the massacre at Vassy, and
+the threatening language of their orthodox neighbors, made them arm in
+self-defense. This but accelerated the crisis; the Catholics attacked
+the city, which, after a stout resistance, was captured, and treated as
+a fortress taken by storm (6th May, 1562). Serbelloni, who commanded
+the pontifical auxiliaries, excited his followers to their bloody
+work. They spared neither age nor sex: all the sick in the hospital
+were killed, some being tossed from the windows on the spears of the
+soldiers below. Women were hanged to the balconies of houses, and
+made targets to be shot at. But this was the least of the atrocities
+they had to suffer at the hands of a licentious soldiery, who often
+took pleasure in destroying their victims by the most lingering
+tortures they could devise.[341] When Montbrun captured Mornas, where
+these butchers had taken refuge, he put them all to death, and threw
+their bodies into the river, having stuck on them a notice to the
+“toll-keepers of Avignon to permit the ruffians to pass, as they had
+paid the toll already.”
+
+On the 25th April, 1562, the Seigneur de la Motte-Gondrin, who was
+governor of Dauphiny in the absence of the Duke of Guise, seized the
+gates of Valence; but his force was not strong enough to hold the city,
+which the next day was retaken by the Huguenot citizens, aided by their
+brethren of Montelimart and other places. Gondrin himself was attacked
+at his lodging, and the rebels having set fire to it to drive him out,
+he and all his party were slain. Among them was the provost of the
+city, upon whom was found a missive from the Duke of Guise, ordering
+him to “massacre and put to death all followers of the Gospel without
+any regard to age or sex.”[342]
+
+The disturbances at Lyons began in the night of the 12th April, when
+the Catholics, “without any provocation,” rose in several parts of the
+city. About a dozen persons were murdered, and among them a woman, who
+fell by the hand of her own son. The governor, De Saulx, called in
+reinforcements, while the Huguenots were strengthened by the arrival of
+two hundred men from the surrounding Protestant towns. Both parties,
+watching each other, kept under arms for a fortnight, until Wednesday
+the 26th, when the Protestants, to the number of 1200, assembled
+in their temple, and after invoking the blessing of God upon their
+enterprise, marched out, occupied the Saone bridge, and made themselves
+masters of the city. Every convent was broken open, every friar and
+nun turned out.[343] In this tumult only three persons were killed,
+and as many wounded. A treaty was now arranged with the Senate, who
+promised to assign churches to the Protestants. The citizens who had
+left for religion were permitted to return, the mass was abolished,
+liberty of conscience proclaimed, and the Senate was in future to be
+composed of twelve Protestant and as many Catholic councilors.[344] But
+the Huguenots do not appear to have kept to the spirit of the treaty,
+however faithfully they may have adhered to the letter. They committed
+devastations that would have disgraced the Vandals. Churches were
+ravaged, tombs broken open, coffins stripped of their lead and their
+gold or silver plates; the bells were broken up and the basilica of the
+Maccabees destroyed by gunpowder. There does not appear to have been
+any private plunder, and this is the only redeeming feature in these
+riotous scenes.
+
+The flagrant violations of the January edict by the Catholics roused
+the Huguenots of La Rochelle to assert their rights, and accordingly
+the Lord’s Supper was administered with much solemnity--not without the
+walls, but in the very heart of the city--in the Place de la Bourserie,
+on the 31st May. Armed men closed every avenue, and a guard of forty
+soldiers patrolled the adjacent streets to prevent violence. About four
+in the afternoon, the people, excited by the novelty of the spectacle
+and the language of the preachers, rushed to the churches, threw down
+the altars, and burned the images.[345] The Count of Jarnac and the
+mayor, who were both Calvinists, vehemently but ineffectually condemned
+such violence, and were supported by the ministers. Some priests who
+had been shut up in the Lantern Tower were stabbed and thrown half dead
+into the sea. One Stephen Chamois, a Carmelite monk, had escaped from
+the city; but being recognized at Aunai in Saintonge, he was called
+upon to abjure, and, on his refusing to do so, was murdered on the spot.
+
+The city of Toulouse was notorious for the ferocity of its
+population--a character which it has preserved nearly to our own
+day. At this time the Protestant inhabitants were estimated at
+20,000 souls--a manifest exaggeration, although it was one of the
+most populous cities of France. Their number was certainly numerous
+enough to ensure a certain amount of toleration, and matters went on
+quietly until the Pacification of Amboise. When the Parliament of
+Toulouse received the edict, with instructions to see it properly
+observed, they protested and sent a deputation to the king, praying
+him, in case the edict could not be altered, “to permit them to sell
+their property and go elsewhere, preferring to lose their goods,
+and even their lives, rather than their faith.” Their petition had
+received no answer, when in the month of April (1562) a disturbance
+occurred at a funeral. Some lives were lost and the murderers were
+punished. The excited Protestants immediately rose and seized the
+gates and the Hôtel-de-Ville; and the parliament, determined to crush
+the insurrection at any cost, called upon the populace to arm in the
+defense of religion and order. They rushed like beasts of prey upon
+their victims; they filled the prisons, tossed Huguenots alive out of
+the windows of their houses, threw them into the Garonne, and if the
+poor wretches tried to crawl out of the water, they were beaten down
+with stones and staves. In May the two parties came to an arrangement
+by which the Huguenots agreed to leave the city in a body; but they
+were not to escape so easily. The Catholic peasants of the neighborhood
+waylaid the smaller and unarmed bodies, and killed between 3000 and
+4000 of them. Thrice the king granted an amnesty to the Protestant
+citizens; thrice the parliament refused to register it, and continued
+their vindictive measures.[346]
+
+On the other side of France a similar voluntary expatriation occurred.
+The inhabitants of Sisteron left their city. For twenty-two days a
+crowd of both sexes and all ages wandered through the wild inhospitable
+country of the Upper Durance, passing the night in remote and desert
+valleys. Many perished by the swords of the Catholics; many died of
+hunger and exhaustion; the remainder at last entered the friendly walls
+of Grenoble, singing psalms of deliverance.
+
+At Macon, where the church was barely two years old, the Huguenots
+made themselves masters of the city, which was recovered by Tavannes
+a few months later (19th August, 1562). He plundered every thing
+on which he could lay his hand, and is reported to have picked up
+enough to buy an estate of 10,000 livres a year. His wife, who was
+equally unscrupulous, contrived to fill one hundred and eighty trunks
+with linen, jewelry, ornaments, etc. No wonder that, after such an
+example, men of high rank fomented discord and cherished persecution.
+St. Point was appointed governor. He was the son of a priest, and
+“thoroughly bloody and more than cruel,” said Beza. After dinner, when
+the ladies went out to walk, he used to amuse them by throwing his
+prisoners off the bridge into the Saone, jesting at their struggles
+to save their lives. This savage sport the Catholics named “la farce
+de St. Point;” but it is better known in history as the “sauteries,”
+or “leaps of Macon.” The governor justified these cruelties as being
+mere retaliation for similar barbarities committed by Des Adrets at
+Montbrison, which the latter in his turn justified by the outrages
+at Orange. Thus one excess leads to another: _abyssus abyssum
+invocat_.
+
+At Limoux in Languedoc, the disturbances were so many and so often
+accompanied by loss of life that Marshal de Foix entered the town to
+enforce the law (6th June, 1562). This he effected by letting his
+soldiery loose upon the inhabitants without distinction of religion.
+One Catholic, dwelling outside the walls, had his eyes plucked out
+and his nose cut off; another was killed as he left mass, and his
+body thrown naked into the road. The value of the booty acquired by
+the marshal was estimated at three or four hundred thousand livres.
+At Castelnaudary, as the Catholics were walking in procession on Palm
+Sunday (1562), they set fire to a mill in which the Protestants were
+worshiping outside the town, and killed all who tried to escape. The
+number of victims amounted to sixty, among whom were the treasurer of
+Catherine de Medicis, three municipal councilors, and the minister,
+whose bowels were torn out and burned in a bonfire. At St. Calais
+in the Vendomois the Protestants put a garrison in the monastery,
+which was like a fortress, with its ditches, ramparts, and flanking
+towers. The monks called for help, and one day, when the bell rang for
+vespers, they headed their allies and killed thirty of the Huguenots.
+A bloody retaliation soon followed: a resolute band, collected from
+the surrounding district, stormed the abbey and put to death nearly all
+the priests and monks they found in it. At Issoudun in Berry (Aug.,
+1562), the soldiery rebaptized the little Huguenot children, even a
+girl of thirteen being held naked over the font. One Furet was about
+to be hanged without trial, and had already mounted the ladder, when
+the king’s advocate suggested that it would be well to go through
+some judicial formality. Accordingly Furet was led back to prison,
+confronted with witnesses, condemned, and executed within an hour.
+At Roquebrun two Catholics who protested against the cruelties there
+perpetrated had their eyes plucked out by order of De Brezons. At
+Aurillac every house was stripped from roof to cellar.[347] At Auxerre,
+a street riot in the month of August, in which a man was killed, was
+the signal for a rising. The wife of the castellan of Avallon was
+stabbed with many daggers, and flung into the river. Being young
+and strong, she swam for some time, until a boatman killed her with
+an oar. Her body was then drawn ashore and exposed to unmentionable
+brutalities. Two months later, when the Protestants were assembled for
+worship at a _pressoir_ outside the town, they were attacked, but
+fortunately escaped. Their houses, however, were pillaged and one man
+so maltreated that he died shortly after. Tavannes was sent to restore
+order, and he hanged three Catholics, but by way of compensation
+inflicted a similar punishment on five Huguenots. At Bar-sur-Seine,
+Ralet, the king’s proctor, put his own son to death for being found
+among the Protestants.[348] The historian who reports this adds that
+the Catholics cut open the bodies of women and children to eat their
+hearts. These and other abominations which he records are probably the
+invention, or at least the exaggeration, of religious party spirit.
+
+In the little town of Bellesme a man was hanged for declaring the
+costume of the Virgin to be indecent, and another shot because he would
+not go to vespers. At Epernay in Champagne, a man who had been thrown
+half dead into the Marne, was revived by the shock. He floated down the
+river until he reached a sheltered place, where he got out, but was
+followed, caught, and drowned in a deep hole. Some of the spectators,
+who were Catholics, could not restrain their tears, for which they
+were beaten and left for dead. Charles d’Argennes, Bishop of Le Mans,
+who had been expelled by the Huguenots, raised a band of ruffians
+who plundered the farm-houses and robbed the travelers on the roads.
+One victim was hung up by the feet after his eyes were plucked out.
+The bishop hanged two hundred persons, some of whom were very young
+boys, and two madmen, who went singing and dancing to the gallows. A
+woman was killed and her mouth stuffed with leaves torn from the New
+Testament. The bishop’s lieutenant, Boisjourdan, distinguished himself
+by a crime without parallel even in that cruel age. Two children, whose
+mother had been put to death, went and begged him to restore part of
+her confiscated property to keep them from starvation. He received
+them kindly, and sat them down at table to dine with him. At a given
+signal a soldier took the boy, a lad of fourteen, under the pretense of
+showing him his bed, led him into the garden, there strangled him, and
+threw the body into a pond. He then fetched the sister, who went out
+joyfully to meet her brother, whose fate she shared after she had been
+foully abused. For such atrocities the pope rewarded Argennes by making
+him a cardinal in 1570.
+
+Similar ferocities were alleged against the Huguenots, many of which
+are unfortunately too true. Thus we find the people of Dieppe (the
+Rochelle of northern France) pillaging and defacing churches, and
+melting down the sacred vessels, from which they collected 1200
+pounds of silver. In bands of 200 and 300 they made forays into the
+adjacent districts--to Eu and Arques--from which they never returned
+empty-handed. We read of their dragging priests into Dieppe tied
+to their horses’ tails and flogging them at beat of drum in the
+market-place. Some were thrown into the sea in their sacerdotal robes;
+some were fastened to a cross and dragged through the streets by ropes
+round their necks; and, to crown all, some were buried in the ground
+up to the shoulders, while the Huguenots, as if playing a game of
+nine-pins, flung huge wooden balls at their heads.[349]
+
+A few weeks after the war broke out, the Protestants of Bayeux rose
+against the clergy, committing the customary devastations, besides
+violating the tombs and throwing out the mouldering corpses. They
+gutted the bishop’s palace, and made a bonfire of the chapter library,
+then the richest in all France. The priests and others who opposed them
+were barbarously murdered and tossed from the walls into the ditch.
+When the Duke of Etampes restored order, the Catholics took a terrible
+revenge on their former persecutors. Once more, in March 1565, the
+Huguenots gained the upper hand, when the troops under Coligny refused
+to be bound by the terms of capitulation. Private houses were stripped
+of all the gold, silver, copper, and lead that could be found; priests
+who resisted were flogged, dragged up and down the streets by a rope at
+their necks, and then killed. Children were murdered in their mothers’
+arms; one Thomas Noel, a lawyer, was hanged at his own window; and an
+unhappy woman had her face stained with the blood of her own son, who
+had been killed before her eyes. Here, too, more priests were buried up
+to the neck, and their heads made to serve as targets for the soldiers’
+bullets; others were disemboweled and their bodies filled with straw.
+The priest of St. Ouen--we shudder as we record such horrors--was
+seized by four soldiers, who “larded” him like a capon, roasted him,
+cut him up, and threw the flesh to the dogs.[350]
+
+It would have been well had these deeds of brutality been confined to
+Normandy; but they were repeated all over France. One Friar Viroleau
+died of the consequences of a barbarous mutilation. Other priests or
+Catholic people were killed by hanging, speared to death, left to die
+of hunger, sawn in two, or burned at a slow fire. All this happened in
+Angoulême. At Montbrun a woman was burned on her legs and feet with
+red-hot tongs. The lieutenant-general of Angoulême and the wife of the
+lieutenant-criminal of that city were first mutilated, then strangled,
+and their corpses dragged through the streets. At Chasseneuil in the
+vicinity, a priest, one Loys Fayard, was shot to death after having
+been tortured by having his hands plunged in boiling oil, some of
+which had been poured into his mouth. The vicar of St. Auzanni was
+mutilated, shut up in a chest, and burned to death. In the parish of
+Rivières others had their tongues cut off, their feet burned, and
+their eyes torn out; they were hung up by the legs, or thrown from
+the walls. Other atrocities were committed which can not be described
+without offending propriety. One Huguenot is said to have gone about
+with a chain of priests’ ears around his neck.[351] In 1562 men did
+not stop to ask whether these things were true or false; they were
+passed from mouth to mouth and believed, just as the vulgar even now
+believe any story, however wild or improbable, that falls in with their
+peculiar temper or prejudices. The Catholic burned with indignation
+as he listened to the story of these outrages--sometimes related to
+him from the pulpit--outrages against the men and the things that he
+reverenced most upon earth. Blasphemy against God might be pardoned,
+but against the Virgin Mary--never! They retaliated immediately upon
+all the Huguenots within their power, and with all the more cruelty and
+persistency that they fervently believed they were doing God a service.
+
+But these are scenes too disgusting to dwell upon, and we gladly turn
+to less savage, though hardly to purer scenes. The hostility between
+the two sects showed itself at court by quarrels between the ladies,
+the Princess of Condé and the Duchess of Ferrara heading one party, and
+the widowed Duchess of Guise the other. The queen-mother tried in vain
+to check their feminine disputes. The Huguenot ladies would not give
+way. Chantonnay says of them: “They do little else at court than preach
+sermons and sing psalms. Daily prayers are said in the apartments of
+the Prince of Condé, with the help of all who have the will and the
+ability to go there.”
+
+These party questions were momentarily silenced by the necessity of
+getting rid of the foreign garrison which still occupied Havre. The
+Huguenots, as well as the Catholics, were pleased at the opportunity
+of showing their prowess against “the natural enemy of France.” The
+former, aware of the great blunder they had committed in the treaty of
+Hampton Court, were eager to drive out the English, who did not feel
+the slightest inclination to depart. Queen Elizabeth’s policy may have
+been national, but it was very shabby and prejudicial to the Huguenot
+cause. “We are resolutely determined to keep Newhaven [Havre], except
+they will resolve to restore us Calais,” wrote Cecil on Christmas Day,
+1562.[352] When he heard that peace had been made at Orleans “without
+consideration of us,” he added: “If it be so, I know the worst, which
+is, by stout and stiff dealing, to make our own bargain.”[353] And yet,
+after these big words, the English government did nothing, though the
+governor of Havre (the Earl of Warwick) urgently demanded supplies and
+reinforcements, which did not sail until the place had capitulated.
+With sanctimonious resignation Sir E. Warner wrote to Cecil: “The loss
+of Newhaven so suddenly and in such sort, as it seemeth, I am sorry
+for to the bottom of my heart. But against God’s ordinance no man can
+stand.” The garrison had suffered terribly from the plague, which they
+brought with them to England, where it is computed to have killed
+20,000 persons in London and the out-parishes.
+
+Condé, who had fought valiantly at Havre, hoped that his services
+to the monarchy would be repaid by promotion to the office of
+Lieutenant-General of France, vacant by the death of his elder brother,
+Anthony of Navarre. Catherine had held this out as a lure without
+the remotest intention of keeping her promise. She probably found
+that the throne would be weakened by being kept longer in tutelage,
+and therefore, with L’Hopital’s concurrence, anticipated the young
+king’s majority by twelve months, ordering it to be declared as soon
+as he entered his fourteenth year, and thus obviated the necessity
+of appointing a new lieutenant-general. The ceremony took place at
+Rouen, it being feared that the Parliament of Paris, in which Condé had
+friends, would refuse to register the edict of majority. On the 17th
+August, 1563, Charles went down to the courts of law in great state,
+and after announcing the close of his minority, he declared that he
+would not permit the repetition of such acts of insubordination as he
+had witnessed during the recent hostilities, and that he desired the
+Edict of Pacification should be kept in all its provisions.
+
+Charles appears at this time to have been an amiable youth: he
+possessed good natural qualities, and his attempts in poetry (if they
+are his own) are not entirely unworthy of Marot, to whom they are
+addressed. He had in early days a fair taste for literature, and had he
+continued under the training of Amyot and Cipierre, he might have been
+worthy of the throne. With such a mother as Catherine, and such tutors
+as she gave him, he could hardly fail to become treacherous and cruel.
+We shall see at times his better nature breaking through, but the evil
+spirit within him was never thoroughly conquered.
+
+There exists a curious letter written about this time by Catherine to
+her son, giving him instructions as to the conduct of his life.[354] He
+is exhorted to rise early, to go to mass with his four secretaries, to
+dine not later than eleven o’clock, to ride or walk for three hours, to
+hunt, to read his letters every day and see that they are punctually
+answered, and to have the keys of the palace brought to him each night
+and placed under his pillow. There are other exhortations of a similar
+nature--such as would make him “the first gentleman of the day,” but
+would not tend to make him a good Christian. Had she wished to see her
+son a good man, Catherine would have given him proper tutors, and not
+such as Gondi, whom Brantome describes as “cunning, corrupt, false, and
+blasphemous.”
+
+The termination of the sittings of the Council of Trent (December,
+1563), imported another element of confusion into the religious
+differences of the age. The council, although summoned in 1541, did
+not actually meet until December, 1545. It had been hoped that some
+means would be found of healing the divisions in the Church, but one
+after another every form of Protestant opinion was eliminated from the
+new creed, and reconciliation became impossible. The articles of the
+council were made compulsory in every Catholic state; but the Church
+of France was so far independent that the solemn consent of the crown
+was required to make the decrees valid. They might, indeed, be received
+as articles of faith, but could not be pleaded in a court of law until
+ratified by the sovereign. To procure that ratification, the King of
+Spain dispatched an embassador, accompanied by a deputation from the
+Dukes of Tuscany and Lorraine, inviting Charles to send commissioners
+to Nancy, where an assembly of princes was to meet to consult on the
+best measures to be adopted for the extirpation of heresy. L’Hopital,
+foreseeing the deadly consequences of such a step, advised the
+queen-mother to receive the embassy and deputation very politely,
+detain them at court as long as possible, and dismiss them at last with
+an evasive answer. “The government,” says Languet, “have no idea of
+taking away the liberty granted by the late edict; for (to omit other
+reasons) they see that it can not be done without a disturbance, as our
+churches are more crowded than they have ever been.”[355] Independently
+of this consideration, we find Santa Croce writing to Cardinal Borromeo
+(12th Oct., 1564) an account of an interview with the queen. After
+listening patiently to his message from the Holy Father relative to the
+introduction of the Tridentine decrees, she replied: “No one can feel a
+more ardent desire for the observance of the council than myself; but
+affairs are in such a state that I am compelled to handle them very
+delicately, and it is impossible to issue any fresh edicts just now.
+Whenever circumstances permit, I will do as his Holiness desires.” This
+was no new language. In the instructions to his embassadors at the
+council, the king declared that considering the number of the heretics,
+he could not attempt to put down the new religion by force, without
+endangering both crown and state.[356]
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER VIII.
+
+              THE MEETING AT BAYONNE AND THE SECOND WAR.
+
+                       [June, 1565–March, 1568.]
+
+   The Royal progress--Bayonne in June--Identical
+   note--Amusements--Political Deliberations--The Queen of Navarre
+   Excommunicated--Catherine’s Remonstrance--The Pope yields--State
+   of Gascony--Assembly of Notables at Moulins--Feud between Guise
+   and Coligny--Montmorency and the Cardinal--Disturbed state of
+   Maine--Montluc pacifies Gascony--Embassy from Germany--Rebellion
+   in Flanders--March of Alva--Condé leaves the Court--Rumored
+   Plot--Huguenot Meeting at Chatillon--War resolved upon--Attempt
+   to seize Charles--Huguenot Rising--Battle of St. Denis--Death of
+   the Constable--German Auxiliaries--Michelade of Nismes--Siege of
+   Chartres--Peace of Longjumeau--Death of Coligny’s Wife.
+
+
+In order to test the state of public feeling and apply a remedy to
+the great disorders of the realm, the queen-mother decided upon an
+extensive tour through the south and west of France, which would
+give her an opportunity of showing the king to his subjects and
+strengthening him in their affections. It is not necessary to trace
+the progress of the court step by step; a few incidents, however, may
+be quoted to show the intolerant temper of the Catholic party. In many
+of the towns of Burgundy, Charles was received with shouts of “Long
+live the King!” and “The Mass forever!” At Chalons a medal was struck,
+representing the monarch trampling on Heresy, depicted as a Fury
+pouring out torrents of fire. At Lyons the foundations were laid of a
+citadel intended to crush the heretical tendencies of the inhabitants.
+The walls of several Protestant towns were demolished, and numerous
+addresses were presented to the young monarch, praying him to interdict
+the exercise of any form of religion but the Romish.
+
+In the middle of June, 1565, the court reached the city of Bayonne,
+near the Spanish frontier, where the famous meeting took place at
+which it was generally supposed the extirpation of Protestantism was
+arranged. As early as April, 1561, Catherine had suggested a similar
+meeting, when she was agitated by the fear of a marriage between the
+widowed Mary Stuart and Don Carlos. She pretended a great desire to
+discuss with Philip II. the religious condition of France and the
+affairs of the King of Navarre, hoping by such an interview to thwart
+the Scottish matrimonial project.[357]
+
+The ostensible cause of the meeting four years later was the queen’s
+desire to see her daughter, who had just recovered from a severe
+illness. Political motives were not forgotten, and among other matters
+to be considered between the sovereigns of France and Spain--for
+Catherine hoped that Philip would accompany his wife--was undoubtedly
+the repression of heresy. There exists among the state papers at
+Simancas what is called by diplomatists an “identical note” of the
+subjects to be discussed at Bayonne. In it we read that the two powers
+engaged not to tolerate the Reformed worship in their respective
+states, that the canons of the Council of Trent should be enforced,
+that all nonconformists should be incapacitated for any public office,
+civil or military, and that heretics should quit the realm within
+a month, permission being accorded them to sell their property.
+Although Catherine gave her assent to these declarations, so far as
+the discussion of them was concerned, we have indisputable evidence
+that she did not intend to adopt them in the same sense as Philip of
+Spain, for at this very time she was corresponding with the Bishop of
+Rennes, the French embassador to the imperial court, on the propriety
+of making concessions to the Huguenots. A long and tedious negotiation
+ensued between the two courts of France and Spain--a fencing-match
+of deceit--which ended in an arrangement that Isabella should go to
+meet her mother and brothers alone, attended by the Duke of Alva as
+embassador extraordinary. Fernando Alvarez de Toledo, Duke of Alva, had
+not yet attained that evil eminence which has linked his name with all
+that is blood-thirsty. He was now in his fifty-seventh year, and the
+most successful general in Europe. He had fleshed his maiden sword at
+the battle of Fontarabia, when he was only sixteen; had served under
+the emperor Charles V. in Germany; saved the Spanish infantry from
+destruction at the siege of Metz; and, as viceroy of Naples, foiled all
+the efforts of the Duke of Guise to recover the throne of that country
+for France. He had accompanied Philip II. to England during that
+monarch’s brief matrimonial expedition, and afterward waged a fruitless
+war in Italy against Francis of Guise and the pope. As a statesman he
+possessed great capacity, although at Bayonne he entirely failed in the
+chief object of his mission.[358]
+
+The mother and daughter first met at Irun on the banks of the Bidassoa,
+and thence proceeded to Bayonne, where the French court had taken up
+its quarters. The magnificence of the processions and _fêtes_ in
+that remote corner of France put to shame all modern attempts of a
+similar kind. Isabella entered Bayonne riding on a milk-white palfrey,
+whose trappings of velvet, silver, and pearls were estimated at 25,000
+ducats.[359] Four of the principal citizens bore a canopy of crimson
+velvet over her head, as she rode from the gate to the cathedral
+through streets hung with arras; and as the day was drawing to a
+close, every house and church was illuminated, and each member of the
+_cortège_ bore a lighted torch. A _Te Deum_, “accompanied
+by excellent cornets,” was sung by choristers from the chapel-royal
+of the Louvre, Cardinals Guise and Strozzi officiating with a number
+of French and Spanish bishops. The weather was so intensely hot
+that six soldiers of the queen’s escort fell dead, the victims of
+sun-stroke.[360] Other casualties of a similar nature occurring in the
+small and crowded city, a proclamation was issued ordering that all
+the sick, aged, and infirm should seek shelter in certain villages
+specified, at a distance from Bayonne.[361]
+
+Some years later, when Walsingham referred to this meeting as the
+origin of a “general league” against the Protestants, Catherine
+affirmed that it “tended to no other end but to make good cheer.”[362]
+And so it would seem, for _fête_ followed _fête_ in rapid
+succession, the political business being transacted at odd moments,
+after those more serious occupations of the day were ended.
+
+One day there was a grand tilting-match, the prize being a valuable
+diamond given by Isabella. Charles IX. and his brother of Anjou headed
+one band of noble tilters, all arrayed in fancy costumes; another band
+was led by the Duke of Nemours, while the horsemen composing that
+following the Duke of Longueville were dressed in cloth of gold with
+wings of silver tissue, so as to imitate butterflies. On the evening
+of another day a masque was performed in a large hall constructed for
+the purpose. The scene represented a giant’s castle, where a number
+of beautiful maidens were imprisoned in an enchanted chamber. The
+entrance, defended by a revolving wheel and guarded by six frightful
+demons, was attacked by a troop of French and Spanish gentlemen headed
+by Charles IX., who, after several unsuccessful assaults, overcame
+every obstacle, killing the giant, routing the demons, and delivering
+the imprisoned damsels, whom he led as witnesses of his prowess to the
+feet of his sister Isabella.
+
+A pageant of a more elaborate description followed the next day. It
+began with a romantic prologue. A herald presented himself at Charles’s
+apartments in the castle, and having been led into the king’s presence,
+he related how, during a recent journey, he had fallen in with a
+gallant company of knights, who, unable to decide on the superiority of
+LOVE or VIRTUE, had agreed to refer the difference to the arbitration
+of his Majesty of France. A deputation from the supporters of each
+opinion was waiting below, desirous to plead their cause. The knights
+were admitted, they made their speeches; but the matter in dispute
+was so knotty that Charles declared it could only be settled by arms.
+A tournament was proclaimed, and all proceeded to the lists, the two
+queens taking their seats in a gallery hung with velvet. And now the
+pageant began. First came VIRTUE, seated on a rock, and attended by
+six nymphs. She wore an azure robe, and carried a lighted torch in
+her hand. After making the circuit of the arena, the car stopped
+before Queen Isabella, when VIRTUE, reciting some appropriate verses,
+presented her and each of her ladies with a massive gold chain. As
+soon as the goddess had retired, LOVE entered the lists in a chariot
+drawn by four piebald horses. He too halted before the Queen of Spain
+and sang some verses in praise of the joys and triumphs of love. The
+tournament now commenced, Charles maintaining the cause of VIRTUE, the
+Duke of Anjou that of LOVE. The two troops first engaged hand to hand,
+the king and his brother breaking a lance together. Then they divided
+into fours, until at last the _mêlée_ became general. At the end of
+about half an hour, the trumpets sounded, the combatants retired to
+their own side of the list, and Charles and the duke, riding forward,
+embraced each other, to show “that, VIRTUE and LOVE being brother and
+sister, the triumph of each was the glory of the other.”
+
+On another occasion, Isabella was entertained at a rural _fête_,
+where the collation was spread under the leafy branches of an oak-tree,
+from whose root issued a fountain, the construction of which cost
+a sum equivalent to £400 sterling. Another day the pageant took the
+singular form of a whale fishery. A turtle, on which sat six Tritons,
+floated down the Adour; then came Neptune in a car drawn by sea-horses,
+with Arion on a dolphin. When the company landed, there followed
+a pastoral ballet, in which the dancing of the French ladies and
+gentlemen so delighted the Spaniards that it was repeated again and
+again until midnight.[363]
+
+One of the masques given at Bayonne is remarkable for the curious
+picture it presents of a “wild Scotchman.” After the Prince-dauphin of
+Auvergne and his train of six gentlemen, all dressed like women, had
+filed off, the Duke of Guise and another six followed, all dressed “à
+l’écossais sauvage.” Over a white satin shirt embroidered with gold
+lace and crimson silk, they wore a _casaquin_ of yellow velvet
+with short skirts closely plaited “according to the custom of the
+savages”--it appears to have been a kilt--trimmed with a border of
+crimson satin, and ornamented with gold, silver, pearls, and other
+jewels of various colors. Their yellow satin hose was similarly
+adorned, and their silk boots were trimmed with silver fringe and
+rosettes. On their heads they wore a cap _à l’antique_ of cloth
+of gold, and for crest a thunder-bolt pouring out a fragrant jet of
+perfumed fire--the said thunder-bolt being twined round by a serpent
+reposing on a pillow of green and satin. Each cavalier wore on his
+arm a Scotch shield or targe covered with cloth of gold and bearing
+a device. The horses’ trappings were of crimson satin with plumes
+of yellow, white, and carnation. So much for the Frenchman’s ideal
+of a Scotchman! The suite of the Duke of Longueville was still more
+extraordinary: it consisted of six winged demons whose head-dresses
+were all flames of fire.[364]
+
+While the younger and fairer portion of the court were indulging
+in these gayeties, Catherine and Alva did not entirely forget more
+important matters, though the queen-mother seems to have put them off
+as long as possible. She would probably have evaded them altogether had
+not Cardinal Granvelle urged his royal mistress to take the initiative.
+At a private interview, on the 19th June, Isabella urged her mother to
+make known the important business which she had declared could only be
+told to Philip or to herself. Catherine replied: “It would be useless
+to do so, for I have been informed that his Catholic majesty shows
+such signs of distrust toward me and my son as must inevitably lead
+to war ere long.” As this was shifting the ground, and Isabella could
+not get her mother to talk of any thing else, she ended the interview
+by saying: “Your majesty must excuse me. As the king my husband has
+not commanded me to take an active share in the negotiations, I must
+refer you, madam, to the embassadors.” At a second meeting, two days
+later, Alva was present when the closer union of the royal houses of
+France and Spain by the marriage of Margaret of Valois to Don Carlos
+was advocated by the queen-mother, as “the best means of healing the
+differences everywhere prevailing, and also of placing the affairs of
+religion on a stable foundation.” In his account of this interview,
+Don Francisco of Alava wrote to his royal master: “Never was princess
+in greater embarrassment than this queen. One person advises her
+majesty to act this way, another quite the contrary; and she herself
+dares not decide nor even evince a preference.... The principal
+Roman Catholics of this court show much zeal, but they are men of
+words more than of deeds.” In the evening of the 23d, Alva was again
+summoned to the queen’s presence; he found her walking alone with her
+daughter in a long gallery. Isabella pressed her to dismiss L’Hopital,
+the chancellor: “I am persuaded,” she continued, “that so long as
+he is maintained in his present post, your good subjects alone will
+have reason to dread and fear, while the bad will find shelter and
+countenance.” To which Catherine replied: “I can not admit the truth
+of my daughter’s observations.” Alva, to excuse her, added: “The queen
+my mistress has only pressed your majesty thus hardly because the king
+my master wishes to ascertain positively from your majesty and the king
+your son whether it is the intention of your majesties to put down
+heresy or not, as in either case my master will know how to govern his
+conduct.” To this Catherine replied, with no little haughtiness: “The
+council will give the reply demanded by my son the Catholic king.”
+
+The last conference was held on the 28th June, and at it were present
+the king and the two queens, Anjou, Alva, Don Juan Manrique, Don
+Francisco Alava, Montpensier, the Cardinals of Bourbon, Guise, and
+Lorraine, and the Constable Montmorency. After some remarks about
+accepting the canons of the Council of Trent, the discussion turned on
+the best mode of settling the religious differences. The Duke of Alva
+said: “It seems to me that this is not the moment to root out the evil
+with the sword, or to treat it merely with mildness and dissimulation;
+for, on the one hand, my master can hardly approve that your majesty
+should raise an army and lead it against your own subjects, and,
+on the other, there seems no sufficient reason for leaving those
+unpunished who are too audacious. I would not set religion on the
+uncertain footing of the chances of a war, in which one evil accident
+may throw all into the greatest danger.... Some persons, as I have
+been told, have advised your majesty to take up arms against those of
+the religion. I have not come to France to do it so bad a service,
+nor would the king my master have sent me for such a purpose.”[365]
+Cardinal Granvelle was of the same opinion; there were safer ways of
+getting rid of troublesome enemies than by war: the government had
+only to seize five or six of the chief Huguenots and cut off their
+heads.[366] That the King of Spain entertained similar views we learn
+from his remarks to Sigismond Cavalli, the Venetian embassador, that
+the French troubles were owing to the neglect of the advice he had
+given them years before.[367] Neither Charles nor Catherine would make
+any promises; they thought the state of France was satisfactory, but
+would willingly listen to any suggestions and deliberate very carefully
+upon them. For one incident of the conference we are indebted to Prince
+Henry of Navarre, who was allowed to visit Bayonne, because, said
+Philip, “he is still a child, whom God will not allow to remain in
+ignorance.” One day when the Duke of Alva and Catherine were conversing
+together, the former, putting Tarquin’s gesture into words, advised
+her to get rid of the Huguenot nobles, after which all would be easy
+work: “Ten thousand frogs,” he said, “are not worth the head of one
+salmon.”[368] Henry overheard him, and the words struck him so much
+that he repeated them to Soffrey de Calignon, one of his attendants, by
+whom they were transmitted to the Queen of Navarre. They soon became
+known to the Huguenot leaders, and aroused a suspicion, which it would
+have been well for them had they never laid aside. The words produced
+a deep impression upon Catherine, and more than once she tried to act
+upon them, until at last she succeeded but too well. Giovanni Correro,
+the Venetian envoy, writing to his government in 1569, gives us a
+little insight into the queen-mother’s opinions about this time. Being
+one day in a confidential mood, she said to her fellow-countryman:
+“While at Carcassone, on my way back from Bayonne, I read a manuscript
+chronicle about the mother of St. Louis, a boy only eleven years old.
+She had to contend against malcontent nobles, but with time the king
+grew up and crushed his enemies beneath the vengeance they had drawn
+upon themselves. I applied the case to myself.” Correro observed:
+“Your majesty must have found comfort therein, for as the present is
+an image of the past, so you may be sure the end will not be unlike.”
+At this the queen began to laugh, as was her custom when she heard any
+thing that pleased her, and replied: “But I should not like any body
+to know that I have read that chronicle, for they would say that I am
+taking Queen Blanche of Castile for my pattern.”[369] It was not likely
+this precedent would be forgotten when opportunity served.
+
+It is certain that nothing was settled at the Bayonne meeting,
+Catherine being steadfast in her purpose to maintain her power by
+holding the balance between the two hostile parties. “She has promised
+to do wonders,” wrote Granvelle (20th August, 1565), “but will do
+nothing of any service.” The king, young as he was, proved equally
+immovable. “It is easy to see that he has been tutored,” wrote Alva
+contemptuously to his master. And thus terminated the interview from
+which so much had been expected.[370] It left, however, a very bitter
+feeling among the Huguenots, who believed that some devilish plot had
+been contrived against them, and tended to alienate them from the
+crown, although they still professed great loyalty to the king, not
+confounding him with the government, as the Parliamentarians expressed
+their devotion to Charles I.
+
+As soon as Isabella had recrossed the Spanish frontier, the French
+court proceeded to Nerac in Gascony to visit Joan, the widowed Queen
+of Navarre. When her husband apostatized, he would have made her
+apostatize also; but she refused, and took refuge in Bearn. Anthony
+ordered Montluc to stop her and keep her prisoner--a danger she happily
+escaped, as also a conspiracy entered into by some of her Catholic
+subjects to seize and deliver her to the King of Spain. Joan abolished
+popery in her hereditary states, and confiscated the church property
+for the benefit of the new clergy and of education. For this the pope
+summoned her to appear at Rome to answer a charge of heresy, on pain
+of being excommunicated and deprived of her territories (1564).[371]
+In this Pius IV. overshot the mark: his proceedings endangered every
+crowned head in Europe. He had also about the same time issued a
+citation against the Cardinal of Chatillon,[372] the Bishop of Valence,
+and four other prelates. The papal citation being a gross infringement
+of the privileges of the Gallican Church, a special embassador was sent
+to Rome to remonstrate with the Holy Father, and the opinions of the
+government may be gathered from a letter written by the queen-mother
+to the Bishop of Rennes, her embassador in Germany: “We acknowledge
+no authority or jurisdiction on the pope’s part over those who bear
+the title of king or queen, and that it is not for him to give away
+states and kingdoms to the first conqueror.... Let me know how the
+emperor takes this matter, for it concerns all rulers to understand
+whether it is for the pope at his own pleasure to assume authority and
+jurisdiction over them, and to make a prey of their territories and
+dominions. We for our part are determined never to submit to it.” The
+pope retreated: the citations against the bishops were abandoned, the
+bull against the Queen of Navarre was revoked. But a more formidable
+danger than this threatened Joan not long after, Philip II. having
+concerted a plan with Montluc to seize her and her two children, and
+carry them to Spain, where they would be committed to the cruel mercies
+of the Inquisition. Treatment like this confirmed the queen in her
+faith; she swept her dominions of every vestige of Romanism, and denied
+to her Catholic subjects that religious liberty which she claimed for
+her co-religionists in France.
+
+In some respects the province of Gascony, through which the court
+was now traveling, had suffered more than any part of France from
+the effects of the war. The Protestants had succeeded in putting
+down Romanism, and at every step he took Charles was reminded of the
+outrages offered to his religion; he restored the old form of worship,
+but the scenes he then witnessed appear never to have been forgotten.
+As he rode along by the side of the Queen of Navarre, who accompanied
+him to Blois, he pointed to the ruined monasteries, the broken crosses,
+the polluted churches; he showed her the mutilated images of the Virgin
+and the saints, the desecrated grave-yards, the relics scattered to the
+winds of heaven. The impression of that day’s ride long haunted the
+Protestant queen and filled her with a distrust of the king and his
+mother which she never entirely shook off.
+
+At the end of the year the king summoned an assembly of Notables to
+meet at Moulins for the purpose of remedying many grievances that had
+become known during the recent progress, and also of reconciling the
+chiefs of the rival factions. The ambiguities of the Edict of Amboise
+and the obstacles to carrying it out fully in many places had already
+called forth several interpretative edicts, one of which had been
+published at Roussillon in Dauphiny (August, 1564), restraining the
+hitherto unlimited freedom of worship in private dwellings. The nobles
+were to admit to their chapels none but members of their household or
+their vassals; no synods were to be held or collections made in the
+temples; and the pastors were forbidden to open schools or preach out
+of their districts. It farther renewed the injunction for the married
+priests and nuns to return to their cloisters or leave the kingdom--the
+latter alternative being generally preferred.
+
+Moulins in the Bourbonnais is one of the neatest and prettiest towns
+in France. Of the magnificent castle where Charles and Catherine de
+Medicis sat in council very little remains save a fragment of a tower,
+strangely named _Malcoiffée_, which rises high above the brick
+buildings, and a small pavilion built by the queen-mother. Beside the
+banks of the smiling Allier, and in those irregular streets where
+many a house of variegated brick, red and white, still dates back
+beyond this period, were crowded the princes of the blood, several
+cardinals and bishops, the chief nobility, and the principal officers
+of the parliaments of France. The resolutions they adopted were merely
+administrative, reforming many judicial abuses, but they remained a
+landmark in French jurisprudence until all law was swept away in the
+great Revolution. But law reform was merely a secondary object with
+Catherine. With every motive for desiring a continuance of peace,
+she saw that this was impossible unless the hostile leaders would
+agree to lay aside their private feuds and become friends. Between
+the Guises and Coligny there could be no amity, so long as they held
+him to be the instigator of the late duke’s murder. At the signing
+of the treaty of Amboise, the Prince of Condé had come forward as a
+compurgator--to adopt a well-known Anglo-Saxon term--and taken oath
+that Coligny was innocent. The family were still dissatisfied. One day
+a funeral procession was seen in the streets of Meulan,[373] where
+the court then resided. It was Antoinette of Bourbon, mother of the
+murdered duke, and Anne of Este, his wife, accompanied by her four
+children, and attended by their friends and partisans, who in long
+mourning robes and with veiled faces were going to the king to sue
+for justice. In gloomy silence, broken only by their sobs, the two
+ladies entered the palace and fell at the king’s feet, demanding
+justice. Charles raised them graciously and promised what they asked.
+Their case was laid before the Parliament of Paris, from which it
+was transferred to the privy-council, with the injunction that no
+farther steps should be taken within three years. Various attempts at
+reconciliation were made during the interval, and as this blood-feud
+had indisputably very much to do with the massacre of St. Bartholomew,
+it may not be a waste of time to show the progress of the quarrel. In
+December, 1563, Morvilliers, Bishop of Orleans, wrote to the Bishop of
+Rennes, embassador to the emperor: “One would willingly find a way of
+arrangement between them; but the means are very difficult considering
+the offense and the particulars of the feud. It is impossible
+but at last this should burst (_crève_) under some dagger
+(_coustel_), and that the one party for revenge or the other for
+security, should attempt something.” Eleven days later the same writer
+continues: “We are in great trouble through the difference between the
+family of the late Duke of Guise and the admiral, and many people would
+be pleased to see a disturbance. The queen-mother does all she can to
+prevent it: the poor lady watches and toils incessantly.”?[374] On the
+23d December, Morvilliers writes again: “The king and queen are always
+in trouble through the discords of the Guises and the admiral. No court
+can settle it, for the admiral objects to the parliaments and the
+others to the great council.”
+
+Several temporary arrangements had been made, and at last, when the
+three years had nearly expired, the Guises, whose desire for vengeance
+had grown all the stronger for being repressed, appeared at Moulins and
+renewed their cries for justice. On the 12th January, 1566, Charles
+published a declaration that “it was his desire to bring the difference
+about the homicide to a happy issue, and that he forbade each of the
+two houses to attempt any thing against the other.” After a wearisome
+series of explanations, more worthy of pettifogging attorneys than of
+brave soldiers, Coligny, in the presence of the king, declared “that
+he had not committed the murder or abetted it, and that he had never
+approved of it, then or now.”[375] With this the widow and the Cardinal
+of Lorraine expressed themselves satisfied, and declared they would
+no longer entertain revengeful feelings. Thereupon the two parties
+embraced; but the young Duke Henry of Guise still held out, and in
+the very presence of the queen challenged Coligny to single combat.
+“The admiral charges me,” he said, “with plotting his assassination.
+I will not deny it, but shall esteem it a singular favor to be shut
+up with him in a room, when I will show him that I am quite capable
+of defending myself, and need not employ other people to settle my
+quarrels.”
+
+So far the queen-mother’s plans were frustrated, and she was hardly
+more successful in arranging the difference between Marshal Montmorency
+and the Cardinal of Lorraine. In consequence of the quarrels between
+the partisans of the two religions, the possession and carrying of
+arms--especially fire-arms--had been strictly prohibited in Paris.
+Montmorency, “a wise man and loving the public peace,”[376] who after
+Marshal Brissac’s death had been made governor of Paris, enforced
+the edict in a manner never contemplated by the king. The Cardinal
+of Lorraine, returning from the Council of Trent, was escorted to
+the capital by a number of gentlemen and relatives, but they were
+forbidden to enter unless they laid aside their spears and arquebuses
+(8th January, 1565). The prelate paid no attention to the order, upon
+which Montmorency fell upon his escort at the Innocents’ Cemetery in
+the Rue St. Denis, killed some, wounded others, and so frightened the
+churchman that he leaped off his horse and took refuge in a neighboring
+house, whence he safely reached his own hotel during the night,
+
+    Pâle en couleur, de ses membres tremblant,
+    Mieux un corps mort qu’homme vif ressemblant.
+
+The cardinal said he had permission under the king’s letters patent
+to travel with an armed retinue. “Then he ought to have shown them to
+me,” said Montmorency, “and I would have allowed him to pass.” The
+governor, rendered uneasy by the threatening posture of the Lorraine
+party in the city, invited the assistance of Coligny, who entered
+Paris with 1200 gentlemen, greatly to the terror of the citizens, who
+feared their streets would be converted into a battle-field; but the
+admiral conducted himself so prudently, that he was complimented by the
+University and the trade guilds.
+
+But nothing that the king or his mother could do was effectual to
+dissipate the mutual distrust with which Catholics and Huguenots still
+regarded each other. Every act was viewed with suspicion, and to a
+great extent the misgivings of the Protestants were justified by the
+way in which the edicts of toleration were strained against them. “The
+Huguenots,” says Pasquier, who was no friend to them, “have lost more
+by edicts in time of peace than by force in time of war.”[377]
+
+At Lyons they were accused of an attempt to blow up the city with
+gunpowder, and on this idle charge the governor prevented their
+assembling for public worship. Every Protestant was expelled from
+Avignon, and the city and surrounding districts were put under martial
+law. At Foix a number of Huguenots were murdered; at Toulouse many were
+judicially put to death. These are but a small sample of the Protestant
+grievances.
+
+A remonstrance presented to the king by the nobles of the Reformed
+religion in Maine displays a terrible picture of the disturbed state of
+that province. The Dame de la Guynandière was murdered, with her son,
+three daughters, and two waiting-women, by a troop of ruffians from Le
+Mans, who afterward turned the pigs into the house to devour the dead
+bodies. The bishop of the diocese, a man of dissolute life, used to
+ride about attended by one hundred and fifty men armed with pistols or
+arquebuses. One Hélie, a priest, was accused of indescribable acts of
+brutality toward nine little girls. That and many other such horrors
+fill a pamphlet of more than one hundred pages, and the perpetrators
+(as was usually the case) escaped punishment.[378]
+
+On the other hand, the Catholics had their complaints. At Pamiers the
+Huguenots attacked a procession, killed some of the clergy and burned
+their houses.[379] At Soissons they pillaged the churches, demolished
+the beautiful painted windows, broke the organ, melted the bells,
+stripped the lead off the roofs, plundered the shrines of their gold
+and jewels, burned the relics of the saints, and tore up the charters
+and title-deeds belonging to the clergy. Similar tumults occurred at
+Montauban and other towns. Where the Catholics were the strongest, they
+fell upon the Huguenots; where the latter, they attacked the Catholics.
+At one time there is a rumor of an attempt to assassinate the king; at
+another, of an atrocious book ascribed to Sureau, a Protestant pastor,
+in which the doctrine is boldly affirmed that “it is lawful to slay a
+king or a queen who resists the Gospel Reformation.” Then an anonymous
+letter is found at the door of Catherine’s bed-chamber, threatening her
+with the fate of President Minard and the Duke of Guise, unless she
+permits complete liberty of conscience to the Reformed party.
+
+Many of the atrocities we have recorded were owing to the weakness
+of the central government. It must be remembered that the several
+provinces of France were under their own governors, who held their
+offices by an almost hereditary right, and that the king had not always
+the power, even when he had the inclination, to preserve peace. There
+were few like that rough warrior Montluc, who kept Gascony so quiet
+that for three years “horseman or footman did not steal so much as a
+pullet.” He hanged two Catholic soldiers for infringing the edict,
+and two Huguenots who had committed a similar offense “were shortly
+strung up to keep the others company.” And he continues: “When these
+good people saw that neither one side nor the other would meet with any
+indulgence if they transgressed, they began to like and associate with
+one another. I believe if every one had done the same, without favor to
+either side, we should never have had so many troubles.”
+
+Charles, whose dislike toward “those of the religion” needed no
+stimulus, occasionally indulged in bursts of irritation which he was
+too young to repress. One day when the admiral remonstrated with him
+on the restrictions put upon the last edict, he replied: “Not long
+ago you were satisfied to be tolerated by the Catholics, now you want
+to be their equals; in a short time, I suppose you will desire to be
+alone and to drive us from the kingdom.” Coligny made no reply, as
+indeed no reply would have satisfied the angry boy, who burst into his
+mother’s apartments, and added, after telling her what had passed: “The
+Duke of Alva was right: such heads are too tall in a state. We must
+put them down by force.”[380] Catherine appears at this time to have
+been exceedingly ill-disposed toward Coligny. Writing to her daughter
+Isabella, she says: “Although the admiral remains at court, he will be
+as one dead;[381] because, with God’s help, I shall not suffer myself
+to be governed by either party, for I know they all love God, the king,
+and your mother less than their own advantage and ambition; and as they
+know full well that I will not permit the king or the kingdom to be
+ruined by them, they love me in words only.”
+
+It was about this time also that several German princes, including
+the Palatine of the Rhine and the Dukes of Saxony and Wurtemberg,
+dispatched an embassy to Charles, interceding in behalf of their French
+co-religionists. With expressions of great attachment, they prayed
+him to observe the Edict of Pacification; to permit the ministers
+to preach as well at Paris as elsewhere, and to allow the people to
+listen to them in any number. He answered them sharply that he could
+be friends with his cousins of Germany only so long as they abstained
+from meddling in the domestic affairs of his kingdom. After a pause he
+continued in a still more angry tone: “I might also pray them to permit
+the Catholics to worship freely in their own cities.” It was an apt
+retort, for so far as concerned public worship the Romanists in many
+parts of Protestant Germany and Switzerland were very little, if at
+all, better off than the Huguenots of France.
+
+Every thing seemed tending toward an explosion. The Huguenots and the
+Catholics, like two hostile nations on the same soil, were ready to
+fly at each other, and the treacherous truce, which substituted riots
+and assassination for open war, could not last much longer. Still
+the actual rupture might have been deferred, but for circumstances
+connected with the state of the Netherlands. The Protestants of that
+country had been goaded into rebellion by the infamous persecutions
+of Philip II. of Spain. William, Prince of Orange, put himself at
+their head, and although unsuccessful, the movement was considered so
+dangerous that the ferocious and uncompromising Alva was commissioned
+to crush it utterly. For this purpose it was necessary to increase
+the Spanish army in Flanders; and as that could not be done by sea,
+on which the rebels were superior, a force of ten thousand picked
+veterans[382] was transported from Carthagena to Genoa, whence they
+made their way through the passes of Mont Cenis into Burgundy and
+Lorraine. Catherine, who distrusted Philip, thought it prudent to
+watch their march, and for that purpose collected all the forces she
+could muster to form an army of observation. These being insufficient
+for the purpose, Condé and the admiral advised the enrolment of 6000
+Swiss mercenaries.[383] The queen, delighted at such an opportunity of
+raising soldiers without offending the susceptibility of the Huguenots,
+promptly acted upon the advice. But when the prince asked for the
+command of the troops with the quality of lieutenant-general of the
+kingdom, the constable withdrawing his claim on account of his age, she
+fenced and prevaricated, although the appointment was promised in one
+of the secret articles of the late treaty of peace. The Duke of Anjou,
+Catherine’s favorite son, aspired to the same office, and hearing of
+Condé’s application, the insolent boy said to him: “If ever I catch you
+failing in respect to me, I will make you as little as you aspire to be
+great.”[384] Surprised at such language, the prince left the court.[385]
+
+As soon as the Spanish troops had crossed the frontier and entered the
+Netherlands, it was expected that the royal army would be disbanded;
+but, instead of that, it was marched to the neighborhood of Paris. This
+was of itself quite enough to excite the alarm of the Huguenot leaders,
+who were farther startled by information of a plot to seize both Condé
+and the admiral; to imprison the former for life, and put the other to
+death; and to place garrisons in the towns favorable to the Reformed
+religion, the exercise of which was to be prohibited all over the
+kingdom.[386] The heads of the Huguenot party immediately took council
+with the admiral at his castle of Chatillon. Their deliberations were
+long and serious. No doubt seems to have been entertained regarding the
+truth of the report. The suspicions aroused by the Bayonne meeting,
+corroborated by stories of the projected massacre at Moulins, which
+failed only because the Huguenots were present in too great number,
+were strengthened by the insolence of Anjou and the queen-mother’s
+insincerity. The edicts of toleration had not been fairly brought into
+operation; new interpretation edicts were continually encroaching
+upon the privileges of the Reformed; Alva was at hand in Flanders to
+assist in carrying out the scheme he had suggested only a few months
+before. Men in a panic never reason fairly, never indeed examine into
+the truth of the rumors by which their alarm has been roused. It was
+so in the present instance when the more violent party said: “Shall
+we tarry until they come and bind us hand and foot, and so draw us
+unto their scaffold at Paris, there by our shameful deaths to glut
+others’ cruelty? Do we not see the foreign enemy marching armed toward
+us, and threatening to be revenged on us for Dreux? Have we forgotten
+that about 3000 of our religion have, since the peace, endured violent
+deaths, for whom we can have no redress? If it were our king’s will we
+should be thus injured, we might perhaps the better bear it; but shall
+we bear the insolence of those who shroud themselves under his name and
+try to alienate his good-will from us? For more than forty years our
+fathers professed the true religion in secret, and endured all sorts
+of tortures and injuries with patience inexhaustible. If we who are
+so numerous, and who are able to profess our religion openly, should
+betray a righteous cause by a disgraceful silence and unseasonable
+moderation, we should fall into an apostasy unworthy of the two goodly
+titles of Christian and gentleman. We should be wanting not only to
+ourselves but to God, and besides losing our own souls should be the
+cause of ruin to others.”[387] Coligny advised them to be patient: “I
+see clearly how we may rekindle the fire,” he said; “but not where we
+may find water to quench it.” His brother Andelot was for more vigorous
+measures: “If we wait until we are shut up in prison, what will our
+patience avail us? If we give our enemies the advantage of striking
+the first blow, we shall never recover from it.” But before coming to
+a final decision, a deputation of the Huguenot nobility waited upon
+Catherine and entreated her to be more just to their co-religionists.
+Their reception was such that there seemed no alternative left them but
+to draw the sword.
+
+It was an unfortunate decision, and not justified by the real facts.
+But the mistake committed by the Huguenot chiefs is patent enough, and
+they were thought by their contemporaries to have acted very wisely. La
+Popelinière, whose evidence on this point is of great weight, speaks
+of “the approach of the Swiss who had been levied under color of
+preventing the entrance of the King of Spain and the Queen of England;
+and since then, the necessity having passed, the declaration made to
+them by Barbazieux, the king’s lieutenant in Champagne, that they were
+to be employed against those of the religion.”[388] Alva, in a letter
+to his royal master, written on the 28th June, 1567, testifies to the
+satisfaction felt in France at the vicinity of the Spanish troops.[389]
+Languet writes from Strasburg on the 22d October, that the Huguenot
+chiefs knew for certain that the pope and the other princes who had
+conspired against the true religion, had determined, as soon as it
+was put down in Lower Germany, to do the same in France, and for that
+purpose the king had raised a strong force of Swiss.”[390]
+
+
+The Huguenot counterplot was to seize the king and his mother, then
+residing at her castle of Monceaux in Brie, just as the Guise faction
+had seized them five years before. Indistinct rumors of a Protestant
+rising reached the court, and a messenger was sent to watch the
+admiral. On his return he reported that he had found the old warrior
+busily engaged in getting in his vintage.[391] Two days later (28th
+September, 1567), all France was in flames. Fifty towns were seized,
+and a strong force of Huguenot cavalry was preparing for a dash upon
+Meaux, about ten leagues east of Paris, whither the court had proceeded
+upon the first intelligence of the outbreak. Confusion prevailed in
+that little city: Catherine feared to leave it lest she should be
+intercepted by the Huguenots, and the Swiss troops, though not far off,
+were not so near as the cavalry under Condé. The Swiss were ordered to
+be brought up with all speed; but L’Hopital suggested that the wiser
+plan would be to disband those mercenaries--a concession which would
+satisfy the Huguenots, and induce them to lay down their arms. “Will
+you guarantee that they have no other aim than to serve the king?”
+asked Catherine. “I will,” he replied, “if I am assured there is no
+intention of deceiving them.” But either the queen was meditating
+treachery, as L’Hopital’s remark would almost imply, or the risk
+appeared too great. The Swiss made their appearance, and, under their
+safeguard, the king reached Paris in twelve hours. “But for Nemours
+and my good friends the Swiss, I should have lost both liberty and
+life,” said Charles. The Duke of Nemours, who, from his marriage with
+Anne of Este, widow of the murdered Duke Francis, was held in great
+respect by the Guises, commanded a body of volunteers composed of
+gentlemen attached to the court, who acted as a sort of light cavalry,
+and covered the king’s retreat. More than once Charles turned upon his
+pursuers and fought at the head of his gallant little body-guard. The
+constable, seeing the unnecessary danger to which he exposed himself,
+caught his horse by the bridle and stopped him, saying: “Your majesty
+should not risk your person like this: it is too dear to us to permit
+you to be accompanied by a troop of less than 10,000 French gentlemen.”
+
+But Condé with his five hundred horse could do nothing against the 6000
+Swiss, who “stood fast awhile and then retired close, still turning
+their head as doth the wild boar whom the hunters pursue.”[392] The
+prince had lost his opportunity. While he was wasting time in an idle
+conference with Montmorency, whom the queen-mother had ostensibly sent
+to demand the cause of his arming, the Swiss were hurrying to Meaux
+with the utmost speed. His irresolution was a great mistake: he ought
+never to have made the attempt to seize the king’s person, or to have
+risked every thing to clutch the prize within his reach. His failure
+made him a traitor as well as a rebel, and inflamed the anger of
+Charles against the Huguenots more than success could have done.[393]
+In the latter case the king would, in spite of appearances, have found
+them to be loyal and faithful subjects, and would have had the best
+of evidence that in their hands neither his life nor his liberty were
+imperiled. As it was, he never forgave their attempt to seize him, and
+he swore with one of his usual blasphemous oaths, that he would some
+day be revenged on them.
+
+The Cardinal of Lorraine, knowing that he had little to hope for
+should he fall into the hands of the Huguenot chiefs, fled in another
+direction, losing his baggage on the road, and got safe to Rheims,
+where he entered into a traitorous correspondence with the King of
+Spain, offering to place several frontier towns in his hands, and
+support his claims to the throne of France in right of his wife.[394]
+But his plots were frustrated by the course of events.
+
+Both parties now made the most strenuous exertions to increase their
+forces. The king, writing to Simiane de Gordes, governor of Dauphiny,
+instructing him to raise troops and keep down the heretics, uses
+language worthy of the St. Bartholomew: “You will cut them in pieces,
+_not sparing one, for the more dead the fewer enemies_.”[395]
+Before the actual outbreak of hostilities, attempts were made by the
+Moderates, or _Parti Politique_, to effect a reconciliation. Condé
+demanded complete toleration of the Reformed religion all over the
+kingdom, without distinction of place or person; to which Charles IX.
+replied, through Marshal Montmorency, that “he would not tolerate two
+religions in his kingdom.” There was nothing more to be done: the sword
+must decide between them. The train-bands of Paris were called out; new
+taxes were imposed; the clergy made a voluntary gift of 250,000 crowns,
+a loan of 100,000 crowns was raised at Venice, and one to a similar
+amount at Florence.
+
+Although the Huguenot force was very small--1200 foot and 1500
+horse--the chiefs boldly marched to Paris, which they hoped to blockade
+and starve into submission before any help could reach that city
+from the more distant provinces. But here again Catherine’s wonderful
+talent for negotiation was exerted to keep the Protestant leaders in
+check, until the reinforcements--impetuously summoned from various
+quarters--were hurriedly marched into the capital. Condé had placarded
+the walls of Paris with a protest that he had taken up arms only to
+deliver the king’s subjects from the oppression of Italian favorites;
+but he was no match for those wily Italians who, now feeling safe,
+broke off the negotiations. On the 10th November, the Huguenots found
+themselves in the presence of the royal forces on the great plain of
+St. Denis. It was then quite open and highly cultivated, the only
+buildings on it were a solitary farm-house and a few windmills. Across
+it ran that broad highway, along which travelers from the north used
+to pass before the railroad had diverted the living stream. The troops
+under Constable Montmorency were five times more numerous than those
+under Condé, and had the advantage of artillery. The scene of the
+contest was about a mile from Paris, between Montmartre, Pantin, and
+St. Denis. The gibbet of Montfauçon was on the edge of the field. Being
+so near the walls, crowds of idlers, including many women, went to look
+on.[396] Ballad singers were already celebrating Montmorency’s victory,
+quacks on their frail platforms were extolling their salves and
+plasters for wounds; the swindlers and ruffians, the cheats and rogues,
+who live by the vices, or prey upon the weaknesses of society--all the
+vermin of a great city--were there in crowds; monks mingled in the
+throng, chanting their litanies and selling beads; and more numerous
+than all was that foul horde which always gathers, like birds of prey,
+upon a battle-field.
+
+There was not much time to lose in manœuvring, for the day was drawing
+to a close. Condé charged furiously upon the advancing enemy, sweeping
+every thing before him, so much to the admiration of the spectators
+that they loudly applauded the gallant Huguenots. “If my master had
+only 6000 horsemen like those white-coats[397] yonder,” exclaimed the
+sultan’s envoy, who had been watching the fight from the city walls,
+“he would soon be master of the world.” But the Huguenots were so
+outnumbered that they were gradually hemmed in by the larger masses
+of the enemy, and compelled to retreat. The approach of night saved
+them from farther disaster. The battle was fatal to the constable,
+who seems to have fallen a victim to private malice. In the heat of a
+charge, when wounded and separated from his troops, he saw one Robert
+Stuart ride up to him and present a pistol. The constable, expecting
+to be made a prisoner, called out: “You do not know me!” “It is just
+because I do know you,” replied the Scotchman, “that I give you
+this.” And he fired,[398] the ball shattering Montmorency’s shoulder
+and throwing him to the ground, not however before he had broken
+Stuart’s jaw with the fragment of the sword he still grasped in his
+warlike hand. His death was like his life. When a priest approached to
+administer religious consolation, he smilingly begged to be left in
+peace, “for it would be a shameful thing,” he added, “to have known
+how to live fourscore years, and not know how to die one short quarter
+of an hour.” The queen-mother went to visit him before his death,
+and, as she bent over his bed to console him, he advised her to make
+peace as soon as possible, adding that “the shortest follies are the
+best.”[399] Marshal Vieilleville was of the same opinion. “It was not
+your majesty that gained the battle,” said he to the king, “much less
+the Prince of Condé!” “Who then gained it?” asked Charles. “The King
+of Spain,” answered Vieilleville; “for on both sides valiant captains
+and brave soldiers have fallen, enough to conquer Flanders and the Low
+Countries.” The united loss was nearly six hundred.
+
+The death of the constable was a serious blow to the Moderate party,
+although he did not actually belong to them. He had learned wisdom
+as he advanced in life, showing himself one of those rare men--rare
+at all times, but especially so in the sixteenth century--who could
+accommodate themselves to altered circumstances. His deep loyalty
+to the crown made him suspicious of the Lorraine faction; and his
+relationship to Condé and the Chatillons tempered the zeal of his
+orthodoxy. He saw clearly that no one would gain by the war, except the
+enemies of France. Languet adds that, taught by experience, Montmorency
+had learned that the Huguenots could not be crushed without the ruin of
+the kingdom; and he labored strenuously to carry out the Pacification
+of Amboise to the great disgust of the pope and Philip of Spain.[400]
+
+Before the end of the year, a body of 2000 foot and 1500 horse,
+dispatched by Alva from Flanders under the Count of Aremberg,
+accompanied by a choice band of the Catholic nobility of the Low
+Countries, had joined the royal camp of Paris. At the same time the
+Huguenots were expecting reinforcements from Germany, and, in order
+to meet them, Condé left his head-quarters at Chalons, marched above
+twenty leagues in three days, through the rain and over bad roads,
+losing neither wagons nor artillery. There was some doubt whether the
+royal forces would not intercept the Germans before they could join
+the Huguenots. “And what will you do, in case they do not come to the
+rendezvous?” asked some one of Condé. “I think we should have to blow
+on our fingers,” he jestingly replied, “for the weather is very cold.”
+But they were not reduced to such extremity, having formed a successful
+junction with the German auxiliaries, commanded by John Casimir, son
+of the elector-palatine. This force consisted of 7000 cavalry and 4000
+infantry--all mercenary troops who fought solely for pay and plunder.
+Before they would move another step, the reiters (as they were called)
+demanded a bounty of 100,000 crowns; and as the military chest was
+empty, the French force voluntarily subscribed money, jewels, rings,
+gold chains, and other ornaments to the amount of 30,000 crowns, with
+which the Germans, astonished at so much self-denial, were momentarily
+satisfied. “Even soldiers, lackeys, and boys gave every one somewhat,”
+says La Noue, “so as in the end it was accounted a dishonor to have
+given a little.” The old warrior takes the opportunity furnished by
+this incident to describe some of the difficulties with which the
+Huguenot chiefs had to contend. It required “great art and diligence to
+feed an unpaid army of above 20,000 men.” The admiral was remarkably
+careful in all the arrangements of his commissariat department, and
+acted up to the spirit of the old saying, that “a soldier fights upon
+his belly.” Whenever there was any question of forming an army, he
+used to say: “Let us begin the shaping of this monster by the belly.”
+“This devouring animal,” continues La Noue, “passing through so many
+provinces, could still find some pasture wherewith was sometimes
+mixed the poor man’s garment, yea, and the friend’s too; so sore did
+necessity and desire to catch incite those that wanted no excuses to
+color their spoil.”
+
+Civil war now raged with increased fury all over France. Although the
+two main armies did not again come into collision, there were little
+partisan campaigns in every province and almost every large town. It
+was during this period that Nismes became the theatre of that terrible
+tragedy known as the _Michelade_, from its occurring at the feast
+of St. Michael in 1567. The new doctrines had made such progress in the
+old Roman city that, in the year 1562, the municipal council decided
+that the cathedral with some other churches should be made over to the
+Reformed, and farther ordered the bells of the convents to be cast
+into cannon, the convents to be let “for the good of the state,” the
+relics and their shrines to be sold, and the non-conforming priests to
+leave the city. Damville, governor of Languedoc, and second son of the
+Constable Montmorency, was sent to Nismes to restore order, which he
+succeeded in doing by severe and arbitrary measures. At Uzès, a person
+named Mouton having ventured to blame these high-handed proceedings,
+was taken and hanged on the spot without any form of trial.[401] If
+such was the beginning, we may imagine what the Reformed had to suffer
+afterward. At length a trifling circumstance led to an explosion. About
+six in the morning of the 30th September, 1567, the second day of St.
+Michael’s fair, some Albanians belonging to Damville’s guard, lounging
+outside the city gates, stopped several women bringing vegetables to
+market, and in mere wantonness upset the baskets and trampled upon
+their contents. There was an immediate uproar: the women screamed,
+the neighbors ran to their assistance, and the crowd was swelled by
+the peasants coming from the country, at whose menacing gestures the
+foreigners drew their swords to defend themselves. On a sudden there
+was a shout: “To arms! to arms! Kill the Papists!” Hundreds rushed out
+of their houses and collected on the esplanade. The Consul Gui Rochette
+tried to calm them, but they violently rejected his prudent advice.
+When the news of the tumult reached the bishop he exclaimed: “This is
+the prince of darkness! blessed be the holy name of Heaven!” and then
+knelt down in prayer, momentarily expecting martyrdom. He succeeded,
+however, in escaping from the mob, who, in their angry disappointment,
+sacked his palace and killed the vicar-general. A number of Catholics,
+including the consul and his brother, had been shut up in the cellars
+of the episcopal residence. About an hour before midnight they
+were dragged out and led into that grey old court-yard, where the
+imagination can still detect the traces of that cruel massacre.[402]
+One by one the victims came forth; a few steps, and they fell pierced
+by sword or pike. Some struggled with their murderers, and tried to
+escape, but only prolonged their agony. By the dim light of a few
+torches between seventy and eighty unhappy wretches were butchered in
+cold blood, and their bodies, some only half-dead, were thrown into the
+well in one corner of the yard, not far from an orange-tree, the leaves
+of which (says local tradition) were ever afterward marked with the
+blood-stains of this massacre.
+
+The Michelade has been contrasted with the St. Bartholomew, but there
+is this difference between the two crimes: the former was committed in
+despite of the exhortations of the pastors, and no one has attempted
+to justify it. After the peace of Longjumeau, the Parliament of
+Toulouse prosecuted all who had taken any part in the murders. More
+than a hundred persons were condemned by default to be hanged and to
+pay 200,000 livres, of which 60,000 were allotted to the repair of the
+churches, 6000 to Gui’s widow, and the remainder to the families of
+the victims. Only four were caught, who, after being dragged through
+the city at the horse’s tail, were beheaded, and their quarters hung
+up over the principal gates. In the September of the following year,
+the brutal scenes of violence were renewed: the city was plundered, and
+its streets were dyed with Catholic blood. The governor, St. André, was
+shot and thrown out of the window, and his corpse was torn in pieces
+by the lawless mob.
+
+In the country round Nismes forty-eight unresisting Catholics were
+murdered; and at Alais the Huguenots massacred seven canons, two
+grey-friars, and several other churchmen. Even at the little town of
+Gap, far away among the Upper Alps, the followers of the two religions,
+who had hitherto lived together on friendly terms, now sought each
+other’s blood. The outbreak was occasioned by the attempt of the
+Catholics to wear a white cross--a badge of distinction recently
+adopted among the Romanists. The two parties came to blows, and, says
+their historian, “they vied with one another in cruelty.”[403] It was
+the same wherever the two armies marched. “Our people,” writes Languet,
+“burn all the monasteries and destroy all the churches they come near:
+but the Germans (that is, the reiters) spoil friends and enemies
+alike.” Castelnau confirms this statement: “When Blois capitulated,
+faith was not kept with the governor and inhabitants on the ground
+that the Catholics boasted of not keeping their promise to the
+Huguenots. So that on both sides the _droit des gens_ was violated
+without any shame.... What the Huguenots spared was plundered by the
+Catholics.”[404] Even the dead were not left in peace; in more than one
+instance the corpses were exhumed and treated with savage barbarity.
+
+But these scattered hostilities, much as they increased the misery of
+France, had very little influence on the main course of events. So
+long as Condé and Coligny were in the field, the cause of independence
+was safe. The young Duke of Anjou, who, as lieutenant-general of the
+kingdom, had been put at the head of the royal forces, was no match for
+his experienced antagonists; nor could he always check the dissensions
+between the veteran generals who, nominally under his orders, were
+really the directors of all his movements. The Huguenot leaders saw
+the favorable opportunity, and, with unexpected caution and rapidity,
+Condé moved his army toward Chartres, in the hope of securing it as a
+base of operations against Paris. But the Royalists were too quick for
+him, and the garrison was reinforced before he could reach the city.
+Determined to take the town at all hazards--for it was on the main line
+of communication between Paris and the west and south--Coligny pressed
+the siege, when Catherine, seeing that affairs had reached a crisis,
+took the bold step of appearing in the enemy’s camp.
+
+A timely remonstrance from the pen of Chancellor L’Hopital had a marked
+effect in turning the minds of the people toward peace. Beginning with
+a comparison of the two parties he says, “The Huguenots are not a mob
+hastily collected together, but men, warlike, resolute, and in despair
+... ready to venture all that men hold most dear in defense of their
+wives and children. The Catholic party is ill-constructed, all are
+tired of the war, and, even among the common people, there is nothing
+but murmuring.... To exterminate the enemy is impossible, unless you
+would fill the country with pestilence, famine, and starvation. Look
+at Champagne--a desert, so utterly wretched that there is nothing left
+the poor inhabitants but to die of hunger and despair.... But if we
+could destroy them all, what will you do with their innocent children?
+If you, spare them, will they not grow up to avenge their fathers?
+If the king should lose a battle, he would be deserted by thousands
+who now follow him through fear or love of plunder: it would be the
+destruction of his throne.” After combating the arguments of those who
+contend that the king is bound to punish rebels, and that he can not
+capitulate with his subjects, he advises Charles “to use clemency, as
+he shall meet it from God; to forget his own resentment toward his
+subjects, and they will forget their evil dispositions toward him,
+and forget their very selves to honor and obey him.”[405] If the
+queen-mother was not influenced by these arguments, she saw at least
+that it was time to put an end to the war. She had often boasted that
+her tongue and her pen were more than a match for the lances of her
+enemies; and their power was never more strikingly shown than in the
+present instance. She offered an amnesty for all past offenses, and an
+unconditional acquiescence in the demands of her son’s “loyal though
+misguided subjects.” The admiral was suspicious, and hesitated. “They
+have not forgiven us the surprise of Meaux,” he said. “But the desire
+of all for peace,” observes La Noue, “was as a whirlwind which they
+could not resist.”[406] Meanwhile the Huguenot army melted away, whole
+bodies going off without asking leave, and Condé hurriedly signed the
+Treaty of Longjumeau (20th March, 1568),[407] which restored the Edict
+of Amboise, bound the court to pay the foreign auxiliaries in the rebel
+service, and left the Reformed party, says Mezeray, “at the mercy of
+their enemies, with no other guarantee than the word of an Italian
+woman.”[408]
+
+While the admiral was negotiating the treaty of Longjumeau his wife
+fell ill and died at Orleans of a fever contracted in the course of
+her charitable labors in that crowded and unhealthy city. As soon as
+she felt the approaches of death, she wrote the following pathetic
+letter to her husband: “I feel very unhappy in dying so far from you,
+whom I have always loved more than myself; but I take comfort from the
+knowledge that you are kept away from me by the best of motives. I
+entreat you, by the love you bear me, and by the children I leave you
+as pledges of my love, to fight to the last extremity for God’s service
+and the advancement of religion.... Train up our children in the pure
+religion, so that if you fail them, they may one day take your place;
+and as they can not yet spare you, do not expose your life more than is
+necessary. Beware of the house of Guise; I know not whether I ought to
+say the same of the queen-mother, being forbidden to judge evilly of my
+neighbor; but she has given so many marks of her ambition that a little
+distrust is pardonable.” It was two or three days before the admiral
+could leave the army, and when he reached Orleans all was over. His
+wife had been dead twenty-four hours, leaving him with three boys and
+one girl. For a time the bereaved husband was inconsolable: “Oh, God,
+what have I done?” he exclaimed, in the anguish of his heart; “what
+have I done that I should be so severely chastised, so overwhelmed with
+calamities?” At last the consolations of religion began to temper his
+sorrow. “Would that I might lead a holier life and present a better
+example of godliness! Most Holy Father, look upon me, if it please
+thee, and in the multitude of thy mercies, relieve my sufferings!”[409]
+As soon as the state of affairs permitted he retired to his estate at
+Chatillon, but was not long permitted to enjoy the rest and privacy
+he sought. In a short time he became the centre of a little court.
+The crowd was so great that, “when two gentlemen left by one door,
+twenty entered by another.” The admiral was so beloved that he was
+overwhelmed with presents, the members of his party forcing them upon
+him notwithstanding his protests. “It is only right,” they urged, “to
+help the man who is ruining himself for love of us.”
+
+Peace found the finances of the kingdom in a very dilapidated
+condition. The expenditure was eighteen millions of livres, and the
+revenue less than half that amount; besides which there were arrears
+due to the foreign auxiliaries--not only those whom Condé had enrolled,
+but a large body under the Duke of Saxony, who claimed five months’
+pay, although they had not drawn a sword and scarcely entered the
+French territory. These reiters were a terrible scourge to France,
+and it was necessary to get rid of them at any sacrifice. Davila
+paints them as sweeping through the country like a frightful hurricane
+(_spaventosa tempesta_). Armed to the teeth in black mail, drawn
+up in squadrons sixteen deep and with a front of thirty, they rode down
+the weak lines of the French cavalry. Fierce in demeanor, brutal in
+habits, as intractable as they were insolent, and a nuisance alike to
+friend and foe, they were insatiable pillagers, and their long train of
+wagons filled with plunder often caused irremediable delay in the march
+of the Huguenot army. None knew how to drive a hard bargain better than
+they did. Castelnau gives a curious account of his negotiations with
+these men, who, in the true spirit of mercenary soldiers, were ready to
+turn their arms against any body, if they were paid for it. The only
+means of raising money to meet the various claims upon the treasury was
+to sell church property, which was done to the amount of 100,000 crowns
+rental. Although the pope had given his consent to this alienation,
+provided the money was employed to extirpate heresy, the Parliament of
+Paris long refused to register the decree authorizing the sale, on the
+factious ground that “things consecrated to God could not be touched.”
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER IX.
+
+                         THE THIRD CIVIL WAR.
+
+                             [1568–1570.]
+
+   State of the Country--The National Party--Atrocities and
+   Retaliation--L’Hopital’s Retirement--The Catholic League--League
+   of Toulouse--The New Plot--The Flight to Rochelle--Aid from
+   England--Anjou, Commander-in-Chief--Battle of Jarnac--Death
+   of Condé--Henry of Bearn--Siege of Cognac--Junction of Duke
+   Wolfgang--Death of Brissac--Battle of Roche-Abeille--Siege
+   of Poitiers--Moncontour--The Admiral’s letter to his
+   Children--Siege of St. Jean D’Angely--Desmarais--The Great
+   March--Cruelties at Orthez, Auxerre, Orleans, Cognat,
+   Aurillac--Coligny’s illness--Battle of Arnay le Duc--Treaty of
+   St. Germains.
+
+
+Short as the war had been it was full of horrors. Wherever the two
+armies passed the country was laid waste. The towns-people were
+comparatively safe behind their walls, but the peasantry were between
+two millstones: there was no escaping except by flight to the woods
+and leaving the fields uncultivated, the consequence of which was
+famine and pestilence. In Schiller’s picturesque language, “men
+became savage like their countries.”[410] After the proclamation of
+peace a few governors did all they could to check the disorders of
+the royal troops in their provinces. Marshal Damville, commanding in
+Guienne, Poitou, and Dauphiny, issued many regulations to pacify the
+country and restrain the license of the soldiery, who had assumed the
+administrations of several towns by turning out the magistrates and
+substituting drum-head justice for the regular courts of law. They
+appropriated the contents of the city chests, and the only limits to
+their extortions were the means of the citizens to pay. Many large
+towns had been half deserted by their inhabitants, who in despair had
+formed into volunteer partisan corps, which roamed over the country,
+making the roads unsafe, and plundering friend and foe alike. They were
+under a rude kind of military discipline, resembling in this as in
+other respects the brigand bands of modern Greece and Southern Italy.
+To remedy this great evil, Damville ordered the officers and soldiers
+to permit the exiles to return on condition that they gave up their
+arms, gentlemen and others having the privilege of wearing swords being
+excepted. Charles himself frequently complained that the provincial
+governors did not attempt to carry out the treaty of Longjumeau. On the
+31st March he wrote to Condé regretting that the edict of toleration
+had not been observed as fully as he had desired, and declared it to be
+his wish that all his subjects, without respect of religion, should be
+protected alike. He grieved that justice was not so purely administered
+as it ought to be--a state of things he would remedy as far as possible.
+
+If it should be urged that these are mere words, which cost the writer
+nothing, the same objection can hardly be made to the king’s letter
+to D’Humières of the 30th April, wherein he directed that those who
+had left their homes during the late troubles should not be hindered
+from returning and living in liberty according to the edict. There are
+also other letters extant proving the reality of this conciliatory
+feeling. Thus on 9th May, 1568, Charles wrote to the mayor of Tours,
+ordering the place of Reformed worship to be removed as far as possible
+from Tours, but to that extent sanctioning it.[411] There are several
+letters on the same subject from others, and in a considerate tone;
+but the most remarkable of all is one to the mayor from Francis of
+Bourbon, Duke of Montpensier, dated 15th June, 1568, and referring to
+the police arrangements in Tours for the approaching _Fête Dieu_:
+“Nevertheless, if you know that they are likely to be obstinate and
+refuse to obey, only so far as concerns the decorations of the streets
+and houses, and that it may cause offense and disturbance, there will
+be no harm in your tacitly making good their deficiencies, according to
+your means, without showing that one is more favored than another, with
+the assurance that you will be able to arrange matters so wisely that
+every thing may turn out to the honor and glory of God.”[412]
+
+However unfavorable the treaty of Longjumeau may have been to the
+Huguenots, there can be no doubt of their desire to live in peace. They
+had won toleration at the point of the sword; by aiming at supremacy
+they would risk all they had gained. War could advantage them but
+little: in peace they might hope to extend the silent conquests of
+their religion. It is very questionable, however, if the great body of
+the Catholics, or their leaders, were equally desirous of a permanent
+cessation of hostilities. Peace might be fatal to the ambitious designs
+of the house of Lorraine; Condé and the admiral were formidable rivals
+to the cardinal and the Italian followers of the queen-mother. The
+treaty was the work of the moderate section of the royal council, to
+which Marshal Montmorency had given the influence of his name. It
+was drawn up by the Chancellor L’Hopital, another member of the same
+party, and supported by the bishops of Orleans and Limoges.[413] Their
+task had not been without difficulty, for the mere rumor of peace had
+called forth strong protests from the papal and Spanish embassadors,
+who almost threatened war if any arrangement were come to with the
+heretics; but the king is reported to have made a reply that quite
+startled them.[414] This is just what we should expect from Catherine,
+whose object all her life was to keep the Spaniard out of France.
+The Huguenots were the truly national party--the stout defenders of
+national independence. They were the first to assert the doctrine of
+non-intervention, although they did not act up to their theory. This
+was the link which connected them with the moderate section of the
+Catholic party. While their antagonists esteemed Guise and Philip II.
+and the pope far more than they did their king, the Huguenots were
+especially Frenchmen. They were loyal in the best sense of the word,
+as were the English Catholics, who, under a popish admiral, drove the
+Armada from the seas.
+
+But the “politicians,” as they are usually called, were in advance of
+their age: the time for moderation had not yet come. The Cardinal of
+Lorraine still raised his voice for extermination, and the pride of
+both Catherine and Charles had been deeply wounded by the undignified
+flight from Meaux. Philip II., who dreaded to see France at peace,
+continued to intrigue with the most bigoted of the king’s advisers.
+Alva, too, reminded the queen-mother that it was “much better to have
+a kingdom ruined in preserving it for God and the king by war, than to
+have it kept entire without war, to the profit of the devil and his
+heretical followers.”[415] In addition to all this, the peace had made
+Catherine unpopular even among those of her own religion; both she
+and the king were most absurdly suspected of heresy, and, adds Claude
+Haton, “it is certain that they were the support and prop of the rebel
+Huguenots.” Speaking of the Lent Sermons in this year (1568) he says,
+that “the clergy from the pulpits taxed the king, his mother, and the
+council, with being by the said peace the cause of the entire ruin of
+the kingdom and of the Catholic religion.” This language was reported
+to their majesties, who immediately ordered the clergy to preach the
+Gospel, and not abuse their sovereign, under pain of the severest
+punishment. But if the preachers moderated their tone toward the king
+and the queen-mother, they became more violent in their attacks upon
+the Huguenots. From every pulpit fanatical monks hounded on their
+already too eager listeners to farther deeds of blood, not only by
+proclaiming that faith ought not to be kept with heretics, but that
+it was a meritorious act to slay them. The system of forced baptisms
+was continued, the rights of the individual being as little regarded
+under Charles IX. in 1568 as under Louis XIV. at the close of the
+following century. At Provins, a babe six weeks old was carried to the
+church and christened, the mother being taken thither in the custody
+of the police, and the father left in the hands of the soldiers until
+the ceremony was over. In the municipal archives of Tallard we read:
+“Paid six sols to a royal sergeant sent by the deputy bailiff of Gap
+to publish an order that the children who had been baptized in the
+new religion should be rebaptized in the Catholic religion.”[416] At
+Dieppe, the midwives were required to make a declaration within two
+hours of the birth of every Huguenot infant, who was taken away and
+christened publicly.
+
+The petty annoyances and vexations to which the Reformed were
+subjected, were at times harder to bear than actual persecution. In
+the one case pride and conscience might make the severest torture
+endurable; in the other, there was all the consciousness of the martyr
+without a sufficient injury to awaken the sympathy of others. The
+annoyances inflicted by the municipal authority on the Huguenots of
+Provins must have been to many more intolerable than any amount of
+physical pain. They were forbidden to take lodgers, to assemble in any
+manner, or to leave their houses after 7 P.M. in the summer
+and 5 P.M. in the winter. They were not allowed to walk on the
+ramparts by night or by day, under pain of death; and they could not
+take a stroll into the country without the written pass of the officer
+of the gate.[417] At Amiens the privilege of keeping inns was taken
+from them; they were turned out of such of their houses as happened to
+be near the walls or the gates; they could not meet more than three
+together, and were liable to be hanged if found in the streets between
+seven at night and six in the morning.[418]
+
+During this “peace which was no peace,” as La Noue says, more than
+2000 Huguenots--surely an exaggerated number--were put to death at
+Amiens, Bourges, Rouen, and other places. The teaching of the clergy
+had produced the desired effect. Under the pretext of imaginary crimes,
+Sigognes, governor of Dieppe, arrested all whom he suspected, or
+drove them out of the town. The soldiers insulted the women as they
+went to their meetings; the men interfered to protect them; there was
+a riot, and the governor always sided with the ruffians. Open war
+seemed better than such insecurity. M. de Cypierre was murdered, with
+thirty-six of his companions and suite, as he was passing through
+Provence. Remonstrances and appeals for justice were vainly made to
+the government, which affected to be more powerless than it really
+was. Under these circumstances, it is no wonder that the Huguenots
+again took up those arms in self-defense which they had laid aside in
+accordance with the treaty; no wonder that in their fury they once more
+defiled the altars, destroyed the churches, and perpetrated a thousand
+retaliatory atrocities. Briquemaut, one of their leaders, cheered them
+on to murder, wearing a string of priests’ ears round his neck. On the
+other side, Louis de Bourbon, Duke of Montpensier, far surpassed all
+others in barbarity, even to the disgust of Charles himself, who was
+not over-nice in such matters. One punishment, which he was proud of
+inventing, is so foul and horrible that we dare not name it. Correro,
+the Venetian embassador, describes the whole population as in a state
+of fury.
+
+Pope Pius V. actively supported the fanatical party in their opposition
+to the treaty of 1568, by letters of advice and pecuniary aid. On
+the 5th of July he wrote to the Duke of Nemours, congratulating him
+on being the first who, in the cities of Lyons and Grenoble, refused
+to observe the conditions of Longjumeau, “as fatal to the Catholic
+religion and derogatory to the king’s dignity.” “Would to God,” he
+continues, “that all the great ones of the kingdom and all governors of
+provinces would imitate your example.”[419]
+
+Meanwhile, great changes had taken place in the royal council. By slow
+degrees the Italian party had recovered their supremacy, and were
+advocating the most violent measures. The Moderate party was listened
+to with impatience. “Even the king no longer dared give his opinion,”
+says L’Hopital, who felt it a duty to resign his office rather than
+countenance measures of which he disapproved. He was succeeded for a
+brief interval by Jean de Morvilliers.
+
+In the middle of 1568 the foundations were laid of that formidable
+League which shook the throne and brought France to the brink of
+destruction. On the 25th June, “The Associates of the Christian and
+Royal League of the province of Champagne” met and took a solemn oath
+“to maintain the Catholic Church in France, and preserve the crown
+in the house of Valois, so long as it shall govern according to the
+Catholic and Apostolic religion.”[420] Seventy years later another
+famous league was signed “for the defense of religion,” which brought a
+king to the scaffold. Those who admire the Scottish Covenant should not
+find fault with a Romish league which brought two kings of France to a
+sudden and bloody end.
+
+At Toulouse a somewhat similar league had been formed, and a
+proclamation issued against the followers of the new religion. In that
+singular document, which was founded on a bull issued by Pius V. in
+March, 1568, the Protestants are described as “atheists, men living
+without God, without faith, and without law.” Jesus Christ himself
+inspires all good Catholics with “the idea of assuming the cross,
+taking up arms, and preparing a war like Mattathias and the other
+Maccabees.” The faithful are reminded of the heretical Albigenses
+destroyed in that very district to the number of 60,000; and are
+exhorted to pursue with the same fervor these “new enemies of God,”
+and to show them no mercy. If the crusaders die in the expedition,
+“their blood will serve them as a second baptism, washing out all their
+sins; and they will go with the other martyrs straight to paradise.”
+The qualifications for taking up the cross in this holy war were “to
+confess their sins and arm themselves with the body and blood of our
+Lord;” but these arms were not thought sufficient. “If the capitouls
+[magistrates] will lend a few cannons, things will go on all the
+better. Resolved at Toulouse, 21st September, 1568. The above is done
+under the authority of our Holy Father the Pope.” Priests were to be
+the captains of this “holy army of faith,” and its motto was: _Eamus
+nos; moriamur cum Christo_.[421]
+
+Immediately after the signing of the treaty of Longjumeau the
+Protestant army had been disbanded, and the reiters in their pay had
+returned to Germany, not without excesses on the road; but under
+various excuses the royal army, including the Swiss mercenaries and
+the Italian auxiliaries, was still kept on foot. The motive soon
+became apparent: the reactionary party meditated a bold stroke that
+should cripple, if not entirely crush, the Huguenot party. Condé, the
+admiral and other chiefs were to be seized, and of the fate intended
+for some of them there can be no doubt. Only two months earlier,
+Alva’s “blood council” had condemned Counts Egmont and Horn to a
+violent death. As early as May, all the bridges along the Loire were
+guarded. This may have been a mere matter of police in the disturbed
+state of the country; but the Huguenots very reasonably considered
+it as a means of controlling their movements and preventing their
+escape, if danger threatened them. Their leaders were widely separated;
+Andelot was in Brittany, La Rochefoucault in Angoulême, D’Acier in
+Languedoc, Bruniquet and Montglas in Gascony, Genlis and Mouy in
+Picardy, Montgomery in Normandy, the Admiral at Tanlay, and Condé at
+his castle of Noyers in Burgundy. These two places are so near that
+tradition speaks of a subterranean passage between them. Tanlay is
+placed in a secluded spot between Tonnerre and Montbard. On a splendid
+chimney-piece in the large hall may still be seen a head of Coligny in
+a plumed helmet, admirably carved in delicately tinted marble.[422]
+
+The admiral had gone to this charming retreat, to consult with his
+brother to whom it belonged, and who had joined him there. The aspect
+of affairs was threatening. The news which they had received from
+their friends at court, as well as the frequent movements of troops to
+the Loire, were enough to fill them with suspicion. Attended by fifty
+horsemen, they rode over to Noyers, and while there an intercepted
+dispatch from Tavannes, the governor of the province, bade them in
+ambiguous but significant language look to their safety: “_Le cerf
+est aux toiles, la chasse est préparée_.” With all secrecy the
+Huguenot leaders prepared for flight, and though encumbered by women
+and children, succeeded in escaping to Rochelle (August, 1568). A ford
+near Sancerre had been left unguarded, and by it the fugitives were
+able to cross the Loire, and were protected from pursuit by a sudden
+rise of the waters.[423] “It touched the hearts of all men with sincere
+commiseration,” says Matthieu, “to witness the lamentable plight in
+which the first prince of the blood traveled. The heat of the weather
+was intense; the princess, being great with child, traveled in a
+litter; the prince had three little children in the cradle; besides
+which he was accompanied by the admiral and his family, by Andelot and
+his wife, there being altogether a great number of children and nurses.
+Their escort consisted of only 150 men.”
+
+The enemy followed them so closely as to come in sight of the
+fugitives, but the swollen river lay between them. The Cardinal of
+Chatillon, at that time living quietly in his episcopal palace at
+Beauvais, received timely warning and escaped to England. Joan of
+Albret, Queen of Navarre, who was threatened in her own estates, also
+sought a refuge within those walls which already sheltered the Prince
+of Condé. She brought her son Henry with her, then a boy of 15, and a
+force of 4000 men, the nucleus of an army that soon swelled to more
+formidable dimensions than that which had been disbanded a few months
+before. The command was offered to Henry, but graciously refused by him
+in favor of his uncle Condé.
+
+The position of the Huguenot chiefs was full of peril; but they saw
+clearly that they were standing in the breach of Protestantism, and
+fighting not merely their own battle but the battle of the Reformed
+religion in every country. In Flanders Alva was not only trampling
+out Protestantism with his iron heel, but usurping the rights of the
+Prince of Orange. This was a matter that touched Condé nearly, for he
+too was thought worthy of the hatred of “the Demon of the South.” All
+the nobility indeed were, more or less, affected by any attack on the
+rights of the princes of the blood; but the majority willfully shut
+their eyes against it. The meeting at Bayonne was bearing fruit. In
+February, 1568, the Spanish Inquisition solemnly condemned all the
+inhabitants of the Netherlands to death as heretics--a few persons only
+being excepted by name. Nor was this condemnation a mere idle form, for
+ten days later Philip II. issued a proclamation, ratifying the sentence
+and ordering it to be carried into instant execution without regard to
+sex, age, or condition. The eloquent historian of the Dutch republic
+has told us how the king was obeyed, and unveiled the perfidious
+designs of the Spanish cabinet. These were strongly suspected by the
+French Huguenots, who had not the opportunity we possess of reading
+the secret dispatches of Philip and his ministers. But Condé and
+Coligny knew quite enough to make them suspicious: they knew that if
+the Flemish Protestants were crushed, their turn would come next; and
+they not only prevented the French government from assisting Alva,
+but by their attitude made the King of Spain unwilling to send the
+reinforcements to the Low Countries, which Alva so much needed to
+complete his crusade. Had they done no more than this, they would have
+earned the eternal gratitude of all Protestantism. By paralyzing Alva
+at this moment the Reformed religion on the Continent was saved. We may
+even go farther, and say that our own liberties were dependent on this
+Huguenot movement. The French leaders had heard that the Protestant
+Queen of England was threatened, that a bill of excommunication was to
+be fulminated against her, that a hundred daggers were preparing to be
+plunged into her heart. Though Elizabeth never cordially helped the
+Huguenots, and with her lofty monarchical notions looked coldly on them
+and the Flemings as rebels, yet a common enemy and a common danger
+drew them together, and for a time smoothed away all differences. She
+forwarded to Rochelle six pieces of artillery with their ammunition,
+and a sum of 100,000 angelots (50,000_l._) with a promise of
+more,[424] and permitted Henry Champernon,[425] a near kinsman of Sir
+Walter Raleigh, then only seventeen years old, to raise a troop of 100
+gentlemen volunteers, with which he passed over into France. De Thou
+describes them as “a gallant company, nobly mounted and accoutred,
+having on their colors the motto: _Finem det mihi virtus_:
+Let valor decide the contest.” They fought at Jarnac and again at
+Moncontour, but beyond what Raleigh says himself, there is no trace of
+them in history.[426]
+
+The fanatical party, not content with drawing the sword, threw away
+the scabbard. The great want of the court was money, and in July--the
+treaty of Longjumeau had only been signed in March--the queen-mother
+obtained a papal bull, permitting her (as we have seen) to alienate
+church property to the amount of a million and a half of francs, on
+condition that the money was employed in the extirpation of Huguenotry.
+It does not appear that any of the money was spent as Pius V.
+stipulated, and with a view to hide the misappropriation and satisfy
+the urgent demands of the pope, the king issued several edicts in
+September, 1568, completely annulling that of January, forbidding the
+public celebration of the Reformed worship under pain of death, and
+ordering the ministers to leave the kingdom within a fortnight. In this
+revocation of religious privileges it is easy to trace the influence of
+the more violent members of the privy council--the Cardinal of Lorraine
+and René de Biragues.
+
+Henry of Anjou, a youth only fifteen years old, was once more placed at
+the head of the royal army, with Tavannes by his side to direct the
+military operations. Tavannes’s object was to confine the Protestants
+to Poitou and Saintonge, while the Huguenot plan was to march into
+Burgundy and meet the troops which the Prince of Orange was levying for
+their support. But the winter of 1568 passed away without any striking
+event, the Huguenot army losing 5000 men through illness and the
+inclemency of the season. The cold was so intense that the water in a
+caldron set before the fire was frozen at the back while boiling at the
+front. All the rivers were cartable, and wine became so solid in the
+casks that it was cut up and carried away in sacks.[427]
+
+As soon as the weather broke, the two armies were once more in the
+field, and on the 13th March, 1569, came into collision at Jarnac on
+the banks of the Charente, between Angoulême and Cognac. There is
+still the same wide plain, under tillage, with a cluster of houses in
+one corner, that could easily be turned into a barricaded fort. It is
+near a little hill, at whose foot still flows the sluggish brook on
+whose banks the chief struggle occurred. The Huguenot force had been
+injudiciously divided, while that under Anjou had been reinforced by
+2200 reiters commanded by the Rheingrave and Bassompierre. It was
+Anjou’s plan to prevent the junction of Condé’s forces, but he was
+disappointed in this by the prince’s sudden march to Niort, thence
+by St. Jean d’Angely to Cognac, and next day to Jarnac, where he met
+Andelot with the advanced guard of cavalry, supported by four guns. The
+following morning, Condé, accompanied by the admiral and his brother,
+advanced with all the cavalry to reconnoitre Anjou’s position, and had
+the audacity to offer battle. The king’s brother declined the offer
+and moved away in the direction of Cognac, where he was again met by
+Condé with the second division, the admiral being left with the first
+at Jarnac. The result of these marchings and counter-marchings was
+that the Huguenot cavalry was taken by surprise, when the infantry
+was so far off as to be quite unserviceable. Condé stood his ground
+manfully, but what could 1500 men do against a force twice as strong?
+He made desperate efforts to cut his way through the dense ranks of the
+enemy, though his leg had been broken by a kick from a horse ridden
+by one of his suite.[428] At last his horse fell, and he lay at the
+mercy of his foes. Being recognized by two gentlemen, he called to
+one of them: “Ho! D’Argence, my friend, save my life, and I will give
+you one hundred thousand crowns.” D’Argence promised, and raised the
+prince from the ground. Seeing the Duke of Anjou approach, Condé said:
+“There is Monseigneur’s troop; I am a dead man.” “No, my lord” replied
+D’Argence; “cover your face,” for he had taken off his helmet. At this
+moment up rode Montesquieu, captain of the duke’s Swiss guard, who,
+recognizing the prisoner, foully shot him in the back of the head. “Now
+I hope you are satisfied,” exclaimed the prince, and they were his last
+words.[429] It is supposed that orders had been given to spare none of
+the Huguenot leaders. The celebrated La Noue, who was made prisoner
+in this battle, owed his life to the intervention of the veteran
+Martigues, “the soldier without fear.” The Scotchman who had murdered
+the constable at the battle of St. Denis himself met with a similar
+end, while other prisoners like him were slain in cold blood. A little
+episode of this unequal fight shows the sterling stuff of which the
+Huguenot army was composed. When Condé was thrown from his horse, among
+those who made a living rampart of their bodies to protect him was
+an old man, Lavergne de Tressan by name, who, with twenty-five young
+men, his sons, grandsons, and nephews, fought desperately until he and
+fifteen of the heroic band were killed.
+
+Condé’s body was treated with the utmost contumely. “We found him,”
+says the biographer of the Duke of Montpensier, “lying across an ass,
+and the Baron de Magnac asked me if I should know him again? But as he
+had one eye beaten out of his head, and was otherwise much disfigured,
+I knew not what to answer. The corpse was brought in before all the
+princes and lords, who ordered the face to be washed, and recognized
+him perfectly. They then put him into a sheet, and he was carried
+before a man on horseback to the castle of Jarnac, where the king’s
+brother went to lodge.” Thence the remains of the ill-fated prince were
+removed to the church, and afterward given up to his friends. La Noue,
+who knew Condé well, thus writes his epitaph: “In boldness or courtesy
+no man of his time excelled him. Of speech he was eloquent, rather by
+nature than by art. He was liberal and affable unto all men, and withal
+an excellent captain, although he loved peace. He bare himself better
+in adversity than in prosperity.” In 1818, a monument was raised to his
+memory on the field of Jarnac, with the inscription:
+
+                                  HIC
+                         NEFANDA NECE OCCUBUIT
+                       ANNO MDLXIX ÆTATIS XXXIX
+                     LUDOVICUS BORBONIUS CONDÆUS,
+                 QUI IN OMNIBUS BELLI PACISQUE ARTIBUS
+                            NULLI SECUNDUS;
+                      VIRTUTE, INGENIO, SOLERTIA
+                     NATALIUM SPLENDOREM ÆQUAVIT;
+                       VIR MELIORI EXITU DIGNUS.
+
+Great was the exultation at court when the news of this brilliant
+success arrived,[430] and the nominal conqueror, Henry of Anjou, was
+extolled in language that would have been extravagant if applied to a
+Marlborough or Napoleon. He fought well, and had a horse killed under
+him; but Charles was not far wrong when he asked whether Tavannes and
+Biron were not the real heroes of the day? A solemn _Te Deum_
+was chanted for the victory at Jarnac, and the captured standards,
+twelve in number, were sent to Rome as a present to the pope. Pius V.,
+who in earlier days had exercised the office of inquisitor-general in
+Lombardy with fanatical severity, wrote to congratulate the king on
+the victory, bidding him “be deaf to every prayer, to trample upon
+every tie of blood and affection, and to extirpate heresy down to its
+smallest fibres (_etiam radicum fibras funditus evellere_).” He
+pointed to the example of Saul slaying the Amalekites, and condemned
+every feeling of clemency as a temptation of Satan.[431] This was the
+same pope who, having sent military aid to the French Catholics, blamed
+their commander “for not obeying his orders to slay instantly every
+heretic that fell into his hands:”[432] and yet he would complain with
+all sincerity that “but for the support of prayer, the cares of the
+papacy would be more than he could endure.” Contemporary writers tell
+us that “he performed his religious duties most devoutly, frequently
+with tears;” and always rose from his knees with the conviction that
+his prayers had been heard. Such are the contradictions in the human
+heart!
+
+When the news of the victory reached Provins, there was the usual
+holiday: the shops were closed, the houses decorated, and a general
+procession of clergy and laity, bearing relics and banners, marched
+through the crowded streets to the Jacobin’s convent to hear the Lent
+preacher. He was an apt pupil of the foul-mouthed Father Ivole. With
+thundering voice, and animated gestures, he declared the prince’s death
+to be a divine judgment, and described him as “the chief of robbers,
+murderers, thieves, rebels, Huguenots, and heretics in France; a prince
+degenerated from the virtues and religion of his ancestors, a man
+foresworn, guilty of treason against God and the king, a profaner of
+temples, a breaker of images, a destroyer of altars, a contemner of the
+sacraments, a disturber of the peace, a betrayer of his country, and a
+renegade Frenchman,” with many other flowers of monkish rhetoric, which
+the chronicler Haton forbears to quote.
+
+Although the loss of the Prince of Condé was, considering his rank
+and influence, a great blow to the French Protestants, they comforted
+themselves by the thought that it was “rather an advancement than a
+hindrance to their affairs,” as Sir Walter Raleigh said, in consequence
+of his “over-confidence in his own courage.” Coligny naturally
+succeeded to the command of the Huguenot forces, which soon recovered
+from the disaster at Jarnac. While they were rallying and reorganizing
+at Niort, Joan of Albret suddenly appeared in their camp, bringing with
+her two youths of fifteen. One of them was her nephew Henry, son of the
+murdered prince; the other her own son, Henry of Bearn, destined after
+many struggles to become Henry IV. of France. Addressing the assembled
+captains in a tone well calculated to raise their drooping spirits, she
+said: “I offer you my son, who burns with a holy ardor to avenge the
+death of the prince we all regret. Behold also Condé’s son, now become
+my own child. He succeeds to his father’s name and glory. Heaven grant
+that they may both show themselves worthy of their ancestors!”
+
+The Huguenot troops hailed the young Prince of Bearn with acclamations
+as their commander-in-chief, and the protector of their churches.
+The gallant boy welcomed the perilous commission, and coming forward
+exclaimed: “Soldiers, your cause is mine. I swear to defend our
+religion, and to persevere until death or victory[433] has restored us
+the liberty for which we fight.” In the “Memoirs of Nevers” there are
+some letters written two years before this by the principal magistrate
+of Bordeaux, containing several interesting particulars of the young
+prince’s person and manners:--“He is a charming youth. At thirteen he
+has all the riper qualities of eighteen or nineteen. He is agreeable,
+polite, obliging, and behaves to every one with an air so easy and
+engaging, that wherever he is, there is always a crowd. He mixes in
+conversation like a wise and prudent man, speaks always to the purpose,
+and when it happens that the court is the subject of discourse, it is
+easy to see that he is perfectly well acquainted with it, and never
+says more or less than he ought wherever he may be. I shall all my life
+hate the new religion for having robbed us of so worthy a subject....
+His hair is a little red, yet the ladies think him not less agreeable
+on that account. His face is finely shaped, his nose neither too large
+nor too small, his eyes full of sweetness, his skin brown but clear,
+and his whole countenance animated with an uncommon vivacity.”[434]
+
+The Huguenot loss at Jarnac was not great numerically--400 men at the
+utmost; and the various scattered corps were so soon brought together,
+and presented so bold a front to the enemy, that Anjou did not care to
+risk his newly-acquired laurels in a second encounter. He appeared to
+have lost all energy. Tavannes proposed the laying waste of Poitou,
+“the Huguenot milch cow;” but, instead of following his advice, the
+young duke seems to have thought that the best means of terminating the
+war would be to capture Rochelle, the real base of Huguenot operations.
+And probably victory would have crowned his plans, had he moved
+rapidly on that city, which was hardly in a condition to withstand a
+_coup de main_. But the middle course which he adopted served no
+other purpose than to strengthen his enemies. While he was besieging
+Cognac, Duke Wolfgang of Deux Ponts, with an auxiliary force of 14,000,
+succeeded in marching across France, and effecting a junction with
+the admiral, despite the efforts of Nemours and Aumale to stop him.
+On other points the royal forces had been equally unsuccessful. Anjou
+was forced to raise the siege of Cognac, stoutly defended by D’Acier
+with 1500 men, and lost one of his best officers, Cossé-Brissac, before
+the walls of a petty fortress in Périgord. Living or dying, Brissac,
+although rather a favorite of the queen-mother’s, had but little
+influence on the course of events; but if not naturally cruel, he was
+a striking illustration of the hardness of heart engendered by civil
+strife. A contemporary, who knew him well, describes him as “quick to
+slay, and so fond of killing, that he would attack a person with his
+dagger, and cut him so that the blood spurted in his face.”
+
+More serious were the deaths of Wolfgang and Andelot, both caused by
+fatigue and anxiety.[435] The former, who did not live to meet Coligny,
+was succeeded by the Count of Mansfield; the latter by Jacques de
+Crussol, better known as Jacques d’Acier, the chivalrous leader of the
+southern Huguenots. The admiral was deeply afflicted by the loss of
+his brother, whom he describes as “a most faithful servant of God, and
+most excellent and renowned captain. No one,” he continues in a letter
+to his own children and to their bereaved cousins, “surpassed him in
+the profession of arms.... I have never known a juster or more pious
+man; and I pray God that I may quit this life as piously and happily
+as he did.... Temper my grief by showing his virtues living again in
+yourselves.”
+
+Coligny, strengthened by the arrival of the German mercenaries and
+of reinforcements from Languedoc, now marched out to meet the royal
+army, still superior in numbers but weakened by disease and divided
+authority. They came in sight of each other at Roche-Abeille: 25,000
+men marched under the Huguenot banners; Anjou’s force had been
+increased to 30,000 by auxiliaries from every quarter. The pope had
+sent a body of 4000 foot and 800 horse under the Count of Santa Fiore,
+one of the most experienced captains of the age. The Duke of Tuscany
+sent 2200 men; and Alva spared from Flanders 300 lances and a regiment
+of Walloons 3000 strong. The country round Roche-Abeille is woody
+and irregular, and the royal army was posted on the top of a rugged
+hill, at whose foot ran a small stream. A marsh, crossed by a narrow
+road, protected the Huguenot position. The king’s troops, having the
+city of Limoges in their rear, were well supplied with provisions;
+while Coligny found it difficult to feed his army in the mountains
+and barren country behind him. Should he starve, retreat, or fight?
+The only safety lay in fighting, for the Germans had already begun
+to murmur. At day-break the Huguenots were under arms, and with six
+cannons, two companies of horse, and two brigades of infantry, prepared
+to attack Anjou’s position. Strozzi, the new colonel-general of the
+French infantry, had thrown up some rude breastworks round his camp
+with an advanced battery for his artillery, which swept the marsh
+over which the enemy would have to pass. The gallant De Piles, who
+led the attack, was at first repulsed, and severely harassed by four
+ensigns of Italian horse, who came down the hill while he was engaged
+in trying to extricate his guns which had stuck fast in the ground.
+Disengaging himself from the marsh, he renewed the attack, and having
+driven off the Italian horse, Coligny ordered Anjou’s position to be
+assaulted in flank, while a fierce cannonade was directed against
+the advanced battery. An opening was soon made in the enemy’s line,
+through which the Huguenot cavalry poured like a torrent, and the day
+was won, Strozzi being made prisoner (23d June, 1569). Six hundred of
+the royal army, including thirty officers, were left upon the field,
+the Huguenots showing no mercy to the Italian troops, “the soldiers
+of Antichrist,” as they were called. The result would have been still
+more fatal had it not been for the skill displayed by Tavannes in
+remedying Anjou’s mistakes. But, notwithstanding his success, Coligny
+was compelled to retire to a more convenient position, and not long
+after the king’s army was broken up, the weather being too hot for
+field operations. Davila mentions that this resolution was agreed to by
+a council at which Catherine was present and advised moderation. “It is
+not usual,” she said, “to cut off a diseased limb, except in extreme
+necessity.”
+
+Coligny had taken advantage of his success at Roche-Abeille to make
+overtures for peace. He wrote to the king that the Huguenots “desired
+nothing but to live in peace, pursue their avocations in quiet, and
+enjoy their property in security;” and that, in religious matters,
+they asked for toleration only until the assembling of a national
+council. The letter was sent through Montmorency, who was instructed
+to answer that “the king would hear nothing until the Huguenots had
+returned to their obedience.” The admiral saw clearly that to lay down
+their arms without conditions would be to expose themselves to certain
+destruction; he therefore replied to the marshal’s letter, that “having
+done their part to avert the dangers which threaten ruin to the state,
+they must now more than ever seek their own remedies.” Accordingly he
+resumed hostilities, his plan being to clear Poitou of the Royalist
+forces. Overruled by his officers, he consented to begin by attacking
+Poitiers, thus repeating the blunder which Anjou had committed before
+Cognac. The admiral not only failed after a two months’ siege, but
+his forebodings as to the damage to his own army were more than
+realized. With a force weakened by the loss of 3000 men and disunited
+by the quarrels of the German auxiliaries, he once more encountered
+Anjou’s army in the wide and treeless plain of Assay near Moncontour.
+The duke, who had been reinforced, was on his way to Loudun, hoping
+to cut off the Huguenot magazines, when Coligny, divining his plans,
+pushed forward to the plain of St. Clair, to the left of the village
+of La Chaussée, on the road from Loudun to Poitiers, where he drew
+up in order of battle; but as no enemy appeared, he retired toward
+Moncontour, whither he had sent his guns and baggage. Before this
+movement was completed, the Duke of Montpensier suddenly appeared and
+fell on the rear-guard, driving it in confusion before him. Coligny
+continued his march, supposing the whole of the royal army to be behind
+him; but when he discovered that it was only Montpensier’s division,
+he turned and drove it back, capturing two flags. This gave him the
+opportunity of crossing the Dive in safety, over which little stream
+the enemy made a vain attempt to pursue him. As soon as it was night he
+continued his march, and reached Moncontour on the 2d October, where a
+council of war was held, at which Coligny proposed a farther retreat to
+Airvault, but the majority decided for immediate battle. The Germans
+now declared they would not lift a lance until they were paid, and with
+some difficulty the money was found; but so much precious time had been
+lost, that the admiral was unable to select an advantageous position to
+compensate for his inferiority in number.
+
+From eight in the morning until three in the afternoon (3d October,
+1569), the two armies kept up a fierce cannonade upon each other,
+two of Anjou’s batteries on a hill causing great damage, and finally
+compelling some Huguenot regiments to shift their ground. Anjou
+observing this, ordered a forward movement, with the right wing
+strengthened so as to turn the enemy’s left. At the first shock both
+wings gave way. Coligny rallied them, and by a vigorous onset beat back
+Anjou’s first line. The duke immediately brought up his second line,
+and the Huguenot centre began to waver, when Anjou’s German cavalry
+rode down upon them like a hurricane, and in half an hour all was
+over. The Huguenots went into battle 18,000 strong, and before night
+it was a difficult matter to collect 1000 men to cover the retreat
+of the two princes to Parthenay. There was little mercy shown by the
+conquerors.[436] A brigade of German lansquenets laid down their arms
+and begged for quarter, which was refused, with shouts of “Remember
+Roche-Abeille.” A body of French infantry met with a similar fate. One
+incident of the battle deserves to be rescued from the dusty oblivion
+of the old histories. When all was in confusion, the Count of St. Cyr,
+a veteran soldier of eighty-five, whose snow-white beard flowed down
+to his waist, contrived to rally three companies of cavalry with which
+he attempted to cover the retreat. His chaplain, who rode by his side,
+suggested that he should say a few words to encourage his little troop.
+“Brave men need few words,” he cried; “do as you see me do.” Then
+setting spurs to his horse, he rode a score or so of yards in front of
+his men, and fell, struggling to the last against the advancing enemy.
+Two hundred colors were taken, and “the slaughter was greater than any
+for these hundred years past.”[437] The number of Huguenots alone who
+were left upon the field has been estimated at little less than 6000.
+The retreat was covered by Count Louis of Nassau,[438] who by his
+ability saved the relics of the broken and fugitive army. “I was an
+eye-witness of it,” says Raleigh, who had good reason to thank him for
+it.[439]
+
+The position of the admiral was most discouraging: he had lost half his
+army, his jaw had been fractured by a pistol-shot, he had been declared
+a traitor, a price of 50,000 livres had been set upon his head, he had
+been hanged in effigy in Paris, his house had been burned down, and
+his estates pillaged,[440] the wreck of his forces were in mutiny,
+and many of his friends had forsaken him with reproaches. Yet, in the
+midst of all these troubles, we find him within a fortnight rising
+from his sick-bed and writing the following letter to his children. It
+bears date 16th October, 1569:--“We must not count upon what is called
+prosperity, or repose our hopes on any of those things in which the
+world confides, but seek for something better than our eyes can see or
+our hands can touch. We will follow in the steps of Jesus Christ, our
+great commander, who has gone before. Men have taken from us all they
+can, and as such is the good pleasure of God, we will be satisfied and
+happy. Our consolation is, that we have not provoked these injuries by
+doing any wrong to those who have injured us; but that I have drawn
+upon me their hatred through having been employed by God in the defense
+of his Church. I will, therefore, add nothing more, except that, in
+his name, I admonish and conjure you to persevere undauntedly in your
+studies and in the practice of every Christian virtue.”
+
+When the news of the great victory reached the court, the exultation
+surpassed even that caused by the success at Jarnac. Anjou was extolled
+in terms that excited the jealousy of his brother Charles. “Am I to
+play the sluggard king,” he said one day to his mother, “and let the
+duke be my mayor of the palace? I will lead my own armies to the
+field, like my grandfather.” Pius V. wrote to congratulate Charles on
+his victory, and exhorted him not to screen the conquered from the
+vengeance of heaven, “for there is nothing more cruel than such mercy.
+Punish all who have taken up arms against the Almighty.”[441] Philip
+II. wrote in a somewhat similar strain, but apparently with no effect
+upon the royal councils. Tavannes once more urged Anjou to act with
+decision; but once more that frivolous youth lost valuable time in
+sieges, when he should have been pressing hard upon Coligny’s scattered
+and disheartened forces. He was detained for two months before St. Jean
+d’Angely, a little town of Saintonge, in a valley on the banks of the
+Boutonne, a tributary of the “gently flowing Charente.” It fell at last
+(2d December, 1569), but at the cost of 4000 men and one of the king’s
+best generals, Viscount Martigues. Charles was present during the
+siege, and constantly in the trenches, exposing his life, as if he were
+a common soldier. He was so fascinated with the excitement of war, that
+he declared he would gladly share the crown with his brother of Anjou,
+if he might alternately command the forces.
+
+Winter was now coming on: the nights were growing cold, and the
+rains had set in. The pope and the King of Spain had recalled their
+troops, and Anjou was sick. As there was nothing more to be done until
+spring, Charles, dismissing a large portion of his army, retired to
+Angers. This town had been recovered some time before by “that savage
+butcher,” the Duke of Montpensier. The Catholic historian of the city
+enumerates fifty-two persons who suffered a violent death, ten of them
+being murdered by the mob. The whole province now submitted, with the
+exception of a rough old soldier named Desmarais, who held out in the
+ruined castle of Rochefort. Here he was besieged in form, and for a
+time he kept off the enemy by means of frequent sorties. Suffering
+from want of men, food, and gunpowder, he crossed the hostile lines
+and reached Saumur, where his friends would have detained him, as his
+defeat was certain. “I promised to go back and die with them,” he
+said, and prepared to return with thirty men, who all deserted him
+through fear. After a bombardment, in which every man of the garrison
+was wounded, a traitor opened the gate and all were murdered, except
+Desmarais, whose life was promised him. Montpensier, however, declaring
+that no faith was to be kept with heretics, dragged him to Angers.
+There his limbs were broken on a cross, after which he was fastened to
+a wheel, and for twelve hours the old Puritan fought against death,
+amid the insults and jeers of a cruel and cowardly mob.
+
+Immediately after the disaster at Moncontour, the Queen of Navarre,
+and the chiefs of the Huguenot party had written to their friends in
+England, Germany, and Switzerland, representing the defeat as far less
+decisive than it really was, and asking for more help, on the ground
+that their destruction would be the ruin of all the countries that had
+embraced the Reformed religion. The position was indeed desperate.
+Their army had been so cut up that it was alike impossible to make any
+resistance in the open field, or reorganize it in the presence of the
+enemy. It was therefore determined to retire from the open country and
+take shelter behind the walls of Niort, Angoulême, St. Jean d’Angely,
+and La Rochelle, while Coligny moved southward in quest of recruits,
+hoping at the same time to draw a portion of the royal army after
+him, and thus relieve the pressure upon the troops left in garrison
+behind him. And now began that celebrated march through France, almost
+unexampled in modern history. His aim was to reach the mountains of
+Upper Languedoc, where he could winter unmolested by the royal army,
+and recruit his forces.
+
+Starting from Saintes with 3000 men, chiefly cavalry, and unencumbered
+with baggage, he crossed the Dordogne, and pushing through Guienne,
+Rouergue and Quercy, he passed the Lot below Cadenac. Halting for
+two days at Montauban, he was there joined by Montgomery and 2000
+veterans from Bearn. This nobleman had been engaged in putting down
+an insurrection of the Catholics in that province, which he did with
+savage harshness. Orthez was stormed, and so many of the inhabitants
+were put to death without distinction of age or sex, that the river
+Gave was dammed up by the number of bodies thrown into it. The
+monasteries and nunneries were burned, not one inmate escaping--the
+total slaughter being estimated at 3000. When the citadel was taken,
+every ecclesiastic who was proved to have borne arms--and the proof was
+none of the strictest--was bound hand and foot, and tossed over the
+bridge into the river. From Montauban Coligny marched up the Garonne
+to Toulouse, where he avenged the cruelties that had been inflicted on
+Rapin, the bearer of the king’s dispatch announcing the peace of 1568.
+Advancing still nearer to the Mediterranean, he placed his army in
+winter-quarters round Narbonne.
+
+Let us take advantage of this interval of repose to see what had been
+doing in other parts of France. A certain Captain Blosset, who held a
+small castle at Regeane in the diocese of Auxerre, was besieged by the
+Catholics of the neighborhood and forced to surrender. He contrived to
+make his escape, but all the garrison were cruelly murdered. One of
+these, Cœur de Roy by name, was taken to Auxerre, stripped, killed,
+and cut in pieces. His heart was torn out of his body, and slices of
+it were offered for sale. Some were such brutes (says the historian)
+as to set them on the fire and eat them half-roasted. “And these are
+the pious Christian duties,” he adds, “which we are taught by these
+troubles!” This was in June: in August (1569) the houses in which 200
+Huguenots had been shut up at Orleans were set on fire by the mob,
+who drove back such as endeavored to escape from the flames. “A part
+of them,” says a contemporary, “were seen clasping their hands in the
+fire and calling upon the name of the Lord.” Some jumped out of the
+windows and were immediately “bludgeoned” by the people in the street.
+Others were shot like game. Some women also were killed, who, heedless
+of the sacking of their houses, were lamenting the deaths of their
+husbands, brothers, and others, whom they saw so pitilessly burned. It
+is pleasanter to read of Marie de Barbançon, a widow lady, who gave an
+asylum in her castle of Bonegon to the fugitive Protestants. The little
+fortress, which was defended by 50 men only, was attacked by a force of
+3000 horse and foot provided with artillery. They battered the walls
+for fifteen days, but the brave woman still held out, and would not
+surrender until all of her little garrison were killed or wounded.[442]
+Nismes was captured in a singular manner. A Huguenot inhabitant of the
+city, by the patient labor of fifteen nights, filed away the bar of an
+iron gate which ran across a brook, and through the opening twenty of
+the banished citizens re-entered the place and made themselves masters
+of it in a few minutes.
+
+At Cognat, near Gannat, the Calvinists of Auvergne, under the command
+of Poncenac and Valbeleix, gained a pitched battle over the Catholics,
+in whose ranks the Bishop of Le Puy, armed in helmet and cuirass,
+fought like Orson with a ponderous club. At Dieppe the Huguenots were
+commanded to leave the town or go to mass, and all refugees were
+summoned to return under pain of having their property confiscated.
+Not one obeyed the order. No Catholic was allowed to keep a Huguenot
+servant; and all resistance was punished by the strappado, or by
+a penitential progress through the city, which sometimes ended in
+a flogging in the market-place, more frequently in a hanging. But
+violence was not confined to one side only. The Protestants of the
+neighborhood of Aurillac surprised that city, which in retaliation
+for the brutalities committed in 1562 they sacked and destroyed. They
+buried some Catholics alive up to the chin, and after a series of
+filthy outrages, used their heads as targets for their muskets.[443]
+Four hundred persons were put to death, of whom 130 were heads of
+families.
+
+Early in the spring the Huguenot army moved northward, and halting
+at Nismes, which they reached in April, Coligny laid before them
+the plan of his new campaign. He proposed marching up the Rhone, and
+through Burgundy, so as to threaten Paris on the east, while the royal
+armies were occupied in the west, and separated from him by rugged
+mountain ranges. The boldness of the design startled the southern
+Protestants, who refused to be taken so far from their homes; but about
+5000 men agreed to follow him, of whom 3000 were arquebusiers, whom he
+mounted on horseback.[444] With this flying camp he advanced to the
+Rhone, and sending a detachment up the right bank to seek recruits in
+the Vivarrais and the Cevennes, he crossed with the remainder into
+Dauphiny, where Gordes was too weak to make effectual resistance.
+Continual skirmishes, and petty sieges harassed, but did not interrupt,
+Coligny’s progress; but the army suffered such great hardships, that
+his illness, which compelled them to halt on St. Etienne in Forez, was
+considered as any thing but a calamity. For some time he lay between
+life and death, and his soldiers now first learned his value from their
+fear of losing him. During three weeks the troops remained inactive; a
+precious time which they employed in repairing some of the damage they
+had suffered during their long march, and where they received a most
+welcome reinforcement of 1500 cavalry under Briquemault.
+
+Here, too, they were joined by the corps detached to the Vivarrais.
+They had to make their painful way over rugged crests and along
+horrible precipices, “the image of a world falling into ruin and
+perishing of old age.”[445] Nothing grows on the stony flanks of these
+exhausted craters but chestnut-trees, whose coarse fruit was not then
+ripe.[446] In the higher passes the snow lay deep, as it frequently
+does far into summer, and horse and rider often missed the way and
+were seen no more. Few towns or even villages are to be found even
+now in these wild districts, and the peasantry fare hard upon the
+scanty supply of their flocks of sheep and goats. From gloomy gorges,
+many of which are aptly named _Enfer_ or _Diable_, where
+black precipitous rocks almost exclude the day, and through which dash
+impetuous torrents, often dry in summer, and in winter impassable--from
+these gorges the army suddenly emerged into a smiling valley, now the
+scene of a most thriving industry!
+
+As soon as Coligny had recovered his strength, the army was once more
+put in motion, and in June reached Arnay-le-Duc in Burgundy, after a
+march of nearly 1200 miles. Here Marshal Cossé attempted to stop him
+with an army of 12,000 foot and 4000 horse with artillery, while the
+Huguenot force barely exceeded 6000 men, mostly cavalry and no guns, so
+great had been the losses since they left Poitou the previous autumn.
+The battle began on the edge of a little brook which the Catholics
+attempted to cross; but all their attacks, whether in front or in
+flank, were unsuccessful. Throughout that long summer day (27th June,
+1570), Cossé tried again and again, but every movement was met promptly
+and resisted vigorously. At length night came--a welcome relief to the
+petty band of Huguenots, whose losses, though numerically small, were
+greater than Coligny could afford. The next day the two armies remained
+face to face, the marshal being evidently afraid of so desperate an
+enemy. “Here,” says Prince Henry, “was my first exploit in arms,[447]
+the question being whether I should fight or retire. My nearest place
+of retreat was forty miles distant, and, if I halted, I must certainly
+lie at the mercy of the country people. By fighting, I ran the risk of
+being taken or slain, for I had no cannon, and the king’s forces had,
+and a gentleman was killed not ten paces distant from me by a cannon
+shot. But commending the success of the day to God, it pleased him to
+make it favorable and happy.”[448] Coligny warmly complimented the
+young prince on his courage, and gave him some advice which he did
+not forget in after years: “Do not ask how many have fallen? They are
+Frenchmen, and I hope that ere long you and I will have to shed no more
+French blood in our own defense.... If I have taught you by my firmness
+to triumph over the cruelest obstacles, you have still to learn a more
+valuable lesson from me--to avoid civil war at any price.”
+
+Arnay le Duc is only sixty leagues from Paris, toward which Coligny
+was advancing with a speed which the defeated and encumbered army of
+Marshal Cossé could not overtake, even if he were anxious (which is
+doubtful) to do so. A fresh body of auxiliaries was on its way from
+Germany to reinforce Prince Henry; La Noue had not only saved Rochelle,
+but recovered the greater part of Poitou; and the admiral had reached
+Chatillon-sur-Loing, his patrimonial seat.[449] This was enough to
+alarm the court and turn their thoughts to peace. After the battle
+at La Roche-Abeille there had been an attempt at arrangement, and
+also after Moncontour, but in both cases the language of the king and
+council was very discouraging. At this juncture, however, the Moderate
+party had recovered their ascendancy in the cabinet: “Five out of the
+eight were atheists or Huguenots,” says the Spanish embassador.[450]
+Yielding to their influence, the king and his mother were inclined to
+be conciliatory, and to grant any reasonable terms; for the treasury
+was empty, and the Swiss auxiliaries were threatening to return home
+unless their arrears were paid. Nor were the Huguenots much better off.
+Their army had received no pay for some time, their arms and equipments
+were worn out, and they were far from their resources. La Noue tells us
+that the prospect of a cessation of hostilities was not popular with
+the extreme party on either side: the Catholics declaring it to be
+“an unworthy deed to make peace with heretics, who deserved grievous
+punishment; the Huguenots deeming it to be nothing but treason.”
+Coligny himself appears to have held back at first, thinking probably
+that no good could come from the negotiations; but his feelings on the
+matter may be gathered from the faithful La Noue, who reports that
+after the peace was signed he exclaimed: “I would rather die than fall
+into the like confusions again, and see so many mischiefs committed
+before my face.”
+
+After some preliminary discussion, five negotiators were
+appointed--Teligny, Beauvais, La Nocle, Cavaignes, and La
+Chassetière--by whom the conditions of a treaty were soon arranged
+and presented for the ratification of the king and the confederate
+princes. Once more the papal nuncio and the Spanish embassador exerted
+all their influence to prolong the war, even threatening Charles with
+their master’s displeasure. But the French king, who had set his
+mind upon peace, would listen to nothing, and the treaty was signed
+at St. Germains in August, 1570. It conceded a full amnesty for the
+past, all prisoners of war were to be released, and all confiscated
+property restored; the appropriated churches were to be given back
+to the Catholic priests; no one was to be troubled on account of his
+religion; and the right of public worship was conceded to the Reformed
+under certain restrictions. Huguenots were to enjoy equal rights with
+the Catholics, and be eligible to every office in the State. The right
+of appeal from the provincial parliaments was extended, and--galling
+condition!--four cities (La Rochelle, Montauban, Cognac, and La
+Charité) were to be held for two years by Huguenot garrisons as pledges
+for the fulfillment of the treaty stipulations.
+
+Immediately after the signing of the treaty, the Huguenots disbanded
+their army; the German auxiliaries were paid off by a levy on the
+Protestant churches; and the leaders proceeded to La Rochelle, where
+Joan of Navarre was holding a little court. The royal army was marched
+to various garrison towns and then partly disbanded. On their route
+northward, an incident occurred which shows how little regard was felt
+for human life: nothing hardens the heart more than civil war. When
+Strozzi had to cross the Loire, he found his march so embarrassed
+by the number of female camp-followers, who would not obey the
+proclamations to leave the army, that he threw more than 800 of them
+into the Loire at Pont de Cé above Angers.[451]
+
+The color given to the next two years of the reign of Charles IX.
+depends much upon the view we take of the Peace of St. Germains. Was
+the court sincere, or only playing a part to entice the Huguenots into
+a trap, and so get rid of them at one blow? This is the opinion of
+many, and particularly of Davila, who says positively that the peace
+was a snare.[452] But he is occasionally too subtle: he belongs to
+that class of historians who think that kings and statesmen regulate
+their policy by grand schemes of far-sighted calculation, instead of
+living, as it were, from hand to mouth. The _imprévu_, to use an
+apt French word, plays a much more important part in human affairs than
+some historians are willing to believe. The Treaty of St. Germains--and
+we have Walsingham’s express testimony to that effect[453]--was the
+work of the Politicians, all good Catholics, like Cossé, Damville, and
+Montmorency. Walsingham adds that the king had sharply rebuked the
+mutinous Parisians, and told them that he meant to have the treaty
+“duly observed.” He farther explains why Charles should have desired
+peace: “His own disposition, necessity, pleasure, misliking with
+certain of his council and favoring of others.” Walsingham already saw
+the small cloud rising that would soon overshadow France: “Monsieur
+(Anjou) can hardly digest to live in the degree of a subject, having
+already the reputation of a king.”[454]
+
+Languet’s testimony is equally decisive as to the pacific disposition
+of Charles IX.[455] Contarini speaks doubtfully about the treaty,
+although he says “peace was the aim and desire of the king and
+queen.”[456] Indeed it was not Catherine’s policy to crush the
+Huguenots utterly: she needed them as a counterpoise to the Guises,
+who, though at this time rather out of favor at court, were, perhaps,
+all the more popular among the fanatic masses.
+
+It must be farther borne in mind that, at this turning-point of
+Catherine’s policy, not only the pope was not consulted, but the court,
+in making peace, acted in direct opposition to his representations. In
+January, Pius V. strongly advised a continuance of the war,[457] and
+when he heard of the treaty of St. Germains, he wrote to the Cardinals
+of Lorraine and Bourbon, expressing his “fears that God would inflict
+a judgment on the king and all who counseled and took part in the
+infamous negotiations. We can not refrain from tears as we think how
+deplorable the peace is to all good men; how full of danger, and what a
+source of bitter regret.”
+
+It would have been very easy to quiet the holy father by telling him
+that the treaty was a snare; but nothing of the kind was done; and,
+on the contrary, the king and his mother both represented to him
+the necessity of peace. Pius replied in angry tones, and the court
+made answer that the king was master in his own dominions to do as
+he pleased. In a somewhat similar manner, Spain tried to thwart the
+negotiations; Philip II. even offered to send Charles a force of 3000
+horse and 6000 foot, provided he would engage never to make peace with
+the heretic rebels. But this attempt to prolong the war also failed,
+and we learn from Walsingham’s dispatches that a great coolness sprang
+up between the two courts.
+
+There is a letter written on the 10th December, four months after
+the signature of the treaty, which shows very plainly the feeling of
+the government. The clergy of Tours had complained of the licensed
+Protestant meeting-place at Maillé, and petitioned that it should be
+removed to Montdoubleau or elsewhere. Charles replied that he would
+willingly grant their prayer, could he do so without contravening
+the Edict, which he was determined “to keep and observe inviolably;”
+but he promised to consult with Navarre and Condé on the matter, and
+if possible, with their consent, the change should be made.[458]
+Two months later (13th February, 1571), Charles writes to Humières,
+governor of Peronne and an old friend, expressing his satisfaction
+at the peaceful state of the country and his intention to reduce the
+army.[459]
+
+In the Archives of Gap there is a letter from the king to the
+_baillis_, in which he rejoices at the prosperous state of the
+kingdom and good conduct of the people; testifies the liveliest
+desire to consolidate union and concord between all his subjects, and
+recommends them “de tenir la main à l’exécution exacte de son édit
+de pacification, et de punir ceux qui y contreviendraient” (4th May,
+1572). Charles was proud of the treaty of St. Germains, spoke of it as
+his own treaty and his own peace, artfully insinuating (adds Sully,
+a prejudiced witness) that he consented to this peace in order to
+support the princes of the blood against the overweening presumption
+of the Guises, whom he accused of conspiring with Spain to throw the
+kingdom into confusion. The Guises certainly had nothing to do with
+the treaty. They opposed it instead of supporting it; a course they
+would hardly have adopted had they been aware that it was a trap for
+the Huguenots. The Cardinal of Lorraine even wished to leave the court,
+so strongly did he disapprove of the negotiations. Fornier indeed,
+in his unpublished history of the house of Guise, says that it was
+the cardinal who proposed “ce grand coup d’état”--the peace and the
+massacre--and that it was approved of by the king in a council to which
+the queen-mother, Anjou, the Duke of Guise, and De Retz, “tous gens
+d’un secret inviolable,” were summoned;[460] but the duke was not in
+favor at the time, and the statement is entirely unsupported. It is
+also positive that Anjou greatly disapproved of the negotiations.
+
+But it is contended that all these things were part of the
+plot--Anjou’s dislike, the duke’s absence, the king’s zeal. It may
+be so; but this hypothesis involves us in greater difficulties than
+the other. If we assume that the government was sincere, every thing
+becomes clear for the next two years; if we adopt the contrary opinion,
+the course of events up to the eve of the massacre is an inextricable
+maze. True, it is impossible to say whether Catherine accepted the
+treaty without any _arrière-pensée_, any mental reservation;
+for she accepted every thing, and was sincere in nothing except her
+master-passion--to govern France. For this, she not only played one
+party against the other, but habitually dallied with opposing schemes,
+intriguing now on this side, now on that, deceiving and betraying all.
+The most serious objection to the sincerity of the government is the
+shyness, the unwillingness of the Reformed chiefs to go to court, or
+even to visit their own estates. But then, if they suspected treachery,
+why did they consent to the treaty of St. Germains, or to any treaty,
+thus preparing a snare for themselves? Better die in the field
+struggling for liberty, than perish ingloriously like rats in a trap.
+Sully, in a measure, clears away the doubt just raised. In his “Royal
+Economies” he says: “With a view of giving _a more solid foundation
+and consistency to their affairs_, they resolved to take up their
+residence _permanently_ at La Rochelle, within the walls of which
+they could alone consider themselves in security.”
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER X.
+
+                      THE CALM BEFORE THE STORM.
+
+                   [August, 1570, to August, 1572.]
+
+   Albert and Pierre de Gondi, Birague, Strozzi, Nevers, and
+   Henry of Guise--Marriage of Charles IX--Nuptial Festivities at
+   Paris--Embassy of the German Princes--Violent Sermons--Outrages
+   at Orange and Rouen--Objects of the Politiques--Revolt in
+   Flanders--Position of Affairs--Interview between the King and
+   Prince Louis of Nassau--Spanish Threats--Coligny’s Marriage--The
+   Admiral goes to Blois--Conferences with the King--Proposed
+   Marriage of Henry and Margaret--Murder of Lignerolles--The
+   Gastine Cross--Queen of Navarre at Blois--Alessandrino’s Special
+   Embassy--Letters to Rome--Negotiations--Pope refuses the
+   Dispensation--Fears of the Parisians.
+
+
+The Peace of St. Germains was a severe blow to the foreigners by whom
+the court was infested. Their interests were entirely opposed to those
+of France, and their great object was to enrich themselves, by any
+means however base and unworthy. They were found everywhere--filling up
+the rich sees, wealthy abbacies, court places--where money could be got
+without peril to life or toil of body. Their expulsion seemed to be the
+only means of saving the country and ensuring that permanent concord at
+which the “Politiques” had aimed in supporting the late treaty.
+
+The chief among these foreigners were Gondi, Birague, and Strozzi.
+Albert de Gondi--better known in history as Marshal de Retz--was a man
+of low origin, his mother acting as wet-nurse to Catherine’s children,
+so that Albert and Charles IX. were foster-brothers, and thus there
+naturally grew up a strong attachment between them. After the death
+of Henry II. Albert rose rapidly, and was made successively knight of
+the orders of St. Michael and of the Holy Ghost, first gentleman of
+the bed-chamber, privy councilor, general of the galleys, duke, peer,
+marshal, and governor of Provence, in which he succeeded Marshal Tende,
+“to the great indignation of the nobility,” says De Thou.[461] It was
+this man who, appointed governor to the young king Charles, corrupted
+and perverted all his promising qualities. His latter days were very
+miserable: for twenty years he lingered on, not living but suffering,
+and died in 1602, an example of divine justice.[462]
+
+    Abstulit hunc tandem Rufini pœna tumultum,
+    Absolvitque Deos.
+
+Pierre de Gondi was chancellor to the queen, bishop, Duke of Langres,
+and then of Paris, the possessor of four abbeys, commander of the order
+of the Holy Ghost, and cardinal. There was another brother, Charles,
+also well provided for.
+
+René de Birague, who had succeeded the virtuous L’Hopital in the
+chancellorship, was a Milanese, and in succession lawyer, soldier,
+courtier, priest, chancellor, and cardinal. He was a thorough Italian,
+careless of religion, unscrupulous, fond of intrigue, time-serving,
+and slavishly submissive to the king’s caprices. Mezeray describes him
+as “a magistrate without learning or application, who bent like a reed
+before every breath of wind from the court.” It was he who advised
+Charles IX. to get rid of the Huguenots, not by the help of soldiers
+but of cooks--in other words, by poison. Philip Strozzi, son of the
+brave but unfortunate Marshal Pietro Strozzi, became, at the early age
+of twenty-two, quarter-master of the French guards, and colonel-general
+of the French infantry, which gave him almost unlimited authority. The
+French soldiers murmured at being placed under his orders.[463]
+
+Louis de Gonzaga was another of this Italian band. One historian calls
+him “a worthy prince,” but his worth was due more to his timidity
+than to his honesty.[464] These were the principal confidants of the
+queen-mother, and their only aim was to preserve what they had got. The
+chief of the Guises was Henry of Lorraine, surnamed “le Balafré.” He
+was not so good a soldier as his father, but was a tall, handsome man,
+with keen eye, light beard and curly hair; liberal to profusion, easy
+in speech, well read in Tacitus, and perfect in all bodily and military
+exercises. But his good qualities were marred by an insatiable thirst
+for glory and a desire for authority. When Henry III. asked how it was
+that Duke Henry enchanted every body, the reply was: “He does good to
+all and speaks ill of none.” He had succeeded to most of the great
+charges of his father, as grand master, high chamberlain, and governor
+of Champagne.
+
+The peace of St. Germains was acceptable to the larger portion of the
+Huguenot party, many of whom had not visited their homes since the
+first outbreak of the wars, and their affairs had become so disordered
+that ruin appeared almost inevitable. The noise of the trumpet and the
+drum had drowned the quieter voice of religion, the Protestant churches
+were decaying, discipline was relaxed, and doctrine becoming unsound.
+A general synod was required to put these matters straight, and this,
+the seventh, was by the king’s permission held at Rochelle in April,
+1571, under the presidency of Theodore Beza. The Queen of Navarre
+and the young princes of Bearn and Condé were present at the opening
+ceremony along with the admiral and Count Louis of Nassau. The great
+work of this synod was to revise the confession of 1559, and issue an
+authoritative text, of which three copies on parchment were made. One
+of these standards was to be kept at Rochelle, another at Geneva, and a
+third at Pau in Bearn. The first and last disappeared during the civil
+wars.
+
+Very different were the occupations of the court, which an historian,
+whom I have often consulted with advantage, describes as being “more
+licentious than that of Francis I., without the varnish of gallantry
+which conceals the excesses of passion.”[465] Catherine was fond of
+ease: her voluptuous Italian nature delighted in balls and masquerades,
+in _fêtes_ and banquets. She could now once more indulge her
+taste for the arts, and during this period we find her busy with her
+new palace of the Tuileries, laying out gardens, talking with Bernard
+Palissy, now a man of note; or with Jean Bullant, whose reputation has
+been dwarfed by the greater renown of his predecessor Philip de l’Orme.
+Wherever she went, a gay troop of beautiful women accompanied her.
+Their charms were employed to convert the queen’s foes into friends,
+and to learn the secrets of her enemies. “Le bal marcha toujours,”
+growls that rough old warrior Montluc.
+
+The king’s marriage was an opportunity for gayeties not to be lost.
+It is said that one of his motives for concluding the treaty of St.
+Germains was the unwillingness of the Emperor Maximilian to part with
+his daughter while France was in a state of civil commotion. There
+may have been other causes of delay, for very unfavorable reports
+of the king’s health and disposition had got abroad. His character
+certainly had not improved during the few years he had occupied the
+throne. He was fond of athletic sports, and excelled in jumping and
+tennis. He took delight in shoeing horses and working at the forge,
+like a blacksmith.[466] He was addicted to the chase “even to frenzy,”
+passing whole days and nights in the woods.[467] This made him “cruel
+toward beasts, but _not_ toward men.”[468] Sometimes he and his
+madcap associates would tear along the roads, decapitating any unlucky
+donkey he might encounter, or transfixing stray pigs with his hunting
+spear.[469] Then, as if maddened by the sight of blood, he would dabble
+in their entrails like a butcher. He was fond of practical jokes; often
+at night he would break into the bedrooms of his young companions, pull
+them out of bed, and flog them as if they were school-boys. He was not
+licentious, and Marie Touchet was the object of a sincere passion.
+Perjury seemed to him nothing but a figure of speech and no crime; he
+therefore violated his word as often as it seemed profitable to do
+so. But fortunately for the human race “men are not all evil,” and in
+his lucid moments--for Charles was at times quite insane--he appears
+affectionate and desirous of doing what is right. When at Bayonne, he
+quite disgusted the unscrupulous Alva by saying that to take up arms
+against his own subjects was quite out of the question, and could only
+be followed by general ruin. Though no soldier, he had seen service
+at the sieges of Bourges, Rouen, Havre, and St. Jean d’Angely, and
+possessed all the ambition of his race to extend the frontiers of
+his kingdom. There were times when he courted the society of men
+of letters, and would shut himself up with “his friends” Ronsard,
+Baif, Passerat, or Theodore Corneille, to compose verses. Nor was he
+himself a stranger to the Muses, if the fragments ascribed to him
+are really from his pen. Even his treatise on hunting--_La Chasse
+royale_--shows him to have possessed considerable skill. Such was
+the man to whose word the Huguenots had entrusted their property and
+lives, and to whom the Emperor of Germany was about to entrust his
+daughter. Perhaps it was hoped that the amiable Elizabeth would tame
+him down, as in later years and in another country Peter the Czar was
+controlled by the low-born Catherine.
+
+The betrothal took place at Spires on the 22d of October, and the
+marriage was solemnized on the 26th of November at Mézières. The
+festivities by which it was followed lasted all winter. In the
+following March the new queen entered Paris under a rustic gate-way,
+“finer than had ever been seen before, and looking quite natural on
+account of the herbs, snails, and lizards depicted on it.” We could
+almost fancy it a contrivance of Bernard Palissy’s. The queen rode
+in an open litter hung with cloth of silver within and without, and
+the mules that bore it were similarly adorned. Elizabeth herself
+was covered with jewels, and wore a dazzling crown on her head. The
+corporation of the city made their usual tiresome harangues, which they
+followed up by presenting the young queen with a silver gilt buffet,
+and then invited her to partake of a collation at the Hôtel-de-Ville,
+at which the refreshments were of the choicest description. “There was
+every kind of fruit found in the world, and every sort of meat and
+fish, all made out of sugar and looking quite natural.” The dishes
+containing these _chefs-d’œuvre_ of the confectionery art were
+also of silver. Poets and musicians contributed in their respective
+departments, and the king was so pleased with their performances that
+they were induced--especially Baif and Theodore Corneille--to propose
+the founding of an Academy of Music and Poetry.
+
+The decorations of the bridge of Notre Dame will serve to show the
+magnificence of the age and the feelings entertained by the court with
+regard to the recent pacification. A triumphal arch had been erected
+at each extremity, and the roadway covered in by an awning on which
+the ciphers and heraldic bearings of the royal pair were represented
+in flowers and evergreens. “It looked like a vision of the Elysian
+fields.”[470] Between every window on the first floor of the houses
+were half-figures of nymphs bearing fruits and flowers; above them
+were wreaths of laurel from which depended the shields of the several
+members of the royal family with emblematical devices. At the crown of
+each arch stood a statue on an altar: in one place a Victory, bound to
+an olive-tree, “indicated allegorically how the marriage of Charles and
+Elizabeth secured the welfare and repose of their people.” On one of
+the panels of the base an altar was represented, by the side of which
+stood a priest in his sacerdotal robes, and near him a lamb for the
+sacrifice. This was intended to signify that whosoever violated the
+Edict of Pacification should suffer the fate of the lamb. At the four
+corners stood four armed men representing the four marshals of France,
+empowered to carry out and enforce the edict. _Fœdus immortelle_
+was the motto. On another panel bees were represented storing honey
+among a pile of arms, with two lines from Ovid, showing the happy
+effects of peace.
+
+In another place a spider was seen weaving his web over a bundle of
+swords, gauntlets, morions, and such like, with an inscription from
+Theocritus, explaining how sure a sign this was of peace and oblivion
+of past quarrels. But among the masques given during these nuptial
+festivities there was one in which Charles IX. appeared as Jupiter,
+Elizabeth as Minerva, and Catherine as Juno, while the Huguenots were
+represented as Typhon and the Giants. One of the devices was strikingly
+suggestive of impending treachery:
+
+    Cadme, relinque ratem; pastoria sibila finge;
+    Fas superare dolo, quem vis non vincit aperta.
+
+It would, however, be unfair to give political importance to what was
+probably nothing more than the unauthorized language of a court poet.
+One little incident connected with these rejoicings may be adduced,
+however, to show the bigoted temper of the Parisians: they were
+scandalized that the court should amuse itself with balls and banquets,
+and other festivities during the season of Lent!
+
+One thing was wanting to these rejoicings--none of the Protestant
+leaders were present. They still kept aloof at Rochelle, endeavoring to
+give consistency to their affairs. “And they did wisely,” says the Abbé
+Perau in his Life of Coligny; “for orders had been issued to arrest
+the principal of them immediately upon their arrival.” This statement,
+although corroborated by the compiler of the “Mémoires de l’Etat de
+France,” may well be doubted. The air was thick with suspicions, some
+of which had evidently reached the German Protestant courts; and to
+show the interest they took in the condition of their co-religionists
+in France, the electors-palatine of Saxony and Brandenburg, the dukes
+of Bavaria, Brunswick, and Wurtemburg, and others, resolved to send
+an embassy to congratulate Charles on his marriage. Charles received
+the embassadors at Villars-Cotterets, a magnificent mansion built by
+Francis I. They began by complimenting him: “Our masters know that your
+majesty, being so young, was not the author of the late war. It was the
+work of certain turbulent and wicked men, who take delight in disorders
+and confusion. Continue to deserve that most august of titles--the
+_Peacemaker_--and punish sternly every one who attempts to cause
+any fresh disturbance in your kingdom.... In the multitude of people,
+as the Wise Man saith, is the king’s honor (Proverbs xiv. 28), and
+the principal law imposed by God and nature upon kings and princes
+is the preservation of their subjects. Those who would induce you to
+break your faith, saying that it is impossible for a state to exist
+where there is a diversity of religion, speak differently from what
+they think, or are ignorant of what has been done in many great and
+flourishing states.” The embassadors showed him that the Grand Turk
+permitted Christians to live at peace in his dominions, that the
+Emperor Charles V. had come to terms with the Protestants of Germany,
+and that even the pope suffered Jews to settle in his states. “God
+alone,” they said, “can command the consciences of men; and be assured,
+Sire, that those are your best subjects and your best friends who urge
+you to the observance of all you have promised in your edicts of
+peace.” Charles thanked them for their kind expressions, and said that
+it was his ardent desire to maintain peace between all his subjects,
+as the sole means of prosperity to his kingdom. He then dismissed the
+embassadors in the most courteous manner, embracing them and loading
+them with presents. Charles used similar language in his address to
+the Parliament of Paris in March, 1571. “I thank God,” he said “that
+the troubles are over, and hope above all things to establish peace so
+surely, that my subjects will never fall again into the calamities from
+which they have been rescued. I will set to work earnestly, and trust
+that you will support me.”[471]
+
+Such an appeal was quite necessary, for the conciliatory Edict of St.
+Germains--a mere repetition of the articles of the treaty--had not
+always been scrupulously carried out. This depended in great measure
+upon the views the provincial governors took of the edict; some
+rendering it almost nugatory by the way in which they interpreted it,
+others giving it the most liberal construction. Thus in the regulations
+published at Gap (10th February, 1571), Montmorency-Damville, relying
+upon the Thirteenth Article of the treaty, forbade the Reformers to
+assemble to the number of more than ten at the funeral of one of their
+co-religionists. And yet this was considered a pacificatory order. He
+also assigned the town of Chorges, four leagues north of Gap, as the
+authorized place of worship for the Upper Alps. It was a long distance
+for the Reformers to go every Sunday; but these were times of religious
+fervor, and as the Huguenots walked along, singing their hymns, they
+forgot the fatigues of the way.[472]
+
+In many places, the clergy in their pulpits pandered to the worst
+passions of their ignorant flocks. The king and the queen-mother were
+denounced as traitors--one was a Judas, the other a Jezebel--because
+they did not order the “rascally heretics” to be slaughtered. The fires
+of Sodom and Gomorrah were invoked upon the heads of the Huguenots.
+“Arise, Joshua, and smite Makkeddah with the edge of the sword.” Joshua
+was Anjou, and Makkeddah Rochelle. These ravings did not fall to the
+ground.[473] On Sunday, the 4th March, 1571, as the Protestants of
+Rouen were going to divine worship outside the city walls, they were
+attacked and beaten, and fifteen were killed. Still greater atrocities
+had been perpetrated at Orange in the preceding month, the murders
+continuing for three days, during which the popular fury spared neither
+women nor children. Such things naturally tended to make the Huguenot
+chiefs suspicious, and to perpetuate the division of the people into
+two hostile camps.
+
+The great object of the _Politicians_ who had brought about the
+Treaty of St. Germains, was to make France independent at home and
+respected abroad; above all things, to get rid of Spanish influence
+in their domestic affairs. That patriotic party knew well how Philip
+II. had fomented their civil dissensions,[474] and they saw that a
+long continuance of peace was hopeless unless the foreign intriguers
+could be got rid of. The king himself had a glimpse of this truth, and
+was besides very jealous of the position assumed by his brother of
+Anjou. The queen-mother also expressed her dislike of the attitude
+taken by Philip; but she was so thoroughly false that no reliance could
+be placed upon any thing she said. It is not necessary to go back
+to the Treaty of Cateau-Cambresis in 1559, which contained nothing
+particularly humiliating, and had been condoned by the subsequent
+intercourse between the two countries, although it must have been very
+galling to French pride--as indeed to the pride of any nation--to
+surrender its conquests. The active interference of Spain in the
+politics of France began with the criminal intrigues of the house
+of Lorraine. Their fanatical and spurious orthodoxy was, as we have
+seen, ardently supported by Philip II., who never ceased personally,
+or through his embassador, to urge the complete destruction of the
+Huguenots. He even went so far, on more than one occasion, as to
+threaten war, if the court made any concession to the heretics. We
+have seen the result: France had been rent in pieces by civil war, and
+Protestantism was as strong as ever. To this Spain had brought them:
+might it not be possible, by reversing the policy, to reverse the
+results? The opportunity was not unfavorable, and there were grievances
+to be redressed. The Flemings were still in open revolt: the cruelties
+of the blood-thirsty Alva had given an intensity to their hatred,
+which nothing but total extermination could subdue. It would not be
+prudent to allow the duke to go too far, and if by a word from France
+the insurgents could be stimulated to farther sacrifices, Philip II.
+would be so weakened that he would cease to be a dangerous neighbor. It
+must not be forgotten that Spain was at this time the first power in
+Europe. The successes of Alva, the expulsion of the Moors, the victory
+of Lepanto, and the conquests in Northern Africa, showed that her vigor
+was undiminished; and though her humiliation was at hand, nothing at
+this time indicated any failure of her resources. It was the image of
+Daniel: gold, silver, brass, and iron, but with feet of clay; and the
+small stone destined to smite it was one of the smallest powers in
+Europe. Had France seen her own true interest, she, and not England,
+might “have become a great mountain and filled the whole earth.”
+
+The Venetian embassador, Correro, writing on the prospect of war with
+Spain, represents, as one of the many grounds of hatred between the
+Spaniards and the French, that Flanders naturally belongs to France,
+and that a campaign to recover it would give employment to the cadets
+of the noble families. It would not cost a drop of blood, if France
+were only to promise “the same liberty of conscience which her own
+subjects enjoyed.” Add to this, Charles was offended: “Spain seemeth to
+set the king here very light, which engendreth in him a great desire of
+revenge, but lacketh treasure to make open demonstration thereof.”[475]
+
+These were the ideas, not of Protestants only, but of undoubted
+Catholics, men of whose orthodoxy there can be no suspicion. L’Hopital
+had once been the directing spirit of this moderate party; but, since
+his retirement from public life, Marshal Francis Montmorency, eldest
+son of the constable, became their leader. Philip knew him well, and
+feared him as the most formidable of his enemies in France. He was
+seconded by his brother Damville, by Cossé, Biron, and others. It
+was Montmorency who (according to Tavannes) had saved the Huguenots
+at Moncontour by preventing the victory from being followed up; and,
+according to Walsingham, the Peace of St. Germains was his work. By
+the mere force of personal character, he had become a very influential
+man, and Charles showed him the greatest affection. One day, when the
+king had visited him at his castle of Chantilly, he told his royal
+master that there could be no lasting peace, unless Protestants and
+Catholics could be persuaded to live together in harmony: that, or the
+extermination of one of the parties, was the only alternative. But how
+was the present hostile state of things to be remedied? By uniting both
+parties against their common enemy, Spain.[476] It is not known with
+whom the idea arose, whether with Montmorency or Cossé; but it was
+eagerly taken up by the king, who hoped in the coming war to gather
+laurels that would shame those won by his brother of Anjou.
+
+A feeling of uneasiness and distrust had for some time past been
+growing up between France and Spain. When the Duke of Alva had asked
+permission to recruit volunteers in France for the Flemish war,
+it was refused, lest the Huguenots should think it “a device to
+reach themselves.”[477] To the demand that certain ships, supposed
+to be fitting out at La Rochelle against Spain, should be seized,
+Mondoucet, the French agent to Alva, replied that some of the ships
+were intended to act against the pirates who infested the narrow seas,
+and as for those which belonged to private persons, the crown could
+not interfere. St. Goar, the embassador at Madrid, was instructed to
+make similar explanations. This was a mere evasion, for the power of
+the crown had never been so limited in France. As William of Orange
+was in want of funds to carry on his heroic struggle in Flanders, his
+brother Louis of Nassau endeavored to procure a loan from Duke Cosmo
+I. of Florence. Charles supported the scheme by offering to recognize
+the duke’s title to the crown of Tuscany, and aid him in his attempt
+on Corsica, provided he would assist the Flemish insurgents with
+money.[478] The duke refused, but the king still continued faithful
+to his idea of a war against Spain. The diplomatic correspondence of
+the period is full of references to it. During all this time Coligny
+was actively corresponding with Montmorency; and at his suggestion a
+private interview was arranged between Charles and Count Louis, which
+took place in a garden of the castle of Lumigny, about a league from
+Fontenay-en-Brie, where the king had gone on the pretense of rabbit
+hunting. Its object was kept a secret from the royal councilors; for
+Charles was well assured that if they became acquainted with it, they
+would communicate it to the court of Spain. We may imagine that the
+count spoke of his recent conversations with the admiral, and that, as
+a Protestant, he would not start objections to any plan of assisting
+his fellow-countrymen which the king might entertain. He gave weight
+to his prayer for aid by offering in return the valuable provinces of
+Flanders and Artois (for which promise he had no authority from his
+brother William); and hinted that, at the next vacation of the empire,
+the choice of the electors might fall upon Charles. Louis succeeded in
+convincing him that his former advisers had counseled him unwisely,
+and that he had narrowly escaped falling into the same position as
+Philip II. held toward his Flemish subjects. The king promised to take
+into his most serious consideration all that the count had told him,
+reserving to himself the right to disavow any projects that might
+be ascribed to him, until the time for action had arrived.[479] The
+secret interview soon became known, and the Spanish embassador, Alava,
+threatened the displeasure of his royal master. Charles and his mother
+both answered evasively, adding: “As for fearing us with wars, you
+do mistake us; let every one do therein what best liketh him.”[480]
+Affairs were hurrying on more quickly than Charles had anticipated;
+Spain was threatening war, and no preparations had been made. A
+matrimonial alliance between Anjou and Elizabeth, which would place
+the resources of England at the disposal of France, was the key of the
+position; but the queen was coy, and refused to give a decided answer.
+Without such close alliance war with Spain was impossible; for England
+cast a longing eye on Flanders, and would regard the French conquests
+in that quarter with suspicion. What was to be done? Should Charles
+give way, or brave the consequences? There was only one man in France
+competent to advise on such a point, and he still remained aloof at
+Rochelle.
+
+When Louis of Nassau left that city to confer with Charles, he bore a
+letter from the admiral, complaining of a plot that had been got up to
+treat the Huguenots worse than before, and that no attempt had been
+made to punish the perpetrators of the outrages at Orange and Rouen.
+He then went on to justify his suspicions and his absence from the
+court: “It will be difficult for those of the religion to believe that
+your majesty desires things should go on well, so long as they see the
+authors of the tumults about him.” He followed up this side-blow at
+the Guises by suggesting that all suspicions would be allayed were the
+king to punish the perpetrators of the outrages at Rouen and Orange.
+Charles IX. acted upon the advice: he sent a commission of inquiry to
+Rouen. Many of the rioters were hanged, but the ringleaders escaped
+and found shelter among the Catholics, who seem to have received them
+rather as heroes than as criminals; much in the same way as a murderer
+is still harbored among the Irish peasantry. The king also manifested
+great displeasure toward his brother of Anjou, and so openly insulted
+the Duke of Guise that he had no alternative but to leave the court.
+
+Count Louis returned to Rochelle strongly impressed with the king’s
+gracious demeanor, and urged Coligny to accept his sovereign’s
+invitation to court. He spoke of the projected matrimonial alliance
+between England and France, which was manifestly hostile to Spain,
+and would strengthen the Huguenot cause; and showed the draft of a
+treaty, by which Charles promised to attack Flanders on one side, while
+the Prince of Orange attacked it on the other. Marshal Cossé, one of
+the “Politicians,” confirmed this report. The admiral’s son-in-law,
+Teligny, had also returned from the court with a flattering account of
+the king’s demeanor. Charles at this time was seen in a most favorable
+light, and it was evident that the quiet influence of his amiable wife
+was beginning to be felt in his character. He was less boisterous in
+his amusements, less changeable in temper, and seemed to have buried
+the past in oblivion. Indeed he went so far in his display of good-will
+toward the Huguenots as to raise a suspicion that he supported them
+designedly against his mother, his brother Henry, and the Guises. “I
+am no longer so young,” he said, “as to need a governor. I am willing
+to listen to advice, but will receive no orders. I am sick of war,
+and _my peace_ shall be observed. I have been deceived all along
+about the Huguenots, and for the future will keep the factions in order
+myself.” He complained to Teligny, for whom he had conceived a strong
+liking,[481] that his mother kept him in thraldom, and preferred Anjou
+to him; that she governed the realm in such a way that he was of no
+account; and that to remedy this he was resolved to send both of them
+away from the court; and that he wanted Coligny’s advice, especially
+with regard to the proposed war in Flanders. In fact every thing seemed
+now to turn upon the admiral’s presence at court.
+
+While these negotiations were in progress, the little Huguenot court at
+Rochelle was the scene of nuptial festivities, the admiral having taken
+a second wife, and given his daughter Louisa to Teligny.[482] Coligny’s
+marriage had a tinge of romance in it that could hardly have been
+expected. Jacqueline of Montbel, Countess of Entremont, and widow of
+Claude, Baron of Anthon, who was killed at Dreux (or, as others write,
+at St. Denis), was so captivated by his heroism that she made him an
+offer of her hand, having the ambition (as she said) to be the Marcia
+of the new Cato.[483] As if he were of royal lineage, the admiral was
+married by proxy. When the bride approached Rochelle, escorted by fifty
+gentlemen of her kindred, the bridegroom went out a league to meet her.
+Cannon roared a noisy salute, and all the bells which the Huguenots
+had spared rang merrily from the steeples, as the noble lady entered
+the city. To show their esteem for the admiral, the citizens mustered
+under arms and lined the streets from the gate to the Hôtel Coligny,
+where a great concourse of nobles and gentlemen had assembled to do
+him honor. The marriage was a happy one, despite the inversion of the
+ordinary mode of courtship. On becoming a widow once more, Jacqueline
+returned to Savoy, where she was imprisoned on a charge of witchcraft,
+her wealth being the real crime. Henry IV. ineffectually interceded for
+her, and she died insane at the castle of Nice, 1599.
+
+Coligny, happy in his domestic life, had little desire to leave
+Rochelle for the treacherous atmosphere of the court. But Charles could
+not do without him, and Elizabeth of England felt that his presence was
+necessary for the success of the delicate negotiations then in hand.
+Walsingham had written to her, recommending that she should hint to
+La Mothe-Fénelon, the French embassador, that she would like to see
+Charles “calling the princes and admiral to court, and that so rare a
+subject as the admiral is, was not to be suffered to live in such a
+corner as Rochelle.” Walsingham adds that the king was now “very well
+affected toward him” (Coligny). In another letter he says he is going
+to Blois, where the princes and the admiral are to meet, and that all
+“opposition was vain.” “I am most constantly assured that the king
+conceiveth of no subject he hath better than of the admiral, and great
+hope there is that the king will use him in matters of greatest trust;
+for of himself he beginneth to see the insufficiency of others: some
+for that they are more addicted to others than to himself; other, for
+that they are more Spanish than French.... The queen-mother, seeing
+her son so well affected toward the admiral, laboreth by all means to
+cause him to think well of her.”[484] Catherine had assured Teligny
+and Count Louis that she earnestly desired the Treaty of St. Germains
+to be observed for the repose and welfare of the kingdom; that the
+king needed the admiral’s advice; and that it was a sad thing for the
+princes of the blood to keep aloof from the court. Coligny gave way at
+last; and when the Queen of Navarre expostulated with him he replied:
+“Madame, I confide implicitly in the word and honor of my royal master.
+It is not life to exist in the midst of perpetual alarms; and I would
+rather die by one effectual blow, than live a hundred years subject to
+cowardly apprehensions.” He received many warnings, but took no heed of
+them.
+
+The admiral left Rochelle escorted by fifty gentlemen, “not because he
+doubted the king’s word, but to be secure against private enemies,” and
+arrived at Blois on the 12th September, where he was received with the
+most flattering attentions. Being conducted into the audience-chamber
+he fell on his knees, but Charles raised him up saying, as he embraced
+him, “Father, we have you at last; you shall not escape when you wish.
+This is the happiest day of my life. You are more welcome than any
+one I have seen these twenty years.” The queen-mother kissed him,
+and took him into Anjou’s apartments, for the young duke was just
+then “a little indisposed.”[485] The admiral was quite charmed with
+his youthful sovereign: they were so much together, and so often in
+private conference, that Catherine grew jealous: “He sees too much of
+the admiral,” she said, “and too little of me.”[486] The chief topic
+of their conversation was the proposed war in Flanders. It was a maxim
+with Coligny, that France could not be quieted down except by engaging
+in a foreign war. When Brantome was at Rochelle he told the gossiping
+abbé, that if “the Huguenots were not occupied and amused abroad, they
+would certainly begin their quarrels again at home; such restless
+fellows are they, and so fond of plunder.” In the Low Countries he saw
+a field for their activity. Warming at the thoughts of the sufferings
+which the Protestants of Flanders had endured so long, he expatiated
+to the king on the heroic patience of William of Orange, and the
+glorious opportunity then presented of repaying Spain for the evils she
+had inflicted on France. Charles caught fire at the eloquent appeal:
+the martial ardor of his race broke out in him: “I too shall win
+battles--in my own name--with my own sword.” He entered into the scheme
+with his whole heart, and promised effectual help to the Prince of
+Orange, to whom he had already restored his little principality on the
+banks of the Rhone. Nor did he forget the admiral, whose property had
+been confiscated: he was reinstated in his seat at the council-board,
+and received a present of 100,000 crowns, “not so much a wedding-gift
+as a tribute to the first captain of the age.” Charles farther promised
+to use his influence with the Duke of Savoy to restore the estates
+of his wife which had been sequestered. He also interceded in behalf
+of certain Vaudois, who for fighting under Coligny had been stripped
+of their property and expelled from their homes. “I wish to make you
+a request,” wrote the king to the duke, “and it is on a matter that
+I have very much at heart. At my special prayer and recommendation,
+pray receive these poor creatures into favor again, and restore them
+to their homes and their goods. The cause is so just and so earnestly
+desired on my part, that I feel assured you will listen to me. Written
+at Blois, 28th September, 1571.”
+
+After a brief stay at court the admiral went to Chatillon, where he
+tried to restore order to his affairs. The king regularly corresponded
+with him, chiefly on his favorite subject, the war with Spain.
+Meanwhile the Duke of Guise was in Paris, and the rumor of his
+proceedings and conversations became so threatening, that Coligny
+petitioned for a guard of soldiers to protect him. Charles replied with
+his own hand, that he would be pleased to see the admiral “using all
+diligence in providing for his personal safety,” and permitted him to
+have the guard he needed.[487] Coligny stayed five weeks at Chatillon,
+receiving many warnings as to the treachery of the court, but paying
+no attention to them, making the same answer to all which he had given
+to his wife before leaving Rochelle: “I must not upon ill-grounded
+suspicion cause the king to change the good feeling he entertains for
+us into a hatred which it would be impossible to make him lay aside
+again.” At the end of October he went to Paris, whither he had been
+summoned. Catherine took him in her arms and kissed him, and Charles
+received him as if honoring him above all his subjects.[488] The object
+of the visit was to consult about the marriage of Henry of Bearn with
+Margaret of Valois, the king’s sister.
+
+While Charles was on a visit to Chantilly, Francis of Montmorency had
+suggested that the best means of conciliating the hostile parties
+would be to unite his sister Margaret to Prince Henry of Bearn.[489]
+This union between the two branches of the royal house was no new
+scheme. The prince, while yet a child, was presented to Henry II.,
+who was so pleased with the boy that he asked him if he would be his
+son. “This is my father,” replied the child in the Bearnais patois,
+pointing to the King of Navarre. “Well then,” said the king, “will you
+be my son-in-law?” “Oh! with all my heart,” answered the sturdy little
+fellow, and from that time his marriage with Margaret, a princess four
+years old, was resolved upon. Anthony of Navarre was delighted, and
+wrote to his sister the Duchess of Nevers (Margaret of Bourbon), that
+“this alliance was the thing in the world he most desired to obtain,
+and which from thenceforward placed both his repose and prosperity
+upon a secure basis.” Joan also wrote to an old friend: “To cheer and
+console you in your sickness, I send you the news ... that his majesty
+has been pleased to grant this favor, for which I will not try to
+conceal the joy and satisfaction I feel.” This was in 1557; and in
+1560, soon after the death of Francis II., Catherine wrote to the Queen
+of Navarre, pressing her to visit the court, and proposing to connect
+the families still closer by a marriage between “little Catherine” of
+Bearn and Henry Duke of Anjou: “Such an alliance,” she said, “will
+render our union indissoluble.” This, however, never came to any thing;
+but in 1562 we find the project revived, when Catherine feared that
+Anthony of Navarre was slipping out of her control.[490]
+
+At one time it had been proposed to give Margaret to Sebastian of
+Portugal, the same romantic king who died battling valiantly against
+the Moors in Africa. But that match failing through the hostility
+of Philip II., who grossly insulted the French court, an alliance
+was sought nearer home. Margaret tells us how the matter was first
+broached, and what was her reply: “I begged my mother to remember
+that I was very Catholic.” Joan of Navarre, who had since adopted the
+Reformed creed, was not so eager for the marriage as she had once
+been. Far from being dazzled by the prospect of such a brilliant
+alliance for the heir of the petty house of Navarre, she said: “I
+would rather descend to be the lowliest woman in France, than sacrifice
+my son, or my son’s soul, to grandeur.”[491] It would have been well
+for Prince Henry had the obstacles raised against the marriage proved
+insurmountable. It was naturally opposed by the Guises; not, as some
+write, because the duke aspired to Margaret’s hand; for he had been
+married several months to Catherine of Cleves, the widow of Prince
+Porcien;[492] but because it would strengthen the throne, and make the
+Huguenot influence predominant. The nuncio and the Spanish embassador
+also opposed the match;[493] but Charles was not to be diverted from
+his purpose.[494]
+
+Thus the summer of 1571 passed away: on the one side, Spain, the pope,
+and the house of Lorraine striving to prevent a reconciliation between
+the two religious parties; on the other the “Politicians,” with Coligny
+and the English embassador, trying to bring about two marriages that
+would, it was hoped, counterbalance the influence of the Catholic
+powers. Catherine was ostentatiously sincere,[495] and Charles anxious
+to do what was right, and in his weakness leaning on Coligny, whom he
+had learned to trust as a child trusts his father. There was much in
+the admiral to attract the king: he was a man of probity and honor,
+actuated by no mean or selfish motives, but by the purest desire for
+the greatness of France. Charles had never possessed such a friend
+before. What he thought of those about him may be conjectured from his
+remarks one day to Teligny: “Tavannes is a good councilor, but jealous
+of any encroachment upon his fame; Vieilleville loves nothing but good
+wine; Cossé is a miser, who would sell every thing for ten crowns;
+Montmorency is a good man, but then he is always away with his hawks
+and hounds; Retz is a Spaniard in heart, and the rest of my court and
+council are fools. My secretaries are traitors, so that I do not know
+whom to trust.”[496] The censure is too sweeping; but the language
+shows how weary Charles had grown of his old councilors, and how he
+clung to the new. At another time, conversing with the admiral about
+the Flemish campaign, he said: “Father, there is another matter which
+you must carefully heed. The queen, my mother, is always poking her
+nose everywhere, as you well know, and she must not be told of this
+enterprise, at least not in detail. She would mar our design.” “As you
+please, Sire; nevertheless I hold her majesty for so good a mother,
+that even if she were told all, she would offer no obstacle; on the
+contrary, she might naturally aid our design; while I apprehend many
+difficulties in hiding the matter.” “You are quite wrong,” rejoined the
+king; “leave the matter to me. My mother is the greatest mischief-maker
+on the face of the earth.”
+
+If this anecdote were authenticated, it would show that the king
+and the admiral were actually plotting against the government; for,
+whatever may have been Coligny’s position as private adviser to his
+sovereign, he was not a minister, although in the council, and held
+no responsible position. But it is scarcely credible that Catherine,
+with her influence and means of procuring information, could have been
+kept in the dark; and, besides, it is quite clear from her language
+to the Spanish embassador, that she knew all about the proposed war
+in Flanders. Nor does she appear at any time to have objected to it.
+If the English matrimonial alliance was the key of her policy, the
+war against Spain was an inevitable pendant. Union between France and
+England in the sixteenth century necessarily meant armed opposition to
+the policy of Philip II.
+
+During the winter an event occurred which has tended very much to
+complicate this period of history. The king had gone to Bourgueil
+on the Loire, about ten miles from Saumur, to receive a Protestant
+deputation. Their chief spokesman, Briquemaut, after complaining of
+the infringement of the Edict of St. Germains, more by omission than
+commission, imprudently added that, unless their grievances were
+remedied, it was to be feared that the Huguenots would take counsel
+of despair, and once more rush to arms. The king listened calmly and
+dismissed the deputation graciously; but as soon as they had retired,
+he burst into a violent passion, and indulged in sanguinary threats.
+Lignerolles, one of the “mignons” of the Duke of Anjou, drawing near,
+whispered in his majesty’s ear: “Be patient, Sire, a little while
+longer, and you will have them all in your net.” The king was startled
+to hear another give utterance to his own secret thoughts, and resolved
+to make away with a man whom he suspected of knowing the particulars
+of a plot which had been craftily devised to get rid of the admiral
+and the chief Huguenots at one blow. The authenticity of this very
+circumstantial story is more than doubtful. All we know for certain is,
+that Lignerolles was murdered, and that the assassins were imprisoned,
+and would have been punished, had not the great massacre intervened,
+when they were liberated. Five versions of the story are current, the
+most probable of all being Walsingham’s, namely, that Lignerolles was
+an instrument employed by the Guise faction to prevent the English
+marriage.[497] He represents the death “as no small furtherance to the
+cause.” But why was he murdered? Perhaps the following passage from a
+letter written by the queen-mother to the French embassador in England
+may supply an answer: “We strongly suspect Villequier, Lignerolles, or
+Sarret; and it is possible that all three may be the authors of these
+fancies [Anjou’s refusal to marry Elizabeth]; if I were sure of it, I
+give you my word they should repent it.”
+
+If this foul murder be supposed to tell against the king, the affair
+of the Gastine Cross should be taken as a proof of his desire to
+conciliate his Protestant subjects. In the Rue St. Denis at Paris there
+lived a wealthy tradesman, Philip Gastine by name, who with his son
+Richard was accused and hanged for heresy and lending money to the
+rebels; another son was sentenced to the galleys for life; and the
+third banished (30th June, 1569). His house was pulled down, and in its
+place was erected a huge cross, with an inscription to the effect, that
+they had suffered “principally because they had celebrated the Lord’s
+Supper in that place.” According to the thirty-second article[498]
+of the Third Edict of Pacification, this cross was to be destroyed.
+The king gave the necessary orders, and Claude Marcel, provost of the
+merchants, fearing opposition, began to pull it down one dark night
+in December. He was interrupted by the populace, who paraded the city
+calling to arms. “The common people,” said Walsingham, “ease their
+stomachs only by uttering certain seditious words.” They went however
+beyond words, for there was a fierce riot, during which the mob burned
+two houses and killed a “sermoner.” The provost seems to have been
+rather faint-hearted in the matter, and the parliament actually wrote
+to remonstrate with the king for keeping his promise. Charles, who was
+then at Amboise, returned a very sharp answer (15th December, 1571):
+“I have received your remonstrance, which I will always listen to
+graciously so long as you show me due obedience. But seeing how you
+have behaved since my accession, and that you imagine I will suffer my
+orders to be despised, I will let you know that there never was a king
+more determined to be obeyed than I am.”[499] The captain of the watch
+was sent to Amboise to explain: he found the king very excited. “I am
+thoroughly vexed,” said Charles, “that the cross has not been pulled
+down or removed. I will have no delay: it is time it were down and
+over.[500] If you catch any rioter, hang him up at once with a label
+of _Séditieux_ round his neck.” The parliament apologized, and
+said very falsely that they had had nothing to do with the riots. On
+the night of the 19th December the cross was taken down and re-erected
+in the cemetery of the Innocents;[501] but the people were in such
+a mutinous state, and it was so difficult to keep the peace, that,
+on the 21st, the Duke of Montmorency hurried to Paris with a strong
+force of soldiers to put down the rioters. Some were killed, many ran
+away, and the mob was cowed at last by the exemplary punishment of a
+coster-monger, who was hanged from the window of a house he had just
+plundered.
+
+A report from the Provost of the Trades to the king shows the condition
+of the capital in the winter of 1571: “After curfew, there is much
+stabbing in the streets. A great number of dead bodies have been fished
+up at St. Cloud, or found on the river-bank near Chaillot.... In
+consequence of this hugonotry, trade is almost dead, manufacturers are
+frightened away by our divisions, and cross the mountains to settle in
+Italy. The Catholics want to have an end of it.... Would your majesty
+but reflect; your crown is endangered, Paris alone can save it.” But
+Charles knew the Parisians well, and desired to have his crown upheld
+by trustier supporters than the unruly populace of the capital.
+
+Before the end of the year, Coligny paid another visit to Blois, when
+the war in Flanders and the marriage of the Prince of Bearn became
+once more the chief subjects of deliberation. It is not necessary
+to trace the proceedings day by day. The admiral’s arguments were
+very cogent, but the most pressing matter was the marriage. On this
+subject Coligny wrote to the Queen of Navarre, praying her not to
+oppose a union wherein the Reformed would have the advantage. “It
+will be,” he said, “a seal of friendship with the king; and the
+greatest mistake you can fall into will be to show suspicion.” The
+king too was very earnest in the matter. “I have made up my mind,” he
+said to one of Joan’s agents, “to give my sister to my good brother
+Henry; for by this means I hope to marry the two religions.” When
+it was again objected that the proposal could hardly be regarded as
+sincere, so long as the Guises continued about the court: “They are
+my subjects,” Charles replied, “and I will make them conform to my
+behests.” Catherine wrote to the Queen of Navarre: “I pray you gratify
+the extreme desire we have to see you among us. You will be loved and
+honored as you deserve to be.” Biron was the bearer of this letter,
+and Joan gave way at last. In the month of February she started for
+Blois, and, traveling slowly, reached that city early in March.[502]
+The king gave her a hearty welcome, calling her “his dear good aunt,
+his best beloved, his darling,” and so on, just as he had been wont to
+do in earlier days. He kept by her side, and was so demonstrative in
+his marks of affection, that, according to the gossiping chronicler,
+“every one was astonished.” In the evening, after Joan had retired,
+Charles turned to Catherine laughing, and said: “Now, mother, confess
+that I play my little part well.”--“Yes, you play it well enough,
+but you must keep it up.”--“Trust me for that,” said the king; “you
+shall see how I will lead them on.”[503] Many of these stories are
+nothing but idle street gossip, and some of them, in which we may
+include the one before us, were invented in after years to support the
+theory of a long-premeditated plot. But the words, even if accurately
+reported, will hardly bear such a formidable superstructure: they
+may refer to the marriage, which was yet unsettled, as well as to
+the projected massacre. Farther, if Charles compassed the death of
+Lignerolles because the wretched man was supposed to have become master
+of the king’s secret, would Charles (with his presumed craft and
+reticence) have spoken thus openly of what he desired to keep in utter
+obscurity?[504]
+
+Never had the little town of Blois been more gay than it was in the
+spring of 1572. Banquets, balls, and _fêtes_ followed each other
+in rapid succession, much to the discomfort of Joan, whose principles
+and sober taste did not harmonize with such gayeties. The king, who was
+delighted at the share his young queen took in these amusements, was
+among the liveliest of the court, and was seen to the best advantage.
+
+If the marriage of Henry and Margaret was part of the scheme by which
+the Huguenots were to be lured to their destruction, there was very
+little probability in March, 1572, that it would ever be accomplished.
+Even the mere rumor of it had aroused all the antagonism of Spain
+and Rome; but now that it appeared certain, those powers tried every
+means to thwart it. The pope ordered his nephew, then legate at
+the court of Portugal, to hasten to France and stop the marriage.
+Alessandrino actually reached Blois before the Queen of Navarre, having
+rudely passed her on the road. The particulars of his interviews
+with Charles are given by several contemporary writers, but all are
+manifestly derived from the same source. The cardinal, one of the
+most accomplished and eloquent men of his day, pressed the king to
+give Margaret to the King of Portugal, as had been once proposed,
+and enter into the holy alliance then forming against the Turks. The
+connection between these proposals is not very clear; but Alessandrino
+probably hoped that the excitement of war, which might bring increase
+of territory to France, would divert Charles from subjects nearer home.
+“It would be ruinous to your realm and to the Catholic Church,” urged
+the nuncio, “to form any alliance with the Huguenots.”
+
+At the close of one of these interviews, when Alessandrino had been
+more than usually pressing, Charles took him by the hand: “What you
+say is very good, and I thank you and the pope for it. If I had any
+other means of being revenged upon my enemies, I would not go on with
+this marriage; but I have not.” When Alessandrino heard of the August
+massacre, he exclaimed: “This, then, is what the King of France was
+preparing. God be praised, he has kept his promise.”[505] At the close
+of the interview, Charles drew a valuable ring from his finger, and
+pressed the nuncio to accept it, as a pledge of his good faith and
+obedience to the holy see. He declined, saying, with a bitterness of
+manner that greatly displeased the king: “The most precious of your
+majesty’s jewels are but mud in the eyes of the faithful, since your
+zeal for the Catholic religion is so cold.”[506] Sir Thomas Smith, who
+was at Blois, wrote to Burghley: “The foolish cardinal went away as
+wise as he came: he neither brake the marriage with Navarre, nor got no
+dimes, ... and the foolishest part of all his going away, he refused a
+diamond which the king offered him of 600 crowns.”[507]
+
+There are serious objections to this story--especially to Catena’s
+version of it--which is in contradiction to documents above all
+suspicion. One of these is a letter from Charles to his embassador at
+Rome, with instructions about the dispensation. On the 31st July he
+recapitulates to De Ferrails the four conditions on which the pope
+is willing to grant the said dispensation, and says that Henry will
+never concede them.[508] He then argues that the marriage will be the
+best means of converting the prince, and hopes the pope “will not risk
+every thing by holding the cord too tight in matters which belong
+much more to state policy than to religious scruples.” He threatens
+that he will do without a dispensation, if he should be driven to
+consult on the best means of tranquilizing his kingdom and proceeding
+to the said marriage. In a postscript the king adds, that he has
+just seen Salviati, the papal nuncio, to whom he had communicated
+the substance of the dispatch, and begged him to write to the pope
+to the same effect. Did Salviati write as requested? He did, and all
+his correspondence shows that up to the very day of the massacre he
+was entirely ignorant of any treachery being contemplated. On the
+very day of the massacre the king gave instructions to Beauville, who
+was going to Rome, to the effect that the marriage was justifiable
+on the ground that it would bind the Huguenots to the crown, and he
+also wrote to De Ferrails on the same date, that the marriage was
+necessary, and therefore it had been solemnized without waiting for
+the dispensation, “to the great satisfaction of all his subjects.”
+That no allusion is made to a plot in these dispatches is proof that
+none such existed.[509] We must not, therefore, lay too great stress
+upon Ossat’s letter, which, after all, only repeats hearsay.[510] The
+strongest evidence in favor of Alessandrino’s story is found in the
+mysterious ending of a letter in which he alludes to matters that had
+passed between him and Charles, and that he had reserved for the pope’s
+ear alone.[511] The veil of this mystery--if there really was any
+mystery--has never been uplifted.
+
+Joan’s arrival at Blois did not accelerate the negotiations for the
+marriage so much as had been anticipated. The queen-mother appeared
+of late to have grown indifferent, if not averse, to the proposed
+union, and every possible obstacle was thrown in the way. Her inventive
+faculties were severely tested by the good faith of the Queen of
+Navarre.[512] She could have managed a diplomatist of her own stamp,
+but honesty was a weapon she did not understand. “Certes,” says an old
+writer, “her majesty’s adulterations of truth were of the most amazing
+extent and description.” Joan, who heartily disliked Catherine, at last
+refused to treat with her, and the negotiations were almost broken off,
+when it was agreed to appoint three commissioners on each side, by whom
+the final arrangements should be made. Margaret--whose “Memoirs” must
+be read with extreme caution--interested herself but little in the
+marriage.
+
+In those days young maidens, whether of high or low degree, had little
+voice in the selection of a husband. Of her proposed daughter-in-law,
+Joan writes thus to her son on the 8th March: “Madame is handsome,
+graceful, and discreet, but she has been brought up in the midst
+of the most vicious and corrupt court that can be imagined. Your
+cousin [afterward wife of Prince Henry of Condé] is so changed by it,
+that there is no appearance of religion in her save thus far, that
+she does not go to mass; but as to the rest of her mode of living,
+except idolatry, she does the same as the Papists, and my sister [the
+Princess of Condé] still worse.” In a pregnant phrase she describes
+the corrupt nature of court life: “It is not the men here who entice
+the women, but the women who entice the men.” To this Catherine and
+her “flying squadron” of gay damsels had brought the court. The Queen
+of Navarre was a rigid Calvinist, and her opinions on court amusements
+and pleasures were probably rather austere. At another time she writes
+to Henry: “Madam Margaret has paid me every honor and welcome in her
+power to bestow, and frankly owned to me the agreeable ideas she has
+formed of you. [They had not seen each other since the meeting at
+Bayonne.] With her beauty and wit, she excites great influence over the
+queen-mother and the king.”[513]
+
+The difference of religion was long an almost insuperable obstacle.
+Catherine pretended scruples of conscience on behalf of her daughter;
+and Joan of Navarre, who was really anxious on the matter, hesitated
+so much, that up to the 29th March the marriage continued doubtful.
+“I have now the wolf by the ears,” said the Queen of Navarre, “for in
+concluding or not concluding the marriage, I see danger every way.”
+“But,” adds the English embassador, “I do not think assuredly that
+hardly any cause will make them break--so many necessary causes there
+are why the same should proceed.”[514] The Huguenot ministers, like
+unpractical divines as they were, looked more coldly upon the projected
+union than the nobility and gentry, who valued it as a great stroke of
+policy. There were some even of these who foreboded nothing but evil.
+Rosny, father of the illustrious Sully, refused to take any part in
+the ceremony, declaring that “the wedding-favors would be crimson.”
+His party stoutly advocated a marriage with Elizabeth of England. What
+would have been the fortunes of the two countries had they been thus
+united?
+
+At length all the negotiations were ended, the settlements drawn up,
+and the contract signed by the plenipotentiaries on each side (11th
+April, 1572). A few days later Charles expressed to La Mothe-Fénelon
+his satisfaction at the happy conclusion of the tedious business,
+adding that “if the queen had been a little more strengthened against
+those ailments, which are usual to women in her condition, the
+wedding-day would have been already fixed. We shall depart hence
+[Blois?] to go toward Paris and Fontainebleau, where my wife will
+lie in.” The only obstacle now was the dispensation, which Pius V.
+refused to grant: “I would rather lose my head than grant a marriage
+dispensation to a heretic.”[515] Charles determined to proceed in
+spite of the pope: “If he tries it on too far, I will take Margaret by
+the hand and see her married in open conventicle.”[516] His written
+answer to Pius V. was to the same effect, but in more courtly strain.
+He expressed his sincere love for the Catholic Church, but urged that
+the country and the exchequer were exhausted by civil war. As for the
+marriage and the heresy, he continued: “Mild remedies are usually more
+efficacious than sharp ones in curing this disease, especially in the
+minds of princes. I am persuaded that Henry will not only become all
+that you can wish him, but will some day be a great ornament and help
+to the Church.... If he who is now the chief of the wanderers should
+be brought back to the true fold, how great the advantage!” Charles
+then proceeded to indulge in that ambiguous language which has made
+this period of history so difficult to understand: “I confess that I
+am under necessity, and have had to put up with many disagreeable
+things; but I swear I would rather imperil my kingdom than leave the
+outrages against God unpunished. But what my designs are can not yet
+be told.”[517] To the Cardinal of Lorraine, then in Rome, he wrote
+that whether the pope’s answer was favorable or not, he should go
+on with the marriage.[518] To his friends he repeated his assurance
+that he married his sister not only to the Prince of Bearn but to
+the whole Protestant party: “It will be the strongest bond between
+my subjects,” he said, “and a sure evidence of my good-will toward
+those of the religion.” It was Joan’s desire that the wedding should
+be celebrated at Blois, on account of the fanatical temper of the
+inhabitants of the metropolis; but as Charles objected with reason to
+a solemn state ceremony being performed anywhere but in the capital,
+the Queen of Navarre gave way. It is a curious coincidence that the
+Parisians should have been equally adverse to the celebration of the
+marriage within their walls. “They feared,” says Claude Haton, “that
+they would be robbed and despoiled in their own houses by the seditious
+Huguenots.”[519]
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XI.
+
+                      THE MARRIAGE AND THE PLOT.
+
+                            [August, 1572.]
+
+   Proposed German and English Alliances--Anjou’s Refusal--Treaty
+   with England--Capture of Mons--Defeat of Genlis--Walsingham’s
+   Dispatches--War-Excitement--Deliberations in Council--Charles
+   at Montpipeau--Catherine follows him--Her tears--Increasing
+   influence of Coligny--His Death resolved on--Joan of Navarre
+   in Paris--Her sudden Death--Distrust and Warnings--Coligny’s
+   firmness--Plot and Counterplot--Henry of Navarre enters
+   Paris--The Wedding--Masque at the Hôtel Bourbon--The Admiral’s
+   last Letter--Plot to Assassinate him--The Duchess of
+   Nemours--Maurevel sent for.
+
+
+The Treaty of St. Germains was a serious blow to Spanish influence
+in France. We have seen that peace had not only been concluded in
+opposition to the remonstrances of Philip II., but that monarch had
+experienced several slights from his brother-in-law which even so
+cold-blooded a man must have felt deeply. In proportion, too, as the
+loyalty and worth of Coligny became known, the distance between the two
+courts grew wider. The “Politicians” took advantage of this change,
+and becoming daily more convinced of the necessity of war with Spain,
+tried to strengthen France by foreign alliances. Their choice was not
+very great. Rome would never aid a power that went to war with Spain
+to support heresy in Flanders. The Emperor of Germany would remain
+neutral, for by reserving his forces he would be able to interfere
+effectually between the combatants, when exhausted or tired of war.
+The Catholic States of Northern Italy would take part with Spain and
+threaten France on the Alpine frontier; and Switzerland would sell her
+sword to either party. There only remained England and the Protestant
+States of Germany, with whose help France might safely venture to
+attack the power of Spain. That monarchy was held to be the greatest in
+the world: it was not indeed so great as it appeared to be, for it was
+rapidly declining, but the halo of its former glory still shone round
+it.
+
+The negotiations with Germany were so mismanaged that they came to
+nothing. Those with England had assumed, as we have seen, the form of
+proposals for a matrimonial alliance between Elizabeth and the Duke of
+Anjou. Catherine, who believed in an old prophecy that all her sons
+should be kings, was very earnest in the matter.[520] The Huguenots,
+who are wrongly supposed to have originated the plan, also felt
+anxious, and the correspondence of the English agents at the court of
+France is full of their hopes and fears. They saw that such a union of
+the two crowns would strengthen them, and help to preserve the fruits
+of their past struggles; while they dreaded a failure, which would
+discredit the Moderate party and bring back the Guises, and perhaps
+plunge them again into all the miseries of civil strife from which
+they had so recently escaped. The negotiations extended over many
+months. It is doubtful whether Elizabeth was at any time sincere; but
+it is certain that as one objection after another was removed, and
+as she appeared to be more inclined to the match, Anjou grew cooler,
+professed a great horror of heresy, and urged that his conscience would
+not allow him to share the crown of the Queen of England. Still, as
+he did not absolutely refuse the match, the English ministers were
+frightened lest Elizabeth should anticipate him, and ruin every thing
+by declaring her preference for a celibate life. A refusal from her
+would ruin the Huguenot hopes. Elizabeth would probably have spoken
+out, had not the various intrigues of which Mary Stuart was the prime
+mover kept her silent and cautious. She would dally with France so
+long as there was any danger from Spain. But Anjou, who was never
+in want of evil advisers, listened to the seductions of the Spanish
+court, and, allured by a large bribe from the pope,[521] refused--twice
+refused--to wed a mature maiden of thirty-eight. The queen-mother was
+confounded, and with reason; for the suspicions of Spain had been
+aroused, and France unaided could not hope, in its state of exhaustion,
+to withstand a well-directed attack. There was danger, too, on the
+other side, for Elizabeth was touchy and susceptible; and though she
+might have been insincere throughout, her feminine vanity might be
+so wounded that she would not hesitate to avenge it by taking part
+with Spain. The Moderate party were in despair; but fortunately the
+negotiations were in the hands of prudent men. Walsingham in France
+and La Mothe-Fénelon in England felt all the importance of the crisis,
+and after some difficulty succeeded in arranging a defensive treaty
+between the two countries (29th March, 1572). Though manifestly
+directed against Spain, it was expressed in general terms, so as not
+to wound the susceptibilities of the French Catholics.[522] Each
+promised to aid the other with 6000 infantry and six ships of war. The
+English statesmen were perhaps more anxious about this treaty than
+their French colleagues; for Mary Stuart, now a prisoner in England,
+was actively engaged in a complication of intrigues with Spain,[523]
+the success of any of which would have endangered the cause of
+Protestantism. Montmorency, “a lover of England as much as any man in
+France,” was sent over to receive the ratification, and--if he saw fit
+opportunity--to make a formal proposal of the Duke of Alençon to Queen
+Elizabeth.[524] The marshal--or rather the Moderate party of which he
+was leader--felt convinced that some foreign support was more necessary
+than ever to keep the Catholic reactionists in check, and to neutralize
+the efforts of Spain to rekindle the civil wars now so happily ended.
+Spain was uneasy and wavering. St. Goar writes from Madrid (22d June,
+1572): “I believe that Philip would fain avoid a rupture;” and again
+(1st July): “The king assures me he would willingly preserve peace, but
+that he has great cause to fear an attack from France.” Charles also
+told St. Goar, in a letter dated 25th June, that “if he were only sure
+they would undertake nothing against him, he would not mix himself up
+with foreign transactions.”[525]
+
+As soon as the important matters of the Navarre marriage and the
+English treaty were concluded, Charles left Touraine (May 5th), and
+proceeded by way of Fontainebleau to Paris, and thence to St. Maur.
+The admiral attended him more as a friend than as one of the great
+officers of state. The Guises had left the court almost in despair. If
+any credit can be given to an intercepted dispatch of the 28th January
+from the Countess of Northumberland, the duke had paid a long secret
+visit to Alva.[526] This was denied by Catherine, but may have been
+true, nevertheless. Although this visit may have had more to do with
+the affairs of Mary Stuart, we may be sure that the state of France
+and the Anjou marriage were not forgotten. It is not clear when the
+Guises fell into disgrace, but their position at court in the spring
+of 1572 is accurately discussed in a letter from Alva to Philip II.,
+who had written advising him to keep up friendly relations with the
+duke and the cardinal. The general replied that he had always seen
+the importance of doing so: “But at this time there are two things
+to be considered, namely, that none of the family have any share in
+the management of public business, except the Cardinal of Lorraine;
+and he, when in favor, is insolent and forgets every body, and when
+in disgrace, is good for nothing.” Then, as if to brand the treason
+of the churchman, and show the unfriendly nature of the relations
+between the courts of Paris and Madrid, Alva continues: “He has warned
+me, through Fray Garcia de Ribeira, to be on my guard, as he foresees
+trouble in France, and believes that the fleet assembling at Rochelle
+is intended to operate against the Low Countries.”[527] When the Duke
+of Guise and Coligny were at Paris in May, the former was forbidden to
+undertake any thing against the Chatillons, to which he replied, that
+if the admiral had any thing to complain of, he was ready to meet him
+at any time in single combat.[528] The king, finding the duke (whom he
+called “un mauvais garçon”) so implacable, required of him a complete
+and formal denial of every project of outrage against Coligny, which he
+gave, though with reluctance (12th May, 1572). There is another story
+that the king did not press Duke Henry to be reconciled, having already
+had proof of his impracticable character; but to Aumale, his brother,
+who seemed more tractable, he said: “Have a little patience, and you
+will soon see a pretty game.”[529] Were the story true, it would not
+necessarily imply the existence of a plot to get rid of the Huguenots.
+
+The deliberations about the Flemish war now became more frequent than
+ever. The time was opportune for the projected invasion. In Flanders
+the first part of the year had been distinguished by a series of
+triumphs. “With one fierce bound of enthusiasm,” says the eloquent
+historian of the Dutch Republic, “the nation shook off its chain.” Alva
+was ill, and anxiously awaiting his successor. The hour was approaching
+when Charles IX. would feel it safe as well as politic to throw off
+all disguise. “When you have captured two of the frontier cities, the
+king will once more take council about the war,” said Tavannes to Count
+Louis; and before the end of May, Mons and Valenciennes were in his
+hands. With the connivance of the government, Louis had got together
+a number of Huguenot gentlemen, including Genlis and La Noue, besides
+some 1500 soldiers, and with these he surprised Mons. He was soon
+after strongly reinforced by nearly 5000 French troops. Alva had no
+doubt whence the blow came, and threatening to repay Catherine in her
+own coin, immediately prepared to recover the town. Unless he were
+reinforced, Count Louis had no hope of resisting with success, and
+accordingly Genlis was dispatched to France to procure more troops.
+The admiral strongly advised Charles to back up the count with a large
+force; but the king was still unwilling to declare himself openly,
+though he had committed himself almost beyond recall. “You would be
+astounded,” writes Albornez to Secretary Cayas, “could you see a
+letter in my hands written by the King of France to Prince Louis.”
+It was dated the 27th April, 1572, and in it Charles expressed his
+determination to do all in his power “to extricate the Low Countries
+from the oppression under which they groaned.”[530]
+
+In this juncture the Huguenot champion, who was “daily at court and
+very well used by the king and his brothers,”[531] laid before his
+royal master a memoir drawn up by the celebrated Duplessis-Mornay, in
+which he argued that a foreign war was necessary to preserve internal
+peace. “The Frenchman,” he says, “who has once had a taste of war
+will often, from mere _gaieté de cœur_, or from want of some
+other enemy, fight his own countryman and friend. The Spaniard,” he
+continued, “is weak from the dispersion of his forces, and you have
+England on your side, who formerly used to take part in every quarrel
+against us. You will acquire a province superior to any in France by
+the fertility of its soil, the beauty of its cities, and the wealth of
+its inhabitants. The Germans will fear you, your own people will be
+enriched by commerce, and you, Sire, will reap immortal honor from the
+conquest.”[532] The motives are not very noble, but they were admirably
+adapted to Charles’s temper: a higher morality would have fallen dead
+upon his ear. Still he hesitated to declare himself, leaning toward
+Coligny at one moment, and toward the Catholic party at the next.
+Meanwhile Genlis had succeeded in collecting a number of volunteers,
+and was making his way toward Mons, with about 4000 men,[533] when he
+was met and defeated by a Spanish force under Don Frederick of Toledo
+(19th July, 1572). Twelve hundred of the French were left upon the
+field, and a much larger number were butchered by the peasantry as they
+were seeking to escape. Tavannes, a trustworthy authority on such a
+point, says that Don Frederick had been treacherously informed of the
+road Genlis would take with his troops.
+
+The news of this terrible overthrow caused an extraordinary agitation
+at court. Some fancied in their panic that the Spaniard was already
+at the gates of Paris; while the outspoken admiral declared that the
+catastrophe lay at the doors of those who had dissuaded the king
+from declaring himself. The government everywhere ostentatiously
+protested--at Rome, Vienna, Brussels, and Madrid--that they desired
+peace, and were not privy to the attack on Mons or the advance of
+Genlis; indeed Mondoucet congratulated Alva on his success over the
+invaders, while St. Goar assured Philip that his master saw with regret
+his vassals joining the rebels in the Low Countries. Neither Alva
+nor Philip believed this, but were determined to give no cause for a
+rupture of friendly relations.[534] And hence it was that when the
+Spanish army captured some sixty Frenchmen who tried to enter Mons,
+Alva only hanged a part, taking the others to Ruppelmonde to be drowned
+secretly in the river.
+
+Walsingham’s correspondence reflects minutely the state of feeling
+among the Huguenots at this moment. “Such of the religion as before
+slept in security,” he writes to Burghley on the 26th July, “begin
+now to awake and to see their danger, and do therefore conclude,
+that unless this enterprise in the Low Countries have good success,
+their cause groweth desperate. They have therefore of late sent to
+the king, who is absent from home, to show him that if the Prince of
+Orange quail, it shall not lie in him [Charles] to maintain him in
+his protection by virtue of his edict; they desire him, therefore,
+out of hand, to resolve upon something that may be of assistance,
+offering themselves to employ therein their lives, lands, and goods.”
+Writing the same day to the Earl of Leicester, the embassador says:
+“Those of the religion have made demonstration to the king that his
+[Orange’s] enterprise lacking good success, it shall not then lie in
+his power to maintain his edict;” apparently meaning, that if the
+Flemish rebels were subdued, Spain would again be so formidable that
+it would be dangerous to tolerate the Huguenots in defiance of Philip
+II. Walsingham then adds that the Reformed party “desire him to weigh
+well, whether it were better to have foreign war with advantage, or
+inward war to the ruin of himself and his estate.” This was one of
+those unfortunate passages which Catherine afterward employed with so
+much effect to terrify Charles into the August massacre. The meaning
+of the words is plain enough, but an unscrupulous advocate would easily
+convert them into a threat of rebellion against the king’s authority.
+
+As soon as the French had recovered from the first shock caused by the
+news of Genlis’s defeat, they began to vapor and talk of revenge; and
+their hostile feelings were still farther exasperated by the report
+of certain contemptuous expressions ascribed to Alva. Every thing
+betokened an approaching rupture between France and Spain, and ere
+long the rumors of war became so loud that the Venetian Senate hastily
+dispatched an embassador with authority to mediate between the angry
+governments.[535] Michieli writes in July to his superiors of volunteer
+expeditions of horse and foot setting off daily: “For four or five days
+war was regarded in Paris as declared; it was openly talked of.”[536]
+
+On the 23d July, Petrucci, the Tuscan embassador, writes to his ducal
+master, that the royal council have been in deliberation about the
+ransom of the prisoners, but “does not know how the king [Charles] can
+grant this, without giving the greatest suspicion to the Catholic king;
+and yet he shows great interest in the matter.”[537]
+
+Elizabeth had done her part in the anti-Spanish movement by sending
+troops to Flushing. Sir T. Smith wrote to inform Walsingham that Sir
+Humphrey Gilbert had been “sent over with his band of Englishmen and
+some Frenchmen, who have taken Sluys and besieged the castle.”[538]
+
+Just at this juncture the queen-mother happened to be in Lorraine
+tending her sick daughter, and the news of the martial outburst brought
+her back in haste to Paris. She was too wise to oppose her son’s
+warlike humor openly, but she so far shook his resolution as to have
+the whole subject brought before the council. She was adverse to the
+war on many grounds, but principally because she felt assured that if
+Coligny carried on a successful campaign, his influence with the king
+would quite supersede her own. She did not know how far the king and
+the admiral had gone already. The latter, who was always with Charles,
+even to a late hour, wrote on the 11th August to Prince William of
+Orange, that there could be no doubt as to the king’s earnestness
+(Walsingham says: “But for the king, all had quailed long before”),
+and that he hoped in a few days to come to his help with 12,000
+arquebusiers and 3000 cavalry. Yet only one day before this, Walsingham
+wrote home: “Commonly it is given out that the king will no more
+meddle, ... yet I am assured that underhand he is content there shall
+[be] somewhat done, for that he seeth the peril that will befall unto
+him, if the Prince of Orange quail.” The English embassador’s means of
+information were so complete, that he actually knew more of what was
+going on in the cabinet than the admiral did.
+
+The extreme Catholic party had rallied and were trying every thing in
+their power to destroy the Huguenot ascendancy at court, and Charles’s
+resolution fluctuated from day to day. That he might enjoy a little
+quiet, he suddenly started for Montpipeau, a pleasant hunting-lodge,
+intending to remain there until the eve of his sister’s marriage.
+Meanwhile bad news reached the French court; Catherine discovered that
+Queen Elizabeth was playing her false, and while pretending zeal for
+an alliance against Spain, was actually treating with that power. De
+Foix and Fénelon both wrote from private information that she had been
+advised to recall her troops from Flanders and not quarrel with Spain.
+“Whereupon,” writes Walsingham, on the 10th August, “the queen-mother
+fell into such fear that the enterprise must necessarily fail without
+the aid of England.”[539] The report was untrue, and was probably a
+mere invention of some of the traitors in the English council.[540] But
+it frightened Catherine, and she determined to make one more attempt to
+recover her ascendancy over the king. She hurried to Montpipeau with
+such impetuous haste that two of her horses fell dead on the road.
+With tears in her eyes, she accused Charles of ingratitude to a mother
+“who had sacrificed herself for his welfare and incurred every risk
+for his advantage.” “You hide yourself from me,” she continued, “and
+take counsel with my enemies. You are about to plunge your kingdom into
+a war with Spain, and yet England, in whose alliance you trusted, is
+false to you. Alone you can not resist so powerful an enemy. You will
+only make France a prey to the Huguenots, who desire the subversion
+of the kingdom for their own benefit. If you will no longer be guided
+by my advice, suffer me to return to my native country, that I may
+not witness such disgrace.” “This artful harangue,” says Tavannes,
+“frightened the king, who, wondering to see his secret counsels
+revealed, confessed them all, begged his mother’s pardon, and promised
+obedience.” Tavannes, whose authority for circumstances of which he
+was not an eye-witness is rather doubtful, alludes to the common rumor
+that M. de Sauve, the king’s secretary, had revealed these “secret
+counsels” to his wife, Charlotte de Beaune, by whom they were told to
+her lover the Duke of Anjou, who, in his turn, communicated them to his
+mother. Whatever secrets may have been divulged, certainly this of the
+projected Flemish war was not one; for if it was unknown to Catherine,
+she must have been the only person in the court ignorant of it.[541]
+She was undoubtedly alarmed at the apparently isolated position of
+France; and we shall see that, finding all other methods fail of
+averting war, she did not shrink from murder. No doubt her “affetto
+di signorreggiare” had much to do with her bloody resolution; but she
+may also have believed Coligny to be a dangerous adviser, and in an
+unscrupulous age there was little difficulty in getting rid of such a
+man.
+
+The exact date of the interview at Montpipeau is not known, but it
+probably took place during the first week in August, for Walsingham
+evidently refers to it in his letter of the 10th of that month:
+“Touching Flanders matters, such of the council here as incline to
+Spain have put the queen-mother in such a fear, that she _with
+tears_ had dissuaded the king for the time, who otherwise was very
+resolute.... The admiral in this brunt, whose mind is invincible and
+foreseeth what is like to ensue, doth not now give over, but layeth
+before the king his peril if the Prince of Orange quail.” And again:
+“The king is _grown cold_, who before was _very forward_,
+and nothing prevailed so much as _the tears of his mother_....
+How perplexed the admiral is, who foreseeth the mischief that is
+likely to follow, your lordship [Leicester] may easily guess. He never
+showed greater magnanimity, nor never was better followed nor more
+honored of those of the religion, than he now is, _which doth not a
+little appall_ the enemies. He layeth before the king and council
+the peril and danger of his estate; and though he can not obtain
+what he would, yet doth he obtain something from him.”[542] This was
+the admiral’s death-warrant. Charles listened to him rather than to
+his mother. “What do you learn in your long conversations with the
+admiral?” asked Catherine one day. “I learn,” he replied, “that I have
+no greater enemy than my mother.” She saw her power slipping from
+her, and her son Anjou, her beloved, her favorite son, in danger; for
+she knew how violent Charles could be when he was once aroused. And
+all depended upon the life of one man! And when in those days did any
+body, especially an Italian man or woman, allow a single life to stand
+between them and their desire? Coligny must be got rid of; then the
+queen-mother would recover her influence; then there would be an end of
+this perplexing Flemish business; and with Henry of Navarre, the head
+of the Huguenot party, married to her daughter, there would be no cause
+to fear a revival of internal disturbances.
+
+But these political negotiations and discussions were not permitted to
+delay the preparations for the marriage that was to unite Catholics and
+Reformers into one homogeneous people.
+
+On the 6th of May Joan left Blois, and arrived in Paris eight or nine
+days after, such being the rate at which royalty traveled a distance
+that now does not require as many hours. She took up her abode in
+a house belonging to Jean Guillart, Bishop of Chartres, one of the
+prelates who had been excommunicated in 1563 for his liberal opinions.
+The removal to Paris was fatal to her: within a month she sickened
+and died (9th June, 1572),[543] not without suspicion of poison
+administered by means of a pair of gloves sent to her by René, the
+queen-mother’s perfumer. There is not the slightest ground for the
+suspicion: the season was unhealthy. “People are dying here very fast,”
+wrote the dowager Princess of Condé, “for which reason I do not send
+for my children.”[544] What wonder, then, that the Queen of Navarre,
+who was ill at ease, should pine and sicken in the hot ill-cleansed
+streets of Paris.[545] De Thou says she died of an abscess brought on
+by excessive fatigue. Although suffering acutely, she bore the pain
+without a word of impatience or complaint. When she saw her women
+weeping round her bed: “Do not cry,” she said; “God is calling me to
+that better life, which I have always longed for.” Her great anxiety
+was about her children--her son Henry and her daughter the amiable
+Catherine: “I trust that God will be a father and protector to them, as
+he has been to me in my sorest trials. To his providence I commit them,
+feeling sure he will provide for them.” With these words she died, at
+the age of forty-four, leaving a name still mentioned with fond respect
+among the mountains of Bearn. There were some who openly exulted in her
+death, calling it “a judgment from heaven upon Jezebel the Huguenot
+queen.” But hers was a character which, though deficient in some of the
+milder features of a woman’s nature, could despise such uncharitable
+judgment. Voltaire describes her as
+
+    Grande par des vertus qui manquaient à son fils,
+
+and one of her contemporaries, adopting the words of Quintus Curtius,
+speaks of her as possessing _nil muliebre nisi sexum_ (nothing in
+common with her sex except the name of woman). After her conversion,
+she devoted all her energies to the propagation of the Reformed
+faith, even (it is said) to the extent of preaching, though the
+strongest evidence that she ever ascended the pulpit is a doubtful
+contemporaneous caricature. Queen Elizabeth was as much attached to
+her as her vain and selfish nature permitted. Henry, fully alive
+to the importance of keeping up this friendship, wrote to announce
+his mother’s death, and to request a continuance of her friendship:
+“Entertaining the same desire which the late queen, my mother, always
+manifested toward you, I most humbly entreat you will impart to me that
+friendship and kindness which you always showed her, and the effects
+of which we have known in so many instances that I shall always feel
+myself your debtor, which I will testify in every thing you may be
+pleased to command me to obey and do service, whenever I have the
+power.”[546]
+
+The queen’s death increased the distrust with which many of the
+Huguenot party looked upon the demonstrations and favors of the court.
+From every quarter the admiral continued to receive cautions and
+warnings of treachery; but firm in his own integrity and good faith,
+he put them all aside.[547] Many of his friends urged him to be on his
+guard. The people of La Rochelle sent him more than one address on the
+rumors that were abroad and on the suspicious aspect of affairs; but
+he told them there was no occasion to fear (7th August). Another time
+he made answer: “A man would never be at ease, if he interpreted every
+action to his own disadvantage. It would be better to die a hundred
+times than live in constant apprehension. I am tired of such alarms,
+and have lived long enough.” To others who advised him to leave Paris,
+he said: “By so doing I must show either fear or distrust. My honor
+would be injured by the one, the king by the other. I should be again
+obliged to have recourse to a civil war; and I would rather die a
+thousand deaths than see again the miseries I have seen, and suffer
+the distress I have already suffered.” Another time he said: “I can
+not leave without plunging the country into fresh wars. I would rather
+be dragged through the gutters than resort to such extremity.” An
+intercepted letter from Cardinal Pelvé to the Cardinal of Lorraine, who
+had just departed for Rome, was brought to him. He read in it: “There
+are great hopes of success in the enterprise; the admiral suspects
+nothing; the war with Flanders is a mere trick; the King of Spain knows
+all about it.” The letter was manifestly a forgery--a device to prevent
+the marriage, and the admiral treated it with contempt. Many of the
+warnings he received were like prophetic dreams--remembered only when
+the event confirms their forecastings. How could a man of such a noble
+and generous character be suspicious when his royal master was treating
+him with so much kindness and deference! Charles had learned at last
+that Philip was continually intriguing and fomenting disturbances in
+France. He was not so blind as his mother thought him: with all her
+art, she could not effectually repress those generous flashes which
+from time to time burst out only to make us regret that a better
+education had not fitted Charles for his royal station. When he wrote
+inviting the admiral to leave Chatillon and come to Paris, the latter
+declined on account of the hostility of the citizens. “You have no
+cause to fear,” replied the king; “they will attempt nothing against
+my will.” At the same time he ordered Marcel, the provost of the
+merchants, to see that there was no “scandal” (disturbance) on account
+of the admiral’s arrival, or he would be answerable for it.
+
+Coligny had need of all his patience and all his loyalty. What he built
+up one day the queen-mother pulled down the next. Catherine told the
+Venetian envoy, Giovanni Michieli, that she would not go to war against
+Spain unless Philip compelled her: “Assure their lordships of Venice,”
+she added, “that not only my words but my acts shall prove the firmness
+of my resolutions.”[548] In a few hours, as we have seen, Catherine had
+recovered her empire over her son, who, though physically brave, had
+no moral courage, and could not bring himself to tell the admiral of
+his altered purposes. No one else would venture to do so, and it was
+therefore suggested that, in consequence of certain intelligence which
+the king had received, Coligny should be requested to lay his plans
+before a committee of the council (consisting of Montpensier, Louis of
+Gonzaga, Cossé, and others), who were certain to condemn them. They
+unanimously opposed the war, and after ineffectually trying to bend
+the king, he turned to the queen-mother, and said: “Madam, the king
+refuses to enter upon a war with Spain. God grant he may not be engaged
+in another which he may perhaps find it not so easy to renounce.”[549]
+This, which is the language of disappointed hopes, sounded very like a
+threat, and there may probably have been a bitterness in his tone that
+gave a meaning to his words he never intended they should bear. He only
+meant, what he had often said before, that the best mode of healing the
+wounds of the past wars would be to march the two parties side by side
+to fight a common enemy. But his enemies put the worst construction on
+his language, and his death was resolved on.[550] The king was very
+impressionable: if he were suffered to consult with the admiral again,
+the old ascendancy might be recovered, and would Coligny be inclined
+to use his new power mercifully? The blow must be struck at once, but
+first the union of the two families must be cemented by the marriage of
+Henry and Margaret.
+
+On the 8th of July, Henry, now King of Navarre, entered Paris, attended
+by the Prince of Condé, the Cardinal of Bourbon, the admiral, and
+800 of the most gallant gentlemen in France, all dressed in mourning
+garments, very different from the gay costumes worn by the Catholic
+gentlemen, who went out to meet him. At the gate of St. Jacques he was
+received by the Duke of Anjou and a magnificent train of nobles and
+officers attached to the court. The corporation of the city attended in
+their scarlet robes. Condé and his brother the marquis rode between the
+Duke of Guise and the Chevalier d’Angoulême; Henry between the king’s
+two brothers, Anjou and Alençon. The united trains, amounting to 1500
+horsemen, proceeded in ominous silence through the crowded streets
+to the Louvre. No voice was raised to greet the Huguenot princes,
+though many a murmur showed the feeling of the populace, who from time
+to time raised the cry of “Guise” or “Anjou.” But the ladies at the
+windows were more demonstrative, as Henry of Navarre with his handsome
+features and winning smile bowed to the saddle-bow, or occasionally
+pointed to some group more attractive than usual, which caught his eye
+in balcony or window. In after years, he used to look back to this as
+the happiest day of his life.
+
+For a moment the mocking humor of the Parisian populace was overawed.
+But when the escort began to separate and to move in smaller bodies
+through the streets to gain their lodgings, the mob recovered their
+audacity: “Come and see the accursed Huguenots, these outcasts of
+heaven!” As the Protestants wandered through the city, they greatly
+offended the superstitious prejudices of the citizens by neglecting
+to raise their hats as they passed the crosses or the images at the
+corners. “Deniers of God!” muttered the bigoted priests, as they
+scowled on the men who passed them with a look of scorn and pity. The
+Huguenots have been accurately designated as “quasi aliens,”--men
+alien in language, costume, and religion. For years the sound of
+psalm-singing had not offended Parisian ears, and now the hated
+words of Marot were heard once more in their streets. What wonder if
+there were frequent quarrels, if blood was shed, and if it was found
+necessary to keep the Huguenots pretty much by themselves. “Both
+parties,” says Haton, “were armed and equipped as if about to enter
+upon a campaign.” The Protestants were walking over a volcano, and
+there were bigots and fanatics among them who seemed to court rather
+than avoid an explosion.
+
+The wedding-day had been originally fixed for the 10th June, but
+difficulties about the dispensation, and then the illness and death of
+Joan of Navarre, had caused the ceremony to be delayed. Pius V. had (as
+we have seen) constantly opposed the marriage, and refused to grant the
+dispensation required when the parties were of different religions,
+and also so nearly related. But the new pope, Gregory XIII., appears
+to have been more compliant, or the letter stating that the bull of
+dispensation was on the road must have been a forgery.[551] There were
+many reasons why the marriage should be put off no longer. As the young
+queen’s health was delicate, and she was soon to become a mother, it
+was advisable to get her away as early as possible from the noise and
+malaria of the capital.[552] It was therefore arranged that the wedding
+should take place on the 18th August. The betrothal was solemnized the
+day before at the Louvre, whence, after a supper and ball, the bride
+was conducted by the king and queen, the queen-mother, the Duchess of
+Lorraine, and other lords and ladies, to the palace of the Bishop of
+Paris, where, according to the ceremonial observed in such cases, she
+passed the night. On Monday the King of Navarre went to fetch her: he
+was accompanied by Anjou and Alençon and a host of other lords of both
+religions. Charles, Henry, and Condé were dressed alike to show their
+close affection. “Every body hates me but my brother of Navarre,” the
+king once said; “and he loves me, and I love him.” Their dress was of
+pale yellow satin, embroidered with silver, and adorned with pearls
+and precious stones. The other lords were richly dressed according
+to their fancy, and contemporaries speak with wonder of the costly
+ornaments they wore. Michieli, the Venetian embassador, says: “You
+would not believe there was any distress in the kingdom. The king’s
+toque, charger, and garments cost from five to six hundred thousand
+crowns. Anjou, among other jewels in his toque, had a set of thirty-two
+pearls bought for the occasion at the cost of 23,000 gold crowns of
+the sun. More than one hundred and twenty ladies dazzled the eyes
+with the brilliancy of their sumptuous silks, brocades, and velvets,
+thickly interwoven with gold or silver.” Margaret very complacently
+describes her own large blue mantle with its train four ells long.
+According to the custom observed on the marriage of a king’s daughter,
+the nuptial ceremony was to be performed in a pavilion constructed on
+the open space fronting the cathedral of Notre Dame. It was a beautiful
+summer day; cannons roared, the bells rang out cheerily from every
+steeple, and every roof, window, or spot of ground whence a view of the
+procession could be caught was densely crowded. But the spectators were
+not so joyous as they usually are when any great parade of state is to
+be exhibited. The marriage was not popular, and ominous murmurs against
+the heretics were heard from time to time. A raised covered platform
+led from the bishop’s palace to the pavilion, and along it marched
+bishops and archbishops leading the way in copes of cloth of gold.
+Then came the cardinals resplendent in scarlet, knights of St. Michael
+with their orders, followed by all the great officers of state, whose
+places and the interval between them were regulated by the strictest
+etiquette. Among these was Henry, Duke of Guise, then twenty-two years
+old, one of the handsomest men of the day. Countless fingers were
+pointed to him, and his reception, compared with that afterward given
+to the king, reminds us of that so inimitably described by our great
+dramatic poet:
+
+    You would have thought the very windows spoke,
+    So many greedy looks of young and old
+    Through casements darted their desiring eyes
+    Upon his visage; and that all the walls,
+    With painted imagery, said at once:
+    Jesus preserve thee! welcome!
+
+When “the well grac’d actor left the stage,” men’s eyes would have
+“idly bent” upon the rest of the procession, but that it consisted
+of the fairest dames and damsels of the court, chief of whom was the
+bride herself, whose beauty deserved all the raptures that poets have
+lavished upon it. Ronsard calls her “the fair grace Pasithea,” and
+compares her hands to the “fingers of young Aurora, rose-dyed and
+steeped in dew.” At church her dazzling beauty disturbed the devotions
+of the worshipers. She had just completed her twentieth year: her
+complexion was clear, her hair black, her eyes full of fire, though at
+times remarkable for a dreamy languor, which gave her a voluptuous and
+tender look, as if to indicate a heart that was framed for love. All
+her movements were full of grace and majesty. She was unrivaled in the
+dance, and played on the lute and sang with exquisite taste. But there
+was a frightful reverse to this charming picture: she was untruthful,
+vain, extravagant, and hoped by her devotion to the forms of religion
+to atone for the errors of her daily life. In justice, however, to
+Margaret, let it be said that this last defect was not peculiar to
+herself or to the sixteenth century; nor dare we affirm that such
+compromises between God and the world were more common then than they
+are now.
+
+Margaret’s dress on her wedding-day was long the talk of court gossips.
+In such matters her taste was peculiar and exquisite. Brilliants flamed
+like stars among her hair; her stomacher was sprinkled with pearls, so
+as to resemble a silvery coat of mail; her dress was of cloth of gold,
+and rare lace of the same precious metal fringed her handkerchief and
+gloves.
+
+After the marriage ceremony had been performed in the pavilion,[553]
+Henry led his bride into the Church of Notre Dame to hear mass, and
+then withdrew with Condé, the admiral, and other lords, who passed
+the interval walking up and down the cathedral close. The historian
+De Thou, then a youth at college, was among the spectators of the
+ceremony. After the bridal train had left the church, he leaped over
+the barriers, and found himself close to the admiral, who was showing
+Damville the banners captured at Jarnac and Moncontour, which hung as
+trophies from the wall. “I heard him say,” continues De Thou: “Ere long
+these will be down, and others more agreeable to the eyes put up in
+their place.”
+
+Henry conducted his wife to the bishop’s palace, where a magnificent
+dinner had been prepared for them; but there was no dancing: not that
+bishops had any objection to such amusements, but because there was
+no time, for a magnificent supper awaited all the wedding-party at
+the Louvre. The next three days were passed in festivities, balls and
+banquets, masques and tourneys, in which both Huguenots and Catholics
+took part. Old enmities seemed forgotten.[554] In all these amusements
+Henry of Navarre distinguished himself. He had a kind word for every
+body, was ready with jest and humor, charmed the ladies by his
+gallantry, which, though rather unpolished (for he had seen more of
+camps than of courts) was the more pleasing from its novelty. Charles
+grew fonder of him than ever, while his dislike for Anjou increased
+proportionately.
+
+On the evening of Wednesday, the 20th August, a splendid masque was
+represented, in which some historians imagine that the coming tragedy
+was actually prefigured. In the great hall of the Hotel Bourbon,
+which adjoined the Louvre, the eternal struggle between good and
+evil was depicted in a very curious way. On the right was Paradise,
+defended by three armed knights (the king and his two brothers): on
+the left was Hell, and between them flowed the Styx, on which Charon
+plied his ferry-boat. Behind Paradise lay the Elysian fields and
+Heaven resplendent with glittering stars. A body of knights, armed
+_cap-à-pie_, and distinguished by various scarves and favors,
+attempted to make their way into Paradise, but they were all defeated
+and dragged into Hell, to the great exultation of the devil and his
+imps, who closed the doors upon them. And now Heaven opened, and
+there descended from it Mercury and Cupid. After a song to the three
+victorious knights, Mercury (who was Étienne le Roi, the first singer
+of the day) re-entered his car, which was borne by a cock that kept
+crowing lustily, and was taken back to Heaven. A ballet followed, then
+a tilting-match--the combatants, it is to be presumed, were on foot.
+The amusements were terminated by firing trains of gunpowder laid
+round a fountain in the centre of the hall. It is absurd to attach any
+importance to these allegorical representations, which were the fashion
+of the day, and were probably prepared by the court poet as a mere
+matter of business, and who certainly would not have been let into the
+secret--if there were any. But after the massacre the Catholics used
+to boast that the king had driven the Huguenots into hell. The next
+day, Thursday, other shows were exhibited, to the great disgust of the
+admiral, who wanted to leave Paris, which he could not do until he had
+transacted some very important business with the king, and Charles was
+so taken up with the wedding festivities, and entered into them so
+heartily, that he scarcely gave himself time for sleep, much less for
+business. “Give me three or four days more of relaxation,” he said,
+“and after that I promise you, on my royal word, that you shall be
+satisfied.” Still the admiral wanted to get away, and would probably
+have left, but for a deputation from the Huguenot churches, who prayed
+him to remain until their affairs were satisfactorily arranged. The
+admiral longed to be at home. On the wedding-day of the King of
+Navarre, he wrote to his wife the last letter she was ever to receive
+from him.
+
+    PARIS, 18th August, 1572.
+
+    MY DEAREST AND MOST BELOVED WIFE.
+
+   To-day the marriage of the king’s sister with the King of
+   Navarre was celebrated, and the next three or four days will be
+   occupied with banquets, masques, and other amusements; and when
+   these are over the king has promised to devote some days to an
+   inquiry into the complaints that are made from different parts
+   of the kingdom about the infractions of the edict, in which
+   it is most reasonable that I should employ myself as much as
+   possible; and though I have an infinite desire to see you, yet
+   I should be very sorry, and I believe you would grieve also, if
+   I failed to interest myself to the extent of my power. At all
+   events the delay will not be long, and I hope to leave next
+   week. If I studied my own convenience only, I would rather be
+   with you than stay any longer at court, for reasons I will tell
+   you; but we must set the public advantage before our own.[555] I
+   have much to tell you, when I see you, which I desire night and
+   day. As for news--the wedding-mass was sung this afternoon at
+   four o’clock, the King of Navarre walking about in a court-yard
+   with all those of the religion who had accompanied him. Other
+   matters I leave till we meet; meanwhile I pray God to have you,
+   my beloved wife, in his holy keeping.
+
+          *       *       *       *       *
+
+   P.S. Three days ago I suffered with colic pains, which lasted
+   eight or ten hours, but I thank God that by his goodness I am
+   now quite free from them. Be assured that during these pastimes
+   and festivities I will give offense to no man. Farewell, from
+   your beloved husband,
+
+    CHATILLON.
+
+On Wednesday the admiral had an audience of the king, in the course of
+which Charles spoke to him about the Guise faction, remarking that he
+was not sure of them; they had come in strong force to the wedding, and
+were well armed; and to keep them in order he proposed to introduce
+“his arquebusiers” into the city under certain officers whom he named.
+Coligny thanked his majesty: “Although I believe myself quite safe,
+I willingly leave the matter in your hands.” In the course of the
+day, 1200 of the guard marched into Paris, and were quartered in the
+Louvre and its vicinity. This was a measure of precaution. There was
+every probability of a collision in the streets, and a strong force
+was necessary to command the respect of both factions. Charles was
+gradually recovering from the effects of his mother’s entreaties at
+Montpipeau: the more he saw of the admiral, the more he was pleased
+with the loyalty and honesty of the old Huguenot warrior. Anjou and
+Catherine had attentively watched the change. In that remarkable
+statement which the duke is believed to have made to one of his
+attendants, he says: “We had observed that if either of us ventured to
+speak with the king after the long and frequent conversations he used
+to have with the admiral, we found him strangely out of temper; he
+looked angry, and the answers he gave were unaccompanied by the honor
+and respect he used to show the queen. One day, shortly before the
+massacre, I went expressly to see the king, and entered his closet as
+the admiral left it; but as soon as my brother observed me, he began
+to pace the room angrily, looking at me askance, and playing with the
+handle of his dagger, so that I expected he would attack me every
+minute. As he continued in this furious mood, I began to regret having
+entered the room, and with some trouble contrived to leave it without
+attracting his notice. I went straight to my mother, and told her what
+had happened, and after comparing things together, we came to the
+conclusion that the admiral had inspired the king with some sinister
+opinion of us, and we therefore determined to get rid of him, and to
+concert the means with the Duchess of Nemours, whom alone we ventured
+to admit into the plot, because of the mortal hatred she bore to the
+admiral.”[556] One account says that a council was held at Monceaux,
+shortly after the scene at Montpipeau, at which Anjou, Tavannes,
+Retz, Sauve, and Catherine were present, and where it was resolved to
+assassinate Coligny; that Catherine told the Duchess of Nemours, and
+that the court then returned to Paris. This does not contradict Anjou’s
+narrative, though it does not exactly harmonize with it.
+
+The Duchess of Nemours was the widow of the late Duke of Guise. She had
+married again, but still nourished the most rancorous hatred against
+the supposed murderer of her first husband. Her son, who had been
+admitted into the plot, proposed that she should kill the admiral with
+her own hand, in the midst of the court festivities, and before the
+eyes of the king.[557] When the duchess refused to take so active a
+part in Coligny’s murder, they sent for Maurevel, the king’s assassin
+(_le tueur du roi_), as he was called.[558] This man had been
+brought up in the late Duke of Guise’s household; and when a price had
+been set upon the admiral’s head, he made an attempt on Coligny’s life,
+but killed Jacques de Mouy instead. He was rewarded, however, for his
+good intentions, and not only received the promised 2000 crowns, but at
+the king’s express desire the collar of the Order was conferred upon
+him. This was the ruffian whom Anjou and Henry of Guise hired to murder
+the great Huguenot leader. After receiving the necessary instructions
+he repaired to his post; and while he was watching day after day for
+his victim, Catherine was devising fresh amusements in honor of her
+daughter’s marriage.[559]
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XII.
+
+                          THE ASSASSINATION.
+
+                     [22d, 23d, and 24th August.]
+
+   Coligny in the Tennis-Court--The Fatal Shot--The
+   King’s Indignation and Threats--Letters to Provincial
+   Governors--Precautions in the City--Interview between Charles
+   and the Admiral--Despair of Catherine and Anjou--The Huguenot
+   Council--Threats of violence--De Pilles and Pardaillan
+   at the Louvre--The Turning-point--Conversation between
+   Catherine and Anjou--Meeting in the Tuileries Garden--Guard
+   sent to Coligny--Scene in the King’s Closet--Catherine’s
+   Argument--De Retz Protests--Charles Yields at last--Guise
+   in the City--Precautions--Anjou and Angoulême ride
+   through Paris--Municipal Arrangements--Charles and La
+   Rochefoucault--Margaret and her sister Claude--Coligny’s last
+   Night.
+
+
+The 22d of August, 1572, fell on Friday. Early in the morning Coligny
+had gone to the Louvre on business, and was on his way home, when he
+met the king coming from chapel. He turned and accompanied Charles to
+the tennis-court, where he stood a short time watching a match which
+his son-in-law, Teligny, and another were playing against the king and
+the Duke of Guise. When he took his leave, it was past ten o’clock, and
+near his dinner-hour. To reach his hotel[560] in the Rue de l’Arbre
+Sec, at the corner of the Rue de Bethisy, he had to pass along the Rue
+des Fossés de St. Germain. As he was turning the corner with De Guerchy
+on one side and Des Pruneaux on the other, a shot was fired from the
+latticed window of a house on his right, known as the Hotel de Retz,
+near one of the large doors of the cloister of St. Germain l’Auxerrois
+adjoining the deanery. The admiral, who was reading a petition that
+had just been placed in his hands, staggered backward, exclaiming, “I
+am wounded,” and fell into the arms of the Sieur de Guerchy. He was
+hit with two bullets: one carried off the first finger of the right
+hand, the other wounded him in the left arm. Pointing to the house
+whence the shot had proceeded, he bade Yolet, one of his esquires, go
+to the king and tell him what had happened. Des Pruneaux hastily bound
+a handkerchief round the wounded hand, and assisted the admiral to
+his hotel, which was fortunately not more than a hundred yards off.
+Meanwhile some of his attendants broke into the house, but found nobody
+there except the old woman in charge and a horse-boy, from whom they
+learned that the assassin Maurevel had escaped through the adjoining
+cloisters, that the house belonged to Canon Villemur, formerly tutor to
+the Duke of Guise, and that the horse on which Maurevel rode away came
+from the duke’s stables. The arquebuse still lay in the window, and on
+examination proved to belong to one of Anjou’s body-guard.
+
+With this important but unsatisfactory information they returned to the
+admiral, whom they found lying on his bed. Ambrose Paré, the king’s
+surgeon-royal, had already amputated the finger and extracted the ball
+from his arm; but the operation was a painful one, for the famous
+surgeon’s instruments were not in good order. The admiral bore the
+torture better than his friends, who could not restrain their tears:
+“Why do you weep?” he asked; “I think myself blessed to have received
+these wounds in God’s cause. Pray that he will strengthen me.” Then
+turning to his chaplain Merlin, who was much distressed: “Why do you
+not rather comfort me?” he said. “There is no greater or surer comfort
+for you,” answered Merlin, “than to think continually that God does you
+a great honor in deeming you worthy to suffer for his name’s sake.”
+“Nay, dear Merlin, if God should handle me according to my deserts, I
+should have far other manner of griefs to endure.” The conversation
+then turned upon the attempted murder: “I forgive freely and with all
+my heart,” said the admiral, “both him that struck me and those who
+incited him to do it; for I am sure it is not in their power to do me
+any evil, not even if they kill me.”
+
+The news of the outrage spread instantaneously through Paris. A
+messenger, all breathless, burst into the tennis-court, where the king
+had continued playing after Coligny had left, and shouted: “The admiral
+is killed! the admiral is killed!” Charles eagerly questioned him, and
+then turning abruptly away, threw down his racket, angrily exclaiming
+as he left the ground: “S’death! shall I never have a moment’s quiet?
+Must I have fresh troubles every day?”[561] He withdrew to his
+apartments, declaring that he would avenge the admiral, and, writing to
+Mandelot a few hours later, he said: “I have sent in every direction to
+try and catch the murderer and punish him, as his wicked act deserves.”
+Then continuing in language whose sincerity can not be doubted: “And
+insomuch as the news may excite many of my subjects on one side or the
+other, I pray you make known everywhere how the affair happened, and
+assure every body of my intention to observe inviolably my edicts of
+pacification and to chastise sharply all who infringe them, so that
+they may be convinced of my sincerity and follow my example.” To La
+Mothe-Fénelon, Charles wrote that he would investigate this “infamous
+deed,” and not suffer his edict to be outraged. He ordered Teligny
+to mount his horse and ride after the assassin,[562] and sent to the
+Provost of Paris, bidding him take precautions against any outbreak.
+The municipal council were sitting when the royal messenger arrived,
+and without delay they took such measures as seemed necessary to
+preserve the public peace, which at that moment was in far greater
+danger from the incensed Huguenots than from the amazed Catholics.
+The civic guards were mustered, the post at the Hotel-de-Ville was
+strengthened, the sentries at the gates were doubled, the citizens were
+forbidden to close their shops, and no person was allowed to come armed
+into the streets.[563]
+
+Meanwhile the King of Navarre, accompanied by some 600 or 700 Huguenot
+gentlemen, visited the admiral, threatening vengeance upon the
+assassins. Marshals Damville and Cossé came in together. “Never in my
+life,” said the former, “have I suffered such a heavy blow. Tell me
+what I can do to serve you. I wonder who could be the contriver of
+so foul an outrage.” “I suspect no one,” replied the admiral, adding
+after a pause, “unless it be the Duke of Guise, and that I dare not say
+for certain. I am grieved to find myself kept to my bed, as I wished
+to show the king how much I would have done for his sake. Would God I
+might talk a little with him, for there are certain things which he
+ought to know, and I am afraid there is no one who dares tell him.”
+Teligny immediately proceeded to the Louvre, where he met Henry of
+Navarre and the Prince of Condé, who had just left the royal presence.
+They had gone to ask permission to leave the court on the ground that
+they could no longer remain there in security. Charles was greatly
+excited, and earnestly begged them to stay. Breaking into one of his
+tempestuous passions he declared, with his usual blasphemous oaths,
+that the admiral’s blood should be atoned for; that he would punish
+all concerned in the outrage, “so that the child unborn should rue
+the vengeance of the day.” Even Catherine was alarmed at this burst
+of fury, and, with tears in her eyes, exclaimed, that if this bloody
+deed were suffered to pass unavenged, the king would not be safe in his
+palace. Teligny delivered his message that the admiral desired to see
+the king before he died, and Charles promised to visit his old friend.
+It seems pretty clear that Charles suspected whence the blow proceeded.
+His sister Margaret, whose memory on this point at least is likely to
+be faithful, says that “if M. de Guise had not kept out of the way that
+day, he would have been hanged.” And no doubt the king, in the first
+burst of passion, would have carried out his threats.
+
+All this time the queen-mother and Anjou were in a dreadful state of
+agitation. The blow had failed, and if the victim recovered from his
+wounds, their participation in the plot could not be concealed. “Our
+notable enterprise[564] having miscarried,” says the duke, “my mother
+and myself[565] had ample matter for reflection and uneasiness during
+the greater part of the day.” There was still hope, for the bullets
+might be poisoned, or the wounds mortal. There was danger all around
+them; Paris was in a terrible ferment; the Huguenots were angry and
+suspicious. The Queen of Navarre had been poisoned (they said), and
+now their old leader was assassinated. Who would be the next victim?
+Murmuring crowds filled the streets, and it seemed almost impossible to
+prevent an outbreak.
+
+About two o’clock in the afternoon, Charles, accompanied by his mother
+and his brother Henry, and attended by many who were a few hours later
+to stain their hands in innocent blood, went to see Coligny. The king
+walked in moody silence, so absorbed with his own thoughts as to omit
+lifting his hat to an image of the Virgin at a street corner. He hardly
+responded to the salutations of the people who crowded the street in
+front of the admiral’s hotel, which also was filled with anxious and
+uneasy friends. Up the wide staircase, lined with veterans who had
+fought by the side of Coligny on many a bloody field--through the
+antechamber, where the Huguenot gentry frowned defiance at Catherine
+and Anjou, whose enmity to the admiral was well known--into the large
+chamber whose windows overlooked the court-yard--passed the royal
+party. Charles went to the admiral’s bedside, and calling him by the
+affectionate name of “father,” asked him how he felt. “I humbly thank
+your majesty,” he replied, “for the great honor you have done me, and
+the great trouble you have taken on my account.” Charles desired him
+to cheer up, and hoped he would soon be well of his wounds. “There
+are three things about which I longed to talk with your majesty. The
+first is my own faithfulness and allegiance toward your highness. So
+may I have the favor and mercy of God, at whose judgment-seat this
+mischance will probably set me ere long, as I have ever borne a good
+heart toward your majesty’s person and crown. And yet I am well aware
+that malicious persons have accused me to your highness, and condemned
+me as a troubler of the State.[566] But God will judge between me and
+my slanderers, and decide according to his righteousness.... Now as to
+the Flanders matter, a straw can scarcely be stirred in your secret
+council but it is by and by carried to the Duke of Alva. Sire, I would
+very fain that you had a care of this thing.[567]... The last which I
+would wish you to have no less care of, is the observing of your Edict
+of Pacification. You know you have oftentimes confirmed it by oath,
+and you know that not foreign nations only, but also your neighbors
+and friends are witnesses of the oft renewing of the same oath. Oh,
+Sire, how unseemly is it that this your oath should be counted but for
+a jest and a mockery. Within these few days past, a nurse was carrying
+home a young babe from baptism, not far from Troyes in Champagne, after
+attending a sermon in a certain village, by you assigned for the same
+purpose, when certain persons, who lay in wait by the way, killed both
+the nurse and the child, and some of the company which had been bidden
+to the christening. Consider, I beseech you, how terrible that murder
+was, and how it may stand with your honor and dignity to suffer such
+great outrages to go unrevenged and unpunished in your kingdom.”
+
+The king replied that he had never doubted the admiral’s loyalty,
+but had always taken him for a good subject and excellent captain,
+without his peer in the whole realm. “If I had any other opinion
+of you,” he exclaimed, “I should never have done what I have.” He
+made no reference to the Flemish war, but promised that the Edict of
+Pacification should be kept faithfully and strictly; for which purpose
+he had sent commissioners into all parts of the kingdom, appealing to
+the queen-mother for confirmation. “My lord, there is nothing truer,”
+she said; “commissioners have been sent into all parts.”--“Yes, madam,
+I know it,” returned Coligny, “and of that sort of men who valued my
+head at 50,000 crowns.” Charles now interposed: “My lord admiral, we
+will send others; you are getting too excited. It is better that you
+should be quiet. You bear the wound, but I the smart.[568] I swear by
+God’s life that I will take such terrible revenge, that it shall never
+be forgotten.” He added that two persons were already in custody,
+and inquired whether the admiral desired to have any of his friends
+in the commission of investigation. “I refer it to your majesty’s
+discretion and justice, but as you ask my opinion, I could desire to
+see Cavaignes, Masparault, and another appointed. Surely there needs no
+great search be made for the culprit.” Upon this the king and Catherine
+drew nearer the admiral’s pillow, and talked with him so low that none
+in the room could hear what passed. At the end the queen-mother said:
+“Although I am only a woman, yet I am of opinion that it is to be
+looked to betimes.”
+
+The Duke of Anjou gives a somewhat different account of this portion
+of the interview: “As the admiral desired to speak privately with
+the king, his majesty made a sign to my mother and to myself to
+retire.[569] We accordingly quitted the bedside, and stood in the
+middle of the chamber, full of suspicion and uneasiness. We saw
+ourselves surrounded by more than 200 Huguenot captains, who filled
+the adjoining chamber and also the hall below. Their countenances
+were melancholy, and they showed by their gestures how disaffected
+they were, omitting to pay us due reverence, as if they suspected
+us of having caused the admiral’s wound. We began to feel great
+apprehension, so much so that the queen determined to put a stop to
+the conversation between the king and the admiral under some plausible
+pretext. Approaching the king, she said: ‘Your majesty is wrong in
+permitting the admiral to excite himself by talking; pray put off the
+rest until another day.’” The king with great reluctance broke off the
+conversation. As he was leaving, he proposed that the admiral should
+be removed to the Louvre, lest there should be any commotion in the
+city. The surgeons protested against the step, and with regard to the
+possible tumult, some one, probably Teligny, answered: “The Parisians
+are no more to be feared than women, so long as the king continues his
+faithful good-will toward the admiral.” The speaker knew little of the
+temper of the inhabitants of that turbulent city.
+
+Before he quitted the room, Charles asked to see the ball, and praised
+the admiral for the firmness with which he had endured the pain of the
+operation. The queen-mother then took the bullet, and poising it in
+her hand, said slowly and significantly: “I am very glad that it is
+not still in the wound, for I remember that when the Duke of Guise
+was killed before Orleans, the surgeons told me that if the ball had
+been extracted, even though poisoned, his life would not have been
+in danger.” Why did Catherine revert to the duke’s murder? Was it
+to remind Coligny that he had been suspected of a guilty knowledge
+of Poltrot’s designs, and that the son was but the minister of the
+father’s vengeance?
+
+On their way back to the palace, the queen-mother asked Charles to tell
+her what the admiral had said to him in private.[570] At last, annoyed
+by her importunity, he answered, “short and angrily,” with his usual
+oath: “S’death, madam, the admiral only told me the truth. He said that
+kings are respected in France only so long as they have the power to
+reward and punish their subjects, and that the power and administration
+of the whole realm had slipped into your hands, and that such a state
+of affairs might one day be prejudicial to me and my kingdom. Of this
+he wished to warn me, as a faithful servant and subject, before he
+died. And now you know what the admiral said to me.” Anjou and the
+queen-mother were greatly vexed; but, hiding their feelings, they tried
+to excuse and justify themselves all the way to the Louvre. Leaving the
+king in his closet, Anjou went to his mother, whom he found in great
+agitation, fearing that Coligny’s advice would lead to some change in
+her position, and in the administration of public affairs. Catherine,
+usually so fertile in resources, was quite confounded: she could
+think of nothing, devise nothing that could extricate them from their
+embarrassed position; and the two conspirators separated for the night,
+hoping that the morrow would bring them the means of deliverance.
+
+Not long after the royal visitors had left Coligny’s room, Ferrers,
+vidame of Chartres, entered and congratulated the admiral that his
+enemies dared not assail him openly: “Blessed and happy are you that
+the memory of your prowess has extended so far.” “Nay,” replied the
+wounded man, “I think myself blessed because God has vouchsafed to
+pour out his mercy upon me; for they are rightly happy whose sins God
+forgiveth.” The vidame presently withdrew to a lower room, where the
+King of Navarre, Condé, and other Huguenot lords had met to consult on
+the course to be adopted. “Let us arm ourselves and garrison the house;
+for this is only the beginning of the tragedy,” said some. “To horse,
+and away from Paris,” said others; “and we will take the admiral with
+us.” This the physicians[571] declared to be impossible, unless they
+wished to kill him outright. The more reasonable gentlemen argued that
+it would be unwise to do more than demand justice at the king’s hands
+upon the murderers--an opinion which Teligny warmly supported. “I know
+the king’s mind thoroughly,” he said; “you will only offend him if you
+doubt his desire to do justice.” For a long while the more violent
+party would not give way, and at last the meeting broke up without
+coming to any decision farther than that they should consult his
+majesty, whether the admiral should be removed or the Huguenots collect
+round him. As they marched off in military array through the streets,
+threatening the Guises, Anjou, the queen-mother, and even the king
+himself, or thundering out one of the Huguenot psalms, such as they had
+often sung as a war-song on the eve of battle, the prospect of an armed
+collision must have struck many thoughtful observers. The position was
+very dangerous: an explosion might take place at any moment. Indeed,
+the only doubt among the fiercest spirits of both parties was when to
+begin. That very evening a body of Huguenot gentlemen, headed by those
+“stupid clumsy fools”[572] De Pilles and the Baron of Pardaillan,
+paraded tumultuously through the streets to the Louvre. As they passed
+before the Hotel de Guise, in the Marais,[573] they shouted loud
+defiance, flourishing their swords, and some are reported to have
+discharged their pistols at the windows. When admitted to the presence,
+while the king was at supper, they fiercely demanded vengeance, and by
+their looks did not spare Anjou, who was at his brother’s side. “If the
+king refuses us justice,” they cried, “we will take the matter into our
+own hands.”
+
+The night of the 22d was the turning-point of Catherine’s policy. The
+threats of the Huguenots had so alarmed her, that her nerves were
+quite unstrung; visions of danger started up before her wherever she
+turned. Treacherous herself, she may have believed the tales (if they
+were not of her own invention) of Huguenot conspiracies, which she
+afterward employed so effectually to exasperate the impetuous king.
+Her policy of “trimming” no longer seemed possible. Early the next
+morning Anjou had another interview with his mother. The night had not
+brought wisdom, but doubt. Catherine still wavered between contending
+schemes. On one point alone she had made up her mind--that the admiral
+must be got rid of at any sacrifice, now that Maurevel had so unluckily
+failed.[574] Had the assassin’s bullet struck a vital part, Catherine’s
+trouble would have been at an end.[575] She had nothing to fear from
+the Huguenots without a leader: Condé and Navarre were young; they
+were in her power, and could do nothing. There might be a street riot
+between the partisans of Guise and of the admiral; perhaps the duke
+himself might be killed in the fray. But now, if Maurevel were caught,
+his employers would be known to a certainty. Had not the rack forced
+Poltrot to confess? Then what would become of her beloved Henry,
+against whom Charles was already so violently angered? It was not
+probable that the Duke of Guise would endure the odium, or silently
+put up with the king’s displeasure. He was too powerful to be made
+the scape-goat of another’s crimes, and was such a favorite with the
+Parisians that to give him up might be perilous to herself and her
+sons. As she had not strength to control and restrain both parties,
+she must side with one of them. Yet there was danger either way--even
+had her hands been pure from Coligny’s blood. The victory of the
+Huguenots might lead to the establishment of a republic; the victory
+of the Guises (as she afterward learned to her sorrow) might lead to
+the deposition of her son. There was no escape: Catherine was caught
+in the meshes of her own crime. Maurevel’s work must be completed. But
+how? “Ruse and finesse,” says Anjou, “were now out of the question.”
+The murder must be done openly. There were serious difficulties in the
+way. Coligny was under the king’s protection, and how could Charles be
+prevailed upon to sacrifice his “friend and father?”
+
+There are three different narratives of the proceedings at the Louvre
+on Saturday, 23d August. The Calvinist account, given in the “Mémoires
+de l’Etat de France,” may be dismissed without a word; Margaret’s
+statements are almost as unreliable; so that none remains but that
+which bears the name of the Duke of Anjou. Even with his help it is
+very difficult to trace the real order of events, or to make his
+narrative coincide with the entries in the register of the City of
+Paris. One thing alone is clear, that Anjou (or his reporter Miron) is
+not telling the whole truth.
+
+In order to escape observation, the queen-mother summoned her intimate
+advisers to meet her at the Tuileries.[576] The Louvre was too crowded,
+too open to Huguenot observation; but in the private gardens of her
+country house beyond the city walls, they could talk without danger.
+Anjou, Tavannes, Birague, De Retz, and Nevers were present, but of
+their deliberations no record exists, and they can only be imagined
+from the result. They agreed that there was not a moment to be lost.
+The admiral was out of danger: to-morrow he might be removed beyond
+their reach. He must be got rid of that very night. If he and five or
+six other Huguenot chiefs were dispatched, all would be well.[577]
+There is a worthless story of a sort of proscription list having been
+drawn up, at the head of which stood the names of Henry of Navarre and
+the Prince of Condé. The younger Tavannes claimed for his father the
+credit of saving their lives; but they really owed their safety to the
+queen-mother, who feared that their deaths would make the Guise party
+too strong. But nothing could be done without the king’s consent, and
+to obtain that would be no easy matter, for “he was very fond (says
+Margaret) of the admiral, La Rochefoucault, Teligny, La Noue, and other
+Huguenot leaders, whom he hoped to make use of in Flanders.”
+
+All that Saturday Paris continued in a very restless state. People
+feared some great catastrophe; and yet their fears took no definite
+shape. Suspicion was in the air, and the wildest stories were
+circulated. There was “much huffling and shuffling in the city;” guards
+had been posted at unusual places, and there was “much carrying to and
+fro of arms and armor,” so that the Huguenots felt it expedient “to
+consult of the matter betimes, for no good was to be looked for of such
+turmoiling.” There was a great assemblage at the hotel of the Duchess
+of Guise, and to the Huguenots nothing seemed more likely than that the
+duke would make a sudden attack upon Coligny, and finish what had been
+so inauspiciously begun. The admiral’s friends accordingly dispatched
+Cornaton to the king, with a request that his majesty would be
+pleased to order a guard to be posted at the admiral’s house. Charles
+would scarcely believe the messenger, and desired the presence of the
+queen-mother. Catherine had hardly entered the room when the king,
+“being in a great chafe,” burst out: “What means all this? This man
+tells me that my people are in commotion and arming themselves.” “They
+are doing no such thing,” she calmly replied; “you know you gave orders
+that every man should keep in his own ward, as a security against
+tumult.” “That is true,” said Charles, who manifestly did not believe
+his mother’s denial; “yet I gave charge that no man should take up
+arms.” The Parisians had been disarmed some time before the court had
+returned to the Louvre; but the weapons which had been taken away were
+now being removed from the stores in the arsenal to the Hôtel-de-Ville,
+that they might be ready when needed. If, as the Huguenot narrative
+implies, this removal of the arms took place in the early part of the
+day, it may have been an innocent measure of precaution, but its wisdom
+is doubtful under any circumstances; if in the latter part of the day,
+it was probably in connection with the projected massacre.
+
+Coligny’s messenger having repeated the request for a guard, Anjou, who
+had come in with his mother, said: “Very well, take Cosseins and fifty
+arquebusiers.” “Nay, my lord, it will be enough for us if we have but
+six of the king’s guard with us; for they will have as much influence
+over the people as a greater number of soldiers.” The king rejoined:
+“Take Cosseins with you; you can not have a fitter man.” Cosseins
+was the admiral’s mortal enemy; but he was also at variance with the
+Guises, and it might have been supposed that in case of any outbreak
+of the latter, the marshal would not spare them. As Cornaton left the
+presence, Thoré, the brother of Marshal Montmorency, whispered in his
+ear: “You could not have had a more dangerous keeper.” “What could I
+do?” was the rejoinder; “you saw how absolutely the king commanded it.
+We have committed ourselves to his honor, but you are a witness of my
+first answer to the king’s appointment.” A few hours later Cosseins
+posted his fifty soldiers in two houses close to the admiral’s;[578]
+and orders came from the king--other authorities say from the Duke of
+Anjou--commanding the inhabitants to remove out of the street in order
+to accommodate the friends of Coligny. It is not known how far this
+order was carried out: probably not at all; but it has usually been
+regarded as a very Machiavellian contrivance to get all the Huguenots
+together, that they might be killed the more easily. On the other hand,
+by collecting a little Huguenot garrison around him, the admiral would
+be safer than if he had remained alone in the street. Had there been
+the slightest resistance at first, the plot would have miscarried,
+and neither Anjou nor his mother would have been so weak as to put
+obstructions in the way of their own success.
+
+Meanwhile the government was busily occupied in sending dispatches all
+over the country and abroad, describing the events of the previous
+day. It was most important to prevent a rising of the Huguenots,
+whose suspicions had been so cruelly confirmed by the attempt on
+the admiral’s life. In order to calm them, the provincial governors
+and magistrates were directed to assure them that justice should be
+executed on the perpetrators and abettors of the crime. The letter
+to D’Esquilly, governor of Chartres, may be taken as a sample of the
+whole. In it the king ascribes the attempt to the Guise faction, adding
+that it arose out of a private quarrel between the two houses of
+Chatillon and Guise, which he had tried all in his power to arrange.
+He orders the edict to be observed “as strictly as ever,” for fear the
+recent outrage should provoke his subjects to rise against each other,
+and great massacres be perpetrated in the cities, for which he would
+feel “a marvelous regret.”[579] Coligny also wrote to the Protestant
+churches, desiring them to be calm, for his wounds were not mortal, and
+the assassins were being pursued.
+
+During the forenoon of Saturday the Duke of Guise, having heard of
+the king’s angry speeches against him, went to the Louvre with his
+uncle Aumale, and pretending to fear the violence of the Huguenots,
+begged his majesty’s permission to leave the court for awhile. Charles,
+scarcely condescending to look at them, bade them begone: “If you are
+guilty, I shall know where to find you.” Collecting his suite together,
+the duke rode ostentatiously out of one of the gates, and stealthily
+re-entered by another, keeping himself ready for any emergency.
+
+The commotions in the city were but a faint copy of the tumults by
+which the bosom of the queen-mother was agitated. She had staked
+every thing upon the hazard of a throw. Nothing farther could be done
+without the king’s consent, and that must be obtained _per fas et
+nefas_. According to Anjou’s evidence, Charles retired into his
+cabinet after dinner, and, as the dinner-hour was eleven, the time
+must have been about midday. He was followed by his brother, the
+queen-mother, Nevers, Tavannes, Retz, and Birague. It was an ordinary
+council meeting, and they assembled to consult as to what should be
+done to preserve tranquillity. Catherine immediately began a long story
+about the Huguenots arming against the king on account of the admiral’s
+wound. “From letters that have been intercepted, I learn that they
+have sent into Germany for 10,000 reiters and to Switzerland for 6000
+foot. Many Huguenot officers have already started for the provinces to
+raise soldiers, and the mustering-places have been all arranged. Such
+a force as the Huguenots will soon have under arms, your majesty’s
+troops are not strong enough to resist. Before long the whole kingdom
+will be in revolt under the pretext of the public good, and, as your
+majesty has neither men nor money, I see no place of security for you
+in France.... Your majesty should also know that a still greater danger
+threatens your person. They have conspired to place Henry of Navarre
+on the throne.” The latter statement, although supported by Alva’s
+bulletin,[580] is unworthy of a moment’s credit. Margaret’s silence
+is conclusive evidence against it. The former statement is equally
+opposed to the truth. Walsingham writes that Montgomery paid him a
+visit between nine and ten on Friday night, and told him, “that as he
+and those of the Reform had just occasion to be right sorry for the
+admiral’s hurt, so had they _no less cause to rejoice to see the king
+so careful_ [anxious], as well for the curing of the admiral, as
+also for the searching out of the party that hurt him.”[581]
+
+The queen-mother continued: “There is another matter of great
+importance that ought not to be kept from you. The Catholics are
+thoroughly tired of the long wars, and of being crushed by all sorts of
+calamities, and they will endure it no longer. They will make an end of
+this state of things, once for all.”
+
+“What would they have?” interrupted Charles. “I am as weary of war as
+any of them, and as determined that my peace shall be kept. What better
+hope of success have they now than at Moncontour or Jarnac? I will hang
+the first man that draws a sword.”
+
+CATHERINE.--But your majesty has not the power; things are
+gone too far. They have resolved to elect a captain-general and make
+a league offensive and defensive against the Huguenots. Your majesty
+will thus stand alone, without power and authority. France will be
+divided into two great camps, over which you will have no control.
+There will be danger to all of us, and certain death and destruction to
+many thousands, all of which may be prevented by a single stroke of the
+sword.
+
+KING.--I do not understand you, _ma mère_; you speak in riddles.
+
+CATHERINE.--To speak plainly, then, we must cut off the head
+and author of the civil wars. M. de Chatillon must be disposed of.
+
+At these words the king burst into one of his fits of passion, which so
+alarmed the council that none of them ventured to interpose a word. The
+queen-mother allowed Charles to exhaust himself, and then resumed in
+her most insinuating manner: “The remedy, I confess, is desperate, but
+there is no other. The Huguenot plans, now ripe for execution, will die
+with their leader. The Catholics, satisfied by the sacrifice of two or
+three men, will remain obedient, and all will be well.”
+
+Other arguments were used, to which the king listened moodily, turning
+from one to another of his councilors, as if to ask whether his mother
+was speaking the truth. But their trained looks confirmed the cunning
+tale. Still he was not convinced, and once more giving way to a burst
+of passion, he swore he would not have M. de Chatillon touched: “Woe to
+any one who injures a hair of his head! He is the only true friend I
+have; all the rest are knaves, they are all sold to the Spaniard--all,
+except my brother of Navarre.”
+
+Still the queen-mother did not flinch; she had too much at stake. “Do
+what you will,” she appears to have said, “the attack on the admiral
+will be laid at our door, unless M. de Guise is punished, and he is too
+strong for us--at least in Paris. France will again be torn by civil
+war, and I see but one way of escape. If we must fight, let us strike
+the blow at once, while the enemy is still in Paris and unorganized.”
+And probably thinking of Alva’s advice nine years before, she added:
+“If we cut off the chiefs, the others are powerless. We must either
+have the Guises with us or against us. Our only safety is to call Duke
+Henry to our side, make him our tool, and ... (here she paused, as if
+to watch the effect of her words) ... and afterward ruin him forever by
+throwing all the blame upon him.” As Charles was still unmoved by such
+reasoning, and divided between love for Coligny and respect for his
+mother, he asked the advice of his council. They gave their opinions
+separately, and all agreed with Catherine, except De Retz, who, to
+their great astonishment, said: “No man can hate the admiral and his
+party more than I do; but I will not, at the expense of the king my
+master, avenge myself on my private enemies by a counsel so dangerous
+to him and to his kingdom, and so dishonorable to all. We shall be
+taxed with perfidy and disloyalty, and by one act shake all confidence
+in the faith and word of a king, and consequently of treating afterward
+for the pacification of the kingdom in the case of future wars. We
+shall be deceived if we think to escape foreign armies by such a
+treacherous act, and we shall never see the end of the calamity and
+ruin it would bring upon us.”[582] This answer quite staggered the
+queen-mother and her advisers; but as no one supported De Retz, his
+opinion had no weight, and that may be why he gave utterance to it.
+
+Still the king was not convinced: he sat moody and silent, biting his
+nails as was his wont. He would come to no decision. He asked for
+proofs, and none were forthcoming, except some idle gossip of the
+streets and the foolish threats of a few hot-headed Huguenots. Charles
+had learned to love the admiral: could he believe that the gentle
+Teligny and that Rochefoucault, the companion of his rough sports,
+were guilty of the meditated plot? He desired to be King of France--of
+Huguenots and Catholics alike--not king of a party. Catherine, in
+her despair, employed her last argument. She whispered in his ear:
+“Perhaps, Sire, you are afraid.” As if struck by an arrow, he started
+from his chair. Raving like a madman, he bade them hold their tongues,
+and with fearful oaths exclaimed, “Kill the admiral if you like,
+but kill all the Huguenots with him--all--all--all--so that not one
+be left to reproach me hereafter. See to it at once--at once; do you
+hear?”[583] And he dashed furiously out of the closet, leaving the
+conspirators aghast at his violence.
+
+But there was no time to be lost: the king might change his mind; the
+Huguenots might get wind of the plot. The murderous scheme must be
+carried out that very night, and accordingly the Duke of Guise was
+summoned to the Louvre. And now the different parts of the tragedy
+were arranged, Guise undertaking, on the strength of his popularity
+with the Parisian mob, to lead them to the work of blood. We may
+also imagine him begging as a favor the privilege of dispatching the
+admiral in retaliation for his father’s murder. The city was parted
+out into districts, each of which was assigned to some trusty officer,
+Marshal Tavannes having the general superintendence of the military
+arrangements. The conspirators now separated, intending to meet again
+at ten o’clock. Guise went into the city, where he communicated his
+plans to such of the mob-leaders as could be trusted. He told them
+of a bloody conspiracy among the Huguenot chiefs to destroy the king
+and royal family and extirpate Catholicism; that a renewal of war was
+inevitable, but it was better that war should come in the streets
+of Paris than in the open field, for the leaders would thus be far
+more effectually punished and their followers crushed. He affirmed
+that letters had been intercepted in which the admiral had sought the
+aid of German reiters and Swiss pikemen, and that Montmorency was
+approaching with 25,000 men to burn the city, as the Huguenots had
+often threatened. And, as if to give color to this idle story, a small
+body of cavalry had been seen from the walls in the early part of the
+day.
+
+Such arguments and such falsehoods were admirably adapted to his
+hearers, who swore to carry out the duke’s orders with secrecy and
+dispatch. “It is the will of our lord the king,” continued Henry of
+Guise, “that every good citizen should take up arms to purge the city
+of that rebel Coligny and his heretical followers. The signal will be
+given by the great bell of the Palace of Justice. Then let every true
+Catholic tie a white band on his arm and put a white cross on his cap,
+and begin the vengeance of God.” Finding upon inquiry that Le Charron,
+the provost of the merchants, was too weak and tender-hearted for
+the work before him, the duke suggested that the municipality should
+temporarily confer his power on the ex-provost Marcel, a man of a very
+different stamp.
+
+About four in the afternoon Anjou rode through the crowded streets
+in company with his bastard brother Angoulême. He watched the aspect
+of the populace, and let fall a few insidious expressions in no
+degree calculated to quiet the turbulent passions of the citizens.
+One account says he distributed money, which is not probable, his
+afternoon ride being merely a sort of reconnaissance. The journals of
+the Hotel-de-Ville still attest the anxiety of the court--of Catherine
+and her fellow-conspirators--that the massacre should be sweeping
+and complete. “Very late in the evening”--it must have been after
+dark, for the king went to lie down at eight, and did not rise until
+ten--the provost was sent for.[584] At the Louvre he found Charles, the
+queen-mother, and the Duke of Anjou, with other princes and nobles,
+among whom we may safely include Guise, Retz, and Tavannes. The king
+now repeated to him the story of a Huguenot plot, which had already
+been whispered abroad by Guise and Anjou, and bade him shut the gates
+of the city, so that no one could pass in or out, and take possession
+of the keys. He was also to draw up all the boats on the river-bank
+and chain them together, to remove the ferry, to muster under arms the
+able-bodied men of each ward under their proper officers, and hold them
+in readiness at the usual mustering-places to receive the orders of
+his majesty. The city artillery, which does not appear to have been so
+formidable as the word would imply, was to be stationed at the Grève to
+protect the Hotel-de-Ville, or for any other duty required of it. With
+these instructions the provost returned to the Hotel-de-Ville, where
+he spent great part of the night in preparing the necessary orders,
+which were issued “very early the next morning.”[585] There is reason
+for believing that these measures were simply precautions in case the
+Huguenots should resist, and a bloody struggle should have to be fought
+in the streets of the capital. The municipality certainly took no part
+in the earlier massacres, whatever they may have done later. Tavannes
+complains of the “want of zeal” in some of the citizens, and Brantome
+admits that “it was necessary to threaten to hang some of the laggards.”
+
+That evening the king had supped in public, and the hours being
+much earlier than with us, the time was probably between six and
+seven. The courtiers admitted to witness the meal appear to have
+been as numerous as ever, Huguenots as well as Catholics, victims
+and executioners. Charles, who retired before eight o’clock, kept
+Francis, Count of La Rochefoucault, with him for some time, as if
+unwilling to part with him. “Do not go,” he said; “it is late. We will
+sit and talk all night.” “Excuse me, Sire, I am tired and sleepy.”
+“You must stay; you can sleep with my valets.” But as Charles was
+rather too fond of rough practical jokes, the count still declined,
+and went away, suspecting no evil, to pay his usual evening visit
+to the dowager Princess of Condé. He must have remained some time in
+her apartments, for it was past twelve o’clock when he went to bid
+Navarre good-night. As he was leaving the palace, a man stopped him at
+the foot of the stairs, and whispered in his ear. When the stranger
+left, La Rochefoucault bade Mergey, one of his suite, to whom we are
+indebted for these particulars, return and tell Henry that Guise and
+Nevers were about the city. During Mergey’s brief absence, something
+more appears to have been told the count, for he returned up stairs
+with Nançay, captain of the guard, who, lifting the tapestry which
+closed the entrance to Navarre’s antechamber, looked for some time at
+the gentlemen within, some playing at cards or dice, others talking.
+At last he said: “Gentlemen, if any of you wish to retire, you must do
+so at once, for we are going to shut the gates.” No one moved, as it
+would appear, for at Charles’s express desire, it is said--which is
+scarcely probable--these Huguenot gentlemen had gathered round the King
+of Navarre to protect him against any outrage of the Guises.[586] In
+the court-yard Mergey found the guard under arms. “M. Rambouillet, who
+loved me (he continues) was sitting by the wicket, and as I passed out,
+he took my hand, and with a piteous look said: ‘Adieu, Mergey; adieu,
+my friend.’ Not daring to say more, as he told me afterward.”
+
+In the apartments of the queen-mother all was not equally calm.
+Margaret had no suspicion of the terrible tragedy that was preparing.
+“The Huguenots,” she writes in her _Memoirs_, “suspected me
+because I was a Catholic, and the Catholics doubted me, because I had
+married the King of Navarre: so that between them both I knew nothing
+of the coming enterprise.” She was sitting by her sister Claude, who
+appeared pensive and sorrowful, when her mother ordered her to retire
+to her own room. She rose, and was about to obey, when the Duchess of
+Lorraine caught her by the arm, exclaiming: “Sister, for the love of
+God, do not leave us.” Catherine sternly rebuked the duchess, and bade
+her be silent; but Claude, with true sisterly affection, would not let
+Margaret go. “It is a shame,” she said, “to send her to be sacrificed,
+for if any thing is discovered, they [meaning the Catholics] will be
+sure to avenge themselves upon her.” Still Catherine insisted: “No harm
+will befall the Queen of Navarre, and it is my pleasure that she retire
+to her own apartments, lest her absence should create suspicion.”
+Claude kissed her sister, and bade her good-night with tears in her
+eyes. “I departed, alarmed and amazed,” continues Margaret, “unable
+to discover what I had to dread.” She found her husband’s apartments
+filled with Huguenot gentlemen. “All night long,” says Margaret, “they
+continued talking of the accident that had befallen the admiral,
+declaring that they would go to the king as soon as it was light, and
+demand justice on the Duke of Guise, and if it were not granted, they
+would take it into their own hands.... I could not sleep for fear,” she
+continues; but when day-light came, and her husband had gone out with
+the Huguenot gentlemen to the tennis-court, to wait for his majesty’s
+rising, she fell off into a sound slumber.
+
+Coligny’s hotel had been crowded all day by visitors; the Queen of
+Navarre had paid him a visit, and most of the gentlemen in Paris,
+Catholic as well as Huguenot, had gone to express their sympathy. For
+the Frenchman is a gallant enemy, and respects brave men; and the foul
+attempt upon the admiral, whom they had so often encountered on the
+battle-field, was felt as a personal injury. A council had been held
+that day, at which the propriety of removing in a body from Paris and
+carrying the admiral with them, had again been discussed. Navarre and
+Condé opposed the proposition, and it was finally resolved to petition
+the king “to order all the Guisians out of Paris, because they had too
+much sway with the people of the town.” One Bouchavannes, a traitor,
+was among them, greedily listening to every word, which he reported
+to Anjou, strengthening him in his determination to make a clean sweep
+that very night.
+
+As the evening came on, the admiral’s visitors took their leave.
+Teligny, his son-in-law, was the last to quit his bedside. To the
+question whether the admiral would like any of them to keep watch
+in his house during the night, he answered, says the contemporary
+biographer, “that it was labor more than needed, and gave them thanks
+with very loving words.” It was after midnight when Teligny and Guerchy
+departed, leaving Ambrose Paré and Pastor Merlin[587] with the wounded
+man. There were besides in the house two of his gentlemen, Cornaton
+(afterward his biographer) and La Bonne; his squire Yolet, five
+Switzers belonging to the King of Navarre’s guard, and about as many
+domestic servants. It was the last night on earth for all except two of
+that household.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XIII.
+
+                        THE FESTIVAL OF BLOOD.
+
+                     [August and September, 1572.]
+
+   The Huguenot Gentleman Killed--Midnight at the Louvre--Charles
+   still hesitates--The Conspirators at the window--The
+   pistol-shot--Guise recalled too late--Scene at Coligny’s
+   Hotel--The assault and murder--Indignities--Montfauçon--Scene at
+   the Louvre--Queen Margaret’s alarm--Proclamations--Salviati’s
+   letter--List of Atrocities--Death of Ramus and La
+   Place--Charles fires upon the Fugitives--Escape of Montgomery,
+   Sully, Duplessis-Mornay, Caumont--The Miracle of the White
+   Thorn--Charles conscience-stricken--Thanksgiving and
+   Justification--Execution of Briquemaut and Cavaignes--Abjuration
+   of Henry and Condé.
+
+
+It is strange that the arrangements in the city, which must have been
+attended with no little commotion, did not rouse the suspicion of the
+Huguenots. Probably, in their blind confidence, they trusted implicitly
+in the king’s word that these movements of arms and artillery, these
+postings of guards and midnight musters, were intended to keep the
+Guisian faction in order. There is a story that some gentlemen, aroused
+by the measured tread of soldiers and the glare of torches--for no
+lamps then lit up the streets of Paris--went out-of-doors and asked
+what it meant. Receiving an unsatisfactory reply, they proceeded to
+the Louvre, where they found the outer court filled with armed men,
+who, seeing them without the white cross and the scarf, abused them
+as “accursed Huguenots,” whose turn would come next. One of them, who
+replied to this insolent threat, was immediately run through with a
+spear. This, if the incident be true, occurred about one o’clock on
+Sunday morning, 24th August, the festival of St. Bartholomew.
+
+Shortly after midnight the queen-mother rose and went to the king’s
+chamber,[588] attended only by one lady, the Duchess of Nemours, whose
+thirst for revenge was to be satisfied at last.[589] She found Charles
+pacing the room in one of those fits of passion which he at times
+assumed to conceal his infirmity of purpose. At one moment he swore he
+would raise the Huguenots, and call them to protect their sovereign’s
+life as well as their own. Then he burst out into violent imprecations
+against his brother Anjou, who had entered the room but did not dare
+say a word. Presently the other conspirators arrived: Guise, Nevers,
+Birague, De Retz, and Tavannes. Catherine alone ventured to interpose,
+and in a tone of sternness well calculated to impress the mind of her
+weak son, she declared that there was now no turning back: “It is too
+late to retreat, even were it possible. We must cut off the rotten
+limb, hurt it ever so much. If you delay, you will lose the finest
+opportunity God ever gave man of getting rid of his enemies at a blow.”
+And then, as if struck with compassion for the fate of her victims, she
+repeated in a low tone--as if talking to herself--the words of a famous
+Italian preacher, which she had often been heard to quote before: “É
+la pietà lor ser crudele, e la crudeltà lor ser pietosa” (Mercy would
+be cruel to them, and cruelty merciful). Catherine’s resolution again
+prevailed over the king’s weakness, and the final orders being given,
+the Duke of Guise quitted the Louvre, followed by two companies of
+arquebusiers and the whole of Anjou’s guard.
+
+As soon as Guise had left, the chief criminals--each afraid to lose
+sight of the other, each needing the presence of the other to keep his
+courage up--went to a room adjoining the tennis-court overlooking the
+Place Bassecour.[590] Of all the party, Charles, Catherine, Anjou, and
+De Retz, Charles was the least guilty and the most to be pitied. They
+went to the window, anxiously listening for the signal that the work
+of death had begun. Their consciences, no less than their impatience,
+made it impossible for them to sit calmly within the palace. Anjou’s
+narrative continues: “While we were pondering over the events and
+the consequences of such a mighty enterprise, of which (to tell the
+truth) we had not thought much until then, we heard a pistol-shot. The
+sound produced such an effect upon all three of us, that it confounded
+our senses and deprived us of judgment. We were smitten with terror
+and apprehension of the great disorders about to be perpetrated.”
+Catherine, who was a timid woman (adds Tavannes), would willingly
+have recalled her orders, and with that intent hastily dispatched a
+gentleman to the Duke of Guise, expressly desiring him to return and
+attempt nothing against the admiral.[591] “It is too late,” was the
+answer brought back: “the admiral is dead”--a statement at variance
+with other accounts. “Thereupon,” continues Anjou, “we returned to our
+former deliberations, and let things take their course.”
+
+Between three and four o’clock in the morning, the noise of horses and
+the measured tramp of foot-soldiers broke the silence of the narrow
+street in which Coligny lay wounded. It was the murderers seeking
+their victim: they were Henry of Guise with his uncle the Duke of
+Aumale, the Bastard of Angoulême, and the Duke of Nevers, with other
+foreigners, Italian and Swiss, namely, Fesinghi (or Tosinghi) and
+his nephew Antonio, Captain Petrucci, Captain Studer of Winkelbach
+with his soldiers, Martin Koch of Freyberg, Conrad Burg,[592] Leonard
+Grunenfelder of Glaris, and Carl Dianowitz, surnamed Behm (the
+Bohemian?). There were besides one Captain Attin, in the household of
+Aumale, and Sarlabous, a renegade Huguenot and commandant of Havre.
+It is well to record the names even of these obscure individuals who
+stained their hands in the best blood of France. De Cosseins, too, was
+there with his guard, some of whom he posted with their arquebuses
+opposite the windows of Coligny’s hotel, that none might escape.
+
+Presently there was a loud knock at the outer gate: “Open in the king’s
+name.” La Bonne, imagining it to be a message from the Louvre, hastened
+with the keys, withdrew the bolt, and was immediately butchered by
+the assassins who rushed into the house. The alarmed domestics ran
+half awake to see what was the uproar: some were killed outright,
+others escaped up stairs, closing the door at the foot and placing
+some furniture against it. This feeble barrier was soon broken down,
+and the Swiss who had attempted to resist were shot. The tumult woke
+Coligny from his slumbers, and divining what it meant--that Guise had
+made an attack on the house--he was lifted from his bed, and folding
+his robe-de-chambre round him, sat down prepared to meet his fate.[593]
+Cornaton entering the room at this moment, Ambrose Paré asked him
+what was the meaning of the noise. Turning to his beloved master, he
+replied: “Sir, it is God calling us to himself. They have broken into
+the house, and we can do nothing.” “I have been long prepared to die,”
+said the admiral. “But you must all flee for your lives, if it be not
+too late; you can not save me. I commit my soul to God’s mercy.” They
+obeyed him, but only two succeeded in making their way over the roofs.
+Pastor Merlin lay hid for three days in a loft, where he was fed by a
+hen, who every morning laid an egg within his reach.[594]
+
+Paré and Coligny were left alone--Coligny looking as calm and collected
+as if no danger impended. After a brief interval of suspense the door
+was dashed open, and Cosseins, wearing a corslet and brandishing a
+bloody sword in his hand, entered the room, followed by Behm, Sarlabous
+and others, a party of Anjou’s Swiss guard, in their tricolored
+uniform of black, white, and green, keeping in the rear. Expecting
+resistance, the ruffians were for a moment staggered at seeing only two
+unarmed men. But his brutal instincts rapidly regaining the mastery,
+Behm stepped forward, and pointing his sword at Coligny’s breast,
+asked: “Are you not the admiral?” He replied: “I am; but, young man,
+you should respect my grey hairs,[595] and not attack a wounded man.
+Yet what matters it? You can not shorten my life except by God’s
+permission.” The German soldier, uttering a blasphemous oath, plunged
+his sword into the admiral’s breast.
+
+        Jugulumque parans, immota tenebat
+    Ora senex.[596]
+
+Others in the room struck him also, Behm repeating his blows until
+the admiral fell on the floor. The murderer now ran to the window
+and shouted into the court-yard: “It is all over.” Henry of Guise,
+who had been impatiently ordering his creatures to make haste, was
+not satisfied. “Monsieur d’Angoulême will not believe it unless he
+sees him,” returned the duke.[597] Behm raised the body from the
+ground, and dragged it to the window to throw it out; but life was
+not quite extinct, and the admiral placed his foot against the wall,
+faintly resisting the attempt.[598] “Is it so, old fox?” exclaimed
+the murderer, who drew his dagger and stabbed him several times. Then
+assisted by Sarlabous, he threw the body down. It was hardly to be
+recognized. The Bastard of Angoulême--the chevalier as he is called in
+some of the narratives--wiped the blood from the face of the corpse.
+“Yes, it is he; I know him well,” said Guise, kicking the body as he
+spoke.[599] “Well done, my men,” he continued, “we have made a good
+beginning. Forward--by the king’s command.” He mounted his horse and
+rode out of the court-yard, followed by Nevers, who cynically exclaimed
+as he looked at the body: _Sic transit gloria mundi_. Tosinghi
+took the chain of gold--the insignia of his office--from the admiral’s
+neck, and Petrucci, a gentleman in the train of the Duke of Nevers, cut
+off the head and carried it away carefully to the Louvre.[600] Of all
+who were found in the house, not one was spared, except Ambrose Paré,
+who was escorted in safety to the palace by a detachment of Anjou’s
+guard.[601]
+
+Thus died, in the fifty-sixth year of his age,[602] one of the noblest
+men of whom France, so rich in great men, can boast. His character has
+been described in his actions. In stature he was of middle height, of
+ruddy complexion, and well proportioned. His countenance was serene,
+his voice soft and pleasant, but his utterance was rather slow. His
+habits were temperate: he drank but little wine, and ate sparingly.
+He had been blessed with five children: Louisa, who married Teligny,
+and afterward William of Orange, ancestor of our William III.; Francis
+and Odet, who escaped the massacre; Charles, who fell a victim in
+the general massacre; his other son had died in battle. A posthumous
+daughter was born to him, of whose fate nothing is known.
+
+Le Laboureur, a Catholic priest, says of Coligny: “He was one of the
+greatest men France ever produced, and I venture to say farther,
+one of the most attached to his country.” The papal legate Santa
+Croce describes him as “remarkable for his prudence and coolness.
+His manners were severe; he always appeared serious and absorbed in
+his meditations. His eloquence was weighty. He was skilled in Latin
+and divinity, and he grew in people’s love the more they knew his
+frankness and devotedness to his friends.” He never told a lie (minime
+mentiretur); but then, adds the legate, “he had no pretensions to
+refined manners, and always kept a straw in his mouth to clean his
+teeth with.”[603]
+
+    Il est mort toutefois, non au combat vaincu,
+    Non en guerre surprins, non par ruze déceu,
+      Non pour avoir trahi son roy où sa province;
+    Mais bien pour aymer trop le repos des Françoys,
+    Servir Dieu purement, et révérer ses loix,
+      Et pour s’estre fié de la foy de son Prince.[604]
+
+Coligny’s headless trunk was left for some hours where it fell, until
+it became the sport of rabble children, who dragged it all round
+Paris. They tried to burn it, but did little more than scorch and
+blacken the remains, which were first thrown into the river, and then
+taken out again “as unworthy to be food for fish,” says Claude Haton.
+In accordance with the old sentence of the Paris Parliament, it was
+dragged by the hangman to the common gallows at Montfauçon,[605] and
+there hung up by the heels.[606] All the court went to gratify their
+eyes with the sight, and Charles, unconsciously imitating the language
+of Vitellius,[607] said, as he drew near the offensive corpse, “The
+smell of a dead enemy is always sweet.”[608] The body was left hanging
+for a fortnight, or more, after which it was privily taken down by
+the admiral’s cousin, Marshal Montmorency, and it now rests, after
+many removals, in a wall among the ruins of his hereditary castle
+of Chatillon-sur-Loing. What became of the head no one knows. It was
+intended to be sent to Rome as a peace-offering to the pope; but it
+probably never got farther than Lyons, Mandelot, the governor of that
+city, having received orders to stop the messenger--one of Guise’s
+servants--and take it away. What can have been the king’s object? Was
+he conscience-stricken, and did he repent of the foul indignities
+offered to the man for whom he had once professed such love? Or was
+he jealous of the credit Duke Henry might acquire by laying the
+arch-Huguenot’s head at the feet of the holy father? All that appears
+certain is--that the head never reached Rome. The Abbé Caveyrac states
+that he saw fragments of a skull in a coffin at Chatillon containing
+the admiral’s remains; but, accepting the abbé’s testimony as to what
+he saw, it by no means follows that the bones were a part of Coligny’s
+head.
+
+When Guise left the admiral’s corpse lying in the court-yard, he went
+to the adjoining house in which Teligny lived. All the inmates were
+killed, but he escaped by the roof. Twice he fell into the hands of the
+enemy, and twice he was spared; he perished at last by the sword of a
+man who knew not his amiable inoffensive character.[609] His neighbor
+La Rochefoucault was perhaps more fortunate in his fate. He had hardly
+fallen asleep, when he was disturbed by the noise in the street. He
+heard shouts and the sound of many footsteps; and scarcely awake and
+utterly unsuspicious, he went to his bedroom door at the first summons
+in the king’s name. He seems to have thought that Charles, indulging
+in one of his usual mad frolics, had come to punish him, as he had
+punished others, like school-boys. He opened the door and fell dead
+across the threshold, pierced by a dozen weapons.
+
+When the messenger returned from the Duke of Guise with the answer that
+it was “too late,” Catherine, fearing that such disobedience to the
+royal commands might incense the king and awaken him to a sense of all
+the horrors that were about to be perpetrated in his name, privately
+gave orders to anticipate the hour.[610] Instead of waiting until the
+matin-bell should ring out from the old clock-tower of the Palace of
+Justice, she directed the signal to be given from the nearer belfry of
+St. Germain l’Auxerrois.[611] As the harsh sound rang through the air
+of that warm summer night,[612] it was caught up and echoed from tower
+to tower, rousing all Paris from their slumbers.
+
+Immediately from every quarter of that ancient city uprose a tumult as
+of hell. The clanging bells, the crashing doors, the musket-shots, the
+rush of armed men, the shrieks of their victims, and high over all the
+yells of the mob, fiercer and more pitiless than hungry wolves--made
+such an uproar that the stoutest hearts shrank appalled, and the sanest
+appear to have lost their reason.[613] Women unsexed, men wanting every
+thing but the strength of the wild beast, children without a single
+charm of youth or innocence, crowded the streets where the rising day
+still struggled with the glare of a thousand torches.[614] They smelled
+the odor of blood, and thirsting to indulge their passions for once
+with impunity, committed horrors that have become the marvel of history.
+
+Within the walls of the Louvre, within the hearing of Charles and his
+mother, if not actually within their sight, one of the foulest scenes
+of this detestable tragedy was enacted. At day-break, says Queen
+Margaret of Navarre,[615] her husband rose to go and play at tennis,
+with a determination to be present at the king’s _lever_, and
+demand justice for the assault on the admiral. He left his apartment,
+accompanied by the Huguenot gentlemen who had kept watch around him
+during the night. At the foot of the stairs he was arrested,[616] while
+the gentlemen with him were disarmed, apparently without any attempt
+at resistance. A list of them had been carefully drawn up, which the
+Sire d’O, quarter-master of the Guards, read out. As each man answered
+to his name, he stepped into the court-yard, where he had to make his
+way through a double line of Swiss mercenaries. Sword, spear, and
+halberd made short work of them, and two hundred[617] (according to
+Davila) of the best blood of France soon lay a ghastly pile beneath the
+windows of the palace[618] Charles (it is said) looked on coldly at the
+horrid deed,[619] the victims appealing in vain to his mercy. Among
+the gentlemen they murdered were the two who had been boldest in their
+language to the king not many hours before: Segur, Baron of Pardaillan,
+and Armand de Clermont, Baron of Pilles, who with stentorian voices
+called upon the king to be true to his word. De Pilles took off his
+rich cloak and offered it to some one whom he recognized: “Here is a
+present from the hand of De Pilles, basely and traitorously murdered.”
+“I am not the man you take me for,” said the other, refusing the
+cloak.[620] The Swiss plundered their victims as they fell; and
+pointing to the heap of half-naked bodies, described them to the
+spectators as the men who had conspired to kill the king and all the
+royal family in their sleep, and make France a republic.[621] But more
+disgraceful even than this massacre was the conduct of some of the
+ladies in Catherine’s train, of her “flying squadron,” who, later in
+the day, inspected and laughed[622] at the corpses as they lay stripped
+in the court-yard, being especially curious about the body of Soubise,
+from whom his wife had sought to be divorced on the ground of nullity
+of marriage.
+
+A few gentlemen succeeded in escaping from this slaughter. Margaret,
+“seeing it was day-light,” and imagining the danger past of which
+her sister had told her, fell asleep. But her slumbers were soon
+rudely broken. “An hour later,” she continues, “I was awoke by a man
+knocking at the door and calling, _Navarre! Navarre!_ The nurse,
+thinking it was my husband, ran and opened it. It was a gentleman
+named Léran,[623] who had received a sword-cut in the elbow and a
+spear-thrust in the arm; four soldiers were pursuing him, and they all
+rushed into my chamber after him. Wishing to save his life, he threw
+himself upon my bed. Finding myself clasped in his arms, I got out on
+the other side, he followed me, still clinging to me. I did not know
+the man, and could not tell whether he came to insult me, or whether
+the soldiers were after him or me. We both shouted out, being equally
+frightened. At last, by God’s mercy, Captain de Nançay of the Guards
+came in, and seeing me in this condition, could not help laughing,
+although commiserating me. Severely reprimanding the soldiers for
+their indiscretion, he turned them out of the room, and granted me the
+life of the poor man who still clung to me. I made him lie down and
+had his wounds dressed in my closet, until he was quite cured. While
+changing my night-dress, which was all covered with blood, the captain
+told me what had happened, and assured me that my husband was with
+the king and quite unharmed. He then conducted me to the room of my
+sister of Lorraine, which I reached more dead than alive. As I entered
+the anteroom, the doors of which were open, a gentleman named Bourse,
+running from the soldiers who pursued him, was pierced by a halberd
+three paces from me. I fell almost fainting into Captain de Nançay’s
+arms, imagining the same thrust had pierced us both. Being somewhat
+recovered, I entered the little room where my sister slept. While
+there, M. de Miossans, my husband’s first gentleman, and Armagnac, his
+first valet-de-chambre, came and begged me to save their lives. I went
+and threw myself at the feet of the king and the queen my mother to ask
+the favor, which at last they granted me.”
+
+When Captain de Nançay arrived so opportunely, he was leaving the
+king’s chamber, whither he had conducted Henry of Navarre and the
+Prince of Condé. The tumult and excitement had worked Charles up to
+such a pitch of fury, that the lives of the princes were hardly safe.
+But they were gentlemen, and their first words were to reproach the
+king for his breach of faith. Charles bade them be silent: “_Messe
+ou mort_,”--Apostatize or die. Henry demanded time to consider;
+while the prince boldly declared that he would not change his religion:
+“With God’s help it is my intention to remain firm in my profession.”
+Charles, exasperated still more by this opposition to his will, angrily
+walked up and down the room, and swore that if they did not change in
+three days he would have their heads. They were then dismissed, but
+kept close prisoners within the palace.[624]
+
+The houses in which the Huguenots lodged having been registered, were
+easily known. The soldiers burst into them, killing all they found,
+without regard to age or sex, and if any escaped to the roof they were
+shot down like pigeons. Day-light served to facilitate a work that was
+too foul even for the blackest midnight. Restraint of every kind was
+thrown aside, and while the men were the victims of bigoted fury, the
+women were exposed to violence unutterable. As if the popular frenzy
+needed excitement, Marshal Tavannes, the military director of this deed
+of treachery, rode through the streets with dripping sword, shouting:
+“Kill! kill! blood-letting is as good in August as in May.”[625] One
+would charitably hope that this was the language of excitement, and
+that in his calmer moods he would have repented of his share in the
+massacre. But he was consistent to the last. On his death-bed, he made
+a general confession of his sins, in which he did not mention the
+day of St. Bartholomew; and when his son expressed surprise at the
+omission, he observed: “I look upon that as a meritorious action, which
+ought to atone for all the sins of my life.”
+
+The massacre soon exceeded the bounds upon which Charles and his mother
+had calculated. They were willing enough that the Huguenots should
+be murdered, but the murderers might not always be able to draw the
+line between orthodoxy and heresy. Things were fast getting beyond
+all control; the thirst for plunder was even keener than the thirst
+for blood. And it is certain that among the many ignoble motives by
+which Charles was induced to permit the massacre, was the hope of
+enriching himself and paying his debts out of the property of the
+murdered Huguenots. Nor were Anjou and others insensible to the charms
+of heretical property. Hence we find the Provost of Paris remonstrating
+with the king about “the pillaging of houses and the murders in the
+streets by the guards and others in the service of his majesty and the
+princes.” Charles, in reply, bade the magistrates “mount their horses,
+and with all the force of the city put an end to such irregularities,
+and remain on watch day and night.” Another proclamation, countersigned
+by Nevers, was issued about five in the afternoon, commanding the
+people to lay down the arms which they had taken up “that day by the
+king’s orders,” and to leave the streets to the soldiers only--as if
+implying that they alone were to kill and plunder.[626]
+
+The massacre, commenced on Sunday, was continued through that and the
+two following days. Capilupi tells us, with wonderful simplicity, “that
+it was a holiday, and therefore the people could more conveniently
+find leisure to kill and plunder.” It is impossible to assign to each
+day its task of blood: in all but a few exceptional cases, we know
+merely that the victims perished in the general slaughter. Writing in
+the midst of the carnage, probably not later than noon of the 24th,
+the nuncio Salviati says: “The whole city is in arms; the houses of
+the Huguenots have been forced with great loss of lives, and sacked by
+the populace with incredible avidity. Many a man to-night will have
+his horses and his carriage, and will eat and drink off plate, who had
+never dreamt of it in his life before. In order that matters may not
+go too far, and to prevent the revolting disorders occasioned by the
+insolence of the mob, a proclamation has just been issued, declaring
+that _there shall be three hours in the day during which it shall
+be unlawful to rob and kill_; and the order is observed, though
+not universally. You can see nothing in the streets but white crosses
+in the hats and caps of every one you meet, which has a fine effect!”
+The nuncio says nothing of the streets encumbered with heaps of naked
+bleeding corpses, nothing of the cart-loads of bodies conveyed to the
+Seine, and then flung into the river, “so that not only were all the
+waters in it turned to blood,” but so many corpses grounded on the
+bank of the little island of the Louvre, that the air became infected
+with the smell of corruption.[627] The living, tied hand and foot,
+were thrown off the bridges. One man--probably a rag-gatherer--brought
+two little children in his creel, and tossed them into the water as
+carelessly as if they had been blind kittens. An infant, as yet unable
+to walk, had a cord tied round its neck, and was dragged through the
+streets by a troop of children nine or ten years old. Another played
+with the beard and smiled in the face of the man who carried him; but
+the innocent caress exasperated instead of softening the ruffian, who
+stabbed the child, and with an oath threw it into the Seine. Among the
+earliest victims was the wife of the king’s plumassier. The murderers
+broke into her house on the Notre Dame bridge, about four in the
+morning, stabbed her, and flung her still breathing into the river. She
+clung for some time to the wooden piles of the bridge, and was killed
+at last with stones, her body remaining for four days entangled by her
+long hair among the wood-work. The story goes that her husband’s corpse
+being thrown over fell against hers and set it free, both floating
+away together down the stream. Madeleine Briçonnet, widow of Theobald
+of Yverni, disguised herself as a woman of the people, so that she
+might save her life, but was betrayed by the fine petticoat which hung
+below her coarse gown. As she would not recant, she was allowed a few
+moments’ prayer, and then tossed into the water. Her son-in-law, the
+Marquis of Renel, escaping in his shirt, was chased by the murderers
+to the bank of the river, where he succeeded in unfastening a boat.
+He would have got away altogether but for his cousin Bussy d’Amboise,
+who shot him down with a pistol.[628] One Keny, who had been stabbed
+and flung into the Seine, was revived by the reaction of the cold
+water. Feeble as he was he swam to a boat and clung to it, but was
+quickly pursued. One hand was soon cut off with a hatchet, and as he
+still continued to steer the boat down stream, he was “quieted” by a
+musket-shot. One Puviaut or Pluviaut, who met with a similar fate,
+became the subject of a ballad.[629]
+
+Captain Moneins had been put into a safe hiding-place by his friend
+Fervacques, who went and begged the king to spare the life of the
+fugitive. Charles not only refused, but ordered him to kill Moneins if
+he desired to save his own life. Fervacques would not stain his own
+hands, but made his friend’s hiding-place known.
+
+Brion, governor of the Marquis of Conti, the Prince of Condé’s brother,
+snatched the child from his bed, and without stopping to dress him,
+was hurrying away to a place of safety, when the boy was torn from his
+arms, and he himself murdered before the eyes of his pupil. We are told
+that the child “cried and begged they would save his tutor’s life.”
+
+The houses on the bridge of Notre Dame, inhabited principally by
+Protestants, were witnesses to many a scene of cruelty. All the inmates
+of one house were massacred, except a little girl, who was dipped,
+stark naked, in the blood of her father and mother, and threatened to
+be served like them if she turned Huguenot. The Protestant book-sellers
+and printers were particularly sought after. Spire Niquet was burned
+over a slow fire made out of his own books, and thrown lifeless,
+but not dead, into the river. Oudin Petit[630] fell a victim to the
+covetousness of his son-in-law, who was a Catholic book-seller. René
+Bianchi, the queen’s perfumer, is reported to have killed with his
+own hands a young man, a cripple, who had already displayed much
+skill in goldsmith’s work. This is the only man whose death the
+king lamented, “because of his excellent workmanship, for his shop
+was entirely stripped.” One woman was betrayed by her own daughter.
+Another, whose twenty-first pregnancy was approaching its term, was
+exposed to tortures unutterable. Another pregnant woman was drowned,
+after she had been compelled to walk over the face of her husband.
+Another woman, in a similar state, was shot as she tried to escape by
+the roof of her house, and the immature fruit of her womb was dashed
+against the wall. Frances Baillet, wife of the queen’s goldsmith, after
+seeing her husband and her son murdered, leaped out of the window,
+and broke both her legs by falling into the court beneath. A neighbor
+had compassion on her, and hid her in his cellar; but being “less
+brave than tender-hearted,” he was frightened by the threats of the
+assassins, and gave up the poor woman to them. The brutes dragged her
+through the streets by the hair, and in order to get easily at her gold
+bracelets, they chopped off both her hands, and left her all bleeding
+at the door of a cook-shop. The cook, annoyed by her groans, ran a
+spit into her body and left it there. Some hours later, her mutilated
+remains were thrown into the river, and dogs gnawed her hands which
+had been left in the street. In the list of victims we find the name
+of Gastine--a widow, and mother of two young children. Hers had been
+a life of suffering: her husband, father-in-law, and uncle had been
+hanged; one relative banished, another sent to the galleys, their goods
+confiscated, and their house leveled to the ground.[631]
+
+Few of the Huguenots attempted any resistance, though many of them
+were veteran soldiers. Had they done so, the whole body might have
+found time to rally. As it was, they were equally unable to defend
+themselves or to fly: their faculties seemed benumbed. Agrippa
+d’Aubigné gives a curious instance of the panic felt by the Huguenots.
+He was riding along the high-road several days after the massacre,
+accompanied by fourscore soldiers, among whom were some of the most
+daring in France, when a man shouted out: “There they are,” and
+immediately they galloped off, as fast as their horses could carry
+them. The next day half of the same panic-stricken men routed 600
+Catholics. In the memoirs of Gamon we read that the Huguenots of
+Annonay (Ardèche) were so terrified by the massacre, that at the least
+noise or movement among the Catholics they would run away, though no
+one pursued them.
+
+Three men only in Paris are recorded as having fought for their
+lives. Taverny, a lieutenant of Maréchaussée, stood a regular siege
+in his house. For eight or nine hours he and one servant kept the mob
+at bay, and when his leaden bullets were exhausted, he used pellets
+of pitch.[632] As soon as these were spent, he rushed out, and was
+overwhelmed by numbers. His wife was taken to prison; but his invalid
+sister was dragged naked through the streets, until death ended her
+suffering and her ignominy. Guerchy also struggled unsuccessfully for
+his life, his only weapon being a dagger against men protected with
+cuirasses. Soubise also fought like a hero--one against a host--and
+died beneath the windows of the queen’s apartments, among the earliest
+of the victims.
+
+Jean Goujon, the sculptor, was killed while at work. Another victim,
+less widely known except among scholars, was Peter Ramus. He was a man
+of poor parentage: his grandfather had been a charcoal-burner, and his
+father a ploughman. By day he worked with his hands, and studied by
+night, rising by degrees to be professor of philosophy and eloquence
+at the College of Presle.[633] He made many enemies by attacking the
+authority of Aristotle, and more than once had to fly for his life.
+During the horrors of the massacre he had hidden himself in a cellar,
+where he was discovered by the assassins whom his rival Charpentier
+had sent to murder him. He was robbed of his little wealth, and then
+thrown from a window. Some of the youths of the university, urged by
+other tutors, dragged his body through the streets, inflicting on it
+various indignities.[634] A surgeon passing by cut off the head and
+carried it away, while the trunk was tossed into the river. Gilbert
+Genebrad, Archbishop of Aix, speaking of the “guilty victims” of the
+St. Bartholomew, declares Ramus to have been “justly punished for his
+turbulence and folly, which dared attack languages, arts, science,
+and even theology.”[635] Charpentier exults over his death as “making
+ample atonement to us or rather to the republic.”[636] Lambin, a rigid
+Catholic and “royal reader,” was so horror-stricken on being told of
+the murder, that he could not survive it.
+
+Another distinguished victim was Pierre de la Place, president of the
+Court of Aids. He lived in an isolated house at the extreme border of
+the Marais, and the first news he had of the massacre was from one
+Captain Michel, who with arquebuse on his shoulder, white ribbon on
+his left arm, and pistol at his belt, entered the library at six in
+the morning and said: “M. de Guise has just killed the admiral by the
+king’s order. All the Huguenots, of whatever rank or station, are
+destined to die. I have come hither expressly to save you from this
+calamity; but you must show me what gold and silver you have in the
+house.” “Where do you think you are?” returned La Place. “Have we no
+longer a king?” Michel answered with an oath: “Come with me and speak
+to the king, that you may know his pleasure.” La Place did not follow
+his advice, but made his escape by the back door; while Michel, for a
+consideration of 1000 crowns, put the president’s wife and children
+in safety with a Catholic family. La Place had not benefited by his
+escape; he had wandered up and down, but could find no asylum; all
+doors were closed against him, and he was glad at last to return home.
+His wife, a lady adorned with every grace of mind and person, had
+returned before him, hoping to find him, and resolved (now that her
+children were in safety) to stay at the head of her little household.
+In the evening--for it was Sunday--the servants and relations assembled
+for divine worship. After reading and commenting on a chapter of Job,
+La Place prayed and prepared his little congregation for the worst.
+“Let us learn (he said) how to conduct ourselves firmly and temperately
+in this condition of trial. Let us show that God’s word has been
+copiously poured into our souls.” He had not ended his exhortation when
+he was told that Provost Senescay was at the door with archers sent to
+protect him and escort him to the Louvre. He feared to go, the danger
+was too great, but eight men were left with him to garrison the house.
+On Monday Senescay returned with express orders to take him to the
+king. His wife, suspecting treachery, fell at his knees and prayed to
+accompany her husband. Raising her up, he said cheerfully: “My dear,
+we must not have recourse to the arm of man, but to God alone.” Seeing
+his son with a paper cross in his hat, which had been put there as a
+precaution, he added: “Take it out, my child, take out that mark of
+sedition; the true cross which you must now wear is the affliction
+which God sends as a sure earnest of life eternal.” The president then
+took up his cloak, embraced his wife, and bidding her have the honor
+and fear of God before her eyes, departed in a cheerful humor. He was
+escorted by twelve armed archers, but at the corner of the street was
+stopped by four men with daggers. The escort made no resistance, and La
+Place fell to the ground, stabbed through the heart.[637] His body was
+taken to a stable at the Hotel-de-Ville, whence it was afterward thrown
+into the Seine, and his house was pillaged. He was probably a victim of
+private vengeance, murdered by the hirelings of Stephen de Neuilly, who
+succeeded to his various charges.
+
+Mezeray writes that 700 or 800 people had taken refuge in the
+prisons, hoping they would be safe “under the wings of justice;” but
+the officers selected for this work had them brought out into the
+fitly-named “Valley of Misery,”[638] and there beat them to death
+with clubs and threw their bodies into the river.[639] The Venetian
+embassador corroborates this story, adding that they were murdered in
+batches of ten. Where all were cruel, some few persons distinguished
+themselves by especial ferocity. A gold-beater, named Crozier, one of
+those prison-murderers, bared his sinewy arm and boasted of having
+killed 4000 persons with his own hands.[640] Another man--for the sake
+of human nature we would fain hope him to be the same--affirmed that
+unaided he had “dispatched” 80 Huguenots in one day. He would eat his
+food with hands dripping with gore, declaring “that it was an honor
+to him, because it was the blood of heretics.” On Tuesday a butcher,
+Crozier’s comrade, boasted to the king that he had killed 150 the night
+before. Coconnas, one of the _mignons_ of Anjou, prided himself on
+having ransomed from the populace as many as thirty Huguenots, for the
+pleasure of making them abjure and then killing them with his own hand,
+after he had “secured them for hell.”[641]
+
+About seven o’clock the king was at one of the windows of his palace,
+enjoying the air of that beautiful August morning, when he was startled
+by shouts of “Kill! kill.” They were raised by a body of 200 Guards,
+who were firing with much more noise than execution at a number of
+Huguenots who had crossed the river: “to seek the king’s protection,”
+says one account: “to help the king against the Guises,” says another.
+Charles, who had just been telling his mother that “the weather seemed
+to rejoice at the slaughter of the Huguenots,”[642] felt all his savage
+instincts kindle at the sight. He had hunted wild beasts, now he would
+hunt men: and calling for an arquebuse, he fired at the fugitives, who
+were fortunately out of range. Some modern writers deny this fact,
+on the ground that the _balcony_ from which Charles is said to
+have fired was not built until after 1572. Were this true, it would
+only show that tradition had misplaced the locality. Brantome[643]
+expressly says the king fired on the Huguenots--not from a balcony,
+but “from his bedroom window.” Marshal Tesse heard the story (according
+to Voltaire) from the man who loaded the arquebuse. Henault, in
+his “Abrégé Chronologique,” mentions it with a “dit-on,” and it is
+significant that the passage is suppressed in the Latin editions.
+Simon Goulart, in his contemporary narrative,[644] uses the same words
+of caution. In Barbier’s “Journal” we read of the destruction of the
+former Garde Meuble in the Rue des Poulies on the quay, in which there
+was a balcony whence the king fired. Agrippa d’Aubigné speaks in his
+“Universal History” of letters written by the same hand “with which
+he brought down the fugitives.”[645] As for the date of the building,
+the king’s bed-chamber in the south-west pavilion of the Louvre
+(not the balcony) was completed in 1556, and so far as regards the
+pavilion itself, it is represented in the “Bastiments de France” of
+Androuet de Cerceau, published in 1576. Now if any one will consider
+the time it must necessarily have taken to get up such a work as the
+“Bastiments”--a conscientious undertaking of great labor--he can not
+but come to the conclusion that the pavilion was in existence four
+years earlier.[646] There is no good reason, therefore, to regard this
+story of the king’s ferocity as unhistoric.
+
+Not many of the Huguenot gentlemen escaped from the toils so skillfully
+drawn around them on that fatal Saturday night: yet there were a few.
+The Count of Montgomery--the same who was the innocent cause of the
+death of Henry II.--got safe away, having been forewarned by a friend
+who swam across the river to him.[647] Guise set off in hot pursuit,
+and would probably have caught him up, had he not been kept waiting for
+the keys of the city gate. Some sixty gentlemen also, lodging near him
+in the Faubourg St. Germain, were the companions of his flight.
+
+Sully, afterward the famous minister of Henry IV., had a narrow escape.
+He was in his twelfth year, and had gone to Paris in the train of Joan
+of Navarre for the purpose of continuing his studies. “About three
+hours after midnight,” he says, “I was awoke by the ringing of bells,
+and the confused cries of the populace. My governor, St. Julian, with
+my valet-de-chambre, went out to know the cause; and I never heard of
+them afterward. They no doubt were among the first sacrificed to the
+public fury. I continued alone in my chamber dressing myself, when in a
+few moments my landlord entered, pale and in the utmost consternation.
+He was of the Reformed religion, and having learned what was the
+matter, had consented to go to mass to save his life, and preserve his
+house from being pillaged. He came to persuade me to do the same, and
+to take me with him. I did not think proper to follow him, but resolved
+to try if I could gain the College of Burgundy, where I had studied;
+though the great distance between the house in which I then was and the
+college made the attempt very dangerous. Having disguised myself in a
+scholar’s gown, I put a large prayer-book under my arm, and went into
+the street. I was seized with horror inexpressible at the sight of the
+furious murderers, running from all parts, forcing open the houses,
+and shouting out: _Kill, kill! Massacre the Huguenots!_ The blood
+which I saw shed before my eyes redoubled my terror. I fell into the
+midst of a body of Guards, who stopped and questioned me, and were
+beginning to use me ill, when, happily for me, the book that I carried
+was perceived and served me for a passport. Twice after this I fell
+into the same danger, from which I extricated myself with the same good
+fortune. At last I arrived at the College of Burgundy, where a danger
+still greater than any I had yet met with awaited me. The porter having
+twice refused me entrance, I continued standing in the midst of the
+street, at the mercy of the savage murderers, whose numbers increased
+every moment, and who were evidently seeking for their prey, when it
+came into my head to ask for La Faye, the principal of the college, a
+good man by whom I was tenderly beloved. The porter, prevailed upon
+by some small pieces of money which I put into his hand, admitted me;
+and my friend carried me to his apartment, where two inhuman priests,
+whom I heard mention _Sicilian Vespers_, wanted to force me from
+him, that they might cut me in pieces, saying the order was--not to
+spare even infants at the breast. All the good man could do was to
+conduct me privately to a distant chamber, where he locked me up. Here
+I was confined three days, uncertain of my destiny, and saw no one
+but a servant of my friend’s, who came from time to time to bring me
+provisions.”[648]
+
+Philip de Mornay, or, as he was usually designated, Duplessis-Mornay,
+was among those who suspected treachery, and refused to take part in
+the rejoicings on the marriage of Henry with Margaret. He got his
+mother out of Paris, but not seeing how he could honorably leave the
+city himself, while the chiefs of the Huguenot cause remained, he
+resolved to share the perils of his leaders. His resolution well-nigh
+proved fatal to him. He had scarcely time to burn his papers and hide
+between the two roofs of the house in which he lived. On Monday, as the
+mob became more furious, his host, a conscientious Catholic, begged
+him flee, as his continuance there might prove the ruin of both,
+adding that “he should have disregarded his own danger, if it could
+have secured the safety of the other.” Duplessis, therefore, assumed
+a plain black dress, girded on his sword and departed, while the mob
+were plundering the next house, whose owner they murdered and threw
+out of the window. He got safely to his law-agent, by name Girard,
+who received him favorably and set him to work in the office. This
+place of refuge being discovered, early next day he had to leave the
+house conducted by one of the clerks. They were stopped and questioned
+at the St. Denis gate, when Duplessis represented himself to be a
+lawyer’s clerk going to spend the holidays with his family at Rouen.
+They were allowed to pass, but had scarcely reached Villette, between
+Paris and St. Denis, when farther progress was checked by the “carters,
+quarrymen, and plasterers of the faubourg.” They dragged Duplessis
+toward the river, and he was saved only by the cool assurance of his
+companion, who asserted that the men were mistaken, that the other
+really was a lawyer’s clerk going to Rouen, and that he was well known
+in the environs of Paris. “Surely,” interposed young Mornay, “you do
+not want to kill one man for another.” He referred them to several
+individuals, among others to Girard, and then they all went off to
+breakfast. Just at this moment the Rouen coach passed along; the
+mob stopped it to ascertain if the fugitive was known to any of the
+passengers, and being recognized by no one, they called him a liar and
+again threatened to drown him. After being kept some time in suspense
+he was released, the messengers who had been dispatched to Mr. Girard
+having returned with a certificate that “Philip Mornay his clerk was
+neither rebellious nor disaffected.” But all was not over yet. At
+Ivry-le-Temple, where he passed the night of Thursday, some persons,
+who probably suspected him, entered the room in which he was sitting,
+observing to each other that they smelled a Huguenot. On his way to
+Buhy, his birthplace, he narrowly escaped falling into the hands of a
+one-eyed monster named Montafié, who at the head of a band of ruffians
+was scouring the French Vexin. His house he found desolate, his family
+dispersed no one could tell where. At length, after undergoing many
+privations and more perils, he escaped from Dieppe to England. It was
+nine days after the massacre.[649]
+
+Madame de Mornay herself had to undergo many dangers. Her cook, a
+Huguenot, awoke her in the morning with cries that “they were murdering
+every body.” From her window, which looked into the Rue St. Antoine,
+she saw an excited restless crowd and several soldiers with white
+crosses in their hats. Hastily secreting some of her valuables, she
+sent the maid away with her little girl, and at eight in the morning
+took shelter with one of the king’s household. More than forty persons
+found refuge in the same charitable asylum; the owner, M. de Perreuze,
+or his wife, standing occasionally at the door to exchange a word
+with Guise, Nevers, and other lords, as they passed to and fro; and
+also with the “captains of Paris,” who were sacking the adjoining
+houses belonging to Huguenots. On Tuesday the house was searched,
+and Madame Duplessis (or to speak more correctly, the young widow of
+M. de Feuquères) had to conceal herself. From her hiding-places she
+could hear “the strange cries of the men, women, and children they
+were murdering in the streets.” Her next refuge was in the house of a
+blacksmith, a seditious fellow and the captain of his ward, who had
+married her waiting-maid. “He passed the night,” says the lady, “in
+cursing the Huguenots and seeing to the booty that was brought in
+from the plundered houses.” After various changes of refuge, eleven
+days after the massacre she went on board the passage-boat for Sens,
+where she was accused of being a Huguenot and told that she ought to
+be drowned. A woman came up and asked what they were going to do with
+her. “Why, this is a Huguenot, and we intend to throw her into the
+river.” The woman replied: “You know me well; I am no Huguenot; I go
+every day to mass; but I am so frightened, that I have had a fever this
+week past.” “And I too,” rejoined one of the soldiers: “j’en ai le bec
+tout galeux.” This saved her life; but she had the horror of listening
+to the rejoicings of her fellow-passengers (there were two monks and
+a priest among them) over what they had seen in Paris. Twenty-seven
+days after the massacre a body of soldiers, the Swiss guard of Queen
+Elizabeth, searched the village where she lay hid, but did not find
+any Huguenots. It was not until the 1st November that she got beyond
+all danger by reaching the town of Sedan. In her flight, she had gone
+near the country seat of the Chancellor de l’Hopital. This, by the
+king’s express order, was held by a strong garrison, possibly by way
+of protection; but the lawless soldiers compelled Madame de l’Hopital,
+who had been converted to the new religion, to go to mass; and the
+ex-chancellor assured the fugitive that if he received her beneath his
+roof, she would have to do the same.[650]
+
+Young Caumont, a boy about twelve years old, and better known in after
+life as the Duke of La Force, escaped in a singular manner. A number
+of dead bodies had been thrown upon him, those of his father and
+brother being among them. He lay for some hours beneath this horrible
+load, when the marker from an adjoining tennis-court, attracted by one
+of his stockings, tried to pull it off. While doing so, he uttered
+an exclamation of pity, which the boy heard. “I am not dead,” he
+whispered; “pray save me.” He was saved, but, as the murderous ruffians
+were still in sight, he had to remain some time longer beneath the
+bloody heap. He was taken, not without difficulties, to the arsenal,
+where Marshal de Biron, as master of the ordnance, commanded. Here
+young Caumont was kept several days disguised as a page. This was told
+the king, with the addition that several other Huguenots had found
+refuge in the same place. Charles determined to have it searched; and
+when the marshal heard of it, he declared angrily “he would take very
+good care to hinder any one from entering who wanted to control his
+actions,” and “thereupon pointed three or four pieces of cannon toward
+the gate of the arsenal.”[651]
+
+The Duchess René of Ferrara, daughter of Louis XII., sheltered many in
+her hotel, and among them were the wife and child of Pastor Merlin.
+Even the Duke of Guise was not all blood-thirsty, at least one Huguenot
+owing his life to him.[652] Some were saved at the house of the English
+embassador, although a guard had been set over it, as much to keep
+out refugees as to protect the English who had been hastily collected
+within its walls.[653] Two or three are reported to have fallen in
+the massacre, from not receiving the warning early enough. Kirkaldy,
+so famous in the history of Mary Stuart, had a narrow escape for his
+life.[654] Hubert Languet was saved by Jean de Morvilliers, Bishop of
+Orleans, who sheltered him in his own house. Anne d’Este, widow of the
+Duke of Guise, saved the life of L’Hopital’s daughter, for which the
+father thanked her:
+
+    Vivit adhuc, vivitque tuo servata recenti
+    Munere, dum tota cædes flagraret in urbe,
+    Præterea nec spes occurreret ulla salutis.[655]
+
+In the very height of the massacre, the rumor of a miracle revived
+the flagging zeal of the Parisians. In the ancient cemetery of the
+Innocents there stood a small chapel dedicated to the Virgin Mary,
+and in front of it a white-thorn bush which for four years had shown
+neither leaf nor flower. All of a sudden, on the morning of the
+massacre, it became covered with beautiful white blossoms, filling
+the air with their delicious perfume. It continued in bloom for a
+fortnight, and every body went to see it. The king and his court
+proceeded thither in long procession. Sick persons were healed by
+merely looking at it; and the superstitious crowd, which included
+nearly every one in Paris, believed that it was “a sign from heaven of
+God’s approval of the Catholic uprising and the admiral’s death.” All
+the city guilds and companies, all the ecclesiastical fraternities,
+marched out to the cemetery with much pomp and loud music, killing
+the Huguenots they found in their road. The nuncio Salviati, who had
+probably formed one of the royal procession, writes very incredulously
+to the Papal Secretary of State: “The people ran to see it with such
+eagerness, that should any of the priests who live in the convent dare
+say publicly that it had blossomed some days before the event, he would
+be stoned and flung into the river.”[656]
+
+Not until the second day does there appear to have been any remorse or
+pity for the horrors inflicted upon the wretched Huguenots. Elizabeth
+of Austria, the young queen who hoped shortly to become a mother,
+interceded for Condé, and so great was her agitation and distress
+that her “features were quite disfigured by the tears she had shed
+night and day.” And the Duke of Alençon, a youth of by no means
+lovable character, “wept much,” we are told, “over the fate of those
+brave captains and soldiers.” For this tenderness he was so bitterly
+reproached by Charles and his mother, that he was forced to keep out
+of their sight. Alençon was partial to Coligny, and when there was
+found among the admiral’s papers a report in which he condemned the
+appanages, the grants usually given by the crown to the younger members
+of the royal family, Catherine exultingly showed it to him: “See what
+a fine friend he was to you.” “I know not how far he may have been my
+friend,” replied the duke, “but the advice he gave was very good.”[657]
+
+If Mezeray is to be trusted, Charles broke down on the second day of
+the massacre. Since Saturday he had been in a state of extraordinary
+excitement, more like madness than sanity, and at last his mind gave
+way under the pressure. To his surgeon Ambrose Paré, who kept at his
+side all through these dreadful hours, he said:[658] “I do not know
+what ails me. For these two or three days past, both mind and body
+have been quite upset. I burn with fever: all around me grin pale
+blood-stained faces. Ah! Ambrose, if they had but spared the weak
+and innocent!” A change indeed had come over him; he became more
+restless than ever, his looks savage, his buffoonery coarser and more
+boisterous. “Nè mai poteva pigliar requie,” says Sigismond Cavalli.
+Like Macbeth, he had murdered sleep. “I saw the king on my return
+from Rochelle,” says Brantome, “and found him entirely changed. His
+features had lost all the gentleness (_douceur_) usually visible
+in them.”[659]
+
+“About a week after the massacre,” says a contemporary, “a number of
+crows flew croaking round, and settled on the Louvre. The noise they
+made drew every body out to see them, and the superstitious women
+infected the king with their own timidity. That very night Charles
+had not been in bed two hours, when he jumped up and called for the
+King of Navarre, to listen to a horrible tumult in the air: shrieks,
+groans, yells, mingled with blasphemous oaths and threats, just as they
+were heard on the night of the massacre. The sound returned for seven
+successive nights, precisely at the same hour.”[660] Juvenal des Ursins
+tells the story rather differently. “On the 31st August I supped at
+the Louvre with Madame de Fiesque. As the day was very hot, we went
+down into the garden and sat in an arbor by the river. Suddenly the
+air was filled with a horrible noise of tumultuous voices and groans,
+mingled with cries of rage and madness. We could not move for terror;
+we turned pale and were unable to speak. The noise lasted for half an
+hour, and was heard by the king, who was so terrified that he could not
+sleep the rest of the night.” As for Catherine, knowing that strong
+emotions would spoil her digestion and impair her good looks, she kept
+up her spirits: “For my part,” she said, “there are only six of them on
+my conscience;”[661] which is a lie, for when she ordered the tocsin
+to be rung, she must have foreseen the horrors--perhaps not all the
+horrors--that would ensue.
+
+Before the bodies of their first victims were cold, Catherine and
+her advisers became aware of the great political blunder they had
+committed. That it was a crime affected them little, if at all; but
+they had perpetrated an act of treachery which they would have to
+justify in the eyes not only of France, but of the civilized world.
+Thousands shrank with horror from the deed and its perpetrators; and
+many even of those who applauded the end, could not vindicate the
+means.[662] Catherine and her Italians--for Charles was now the merest
+puppet in their hands--hastily made up their minds to throw upon the
+Duke of Guise the blame of the attempt upon the admiral’s life, and
+the massacre as the result of a riot between the two parties, in which
+the Huguenots were the weakest. They also represented that the king
+himself was hardly safe in the Louvre. “I am here with my brother of
+Navarre and my cousin of Condé, ready to share the same fortune with
+them,” wrote Charles.[663] On the evening of the massacre a circular
+note was issued, ascribing all the mischief to “the private quarrel
+which had long existed between the houses of Lorraine and Chatillon,”
+and which the king had vainly tried to arrange. It went on to say that
+the Edict of Pacification must be observed as strictly as ever. On the
+next day, Charles wrote to Schomberg, “bitterly deploring what had
+happened;” while to La Mothe-Fénelon he said that he was exceedingly
+vexed (_infiniment marry_) at the assault upon the admiral, and
+promised to investigate the case and punish the offender. On the 24th
+he wrote that the Guises had begun the massacre, “because they had
+heard that Coligny’s friends would retaliate;” and that he had been
+compelled to employ guards to keep the Louvre safe; and on the 27th he
+wrote again to the same effect, but with a significant variation in the
+phraseology.[664]
+
+But by this time the massacre had assumed such enormous proportions,
+that the Duke of Guise, who had returned from the pursuit of
+Montgomery, refused to bear the odium of it alone. Besides, the
+excuse was such an acknowledgment of weakness, that in the eyes of
+the orthodox it elevated the duke into the position of the true
+defender of the Church. The only way to remedy the blunder was for
+Charles boldly to assume the responsibility. Catherine dreaded Henry
+of Guise fully as much as she had hated the admiral. The new policy
+would indeed compel them to tell another lie; but lying carried no
+disgrace with it at the court of France. On the 25th the king hinted
+something about a conspiracy to the Spanish embassador;[665] on the
+26th all timidity and hesitation had disappeared. Charles, accompanied
+by his mother and brothers, attended by a numerous crowd of ladies and
+gentlemen, moved in stately procession through the streets of Paris.
+The populace welcomed the king with shouts of joy, and some of the more
+villainous of the ruffians pushed their way through the Guards, and
+displaying their bloody weapons and ensanguined arms, boasted to him of
+the numbers they had killed. One Protestant gentleman was hunted out
+and murdered before his very eyes: “Would to God he were the last!”
+exclaimed Charles fiercely. He went to the cathedral Church of Notre
+Dame to return thanks to God, as was his duty (says Capilupi) for such
+a happy issue, that without shedding the blood of a single believer,
+the kingdom had been so graciously delivered from those pernicious and
+wicked people. From the church he proceeded to the Palace of Justice,
+where, before the foreign embassadors and parliament assembled in the
+Gilded Chamber, he declared that the massacre had taken place “by his
+express orders, not from any religious motive, or in contravention
+of his Edicts of Pacification, which he still intended to observe,
+but to prevent the carrying out of a detestable conspiracy, got up
+by the admiral and his followers against the person of the king, the
+queen-mother, her other sons, and the King of Navarre.”[666] The story
+deceived none but the most ignorant and fanatical. Salviati declared at
+once that it was “false in every respect,” and that a man of the least
+“experience in worldly matters would be ashamed to believe it.”[667]
+This is the “third lie” they were obliged to invent, says Tavannes.
+
+The royal speech was afterward amplified, and published as a
+manifesto.[668] It accused the Huguenots of infringing the Edict in
+various ways, and murdering Catholics; of threatening war, if their
+importunities were not attended to; and of plotting against the king
+and his mother, declaring all the while that the king was plotting
+against them. “All these inventions were forged in the admiral’s
+shop.” He was trying to cause a rupture with Spain by giving succor to
+the rebels in the Low Countries, when a man, whom he had threatened
+to hang, shot him as he was leaving the palace. His majesty was
+deliberating how he could execute prompt and exemplary justice on the
+author of such a wicked deed, when the admiral resolved to avenge
+himself at one blow upon the king and the royal family, so that he
+might the easier make himself sole master of the kingdom. “If my arm
+is wounded,” he said, “my head is not;[669] if I must lose my arm, I
+shall have the heads of those who caused the loss. They thought to kill
+me, but I shall be beforehand with them.” When he was told that the
+king was sorry for his suffering: “It is all made up,” he replied; “I
+understand their tricks. I know how to catch them all.” On Saturday,
+after dinner, the admiral held a secret council of his friends, at
+which it was resolved to kill the king and all who were opposed to
+their designs.[670] His majesty was informed of this in the evening by
+“some trustworthy persons,” and even by some of the conspirators, who
+would not join in “so barbarous and enormous a crime.” The king thought
+he must apply a “prompt, sovereign, and vigorous remedy to so cruel
+a plot;” for in matters where the lives of princes are concerned,
+punishment and “execution must precede inquiry:” in plain English,
+hang first and try afterward. He therefore resolved, in council with
+his mother and others, “to anticipate the conspiracy by a prompt and
+sovereign execution,” and accordingly gave orders that on Sunday
+morning at day-break they should commence the punishment by killing
+the admiral and all his faction, which was done with such “felicity,
+diligence, and celerity,” that by seven o’clock the admiral, his
+chief officers, and others were put to death, very few escaping with
+their lives. Hence the king argued the goodness of God, who kept the
+Huguenots in ignorance of the design against them. The people of Paris,
+who are stanch Catholics, and very fond of their prince, remembering
+their past sufferings, and exasperated by the story of the plot, “fell
+upon the Huguenots, killed many, and sacked their houses,” in their
+praiseworthy desire to support and defend their prince. If a few
+robberies were committed, “we must excuse the fury of a people impelled
+by honest zeal--a fury hard to restrain when once aroused.” Such was
+the defense of the massacre put forward at the time.[671] To us, who
+know its weakness and the falsehood of its chief point, it seems
+contemptible enough; but to the fanatics of those days, it must have
+been an appeal thrilling every nerve in their bodies.
+
+The obsequious parliament, by the mouth of their president De Thou,
+thanked the king for his gracious communication, and for the vigor
+he had shown in crushing the conspiracy not only against the throne
+but against the Church. He quoted with approbation the villainous
+maxim of Louis XI., “Qui nescit dissimulare nescit regnare” (He who
+knows not how to dissemble knows not how to reign): his whole speech
+being a cowardly defense and eulogy of the massacre.[672] That the
+chief magistrate of France should stoop so low, is one of the saddest
+incidents of the time; but the French have always been too prone to
+worship the _fait accompli_, to become the servile flatterers of
+success. There can be no hope for the political life of a nation, until
+it learns to apply the same rules of morality to public as to private
+affairs. At that moment Charles was nobler than De Thou.[673] There is
+something in great crimes which fascinates and attracts. The king had
+struck a desperate blow, which, had it failed, might have cost him his
+throne and perhaps his life. The first president of the Parliament of
+Paris ostentatiously defended and extolled in public a deed which he
+condemned in private. His son tells us that in his copy of Statius he
+marked the following lines, giving them a significance of which the
+poet never dreamed:
+
+    Excidat illa dies ævo, nec postera credant
+    Sæcula! nos certe taceamus; et obruta multa
+    Nocte tegi propriæ patiamur crimina gentis.[674]
+
+At the suggestion of Pibrac the king’s words were entered in the
+register of minutes; and then the same man, braver and more humane than
+his fellows, prayed that Charles would order the massacre to cease. The
+king seems immediately to have issued the necessary directions, that no
+one should from that hour presume to kill or plunder a fellow-citizen
+under pain of death. But another advocate of the same court, by name
+Morvilliers,[675] had the baseness to propose that Coligny should be
+tried and attainted for the plot he had contrived against the king. At
+the same time the castle of Chatillon was ordered to be razed to the
+ground, one tower alone remaining of that princely mansion.
+
+Although nothing had been found in the admiral’s papers to justify
+the charge of conspiring against the throne, there were two prisoners
+in custody who, it was hoped, might be induced to save their lives
+by confessing the existence of a plot. They were Briquemaut and
+Cavaignes, with whose judicial execution the horrors of the massacre
+may be considered to have terminated. Colonel Briquemaut, who was
+upward of seventy years old (he had served in the Italian wars of
+Francis I.), had saved himself in the night of the 24th by stripping
+and hiding under a pile of dead bodies, from which horrible shelter
+he made his escape to the house of the English embassador, where he
+was discovered in the disguise of a groom.[676] Cavaignes, “chancellor
+of the cause,” had recently been appointed Master of Requests at the
+admiral’s petition. A few days before the massacre, Charles had begged
+him not to leave the court, as he required his advice to perpetuate the
+happy peace which he (Cavaignes) had helped to negotiate. A special
+commission was appointed to try the prisoners, but their innocence was
+so manifest that the judges ordered their discharge. This decision was
+appealed against, and after another trial they were found guilty and
+condemned to die. It was hoped they would confess. Tavannes asserts
+that they were promised life and liberty if they would only say what
+they were asked; but they refused; and Walsingham thus describes the
+closing scene of their life: “On October 22, the young queen was
+brought to bed of a daughter; and the same day, between five and six
+in the evening, Briquemaut and Cavaignes were hanged by torch-light,
+the king, the queen-mother, and the King of Navarre, with the king’s
+brothers and the Prince of Condé, being lookers-on. As Briquemaut was
+going up the ladder, the under-provost of the town said that the king
+had sent him to know whether he could say any thing touching the late
+conjuration, which, if he would confess, he should save his life.
+He answered, that the king had never a more faithful subject than he
+was; but this I know proceeded not of himself, but of evil councilors
+about him; and so lifting up his eyes to heaven, he said, ‘Oh my God,
+upon whose tribunal seat I stand, and whose face I hope shortly to
+see, thou knowest well that I know nothing nor did not so much as ever
+think of any conjuration against the king nor against his estate;
+though contrariwise they have entirely put the same in my process; but
+I beseech my God that he will pardon the king and all those that have
+been the cause of this my unjust death, even as I desire pardon at thy
+hands for my sins and offenses committed against thy divine majesty.’
+Being then drawn up another step on the ladder, he uttered only these
+words: ‘I have somewhat to utter unto the king, which I would be glad
+to communicate unto him, but see that I may not.’ And so shrunk up
+his shoulders to forbear to use any farther speech. As his constancy
+was much commended, so was his death much bewailed of many Catholics
+that were beholders of the same. Cavaignes used no speech, but showed
+himself void of all magnanimity, who before his death, in hope of
+life, made some show to relent in religion. Two things were generally
+much misliked at this execution: the one the presence of the king,
+as a thing unworthy of the head of justice to be at the execution of
+justice; the other that Briquemaut, being a gentleman, was hanged, a
+thing very rare in France, especially he being reputed by his enemies
+to be innocent.” Charles’s presence at the execution added a new horror
+to the pangs of death: “Nero tamen subtraxit oculos jussitque scelera,
+non spectavit: præcipua sub Domitiano miseriarum erat, videre et
+aspici.”[677]
+
+Walsingham continues his narrative: “About an hour after the execution,
+the cruel and bloody people of this town, not content with their death,
+took [their bodies] down from the gallows, and drew them about the
+streets, thrusting them through with daggers and shooting of dags
+[pistols] at them, cutting off their ears, and omitting no other kind
+of villainous and barbarous cruelty.” There were others to be executed,
+but the queen-mother “with no small difficulty,” persuaded her son to
+respite them for awhile. “The king is now grown so bloody-minded,”
+concludes Walsingham, “that they who advised him thereto do repent
+the same, and do fear that the old saying will prove true--_malum
+consilium consultori pessimum_.”[678] After this we can well believe
+the story that Charles ordered torches to be held near the faces of
+his two victims, that he might the clearer see their dying agonies.
+When the cruel tragedy on the Grève was over, the royal spectators,
+including Henry of Navarre, retired to a magnificent supper provided
+for them at the Hotel-de-Ville, at the windows of which they had been
+sitting.[679]
+
+About a month after the massacre, Henry of Navarre and the Prince of
+Condé both abjured. The instrument of their conversion to orthodoxy
+was Sureau du Rozier, at one time minister at Orleans, and the fanatic
+apologist of Poltrot’s crime; but yielding to temptation, and partly
+also to fear, he abjured Protestantism, and, like all new converts,
+was eager to show his zeal by converting his late brethren. The two
+princes listened to his arguments, and professed themselves convinced;
+but they only temporized with a king who was capable, in one of his
+mad bursts of passion, of ordering them to execution. At the beginning
+of October the princes wrote to the pope, expressing sorrow for their
+past errors and promising to be faithful sons of the Catholic Church in
+future. The pope graciously accepted their recantations, and returned
+them the necessary dispensations for their marriages.[680] Henry went
+farther than was necessary to show his new zeal, by abolishing the
+Reformed religion in his maternal states. “M. Grammont hath commission
+from the king,” writes Walsingham, “to suppress all preaching in Bearn,
+and to plant there the Catholic religion, which is a verification of
+the king’s [Charles] intention touching the observation of his edict
+irrevocable for the toleration of religion.”[681] But the Bearnese
+stoutly refused to act upon the order, on the ground that the king was
+a prisoner in Paris and under constraint.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XIV.
+
+                      MASSACRE IN THE PROVINCES.
+
+                      [August to October, 1572.]
+
+   Instructions to the Governors--The Count of Tende--Nantes
+   and Alençon--Massacres at Saumur, Angers, Lyons, Orleans,
+   Troyes, Rouen, Meaux, Bordeaux, and Toulouse--St. Hérem’s
+   letter--The stolen Dispatch--The Governor of Bayonne--The
+   Bishop of Lisieux--Chabot at Arnay-le-Duc--Senlis, Provins,
+   Château-Thierry, Dieppe, and Nismes spared--The Number of
+   Victims--Contemporary Judgments--Dorat’s Panegyric--Jean
+   Le Masle--Pierre Charpentier and Sorbin--Rejoicings at
+   Rome--Exultation of Philip II.--Horror in England--John Knox’s
+   Denunciation--The Emperor Maximilian’s regret.
+
+
+The writers who maintain that the tragedy of St. Bartholomew’s Day
+was the result of long premeditation, support their opinions by
+what occurred in the provinces; but it will be found after careful
+examination, that these various incidents tend rather to prove the
+absence of any such premeditation. Unless we suppose Catherine and
+her Italian advisers to have been the clumsiest of conspirators, they
+would naturally have made arrangements for a general massacre of the
+Huguenots throughout the kingdom to take place on the same day; but
+it did not, and the murders committed were in many instances the
+consequences of popular commotions that broke out after the arrival
+of the news from Paris.[682] There is indeed a well-known letter from
+the queen-mother to Strozzi,[683] which he was not to open until the
+24th of August, and in which he read: “This is to inform you that
+_to-day_ the admiral and all the Huguenots in this place are
+killed.” But the letter is manifestly spurious, and with it falls the
+principal item of evidence to show premeditation.
+
+It would appear that on the 23d, as soon as the king’s assent had
+been gained, instructions to massacre the Protestants were forwarded
+to various parts of the country. Alberi[684] emphatically says that
+there remain no traces in any provincial registers of orders received
+to this effect; but even were there no such record, there is abundant
+evidence that such instructions were sent. Davila says that messengers
+were dispatched on the 23d. De Thou, who was in a position to know
+the truth, declares that _verbal orders_ were sent;[685] which
+is confirmed by a letter to the governor of Chartres withdrawing
+_all verbal orders_.[686] There is also a letter from Charles
+to Matignon, canceling all the orders he may have given _by word
+of mouth_.[687] Writing to Longueville on the 26th of August, he
+recalls “_le mandement verbal_;”[688] and the next day he reminds
+the mayor of Troyes of the “letters he had received” ordering the
+extermination of the heretics. Puygaillard, writing in the king’s name
+(August 26) to the governor of Angers, to put the principal Huguenots
+to death, bids him wait for _no farther orders_, as he will have
+none. It is clear, therefore, that Charles desired to act up to his
+resolution, to permit no Huguenot to survive to reproach him with his
+breach of faith. That his orders were not carried out, depended in
+many cases upon the character of the governors or municipalities to
+whom they were addressed. A messenger, named La Molle, was sent to the
+Count of Tende, governor of Provence, with a letter ordering him to
+massacre all the Huguenots. A postscript, however, bade him neither
+do nor believe what La Molle told him. The count, unable to reconcile
+these contradictory instructions, sent his secretary to the king, who
+told him to “put a few Huguenots to death.” But Tende dying in the
+interval, his successor, the Count of Courcis, refused to act without
+farther instructions, and the result was an order, which the messenger
+was directed on peril of his life to communicate to none but De
+Courcis, “not to execute the massacre.”[689]
+
+Louis, Duke of Bourbon-Montpensier, governor of Brittany, wrote to the
+municipal officers of Nantes, desiring them to carry out the massacre.
+They refused, and their refusal is commemorated in the following
+inscription:
+
+“_L’an MDLXXII, le 8 jour de septembre, le Maire de Nantes, les
+échevins, et les suppóts de la ville avec les juges-consuls, réunis à
+la Maison Commune, font le serment de maintenir celui précédemment fait
+de ne point contrevenir à l’Édit de Pacification rendu en faveur des
+Calvinistes, et font défense aux habitants de se porter à aucun excès
+contre eux._”
+
+At Alençon there was no massacre, owing to the energy of the governor,
+who, observing that the Catholics were arming with a murderous intent,
+closed the city gates, strengthened the posts, and issued a severe
+proclamation, forbidding any injury to the Huguenots. The latter were
+ordered to assemble, to give up their arms, to send in thirty-two
+hostages, and to take a new oath of fidelity. This they did, and all
+were spared. Matignon’s name was long revered as a household word among
+the people of Alençon.[690]
+
+At Angers the massacre had some distinct characteristics. After
+Montsoreau, the governor of Saumur, had killed all the Huguenots in
+that town according to the instructions from an agent of the Duke
+of Anjou, he hastened to Angers (29th August), which he reached at
+day-break. Ordering the gates to be shut, he went to the house of La
+Barbée, a Huguenot gentleman, who escaped, but his less fortunate
+brother was killed as he lay sick in bed. Montsoreau next called on
+the pastor La Rivière, with whom he had long been on friendly terms.
+Courteously saluting his wife, Montsoreau passed into the garden to her
+husband. After the usual embrace, he said: “I have the king’s orders
+to put you to death instantly.” The minister asked for a few moments’
+delay to collect his thoughts and to pray, which being granted,
+he commended his soul to God and fell pierced through the heart.
+Montsoreau then went and killed two other ministers. Meanwhile the news
+spread, and some Catholics assembled in the streets, with the white
+cross in their hats. Montsoreau’s words aroused their fanaticism: they
+dragged the dead bodies to the river, rang the alarm-bell, and chased
+the Huguenots from house to house. But the citizens held aloof, the
+magistrates interposed, and the massacre was stopped.[691] Later in the
+day a messenger arrived from the Duke of Anjou, ordering the property
+of heretics to be set aside, it being valued at 100,000 livres. The
+highway robbers of those days gave their victims the alternative of
+money or life: the duke took both.
+
+A week after the massacre in Paris, the Huguenots of Lyons were taken
+one after another “like sheep,” says Capilupi, and shut up in prison.
+When the governor desired the executioner to put some of them to death,
+he replied: “I am not an assassin: I work only as justice commands
+me.” But this did not save them. Three hundred soldiers were found
+ready to do the bloody work. Those confined in the archbishop’s palace
+were first robbed, and then cut to pieces, children hanging round
+their parents’ necks, brothers and sisters exhorting one another to
+suffer patiently in the cause of God. All who had been shut up in the
+Rouane, a public prison, were dragged to the bridge and then flung
+into the river.[692] As night came on, the murderers, now joined by
+the mob, threw off all restraint. “In the square of St. John,” says
+D’Aubigné, “a pile of bodies was collected so vast and terrible as to
+exceed description.” In this city alone, 4000 persons, including the
+famous musician Goudimel, are estimated to have been killed;[693] and
+yet Mandelot wrote to the king, regretting that a few had escaped, and
+begging for a share of the spoils.[694] At Arles the river became so
+putrid from the corpses rolling down from Lyons, that the inhabitants
+were for several days unable to drink its waters.[695]
+
+At Orleans the massacre had its peculiar features of atrocity.[696]
+One La Bouilli invited his friend La Cour to supper, and stabbed him
+as he sat at table. Taillebois, a professor of law, was murdered by
+his own pupils. Some of them went to his house and begged to see his
+library; and when he showed it them, they began to ask him for some
+of his books, which he gave them. “This is not all,” they said; “we
+intend to kill you.” Falling on his knees, he prayed a few minutes in
+silence and then exclaimed, “I am ready! slay me at once.” This they
+would not do, but drove him into the street, where his courage failed
+at the sight of a poor shoe-maker who lay bleeding to death. Though
+scarcely able to walk, he was driven forward, until he came in front
+of the Law Schools where he used to teach. There the murderers put an
+end to his long agony. Nicholas Bongars lay at the point of death when
+some ruffians broke into his room. They respected the dying man, but
+murdered the apothecary who was attending upon him. The next day a man
+who had been in the habit of visiting Bongars, went to the house, and
+saluting his mother at the door, as she like a good Catholic was going
+to mass, went up stairs, stabbed the sick man, wiped his dagger in the
+bed-clothes, and departed as he had come, without betraying the least
+emotion. Of the victims, some were tossed into a ditch, and then left
+to be devoured by wolves and dogs; others were thrown into the Loire,
+which became so discolored that the Catholics refused to drink the
+water or to eat the fish caught in it. Of the fourteen hundred victims,
+one hundred and fifty were women.
+
+The massacre at Bordeaux did not begin until the 3d of October. The
+populace had been inflamed by the sermons of one Auger, a Jesuit;
+on Michaelmas Day he said from the pulpit: “Who executed the divine
+judgments at Paris? The angel of God. Who in Orleans? The angel of
+God. Who in a hundred cities of this realm? The angel of God. And who
+will execute them in Bordeaux? The angel of God, however man may try
+to resist him.” The slaughter was carried out by an organized band of
+ruffians wearing the “bonnet rouge,” which afterward became so famous
+in history. Many of the Huguenots found a safe refuge in the houses
+of certain priests and Catholic laymen, who were horrified at the
+barbarities they had witnessed. Others found a secure asylum in the
+castles of Ham and Trompette.
+
+At Meaux, all the houses in the market-place were completely gutted,
+and many of their inhabitants killed. The next day (August 26), the mob
+entered the prison, which was crammed with Huguenots to the number of
+two hundred and more. They were called out one by one into the yard,
+and such as sword and pike failed to kill instantly, had their brains
+beaten out with the sledge hammers used by the butchers to knock down
+their bullocks. Some were buried, still breathing, in a trench dug to
+receive them, and when this was filled, the rest were thrown into the
+Marne.
+
+The news of the massacre reached Troyes on the 26th of August, when the
+gates were immediately closed to prevent the frightened Huguenots from
+escaping. Many were taken to prison, but there was no general slaughter
+until the 4th of September, when one Belin, an apothecary, arrived
+from Paris with the king’s orders of the 28th of August, forbidding
+the Protestants to be molested.[697] This wretch persuaded the high
+bailiff and the council to murder the prisoners, and then issue the
+proclamation. The public executioner refused to lend himself to the
+foul plot. “It was his duty,” he said, “to put to death only such as
+had been legally condemned.” This did not save the prisoners, who were
+butchered by a drunken mob, and their blood flowing under the gate into
+the street filled the humane Catholics with horror.
+
+The governor of Rouen hesitated to execute the orders he had received,
+and asked for fresh instructions. The answer being unfavorable, he
+locked up all the Protestants he could find, and on the 17th of
+September the city gates were shut, and military posts established in
+the squares. A band of assassins then went to the prisons, and killed
+with clubs and daggers about sixty Huguenots, according to a list they
+carried with them. They next searched the private houses, where the
+number of victims of both sexes amounted to more than six hundred.
+
+On the last day of August the _capitouls_ of Toulouse received
+a letter from Joyeuse, lieutenant-general in Languedoc, giving an
+account of the massacre of the 24th, and adding that the king “would
+not permit any infringement of the Edict of Pacification.”[698]
+He farther instructed the magistrates to be on the watch lest the
+Protestants should rise, and ordered the guards to be doubled, “in the
+quietest way possible, so as to incommode nobody.” Jean d’Affis, the
+first president, communicated this message to the magistrates, desiring
+them particularly to see that there were “no assemblies, riots, or
+cruelties, to the prejudice of public tranquillity.” As far as the
+language of the proclamation went, nothing could be more conducive to
+peace and good-will among the followers of both religions. According to
+the Edict, the Huguenots were forbidden to assemble for worship within
+a certain distance of the city; but, as their ordinary meeting-place
+was at Castanet, a little village just within the prescribed limits,
+the magistrates, for some reason unknown, determined on a literal
+interpretation of the law, and arrested all who were present at divine
+worship on the 4th of September. The prisoners were not ill treated,
+but held in safe custody until the king’s pleasure should be known. Of
+the 300 captured, more than 200 managed to escape with the connivance
+of their jailers. On the 1st of October a number of ruffian soldiers,
+armed with pike and arquebuse, entered Toulouse, and soon made known
+their business by threatening peaceable citizens in the streets,
+abusing them as “Patarins, Parpaillots, and Huguenots.”[699] Having
+found a leader in one Latour, prior of the College of St. Catherine,
+they broke open the prisons and murdered the prisoners. The ruffians,
+now masters of the city, began to attack the Catholics also, for
+plunder, not religion, was their real object. One of their victims
+was a priest named Guestret, murdered by Latour, with whom he had a
+lawsuit;[700] and Jean Coras, the famous legist.
+
+But, happily for human nature, the history of this period is not one of
+unrelieved treachery and murder. There were many brave and honorable
+gentlemen in France, who refused to obey the bloody rescripts of the
+court. St. Hérem of Montmerin, governor of Auvergne, wrote to the king:
+“Sire, I have received an order under your majesty’s seal to put to
+death all the Protestants in my province. I respect your majesty too
+much to suppose the letter is other than a forgery; and if (which God
+forbid) the order really proceeds from your majesty, I have still too
+much respect for you to obey it.” Although the Huguenots of Auvergne
+escaped the massacre, there are reasons for doubting the authenticity
+of the letter. The Dulaure manuscripts contain a very circumstantial
+account of how one Captain Combelle was sent by the king to M. de
+St. Herrent (Hérem) with a dispatch containing orders to exterminate
+the Huguenots. On the road he fell in with another traveler, who had
+escaped from the massacre at Paris, and represented himself as the
+bearer of instructions to Marshal Damville in Languedoc to put all the
+Calvinists in his government to death. They traveled together, and the
+end was that Combelle’s dispatch was stolen at Moulins, where they both
+slept in the same room. The thief hurried to Issoire, gave the packet
+to the minister Claude Baduel, bidding him warn his co-religionists
+to flee at once. Combelle continued his journey, and told St. Herrent
+the contents of the lost letter.[701] If this narrative be true, St.
+Hérem could hardly answer a letter he did not receive. It is certain,
+however, that he imprisoned all the Protestants at Issoire, while
+waiting for farther orders, and that at Aurillac in his government
+eighty Protestants were murdered.
+
+Viscount Orte or Orthez, governor of Bayonne, wrote a letter which
+one would fain believe to be true, in spite of the discredit recently
+thrown upon it:[702] “Sire, I have communicated your majesty’s
+commands to the faithful inhabitants and garrison of this city. I have
+found among them many good citizens and brave soldiers, but not one
+executioner.” One thing is certain, that the Huguenots in Bayonne were
+saved.
+
+When the king’s lieutenant waited upon James Hennuyer, Bishop of
+Lisieux, to communicate the orders he had received to kill the
+Huguenots in that city, “No, no, sir,” he replied, “I oppose, and
+will always oppose, the execution of such an order, to which I can
+not consent. I am pastor of the church of Lisieux, and the people you
+are commanded to slay are my flock. Although they are wanderers at
+present, having strayed from the fold which has been confided to me by
+Jesus Christ, the supreme pastor, they may nevertheless return, and I
+will not give up the hope of seeing them come back. I do not read in
+the Gospel that the shepherd ought to suffer the blood of his sheep to
+be shed; on the contrary, I find that he is bound to pour out his own
+blood and give his own life for them. Take the order back again, for it
+shall never be executed so long as I live.”[703] And the Huguenots of
+Lisieux were spared.
+
+When the fatal order was brought to Arnay-le-Duc by two messengers in
+rapid succession, Elinor Chabot, Count of Charny, asked the advice
+of the council. That body was divided in opinion, until a young and
+obscure advocate quoted a law enacted by Theodosius when suffering
+under remorse for a massacre executed by his orders at Thessalonica. By
+this law, all governors were forbidden to carry out any such commands
+in future, until the lapse of thirty days, during which interval they
+were to demand a written confirmation of the order. Moderate counsels
+prevailed, and two days later came a fresh mandate from the king,
+revoking the former order. Chabot, as prudent as he was brave, boldly
+declared that “the severity and cruelty which had been exercised toward
+the Protestants had hitherto only served to exasperate them; and that
+the best means of bringing them back to the Church was to treat them
+with kindness.” So that there was little blood shed in Burgundy (says
+De Thou), and nearly all the Protestants returned to the religion of
+their ancestors.[704]
+
+The royal orders were received at Senlis on the 24th; but the
+Catholics, unwilling to stain their hands with the blood of their
+fellow-citizens, only enjoined them to leave the town, which was done
+“in a quiet and orderly manner.”[705] Bertrand de Gordes, governor
+of Dauphiny, having received a _written_, order revoking all
+_verbal_ orders, wrote to the king saying he had received no
+orders, verbal or otherwise; to which Charles replied that “he need
+not trouble himself, for the orders were given only to some that were
+about him.” The historian of the religious wars in Dauphiny says
+with a “dit-on” that Gordes “refused to obey the orders of the court,
+or at least contrived to avoid carrying out his instructions.”[706]
+Another historian tells us that he would not believe the king could
+have desired the death of so many innocent persons. In this he was
+supported by the first president, “who, like all men of learning,
+was an enemy to violence.”[707] The king can have had nothing to do
+with such a massacre, he said. “His power and authority are abused by
+foreigners, and it is our duty as magistrates and Frenchmen to preserve
+his subjects for him.” On October 11, Gordes issued an order that any
+attempt upon the lives of the Huguenots would be punished with death;
+and at the same time certain precautionary restrictions were imposed on
+religious assemblies. On the 18th, he exhorted the king’s officers and
+governors “to comfort and assist such as manifest a desire to return to
+the true Church.”[708]
+
+At Provins many Huguenots thought it prudent to be converted; and,
+says Claude Haton, “for eight days and nights they dared not show
+themselves.” But there was no blood shed in that little town.
+The garrulous chronicler tells us how the Huguenot gentlemen and
+demoiselles of the environs, notwithstanding their châteaux-forts, ran
+away or emigrated: some to Sedan, others to Germany or Geneva. The
+men wore white crosses on their hats and sleeves; the women had beads
+in their hands or fastened to their girdles. These were very common
+practices to save life. At Château-Thierry, where heretics were few in
+proportion to the population, no violence was committed, and not a drop
+of blood was shed, though the town was immediately dependent on the
+king.
+
+When the governor of Dieppe received the fatal instructions, he
+assembled the Huguenots in the great hall of the Palace of Justice and
+read the letter to them, following it up by a characteristic speech:
+“Citizens, the orders I have received can only concern rebellious and
+seditious Calvinists, of whom, thanks be to God! there are none in this
+place. We read in the Gospel that love to God and our neighbor is the
+duty of Christians; let us profit by the lesson, which Christ himself
+has given us. Children of the same Father, let us live together as
+brothers, and having for each other the charity of the Samaritan. These
+are my sentiments, and I hope you all share them; they make me feel
+assured that in this town there does not exist a man who is unworthy
+to live.” Touched by his words, says the historian, the Huguenots
+recanted, and vowed to live and die in the Catholic faith.
+
+The order to sweep Nismes clear of every Huguenot within its walls
+reached that venerable city on August 29, when Jean de Montcalm,
+the _juge-mage_, called an extraordinary council, before which
+he placed the royal missive. Unanimously they resolved not to act
+upon it. Thinking it unnecessary and possibly dangerous to make any
+public explanation, the magistrates took every precaution to preserve
+order, and called upon the leading men of both religions to swear to
+watch over the safety of all and to defend each other. In order to
+keep out strangers, every gate was closed, except one, and the guard
+of that was given to two trusty citizens. When this was done, they
+informed Joyeuse, the commander of the province, who approved of their
+measures.[709]
+
+What was the number of victims sacrificed to the policy of Catherine
+and the jealousy of Anjou? It is impossible to arrive at any thing like
+a correct estimate; for hardly two historians give the same figures,
+and none of them mention the grounds of their estimate. It is evident
+that in many instances they are mere random guesses, and as such
+without any weight.
+
+The following table for Paris only will show the impossibility of
+accepting any of the statements:
+
+       AUTHORITIES.           NUMBERS.
+
+    Caveyrac       }            1000
+    La Popelinière }
+    Kirkaldy[710]  }
+    Papyr Masson }              2000
+    Tocsin       }
+    Tavannes     }
+    Aubigné  }                  3000
+    Capilupi }
+    Alva’s Bulletin             3500
+    Bonanni  }                  4000
+    Brantome }
+    Gomez da Silva    }
+    Mezeray           }         5000
+    Simancas Archives }
+    Neustadt Letter[711]        6000
+    Claude Haton [712]          7000
+    Art de Vérifier   }
+    Davila            }
+    Etat de France    }       10,000
+    Peleus: Henry IV. }
+    Réveille-Matin    }
+
+Probably the number of victims may have amounted to 6000; but to
+reduce it as low as 1600 for all France, which Dr. Lingard has done,
+is monstrously absurd. All that we know positively is that a certain
+number of bodies were buried, and beyond that all is conjecture.
+The length of time through which the massacre was continued, is one
+evidence of the numbers that were slain. The nuncio Salviati wrote on
+the 15th of September: “Every night some tens of Huguenots, caught
+by day in various places, are thrown into the river without any
+disturbance.” On the next day the Count of St. Pol, embassador from
+the Duke of Savoy, wrote: “They are continuing the great execution
+against these folks, who are thrown into the river by night;” and
+as late as the 26th, more than a month after the first outbreak, he
+reported: “They are daily putting Huguenots to death in Paris and
+elsewhere.” The registers of the Hotel-de-Ville supply us with a
+curious comment upon the massacre. On September 9th, fifteen livres
+tournois were paid to the sextons of the cemetery of St. Innocent and
+their eight helpers for burying the dead bodies round the convent of
+Nigeon (Bonshommes of Chaillot) “to prevent the spread of infection.”
+On the 23d, twenty livres were paid to the same men for burying in
+one week 1100 bodies found in the neighborhood of St. Cloud, Auteuil,
+and Chaillot. If we suppose the payments proportionate to the numbers
+buried, those paid for on the 9th must have been nearly 1500; thus
+giving for all Paris a _known_ massacre of 2600. The same rolls
+record the payment of one Nicholas Sergent, who had stopped the ferries
+and prevented the crossing of the Seine, and also 80 livres for medals
+struck to commemorate the massacre, to be distributed among the
+municipal officers.
+
+But the dead accounted for above could not have been all that perished:
+there is indeed direct evidence to the contrary. Many were buried in
+the city, as Oudin Petit in his cellar, and there is a tradition that
+475 were interred near the Church of St. Gervais, and that theirs were
+the bones discovered in 1851.[713]
+
+In Alva’s Bulletin we read that more than 3500 were dispatched “in
+a short time,” and that the principal gentlemen were flung into the
+Clerks’ Well (Puis aux Clercs), where “dead animals were thrown.”
+When Gomicourt, Alva’s agent, had his farewell audience, he asked
+the queen-mother for her answer to his commission. She replied that
+she could give him no other answer than what Christ said to John’s
+disciples: _Ite et nunciate quæ vidistis et audivistis: cæci
+vident, claudi ambulant, leprosi mundantur_; bidding him also not
+forget to tell the duke in addition, _Beatus qui non fuerit in me
+scandalizatus_. Such blasphemous application of Holy Writ is perhaps
+unparalleled in history.
+
+An equal uncertainty prevails as to the number murdered all over
+France. The calculations or guesses range from 2000 to 100,000.
+
+         AUTHORITIES.        NUMBERS.
+
+    Caveyrac                    2000
+    Papyr Masson              10,000
+    Martyrologue              15,000
+    De Thou        }
+    Montfauçon     }          20,000
+    La Popelinière }
+    Bonanni                   25,000
+    Mém État de France }
+    Félibien           }      30,000
+    Pibrac             }
+    Serranus           }
+    Davila                    40,000
+    Sully                     70,000
+    De Furoribus }           100,000
+    Pèrefixe     }
+
+If it be necessary to choose from these hap-hazard estimates, that of
+De Thou is preferable, from the calm, unexaggerating temper of the
+man. But whatever be the number,[714] not all the waters of the ocean
+can efface the stain upon the characters of those concerned in the
+massacre. A few of the murderers--men of overheated fanaticism--may
+have truly believed that they were doing God a service by putting
+heretics to death; for these we may feel pity even while we condemn.
+But the majority of the assassins were impelled by the lowest of all
+possible motives. Jealousy and ambition filled the breast of Catherine
+de Medicis; Anjou was envious of merit and virtues he could never hope
+to imitate, and which were a standing reproach to his licentiousness;
+Guise dreamed but of revenge; and sinking lower in the scale of
+society, but not lower in motives, the people were eager for plunder,
+jealous of the success of the industrious and thrifty Huguenots, and
+ignorantly impelled to murder by a clergy scarcely less ignorant than
+themselves. We have already seen one instance in which plunder was
+manifestly the object principally aimed at, and other instances are not
+wanting. In Paris alone, 600 houses were pillaged.[715] The Duke of
+Anjou was accused of conniving at the robbery of the house of a wealthy
+lapidary, by which he put 100,000 crowns into his purse. The Bastard of
+Angoulême stripped the house of the Bishop of Chartres, in which Queen
+Joan of Navarre had lodged; and Capilupi estimates that the king’s
+share of the plunder amounted to three millions of gold.[716]
+
+“The equity of history,” says the eloquent historian of the Tudor line,
+“requires that men be tried by the standard of their times.”[717] But
+low as that standard was in the court of Charles IX. and Catherine
+de Medicis, there were men honest enough to condemn the crimes which
+have made the Feast of St. Bartholomew memorable in all history.
+Such a purely gratuitous massacre is unexampled in the annals of the
+world. The Greeks of Lesser Asia rose and slew 80,000 Romans living
+among them. In our own history we read that the Britons massacred
+whole settlements of the invading Danes. In the Sicilian Vespers
+20,000 French were put to death without distinction of age or sex. But
+these massacres, however condemnable, were committed in the name of
+freedom--to drive out a foreign conqueror, to throw off the yoke of the
+invader; but the massacre of St. Bartholomew arose out of the paltriest
+and most selfish motives. Envy, jealousy, greediness--such were the
+motives of Catherine, of Anjou, and of their councilors. The plea of
+religion was never put forward, though it is a plea too often employed
+to extenuate what can not be justified.
+
+But if the moral tone of the age had not been low, Catherine and
+Charles would never have contemplated so foul a deed. Truth and honor,
+either among men or women, were held in slight esteem at court; and the
+modern respect for human life was a thing unknown. Might made right.
+Private assassination was a venial crime, if it were not even a lawful
+means of getting rid of an enemy. Even Coligny did not speak of the
+murder of Guise before Orleans in very emphatic terms of condemnation.
+Many Catholics looked upon the massacre as merely a sort of reprisals
+for the blood shed by the Huguenots during the wars, or as a clever
+mode of disabling them forever. This is the tone of Pibrac’s defense
+and of Dorat’s song. The poet congratulates Charles and his brother as
+“crowning the work of ten years’ war.” These wars shall supply a new
+Homer with matter for a new Iliad. But after a struggle of ten years,
+all was not over. Ulysses had not yet taken Troy, and above all had
+not killed the suitors! “One night did this deed. By the counsel of
+another Pallas (Catherine de Medicis) see Pergamus overthrown, Paris
+dead with Gaspar, and lying in blood those who aspired not to the hand
+of Penelope, but to thy crown, O king. Their detestable ambuscades were
+detected, their treachery anticipated. The suitors were slain like
+pigs.”[718]
+
+We need make very little allowance for poetical exaggeration: Dorat
+merely gave bolder expression to what was in many persons’ thoughts.
+Jean le Masle published in 1573 a “Bref Discours sur les Troubles,” in
+which he eulogizes the king and court for their share in the massacre,
+and writes of Coligny:
+
+                  Ce malheureux
+    (Qui mérite cent fois avoir la roue)
+    Fut mis à mort, et son corps par la boue
+    De mainte rue honteusement traîné.[719]
+
+And as if to show to all the world that the massacre was not an
+unpremeditated outbreak of fanaticism, the poet says in another place:
+
+    Il faut punir d’une mort très-cruelle
+    (Comme autrefois) le premier qui grommelle
+    Contre l’église, et nous pourrons encor
+    Voir luire ici le temps et le siècle d’or.
+
+Pierre Charpentier, a renegade Protestant and the murderer of Ramus,
+wrote an apologetic “Lettre à François Portès Candiois,” which has
+been described as a “monster unique of its kind.”[720] The most
+labored defense was that of Arnault Sorbin,[721] entitled “Le Vray
+Resveille-matin des Calvinistes et Publicans François” (1576), and
+dedicated “to the eternal memory and immortality of the soul of the
+late Charles IX.” He says the universe will call the Feast of St.
+Bartholomew “le jour de la grande justice,” adding that “on good days
+good deeds are done.”
+
+Charles IX. had two medals struck: one represents the king sitting on
+the throne and trampling on corpses, with the motto, VIRTUS IN
+REBELLES;[722] the other, Hercules destroying the hydra with fire,
+NE FERRUM TEMNAT SIMUL IGNIB’ OBSTO. On the 27th of August
+the metropolitan bishop ordered a solemn procession for the following
+Sunday to thank God for this happy beginning (de felici incepta
+extirpatione heresium). On the 25th of August, 1583, William Cecil
+wrote to Lord Burghley: “Upon St. Bartholomew’s Day we had here [Paris]
+solemn processions and other tokens of triumph and joy in remembrance
+of the slaughter committed this time eleven years past.”[723] The
+procession was continued for twenty years, until Henry IV. entered
+Paris. In 1602, when the Landgrave of Hesse visited Henry IV. and
+afterward traveled through France, he left Marseilles before the Feast
+of St. Bartholomew to escape the invitation of the Duke of Guise, then
+governor of Provence, who celebrated “that day of mournful memory by
+running at the ring, by balls and banquets.”[724]
+
+Some defended the massacre as a great act of state policy. Among them
+was Gérard de Groesbeck, an enlightened tolerant prelate, who governed
+the principality of Liége. Replying to Alva’s bulletin announcing
+the slaughter, he calls it “a clear sign that our Lord God wishes to
+arrange matters for the greater tranquillity of his service.”[725]
+But Charles evidently felt less confident. Writing to De Cély, the
+president of the Parliament of Paris, he ordered him to keep “_very
+secret_” any papers he might have relative to the arrangements made
+for the massacre, so that they might not get into print, adding that he
+had done the same with the documents in his possession.[726] Does this
+refer to some mystery that has escaped the eyes of the historians of
+the massacre?
+
+When the news of the massacre reached Rome, the exultation among the
+clergy knew no bounds. The Cardinal of Lorraine rewarded the messenger
+with a thousand crowns; the cannon of Saint Angelo thundered forth a
+joyous salute; the bells rang out from every steeple; bonfires turned
+night into day; and Gregory XIII.,[727] attended by the cardinals and
+other ecclesiastical dignitaries, went in long procession to the Church
+of St. Louis, where the Cardinal of Lorraine chanted a _Te Deum_.
+A pompous Latin inscription in gilt letters over the entrance describes
+Charles as an avenging angel sent from heaven (“angelo percussore
+divinitus immisso”) to sweep his kingdom from heretics.[728] A medal
+was struck to commemorate the massacre,[729] and in the Vatican may
+still be seen three frescoes by Vasari[730] describing the attack
+upon the admiral, the king in council plotting the massacre, and the
+massacre itself. Gregory sent Charles the golden rose; and four months
+after the massacre, when humaner feelings might have been supposed to
+have resumed their sway, he listened complacently to the sermon of a
+French priest, the learned but cankered Muretus, who spoke of “that day
+so full of happiness and joy when the most holy father received the
+news and went in solemn state to render thanks to God and St. Louis....
+That night the stars shone with greater lustre, the Seine rolled her
+waters more proudly to cast into the sea the corpses of those unholy
+men;” and so on in a strain of rhapsody unendurable by modern ears.
+
+With such damning evidence as this against the Church of Rome, a
+recent defender of that church vainly contends[731] that the clergy
+had no part in the massacre, and that the rejoicings were over rebels
+cut off in the midst of their rebellion, and not heretics murdered for
+their religion.
+
+                            Periere latebræ
+    Tot scelerum; populo venia est erepta nocenti,
+    Agnovere suos.[732]
+
+There is no retreat for the Church which approved of and justified such
+a crime, even if the victims were political rebels.[733]
+
+Philip II. was, if possible, more delighted than the pope. When
+he received the news, he laughed aloud--for the first time in his
+life;[734] for Charles had not only destroyed heresy, but weakened
+France by the murder of so many veteran soldiers. And Flanders, too,
+was safe![735] He professed to be quite offended with St. Goar and all
+who “tried to make him believe that it had taken place on a sudden
+and without deliberation.”[736] The news reached him on the 12th
+of September, and on the 18th he told the Marquis of Ayamonte, his
+embassador at Paris, to congratulate the king “for a resolution so
+honorable, Christian, and valiant;” and that the news was “one of the
+greatest pleasures he had ever known.”[737] To Catherine, who had
+spoken of “God’s favor in giving her son the means of getting rid of
+his subjects, rebels against Heaven and their king, and of preserving
+himself from their hands,”[738] he replied: “The just punishment
+inflicted on the admiral and his followers was an act of such courage
+and prudence, and of so great service to God’s glory and honor, and
+such universal benefit to Christendom ... that it was the best and most
+delightful news I could receive.”[739] Philip went even farther than
+this, urging the king to exterminate all the heretics in his dominions,
+and offering his services toward so desirable an end. There is a story
+in Brantome that Philip sent the letter containing the first account
+of the massacre to the Admiral of Castile, who received it while at
+supper, and thinking to promote the cheerfulness of his guests, read it
+aloud. The Duke of Infantado, one of the party, asked if Coligny and
+his friends were Christians. He was answered in the affirmative. “How
+is it, then, that being Frenchmen and Christians, they have been killed
+like brutes?” “Gently, duke,” said the admiral, “do you not know that
+war in France means peace for Spain?”
+
+Alva, who was more clear-sighted, condemned the massacre; and Micheli,
+the Venetian embassador, affirms that all thinking men, without
+distinction of creed, protested against the crime, denouncing it as
+an act of unbridled tyranny, which none but an “Italiana Fiorentina e
+di casa dei Medici” could contrive, and none but Italians carry into
+execution.
+
+In England a thrill of horror ran through the nation on receiving
+intelligence of the slaughter. A treaty had just been concluded with
+France, and negotiations were actively proceeding for the marriage of
+Alençon with Elizabeth. On a sudden it was perceived that the nation
+had been duped, and that popery was as dangerous as ever. For some days
+the queen refused to receive the French embassador: at length he was
+summoned to Richmond, where the court was staying. Hume thus describes
+the scene: “A melancholy sorrow sat on every face: silence as the dead
+of night reigned through all the chambers of the royal apartment;
+the courtiers and ladies, clad in deep mourning, were ranged on each
+side, and allowed the embassador to pass without offering him a salute
+or a favorable look, until he was admitted to the queen herself.” La
+Mothe-Fénelon candidly expressed his disapprobation of the murder,
+and declared that he was ashamed to be counted a Frenchman.[740] Lord
+Burghley told him in most undiplomatic language, that “the Paris
+massacre was the most horrible crime which had been committed since
+the crucifixion of Christ.... It was a deed of unexampled infamy.”
+Sir Thomas Smith wrote to Walsingham: “Grant that the admiral and his
+friends were guilty, what did the innocent men, women, and children at
+Lyons? What did the sucking children and their mothers at Rouen, and
+Caen, and elsewhere? _Will God sleep?_” But more plainly still
+spoke Knox to Du Croc, the French embassador: “Go, tell your king,”
+said the bold apostle of Scotland, “go tell your master, that God’s
+vengeance shall never depart from him nor from his house; that his name
+shall remain an execration to posterity; and that none proceeding from
+his loins shall enjoy the kingdom in peace unless he repent.”[741]
+
+In Germany the sense of horror was hardly less than in England. The
+Emperor Maximilian II. thus expressed his feelings on the matter: “As
+for that strange action so tyrannically committed upon the admiral and
+his confederates, I can by no means approve it, and it is with great
+sorrow of heart I am informed that my son-in-law suffered himself
+to consent to so foul a massacre. Now, though I know that others
+govern more than he, yet that will not excuse the fact or palliate
+the villainy.... He has so stained his honor with this piece of work,
+that he will not easily wash out the spot. May God forgive those who
+have had a hand in it; for I very much apprehend that in course of
+time the same treatment will be returned for them. Matters of religion
+are not to be ordered or decided by the sword.”[742] When Henry of
+Anjou was on the way to Poland, he stopped at Heidelberg, where the
+elector-palatine, when showing him over the castle, drew his attention
+to two pictures: one a portrait of Coligny, another a representation
+of his death. “Of all the French nobles it has been my good fortune to
+know,” said he, “I esteem the original of this portrait to have been
+the most zealous for the glory and welfare of his country, and his loss
+is a public calamity which his most Christian majesty will never be
+able to repair.”
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XV.
+
+                          THE CLOSING SCENE.
+
+                             [1572–1574.]
+
+   Reaction--Tolerant Protestations of Government--Walsingham’s
+   disbelief and caution--Renewal of Civil War--Mission
+   of Cardinal Orsini--Siege of Rochelle--Honorable terms
+   of Capitulation--Siege of Sancerre--Famine--Horrible
+   scenes--Capitulation--Meeting at Montauban--Troubled state of
+   France--Intrigues of Alençon--Shrove-Tuesday plot--La Mole
+   and Coconnas executed--Charles falls ill--Conversation with
+   Henry of Navarre--Charles’s visions--His Huguenot nurse--Her
+   exhortations--The King’s remorse--His dying words--Suspicions of
+   Poison--His character--His married life--Judgment of Posterity.
+
+
+The story of the massacre has been told, but this history would be
+incomplete if it were not continued to the death of the principal
+character in that memorable tragedy. As kings are esteemed great and
+glorious by the noble deeds done in their reigns, so must they bear the
+odium of the crimes perpetrated under the cloak of their authority. A
+few pages will suffice for a brief record of the last twenty months of
+the life of the most wretched Charles.
+
+The court had gained nothing by their treachery. The German Protestant
+powers were alienated, and the English nation shrank in horror from the
+French alliance. Charles must now conciliate Spain, a power which he
+had always disliked, and which he now hated with all the intensity of
+impotence. Besides which, a reaction had set in: the influence of the
+Moderate party once more began to be felt. “This manner of proceeding,”
+wrote Walsingham, on the 13th September, “is by the Catholics
+themselves utterly condemned.” Cardinal Fabio Orsini (Des Ursins),
+whom the pope had sent to congratulate the king on the massacre, and
+urge him to accept the decrees of the Council of Trent, was surprised
+to find that the atrocities of August were not thought of so highly
+in France as at Rome. The general feelings of the people, which had
+been surprised, had recovered their sway, and they were ashamed of
+themselves and of their rulers, who had played upon their loyalty.
+
+Catherine had gained nothing. She was so entirely at the mercy of the
+Guise faction, which consisted of all that was most violent in France,
+that she was forced to follow where they led. She was fully conscious
+of the terrible mistake she had made, and bitterly must she have
+repented it in after years; but now her sole aim was to re-assure the
+disheartened Huguenots, and soften the impression which the news of the
+massacre had created in foreign courts. Her embassador in London was
+instructed to make the most lavish protestations of tolerance; and in
+Paris both Catherine and Charles tried to convince Walsingham that they
+were hurried away to the committal of a deed necessary to their safety,
+but entirely unconnected with religion. The far-seeing Englishman was
+not to be deceived by their fair professions; but wrote home again
+and again, that “now there is neither regard had to word, writing, or
+edict,” and that “nothing is meant but extremity toward those of the
+religion.”[743]
+
+During the massacre and for some time after it, the Huguenots were so
+panic-stricken that they seemed incapable of the commonest actions
+for preserving their lives. But as soon as they recovered from their
+consternation, they once more ran to arms, and France was again exposed
+to the very evils which the massacre was intended to make impossible.
+Civil war now became justifiable in the eyes of the Reformed party;
+for horrible as it might be to draw the sword against a brother, it
+seemed less horrible than to sit still and suffer that brother to cut
+your throat. They were not fighting against the crown, but against a
+tyrant who had stained his hands with the blood of his people. It was
+a nice distinction, but distinctions equally nice were drawn at the
+commencement of our Great Rebellion. Each party strove to justify their
+appeal to arms by showing that law and justice were on their side. When
+the citizens of Nismes were summoned to admit the royal troops, they
+were told that firmness alone could save them, and they kept their
+gates shut. Rochelle and Sancerre, Aubenas, Sommières, Milhaud, Anduze,
+and scores of other towns, large and small, did the same, so that in
+a short time the whole country from the Channel to the Mediterranean
+was again divided into two hostile camps. The Protestants were so
+exasperated and so desperate, that compromise seemed impossible.
+Unhappily, most of their leaders had perished in the massacre. La Noue
+was still left them--himself a host; but Henry of Navarre and the
+Prince of Condé were prisoners at court. Still there was no shrinking
+from the unequal strife: the Huguenot veterans left their farms and
+their shops, and rallied round the gentry of their neighborhood. But
+their force was small, while the king was soon able to put four armies
+in the field, one of which was marched against Sancerre, and another
+against Rochelle. Biron, and afterward Anjou, commanded the latter,
+which was by far the best appointed. It was composed of veteran troops,
+and counted the Dukes of Guise and Alençon, Henry and Condé, among its
+officers.
+
+Rochelle was admirably adapted for a place of refuge where the
+Huguenots could make a last stand in defense of religious freedom.
+On the land side it was protected by marshes, which allowed of only
+one narrow approach from the north. Toward the sea it was hardly more
+accessible. The stormy nature of the coast prevented a successful
+blockade, and the gales that drove off a hostile fleet were favorable
+to the entrance of friends. The city itself was fortified according to
+the best rules of the military art of that day, with broad ditches,
+thick ramparts, and threatening bastions. But strong as it was by its
+position among the marshes of Poitou, it had been made stronger still
+during the interval left its inhabitants by the tardy and irresolute
+movements of the court. The garrison consisted of 1500 veteran soldiers
+and 2000 well-trained citizens, the stores of all kinds were ample, and
+aid was coming from England. The commander of the city was the brave
+and upright La Noue--the _chevalier sans peur et sans reproche_ of
+the Huguenot party, and not unworthy successor of the great Coligny.
+Being a prisoner in the hands of Alva at the time of the massacre,
+he fortunately escaped death; and, on his restoration to liberty, he
+went to court, where the king received him with open arms and gave him
+the confiscated estates of Teligny. When the Rochellers closed their
+gates, he was commissioned by Charles IX. to treat with them and try to
+procure their submission. The result was not what the king expected,
+for La Noue joined the citizens, and was made governor. Here, while
+fighting bravely and doing his best to preserve the city, he never lost
+an opportunity of recommending conciliatory measures.
+
+The Catholic party made it a point of honor to reduce the capital of
+Protestantism. The siege was begun with a vigor that would have honored
+a better cause. From the hills which commanded the defenses a continual
+storm of fire was poured upon the devoted city. Assault after assault
+was gallantly made and repelled with equal spirit and determination.
+Even the women mounted the walls, cheering the combatants, tending
+the wounded, carrying ammunition, water and food to the soldiers, and
+sometimes with a boldness beyond their sex wielding the weapons that
+had fallen from dying hands. These alone, occasionally aided by the
+ministers, hurled from huge caldrons floods of boiling water and melted
+pitch upon the assailants in the breach. For five months Anjou attacked
+the place in vain--each month diminishing the ardor of the besiegers.
+
+The siege would probably have been more closely pressed (instead of
+being relaxed) as time went on, had there been unity of purpose in the
+royal army. Cabals were formed among the officers, some of whom refused
+to obey the orders of a man who was openly charged with the murder of
+the admiral. Strange stories circulated through the camp. Men told one
+another with a shudder how one day, when the Duke of Guise was playing
+at hazard, blood dropped from his hand as he threw the dice on the
+table.[744] But there was perfect harmony among the besieged, although
+La Noue had quitted the city where his courage, military ability, and
+simple character had been poorly appreciated. The pastors and he were
+constantly at variance; they thwarted his plans and excited the people
+against him. Brave as were the Rochellers, they must have yielded at
+last but for the election of Anjou to the crown of Poland. This made
+him listen readily to pacific counsels, and on the 11th July, 1573,
+a treaty was concluded by which the inhabitants surrendered on the
+following conditions: That there should be a complete amnesty for the
+past; that the cities of Montauban, Nismes, and La Rochelle should
+retain their old privileges; that the Reformed should enjoy freedom
+of worship, provided they met in small numbers and unarmed; that the
+gentry might celebrate marriages and baptisms in their own houses,
+provided not more than ten persons were present; that all prisoners for
+religious offenses should be set at large; and that all who desired
+to leave the kingdom might sell their goods freely and go where they
+pleased, except into enemy’s country. Such good terms might not have
+been obtained but for two things: the siege had cost 40,000 men in
+battle or by disease, and the king had neither money nor credit to pay
+his troops.
+
+When the inhabitants of Sancerre heard that they were not included
+in the treaty of Rochelle, they determined to perish rather than
+surrender. The little town was excepted, because the Catholics imagined
+its fall to be near and inevitable; but another motive was assigned,
+namely, that as the city belonged to a particular seigneur, the king
+(who had suddenly become scrupulous) would not prejudice the rights
+of the superior lord. In January, 1573, an army of 5000 infantry, 500
+horse, and 1600 sappers sat down before this petty town, whose garrison
+consisted of about 800 men. After summoning the place to surrender,
+La Châtre opened the trenches, and from two batteries of sixteen guns
+discharged 2000 shot in two months. By the middle of March he had made
+a breach 300 paces wide, but failed to carry it by storm. Drawing his
+lines still closer, he entirely cut off all external relief, so that
+in the beginning of April the towns-folk began to run short of food.
+They eat the asses and mules, and afterward fell to horses, dogs,
+cats, mice, moles, and leather, and, sinking lower still, tried horns,
+harness, wild roots, and parchment. “I have seen some served up,”
+writes an eye-witness, “on which the writing was still visible, and one
+might read from the pieces placed upon the table to be eaten.” By the
+end of June, three-fourths of the inhabitants had no bread to eat. Some
+attempted substitutes of flax-seed, others of all kinds of herbs, mixed
+with bran, others even tried straw, nut-shells, and slate, by which
+the stomach was distended and the pangs of hunger were temporarily
+assuaged. Grease and tallow served for soups and for frying: “Yea,
+some (a strange thing and never heard of) labored to encounter the
+cruelty of their hunger by the excrements of horses and men.” But
+there is worse to be told. On the 19th June a laboring man and his
+wife “satisfied their hunger with the head and entrails of their young
+daughter, about three years old.” They were tried and executed for the
+murder, for which there was the less excuse, as that very day they had
+been “relieved with a pottage made of herbs and wine.”[745] The young
+children under twelve almost all died. A boy only ten years old, seeing
+his parents weeping over him, said: “Mother, why do you cry because
+I am hungry? I do not ask you for bread, for I know you have none.
+But as it is God’s will that I should die, I must be content. Did not
+holy Lazarus suffer hunger?” And with these words, adds De Serres, “he
+gave back his soul to God.” The historian sums up in this short but
+pregnant sentence: “During the siege, fourscore men died by the sword,
+but of starvation above five hundred.” On the 19th August, through
+the intervention of the Polish deputies, the inhabitants were granted
+honorable terms of capitulation.[746]
+
+But the Huguenots were not intimidated. On the anniversary of the
+massacre in Paris, they assembled at Montauban, and demanded the strict
+fulfillment of the treaty of St. Germains. They went farther, indeed,
+and required, among other things, that the open exercise of their
+religion should be permitted everywhere in France; that they should
+pay tithes to their own ministers only; that such of the clergy as
+had embraced the Reformed doctrines and married should be allowed the
+privileges of citizenship; that the authors and perpetrators of the
+August massacres should be punished; and that a parliament or supreme
+court of justice, composed of Huguenots only, should be appointed to
+try all causes in which they were concerned.
+
+When their petition was presented to the king, he listened and made
+no remark; but Catherine haughtily replied: “If Condé were alive and
+in the heart of France with 100,000 horse and foot, he would not ask
+one-half of what these people demand.” Their prayer was refused;
+and had it been granted, we may doubt whether the condition of the
+Huguenots would have been much improved. France seemed to be given over
+to all the evils that misgovernment, which is rarely unaccompanied
+with other and more damning vices, can bring upon a nation. Although
+the Duke of Anjou had been elected King of Poland, and had departed
+for his kingdom, his evil influence remained behind. The court was the
+arena of the most disgraceful intrigues: honor among men, chastity
+among women, had become unmeaning words. The Duke of Alençon, a poor
+weak fool, gaining courage by the absence of the more resolute Anjou,
+entered into all sorts of schemes to prevent his brother’s return
+to France and secure the reversion of Charles’s throne to himself.
+Two parties looked up to him as their head; the Politicians and the
+Huguenots. The threads of the intrigues, in which he was a mere
+stalking-horse, are difficult to unravel, and it is scarcely within
+the scope of this history to make the attempt. It is sufficient to
+say that the result was a plot for a general rising of the Huguenot
+party on Shrove-Tuesday, 22d February, 1574, with the object of
+driving Catherine from court, excluding Anjou from the succession, and
+making Monsieur--as Alençon was now called--lieutenant-general of the
+kingdom and heir to the throne. Great was the consternation at St.
+Germains when the news arrived that La Noue had surprised Lusignan;
+that Fontenay, Royau, Talmont, Coulombier, and other places had opened
+their gates to the Huguenots; and that a body of cavalry under Guitry
+was almost at the palace gates. All fled; Charles alone refusing to
+move: “Why could they not have waited for my death?” he asked, as
+he lay on his sick-bed--to him the bed of death. The ministers and
+their followers hurried away as soon as possible, some in disguise,
+some by land, others by the river, others by circuitous routes.
+Agrippa d’Aubigné gives an amusing though exaggerated description of
+the “flight of the courtiers.” It was a race who should reach Paris
+first, he says. “Half-way from St. Germains, the cardinals of Bourbon,
+Lorraine, and Guise, with Birague the chancellor and Morvilliers, were
+met mounted on spirited chargers, grasping the pommels of their saddles
+to keep themselves steady; and feeling as much affrighted at their
+horses as they did at the enemy. They were followed by two retainers
+only of all their sumptuous trains.” The movement ended in complete
+failure, and cost the lives of several persons, the best known being
+La Mole and Coconnas, whose fate alone has rescued them from oblivion.
+Joseph Boniface, Lord of La Mole, was a vain, frivolous intriguer, whom
+Charles IX. so detested that he is reported to have twice commanded
+Anjou to strangle the wretched sycophant who preyed upon the weakness
+of Alençon.[747] He is said also to have been in the good graces of
+Queen Margaret, who desired his bleeding head to be brought to her.
+On seeing the hideous sight, she burst into a violent transport of
+rage and grief, kissing the lifeless features and bathing them with
+her tears.[748] Coconnas was a Piedmontese noble and captain of the
+guard to Monsieur. When on the scaffold, he stamped with vexation,
+exclaiming to the spectators: “You see how it is; the little ones are
+caught, and the big ones are left.” There was an attempt to implicate
+Henry of Navarre in the plot; and though it failed,[749] he was still
+kept prisoner at the court. Marshals Montmorency and Cossé were in like
+manner detained in the Bastile for many months. The charlatan Ruggieri,
+who lent himself to any vile scheme, was sent to the galleys, but was
+soon released by Catherine, and rewarded by the gift of the rich abbey
+of St. Mahé.
+
+But the end was at hand. Charles, whose health had been slowly
+declining since the massacre, now became seriously ill. He suffered
+extreme pain, and had frequent fainting fits; yet from hatred of Anjou
+and abhorrence of his mother, he still clung to the royal power.
+A few days before his death, when the English embassador, Leyton,
+arrived at Vincennes, he insisted upon giving him audience, and for
+three-quarters of an hour listened patiently to the envoy’s harangue,
+replying to it in a few pertinent remarks. Much of his suffering was
+mental; his conscience was smitten with an incurable wound. As he felt
+his last fatal illness coming on, he sent for Henry of Navarre, who
+had to pass through the vaults of the castle between a double line
+of guards under arms ready to dispatch him. Henry started back a few
+paces, clapped his hand on his sword, and refused to advance. It was a
+sensational trick of Catherine’s. Being assured there was no danger,
+he proceeded and entered the king’s room, where Charles received him
+affectionately. “I have always loved you,” he said; “and to your care
+I confide my wife and daughter--I commend them to your love.” The king
+went on cautioning him to distrust--: the name was not distinctly heard
+by the persons in the chamber; but Catherine, who still hovered like an
+evil genius over her son, remarked: “Sire, you should not say that.”
+“Why not?” asked Charles, “is it not true?” Probably he was speaking of
+his brother of Anjou. Henry had no opportunity of obeying the king’s
+dying injunctions: the child did not live, and the mother returned to
+Germany.
+
+Charles could not sleep at night, and often when he had closed his
+eyes from very weakness, he would start up, exclaiming that he
+heard strange sounds in the air. Music was employed to soothe his
+irritability, and the voice of his favorite chorister, Lassus, or
+Étienne le Roi, chanting the penitential Psalms, often lulled him to
+sleep. He saw nothing but blood around him, and the ghosts of those
+he had caused to be murdered stood threateningly at his bedside. As
+his malady increased, he began to spit and vomit blood; and in the
+paroxysms of his pain, the blood would ooze through his skin at every
+pore[750]--a symptom which the Huguenots regarded as a mark of the
+divine displeasure.
+
+His nurse, Philippe Richarde, was a Huguenot, who had reared him
+when an infant, and whom he loved to the last. One night as she sat
+watching by his bedside, she heard him sobbing, and as she drew aside
+the curtains to learn what was the matter, he exclaimed through his
+tears: “Oh nurse, my dear nurse, what bloodshed and murder! Oh! that
+I should have followed such wicked advice. Pardon me, O God, and have
+mercy on me.... What shall I do? I am lost.... I am lost.” The nurse
+soothed him, and bade him trust in the Lord. “The blood is upon those
+who caused you to shed it,” she added. “If you repent of the murders,
+God will not impute them to you, but cover them with the mantle of his
+Son’s righteousness, in which alone you must seek refuge. But for God’s
+sake let your majesty cease weeping.” Hereupon she went to get a dry
+handkerchief, for the king’s was all wet with tears. When he had taken
+it, he made a sign to her to go away and let him sleep.[751]
+
+The next day Catherine hurried into the sick-chamber with good news:
+Montgomery was a prisoner in her hands--Montgomery, whom she had
+never forgiven as the innocent cause of her husband’s death. But to
+Charles all such earthly passions were now indifferent. “Madame,” he
+said to his mother, “such things affect me no longer: I am dying.”
+On Whitsunday, 30th May, 1574, Charles received the last rites of
+the Church from the hands of Sorbin and the learned Amyot, Bishop
+of Auxerre.[752] Catherine, Alençon, Henry, and Margaret, with the
+officers of state, were present, and partook of the consecrated
+elements. It does not appear that his queen was there, but we learn
+that she was often seen kneeling, and in tears, before the altar of the
+castle chapel, where “she was still to be found when the soul of her
+husband and lord passed from this world.” After confession, Charles
+rallied a little, and had strength to direct his ministers to obey the
+queen-mother as they would have obeyed himself. But his weakness soon
+returned: he breathed with such difficulty that he could scarcely bid
+a tender farewell to his mother, after which he faintly whispered: “If
+Jesus my Saviour should number me among his redeemed!”--a late and
+involuntary testimony to the exhortations of his pious nurse. Thrice he
+repeated these words, and then spoke no more.
+
+There were rumors of poison, and people remembered how Catherine,
+in bidding farewell to Anjou, told him to be of good cheer, for he
+would not be away long. Poisoning in that day had been raised to the
+dignity of a science; and ignorant as the alchemists were of the true
+principles of their art, they had extorted certain secrets from nature
+which modern chemists can not recover. The criminal annals of recent
+years do not permit us to doubt of the efficacy of slow poisoning;
+and the symptoms under which Charles suffered strongly remind us of
+those produced by minute doses of hemlock alternating with arsenic.
+Unfortunately, in those days, detection was difficult, because tests
+for poison were unknown. There were so many interested in getting rid
+of the king, that his early death was regarded as a certainty. If he
+had lived, the influence of his amiable wife might have grown stronger,
+he might have thrown off his mother’s trammels, and placing himself
+in the hands of the Politicians, might have driven Catherine and her
+friends from power. Then what would have become of Henry of Anjou,
+now reigning in barbarous and distant Poland? Ambrose Paré declared
+the king’s death was caused by injuries done to his lungs from the
+immoderate use of his hunting-horn in the chase.[753] The explanation
+was rejected at the time, and although we are unwilling to believe
+that a mother would coldly speculate upon the death of her son and
+connive at his murder, Catherine never was the woman to allow scruples
+of conscience or morality to stand in her way. There is a well-known
+anecdote of Louis XIII., who, on being cautioned against too violent
+exercise and frequent use of the hunting-horn, replied: “Stuff! Charles
+IX. died after dining with Gondi, immediately after a quarrel with his
+mother.”
+
+Thus died Charles at the early age of twenty-four, rejoicing that
+he had left no son to wear that crown which had wrought him so much
+sorrow; for, he added from his own bitter experience, “France needs a
+man to govern her, and not a babe in swaddling-clothes, with a woman
+for his support.”[754] How differently soever his character may be
+estimated by different writers, there are some points on which all
+must agree. His virtues were his own, his vices the result of his
+training.[755] He had a great capacity of affection. His mistress,
+Marie Touchet, and the boy she bore him were anxiously cared for as
+he lay dying. His love for his mother was strong, but mingled with
+fear: he submitted to her, not merely as the weak mind submits to the
+stronger, but because he felt that she loved him after her animal
+fashion, and that it was his duty to honor her. We know but little of
+his married life, but from the few glimpses we catch of it, he seems
+to have been attached to his young wife Elizabeth, and she to him. When
+she heard of the murders of St. Bartholomew’s Day, she asked, with
+horror in every feature: “Does the king, my husband, know of this?”
+On being told that Charles had commanded it, she burst into tears,
+exclaiming: “Oh God! what councilors hast thou given him! Pardon this
+crime, I implore thee, oh God! for if thou shouldst exact vengeance, it
+is a sin never to be forgiven.” Thereupon she retired into her oratory,
+and passed the remainder of the day in prayer, and refused to join the
+procession that traversed the blood-stained streets. There are coarse
+stories recorded of the last days of Charles, which (if they were true)
+would throw great doubt upon his conjugal fidelity; but they are mere
+back-stairs scandal.
+
+Charles IX. was a compound of the most opposite qualities. He was a
+firm friend to the few whom he loved; fond of rough pleasures; not
+without a taste for poetry and music, and master of that graceful
+eloquence so captivating on the lips of princes. But he had great
+defects, made greater by the peculiarity of his character, which
+his friends, both true and false, knew so well how to play upon. He
+could be as violent in action as in language: his anger was fearful
+to withstand. He could be false and treacherous, so that his admirers
+actually praise him for his duplicity.[756] A contemporary Juvenal
+describes him as
+
+    Plus cruel que Néron, plus rusé que Tibère ...
+    Sans parole, sans foi, sinon à se venger,
+    Exécrable joueur et public adultère ...
+    Il mourut enfermé comme un chien enragé.
+
+For three hundred years Charles has been the execration of mankind, and
+after carefully weighing the evidence of contemporaries, the historian
+can find no solid grounds for reversing the judgment. But he was
+not the chief criminal. French writers, even while they condemn the
+barbarous deed that has cast so foul a stain upon their annals, may
+justly plead that the chief contriver was an Italian woman brought up
+in the school of Machiavelli, and that the chief instruments were all
+foreigners.
+
+
+
+
+                                INDEX.
+
+
+              A.
+
+    Agriculture in France, 116.
+
+    Agrippa d’Aubigné, 85.
+
+    his defense of the war, 200.
+
+    Aix, Huguenots hanged at, 184.
+
+    Alençon, Huguenots uninjured at, 448.
+      Duke of, proposed as a husband for Elizabeth, 356.
+        his partiality for Coligny, 435.
+        his intrigues, 478.
+
+    Alessandrino (nuncio), audience at Blois, 347.
+      failure of his embassy, 347.
+
+    Alva, Duke of, at Bayonne, 249.
+      his opinion on the state of France, 253.
+      Tarquinian advice, 255, 272.
+      marches through Burgundy, 266.
+      his opinion of Cardinal Lorraine, 357.
+
+    Amboise, tumult of, 81.
+      act of grace of, 86.
+      pacification and edict of, 224.
+
+    Amiens, judicious arrangements at, 178.
+
+    Andelot offends Henry II., 68.
+      introduces reform in Brittany, 91.
+      urges war, 267.
+      death of, 301.
+
+    Angers, persecutions at, 34.
+      massacre at, 448.
+
+    Angoulême, the bastard of, 409.
+
+    Anjou, Prince of, threatens Condé, 266.
+      made lieutenant-general, 278.
+
+    Anjou commands royal army, 294.
+      wins battle of Jarnac, 296.
+        Moncontour, 305.
+      proposed marriage with Elizabeth, 332, 354.
+      his account of the massacre, 375, 383, 386, 387, 394, 396,
+          405, 406.
+      his fear of the king, 376.
+      disappointment at Maurevel’s failure, 383.
+      visit to the wounded admiral, 384.
+      share of the plunder, 467.
+      scene with the elector-palatine, 470.
+
+    Anthony of Navarre, 66.
+      his hesitation, 103.
+      invited to Orleans, 105.
+      plot to murder him, 108.
+      his apostasy, 185.
+      justifies the Vassy massacre, 190.
+      death of, 215.
+
+    Army, French, in sixteenth century, 126.
+
+    Arnay-le-Duc, battle of, 312.
+
+    Aurillac, murders at, 178.
+      Protestant retaliation, 310.
+
+    Avallon, chatelaine of, 239.
+
+
+               B.
+
+    Banquet in sixteenth century, 121.
+
+    Baptisms, forced, 287.
+
+    Bar, the proctor of, 239.
+
+    Barbeville burned, 76.
+
+    Battle of Dreux, 217.
+      St. Denis, 272.
+      Jarnac, 296.
+
+    Battle of Roche-Abeille, 302.
+      Moncontour, 304.
+      Arnay-le-Duc, 312.
+
+    Bayeux, Huguenot sacrilege at, 240.
+
+    Bayonne, the meeting at, 248.
+      amusements at, 249.
+      diplomatic discussions at, 253.
+
+    Bearnese refuse to suppress the preaching, 445.
+
+    Beauvais, Easter riots at, 156.
+
+    Behm, the admiral’s murderer, 408, 409.
+
+    Berquin, Louis de, burned, 5.
+
+    Beza at Poissy, 167.
+      audience of queen-mother, 168.
+      address to the king, 170.
+
+    Birague, his origin, 320.
+
+    Blois, edict of, 73.
+      violence of Huguenots at, 156.
+      cruelties at capture of, 210.
+      festivities at, 347.
+
+    Bois Aubry, Abbot of, secretary of clergy, his speech, 154.
+
+    Bordeaux, the massacre at, 451.
+
+    Bouchavannes, a traitor, 402.
+
+    Bricquemaut of Villemangis, executed at Amboise, 82.
+
+    Brigandage in France, 115.
+
+    Briquemaut, Colonel, his necklace, 288.
+      rash language to Charles, 341.
+      hanged, 442.
+
+    Brissac, governor of Paris, 197.
+      death of, 301.
+
+    Brugière burned, 19.
+
+
+              C.
+
+    Cahors, bloody riot at, 178.
+
+    Calvin and his Institutes, 6.
+      defense of Reformers, 10.
+      letter to the prisoners, 43.
+
+    Cambresis, treaty of, 48.
+
+    Carcassonne, sacrilege at, 156.
+
+    Carriages introduced, 121.
+
+    Castelnau, trial and execution, 82.
+
+    Castelnaudary, Palm Sunday at, 238.
+
+    Catherine de Medicis, early life, 23.
+      skill in business, 24.
+      grief at Henry’s death, 59.
+      letter to her daughter, 146.
+      policy, 147.
+      instructions to Cardinal Ferrara, 166.
+      letters to Rome and the emperor, 172.
+      unpopularity with Romanists, 177.
+      bold reply to Chantonnay, 186.
+      summons Condé to her assistance, 192.
+      defies Anthony of Navarre, 193.
+      message to Condé, 198.
+      attempts at negotiation, 204.
+      goes abroad masked, 208.
+      is present at siege of Rouen, 213.
+      exultation at victory of Dreux, 219.
+      advice to Charles, 245.
+      diplomacy at Bayonne, 248.
+      letter on the papal jurisdiction, 257.
+      suspected of heresy, 286.
+      desires treaty to be observed, 336.
+      reception of Coligny, 355.
+      described by Joan of Navarre, 349.
+      opposes war in Flanders, 362.
+      interview with Charles at Montpipeau, 363.
+      plots Coligny’s death, 377.
+      at his bedside, 385.
+      plots a general massacre, 389.
+      consultation at the Tuileries, 390.
+      reveals a pretended Huguenot plot, 394.
+      extorts king’s consent to massacre, 397.
+      checks the king’s irresolution, 405.
+      letter to Strozzi, 446.
+      message to Alva, 460.
+      discovers her mistake, 472.
+      reply to the Montauban demands, 477.
+      exultation at Montgomery’s capture, 481.
+
+    Caumont, Duc de la Force, his singular escape, 432.
+
+    Cavaignes hanged, 442.
+
+    Cevennes, march through the, 312.
+
+    Chabot protects the Huguenots, 456.
+
+    Chambord, ordinance of, 78.
+
+    Chambres ardentes, 33.
+
+    Chantonnay complains of toleration, 161.
+
+    Chapot, Jean, on the rack, 16.
+
+    Charles IX., his accession, 145.
+      opens the States-General, 150.
+      amnesties heretical prisoners, 157.
+      issues letters patent of April, 157.
+      acts in a court masque, 161.
+      presides over colloquy of Poissy, 169.
+      calls an Assembly of Notables, 175.
+      Triumvirate plot to seize him, 192.
+      brought from Fontainebleau to Paris, 193.
+      declared of age, 244.
+      reply to Alva, 256, 265, 323.
+      reproaches Coligny, 264.
+      plot to seize king, 269.
+      savage letter to Gordes, 271.
+      letters to Condé and Humières, 284, 317.
+      at siege of St. Jean d’Angely, 307.
+      advice to justices of Gap, 317.
+      marriage, 322, 324.
+      mad sports, 323.
+      La Chasse Royale, 323.
+      supports William of Orange, 331.
+      invites Coligny to court, 333.
+      distrust of Anjou, 334.
+      attachment to Teligny, 334.
+      reception of Coligny, 336.
+      letter to Duke of Savoy, 337.
+      reception of Queen Joan, 345.
+      answer to Alessandrino, 347.
+      letter to Pius V. on Margaret’s marriage, 351.
+      promises help to Prince Louis, 358.
+      goes to Montpipeau, 362.
+      offers Coligny a guard, 376, 403.
+      jealous of Anjou, 377.
+      wrath on hearing of attack on Coligny, 318.
+      threatens to punish the assassins, 382.
+      visits Coligny, 384.
+      tells his mother what Coligny said to him, 387.
+      letters to pacify the Huguenots, 393.
+      consents reluctantly to the massacre, 394.
+      tries to save Rochefoucault, 400.
+      irresolution, 405.
+      looks from a window at the murders, 414.
+      fires at the fugitive Huguenots, 426.
+      remorse and visions, 436.
+      justifies the massacre before the parliament, 438.
+      present at execution of Briquemaut, 442.
+      orders to provincial governors, 447.
+      medals to commemorate massacre, 464.
+      conspiracy to dethrone him, 478.
+      last illness and death, 480.
+
+    Charpentier’s apology for the massacre, 464.
+
+    Chateaubriant, edict of, 33.
+
+    Chatillon, Cardinal of, assaulted, 156.
+      deliberations at, 267.
+
+    Church property, its confiscation proposed, 165.
+
+    Clergy, corruption of, 3.
+      their power and wealth, 127.
+      abusive sermons, preached by, 90, 286, 327.
+
+    Coconnas executed, 479.
+
+    Cognac besieged, 301.
+
+    Coligny, Gaspard de, 67.
+      advice at Amboise, 86.
+        Fontainebleau, 99.
+        Orleans, 112.
+      his wife’s advice, 196.
+      saves the army at Dreux, 218.
+      charged with plotting the murder of Guise, 222.
+      letter on his son’s death, 228.
+      reconciliation with Guises at Moulins, 260.
+      reproached by king, 264.
+      dissuades from war, 268.
+      skill and discipline, 272.
+      death of his wife, 280.
+      visit to Tanlay, 291.
+      flight to Rochelle, 291.
+      defeated at Jarnac, 296.
+      victory at Roche-Abeille, 302.
+      wounded at Moncontour, 305.
+      letter to his children, 306.
+      marches to the south, 308.
+      victory at Arnay-le-Duc, 312.
+      remonstrance with Charles, 333.
+      marries Jacqueline of Montbel, 334.
+      arrival at court, 336.
+      influence with Charles, 340.
+      urges war with Flanders, 344.
+      memoir on proposed war, 358.
+      letter to William of Orange promising aid, 362.
+      warnings and cautions neglected, 367.
+      remarks at Henry’s wedding, 373.
+      last letter to his wife, 375.
+      wounded by an assassin, 379.
+      last interview with Charles, 384.
+      murdered by Behm, 408.
+      outrages to his corpse, 411.
+
+    Combelle robbed of his dispatches, 454.
+
+    Condé, Henry, Prince of, life saved by Elizabeth’s
+        intercession, 434.
+      abjuration, 444.
+
+    Condé, Louis, Prince of, 67.
+      invited to Orleans, 105.
+      reception at court, 105.
+      trial, 107.
+      attempts to rescue king, 193.
+      speech at Meaux, 196.
+      appointed leader of Huguenot force, 197.
+      manifesto to the Protestant churches, 198.
+      made prisoner at Dreux, 218.
+      claims to be appointed lieutenant-general, 266.
+      battle of St. Denis, 272.
+      marches to meet the reiters, 275.
+      flight to Rochelle, 291.
+      killed at Jarnac, 296.
+
+    Confession of faith of French Reformers, 54.
+
+    Cornaton asks king for a guard for Coligny, 391.
+      escapes from the massacre, 407.
+
+    Correro, France in 1571, 323.
+
+    Cosseins appointed to guard Coligny’s house, 393.
+      assists in the murder, 407.
+
+    Council proposed, 92.
+
+    Court-masques, 161, 250.
+
+    Crespy, treaty of, 11.
+
+    Crozier and his blood-stained comrade, 425.
+
+    Cypierre murdered, 288.
+
+
+              D.
+
+    Damville at Nismes, 276.
+
+    D’Aubigné at Amboise, 85.
+
+    De Crussol’s account of Huguenots, 159.
+
+    Delavoye, martyrdom of, 8.
+
+    De Nançay, captain of the guard, 401.
+      protects Margaret, 416.
+
+    De Pilles, his foolish threats, 388.
+      murdered in the Louvre, 415.
+
+    De Retz, his origin, 319.
+      rapid rise, 320.
+      voice against proposed massacre, 397.
+
+    Des Adrets, his ferocious retaliation, 231.
+      description of, by De Thou, 232.
+
+    Desmarais, his stout defense, 307.
+
+    De Thou eulogizes the king’s severity, 440.
+      private opinion of the massacre, 441.
+
+    Diana of Poitiers, character of, 26.
+
+    Dieppe, its wealth and commerce, 141.
+
+    Dieppe, ferocity of Huguenots at, 240.
+      Huguenots punished, 310.
+      the governor’s speech at, 458.
+
+    Discontent in France, 77.
+
+    Dloet burned, 17.
+
+    Dorat’s congratulations on the massacre, 453.
+
+    Dramatic amusements, 129.
+
+    Dress of people, 119.
+
+    Dreux, battle of, 218.
+
+    Du Bourg, his speech in Parliament, 51.
+      trial and execution, 74.
+
+    Duplessis-Mornay’s memoir on the Flemish war, 358.
+      escapes from the massacre, 430.
+      escape of his wife, 431.
+
+
+              E.
+
+    Ecouen, edict of, 56.
+
+    Edict of Fontainebleau, 8.
+      Chateaubriant, 33.
+      Ecouen, 56.
+      Villars-Cotteret, 73.
+      Blois, 73.
+      Chambord, 78.
+      Amboise, 86.
+      Romorantin, 88.
+      April, 157.
+      July, 158.
+      January, 183.
+      St. Germains, 314.
+
+    Elector-palatine extols Coligny, 470.
+
+    Electoral excitement, 149.
+
+    Elizabeth, Queen of France, her marriage, 322, 324.
+      enters Paris, 325.
+      intercedes to save Condé, 434.
+      affection for Charles IX., 482.
+      horror at the massacre, 484.
+
+    Elizabeth of England, proposed marriage with Anjou, 332, 354.
+      Alençon, 356.
+
+    Elizabeth of England, cold reception of the French embassador, 468.
+
+    England, treaty with, 355.
+      horror at the massacre, 468.
+
+    Etienne, Robert, in exile, 18.
+
+    Executioner, his wages, 133.
+
+
+              F.
+
+    Fontainebleau, edict of, 8.
+      meeting of Notables at, 197.
+      resolutions of, 102.
+
+    Flemish war, 357, 358, 359, 362.
+
+    Food of people, 119.
+
+    France, condition of, in 1560, 112.
+      distressed condition of, 217, 225.
+
+    Francis I., patronage of learning, 3.
+      persecutes Reformers, 7.
+      orders persecution of Vaudois, 10.
+      death of, 20.
+
+    Francis II., accession, 61.
+      alarm at court, 73.
+      letters ordering persecution, 94.
+      illness and death, 108.
+
+
+               G.
+
+    Gap, dissensions at, 278.
+      edict neutralized at, 327.
+
+    Gastine cross, 343.
+
+    Genlis defeated and made prisoner, 359.
+
+    German princes, embassy from, 326.
+
+    Gibbets of Fontainebleau, 77.
+
+    Gondi: _see_ De Retz.
+
+    Gondrin killed at Lyons, 234.
+
+    Gonzaga; _see_ Nevers, Duke of.
+
+    Gordes hesitates to carry out the order, 456.
+
+    Gregory XIII. approves of the massacre, 466.
+
+    Guise, Francis, Duke of, 63.
+      lieutenant-general, 86.
+      combines with Montmorency, 163.
+      retires from privy council, 184.
+      goes to Saverne, 186.
+      orders the massacre at Vassy, 188.
+      ostentatiously enters Paris, 191.
+      plots to seize the king, 192.
+      gains victory at Dreux, 217.
+      besieges Orleans, 220.
+      murdered by Poltrot, 221.
+
+    Guise, Henry of, refuses to be reconciled to Coligny, 261.
+      character, 321.
+      threatening proceedings of, 338.
+      visits Alva, 356.
+      offers to fight Coligny, 357.
+      proposal to murder Coligny, 377.
+      asks leave to quit Paris, 394.
+      visits the city in secret, 398.
+      receives the final orders, 405.
+      recalled too late, 406.
+      insults the corpse of Coligny, 409.
+      blood drops from his hand, 475.
+
+
+               H.
+
+    Hampton Court treaty, 209.
+
+    Havre surrendered to English, 209.
+      siege and capture of, 243.
+
+    Henry II., accession of, 22.
+      crowned at Rheims, 28.
+      present at burning of heretics, 30.
+      favorite Psalm, 45.
+      orders arrest of Du Bourg, 52.
+      wounded, 58.
+      death, 58.
+
+    Henry of Navarre at Bayonne, 255.
+      speech to the army, 300.
+      description of, 300.
+      retreat from Moncontour, 305.
+      first command, 312.
+      proposed marriage with Margaret, 338.
+      letter to Queen Elizabeth on his mother’s death, 366.
+      comes to Paris, 369.
+      marriage with Margaret, 372.
+      indignation at attack on Coligny, 328.
+      proposals to murder him, 391.
+      put under arrest, 424.
+      abjures, 444.
+      at the siege of Rochelle, 473.
+      Charles entrusts his wife and child to him, 480.
+
+    Heresy at court, 160.
+
+    Huguenot army, its discipline, 203.
+
+    Huguenots, their number estimated, 174.
+      regain courage, 472.
+      rush to arms, 473.
+      demands at Montauban, 477.
+
+
+               I.
+
+    Ignorance of the people, 122.
+
+    Infants rechristened, 207.
+
+    Inns in France, 115.
+
+    Inquisition, introduction of, resisted, 37.
+
+
+               J.
+
+    January, edict of, 183.
+      resisted by Tavannes, 184.
+      Huguenot rejoicings over, 184.
+
+    Jarnac, battle of, 296.
+
+    Joan of Navarre, her reforms in Bearn, 257.
+      takes refuge in Rochelle, 292.
+      fears for Coligny, 336.
+      on her son’s marriage, 340.
+      death at Paris, 356.
+
+    July edict, 158.
+
+
+               K.
+
+    Knox, John, his denunciation of the murderers, 469.
+
+
+              L.
+
+    La Mole executed, 479.
+
+    Lange, orator of Third Estate, 152.
+      address to king, 152.
+
+    La Noue describes origin of war, 196.
+      on army discipline, 203.
+      the conference at Thoury, 204.
+      on the reiters, 275.
+      governor of Rochelle, 474.
+
+    La Place, Pierre de, murdered, 425.
+
+    La Renaudie, 79.
+      killed at Amboise, 81.
+
+    La Rochefoucault, king tries to save him, 400.
+      murdered, 421.
+
+    Lavergne de Tressan at Jarnac, 312.
+
+    League of the Loire, 115.
+      Champagne, 289.
+      Toulouse, 290.
+
+    Lefevre, the first Reformer, 2.
+
+    Le Laboureur, his panegyric of Coligny, 410.
+
+    Le Mans, the bishop of, 240.
+
+    Le Puy, procession at, 35.
+      infant rebaptized, 207.
+
+    Léran saved by Margaret, 415.
+
+    Lignerolles murdered, 342.
+
+    Limoux, cruelties at, 238.
+
+    Lisieux, Bishop of, protects the Huguenots, 455.
+
+    L’Hopital appointed chancellor, 87.
+      inaugural address, 97.
+      origin, 98.
+      speech to States of Orleans, 151.
+      address to parliament, 158.
+      speech at Pontoise, 164.
+      letter to Genevan Calvinists, 167.
+      speech at Poissy, 169.
+      to the Notables at St. Germains, 182.
+      plot to murder him, 227.
+      proposes concessions to Huguenots, 269.
+      remonstrance to the king, 279.
+      joins the Politicians, 285.
+      resigns the chancellorship, 289.
+      escapes the massacre, 431.
+
+    Longjumeau, treaty of, 280.
+
+    Lorraine family, 63.
+
+    Lorraine, Cardinal of, 64.
+      discussion with Beza, 168.
+      retires from Privy Council, 184.
+      goes to Saverne, 186.
+      forbidden to enter Paris, 261.
+      runs away from Meaux, 271.
+      disgusted with St. Germains treaty, 317.
+      goes to Rome, 351.
+      rewards messenger of the massacre, 465.
+
+    Louvre, the murders at, 404, 414.
+
+    Lyons in 1560, 140.
+      Huguenot turbulence at, 180.
+      mastered by Huguenots, 235.
+      massacre at, 449.
+
+
+              M.
+
+    Macon, leaps of, 238.
+
+    Maine, sad condition of, 263.
+
+    Mandelot begs a share of the plunder, 450.
+
+    Margaret of Valois, 6.
+
+    Margaret, Princess, proposed marriage with Henry of Navarre, 339.
+      description of, 349.
+      alarmed by her sister, 402.
+      scene in her chamber, 415.
+      saves Léran’s life, 416.
+      weeps over head of La Mole, 479.
+
+    Marie de Barbançon, her intrepidity, 310.
+
+    Marie Mouchet, 323, 483.
+
+    Marillac, Archbishop, his speech at Fontainebleau, 100.
+
+    Marlorat hanged, 215.
+
+    Marot imprisoned, 19.
+      his Psalms, 46.
+
+    Martyrdoms, 5, 6, 8, 9, 13, 16, 17, 19.
+
+    Massacre in Paris, the, 417, 444.
+
+    Massacre in Paris, number of victims in, 459, 461.
+
+    Maugiron, cruelties at Valence, 95.
+
+    Maurevel hired to kill the admiral, 378, 380.
+
+    Maximilian II., his thoughts on the massacre, 469.
+
+    Meaux, the martyrs of, 15.
+      royal flight from, 269.
+      the massacre at, 452.
+
+    Medals, commemorative, 464, 466.
+
+    Mercurial of Henry II., 51.
+
+    Mergey, adieu of Rambouillet, 401.
+
+    Mérindol destroyed, 12.
+
+    Merlin, the admiral’s chaplain, consoles Coligny, 380.
+      singular escape, 408.
+
+    Micheli’s account of the Huguenots, 174.
+
+    Michelle de Caignoncle’s alms, 18.
+
+    Minard, President, shot, 74.
+
+    Miracle of the flowering thorn, 434.
+
+    Moderate party, 285, 315, 328, 330.
+
+    Monceaux, meeting of conspirators at, 377.
+
+    Moncontour, battle of, 305.
+
+    Mons, capture of, 358.
+
+    Montauban, Huguenot assembly at, 477.
+
+    Montbrun takes up arms, 95.
+
+    Montfauçon, the gibbet at, 411.
+
+    Montgomery kills Henry II., 58.
+      governor of Rouen, 213.
+      escapes from Paris, 428.
+      made prisoner, 481.
+
+    Montluc, Bishop, his speech at Fontainebleau, 99.
+
+    Montluc, Blaise de, his barbarities, 230.
+      wise severity, 264.
+
+    Montmorency, Constable, 27.
+      his cruelty, 28.
+      dismissed, 71.
+      combines with Guise and St. André, 163.
+      burns the meeting-houses, 208.
+      made prisoner at Dreux, 220.
+      killed at St. Denis, 273.
+
+    Montmorency, Marshal, threatens Cardinal Lorraine, 261.
+      advises war with Spain, 331.
+      tries to negotiate with Huguenots, 339.
+
+    Montsoreau, his treachery and cruelty, 448.
+
+    Moreau burned at Troyes, 16.
+
+    Moulins, assembly at, 258.
+      Coligny and Guise reconciled at, 260.
+
+    Mouvans, death of, 96.
+
+    Muretus panegyrizes the murderers, 466.
+
+    Music, decline of, in church, 46.
+
+
+               N.
+
+    Nantes, meeting at, 79.
+      refusal of magistrates to kill Huguenots, 448.
+
+    Nassau, Count Louis of, at Moncontour, 305.
+
+    Nassau, Count Louis of, interview with Charles at Lumigny, 331.
+
+    Navarre, King of; _see_ Anthony.
+
+    Navy, French, in sixteenth century, 126.
+
+    Nemours, Duke of, 270.
+      Duchess of, proposal that she shall assassinate Coligny, 377.
+
+    Nerac, meeting at, 103.
+
+    Nevers, Duke of, his timidity, 321.
+
+    Nismes, results of persecution at, 94.
+      Michelade of, 276.
+      captured by Huguenots, 310.
+      order preserved, 458.
+
+    Noises in the air, 436.
+
+    Normandy, distress in, 31.
+
+    Notables, Assembly of, at St. Germains, 175.
+
+    Number of the victims in Paris, 459.
+      the provinces, 461.
+
+
+               O.
+
+    Oppède, Baron of, his cruelty, 12.
+
+    Orange, butchery at, 234.
+
+    Organization of Reformed Church, 55.
+
+    Orleans, the court at, 104.
+      seized by Huguenots, 197.
+      besieged by Duke of Guise, 220.
+      Huguenots burned at, 309.
+      massacre at, 450.
+
+    Orsini’s mission, 471.
+
+    Orthez, his reply to Charles, 455.
+
+
+               P.
+
+    Palissy, Bernard, patronized by Catherine, 322.
+
+    Paré, Ambrose, tends Coligny’s wounds, 380.
+      a witness of the murder, 408.
+      escorted to the Louvre, 410.
+      singular confession of king to, 435.
+      on the death of Charles, 482.
+
+    Pardaillan, his foolish threats, 389.
+      murdered in the Louvre, 415.
+
+    Paris, lawlessness of, 76.
+      in 1560, 137.
+      arming of the citizens, 198.
+      outrages in, 207.
+      disturbed state of, in winter of 1571, 344.
+      panic at news of Genlis’s defeat, 359.
+
+    Parliament of Paris, divisions in, 49.
+
+    Pavannes, martyrdom of, 5.
+
+    Peasantry, condition of, 117.
+
+    Pedlar burned at Velay, 36.
+
+    Petrucci cuts off the admiral’s head, 409.
+
+    Philip II. intrigues against France, 160, 176.
+      treasonable correspondence with Triumvirate, 209.
+      offers aid to France, 316.
+      threatens war, 329.
+      joy at the massacre, 467.
+
+    Philippa de Lunz burned, 42.
+
+    Philippe Richarde, the king’s Huguenot nurse, 481.
+
+    Pieds Nus, les, their atrocities, 226.
+
+    Pius V., congratulatory letters, 289, 298, 306.
+      advises continuance of war, 314.
+
+    Placards, affair of, 7.
+      inflammatory, 42.
+
+    Pluviers, Huguenot retaliation at, 216.
+
+    Poissy, colloquy at, 166.
+      opened, 169.
+
+    Poitiers, severities at, 74.
+
+    Politiques, les, 286, 315, 328, 330.
+
+    Poltrot murders Francis of Guise, 221.
+      extolled as a martyr by Huguenots, 223.
+
+    Pontoise, the States of, 163.
+
+    Population in 1560, 122.
+
+    Pré aux Clercs, psalm-singing, 46.
+
+    Progress of reform, 31.
+
+    Provinces of France, 113.
+
+    Provins, brutal scene at, 135.
+      grievances, 149.
+      rejoicings at news of Jarnac, 299.
+      flight of the Huguenots, 457.
+
+    Provost of Paris, king’s instructions to, 399.
+
+    Punishments, 133.
+
+
+               Q.
+
+    Quentin, Jean, orator of the clergy, 152.
+      speech at Orleans, 154.
+
+
+               R.
+
+    Raleigh, Walter, joins the Huguenots, 294.
+      opinion of Condé, 299.
+
+    Ramus, Peter, murdered, 423.
+
+    Reformed Church, its organization, 55.
+      doctrines, their rapid extension, 174.
+
+    Regnier de la Planche, 87.
+
+    Reiters, their cupidity, 275, 281.
+
+    Relics, abuse of, 4.
+
+    Religious wars, First, 195.
+      Second, 269.
+      Third, 291.
+
+    Renaudie, Bary de la, 79, 81.
+
+    Rennes, disturbances at, 156.
+
+    Rents in Auvergne, 117.
+
+    Revival of learning, 3.
+
+    Roads in France, 114.
+
+    Roche-Abeille, battle of, 302.
+
+    Rochelle, violence at, 236.
+      besieged by Anjou, 474.
+      siege raised, 474.
+
+    Rome, exultation at, 466.
+
+    Romorantin, edict of, 88.
+
+    Ronsard, the poet, 226.
+
+    Rouen, ballet at, 141.
+      besieged, 213.
+      reprisals at, 214.
+      the massacre at, 452.
+
+    Rue St. Jacques, affair of, 40.
+
+
+               S.
+
+    Sadolet, his charity, 15.
+
+    St. André, 66.
+      joins the Triumvirate, 163.
+      killed at Dreux, 219.
+
+    St. Calais, monks of, 238.
+      Croix; _see_ Santa Croce.
+      Cyr, Count of, his desperate charge, 305.
+      Denis, battle of, 272.
+      Germains, Notables at, 182.
+      peace of, 314.
+      Hérem refuses to obey order, 454.
+      Médard, riot of, 181.
+      Quentin, defeat at, 40.
+
+    Salviati’s report of the massacre, 418.
+
+    Sancerre, the siege of, 476.
+      capitulates, 477.
+
+    Santa Croce praises Reformers, 159.
+      describes the state of Paris, 182.
+      praises the admiral, 410.
+
+    Saverne, conference at, 186.
+
+    Senlis, Huguenots exiled, 456.
+
+    Sens, massacre at, 199.
+
+    Sermons and congregations, 173.
+
+    Shrove-Tuesday plot, 478.
+
+    Sigognes, governor of Dieppe, 288.
+
+    Silly, Jacques de, orator of the nobles, 152.
+      speech at Orleans, 152.
+
+    Sisteron, massacre at, 200.
+      deserted by Huguenots, 237.
+
+    Soubise, his resistance, 422.
+      indignities to corpse, 415.
+
+    States-General of Orleans, 148.
+      opened by king, 150.
+
+    Street architecture, 135.
+
+    Strozzi, Cardinal, his atrocities, 232.
+
+    Strozzi, Colonel-general, captured at Roche-Abeille, 303.
+      drowns the camp-followers, 315.
+      unpopular in army, 320.
+
+    Stuart, Robert, murders the constable, 273.
+
+    Sully escapes the massacre, 428.
+
+    Sumptuary laws, 120.
+
+    Superstitions, 131.
+
+    Synod, first Reformed, meets in Paris, 54.
+      of Poissy, impracticable temper of Huguenot ministers, 173.
+      of Rochelle, 321.
+
+
+               T.
+
+    Tailor, martyrdom of a, 31.
+
+    Talcy, interview at, 205.
+
+    Tavannes suggests ecclesiastical reforms, 93.
+      plunders Macon, 237.
+      appointed military superintendent during massacre, 398.
+      complains of apathy of citizens, 400.
+      sanguinary cry, 447.
+
+    Taverny, stout resistance of, 422.
+
+    Taxation in 1560, 123.
+
+    Teligny, his mission to the king, 334.
+      marries the admiral’s daughter, 334.
+      sent in pursuit of Maurevel, 381.
+      last night with Coligny, 403.
+      murdered, 412.
+
+    Tende, Count of, 447.
+
+    Thomas of St. Paul burned, 17.
+
+    Thoury, negotiations at, 204.
+
+    “Tiger,” the, a satire, 90.
+      note on the, 111.
+
+    Tocsin rung, 413.
+
+    Tossinghi steals the admiral’s gold chain, 409.
+
+    Toulon in 1560, 143.
+
+    Toulouse, massacres at, 237, 453.
+
+    Tournament in Paris, 57.
+
+    Tours, massacre at, 211.
+
+    Traveling in France, 114.
+
+    Trent, instructions to Council of, 92.
+      Council of, 245.
+
+    Triumvirate, the, formed, 163.
+      treasonable correspondence with Philip II., 209.
+
+    Troyes, the massacre at, 452.
+
+
+               V.
+
+    Valence, reform in, 96.
+
+    Vaudois, massacre of, 12.
+
+    Vassy, massacre at, 187.
+      Catholic exultation over, 190.
+
+    Velay, contests in, 36.
+
+    Vendome, meeting at, 72.
+
+    Victims, number of, 459, 461.
+
+    Vigor, Simon, ferocious sermon of, 177.
+
+    Villars, Count of, describes state of Nismes, 94.
+
+    Villemangis beheaded, 84.
+
+
+               W.
+
+    Wages in 1560, 117.
+
+    Walsingham on Anjou’s ambition, 316.
+      opinion of king, 336.
+      letter on defeat of Genlis, 359.
+      on war in Flanders, 360.
+      report of meeting at Montpipeau, 364.
+      describes the execution of Briquemaut, 443.
+
+    Wild animals in France, 115.
+
+
+
+
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+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] In judging these and other great historical criminals, we must
+bear in mind the age in which they lived. To borrow the language of
+Mr. Hepworth Dixon in his eloquent vindication of Lord Bacon: “The cry
+of pain, the gasp of death, were no such shocks to the gentle heart as
+they would be in a softer time. Men had been hardened in the [martyrs’]
+fire. Minds were infected by the atrocities of [Huguenot] plots. The
+ballads sung in the streets were steeped in blood.” In such times of
+frenzy even the merciful become cruel.
+
+[2] _Hist. of Popes_, i. 120 (Mrs. Austin’s).
+
+[3] From a sermon quoted by Sismondi, _Hist. des Français_.
+
+[4] _Mém. de l’Acad. Stanislas_, Nancy, 1862, p. 369.
+
+[5] Here are some of the objects once preserved in the cathedral of
+Clermont:--“Imprimis de umbilico Filii Dei cum quinque unguibus de
+sinistra manu; præpucium ipsius cum duabus unguibus de dextra manu, et
+de pannis quibas fuit involutus, et undecimam partem sudarii quod fuit
+ante oculos ejus cum sanguine ipsius, et de tunica, et de barba, et
+de capillis, et de præcincto ejus cum sanguine et tres ungues ejus ex
+recisione manus dexteræ et partem spinæ coronæ, et de pane quem ipse
+benedixit, et ex spongia ejus, et ex virgis quibus cæsus fuit, et de
+capillis Beatæ Mariæ tres et brachiale ejus, et de vestimento ipsius
+cum lacte.”--Baluze, ii. p. 39; Dulaure, _Descript. Auvergne_, p.
+197.
+
+[6] _Réponse à quelque apologie_, etc. 1558, fol. 2.
+
+[7] “De plano, sine strepitu et figura judicii, prout in similibus
+consuevit.”--Isambert: _Recueil des Lois Fr._ t. xii. p. 231.
+
+[8] Florimond de Rémond: _Histoire de la naissance, etc. de l’hérésie
+de ce siècle_, bk. vii. p. 931.
+
+[9] Beza: _Hist. Eccles._ liv. i. For this “Affair of the
+Placards” see Merle d’Aubigné: _Reform. in time of Calvin_,
+vol. iii. bk. iv. ch. 9 to 12. A passage like this must have been
+as offensive as it was unjustifiable: “Nous ne voulons croire à vos
+idoles, à vos lieux nouveaux et nouveaux Christs, qui se laissent
+manger aux bêtes et à vous pareillement, qui êtes pires que bêtes, en
+vos badinages lequels vous faites à l’entour de votre dieu de pâte
+duquel vous vous jouez comme un chat d’une souris,” etc.
+
+[10] Eustathius de Knobelsdorff to George Cassander, in _Illustr.
+et Clar. Viror. Epist. Selectæ._, Lugd. Bat. 1617, quoted in Baum:
+_Leben Beza’s_.
+
+[11] _Hist. des guerres dans le Venaissin_, etc. i. p. 39.
+Published anonymously, but the author was Father Justin, a Capuchin
+monk. See also Muston: _Israël des Alpes_, 1851.
+
+[12] Bossuet (_Hist. des Variations_, liv. xi. § 143) acknowledges
+their piety, but calls it “feigned,” and ascribes their virtues to the
+inspiration of the devil.
+
+[13] Cabasse: _Hist. Parl. Provence_.
+
+[14] Il n’existe plus rien du bourg florissant de Mérindol. Lacretelle:
+_Guerres de Rél._ i. p. 31.
+
+[15] Mezeray, iii. p. 1034.
+
+[16] Some years ago a cave in a wild and almost inaccessible valley of
+the Maritime Alps, near the village of Castiglione, was pointed out
+to me as one of these places of refuge. It could be reached only by a
+rope, and consisted of at least three chambers, one below the other. In
+the Vivarrais there are many such caverns.
+
+[17] Bouche calls them, “plutôt ignorans que rebelles,” and adds, “On
+trouve dans l’histoire des nations les plus fanatiques et les plus
+sauvages peu d’exemples d’une atrocité pareille.”--_Essai sur l’Hist.
+de Provence_, ii. p. 83. See Papon, _Hist. de Provence_, for a
+less favorable account of the Vaudois.
+
+[18]
+
+                  Viros et morte peremptos
+    Indigna, raptasque soluto crine puellas,
+    Et late miseris subjecta incendia vicis.
+
+    L’Hôpital, _De Causa Merindoli_.
+
+
+[19] All the papers connected with this inquiry have perished. One of
+the accused was the famous sea-captain Baron de la Garde, the same who
+disputed the command of the Channel against Henry VIII., and occupied
+the Isle of Wight in 1533. In the religious wars he sided with the
+Huguenots.
+
+[20] Capefigue: _Hist. de la Réforme_, ch. xvi.
+
+[21] Non ego sum qui, ut quisque a nobis opinione dissentit, statim eum
+odio habeam.
+
+[22] In a poem composed at this time, he says, with more of Pagan
+stoicism than Christian fortitude--
+
+    Sus, mon esprit, montrez vous de tel cœur,
+      Votre assurance au besoin soit connue;
+    Tout gentil cœur, tout constant belliqueur,
+      Jusqu’à la mort sa force a maintenue.
+
+
+[23] Imberdis: _Hist. Guerres Civ._ 8vo. Moulins, 1840.
+
+[24] A curious apology has been made for Francis I. Mezeray, answering
+an Italian writer, who had insinuated that the king had permitted the
+spread of heresy by taking no heed of it, says:--“Quoi donc, faire six
+ou sept rigoureux édits pour l’étouffer, convoquer plusieurs fois le
+clergé, assembler un concile provincial, dépêcher à toute heure des
+ambassades vers tous les princes de la chrétienté pour en assembler un
+général, brûler les hérétiques par douzaines, les envoyer aux galères
+par centaines, et les bannir par milliers: est-ce là permettre, ou n’y
+prendre pas garde,” etc. ii. p. 1038.
+
+[25] _P. Castellani Vita_, auct. P. Gallandio, 8vo. 1674.
+
+[26] _Petri Paschalii Histor. Fragm._ Dupuy MSS. Raumer: _Hist.
+16th and 17th Centuries_, i. 261.
+
+[27] Matteo Dandolo in 1542 and Lorenzo Contarini in 1551 describe
+Henry in nearly the same terms. See Alberi: _Relazioni degli Ambas.
+Veneti_. (8vo. Firenze.) Ser. I. vol. iv. 1860, pp. 27 and
+60.
+
+[28] M. Capefigue has attempted this in his one-sided fashion; but
+Alberi extols her as a model of almost every Christian virtue.
+
+[29] Sismondi says she was only 13, but from her birth, 13th April,
+1519, to her wedding-day is 14½ years.
+
+[30] “Li occhi grossi proprj alla casa de’ Medici.” Suriano. On the
+ceiling of a room in the château of Tanlay, between Tonnerre and
+Moutbard, which once belonged to the Chatillons, there was (and
+probably still is) a figure of Catherine as Juno, with two faces: one,
+masculine and sinister, the other with a remarkable sweetness and
+dignity of expression. In the gallery at Eu there were two portraits
+(probably copies) representing her as exceedingly fair: in one, the
+hair was of a reddish tinge; in the other, the eyebrows were light and
+the eyes hazel.
+
+[31] Giovanni Soranzo, 14th August, 1557. _Relazioni_, p. 8.
+
+[32] “Non si troveria persona che non si lasciasse cavare del sangue
+per fargli avere un figlio.”--Matt. Dandolo.
+
+[33] His tomb, by Jean Goujon, is in Rouen cathedral.
+
+[34] Brantome describes her at the age of sixty-five as being “so
+lovely that the most insensible person could not look upon her without
+emotion;” and ascribes her beauty to a bouillon she took every morning
+composed of “or potable et autres drogues que je ne sais pas.” De
+Thou says she made Henry constant to her “philtris et magicis (ut
+creditur) artibus.” A hideous story of her bathing in blood to preserve
+her beauty is told of “cette Hérodias” in the _Mélange critique de
+Littérature_, ii. p. 113. At Dijon there is a three-quarter portrait
+of her entirely undraped. The form is exceedingly lovely, the face a
+long oval, the eyes dark, eyebrows delicate, hair a bright auburn, and
+complexion fair.
+
+[35] They were the emblems of mourning which widows in those days never
+put off.
+
+[36] “Particolarmente la dispensazione delli benefici ecclesiastici è
+in man sua.”--Soranzo.
+
+[37] “Il quale l’ha amata, ed ama e godi cosi vecchia come è.” L.
+Contarini (1551): _Relazioni Veneti_, iv. 1860, p. 78; Baschet:
+_La Diplomatie vénitienne_, p. 432. G. Soranzo (1558) writes to
+the same effect; but M. Cavalli is of quite a contrary opinion. “Questo
+amore non sia lascivo, ma come materno filiale.”--Raumer, i. p. 259.
+
+[38] The pope significantly sent her a pearl necklace shortly
+after Henry’s accession. The French have recently erected a statue
+to her memory. It is painful to see a noble nation so deficient
+in self-respect as to make idols of the mistresses of their
+sovereigns--Agnes Sorel, Diana, Gabrielle d’Estrées, and others.
+
+[39] “Au col de sa jument.”--_Gargantua_, liv. i. ch. 17.
+
+[40] “Il ne savait ni lire ni écrire.”--Marsollier: _Hist. duc de
+Bouillon_, i. 7 (Paris, 1719).
+
+[41] He was named Anne, after his godmother Anne of Brittany. He had
+four sons and five daughters; his sister Louisa, a widow, married
+Gaspard de Coligny, the father of the Admiral. Louisa’s first husband
+was the Marshal de Maille, and her daughter Dame de Roye was mother of
+the Dame de Rove who married Condé.
+
+[42] These “crescents,” so often found interlaced with H, are supposed
+to be the device of Diana of Poitiers; I am more inclined to regard
+them as a fanciful C, to indicate Catherine.
+
+[43] Félibien: _Hist. de la Ville de Paris_, tom. ii. liv. xx. p.
+1031 (fol. 1725).
+
+[44] Félibien, tom. v. p. 378.
+
+[45] The intellect of the day was on the side of the Reform: “Peintres,
+orlogiers, imagiers, orfèvres, libraires, imprimeurs, et autres, qui en
+leurs métiers, ont _quelque noblesse d’esprit_.”--Flor. de Remond,
+an unimpeachable witness.
+
+[46] Bras de Bourgueville: _Recherches sur Caen_, 2^e partie, p.
+162; Cte Hector de la Ferrière-Percy: _Hist. du Canton d’Athis_.
+8vo. Paris, 1858.
+
+[47] Montluc says the nobles adopted the Reform out of a spirit of
+opposition. “Il n’était fils de bonne maison qui ne voulut goûter de
+cette réforme nouvelle.”
+
+[48] About the same time another edict forbade the faithful to send
+money to Rome.--Lacretelle.
+
+[49] On the 19th June, 1551, the papal nuncio represented to the king
+that he “must forbid the printing and circulation of all heretical
+books.... If your majesty fail to punish these damnable writers, the
+evil may proceed so far as to defy all remedy.”--Raumer, i. 262. The
+severities of the Chateaubriant edict proving ineffectual, it was
+declared by another edict (27th May, 1558), that the illegal printing
+of any book on religion would be punished by “confiscation de corps et
+de biens.”
+
+[50] Matthew Ory, of the order of Preaching Friars, had been invited
+from Italy by Cardinal de Tournon, and by letters patent of Francis
+I. (30th May, 1536) permitted to exercise the office of inquisitor at
+Lyons, in which post he was confirmed by the edict of Henry II. (22d
+June, 1550).
+
+[51] On this point see the continuation of Longueval’s _Hist. Eglise
+Gall._ by J. M. Prat (4to, 1847), t. xix. p. 96.
+
+[52] “L’autorité et souveraineté tant du roi que de sa couronne
+serait grandement diminuée quand les sujets naturels du roi seraient
+prévenus et entrepris par un official ou inquisiteur.”--_Hist. des
+Martyrs._ f. 463.
+
+[53] Minute of Secretary Ribier, p. 677; Sismondi, xviii. p. 59. See
+also Belcarius: _Rer. Gall. Comment._ p. 868.
+
+[54] “Existimant omnis publicæ cladis, omnis popularis incommodi
+Christianos esse causam. Si Tiberis ascendit in mœnia, si Nilus non
+ascendit in arva, sicœlum stetit, si terra movet, si fames, si lues,
+statim--Christianos ad leonem!”--Tertullian, _Apol._ c. 40.
+
+[55] Pasquier: _Lettres_, p. 195 (ed. Arras. 1598) says it
+happened in August, three days after the battle of St. Laurent, before
+the walls of St. Quentin, which was taken six weeks later. But these
+letters were written for effect--many of them some time after the
+events they record. Drion (_Chronol._) says “May.”
+
+[56] Her favorite, Madame de Crussol, Duchess of Usez, held the
+Reformed opinions.
+
+[57] Bonnet: _Lettres de Calvin_, ii. 125, _note_. Letter
+from Fr. Morel. The prisoners were 120 to 130 in number.
+
+[58] Raynald: _Ann. Eccles._ ad an. 1557; Sarpi: _Concil.
+Trent_, lib. v. No. 33.
+
+[59] “Aut integras urbes absumere aut veritati locum aliquem
+concedere.”--Baum: _Leben Beza’s_, i. p. 453.
+
+[60] Florimond de Remond: _Hist. des Martyrs_, fol. 395.
+
+[61] Strada: _De Bello Belg._ dec. i. lib. 3.
+
+[62] Marot translated fifty, Beza the remainder.
+
+[63] Somewhat later (in 1561) the Sorbonne formally declared the
+singing of Psalms _not_ contrary to the Catholic faith.
+
+[64] The Pré aux Clercs exists no longer, not even in name. It was a
+pleasant meadow on the banks of the Seine, between the abbey of St.
+Germain des Prés and the Invalides.
+
+[65] _Hist. Heres._ f. 1033.
+
+[66] “Criant par dépit comme crieurs d’oublies.”--_MS. de Médicis._
+
+[67] This probably is what the English commissioner alludes to,
+when writing in January, 1559, he says: “There was an appointment
+made between the late pope, the King of Spain, and the French king,
+for the joining of their forces together for the suppression of
+religion.”--Forbes: _Full View of the Public Transactions in the
+Reign of Queen Elizabeth_, i. p. 196 (fol. Lond. 1740).
+
+[68] Vauvilliers, i. p. 89.
+
+[69] During the period embraced in this volume there were only eight
+Parliaments, those of Paris, Toulouse, Grenoble, Bordeaux, Dijon,
+Rouen, Aix, Rennes.
+
+[70] _La vraie Hist. de la Proc. contre Du Bourg.: Mém. de Condé_,
+i. 220.
+
+[71] _Mem. de Vieilleville_, p. 705 (Panthéon Litt.)
+
+[72] The date is uncertain; some give the 10th March, but the
+discussion did not begin until the 26th April. Felice says the 10th
+August, which must be a misprint.
+
+[73] Throckmorton to Queen, 19th June, 1559, gives an account of this
+remarkable sitting, in which the Cardinal of Lorraine displayed his
+usual violence of language. Forbes: _Full View_, i. p. 126.
+
+[74] Abbé Caveyrac says: “It was his fixed intention to destroy the
+Protestants.”--_Apologie de Louis XIV._ p. 33.
+
+[75] Groen van Prinsterer: _Archives_, Ser. I. 1841, vol. i. p.
+34. The plot was first made known in the Apology published by the
+Prince of Orange. Alva said that Henry had made peace, “para que el
+quedasse la mano libera para remediar lo.”--Gachard, ii. p. 181;
+Raynald: _Ann. Eccles._
+
+[76] Du Puis, a Jacobite priest, asserted “qu’à leur prêche les femmes
+s’abandonnaient,” etc. See Flocquet: _Hist. parl. de Normandie_,
+ii. p. 365.
+
+[77] This organization was to a great extent the work of a gentleman
+of Maine, by name La Ferrière, who had removed to Paris to escape
+religious surveillance (1555).
+
+[78] Calvin: _Serm. sur Timothée_, p. 65 (4to 1563).
+
+[79] Alva to Philip: _Journ. des Savants_, 1857, p. 171.
+
+[80] Art de vérifier les dates. Other authorities give June 21 and 24.
+
+[81] Throckmorton to Council, 1st July, 1559; Forbes, i. 151;
+_Lettere dei Principi_ (14th July, 1559), iii. 196. Montgomery
+escaped to England, where he embraced the Reformed doctrines.
+
+[82] Some authorities state that, though Henry lingered eleven days,
+he never recovered either speech or reason. In the _Chanson de
+Montgommery_ (1574) we read that he “prononça _à voix haute_,
+Que n’avais nullement vers lui commis la faute.”
+
+[83] Mezeray, ii. 1137. Claude Haton charges the Protestants with
+trying to kill Henry in 1558, considering him “le tyran persécuteur de
+l’église de Jésus Christ.”
+
+[84] Gail: _Tableaux chronologiques_, p. 96 (8vo. Paris, 1819);
+also Brantome.
+
+[85] This discipline was in reality the work of Coligny.
+
+[86] Claude Haton.
+
+[87] Aubespine: _Doc. Hist. François II._, tom. ii. p. 428.
+
+[88] Born 20th January, 1544, N.S. The medals say he was crowned on the
+17th, Mezeray the 19th, and De Thou the 20th Sept., 1559. Such are the
+discrepancies continually to be met with even in trivial matters.
+
+[89] Card. Santa Croce writes: “La Regina di Scotia un giorno gli disse
+che non sarebbe mai altro che figlia di un mercante.”
+
+[90] Le Plat, v. p. 517.
+
+[91] “Pulchro aspectu, procera statura, facie oblonga [the true
+Lorraine face], fronte ampla et eminente.” _Gallia purpurata._
+Beza said: “Had I the cardinal’s eloquence, I should hope to convert
+half France.”
+
+[92] Auberi: _Hist. Card. Richelieu_, i. liv. ii. p. 87 (ed. 1666).
+
+[93] “Me participem fecit, ut tentationum ct passionum quibus per tot
+annos quotidie moriebatur, omni hora de vita periclitabatur ... tam
+_parum_ timidus quam _nimium_ esse putabatur.” Bayle, _sub
+voce_.
+
+[94] “Licenziosissimo per natura ... ingordizia inestimabile ... gran
+duplicità.” _Relazioni d. Amb. Ven._ (ed. Alberi), p. 441.
+
+[95] 9th April, 1561. MS. in Rouen Library; Leber, bundle B, No. 5720.
+On the other side, see the “Supplication,” etc., reprinted in Bouillé:
+_Hist. Guise_, p. 77.
+
+[96] Micheli speaks of the “odio universale conceputo contro di lui per
+i molti effetti d’offesa che mostrò verso ognuno mentre nel governo
+ebbe l’autorità.”
+
+[97] In the museum of Orleans there is a striking portrait of the
+cardinal and of his nephew, Henry, the hero of the Massacre of St.
+Bartholomew.
+
+[98] He was born in 1518, and in 1548 married the heiress of Navarre
+(born 1528), whose dowry consisted of the principality of Béarn and
+the counties of Armagnac, Albret, Bigorre, Foix, and Comminges. Upper
+Navarre had been seized by Spain.
+
+[99] Marc Duval’s engraving of the three brothers is well known, and
+has often been copied. In the Lenoir Collection (now belonging to the
+Duke of Sutherland) there is a painting of the three brothers; and, if
+I am correctly informed, there are other portraits at Knowle Park.
+
+[100] Brantome quotes an Italian saying: “Dio me guarda del bel gigneto
+del Principe (di Condé) e dell’ animo e _stecco_ dell’ Amiraglio.”
+There was another saying: “Défiez-vous du _cure-dents_ de
+l’Amiral, du _non_ du Connétable, et du _oui_ de Catherine.”
+
+[101] Mr. Crowe, who seems to have taken his history of this period
+from Davila, calls Coligny “a man of bold and imposing character,” and
+says that he and Andelot were the inspiring causes of the religious
+wars. So far as the admiral is concerned, this is quite contrary to the
+fact.
+
+[102] _Rer. Scot. Hist._ lib. xvi. p. 567 (ed. 1668).
+
+[103] Lippomano in Baschet, p. 494; Throckmorton to Queen, 13th July,
+1560, in Forbes, i. p. 159.
+
+[104] Throckmorton says that the cardinal took pattern from the
+proclamations and injunctions of Pole and Bonner. Forbes, i. p. 161 and
+233.
+
+[105] Regnier de la Planche, p. 227.
+
+[106] December 12th, 1559. This same Stuart claimed Queen Mary’s
+protection as a blood-relation. He made the constable prisoner at
+Dreux, mortally wounded him at St. Denis, and being taken at Jarnac,
+fighting on the Huguenot side, was murdered by permission, if not by
+order, of Henry of Anjou. Claude Haton has a story that he was hanged
+at Paris in July, 1569. He was in the Amboise plot, and escaped by
+flight.
+
+[107] Authors differ as to the day of his death; the dates given are
+20th November; 20th, 21st, 22d, and 23d December. “Duodecimo kal.
+Januarii,” says Belcarius, p. 921.
+
+[108] Mezeray, _Abrégé Chron._ He appears to be copying Regnier de
+la Planche.
+
+[109] _Hist. de l’Hérésie_, p. 865.
+
+[110] _Hist. des Perséc. de l’Église de Paris_, p. lxiv.
+
+[111] _Hist. État de France sous François II._ (8vo. 1576). This
+work is generally ascribed to La Planche, but if so, he would hardly
+sneer at himself (p. 404) as “plus politique que religieux.” It was
+probably written by Jean de Serres, author of the _Commentarii de
+Statu Religionis_.
+
+[112] “Certains garnements n’avaient plutôt crié: Au luthérien, au
+christandin--qu’ils ne fussent non seulement quittes de leurs dettes.”
+Regnier de la Planche.
+
+[113] Forbes, i. p. 262.
+
+[114] Ibid., p. 292.
+
+[115] The _Défense contre les Tyrans_ of Hubert Languet treats
+of the limits of obedience to kings, of the causes which justify
+arming, and when foreign aid may be sought. Davila confesses that the
+Protestants were forced to measures of self-defense, “per liberarsi
+della durezza della condizione presente.”
+
+[116] Barthold: _Deutschland und die Huguenotten_, i. p. 262.
+
+[117] The “mute chief” was certainly Condé. Belcaire calls him “ducem
+ἀνώνυμον.”
+
+[118] “At si viribus superiores fuissent, haud dubium quin utrumque
+[of the Guises] immaniter trucidaverint, quibus Franciscum Stuardumque
+reginam addidissent, aut saltem hanc ad Elizabetham Angliæ reginam,
+æmulam et _ejus conjurationis consciam_, (?) misissent.”
+Belcarius: _Rer. Gall. Comment._ There is not the slightest ground
+for supposing Elizabeth knew any thing of the Amboise plot.
+
+[119] “The French king removeth hence toward Amboise the 5th February.”
+Killigrew to Queen, 28th Jan. 1560; Forbes, i. pp. 315, 320. “The 23d,
+the French king arrived, which was two days sooner than he was looked
+for.” Forbes, i. p. 334.
+
+[120] Of this Des Avenelles there are very contradictory accounts. He
+was rewarded with a judicial appointment in Lorraine, and De Thou adds
+that he remained a Protestant until death.
+
+[121] Throckmorton to Cecil, 7th March; Forbes, i. 353.
+
+[122] “Il s’en trouvait en la rivière tantôt 6, 8, 10, 12, 15 attachés
+à desperches.... Les rues d’Amboise étaient coulantes de sang, et
+tapissées de corps morts, si qu’on ne pouvait durer par la ville pour
+la puanteur et infection.” Regnier de la Planche, p. 257; Montfauçon:
+_Monuments de la Monarchie Fr._ v. p. 81; Forbes, i. 378.
+
+[123] This poisoned ball, says Brantome, was of mixed metal, so hard
+that no armor could resist it.
+
+[124] See a plate in _De Leone Belg._, representing the execution
+of Villemangis.
+
+[125] Throckmorton, writing to the Lords of the Council on the 21st
+March, speaks of the general pardon offered the insurgents if they
+should disperse quietly, and goes on to say: “Although things be thus
+calmed, yet the Duke of Guise and the Cardinal of Lorraine live still
+in marvelous great fear, and know not whom they may well trust.”
+Forbes, i.
+
+[126]
+
+    Las nous estions du temps que la fureur françoise
+    Commença nos malheurs au tumulte d’Amboise,
+    Nous en avons l’horreur encor peinte en nos cœurs,
+    Malheureuse aux vaincus, dommageable aux vainqueurs.
+
+    Jean Vauquelin de la Fresnaye: _Les Foresteries_.
+
+
+[127] Taillandier: _Nouv. Recherches sur de l’Hopital_, p. 273
+(Paris, 1861). “Les _Huguenots de religion_, pour ne pouvoir
+supporter plus la rigueur et cruauté exercées à l’encontre d’eux; et
+les _Huguenots d’état_, pour ne plus comporter l’usurpation faite
+par lesdits de Guise.” _Commentaires_, p. 63. This is what Regnier
+de la Planche told the queen-mother.
+
+[128] There has been much dispute about the origin of this word, but
+it probably came from Geneva, where the citizens had long been divided
+into two politico-religious parties, known as the _Mamelukes_
+and _Huguenots_. Merle d’Aubigné: _Reformation in Time of
+Calvin_, vol. i. p. 118.
+
+[129] Claude repeats all the popular scandals against the Protestants,
+but he speaks _generally_, refraining from charging with such
+infamies those of his own town (Provins), whom he knew from personal
+observation.
+
+[130] See note at end of chapter.
+
+[131] “Pauperculus librarius.” De Thou.
+
+[132] Regnier de la Planche: _De l’Estat de France_, pp. 312, 313
+(Coll. du Panthéon).
+
+[133] Wright’s _Elizabeth_, i. p. 33.
+
+[134] _Aubespine Correspondence_, pp. 431, 433, 434, 442, 501.
+
+[135] The instructions were signed by the King and Catherine, Guise,
+Montmorency, the Cardinal of Lorraine, L’Hopital, and Charles of
+Bourbon. See Le Plat, v. p. 561.
+
+[136] _Aubespine: Corresp._ 12th April, 1560, pp. 342, 361.
+
+[137] _Ibid._ 1st October, 1560.
+
+[138] _Ibid._ p. 655.
+
+[139] Aubespine: _Corresp._ 14th October, 1560.
+
+[140] Regnier de la Planche, p. 290.
+
+[141] “Quand un homme ayant mauvaise opinion faisait l’amende
+honorable, et prononçait les mots d’icelle, il ne changeait pour cela
+son cœur, _l’opinion se muant par oraisons à Dieu_, parole, et
+raison persuadée.” _Commentaires_, p. 73 verso.
+
+[142] _Commentaires_, p. 101 verso. Regnier assigns the duke’s
+retort to his brother the Cardinal. See also Mignet, _Journal des
+Savants_, 1859, p. 25; Bouillé: _Hist. Guise_, ii. p. 86.
+
+[143] “Sans être perpétuellement damné.” Mayer, _États gén._ x.
+296.
+
+[144] Baschet, p. 506.
+
+[145] Mayer: _Coll. États gén._ x. p. 310.
+
+[146] Letter of Francis II. to Anthony, April 15: _Colbert_,
+_MSS._ vol. xxviii.
+
+[147] Castelnau in his _Mémoires_ says, that the queen-mother
+assured them they might come “without fear,” and would be as safe in
+Orleans as in their own houses. Both stories may be true, and this is
+not the only time when her public and private opinions were at variance.
+
+[148] Voltaire: _Essai sur les Guerres civiles_.
+
+[149] _Comment. de l’Estat_, p. 112. Regnier adds: “Dont il (the
+cardinal) fut tellement contristé qu’il n’eut recours qu’ á ses larmes.”
+
+[150] Hardwicke: _State Papers_, i. p. 129; Letter to the Queen,
+17th of November, 1560.
+
+[151] The duke and the cardinal openly boasted that, at two blows, they
+would cut off the heads of heresy and rebellion. Davila, liv. ii.
+
+[152] “Seria mas acertado castigar poco á poco los culpados que prender
+tantos de un golpe.” _Simancas Archives_: Journ. des Savants,
+1839, p. 39.
+
+[153] I give this incident as I find it, but hold it to be a fiction.
+It is inconsistent with the king’s character and the state of his
+health at the time.
+
+[154] Throckmorton to Chamberlayne, 21st November, 1560; Wright’s
+_Elizabeth_, i. p. 57.
+
+[155] _Vie de Coligny_, p. 221.
+
+[156] Calvin to Sturm, 16th Dec. 1560. Bonnet: _Lettres de Calvin_.
+
+[157] “Non minus fœdo quam inexpectato mortis genere sustulit. Mortuo
+nullus, ut regi, honos habitus.... Lutherano more sepultus Lutheranorum
+hostis.” Beza to Bullinger, 22d Jan. 1561; Baum’s _Theodor Beza_,
+ii. p. 18, _Suppl._
+
+[158] Paris: _Cabinet historique_, ii. p. 57.
+
+[159] The following were the twelve leading provinces: Normandy,
+governed by the Dauphin; Brittany, by the Duke of Etampes; Gascony, by
+the King of Navarre; Languedoc and the Isle of France, by Constable
+Montmorency; Provence, by the Count of Tende; Dauphiny and Champagne,
+by Guise; Lyonnais and the Bourbonnais, by Marshal St. André; Burgundy,
+by the Duke of Nevers; and Picardy, by Coligny.
+
+[160] _Mém. de Marguérite de Valois_, p. 18.
+
+[161] There were rewards for killing these beasts: 5 sols for a wolf,
+10 sols for a she-wolf. MS. penes auct.
+
+[162] Du Tillet: _Recueil des Roys_, ii p. 192; _Chronique_
+(4to. 1618).
+
+[163] MS. penes auct.
+
+[164]
+
+    S’il lui reste encor de sa pauvre cueillette,
+    Quelque petit amas que sa femme discrette
+    Aura par un long temps, pour l’aider en saison,
+    Reservé chichement au coin de sa maison,
+    Le soldat lui survient, pire que n’est l’orage.
+
+    _Le Contr’ Empire des Sciences._ Lyon, 1599.
+
+
+[165] “Un douzième de la prisaie du produit.” _Monteil MSS._ i.
+250.
+
+[166] MS. penes auct.
+
+[167] From a list of delicacies supplied in December, 1578, to the
+wife of Charles de Vienne, Governor of Burgundy, when in childbed,
+we learn that a Mayence ham cost 50 sols, Italian sausages 15 sols
+a lb., olives 12 sols, an ounce of musk 18 crowns of the sun, fine
+white sugar 23 sols a lb., inferior sort 22 sols, dried currants 12
+sols, and preserved pears 3 sols. At Mende, in 1568, a quintal of
+hay at 20 sols, and of straw at 8 sols, were reckoned very dear; the
+horse-soldier’s pay being arranged on the supposition that he could get
+those quantities of hay and straw for 8 and 4 sols, and a setier of
+oats for 25. (L’Abbé Bosse: _Le Gevaudan pendant la dernière Guerre
+civile_. Mende, 1864.) At Toulouse a soldier’s food cost 4 sols a
+day, probably equivalent to rather more than 20 sols or a franc now.
+About this time the salary of a president in the Toulouse Parliament
+was 100 sols a day, and of his huissier or beadle 30 sols.
+
+[168] “Sans ce grain (le sarrasin) qui nous est venu depuis 60 ans, les
+pauvres gens auraient beaucoup á souffrir.” _Contes d’Eutrapel._
+
+[169] “Celui-là même que nous avons en délices ès jours maigres.”
+Bélon: _Observations_, etc. 1563.
+
+[170] Champier wonders how people could eat such an _insect_.
+
+[171] Without going to the Pyrenees, or even to Burgundy, the English
+traveler may still see relics of the old time in the high cap of the
+Normande _bonne_ and in the dress of the fishing-classes in the
+Pas de Calais, where the girl who ventures to wear a bonnet is looked
+upon as lost.
+
+[172] The Ordonnance of Orleans (1560) forbids the “manans et habitans
+de nos villages toutes sortes de dorures sur plomb, fer, ou bois.”
+
+[173] St. Allais: _Ancienne France_, i. 558, gives extracts from
+the edicts of 1561.
+
+[174]
+
+    Qui vit jamais porter bas des chausses de soye
+    De 8 ou 10 escus, au lieu d’avoir du pain
+    Pour les pauvres....
+                    ... On eust veu femme
+    Porter dessus son ventre un _miroir_ en l’église.
+
+    Artus Desiré: _Le Dèsordre de France_. Paris, 1577.
+
+
+[175] De Thou describes his mother “in equo post tergum sessoris
+domestici tapeti et stapedæ insidens.”
+
+[176] Corrozet: _Antiquités de Paris_, p. 210 (ed. 1577).
+
+[177] Calculating the actual value of the livre tournois at francs
+4·50, according to the quantity of corn it represented, on the average
+of frs. 31·71 the setier.
+
+[178] In 1540 the _marc d’or_ (= 8 onces, or 244·75 grammes) was
+worth £165 7_s._ 6_d._ of our money; in 1561 it had risen to
+£185, and in 1573 to £200.
+
+[179] The _sol par livre_ seems to have been the constitutional
+tax, which Francis raised to two sols. The _Traicté des Aydes_, by
+L. du Crot, may be consulted with advantage.
+
+[180] Francis I. took away the silver rails that had been set by Louis
+XI. round the tomb of St. Martin of Tours.
+
+[181] Du Crot: _Traicté des Aydes_, ad fin.
+
+[182] The salt tax, oppressive enough by itself, was made more so by
+the way in which it was levied. It sometimes reached 25 sols the pound,
+and purchasers were forced to buy a certain quantity, and renew their
+store every three months, whether it was consumed or not. Bernard
+Palissy gives a curious account of the working of this tax.
+
+[183] A relic of this custom still exists in the practice of closing
+Temple Bar on the accession of a new sovereign.
+
+[184] “Sono stati forzati ad abbandonnar il paesi.” _Relazione_,
+iii. (Ser. I.) p. 423. Du Crot confirms this: _Traicté des Aydes_,
+p. 114.
+
+[185] La Noue sets it down at twenty million francs.
+
+[186] _Mém de Condé_, tom. vi. p. 603 (Collect. Michaud).
+
+[187] “Fas esse interficere ... nisi obedire evangelio Calviniano.”
+_De justa Reipubl. Christi in Regis Auctorit._ 386 recto. See
+Labitte: _Démoc. de la Ligue_, p. li.
+
+[188] Arcère: _Hist. Rochelle_ (4to. 1756), i. p. 333.
+
+[189] “Il prete francese [non] molto libidinoso e inclinato solo al
+vizio della crapula (gluttony).” The sense requires the addition of the
+negative _non_.
+
+[190] _Révue rétrospective_, i. 1833.
+
+[191] _Démonomanie_, p. 152. This man, according to Mezeray, gave
+Charles the names of 1200 of his associates. In Bodin and L’Estoile the
+numbers are set down at 30,000 and 3000; Boguet says “trois cents mil.”
+
+[192] The following title of a libelous pamphlet throws a curious light
+upon the subject in the text: _Les Sorcelleries de Henri de Valois,
+et les Oblations qu’il faisoit au Diable dans le Bois de Vincennes,
+avec la Figure des Démons d’Argent doré auxquels il faisoit Offrande,
+et lesquels se voyent encore en ceste Ville_. Paris, 1589.
+
+[193]
+
+    Le lion jeune le vieux surmontera;
+      En champ bellique par singulier duel,
+    Dans cage d’or les yeux lui crèvera,
+      Deux plaies une, puis mourir, mort cruelle.
+
+
+[194] Isambert: _Anciennes Lois Franç_, xiv. p. 71; Ordonnance of
+Orleans, January, 1560.
+
+[195] Gregorius: _Tertia Syntag. Juris Univ. Pars_, lib. 74, c.
+21. The evidence would hardly satisfy an English jury.
+
+[196] Gregorius: _Tertia Syntag. Juris Univ. Pars_, lib. 74, c. 21.
+
+[197] Coryat, _Crudities_, p. 8.
+
+[198] Joannes Millæus: _Praxis Criminis persequendi_ (fol. Paris,
+1541), contains well-executed plates representing various kinds of
+torture.
+
+[199] Claude Haton, ii. 704.
+
+[200] Giovanni Soranzo (1558) says 400,000 or more.
+
+[201] Corrozet (dd. 1568) says: “... Cette ville est de unze portes....
+Lequel enclos sept lieues lors contient.” See also Tommaseo, p. 43;
+Coryat’s _Crudities_, p. 17.
+
+[202] Brun and Hogenburg: _Théâtre des principales Villes_.
+
+[203] _Mém. de Vieilleville_ (Panthéon Litt.), 1836, p. 510.
+
+[204]
+
+    Miror et innumeras forma præstante puellas,
+    Tam lascivo habitu cultas, adeoque facetas
+    Ut Priamum aut veterem succendere Nestora possint.
+
+    _La Fleur des Antiquitez_, Paris, 1533.
+
+
+[205] Marino Giustiniano in Tommaseo.
+
+[206] _C’est la déduction du sumptueux ordre de Rouen, etc._ Small
+4to. Rouen, 1551.
+
+[207] Favin: _Hist. de Navarre_, an. 1565; Godefroy: _Cérémonial de
+France_, i. p. 909; Aubigné: _Hist._ liv. iv. ch. 5; Popelinière, i.
+liv. 10; Abel Jouan: _Voyage de Charles IX._
+
+[208]
+
+    Et ainsi Dijon a le bruit
+    D’être l’une, sans point de tache,
+    Des plus belles villes qu’on sache.
+
+    _Blason et Louenge de la noble Ville de Dyjon._
+
+
+[209] _Régistres du Conseil de Toulon_, B, No. 10, fol. 247.
+
+[210] _A General Hist. of France_, by John de Serres (Serranus).
+Fol. Lond. 1624, p. 692.
+
+[211] Beza had a favorable opinion of the boy-king, but not of the
+mother: “De rege optimam spem esse, et hoc tibi, ut certissimum,
+confirmo. Sed puer est et matrem habet.” Beza to Haller, 24th January,
+1561, in Baum’s _Beza_, ii. p. 25, App.
+
+[212] Baschet, p. 510.
+
+[213] Aubespine _Négotiations_, p. 781. The translation of this
+unctuous letter is from Miss Freer’s _Elizabeth of Valois_, i. p.
+230.
+
+[214] Walsingham describes her as “naturally timid;” Travannes
+(_Mém._ ii. 256): “ambitieuse et craintive;” Suriano: “timida e
+irresoluta;” and again, “per paura di se stessa;” and Languet (Epist.
+i. 41): “Regina, ut est mulier, territa.”
+
+[215] Baschet, p. 518.
+
+[216] The chief members of this council were Anthony of Navarre; the
+Cardinals of Bourbon, Lorraine, Tournon, Guise, and Chatillon; the
+Prince of Roche-sur-Yon; the Dukes of Guise and Aumale, the Chancellor,
+Marshals St. André and Brissac, with the Bishops of Orleans, Valence,
+and Amiens. Condé could not act, being in prison.
+
+[217] The lawyers and parliaments were always jealous of the
+States-General. Pasquier, who was a “parliamentarian,” calls the appeal
+to the Three Estates a “vieille folie courant en l’esprit français.”
+
+[218] F. Bourquelot: _Hist. de Provins_, ii. p. 132. An ordonnance
+of 1565 throws a curious light on the morals of the clergy:--“Ad
+instantiam promotoris inhibitum fuit omnibus et singulis hujus ecclesiæ
+[St. Quiriace at Provins], canonicis, capellariis, vicariis, et aliis
+habituatis (?) ne, quovis quæsito colore, audeant mulieres scandalosas
+de lapsu et incontinentia carnis, quovis modo suspectas, in eorum domos
+claustrales introducere vel intromittere, et si quas habeant, illico
+et incontinenti ejiciant et expellant, sub pœna excommunicationis et
+amendæ summæ decem librarum et amplius.”
+
+[219] On the calculation that a livre would purchase as much in 1560
+as twelve francs would now, the debt was equivalent to twenty millions
+sterling.
+
+[220] MSS. _L’Ordre et Séance, etc._
+
+[221] “Ipsius audaciam nobilitas et plebs magno cum fremitu
+repulissent.” Beza to Bullinger; Baum’s _Beza_, ii. p. 20, App.
+
+[222] “Habere quædam in mandatis quæ contra ipsum card. promere
+jubebantur.” Thuanus, v. lib. 27, p. 14 (Paris, 1609).
+
+[223] The assembly acted up to this principle by ordering (7th January)
+the release of all prisoners confined on account of religion; but it
+was done secretly “for fear of scandal.”
+
+[224] The language of their cahiers was more moderate than Quentin’s
+speech; but in the text they have, for obvious reasons, been treated as
+one document.
+
+[225] “Ut auferatur malum de medio nostri.”
+
+[226] Lobineau, _Hist. Bretagne_, ii. 280; Bertrand d’Argentré to
+the Duke of Estampes.
+
+[227] Chantonnay to Catherine, 22d April, 1561; _Mém de Condé_,
+ii. p. 6.
+
+[228] It is hinted in a contemporary letter, that many feared to
+speak their minds lest they should be treated like Du Bourg. Languet
+disapproves of the Edict of July, and says of Catherine: “Non mihi
+videtur caute egisse.” Lib. ii. Ep. liv. p. 137.
+
+[229] _Mém. de Castelnau_; see also Mignet, _Journ. des Savants_, 1847,
+pp. 651–659. In a letter (dated 1565) Castelnau says of Elizabeth: “Je
+ne la vis jamais plus belle ni plus jolie, et vous promets qu’il y a
+telle fille de quinze ans, qui pense être belle, qui n’en approche
+point. Au reste, elle a de grandes et rares vertus, et _un grand
+royaume_” (no doubt in his eyes her greatest virtue).
+
+[230] “Elle leur donne à entendre qu’elle veut faire instruire le roi
+son fils en leur religion.” _Discours Merveilleux_, p. xxi. On
+this matter we may suppose the writer of that scurrilous pamphlet to
+be well informed, though we may doubt Catherine’s sincerity. See also
+Agrippa d’Aubigné (liv. iv. ch. 3) on the “langage de Canaan” the queen
+employed in her conversations with the Protestant pastors. Sec also
+_Laboureur_ (i. p. 283), where she is described as “infected with
+this venom.”
+
+[231] Chantonnay advised that the heretics should be punished,
+Catherine replied: “Il n’était pas possible, vu le grand nombre ...
+sans ruiner toute chose et exciter une guerre civile.” Lett. of 8th
+January, 1561; _Mém. de Condé_, ii. p. 601.
+
+[232] _Mém. de Condé_, ii. p. 11.
+
+[233] “Vestido como putas.” Chantonnay to Philip II., 28th October,
+1561; Simancas Archives: _Journal des Savans_, 1859, p. 159.
+
+[234] In 1561, Micheli, the Venetian embassador, says that
+three-fourths of the kingdom are filled with heresy. They met and
+preached without any regard to the royal prohibition; and he notes
+it as very remarkable, that “priests, monks, and nuns, and even
+bishops, and many of the most distinguished prelates, had caught the
+infection.... Excepting the common herd, all have fallen away.”
+
+[235] The queen-mother was specially excepted.
+
+[236] There were actually six confederates, the three others being
+Cardinal Tournon, Marshal Brissac, and M. de Montpensier. Chantonnay to
+Philip II., 9th April, 1561; Bouillé, ii. 132.
+
+[237] “Tous articles ... soient décidés et résolus par la seule parole
+de Dieu.” Bibl. Impér. 8927, États de Pontoise.
+
+[238] “Audio Reginam curasse scribi formam emendationis ecclesiarum.”
+Languet (11th December, 1561), _Epist._ ii. 184. Also Chantonnay
+(22d January, 1561): “Aussi verrez-vous un discours que l’on sème
+faussement avoir été envoyé par la Reine au Pape.” He hints that it was
+written by Montluc, Bishop of Valence, “pour (sous prétexte de piété)
+semer la fausse doctrine.” _Mém. de Condé_, ii. 20.
+
+[239] Alberi: _Vita di Caterina de’ Medici_ (Firenze, 1838), p.
+291. See also letter in Bayle’s _Dictionary_, art. _Marot_,
+dated 26th August, 1559.
+
+[240] Calvin writes to P. Martyr: “Audio quidem Regis matrem ita esse
+tui audiendi cupidam.” 17th August, 1561. Baum’s _Theodor Beza_,
+ii. p. 40, App. Peter Martyr, who had a great reputation for eloquence,
+waited upon Catherine as soon as he reached Paris. After a long and
+friendly interview she dismissed him saying: “Quod deinceps sæpius
+mecum sed secreto colloqui vellet.” P. Martyr Senatui Turicensi, 12th
+September, 1561. _Ibid._ p. 63.
+
+[241] Bèze à M. d’Espeville, 25th August, 1561; Baum’s _Theodor
+Beza_, ii. p. 45, Append. There is a Latin copy of this letter which
+differs in several respects from the French.
+
+[242] Beza tells us that his escort numbered a hundred horsemen, and
+that the Duke of Guise received him “vultu quam maximè potuit ad
+humanitatem composito.” Beza Calvino, 12th September, 1561, Baum. ii.
+p. 60, App.
+
+[243] Chantonnay’s dispatch confirms this. He says that the king and
+the chancellor “ne bougeraient de là, que l’on n’eut trouvé ordre pour
+apaiser les tumultes de ce royaume.” _Mém. de Condé_, ii. 16.
+
+[244] Some historians reckon twelve ministers and a score of lay
+delegates; but the difference is unimportant. Besides Beza and Peter
+Martyr there were present Viret, Marlorat and Jean Malo, ex-priests,
+Reimond, and others.
+
+[245] Beza afterward found it necessary to explain himself more fully
+upon this point in a letter to the queen-mother: “Il y a grande
+différence de dire que Jésus-Christ est présent en la Sainte Cène, en
+tant qu’il nous y donne veritablement son corps et son sang; et de dire
+que son corps et son sang sont conjoints avec le pain et le vin. J’ai
+confessé le premier, j’ai nié le dernier.”
+
+[246] “Adeo exasperati atque exacerbati sunt, ut proruperint:
+Blasphemavit, blasphemavit Deum!” Struckius ad Hubertum, 18th
+September, 1561; Baum ii. p. 66, App. Catherine, writing to the
+Bishop of Rennes, embassador to the emperor, complains of Beza’s
+speech: “Etant enfin tombé sur le fait de la Cène il s’oublia en une
+comparaison si absurde et tant offensive des oreilles de l’assistance,
+que peu s’en fallut que je ne lui imposasse silence.” (14th September,
+1561.)
+
+[247] “Ut saltem æquiores nobis fiant.” Beza Calvino, 27th September,
+1561.
+
+[248] His orthodoxy was suspected. “Homo quidem doctus, sed nullius
+religionis, ut verè dicam ἄθεος.” Belcarius: _Rer. Gall. Comment._
+p. 937. “Il cancelliere che è scoperto nemico della religione
+cattolica.” Tommaseo, i. 530.
+
+[249] De Lisle to the king, 6th November, 1561. _Mém pour le Concile
+de Trente_ (4to ed.), p. 110.
+
+[250] “Una gran parte del popolo crede a costoro talmente che col mezzo
+loro si potranno ridurre alla via buona, come che altrimente siano per
+diventare Anabatisti o peggio.” Santa Croce to Cardinal Borromeo.
+
+[251] _Vie de Coligny_, p. 242; La Noue, p. 350 (Engl. transl.).
+Pasquier writes of 8000 and 9000 assembling in October, and of an
+“incredible concourse.” _Lettres_, p. 233. Languet speaks of
+12,000 to 13,000 present at a sermon in Orleans (_Arcana Secreta_,
+Ep. lv.); in Ep. lxii. he describes a meeting at which he was present:
+“non ducenti aut trecenti, sed duo, tria, et interdum novem aut decem
+millia ... hodie vero existimo non pauciores 15,000 interfuisse.” p.
+155.
+
+[252] After the massacre of Vassy (February, 1562), Condé offered
+the queen-mother the support of 2150 Reformed churches. Montfauçon,
+_Monumens de la Monarchie_, fol. 1733, v. p. 109. In 1598, the
+date of the Edict of Nantes, it was calculated that there were in
+France 694 public chapels and 257 private, over which 2800 ministers
+and 400 curates presided. There were 274,000 families, making about
+1,250,000 souls, and of those families 2468 were noble. In 1561 there
+may have been 250,000 more.
+
+[253] “Maxima nobilium parte ad eos accedente adeo ut cœtus
+Calvinistarum magna frequentia omnibus prope et nobilissimis quidem
+regni urbibus habebantur palam.” Eytzinger: _Leo Belg._ p. 25
+(anno 1560).
+
+[254] Beza Calvino, 23d October, 1561; in Baum: _Leben Bezas_, p.
+210.
+
+[255] Castelnau, p. 68.
+
+[256] Baum (30th October, 1561), p. 117. Languet writes (26th October,
+1561). “Dummodo non plures quam 200 conveniant, et sine armis.” _Arc.
+Secr._ ii. p. 153.
+
+[257] “Admodum severe nunc exequuntur edictum de usu armorum
+interdicto.” Languet (26th October, 1561): _Arc. Secr._ ii. p.
+153. The Huguenots were allowed to retain their arms: “Sotto pretesto
+che non avrebbe a seguir qualche seditione ... gli Ugonotti la
+portassero per sicurtà sua.” Barbaro: _Relazione_, 1564.
+
+[258] “Calvinistis infestissimo doctore.” Sanctesius: _Resp. ad
+Apolog. Bezæ_ (ap. Lannoium, _Hist. Gym. Navarræ_, p. 770).
+
+[259] _Sermon cath. sur les Dimanches_, ii. p. 25. This sermon,
+though actually of a later date, is a fair specimen of the style of the
+day.
+
+[260] Sanctesius: _Ad Edicta vet. princ. de Licentia Sect._ 1561.
+
+[261] _Complainte apologétique au Roi_, p. 288.
+
+[262] Thierry: _Recueil des Monumens inéd. de l’Hist. du Tiers
+État_, ii. p. 683 (4to. Paris).
+
+[263] Thierry: _Tiers État_, ii. p. 712.
+
+[264] “Nostros potius quam adversarios metuo.” (4th Nov. 1561). Baum’s
+_Beza_.
+
+[265] “Me non minus severe in rabiosos istos impetus vindicaturum.”
+_Ibid._ ii. _Anhang_, 129.
+
+[266] This was Pierre Craon, called Nez d’Argent, because he had lost
+his nose in a drunken brawl, and it was replaced by one of silver. He
+was at one time Professor of Humanity at Rheims, but resigned his chair
+on turning Protestant, and removed to Paris. The children used to sing
+a song about him. He was “fort renommé en science,” and worked quite a
+revolution in pronunciation and orthography, sounding _c_ like _ch_,
+and substituting _k_ for _c_ in calendrier, Catherine, etc. He also
+introduced parentheses, commas, accents, diphthongs, and apostrophes.
+One account says he was hanged in December, 1561. See Jean Lefèvre:
+_Hist. des Troubles_, i. p. 140.
+
+[267] _Arrêt du Parlement_; _Archives curieuses_, tom. iv.;
+_Histoire véritable_ (a Huguenot account): _ibid._ p. 49–75.
+
+[268] “Un altro simile spettacolo.” Lett. to Card. Borromeo.
+
+[269] Forbes, ii. pp. 337–338.
+
+[270] Davila: _Hist. Guerres civiles de France_, I. p. 78 (4to.
+Paris, 1657).
+
+[271] Psalm xci. (_Vulgate_, xc.): “Non timebis ab incursu et
+dæmonio meridiano.”
+
+[272] Beza Calvino, 6th January, 1562. Baum. App. The _Posidonius_
+of the text is evidently the admiral.
+
+[273] See Varillas, i. p. 121; Gacon: _Cour de Cath. d. Méd._
+
+[274] “A rigidioribus pontificiis accusatur Lutheranismi ... jam
+pulchre simulet ... videatur non multum a nostris dissentire.” Languet,
+_Epist._ 44, lib. 2. p. 112; 45, p. 116; 63, p. 159 (26th
+November, 1561).
+
+[275] The original report of the Saverne Conference is given in the
+_Bulletin de l’Hist. Prot. Français_, iv. p. 184.
+
+[276] It is hardly necessary to caution the reader against accepting
+these numbers literally.
+
+[277] A print in Montfauçon, which has been often copied, represents
+the duke himself stabbing a woman.
+
+[278] There are many contemporary and contradictory accounts of the
+Vassy massacre. _Description du Saccagement exercé cruellement en
+la Ville de Vassy_. Caen, 1562; _Discours au Vrai de ce qui est
+dernièrement advenu à Vassi_. Paris, 1562. This account says that
+the duke heard mass at Dampmartin, and then went on to Vassy, where
+he alighted at the convent. The _Discours entier de la Persecution
+... en la Ville de Vassy, le 1 mars 1562_, says that the duke was
+disturbed at mass by the singing of the Huguenots [who were outside the
+walls], and that on his sending to desire them to “wait until mass was
+over, when they might sing till they burst,” they sang all the louder.
+See also Alberi: _Vita di Caterina de Medici_, p. 92, note. Dr.
+Lingard asserts that Brantome was present at the massacre, but the
+abbé says plainly, “Je n’y étais pas.” The account in the text is
+substantially Davila’s; the duke’s own statement is in Castelnau.
+
+[279] The duke afterward attempted to justify himself on the ground
+that the Protestants had begun the attack; but it is not probable
+that a body of unarmed persons, including many women and children,
+would have provoked an armed body of men commanded by one of the first
+soldiers in France. If what Davila says is true, the duke did not
+regret this opportunity of showing how much he detested the January
+edict (liv. iii.).
+
+[280] Ste Croix, 15th March, 1562; Cimber, vi. 51.
+
+[281] “Magnifico apparatu,” says Eytzinger; “with 2000 gentlemen and
+3000 horses,” says Brulart. The date is uncertain, the authorities
+giving 15th, 16th, and 20th March.
+
+[282] Monceaux was an undefended country-house, 1½ leag. S.W. of St.
+Denis, and ¾ leag. E. of Neuilly.
+
+[283] Letter of 12th April, 1562; _Mém. de Condé_, ii. 53.
+
+[284] La Noue: _Politicke Discourses_, Lond. 1587. This translation
+preserves much of the spirit of the original French.
+
+[285] Luillier to Lymoges, 20th April, 1562. Paris: _Cabinet
+Historique_, ii. p. 291.
+
+[286] In spite of the disarming edicts, the arms had not been given up,
+the Huguenots retaining theirs in some districts. Accordingly, on 28th
+April, 1562, the king wrote to De la Mothe Gondrin, ordering the arms
+to be restored to the Catholics, “pour leur sûreté et conservation,
+_leur défendant néanmoins très-expressement_, de par moy, _de
+n’en mal user_, et de n’entreprendre aucune chose de mauvais,
+_sous peine d’être punis et châtiés exemplairement_.” Ordinances
+and letters of Charles IX. in Archives of Lyons.
+
+[287] This statement, if correct, must be the number on paper merely,
+and even then it would be one in four of the whole population of Paris.
+
+[288] From the _Enqueste sur la Profession religieuse de noble homme
+Jehan de Montruillon_, 1570, it would appear, that the certificate
+required to be signed by the parish priest and his curate, the
+church-wardens and sexton, the district judges and others. It states
+that the bearer attends mass and confession, that he is married, and
+that his children were christened in the parish church.
+
+[289] “Ut occidendorum penuria interficiendi finem fecerit.” Eytzinger:
+_Leo Belg._ p. 31.
+
+[290] It may be objected that, as some of the cases cited in the text
+occurred after Condé’s revolt, they can not be used to justify it. They
+are introduced to show the state of public feeling at the time.
+
+[291] See also letter to church of Blois, 18th September, 1557.
+
+[292] “Nobis bellum non esse bonæ voluntatis, ut pax, sed necessitatis
+... necessitas quæ nos premit nullam patitur legem contra naturam.”
+
+[293] The reformer Brentius was at one time a decided advocate of
+the principle of non-resistance; but as he grew older, and witnessed
+the terrible persecutions of the emperor, he altered his mind, and
+contended that the subordinate powers, as being also of God, were
+called upon to resist the higher powers, if they should turn their
+swords against the people of God.
+
+[294] “Fuerunt aliqui, qui maluerint, plagas accipere quam stringere
+gladios, ego non fui in ea sententia.” _Epist._ ii. 149 (12th
+October, 1562).
+
+[295] Trebutien: _Caen, Précis de son Histoire_; also, _Recherches et
+Antiquités de Caen_.
+
+[296] Talcy (dép. Loir et Cher) is on the right bank of the Loire,
+not far from Beaugency. One room in the chateau is still called the
+“chambre de Médicis.” There is a tradition that the Bartholomew
+Massacre was planned here. It is now in the possession of a Protestant;
+but, owing to frequent alteration, little remains of the original
+building, except the donjon and a tower or two.
+
+[297] This edict is computed to have caused the death of 50,000
+persons. Jean de Serres (Engl. transl.), p. 703; _Mém. de Condé_;
+Brulart’s _Journal_ (13th June, 1562); _Gacon_, i. 58. Castelnau speaks
+of the “licence débordée de mal faire.”
+
+[298] Medicis MSS.
+
+[299] Claude Haton reckons that 800 or 900 heretics were killed in
+Paris in June, 1562, and adds: “God knows that many porters and
+rag-gatherers were made rich, and many Huguenots poor.”
+
+[300] The Pincourt or Paincourt of the plans. It was in the Faubourg
+St. Jacques, beyond the walls, and on the road to Ménilmontant. The Rue
+Popincourt forms the chief communication between the Rue Ménilmontant
+and the Faubourg St. Antoine.
+
+[301] Les Tragiques: _Les Fers_, p. 226 (ed. Jannet, Paris, 1857).
+
+[302] Pasquier: _Lettres_, p. 272; Bayle, _sub voce_ “Lorraine.”
+
+[303] _Revue Retrospective_, v. p. 81.
+
+[304] _Sommaire des Choses accordées entre les Ducs de Guise, de
+Montmorenci et Marèchal Saint-André._ Capefigue recognizes the
+authenticity of this atrocious document.
+
+[305] Chaloner writes from Madrid (1st May, 1562): “They devise how
+the Guisians may be assisted, for ... the prevailment of that side
+importeth them as the ball of their eyes.” Haines: _State Papers_,
+p. 382.
+
+[306] Throckmorton writes: “The Pope hath lent 100,000 crowns, and doth
+monthly pay besides 6000 soldiers.” Forbes: _State Papers_, ii. p.
+4.
+
+[307] Forbes: _State Papers_, ii. pp. 16–20, 22–25.
+
+[308] _Ibid._ p. 54; see Latin version of letter, pp. 55–57.
+
+[309] The popular tradition says that Chassebœuf was hanged
+_after_ the St. Bartholomew, by order of Henry of Guise.
+
+[310] In order to disappoint the enemy, the clergy often appropriated
+the church treasures, and thus the circulating medium of the kingdom
+was quadrupled. Brantome declares that “there was now in France more
+millions of gold than there had previously been livres of silver.”
+
+[311] Paris: _Cab. Hist._ vi. p. 205. Perissin’s vigorous
+engraving, “Le massacre fait à Tours par la populace, 1562,” represents
+dead bodies lying naked on the river bank gnawed by dogs and birds;
+men in boats braining with clubs such as tried to save themselves by
+swimming, soldiers shooting at them in the water; men tied to trees and
+disemboweled, etc.
+
+[312] _Vie de Coligny_, p. 269.
+
+[313] For an English account of the siege, see Forbes: _State
+Papers_, pp. 117–127.
+
+[314] La Poupelière, whom some writers have confounded with the
+historian, La Popelinière, says: “En tous les rencontres de ceux de la
+religion, il a fait piller, ne laissant que les murailles et que les
+terres qui ne se pouvaient emporter.” _Canton d’Athis_, p. 44.
+
+[315] Cf. De Bras de Bourgeville, a contemporary. _Mém. de l’Acad. de
+Caen_, 1852.
+
+[316] “Par l’oreille, l’épaule, et l’œil Dieu a mis trois rois au
+cercueil;” meaning Francis II., Navarre, and Henry II.
+
+[317] Jean de Troyes, abbot of Gastines, and Sapin, a councillor of
+parliament. The life of a third, Odo de Selves, was spared, but he died
+a few days after of fright.
+
+[318] “Errants et vacables par les champs.” Floquet: _Hist. du Parl.
+de Norm._ ii. p. 408. The _Registres_ of the Hôtel-de-Ville of
+Rouen (4th Nov., 1562) contain a conciliatory letter from Catherine
+worthy of more attention than it has hitherto received.
+
+[319] Castelnau, p. 125; Throckmorton to Queen, 3d January, 1563, in
+Forbes, _State Papers_, pp. 251, 263, 276.
+
+[320] “The cavalry left their ranks, thinking it no shame to enrich
+themselves with the spoils of the Papists.” _Vie de Coligny_, p.
+277.
+
+[321] Montaigne, liv. i. ch. xlv. (_De la Battaille de Dreux_),
+highly extols this movement, comparing it with that where Philopœmen
+defeated Machanidas.
+
+[322] Damville was the constable’s second son.
+
+[323] “The constable, so hated by the Reformed, had met with the same
+fate, but for the interference of a gentleman named Vesines, who showed
+them the baseness of the act.” _Vie de Coligny_, p. 277.
+
+[324] “Ita tantæ pugnæ exitum moderatus est Deus, neutra uti pars victa
+aut victrix dici possit.” Eytzinger, p. 43; Throckmorton’s letter in
+Forbes, p. 251; and Andelot’s on p. 263.
+
+[325] Paré: _Œuvres_, p. 796 (fol. Lyons, 1641). La Noue estimates
+the killed alone at 9000; but nothing can be more hap-hazard than the
+way in which writers of the period speak of numbers. Jean de Serres
+says the prince lost about 2200 foot and 150 horse. 800 gentlemen
+alone were killed. Forbes, p. 276. Beza speaks of 150 horse killed and
+taken; but on the enemy’s side “infinita sunt vulnera et cædes maxima.”
+Walsingham reckons the admiral’s force after the battle as 5000 horse
+and 2000 foot, while Guise had 3000 horse and 16,000 foot. Forbes, p.
+259. Coligny writes to Elizabeth: “Notre cavalerie est intacte.”
+
+[326] Martin thinks the account of the Bishop of Riez “evidemment
+arrangé, surtout en ce qui regarde Vassi.” _Hist. France_, ix. p.
+152, note.
+
+[327] Forbes, p. 277.
+
+[328] _Ibid._ pp. 339 and 343.
+
+[329] Schardius redivivus (fol. 1673): _Responsio_, iii. p. 113;
+_Epistola_, iii. 119.
+
+[330] Labitte, p. 15.
+
+[331] Paris: _Cab. Hist._ ii. p. 289; iii. p. 48; _Vie de
+Coligny_, p. 289; _Recueil des Chants Hist._ Paris, 1842.
+
+[332] Wright’s _Elizabeth_, i. 125.
+
+[333] Letter dated 29th March, 1563.
+
+[334] Correro, the Venetian embassador, writes: “Come cominciorno
+a rubare, rovinare e ammazzare, usando mille crudeltà, questo fu
+avvertimento alle povere gente, che da loro istessi cominciorno a dire:
+Ma che religione è questa? Costoro che fanno professione d’intender
+meglio l’evangelio di nissuno altra, e dove trovano mai che Cristo
+comandasse che se pigliasse la robba del prossimo e si ammazzasse
+il compagno? E con simili considerazioni si frenevano, ne piu si
+precipitavano come prima.” Tommaseo, ii. p. 118.
+
+[335] Jean de Serres puts a similar reply into the mouth of the Duke
+of Guise, when a complaint was made to him that, in these “uncivil
+tumults” many Catholics were slain: “There is no remedy,” he made
+answer; “we have too much people in France. I will deal so as victuals
+shall be good cheap.” _Hist._ p. 703 (transl.).
+
+[336] The particulars of this plot are given in a letter from Claude of
+Lorraine to Damville, the date of which has been fraudulently altered
+from 1563 to 1560. See Vauvilliers, i. 315. Tavannes says the plot was
+concocted at Trent by the cardinal, and Lestoile dates the League from
+this period.
+
+[337] Blaise de Montluc: _Commentaires_ (Panthéon Littéraire,
+Paris, 1836). His shattered monument may still be seen at Estillac
+near Agen. The warrior, armed from head to foot, lies bare-headed on a
+marble slab, his arms crossed over his breast; his features are coarse
+and bold, his beard and mustache thick and long.
+
+[338] The Abbé Caveyrac in his _Apology for Louis XIV._ (note, p.
+7) says of the subsequent recantation of this blood-thirsty renegade,
+that “he returned _sincerely_ to God.” Let us hope he did, but on
+better grounds than Caveyrac’s word for it.
+
+[339] Le Baron de Chapuys-Montlaville: _Hist. de Dauphiné_, ii. p.
+358 (8vo. Paris, 1829).
+
+[340] “Ruboribus interfusa, ut lutum sanguine maceratum.” Thuanus:
+_De Vita sua_, lib. i. p. 1165.
+
+[341] _Archives curieuses_, iii. 227; Varillas: _Hist. Charles
+IX._ (Cologne, 1684).
+
+[342] Discours de ce qui a été faict ès villes de Vallence et Lyon.
+1562. A party pamphlet to be read with great caution.
+
+[343] In one of these convents was found “La machination écrite
+et signée faisant rôles des maisons des évangelistes et de toutes
+autres personnes (qui n’avaient point de maison), pour les mettre à
+mort, hommes, femmes et enfants, dans le 4 du dit mois de Mai.” This
+“machination” had no existence but in the imagination of the writer.
+
+[344] Pilot: _Occupation de Grenoble par les Protestants_.
+
+[345] Arcère: _Hist. de la Ville de Rochelle_, i. p. 358 (4to.
+Rochelle, 1756); Vincent: _Recherches sur les commencements de
+Rochelle_: “La maladie d’abattre les images était quasi universelle.”
+
+[346] One George Bosquet wrote a justification of this massacre:
+“_Hugoneorum heret. Tolosæ conjur. profligatio memoriæ posita_,”
+which was condemned by the council as a defamatory libel (18th June,
+1563).
+
+[347] Imberdis, p. 3.
+
+[348] Jean de Serres (Serranus) adds that in the following year, 1563,
+a troop of fifty horse surprised the town, tied Ralet to the top of his
+house, and fired at him until they killed him (p. 701).
+
+[349] Vitet: _Hist. Dieppe_, p. 77. (Paris, 1844.)
+
+[350] De Bras: _Antiquités de Caen_, p. 170.
+
+[351] The whole of this frightful catalogue will be found in the
+“Théâtre des cruautés des hérétiques de notre temps, 1588.” Reprinted
+in the _Archives curieuses de France_ (Cimber and Danjou), tom.
+vi. series 1. p. 299. See also in the same collection, chap. xiv. of
+the _Discours sur le Saccagement des Églises, etc. en 1562_, by
+Claude de Sainctes, and the _Vrai Tocsain_. We must not accept for
+truth all recorded by this writer, but after the most ample deduction
+from his narrative there remains much to lament and condemn.
+
+[352] Wright’s _Elizabeth_, i. 118.
+
+[353] _Ibid._ i. 131.
+
+[354] This letter was partly the composition of L’Hopital, and was
+written by Montaigne, the essayist, at that time one of the royal
+secretaries.
+
+[355] Langueti Epist. ii. 281, (20th January, 1564): “Se enim satis
+expertum quantum malorum.... Reginam nihil jam minus cogitare quam....”
+
+[356] Instructions dated 1562, in Le Plat, v. pp. 151, 155.
+
+[357] See a remarkable dispatch on this subject in the Rouen Library,
+Leber, Bundle D, No. 5725.
+
+[358] A portrait of Alva, by Titian, is at Warwick Castle.
+
+[359] See Freer: _Elizabeth de Valois_, ii. ch. 2. In this chapter
+we prefer to call the queen by her Spanish name, Isabella.
+
+[360] Per il gran caldo. _Li Grandissimi Apparati_, etc. Padova,
+1565.
+
+[361] Walsingham to Smith, 14th September, 1572. Digges: _Compleat
+Ambassador_, p. 241.
+
+[362] The attendants of the court were so numerous, that they could not
+be accommodated in the town, but had to lodge in the adjacent villages
+or live in tents pitched in the surrounding fields.
+
+[363] Abel Jouan: _Voyage de Charles IX._, printed by Baschi,
+Baron d’Aubais, in his _Pièces fugitives pour servir à l’histoire de
+France_. 4to. Paris, 1759. See also _Mém. de Marguerite_.
+
+[364] _Recueil des choses notables qui ont esté faites à Bayonne_,
+etc. 8vo. Paris, 1566; _Li Grandissimi Apparati e Reali Trionfi fatti
+nella città di Baiona_. 8vo. Padova, 1565.
+
+[365] Raumer: _Illustrations_, i. p. 121.
+
+[366] _Papiers d’État_ de Granvelle, ix. p. 298. 4to. Paris, 1852,
+ed. Weiss.
+
+[367] “Che a loro sono occorse questi ruine per non aver voluto creder
+e far quello che lui più di 8 anni li avvisò,” etc. 7th May, 1568.
+
+[368] Davila gives the same idea in different words: lib. iii. Mathieu
+(_Hist. France_, i. 283) says his authority was Calignon, a
+Catholic, whose Memoirs were published by Gomberville in his Supplement
+to the _Memoirs of Nevers_.
+
+[369] Baschet: _La Diplomatie Vénitienne_, p. 522. Paris, 1862.
+
+[370] 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.
+
+[371] Monitorium et Citatio in _Mém. de Condé_. 4to. 1743.
+The French protest and remonstrance are in the same collection. A
+remarkable memoir by Bapt. Dumesnil is given in Bouchel: _Bibl. du
+Droit Franç._ p. 549; and _Preuves des lib. Egl. Gall._ chap.
+iv. No. 27.
+
+[372] The cardinal had occasioned great scandal by taking a wife and
+calling her Countess of Beauvais, after his diocese.
+
+[373] Some authorities give “Paris,” for even in a matter which ought
+to be well known do the contemporary accounts differ.
+
+[374] Paris: _Cab. Hist._ iii. p. 56.
+
+[375] “Qu’il n’avait fait, ni fait faire l’homicide, et qu’il ne
+l’avait approuvé ni approuvait.” Brulart’s _Journal_, 29th
+January, 1566. This is hardly consistent with what he wrote at the time
+of the murder: supra, p. 222.
+
+[376] Jean de Serres.
+
+[377] _Lettres_, liv. v. lett. 3.
+
+[378] _Remonstrance envoyée au Roi par la Noblesse de la R. R. du
+Maine_. 1565.
+
+[379] Cimber, vi. 309; _Discours des troubles_ (5th June, 1566).
+
+[380] This was said in the hearing of L’Hopital. Davila, i. 163 (Fr.
+transl.).
+
+[381] “Il y sera comme s’il était mort.” Archives de l’Empire,
+_Papiers Simancas_, carton B. In reading Catherine’s letters to
+her daughter we must not forget that they were to be seen by Philip
+also, and that she could not be truthful, even when writing to her own
+children.
+
+[382] Brantome speaks in rapture of this “gentille et gaillarde armée,”
+which was accompanied by “quatre cents courtisanes à cheval, belles et
+braves comme princesses, et huit cents à pied, bien en point aussi.”
+
+[383] Had Coligny’s proposal to stop Alva’s march been adopted, France
+might have been saved much misery; for among other things it would have
+satisfied the craving for war felt by that restless nation: “A quoi
+(_sc._ la guerre) la plûpart étaient portés par le génie de la
+nation, qui ne saurait demeurer en repos.” _Vie de Coligny_, p.
+319.
+
+[384] Schardius: _De Rebus gest. sub. Maximil._ ii. 64.
+
+[385] Bouillon: _Mém._ i. p. 21.
+
+[386] Capefigue: _La Réforme_, ch. xxxii., gives the text of the
+“Instruction à M. Feuquières.” La Noue speaks of “certain intercepted
+letters coming from Spain,” p. 389 (Engl. transl.).
+
+[387] La Noue, p. 390 (Engl. transl.); De Thou, liv. xlii.
+
+[388] La Popelinière, xiii. 81.
+
+[389] Alva to king, 28th June, 1567: “Es increible el contentamiente
+con que estan los catolicos de Francia de ver pasar estas fuerzas de
+VM. en Flandres, que les paresce ser esta su redempcion; y así me dijo
+un secretario del Card. de Lorena ... que el Card. su amo y toda la
+casa de Guisa estavan resueltos como las fuerzas de VM. estuviesen en
+Flandres, irse ellos á la corte, donde entien que esto les hará tan
+gran sombra que serán vistos diferentemente de como lo han sido hasta
+aqui.” Navarrete: _Docum. ined._ vi. 371.
+
+[390] “Certo sciverunt Pontif. Rom. et reliquos principes ...
+constituisse jam tentare Galliam ... conduxit itaque rex ad eam rem
+perficiendam xx. signa Helvetiorum.”--To the same purport writes
+Castelnau, 383.
+
+[391] “Habillé en ménagier faisant ses vendanges.” Pasquier,
+_Lettres_, ii. 117 (ed. 1723).
+
+[392] La Noue, p. 395 (Engl. transl.).
+
+[393] Had the Huguenots succeeded, they would have burned Paris. For
+the proofs of such an improbable story see _Hist. relig. pol. etc. de
+la Comp. de Jésus_, by J. Crétineau-Joly (3 éd. Paris, 1859), ii.
+ch. ii. p. 85.
+
+[394] Gachard: _Corresp. Philippe II._, tom. i. p. 593.
+
+[395] “Car tant plus de morts, moeingz d’ennemys.” Letter of 8th
+October, 1567. _Livre du Roy_. Grenoble MS. Gordes proving too
+merciful in carrying out these harsh instructions, the cruel and
+intemperate Maugiron was appointed his colleague.
+
+[396] As crowds of American ladies are reported to have gone out to
+witness the first battle of Bull Run.
+
+[397] The Huguenots adopted white, the king’s color, to indicate their
+loyalty; their opponents chose red, the emblem of Spain.
+
+[398] One account says that the constable was really killed by “un
+autre Ecossais,” who shot him in the loins.
+
+[399] “Expetebat pacem, et ob eam rem adduxerant eum in suspicionem
+apud vulgus ii qui sperant se ex calamitatibus publicis aucturos suas
+opes et suam potentiam.... Fuit amans patriæ et moderatior,” etc.
+Languet, _Epist._ i. 33
+
+[400] “Edoctus suo malo ... omnino hoc incumbit ut Edictum ubique
+mandetur executioni.” Languet, _Epist._ ii. 357.
+
+[401] Borrel: _Hist. de l’Église Réf. de Nimes_, 12mo. Toulouse,
+1856, p. 51.
+
+[402] Baragnon: _Hist. de Nimes_, tom. ii.; an anonymous
+_Histoire de la Ville de Nimes_, 8vo. Amsterd. 1767.
+
+[403] Charronet: _Les Guerres de Religion dans les Hautes Alpes_,
+p. 50. (8vo. Gap, 1863).
+
+[404] “Ce qui restait du pillage des Huguenots était repillé par les
+Catholiques.” Castelnau.
+
+[405] “Discours des Raisons,” etc., in _Anc. Collect. Mém.
+France_, xlviii. p. 224.
+
+[406] La Noue, p. 409.
+
+[407] Longjumeau is about four leagues south of Paris, on the old
+coach-road to Orleans.
+
+[408] Mezeray: _Abrégé_, iii. p. 1051. Montluc says: “Le prince et
+l’amiral firent un pas de clerc, car ils avaient l’avantage des jeux.”
+_Comment._
+
+[409] Memoirs of Gaspar de Coligny (Edin. 1844), p. 116.
+
+[410] Die Menschen verwilderten mit den Ländern.
+
+[411] Archives of Tours. Luzarche (Victor): _Lettres historiques_,
+p. 81 (Tours, 1861).
+
+[412] Archives of Tours. Luzarche (Victor): _Lettres historiques_,
+p. 89 (Tours, 1861).
+
+[413] Languet, i. 58.
+
+[414] “Reclamarunt autem quantum potuerunt legati pontif. Rom. et reg.
+Hisp. immo aiunt eos Regi minitatos esse bellum, si hæreticis pacem
+concederet, sed Regem ita respondisse ut eos terruerit.” Languet, i. 62.
+
+[415] Gachard: _Corresp. de Philippe II._, vol. i. p. 609 (4to.
+Bruxelles, 1848).
+
+[416] Archives of Provins: Registres de Baptême. Charronnet: _Guerres
+de Religion_, p. 60. Comptes consulaires de Gap. 1569.
+
+[417] Claude Haton, p. 534.
+
+[418] Thierry: _Tiers-État_, ii. 726.
+
+[419] _Laderchii Ann. Eccles._ xxiii. 125, in Sismondi, xix. p. 21.
+
+[420] _Journal de Lestoile._ The Orange Societies were originally
+bound by a similar oath to “pay allegiance to the king and his
+successors so long as they support the Protestant ascendancy.” The
+loyal Catholics threatened to shut up Charles in a convent, and put
+another in his place, if he tried to protect the Huguenots. De Thou, v.
+p. 516.
+
+[421] Dom Vaissette: _Hist. Languedoc_, tome v. p. 216, _note_.
+
+[422] On the vaulted ceiling of the Tour de la Ligue is a striking
+fresco representing Condé as Mars, Biragne as Vulcan, Catherine as
+Juno, Margaret of Valois as a Muse, with other well-known historic
+=characters=.
+
+[423] Of this passage, Jean de la Haize, orator of La Rochelle, said:
+“La faveur du ciel s’étant déclarée si miraculeusement pour votre
+conservation, que la délivrance des enfans d’Israël par la Mer Rouge
+n’est point plus admirable et extraordinaire.” _Second Discours
+bref_, in Arcère, i. p. 369, _note_. Villegomblain (_Mém._
+i. p. 16), says they crossed “near Les Rosiers,” four leagues below
+Saumur, which must be a mistake. A spot just above Cosne was pointed
+out to me by a lineal descendant of one of the sharers of this flight.
+
+[424] In the Cotton MSS. (_Caligula_ E, vi. fol. 90) there is an
+inventory of jewels and trinkets mortgaged to Elizabeth by Joan of
+Navarre, Condé, and the admiral, 12th June, 1569.
+
+[425] Champernon married a daughter of the famous Count of Montgomery.
+
+[426] Raleigh’s Works, vi. pp. 157–158, 211.
+
+[427] Mezeray describes the frost of 1570–71 as lasting three months,
+during which the fruit-trees, even in Languedoc, were frozen down to
+their roots. In March, 1572, Smith, the English embassador, writes from
+Blois, complaining of “thirty days’ continued frost and snow.”
+
+[428] Leicester to Randolph (March 13), blames Condé’s “overmuch
+rashness,” and says his arm was broken by a shot. Wright’s
+_Elizabeth_, i. 313.
+
+[429] Champollion-Figéac: _Documents hist. inédits_, iv. p. 486
+(4to. Paris, 1848).
+
+[430] When Charles heard the news of Condé’s death “surgit e lecto,
+properat ad summam ædem, alta voce depromit canticum _Te Deum_,
+jubet campanas omnes solenniter pulsari.”
+
+[431] One of the medals struck at Rome to commemorate this victory
+represents the pope and cardinals kneeling and receiving from heaven an
+answer to their prayers: the inscription is from the _Te Deum_:
+“Fecit potentiam in brachio suo; dispersit superbos.” Bonanni:
+_Numism. Pontif. Rom._ No. 14 (2 vols. fol. Romæ, 1699).
+
+[432] Catena, _Vita di Pio V._ p. 85. He wrote to Catherine to
+fight the enemies of God “_ad internecionem usque_;” and to Anjou
+to show himself “_omnibus inexorabilem_.” He describes Coligny
+as “_exsecrandum illum ac detestabilem hominem_, si modo homo
+appellandus est.” See also No. xi. to Charles (6th March, 1569), in
+Potter’s _Lettres de Pio V._ (8vo. Paris, 1826), where “punire
+hæreticos eorumque duces omni severitate” will hardly support the
+writer in the _Dublin Review_ (October, 1865), who contends that
+the Church exulted over the St. Bartholomew massacre, not because the
+victims were _heretics_, but because they were _rebels_. In
+the prayer ordered by Clement IX. to be read on 1st May, Pius V. is
+described as elect “ad conterendos ecclesiæ hostes.”
+
+[433] “Death or Victory” had been Henry’s motto in certain court
+masques, until Catherine, whose curiosity was piqued by the three Greek
+initials he used, ordered him to discontinue them.
+
+[434] Some years ago there was in the cabinet of Alfred de Vigny,
+the author of _Cinq Mars_, a portrait, by an unknown painter,
+of Prince Henry, when not more than three years old. It was full of
+character and life.
+
+[435] Sir James Stephen says that Andelot was slain at Moncontour.
+_Lectures, Hist. France_, ii. p. 123. He died at Saintes, 27th
+May; Moncontour was fought 3d October.
+
+[436] D’Acier was ransomed for 10,000 crowns, on hearing of which
+the pope wrote angrily to Count Santa Fiore, “che non avesse il
+comandamento di lui osservato _d’ammazzar subito qualunque
+heretico_ gli fosse venuto alle mani.” Catena: _Vita Pio V._
+
+[437] _Simancas Archives_, Bouillé, ii. 448.
+
+[438] Henry of Nassau had left his studies to join his brothers:
+“dantem operam literis Argentorati fratres secum abduxerunt.” Languet:
+_Epist. Secr._ i. 117.
+
+[439] Raleigh: _Hist. World_, bk. v. ch. ii. sec. 8, p. 356 (fol.
+1614).
+
+[440] _Mém. de Perussis_ in Aubais, p. 106. The furniture
+and valuables--sculptures by Goujon, and pictures by Italian
+artists--filled 80 wagons, and produced 400,000 dollars by public
+auction in Paris.
+
+[441] _Epist. Pii papæ V._ Edid. Gouban, Antwp. 1640: “Nihil est
+eâ misericordià crudelius.” Lib. iii. ep. 45, Octob. 20.
+
+[442] _Hist. France_ (Le Fère and Piguerre), fol. 1581, p. 119,
+_b_.
+
+[443] De Thou. v. p. 610.
+
+[444] Villegomblain: _Mém. des Troubles_, i. 255.
+
+[445] Gilbert de Voisins: _Traité de Géognosie_.
+
+[446] Weld’s _Auvergne and Piedmont_ contains an interesting and
+picturesque description of a portion of this district.
+
+[447] Henry and the Prince of Condé had each a regiment at the head of
+which they made their apprenticeship in arms.
+
+[448] Matthieu, i. liv. v. p. 327.
+
+[449] Chatillon-sur-Loing (not _sur-Loire_), is in Loiret, five
+leagues S.E. of Montargis, and 16 leagues E. of Orleans, on the left
+bank of the Loing.
+
+[450] _Simancas Archives_: Bouillé, ii. p. 454.
+
+[451] Le Pipre: _Abrégé chron. de la Maison du Roi_, p. 30. (4to.
+ed.).
+
+[452] See also J. Rondinelli: _Oratio in exequiis Karoli IX._
+Florentiæ, 1574.
+
+[453] Walsingham to Leicester, 29th August, 1570.
+
+[454] Digges: _Compleat Ambassador_, p. 7.
+
+[455] Ad Camer. p. 132. “Omnes affirmant esse eximiæ voluntatis regem;
+sed potentes sunt factiones eorum qui pacem improbant ... omnia sunt
+hic tranquilla, nec dubitat quisquam regem esse pacis cupidissimum.” p.
+136.
+
+[456] Baschet, p. 252.
+
+[457] “Nullam luci cum tenebris communionem, nullamque catholicis cum
+hæ. reticis ... compositionem esse posse.” Letter of 29th January,
+1570, Potter.
+
+[458] Tours Archives. Luzarche: _Lettres historiques_ (1861), p.
+129.
+
+[459] “Voyant maintenant les affaires de mon royaume réduites au bon
+état qu’elles sont (Dieu merci), après qu’il lui a plu pacifier des
+troubles qui y étaient.” MSS. Bibl. Imp. in Soldan: _Frankreich und
+die Bartholomæusnacht_.
+
+[460] Bouillé, ii. 456, _note_. See also _État de France_, i.
+12 _b_ (ed. 1579). _Le Tocsain_, p. 93 (ed. 1579).
+
+[461] “Non sine magna procerum indignatione.” Elsewhere he is described
+as a “monstrum nulla virtute redemptum.”
+
+[462] “Miroir de la Justice divine.” L’Estoile.
+
+[463] Davila, i. p. 500.
+
+[464] He was made Duke of Nevers after his marriage with Henrietta of
+Nevers, sister of Catherine of Cleves, the widow of Prince Porcien.
+Henrietta was the eldest daughter of the Duke of Nevers and Margaret of
+Bourbon, sister to Anthony of Navarre. Maria, the youngest daughter,
+married Henry of Condé in 1572.
+
+[465] Capefigue.
+
+[466] He is reported to have spent several hours at his forge on the
+very eve of the massacre.
+
+[467] Under date 22d March, 1751, Smith writes to Burghley from Blois:
+“Inordinate hunting, so early in the morning and so late at night,
+without sparing frost, snow, or rain, and in so despotic a manner as
+makes her (Catherine) and those that love him to be often in great
+fear.”
+
+[468] “Sanguineum reddebat in feras, _non_ in homines.” Raumer (i.
+p. 271) suggests the omission of _non_, as being at variance with
+history.
+
+[469] The _Archives curieuses_ (viii.) contain a statement of the
+sums paid by the king for the animals thus slain.
+
+[470] _Recueil de ce qui a été faict à l’entrée_, etc., in the
+Library of Ste. Geneviève.
+
+[471] _Hist. de France_ (by Le Fère de Laval and Piguerre), fol.
+1581. _Mém. État de France_, i. 40.
+
+[472] Charronet, p. 65.
+
+[473] A “chanson” of this period strikingly prefigures the massacre of
+1572. Here is one verse:
+
+    Nos capitaines, corporiaux,
+    Ont des corselets tout nouveaux
+      Et des cousteaux
+    Pour Huguenots egorgetter
+      Et une escharpe rouge
+    Que tous voulons porter, etc.
+
+    _Le Roux de Lincy_, ii. 295.
+
+In another chanson (No. xvii.) Coligny is threatened:
+
+    Pendu à une potence,
+    Paissant de sa chair et peau
+      Le corbeau.
+
+
+[474] “There were men near to his sovereign (Charles IX.) who wished to
+bring him up in the Reformed religion; but he (Philip) would anticipate
+them, and embroil all the world beforehand.” Letter in Le Plat: _Mon.
+Hist. Concil. Trident. Collect._ v. p. 571 (4to. Lovain, 1781–1787).
+
+[475] Walsingham, 25th June, 1571.
+
+[476] “Che ’l Francese sia quasi necessitato desiderare la guerra con
+Spagnuoli.” Tommaseo: _Relations Vénitiennes_, ii. p. 171.
+
+[477] Walsingham to Leicester, 5th March, 1572; Digges, p. 49.
+
+[478] Alberi: _Vita di Caterina de’ Medici_.
+
+[479] Walsingham (6th August, 1571) gives an account of this interview
+from the report of the prince himself. Digges, p. 174. The _État de
+France_ (i. 44.) says Catherine was present, which is a mistake.
+
+[480] Walsingham to Burleigh, 12th August, 1571. “Galli apud Hispanos
+in tantum suspicionem vivere.” _Schardius Rediv._ iv. p. 177.
+
+[481] Walsingham to Leicester (22d April, 1571) shows Teligny’s footing
+with the king. The embassador hints at opposition to the war against
+Spain lest it should give the management to other hands and parties.
+
+[482] After Teligny’s murder she married William of Orange. The present
+Count of Paris is descended from Louisa of Coligny, through his mother
+Helena of Mecklenburg.
+
+[483] She admired in Coligny “un assortiment rare de vertus et de
+talens qui lui rendaient la haute idée de l’ancien héroïsme.” Arcère:
+_Hist. Rochelle_ (4to. 1756), i. p. 392. In order to prevent the
+marriage, the nuncio Salviati proposed her assassination: “Le remède
+serait de se débarrasser, par tous les moyens possibles, de cette
+méchante fiancée.” Coquerel: _La Sainte-Barthélemy_ (Paris, 1859),
+p. 27, _note_.
+
+[484] Digges, p. 122. Walsingham to Burghley, 12th August, 1571.
+
+[485] About this time Catherine wrote to La Mothe-Fénelon: “L’amiral
+est ici avec nous, qui ne désire rien plus que d’aider en tout ce qu’il
+peut ... comme aussi à s’employer en toutes choses concernant le bien
+du service du roi comme son fidèle sujet.” 27th September, 1571.
+
+[486] Fénelon to the king, 30th September, 1571, repeating Walsingham’s
+dispatch to his own government.
+
+[487] _Mém. of Coligny._ Translated by D. D. Scott (12mo.
+Edinburgh, 1844).
+
+[488] Fénelon’s Dispatches, October, 1571.
+
+[489] “La maison de Montmorency étaient ceux qui en avaient porté les
+premières paroles.” _Mém. de Marguerite._
+
+[490] Chantonnay’s letter of 23d May, 1562; also hinted at in
+Aubespine, p. 844.
+
+[491] Walsingham to Leicester, 17th February, 1571.
+
+[492] He was married 17th September, 1570.
+
+[493] Popelinière, ii. fol. 44 _b_.
+
+[494] Charles to De Ferrals, 5th October, 1571. “The most eminent and
+faithful of my servants agree with me that, in the present condition of
+my kingdom, this marriage is the best means of ending all troubles.”
+Raumer, i. 277. The correspondence in Digges is to the same effect.
+
+[495] Walsingham writes 16th August: “The queen-mother had provided
+both jewels and wedding.” Digges, p. 135.
+
+[496] _Le Tocsain_ (ed. 1579), p. 77.
+
+[497] “Linerolles, who by the house of Guise and the rest of the
+Spanish faction was made an instrument to dissuade his master....” (8th
+December, 1571.) “Linerolles, the chief dissuader of the marriage.”
+31st December, 1571, in Digges. For another account see Freer’s
+_Henry III._ i. p. 72. Sorbin (_Le vray Resveille-Matin_)
+says he was killed at Bourgueil, _not_ at Blois.
+
+[498] “Toutes marques, vestiges, et monumens des dites exécutions, etc.
+... ordonnons le tout estre osté et effacé.”
+
+[499] Felibien, ii. p. 1112.
+
+[500] There is a letter from Charles to Marshal Cossé (6th November,
+1571): “Je veux que vous fassiez ôter la pyramide, et _que vous me
+fassiez obéir_, car le temps est venu qu’il le faut faire.” Soldan,
+ii. p. 423.
+
+[501] It stood here until destroyed in the Revolution.
+
+[502] Anquetil, Peyrat, and others say _May_, but Sir Thomas
+Smith, writing from Blois, 3d March, 1572, says: “This day the Queen
+of Navarre is looked for;” and Walsingham (29th March) reports an
+interview with her at Blois. Charles writes to Fénelon (8th March) that
+the Queen of Navarre arrived eight or nine days ago.
+
+[503] L’Estoile (_Journ. Henri III._) and Sully both give the same
+story, evidently from common gossip.
+
+[504] The whole tenor of Charles’s letter to Fénelon (8th March, 1572)
+is in contradiction to the story given in the text. He says: “My aunt
+shows a good disposition to conclude the marriage.... There is a very
+good appearance of it.”
+
+[505] _Lettres du Card. d’Ossat_ (fol. Paris, 1641), Lettre 185,
+p. 426. The Edinburgh reviewer (June, 1826) pressed this very unfairly
+against Dr. Lingard. The “enemies” might have been Spain. Catena, who
+had been secretary to the cardinal, speaks out more distinctly, but
+his report will not bear examination: “Io voglio punir questi malvaggi
+e felloni, facendogli tagliar tutti a pezzi, o non esser re, perdendo
+affatto la corona.” _Vita del Papa Pio V._ p. 196 (Roma, 1647).
+
+[506] Davila, liv. v.; Capilupi: _Lo Stratagema_; and De Thou give
+this story, but the latter does not believe it. Ant. Gabut (_Vita
+Pii V._) gives the inscription on the ring which Charles sent to
+Alessandrino after the death of Pius V.: “Non minus hæc solida est
+pietas, ne solvi.” In the _Mém. Etat de France_, the legate “s’en
+allait bien content.” I. 150.
+
+[507] Digges, 3d March, 1572, p. 193.
+
+[508] “Il est du tout impossible de l’y disposer si chaudement.” L.
+Paris: _Cab. Hist._ ii. p. 231.
+
+[509] Soldan treats it as a fable, _note_ 142.
+
+[510] Mackintosh: _Hist. England_, iii. Appendix D. Raumer, i.
+p. 281. After a description of the admiral’s murder and the massacre,
+the king “hopes that _now_ the holy father will make no more
+difficulties about the dispensation.”
+
+[511] “Con alcuni particolari che io porto, de’ quali ragguaglierò N.
+S^{ne} a bocca, posso dire di non partirmi affatto male expedito.”
+Letter to Rusticucci (6th March, 1572), in _Lettere del Sr. Ch.
+Alessandrino_, quoted by Ranke, _Franz. Gesch._ bk. iv. ch. 3.
+
+[512] Her description of Catherine’s facility of lying is short and
+graphic: “Elle me le renie _comme beau meurtre_ et me rit au nez.”
+
+[513] Baschet, p. 488.
+
+[514] Walsingham to Burghley, 29th March, 1572; Digges.
+
+[515] “Capitis sui jacturam facturum esse” Gabut: _Vita Pii V._ in
+_Acta Sanctorum_ (Maii), I. cap. v. § 240 (fol. Antverp. 1580).
+
+[516] _Journal de L’Estoile_, p. 73. The words are rather
+different in the _Reveille-Matin_, but the sense is the same.
+
+[517] Grabut, _Vita Pii V._ cap. v. § 244. If Charles was not
+misleading the pope, these “designs” may have been the Flemish war.
+
+[518] Bouillé: _Hist. Guise_, ii. 492.
+
+[519] Claude Haton: _Mém._ ii. p. 663.
+
+[520] This is clear from her despairing language to Fénelon: “Vous êtes
+sur le point de perdre un tel royaume et grandeur pour mes enfans ...
+nous pourrions avoir ce royaume entre les mains d’un de nos enfans.” 2d
+February, 1571, _Corresp. diplom._ Paris, 1840–41, ed. by Teulet.
+
+[521] The nuncio promised him 100,000 crowns. Walsingham to Cecil, 8th
+February, 1572, in Wright’s _Elizabeth_, p. 386. See also letter
+of 17th February, in Digges, p. 43.
+
+[522] Charles, writing to Fénelon (19th Jan. 1572), mentions a
+discussion about inserting the words “_of attacks under pretext of
+religion_,” and what Walsingham had said on the matter about a
+general Protestant Confederation. See Digges, pp. 169–173.
+
+[523] There is abundant evidence in the Fénelon correspondence. On the
+20th March, 1572, Charles writes that Queen Mary “had exhorted the Duke
+of Alva to hasten to send ships to Scotland to seize her son,” and
+that “she would commit herself to the King of Spain.” He bids Fénelon
+tell her to write no more such ciphers, and “de se départir de telles
+pratiques et menées.” Walsingham’s correspondence shows that Spain,
+Guise, the pope, and others were conspiring to prevent Elizabeth from
+helping Flanders by an invasion of Ireland, “to which the king was not
+privy.” Digges, p. 36 (Letter of 8th February), p. 38.
+
+[524] Charles to Fénelon, 20th March, 1572: “We are in great hope of
+the marriage (of Alençon).... If it be accomplished, I shall not be
+ungrateful.”
+
+[525] Raumer, i. 196.
+
+[526] _Simancas_ Archives. Paris: _Cab. Hist._ iii. 67.
+
+[527] Gachard: _Bull. Acad. Brux._ xvi. 1849 (pte. 1).
+
+[528] _Simancas Archives._ Paris: _Cab. Hist._ iii. 67.
+
+[529] “Quelque bon jeu.” Bouillé.
+
+[530] Gachard: _Corresp. de Philippe II._ 4to. Bruxelles, 1848, t.
+ii. p. 269.
+
+[531] Ellis’s _Letters_, p. 10; see also pp. 16 and 18.
+
+[532] _Mém. de Duplessis-Mornay_, Paris, 1824.
+
+[533] Walsingham to Burghley, 18th July, 1572. Grotius, _Ann._ p.
+37, says 5000 foot and 500 horse.
+
+[534] Alva’s letters of 13th and 21st June, and 18th July.
+
+[535] The Grand Seignor heard of the proposed Flemish war, and offered
+to help Charles with two galleys and some troops. Sully: _Mém._ i.
+p. 15 (Engl. ed.).
+
+[536] Baschet, p. 540: “La guerra per quattro o sei di continui fu
+tenuta deliberata.” Tommaseo: _Relations Vénitiennes_, ii. p. 171.
+
+[537] “Tuttavia ne far ogni maggiore istanza.” See also his letters
+dated 20th and 23d August. Alberi: _Vita di Caterina de Medici_,
+4to. Florence, 1838.
+
+[538] Digges, p. 231.
+
+[539] Letter to Burghley. Digges, pp. 231–234.
+
+[540] Sir Thomas Smith writes 22d August: “There is no revocation
+(recall of troops) done nor meant.” Digges, p. 237.
+
+[541] The Memoirs of Tavannes put this beyond a doubt.
+
+[542] Digges, p. 234.
+
+[543] Favyn says 10th June; an inscription in the _État de France_
+gives _Idus Junii_ (13th).
+
+[544] Letter to Mdlle. de Guillerville, 12 June, 1572; Paris. _Cab.
+Hist._ ii. p. 227. Sir H. Norris testifies to the unhealthiness of
+Paris: he took a house beyond the walls, “to be out of the corrupt
+air of the town, which surely is such as none other to be compared
+to Paris.” Wright: _Elizabeth_, i. 306. See also Coryat:
+_Crudities_.
+
+[545] Mdlle. Vauvilliers, whose conscientious biography of Joan of
+Navarre is marred by the absence of dates and authorities, says that an
+autopsy was _several times ordered, but never made_ (iii. p. 194).
+On the other hand, the _Chronologie Novennaire_ expressly states
+that Caillard, her physician, and Desnœuds, her surgeon, dissected the
+queen’s brain, which they found in a sound state. On her death, see
+Villegomblain: _Mém. des Troubles_, i. 259; Bury: _Hist. Henri
+IV._ (4to. Paris, 1765); Favyn: _Hist. Navarre_, p. 863 (fol.
+Paris, 1612).
+
+[546] _Lettres missives de Henri IV._ i. p. 31. _Collect. des
+Doc. Hist. France._
+
+[547] Matthieu, I. liv. vi. p. 343. A long list of these warnings will
+be found in the _Reveille-Matin_.
+
+[548] “Non solo con le parole ma con gli effetti;” and Michieli adds,
+“quanto agli effetti, quello che è poi seguito contra gli Ugonotti.”
+
+[549] Michieli: _Relazione_; Baschet. Salviati wrote (24th
+August): “Quando scrissi ai giorni passati che l’ammiraglio _s’avanza
+troppo_, e che gli darebbero sù l’unghe (a rap on the knuckles), già
+mi era accorto che non lo volevano più tollerare.” Walsingham was quite
+of Coligny’s opinion about the war.
+
+[550] Tavannes says: “There was no other resolution for the massacre
+than what the admiral and his adherents occasioned.”
+
+[551] Grabut says the marriage took place, “Gregorii XIII. permissu.”
+_Acta Sanctorum._
+
+[552] “Lunedì (25 Agosto) la corte se ritira a Fontanablo, dove la
+regina farà il suo parto.” Petrucci, letter 20th August. On the 23d,
+giving Duke Cosmo an account of the attempt on the admiral’s life, he
+says: “Si pensava che la corte partisse martedì prossimo” (26th August).
+
+[553] Davila says that when she was asked whether she would take Henry
+for her husband, she made no reply, and that Charles with his own hand
+bent her head as if to nod assent. Margaret is silent on the matter.
+
+[554] Charles IX. to Ferrails, 24th August: “All my subjects have
+exhibited the greatest joy and contentment” at the marriage. It is
+clear from this letter that the dispensation had not arrived. Raumer,
+i. 281.
+
+[555] This is in direct contradiction to Tavannes, who says: “il
+continue ses audaces, importune, se fâche, _menace de partir_,”
+etc. P. 416.
+
+[556] We abridge rather than translate Anjou’s narrative, whose
+authenticity is doubtful. It will not bear minute comparison with other
+statements of indisputable truthfulness.
+
+[557] See Salviati’s letter of 24th August. Mackintosh: _Hist.
+England_. Anjou does not mention the presence of the duke at this
+meeting.
+
+[558] “Maurevers et non pas Maurevel,” according to the _Art de
+Vérifier_, but erroneously; he is also called Moruel, Montravel,
+Maurevert, and Moureveil. His real name was Louvier, sire de Maurevert
+en Brie. For his murderous services he was rewarded with two good
+abbeys. L’Estoile’s _Journal_. He accompanied Marshal de Retz
+on his embassy to England in 1573, and on his arriving at Greenwich,
+where the court was staying, he was recognized by a page, and pointed
+out as “the admiral’s murderer!” A shout of execration was raised, he
+was chased by the rabble, and never dared show himself again. _Etat
+de France_, ii. 217. He was killed in 1583, in the Rue St. Honoré,
+by young Arthur Mouy, who was immediately after shot by one of the
+guards who always attended the _tueur du roi_. Villegomblain,
+_Mém._ p. 144. _Journal du Règne de Henri III._ p. 71, ed.
+Cologne, 1672. This last epithet could hardly have been earned by the
+commission of one murder--that of Mouy. At the siege of Rochelle, none
+of the principal officers would associate with him, and he was sent to
+an isolated post. See Bouillon’s _Memoirs_, p. 14.
+
+[559] Some writers have supposed that through her daughter Margaret,
+Catherine discovered a scheme concerted between Charles and Coligny to
+banish both her and the Guises from court; and that a common danger
+made her combine with Duke Henry to crush the Huguenots, trusting to
+find the means afterward of counterbalancing the house of Lorraine.
+
+[560] It was the hotel of the Counts of Ponthieu; and in the 18th
+century became an inn, under the title, “Hotel de Lisieux.” _Hommes
+illustres de la France_, 1747.
+
+[561] He left with a “sad and dejected countenance,” says the
+_Reveille-Matin_: “Si facesse pallido e restasse smarrito
+oltro modo, e senza dir parola si ritirasse.” Giovanni Michieli,
+_Relazioni_, November, 1572.
+
+[562] Letter of Petrucci, 23d August. _Archiveo Mediceo._
+
+[563] Cimber, vii. p. 211.
+
+[564] Michieli, the Venetian embassador, says that Guise had nothing
+to do with it (Baschet: _Relazioni_, p. 551), and adds that on
+_Friday_ night the queen and Anjou told Charles of the plot.
+
+[565] The Neustadt letter has “Brüdern und Mütter.” _Archiv. f.
+Geschichte, etc._ xvii. 1826 p. 278 (8vo. Wien). This periodical
+contains a curious letter from an eye-witness of the massacre addressed
+to L. Gruter, bishop of Wiener-Neustadt, entitled _Relation der
+franz. auff St. Bartholomäi Tag vorgegangenen erschröcklischen
+Execution über die Hugenoten, 1572, den 24 Augusti, anno 1572_.
+
+[566] With a few verbal changes, the account of this interview is taken
+from Golding’s _Life of Jasper Coligny_. London, 1576.
+
+[567] La Chapelle des Ursins made the same reproach to Catherine, July,
+1572. St. Foix: _Hist. Ordre Saint-Esprit_, i. p. 203.
+
+[568] “So ime auf den Füss trette, wolle er demsellben auf die Versen
+tretten.” _Neustadt Letter_, p. 278.
+
+[569] “Hic regi in arcano quædam a Colinio insinuata divulgatum est;
+alii tamen negant et secretum hoc de industria a regina impeditum,
+ne....” De Thou.
+
+[570] This is from Anjou’s narrative; but whether proceeding from him,
+or De Retz (as some think), there are no means of testing it.
+
+[571] “Il avait alentour de lui neuf médecins et onze chirurgiens.”
+_Mém. de l’État de France_, ii. 31 _b._
+
+[572] La Noue.
+
+[573] The Hôtel de Clisson, afterward de la Miséricorde, was purchased
+by the Duchess of Guise in 1553. The old gate-way forms the entrance to
+the modern École des Chartes.
+
+[574] “Le malheur avait voulu que Maurevel avait failli son coup.”
+_Mém. de Marguerite._
+
+[575] “Se l’archibugiata ammazava subito l’ammiraglio, non mi risolvo a
+credere che si fosse a un pezzo.” Salviati’s letter of August 24.
+
+[576] This meeting is not mentioned in Anjou’s narrative; but there
+must have been some such preliminary consultation between the
+conspirators.
+
+[577] Catherine afterward asserted that she had desired the death of
+six men only: “Reginam dictitare se tantum sex hominum interfectorum
+sanguinem in suam conscientiam recipere.” Serranus: _Status
+Reipubl._ x. 29.
+
+[578] It is stated in the Neustadt letter that the Swiss soldiers of
+Navarre mounted guard inside the house, while the French guard were
+posted outside, immediately after the king’s visit on Friday, and that
+the pass-word was very strict, in order to prevent any fresh attempt on
+the admiral’s life. _Archiv. für Geschichte_, etc. xvii. 1826, p.
+278.
+
+[579] Paris: _Cabinet Hist._ ii. 259.
+
+[580] _Archives de Mons._
+
+[581] Digges, p. 254.
+
+[582] Brantome calls De Retz the first and principal adviser of the
+deed; Davila says that he obtained the king’s consent to the massacre;
+and Margaret states that the queen-mother sent him to Charles between
+nine and ten o’clock at night, “because he (De Retz) had more influence
+with him,” and that he justified his mother and Anjou for trying to
+get rid of that pest “the admiral.” Tavannes partly supports these
+statements. I give the preference (reluctantly) to Anjou’s narrative,
+because it removes much of the confusion which would otherwise envelop
+the remainder of this eventful day.
+
+[583] On this Menselius remarks, that if the account be true, “Ipse
+(Anjou) cum matre minime cædis detestandæ particeps habendus esset,
+sed solus rex Carolus eandem animo concessisset.” _Bibliotheca
+Historica_, vii. pars 2^a, p. 213. Lipsiæ, 1795. Few will agree with
+the conclusion.
+
+[584] Juan de Olaegni says that Marcel, “cabeça de los vezinos,”
+was sent for, but the city registers say Le Charron. Gachard:
+_Particularités inédites_ in _Bull. Acad. Sci. Bruxelles_,
+xvi. 1849, p. 235. If the “au soir bien tard” of Anjou’s narrative
+means “late in the afternoon,” there were probably two meetings, at the
+latter of which Marcel was present.
+
+[585] “Envoiez et portez ... de fort grand matin.” _Registres_ in
+Cimber’s _Archives Curieuses_.
+
+[586] _Réveille-Matin._ Margaret, writing twenty-four years after
+the event, says that Henry, by the king’s advice, had invited them to
+the Louvre, where they would be safer in case of tumult. I give the
+preference to her statement.
+
+[587] Mr. Froude (x. 397) writes _Malin_, which is probably a
+misprint.
+
+[588] Favyn (_Hist. Navarre_, p. 867) says that after supper,
+“about eleven o’clock,” the king went down to his forge with Navarre,
+Condé, and others, where they all worked as usual, until between one
+and two, when the tocsin was rung.
+
+[589] The _Réveille-Matin_ and the _Mém. État de France_ say,
+“attended only by a fille-de-chambre.”
+
+[590] “Ainsi que le jour commençait à poindre.” Now as the sun rose
+that day at five o’clock, this would make it a little after four, which
+does not harmonize with other statements.
+
+[591] We must remember that Anjou is vindicating himself, and that his
+narrative, like the confession of a criminal, endeavors to extenuate
+his crime.
+
+[592] According to Burg, he, Koch, and Grunenfelder were the admiral’s
+murderers; he does not mention Dianowitz. “At unus [M.K.] e tribus
+audacior bipenni (_i. e._, halberd) ilium miserum transfixit,
+tertio ipse [C.B.] eum graviter percussit, itaque septimo tactus
+tandem (mirum!) in caminum cecidit.” Letter of August 26, from Joachim
+Opserus, then at the College of Clermont, to the Abbot of St. Gall.
+_Archives de l’Hist. Suisse_, Zürich, ii. 1827. The Neustadt
+letter does not corroborate this account.
+
+[593] The Neustadt letter says the admiral was in bed, pretending to be
+asleep: “Danach wider zu Beth gelegt, und schlaffendt angenomen, dan er
+woll gedacht es wurde ime ietzo gelten.” P. 279.
+
+[594] A similar story--too well founded on the traditions of Würtemberg
+to admit of doubt--is told of the reformer Brenz (Brentius); but in his
+case the period during which the hen supplied him with food was eight
+days.
+
+[595] “Tened piedad de la vejez,” writes Olaegui.
+
+[596] Beza: _Mors Ciceronis_.
+
+[597] Juan de Olaegui says that Guise “le dió un pistoletazo en la
+cabeza,” and then flung him from the window. This is probably the
+pistol-shot which so alarmed the royal murderers at the Louvre, though
+another report (Alva’s _Bulletin_) says it was fired at the body
+as it lay dead in the court-yard. The Neustadt letter represents
+Coligny as struggling vigorously against four Swiss soldiers (das irer
+vier kümmerlich ime bezwingen mögten), and that a French soldier killed
+him by shooting him in the mouth. Behm was rewarded with the hand of
+a natural daughter of Cardinal Lorraine, and Philip II. gave him 6000
+scudi (ostensibly as a dowry) for his life. See Petrucci’s letter
+(September 16, 1572), in Alberi, _Vita di Caterina_, p. 149. In
+1575 he was captured by the Huguenots near Jarnac, as he was returning
+from Spain, and put to death.
+
+[598] Alva’s _Bulletin_. Tavannes says: “embrasse la fenêtre;”
+Serranus: “brachio fenestræ columnam complectitur, ibi acceptis aliquot
+vulneribus.”
+
+[599] It is uncertain to whom the disgrace of this last indignity
+attaches, some imputing the cowardly act to Angoulême. Alva, who was
+instructed by Gomicourt, says Guise did it; so also the _Journal de
+Henri III._: “Le roi donna un coup de pied ... ainsi que le Duc de
+Guise en avait donné au feu amiral,” p. 118. (Cologne, 1672.)
+
+[600] The Neustadt letter says it was cut off for the sake of the
+reward: “damit noch 2000 Kronen zu gewinnen.” Alva says: “la mettant au
+bout de son épée, la portait par la ville, criant, Voilà la tête d’un
+méchant.” _Bulletin_, p. 563. He adds the body was torn in pieces
+by the mob, so that “jamais on n’en sût recouvrer pièce.” At the time
+Gomicourt wrote to Alva, it was not known what had become of it.
+
+[601] Malgaigne, the latest biographer of Paré, does not believe the
+tradition that the great surgeon was specially saved from massacre, and
+denies that he was a Huguenot.
+
+[602] Some writers make him two or three years younger.
+
+[603] _De Civilibus Galliæ dissentionibus_, lib. 2, Nos. 39 and
+52, apud Martene, _Veter. Script._ tom. v. 1459. Jacques Coppier,
+in a versified pamphlet on the massacre, called the _Déluge des
+Huguenots_, calls the admiral “Ce grand Caspar au curedent.”
+
+[604] Harleian MSS. No. 1625. In the _Complainte et Regretz du G.
+de C._ (Paris, 1572) the dead admiral is supposed to express his
+regret: “J’ai honni ma maison en trahissant la France--Et ruiné les
+miens par mon outrecuidance.” See also another abusive pamphlet: _Le
+Discours sur la Mort du G. de C._, Paris.
+
+[605] Coryat (p. 16) describes it as “the fairest gallows” he ever saw.
+It was on a hill, and consisted of fourteen pillars of freestone, and
+was “made in the time of the Guisian massacre to hang the admiral.”
+In this he is wrong; other authorities reckon sixteen pillars on a
+stone platform, tied together by two rows of beams. The bodies were
+left a prey to beasts and birds; and the bones fell into a charnel
+where the filth of the streets was shot. _Le Gibet de M._
+by Firmin-Maillard, 18mo. Paris, 1863; _Des Anciennes fourches
+patibulaires de M._, by M. de la Villegille, Paris, 1836.
+
+[606] “After the massacre his body was exposed with the eternal
+_tooth-pick in his mouth_.” _Edinb. Review_, cxxiv. 1866, p.
+369. This is a mistake, the body was headless.
+
+[607] “Graveolentiam scilicet hostilium cadaverum, quibusvis odoribus
+et pigmentis esse sibi fragrantiorem.”
+
+[608] Even Brantome is disgusted: he says the smell is certainly not
+sweet; “point bonne, et la parole aussi mauvaise.”
+
+[609] The Neustadt letter says that Teligny offered to ransom his life
+for 1000 crowns, which the captain agreed to accept if Guise would
+permit him. “I am a poor fellow, and 1000 will be of great use to
+me.”--“You are a fool,” answered the duke; “don’t you think the king
+will reward you better?” Teligny and his wife were poniarded. Teligny’s
+wife was _not_ killed; she afterward married William of Orange.
+
+[610]
+
+    At furiis agitata novis regina superba
+    Signa cani properat, venturæ nuncia cædis,
+    Ne regis mutata loco sententia cedat.
+
+    _Tragica historia de miseranda laniena_, by R. Fresner, Emdæ, 1583.
+
+
+[611] The tower on the Quai de l’Horloge, pointed out to strangers as
+that from which the signal was given, is of later date.
+
+[612] “Á las iij horas de la mañana.” Olaegui. Beza’s account would
+place it a little later. “C’était au point du jour.” _Mém. de l’État
+de France_, i. 217.
+
+[613] Jean de Gorris, years after his conversion, was so terrified at
+seeing his litter surrounded by soldiers, whom he imagined about to
+repeat the heresies of the Saint Bartholomew, that he was struck with
+paralysis.
+
+[614] The sun rose at 5h. 6m. on August 24.
+
+[615] There are great difficulties in fixing the time of this murderous
+scene. Davila and the Neustadt letter (p. 272) place it _before_
+the ringing of the tocsin, that is to say, before day-light; while it
+is hard to believe that Margaret could be mistaken, or that the murders
+were committed _after_ the tocsin. Probably it was a little after
+four o’clock, as from an experiment made last 24th August, it would not
+have been possible to distinguish the king’s features earlier.
+
+[616] The Neustadt letter says the night was far advanced (folgentz
+spädt in der Nacht) when the king sent for Henry, after which the
+Duke of Bouillon posted the soldiers told off to murder the Huguenot
+gentlemen.
+
+[617] Margaret says thirty or forty, which is more probable.
+
+[618] French history has an unfortunate habit of repeating itself in
+its worst characteristics:--“He is at the outer gate, conducted into a
+howling sea; forth under an arch of wild sabres, axes, and pikes; and
+sinks hewn asunder. And another sinks, and another, and there forms a
+piled heap of corpses, and the kennels were red.” Carlyle: _French
+Revolution_ (September 4–6, 1792), pt. 3, bk. 1.
+
+[619] _Etat de Fr._ i. 209 _b_; at ii. 25. Henry of Navarre
+is said to have witnessed the murders.
+
+[620] _Discours simple et véritable_, p. 36. Only two days before
+this, Charles and De Pilles had bathed together in the Seine, the
+latter holding the king’s chin and teaching him how to swim. Brantome:
+_Hom. Ill._ x. p. 193.
+
+[621] _De Furoribus Gallicis_; _Réveille-Matin, etc._
+
+[622] “Non sine magno et effuso risu.” Serranus.
+
+[623] The name of this individual is not of importance; but he is
+called _Lerac_ by Brantome, and _Teyran_ by Mongez. _Hist.
+Marg. de Valois._ He was probably Gabriel de Levis, Viscount of
+Léran, the “Leiranus” of De Thou, and Leyran of Laval and Piguerre.
+
+[624] Some accounts place this scene on the 26th, after Charles
+returned from the _lit de justice_. Did he threaten them twice?
+A similar threat is recorded on September 9, when Elizabeth his queen
+intervened with tears.
+
+[625] The same figure is used by the author of the _Illustre
+Orbandole, où Hist. de Châlons-sur-Saone_. Lyon, 1672, b. 1, pt. 2,
+p. 10. “Une saignée fut si sagement ordonnée pour éteindre la chaleur
+d’une fièvre que des remèdes plus doux n’avait (_sic_) fait
+qu’irriter.”
+
+[626] Cimber, _Arch. Cur._ vii. 217, Registres. _Réveille-Matin_, 64.
+Mezeray, iii. p. 258. _Mém. État de France_, i. 216.
+
+[627] _Comptes de l’Hotel-de-Ville_, Félibien, ii. 1121.
+
+[628] Bussy thus effectually gained his suit about the earldom of
+Renel. “Hérite-t-on, Seigneur, de ceux qu’on assassine?”
+
+[629]
+
+    Comme les autres Pluviaut
+    A, faute de vin, bu de l’eau.
+
+
+[630] It is written Odet Petit in Duplessis-Mornay’s _Memoirs_.
+
+[631] Supra, p. 343.
+
+[632] Pasquier, _Lettres_, p. 363. Some Englishmen are reported to
+have defended themselves successfully.
+
+[633] In a receipt for his stipend (_penes auct._) dated 1563,
+he is called “Seigneur de la Ramée,” and a “noble et scientifique
+personne.”
+
+[634] There is a picture by Robert Fleury, exhibited about 1840, in
+which Ramus is represented sitting up in a bed on the floor, while his
+servant listens anxiously at the door.
+
+[635] _Chronographia_, p. 776, fol. Paris, 1600.
+
+[636] “Nobis vel potius reip. satis pœnarum dedit.” In the dedication
+of his “Comparison between Plato and Aristotle,” published in January,
+1573, Charpentier compliments the Cardinal of Lorraine on the
+“brilliant and sweet day that shone over France in the month of August
+last.” Dorat says of Ramus punningly: “Maximum _ramum_ maxima
+furca decet.”
+
+[637] Claude Haton says he was killed “more than a week after the
+declaration,” as he was riding to his court.
+
+[638] Now the Quai de la Mégisserie, between the Pont Neuf and the Pont
+au Change.
+
+[639] Jacques Coppier jests on the bodies “envoyés à Rouen sans
+bateau.” Another writer thus plays on the memorable _mot_ of
+Charles IX.:
+
+    Cumque tuæ passim submersa cadavera plebis
+      Volvat in æquoreas Sequana tristis aquas,
+    Tu pisces illis vesci, qui mandere pisces
+      Noluerint, Roma præcipiente, refers.
+
+    _Illustr. aliquot Germ. Carm. lib. de immani laniena._ Vilnæ, 1573,
+      p. 8.
+
+A pamphleteer declares:
+
+    Ha! vous serez ingrats, poissons, vous auriez tort,
+    Si ne les recevez, du moins, après la mort,
+    Puisque tant ils vous ont donné de courtoisie,
+    De ne vouloir jamais vous manger en leur vie.
+
+    _Discours sur les Guerres intestines_; par I. T., Paris, 1572.
+
+
+[640] Agrippa d’Aubigné gives us the sequel of this man’s history. He
+assumed a hermit’s frock, and murdered the passengers he lured to his
+hermitage, “so unquenchable was his thirst for blood.” He met his tardy
+reward on the gibbet.
+
+[641] _Journ. de Henri III._, i. p. 32 (anno 1574).
+
+[642] _Le Tocsain_, p. 145 (Rheims, 1579).
+
+[643] Fronde says hastily, that the story rests only on the “worthless
+authority of Brantome.” _Hist. Engl._ x. 406. Now Brantome was a
+terrible gossip, but what could induce him to coin such a detestable
+story? Smedley (_Prot. Ref. France_, ii. 367) also says, “the fact
+is not mentioned by D’Aubigné,” which a subsequent note will show to
+be a mistake. Mezeray (_Abrégé_, 1665) says: “Le roy ... tâchait
+de les canarder;” Bossuet: “Le roi qui les tirait par les fenêtres.”
+The _Réveille-Matin_, published in 1574, mentions it: so that the
+story was at least contemporaneous.
+
+[644] _Mém. État de France_, i. 1579 (2d ed.), 212 _b_.
+
+[645] “De laquelle ce prince _giboyait_ de la fenêtre,” ed. 1626,
+p. 548. In his poem of _Les Tragiques_ he refers to the same
+report, using the same characteristic expression:
+
+    Ce roy, non juste roy, mais juste harquebusier,
+    Giboyait aux passans trop tardif à noyer,
+    Vantant ses coups heureux.
+
+    _Les Fers_, p. 240.
+
+This paints the king firing on the yet living bodies as they floated
+down the river. Agrippa is not an authority for the fact; but it is
+something to show that the report existed so early. I am told that a
+plate of the time represents this window as walled up. If this be true,
+why was it closed?
+
+[646] Du Cerceau farther tells us that, at the time when the first part
+of his work appeared, the great gallery intended to unite the Louvre
+with the Tuileries had been begun.
+
+[647] The time was about five, which gave him two hours’ start of Guise.
+
+[648] _Memoirs of Sully_ (transl.), 4to. London, 1761, p. 27.
+
+[649] _Mém. et Corresp. de Duplessis-Mornay_ (8vo. Paris,
+1824–34), i. p. 45. He escaped to Rye, which, after suffering from a
+severe pestilence, had been “replenished by the French, who sheltered
+themselves here from the great massacre ...; so that, in 1582, were
+found inhabiting here 1534 persons of that nation.” Jeake (Sam.):
+_Charters of the Cinque Ports_ (Lond. 1728), p. 108.
+
+[650] Granvelle, hearing that L’Hopital and his wife were murdered,
+writes exultingly, and hopes that Catherine will soon be disposed of.
+See Michelet: _La Ligue_, p. 475.
+
+[651] _Mém. authentiques de Jacques Nompar de Caumont_: ed. by
+Marquis de la Grange, 8vo. Paris, 1843. Voltaire in his poetry adopts
+Mezeray’s account, that the father and his two sons lay in the same
+bed; that two were killed, and the third saved as by a miracle: but in
+his notes to the _Henriade_ accepts the true version. De Thou and
+Sismondi also adopt the erroneous story.
+
+[652] Mezeray says that he saved “more than 100 Huguenots.”
+_Abrégé_, v. 157.
+
+[653] Burghley to Walsingham in Digges, September 9, 1572.
+
+[654] To them of the Castle of Edinburgh, August 25, at noon. _MSS.
+Mary Q. of Scots_, Record Office.
+
+[655] Ad Annam Æstensem.
+
+[656] Mezeray, who half believes in the miracle, tries to account
+for it on natural causes: “On pourrait dire que la cause qui avait
+excité dans les esprits ce violent et extraordinaire accès de fureur,
+était aussi celle qui avait échauffé cet arbre, soit qu’elle procédât
+de la terre, soit qu’elle vînt de quelque influence des astres.”
+_Abrégé_, iii. 1085. Favyn (_Hist. Navarre_), then a boy six
+years old, was taken to see the thorn. His memory must have been very
+strong to retain the circumstances he records.
+
+[657] Henault, _Abrégé_, p. 443.
+
+[658] Sully, _Mém._ i. p. 30.
+
+[659] Charles reminds us of Nero after his mother’s murder: “modo per
+silentium defixus, sæpius pavore exsurgens, et mentis inops lucem
+opperiens tanquam exitium allaturam.” Tacitus, _Annal._ xiv. 10.
+
+[660] Agr. d’Aubigné (_Hist. Univ_.) heard the story from Henry
+himself.
+
+[661] _De Statu Religionis_, iv. 33. Guise also said “qu’on avait
+fait plus qu’il ne voulait ... qu’il n’en voulait qu’à l’amiral.”
+_Mélanges: Journ. de Leipsic_ (June, 1693), p. 293. This is
+confirmed by a sort of newsletter from Paris, preserved in the Record
+Office (_MSS. France_, September, 1572.) “For the admiral’s death
+he was glad; but he thought for the rest that the king had put such to
+death as, if it pleased him, might have done good service.”
+
+[662] The Catholics condemned “non tanto il fatto quanto il modo e la
+maniera del fare ... chiamano questa via di procedere con assoluta
+potestà, senza via di giudizio, via di tirannide, _attribuendolo alla
+regina come Italiana_.” Baschet: _Relazioni_, p. 295.
+
+[663] _Corresp. de Charles IX. et de Mandelot_, p. 39. _Mém. de
+l’État de France_, f. 215. _Recueil de Lettres, etc._, ed. by
+Merlet.
+
+[664] “Lasché la main à MM. de Guise.” _Fénelon Corresp._ See also
+_Revue Rétrosp._ v. 1834, p. 358, Charles to Matignon, August 26.
+
+[665] “Nous préservant de leurs mains.” Cath. to Philip, August 25.
+_Simancas Papers_ (_Bibl. Nat._), B, No. 144.
+
+[666] See the “Official Declaration.”
+
+[667] “_Ces grimaces_ n’imposèrent à personne,” says Bossuet.
+Montluc disbelieved the story; “Je sais bien ce que j’en crus.”
+
+[668] _Discours sur les Causes de l’Exécution, etc._ Rouen, 1572.
+
+[669] In a circular to the churches dispatched in his name on the 23d,
+Coligny really used this phrase, but it was to quiet, not to excite
+them.
+
+[670] This was the meeting at which Bouchavannes played the spy.
+
+[671] Eytzinger got his information from a pamphlet, probably the royal
+justification, published at Paris, “cui lector tantum fidei tribuat
+quantum volet,” which is pretty plain, considering he was a Catholic.
+_Leo Belg._ p. 127.
+
+[672] Félibien, a Benedictine monk, evidently disapproves of the
+“discours sur lequel il ne nous appartient pas de porter notre
+jugement” (ii. 1122).
+
+[673] It is said in the _Mém. de l’État de France_, that one
+Rouillard was killed “at the instigation of the first president,” a
+statement we gladly believe unfounded.
+
+[674] Statius: _Silv._ v. 2, l. 88.
+
+[675] Others call him Bishop of Orleans.
+
+[676] An account of this violation of asylum must have been reported
+by Walsingham, but I have sought for it in vain. Sir Philip Sydney was
+then in Paris: Charles had appointed him one of his gentlemen of the
+bed-chamber only a few days before.
+
+[677] Tacitus: _Agricola_. _Choisnin_ in his _Mémoires_ describes the
+king and Anjou as “marris de ce que les exécuteurs n’étaient assez
+cruels.”
+
+[678] Walsingham to Smith, November 1, 1572. Digges, p. 278.
+
+[679] The cost of this banquet is given by Sauvai, iii. 368.
+
+[680] The Bull (6 Kal. November, 1572) was never registered in
+Parliament. I may add that Sureau, unable to stifle his conscience,
+fled to Germany, recanted, and died neglected by all.
+
+[681] Digges, p. 267. Letter to Smith, October 8. On September 7 he had
+written, “that there is a compact to destroy all persons that be of the
+religion.” _Archæologia_, xxii. 1829, p. 325.
+
+[682] See _Martyrologue_, respecting Orleans, p. 712 _recto_;
+respecting Bourges, 724 _recto_; respecting Bordeaux, “il
+n’entendait pas que cette exécution passât outre et s’étendît plus
+avant que Paris,” p. 730 _recto_.
+
+[683] It is given in Olagharray, p. 628, and the _Réveille-Matin_.
+
+[684] _Vita di C. de’ Medici_, p. 155.
+
+[685] Tom. vi. lib. 52, p. 421.
+
+[686] Paris: _Cabinet Hist._ ii. 258.
+
+[687] Raumer, i. 282.
+
+[688] _Revue rétrospect._ v. (1834) p. 359.
+
+[689] Raumer: _Hist. 16th and 17th Cent._, Letter 31.
+
+[690] When the Duke of Alençon revolted against Henry III., and the
+city rose in arms, Matignon was sent to reduce it, and as soon as the
+Protestants saw his banners, they opened the gates to him. Odolant
+Desnos: _Mém. Hist. d’Alençon_, ii. p. 285 (8vo. Alençon, 1787).
+
+[691] The account in the _État de France_ varies from that in the
+text.
+
+[692] There is a curious story of an apothecary who discovered that the
+fat of the bodies was valuable and would fetch a high price, and of a
+general scramble for the bodies in the river, which were dragged out,
+that the fat might be extracted and sold. _Mém. État de France_,
+i. 263 _b_.
+
+[693] “In one day,” says one account, which is not probable. A
+contemporary _brochure_ more moderately sets down the total
+at 1800. _Massacre de ceux de la Rel._ 1572: _Mém. État de
+France_.
+
+[694] De Thou says that the Huguenots who fled to the Celestine
+monastery were killed; but Golnitz affirms the contrary: “In hanc
+evangelicorum truculentam necem noluisse etiam consentire dicuntur
+canonici in æde Cœlestinorum.” _Ulysses_, p. 331. So also _Mém.
+État de France_, i. 260 _b_.
+
+[695] Ten leaves, probably containing an account of the massacre, are
+suspiciously torn out of the _Actes Consulaires_ of the city. The
+Catholic historian says briefly: “Huit jours après, le même massacre
+fut fait à Lyon; je n’ai rien à dire là-dessus.” An expressive silence!
+Montfalcon, _Hist. Lyon_, ii. p. 685.
+
+[696] The order for the massacre was transmitted by Sorbin, the king’s
+preacher. The author of the _Martyrologue_ says the murders began
+without orders. P. 712, _recto_.
+
+[697] See Martin: _Hist. France_, t. ix. p. 337, _note_.
+
+[698] “Ne voulait que aulcune chose fust attentée ni innovée contre
+l’édict de la paix.” _Registre des Conseils_, iv. p. 137. See also
+the _Registre du Parlement_ for 1572. “Questi ordini (says Homero
+Tortora) non giunsero a tempo in molti luoghi per che la fama che vola
+per tutto il reame di quanto era avvenuto a Parigi invita cattolici di
+molte città a fare il medesimo.” _Ist. di Francia_, 4to. Venezia,
+1619.
+
+[699] _Memoirs of Latomy, MSS._ The autograph copy differs
+materially from the printed text, which is of little value. Jacques
+Gâches, a Huguenot, has left memoirs, portions of which would repay
+publication.
+
+[700] Félice in a paragraph of a few lines manages to include almost as
+many mistakes. The arrests did not take place on August 31; the number
+of victims was not 300, and d’Affis gave no order for their execution.
+The magistrates, having no regular police or armed force at their
+disposal, were unable to resist the mob and the soldiers. _Archives
+of Toulouse_, ad ann.
+
+[701] This curious story will be found in the Dulaure MSS., preserved
+in the public library of Clermont-Ferrand. This (to say nothing of the
+instances already given) disposes of Capefigue’s “inability to find
+any proof of orders issued by the king to massacre in the provinces.”
+_Hist. de la Réforme_, iii. p. 229, _note_.
+
+[702] Capefigue says the letter is a forgery of the age of Louis XIV.;
+but it is published by Agrippa d’Aubigné in 1618. Adiram d’Aspremonte,
+Vicomte d’Orte (as he is sometimes called), was a cruel man, cruel to
+both parties. Even Charles IX. was forced to write to him in 1574, and
+tell him to be more moderate.
+
+[703] The bishop is said to have been in Paris at this time with the
+court as almoner. This, if true, is fatal to the correctness of the
+anecdote. I do not lay much stress upon the language of his epitaph:
+“Contre lesquels [the Huguenots] il ne faisait pas faute de se montrer.”
+
+[704] De Thou, tom. vi. p. 432 (4to ed.). See also, La Virotte:
+_Annales d’Arnay_, 8vo. 1837.
+
+[705] Journal of Mallet and Vautier, _Esprit de la Ligue_, ii. p.
+51 (Paris, 1808).
+
+[706] Long: _Guerres de Religion dans le Dauphiné_. De Thou (vi.
+428) says Gordes excused himself on the ground that the Huguenots were
+too strong.
+
+[707] Chorier: _Hist. Dauphiné_, fol. ii. p. 647.
+
+[708] Long. The historian gives a circular (December 6, 1572), in
+which Gordes exhorts the Huguenots to return to the Romish religion,
+“parceque le roi s’est résolu à n’en endurer autre.”
+
+[709] Borrel: _Hist. Église Réf. de Nimes_, 8vo. Toulouse, 1856.
+
+[710] To them of the Castle. Record Office, _MS. Queen of Scots_.
+He writes at noon on the 25th.
+
+[711] “Seint pleiben bey 1000 Personen und sonst gemeiner Personen über
+5000 welche meisten theills ebendig, theils todt ins Wasser geworffen,
+theils heuffig in Campo Clericorum vergraben worden.”
+
+[712] “Plus de 7000 personnes _bien connues_, sans autres jetées
+dans la rivière qui ne furent connues.” P. 679.
+
+[713] See note to M. Ath. Coquerel’s monograph, “La St.-Barthélemy,” in
+the _Nouvelle Revue de Théologie_.
+
+[714] In the _Mém. État de France_ (vol. i.) the names of nearly
+eight hundred victims all over the kingdom are given. See also ii. 20
+and 25.
+
+[715] Bonanni: _Numism. Pontif._ i. 336. Mezeray, iii. 256.
+_Abrégé_, iii. 1082.
+
+[716] “Fu il sacco e la preda grandissima per due milioni d’oro.”
+Baschet, p. 549. It is evident that these are mere guesses.
+
+[717] “Il faut juger un temps d’après son esprit, ses émotions et ses
+mœurs.” Gachard.
+
+[718] “Ut porci cecidere proci.” Exulting over Coligny, he says, with a
+coarse play upon words:
+
+    Parte sacerdotes solitus mutare pudenda,
+      Cuncta pudenda gerens, nulla pudenda gerit.
+
+
+[719] The year before (1572) he published a _Chant d’Allégresse sur
+la Mort de Coligny_, with the motto of Judas: “He went to his own.”
+
+[720] He charges Beza with giving orders “qu’on coupast τὰ αἰδοῖα aux
+prestres et aux moynes, ajoutant qu’il en vouloit remplir un puy.” From
+the date of the letter (September 15), some are of opinion that it must
+have been written before the massacre. Portès’s answer is given in vol.
+ii. of the _Mém. État de France_.
+
+[721] Sorbin was chaplain to Charles IX., and wrote a eulogistic
+account of his life, in which he skips over the massacre thus: “Le jour
+de la St.-B. se passe, où les principaux chefs furent châtiés selon
+leurs mérites, au grand regret de ce bon roy.”
+
+[722] See vignette on title-page.
+
+[723] Ellis: _Letters_ (sec. ser.) iii. p. 23.
+
+[724] Rommel: _Corresp. inéd. de Henri IV._ Paris, 1840.
+
+[725] Bruxelles, _Bulletin_, ix. 1841 (pt. 1), p. 560.
+
+[726] March, 1573; _Revue rétrospect._ iii. 1835, p. 195. Sir
+Henry Ellis (_Archæologia_, xxii. 1829, p. 323) held it to be “a
+strong proof of a deliberate plot,” that the documents on this subject
+had disappeared from the Public Records in France; but we have given
+ample evidence that such is not the case.
+
+[727] Mezeray and De Sancy call the pope, Innocent XIII.; Brantome and
+Sully, Pius V.; but the latter died on 1st May, 1572.
+
+[728] Twelve months after the massacre, the cardinal publicly applauded
+Charles to his face for his “holy dissimulation.” Dale’s dispatch:
+Macintosh, _Hist. Engl._ iii. 226, _note_.
+
+[729] The genuineness of this medal has been disputed on very
+insufficient grounds. It is engraved in Bonanni’s _Numismata
+Pontificum_ (2 vols. fol. Romæ, 1689) tom. i. p. 336. It is No. 27
+of the series of Gregory XIII. L’Estoile mentions it, under “Lundi, 30
+juin, 1618,” as the “pièce que le pape Grégoire XIII. fit faire à Rome
+l’an 1572.”
+
+[730] “In Constantini quæ nunc et visitur aula.” Thuanus Posteritati.
+The outline of one of these frescoes in the frontispiece to this volume
+is taken from De Potter’s _Lettres de Pie V._
+
+[731] See _Dublin Review_ for October, 1865.
+
+[732] Lucan, iv. 192.
+
+[733] In Gregory’s instructions to Cardinal des Ursins (Fabio Orsini),
+he is to exhort Charles “ut cœptis insistat fortiter, neque curam
+asperis remediis inchoatam prospere, perdat leniora miscendo.” Bonanni,
+i. p. 323, 336, No. xxvii. _Ann. Eccles._ ad ann. 1572, in Potter.
+_Hist. du Christ._ vii. p. 330.
+
+[734] “Who otherwise never laughed.” St. Goar to Queen; Raumer, i. p.
+199.
+
+[735] “Deconcertaron todos los planes del gabinete de Isabel [Elizabeth
+of England] é impedieron que se realizase su famosa liga con Francia.”
+_Mem. Acad. Madrid_, vii. p. 374.
+
+[736] Juan de Cuniga, embassador at Rome, writes to Philip II. that
+“the French _here_ declare that the king meditated this stroke
+since the day he made peace;” but in another place he adds, that “he
+was credibly informed, if the assault on the admiral was projected a
+few days before, and authorized by the king, all the rest was inspired
+by circumstances.” _Bulletin Acad. Sci. Bruxelles_, xvi. (1849) p.
+250.
+
+[737] “Uno de los mayores contentamientos que he recibido en mi vida.”
+
+[738] Letter of August 25. _Simancas Archives._
+
+[739] “La mejor y mas alegre nueve que al presente me pudiera venir.”
+Gachard: _Simancas Archives_.
+
+[740] Burghley to Walsingham, September 9, 1572, in Digges, p. 247.
+
+[741] M’Crie: _Life of Knox_ (1841), p. 337.
+
+[742] Brandt: _Hist. Ref. of Low Countries_ (Chamberlayne’s
+transl.), fol. Lond. 1720, vol. i. p. 329.
+
+[743] Walsingham to Smith, 16th and 24th September.
+
+[744] Ranke: _Franz. Gesch._ t. iv. ch. 4. This is said in one
+account to have occurred on the eve of the massacre, when he was
+playing with Henry of Navarre. St. Foix: _Essais hist. sur Paris_,
+i. 74.
+
+[745] Agrippa d’Aubigné, unless he refers to another story, says the
+child was “disinterred and then devoured” by its parents, who were
+condemned, the man to be burned alive, and the woman to be hanged. See
+also _Mém. État de France_, ii. 224. Jean de Leri: _Hist. Siége
+de R._; Paris: _Cab. Hist._ vii. There is a Latin version,
+Heidelbg. 1576.
+
+[746] _Discours de l’extrême Famine, etc._ par Jean Leri:
+_Archives curieuses_, viii. p. 19. _Mém. État de France_, ii.
+219 _b_ (ed. 1578).
+
+[747] Among other charges, La Mole was accused of endeavoring to
+destroy the king’s life by witchcraft; by means of a waxen image having
+a needle pierced through the heart, which an Italian astrologer, Cosmo
+Ruggieri, had prepared for him.
+
+[748] “Mollis vita, mollior interitus.” Punning epitaph on La Mole.
+
+[749] His defense was written by his wife Margaret, “God giving her the
+grace to compose it.” _Mémoires._
+
+[750] This bloody sweat is an ordinary though rare pathological
+phenomenon. Dr. Bourdin describes the case of a farm-servant,
+thirty-three years old, from whose forehead blood suddenly began to
+issue and continued to flow for half an hour (April, 1859). In No. 40
+of the _Gazette Hebdomadaire_ (1859), Dr. Jules Parrot gives the
+case of a lady who had suffered from these hemorrhages from six years
+of age, and which continued after her marriage. Chemical analysis and
+microscopic examination combine to prove that the liquid thus secreted
+is truly blood.
+
+[751] _Journal de L’Estoile._ I am afraid the authority is not
+very good. See also Peleus: _Vie de Henri IV._ ii. pp. 385–390.
+
+[752] Better known as the translator of Plutarch than as Grand Almoner
+of France.
+
+[753] The nuncio wrote to the pope that Charles was killing himself
+with the chase; that he had nearly killed 5000 dogs and broken the
+wind of all his horses, valued at 30,000 francs. Salviati Cavalli
+writes to the same effect: “mal modo di vivere,” etc. See Drelincourt:
+_Libitinæ Trophæa_. Lugd. Bat. 1680. He broke out in large
+pustules and buboes all over his body: Villegomblain. His stomach was
+covered with livid spots: De Thou.
+
+[754] There is an old prophecy: “Væ et iterum væ! quando puer sedebit
+in sede lilii.”
+
+[755] His first tutors were the virtuous Carnavalet, the learned Amyot,
+and M. de Cipierre, a man of antique type and probity. The latter was
+succeeded by Gondi, “fin, corrompu, menteur,” who taught Charles to
+swear and blaspheme, “et le pervertit du tout.” Brantome. “Princeps
+præclara indole et magnis virtutibus, nisi....” De Thou.
+
+[756] Among others Claude Haton: “fut une grâce de Dieu comment le roi
+sut si bien dissimuler.”
+
+
+Transcriber’s Notes:
+
+1. Obvious printers’, punctuation and spelling errors have been
+corrected silently.
+
+2. Where hyphenation is in doubt, it has been retained as in the
+original.
+
+3. Some hyphenated and non-hyphenated versions of the same words have
+been retained as in the original.
+
+4. Italics are shown as _xxx_.
+
+5. Bold print is shown as =xxx=.
+
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75970 ***