The victory of Moncontour furnished an occasion for fresh exhortations to the king not to neglect to inflict upon the enemies of Almighty God the punishments fixed by the laws. "For what else would this be," said Pius, "than to make of no effect the blessing of God, namely, victory itself, whose fruit indeed consists in this, that by just punishment the execrable heretics, common enemies, having been taken away, the former peace and tranquillity should be restored to the kingdom. And do not allow yourself, by the suggestion of the empty name of pity, to be deceived so far as to seek, by pardoning Divine injuries, to obtain false praise for compassion; for nothing is more cruel than that pity and compassion which is extended to the impious and those who deserve the worst of torments."[1243] The work begun by victories in the field was, therefore, to be completed by the institution of inquisitors of the faith in every city, and the adoption of such other measures as might, with God's help, at length create the kingdom anew and restore it to its former state.[1244]

As often as rumors of negotiations for peace reached him, Pius was in anguish of soul, and wrote to Charles, to Catharine, to Anjou, to the French cardinals, in almost the same words. He protested that, as light has no communion with darkness, so no compact between Catholics and heretics could be other than feigned and full of treachery.[1245] As the prospect of peace grew more distinct, his prognostications of coming disaster grew darker, and sounded almost like threats. Even if the heretics, in concluding the peace, had no intention of laying snares, God would put it into their minds as a punishment to the king. "Now, how fearful a thing it is to fall into the hands of the living God, who is wont not only to chastise the corrupt manners of men by war, but, on account of the sins of kings and people, to dash kingdoms in pieces, and to transfer them from their ancient masters to new ones, is too evident to need to be proved by examples."[1246] When at last the peace of Saint Germain was definitely concluded, the Pope did not cease to lament over "a pacification in which the conquered heretics imposed upon the victorious king conditions so horrible and so pernicious that he could not speak of them without tears." And he expressed at the same time his paternal fears lest the young Charles and those who had consented to the unholy compact would be given over to a reprobate mind, that seeing they might not see, and hearing they might not hear.[1247]

To his last breath Pius retained the same thirst for the blood of the heretics of France. He violently opposed the marriage of the king's sister to Henry of Navarre, and instructed his envoy at the French court to bring up again that "matter of conciliation so fatal to the Catholics."[1248] His last letters are as sanguinary as his first. Meanwhile his acts corresponded with his words, and left the King of France and his mother in no doubt respecting the value which the pretended vicegerent of God upon earth, and the future Saint,[1249] set upon the life of a heretic; for, when the town of Mornas was on one occasion captured by the Roman Catholic forces, and a number of prisoners were taken, Pius—"such," his admiring biographer informs us, "was his burning zeal for religion"—ransomed them from the hands of their captors, that he might have the satisfaction of ordering their public execution in the pontifical city of Avignon![1250] And when the same holy father learned that Count Santa Fiore, the commander of the papal troops sent to Charles's assistance, had accepted the offer of a ransom for the life of a distinguished Huguenot nobleman, he wrote to him complaining bitterly that he had disobeyed his orders, which were that every heretic that fell into his hands should straightway be put to death.[1251] As, however, Pius wanted not Huguenot treasure, but Huguenot blood, with more consistency than at first appears, he ordered the captive nobleman whose head had been spared to be released without ransom.[1252]

With such continual papal exhortations to bloodshed, before us, with such suggestive examples of the treatment which heretics ought, according to the pontiff, to receive, and in the light of the extravagant joy displayed at Rome over the consummation of the massacre, we can scarcely hesitate to find the head of the Roman Catholic Church guilty—if not, by a happy accident, of having known or devised the precise mode of its execution, at least of having long instigated and paved the way for the commission of the crime. Without the teachings of Pius the Fifth, the conspiracy of Catharine and Anjou would have been almost impossible. Without the preaching of priests and friars at Lent and Advent, the passions of the low populace could not have been inflamed to such a pitch as to render it capable of perpetrating atrocities which will forever render the reign of Charles the Ninth infamous in the French annals.

* * * * *

[Sidenote: A German account of the massacre at Orleans.]

One of the most vivid accounts of the massacre in any city outside of Paris is the contemporary narrative of Johann Wilhelm von Botzheim, a young German, who was at the time pursuing his studies in Orleans. It forms the sequel to the description of the Parisian massacre, to which reference has already been made several times, and was first published by Dr. F. W. Ebeling, in his "Archivalische Beitraege zur Geschichte Frankreichs unter Carl IX." (Leipsic, 1872), 129-189. It was also translated into French by M. Charles Read, for the number of the Bulletin de la Societe de l'histoire du protestantisme francais issued on the occasion of the tercentenary of the Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day. The chief interest of the narration centres in the anxieties and dangers of the little community of Germans in attendance upon the famous law school. Besides this, however, much light is thrown upon the general features of the bloody transactions. The first intimation of Coligny's wounding reached the Protestants as they were returning from the preche, but created less excitement because of the statement accompanying it, that Charles was greatly displeased at the occurrence. That night a messenger arrived with letters addressed to the provost of the city, announcing the death of the admiral and the Huguenots of Paris, and enjoining the like execution at Orleans. Although the letters bore the royal seal, the information they contained appeared so incredible that the provost commanded the messenger to be imprisoned until two captains, whom he at once despatched to Paris, returned bringing full confirmation of the story. The provost, a man averse to bloodshed, issued, early on Monday morning as a precautionary measure, an order to guard the city gates. But the control of affairs rapidly passed out of his hands, and, threatened with death because of his moderate counsels, the provost was himself forced to take refuge for safety in the citadel. Ten captains at the head of as many bands of soldiers, ruled the city, and were foremost in the work of murder and rapine that now ensued. But there were other bands engaged in the same occupation, not to speak of single persons acting strictly on their own account. Moreover, four hundred ruffians came in from the country, intent upon making up for losses which they pretended to have sustained during the late civil wars. They showed no mercy to the Huguenots that fell into their hands. Of the Protestants scarcely one made resistance, so hopeless was their situation. Pierre Pillier, a bell founder, had indeed barred his door with iron, but, finding that his assailants were on the point of forcing the entrance, he first threw his money from a window, and then, seizing his opportunity when the miscreants were scrambling for their prize, deluged them with molten lead, after which he set fire to his house, and perished, with his wife and children, in the flames.

There is, happily, no need of repeating here the shocking details of the butchery told by the student. As a German, and not generally known to be a Protestant, he managed to escape the fate of his Huguenot friends, but he witnessed, and was forced to appear to applaud, the most revolting exhibitions both of cruelty and of selfishness. His favorite professor, the venerable Francois Taillebois, after having been twice plundered by bands of marauders, was treacherously conducted by the second band to the Loire, despatched with the dagger, and thrown into the river. "The last lecture, which he gave on Monday at nine o'clock," says his pupil, "was on the Lex Cornelia [de sicariis] of which he made the demonstration by the sacrifice of his own life." It is pitiful to read that even professors in the university were not ashamed to enrich their libraries by the plunder of the law-books of their colleagues, or of their scholars. The writer traced his own copies of Alciat, of Mynsinger and "Speculator," to the shelves of Laurent Godefroid, Professor of the Pandects, and the entire library of his brother Bernhard to those of his neighbor, Dr. Beaupied, Professor of Canon Law.

In the midst of the almost universal unchaining of the worst passions of human or demoniacal nature, it is pleasant to note a few exceptions. Some Roman Catholics were found not only unwilling to imbrue their hands in the blood of their Huguenot neighbors and friends, but actually ready to incur personal peril in rescuing them from assassination. Such magnanimity, however, was very rare. All respect for authority human or divine, all sense of shame or pity, all fear of hell and hope of heaven, seemed to have been obliterated from the breasts of the murderers. The blasphemous words of the furious Captain Gaillard, when opposed in his plan to destroy Botzheim and his fellow Germans, truly expressed the sentiments which others might possibly have hesitated to utter so distinctly. "Par la mort Dieu! il faut qu'il soit.... Il n'y a ny Dieu, ny diable, ny juge qui me puisse commander. Vostre vie est en ma puissance, il fault mourir.... Baillez-moy mon espee, je tuerai l'ung apres l'autre, je ne saurois tuer trestous a la fois avec la pistolle." Men, with blood-stained hands and clothes, boasted over their cups of having plundered and murdered thirty, forty, fifty men each. At last, on Saturday afternoon, after the Huguenots had been almost all killed, an edict was published prohibiting murder and pillage on pain of death. Gallows, too, were erected in nearly every street, to hang the disobedient; but not a man was hung, and the murders still continued. Soon after a second edict directed the restoration of stolen property to its rightful owners; it was a mere trick to entice any remaining Huguenot from his refuge and secure his apprehension and death. The Huguenots were not even able to recover, at a later time, the property they had intrusted to their Roman Catholic friends in time of danger, and did not dare to bring the latter before courts of justice. The Huguenots killed at Orleans, in this writer's opinion, were at least fifteen hundred, perhaps even two thousand, in number.

FOOTNOTES:

[1079] Charles IX. to Mondoucet, August 26th, Compte rendu de la com. roy. d'histoire, Brussels, 1852, iv. 344.

[1080] "Estant croiable que ce feu ainsy allume ira courant par toutes les villes de mon royaume, lesquelles, a l'exemple de ce qui s'est faict en cestedite ville, s'assureront de tous ceulx de ladite religion." Charles to Mondoucet, Aug. 26th, ubi supra, iv. 345

[1081] "Car puisqu'il a pleu a Dieu conduire les choses es termes ou elles sont, je ne veulx negliger l'occasion, non seulement pour remectre, s'il m'est possible, ung perpetuel repos en mon royaume, mais aussy servir a la chrestiente."

[1082] "Au surplus, quelque commandement verbal que j'aye peu faire a ceulx que j'aye envoye tant devers vous que autres gouverneurs ... j'ay revocque et revocque tout cela, ne voulant que par vous ne autres en soit aucune chose execute." Charles IX. to Mandelot, Governor of Lyons, Correspondance, etc. (Paris, 1830), 53, 54; the same to the Mayor of Bourges, Mem. de l'estat (Archives curieuses), vii. 313. The variations of language are trifling.

[1083] He seems at this time to have been at his castle of Montsoreau, situated six or seven miles above Saumur, on the left bank of the Loire, and within a short distance of Candes. M. de Montsoreau himself is described as "gentilhomme de Poictou fort renomme pour beaucoup de pillages et violences, qui finalement luy ont fait perdre la vie, ayant este tue depuis en qualite de meurtrier." Mem. l'estat, 349.

[1084] These letters, and some others relating to the massacre at Angers, contained in the archives of the municipality, are printed in the Bulletin de la Soc. de l'hist. du prot. francais, xi. (1862) 120-124.

[1085] I know, however, of no letters of this kind signed by Charles IX. himself. They all seem to have been written by his inferior agents, such as Puigaillard in the case of Saumur, or Masso and Rubys in that of Lyons. The advantage of this course was apparent. The king could not be proved to have ordered any massacre; he could throw off the responsibility upon others. On the other hand, such politic governors as Mandelot were naturally reluctant to act upon instructions which could at any moment be disavowed. The verbal messages of Charles himself would seem, from the Mandelot correspondence, to have been less definite—perhaps going to no greater lengths than to order the arrest of the persons and the sequestration of the effects of the Huguenots. May we not naturally suppose that the king and his council counted upon such subsequent massacres of the imprisoned Protestants as occurred in many places?

[1086] Memoires de l'estat, 132, 133. Compare De Thou, iv. (liv. lii.) 601.

[1087] Relation of Olaegui, Simancas MSS., Bulletins de l'academie royale de Belgique, xvi. (1849) 254, 255.

[1088] The names of nine are given. Archives curieuses, vii. 264.

[1089] The procureur Cosset did not neglect his own interests, if, as we are informed, his house and courtyard were so full of stolen furniture that it was scarcely possible to enter the premises.

[1090] Memoires de l'estat, apud Archives curieuses, vii. 261-270.

[1091] See ante, chapter xviii., p. 432.

[1092] Recordon, le Protestantisme en Champagne (from the MSS. of N. Pithou, seigneur de Chamgobert), Paris, 1863, 174-192; Mem. de l'estat, Archives curieuses, vii. 271-292.

[1093] Dr. Henry White, besides mistaking the Huguenot for the Papist, has incorrectly stated the circumstances. Massacre of St. Bartholomew, 450. See Mem. de l'estat, ubi supra, 295, and De Thou, iv. (liv. lii.) 601.

[1094] Memoires de l'estat, ubi supra, 295. "Le mesme fut fait a Paris et en d'autres lieux aussi," writes the same historian.

[1095] Ibid., ubi supra.

[1096] Ibid., 296.

[1097] Memoires de l'estat de France, ubi supra, 297.

[1098] Mem. de l'estat, 298, 299.

[1099] Ibid., 299, 300.

[1100] A horrible story is told of the discovery of some human relics several weeks later. Ibid., 305.

[1101] See ante, p. 502.

[1102] Mem. de l'estat, 309-315.

[1103] Mem. de l'estat, ubi supra, 349-351. "Puigaillard ... homme au reste indigne de vivre pour l'acte detestable par luy commis en la personne de sa premiere femme tuee a sa sollicitation pour en espouser une autre qu'il entretenoit." (P. 351.)

[1104] Registres consulaires, apud "La Saint-Barthelemy a Lyon et le gouverneur Mandelot," by M. Puyroche, p. 311. This monograph which I quote from the Bulletin de la Soc. de l'hist. du prot. francais, in which it first appeared (vol. xviii., 1869, pp. 305-323, 353-367, and 401-420), is by far the most accurate and complete treatise on this subject, and contains a fund of fresh information based upon unpublished manuscripts, especially the local records.

[1105] Charles IX. to Mandelot, Aug. 22, 1572, Correspondance du roi Charles IX. et du sieur de Mandelot, published by P. Paris, 1830 (pp. 36, 37). A portion of this letter has already been given.

[1106] Charles IX. to Mandelot, Aug. 24, 1572, Correspondance, etc., 39-42.

[1107] "Monsieur de Mandelot, vous croirez le present porteur de ce que je luy ay donne charge de vous dire." Ibid., 42.

[1108] "Suivant icelles (the king's letters of Aug. 22d and 24th) et ce que le sieur du Perat m'auroit dict de sa part, je n'auroit failly pourveoir par toutz moyens a la seurete de ceste ville: sy bien, Sire, que et les cors (corps) et les biens de ceulx de la relligion auroient este saisiz et mis soubz votre main sans aucun tumulte ny scandale." Mandelot to Charles IX., Sept. 2, 1572, Correspondance, etc., 45.

[1109] Puyroche, 319.

[1110] "Il n'etait pas d'avis," dit-il, "que tout le peuple s'en melat, craignant quelque desordre, memement un sac." Puyroche, 320.

[1111] "Quelques deux cens," says Mandelot to Charles IX., Sept. 2d; but he was anxious to make the number as small as possible. Jean de Masso, "receveur general" (Sept. 1st), says, "sept a huit vingt," and sieur Talaize (Sept. 2d), "deux cent soixante et trois." So also Coste (Sept. 3d). Puyroche, 365, 366.

[1112] Mandelot tells Charles IX. (Sept. 17th) that he had sent all the poorer Huguenots to other prisons; that he had left here only the rich and those who had borne arms for the Protestant cause. To exhibit his own incorruptibility, he added that there were among them, of his own certain knowledge, at least twenty who would have paid a ransom of thirty thousand or even forty thousand crowns, "qui estoit assez," he significantly adds, "pour tenter ung homme corruptible." Correspondance du roi Charles IX. et du Sieur de Mandelot, 71, 72.

[1113] Correspondance, etc., p. 46, 47.

[1114] Puyroche, La Saint-Barthelemy a Lyon et le gouverneur Mandelot, ubi supra; Mem. de l'estat, ubi supra, 321-343; Crespin, Hist. des martyrs, 1582, p. 725, etc., apud Epoques de l'eglise de Lyon (Lyon, 1827), 173-185; De Thou, iv. (liv. lii.) 602-604, etc.; Jean de Serres (1575), iv., fol. 45, etc. The number of Huguenots killed is variously estimated, by some as high as from twelve hundred to fifteen hundred (Crespin, ubi supra). It must have been not less than seven hundred or eight hundred; for private letters written immediately after the occurrence by prominent and well-informed Roman Catholics state it at about seven hundred, and they would certainly not be inclined to exaggerate. The rumor at Paris even then set it at twelve hundred. See the letters in Puyroche, 365-367. Among the one hundred and twenty-three names that have been preserved, the most interesting is that of Claude Goudimel, who set Marot's and Beza's psalms to music, and who was killed by envious rivals. At the time of his death he was engaged in adapting the psalms to a more elaborate arrangement, according to a contemporary writer: "Excellent musicien, et la memoire duquel sera perpetuelle pour avoir heureusement besogne les psaumes de David en francais, la plupart desquels il a mis en musique en forme de motets a quatre, cinq, six et huit parties, et sans la mort eut tot apres rendu cette oeuvre accomplie." Sommaire et vrai discours de la Felonie. etc, Puyroche, 402.

[1115] "Faisant cependant contenir ce peuple par toutes les remontrances et raisons que je puis leur persuader de ne s'emouvoir a aucune sedition ni tumulte, comme je m'apercois qu'il y en peut avoir quelque danger auquel toutes fois j'espere prevenir." Mandelot to Charles IX., Aug. 31, 1572, Puyroche, 356. This letter is not contained in Paulin Paris, Correspondance de Charles IX. et du sieur de Mandelot.

[1116] Mem. de l'estat, 330; De Thou, iv. (liv. lii.) 603.

[1117] "Je ne veulx estre le premier a en demander a votre Majeste; m'asseurant que si elle a commence par quelques autres, elle me faict tant d'honneur de ne m'oblier (oublier)." Mandelot to Charles IX., September 2, 1572, Correspondance, p. 49. I find the clearest evidence both of Mandelot's having had no hand in the massacres of August 31st, and of his utter want of principle, in the craven apology he makes, in his letter of September 17th, for not having done more, on the ground that he only knew his Majesty's pleasure as it were in a shadow, and very late, and that he had rather feared the king would be angry at what the people had done, than that so little had been done! "La pouvant asseurer sur ma vie que si elle n'a este satisfaitte en ce faict icy, je n'en ay aucune coulpe, n'ayant sceu quelle estoit sa volunte que par umbre, encores bien tard et a demy; et ay craint, Sire, que votre Majeste fust plustost courroucee de ce que le peuple auroit faict, que de trop peu, d'aultant que par toutes les autres provinces circonvoysines il ne s'est rien touche." Correspondance, etc., 72, 73.

[1118] It is given word for word, from the MS. registers of the parliament, by Floquet, Hist. du parlement de Normandie, iii. 81-85.

[1119] Ante, chapter xvii., p. 374.

[1120] "Encor qu'il se soit tousjours monstre fort peu amy de telles inhumanitez." Memoires de l'estat, 371.

[1121] "Receut lettres du Roy qui luy mandoit et commandoit expressement d'exterminer tous ceux qui faisoyent profession de la religion audit lieu, sans en excepter aucun." Mem. de l'estat, Arch. cur., vii. 370.

[1122] Ibid., 371.

[1123] "Il n'y a aultre que vous," said they, "qui puisse commander aux armes ceans, contenir le peuple en l'obeissance au roy, et la ville en paix." Reg. secr. du parlement, 9 Septembre, 1572, apud Floquet, 120. See also Reg. de l'hotel-de-ville de Rouen, 7 Septembre, ibid.

[1124] Floquet, 122.

[1125] Mem. de l'estat, apud Archives curieuses, vii. 373.

[1126] Memoires de l'estat, apud Arch. curieuses, vii. 372; Floquet, iii. 127. Floquet is incorrect in stating that the names of only about a hundred are known. We have (Mem. de l'estat. Archives curieuses, vii. 372-378) a partial list of 186 men, whose names and trades are generally given, and of 33 women—that is 219, besides a reference to many others whose names the writer did not obtain.

[1127] "Les autres estoyent accommodez a coups de dague. Les massacreurs usoyent de ce mot accommoder, l'accommodans a leur bestiale et diabolique cruaute." Mem. de l'estat, ubi sup., 372.

[1128] Mem. de l'estat, ubi sup., 378.

[1129] Ibid., 379. The story of the massacre is well told in the Mem. de l'estat, and by M. Floquet, whose original sources of information throw a flood of light upon the transactions; also by De Thou, iv. (liv. lii.) 606; Agrippa d'Aubigne, ii. 27; Jean de Serres (1575), iv., fol. 50.

[1130] One of them, Jean Coras, had committed an unpardonable offence. When passing in 1562 with the Protestant army through Roquemadour, in the province of Quercy, he had taken advantage of the opportunity to examine the relics of St. Amadour, of whom the monks boasted that they possessed not only the bones, but also some of the flesh. He was never forgiven for having exhibited the close resemblance of the holy remains to a shoulder of mutton. De Thou, iv. 606, note.

[1131] Mem. de l'estat, Archives curieuses, vii. 381-385; De Thou, ubi supra; Agrippa d'Aubigne, ii. 27, 28 (liv. i., c. 5); Jean de Serres (1575), iv., fol. 50.

[1132] President Lagebaston even says that, had this been suffered to go on a week longer—so rapidly were the Protestants flocking to the mass—there would not have been eight Huguenots in town.

[1133] Registers of Parliament, in Boscheron des Portes, Hist. du parl. de Bordeaux (Bordeaux, 1877), i. 241.

[1134] Letter of President Lagebaston to Charles IX., October 7, 1572, Mackintosh, Hist. of England, iii., App. E, 351-353. See also De Thou, iv. 651, 652, and Agrippa d'Aubigne, ii. 27. Lagebaston was "first president" of the Bordalese parliament, but, so far from being able to prevent the massacre, received information that his own name was on Montferrand's list, and fled to the castle of Ha, whence he wrote to the king. His remonstrances against a butchery based upon a pretended order which was not exhibited, his delineation of the impolitic and disgraceful work, and his reasons why an execution, that might have been necessary to crush a secret conspiracy at Paris, was altogether unnecessary in a city "six or seven score leagues distant," where there could be no thought of a conspiracy, render his letter very interesting.

[1135] Registres du Parlement, Boscheron des Portes, i. 246, 247.

[1136] Boscheron des Portes, ubi supra.

[1137] Claude Haton waxes facetious when describing the sudden popularity acquired by the sign of the cross, and the numbers of rosaries that could be seen in the hands, or tied to the belt, of fugitive Huguenot ladies.

[1138] Tocsain contre les massacreurs, 156. See ante, chapter xviii., p. 491.

[1139] De Felice, Hist. of the Protestants of France (New York, 1859), 214, and Henry White, 455, from Maimbourg, Histoire du Calvinisme, 486. I refer the reader to Mr. L. D. Paumier's exhaustive discussion of the story in his paper, "La Saint-Barthelemy en Normandie," Bulletin de la Soc. de l'hist. du prot. francais, vi. (1858), 466-470. Mr. Paumier has also completely demolished the scanty foundation on which rested the similar story told of Sigognes, Governor of Dieppe, pp. 470-474. See also M. C. Osmont de Courtisigny's monograph, "Jean Le Hennuyer et les Huguenots de Lisieux en 1572," in the Bulletin, xxvi. (1877) 145, etc.

[1140] Tocsain contre les massacreurs, 156; Odolant Desnos, Memoires historiques sur la ville d'Alencon, ii. 285, apud Bulletin de la Soc. de l'hist. du prot. francais, viii. (1859), 68. The truth of the story as to Alencon seems to be proved by the circumstance that when, in February, 1575, Matignon marched against Alencon, in order to suppress the conspiracy which the duke, Charles's youngest brother, had entered into to prevent Henry of Anjou from succeeding peaceably to the throne of France, the grateful Protestants at once opened their gates to him. Ibid., 305, Bulletin, ubi supra.

[1141] Tocsain, 156.

[1142] "Par lesquelles vous me mandez n'avoir receu aucun commandement verbal de moy, ains seulement mes lettres du 22, 24 et 28 du passe, dont ne vous mettrez en aucune peine, car elles s'adressoyent seulement a quelques-uns qui s'estoyent trouvez pres de moy." Charles IX. to Gordes, Sept. 14, 1572, Archives curieuses, vii. 365, 366.

[1143] Ibid., 367, 368.

[1144] Memoires de l'estat, Archives curieuses, vii. 366, 367; De Thou, iv. 605. The Tocsain contre les massacreurs, however, p. 156, gives credit instead to M. de Carces.

[1145] Dr. White has shown some reasons for doubting the accuracy of the story. Among the Dulaure MSS. is preserved a full account of the manner in which a Protestant, fleeing from Paris, fell in with the messenger who was carrying the order to St. Herem or Heran, and robbed him of his instructions. The Protestant hastened on to warn his brethren of their danger, while the messenger could only relate to the governor the contents of the lost despatch. Notwithstanding this, eighty Huguenots were murdered in one city (Aurillac) of this province. Massacre of St. Bartholomew, 454, 455.

[1146] Adiram d'Aspremont.

[1147] Agrippa d'Aubigne, Hist. univ., ii. 28 (liv. i., c. 5). The authenticity of this letter has been much disputed, partly because of the Viscount's severe and cruel character (which, however, D'Aubigne himself notices when he tells the story), partly because it rests on the sole authority of D'Aubigne. It is to be observed, however, that although he alone relates it, he alludes to it in several of his works, as e.g., in his Tragiques. But the truth of the incident is apparently placed beyond all legitimate doubt by its intimate and necessary connection with an event which D'Aubigne narrates considerably later in his history, and from personal knowledge. Hist. univ., ii. 291, 292 (liv. iii., c. 13). In 1577, D'Aubigne, having lost much of Henry of Navarre's favor through his fidelity or his bluntness (see Mem. de d'Aubigne, ed. Panth., p. 486), retired from Nerac to the neighboring town of Castel-jaloux, of which he was in command. Making a foray at the head of a small detachment of Huguenot soldiers, he fell in with and easily routed a Roman Catholic troop, consisting of a score of light horsemen belonging to Viscount D'Orthez, and a number of men raised at Bayonne and Dax, who were conducting three young ladies condemned at Bordeaux to be beheaded. The vanquished Roman Catholics threw themselves on the ground and sued for mercy. On hearing who they were, D'Aubigne called to him all those who came from Bayonne and then cried out to his followers to treat the rest in memory of the massacre in the prisons of Dax. The Huguenots needed no further reminder. It was not long before they had cut to pieces the twenty-two men from Dax who had fallen into their hands. On the other hand they restored to the soldiers of Bayonne their horses and arms, and, after dressing their wounds in a neighboring village, sent them home to tell their governor, Viscount D'Orthez, "that they had seen the different treatment the Huguenots accorded to soldiers and to hangmen." A week later, a herald from Bayonne arrived at Castel-jaloux, with worked scarfs and handkerchiefs for the entire Huguenot band. Nor did the exchange of courtesies end here. The mad notion seized Henry of Navarre to accept an invitation to a feast extended to him by the Bayonnese. Six Huguenots accompanied him, of whom D'Aubigne was one. The table was sumptuous, the presents were rare and costly. D'Aubigne being recognized, was overwhelmed with thanks, "his courtesy being much more liberally repaid than he had deserved;" while the King of Navarre and his Huguenots, at the table, "at the expense of the rest of France, extolled to heaven the rare and unexampled act and glory of the men of Bayonne." It is certainly an easier supposition that D'Aubigne has faithfully reproduced D'Orthez's letter to Charles IX., than that he has manufactured so long and consistent a story. The discussion in the Bulletin de la Soc. de l'histoire du prot. franc. is full, xi. 13-15, 116, etc., xii. 240.

[1148] Letter of Louis de Bourbon, Duke of Montpensier, Aug. 26th (it should evidently be the 25th; for the Duke speaks of Coligny as killed "ledit jour d'hier," and the mythical Huguenot plot was to have been executed "hier ou aujourd'hui"). Bulletin de la Soc. de l'hist. du prot. fr., i. (1852) 60, and Soldan, Geschichte des Prot. in Frankreich, ii., App., 599.

[1149] The words are those of an inscription of the seventeenth or the early part of the eighteenth century, in the Hotel de Ville of Nantes. Bulletin, i. (1852) 61.

[1150] Mem. de l'estat, Archives cur., vii. 385, 386.

[1151] See a table in White, Massacre of St. Bartholomew, 461.

[1152] Narrative appended to Capilupi, Stratagema di Carlo IX. (1574). The cardinal's adulatory letter to Charles IX., on receipt of the king's missive, is strongly corroborative of the view to which everything forces us, that the massacre was not long definitely premeditated. "Sire," he said, "estant arrive le sieur de Beauville avecques lettres de Vostre Majeste, qui confirmoyent les nouvelles des tres-crestiennes et heroicques deliberation et exequutions faictes non-seulement a Paris, mais aussi partout voz principales villes, je m'asseure qu'il vous plaira bien me tant honorer ... que de vous asseurer que entre tous voz tres humbles subjects, je ne suis le dernier a an (en) louer Dieu et a me resjouir. Et veritablement, Sire, c'est tout le myeus (mieux) que j'eusse ose jamais desirer ni esperer. Je me tienz asseure que des ce commencement les actions de Vostre Majeste accroistront chacung jour a la gloire de Dieu et a l'immortalite de vostre nom," etc. Card. Lorraine to the king, Rome, Sept. 10, 1572, MSS. Nat. Library, apud Lestoile, ed. Michaud et Poujoulat, 25, 26, note.

[1153] Conjouissance de Mr. le Cardinal de Lorraine, au nom du Roy, faicte au Pape, le vije jour de sept. 1572, sur la mort de l'Admiral et ses complices. Correspondance diplom. de La Mothe Fenelon, vii. 341, 342. Also Jean de Serres (1575) iv., fol. 56, and in a French translation appended to Capilupi, Lo stratagema di Carlo IX. (1574), 111-113, and reproduced in Mem. de l'estat, Arch, cur., vii. 360.

[1154] "Literis romanis aureis majusculis descriptum, festa fronte velatum, ac lemniscatum, et supra limen aedis Sancti Ludovici Romae affixum."

[1155] The genuineness of this medal, in spite of the clumsy attempts made to discredit it, is established beyond all possible doubt. The Jesuit Bonanni, in his "Numismata Pontificum" (2 vols. fol., Rome, 1689), has figured and described it as No. 27 of the medals of Gregory XIII. A translation of his account and a facsimile of the medal may be seen in the Bulletin de la Societe de l'hist. du prot. francais, i. (1852) 240-242. It is also admirably represented in the Tresor de Numismatique (Delaroche, etc., Paris, 1839), Medailles des papes, plate 15, No. 8. The late Alexander Thomson, Esq., of Banchory, Aberdeenshire, purchased at the papal mint in the city of Rome, in 1828 or 1829, among other medals for which he applied, not less than seven copies of this medal, six of them struck off expressly for him from the original die still in possession of the mint. See his own account, given in his Memoir by Professor Smeaton, and reproduced in the New York Evangelist of October 17, 1872.

[1156] Recueil des lettres missives de Henri IV., i. 36.

[1157] See Pistolesi, Il Museo Vaticano descritto ed illustrato (Roma, 1838) vol. viii. 97. There are three paintings, of which the first represents "the King of France sitting in parliament, and approving and ordering that the death of Gaspard Coligny, Grand Admiral of France, and declared to be head of the Huguenots, be registered." "The mischance of Coligny is delineated in the following picture in a spacious square, among many heads of streets (capistrade) and facades of temples. The admiral, clothed in the French costume of that period, is carried in the arms of several military men; although lifeless (estinto, read rather, faint), he still preserves in his countenance threatening and terrible looks." The third is the massacre of St. Bartholomew's day itself, in which the beholder scarcely knows which to admire most, the artistic skill of the painter, or his success in bringing into a narrow compass so many of the most revolting incidents of the tragedy—the murder of men in the streets, the butchery of helpless and unoffending women, the throwing of Coligny's remains from the window of his room, etc. Dr. Henry White gives a sketch of this painting, taken from De Potter's Lettres de Pie V. Of the fresco representing the wounding of Coligny there is an engraving in Pistolesi, ubi supra, vol. viii. plate 84. By an odd mistake, both the text and the index to the plates, make this belong to the reconciliation of Frederick Barbarossa and the pontificate of Alexander III.—on what grounds it is hard to imagine. The character of the wound of the person borne in the arms of his companions, indicated by the loss of two fingers of his right hand, from which the blood is seen to be dropping, leaves no doubt that he is the Admiral Coligny. Unfortunately, Pistolesi's splendid work is disfigured by other blunders, or typographical errors, equally gross. In describing other paintings of the same Sala Regia (pp. 95, 96), he assigns, or is made by the types to assign, various events in the quarrel of Barbarossa and Adrian IV. and Alexander III., to the years 1554, 1555, 1577, etc.

[1158] Ferralz to Charles IX., Rome, Sept. 11, 1572, apud North British Review, Oct., 1869, p. 31.

[1159] Prospero Count Arco to the emperor, Rome, Nov. 15, 1572, ubi supra.

[1160] "Il pontefice, e universalmente tutta d'Italia grandemente se ne rallegro, facendo pardonare cotale effetto al Re e alla Reina, che molte cose avevano sostenuto di fare in benefizio di quella parte." G. B. Adriani, Istoria de' suoi tempi, ii. 378.

[1161] Cuniga to Philip, Sept. 8th, Simancas MSS. Gachard, Bull. de l'acad. de Bruxelles, xvi. 249, 250.

[1162] "A. N. S. mi faccia gratia di basciar i piedi in nome mio, col quale mi rallegro con le viscere del cuore che sia piaciuto alla Dva. Msa. d'incaminar, nel principio del suo pontificato, si felicemente e honoratamente le cose di questo regno." Salviati to Card. sec. of State, Aug. 24, Mackintosh, iii., App. G., p. 355.

[1163] "Non si risolvo a credere che si fusse fatto tanto a un pezzo." Ibid., ubi supra.

[1164] "De quoy nous aseurons que en leoures Dieu aveques nous, tant pour nostre particulier coment pour le bien qui en reviendre a toute la cretiente et au service et honeur et gloyre de Dieu," etc.

[1165] "Et randons par cet ayfect le temognage de nos bonnes et droyctes yntantions, cor ne les avons jeames eu aultre que tendant a son honneur," etc. Letter of Catharine de' Medici to Philip II., Aug. 28, 1572, in Musee des archives nationales; documents originaux de l'hist. de France, exposes dans l'Hotel Soubise (published by the Gen. Directory of the Archives, 1872), p. 392.

[1166] Philip had evidently no intimation that a massacre was in contemplation. When Mr. Motley says (United Netherlands, i. 15): "It is as certain that Philip knew beforehand, and testified his approbation of the massacre of St. Bartholomew, as that he was the murderer of Orange," the statement must be interpreted in accordance with that other statement in the same author's earlier work (Rise of the Dutch Republic, ii. 388): "The crime was not committed with the connivance of the Spanish government. On the contrary, the two courts were at the moment bitterly opposed to each other," etc. As the eminent historian can scarcely be supposed to contradict himself on so important a point, we must understand him to mean that Philip had, indeed, long since instigated Catharine and her son to rid themselves of the Huguenot leaders by some form of treachery or other, but was quite ignorant of, and unprepared for, the particular means adopted by them for compassing the end.

[1167] St. Goard to Charles, Sept. 12th, Bodel Nijenhuis, Supplement to Groen van Prinsterer, Archives de la maison d'Orange Nassau, 124-126. St. Goard was not deceived by Philip's pious congratulations. "Ce faict," he writes to Catharine, a week later (ibid., pp. 126, 127), "a este aussi bien pris de se (ce) Roy comme on le peult penser, pour luy estre tant profitable pour ses affaires; toutesfois, comme il est le prince du monde qui scait et faict le plus profession de dissimuler toutes choses, si n'a il sceu celler en ceste-cy le plaisir qu'il en a receu, et encores que je infere touts ses mouvements procedder du bien que en recepvoient ses affaires, lesquelles il voioit pour desplorer sans ce seul remedde, si a il faict croire a tout le monde par ces aparens (apparences) que c'estoit pour le respect du bon succez que voz Majestez avoient eu en si haultes entreprises, tantost louant le filz d'avoir une telle mere, l'aiant si bien garde," etc.

[1168] See the Mondoucet correspondence, Compte rendu de la commission royale d'histoire, second series, iv. (Brux., 1852), 340-349, pub. by M. Emile Gachet, especially the letter of Charles IX. of Aug. 12th, 1572.

[1169] "El dicho embaxador me propuso ... con grande instancia, que sin dilacion se devia executar la justicia en Janlis (Genlis) y en los otros sus complices que hay estan presos, y en los que se tomassen en Mons." Philip to Alva, Sept. 18th. Simancas MSS. Gachard, Particularites inedits sur la St. Barthelemy, Bulletin de l'academie royale de Belgique, xvi. (1849), 256.

[1170] Charles IX. to Mondoucet, Aug. 31st, Mondoucet correspondence, p. 349; see also another letter of the same date, p. 348.

[1171] "Estant l'un plus grands services que se puisse faire pour la Chrestiente, que de la prendre et passer tout au fil de l'espee." St. Goard to Charles IX., Sept. 19th, Supp. to Archives de la maison d'Orange Nassau, 127.

[1172] Philip to Alva, ubi supra.

[1173] Alva to Philip, Oct. 13th, Gachard, Correspondance de Philippe II. (Brux., 1848), ii. 287.

[1174] Mondoucet to Charles IX., Aug. 29th, Bull. de l'acad. roy. de Brux.

[1175] Bulletin de l'acad. roy. de Bruxelles, ix. (1842), 561.

[1176] Philip to Alva, ubi supra.

[1177] Bulletin of Alva from the report of his agent, the Seigneur de Gomicourt, published by M. Gachard, from MSS. of Mons, in Bull. de l'acad. de Bruxelles, ix. (1842), 560, etc.

[1178] Despatch of Sept. 14, 1572, Correspondance diplomatique, v, 121.

[1179] Charles IX. to La Mothe Fenelon, Aug. 22, 1572, Corresp. dipl., vii. 322, 323.

[1180] See ante, chap, xviii., p. 490.

[1181] "Ni que j'y aye aucune volonte."

[1182] "C'est bien la chose que je deteste le plus."

[1183] Despatch of Aug. 24th, Corresp. diplom., vii. 324, 325.

[1184] Charles IX. to La Mothe Fenelon, Aug. 25, 1572, ibid., 325, 326.

[1185] Charles IX., Aug. 26th and 27th, Corresp. dipl., vii. 331, etc., and a justificatory "Instruction a M. de la Mothe Fenelon."

[1186] Letter of Burleigh, etc., Sept. 9th, to Walsingham, Digges, 247. The truth of the statement is called in question by M. Cooper, editor of La Mothe Fenelon's Correspondance diplomatique.

[1187] The interview is described both by La Mothe Fenelon (Corresp. diplom., v. 122-126), and by the English council, despatch of Sept. 9th to Walsingham (Digges, 247-249). Hume has a graphic account, History of England, chap. xl.

[1188] This striking, and, certainly, somewhat undiplomatic speech is reported by the ambassador himself in his despatches (Corresp. dipl., v. 127). It looks as if the honest Frenchman was not sorry to let the court know some of the severe criticisms that were uttered respecting a crime with which he had no sympathy. La Mothe Fenelon tells of the impression, proved erroneous by the king's letter, "qu'ilz avoient que ce fut ung acte projecte de longtemps, et que vous heussiez accorde avecques le Pape et le Roy d'Espaigne de faire servir les nopces de Madame, vostre seur, avec le Roy de Navarre, a une telle execution pour y atraper, a la foys, toutz les principaulx de la dicte religion assembles." La Mothe Fenelon to Charles, Sept. 2, 1572, ubi supra, v. 116.

[1189] La Mothe Fenelon endeavored, he says, to persuade the English that there were not over five thousand, and that Catharine and Charles were sorry that one hundred could not have answered. Corr. diplom., v. 155.

[1190] See the despondent despatch of October 2d, Corresp. diplom., v., 155-162.

[1191] La Mothe Fenelon to Catharine, ibid., v. 164.

[1192] Letter of Sept. 26th, Digges, 262.

[1193] See ante, chapter xviii., p. 495.

[1194] As well as by the queen mother's assurances respecting the massacre in the provinces—too heavy a draft upon the credulity of her royal sister. "Pour ce qu'ilz disent que, voyant les meurtres qui ont este faictz en plusieurs villes de ce royaume par les Catholiques contre les Huguenotz, ils ne se peuvent asseurer de l'intantion et volonte du Roy, qu'ilz n'en voyent quelque punission et justice et ses edictz mieux observes, elle cognoistra bientost que ce qui est advenu es autres lieux que en ceste ville, a este entierement contre la volonte du Roy, mon dict sieur et filz, lequel a delibere d'en faire faire telle pugnition et y establir bientost ung si bon ordre que ung chascun cognoistra quelle a este en cest endroit son intantion." Catharine to La Mothe Fenelon, Cor. dipl., vii. 377.

[1195] Walsingham to Sir Thomas Smith, Sept. 14th, Digges, 242.

[1196] Tocsain contre les massacreurs, 150.

[1197] It is true that when their sentences were read to them, and particularly that portion which branded with infamy their innocent children, the courage of the old man of seventy, Briquemault, momentarily failed, and he condescended to offer to do great services to the king in retaking La Rochelle whose fortifications he had himself begun; and when this proposal was rejected, it is said that he made more humiliating advances. But the constancy and pious exhortations of his younger companion, who sustained his own courage by repeating many of the psalms in Latin, recalled Briquemault to himself, and from that moment "he had nothing but contempt for death." De Thou (iv. 646), a youth of nineteen, who was present in the chapel when the sentence was read, remembered the incident well. Cf. Agrippa d'Aubigne, ii. 32 (bk. i., c. 6). Walsingham, when he says in his letter of Nov. 1, 1572, that "Cavannes (Cavaignes) showed himself void of all magnanimity, etc.," has evidently confused the persons. Here is an instance where the later account of an eye-witness—De Thou—is entitled to far more credit than the contemporary statement of one whose means of obtaining information were not so good.

[1198] "N'ayant regret sinon que vous ayez voulu profaner le jour de sa nayssence par ung si fascheus espectacle qu'allastes voir en greve." Corresp. diplom. de la Mothe Fenelon, v. 205; Tocsain contre les massacreurs, 151, 152; Reveille-Matin, Arch, cur., vii. 206; Walsingham to Smith, Nov. 1, 1572, Digges, 278, 279.

[1199] Froude, x. 444, 445.

[1200] "Entre autres choses, il me dist qu'on luy avoit escript de Rome, n'avoit que trois semaines ou environ, sur le propos des noces du Roy de Navarre en ces propres termes: 'que a ceste heure que tous les oyseaux estoient en cage, on les pouvoit prendre tous ensemble.'" M. de Vulcob to Charles IX., Presburg, Sept. 26th, apud De Noailles, Henri de Valois et la Pologne en 1572 (Paris, 1867), iii., Pieces just., 214.

[1201] See in Kluckholn, Briefe Friedrich des Frommen, ii. 482, a short letter of Charles IX. to the elector palatine, Aug. 22, 1572, referring him for details to the account which Schomberg would give him verbally; and, ibid., ii. 483, 484, the narrative signed by Charles IX. and Brulart, secretary of state, in a translation evidently made at the time for the elector's use.

[1202] "Toute ma negociation s'en estoit allee en fumee." Schomberg to M. de Limoges, Nov. 8th, De Noailles, iii. 300.

[1203] A large number of Schomberg's despatches are inserted in De Noailles, iii. 286, etc.

[1204] "Als die sonder zweifel die welsche bibel 'El principe Macchiavelli' auch studirt."

[1205] Landgrave William to the Electors of Saxony and Brandenburg, Cassel, Sept. 5, 1572; same to Frederick, elector palatine, Sept, 6th. A. Kluckholn, Briefe Friedrich des Frommen, ii. 496-498.

[1206] Bp. of Valence to M. Brulart, Konin, Nov. 20th, Colbert MSS. apud De Noailles, iii. 218.

[1207] Montluc to Charles IX., January 22, 1573, De Noailles, iii. 220. Does not the frank suggestion furnish a clue to the method which was sometimes practised in other cases?

[1208] Montluc to Brulart, Jan. 20, 1573, De Noailles, iii. 223. The worthy bishop, who was certainly at any time more at home in the cabinet than in the church, did not intermit his toil or yield to discouragement. If we may believe him, he "had not leisure so much as to say his prayers." The panegyrists of the massacre, and especially Charpentier, had done him good service by their writings, and at one time he greatly desired that the learned doctor might be sent to his assistance, particularly as (to use his own words) "all the suite of Monsieur de l'Isle and myself do not know enough of Latin to admit a deacon to orders, even at Puy in Auvergne." Ubi supra.

[1209] Beza to Thomas Tilius, Sept. 10, 1572, Bulletin, vii. 16.

[1210] Registres de la compagnie, 1er aout, 1572, apud Gaberel, Histoire de l'eglise de Geneve, ii. 320.

[1211] Reg. du conseil, 30 aout, 1572; Reg. de la compagnie, Gaberel, ii. 321.

[1212] Gaberel, ii. 321, 322.

[1213] Ibid., ii. 322.

[1214] Ibid., ii. 307. See also in the Pieces justificatives, pp. 213-217: "Liste des refugies de la St. Barthelemy dont les familles existent de nos jours a Geneve."

[1215] Gaberel, ii. 325. The author of the really able and learned article on the massacre, in the North British Review for October, 1869, conveys an altogether unfounded and cruel impression, not only with regard to Beza, but respecting his fellow Protestants, in these sentences: "The very men whose own brethren had perished in France were not hearty or unanimous in execrating the deed. There were Huguenots who thought that their party had brought ruin on itself, by provoking its enemies and following the rash counsels of ambitious men. This was the opinion of their chief, Theodore Beza, himself," etc. The belief of Beza that the French Protestants had merited even so severe a chastisement as this at the hands of God, by reason of the ambition of some and the unbelief or lack of spirituality of others, was a very different thing from failing to execrate the deed with heartiness. If the words of Bullinger to Hotman, quoted in support of the first sentence ("sunt tamen qui hoc factum et excusare et defendere tentant") really referred to Protestants at all, it can only have been to an insignificant number who took the position from a love of singularity, and who were below contempt. The execration of the deed was pre-eminently unanimous and hearty.

[1216] Gaberel, ii. 326.

[1217] Beza to T. Tilius, Dec. 3, 1572, Bulletin de la Soc. de l'hist. du prot. fr., vii. 17.

[1218] Gaberel, ii. 330-333.

[1219] Nearly four years later, on the 8th of June, 1576, Monsieur de Chandieu received the news of the publication of Henry III.'s edict of peace permitting the refugees to return home. All the Protestants who had not adopted Switzerland as their future country congregated at Geneva. A solemn religious service was held in the church of Saint Pierre, where French and Genevese united in that favorite Huguenot psalm (the 118th)—

La voici l'heureuse journee Que Dieu a faite a plein desir—

the same which the soldiers of Henry IV. set up on the field of Coutras (Agrippa d'Aubigne, iii. 53). M. de Chandieu then rendered thanks in tender and affectionate terms to all the departments of government, exclaiming: "We shall always regard the Church of Geneva as our benefactress and our mother; and from all the French reformed churches will arise, every Sunday, words of blessing, in remembrance of your admirable benefits to us." The next day the refugees started for their homes, accompanied, as far as the border, by a great crowd of citizens. Gaberel, ii. 337, 338.

[1220] Les ambassadeurs de Charles IX. aux cantons suisses protestants, Bulletin, iii. 274-276. A copy was sent by Beza to the consuls of Montauban, together with a letter, Oct. 3. 1572. Also Mem. de l'estat (Arch. cur., vii. 158-161.)

[1221] Harangue de M. de Bellievre aux Suisses a la diette tenue a Baden, Mackintosh, Hist. of England, iii., Appendix L.

[1222] Bellievre to Charles IX., Baden, Dec. 15, 1572, Mackintosh, App. L, p. 360. De Thou, iv. (liv. liii.) 642.

[1223] As early as September 3d the superintendent of the mint submitted specimens of two kinds of commemorative medals: the one bearing the devices, "Virtus in Rebelles" and "Pietas excitavit Justitiam;" and the other, "Charles IX. dompteur des Rebelles, le 24 aoust 1572." The Mem. de l'estat (Archives cur., vii. 355-357) contain the elaborate description furnished by the designer, accompanied with comments by the Protestant author. The Tresor de Numismatique, etc. (Paul Delaroche, etc.), Med. francaises, pt. 3d, plate 19, Nos. 3, 4, and 5, gives facsimiles of three medals, the first two mentioned above, and a third on which Charles figures as Hercules armed with sword and torch confronting the three-headed Hydra of heresy. The motto is, "Ne ferrum temnat, simul ignibus obsto."

[1224] Smith to Walsingham, Digges, 252.

[1225] Leicester to Walsingham, Sept. 11th, Digges, 251.

[1226] Walsingham to Smith, Nov. 1, Digges, 279. The politic Montluc, Bishop of Valence, seems to allude to the same alteration in his master: "Au diable soyt la cause qui de tant de maux est cause, et qui d'ung bon roy et humain, s'il en fust jamais, l'ont contrainct de mectre la main au sang, qui est un morceau si friant, que jamais prince n'en tasta qu'il n'y voulust revenir." De Noailles, iii. 223, 224.

[1227] Agrippa d'Aubigne, ii. 29, 30.

[1228] Agrippa d'Aubigne, ii. 29 (liv. i., c. 6).

[1229] Letter of May 22, 1571/2, Digges, 193.

[1230] Relation of Sigismondo Cavalli. I follow the resume of Baschet, La diplomatie venitienne, 556, 562.

[1231] "Leurs butins et richesses ne leur proffitarent point, non plus qu'a plusieurs massacreurs, sacquemens, pillardz et paillards de la feste de Sainct-Barthelemy que j'ay cogneu, au moins des principaux, qui ne vesquirent guieres longtemps qu'ils ne fussent tuez au siege de la Rochelle, et autres guerres qui vindrent empres, et qui furent aussi pauvres que devant. Aussi, comme disoient les Espagnolz pillards, 'Que el diablo les avia dado, el diablo les avia llevado.'" OEuvres, i. 277 (Ed. of Hist. Soc. of Fr., 1864). I need only refer to the fate of the famous assassin who boasted of having killed four hundred men that day with his own arm, and who afterward, having embraced a hermit's life, was finally hung for the crime of murdering travellers (Agrippa d'Aubigne, ii. 20); and to that of Coconnas, put to death for the part he took in the conspiracy of which I shall shortly have to speak.

[1232] Memoires de Sully, i. 28, 29.

[1233] See ante, p. 530-532.

[1234] Apostolicarum Pii Quinti Epistolarum libri quinque. Letter of March 26, 1568, p. 73.

[1235] Pii Quinti Epistolae, 111.

[1236] Ibid., 150.

[1237] Ibid., 152. See ante, chapter xvi, p. 308.

[1238] "Nullo modo, nullisque de causis, hostibus Dei parcendum est."

[1239] "Catholicae religionis hostes aperte ac libere ad internecionem usque oppugnaverit." Ibid., 155.

[1240] "Deletis omnibus," etc. Ibid., 155.

[1241] Ibid., 160, 161.

[1242] Ibid., 166.

[1243] "Nec vero, vano pietatis nomine objecto, te eo usque decipi sinas, ut condonandis divinis injuriis falsam tibi misericordiae laudem quaeras: nihil est enim ea pietate misericordiaque crudelius, quae in impios et ultima supplicia meritos confertur." Ibid., 242.

[1244] "Haereticae pravitatis inquisitores per singulas civitates constituere." Ibid., 242.

[1245] Letter of Jan. 29, 1570, ibid., 267.

[1246] Letter of April 23, 1570, ibid., 275.

[1247] Letter to Cardinal Bourbon, Sept. 23, 1570, ibid., 282, 283.

[1248] Letter to Charles IX., January 25, 1572, ibid., 443.

[1249] Saint Pius V. is, I believe, the only pope that has been canonized since Saint Celestine V., near the end of the thirteenth century.

[1250] "Qui autem a militibus captivi ducebantur, eos Pius pretio redemptos, in jusque sibi vindicatos, atque Avenionem perductos, publico supplicio afficiendos pro ardenti suo religionis studio decrevit." Gabutius, Vita Pii Quinti, Acta Sanctorum Maii, Sec. 97, p. 642.

[1251] "Id Pius ubi cognovit, de Comite Sanctae Florae conquestus est, quod jussa non fecisset, dudum imperantis, necandos protinus esse haereticos omnes quoscumque ille capere potuisset." Ibid., Sec. 125. It must not be forgotten that, in holding these sentiments, Pius V. did not stand alone; his predecessors on the pontifical throne were of the same mind. We have seen the anger of Paul IV., in 1558, upon learning that Henry II. had spared D'Andelot (see ante, chapter viii., vol. i., p. 320). Paul was for instantaneous execution, and did not believe a heretic could ever be converted. He told the French ambassador "que c'estoit abus d'estimer que un heretique revint jamais; que ce n'estoit que toute dissimulation, et que c'estoit un mal ou il ne falloit que le feu, et soubdain!" The last expression is a clue to the attitude of the Roman See to heresy under every successive occupant of the papal throne. Letter of La Bourdaisiere to the constable, Rome, Feb. 25, 1559, MS. Nat. Lib. Paris, Bulletin, xxvii. (1878) 105.

[1252] Gabutius, ubi supra.



CHAPTER XX.

THE SEQUEL OF THE MASSACRE, TO THE DEATH OF CHARLES THE NINTH.

[Sidenote: Widespread terror.]

The blow had been struck by which the Huguenots were to be exterminated. If a single adherent of the reformed faith still lived in Paris, he dared not show his face. France had, as usual, copied the example of the capital, and there were few districts to which the fratricidal plot had not extended. Enough blood had been shed, it would seem, to satisfy the most sanguinary appetite. After the massacre in which the admiral and all the most noted leaders had perished—after the defection of Henry of Navarre and his more courageous cousin, it was confidently expected that the feeble remnants of the Huguenots, deprived of their head, could easily be reduced to submission. The stipulation of Charles the Ninth, when yielding a reluctant consent to the infamous project, would be fulfilled: not one of the hated sect would remain to reproach him with his crime. And, in point of fact, throughout the greater number of the cities of France, even where there had been no actual massacre, so widespread was the terror, that every Protestant had either fled from the country or sought safety in concealment, if he had not actually apostatized from the faith.[1253]

[Sidenote: La Rochelle and other cities in Protestant hands.]

But when the storm had spent its first fury, and it became once more possible to look around and measure its frightful effects, it was found that the devastation was not universal. A few cities held for the Huguenots. La Rochelle and Sancerre—the former on the western coast, the latter in the centre of France—with Montauban, Nismes, Milhau, Aubenas, Privas, and certain other places of minor importance in the south, closed their gates, and refused to receive the royal governors sent them from Paris.[1254] Not that there were wanting those, even among the Protestants, who interposed conscientious scruples, and denied the right of resistance to the authority of the king;[1255] but with the vast majority the dictates of self-preservation prevailed over the slavish doctrine of unquestioning submission. The right to worship God as He commands cannot, they argued, be abridged even by the legitimate sovereign; and in this case there is even the greatest probability that he acts under constraint, or that wily courtiers forge his name, since the most contradictory orders emanate ostensibly from him.

[Sidenote: Nismes.]

Such was the attitude assumed by the brave inhabitants of Nismes. Here the Roman Catholics had displayed a more charitable disposition than in many other places. The "juge mage," on receipt of secret orders to massacre the Protestants, instead of complying, gave directions for assembling the extraordinary council, consisting of the magistrates and most notable citizens. By this council, upon his recommendation, it was unanimously resolved to close all the gates of Nismes, with the exception of one. This was to be guarded in turn by the Roman Catholics and the Protestants. All the citizens were directed to take a common oath that they would assist each other without distinction of creed, and maintain order and security, in obedience to the king's authority, and according to the provisions of his edict of pacification. It was a solemn scene when all those present in the great municipal meeting, the vicar-general of the diocese among the number, with uplifted hands called upon God to witness their engagement.[1256] The oath was well observed. The Viscount of Joyeuse, acting as lieutenant-governor of Charles in Languedoc, at first approved the compact; for the king's early letters, as we have seen, expressed indignation at Coligny's murder, and ascribed it to the personal enmity of the Guises. But the viscount took a different view of the matter when the monarch, throwing off the mask, himself accepted the responsibility. Joyeuse now called on the citizens of Nismes to lay down their arms, to expel all the refugees, and to receive a garrison. But the Nismois firmly declined the summons, grounding their refusal partly on their duty to themselves, partly on the manifest inhumanity of surrendering their fellow-citizens to certain butchery. As was true in more than one instance, it was the people that, by their decision, saved the rich from the inevitable results of their own timid counsels. Most of the judges of the royal court of justice, and most of the opulent citizens, advocated a surrender of Nismes to Joyeuse, which must have been the prelude to a fresh and perhaps indiscriminate massacre.[1257]

[Sidenote: Montauban.]

Scarcely less important to the Protestants of southern France was the refuge they found in Montauban. Regnier, the same Huguenot gentleman who had himself been rescued from slaughter at Paris by the magnanimity of Vezins,[1258] was the instrument of its deliverance. On finding himself safe, his first impulse was to hasten to Montauban and urge his brethren to adopt instant measures for self-defence. But despair had taken possession of the inhabitants. They had heard that the dreaded black cavalry of the ferocious Montluc, the men-at-arms of Fontenille, and other troops, were on the march against them. Their enemies were already reported to be so near the city as Castel-Sarrasin. Not a gate, therefore, would the panic-stricken citizens close; not a sword would they draw. Nothing was left but for Regnier, with the little band of less than forty followers he had gathered, to abandon the devoted place. As he was wandering about the country, uncertain whither to betake himself, he unexpectedly fell in with the very enemy before whom Montauban was quailing. Neither Regnier nor his handful of followers hesitated. It was a glorious opportunity for the display of heroism in a good cause, for there were ten Roman Catholics to one Protestant. Happily the ground was favorable to the display of individual prowess; a river and a tributary brook rendered the field so contracted that only a few men could fight abreast. "Brethren and comrades," cried Regnier, "whether for life or for combat, there is no other road than this." Then putting forward a detachment of ten horsemen headed by an experienced leader, when he saw the enemy pause to put on their helmets, he seized the opportunity in true Huguenot fashion to act as the minister of his followers, and uttered a brief prayer, devout and courageous. Next came the charge, such as those men of iron determination knew well how to make. The van of the enemy made no attempt to resist them; the cavalry in the centre was driven back in confusion upon the mounted arquebusiers of the rear. The fight became in a few minutes a disgraceful rout, and for a whole league the handful of Huguenots continued the pursuit. Of nearly four hundred royalists, eighty were killed and fifty captured. When Regnier, returning to Montauban, brought the flags of the enemy and a body of prisoners outnumbering his own band, the citizens renounced their fears, accepted the omen as a pledge of Divine assistance, and cast in their lot with their brethren of La Rochelle.[1259]

[Sidenote: La Rochelle the centre of interest.]

For La Rochelle had now become the centre of interest, and Montauban, Nismes, and even Sancerre, whose brave and obstinate siege will soon occupy us, were for the time almost wholly dismissed from consideration. The strongly fortified Protestant town, the only point upon the shores of the ocean which during the former civil wars had defied every assault of the papal leaders, was now the safe and favorite refuge of the Huguenots, and the coveted prey of the enemy. Within a very short time after the massacre, a stream of fugitives set in toward La Rochelle. It was not long before her hospitable walls sheltered fifty of the Protestant nobles of the neighboring provinces, fifty-five ministers, and fifteen hundred soldiers, chiefly from Saintonge, Aunis, and Poitou. Among the new-comers were not a few who had with difficulty escaped from the bloody scenes at Paris.[1260] All were inspired with the same courage, all possessed by the same determination to sell their lives as dear as possible; for the successive accounts of the cruelties perpetrated in all parts of France left no doubt respecting the fate of the Rochellois should they too succumb.

[Sidenote: A spurious letter of Catharine de' Medici.]

And there were not wanting circumstances of an alarming nature. At Brouage, then a flourishing port some twenty-five miles south of La Rochelle, a considerable body of troops had been gathered under Philip Strozzi, the chief officer of the French infantry, while a fleet was in course of preparation under the well-known Baron de la Garde. This occurred previously to the massacre. The force, it was given out, was intended for a secret expedition against the Spaniards. While the Huguenots of Coligny, forming a junction with the troops of William of Orange, should attack Alva in Flanders, Strozzi and La Garde were to make a diversion upon the coasts of Spain itself. But the inhabitants of La Rochelle gave little credit to this explanation, and even the personal assurances of the admiral had not entirely removed their fears that their own destruction was intended. It is not strange, therefore, that they accepted the Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day as a complete demonstration of the correctness of their suspicions, and at once took measures for protecting their city against surprise or open assault. Nor is it altogether easy to ascertain how far their apprehensions were unfounded. There were intelligent and well-informed contemporary writers, who felt no doubt that Strozzi was waiting with sealed orders for the coming of the fatal twenty-fourth of August. Two months before, they say, there had been sent him by Catharine de' Medici a packet which he was strictly forbidden to open until that day. It proved to be a letter of instruction couched in these words: "Strozzi, I notify you that this day, the twenty-fourth of August, the admiral and all the Huguenots who were with him here have been slain. Consequently, take diligent measures to make yourself master of La Rochelle, and do to the Huguenots who shall fall into your hands the same that we have done to those who were here. Take good heed that you fail not, insomuch as you fear to displease the king my son, and myself. CATHARINE."[1261]

If, as I can but believe, this letter be spurious, none the less may it serve to indicate how firmly the persuasion was fixed in the minds of the Protestants that insidious designs were cherished against La Rochelle.

[Sidenote: Designs upon the city.]

It was not long before those designs began to develop. Strozzi, to whom the inhabitants had sent a deputation, avowedly to obtain explanations respecting the circumstances of the massacre, but in reality to discover the plans of the government, graciously offered some companies of his soldiers for their protection. But the Rochellois with equal politeness declined to accept such help. Meanwhile, they set themselves vigorously at work, and not only organized the inhabitants and refugees into companies for military defence, but repaired and manned the fortifications, and introduced a great abundance of provisions and munitions of war into the city.[1262] A few days later, letters were received from Charles himself, which, while endeavoring to calm the minds of the inhabitants respecting recent occurrences, promised them full protection in their religious rights, proclaimed the king's unaltered determination to maintain his edict, and called upon them to receive with due submission M. de Biron, whom he sent them to be their governor. No better choice could have been made among the Roman Catholics; for Biron, it was currently reported, so far from approving of severity, had himself narrowly escaped being involved in the massacre, and had owed his safety mainly to the fact that he was in command at the arsenal.

The shrewd Rochellois, however, while they greeted the king's assurances with all outward show of credit, were not willing to be duped. They listened respectfully to the king's envoys, and professed themselves his most devoted subjects; but they begged to be excused from receiving Marshal Biron as their governor until the troops of Strozzi should have been removed from their dangerous proximity to the city, and until the fleet should have set sail from Brouage. Nor, indeed, could Biron himself obtain better conditions, when, having sought an interview with the deputies of La Rochelle outside of the walls, he entreated them, with sincere or well-feigned emotion, to forestall the ruin impending over them.[1263] In vain did he humor their claim, dating from regal concessions and long prescription, that La Rochelle need receive no garrison but of her own municipal militia.[1264] In vain did he offer to make his entry with but one or two followers, and promise that, when they had duly submitted, he would secure them from injury at the hands of the royal troops, and would relieve them of the presence of a fleet. The citizens were inflexible. The experience of Castres, where lately the credulous inhabitants had inconsiderately admitted a governor sent them by the king, and had paid for their folly with their lives, confirmed them in the resolution rather to die with sword in hand than to be slaughtered like sheep.[1265]

Two months (September and October) passed in fruitless negotiations—precious time, which the citizens put to good service in preparing for the inevitable struggle. It was not until the eighth of November that the first skirmish took place, in which one of two royal galleys sent to reconnoitre the situation of La Rochelle was captured and brought into harbor by some Huguenot boats that had sailed out intending to secure the neighboring Ile de Re for the Protestant cause.[1266]

[Sidenote: Mission of La Noue.]

Meantime the court, reluctant to undertake an enterprise so formidable as the regular siege of La Rochelle seemed likely to prove, resorted to pacific measures, and resolved to employ for the purpose a person the most unlikely to be selected by Roman Catholics. This was none other than the famous Francois de la Noue, a Protestant leader not less remarkable for generalship than for literary ability, of whose "Political and Military Discourses," written during a later captivity, it has been said with justice that, in perspicuity, force, and good judgment, they are not inferior to the most celebrated commentaries of antiquity.[1267] La Noue was with Louis of Nassau in the city of Mons when the news of Admiral Coligny's murder, and of the consequent failure of the promised support of France, reached him. Mons soon after surrendered to the Duke of Alva, and La Noue scarcely knew whither to turn for refuge, when he received from his old friend, the Duke of Longueville, Governor of Picardy, a cordial invitation to return to France. Not without many misgivings, he visited Paris, where, contrary to his expectations, Charles greeted him very graciously, and even restored to him the confiscated property of his wife's murdered brother, Teligny. Taking advantage of the moment, the king now requested La Noue to undertake the task of mediating between the government and La Rochelle, and thus preventing the outbreak of a new civil war and the effusion of more blood. At first La Noue positively declined the appointment; but the king was urgent, and the arguments which he adduced coincided with the Huguenot's own impressions of the hopelessness of a struggle undertaken by a single city against the united forces of the most powerful kingdom of Christendom. It was only after the most solemn protestations of Charles, that he would not make use of him as an instrument to deceive and ruin his Protestant brethren, that La Noue reluctantly consented to accept a commission from which he was more likely to reap embarrassment than glory.

[Sidenote: He is badly received by the Rochellois.]

And certainly his first reception by the Rochellois was far from flattering. In a conference with the deputies of the city, in the suburban village of Tadon[1268]—for La Noue was not permitted to enter the walls—the burghers clearly revealed the suspicion with which they viewed him. They bluntly told him, after listening to the propositions he brought from the king, "that they had come to confer with M. de la Noue, but that they did not recognize him in the person before them. The brave warrior so closely bound to them in former years, and who had lost an arm in their defence, had a different heart, never came to them with vain hopes, nor, under the guise of friendship, invited them to conferences destined only to betray them."[1269] But, in spite of this somewhat uncourteous reception, the well-known and trusted integrity of the great Huguenot captain soon broke through the thin crust of coolness, which, after all, was rather assumed than really felt. La Noue was suffered to enter the city, and at the echevinage, or city hall, was permitted to lay before the general assembly, or municipal government, as well as the other citizens, the full extent of the king's concessions. Amnesty for the past, confirmation of the city's privileges, passports for any who might wish to remove to England or Germany, safe return for those whom fear had banished, free exercise of the Protestant religion in two quarters of the city, with three ministers to be chosen by the people and approved by the governor—all this he offered. On the other hand, a new church must be built for the Roman Catholics, the strangers who had lately come must remove elsewhere, and, of course, the governor must be admitted, although the king kindly consented to let them designate any other sufficiently distinguished and capable person, if they preferred to do so.[1270]

[Sidenote: The royal proposals rejected.]

Neither the exposition of the terms of the royal clemency, nor the dark picture drawn of the ruin overhanging the city, shook the constancy of its brave advocates. They replied that they would consent to receive neither garrison nor royal governor, and they exhibited to La Noue their charters granted by Charles the Fifth, and ratified both by Louis the Eleventh and by the reigning monarch. They added, "that, with God's help, they hoped not to be caught in their beds as their brethren had been at the Parisian matins."[1271] Yet, even after this conference, the Rochellois were so far from losing their respect for La Noue, that they made him three propositions: either he might remain in La Rochelle as a private citizen; or he might assume the military command, as their commander-in-chief; or, if he should prefer so to do, he might pass over into England in one of their vessels. La Noue went to consult with Marshal Biron and others, and shortly returned. With their full concurrence he accepted the military command—the unparalleled anomaly being thus exhibited of a general of great experience and high reputation voluntarily given by the besiegers to the besieged, because of the confidence they entertained that by his moderation and pacific inclination he would restrain the excesses of the mob and hasten the return of peace.[1272]

[Sidenote: Marshal Biron appears before La Rochelle.]

[Sidenote: Beginning of the fourth religious war.]

And now the siege, which the court had long hesitated to undertake, began in earnest. On the fourth of December, Marshal Biron approached La Rochelle with seven ensigns of horse and eighteen companies of foot, and two larger cannon.[1273] Meantime the most strenuous efforts were put forth to collect an adequate besieging force. When milder measures failed to secure prompt obedience, recourse was had to threats, and the nobles were summoned on pain, in case of disobedience, of losing their privileges, and being reduced to the rank of "roturiers." The menace had its effect, and in the month of January, 1573, the force under Biron had swollen to sixty companies of foot, with not less than thirty-seven large cannon—a considerable provision of artillery for that period.[1274]

[Sidenote: Description of La Rochelle.]

The city of La Rochelle occupies the head of a deep bay, stretching in a north-easterly direction from the ocean, and serving at present as the large and convenient harbor for its extensive commerce. The old town, whose origin is lost in the mists of antiquity, covered only a small part of the area since inclosed by walls. A narrow peninsula, protected on the one side by a sheet of water and on the other by marshes, offered a tempting site, and was first occupied. The larger inlet on the west was the old, and probably for a long time the only haven; but long before the middle of the sixteenth century the action of the tide, which washes in great quantities of sand, combining with the gradual deposit of alluvium made by the neighboring springs, had converted this inlet into a marsh—"les Marais Salans"—intersected by ditches and used only in the manufacture of salt. The marsh itself has since been entirely reclaimed. The "new" harbor, as the smaller inlet was still called, at the period of which I am speaking, was of much inferior capacity, and was included within the circuit of the walls.[1275] A chain, extended between the two towers guarding its narrow entrance, effectually precluded the passage of hostile vessels.

For considerably more than one-half of their circuit, the walls of La Rochelle were inaccessible to the land forces; and the deep foss skirting them was full of water, except on the north and north-east. The fortifications, everywhere formidable, had, therefore, been constructed with extraordinary care in these directions; for it was here that the brunt of the attack must be borne. With Puritan simplicity and faith, the reformed inhabitants of La Rochelle had named the strong work at the northwestern angle of the circuit the "Bastion de l'Evangile," or the "Bastion of the Gospel." It was appropriately supported on the right by the "Cavalier de l'Epitre." Other forts, such as that of Cognes at the north-eastern angle, were but little inferior in importance; it was evident, however, that upon the ability of the Rochellois to defend the Bastion de l'Evangile must depend the salvation of the city.[1276]

[Sidenote: Resoluteness of the Rochellois.]

But the chief strength of the city was to be found in the manly resolution of the inhabitants to secure for themselves and their children the right to worship God according to the purer faith, or perish in the attempt. An incident occurring about this time served to illustrate and to confirm their courage. A short distance in advance of the Bastion de l'Evangile there stood a solitary windmill, which, on account of its advantageous position, the Rochellois were anxious to retain. The captain to whose guard it was intrusted, recognizing the ease with which he might be surprised and cut off, took the precaution to draw off at dusk the small detachment which he had placed there by day, leaving but a single soldier to act as sentry. Meantime, Strozzi had determined to capture the mill. This he attempted to do, taking advantage of a moonlight night. To the two culverines brought to play upon him, the solitary defender could answer only with his arquebuse; but so briskly did he fire, and so well did he counterfeit the voices of others, that the assailants believed an entire company to be present. At last, when he no longer could hold out, the soldier only surrendered after stipulating for the life of himself and his entire band. Notwithstanding his promise, Strozzi, when once his astonishment at the appearance of the single actor who had played so many parts had given place to anger at the deceit practised upon him, was in favor of hanging the Huguenot for his audacity. But Biron would only consent to have him sent to the galleys, a punishment which he escaped by finding means to slip away from the hands of the royalists.[1277]

[Sidenote: Their military strength.]

The entire military force of the besieged comprised about thirteen hundred regular troops, besides two thousand citizens, well armed and drilled, and under competent captains. There was an abundance of powder, of wine, biscuit, and other provisions, although of wheat there was but little.[1278] Meantime assistance was anxiously expected from England, and the courage of the common people, incited by the exhortations of the ministers, did not flag, notwithstanding the feebler spirit of the rich and the actual desertion of a few leaders.[1279]

The besiegers were not idle. Besides occupying positions north, east, and south of the city, which effectually cut off communication from the land side, they built forts on opposite sides of the outer harbor, and stranded at the entrance a large carack, which was made firm in its position with stones and sand. The work, when provided with guns and troops, commanded the passage, and was christened "le Fort de l'Aiguille." In vain did the Rochellois attempt to destroy or capture it; the carack, while it proved unavailing to prevent the entrance of an occasional vessel laden with grain or ammunition, remained the most formidable point in the possession of the enemy.

[Sidenote: Henry, Duke of Anjou, appointed to conduct the siege.]

In order to give her favorite son a new opportunity to acquire military distinction, the queen mother now persuaded Charles to permit the Duke of Anjou to conduct the siege. He arrived before La Rochelle about the middle of February,[1280] with a brilliant train of princes and nobles, among whom were Alencon, Guise, Aumale, and Montluc, besides Henry of Navarre and his cousin Conde, who, as they had to sustain the role of good Roman Catholics, could scarcely avoid taking part in the campaign against their former brethren. In the ordinances soon after published by Anjou, he seems to have hoped to weaken the Huguenots by copying their own strictness of moral discipline. The very Catholic practice of profane swearing, in which his Majesty was so proficient, was prohibited on pain of severe punishment; and it was prescribed that a sermon should daily be preached in the camp.[1281] A good round oath none the less continued to be received by the soldiers, in all doubtful cases, as a sufficient proof of loyalty to Mother Church, nor did they cease because of the ordinance from ridiculing the idea that such good Christians as they needed preaching, which was well enough for unevangelized pagans.[1282]

[Sidenote: The besieged pray and fight.]

In view of the impending peril, the Protestants had recourse, as their custom was, to prayer and fasting. The sixteenth and eighteenth of February were days of public humiliation. From their knees the Huguenots went with redoubled courage to the ramparts. The crisis had at length arrived. A series of furious assaults were given, directed principally against the northern wall and the Bastion de l'Evangile. It was in one of these attacks, on the third of March, that the Duke of Aumale was killed. By the besieged the death of so eminent a member of the house of Lorraine was interpreted as a signal judgment of God upon the most cruel member of a persecuting family—another presage that the sword should never depart from the princely stock which had begun the war, until it should be altogether destroyed. The royalists, on the other hand, found in it a great source of regret; while Catharine, terrified at the danger to which her son might be exposed, wrote one of her ill-spelt letters to Montpensier, entreating him and the other veterans not to suffer any of the princes to go imprudently near the walls.[1283]

[Sidenote: Bravery of the women.]

It does not enter into the plan of this history to detail the progress of the siege. Let it suffice to say that the enemy was met at every point and repulsed. Not content with simply defending their walls, the Huguenots made sorties, in which many of Anjou's followers were slain. Sometimes dressing in the uniform of those they had killed or taken prisoners, they returned and penetrated into the hostile camp, learned the plans of the assailants, and cut off more than one man of note. The presence of women among them became an element of strength; for these, surmounting the weakness of their sex, did good service in the mines, or, donning armor, defended the breach and drove the enemy into the ditch.[1284] It was remarked that, as the supply of fresh provisions diminished, the lack was in some degree compensated by such an abundance of cockles on the sands as had never before been known. If the Protestants regarded this incident as a providential interposition in their behalf,[1285] the Roman Catholics sought to account for it by supposing that the operations of the siege had permitted the fish to multiply undisturbed.[1286] However this might be, the women of La Rochelle sallied forth to husband this new resource; but their imprudence in straying beyond the range of the guns was rewarded with insolent outrage on the part of such of the enemy as were in the vicinity. Even this circumstance the Huguenots knew how to turn to advantage. Disguising themselves in feminine attire, a troop of Huguenot soldiers, a day or two later, issued from the city when the tide was out, apparently bent on the same errand. It was not long before the royalists undertook to repeat a diversion which seemed to offer little danger to them. Scarcely, however, had they approached when the clumsy costume was hastily thrown aside, and the assailants discovered too late the trap into which they had fallen. Many a hot-headed soldier of Anjou atoned for his temerity with his life.[1287]

[Sidenote: La Noue retires. Failure of diplomacy.]

The ordinary wiles of Catharine were not left untried; but she effected little or nothing by negotiation. The people were not so easily cajoled and duped as their leaders had often been, and would accept no terms except such as the court utterly refused to offer—the restoration of the privileges conferred by the edict, its confirmation by oath, and the interchange of hostages, to be kept in some neutral state in Germany, with entire liberty of worship and exemption from royal garrison in and around La Rochelle, Montauban, Nismes, and Sancerre.[1288] Even Francois de la Noue became impatient at the excessive caution which the Huguenots seemed to him to display, and, redeeming the promise he had given the king before he took command, retired from the city (on the eleventh of March) when all hope of reconciliation had apparently disappeared. With wonderful prudence he had managed to forfeit the confidence of neither party. Yet on some occasions, it must be admitted, his self-control was sorely tried. For example, at one time a minister—not long after deposed from the sacred office—so far forgot himself in the heat of angry discussion as to give La Noue a sound box upon the ear. Even then the great captain refused to order the offender's punishment, and confined himself to sending him, under guard, to his wife, with directions to keep him carefully until he should recover his reason.[1289]

[Sidenote: English aid miscarries.]

The assistance which La Rochelle had counted upon receiving from England never came. Count Montgomery was a skilful negotiator. If he was unable to prevail upon Elizabeth to give open countenance to the Huguenots, on account of the league recently entered into, which Retz had been specially sent by Charles to confirm, he at least succeeded in obtaining a sum of forty thousand francs from various English, French, and Flemish sympathizers, with which he was permitted, notwithstanding protests from Paris, to fit out a fleet. Elizabeth, indeed, so far overcame her scruples as to allow a large vessel of her own to follow. But when Montgomery's squadron reached the roads of La Rochelle, the fifty-three ships of which it was composed, and which carried eighteen hundred or two thousand men, were so small and badly-appointed—in short, so inferior in strength to the fewer vessels of the king standing off the entrance—that they avoided coming to close quarters, stood off to Belle Isle, and finally returned to England. Queen Elizabeth, at all times very doubtful respecting the propriety of assisting subjects against their monarch, had meantime disowned the enterprise as piratical, and expressed the hope the culprits might be destroyed. It was not, in this case, merely her customary dissimulation. The plundering by some French and Netherland sailors of the vessel on which the Earl of Worcester was proceeding, in the queen's name, to stand as sponsor at the baptism of Charles's infant daughter, had greatly incensed her.[1290] Not, however, that Elizabeth lost any of that remarkable interest which she had always taken in Count Montgomery, or felt at all inclined to give him up to the French government for his breach of the peace. For when, a little later, a demand was made for the culprit, she assured the ambassador of Charles that she could swear she was ignorant that the count was in her dominions. "But," she added, "were he to come, I would answer your master as his father answered my sister, Queen Mary, when he said, 'I will not consent to be the hangman of the Queen of England.' So his Majesty, the King of France, must excuse me if I can no more act as executioner of those of my religion than King Henry would discharge a similar office in the case of those that were not of his religion."[1291]

[Sidenote: Huguenot successes in the south.]

[Sidenote: Sommieres.]

[Sidenote: Villeneuve.]

In other parts of France it had fared no better with the attempt to crush the Huguenots. Montauban and Nismes still held out. Various places in the south-east fell into Huguenot hands. The siege of Sommieres, near Nismes, by the Roman Catholics, was so obstinate, and the garrison capitulated on such favorable terms, that the Protestants were rather elated than discouraged. Marshal Damville had assailed it only in order to save his credit, and the little town detained him nearly two months,—from the eleventh of February to the ninth of April. Every device was employed to retard his success. Streams of boiling oil were poured upon the heads of the assailants, and red-hot hoops of iron were dexterously tossed over their shoulders. In the end the garrison marched out with all the honors of war.[1292] The Huguenots surprised Villeneuve, near the Rhone, by effecting an entrance, much as they had entered Nismes in 1569, through the grated opening by which the waters of a sewer issued from the walls.[1293]

[Sidenote: Beginning of the siege of Sancerre.]

But it was Sancerre which, next to La Rochelle, occasioned the court the greatest annoyance, both because of its central position[1294] and because of its comparative proximity to Paris. Here the Protestants of Berry and the adjacent provinces had found a welcome refuge. Citizens and refugees refused to admit a royal garrison, and foiled the attempt to capture the place by escalade. Treachery was at work, and, as usual, it was most rife among the richer class. By their connivance the citadel or castle was surprised by the troops sent by the governor of the province, M. de la Chastre; but it was retaken on the same day.[1295] Notwithstanding this warning, the people of Sancerre took none of the precautions which their situation demanded, apparently unable to believe that, when such a city as La Rochelle was in revolt, the king would undertake to subdue so small a place as Sancerre. There were no stores of provisions, and the buildings in proximity to the walls, from which an enemy could incommode the city, had not been torn down, when, between the third and ninth of January, 1573, a force of five thousand foot and five hundred horse, under La Chastre, besides many nobles and gentlemen of the vicinage, made its appearance before the walls. The inhabitants now discovered their capital mistakes, but it was too late to remedy them. Hunger began almost immediately to make itself felt, while the places they had neglected to destroy or preoccupy proved very convenient to the royalists for the next two or three months, during which it was attempted to take Sancerre by assault. Yet the direct attack proved a failure, and, on the twentieth of March, the siege was changed to a blockade. Forts were erected in the most advantageous spots, and a wide trench was dug around the entire city.[1296] Sancerre was to be tried by the severe ordeal of hunger; and certainly the most frightful among ancient sieges can scarcely be said to have surpassed in horror that of this small city.[1297]

[Sidenote: The incipient famine.]

Did not the sufferings of the heroic inhabitants claim our sympathy, we might read with entertainment the singular devices they resorted to in grappling with a terrible foe whose insidious advances were more difficult to oppose than the open assaults of the enemy. For the famine of Sancerre boasts of a historian more copious and minute than Josephus or Livy. In reading the narrative of the famous Jean de Lery[1298]—the same writer to whom we are indebted for an authentic account of Villegagnon's unfortunate scheme of American colonization—we seem to be perusing a great pathological treatise. Never was physician more watchful of his patient's symptoms than Lery with his hand upon the pulse of famishing Sancerre. It would almost seem that the restless Huguenot, who united in his own person the opposite qualifications of clergyman and soldier, desired to make his little work a useful guide in similar circumstances, for a portion of it, at least, has been appropriately styled "a cookery book for the besieged."[1299]

Early in the siege, not without some qualms, the inhabitants made trial of the flesh of a horse accidentally killed. Next an ass, and then the mules, of which there was a considerable number, were brought to the shambles. The butchers were now ordered to sell this new kind of meat, and a maximum price was fixed. For a fortnight the supply of cats held out, after which rats and mice became the chief staple of food. Dog-flesh was next reluctantly tasted, and found, as our conscientious chronicler observes, to be somewhat sweet and insipid.[1300] And so the spring of 1573 passed away, and summer came; but no succor arrived for the beleaguered city. On the contrary, there came the disheartening tidings from the west that a peace had been concluded by the Huguenots of La Rochelle, in which no mention was made of Sancerre.

[Sidenote: Losses of the royal army before La Rochelle.]

[Sidenote: Roman Catholic processions.]

So successful had been the defence of the citadel of Protestantism on the shores of the ocean, so unexpectedly large the royal losses, that the court was only waiting for a decent pretext to abandon the unfortunate siege. Pestilence added its victims to those of the sword, and it was currently reported that forty thousand of the besiegers were swept away by their combined assaults.[1301] A more careful enumeration, however, shows that, while the Rochellois, out of thirty-one hundred soldiers, lost thirteen hundred, including twenty-eight "pairs," the king, out of a little more than forty thousand troops, had lost twenty-two thousand, ten thousand of whom died in the breach or in engagements elsewhere. Nor was the loss of officers trifling; two hundred had died, including fifty of great distinction, and five "maitres de camp."[1302] And, with all this expenditure of life, and with the heavy drafts upon the public treasure, little or nothing had been accomplished. Meanwhile, in other parts of France there existed a scarcity of food amounting almost to a famine; nor had the solemn processions to the shrines of the saints—processions for the most part rendered contemptible by the irreverent conduct both of the clergymen and the laity that took part in them[1303]—averted the wrath of heaven. The poor suffered extremely. Selfishness gained such ascendancy in some towns, that cruel ruses were adopted to remove the destitute that had taken refuge within their walls. It was not strange that the extraordinary mortality which soon fell upon the well-to-do burghers was viewed by many as a direct punishment sent by the Almighty.[1304]