[652] Mezeray says that he saved “more than 100 Huguenots.” Abrégé, v. 157.

[653] Burghley to Walsingham in Digges, September 9, 1572.

[654] To them of the Castle of Edinburgh, August 25, at noon. MSS. Mary Q. of Scots, Record Office.

[655] Ad Annam Æstensem.

[656] Mezeray, who half believes in the miracle, tries to account for it on natural causes: “On pourrait dire que la cause qui avait excité dans les esprits ce violent et extraordinaire accès de fureur, était aussi celle qui avait échauffé cet arbre, soit qu’elle procédât de la terre, soit qu’elle vînt de quelque influence des astres.” Abrégé, iii. 1085. Favyn (Hist. Navarre), then a boy six years old, was taken to see the thorn. His memory must have been very strong to retain the circumstances he records.

[657] Henault, Abrégé, p. 443.

[658] Sully, Mém. i. p. 30.

[659] Charles reminds us of Nero after his mother’s murder: “modo per silentium defixus, sæpius pavore exsurgens, et mentis inops lucem opperiens tanquam exitium allaturam.” Tacitus, Annal. xiv. 10.

[660] Agr. d’Aubigné (Hist. Univ.) heard the story from Henry himself.

[661] De Statu Religionis, iv. 33. Guise also said “qu’on avait fait plus qu’il ne voulait ... qu’il n’en voulait qu’à l’amiral.” Mélanges: Journ. de Leipsic (June, 1693), p. 293. This is confirmed by a sort of newsletter from Paris, preserved in the Record Office (MSS. France, September, 1572.) “For the admiral’s death he was glad; but he thought for the rest that the king had put such to death as, if it pleased him, might have done good service.”

[662] The Catholics condemned “non tanto il fatto quanto il modo e la maniera del fare ... chiamano questa via di procedere con assoluta potestà, senza via di giudizio, via di tirannide, attribuendolo alla regina come Italiana.” Baschet: Relazioni, p. 295.

[663] Corresp. de Charles IX. et de Mandelot, p. 39. Mém. de l’État de France, f. 215. Recueil de Lettres, etc., ed. by Merlet.

[664] “Lasché la main à MM. de Guise.” Fénelon Corresp. See also Revue Rétrosp. v. 1834, p. 358, Charles to Matignon, August 26.

[665] “Nous préservant de leurs mains.” Cath. to Philip, August 25. Simancas Papers (Bibl. Nat.), B, No. 144.

[666] See the “Official Declaration.”

[667] “Ces grimaces n’imposèrent à personne,” says Bossuet. Montluc disbelieved the story; “Je sais bien ce que j’en crus.”

[668] Discours sur les Causes de l’Exécution, etc. Rouen, 1572.

[669] In a circular to the churches dispatched in his name on the 23d, Coligny really used this phrase, but it was to quiet, not to excite them.

[670] This was the meeting at which Bouchavannes played the spy.

[671] Eytzinger got his information from a pamphlet, probably the royal justification, published at Paris, “cui lector tantum fidei tribuat quantum volet,” which is pretty plain, considering he was a Catholic. Leo Belg. p. 127.

[672] Félibien, a Benedictine monk, evidently disapproves of the “discours sur lequel il ne nous appartient pas de porter notre jugement” (ii. 1122).

[673] It is said in the Mém. de l’État de France, that one Rouillard was killed “at the instigation of the first president,” a statement we gladly believe unfounded.

[674] Statius: Silv. v. 2, l. 88.

[675] Others call him Bishop of Orleans.

[676] An account of this violation of asylum must have been reported by Walsingham, but I have sought for it in vain. Sir Philip Sydney was then in Paris: Charles had appointed him one of his gentlemen of the bed-chamber only a few days before.

[677] Tacitus: Agricola. Choisnin in his Mémoires describes the king and Anjou as “marris de ce que les exécuteurs n’étaient assez cruels.”

[678] Walsingham to Smith, November 1, 1572. Digges, p. 278.

[679] The cost of this banquet is given by Sauvai, iii. 368.

[680] The Bull (6 Kal. November, 1572) was never registered in Parliament. I may add that Sureau, unable to stifle his conscience, fled to Germany, recanted, and died neglected by all.

[681] Digges, p. 267. Letter to Smith, October 8. On September 7 he had written, “that there is a compact to destroy all persons that be of the religion.” Archæologia, xxii. 1829, p. 325.

[682] See Martyrologue, respecting Orleans, p. 712 recto; respecting Bourges, 724 recto; respecting Bordeaux, “il n’entendait pas que cette exécution passât outre et s’étendît plus avant que Paris,” p. 730 recto.

[683] It is given in Olagharray, p. 628, and the Réveille-Matin.

[684] Vita di C. de’ Medici, p. 155.

[685] Tom. vi. lib. 52, p. 421.

[686] Paris: Cabinet Hist. ii. 258.

[687] Raumer, i. 282.

[688] Revue rétrospect. v. (1834) p. 359.

[689] Raumer: Hist. 16th and 17th Cent., Letter 31.

[690] When the Duke of Alençon revolted against Henry III., and the city rose in arms, Matignon was sent to reduce it, and as soon as the Protestants saw his banners, they opened the gates to him. Odolant Desnos: Mém. Hist. d’Alençon, ii. p. 285 (8vo. Alençon, 1787).

[691] The account in the État de France varies from that in the text.

[692] There is a curious story of an apothecary who discovered that the fat of the bodies was valuable and would fetch a high price, and of a general scramble for the bodies in the river, which were dragged out, that the fat might be extracted and sold. Mém. État de France, i. 263 b.

[693] “In one day,” says one account, which is not probable. A contemporary brochure more moderately sets down the total at 1800. Massacre de ceux de la Rel. 1572: Mém. État de France.

[694] De Thou says that the Huguenots who fled to the Celestine monastery were killed; but Golnitz affirms the contrary: “In hanc evangelicorum truculentam necem noluisse etiam consentire dicuntur canonici in æde Cœlestinorum.” Ulysses, p. 331. So also Mém. État de France, i. 260 b.

[695] Ten leaves, probably containing an account of the massacre, are suspiciously torn out of the Actes Consulaires of the city. The Catholic historian says briefly: “Huit jours après, le même massacre fut fait à Lyon; je n’ai rien à dire là-dessus.” An expressive silence! Montfalcon, Hist. Lyon, ii. p. 685.

[696] The order for the massacre was transmitted by Sorbin, the king’s preacher. The author of the Martyrologue says the murders began without orders. P. 712, recto.

[697] See Martin: Hist. France, t. ix. p. 337, note.

[698] “Ne voulait que aulcune chose fust attentée ni innovée contre l’édict de la paix.” Registre des Conseils, iv. p. 137. See also the Registre du Parlement for 1572. “Questi ordini (says Homero Tortora) non giunsero a tempo in molti luoghi per che la fama che vola per tutto il reame di quanto era avvenuto a Parigi invita cattolici di molte città a fare il medesimo.” Ist. di Francia, 4to. Venezia, 1619.

[699] Memoirs of Latomy, MSS. The autograph copy differs materially from the printed text, which is of little value. Jacques Gâches, a Huguenot, has left memoirs, portions of which would repay publication.

[700] Félice in a paragraph of a few lines manages to include almost as many mistakes. The arrests did not take place on August 31; the number of victims was not 300, and d’Affis gave no order for their execution. The magistrates, having no regular police or armed force at their disposal, were unable to resist the mob and the soldiers. Archives of Toulouse, ad ann.

[701] This curious story will be found in the Dulaure MSS., preserved in the public library of Clermont-Ferrand. This (to say nothing of the instances already given) disposes of Capefigue’s “inability to find any proof of orders issued by the king to massacre in the provinces.” Hist. de la Réforme, iii. p. 229, note.

[702] Capefigue says the letter is a forgery of the age of Louis XIV.; but it is published by Agrippa d’Aubigné in 1618. Adiram d’Aspremonte, Vicomte d’Orte (as he is sometimes called), was a cruel man, cruel to both parties. Even Charles IX. was forced to write to him in 1574, and tell him to be more moderate.

[703] The bishop is said to have been in Paris at this time with the court as almoner. This, if true, is fatal to the correctness of the anecdote. I do not lay much stress upon the language of his epitaph: “Contre lesquels [the Huguenots] il ne faisait pas faute de se montrer.”

[704] De Thou, tom. vi. p. 432 (4to ed.). See also, La Virotte: Annales d’Arnay, 8vo. 1837.

[705] Journal of Mallet and Vautier, Esprit de la Ligue, ii. p. 51 (Paris, 1808).

[706] Long: Guerres de Religion dans le Dauphiné. De Thou (vi. 428) says Gordes excused himself on the ground that the Huguenots were too strong.

[707] Chorier: Hist. Dauphiné, fol. ii. p. 647.

[708] Long. The historian gives a circular (December 6, 1572), in which Gordes exhorts the Huguenots to return to the Romish religion, “parceque le roi s’est résolu à n’en endurer autre.”

[709] Borrel: Hist. Église Réf. de Nimes, 8vo. Toulouse, 1856.

[710] To them of the Castle. Record Office, MS. Queen of Scots. He writes at noon on the 25th.

[711] “Seint pleiben bey 1000 Personen und sonst gemeiner Personen über 5000 welche meisten theills ebendig, theils todt ins Wasser geworffen, theils heuffig in Campo Clericorum vergraben worden.”

[712] “Plus de 7000 personnes bien connues, sans autres jetées dans la rivière qui ne furent connues.” P. 679.

[713] See note to M. Ath. Coquerel’s monograph, “La St.-Barthélemy,” in the Nouvelle Revue de Théologie.

[714] In the Mém. État de France (vol. i.) the names of nearly eight hundred victims all over the kingdom are given. See also ii. 20 and 25.

[715] Bonanni: Numism. Pontif. i. 336. Mezeray, iii. 256. Abrégé, iii. 1082.

[716] “Fu il sacco e la preda grandissima per due milioni d’oro.” Baschet, p. 549. It is evident that these are mere guesses.

[717] “Il faut juger un temps d’après son esprit, ses émotions et ses mœurs.” Gachard.

[718] “Ut porci cecidere proci.” Exulting over Coligny, he says, with a coarse play upon words:

[719] The year before (1572) he published a Chant d’Allégresse sur la Mort de Coligny, with the motto of Judas: “He went to his own.”

[720] He charges Beza with giving orders “qu’on coupast τὰ αἰδοῖα aux prestres et aux moynes, ajoutant qu’il en vouloit remplir un puy.” From the date of the letter (September 15), some are of opinion that it must have been written before the massacre. Portès’s answer is given in vol. ii. of the Mém. État de France.

[721] Sorbin was chaplain to Charles IX., and wrote a eulogistic account of his life, in which he skips over the massacre thus: “Le jour de la St.-B. se passe, où les principaux chefs furent châtiés selon leurs mérites, au grand regret de ce bon roy.”

[722] See vignette on title-page.

[723] Ellis: Letters (sec. ser.) iii. p. 23.

[724] Rommel: Corresp. inéd. de Henri IV. Paris, 1840.

[725] Bruxelles, Bulletin, ix. 1841 (pt. 1), p. 560.

[726] March, 1573; Revue rétrospect. iii. 1835, p. 195. Sir Henry Ellis (Archæologia, xxii. 1829, p. 323) held it to be “a strong proof of a deliberate plot,” that the documents on this subject had disappeared from the Public Records in France; but we have given ample evidence that such is not the case.

[727] Mezeray and De Sancy call the pope, Innocent XIII.; Brantome and Sully, Pius V.; but the latter died on 1st May, 1572.

[728] Twelve months after the massacre, the cardinal publicly applauded Charles to his face for his “holy dissimulation.” Dale’s dispatch: Macintosh, Hist. Engl. iii. 226, note.

[729] The genuineness of this medal has been disputed on very insufficient grounds. It is engraved in Bonanni’s Numismata Pontificum (2 vols. fol. Romæ, 1689) tom. i. p. 336. It is No. 27 of the series of Gregory XIII. L’Estoile mentions it, under “Lundi, 30 juin, 1618,” as the “pièce que le pape Grégoire XIII. fit faire à Rome l’an 1572.”

[730] “In Constantini quæ nunc et visitur aula.” Thuanus Posteritati. The outline of one of these frescoes in the frontispiece to this volume is taken from De Potter’s Lettres de Pie V.

[731] See Dublin Review for October, 1865.

[732] Lucan, iv. 192.

[733] In Gregory’s instructions to Cardinal des Ursins (Fabio Orsini), he is to exhort Charles “ut cœptis insistat fortiter, neque curam asperis remediis inchoatam prospere, perdat leniora miscendo.” Bonanni, i. p. 323, 336, No. xxvii. Ann. Eccles. ad ann. 1572, in Potter. Hist. du Christ. vii. p. 330.

[734] “Who otherwise never laughed.” St. Goar to Queen; Raumer, i. p. 199.

[735] “Deconcertaron todos los planes del gabinete de Isabel [Elizabeth of England] é impedieron que se realizase su famosa liga con Francia.” Mem. Acad. Madrid, vii. p. 374.

[736] Juan de Cuniga, embassador at Rome, writes to Philip II. that “the French here declare that the king meditated this stroke since the day he made peace;” but in another place he adds, that “he was credibly informed, if the assault on the admiral was projected a few days before, and authorized by the king, all the rest was inspired by circumstances.” Bulletin Acad. Sci. Bruxelles, xvi. (1849) p. 250.

[737] “Uno de los mayores contentamientos que he recibido en mi vida.”

[738] Letter of August 25. Simancas Archives.

[739] “La mejor y mas alegre nueve que al presente me pudiera venir.” Gachard: Simancas Archives.

[740] Burghley to Walsingham, September 9, 1572, in Digges, p. 247.

[741] M’Crie: Life of Knox (1841), p. 337.

[742] Brandt: Hist. Ref. of Low Countries (Chamberlayne’s transl.), fol. Lond. 1720, vol. i. p. 329.

[743] Walsingham to Smith, 16th and 24th September.

[744] Ranke: Franz. Gesch. t. iv. ch. 4. This is said in one account to have occurred on the eve of the massacre, when he was playing with Henry of Navarre. St. Foix: Essais hist. sur Paris, i. 74.

[745] Agrippa d’Aubigné, unless he refers to another story, says the child was “disinterred and then devoured” by its parents, who were condemned, the man to be burned alive, and the woman to be hanged. See also Mém. État de France, ii. 224. Jean de Leri: Hist. Siége de R.; Paris: Cab. Hist. vii. There is a Latin version, Heidelbg. 1576.

[746] Discours de l’extrême Famine, etc. par Jean Leri: Archives curieuses, viii. p. 19. Mém. État de France, ii. 219 b (ed. 1578).

[747] Among other charges, La Mole was accused of endeavoring to destroy the king’s life by witchcraft; by means of a waxen image having a needle pierced through the heart, which an Italian astrologer, Cosmo Ruggieri, had prepared for him.

[748] “Mollis vita, mollior interitus.” Punning epitaph on La Mole.

[749] His defense was written by his wife Margaret, “God giving her the grace to compose it.” Mémoires.

[750] This bloody sweat is an ordinary though rare pathological phenomenon. Dr. Bourdin describes the case of a farm-servant, thirty-three years old, from whose forehead blood suddenly began to issue and continued to flow for half an hour (April, 1859). In No. 40 of the Gazette Hebdomadaire (1859), Dr. Jules Parrot gives the case of a lady who had suffered from these hemorrhages from six years of age, and which continued after her marriage. Chemical analysis and microscopic examination combine to prove that the liquid thus secreted is truly blood.

[751] Journal de L’Estoile. I am afraid the authority is not very good. See also Peleus: Vie de Henri IV. ii. pp. 385–390.

[752] Better known as the translator of Plutarch than as Grand Almoner of France.

[753] The nuncio wrote to the pope that Charles was killing himself with the chase; that he had nearly killed 5000 dogs and broken the wind of all his horses, valued at 30,000 francs. Salviati Cavalli writes to the same effect: “mal modo di vivere,” etc. See Drelincourt: Libitinæ Trophæa. Lugd. Bat. 1680. He broke out in large pustules and buboes all over his body: Villegomblain. His stomach was covered with livid spots: De Thou.

[754] There is an old prophecy: “Væ et iterum væ! quando puer sedebit in sede lilii.”

[755] His first tutors were the virtuous Carnavalet, the learned Amyot, and M. de Cipierre, a man of antique type and probity. The latter was succeeded by Gondi, “fin, corrompu, menteur,” who taught Charles to swear and blaspheme, “et le pervertit du tout.” Brantome. “Princeps præclara indole et magnis virtutibus, nisi....” De Thou.

[756] Among others Claude Haton: “fut une grâce de Dieu comment le roi sut si bien dissimuler.”