XXIV.

CHAP. not only coldly received by the queen mother, but shocked and astonished to find that public opinion in France condemned such acts. In one respect, also, the Papal court displayed some shame. The head of Coligny had been cut off by some of the zealous murderers, and sent to Rome as the head of a rebellious pacha was sent to be hung on the gate of the Seraglio. Rome remained silent as to the precious gift, which it received, no doubt, in secret exultation. Philip showed his admiration by pensioning the murderer Boëme at the request of his accomplice Guise."

The Cardinal of Lorraine, in his reply from Rome on
the 10th September, congratulated the king not only on
the massacre in Paris, but on its being repeated through
the principal towns in the kingdom. He must have
written with a knowledge of the intention of the court
rather than of the event. Catherine indeed had, on the
very first day, given the signal for massacre at Meaux,
where the Huguenots, crammed into prisons, were
brought out one by one and slaughtered, a complete
precedent for the revolutionists of 1792.
The same

course was pursued at Troyest and Bourges. At
Orleans a thousand Huguenots were thrown into the
river. At Lyons they allowed themselves to be shut
up in different buildings and prisons, under promise
of protection from the governor. Orders came down
from the court that none should be spared: the execu-
tioners, however, refused to perform the office, as did
the soldiers of the garrison. But 300 of the Catholic
citizens undertook the work of slaughter. The enor
mity of the holocaust prevented the example from being
followed, for the thousands of bodies floating down the
river so shocked and even terrified the inhabitants of
Arles and the other towns on the Rhone, that they re-
frained from drinking of its water. At Toulouse and
Philip sent him 6000 crowns. Petrucci's despatch in Alberi.
† MSS. Dupuy, 333.

Angers the Huguenots were also massacred. At Rouen
the governor tried long to save those whom he had
confined, but the orders of the court let loose the mur-
derers. At Bordeaux, the governor long hesitated to
accomplish the crime which the court claimed from him.
But at last, in October, he allowed the bonnets rouges, as
the patriots were called, to have their full sway in the
town, and some hundreds of Huguenots were slaugh-
tered. The towns of the east suffered little; they were
not populous, and the Duke of Guise would not shock
the German Protestants by murders too near them.
Guise, however, summoned the gentry, and gave them
the choice of mass or exile. The great nobles, indeed,
who governed provinces, with the exception of the Duke
of Montpensier, employed their authority to stay the
massacre. And that duke, notwithstanding his efforts,
was unable to induce the Bretons to murder their fel-

low countrymen. The Count of Tende, Saint Hérem
in Auvergne, alike refused to order or permit these cold-
blooded murders, and the Vicomte d'Orthes at Bayonne
returned for answer, that he had consulted the inhabi-
tants and soldiers as to the execution of the court order,
but could not find any willing to become assassins. He
therefore begged the king to command their services in
things that were possible.*

The Protestants, flying from the different provinces,
took refuge in England, in Germany, or in Switzerland.
Those of the South in Bearn, or the Cevennes, those of
Poitou and Xaintonge in La Rochelle, whilst the fugi-
tives from Paris and the Isle of France betook them-
selves to Sancerre.† Many who could not escape,
feigned conversion, so overwhelming was the panic.

* The authenticity of this letter given in D'Aubigné, has been called in question, on the ground that D'Orthes was cruel. There is a letter from Bearn to Villars, dated 1573, in Fontanieu, 329-330, in

which Orthes' government is, on the
contrary, described as mild; that in
consequence the Bearnais had risen,
and that the court must yield.
† La Popelinière.

CHAP.

XXIV.

XXIV.

CHAP. One of those who recanted was Sureau, a pastor of Orleans, who was employed to convert others, and especially the Prince of Condé. The King of Navarre also yielded to the threats of the court, besought pardon of the Pope in a letter, in which he frankly attributed his conversion to the severe admonitions of his motherin-law, Catherine! He also sent an ediet to the people of Bearn ordering them to return to the Catholic religion.

The court flattered itself that it could succeed by terror in forcing the Huguenots into the Catholic fold. It sought to keep the terror alive, and at the same time excuse itself to the Queen of England and the Protestants of Germany, by imputing a conspiracy and a design to murder the king to the admiral and his co-religionists. To support this tale, invented, as we have seen, two days after the massacre, not only was the admiral's memory subjected to trial, but two of his aged friends and followers, Briquemaut and Cavagnes, were arraigned before parliament, solemnly accused, and as solemnly condemned for a crime, which all knew perfectly to be a mere pretence. These aged counsellors had been the envoys and agents for the Huguenots to the court, from which they had received full assurance and information respecting the projected Flemish war. cuted for the same reason that the were burnt, to keep concealed from of Catherine and Charles against it. by torchlight, the king not only being present, but approaching near to witness it.

They were exeadmiral's papers Spain the designs They were hanged

All this time Catherine had the audacity to press the marriage of her son Alençon with Elizabeth, and that queen had the cold and cowardly hypocrisy to bandy compliments and affect friendship with the French court, deeply stained as were its hands with blood. The English council, however, expressed fully its abhorrence of the crime of St. Bartholomew, and Walsingham did not disguise his reprobation. "We may treat Protes

tants in France with the same severity as your queen has
treated the Catholics," said Catherine.
"Her majesty,"
replied Walsingham, "never deceived the English Catho-
lics by promising favour and protection, in order to
punish them as the Huguenots have been treated here."
Catherine showed the English envoy a paper found after
the admiral's death, in which Coligny warned the king
against English ambition and designs in Flanders.
"There is your friend," said Catherine. "This at least
proves the admiral to have been a true friend of France,"
replied the ambassador.

The executions in the capital, and massacres in the provinces, had an effect the reverse of that contemplated by Catherine. It compelled them to resistance. Sancerre rose a few days after the execution of Briquemaut, and drove out the king's officers. Montauban and Nevers followed the example. La Rochelle was the chief bulwark of the Huguenots, open to communication with Montgomery and the chiefs who had escaped to England.* Strozzi had failed to make himself master of it at the critical moment, and subsequent attempts to cajole the citizens were vain, they being fully warned by the massacre of Castres, and later by that of Bordeaux, of the fate that awaited them, if they admitted the troops and officers of the king. The only Huguenots whom Charles spared were his nurse, his physician, Paré, and La Noue: the latter was sent to France by Alva after the surrender of Mons, and the Duc de Longueville brought him to court. Charles thought him likely to be useful, and restored him the property of his brother-in-law, Téligny, on the condition of his proceeding to La Rochelle, and labouring to persuade the citizens to submit. La Noue, at first ill

* Elizabeth promised frequently not to aid Montgomery, but refused to give him up or persecute him, The aid which he received was col

lected in a great measure from pri-
vate contribution. La Mothe Fe-
nelon.

CHAP.

XXIV.

XXIV.

CHAP. received, became at a later period its commander. Little power, however, was entrusted to him. In a general assembly of the Huguenots at Réalmont, a republican spirit manifested itself in the absence of any prince. And whilst some towns, says La Popelinière, remained under the guidance of the local noblesse, La Rochelle, Sancerre, Montauban, and many other places of Gascony, Quercy, and Languedoc, would obey none but their own mayors and counsellors. The pastors who had taken refuge in La Rochelle, planned the form of a confederation, and appointed a council of one hundred members, consisting of delegates, partly from other towns, there being no distinction between noble and citizens in the choice of these counsellors. The great question being that of peace or war, an assembly of the whole population was held in order to decide it, the noblesse within the town showing themselves indignant at their subjection to the pastors and the people. They were continually holding parley with the enemy and seeking to treat; to stop which, the Rochellois passed an order that negotiations should only be carried on by writing.

Invested in November, La Rochelle was formally besieged in February 1573 by the Duke of Anjou. He soon complained that the 10,000 infantry promised were but 6000; that the artillery was in a wretched state; and that money was indispensable.* The court, neglecting the other provinces, such as Provence and Languedoc, concentrated all its resources before La Rochelle,† against which the besiegers succeeded in sinking a carrick and erecting batteries at the river's mouth. The noblesse, on this, declared the impossibility of further defence, La Noue corroborating the opinion. But

*Letter of Duc de Nevers, for Anjou, from La Rochelle, copied in MSS. Fontanieu, 329. Walsingham's letter of Feb. 28, 1573, in

S. P. France, 54.

† Charles's letter to Damville, MSS. Bethune, 8754.