Part 6 (1/2)
”I am ashamed to acknowledge myself a Frenchman.”
He entered, however, the presence of the queen, pa.s.sed through the long line of silent courtiers, who refused to salute him, or even to honor him with a look, stammered out his miserable apology, and, receiving no response, retired covered with confusion. Elizabeth, we thank thee! This one n.o.ble deed atones for many of thy crimes.
Very different was the reception of these tidings in the court of Rome. The messenger who carried the news was received with transports of joy, and was rewarded with a thousand pieces of gold. Cannons were fired, bells rung, and an immense procession, with all the trappings of sacerdotal rejoicing, paraded the streets. Anthems were chanted and thanksgivings were solemnly offered for the great victory over the enemies of the Church. A gold medal was struck off to commemorate the event; and Charles IX. and Catharine were p.r.o.nounced, by the infallible word of his holiness, to be the especial favorites of G.o.d.
Spain and the Netherlands united with Rome in these infamous exultations. Philip II. wrote from Madrid to Catharine,
”These tidings are the greatest and the most glorious I could have received.”
Such was the awful ma.s.sacre of St. Bartholomew. When contemplated in all its aspects of perfidy, cruelty, and cowardice, it must be p.r.o.nounced the greatest crime recorded in history. The victims were invited under the guise of friends.h.i.+p to Paris. They were received with solemn oaths of peace and protection. The leading men in the nation placed the dagger in the hands of an ignorant and degraded people. The priests, professed ministers of Jesus Christ, stimulated the benighted mult.i.tude by all the appeals of fanaticism to exterminate those whom they denounced as the enemies of G.o.d and man.
After the great atrocity was perpetrated, princes and priests, with blood-stained hands, flocked to the altars of G.o.d, our common Father, to thank him that the ma.s.sacre had been accomplished.
The annals of the world are filled with narratives of crime and woe, but the Ma.s.sacre of St. Bartholomew stands perhaps without a parallel.
It has been said, ”The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.” This is only true with exceptions. Protestantism in France has never recovered from this blow. But for this ma.s.sacre one half of the n.o.bles of France would have continued Protestant. The Reformers would have const.i.tuted so large a portion of the population that mutual toleration would have been necessary. Henry IV. would not have abjured the Protestant faith. Intelligence would have been diffused; religion would have been respected; and in all probability, the horrors of the French Revolution would have been averted.
G.o.d is an avenger. In the mysterious government which he wields, mysterious only to our feeble vision, he ”visits the iniquities of the fathers upon the children, even unto the third and fourth generation.”
As we see the priests of Paris and of France, during the awful tragedy of the Revolution, ma.s.sacred in the prisons, shot in the streets, hung upon the lamp-posts, and driven in starvation and woe from the kingdom, we can not but remember the day of St. Bartholomew. The 24th of August, 1572, and the 2d of September, 1792, though far apart in the records of time, are consecutive days in the government of G.o.d.
CHAPTER VI.
THE HOUSES OF VALOIS, OF GUISE, AND OF BOURBON.
Ill.u.s.trious French families.--The house of Valois.--Early condition of France.--Clovis.--The Carlovingian dynasty.--Capet and Philip.--Decay of the house of Valois.--House of Guise.--The dukedom of Lorraine.--Claude of Lorraine.--Marriage of the Count of Guise.--Francis I.--The suggestion and its results.--Bravery of the duke.--His prominence.--Days of war.--The b.l.o.o.d.y rout.--Scene from the castle.--Claude the Butcher.--The Cardinal of Lorraine.--The reprimand.--Duke of Mayence.--The family of Guise.--Henry the Eighth.--Death of Claude.--Francis, Duke of Guise.--The dreadful wound.--Le Balafre.--Interview with the king.--Jealousy of the king.--Arrogance of the Guises.--Power of the house of Guise.--Appointment of Francis.--Thralldom of Henry II.--Mary, Queen of Scots.--Francis II.--Troubles between the Protestants and Catholics.--Admiral Coligni.--Antoinette.--Ma.s.sacre by the Duke of Guise.--The Butcher of Va.s.sy.--Remonstrance to the queen.--Magnanimity of the Duke of Guise.--Religious wars.--a.s.sa.s.sination of the Duke of Guise.--Death of the duke.--Jean Poltrot.--Anecdote.--Prediction of Francis.--Enthusiasm of the populace.--The house of Bourbon.--The houses united.
At this time, in France, there were three ill.u.s.trious and rival families, prominent above all others. Their origin was lost in the remoteness of antiquity. Their renown had been acc.u.mulating for many generations, through rank, and wealth, and power, and deeds of heroic and semi-barbarian daring. As these three families are so blended in all the struggles of this most warlike period, it is important to give a brief history of their origin and condition.
1. _The House of Valois._ More than a thousand years before the birth of Christ, we get dim glimpses of France, or, as it was then called, Gaul. It was peopled by a barbarian race, divided into petty tribes or clans, each with its chieftain, and each possessing undefined and sometimes almost unlimited power. Age after age rolled on, during which generations came and went like ocean billows, and all Gaul was but a continued battle-field. The history of each individual of its countless millions seems to have been, that he was born, killed as many of his fellow-creatures as he could, and then, having acquired thus much of glory, died.
About fifty years before the birth of Christ, Caesar, with his conquering hosts, swept through the whole country, causing its rivers to run red with blood, until the subjugated Gauls submitted to Roman sway. In the decay of the Roman empire, about four hundred years after Christ, the Franks, from Germany, a barbarian horde as ferocious as wolves, penetrated the northern portion of Gaul, and, obtaining permanent settlement there, gave the whole country the name of France.
Clovis was the chieftain of this warlike tribe. In the course of a few years, France was threatened with another invasion by combined hordes of barbarians from the north. The chiefs of the several independent tribes in France found it necessary to unite to repel the foe. They chose Clovis as their leader. This was the origin of the French monarchy. He was but little elevated above the surrounding chieftains, but by intrigue and power perpetuated his supremacy. For about three hundred years the family of Clovis retained its precarious and oft-contested elevation. At last, this line, enervated by luxury, became extinct, and another family obtained the throne. This new dynasty, under Pepin, was called the Carlovingian. The crown descended generally from father to son for about two hundred years, when the last of the race was poisoned by his wife. This family has been rendered very ill.u.s.trious, both by Pepin and by his son, the still more widely renowned Charlemagne.
Hugh Capet then succeeded in grasping the sceptre, and for three hundred years the Capets held at bay the powerful chieftains who alternately a.s.sailed and defended the throne. Thirteen hundred years after Christ, the last of the Capets was borne to his tomb, and the feudal lords gave the pre-eminence to Philip of Valois. For about two hundred years the house of Valois had reigned. At the period of which we treat in this history, luxury and vice had brought the family near to extinction.
Charles IX., who now occupied the throne under the rigorous rule of his infamous mother, was feeble in body and still more feeble in mind.
He had no child, and there was no probability that he would ever be blessed with an heir. His exhausted const.i.tution indicated that a premature death was his inevitable destiny. His brother Henry, who had been elected King of Poland, would then succeed to the throne; but he had still less of manly character than Charles. An early death was his unquestioned doom. At his death, if childless, the house of Valois would become extinct. Who then should grasp the rich prize of the sceptre of France? The house of Guise and the house of Bourbon were rivals for this honor, and were mustering their strength and arraying their forces for the antic.i.p.ated conflict. Each family could bring such vast influences into the struggle that no one could imagine in whose favor victory would decide. Such was the condition of the house of Valois in France in the year 1592.
2. Let us now turn to the house of Guise. No tale of fiction can present a more fascinating collection of romantic enterprises and of wild adventures than must be recorded by the truthful historian of the house of Guise. On the western banks of the Rhine, between that river and the Meuse, there was the dukedom of Lorraine. It was a state of no inconsiderable wealth and power, extending over a territory of about ten thousand square miles, and containing a million and a half of inhabitants. Rene II., Duke of Lorraine, was a man of great renown, and in all the pride and pomp of feudal power he energetically governed his little realm. His body was scarred with the wounds he had received in innumerable battles, and he was ever ready to head his army of fifty thousand men, to punish any of the feudal lords around him who trespa.s.sed upon his rights.
The wealthy old duke owned large possessions in Normandy, Picardy, and various other of the French provinces. He had a large family. His fifth son, Claude, was a proud-spirited boy of sixteen. Rene sent this lad to France, and endowed him with all the fertile acres, and the castles, and the feudal rights which, in France, pertained to the n.o.ble house of Lorraine. Young Claude of Lorraine was presented at the court of St. Cloud as the Count of Guise, a t.i.tle derived from one of his domains. His ill.u.s.trious rank, his manly beauty, his princely bearing, his energetic mind, and brilliant talents, immediately gave him great prominence among the glittering throng of courtiers. Louis XII. was much delighted with the young count, and wished to attach the powerful and attractive stranger to his own house by an alliance with his daughter. The heart of the proud boy was, however, captivated by another beauty who embellished the court of the monarch, and, turning from the princess royal, he sought the hand of Antoinette, an exceedingly beautiful maiden of about his own age, a daughter of the house of Bourbon. The wedding of this young pair was celebrated with great magnificence in Paris, in the presence of the whole French court. Claude was then but sixteen years of age.
A few days after this event the infirm old king espoused the young and beautiful sister of Henry VIII. of England. The Count of Guise was honored with the commission of proceeding to Boulogne with several princes of the blood to receive the royal bride. Louis soon died, and his son, Francis I., ascended the throne. Claude was, by marriage, his cousin. He could bring all the influence of the proud house of Bourbon and the powerful house of Lorraine in support of the king. His own energetic, fearless, war-loving spirit invested him with great power in those barbarous days of violence and blood. Francis received his young cousin into high favor. Claude was, indeed, a young man of very rare accomplishments. His prowess in the jousts and tournaments, then so common, and his grace and magnificence in the drawing-room, rendered him an object of universal admiration.
One night Claude accompanied Francis I. to the queen's circle. She had gathered around her the most brilliant beauty of her realm. In those days woman occupied a very inferior position in society, and seldom made her appearance in the general a.s.semblages of men. The gallant young count was fascinated with the amiability and charms of those distinguished ladies, and suggested to the king the expediency of breaking over the restraints which long usage had imposed, and embellis.h.i.+ng his court with the attractions of female society and conversation. The king immediately adopted the welcome suggestion, and decided that, throughout the whole realm, women should be freed from the unjust restraint to which they had so long been subject. Guise had already gained the good-will of the n.o.bility and of the army, and he now became a universal favorite with the ladies, and was thus the most popular man in France. Francis I. was at this time making preparations for the invasion of Italy, and the Count of Guise, though but eighteen years of age, was appointed commander-in-chief of a division of the army consisting of twenty thousand men.
In all the perils of the b.l.o.o.d.y battles which soon ensued, he displayed that utter recklessness of danger which had been the distinguis.h.i.+ng trait of his ancestors. In the first battle, when discomfiture and flight were spreading through his ranks, the proud count refused to retire one step before his foes. He was surrounded, overmatched, his horse killed from under him, and he fell, covered with twenty-two wounds, in the midst of the piles of mangled bodies which strewed the ground. He was afterward dragged from among the dead, insensible and apparently lifeless, and conveyed to his tent, where his vigorous const.i.tution, and that energetic vitality which seemed to characterize his race, triumphed over wounds whose severity rendered their cure almost miraculous.