Volume II Part 6 (1/2)

Que d'aller a la messe En faussant mon serment.”

--Quand sa tres-chere mere Eut entendu c' mot la,

Au bourreau de la ville Sa fille elle livra.

”Bourreau, voila ma fille!

Fais a tes volontes;

Bourreau, fais de ma fille Comme d'un meurtrier.”

Quand elle fut sur l'ech.e.l.le, Trois rollons ja montee,

Elle voit sa mere Qui chaudement pleurait.

”Ho! la cruelle mere Qui pleure son enfant

Apres l'avoir livree Dans les grands feux ardents.

Vous est bien fait, ma mere, De me faire mourir.

Je vois Jesus, mon pere, Qui, de son beau royaume, Descend pour me querir.

Son royaume sur terre Dans peu de temps viendra, Et cependant mon ame En paradis ira.”

FOOTNOTES:

[1] The nuncio alone seems to have thought that the edict would work so well, that ”in six months, or a year at farthest, there would not be a single Huguenot in France!” His ground of confidence was that many, if not most of the reformed, were influenced, not by zeal for religion, but by cupidity. Santa Croce to Card. Borromeo, Jan. 17, 1562, Aymon, i. 44; Cimber et Danjou, vi. 30.

[2] Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., i. 428, 429. The letter is followed by an examination of the edict, article by article, as affecting the Protestants. Ib. i. 429-431.

[3] Abbe Bruslart, Mem. de Conde. i. 70. Barbaro spoke the universal sentiment of the bigoted wing of the papal party when he described ”the decree” as ”full of concealed poison,” as ”the most powerful means of advancing the new religion,” as ”an edict so pestiferous and so poisonous, that it brought all the calamities that have since occurred.” Tommaseo, Rel. des Amb. Ven., ii. 72.

[4] Claude Haton, 211. ”Et longtemps depuis ne faisoient sermon qu'ilz _Acab_ et _Hiesabel_ et leurs persecutions ne fussent mis par eux en avant,” etc. In fact, Catharine seemed fated to have her name linked to that of the infamous Queen of Israel. A Protestant poem, evidently of a date posterior to the ma.s.sacre of Saint Bartholomew, is still extant in the National Library of Paris, in which the comparison of the two is drawn out at full length. The one was the ruin of Israel, the other of France.

The one maintained idolatry, the other papacy. The one slew G.o.d's holy prophets, the other has slain a hundred thousand followers of the Gospel.

Both have killed, in order to obtain the goods of their victims. But the unkindest verses are the last--even the very dogs will refuse to touch Catharine's ”carrion.”

”En fin le jugement fut tel Que les chiens mengent Jhesabel Par une vangeance divine; Mais la charongne de Catherine Sera differente en ce point, Car les chiens ne la vouldront point.”

Appendix to Mem. de Claude Haton, ii. 1, 110.

[5] _Ante_, i. 477.

[6] Mem. de Claude Haton, 211, 212.

[7] Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., i. 431.

[8] Abbe Bruslart, Mem. de Conde. i. 70, 71.

[9] Declaration of Feb. 14, 1561/2, Du Mont, Corps diplomatique, v. 91, 92.

[10] And, indeed, with modifications which were to render it still more severe. Letter of Beza to Calvin, Feb. 26, 1562, Baum, ii., App., 167.

[11] The registry took place on Friday, March 6th. Isambert, xiv. 124; La Fosse, 45, who says ”Ledict edict fut publie en la salle du palais en ung vendredy, 5e [6e] de ce moys, _la ou il y eut bien peu de conseillers et le president Baillet qui signerent_.”