Volume II Part 49 (1/2)

[1050] Ibid., p. 227.

[1051] ”Aucuns malades languissans, ayant ouy ce miracle, se firent porter audit cymetiere pour veoir laditte espine; lesquelz, estans la avec ferme foy, firent leur priere a Dieu en l'honneur de nostre dame la vierge Marie et devant son ymage qui est en laditte chapelle, pour recouvrer leur sante, et, apres leur oraison faicte, s'en retournerent en leurs maisons sains et guaris de leur maladie, chose tres-veritable et bien approuvee.”

Mem. de Claude Haton, ii. 682.

[1052] Ibid., _ubi supra_; Tocsain contre les ma.s.sacreurs, 146; Reveille-Matin, 193, 194; Mem. de l'estat, 155; Jean de Serres, iv., fol.

41; De Thou, iv. (liv. lii.) 596.

[1053] Dr. White (Ma.s.sacre of St. Bartholomew, 459) has tabulated the estimates, nine in number, afforded by twenty-one distinct authorities.

The lowest estimate--1,000 victims--is that of the Abbe Caveyrac, whose undisguised aim was to place the number as low as possible, so as to palliate the atrocity of the ma.s.sacre. Being based apparently upon the number of the _names_ of victims that have been recorded, it may be dismissed as unworthy of consideration. The highest estimate, of 10,000, though adopted by such writers as the authors of the Reveille-Matin and the Memoires de l'estat de France, is vague or excessive. The Tocsain and Agrippa d'Aubigne are, perhaps, too moderate in respectively stating the number as 2,000 and 3,000. On the whole, it appears to me, the contribution of Paris to the ma.s.sacre of the Huguenots may be set down with the greatest probability at between 4,000 and 5,000 persons of all ages and conditions. Von Botzheim, who estimates the total at 8,000 (F. W.

Ebeling, Archivalische Beitrage, p. 120), makes 500 of these to be women (Ibid., p. 119).

[1054] In other letters Charles had even the effrontery to represent the King of Navarre as having been in like danger with his brothers and himself. See Eusebii Philadelphi Dialog. (1574), i. 45: ”se quidem metu propriae salutis in arcem Luparam (the Louvre) compulsum illic se continuisse, una c.u.m fratre charissimo Rege Navarrae, et dilectissimo Principe Condensi, ut in communi periculo eundem fortunae exitum experirentur!”

[1055] Correspondance du roi Charles IX. et du sieur de Mandelot, 39-41.

Letter to the Governor of Burgundy, _apud_ Mem. de l'estat, _ubi sup._, 133-135.

[1056] It was undoubtedly with the object of showing that they were not the prime movers in the ma.s.sacre, or, as the author of the Mem. de l'estat expresses himself, that they had no particular quarrel save with Admiral Coligny, that Henry of Guise and his uncle actually rescued a few Huguenots from the hands of those who were about to put them to death.

Reveille-Matin, 188; Memoires de l'estat, 150.

[1057] Mem. de l'estat, _ubi supra_, 154, from Reveille-Matin, 192; De Thou, iv. (liv. lii.) 597, 598; Euseb. Philad. Dial., i. 47.

[1058] It was while Charles was on his way to the Palais de Justice that a gentleman in his train, and not far from him, was recognized as being a Protestant, and was killed. The king, hearing the disturbance, turned around; but, on being informed that it was a Huguenot whom they were putting to death, lightly said: ”Let us go on. Would to G.o.d that he were the last!” Reveille-Matin, 194 (copied in Mem. de l'estat, 157); Euseb.

Philad. Dial., i. 50.

[1059] De Thou, whom I have chiefly followed, iv. (liv. lii.) 599; Tocsain contre les ma.s.sacreurs, 142; Reveille-Matin, 193, 194; Euseb. Phil. Dial., i. 49; Mem. de l'estat, 156; Jean de Serres (1575), iv., fol. 43; Capilupi, 45; Relation of Olaegui, secretary of Don Diego de Cuniga, Spanish amba.s.sador at Paris, to be laid before Philip II., Simancas MSS., _apud_ Bulletins de l'Acad. Roy. des Sciences, etc., de Belgique, vol.

xvi. (1849) 254.

[1060] De Thou, Tocsain, etc., _ubi supra_.

[1061] Returning to the unpleasant theme in a subsequent book of his n.o.ble history (iv. (liv. liii.) 644), Jacques Auguste de Thou remarks, with an integrity which cannot swerve even out of consideration for filial respect: ”Ce qu'il y avoit de deplorable, etoit de voir des personnes respectables par leur piete, leur science, et leur integrite, revetues des premieres charges du Royaume, ennemies d'ailleurs de tout deguis.e.m.e.nt et de tout artifice, tels que Morvilliers, de Thou, Pibrac, Montluc et Bellievre, louer contre leurs sentimens, ou excuser par complaisance une action qu'ils detestoient dans le coeur, sans y etre engages par aucun motif de crainte ou d'esperance; mais dans la fausse persuasion ou ils etoient que les circonstances presentes et le bien de l'etat demandoient qu'ils tinssent ce langage.”

[1062] The case stands much worse if we accept the statement of the author of the Memoires de l'estat de France sous Charles IX., who, after contrasting the honorable conduct of President La Vaquerie, in the time of Louis XI., with that of Christopher de Thou, adds: ”Mais cestui-ci n'avoit garde de faire le semblable; il prend trop de plaisir a toute sorte d'injustice pour s'y vouloir opposer.” (_Ubi supra_, pp. 156, 157.) So, also, Euseb. Philad. Dial., i. 50: ”Nam quomodo sese injust.i.tiae viriliter opponeret, qui ex ea tam uberes fructus colligit?” The Mem. de l'estat accuse him of having instigated the murder of Rouillard--a counsellor of parliament and canon of Notre Dame, and one of a very few Roman Catholics that were a.s.sa.s.sinated--because the latter loved justice, and had prosecuted one of the first president's friends (p. 148). According to the historian De Thou, on the other hand (iv. 593), Rouillard was ”homme inquiet, querelleux, et ennemi des officiers des compagnies de ville.”

[1063] The pa.s.sage is not in the will in the admiral's own handwriting, dated Archiac, June 5, 1569, a facsimile of which has been accurately lithographed by the French Protestant Historical Society, and which has also been printed in the Bulletin, i. (1852) 263-268. See _ante_, p. 461, 462.

[1064] Memoires de l'estat, _ubi supra_, 153; Gasparis Colinii Vita (1575), 131.

[1065] ”The said discourse was all written with his own hand.” Walsingham to Smith, Sept. 14, 1572; Digges, 241, 242; Mem. de l'estat, _ubi supra_, 153; Gasparis Colinii Vita, 131, 132.

[1066] Jean de Serres (1575), iv., fols. 57, 58; Eusebii Philadelphi Dial.

(1574), i. 82, 83; Reveille-Matin, 203-205; De Thou, iv. (liv. liii.) 645, 646. For many years the disgraceful commemorative procession was faithfully observed.

[1067] The slight eminence of Montfaucon, the Tyburn of Paris, was between the Faubourg St. Martin and the Faubourg du Temple, near the site of the Hopital St. Louis. See Dulaure, Atlas de Paris.

[1068] ”Il les en reprit et leur dist: 'Je ne bousche comme vous autres, car l'odeur de son ennemy est tres-bonne'--odeur certes point bonne et la parolle aussi mauvaise.” Brantome, Le Roy Charles IX., edit. Lalanne, v.

258. The original authority for this odious remark is Papyrius Ma.s.son (1575) in his life of Charles IX., which Brantome had under his eyes: ”Servis foetorem non ferentibus, hostis mortui odor bonus est inquit.” Le Laboureur, iii. 16.