* 1829.] _ The Massacre of Saint Bartholomew. 455 
slaughter. The Duchess of Lorrain, who was in the secret, wished her 
sister, the young queen of Navarre, not to go to bed. But Catherine 
prevented her importunity from betraying the massacre, by saying, that 
if she were not suffered to go, it might produce suspicion. The king 
wished to save the Count de Rochefoucault, and bade him remain that 
night in the Louvre; but the Count would sleep at home. Charles let 
him go, saying, that “it was clear that God intended him to perish.” 
But Ambrose Paré, the king’s surgeon, was not to be hazarded on any 
account, and Charles commanded his stay in the Louvre. 
As midnight approached, the armed companies were collecting before 
the Hotel de Ville. They required some strong excitement to bring 
them to a proper mind; and in order to animate and exasperate them, 
they were told that a horrible conspiracy was discovered which the 
Huguenots had made against the king, the queen mother, and the 
princes, without excepting the king of Navarre, for the destruction of 
the monarchy and religion ; that the king wishing to anticipate so exe- 
crable an attempt, commanded them to fall at once upon all those cursed 
heretics, (rebels against God and the king) without sparing one; and 
that afterwards their property should be given up to plunder. This was 
sufficient inducement for a populace who naturally detested the Hugue- 
_ nots. Every thing being thus arranged, they impatiently waited the 
dawn, and the signal which it was to bring with it. 
The wretched king of France had gone so far, that a retreat was im- 
possible ; but there is every reason to believe, that even at the last 
moment he would gladly have obeyed the dictates of nature, and have 
desisted from the cruel purpose. Among the inferior classes of mur- 
derers, whose condition is unable to protect them from the laws, we fre- 
quently find, that unless their lives have been of an abandoned descrip- 
tion, they have generally hesitated at the moment of committing the 
crime, and have required some excitement to urge them to the work. 
The hesitation, therefore, which Charles displayed, was natural ; although 
depraved in his mind, and vindictive in his disposition, his rank had pre- 
served him from conduct which would sear his feelings ; and we find that 
too late he sent orders to prevent the massacre from taking place. But 
the queen had perceived the inquietude which tormented him ; she saw 
that if the signal depended upon him, he would not have resolution to 
give it ; she considered that the hour should be hastened to prevent any 
rising remorse from destroying her work; she therefore made another 
effort to inflame her son, by telling him that the Protestants had dis- 
covered the plot ; and then sent some one to ring the bell of St. Germain 
L’ Auxerrois, an hour earlier than had been agreed upon.* <A few 
moments after was heard the report of a pistol, which had such an effect 
nthe king, that he sent orders to prevent the massacre, but it was then 
00 late. + 
_ Guise, who had waited with impatience for the signal, went at once to 
Coligny’s house, accompanied by his brother Aumale, Angouleme,; and 
anumber of gentlemen. Cosscius, who commanded the guards posted 
there, broke open the doors in the king’s name, and murdered some 
Swiss who were placed at the bottom of the stairs. Besme, a Lorrain, 
_ ™ De Thou, liy. 52. vol. 6. p. 397.—The church bell was rung at two o’clock in the 
Morning of Sunday the 24th of April. 
+ Villeroy, vol. 2, p. 88. 
