52 



THE FRENCH BLOOD IN AMERICA 



One of 

 France's 

 Greatest 

 Names 



aud sent tx> Pope Gregory at Rome as a token of the zeal 

 with which religious freedom was being thwarted in 

 France. The headless corpse was shamefully mutilated 

 and with every show of ribald scorn it was dragged 

 through the streets of Paris for the space of three days by 

 a crowd of gamins. And so, in the fifty-sixth year of his 

 life, passed away one of the greatest characters which 

 France has ever produced. None of the ignominy which 

 was heaped upon him could serve to cast the slightest 

 stain on his loyalty, purity, and uprightness of life. As 

 a soldier he showed indomitable pluck in the face of de- 

 feats which would have disheartened many a courageous 

 man ; he was a master of strategy without a superior in 

 that age of generals, a leader who never failed to inspire 

 the confidence of his troops ; with only the slenderest re- 

 sources behind him his qualities of generalship enabled 

 him to wage war for many years against a powerful enemy 

 who vastly outnumbered him. As a statesman he sought 

 to save France from the ruin into which her dissolute 

 sovereign was leading her, and was justly regarded as 

 wise aud far-sighted. But it is as a Christian gentleman 

 that Gaspard de Coligny deserves most to be remembered. 

 In that dissolute age he set a shining example to the other 

 great nobles of his rank. Every act of his life felt the 

 influence of his manly aud straightforward piety. 

 Whether at home, in his castle of Chritillon-sur-Loing, or 

 in the rude camps of the field, he sought to emulate the 

 example of his Master. It was his constant glory and de- 

 light to be a Christian. 



Wholesale 

 Massacre 

 Without 

 Mercy 



VI 



Followiug the death of Coligny came the wholesale 

 massacre of the Protestants. For three days and nights 

 the carnage went on. Nothing availed to save the 

 wretched victims : neither youth, age, nor sex prevented 

 the swords of the Roman Catholic bigots from striking 

 home. Venerable men were struck down in their feeble- 



