History of the Rise of the Huguenots Volume II Part 47

[962] Memoires de l'estat, _ubi supra_, 106, 107.

[963] Ibid., 108.

[964] There is here, however, a direct contradiction, which I shall not attempt to reconcile, between the account of Henry and that of the younger Tavannes, who represents Retz as one of the most violent in his recommendations. According to Tavannes, it was his father, Marshal Tavannes, that advocated moderation. In other respects the two accounts are strongly corroborative of each other.

[965] Discours du roy Henry III., 505-508.

[966] Memoires de Gaspard de Saulx, seigneur de Tavannes, by his son, Jean de Saulx, vicomte de Tavannes (Pet.i.tot edition), iii. 293, 294.

[967] "Reginam quidem certum est dict.i.tare solitam, edita strage, 'se tantum _s.e.x_ hominum interfectorum sanguinem in suam conscientiam recipere.'" Jean de Serres (ed. of 1575), iv., fol. 29. The whole pa.s.sage is interesting.

[968] "Le roy Henry quatriesme disoit que ce qu'il ne m'avoit tenu promesse estoit en vengeance des services faicts par le sieur de Tavannes mon pere aux batailles de Jarnac et Montcontour, mais le princ.i.p.al, parce qu'il l'accusoit d'avoir conseille la Sainct Barthelemy; ce qu'il disoit a ses familiers, et a tort, parce que ledict sieur de Tavannes en ce temps-la fut cause qu'il ne courust la mesme fortune que le sieur admiral de Coligny." Memoires de Tavannes (Pet.i.tot edit.), iii. 222.

[969] To ascribe the conduct of Catharine de' Medici herself to any such motive is the extreme of absurdity. Even the author of the "Tocsain contre les ma.s.sacreurs" rejects the supposition without hesitation. (Original edition, p. 157.) Catharine was certainly a free-thinker, probably an atheist.

[970] Memoires de l'estat, _ubi supra_, 108.

[971] Ibid., 109.

[972] Memoires de l'estat, _ubi supra_, 110, 111.

[973] Ibid., 111; Gasparis Colinii Vita (1575), 124.

[974] Memoires de l'estat, _ubi supra_, 112.

[975] Reveille-Matin, _ubi supra_, 179; Memoires de l'estat, _ubi sup._, 113.

[976] Capilupi, 30, 31; Mem. de l'estat, _ubi sup._, 107, 108.

[977] Extrait des Registres et Croniques du Bureau de la ville de Paris, Archives curieuses, vii. 213.

[978] The successive orders are given in the Archives curieuses, vii.

215-217.

[979] Discours du roy Henry III., 509.

[980] Tocsain contre les ma.s.sacreurs, 121; Mem. de l'estat, _ubi sup._, 116; Jean de Serres, iv. (1575), fol. 31.

[981] Jean de Serres, iv. (1575), fol. 30.

[982] Mem. de l'estat, _ubi sup._, 117, 118; Jean de Serres (1575), iv.

32.

[983] The startling inconsistency evidently struck Capilupi very strongly, for he tries to reconcile it, but succeeds only poorly. According to him, it was either a ruse to throw Charles IX. off his guard by a pretence of confidence in his good faith, or an act of consummate folly. Any way, great thanks are due to Heaven! "Et sia stato fatto questo da lui, con arte, per dimostrar di non dubitare della fede del Re, per tanto piu a.s.sicurar sua Maesta, fin che fosse in termine d'effettuar i diabolici suoi pensieri; vero scioccamente, non diffidando veramente di cosa alcuna; in tutti modi si ha da riconoscer da gratia particolare di Dio,"

etc. Lo stratagema di Carlo IX., 1574, 80.

[984] The topography of the ma.s.sacre is made the subject of a paper, ent.i.tled: "Les victimes de la Saint-Barthelemy," Bulletin de la Soc. de l'hist. du prot. fr., ix. (1860) 34-44.

[985] G. Colinii Vita (1575), 127. Mem. de l'estat, _ubi sup._, 114.

[986] Mem. de l'estat, 118, 119; Jean de Serres (1575), iv., fol. 32; Reveille-Matin, 180; Euseb. Philad. Dialogi (1574), 39, 40.

[987] Joh. Wilh. von Botzheim, in his narrative, gives several versions of the words. According to one they were: "_Behem_--'N'est tu pas Admiral?'

_Admiralius_--'Ouy, je le suis. Mais vous estes bien un jeune souldat pour parler ainsi avec un vieil capitaine, pour le moins au respect de ma vielesse.' _Behem_--'Je suis a.s.sez aage (age) por te faire ta reste.'"

Cyclopica illa atque inaudita hactenus detestanda atque execranda laniena, quae facta est Lutetia, Aureliis, etc., published in F. W. Ebeling, Archivalische Beitrage zur Geschichte Frankreichs unter Carl IX. (Leipsic, 1872), 107, 108.

[988] Capilupi puts in Besme's mouth the words: "Now, traitor, restore to me the blood of my master, which thou didst impiously take away from me!"

It is not at all improbable that he used some such expression. Lo stratagema di Carlo IX., 34.

[989] Jean de Serres, De statu reipub. et rel. (1575), iv., fols. 32, 33; Memoires de l'estat, _ubi supra_, 119-122; Vita Gasparis Colinii Castellonii, magni quondam Franciae Amirallii (_sine loco_, 1575), pp.

127-131; 178-180. These latter accounts, which agree perfectly, are the best. Reveille-Matin, _ubi sup._, 182, and Euseb. Philad. Dialogi (1574), i. 39, 40; Tocsain contre les ma.s.sacreurs (Rheims, 1579), 121-123; Capilupi, Lo stratagema di Carlo IX. (1574), 33, etc.; Journal d'un cure ligueur (Jehan de la Fosse), 148, 149; Relation of Olaegui, secretary of D. de Cuniga, Spanish amba.s.sador at Paris; Particularites inedites sur la St. Barthelemi, Gachard in Bulletins de l'Academie royale de Belgique, xvi. (1849), 252, 253; Alva's bulletin prepared for distribution, ibid., ix. (1842), 563. Both are very inaccurate. De Thou, iv. (liv. lii.) 584, 585; Agrippa d'Aubigne, ii. 16 (liv. i., c. 4).

[990] "Le lundy d'apres, ayant la teste ostee et les parties honteuses coupees _par les pet.i.ts enfans_, fut d'iceulx pet.i.ts enfans qui estoient jusques au nombre de 2 ou 300, traine, le ventre en haut, parmy les ruisseaux de la ville de Paris." Jehan de la Fosse, 149. See the long account in Von Botzheim's narration, _ubi supra_, 113.

[991] Memoires de l'estat, _ubi supra_, 122.

[992] Letter of Mandelot to Charles IX., Sept. 5, 1572, Correspondance du roi Charles IX. et du sieur de Mandelot (Edited by P. Paris, Paris, 1830), 56-58.

[993] Of this memorable enterprise Coligny has left "Memoires" which are contained in the collection of Pet.i.tot, etc. It is the only military treatise we possess coming from the admiral's hand, and it enters into the subject with technical minuteness. The destruction by his royal murderers of the admiral's papers (including diaries that would have thrown great light upon the transactions of the last two years of his life), see Vita Gasparis Colinii (1575), i. 138, was an irretrievable loss to history. We are told also of a much more recent act of vandalism, not even palliated by the miserable excuse of political expediency: "In 1810, an inhabitant of Chatillon having discovered in the solitary remaining tower of the old castle a walled chamber wherein were the archives of the Coligny family and of the family of Luxemburg, burned all the papers from motives of private interest. Some fragments that escaped this conflagration, and which are preserved in the mairie, prove that a correspondence between Catharine de' Medici and Coligny had been laid away in this repository."

Bulletin de la Societe de l'histoire du prot. francais, iii. (1854) 351.

[994] _Ante_, chapter xiii.

[995] Testament olographe de l'amiral Coligny, Bulletin de la Soc. de l'hist. du prot. francais, i. (1852) 263, etc. The authenticity of this doc.u.ment, though called in question on historical grounds, has been conclusively established by M. Jules Bonnet, Bulletin, xxiv. (1875) 332-335.

[996] Alberi, Relazioni Venete, vol. iv., 1st series, _apud_ Baschet, La diplomatie venitienne, i. 536, 537. There is, however, the greatest improbability in the story that Coligny advanced such claims in his own behalf as his admirers made for him. We may reject as apocryphal--for they stand in palpable contradiction with the whole tenor of his utterances--the words ascribed by Lord Macaulay to the great Huguenot hero (History of England, New York, 1879, iv. 488): "'In one respect,' said the Admiral Coligni, 'I may claim superiority over Alexander, over Scipio, over Caesar. They won great battles, it is true. I have lost four great battles; and yet I show to the enemy a more formidable front than ever.'"

Cf. Davila, bk. v., p. 179.

[997] Vita Gasparis Colinii (1575), pp. 133-137, translated by D. D.

Scott, under the t.i.tle, "Memoirs of the Admiral de Coligny," 183-187. I have abridged the account by omitting some less important particulars.

[998] Discours sur les causes de l'execution faicte es personnes de ceux qui avoient conjure contre le Roy et son estat. A Paris, a l'olivier de P.

l'Huillier, rue St. Jacques. 1572. _Avec privilege._ (Archives curieuses, vii. 231-249.) Capilupi, Lo stratagema di Carlo IX., 1574, p. 26.

[999] Memoires de l'estat, _ubi supra_, 123; Jean de Serres (1575), iv., fol. 30; Reveille-Matin, 182; Eusebii Philadelphi Dialogi, i. 40.

[1000] "La Royne ma mere respond, que s'il plaisoit a Dieu je n'auroit point de mal; mais quoy que ce fust, il falloit que j'alla.s.se, de peur de leur faire soupconner quelque chose qui empeschast l'effect."

[1001] Memoires de Marguerite de Valois, 32, 33.

[1002] See _ante_, chapter xvi.

[1003] Memoires de l'estat, _ubi supra_, 123, 124; Jean de Serres (1575), iv., fol. 34; Reveille-Matin, 182; Eusebii Philadelphi Dialogi, i. 40; Tocsain contre les ma.s.sacreurs, 125, 126.

[1004] Agrippa d'Aubigne, ii. 18 (liv. i., c. 4).

[1005] Memoires de Marguerite de Valois, 345.

[1006] Reveille-Matin, _ubi supra_, 183; Euseb. Philad. Dialogi, i. 40; Mem. de l'estat, _ubi supra_, 126. Charles was not generally so complaisant. Fervaques in vain interceded for his friend Captain Moneins.