History of the Rise of the Huguenots Volume II Part 63

[1357] Jean de Serres, iv., fol. 118; De Thou, v. (liv. lvii.) 19, 20; Arcere, Histoire de la ville de la Roch.e.l.le, i. 533-540; Languet, Letter of Feb. 8, 1574, i. 229.

[1358] See the list of members in the protocol of the proceedings first published in the Bulletin de la Societe de l'hist. du prot. francais, x.

(1862) 351-353.

[1359] In this, as in other particulars, the political a.s.sembly of Milhau merely re-enacted the provisions of the a.s.sembly of Realmont. For the dates of the early political a.s.semblies of the Huguenots, which must of course be carefully distinguished from their synods or ecclesiastical a.s.semblies, see the list in the Bulletin, etc., xxii. (1873) 508.

[1360] Text of the doc.u.ment embodying the resolutions of the political a.s.sembly of Milhau, in Haag, La France protestante (vol. x.), Pieces justificatives, 121-126. The correct date seems to be Dec. 17th, instead of 16th; Bulletin, as above, x. 351. Cf. also Leonce Anquez, Histoire des a.s.semblees politiques des reformes de France (1573-1622), Paris, 1859, 7-11.

[1361] Lettres d'Auger Gislen, seigneur de Busbec, amb. de l'emp. Rodolphe II. aupres de Henri III. Cimber et Danjou, Archives curieuses, x. 115.

[1362] "Dict.i.tabat se Religionem reformatam minime probare; ensis tantum sui mucronem esse Religiosum: id est, se non Religionis doctrinam, sed Religiosorum causam sequi. Hujusmodi exemplis magnae offensiones adversus Religiosos conflabantur." Jean de Serres, iv., fol. 118. The reader needs perhaps to be reminded that _Religiosi_ here stands as the equivalent for the French designation of the Huguenots as "ceux de la Religion."

[1363] Agrippa d'Aubigne, ii. 113, 114 (liv. ii., c. 4); Jean de Serres, iv., fol. 117. Of "La Grande Chartreuse," which lies ten miles north of Gren.o.ble, see a good account in R. Topffer, Voyages en Zigzag, seconde serie.

[1364] Languet, Epistolae secretae, i. 214, etc.

[1365] E. Arnaud, Histoire des protestants du Dauphine aux xvie, xviie et xviiie siecles, Paris, 1875, i. 277-281; Ch. Charronet, Les guerres de religion et la societe protestante dans les Hautes-Alpes (1560-1789), Gap., 1861, p. 75, etc.

[1366] Agrippa d'Aubigne, ii. 113; De Thou, v. (liv. lvii.), 30.

[1367] "Fere omnes qui non fuerunt participes caedis Amiralii et aliorum, dic.u.n.t, Huguenotos merito corripere arma ad tutandam suam salutem, c.u.m nihil observetur eorum quae hactenus fuerunt ipsis promissa." Languet, letter of April 14, 1574, Epistolae secretae, i. 239.

[1368] "Et parmy leurs discours se representoient a chacun coup la journee de St. Barthelemy."

[1369] The interesting particulars of the conference we obtain from two long and very important despatches of Biron to Charles IX., dated, the one, Ernandes, April 24th, the other, April 26th and 27th, 1574, MSS.

Imperial Lib. of St. Petersburg, communicated to the Bulletin de la Soc.

de l'hist. du prot. fr., xxii. (1873) 401-413, by M. Jean Loutchitzki.

[1370] Agrippa d'Aubigne, ii. 117. Shrove Tuesday fell, in 1574, on March 9th.

[1371] Ten miles from the chateau de St. Germain, and about the same distance from the palace of the Louvre. A part of the old forest yet remains.

[1372] I follow Agrippa d'Aubigne, who here must be regarded as excellent authority, for not only was he present, but it was by his means ("par ma conduitte") that Guitry was introduced into Navarre's chamber. Hist.

univ., ii. 119.

[1373] Jean de Serres (iv., fol. 138) and the Memoires de l'estat (Archives curieuses, "Discours de l'entreprise de St. Germain," viii.

107-118) give the last of February for the date of the discovery of the undertaking of Alencon; but, from a comparison of letters, Prof. Soldan has shown (ii. 580) that it really was March 1st.

[1374] It is Agrippa d'Aubigne (Hist. univ., ii. 119) who depicts the scene. As he seems to have been present on the occasion, we may rely upon the truthfulness of the groundwork of his sketch, while ascribing a little of the coloring to the free hand of the artist.

[1375] The testimony of Navarre and others is preserved, and has been published, together with the interrogatories, in the Archives curieuses, viii. 127-221.

[1376] Pierre de Lestoile, Memoires (ed. Michaud et Poujoulat), 30.

Languet, letter of May 11, 1574, ii. 7, 8.

[1377] Jean de Serres, iv. 136; Languet, letter of May 11, 1574, ii. 8.

[1378] "Je scais bien que ce sont des chats que vos huguenots, qui se retrouvent tousjours sur leurs pieds." Mem. de Pierre de Lestoile (ed.

Michaud et Poujoulat), 53.

[1379] "Ains les laissant en paix comme ministres de l'utilite commune, et peres nourriciers des autres estats."

[1380] P. Brisson, Hist. et vray discours des guerres civiles es pays de Poictou, _apud_ Histoire des protestants et des eglises ref. du Poitou, par Auguste Lievre (Poitiers, 1856), i. 189, 190.

[1381] De Thou, v. (liv. lvii.) 33.

[1382] De Thou, v. 44; Olhagaray, Hist. de Foix, etc., 638. Miss Freer ("Henry III., King of France, His Court and Times," i. 366) accepts the statement without question, while Prof. Soldan, ii. 587, rejects it, basing his action upon a pa.s.sage in another treatise of D'Aubigne than that referred to below, viz.: "Choses notables et qui semblent dignes de l'histoire," in Archives curieuses, viii. 411.

[1383] Hist. univ., ii. 126. See a contemporary account: "La Prinse du Comte de Montgommery dedans le Chasteau de Donfron ... le Jeudy xxvii. de May, mil cinq cens soixante et quatorze. A Paris, 1574. Avec Privilege."

Archives curieuses, viii. 223-238.

[1384] Aug. 13, 1569; see Olhagaray, Histoire de Foix, Bearn, et Navarre (Paris, 1609), pp. 616, 617. According to this author, "le voyage de Bearn, et le coup de Navarreux sur la n.o.blesse du pas luy cousta cela,"

_i.e._, his execution. Ib., p. 639.

[1385] Memoires d'un cure ligueur (Jehan de la Fosse), pp. 168, 169. See _ante_, chapter xiii., p. 78. Chantonnay (despatch of May 6, 1562) speaks of Montgomery as "se ventant que la plus belle et digne oeuvre que se soit jamais faicte en France, fut le coup de lance dont il tua le roy Henry. Je m'esbayhis comme la royne le peult dissimuler." Mem. de Conde, ii. 37.

[1386] "Discours de la Mort et Execution de Gabriel Comte de Montgommery, par Arrest de la Court, pour les conspirations et menees par luy commises, contre le Roy et son estat. Qui fut a Paris, le vingtsixiesme de Iuing, 1574. A Paris, 1574. Avec priv." (Archives cur., viii. 239-253.)

[1387] Doubtless repeating the words of the Confession of Sins, beginning: "Seigneur Dieu, Pere Eternel et Tout-puissant," etc., a form loved by the Huguenots, and often on the lips of martyrs for the faith.

[1388] Memoires de Lestoile, i. 38. Agrippa d'Aubigne gives us (ii. 131) a full account of Montgomery's address, which he himself heard, mounted, as he informs us, "en croupe" behind M. de Fervaques, to whom Montgomery bade farewell just before his death. The Huguenot captain made but two requests of the bystanders: "the first, that they would tell his children, whom the judges had declared to be degraded to the rank of 'roturiers,' that, if they had not virtue of n.o.bility enough to rea.s.sert their position, their father consented to the act; as for the other request, he conjured them, by the respect due to the words of a dying man, not to represent him to others as beheaded for any of the reasons a.s.signed in his judicial condemnation--his wars, expeditions, and ensigns won--subjects of frivolous praise to vain men--but to make him the companion in cause and in death of so many simple persons according to the world--old men, young men, and poor women--who in that same place (the Place de Greve) had endured fire and knife." D'Aubigne's narrative, as usual, is vivid, and mentions somewhat trivial details, which, however, are additional pledges of its accuracy; _e.g._, he alludes to the fact that, having spoken as above to those who stood on the side toward the river, he repeated his remarks to those on the other side of the Place de Greve, beginning with the words, "I was saying to the men yonder," etc.

[1389] De Thou, v. (liv. lvii.) 48.

[1390] Hist. univ., ii. (liv. ii.) 129.

[1391] Memoires de Pierre de Lestoile (ed. Michaud et Poujoulat), i. 31.

[1392] De Thou, v. 48; text in Isambert, Recueil des anc. lois fr., xiv.

262.

[1393] Memoires de Claude Haton, ii. 764

[1394] North British Review, Oct., 1869, p. 27.

[1395] Or, as Sorbin expressed it, "qu'il voyoit l'idole Calvinesque n'estre encores du tout cha.s.see." Le vray resveille-matin des Calvinistes, 88, ibid., _ubi supra_. The expression, it will be noticed, contains a distinct reference to the anagram upon the name of "Charles de Valois"--"va cha.s.ser l'idole," upon which the Huguenots had founded brilliant hopes. See _ante_, chapter xiii., p. 123. On the other hand, since the ma.s.sacre, some Huguenot had discovered that from the same name could be obtained the appropriate words "_cha.s.seur deloyal_." Recueil des choses memorables (1598), 506.

[1396] Languet, ii. 16.

[1397] Agrippa D'Aubigne, ii. 129; De Thou, v. (liv. lvii.) 50. Charles left but one legitimate child, a daughter, born Oct. 27, 1572, who died in her sixth year.

[1398] Claude Haton, never more himself than when recounting the circ.u.mstances of a case of murder, whether by sword or by poison, fully credits the story; but the letter of Catharine to M. de Matignon, written on the 31st of May, gives an intelligible account of the results of the medical examination establishing the pulmonary nature of the king's disease.

[1399] Jean de Serres, Comment de statu, etc., iv., fol. 137.

[1400] See examples given by White (Ma.s.sacre of St. Bartholomew, 480) and others.

[1401] De Thou and others ascribe to Albert de Gondy, Count of Retz, one of Charles's early instructors and a creature of Catharine de' Medici, the unenviable credit of having taught the young monarch never to tell the truth, and to use those horrible imprecations which startled even the profane when coming from the lips of a dying man. De Thou, v. 47, etc. See also Jean de Serres, iv., fol. 137, and Brantome, Le roy Charles IXe.