he massacre
by a calumny, and accused the admiral of a conspiracy, which no one
believed. The parliament was commanded to proceed against the memory of
Coligni; and his dead body was hung in chains on Montfaucon gallows.
The king himself went to view this shocking spectacle; when one of his
courtiers advising him to retire, and complaining of the stench of the
corpse, he replied, 'A dead enemy smells well.'--The massacres on St.
Bartholomew's day are painted in the royal saloon of the Vatican at
Rome, with the following inscription: _Pontifex_ Coligni _necem probat_,
i. e. 'The pope approves of Coligni's death.'

"The young king of Navarre was spared through policy, rather than from
the pity of the queen-mother, she keeping him prisoner till the king's
death, in order that he might be as a security and pledge for the
submission of such protestants as might effect their escape.

"This horrid butchery was not confined merely to the city of Paris. The
like orders were issued from court to the governors of all the provinces
in France; so that, in a week's time, about one hundred thousand
protestants were cut to pieces in different parts of the kingdom! Two or
three governors only refused to obey the king's orders. One of these,
named Montmorrin, governor of Auvergne, wrote the king the following
letter, which deserves to be transmitted to the latest posterity.

"SIRE--I have received an order, under your majesty's seal, to put to
death all the protestants in my province. I have too much respect for
your majesty, not to believe the letter a forgery; but if (which God
forbid) the order should be genuine, I have too much respect for your
majesty to obey it."

At Rome the horrid joy was so great, that they appointed a day of high
festival, and a jubilee, with great indulgence to all who kept it and
showed every expression of gladness they could devise! and the man who
first carried the news received 1000 crowns of the cardinal of Lorrain
for his ungodly message. The king also commanded the day to be kept with
every demonstration of joy, concluding now that the whole race of
Huguenots was extinct.

Many who gave great sums of money for their ransom were immediately
after slain; and several towns, which were under the king's promise of
protection and safety, were cut off as soon as they delivered themselves
up, on those promises, to his generals or captains.

At Bordeaux, at the instigation of a villanous monk, who used to