x.--Noble replies to the king's decree.--The higher
law.--Attempted justification.--Punishment of Coligni.--Valor
of the survivors.--Pledges of aid.--Prophecy of Knox.--Apology
of the court.--Opinions of the courts of Europe.--Rejoicings at
Rome.--Atrocity of the deed.--Results of the massacre.--Retribution.

As the solemn dirge from the steeple rang out upon the night air, the
king stood at the window of the palace trembling in every nerve.
Hardly had the first tones of the alarm-bell fallen upon his ear when
the report of a musket was heard, and the first victim fell. The sound
seemed to animate to frenzy the demoniac Catharine, while it almost
froze the blood in the veins of the young monarch, and he passionately
called out for the massacre to be stopped. It was too late. The train
was fired, and could not be extinguished. The signal passed with the
rapidity of sound from steeple to steeple, till not only Paris, but
entire France, was roused. The roar of human passion, the crackling
fire of musketry, and the shrieks of the wounded and the dying, rose
and blended in one fearful din throughout the whole metropolis. Guns,
pistols, daggers, were every where busy. Old men, terrified maidens,
helpless infants, venerable matrons, were alike smitten, and mercy
had no appeal which could touch the heart of the murderers.

The wounded Admiral Coligni was lying helpless upon his bed,
surrounded by a few personal friends, as the uproar of the rising
storm of human violence and rage rolled in upon their ears. The Duke
of Guise, with three hundred soldiers, hastened to the lodgings of the
admiral. The gates were immediately knocked down, and the sentinels
stabbed. A servant, greatly terrified, rushed into the inner apartment
where the wounded admiral was lying, and exclaimed,

"The house is forced, and there is no means of resisting."

"I have long since," said the admiral, calmly, "prepared myself to
die. Save yourselves, my friends, if you can, for you can not defend
my life. I commend my soul to the mercy of God."

The companions of the admiral, having no possible means of protection,
and perhaps adding to his peril by their presence, immediately fled to
other apartments of the house. They were pursued and stabbed. Three
leaped from the windows and were shot in the streets.

Coligni, left alone in his apartment, rose with difficulty from his
bed, and, being unable to stand, leaned for support against the wall.
A desperad