not, however, be laid exclusively to
the account of the populace. There were rumors afloat that owed their
origin to the deliberate and malicious invention of the better
instructed, and that were firmly believed by the ignorant masses. The
nocturnal meetings, to which the Protestants were driven by persecution,
were represented as devoted to the most abominable orgies. The
Protestants were accused of eating little children. It was boldly stated
that a luxurious banquet was spread, and that at its conclusion the
candles were extinguished, and a scene of the most indiscriminate
lewdness ensued.[635] One of the judges of the tribunal of the Chatelet
was found sufficiently pliant to declare, in contradiction to the
unanimous testimony of the accused, that preparations for the repetition
of similar crimes had been discovered in the rooms of the house in the
rue St. Jacques, where the Protestants had been surprised. These
infamous accusations even found their way into print, and were
disseminated far and wide by the priestly party.

[Sidenote: Trials and executions.]

While the poor prisoners were confined in the most loathsome
cells--highwaymen and murderers being removed to better quarters to make
room for Christians[636]--a judicial investigation was set on foot. The
king himself expedited the trials.[637] Within little more than three
weeks from the time of their apprehension, three Protestants were put to
death (on the twenty-seventh of September). Both sexes and the extremes
of youth and old age were represented in these victims. To one, a
beautiful young lady of wealth and rank, barely twenty-three years old,
the favor was granted of being strangled before her body was consigned
to the flames. Yet even in her case the cruel executioner had not
abstained from first applying a firebrand wantonly and indecently to
different parts of her person.[638] Her companions were burned alive.
One of them was an advocate in parliament; both were elders of the
reformed church. Five days later a physician and a solicitor met the
same fate, but endured greater sufferings, as the wind blew the flames
from beneath them, prolonging their torture; and these were quickly
followed by two students at Paris, both of them from the southern part
of the realm (on the twenty-third of October).[639]

[Sidenote: Intercession of the Swiss cantons and others.]

[Sidenote: Calvin's interest.]

Meanwhile the wretched prisoners were not deserted by