on of the Faubourg St. Germain-des-Pres most frequented by
Protestants was familiarly called, became a scene of indiscriminate
pillage. The valuables of those who, through fear, had absented
themselves, were greedily appropriated by the officials of the Chatelet
and other courts, or fell into the hands of an unorganized force of
robbers who gleaned what the others had left behind. In a day the rich
became poor and the poor became rich. The depredations extended to other
parts of the city where the existence of heresy or wealth was suspected.
Paris, we are told, resembled a city taken by assault. Everywhere armed
men on foot or on horseback were leading to prison men, women, and
children of all ranks. The thoroughfares were clogged by wagons laden
with furniture and other spoils. The street-corners were filled with
plunder offered for sale. Never before, even when the inhabitants had
fled panic-stricken from Paris in time of war, had the price of such
commodities been so low. Numbers of little children, roaming the streets
and ready to die of hunger, formed a pitiful accompaniment to the scene.
But the tender mercies of the populace were cruel, and few dared to give
a "Lutheran" shelter through fear of incurring extreme danger. The most
incredible tales of midnight orgies were studiously circulated among the
simple-minded people, and served to inflame yet more the lust of cruelty
and gain.[776]

[Sidenote: The Protestants appeal to the queen mother.]

[Sidenote: She gives them encouragement.]

In this emergency the Protestants had recourse to the queen mother.
Afraid to trust herself entirely to the Guises, the crafty Italian had,
from the very commencement of the reign, sought to leave open a retreat
in case a change should become necessary. And, in truth, jealousy of the
cardinal and his brother, who seemed disposed to keep all the power in
their own hands, while giving Catharine only a semblance of authority,
was combined in her mind with hatred of Mary of Scots, their niece,[777]
whose influence was as powerful with her son and as adverse to herself
as that of Diana of Poitiers had been with her husband. Scarcely had the
reformers perceived, by the zeal with which Du Bourg's trial was
pressed, that the death of Henry had not bettered their condition, when
they implored the Prince of Conde, his mother-in-law, Madame de Roye,
and Admiral Coligny, to intercede in their behalf with Catharine. At the
suggestion of the l