in
proficiency in vice--was enforced and embellished in the queen mother's
hearing by the Cardinal of Lorraine. The trick had the desired effect.
Believing, or feigning to believe, the improbable story, Catharine
consented that the persecution of the "Christaudins" should proceed;
while to some of her maids of honor, strongly suspected of leaning to
the doctrines of the Reformation, she declared that she gave such full
credit to this information, that, were she certain that they were
Protestants, she would not hesitate, whatever favor or friendship she
had hitherto borne them, to have them put to death. Fortunately,
however, for the calumniated sect, there were among its adherents those
who prized honor above life. Trouillas and his family, although among
the number of those who had made good their escape, voluntarily returned
and gave themselves into the hands of the civil authorities. When the
latter would have put them on trial for their alleged heresy, they
declined to answer to the charges on this point until the slanderous
accusations affecting their personal morals had been investigated. The
examination not only completely vindicated their character and revealed
the grossness of the imposture of which they were the innocent victims,
but exhibited the unpleasant fact that an attempt had been made to
corrupt witnesses by representing to them that, against such execrable
wretches as the accursed "Lutherans," it was a meritorious act to allege
even what was false.[784] It is perhaps superfluous to add that
Trouillas, in spite of his manly and successful defence, was unable to
secure the punishment of his accusers. In fact, while the latter
remained at large, both he and his family were kept in prison, until
liberated, without satisfaction for the insult received, upon the
publication of the edict of amnesty of March, 1560.[785]

[Sidenote: Cruelty of the populace.]

It would be a task neither easy nor altogether agreeable to chronicle
the executions of Protestants in various cities of the realm. "Never,"
wrote Hubert Languet, "have the papists raged so; never before was there
a more cruel persecution. The prisons are full of wretched men. The
woods and solitary places can scarce contain the fugitives."[786] The
Parliaments of Toulouse and Aix, as usual, vied in ferocity with that of
Paris, where the Guises had not long since restored the "chambre
ardente."[787] But the populace of Paris surpassed the judges in
env