denote: Precautionary measures.]

In devising the plan for the destruction of the Huguenots, the queen
mother and her council were greatly assisted by the course pursued by the
Huguenots themselves, and by the very circumstances of the case. Under
pretence of taking measures to secure the safety of the Protestants, the
"quarteniers" could go, without exciting suspicion, from house to house,
and make a complete list of all belonging to the reformed church.[970] The
same excuse served to justify the court in posting a body of twelve
hundred arquebusiers, a part along the river, a part in the immediate
neighborhood of Coligny's residence.[971] And now the Protestants
themselves, startled by the unusual commotion which they noticed in the
city, and by the frequent passage to and fro of men carrying arms, sent a
gentleman to the Louvre to ask the king for a few guards to protect the
dwelling of their wounded leader. The request was only for five or six
guards; but Charles, feigning astonishment and deep regret that there
should be any reason for such apprehensions, insisted, at the suggestion
of his brother Anjou, who stood by, upon despatching fifty, under command
of Cosseins. So well known was the captain's hostility to Coligny and the
Protestants, that Thore, Montmorency's brother, whispered to the Huguenot
messenger as he withdrew: "You could not have been given in guard to a
worse enemy;" but the royal direction was so positive that no remonstrance
seemed possible. Accordingly, Cosseins and his arquebusiers took
possession, in the king's name, of two shops adjoining Coligny's
abode.[972] With as little ceremony, Rambouillet, the "marechal des
logis," turned the Roman Catholic gentlemen out of the lodgings he had
previously assigned them in the Rue de Bethisy, and gave the quarters to
the Protestant gentlemen instead.[973] The reason assigned for this action
was that the Huguenots might be nearer to each other and to the admiral,
for mutual protection; the real object seems to have been to sweep them
more easily into the common net of destruction.

And yet the majority of the Huguenot leaders were not alive to the dangers
of their situation. In a second conference held late on Saturday, the
Vidame of Chartres was almost alone in urging instant retreat. Navarre,
Conde, and others thought it sufficient to demand justice, and the
departure of the Guises, as possessing dangerous credit with the common
people. Teligny again d