s a Sunday morning, the twenty-fourth of August--a day sacred in the
Roman calendar to the memory of Saint Bartholomew. Torches and blazing
lights had been burning all night in the streets, to render the task easy.
The houses in which Protestants lodged had been distinctly marked with a
white cross. The assassins themselves had agreed upon badges for mutual
recognition--a white cross on the hat, and a handkerchief tied about the
right arm. The signal for beginning was to be given by the great bell of
the "Palais de Justice" on the island of the old "cite."[980]

The preparations had not been so cautiously made but that they attracted
the notice of some of the Huguenots living near Coligny. Going out to
inquire the meaning of the clash of arms, and the unusual light in the
streets, they received the answer that there was to be a mock combat in
the Louvre--a pleasure castle was to be assaulted for the king's
diversion.[981] But, as they went farther and approached the Louvre, their
eyes were greeted by the sight of more torches and a great number of armed
men. The guards, full of the contemplated plot, could not refrain from
insults. It soon came to blows, and a Gascon soldier wounded a Protestant
gentleman with his halberd. It may have been at this time that the shot
was fired which Catharine and her sons heard from the open window of the
Louvre. Declaring that the fury of the troops could no longer be
restrained, the queen now gave orders to ring the bell of the neighboring
church of St. Germain l'Auxerrois.[982]

[Sidenote: Murder of Admiral Coligny.]

Meantime Henry of Guise, Henry of Valois, the Bastard of Angouleme, and
their attendants, had reached the admiral's house. The wounded man was
almost alone. Could there be any clearer proof of the rectitude of his
purpose, of the utter falsity of the charges of conspiracy with which his
enemies afterward attempted to blacken his memory?[983] Guerchy and other
Protestant gentlemen had expressed the desire to spend the night with him;
but his son-in-law, Teligny, full of confidence in Charles's good
intentions, had declined their offers, and had, indeed, himself gone to
his own lodgings, not far off, in the Rue St. Honore.[984] With Coligny
were Merlin, his chaplain, Pare, the king's surgeon, his ensign Cornaton,
La Bonne, Yolet, and four or five servants. In the court below there were
five of Navarre's Swiss guards on duty.[985] Coligny, awakened by the
growing noise in