d for several weeks, and many a Huguenot, coming out of
his place of concealment with the hope that time might have caused the
passions of his enemies to become less violent, was murdered in cold blood
by those who coveted his property. Several thousand persons were butchered
in Paris alone during the first few days, besides these later victims;
precisely how many, it is useless and perhaps impossible to fix with
certainty.[1053]

[Sidenote: The king's first letter to Mandelot.]

Meantime it became necessary to explain to the world the extraordinary
tragedy which had been enacted on so conspicuous a stage. Each of the
different parties to the nefarious compact, with that easy faith which
characterizes great criminals, had expected to satisfy its own resentment
at the sole expense of the honor and reputation of the others. The king
and his mother, while securing the death of Coligny and a few other
personal enemies, were not unwilling to have the world believe that the
entire occurrence had been an outburst of the old animosity of the Guises
against the Chatillons. In fact, this was distinctly stated in the
circular letter of Charles IX., despatched on the very Sunday on which the
massacre began, to the governors of the principal cities of the realm.
"Monsieur de Mandelot"--so runs one of these extraordinary epistles--"you
have learned what I wrote to you, the day before yesterday, respecting the
wounding of the admiral, and how that I was about to do my utmost in the
investigation of the case and the punishment of the guilty, wherein
nothing has been forgotten. Since then it has happened that the members of
the house of Guise, and the other lords and gentlemen who are their
adherents, and who have no small influence in this city, as everybody
knows, having received certain information that the friends of the admiral
intended to avenge this wound upon them--since they suspected them of
being its cause and occasion--became so much excited that, between the one
party and the other, there arose a great and lamentable commotion. The
body of guards which had been posted around the admiral's house was
overpowered, and he was killed with some other gentlemen, as there have
also been others massacred in various parts of this city. This was done so
furiously that it was impossible to apply such a remedy as could have been
desired; for I had as much as I could do in employing my guards and other
forces to retain my superiority in