ble,
villains, _roturiers_, infamous, unworthy, and incapable of making a will,
or of holding offices, dignities or possessions in France." It was ordered
that his castle of Chatillon-sur-Loing should be razed to the ground,
never to be rebuilt, and that the site should be sown with salt; that the
trees of the park should be cut down to half their height, and a
monumental pillar be erected on the spot, with a copy of this decree
inscribed upon it. His portraits and statues were to be destroyed; his
arms, wherever found, to be dragged at the horse's tail and publicly
destroyed by the hangman; his body--if any fragments could be obtained,
or, if not, his effigy--was to be dragged on a hurdle, and hung first on
the Greve and then on a loftier gibbet at Montfaucon. Finally, public
prayers and a solemn procession were ordered to take place in Paris on
every successive anniversary of the feast of St. Bartholomew.[1066]

Thus was the memory of one of the noblest characters that illustrated the
sixteenth century pursued with envenomed hatred, after death had placed
Coligny himself beyond the power of the murderous queen mother to inflict
more substantial injury upon him. To his mortal remains all that malice
could do had already been done. What remained of a mutilated body had been
taken from the hands of those precocious criminals, the boys of Paris,
and hung up by the feet upon the gallows at Montfaucon.[1067] A great part
of the capital had gone out to look upon the grateful sight. Charles the
Ninth was of the number of the visitors, and, when others showed signs of
disgust at the stench arising from the putrefaction of a corpse long
unburied, is said to have exclaimed "that the smell of a dead enemy is
very sweet."[1068] Great was the merriment of the low populace; copious
were the effusions of wit. Jacques Copp de Vellay, in his poetical
diatribe, published with privilege--"Le Deluge des Huguenotz"--sings with
great delight of

Mont-Faulcon, ou les attend
Ce grand Gaspar au curedent,
Attache par les piedz sans teste.[1069]

At last, four or five days after Coligny's death, a body of thirty or
forty horse, sent by Marshal Montmorency, took down the remains by night,
and gave them decent burial.[1070]

[Sidenote: A jubilee procession.]

[Sidenote: Charles declares that he will maintain his edict.]

Not content with the public admission of his responsibility for the
massacre which he had made before the par