rother, Marshal Francis de Montmorency, whose greatest vice was his
sluggishness and his devotion to his ease, had left Paris a few days
before, on the pretext of going to the chase. His absence at the time of
the massacre was supposed to have saved not only his life, but that of his
brothers. The Guises would gladly have destroyed a family whose influence
and superior antiquity had for a generation been obnoxious to their
ambitious designs; but it was too hazardous to leave the head of the
family to avenge his murdered brothers.

[957] There was no need of going far, Coligny responded, to discover the
author. "Qu'on en demande a Monsieur de Guise, il dira qui est celuy qui
m'a preste une telle charite; mais Dieu ne me soit jamais en aide si je
demande vengeance d'un tel outrage." Mem. de l'estat, _ubi supra_, 104,
105.

[958] Gasparis Colinii Vita, 114-121; Memoires de l'estat, _ubi supra_,
102-106. The two accounts agree almost word for word. There is a briefer
narrative in Reveille-Matin, 178, 179; and Euseb. Philad. Dialogi, i. 37.

[959] Discours du roy Henry III., _ubi supra_, 502-505.

[960] Le roi a Mandelot, 22 aout, Correspondance du roi Charles IX. et du
sieur de Mandelot (Paris, 1830), 36, 37.

[961] Corresp. dipl. de La Mothe Fenelon, vii. 322, 323.

[962] Memoires de l'estat, _ubi supra_, 106, 107.

[963] Ibid., 108.

[964] There is here, however, a direct contradiction, which I shall not
attempt to reconcile, between the account of Henry and that of the younger
Tavannes, who represents Retz as one of the most violent in his
recommendations. According to Tavannes, it was his father, Marshal
Tavannes, that advocated moderation. In other respects the two accounts
are strongly corroborative of each other.

[965] Discours du roy Henry III., 505-508.

[966] Memoires de Gaspard de Saulx, seigneur de Tavannes, by his son, Jean
de Saulx, vicomte de Tavannes (Petitot edition), iii. 293, 294.

[967] "Reginam quidem certum est dictitare solitam, edita strage, 'se
tantum _sex_ hominum interfectorum sanguinem in suam conscientiam
recipere.'" Jean de Serres (ed. of 1575), iv., fol. 29. The whole passage
is interesting.

[968] "Le roy Henry quatriesme disoit que ce qu'il ne m'avoit tenu
promesse estoit en vengeance des services faicts par le sieur de Tavannes
mon pere aux batailles de Jarnac et Montcontour, mais le principal, parce
qu'il l'accusoit d'avoir conseille la Sainct Barthelemy; ce qu'il disoit a
s