on the garrison for the recent
massacre. At Mornas the articles of the capitulation, by which the lives
of the besieged were guaranteed, were not observed; for the Protestant
soldiers from Orange, recognizing among them the perpetrators of the
crimes which had turned their homes into a howling desert, fell upon them
and were not--perhaps could not be--restrained by their leader.[104] The
fatal example of Orange was but too faithfully copied, and precipitating
the prisoners from the summit of a high rock became the favorite mode of
execution.[105] Only one of the unfortunates, who happened to break his
fall by catching hold of a wild fig-tree growing cut of the side of the
cliff, was spared by his enemies.[106] A number of the naked corpses were
afterward placed in an open boat without pilot or tiller, and suffered to
float down the Rhone with a banner on which were written these words: "O
men of Avignon! permit the bearers to pass, for they have paid the toll at
Mornas."[107]

[Sidenote: Blaise de Montluc.]

[Sidenote: Massacre at Toulouse.]

The atrocities of Des Adrets and his soldiers in the East were, however,
surpassed by those which Blaise de Montluc inflicted upon the Huguenots of
the West, or which took place under his sanction. His memoirs, which are
among the most authentic materials for the history of the wars in which he
took part, present him to us as a remorseless soldier, dead to all
feelings of sympathy with human distress, glorying in having executed
more Huguenots than any other royal lieutenant in France,[108] pleased to
have the people call the two hangmen whom he used to take about with him
his "lackeys."[109] It is not surprising that, under the auspices of such
an officer, fierce passions should have had free play. At Toulouse, the
seat of the most fanatical parliament in France, a notable massacre took
place. Even in this hot-bed of bigotry the reformed doctrines had made
rapid and substantial progress, and the great body of the students in the
famous law-school, as well of the municipal government, were favorable to
their spread.[110] The common people, however, were as virulent in their
hostility as the parliament itself. They had never been fully reconciled
to the publication of the Edict of January, and had only been restrained
from interference with the worship of the Protestants by the authority of
the government. Of late the Huguenots had discovered on what treacherous
ground they stood