Troyes, the flourishing capital
of Champagne, on Tuesday, the twenty-sixth of August, and spread great
alarm among the Protestants, who, with the recent disturbances[1091] still
fresh in their memories, apprehended immediate death. But their enemies
for the time confined themselves to closing the gates to prevent their
escape. It was not until Saturday, the thirtieth, that the "bailli," Anne
de Vaudrey, sieur de St. Phalle, sent throughout the city and brought all
the Protestants to the prisons. Meantime one of the most turbulent of the
Roman Catholics, named Pierre Belin, had been in Paris, having been
deputed, some weeks before, to endeavor to procure the removal of the
place of worship of the reformed from the castle of Isle-au-Mont, two or
three leagues from the city, to some more distant and inconvenient spot.
He remained in the capital until the Saturday after the massacre, and
started that day for Troyes, with a copy of the declaration of Thursday
forbidding injury to the persons and goods of unoffending Protestants, and
ordering the release of any that might have been imprisoned. It was
believed, indeed, that he was commissioned to give the declaration to the
bailli for publication. On Wednesday, the third of September, he reached
Troyes. As he rode through the streets, he inquired again and again
whether the Huguenots at Troyes were all killed as they were elsewhere.
When interrogated by peaceable Roman Catholics respecting a rumor that
the king had revoked his sanguinary orders, he boldly denied its truth,
accompanying his words with oaths and imprecations. Finding the bailli, he
had no difficulty in persuading him to suppress the royal order, and to
convene a council, at which Belin was introduced as the bearer of verbal
instructions, and a bishop was brought forward to confirm them. Belin and
the bishop maintained that the royal pleasure was that the heretics of
Troyes should all be murdered on the following Saturday night, without
distinction of rank, sex, or age, and their bodies be exposed in the
streets to the sight of those who should on the morrow join in a solemn
procession to be held in honor of the achievement. A writing attached to
the neck of each was to contain the words: "Seditious persons and rebels
against the king, who have conspired against his Majesty."

The task of butchering the helpless Huguenots in the prison was first
proposed to the public hangman. He refused to take any part in it: th