long private
conference with the messenger, while the echevins impatiently awaited its
conclusion. The governor now called in the municipal officers for
consultation, and with them agreed to order the immediate imprisonment of
the Huguenots. He was not, however, even yet fully convinced of the
propriety of this step, for scarcely had he given the order when he
recalled it.[1109] Fearing that the troops at his disposal might prove
insufficient, and dreading with good reason lest the employment of the
city militia for this purpose might lead to scenes of disorder which he
would find himself powerless to control, he preferred to send for such
reinforcements as the neighboring noblemen of the province could
furnish.[1110] Meantime, the commotion throughout Lyons had rapidly
increased. On Thursday and Friday nights many members of the Reformed
Church had been dragged from their houses as if to prison, but most of
them had been barbarously despatched by the way. Among others, one of the
ministers, Monsieur Jacques l'Anglois, was stabbed and thrown into the
river. On Saturday morning Mandelot, seeing the confusion hourly
increasing, deemed it impolitic to wait any longer for the troops he was
expecting, and resolved upon effecting his purpose by ruse. He therefore
published a proclamation by sound of trumpet, bidding all the Huguenots to
assemble at his house to hear the good pleasure of the king. The
Huguenots, deceived by the professions of his Majesty, came in great
numbers; but no sooner had they all arrived, than they were seized by the
soldiers and hurried away to prison. The common prison, "La Roanne," being
too contracted to contain so large a multitude, three hundred or more were
placed in that of the Archbishop's palace, and others in the cloisters of
the Celestine Monks and the Gray Friars. At the same time an inventory was
being made of all the goods belonging to Protestants throughout the city.

These measures, instead of allaying, only inflamed the passions of the
populace the more. That night the murders surpassed those of the previous
nights in number and atrocity, and when Sunday morning dawned the people
were ready for still greater excesses. At about eight o'clock they entered
unopposed the Gray Friars, and butchered every Huguenot they found. Two
hours later, assuming the forms of law, a self-constituted commission,
headed by Andre Mornieu, one of the echevins or aldermen, presenting
themselves successively