of opinion that it was best to cut off the heads of Genlis and the
other French prisoners, as the King of France asked him to do. He had
resolved to do so before the admiral's death, but now things had changed.
Charles must know that Philip has in his power men capable of giving him
great trouble."[1173] None the less, however, did Alva communicate the
glad tidings to all parts of the Netherlands, and cause solemn Te Deums to
be sung in the churches.[1174] "These occurrences," he wrote to Count
Bossu, Governor of Holland, "come so marvellously apropos in this
conjunction for the affairs of the king our master, that nothing could be
more timely. For this we cannot sufficiently render thanks to the Divine
goodness."[1175] Philip promptly sent the Marquis d'Ayamonte to
congratulate Charles and the queen mother.[1176] Alva had already a
special envoy at the French court, who returned soon after the massacre to
Brussels. On asking Catharine what reply he should carry back, the Italian
princess, intoxicated with her success, impiously said: "I do not know
that I can make any other answer than that which Jesus Christ gave to St.
John's disciples, 'Go and show again those things which ye have seen and
heard--the blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are
cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the
gospel preached to them.'" "And do not forget," she added, "to say to the
Duke of Alva, 'Blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in
me.'"[1177] Such was the new gospel of blood and rapine with which it was
proposed to replace the Bible in the vernacular, and the Psalms of David
translated by Marot and Beza!

[Sidenote: England's horror.]

[Sidenote: Perplexity of the French ambassador at London.]

But Spain and Rome were only exceptions. From almost every part of the
civilized world there arose a loud and unanimous cry of execration. It was
natural, however, that the feeling of horror should be deepest in the
neighboring Protestant countries, whose religion and liberties seemed to
be menaced with destruction by the treacherous blow. Above all, in England
with whose queen a matrimonial treaty had for months been pending, the
abhorrence of the crime and its perpetrators was the more intense because
of the violence of the revulsion. Resident Frenchmen were startled at the
sudden change. The warmest friends of France became its open enemies,
loudly reproaching the broken faith of th