e king, and pouring curses upon
the people that had exercised such indignities upon unoffending citizens.
If we may believe La Mothe Fenelon, the men who customarily wore arms
indulged in much insulting bravado and in threats directed against any one
that dared to gainsay them.[1178] The French ambassador has himself left
on record the description of a remarkable interview which he had with
Queen Elizabeth. Rarely had a diplomatic agent been placed in a more
embarrassing position. His letters and despatches from home were of the
most contradictory character. Scarcely had he, with protestations of
sincerity and truthfulness, published the account of events in Paris which
was sent him, when new instructions arrived recalling, modifying, or
contradicting the former. First, with the startling news of the
disturbance of the peace, by Admiral Coligny's wounding, came a letter
from the king, expressing "infinite displeasure" at the "bad" and
"unhappy" act, and a resolution to inflict "very exemplary justice." To
which this postscript was appended: "Monsieur de la Mothe Fenelon, I will
not forget to tell you that this wicked act proceeds from the enmity
between the admiral's house and the Guises, and that I have taken steps to
prevent their involving my subjects in their quarrels, for I intend that
my edict of pacification shall be observed in every point."[1179] Two days
later Charles wrote again, communicating intelligence of the massacre,
beginning with the murder of Coligny, in almost the identical words of the
circular he was sending to Mandelot and other governors of provinces and
important cities.[1180] Still it is the work of the Guises, and he himself
has had enough to do in protecting his own person in the castle of the
Louvre. He wishes Queen Elizabeth to be assured that he has no part in the
deed,[1181] and, in fact, that all should know that he entertains great
displeasure for what has so unfortunately happened, and that it is the
thing which he detests more than anything else.[1182] And he adds in a
tone of well counterfeited innocence: "I have near me my brother the King
of Navarre, and my cousin the Prince of Conde, to share in the same
fortune with me."[1183] After receiving and spreading abroad these
explanations, what must have been the unfortunate ambassador's perplexity
and annoyance, when he received, but too late, a brief letter written on
Monday, the day after the massacre began, containing these words: "As