h, _ubi supra_, iv. 345

[1081] "Car puisqu'il a pleu a Dieu conduire les choses es termes ou elles
sont, je ne veulx negliger l'occasion, non seulement pour remectre, s'il
m'est possible, ung perpetuel repos en mon royaume, mais aussy servir a la
chrestiente."

[1082] "Au surplus, quelque commandement verbal que j'aye peu faire a
ceulx que j'aye envoye tant devers vous que autres gouverneurs ... j'ay
revocque et revocque tout cela, ne voulant que par vous ne autres en soit
aucune chose execute." Charles IX. to Mandelot, Governor of Lyons,
Correspondance, etc. (Paris, 1830), 53, 54; the same to the Mayor of
Bourges, Mem. de l'estat (Archives curieuses), vii. 313. The variations of
language are trifling.

[1083] He seems at this time to have been at his castle of Montsoreau,
situated six or seven miles above Saumur, on the left bank of the Loire,
and within a short distance of Candes. M. de Montsoreau himself is
described as "gentilhomme de Poictou fort renomme pour beaucoup de
pillages et violences, qui finalement luy ont fait perdre la vie, ayant
este tue depuis en qualite de meurtrier." Mem. l'estat, 349.

[1084] These letters, and some others relating to the massacre at Angers,
contained in the archives of the municipality, are printed in the Bulletin
de la Soc. de l'hist. du prot. francais, xi. (1862) 120-124.

[1085] I know, however, of no letters of this kind signed by Charles IX.
himself. They all seem to have been written by his inferior agents, such
as Puigaillard in the case of Saumur, or Masso and Rubys in that of Lyons.
The advantage of this course was apparent. The king could not be _proved_
to have ordered any massacre; he could throw off the responsibility upon
others. On the other hand, such politic governors as Mandelot were
naturally reluctant to act upon instructions which could at any moment be
disavowed. The verbal messages of Charles himself would seem, from the
Mandelot correspondence, to have been less definite--perhaps going to no
greater lengths than to order the arrest of the persons and the
sequestration of the effects of the Huguenots. May we not naturally
suppose that the king and his council counted upon such subsequent
massacres of the imprisoned Protestants as occurred in many places?

[1086] Memoires de l'estat, 132, 133. Compare De Thou, iv. (liv. lii.)
601.

[1087] Relation of Olaegui, Simancas MSS., Bulletins de l'academie royale
de Belgique, xvi. (1849) 254, 255.

[1088] Th