22, 24 et 28 du passe, dont
ne vous mettrez en aucune peine, car elles s'adressoyent seulement a
quelques-uns qui s'estoyent trouvez pres de moy." Charles IX. to Gordes,
Sept. 14, 1572, Archives curieuses, vii. 365, 366.

[1143] Ibid., 367, 368.

[1144] Memoires de l'estat, Archives curieuses, vii. 366, 367; De Thou,
iv. 605. The Tocsain contre les massacreurs, however, p. 156, gives credit
instead to M. de Carces.

[1145] Dr. White has shown some reasons for doubting the accuracy of the
story. Among the Dulaure MSS. is preserved a full account of the manner in
which a Protestant, fleeing from Paris, fell in with the messenger who was
carrying the order to St. Herem or Heran, and robbed him of his
instructions. The Protestant hastened on to warn his brethren of their
danger, while the messenger could only relate to the governor the contents
of the lost despatch. Notwithstanding this, eighty Huguenots were murdered
in one city (Aurillac) of this province. Massacre of St. Bartholomew, 454,
455.

[1146] Adiram d'Aspremont.

[1147] Agrippa d'Aubigne, Hist. univ., ii. 28 (liv. i., c. 5). The
authenticity of this letter has been much disputed, partly because of the
Viscount's severe and cruel character (which, however, D'Aubigne himself
notices when he tells the story), partly because it rests on the sole
authority of D'Aubigne. It is to be observed, however, that although he
alone relates it, he alludes to it in several of his works, as _e.g._, in
his Tragiques. But the truth of the incident is apparently placed beyond
all legitimate doubt by its intimate and necessary connection with an
event which D'Aubigne narrates considerably later in his history, and from
personal knowledge. Hist. univ., ii. 291, 292 (liv. iii., c. 13). In 1577,
D'Aubigne, having lost much of Henry of Navarre's favor through his
fidelity or his bluntness (see Mem. de d'Aubigne, ed. Panth., p. 486),
retired from Nerac to the neighboring town of Castel-jaloux, of which he
was in command. Making a foray at the head of a small detachment of
Huguenot soldiers, he fell in with and easily routed a Roman Catholic
troop, consisting of a score of light horsemen belonging to Viscount
D'Orthez, and a number of men raised at Bayonne and Dax, who were
conducting three young ladies condemned at Bordeaux to be beheaded. The
vanquished Roman Catholics threw themselves on the ground and sued for
mercy. On hearing who they were, D'Aubigne called to him all those who