the ocean, so unexpectedly large the royal losses, that the
court was only waiting for a decent pretext to abandon the unfortunate
siege. Pestilence added its victims to those of the sword, and it was
currently reported that forty thousand of the besiegers were swept away
by their combined assaults.[1301] A more careful enumeration, however,
shows that, while the Rochellois, out of thirty-one hundred soldiers, lost
thirteen hundred, including twenty-eight "pairs," the king, out of a
little more than forty thousand troops, had lost twenty-two thousand, ten
thousand of whom died in the breach or in engagements elsewhere. Nor was
the loss of officers trifling; two hundred had died, including fifty of
great distinction, and five "maitres de camp."[1302] And, with all this
expenditure of life, and with the heavy drafts upon the public treasure,
little or nothing had been accomplished. Meanwhile, in other parts of
France there existed a scarcity of food amounting almost to a famine; nor
had the solemn processions to the shrines of the saints--processions for
the most part rendered contemptible by the irreverent conduct both of the
clergymen and the laity that took part in them[1303]--averted the wrath of
heaven. The poor suffered extremely. Selfishness gained such ascendancy in
some towns, that cruel ruses were adopted to remove the destitute that had
taken refuge within their walls. It was not strange that the extraordinary
mortality which soon fell upon the well-to-do burghers was viewed by many
as a direct punishment sent by the Almighty.[1304]

[Sidenote: Election of Henry of Anjou to the crown of Poland.]

The event which came just in time to free the court from its embarrassment
was the election of Henry of Anjou to the vacant throne of Poland. We have
already witnessed the perplexity of Bishop Montluc when the tidings of the
massacre first reached him.[1305] If he could have denied its reality, he
would have done so. This being impossible, he was forced to content
himself with misrepresenting the origin of the slaughter, slandering the
admiral and the other victims, and circulating the calumnies of
Charpentier and others who prated about a Huguenot conspiracy. A judicious
distribution of French gold assisted his own eloquent sophistry; and the
Duke of Anjou, portrayed as a chivalric prince and one who was not
ill-affected to religious liberty, was chosen king over his formidable
rivals. Charles and Catharine were alike