had experienced
at the hands of Guise, had imbibed the fanatical notion that it was his
special calling of God to rid the world of "the butcher of Vassy," of the
single execrable head that was accountable for the torrents of blood which
had for a year been flowing in every part of France.

After having been a page of M. d'Aubeterre, father-in-law of the Huguenot
leader Soubise, Merey, at the beginning of the civil war, had been sent by
the daughter of D'Aubeterre to her husband, then with Conde at Orleans.
Subsequently he had accompanied Soubise on his adventurous ride with a few
followers from Orleans to Lyons, when the latter assumed command in behalf
of the Huguenots. Soubise appears to have valued him highly as one of
those reckless youths that court rather than shun personal peril, while he
shared the common impression that the lad was little better than a fool.
True, for years--ever since the tumult of Amboise, where his kinsman, La
Renaudie and another relative had been killed--Merey had been constantly
boasting to all whom he met that he would kill the Duke of Guise; but
those who heard him "made no more account of his words than if he had
boasted of his intention to obtain the imperial crown."[238]

He had given expression to his purpose at Lyons, in the presence of M. de
Soubise, the Huguenot governor, and again to Admiral Coligny before he
started on his expedition to Normandy. But the Huguenot generals evidently
imagined that there was nothing in the speech beyond the prating of a
silly braggart. Soubise, indeed, advised him to attend to his own duties,
and to leave the deliverance of France to Almighty God; but neither the
admiral nor the soldiers, to whom he often repeated the threat, paid any
attention to it. In short, he was regarded as one of those frivolous
characters, of whom there is an abundance in every camp, who expect to
acquire a cheap notoriety by extravagant stories of their past or
prospective achievements, but never succeed in earning more, with all
their pains, than the contempt or incredulity of their listeners. Still,
Poltrot was a man of some value as a scout, and Coligny had employed
him[239] for the purpose of obtaining information respecting the enemy's
movements, and had furnished him at one time with twenty crowns to defray
his expenses, at another with a hundred, to procure himself a horse. The
spy had made his way to the Roman Catholic camp, and, by pretending to
follow the exampl