erse of
the 79th psalm in Marot's poetical version, "The dead bodies of thy
servants have they given to be meat unto the fowls of the heaven, the
flesh of thy saints unto the beasts of the earth." (The year 1562, it will
be remembered, did not commence in France until Easter Sunday, March
29th.) The account seems to have been composed on the spot and within a
very few days of the occurrence. This may be inferred from the list of
those who died being given only up to Tuesday, March 3d. The other
narrative: "Discours entier de la persecution et cruaute exercee en la
ville de Vassy," etc., enters into much greater detail, and is preceded by
a full account of the early history of the Church. It was written and
published a little later in the spring of 1562. Both memoirs are reprinted
in the invaluable Archives curieuses of Messrs. Cimber et Danjou, iv.
103-110, and 123-156, as well as in the Memoires de Conde, iii. 111-115,
124-149 (the former document with the title "Relation de l'occasion"),
etc. Another contemporary account was written in Guise's interest, and
contains a long extract of a letter of his to the Duke of Wuertemberg:
"Discours au vray et en abbrege de ce qui est dernierement aduenu a Vassi,
y passant Monseigneur le Duc de Guise. A Paris. M.D.LXII.... Par priuilege
expres dudict Seigneur." (Cimber, iv. 111-122; Mem. de Conde, iii.
115-122). To these authorities must be added Guise's vindication in
parliament (Cimber, iv. 157, etc., from Reg. of Parl.; Mem. de Guise, 488,
etc.), and his letter and that of the Cardinal of Lorraine to Christopher
of Wuertemberg, March 22 (Ib. 491, 492). Compare J. de Serres, De statu
rel. et reip. (1571), ii. 13-17; De Thou, iii. 129, etc.; Jehan de la
Fosse, 45. Davila, bk. iii. in init., is more accurate than Castelnau,
iii., c. 7. Claude Haton's account (Memoires, i. 204-206) may be classed
with the curiosities of literature. This veracious chronicler would have
it that a crowd of Huguenots, with stones in their hands, and singing at
the top of their voices, attempted to prevent the passage of the duke and
his company through the outskirts of Vassy, where they were apparently
worshipping in the open air! Of course they were the aggressors.

[40] And yet there is great force in M. Sismondi's observation (Hist. des
Francais, xviii. 264): "Malgre leur assertion, il est difficile de ne pas
croire qu'au moment ou ils se reunissoient en armes pour disputer aux
protestans l'exercise