evidence of any premeditation. To these I will add, as
important in contrasting this massacre with the many massacres in which
the Huguenots were the victims, the fact that the Protestant ministers not
only did not instigate, but disapproved, and endeavored as soon as
possible to put an end to the murders.

[485] De Thou, iv. 33-35.

[486] Agrippa d'Aubigne, i. 211.

[487] Henri Martin (Histoire de France, x. 255), on the authority of
Coustureau, Vie du duc de Montpensier, states that the Rochellois had,
after the peace of 1563, bought from Catharine de' Medici, for 200,000
francs, the suppression of the garrison placed in their city by the Duke
of Montpensier, and remarks: "Ces 200,000 francs couterent cher!" The
authority, however, is very slender in the absence of all corroborative
evidence, and Arcere, more than a century ago, showed (Histoire de la
Rochelle, i. 625) how improbable, or, rather, impossible the story is. If
any gift was made to Catharine by the city, it must have been far less
than the sum, enormous for the times and place, of 200,000 crowns; and, at
any rate, it could not have been for the purchase of a privilege already
enjoyed for hundreds of years. See the illustrative note at the end of
this chapter.

[488] Agrippa d'Aubigne, i. 218. "Plus absolument et avec plus d'obeisance
que les Rochellois, qui depuis ont tousjours tenu le parti reforme, n'en
ont voulu deferer et rendre aux princes mesmes de leur parti, contre
lesquels ils se sont souvent picquez, en resveillant et conservant
curieusement leurs privileges."

[489] Others were beaten and banished, and suffered the other penalties
denounced by the Edict of Chateaubriant, as Soulier goes on to show with
much apparent satisfaction. Hist. des edits, etc., 67, 68. The text of the
joint sentence of Couraud, Constantin, and Monjaud is interesting. It is
given by Delmas, L'Eglise reformee de la Rochelle (Toulouse, 1870), pp.
19-25.

[490] Martin, Hist. de France, x. 254.

[491] Agrippa d'Aubigne, _ubi supra_; Davila, bk. iv. 122; De Thou, iv. 27
seq.; Soulier, 69. According to Arcere, Hist. de la Rochelle, i. 352, the
mayor's correct name was Pontard, Sieur de Trueil-Charays.

[492] The commission was dated from Montigny-sur-Aube, January 27, 1568,
Soulier, 70. De Thou's expression (_ubi supra_), "peu de temps apres," is
therefore unfortunate.

[493] Soulier, Hist. des edits de pacification, 70.

[494] Norris to Queen Elizabeth, January 23