e they happened to be the stronger, and where they had either
vengeance to satisfy or measures of security to take, the Protestants
were not more patient or more humane than the Catholics. At Nimes, in
1567, they projected and carried out, in the town and the neighboring
country, a massacre in which a hundred and ninety-two Catholics perished;
and several churches and religious houses were damaged or completely
destroyed. This massacre, perpetrated on St. Michael's day, was called
_the Michaelade_. The barbarities committed against the Catholics in
Dauphiny and in Provence by Francis de Beaumont, Baron of Adrets, have
remained as historical as the massacre of Vassy, and he justified them on
the same grounds as Montluc had given for his in Guienne. "Nobody
commits cruelty in repaying it," said he; "the first are called
cruelties, the second justice. The only way to stop the enemy's
barbarities is to meet them with retaliation." Though experience ought
to have shown them their mistake, both Adrets and Montluc persisted in
it. A case, however, is mentioned in which Adrets was constrained to be
merciful. After the capture of Montbrison, he had sentenced all the
prisoners to throw themselves down, with their hands tied behind them,
from the top of the citadel; one of them made two attempts, and thought
better of it; "Come, twice is enough to take your soundings," shouted the
baron, who was looking on. "I'll give you four times to do it in,"
rejoined the soldier. And this good saying saved his life.

The weak and undecided government of Catherine de' Medici tried several
times, but in vain, to prevent or repress these savage explosions of
passion and strife amongst the people; the sterling moderation of
Chancellor de l'Hospital was scarcely more successful than the
hypocritical and double-faced attentions paid by Catherine de' Medici to
both the Catholic and the Protestant leaders; the great maladies and the
great errors of nations require remedies more heroic than the adroitness
of a woman, the wisdom of a functionary, or the hopes of a philosopher.
It was formal and open civil war between the two communions and the two
parties that, with honest and patriotic desire, L'Hospital and even
Catherine were anxious to avoid. From 1561 to 1572 there were in France
eighteen or twenty massacres of Protestants, four or five of Catholics,
and thirty or forty single murders sufficiently important to have been
kept in remembran