ake the big fish,' said the
Duke of Alba, 'and let the small fry go; one salmon is worth more than a
thousand frogs.' They decided that the deed should be done at Moulins in
Bourbonness, whither the king was to return. The execution of it was
afterwards deferred to the date of the St. Bartholomew, in 1572, at
Paris, because of certain suspicions which had been manifested by the
Huguenots, and because it was considered easier and more certain to get
them all together at Paris than at Moulins."

Catherine de' Medici charged Cardinal Santa Croce to assure Pope Pius V.
"that she and her son had nothing more at heart than to get the admiral
and all his confidants together some day and make a massacre (_un
macello_) of them; but the matter," she said, "was so difficult that
there was no possibility of promising to do it at one time more than at
another."

La Noue bears witness in his _Memoires_ to "the resolution taken at
Bayonne, with the Duke of Alba aiding, to exterminate the Huguenots of
France and the beggars (_gueux_) of Flanders; whereof warning had been
given by those about whom there was no doubt. All these things, and many
others as to which I am silent, mightily waked up those," he adds, "who
had no desire to be caught napping. And I remember that the chiefs of
the religion held, within a short time, three meetings, as well at Valeri
as at Chatillon, to deliberate upon present occurrences, and to seek out
legitimate and honorable expedients for securing themselves against so
much alarm, without having recourse to extreme remedies."

De Thou regards these facts as certain, and, after having added some
details, he sums them all up in the words, "This is what passed at
Bayonne in 1565."

In 1571, after the third religious war and the peace of
St. Germain-en-Laye, Marshal de Tavaunes wrote to Charles IX., "Peace
has a chance of lasting, because neither of the two parties is willing
or able to renew open war; but, if one of the two sees quite a safe
opportunity for putting a complete end to what is at the root of the
question, this it will take; for to remain forever in the state now
existing is what nobody can or ought to hope for. And there is no such
near approximation to a complete victory as to take the persons. For to
surprise what they (the Reformers) hold, to put down their religion, and
to break off all at once the alliances which support them--this is
impossible. Thus there is no way but to take the