the factious make any disturbance, there will be
men to oppose to them." The admiral assented to the king's proposal. He
added that he was ready to declare "that never had he been guilty or
approving of the death of Duke Francis of Guise, and that he set down as
a calumniator and a scoundrel whoever said, that he had authorized it."
Though frequently going to the palace, both he and the Guises, they had
not spoken when they met. Charles had promised the Lorraine princes "not
to force them to make friends with Coligny more than was agreeable to
them." He believed that he had taken every precaution necessary to
maintain in his court, for some time at least, the peace he desired.

On Friday, the 22d of August, 1572, Coligny was returning on foot from
the Louvre to the Rue des Fosses--St.-Germain-l'Auxerrois, where he
lived; he was occupied in reading a letter which he had just received;
a shot, fired from the window of a house in the cloister of
St. Germain-l'Auxerrois, smashed two fingers of his right hand and
lodged a ball in his left arm; he raised his eyes, pointed out with his
injured hand the house whence the shot had come, and reached his
quarters on foot. Two gentlemen who were in attendance upon him rushed
to seize the murderer; it was too late; Maurevert had been lodging there
and on the watch for three days at the house of a canon, an old tutor to
the Duke of Guise; a horse from the duke's stable was waiting for him at
the back of the house; and, having done his job, he departed at a
gallop. He was pursued for several leagues without being overtaken.

Coligny sent to apprise the king of what had just happened to him.
"There," said he, "was a fine proof of fidelity to the agreement between
him and the Duke of Guise." "I shall never have rest, then!" cried
Charles, breaking the stick with which he was playing tennis with the
Duke of Guise and Teligny, the admiral's son-in-law; and he immediately
returned to his room. The Duke of Guise took himself off without a word.
Teligny speedily joined his father-in-law. Ambrose Pare had already
attended to him, cutting off the two broken fingers; somebody expressed a
fear that the balls might have been poisoned. "It will be as God pleases
as to that," said Coligny; and, turning towards the minister, Merlin, who
had hurried to him, he added, "pray that He may grant me the gift of
perseverance." Towards midday, Marshals de Damville, De Cosse, and De
Villars went to