e is the
assassin, either he or I." Henry IV., always prone to pass things over,
pooh-poohed the suspicion, and was just giving orders to let the young
man go, when the knife, discovered on the ground close to Chastel, became
positive evidence. Chastel was questioned, searched, and then handed,
over to the grand provost of the household, who had him conveyed to
prison at For-l'Eveque. He first of all denied, but afterwards admitted
his deed, regretting that he had missed his aim, and saying he was ready
to try again for his own salvation's sake and that of religion. He
declared that he had been brought up amongst the Jesuits in Rue St.
Jacques, and he gave long details as to the education he had received
there and the maxims he had heard there. The rumor of his crime and of
the revelations he had made spread immediately over Paris and caused
passionate excitement. The people filled the churches and rendered
thanks to God for having preserved the king. The burgesses took up arms
and mustered at their guard-posts. The mob bore down on the college of
Jesuits in Rue St. Jacques with threats of violence. The king and the
Parliament sent a force thither; Brizard, councillor in the high chamber,
captain of the district, had the fathers removed, and put them in
security in his own house. The inquiry was prosecuted deliberately and
temperately. It brought out that John Chastel had often heard repeated
at his college "that it was allowable to kill kings, even the king
regnant, when they were not in the church or approved of by the pope."
The accused formally maintained this maxim, which was found written out
and dilated upon under his own hand in a note-book seized at his
father's. "Was it necessary, pray," said Henry IV., laughing, "that the
Jesuits should be convicted by my mouth?" John Chastel was sentenced to
the most cruel punishment; and he underwent it on the 20th of December,
1594, by torch-light, before the principal entrance of Notre-Dame,
without showing any symptom of regret. His mother and his sisters were
set at liberty. His father, an old Leaguer, had been cognizant of his
project, and had dissuaded him from it, but without doing anything to
hinder it; he was banished from the kingdom for nine years, and from
Paris forever. His house was razed to the ground; and on the site was
set up a pyramid with the decree of the Parliament inscribed upon it.

The proceedings did not stop there. At the beginning