eve of {106} the wedding, and
her son, with 800 attendants, entered the city in a mourning garb that
had soon to be discarded. Gorgeous costumes of ceremony were donned
for the great day, August 18th, 1572, when Margaret met her bridegroom
on a great stage erected before the church of Notre Dame.

Henry of Navarre could not attend the Mass, but walked in the nave with
his Huguenot friends, while Margaret knelt in the choir, surrounded by
the Catholics of the party. Admiral Coligny was present, the stalwart
Huguenot who appealed to all the finest instincts of his people. He
had tried to arrange a marriage between Elizabeth of England and Henry
of Anjou, the brother of the French King, but had not been successful,
owing to Elizabeth's politic vacillation. He was detested by Catherine
de Medici because he had great power over her son, the reigning
monarch, whom she tried to dominate completely. A dark design had
inspired the Guise faction of late in consequence of the Queen's enmity
to the influence of Coligny. It was hinted that the Huguenot party
would be very weak if their strongest partisan were suddenly taken from
them. All the great Protestant nobles were assembled in Paris for the
marriage of Navarre and Margaret of Valois. They were royally
entertained by the Catholic courtiers and lodged at night in fine
apartments of the Louvre and other palaces. They had no idea that they
had any danger to fear as they slept, and would have disdained to guard
themselves against the possible treachery of their hosts. They might
have been warned by the attempted assassination of Admiral Coligny, who
was wounded by a pistol-shot, had not the King expressed such concern
at the attempt on the life of his favourite counsellor. "My father,"
Charles IX declared when {107} he came to the Admiral's bedside, "the
pain of the wound is yours, but the insult and the wrong are mine."

The King had the gates of Paris shut, and sent his own guard to protect
Coligny. He was weak, and subject to violent gusts of passion which
made him easy to guide, if he were in the hands of an unscrupulous
person. His mother, who had plotted with Guise for the death of
Coligny, pointed out that there was grave danger to be feared from the
Protestants. She made Charles declare in a frenzy of violence that
every Huguenot in France should perish if the Admiral died, for he
would not be reproached with such a crime by the Admiral's followers.

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