eir wombs, to be thrown, to be devoured, to
pigs and dogs. In those houses in which none were left alive but
children, these infants were piled into large baskets, and then thrown
from the bridges into the river. There might be seen frightful little
boys, ten years of age, strangling the babies in the cradles, or
dragging them through the streets by a cord around their necks."

The number of slain in the city of Paris was variously estimated at from
two thousand to ten. The murders did not cease entirely until the 17th
of September, and, with the exception of some districts, in which the
officials refused to carry out their orders, extended throughout France.
The victims were by no means all Huguenots; the opportunities offered to
private vengeance were too great, and rivals, debtors, thieves, and a
horde of criminals covered their crimes with the cloak of religion. Two
years later, the king died, at the age of twenty-four, tormented in his
last moments by remorse, and cared for only by his old Huguenot nurse.

Even in this horrible business, there were not wanting reassuring
touches of human nature. The fine story which Dumas _pere_ tells with so
much spirit in his _Reine Margot_, of the wounded gentleman, pursued by
the assassins, seeking refuge in the very bed-chamber of this queen, and
saved by her, is quite true, if we may believe the recital of the queen
herself (_Historic Memoirs: Margaret of Valois_). His name was Monsieur
de Nancay, and she was obliged to change her chemise, as he had bloodied
it in clinging to her! In the conspiracy to prevent the return of the
King of Poland, afterward Henri III, to France in the eventuality of the
death of Charles, of which conspiracy the youngest royal brother, the
Duc d'Alencon, was the head, there were two gentlemen, Joseph de
Boniface, Sieur de la Mole, who was Queen Marguerite's lover, and the
Comte de Coconas, an Italian, who was loved by the Duchesse de Nevers.
The story of the trial and execution of these two, and even the ghastly
incident of the preservation of the severed head of the lover, are also
founded on facts.

The massacre of Saint-Bartholomew has found apologists, even at this
late day,--an historical work issued by the house of Firmin-Didot, in
1898, purporting to give an impartial resume of the acts of the League
during the reigns of Henri III and Henri IV, declares that the people
took part in this tragedy because "their zeal had been misled," and they