feet, deathly pale.

"So be it!" he cried. "Since it is necessary to kill the Admiral, kill
him, then. Kill him!" he screamed, in a fury that seemed aimed at those
who forced this course upon him. "Kill him--but see to it also that at
the same time you kill every Huguenot in France, so that not one shall
be left to reproach me. Not one, do you hear? Take your measures and let
the thing be done at once." And on that, his face livid and twitching,
his limbs shaking, he flung out of the room and left them.

It was all the warrant they required, and they set to work at once
there in the King's own cabinet, where he had left them. Guise, who
had hitherto been no more than a silent spectator, assumed now the most
active part. Upon his own shoulders he took the charge of seeing the
Admiral done to death.

The remainder of the day and a portion of the evening were spent in
concerting ways and means. They assured themselves of the Provost of
the merchants of Paris, of the officers of the Gardes Francaises and
the three thousand Swiss, of the Captains of the quarters and other
notoriously factious persons who could be trusted as leaders. By ten
o'clock at night all preparations were made and it was agreed that the
ringing of the bell of Saint-Germain l'Auxerrois for matins was to be
the signal for the massacre.

A gentleman of the Admiral's household taking his way homeward that
night passed several men bearing sheaves of pikes upon their shoulders,
and never suspected whom these weapons were to arm. He met several small
companies of soldiers marching quietly, their weapons shouldered, their
matches glowing, and still he suspected nothing, whilst in one quarter
he stopped to watch a man whose behaviour seemed curious, and discovered
that he was chalking a white cross upon the doors of certain houses.

Meeting soon afterwards another man with a bundle of weapons on his
shoulder, the intrigued Huguenot gentleman asked him bluntly what he
carried and whither he went.

"It is for the divertissement at the Louvre tonight," he was answered.

But in the Louvre the Queen-Mother and the Catholic leaders, the labours
of preparation ended, were snatching a brief rest. Between two and three
o'clock in the morning Catherine and Anjou repaired again to the King's
cabinet. They found him waiting there, his face haggard and his eyes
fevered.

He had spent a part of the evening at billiards, and among the players
had been La Rochefoucaul