out the names distinguished by the fatal sign. Those thus sorted
out were then conducted to a spot which had been chosen beforehand as the
place of execution.

This was the palace courtyard in the middle of which yawned a well
twenty-four feet in circumference and fifty deep. The fanatics thus
found a grave ready-digged as it were to their hand, and to save time,
made use of it.

The unfortunate Catholics, led thither in groups, were either stabbed
with daggers or mutilated with axes, and the bodies thrown down the well.
Guy-Rochette was one of the first to be dragged up. For himself he asked
neither mercy nor favour, but he begged that the life of his young
brother might be spared, whose only crime was the bond of blood which
united them; but the assassins, paying no heed to his prayers, struck
down both man and boy and flung them into the well. The corpse of the
vicar-general, who had been killed the day before, was in its turn
dragged thither by a rope and added to the others. All night the
massacre went on, the crimsoned water rising in the well as corpse after
corpse was thrown in, till, at break of day, it overflowed, one hundred
and twenty bodies being then hidden in its depths.

Next day, October 1st, the scenes of tumult were renewed: from early dawn
Captain Bouillargues ran from street to street crying, "Courage,
comrades! Montpellier, Pezenas, Aramon, Beaucaire, Saint-Andeol, and
Villeneuve are taken, and are on our side. Cardinal de Lorraine is dead,
and the king is in our power." This aroused the failing energies of the
assassins. They joined the captain, and demanded that the houses round
the palace should be searched, as it was almost certain that the bishop,
who had, as may be remembered, escaped the day before, had taken refuge
in one of them. This being agreed to, a house-to-house visitation was
begun: when the house of M. de Sauvignargues was reached, he confessed
that the bishop was in his cellar, and proposed to treat with Captain
Bouillargues for a ransom. This proposition being considered reasonable,
was accepted, and after a short discussion the sum of 120 crowns was
agreed on. The bishop laid down every penny he had about him, his
servants were despoiled, and the sum made up by the Sieur de
Sauvignargues, who having the bishop in his house kept him caged. The
prelate, however, made no objection, although under other circumstances
he would have regarded this restraint as the height