From the Dublin University Magazine. THE MASSACRE OF ST. BARTHOLOMEW. that has insinuated any imputation on Catherine's conjugal fidelity; he has left it on record that none of the children of Henry II. resembled the THE massacre perpetrated in Paris, on the eve king, except his natural daughter, Diana, and that of Saint Bartholomew, A. D. 1572, was at once Catherine's sons and daughters were so very unthe most horrible of tragedies, and the most miser-like each other that they were suspected to have able of farces; historians have vied with each had different fathers. There does not appear to other in giving to it all the dignity of which atrocious wickedness is susceptible. Men have felt that injury would be done to the memory of the victims if it was found that they were sacrificed to a wretched court intrigue, and not to some grand scheme of iniquitous policy designed to change the destinies of Europe. The truth is that there was no clever contrivance, no extensive plot, and no deep-laid conspiracy; and to us the horror of the butchery is greatly aggravated by finding that the demoralizing influence of bigotry could have wrought such wide destruction on so short a notice. be any just foundation for this suspicion; but though Catherine may not have been unchaste herself, she showed little regard for chastity in others. When she arrived in France as dauphiness, she found that though Francis I. wore the crown, all the power of the state was wielded by his mistress, the Duchess d'Etampes, and she at once exerted herself to win the support of the royal favorite. She not only paid open court to the royal mistress, but even ridiculed the scruples of those who refused to pay homage to unwedded love. For this she was properly punished in the next reign; her husband, on ascending the throne, openly took the Duchess of Valentinois as his mistress, dividing his authority between her and the Constable Montmorenci, to the utter exclusion of the queen. When Montmorenci, who had quarrelled with the royal mistress, sought to obtain some share of power for Catherine, the king said to him, "My good gossip, you do not know my wife; she is one of the greatest vixens in the world; if she was admitted to a share in the administration, she would throw everything into confusion." We possess ample materials for a complete investigation of all the circumstances connected with this awful event. The most important are the Correspondence of the French Ambassadors in England with their own court,' "The Memoirs of Margaret of Valoise," the Narrative, published by Henry III., when King of Poland, "The Life and Letters of Admiral Coligny,' ‚" and the “Memoirs of Tavannes, La None, L'Estoile," and several other contemporaries who were all more or less personally connected with the events. From these we shall endeavor to frame a narrative which will at once afford a consistent detail of events, and at the same time bring to light the motives of the actors. But before doing so we must introduce our readers to the actors them-daughters of France; she encouraged, rather than selves. But Catherine soon organized a power of her own, which soon became most influential in the state; she organized the celebrated "brigade of beauty;" she assembled in her court the fairest tolerated, a gallantry which closely bordered on licentiousness, so that an English Puritan called her ladies "the graces and disgraces of Christendom." These ladies were more formidable than armies; Admiral Coligni declared that an encounter with the queen's phalanx was more to be dreaded than the loss of a battle; patriotism might meet undaunted a whole park of artillery, but it was unable to sustain a battery of ladies' eyes. Catherine de Medicis figures as the prima donna in this and in many other tragedies of the sixteenth century. She is usually described as a sanguinary bigot, but with her bigotry was subservient to ambition; in fact the zeal for Catholicism cannot be regarded as extravagant, since she sought the hand of Queen Elizabeth for each of her three sons successively, and when she had reason to hope that the youngest would be successful, she Charles IX. was little more than ten years of took care to intimate, as a recommendation, that age when he ascended the throne on the death of he was favorably disposed towards the Protestant his brother, Francis II. During the reign of Franreligion. Catherine was a great adept in poisons; cis, Catherine had been excluded from power by it is said that she brought with her from Italy the the Guise faction; the niece of the Duke of Guise, terrible secrets of the Borgias, and that she was Mary Queen of Scots, was the wife of Francis, as unscrupulous in the use of them as Lucrece and had gained an absolute ascendency over her Borgia herself; the deaths laid to her charge are husband, which she employed to advance the intoo numerous to be credited, nor is there any one terest of her relatives. Catherine never forgot nor of the cases sufficiently authenticated to be received | forgave this opposition, and it was chiefly througà as 'decisive evidence, though several justify a very her influence that the French court never earnestly high degree of suspicion. Like most of the Ital-interfered to rescue Mary from her unmerited and ians of that day, Catherine was excessively credu-almost unparalleled misfortunes. It was chiefly lous; she was a firm believer in astrology, fortune- through the aid of the Huguenots that Catherine telling and necromancy; her most trusty advisers triumphed over the Guises, and obtained the rewere pretended adepts in magic, and public report added that these persons also assisted her in the preparation and administration of poisons. The Cardinal of Lorraine is the only person gency. She then endeavored to break down both the Catholic and Protestant parties, with the hope of forming a party of her own from the fragments of both; her tortuous course of policy, her cun ning, her perfidy, and her breaches of agreement, of her instruction were sufficiently varied; she kept the country in a continued civil war, inter-studied classics and coquetry, languages and love, rupted only by hollow truces, in which fresh vio- needle-work and needless work, archery and archlations of faith gave fresh bitterness to renewed ness, together with the usual female accomplishhostilities. Charles IX. was deliberately sacrificed ments of music and dancing. She was an apt and, by his mother. It was necessary to her ambitious indeed, a precocious scholar. When she was only projects that he should be feeble both in mind and seven years of age her father jocularly asked her body, and his whole education was perverted to to name her cavalier, offering the Prince of Joineffect this wicked purpose. In this diabolical task ville and the Marquis of Beaufre to her choice; Catherine was aided by the Marshal de Kets, whom the young lady declared, without hesitation, that she had brought from Florence for this purpose. she preferred the marquis because he was both Towards the close of his life Charles discovered prudent and secret, while the prince was a boaster, the wrong that had been inflicted on him, and re- with whom no lady's reputation could be safe. solved to take the reins of power into his own When her brother Henry, in order to gain support hands; his death followed his attempt to assert against the Guises, affected to favor Huguenot docindependence so speedily that it was generally trines, he vainly endeavored to bring Margaret ascribed to poison. Henry of Anjou, subsequent- over to the same sentiments; he burned her prayerly King of Poland, and afterwards of France, as books and rosaries, giving her, in their place, the Henry III., was the favorite child of Catherine. Calvinistic Devotions and Marot's version of the Tavannes says that she often declared, "I would Psalms. peril my salvation to advance the interests of Henry;" and history proves that she kept her word. It would be difficult to find a prince more universally condemned by his cotemporaries and by posterity. He had all the vices of his mother, hardly redeemed by a greater share of animal courage than was possessed by any of his brothers. Francis of Alençon, afterwards of Anjou, was even more universally detested than his brother Henry. His personal appearance was most repulsive; his nose, especially, appeared to be double; hence, when he betrayed the insurgents in Flanders, whom he had previously instigated to revolt, they took revenge in an epigram to the following effect: Good people of Flanders, pray do not suppose Though not more than ten years of age, Margaret adhered steadily to the Catholic creed, and refused to sing Marot's Psalms, though menaced for her recusancy with the rod. At the age of fourteen the princess accompanied Catherine to the celebrated conferences at Bayonne, where, according to some authors, the massacre of St. Bartholomew was contrived. This, however, is certainly an error; the destruction of Protestantism was, no doubt, desired and discussed by Catherine and the Duke of Alva, but they formed no definite plan for accomplishing their wishes; indeed, it was impossible they should do so, since Catherine would not lay aside her jealousy of the Guises, nor break off her negotiations with Elizabeth. When Henry was appointed lieutenant-general of the kingdom, Margaret was engaged by him to watch over Charles IX., and give information of any attempts he might make to escape from the tutelage in which he was held. While thus acting as spy for her favorite brother, she enCatherine labored long and earnestly to make gaged in some negotiations on her own account; this prince an acceptable suitor to Queen Elizabeth. the young Duke of Guise offered himself as a lover, It is only within the last few years that full mate- and was secretly accepted. Intelligence of this rials for the secret history of this courtship have intrigue was conveyed to Henry of Anjou, who rebeen rendered accessible to the curious, and cer- ceived the news "rather as an outraged lover than tainly a stranger narrative was never revealed to a deceived brother." As he was a perfect master the lovers of scandal. Catherine's anxiety for the of dissimulation, he concealed his resentment; inmarriage was increased by her belief in a prophecy deed, the princess informs us that she was first led that all her sons would be kings; the early death to suspect her danger from the warmth of the exof Francis II. led her to fear that the prediction pressions in which Henry professed his attachment might be fulfilled by their succeeding each other to the Duke of Guise. "When I lay sick at Anon the throne of France, and she hoped to avert gers," she says, "but more disordered in mind than this by procuring them foreign kingdoms. She in body, it happened, unfortunately for me, that first proposed Henry to Elizabeth, and, when this the Duke of Guise and his uncle arrived. This negotiation failed, she proposed to form a kingdom gave great joy to my brother Henry, as it afforded for him by uniting the islands of Corsica and Sar-him an opportunity for veiling his artifices; but it dinia to the province of Algiers. An embassy was preparing to secure the consent of Sultan Selim II. to this strange project, when the approaching vacancy of the throne of Poland opened the prospect of his being elected to that kingdom. Margaret of Valois, celebrated for her beauty, and afterwards for her numerous gallantries, was educated in the court of Catherine, and the courses greatly increased my apprehensions. To hide his plans my brother came daily to my chamber, bringing with him M. de Guise, whom he feigned to love very much. He used often to embrace him, and exclaim, 'Would to God you were my brother!” The duke pretended not to hear him; but I, who knew his malice, lost all patience, because I dared not reproach him with his dissimulation.” Having convinced himself that Margaret and the | vailed throughout Europe, that the posterity of Duke of Guise were not indifferent to each other, Catherine would fail in the second generation; Henry revealed the secret to Charles IX., who re- Henry of Navarre was the next heir to the throne ceived it with transports of indignation; he sent of France after the house of Valois; but his refor his natural brother, Henry of Angoulème, and ligion was likely to raise up so much opposition, commanded him to put the duke to death. Warned that it was deemed prudent to strengthen his of his danger, Guise married the widow of the claim by a matrimonial alliance with the reigning Prince of Ponion with all the precipitation of a family. In spite, however, of these powerful conman who felt that the altar afforded him the only siderations, Jane assented to the union with great means of escape from the grave. Thenceforth reluctance, often repeating the warning given by Margaret became the political enemy of Henry, one of her councillors-"The liveries worn at this and exerted all her power to advance the interests marriage will be turned up with crimson.” of her youngest brother. A husband was next to be procured for Margaret, and this was apparently facilitated by her declaration that she would accept anybody whom her mother selected. The astute Catherine was sorely perplexed by this profession of implicit obedience; she watched her daughter so vigilantly that the princess was all but in name a prisoner. The King of Portugal was first proposed as a suitable match; but the Spanish court interfered, and the negotiation terminated abruptly. second and successful candidate was Henry of Navarre, afterwards Henry IV. of France. The Jane was invited by Charles IX. to visit Paris, for the purpose of expediting the preliminaries to the marriage. She arrived in that metropolis on the 15th of April, and was present at the ceremonial of proclaiming peace between the Catholics and the Huguenots. Charles showed her the greatest respect and affection; he called her his aunt, his well-beloved, and his chief consolation. When she expressed a fear that the pope might refuse or delay the necessary dispensation, Charles replied, "No, aunt, I honor you more than the pope, and I have greater love of my sister than fear of him. If Sir Pope goes on with any of his tricks, Most writers represent this marriage as a mas- I will take Maggy with my own hand, and have ter-stroke of policy, but they are not agreed her married in full conventicle." But the favor whether it originated in a sincere desire to termi- of the king could not reconcile the pious Jane to nate the wars of religion which had so long devas- the profligacy of Paris. In a letter to her son she tated France, and prepare the way for a cordial says" Much as I have heard of the wickedness union between Catholic and Protestant, or whether of this court the reality far surpasses my anticipait was not a detestable artifice to allure the Hugue-tions. Here it is not the men who ask the wonots to Paris, where they might easily be massa-men, but the women who ask the men. Were cred. But a careful study of the cotemporary you to come amongst them you could not escape memoirs shows that public policy had very little to without a miracle." Catherine could not conceal do with the affair. Charles de Montmorency, by her jealousy of one so superior to herself in every whom the match was first proposed, recommended intellectual and moral qualification, as the dowit as a means of creating a counterpoise to the jager Queen of Navarre; and she was particularly overgrown power of the house of Lorraine. Catherine, who had learned from her spies some of the levities and indiscretions in which the King of Navarre already indulged, hoped to render him her tool by the aid of her battalion of beauty, and she actually provided him with a mistress before she gave him her daughter as a wife. Charles IX. hoped, by the aid of Henry and the Huguenots, to escape from the thraldom in which he was held by his mother and brother. Henry of Anjou was anxious to raise an eternal barrier between his sister and the Duke of Guise, having reason to believe that the marriage of the latter had not put an end to their intimacy. Alençon trusted that the Huguenots would raise him to the rank which his brother Henry enjoyed. Margaret alone was averse; she pleaded scruples of conscience, and expressed great unwillingness to marry a prince of a different religion. alarmed at her growing influence over the mind of King Charles. In June, however, Jane was seized with mortal illness; and her death, at a moment so opportune for the designs of Catherine, was generally attributed to poison. René, the court perfumer, an accomplished agent of villany, was said to have administered the poison in a pair of scented gloves. The tale rests on very questionable evidence. Jane frequently mentions her illness in the letters which she wrote to her son. Both of her physicians were zealous Protestants; and though one of them, Desnauds, wrote several lampoons against Catherine, he never insinuated that she had caused the death of his royal mistress. This event did not much delay the preparations for the marriage. Admiral Coligny, and the rest of the Protestant leaders were invited to Paris; and they went the more readily, because they knew Jane d'Albert, the dowager Queen of Navarre, that John de Montluc, Bishop of Valence, who had was a most rigid Puritan; the mere glitter of embraced the Protestant faith, and was privately royalty would not have induced her to unite her married, had been permitted to retain his diocese, son to a Catholic princess, had she not deemed and stood high in the confidence of Catherine. such a marriage necessary to secure his eventual When the admiral was about to mount his horse claims to the throne of France. A general opin- to set out for Paris, an old woman who lived under ion, founded, it is said, on some prophecy, pre-him at Chatellon, rushed forward, and falling on Catherine assembled her friends in secret council; Tavannes, who was present, declares that she was greatly agitated and alarmed, thus decisively refuting the story that the favor shown to Coligny was an artful piece of hypocrisy concerted between the king and his mother. The king's secretaries had betrayed his secrets to Catherine; they in her knees, exclaimed, "Alas! alas! my good | Henry are the worst enemies of me and my king lord and master, whither are you rushing to de-dom." struction? I shall never see you again if you once go to Paris; for you will die there-you and all who go with you. If you have no pity on your self, take pity on your wife, your children, and the number of worthy persons who will be involved in your fate!" The admiral vainly endeavored to console this poor woman; she did not cease to repeat her ominous predictions so long as he re-formed her that Flanders was about to be invaded mained in sight. by a royal army, in which all the Huguenot leadA weighty charge pressed upon the admiral; ers would hold a high command; that her favorite he was accused of having instigated the assassin, son Henry would be exiled from France; and that Poltrot, to murder the late Duke of Guise. Poltrot Alençon would succeed him as lieutenant-general had exonerated him when brought out to be exe-of the kingdom; to this they added, that it was in cuted; but, unfortunately, the admiral had pub-contemplation to send her from the court to some lished two pamphlets to vindicate himself, in which distant place of exile. Various plans were pro he made some admissions by no means creditable|posed; Henry of Anjou suggested the immediate to his character. A process had been instituted assassination of Coligny, which was at once delibagainst him, and though it had been suspended by erately accepted by the council. a royal degree, it might be renewed at any moment, and hurried to a fatal conclusion. But the admiral had been led to believe that the king would require his services in the projected war against Spain, and hoped to lead an army of Huguenots into Flanders. In the mean time, the preparations for the marriage were completed, and the ceremony was celebrated with regal splendor. Neither bride nor bridegroom liked the match; Margaret, when asked "would she accept the King of Navarre for her wedded husband?" stood obstinately silent, and Charles received the admiral with great demon- the ceremony was awkwardly interrupted. Charles strations of respect, and took his son-in-law, Te- grew angry and impatient, he grasped her rudely ligny, into his intimate confidence. He complained by the hair, and forcibly bent her head forward so bitterly to this young nobleman of the creatures as to make a more awkward bow than any the whom his mother had placed round him, saying-court had previously witnessed. This compulsory "Shall I speak freely to you, Teligny? I distrust nod was received as a sign of assent, and the cereall these people. I suspect the ambition of Ta-mony was brought to a conclusion amid suppressed vannes; Vielleville loves nothing but good wine; tittering and ominous whispers. Cossè is a miser; Montmorenci is a mere sportsman; Count de Retz is a Spaniard at heart; the rest of the courtiers are mere beasts; my secre-spirators to fear that he might be sent into exile, taries are traitors, so that I cannot tell which way to turn." The marked repugnance which Charles began to manifest towards his brother Henry, led the con unless the admiral was speedily removed. It was resolved that he should be assassinated in such a Tavannes was the first who became alarmed at way as to throw the suspicion of the murder on the increasing influence of the admiral; he en- the Duke of Guise, and make it appear retaliation deavored to excite the king's jealousy, and when for his father's murder by Poltrot. A military Charles told him that Coligny had offered him the adventurer, named Maurevel, or Maurevert, was services of ten thousand men for the war in Flan- engaged to perpetrate the deed. Henry of Anjou ders, he replied-" Sire, whichever of your sub- furnished him with a gun, which, from a peculiarjects has dared to use such words to you deserves ity in its construction, was supposed to have more to be beheaded. How can he presume to offer you certainty of aim than any other; and a house was that which is your own? It is a sign that he has hired, belonging to a retainer of the Duke of Guise, gained over and corrupted masses of your subjects by the windows of which Coligny was accustomed to serve against yourself, should it be necessary. to pass every day on his way to the Louvre. Finding that the king paid no attention to these The following account of the murder is given insinuations, he communicated his alarms to Henry by St. Auban, who was an eyewitness :— of Anjou and the queen; they were greatly moved, especially as they had learned from the king's sec-establishment of the admiral at Chastellon, I was in Having had the honor of being educated in the retaries that the Huguenot chiefs were resolved to his train, and quite close to him, on the 21st of obtain for Alençon an efficient share in the admin-August, 1572, when he was wounded by Maurevel. istration. Catherine now resolved to keep a close Several of us gentlemen belonging to the admiral's watch on her royal son, who was too weak-minded household, endeavored to force open the door of the and too easily excited to keep a secret. Meeting house from which the shot had been fired; but not him one day as he returned from a visit to the ad- being able to succeed, we followed the admiral to his miral, she asked, with a sneer-" What have you Teligny to permit us to mount our horses, and purlodgings, where M. de Seré and I entreated M. de learned from your long conversation with the sue Maurevel, having learned that he had escaped gray-beards?" He replied, with a fearful oath by a back door, and mounted a horse which had "Madame, I have learned that you and my brother been held in readiness for him. M. de Teligny de tained us some time, but at last M. de Serè and I The bigoted and sanguinary population of Paris procured our horses, and rode out of Paris by the had manifested in many ways great indignation at gate of St. Antoine, through which we learned that the favor which Charles had begun to show to the the murderer had passed. When we reached Charenton, we took prisoner a servant of M. George de Huguenots, and had more than once threatened to Lounoy, who had provided relays for the murderer, raise an insurrection and commence a massacre on and wore the very gray mantle which Maurevel had their own account. It was not safe for Protestants on when he quitted Paris. We left our prisoner in to appear in some streets of the capital, even in the the hands of the lieutenant of Villeneure Saint daytime, unless they went in armed bands. Some Georges, and sent information of his arrest to M. de of them probably wished for the breaking out of Teligny, who had him removed the next day to such a revolt; they believed that their chivalry Paris, where he was confined in the prison of Tour l'Evesque. Having sent off this letter, M. de Sere would triumph over the citizens, and that victory and I went on towards Melun; and being near Cor- would place the king entirely in their hands. beil, where the road turns off to Blandy, we learned Catherine's council declared that the issue would that the murderer had sought refuge in the house be doubtful unless they were assured of the supof M. de Chailly. The drawbridge was raised, and port of the army and the king. The Duke of the flanking turrets garrisoned by musketeers. We Anjou promised to obtain the former, for as lientherefore watched the house from a distance, hoping tenant-general of the kingdom he had supreme milithat Maurevel might renew his journey; but being disappointed in this expectation, we returned to the admiral. tary command; Catherine answered for Charles. Queen Margaret's simple narrative of her own condition on this fatal evening gives a more vivid picture of Catherine's sanguinary determination than any other record : room. When my mother perceived this she became vehemently enraged, and forbade my sister to tell me anything." At first the suspicions of the king and of the Protestant leaders were directed against the Duke of Guise, who narrowly escaped falling a victim to their first burst of mistaken vengeance. Orders "Suspected by the Huguenots, because I was a would have been issued for the duke's arrest but Catholic," says the royal authoress, "and equally for the prompt interference of Catherine. She re- suspected by the Catholics, because my husband vealed to her sou her own share in the attempted was a Huguenot, no one gave me warning of immurder; and though Charles was very indignant, pending danger. I went as usual to bid my mother he could not overcome his old habits of submission good night, and sat down on a trunk in her chamber, near my sister of Lorraine, whom I perceived to his mother's will. But, in the mean time, the to be very sad. When the queen, who was speakdiscovery of the gun, which Maurevel had left ing to somebody as I entered, saw me, she perempbehind him, had indicated to the Protestants the torily ordered me to go to bed. As I made my real instigators of the crime; and further evidence obeisance my sister caught me by the arm, and of Anjou's complicity was obtained from the ser-bursting into tears, besought me not to leave the vant arrested by Saint Auban. The Protestants imprudently gave vent to their rage, openly threatening Catherine and Henry, and boasting of their reliance on Charles and Alençon. Some of the After the Queen of Navarre had been thus dismore prudent of the body became alarmed. The missed Catherine once more assembled her secret Bishop of Vienne set out for Poland after having council; satisfactory reports were received from had an interview with Catherine, in which she is well known leaders of the populace, and from some said to have given him some intimation of her des- violent Catholic chiefs, who had been warned to perate design. A distinguished Huguenot leader, hold themselves in readiness; Henry of Anjou Blosset, presented himself to the admiral, and de-communicated his military arrangements, which clared his resolution to quit Paris. Coligny asked were found to be complete, and it only remained to him why he sought to go away at such a moment. obtain the king's consent. Catherine went to him, Because," said he, "they have no good inten-accompanied by Henry of Anjou, the Sieur de tions towards us here." "How can you think Nevers, the Marshals dé Tavannes and de Retz, so?" said the admiral. "Have we not a gracious and the Chancellor de Birague. She declared sovereign ?" "I think that he is too gracious," was the reply," and that is the reason why I am most anxious to depart; and if you did the same, it would be better both for you and for us." Alarmed by the menaces of the Protestant leaders, Catherine once more assembled her secret council, and explained the imminence of the danger to which she and her party were exposed. Tavannes, who was present at these deliberations, does not tell us by whom the massacre of Huguenots was proposed, but he informs us that it was adopted almost without discussion, and that he felt a profound conviction of its necessity; he recommended that the execution of the plot should be hurried, because he doubted the strength of Henry's resolution. that nothing but his immediate consent to the massacre could save him from destruction; she averred that the Catholics, irritated by his concessions to the heretics, had resolved to deprive him of the crown; and that the Huguenots had resolved to destroy the whole of the royal family, and establish a Presbyterian republic in France. Tavannes testifies to the indignant reluctance with which the king at first listened to such an atrocious proposition; but Catherine and Henry had gone too far to recede. Charles at length yielded to their urgency, and passing at once to the extreme of cruelty, exclaimed, "Do your work effectually; let not one live to reproach me." It was then arranged that all things should be in readiness at the second hour after midnight, and that the tolling |