Show I r o. o S THEN AND THERE HISTORY TOLD OLD AS IT WOULD BE WRITTEN TODAY B By IRVIN S. S COBB f Looking in on a Religious Massacre I Like most mail ol of the rell iou outbreaks outbreak AU which blott blotted the pages page o of d European bl history with the split spilt blood of at the Ibo innocents the ghastly affair known knawa u the of 01 A St. St Bartholomew had hud behind it I a background nf of political Intrigue The Tho Initiative o of 0 the hideous d deed d rested upon the tb soul lOul ot of the queen queen mother Catharine Catharine Catha Catha- r rine De de Medici w who o at al the time was time t 1572 w. wa the th real ruling rulin power of d France Franc r resented the tb th growing Influence ol of the tb great Teat Admiral Co Besides Beside b be was wn a member of the Reformed d Religion In ID other words a Huguenot and that In her Mr biased blued eyes yel was wa In Itself an le offense Against her wishes withe Coligny was endeavoring to f draw her ber of ol a son Ian Charles IX Into a war wat with Spain Accordingly follow I Inc Ing the common and customary vogue of the period she resolved to have him Dated The plan failed her failed her Intended victim escaped with a wound Th The attempt infuriated Protestants fellow who bad flocked to Paris Panl for Of forthe forthe the wedding of 0 their great champion Henry of 0 Navarre and Marguerite de Valois inc daughter Charles IX insisted that thai the assassin who had attacked Coliny should b be notwithstanding the fact acl that the scoundrel w. w was known to 10 have been en Inspired and hired by his bis mother Thereupon Catharine bit hit upon th the tb devilish plan of rid ridding din and the country of 0 all her enemies at al a single stroke In one tremendous the she would sacrifice the Huguenot leaders with as u many of their thew followers as tho the butchers could soy nay and ond th thereby tb ruin the rival faith aith In the realm lm 4 Her Ho son Ion on Charles was wal as unstable as water a dissembler and a coward Sh She worked upon him until secretly he be gave rave authorization tion for the atrocity and oven even selected the I lieutenants wt who o should loose boar and direct the onslaught upon his unsuspecting subjects subject The Th massacre ensued d. d 01 Ol all the crimes done In the name ot of religion In the Middles Middies Ages Aces this perhaps was waa the th meat dreadfuL Yet Vet upon its commission that arch murderess arch murderess Catharine received the congratulations cor ol of many maDY other European powers and Pope Popo Gregory XIII commanded com com- minded that bonfires be lighted in Rome and that thai a Ii medal b be struck In la commemoration of 01 the event O 0 MANKIND It forever will he be To T known n as the tile massacre of St. St t. t Bartholomew's ws w's I Eve Ie e which Is a ml misnomer mer As a n mutter of fact It did not heel heln In the evening ellins and It Itus was us not an un affair allair of one night or one day and un one night and It If was by hi no means confined to Paris The signal for slaughter r. r that mad load clanging of church hells bulls which let loose upon the tile city the or organized r hands bands of slayers ers they later to tie he reinforced by volunteer volun teer brutes without number came at ot dawn ot of Sunday the twenty twenty fourth fourth of Au August 1172 1 72 Before the chimes had ceo ceased Red their music the armed assailants assailants assail ants were battering In the doors of peaceful were destroying ru ln their drow drowsy y prey in an n their beds or for tor berter better bet ber ter tel sport were pre dragging ln th thorn m forth to be han hanged from street lamps or to tobe tobe be stabbed and clubbed upon their theiron own o doorsteps Behind the killers came come thle thieves s to loot the homesteads of the dead The upcoming sun looked down upon streets which literally were clinked choked with hacked backed corpses upon gutters running high brim with blood upon spent fu fugitives es fleeing for safety through quarters where for them there was no hope of safety upon streams of pu pursuers whose hn hands un and d cn garments r were dyed dyc-d with blood who ho were drunK with fanaticism and the murder lu lust t who mouthed holy huly words while they d did lt their rn must most t unholy work who spared neither the time old nor the good nor the helpless hut hum destroyed them all nurs nurs nursing ing lag mothers suckling lin Infants grandsires grand grand- sires maidens Invalids In Neighbor preyed on nel neighbor men sought out nut their own kinsmen and made an end to them All through that desecrated Sabbath the red carnival went wen I on and through the next day and the next nest and the next until three weeks had bart passed Saved by the CrOSLIn Cross In Paris the butchery continued until un until til September 17 despite Imperial orders orders or ur ders for Its cessation It ended only when there were no more wore left to he killed Those marked marled for fur death either had hart fallen fullen or else had somewhere found the salvation of a n protected or oran oran an obscure hiding place Mt Meanwhile uD the murder wave had spread through h the provinces In In some SOllie districts few of the Huguenots su survived ed In ot others the they flocked r together and offered filTered spirited spirited spir resistance and heat beat off nIT the hordes of their en The fie number killed In Inthe Inthe Inthe the whole hole ol ut France was estimated at ot Probably the real figures were In larger Legends without number sprung up out nut of the all aftermath of this r il incredible horror Hundreds ds of novels and und short stories have hU been bused historically upon It IL one account would have It that at nt the time height ot of the slaughter time the young King hang Charles IX stood upon u I m of his palace tiring at III his helpless and hunted subjects as the they run pu pint past t. t md rind that his bis mu mother her the I h Catharine watched from a 0 window behind him and applauded d his marksmanship rl whet heL he scored a n hit lilt For this tills there Is a H reliable authentication Ilc rh te e Is less les rea reason orr to 10 credit the rile claim that when his own n hour rattle mine buries barns expired In a n torment f if r remorse t tortured cJ h by memories ol of the rime screams of his victims HI and In his delirium hell hearing ring their theli cries for fur mercy und rind their groans of mortal agony One to 10 hope hOlle that this came to topas puss pas but hili one on doubts It If we ace turn from unproven n tradition h to rt recorded testimony we the graphic t enough of this lime of fit ter tine hiP ho who by hy chance chane circumstances rhe the und and lived to tell t.-II ot ut it II while the facts still were quick 1 In hl his memory wits anus the young I hue 11 de Sully ully This Timis youth t saved him pelf elf by hy Ills his own n wit vIL A As a 11 follower of ot nr Henry of he had gone to Paris for fur tilt the f. f festivities In n of the wedding of his patron with Marguerite It le Ie Valois daughter tighter and buries R sister When the alarm was brought to him he set sel forth alone to ro seek sanctuary Ita ry In la u a S securer place than rhe the where he was quartered But before venturing abroad abron he had time forethought to In hide bide hl his sword under tinder a nonbelligerent coat clint and what velar tas aEl f n o yet wiser preen precaution lit lon to carry In iii hi hl his hand a D sacred volume marked upon Its covers with a white while cross The Tile murderers wore white crosses es sewn upon Ullon their garments so that flint In Inthe time the melee they rhey might not attack one another by hy mistake and this shrewd 1 I. I 1 artifice preserved the time young man He passed unscathed through h time tile frenzied mob moh gained sanctuary and lived to tobe tobe tobe be the trusted adviser and the prime minister of the great greut Henry when that thai gallant warrior had ascended to the French throne What for our purposes was still more Important he set down of of his personal experiences during his flight and immediately afta nit aft erward The Porter Is Adamant In his recollections he dismissed the saturnalia with a paragraph as follows follows fol tol fol- fol lows If 1 I was Inclined to Increase the general horror Inspired by an nn action so barbarous as us that Inaugurated on the twenty fourth of August 1572 and too well known by the name of ot the massacre of St. St Bartholomew 1 I should enlarge upon enlarge the number the quality the virtues and great talents of those who were Inhumanly murdered as well wellin in Paris as ns In ID every part of the klu kingdom king dom don I should mention at lea least t the time Ignominious treatment the time I cruelty mind and sn savage age Insults these miserable miserable mis mis- erable victims suffered from their butchers and aud which In death were a 0 thousand times more terrible than death Itself Pu Passing on to the time parts played by him as a refugee and an witness eyewitness he wrote of them In these words I ill was In bed and awaked from frum sleep three hours after midnight oy ny oythe oythe the sound of all ail the bells and ond the confused cries of the populace My governor St. St Julian with my valet de dEl went hastily out nut to know V no the cause and 1 I never afterwards f heard more of these men who without doubt douht were amongst the first that were wt-re sacrificed ed to the public fury 1 I continued continued con con- alone In my chamber dressing m myself self when In a few moments I 1 saw the landlord enter pale and nud In the utmost consternation He was of the thEl reformed religion and having learned what the time matter was had bad con consented ente to go to ma mass to save his life and ond pre Ire preserve preserve serve his house home from being pillaged He Oe came to persuade me time to do the same and to take me with him I did not nom think proper to follow him but hut resolved resol to try If I could gain the college cal col 11 lege of Bur Burgundy und where I had studied though the great distance between the tile house where 1 J then was and the Allege Al oi 01 lege made the thC attempt very ery dangerous Having ing disguised m myself s 's in a 0 schol scholars scholar's ars ar's gown 1 I put a n large prayer hook under tinder my arm and went into the street I was seized with ith horror Ine Inexpressible pr at nt tie f-tie rm RI sight Right hl of the furious murderers murderer who running from all nil parts forc forced d open the houses and cried aloud I Kill III kill massacre the Huguenots i The blood blond which 1 I saw shed before my Uty e eyes es redoubled my terror I fell foil Into the midst of a n body of guards They stopped Ute time Interrogated me and were beginning to u use e me III when happily for me the time hook honk that I carried was perceived and served me rne for a n pus pas liI port Twice after this I 1 fell Into the th Tame Jame danger from m iii which I extricated my myself elf with the smile same good fort fortune At last lust I arrived at nl the time colle college e of Burgundy where danger still greater than any I 1 had ad yet met with awaited me The porter having twice refused me entrance I con continued tin lied standing Inthe Inthe in inthe the midst of the street at the merc mercy of the fu furious Inus murderers whose num hers increased every moment and who were e evidently seeking for their prey when It came catie Into my mind to ask for La Ln Faye time principal of this college olle ollen a n good man n by whom I was OS beloved The porter prevailed pre upon I by some small pieces of money which I put Into hl his hand admitted me mc and ond my friend carried curried me to his apartment apart Anent ment where two t Inhuman bigots whom I 1 heard mention Sicilian vespers ves ves- pers wanted to force fore me from him that they ml might hl cut me In pieces sayIng say say- In lag Ing the order was US not nor to spore even Infants at nt the breast All the good goodman man could do eli was to conduct me privately at ly to u a distant tant chamber where he locked me rue up Here nere I was confined three du days s uncertain of my destiny and saw no one but hut a n servant of or my J friends friend's who came cume from tram time to time to bring me provisions The King Takes a Blood Bloody Hand At the end of or enl these three days clays the prohibition for murdering and ing lag uny any more morA o of f the Protestants heIng he he- Ing lag published I 1 was US suffered to leave my cell and immediately S after J 1 sow saw uw and In la two soldie soldiers of the guard who were my father R men enter enter the college They were armed and came without doubt to t I force wherever they resent rescue e me we by bI should find Ond me They gave e my father fathera a relation of what had Inti happened to me menn nn and 1 eight ct days ys afterwards I received a e letter leuer from him In which he expressed ex ex- pressed the fears he had bad suffered on my account and ond advised nd me to continue continue con con- In Paris since the prince I served was not at nt liberty to quit itlie It Ue lie added that to old avoid exposing It W was 8 evident danger dunger myself to an in necessary 1 I should resolve to follow that princes prince's example and to BO KO to mass The King of Navarre had found no other means of ot saving his life He was awaked with the Prince of Conae Conoe two hours bours before day by a n great grent number number num ber of ot soldiers who rushed boldly Into Inton a n chamber In the time Louvre where they had lay Iny and Insolently commanded 1 theme them to dr dress themselves and anel attend the king They Tiley would not suffer Burrer the two princes to take their swords with them who us as they passed beheld several several sev seve eral of their gentlemen massacred he- he fore their e eyes esThe es The king waited for them received them with i m countenance and eyes in which fury was vl visibly painted He ordered them with ith oaths and blasphemies blasphemies blas blus- to quit a m religion that had only been taken tulen up he said to serve them for a cloak to their rebellion Transported with anger be he told them In a n fierce and haughty tone that h he would woud no longer be contradicted In his opinions by his subjects that they by their example should teach tench others to revere him a as the Image of ot God and cease to he be enemies to the Images of ot othis his mother He ended by hy declaring that If It they did not go to mass he would treat trent them as criminals guilty of ot treason treason treason trea trea- son against human and divine majesty They yielded to necessity and performed performed per per- formed what was required of ot them In u a footnote to the Due Duc de Sully's memoirs this statement Is appended by the scholar who edited the work In the time century following the authors author's death Nothing Is more certain than that he King Charles was seen with a carbine In his hand during the massacre mas mas- nacre sacre which said sold he fired upon the Calvinists that were flying The Thelast Thelast last Mareschal de Terre In his youth was acquainted with an old man ninety years ears of age who had been page e to Charles Charies IX IN and who often otten told him that he himself had hod loaded that car car- bine also true that Charles Chorles went with his court to view the hod body of the time admiral Coligny which hung by the feet with a chain of iron to the gallos gallo's gallows gal gal- lows s of l on and one of ot his courtiers observing ln It smelt Ill Charles Charles' replied as hind had done before him The burly body of a dead enemy always always al- al I wa ways s 's smells well wen I Coligny the great grent admiral was the most notable victim Accounts as ns to the last words of this noble nohle Frenchman Frenchman French French- French j man differ hut but it Is certain that he hemet |