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king and his courtiers, who came to divert themfelves with him. Charles de Quellence, baron of Pont in Bretagne, was another; who however did not yield to the fwords of his butchers, till he was pierced through like a fieve. This nobleman had married Catharine Parthenai, the daughter and heiress of John de Soubife, and her mother was then carrying on a fuit against him for impotency: fo that when the naked bodies, according as each was maffacred, were thrown down before the caftle in view of the king, queen, and court, many of the ladies came out of their apartments, as Thuanus relates, not the leaft fhoked with the cruelty Hiftoria fui of the fpe&tacle, and with great curiofity and immodefty temporis ad, fixed their eyes particularly upon Charles de Quellence, to fee if they could difcover the marks and caufe of this impotency. Francis Nonpar de Caumont was murdered in his bed betwixt his two fons; one of whom was stabbed by his fide; but the other, by counterfeiting himself dead, and lying concealed under the bodies of his father and brother, efcaped. The horror of this night is not to be conceived; and we may fafely refer for farther particulars to the fine defcription which Mr. Voltaire has given of it, in the second canto of his Henriade, fince even the imagination of a poet cannot foar beyond the real matter of fact.

The reader may probably by this time be curious to know what was become of Sully, as well as of his mafter the king of Navarre; and nothing can inform him more agreeably, than Sully's own account. "I was in bed." fays Memoires, he, and awaked from fleep three hours after midnight by ad ann. "the found of all the bells and the confused cries of the 1572. "populace. My governor St. Julian, with my valet de "chambre, went haftily out to know the caufe; and I ne

ver afterwards heard more of thefe men, who, without “doubt, were among the firft that were facrificed to the public fury. I continued alone in my chamber dreffing myfelf, when in a few moments I faw my landlord enter, pale, and in the utmost confternation. He was of the Reformed religion; and, having learned what the matter "was, had confented to go to mafs, to preferve his life, "and his houfe from being pillaged. He came to perfuade 65 me to do the fame, and to take me with him: I did not think proper to follow him, but refolved to try if I "could gain the college of Burgundy, where I had ftudied; though the great distance between the house where I then was, and the college, made the attempt very dangerous. Having

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"Having disguised myself in a fcholar's gown, I put a large prayer-book under my arm, and went into the "street. I was feized with horror inexpreffible at the fight of the furious murderers; who, running from all "parts, forced open the houses, and cried aloud, Kill! "kill! maffacre the Huguenots!' The blood, which I'faw "fhed before my eyes, redoubled my terror. I fell into "the midst of a body of guards; they ftopped me, quefti

oned me, and were beginning to ufe me ill, when, hap"pily for me, the book that I carried was perceived, and "ferved me for a paffport. Twice after this, I fell into "the fame danger, from which I extricated myself with "the fame good fortune. At laft I arrived at the college "of Burgundy, where a danger ftill greater than any I had yet met with awaited me. The porter having twice "refused me entrance, I continued ftanding in the midft of the street, at the mercy of the furious murderers, whofe "numbers increased every moment, and who were evi

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dently fecking for their prey; when it came into my "mind to afk for La Faye, the principal of this college, a "good man, by whom I was tenderly beloved. The por

ter, prevailed upon by fome small pieces of money which "I put into his hand, admitted me; and my friend carri"ed me to his apartment, where two inhuman priests, * whom I heard mention Sicilian vefpers, wanted to force

me from him, that they might cut me in pieces; faying, "the order was, not to fpare even infants at the breaft. "All the good man could do was to conduct me privately

to a diftant chamber, where he locked me up; and here "I was confined three days, uncertain of my deftiny, feeing no one but a fervant of my friend, who came "from time to time to bring me provision."

As to Henry king of Navarre, though he had been married to Charles the IXth's fifter but fix days before, with the greatest folemnity, and with all the marks of kindness and affection from the court, yet he was treated with not a jot more ceremony than the reft. He was awaked two hours before day by a great number of foldiers, who rushed boldly into a chamber in the Louvre, where he and the prince of Conde fay, and infolently commanded them to drefs themfelves, and attend the king. They would not fuffer the two princes to take their fwords with them, who, as they went, faw feveral of their gentlemen maffacred be fore their eyes. This was contrived, doubtlefs, to intimi date them; and, with the fame view, as Henry went to

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the king, the queen gave orders, that they fhould lead him under the vaults, and make him pafs through the guards, drawn up in files on each fide, and in menacing poftures. He trembled, and recoiled two or three fteps back; but the captain of the guards fwearing, that they fhould do him no hurt, he proceeded through amidst carbines and halberts. The king waited for them, and received them with a countenance and eyes full of fury; he ordered them with oaths and blafphemies, which were familiar with him, to quit a religion, which he said had been taken up only for a cloke to their rebellion: he told them in a fierce and angry tone, that he would no longer be contradicted in his opinions by his fubjects; that they by their example should teach "others to revere him as the image of God, and cease to "be enemies to the images of his mother;" and ended by declaring, that "if they did not go to mafs, he would treat "them as criminals guilty of treafon against divine and "human majesty," The manner of pronouncing these words not fuffering the princes to doubt the fincerity of them, they yielded to neceffity, and performed what was required of them and Henry was even obliged to send an edict into his dominions, by which the exercife of any other religion but the Romish was forbidden.

In the mean time the court fent orders to the govenors in all the provinces, that the fame destruction should be made of the Proteftants there as had been at Paris; but many of them nobly refused to execute thefe orders; and one of them had the courage to write a letter to Charles IX, in which he plainly told his majesty, that "he was ready "to die for his fervice, but could not affaffinate any man "for his fervice." Yet the abettors and prime actors in this tragedy at Paris were wonderfully fatisfied with themfelves, and found much comfort in having been able to do fo much for the caufe of God and his church. Tavannes, mentioned above, who ran about the streets crying, "Let "blood! let blood!" being upon his death-bed, made a general confeffion of the fins of his life; after which his confeffor faying to him with an air of aftonishment, "Why! you fpeak not a word of St. Bartholomew;" he replied, "I look upon that as a meritorious action, which ought "to atone for all the fins I have ever committed." This is related by his fon, who has written memoirs of him. The king himself must have fuppofed real merir to have been in it; for, not content with fetting his feal and fanction to thefe deteftable butcheries, he is credibly affirmed to have

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taken the carbine into his own hands, and to have shot at the poor Huguenots as they attempted to escape. The court of Rome did all they could to confirm the Parifians in this horrid notion: for though pope Pius V. is faid to have been fo much afflicted at the maffacré as to fhed tears, yet Gregory XIII. who fucceeded him, ordered a public thanksgiving to God for it to be offered at Rome, and fent a legate to congratulate Charles IX. and to exhort him to continue it. Father Daniel contents himfelf with faying, that the king's zeal in his terrible punishment of the heritics was commended at Rome; and Baronius affirms the action to have been abfolutely neceffary. The French writers, however, have spoken of it in the manner it deferves; have reprefented it as the most wicked and inhuman devaftation that ever was commited: an execrable action," fays one of them, Prefixe's Hiftory of "that never had, and I trust God will never have, its like.' Henry the Mr. Voltaire has given us his fentiments of it in his agreeable and inftructive manner: "This frightful day of St. "Bartholomew," fays he, " had been meditating and pre"paring for two years. It is difficult to conceive, how "fuch a woman as Catharine de Medicis, brought up in 363. 1756, pleafures, and at whom the Huguenot party took lefs "umbrage than any other, could form fo barbarous á refo"lution: it is ftill more aftonifhing in a king only twenty "years old. The faction of the Guifes had a great hand

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in this enterprife; and they were animated to it by two "Italians, the cardinal de Birague, and the cardinal de "Retz;" called in Sully's Memoirs the duke de Retz, and the chancellor de Birague. "They did great honour upon this occafion to the maxims of Machiavel, and "efpecially to that which advifes never to commit a crime by halves. The maxim, never to commit crimes, had "been even more politic: but the French manners were "become favage by the civil wars, in fpite of the feasts and pleafures which Catharine de Medicis was perpetually contriving at court. This mixture of gallantry and fury, of pleafures and carnage, makes the moft fan"taftical piece, which the contradictions of the human fpe"cies are capable of painting." Indeed, one would not eafily imagine, that amidst feaftrigs and merriments a plot was all the while carrying on for the deftruction of 70,000 fouls: for fuch, according to Sully's Memoirs, was the number of Proteftants maffacred, during eight days, throughout the kingdom.

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At the end of three days, however, a prohibition for murdering and pillaging any more of the Proteftants was pubhithed at Paris; and then Sully was fuffered to quit his cell in the college of Burgundy. He immediately faw two foldiers of the guard, agents to his father, entering the college, who gave his father a relation of what had happened to him; and, eight days after, he received a letter from him, advifing him to continue in Paris, fince the prince he ferved was not at liberty to leave it; and adding, that he should follow the prince's example in going to mafs. Though the king of Navarre had faved his life by this fubmiffion, yet in other things he was treated but very indifferently, and fuffered a thousand capricious infults. He was obliged, against his will, to ftay fome years at the court of France; he knew very well how to diffemble his chagrin; and he often drove it away by the help of gallantry, which his own conftitution, and the corruption of the ladies, made very eafy to him. The lady de Sauves, wife to one of the fecrataries of itate, Prefixe, &c. was one of his chief miftreffes. But he was not fo taken up with love, as altogether to neglect political intrigues. He had a hand in thofe that were formed to take away the government from Catharine de Medicis, and to expel the Guifes from court; which that qeen difcovering, caufed him and the duke of Alençon to be arrested, fet guards upon them, and ordered them to be examined upon many heinous allegations. They were fet at liberty by Henry III. for Charles IX. died, 1574, in the moft exquifite torments and horrors, the maffacre upon St Bartholomew's-day having been always in his mind. Sully employed this leifure in the most advantageous manner he was able. He found it impracticable in a court topu fue the ftudy of the learned languages, or of any thing called learning; but the king of Navarre ordered him to be taught mathematics and hiftory, and all' those exercises which give eafe and gracefulnefs to the perfon; that method of educating youth, with a ftill greater attention to form the manners, being known to be peculiar to Henry the IVth of France, who was himself educated in the fame way.

In the year 1576, the king of Navarre made his escape from the court of France. The means were one day offered him in the month of Febuary, when he was hunting near Senlis; from whence, his guards being difperfed, he inftantly paffed the Seine at Poiffy, went to Alençon, and on to Tours, where he no fooner arrived than he refumed the exercife of the Proteftant religion. A bloody war was now expected;

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